title: Marked for Death

text: Upon returning to Chicago, the trio display Screwface's severed head to the Chicago Posse to try to convince them to end their crimes and leave town. However, Charles is impaled by a man who is revealed to be Screwface's twin brother, making the gang believe that Screwface has returned from the dead using voodoo. A gunfight breaks out wherein Max holds off the henchmen despite being shot in the leg while John dispatches more gang members before he engages Screwface's twin in a sword fight. The fight moves to a nightclub owned by the twin, where Hatcher gives him more fatal injuries by gouging his eyes and breaking his spine before dropping him down an elevator shaft, impaling him in the process. As the surviving Posse members discover their boss' corpse, their fates remain ambiguous, although the death of the Screwface twins implies their arrest by law enforcement.


title: Marked for Death

text: John leaves the scene carrying Charles' body with Max limping next to him as they walk off into the early morning.


title: Marked for Death

text: Steven Seagal had wanted to hire director Dwight Little for his second feature, "Hard to Kill", but studio Warner Bros. vetoed his choice, and went with Bruce Malmuth instead. According to Little, Seagal had the option in his contract with Warner to do one film with another studio. Seagal chose to exercise that option and make his third film at 20th Century Fox, where he demanded that they hire Little for "Marked for Death". "I got that job only because Steven insisted," said Little. During production, the studio was pushing for more humor in the film, but Little and Seagal had made a pact to resist these attempts. Their template for the film was "The French Connection".


title: Marked for Death

text: On the third day of shooting "Marked for Death", "Hard to Kill" came out in theaters. Dwight Little: "It opened huge, and it stayed on top for a while. No one, including Steven, thought that was going to be success. But it was. Frankly, just based on his charisma and a couple of good action scenes. I was downtown shooting a scene for "Marked for Death" when suddenly I see all these limos and towncars coming to the set. They were all CAA-agents and producers, coming out of the woodwork to see the next big action guy. They all wanted to talk to him."


title: Marked for Death

text: Of Seagal's martial arts, Little said: "Steven is the only guy who does what he does in the movies, where you let your opponent's energy go past you. In that respect, he's totally unique. But it's not a forward, high kicking, punching thing. That's why I felt I needed action movie stuff, like car chases, gun fights, explosions and some old fashioned cop stuff. Because if we tried to string together a bunch of Steven's fights, they will quickly start to feel the same."


title: Marked for Death

text: A soundtrack containing hip hop, reggae, and R&B music was released on September 27, 1990 by Delicious Vinyl.


title: Marked for Death

text: "Marked for Death" opened at number one at the U.S. box office with an opening weekend gross of $11,790,047, making it Seagal's second straight film to open #1. It remained at #1 for 3 weekends. It earned a little more than $46 million domestically and $58 million worldwide.


title: Marked for Death

text: Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, reports that 27% of 11 surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating is 4/10. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale. Both "The New York Times" and "The Washington Post" gave it a thumbs up, writing that it was another solid Seagal action film. In a less than favorable response from "Entertainment Weekly", they wrote that the film is partially "undone by murky cinematography". The Chicago Tribune was very critical of the film.


title: Independent Spirit Awards

text: The Independent Spirit Awards (abbreviated Spirit Awards and originally known as the FINDIE or Friends of Independents Awards), founded in 1984, are awards dedicated to independent filmmakers. Winners were typically presented with acrylic glass pyramids containing suspended shoestrings representing the bare budgets of independent films. Since 2006, winners have received a metal trophy depicting a bird with its wings spread sitting atop of a pole with the shoestrings from the previous design wrapped around the pole.


title: Independent Spirit Awards

text: In 1986, the event was renamed the Independent Spirit Awards. Now called the Film Independent Spirit Awards, the show is produced by Film Independent, a not-for-profit arts organization that used to produce the LA Film Festival. Film Independent members vote to determine the winners of the Spirit Awards.


title: Independent Spirit Awards

text: The awards show is held inside a tent in a parking lot at the beach in Santa Monica, California, usually on the day before the Academy Awards (since 1999; originally the Saturday before). The show is broadcast live on the IFC network, as well as Hollywood Suite in Canada and A&E Latin America.


title: Independent Spirit Awards

text: In 2020, new categories were announced for the 36th Independent Spirit Awards, which would honor the best in television productions and performances. These categories included Best New Scripted Series, Best New Non-Scripted or Documentary Series, Best Male Performance, Best Female Performance, and Best Ensemble Cast. In 2022, it was announced that gender neutral acting categories would be implemented and that the previous gendered film categories — Male Lead, Female Lead, Male Supporting and Female Supporting — would be retired in favor of a Best Lead Performance and a Best Supporting Performance categories, which would feature 10 nominees each. Other new categories added included Best Breakthrough Performance and Best Lead and Supporting Performance in the TV section.


title: Independent Spirit Awards

text: In 1984 the FINDIE Awards (Friends of Independents) were conceived by Independent Features Project/West board member Jeanne Lucas and Independent Features Project/West President Anne Kimmel and director/writer Sam O'Brien was an event producer. The awards are voted on by a nominating committee.


title: Independent Spirit Awards

text: In 1985, Peter Coyote and Jamie Lee Curtis presented winners with a Plexiglas pyramid designed by Carol Bosselman, which contain a suspended shoestring, printed with sprocket holes, representing the shoestring budgets of independent films. The Reel Gold Award, also designed by Bosselman, was given to Steve Wachtel for allowing Independent Features Project/West continuing free use of his screening room. It was associated with Filmex. In 1986, Bosselman designed and sculpted the Independent Spirit Award statue that is still given out today, using a lost wax bronze casting method.


title: Desert tortoise

text: The desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizii), is a species of tortoise in the family Testudinidae. The species is native to the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts of the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, and to the Sinaloan thornscrub of northwestern Mexico. "G. agassizii" is distributed in western Arizona, southeastern California, southern Nevada, and southwestern Utah. The specific name "agassizii" is in honor of Swiss-American zoologist Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz. The desert tortoise is the official state reptile in California and Nevada.


title: Desert tortoise

text: The desert tortoise lives about 50 to 80 years; it grows slowly and generally has a low reproductive rate. It spends most of its time in burrows, rock shelters, and pallets to regulate body temperature and reduce water loss. It is most active after seasonal rains and is inactive during most of the year. This inactivity helps reduce water loss during hot periods, whereas winter brumation facilitates survival during freezing temperatures and low food availability. Desert tortoises can tolerate water, salt, and energy imbalances on a daily basis, which increases their lifespans.


title: Desert tortoise

text: In 2011, on the basis of DNA, geographic, and behavioral differences between desert tortoises east and west of the Colorado River, it was decided that two species of desert tortoises exist: Agassiz's desert tortoise ("Gopherus agassizii") and Morafka's desert tortoise ("Gopherus morafkai"). The new species name is in honor of the late Professor David Joseph Morafka of California State University, Dominguez Hills, in recognition of his many contributions to the study and conservation of "Gopherus". "G. morafkai" occurs east of the Colorado River in Arizona, as well as in the states of Sonora and Sinaloa, Mexico. The acceptance of "G. morafkai" reduced the range of "G. agassizii" by about 70% In 2016, based on a large-scale genetic analysis, ecological and morphological data, researchers proposed a split between the Sonoran and Sinaloan populations. This southernmost member of the "Gopherus" genus was named "G. evgoodei," Goode's Thornscrub tortoise"."


title: Desert tortoise

text: These tortoises may attain a length of , with males being slightly larger than females. A male tortoise has a longer gular horn than a female, his plastron (lower shell) is concave compared to a female tortoise. Males have larger tails than females do. Their shells are high-domed, and greenish-tan to dark brown in color. The high domes of their shells allow for space for their lungs, which helps them maintain thermoregulation, also known as maintaining internal temperature. Desert tortoises can grow to in height. They can range in weight from 8 to 15 pounds, or 3.5 kg to 7 kg. The front limbs have sharp, claw-like scales and are flattened for digging. Back legs are skinnier and very long.


title: Desert tortoise

text: Desert tortoises can live in areas with ground temperatures exceeding 60C (140 F) because of their ability to dig burrows and escape the heat. At least 95% of their lives are spent in burrows. There, they are also protected from freezing winter weather while dormant, from November through February or March. Within their burrows, these tortoises create a subterranean environment that can be beneficial to other reptiles, mammals, birds, and invertebrates.


title: Desert tortoise

text: Scientists have divided the desert tortoise into two types: Agassiz's and Morafka's desert tortoises, with a possible third type in northern Sinaloan and southern Sonora, Mexico. An isolated population of Agassiz's desert tortoise occurs in the Black Mountains of northwestern Arizona. They live in a different type of habitat, from sandy flats to rocky foothills. They have a strong proclivity in the Mojave Desert for alluvial fans, washes, and canyons where more suitable soils for den construction might be found. They range from near sea level to around in elevation. Tortoises show very strong site fidelity, and have well-established home ranges where they know where their food, water, and mineral resources are.


title: Desert tortoise

text: Desert tortoises inhabit elevations from below mean sea level in Death Valley to in Arizona, though they are most common from around . Estimates of densities vary from less than on sites in southern California to over in the western Mojave Desert, although most estimates are less than . The home range generally consists of . In general, males have larger home ranges than females, and home range size increases with increasing resources and rainfall.


title: Desert tortoise

text: Desert tortoises are sensitive to the soil type, owing to their reliance on burrows for shelter, reduction of water loss, and regulation of body temperature. The soil should crumble easily during digging and be firm enough to resist collapse. Desert tortoises prefer sandy loam soils with varying amounts of gravel and clay, and tend to avoid sands or soils with low water-holding capacity, excess salts, or low resistance to flooding. They may consume soil to maintain adequate calcium levels, so may prefer sites with higher calcium content.


title: Desert tortoise

text: With the creation of off-road vehicles more humans are making their way in and out of the Desert Tortoises home environment.


title: Desert tortoise

text: Desert tortoises spend most of their lives in burrows, rock shelters, and pallets to regulate body temperature and reduce water loss. Burrows are tunnels dug into soil by desert tortoises or other animals, rock shelters are spaces protected by rocks and/or boulders, and pallets are depressions in the soil. The use of the various shelter types is related to their availability and climate. The number of burrows used, the extent of repetitive use, and the occurrence of burrow sharing are variable. Males tend to occupy deeper burrows than females. Seasonal trends in burrow use are influenced by desert tortoise sex and regional variation. Desert tortoise shelter sites are often associated with plant or rock cover. Desert tortoises often lay their eggs in nests dug in sufficiently deep soil at the entrance of burrows or under shrubs. Nests are typically deep.


title: Desert tortoise

text: Shelters are important for controlling body temperature and water regulation, as they allow desert tortoises to slow their rate of heating in summer and provide protection from cold during the winter. The humidity within burrows prevents dehydration. Burrows also provide protection from predators. The availability of adequate burrow sites influences desert tortoise densities.


title: Desert tortoise

text: Each desert tortoise uses about 5 to 25 burrows per year. Some burrows are used repeatedly, sometimes for several consecutive years. Desert tortoises share burrows with various mammals, reptiles, birds, and invertebrates, such as white-tailed antelope squirrels ("Ammospermophilus leucurus"), woodrats ("Neotoma"), collared peccaries ("Dicolytes tajacu"), burrowing owls ("Athene cunicularia"), Gambel's quail ("Callipepla gambelii" ), rattlesnakes ("Crotalus" spp.), Gila monsters ("Heloderma suspectum"), beetles, spiders, and scorpions. One burrow can host up to 23 desert tortoises – such sharing is more common for desert tortoises of opposite sexes than for desert tortoises of the same sex.


title: Desert tortoise

text: Tortoises mate in the spring and autumn. Male desert tortoises grow two large white glands around the chin area, called chin glands, that signify mating season. A male circles around female, biting her shell in the process. He then climbs upon the female and insert his penis (a white organ, usually only seen upon careful inspection during mating, as it is hidden inside the male and can only be coaxed out with sexual implication) into the cloaca of a female, which is located around the tail. The male may make grunting noises once atop a female, and may move his front legs up and down in a constant motion, as if playing a drum.


title: Desert tortoise

text: Months later, the female lays a clutch of four to eight hard-shelled eggs, which have the size and shape of ping-pong balls, usually in June or July. The eggs hatch in August or September. Wild female tortoises produce up to three clutches a year depending on the climate. Their eggs incubate from 90 to 135 days; some eggs may overwinter and hatch the following spring. In a laboratory experiment, temperature influenced hatching rates and hatchling sex. Incubation temperatures from resulted in hatching rates exceeding 83%, while incubation at resulted in a 53% hatching rate. Incubation temperatures less than resulted in all-male clutches. Average incubation time decreased from 124.7 days at to 78.2 days at .


title: Desert tortoise

text: The Desert Tortoise is one of the few known tortoises in existence that has been observed engaging in homosexual intercourse Same-sex intercourse happens in many species, There is no one answer as to why this occurs. One possible explanation for this could be the social component of gaining and establishing dominance.


title: Desert tortoise

text: The desert tortoise grows slowly, often taking 16 years or longer to reach about in length. The growth rate varies with age, location, gender and precipitation. It can slow down from 12 mm/year for ages 4–8 years to about 6.0 mm/year for ages 16 to 20 years. Males and females grow at similar rates; females can grow slightly faster when young, but males grow larger than females.


title: Desert tortoise

text: Desert Tortoises reach their reproductive maturity at ages 15 to 20, when they become longer than 18 cm (7 in). However, it is possible for them to mature faster as 10-year-old females that are able to reproduce have been observed.


title: Desert tortoise

text: Their activity depends on location, peaking in late spring for the Mojave Desert and in late summer to fall in Sonoran Desert; some populations exhibit two activity peaks during one year. Desert tortoises brumate during winters, roughly from November to February–April. Females begin brumating later and emerge earlier than males; juveniles emerge from brumation earlier than adults.


title: Desert tortoise

text: Temperature strongly influences desert tortoise activity level. Although desert tortoises can survive body temperatures from below freezing to over , most activity occurs at temperatures from . The influence of temperature is reflected in daily activity patterns, with desert tortoises often active late in the morning during spring and fall, early in the morning and late in the evening during the summer, and occasionally becoming active during relatively warm winter afternoons. The activity generally increases after rainfall.


title: Desert tortoise

text: Although desert tortoises spend the majority of their time in shelter, movements of up to per day are common. The common, comparatively short-distance movements presumably represent foraging activity, traveling between burrows, and possibly mate-seeking or other social behaviors. Long-distance movements could potentially represent dispersal into new areas and/or use of peripheral portions of the home range.


title: Desert tortoise

text: The lifespan of a Desert Tortoise can vary from 50 to 80 years. The main causes of mortality in Desert Tortoises include predators, human-related causes, diseases, and environmental factors such as drought, flooding, and fire.


title: Desert tortoise

text: The annual death rate of adults is typically a few percent, but is much higher for young desert tortoises. Only 2–5% of hatchlings are estimated to reach maturity. Estimates of survival from hatching to 1 year of age for Mojave Desert tortoises range from 47 to 51%. Survival of Mojave Desert tortoises from 1 to 4 years of age is 71–89%.


title: Desert tortoise

text: The desert tortoise is an herbivore. Grasses form the bulk of its diet, but it also eats herbs, annual wildflowers, and new growth of cacti, as well as their fruit and flowers. Rocks and soil are also ingested, perhaps as a means of maintaining intestinal digestive bacteria as a source of supplementary calcium or other minerals. As with birds, stones may also function as gastroliths, enabling more efficient digestion of plant material in the stomach.


title: Desert tortoise

text: Much of the tortoise's water intake comes from moisture in the grasses and wildflowers they consume in the spring. A large urinary bladder can store over 40% of the tortoise's body weight in water, urea, uric acid, and nitrogenous wastes. During very dry times, they may give off waste as a white paste rather than a watery urine. During periods of adequate rainfall, they drink copiously from any pools they find, and eliminate solid urates. The tortoises can increase their body weight by up to 40% after copious drinking. Adult tortoises can survive a year or more without access to water. During the summer and dry seasons, they rely on the water contained within cactus fruits and mesquite grass. To maintain sufficient water, they reabsorb water in their bladders, and move to humid burrows in the morning to prevent water loss by evaporation.


title: Desert tortoise

text: A desert tortoise emptying their bladder is one of their defense mechanisms. This can leave the tortoise in a very vulnerable condition in dry areas, since the tortoise will no longer have a backup water supply. If a tortoise is seen in the wild, you should not handle, or pick them up unless they are in imminent danger. If you do pick them up and their bladder is voided, then you must provide them with water to replenish the fluid in their body. If action is not taken this could have “life threatening consequences”.


title: Desert tortoise

text: Ravens, Gila monsters, kit foxes, badgers, roadrunners, coyotes, and fire ants are all natural predators of the desert tortoise. They prey on eggs, juveniles, which are long with a thin, delicate shell, or, in some cases, adults. Ravens are thought to cause significant levels of juvenile tortoise predation in some areas of the Mojave Desert – frequently near urbanized areas. The most significant threats to tortoises include urbanization, disease, habitat destruction and fragmentation, illegal collection and vandalism by humans, and habitat conversion from invasive plant species ("Brassica tournefortii", "Bromus rubens" and "Erodium" spp.).


title: Desert tortoise

text: Desert tortoise populations in some areas have declined by as much as 90% since the 1980s, and the Mojave population is listed as threatened. It is unlawful to touch, harm, harass, or collect wild desert tortoises. It is, however, possible to adopt captive tortoises through the Tortoise Adoption Program in Arizona, Utah Division of Wildlife Resources Desert Tortoise Adoption Program in Utah, Joshua Tree Tortoise Rescue Project in California, or through Bureau of Land Management in Nevada. When adopted in Nevada, they will have a computer chip embedded on their backs for reference. According to Arizona Game and Fish Commission Rule R12-4-407 A.1, they may be possessed if the tortoises are obtained from a captive source which is properly documented. Commission Order 43: Reptile Notes 3: one tortoise per family member.


title: Desert tortoise

text: The Fort Irwin National Training Center of the US Army expanded into an area that was habitat for about 2,000 desert tortoises, and contained critical desert tortoise habitat (a designation by the US Fish and Wildlife Service). In March 2008, about 650 tortoises were moved by helicopter and vehicle, up to 35 km away. The Desert Tortoise Preserve Committee protects roughly of desert tortoise habitat from human activity. This area includes in Kern County, in San Bernardino County, and in Riverside County.


title: Desert tortoise

text: Another potential threat to the desert tortoise's habitat is a series of proposed wind and solar farms. As a result of legislation, solar energy companies have been making plans for huge projects in the desert regions of Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, and Utah. The requests submitted to the Bureau of Land Management total nearly .


title: Desert tortoise

text: Tortoises are made to withstand tough conditions and high temperatures, what they are not meant to withstand are obstacles that come with human development. Such as the use of off-roading vehicles. These vehicles that come along at high speeds have the potential to crush and kill tortoises, running over their eggs and burrows significantly impacting their population.


title: Desert tortoise

text: Concerns about the impacts of the Ivanpah Solar thermal project led the developers to hire some 100 biologists and spend US$22 million caring for the tortoises on or near the site during construction. Despite this, in a 2011 Revised Biological Assessment for the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System, the Bureau of Land Management anticipated the loss or significant degradation of of tortoise habitat and the harm of 57–274 adult tortoises, 608 juveniles, and 236 eggs inside the work area, and 203 adult tortoises and 1,541 juvenile tortoises outside the work area. The BLM expects that most of the juvenile tortoises on the project will be killed.


title: Desert tortoise

text: In the summer of 2010, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility filed a lawsuit against the National Park Service for not having taken measures to manage tortoise shooting in the Mojave National Preserve of California. Biologists discovered numerous gunshot wounds (holes) on dead tortoise shells which could likely have been caused long after natural death as these shells can take five years to disintegrate and make useful targets for well intentioned target shooters. These shells left behind by nature, droughts, roadkill, or vandals may have attracted ravens and threatened the healthy tortoises as any predator bird need only feed once on a small tortoise to remember it as a viable food source. The National Park Service did not take the measures they were urged to. They responded with "We simply do not believe that such regulations are warranted at this time." and no further action has been taken.


title: Desert tortoise

text: Reptiles are known to become infected by a wide range of pathogens, which includes viruses, bacteria, fungi, and parasites. More specifically, the "G. agassizii" population has been negatively affected by upper respiratory tract disease, cutaneous dyskeratosis, herpes virus, shell necrosis, urolithiasis (bladder stones), and parasites.


title: Desert tortoise

text: Upper respiratory tract disease (URTD) is a chronic, infectious disease responsible for population declines across the entire range of the desert tortoise. It was identified in the early 1970s in captive desert tortoise populations, and later identified in the wild population. URTD is caused by the infectious agents "Mycoplasma agassizii" and "Mycoplasma testudineum", which are bacteria in the class Mollicutes and characterized by having no cell wall and a small genome.


title: Desert tortoise

text: Mycoplasmae appear to be highly virulent (infectious) in some populations, while chronic, or even dormant in others. The mechanism (whether environmental or genetic) responsible for this diversity is not understood. Infection is characterized by both physiological and behavioral changes: nasal and ocular discharge, palpebral edema (swelling of the upper and/or lower palpebra, or eyelid, the fleshy portion that is in contact with the tortoises eye globe) and conjunctivitis, weight loss, changes in color and elasticity of the integument, and lethargic or erratic behavior. These pathogens are likely transmitted by contact with an infected individual. Epidemiological studies of wild desert tortoises in the western Mojave Desert from 1992 to 1995 showed a 37% increase in "M. agassizii". Tests were conducted on blood samples, and a positive test was determined by the presence of antibodies in the blood, defined as being seropositive.


title: Desert tortoise

text: Cutaneous dyskeratosis (CD) is a shell disease of unknown origin and has unknown implications on desert tortoise populations. Observationally, it is typified by shell lesions on the scutes. Areas infected with CD appear discolored, dry, rough and flakey, with peeling, pitting, and chipping through multiple cornified layers. Lesions are usually first located on the plastron (underside) of the tortoises, although lesions on the carapace (upper side) and fore limbs are not uncommon. In advanced cases, exposed areas become infected with bacteria, fungi, and exposed tissue and bone may become necrotic. CD was evident as early as 1979 and was initially identified on the Chuckwalla Bench Area of Critical Environmental Concern in Riverside County, California. Currently, the means of transmission are unknown, although hypotheses include autoimmune diseases, exposure to toxic chemicals (possibly from mines, or air pollution), or a deficiency disease (possibly resulting from tortoises consuming low-quality invasive plant species instead of high-nutrient native plants).


title: Desert tortoise

text: Two case studies outlined the spread of disease in desert tortoises. The Daggett Epidemiology of Upper Respiratory Tract Disease project, which provides supporting disease research for the Fort Irwin translocation project, lends an example of the spread of disease. In 2008, 197 health evaluations were conducted, revealing 25.0–45.2% exposure to "M. agassizii" and "M. testudineum", respectively, in a core area adjacent to Interstate 15. The spread of disease was tracked over two years, and clinical signs of URTD spread from the core area to adjacent, outlying locations during this time. Overlaying home ranges and the social nature of these animals, suggests that disease-free individuals may be vulnerable to spread of disease, and that transmission can occur rapidly. Thus, wild tortoises that are close to the urban-wildlife interface may be vulnerable to spread of disease as a direct result of human influence.


title: Desert tortoise

text: The second study indicated that captive tortoises can be a source of disease to wild Agassiz's desert tortoise populations. Johnson "et al." (2006) tested blood samples for URTD (n = 179) and herpesvirus (n = 109) from captive tortoises found near Barstow, CA and Hesperia, CA. Demographic and health data were collected from the tortoises, as well from other reptiles housed in the same facility. Of these, 45.3% showed signs of mild disease, 16.2% of moderate disease, and 4.5% of severe disease, and blood tests revealed that 82.7% of tortoises had antibodies to mycoplasma, and 26.6% had antibodies to herpesvirus (which means the tortoises were seropositive for these two diseases, and indicate previous exposure to the causative agents). With an estimated 200,000 captive desert tortoises in California, their escape or release into the wild is a real threat to uninfected wild populations of tortoises. Projections from this study suggest that about 4400 tortoises could escape from captivity in a given year, and with an 82% exposure rate to URTD, the wild population may be at greater risk than previously thought.


title: Desert tortoise

text: Edwards "et al." reported that 35% of desert tortoises in the Phoenix area are hybrids between either "Gopherus agassizii" and "G. morafkai", or "G. morafkai" and the Texas tortoise, "G. berlandieri". The intentional or accidental release of these tortoises could have dire consequences for wild tortoises.


title: Desert tortoise

text: Before obtaining a desert tortoise as a pet, it is best to check the laws and regulations of the local area and/or state. Desert tortoises may not be captured from the wild. They may, however, be given as a gift from one private owner to another. Desert tortoises need to be kept outdoors in a large area of dry soil and with access to vegetation and water. An underground den and a balanced diet are crucial to the health of captive tortoises.


title: Desert tortoise

text: Wild populations of tortoises must be managed effectively to minimize the spread of diseases, which includes research and education. Despite significant research being conducted on desert tortoises and disease, a considerable knowledge gap still exists in understanding how disease affects desert tortoise population dynamics. It is not known if the population would still decline if disease were completely absent from the system; are tortoises more susceptible to disease during drought conditions? How does a non-native diet impact a tortoise's ability to ward off pathogens? What are the causes of immunity exhibited by some desert tortoises? The 2008 USFWS draft recovery plan suggests that populations of tortoises that are uninfected, or only recently infected, should likely be considered research and management priorities. Tortoises are known to show resistance to disease in some areas, an effort to identify and maintain these individuals in the populations is essential. Furthermore, increasing research on the social behavior of these animals, and garnering a greater understanding of how behavior facilitates disease transmission would be advantageous in understanding rates of transmission. Finally, translocation of tortoises should be done with extreme caution; disease is typically furtive and moving individuals or populations of tortoises across a landscape can have unforeseen consequences.


title: Desert tortoise

text: As a corollary to research, education may help prevent captive tortoises from coming into contact with wild populations. Education campaigns through veterinarians, government agencies, schools, museums, and community centers throughout the range of the desert tortoise could limit the spread of tortoise diseases into wild populations. Strategies may include encouraging people to not breed their captive tortoises, ensure that different species of turtles and tortoises are not housed in the same facility (which would help to prevent the spread of novel diseases into the desert tortoise population), ensure captive tortoises are adequately housed to prevent them from escaping into the wild, and to ensure that captive turtles and tortoises are never released into the wild.


title: Desert tortoise

text: Desert tortoises have been severely affected by disease. Both upper respiratory tract disease and cutaneous dyskeratosis have caused precipitous population declines and die-offs across the entire range of this charismatic species. Both of these diseases are extremely likely to be caused by people, and URTD is easily linked with people releasing captive tortoises into the wild. The combination of scientific research and public education is imperative to curb the spread of disease and aid the tortoise in recovery.


title: Ace Frehley (album)

text: Ace Frehley is a solo album by American guitarist Ace Frehley (formerly of Kiss). It was released by Casablanca Records on September 18, 1978. It was one of four albums released by all Kiss members as solo albums.


title: Ace Frehley (album)

text: The album was produced by Frehley and Eddie Kramer. It featured Anton Fig on drums. He later performed session work on the Kiss albums "Dynasty" and "Unmasked", and became a member of Ace Frehley's band Frehley's Comet. Fig and Will Lee, who played bass on three of the album's tracks, later gained prominence as members of the World's Most Dangerous Band and the CBS Orchestra along with Paul Shaffer on "Late Night with David Letterman" and "Late Show with David Letterman". In an interview with Loudwire, Frehley stated that some of the songs from his solo album were originally slated for the fifth Kiss album, "Rock and Roll Over".


title: Ace Frehley (album)

text: In a retrospective review Greg Prato of AllMusic wrote that "of the four Kiss solo albums, the best of the bunch is Ace Frehley's", who "did not stray far from the expected heavy Kiss sound". Jason Josephes of Pitchfork concurred that it was the standout of the Kiss solo efforts, describing it as "a melange of riff rock, power pop, and just a little bit of soul". Canadian journalist Martin Popoff defined "Ace Frehley" as "the least pretentious, heaviest and best-selling platter of the Kiss' solo album quartet", describing the music as "solid, well-rounded simplified '70s metal".


title: Ace Frehley (album)

text: "New York Groove", which was first recorded in 1975 by British glam rock band Hello, rose to No. 13 on the US "Billboard" Hot 100 singles chart. This was the highest chart placement for any of the singles released from the 1978 solo albums. The album reached No. 26 on the US "Billboard" 200 album chart. It was certified platinum on October 2, 1978, and shipped over 1,000,000 copies. It is the highest selling of the four Kiss solo albums in the Sound Scan era (1991 onwards).


title: Laksh Lalwani

text: Laksh Lalwani (born 19 April 1996), also known as Lakshya, is an Indian actor. He played the titular warrior in "Porus" (2017–18), the most expensive Indian TV show budgeted at 500 crore.


title: Laksh Lalwani

text: In 2015, Lakshya made his acting debut with television series "Warrior High". He went on to play Yuvraj Madhav Shekhawat/Krish in the &TV series "Adhuri Kahaani Hamari" (2015–2016).


title: Laksh Lalwani

text: After doing an episode in "Pyaar Tune Kya Kiya", Lakshya was cast in "Pardes Mein Hai Mera Dil" (2016–2017) as Veer Mehra. He attained widespread critical acclaim for his portrayal of the titular warrior in India's most expensive TV historical show "Porus" (2017–2018), costing 500 crore.


title: Laksh Lalwani

text: Lakshya is all set for Bollywood debut and will be launched by Karan Johar under Dharma Productions, who has signed a three-film contract with him. He was scheduled to debut with Johar's production "Dostana 2" in 2021, which he also began filming in November 2019, but it has been delayed. He is now gearing up to debut with Johar and Shashank Khaitan's love triangle "Bedhadak" alongside Shanaya Kapoor and Gurfateh Pirzada, and will also feature in Johar's third "Aaghat" with Tanya Maniktala.


title: Otto Ernst Remer

text: Otto Ernst Remer (18 August 1912 – 4 October 1997) was a German "Wehrmacht" officer in World War II who played a major role in stopping the 20 July plot in 1944 against Adolf Hitler. In his later years he became a politician and far right activist. He co-founded the Socialist Reich Party in West Germany in the 1950s and is considered an influential figure in post-war neo-fascist politics in Germany.


title: Otto Ernst Remer

text: Otto Ernest Remer was born at Neubrandenburg, Mecklenburg-West Pomerania, in the German Empire on 18 August 1912. He attended a military academy and was commissioned as an officer in the German Army 1932 at the age of 20, a few months before Adolf Hitler rose to power in Germany, initiating a series of laws in the Weimar Republic which made him the sole leader in the country.


title: Otto Ernst Remer

text: Remer took part in the Invasion of Poland in 1939, the Balkans Campaign, and Operation Barbarossa. In April 1942, he was posted to Infantry Regiment Großdeutschland.


title: Otto Ernst Remer

text: In February 1943, he commanded a battalion in the Großdeutschland Division (GD), after Infantry Regiment GD was reformed into a division. His troops covered the withdrawal of a Waffen-SS tank corps during the Third Battle of Kharkov. He was awarded the Knight's Cross for his service as battalion commander and, in November 1943, he was awarded the Oak leaves to the Knight's Cross, which was presented personally by Adolf Hitler.


title: Otto Ernst Remer

text: In March 1944 Remer was appointed as the commanding officer of Wachbataillon Großdeutschland. On 20 July 1944 Wehrmacht officers staged a coup d'etat and attempted to assassinate Adolf Hitler by means of a bomb-attack at the "Wolf's Lair" in East Prussia. Remer, who was in Berlin at the time, first heard news of it from members of the Nazi Party, and waited for official word of Hitler's fate.


title: Otto Ernst Remer

text: In the evening of 20 July 1944, Claus von Stauffenberg, the officer who had carried out the attack upon Hitler arrived back in Berlin, and, believing that he had succeeded in killing him, issued orders to Remer to arrest several senior Nazi Government officials, claiming that they were part of a coup. Upon being ordered by General Paul von Hase to arrest Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels, Remer went to Goebbels' office to do so. However, on arrival Remer was met by Goebbels' protestations that Hitler was still alive, and had issued counter-orders to those Remer was enforcing. When Remer asked for proof, Goebbels picked up the phone and asked to be put through to Hitler at the "Wolf's Lair", then handed him the telephone receiver, upon which Remer heard Hitler's voice, ordering him to crush the plot in Berlin with the troops under his command. Remer with this realised that he had been taking orders from the mutineers, and returning with his troops to the Berlin Military Headquarters, "Bendlerblock", he arrested the plotters, including Stauffenberg. Colonel general Friedrich Fromm had the plotters immediately summarily executed by firing squad, despite Remer's protestations that he had been told to keep the plotters alive if possible pending further orders from Hitler, who was returning to Berlin. (General Fromm himself would subsequently be executed by firing squad). That same night Remer was promoted two ranks to Oberst (Colonel), then to General in early 1945.


title: Otto Ernst Remer

text: For the rest of the war, Remer commanded the "Führerbegleitbrigade" (FBB), a field unit formed from a Grossdeutschland cadre, in East Prussia, and during the Ardennes Offensive. He was captured by the United States Army towards the end of the war, and remained a prisoner of war until 1947.


title: Otto Ernst Remer

text: After his release from allied captivity, he became involved in West German post-war politics. He set up a political organization entitled the Socialist Reich Party in 1950, which was promptly banned in 1952 for making inflammatory political statements, but not before it had gathered 360,000 supporters in Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein, and won 16 seats in the state parliament. The Socialist Reich Party also won eight seats in the Parliament of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen. The party had received some financing from the Soviet Union, and worked with the Communist Party of Germany, whose aim was the destabilisation of the West German state. Among the campaigning themes of the Socialist Reich Party was that the Holocaust had been an allied propaganda invention, and it accused the United States of building fake gas chambers and producing bogus news-film footage about concentration camps, that the politics of the Allied-powers created West German state were merely a front for American domination, and that West Germany's puppet status of the United States should be opposed.


title: Otto Ernst Remer

text: With the party banned, Remer faced criminal charges from the West German Government as being engaged in activity attempting to re-establish a neo-Nazi political movement. On the issuing of an arrest warrant for him on these charges, he went into hiding at a chalet belonging to Countess Faber-Castell, an early supporter of the Socialist Reich Party, before fleeing subsequently to Egypt. There, he served as an advisor to Gamal Abdel Nasser, and worked with other expatriate Germans assisting Arab states with the development of their armed forces. He was a frequent acquaintance of Johannes von Leers. In 1956, Remer was reported to be in Damascus, engaging in the arms trade; the Algerian National Liberation Front was one of his customers.


title: Otto Ernst Remer

text: "I know Mr. Arafat quite well, naturally," he asserted. "I saw him many times. He invited me to eat at his headquarters. I knew all his people. They wanted many things from us." For Remer, anyone who was an enemy of Israel was his friend, particularly when a profit could be turned. He claimed to have brokered several business deals between West German companies and the PLO. But Remer denied that he also arranged arms shipments for the PLO. "I couldn't have done so," he maintained. "Arafat gets all he wants from Russia. A German arms dealer can't get into business there." (Lee, Martin A. The Beast Reawakens. p.182)


title: Otto Ernst Remer

text: He returned to West Germany in the 1980s, once more involving himself in politics with the setting up of an organization entitled the "German Freedom Movement" (G.F.M.), which advocated the reunification of East and West Germany and the removal of NATO military forces from West German soil. The G.F.M. was an umbrella organisation for multiple underground Neo-Nazi splinter groups of varying descriptions, and Remer used it to influence a younger generation of post-war born Germans.


title: Otto Ernst Remer

text: From 1991 to 1994, Remer published a political newsletter entitled the "Remer-Depesche", conveying his political philosophy. Its content led to a court case where he was sentenced to 22 months' imprisonment in October 1992 for incitement of racial hatred by writing and publishing a series of articles stating that the Holocaust was a myth (the political impact of the case upon the Government is discussed in Searle's "Wehrmacht Generals"). Remer filed numerous appeals against his conviction, however his complaints of unfairness of trial and violations of freedom of speech were unanimously rejected, ultimately by the European Commission on Human Rights, to which he had taken his case. In February 1994, having exhausted all means of appeal in the newly united Federal German Republic, he fled to Spain to avoid the prison sentence. From there he supported the activities internationally of people publicly questioning the historical veracity of the Holocaust, such as Fred Leuchter and Germar Rudolf. The High Court of Spain ruled against requests made by the German Government for his extradition back to Germany, stating that he had not committed any crimes under Spanish law.


title: Otto Ernst Remer

text: Helmut Friebe, a leader of the Alliance of German Soldiers and former "Generalleutnant" of the Wehrmacht, had the following to say about Remer: "No judgment will be made here as to whether his decision on 20 July was right or wrong. But the consequences of his decision were so terrible... that we old soldiers had expected that a man to whom destiny gave such a burden to carry until the end of his life would recognise this, and would thereafter live quietly and in seclusion. We, his former comrades, lack any sympathy for the fact that Herr Remer fails to summon up this attitude of self-effacement".


title: Otto Ernst Remer

text: Remer died at Marbella in southern Spain on 4 October 1997, at the age of 85 from natural causes. His ashes were buried in an undisclosed location in Germany.


title: Dover Beach

text: "Dover Beach" is a lyric poem by the English poet Matthew Arnold. It was first published in 1867 in the collection "New Poems"; however, surviving notes indicate its composition may have begun as early as 1849. The most likely date is 1851.


title: Dover Beach

text: The title, locale and subject of the poem's descriptive opening lines is the shore of the English ferry port of Dover, in Kent, facing Calais, in France, at the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part () of the English Channel, where Arnold spent his honeymoon in 1851. Many of the beaches in this part of England are made up of small stones or pebbles rather than sand, and Arnold describes the sea ebbing over the stones as a "grating roar".


title: Dover Beach

text: In Stefan Collini's opinion, "Dover Beach" is a difficult poem to analyze, and some of its passages and metaphors have become so well known that they are hard to see with "fresh eyes". Arnold begins with a naturalistic and detailed nightscape of the beach at Dover in which auditory imagery plays a significant role ("Listen! you hear the grating roar"). The beach, however, is bare, with only a hint of humanity in a light that "gleams and is gone". Reflecting the traditional notion that the poem was written during Arnold's honeymoon (see composition section), one critic notes that "the speaker might be talking to his bride". Because Arnold was known for his discontent with the current state of society during his time, this poem is coming from the point of view of a man who feels as though society is not as beautiful as it once was. However, he sees a glimmer of hope through his lover.


title: Dover Beach

text: Arnold looks at two aspects of this scene, its soundscape (in the first and second stanzas) and the retreating action of the tide (in the third stanza). He hears the sound of the sea as "the eternal note of sadness". Sophocles, a 5th-century BC Greek playwright who wrote tragedies on fate and the will of the gods, also heard this sound as he stood upon the shore of the Aegean Sea. Critics differ widely on how to interpret this image of the Greek classical age. One sees a difference between Sophocles interpreting the "note of sadness" humanistically, while Arnold, in the industrial nineteenth century, hears in this sound the retreat of religion and faith. A more recent critic connects the two as artists, Sophocles the tragedian, Arnold the lyric poet, each attempting to transform this note of sadness into "a higher order of experience".


title: Dover Beach

text: Having examined the soundscape, Arnold turns to the action of the water wave itself and sees in its retreat a metaphor for the loss of faith in the modern age, once again expressed in an auditory image ("But now I only hear / Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar"). This fourth stanza begins with an image not of sadness, but of "joyous fulness" similar in beauty to the image with which the poem opens.


title: Dover Beach

text: The final stanza begins with an appeal to love, then moves on to the famous ending metaphor. Critics have varied in their interpretation of the first two lines; one calls them a "perfunctory gesture ... swallowed up by the poem's powerfully dark picture", while another sees in them "a stand against a world of broken faith". Midway between these is one of Arnold's biographers, who describes being "true / To one another" as "a precarious notion" in a world that has become "a maze of confusion".


title: Dover Beach

text: The metaphor with which the poem ends is most likely an allusion to a passage in Thucydides's account of the Peloponnesian War (Book 7, 44). He describes an ancient battle that occurred on a similar beach during the Athenian invasion of Sicily. The battle took place at night; the attacking army became disoriented while fighting in the darkness and many of their soldiers inadvertently killed each other. This final image has also been variously interpreted by the critics. Culler calls the "darkling plain" Arnold's "central statement" of the human condition. Pratt sees the final line as "only metaphor" and thus susceptible to the "uncertainty" of poetic language.


title: Dover Beach

text: "The poem's discourse", Honan tells us, "shifts literally and symbolically from the present, to Sophocles on the Aegean, from Medieval Europe back to the present—and the auditory and visual images are dramatic and mimetic and didactic. Exploring the dark terror that lies beneath his happiness in love, the speaker resolves to love—and exigencies of history and the nexus between lovers are the poem's real issues. That lovers may be 'true / To one another' is a precarious notion: love in the modern city momentarily gives peace, but nothing else in a post-medieval society reflects or confirms the faithfulness of lovers. Devoid of love and light the world is a maze of confusion left by 'retreating' faith."


title: Dover Beach

text: Critics have questioned the unity of the poem, noting that the sea of the opening stanza does not appear in the final stanza, while the "darkling plain" of the final line is not apparent in the opening. Various solutions to this problem have been proffered. One critic saw the "darkling plain" with which the poem ends as comparable to the "naked shingles of the world". "Shingles" here means flat beach cobbles, characteristic of some wave-swept coasts. Another found the poem "emotionally convincing" even if its logic may be questionable. The same critic notes that "the poem upends our expectations of metaphor" and sees in this the central power of the poem. The poem's historicism creates another complicating dynamic. Beginning in the present it shifts to the classical age of Greece, then (with its concerns for the sea of faith) it turns to Medieval Europe, before finally returning to the present. The form of the poem itself has drawn considerable comment. Critics have noted the careful diction in the opening description, the overall, spell-binding rhythm and cadence of the poem and its dramatic character. One commentator sees the strophe-antistrophe of the ode at work in the poem, with an ending that contains something of the "cata-strophe" of tragedy. Finally, one critic sees the complexity of the poem's structure resulting in "the first major 'free-verse' poem in the language".


title: Dover Beach

text: According to Tinker and Lowry, "a draft of the first twenty-eight lines of the poem" was written in pencil "on the back of a folded sheet of paper containing notes on the career of Empedocles". Allott concludes that the notes are probably from around 1849–50. "Empedocles on Etna", again according to Allott, was probably written 1849–52; the notes on Empedocles are likely to be contemporary with the writing of that poem.


title: Dover Beach

text: Tinker and Lowry conclude that this "seem[s] to indicate that the last nine lines of the poem as we know it were already in existence when the portion regarding the ebb and flow of the sea at Dover was composed." This would make the manuscript "a prelude to the concluding paragraph" of the poem in which "there is no reference to the sea or tides".


title: Dover Beach

text: Arnold's visits to Dover may also provide some clue to the date of composition. Allott has Arnold in Dover in June 1851 and again in October of that year "on his return from his delayed continental honeymoon". To critics who conclude that ll. 1–28 were written at Dover and ll. 29–37 "were rescued from some discarded poem" Allott suggests the contrary, i.e., that the final lines "were written at Dover in late June," while "ll. 29–37 were written in London shortly afterwards".


title: Dover Beach

text: William Butler Yeats responds directly to Arnold's pessimism in his four-line poem "The Nineteenth Century and After" (1929):


title: Dover Beach

text: Anthony Hecht, United States Poet Laureate in the early 1980s, replied to "Dover Beach" in his poem "The Dover Bitch".


title: Dover Beach

text: The anonymous figure to whom Arnold addresses his poem becomes the subject of Hecht's poem. In Hecht's poem she "caught the bitter allusion to the sea", imagined "what his whiskers would feel like / On the back of her neck", and felt sad as she looked out across the channel. "And then she got really angry" at the thought that she had become "a sort of mournful cosmic last resort". After which she says "one or two unprintable things".


title: Dover Beach

text: Kenneth and Miriam Allott, referring to "Dover Bitch" as "an irreverent "jeu d'esprit"", nonetheless see, particularly in the line "a sort of mournful cosmic last resort", an extension of the original poem's main theme.


title: Dover Beach

text: —  Lines 29 to 37Even in the U. S. Supreme Court the poem has had its influence: Justice William Rehnquist, in his concurring opinion in Northern Pipeline Co. v. Marathon Pipe Line Co., 458 US 50 (1982), called judicial decisions regarding Congress's power to create legislative courts "landmarks on a judicial 'darkling plain' where ignorant armies have clashed by night."


title: Spinocerebellar ataxia

text: Spinocerebellar ataxia (SCA) is a progressive, degenerative, genetic disease with multiple types, each of which could be considered a neurological condition in its own right. An estimated 150,000 people in the United States have a diagnosis of spinocerebellar ataxia at any given time. SCA is hereditary, progressive, degenerative, and often fatal. There is no known effective treatment or cure. SCA can affect anyone of any age. The disease is caused by either a recessive or dominant gene. In many cases people are not aware that they carry a relevant gene until they have children who begin to show signs of having the disorder.


title: Spinocerebellar ataxia

text: Spinocerebellar ataxia (SCA) is one of a group of genetic disorders characterized by slowly progressive incoordination of gait and is often associated with poor coordination of hands, speech, and eye movements. A review of different clinical features among SCA subtypes was recently published describing the frequency of non-cerebellar features, like parkinsonism, chorea, pyramidalism, cognitive impairment, peripheral neuropathy, seizures, among others. As with other forms of ataxia, SCA frequently results in atrophy of the cerebellum, loss of fine coordination of muscle movements leading to unsteady and clumsy motion, and other symptoms. Ocular deficits can be quantified using the SODA scale.


title: Spinocerebellar ataxia

text: The symptoms of an ataxia vary with the specific type and with the individual patient. In many cases a person with ataxia retains full mental capacity but progressively loses physical control.


title: Spinocerebellar ataxia

text: The hereditary ataxias are categorized by mode of inheritance and causative gene or chromosomal locus. The hereditary ataxias can be inherited in an autosomal dominant, autosomal recessive, or X-linked manner.


title: Spinocerebellar ataxia

text: A few SCAs remain unspecified and can not be precisely diagnosed, but in the last decade genetic testing has allowed precise identification of dozens of different SCAs and more tests are being added each year. In 2008, a genetic ataxia blood test developed to test for 12 types of SCA, Friedreich's ataxia, and several others. However, since not every SCA has been genetically identified some SCAs are still diagnosed by neurological examination, which may include a physical exam, family history, MRI scanning of the brain and spine, and spinal tap.


title: Spinocerebellar ataxia

text: Many SCAs below fall under the category of polyglutamine diseases, which are caused when a disease-associated protein (i.e., ataxin-1, ataxin-3, etc.) contains a large number of repeats of glutamine residues, termed a polyQ sequence or a "CAG trinucleotide repeat" disease for either the one-letter designation or codon for glutamine respectively. The threshold for symptoms in most forms of SCA is around 35, though for SCA3 it extends beyond 50. Most polyglutamine diseases are dominant due to the interactions of resulting polyQ tail.


title: Spinocerebellar ataxia

text: The first ataxia gene was identified in 1993 and called "Spinocerebellar ataxia type 1" (SCA1); later genes were called SCA2, SCA3, etc. Usually, the "type" number of "SCA" refers to the order in which the gene was found. At this time, there are at least 29 different gene mutations that have been found.


title: Spinocerebellar ataxia

text: Four X-linked types have been described (, , , ), but only the first of these has so far been tied to a gene (SCAX1).


title: Spinocerebellar ataxia

text: There is no cure for spinocerebellar ataxia, which is currently considered to be a progressive and irreversible disease, although not all types cause equally severe disability.


title: Spinocerebellar ataxia

text: In general, treatments are directed towards alleviating symptoms, not the disease itself. Many patients with hereditary or idiopathic forms of ataxia have other symptoms in addition to ataxia. Medications or other therapies might be appropriate for some of these symptoms, which could include tremor, stiffness, depression, spasticity, and sleep disorders, among others. Both onset of initial symptoms and duration of disease are variable. If the disease is caused by a polyglutamine trinucleotide repeat CAG expansion, a longer expansion may lead to an earlier onset and a more radical progression of clinical symptoms. Typically, a person with this disease will eventually be unable to perform daily tasks (ADLs). However, rehabilitation therapists can help patients to maximize their ability of self-care and delay deterioration to certain extent. Researchers are exploring multiple avenues for a cure including RNAi and the use of Stem Cells and several other avenues.


title: Spinocerebellar ataxia

text: On January 18, 2017, BioBlast Pharma announced completion of Phase 2a clinical trials of their medication, Trehalose, in the treatment of SCA3. BioBlast has received FDA Fast Track status and Orphan Drug status for their treatment. The information provided by BioBlast in their research indicates that they hope this treatment may prove efficacious in other SCA treatments that have similar pathology related to PolyA and PolyQ diseases.


title: Spinocerebellar ataxia

text: In addition, Dr. Beverly Davidson has been working on a methodology using RNAi technology to find a potential cure for over 2 decades. Her research began in the mid-1990s and progressed to work with mouse models about a decade later and most recently has moved to a study with non-human primates. The results from her most recent research "are supportive of clinical application of this gene therapy".


title: Spinocerebellar ataxia

text: Finally, another gene transfer technology discovered in 2011 has also been shown by Boudreau et al. to hold great promise and offers yet another avenue to a potential future cure.


title: Spinocerebellar ataxia

text: N-Acetyl-Leucine is an orally administered, modified amino acid that is being developed as a novel treatment for multiple rare and common neurological disorders by IntraBio Inc (Oxford, United Kingdom).


title: Spinocerebellar ataxia

text: N-Acetyl-Leucine has been granted multiple orphan drug designations from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for the treatment of various genetic diseases, including Spinocerebellar Ataxias. N-Acetyl-Leucine has also been granted Orphan Drug Designations in the US and EU for the related inherited cerebellar ataxia Ataxia-Telangiectasia U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA).


title: Spinocerebellar ataxia

text: Published case series studies have demonstrated the effects of acute treatment with N-Acetyl-Leucine for the treatment of inherited cerebellar ataxias, including Spinocerebellar Ataxias. These studies further demonstrated that the treatment is well tolerated, with a good safety profile.


title: Spinocerebellar ataxia

text: A multinational clinical trial investigating N-Acetyl-L-Leucine for the treatment of a related inherited cerebellar ataxia, Ataxia-Telangiectasia, began in 2019.


title: Spinocerebellar ataxia

text: IntraBio is also conducting parallel clinical trials with N-Acetyl-L-Leucine for the treatment of Niemann-Pick disease type C and GM2 Gangliosidosis (Tay-Sachs and Sandhoff Disease). Future opportunities to develop N-Acetyl-Leucine include Lewy Body Dementia, Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Restless Leg Syndrome, Multiple Sclerosis, and Migraine.


title: Spinocerebellar ataxia

text: Physical therapists can assist patients in maintaining their level of independence through therapeutic exercise programmes. One recent research report demonstrated a gain of 2 SARA points (Scale for the Assessment and Rating of Ataxia) from physical therapy. In general, physical therapy emphasises postural balance and gait training for ataxia patients. General conditioning such as range-of-motion exercises and muscle strengthening would also be included in therapeutic exercise programmes. Research showed that spinocerebellar ataxia 2 (SCA2) patients with a mild stage of the disease gained significant improvement in static balance and neurological indices after six months of a physical therapy exercise training program. Occupational therapists may assist patients with incoordination or ataxia issues through the use of adaptive devices. Such devices may include a cane, crutches, walker, or wheelchair for those with impaired gait. Other devices are available to assist with writing, feeding, and self care if hand and arm coordination are impaired. A randomised clinical trial revealed that an intensive rehabilitation program with physical and occupational therapies for patients with degenerative cerebellar diseases can significantly improve functional gains in ataxia, gait, and activities of daily living. Some level of improvement was shown to be maintained 24 weeks post-treatment. Speech language pathologists may use both behavioral intervention strategies as well as augmentative and alternative communication devices to help patients with impaired speech.


title: Michigan J. Frog

text: Michigan J. Frog is an animated cartoon character from the Warner Bros.' "Merrie Melodies" film series. Originally a one-shot character, his only appearance during the original run of the "Merrie Melodies" series was as the star of "One Froggy Evening" (December 31, 1955), written by Michael Maltese and directed by Chuck Jones. In this cartoon, partly inspired by a 1944 Cary Grant film entitled "Once Upon a Time", Michigan is a male frog who wears a top hat, carries a cane, sings pop music, ragtime, Tin Pan Alley hits, and other songs from the late 19th and early 20th century while dancing and performing acrobatics in the style of early 20th century vaudeville. Michigan's talent is discovered by a hapless man who has visions of profiting from it, but catches on too late that the frog will perform for him and him "alone"; in front of anyone else, Michigan is just a normal frog and thwarts his dreams of wealth.


title: Michigan J. Frog

text: He appeared in a later cartoon titled "Another Froggy Evening", which was released on October 6, 1995, and was the former mascot of The WB from that year until July 22, 2005, On September 17, 2006 after "The Night of Favorites and Farewells", he was shown as the final image of a white silhouette bowing down to viewers, bringing up The CW.


title: Michigan J. Frog

text: The frog's earliest name was "Enrico", as given in "The Bugs Bunny Show" (1960). The character's later, enduring name comes from the song "The Michigan Rag" (an original song written by Jones, Maltese, and musical director Milt Franklyn), which he sings in the cartoon. In a clip from a DVD special, Jones stated that he had come up with the name "Michigan Frog" during the 1970s and was inspired to add the "J." as a middle initial while being interviewed by a writer named Jay Cocks.


title: Michigan J. Frog

text: The "Looney Tunes Golden Collection" DVD credits Frog's original singing vocals to Bill Roberts, a nightclub entertainer in Los Angeles in the 1950s who had also done voice work for the 1948 MGM cartoon "Little 'Tinker". (Roberts went uncredited at the time, as were most voice actors at the Warner Bros. studio who were not Mel Blanc, since only Blanc had a clause in his contract ensuring he would get on-screen credit.) In "Another Froggy Evening", his voice was provided by Jeff McCarthy.


title: Michigan J. Frog

text: Michigan J. Frog made a cameo appearance in the "New Looney Tunes" episode "Misjudgment Day", voiced by Jeff Bergman. He appears at the end of the episode as the one who sent one of his futuristic robots to destroy Bugs Bunny, and he later appeared in the show's second season intro.


title: Michigan J. Frog

text: A frog resembling Michigan appeared in the beginning of the 1988 Disney/Amblin film "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" at Maroon Cartoon Studios. The character also appears on the cover illustration (drawn by Chuck Jones) of singer-songwriter Leon Redbone's 1975 album "On the Track".


title: Michigan J. Frog

text: Michigan J. Frog, again voiced by McCarthy, was the official mascot of The WB from its inception in 1995 until 2005. The network's first night of programming on January 11, 1995, began with Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck wondering which one of them would pull the switch to launch The WB. The camera then panned over to Chuck Jones drawing Michigan on an easel; when Jones finished, Michigan leaped from the drawing to formally launch The WB and lands on Chuck's shoulder who then says "What's Up Frog".


title: Michigan J. Frog

text: Michigan also would usually appear before the opening of shows, informing the viewer of the TV rating. Before the beginning of "Savannah", for example, the frog would sing a short monologue suggesting that "there's more comedy for the family Wednesday nights" and that kids should go to bed, meaning that the show coming on would be for mature audiences only. In later shows like "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel", the announcer would present a TV-PG disclaimer, though the frog still appeared as a neon sign.


title: Michigan J. Frog

text: On July 22, 2005, Michigan's "death" was announced by WB Chairman Garth Ancier at a fall season preview with the terse statement "The frog is dead and buried." The head of programming for The WB, David Janollari, stated that "[Michigan] was a symbol that perpetuated the young teen feel of the network. That's not the image we [now] want to put out to our audience."


title: Michigan J. Frog

text: Various humorous obituaries for the mascot were published with details on Michigan's life and death. His dates were given as December 31, 1955 – July 22, 2005. Despite the announcement by Ancier, Michigan still appeared in several Kids' WB! promos and bumpers (for example, a cart version of himself), The WB's metonym ("The Frog") until 2006, and in some WB affiliate logos and in TV spots, such as KWBF in Little Rock, Arkansas (whose early slogan was "The Frog"; the "F" in KWBF is supposedly for "frog"), during 2006, and WBRL-CA in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Also, WMJF, a small student-run television station at Towson University just outside Baltimore, Maryland, still uses the same call letters (WMJF – Michigan J. Frog) from when the station was a WB affiliate. A neon likeness of Michigan J. Frog also adorns the facade of former WB affiliate WBNX-TV's studio complex in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio.


title: Michigan J. Frog

text: When The WB ceased broadcasting and signed off the air for the final time on September 17, 2006, a white silhouette of Michigan appeared at the end of a montage of stars that appeared on the network during its 11-year history. When the montage ended with "Thank You", Michigan's silhouette is shown removing his top hat and bowing to thank the audience for 11 years, bringing The WB to a close, and later bringing The CW the following day, September 18, 2006.


title: Michigan J. Frog

text: Michigan made his revived comeback in the end of the "New Looney Tunes" episode "Misjudgment Day" as a one time villain set thousands of years in the future, voiced by Jeff Bergman. A futuristic version of the first three lines of "Hello! Ma Baby" can also be heard in the background as Michigan croaks.


title: Ijtihad

text: Ijtihad ( ; "", ; lit. physical or mental "effort") is an Islamic legal term referring to independent reasoning by an expert in Islamic law, or the thorough exertion of a jurist's mental faculty in finding a solution to a legal question. It is contrasted with "taqlid" (imitation, conformity to legal precedent). According to classical Sunni theory, "ijtihad" requires expertise in the Arabic language, theology, revealed texts, and principles of jurisprudence ("usul al-fiqh"), and is not employed where authentic and authoritative texts (Qur'an and Hadith) are considered unambiguous with regard to the question, or where there is an existing scholarly consensus ("ijma"). "Ijtihad" is considered to be a religious duty for those qualified to perform it. An Islamic scholar who is qualified to perform "ijtihad" is called as a ""mujtahid"".


title: Ijtihad

text: Throughout the first five Islamic centuries, the practice of "ijtihad" continued both theoretically and practically amongst Sunni Muslims. The controversy surrounding "ijtihad" and the existence of "mujtahids" started, in its primitive form, around the beginning of the sixth/twelfth century. By the 14th century, development of Islamic Fiqh (jurisprudence) prompted leading Sunni jurists to state that the main legal questions had been addressed and the scope of "ijtihad" was gradually restricted. In the modern era, this gave rise to a perception amongst Orientalist scholars and sections of the Muslim public that the so-called "gate of "ijtihad"" was closed at the start of the classical era. While recent scholarship established that the practice of "Ijtihad" had never ceased in Islamic history, the extent and mechanisms of legal change in the post-formative period remain a subject of debate. Differences amongst the "Fuqaha" (jurists) prevented Sunni Muslims from reaching any consensus ("Ijma") on the issues of continuity of "Ijtihad" and existence of "Mujtahids." Thus, Ijtihad remained a key aspect of Islamic jurisprudence throughout the centuries. "Ijtihad" was practiced throughout the Early modern period and claims for "ijtihad" and its superiority over "taqlid" were voiced unremittingly.


title: Ijtihad

text: Starting from the 18th century, Islamic reformers began calling for abandonment of "taqlid" and emphasis on "ijtihad", which they saw as a return to Islamic origins. Public debates in the Muslim world surrounding "ijtihad" continue to the present day. The advocacy of "ijtihad" has been particularly associated with Islamic modernist and Salafiyya movements. Among contemporary Muslims in the West there have emerged new visions of "ijtihad" which emphasize substantive moral values over traditional juridical methodology.


title: Ijtihad

text: Shia jurists did not use the term "ijtihad" until the 12th century. With the exception of Zaydi jurisprudence, the early Imami Shia were unanimous in censuring "Ijtihad" in the field of law ("Ahkam"). After the Shiite embracal of various doctrines of Mu'tazila and classical Sunnite "Fiqh" (jurisprudence), this led to a change. After the victory of the "Usulis" who based law on principles (usul) over the "Akhbaris" ("traditionalists") who emphasized on reports or traditions ("khabar") by the 19th century, "Ijtihad" would become a mainstream Shia practice.


title: Ijtihad

text: The word derives from the three-letter Arabic verbal root of "-H-D" ("", 'struggle'): the "t" is inserted because the word is a derived stem VIII verb. In its literal meaning, the word refers to effort, physical or mental, expended in a particular activity. In its technical sense, "ijtihad" can be defined as a "process of legal reasoning and hermeneutics through which the jurist-mujtahid derives or rationalizes law on the basis of the Qur'an and the Sunna".


title: Ijtihad

text: The juristic meaning of ijtihād has several definitions according to scholars of Islamic legal theory. Some define it as the jurist's action and activity to reach a solution. Al-Ghazālī (d. 505/1111) defines it as the “total expenditure of effort made by a jurist for the purpose of obtaining the religious rulings.” Similarly the ijtihād is defined as “the effort made by the mujtahid in seeking knowledge of the "aḥkām" (rulings) of the sharī‘ah (Islamic canonical law) through interpretation.”


title: Ijtihad

text: From this point of view that ijtihād essentially consists of an inference ("istinbāṭ") that extents to a probability ("ẓann"). Thus it excludes the extraction of a ruling from a clear text as well as rulings made without recourse to independent legal reasoning. A knowledgeable person who gives a ruling on the sharī‘ah, but is not able to exercise their judgement in the inference of the rulings from the sources, is not called a mujtahid but rather a "muqallid".


title: Ijtihad

text: Islamic scholar Asghar Ali Engineer cites a hadith related by a sahabi (companion of the Islamic prophet Muhammad) by the name of Muadh ibn Jabal (also Ma’adh bin Jabal), as the basis for ijtihad. According to the hadith from "Sunan Abu-Dawud", Book 24, Muadh was appointed by Muhammad to go to Yemen. Before leaving he was asked how he would judge when the occasion of deciding a case arose.


title: Ijtihad

text: During the early period, "ijtihad" referred to the exertion of mental energy to arrive at a legal opinion ("ra'y") on the basis of the knowledge of the Divine Revelation. Jurists used "Ijtihad" to help reach legal rulings, in cases where the Qur'an and Sunna did not provide clear direction for certain decisions. It was the duty of the educated jurists to come to a ruling that would be in the best interest of the Muslim community and promote the public good.


title: Ijtihad

text: As religious law continued to develop over time, "ra'y" became insufficient in making sure that fair legal rulings were being derived in keeping with both the Qur'an and Sunna. However, during this time, the meaning and process of "ijtihad" became more clearly constructed. "Ijtihad" was “limited to a systematic method of interpreting the law on the basis of authoritative texts, the Quran and Sunna”.


title: Ijtihad

text: As the practice of "ijtihad" transformed over time, it became religious duty of a "mujtahid" to conduct legal rulings for the Muslim society. "Mujtahid" is defined as a Muslim scholar that has met certain requirements including a strong knowledge of the Qur'an, Sunna, and Arabic, as well as a deep understanding of legal theory and the precedent; all of which allows them to be considered fully qualified to practice "ijtihad".


title: Ijtihad

text: The controversy over the existence of "Mujtahids" began in its nascent form during the sixth/12th century. The fifth century Hanbali jurist Ibn 'Aqil (1040–1119) responding to a Hanafi jurist's statement, advocated for the necessity of existence of "Mujtahids" using scripture and reasoning. A century later, Shafi'i jurist Al-Amidi would counter the premise of Hanbalis and prominent Shafīʿis arguing that extinction of "Mujtahids" is possible. Over the centuries, the controversy would garner more attention with the scholars gathering around 3 camps: 1) Hanbalis and majority of Shafīʿis who denied the theoretical possibility of "Mujtahid"'s extinction 2) a group of jurists who asserted that extinction of "Mujtahids" is possible but not proven 3) a group who advocated the extinction of "Mujtahids."


title: Ijtihad

text: To validate their points, the scholars of "Taqlid" camp cited Prophetic "hadiths" that report the disappearance of knowledge when ignorant leaders "will give judgements" and misguide others. "Muqallids" also argued that "Ijtihad" isn't a communal obligation ("fard kifaya") when it is possible to blindly imitate the laws of ancestors received through transmitted chains of narrations. Hanbalis, the staunch advocates of permanent existence of "Mujtahids," countered by citing Prophetic reports which validated their view that knowledge and sound judgement would accompany the Muslim "Ummah" led by "Mujtahid" scholars until the Day of Judgment, thus giving theological implications to the controversy. They also raised the question of leadership and interpretive religious authority to vigorously deny the possibility of an age without "Mujtahids", a doctrine which they defended using both Scripultural and rational arguments. Citing Prophetic traditions such as “scholars are the heirs of the prophets", Hanbalis settled on the belief that God would not leave any age without a proper guide, i.e., Islamic "Fuqaha" (jurists) who solve novel issues through "Ijtihad".


title: Ijtihad

text: Majority of Shafīʿi scholars too were leading advocates of "Ijtihad" as a "fard kifaya" (communal obligation). The prominent 16th century Shafi'i legal treatise "Fath-ul-Mueen" affirmed the existence of "Mujtahids" and obligated them to take the post of Qadi as "fard kifaya". Leading Shafīʿi jurist Al-Suyuti (1445-1505) also stipulated "Ijtihad" as a communal obligation, the abandonment of which would be sinful upon the whole "Ummah". Shafīʿis also upheld the popular Muslim tradition of appearance of "Mujaddids" who would renew the religion every century. As promoters of the idea of "Mujaddids;" (who were assumed as "Mujtahids") majority of jurists who claimed "Tajdid" or honoured as "Mujaddids" were Shafīʿis. On the other hand, some prominent Shafīʿi jurists like Al-Rafi'i (d. 623) had made statements speculating an "agreement" on the absence of "Mujtahid Mutlaqs" (highest-ranking "Mujtahid") during his era while few others affirmed theoretical possibility of absence of "Mujtahids". However, such statements had ambiguities in legal terminology and didn't stipulate an established consensus on the issue. In addition, Rafi'i himself was considered as a "Mujtahid" and a "Mujaddid".


title: Ijtihad

text: Yahya ibn Sharaf al-Nawawi (d. 676/1277), a prominent Shafī'i Muhaddith and Jurist, who is a primary reference even for Shafiites of Taqleed camp; advocated that it isn't obligatory for laymen to adhere to a "mad'hab", reinforcing the orthodox Shafī'ite pro-Ijtihad position. Other prominent classical Shafī'i jurists who advocated the pro-Ijtihad position included Taj ud Din al Subki, Dhahabi, Izz ud Deen Ibn Abdussalam, Ibn al Salah, Al Bulqini, etc. Taj ud Din al Subki (d. 1370) summed up the classical-era Shafi'i position in his "Kitāb Mu'īd an-Ni'am wa-Mubīd an-Niqām":


title: Ijtihad

text: In contrast to the view of these Shafiites, classical Shafi'ite theologian 'Abd al-Malik al-Juwayni (d. 1085 C.E/ 478 A.H) postulated a new doctrine on the controversy of the existence of "Mujtahids". Juwaynī and his Shāfiʿī colleagues insisted that not only the disappearance of Mujtahids was possible, but that it had already happened. Juwayni's doctrine was taken by his student Ghazālī (d. 1111 C.E/ 505 A.H), al-Qaffāl al-Shāshī (d. 1113 C.E/507 A.H) and promoted in the next century by the Shafi'i scholars Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī (d. 606/1209), Sayf al-Dīn al-Āmidī (d. 631/1233), and Rāfiʿī (d. 623/1226). These scholars asserted the belief that "Mujtahids" had already disappeared, and some would claim a consensus on this point. Thereafter, the theory of legal minimalism elucidated by Juwayni in his book "Ghiyāth al-umam fī iltiyāth al zulam", penned for his Seljuk patron Nizam ul-Mulk, would be popularised. This system listed a set of core principles that implemented legal and procedural minimalism; and attempted the standardisation of Islamic courts and legal framework in the medieval Muslim World.


title: Ijtihad

text: Most significantly, the influential Islamic theologian Al Ghazzali introduced the notion of closure of "Ijtihad" since he viewed numerous people with inadequate knowledge of "Qur'an" as claiming to be "Mujtahids". Ghazzali's emphasis on rigorous asceticism and imitation of traditions practised by Sufi mystics led him to attack rational enquiry and sciences like physics for contradicting religion. Owing to his status as a great scholar, numerous "ulema" followed his call; even though many continued to dispute it. Intellectuals like Hasan Hanafi argue that Ghazali had tried to preclude the endeavour of "Ijtihad" during his era in order to establish a rigid, stable orthodoxy that could effectively challenge external enemies of Islam like the Crusaders. According to Pakistani Professor of Philosophy C.A Qadir; Ghazzali's efforts had tremendous impact in limiting the scope of "Ijtihad" in medieval Islamic orthodxy.


title: Ijtihad

text: However, there is still a vigorous scholarly debate regarding whether Al-Ghazali had himself "closed the gates" or whether he merely continued an established policy of his scholarly predecessors or whether the gate was ever closed. According to Professor James P. Piscatori, the provision for "Ijtihad" in Sunni "Fiqh" was never "tightly shut" and remained open to some extent. During the 16th century, majority of the clerical classes would claim Ghazzali's doctrine as sacrosanct and inviolable by "Ijma" (consensus). Post-classical era, a large part of Shafīʿi scholarship would also shift to a pro-"Taqleed" position owing to external influence from Hanafite-Malikite "Muqallid" camps. Most noteworthy amongst them were Ibn Hajar al-Haytami (d. 1566). However many still defended "Ijtihad" while others who theoretically affirmed the disappearance of "Mujtahids" rejected the claim that they did in reality.


title: Ijtihad

text: Until the end of the 14th century, no voice had before actively risen to condemn the claims of "mujtahids" to practice "ijtihad" within their schools. However, the doctrine of "Taqlid" was steadily amassing support amongst the masses. The first incident in which "muqallids" openly attacked the claims of "mujtahids" occurred in Egypt, during the lifetime of Suyuti. Suyuti had claimed to practice the highest degree of "Ijtihad" within the Shafi'i school. He advocated that Ijtihad is a backbone of Sharia and believed in the continuous existence of "Mujtahids".


title: Ijtihad

text: Around the 15th century, most Sunni jurists argued that all major matters of religious law had been settled, allowing for "taqlid" (تقليد), "the established legal precedents and traditions," to take priority over "ijtihād" (اجتهاد). This move away from the practice of "ijtihād" was primarily made by the scholars of Hanafī and Malikī schools, and a number of Shafīʿis, but not by Hanbalīs and majority of Shafīʿi jurists who believed that "true consensus" ("ijmāʿ" اجماع), apart from that of Muhammad's Companions, did not exist" and that "the constant continuous existence of "mujtahids" (مجتهد) was a theological requirement." Although the Ottoman clergy denied "Ijtihad" in theory"," throughout the 16th and 17th centuries, the Ottoman Hanafite "ulema" had practiced "Ijtihad" to solve a number of new legal issues. Various legal rulings were formulated on a number of issues, such as the Waqf of movables, on drugs, coffee, music, tobacco, etc. However to support the official doctrine of "extinction of "Mujtahids"", the Ottoman "ulema" denied "Ijtihad" even when it was practised.


title: Ijtihad

text: The increasing prominence of "taqlid" had at one point led most Western scholars to believe that the "gate of "ijtihad"" was in fact effectively closed around tenth century. In a 1964 monograph, which exercised considerable influence on later scholars, Joseph Schacht wrote that "a consensus gradually established itself to the effect that from that time onwards no one could be deemed to have the necessary qualifications for independent reasoning in religious law, and that all future activity would have to be confined to the explanation, application, and, at the most, interpretation of the doctrine as it had been laid down once and for all."


title: Ijtihad

text: While more recent research is said to have disproven the notion that the practice of "ijtihad" was abandoned in the tenth century — or even later in the 15th century — the extent of legal change during this period and its mechanisms remain a subject of scholarly debate. The "Ijtihad" camp primarily consisted of Hanbalis and Shafiites, while the Taqlid camp were primarily Hanafites who were supported to a greater or lesser extent by Malikis as well as some Shafi'is.


title: Ijtihad

text: After the 11th century, Sunni legal theory developed systems for ranking jurists according to their qualifications for "ijtihad". One such ranking placed the founders of "maddhab"s, who were credited with being ""absolute" "mujtahid"s" ("mujtahid muṭlaq") capable of methodological innovation, at the top, and jurists capable only of "taqlīd" at the bottom, with "mujtahid"s and those who combined "ijtihād" and "taqlīd" given the middle ranks. In the 11th century, jurists required a "mufti" (jurisconsult) to be a "mujtahid"; by the middle of the 13th century, however, most scholars considered a "muqallid" (practitioner of "taqlīd") to be qualified for the role. During that era some jurists began to ponder whether practitioners of "ijtihad" continued to exist and the phrase "closing of the gate of "ijtihād"" (إغلاق باب الاجتهاد "iġlāq bāb al-ijtihād") appeared after the 16th century.


title: Ijtihad

text: However, these rankings have been criticized for its arbitrariness. Many other distinguished scholars have been recorded by scholars as "Mujtahid Mutlaqs" even after the deaths of four "Imams" (to whom the four schools are attributed). Also, various schools were subject to transformation and evolution through time in ways that their founders had not imagined. The founders themselves had not stipulated many such rankings or classifications. Nor did they obligate strict adherence to a particular scholar or legal theory. In many cases, major parts of the legal theory were in fact developed by the later followers.


title: Ijtihad

text: The classical Hanbali theologian Taqi al-Din Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1328 C.E/ 728 A.H) was a notable figure who dissented from the prevalent "Madh'hab"-based ranking standardisations and classifications. Arguing that the practice of "Ijtihad" is allowed for every Muslim, Ibn Taymiyya writes:


title: Ijtihad

text: Legal schools("mad'habs") had begun to take shape by the middle of the fourth/tenth century and practice of affiliating to the madhabs began to become popular. Systematic categorisation of "Mujtahids" emerged during late fifth/eleventh century into ranks of excellence. By doing so, they sought to facilitate the "Ijtihad" of qualified Muftis. The earliest known typology of jurists is Ibn Rushd's (d. 520/1126) tripartite classification of Muftis. In this typology, the top-Mufti was a "Mujtahid" (like Ibn Rushd himself) while the latter two ranks weren't, i.e., a "Mujtahid" must independently reason on the basis of Scriptures and general principles of the school. On the other hand, Ghazzali distinguished between two ranks of "Mujtahids", the independent("Mutlaq") and the affiliated("Muqayyad") in a three-rank classification. In the seventh century, Shafi'i jurist Ibn al-Salah (d. 643/1245) would elaborate a five rank classification of Muftis. During the 10th/16th century, Ottoman Shaykh al-Islam Ammad Ibn Kamal (d. 940/1533) articulated a Hanafite typology of jurists with seven ranks. Unlike the previous typologies, the latter classification was promoted by "Taqlid" partisans who advocated that "Mujtahids" ceased to exist. All these classifications created an archetype of an ideal standard to which all other typologies must conform, i.e., the founders of 4 schools. However, this typological conception of the founder "Mujtahid" suffered from chronological ruptures, overlooking in the process the founder's predecessors as well as his immediate intellectual history that formed a continuity. Although the founder imams were accomplished jurists, they were not as absolutely and as categorically as they were portrayed to be, starting from the 5th/11th century. Ibn Kamal's seven-rank typology, in particular, would come under scathing criticism by other Hanafites as well, such as Muhammad Bakhit al-Muti'i (1854 or 1856 — 1935), who was the Grand Mufti of Al-Azhar.


title: Ijtihad

text: Many Islamic reformers, starting from the 18th century would criticize these classifications altogether, since these classifications assumed every Mufti in terms of leaders and followers, affiliated to the founder imams and succeeding generations who are progressively inferior to knowledge of imams. Faithful to the tenets of Ibn Taymiyya and Muhammad Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab (1792 C.E/ 1206 A.H), the Wahhabi movement called for "Ijtihad" and opposed "Taqlid". Advocating the Wahhabi stance on "Ijtihad", 'Abd al-Rahman ibn Hasan Aal-Al Shaykh (1196-1285 A.H / 1782-1868 C.E), influential "Qadi" of the Emirate of Nejd, asserts:


title: Ijtihad

text: The 18th-century Islamic reformer and top-most "Qadi" of Yemen, Al-Shawkani (1759-1839) totally rejected the theory of classification of "Mujtahids". According to him, there is only one form of "Ijtihad" which can be practised by anybody possessing sufficient knowledge. Shawkani maintains that it is sufficient for a scholar to study one compendium in each of the five disciplines to practice "Ijtihad". According to Shawkani, the "Muqallids" who propagate the closure of "Ijtihad" and argue that only the four Imams can understand "Qur'an" and "Sunnah" are guilty of:


title: Ijtihad

text: During the turn of the 16th to 17th century, Sunni Muslim reformers began to criticize taqlid, and promoted greater use of "ijtihad" in legal matters. They claimed that instead of looking solely to previous generations for practices developed by religious scholars, there should be an established doctrine and rule of behavior through the interpretation of original foundational texts of Islam—the Qur'an and Sunna.


title: Ijtihad

text: During the 18th century, Islamic revivalists increasingly condemned the "Muqallid" camp through a mass of writings explaining the evils of "Taqlid" and advocating "Ijtihad" as well as defending its status as a Divinely established principle in sharia. This would often result in violence between their followers. Most prominent amongst them were Shah Waliullah Dehlawi, Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, Shawkani, Muhammad ibn Isma'il Al-San'aani, Ibn Mu'ammar, Ahmad ibn Idris al-Fasi, Uthman Ibn Fudio, Muhammad ibn Ali al-Sanusi, etc.


title: Ijtihad

text: Shah Waliullah Dehlawi was an ardent advocate of "Ijtihad" and considered it essential for the vigour of society. Re-inforcing the classical theory, he considered Ijtihad to be "fard kifaya"(communal obligation). Condemning the prevalent partisanship over "Taqleed" he denounced the "Muqallid" camp as the misguided "simpletons of our time". He considered himself as a "Mujtahid" of the highest rank affiliated to Hanafi school.


title: Ijtihad

text: In his treatise "Usul al-Sittah"(Six Foundations), Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab harshly rebuked the "Muqallids" for raising the description of "Mujtahids" to humanely unattainable levels. He also condemned the practice of obligating "Taqleed" which deviated people away from Qur'an and Sunnah. In similar terms, Yemeni scholar Shawkani too condemned the practice of rigid "Taqleed". Demonstrating the perpetual existence of Mujtahids in his works, Shawkani also argued that "Ijtihad" at later times was far easier due to detailed manuals unavailable for jurists of the past era.


title: Ijtihad

text: Amongst the eighteenth-century reformers, the most radical condemnation of "Taqlid" and advocacy of "Ijtihad" was championed by the Arabian scholar Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab, whose uncompromising reformist efforts often turned violent. Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab condemned the centuries-long heritage of jurisprudence ("Fiqh") that coalesced into four schools ( "mad'habs" ) as an innovation. Challenging the authority of religious clerics, and a large portion of the classical scholarship, he proclaimed the necessity of directly returning to Qur'an and hadith, rather than relying on medieval interpretations. According to Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab, in order to uphold true monotheism( "Tawhid" ), Muslims should return to the pristine Islam of the early generations ("Salaf"), stripped of all human additions and speculations. In his legal treatises such as "Mukhtasar al-Insaf wa al-Sharh al-Kabir" , Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab weighed in legal opinions between different schools, opening the realm to comparative Fiqh thinking and often referring the conclusions of Ibn Taymiyya. This legal approach of drawing inferences directly from Qur'an and Hadith ( "istinbat" ), instead of "taqlid" to one of the 4 law schools, as well as his prohibition of "Taqlid", drew sharp condemnation from the "Muqallid" camp. In a scathing response, Muhammad Ibn 'Abdul Wahhab accused his detractors of taking "the scholars as lords" and vehemently condemned "taqleed" as the biggest principle of the "kuffar" (disbelievers), in his treatise "Masa'il al-Jahiliyya" ( Aspects of the Days of Ignorance) writing :


title: Ijtihad

text: In face of the backlash towards Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab's uncompromising stance in his rejection of taqlid, advocacy of Ijtihad and radical anti-madhab views, the later Wahhabis became more conciliatory towards traditional four schools of Fiqh. The earliest substantial Wahhabite treatise on "Ijtihad" was written by the scholar Ibn Mu'ammar (d. 1810), a student of Ibn Abd al-Wahhab and a "Qadi" of First Saudi state. In his treatise ""Risalat al-Ijtihad wal Taqlid"", Ibn Muammar gave respect to the four traditional Sunni schools of law and distinguished between two ranks of "Mujtahids": independent "Mujtahid" and "Mujtahid al-Muqayyid" bound to the "Imams". According to Ibn Mu'ammar, "Taqlid" is permissible for laymen and scholar without sufficient knowledge, but forbidden for those who can comprehend the bases of the law. Unlike Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab, Ibn Mu'ammar permitted laypeople to make "Taqleed" to trustworthy scholars, with certain reservations. Despite this, he also criticized strict adherence to a "madhab" and denounced "mad'hab" fanaticism as a "bid‘ah"(innovation). According to Ibn Mu'ammar, the opinions of Imams should be discarded if they differ from authentic Prophetic traditions. Similarly, Abdallah, the son of Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab also toned down the radical anti-Taqlid stances by stating that they affiliate themselves to the Hanbali school and do not condemn the common people who make taqleed to the four schools of jurisprudence.


title: Ijtihad

text: Ahmad Ibn Idris Al-Fasi also emphasized on the practice of "ijtihad". His criticism of "Taqleed" of the schools of law (madhhabs) was based on three concerns. First, the need for following the Prophetic traditions. Second, to reduce divisions between the Muslims. Third, mercy for the Muslims, because there were 'few circumstances on which the Quran and Sunna were genuinely silent, but if there was a silence on any question, then that silence was intentional on God's part- a divine mercy.' He therefore rejected any 'attempt to fill a silence deliberately left by God, and so to abrogate one of His mercies.'


title: Ijtihad

text: His student, Muhammad ibn Ali al-Sanusi also followed in his footsteps. In his work "Al-Bughya", Al Sanusi advocates for the need to practice "Ijtihad". The most detailed treatise by Al-Sanusi on the topic of "Ijtihad" is "Iqaz al-wasnan fi 'l-'amal bi'l-hadith wa'l-Qur`an." Quoting Ibn Taymiyya, Al Sanusi emphasizes on the principle of fallibility of the Imams of the "madhabs" and the obligation to follow the "Sunnah". The opinions of the four Imams should only be used for a better understanding of "Fiqh". Following Ibn Hazm and Shawkani, Sanussi asserted that "taqlid" is "bid'ah"(innovation) and fully condemned it. Sanussi distinguished between the independent "Mujtahid" and the affiliated "Mujtahid" and affirmed the existence of the affiliated "Mujtahid" in every age. He also objected to "Taqlid" and emphasized that "Qur'an" and "Sunna" must be given precedence over the opinions of Mujtahids, even in cases where the 4 "Imams" are wrong.


title: Ijtihad

text: Remarkably, all these reformers shared common points of contact in Hijaz and a network of scholars with a Hijazi-Yemeni centre. Shah Waliullah Dehlawi and Muhammad Hayat as-Sindi were pupils of Muhammad Ibn Ibrahim Al Kurrani Al Kurdi as well as connected to Ibrahim Ibn Hasan Al Kurrani Al Kurdi (d. 1690) and AbuI-Baqa' al-Hasan ibn 'Ali al- Ajami (d. 1702). Al-Sanusi is also linked with these scholars via his teacher al-Badr b. 'Amir al-Mi'dani who was a student of Al-Sindi as well as via other independent chains. Al-Shawkani is connected to Ibrahim Al-Kurrani via his teacher Yusuf Ibn Muhammad.