title: Level of measurement

text: Level of measurement or scale of measure is a classification that describes the nature of information within the values assigned to variables. Psychologist Stanley Smith Stevens developed the best-known classification with four levels, or scales, of measurement: nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio. This framework of distinguishing levels of measurement originated in psychology and is widely criticized by scholars in other disciplines. Other classifications include those by Mosteller and Tukey, and by Chrisman.


title: Level of measurement

text: Stevens proposed his typology in a 1946 "Science" article titled "On the theory of scales of measurement". In that article, Stevens claimed that all measurement in science was conducted using four different types of scales that he called "nominal", "ordinal", "interval", and "ratio", unifying both "qualitative" (which are described by his "nominal" type) and "quantitative" (to a different degree, all the rest of his scales). The concept of scale types later received the mathematical rigour that it lacked at its inception with the work of mathematical psychologists Theodore Alper (1985, 1987), Louis Narens (1981a, b), and R. Duncan Luce (1986, 1987, 2001). As Luce (1997, p. 395) wrote:


title: Level of measurement

text: The nominal type differentiates between items or subjects based only on their names or (meta-)categories and other qualitative classifications they belong to; thus dichotomous data involves the construction of classifications as well as the classification of items. Discovery of an exception to a classification can be viewed as progress. Numbers may be used to represent the variables but the numbers do not have numerical value or relationship: for example, a globally unique identifier.


title: Level of measurement

text: Examples of these classifications include gender, nationality, ethnicity, language, genre, style, biological species, and form. In a university one could also use hall of affiliation as an example. Other concrete examples are


title: Level of measurement

text: Nominal scales were often called qualitative scales, and measurements made on qualitative scales were called qualitative data. However, the rise of qualitative research has made this usage confusing. If numbers are assigned as labels in nominal measurement, they have no specific numerical value or meaning. No form of arithmetic computation (+, −, ×, etc.) may be performed on nominal measures. The nominal level is the lowest measurement level used from a statistical point of view.


title: Level of measurement

text: Equality and other operations that can be defined in terms of equality, such as inequality and set membership, are the only non-trivial operations that generically apply to objects of the nominal type.


title: Level of measurement

text: The mode, i.e. the "most common" item, is allowed as the measure of central tendency for the nominal type. On the other hand, the median, i.e. the "middle-ranked" item, makes no sense for the nominal type of data since ranking is meaningless for the nominal type.


title: Level of measurement

text: The ordinal type allows for rank order (1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.) by which data can be sorted but still does not allow for a relative "degree of difference" between them. Examples include, on one hand, dichotomous data with dichotomous (or dichotomized) values such as 'sick' vs. 'healthy' when measuring health, 'guilty' vs. 'not-guilty' when making judgments in courts, 'wrong/false' vs. 'right/true' when measuring truth value, and, on the other hand, non-dichotomous data consisting of a spectrum of values, such as 'completely agree', 'mostly agree', 'mostly disagree', 'completely disagree' when measuring opinion.


title: Level of measurement

text: The ordinal scale places events in order, but there is no attempt to make the intervals of the scale equal in terms of some rule. Rank orders represent ordinal scales and are frequently used in research relating to qualitative phenomena. A student's rank in his graduation class involves the use of an ordinal scale. One has to be very careful in making a statement about scores based on ordinal scales. For instance, if Devi's position in his class is 10 and Ganga's position is 40, it cannot be said that Devi's position is four times as good as that of Ganga. The statement would make no sense at all.


title: Level of measurement

text: Ordinal scales only permit the ranking of items from highest to lowest. Ordinal measures have no absolute values, and the real differences between adjacent ranks may not be equal. All that can be said is that one person is higher or lower on the scale than another, but more precise comparisons cannot be made. Thus, the use of an ordinal scale implies a statement of 'greater than' or 'less than' (an equality statement is also acceptable) without our being able to state how much greater or less. The real difference between ranks 1 and 2, for instance, may be more or less than the difference between ranks 5 and 6. Since the numbers of this scale have only a rank meaning, the appropriate measure of central tendency is the median. A percentile or quartile measure is used for measuring dispersion. Correlations are restricted to various rank order methods. Measures of statistical significance are restricted to the non-parametric methods (R. M. Kothari, 2004).


title: Level of measurement

text: The median, i.e. "middle-ranked", item is allowed as the measure of central tendency; however, the mean (or average) as the measure of central tendency is not allowed. The mode is allowed.


title: Level of measurement

text: In 1946, Stevens observed that psychological measurement, such as measurement of opinions, usually operates on ordinal scales; thus means and standard deviations have no validity, but they can be used to get ideas for how to improve operationalization of variables used in questionnaires. Most psychological data collected by psychometric instruments and tests, measuring cognitive and other abilities, are ordinal, although some theoreticians have argued they can be treated as interval or ratio scales. However, there is little prima facie evidence to suggest that such attributes are anything more than ordinal (Cliff, 1996; Cliff & Keats, 2003; Michell, 2008). In particular, IQ scores reflect an ordinal scale, in which all scores are meaningful for comparison only. There is no absolute zero, and a 10-point difference may carry different meanings at different points of the scale.


title: Level of measurement

text: The interval type allows for the "degree of difference" between items, but not the ratio between them. Examples include "temperature scales" with the Celsius scale, which has two defined points (the freezing and boiling point of water at specific conditions) and then separated into 100 intervals, "date" when measured from an arbitrary epoch (such as AD), "location" in Cartesian coordinates, and "direction" measured in degrees from true or magnetic north. Ratios are not meaningful since 20 °C cannot be said to be "twice as hot" as 10 °C (unlike temperature in Kelvins), nor can multiplication/division be carried out between any two dates directly. However, "ratios of differences" can be expressed; for example, one difference can be twice another. Interval type variables are sometimes also called "scaled variables", but the formal mathematical term is an affine space (in this case an affine line).


title: Level of measurement

text: The mode, median, and arithmetic mean are allowed to measure central tendency of interval variables, while measures of statistical dispersion include range and standard deviation. Since one can only divide by "differences", one cannot define measures that require some ratios, such as the coefficient of variation. More subtly, while one can define moments about the origin, only central moments are meaningful, since the choice of origin is arbitrary. One can define standardized moments, since ratios of differences are meaningful, but one cannot define the coefficient of variation, since the mean is a moment about the origin, unlike the standard deviation, which is (the square root of) a central moment.


title: Level of measurement

text: The ratio type takes its name from the fact that measurement is the estimation of the ratio between a magnitude of a continuous quantity and a unit of measurement of the same kind (Michell, 1997, 1999). Most measurement in the physical sciences and engineering is done on ratio scales. Examples include mass, length, duration, plane angle, energy and electric charge. In contrast to interval scales, ratios can be compared using division. Very informally, many ratio scales can be described as specifying "how much" of something (i.e. an amount or magnitude). Ratio scale is often used to express an order of magnitude such as for temperature in Orders of magnitude (temperature).


title: Level of measurement

text: The geometric mean and the harmonic mean are allowed to measure the central tendency, in addition to the mode, median, and arithmetic mean. The studentized range and the coefficient of variation are allowed to measure statistical dispersion. All statistical measures are allowed because all necessary mathematical operations are defined for the ratio scale.


title: Level of measurement

text: While Stevens's typology is widely adopted, it is still being challenged by other theoreticians, particularly in the cases of the nominal and ordinal types (Michell, 1986). Some however have argued that the degree of discord can be overstated. Hand says, "Basic psychology texts often begin with Stevens's framework and the ideas are ubiquitous. Indeed, the essential soundness of his hierarchy has been established for representational measurement by mathematicians, determining the invariance properties of mappings from empirical systems to real number continua. Certainly the ideas have been revised, extended, and elaborated, but the remarkable thing is his insight given the relatively limited formal apparatus available to him and how many decades have passed since he coined them."


title: Level of measurement

text: Duncan (1986) objected to the use of the word "measurement" in relation to the nominal type, but Stevens (1975) said of his own definition of measurement that "the assignment can be any consistent rule. The only rule not allowed would be random assignment, for randomness amounts in effect to a nonrule".


title: Level of measurement

text: The use of the mean as a measure of the central tendency for the ordinal type is still debatable among those who accept Stevens's typology. Many behavioural scientists use the mean for ordinal data, anyway. This is often justified on the basis that the ordinal type in behavioural science is in fact somewhere between the true ordinal and interval types; although the interval difference between two ordinal ranks is not constant, it is often of the same order of magnitude.


title: Level of measurement

text: For example, applications of measurement models in educational contexts often indicate that total scores have a fairly linear relationship with measurements across the range of an assessment. Thus, some argue that so long as the unknown interval difference between ordinal scale ranks is not too variable, interval scale statistics such as means can meaningfully be used on ordinal scale variables. Statistical analysis software such as SPSS requires the user to select the appropriate measurement class for each variable. This ensures that subsequent user errors cannot inadvertently perform meaningless analyses (for example correlation analysis with a variable on a nominal level).


title: Level of measurement

text: L. L. Thurstone made progress toward developing a justification for obtaining the interval type, based on the law of comparative judgment. A common application of the law is the analytic hierarchy process. Further progress was made by Georg Rasch (1960), who developed the probabilistic Rasch model that provides a theoretical basis and justification for obtaining interval-level measurements from counts of observations such as total scores on assessments.


title: Level of measurement

text: Typologies aside from Stevens's typology have been proposed. For instance, Mosteller and Tukey (1977), Nelder (1990) described continuous counts, continuous ratios, count ratios, and categorical modes of data. See also Chrisman (1998), van den Berg (1991).


title: Level of measurement

text: For example, percentages (a variation on fractions in the Mosteller–Tukey framework) do not fit well into Stevens's framework: No transformation is fully admissible.


title: Level of measurement

text: Nicholas R. Chrisman introduced an expanded list of levels of measurement to account for various measurements that do not necessarily fit with the traditional notions of levels of measurement. Measurements bound to a range and repeating (like degrees in a circle, clock time, etc.), graded membership categories, and other types of measurement do not fit to Stevens's original work, leading to the introduction of six new levels of measurement, for a total of ten:


title: Level of measurement

text: While some claim that the extended levels of measurement are rarely used outside of academic geography, graded membership is central to fuzzy set theory, while absolute measurements include probabilities and the plausibility and ignorance in Dempster–Shafer theory. Cyclical ratio measurements include angles and times. Counts appear to be ratio measurements, but the scale is not arbitrary and fractional counts are commonly meaningless. Log-interval measurements are commonly displayed in stock market graphics. All these types of measurements are commonly used outside academic geography, and do not fit well to Stevens' original work.


title: Level of measurement

text: The theory of scale types is the intellectual handmaiden to Stevens's "operational theory of measurement", which was to become definitive within psychology and the behavioral sciences, despite Michell's characterization as its being quite at odds with measurement in the natural sciences (Michell, 1999). Essentially, the operational theory of measurement was a reaction to the conclusions of a committee established in 1932 by the British Association for the Advancement of Science to investigate the possibility of genuine scientific measurement in the psychological and behavioral sciences. This committee, which became known as the "Ferguson committee", published a Final Report (Ferguson, et al., 1940, p. 245) in which Stevens's sone scale (Stevens & Davis, 1938) was an object of criticism:


title: Level of measurement

text: That is, if Stevens's "sone" scale genuinely measured the intensity of auditory sensations, then evidence for such sensations as being quantitative attributes needed to be produced. The evidence needed was the presence of "additive structure" – a concept comprehensively treated by the German mathematician Otto Hölder (Hölder, 1901). Given that the physicist and measurement theorist Norman Robert Campbell dominated the Ferguson committee's deliberations, the committee concluded that measurement in the social sciences was impossible due to the lack of concatenation operations. This conclusion was later rendered false by the discovery of the theory of conjoint measurement by Debreu (1960) and independently by Luce & Tukey (1964). However, Stevens's reaction was not to conduct experiments to test for the presence of additive structure in sensations, but instead to render the conclusions of the Ferguson committee null and void by proposing a new theory of measurement:


title: Level of measurement

text: Stevens was greatly influenced by the ideas of another Harvard academic, the Nobel laureate physicist Percy Bridgman (1927), whose doctrine of "operationism" Stevens used to define measurement. In Stevens's definition, for example, it is the use of a tape measure that defines length (the object of measurement) as being measurable (and so by implication quantitative). Critics of operationism object that it confuses the relations between two objects or events for properties of one of those of objects or events (Hardcastle, 1995; Michell, 1999; Moyer, 1981a,b; Rogers, 1989).


title: Level of measurement

text: The Canadian measurement theorist William Rozeboom (1966) was an early and trenchant critic of Stevens's theory of scale types.


title: Level of measurement

text: Another issue is that the same variable may be a different scale type depending on how it is measured and on the goals of the analysis. For example, hair color is usually thought of as a nominal variable, since it has no apparent ordering. However, it is possible to order colors (including hair colors) in various ways, including by hue; this is known as colorimetry. Hue is an interval level variable.


title: Sōryū-class submarine

text: The Sōryū"-class submarines (16SS") are diesel-electric attack submarines. The first boat in the class entered service with the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force in 2009. The design is an evolution of the , from which it can most easily be distinguished by its X-shaped stern combination diving planes and rudders. The "Sōryūs" have the largest displacement of any submarine used by post-war Japan.


title: Sōryū-class submarine

text: It is Japan's first air-independent propulsion submarine. From "Sōryū" to "Shōryū" are fitted with Kockums Naval Solutions Stirling engines license-built by Kawasaki Heavy Industries, allowing them to stay submerged for longer periods of time. Furthermore, "Ōryū" is the world's first lithium-ion battery submarine. The cost of the sixth submarine ("Kokuryū") was estimated at 540 million USD.


title: Sōryū-class submarine

text: Japanese submarines since World War II were named after ocean currents. The JMSDF changed its naming convention with the "Sōryū", and submarines will now be named after mythological creatures. "Sōryū" (そうりゅう) means blue dragon in Japanese and shares its name with the World War II aircraft carrier , sunk during the Battle of Midway.


title: Sōryū-class submarine

text: The eleventh "Sōryū"-class submarine ("Ōryū") is the first Japanese submarine in the fleet to mount lithium-ion batteries. The JS "Ōryū" was given a budget of under the 2015 Japanese Defense Budget.


title: Sōryū-class submarine

text: Lithium-ion batteries have almost double the electric storage capacity of traditional lead-acid batteries, and by not only replacing them in the existing battery storage areas but adding to the already large battery capacity by also filling the huge space (several hundred tons displacement) inside the hull previously occupied by the AIP Stirling engines and their fuel tanks with these new batteries, the amount of (more powerful) batteries carried overall is massive. This has improved the underwater endurance significantly and is felt will be an advantage over the slow recharge capability of the AIP system.


title: Sōryū-class submarine

text: In any event, JMSDF believes that lithium-ion is the way forward and intends to 'trial' this new system and compare it to the previous AIP system for operational effectiveness.


title: Sōryū-class submarine

text: Japan offered "Sōryū"-class submarines to Australia as replacements for the Royal Australian Navy's s, as part of the . On 9 April 2014, then-Australian Minister for Defence, David Johnston, described the "Sōryū" class as "extremely impressive" while discussing Australia's future submarine options. On 26 April 2016, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced that the Australian contract had been awarded to the French-designed Shortfin Barracuda, though this deal was eventually rescinded.


title: Sōryū-class submarine

text: India, Morocco, Norway, Netherlands, and Taiwan have also approached Japan, and expressed an interest in buying "Sōryū"-class submarines. During a visit to Japan, India's then-Union Minister of Defence, Manohar Parrikar, invited the Japanese government to participate in their USD$8.1 billion Project 75I-class submarine procurement program.


title: Vampirella

text: Vampirella () is a fictional vampire superheroine created by Forrest J Ackerman and comic book artist Trina Robbins in Warren Publishing's black-and-white horror comics magazine "Vampirella" #1 (Sept. 1969), a sister publication of "Creepy" and "Eerie".


title: Vampirella

text: Writer-editor Archie Goodwin later developed the character from horror-story hostesses, in which capacity she remained through issue #8 (Nov. 1970), to a horror-drama leading character. The magazine was published continuously until 1983, when Warren Publishing ceased operations and its assets were bought by Harris Publications. "Vampirella" comics, both new and reprints, have continued through various publishers into the 21st century.


title: Vampirella

text: Vampirella initially appeared in Warren Publishing's black-and-white horror-comics magazine "Vampirella" #1 (Sept. 1969), running to issue #112 (March 1983), plus a 1972 annual reprinting stories from the series, and a 1977 special with color reprints of José González stories. The title was a sister magazine of Warren's horror anthologies "Creepy" and "Eerie". Like those magazines' respective mascots, Uncle Creepy and Cousin Eerie, Vampirella hosted horror stories, though unlike them, she would also star in her own story, which would headline each issue. "Vampirella" was initially edited by Bill Parente. It would later be edited by Archie Goodwin (issues #7–12, 34–35), Billy Graham (#13–16), Bill DuBay (#21–50, 87–95, 101–102) and Louise Jones (#51–86).


title: Vampirella

text: According to comics historian Richard J. Arndt, "Forrest Ackerman created, or at least had a strong hand in creating, Vampirella and he clearly had a major influence in shaping the lighthearted bad-girl story style of this issue as well." Her costume and hair style were designed by comics artist Trina Robbins. The character's first story artist was Tom Sutton. Artist Frank Frazetta's first-issue cover was a substitute for the original cover by European artist Aslan.


title: Vampirella

text: José González became the character's primary artist starting with issue #12. Other artists who would draw Vampirella during her magazine's original run included Gonzalo Mayo, Leopold Sanchez, Esteban Maroto, José Ortiz, Escolano, Rudy Nebres, Ramon Torrents, Pablo Marcos, Jim Janes, John Lakey, Val Lakey, and Louis Small Jr.


title: Vampirella

text: Backup features appearing in "Vampirella" included "Tomb of the Gods", "Pantha" and "Fleur". Vampirella herself also appeared in a story with fellow Warren characters Pantha and the Rook in "Eerie" #94–95, and with most of the Warren characters in a company crossover special in "Eerie" #130.


title: Vampirella

text: Upon Warren's bankruptcy shortly afterward, Harris Publications acquired the company assets at auction in August 1983, although legal murkiness and a 1999 lawsuit by Warren publisher James Warren resulted in his reacquisition of the rights to sister publications "Creepy" and "Eerie". Harris Comics published Vampirella stories in various series and miniseries from 1991 to 2007, beginning with "Vampirella" #113 (1988), a one-issue continuation of the original series, containing Vampirella reprints and one unrelated new story. Harris subsequently published the all-reprint one-shot "Vampirella vs. the Cult of Chaos", and the four-issue miniseries "Vampirella: Morning in America" (Sept. 1991 - April 1992) by writer Kurt Busiek and penciler Louis La Chance. Three ongoing series followed:


title: Vampirella

text: The three-issue miniseries "Vampirella Lives" (Dec. 1996 - Feb. 1997) featured writer Warren Ellis and penciler Conner.


title: Vampirella

text: Additionally, Harris published several one-shots: "Vampirella Summer Nights" (title per its trademarked cover logo) / "Vampirella's Summer Nights" (as in the indicia's copyright information) (1992), by writer Steve Englehart and penciler Joe Brozowski (under the pseudonym J. J. Birch), "Vampirella/Shadowhawk: Creatures of the Night" (Feb. 1995), "Vampirella Pin-Up Special" (Oct. 1995), and "Vengeance of Vampirella: The Mystery Walk" (Nov. 1995).


title: Vampirella

text: Harris also reprinted much material. The 1993 trade-paperback collection "Vampirella: The Dracula War" reprinted a serialized story from Harris' "Vampirella" #1-4. The 1994 "Cain / Vampirella Flip Book" reprinted a 1993 Vampirella story by writer Busiek and artist Arthur Adams from Harris' "Creepy 1993 Fearbook". The five-issue "Vampirella Classic" (Feb.-Nov. 1995) reprinted Warren stories. "Vengeance of Vampirella: Bloodshed" (March 1995) reprinted a serialized story from the "Vengeance of Vampirella" series.


title: Vampirella

text: The publisher additionally reprinted Warren stories in the trade-paperback "Vampirella: Transcending Time & Space", (1992) "Vampirella: A Scarlet Thirst" (1993), and "Vampirella & The Blood Red Queen of Hearts" (Sept. 1996); and the series "Vampirella of Drakulon" #1-5, followed by #0 (Jan.-Nov. 1996).


title: Vampirella

text: At the Fangoria Weekend of Horrors convention in January 2007, Scott Licina, editor-in-chief of Fangoria Comics, announced his company had acquired the character from Harris. However, on April 30, 2007, Harris editor Bon Alimagno denied there had been such an arrangement in place and that Fangoria's claim was "not factual". Harris subsequently launched the title "Vampirella Quarterly".


title: Vampirella

text: On March 17, 2010, Dynamite Entertainment acquired the rights to Vampirella from Harris Comics. The publisher started a new ongoing series with "Vampirella" #1, in November 2010. A new monthly series, "Vampirella and the Scarlet Legion", was released in May 2011 following the main title. The series lasted 38 issues before concluding in January 2014.


title: Vampirella

text: The title was rebooted in June 2014 with "Vampirella" vol. 2, #1 by author Nancy Collins. The 2014 series would continue with Volume 3 in March 2016, which was noted for giving Vampirella a new costume.


title: Vampirella

text: A second reboot and fourth relaunch overall, "Vampirella" vol. 4, began in 2017. The series was first written by Paul Cornell, and later by Jeremy Whitley.


title: Vampirella

text: A fifth relaunch, written by Christopher Priest and Ergun Gündüz, began publication in July 2019 and commemorated the character's 50th anniversary. The run lasted 25 issues long and ended with Vampirella's marriage to Dracula, spinning off into a new series in 2021 titled "Vampirella/Dracula: Unholy!" "Vampirella: Year One, a" series following Vampirella's first year on Earth, premiered in July 2022.


title: Vampirella

text: In 2019, Dynamite also revived the series "Vengeance of Vampirella", which had been the name of a Harris-era comic, and hired the original writer of that series, Thomas Sniegoski, to write a continuation of the original series. A sequel called "Vampirella Strikes" has been announced for May 2022.Also in May 2022 a one-shot fairy tale reimagining Vampirella as Red Riding hood would be released in August 2022.


title: Vampirella

text: Vampirella appears in the 2020 crossover series "Die!namite", which depicts her as an ambassador attempting to reach the new Drakulon colony. She has appeared in the sequels of "Die!namite" called "Die!namite Lives" and "Die!namite Never Dies!".That year another crossover called Project Superpower:Dark power and a sequel will be released called Vampirella vs Red Sonja .


title: Vampirella

text: She fought Purgatori in "Vampirella vs Purgatori" (2020)"," leading into Purgatori's own comic series in 2021.


title: Vampirella

text: Sniegoski, alongside Jeannine S. Acheson, launched a 2021 Vampirella multiverse comic called "Vampiverse," in which Vampirella must figure out what's killing all the other Vampirellas.A oneshot spinoff following one of the Vampirellas called "The Vamp" was released in June 2022.


title: Vampirella

text: Announced in June 2022 "Vampirella: Mindwarp" wa, will feature Vampirella has she is thrown back into the 1970s by trading minds with her younger self


title: Vampirella

text: On March 2, 2021, Mike The Pike Productions, Inc.'s subsidiary Arowana Media Holdings, Inc. acquired the worldwide film, television and streaming rights to Dynamite Entertainment's "Vampirella". Including stories, characters, and derivative works of the Vampirella universe.


title: Vampirella

text: Vampirella originally hailed from the planet Drakulon, a world where blood flowed like water and where the natives, called the Vampiri, shared traditionally vampiric characteristics. Drakulon orbited a binary star which caused continuous droughts throughout the year. Unfortunately for the Vampiri, these droughts have gradually dried up their blood supply; threatening them with extinction. Vampirella's journey begins when an American space shuttle crashes on Drakulon. Hoping to save her people, she travels to Earth where she begins hunting dark remnants of her own race. Earth's vampires originate from Dracula, a forgotten member of the Vampiri race who left his homeworld centuries ago only to be corrupted by the demonic entity known as Chaos.


title: Vampirella

text: After relaunching Vampirella with the miniseries "Morning In America", written by Kurt Busiek, Harris Comics published the story "Mystery Walk", which revised Vampirella's origin. She learned she was, in fact, the daughter of Lilith, whom popular medieval Jewish lore depicts as the first wife of Adam. Lilith would not submit to Adam and, cast out of Eden by God, spawned demons. She later repented and went to Eden to bear children to fight the evil she had created. Her first attempt was Madek and Magdalene, who turned to evil; Vampirella was her second. Madek and Magdalene brainwashed her into believing she was from Drakulon.


title: Vampirella

text: Further retcons were presented in "Vampirella Lives" and in "Blood Lust". Drakulon was real, but was a place in Hell. Vampirella was brought to Eden, not born there. It was Lilith, not Madek and Magdalene, who made believe Drakulon was another planet. Vampirella restores the rivers of blood to Drakulon, which weakens Lilith, who is killed by the hand of God.


title: Vampirella

text: A further revision in the "World's End" storyline revealed Lilith did not really repent and raised Vampirella to be good because she wanted to release the Heart of Darkness (heart of the fallen angel Malkuth) from Metatron's lance, which could only be done by a good person. Another retcon, in "Vampirella: Revelations", reveals the reason Lilith raised Vampirella to be good was that the existence of vampires made Lilith weaker and she wanted someone to kill them. Lilith used a magic mirror to make Vampirella believe whatever variation on her origin was necessary at the time.


title: Vampirella

text: In the initial Dynamite-published series, Vampirella worked reluctantly with Dracula against a rebellious cult of his former followers. Acquiring Sofia Murray as her sidekick, Vampirella became involved in a plot by the Vatican that ultimately resurrected Von Kreist and led to Sofia's death. Vampirella severed her ties with the Vatican and found herself working for the forces of Order again. Reuniting with a resurrected Van Helsing, Pendragon, and other characters from the Warren Magazine run, Vampirella visits the future and discovers the world destroyed by the supernatural. Trying to form a supernatural kingdom to contradict this, Vampirella falls prey to a conspiracy by Dracula and a group of vampire knights that result in reality becoming unraveled. Lilith banishes Vampirella from her universe in order to save her.


title: Vampirella

text: Vampirella was relaunched with "Our Lady Of Shadows" as an agent of the Vatican before being relaunched again with a new costume in "Hollywood Horror" under author Kate Leth. In this universe, Vampirella has recently come to Earth and become a Hollywood scream queen. She lives with her live-in boyfriend Tristan and butler Coleridge.


title: Vampirella

text: After falling into a thousand-year sleep, Vampirella awakes in a bizarre, dystopian future, where she meets her new sidekick and girlfriend, Vicki, and a black cat she names Grit. After going on a journey through her own mind, Vampirella learns she has absorbed all the memories and experiences of a hundred Vampirellas from parallel universes.


title: Vampirella

text: According to the "Hack/Slash" series, Vampirella is currently working as a radio talk show host and has several times teamed up with Cassie and her partner Vlad to stop demons and vampires instead of the standard slashers the series is known for. She and Vlad have an intense physical attraction and relationship, but broke up because his nomadic lifestyle did not mesh with hers.


title: Vampirella

text: In the 2019 version by Christopher Priest, the writer incorporated all the previous versions of the character's history to make a comprehensive revision of Vampirella's back story. Vampirella has been on Earth for 50 years, and Draklon is an alternate version of Earth's moon. The alternate version of Earth is called Arcadia. We learn that Drakulon and Arcadia were at war which caused Aracadia to die out and Draklon became an archaic society.


title: Vampirella

text: Vampirella possesses many of the typical powers of mythological vampires. She exerts super-strength when facing her opponents and can move so fast that she appears as a blur of motion. Her senses are far beyond those of humans, allowing her to tell one's emotional state through their scent, hear things imperceptible to humans, and see clearly in total darkness.


title: Vampirella

text: She is very athletic, possessing great stamina, reflexes, and agility beyond that of humans. Her healing factor grants her great resilience and allows her to heal rapidly from her wounds and makes her immune to Earthly illness and toxins.


title: Vampirella

text: Whether she is able to turn other people into vampires is inconsistent. It was a plot point in the Warren era that she could not because she was a being from another planet and not a supernatural creature, but that origin was since revised and she could do it in the Shadowhawk crossover. However, that crossover is out of continuity for Shadowhawk and may be out of continuity for Vampirella.


title: Vampirella

text: She had the power to grow a giant pair of chiropteran wings to allow self-propelled flight. Her stare and even voice are hypnotic and seductive to humans, particularly males (she has been seen as having the ability to induce sexual arousal in men simply by being in their presence). She is shown to have the power of telepathy as she was able to hear the voices of demons inside Jackie Estacado's mind.


title: Vampirella

text: In addition to her supernatural abilities, Vampirella is a formidable hand-to-hand combatant and is shown to be skilled with modern-day firearms.


title: Vampirella

text: Christopher Priest's world of Vampirella has been expanded in spinoffs. The first is "Sacred Six" (2020), which follows Lilith, Vampirella's mother, protecting a vampire city with a team consisting of Nyx, Chasity, Pantha, Victory (who takes on the name Draculina), and Katie (the real Draculina). Solo series for "Nyx" (2021), "Pantha" (2022), and "Draculina" (2022)


title: Vampirella

text: From annual required Statement of Circulation. "Copies printed" refers to total print run. "Total paid circulation" refers to number of copies actually sold, which is the above number minus returns, lost/damaged copies, and free/promotional copies.


title: Vampirella

text: In 2000 a comic book series entitled "Vampi" began circulation through Anarchy Studio. The series followed Vampi, an alternate futuristic version of Vampirella that seeks to find a cure for her vampirism. The main series ran for 25 issues. Several miniseries followed under the titles "Vampi Vicious", "Vampi Vicious Circle", "Vampi Vicious Rampage", and "Vampi vs. Xin". An omnibus edition collecting the first eighteen issues of the initial run was released in 2012 through Dynamite Entertainment.


title: Vampirella

text: In January 2014 Dynamite Entertainment released "Li'l Vampi", a one-shot comic book by writer Eric Trautmann and artist Agnes Garbowska. The comic followed a child version of Vampirella as she tries to uncover why monsters are destroying the town of Stoker, Maine.


title: Vampirella

text: In 1996, a "Vampirella" film adaptation was produced by Concorde Pictures, starring Talisa Soto in the title role. In 2021, Dynamite Entertainment announced a new feature film was in development, in addition to plans for television adaptations based on the Vampirella Universe.


title: Christian Ponder

text: Christian Andrew Ponder (born February 25, 1988) is a former American football quarterback. He played for the Minnesota Vikings, Denver Broncos and San Francisco 49ers. He played college football at Florida State, and was drafted by the Minnesota Vikings with the 12th overall pick in the 2011 NFL Draft.


title: Christian Ponder

text: Ponder had an up-and-down career with the Vikings. He started all 16 games and helped lead the team to a playoff berth in 2012, but also suffered several injuries and inconsistent play, eventually being benched in favor of rookie Teddy Bridgewater in 2014; he totaled a 14–21–1 record in his four seasons with the Vikings. He then spent time in a backup role for the Oakland Raiders, Denver Broncos and San Francisco 49ers, but never took another NFL snap before retiring in 2016.


title: Christian Ponder

text: Ponder was born in Dallas, Texas, and grew up in Grapevine, Texas. His father, David Ponder, played college football for Florida State as a defensive lineman from 1980 to 1983, and thus Christian Ponder is one of several father-son duos who have both played for Bobby Bowden, who coached the Seminoles until the end of the 2009 season. Christian Ponder attended Colleyville Heritage High School, where he played football. In 2004, he was the starting quarterback and threw for 1,500 yards and seven touchdowns. As a senior, he passed for 1,214 yards and 20 touchdowns and rushed for 911 yards and 12 touchdowns.


title: Christian Ponder

text: "The Dallas Morning News" named him to their all-district first team. Scout.com named him the 20th-ranked quarterback prospect, while Rivals.com rated him the 14th-ranked pro-style quarterback and the 50th-ranked college prospect from Texas. He received scholarship offers from Baylor, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Iowa State, North Carolina, and Texas Christian.


title: Christian Ponder

text: In 2006, Ponder sat out his true freshman season at Florida State on redshirt status. In 2007, he served as the back-up behind starting quarterback Drew Weatherford. Ponder saw action against Virginia Tech when Weatherford was taken out of the game due to an injury in the second quarter. Although Florida State lost, 40–21, Ponder completed eight out of 18 passing attempts for 105 yards and one touchdown.


title: Christian Ponder

text: Before the 2008 season, Ponder was named the starting quarterback ahead of senior Weatherford. "The Miami Herald" said that the decision showed the coaching staff put "a premium on mobility over maturity." Ponder started in all 13 games, and completed 177 passes on 318 attempts for 2,006 yards, 14 touchdowns, and 13 interceptions. He also made 119 rushing attempts for 423 yards and four touchdowns. The Seminoles finished the season with a 9–4 record, including a victory over Wisconsin in the Champs Sports Bowl. At season's end, Ponder was named the team's most valuable offensive player.


title: Christian Ponder

text: In 2009, Ponder was well on his way to a career season when he suffered a season ending shoulder injury at Clemson. Through the first eight games of the season, he led the ACC in passing average per game and was one of the national leaders in yards and passing efficiency. He threw for over 2,700 yards and 14 touchdowns and considered jumping to the NFL a year early. However, after hitting Clemson safety DeAndre McDaniel on an interception return, Ponder separated his shoulder and missed the rest of the season. This ended his professional hopes, at least for one year. He resumed his role as the starting quarterback in 2010.


title: Christian Ponder

text: Before the 2010 season, Ponder was named to the Maxwell Award watch list. Florida State launched a campaign promoting Ponder as a Heisman Trophy candidate in July 2010. During the 2010 season, Ponder battled numerous setbacks to his health, including a swollen bursa sac in his throwing elbow. He re-injured the elbow numerous times during the season, and had to have it drained three times.


title: Christian Ponder

text: Ponder's 2010 season, his senior year and only year under coach Jimbo Fisher, was his most successful. Ponder was the first Seminole quarterback since Chris Weinke in 1999 to lead his team to victories over both its in-state rivals, Miami and Florida. He also won the 2010 James Tatum award, given to the nation's top student-athlete, and a National Football Foundation Scholar-Athlete Award. He also won the Bobby Bowden Award presented to the top student athlete among FBS schools. Ponder graduated from Florida State in two and a half years with a degree in finance and a 3.73 GPA, then an MBA, and is studying for his second graduate degree, in sports management. At the 2011 Under Armour Senior Bowl, Ponder won MVP honors after throwing for 2 touchdowns and leading the South to a win over the heavily favored North.


title: Christian Ponder

text: Ponder was selected 12th overall by the Minnesota Vikings in the first round of the 2011 NFL Draft. Ponder was the fourth quarterback selected in the draft behind Cam Newton, Jake Locker, and Blaine Gabbert. Ponder did not have a typical rookie offseason following the draft due to the 2011 NFL lockout. Late in July, the Vikings traded for veteran quarterback Donovan McNabb to start and mentor Ponder. Three days after the McNabb trade, Ponder agreed to terms with the Vikings on a rookie contract that included $10 million guaranteed. Ponder embraced the competition from McNabb. "The guy deserves a starting job. He's been in the league for a while," Ponder said of McNabb. "My mentality is to be able to go in and compete and try to get that job from him. He deserves to be the starting quarterback. Somewhere down the road I'm going to push to take that over and we'll see." Ponder announced at his introduction press conference that he intended to wear jersey number 7 in the NFL.


title: Christian Ponder

text: Following a disastrous start to the season for the Vikings under McNabb, Ponder made his NFL debut against the Chicago Bears in the fourth quarter on October 16, 2011. In a game where the Vikings were blown out 39–10, Ponder completed 9 of 17 passes for 99 yards in his first real action. It was announced on Tuesday, October 18, that he would make his first start the following Sunday against the Green Bay Packers, replacing McNabb as the starter. On Ponder's first career pass attempt as a starter he hit Michael Jenkins on a 72-yard playaction pass. Two plays later, he threw his first career touchdown, completing a short pass to Visanthe Shiancoe. Ponder helped the 1–5 Vikings give the undefeated Packers a close game and finished 13 of 32 for 219 yards with 2 touchdowns and 2 interceptions in the 27–33 loss.


title: Christian Ponder

text: Ponder was able to get his first win as an NFL starting quarterback the following week against his fellow 2011 draft mate Cam Newton and the Carolina Panthers on October 30, 2011. He threw for 236 yards and a touchdown, and had a passer rating of 102.7 in the close 24–21 game. After a bye week, the Vikings faced off against the Packers again, this time on Monday Night Football at Lambeau Field. Ponder didn't perform as well as he did in the first game against Green Bay, and the Vikings were blown out 7–45.


title: Christian Ponder

text: Ponder finished out the next seven games with ups and downs. He threw two touchdowns with three interceptions against the Oakland Raiders in a losing effort. After a loss on the road to the Falcons, the team played a home game against the Denver Broncos. Ponder threw three touchdowns and set a Vikings rookie record with 381 yards passing. But Ponder also threw a crucial interception late in the fourth quarter to set up Tim Tebow and the Broncos for a game-winning drive. The next week, Ponder was injured in a game against the rival Detroit Lions at Ford Field, in which backup quarterback Joe Webb nearly brought Minnesota to a victory after Ponder threw two interceptions earlier in the game. After a home blowout loss to the NFC South champion New Orleans Saints, Ponder was injured in each of the final two regular season games, at the Washington Redskins and in the season finale against the Chicago Bears. Ponder finished the season throwing 13 touchdown passes and 13 interceptions, compiling a 2–8 record as a starter as the Vikings finished 3–13 for only the second time in franchise history.


title: Christian Ponder

text: During the 2012 offseason, many analysts including KC Joyner of ESPN believed that Ponder would have a breakout year in 2012. Joyner cited the Vikings' lack of talent around him as the reason why Ponder didn't reach his full potential in 2011.


title: Christian Ponder

text: The Vikings opened the 2012 season at home against the Jacksonville Jaguars. Trailing with just 14 seconds left in the game, Ponder completed a 26-yard pass to Devin Aromashodu, followed by a 6-yard pass to Kyle Rudolph. The two passes set up a game-tying Blair Walsh field goal to send the game to overtime, where the Vikings prevailed. After the game, Vikings head coach Leslie Frazier spoke positively about Ponder's end to regulation. "That's what this league is made of—quarterbacks who can take you down in the last two minutes of a game," Frazier said.


title: Christian Ponder

text: Following a close week two loss in Indianapolis, the Vikings returned home as an underdog playing the San Francisco 49ers. Ponder had arguably the best game of his career to that point, completing 21 of 35 passes for 198 yards, two touchdowns, and rushing for another touchdown on a 23-yard run. The Vikings won the game 24–13 and Ponder drew praise from NFL analysts. "He excels at buying time while keeping his eyes downfield until his weapons uncover. He has also done a fantastic job protecting the football, and has yet to throw an interception this season. There aren't a ton of playmaking quarterbacks who protect the football. Fortunately for the Vikings, they seem to have one," NFL Media Analyst Daniel Jeremiah said after the performance.


title: Christian Ponder

text: Through four games, the Vikings were 3–1, equaling their win total from the previous year. Ponder led the NFL in completion percentage during the month of September with 68% and was also the last quarterback in the NFL to turn the ball over. The Vikings were a surprise to many around the league with a 5–2 record. Ponder struggled over the next five games and the Vikings lost four of five. During that stretch, Ponder's completion percentage fell to just 56%, as he threw the same number of interceptions (5) as he did touchdowns over those five games. Vikings General Manager Rick Spielman stood behind Ponder during his rough patch of games. "I know everybody in this organization believes Christian Ponder is our guy," Spielman said, via Tom Pelissero of 1500ESPN.com. "And I have full, 100 percent belief that Christian Ponder's going to be our quarterback heading into the future."


title: Christian Ponder

text: In the fourth of those losses, Ponder struggled mightily at Lambeau Field in a game against the Packers on December 2. In a game where running back Adrian Peterson rushed for 210 yards, the Vikings weren't able to overcome two interceptions from Ponder on potential scoring drives. "I'm disappointed in myself. But I'm even more disappointed that I let down the veteran guys...I've had way too many turnovers since I stepped on the field in a Vikings uniform," Ponder said after the loss.


title: Christian Ponder

text: The Vikings stood at 6–6 and were still in the playoff picture. Minnesota first won a home game against Chicago on December 9 and then were victorious in St. Louis the following week, a game that included a Ponder rushing touchdown to give the Vikings an early lead. The next week, the Vikings traveled to Houston to play the 12–2 Texans. Going into the game as underdogs, the Vikings defense stifled the Texans' offense, holding them to just six points. Ponder led the Vikings offense to 23 points, including a touchdown throw to Kyle Rudolph. He also added 48 yards rushing on the ground, as the Vikings controlled the game. After the game, Ponder immediately turned to the final game of the regular season. "We obviously have a big one next week, and if we don't win that one, this one doesn't mean anything. Our No. 1 goal is to make the playoffs." Ponder said


title: Christian Ponder

text: In the regular season finale, the Vikings hosted the division champion Packers. If the Vikings won the game, they would earn a wildcard berth, but if they lost, division rival Chicago Bears would earn the final playoff spot. In addition to 197 rushing yards from Peterson, Ponder threw three touchdown passes and posted a career-high rating of 120.2. After jumping out to a 13–0 first-half lead, the Packers were able to make a comeback on the Vikings. With the game tied at 27 in the fourth quarter, Ponder completed a season-long 65-yard pass to Jarius Wright, which set up his third touchdown pass of the game. After taking criticism during his struggles through the year, Ponder joked to the media after the game that he didn't have the arm strength to make the throw, but did it anyway. On the game's final drive, with the score tied at 34, Ponder threw a 25-yard completion to Michael Jenkins on third down, which helped set up a game-winning field goal and stopped the Packers from getting the ball back. The win put the Vikings into the playoffs and also cost the Packers a first-round bye. Ponder's Total QBR was 12 points higher than Packers' quarterback Aaron Rodgers's for the game, according to ESPN's system. The game's result set up a rematch between the two teams the following week to open the playoffs.


title: Christian Ponder

text: However, Ponder was forced to miss the playoff game six days later, due to a deep triceps bruise he suffered during the first half of the previous game. Despite being able to finish the week 17 game, Ponder stated his arm wasn't capable of making the necessary throws. His backup, Joe Webb, who hadn't played a quarterback snap all season, took his place. The Vikings lost 24–10 in Lambeau Field.


title: Christian Ponder

text: The regular season was deemed a success for the Vikings. The team had their largest turnaround in team history going from three wins to 10. Adrian Peterson was named the league's MVP, rushing for 2,097 yards, just nine yards short of breaking the single-season rushing record. Ponder finished the season starting all 16 games, throwing 18 touchdowns to 12 interceptions, completed 62% of his passes, and had two rushing scores. According to ESPN's Total QBR system, Ponder finished the league as the 15th rated quarterback ahead of former Pro Bowlers Jay Cutler, Josh Freeman, and Matt Cassel.


title: Christian Ponder

text: Ponder went into the 2013 season as the starting quarterback. However, the Vikings started 0–3 and Ponder performed inconsistently in losses at Detroit, at Chicago, and home to Cleveland. Despite criticism from media and the fans, some defended Ponder. Following their week two game, Chicago Bears cornerback Charles Tillman spoke of how impressed he was by Ponder's play. "My respect level has gone up tremendously for Ponder," Tillman said. "He did some great things out there." During the home loss to Cleveland in week three, Ponder was booed by some Vikings fans as they also chanted for backup quarterback Matt Cassel. Following the game, Adrian Peterson stuck up for Ponder, calling the boos unfair. "I got his back. He scored two touchdowns and kept us in the game," Peterson said.


title: Christian Ponder

text: Ponder missed the week four game against Pittsburgh that was played in London due to a rib injury sustained during the Cleveland game, when team doctors did not let him play because they were concerned of the fractured rib being too close to his heart. Cassel led the Vikings to their first win of the season, but following the team's bye week struggled badly in a home loss to Carolina.


title: Christian Ponder

text: In the midst of Cassel taking over for the injured Ponder, the Vikings also signed Josh Freeman and thrust him into the starting role less than two weeks after being signed. On a Monday Night Football game, the Vikings scored zero points offensively in a loss to the Giants as Freeman performed worse than both Ponder and Cassel had to that point. Not only did Freeman perform poorly, but he also suffered a concussion, opening the door for Ponder to return to the starting lineup.


title: Christian Ponder

text: Ponder said he was going to play more loosely, adding that he had already been benched so he had nothing to lose, an attitude he carried forward as he started the next six games for the Vikings. Ponder showed improvements over the start of the season as he completed nearly 67% of his passes, threw five touchdowns, rushed for two touchdowns, and had a quarterback rating of 86.5. His final start of the season came on December 1, when Ponder was forced to leave the game against the Bears due to a concussion. Cassel finished the game, leading the Vikings to a win and started the final four games of the season. In total, the Vikings finished the season 5–10–1 and Ponder went 2–6–1 as a starter.


title: Christian Ponder

text: Following the disappointing 2013 season, Ponder's future with the Vikings fell in doubt. With the Vikings obtaining a new coaching staff and having drafted notable quarterback prospect Teddy Bridgewater in the 2014 NFL Draft, Ponder was effectively rendered a third-string quarterback. Despite this, Ponder stated that he wished to stay with the Vikings, stating that he had learned a lot from new offensive coordinator Norv Turner. During the preseason Ponder was booed by the Vikings fans in a home preseason game, to which many in the organization, including new head coach Mike Zimmer and receiver Greg Jennings, stuck up for him. "You boo one of us, you boo all of us," Jennings was quoted as saying.


title: Christian Ponder

text: After being inactive for the first three games of the regular season as a third stringer, Ponder moved up the depth chart after Cassel was placed on Injured Reserve after a foot injury, while the rookie Bridgewater served as the starter for the remainder of the season.


title: Christian Ponder

text: On September 28, Ponder saw his first regular season action filling in for Bridgewater when he injured his ankle late in his first career start, which was a 41–28 win over the Atlanta Falcons. Ponder did little more than hand the ball off to rookie running back Jerick McKinnon as the Vikings preserved and added to their lead in the game. Fans in attendance who had previously booed Ponder, cheered his name like they had chanted "Teddy" earlier in the game.


title: Christian Ponder

text: Four days later, Ponder got his lone start of the season when Bridgewater was ruled out hours before the Thursday Night Football game against the Green Bay Packers. The game went downhill quickly for the Vikings and especially for Ponder, as he struggled on offense early and threw two interceptions in the second quarter that led to Packers' touchdowns en route to a 28–0 halftime deficit. Ponder picked up the pace somewhat after the half and spearheaded a pair of Vikings scoring drives, including running for the Vikings' lone touchdown in the 42–10 loss. Following the game, Ponder told the media the game was embarrassing and that it was difficult because he did not know when he would get another chance to play. With Bridgewater healthy, Ponder remained the backup for the rest of the season but did not appear in another game with the Vikings.


title: Christian Ponder

text: Because the Vikings chose not to extend a fifth-year option with Ponder, he became an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season. He accrued a 14–21–1 record as a starter for the Vikings, having started the majority of games for them from 2011 to 2013.


title: Christian Ponder

text: As of the 2016 season, Ponder is eighth in Vikings' history in quarterback yards and 10th in passing touchdowns. He also holds multiple rookie quarterback records for the franchise.


title: Christian Ponder

text: On March 13, 2015, Ponder signed with the Oakland Raiders on a one-year contract that included a $1.5 million signing bonus. In Oakland, he was reunited with offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave, who coordinated the offense on the Vikings during Ponder's first three seasons with Minnesota. Ponder entered training camp playing with Oakland's second team offense behind starter Derek Carr but ahead of Matt McGloin.


title: Christian Ponder

text: During the preseason, Ponder returned to Minnesota in a game where he was booed by Vikings fans. Ponder finished the game 7 for 11 with 69 yards. Following the preseason, the Raiders released Ponder in favor of having McGloin be their backup to Carr for the season.


title: Christian Ponder

text: Following his release from Oakland, Ponder generated interest from the Philadelphia Eagles but was not signed. Ponder also had conversations about returning to Oakland after the first regular season game once Carr was injured, but once his injury was proven not serious, Oakland opted not to sign him. During the regular season, Ponder worked out for the Dallas Cowboys in September and the Tennessee Titans on November 3 but again went unsigned.


title: Christian Ponder

text: On November 25, 2015, Ponder signed with the Denver Broncos to be the third-string quarterback, while Peyton Manning nursed injuries. Ponder grew up a Broncos fan and quickly flew out to Denver the week of Thanksgiving to sign with them, once the Broncos called him. Ponder was inactive for games against New England and San Diego as he learned the playbook but was waived on December 8 before ever being active for a game.


title: Christian Ponder

text: A week after being waived by Denver, Ponder generated interest from the Cincinnati Bengals, but ultimately went unsigned as the season came to a conclusion. In total, Ponder spent the 2015 season on two different teams, worked out for two others and received interest from at least two more teams.


title: Christian Ponder

text: On August 16, 2016, Ponder signed with the San Francisco 49ers on a one-year deal following a season-ending injury to Thad Lewis and the unknown health status of Colin Kaepernick. The contract was worth $800,000 and included no signing bonus or guarantees. Ponder had previously worked out for the Cardinals just days before the 49ers called him. After signing with the 49ers, Ponder's wife revealed on her Instagram account that Ponder had previously turned down other NFL jobs for the sake of his family.


title: Christian Ponder

text: On October 7, 2016, it was reported that after bad play by starting quarterback Blaine Gabbert, several teammates believed Ponder should start. Ponder was active as the backup quarterback for the final three games of the season, as backup to Colin Kaepernick, who took over for Gabbert. Ponder did not make an appearance in any of the games. Head Coach Chip Kelly said Ponder's performance in practice led to him being in uniform.


title: Christian Ponder

text: Throughout the season, there was speculation that teammates and some members of the front office wanted Ponder to play. Ponder's contract was not renewed following the firing of General Manager Trent Baalke.


title: Christian Ponder

text: Ponder married ESPN reporter Samantha Steele on December 17, 2012. The couple first started seeing each other after Ponder messaged her on Twitter. After two months, the couple decided to get married, driving to a Hudson, Wisconsin courthouse before having their wedding meal at Arby's. The two held a formal ceremony the following April.


title: Christian Ponder

text: Their first child, a daughter named Bowden Saint-Claire Ponder was born in 2014. Bowden Ponder was named after Christian's college football coach at Florida State, Bobby Bowden and also goes by the name "Scout" derived from Samantha's favorite novel "To Kill a Mockingbird."


title: Christian Ponder

text: In 2017, Samantha revealed on Twitter that the couple's first son was born. They named him Robinson True, and said that "he was named after Jackie and David (Robinson)... two men of courage who weren't/aren't afraid to hold to their convictions and take the road less traveled."


title: United States occupation of Nicaragua

text: The United States occupation of Nicaragua from 1912 to 1933 was part of the Banana Wars, when the US military invaded various Latin American countries from 1898 to 1934. The formal occupation began in 1912, even though there were various other assaults by the U.S. in Nicaragua throughout this period. American military interventions in Nicaragua were designed to stop any other nation except the United States of America from building a Nicaraguan Canal.


title: United States occupation of Nicaragua

text: Nicaragua assumed a quasi-protectorate status under the 1916 Bryan–Chamorro Treaty. President Herbert Hoover (1929–1933) opposed the relationship. On January 2, 1933, Hoover ended the American intervention.


title: United States occupation of Nicaragua

text: In 1909 Nicaraguan President José Santos Zelaya of the Liberal Party faced opposition from the Conservative Party, led by governor Juan José Estrada of Bluefields who received support from the U.S. government as a result of American entrepreneurs providing financial assistance to Estrada's rebellion in the hopes of gaining economic concessions after the rebellion's victory. The United States had limited military presence in Nicaragua, having only one patrolling U.S. Navy ship off the coast of Bluefields, allegedly to protect the lives and interests of American citizens who lived there. The Conservative Party sought to overthrow Zelaya which led to Estrada's rebellion in December 1909. Two Americans, Leonard Groce and Lee Roy Cannon, were captured and indicted for allegedly joining the rebellion and the laying of mines. Zelaya ordered the execution of the two Americans, which severed U.S. relations.


title: United States occupation of Nicaragua

text: The forces of Chamorro and Nicaraguan General Juan Estrada, each leading conservative revolts against Zelaya's government, had captured three small towns on the border with Costa Rica and were fomenting open rebellion in the capital of Managua. U.S. Naval warships that had been waiting off Mexico and Costa Rica moved into position.


title: United States occupation of Nicaragua

text: The protected cruisers , , and collier lay in the harbor at Bluefields, Nicaragua, on the Atlantic coast with en route for Colón, Panama, with 700 Marines. On December 12, 1909, "Albany" with 280 bluejackets and the gunboat with 155, arrived at Corinto, Nicaragua, to join the gunboat with her crew of 155 allegedly to protect American citizens and property on the Pacific coast of Nicaragua.


title: United States occupation of Nicaragua

text: Zelaya resigned on December 14, 1909, and his hand-picked successor, Jose Madriz, was elected by unanimous vote of the liberal Nicaraguan national assembly on December 20, 1909. U.S. Secretary of State Philander C. Knox admonished that the United States would not resume diplomatic relations with Nicaragua until Madriz demonstrated that his was a "responsible government ... prepared to make reparations for the wrongs" done to American citizens. His request for asylum granted by Mexico, Zelaya was escorted by armed guard to the Mexican gunboat "General Guerrero" and departed Corinto for Salina Cruz, Mexico, on the night of December 23, with "Albany" standing by but taking no action.


title: United States occupation of Nicaragua

text: As the flagship of the Nicaraguan Expeditionary Squadron, under Admiral William W. Kimball, "Albany" spent the next five months in Central America, mostly at Corinto, maintaining U.S. neutrality in the ongoing rebellion, sometimes under criticism by the U.S. press and business interests that were displeased by Kimball's "friendly" attitude toward the liberal Madriz administration. By mid-March 1910, the insurgency led by Estrada and Chamorro had seemingly collapsed and with the apparent and unexpected strength of Madriz, the U.S. Nicaraguan Expeditionary Squadron completed its withdrawal from Nicaraguan waters.


title: United States occupation of Nicaragua

text: On May 27, 1910, U.S. Marine Corps Major Smedley Butler arrived on the coast of Nicaragua with 250 Marines, for the purpose of providing security in Bluefields. United States Secretary of State Philander C. Knox condemned Zelaya's actions, favoring Estrada. Zelaya succumbed to U.S. political pressure and fled the country, leaving José Madriz as his successor. Madriz in turn had to face an advance by the reinvigorated eastern rebel forces, which ultimately led to his resignation. In August 1910, Juan Estrada became president of Nicaragua with the official recognition of the United States.


title: United States occupation of Nicaragua

text: Estrada’s administration allowed President William Howard Taft and Secretary of State Philander C. Knox to apply the Dollar Diplomacy or "dollars for bullets" policy. The goal was to undermine European financial strength in the region, which threatened American interests to construct a canal in the isthmus, and also to protect American private investment in the development of Nicaragua's natural resources. The policy opened the door for American banks to lend money to the Nicaraguan government, ensuring United States control over the country's finances.


title: United States occupation of Nicaragua

text: By 1912 the ongoing political conflict in Nicaragua between the liberal and conservative factions had deteriorated to the point that U.S. investments under President Taft's Dollar Diplomacy including substantial loans to the fragile coalition government of conservative President Juan José Estrada were in jeopardy. Minister of War General Luis Mena forced Estrada to resign. He was replaced by his vice president, the conservative Adolfo Díaz.


title: United States occupation of Nicaragua

text: Díaz's connection with the United States led to a decline in his popularity in Nicaragua. Nationalistic sentiments arose in the Nicaraguan military, including Luis Mena, the Secretary of War. Mena managed to gain the support of the National Assembly, accusing Díaz of "selling out the nation to New York bankers". Díaz asked the U.S. government for help, as Mena's opposition turned into rebellion. Knox appealed to president Taft for military intervention, arguing that the Nicaraguan railway from Corinto to Granada was threatened, interfering with U.S. interests.


title: United States occupation of Nicaragua

text: In mid-1912 Mena persuaded the Nicaraguan national assembly to name him successor to Díaz when Díaz's term expired in 1913. When the United States refused to recognize the Nicaraguan assembly's decision, Mena rebelled against the Díaz government. A force led by liberal General Benjamín Zeledón, with its stronghold at Masaya, quickly came to the aid of Mena, whose headquarters were at Granada.


title: United States occupation of Nicaragua

text: Díaz, relying on the U.S. government's traditional support of the Nicaraguan conservative faction, made clear that he could not guarantee the safety of U.S. persons and property in Nicaragua and requested U.S. intervention. In the first two weeks of August 1912, Mena and his forces captured steamers on Lakes Managua and Nicaragua that were owned by a railroad company managed by U.S. interests. Insurgents attacked the capital, Managua, subjecting it to a four-hour bombardment. U.S. minister George Wetzel cabled Washington to send U.S. troops to safeguard the U.S. legation.


title: United States occupation of Nicaragua

text: At the time the revolution broke out, the Pacific Fleet gunboat was on routine patrol off the west coast of Nicaragua. In the summer of 1912, 100 U.S. Marines arrived aboard the USS "Annapolis". They were followed by Smedley Butler's return from Panama with 350 Marines. The commander of the American forces was Admiral William Henry Hudson Southerland, joined by Colonel Joseph Henry Pendleton and 750 Marines. The main goal was securing the railroad from Corinto to Managua.


title: United States occupation of Nicaragua

text: On August 4, at the recommendation of the Nicaraguan president, a landing force of 100 bluejackets was dispatched from "Annapolis" to the capital, Managua, to protect American citizens and guard the U.S. legation during the insurgency. On the east coast of Nicaragua, the (a protected cruiser from the American North Atlantic Fleet) was ordered to Bluefields, Nicaragua, where she arrived on August 6 and landed a force of 50 men to protect American lives and property. A force of 350 U.S. Marines shipped north on the collier from the Canal Zone and disembarked at Managua to reinforce the legation guard on August 15, 1912. Under this backdrop, "Denver" and seven other ships from the Pacific Fleet arrived at Corinto, Nicaragua, from late August to September 1912, under the command of Rear Admiral W.H.H. Southerland.


title: United States occupation of Nicaragua

text: , commanded by Commander Thomas Washington arrived at Corinto on August 27, 1912, with 350 navy bluejackets and Marines on board. Admiral Southerland's priorities were to re-establish and safeguard the disrupted railway and cable lines between the principal port of Corinto and Managua, to the southeast.


title: United States occupation of Nicaragua

text: On August 29, 1912, a landing force of 120 men from USS "Denver", under the command of the ship's navigator, Lieutenant Allen B. Reed, landed at Corinto to protect the railway line running from Corinto to Managua and then south to Granada on the north shore of Lake Nicaragua. This landing party reembarked aboard ship October 24 and 25, 1912. One officer and 24 men were landed from the "Denver" at San Juan del Sur on the southern end of the Nicaraguan isthmus from August 30 to September 6, 1912, and from September 11 to 27, 1912 to protect the cable station, custom house and American interests. "Denver" remained at San Juan del Sur to relay wireless messages from the other navy ships to and from Washington until departing on September 30, for patrol duty.


title: United States occupation of Nicaragua

text: On the morning of September 22, two battalions of Marines and an artillery battery under Major Smedley Butler, U.S.M.C. had entered Granada, Nicaragua (after being ambushed by rebels at Masaya on the nineteenth), where they were reinforced with the Marine first battalion commanded by Colonel Joseph H. Pendleton, U.S.M.C. General Mena, the primary instigator of the failed coup d'etat surrendered his 700 troops to Southerland and was deported to Panama. Beginning on the morning of September 27 and continuing through October 1, Nicaraguan government forces bombarded Barranca and Coyotepe, two hills overlooking the all-important railway line at Masaya that Zeledón and about 550 of his men occupied, halfway between Managua and Granada.


title: United States occupation of Nicaragua

text: On October 2, Nicaraguan government troops loyal to President Diaz delivered a surrender ultimatum to Zelaydón, who refused. Rear Admiral Southerland realized that Nicaraguan government forces would not vanquish the insurgents by bombardment or infantry assault, and ordered the Marine commanders to prepare to take the hills.


title: United States occupation of Nicaragua

text: On October 3, Butler and his men, returning from the capture of Granada, pounded the hills with artillery throughout the day, with no response from the insurgents. In the pre-dawn hours of October 4, Butler's 250 Marines began moving up the higher hill, Coyotepe, to converge with Pendletons's 600 Marines and a landing battalion of bluejackets from "California". At the summit, the American forces seized the rebel's artillery and used it to rout Zeledón's troops on Barranca across the valley.


title: United States occupation of Nicaragua

text: Zeledón and most of his troops had fled the previous day during the bombardment, many to Masaya, where Nicaraguan government troops captured or killed most of them, including Zeledón. With the insurgents driven from Masaya, Southerland ordered the occupation of Leon to stop any further interference with the U.S.-controlled railroad. On October 6, 1,000 bluejackets and Marines, from the cruisers , , and "Denver" led by Lieutenant Colonel Charles G. Long, U.S.M.C. captured the city of Leon, Nicaragua, the last stronghold of the insurgency. The revolution of General Diaz was essentially over.


title: United States occupation of Nicaragua

text: On October 23, Southerland announced that but for the Nicaraguan elections in early November, he would withdraw most of the U.S. landing forces. At that point, peaceful conditions prevailed and nearly all of the embarked U.S. Marines and bluejackets that had numbered approximately 2,350 at their peak, not including approximately 1,000 shipboard sailors, withdrew, leaving a legation guard of 100 Marines in Managua.


title: United States occupation of Nicaragua

text: Of the 1,100 members of the United States military that intervened in Nicaragua, thirty-seven were killed in action. With Díaz safely in the presidency of the country, the United States proceeded to withdraw the majority of its forces from Nicaraguan territory, leaving one hundred Marines to "protect the American legation in Managua".


title: United States occupation of Nicaragua

text: The Knox-Castrillo Treaty of 1911, ratified in 1912, put the U.S. in charge of much of Nicaragua's financial system.


title: United States occupation of Nicaragua

text: In 1916, General Emiliano Chamorro Vargas, a Conservative, assumed the presidency, and continued to attract foreign investment. Some Marines remained in the country after the intervention, occasionally clashing with local residents. In 1921, a group of Marines who raided a Managua newspaper office were dishonorably discharged. Later that year, a Marine private shot and killed a Nicaraguan policeman.


title: United States occupation of Nicaragua

text: Civil war erupted between the conservative and liberal factions on May 2, 1926, with liberals capturing Bluefields, and José María Moncada Tapia capturing Puerto Cabezas in August. Juan Bautista Sacasa declared himself Constitutional President of Nicaragua from Puerto Cabezas on December 1, 1926. Following Emiliano Chamorro Vargas' resignation, the Nicaraguan Congress selected Adolfo Diaz as "designado", who then requested intervention from President Calvin Coolidge. On January 24, 1927, the first elements of US forces arrived, with 400 marines.


title: United States occupation of Nicaragua

text: Government forces were defeated on February 6 at Chinandega, followed by another defeat at Muy Muy, prompting US Marine landings at Corinto and the occupation of La Loma Fort in Managua. Ross E. Rowell's Observation Squadron arrived on February 26, which included DeHavilland DH-4s. By March, the US had 2,000 troops in Nicaragua under the command of General Logan Feland. In May, Henry Stimson brokered a peace deal which included disarmament and promised elections in 1928. However, the Liberal commander Augusto César Sandino, and 200 of his men refused to give up the revolution.


title: United States occupation of Nicaragua

text: On June 30, Sandino seized the San Albino gold mine, denounced the Conservative government, and attracted recruits to continue operations. The next month saw the Battle of Ocotal. Despite additional conflict with Sandino's rebels, US supervised elections were held on November 4, 1928, with Moncada the winner. Manuel Giron was captured and executed in February 1929, and Sandino took a year's leave in Mexico. By 1930, Sandino's guerilla forces numbered more than 5,000 men.


title: United States occupation of Nicaragua

text: The only American journalist who interviewed Sandino during this occupation was Carleton Beals of "The Nation".


title: United States occupation of Nicaragua

text: The Hoover administration started a US pullout such that by February 1932, only 745 men remained. Juan Sacasa was elected president in the November 6, 1932 election. The Battle of El Sauce was the last major engagement of the US intervention.


title: 2005 NHL Entry Draft

text: The 2005 NHL Entry Draft was the 43rd NHL Entry Draft. Originally scheduled to be held on June 25, the 2004–05 NHL lockout led to the draft being postponed to July 30.


title: 2005 NHL Entry Draft

text: Special procedures were required to determine the order of picks, because the previous season had been cancelled due to the lockout. The first overall pick was won in a lottery by the Pittsburgh Penguins, who selected Sidney Crosby.


title: 2005 NHL Entry Draft

text: The draft was originally scheduled to be held on June 25, hosted by the Ottawa Senators at the Corel Centre (their home rink). However, the 2004–05 NHL lockout was still ongoing, causing the draft to be postponed. The lockout ended on 22 July with the approval of a new NHL collective bargaining agreement (CBA). The CBA set the new date of the draft as 30 July. The Corel Centre was still available but cannot be used on such short notice. The draft was instead held at the Westin Hotel in Ottawa, Ontario. The Senators were compensated by hosting the 2008 draft instead.


title: 2005 NHL Entry Draft

text: As a result of the rearrangement, the draft was not open to the public, for the first time since 1980. Nor was it possible for large numbers of drafted players to attend: only the twenty highest prospects on the NHL Central Scouting rankings were present.


title: 2005 NHL Entry Draft

text: The order of draft picks was usually determined by team performance in the previous season, with teams picking in the same order in each round (modified by any trading of draft picks). However, the lockout had led to the complete cancellation of the 2004–05 NHL season, so there were no final positions to base the draft order on. The new CBA modified the draft procedures accordingly.


title: 2005 NHL Entry Draft

text: The order of picks in the first round was determined by a weighted lottery. In the second round this order was reversed, so the team with the 30th pick would also receive the 31st pick, whilst the team with first overall pick would not pick again until the 60th pick (last pick in the second round). The order would continue alternating in each subsequent round, producing a 'snaking' order. Teams were permitted to trade their draft picks as usual, which led to some modifications to the order.


title: 2005 NHL Entry Draft

text: The new CBA reduced the draft length to seven rounds, compared to the nine rounds used previously. As a result, 230 players were selected.


title: 2005 NHL Entry Draft

text: The lottery was held on July 22, the same day that the new CBA was approved. The top-rated prospect in this draft was Sidney Crosby, and it was widely assumed that he would be the first overall pick by whichever team won the lottery, so it became known colloquially as the 'Sidney Crosby Sweepstakes'.


title: 2005 NHL Entry Draft

text: Teams were weighted based on playoff appearances in the last three completed seasons (2001-02, 02-03 and 03-04), and first overall picks in the last four drafts (2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004). Three lottery balls each were assigned to teams which had not qualified for any of those playoffs and received no first overall picks in that period. Teams which had one playoff appearance or first overall pick in those years were given two lottery balls. All other teams received one lottery ball.


title: 2005 NHL Entry Draft

text: This produced a total of 48 lottery balls. As a result, teams with three balls had a 6.3% chance of winning the lottery, two balls 4.2%, and one ball 2.1%. The Pittsburgh Penguins won the lottery and therefore the first overall pick. Further drawing of team names was used to determine the order of the remaining picks.


title: Nissan Frontier (North America)

text: The Nissan Frontier is a nameplate used by Nissan in several regions as an alternative to the Navara and NP300 nameplates. In North America, the nameplate was used from 1997 to 2021, replacing the Hardbody. Since 2021, the Frontier sold in the US and Canada has been made a separate model distinct from the globally marketed Navara/Frontier. It is larger and developed to cater to the needs of the North American market.


title: Nissan Frontier (North America)

text: The D22 Frontier was introduced in the US and Canada in 1997 to replace the D21 Hardbody. In other markets, the D22 Frontier is also called the Navara, NP300, Hardbody, or PickUp, among others. It was replaced by the D40 Frontier in 2004 for the 2005 model year, which was produced in the US for both the US and Canadian markets up to the 2021 model year. Both generations were mostly identical to the global version offered by Nissan elsewhere, with minor changes for the North American market.


title: Nissan Frontier (North America)

text: When the D23 Navara was introduced for the global market in 2014, a Nissan North America spokesperson restated that the D23 is not indicative of a D40 Frontier replacement for the North American market.


title: Nissan Frontier (North America)

text: The first dedicated Frontier model for the North American market, not shared with the global model, was unveiled on February 4, 2021 as the third-generation model for the 2022 model year. The third-generation Frontier is longer by than the second-generation Frontier. The vehicle rides on a revised high-strength steel ladder frame chassis carried over from the outgoing model. It is offered in extended King Cab and crew-cab layouts with either rear- or four-wheel drive, and five- and six-foot cargo box length options. Nissan claimed the vehicle is capable of hauling up to of payload or towing up to .


title: Nissan Frontier (North America)

text: Trim levels include base S, SV, Pro-X, and top-spec Pro-4X. In the United States, the King Cab (extended cab) is offered with two- or four-wheel drive in either S or SV trim, paired to a 6.1-foot bed. The crew cab is available with two- or four-wheel drive in the S and SV trims, while four-wheel drive is standard on the Pro-4X. In Canada, a two-wheel drive model is not offered, with four-wheel drive being the only option, regardless of trim level. The Pro-4X trim receives a rear electronic locking differential, Bilstein off-road shocks, and underbody skid plates as standard.


title: Nissan Frontier (North America)

text: This version is sold in Mexico alongside the D23 Frontier which has been offered in the country since 2014. Its launch for the Mexican market was confirmed by Nissan's Mexican division on 9 August 2021 as a competitor to the Toyota Tacoma and the Chevrolet Colorado. It is sold under the "Frontier V6 Pro-4X" naming to distinguish itself from the D23 Frontier. It went on sale on 29 September 2021. Only the Pro-4X version is offered in Mexico as the D23 is used for the non Pro-4X models.


title: Cynocephaly

text: The characteristic of cynocephaly, or cynocephalus (), having the head of a canid, typically that of a dog or jackal, is a widely attested mythical phenomenon existing in many different forms and contexts. The literal meaning of "cynocephaly" is "dog-headed"; however, that this refers to a human body with a dog head is implied. Such cynocephalics are known in mythology and legend from many parts of the world, including ancient Egypt, India, Greece, and China. Further mentions come from the medieval East and Europe. In modern popular culture cynocephalics are also encountered as characters in books, comics, and graphic novels. Cynocephaly is generally distinguished from lycanthropy (werewolfism) and dogs that can talk.


title: Cynocephaly

text: In addition, the Greeks and Romans called a species of apes cynocephalus (these apes are suspected to be baboons).


title: Cynocephaly

text: The word "cynocephaly" is taken (through Latin) from the Greek word κυνοκέφαλοι "kynokephaloi", plural of the word κυνοκέφαλος, from "kyno–" (combining form of κύων "kyōn") meaning "dog" and κεφαλή "kephalē" meaning "head".


title: Cynocephaly

text: The same "dog" root is found in the name "Cynomorpha" ("dog-shaped") for a sub-group of the family Cercopithecidae, which contains many species of macaques and baboons.


title: Cynocephaly

text: Cynocephaly was familiar to the ancient Greeks from representations of the Egyptian gods, Duamutef (son of Horus), Wepwawet (the opener of the ways), and Anubis (the Egyptian god of the dead). The Greek word "()" "dog-head" also identified a sacred Egyptian baboon with the face of a dog. Rather than literally depicting a hybrid human-animal state, these cynocephalic portrayals of deities conveyed those deities' therianthropic ability to shift between fully human and fully animal states. In an Ancient Egyptian hybrid image, the head represents the original form of the being depicted, so that, as the Egyptologist Henry Fischer put it, "a lion-headed goddess is a lion-goddess in human form, while a royal sphinx, conversely, is a man who has assumed the form of a lion." This non-literal approach to depicting deities may have confused visitors from Greece, leading them to believe that Egyptians worshipped cynocephalic gods, or even that mortal cynocephalic entities populated Egypt.


title: Cynocephaly

text: Reports of dog-headed races can also be traced back to Greek antiquity. In the fifth century BC, the Greek physician Ctesias, in his "Indica", wrote a detailed report on the existence of cynocephali in India. Similarly, the Greek traveler Megasthenes claimed to know about dog-headed people in India who lived in the mountains, communicated through barking, wore the skins of wild animals and lived by hunting. Claudius Aelianus also mentioned the dog-headed tribes in India, and he, too, wrote that they are of human shape and clothed in the skins of beasts. He also added that although they have no speech and howled to communicate, they were capable of understanding the Indian language.


title: Cynocephaly

text: Herodotus reports claims by ancient Libyans that such creatures inhabit the east of their lands, as well as headless men and various other anomalies.


title: Cynocephaly

text: The best estimate for the place where the battle between the Argonauts and the Cynocephali took place is modern day North Serbia or South Hungary.


title: Cynocephaly

text: Some Greek writers also mention the Hemicynes (singular, Hemicyon), meaning half-dogs (from "ἡμι" meaning "half" and "κύων" meaning "dog").


title: Cynocephaly

text: There is a description of two saints Ahrakas and Augani with a dog's head from the legend about the life of the Coptic saint Mercurius Abu-Sayfain, whom they faithfully served; their image on the icon is in the Coptic Museum.


title: Cynocephaly

text: The cynocephali offered such an evocative image of the magic and brutality deemed characteristic of bizarre people of distant places that they kept returning in medieval literature. St. Augustine of Hippo mentioned the cynocephali in "The City of God", Book XVI, Chapter 8, in the context of discussing whether such beings were descendants of Adam; he considered the possibility that they might not exist at all, or might not be human (which Augustine defines as being a mortal and rational animal: "homo, id est animal rationale mortale"), but insisted that if they were human they were indeed descendants of Adam.


title: Cynocephaly

text: In the Eastern Orthodox Church, certain icons covertly identify Saint Christopher with the head of a dog. Christopher pictured with a dog's head is not generally supported by the Orthodox Church, as the icon was proscribed in the 18th century by Moscow.


title: Cynocephaly

text: The roots of that iconography lie in a hagiographic narrative set during the reign of the Emperor Diocletian, which tell of a man named "Reprebus", "Rebrebus" or "Reprobus" (the "reprobate" or "scoundrel") being captured by Roman forces fighting against tribes dwelling to the west of Egypt in Cyrenaica and forced to join the Roman "numerus Marmaritarum" or "Unit of the Marmaritae", which suggests an otherwise-unidentified "Marmaritae" (perhaps the same as the Marmaricae Berber tribe of Cyrenaica). He was reported to be of enormous size, with the head of a dog instead of a man, both apparently being typical of the Marmaritae. He and the unit were later transferred to Syrian Antioch, where bishop Peter of Attalia baptised him and where he was martyred in 308. It has also been speculated that this Byzantine depiction of St. Christopher as dog-headed may have resulted from a misreading of the Latin term "Cananeus" (Canaanite) as "caninus", that is, "canine".


title: Cynocephaly

text: The late 10th century German bishop and poet Walter of Speyer portrayed St. Christopher as a giant of a cynocephalic species in the land of the Chananeans (Canaan in the New Testament) who ate human flesh and barked. Eventually, Christopher met the Christ child, regretted his former behavior, and received baptism. He, too, was rewarded with a human appearance, whereupon he devoted his life to Christian service and became an Athleta Christi, one of the military saints.


title: Cynocephaly

text: Cynocephali also figure in medieval Christian worldviews. A legend that placed Andrew the Apostle and Bartholomew the Apostle among the Parthians presented the case of "Abominable", the citizen of the "city of cannibals... whose face was like unto that of a dog." After receiving baptism, however, he was released from his doggish aspect.


title: Cynocephaly

text: Ibn Battuta encountered what were described as "dog-mouthed" people on his journey, possibly describing a group of Mentawai people (who practice tooth sharpening), living on an island between India and Sumatra:


title: Cynocephaly

text: Paul the Deacon mentions cynocephali in his "Historia gentis Langobardorum": "They pretend that they have in their camps Cynocephali, that is, men with dogs' heads. They spread the rumor among the enemy that these men wage war obstinately, drink human blood and quaff their own gore if they cannot reach the foe." At the court of Charlemagne, the Norse were given this attribution, implying un-Christian and less-than-human qualities: "I am greatly saddened" said the King of the Franks, in Notker's "Life", "that I have not been thought worthy to let my Christian hand sport with these dog-heads." The ninth-century Frankish theologian Ratramnus wrote a letter, the "Epistola de Cynocephalis", on whether the Cynocephali should be considered human (he thought that they were). If human, a Christian's duty would be to preach the Gospels to them. If animals, and thus without souls, such would be pointless. Quoting St. Jerome, Thomas of Cantimpré corroborated the existence of Cynocephali in his "Liber de Monstruosis Hominibus Orientis", xiv, ("Book of Monstrous men of the Orient"). The thirteenth-century encyclopedist Vincent of Beauvais acquainted his patron Saint Louis IX of France with "an animal with the head of the dog but with all other members of human appearance… Though he behaves like a man… and, when peaceful, he is tender like a man, when furious, he becomes cruel and retaliates on humankind".


title: Cynocephaly

text: The Nowell Codex, perhaps more commonly known as the manuscript containing the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf, also contains references to Cynocephali. One such reference can be found in the part of the manuscript known as The Wonders of the East, in which they are called "healfhundingas" or "half-dogs." Also, in Anglo-Saxon England, the Old English word "wulfes heafod" ("wolf's head") was a technical term for an outlaw, who could be killed as if he were a wolf. The so-called "Leges Edwardi Confessoris", written around 1140, however, offered a somewhat literal interpretation: “[6.2a] For from the day of his outlawry he bears a wolf's head, which is called "wluesheued" by the English. [6.2b] And this sentence is the same for all outlaws." Cynocephali appear in the Old Welsh poem "Pa gur?" as "cinbin" (dogheads). Here they are enemies of King Arthur's retinue; Arthur's men fight them in the mountains of Eidyn (Edinburgh), and hundreds of them fall at the hand of Arthur's warrior Bedwyr (later known as Bedivere). The next lines of the poem also mention a fight with a character named Garwlwyd (Rough-Gray); a Gwrgi Garwlwyd (Man-Dog Rough-Gray) appears in one of the Welsh Triads, where he is described in such a way that scholars have discussed him as a werewolf.


title: Cynocephaly

text: Medieval travellers Giovanni da Pian del Carpine and Marco Polo both mention cynocephali. Giovanni writes of the armies of Ögedei Khan who encounter a race of dogheads who live north of the Dalai-Nor (Northern Ocean), or Lake Baikal. "The Travels of Marco Polo" mentions the dog-headed barbarians on the island of Angamanain, or the Andaman Islands. For Polo, although these people grow spices, they are nonetheless cruel and "are all just like big mastiff dogs". In "The Voyage and Travels of Sir John Mandeville", dog-headed men are described as inhabiting the island of Nacumera (the Nicobar Islands).


title: Cynocephaly

text: The dog-headed people were also found in the New World. Christopher Columbus reported that the Taino were familiar with the cynocephali. In 1517, the Ottoman Sultan Selim I was presented with a map of the New World drawn by Piri Reis, which included an image of a dog-headed man fighting a monkey in what is now Colombia. In 1519, the Governor of Cuba instructed Hernán Cortés to investigate rumours of cynocephali while on his expedition to the American mainland.


title: Cynocephaly

text: According to Henri Cordier, the source of all the fables of the dog-headed barbarians, whether European, Arabic, or Chinese, can be found in the Alexander Romance.


title: Cynocephaly

text: In his feature "Giant Egg", David Attenborough speculates that the indri, a type of lemur from Madagascar, may be one possible origin to the myth of dog-headed men.


title: Cynocephaly

text: In Central and East Asia a common calendar system consists of a twelve-year cycle, with each year represented as an animal. The eleventh animal of the twelve-year cycle is the dog. Often such animals are depicted as human figures with an animal head. Thus, the cynocephalic depiction of the eleventh zodiac animal is common (possibly with a tail).


title: Cynocephaly

text: Additionally, in the Chinese record "Book of Liang", the Buddhist missionary Hui Shen describes an island of dog-headed men to the east of Fusang, a nation he visited variously identified as Japan or the Americas. The "History of the Northern Dynasties" of Li Dashi and his son, Li Yanshou, Tang historians, also mentions the "dog kingdom".


title: Cynocephaly

text: The use of dog-headed, human-bodied characters is still very strong in modern literature. In the domain of comics publishing in North America and in Europe many works feature an "all-cynocephalic" cast or use the heads of dogs and other animals together for social comment or other purposes:


title: Biscuit (bread)

text: In the United States and Canada, a biscuit is a variety of baked bread with a firm, dry exterior and a soft, crumbly interior. It is made with baking powder as a leavening agent rather than yeast, and at times is called a baking powder biscuit to differentiate it from other types. Like other forms of bread, a biscuit is often served with butter or other condiments, flavored with other ingredients, or combined with other types of food to make sandwiches or other dishes.


title: Biscuit (bread)

text: Biscuits, soda breads, cornbread, and similar breads are all considered quick breads, meaning that they do not need time for the dough to rise before baking.


title: Biscuit (bread)

text: Biscuits developed from hardtack, which was first made from only flour and water, with later first lard and then baking powder being added. The long development over time and place explains why the word "biscuit" can, depending upon the context and the speaker's English dialect, refer to very different baked goods.


title: Biscuit (bread)

text: American English and British English use the same word to refer to two distinctly different modern foods. Early hard biscuits (United States: cookies) were derived from a simple, storable version of bread. The word "biscuit" itself originates from the medieval Latin word "", meaning "twice-cooked".


title: Biscuit (bread)

text: The modern Italian baked goods known as biscotti (also meaning "twice-cooked" in Italian) most closely resemble the Medieval Latin item and cooking technique.


title: Biscuit (bread)

text: The differences in the usage of "biscuit" in the English speaking world are remarked on by Elizabeth David in "English Bread and Yeast Cookery". She writes, It is interesting that these soft biscuits are common to Guernsey, and that the term biscuit as applied to a soft product was retained in these places, and in America, whereas in England it has completely died out.


title: Biscuit (bread)

text: Early European settlers in the United States brought with them a simple, easy style of cooking, most often based on ground wheat and warmed with gravy. Most were not wealthy men and women, and so it was a source of cheap nutrition. A very similar practice was also popular once with the Royal Navy as hard, flour-based biscuits would keep for long journeys at sea but would also become so difficult to chew that they had to be softened up. These were first introduced in 1588 to the rations of ships and found their way into the New World by the 1700s at the latest.