title: Veer (2010 film)

text: The movie was generally panned by critics. Taran Adarsh criticized the writing and direction of the movie, describing it as a colossal disappointment. Rajeev Masand of CNN-IBN termed it as "an impossible film to appreciate", criticizing the performance of the support cast, while praising the performance of Salman Khan. Gaurav Malani praised the performance of Salman Khan, while terming the story as average. Noyon Jyoti Parasara of AOL.in also praised Salman Khan but added "Overall, 'Veer' has its pluses but it is sadly restricted to a very average film. It has nothing new and that only makes it seem slower."


title: Veer (2010 film)

text: Among U.S. critics, Frank Lovece of "Film Journal International" enjoyed it as "hokum of the highest order, punctuated with the most rousing musical sequences of the last several Indian imports," and after dissecting the film's numerous historical and chronological fallacies said, "Stateside Bollywood fans more accustomed to modern-day musical romances or stylish crime thrillers will be pleasantly surprised to find a period piece that's more "" than "A Passage to India".


title: Veer (2010 film)

text: Veer netted a lifetime of Rs 375.2 million (Rs 497.5 million gross) in India and was the 9th highest-grossing film domestically of 2010.


title: Veer (2010 film)

text: The Rajput youth organisation Karni Sena was heavily critical of "Veer", alleging that portions of the dialogue are "derogatory and demeaning for the Rajput community". Members of the group attacked several multiplexes in Jaipur, vandalising posters and smashing windows. Anil Sharma responded that it was a misunderstanding and no insult had been intended towards the Rajput community.


title: Veer (2010 film)

text: The film's music was released on 17 December 2009. The film's songs are composed by Sajid–Wajid, the film scores were composed by Monty Sharma and the lyrics are written by lyricist Gulzar.


title: Veer (2010 film)

text: Music critic Joginder Tuteja of Bollywood Hungama gave it an overall rating of 3.5 out of 5. The songs, "Surili Akhiyon Wale", "Salaam Aaya" and "Taali" received special praise.


title: 1979–80 NBA season

text: The 1979–80 NBA season was the 34th season of the National Basketball Association. The season ended with the Los Angeles Lakers winning the NBA Championship, beating the Philadelphia 76ers 4 games to 2 in the NBA Finals, and is notable for being the year in which the three-point field goal was adopted.


title: 1979–80 NBA season

text: Teams in bold advanced to the next round. The numbers to the left of each team indicate the team's seeding in its conference, and the numbers to the right indicate the number of games the team won in that round. The division champions are marked by an asterisk. Home court advantage does not necessarily belong to the higher-seeded team, but instead the team with the better regular season record; teams enjoying the home advantage are shown in italics.


title: Dirham

text: The dirham, dirhem or dirhm () is a silver unit of currency historically and currently used by several Arab and Arab influenced states. The term has also been used as a related unit of mass.


title: Dirham

text: The dirham was a unit of weight used across North Africa, the Middle East, Persia and Ifat; later known as Adal, with varying values.


title: Dirham

text: The value of Islamic dirham was 14 qirat, 10 dirham = 7 mithqal, in Islamic law (2.975 gm of silver).


title: Dirham

text: In the late Ottoman Empire (), the standard dirham was 3.207 g; 400 dirhem equal one oka. The Ottoman dirham was based on the Sasanian drachm (in Middle Persian: "drahm"), which was itself based on the Roman dram/drachm.


title: Dirham

text: There is currently a movement within the Islamic world to revive the dirham as a unit of mass for measuring silver, although the exact value is disputed (either 3 or 2.975 grams).


title: Dirham

text: The word "dirham" ultimately comes from "drachma" (δραχμή), the Greek coin. The Greek-speaking Byzantine Empire controlled the Levant and traded with Arabia, circulating the coin there in pre-Islamic times and afterward. It was this currency which was initially adopted as a Persian word (Middle Persian "drahm" or "dram"); then near the end of the 7th century the coin became an Islamic currency bearing the name of the sovereign and a religious verse. The "dirham" was the coin of the Persians. The Arabs introduced their own coins.


title: Dirham

text: The Islamic dirham was 8 daniq. The dirham was struck in many Mediterranean countries, including Al-Andalus (Moorish Spain) and the Byzantine Empire ("miliaresion"), and could be used as currency in Europe between the 10th and 12th centuries, notably in areas with Viking connections, such as Viking York and Dublin.


title: Dirham

text: The "dirham" is frequently mentioned in Jewish orthodox law as a unit of weight used to measure various requirements in religious functions, such as the weight in silver specie pledged in Marriage Contracts ("Ketubbah"), the quantity of flour requiring the separation of the dough-portion, etc. Jewish physician and philosopher, Maimonides, uses the Egyptian "dirham" to approximate the quantity of flour for dough-portion, writing in Mishnah "Eduyot" 1:2: "And I found the rate of the dough-portion in that measurement to be approximately five-hundred and twenty "dirhams" of wheat flour, while all these dirhams are the Egyptian ["dirham"]." This view is repeated by Maran's "Shulhan Arukh" ("Hil. Hallah", Yoreh Deah § 324:3) in the name of the Tur. In Maimonides' commentary of the Mishnah ("Eduyot" 1:2, note 18), Rabbi Yosef Qafih explains that the weight of each Egyptian "dirham" was approximately 3.333 grams, or what was the equivalent to 16 carob-grains which, when taken together, the minimum weight of flour requiring the separation of the dough-portion comes to approx. 1 kilo and 733 grams. Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef, in his "Sefer Halikhot ʿOlam" (vol. 1, pp. 288–291), makes use of a different standard for the Egyptian "dirham", saying that it weighed approx. 3.0 grams, meaning the minimum requirement for separating the priest's portion is 1 kilo and 560 grams. Others (e.g. Rabbi Avraham Chaim Naeh) say the Egyptian "dirham" weighed approx. 3.205 grams, which total weight for the requirement of separating the dough-portion comes to 1 kilo and 666 grams. Rabbi Shelomo Qorah (Chief Rabbi of Bnei Barak) wrote that the traditional weight used in Yemen for each "dirham" weighed 3.20 grams for a total of 31.5 "dirhams" given as the redemption of one's firstborn son ("pidyon haben"), or 3.36 grams for the 30 "dirhams" required by the Shulhan Arukh ("Yoreh De'ah" 305:1), and which in relation to the separation of the dough-portion made for a total weight of 1 kilo and 770.72 grams.


title: Dirham

text: The word "drachmon" (), used in some translations of Maimonides' commentary of the Mishnah, has in all places the same connotation as "dirham".


title: Dirham

text: The unofficial modern gold dinar, issued and/or proposed by several states and proto-states, is also divided into dirhams.


title: Wheelbase

text: In both road and rail vehicles, the wheelbase is the horizontal distance between the centers of the front and rear wheels. For road vehicles with more than two axles (e.g. some trucks), the wheelbase is the distance between the steering (front) axle and the centerpoint of the driving axle group. In the case of a tri-axle truck, the wheelbase would be the distance between the steering axle and a point midway between the two rear axles.


title: Wheelbase

text: The wheelbase of a vehicle equals the distance between its front and rear wheels. At equilibrium, the total torque of the forces acting on a vehicle is zero. Therefore, the wheelbase is related to the force on each pair of tires by the following formula:


title: Wheelbase

text: where formula_3 is the force on the front tires, formula_4 is the force on the rear tires, formula_5 is the wheelbase, formula_6 is the distance from the center of mass (CM) to the rear wheels, formula_7 is the distance from the center of mass to the front wheels (formula_7 + formula_6 = formula_5), formula_11 is the mass of the vehicle, and formula_12 is the gravity constant. So, for example, when a truck is loaded, its center of gravity shifts rearward and the force on the rear tires increases. The vehicle will then ride lower. The amount the vehicle sinks will depend on counter acting forces, like the size of the tires, tire pressure, and the spring rate of the suspension.


title: Wheelbase

text: If the vehicle is accelerating or decelerating, extra torque is placed on the rear or front tire respectively. The equation relating the wheelbase, height above the ground of the CM, and the force on each pair of tires becomes:


title: Wheelbase

text: where formula_3 is the force on the front tires, formula_4 is the force on the rear tires, formula_6 is the distance from the CM to the rear wheels, formula_7 is the distance from the CM to the front wheels, formula_5 is the wheelbase, formula_11 is the mass of the vehicle, formula_12 is the acceleration of gravity (approx. 9.8 m/s), formula_22 is the height of the CM above the ground, formula_23 is the acceleration (or deceleration if the value is negative). So, as is common experience, when the vehicle accelerates, the rear usually sinks and the front rises depending on the suspension. Likewise, when braking the front noses down and the rear rises.:


title: Wheelbase

text: Because of the effect the wheelbase has on the weight distribution of the vehicle, wheelbase dimensions are crucial to the balance and steering. For example, a car with a much greater weight load on the rear tends to understeer due to the lack of the load (force) on the front tires and therefore the grip (friction) from them. This is why it is crucial, when towing a single-axle caravan, to distribute the caravan's weight so that down-thrust on the tow-hook is about 100 pounds force (400 N). Likewise, a car may oversteer or even "spin out" if there is too much force on the front tires and not enough on the rear tires. Also, when turning there is lateral torque placed upon the tires which imparts a turning force that depends upon the length of the tire distances from the CM. Thus, in a car with a short wheelbase ("SWB"), the short lever arm from the CM to the rear wheel will result in a greater lateral force on the rear tire which means greater acceleration and less time for the driver to adjust and prevent a spin out or worse.


title: Wheelbase

text: Some luxury vehicles are offered with long-wheelbase variants to increase the spaciousness and therefore the luxury of the vehicle. This practice can often be found on full-size cars like the Mercedes-Benz S-Class, but ultra-luxury vehicles such as the Rolls-Royce Phantom and even large family cars like the Rover 75 came with 'limousine' versions. Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Tony Blair was given a long-wheelbase version of the Rover 75 for official use.


title: Wheelbase

text: In contrast, coupé varieties of some vehicles such as the Honda Accord are usually built on shorter wheelbases than the sedans they are derived from.


title: Wheelbase

text: The wheelbase on many commercially available bicycles and motorcycles is so short, relative to the height of their centers of mass, that they are able to perform stoppies and wheelies.


title: Wheelbase

text: In skateboarding the word 'wheelbase' is used for the distance between the two inner pairs of mounting holes on the deck. This is different from the distance between the rotational centers of the two wheel pairs. A reason for this alternative use is that decks are sold with prefabricated holes, but usually without trucks and wheels. It is therefore easier to use the prefabricated holes for measuring and describing this characteristic of the deck.


title: Wheelbase

text: A common misconception is that the choice of wheelbase is influenced by the height of the skateboarder. However, the length of the deck would then be a better candidate, because the wheelbase affects characteristics useful in different speeds or terrains regardless of the height of the skateboarder. For example, a deck with a long wheelbase, say , will respond slowly to turns, which is often desirable in high speeds. A deck with a short wheelbase, say , will respond quickly to turns, which is often desirable when skating backyard pools or other terrains requiring quick or intense turns.


title: Wheelbase

text: In rail vehicles, the wheelbase follows a similar concept. However, since the wheels may be of different sizes (for example, on a steam locomotive), the measurement is taken between the points where the wheels contact the rail, and not between the centers of the wheels.


title: Wheelbase

text: On vehicles where the wheelsets (axles) are mounted inside the vehicle frame (mostly in steam locomotives), the wheelbase is the distance between the front-most and rear-most wheelsets.


title: Wheelbase

text: On vehicles where the wheelsets are mounted on bogies (American: trucks), three wheelbase measurements can be distinguished:


title: Wheelbase

text: The wheelbase affects the rail vehicle's capability to negotiate curves. Short-wheelbased vehicles can negotiate sharper curves. On some larger wheelbase locomotives, inner wheels may lack flanges in order to pass curves.


title: Wheelbase

text: The wheelbase also affects the load the vehicle poses to the track, track infrastructure and bridges. All other conditions being equal, a shorter wheelbase vehicle represents a more concentrated load to the track than a longer wheelbase vehicle. As railway lines are designed to take a pre-determined maximum load per unit of length (tonnes per meter, or pounds per foot), the rail vehicles' wheelbase is designed according to their intended gross weight. The higher the gross weight, the longer the wheelbase must be.


title: Pyo Ye-jin

text: Pyo Ye-jin (born February 3, 1992) is a South Korean actress. Among her representative works are her roles in television series "VIP" and "Taxi Driver".


title: Pyo Ye-jin

text: Pyo Ye-jin worked as a flight attendant from 2011-2013 at Korean Air before she left to pursue acting career. She then enrolled as a trainee actress in JYP Entertainment until 2015.


title: Pyo Ye-jin

text: Pyo began to get bigger roles from 2016-2017 after she signed to agency Pan Stars Company, with some of the standout works being 2016 KBS2's TV ratings-guarantee family weekend "The Gentlemen of Wolgyesu Tailor Shop" and 2017 KBS1's daily drama "Love Returns" where Pyo received her first leading role.


title: Pyo Ye-jin

text: From 2018 onward Pyo has accumulated more notable roles. She won Popular Character Award at the 11th Korea Drama Awards for her role as an enthusiastic rookie secretary in 2018 tvN's rom-com workplace "What's Wrong with Secretary Kim". With SBS mystery melodrama "VIP", Pyo won Best Character Award at the 2019 SBS Drama Awards for her portrayal of new employee in the VIP team of a luxurious department store.


title: Pyo Ye-jin

text: Pyo acted in another memorable work with 2021-2023 SBS highly-rated revenge action "Taxi Driver" and its sequel, as the vigilante team's IT analyst and youngest member.


title: Richie Laryea

text: Richmond Mamah Laryea ( ; Ga: ; born January 7, 1995) is a Canadian professional soccer player who plays as a right-back or midfielder for Major League Soccer club Toronto FC, on loan from Premier League club Nottingham Forest, and the Canada national team.


title: Richie Laryea

text: Prior to his college career, Laryea played for Sigma FC Academy and Dante Alighieri Academy in Toronto. Laryea played college soccer at the University of Akron for two seasons, reaching the College Cup semi-finals in 2015. Laryea was named to the All-Mid-American Conference Second Team in 2014, and was named to the All-Mid-American Conference First Team in 2015. He played for League1 Ontario club Sigma FC in 2015, where he was named a League All-Star. Following his sophomore season, Laryea signed a contract with Generation Adidas.


title: Richie Laryea

text: Laryea was drafted in the first round (7th overall) of the 2016 MLS SuperDraft by Orlando City. He was loaned to Orlando City B in March 2016.


title: Richie Laryea

text: After spending the first half of his second season once again on loan to OCB playing as both an attacking and defensive midfielder, Laryea made his MLS debut on June 25, 2017, subbing on for Kaká in a 4–0 defeat to Chicago Fire. Laryea got his first MLS assist on September 27, 2017, assisting on Yoshimar Yotún's goal against New England Revolution. He made his first career MLS start on the final day of the season away to Philadelphia Union.


title: Richie Laryea

text: On March 21, 2019, Laryea signed for MLS side Toronto FC. Laryea scored his first goal for Toronto on May 26, 2019, in a 2–1 home defeat to the San Jose Earthquakes, was also his first MLS goal. Laryea scored his first playoff goal, against DC United, and then defeated Atlanta United to win the Eastern Conference (MLS) playoffs. Laryea and Toronto FC then lost to Seattle Sounders FC in the 2019 MLS Cup final. Laryea would have his option for the 2020 season exercised by Toronto, keeping him with the club for 2020. On September 27, 2020, Laryea scored a solo goal and provided two assists in the second half of Toronto's 3–1 win against the league-leading Columbus Crew. Laryea was named the MLS Player of the Week as a result of his performance.


title: Richie Laryea

text: On January 8, 2022, EFL Championship club Nottingham Forest signed Laryea on a transfer from Toronto FC, signing a three-and-a-half year contract. After featuring only sparingly in Forest's matchday squads during his first few months, Laryea made his debut on April 18 against West Bromwich Albion, as a second-half substitute for Djed Spence in an eventual 4-0 victory.


title: Richie Laryea

text: In August 2022, he returned on loan to Toronto FC until the end of June 2023. To complete the transaction, Toronto sent $225,000 in General Allocation Money to FC Dallas and $125,000 in General Allocation Money to FC Cincinnati to acquire the top spot in the MLS Allocation Order.


title: Richie Laryea

text: In May 2016, Laryea was called to Canada's U23 national team for a pair of friendlies against Guyana and Grenada. Laryea scored in the opening match against Guyana.


title: Richie Laryea

text: Laryea received his first call up to the senior team on August 26, 2019, for two CONCACAF Nations League matches against Cuba. He made his debut in the first match on September 7, 2019. On March 25, 2021, Laryea scored his first goal for Canada in a 5–1 win over Bermuda in the team's first 2022 World Cup qualifying match.


title: Richie Laryea

text: In June 2021, Laryea was named to Canada's 60-man preliminary squad for the 2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup. On July 1, he was named to the final 23-man squad.


title: Richie Laryea

text: Laryea is of Ghanaian descent. His younger brother, Reggie Laryea, plays soccer for semi-professional team Vaughan Azzurri.


title: Harp seal

text: The harp seal (Pagophilus groenlandicus), also known as Saddleback Seal or Greenland Seal, is a species of earless seal, or true seal, native to the northernmost Atlantic Ocean and Arctic Ocean. Originally in the genus "Phoca" with a number of other species, it was reclassified into the monotypic genus "Pagophilus" in 1844. In Greek, its scientific name translates to "ice-lover from Greenland," and its taxonomic synonym, "Phoca groenlandica" translates to "Greenlandic seal." This is the only species in the genus Pagophilus.


title: Harp seal

text: The mature harp seal has pure black eyes. It has a silver-gray fur covering its body, with black harp or wishbone-shaped markings dorsally. Adult harp seals grow to be long and weigh from . The harp seal pup often has a yellow-white coat at birth due to staining from amniotic fluid, but after one to three days, the coat turns white and stays white for 2–3 weeks, until the first molt. Adolescent harp seals have a silver-gray coat spotted with black.


title: Harp seal

text: Harp seals are considered sexually dimorphic, as the males are slightly larger, and more decorated. Males weigh an average of , and reach a length up to , while females weigh an average of and reach up to . Males generally have a more defined dorsal harp marking and a darker head, while some females never develop the marking and remain spotted.


title: Harp seal

text: Compared to other phocid seals, the harp seal dives from shallow to moderately deep depths. Dive depth varies with season, time of day and location. In the Greenland Sea sub-population, the average dive rate is around 8.3 dives per hour and dives range from a depth of less than 20 to over 500 m. Dive duration ranges from less than two minutes to just over 20 minutes. During the spring and summer when seals forage along the pack ice in the Greenland Sea, most dives are less than 50 m. In the late fall and winter, dive depth has been found to increase, particularly in the Denmark Strait, where the mean dive depth was found to be 141 m.


title: Harp seal

text: Lactating female harp seals spend about 80% of the time in the water and 20% of the time on the fast-ice weaning or near their pups. However, almost half of the time spent in the water is at the surface, well beyond what is expected to recover from dives. This behavior allows the mother harp seal to conserve energy and avoid the harsh conditions of the fast-ice while remaining near her pup. As with most phocids, she requires vast amounts of energy to ensure sufficient mass transfer to her growing, weaning pup. Harp seals remain within their aerobic dive limit for 99% of dives.


title: Harp seal

text: Harp seal insulation changes over the course of a seal's lifetime. Young harp seals rely on a lanugo pelt from nursing all the way up to their weaning age. The insulating quality of this fur depends on its ability to keep a layer of air trapped inside or between the hairs. It takes a year for their blubber to develop and for their first-year pelage to grow. This transition from thick lanugo fur to blubber is important because lanugo fur does not insulate well in water. Adult harp seals primarily use blubber for insulation.


title: Harp seal

text: Harp seals combine anatomical and behavioral approaches to managing their body temperatures, instead of elevating their metabolic rate and energy requirements. Their lower critical temperature is believed to be under −10 degrees Celsius in air. Blubber insulates the harp seal's core but does not insulate the flippers to the same extent. Instead, the flippers have circulatory adaptations to help prevent heat loss. A thick coat of blubber insulates its body and provides energy when food is scarce or during fasting. Blubber also streamlines its body for more efficient swimming. Brown fat warms blood as it returns from the body surface as well as providing energy, most importantly for newly weaned pups.


title: Harp seal

text: Flippers act as heat exchangers, warming or cooling the seal as needed. On ice, the seal can press its fore flippers to its body and its hind flippers together to reduce heat loss. They can also redirect blood flow from the periphery to minimize heat loss.


title: Harp seal

text: The harp seal's eyes are large for its body size and contain a large spherical lens that improves focusing ability. Its mobile pupil helps it adapt to the intense glare of the Arctic ice. Its retina is rod-dominated and backed by a cat-like and reflective tapetum lucidum, enhancing its low light sensitivity. Its cones are most sensitive to blue-green spectra, while its rods help sense light intensity and may provide some color discrimination. Its cornea is lubricated by lacrimal glands, to protect the eye from sea water damage. The lack of tear ducts to drain secretions to the nasal passages contribute to the harp seals "eye rings" on land. This can be an indication of the hydration level of the seal.


title: Harp seal

text: On ice, the mother identifies her offspring by smell. This sense may also warn of an approaching predator. Underwater, the seal closes its nostrils, disabling its sense of smell.


title: Harp seal

text: Its whiskers, called vibrissae, lie in horizontal rows on either side of its snout. They provide a touch sense with labeled line coding, and underwater, also respond to low-frequency vibrations, such as movement.


title: Harp seal

text: Like most pinnipeds, harp seals are carnivorous. They have a diverse diet including several dozen fish and invertebrate species. The White Sea population migrates northward in the summer to forage extensively in the Barents Sea. Where common prey items include krill, capelin ("Mallotus villosus)," herring ("Clupea harengus)," flat fish and Gadiform fish. Harp seals prefer some prey, though their diet depends largely on prey abundance. Diet and abundance analysis of the Svalbard population found that this population predominantly eats krill, followed closely by polar cod ("Arctogladus glacialis)". Some individuals from the Greenland Sea sub-population have foraged in the Barents Sea alongside the White Sea sub-population during late summer and fall. Barents Sea harp seals eat mostly herring and polar cod but less krill or amphipods, likely because these seals usually dive deeper than such prey.


title: Harp seal

text: Western North Atlantic harp seals forage both near and offshore of Newfoundland, most preferring such prey as Arctic cod ("Boreogadus saida)", capelin, Greenland halibut ("Reinhardtius hippoglossoides)" and American plaice ("Hippoglossoides platessoides"). As in other populations and foraging areas, diet varies with distance from shore, with arctic cod comprising more of it nearshore and capelin more of it offshore. However, capelin is the preferred prey in both locales.


title: Harp seal

text: Harp seals spend relatively little time on land compared with time at sea. They are social animals and can be quite vocal in groups. Within their large colonies, smaller groups with their own hierarchies form. Groups of several thousand form during pupping and mating season. Harp seals can live over 30 years in the wild.


title: Harp seal

text: On the ice, pups call their mothers by "yelling," and "mumble" while playing with others. Adults "growl" and "warble" to warn off conspecifics and predators. Underwater, adults have been recorded using more than 19 types of vocalization during courting and mating.


title: Harp seal

text: The harp seal is a fast ice breeder and is believed to have a promiscuous mating system. Breeding occurs between mid-February and April. Courtship peaks during mid-March and involves males performing underwater displays, using bubbles, vocalizations, and paw movements to court females. Females, who remain on the ice, will resist copulation unless underwater.


title: Harp seal

text: Females mature sexually between ages five to six. Annually thereafter, they may bear one pup, usually in late February. The gestation period lasts about 11.5 months, with a fetal development phase of 8 months. There have been reported cases of twin births, but singletons are vastly more common. The fertilized egg grows into an embryo which remains suspended in the womb for up to three months before implantation, to delay birth until sufficient pack ice is available.


title: Harp seal

text: Harp seal births are rapid, with recorded lengths as short as 15 seconds in duration. In order to cope with the shock of a rapid change in environmental temperature and undeveloped blubber layers, the pup relies on solar heating, and behavioral responses such as shivering or seeking warmth in the shade or even water.


title: Harp seal

text: Newborn pups weigh on average and are long. After birth, the mother feeds only her own pup. During the approximately 12-day long nursing period, the mother does not hunt, and loses up to per day. Harp seal milk initially contains 25% fat (this number increases to 40% by weaning as the mother fasts) and pups gain over per day while nursing, quickly thickening their blubber layer. During this time, the juvenile's "greycoat" grows in beneath the white neonatal coat, and the pup increases its weight to . Weaning is abrupt; the mother turns from nursing to promiscuous mating, leaving the pup behind on the ice. While courtship starts on the ice, mating usually takes place in the water.


title: Harp seal

text: After abandonment, in the post-weaning phase, the pup becomes sedentary to conserve body fat. Within a few days, it sheds its white coat, reaching the "beater" stage. This name comes from the sound a beater's tail makes as the seal learns to swim. Pups begin to feed at 4 weeks of age, but still draw on internal sources of energy, relying first on energy stored in the body core rather than blubber. During this time the ice begins to melt leaving them vulnerable to polar bears and other predators. This fast can reduce their weight up to 50%. As many as 30% of pups die during their first year, due in part to their early immobility on land.


title: Harp seal

text: Around 13–14 months old, the pups molt again, becoming "bedlamers". Juveniles molt several times, producing a "spotted harp", before the male adults' harp-marked pelt fully emerges after several years. In females, it does not emerge.


title: Harp seal

text: Seals congregate annually on the ice to molt, pup and breed before migrating to summer feeding grounds. Their lifespan can be over 30 years.


title: Harp seal

text: Global harp seal population estimates total around 7.6 million individuals. The number of pups born in the traditional pupping area of the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence was greatly reduced, with an estimated pup production of only 18,300 (95% CI, 15,400-21,200 rounded to the nearest hundred). Another 13,600 (95% CI, 7,700-19,500) pups were born in the northern Gulf. An estimated 714,600 (95% CI, 538,800-890,400) pups were born off the northeastern coast of Newfoundland (Front); accounting for 96% of all pupping in 2017. Combining the estimates from all areas resulted in an estimated total pup production of 746,500 (95% CI, 570,300-922,700). Due to their dependence on pack ice for breeding, the harp seal range is restricted to areas where pack ice forms seasonally. The western North Atlantic stock, which is the largest, is located off eastern Canada. This population is further divided into two separate herds based on the breeding location. The Front herd breeds off the coast of Labrador and Newfoundland, and the Gulf herd breeds near the Magdalen Islands in the middle of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. A second stock breeds on the "West Ice" off eastern Greenland. A third stock breeds on the "East Ice" in the White Sea, which is off the north coast of Russia below the Barents ea. Breeding occurs between mid-February and April, and varies somewhat for each stock. The three stocks are allopatric and do not interbreed.


title: Harp seal

text: Harp seals are strongly migratory, the northwest population regularly moves up to northeast outside of the breeding season; one individual was located off the north Norwegian coast, east northeast of its tagging location. Their navigational accuracy is high, with good eyesight an important factor. They are occasionally found as vagrants, south of their normal range. In Great Britain, a total of 31 vagrants were recorded between 1800 and 1988,


title: Harp seal

text: More recently, they reached Lindisfarne in Northumberland in September 1995, and the Shetland Islands in 1987. The latter was linked to a mass movement of harp seals into Norwegian waters; by mid-February 1987, 24,000 were reported drowned in fishing nets and perhaps 30,000 (about 10% of the world population) had invaded fjords as far south as Oslo. The animals were emaciated, likely due to commercial fishing causing competition for the seals' prey.


title: Harp seal

text: Harp seals can strand on Atlantic coasts, often in warmer months, due to dehydration and parasite load. In March 2020, a harp seal was spotted near Salvo, North Carolina. Harp seals often consume snow to stay hydrated, but in mild winters may not have enough available. Several centers are active in seal rescue and rehabilitation, including IFAW, NOAA, and the New England Aquarium. Harp seals are protected by the Marine Mammal Protection Act in the United States.


title: Harp seal

text: In Canada, commercial hunting season is from November 15 to May 15. Most sealing occurs in late March in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and during the first or second week of April off Newfoundland, in an area known as "the Front". This peak spring period is generally what is referred to as the "Canadian seal hunt". Hunting Canadian whitecoats has been banned since 1987. Since 2000, harp seals that are targeted during the hunt are often found to be less than a year old, known as "beaters". In 2006, the St. Lawrence hunt officially started on March 25 due to thin ice caused by the year's milder temperatures. Inuit living in the region hunt mainly for food and, to a lesser extent, commerce.


title: Harp seal

text: In 2019, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans estimated sustainable harvest levels for the next five years. The identified annual Canadian Total Allowable Catch (TAC) levels were 425,000 assuming harvest age structures of 95% young of the year (YOY). In 2016, 66,800 harp seals and 1,612 grey seals were harvested in Atlantic Canada.


title: Harp seal

text: In 2005, the Independent Veterinarians' Working Group (IVWG) recommended a three-step process for hunters to kill the seals with little or no pain for the seals, as long as the process is completed in rapid succession. The process is as follows:


title: Harp seal

text: In 2009, this process was included in both the 'Conditions of License' for the Canadian hunt as well as the Canadian Marine Mammal Regulations.


title: Harp seal

text: The Canadian seal hunt is monitored by the Canadian government. Although approximately 70% of the hunt occurs on "the Front", most private monitors focus on the St. Lawrence hunt, due to its more convenient location.


title: Harp seal

text: The annual quota off the coast of Greenland for 2017–2019 was set at 26,000 1+ animals, where two pups are equivalent to removing one 1+ animal. The total catches of harp seals were 2000 (including 1934 pups) in 2017, 2703 (including 1218 pups) in 2018, and 5813 (including 2168 pups) in 2019.


title: Harp seal

text: The 2004 West Ice total allowable catch (TAC) was 15,000, almost double the sustainable catch of 8,200. Actual catches were 9,895 in 2004 and 5,808 in 2005. The 2004 White Sea TAC was 45,000. The catch was 22,474.


title: Harp seal

text: Hunting has tremendously affected the population size of harp seals. Over the past 150 years, the harp seal population has fluctuated from over 9 million to as little as 1 million. As of 2019, the current population is estimated to be 7.6 million. The Northwest Atlantic populations was found to have decreased by at least 50 percent from 1952 to 1970 but nowadays, seal populations all are hunted under quotas and other restrictions.


title: UConn Huskies men's basketball

text: The UConn Huskies men's basketball program is the intercollegiate men's basketball team of the University of Connecticut, in Storrs, Connecticut. They currently play in the Big East Conference (Big East) and are coached by Dan Hurley.


title: UConn Huskies men's basketball

text: The Huskies have won 4 NCAA tournament championships (1999, 2004, 2011 and 2014), which puts the program in a tie with Kansas for sixth-most all-time. The Huskies are second in Big East tournament championships with seven, trailing only Georgetown (8). The Huskies also have the most Big East regular season titles with ten and one American Athletic Conference tournament championship. Numerous players have gone on to achieve professional success after their time at UConn, including Clifford Robinson, Ray Allen, Richard Hamilton, Caron Butler, Ben Gordon, Emeka Okafor, Rudy Gay, Charlie Villanueva, Kemba Walker, Shabazz Napier, Jeremy Lamb, and Andre Drummond. The Huskies have participated in 5 NCAA Final Fours (tied for 13th all time) and appeared in the NCAA tournament 33 times. The team has been a number one seed in the NCAA Tournament 5 times, most recently in 2009.


title: UConn Huskies men's basketball

text: Men's basketball at UConn began in 1901 with a single game played by Connecticut Agricultural College against Windham High School in January of that year. The college team won, and by 1903 basketball was a varsity sport. The team's first African American player was Harrison Fitch, who was controversially benched by coach John Heldman for a 1934 game against the US Coast Guard Academy.One of the first true stars from Connecticut was Hartford's Bernie Fisher. He was captain of the 1945 team, which was the first UConn team to play in Madison Square Garden. The Hartford Courant dubbed him "Swisher Fisher".


title: UConn Huskies men's basketball

text: After graduating from the Connecticut Agricultural College, former player Hugh Greer returned to his alma mater as a freshman coach. He was later named head coach of the Huskies six games into the 1946–47 season. Greer led Connecticut to a perfect 12–0 mark for the remainder of his first season. Posting a record of 16–2, this was the best single season finish in school history to that point. UConn won 12 Yankee Conference titles under Greer in 16 completed seasons, including ten consecutive titles from 1951 to 1960. Greer also led UConn to its first seven NCAA berths and one NIT appearance while compiling an overall head coaching record of 286–112. Greer died of a heart attack in 1963, ten games into the 1962–63 season. He was replaced by assistant George Wigton, who led them to the Elite Eight. UConn men's basketball was a regional power under Greer, winning 12 Yankee Conference titles, including 10 in a row from 1950 to 1960.


title: UConn Huskies men's basketball

text: Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Connecticut remained a regional power, winning an additional six Yankee Conference titles before the conference dropped basketball at the end of the 1975–1976 season and earning multiple NCAA tournament berths. In 1979, UConn became one of the seven founding schools of the Big East Conference, which was created to focus on basketball.


title: UConn Huskies men's basketball

text: Prior to the 1986–87 season UConn hired Northeastern head coach Jim Calhoun to take over the program. Calhoun's first team finished the season with a record of 9–19. In 1988, the team showed significant improvement and gained a berth in the National Invitation Tournament. UConn went on a run in the tournament and defeated Ohio State 72–67 at Madison Square Garden to win the NIT, the school's first national basketball title.


title: UConn Huskies men's basketball

text: The 1990 "Dream Season" would bring UConn basketball back to the national stage. Led by Chris Smith, Nadav Henefeld, Scott Burrell, Tate George, Rod Sellers and John Gwynn, UConn went from unranked in the preseason to winning the Big East Regular Season and Tournament Championships, both for the first time. 1990 also marked the opening of Gampel Pavilion, the program's new on-campus home. In the NCAA tournament the Huskies garnered a #1 seed in the East Region, but trailed Clemson 70–69 with 1 second remaining in the Sweet 16. Burrell's full-court pass found Tate George on the far baseline. George spun, fired, and hit a buzzer-beater that is known in Connecticut simply as "The Shot". They would be eliminated on a buzzer-beater 2 days later by Duke, losing in overtime 79–78.


title: UConn Huskies men's basketball

text: During the 1994-1995 campaign, the Huskies hosted Syracuse on ESPN. During an exciting stretch of the second half of that game, ESPN color commentator Dick Vitale claimed that Storrs, CT was the "basketball capital of the world" as both the men's and women's teams were having undefeated seasons so far. The Huskies beat Syracuse but lost to Kansas to end their undefeated season.


title: UConn Huskies men's basketball

text: UConn continued to rise as a national program throughout the 1990s, winning five more Big East Regular Season and three more Big East tournament championships, as well as reaching several regional finals. The Final Four still eluded Calhoun and the program until the 1999 NCAA tournament. With Richard "Rip" Hamilton leading the way, they claimed the program's first national title that same year. Calhoun's teams would go on to win two more national championships during his tenure at UConn.


title: UConn Huskies men's basketball

text: Calhoun was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2005, and officially announced his retirement in September 2012.


title: UConn Huskies men's basketball

text: After the breakup of the old Big East in 2013, UConn remained as a member of the American Athletic Conference, the legal successor to the original conference. Until leaving the AAC in 2020 to join the new Big East, UConn was the only charter member of the original Big East still playing in that conference.


title: UConn Huskies men's basketball

text: Kevin Ollie was hired as UConn's men's basketball coach shortly after Calhoun's retirement. Ollie played for Jim Calhoun from 1991 to 1995 and was a key player on those early 1990s Husky teams. During his first season, the Huskies record was 20–10. That year the Huskies were banned from postseason play by the NCAA because of a low APR score in 2010. In Ollie's second season, the team made the NCAA tournament. On March 30, 2014, Ollie became the first UConn coach other than Jim Calhoun to lead the Huskies to a Final Four. They won the Men's NCAA tournament on April 7, 2014, defeating the University of Kentucky 60–54. His team was the first #7 seed to ever win the NCAA tournament. Ollie led Connecticut to the American Athletic Conference tournament championship and another NCAA tournament appearance in 2015–16. The Huskies defeated Colorado 74–67 in the Second Round but were eliminated by the number one overall seed Kansas Jayhawks 73–61 in the third round of the tournament.


title: UConn Huskies men's basketball

text: Kevin Ollie was fired for just cause related to an NCAA investigation of the program on March 10, 2018.


title: UConn Huskies men's basketball

text: Former Wagner College and Rhode Island head coach Dan Hurley was introduced by UConn on March 23, 2018 to be the next Head men's basketball coach following the firing of Kevin Ollie.


title: UConn Huskies men's basketball

text: The Huskies were the top seed in the West region, and a win over Gonzaga in the regional final sent UConn to Tropicana Field for the program's first Final Four appearance. They defeated Ohio State 64–58 in the semi-final to face off against Duke in the final. Despite having been ranked #1 for half of the year, the Huskies entered the national championship game as 9-point underdogs.


title: UConn Huskies men's basketball

text: UConn won their first national title with a 77–74 victory. Richard Hamilton was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player.


title: UConn Huskies men's basketball

text: In 2004, the Huskies returned to the Final Four. Once again they faced Duke, this time in the National Semifinal, and used a late run to beat the Blue Devils 79–78. Two nights later, led by Emeka Okafor and Ben Gordon, Connecticut won their second national title with an 82–73 victory over Georgia Tech. Okafor was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player.


title: UConn Huskies men's basketball

text: One day later the UConn women's basketball team also won a national title, making UConn the first and only school in NCAA Division I history to have its men's and women's basketball programs win a national championship in the same season.


title: UConn Huskies men's basketball

text: The 2011 Huskies won 11 straight games in postseason play, the final six of which resulted in the program's third national championship. On April 4, 2011, they defeated the Butler Bulldogs, 53–41. UConn junior Kemba Walker was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player.


title: UConn Huskies men's basketball

text: Many consider UConn's win in the Championship Game to be a great defensive performance, as the Huskies held Butler to only 18.8% shooting from the field (a record for field goal percentage defense in a championship game) and tied a title game record with ten blocked shots. An analysis by Sports Illustrated columnist Luke Winn credited the Huskies' defense by demonstrating, for instance, that they blocked or altered a staggering 26.6% of Butler's shots – compared to just 3.8 percent by Pittsburgh and 12.1 percent by VCU in earlier rounds. The 53 points scored by Connecticut was, in turn, the lowest point total by a winning team in a championship game since 1949.


title: UConn Huskies men's basketball

text: In 2014 led by American Athletic Conference Player of the Year Shabazz Napier, UConn became the first #7 seed to win the NCAA Championship, getting past No. 1 seed Florida, No. 2 seed Villanova, No. 3 seed Iowa State, and No. 4 seed Michigan State, before defeating the Kentucky Wildcats 60–54 in the championship game in Arlington, Texas. UConn is undefeated in the state of Texas in the Final Four (6–0).


title: UConn Huskies men's basketball

text: As in 2004, the UConn women's basketball team also won a national title, making UConn the first and only school in NCAA Division I history to have its men's and women's basketball programs win a national championship in the same season twice.


title: UConn Huskies men's basketball

text: The Huskies have appeared in the NCAA tournament 34 times. Their combined record is 59–32. They have been to five Final Fours and are four time National Champions (1999, 2004, 2011, 2014).


title: UConn Huskies men's basketball

text: The Huskies have appeared in the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) 13 times. Their combined record is 15–12. They were NIT champions in 1988.


title: UConn Huskies men's basketball

text: The following is a list of Connecticut Huskies men's basketball head coaches. The team is currently coached by Dan Hurley.


title: UConn Huskies men's basketball

text: On December 26, 2006, UConn announced inaugural inductees into the "Huskies of Honor" recognition program, a class of 13 players and 3 coaches that were later introduced at halftime during the February 5, 2007 UConn-Syracuse game. Former athletic director John Toner was inducted on February 28, 2009. On April 5, 2011, Kemba Walker was the first men's basketball player to be added to the program since the inaugural inductees, an honor he was bestowed after leading the team to a national championship.


title: UConn Huskies men's basketball

text: The Huskies of Honor are each recognized by a four by five foot panel which displays his name, jersey number and years of service, and a plaque which summarizes each's career accomplishments; Both the panels and the plaques are on permanent display at Gampel Pavilion on the University of Connecticut campus in Storrs, Connecticut.


title: UConn Huskies men's basketball

text: On December 7, 2018, UConn announced that the #34 worn by Ray Allen would be permanently retired, effective with ceremonies to be held during the Huskies' final 2018–19 home game on March 3, 2019. In its announcement, UConn stated that going forward, number retirement would be reserved for former Huskies players inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, as Allen was earlier that year.


title: UConn Huskies men's basketball

text: At the same time, the Huskies announced that the #50 worn by Rebecca Lobo, a 2017 Naismith Hall inductee, would be retired by UConn women's basketball, with ceremonies held during the season's final women's home game on March 2, 2019.


title: UConn Huskies men's basketball

text: UConn's announcement did not make it clear whether both numbers would be retired across both men's and women's programs, but a university spokesperson clarified that the retirements applied only to the teams that Allen and Lobo competed for, meaning that #50 will remain available in men's basketball and #34 in women's.


title: UConn Huskies men's basketball

text: Since the 1990s, UConn has been recognized as being a consistent pipeline for players to enter the National Basketball Association. During the 2006–2007 season, there were an NBA-high 14 former Huskies on active rosters. During the 2013–14 season, 13 former Huskies were on active NBA rosters.


title: Alias Smith and Jones

text: Alias Smith and Jones is an American Western series that originally aired on ABC from January 1971 to January 1973. The show initially starred Pete Duel as Hannibal Heyes and Ben Murphy as Jedediah "Kid" Curry, outlaw cousins who are trying to reform. The governor offers them a clemency deal on two conditions: that they keep the agreement a secret, and that they will remain wanted fugitives until the governor decides that they should receive a formal amnesty.


title: Alias Smith and Jones

text: Operating primarily in Wyoming Territory (1868–1890), cousins Hannibal Heyes and Jedediah "Kid" Curry (whose boyish face spawned the nickname) are the two most successful outlaws in the history of the West. However, crime-fighting methods are evolving to foil them; safes are becoming harder to crack, trains more difficult to stop, and posses more adept at tracking them down.


title: Alias Smith and Jones

text: Heyes, the brains of the Devil's Hole Gang, falls in disfavor with fellow members. Deciding to give up their life of crime, he and Curry learn of an amnesty program founded by the territorial governor. Through an old acquaintance, Sheriff Lom Trevors (James Drury in the pilot, alternately Mike Road and John Russell in the series), they contact the governor, who is unsure of how voters will react if he extends leniency to Heyes and Curry. He ultimately strikes a deal to grant them amnesty for their past crimes, with the stipulations that they must not discuss the agreement with anyone and that they will officially still be wanted men until such time as the governor decides that they deserve full clemency.


title: Alias Smith and Jones

text: The cousins reluctantly accept the deal, but find life as law-abiding citizens to be more difficult than expected. Now calling themselves Joshua Smith and Thaddeus Jones, they find themselves tangling with lawmen, bounty hunters, operatives of the Bannerman Detective Agency (a fictional alias for the Pinkerton Detective Agency), and other nefarious figures. They are forced to rely on Heyes' silver tongue, Curry's fast draw, and occasionally a little help from friends on both sides of the law.


title: Alias Smith and Jones

text: Heyes was deemed "cunning," with Curry "gunning." Heyes/Smith was considered the brains of the duo and an excellent poker player. Curry/Jones was the master gun hand and the brawn. Usually, Heyes figured out ways to make money and save the twosome from precarious situations. Starting with "The Man Who Broke the Bank at Red Gap" (season two, episode 16), a slightly revamped introduction partially explained why the renowned duo did not split to evade capture—they were cousins. Roger Davis' original theme voiceover referred to the characters as "latter-day Robin Hoods." The new introduction replaced that description with the phrase "Kansas cousins." It remained so after Ralph Story reworked the introduction, once Davis assumed the Heyes role. After Davis took over as Heyes, his distinctive voice could no longer be used in the theme introduction. Ralph Story was brought in to provide narration for the series (he, rather than Davis, had done so in the pilot).


title: Alias Smith and Jones

text: When the cousins were children, all four of their parents were slaughtered during the "border wars" just before the Civil War (q.v. Kansas-Missouri Border War) ("The Men That Corrupted Hadleyburg", season two, episode 17). In "The Man Who Broke the Bank at Red Gap," Heyes remarks, "My cousin and I are not Hannibal Heyes and Kid Curry." Curry also speaks of their "sage old grandfather." In the first episode with Davis, "The Biggest Game in the West" (season two, episode 19), Heyes shouts to Curry: "Yes sir! Cousin, you're all right!" In the episode "Don't Get Mad, Get Even," Curry and Heyes both make reference to their Irish grandfather Curry.


title: Alias Smith and Jones

text: In the early morning hours of December 31, 1971, series star Pete Duel died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at the age of 31. He was reportedly suffering from depression and had been drinking heavily when he shot himself. Upon learning of Duel's death, executive producer Jo Swerling Jr. initially wanted to end the series, but ABC refused. Swerling later stated:


title: Alias Smith and Jones

text: ABC said, "No way!" They said, "You have a contract to deliver this show to us, and you will continue to deliver the show as best you can on schedule or we will sue you." Hearing those words, Universal didn't hesitate for a second to instruct us to stay in production. We were already a little bit behind the eight ball on airdates. So, we contacted everybody, including Ben (Murphy), and told them to come back in. The entire company was reassembled and back in production by one o'clock that day shooting scenes that did not involve Peter — only 12 hours after his death.


title: Alias Smith and Jones

text: Series writer, director, and producer Roy Huggins contacted actor Roger Davis (who provided narration for the series, and who had also appeared in episode 19 "Smiler with a Gun") the day of Duel's death to fill the role of Hannibal Heyes, and actor/voice man Paul Frees came in to loop Duel's unfinished ADR on "The Men That Corrupted Hadleyburg". Davis was fitted for costumes the following day, and began reshooting scenes Duel had previously completed for an unfinished episode the following Monday. According to Swerling, the decision to continue production so soon after Duel's death was heavily criticized in the press at the time.


title: Alias Smith and Jones

text: "Alias Smith and Jones" began with a made-for-TV movie of the previous year called "The Young Country" about con artists in the Old West. It was produced, written, and directed by Roy Huggins, who served as executive producer of the show. Under the pseudonym John Thomas James, Huggins shared the writing credit on most episodes of the series that followed. It was broadcast on 17 March 1970 in the "ABC Movie of the Week" strand.


title: Alias Smith and Jones

text: Roger Davis starred as Stephen Foster Moody, and Pete Duel had the secondary but significant role of Honest John Smith. Joan Hackett played a character called Clementine Hale; a character with the same name appeared in two "Alias Smith and Jones" episodes, played by Sally Field. This pilot was rejected, but Huggins was given a second chance and, with Glen A. Larson, developed "Alias Smith and Jones". As with the previously rejected pilot "The Young Country", this series pilot proper also aired as an "ABC Movie of the Week".


title: Alias Smith and Jones

text: It was made in the same spirit as many other American TV series of the time, from Huggins' own "The Fugitive" to "Renegade", about fugitives on the run across America who get involved in the personal lives of the people they meet. The major difference was that Hannibal Heyes and Kid Curry were guilty of the crimes for which they were accused, but were trying to begin a noncriminal life.


title: Alias Smith and Jones

text: The series was modeled on the 1969 film "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid", starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford. (Universal contract player Ben Murphy was offered to the producers because he was considered a Paul Newman lookalike.) A number of similarities are seen between the film and the TV series: One of the lead characters in the film was called Harvey Logan (played by Ted Cassidy). In real life, Harvey Logan, also known by the nickname of Kid Curry, was an associate of the real Butch Cassidy, and unlike the TV version, was a cold-blooded killer.


title: Alias Smith and Jones

text: The TV series also featured a group of robbers called the Devil's Hole Gang, loosely based on the Hole in the Wall Gang from which Cassidy recruited most of his outlaws. To lend them an element of audience sympathy, Heyes and Curry were presented as men who avoided bloodshed (though Curry did once kill in self-defense) and always were attempting to reform and seek redemption for their "prior ways".


title: Alias Smith and Jones

text: The names "Smith" and "Jones" originated from a comment in the 1969 film "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid", when before one of their final hold-ups, the characters are outside a bank in Bolivia and Sundance turns to Butch and says: "I'm Smith and you're Jones."


title: Alias Smith and Jones

text: The series continued for another 17 episodes after the recasting of Hannibal Heyes, but never regained its popularity after the loss of Duel. This, as well as the fact that the long-prominent Western genre was giving way to police dramas, brought the show to an end on January 13, 1973. On January 16, 1973, "Bonanza" aired its final episode, leaving the 18-year-old "Gunsmoke", the syndicated comedy western "Dusty's Trail", and "Kung Fu" as the only Westerns scheduled for Fall 1973.


title: Alias Smith and Jones

text: Universal Studios Home Entertainment released the complete first season of "Alias Smith and Jones" in Region 2 on June 11, 2007.


title: Alias Smith and Jones

text: American Western author Todhunter Ballard, better known as W.T. Ballard, wrote six original novels based on the series, under his tie-in pseudonym "Brian Fox." Only the first two were published in the United States, by Award Books, between 1971 and 1972. The television series, however, was so popular in the UK that after first run episodes were exhausted, the first two novels were reprinted and distributed by London-based publisher Tandem Books, who also released the four additional titles, all in 1976. Since Award and Tandem were affiliated publishers, it's unclear if Award commissioned all six books and dropped the book series as the show's American popularity waned, unwittingly leaving the then-unpublished manuscripts to be rejuvenated later. or if Tandem returned to Ballard for the additional titles.


title: Alias Smith and Jones

text: Each book is a standalone novel and they can be read in any order. Following, however, is the order of publication.


title: Ségolène Royal

text: Marie-Ségolène Royal (; born 22 September 1953) is a French politician, who was the Socialist Party candidate for the Presidency of France in the 2007 election.


title: Ségolène Royal

text: Royal was president of the Poitou-Charentes Regional Council from 2004 to 2014. She won the 2006 Socialist Party primary, becoming the first woman in France to be nominated as a presidential candidate by a major party. In the subsequent 2007 presidential election, she earned further distinction as the first woman to qualify for the second round of a presidential election, but ultimately lost to Nicolas Sarkozy.


title: Ségolène Royal

text: In 2008, Royal narrowly lost to Martine Aubry in the Socialist Party's election for First Secretary at the Party's twenty-second national congress. She lost the Socialist Party presidential primary in 2011, and failed in an attempt to win a seat in the National Assembly in the June 2012 parliamentary elections.


title: Ségolène Royal

text: She has four children with François Hollande, the former president, and was appointed by him to the vice-chair directorship of the Banque Publique d'Investissement (BPI) in 2013. She served as Minister for Ecology from 2014 to 2017, in the Valls, then Cazeneuve cabinets.


title: Ségolène Royal

text: Marie-Ségolène Royal was born on 22 September 1953 in the military base of Ouakam, Dakar, French West Africa (now Senegal), the daughter of Hélène Dehaye and Jacques Royal, a former artillery officer and aide to the mayor of Chamagne (Vosges). Her parents had eight children in nine years: Marie-Odette, Marie-Nicole, Gérard, Marie-Ségolène, Antoine, Paul, Henri and Sigisbert.


title: Ségolène Royal

text: After secondary school in the small town of Melle, Deux-Sèvres, Marie-Ségolène attended a local university where she graduated 2nd in her class with a degree in economics. Her eldest sister then suggested she prepare the entrance exam to the elite Institut d'études politiques de Paris popularly called "Sciences Po", which she attended on scholarship. There she discovered politics of class and feminism ("Sciences Po" at the time was 85% upper-class Parisian, mostly male).


title: Ségolène Royal

text: In 1972, at the age of 19, Royal sued her father because he refused to divorce her mother and pay alimony and child support to finance the children's education. She won the case after many years in court, shortly before Jacques Royal died of lung cancer in 1981. Six of the eight children had refused to see him again, Ségolène included.


title: Ségolène Royal

text: Royal, like the majority of France's political elite, is a graduate of the École nationale d'administration. She was in the same class as her former partner of 30 years, François Hollande, as well as Dominique de Villepin (prime minister under Jacques Chirac). Each class year at the ENA receives a nickname to distinguish it: Royal tried to get her peers to name their class after Louise Michel, a revolutionary from the 1870s, but they chose the name "Voltaire" instead. During her time at the ENA, Royal also dropped "Marie" from her hyphenated first name.


title: Ségolène Royal

text: After graduating in 1980, she elected to serve as a judge ("conseiller") of an administrative court before she was noticed by President François Mitterrand's special adviser Jacques Attali and recruited to his staff in 1982. She held the junior rank of "chargée de mission" from 1982 to 1988.


title: Ségolène Royal

text: She decided to become a candidate for the 1988 legislative election; she registered in the rural, Western Deux-Sèvres Département. Her candidacy was an example of the French political tradition of "parachutage" (parachuting), appointing promising "Parisian" political staffers as candidates in provincial districts to test their mettle. She was up against an entrenched UDF incumbent, and Mitterrand is said to have told her: "You will not win, but you will next time." Straddling strongly Catholic and Protestant areas, that district had been held by conservatives since World War II.


title: Ségolène Royal

text: She did win against the odds, and remarked: ""Pour un parachutage, l'atterrissage est réussi."" ("As far as parachuting goes, the landing was a success").


title: Ségolène Royal

text: After this election, she served as representative in the National Assembly for the Deux-Sèvres' 2nd constituency (1988–1992, 1993–1997, 2002–2007).


title: Ségolène Royal

text: On 28 March 2004, she obtained 55% in the second round in the regional election in Poitou-Charentes, notably defeating Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin's protégée, Élisabeth Morin, in his home region. She was elected president of the region the next week. She kept her National Assembly seat until June 2007, when she chose not to run in the legislative election, in agreement with one of her presidential campaign's promises. She organised a run-off between two contenders; the winner, Delphine Batho, went on to win the district for her and Royal's party.


title: Ségolène Royal

text: On 22 September 2005 "Paris Match" published an interview in which she declared that she was considering running for the presidency in 2007. In 2006 the CPE (first employment contract) laws were proposed with large protests as a result. Rather than going to the organised protest, she voted a law in her "région" whereby no company using that type of contract would receive the Région's subsidies. The government backed down and stated that the law would be put on the statute book, but that it would not be applied. After this event Royal was tipped as the lead contender in what is dubbed the "Sarko-Ségo" race against Nicolas Sarkozy. Until that time, she had not been thought a likely candidate as she had stayed out of the Socialist Party's power struggles.


title: Ségolène Royal

text: On 7 April 2006, Royal launched an Internet-led electoral campaign at ("Desires for the future"), publishing the first of ten chapters of her political manifesto.


title: Ségolène Royal

text: By the beginning of September, her intentions had become quite clear. She has said that only widespread sexism in the Socialist Party had prevented it from rallying around her candidacy as it would have had she been a man. She announced an official team to promote her campaign on 30 August. At this point, polls showed her to be much more popular than her closest competitor, former Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, and other Socialist heavyweights Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Jack Lang, another former Prime Minister Laurent Fabius and François Hollande.


title: Ségolène Royal

text: Her status as a presidential candidate became more likely on 28 September 2006, when Lionel Jospin, the Socialist former Prime Minister and a fixture in French politics for nearly three decades, announced that he would not run after all. Jack Lang followed suit. On 16 November, Royal defeated Laurent Fabius and Dominique Strauss-Kahn in the French Socialist Party primary, becoming the party's candidate for the 2007 presidential election. The Socialist party's members voted 60.69% for her and gave a bit under 20% each to the more traditional contenders. She also won in 101 of 104 of the Socialist Party's "fédérations", losing only Haute-Corse, Mayotte and Seine-Maritime (the latter being the home region of Laurent Fabius).


title: Ségolène Royal

text: One of her top advisors, Éric Besson, resigned soon afterwards over a disagreement about the costs of this programme, which he believes could reach €35 billion, while others in the campaign team wanted to delay bringing out that figure.[The figure was equivalent to that of Mr. Sarkozy's but higher than Mr. Bayrou's, who was becoming a key figure in the race.] This led to an unusually bitter fall-out, and Mr Besson writing a book titled "Qui connaît Madame Royal ?" (Who knows Mrs Royal?), published on 20 March. In it, Besson accuses Royal of being a populist, an authoritarian and a luddite and says that he will not vote for her and hopes that she is not elected. He then went on to join the Sarkozy campaign and was rewarded with a junior position in the next government on 18 May 2007.


title: Ségolène Royal

text: Following the first round of the presidential election, she faced Nicolas Sarkozy in the second round of voting on 6 May in a two-way runoff.


title: Ségolène Royal

text: In the final round of voting on Sunday, 6 May, Sarkozy won the presidency with 53% of the vote. Royal conceded defeat and wished Sarkozy the best, requesting he keep her supporters in mind.


title: Ségolène Royal

text: Royal later revealed she had offered defeated centrist candidate, François Bayrou, the premiership should she be elected.


title: Ségolène Royal

text: Royal entered the leadership election of the Socialist Party to replace her former common law husband François Hollande as head of the party. She garnered the largest plurality of votes in the first round of voting, but not enough to win outright; she was eventually narrowly defeated in the second round by rival Martine Aubry by the margin of 42 votes. After a vote recount, Aubry was declared the winner 25 November 2008, with the margin widening to 102 votes. Royal has announced her intentions to contest the result. Royal has blamed party leaders and her former partner for her loss in the 2007 election.


title: Ségolène Royal

text: Royal ran in the French Socialist Party presidential primary election of 2011, the party's first ever open primary. She arrived 4th in the first round on 9 October 2011 with a mere 6.95% of votes, considerably below the figures suggested by opinion polls.


title: Ségolène Royal

text: In 2012, Royal ran for office representing Charente-Maritime's 1st constituency. She lost the election to a dissident Socialist, Olivier Falorni.


title: Ségolène Royal

text: After her separation with Hollande, political relations between them were tense, though they have both stated that they remained friends. In the 2008 Socialist Party leadership election, Hollande backed another candidate, and Royal has blamed him and the party establishment for her 2007 Presidential defeat.


title: Ségolène Royal

text: On 2 April 2014 Royal was appointed Minister of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy in the second cabinet of Prime Minister Manuel Valls, In January 2015 she was third in line in governmental rank, after the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister.


title: Ségolène Royal

text: Increasingly, commentators have seen Royal as President François Hollande’s stand-in for some important state occasions. When Pope Francis touched down on French soil for the first time in his papacy with a visit to the European Parliament in Strasbourg in November 2014, Royal was the senior French official there to greet him. After the deadly attacks against a satirical newspaper and a kosher supermarket in January 2015, she traveled to Israel to represent France at the memorial services.


title: Ségolène Royal

text: In 2016 Royal promised to install 1,000 km of 'solar roadways' in the next five years. One kilometre was installed in Normandie, and after producing about a quarter of the power predicted, was mostly torn up inside three years.


title: Ségolène Royal

text: When Emmanuel Macron was elected French President in May 2017, Royal hoped to be offered a position in his government but instead was offered the position of Ambassador for the Poles, which she accepted in June 2017. In late 2018 the publication of Royal's book "Ce que je peux enfin vous dire" (What I can finally tell you) detailing the sexism she had suffered throughout her political career, coincided with a decline in Macron's popularity at the time of the Gilets jaunes protests and resulted in speculation that Royal was contemplating a political comeback. After repeatedly and publicly criticizing Macron's handling of pension reform, it was announced by the Council of Ministers that the Mission to the Poles would be ended, effectively removing Royal from her position, in tandem with an official investigation being launched inquiring about alleged misuse of public funds during Royal's time in office.


title: Ségolène Royal

text: Royal has tended to campaign on family and other socially-oriented issues, rather than on economic or foreign policy issues. For instance, she has mounted campaigns against the exposure of children to violent television shows, including cartoons (see her 1989 book, listed below, "Le Ras-le-bol des bébés zappeurs", roughly translated as "The Channel-Surfing Kids Are Fed Up"), and more generally has taken a stand on several issues regarding family values and the protection of children.


title: Ségolène Royal

text: Royal stated as part of her 100-point platform that if elected, she would raise the lowest state pensions by five percent, increase the monthly minimum wage to €1,500, raise benefits of handicapped citizens, implement state-paid rental deposits for the poorest citizens, and guarantee a job or job training to every student within six months of graduation. She pledged to abolish a flexible work contract for small companies. She pledged free contraception for all young women and a €10,000 interest-free loan for all young people.


title: Ségolène Royal

text: Royal opposes movements of jobs between EU countries and outsourcing to developing countries. She pledged to abolish a flexible work contract for small companies. She did not directly address whether additional taxes would need to be raised to fund these programs, stating that they can be paid for by cutting waste in government.


title: Ségolène Royal

text: She was appointed to the vice-chair directorship of the Banque Publique d'Investissement, from which position she stated that the "BPI's purpose is not to do business nor to make profits".


title: Ségolène Royal

text: The Socialist Party website states that during her tenure as "Minister for the Environment", 1992–1993, Royal campaigned actively and successfully for the "Law on the treatment and recycling of Waste" (), the "Law to preserve the countryside" (), a "Save our countrysides, savour their products" campaign to provide proper labelling for the products of 100 local areas (), and the "Law against noise pollution" (). She provided compensation for people adversely affected by airport noise.


title: Ségolène Royal

text: During her tenure as Minister-delegate for the Family, Children, and the Handicapped, 2000–2002, Royal was active in the re-launch of the Priority Education Zones program (ZEP / ), the creation of a government student lunch program, the implementation of language instruction as a priority in primary schools, the creation of a national home-tutoring program, Heures de Soutien Scolaire, and the creation of programs for parental involvement in schools, "la Semaine des parents à l'école", and national campaigns for the elections of parent-representatives. She also campaigned for the creation of local education and citizenship education contracts, the "Initiatives citoyennes" program for teaching children how to live together, the law on "Defense of children's rights and campaign against violence in the schools" ("Loi de juin 1998 relative à la prévention et à la répression des infractions sexuelles ainsi qu'à la protection des mineurs"), the "Campaign against hazing rituals in higher education" ("Loi de juin 1998 contre le "), the "Campaign against violence and racketeering" which included implementation of the "SOS Violence" telephone number, and the implementation of mandatory civics instruction in secondary schools.


title: Ségolène Royal

text: In January 2006, she criticised secondary school teachers (workers of state public service) who give private lessons outside school hours, saying that they should spend more time in school. When a bootleg video of the speech surfaced on the Internet in November 2006, the teachers' union SNES rebuffed her, requesting that she renounce her proposal.


title: Ségolène Royal

text: In 1989, Royal wrote "The Channel-Surfing Kids Are Fed-Up", a book in which she criticised Japanese animation (then dominant in certain TV programs) as poor quality production detrimental for children.


title: Ségolène Royal

text: Royal favours, and has worked for, the "Parental rights and obligations act" ("Loi sur l'autorité parentale"), the "Women's rights reform and anonymous childbirth act" ("l'accouchement sous X"), the creation of paternity leave, the creation of 40,000 new spaces in French nursery schools, and "Social housing reform". She has been active in campaigns providing for "Parental time-off provisions and financial support for child illness care", Special education support ("parents d'enfants handicapés"), "Benefit allocations for students starting the new school year" ("Allocation de rentrée scolaire"), and the "Prostitution of Minors Act" ("Loi contre la prostitution des mineurs") which provides penal measures for clients. Royal has supported the "Law against child pornography", the creation of the association "Childhood and the Media" ("Enfance et média") against violence in the media, the creation of the "Plan Handiscole" for the education of handicapped children and adolescents and their integration into life at school, programs for mass and individual transportation, and the creation of the program "Tourism and the Handicapped" ("Tourisme et handicap").


title: Ségolène Royal

text: In 2009, she declared herself to be "profoundly shocked" by statements of Pope Benedict XVI which claimed that the distribution of condoms will not stop the spread of AIDS. Royal added that "the responsibility of any religious leader" is to "defend the principle of life, and certainly not to urge human beings towards their deaths."


title: Ségolène Royal

text: When she accepted her nomination as the Socialist presidential candidate, Royal said: "There is a strong correlation between the status of a woman and the state of justice or injustice in a country." According to an article in Ms. magazine, French women currently earn 80% of a male counterpart's salary.


title: Ségolène Royal

text: Royal has been a long-standing critic of violence on television. She has voiced opinions in the past linking youth crime to exposure to pornography and television violence.


title: Ségolène Royal

text: She also described the M6 programme "Loft Story", imitating the internationally popular "Big Brother TV series", as contrary to principles of human dignity and risking transforming viewers into voyeurs instead of providing quality programming.


title: Ségolène Royal

text: A law passed in February 2002, introduced by Royal on behalf of the Jospin government, allows some parental authority to be granted to same-sex partners. The law amended Article 377 of the Civil Code in allowing a parent to ask a judge to share his/her parental authority with a partner. Article 377–1, added by the law, ensures that "delegation may provide, for the needs of education of a child, that the father and mother, or one of them, shall share all or part of the exercise of parental authority with the third person delegatee".


title: Ségolène Royal

text: In a June 2006 interview with LGBT publication "Têtu", Royal said "opening up marriage to same-sex couples is needed in the name of equality, visibility and respect" and said that if her party formed the next government she would introduce a bill to legalise same-sex marriage and adoption.


title: Ségolène Royal

text: According to her 2007 campaign website, Royal has advocated a policy of more humane prisons and supports creating better conditions inside penal institutions. The website states that she supports a system of rehabilitating offenders and reintegrating them into society.


title: Ségolène Royal

text: Royal initially appeared to have few opinions on key subjects, such as the accession of Turkey to the European Union, merely responding, "my opinion is that of the French people." On the subject of the Iranian nuclear program, Royal also took conflicting positions. She initially took a very hard line in a televised debate, contending that any nuclear power programme in Iran must be prevented since it would inevitably lead to weapons production. When she was criticised by French politicians for not understanding the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty – which gives signatories the right to nuclear power for non-military purposes – Royal softened her position and, through a spokesman, said that a civil nuclear program should be allowed as long as UN inspectors were permitted to conduct spot checks.


title: Ségolène Royal

text: From December 2006 Royal began travelling abroad extensively, but her efforts were set back by a series of blunders, which her political opponents at UMP were quick to jump on.


title: Ségolène Royal

text: In early December 2006 controversy followed a brief tour of the Middle East. Meeting Hezbollah politician Ali Ammar, she took exception to his use of the euphemism "Zionist entity", but did not take issue with his comparison of the Palestinian territories to France under German occupation during World War II. This attracted criticism in France and in Israel which Royal visited next. However, the French ambassador to Lebanon, Bernard Emié, backed her explanation that she did not hear "the offending remarks" – the discussion took place via an interpreter supplied by the Lebanese parliament. In the same visit, Royal thanked the minister for being so "frank" when he described US foreign policy in the Middle East as "unlimited American insanity".


title: Ségolène Royal

text: Royal visited China in January 2007; after speaking with a lawyer in that country she noted to the press that he had pointed out to her that the Chinese legal system was "faster" than the French one. She was immediately reminded by her opponents at home that the Chinese system orders 10,000 executions each year, and that defence lawyers there must be authorised by the Communist Party. She however brought up with her hosts the fate of three Chinese journalists recently imprisoned, and criticised the "meekness" of French entrepreneurs in tackling new markets such as China. Royal was criticised by French and international media by what was called "mangling the French language" in a soundbite delivered on the Great Wall of China. She used the word "bravitude" instead of the word "bravoure", which means "bravery".


title: Ségolène Royal

text: In January 2007, during a meeting with Quebec opposition leader and Parti Québécois head André Boisclair, she declared her support for the Quebec sovereignty movement in its aim to secede from Canada. Royal said Quebec and France share common values, including "sovereignty and Quebec's freedom". Soon after, Royal took a phone call from comedian Gérald Dahan pretending to be Quebec Premier Jean Charest, and was tricked into making a quip about Corsica's independence: "Not all French people would be opposed." She then added, "But don't repeat that or we'll have another scandal on our hands."


title: Ségolène Royal

text: On 5 April 2007, when commenting on the kidnapping of two Frenchmen by the Taliban in Afghanistan, Royal called for sanctions to be imposed by the United Nations against regimes like the Taliban. This comment was widely interpreted as indicating that Royal did not understand that the Taliban no longer formed the Afghan government and that she was clueless on international matters.


title: Ségolène Royal

text: During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Royal repeatedly supported the Russian view that NATO was to blame for the war, and falsely claimed that the Mariupol hospital airstrike and the Bucha massacre never happened. According to her, the events were "war propaganda" promoted by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy to interrupt the peace process. Royal's claims were condemned by Olivier Faure, the leader of Royal's Socialist Party, and Raphaël Glucksmann, its leader in the European Parliament.


title: Ségolène Royal

text: On 30 April 2017, Youba Sokona resigned from the Africa Renewable Energy Initiative, citing “European interference [to impose EU-preferred projects] in African governance that belongs to another era.” Reports surfaced directly accusing Ségolène Royal of undermining African leadership. The initiative was scrapped in 2017.


title: Ségolène Royal

text: From the late 1970s, Royal was the partner of François Hollande, former President of France, whom she met at ENA. The couple had four children: Thomas (born 1984), Clémence (born 1985), Julien (born 1987) and Flora (born 1992). They were neither married (considering it too "bourgeois") nor bound by a PACS (pacte civil de solidarité, which provides for a civil union between two adults, regardless of gender), contrary to rumours. A news agency leaked news of their separation in June 2007, on the evening of the legislative election. According to the "Guardian", she had asked Hollande "to move out of the house" and pursue his new love interest "which has been detailed in books and newspapers" – a reference to a much-discussed chapter by journalists explaining how Hollande was having a long-term affair with a journalist.


title: Ségolène Royal

text: Royal's eldest son, Thomas Hollande, served as an adviser to her during her presidential candidacy, working on a website designed to appeal to young voters.


title: Ségolène Royal

text: Her brother Antoine named their brother Gérard Royal as the agent who placed the bomb that sank the Greenpeace ship "Rainbow Warrior". But other sources claim that this statement is exaggerated and that Gérard was part of the logistics team.


title: Ségolène Royal

text: Royal's cousin Anne-Christine Royal followed the paternal side of the family and has been a candidate of the far-right Front National party at a local election in Bordeaux.


title: Avebury

text: Avebury () is a Neolithic henge monument containing three stone circles, around the village of Avebury in Wiltshire, in southwest England. One of the best known prehistoric sites in Britain, it contains the largest megalithic stone circle in the world. It is both a tourist attraction and a place of religious importance to contemporary pagans.


title: Avebury

text: Constructed over several hundred years in the third millennium BC, during the Neolithic, or New Stone Age, the monument comprises a large henge (a bank and a ditch) with a large outer stone circle and two separate smaller stone circles situated inside the centre of the monument. Its original purpose is unknown, although archaeologists believe that it was most likely used for some form of ritual or ceremony. The Avebury monument is a part of a larger prehistoric landscape containing several older monuments nearby, including West Kennet Long Barrow, Windmill Hill and Silbury Hill.


title: Avebury

text: By the Iron Age, the site had been effectively abandoned, with some evidence of human activity on the site during the Roman period. During the Early Middle Ages, a village first began to be built around the monument, eventually extending into it. In the Late Medieval and Early Modern periods, local people destroyed many of the standing stones around the henge, both for religious and practical reasons. The antiquarians John Aubrey and William Stukeley took an interest in Avebury during the 17th century, and recorded much of the site before its destruction. Archaeological investigation followed in the 20th century, led primarily by Alexander Keiller, who oversaw a project which reconstructed much of the monument.


title: Avebury

text: Avebury is owned and managed by the National Trust. It has been designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument, as well as a World Heritage Site, in the latter capacity being seen as a part of the wider prehistoric landscape of Wiltshire known as Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites.


title: Avebury

text: At , Avebury is respectively about from the modern towns of Marlborough and Calne. The monuments at the Avebury World Heritage Site cover about 8.7 square miles. Avebury lies in an area of chalkland in the Upper Kennet Valley that forms the catchment for the River Kennet and supports local springs and seasonal watercourses. The monument stands slightly above the local landscape, sitting on a low chalk ridge above sea level; to the east are the Marlborough Downs, an area of lowland hills.


title: Avebury

text: The site lies at the centre of a collection of Neolithic and early Bronze Age monuments and was inscribed as a World Heritage Site in a co-listing with the monuments at Stonehenge, to the south, in 1986. It is now listed as part of the "Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites World Heritage Site". The monuments are preserved as part of a Neolithic and Bronze Age landscape for the information they provide regarding prehistoric people's relationship with the landscape.


title: Avebury

text: Radiocarbon dating and analysis of pollen and occasionally insects in buried soils have shown that the environment of lowland Britain changed around 4250–4000 BC. During the Neolithic period, argillic (clayey) brownearths reigned in the landscape formed by the acidifying conditions of a closed woodland, becoming more chalky as a result of clearance and anthropogenic (man-made) interference.


title: Avebury

text: The area was originally a mix of deep argillic brownearths on clay-rich areas along with calcareous (chalky) brownearths that were "predisposed" to transforming into grassland. The change to a grassland environment from damp, heavy soils and expanses of dense forest was mostly brought about by farmers, probably through the use of slash and burn techniques. Environmental factors may also have made a contribution. The long grassland area formed a dense vegetational mat which eventually led to the decalcification of the soil profile. In the Mesolithic period, woodland was dominated by alder, lime, elm, and oak. There is a major decline in pollen around 4500 BC, but an increase in grasses from 4500 BC to 3200 BC and the first occurrence of cereal pollen.


title: Avebury

text: Pollen is poorly preserved in the chalky soils found around Avebury, so the best evidence for the state of local environment at any time in the past comes from the study of the deposition of snail shells. Different species of snail live in specific habitats, so the presence of a certain species indicates what the area was like at a particular time.


title: Avebury

text: The available evidence suggests that in the early Neolithic, Avebury and the surrounding hills were covered in dense oak woodland, and as the Neolithic progressed, the woodland around Avebury and the nearby monuments receded and was replaced by grassland.


title: Avebury

text: The history of the site before the construction of the henge is uncertain, because little datable evidence has emerged from modern archaeological excavations. Evidence of activity in the region before the 4th millennium BC is limited, suggesting that there was little human occupation.


title: Avebury

text: What is now termed the Mesolithic period in Britain lasted from circa 11,600 to 7,800 BP, at a time when the island was heavily forested and when there was still a land mass, called Doggerland, which connected Britain to continental Europe. During this era, those humans living in Britain were hunter-gatherers, often moving around the landscape in small familial or tribal groups in search of food and other resources. Archaeologists have unearthed evidence that there were some of these hunter-gatherers active around Avebury during the Late Mesolithic, with stray finds of flint tools, dated between 7000 and 4000 BC, having been found in the area. The most important of these discoveries is a densely scattered collection of worked flints found to the west of Avebury, which has led archaeologists to believe that that spot was a flint working site occupied over a period of several weeks by a group of nomadic hunter-gatherers who had set up camp there.


title: Avebury

text: The archaeologists Mark Gillings and Joshua Pollard suggested the possibility that Avebury first gained some sort of ceremonial significance during the Late Mesolithic period. As evidence, they highlighted the existence of a posthole near the monument's southern entrance that would have once supported a large wooden post. Although this posthole was never dated when it was excavated in the early 20th century, and so cannot definitely be ascribed to the Mesolithic, Gillings and Pollard noted that its positioning had no relation to the rest of the henge, and that it may therefore have been erected centuries or even millennia before the henge was actually built. They compared this with similar wooden posts that had been erected in southern Britain during the Mesolithic at Stonehenge and Hambledon Hill, both of which were sites that like Avebury saw the construction of large monuments in the Neolithic.


title: Avebury

text: In the 4th millennium BC, around the start of the Neolithic period in Britain, British society underwent radical changes. These coincided with the introduction of domesticated species of animals and plants, as well as a changing material culture that included pottery. These developments allowed hunter-gatherers to settle down and produce their own food. As agriculture spread, people cleared land. At the same time, they also erected the first monuments to be seen in the local landscape, an activity interpreted as evidence of a change in the way people viewed their place in the world.


title: Avebury

text: Based on anthropological studies of recent and contemporary societies, Gillings and Pollard suggest that forests, clearings, and stones were important in Neolithic culture, not only as resources but as symbols; the site of Avebury occupied a convergence of these three elements. Neolithic activity at Avebury is evidenced by flint, animal bones, and pottery such as Peterborough ware dating from the early 4th and 3rd millennia BC. Five distinct areas of Neolithic activity have been identified within of Avebury; they include a scatter of flints along the line of the West Kennet Avenue – an avenue that connects Avebury with the Neolithic site of The Sanctuary. Pollard suggests that areas of activity in the Neolithic became important markers in the landscape.


title: Avebury

text: During the Late Neolithic, British society underwent another series of major changes. Between 3500 and 3300 BC, these prehistoric Britons ceased their continual expansion and cultivation of wilderness and instead focused on settling and farming the most agriculturally productive areas of the island: Orkney, eastern Scotland, Anglesey, the upper Thames, Wessex, Essex, Yorkshire and the river valleys of the Wash.


title: Avebury

text: Late Neolithic Britons also appeared to have changed their religious beliefs, ceasing to construct the large chambered tombs that are widely thought by archaeologists to have been connected with ancestor veneration. Instead, they began the construction of large wooden or stone circles, with many hundreds being built across Britain and Ireland over a period of a thousand years.


title: Avebury

text: The chronology of Avebury's construction is unclear. It was not designed as a single monument, but is the result of various projects that were undertaken at different times during late prehistory. Aubrey Burl suggests dates of 3000 BC for the central cove, 2900 BC for the inner stone circle, 2600 BC for the outer circle and henge, and around 2400 BC for the avenues.


title: Avebury

text: The construction of large monuments such as those at Avebury indicates that a stable agrarian economy had developed in Britain by around 4000–3500 BC. The people who built them had to be secure enough to spend time on such non-essential activities. Avebury was one of a group of monumental sites that were established in this region during the Neolithic. Its monuments comprise the henge and associated long barrows, stone circles, avenues, and a causewayed enclosure. These monument types are not exclusive to the Avebury area. For example, Stonehenge features the same kinds of monuments, and in Dorset there is a henge on the edge of Dorchester and a causewayed enclosure at nearby Maiden Castle. According to Caroline Malone, who worked for English Heritage as an inspector of monuments and was the curator of Avebury's Alexander Keiller Museum, it is possible that the monuments associated with Neolithic sites such as Avebury and Stonehenge constituted ritual or ceremonial centres.


title: Avebury

text: Archaeologist Mike Parker Pearson noted that the addition of the stones to the henge occurred at a similar date to the construction of Silbury Hill and the major building projects at Stonehenge and Durrington Walls. For this reason, he speculated that there may have been a "religious revival" at the time, which led to huge amounts of resources being expended on the construction of ceremonial monuments.


title: Avebury

text: Archaeologist Aaron Watson highlighted the possibility that by digging up earth and using it to construct the large banks, those Neolithic labourers constructing the Avebury monument symbolically saw themselves as turning the land "inside out", thereby creating a space that was "on a frontier between worlds above and beneath the ground."


title: Avebury

text: The Avebury monument is a henge, a type of monument consisting of a large circular bank with an internal ditch. The henge is not perfectly circular and measures in diameter and over in circumference.


title: Avebury

text: The top of the bank is irregular, something archaeologist Caroline Malone suggested was because of the irregular nature of the work undertaken by excavators working on the adjacent sectors of the ditch. Later archaeologists such as Aaron Watson, Mark Gillings and Joshua Pollard have, however, suggested that this was an original Neolithic feature of the henge's architecture.


title: Avebury

text: Within the henge is a great outer circle. With a diameter of , this is one of Europe's largest stone circles, and Britain's largest. It was either contemporary with, or built around four or five centuries after, the earthworks. It is thought that there were originally 98 sarsen standing stones, some weighing in excess of 40 tons. The stones varied in height from to , as exemplified at the north and south entrances. Radiocarbon dating of some stone settings indicate a construction date of around 2870–2200 BC.


title: Avebury

text: The two large stones at the Southern Entrance had an unusually smooth surface, likely due to having stone axes polished on them.


title: Avebury

text: Nearer the middle of the monument are two additional, separate stone circles. The northern inner ring is in diameter, but only two of its four standing stones remain upright. A cove of three stones stood in the middle, its entrance facing northeast. Taking experiments undertaken at the megalithic Ring of Brodgar in Orkney as a basis, the archaeologists Joshua Pollard, Mark Gillings and Aaron Watson believed that any sounds produced inside Avebury's Inner Circles would have created an echo as sound waves reflected off the standing stones.


title: Avebury

text: The southern inner ring was in diameter before its destruction in the 18th century. The remaining sections of its arc now lie beneath the village buildings. A single large monolith, high, stood in the centre along with an alignment of smaller stones.


title: Avebury

text: In 2017, a geophysical survey by archaeologists from the Universities of Leicester and Southampton indicated 'an apparently unique square megalithic monument within the Avebury circles' which may be one of the earliest structures on this site.


title: Avebury

text: The West Kennet Avenue, an avenue of paired stones, leads from the southeastern entrance of the henge; and traces of a second, the Beckhampton Avenue, lead out from the western entrance.


title: Avebury

text: The archaeologist Aaron Watson, taking a phenomenological viewpoint to the monument, believed that the way in which the Avenue had been constructed in juxtaposition to Avebury, the Sanctuary, Silbury Hill and West Kennet Long Barrow had been intentional, commenting that "the Avenue carefully orchestrated passage through the landscape which influenced how people could move and what they could see, emphasizing connections between places and maximizing the spectacle of moving between these monuments."