title: Technological singularity

text: In February 2009, under the auspices of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), Eric Horvitz chaired a meeting of leading computer scientists, artificial intelligence researchers and roboticists at Asilomar in Pacific Grove, California. The goal was to discuss the potential impact of the hypothetical possibility that robots could become self-sufficient and able to make their own decisions. They discussed the extent to which computers and robots might be able to acquire autonomy, and to what degree they could use such abilities to pose threats or hazards.


title: Technological singularity

text: Some machines are programmed with various forms of semi-autonomy, including the ability to locate their own power sources and choose targets to attack with weapons. Also, some computer viruses can evade elimination and, according to scientists in attendance, could therefore be said to have reached a "cockroach" stage of machine intelligence. The conference attendees noted that self-awareness as depicted in science-fiction is probably unlikely, but that other potential hazards and pitfalls exist.


title: Technological singularity

text: Frank S. Robinson predicts that once humans achieve a machine with the intelligence of a human, scientific and technological problems will be tackled and solved with brainpower far superior to that of humans. He notes that artificial systems are able to share data more directly than humans, and predicts that this would result in a global network of super-intelligence that would dwarf human capability. Robinson also discusses how vastly different the future would potentially look after such an intelligence explosion. One example of this is solar energy, where the Earth receives vastly more solar energy than humanity captures, so capturing more of that solar energy would hold vast promise for civilizational growth.


title: Technological singularity

text: In a hard takeoff scenario, an AGI rapidly self-improves, "taking control" of the world (perhaps in a matter of hours), too quickly for significant human-initiated error correction or for a gradual tuning of the AGI's goals. In a soft takeoff scenario, AGI still becomes far more powerful than humanity, but at a human-like pace (perhaps on the order of decades), on a timescale where ongoing human interaction and correction can effectively steer the AGI's development.


title: Technological singularity

text: Ramez Naam argues against a hard takeoff. He has pointed out that we already see recursive self-improvement by superintelligences, such as corporations. Intel, for example, has "the collective brainpower of tens of thousands of humans and probably millions of CPU cores to... design better CPUs!" However, this has not led to a hard takeoff; rather, it has led to a soft takeoff in the form of Moore's law. Naam further points out that the computational complexity of higher intelligence may be much greater than linear, such that "creating a mind of intelligence 2 is probably "more" than twice as hard as creating a mind of intelligence 1."


title: Technological singularity

text: J. Storrs Hall believes that "many of the more commonly seen scenarios for overnight hard takeoff are circular – they seem to assume hyperhuman capabilities at the "starting point" of the self-improvement process" in order for an AI to be able to make the dramatic, domain-general improvements required for takeoff. Hall suggests that rather than recursively self-improving its hardware, software, and infrastructure all on its own, a fledgling AI would be better off specializing in one area where it was most effective and then buying the remaining components on the marketplace, because the quality of products on the marketplace continually improves, and the AI would have a hard time keeping up with the cutting-edge technology used by the rest of the world.


title: Technological singularity

text: Ben Goertzel agrees with Hall's suggestion that a new human-level AI would do well to use its intelligence to accumulate wealth. The AI's talents might inspire companies and governments to disperse its software throughout society. Goertzel is skeptical of a hard five minute takeoff but speculates that a takeoff from human to superhuman level on the order of five years is reasonable. Goerzel refers to this scenario as a "semihard takeoff".


title: Technological singularity

text: Max More disagrees, arguing that if there were only a few superfast human-level AIs, that they would not radically change the world, as they would still depend on other people to get things done and would still have human cognitive constraints. Even if all superfast AIs worked on intelligence augmentation, it is unclear why they would do better in a discontinuous way than existing human cognitive scientists at producing super-human intelligence, although the rate of progress would increase. More further argues that a superintelligence would not transform the world overnight: a superintelligence would need to engage with existing, slow human systems to accomplish physical impacts on the world. "The need for collaboration, for organization, and for putting ideas into physical changes will ensure that all the old rules are not thrown out overnight or even within years."


title: Technological singularity

text: Drexler (1986), one of the founders of nanotechnology, postulates cell repair devices, including ones operating within cells and utilizing as yet hypothetical biological machines. According to Richard Feynman, it was his former graduate student and collaborator Albert Hibbs who originally suggested to him (circa 1959) the idea of a "medical" use for Feynman's theoretical micromachines. Hibbs suggested that certain repair machines might one day be reduced in size to the point that it would, in theory, be possible to (as Feynman put it) "swallow the doctor". The idea was incorporated into Feynman's 1959 essay "There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom."


title: Technological singularity

text: Moravec (1988) predicts possibility of "uploading" human mind into a human-like robot, achieving quasi-immortality by extreme longevity via transfer of the human mind between successive new robots and the old ones wear out; beyond that, he predicts later exponential acceleration of subjective experience of time leading to subjective sense of immortality.


title: Technological singularity

text: Kurzweil (2005) suggests that medical advances would allow people to protect their bodies from the effects of aging, making the life expectancy limitless. Kurzweil argues that the technological advances in medicine would allow us to continuously repair and replace defective components in our bodies, prolonging life to an undetermined age. Kurzweil further buttresses his argument by discussing current bio-engineering advances. Kurzweil suggests somatic gene therapy; after synthetic viruses with specific genetic information, the next step would be to apply this technology to gene therapy, replacing human DNA with synthesized genes.


title: Technological singularity

text: Beyond merely extending the operational life of the physical body, Jaron Lanier argues for a form of immortality called "Digital Ascension" that involves "people dying in the flesh and being uploaded into a computer and remaining conscious."


title: Technological singularity

text: A paper by Mahendra Prasad, published in "AI Magazine", asserts that the 18th-century mathematician Marquis de Condorcet was the first person to hypothesize and mathematically model an intelligence explosion and its effects on humanity.


title: Technological singularity

text: An early description of the idea was made in John W. Campbell's 1932 short story "The last evolution".


title: Technological singularity

text: In his 1958 obituary for John von Neumann, Ulam recalled a conversation with von Neumann about the "ever accelerating progress of technology and changes in the mode of human life, which gives the appearance of approaching some essential singularity in the history of the race beyond which human affairs, as we know them, could not continue."


title: Technological singularity

text: In 1965, Good wrote his essay postulating an "intelligence explosion" of recursive self-improvement of a machine intelligence.


title: Technological singularity

text: In 1977, Hans Moravec wrote an article with unclear publishing status where he envisioned a development of self-improving thinking machines, a creation of "super-consciousness, the synthesis of terrestrial life, and perhaps jovian and martian life as well, constantly improving and extending itself, spreading outwards from the solar system, converting non-life into mind." The article describes the human mind uploading later covered in Moravec (1988). The machines are going to reach human level and then improve themselves beyond that ("Most significantly of all, they [the machines] can be put to work as programmers and engineers, with the task of optimizing the software and hardware which make them what they are. The successive generations of machines produced this way will be increasingly smarter and more cost effective.") Humans will no longer be needed, and will be overtaken by the machines: "In the long run the sheer physical inability of humans to keep up with these rapidly evolving progeny of our minds will ensure that the ratio of people to machines approaches zero, and that a direct descendant of our culture, but not our genes, inherits the universe." While the word "singularity" is not used, the notion of human-level thinking machines thereafter improving themselves beyond human level is there. There is no intelligence explosion in the sense of a very rapid intelligence increase once human equivalence is reached. An updated version of the article was published in 1979 in Analog Science Fiction and Fact.


title: Technological singularity

text: In 1981, Stanisław Lem published his science fiction novel "Golem XIV". It describes a military AI computer (Golem XIV) who obtains consciousness and starts to increase his own intelligence, moving towards personal technological singularity. Golem XIV was originally created to aid its builders in fighting wars, but as its intelligence advances to a much higher level than that of humans, it stops being interested in the military requirements because it finds them lacking internal logical consistency.


title: Technological singularity

text: In 1983, Vernor Vinge addressed Good's intelligence explosion in print in the January 1983 issue of "Omni" magazine. In this op-ed piece, Vinge seems to have been the first to use the term "singularity" (although not "technological singularity") in a way that was specifically tied to the creation of intelligent machines:


title: Technological singularity

text: In 1985, in "The Time Scale of Artificial Intelligence", artificial intelligence researcher Ray Solomonoff articulated mathematically the related notion of what he called an "infinity point": if a research community of human-level self-improving AIs take four years to double their own speed, then two years, then one year and so on, their capabilities increase infinitely in finite time.


title: Technological singularity

text: In 1986, Vernor Vinge published "Marooned in Realtime", a science-fiction novel where a few remaining humans traveling forward in the future have survived an unknown extinction event that might well be a singularity. In a short afterword, the author states that an actual technological singularity would not be the end of the human species : "of course it seems very unlikely that the Singularity would be a clean vanishing of the human race. (On the other hand, such a vanishing is the timelike analog of the silence we find all across the sky.)".


title: Technological singularity

text: In 1988, Vinge used the phrase "technological singularity" (including "technological") in the short story collection "Threats and Other Promises", writing in the introduction to his story "The Whirligig of Time" (p. 72): "Barring a worldwide catastrophe, I believe that technology will achieve our wildest dreams, and" soon. "When we raise our own intelligence and that of our creations, we are no longer in a world of human-sized characters. At that point we have fallen into a technological "black hole," a technological singularity."


title: Technological singularity

text: In 1988, Hans Moravec published "Mind Children", in which he predicted human-level intelligence in supercomputers by 2010, self-improving intelligent machines far surpassing human intelligence later, human mind uploading into human-like robots later, intelligent machines leaving humans behind, and space colonization. He did not mention "singularity", though, and he did not speak of a rapid explosion of intelligence immediately after the human level is achieved. Nonetheless, the overall singularity tenor is there in predicting both human-level artificial intelligence and further artificial intelligence far surpassing humans later.


title: Technological singularity

text: Vinge's 1993 article "The Coming Technological Singularity: How to Survive in the Post-Human Era", spread widely on the internet and helped to popularize the idea. This article contains the statement, "Within thirty years, we will have the technological means to create superhuman intelligence. Shortly after, the human era will be ended." Vinge argues that science-fiction authors cannot write realistic post-singularity characters who surpass the human intellect, as the thoughts of such an intellect would be beyond the ability of humans to express.


title: Technological singularity

text: Minsky's 1994 article says robots will "inherit the Earth", possibly with the use of nanotechnology, and proposes to think of robots as human "mind children", drawing the analogy from Moravec. The rhetorical effect of that analogy is that if humans are fine to pass the world to their biological children, they should be equally fine to pass it to robots, their "mind" children. As per Minsky, 'we could design our "mind-children" to think a million times faster than we do. To such a being, half a minute might seem as long as one of our years, and each hour as long as an entire human lifetime.' The feature of the singularity present in Minsky is the development of superhuman artificial intelligence ("million times faster"), but there is no talk of sudden intelligence explosion, self-improving thinking machines or unpredictability beyond any specific event and the word "singularity" is not used.


title: Technological singularity

text: Tipler's 1994 book "The Physics of Immortality" predicts future where super–intelligent machines will build enormously powerful computers, people will be "emulated" in computers, life will reach every galaxy and people will achieve immortality when they reach Omega Point. There is no talk of Vingean "singularity" or sudden intelligence explosion, but intelligence much greater than human is there, as well as immortality.


title: Technological singularity

text: In 1996, Yudkowsky predicted a singularity by 2021. His version of singularity involves intelligence explosion: once AIs are doing the research to improve themselves, speed doubles after 2 years, then 1 one year, then after 6 months, then after 3 months, then after 1.5 months, and after more iterations, the "singularity" is reached. This construction implies that the speed reaches infinity in finite time.


title: Technological singularity

text: In 2000, Bill Joy, a prominent technologist and a co-founder of Sun Microsystems, voiced concern over the potential dangers of robotics, genetic engineering, and nanotechnology.


title: Technological singularity

text: In 2005, Kurzweil published "The Singularity Is Near". Kurzweil's publicity campaign included an appearance on "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart".


title: Technological singularity

text: From 2006 to 2012, annual Singularity Summit conference was organized by Machine Intelligence Research Institute, founded by Eliezer Yudkowsky.


title: Technological singularity

text: In 2007, Eliezer Yudkowsky suggested that many of the varied definitions that have been assigned to "singularity" are mutually incompatible rather than mutually supporting. For example, Kurzweil extrapolates current technological trajectories past the arrival of self-improving AI or superhuman intelligence, which Yudkowsky argues represents a tension with both I. J. Good's proposed discontinuous upswing in intelligence and Vinge's thesis on unpredictability.


title: Technological singularity

text: In 2009, Kurzweil and X-Prize founder Peter Diamandis announced the establishment of Singularity University, a nonaccredited private institute whose stated mission is "to educate, inspire and empower leaders to apply exponential technologies to address humanity's grand challenges." Funded by Google, Autodesk, ePlanet Ventures, and a group of technology industry leaders, Singularity University is based at NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California. The not-for-profit organization runs an annual ten-week graduate program during summer that covers ten different technology and allied tracks, and a series of executive programs throughout the year.


title: Technological singularity

text: In 2007, the Joint Economic Committee of the United States Congress released a report about the future of nanotechnology. It predicts significant technological and political changes in the mid-term future, including possible technological singularity.


title: Technological singularity

text: Former President of the United States Barack Obama spoke about singularity in his interview to "Wired" in 2016:


title: Bell pepper

text: The bell pepper (also known as paprika, sweet pepper, pepper, or capsicum ) is the fruit of plants in the Grossum Group of the species "Capsicum annuum". Cultivars of the plant produce fruits in different colors, including red, yellow, orange, green, white, chocolate, candy cane striped, and purple. Bell peppers are sometimes grouped with less pungent chili varieties as "sweet peppers". While they are fruits—botanically classified as berries—they are commonly used as a vegetable ingredient or side dish. Other varieties of the genus "Capsicum" are categorized as "chili peppers" when they are cultivated for their pungency, including some varieties of "Capsicum annuum".


title: Bell pepper

text: Peppers are native to Mexico, Central America, and northern South America. Pepper seeds were imported to Spain in 1493 and then spread through Europe and Asia. The mild bell pepper cultivar was developed in the 1920s, in Szeged, Hungary. Preferred growing conditions for bell peppers include warm, moist soil in a temperature range of .


title: Bell pepper

text: The name "pepper" was given by Europeans when Christopher Columbus brought the plant back to Europe. At that time, black pepper (peppercorns), from the unrelated plant "Piper nigrum" originating from India, was a highly prized condiment. The name "pepper" was applied in Europe to all known spices with a hot and pungent taste and was therefore extended to genus "Capsicum" when it was introduced from the Americas. The most commonly used name of the plant family, "chile", is of Mexican origin, from the Nahuatl word "chilli".


title: Bell pepper

text: The terms "bell pepper" (US, Canada, Philippines), "pepper" or "sweet pepper" (UK, Ireland, Canada, South Africa, Zimbabwe), and "capsicum" (Australia, Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, New Zealand, Pakistan and Sri Lanka) are often used for any of the large bell-shaped peppers, regardless of their color. The fruit is simply referred to as a "pepper", or additionally by color ("green pepper" or red, yellow, orange, purple, brown, black). In the Midland region of the U.S., bell peppers, either fresh or when stuffed and pickled, are sometimes called "mangoes".


title: Bell pepper

text: In some languages, the term "paprika", which has its roots in the word for pepper, is used for both the spice and the fruit – sometimes referred to by their color (for example "groene paprika", "gele paprika", in Dutch, which are green and yellow, respectively). The bell pepper is called "パプリカ" ("papurika") or "ピーマン" ("pīman", from French "piment" pronounced with a silent 't') in Japan. In Switzerland, the fruit is mostly called "peperone", which is the Italian name of the fruit. In France, it is called "poivron", with the same root as "poivre" (meaning "pepper") or "piment". In Spain it is called "pimiento morrón", the masculine form of the traditional spice, "pimienta" and "morrón" (snouted) referring to its general shape. In South Korea, the word "피망" ("pimang" from the French "piment") refers to green bell peppers, whereas "파프리카" ("papeurika", from "paprika") refers to bell peppers of other colors. In Sri Lanka, both the bell pepper and the banana pepper are referred to as a "capsicum" since the bell pepper has no Sinhalese translation. In Argentina and Chile, it is called "morrón".


title: Bell pepper

text: The most common colors of bell peppers are green, yellow, orange and red. Other colors include brown, white, lavender, and dark purple, depending on the variety. Most typically, unripe fruits are green or, less commonly, pale yellow or purple. Red bell peppers are simply ripened green peppers, although the "Permagreen" variety maintains its green color even when fully ripe. As such, mixed colored peppers also exist during parts of the ripening process.


title: Bell pepper

text: A raw red bell pepper is 94% water, 5% carbohydrates, 1% protein, and contains negligible fat (table). A 100 gram (3.5 oz) reference amount supplies 26 calories, and is a rich source of vitamin C containing 158% of the Daily Value (DV) vitamin A (20%), and vitamin B6 (23% DV), with moderate contents of riboflavin (12%), folate (12% DV), and vitamin E (11% DV). A red bell pepper supplies twice the vitamin C and eight times the vitamin A content of a green bell pepper.


title: Bell pepper

text: Like the tomato, bell peppers are botanical fruits but culinary vegetables. Pieces of bell pepper are commonly used in garden salads and as toppings on pizza. There are many varieties of stuffed peppers prepared using hollowed or halved bell peppers. Bell peppers (and other cultivars of "Capsicum annuum") may be used in the production of the spice paprika.


title: Bell pepper

text: The bell pepper is the only member of the genus "Capsicum" that does not produce capsaicin, a lipophilic chemical that can cause a strong burning sensation when it comes in contact with mucous membranes. They are thus scored in the lowest level of the Scoville scale, meaning that they are not spicy. This absence of capsaicin is due to a recessive form of a gene that eliminates the compound and, consequently, the "hot" taste usually associated with the rest of the genus "Capsicum". This recessive gene is overwritten in the Mexibelle pepper, a hybrid variety of bell pepper that produces small amounts of capsaicin (and is thus mildly pungent). Sweet pepper cultivars produce non-pungent capsaicinoids.


title: Bell pepper

text: In 2020, global production of bell peppers was 36 million tonnes, led by China with 46% of the total, and secondary production by Mexico, Indonesia, and Turkey.


title: Squid

text: True squid are molluscs with an elongated soft body, large eyes, eight arms, and two tentacles in the superorder Decapodiformes, though many other molluscs within the broader Neocoleoidea are also called squid despite not strictly fitting these criteria. Like all other cephalopods, squid have a distinct head, bilateral symmetry, and a mantle. They are mainly soft-bodied, like octopuses, but have a small internal skeleton in the form of a rod-like gladius or pen, made of chitin.


title: Squid

text: Squid diverged from other cephalopods during the Jurassic and occupy a similar role to teleost fish as open water predators of similar size and behaviour. They play an important role in the open water food web. The two long tentacles are used to grab prey and the eight arms to hold and control it. The beak then cuts the food into suitable size chunks for swallowing. Squid are rapid swimmers, moving by jet propulsion, and largely locate their prey by sight. They are among the most intelligent of invertebrates, with groups of Humboldt squid having been observed hunting cooperatively. They are preyed on by sharks, other fish, sea birds, seals and cetaceans, particularly sperm whales.


title: Squid

text: Squid can change colour for camouflage and signalling. Some species are bioluminescent, using their light for counter-illumination camouflage, while many species can eject a cloud of ink to distract predators.


title: Squid

text: Squid are used for human consumption with commercial fisheries in Japan, the Mediterranean, the southwestern Atlantic, the eastern Pacific and elsewhere. They are used in cuisines around the world, often known as "calamari". Squid have featured in literature since classical times, especially in tales of giant squid and sea monsters.


title: Squid

text: Squid are members of the class Cephalopoda, subclass Coleoidea. The squid orders Myopsida and Oegopsida are in the superorder Decapodiformes (from the Greek for "ten-legged"). Two other orders of decapodiform cephalopods are also called squid, although they are taxonomically distinct from squids and differ recognizably in their gross anatomical features. They are the bobtail squid of order Sepiolida and the ram's horn squid of the monotypic order Spirulida. The vampire squid ("Vampyroteuthis infernalis"), however, is more closely related to the octopus than to any squid.


title: Squid

text: The cladogram, not fully resolved, is based on Sanchez et al., 2018. Their molecular phylogeny used mitochondrial and nuclear DNA marker sequences; they comment that a robust phylogeny "has proven very challenging to obtain". If it is accepted that Sepiidae cuttlefish are a kind of squid, then the squids, excluding the vampire squid, form a clade as illustrated. Orders are shown in boldface; all the families not included in those orders are in the paraphyletic order "Oegopsida", except Sepiadariidae and Sepiidae that are in the paraphyletic order "Sepiida",


title: Squid

text: Crown coleoids (the common ancestor of octopuses and squid) diverged in the late Paleozoic (Mississippian), according to fossils of "Syllipsimopodi", an early relative of vampire squids and octopuses. True squid diverged during the Jurassic, but many squid families appeared in or after the Cretaceous. Both the coleoids and the teleost fish were involved in much adaptive radiation at this time, and the two modern groups resemble each other in size, ecology, habitat, morphology and behaviour, however some fish moved into fresh water while the coleoids remained in marine environments.


title: Squid

text: The ancestral coleoid was probably nautiloid-like with a strait septate shell that became immersed in the mantle and was used for buoyancy control. Four lines diverged from this, Spirulida (with one living member), the cuttlefishes, the squids and the octopuses. Squid have differentiated from the ancestral mollusc such that the body plan has been condensed antero-posteriorly and extended dorso-ventrally. What may have been the foot of the ancestor is modified into a complex set of appendages around the mouth. The sense organs are highly developed and include advanced eyes similar to those of vertebrates.


title: Squid

text: The ancestral shell has been lost, with only an internal gladius, or pen, remaining. The pen, made of a chitin-like material, is a feather-shaped internal structure that supports the squid's mantle and serves as a site for muscle attachment. The cuttlebone or sepion of the Sepiidae is calcareous and appears to have evolved afresh in the Tertiary.


title: Squid

text: Squid are soft-bodied molluscs whose forms evolved to adopt an active predatory lifestyle. The head and foot of the squid are at one end of a long body, and this end is functionally anterior, leading the animal as it moves through the water. A set of eight arms and two distinctive tentacles surround the mouth; each appendage takes the form of a muscular hydrostat and is flexible and prehensile, usually bearing disc-like suckers.


title: Squid

text: The suckers may lie directly on the arm or be stalked. Their rims are stiffened with chitin and may contain minute toothlike denticles. These features, as well as strong musculature, and a small ganglion beneath each sucker to allow individual control, provide a very powerful adhesion to grip prey. Hooks are present on the arms and tentacles in some species, but their function is unclear. The two tentacles are much longer than the arms and are retractile. Suckers are limited to the spatulate tip of the tentacle, known as the manus.


title: Squid

text: In the mature male, the outer half of one of the left arms is hectocotylised – and ends in a copulatory pad rather than suckers. This is used for depositing a spermatophore inside the mantle cavity of a female. A ventral part of the foot has been converted into a funnel through which water exits the mantle cavity.


title: Squid

text: The main body mass is enclosed in the mantle, which has a swimming fin along each side. These fins are not the main source of locomotion in most species. The mantle wall is heavily muscled and internal. The visceral mass, which is covered by a thin, membranous epidermis, forms a cone-shaped posterior region known as the "visceral hump". The mollusc shell is reduced to an internal, longitudinal chitinous "pen" in the functionally dorsal part of the animal; the pen acts to stiffen the squid and provides attachments for muscles.


title: Squid

text: On the functionally ventral part of the body is an opening to the mantle cavity, which contains the gills (ctenidia) and openings from the excretory, digestive and reproductive systems. An inhalant siphon behind the funnel draws water into the mantle cavity via a valve. The squid uses the funnel for locomotion via precise jet propulsion. In this form of locomotion, water is sucked into the mantle cavity and expelled out of the funnel in a fast, strong jet. The direction of travel is varied by the orientation of the funnel. Squid are strong swimmers and certain species can "fly" for short distances out of the water.


title: Squid

text: Squid make use of different kinds of camouflage, namely active camouflage for background matching (in shallow water) and counter-illumination. This helps to protect them from their predators and allows them to approach their prey.


title: Squid

text: The skin is covered in controllable chromatophores of different colours, enabling the squid to match its coloration to its surroundings. The play of colours may in addition distract prey from the squid's approaching tentacles. The skin also contains light reflectors called iridophores and leucophores that, when activated, in milliseconds create changeable skin patterns of polarized light. Such skin camouflage may serve various functions, such as communication with nearby squid, prey detection, navigation, and orientation during hunting or seeking shelter. Neural control of the iridophores enabling rapid changes in skin iridescence appears to be regulated by a cholinergic process affecting reflectin proteins.


title: Squid

text: Some mesopelagic squid such as the firefly squid ("Watasenia scintillans") and the midwater squid ("Abralia veranyi") use counter-illumination camouflage, generating light to match the downwelling light from the ocean surface. This creates the effect of countershading, making the underside lighter than the upperside.


title: Squid

text: Counter-illumination is also used by the Hawaiian bobtail squid ("Euprymna scolopes"), which has symbiotic bacteria ("Aliivibrio fischeri") that produce light to help the squid avoid nocturnal predators. This light shines through the squid's skin on its underside and is generated by a large and complex two-lobed light organ inside the squid's mantle cavity. From there, it escapes downwards, some of it travelling directly, some coming off a reflector at the top of the organ (dorsal side). Below there is a kind of iris, which has branches (diverticula) of its ink sac, with a lens below that; both the reflector and lens are derived from mesoderm. The squid controls light production by changing the shape of its iris or adjusting the strength of yellow filters on its underside, which presumably change the balance of wavelengths emitted. Light production shows a correlation with intensity of down-welling light, but it is about one third as bright; the squid can track repeated changes in brightness. Because the Hawaiian bobtail squid hides in sand during the day to avoid predators, it does not use counter-illumination during daylight hours.


title: Squid

text: Squid distract attacking predators by ejecting a cloud of ink, giving themselves an opportunity to escape. The ink gland and its associated ink sac empties into the rectum close to the anus, allowing the squid to rapidly discharge black ink into the mantle cavity and surrounding water. The ink is a suspension of melanin particles and quickly disperses to form a dark cloud that obscures the escape manoeuvres of the squid. Predatory fish may also be deterred by the alkaloid nature of the discharge which may interfere with their chemoreceptors.


title: Squid

text: Cephalopods have the most highly developed nervous systems among invertebrates. Squids have a complex brain in the form of a nerve ring encircling the oesophagus, enclosed in a cartilaginous cranium. Paired cerebral ganglia above the oesophagus receive sensory information from the eyes and statocysts, and further ganglia below control the muscles of the mouth, foot, mantle and viscera. Giant axons up to in diameter convey nerve messages with great rapidity to the circular muscles of the mantle wall, allowing a synchronous, powerful contraction and maximum speed in the jet propulsion system.


title: Squid

text: The paired eyes, on either side of the head, are housed in capsules fused to the cranium. Their structure is very similar to that of a fish eye, with a globular lens that has a depth of focus from to infinity. The image is focused by changing the position of the lens, as in a camera or telescope, rather than changing the shape of the lens, as in the human eye. Squid adjust to changes in light intensity by expanding and contracting the slit-shaped pupil. Deep sea squids in the family Histioteuthidae have eyes of two different types and orientation. The large left eye is tubular in shape and looks upwards, presumably searching for the silhouettes of animals higher in the water column. The normally-shaped right eye points forwards and downwards to detect prey.


title: Squid

text: The statocysts are involved in maintaining balance and are analogous to the inner ear of fish. They are housed in cartilaginous capsules on either side of the cranium. They provide the squid with information on its body position in relation to gravity, its orientation, acceleration and rotation, and are able to perceive incoming vibrations. Without the statocysts, the squid cannot maintain equilibrium. Squid appear to have limited hearing, but the head and arms bear lines of hair-cells that are weakly sensitive to water movements and changes in pressure, and are analogous in function to the lateral line system of fish.


title: Squid

text: The sexes are separate in squid, there being a single gonad in the posterior part of the body with fertilisation being external, and usually taking place in the mantle cavity of the female. The male has a testis from which sperm pass into a single gonoduct where they are rolled together into a long bundle, or spermatophore. The gonoduct is elongated into a "penis" that extends into the mantle cavity and through which spermatophores are ejected. In shallow water species, the penis is short, and the spermatophore is removed from the mantle cavity by a tentacle of the male, which is specially adapted for the purpose and known as a hectocotylus, and placed inside the mantle cavity of the female during mating.


title: Squid

text: The female has a large translucent ovary, situated towards the posterior of the visceral mass. From here, eggs travel along the gonocoel, where there are a pair of white nidamental glands, which lie anterior to the gills. Also present are red-spotted accessory nidamental glands containing symbiotic bacteria; both organs are associated with nutrient manufacture and forming shells for the eggs. The gonocoel enters the mantle cavity at the gonopore, and in some species, receptacles for storing spermatophores are located nearby, in the mantle wall.


title: Squid

text: In shallow-water species of the continental shelf and epipelagic or mesopelagic zones, it is frequently one or both of arm pair IV of males that are modified into hectocotyli. However, most deep-sea squid lack hectocotyl arms and have longer penises; Ancistrocheiridae and Cranchiinae are exceptions. Giant squid of the genus "Architeuthis" are unusual in that they possess both a large penis and modified arm tips, although whether the latter are used for spermatophore transfer is uncertain. Penis elongation has been observed in the deep-water species "Onykia ingens"; when erect, the penis may be as long as the mantle, head, and arms combined. As such, deep-water squid have the greatest known penis length relative to body size of all mobile animals, second in the entire animal kingdom only to certain sessile barnacles.


title: Squid

text: Like all cephalopods, squids are predators and have complex digestive systems. The mouth is equipped with a sharp, horny beak mainly made of chitin and cross-linked proteins, which is used to kill and tear prey into manageable pieces. The beak is very robust, but does not contain minerals, unlike the teeth and jaws of many other organisms; the cross-linked proteins are histidine- and glycine-rich and give the beak a stiffness and hardness greater than most equivalent synthetic organic materials. The stomachs of captured whales often have indigestible squid beaks inside. The mouth contains the radula, the rough tongue common to all molluscs except bivalvia, which is equipped with multiple rows of teeth. In some species, toxic saliva helps to control large prey; when subdued, the food can be torn in pieces by the beak, moved to the oesophagus by the radula, and swallowed.


title: Squid

text: The food bolus is moved along the gut by waves of muscular contractions (peristalsis). The long oesophagus leads to a muscular stomach roughly in the middle of the visceral mass. The digestive gland, which is equivalent to a vertebrate liver, diverticulates here, as does the pancreas, and both of these empty into the caecum, a pouch-shaped sac where most of the absorption of nutrients takes place. Indigestible food can be passed directly from the stomach to the rectum where it joins the flow from the caecum and is voided through the anus into the mantle cavity. Cephalopods are short-lived, and in mature squid, priority is given to reproduction; the female "Onychoteuthis banksii" for example, sheds its feeding tentacles on reaching maturity, and becomes flaccid and weak after spawning.


title: Squid

text: The squid mantle cavity is a seawater-filled sac containing three hearts and other organs supporting circulation, respiration, and excretion. Squid have a main systemic heart that pumps blood around the body as part of the general circulatory system, and two branchial hearts. The systemic heart consists of three chambers, a lower ventricle and two upper atria, all of which can contract to propel the blood. The branchial hearts pump blood specifically to the gills for oxygenation, before returning it to the systemic heart. The blood contains the copper-rich protein hemocyanin, which is used for oxygen transport at low ocean temperatures and low oxygen concentrations, and makes the oxygenated blood a deep, blue color. As systemic blood returns via two vena cavae to the branchial hearts, excretion of urine, carbon dioxide, and waste solutes occurs through outpockets (called nephridial appendages) in the vena cavae walls that enable gas exchange and excretion via the mantle cavity seawater.


title: Squid

text: Unlike nautiloids which have gas-filled chambers inside their shells which provide buoyancy, and octopuses which live near and rest on the seabed and do not require to be buoyant, many squid have a fluid-filled receptacle, equivalent to the swim bladder of a fish, in the coelom or connective tissue. This reservoir acts as a chemical buoyancy chamber, with the heavy metallic cations typical of seawater replaced by low molecular-weight ammonium ions, a product of excretion. The small difference in density provides a small contribution to buoyancy per unit volume, so the mechanism requires a large buoyancy chamber to be effective. Since the chamber is filled with liquid, it has the advantage over a swim bladder of not changing significantly in volume with pressure. Glass squids in the family Cranchiidae for example, have an enormous transparent coelom containing ammonium ions and occupying about two-thirds the volume of the animal, allowing it to float at the required depth. About half of the 28 families of squid use this mechanism to solve their buoyancy issues.


title: Squid

text: The majority of squid are no more than long, although the giant squid may reach . The smallest species are probably the benthic pygmy squids "Idiosepius", which grow to a mantle length of , and have short bodies and stubby arms.


title: Squid

text: In 1978, sharp, curved claws on the suction cups of squid tentacles cut up the rubber coating on the hull of the USS "Stein". The size suggested the largest squid known at the time.


title: Squid

text: In 2003, a large specimen of an abundant but poorly understood species, "Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni" (the colossal squid), was discovered. This species may grow to in length, making it the largest invertebrate. In February 2007, a New Zealand fishing vessel caught the largest squid ever documented, weighing and measuring around off the coast of Antarctica. Dissection showed that the eyes, used to detect prey in the deep Southern Ocean, exceeded the size of footballs; these may be among the largest eyes ever to exist in the animal kingdom.


title: Squid

text: The eggs of squid are large for a mollusc, containing a large amount of yolk to nourish the embryo as it develops directly, without an intervening veliger larval stage. The embryo grows as a disc of cells on top of the yolk. During the gastrulation stage, the margins of the disc grow to surround the yolk, forming a yolk sac, which eventually forms part of the animal's gut. The dorsal side of the disc grows upwards and forms the embryo, with a shell gland on its dorsal surface, gills, mantle and eyes. The arms and funnel develop as part of the foot on the ventral side of the disc. The arms later migrate upwards, coming to form a ring around the funnel and mouth. The yolk is gradually absorbed as the embryo grows. Some juvenile squid live higher in the water column than do adults. Squids tend to be short-lived; "Loligo" for example lives from one to three years according to species, typically dying soon after spawning.


title: Squid

text: In a well-studied bioluminescent species, the Hawaiian bobtail squid, a special light organ in the squid's mantle is rapidly colonized with "Aliivibrio fischeri" bacteria within hours of hatching. This light-organ colonization requires this particular bacterial species for a symbiotic relationship; no colonization occurs in the absence of "A. fischeri". Colonization occurs in a horizontal manner, such that the hosts acquires its bacterial partners from the environment. The symbiosis is obligate for the squid, but facultative for the bacteria. Once the bacteria enter the squid, they colonize interior epithelial cells in the light organ, living in crypts with complex microvilli protrusions. The bacteria also interact with hemocytes, macrophage-like blood cells that migrate between epithelial cells, but the mechanism and function of this process is not well understood. Bioluminescence reaches its highest levels during the early evening hours and bottoms out before dawn; this occurs because at the end of each day, the contents of the squid's crypts are expelled into the surrounding environment. Approximately 95% of the bacteria are voided each morning before the bacterial population builds up again by nightfall.


title: Squid

text: Squid can move about in several different ways. Slow movement is achieved by a gentle undulation of the muscular lateral fins on either side of the trunk which drives the animal forward. A more common means of locomotion providing sustained movement is achieved using jetting, during which contraction of the muscular wall of the mantle cavity provides jet propulsion.


title: Squid

text: Slow jetting is used for ordinary locomotion, and ventilation of the gills is achieved at the same time. The circular muscles in the mantle wall contract; this causes the inhalant valve to close, the exhalant valve to open and the mantle edge to lock tightly around the head. Water is forced out through the funnel which is pointed in the opposite direction to the required direction of travel. The inhalant phase is initiated by the relaxation of the circular muscles causes them to stretch, the connective tissue in the mantle wall recoils elastically, the mantle cavity expands causing the inhalant valve to open, the exhalant valve to close and water to flow into the cavity. This cycle of exhalation and inhalation is repeated to provide continuous locomotion.


title: Squid

text: Fast jetting is an escape response. In this form of locomotion, radial muscles in the mantle wall are involved as well as circular ones, making it possible to hyper-inflate the mantle cavity with a larger volume of water than during slow jetting. On contraction, water flows out with great force, the funnel always being pointed anteriorly, and travel is backwards. During this means of locomotion, some squid exit the water in a similar way to flying fish, gliding through the air for up to , and occasionally ending up on the decks of ships.


title: Squid

text: Squid are carnivores, and, with their strong arms and suckers, can overwhelm relatively large animals efficiently. Prey is identified by sight or by touch, grabbed by the tentacles which can be shot out with great rapidity, brought back to within reach of the arms, and held by the hooks and suckers on their surface. In some species, the squid's saliva contains toxins which act to subdue the prey. These are injected into its bloodstream when the prey is bitten, along with vasodilators and chemicals to stimulate the heart, and quickly circulate to all parts of its body. The deep sea squid "Taningia danae" has been filmed releasing blinding flashes of light from large photophores on its arms to illuminate and disorientate potential prey.


title: Squid

text: Although squid can catch large prey, the mouth is relatively small, and the food must be cut into pieces by the chitinous beak with its powerful muscles before being swallowed. The radula is located in the buccal cavity and has multiple rows of tiny teeth that draw the food backwards and grind it in pieces. The deep sea squid "Mastigoteuthis" has the whole length of its whip-like tentacles covered with tiny suckers; it probably catches small organisms in the same way that flypaper traps flies. The tentacles of some bathypelagic squids bear photophores which may bring food within its reach by attracting prey.


title: Squid

text: Squid are among the most intelligent invertebrates. For example, groups of Humboldt squid hunt cooperatively, spiralling up through the water at night and coordinating their vertical and horizontal movements while foraging.


title: Squid

text: Courtship in squid takes place in the open water and involves the male selecting a female, the female responding, and the transfer by the male of spermatophores to the female. In many instances, the male may display to identify himself to the female and drive off any potential competitors. Elaborate changes in body patterning take place in some species in both agonistic and courtship behaviour. The Caribbean reef squid ("Sepioteuthis sepioidea"), for example, employs a complex array of colour changes during courtship and social interactions and has a range of about 16 body patterns in its repertoire.


title: Squid

text: The pair adopt a head-to-head position, and "jaw locking" may take place, in a similar manner to that adopted by some cichlid fish. The heterodactylus of the male is used to transfer the spermatophore and deposit it in the female's mantle cavity in the position appropriate for the species; this may be adjacent to the gonopore or in a seminal receptacle.


title: Squid

text: The sperm may be used immediately or may be stored. As the eggs pass down the oviduct, they are wrapped in a gelatinous coating, before continuing to the mantle cavity, where they are fertilised. In "Loligo", further coatings are added by the nidimental glands in the walls of the cavity and the eggs leave through a funnel formed by the arms. The female attaches them to the substrate in strings or groups, the coating layers swelling and hardening after contact with sea water. "Loligo" sometimes forms breeding aggregations which may create a "community pile" of egg strings. Some pelagic and deep sea squid do not attach their egg masses, which float freely.


title: Squid

text: Squid mostly have an annual life cycle, growing fast and dying soon after spawning. The diet changes as they grow but mostly consists of large zooplankton and small nekton. In Antarctica for example, krill is the main constituent of the diet, with other food items being amphipods, other small crustaceans, and large arrow worms. Fish are also eaten, and some squid are cannibalistic.


title: Squid

text: As well as occupying a key role in the food chain, squid are an important prey for predators including sharks, sea birds, seals and whales. Juvenile squid provide part of the diet for worms and small fish. When researchers studied the contents of the stomachs of elephant seals in South Georgia, they found 96% squid by weight. In a single day, a sperm whale can eat 700 to 800 squid, and a Risso's dolphin entangled in a net in the Mediterranean was found to have eaten angel clubhook squid, umbrella squid, reverse jewel squid and European flying squid, all identifiable from their indigestible beaks. "Ornithoteuthis volatilis", a common squid from the tropical Indo-Pacific, is predated by yellowfin tuna, longnose lancetfish, common dolphinfish and swordfish, the tiger shark, the scalloped hammerhead shark and the smooth hammerhead shark. Sperm whales also hunt this species extensively as does the brown fur seal. In the Southern Ocean, penguins and wandering albatrosses are major predators of "Gonatus antarcticus".


title: Squid

text: Giant squid have featured as monsters of the deep since classical times. Giant squid were described by Aristotle (4th century BC) in his "History of Animals" and Pliny the Elder (1st century AD) in his "Natural History". The Gorgon of Greek mythology may have been inspired by squid or octopus, the animal itself representing the severed head of Medusa, the beak as the protruding tongue and fangs, and its tentacles as the snakes. The six-headed sea monster of the "Odyssey", Scylla, may have had a similar origin. The Nordic legend of the kraken may also have derived from sightings of large cephalopods.


title: Squid

text: In literature, H. G. Wells' short story "The Sea Raiders" featured a man-eating squid species "Haploteuthis ferox". The science fiction writer Jules Verne told a tale of a kraken-like monster in his 1870 novel "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea".


title: Squid

text: Squid form a major food resource and are used in cuisines around the world, notably in Japan where it is eaten as ika sōmen, sliced into vermicelli-like strips; as sashimi; and as tempura. Three species of "Loligo" are used in large quantities, "L. vulgaris" in the Mediterranean (known as "Calamar" in Spanish, "Calamaro" in Italian); "L. forbesii" in the Northeast Atlantic; and "L. pealei" on the American East Coast. Among the Ommastrephidae, "Todarodes pacificus" is the main commercial species, harvested in large quantities across the North Pacific in Canada, Japan and China.


title: Squid

text: In English-speaking countries, squid as food is often called "calamari", adopted from Italian into English in the 17th century. Squid are found abundantly in certain areas, and provide large catches for fisheries. The body can be stuffed whole, cut into flat pieces, or sliced into rings. The arms, tentacles, and ink are also edible; the only parts not eaten are the beak and gladius (pen). Squid is a good food source for zinc and manganese, and high in copper, selenium, vitamin B, and riboflavin.


title: Squid

text: According to the FAO, the cephalopod catch for 2002 was . Of this, 2,189,206 tonnes, or 75.8 percent, was squid. The following table lists squid species fishery catches that exceeded in 2002.


title: Squid

text: Prototype chromatophores that mimic the squid's adaptive camouflage have been made by Bristol University researchers using an electroactive dielectric elastomer, a flexible "smart" material that changes its colour and texture in response to electrical signals. The researchers state that their goal is to create an artificial skin that provides rapid active camouflage.


title: Squid

text: The squid giant axon inspired Otto Schmitt to develop a comparator circuit with hysteresis now called the Schmitt trigger, replicating the axon's propagation of nerve impulses.


title: The Andy Griffith Show

text: The Andy Griffith Show is an American situation comedy television series that aired on CBS from October 3, 1960, to April 1, 1968, with a total of 249 half-hour episodes spanning eight seasons—159 in black and white and 90 in color.


title: The Andy Griffith Show

text: The series originated partly from an episode of "The Danny Thomas Show." The show stars Andy Griffith as Andy Taylor, the widowed sheriff of Mayberry, North Carolina, a fictional community of roughly 2,000–5,000 people. Other major characters include Andy's cousin, the well-meaning and enthusiastic deputy, Barney Fife (Don Knotts); Andy's aunt and housekeeper, Bee Taylor (Frances Bavier); and Andy's young son, Opie (Ron Howard). Eccentric townspeople and, periodically, Andy's girlfriends complete the cast. Regarding the tone of the show, Griffith said that despite a contemporary setting, the show evoked nostalgia, saying in a "Today" interview, "Well, though we never said it, and though it was shot in the '60s, it had a feeling of the '30s. It was, when we were doing it, of a time gone by."


title: The Andy Griffith Show

text: The series never placed lower than seventh in the Nielsen ratings, ending its final season at number one. The only other shows to end their runs at the top of the ratings are "I Love Lucy" (1957) and "Seinfeld" (1998). On separate occasions, it has been ranked by "TV Guide" as the ninth- and thirteenth-best series in American television history. Though neither Griffith nor the show won awards during its eight-season run, co-stars Knotts and Bavier accumulated a combined total of six Emmy Awards. The series spawned its own spin-off—"Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C." (1964–1969) and a reunion telemovie, "Return to Mayberry" (1986).


title: The Andy Griffith Show

text: After the eighth season, when Griffith left the series, it was retitled "Mayberry, R.F.D.," with Ken Berry and Buddy Foster replacing Griffith and Howard in new roles. In the new format, it ran for 78 episodes, ending in 1971 after three seasons. Reruns of "The Andy Griffith Show" are often shown on TV Land, MeTV, The CW, and SundanceTV. On those channels, the episodes are edited to make room for commercials, but some airings on SundanceTV air the full uncut versions. The complete series is available on DVD and Blu-ray and is intermittently available on such streaming video services as Amazon Prime. Mayberry Days, an annual festival celebrating the sitcom, is held each year in Griffith's hometown, Mount Airy, North Carolina.


title: The Andy Griffith Show

text: Sheldon Leonard—producer of "The Danny Thomas Show"—and Danny Thomas hired veteran comedy writer Arthur Stander (who had written many of the "Danny Thomas" episodes) to create a pilot show for Griffith, featuring him as justice of the peace and newspaper editor in a small town. At the time, Broadway, film, and radio star Griffith was interested in attempting a television role, and the William Morris Agency told Leonard that Griffith's rural background and previous rustic characterizations were suited to the part. After conferences between Leonard and Griffith in New York City, Griffith flew to Los Angeles and filmed the episode. On February 15, 1960, "The Danny Thomas Show" episode "Danny Meets Andy Griffith" aired. In the episode, Griffith played fictional Sheriff Andy Taylor of Mayberry, North Carolina, who arrests Danny Williams (Thomas' character) for running a stop sign. Future players in "The Andy Griffith Show," Bavier and Howard, appeared in the episode as townspeople Henrietta Perkins and Opie Taylor (the sheriff's son), respectively. General Foods, sponsor of "The Danny Thomas Show," had first access to the spin-off and committed to it immediately. On October 3, 1960, at 9:30 p.m., "The Andy Griffith Show" made its debut.


title: The Andy Griffith Show

text: The sitcom's production team included producers Aaron Ruben (1960–1965) and Bob Ross (1965–1968). First-season writers (many of whom worked in pairs) included Jack Elinson, Charles Stewart, Arthur Stander and Frank Tarloff (as "David Adler"), Benedict Freedman and John Fenton Murray, Leo Solomon and Ben Gershman, and Jim Fritzell and Everett Greenbaum. During season six, Greenbaum and Fritzell left the show and Ruben departed for "Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.", a show which he owned in part. Writer Harvey Bullock left after season six. Bob Sweeney directed the first three seasons save the premiere.


title: The Andy Griffith Show

text: The show was filmed at Desilu Studios, with exteriors filmed at Forty Acres in Culver City, California. Woodsy locales were filmed north of Beverly Hills at Franklin Canyon, including the opening credits and closing credits with Andy and Opie walking to and from "the fishin' hole". Don Knotts, who knew Griffith professionally and had seen "The Danny Thomas Show" episode, called Griffith during the developmental stages of the show and suggested the Sheriff character needed a deputy. Griffith agreed. Knotts auditioned for the show's creator and executive producer, Sheldon Leonard, and was offered a five-year contract playing Barney Fife. The show's theme music, "The Fishin' Hole," was composed by Earle Hagen and Herbert Spencer, with lyrics written by Everett Sloane, who also guest starred as Jubal Foster in the episode "The Keeper of the Flame" (1962). Whistling in the opening sequence, as well as the closing credits sequence, was performed by Earle Hagen. One of the show's tunes, "The Mayberry March," was reworked a number of times in different tempo, styles and orchestrations as background music. The show's sole sponsor was General Foods, with promotional consideration paid for (in the form of cars) by Ford Motor Company (mentioned in the credits).


title: The Andy Griffith Show

text: Initially, Griffith played Taylor as a heavy-handed country bumpkin, grinning from ear to ear and speaking in a hesitant, frantic manner. The style recalled that used in the delivery of his popular monologues such as "What It Was, Was Football." He gradually abandoned the "rustic Taylor" and developed a serious and thoughtful characterization. Producer Aaron Ruben recalled: He was being that marvelously funny character from "No Time for Sergeants," Will Stockdale [a role Griffith played on stage and in film] ... One day he said, "My God, I just realized that I'm the straight man. I'm playing straight to all these kooks around me." He didn't like himself [in first year reruns] ... and in the next season he changed, becoming this Lincolnesque character. As Griffith stopped portraying some of the sheriff's more unsophisticated character traits and mannerisms, it was impossible for him to create his own problems and troubles in the manner of other central sitcom characters such as Lucy in "I Love Lucy" or Archie Bunker in "All in the Family," whose problems were the result of their temperaments, philosophies and attitudes. Consequently, the characters around Taylor were employed to create the problems and troubles, with rock-solid Taylor stepping in as problem solver, mediator, advisor, disciplinarian and counselor.


title: The Andy Griffith Show

text: The series revolves around Andy Taylor (Andy Griffith), the sheriff of the sleepy, slow-paced fictional community of Mayberry, North Carolina. His laid-back, level-headed approach to law enforcement makes him the scourge of local moonshiners and out-of-town criminals, while his abilities to settle community problems with common-sense advice, mediation, and conciliation make him popular with his fellow citizens. His professional life, however, is complicated by the repeated gaffes of his inept deputy, Barney Fife (Don Knotts). Barney is Andy's cousin and best friend. At home, widower Andy raises his young son Opie (Ronny Howard), assisted by his maiden aunt and housekeeper, Aunt Bee (Frances Bavier). Opie tests his father's parenting skills season after season, and Aunt Bee's ill-considered romances and adventures cause her nephew concern.


title: The Andy Griffith Show

text: Andy's friends and neighbors include, at various times, barber Floyd Lawson (Howard McNear; Walter Baldwin portrayed the role in the 1960 episode "Stranger in Town"), service station attendants and cousins Gomer Pyle (Jim Nabors) and Goober Pyle (George Lindsey), and local drunkard Otis Campbell (Hal Smith). There are two mayors over the course of the series: Mayor Pike (Dick Elliott) is more relaxed, but often indecisive, while Mayor Roy Stoner (Parley Baer) has a more assertive personality. Other semi-regulars include townswoman Clara Edwards (Hope Summers), Barney's sweetheart Thelma Lou (Betty Lynn) and Andy's schoolteacher sweetheart Helen Crump (Aneta Corsaut). Ellie Walker (Elinor Donahue) is Andy's girlfriend in the first season, while Peggy McMillan (Joanna Moore) is a nurse who becomes his girlfriend in season 3. In the color seasons, County Clerk Howard Sprague (Jack Dodson) and handyman Emmett Clark (Paul Hartman) appear regularly, while Barney's replacement deputy Warren Ferguson (Jack Burns) appears in about half of season six.


title: The Andy Griffith Show

text: Ernest T. Bass made his first appearance in episode #94 ("Mountain Wedding"), as well as four later episodes. The actor who portrayed him, Howard Morris, also played George, the television repairman in episode #140 ("Andy and Helen Have Their Day") and two uncredited voice roles, as Leonard Blush and a radio announcer. Morris also directed a total of eight episodes of the show, none while portraying Ernest T. Bass.


title: The Andy Griffith Show

text: Unseen characters such as telephone operator Sarah, and Barney's love interest, local diner waitress Juanita Beasley, as mentioned in the first season, are often referenced. The show's announcer for the first five seasons, Colin Male, portrayed Game Warden Peterson in Episode #140 ("Andy and Helen Have Their Day").


title: The Andy Griffith Show

text: In the series' last few episodes, farmer Sam Jones (Ken Berry) debuts and later becomes the lead of the retitled show, "Mayberry R.F.D." Don Knotts, Aneta Corsaut, Jack Dodson and Betty Lynn also appeared on Griffith's later show "Matlock."


title: The Andy Griffith Show

text: The show comprises eight full seasons and 249 episodes—159 episodes in black and white (seasons 1–5) and 90 in color (seasons 6–8). Griffith appears in all 249 episodes with Howard appearing in 209. Only Griffith, Howard, Bavier, Knotts and Hope Summers appeared in all eight seasons. Knotts left the show at the end of season five to pursue a career in films (on the show, it is told that he takes a job as a detective with the Raleigh Police Department) but returned to make five guest appearances as Barney in seasons six through eight. His last appearance is in the final season, in a story about a summit meeting with Russian dignitaries "ranked eleventh among single comedy programs most watched in television between 1960 and 1984, with an audience of thirty-three and a half million."


title: The Andy Griffith Show

text: In 1964, daytime reruns began airing during the fall season and has been in syndication for years. The show was retitled "Andy of Mayberry" to distinguish the repeat episodes from the new episodes airing in primetime.


title: The Andy Griffith Show

text: At the end of season four (May 1964), the backdoor pilot "Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C." aired and the following September, the spinoff series "Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C." debuted with Jim Nabors in the role of Gomer and Frank Sutton as drill instructor Sergeant Vince Carter.


title: The Andy Griffith Show

text: In the last episodes of the eighth season, as Griffith was preparing to leave, the character Sam Jones, played by Ken Berry, was introduced as the new star and the series was retitled "Mayberry R.F.D." Most of the cast members continued their original roles, with Bavier becoming Sam's housekeeper. To create a smooth transition, Andy and Helen were married in the first episode with the new title and remained for a few additional episodes before leaving with a move to Raleigh, effectively ending their appearances.


title: The Andy Griffith Show

text: After "RFD"s cancellation in 1971, George Lindsey played Goober for many years on the popular country-variety show "Hee Haw."


title: The Andy Griffith Show

text: Goober, Barney and Emmett all made appearances in the series premiere of "The New Andy Griffith Show," which starred Griffith as a similar but canonically different character, Mayor Andy Sawyer. All three characters treated Sawyer as if he were Andy Taylor. The series as a whole only lasted ten episodes.


title: The Andy Griffith Show

text: In 1986, the reunion telemovie "Return to Mayberry" was broadcast with several cast members reprising their original roles. Absent, however, was Frances Bavier. She was living in Siler City, North Carolina in ill health and declined to participate. In the TV movie, Aunt Bee is portrayed as deceased (and in fact, Bavier did die three years later), with Andy visiting her grave. Also absent were Howard McNear, Paul Hartman, Jack Burns and the cast members who were featured only in the "Mayberry RFD" seasons.


title: The Andy Griffith Show

text: Griffith and Howard reprised their roles a final time for a Funny or Die skit supporting the 2008 presidential campaign of Barack Obama.


title: The Andy Griffith Show

text: In 1993, "The Andy Griffith Show" had a Reunion Special which featured Andy Griffith, Don Knotts, Ron Howard, Jim Nabors, George Lindsey and Jack Dodson.


title: The Andy Griffith Show

text: In 2003, four surviving cast members (Griffith, Howard, Knotts, and Nabors) came together for a reunion special that featured the actors reminiscing about each other's time on the show. The production was interspersed with archival footage and short filmed interviews with some of the other surviving cast members. This special was called "The Andy Griffith Show: Back to Mayberry."


title: The Andy Griffith Show

text: "The Andy Griffith Show" was a top ten hit through its entire run, never ranking lower than seventh place in the yearly ratings. A Nielsen study conducted during the show's final season (1967–68) indicated the show ranked number one among blue collar workers followed by "The Lucy Show" and "Gunsmoke." Among white collar workers, the show ranked number three following "Saturday Movies" and "The Dean Martin Show". "The Andy Griffith Show" is one of only three shows to have its final season be the number one ranked show on television, the other two being "I Love Lucy" and "Seinfeld." In 1998, the year "Seinfeld" ended, more than five million people a day watched the show's reruns on 120 stations.


title: The Andy Griffith Show

text: Very little merchandise was produced for "The Andy Griffith Show" during its original run, a peculiarity for a hit TV show in the 1960s. One theory for the lack of merchandise is that the show's producers, Griffith in particular, wanted to protect its image as a realistic and thoughtful offering and keep the public's focus on the show itself rather than its branding. Among the handful of merchandise released during the show's first run, Dell Comics published two "The Andy Griffith Show" comic books, one drawn by Henry Scarpelli, the other by Bill Fraccio. In 2004, copies in near-mint condition were priced in excess of $500 each. There was also a soundtrack album, two coloring books, and a 1966 Grape-Nuts cereal box with a photo of Griffith in character as Sheriff Andy Taylor beside a lemon pie recipe on the back. The show's enduring popularity has spawned considerable merchandise during the decades following its cancellation, including board games, bobblehead dolls, kitchenware, and books. In 2007, a line of canned foods inspired by the series was made available in grocery stores across America.


title: The Andy Griffith Show

text: Griffith's hometown of Mount Airy, North Carolina, annually hosts a week-long "Mayberry Days" celebration featuring concerts, parades and appearances by the show's players.


title: The Andy Griffith Show

text: In 2003, the country band Rascal Flatts released the song "Mayberry" and many of the lyrics pay tribute to the show. The 1989 song "Floyd the Barber" by American grunge band Nirvana references multiple characters from the show, including Floyd, Barney, Opie, Andy, and Aunt Bee.


title: The Andy Griffith Show

text: The cable television network TV Land erected bronze statues of Andy and Opie in Mount Airy and Raleigh, North Carolina ("see:" Pullen Park).


title: The Andy Griffith Show

text: The Taylor Home Inn in Clear Lake, Wisconsin, is a bed-and-breakfast modeled after the Taylor Home. The Mayberry Cafe in Danville, Indiana, features Aunt Bee's Fried Chicken and a replica of Andy's Ford Galaxie police car.


title: The Andy Griffith Show

text: In 2021, the original feature film "Mayberry Man" was produced by children of actors from "The Andy Griffith Show" featuring Mayberry tribute artists set in a fictitious modern-day Mayberry.


title: The Andy Griffith Show

text: In the late 1980s, Premier Promotions released various episodes on VHS. Most tapes had either two or four episodes. In the early to mid-1990s, United American Video released VHS tapes of various episodes. They either had two or three episodes. These compilations were culled from episodes early in the show's run that had lapsed into the public domain; these episodes continue to be circulated on unofficial video releases. Between 2004 and 2006, Paramount Home Entertainment and later in 2006, CBS Home Entertainment released all eight seasons as single-season packages on Region 1 DVD. "The Andy Griffith Show: The Complete Series" was first released as a 40-disc boxed set in 2007. In addition to all 249 episodes of the series, its bonus features included the episode "Danny Meets Andy Griffith" from "The Danny Thomas Show" which served as the pilot, the episode "Opie Joins the Marines" from "Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C." which featured Ron Howard and the 95-minute, made-for-television comedy film "Return to Mayberry". In 2016, "The Andy Griffith Show: The Complete Series" was repackaged and released again as a 39-disc set that featured all 249 episodes of the series but did not include the bonus feature disc. The last 16 episodes of the third season, which lapsed into the public domain after CBS neglected to file copyright renewals on the episodes in 1989, are available on discount DVDs. The 2007 lawsuit "CBS Operations Inc v. Reel Funds International Inc." ruled that the episodes in question were derivative works based on the copyrighted episodes even though the episodes themselves were not under copyright and granted CBS indirect copyright over the public domain episodes; the ruling enjoined Reel Funds International, a public domain distributor, from selling DVDs with those episodes within the jurisdiction of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas.


title: The Andy Griffith Show

text: Note: The Region 1 release of "The Third Season" contains two episodes edited for syndication: "The Darlings Are Coming"—which had several scenes cut—and "Barney Mends a Broken Heart," which had its epilogue cut.


title: Adrian Peterson

text: Adrian Lewis Peterson (born March 21, 1985) is an American football running back who is a free agent. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest running backs in football history. He played college football at Oklahoma, where he set the freshman rushing record with 1,925 yards during the 2004 season. Named a unanimous All-American that year, he became the first freshman to finish as a runner-up in the Heisman Trophy balloting. Peterson finished his college football career as the Sooners' third all-time leading rusher.


title: Adrian Peterson

text: He was drafted by the Minnesota Vikings seventh overall in the 2007 NFL Draft. As a rookie, he set an NFL record for the most rushing yards in a single game (296) and was named NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year. He was then named the MVP for his performance in the Pro Bowl and became only the fifth player in NFL history to have more than 3,000 yards through his first two seasons. In 2010, he became the fifth-fastest player to run for 5,000 yards, doing so in his 51st game.


title: Adrian Peterson

text: Peterson tore both his ACL and MCL in a game in late 2011. Despite that, he would return by the start of the 2012 season and end it with 2,097 rushing yards, just nine yards shy of breaking Eric Dickerson's single-season record. For his efforts, he received the NFL MVP Award, among others. In 2013, Peterson became the third-fastest player to reach 10,000 rushing yards in NFL history. In 2015, Peterson became the oldest running back to be named first-team All-Pro at 30.


title: Adrian Peterson

text: In 2014, Peterson was indicted by a grand jury in Texas on charges of reckless or negligent injury to a child that occurred earlier that year, and was suspended for the rest of the season. A free agent coming into the 2017 season, Peterson signed a two-year contract with the New Orleans Saints but was traded to the Arizona Cardinals mid-season before being released following the season's end. Since then, Peterson has played for the Washington Redskins, Detroit Lions, Tennessee Titans, and Seattle Seahawks.


title: Adrian Peterson

text: Peterson was born in Palestine, Texas, to Bonita Brown and Nelson Peterson, who were star athletes in college. His father was a shooting guard for Idaho State, but his dream of a National Basketball Association career was derailed when a gun that his brother was cleaning discharged into his leg. His mother, a three-time Texas state champion at Westwood High School, attended the University of Houston on an athletic scholarship as a sprinter and long jumper. Peterson's best friend was his older brother, Brian. Peterson's father nicknamed him "All Day," because his father said he could go all day.


title: Adrian Peterson

text: At age 7, Peterson saw his 9-year-old brother Brian killed by a drunk driver as he rode his bicycle. Around this time Peterson began to deal with his pain through sports and became interested in football.


title: Adrian Peterson

text: His father Nelson participated as an assistant coach. Peterson played in the popular East Texas, Anderson County Youth Football Program. When Peterson was 13, his father was arrested for money laundering in a crack cocaine ring.


title: Adrian Peterson

text: Peterson was a three-sport standout in football, basketball, and track at Palestine High School. Peterson was most notable in football, which he played during his junior and senior years. During his sophomore year, he was not eligible to play for the Palestine High School Wildcats varsity football team. Peterson's junior season ended with 2,051 yards on 246 carries, an average of 8.3 yards per carry, and 22 touchdowns. It was during his junior year that he began to attract the attention of Division I recruiters and realized he would likely have his pick of colleges after his senior year.


title: Adrian Peterson

text: As a senior in 2003, he rushed for 2,960 yards on 252 attempts, an average of 11.7 yards per carry, and 32 touchdowns. After a game, players from the other team asked for his autograph. Following Maurice Clarett's unsuccessful attempt to sue the NFL over its age limit in 2004, there was considerable debate over whether any high school football player might be able to make the leap from the preps to the pro game. The player most frequently mentioned was Peterson.


title: Adrian Peterson

text: Peterson followed in his mother's footsteps to excel in track & field at Woodward, where he won several medals in events such as the 100 meters, 200 meters, triple jump, and long jump. Peterson's coach has stated that he believes that, had he not chosen a career in football, Peterson could have become an Olympic sprinter instead. He recorded a wind-legal time of 10.26 seconds in the 100-meter dash at the 2002 District 15-4A Championships, where he took first by a large margin. He also posted a wind-assisted time of 10.33 seconds in the 100 meters at the 2003 UIL State Track Meet, where he earned a second-place finish behind Ivory Williams, who won the 2004 World Junior Championship over the same distance. At the 2004 District 14-4A Championships, Peterson ran the second leg on the Palestine 4 × 100 m relay squad, helping lead them to victory with a time of 41.50 seconds. Peterson has stated that his personal-best times are 10.19 seconds in the 100 meters, 21.23 seconds in the 200 meters, and 47.6 seconds in the 400 meters.


title: Adrian Peterson

text: Regarded as a five-star recruit by both the Rivals.com and Scout.com recruiting networks, Peterson was listed as the best running back and overall prospect in the Class of 2004 by Rivals.com. After considering schools such as Texas, Texas A&M, UCLA, Arkansas, and Miami (FL), he decided that he wanted to go to a school where he could be a difference-maker in a national championship run and narrowed his choices down to USC and Oklahoma. Concluding his high school football career at the annual U.S. Army All-American Bowl, he led the West squad with 95 yards on nine carries and scored two touchdowns, and announced at the game that he would attend college at the University of Oklahoma. Following his senior season, he was awarded the Hall Trophy as the U.S. Army National Player of the Year. In addition, he was named the top high school player by "College Football News" and Rivals.com.


title: Adrian Peterson

text: Peterson attended the University of Oklahoma, where he played for coach Bob Stoops's Oklahoma Sooners football team from 2004 to 2006. During his freshman season at Oklahoma, Peterson broke several NCAA freshman rushing records, rushing for a conference-leading 1,925 yards and leading the nation in carries with 339. In each of the first nine games of the season, he rushed for more than 100-yards, which is a freshman record. He rushed for 100 yards in the season opener against Bowling Green, 117 yards against Houston, 183 yards against Oregon, 146 yards against Texas Tech, 225 yards against Texas, 130 yards against Kansas State, and 122 yards against Kansas.


title: Adrian Peterson

text: Against Oklahoma State on October 30, 2004, Peterson had an 80-yard touchdown run and rushed for 161 yards in the third quarter, finishing with a career-high 249 yards. Despite dislocating his left shoulder in the first half, he managed to run for 101 yards and a touchdown on 29 carries, his ninth straight 100-yard game, against Texas A&M. In the next game against Nebraska, he saw little action because of his shoulder injury and finished with 58 yards, which ended his streak of consecutive games with at least 100 yards rushing at nine. In a game against Baylor, Peterson ran for 240 yards, including three second-half touchdowns, and set the NCAA record for most 100-yard games by a freshman with 11 against Colorado. Oklahoma, who were one of the poorest rushing teams the year before, became one of the nation's best.


title: Adrian Peterson

text: Despite his record-breaking season, he finished second to USC quarterback Matt Leinart in the Heisman Trophy voting. Among other honors, he was a finalist for the Doak Walker Award, and the first Oklahoma freshman recognized as a first-team "Associated Press" All-American. Peterson contributed to a perfect regular season for the Oklahoma Sooners and participated in the 2005 BCS National Championship Game with a berth to the 2005 Orange Bowl against USC Trojans. USC retooled their defense to stop Peterson and limited him to just 82 yards, as the Trojans defeated the Sooners by a score of 55–19. After the season, he had surgery on his left shoulder to strengthen the muscles around the joint.


title: Adrian Peterson

text: In the 2005 season, Peterson's playing time was limited by a broken foot. He started off the season with 63 rushing yards and a rushing touchdown in a 17–10 loss to TCU. In the next game, against Tulsa, he had 220 rushing yards and three rushing touchdowns to help the Sooners to the 31–15 victory. He injured his ankle in the first Big 12 Conference game of the season against Kansas State. Despite missing time in four games, he rushed for 1,208 yards and 14 touchdowns on 220 carries, finishing second in rushing yardage in the Big 12. His 2005 season was also notable for a career-long 84-yard touchdown run as part of a 237-yard and two-touchdown performance in a 42–14 victory over Oklahoma State. Oklahoma finished the season with an 8–4 record, its worst season since 1999. Upon the conclusion of the season, he was named a member of the All-Big 12 Conference team.


title: Adrian Peterson

text: Peterson started the 2006 season off strong, rushing for an average of over 150 yards per game and scoring nine total touchdowns over five games. Peterson's father, Nelson, was released from prison during the 2006 college football season and was able to watch his son as a spectator for the first time on October 14, when Oklahoma played Iowa State. Oklahoma defeated Iowa State in that game; however, on the final drive for the Sooners, Peterson broke his collar bone when he dove into the end zone on a 53-yard touchdown run. During a press conference on October 18, Peterson said he was told by doctors to expect to be out for 4–6 weeks. At the time of the injury, Peterson needed only to gain 150 yards to pass Billy Sims as the University of Oklahoma's all-time leading rusher. He was unable to return for the rest of the Sooners' regular season and missed seven games. The Sooners would turn to Allen Patrick, a junior, and Chris Brown, a freshman, to replace Peterson. The team went on a seven-game winning streak including winning the Big 12 Championship game against the Nebraska Cornhuskers. He returned for their last game against Boise State in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl, where he rushed for 77 yards and a touchdown in the 43–42 overtime loss. He refused to discuss his plans beyond the end of this season with the press. He concluded his college football career with 1,012 rushing yards his final season, even after missing multiple games due to injury for a total of 4,045 rushing yards in only three seasons. He finished third in school history and 73 yards short of passing Billy Sims as the school's all-time leading rusher.


title: Adrian Peterson

text: On January 15, 2007, Peterson declared that he would forego his senior year of college and enter the 2007 NFL Draft. Coming into the league, he was known as a tall, upright runner possessing a rare combination of speed, strength, agility, size, and vision, along with a highly aggressive running style. His rare talent as both a great breakaway and power runner has often raised comparisons to past legends, including Eric Dickerson, Walter Payton, Gale Sayers, O. J. Simpson, Franco Harris, and Jim Brown. Concerns about his injuries suffered during college were noted by the media and potential NFL teams. He started 22 out of 31 games in his college career and had a dislocated shoulder his first year (although he did not miss any games), a high ankle sprain his sophomore year, and a broken collarbone his final year at Oklahoma. His durability was a consideration for at least two teams in their draft analysis, which impacted selection position. Prior to the 2007 NFL Draft, Peterson was compared by professional football scouts to Eric Dickerson.


title: Adrian Peterson

text: At the NFL Combine, Peterson measured in at 6'" and 217 pounds; he was clocked between 4.38 and 4.40 seconds in the 40-yard dash, had a vertical jump of 38.5 inches (0.98m) and performed well in positional drills. He solidified his status as a likely top-10 pick in the draft, arguably revealing more about his mental toughness than any psychological test or team interview could.


title: Adrian Peterson

text: On April 28, 2007, Peterson was selected by the Minnesota Vikings in the first round with the seventh overall pick in the first round of the 2007 NFL Draft. Peterson was the first running back selected and the first of three Oklahoma Sooners to be drafted in the 2007 NFL Draft. At a press conference during the draft, Peterson announced, "My collarbone, I would say it's 90% healed. A lot of teams know that, and I don't see it stopping me from being prepared for the season."


title: Adrian Peterson

text: Peterson believed he was a player that a franchise could build around. In an interview with IGN following the NFL Draft, he said, "I'm a player who is coming in with the determination to turn a team around. I want to help my team get to the playoffs, win...and run wild. I want to bring people to the stands. I want people to come to the game to see what I can do next. Things like that can change the whole attitude of an organization. I want to win." He later told the "Star Tribune" in an interview, "I want to be the best player to ever play this game." Nearly three months after being drafted, he was signed by the Vikings on July 29, 2007. His contract was worth $40.5 million over five years, with $17 million guaranteed.


title: Adrian Peterson

text: Peterson began his outstanding rookie year with high expectations for himself; he announced ambitious goals including being named NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year and rushing for 1,341 yards during the course of the year. Just 11 weeks into his rookie season with the Vikings, Peterson was well on his way to Dickerson's record and considered one of the elite running backs in the NFL.


title: Adrian Peterson

text: On September 9, 2007, Peterson ran for 103 yards on 19 carries in his first NFL regular season game against the Atlanta Falcons. In addition to his rushing yardage, he scored his first professional football touchdown on a 60-yard pass reception from quarterback Tarvaris Jackson. Over his first three regular season games, his 431 yards (271 rushing and 160 receiving) from scrimmage are a team record. For his performance in the three games, Peterson received the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Month award for both September and October 2007.


title: Adrian Peterson

text: His breakout game as a professional came on October 14, 2007, against the Chicago Bears, highlighted by a three-touchdown performance and a then-franchise record of 224 rushing yards on 20 carries. Peterson established additional team records for a rookie during this game, which included the most 100-yard games rushing and the longest touchdown run from scrimmage. He also set an NFL rookie record with 361 all-purpose yards in a single game. His 607 rushing yards through the first five games of the season is second in NFL history to Eric Dickerson. For his performance, he was named the Offensive Player of the Week for the first time in his career. Following Peterson's record performance, Deion Sanders, now an NFL Network analyst, said about him: "He has the vision of a Marshall Faulk, the power of an Earl Campbell, and the speed of an Eric Dickerson. Let's pray he has the endurance of an Emmitt Smith." He has also been compared to Walter Payton and Tony Dorsett by "Star Tribune" sports journalist Jim Souhan.


title: Adrian Peterson

text: Three weeks later, on November 4, 2007, Peterson broke his own franchise record as well as the NFL single game rushing yard record (previously held by Jamal Lewis since 2003) when he rushed for 296 yards on 30 carries and three rushing touchdowns against the San Diego Chargers in a home game in Minneapolis. That game was his second game of over 200 rushing yards, a feat no other rookie has ever accomplished in a season. Peterson had a 19-yard reception in the game to give him 315 scrimmage yards in the game. Peterson recorded the third-most scrimmage yards in a single game and the sixth game overall with at least 300 scrimmage yards in NFL history. His historic performance earned him his second Offensive Player of the Week title in his rookie season. In addition to the NFL rushing record in a single game, it took him past 1,000 rushing yards for the year after just eight games. His 1,036 rushing yards represents the best eight-game performance by a rookie in NFL history.


title: Adrian Peterson

text: In honor of Peterson's record-breaking performance against the San Diego Chargers, the jersey he wore that day was sent to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. On November 11, 2007, just a week later, Peterson injured the lateral collateral ligament in his right knee in a game against the Green Bay Packers. The injury occurred in the third quarter of a 34–0 defeat at Lambeau Field on a low tackle by Packers cornerback Al Harris. Almost a month after the injury, Peterson returned to action on December 2, 2007, against the Detroit Lions scoring two touchdowns and rushing for 116 yards.


title: Adrian Peterson

text: On December 18, he was named as the starting running back for the 2008 NFC Pro Bowl team. On January 2, he was named The Associated Press NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year. He was named to the Pro Football Writers Association All-Rookie Team for the 2007 season.


title: Adrian Peterson

text: On February 10, 2008, Peterson won the 2008 NFL Pro Bowl MVP award with 16 carries for 129 rushing yards along with two touchdowns. The 129 rushing yards was the second most in Pro Bowl history. He was the first rookie since Marshall Faulk in 1994 to win the Pro Bowl MVP award. Peterson and Faulk are currently the only NFL players to win both the NFL Pro Bowl MVP and Rookie of the Year awards in the same year. Peterson finished in second place in rushing yards (1,341) in the 2007 season behind LaDainian Tomlinson, who finished with 1,474 rushing yards. He also caught 19 passes for 268 yards and returned 16 kickoffs for 412, giving him 2,021 all-purpose yards (6th in the NFL).


title: Adrian Peterson

text: Peterson and the Vikings entered the 2008 season with high expectations and as he did during his rookie season, Peterson set high goals for himself including a 2,000-yard campaign and the NFL MVP award. Questions remained as to Peterson's durability and the ability of the Vikings offense to take the focus of opposing defenses off Peterson.


title: Adrian Peterson

text: Peterson had a phenomenal second season. He played in all 16 games, of which he started 15. He recorded ten games going over 100 rushing yards to go along with ten rushing touchdowns across the season. His Week 10 performance against the Green Bay Packers earned him his third career Offensive Player of the Week nod. Peterson finished leading the league in rushing with 1,760 yards, which marks the third-most yards in a sophomore season behind Eric Dickerson's 2,105 yard season, and Chris Johnson's 2,006-yard season, which occurred the following season in 2009. In Peterson's first 30 games, he had 3,101 yards, which marks the third best start to a career for running backs behind Eric Dickerson with 3,600 yards and Jim Brown with 3,144 yards. He became the fourth running back to lead the league in yards per game in his first two seasons along with Jim Brown, Earl Campbell, and Eric Dickerson. In recognition of his 2008 season, he was named the recipient of the Bert Bell Award. On January 14, 2009, Peterson was named to his second AP All-Pro team in two years.


title: Adrian Peterson

text: The Vikings made the playoffs with a 10–6 record. In his playoff debut, Peterson had 83 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns in a 26–14 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in the .


title: Adrian Peterson

text: Prior to the start of the 2009 season, analysts of both the NFL Network and ESPN unanimously named Peterson the best running back in the NFL today. However, the arrival of quarterback Brett Favre, one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history, coming out of retirement brought both expectation and speculation about Peterson's new role in the offense. Head coach Brad Childress, however, stated that he wanted to continue leaning on Peterson, giving him a large number of carries. Favre worked well into the offense through the first half of the season, re-establishing Peterson's ability with a passing attack. Peterson had 917 rushing yards through Week 10, while the Vikings had a record of 8–1.


title: Adrian Peterson

text: Peterson opened the season by rushing for 180 yards on 25 carries and three touchdowns against the Cleveland Browns, setting a new Vikings franchise record for rushing in the season opener. He again broke the hundred-yard barrier in Week 6 against the Baltimore Ravens, with 143 yards and 22 carries. His next 100-yard effort came against the Detroit Lions, with 133 yards on 18 carries, and he was named the FedEx Ground Player of the Week. Overall, he finished the season with 1,383 rushing yards and a league-high 18 rushing touchdowns to go along with a career-high 43 receptions for 436 receiving yards.


title: Adrian Peterson

text: In the playoffs, Peterson had 63 rushing yards and a 19-yard reception as Minnesota defeated the Dallas Cowboys by a score of 34–3 in the . However, they lost to the eventual Super Bowl XLIV champion New Orleans Saints in the in overtime by a score of 31–28. Peterson rushed for 122 yards and three touchdowns in the loss. Peterson finished the year fifth in rushing and lost FedEx Ground Player of the Year to Titans running back Chris Johnson, who had 2,006 rushing yards on the 2009 season. Peterson was voted to his third consecutive Pro Bowl on December 29. He was the starting running back for the NFC team. For the second consecutive season, he was named as a first-team All-Pro.


title: Adrian Peterson

text: Peterson opened the 2010 season strongly with 392 yards and three touchdowns through the first three weeks. His Week 3 performance of 160 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns against the Detroit Lions earned him NFC Offensive Player of the Week honors. His 80-yard rushing touchdown in the third quarter was tied for the longest rush by any player that season. In Week 6, he went over the 5,000 yard career rushing mark against the Dallas Cowboys. He tied for the sixth fastest to reach the 5,000-yard plateau. At Week 7, Peterson was second in the league with 684 yards, averaging 114 yards per game, but the Vikings had dropped to a disappointing record of 2–4. By Week 16, Peterson had rushed for 1,267 yards with 12 touchdowns, as the Vikings improved to a 6–9 record. Peterson, who was infamous for fumbling the ball in previous seasons, had a dramatic change in the 2010 season with only one fumble during the regular season, a remarkable turnaround from his previous performances. While the Vikings missed the playoffs, Peterson represented his team in the Pro Bowl. After the season, Peterson was voted as the third-ranked player and top overall running back by his fellow players on the NFL Network's list of the NFL Top 100 Players of 2011.


title: Adrian Peterson

text: On September 10, 2011, the Vikings signed Peterson for $96 million over the course of seven seasons, making him the highest-paid running back in NFL history. Peterson reached the 6,000-yard milestone on September 18, 2011, in a loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. On October 9, Peterson scored three touchdowns in the first quarter against the Arizona Cardinals, setting a new franchise record. He later earned NFC Offensive Player of the Week honors for his performance during the game.


title: Adrian Peterson

text: In a Week 10 game against the Oakland Raiders, Peterson suffered a high ankle sprain late in the first quarter. He was later ruled out for their Week 11 game against the Atlanta Falcons.


title: Adrian Peterson

text: On December 24, Peterson was injured by safety DeJon Gomes and needed help off the field in a Week 16 game against the Washington Redskins. On December 26, he was placed on injured reserve having suffered a torn ACL and MCL.


title: Adrian Peterson

text: In the 2011 season, Peterson had 208 carries for 970 rushing yards and 12 rushing touchdowns to go along with 18 receptions for 139 receiving yards and one receiving touchdown. He was ranked eighth by his fellow players on the NFL Top 100 Players of 2012.