title: John Paul DeJoria

text: In 2012, using a video, he showed his support for Captain Paul Watson of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, when Watson was detained in Germany for interfering with shark finning operations. In December 2022 The Captain Paul Watson Foundation announced their first ship, the 'John Paul Dejoria II'.


title: John Paul DeJoria

text: In 2019, he purchased the former McDonald's global headquarters campus. This acquisition includes the Hamburger University training facility, in addition to the Hyatt-branded and managed hotel, The Hyatt Lodge.


title: James Fleet

text: James Edward Fleet (born 11 March 1952) is an English actor of theatre, radio and screen. He is most famous for his roles as the bumbling and well-meaning Tom in the 1994 British romantic comedy film "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and the dim-witted but kind hearted Hugo Horton in the BBC sitcom television series "The Vicar of Dibley".


title: James Fleet

text: Fleet was born in Bilston, Staffordshire, to a Scottish mother, Christine, and an English father, Jim. He lived in Bilston until he was 10 but, when his father died, he moved to Aberdeenshire with his mother. He studied engineering at university in Aberdeen, where he joined the university dramatic society. Afterwards, he studied at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow.


title: James Fleet

text: Fleet began his career in the RSC, appearing in several plays in the early 1980s. He has since appeared in touring productions of, among others, "Habeas Corpus" and "In the Club", as well as in "Festen" and "Mary Stuart" and others in the West End.


title: James Fleet

text: In 2003 he played Kulygin in Anton Chekhov's "Three Sisters" alongside Kristin Scott Thomas who played Masha.


title: James Fleet

text: In 2009 he portrayed Sir Andrew Aguecheek in the RSC Production of "Twelfth Night". In 2011 he was in Richard Bean's "The Heretic" directed by Jeremy Herrin at the Royal Court Theatre in London. Starting in November 2011 he was in the original line-up of "The Ladykillers" as Major Courtney at the Gielgud Theatre.


title: James Fleet

text: Between 2000 and 2006, Fleet played the painfully upright and decent Captain Brimshaw in "Revolting People", a BBC Radio 4 comedy set in pre-revolutionary America. He also appeared in the radio legal sitcom "Chambers", which later moved onto television. As of 2005, he has starred as Duncan Stonebridge MP in the topical radio sitcom "The Party Line". He also appeared as the Captain on the BBC Radio 7 series "The Spaceship". He also plays the part of Sir John Woodstock in the BBC Radio 4 sitcom "The Castle" and Inspector Lestrade in the first, third and fourth series of "The Rivals". Fleet played John Aubrey in the 2008 BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour production by Nick Warburton of Aubrey's "Brief Lives".


title: James Fleet

text: Probably his most famous role is that of Hugo in "The Vicar of Dibley"; he appeared in all 20 episodes, broadcast between 1994 and 2007. In 2004 he appeared in an episode of "Monarch of the Glen". In 2005 he played a leading role in an episode of the long-running ITV murder mystery series "Midsomer Murders". In 2007 he was a guest star in one episode of the sitcom "Legit". He appeared as Frederick Dorrit in the BBC's 2008 production of "Little Dorrit".


title: James Fleet

text: When Fleet appeared on the quiz show "School's Out", it was revealed that one of his teachers at Banff Academy had written in his school report that "[James] is the stupidest boy I have ever had to teach, out of all the stupid boys I have ever had to teach," and that he was the only student in his sixth form not to have been made a prefect. Despite his apparent lack of scholastic ability, he still won the show. In 2009, Fleet appeared in a cameo role in the third series of "Skins".


title: James Fleet

text: Earlier in his career, Fleet was seen in a 1983 episode of "Grange Hill" as a teacher at the eponymous school's upmarket rival Rodney Bennett. In 1992 he played Paul Morgan in an episode of "The Bill" 'Runaway'. In 1999 he starred in the sitcom "Brotherly Love".


title: James Fleet

text: Fleet appeared in "Coronation Street" in 2010. He played a character called Robbie Sloan, a recently released convict, helping escaped prisoner Tony Gordon plot revenge on his ex-wife Carla Connor. They intend to kidnap and kill her. Sloan lures Connor into her Underworld factory, and holds her at gunpoint. Leaving her tied to a chair with her mouth taped shut, Sloan also lures Hayley Cropper into the hostage situation. Sloan was eventually shot by Gordon during a siege at the factory.


title: James Fleet

text: In February 2011, Fleet appeared as George (senior), the father of werewolf George Sands, in "Being Human".


title: James Fleet

text: In December 2013 the BBC aired one of their major dramas for the Christmas season, "Death Comes to Pemberley", a three-part British television drama based on characters created by Jane Austen in her novel "Pride and Prejudice". The first episode was broadcast on BBC One at 8.15 pm on Boxing Day 2013. It was based on the best-selling novel by P. D. James, in which the characters of "Pride and Prejudice" are involved in a new story involving a murder. Fleet played the part of Mr Bennett in the series. In September 2014, Fleet appeared in the BBC Three sitcom "Bad Education" as Richard, an ex-boyfriend of Rosie Gulliver. He has most recently appeared in an episode of ITVs second series of "Plebs", as Stylax's racing patron. In 2013, Fleet was engaged to play Scottish historian, the Reverend Dr. Reginald Wakefield, in seasons 1 and 2 of the Award-winning Starz adaptation of Diana Gabaldon's "Outlander", broadcast in 2014–2016.


title: James Fleet

text: An April 2021 announcement stated that Fleet would be joining the cast of the second season of "All Creatures Great and Small" in the role of Colonel Merrick.


title: James Fleet

text: Fleet has starred in numerous films. He played the role of Kevin's father in the 2000 cult film "Kevin & Perry Go Large". He played the roles of Lefevre in the 2004 film adaptation of "Phantom of the Opera", John Dashwood in 1995's "Sense and Sensibility", and Lytton Strachey in the 2003 film "Al Sur de Granada" ("South from Granada"). In 2014, he played John Constable in the Mike Leigh film "Mr Turner". In 2016, he played Sir Reginald DeCourcy in Whit Stillman's "Love and Friendship".


title: Battle of Hamburger Hill

text: The Battle of Hamburger Hill (13–20 May 1969) was a battle of the Vietnam War that was fought by US Army and Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) forces against People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) forces during Operation Apache Snow. Though the heavily-fortified Hill 937, a ridge of the mountain Dong Ap Bia in central Vietnam near its western border with Laos, had little strategic value, US command ordered its capture by a frontal assault, only to abandon it soon thereafter. The action caused a controversy both in the American military and public.


title: Battle of Hamburger Hill

text: The battle was primarily an infantry engagement, with the US Airborne troops moving up the steeply sloped hill against well-entrenched troops. Attacks were repeatedly repelled by the PAVN defenses. Bad weather also hindered operations. Nevertheless, the Airborne troops took the hill through direct assault, causing extensive casualties to the PAVN forces.


title: Battle of Hamburger Hill

text: The battle took place on Dong Ap Bia (Ap Bia Mountain, ) in the rugged, jungle-shrouded mountains of South Vietnam, from the Laotian border. Rising from the floor of the western A Sầu Valley, Ap Bia Mountain is a solitary massif, unconnected to the ridges of the surrounding Annamite Range. It dominates the northern valley, towering some above sea level. Snaking down from its highest peak are a series of ridges and fingers, one of the largest extending southeast to a height of , another reaching south to a peak. The entire mountain is a rugged wilderness blanketed in double- and triple-canopy jungle, dense thickets of bamboo, and waist-high elephant grass. Local Degar tribesmen called it Ap Bia "the mountain of the crouching beast." Official histories of the engagement refer to it as Hill 937 after the elevation displayed on US Army maps, but the American soldiers who fought there dubbed it "Hamburger Hill," suggesting that those who fought on the hill were "ground up like hamburger meat" in grim reference to the Battle of Pork Chop Hill during the Korean War.


title: Battle of Hamburger Hill

text: The battle on Hamburger Hill occurred in May 1969, during Operation Apache Snow, the second part of a three-phased campaign intended to destroy PAVN Base Areas in the remote A Sầu Valley. This campaign was a series of operations intended to do damage to the PAVN forces in the A Sầu Valley, which had been an infiltration route into South Vietnam prior to 1966, when the PAVN seized the Special Forces camp in the valley during the Battle of A Shau and established a permanent presence. Subsequent US efforts were aimed at damaging enemy forces in the valley rather than attempting to clear or occupy the valley. Lieutenant General Richard G. Stilwell, commander of XXIV Corps, amassed the equivalent of two divisions, and substantial artillery and air support, to once again launch a raid into the valley. The PAVN had moved their 6th, 9th, and 29th Regiments into the area to recover from losses sustained during a previous United States Marine Corps operation (Operation Dewey Canyon) in February.


title: Battle of Hamburger Hill

text: Assigned to Apache Snow were three airborne infantry battalions of the 101st Airborne Division (Airmobile), commanded by Major General Melvin Zais. These units of the division's 3rd Brigade (commanded by Colonel Joseph Conmy) were the 3d Battalion, 187th Infantry (Lt. Col. Weldon Honeycutt); 2d Battalion, 501st Infantry (Lt. Col. Robert German); and the 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry (Lt. Col. John Bowers). Two battalions of the ARVN 1st Infantry Division (the 2/1st and 4/1st) had been temporarily assigned to the 3d Brigade in support. Other major units participating in Apache Snow included the 9th Marine Regiment; and 3d Squadron, 5th Cavalry and the 3rd ARVN Regiment.


title: Battle of Hamburger Hill

text: Colonel Conmy characterized the operation as a reconnaissance in force. His plan called for the five battalions to "combat assault" into the valley by helicopter on 10 May 1969, and to search their assigned sectors for PAVN troops and supplies. The overall plan of attack called for the Marines and the 3/5th Cavalry to reconnaissance in force toward the Laotian border, while the ARVN units cut the highway through the base of the valley. The 501st and the 506th were to destroy the PAVN in their own operating areas and block escape routes into Laos. If a battalion made heavy contact with the PAVN, Conmy would reinforce it by helicopter with one of the other units. In theory, the 101st could reposition its forces quickly enough to keep the PAVN from massing against any one unit, and a US battalion discovering a PAVN unit would fix it in place until a reinforcing battalion could lift in to cut off its retreat and destroy it.


title: Battle of Hamburger Hill

text: The US and the ARVN units participating in Apache Snow knew, based on existing intelligence information and previous experience in the A Sầu, that the operation was likely to encounter serious resistance from the PAVN. However, they had little other intelligence as to the actual strength and dispositions of PAVN units. The area was extremely remote and difficult to access. Aerial surveillance was difficult, and US battalion commanders had to generate their own tactical intelligence by combat patrols, capturing equipment, installations, documents, and occasionally prisoners of war to provide the raw data from which to draw their assessment of the PAVN order of battle and dispositions. It was this time-consuming and hit-or-miss task force which characterized the main efforts of Colonel Honeycutt's 3/187th Infantry during the first four days of the operation.


title: Battle of Hamburger Hill

text: Initially, the operation went routinely for the 101st Airborne Division (Airmobile). Its units experienced only light contact on the first day, but documents captured by 3/187th indicated that the PAVN 29th Regiment, nicknamed the "Pride of Ho Chi Minh" and a veteran of the 1968 Battle of Hue, was somewhere in the valley. Past experience in many of the larger encounters with PAVN indicated they would resist violently for a short time and then withdraw before the Americans brought overwhelming firepower to bear against them. Prolonged combat, such as at Dak To and Ia Drang, had been relatively rare. Honeycutt anticipated his battalion had sufficient capability to carry out a reconnaissance on Hill 937 without further reinforcement, although he did request that the brigade reserve, his own Company B, be released to his control.


title: Battle of Hamburger Hill

text: Honeycutt was a protégé of General William C. Westmoreland, the former commander of the US forces in Vietnam. He had been assigned command of the 3/187th in January and had by replacement of many of its officers given it a personality to match his own aggressiveness. His stated intention was to locate the PAVN force in his area of responsibility and to engage it before it could escape into Laos.


title: Battle of Hamburger Hill

text: Rather than retreat, the PAVN in the valley determined to stand and to fight in a series of well-prepared concentric bunker positions on Hill 937.


title: Battle of Hamburger Hill

text: Having made no significant contacts in its area of operations, at midday on 13 May, the 3rd Brigade commander, Colonel Conmy, decided it would move to cut off PAVN reinforcement from Laos and to assist Honeycutt by attacking Hill 937 from the south. Company B was heli-lifted to Hill 916, but the remainder of the 3/187th made the movement on foot, from an area from Hill 937, and both Conmy and Honeycutt expected the 1/506th to be ready to provide support no later than the morning of 15 May. Although Company B seized Hill 916 on 15 May, it was not until 19 May that the 3/187th as a whole was in position to conduct a final assault, primarily because of nearly impenetrable jungle.


title: Battle of Hamburger Hill

text: The 3/187th conducted multi-company assaults on 14 May, incurring heavy casualties, while the 1/506th, led by 1st. Lt. Roger Leasure, made probing attacks on the south slopes of the mountain on 16 and 17 May. The difficult terrain and well organized PAVN forces continually disrupted the tempo of the US tactical operations on Hills 916, 900, and 937. Steep gradients and dense vegetation provided few natural landing zones (LZs) in the vicinity of the mountain and made helicopter redeployments impractical. The terrain also masked the positions of the PAVN 29th Regiment, making it nearly impossible to suppress anti-aircraft fire, while the jungle covered the movement of PAVN units so completely that it created a nonlinear battlefield. PAVN soldiers, able to maneuver freely around the LZs, shot down or damaged numerous helicopters with small arms fire, Rocket-propelled grenades, and crew-served weapons. The PAVN also assaulted nearby logistical support LZs and command posts at least four times, forcing deployment of units for security that might otherwise have been employed in assaults. Attacking companies had to provide for 360-degree security as they maneuvered, since the terrain largely prevented them from mutually supporting one another. PAVN platoon- and company-sized elements repeatedly struck maneuvering US forces from the flanks and rear.


title: Battle of Hamburger Hill

text: The effectiveness of US maneuver forces was limited by narrow trails that funneled attacking companies into squad or platoon points of attack, where they encountered PAVN platoons and companies with prepared fields of fire. With most small arms engagements thus conducted at close range, US fire support was also severely restricted. Units frequently pulled back and called in artillery fire, close air support, and aerial rocket artillery, but the PAVN bunkers were well-sited and constructed with overhead cover to withstand bombardment. During the course of the battle the foliage was eventually stripped away and the bunkers exposed, but they were so numerous and well constructed that many could not be destroyed by indirect fire. Napalm, recoilless rifle fire, and dogged squad and platoon-level actions eventually accounted for the reduction of most fortifications, though at a pace and price thoroughly unanticipated by American forces.


title: Battle of Hamburger Hill

text: US command of small units was essentially decentralized. Though Honeycutt constantly prodded his company commanders to push on, he could do little to coordinate mutual support until the final assaults, when the companies maneuvered in close proximity over the barren mountain top. Fire support for units in contact was also decentralized. Supporting fires, including those controlled by airborne forward air controllers, were often directed at the platoon level. Eventually human error led to five attacks by supporting aircraft on the 3/187th, killing seven and wounding 53. Four of the incidents involved Cobra gunship helicopters, which in one case were more than away from their intended target.


title: Battle of Hamburger Hill

text: On 16 May Associated Press correspondent Jay Sharbutt learned of the ongoing battle on Hill 937, traveled to the area and interviewed MG Zais, in particular asking why infantry, rather than firepower, was used as the primary offensive tool on Hill 937. More reporters followed to cover the battle, and the term "Hamburger Hill" became widely used. The US brigade commander ordered a coordinated two-battalion assault for 18 May, 1/506th attacking from the south and 3/187th attacking from the north, trying to keep the 29th Regiment from concentrating on either battalion. Fighting to within of the summit, Company D, 3/187th nearly carried the hill but experienced severe casualties, including all of its officers. The battle was one of close combat, with the two sides exchanging small arms and grenade fire within of one another. From a light observation helicopter, the battalion commander attempted to coordinate the movements of the other companies into a final assault, but an exceptionally intense thunderstorm reduced visibility to zero and ended the fighting. Unable to advance, 3/187th again withdrew down the mountain. The three converging companies of 1/506th struggled to take Hill 900, the southern crest of the mountain, encountering heavy opposition for the first time in the battle. Because of the heavy casualties already sustained by his units and under pressure from the unwanted attention of the press, Zais seriously considered discontinuing the attack but decided otherwise. Both the corps commander and the COMUSMACV General Creighton W. Abrams, publicly supported the decision. Zais decided to commit three fresh battalions to the battle and to have one of them relieve the 3/187th in place. The 3/187th's losses had been severe, with approximately 320 killed or wounded, including more than sixty percent of the 450 troops who had assaulted into the valley. Two of its four company commanders and eight of twelve platoon leaders had become casualties. The battalion commander of the 2/506th, Lt. Col. Gene Sherron, arrived at Honeycutt's command post on the afternoon of 18 May to coordinate the relief. 3/187th was flying out its latest casualties, and its commander had not yet been informed of the relief. Before any arrangements were made, Zais landed and was confronted by Honeycutt, who argued that his battalion was still combat effective. After a sharp confrontation, Zais relented, although he assigned one of Sherron's companies to Honeycutt as reinforcement for the assault.


title: Battle of Hamburger Hill

text: Two fresh battalions, the 2/501st Infantry and ARVN 2/3d Infantry, were airlifted into landing zones northeast and southeast of the base of the mountain on 19 May. Both battalions immediately moved onto the mountain to positions from which they would attack the following morning. Meanwhile, the 1/506th for the third consecutive day struggled to secure Hill 900.


title: Battle of Hamburger Hill

text: The 3rd Brigade launched its four-battalion attack at 10:00 on 20 May, including two companies of the 3/187th reinforced by Company A 1/506th. The attack was preceded by two hours of close air support and ninety minutes of artillery preparatory fires. The battalions attacked simultaneously, and by 12:00 elements of the 3/187th reached the crest, beginning a reduction of bunkers that continued through most of the afternoon. Some PAVN units were able to withdraw into Laos, and Hill 937 was secured by 17:00.


title: Battle of Hamburger Hill

text: The ARVN 2nd Battalion, 3rd Regiment, 1st Division participated in the battle. Author Andrew West wrote in 2007, particularly based on the statements by General Creighton W. Abrams in "The Abrams Tapes," says its role in the final assault was as follows: The unit was positioned on a stretch of the PAVN defense line that was lightly defended, and sent a scout party to test the forward enemy lines earlier than the proposed assault time; this party was quickly able to discern the minimal enemy strength. The 2/3 commanding officer decided to exploit the situation, and attack in advance of the other units. The 2/3 reached the crest of Hamburger Hill around 10:00, ahead of the 3/187th, but was ordered to withdraw from the summit because allied artillery was to be directed on to the top of the hill. The opportunity to threaten the PAVN lines facing the 3/187th was lost. Shortly after the 2/3 completed their withdrawal, the 3/187th was able to break through the PAVN defenses and occupy the summit.


title: Battle of Hamburger Hill

text: Despite the claims that the hill had no real military significance Honeycutt explained that the hill needed to be taken as it overlooks a good deal of the A Sầu Valley, which was a major supply and staging area for the PAVN.


title: Battle of Hamburger Hill

text: As it had no real military significance aside from the presence of the PAVN on it, Major General John M. Wright who replaced MG Zais as commander of the 101st Airborne in May abandoned the hill on 5 June as the operations in the valley wrapped up. Zais would comment: "This is not a war of hills. That hill had no military value whatsoever." and "We found the enemy on Hill 937 and that's where we fought him." The battle brought into sharp focus the changing US tactics from Westmoreland's search and destroy operations designed to engage PAVN/VC forces whenever they were located, to Abrams' new approach of attacking the PAVN/VC logistics "nose" which would be prepositioned to support attacks and which, if disrupted, would prevent large-scale PAVN/VC attacks.


title: Battle of Hamburger Hill

text: The debate over Hamburger Hill reached the United States Congress, with particularly severe criticism of military leadership by Senators Edward Kennedy, George McGovern, and Stephen M. Young. In its 27 June issue, "Life"


title: Battle of Hamburger Hill

text: magazine published the photographs of 242 Americans killed in one week in Vietnam; this is now considered a watershed event of negative public opinion toward the Vietnam War. While only five of the 241 featured photos were of those killed in the battle, many Americans had the perception that all of the photos featured in the magazine were casualties of the battle.


title: Battle of Hamburger Hill

text: The controversy of the conduct of the Battle of Hamburger Hill led to a reappraisal of US strategy in South Vietnam. As a direct result, to hold down casualties, General Abrams discontinued a policy of "maximum pressure" against the PAVN to one of "protective reaction" for troops threatened with combat action, while simultaneously President Richard Nixon announced the first troop withdrawal from South Vietnam.


title: Battle of Hamburger Hill

text: US losses during the ten-day battle totaled 72 killed and 372 wounded. To take the position, the 101st Airborne Division (Airmobile) eventually committed five infantry battalions and ten batteries of artillery. In addition, the US Air Force flew 272 missions and expended more than 500 tons of ordnance.


title: Battle of Hamburger Hill

text: US estimates of the losses incurred by the PAVN 7th and 8th Battalions of the 29th Regiment included 630 dead (bodies discovered on and around the battlefield); including many found in makeshift mortuaries within the tunnel complex. There is no count of the PAVN running off the mountain, those killed by artillery and air strikes, the wounded and dead carried into Laos or the dead buried in collapsed bunkers and tunnels. During the ten-day battle, US forces captured 89 individual weapons and 22 crew‑served weapons.


title: Special economic zone

text: A special economic zone (SEZ) is an area in which the business and trade laws are different from the rest of the country. SEZs are located within a country's national borders, and their aims include increasing trade balance, employment, increased investment, job creation and effective administration. To encourage businesses to set up in the zone, financial policies are introduced. These policies typically encompass investing, taxation, trading, quotas, customs and labour regulations. Additionally, companies may be offered tax holidays, where upon establishing themselves in a zone, they are granted a period of lower taxation.


title: Special economic zone

text: The creation of special economic zones by the host country may be motivated by the desire to attract foreign direct investment (FDI). The benefits a company gains by being in a special economic zone may mean that it can produce and trade goods at a lower price, aimed at being globally competitive. In some countries, the zones have been criticized for being little more than labor camps, with workers denied fundamental labor rights.


title: Special economic zone

text: The definition of an SEZ is determined individually by each country. According to the World Bank in 2008, the modern-day special economic zone typically includes a "geographically limited area, usually physically secured (fenced-in); single management or administration; eligibility for benefits based upon physical location within the zone; separate customs area (duty-free benefits) and streamlined procedures."


title: Special economic zone

text: Free zones and entrepôts have been used for centuries to guarantee free storage and exchange along trade routes.


title: Special economic zone

text: Modern SEZs appeared from the late-1950s in industrial countries. The first was in Shannon Airport in Clare, Ireland. Some tax-free jurisdictions such as the Cayman Islands offer technology companies a way to keep their IP offshore in a Special Economic Zone (see Cayman Enterprise City).


title: Special economic zone

text: From the 1970s onward, zones providing labour-intensive manufacturing have been established, starting in Latin America and East Asia. The first in China following the opening of China in 1979 by Deng Xiaoping was the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, which encouraged foreign investment and simultaneously accelerated industrialization in this region. These zones attracted investment from multinational corporations. China continues to maintain Special Economic Zones and certain open coastal areas.


title: Special economic zone

text: Numerous African countries have set up SEZs in connection with China, including over the period 1990 to 2018 establishing SEZs in Nigeria (two), Zambia, Djibouti, Kenya, Mauritius, Mauritania, Egypt, and Algeria. Generally, the Chinese government takes a hands-off approach, leaving it to Chinese enterprises to work to establish such zones (although it does provide support in the form of grants, loans, and subsidies, including support via the China Africa Development Fund). The Forum on China-Africa Cooperation promotes these SEZs heavily.


title: Special economic zone

text: The World Bank created the following table to clarify distinctions between types of special economic zones:


title: Screen Actors Guild

text: The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) was an American labor union which represented over 100,000 film and television principal and background performers worldwide. On March 30, 2012, the union leadership announced that the SAG membership voted to merge with the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) to create SAG-AFTRA.


title: Screen Actors Guild

text: According to SAG's Mission Statement, the Guild sought to: negotiate and enforce collective bargaining agreements that establish equitable levels of compensation, benefits, and working conditions for its performers; collect compensation for exploitation of recorded performances by its members, and provide protection against unauthorized use of those performances; and preserve and expand work opportunities for its members.


title: Screen Actors Guild

text: The Guild was founded in 1933 in an effort to eliminate what was described as exploitation of Hollywood actors who were being forced into oppressive multi-year contracts with the major movie studios. Opposition to these contracts included that they did not include restrictions on work hours or minimum rest periods, and often had clauses that automatically renewed at the studios' discretion. These contracts were notorious for allowing the studios to dictate the public and private lives of the performers who signed them, and most did not have provisions to allow the performer to end the deal.


title: Screen Actors Guild

text: The Screen Actors Guild was associated with the Associated Actors and Artistes of America (AAAA), which is the primary association of performer's unions in the United States. AAAA is affiliated with the AFL–CIO. SAG claimed exclusive jurisdiction over motion picture performances, and shared jurisdiction of radio, television, Internet, and other new media with its sister union AFTRA, with which it shared 44,000 dual members. Internationally, the SAG was affiliated with the International Federation of Actors.


title: Screen Actors Guild

text: In addition to its main offices in Hollywood, SAG also maintained local branches in several major US cities, including Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Honolulu, Houston, Las Vegas, Miami, Nashville, New York City, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland, Salt Lake City, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, D.C.


title: Screen Actors Guild

text: Since 1995, the guild annually awarded the Screen Actors Guild Awards, which are considered an indicator of success at the Academy Awards. This award is continued, still using the same name, by SAG-AFTRA.


title: Screen Actors Guild

text: In 1925, the Masquers Club was formed by actors discontented with the grueling work hours at the Hollywood studios. This was one of the major concerns which led to the creation of the Screen Actors Guild in 1933. Another was that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which at that time arbitrated between the producers and actors on contract disputes, had a membership policy which was by invitation only.


title: Screen Actors Guild

text: A meeting in March 1933 of six actors (Berton Churchill, Charles Miller, Grant Mitchell, Ralph Morgan, Alden Gay, and Kenneth Thomson) led to the guild's foundation. Three months later, three of the six and eighteen others became the guild's first officers and board of directors: Ralph Morgan (its first president), Alden Gay, Kenneth Thomson, Alan Mowbray (who personally funded the organization when it was first founded), Leon Ames, Tyler Brooke, Clay Clement, James Gleason, Lucile Webster Gleason, Boris Karloff, Claude King, Noel Madison, Reginald Mason, Bradley Page, Willard Robertson, Ivan Simpson, C. Aubrey Smith, Charles Starrett, Richard Tucker, Arthur Vinton, Morgan Wallace, and Lyle Talbot.


title: Screen Actors Guild

text: Many high-profile actors refused to join SAG initially. This changed when the producers made an agreement amongst themselves not to bid competitively for talent. A pivotal meeting, at the home of Frank Morgan (Ralph's brother, who played the title role in "The Wizard of Oz"), was what gave SAG its critical mass. Prompted by Eddie Cantor's insistence, at that meeting, that any response to that producer's agreement help all actors, not just the already established ones, it took only three weeks for SAG membership to go from around 80 members to more than 4,000. Cantor's participation was critical, particularly because of his friendship with the recently elected President Franklin D. Roosevelt. After several years and the passage of the National Labor Relations Act, the producers agreed to negotiate with SAG in 1937.


title: Screen Actors Guild

text: Actors known for their early support of SAG (besides the founders) include Edward Arnold, Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, Dudley Digges, Porter Hall, Paul Harvey, Jean Hersholt, Russell Hicks, Murray Kinnell, Gene Lockhart, Bela Lugosi, David Manners, Fredric March, Adolphe Menjou, Chester Morris, Jean Muir, George Murphy, Erin O'Brien-Moore, Irving Pichel, Dick Powell, Edward G. Robinson, Edwin Stanley, Gloria Stuart, Lyle Talbot, Franchot Tone, Warren William, and Robert Young.


title: Screen Actors Guild

text: In October 1947, the members of a list of suspected communists working in the Hollywood film industry were summoned to appear before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC), which was investigating Communist influence in the Hollywood labor unions. Ten of those summoned, dubbed the "Hollywood Ten", refused to cooperate, and were charged with contempt of Congress and sentenced to prison. Several liberal members of SAG, led by Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Danny Kaye, and Gene Kelly, formed the Committee for the First Amendment (CFA) and flew to Washington, DC, in late October 1947 to show support for the Hollywood Ten.


title: Screen Actors Guild

text: The president of SAG – future United States President Ronald Reagan – also known to the FBI as Confidential Informant "T-10", testified before the committee but never publicly named names. Instead, according to an FBI memorandum in 1947: "T-10 advised Special Agent [name deleted] that he has been made a member of a committee headed by Mayer, the purpose of which is allegedly is to 'purge' the motion-picture industry of Communist party members, which committee was an outgrowth of the Thomas committee hearings in Washington and subsequent meetings ... He felt that lacking a definite stand on the part of the government, it would be very difficult for any committee of motion-picture people to conduct any type of cleansing of their own household". Subsequently, a climate of fear, enhanced by the threat of detention under the provisions of the McCarran Internal Security Act, permeated the film industry. On November 17, 1947, the Screen Actors Guild voted to force its officers to take a "non-communist" pledge. On November 25 (the day after the full House approved the ten citations for contempt) in what has become known as the Waldorf Statement, Eric Johnston, president of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), issued a press release: "We will not knowingly employ a Communist or a member of any party or group which advocates the overthrow of the government of the United States by force or by any illegal or unconstitutional methods."


title: Screen Actors Guild

text: None of those blacklisted were proven to advocate overthrowing the government – most simply had Marxist or socialist views. The Waldorf Statement marked the beginning of the Hollywood blacklist that saw hundreds of people prevented from working in the film industry. During the height of what is now referred to as McCarthyism, the Screen Writers Guild gave the studios the right to omit from the screen the name of any individual who had failed to clear his name before Congress. At a 1997 ceremony marking the 50th anniversary of the Blacklist, the Guild's president made this statement:


title: Screen Actors Guild

text: The Screen Actors Guild Ethnic Minorities Committee was co-founded in 1972 by actors Henry Darrow, Edith Diaz, Ricardo Montalban and Carmen Zapata.


title: Screen Actors Guild

text: In 1980, SAG and AFTRA held a strike over issues regarding profit sharing from home media and pay TV.


title: Screen Actors Guild

text: In 1998, Naomi Marquez filed suit against SAG and Lakeside Productions claiming they had breached their duty of fair representation. The claim was denied by the Supreme Court.


title: Screen Actors Guild

text: The membership of the Screen Actors Guild voted to merge with the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists on March 30, 2012.


title: Screen Actors Guild

text: According to SAG's Department of Labor records since 2006, when membership classifications were first reported, 30%, or almost a third, of the guild's total membership had consistently been considered "withdrawn," "suspended," or otherwise not categorized as "active" members. These members were ineligible to vote in the guild. "Honorable withdrawals" constituted the largest portion of these, at 20% of the total membership, or 36,284 members before the merger in 2012. "Suspended" members were the second largest, at 10%, or 18,402 members. This classification scheme is continued by SAG-AFTRA.


title: Screen Actors Guild

text: An actor was eligible to join the Screen Actors Guild by meeting the criteria in any of the following three categories: principal actor in a SAG production, background actor (originally the "three voucher rule"), and one-year member of an affiliated union (with a principal role). The basic categories were:


title: Screen Actors Guild

text: Members joining the Los Angeles, New York, or Miami SAG locals were assessed an initial fee to join the Guild of $3,000. At the time of initiation, the first minimum semi-annual membership dues payment of $58 must have also been paid, bringing the total amount due upon initiation into the Guild to $3,058. All other SAG locals still assessed initiation fees at the previous rate. Members from other locales who worked in Los Angeles, New York, or Miami after joining were charged the difference between the fee they paid their local and the higher rate in those markets.


title: Screen Actors Guild

text: Membership dues were calculated and due semi-annually, and were based upon the member's earnings from SAG productions. The minimum annual dues amount was $116, with an additional 1.85% of the performer's income up to $200,000. Income from $200,000 to $500,000 was assessed at 0.5%, and income from $500,000 to $1 million was assessed at 0.25%. For the calculation of dues, there was a total earnings cap at $1 million. Therefore, the maximum dues payable in any one calendar year by any single member was limited to $6,566.


title: Screen Actors Guild

text: SAG members who became delinquent in their dues without formally requesting a leave of absence from the Guild were assessed late penalties, and risked being ejected from the Guild and could be forced to pay the initiation fee again to regain their membership.


title: Screen Actors Guild

text: The SAG Constitution and Bylaws stated that, "No member shall work as a performer or make an agreement to work as a performer for any producer who has not executed a basic minimum agreement with the Guild which is in full force and effect." Every SAG performer agreed to abide by this, and all the other SAG rules, as a condition of membership into the Guild. This means that no SAG members could perform in non-union projects that were within SAG's jurisdiction, once they became members of the Guild. Since 2002, the Guild had pursued a policy of worldwide enforcement of Rule One, and renamed it "Global Rule One."


title: Screen Actors Guild

text: Like other guilds and associations that represent actors, SAG rules stipulated that no two members may have identical working names. Some actors use their middle initial in their stage name, or have stage names that differ from their legal name to comply with this rule. Notable examples include Michael Keaton, Michael J. Fox and Emma Stone, whose birth names "Michael Douglas", "Michael Fox" and "Emily Stone," respectively, were already in use.


title: Screen Actors Guild

text: SAG contracts with producers contained a variety of protections for Guild performers. Among these provisions were: minimum rates of pay, adequate working conditions, special protection and education requirements for minors, arbitration of disputes and grievances, and affirmative action in auditions and hiring.


title: Screen Actors Guild

text: All members of the Guild agreed to work only for producers who had signed contracts with SAG. These contracts spelled out in detail the responsibilities that producers must assume when hiring SAG performers. Specifically, the SAG basic contract specified: the number of hours performers may work, the frequency of meal breaks required, the minimum wages or "scale" at which performers must be compensated for their work, overtime pay, travel accommodations, wardrobe allowances, stunt pay, private dressing rooms, and adequate rest periods between performances. When applicable, and with due regard to the safety of the individuals, cast and crew, women and minorities were to be considered for doubling roles and for descript and non-descript stunts on a functional, non-discriminatory basis.


title: Screen Actors Guild

text: Performers who meet the eligibility criteria of working a certain number of days or attaining a certain threshold in income derived from SAG productions could join the Producers Pension and Health Plans offered by the Guild. The eligibility requirements varied by age of the performer and the desired plan chosen (there were two health plans). There were also Dental, Vision, and Life & Disability coverage included as part of the two plans.


title: Screen Actors Guild

text: The Guild secured residuals payments in perpetuity to its members for broadcast and re-broadcast of films, TV shows, and TV commercials through clauses in the basic SAG agreements with producers.


title: Screen Actors Guild

text: In July 1948, a strike was averted at the last minute as the SAG and major producers agreed upon a new collective bargaining contract. The major points agreed upon included: full union shop for actors to continue, negotiations for films sent direct to TV, producers could not sue an actor for breach of contract if they strike (but the guild could only strike when the contract expires).


title: Screen Actors Guild

text: In March 1960, SAG went on strike against the seven major studios. This was the first industry-wide strike in the 50-year history of movie making. Earlier walkouts involved production for television. The Writers Guild of America had been on strike since January 31, 1960 with similar demands to the actors. The independents were not affected since they signed new contracts. The dispute rested on actors wanting to be paid 6% or 7% of the gross earnings of pictures made since 1948 and sold to television. Actors also wanted a pension and welfare fund.


title: Screen Actors Guild

text: In December 1978, members of SAG went on strike for the fourth time in its 45-year history. It joined the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists in picket lines in Los Angeles and New York. The unions said that management's demand would cut actors' salaries. The argument was over filming commercials. Management agreed to up salaries from $218 to $250 per scene, but if the scene were not used at all, the actor would not be paid.


title: Screen Actors Guild

text: In July, SAG members walked out on strike, along with AFTRA, the union for television and radio artists, and the American Federation of Musicians. The union joined the television artists in calling for a successful boycott against that year's prime-time Emmy awards. Powers Boothe was the only one of the 52 nominated actors to attend: "This is either the most courageous moment of my career or the stupidest" he quipped during his acceptance speech. The guild ratified a new pact, for a 32.25% increase in minimum salaries and a 4.5% share of movies made for pay TV, and the strike ended on October 25.


title: Screen Actors Guild

text: The commercials strike of 2000 was extremely controversial. Some factions within SAG call it a success, asserting that it not only saved Pay-Per-Play (residuals) but it also increased cable residuals by 140% up from $1,014 to $2,460. Others suggested almost identical terms were available in negotiation without a strike. In the wake of the strike, SAG, and its sister union AFTRA, gathered evidence on over 1,500 non-members who had worked during the strike. SAG trial boards found Elizabeth Hurley and Tiger Woods guilty of performing in non-union commercials and each was fined $100,000.


title: Screen Actors Guild

text: SAG Principal members could not work on non-union productions. Union background actors were not fully covered nationwide and could work non-union outside the background zones. These background zones included the state of Hawaii, 4 zones in California, Las Vegas NV, and a 300-mile radius around New York City. Many film schools had SAG Student Film Agreements with the Guild to allow SAG actors to work in their projects. SAGIndie was formed in 1997 to promote using SAG actors; SAG also had Low Budget Contracts that were meant to encourage the use of SAG members on films produced outside of the major studios and to prevent film productions from leaving the country, known as "Runaway production". In the fight against "Runaway production", the SAG National Board voted unanimously to support the Film and Television Action Committee (FTAC) and its 301(a) Petition which asked the US Trade Representative to investigate Canadian film subsidies for their violation of trade agreements Canada signed with the United States.


title: Screen Actors Guild

text: Financial core, or "Fi-Core", was a payment to a union to allow someone to work in a union environment without being a member of the union. The concept was defined in 1963 by Supreme Court case "Labor Board v. General Motors" and clarified for the communications industry in 1988 via "Communications Workers of America v. Beck".


title: Screen Actors Guild

text: Approximately 96% of normal union dues must have been paid to be a Financial Core member of the SAG, and Financial Core members may not "represent themselves as Screen Actors Guild members." Additionally, the Screen Actors Guild said "Fi-Core/FPNM are viewed as scabs ... by SAG members, directors, and writers—most of whom also belong to entertainment unions". This statement had been met with skepticism by some.


title: Screen Actors Guild

text: Entertainment remains among the most gender unequal industries in the United States. The National Women's Committee operated within the National Statement of Purpose to promote equal employment opportunities for its female SAG members. It also encouraged positive images of women in film and television, in order to end sexual stereotypes and educate the industry about the representation of women, both in numbers and quality of representation.


title: Screen Actors Guild

text: SAG Women's Committee had been dedicated to working towards strategic objectives adopted from the Fourth World Conference on Women Beijing Platform of 1995. These objectives included supporting research into all aspects of women and the media so as to define areas needing attention and action. The SAG Hollywood Division Women's Committee also encouraged the media to refrain from presenting women as inferior beings and exploiting them as sexual objects and commodities.


title: Indian leopard

text: The Indian leopard (Panthera pardus fusca) is a leopard subspecies widely distributed on the Indian subcontinent. The species "Panthera pardus" is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List because populations have declined following habitat loss and fragmentation, poaching for the illegal trade of skins and body parts, and persecution due to conflict situations.


title: Indian leopard

text: The Indian leopard is one of the big cats occurring on the Indian subcontinent, along with the Asiatic lion, Bengal tiger, snow leopard and clouded leopard.


title: Indian leopard

text: In 2014, a national census of leopards around tiger habitats was carried out in India except the northeast. 7,910 individuals were estimated in surveyed areas and a national total of 12,000–14,000 speculated.


title: Indian leopard

text: "Felis fusca" was the scientific name proposed by Friedrich Albrecht Anton Meyer in 1794 who described a black leopard from Bengal that was on display at the Tower of London. "Leopardus perniger" proposed by Brian Houghton Hodgson in 1863 were five leopard skins from Nepal, out of which three were black. He mentioned Sikkim and Nepal as habitat.


title: Indian leopard

text: "Panthera pardus millardi" proposed by Reginald Innes Pocock in 1930 was a single leopard skin and skull from Kashmir. It differed from typical "P. p. fusca" skins by longer hair and a more greyish colour.


title: Indian leopard

text: Since leopard populations in Nepal, Sikkim and Kashmir are not geographically isolated from leopard populations in the Indian subcontinent, they were subsumed to "P. p. fusca" in 1996.


title: Indian leopard

text: The Indian leopard has strong legs and a long well-formed tail, broad muzzle, short ears and small, yellowish grey eyes, light grey ocular bulbs.


title: Indian leopard

text: Its coat is spotted and rosetted on a pale yellow to yellowish-brown or golden background, except for the melanistic forms; the spots fade toward the white underbelly and the insides and lower parts of the legs. Rosettes are most prominent on the back, flanks and hindquarters. The pattern of the rosettes is unique to each individual. Juveniles have woolly fur, and appear dark due to the densely arranged spots. The white-tipped tail is long, white underneath, and displays rosettes, which form incomplete bands toward the end. The rosettes are larger in other leopard subspecies in Asia. Fur colour tends to be more pale and cream in arid habitats, more gray in colder climates, and of a darker golden hue in rainforest habitats.


title: Indian leopard

text: The clouded leopard can be told apart by its diffuse "clouds" of spots compared to the smaller and distinct rosettes of the leopard, longer legs and thinner tail.


title: Indian leopard

text: The largest skull recorded for an Indian leopard belonged to a large black panther in the area of Ootacamund, which was recorded in 1920. The panther was said to have bigger forelimbs and forequarters than hind-limbs and hind-quarters, and a skull and claws about as large as those of a tigress. The skull measured in basal length, and in breadth, and weighed . To compare, the skull of a West African panther measured in basal length, and in breadth, and weighed .


title: Indian leopard

text: Male Indian leopards grow to between and in body size with a to long tail and weigh between . Females are smaller, growing to between and in body size with a to long tail, and weigh between . Sexually dimorphic, males are larger and heavier than females.


title: Indian leopard

text: The largest wild individual appears to have been a male man-eater that was shot in the Dhadhol area of Bilaspur district, Himachal Pradesh in 2016. It reportedly measured from head to tail, at the shoulder, and weighed .


title: Indian leopard

text: Bangladesh has no viable leopard population but there are occasional sightings in the forests of Sylhet, Chittagong Hill Tracts and Cox's Bazar.


title: Indian leopard

text: It inhabits tropical rainforests, dry deciduous forests, temperate forests and northern coniferous forests but does not occur in the mangrove forests of the Sundarbans.


title: Indian leopard

text: It is thought that the Indus River in the west and the Himalayas in the north form topographical barriers to the dispersal of this subspecies. In the east, the Ganges Delta and the lower course of the Brahmaputra River are thought to form natural barriers to the range of the Indochinese leopard.


title: Indian leopard

text: In Pakistan, it inhabits Himalayan forests and mountainous regions. In the 1970s, it was still recorded in the Kirthar Mountains, northeastern Baluchistan and Murree Hills. Since the turn of the century, leopards were recorded in and around Machiara National Park, Pir Lasora National Park, and Ayubia National Park. Leopards are occasionally spotted in the Margalla Hills in winter and are observed preying on monkeys in the woods as well as on local livestock. In April 2020, photos of three leopard families were taken by camera traps in the Margalla Hills.


title: Indian leopard

text: In Nepal's Kanchenjunga Conservation Area, a melanistic leopard was photographed at an elevation of by a camera trap in May 2012.


title: Indian leopard

text: In 2015, 7,910 leopards were estimated to live in and around tiger habitat in India; about 12,000 to 14,000 leopards were speculated to live in the entire country. The following table gives the major leopard populations in the Indian states.


title: Indian leopard

text: As of 2020, the leopard population within forested habitats in India's tiger range landscapes was estimated at 12,172 to 13,535 individuals. Surveyed landscapes included elevations below in the Shivalik Hills and Gangetic plains, Central India and Eastern Ghats, Western Ghats, as well as the Brahmaputra River basin and hills in Northeast India.


title: Indian leopard

text: The leopard is elusive, solitary, and largely nocturnal. It is known for its ability in climbing, and has been observed resting on tree branches during the day, dragging its kills up trees and hanging them there, and descending from trees headfirst. It is a powerful swimmer, although is not as disposed to swimming as the tiger. It is very agile, and can run at over , leap over horizontally, and jump up to vertically. It produces a number of vocalizations, including grunts, roars, growls, meows, and purrs.


title: Indian leopard

text: In Nepal's Bardia National Park, home ranges of male leopards comprised about , and of females about ; female home ranges decreased to when they had young cubs.


title: Indian leopard

text: In Gir National Park, the home range of a male radio-collared leopard was estimated at . It killed prey once in 3.7 days.


title: Indian leopard

text: The leopard is a versatile, opportunistic hunter, and has a very broad diet. It is able to take large prey due to its massive skull and powerful jaw muscles. In Sariska Tiger Reserve, the dietary spectrum of the Indian leopard includes axis deer, sambar deer, nilgai, wild boar, common langur, Indian hare and peafowl.


title: Indian leopard

text: Depending on the region, the leopard mates all year round. The estrous cycle lasts about 46 days and the female usually is in heat for 6–7 days. Gestation lasts for 90 to 105 days. Cubs are usually born in a litter of 2–4 cubs. Mortality of cubs is estimated at 41–50% during the first year. Females give birth in a cave, crevice among boulders, hollow tree, or thicket to make a den. Cubs are born with closed eyes, which open four to nine days after birth. The fur of the young tends to be longer and thicker than that of adults. Their pelage is also more gray in colour with less defined spots. Around three months of age, the young begin to follow the mother on hunts. At one year of age, leopard young can probably fend for themselves, but remain with the mother for 18–24 months. The average typical life span of a leopard is between 12 and 17 years.


title: Indian leopard

text: Indian leopards are not common in habitats where tiger density is high, and are wedged between prime tiger habitat on the one side, and cultivated village land on the other. Where the tiger population is high or increasing, tigers drive leopards off to areas located closer to human settlements, like in Nepal's Bardia National Park and Sariska Tiger Reserve. Resource partitioning occurs where leopards share their range with tigers. Leopards tend to take smaller prey, usually less than , where tigers are present.


title: Indian leopard

text: In areas where leopard and tiger are sympatric, coexistence is reportedly not the general rule, with leopards being few where tigers are numerous.


title: Indian leopard

text: The mean leopard density decreased significantly (from 9.76 to 2.07 animals per ) while the mean density of tigers increased (from 3.31 to 5.81 animals/100 km) from 2004–2005 to 2008 in Rajaji National Park following the relocation of pastoralists out of the park. There, the two species have high dietary overlap, and an increase in the tiger population resulted in a sharp decrease in the leopard population and a shift in the leopard diet to small prey (from 9% to 36%) and domestic prey (from 6.8% to 31.8%).


title: Indian leopard

text: In Chitwan National Park, leopards killed prey ranging from less than in weight with most kills in the range. Tigers killed more prey in the range. There were also differences in the microhabitat preferences of the individual tiger and leopard followed over five months; the tiger used roads and forested areas more frequently, while the leopard used recently burned areas and open areas more frequently. When a tiger killed baits at sites formerly frequented by leopards, the leopards did not hunt there for some time.


title: Indian leopard

text: In the tropical forests of India's Nagarhole National Park, tigers selected prey weighing more than , whereas leopards selected prey in the range. In tropical forests, they do not always avoid the larger cats by hunting at different times. With relatively abundant prey and differences in the size of prey selected, tigers and leopards seem to successfully coexist without competitive exclusion or interspecies dominance hierarchies that may be more common to the leopard's co-existence with the lion in savanna habitats. In areas with high tiger populations, such as in the central parts of India's Kanha National Park, leopards are not permanent residents, but transients. They were common near villages at the periphery of the park and outside the park.


title: Indian leopard

text: In a reserved forest of southern India, species preyed upon by leopard, dhole and striped hyena overlapped considerably.


title: Indian leopard

text: The leopard and snow leopard both hunt Himalayan tahr and musk deer, but the leopard usually prefers forested habitats located at lower altitudes. Leopard may conflict with sloth bears and can follow them up trees. Bear cubs are probably far more vulnerable and healthy adult bears may be avoided by leopards. One leopard killed a three-quarters grown female sloth bear in an apparently lengthy fight that culminated in the trees. Apparently, a sloth bear killed a leopard in a confrontation in Yala National Park, Sri Lanka but was itself badly injured in the fight and was subsequently put down by park rangers.


title: Indian leopard

text: Hunting of Indian leopards for the illegal wildlife trade is the biggest threat to their survival. They are also threatened by loss of habitat and fragmentation of formerly connected populations, and various levels of human–leopard conflict in human–dominated landscapes.


title: Indian leopard

text: Several newspapers reported of leopards falling into open wells and being rescued with the help of Forest Department officials.


title: Indian leopard

text: A significant immediate threat to wild leopard populations is the illegal trade in poached skins and body parts between India, Nepal and China. The governments of these countries have failed to implement adequate enforcement response, and wildlife crime remained a low priority in terms of political commitment and investment for years. There are well-organised gangs of professional poachers, who move from place to place and set up camp in vulnerable areas. Skins are rough-cured in the field and handed over to dealers, who send them for further treatment to Indian tanning centres. Buyers choose the skins from dealers or tanneries and smuggle them through a complex interlinking network to markets outside India, mainly in China. Seized skins in Kathmandu confirm the city's role as a key staging point for illegal skins smuggled from India bound for Tibet and China.


title: Indian leopard

text: It is likely that seizures represent a tiny fraction of the total illegal trade, with the majority of smuggled skins reaching their intended end market. Seizures revealed:


title: Indian leopard

text: Expansion of agriculturally used land, encroachment by humans and their livestock into protected areas are main factors contributing to habitat loss and decrease of wild prey. As a result, leopards approach human settlements, where they are tempted to prey on dogs, pigs and goats – domestic livestock, which constitutes an important part of their diet, if they live on the periphery of human habitations. Human–leopard conflict situations ensue, and have increased in recent years. In retaliation for attacks on livestock, leopards are shot, poisoned and trapped in snares. The leopards are considered to be unwanted trespassers by villagers. Conservationists criticize these actions, claiming that people are encroaching on the leopard's native habitat. India's Forest Department is entitled to set up traps only in cases of a leopard having attacked humans. If only the presence of a crowd of people prevents the leopard from escaping, then the crowd has to be dispersed and the animal allowed to escape.


title: Indian leopard

text: As urban areas expanded, the natural habitats of leopards shrunk resulting in leopards venturing into urbanized areas due to easy access of domestic food sources. Karnataka has a high number of such conflicts.


title: Indian leopard

text: In recent years, leopards were sighted in Bangalore, and the forest department captured six leopards in the city's outskirts, relocated four of them to various other locations.


title: Indian leopard

text: Every year more leopards are killed by humans than the humans killed by leopards. On average nearly 400 leopards are reported killed yearly in India, Nepal and China combined based on the leopard skins caught from the poachers, though the actual number of leopards killed by humans is likely to be several times higher. In and around the Shivalik hills of Himachal Pradesh alone, 68 leopards were killed by people between 2001 and 2013, of which only 10 were man-eaters.


title: Indian leopard

text: The frequency of Leopard attacks on humans varies by geographical region and historical period. Since India and Nepal have the majority of Indian leopards population, consequently attacks are regularly reported only from India and Nepal. Among the five "big cats", leopards are less likely to become man-eaters—only jaguars and snow leopards have a less fearsome reputation. While leopards generally avoid humans, they tolerate proximity to humans better than lions and tigers and often come into conflict with humans when raiding livestock.


title: Indian leopard

text: Attacks in India are still reported, since leopards population in India outnumber population of all other large carnivores combined, consequently the number of humans killed by leopards is also more than those killed by all other large carnivores combined.


title: Indian leopard

text: In Nepal, where most attacks occur in the midland regions, i.e. in the Terai, midhills, and lesser Himalaya, the rate of leopard predation on humans results in approximately 1.9 human deaths annually per million inhabitants. .


title: Indian leopard

text: Historically, with rapid urbanization in late 19th and early 20th centuries, leopard attacks may have peaked in India during those times. Notable man-eaters of that era include Leopard of Central Provinces, Rudraprayag, Gummalapur, Yellagiri Hills, Golis Range and Panar.


title: Indian leopard

text: Key to avoiding conflict or leopard's predation of humans is to shift the focus on human's behavioral change to minimise the chances of a leopard encounter or attack, which can be achieved by "clearing bushes and overgrowth around homes to minimise hiding spaces for leopards, leaving a light on at night to deter them, and ensuring people, especially children, did not go out alone at night." Leopards are shy and avoid humans and are more active at night, during encounter with leopards "give way to the leopard and move away calmly" and alert the forest department immediately.


title: Indian leopard

text: "Panthera pardus" is listed in CITES Appendix I. Despite India and Nepal being contracting parties to CITES, national legislation of both countries does not incorporate and address the spirit and concerns of CITES. Trained human resources, basic facilities and effective networks for control of poaching and trade in wildlife are lacking.


title: Indian leopard

text: The Indian leopard is considered Vulnerable in India, Bhutan, and Nepal but Critically Endangered in Pakistan.


title: Indian leopard

text: Frederick Walter Champion was one of the first in India who after World War I advocated for the conservation of leopards, condemned sport hunting and recognised their key role in the ecosystem. Billy Arjan Singh championed their cause since the early 1970s.


title: Indian leopard

text: There a few leopard rescue centres in India, such as the Manikdoh Leopard Rescue Centre in Junnar, but more rescue and rehabilitation centres are being planned. Some wildlife experts think that such centres are not an ideal solution, but that conflict resolution by way of changing human behaviour, land use or grazing patterns and implementing responsible forest management to lessen human-animal conflict would be far more effective to conserve leopards.


title: Squid as food

text: Squid is eaten in many cuisines; in English, the culinary name calamari is often used for squid dishes. There are many ways to prepare and cook squid. Fried squid is common in the Mediterranean. In New Zealand, Australia, the United States, Canada, and South Africa, it is sold in fish and chip shops. In Britain, it can be found in Mediterranean 'calamari' or Asian 'salt and pepper fried squid' forms in various establishments, often served as a bar snack, street food, or starter.


title: Squid as food

text: Squid can be prepared for consumption in a number of other ways. In Korea, it is sometimes served raw, and elsewhere it is used as sushi, sashimi and tempura items, grilled, stuffed, covered in batter, stewed in gravy and served in stir-fries, rice, and noodle dishes. Dried shredded squid is a common snack in some Asian regions, including East Asia.


title: Squid as food

text: The body (mantle) can be stuffed whole, cut into flat pieces or sliced into rings. The arms, tentacles, and ink are edible; the only parts of the squid that are not eaten are its beak and gladius (pen).


title: Squid as food

text: In Chinese and Southeast Asian cuisine, squid is used in stir-fries, rice, and noodle dishes. It may be heavily spiced.


title: Squid as food

text: Pre-packaged dried shredded squid or cuttlefish are snack items in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, China and Russia, often shredded to reduce chewiness.


title: Squid as food

text: In Japan, squid is used in almost every type of dish, including sushi, sashimi, and tempura. It can also be marinated in soy sauce ("ika okizuke"), stewed ("nabemono"), and grilled ("ikayaki").


title: Squid as food

text: In Korea, squid is sometimes killed and served quickly. Unlike octopus, squid tentacles do not usually continue to move when reaching the table. This fresh squid is 산 오징어 ("san ojingeo") (also with small octopuses called "nakji"). The squid is served with Korean mustard, soy sauce, chili sauce, or sesame sauce. It is salted and wrapped in lettuce or perilla leaves. Squid is also marinated in hot pepper sauce and cooked on a pan (Nakji Bokum or Ojingeo Bokum/Ojingeo-chae-bokkeum). They are also served by food stands as a snack food, battered and deep fried or grilled using hot skillets. They are also cut up into small pieces to be added to 해물파전 (Korean Seafood Pancake) or a variety of spicy seafood soups. Dried squid may also accompany alcoholic beverages as "anju". Dried squid is served with peanuts. Squid is roasted and served with hot pepper paste or mayonnaise as a dip. Steamed squid and boiled squid are delicacies.


title: Squid as food

text: Also in Korea, squid is made into "jeotgal" (salted seafood). The "ojingeo-jeot", thin strips of skinned, gutted, washed, salted, and fermented squid seasoned with spicy "gochugaru" (chili powder)-based spices and minced aromatic vegetables, is a popular "banchan" (side dish) served in small quantities as an accompaniment to bap (cooked rice). In Japan, similar dish is called "ika-no-shiokara". The heavily salted squid (usually sparkling enope (firefly) squid or Spear Squid), sometimes with innards, ferments for as long as a month, and is preserved in small jars. This salty, strong flavoured item is served in small quantities as an accompaniment to white rice or alcoholic beverages.


title: Squid as food

text: In the Philippines, squid is cooked as "adobong pusit", squid in adobo sauce, along with the ink, imparting a tangy flavour, especially with fresh chillies. Battered squid rings, which is also sold as a popular deep-fried street food called "calamares" in the Philippines, is served with alioli, mayonnaise or chilli vinegar. Squid is grilled on charcoal, brushed with a soy sauce-based marinade, and stuffed with tomato and onions. Another recipe is "rellenong pusit", stuffed with finely-chopped vegetables, squid fat, and ground pork. A variant of "pancit" noodles is "pancit pusit", which is "pancit bihon" with squid added, along with the ink, giving the noodles its dark color.


title: Squid as food

text: In India and Sri Lanka, squid or cuttlefish is eaten in coastal areas for example, in Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Squid are eaten deep fried (Koonthal Fry) or as squid gravy (koonthal varattiyathu/Roast). In Kerala and Tamil Nadu, squid is called "koonthal", "kanava" or "kadamba". In Coastal Karnataka, squid is also called "bondaas".


title: Squid as food

text: In Egypt, Cyprus, and Turkey, squid rings and arms are coated in batter and fried in oil. Other recipes from these regions simmer squid with vegetables. Squid is also often stuffed.


title: Squid as food

text: In Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, fried squid is served with tarator, a sauce made using tahini. Like many seafood dishes, it may be served with a slice of lemon.


title: Squid as food

text: Fried squid (calamari fritti) is a dish in Mediterranean cuisine. It consists of batter-coated squid, deep-fried for less than two minutes to prevent toughness. It is served plain, with salt and lemon on the side.


title: Squid as food

text: In Spain, ("rabas" or "calamares a la romana", battered calamari, lit. "Roman-style calamari") has the calamari rings covered in a thick batter, deep fried, and with lemon juice and mayonnaise or garlic mayonnaise. Battered and fried baby squid is "puntillitas". Squid stewed in its own black ink is called "calamares en su tinta" or "chipirones en su tinta" resulting a black stew-like dish in which squid meat is very tender and is accompanied by a thick black sauce usually made with onion, tomato, squid ink, among others.


title: Squid as food

text: In Spain and Italy, squid or cuttlefish ink is eaten in dishes such as paella, risotto, soups and pasta.


title: Squid as food

text: In Spain, Italy, Greece, Cyprus, Turkey, Portugal and Croatia, squid rings and arms are coated in batter and fried in oil. Other recipes from these regions feature squid (or octopus) simmered slowly, with vegetables such as squash or tomato. When frying, the squid flesh is kept tender by short cooking time. When simmering, the flesh is most tender when cooking is prolonged with reduced temperature. In Greece or Cyprus it is served also with Tzatziki a Greek yoghurt, cucumber mint dip.


title: Squid as food

text: In Portugal, "lulas" are commonly eaten grilled whole, in kebabs of squid rings with bell peppers and onion ("espetadas") or stewed. Also stuffed with minced meat and stewed ("Lulas Recheadas"). The battered version is known as 'lulas à sevilhana', named after Seville, the Andalusian city that popularised the dish. The city of Setúbal is also known for its fried cuttlefish ("Choco frito 'à setubalense"').


title: Squid as food

text: In Malta, "klamar mimli" involves stuffing the squid with rice, breadcrumbs, parsley, garlic and capers and then gently stewing in red wine.


title: Squid as food

text: In Russia, a lightly boiled julienned squid with onion rings, garnished with mayonnaise, makes a salad. Another dish is a squid stuffed with rice and vegetables and then roasted.


title: Squid as food

text: In South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, fried calamari is popular in fish and chip shops; imitation calamari of white fish may also be used.


title: Squid as food

text: In North America, fried squid is a staple in seafood restaurants. It is served as an appetizer, garnished with parsley, or sprinkled with parmesan cheese. It is served with dips: peppercorn mayonnaise, tzatziki, marinara sauce, tartar sauce, or cocktail sauce. In Mexico it is served with Tabasco sauce or habanero. Other dips, such as ketchup, aioli, and olive oil are used. In the United States, the government and industry worked together to popularize calamari consumption in the 1990s.


title: Squid as food

text: In the United States, in an attempt to popularize squid as a protein source in the 1970s, researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology developed a squid-gutting machine, and submitted squid cocktail, rings, and chowder to a 70-person tasting panel for market research. Despite a general lack of popularity of squid in the United States, as aside from the internal "ethnic market" polling had shown a negative public perception of squid foods, the tasting panel gave the dishes "high marks".


title: Squid as food

text: During the 2020 Democratic National Convention, calamari was featured prominently during the virtual roll call for the state of Rhode Island.


title: Squid as food

text: The direct source of the English name "calamari" is disputed, with Spanish "calamar", Italian "calamaro" (plural "calamari"), and Modern Greek "kalamári" being cited. Ultimately, all of these terms derive from the Late Latin "calamarium", "pen case" or "ink pot", itself from the Latin "calamarius", "pertaining to a writing-reed", after the resemblance in shape and the inky fluid that squid secrete; "calamarius" in turn derives from the Greek "kalamos" 'reed' or 'pen'.


title: Squid as food

text: The nutritional value of squid compares favorably with fishes, having high content of protein and phosphorus with traces of calcium, thiamine, and riboflavin. Squid are 67.5–80.7% protein and 2.22–8.48% fat. A 2016 study of loligo squid found that 13% of the wet weight was oil, which was a rich source of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids (2.78% arachidonic acid, 3.10% linolenic acid, 5.20% linoleic acid, 15.40% docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), and 9.60% eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA)).


title: River Song (Doctor Who)

text: River Song is a fictional character created by Steven Moffat and played by Alex Kingston in the British science-fiction series "Doctor Who". River Song was introduced to the series as an experienced future companion of series protagonist the Doctor, an alien Time Lord who travels through time in his TARDIS. Because River Song is a time traveller herself, her adventures with the Doctor occur out of synchronisation; their first meeting (from the audience's perspective) is with the Tenth Doctor (played by David Tennant), the Doctor's first and apparently her last. Kingston plays her in 15 episodes, as River becomes a companion, romantic interest and eventual wife of the Doctor in his eleventh incarnation portrayed by Matt Smith. The Twelfth Doctor (played by Peter Capaldi) is the last incarnation to meet her, spending a 24-year-long night with her, before her first meeting with the Tenth Doctor.


title: River Song (Doctor Who)

text: River Song was created by "Doctor Who" writer Steven Moffat for the show's fourth series in 2008, under the tenure of then executive producer Russell T Davies. When Moffat took over Davies' duties as executive producer, he began expanding on the character's background, depicting adventures earlier in River's timeline, upgrading Alex Kingston from a guest star to a recurring actor in the series. Other actresses have subsequently portrayed younger versions of the character.


title: River Song (Doctor Who)

text: When the character was first introduced, much about her origins remained a mystery. Following the character's initial appearance, Davies had described her as "one of the most important characters" in the narrative, and "vital" to the Doctor's life. In series six (2011), Moffat's episodes unveil more about the character. It is not until the character's ninth appearance that it is revealed that River was born Melody Pond, the daughter of the eleventh Doctor's companions Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) and Rory Williams (Arthur Darvill), alongside whom Kingston had already appeared six previous times in series five and six of the show. Having been conceived on board the TARDIS as it travelled through the time vortex, Melody was born with genetic traits and abilities similar to those of the Doctor's own race, the Time Lords.


title: River Song (Doctor Who)

text: River Song first appears in the "Doctor Who" 2008 series two-parter "Silence in the Library"/"Forest of the Dead" (written by Steven Moffat) during the Russell T Davies era of "Doctor Who". Here, she encounters the Tenth Doctor (David Tennant) in the 51st century and, though he has never met her, claims to be someone he will come to trust completely. River, who is a professor of archaeology and carries a TARDIS-colour/pattern diary of her adventures, is able to convince the Doctor of his future trust in her by whispering his real name into his ear, which he explains he would only divulge under rare circumstances. At the end of the second episode, she sacrifices herself to save the people who were trapped in the Library's database, knocking out the Doctor before he can do the same. In turn, he is able to upload a copy of her consciousness into a computer, allowing her to live on in a virtual world with the archaeological team she was with in the Library. He achieves this via the use of a sonic screwdriver given to her by his future self.


title: River Song (Doctor Who)

text: After Moffat took over from Davies as executive producer of the show, River Song reappeared in the 2010 series. In the two-parter "The Time of Angels"/"Flesh and Stone", which takes place prior to River becoming a professor, she encounters the Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith), with whom she is more familiar. She leaves coordinates for the Doctor so that he may rescue her in the 52nd century, and together they investigate the crash of the spaceship "Byzantium". She shows herself to be more adept at flying the TARDIS than he is and reveals to the Doctor that she is imprisoned in the "Stormcage Containment Facility" for killing "the best man I've ever known."


title: River Song (Doctor Who)

text: An earlier version of River appears to assist the Doctor in the fifth series finale "The Pandorica Opens"/"The Big Bang". After being contacted by Winston Churchill (Ian McNeice), River leads the Doctor to 102 A.D. While River is travelling in the TARDIS on her own, it explodes with her inside. The Doctor, using River's vortex manipulator, teleports her out. After the Doctor erases himself from history by flying the Pandorica into the exploding TARDIS in order to close the cracks in the universe, River helps Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) to remember the Doctor and bring him back, by giving Amy her now-blank diary. At the close of the series five finale, River ambiguously suggests to the Doctor that they might be married and tells him that he will soon learn the truth about her, after which "everything changes".


title: River Song (Doctor Who)

text: In 2011 series opener "The Impossible Astronaut"/"Day of the Moon", River, along with Amy and her husband Rory (Arthur Darvill), is contacted by a future version of the Doctor to meet up in the United States. As they enjoy a lakeside picnic, this future Doctor is killed by an assailant in a space suit, and the trio give him a Viking funeral, in Lake Silencio. In 1969, the present Doctor and company subsequently encounter a little girl (Sydney Wade) who wears the space suit, which River tells the Doctor is a life support unit; the suit has been designed by the hypnotic aliens known as the Silence. Homeless, the girl is later shown regenerating in New York City, 1970. In "A Good Man Goes to War", it is revealed that River is Amy and Rory's daughter Melody (Harrison and Maddison Mortimer), who was conceived in the TARDIS while it was in the Time Vortex and consequently carries Time Lord DNA. The name River Song comes from a recursive translation of Melody Pond via the language of the Gamma Forests, which have no ponds, only rivers, hence the translation of "Pond" to "River." Baby Melody is kidnapped by Madame Kovarian (Frances Barber) to become a weapon against the Doctor.


title: River Song (Doctor Who)

text: "Let's Kill Hitler" establishes that Melody was trained by the Silence to kill the Doctor. At some point after regenerating in New York, Melody becomes Rory and Amy's childhood friend Mels (Maya Glace-Green) and grew up with them, and enlightened them to their romantic feelings for each other and ensuring her own existence. When adult Mels (Nina Toussaint-White) is shot, and regenerates into her next incarnation (Alex Kingston), she proceeds to do what she was created for: assassinate the Doctor. Persuaded she will one day become River Song, who the Doctor cares deeply about and places in great trust, Melody chooses to resurrect the Doctor with her own regenerative energy, losing any future regenerations. The Doctor learns, however, that it is she who kills him in the future. While she is recovering in bed, the Doctor gives her the blank TARDIS-shaped/coloured diary, and in an epilogue it is revealed that Melody (now River) wants to study archaeology. At the end of "Closing Time", on the day she receives her doctorate, the Silence and Kovarian recapture her and trap her in the space suit in order to kill the Doctor as history will record. In the series six finale "The Wedding of River Song", River refuses to kill the Doctor as she is supposed to, creating an alternate reality in which time has frozen and all realities are occurring at once. In order to restart time and repair reality, the two of them must touch. The Doctor marries River and convinces her to repair the timeline by letting her know that he plans to fake his own death and how. River goes to prison for his murder in order to corroborate the deception, though it is established that she regularly breaks out of prison to go on dates and adventures with him with the aid of hallucinogenic lipstick (used on the guards) and other tricks.


title: River Song (Doctor Who)

text: River appears again in the fifth episode of the seventh series, titled "The Angels Take Manhattan" (2012), where she encounters the Doctor and her parents, Rory and Amy, in 1930s New York City. At this later point in her timeline, she is a professor of archaeology and a free woman, having been released from the Stormcage Prison after the Doctor erased all evidence of his existence. When her parents are sent permanently back in time by the Weeping Angels, to be forever parted from the Doctor, she arranges for Amy to leave the Doctor a message in the form of an epilogue in a book they have been reading written by her in the 1930s. Although she agrees to travel with the Doctor for the time being, she declines his offer of being a full-time companion. In "The Name of the Doctor" (2013), the deceased River's consciousness is summoned from the Library computer, where she has existed since "Forest of the Dead", into a psychic 'conference call' by the Doctor's friend Madame Vastra (Neve McIntosh). There, she and Clara (Jenna Coleman) learn that the Doctor's grave has been discovered. River maintains the psychic link with Clara after the call ends, and counsels her throughout the exploration of the Doctor's tomb, although she seems to be invisible to everyone else. When the Doctor and his companions are threatened by the Great Intelligence, she whispers the Doctor's name in order to open his tomb which is inside the TARDIS. After Clara enters the Doctor's time stream to save him from the Great Intelligence, who entered it first so he could destroy the Doctor in all his regenerations, the Doctor reveals that he could see River all along, but had been avoiding confronting her continued existence because it was too painful for him to bear. After he kisses her, River feels closure and fades away. However, before disappearing River points out that her continued presence indicates that Clara has not been destroyed by entering his time stream, and, therefore, he can save her.


title: River Song (Doctor Who)

text: When the Doctor next encounters River, in "The Husbands of River Song" (2015), as the Twelfth Doctor (Peter Capaldi), she does not initially recognise him and he is able to learn more about what she is like when he is not around. The Doctor accompanies River (from her perspective, shortly after "The Angels Take Manhattan") on a scheme to obtain a rare diamond. He learns that in addition to him, River has had several spouses, both male and female, and is not above ruthless behaviour as she goes about her work. He also discovers that she truly loves him, but that she also genuinely believes that he does not love her back. She feels that the Doctor is above such petty emotions as love, and that he would never willingly jeopardise himself simply to help her. River ultimately discovers that the man she's been having this adventure with is actually the Doctor, with a new face she doesn't have a record of, thinking he only had 12 regenerations and that she'd already seen his last one. The pair later crash-land on the planet Darillium, where River had told the Doctor in "Forest of the Dead" that they would have their last night together. He uses time travel to ensure a perfect date, gives her the sonic screwdriver that she had in "Silence in the Library", and comforts her by revealing that the nights on Darillium last "24 years", giving River a happy life spent with the Doctor before her impending death in the Library.


title: River Song (Doctor Who)

text: In 2017 series opener "The Pilot", a photograph of River is seen on the Doctor's desk in the university in which he is lecturing, beside a photograph of his granddaughter Susan Foreman. River is also referenced in the episode "Extremis", and it is revealed that she ordered her employee Nardole (Matt Lucas) to keep an eye on the Doctor for her in the event of her death.


title: River Song (Doctor Who)

text: Coinciding with the 2010 series, Alex Kingston portrays River Song narrating the "Monster Files" on the BBC website, an in-universe documentary account of "Doctor Who" monsters. This series had previously (in 2008–09) been narrated by John Barrowman in character as Captain Jack Harkness.


title: River Song (Doctor Who)

text: Included with the series six DVD release, the exclusive-to-DVD bonus five-part serial "Night and the Doctor" (2011) references River throughout, with River appearing in the mini-episodes "First Night" and "Last Night". The serial helps explain the depth of the relationship shared by River and the Doctor – despite only appearing in 15 (14 plus one flashback, as of 2016) episodes of the television series – when Amy Pond discovers that the Doctor goes on dates with River when Amy and Rory sleep at night in the TARDIS. During the serial, the Doctor attempts to take River on a date shortly after she is imprisoned in Stormcage, but their time in the TARDIS is interrupted by two future incarnations of River, and all are in turn suspicious of the signs of "another woman" being aboard the TARDIS. The Doctor is able to be rid of the two future Rivers, but not before learning from his future self that one of them is shortly to die in the Library adventure where he first met her. (It is later revealed in "The Husbands of River Song" that the Eleventh Doctor ultimately cancelled this date, and it is the Twelfth Doctor who ends up taking River to the Singing Towers.)


title: River Song (Doctor Who)

text: River appears in a further direct-to-DVD mini-episode included with the series 7 box set, "Rain Gods".


title: River Song (Doctor Who)

text: River, alongside Smith's Eleventh Doctor, is one of two main playable characters in the PlayStation 3 "Doctor Who" console game "". Kingston provided voice acting and motion capture physical acting for the character. In regard to River's role in the narrative of the game, the game's producer Simon Harris explains that she "realises that what’s in her diary is not what she wrote and that actually the Eternity Clock is playing with her history, as well as the Earth’s history."


title: River Song (Doctor Who)

text: Author Gary Russell had planned to use River in the Twelfth Doctor novel "The Big Bang Generation", but when he was unable to get permission to use her due to Steven Moffat planning on the 2015 Christmas special "The Husbands of River Song" being the Twelfth Doctor and River's first meeting, Moffat suggested that Russell write the story to incorporate the Seventh Doctor's former companion Bernice Summerfield instead.


title: River Song (Doctor Who)

text: On 27 June 2015, it was announced that River Song will feature in two Big Finish dramas, "Doom Coalition 2" and "The Diary of River Song", alongside Paul McGann. As a result, River Song becomes the first major character of the 2005–present modern era of "Doctor Who" to be featured in a Big Finish production (prior to 2015, the company had been restricted to only using characters from the original 1963–1989 series, plus McGann's Eighth Doctor from the 1996 "Doctor Who" TV movie). She also appeared in "Doom Coalition 3" and "Doom Coalition 4" alongside the Eighth Doctor. During these appearances, River avoids directly meeting with the Eighth Doctor to preserve the timeline; in "Diary" she communicates with him over a distorted radio transmission, and in "Coalition" she initially only assists his companions, although she later meets the Doctor directly while wearing a 'psychic wimple' while disguised as a nun, the wimple presenting her with a different face to anyone who has not already met her (she establishes a temporary psychic link with the Eighth Doctor while he is drifting in the Time Vortex in "Doom Coalition 4", in which he expresses a subconscious recollection of other meetings with her in his past, but this brief flash of memory is lost when the Doctor is rescued). It was announced in early 2016 that "The Diary of River Song" would return for a second series in 2017, this time Kingston would be appearing alongside Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy as the Sixth and Seventh Doctors. This box set was released early on Christmas Day 2016. She returned again for a third series later in 2017, which sees River encounter the Fifth Doctor and his new companion Brooke, who is eventually revealed to be a clone of River created as part of the Silences' original plan to kill the Doctor. She returned for further series, with the fourth series seeing River meeting the Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) and the fifth season pitting River against four different versions of the Master (Geoffrey Beevers, Derek Jacobi, and the Big Finish debut of Eric Roberts and Michelle Gomez as their incarnations of the Master). The sixth season sees River use her knowledge of the Doctor to discreetly 'infiltrate' key moments in his history to acquire key artefacts before they would be lost, including "An Unearthly Child", "The Invasion", "Carnival of Monsters" and "The Talons of Weng-Chiang". She also appears in "The Legacy of Time", a six-part audio created for Big Finish's twentieth anniversary of doing "Doctor Who" audios, where she works with Benny Summerfield when the Eighth Doctor- from a period during the Time War- discovers what appears to be a fragment of Gallifrey. She later featured in a following three sets where she once again encounters the Weeping Angels, directly before The Angels Take Manhattan. This was followed by a Tenth Doctor and River Song boxset, and a set featuring various machines from the Doctor Who universe. This 'machines' set tied into the Dalek Universe series with the appearance of Jane Slavin's Anya Kingdom. Finally in the most recent series, she meets The Third Doctor for the first time, played by the recast actor Tim Treloar.


title: River Song (Doctor Who)

text: For the role of River Song, whom executive producer Russell T Davies described as "sort of the Doctor's wife", the production sought to cast Kate Winslet. One of Winslet's first acting roles was in the BBC1 teen drama "Dark Season", written by Davies. The role of River Song eventually went to Alex Kingston, known for starring in the popular US drama "ER". On Kingston's casting, Davies said, "I bloody love her!" Kingston had been a fan of "Doctor Who" as a child. Kingston, when first cast, did not expect her role to be recurring. She later learned that Moffat had always intended for Song to come back for return appearances. Kingston enjoys getting to play an unusual action hero female role, and praises the show for its variety of settings and opportunities "to relive one's childhood fantasies" playing with laser guns and wearing varied costumes from one appearance to the next. With regard to having to speak complicated dialogue, she said, "I'd work with a medical consultant on "ER", who'd explain what we were saying, so I'd say it with a purpose and a truth. On "Doctor Who", I've no idea what some of my lines mean!"


title: River Song (Doctor Who)

text: Discussing her role alongside Tennant and Catherine Tate (Donna Noble) in her 2008 introductory episode, Kingston said, "We just clicked. I've done guest roles on other shows, but rarely have I felt such a warm bond." About working with Kingston, Catherine Tate said, "I'm a huge "ER" fan. When you hold people in awe, it's almost a disappointment when they come in and they're utterly normal. But Alex isn't disappointing at all. She's such a lovely person." David Tennant was quoted as saying, "Alex is terrific. When she's telling you stories about hanging out with George Clooney, you know she's pretty cool."


title: River Song (Doctor Who)

text: The character was originally created purely for the plot of "Silence in the Library". Moffat knew that the team of archaeologists would have to trust the Doctor, but the Doctor's psychic paper could not explain and convince the team why he had appeared in a sealed-off library. Therefore, Moffat intended for the Doctor to know one of the archaeologists, but decided that idea was "dull" and instead decided to have one of them know him. Davies and Moffat were going through a phase in which they tried to find "Doctor Who" titles with rude acronyms "to wind up people on internet message boards", with one of Moffat's being "A River Song Ending"; when Davies asked "What's a river song?", Moffat decided to make this the name of a character who dies. They eventually changed the title to "Forest of the Dead", being unwilling to actually broadcast an episode with the acronym "ARSE". When Kingston returned to the show, Moffat explained to her some details about her character's back-story, knowledge which Smith, Gillan and Darvill did not receive until later. Kingston relates that she knows her character cannot be killed off because we saw her death in her introductory episode; each subsequent appearance is set at a different point in her character's personal history. Moffat had planned out that River was Amy and Rory's daughter for "a long time" and used "Pond" as Amy's last name to create a link between the two. For the filming of the sixth series, Kingston was aware of River Song's relationship to Amy and Rory, while the other cast only found out upon reading of the mid-season cliffhanger script for "A Good Man Goes to War".


title: River Song (Doctor Who)

text: Moffat was influenced by Audrey Niffenegger's science fiction romance novel "The Time Traveler's Wife", which depicts a woman who romances and marries a man who unintentionally moves through time. Niffenegger's lovers experience an asynchronous and tragic love story. He comments, "I've quite purposefully used it", though he cites his 2006 episode "The Girl in the Fireplace" as the episode which most prominently explores the book's themes in addition to its conceit. Kingston herself compares the character to Niffenegger's titular Time Traveler's Wife, and like Moffat enjoys "backtracking" more and more with the character as the series progresses. The tragedy for Song highlighted by "The Impossible Astronaut"/"Day of the Moon" is that she is progressing to a point where the Doctor will not know or trust her any more. Kingston comments,


title: River Song (Doctor Who)

text: Kingston describes the character as being "like a female Indiana Jones" with regard to both characters being archaeologists and having action hero qualities. She also took inspiration from Sigourney Weaver's portrayal of Ellen Ripley in the "Alien" film franchise commenting that she'd always been "so envious of her for having that kind of role." Kingston has also praised the way the love story between River and the Doctor has been deftly handled, stating that "I'm not sure you'd get that kind of dynamic in America". For Kingston, the physical age difference between herself and Matt Smith adds to the success of the pairing, whilst she feels that viewers have responded warmly to the notion of an action hero in her 40s. Matt Smith has noted that in his characterisation of the Doctor that "River Song frightens the Doctor but he finds himself strangely attracted to her" and that "what makes her a great companion is that when she turns up all hell breaks loose!".