title: Ukraine International Airlines

text: It became one of the first "joint ventures with foreign capital" in Ukraine and the first airline in the former Soviet Union to use then-new Boeing 737-400. The founding shareholders were the Ukrainian Association of Civil Aviation and Guinness Peat Aviation (GPA), an Irish aircraft-leasing company.


title: Ukraine International Airlines

text: The airline began cargo operations with a Boeing 737-200 on 13 November 1994 to London and Amsterdam.


title: Ukraine International Airlines

text: In 2000, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development became a shareholder by investing $5.4  million. In 2006, UIA adopted a new classification system for freight operations which allowed the airline to carry a wider range of goods, ranging from live animals to fresh food and valuable objects. Additionally, an express service was introduced to meet the needs of customers wishing to make use of expedited cargo-delivery services.


title: Ukraine International Airlines

text: In the first half of 2013, the airline's traffic rose by 60% to passengers. According to the company's president Yuri Miroshnikov, the UIA planned to achieve the same 2013 yearly results (i.e. to reach yearly traffic of ). Also in 2013, due to the demise of competitor Aerosvit, UIA launched new flights from Ukraine to Baku in Azerbaijan, Yerevan in Armenia, Larnaca in Cyprus, Munich in Germany, Warsaw in Poland, Vilnius in Lithuania, Prague in the Czech Republic, Athens in Greece, Batumi in Georgia, Moscow (Sheremetyevo Airport), Yekaterinburg, Saint Petersburg, Kaliningrad, Nizhnevartovsk, Novosibirsk, Rostov-on-Don, Sochi in Russia and Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan. On 25 April 2014, UIA began non-stop flights from Kyiv to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City.


title: Ukraine International Airlines

text: In October 2015, UIA was banned by Russian government from flying to Russian destinations as a response to a ban by Ukrainian government of Russian airlines from flying into Ukraine.


title: Ukraine International Airlines

text: Since June 2016, most of UIA's international flights are sold with the basic "hand luggage-only tariff". If passengers are booking this tariff and want to check in luggage, fees up to US$60 per flight will be charged. Also since summer 2016 UIA wet-leased an ERJ 145 from Dniproavia (also of the group "Privat"; Dniproavia has since run out of business) for daily services to Chernivtsi (because the condition of the airport doesn't allow E-190 and B737-operations)


title: Ukraine International Airlines

text: On 14 June 2016, the offices of UIA were searched because of an investigation of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine concerning passenger fees not paid to the State Aviation Fund.


title: Ukraine International Airlines

text: In March 2018, Ukraine International announced a fleet modernization plan. While the first of three pre-owned Boeing 777-200ER had already been delivered, the airline expects several new Boeing 737 and Embraer 195 aircraft during the year to replace the last Boeing 737 Classics.


title: Ukraine International Airlines

text: Ukraine International ceased being a member of the Flying Blue rewards programme as of 1 January 2019. UIA will continue to write losses with approximately $50m USD for 2019 and therefore implemented saving measures according to the new CEO.


title: Ukraine International Airlines

text: In September 2021, UIA announced plans to add two Boeing 777-300 to their fleet, primarily for charter operations.


title: Ukraine International Airlines

text: During early 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine, which led to the Ukrainian government closing Ukraine's air space for commercial airline operations, severely affecting Ukraine International's own operations. The airline suspended their flights from 24 February of that year, hoping to restart them by 23 March, before extending the suspension on 29 March until the end of May 2022. On 31 May, the airline announced that resumption of flights would be further delayed until 23 August, before extending the suspension yet again on 19 August until 21 November.


title: Ukraine International Airlines

text: In February 2011, the Ukrainian government sold its 61.6% stake in UIA to three existing minority shareholders for UAH 287 million  (US$36.2 million). As of 26 July 2013, the airline was owned by Ukraine-based Capital Investment Project LLC (74%) and Cyprus-based Ontobet Promotions Limited (26%). Capital Investment Process, in turn, is owned by Ontobet. The owners are represented by Aron Mayberg, a business partner of Igor Kolomoyskyi and the former CEO of the bankrupt AeroSvit Airlines, from which partially licences and planes were transferred to Ukraine International Airlines.


title: Ukraine International Airlines

text: As of 22 June 2016, the ownership structure is registered as the following: 74.1627% Capital Investment Project, Ukraine and 15.9108% Ontobet Promotions Ltd, Cyprus.


title: Ukraine International Airlines

text: This is the second year in a row that the company has made a loss, despite seeing growth in passengers. According to a February statement by company head Yuri Miroshnikov, UIA is struggling to stay profitable in the face of growing competition from budget airlines. In 2017, the company recorded a UAH 304 million loss.


title: Ukraine International Airlines

text: Ukraine International Airlines posted a net loss of almost UAH 2.7 billion (about $100 million) in 2018, or about nine times more than it lost in 2017, Ukrainian media reported on 25 March, citing a UIA investor report.


title: Ukraine International Airlines

text: Ukraine International Airlines (UIA), the country's national carrier, is to slow down its expansion plans in order to stabilise its financial performance and climb out of the red.


title: Ukraine International Airlines

text: Yuri Miroshnikov is stepping down as president of Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) on 12 September after 15 years of managing Ukraine's national carrier and working for UIA since 1993. Yevhenii Dykhne will take on the leadership role at UIA from 18 September 2019.


title: Ukraine International Airlines

text: The head of the state air traffic regulator of Ukraine stated at 8 November 2019 that UIA would owe them actually 1 billion UAH of unpaid fees and penalties.


title: Ukraine International Airlines

text: UIA connects Ukraine to over 80 destinations in Europe, Asia and the Middle East, as well as to New York City and Toronto from its base at Boryspil Airport, and also operates domestic flights. UIA serves over 1000 flights per week.


title: Ukraine International Airlines

text: Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) was forced to make some involuntary changes to its summer 2019 flight schedules, with reduced frequencies and capacity on some selected routes. Although not officially a budget airline, many of UIA's worldwide flights are popular with travellers because of its low fares, they use Boryspil International Airport as a transport hub.


title: Ukraine International Airlines

text: Due to ongoing losses, the airline suspended flights to Amman, Riga, Beijing and Minsk in November 2019. From 2020, flights to Bangkok and Krakow were also suspended.


title: Ukraine International Airlines

text: On 24 February 2022, UIA canceled scheduled and charter flights to and from Ukraine through 23 March 2022 due to the closure of Ukrainian airspace to civil aviation.


title: Ukraine International Airlines

text: On 8 January 2020, Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 was shot down by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) of Iran shortly after takeoff from Tehran Imam Khomeini International Airport. The IRGC attributed it to human error. The aircraft involved, UR-PSR, was a three-year-old Boeing 737-800. There were 176 passengers and crew on board with no survivors. The crash was the first fatal aviation incident for Ukraine International Airlines since beginning operations in 1992; however, it cannot be attributed to the airline in any way.


title: Maroons

text: Maroons are descendants of Africans in the Americas who escaped from slavery and formed their own settlements. They often mixed with indigenous peoples, eventually evolving into separate creole cultures such as the Garifuna and the Mascogos.


title: Maroons

text: "Maroon", which can have a more general sense of being abandoned without resources, entered English around the 1590s, from the French adjective , meaning 'feral' or 'fugitive'. (Despite the same spelling, the meaning of 'reddish brown' for "maroon" did not appear until the late 1700s, perhaps influenced by the idea of maroon peoples.)


title: Maroons

text: The American Spanish word is also often given as the source of the English word "maroon", used to describe the runaway slave communities in Florida, in the Great Dismal Swamp on the border of Virginia and North Carolina, on colonial islands of the Caribbean, and in other parts of the New World. Linguist Lyle Campbell says the Spanish word ' means 'wild, unruly' or 'runaway slave'. In the early 1570s, Sir Francis Drake's raids on the Spanish in Panama were aided by ""Symerons"," a likely misspelling of '. The linguist Leo Spitzer, writing in the journal "Language", says, "If there is a connection between Eng. "maroon", Fr. ', and Sp. ', Spain (or Spanish America) probably gave the word directly to England (or English America)."


title: Maroons

text: Alternatively, the Cuban philologist José Juan Arrom has traced the origins of the word "maroon" further than the Spanish "cimarrón", used first in Hispaniola to refer to feral cattle, then to Indian slaves who escaped to the hills, and by the early 1530s to African slaves who did the same. He proposes that the American Spanish word derives ultimately from the Arawakan root word , construed as 'fugitive', in the Arawakan language spoken by the Taíno people native to the island.


title: Maroons

text: In the New World, as early as 1512, African slaves escaped from Spanish captors and either joined indigenous peoples or eked out a living on their own. The first slave rebellion occurred in present day Dominican Republic on the sugar plantations owned by Admiral Diego Columbus, on 26 December 1522, and was brutally crushed by the Admiral. The first maroon communities of the Americas were established following this revolt, as many of the slaves were able to escape. This would also give rise to a wave of Dominican maroons who would go on to lead the first maroon activities of the Americas. Sebastián Lemba, born in Africa, successfully rebelled against the Spaniards in 1532, and banded together with other Africans in his 15-year struggle against the Spanish colonists. Lemba would eventually be joined by other maroons such as Juan Vaquero, Diego del Guzmán, Fernando Montoro, Juan Criollo and Diego del Campo in the struggle against slavery. As the maroons threatened Spanish commerce and trade, Spanish officials began to fear a maroon takeover of the island. By the 1540s, maroons had already controlled the interior portions of the island, although areas in the east, north, and western parts of the island would also fall under maroon control. Maroon bands would venture out throughout the island, usually in large groups, attack villages they encounter, burn down plantations, kill and ransack from Spaniards, and liberate the slaves. Roadways had become so open to attack, the Spaniards felt it was necessary to only navigate in groups. Dominican maroons would be present throughout the island until the mid 17th century.


title: Maroons

text: Sir Francis Drake enlisted several "cimarrones" during his raids on the Spanish. As early as 1655, escaped Africans had formed communities in inland Jamaica, and by the 18th century, Nanny Town and other Jamaican maroon villages began to fight for independent recognition.


title: Maroons

text: When runaway slaves and Amerindians banded together and subsisted independently they were called "maroons". On the Caribbean islands, they formed bands and on some islands, armed camps. Maroon communities faced great odds against their surviving attacks by hostile colonists, obtaining food for subsistence living, as well as reproducing and increasing their numbers. As the planters took over more land for crops, the maroons began to lose ground on the small islands. Only on some of the larger islands were organised maroon communities able to thrive by growing crops and hunting. Here they grew in number as more slaves escaped from plantations and joined their bands. Seeking to separate themselves from colonisers, the maroons gained in power and amid increasing hostilities. They raided and pillaged plantations and harassed planters until the planters began to fear a massive revolt of the black slaves.


title: Maroons

text: The early maroon communities were usually displaced. By 1700, maroons had disappeared from the smaller islands. Survival was always difficult, as the maroons had to fight off attackers as well as grow food. One of the most influential maroons was François Mackandal, a houngan or voodoo priest, who led a six-year rebellion against the white plantation owners in Haiti that preceded the Haitian Revolution.


title: Maroons

text: In Cuba, there were maroon communities in the mountains, where African refugees had escaped the brutality of slavery and joined Taínos. Before roads were built into the mountains of Puerto Rico, heavy brush kept many escaped maroons hidden in the southwestern hills where many also intermarried with the natives. Escaped slaves sought refuge away from the coastal plantations of Ponce. Remnants of these communities remain as of 2006, for example in Viñales, Cuba, and Adjuntas, Puerto Rico.


title: Maroons

text: Maroon communities emerged in many places in the Caribbean (St Vincent and Dominica, for example), but none were seen as such a great threat to the British as the Jamaican Maroons. Beginning in the late 17th century, Jamaican Maroons consistently fought British colonists, leading to the First Maroon War (1728–1740). In 1739 and 1740, the British governor of the Colony of Jamaica, Edward Trelawny, signed treaties promising them in two locations, at Cudjoe's Town (Trelawny Town) in western Jamaica and Crawford's Town in eastern Jamaica, to bring an end to the warfare between the communities. In exchange, they were to agree to capture other escaped slaves. They were initially paid a bounty of two dollars for each African returned. The treaties effectively freed the Maroons a century before the Slavery Abolition Act 1833, which came into effect in 1838. To this day, the Jamaican Maroons are to a significant extent autonomous and separate from Jamaican society. The physical isolation used to their advantage by their ancestors has today led to their communities remaining among the most inaccessible on the island. In their largest town, Accompong, in the parish of St Elizabeth, the Leeward Maroons still possess a vibrant community of about 600. Tours of the village are offered to foreigners and a large festival is put on every January 6 to commemorate the signing of the peace treaty with the British after the First Maroon War.


title: Maroons

text: In the plantation colony of Suriname, which England ceded to the Netherlands in the Treaty of Breda (1667), escaped slaves revolted and started to build their villages from the end of the 17th century. As most of the plantations existed in the eastern part of the country, near the Commewijne River and Marowijne River, the "Marronage" () took place along the river borders and sometimes across the borders of French Guiana. By 1740, the maroons had formed clans and felt strong enough to challenge the Dutch colonists, forcing them to sign peace treaties. On October 10, 1760, the Ndyuka signed such a treaty, drafted by Adyáko Benti Basiton of Boston, a formerly enslaved African from Jamaica who had learned to read and write and knew about the Jamaican treaty. The treaty is still important, as it defines the territorial rights of the Maroons in the gold-rich inlands of Suriname.


title: Maroons

text: Slaves escaped frequently within the first generation of their arrival from Africa and often preserved their African languages and much of their culture and religion. African traditions included such things as the use of certain medicinal herbs together with special drums and dances when the herbs are administered to a sick person. Other African healing traditions and rites have survived through the centuries.


title: Maroons

text: The jungles around the Caribbean Sea offered food, shelter, and isolation for the escaped slaves. Maroons sustained themselves by growing vegetables and hunting. Their survival depended upon their cultures, and their military abilities, using guerrilla tactics and heavily fortified dwellings involving traps and diversions. Some defined leaving the community as desertion and therefore punishable by death. They also originally raided plantations. During these attacks, the maroons would burn crops, steal livestock and tools, kill slavemasters, and invite other slaves to join their communities. Individual groups of maroons often allied themselves with the local indigenous tribes and occasionally assimilated into these populations. Maroons played an important role in the histories of Brazil, Suriname, Puerto Rico, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Cuba, and Jamaica.


title: Maroons

text: There is much variety among maroon cultural groups because of differences in history, geography, African nationality, and the culture of indigenous people throughout the Western Hemisphere.


title: Maroons

text: Maroon settlements often possessed a clannish, outsider identity. They sometimes developed Creole languages by mixing European tongues with their original African languages. One such maroon creole language, in Suriname, is Saramaccan. At other times, the maroons would adopt variations of a local European language (creolization) as a common tongue, for members of the community frequently spoke a variety of mother tongues.


title: Maroons

text: The maroons created their own independent communities, which in some cases have survived for centuries, and until recently remained separate from mainstream society. In the 19th and 20th centuries, maroon communities began to disappear as forests were razed, although some countries, such as Guyana and Suriname, still have large maroon populations living in the forests. Recently, many of them moved to cities and towns as the process of urbanization accelerates.


title: Maroons

text: Maroonage was a constant threat to New World plantation societies. Punishments for recaptured maroons were severe, like removing the Achilles tendon, amputating a leg, castration, and being roasted to death.


title: Maroons

text: Maroon communities had to be inaccessible and were located in inhospitable environments to be sustainable. For example, maroon communities were established in remote swamps in the southern United States; in deep canyons with sinkholes but little water or fertile soil in Jamaica; and in deep jungles of the Guianas.


title: Maroons

text: Maroon communities turned the severity of their environments to their advantage to hide and defend their communities. Disguised pathways, false trails, booby traps, underwater paths, quagmires and quicksand, and natural features were all used to conceal maroon villages.


title: Maroons

text: Maroons utilised exemplary guerrilla warfare skills to fight their European enemies. Nanny, the famous Jamaican maroon, developed guerrilla warfare tactics that are still used today by many militaries around the world. European troops used strict and established strategies while maroons attacked and retracted quickly, used ambush tactics, and fought when and where they wanted to.


title: Maroons

text: Even though colonial governments were in a perpetual state of hatred toward the maroon communities, individuals in the colonial system traded goods and services with them. Maroons also traded with isolated white settlers and Native American communities. Maroon communities played interest groups off of one another. At the same time, maroon communities were also used as pawns when colonial powers clashed.


title: Maroons

text: Absolute secrecy and loyalty of members were crucial to the survival of maroon communities. To ensure this loyalty, maroon communities used severe methods to protect against desertion and spies. New members were brought to communities by way of detours so they could not find their way back and served probationary periods, often as slaves. Crimes such as desertion and adultery were punishable by death.


title: Maroons

text: Under governor Adriaan van der Stel in 1642 the early Dutch settlers of the Dutch East India Company brought 105 slaves from Madagascar and parts of Asia to work for them in Dutch Mauritius. However 52 of these first slaves, including women, escaped in the wilderness of Dutch Mauritius. Only 18 of these escapees were caught. On 18 June 1695 a gang of maroons of Indonesian and Chinese origins, including Aaron d'Amboine, Antoni (Bamboes) and Paul de Batavia, as well as female escapees Anna du Bengale and Espérance, set fire to the Dutch settlers' Fort Frederick Hendryk (Vieux Grand Port) in an attempt to take over control of the island. They were all caught and decapitated. In February 1706 another revolt was organised by the remaining maroons as well as disgruntled slaves. When the Dutch abandoned Dutch Mauritius in 1710 the maroons stayed behind.


title: Maroons

text: When representatives of the French East India Company landed on the island in 1715 they also had to face attacks by the Mauritian maroons. Significant events were the 1724 assault on a military outpost in Savannah district, as well as the attack on a military barrack in 1732 at Poste de Flacq. Several deaths resulted from such attacks. Soon after his arrival in 1735, Mahé de La Bourdonnais assembled and equipped French militia groups made of both civilians and soldiers to fight against the maroons. In 1739 maroon leader Sans Souci was captured near Flacq and was burnt alive by the French settlers. A few years later a group of French settlers gave chase to Barbe Blanche, another maroon leader, but lost track of him at Le Morne. Other maroons included Diamamouve and Madame Françoise.


title: Maroons

text: In the 1790s, about 600 Jamaican Maroons were deported to British settlements in Nova Scotia, where American slaves who had escaped from the United States were also resettled. Being unhappy with conditions, in 1800, a majority emigrated to what is now Sierra Leone in Africa.


title: Maroons

text: In 1731, slaves rose up in revolt at the Cobre mines, and set up an independent community at Sierra del Cobre, which existed untroubled until 1781, when the self-freed population had increased to over 1,000. In 1781, the Spanish colonial authorities agreed to recognise the freedom of the people of this community.


title: Maroons

text: In the 1810s, Ventura Sanchez, also known as Coba, was in charge of a "palenque" of several hundred maroons in the mountains not far from Santiago de Cuba. Sanchez was tricked into going to Santiago de Cuba, where he committed suicide rather than be captured and returned to slavery. The leadership of the palenque then passed to Manuel Grinan, also known as Gallo.


title: Maroons

text: The "palenque" of Bumba was so well organised that they even sent maroons in small boats to Jamaica and Santo Domingo to trade. In 1830, the Spanish colonial authorities carried out military expeditions against the "palenques" of Bumba and Maluala. Antonio de Leon eventually succeeded in destroying the "palenque" of Bumba.


title: Maroons

text: In the 1830s, "palenques" of maroon communities thrived in western Cuba, in particular the areas surrounding San Diego de Nunez. The Office of the Capture of Maroons reported that between 1797 and 1846, there were thousands of runaways living in these "palenques". However, the eastern mountains harboured the longer lasting "palenques", in particular those of Moa and Maluala, where the maroons thrived until the First War of Independence in 1868, when large numbers of maroons joined the Cuban Liberation Army.


title: Maroons

text: There are 28 identified archaeological sites in the Viñales Valley related to runaway African slaves or maroons of the early 19th century; the material evidence of their presence is found in caves of the region, where groups settled for various lengths of time. Oral tradition tells that maroons took refuge on the slopes of the mogotes and in the caves; the Viñales Municipal Museum has archaeological exhibits that depict the life of runaway slaves, as deduced through archeological research. Cultural traditions reenacted during the "Semana de la Cultura" (Week of Culture) celebrate the town's founding in 1607.


title: Maroons

text: Similar maroon communities developed on islands across the Caribbean, such as those of the Garifuna people on Saint Vincent. Many of the Garifuna were deported to the American mainland, where some eventually settled along the Mosquito Coast or in Belize. From their original landing place in Roatan Island off the coast of Honduras, the maroons moved to Trujillo. Gradually groups migrated south into the Miskito Kingdom and north into Belize.


title: Maroons

text: In Dominica, escaped slaves joined indigenous Kalinago in the island's densely forested interior to create maroon communities, which were constantly in conflict with the British colonial authorities throughout the period of formal chattel slavery.


title: Maroons

text: In the French colony of Saint Lucia, maroons and fugitive French Revolutionary Army soldiers formed the so-called , which comprised about 6,000 men who fought the First Brigand War against the British who had recently occupied the island. Led by the French Commissioner, Gaspard Goyrand, they succeeded in taking back control of most of the island from the British, but on 26 May 1796, their forces defending the fort at Morne Fortune, about 2,000 men surrendered to a British division under the command of General John Moore. After the capitulation, over 2,500 French and Afro-Caribbean prisoners of war as well as ninety-nine women and children, were transported from St. Lucia to Portchester Castle. They were eventually sent to France in a prisoner exchange; some remained in Europe while others returned to France.


title: Maroons

text: American "marronage" began in Spain's colony on the island of Hispaniola. Governor Nicolás de Ovando was already complaining of escaped slaves and their interactions with the Taíno Indians by 1503. The first slave rebellion occurred in Hispaniola on the sugar plantations owned by Admiral Diego Columbus, on 26 December 1522, and was brutally crushed by the Admiral.


title: Maroons

text: Maroons joined the natives in their wars against the Spanish and hid with the rebel chieftain Enriquillo in the Bahoruco Mountains. When Archdeacon Alonso de Castro toured Hispaniola in 1542, he estimated the maroon population at 2,000–3,000 persons.


title: Maroons

text: The French encountered many forms of slave resistance during the 17th and 18th centuries, in Saint Domingue, which later came to be called Haiti. Formerly enslaved Africans who fled to remote mountainous areas were called "marron" (French) or "mawon" (Haitian Creole), meaning 'escaped slave'. The maroons formed close-knit communities that practised small-scale agriculture and hunting. They were known to return to plantations to free family members and friends. On a few occasions, they also joined the Taíno settlements, who had escaped the Spanish in the 17th century. In the late 17th and early 18th centuries, there were a large number of maroons living in the Bahoruco mountains. In 1702, a French expedition against them killed three maroons and captured 11, but over 30 evaded capture, and retreated further into the mountainous forests. Further expeditions were carried out against them with limited success, though they did succeed in capturing one of their leaders, Michel, in 1719. In subsequent expeditions, in 1728 and 1733, French forces captured 46 and 32 maroons respectively. No matter how many detachments were sent against these maroons, they continued to attract runaways. Expeditions in 1740, 1742, 1746, 1757 and 1761 had minor successes against these maroons, but failed to destroy their hideaways.


title: Maroons

text: In 1776–1777, a joint French–Spanish expedition ventured into the border regions of the Bahoruco mountains, with the intention of destroying the maroon settlements there. However, the maroons had been alerted of their coming, and had abandoned their villages and caves, retreating further into the mountainous forests where they could not be found. The detachment eventually returned, unsuccessful and having lost many soldiers to illness and desertion. In the years that followed, the maroons attacked a number of settlements, including Fond-Parisien, for food, weapons, gunpowder and women. It was on one of these excursions that one of the maroon leaders, Kebinda, who had been born in freedom in the mountains, was captured. He later died in captivity.


title: Maroons

text: In 1782, de Saint-Larry decided to offer peace terms to one of the maroon leaders, Santiago, granting them freedom in return for which they would hunt all further runaways and return them to their owners. Eventually, at the end of 1785, terms were agreed, and the more than 100 maroons under Santiago's command stopped making incursions into French colonial territory.


title: Maroons

text: Other slave resistance efforts against the French plantation system were more direct. The maroon leader Mackandal led a movement to poison the drinking water of the plantation owners in the 1750s.


title: Maroons

text: Boukman declared war on the French plantation owners in 1791, setting off the Haitian Revolution. A statue called the "Le Nègre Marron" or the "Nèg Mawon" is an iconic bronze bust that was erected in the heart of Port-au-Prince to commemorate the role of maroons in Haitian independence.


title: Maroons

text: People who escaped from slavery during the Spanish occupation of the island of Jamaica fled to the interior and joined the Taíno living there, forming refugee communities. Later, many of them gained freedom during the confusion surrounding the 1655 English Invasion of Jamaica. Some refugee slaves continued to join them through the decades until the abolition of slavery in 1838, but in the main, after the signing of the treaties of 1739 and 1740, the Maroons hunted runaway slaves in return for payment from the British colonial authorities.


title: Maroons

text: During the late 17th and 18th centuries, the British tried to capture the maroons because they occasionally raided plantations, and made expansion into the interior more difficult. An increase in armed confrontations over decades led to the First Maroon War in the 1730s, but the British were unable to defeat the maroons. They finally settled with the groups by treaty in 1739 and 1740, allowing them to have autonomy in their communities in exchange for agreeing to be called to military service with the colonists if needed. Certain maroon factions became so formidable that they made treaties with local colonial authorities, sometimes negotiating their independence in exchange for helping to hunt down other slaves who escaped.


title: Maroons

text: Due to tensions and repeated conflicts with maroons from Trelawny Town, the Second Maroon War erupted in 1795. After the governor tricked the Trelawny Maroons into surrendering, the colonial government deported approximately 600 captive maroons to Nova Scotia. Due to their difficulties and those of Black Loyalists settled at Nova Scotia and England after the American Revolution, Great Britain established a colony in West Africa, Sierra Leone. It offered ethnic Africans a chance to set up their community there, beginning in 1792. Around 1800, several hundred Jamaican maroons were transported to Freetown, the first settlement of Sierra Leone. Eventually, in the 1840s, about 200 Trelawny Maroons returned to Jamaica, and settled in the village of Flagstaff in the parish of St James, not far from Trelawny Town, which is now named Maroon Town, Jamaica.


title: Maroons

text: The only Leeward Maroon settlement that retained formal autonomy in Jamaica after the Second Maroon War was Accompong, in Saint Elizabeth Parish, whose people had abided by their 1739 treaty with the British. A Windward Maroon community is also located at Charles Town, Jamaica, on Buff Bay River in Portland Parish. Another is at Moore Town (formerly Nanny Town), also in the parish of Portland. In 2005, the music of the Moore Town Maroons was declared by UNESCO as a 'Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.' A fourth community is at Scott's Hall, Jamaica, in the parish of St Mary. Accompong's autonomy was ratified by the government of Jamaica when the island gained independence in 1962.


title: Maroons

text: The government has tried to encourage the survival of the other maroon settlements. The Jamaican government and the maroon communities organised the Annual International Maroon Conference, initially to be held at rotating communities around the island, but the conference has been held at Charles Town since 2009. Maroons from other Caribbean, Central, and South America nations are invited. In 2016, Accompong's colonel and a delegation traveled to the Kingdom of Ashanti in Ghana to renew ties with the Akan and Asante people of their ancestors.


title: Maroons

text: In Puerto Rico, Taíno families from neighboring Utuado moved into the southwestern mountain ranges, along with escaped African slaves who intermarried with them. The DNA analysis of contemporary persons from this area shows maternal ancestry from the Mandinka, Wolof, and Fulani peoples through the mtDNA African haplotype associated with them yet also carried at low frequencies by Spaniards, L1b, which is present here. This was carried by African slaves who escaped from plantations around Ponce and formed communities with the Arawak (Taíno and Kalinago) in the mountains. Arawak lineages (Taíno people represented within haplogroups A and Kalinago people represented within haplogroups C) can also be found in this area.


title: Maroons

text: Several different maroon societies developed around the Gulf of Honduras. Some were found in the interior of modern-day Honduras, along the trade routes by which silver mined on the Pacific side of the isthmus was carried by slaves down to coastal towns such as Trujillo or Puerto Caballos to be shipped to Europe. When slaves escaped, they went to the mountains for safety. In 1548, in what is now Honduras, slaves in San Pedro rebelled, led by a self-freed slave named Miguel, who set up his own capital. The Spaniards had to send in reinforcements to put down the revolt.


title: Maroons

text: In 1648, the English bishop of Guatemala, Thomas Gage, reported active bands of maroons numbering in the hundreds along these routes.


title: Maroons

text: The Miskito Sambu were a maroon group who formed from slaves who revolted on a Portuguese ship around 1640, wrecking the vessel on the coast of Honduras-Nicaragua and escaping into the interior. They intermarried with the indigenous people over the next half-century. They eventually rose to leadership of the Mosquito Coast and led extensive slave raids against Spanish-held territories in the first half of the 18th century.


title: Maroons

text: The Garifuna are descendants of maroon communities that developed on the island of Saint Vincent. They were deported to the coast of Honduras in 1797.


title: Maroons

text: Bayano, a Mandinka man who had been enslaved and taken to Panama in 1552, led a rebellion that year against the Spanish in Panama. He and his followers escaped to found villages in the lowlands. Viceroy Canete felt unable to subdue these maroons, so he offered them terms that entailed a recognition of their freedom, provided they refused to admit any newcomers and returned runaways to their owners.


title: Maroons

text: Later these people, known as the "Cimarrón", assisted Sir Francis Drake in fighting against the Spanish.


title: Maroons

text: Gaspar Yanga was an African leader of a Maroon colony in the Veracruz highlands in what is now Mexico. It is believed Yanga had been a fugitive since the early 1570s, and was the leader of a formidable group of maroons.


title: Maroons

text: In 1609, Captain Pedro Gonzalo de Herrera lad an expedition against Yanga and his maroons, but despite severe casualties on both sides, neither emerged the victor. Instead, Yanga negotiated with the Spanish colonists to establish a self-ruled maroon settlement called San Lorenzo de los Negros (later renamed Yanga). Yanga secured recognition of the freedom of his maroons, and his "palenque" was accorded the status of a free town. In return, Yanga was required to return any further runaways to the Spanish colonial authorities.


title: Maroons

text: The Costa Chica of Guerrero and of Oaxaca include many hard-to-access areas that also provided refuge for slaves escaping Spanish ranches and estates on the Pacific coast. Evidence of these communities can be found in the Afro-Mexican population of the region. Other Afro-Mexican communities descended from people who escaped slavery are found in Veracruz and in Northern Mexico; some of the later communities were populated by people who escaped slavery in the United States via the Southern Underground Railroad.


title: Maroons

text: Maroons who escaped from the Thirteen Colonies and allied with Seminole Indians were one of the largest and most successful maroon communities in what is now Florida due to more rights and freedoms granted by the Spanish Empire. Some intermarried and were culturally Seminole; others maintained a more African culture. Descendants of those who were removed with the Seminole to Indian Territory in the 1830s are recognised as Black Seminoles. Many were formerly part of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, but have been excluded since the late 20th century by new membership rules that require proving Native American descent from historic documents.


title: Maroons

text: Lakeview was established as a Freedmen's town by a group of African-American runaway slaves and freedmen who immigrated from North Carolina shortly after the War of 1812. They arrived between 1818 and 1820. This area was ideal for the remaining Native Americans who lived, hunted, fished, and farmed this region and the black community integrated with the Amerindians.


title: Maroons

text: Until the mid-1760s, maroon colonies lined the shores of Lake Borgne, just downriver of New Orleans, Louisiana. These fugitive slaves controlled many of the canals and back-country passages from Lake Pontchartrain to the Gulf, including the Rigolets. These colonies were eventually eradicated by militia from Spanish-controlled New Orleans led by Francisco Bouligny. Free people of color aided in the capture of these fugitives.


title: Maroons

text: The Great Dismal Swamp maroons inhabited the marshlands of the Great Dismal Swamp in Virginia and North Carolina. Although conditions were harsh, research suggests that thousands lived there between about 1700 and the 1860s.


title: Maroons

text: Robeson County, North Carolina was a place where Blacks, Native Americans, and even some outlaw whites lived together and intermingled producing a people of great genetic mixture.


title: Maroons

text: One of the best-known "quilombos" (maroon settlements) in Brazil was Palmares (the Palm Nation), which was founded in the early 17th century. At its height, it had a population of over 30,000 free people and was ruled by King Zumbi. Palmares maintained its independent existence for almost a hundred years until it was conquered by the Portuguese in 1694.


title: Maroons

text: Of the 10 major "quilombos" in colonial Brazil, seven were destroyed within two years of being formed. Four fell in the state of Bahia in 1632, 1636, 1646 and 1796. The other three met the same fate in Rio in 1650, Parahyba in 1731, and Piumhy in 1758.


title: Maroons

text: One "quilombo" in Minas Gerais lasted from 1712–1719. Another, the "Carlota" of Mato Grosso, was wiped out after existing for 25 years, from 1770–1795.


title: Maroons

text: There were also a number of smaller "quilombos". The first reported "quilombo" was in 1575 in Bahia. Another "quilombo" in Bahia was reported at the start of the 17th century. Between 1737 and 1787, a small "quilombo" thrived in the vicinity of São Paulo.


title: Maroons

text: The region of Campo Grande and São Francisco was often populated with "quilombos". In 1741, Jean Ferreira organised an expedition against a "quilombo", but many runaways escaped capture. In 1746, a subsequent expedition captured 120 members of the "quilombo". In 1752, an expedition led by Pere Marcos was attacked by "quilombo" fighters, resulting in significant loss of life.


title: Maroons

text: "Quilombos" continued to form in the 19th century. In 1810, a "quilombo" was discovered at Linhares in the state of São Paulo. A decade later, another was found in Minas. In 1828, another "quilombo" was discovered at Cahuca, near Recife, and a year later an expedition was mounted against yet another at Corcovado, near Rio de Janeiro. In 1855, the Maravilha "quilombo" in Amazonas was destroyed.


title: Maroons

text: The most famous "quilombo" was Palmares, an independent, self-sustaining community near Recife, established in about 1600. Part of the reason for the massive size of Palmares was due to its location in Brazil — at the median point between the Atlantic Ocean and Guinea, an important area of the African slave trade. "Quilombo dos Palmares" was a self-sustaining community of escaped slaves from the Portuguese settlements in Brazil, "a region perhaps the size of Portugal in the hinterland of Bahia". At its height, Palmares had a population of over 30,000.


title: Maroons

text: In 1612, the Portuguese tried in vain to take Palmares in an expedition that proved to be very costly. In 1640, a Dutch scouting mission found that the self-freed community of Palmares was spread over two settlements, with about 6,000 living in one location and another 5,000 in another. Dutch expeditions against Palmares in the 1640s were similarly unsuccessful. Between 1672 and 1694, Palmares withstood, on average, one Portuguese expedition nearly every year.


title: Maroons

text: Ganga Zumba and Zumbi are the two best-known warrior-leaders of Palmares which, after a history of conflict with first Dutch and then Portuguese colonial authorities, finally fell to a Portuguese artillery assault in 1694.


title: Maroons

text: Escaped slaves established independent communities along the remote Pacific coast, outside of the reach of the colonial administration. At the start of the seventeenth century, a group of runaways had established a "palenque" on the outskirts of the Magdalena River. Eventually, in 1654, the governor of Cartegena de Indias, Don Pedro Zapata, defeated and subdued this community of runaway maroons.


title: Maroons

text: In what is now Colombia, in the district of Popayán, the "palenque" of Castillo was successfully established by runaway slaves. In 1732, the Spanish authorities tried to secure peace terms with the maroons of Castillo by inserting a clause requiring them to return runaways, but the rulers of Castillo rejected those terms. In 1745, the colonial authorities defeated Castillo, and over 200 African and Indian runaways surrendered.


title: Maroons

text: The Caribbean coast still sees maroon communities like San Basilio de Palenque, where the creole Palenquero language is spoken. This community began at the start of the seventeenth century, when Benkos Biohó led a group of about 30 runaways into the forests, and defeated attempts to subdue them. Biohó declared himself King Benkos, and his "palenque" of San Basilio attracted large numbers of runaways to join his community. His maroons defeated the first expedition sent against them, killing their leader Juan Gomez. The Spanish arrived at terms with Biohó, but later they captured him in 1619, accused him of plotting against the Spanish, and had him hanged.


title: Maroons

text: But runaways continued to escape to freedom in San Basilio. In 1696, the colonial authorities subdued another rebellion there, and again between 1713 and 1717. Eventually, the Spanish agreed to peace terms with the "palenque" of San Basilio, and in 1772, this community of maroons was included within the Mahates district, as long they no longer accepted any further runaways.


title: Maroons

text: In addition to escaped slaves, survivors from shipwrecks formed independent communities along rivers of the northern coast and mingled with indigenous communities in areas beyond the reach of the colonial administration. Separate communities can be distinguished from the "cantones" Cojimies y Tababuela, Esmeraldas, Limones.


title: Maroons

text: Marronage was common in British, Dutch, and French Guiana, and today descendants of maroons account for about 15% of the current population of Suriname and 22% in French Guiana. In the Guianas, escaped slaves, locally known as 'Bushinengues', fled to the interior and joined with indigenous peoples and created several independent tribes, among them the Saramaka, the Paramaka, the Ndyuka (Aukan), the Kwinti, the Aluku (Boni), and the Matawai.


title: Maroons

text: In the 1770s, the Aluku also desired a peace treaty, but the Society of Suriname started a war against them, resulting in a flight into French Guiana. The other tribes signed peace treaties with the Surinamese government, the Kwinti being the last in 1887. On 25 May 1891 the Aluku officially became French citizens.


title: Maroons

text: After Suriname gained independence from the Netherlands, the old treaties with the Bushinengues were abrogated. By the 1980s the Bushinengues in Suriname had begun to fight for their land rights. Between 1986 and 1992, the Surinamese Interior War was waged by the Jungle Commando, a guerrilla group fighting for the rights of the maroon minority, against the military dictatorship of Dési Bouterse. In 2005, following a ruling by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the Suriname government agreed to compensate survivors of the 1986 Moiwana village massacre, in which soldiers had slaughtered 39 unarmed Ndyuka people, mainly women and children. On 13 June 2020, Ronnie Brunswijk was elected Vice President of Suriname by acclamation in an uncontested election. He was inaugurated on 16 July as the first Maroon in Suriname to serve as vice president.


title: Maroons

text: In modern-day Guyana, Dutch officials in 1744 conducted an expedition against encampments of at least 300 Maroons in the Northwest district of Essequibo. The Dutch nailed severed hands of Maroons killed in the expedition to posts in the colony as a warning to other slaves. In 1782, a French official in the region estimated there were more than 2,000 Maroons in the vicinity of Berbice, Demerara, and Essequibo.


title: Maroons

text: Through the region of Barlovento, many free and escaped slaves founded communities, known as "cumbes". One of the most well-known of these settlements is Curiepe, where the annual Fiesta de San Juan is celebrated. Another was the "cumbe" of Ocoyta, led by runaway Guillermo Ribas, which reportedly engaged in a number of attacks on the neighbouring towns of Chuspa and Panaquire. These Venezuelan maroons also traded in cocoa. Guillermo ran away in 1768, and formed a "cumbe" which included runaways of African and Indian origin.


title: Maroons

text: The "cumbe" of Ocoyta was eventually destroyed in 1771. A military expedition led by German de Aguilera destroyed the settlement, killing Guillermo, but only succeeded in capturing eight adults and two children. The rest of the runaways withdrew into the surrounding forests, where they remained at large.


title: Maroons

text: One of Guillermo's deputies, Ubaldo the Englishman, whose christened name was Jose Eduardo de la Luz Perera, was initially born a slave in London, sold to a ship captain, and took a number of trips before eventually being granted his freedom. He was one of a number of free black people who joined the community of Ocoyta. In 1772, he was captured by the Spanish authorities.


title: Maroons

text: There were many "cumbes" in the interior of what later became Venezuela. In 1810, when the War of Independence began, many members of these "cumbes" fought on the side of the rebels, and abandoned their villages.


title: Emily Axford

text: Emily Axford (born July 26, 1984) is an American actress, writer, and producer. She is best known for her various roles in CollegeHumor videos, her role as Emily on the truTV comedy "Adam Ruins Everything," and for her role on the Pop original "Hot Date" co-starring her husband Brian K. Murphy.


title: Emily Axford

text: Axford grew up in the suburbs of Albany, New York. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in religion from George Washington University in 2007. At GWU, she was a part of the co-ed improv troupe called ReceSs. After college, Axford studied at the Upright Citizens Brigade in New York City and then Los Angeles, where she first ventured into internet sketch comedy.


title: Emily Axford

text: Axford is married to Brian K. Murphy, whom she met while working together at College Humor in the early 2010s. The couple has collaborated on several different projects, including the satirizations of their own relationship. They currently reside in Los Angeles, California.


title: Emily Axford

text: From 2011 to 2017, Axford was a writer and actress for digital comedy company CollegeHumor. In 2017, Axford and Murphy transitioned to working as executive producers and actors on the Pop show "Hot Date", which had begun as a web series for CollegeHumor. From 2015 to 2019, Axford co-starred in both the College Humor and TruTV iterations of "Adam Ruins Everything".


title: Emily Axford

text: Axford and Murphy have, in conjunction with Caldwell Tanner, hosted "8-Bit Book Club", a podcast in which they read and discussed video game novels.


title: Emily Axford

text: Axford participates in a variety of Dungeons & Dragons Actual Play shows. She is a player, and occasional game-master, in the HeadGum podcast "Not Another D&D Podcast" with Murphy, Tanner, and Jake Hurwitz. Axford is also a main player character on "Dimension 20", a series from CollegeHumor's streaming service Dropout. She has starred as a variety of characters between the two shows' several campaigns, most of which utilize "Dungeons & Dragons" 5th Edition. She is a featured member of "Dimenson 20"'s post-game podcast, "Adventuring Party".


title: Emily Axford

text: Axford and Murphy co-wrote "HEY, U UP? (For a Serious Relationship): How to Turn Your Booty Call into Your Emergency Contact", a satirical relationship advice book that was published in 2018.


I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love (often shortened to I Brought You My Bullets or Bullets) is the debut studio album by American rock band My Chemical Romance, released on July 23, 2002 by Eyeball Records. Produced by Thursday vocalist Geoff Rickly, it was recorded at Nada Recording Studio in New Windsor, New York, in May 2002. In the band's 2006 documentary "Life on the Murder Scene", the band describes the painful conditions Way was in during the recording of the album due to a toothache, causing the album to take longer to record than planned.


Categorized into genres such as emo, post-hardcore, screamo, gothic rock, pop punk, and garage punk, "I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love" has a raw sound featuring guitar riffs, very energetic vocals and occasional screaming. Despite being sold under the alternative rock genres, it is considered an emo album with strong influences from punk rock, hardcore punk and heavy metal. Songs on "I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love" such as "Skylines and Turnstiles" and "Our Lady of Sorrows" have been described as hardcore punk songs.


"I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love" is often regarded as a concept album. It involves two Bonnie and Clyde-esque characters who are eventually gunned down in the desert. On My Chemical Romance's next album, "Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge" (2004), the unnamed man supposedly then finds himself in purgatory, where he makes a deal with Satan: his hellbound lover for the souls of a thousand evil men. He is then resurrected and sent on his gruesome task. Though it is generally accepted by the group's core fanbase, this has led some to attribute its supposed existence to over-analysis on the part of hardcore fans. The alleged storyline is not confirmed by the band, but some evidence includes:


title: I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love

text: Another theme apparent on the album is the nature of vampires, as in both the undead creatures and, metaphorically speaking, those who seek to corrupt and exploit others. The song "Skylines and Turnstiles" was written shortly after the September 11 attacks and expressed feelings of sorrow and loss, and "Early Sunsets over Monroeville" was inspired by the George A. Romero film "Dawn of the Dead". Gerard Way describes it as "a sweet song about "Dawn of the Dead"", with the lyrics using references from the film. Before the September 11 attacks, Way was working as a comic book writer and animator. He was working on a vampire comic (which he never completed), and has also said that is the reason for the vampires in the lyrics.


text: Text on the album's disc reads, "Unauthorized duplication is a violation of applicable laws and will result in Gerard coming to your house and sucking your blood." In December 2002, the band went on tour with Misery Signals, Remembering Never and Every Time I Die. In May and June 2003, the band went on tour with Every Time I Die and Give Up the Ghost.


text: To promote the album, My Chemical Romance played in bars and clubs around New Jersey. Tour manager Brian Schechter noticed the band performing and thought the band would be perfect for opening for the band The Used. Eventually, Schechter became the manager for My Chemical Romance and "I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love" was noticed by Reprise Records, a major record label connected to Warner Bros. Records. Reprise Records signed My Chemical Romance in 2003.


text: The 2005 and 2009 re-releases of the album contain a bonus Eyeball Records sampler CD. There are several different versions of the sampler, and each one contains different tracks. Since the closure of Eyeball Records, this album is currently out of print on every format. The album was re-released on vinyl on February 3, 2009, with a clear as well as white and red edition. It has sold over 285,000 copies in the US as of February 2009, also achieving a Gold sales status certification for sales of over 100,000 copies in the UK. Physical copies of the album are very rare in the United States today; however, it returned to iTunes on September 23, 2016 and appeared on Spotify and Google Play the same day. In 2016, Frank Iero stated in an "Alternative Press" interview that the original pressing of the album is the rarest to date, with only 100 copies being released and sold strictly at the release party in New Jersey.


title: Eva Angelina

text: Eva Angelina is an American pornographic actress, feature dancer, and real estate agent. She has won several industry awards, including the 2008 AVN Award for Best Actress – Video and the 2008 XBIZ Award for Female Performer of the Year.


title: Eva Angelina

text: Angelina entered the porn industry by answering a newspaper advertisement; her first scene was for the "Shane's World" series with Mr. Pete in 2003, at the age of 18.


title: Eva Angelina

text: As of August 2014 she remains active in the adult entertainment industry as a girl/girl porn performer and feature dancer.


title: Eva Angelina

text: She was married to British pornographic actor Danny Mountain from 2007 to 2009. She has two children. She earned a real estate license in May 2014.


title: Parachutist Badge (United States)

text: The Parachutist Badge, also commonly referred to as "Jump Wings" is a military badge of the United States Armed Forces. The United States Space Force and United States Coast Guard are the only branches that do not award the Parachutist Badge, but their members are authorized to receive the Parachutist Badges of other services in accordance with their prescribed requirements. The DoD military services are all awarded the same Basic Parachutist Badge. The U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force issue the same Senior and Master Parachutist Badges while the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps issue the Navy and Marine Corps Parachutist Badge to advanced parachutists. The majority of the services earn their Basic Parachutist Badge through the U.S. Army Airborne School.


title: Parachutist Badge (United States)

text: The Army's Basic Parachutist Badge is awarded to all military personnel of any service who complete the US Army Basic Airborne Course at Fort Benning, Georgia. It signifies that the soldier is a trained military parachutist, and is qualified to participate in airborne operations. The badge and its sew-on equivalent may be worn on the Army Combat Uniform (ACU).


title: Parachutist Badge (United States)

text: The original Army Parachutist Badge was designed in 1941 by Captain (later Lieutenant General) William P. Yarborough and approved by the Department of War in March of that year. The Parachutist Badge replaced the "Parachutist Patch" which had previously been worn as a large patch on the side of a paratrooper's garrison cap. LTG Yarborough also designed the Senior and Master Parachutist Badges and the addition of stars to portray the number of combat jumps. The airborne background trimming that is worn behind the badge of those assigned to airborne units is also a contribution of William P. Yarborough.


title: Parachutist Badge (United States)

text: To be eligible for award of the basic Parachutist Badge, an individual must have completed the Basic Airborne Course of the Airborne School of the United States Army Infantry School at Fort Benning, Georgia. To graduate, a student must complete the three-phase course consisting of a ground phase, a tower phase, and a jump phase. By the end of the course, a student will have completed five jumps in varying jump configurations, from a "no load" jump all the way to a full combat load jump at night.


title: Parachutist Badge (United States)

text: To be eligible for the Senior Parachutist Badge, an individual must have been rated excellent in character and efficiency and have met the following requirements:


title: Parachutist Badge (United States)

text: To be eligible for the Master Parachutist Badge, an individual must have been rated excellent in character and efficiency and have met the following requirements:


title: Parachutist Badge (United States)

text: The 25 combat equipment jumps necessary to qualify for the Master Parachutist Badge must be from a static line.


title: Parachutist Badge (United States)

text: The master parachutist badge is wide at the widest part of the wings and from the top of the wreath to the bottom of the parachute where the risers meet in a point.


title: Parachutist Badge (United States)

text: Soldiers assigned to Army units on airborne status wear a cloth oval airborne background trimming underneath their Parachutist Badge, which are uniquely designed for each airborne unit. This is one method by which an individual can identify a parachute qualified soldier serving in a unit on active jump status, called a "Paratrooper," versus a parachutist serving in a non-airborne unit. The original airborne background trimming was also a contribution of Captain Yarborough who attempted to address a concern that the Parachutist Badge was too small and did not stand out on the uniform. Today, each unit's airborne background trimming design is created and approved by The Institute of Heraldry who evaluate unit lineage, military heraldry, as well as proposed designs by the requesting unit.


title: Parachutist Badge (United States)

text: If a soldier completes an airborne jump into a combat zone, they are authorized to wear a combat jump device on their Parachutist Badge turning it into what is officially called a Combat Parachutist Badge. The device consists of a star or arrangements of stars, indicating the number of combat jumps (up to five) conducted by the paratrooper. The use of stars as combat jump devices did not gain official approval until after the 1983 invasion of Grenada (Operation Urgent Fury). The stars are awarded as follows:


title: Parachutist Badge (United States)

text: Like the Army, the Air Force issues the same parachutist badges in the same three degrees (Basic, Senior, & Master) but have different criteria for the awarding of these badges. The level of degree is determined by the number of jumps the wearer has successfully completed, years of service on jump status, and other requirements as specified by AFI 11-402, Aviation and Parachutist Service, Aeronautical Ratings and Badges. Additionally Airmen who have earned the Parachutist Badge while serving as members of a sister branch then transferred to the U.S. Air Force are allowed to continue wear of the badge without having to requalify.


title: Parachutist Badge (United States)

text: In 1956 the Air Force began issuing a unique Basic, Senior, and Master Parachutist Badges. These parachutist badges were modeled after the Air Force's Medical Badges. Due to popular demand, the Air Force decided to revert to issuing the Army style parachutist badges in 1963.


title: Parachutist Badge (United States)

text: The Basic Parachutist Badge may be awarded following completion of basic parachute training through a designated Air Force Air-Ground Training Program. Air Force personnel generally earn the basic parachutist badge either through the Army's Airborne School at Fort Benning, or the United States Air Force Academy's AM-490 freefall parachute training course taught by AETC's 98th Flying Training Squadron.


title: Parachutist Badge (United States)

text: The Senior Parachutist Badge consists of the Basic Parachutist Badge with a star atop the parachute. Awarded for 30 static line jumps with a minimum of 24 months of cumulative time on jump status. The 30 jumps must include: (1) Two jumps during the hours of darkness; (2) Fifteen jumps with operational equipment IAW AFI 11-410; (3) Actually perform one night jump as a Primary JM (PJM); and (4) Seven jumps performing as PJM.


title: Parachutist Badge (United States)

text: The Master Parachutist Insignia consists of the Senior Parachutist Badge with a star centered within the wreath. Awarded for 65 static line jumps with a minimum of 36 months of cumulative time on jump status. The 65 jumps must include: (1) Four jumps during the hours of darkness; (2) Twenty-five jumps with operational equipment IAW AFI 11-410; (3) Two night jumps performing PJM duties; and (4) Fifteen jumps performing as PJM.


title: Parachutist Badge (United States)

text: The United States Navy and Marine Corps issue parachutist insignia in two degrees: the U.S. Military Basic Parachutist Badge, also called the Basic Parachutist Insignia (the same badge that's awarded to all DoD military services), and the Navy and Marine Corps Parachutist Insignia. Parachutist insignia is available to personnel who perform qualifying airborne jumps as a:


title: Parachutist Badge (United States)

text: Training is accomplished by successful completion of the prescribed course of instruction while attending the:


title: Parachutist Badge (United States)

text: The right to wear the Basic Parachutist Insignia is based on the completion of prescribed training defined in OPNAVINST 3501.225 and MCO 3120.11:


title: Parachutist Badge (United States)

text: When a US Navy enlisted member initially qualifies as a static line parachutist, an entry shall be made on NAVPERS 1070/613 (commonly referred to as a "Page 13" entry) of the US Navy enlisted service record indicating the date of qualification, type(s) of aircraft in which qualified, and unit at which the training was received. Navy enlisted members are authorized the parachutist (PJ) designator added to their rating.


title: Parachutist Badge (United States)

text: A qualified static-line parachute jumper who successfully completes the prescribed program of instruction while attending a formal, interservice training facility including a minimum of 10 military free-fall parachute jumps, at least 2 of which must have been conducted carrying full combat equipment (1 day/1 night), may qualify. Navy enlisted members are authorized the military free-fall parachutist (FPJ) designator added to their rating.


title: Parachutist Badge (United States)

text: When a US Navy officer initially qualifies as a static line parachutist, the additional qualification designator (AQD) of BT1 will be entered into the officer's record by their detailer (NAVPERS). Free-fall qualification will result in an AQD of BT2.


title: Parachutist Badge (United States)

text: For both Static Line and Military Free Fall Parachutist qualified personnel, a service record entry shall also indicate whether or not the member is HALO-qualified.


title: Parachutist Badge (United States)

text: The Basic Parachutist Badge is a prerequisite for the Special Warfare Badge since parachutist training is an integral part of the Navy's Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) program. SEAL personnel generally do not wear the Basic badge once they earn their Special Warfare insignia, but will wear their Navy and Marine Corps Parachutist Badge in addition to the Special Warfare Badge, the latter nicknamed the "Budweiser" badge. Navy EOD technicians are generally also jump qualified with a number of them also being qualified in military free-fall (HALO/HAHO). Currently, due to a recent change, newly pinned Navy EOD technicians are required to attend the U.S. Army's Basic Airborne School upon graduation. As well, a number of SWCC personnel earn Basic Parachutist badges in conjunction with their assignment to a Special Boat Team detachment that uses the Maritime Craft Air Delivery System (MCADS). This enables them to drop small watercraft and their crews from C-130 aircraft.


title: Parachutist Badge (United States)

text: The Navy and Marine Corps Parachutist Insignia (originally issued as Navy Parachute Rigger wings) is a gold-colored embroidered or metal insignia depicting an open parachute with outstretched wings. It is authorized for officers and enlisted personnel who were awarded the Basic Parachutist Insignia and, under competent orders, have completed a minimum of five additional static-line or P3 jumps, to include: "(1) combat equipment day jump, two (2) combat equipment night jumps, and employ at least two (2) different types of military aircraft."


title: Parachutist Badge (United States)

text: The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps Parachutist badge was originally known as the U.S. Navy Certified Parachute Rigger badge and designed by American Insignia Company in 1942 for graduates of the U.S. Navy Parachute Rigger School. During WWII, despite being against uniform regulations it became common for U.S. Marine Corps paratroopers who were issued the silver U.S. Army Basic Parachutist badge to wear the gold Navy Certified Parachute Rigger badge because they believed the gold "Rigger wings" looked better on their uniform. This out of regulations wearing of the Parachute Rigger badge became so common that in July 1963, the Commander of United States Marine Corps Force Reconnaissance Bruce F. Meyers sent a request to the Chief of Naval Operations Admiral George W. Anderson Jr. via Marine Corps Commandant General David M. Shoup requesting to officially make the Navy Parachute Rigger badge the parachutist badge for the Navy and Marine Corps. The request was approved by Admiral Anderson on 12 July 1963 per BuPers Notice 1020. Originally the badge was worn upon graduation from Navy PR school, but since 1963 being a certified parachute rigger, survival equipmentman, and graduate of the U.S. Navy Parachute Rigger is no longer a requirement to earn the badge. Currently, the Navy and Marine Corps Parachutist Insignia only requires the completion of the minimum five additional jumps in a jump billet, but service members can request to attend Navy Parachute Rigger School for further training and specialized occupational duties such as Special Operations Parachute Rigger (SOPR) who work within Navy SEAL teams and Naval Special Warfare and explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) units throughout the world.


title: Parachutist Badge (United States)

text: Qualified Army and Air Force personnel may go on to earn the Military Freefall Parachutist Badge in special operations training for High Altitude Low Opening (HALO) and High Altitude High Opening (HAHO) jumps. HALO/HAHO training is conducted by the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School of the US Army Special Operations Command, on behalf of the US Special Operations Command. It is awarded in two degrees: Basic and Master. To earn the basic badge, the jumper must have graduated from Army Airborne School and the Military Free-Fall Parachutist Course. To earn the master badge, jumpers must have graduated from Army Airborne School, Army Jumpmaster School, Military Free-Fall Parachutist Course, and the Military Free-Fall Jumpmaster Course.


title: Parachutist Badge (United States)

text: As with the Army's Parachutist Badges, Army parachutists that have earned one of the Military Freefall Parachutist Badges are also eligible to earn Combat Jump Devices.


title: The Revolution (band)

text: The Revolution is an American band formed in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1979 by Prince, serving as his live band and later as his studio band. The band's sound incorporated rock, pop, R&B, funk, new wave and psychedelic elements. Along with Prince's other projects, the Revolution helped create the Minneapolis sound. By the time of their 1986 breakup, the Revolution had backed Prince on two studio albums, two soundtracks and two videos.


title: The Revolution (band)

text: After making its studio album debut on "1999" (1982), the Revolution rose to international fame with "Purple Rain" (1984), which reached number one on the "Billboard" 200 and became certified 13× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The band achieved its second number-one "Billboard" 200 album with "Around the World in a Day" in 1985. They charted six top 10 singles on the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart, including three number-ones: "Let's Go Crazy", "When Doves Cry" and "Kiss". The band officially disbanded in 1986 after the Hit n Run – Parade Tour, which supported "Parade", the soundtrack for "Under the Cherry Moon". Following Prince's death in 2016, the band announced reunion shows. The Revolution has won three Grammy Awards.


title: The Revolution (band)

text: When Prince formed his backing band after the release of his first album, influenced by Sly Stone, he created a multi-racial, multi-gendered musical ensemble. The band initially consisted of:


title: The Revolution (band)

text: Though officially unnamed, Prince experimented with the band acting as a side project known as The Rebels, recording material in 1979 in Colorado to get more music out. The recordings were a group effort with lead vocals by Cymone, Dickerson or Chapman. The project was shelved for unknown reasons, but two of the tracks were later re-recorded and given away by Prince: "You", became "U", and was released on Paula Abdul's 1991 "Spellbound" album; while "If I Love U 2 Nite" was released by both Mica Paris and Prince's later wife, Mayte Garcia. Paris rerecorded the song from scratch, which was released in 1991. Garcia's version, released in 1995, was rerecorded by Prince.


title: The Revolution (band)

text: On the next two tours following the Prince Tour, the band underwent two line-up changes. Gayle Chapman quit the band in 1980. The end came when she told Prince she needed more musical fulfillment and growth for herself, but Prince wanted her to commit to some short-noticed rehearsals instead. After a long conversation, Chapman quit the group to be replaced by Lisa Coleman.


title: The Revolution (band)

text: The following year, after the Dirty Mind Tour, bass guitarist André Cymone would leave the band. Cymone, whose family gave Prince a home after he left his father's house, left over a number of grievances with Prince—little input in the studio, he wasn't getting credit for his contributions to Prince's music, and in general his desire to start his own career—and would have bitter feelings toward Prince as he later claimed that Prince stole many of his ideas that were used for the Time and that he created the bassline for "Controversy"s "Do Me, Baby". Ultimately, Cymone was replaced by Mark Brown, renamed Brownmark by Prince. Coleman was usually only identified by her first name, while Fink started wearing surgical scrubs on stage and became known as "Doctor" Fink. Fink originally wore a black- and white-striped prison jumpsuit. However, a member of Rick James' band was doing the same thing and not wanting to copy that, Prince asked Fink, "Do you have any other ideas?" Fink said, "What about a doctor's outfit?" Prince loved the idea, and thus was born Doctor Fink.


title: The Revolution (band)

text: The words "and the Revolution" can be seen printed backwards on the cover of his fifth album "1999". The band members were curious as to if they were getting a real name, but Prince had held back from fully calling the group the Revolution partly because of Dez Dickerson's wishes to leave the band. When the 1999 Tour ended, Dez Dickerson finally left the band for religious reasons and was replaced by Coleman's childhood friend Wendy Melvoin. Prince told Dickerson that he needed three years from him, and Dickerson wasn't willing to commit. Prince told Dickerson he'd leave him on payroll and honor his contract, which Prince did. Dickerson went on to eventually work for independent Christian record label Star Song. Wendy and Lisa shortly thereafter formed a special bond with Prince and greatly influenced his output during the rest of their tenure in the band. Prince's former mostly R&B/funk offerings would be more diversified with rock, pop, and classical music elements.


title: The Revolution (band)

text: Prince and The Revolution's best-selling album, "Purple Rain", produced by Prince and The Revolution themselves, peaked at number one on the "Billboard" 200 knocking Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the U.S.A." from the number one spot. Released at the end of June 1984, the album featured the singles "When Doves Cry", "Let's Go Crazy", "Purple Rain", "I Would Die 4 U", and "Take Me with U". All the singles had accompanying music videos (all of which included clips from their relative scenes in the movie) and all charted on the "Billboard" Hot 100, but the first four peaked within the top 10 while "When Doves Cry" and "Let's Go Crazy" topped the chart. "When Doves Cry" would become the most successful single from "Purple Rain" at the time of its release on the pop charts, reaching number one on the "Billboard" Hot 100 as well as the Dance and R&B chart.


title: The Revolution (band)

text: The song "Purple Rain" won two Grammy Awards for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal and Best Instrumental Composition Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or for Television. The album spent 24 weeks at number one and would eventually be certified thirteen times platinum in the United States, six times platinum in Canada and two times platinum in the United Kingdom. "Purple Rain" would become the first official appearance of The Revolution. At the time of the release the band contained:


title: The Revolution (band)

text: They lasted as such through 1986's Hit n Run – Parade Tour. In 1985, members of the then soon-to-be-defunct R&B/pop group The Family (which, in turn, included former members of another disbanded Prince-associated group, The Time) joined The Revolution, along with people from Sheila E.'s band. The "Counter-Revolution" line-up:


title: The Revolution (band)

text: For the Hit n Run – Parade Tour, the augmented Revolution with its several new members began to perform the jazzy arrangements from the album, including the horn sections.


title: The Revolution (band)

text: "Dream Factory" was an unreleased double LP project recorded by Prince and The Revolution in 1986. The album morphed into "Sign o' the Times" following the dissolution of The Revolution.


title: The Revolution (band)

text: Prince did not want to see his band anymore and The Revolution were not happy with Prince's decision to include new band members. In a 2017 direct-to-YouTube interview (on Yahoo's account), Wendy Melvoin remembers Prince rehearsing with all his new selections, and ignoring The Revolution by not looking at them. Brownmark, Wendy and Lisa threatened to quit. At one point, Prince dispatched Bobby Z. to the airport and literally caught Melvoin and Coleman before they boarded. Eventually all three were convinced to ride it out. Prince promised Brownmark a lot of money, but Brownmark settled for $3000 a week, a paltry sum based on other touring bands. He turned down a much more lucrative gig as bassist for Stevie Nicks, who was going on tour at that time. Brown has said that Prince never followed through on "all that money". But as the tour ended, on the final night in Yokohama, Japan, Prince smashed up all of his guitars after a final encore of "Purple Rain". Wendy looked round at the other members and she whispered (and they agreed),"It's over!".


title: The Revolution (band)

text: Shortly after the Parade Tour in October 1986, after all the tension between Prince, Wendy Melvoin, and Coleman due to his relationship with Susannah Melvoin, Prince invited Wendy Melvoin and Coleman to dinner at his rented Beverly Hills home and fired them both. Unhappy with their lack of credit and creativity, Wendy & Lisa went on to perform as a duo. Susannah ended up leaving the Revolution too, following a breakup with Prince, and performed for a time with Wendy & Lisa as a backup singer in their band.


title: The Revolution (band)

text: He then called Bobby Z. to tell him that he was being replaced by Sheila E, although he was kept on payroll for quite a few years after the fact, honoring Z's contract. Bobby Z released a solo album in 1989.


title: The Revolution (band)

text: Brownmark was asked to stay but quit. Although he said it was "partly out of loyalty to the others" and also because he was "unhappy with the direction of Prince's music at the time".


title: The Revolution (band)

text: Matt Fink remained with Prince until 1991, when similar to the exit of Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis from The Time, Matt Fink told Prince he wasn't available for two dates at the Rock in Rio festival, as he was busy producing for another band at the time, and found himself replaced by Tommy Barbarella. However, Fink also stated in a 2001 interview that he was tired of being in the band. When Prince filmed "Graffiti Bridge", Prince wanted Fink to "rehearse the band" and was told that "there wasn't really anywhere in the movie for him." After the ensuing Nude Tour, essentially a greatest hits-type tour, Fink left for a career writing music for video games, and working at K-Tel Records, based out of Minneapolis. Unlike his bandmates Fink did not immediately release any solo material, an album not being released until 2001.


title: The Revolution (band)

text: In 2000, Prince had a celebration concert in his hometown of Minneapolis, Minnesota, and asked if any former bandmates wished to perform. Dr. Fink, Bobby Z. and Brown Mark appeared and joined Prince on stage to perform the song "America".


title: The Revolution (band)

text: On December 13, 2003, Sheila E. organized a concert for the charity 1st Annual Family Jamm, which featured several of Prince's protégés, including the entire Revolution, without Prince. They played six songs including "Mountains", "Purple Rain", and "Baby I'm a Star". That next year, Wendy Melvoin performed a live rendition of "Musicology" track "Reflection" with Prince on Tavis Smiley's PBS television program.


title: The Revolution (band)

text: At the 2006 BRIT Awards, a reformed Revolution once again backed Prince, as he reunited with Wendy, Lisa and Sheila E., while also featuring former New Power Generation member Morris Hayes and played "Te Amo Corazón" (from Prince's "3121" album), "Fury" (also from "3121"), "Purple Rain", and "Let's Go Crazy". Sheila E. played drums only on "Purple Rain", playing percussion for the rest of the songs.


title: The Revolution (band)

text: On February 19, 2012, The Revolution (without Prince) performed a reunion/benefit concert in Minneapolis at First Avenue, where the "Purple Rain" movie was filmed.


title: The Revolution (band)

text: Following the death of Prince on April 21, 2016, The Revolution announced that they were getting back together as a band. , they continue to perform Prince's songs live.


title: The Revolution (band)

text: The Revolution has been honored with a star on the outside mural of the Minneapolis nightclub First Avenue, recognizing performers that have played sold-out shows or have otherwise demonstrated a major contribution to the culture at the iconic venue. Receiving a star "might be the most prestigious public honor an artist can receive in Minneapolis," according to journalist Steve Marsh. The band's star is located to the immediate right of Prince's own star on the mural.


title: Caecilian

text: Caecilians (; ) are a group of limbless, vermiform or serpentine amphibians. They mostly live hidden in the ground and in stream substrates, making them the least familiar order of amphibians. Caecilians are mostly distributed in the tropics of South and Central America, Africa, and southern Asia. Their diet consists of small subterranean creatures such as earthworms.


title: Caecilian

text: All modern caecilians and their closest fossil relatives are grouped as a clade, Apoda , within the larger group Gymnophiona , which also includes more primitive extinct caecilian-like amphibians. The name derives from the Greek words γυμνος ("gymnos", naked) and οφις ("ophis", snake), as the caecilians were originally thought to be related to snakes. The body is cylindrical dark brown or bluish black in colour. The skin is slimy and bears grooves or ringlike markings.


title: Caecilian

text: Caecilians completely lack limbs, making the smaller species resemble worms, while the larger species, with lengths up to , resemble snakes. Their tails are short or absent, and their cloacae are near the ends of their bodies.


title: Caecilian

text: Their skin is smooth and usually dark, but some species have colourful skins. Inside the skin are calcite scales. Because of these scales, the caecilians were once thought to be related to the fossil Stegocephalia, but they are now believed to be a secondary development, and the two groups are most likely unrelated. Scales are absent in the families Scolecomorphidae and Typhlonectidae, except the species Typhlonectes compressicauda where minute scales have been found in the hinder region of the body. The skin also has numerous ring-shaped folds, or annuli, that partially encircle the body, giving them a segmented appearance. Like some other living amphibians, the skin contains glands that secrete a toxin to deter predators. The skin secretions of "Siphonops paulensis" have been shown to have hemolytic properties.


title: Caecilian

text: Caecilians' vision is limited to dark-light perception, and their anatomy is highly adapted for a burrowing lifestyle. They have a strong skull, with a pointed snout used to force their way through soil or mud. In most species, the bones in the skull are reduced in number and fused together, and the mouth is recessed under the head. Their muscles are adapted to pushing their way through the ground, with the skeleton and deep muscles acting as a piston inside the skin and outer muscles. This allows the animal to anchor its hind end in position, and force the head forwards, and then pull the rest of the body up to reach it in waves. In water or very loose mud, caecilians instead swim in an eel-like fashion. Caecilians in the family Typhlonectidae are aquatic, and the largest of their kind. The representatives of this family have a fleshy fin running along the rear section of their bodies, which enhances propulsion in water.


title: Caecilian

text: All but the most primitive caecilians have two sets of muscles for closing the jaw, compared with the single pair found in other creatures. These are more highly developed in the most efficient burrowers among the caecilians, and appear to help keep the skull and jaw rigid.


title: Caecilian

text: All caecilians possess a pair of tentacles located between their eyes and nostrils. These are probably used for a second olfactory capability, in addition to the normal sense of smell based in the nose.


title: Caecilian

text: The ringed caecilian ("Siphonops annulatus") has dental glands that may be homologous to the venom glands of some snakes and lizards. The function of these glands is unknown.


title: Caecilian

text: The middle ear consists of only the stapes and the oval window, which transfer vibration to the inner ear through a reentrant fluid circuit as seen in some reptiles. The species within the Scolecomorphidae lack both stapes and an oval window, making them the only known amphibians missing all the components of a middle ear apparatus.


title: Caecilian

text: Except for one lungless species, "Atretochoana eiselti", all caecilians have lungs, but also use their skin or mouths for oxygen absorption. Often, the left lung is much smaller than the right one, an adaptation to body shape that is also found in snakes.


title: Caecilian

text: Caecilians are native to wet, tropical regions of Southeast Asia, India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka, parts of East and West Africa, the Seychelles Islands in the Indian Ocean, Central America, and in northern and eastern South America. In Africa, caecilians are found from Guinea-Bissau ("Geotrypetes") to southern Malawi ("Scolecomorphus"), with an unconfirmed record from eastern Zimbabwe. They have not been recorded from the extensive areas of tropical forest in central Africa. In South America, they extend through subtropical eastern Brazil well into temperate northern Argentina. They can be seen as far south as Buenos Aires, when they are carried by the flood waters of the Paraná River coming from farther north. Their American range extends north to southern Mexico. The northernmost distribution is of the species "Ichthyophis sikkimensis" of northern India. "Ichthyophis" is also found in South China and Northern Vietnam. In Southeast Asia, they are found as far east as Java, Borneo, and the southern Philippines, but they have not crossed Wallace's line and are not present in Australia or nearby islands. There are no known caecilians in Madagascar, but their presence in the Seychelles and India has led to speculation on the presence of undiscovered extinct or extant caecilians there.


title: Caecilian

text: In 2021, a live specimen of "Typhlonectes natans", a caecilian native to Colombia and Venezuela, was collected from a drainage canal in South Florida. It was the only caecilian ever reported in the wild in the United States, and is considered to be an introduction, perhaps from the wildlife trade. Whether a breeding population has been established in the area is unknown.


title: Caecilian

text: The name "caecilian" derives from the Latin word "caecus", meaning "blind", referring to the small or sometimes nonexistent eyes. The name dates back to the taxonomic name of the first species described by Carl Linnaeus, which he named "Caecilia tentaculata".


title: Caecilian

text: There has historically been disagreement over the use of the two primary scientific names for caecilians, Apoda and Gymnophiona. Some specialists prefer to use the name Gymnophiona to refer to the "crown group", that is, the group containing all modern caecilians and extinct members of these modern lineages. They sometimes use the name Apoda to refer to the total group, that is, all caecilians and caecilian-like amphibians that are more closely related to modern groups than to frogs or salamanders. However, many scientists have advocated for the reverse arrangement, where Apoda is used as the name for modern caecilian groups. Some have argued that this use makes more sense, because the name "Apoda" means "without feet", and this is a feature associated mainly with modern species (some stem-group caecilian-like amphibians, such as "Eocaecilia", had legs).


title: Caecilian

text: The most recent classification of caecilians, by Wilkinson et al. (2011), divided the caecilians into 9 families containing nearly 200 species. Since then, a tenth caecilian family has been discovered, Chikilidae. This classification is based on a thorough definition of monophyly based on morphological and molecular evidence, and it solves the longstanding problems of paraphyly of the Caeciliidae in previous classifications without an exclusive reliance upon synonymy. It contains 256 species in 56 genera.


title: Caecilian

text: The most recent phylogeny of caecilians is based on molecular mitogenomic evidence examined by San Mauro et al. (2014), and modified to include some more recently described genera such as "Amazops".


title: Caecilian

text: Little is known of the evolutionary history of the caecilians, which have left a very sparse fossil record. The first fossil, a vertebra dated to the Paleocene, was not discovered until 1972. Other vertebrae, which have characteristic features unique to modern species, were later found in Paleocene and Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian) sediments.


title: Caecilian

text: The earliest fossil attributed to a stem-caecilian (a species closer to caecilians than to frogs or salamanders but not a member of the extant lineage) comes from the Jurassic period. This primitive genus, "Eocaecilia", had small limbs and well-developed eyes. In their 2008 description of the fossil batrachian "Gerobatrachus", Anderson and co-authors suggested that caecilians arose from the Lepospondyl group of ancestral tetrapods, and may be more closely related to amniotes than to frogs and salamanders, which arose from Temnospondyl ancestors. Numerous groups of lepospondyls evolved reduced limbs, elongated bodies, and burrowing behaviors, and morphological studies on Permian and Carboniferous lepospondyls have placed the early caecilian ("Eocaecilia") among these groups. Divergent origins of caecilians and other extant amphibians may help explain the slight discrepancy between fossil dates for the origins of modern amphibia, which suggest Permian origins, and the earlier dates, in the Carboniferous, predicted by some molecular clock studies of DNA sequences. Most morphological and molecular studies of extant amphibians, however, support monophyly for caecilians, frogs, and salamanders, and the most recent molecular study based on multi-locus data suggest a Late Carboniferous–Early Permian origin of extant amphibians. The Late Triassic stem-caecilian "Chinlestegophis" from the Chinle Formation of Colorado bolsters the proposed pre-Triassic origin of Lissamphibia suggested by molecular clocks by filling a gap in the fossil record of early caecilians and suggesting that groups of stereospondyls, including Metoposauridae, are closely related to caecilians. However, affinities between "Chinlestegophis" and gymnophionans have been disputed both because of the choice of characters and because reanalysis of the original data matrix supports other equally parsimonious positions of "Chinlestegophis" and gymnophionans among tetrapods.


title: Caecilian

text: Caecilians are the only order of amphibians to use internal insemination exclusively (although most salamanders have internal fertilization and the tailed frog in the US uses a tail-like appendage for internal insemination in its fast-flowing water environment). The male caecilians have a long tube-like intromittent organ, the phallodeum, which is inserted into the cloaca of the female for two to three hours. About 25% of the species are oviparous (egg-laying); the eggs are guarded by the female. For some species, the young caecilians are already metamorphosed when they hatch; others hatch as larvae. The larvae are not fully aquatic, but spend the daytime in the soil near the water.


title: Caecilian

text: About 75% of caecilians are viviparous, meaning they give birth to already-developed offspring. The foetus is fed inside the female with cells lining the oviduct, which they eat with special scraping teeth.


title: Caecilian

text: The egg-laying species "Boulengerula taitana" feeds its young by developing an outer layer of skin, high in fat and other nutrients, which the young peel off with modified teeth. This allows them to grow by up to 10 times their own weight in a week. The skin is consumed every three days, the time it takes for a new layer to grow, and the young have only been observed to eat it at night. It was formerly thought that the juveniles subsisted only on a liquid secretion from their mothers.


title: Caecilian

text: Some larvae, such as those of "Typhlonectes", are born with enormous external gills which are shed almost immediately.


title: Caecilian

text: The diets of caecilians are not well known. Mature caecilians seem to feed mostly on insects and other invertebrates found in the habitat of the respective species. The stomach contents of 14 specimens of "Boulengerula taitana" consisted of mostly unidentifiable organic material and plant remains. Where identifiable remains were most abundant, they were found to be termite heads. While the undefinable organic material may show the caecilians eat detritus, the remains may be from earthworms. Caecilians in captivity can be easily fed with earthworms, and worms are also common in the habitat of many caecilian species.


title: Pro Tools

text: Pro Tools is a digital audio workstation (DAW) developed and released by Avid Technology (formerly Digidesign) for Microsoft Windows and macOS. It is used for music creation and production, sound for picture (sound design, audio post-production and mixing) and, more generally, sound recording, editing, and mastering processes.


title: Pro Tools

text: Pro Tools operates both as standalone software and in conjunction with a range of external analog-to-digital converters and PCIe cards with on-board digital signal processors (DSP). The DSP is used to provide additional processing power to the host computer for processing real-time effects, such as reverb, equalization, and compression and to obtain lower latency audio performance. Like all digital audio workstation software, Pro Tools can perform the functions of a multitrack tape recorder and a mixing console along with additional features that can only be performed in the digital domain, such as non-linear and non-destructive editing (most of audio handling is done without overwriting the source files), track compositing with multiple playlists, time compression and expansion, pitch shifting, and faster-than-real-time mixdown.


title: Pro Tools

text: Audio, MIDI, and video tracks are graphically represented on a timeline. Audio effects, virtual instruments, and hardware emulators—such as microphone preamps or guitar amplifiers—can be added, adjusted, and processed in real-time in a virtual mixer. 16-bit, 24-bit, and 32-bit float audio bit depths at sample rates up to 192 kHz are supported. Pro Tools supports mixed bit depths and audio formats in a session: BWF/WAV (including WAVE Extensible, RF64 and BW64) and AIFF. It imports and exports MOV video files and ADM BWF files (audio files with Dolby Atmos metadata); it also imports MXF, ACID and REX files and the lossy formats MP3, AAC, M4A, and audio from video files (MOV, MP4, M4V). The legacy SDII format was dropped with Pro Tools 10, although SDII conversion is still possible on macOS.


title: Pro Tools

text: Pro Tools has incorporated video editing capabilities, so users can import and manipulate high-definition video file formats such as XDCAM, MJPG-A, PhotoJPG, DV25, QuickTime, and more. It features time code, tempo maps, elastic audio, and automation; supports mixing in surround sound, Dolby Atmos and VR sound using Ambisonics.


title: Pro Tools

text: The Pro Tools TDM mix engine, supported until 2011 with version 10, employed 24-bit fixed-point arithmetic for plug-in processing and 48-bit for mixing. Current HDX hardware systems, HD Native and native systems use 32-bit floating-point resolution for plug-ins and 64-bit floating-point summing. The software and the audio engine were adapted to 64-bit architecture from version 11.


title: Pro Tools

text: In 2022, Avid switched Pro Tools from a perpetual license to a subscription model. New users have to choose between three new plans: Pro Tools Artist, which costs $9.99 per month or $99 per year; Pro Tools Studio, which costs $39.99 per month or $299 per year; and Pro Tools Flex, which costs $99.99 per month or $999 per year. Later in 2022, Avid launched a free version: Pro Tools Intro.


title: Pro Tools

text: Pro Tools was developed by UC Berkeley graduates Evan Brooks, who majored in electrical engineering and computer science, and Peter Gotcher.


title: Pro Tools

text: In 1983, the two friends, sharing an interest in music and electronic and software engineering, decided to study the memory mapping of the newly released E-mu Drumulator drum machine to create EPROM sound replacement chips. The Drumulator was quite popular at that time, although it was limited to its built-in samples.


title: Pro Tools

text: They started selling the upgrade chips one year later under their new Digidrums label. Five different upgrade chips were available, offering different alternate drum styles. The chips, easily switchable with the original ones, enjoyed remarkable success between the Drumulator users, selling 60,000 units overall.


title: Pro Tools

text: When Apple released its first Macintosh computer in 1984, the pair thought to design a more functional and flexible solution which could take advantage of a graphical interface. In collaboration with E-Mu, they developed a Mac-based visual sample editing system for the Emulator II keyboard, called Sound Designer, released under the Digidesign brand and inspired by the interface of the Fairlight CMI. This system, the first ancestor of Pro Tools, was released in 1985 at the price of US$995.