title: Diary of a Madman (album)

text: Daisley provided significant contributions to the album's songwriting, having written some of the music and most of the lyrics. Kerslake claims to have also had a hand in the writing of the album, even performing lead vocals on some of the original demo recordings. Flying High Again' was one of my ideas, 'Over the Mountain' was another. The basic (demo) tracks were just Bob's words, my vocals—though some of the words I wrote—and Randy's playing. It was unreal. And then we got Don Airey to come in and do the keyboards", he stated in 2009. Kerslake says he used a piano in the studio to write many of the songs with guitarist Randy Rhoads. Daisley and Kerslake were not given credit for their performance or songwriting contributions, a situation which resulted in a later lawsuit.


title: Diary of a Madman (album)

text: During the album's recording, Kerslake says the band members were given no money to live on, prompting them to approach management. Shortly after, both Kerslake and Daisley were fired. "Everything was working fine," said Kerslake. "It was only when Sharon (Osbourne) came in that we had a problem. When she started managing—taking over—she wasn't the manager until "Diary of a Madman". Before that was her brother, David. He didn't really want to handle it. He had too much to do for Don (Arden) in the office. So she came in and it started to get edgy. But we never suspected a thing until we went away on holiday. Next minute, they're rehearsing with Tommy Aldridge and Rudy Sarzo, and going to America."


title: Diary of a Madman (album)

text: Although Don Airey is credited as keyboardist on the album, it was in fact a musician named Johnny Cook (who had worked with Daisley in Mungo Jerry in the 1970s) who actually recorded the keyboard parts. Airey was on tour as a member of Rainbow at the time of recording and was thus unavailable.


title: Diary of a Madman (album)

text: The album's cover art features Osbourne's son Louis to his side, with Osbourne himself posing in theatrical make-up.


title: Diary of a Madman (album)

text: Reception of the album has been generally positive. In particular, the neo-classical guitar work of Randy Rhoads has received much praise. Steve Huey of AllMusic stated that "it's not uncommon to find fans who prefer "Diary" to "Blizzard", since it sets an even more mystical, eerie mood, and since Rhoads' playing is progressing to an even higher level". BBC Music referred to the album as "a classic rock record in every way", "lifted out of the ordinary by the legendary rock axe god, Randy Rhoads". Canadian journalist Martin Popoff called "Diary of a Madman" "a lasting classic that stands as the definitive showcase for Randy Rhoads."


title: Diary of a Madman (album)

text: Though the album is regarded quite favorably today, reviews upon its 1981 release were often less than enthusiastic. J. D. Considine of "Rolling Stone", for example, opined upon the album's original release that "the songs here are little more than riffs with a vocal line pasted on top" and referred to Rhoads as "a junior-league Eddie Van Halen – bustling with chops but somewhat short on imagination". The magazine, however, would change its tune and later rank the album 15th on its 2017 list of "100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time".


title: Diary of a Madman (album)

text: The 2002 "Diary of a Madman" reissue was derided by fans due to the removal of Daisley and Kerslake's original bass and drum tracks. The re-issue featured re-recorded bass and drum tracks contributed by Osbourne's then-bassist and drummer Robert Trujillo and Mike Bordin, respectively. The move was suspected of being retaliatory in nature, as Daisley and Kerslake had successfully sued Osbourne and his wife/manager Sharon in court, winning songwriting credits and royalties for their contributions to "Diary of a Madman".


title: Diary of a Madman (album)

text: Sharon later stated that Ozzy and not herself was responsible for the decision to re-record the parts, stating "because of Daisley and Kerslake's abusive and unjust behavior, Ozzy wanted to remove them from these recordings. We turned a negative into a positive by adding a fresh sound to the original albums." However, Osbourne contradicted this claim in his 2009 autobiography, stating that the decision to re-record the original bass and drum parts was strictly Sharon's decision, and that "I didn't have anything to do with that decision." He said his wife "just snapped" and had it done without his knowledge. He also stated that "a sticker was put on the covers telling everyone about it", though in fact the sticker was not initially placed on the re-issue and was only placed on the covers at a later date due to fan outcry over the altered recordings.


title: Diary of a Madman (album)

text: In May 2011, Sony Legacy released its "Deluxe 30th Anniversary Editions" of "Diary of a Madman" and "Blizzard of Ozz" with the original bass and drum tracks restored. These releases also featured bonus tracks and previously unreleased live material featuring guitarist Rhoads – "Diary of a Madman" features a second CD entitled "Ozzy Live", featuring previously-unreleased concert performances from the "Blizzard of Ozz" 1981 US tour. A box set was also released which included the remastered editions of both albums on CD as well as vinyl, and a DVD documentary entitled "Thirty Years After The Blizzard".


title: Diary of a Madman (album)

text: "Ozzy Live" was also separately released as a double 180g vinyl exclusively on Record Store Day 2012.


title: Diary of a Madman (album)

text: Disc 2 of the 2011 Legacy Edition of "Diary of a Madman" was also released as a limited edition standalone double-180g vinyl entitled "Ozzy Live". Sides one, two, and three contained the live material released on the "Diary of a Madman" Legacy Edition, while side four contained two bonus tracks that had been previously released on the 2011 reissue of "Blizzard of Ozz". The vinyl was released exclusively for Record Store Day 2012, and also released as a 7" vinyl reissue of the song "Believer".


title: Mr. Irrelevant

text: Mr. Irrelevant is the nickname given to the last pick of the annual National Football League Draft. Although NFL drafts date back to 1936, the first person to be called Mr. Irrelevant was Kelvin Kirk of the 1976 NFL Draft.


title: Mr. Irrelevant

text: "Mr. Irrelevant" and "Irrelevant Week" began in 1976 when former USC and NFL receiver Paul Salata founded the event in Newport Beach, California. He announced the final pick of each NFL Draft until 2013; from 2014 his daughter took over in announcing the pick. After each draft, the new Mr. Irrelevant and his family are invited to spend a week during the summer in Newport Beach. A trip to Disneyland, a golf tournament, a regatta, a roast giving advice to the new draftee, and a ceremony awarding him the Lowsman Trophy are included. The trophy mimics the Heisman Trophy but depicts a player fumbling a football.


title: Mr. Irrelevant

text: "Irrelevant Week" gave so much publicity to "Mr. Irrelevant" that in 1979 the Los Angeles Rams, with the penultimate pick, intentionally passed to let the Pittsburgh Steelers, with the last pick, choose first. The Steelers also wanted the publicity and passed as well. The two teams continued to refuse to choose a player until NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle forced the teams to pick, with the Steelers winning the pick. The incident led to the "Salata Rule", which prohibits teams from passing to get the final pick.


title: Mr. Irrelevant

text: The first Mr. Irrelevant to play in the Super Bowl was Marty Moore, a special teams player who played with the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XXXI. Prior to the establishment of Mr. Irrelevant, Jimmy Walker was the final pick in 1967 despite never having played college football. His main sport, however, was basketball, in which he was a consensus All-American and the nation's leading scorer as a senior at Providence College. Walker was the first pick in the 1967 NBA Draft, and opted for a career in the NBA.


title: Mr. Irrelevant

text: The last player chosen in the 1961 NFL Draft, Jacque MacKinnon, had a successful 10-season career. However he signed with the San Diego Chargers of the rival American Football League instead of with the Philadelphia Eagles. He appeared in two AFL All-Star Games in 1966 and 1968. He was one of only two Mr. Irrelevants to appear in a Pro Bowl or the equivalent.


title: Mr. Irrelevant

text: The first Mr. Irrelevant to make the Pro Bowl was Bill Fischer, who was the last pick in the 1948 NFL Draft. He was drafted by the Chicago Cardinals after his junior season at Notre Dame. He opted to stay in school, and won the Outland Trophy as the nation's top interior lineman in 1948. The Cardinals drafted him again in 1949, this time with their first round pick.


title: Mr. Irrelevant

text: Since the NFL draft was cut to its current seven-round format in 1994, players presented with this dubious honor have more often succeeded in making the team that drafted them, with some making significant contributions on the field.


title: Sexual desire

text: Sexual desire is an emotion and motivational state characterized by an interest in sexual objects or activities, or by a drive to seek out sexual objects or to engage in sexual activities. It is an aspect of sexuality, which varies significantly from one person to another and also fluctuates depending on circumstances.


title: Sexual desire

text: It may be the single most common sexual event in human life. However, not every person experiences sexual desire; those who do not may be labelled asexual.


title: Sexual desire

text: Sexual desire is a subjective feeling state that can be triggered by both internal and external cues, and that may or may not result in overt sexual behaviour. Desire can be aroused through imagination and sexual fantasies, or by perceiving an individual whom one finds attractive. It is also created and amplified through sexual tension, which is caused by sexual desire that has yet to be acted on. Physical manifestations of sexual desire in humans include licking, sucking, tongue protrusion, and puckering and touching the lips.


title: Sexual desire

text: Desire can be spontaneous or responsive, positive or negative, and can vary in intensity along a spectrum.


title: Sexual desire

text: Theorists and researchers employ two frameworks in their understanding of human sexual desire. The first is a biological framework, also known as "sex drive" (or "libido"), in which sexual desire comes from an innate motivational force like an instinct, drive, need, urge, wish, or want. The second is a sociocultural theory in which desire is conceptualized as one factor in a much larger context (e.g., relationships nested within societies, nested within cultures).


title: Sexual desire

text: The biological approach views sexual drives as similar to other physical drives, such as hunger. An individual will seek out food—or, in the case of desire, pleasure—in order to reduce or avoid pain. Sex drive can be thought of as a biological need or craving that inspires individuals to seek out and become receptive to sexual experiences and sexual pleasure. Incentive motivation theory exists under this framework and states that the strength of motivation toward sexual activity depends on the strength or immediacy of the stimuli. If satiety is achieved, the strength of the incentive will increase in the future.


title: Sexual desire

text: Sex drive is strongly tied to biological factors such as "chromosomal and hormonal status, nutritional status, age, and general health". Sexual desire is the first of four phases of the human sexual response cycle, followed by arousal, orgasm, and resolution. However, while it is part of the response cycle, desire is believed to be distinct from genital sexual arousal. It has also been argued that desire is not a distinct phase in sexual response, but rather something that persists through arousal and orgasm or even longer. Although orgasm might make it difficult for a man to maintain his erection or a woman to continue with vaginal lubrication, sexual desire can persist nevertheless.


title: Sexual desire

text: In the sociocultural framework, desire indicates a longing for sexual activity for its own sake and not for any other purpose other than enjoyment, satisfaction, or the release of sexual tension. Sexual desire and activity may be produced to help achieve other means or to gain non-sexual rewards, such as increased closeness and attachment between partners. Under this framework, sexual desire is not an urge, implying that individuals have more conscious control over their desire.


title: Sexual desire

text: Sociocultural influences may push males and females into gender-specific roles in which social scripts dictate the appropriate feelings and responses to desire. This may lead to frustration if an individual's wants remain unfulfilled due to anticipated social consequences.


title: Sexual desire

text: Some theorists suggest that the experience of sexual desire may be socially constructed. Others argue that, although sociocultural factors greatly influence desire, they do not play a large role until after biological factors initiate it. Another view is that sexual desire is neither a social construction nor a biological drive. According to James Giles, it is an existential need based on the sense of incompleteness that arises from the experience of being gendered.


title: Sexual desire

text: Many researchers believe that relying on a single approach to the study of human sexuality is counterproductive, and that the integrations of and interactions among multiple approaches allow for the most comprehensive understanding. Sexual desire can manifest itself in more than one way; it is a "variety of different behaviours, cognitions, and emotions, taken together".


title: Sexual desire

text: Levine suggests that sexual desire has three components that link several theoretical perspectives together:


title: Sexual desire

text: In early life, usually before puberty, males are quite flexible regarding their preferred sexual incentive, but they later become inflexible. Females, on the other hand, remain flexible throughout their life cycle. This change in sexuality due to variations in situational, cultural, and social factors is called erotic plasticity. Beyond this, very little is known about sexual desire and sexual arousal in prepubescent children, or whether any feelings they may have are comparable to what they will experience as an adult.


title: Sexual desire

text: Boys typically experience and commence sexual interest and activity before girls do. Men, on average, also have slightly higher sex drives and desire for sexual activity than women do; this is correlated with the finding that men report more lifetime sexual partners, although mathematicians say it is logically impossible for heterosexual men to have more partners on average than heterosexual women. Sex drive is also related to sociosexuality scores: The higher the sex drive, the less restricted the sociosexual orientation (i.e., the willingness to have sex outside of a committed relationship). This is especially the case for women.


title: Sexual desire

text: Lippa used data from a BBC internet survey to examine cross-cultural patterns in sex differences for three traits: sex drive, sociosexuality, and height. These traits all showed consistent sex differences across nations, although women were found to be more variable than men in their sex drive. On average, male sexual desire is stronger and more frequent than women's, and lasts longer into the life cycle. Though women do not experience sexual desire as often as men, when they do, the intensity of the experience is equal to that of men. Societal perceptions of men and women—in addition to perceptions about acceptable sexual behaviour (e.g., men are expected to be more sexual and sometimes insatiable, while women are expected to be more reserved)—may contribute to expressed levels of sexual desire and satisfaction.


title: Sexual desire

text: DeLamater and Sill found that affect and feelings concerning the importance of sexual activity can affect levels of desire. In their study, women who said that sexual activity was important to the quality of their lives and relationships demonstrated low desire, while women who placed less emphasis on sexual activity in their lives demonstrated high desire. Men presented similar results. These findings were corroborated by Conaglen and Evans, who assessed whether levels of sexual desire influenced emotional responses and cognitive processing of sexual pictorial stimuli. They found that women with lower sexual desire responded to sexual stimuli more quickly in the picture recognition task, but rated the sexual images as less arousing and less pleasant than women with higher sexual desire.


title: Sexual desire

text: When presented with explicit sexual imagery and stimuli, women can become physically aroused without experiencing psychological desire or arousal. In one study, 97% of women reported having had sexual intercourse without experiencing sexual desire, while only 60% of men reported the same thing. Also, women may form a more significant association between sexual desire and attachment than men.


title: Sexual desire

text: Women may be more prone to fluctuations in desire due to the many phases and biological changes the female body experiences, such as menstrual cycles, pregnancy, lactation, and menopause. Though these changes are usually very small, women seem to have increased levels of sexual desire during ovulation and decreased levels during menstruation. An abrupt decline in androgen production can cause cessation of sexual thoughts and failure to respond to sexual cues and triggers that would previously have elicited desire. This is seen especially in postmenopausal women who have low levels of testosterone. Doses of testosterone administered transdermally have been found to improve sexual desire and sexual functioning.


title: Sexual desire

text: Older individuals are less likely to describe themselves as being at the extremes of the sexual desire spectrum. By the time individuals reach middle and old age, there is a natural decline in sexual desire, sexual capacity, and the frequency of sexual behaviour. DeLamater and Sill found that the majority of men and women do not officially report themselves as having low levels of sexual desire until they are 76 years old. Many attribute this decline to partner familiarity, alienation, or preoccupation with nonsexual matters such as social, relational, and health concerns.


title: Sexual desire

text: Defining sexual desire is a challenge because it can be conceptualized in many ways. Researchers consider the definition used in the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual IV-TR (DSM-IV-TR), as well as what men and women understand their own desire to be. The lack of agreed-upon parameters for normal versus abnormal levels of sexual desire creates challenges in the measurement of desire and the diagnosis of sexual desire disorders.


title: Sexual desire

text: Many researchers seek to assess sexual desire by examining self-reported data and observing the frequency of participants' sexual behaviour. This method can pose a problem because it emphasizes only the behavioural aspects of sexual desire and does not account for cognitive or biological influences that motivate people to seek out and become receptive to sexual opportunities.


title: Sexual desire

text: Several scales have been developed to measure the factors influencing the development and expression of sexual desire. One is the Sexual Desire Inventory (SDI), a self-administered questionnaire that defines sexual desire as "interest in or wish for sexual activity". The SDI measures thoughts and experiences. Fourteen questions assess the strength, frequency, and importance of an individual's desire for sexual activity with others and by themselves. The scale proposes that desire can be split into two categories: dyadic and solitary desire. Dyadic desire refers to an "interest in or a wish to engage in sexual activity with another person and desire for sharing and intimacy with another", while solitary desire refers to “an interest in engaging in sexual behaviour by oneself, and may involve a wish to refrain from intimacy and sharing with others”.


title: Sexual desire

text: The Sexual Interest and Desire Inventory-Female (SIDI-F) was the first validated instrument developed to specifically assess the severity of hypoactive sexual desire disorder and responses to treatment for the disorder in females. The SIDI-F consists of thirteen items that assess a woman's satisfaction with her relationship; her recent sexual experiences, both with her partner and alone; her enthusiasm for, desire for, and receptivity to sexual behaviour; distress over her level of desire; and arousal. The scale has a maximum score of 51, with higher scores representing increased levels of sexual functioning.


title: Sexual desire

text: One's social situation can refer to the social circumstances of life, their present stage of life, or the state of their romantic relationship. It may also refer to their non-relationship status. Whether people think that their experience of desire or lack of experience is problematic depends on social circumstances such as the presence or absence of a partner. As social beings, many people seek lifetime partners and wish to experience that connection and intimacy. People often consider sexual desire essential to romantic attraction and relationship development. The experience of desire can ebb and flow with time, increasing familiarity with one's partner, and changes in relationship dynamics and priorities.


title: Sexual desire

text: Both HSDD and SAD have been found to be more prevalent in females than males; this is especially the case with SAD.


title: Sexual desire

text: Hypersexual disorder is associated with sexual addiction and sexual compulsivity. According to a proposed revision to the DSM, which would include it in future publications, hypersexual disorder is defined as recurrent and intense sexual fantasies, sexual urges, and sexual behavior where the individual is consumed with excessive sexual desire and repeatedly engages in sexual behaviour in response to dysphoric mood states and stressful life events.


title: Sexual desire

text: A serious or chronic illness can have an enormous effect on sexual desire. An individual in poor health may be able to experience desire but not have the motivation or strength to have sex. Chronic disorders like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, arthritis, enlarged prostate (in men), Parkinson's disease, cancer, and high blood pressure can negatively affect sexual desire, sexual functioning, and sexual response.


title: Sexual desire

text: There have been conflicting findings on the effect of diabetes on sexual desire, especially in men. Some studies have found that diabetic men show lower levels of desire than healthy, age-matched counterparts, while others have found no difference.


title: Sexual desire

text: Certain medications can cause changes in the level of sexual desire through nonspecific effects on well-being, energy, and mood. Declining sexual desire has been linked to the use of anti-hypertension medication and many psychiatric medications, including antipsychotics, tricyclic antidepressants, monoamine-oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs), and sedatives. The psychiatric medications that most severely decrease sexual desire are selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). Higher dosages of these medications are also correlated with a lowering of sexual desire.


title: Sexual desire

text: In women, anticoagulants, cardiovascular medications, statins, and anti-hypertension drugs contribute to low levels of desire. However, in men, only anticoagulants and anti-hypertension medications have been found to be related. Oral contraceptives can also lower sexual desire in as many as one in four women who use them. They are known to increase levels of sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) in the body, and high SHBG levels are in turn associated with a decline in desire.


title: Sexual desire

text: Methamphetamine and other amphetamines have a strong positive effect on many aspects of sexual behaviour, including desire.


title: Sexual desire

text: Sexual desire is said to be influenced by androgens in men and by both androgens and estrogens in women.


title: Sexual desire

text: Many studies associate the sex hormone testosterone with sexual desire. Another hormone thought to influence sexual desire is oxytocin. Exogenous administration of moderate amounts of oxytocin has been found to stimulate females to desire and seek out sexual activity. In women, oxytocin levels are at their highest during sexual activity.


title: Sexual desire

text: Medical interventions are available for individuals who feel sexually bored, experience performance anxiety, or are unable to orgasm.


title: Sexual desire

text: For everyday life, a 2013 fact sheet from the Association for Reproductive Health Professionals recommends erotic literature and recalling instances when one felt sexy and sexual.


title: Sexual desire

text: Views on sexual desire and how it should be expressed vary significantly among societies and religions. Ideologies range from sexual repression to hedonism.


title: Sexual desire

text: Laws concerning specific forms of sexual activity, such as homosexual acts and sex outside marriage, vary by geography. In some countries, such as Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Kuwait, Maldives, Morocco, Oman, Mauritania, United Arab Emirates, Sudan, and Yemen, any form of sexual activity outside marriage is illegal.


title: Sexual desire

text: Some societies have a double standard regarding male and female expressions of desire. Female genital mutilation is practiced in some regions in an attempt to prevent women from acting on their sexual desires.


title: Common pheasant

text: The common pheasant (Phasianus colchicus) is a bird in the pheasant family (Phasianidae). The genus name comes from Latin "phasianus", "pheasant". The species name "colchicus" is Latin for "of Colchis" (modern day Georgia), a country on the Black Sea where pheasants became known to Europeans. Although "Phasianus" was previously thought to be closely related to the genus "Gallus", the genus of junglefowl and domesticated chickens, recent studies show that they are in different subfamilies, having diverged over 20 million years ago.


title: Common pheasant

text: It is native to Asia and parts of Europe like the northern foothills of the Caucasus and the Balkans. It has been widely introduced elsewhere as a game bird. In parts of its range, namely in places where none of its relatives occur such as in Europe, where it is naturalised, it is simply known as the "pheasant". Ring-necked pheasant is both the name used for the species as a whole in North America and also the collective name for a number of subspecies and their intergrades that have white neck rings.


title: Common pheasant

text: It is a well-known gamebird, among those of more than regional importance perhaps the most widespread and ancient one in the whole world. The common pheasant is one of the world's most hunted birds; it has been introduced for that purpose to many regions, and is also common on game farms where it is commercially bred. Ring-necked pheasants in particular are commonly bred and were introduced to many parts of the world; the game farm stock, though no distinct breeds have been developed yet, can be considered semi-domesticated. The ring-necked pheasant is the state bird of South Dakota, one of only three US state birds that is not a species native to the United States.


title: Common pheasant

text: The green pheasant ("P. versicolor") of Japan is sometimes considered a subspecies of the common pheasant. Though the species produce fertile hybrids wherever they coexist, this is simply a typical feature among fowl (Galloanseres), in which postzygotic isolating mechanisms are slight compared to most other birds. The species apparently have somewhat different ecological requirements and at least in its typical habitat, the green pheasant outcompetes the common pheasant. The introduction of the latter to Japan has therefore largely failed.


title: Common pheasant

text: There are many colour forms of the male common pheasant, ranging in colour from nearly white to almost black in some melanistic examples. These are due to captive breeding and hybridisation between subspecies and with the green pheasant, reinforced by continual releases of stock from varying sources to the wild. For example, the "ring-necked pheasants" common in Europe, North America and Australia do not pertain to any specific taxon, they rather represent a stereotyped hybrid swarm. Body weight can range from , with males averaging and females averaging . Wingspan ranges from .


title: Common pheasant

text: The adult male common pheasant of the nominate subspecies "Phasianus colchicus colchicus" is in length with a long brown streaked black tail, accounting for almost of the total length. The body plumage is barred bright gold or fiery copper-red and chestnut-brown plumage with iridescent sheen of green and purple; but rump uniform is sometimes blue. The wing coverage is white or cream and black-barred markings are common on the tail. The head is bottle green with a small crest and distinctive red wattle. "P. c. colchicus" and some other races lack a white neck ring. Behind the face are two ear-tufts, that make the pheasant more alert.


title: Common pheasant

text: The female (hen) and juveniles are much less showy, with a duller mottled brown plumage all over and measuring long including a tail of around . Juvenile birds have the appearance of the female with a shorter tail until young males begin to grow characteristic bright feathers on the breast, head and back at about 10 weeks after hatching.


title: Common pheasant

text: The green pheasant ("P. versicolor") is very similar, and hybridisation often makes the identity of individual birds difficult to determine. Green pheasant males on average have a shorter tail than the common pheasant and have darker plumage that is uniformly bottle-green on the breast and belly; they always lack a neck ring. Green pheasant females are darker, with many black dots on the breast and belly.


title: Common pheasant

text: In addition, various colour mutations are commonly encountered, mainly melanistic (black) and flavistic (isabelline or fawn) specimens. The former are rather common in some areas and are named Tenebrosus pheasant ("P. colchicus" var. "tenebrosus").


title: Common pheasant

text: This species was first scientifically described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of "Systema Naturae" under its current scientific name. The common pheasant is distinct enough from any other species known to Linnaeus for a laconic "[Phasianus] rufus, capîte caeruleo" – "a red pheasant with blue head" – to serve as entirely sufficient description. Moreover, the bird had been extensively discussed before Linnaeus established binomial nomenclature. His sources are the "Ornithologia" of Ulisse Aldrovandi, Giovanni Pietro Olina's "Uccelliera", John Ray's "Synopsis methodica Avium & Piscium", and "A Natural History of the Birds" by Eleazar Albin. Therein—essentially the bulk of the ornithology textbooks of his day—the species is simply named "the pheasant" in the books' respective languages. Whereas in other species, such as the eastern meadowlark ("Sturnella magna"), Linnaeus felt it warranted to cite plumage details from his sources, in the common pheasant's case he simply referred to the reason of the bird's fame: "principum mensis dicatur". The type locality is given simply as "Africa, Asia".


title: Common pheasant

text: However, the bird does not occur in Africa, except perhaps in Linnaeus's time in Mediterranean coastal areas where they might have been introduced during the Roman Empire. The type locality was later fixed to the Rioni River in western Georgia – known as "Phasis" to the Ancient Greeks. These birds, until the modern era, constituted the bulk of the introduced stock in parts of Europe that was not already present; the birds described by Linnaeus's sources, though typically belonging to such early introductions, would certainly have more alleles in common with the transcaucasian population than with others. The scientific name is Latin for "pheasant from Colchis", "colchicus" referring to the west of modern-day Georgia; the Ancient Greek term corresponding to the English "pheasant" is Phasianos ornis (Φασιανὸς ὂρνις), "bird of the river Phasis". Although Linnaeus included many Galliformes in his genus "Phasianius"—such as the domestic chicken and its wild ancestor the red junglefowl, nowadays "Gallus gallus"—today only the common and the green pheasant are placed in this genus. As the latter was not known to Linnaeus in 1758, the common pheasant is naturally the type species of "Phasianus".


title: Common pheasant

text: In the US, common pheasants are widely known as "ring-necked pheasants". More colloquial North American names include "chinks" or, in Montana, "phezzens". In China, meanwhile, the species is properly called zhi ji ()—"pheasant-fowl"—essentially implying the same as the English name "common pheasant". Like elsewhere, "P. colchicus" is such a familiar bird in China that it is usually just referred to as shan ji (山雞), "mountain chicken", a Chinese term for pheasants in general.


title: Common pheasant

text: As of 2005, it had the smallest known genome of all living amniotes, only 0.97 pg (970 million base pairs), roughly one-third of the human genome's size; however, the black-chinned hummingbird is now currently held to have the smallest.


title: Common pheasant

text: There are about 30 subspecies in five to eight groups. These can be identified by the male plumage, namely presence or absence of a white neck-ring and/or a white superciliary stripe, the colour of the uppertail (rump) and wing coverts, and the colour of crown, chest, upper back, and flank feathers. As noted above, introduced populations have mixed the alleles of various races by various amounts, differing according to the original stock used for introductions and what natural selection according to climate and habitat has made of that.


title: Common pheasant

text: An investigation into the genetic relationships of subspecies revealed that the earliest subspecies is likely to have been "elegans", suggesting that the common pheasant originated from the forests of southeastern China. Initial divergence is thought to have occurred around 3.4 Mya. The lack of agreement between morphology-based subspecies delimitation and their genetic relationships is thought to be attributed to past isolation followed by more recent population mixing as the pheasant has expanded its range across the western Palaearctic.


title: Common pheasant

text: Sometimes this species is split into the Central Asian common and the East Asian ring-necked pheasants, roughly separated by the arid and high mountainous regions of Turkestan. However, while the western and eastern populations probably were entirely separate during the Zyryanka glaciation when deserts were more extensive, this separation was not long enough for actual speciation to occur. Today, the largest variety of colour patterns is found where the western and eastern populations mix, as is to be expected. Females usually cannot be identified even to subspecies group with certainty.


title: Common pheasant

text: Many subspecies are in danger of disappearing due to hybridisation with introduced birds. The last indigenous black-necked pheasant ("P. c. colchicus") population in Europe survives in Greece in the delta of the river Nestos, where in 2012 the population was estimated 100–250 individuals.


title: Common pheasant

text: Within a maximum clade credibility mDNA gene tree, the most basal group is the "Elegans"-group of the Eastern Clade, diverging from the green pheasant during the Calabrian, and diversifying in Middle Pleistocene around 0.7 million years ago, with the groups of the Western Clade splitting off from those of the Eastern Clade about 0.59 million years ago. While the subspecies of the Western Clade are well geographically separated from each other, the subspecies of the Eastern Clade often show clinal variation and large areas of intergradation. For example, clines connect "pallasi-karpowi-torquatus-takatsukasae" within the "Torquatus"-group and "kiangsuensis-alaschanicus-sohokhotensis-strauchi" within the "Strauchi/vlangalii"-group, with the degree of expression of white collar and superciliary stripe in both cases decreasing from north to south.


title: Common pheasant

text: Common pheasants are native to Asia and parts of Europe, their original range extending from the Balkans (where the last truly wild birds survive around Nestos river in Greece), the Black and Caspian Seas to Manchuria, Siberia, Korea, Mainland China, and Taiwan. The birds are found in woodland, farmland, scrub, and wetlands. In its natural habitat the common pheasant lives in grassland near water with small copses of trees. Extensively cleared farmland is marginal habitat that cannot maintain self-sustaining populations for long.


title: Common pheasant

text: Common pheasants are gregarious birds and outside the breeding season form loose flocks. However, captive bred common pheasants can show strong sexual segregation, in space and time, with sex differences in the use of feeding stations throughout the day. Wherever they are hunted they are always timid once they associate humans with danger, and will quickly retreat for safety after hearing the arrival of hunting parties in the area.


title: Common pheasant

text: While common pheasants are able short-distance fliers, they prefer to run. If startled however, they can suddenly burst upwards at great speed, with a distinctive "whirring" wing sound and often giving "kok kok kok" calls to alert conspecifics. Their flight speed is only when cruising but when chased they can fly up to .


title: Common pheasant

text: Common pheasants nest solely on the ground in scrapes, lined with some grass and leaves, frequently under dense cover or a hedge. Occasionally they will nest in a haystack, or old nest left by other birds they roost in sheltered trees at night. The males are polygynous as is typical for many Phasianidae, and are often accompanied by a harem of several females. Common pheasants produce a clutch of around 8–15 eggs, sometimes as many as 18, but usually 10 to 12; they are pale olive in colour, and laid over a 2–3 week period in April to June. The incubation period is about 22–27 days. The chicks stay near the hen for several weeks, yet leave the nest when only a few hours old. After hatching they grow quickly, flying after 12–14 days, resembling adults by only 15 weeks of age.


title: Common pheasant

text: They eat a wide variety of animal and vegetable type-food, like fruit, seeds, grain, mast, berries and leaves as well as a wide range of invertebrates, such as leatherjackets, ant eggs, wireworms, caterpillars, grasshoppers and other insects; with small vertebrates like lizards, field voles, small mammals and small birds occasionally taken.


title: Common pheasant

text: Southern Caucasian pheasants ("P. c. colchicus") were common in Greece during the classical period and it is a widespread myth that the Greeks brought pheasants to the Balkans when they colonised Colchis in the Caucasus. This colonization happened during the 6th century BC, but pheasant archaeological remains in the Balkans are much older dating to 6th millennium BC. This fact indicates that probably pheasants reached the area naturally. Additionally it seems that they had a continuous range in Turkey from the Sea of Marmara on the edge of the Balkans, across the northern shore of the country till Caucasus. The last remnants of the Balkan population survive in the Kotza-Orman riparian forest of Nestos, in Greece with an estimated population of 100–200 adult birds. In Bulgaria they were lost in the 1970s because they hybridised with introduced eastern subspecies.


title: Common pheasant

text: Besides the Balkans the species lives in Europe in the area north of Caucasus where the local subspecies "P.c.septentrionalis" survives pure around the lower reaches of the Samur River. Reintroduction efforts in the rest of the north Caucasian range may include hybrid birds.


title: Common pheasant

text: Common pheasants can now be found across the globe due to their readiness to breed in captivity and the fact they can naturalise in many climates, but were known to be introduced in Europe, North America, Japan and New Zealand. Pheasants were hunted in their natural range by Stone Age humans just like the grouse, partridges, junglefowls and perhaps peafowls that inhabited Europe at that time. At least since the Roman Empire, the bird was extensively introduced in many places and has become a naturalized member at least of the European fauna. Introductions in the Southern Hemisphere have mostly failed, except where local Galliformes or their ecological equivalents are rare or absent.


title: Common pheasant

text: The bird was naturalized in Great Britain around AD 1059, but may have been introduced by the Romano-British centuries earlier. It was the Caucasian subspecies mistakenly known as the 'Old English pheasant' rather than the Chinese ring-necked pheasants ("torquatus") that were introduced to Britain. But it became extirpated from most of the isles in the early 17th century. There were further re-introductions of the 'white neck-ringed' variety in the 18th century. It was rediscovered as a game bird in the 1830s after being ignored for many years in an amalgam of forms. Since then it has been reared extensively by gamekeepers and was shot in season from 1 October to 31 January. Pheasants are well adapted to the British climate and breed naturally in the wild without human supervision in copses, heaths and commons.


title: Common pheasant

text: By 1950 pheasants bred throughout the British Isles, although they were scarce in Ireland. Because around 30,000,000 pheasants are released each year on shooting estates, mainly in the Midlands and South of England, it is widespread in distribution, although most released birds survive less than a year in the wild. The Bohemian was most likely seen in North Norfolk. The Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust is researching the breeding success of reared pheasants and trying to find ways to improve this breeding success to reduce the demand to release as many reared pheasants and increase the wild population. As the original Caucasian stock all but disappeared during the Early Modern era, most 'dark-winged ringless' birds in the UK are actually descended from 'Chinese ring-necked' and 'green pheasant' hybrids, which were commonly used for rewilding.


title: Common pheasant

text: Common pheasants were introduced in North America in 1773, and have become well established throughout much of the Rocky Mountain states (Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, etc.), the Midwest, the Plains states, as well as Canada and Mexico. In the southwest, they can even be seen south of the Rockies in Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge south of Albuquerque, New Mexico. It is now most common on the Great Plains. Common pheasants have also been introduced to much of northwest Europe, the Hawaiian Islands, Chile, Uruguay, Peru, Argentina, Brazil, South Africa, New Zealand, and Australia including the island state of Tasmania and small offshore islands such as Rottnest Island off Western Australia.


title: Common pheasant

text: Most common pheasants bagged in the United States are wild-born feral pheasants. In some states captive-reared and released birds make up much of the population.


title: Common pheasant

text: Pheasant hunting is very popular in much of the US, especially in the Great Plains states, where a mix of farmland and native grasslands provides ideal habitat. South Dakota alone has an annual harvest of over 1 million birds a year by over 200,000 hunters.


title: Common pheasant

text: There are a number of negative effects of common pheasants on other game birds, including: nest parasitism, disease, aggression, and competition for resources.  Nest parasitism, or brood parasitism, is common in pheasants because of their propensity to nest near other birds and the fact that nesting requirements are similar to those of other prairie birds and waterfowl that inhabit the same areas.  This phenomenon has been observed in grey partridges; prairie chickens; several types of duck, rail, grouse, turkeys, and others.  Effects of nest parasitism may include abandonment of nests with a high proportion of foreign eggs, lower hatching rates, and lower numbers of eggs laid by the host species. Pheasant eggs also have a shorter incubation time than many of their nestmates, which may result in the individual watching over the nest to abandon her own eggs after the pheasants hatch, thinking that the remaining eggs are not viable.  Pheasants raised in other species' nests often imprint on their caretaker, which may result in them adopting atypical behaviour for their species. This is sometimes the cause of hybridisation of species as pheasants adopt the mating behaviour of their nest's host species.


title: Common pheasant

text: Pheasants often compete with other native birds for resources. Studies have shown that they can lead to decreased populations of bobwhites and partridges due to habitat and food competition. Insects are a valuable food source for both pheasants and partridges and competition may lead to decreased populations of partridges. Pheasants may also introduce disease, such as blackhead, to native populations. While pheasants tolerate the infection well, other birds such as ruffed grouse, chukar, and grey partridge are highly susceptible. Pheasants also have a tendency to harass or kill other birds. One study noted that in pheasant vs. prairie chicken interactions, the pheasants were victorious 78% of the time.


title: Common pheasant

text: A variety of management strategies have been suggested for areas that are home to species that are particularly threatened by pheasants, such as the prairie chickens and gray partridge. These strategies include mowing grass to decrease the nesting cover preferred by pheasants, decreasing pheasant roosting habitat, shooting pheasants in organized hunts, trapping and removing them from areas where there are high concentrations of birds of threatened species, and others.


title: Common pheasant

text: While pheasant populations are not in any danger, they have been decreasing in the United States over the last 30 years, largely in agricultural areas. This is likely due to changes in farming practices, application of pesticides, habitat fragmentation, and increased predation due to changes in crops grown.  Many crops beneficial for pheasants (such as barley) are not being farmed as much in favor of using the land for more lucrative crops, such as nut trees.  Many of these new crops are detrimental to pheasant survival. Pheasants prefer to nest in areas of significant herbaceous cover, such as perennial grasses, so many agricultural areas are not conducive to nesting anymore. Pheasant hens also experience higher levels of predation in areas without patches of grassland.


title: Common pheasant

text: In the United Kingdom, about 50 million pheasants reared in captivity are now released each summer, a number which has significantly increased since the 1980s. Most of these birds are shot during the open season (1 October to 1 February), and few survive for a year. The result is a wildly fluctuating population, from 50 million in July to less than 5 million in June.


title: Common pheasant

text: Common pheasants are bred to be hunted and are shot in great numbers in Europe, especially the UK, where they are shot on the traditional formal "driven shoot" principles, whereby paying guns have birds driven over them by beaters, and on smaller "rough shoots". The open season in the UK is 1 October – 1 February, under the Game Act 1831. Generally they are shot by hunters employing gun dogs to help find, flush and retrieve shot birds. Retrievers, spaniels and pointing breeds are used to hunt pheasants.


title: Common pheasant

text: The doggerel "Up gets a guinea, bang goes a penny-halfpenny, and down comes a half a crown" reflects the expensive sport of 19th century driven shoots in Britain, when pheasants were often shot for sport, rather than as food. It was a popular royal pastime in Britain to shoot common pheasants. King George V shot over 1,000 pheasants out of a total bag of 3,937 over a six-day period in December 1913 during a competition with a friend; however, he did not do enough to beat him.


title: Common pheasant

text: Common pheasants are traditionally a target of small game poachers in the UK but, due to the low value of pheasants in the modern day, some have resorted to stealing chicks or poults from pens. The Roald Dahl novel "Danny the Champion of the World" dealt with a poacher (and his son) who lived in the United Kingdom and illegally hunted common pheasants.


title: Common pheasant

text: Pheasant farming is a common practice and is sometimes done intensively. Birds are supplied both to hunting preserves/estates and restaurants, with smaller numbers being available for home cooks.


title: Common pheasant

text: The carcasses were often hung for a time to improve the meat by slight decomposition, as with most other game. Modern cookery generally uses moist roasting and farm-raised female birds. In the UK and US, game was making somewhat of a comeback in popular cooking and more pheasants than ever were being sold in supermarkets there in 2011. A major reason for this is consumer attitude shift from consumption of red meat to white meat.


title: Kay Panabaker

text: Stephanie Kay Panabaker (born May 2, 1990) is an American zoologist and retired actress. She is best known for her roles as Jenny Garison in the 2009 reboot of "Fame", Debbie Berwick on "Phil of the Future", and Nikki Westerly on "Summerland". She is the younger sister of Danielle Panabaker.


title: Kay Panabaker

text: Panabaker was born in Orange, Texas, to Donna (née Mayock) and Harold Panabaker. Following in older sister Danielle's footsteps, she started acting at various community theatres in Chicago, Philadelphia, and Atlanta. In Naperville, Illinois she attended Crone Middle School for sixth grade, and moved to Los Angeles at the start of seventh grade.


title: Kay Panabaker

text: Between projects, Panabaker focused on academics. She graduated from high school as the valedictorian when she was 13 years old. Kay received two academic scholarships from Glendale Community College, where she studied acting and was on the Dean's list. She graduated with an associate degree with honors when she was 15. She was accepted by the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), History Program as a junior and completed her Bachelor of Arts in history before she turned 18.


title: Kay Panabaker

text: Panabaker has guest starred in several television dramas and soap operas. She portrayed Alice Brand in "7th Heaven", Melissa Rue in "ER", Sara in "Port Charles", Carrie Bauer in "The Brothers García", Ellisha in "Medium", and Lindsey Willows in "", to name a few. In film, she appeared in "Dead Heat" as Sam LaRoche; and did some voice work in the Disney/Pixar film, "Monsters, Inc.". Panabaker's breakout role came when she starred in The WB's "Summerland" as Nikki Westerly, in the 2004–05 season. She also appeared as George in "Nancy Drew" (2007) alongside Emma Roberts and Amy Bruckner.


title: Kay Panabaker

text: Panabaker had a recurring role in "Phil of the Future" as strait-laced Debbie Berwick, a friend of and foil to Pim Diffy (played by Amy Bruckner). She starred in "Life Is Ruff" as Emily Watson alongside Kyle Massey and Mitchel Musso. In July 2006, she starred in the Disney Channel Original Movie "Read It and Weep" (based on the book "How My Private Personal Journal Became a Bestseller"), in which her sister Danielle also stars. In 2006, Panabaker was in the first "Disney Channel Games", on the Red Team with Zac Efron, Anneliese van der Pol, Moises Arias, Dylan Sprouse, and Shin Koyamada as part of the Disney Channel's "So Hot Summer!". Her movies include "Moondance Alexander" and "" with Dylan and Cole Sprouse. Panabaker starred in the remake of "Fame" as Jenny, an actress; the film was released in theaters on September 25, 2009. She also played the teenaged Kitty Walker on "Brothers and Sisters".


title: Kay Panabaker

text: Panabaker starred in the ABC sci-fi drama series "No Ordinary Family", which ran for a single season ending in 2011 after 20 episodes. In 2011, Panabaker played Samantha Caldone in the ABC Family movie "Cyberbully."


title: Kay Panabaker

text: After playing Rosa in "Beverly Hills Chihuahua 3: Viva la Fiesta" in 2012, Panabaker retired from acting. She went on to study zoology at UCLA. As of 2016 she works as a zookeeper at Disney's Animal Kingdom at Walt Disney World.


title: Kay Panabaker

text: Panabaker previously held a Seat on the National Board of the Coalition for Quality Children's Media. As of 2020 this was no longer the case.


title: Chandra

text: Chandra (), also known as Soma (), is the Hindu god of the Moon, and is associated with the night, plants and vegetation. He is one of the Navagraha (nine planets of Hinduism) and Dikpala (guardians of the directions).


title: Chandra

text: The word "Chandra" literally means "bright, shining or glittering" and is used for the "Moon" in Sanskrit and other Indian languages. It is also the name of various other figures in Hindu mythology, including an asura and a Suryavanshi king. It is also a common Indian name and surname. Both male and female name variations exists in many South Asian languages that originate from Sanskrit.


title: Chandra

text: Some of the synonyms of Chandra include "Soma" (distill), "Indu" (bright drop), "Atrisuta" (son of Atri), "Shashin" or "Shachin" (marked by hare), "Taradhipa" (lord of stars) and "Nishakara" (the night maker), "Nakshatrapati" (lord of the Nakshatra), "Oshadhipati" (lord of herbs), "Uduraj or Udupati" (water lord), "Kumudanatha" (lord of lotuses) and "Udupa" (boat).


title: Chandra

text: Soma is one of the most common other names used for the deity; but the earliest use of the word to refer to the Moon is a subject of scholarly debate. Some scholars state that the word Soma is occasionally used for the Moon in the Vedas, while other scholars suggest that such usage emerged only in the post-Vedic literature.


title: Chandra

text: In the Vedas, the word Soma is primarily used for an intoxicating and energizing/healing plant drink and the deity representating it. In post-Vedic Hindu mythology, Soma is used for Chandra, who is associated with the moon and the plant. The Hindu texts state that the Moon is lit and nourished by the Sun, and that it is Moon where the divine nectar of immortality resides. In Puranas, Soma is sometimes also used to refer to Vishnu, Shiva (as "Somanatha"), Yama and Kubera. In some Indian texts, Soma is the name of an apsara; alternatively it is the name of any medicinal concoction, or rice-water gruel, or heaven and sky, as well as the name of certain places of pilgrimage.


title: Chandra

text: The origin of Soma is traced back to the Hindu Vedic texts, where he is the personification of a drink made from a plant with the same name. Scholars state that the plant had an important role in Vedic civilization and thus, the deity was one of the most important gods of the pantheon. In these Vedic texts, Soma is praised as the lord of plants and forests; the king of rivers and earth; and the father of the gods. The entire Mandala 9 of the "Rigveda" is dedicated to Soma, both the plant and the deity. The identification of Soma as a lunar deity in the Vedic texts is a controversial topic among scholars. According to William J. Wilkins, "In later years the name Soma was [...] given to the moon. How and why this change took place is not known; but in the later of the Vedic hymns there is some evidence of the transition.


title: Chandra

text: In post Vedic texts like the "Ramayana", the "Mahabharata" and the "Puranas", Soma is mentioned as a lunar deity and has many epithets including Chandra. According to most of these texts, Chandra, along with his brothers Dattatreya and Durvasa, were the sons of the sage Atri and his wife Anasuya. The "Devi Bhagavata Purana" states Chandra to be the avatar of the creator god Brahma. Some texts contain varying accounts regarding Chandra's birth. According to one text, he is the son of Dharma; while another mention Prabhakar as his father. Many legends about Chandra are told in the scriptures.


title: Chandra

text: In one version of the puranas, Chandra and Tara—the star goddess and the wife of devas' guru Brihaspati—fell in love with each another. He abducted her and made her his queen. Brihaspati, after multiple failed peace missions and threats, declared war against Chandra. The Devas sided with their teacher, while Shukra, an enemy of Brihaspati and the teacher of Asuras, aided Chandra. After the intervention of Brahma stopped the war, Tara, pregnant, was returned to her husband. She later gave birth to a son named Budha, but there was a controversy over the paternity of the child; with both Chandra and Brihaspati claiming themselves as his father. Brahma once again interfered and questioned Tara, who eventually confirmed Chandra as the father of Budha. Budha's son was Pururavas who established the Chandravanshi Dynasty.


title: Chandra

text: Chandra married 27 daughters of Prajapati Daksha — Ashvini, Bharani, Krittika, Rohini, Mrigashiras, Ardra, Punarvasu, Pushya, Ashlesha, Magha, Pūrvaphalguni, Uttaraphalguni,


title: Chandra

text: Revati. They all represent one of the 27 Nakshatra or constellations near the moon. Among all of his 27 wives, Chandra loved Rohini the most and spent most of his time with her. The 26 other wives became upset and complained to Daksha who placed a curse on Chandra.


title: Chandra

text: According to another legend, Ganesha was returning home on his mount Krauncha (a shrew) late on a full moon night after a mighty feast given by Kubera. On the journey back, a snake crossed their path and frightened by it, his mount ran away dislodging Ganesha in the process. An overstuffed Ganesha fell to the ground on his stomach, vomiting out all the Modaks he had eaten. On observing this, Chandra laughed at Ganesha. Ganesha lost his temper and broke off one of his tusks and flung it straight at the Moon, hurting him, and cursed him so that he would never be whole again. Therefore, It is forbidden to behold Chandra on Ganesh Chaturthi. This legend accounts for the Moon's waxing and waning including a big crater on the Moon, a dark spot, visible even from Earth.


title: Chandra

text: Soma's iconography varies in Hindu texts. The most common is one where he is a white-coloured deity, holding a mace in his hand, riding a chariot with three wheels and three or more white horses (up to ten).


title: Chandra

text: Soma is the root of the word "Somavara" or Monday in the Hindu calendar. The word "Monday" in the Greco-Roman and other Indo-European calendars is also dedicated to the Moon. Soma is part of the Navagraha in Hindu zodiac system. The role and importance of the Navagraha developed over time with various influences. Deifying the moon and its astrological significance occurred as early as the Vedic period and was recorded in the Vedas. The earliest work of astrology recorded in India is the Vedanga Jyotisha which began to be compiled in the 14th century BCE. The moon and various classical planets were referenced in the Atharvaveda around 1000 BCE.


title: Chandra

text: The Navagraha was furthered by additional contributions from Western Asia, including Zoroastrian and Hellenistic influences. The Yavanajataka, or 'Science of the Yavanas', was written by the Indo-Greek named "Yavanesvara" ("Lord of the Greeks") under the rule of the Western Kshatrapa king Rudrakarman I. The Navagraha would further develop and culminate in the Shaka era with the Saka, or Scythian, people. Additionally the contributions by the Saka people would be the basis of the Indian national calendar, which is also called the Saka calendar.


title: Chandra

text: The Hindu calendar is a Lunisolar calendar which records both lunar and solar cycles. Like the Navagraha, it was developed with the successive contributions of various works.


title: Chandra

text: Soma was presumed to be a planet in Hindu astronomical texts. It is often discussed in various Sanskrit astronomical texts, such as the 5th century "Aryabhatiya" by Aryabhatta, the 6th century "Romaka" by Latadeva and "Panca Siddhantika" by Varahamihira, the 7th century "Khandakhadyaka" by Brahmagupta and the 8th century "Sisyadhivrddida" by Lalla. Other texts such as "Surya Siddhanta" dated to have been complete sometime between the 5th century and 10th century present their chapters on various planets with deity mythologies. However, they show that the Hindu scholars were aware of elliptical orbits, and the texts include sophisticated formulae to calculate its past and future positions:


title: Chandra

text: Besides worship in Navagraha temples, Chandra is also worshipped in the following temples (please help expand this partial list)


title: Chandra

text: Chandra plays an important role in one of the first novel-length mystery stories in English, "The Moonstone" (1868).


title: Peoples of the Caucasus

text: The peoples of the Caucasus, or Caucasians, are a diverse group comprising more than 50 ethnic groups throughout the Caucasus.


title: Peoples of the Caucasus

text: Caucasians who speak languages which have long been indigenous to the region are generally classified into three groups: Kartvelian peoples, Northeast Caucasian peoples and Northwest Caucasian peoples.


title: Peoples of the Caucasus

text: The largest peoples speaking languages which belong to the Caucasian language families and who are currently resident in the Caucasus are the Georgians (3,200,000), the Chechens (2,000,000), the Avars (1,500,000), the Lezgins (about 1,000,000) and the Kabardians (600,000), while outside the Caucasus, the largest people of Caucasian origin, in diaspora in more than 40 countries (such as Jordan, Turkey, the countries of Europe, Syria, and the United States) are the Circassians with about 3,000,000-4,000,000 speakers. Georgians are the only Caucasian people who have their own undisputedly independent state—Georgia. Abkhazia's status is disputed. Other Caucasian peoples have republics within Russia: Adyghe (Adygea), Cherkess (Karachay-Cherkessia), Kabardians (Kabardino-Balkaria), Ingush (Ingushetia), Chechens (Chechnya), while other Northeast Caucasian peoples mostly live in Dagestan.


title: Peoples of the Caucasus

text: Armenians number 3,215,800 in their native Armenia, though approximately 8 million live outside the republic, forming the Armenian diaspora. Elsewhere in the region, they reside in Artsakh (which is a "de facto" independent republic, though not recognised internationally), Georgia (primarily Samtskhe–Javakheti, Tbilisi, and Abkhazia), and the Russian North Caucasus. The Ossetians live in North Ossetia–Alania (an autonomous republic within Russia) and in South Ossetia, which is "de facto" independent, but is "de jure" part of Georgia. The Yazidis reside in the western areas of Armenia, mostly in the Aragatsotn marz, and in the eastern areas of Georgia. An autonomous Kurdish region was created in 1923 in Soviet Azerbaijan but was later abolished in 1929. Pontic Greeks reside in Armenia (Lori Province, especially in Alaverdi) and Georgia (Kvemo Kartli, Adjara, the Tsalka, and Abkhazia). Pontic Greeks had also made up a significant component of the South Caucasus region acquired from the Ottoman Empire (following the 1878 Treaty of San Stefano) that centred on the town of Kars (ceded back to Turkey in 1916). Russians mostly live in the Russian North Caucasus and their largest concentration is in Stavropol Krai, Krasnodar Krai, and Adygea. Georgia and the former Russian South Caucasus province of Kars Oblast was also home to a significant minority of ethnic (Swabian) Germans, although their numbers have become depleted as a result of deportations (to Kazakhstan following World War II), immigration to Germany, and assimilation into indigenous communities.


title: Peoples of the Caucasus

text: The Kalmyks — is the name given to the Oirats, western Mongols in Russia, whose ancestors migrated from Dzungaria in 1607. Today they form a majority in the autonomous republic of Kalmykia on the western shore of the Caspian Sea. Kalmykia has Europe's only Buddhist government.


title: Peoples of the Caucasus

text: The largest of the Turkic-speaking peoples in the Caucasus are Azerbaijanis who number 8,700,000 in the Republic of Azerbaijan. In the Caucasus region, they live in Georgia, Russia (Dagestan), Turkey and previously in Armenia (before 1990). The total number of Azerbaijanis is around 35 million (15 million in Iran). Other Turkic speakers live in their autonomous republics within Russia: Karachays (Karachay-Cherkessia), Balkars (Kabardino-Balkaria), while Kumyks and Nogais live in Dagestan.


title: Peoples of the Caucasus

text: This gives ethnic locations about 1775 before the Russians came. NECLS means 'Northeast Caucasian Language Speakers' and NWCLS means 'Northwest Caucasian Language Speakers'. The linguistic nationalities that we now recognise are somewhat artificial. Two hundred years, ago a person’s loyalty was to their friends, kin, village and chief and not primarily to their language group. The difference between steppe, mountain and plain was far more important than difference of language. Only the southern half (and the southernmost part of Dagestan) had organized states, usually Persian or Turkish vassals and few, if any, of these states corresponded well to language groups.


title: Peoples of the Caucasus

text: Northern Lowlands: The Turkic-speaking Nogai nomads occupied almost all of the steppe north of the Caucasus. In the nineteenth century they were pushed far southeast to their present location. Formerly part of the eastern steppe was occupied by Kalmyks – Buddhist Mongols who migrated from Dzungaria about 1618. In 1771 many returned to their original homeland and they contracted to their present location in the far northeast, Nogais temporarily taking their place. In the southeast were the isolated Terek Cossacks. Their settlements later grew into the North Caucasus Line. There were a few Turkmens in the center of the steppe.


title: Peoples of the Caucasus

text: North Slope: The western two thirds was occupied by Circassians – NWCLS divided into twelve or so tribes. They long resisted the Russians and in 1864 several hundred thousand of them were expelled to the Ottoman Empire. To their east were the Kabardians – NWCLS similar to the Circassians but with a different political organization. The term Lesser Kabardia refers to the eastern area. South of the eastern Circassian-Kabardians were three groups that seem to have been driven into the high mountains about 500 years previously. The Karachays and Balkars spoke similar Turkic languages. East of the Balkars were the Ossetians – Iranian speakers descended from the ancient Alans who controlled the future Georgian Military Road and had a growing Christian minority. East of the future highway was a north-south band of Ingush – NECLS similar to the Chechens. The numerous Chechens to the east were later to wage the long Murid War against the Russians. For the small groups south of the Ingush-Chechens see South Slope below. To the east along the coast were the Turkic Kumyks.


title: Peoples of the Caucasus

text: Mountain Dagestan: All the peoples of mountain Dagestan were NECLS except the Tats. In the northwest were a number of small language groups (Tsez people (Dido) and Andi people), similar to the Avars. To their southeast were the numerous Avars with a khanate at Khunzakh who fought in the Murid War. Southeast were the Dargins and west of them the Laks who held the Kumukh Khanate. Southeast along the Samur were the Lezgins with many subgroups and then the Iranian-speaking Tats down to Baku.


title: Peoples of the Caucasus

text: Caspian Coast: From Astrakhan to the Terek River there were the Buddhist Kalmyk nomads. Along the Terek were the isolated Terek Cossacks. From the Terek to Derbent were the Turkic-speaking Kumyks with a state at Tarki. The town of Derbent itself had a majority Persian () population, as it had for many centuries, until the late 19th century. On the coastal plain south of Derbent was a mixed population, mostly Azeri ("Transcaucasian Tatar"), and further south to Baku were the Iranian-speaking Tats. When Baku became a boom town the Tats retained a majority only in the mountains. The Mountain Jews, who had a number of villages inland from the coast, spoke a form of Tat called Judeo-Tat. The lowlands south of Baku were held by Azerbaijanis, Turkic-speaking Shiites. On both sides of the current Iranian border were the Iranian-speaking Talysh. Based on genetic studies the Gilaki and Mazanderani ethnic groups in northern Iran (near the Caspian Sea) have been proven to be genetically similar to Armenians, Georgians and Azeris. This indicates that the Gilaki and Mazanderani ethnic groups are people that immigrated from the Caucasus region to what is now northern Iran.


title: Peoples of the Caucasus

text: South Slope: Black Sea coast: In the northwest the mountains came down to the sea and the population was Circassian. Southward the coastal plain broadened and the population was Abkhazians – similar to the Circassians but under Georgian influence.


title: Peoples of the Caucasus

text: South Slope proper: On the south side of the Caucasus the mountains fall quickly to the plains and there is only a small transition zone. The inhabitants were either Georgians with mountain customs or northern mountaineers who had moved south. The Svans were Georgian mountaineers. In the center the Iranian Ossets had moved south and were surrounded on three sides by Georgians. East of the Ossets and south of the Ingush-Chechens were three groups of Georgian mountaineers on both sides of the mountain crest: Khevi, Khevsurs, and Tushetians. The Bats were NECLS entangled with the Tushetians and the Kists were Chechens south of the mountains. Near the Georgian-Azeri linguistic border there were some Avars and Tsakhurs (Lezgians) who had crossed the mountains. Associated with the Tsakhurs were the Ingiloy or Georgian-speaking Muslims. In the north Azeri area were a few Udis or southern Lezgians and Lakhij or southern Tats.


title: Peoples of the Caucasus

text: Southern Lowlands: The western two thirds were occupied by Georgians – an ancient Christian people with a unique language. The eastern third was Azerbaijanis – a group of Turkic-speaking Shiites under Persian influence. On the fringe of the Georgian area were Georgian speakers who had either adopted Islam or mountain customs.


title: Peoples of the Caucasus

text: Armenian Highlands: Further South, the land becomes higher. In the west were the Laz people or Georgian Muslims. In Kars province there were Turks, Kurds and Armenians. The Armenians, which gave the plateau its namesake, were somewhat concentrated in the present-day Armenia but were mostly spread out as a minority all over Asia Minor. There were groups of Azeris west of their main area who tended to blend with the Turks. The Kurds were semi-nomadic shepherds with small groups in various places and concentrations in Kars province and Nakhchivan. In the far southeast were the Iranian Talysh.


title: Remote control

text: In electronics, a remote control (also known as a remote or clicker) is an electronic device used to operate another device from a distance, usually wirelessly. In consumer electronics, a remote control can be used to operate devices such as a television set, DVD player or other home appliance. A remote control can allow operation of devices that are out of convenient reach for direct operation of controls. They function best when used from a short distance. This is primarily a convenience feature for the user. In some cases, remote controls allow a person to operate a device that they otherwise would not be able to reach, as when a garage door opener is triggered from outside.


title: Remote control

text: Early television remote controls (1956–1977) used ultrasonic tones. Present-day remote controls are commonly consumer infrared devices which send digitally-coded pulses of infrared radiation. They control functions such as power, volume, channels, playback, track change, heat, fan speed, and various other features. Remote controls for these devices are usually small wireless handheld objects with an array of buttons. They are used to adjust various settings such as television channel, track number, and volume. The remote control code, and thus the required remote control device, is usually specific to a product line. However, there are universal remotes, which emulate the remote control made for most major brand devices.


title: Remote control

text: Remote controls in the 2000s include Bluetooth or Wi-Fi connectivity, motion sensor-enabled capabilities and voice control. Remote controls for 2010s onward Smart TVs may feature a standalone keyboard on the rear side to facilitate typing, and be usable as a pointing device.


title: Remote control

text: Wired and wireless remote control was developed in the latter half of the 19th century to meet the need to control unmanned vehicles (for the most part military torpedoes). These included a wired version by German engineer Werner von Siemens in 1870, and radio controlled ones by British engineer Ernest Wilson and C. J. Evans (1897) and a prototype that inventor Nikola Tesla demonstrated in New York in 1898. In 1903 Spanish engineer Leonardo Torres y Quevedo demonstrated a radio controlled boat using a system called ""Telekino"", which he hoped to use to control a dirigible airship of his own design. The first remote-controlled model airplane flew in 1932, and the use of remote control technology for military purposes was worked on intensively during the Second World War, one result of this being the German Wasserfall missile.


title: Remote control

text: By the late 1930s, several radio manufacturers offered remote controls for some of their higher-end models. Most of these were connected to the set being controlled by wires, but the Philco Mystery Control (1939) was a battery-operated low-frequency radio transmitter, thus making it the first wireless remote control for a consumer electronics device. Using pulse-count modulation, this also was the first digital wireless remote control.


title: Remote control

text: The first remote intended to control a television was developed by Zenith Radio Corporation in 1950. The remote, called "Lazy Bones," was connected to the television by a wire. A wireless remote control, the "Flashmatic," was developed in 1955 by Eugene Polley. It worked by shining a beam of light onto one of four photoelectric cells, but the cell did not distinguish between light from the remote and light from other sources. The Flashmatic also had to be pointed very precisely at one of the sensors in order to work.


title: Remote control

text: In 1956, Robert Adler developed "Zenith Space Command," a wireless remote. It was mechanical and used ultrasound to change the channel and volume. When the user pushed a button on the remote control, it struck a bar and clicked, hence they were commonly called a "clicker," but it sounded like a "clink" and the mechanics were similar to a pluck. Each of the four bars emitted a different fundamental frequency with ultrasonic harmonics, and circuits in the television detected these sounds and interpreted them as channel-up, channel-down, sound-on/off, and power-on/off.


title: Remote control

text: Later, the rapid decrease in price of transistors made possible cheaper electronic remotes that contained a piezoelectric crystal that was fed by an oscillating electric current at a frequency near or above the upper threshold of human hearing, though still audible to dogs. The receiver contained a microphone attached to a circuit that was tuned to the same frequency. Some problems with this method were that the receiver could be triggered accidentally by naturally occurring noises or deliberately by metal against glass, for example, and some people could hear the lower ultrasonic harmonics.


title: Remote control

text: In 1970, RCA introduced an all-electronic remote control that uses digital signals and metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) memory. This was widely adopted for color television, replacing motor-driven tuning controls.


title: Remote control

text: The impetus for a more complex type of television remote control came in 1973, with the development of the Ceefax teletext service by the BBC. Most commercial remote controls at that time had a limited number of functions, sometimes as few as three: next channel, previous channel, and volume/off. This type of control did not meet the needs of Teletext sets, where pages were identified with three-digit numbers. A remote control that selects Teletext pages would need buttons for each numeral from zero to nine, as well as other control functions, such as switching from text to picture, and the normal television controls of volume, channel, brightness, color intensity, etc. Early Teletext sets used wired remote controls to select pages, but the continuous use of the remote control required for Teletext quickly indicated the need for a wireless device. So BBC engineers began talks with one or two television manufacturers, which led to early prototypes in around 1977–1978 that could control many more functions. ITT was one of the companies and later gave its name to the ITT protocol of infrared communication.


title: Remote control

text: In 1980, the most popular remote control was the "Starcom Cable TV Converter" (from Jerrold Electronics, a division of General Instrument) which used 40-kHz sound to change channels. Then, a Canadian company, Viewstar, Inc., was formed by engineer Paul Hrivnak and started producing a cable TV converter with an infrared remote control. The product was sold through Philips for approximately $190 CAD. The Viewstar converter was an immediate success, the millionth converter being sold on March 21, 1985, with 1.6 million sold by 1989.


title: Remote control

text: The Blab-off was a wired remote control created in 1952 that turned a TV's (television) sound on or off so that viewers could avoid hearing commercials. In the 1980s Steve Wozniak of Apple started a company named CL 9. The purpose of this company was to create a remote control that could operate multiple electronic devices. The CORE unit (Controller Of Remote Equipment) was introduced in the fall of 1987. The advantage to this remote controller was that it could "learn" remote signals from different devices. It had the ability to perform specific or multiple functions at various times with its built-in clock. It was the first remote control that could be linked to a computer and loaded with updated software code as needed. The CORE unit never made a huge impact on the market. It was much too cumbersome for the average user to program, but it received rave reviews from those who could. These obstacles eventually led to the demise of CL 9, but two of its employees continued the business under the name Celadon. This was one of the first computer-controlled learning remote controls on the market.


title: Remote control

text: In the 1990s, cars were increasingly sold with electronic remote control door locks. These remotes transmit a signal to the car which locks or unlocks the door locks or unlocks the trunk. An aftermarket device sold in some countries is the remote starter. This enables a car owner to remotely start their car. This feature is most associated with countries with winter climates, where users may wish to run the car for several minutes before they intend to use it, so that the car heater and defrost systems can remove ice and snow from the windows.


title: Remote control

text: By the early 2000s, the number of consumer electronic devices in most homes greatly increased, along with the number of remotes to control those devices. According to the Consumer Electronics Association, an average US home has four remotes. To operate a home theater as many as five or six remotes may be required, including one for cable or satellite receiver, VCR or digital video recorder (DVR/PVR), DVD player, TV and audio amplifier. Several of these remotes may need to be used sequentially for some programs or services to work properly. However, as there are no accepted interface guidelines, the process is increasingly cumbersome. One solution used to reduce the number of remotes that have to be used is the universal remote, a remote control that is programmed with the operation codes for most major brands of TVs, DVD players, etc. In the early 2010s, many smartphone manufacturers began incorporating infrared emitters into their devices, thereby enabling their use as universal remotes via an included or downloadable app.


title: Remote control

text: The main technology used in home remote controls is infrared (IR) light. The signal between a remote control handset and the device it controls consists of pulses of infrared light, which is invisible to the human eye but can be seen through a digital camera, video camera or phone camera. The transmitter in the remote control handset sends out a stream of pulses of infrared light when the user presses a button on the handset. A transmitter is often a light emitting diode (LED) which is built into the pointing end of the remote control handset. The infrared light pulses form a pattern unique to that button. The receiver in the device recognizes the pattern and causes the device to respond accordingly.


title: Remote control

text: Most remote controls for electronic appliances use a near infrared diode to emit a beam of light that reaches the device. A 940 nm wavelength LED is typical. This infrared light is not visible to the human eye but picked up by sensors on the receiving device. Video cameras see the diode as if it produces visible purple light. With a single channel (single-function, one-button) remote control the presence of a carrier signal can be used to trigger a function. For multi-channel (normal multi-function) remote controls more sophisticated procedures are necessary: one consists of modulating the carrier with signals of different frequencies. After the receiver demodulates the received signal, it applies the appropriate frequency filters to separate the respective signals. One can often hear the signals being modulated on the infrared carrier by operating a remote control in very close proximity to an AM radio not tuned to a station. Today, IR remote controls almost always use a pulse width modulated code, encoded and decoded by a digital computer: a command from a remote control consists of a short train of pulses of carrier-present and carrier-not-present of varying widths.


title: Remote control

text: Different manufacturers of infrared remote controls use different protocols to transmit the infrared commands. The RC-5 protocol that has its origins within Philips, uses, for instance, a total of 14 bits for each button press. The bit pattern is modulated onto a carrier frequency that, again, can be different for different manufacturers and standards, in the case of RC-5, the carrier is 36 kHz. Other consumer infrared protocols include the various versions of SIRCS used by Sony, the RC-6 from Philips, the Ruwido R-Step, and the NEC TC101 protocol.


title: Remote control

text: Since infrared (IR) remote controls use light, they require line of sight to operate the destination device. The signal can, however, be reflected by mirrors, just like any other light source. If operation is required where no line of sight is possible, for instance when controlling equipment in another room or installed in a cabinet, many brands of IR extenders are available for this on the market. Most of these have an IR receiver, picking up the IR signal and relaying it via radio waves to the remote part, which has an IR transmitter mimicking the original IR control. Infrared receivers also tend to have a more or less limited operating angle, which mainly depends on the optical characteristics of the phototransistor. However, it's easy to increase the operating angle using a matte transparent object in front of the receiver.


title: Remote control

text: Radio remote control (RF remote control) is used to control distant objects using a variety of radio signals transmitted by the remote control device. As a complementary method to infrared remote controls, the radio remote control is used with electric garage door or gate openers, automatic barrier systems, burglar alarms and industrial automation systems. Standards used for RF remotes are: Bluetooth AVRCP, ZigBee (RF4CE), Z-Wave. Most remote controls use their own coding, transmitting from 8 to 100 or more pulses, fixed or Rolling code, using OOK or FSK modulation. Also, transmitters or receivers can be "universal", meaning they are able to work with many different codings. In this case, the transmitter is normally called a "universal remote control duplicator" because it is able to copy existing remote controls, while the receiver is called a "universal receiver" because it works with almost any remote control in the market.


title: Remote control

text: A radio remote control system commonly has two parts: transmit and receive. The transmitter part is divided into two parts, the RF remote control and the transmitter module. This allows the transmitter module to be used as a component in a larger application. The transmitter module is small, but users must have detailed knowledge to use it; combined with the RF remote control it is much simpler to use.


title: Remote control

text: The receiver is generally one of two types: a super-regenerative receiver or a superheterodyne. The super-regenerative receiver works like that of an intermittent oscillation detection circuit. The superheterodyne works like the one in a radio receiver. The superheterodyne receiver is used because of its stability, high sensitivity and it has relatively good anti-interference ability, a small package and lower price.


title: Remote control

text: A remote control is used for controlling substations, pump storage power stations and HVDC-plants. For these systems often PLC-systems working in the longwave range are used.


title: Remote control

text: Garage and gate remote controls are very common, especially in some countries such as the US, Australia, and the UK, where garage doors, gates and barriers are widely used. Such a remote is very simple by design, usually only one button, and some with more buttons to control several gates from one control. Such remotes can be divided into two categories by the encoder type used: fixed code and rolling code. If you find dip-switches in the remote, it is likely to be fixed code, an older technology which was widely used. However, fixed codes have been criticized for their (lack of) security, thus rolling code has been more and more widely used in later installations.


title: Remote control

text: Remotely operated torpedoes were demonstrated in the late 19th century in the form of several types of remotely controlled torpedoes. The early 1870s saw remotely controlled torpedoes by John Ericsson (pneumatic), John Louis Lay (electric wire guided), and Victor von Scheliha (electric wire guided).


title: Remote control

text: The Brennan torpedo, invented by Louis Brennan in 1877 was powered by two contra-rotating propellers that were spun by rapidly pulling out wires from drums wound inside the torpedo. Differential speed on the wires connected to the shore station allowed the torpedo to be guided to its target, making it "the world's first "practical" guided missile". In 1898 Nikola Tesla publicly demonstrated a "wireless" radio-controlled torpedo that he hoped to sell to the U.S. Navy.


title: Remote control

text: Archibald Low was known as the "father of radio guidance systems" for his pioneering work on guided rockets and planes during the First World War. In 1917, he demonstrated a remote-controlled aircraft to the Royal Flying Corps and in the same year built the first wire-guided rocket. As head of the secret RFC experimental works at Feltham, A. M. Low was the first person to use radio control successfully on an aircraft, an "Aerial Target". It was "piloted" from the ground by future world aerial speed record holder Henry Segrave. Low's systems encoded the command transmissions as a countermeasure to prevent enemy intervention. By 1918 the secret D.C.B. Section of the Royal Navy's Signals School, Portsmouth under the command of Eric Robinson V.C. used a variant of the Aerial Target's radio control system to control from ‘mother’ aircraft different types of naval vessels including a submarine.


title: Remote control

text: The military also developed several early remote control vehicles. In World War I, the Imperial German Navy employed FL-boats (Fernlenkboote) against coastal shipping. These were driven by internal combustion engines and controlled remotely from a shore station through several miles of wire wound on a spool on the boat. An aircraft was used to signal directions to the shore station. EMBs carried a high explosive charge in the bow and traveled at speeds of thirty knots. The Soviet Red Army used remotely controlled teletanks during the 1930s in the Winter War against Finland and the early stages of World War II. A teletank is controlled by radio from a control tank at a distance of 500 to 1,500 meters, the two constituting a "telemechanical group". The Red Army fielded at least two teletank battalions at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. There were also remotely controlled cutters and experimental remotely controlled planes in the Red Army.


title: Remote control

text: Remote controls in military usage employ jamming and countermeasures against jamming. Jammers are used to disable or sabotage the enemy's use of remote controls. The distances for military remote controls also tend to be much longer, up to intercontinental distance satellite-linked remote controls used by the U.S. for their unmanned airplanes (drones) in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan. Remote controls are used by insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan to attack coalition and government troops with roadside improvised explosive devices, and terrorists in Iraq are reported in the media to use modified TV remote controls to detonate bombs.


title: Remote control

text: In the winter of 1971, the Soviet Union explored the surface of the moon with the lunar vehicle Lunokhod 1, the first roving remote-controlled robot to land on another celestial body. Remote control technology is also used in space travel, for instance, the Soviet Lunokhod vehicles were remote-controlled from the ground. Many space exploration rovers can be remotely controlled, though vast distance to a vehicle results in a long time delay between transmission and receipt of a command.


title: Remote control

text: Existing infrared remote controls can be used to control PC applications. Any application that supports shortcut keys can be controlled via infrared remote controls from other home devices (TV, VCR, AC). This is widely used with multimedia applications for PC based home theater systems. For this to work, one needs a device that decodes IR remote control data signals and a PC application that communicates to this device connected to PC. A connection can be made via serial port, USB port or motherboard IrDA connector. Such devices are commercially available but can be homemade using low-cost microcontrollers. LIRC (Linux IR Remote control) and WinLIRC (for Windows) are software packages developed for the purpose of controlling PC using TV remote and can be also used for homebrew remote with lesser modification.


title: Remote control

text: Remote controls are used in photography, in particular to take long-exposure shots. Many action cameras such as the GoPros as well as standard DSLRs including Sony's Alpha series incorporate Wi-Fi based remote control systems. These can often be accessed and even controlled via cell-phones and other mobile devices.


title: Remote control

text: Video game consoles had not used wireless controllers until recently, mainly because of the difficulty involved in playing the game while keeping the infrared transmitter pointed at the console. Early wireless controllers were cumbersome and when powered on alkaline batteries, lasted only a few hours before they needed replacement. Some wireless controllers were produced by third parties, in most cases using a radio link instead of infrared. Even these were very inconsistent, and in some cases, had transmission delays, making them virtually useless. Some examples include the Double Player for NES, the Master System Remote Control System and the Wireless Dual Shot for the PlayStation.


title: Remote control

text: The first official wireless game controller made by a first party manufacturer was the CX-42 for Atari 2600. The Philips CD-i 400 series also came with a remote control, the WaveBird was also produced for the GameCube. In the seventh generation of gaming consoles, wireless controllers became standard. Some wireless controllers, such as those of the PlayStation 3 and Wii, use Bluetooth. Others, like the Xbox 360, use proprietary wireless protocols.


title: Remote control

text: To be turned on by a wireless remote, the controlled appliance must always be partly on, consuming standby power.


title: Remote control

text: Hand-gesture recognition has been researched as an alternative to remote controls for television sets.


title: Harrison Bergeron

text: "Harrison Bergeron" is a satirical dystopian science-fiction short story by American writer Kurt Vonnegut, first published in October 1961. Originally published in "The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction", the story was republished in the author's "Welcome to the Monkey House" collection in 1968.


title: Harrison Bergeron

text: In the year 2081, the 211th, 212th, and 213th amendments to the Constitution dictate that all Americans are fully equal and not allowed to be smarter, better-looking, or more physically able than anyone else. The Handicapper General's agents enforce the equality laws, forcing citizens to wear "handicaps": masks for those who are too beautiful, loud radios that disrupt thoughts inside the ears of intelligent people, and heavy weights for the strong or athletic.


title: Harrison Bergeron

text: One April, 14-year-old Harrison Bergeron, an intelligent, athletic, and good-looking teenager, is taken away from his parents, George and Hazel Bergeron, by the government. They are barely aware of the tragedy, as Hazel has "average" intelligence (contextually meaning stupidity), and George has a handicap radio installed by the government to regulate his above-average intelligence.


title: Harrison Bergeron

text: Hazel and George watch ballet on television. They comment on the dancers, who are weighed down to counteract their gracefulness and masked to hide their attractiveness. George's thoughts are continually interrupted by the different noises emitted by his handicap radio, which piques Hazel's curiosity and imagination regarding handicaps. Noticing his exhaustion, Hazel urges George to lie down and rest his "handicap bag", of weights locked around George's neck. She suggests taking a few of the weights out of the bag, but George resists, aware of the illegality of such an action.


title: Harrison Bergeron

text: On television, a news reporter struggles to read the bulletin and hands it to the ballerina wearing the most grotesque mask and heaviest weights. She begins reading in her unacceptably natural, beautiful voice, then apologizes before switching to a more unpleasant voice. Harrison's escape from prison is announced, and a full-body photograph of Harrison is shown, indicating that he is tall and burdened by of handicaps.


title: Harrison Bergeron

text: George recognizes his son for a moment, before having the thought eliminated by his radio. Harrison himself then storms the television studio in an attempt to overthrow the government. He calls himself the Emperor and rips off all of his handicaps, along with the handicaps of a ballerina, whom he proclaims his "Empress". He orders the musicians to play, promising them nobility if they do their best. Unhappy with their initial attempt, Harrison takes control for a short while, and the music improves. After listening and being moved by the music, Harrison and his Empress dance while flying to the ceiling, then pause in mid-air to kiss.


title: Harrison Bergeron

text: Diana Moon Glampers, the Handicapper General, enters the studio with a ten-gauge double-barreled shotgun and kills Harrison and the Empress. She threatens the musicians at gunpoint to put on their handicaps again, but the television goes dark. George, unaware of the televised incident, returns from the kitchen and asks Hazel why she was crying, to which she replies that something sad happened on television that she cannot remember. He comforts her and they return to their average lives.


title: Harrison Bergeron

text: In this story, Vonnegut's writing style is influenced by his early work as a journalist. His sentences are short and easily understood so as to be largely accessible. A dystopian setting enhances his social and political critique by imagining a future world founded on absolute equality through handicaps assigned to various above-average people to counter their natural advantages. A similar subject can be found in L. P. Hartley's dystopian novel "Facial Justice" from the previous year of 1960.


title: Harrison Bergeron

text: Vonnegut also punctuates his dystopia with humor. Even the most horrifying scenes are underlined by jokes or absurdity. When the news announcer is supposed to read a news bulletin he has to hand it to a nearby ballerina because of his speech impediment, and the ballerina then alters her voice to a "grackle squawk" because it would be "unfair" to use her natural voice, described as a "warm, luminous, timeless melody". This absurdity highlights the madness of the world of "Harrison Bergeron".