title: Marcus Welby, M.D.

text: The doctors worked alongside each other in their private practice in Santa Monica, California, regularly working in conjunction with the nearby Lang Memorial Hospital. (This was later revealed in exterior shots to be the real-life Saint John's Hospital and Health Center in Santa Monica.) At the office, their loyal secretary-nurse and friend was Consuelo Lopez (Verdugo). Other characters that appeared throughout the series included Dr. Welby's frequent girlfriend Myra Sherwood (Anne Baxter), his daughter Sandy (originally Christine Belford, and later Anne Schedeen) and her son Phil (Gavin Brendan), and Kathleen Faverty (Sharon Gless), an assistant program director at the hospital, who worked closely with Welby and Kiley. Kiley met and married public relations director Janet Blake (played by Pamela Hensley) in 1975, at the beginning of the show's final season on the air.


title: Marcus Welby, M.D.

text: In the episode "Designs", which aired on March 12, 1974, Young was reunited with his "Father Knows Best" co-star, Jane Wyatt; she played a fashion designer whose marriage to an embittered paraplegic led her to fall in love with the doctor while keeping her marriage a secret most of the episode.


title: Marcus Welby, M.D.

text: Its handling of many varied medical cases – some common, some uncommon – made it an instant hit for ABC. Story lines included impotence, depression, brain damage, breast cancer, mononucleosis, teenaged obesity, juvenile diabetes, sexually transmitted diseases, epilepsy, learning disabilities, leukemia, haemophilia, paraplegia, dysautonomia, rape, Alzheimer's disease, and addiction to painkillers, among others. At its second season (1970–1971), it ranked number one in the Nielsen ratings, becoming the first ABC show to top the list. The same year, both Young and Brolin won Emmy Awards for their work, as did the show for Outstanding Dramatic Series. Young won a Golden Globe in 1972 for his performance. Members of the American Academy of Family Physicians served as technical advisers for the series and reviewed every script for medical accuracy.


title: Marcus Welby, M.D.

text: The 1973 episode "The Other Martin Loring", was about a middle-aged man whom Welby advised to resist his homosexual impulses. The Gay Activists Alliance (GAA) zapped ABC, occupied its New York headquarters and picketed. The next year, "The Outrage" was a story of a teenaged student who was sexually assaulted by his male teacher, showing homosexuality with pedophilia. Seven sponsors refused to buy television advertising time, and 17 television network affiliates refused to air the episode. This was the first known instance of network affiliates refusing a network episode in response to protests.


title: Marcus Welby, M.D.

text: In addition, an episode dealing with abortion was refused by San Diego area ABC affiliate XETV, a station licensed to Tijuana across the border in Mexico, due to that country's stance on the practice at the time.


title: Marcus Welby, M.D.

text: During its run, "Marcus Welby, M.D." had two crossover stories with its legal spin-off series "Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law." In "Men Who Care", Marshall defends the father of Welby's patient when the man is accused of murdering his daughter's boyfriend. In "I've Promised You a Father", Marshall defends Kiley in a paternity suit filed by a nurse claiming that Kiley is the father of her child.


title: Marcus Welby, M.D.

text: By the mid-1970s, the popularity of medical dramas began to wane. Ratings for both "Marcus Welby, M.D." and CBS's "Medical Center" began to drop, as did the ratings for daytime dramas "General Hospital" and "The Doctors." Previous episodes initially went into syndication in the fall of 1975 as "Robert Young, Family Doctor" (to avoid confusion with the first-run episodes still airing on ABC). The show ended its run in 1976 after 169 episodes were made. On an awards show that year, Young joked publicly, "I knew that it was time to quit when I started taking time off to play golf!" In reality, his actual reaction to the show's cancellation did not become public knowledge in his lifetime, and remained largely unknown as of the middle of February 2022. Young's joke invoked a stereotype and trope about older doctors, with more time on their hands than they had had in their younger years, taking up golfing to occupy themselves.


title: Marcus Welby, M.D.

text: In 1984, the reunion movie "The Return of Marcus Welby, M.D." aired, with Young and Verdugo reprising their roles. The major conflict, aside from interactions with patients, centered around Welby being accused of being too old to retain his medical license safely. Though Brolin was unavailable to reprise his role as Kiley, a statement described as being from him was read before the board that would decide Welby's fate. Another movie was made in 1988, "Marcus Welby, M.D.: A Holiday Affair." This last made-for-television film was the last acting role of Robert Young's career.


title: Marcus Welby, M.D.

text: Shout! Factory (under license from Universal Studios) has released the first two seasons of "Marcus Welby, M.D." on DVD in Region 1.


title: Marcus Welby, M.D.

text: Mill Creek Entertainment released a 10-episode best-of set entitled "Marcus Welby, M.D.: The Best of Season One" on March 22, 2011.


title: City of Arts and Sciences

text: The City of Arts and Sciences ( ; ) is a cultural and architectural complex in the city of Valencia, Spain. It is the most important modern tourist destination in the city of Valencia and one of the 12 Treasures of Spain.


title: City of Arts and Sciences

text: The City of Arts and Sciences is situated at the southeast end of the former riverbed of the river Turia, which was drained and rerouted after a catastrophic flood in 1957. The old riverbed was turned into a picturesque sunken park.


title: City of Arts and Sciences

text: Designed by Santiago Calatrava and Félix Candela, the project began the first stages of construction in July 1996, and was inaugurated on 16 April 1998 with the opening of L'Hemisfèric. The last major component of the City of Arts and Sciences, Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía, was inaugurated on 9 October 2005, Valencian Community Day. The most recent building in the complex, L'Àgora, was opened in 2009.


title: City of Arts and Sciences

text: Originally budgeted at €300 million in 1991 for three structures, it has expanded about three times the initial expected cost.


title: City of Arts and Sciences

text: The complex is made up of the following buildings and structures, presented in the order of their inauguration:


title: City of Arts and Sciences

text: In 1989, the president of the Valencian Autonomous Government, Joan Lerma, after a visit to the new Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie in Paris, and through the general director of planning and studies of the Presidency of the Generalitat Valenciana, Dr. José María Bernabé, officially commissioned the scientist Dr. Antonio Ten Ros to draft a first proposal for a City of Science and Technology for Valencia.


title: City of Arts and Sciences

text: Dr. Ten Ros drew up a first draft, entitled "Vilanova, A City of Science for Valencia", which was officially presented to the Generalitat in May 1989. After that, he was formally commissioned in 1990 to direct the creation of a general draft amounting to 92,650,000 pesetas (556,000 euros), to be managed by the University of Valencia. Antonio Ten Ros assembled a team of 56 scientists, museologists and designers including Professor José María López Piñero as responsible for the space "A walk through history". Ten Ros presented the draft in 32 volumes to President Lerma in the Palace of the Generalitat on 21 December 1991.


title: City of Arts and Sciences

text: The "City of Science and Communications" was the name that the autonomous government gave to the initiative, and plans included a 370m high communications tower, which would have been the third highest one in the world at that time; a planetarium; and a museum of science. The total price of the works was estimated to be about 25,000 million pesetas.


title: City of Arts and Sciences

text: In May 1991, the council approved the transfer of lands. Four months later the project plan with three structures (communications tower, planetarium, and a science museum) was presented, designed by Santiago Calatrava.


title: City of Arts and Sciences

text: The team that had designed the museum did not see eye to eye with the form in which Santiago Calatrava conceived the building, and a couple of changes were made. Preliminary site work began by the end of 1994.


title: City of Arts and Sciences

text: The project was not without controversy. The Conservative Popular Party saw in the City of Science a "work of the pharaohs" that would serve only to swell the ego of the Socialists, who were the driving forces behind the initiative.


title: City of Arts and Sciences

text: In 1995, the Popular Party won against the Socialists. However, several successive Popular Party governments continued and expanded the complex far beyond the original Socialist project at an enormous cost, heavily indebting the city.


title: City of Arts and Sciences

text: After a change of government in 1996, the planned telecommunication tower was cancelled and replaced by an opera house, which was more expensive, and architect Félix Candela was added to design an oceanographic park, all of which led to underspecified increases in the project budget and to updating the name to "City of Arts and Sciences". In July 1996, the original "Valencia, Ciencia y Comunicaciones" was officially changed to "Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias, S.A." (CACSA). Construction on the City of Arts and Sciences under CACSA began July 1996. When construction started in 1997 on the Palau de les Arts, it was built with the same foundation and the same contract that had been planned for the cancelled communications tower.


title: City of Arts and Sciences

text: The revised plan (by Calatrava) exhibited a strong longitudinal axis that defined the backbone tying together all the structures of the complex. It bisected the Opera House, Montolivet Bridge, L'Hemisferic, and extended through the Assut de L'Or Bridge and L'Agora (commissioned later in 2005) to L'Oceanografic (designed by Candela). Parallel to the axis were placed the science museum, L'Umbracle, raised promenades and reflecting pools.


title: City of Arts and Sciences

text: Another unifying element was the use of the city’s traditional heritage, viz., the use of ceramic mosaic tiles known as "“trencadis”", which was widely used as the exterior layer over the concrete surfaces of many of the buildings/structures and elements of the promenade throughout the complex.


title: City of Arts and Sciences

text: Construction continued on the site until the last structure, L'Agora, was completed in 2009. The total cost of the project came in at 1,200 million euros.


title: City of Arts and Sciences

text: In April 1998, the complex opened its doors to the public with L'Hemisfèric. Eleven months later, the President of Valencia, Eduardo Zaplana, inaugurated the Museu de les Ciències Príncipe Felipe, although the museum was not yet finished. The museum was opened to the public twenty months later. On 12 December 2002 was the opening of L'Oceanogràfic, the largest aquarium built in Europe. Queen Sofía, on 8 October 2005, inaugurated the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía, which became the opera house of Valencia.


title: City of Arts and Sciences

text: Santiago Calatrava was born in Valencia, Spain, on 28 July 1951. He is an architect and engineer also known for his skills in painting and sculpting. He attended the Art Academy in Valencia in the mid-1960s; then he earned a degree in architecture and a postgraduate course in city planning at the Escuela Tecnica Superior de Arquitectura, studied civil engineering at the Federal Polytechnic University of Zurich, and participated in academic research investigating the foldability of space frames.


title: City of Arts and Sciences

text: Calatrava's architecture aims to unite structure and movement. Early in his career, Calatrava designed Stadelhofen Station in Zurich. He was recognized for his achievement in creating poetics of movement and integrating public transportation in a natural setting and urban context. Another theme in his work was moving contraptions in his buildings; for example, his dome for the Reichstag Conversion Competition in Berlin opens and closes like a flower, and the Planetarium in the City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia opens and closes like eyelids.


title: City of Arts and Sciences

text: Félix Candela was born on 27 January 1910 in Madrid, Spain, and died on 7 December 1997. His architectural designs are composed of reinforced concrete structures distinguished by thin, curved shells. His popularity sprung from his design, in collaboration with Jorge Gonzales Reyna, of the Cosmic Rays Pavilion (1951) in Mexico. He used his signature design of the reinforced concrete roof that varies in thickness from only 5/8 inch to 2 inches. He also built the church of La Virgin Milagrosa in Mexico City and the church of San Vicente de Paul. His designs consisted of warped-shell industrial buildings, thin-shell centenary, and barrel-vaulted factories and warehouses. Candela was also a teacher at Harvard University and the University of Illinois. Felix Candela designed the underwater city L'Oceanogràfic in the City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia, reminiscent of Antoni Gaudí's work in Barcelona.


title: City of Arts and Sciences

text: Parts of the musical number "Style" from the 2007 Indian film "Sivaji" were shot at the City of Arts and Sciences. Portions of the area were featured in the 2013 racing game "Gran Turismo 6" as a photo location. Exterior scenes of the futuristic city in the 2015 film "Tomorrowland" were filmed around the complex. In 2016 (broadcast in 2017) it was used as a filming location for the British science-fiction television programme "Doctor Who", appearing in the second episode of the tenth series, "Smile". The location was used as the headquarters of the company DELOS in the third season of the HBO series "Westworld".


title: City of Arts and Sciences

text: Various exterior shots of the complex were used to depict a conceptual 2039 New York World's Fair for the season finale of "" on National Geographic. Architectural elements from the site were used as a green screen backdrop for the futuristic 2720 city in the 2020 film "Bill & Ted Face the Music" It's also used as the set of the 2020 television adaptation of "Brave New World". Parts of the shooting for the 2021 TV series "Intergalactic" is also done in the City of Arts and Sciences.


title: City of Arts and Sciences

text: In 2019 it was reported that the economic impact of the complex is €113 million a year and generates 3509 jobs.


title: Marilyn Maxwell

text: Marvel Marilyn Maxwell (August 3, 1921 – March 20, 1972) was an American actress and entertainer. In a career that spanned the 1940s and 1950s, she appeared in several films and radio programs, and entertained the troops during World War II and the Korean War on USO tours with Bob Hope.


title: Marilyn Maxwell

text: Maxwell was a native of Clarinda, Iowa. During the 1930s, she worked as an usher in Fort Wayne, Indiana at the Rialto Theater located at 2616 South Calhoun Street.


title: Marilyn Maxwell

text: In Fort Wayne, she attended Central High School. She dropped out of school in her sophomore year to join an Indianapolis band as a singer.


title: Marilyn Maxwell

text: She started her professional entertaining career as a radio singer and a singer on stage with Ted Weems' big band while still a teenager, then she signed with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1942 as a contract player. Among the radio programs in which she appeared were "Beat the Band" and "The Abbott and Costello Show". Louis B. Mayer, the head of MGM, insisted she change the Marvel part of her real name. She dropped her first name and kept the middle one. Some of her film roles included "Lost in a Harem" (1944) with Abbott and Costello, "Champion" (1949) with Kirk Douglas, "The Lemon Drop Kid" (1951) with Bob Hope, "New York Confidential" (1955) with Broderick Crawford, and "Rock-A-Bye Baby" (1958) with Jerry Lewis. The popular Christmas song "Silver Bells" made its debut in "The Lemon Drop Kid", sung by Maxwell and Hope.


title: Marilyn Maxwell

text: She appeared as the mystery guest of 'What's My Line ' 10th of May 1953. At one point, a blind-folded panelist asked whether or not she was Marilyn Monroe.


title: Marilyn Maxwell

text: Maxwell married three times; each ended in divorce. In September 1944, she married actor John Conte; the relationship was dissolved in June 1946. Her second marriage to restaurateur Anders McIntyre lasted just over a year from January 1, 1950 until March 23, 1951. Maxwell's six-year marriage to writer/producer Jerry Davis ended in 1960. Her only child, Matthew, was born to Maxwell and Davis in 1956.


title: Marilyn Maxwell

text: Maxwell met and became friends with Frank Sinatra when they crossed paths, both of them in separate nationally renowned big bands in the late 1930s. Their friendship continued after Marilyn gave up singing for acting and moved to Hollywood and Frank had moved from New Jersey to Beverly Hills in the early 1940s. By 1945, the friendship had progressed into an extra-marital affair. Frank's then wife Nancy saw Marilyn wearing a diamond bracelet Nancy had earlier seen in Frank's car and assumed was for her. Taking this as evidence of Frank's infidelity, Nancy ordered Marilyn and husband John Conte to immediately leave the Sinatra family Christmas gala of 1945. Confronted after the party by Nancy, Frank admitted to the affair but claimed it was only casual not serious. Soon after, Marilyn and Frank ended their sexual liaison.


title: Marilyn Maxwell

text: Between 1950 and 1954, Marilyn had an ongoing affair with actor/comedian Bob Hope. Although he was married at the time to singer Dolores Reade Hope, Bob and Marilyn's relationship was so open that many in Hollywood referred to her as Mrs. Bob Hope.


title: Marilyn Maxwell

text: During the 1950s, Marilyn became good friends with fellow actor Rock Hudson. After her marriage to Jerry Davis ended in 1960 at the arrangement of Hudson's agent Henry Willson, Marilyn became one of several women Hudson publicly "dated" to counter rumors (admitted true by him later in life) of the actor's homosexuality. No real romance between Maxwell and Hudson existed.


title: Marilyn Maxwell

text: On March 20, 1972, at age 50, Maxwell was found dead in her home by her 15-year-old son, who had arrived home from school. The cause was an apparent heart attack; she had been treated for hypertension and pulmonary disease. Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, and Jack Benny were honorary pallbearers at her funeral.


title: Jerez de la Frontera

text: Jerez de la Frontera (), or simply Jerez (), is a Spanish city and municipality in the province of Cádiz in the autonomous community of Andalusia, in southwestern Spain, located midway between the Atlantic Ocean and the Cádiz Mountains. , the city, the largest in the province, had a population of 213,105. It is the fifth largest in Andalusia, and has become the transportation and communications hub of the province, surpassing even Cádiz, the provincial capital, in economic activity. Jerez de la Frontera is also, in terms of land area, the largest municipality in the province, and its sprawling outlying areas are a fertile zone for agriculture. There are also many cattle ranches and horse-breeding operations, as well as a world-renowned wine industry (Xerez).


title: Jerez de la Frontera

text: Currently, Jerez, with 213,105 inhabitants, is the 25th largest city in Spain, the 5th in Andalusia and 1st in the Province of Cádiz. It belongs to the Municipal Association of the Bay of Cádiz ("Mancomunidad de Municipios Bahía de Cádiz"), the 3rd largest Andalusian metropolitan area and the 12th in Spain, with over 650,000 inhabitants.


title: Jerez de la Frontera

text: Its municipality covers an area of and includes the Los Alcornocales Natural Park and the "Sierra de Gibalbín", also known as "Montes de Propio de Jerez".


title: Jerez de la Frontera

text: The city is located from the Atlantic Ocean, in Campiña de Jerez, a region suitable for cultivating the vineyards that produce famous sherry. Some famous places in the city are Alcazar of Jerez, Church of San Miguel, Charterhouse of Jerez, the Cathedral of San Salvador.


title: Jerez de la Frontera

text: Since 1987 the Grand Prix motorcycle racing has been held at the Circuito de Jerez in early May. On this weekend, the city welcomes tens of thousands of bikers from around the world. The same circuit has hosted several Formula 1 Grands Prix, including the 1997 final race of the season, which was marred with controversy for a notable high-profile championship-deciding incident. Other popular festivals in the city are Feria de Jerez or the Holy Week in Jerez.


title: Jerez de la Frontera

text: The name "Jerez" goes back to the Phoenician "Xera", "Sèrès", later Romanized under the name of "Ceret"; the location of this settlement, however, remains unknown.


title: Jerez de la Frontera

text: The classical Latin name of "Asta Regia", unrelated to the present name, referred to an ancient city now found within Mesas de Asta, a rural district approximately from the center of Jerez.


title: Jerez de la Frontera

text: The current Spanish name came by way of the Arabic name "Sherīsh". In former times, during the Muslim period in Iberia, it was called Xerez or Xerés (pronounced in Old Spanish). The name of the famous fortified wine, sherry, which originated here (although some argue that it originated in Shiraz, Persia), represents an adaptation of the city's Arabic name, "Sherish". "Frontera" refers to a Spanish frontier, located on the border between the Moorish and Christian regions of Spain during the 13th century, a regular host to skirmishes and clashes between the two regions. Over two centuries later, after the Castilian conquest of Granada in 1492, Xerez definitively lost its status as a frontier city, but did not lose that designation.


title: Jerez de la Frontera

text: After the Kingdom of Castile took Jerez on October 9, 1264, following the name given by the Muslims to the city in the period known as the Reconquista, the city was then called Xerez in medieval Castilian, transcribing the consonant (like the English sh) with the letter , as was the rule at the time. Thus the name was pronounced "Sheres", similar to the Moorish Arabic "Sherish". In the 16th century, the consonant changed into the consonant , with the corresponding spelling of "Jerez".


title: Jerez de la Frontera

text: The old spelling "Xerez" as the name given to the city survived in several foreign languages until very recently, and today continues to influence the name given to sherry: Portuguese "Xerez" , Catalan "Xerès" , English "sherry" , French "Xérès" . The city's main football team continues to use the old spelling, Xerez.


title: Jerez de la Frontera

text: Traces of human presence in the area date from the upper Neolithic, and humans have inhabited Jerez de la Frontera since at least the Copper or Neolithic Age, but the identity of the first natives remains unclear. The first major protohistoric settlement in the area (around the third millennium BC) is attributed to the Tartessians. Jerez later became a Roman city under the name of "Asta Regia".


title: Jerez de la Frontera

text: After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the Vandals and the Visigoths ruled it until the Arabs conquered the area in 711. In the 11th century it briefly became the seat of an independent taifa. Some years later 'Abdun ibn Muhammad united it with Arcos and ruled both (ca. 1040–1053). In 1053 it was annexed to Seville. From 1145 to 1147 the region of Arcos and Jerez briefly operated as an emirate under dependency of Granada, led by Abu'l-Qasim Ahyal. Later the Almohads conquered the city. In the 12th and 13th centuries Jerez underwent a period of great development, building its defense system and setting the current street layout of the old town.


title: Jerez de la Frontera

text: In 1231 the Battle of Jerez took place within the town's vicinity: Christian troops under the command of Álvaro Pérez de Castro, lord of the House of Castro and grandson of Alfonso VII, king of Castile and León, defeated the troops of the Emir Ibn Hud, despite the numerical superiority of the latter. After a month-long siege in 1261, the city surrendered to Castile, but its Muslim population remained. It rebelled and was finally defeated in 1264.


title: Jerez de la Frontera

text: Thanks to its agriculture-based economy, rich countryside and bustling demographics, Jerez was already a major city of the Lower Andalusia towards the end of the Middle Ages.


title: Jerez de la Frontera

text: The discovery of the Americas and the conquest of Granada, in 1492, made Jerez one of the most prosperous cities of Andalusia through trade and through its proximity to the ports of Seville and Cádiz. Attracted by the economic possibilities offered by the winemaking business, a substantial foreign European population (English, Flemish, Portuguese and, most notably, Genoese) installed in the city. Together with the local wealthy class, they participated in slave ownership.


title: Jerez de la Frontera

text: Despite the social, economic and political decadence that occurred in the seventeenth century, towards the end of the Habsburg rule, the city managed to maintain a reasonable pace of development, becoming world-famous for its wine industry.


title: Jerez de la Frontera

text: The city of Jerez is governed by the "ayuntamiento" (municipality) of Jerez, whose representatives, as in other towns in Spain, are elected every four years by universal suffrage for all citizens older than 18 years of age. The body is chaired by the mayor of Jerez.


title: Jerez de la Frontera

text: Currently, the mayor is María del Carmen Sánchez Díaz, known as Mamen Sánchez, member of Spanish Socialist Workers' Party, who won the municipal election in 2015, by the aid of "Ganemos Jerez" and "IULV-CA".


title: Jerez de la Frontera

text: The economy of Jerez has traditionally been centred on the wine industry, with exports of sherry worldwide. Because it lacks the civil service that other cities enjoy, Jerez has based its economy on industry. The cultivation of fruits, grains, and vegetables and horse and cattle husbandry has also been important to the local economy. It is the home base for the Spanish Military Stud farm, the Yeguada Militar de Jerez de la Frontera.


title: Jerez de la Frontera

text: After the wine crisis in the 1990s, the city is now seeking to expand its industrial base. Tourism has been successfully promoted. The city's strong identity as a center for wine, flamenco, and horses, its popular festivals, MotoGP hosting and its historical heritage have contributed to this success.


title: Jerez de la Frontera

text: The city is the home of Jerez Airport and has also been positioning itself as a logistics hub for western Andalusia, through the integration between the airport, the rail system and nearby ports.


title: Jerez de la Frontera

text: Jerez de la Frontera is located in the region of Campiña de Jerez, which includes the municipalities of Jerez de la Frontera and San José del Valle. The territory of the region corresponds to the previous municipality of the city of Jerez, before the disintegration of San José del Valle in 1995. The municipality of Jerez is the largest in the province of Cadiz and the sixth in Spain with 1188 square kilometers, which would mean twice the island of Ibiza or half of the province of Guipúzcoa.


title: Jerez de la Frontera

text: The region of the Campiña de Jerez is crossed by the Guadalete River. In addition, there are several wetlands in its territory, such as the lagoons of Medina and Torrox. There are also the Montes de Propio de Jerez, included in the Natural Park of Los Alcornocales. Its agriculture is famous worldwide for the designation of origin of its wine, sherry, grown in the triangle formed between Jerez de la Frontera, Sanlúcar de Barrameda and El Puerto de Santa María.


title: Jerez de la Frontera

text: Jerez de la Frontera is located from El Puerto de Santa Maria, from the Atlantic Ocean and from the Strait of Gibraltar. The city is one of the six municipalities that make up the Metropolitan Area of the Bay of Cadiz-Jerez, a polynuclear urban agglomeration formed by the municipalities of Cadiz, Chiclana de la Frontera, Jerez de la Frontera, Puerto Real, El Puerto de Santa Maria and San Fernando located in the Bay of Cadiz.


title: Jerez de la Frontera

text: Jerez de la Frontera and the rest of the Cádiz metropolitan area have a Subtropical–Mediterranean climate. For its situation being inland (specially the airport which is further inland than the city), the Atlantic influences are small. Jerez is characterized by mild, short winters with occasional cool nights and hot, long summers with occasional very hot temperatures; unlike the surrounding coastal areas which are characterized by very mild winters and long warm summers. Most of the rain falls from October to January, while the summers are very dry but not rainless. For its situation being inland, the daytime temperatures are higher than in the coast and the lows are cooler, with a difference of at least 10 °C between the highs and the low temperatures of each month. The average annual temperature is during the day and at night. The average annual precipitation is per year, concentrated in the months of October through April. December is the wettest month with . The city averages 53 rainy days, 137 clear days and 2,965 hours of sunshine a year. Snow is extremely rare, and it is even more infrequent than in most of the southern European islands. The last snowfall recorded in the city happened on February 2, 1954. Since then, no snowfall has been recorded.


title: Jerez de la Frontera

text: Jerez has a reputation as the world capital of sherry wine. Sherry is a fortified wine made from white grapes grown near the town of Jerez. Jerez has been a centre of viniculture since the Phoenicians introduced winemaking to Spain in 1100 BC. The Romans continued the practice after they took control of Iberia around 200 BC. The Moors conquered the region in AD 711 and introduced distillation, which led to the development of brandy and fortified wine. Sherry became very popular in Great Britain. Because sherry was a major wine export to the United Kingdom, many English companies and styles developed. British families founded many of the Jerez cellars.


title: Jerez de la Frontera

text: The city has many "bodegas" (wineries), many of which are of British origin. The most important include:


title: Jerez de la Frontera

text: Brandy de Jerez is a brandy produced only in the Jerez area of Andalusia, Spain (exclusively produced within the "Sherry Triangle", the municipal boundaries of Jerez de la Frontera, El Puerto de Santa María and Sanlúcar de Barrameda, in the province of Cádiz).


title: Jerez de la Frontera

text: "Enoturism" is a quite new kind of tourism that looks for places where wines and distilled beverages are produced. Recently the Route of Sherry Wine and Brandy de Jerez has been established.


title: Jerez de la Frontera

text: Jerez is the original home of the Carthusian sub-strain of the Andalusian horse breed, known as the "Caballo cartujano" in Spain. In the latter 1400s, the Carthusian monks began breeding horses on lands donated by Álvaro Obertos de Valeto for construction of the Charterhouse of Jerez de la Frontera ("la Cartuja de Jerez de la Frontera"). When the Spanish Crown decreed that Spanish horse breeders should breed their Andalusian stock with Neapolitan and central European stock, the monks refused to comply, and continued to select their best specimens to develop their own jealously guarded bloodline for almost four hundred years.


title: Jerez de la Frontera

text: Jerez is the home of the Royal Andalusian School of Equestrian Art, a riding school comparable to the famous Spanish Riding School of Vienna.


title: Jerez de la Frontera

text: Another famous equine institution headquartered in Jerez is the Yeguada Militar de Jerez de la Frontera (known outside Spain as the Yeguada Militar), the Spanish military stud farm dedicated to the breeding of purebred Andalusian and Arabian horses. Founded in 1847, it became the official stud farm of the Spanish military in 1893.


title: Jerez de la Frontera

text: The 2002 FEI World Equestrian Games were held in Jerez at the Estadio Municipal de Chapín, which was remodeled for the event, from September 10 to September 22, 2002. This was the 4th edition of the games, which are held every four years and run by the FEI.


title: Jerez de la Frontera

text: Jerez, the city where flamenco singing began, is also proud of its Andalusian Centre of Flamenco. It was founded in 1993 to safeguard and promote the values and standards of flamenco. It is devoted to the investigation, recovery, and collection of flamenco-related historical documents, whether they are in audio, visual, or journalistic form. It also has a collection of flamenco artifacts, including musical instruments, costumes, promotional posters, sheet music, and postcards. The centre operates a museum and library to help educate the public and serve as a resource for scholars. Its origins date back to the 18th century and it is currently considered an intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO. Many of the most famous personalities of the city are involved in the performance of flamenco, including La Paquera de Jerez, Lola Flores and José Mercé.


title: Jerez de la Frontera

text: Since 1987 the Grand Prix motorcycle racing has been held at the Circuito de Jerez in early May. Thousands of motorbikers from around the world come to the city this week to watch the MotoGP race held in Jerez annually. The race is one of the most watched races in Europe.


title: Jerez de la Frontera

text: Another popular festival is the Feria del Caballo (declared a festival of international tourist interest), one of the most famous Spanish fairs, and the most important fair in the province of Cádiz. It is celebrated annually in the Parque González Hontoria for one week in May, occurring always after the Spanish motorcycle Grand Prix. The a fair dedicated mainly to the horse. All booths ("casetas") at the fair are open to the public, so that attendees may walk into any one of them and enjoy the food, drinks, and dancing. This is one of the main features that differentiates the Feria de Jerez from the rest of the Andalusian Fairs, such as the Seville Fair, where most of the "casetas" are private and only card-holding members are allowed in.


title: Jerez de la Frontera

text: Holy Week in Jerez, as in other cities in Andalusia, commemorates the Passion of Jesus Christ. It is celebrated by Catholic religious brotherhoods and fraternities that perform penance processions on the streets during the last week of Lent, the week immediately before Easter. The Holy Week of Jerez de la Frontera stands out for being one of the most important in Andalusia in terms of number of brotherhoods, quality in its carvings and iconographic sets. Holy Week in Jerez was declared of National Tourist Interest in 1993.


title: Jerez de la Frontera

text: During the Christmas season, from the end of November to the end of December, many "peñas" (religious and cultural clubs) celebrate the holidays with public festivals where anyone can go to drink, eat, dance and sing Christmas carols, accompanied by friction drums called "zambombas".


title: Jerez de la Frontera

text: The old quarter of Jerez, dating from medieval times, has been named an "Artistic Historic Complex". The Easter week celebrations in Jerez are of "National Touristic Interest", and its remarkable Feria del Caballo in May is an event of "International Touristic Interest".


title: Jerez de la Frontera

text: The Andalusian Flamenco Centre is located in the Pemartín Palace ("Palacio de Pemartín") and offers a library, displays, video films and live demonstrations of the art of flamenco dancing.


title: Jerez de la Frontera

text: The city of Jerez is the first motorcycling world capital. It is the site of Circuito de Jerez, formerly called the Circuito Permanente de Jerez, where the annual MotoGP Motorcycle Grand Prix is contested.


title: Jerez de la Frontera

text: The race course is also a prime destination for Formula One teams wishing to perform off-season testing. In the past it has hosted the F1 race itself, namely the Spanish Grand Prix between 1986 and 1990, before the race moved permanently to the Catalunya Circuit near Barcelona. Since then Jerez hosted the Formula One races a few times, with the designation of the European Grand Prix in 1994 and the controversial race in 1997.


title: Jerez de la Frontera

text: The Complejo Municipal de Chapín is a complex of sports facilities that includes a football stadium and field, a baseball field, equestrian facilities and a Sports Hall, as well as a futsal field and basketball and volleyball courts.


title: Jerez de la Frontera

text: The Estadio Municipal de Chapín, a multi-purpose stadium, was built in 1988 and seats 20,523 spectators. In 2002 the stadium was remodeled to hold the 2002 FEI World Equestrian Games. The whole grandstand was covered with a roof, and a hotel and spa-gym were added. It was historically the home of Xerez CD, the city's club founded in 1947 and known simply as Xerez, which played in the top division in the 2009–2010 season. Currently, the stadium is the home of Xerez Deportivo FC, founded in 2013 to replace the old Xerez club.


title: Jerez de la Frontera

text: The stadium, which has a running track, was designated as an Olympic Stadium. The most important track team training there is the Club Atletismo Xerez Deportivo FC, which won the Spanish championships in 2001–2007.


title: Jerez de la Frontera

text: Canasta Unibasket Jerez and DKV Jerez are the city's basketball teams; they play in "Palacio Municipal de Deportes de Chapín".


title: Jerez de la Frontera

text: Venenciadores de Jerez, the city's baseball team, is currently without a home field and awaits completion of one in the Complejo Municipal de Chapín.


title: Jerez de la Frontera

text: The main futsal team in Jerez is Xerez Deportivo FC (also known as "Xerez Toyota Nimauto" for sponsorship reasons). It was founded in 2014 and currently plays in the "Ruiz Mateos Sports Center" and the "Palacio Municipal de Deportes de Chapín" in "Segunda Andaluza".


title: Jerez de la Frontera

text: The Domecq Stadium was the first football stadium in Jerez de la Frontera. It was the home of Xerez CD and Jerez Industrial CF before its demolition. The Stadium del Parque (Park Stadium) was built in 1923 and remodeled (with the name of Domecq Stadium) in 1932 by the architect Francisco Hernández Rubio. It held 20,523 and it was demolished in 1988.


title: Jerez de la Frontera

text: Currently, the Juventud Stadium is the oldest stadium in the city. It holds 5,000 and is the home of Jerez Industrial CF, founded in 1951, the main rival of Xerez.


title: Jerez de la Frontera

text: Formerly, the football field belonged to the youth hostel which is located in the vicinity thereof, hence its name.


title: Jerez de la Frontera

text: It is the CD Guadalcacín stadium, which plays in the Tercera Division. It is placed in "Guadalcacín", a neighborhood northern Jerez.


title: Jerez de la Frontera

text: The 2014 Vuelta a España cycle race began in Jerez de la Frontera on 23 August, with a team time trial. The race followed a 21-stage route, finishing in Santiago de Compostela on 14 September.


title: Jerez de la Frontera

text: Club Natación Jerez, is the main Swimming Club in Jerez. It has won the "Campeonato de España Master" ("Championship of Spain Master") many times.


title: Jerez de la Frontera

text: There are 76 elementary schools, 41 secondary schools, 12 adult education centres and 10 public libraries in the city of Jerez.


title: Jerez de la Frontera

text: The University of Cádiz, the provincial university, has a campus in Jerez. It specializes in socio-political studies.


title: Jerez de la Frontera

text: The city is also home to a member of the Official School of Languages ("Escuela Oficial de Idiomas") and a centre of the National Distance Education University ("Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia", UNED).


title: Jerez de la Frontera

text: El Aeropuerto de Jerez, also known as "Aeropuerto de La Parra", is the main airport in the province of Cádiz. It is located north of the city centre and is connected to the city by train and bus.


title: Jerez de la Frontera

text: It was built in 1937, during the Spanish Civil War by the Nationalists in order to transport soldiers from Africa to Spain. The airport was open to civil traffic in 1992. It is the third most important airport in Andalucia after Malaga and Seville.


title: Jerez de la Frontera

text: Jerez has had a railway line since 1854, which was one of the first in Spain, the Alcázar de San Juan–Cádiz railway. The line went between Jerez and El Puerto de Santa María and transported wine barrels for export. Jerez de la Frontera railway station is used by more passengers than Cádiz and is the fourth busiest in Andalucia.


title: Jerez de la Frontera

text: Next to the Aeropuerto de Jerez, there is a new train station which connects the airport through the Cercanías Cádiz line C-1 to nearby Jerez, and also to Cádiz, Sevilla, Lebrija, Utrera, El Puerto de Santa María, and San Fernando.


title: Jerez de la Frontera

text: According to official population data from INE, the municipality of Jerez had 213,105 inhabitants as of January 1, 2020. This makes Jerez the most populous city in the province, fifth in Andalusia, and 25th in Spain.


title: Eastern bluebird

text: The eastern bluebird (Sialia sialis) is a small North American migratory thrush found in open woodlands, farmlands, and orchards.


title: Eastern bluebird

text: The bright-blue breeding plumage of the male, easily observed on a wire or open perch, makes this species a favorite of birders. The male's call includes sometimes soft warbles of ' or ', or the melodious song "".


title: Eastern bluebird

text: The eastern bluebird was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his "Systema Naturae" under the binomial name "Motacilla sialis". The type location is South Carolina. Linnaeus based his short Latin description on the earlier more detailed descriptions by the English naturalists Mark Catesby and George Edwards. The eastern bluebird is now placed in the genus "Sialia" that was introduced by the English naturalist William John Swainson in 1827 with the eastern bluebird as the type species.


title: Eastern bluebird

text: Male bluebirds have a bright head, back, and wings. Their breast is a brownish red. Females are lighter with gray on the head and back and some blue on their wings and tail. In females, the breast is usually lighter in color than in males, and is more orange.


title: Eastern bluebird

text: The eastern bluebird is found east of the Rockies, southern Canada to the Gulf states, and southeastern Arizona to Nicaragua. The increase in trees throughout the Great Plains during the past century due to fire suppression and tree planting facilitated the western range expansion of the species. as well as range expansions of many other species of birds. From 1966-2015 the eastern bluebird experienced a greater than 1.5% annual population increase throughout most of its breeding and year-round ranges, with exceptions including southern Florida and the Ohio River valley.


title: Eastern bluebird

text: Bluebirds tend to live in open country around trees, but with little understory and sparse ground cover. Original habitats probably included open, frequently burned pine savannas, beaver ponds, mature but open woods, and forest openings. Today, they are most common along pastures, agricultural fields, suburban parks, backyards, and even golf courses. Populations also occur across eastern North America and south as far as Nicaragua. Birds that live farther north and in the west of the range tend to lay more eggs than eastern and southern birds.


title: Eastern bluebird

text: An isolated, insular subspecies of the eastern bluebird is found on Bermuda, and has a distinctive, brighter blue coloration compared to mainland populations. This population was formerly thought to have been predated the colonization of the islands (making it one of only three extant, resident pre-colonization Bermuda landbirds, alongside the Bermuda white-eyed vireo and gray catbird). However, analysis of fossil strata found no evidence for the existence of bluebirds on the islands prior to European colonization. Using simulations and molecular evidence, a 2013 study found that the Bermuda bluebirds likely descend from very small founder population from a single colonization event during the 1600s. This colonization event could either be a natural one by migratory individuals or an anthropogenic introduction by early settlers, who are known to have introduced several other eastern North American birds like the northern cardinal ("Cardinalis cardinalis") to Bermuda very shortly after colonization. It is likely that the alteration to the islands' ecosystem due to the clearing of native forest facilitated this colonization by providing optimal bluebird feeding habitat, along with a lack of predators.


title: Eastern bluebird

text: Eastern bluebirds are social, and will sometimes gather in flocks of over a hundred. However, they are territorial during the breeding season and may continue to defend a feeding area throughout the winter.


title: Eastern bluebird

text: Mating occurs in the spring and summer. A mature female typically raises two broods each season. Nests are constructed in trees within abandoned woodpecker holes or other cavities that provide adequate protection (usually several feet above ground). Construction of the nest is done primarily by the female and takes around 10 days to complete. These nests are small, cup-like structures lined with grass, feathers, stems, and hairs. Each female lays three to seven light-blue or, rarely, white eggs. The female incubates the eggs, which hatch after 13 to 16 days. The young cannot care for themselves upon hatching. The female broods the chicks for up to seven days after hatching. Fledglings then leave the nest 15 to 20 days after hatching.


title: Eastern bluebird

text: Both parents cooperate in raising the young, which they feed a diet consisting almost entirely of insects. Some young stay around the nest to help raise another brood. Fledglings are grayish in color, with speckled breasts. The blue color becomes much more prominent and the speckles on their breasts disappear as they mature. Bluebirds may begin breeding the summer after they are hatched.


title: Eastern bluebird

text: Eastern bluebirds can live for 6 to 10 years. The longest recorded lifespan for a bluebird is 10 years and five months. However, most bluebirds die within their first year of life. Starvation and freezing are a danger to the young, but most threats come from other animals, including humans. Natural predators of eggs and nestlings can include eastern chipmunks, flying squirrels, American black bears, fire ants, and raccoons. Bluebirds of all ages (including adults) are threatened by rat snakes, racers, American kestrels, and domestic cats. Introduced species such as European starlings and house sparrows are competitors for nesting sites. Non-nesting adults face predation by all native species of falcons, owls, and most varieties of hawks, particularly those in the genus "Accipiter". When approached by a predator, the male makes a song-like warning cry. If no male is present, a threatened female will begin to sing, hoping to attract a protective male back to the territory. Both males and females also flick their wings and warble when predators are nearby.


title: Eastern bluebird

text: About two thirds of an adult bluebird's diet consists of insects and other invertebrates. The remainder is made up of wild fruits or berries. It has a preference for grasshoppers, crickets, katydids, and beetles; and will also eat earthworms, spiders, millipedes, centipedes, sowbugs, and snails.


title: Eastern bluebird

text: Bluebirds feed by perching on a high point, such as a branch or fence post, and swooping down to catch insects on or near the ground. The availability of a winter food source will often determine whether or not a bird will migrate. If bluebirds do remain in a region for the winter, they group and seek cover in heavy thickets, orchards, or other areas in which adequate food and cover resources are available.


title: Eastern bluebird

text: Eastern Bluebirds thrived in the 1700s and 1800s. This flourishing is thought to be connected with the activity of settlers. Clearing forests made new habitat available for bluebirds and nesting sites were created in the increasing numbers of apple orchards and in wooden fence posts that eventually rotted. It is believed that bluebirds were most abundant around 1900. However, increasing competition with the invasive species of European starlings ("Sturnus vulgaris") and house sparrows ("Passer domesticus") along with loss of farmland began to take a toll on bluebird populations. Along with these, pesticides and scarcity of food during winter compounded to cause the number of bluebirds to fall. A definite drop has been shown to have occurred between 1938 and the late 1970s.


title: Eastern bluebird

text: Conservation efforts are seen as early as 1934 when Thomas Musselman created the first bluebird trail by setting up rows of bluebird houses along roads. Also in the 1930s, William Duncan created a bluebird house design and educated others about these birds. In 1964, The National Association for Protection and Propagation of the Purple Martin and Bluebirds of America was founded. After it went out of existence, the Nature Society kept up with conservation work. Lawrence Zeleny's 1976 book, "The Bluebird: How You Can Help Its Fight For Survival", and a National Geographic article he wrote helped make the plight of these birds well known. In 1978, the North American Bluebird Society was founded.


title: Eastern bluebird

text: If the Bermuda population of bluebirds is considered the product of natural colonization, it has also become highly endangered. Early settlers described individual flocks numbering over 50 birds each flying across the islands, but in the present only 500 individuals are thought to remain. The near-extinction of Bermuda cedar ("Juniperus bermudiana") forest in the 1940s and 1950s wiped out the majority of natural nesting habitat for bluebirds, leaving it almost completely dependent on artificial nest boxes for breeding. Introduced starlings and house sparrows evict bluebirds from their nests, and introduced great kiskadees ("Pitangus sulphuratus") feed on juvenile birds. They are also threatened by feral cats and pesticides.


title: Eastern bluebird

text: Bluebirds were popular with early American colonists and associated with the coming of spring. They were referred to as the 'blue robin' because of their resemblance to the European Robin. Bluebirds have been mentioned in the works of many writers including Thoreau's writings, Robert Frost's "The Last Word of a Bluebird (as told to a child)", the "Over the Rainbow" song from "The Wizard of Oz", the song "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah" ("Mister Bluebird's on my shoulder") from Disney's "Song of the South", and John Burrough's "The Bluebird". Lawrence Zeleny said that bluebirds represent joy to Americans.


title: Stephen Wiltshire

text: Stephen Wiltshire (born 24 April 1974) is a British architectural artist and autistic savant. He is known for his ability to draw a landscape from memory after seeing it just once. His work has gained worldwide popularity.


title: Stephen Wiltshire

text: In 2006, Wiltshire was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to art. In the same year, he opened a permanent gallery on the Royal Opera Arcade in London.


title: Stephen Wiltshire

text: Stephen Wiltshire was born in London in 1974 to Caribbean parents; his father, Colvin, was a native of Barbados, and his mother, Geneva, is a native of St. Lucia. He grew up in Little Venice, Maida Vale, London. Wiltshire was mute when young. At the age of three, he was diagnosed with autism. The same year, his father died in a motorbike accident.


title: Stephen Wiltshire

text: At the age of five, Wiltshire was sent to Queensmill School in London where he expressed interest in drawing. His early illustrations depicted animals and cars; he is still extremely interested in American cars and is said to have an encyclopaedic knowledge of them. When he was about seven, Wiltshire became fascinated with sketching landmark London buildings. After being shown a book of photos depicting the devastation wrought by earthquakes, he began to create detailed architectural drawings of imaginary cityscapes.


title: Stephen Wiltshire

text: In June 2015, the BBC's Lucy Ash reported: "Soon people outside the school started noticing Stephen's gift and aged eight he landed his first commission—a sketch of Salisbury Cathedral for the former Prime Minister Edward Heath". When he was ten, Wiltshire drew a sequence of drawings of London landmarks, one for each letter, that he called a "London Alphabet".


title: Stephen Wiltshire

text: In 1987, Wiltshire was part of the BBC programme "The Foolish Wise Ones". "Drawings", a collection of his works, was published that same year.


title: Stephen Wiltshire

text: Between 1995 and his graduation in 1998, Wiltshire attended the City and Guilds of London Art School in Kennington, Lambeth, South London.


title: Stephen Wiltshire

text: Wiltshire can look at a subject once and then draw an accurate and detailed picture of it. He frequently draws entire cities from memory, based on single, brief helicopter rides. For example, he produced a detailed drawing of four square miles of London after a helicopter ride above that city. His nineteen-foot-long drawing of 305 square miles of New York City is based on a twenty-minute helicopter ride. He also draws fictional scenes, for example, St. Paul's Cathedral surrounded by flames.


title: Stephen Wiltshire

text: Wiltshire's early books include "Drawings" (1987), "Cities" (1989), "Floating Cities" (1991), and "Stephen Wiltshire's American Dream" (1993). "Floating Cities" was number one on the "Sunday Times" best-seller list.


title: Stephen Wiltshire

text: In 2003, a retrospective of his work, 'Not a Camera: the Unique Vision of Stephen Wiltshire', was held in the Orleans House gallery in Twickenham, London.


title: Stephen Wiltshire

text: In May 2005 Wiltshire produced his longest ever panoramic memory drawing of Tokyo on a canvas within seven days following a helicopter ride over the city. Since then he has drawn Rome, Hong Kong, Frankfurt, Madrid, Dubai, Jerusalem and London on giant canvasses. When Wiltshire took the helicopter ride over Rome, he drew it in such great detail that he drew the exact number of columns in the Pantheon.


title: Stephen Wiltshire

text: In October 2009 Wiltshire completed the last work in the series of panoramas, an memory drawing of his "spiritual home", New York City. Following a 20-minute helicopter ride over the city he sketched the view of Manhattan, the Hudson shoreline of New Jersey, the Financial District, Ellis Island, the Statue of Liberty, and Brooklyn over five days at the Pratt Institute, a college of art and design in New York City.


title: Stephen Wiltshire

text: In 2010, he made a panorama of Sydney to raise funds for and awareness of Autism Spectrum Australia (Aspect). He visited Bermuda National Gallery where the sale of his donated drawing of Hamilton raised over $22,000. In June 2010, Christie's auctioned off his oil painting "Times Square at Night".


title: Stephen Wiltshire

text: A 2011 project in New York City involved Wiltshire's creation of a panoramic memory drawing of New York which is now displayed on a long giant billboard at John F. Kennedy International Airport. It is a part of a global advertising campaign for the Swiss bank UBS that carries the theme "We will not rest", "The New York Times" reported. Also that year, he appeared on Top Gear.


title: Stephen Wiltshire

text: In July 2014, Wiltshire drew an aerial panorama of the Singapore skyline from memory after a brief helicopter ride, taking five days to complete the 1 x 4m artwork. The artwork was presented to President Tony Tan as the Singapore Press Holding (SPH)'s gift to the nation in celebration of Singapore's 50th birthday in 2015, and will be displayed at Singapore City Gallery, visitor centre of the country's urban planning authority, Urban Redevelopment Authority.


title: Stephen Wiltshire

text: Stephen Wiltshire's feature-length documentary titled "Billions of Windows" premiered in London on the 13th of November 2019.


title: Stephen Wiltshire

text: Wiltshire's work has been the subject of many TV documentaries. Neurologist Oliver Sacks wrote about him in a chapter on prodigies in his book "An Anthropologist on Mars".


title: Stephen Wiltshire

text: In 1989, Wiltshire appeared on the cover of "You" magazine with actor Dustin Hoffman, who had portrayed autistic savant Raymond Babbitt in the 1988 Oscar-winning film, "Rain Man", which Wiltshire considers to be one of his favourite movies.


title: Stephen Wiltshire

text: In 2006, Wiltshire was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to art. In September 2006 Wiltshire opened his permanent gallery in the Royal Opera Arcade, Pall Mall, London.


title: Stephen Wiltshire

text: In 2011, Wiltshire was made an honorary Fellow of the Society of Architectural Illustration (SAI). In January 2015, Wiltshire was also made an honorary Fellow of The Scottish Society of Architect Artists.


title: Walt Disney Studios Park

text: Walt Disney Studios Park (French: Parc Walt Disney Studios) is the second of two theme parks built at Disneyland Paris in Marne-la-Vallée, France, which opened on 16 March 2002. It is owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Parks, Experiences and Products division. Upon opening, it was dedicated to show business, movie themes, production, and behind-the-scenes, but in the 2010s, in a similar manner to its sister park, Disney’s Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World in Florida, it began to distance itself from the original studio backlot theming and entered a new direction of attraction development inspired by iconic Disney stories. In 2019, the park hosted approximately 5.2 million guests. The park is represented by the Earffel Tower, a water tower similar to one that was installed at the Walt Disney Studios lot in Burbank, California.


title: Walt Disney Studios Park

text: Initial plans for a second theme park, named Disney-MGM Studios Europe or Disney-MGM Studios Paris, were scheduled to open in 1995, though these plans were canceled around mid-1992 due to the resort's financial issues at the time. After the resort began to make a profit, these plans were revived on a much smaller scale. The park was announced on 29 September 1999. Construction would officially begin a year later in 2000. Walt Disney Studios Park opened on 16 March 2002.


title: Walt Disney Studios Park

text: In the 2019 documentary series "The Imagineering Story", Bruce Vaughn, Chief Creative Executive (2007–2016) of Walt Disney Imagineering, described his reaction when he visited the park when it first opened:


title: Walt Disney Studios Park

text: In June 2007, a new "studio lot" opened in the Animation Courtyard area of the park, named Toon Studio. It is themed as a "toon backlot", representing the film studio workplace of animated characters, where they produce their animated films. The concept has been created exclusively for Walt Disney Studios Park and features two rides not seen in any other Disney theme park, along with small merchandising locations and many character meet-and-greets. In this expansion phase are Crush's Coaster, a custom-designed Maurer Söhne SC 2000 indoor spinning roller coaster, and Cars Quatre Roues Rallye themed after the 2006 Disney/Pixar film "Cars", with the ride taking the form of an enhanced teacups ride. A similar ride is found in Mermaid Lagoon at Tokyo DisneySea. On 22 December 2007, "The Twilight Zone" Tower of Terror soft-opened with the new Hollywood Boulevard on Production Courtyard. Stitch Live!, imported from Hong Kong Disneyland, replaced the Disney Channel Studio Tour.


title: Walt Disney Studios Park

text: In 2009, new entertainment opened at Walt Disney Studios to run alongside "Mickey's Magical Party", which began in April 2009. "Playhouse Disney – Live on Stage!" opened next to Stitch Live! and is presented in French, English and Spanish. Walt Disney Studios opened with a full-size parade called Disney's Cinema Parade, which was themed after popular Disney animated and live-action films. In 2008, the parade was replaced with Disney's Stars 'n' Cars, a smaller version of Disney Stars and Motor Cars Parade, which came from Disney's Hollywood Studios in Walt Disney World in Florida. In August 2010, Toy Story Playland opened to coincide with the new Disney·Pixar film "Toy Story 3", "shrinking" guests to the size of a toy. The three attractions are a Half Pipe coaster named RC Racer, a parachute jumpstyle ride named Toy Soldiers Parachute Drop, and a Music Express train named Slinky Dog Zigzag Spin, all themed intricately around the first two "Toy Story" films.


title: Walt Disney Studios Park

text: On 27 February 2018, Bob Iger announced a transformative multi-year expansion, opening in phases from 2021 to 2025 to coincide with the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, which will completely transform the park. The cost of this expansion is €2 billion. It will feature new areas based on Marvel, "Star Wars" and "Frozen", all surrounding a new man-made lake.


title: Walt Disney Studios Park

text: On 14 March 2020, Walt Disney Studios Park, alongside Disneyland Park, temporarily closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic in France. Both parks reopened on 15 July 2020 with strict rules such as limited guest attendance, social distancing, and mandatory wearing of face masks. The park closed again on 29 October 2020 following a second nationwide lockdown, the resort's original intended reopening on 2 April 2021 was ultimately deferred to 17 June.


title: Walt Disney Studios Park

text: On July 9 2022, Avengers Campus soft opened as the first phase of the aforementioned expansion plans. It opened with the and the rethemed "Rock 'n' Roller Coaster Avec Aerosmith", known as Avengers Assemble: Flight Force.


title: Walt Disney Studios Park

text: Walt Disney Studios Park is divided into five "studio lots", representing various aspects of film production present at a Hollywood film studio, as well as prominent film franchises.


title: Walt Disney Studios Park

text: Front Lot serves as the park's main entrance and is home to most shops and services of the park, the Earffel Tower is located here. The entrance courtyard, "La Place des Frères Lumière", is designed in Spanish Colonial Revival style, a style common in Hollywood in the 1930s. It is loosely based on the design of the original Disney Bros. Studios on Hyperion Avenue. The central feature of the courtyard is a large "Fantasia" fountain. The name of the courtyard is a tribute to the French inventors of cinema.


title: Walt Disney Studios Park

text: Front Lot features Disney Studio 1, a covered walkway with shops and restaurants themed after a soundstage with a recreation of a Hollywood street inside.


title: Walt Disney Studios Park

text: "Toon Studio" is inspired by both Disney and Pixar animated characters. The lot features Pixar characters such as Crush (from "Finding Nemo"), Mater and Lightning McQueen (from "Cars"), Buzz Lightyear, Woody, Slinky, and other toy characters from "Toy Story" (in addition to many of the other, well-known Disney characters) in a live show, Mickey and the Magician.


title: Walt Disney Studios Park

text: When the park originally opened in 2002, the area was known as Animation Courtyard. Then, in 2007 (as part of the park's fifth anniversary), two new rides were added: Crush's Coaster and Cars Quatre Roues Rallye. In 2009, the area was expanded with the creation of the "Toy Story" Playland. In January 2012, construction began on a new "Ratatouille"-themed ride and restaurant.


title: Walt Disney Studios Park

text: Worlds of Pixar features Pixar characters as Crush (from "Finding Nemo"), Mater and Lightning McQueen (from "Cars"), Buzz Lightyear, Woody, Slinky, and other characters from "Toy Story".


title: Walt Disney Studios Park

text: Production Courtyard's theme revolves around the production aspect of Hollywood movies and the Hollywood mythos, including movie legends. The land contains two distinct parts: "Hollywood Boulevard", which features Hollywood-inspired street sets and the ride "The Twilight Zone" Tower of Terror - A New Dimension of Chills and "Place des Stars" themed around the production facilities of movie lots, containing Stitch Live!.


title: Walt Disney Studios Park

text: Marvel Avengers Campus, a land themed around the Marvel Cinematic Universe, soft opened on 9 July 2022, and opened to the public 20 July 2022. Anchored as a transformed Paris-based secret location for S.H.I.E.L.D., the area's attractions and dining include Avengers Assemble: Flight Force (an Iron Man re-theme of Rock 'n' Roller Coaster Avec Aerosmith) and (a clone of Web Slingers: A Spider-Man Adventure from the Anaheim version of the land). This area replaced the previous "Backlot" lot of the park.


title: Walt Disney Studios Park

text: The Backlot was an opening day lot themed after actual movie backlots with an industrial theme. This lot featured the attractions Rock 'n' Roller Coaster Avec Aerosmith, the , and the special effects show Armageddon – Les Effets Speciaux. The cafeteria service restaurant Blockbuster Café, the buffet Restaurant des Stars, and a small diner Café des Cascadeurs were also part of the Backlot. This area was closed in 2019 to make way for the upcoming Avengers Campus, opening in 2022.


title: Walt Disney Studios Park

text: On 27 February 2018, Bob Iger announced that The Walt Disney Company will invest €2 billion into the Disneyland Paris resort. The Walt Disney Studios Park will be expanded with three new areas based on Marvel, "Frozen" and "Star Wars". In addition to the three new areas, the expansion includes a new lake, which will be the focal point for entertainment experiences and will also connect each of the new park areas.


title: Walt Disney Studios Park

text: The second phase of the expansion will be Kingdom of Arendelle which is scheduled to be open in 2023. Guests will be immersed in the kingdom of Arendelle (set after the events of "Frozen" and before "Frozen II"), where Queen Elsa has declared a Summer Snow Day for its citizens. A new and expanded version of Frozen Ever After will debut with the land as well as a restaurant and a shop.


title: Walt Disney Studios Park

text: The third and final phase of the expansion will be a land themed to "Star Wars" which is scheduled to be completed between 2024 and 2025. Multiple sources have claimed that this expansion will be a version of found in Disneyland and Disney's Hollywood Studios.


title: Walt Disney Studios Park

text: Walt Disney Studios Park has a sister park at Walt Disney World, named Disney's Hollywood Studios, originally Disney-MGM Studios, which opened in 1989. Both are themed after show business, and have provided attractions to each other. The Earffel Tower, which represents Walt Disney Studios Park, is nearly identical to the original tower that existed on the backlot of Disney's Hollywood Studios from 1989 to 2016.


title: Microraptor

text: Microraptor (Greek, μικρός, "mīkros": "small"; Latin, "raptor": "one who seizes") is a genus of small, four-winged dromaeosaurid dinosaurs. Numerous well-preserved fossil specimens have been recovered from Liaoning, China. They date from the early Cretaceous Jiufotang Formation (Aptian stage), 125 to 120 million years ago. Three species have been named ("M. zhaoianus", "M. gui", and "M. hanqingi"), though further study has suggested that all of them represent variation in a single species, which is properly called "M. zhaoianus". Cryptovolans, initially described as another four-winged dinosaur, is usually considered to be a synonym of "Microraptor".


title: Microraptor

text: Like "Archaeopteryx", well-preserved fossils of "Microraptor" provide important evidence about the evolutionary relationship between birds and earlier dinosaurs. "Microraptor" had long pennaceous feathers that formed aerodynamic surfaces on the arms and tail but also on the legs. This led paleontologist Xu Xing in 2003 to describe the first specimen to preserve this feature as a "four-winged dinosaur" and to speculate that it may have glided using all four limbs for lift. Subsequent studies have suggested that "Microraptor" was capable of powered flight as well.


title: Microraptor

text: "Microraptor" was among the most abundant non-avialan dinosaurs in its ecosystem, and the genus is represented by more fossils than any other dromaeosaurid, with possibly over 300 fossil specimens represented across various museum collections.


title: Microraptor

text: The initial naming of "Microraptor" was controversial, because of the unusual circumstances of its first description. The first specimen to be described was part of a chimeric specimen—a patchwork of different feathered dinosaur species ("Microraptor" itself, "Yanornis" and an as-of-yet undescribed third species) assembled from multiple specimens in China and smuggled to the USA for sale. After the forgery was revealed by Xu Xing of Beijing's Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Storrs L. Olson, curator of birds in the National Museum of Natural History of the Smithsonian Institution, published a description of the Microraptor's tail in an obscure journal, giving it the name "Archaeoraptor liaoningensis" in an attempt to remove the name from the paleornithological record by assigning it to the part least likely to be a bird. However, Xu had discovered the remains of the specimen from which the tail had been taken and published a description of it later that year, giving it the name "Microraptor zhaoianus".


title: Microraptor

text: Since the two names designate the same individual as the type specimen, "Microraptor zhaoianus" would have been a junior objective synonym of "Archaeoraptor liaoningensis" and the latter, if valid, would have had priority under the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature. However, there is some doubt whether Olson in fact succeeded in meeting all the formal requirements for establishing a new taxon. Namely, Olson designated the specimen as a lectotype, before an actual type species was formally erected. A similar situation arose with "Tyrannosaurus rex" and "Manospondylus gigas", in which the former became a "nomen protectum" and the latter a "nomen oblitum" due to revisions in the ICZN rules that took place on December 31, 1999. In addition, Xu's name for the type specimen ("Microraptor") was subsequently used more frequently than the original name; as such, this and the chimeric nature of the specimen would render the name "Archaeoraptor" a "nomen vanum" (as it was improperly described) and the junior synonym "Microraptor" a "nomen protectum" (as it's been used in more published works than "Archaeoraptor" and was properly described).


title: Microraptor

text: The first specimen referred to "Microraptor" represented a small individual and included faint feather remnants, but was otherwise not well preserved and lacked a skull.


title: Microraptor

text: In 2002 Mark Norell et al. described another specimen, BPM 1 3-13, which they did not name or refer to an existing species. Later that year Stephen Czerkas et al. named the specimen "Cryptovolans pauli", and referred two additional specimens (the first to show well-preserved feathers) to this species. The generic name was derived from Greek "kryptos", "hidden", and Latin "volans", "flying". The specific name, "pauli", honors paleontologist Gregory S. Paul, who had long proposed that dromaeosaurids evolved from flying ancestors.


title: Microraptor

text: The type specimens of "C. pauli" were collected from the Jiufotang Formation, dating from the early Albian and now belong to the collection of the Paleontology Museum of Beipiao, in Liaoning, China. They are referred to by the inventory numbers LPM 0200, the holotype; LPM 0201, its counterslab (slab and counterslab together represent the earlier BPM 1 3-13); and the paratype LPM 0159, a smaller skeleton. Both individuals are preserved as articulated compression fossils; they are reasonably complete but partially damaged.


title: Microraptor

text: Czerkas "et al." (2002) diagnosed the genus on the basis of having primary feathers (which in the authors' opinion made it a bird), a co-ossified sternum, a tail consisting of 28 to 30 vertebrae and a third finger with a short phalanx III-3. Some of the feathers Czerkas described as primary were actually attached to the leg, rather than the arm. This, along with most of the other diagnostic characters, is also present in the genus "Microraptor", which was first described earlier than "Cryptovolans". However, BPM 1 3-13 has a longer tail, proportionately, than other "Microraptor" specimens that had been described by 2002, which have 24 to 26 tail vertebrae.


title: Microraptor

text: Subsequent studies (and more specimens of "Microraptor") have shown that the features used to distinguish "Cryptovolans" are not unique, but are present to varying degrees across various specimens. In a review by Phil Senter and colleagues in 2004, the scientists suggested that all these features represented individual variation across various age groups of a single "Microraptor" species, making the name "Cryptovolans pauli" and "Microraptor gui" junior synonyms of "Microraptor zhaoianus". Many other researchers, including Alan Feduccia and Tom Holtz, have since supported its synonymy.


title: Microraptor

text: A new specimen of "Microraptor", BMNHC PH881, showed several features previously unknown in the animal, including the probably glossy-black iridescent plumage coloration. The new specimen also featured a bifurcated tailfan, similar in shape to previously known "Microraptor" tailfans except sporting a pair of long, narrow feathers at the center of the fan. The new specimen also showed no sign of the nuchal crest, indicating that the crest inferred from the holotype specimen may be an artifact of taphonomic distortion.


title: Microraptor

text: Numerous further specimens likely belonging to "Microraptor" have been uncovered, all from the Shangheshou Bed of the Jiufotang Formation in Liaoning, China. In fact, "Microraptor" is the most abundant non-avialan dinosaur fossil type found in this formation. In 2010, it was reported that there were over 300 undescribed specimens attributable to "Microraptor" or its close relatives among the collections of several Chinese museums, though many had been altered or composited by private fossil collectors.


title: Microraptor

text: Norell "et al." (2002) described BPM 1 3-13 as the first dinosaur known to have flight feathers on its legs as well as on its arms.


title: Microraptor

text: Czerkas (2002) mistakenly described the fossil as having no long feathers on its legs, but only on its hands and arms, as he illustrated on the cover of his book "Feathered Dinosaurs and the Origin of Flight". In his discussion of "Cryptovolans" in this book, Czerkas strongly denounces Norell's conclusions; ""The misinterpretation of the primary wing feathers as being from the hind legs stems directly to" [sic] "seeing what one believes and wants to see"". Czerkas also denounced Norell for failing to conclude that dromaeosaurs are birds, accusing him of succumbing to ""...the blinding influences of preconceived ideas."" The crown group definition of Aves, as a subset of Avialae, the explicit definition of the term "bird" that Norell employs, would definitely exclude BPM 1 3-13. However, he does not consider the specimen to belong to Avialae either.


title: Microraptor

text: Czerkas's interpretation of the hindleg feathers noted by Norell proved to be incorrect the following year when additional specimens of "Microraptor" were published by Xu and colleagues, showing a distinctive "hindwing" completely separate from the forelimb wing. The first of these specimens was discovered in 2001, and between 2001 and 2003 four more specimens were bought from private collectors by Xu's museum, the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology. Xu also considered these specimens, most of which had hindwings and proportional differences from the original "Microraptor" specimen, to be a new species, which he named "Microraptor gui". However, Senter also questioned this classification, noting that as with "Cryptovolans", most of the differences appeared to correspond with size, and likely age differences. Two further specimens, classified as "M. zhaoianus" in 2002 ("M. gui" had not yet been named), have also been described by Hwang and colleagues.


title: Microraptor

text: Czerkas also believed that the animal may have been able to fly better than "Archaeopteryx", the animal usually referred to as the earliest known bird. He cited the fused sternum and asymmetrical feathers, and argued that "Microraptor" has modern bird features that make it more derived than "Archaeopteryx". Czerkas cited the fact that this possibly volant animal is also very clearly a dromaeosaurid to suggest that the Dromaeosauridae might actually be a basal bird group, and that later, larger, species such as "Deinonychus" were secondarily flightless (Czerkas, 2002). The current consensus is that there is not enough evidence to conclude whether dromaeosaurs descended from an ancestor with some aerodynamic abilities. The work of Xu "et al." (2003) suggested that basal dromaeosaurs were probably small, arboreal, and could glide. The work of Turner "et al." (2007) suggested that the ancestral dromaeosaur could not glide or fly, but that there was good evidence that it was small-bodied (around 65 cm long and 600–700 g in mass).


title: Microraptor

text: With adult specimens estimated up to ) and with a weight estimated up to , "Microraptor" was among the smallest-known non-avian dinosaurs. Holtz estimated it at . An estimate by Benson "et al." in 2012 was that "Microraptor" had a maximum length of . Aside from their extremely small size, "Microraptor" were among the first non-avialan dinosaurs discovered with the impressions of feathers and wings. Seven specimens of "M. zhaoianus" have been described in detail, from which most feather impressions are known. Unusual even among early birds and feathered dinosaurs, "Microraptor" is one of the few known bird precursors to sport long flight feathers on the legs as well as the wings. Their bodies had a thick covering of feathers, with a diamond-shaped fan on the end of the tail (possibly for added stability during flight). Xu "et al." (2003) compared the longer plumes on "Microraptor"s head to those of the Philippine eagle. Bands of dark and light present on some specimens may indicate color patterns present in life, though at least some individuals almost certainly possessed an iridescent black coloration. Several anatomical features found in "Microraptor", such as a combination of unserrated and partially serrated teeth with constricted 'waists', and unusually long upper arm bones, are shared with both primitive avians and primitive troodontids. "Microraptor" is particularly similar to the basal troodontid "Sinovenator"; in their 2002 description of two "M. zhaoianus" specimens, Hwang "et al." note that this is not particularly surprising, given that both "Microraptor" and "Sinovenator" are very primitive members of two closely related groups, and both are close to the deinonychosaurian split between dromaeosaurids and troodontids.


title: Microraptor

text: In March 2012, Quanguo Li "et al." determined the plumage coloration of "Microraptor" based on the new specimen BMNHC PH881, which also showed several other features previously unknown in "Microraptor". By analyzing the fossilized melanosomes (pigment cells) in the fossil with scanning electron microscope techniques, the researchers compared their arrangements to those of modern birds. In "Microraptor", these cells were shaped in a manner consistent with black, glossy coloration in modern birds. These rod-shaped, narrow melanosomes were arranged in stacked layers, much like those of a modern starling, and indicated iridescence in the plumage of "Microraptor". Though the researchers state that the true function of the iridescence is yet unknown, it has been suggested that the tiny dromaeosaur was using its glossy coat as a form of communication or sexual display, much as in modern iridescent birds.


title: Microraptor

text: The cladogram below follows a 2012 analysis by paleontologists Phil Senter, James I. Kirkland, Donald D. DeBlieux, Scott Madsen and Natalie Toth.


title: Microraptor

text: "Microraptor" had four wings, one on each of its forelimbs and hindlimbs, somewhat resembling one possible arrangement of the quartet of flight surfaces on a tandem wing aircraft of today. It had long pennaceous feathers on arms and hands with legs and feet . The long feathers on the legs of "Microraptor" were true flight feathers as seen in modern birds, with asymmetrical vanes on the arm, leg, and tail feathers. As in modern bird wings, "Microraptor" had both primary (anchored to the hand) and secondary (anchored to the arm) flight feathers. This standard wing pattern was mirrored on the hindlegs, with flight feathers anchored to the upper foot bones as well as the upper and lower leg. Though not apparent in most fossils under natural light, due to obstruction from decayed soft tissue, the feather bases extended close to or in contact with the bones, as in modern birds, providing strong anchor points.


title: Microraptor

text: It was originally thought that "Microraptor" was a glider, and probably lived mainly in trees, because the hindwings anchored to the feet of "Microraptor" would have hindered their ability to run on the ground. Some paleontologists have suggested that feathered dinosaurs used their wings to parachute from trees, possibly to attack or ambush prey on the ground, as a precursor to gliding or true flight. In their 2007 study, Chatterjee and Templin tested this hypothesis as well, and found that the combined wing surface of "Microraptor" was too narrow to successfully parachute to the ground without injury from any significant height. However, the authors did leave open the possibility that "Microraptor" could have parachuted short distances, as between closely spaced tree branches. Wind tunnel experiments have demonstrated that sustaining a high-lift coefficient at the expense of high drag was likely the most efficient strategy for "Microraptor" when gliding between low elevations. "Microraptor" did not require a sophisticated, 'modern' wing morphology to be an effective glider. However, the idea that "Microraptor" was an arboreal glider relies on it to have regularly climbed or even lived in trees, when study of its anatomy have shown that its limb proportions fall in line with modern ground birds rather than climbers, and its skeleton shows none of the expected adaptations in animals specialized for climbing trees.


title: Microraptor

text: Describing specimens originally referenced as a distinctive species ("Cryptovolans pauli"), paleontologist Stephen Czerkas argued "Microraptor" may have been a powered flier, and indeed possibly a better flyer than "Archaeopteryx". He noted that the "Microraptor's" fused sternum, asymmetrical feathers, and features of the shoulder girdle indicated that it could fly under its own power, rather than merely gliding. Today, most scientists agree that "Microraptor" had the anatomical features expected of a flying animal, though it would have been a less advanced form of flight compared to birds. For example, some studies suggest the shoulder joint was too primitive to allow a full flapping flight stroke. In the ancestral anatomy of theropod dinosaurs, the shoulder socket faced downward and slightly backward, making it impossible for the animals to raise their arms vertically, a prerequisite for the flapping flight stroke in birds. Studies of maniraptoran anatomy have suggested that the shoulder socket did not shift into the bird-like position of a high, upward orientation close to the vertebral column until relatively advanced avialans like the enantiornithes appeared. However, other scientists have argued that the shoulder girdle in some paravian theropods, including "Microraptor", is curved in such a way that the shoulder joint could only have been positioned high on the back, allowing for a nearly vertical upstroke of the wing. This possibly advanced shoulder anatomy, combined with the presence of a propatagium linking the wrist to the shoulder (which fills the space in front of the flexed wing and may support the wing against drag in modern birds) and an alula, much like a "thumb-like" form of leading edge slot, may indicate that "Microraptor" was capable of true, powered flight.


title: Microraptor

text: Other studies have demonstrated that the wings of "Microraptor" were large enough to generate the lift necessary for powered launching into flight even without a fully vertical flight stroke. A 2016 study of incipient flight ability in paravians demonstrated that "Microraptor" was capable of wing-assisted incline running, as well as wing-assisted leaping and even ground-based launching.


title: Microraptor

text: Stephen Czerkas, Gregory S. Paul, and others have argued that the fact "Microraptor" could fly and yet is also very clearly a dromaeosaurid suggests that the Dromaeosauridae, including later and larger species such as "Deinonychus", were secondarily flightless. The work of Xu and colleagues also suggested that the ancestors of dromaeosaurids were probably small, arboreal, and capable of gliding, although later discoveries of more primitive dromaeosaurids with short forelimbs unsuitable for gliding have cast doubt on this view. Work done on the question of flight ability in other paravians, however, showed that most of them probably would not have been able to achieve enough lift for powered flight, given their limited flight strokes and relatively smaller wings. These studies concluded that "Microraptor" probably evolved flight and its associated features (fused sternum, alula, etc.) independently of the ancestors of birds.


title: Microraptor

text: Sankar Chatterjee suggested in 2005 that, in order for "Microraptor" to glide or fly, the forewings and hindwings must have been on different levels (as on a biplane) and not overlaid (as on a dragonfly), and that the latter posture would have been anatomically impossible. Using this biplane model, Chatterjee was able to calculate possible methods of gliding and determined that "Microraptor" most likely employed a "phugoid" style of gliding: launching itself from a perch, the animal would have swooped downward in a deep U-shaped curve and then lifted again to land on another tree. The feathers not directly employed in the biplane wing structure, like those on the tibia and the tail, could have been used to control drag and alter the flight path, trajectory, etc. The orientation of the hindwings would also have helped the animal control its gliding flight. Chatterjee also used computer algorithms that test animal flight capacity to test whether or not "Microraptor" was capable of true, powered flight, as opposed to or in addition to passive gliding. The resulting data showed that "Microraptor" did have the requirements to sustain level powered flight, so it is theoretically possible that the animal flew, as opposed to gliding.


title: Microraptor

text: Some paleontologists have doubted the biplane hypothesis, and have proposed other configurations. A 2010 study by Alexander "et al." described the construction of a lightweight three-dimensional physical model used to perform glide tests. Using several hindleg configurations for the model, they found that the biplane model, while not unreasonable, was structurally deficient and needed a heavy-headed weight distribution for stable gliding, which they deemed unlikely. The study indicated that a laterally abducted hindwing structure represented the most biologically and aerodynamically consistent configuration for "Microraptor". A further analysis by Brougham and Brusatte, however, concluded that Alexander's model reconstruction was not consistent with all of the available data on "Microraptor" and argued that the study was insufficient for determining a likely flight pattern for "Microraptor". Brougham and Brusatte criticized the anatomy of the model used by Alexander and his team, noting that the hip anatomy was not consistent with other dromaeosaurs. In most dromaeosaurids, features of the hip bone prevent the legs from splaying horizontally; instead, they are locked in a vertical position below the body. Alexander's team used a specimen of "Microraptor" which was crushed flat to make their model, which Brougham and Brusatte argued did not reflect its actual anatomy. Later in 2010, Alexander's team responded to these criticisms, noting that the related dromaeosaur "Hesperonychus", which is known from complete hip bones preserved in three dimensions, also shows hip sockets directed partially upward, possibly allowing the legs to splay more than in other dromaeosaurs.


title: Microraptor

text: Due to the extent of the hindwings onto most of the animal's foot, many scientists have suggested that "Microraptor" would have been awkward during normal ground movement or running. The front wing feathers would also have hindered "Microraptor" when on the ground, due to the limited range of motion in the wrist and the extreme length of the wing feathers. A 2010 study by Corwin Sullivan and colleagues showed that, even with the wing folded as far as possible, the feathers would still have dragged along the ground if the arms were held in a neutral position, or extended forward as in a predatory strike. Only by keeping the wings elevated, or the upper arm extended fully backward, could "Microraptor" have avoided damaging the wing feathers. Therefore, it may have been anatomically impossible for "Microraptor" to have used its clawed forelimbs in capturing prey or manipulating objects.


title: Microraptor

text: The unique wing arrangement found in "Microraptor" raised the question of whether the evolution of flight in modern birds went through a four-winged stage, or whether four-winged gliders like "Microraptor" were an evolutionary side-branch that left no descendants. As early as 1915, naturalist William Beebe had argued that the evolution of bird flight may have gone through a four-winged (or "tetrapteryx") stage. Chatterjee and Templin did not take a strong stance on this possibility, noting that both a conventional interpretation and a tetrapteryx stage are equally possible. However, based on the presence of unusually long leg feathers in various feathered dinosaurs, "Archaeopteryx", and some modern birds such as raptors, as well as the discovery of further dinosaurs with long primary feathers on their feet (such as "Pedopenna"), the authors argued that the current body of evidence, both from morphology and phylogeny, suggests that bird flight did shift at some point from shared limb dominance to front-limb dominance and that all modern birds may have evolved from four-winged ancestors, or at least ancestors with unusually long leg feathers relative to the modern configuration.


title: Microraptor

text: In 2010 researchers announced that further preparation of the type fossil of "M. zhaoianus" revealed preserved probable gut contents. These consisted of mammalian bones, including a possible skull, limb, and vertebral fragments and also a whole foot. The foot skeleton is similar to those of "Eomaia" and "Sinodelphys". It corresponds to an animal with an estimated snout to vent length of and a mass of . The unguals of the foot are less curved than in "Eomaia" or "Sinodelphys", indicating that the mammal could climb but less effectively than in the two latter genera.


title: Microraptor

text: In the December 6, 2011 issue of "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences", Jingmai O'Connor and coauthors described a "Microraptor" specimen containing bird bones in its abdomen, specifically a partial wing and feet. Their position indicate that the dinosaur swallowed a tree-perching bird whole.


title: Microraptor

text: In 2013 researchers announced that they had found fish scales in the abdominal cavity of a "Microraptor" specimen. This new finding corrects the previous position that "Microraptor" hunted only in an arboreal environment. They also argued that the specimen showed a probable adaptation to a fish-eating diet: the good preservation of the mandible shows that the first three teeth were inclined anterodorsally, a characteristic often associated with piscivory. "Microraptor" was an opportunistic feeder, hunting the most common prey in both arboreal and aquatic habitats.


title: Microraptor

text: In 2019, a new genus of scleroglossan lizard ("Indrasaurus") was described from a specimen found in the stomach of a "Microraptor". The "Microraptor" apparently swallowed its prey head first, a behavior typical of modern carnivorous birds and lizards. The "Indrasaurus" bones lacked marked pitting and scarring, indicating that the "Microraptor" died shortly after eating the lizard and before significant digestion had occurred.


title: Microraptor

text: Unlike its fellow paravian "Anchiornis", "Microraptor" has never been found with gastric pellets, despite the existence of four "Microraptor" specimens that preserve stomach contents. This suggests that "Microraptor" passed indigestible fur, feathers, and bits of bone in its droppings instead of producing pellets.


title: Microraptor

text: Based on the size of the scleral ring of the eye, it has been suggested "Microraptor" hunted at night. However, the discovery of iridescent plumage in "Microraptor" has cast doubt on this conclusion, as no modern birds that have iridescent plumage are known to be nocturnal.


title: Sethianism

text: The Sethians were one of the main currents of Gnosticism during the 2nd and 3rd century CE, along with Valentinianism and Basilideanism. According to John D. Turner, it originated in the 2nd century CE as a fusion of two distinct Hellenistic Judaic philosophies and was influenced by Christianity and Middle Platonism. However, the exact origin of Sethianism is not properly understood.


title: Sethianism

text: The Sethians (Latin "Sethoitae") are first mentioned, alongside the Ophites, in the 2nd century, by Irenaeus (who was antagonistic towards gnosticism) and in Pseudo-Tertullian (Ch. 30). According to Frederik Wisse, all subsequent accounts appear to be largely dependent on Irenaeus. Hippolytus repeats information from Irenaeus.


title: Sethianism

text: According to Epiphanius of Salamis (c. 375), Sethians were in his time found only in Egypt and Palestine, but fifty years earlier, they had been found as far away as Greater Armenia.


title: Sethianism

text: Philaster's (4th century CE) "Catalogue of Heresies" places the Ophites, Cainites, and Sethians as pre-Christian Jewish sects. However, since Sethians identified Seth with Christ ("Second Logos of the Great Seth"), Philaster's belief that the Sethians had pre-Christian origins, other than in syncretic absorption of Jewish and Greek pre-Christian sources, has not found acceptance in later scholarship.


title: Sethianism

text: Hans-Martin Schenke was one of the first scholars to categorize several texts in the Nag Hammadi library as Sethian.


title: Sethianism

text: According to John D. Turner, British and French scholarship tends to see Sethianism as "a form of heterodox Christian speculation," while German and American scholarship views it as "a distinctly inner-Jewish, albeit syncretistic and heterodox, phenomenon." Roelof van den Broek notes that "Sethianism" may never have been a separate religious movement but that the term rather refers to a set of mythological themes that occur in various texts. According to Turner, Sethianism was influenced by Christianity and Middle Platonism, and six phases can be discerned in the interaction of Sethianism with Christianity and Platonism.


title: Sethianism

text: "Phase 1". According to Turner, two different groups, existing before the 2nd century CE, formed the basis for the Sethians: a Jewish group of possibly priestly lineage, the so-called "Barbeloites", named after Barbelo, the first emanation of the Highest God, and a group of Biblical exegetes, the "Sethites", the "seed of Seth."


title: Sethianism

text: "Phase 2". The "Barbeloites" were a baptizing group that in the mid-2nd century fused with Christian baptizing groups. They started to view the pre-existing Christ as the "self-generated (Autogenes) Son of Barbelo," who was "anointed with the Invisible Spirit's "Christhood"." According to Turner, this "same anointing [was] received by the Barbeloites in their baptismal rite by which they were assimilated to the archetypal Son of Man." The earthly Jesus was regarded as the guise of Barbelo, appearing as the Divine Logos, and receiving Christhood when he was baptized.


title: Sethianism

text: "Phase 3". In the later 2nd century CE, the Christianized Barbeloites fused with the Sethites, together forming the Gnostic Sethianists. Seth and Christ were identified as bearers of "the true image of God who had recently appeared in the world as the Logos to rescue Jesus from the cross."


title: Sethianism

text: "Phase 4". At the end of the 2nd century, Sethianism grew apart from the developing Christian orthodoxy, which rejected the Docetian view of the Sethians on Christ.


title: Sethianism

text: "Phase 5". In the early 3rd century, Sethianism was fully rejected by Christian heresiologists, and Sethianism shifted toward the contemplative practices of Platonism, while losing their interest in their own origins.