title: Pond

text: In landscapes where ponds are artificially constructed, they are done so to provide wildlife viewing and conservation opportunities, to treat wastewater, for sequestration and pollution containment, or for simply aesthetic purposes. For natural pond conservation and development, one way to stimulate this is with general stream and river restoration. Many small rivers and streams feed into or from local ponds within the same watershed. When these rivers and streams flood and begin to meander, large numbers of natural ponds, including vernal pools and wetlands, develop.


title: The Wire (season 4)

text: The fourth season of the television series "The Wire" commenced airing in the United States on September 10, 2006, concluded on December 10, 2006, and contained 13 episodes. It introduces Baltimore's school system and several middle school students while continuing to examine the remnants of the Barksdale Organization, the ascendant Stanfield Organization, the Baltimore Police Department and politicians.


title: The Wire (season 4)

text: The fourth season aired on Sundays at 9:00 pm ET in the United States. The season was released on DVD as a four disc boxed set under the title of "The Wire: The Complete Fourth Season" on December 4, 2007 by HBO Video.


title: The Wire (season 4)

text: Playwright and television writer/producer Eric Overmyer joined the crew for the show's fourth season as a consulting producer and writer. He had previously worked on "Homicide" and was brought into the full-time production staff to replace George Pelecanos who scaled back his involvement in order to concentrate on his next book and he worked on the fourth season solely as a writer. David Mills, Emmy-award winner, "Homicide" and "The Corner" writer and college friend of Simon, joined the writing staff in the fourth season. Regular writer Ed Burns became a producer on "The Wire" in this season.


title: The Wire (season 4)

text: The focus of the fourth season shifted between a local school, the mayoral election, police department politics and action on the street corners. The returning starring cast consisted of Dominic West as Officer Jimmy McNulty, the formerly insubordinate detective who attempts to shed his ability and his problems in favor of a better life. West was at the time homesick and wanting to spend time with his young daughter in England; he also felt the character's plot arc had reached a reasonable end point in season 3, so West arranged with the writers for McNulty's role to be greatly reduced in Season 4.


title: The Wire (season 4)

text: Lance Reddick reprised his role as newly promoted Major Cedric Daniels, now commanding the western district. One of Daniels's sergeants within the district was Sergeant Ellis Carver, portrayed by Seth Gilliam. Robert Wisdom reprised his role as former western district commander Howard "Bunny" Colvin, who has become a field researcher after a short stint working in hotel security following his retirement from the Baltimore Police Department.


title: The Wire (season 4)

text: The Major Crimes Unit saw a shift in personnel this season. Kima Greggs, portrayed by Sonja Sohn, and Lester Freamon, portrayed by Clarke Peters, transferred to the Homicide Unit after the new lieutenant of the Major Crimes Unit ends the wire and halts Freamon's investigation of the Barksdale money. Corey Parker-Robinson portrayed Detective Leander Sydnor, one of two detectives who remain in the Major Crimes Unit after the arrival of the new lieutenant. Domenick Lombardozzi returned as Thomas "Herc" Hauk, a former member of the Major Crimes Unit whose work on the mayor's security detail earns him a promotion to sergeant and a transfer back to his old unit after Freamon and Greggs' departure.


title: The Wire (season 4)

text: Wendell Pierce portrayed veteran homicide detective Bunk Moreland. Deirdre Lovejoy starred as assistant state's attorney Rhonda Pearlman, the legal liaison between the unit and the courthouse. Andre Royo returned as Bubbles, who continued to indulge his drug addiction and act as an occasional informant. Jim True-Frost portrayed Roland "Prez" Pryzbylewski, a former member of the Major Crimes Unit who has become a teacher in an inner city school after inadvertently killing a fellow officer in season three.


title: The Wire (season 4)

text: The police were overseen by two commanding officers more concerned with politics and their own careers than the case, Deputy Commissioner of Operations William Rawls (John Doman) and Commissioner Ervin Burrell (Frankie Faison). At city hall, Tommy Carcetti (Aidan Gillen) was an ambitious city councilman seeking to become mayor. Joining the cast for the fourth season was Reg E. Cathey as Carcetti's deputy campaign manager, Norman Wilson. Also joining the cast after having a recurring role during the third season was Glynn Turman as Mayor Clarence Royce.


title: The Wire (season 4)

text: On the streets, former Barksdale crew chief Bodie Broadus (J.D. Williams) joined the organization of new drug kingpin Marlo Stanfield (Jamie Hector). Michael K. Williams portrayed renowned stick-up man Omar Little. Joining the cast this season after having a recurring role in season three is Chad L. Coleman as Dennis "Cutty" Wise, a reformed member of the Barksdale organization who has opened a boxing gym for neighborhood children.


title: The Wire (season 4)

text: Two members of the third season starring cast did not return for the fourth season following the termination of their characters' storylines. Both Wood Harris (Avon Barksdale) and Idris Elba (Stringer Bell) left the starring cast in the final episode of the third season.


title: The Wire (season 4)

text: Many guest stars from the earlier seasons reprised their roles. Proposition Joe (Robert F. Chew), the East Side's cautious drug kingpin, became more cooperative with the Stanfield Organization following the death of Stringer Bell. His lieutenant, and nephew, "Cheese" (Method Man) continued to elude the Major Crimes Unit investigation. Hassan Johnson reprises his role as incarcerated Barksdale enforcer Wee-Bey Brice. Former Barksdale enforcer Slim Charles (Anwan Glover) returned as a new recruit to Proposition Joe's organization.


title: The Wire (season 4)

text: Several members of the Stanfield Organization introduced in season three also returned: Chris Partlow (Gbenga Akinnagbe), Stanfield's chief enforcer; and Felicia "Snoop" Pearson (Felicia Pearson), Partlow's protégé. Tray Chaney continues to portray former Barksdale crew chief Poot Carr, who joins the Stanfield organization this season.


title: The Wire (season 4)

text: Michael Hyatt reprised her role as Brianna Barksdale. Michael Kostroff returned as the defense attorney Maurice Levy. Isiah Whitlock, Jr. reprised his role as corrupt State Senator Clay Davis whose involvement with Barksdale money causes him trouble with the Major Crimes Unit. Omar Little's crew shifted focus to the Stanfield Organization and the New Day Co-op and consisted of his new boyfriend Renaldo (Ramón Rodríguez), partner Kimmy (Kelli R. Brown), and advisor Butchie (S. Robert Morgan).


title: The Wire (season 4)

text: Many guest stars also reprised their characters from the police department. Returning guest stars in the homicide unit included Delaney Williams as Sergeant Jay Landsman, Ed Norris as Detective Ed Norris, and Brian Anthony Wilson as Detective Vernon Holley. Al Brown and Jay Landsman reprised their roles as Major Stan Valchek and Lieutenant Dennis Mello. Michael Salconi recurred as veteran Western patrolman Michael Santangelo.


title: The Wire (season 4)

text: Gregory L. Williams played Michael Crutchfield, a cantankerous homicide detective. Joilet F. Harris returned as Caroline Massey, an officer in the Major Crimes Unit. Joining the Major Crimes Unit this season is Kenneth Dozerman (Rick Otto). In the western district, Carver's squad includes Anthony Colicchio (Benjamin Busch), Lloyd "Truck" Garrick (Ryan Sands), and Lambert (Nakia Dillard).


title: The Wire (season 4)

text: In the political storyline, Cleo Reginald Pizana returned as Coleman Parker, Royce's chief-of-staff. Brandy Burre appeared as Theresa D'Agostino, a political campaign consultant. Frederick Strother performed as Odell Watkins, a state delegate and political king-maker. Christopher Mann played Carcetti's city council colleague Anthony Gray. Maria Broom returns as Marla Daniels, the estranged wife of Major Daniels who is running for a seat on the city council.


title: The Wire (season 4)

text: The fourth season also saw the return of two former starring characters from the second season: Amy Ryan as Officer Beadie Russell, an officer at the port and Jimmy McNulty's domestic partner, and Paul Ben-Victor as Spiros Vondas, the second in command of the Greek's drug smuggling operation.


title: The Wire (season 4)

text: The shift of focus to the schools saw the introduction of four young actors in major recurring roles this season: Jermaine Crawford as Duquan "Dukie" Weems; Maestro Harrell as Randy Wagstaff; Julito McCullum as Namond Brice; and Tristan Wilds as Michael Lee. The characters are friends from a West Baltimore middle school. Other new characters from the school included Tootsie Duvall as Assistant Principal Marcia Donnelly; David Parenti (Dan DeLuca), a Professor of Sociology at the University of Maryland who works with Bunny Colvin in the school to study potential violent offenders; Stacie Davis portrayed Miss Duquette, a doctoral student who works with Parenti and Colvin; Aaron "Bug" Manigault (Keenon Brice), Michael Lee's younger brother; Kenard (Thuliso Dingwall), one of the younger members of Namond Brice's circle of friends; and Richard Hidlebird as Principal Claudell Withers.


title: The Wire (season 4)

text: The fourth season of "The Wire" is listed as one of the highest rated individual TV seasons of all time on Metacritic with a score of 98 out of 100 based on 21 critics—including 17 perfect score reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes, the season has an approval rating of 100% with an average score of 9.7 out of 10 based on 24 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "Realistically flawed characters in harrowing, uncompromising circumstances, along with engrossing storytelling, make "The Wire" one of TV's top dramas of its time."


title: Toothed whale

text: The toothed whales (also called odontocetes, systematic name Odontoceti) are a parvorder of cetaceans that includes dolphins, porpoises, and all other whales possessing teeth, such as the beaked whales and sperm whales. Seventy-three species of toothed whales are described. They are one of two living groups of cetaceans, the other being the baleen whales (Mysticeti), which have baleen instead of teeth. The two groups are thought to have diverged around 34 million years ago (mya).


title: Toothed whale

text: Toothed whales range in size from the and vaquita to the and sperm whale. Several species of odontocetes exhibit sexual dimorphism, in that there are size or other morphological differences between females and males. They have streamlined bodies and two limbs that are modified into flippers. Some can travel at up to 20 knots. Odontocetes have conical teeth designed for catching fish or squid. They have well-developed hearing, that is well adapted for both air and water, so much so that some can survive even if they are blind. Some species are well adapted for diving to great depths. Almost all have a layer of fat, or blubber, under the skin to keep warm in the cold water, with the exception of river dolphins.


title: Toothed whale

text: Toothed whales consist of some of the most widespread mammals, but some, as with the vaquita, are restricted to certain areas. Odontocetes feed largely on fish and squid, but a few, like the orca, feed on mammals, such as pinnipeds. Males typically mate with multiple females every year, making them polygynous. Females mate every two to three years. Calves are typically born in the spring and summer, and females bear the responsibility for raising them, but more sociable species rely on the family group to care for calves. Many species, mainly dolphins, are highly sociable, with some pods reaching over a thousand individuals.


title: Toothed whale

text: Once hunted for their products, cetaceans are now protected by international law. Some species are attributed with high levels of intelligence. At the 2012 meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, support was reiterated for a cetacean bill of rights, listing cetaceans as nonhuman persons. Besides whaling and drive hunting, they also face threats from bycatch and marine pollution. The baiji, for example, is considered functionally extinct by the IUCN, with the last sighting in 2004, due to heavy pollution to the Yangtze River. Whales occasionally feature in literature and film, as in the great white sperm whale of Herman Melville's "Moby-Dick". Small odontocetes, mainly dolphins, are kept in captivity and trained to perform tricks. Whale watching has become a form of tourism around the world.


title: Toothed whale

text: In Aristotle's time, the fourth century BC, whales were regarded as fish due to their superficial similarity. Aristotle, however, could already see many physiological and anatomical similarities with the terrestrial vertebrates, such as blood (circulation), lungs, uterus, and fin anatomy. His detailed descriptions were assimilated by the Romans, but mixed with a more accurate knowledge of the dolphins, as mentioned by Pliny the Elder in his "Natural history". In the art of this and subsequent periods, dolphins are portrayed with a high-arched head (typical of porpoises) and a long snout. The harbor porpoise is one of the most accessible species for early cetologists, because it could be seen very close to land, inhabiting shallow coastal areas of Europe. Many of the findings that apply to all cetaceans were therefore first discovered in the porpoises. One of the first anatomical descriptions of the airways of the whales on the basis of a harbor porpoise dates from 1671 by John Ray. It nevertheless referred to the porpoise as a fish.


title: Toothed whale

text: Toothed whales, as well as baleen whales, are descendants of land-dwelling mammals of the artiodactyl order (even-toed ungulates). They are closely related to the hippopotamus, sharing a common ancestor that lived around 54 million years ago (mya).


title: Toothed whale

text: The primitive cetaceans, or archaeocetes, first took to the sea approximately 49 mya and became fully aquatic by 5–10 million years later. The ancestors of toothed whales and baleen whales diverged in the early Oligocene. This was due to a change in the climate of the southern oceans that affected where the environment of the plankton that these whales ate.


title: Toothed whale

text: The adaptation of echolocation and enhanced fat synthesis in blubber occurred when toothed whales split apart from baleen whales, and distinguishes modern toothed whales from fully aquatic archaeocetes. This happened around 34 mya. Unlike toothed whales, baleen whales do not have wax ester deposits nor branched fatty chain acids in their blubber. Thus, more recent evolution of these complex blubber traits occurred after baleen whales and toothed whales split, and only in the toothed whale lineage.


title: Toothed whale

text: Toothed whales have torpedo-shaped bodies with inflexible necks, limbs modified into flippers, nonexistent external ear flaps, a large tail fin, and bulbous heads (with the exception of sperm whales). Their skulls have small eye orbits, long beaks (with the exception sperm whales), and eyes placed on the sides of their heads. Toothed whales range in size from the and vaquita to the and sperm whale. Overall, they tend to be dwarfed by their relatives, the baleen whales (Mysticeti). Several species have sexual dimorphism, with the females being larger than the males. One exception is with the sperm whale, which has males larger than the females.


title: Toothed whale

text: Odontocetes, such as the sperm whale, possess teeth with cementum cells overlying dentine cells. Unlike human teeth, which are composed mostly of enamel on the portion of the tooth outside of the gum, whale teeth have cementum outside the gum. Only in larger whales, where the cementum is worn away on the tip of the tooth, does enamel show. Except for the sperm whale, most toothed whales are smaller than the baleen whales. The teeth differ considerably among the species. They may be numerous, with some dolphins bearing over 100 teeth in their jaws. At the other extreme are the narwhals with their single long tusks and the almost toothless beaked whales with tusk-like teeth only in males. Not all species are believed to use their teeth for feeding. For instance, the sperm whale likely uses its teeth for aggression and showmanship.


title: Toothed whale

text: Breathing involves expelling stale air from their one blowhole, forming an upward, steamy spout, followed by inhaling fresh air into the lungs. Spout shapes differ among species, which facilitates identification. The spout only forms when warm air from the lungs meets cold air, so it does not form in warmer climates, as with river dolphins.


title: Toothed whale

text: Almost all cetaceans have a thick layer of blubber, with the exception of river dolphins. In species that live near the poles, the blubber can be as thick as . This blubber can help with buoyancy, protection to some extent as predators would have a hard time getting through a thick layer of fat, energy for fasting during leaner times, and insulation from the harsh climates. Calves are born with only a thin layer of blubber, but some species compensate for this with thick lanugos.


title: Toothed whale

text: Toothed whales have also evolved the ability to store large amounts of wax esters in their adipose tissue as an addition to or in complete replacement of other fats in their blubber. They can produce isovaleric acid from branched chain fatty acids (BCFA). These adaptations are unique, are only in more recent, derived lineages and were likely part of the transition for species to become deeper divers as the families of toothed whales (Physeteridae, Kogiidae, and Ziphiidae) that have the highest quantities of wax esters and BCFAs in their blubber are also the species that dive the deepest and for the longest amount of time.


title: Toothed whale

text: Toothed whales have a two-chambered stomach similar in structure to terrestrial carnivores. They have fundic and pyloric chambers.


title: Toothed whale

text: Cetaceans have two flippers on the front, and a tail fin. These flippers contain four digits. Although toothed whales do not possess fully developed hind limbs, some, such as the sperm whale, possess discrete rudimentary appendages, which may contain feet and digits. Toothed whales are fast swimmers in comparison to seals, which typically cruise at 5–15 knots, or ; the sperm whale, in comparison, can travel at speeds of up to . The fusing of the neck vertebrae, while increasing stability when swimming at high speeds, decreases flexibility, rendering them incapable of turning their heads; river dolphins, however, have unfused neck vertebrae and can turn their heads. When swimming, toothed whales rely on their tail fins to propel them through the water. Flipper movement is continuous. They swim by moving their tail fin and lower body up and down, propelling themselves through vertical movement, while their flippers are mainly used for steering. Some species log out of the water, which may allow them to travel faster. Their skeletal anatomy allows them to be fast swimmers. Most species have a dorsal fin.


title: Toothed whale

text: Most toothed whales are adapted for diving to great depths, porpoises are one exception. In addition to their streamlined bodies, they can slow their heart rate to conserve oxygen; blood is rerouted from tissue tolerant of water pressure to the heart and brain among other organs; haemoglobin and myoglobin store oxygen in body tissue; and they have twice the concentration of myoglobin than haemoglobin. Before going on long dives, many toothed whales exhibit a behaviour known as sounding; they stay close to the surface for a series of short, shallow dives while building their oxygen reserves, and then make a sounding dive.


title: Toothed whale

text: Toothed whale eyes are relatively small for their size, yet they do retain a good degree of eyesight. As well as this, the eyes are placed on the sides of its head, so their vision consists of two fields, rather than a binocular view as humans have. When a beluga surfaces, its lenses and corneas correct the nearsightedness that results from the refraction of light; they contain both rod and cone cells, meaning they can see in both dim and bright light. They do, however, lack short wavelength-sensitive visual pigments in their cone cells, indicating a more limited capacity for colour vision than most mammals. Most toothed whales have slightly flattened eyeballs, enlarged pupils (which shrink as they surface to prevent damage), slightly flattened corneas, and a tapetum lucidum; these adaptations allow for large amounts of light to pass through the eye, and, therefore, a very clear image of the surrounding area. In water, a whale can see around ahead of itself, but they have a smaller range above water. They also have glands on the eyelids and outer corneal layer that act as protection for the cornea.


title: Toothed whale

text: The olfactory lobes are absent in toothed whales, and unlike baleen whales, they lack the vomeronasal organ, suggesting they have no sense of smell.


title: Toothed whale

text: Toothed whales are not thought to have a good sense of taste, as their taste buds are atrophied or missing altogether. However, some dolphins have preferences between different kinds of fish, indicating some sort of attachment to taste.


title: Toothed whale

text: Toothed whales are capable of making a broad range of sounds using nasal airsacs located just below the blowhole. Roughly three categories of sounds can be identified: frequency-modulated whistles, burst-pulsed sounds, and clicks. Dolphins communicate with whistle-like sounds produced by vibrating connective tissue, similar to the way human vocal cords function, and through burst-pulsed sounds, though the nature and extent of that ability is not known. The clicks are directional and are used for echolocation, often occurring in a short series called a click train. The click rate increases when approaching an object of interest. Toothed whale biosonar clicks are amongst the loudest sounds made by marine animals.


title: Toothed whale

text: The cetacean ear has specific adaptations to the marine environment. In humans, the middle ear works as an impedance equalizer between the outside air's low impedance and the cochlear fluid's high impedance. In whales, and other marine mammals, no great difference exists between the outer and inner environments. Instead of sound passing through the outer ear to the middle ear, whales receive sound through the throat, from which it passes through a low-impedance, fat-filled cavity to the inner ear. The ear is acoustically isolated from the skull by air-filled sinus pockets, which allow for greater directional hearing underwater. Odontocetes send out high-frequency clicks from an organ known as a melon. This melon consists of fat, and the skull of any such creature containing a melon will have a large depression. The melon size varies between species, the bigger it is, the more dependent they are on it. A beaked whale, for example, has a small bulge sitting on top of its skull, whereas a sperm whale's head is filled mainly with the melon. Odontocetes are well adapted to hear sounds at ultrasonic frequencies, as opposed to mysticetes who generally hear sounds within the range of infrasonic frequencies.


title: Toothed whale

text: Bottlenose dolphins have been found to have signature whistles unique to a specific individual. These whistles are used for dolphins to communicate with one another by identifying an individual. It can be seen as the dolphin equivalent of a name for humans.


title: Toothed whale

text: Because dolphins are generally associated in groups, communication is necessary. Signal masking is when other similar sounds (conspecific sounds) interfere with the original acoustic sound. In larger groups, individual whistle sounds are less prominent. Dolphins tend to travel in pods, in some instances including up to 600 members.


title: Toothed whale

text: Cetaceans are known to communicate and therefore are able to teach, learn, cooperate, scheme, and grieve. The neocortex of many species of dolphins is home to elongated spindle neurons that, prior to 2007, were known only in hominids. In humans, these cells are involved in social conduct, emotions, judgement, and theory of mind. Dolphin spindle neurons are found in areas of the brain homologous to where they are found in humans, suggesting they perform a similar function.


title: Toothed whale

text: Brain size was previously considered a major indicator of the intelligence of an animal. Since most of the brain is used for maintaining bodily functions, greater ratios of brain to body mass may increase the amount of brain mass available for more complex cognitive tasks. Allometric analysis indicates that mammalian brain size scales around the two-thirds or three-quarters exponent of the body mass. Comparison of a particular animal's brain size with the expected brain size based on such allometric analysis provides an encephalisation quotient that can be used as another indication of animal intelligence. Sperm whales have the largest brain mass of any animal on earth, averaging and in mature males, in comparison to the average human brain which averages in mature males. The brain to body mass ratio in some odontocetes, such as belugas and narwhals, is second only to humans.


title: Toothed whale

text: Dolphins are known to engage in complex play behaviour, which includes such things as producing stable underwater toroidal air-core vortex rings or "bubble rings". Two main methods of bubble ring production are: rapid puffing of a burst of air into the water and allowing it to rise to the surface, forming a ring, or swimming repeatedly in a circle and then stopping to inject air into the helical vortex currents thus formed. They also appear to enjoy biting the vortex rings, so that they burst into many separate bubbles and then rise quickly to the surface. Dolphins are known to use this method during hunting. Dolphins have also been known to use tools. In Shark Bay, a population of Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins put sponges on their beak to protect them from abrasions and sting ray barbs while foraging in the seafloor. This behaviour is passed on from mother to daughter, and it is only observed in 54 female individuals.


title: Toothed whale

text: Self-awareness is seen, by some, to be a sign of highly developed, abstract thinking. Self-awareness, though not well-defined scientifically, is believed to be the precursor to more advanced processes like metacognitive reasoning (thinking about thinking) that are typical of humans. Research in this field has suggested that cetaceans, among others, possess self-awareness. The most widely used test for self-awareness in animals is the mirror test, in which a temporary dye is placed on an animal's body, and the animal is then presented with a mirror; then whether the animal shows signs of self-recognition is determined. In 1995, Marten and Psarakos used television to test dolphin self-awareness. They showed dolphins real-time footage of themselves, recorded footage, and another dolphin. They concluded that their evidence suggested self-awareness rather than social behavior. While this particular study has not been repeated since then, dolphins have since "passed" the mirror test.


title: Toothed whale

text: Dolphins are capable of making a broad range of sounds using nasal airsacs located just below the blowhole. Roughly three categories of sounds can be identified: frequency modulated whistles, burst-pulsed sounds and clicks. Dolphins communicate with whistle-like sounds produced by vibrating connective tissue, similar to the way human vocal cords function, and through burst-pulsed sounds, though the nature and extent of that ability is not known. The clicks are directional and are for echolocation, often occurring in a short series called a click train. The click rate increases when approaching an object of interest. Dolphin echolocation clicks are amongst the loudest sounds made by marine animals.


title: Toothed whale

text: Bottlenose dolphins have been found to have signature whistles, a whistle that is unique to a specific individual. These whistles are used in order for dolphins to communicate with one another by identifying an individual. It can be seen as the dolphin equivalent of a name for humans. These signature whistles are developed during a dolphin's first year; it continues to maintain the same sound throughout its lifetime. An auditory experience influences the whistle development of each dolphin. Dolphins are able to communicate to one another by addressing another dolphin through mimicking their whistle. The signature whistle of a male bottlenose dolphin tends to be similar to that of his mother, while the signature whistle of a female bottlenose dolphin tends to be more identifying. Bottlenose dolphins have a strong memory when it comes to these signature whistles, as they are able to relate to a signature whistle of an individual they have not encountered for over twenty years. Research done on signature whistle usage by other dolphin species is relatively limited. The research on other species done so far has yielded varied outcomes and inconclusive results.


title: Toothed whale

text: Sperm whales can produce three specific vocalisations: creaks, codas, and slow clicks. A creak is a rapid series of high-frequency clicks that sounds somewhat like a creaky door hinge. It is typically used when homing in on prey. A coda is a short pattern of 3 to 20 clicks that is used in social situations to identify one another (like a signature whistle), but it is still unknown whether sperm whales possess individually specific coda repertoires or whether individuals make codas at different rates. Slow clicks are heard only in the presence of males (it is not certain whether females occasionally make them). Males make a lot of slow clicks in breeding grounds (74% of the time), both near the surface and at depth, which suggests they are primarily mating signals. Outside breeding grounds, slow clicks are rarely heard, and usually near the surface.


title: Toothed whale

text: All whales are carnivorous and predatory. Odontocetes, as a whole, mostly feed on fish and cephalopods, and then followed by crustaceans and bivalves. All species are generalist and opportunistic feeders. Some may forage with other kinds of animals, such as other species of whales or certain species of pinnipeds. One common feeding method is herding, where a pod squeezes a school of fish into a small volume, known as a bait ball. Individual members then take turns plowing through the ball, feeding on the stunned fish. Coralling is a method where dolphins chase fish into shallow water to catch them more easily. Orcas and bottlenose dolphins have also been known to drive their prey onto a beach to feed on it, a behaviour known as beach or strand feeding. The shape of the snout may correlate with tooth number and thus feeding mechanisms. The narwhal, with its blunt snout and reduced dentition, relies on suction feeding.


title: Toothed whale

text: Sperm whales usually dive between , and sometimes , in search of food. Such dives can last more than an hour. They feed on several species, notably the giant squid, but also the colossal squid, octopuses, and fish like demersal rays, but their diet is mainly medium-sized squid. Some prey may be taken accidentally while eating other items. A study in the Galápagos found that squid from the genera "Histioteuthis" (62%), "Ancistrocheirus" (16%), and "Octopoteuthis" (7%) weighing between were the most commonly taken. Battles between sperm whales and giant squid or colossal squid have never been observed by humans; however, white scars are believed to be caused by the large squid. A 2010 study suggests that female sperm whales may collaborate when hunting Humboldt squid.


title: Toothed whale

text: The orca is known to prey on numerous other toothed whale species. One example is the false killer whale. To subdue and kill whales, orcas continually ram them with their heads; this can sometimes kill bowhead whales, or severely injure them. Other times, they corral their prey before striking. They are typically hunted by groups of 10 or fewer orca, but they are seldom attacked by an individual. Calves are more commonly taken by orca, but adults can be targeted, as well. Groups even attack larger cetaceans such as minke whales, gray whales, and rarely sperm whales or blue whales. Other marine mammal prey species include nearly 20 species of seal, sea lion and fur seal.


title: Toothed whale

text: These cetaceans are targeted by terrestrial and pagophilic predators. The polar bear is well-adapted for hunting Arctic whales and calves. Bears are known to use sit-and-wait tactics, as well as active stalking and pursuit of prey on ice or water. Whales lessen the chance of predation by gathering in groups. This, however, means less room around the breathing hole as the ice slowly closes the gap. When out at sea, whales dive out of the reach of surface-hunting orca. Polar bear attacks on belugas and narwhals are usually successful in winter, but rarely inflict any damage in summer.


title: Toothed whale

text: For most of the smaller species of dolphins, only a few of the larger sharks, such as the bull shark, dusky shark, tiger shark, and great white shark, are a potential risk, especially for calves. Dolphins can tolerate and recover from extreme injuries (including shark bites) although the exact methods used to achieve this are not known. The healing process is rapid and even very deep wounds do not cause dolphins to hemorrhage to death. Even gaping wounds restore in such a way that the animal's body shape is restored, and infection of such large wounds are rare.


title: Toothed whale

text: Toothed whales are fully aquatic creatures, which means their birth and courtship behaviours are very different from terrestrial and semiaquatic creatures. Since they are unable to go onto land to calve, they deliver their young with the fetus positioned for tail-first delivery. This prevents the calf from drowning either upon or during delivery. To feed the newborn, toothed whales, being aquatic, must squirt the milk into the mouth of the calf. Being mammals, they have mammary glands used for nursing calves; they are weaned around 11 months of age. This milk contains high amounts of fat which is meant to hasten the development of blubber; it contains so much fat, it has the consistency of toothpaste. Females deliver a single calf, with gestation lasting about a year, dependency until one to two years, and maturity around seven to 10 years, all varying between the species. This mode of reproduction produces few offspring, but increases the survival probability of each one. Females, referred to as "cows", carry the responsibility of childcare, as males, referred to as "bulls", play no part in raising calves.


title: Toothed whale

text: In orcas, false killer whales, short-finned pilot whales, narwhals, and belugas, there is an unusually long post-reproductive lifespan (menopause) in females. Older females, though unable to have their own children, play a key role in the rearing of other calves in the pod, and in this sense, given the costs of pregnancy especially at an advanced age, extended menopause is advantageous.


title: Toothed whale

text: The head of the sperm whale is filled with a waxy liquid called spermaceti. This liquid can be refined into spermaceti wax and sperm oil. These were much sought after by 18th-, 19th-, and 20th-century whalers. These substances found a variety of commercial applications, such as candles, soap, cosmetics, machine oil, other specialized lubricants, lamp oil, pencils, crayons, leather waterproofing, rustproofing materials, and many pharmaceutical compounds.


title: Toothed whale

text: Sperm whaling in the 18th century began with small sloops carrying only a pair of whaleboats (sometimes only one). As the scope and size of the fleet increased, so did the rig of the vessels change, as brigs, schooners, and finally ships and barks were introduced. In the 19th-century stubby, square-rigged ships (and later barks) dominated the fleet, being sent to the Pacific (the first being the British whaleship "Emilia", in 1788), the Indian Ocean (1780s), and as far away as the Japan grounds (1820) and the coast of Arabia (1820s), as well as Australia (1790s) and New Zealand (1790s).


title: Toothed whale

text: Hunting for sperm whales during this period was a notoriously dangerous affair for the crews of the 19th-century whaleboats. Although a properly harpooned sperm whale generally exhibited a fairly consistent pattern of attempting to flee underwater to the point of exhaustion (at which point it would surface and offer no further resistance), it was not uncommon for bull whales to become enraged and turn to attack pursuing whaleboats on the surface, particularly if it had already been wounded by repeated harpooning attempts. A commonly reported tactic was for the whale to invert itself and violently thrash the surface of the water with its fluke, flipping and crushing nearby boats.


title: Toothed whale

text: The estimated historic worldwide sperm whale population numbered 1,100,000 before commercial sperm whaling began in the early 18th century. By 1880, it had declined an estimated 29%. From that date until 1946, the population appears to have recovered somewhat as whaling pressure lessened, but after the Second World War, with the industry's focus again on sperm whales, the population declined even further to only 33%. In the 19th century, between 184,000 and 236,000 sperm whales were estimated to have been killed by the various whaling nations, while in the modern era, at least 770,000 were taken, the majority between 1946 and 1980. Remaining sperm whale populations are large enough so that the species' conservation status is vulnerable, rather than endangered. However, the recovery from the whaling years is a slow process, particularly in the South Pacific, where the toll on males of breeding age was severe.


title: Toothed whale

text: Dolphins and porpoises are hunted in an activity known as dolphin drive hunting. This is accomplished by driving a pod together with boats and usually into a bay or onto a beach. Their escape is prevented by closing off the route to the ocean with other boats or nets. Dolphins are hunted this way in several places around the world, including the Solomon Islands, the Faroe Islands, Peru, and Japan, the most well-known practitioner of this method. By numbers, dolphins are mostly hunted for their meat, though some end up in dolphinariums. Despite the controversial nature of the hunt resulting in international criticism, and the possible health risk that the often polluted meat causes, thousands of dolphins are caught in drive hunts each year.


title: Toothed whale

text: In Japan, the hunting is done by a select group of fishermen. When a pod of dolphins has been spotted, they are driven into a bay by the fishermen while banging on metal rods in the water to scare and confuse the dolphins. When the dolphins are in the bay, it is quickly closed off with nets so the dolphins cannot escape. The dolphins are usually not caught and killed immediately, but instead left to calm down over night. The following day, the dolphins are caught one by one and killed. The killing of the animals used to be done by slitting their throats, but the Japanese government banned this method, and now dolphins may officially only be killed by driving a metal pin into the neck of the dolphin, which causes them to die within seconds according to a memo from Senzo Uchida, the executive secretary of the Japan Cetacean Conference on Zoological Gardens and Aquariums. A veterinary team's analysis of a 2011 video footage of Japanese hunters killing striped dolphins using this method suggested that, in one case, death took over four minutes.


title: Toothed whale

text: Since much of the criticism is the result of photos and videos taken during the hunt and slaughter, it is now common for the final capture and slaughter to take place on site inside a tent or under a plastic cover, out of sight from the public. The most circulated footage is probably that of the drive and subsequent capture and slaughter process taken in Futo, Japan, in October 1999, shot by the Japanese animal welfare organization Elsa Nature Conservancy. Part of this footage was, amongst others, shown on CNN. In recent years, the video has also become widespread on the internet and was featured in the animal welfare documentary "Earthlings", though the method of killing dolphins as shown in this video is now officially banned. In 2009, a critical documentary on the hunts in Japan titled "The Cove" was released and shown amongst others at the Sundance Film Festival.


title: Toothed whale

text: Toothed whales can also be threatened by humans more indirectly. They are unintentionally caught in fishing nets by commercial fisheries as bycatch and accidentally swallow fishing hooks. Gillnetting and Seine netting are significant causes of mortality in cetaceans and other marine mammals. Porpoises are commonly entangled in fishing nets. Whales are also affected by marine pollution. High levels of organic chemicals accumulate in these animals since they are high in the food chain. They have large reserves of blubber, more so for toothed whales, as they are higher up the food chain than baleen whales. Lactating mothers can pass the toxins on to their young. These pollutants can cause gastrointestinal cancers and greater vulnerability to infectious diseases. They can also be poisoned by swallowing litter, such as plastic bags. Pollution of the Yangtze river has led to the extinction of the baiji. Environmentalists speculate that advanced naval sonar endangers some whales. Some scientists suggest that sonar may trigger whale beachings, and they point to signs that such whales have experienced decompression sickness.


title: Toothed whale

text: Currently, no international convention gives universal coverage to all small whales, although the International Whaling Commission has attempted to extend its jurisdiction over them. ASCOBANS was negotiated to protect all small whales in the North and Baltic Seas and in the northeast Atlantic. ACCOBAMS protects all whales in the Mediterranean and Black Seas. The global UNEP Convention on Migratory Species currently covers seven toothed whale species or populations on its Appendix I, and 37 species or populations on Appendix II. All oceanic cetaceans are listed in CITES appendices, meaning international trade in them and products derived from them is very limited.


title: Toothed whale

text: Numerous organisation are dedicated to protecting certain species that do not fall under any international treaty, such as the Committee for the Recovery of the Vaquita, and the Wuhan Institute of Hydrobiology (for the Yangtze finless porpoise).


title: Toothed whale

text: Various species of toothed whales, mainly dolphins, are kept in captivity, as well as several other species of porpoise such as harbour porpoises and finless porpoises. These small cetaceans are more often than not kept in theme parks, such as SeaWorld, commonly known as a dolphinarium. Bottlenose dolphins are the most common species kept in dolphinariums, as they are relatively easy to train, have a long lifespan in captivity, and have a friendly appearance. Hundreds if not thousands of bottlenose dolphins live in captivity across the world, though exact numbers are hard to determine. Orca are well known for their performances in shows, but the number kept in captivity is very small, especially when compared to the number of bottlenose dolphins, with only 44 captives being held in aquaria as of 2012. Other species kept in captivity are spotted dolphins, false killer whales, and common dolphins, Commerson's dolphins, as well as rough-toothed dolphins, but all in much lower numbers than the bottlenose dolphin. Also, fewer than ten pilot whales, Amazon river dolphins, Risso's dolphins, spinner dolphins, or tucuxi are in captivity. Two unusual and very rare hybrid dolphins, known as wolphins, are kept at the Sea Life Park in Hawaii, which is a cross between a bottlenose dolphin and a false killer whale. Also, two common/bottlenose hybrids reside in captivity: one at Discovery Cove and the other at SeaWorld San Diego.


title: Toothed whale

text: Organisations such as Animal Welfare Institute and the Whale and Dolphin Conservation campaign against the captivity of dolphins and orca. SeaWorld faced a lot of criticism after the documentary "Blackfish" was released in 2013.


title: Toothed whale

text: Aggression among captive orca is common. In August 1989, a dominant female orca, Kandu V, attempted to rake a newcomer whale, Corky II, with her mouth during a live show, and smashed her head into a wall. Kandu V broke her jaw, which severed an artery, and then bled to death. In November 2006, a dominant female killer whale, Kasatka, repeatedly dragged experienced trainer Ken Peters to the bottom of the stadium pool during a show after hearing her calf crying for her in the back pools. In February 2010, an experienced female trainer at SeaWorld Orlando, Dawn Brancheau, was killed by orca Tilikum shortly after a show in Shamu Stadium. Tilikum had been associated with the deaths of two people previously. In May 2012, Occupational Safety and Health Administration administrative law judge Ken Welsch cited SeaWorld for two violations in the death of Dawn Brancheau and fined the company a total of US$12,000. Trainers were banned from making close contact with the orca. In April 2014, the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia denied an appeal by SeaWorld.


title: Toothed whale

text: In 2013, SeaWorld's treatment of orca in captivity was the basis of the movie "Blackfish", which documents the history of Tilikum, an orca captured by SeaLand of the Pacific, later transported to SeaWorld Orlando, which has been involved in the deaths of three people. In the aftermath of the release of the film, Martina McBride, 38 Special, REO Speedwagon, Cheap Trick, Heart, Trisha Yearwood, and Willie Nelson cancelled scheduled concerts at SeaWorld parks. SeaWorld disputes the accuracy of the film, and in December 2013 released an ad countering the allegations and emphasizing its contributions to the study of cetaceans and their conservation.


title: Iliotibial band syndrome

text: Iliotibial band syndrome (ITBS) is the second most common knee injury, and is caused by inflammation located on the lateral aspect of the knee due to friction between the iliotibial band and the lateral epicondyle of the femur. Pain is felt most commonly on the lateral aspect of the knee and is most intensive at 30 degrees of knee flexion. Risk factors in women include increased hip adduction and knee internal rotation. Risk factors seen in men are increased hip internal rotation and knee adduction. ITB syndrome is most associated with long-distance running, cycling, weight-lifting, and with military training.


title: Iliotibial band syndrome

text: ITBS symptoms range from a stinging sensation just above the knee and outside of the knee (lateral side of the knee) joint, to swelling or thickening of the tissue in the area where the band moves over the femur. The stinging sensation just above the knee joint is felt on the outside of the knee or along the entire length of the iliotibial band. Pain may not occur immediately during activity, but may intensify over time. Pain is most commonly felt when the foot strikes the ground, and pain might persist after activity. Pain may also be present above and below the knee, where the ITB attaches to the tibia.


title: Iliotibial band syndrome

text: ITBS can result from one or more of the following: training habits, anatomical abnormalities, or muscular imbalances:


title: Iliotibial band syndrome

text: Iliotibial band syndrome is one of the leading causes of lateral knee pain in runners. The iliotibial band is a thick band of fascia on the lateral aspect of the knee, extending from the outside of the pelvis, over the hip and knee, and inserting just below the knee. The band is crucial to stabilizing the knee during running, as it moves from behind the femur to the front of the femur during activity. The continual rubbing of the band over the lateral femoral epicondyle, combined with the repeated flexion and extension of the knee during running may cause the area to become inflamed.


title: Iliotibial band syndrome

text: Diagnosis of iliotibial band syndrome is based on history and physical exam findings, including tenderness at the lateral femoral epicondyle, where the iliotibial band passes over the bone.


title: Iliotibial band syndrome

text: While ITBS pain can be acute, the iliotibial band can be rested, iced, compressed and elevated (RICE) to reduce pain and inflammation, followed by stretching. Utilization of corticosteroid injections and the use of anti-inflammatory medication on the painful area are possible treatments for ITB syndrome. Corticosteroid injections have been shown to decrease running pains significantly 7 days after the initial treatment. Similar results can be found with the use of anti-inflammatory medication, analgesic/anti-inflammatory medication, specifically. Other non-invasive treatments include things such as, flexibility and strength training, neuromuscular/gait training, manual therapy, training volume reduction, or changes in running shoe.  Muscular training of the gluteus maximus and hip external rotators is stressed highly as those muscles are associated with many of the risk factors of ITBS. For runners specifically, neuromuscular/gait training may be needed for success in muscular training interventions to ensure that those trained muscles are used properly in the mechanics of running. Strength training alone will not result in decrease in pain due to ITBS, however, gait training, on its own can result in running form modification that reduces the prevalence of risk factors.


title: Iliotibial band syndrome

text: Treatments as intensive and invasive as surgery are utilized if several conservative approaches fail to produce results. 6 months should be given for conservative treatments to work before surgical intervention as used.


title: Iliotibial band syndrome

text: Significant association between the diagnosis of ITBS and occupational background of the patients has been thoroughly determined. Occupations that require extensive use of iliotibial band are more susceptible to develop ITBS due to continuum of their iliotibial band repeatedly abrading against lateral epicondyle prominence, thereby inducing inflammatory response. Professional or amateur runners are at high clinical risk of ITBS in which shows particularly greater risk in long-distance. Study suggests ITBS alone makes up 12% of all running-related injuries and 1.6% to 12% of runners are affected by ITBS.


title: Iliotibial band syndrome

text: The relationship between ITBS and mortality/morbidity is claimed to be absent. A study showed that coordination variability did not vary significantly between runners with no injury and runners with ITBS. This result elucidates that the runner's ability to coordinate themselves toward direction of their intention (motor coordination) is not, or very minorly affected by the pain of ITBS.


title: Iliotibial band syndrome

text: Additionally, military trainee in marine boot camps displayed high incidence rate of ITBS. Varying incidence rate of 5.3–22% in basic training was reported in a case study. A report from the U.S. Marine Corps announces that running/overuse-related injuries accounted for >12% of all injuries.


title: Iliotibial band syndrome

text: In contrast, studies suggested antithesis of conventional perception that racial, gender or age difference manifests in different incidence rate of ITBS diagnosis. No meaningful statistical data successfully provides significant correlation between ITBS and gender, age, or race. Although, there had been a claim that females are more prone to ITBS due to their anatomical difference in pelvis and lower extremity. Males with larger lateral epicondyle prominence may also be more susceptible to ITBS.  Higher incidence rate of ITBS has been reported at age of 15–50, in which generally includes most of active athletes.


title: Iliotibial band syndrome

text: Other professions that had noticeable association with ITBS include cyclists, heavy weightlifters, et cetera. One observational study discovered 24% of 254 cyclists were diagnosed with ITBS within 6 years. Another study provided data that shows more than half (50%) of professional cyclists complain of knee pain.


title: Internment

text: Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simply mean imprisonment, it tends to refer to preventive confinement rather than confinement "after" having been convicted of some crime. Use of these terms is subject to debate and political sensitivities. The word "internment" is also occasionally used to describe a neutral country's practice of detaining belligerent armed forces and equipment on its territory during times of war, under the Hague Convention of 1907.


title: Internment

text: Interned persons may be held in prisons or in facilities known as internment camps (also known as concentration camps). The term "concentration camp" originates from the Spanish–Cuban Ten Years' War when Spanish forces detained Cuban civilians in camps in order to more easily combat guerrilla forces. Over the following decades the British during the Second Boer War and the Americans during the Philippine–American War also used concentration camps.


title: Internment

text: The term "concentration camp" or "internment camp" is used to refer to a variety of systems that greatly differ in their severity, mortality rate, and architecture; their defining characteristic is that inmates are held outside the rule of law. Extermination camps or death camps, whose primary purpose is killing, are also imprecisely referred to as "concentration camps".


title: Internment

text: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights restricts the use of internment, with Article 9 stating, "No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile."


title: Internment

text: The "American Heritage Dictionary" defines the term "concentration camp" as: "A camp where persons are confined, usually without hearings and typically under harsh conditions, often as a result of their membership in a group which the government has identified as dangerous or undesirable."


title: Internment

text: Although the first example of civilian internment may date as far back as the 1830s, the English term "concentration camp" was first used in order to refer to the reconcentration camps (Spanish:"reconcentrados") which were set up by the Spanish military in Cuba during the Ten Years' War (1868–1878). The label was applied yet again to camps set up by the United States during the Philippine–American War (1899–1902). And expanded usage of the "concentration camp" label continued, when the British set up camps during the Second Boer War (1899–1902) in South Africa for interning Boers during the same time period.


title: Internment

text: During the 20th century, the arbitrary internment of civilians by the state reached its most extreme forms in the Soviet Gulag system of concentration camps (1918–1991) and the Nazi concentration camps (1933–1945). The Soviet system was the first applied by a government on its own citizens. The Gulag consisted in over 30,000 camps for most of its existence (1918–1991) and detained some 18 million from 1929 until 1953, which is only a third of its 73-year lifespan. The Nazi concentration camp system was extensive, with as many as 15,000 camps and at least 715,000 simultaneous internees. The total number of casualties in these camps is difficult to determine, but the deliberate policy of extermination through labor in many of the camps was designed to ensure that the inmates would die of starvation, untreated disease and summary executions within set periods of time. Moreover, Nazi Germany established six extermination camps, specifically designed to kill millions of people, primarily by gassing.


title: Internment

text: As a result, the term "concentration camp" is sometimes conflated with the concept of an "extermination camp" and historians debate whether the term "concentration camp" or the term "internment camp" should be used to describe other examples of civilian internment.


title: Internment

text: The former label continues to see expanded use for cases post-World War II, for instance in relation to British camps in Kenya during the Mau Mau rebellion (1952–1960), and camps set up in Chile during the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973–1990). According to the United States Department of Defense as many as 3 million Uyghurs and members of other Muslim minority groups are being held in China's re-education camps which are located in the Xinjiang region and which American news reports often label as "concentration camps". The camps were established in late 2010s under General Secretary Xi Jinping's administration.


title: Republican National Committee

text: The Republican National Committee (RNC) is a U.S. political committee that assists the Republican Party of the United States. It is responsible for developing and promoting the Republican brand and political platform, as well as assisting in fundraising and election strategy. It is also responsible for organizing and running the Republican National Convention. When a Republican is president, the White House controls the committee. According to Boris Heersink, "political scientists have traditionally described the parties' national committees as inconsequential but impartial service providers."


title: Republican National Committee

text: Similar committees exist in every U.S. state and most U.S. counties, although in some states party organization is structured by congressional district, allied campaign organizations being governed by a national committee. Ronna McDaniel is the current committee chairwoman.


title: Republican National Committee

text: The 1856 Republican National Convention appointed the first RNC. It consisted of one member from each state and territory to serve for four years. Each national committee since then has followed the precedent of equal representation for each state or territory, regardless of population. From 1924 to 1952, there was a national committeeman and national committeewoman from each state and U.S. possession, and from Washington, D.C. In 1952, committee membership was expanded to include the state party chairs of states that voted Republican in the preceding presidential election, have a Republican majority in their congressional delegation (U.S. representatives and senators), or have Republican governors. By 1968, membership reached 145. As of 2011, the RNC has 168 members.


title: Republican National Committee

text: The only person to have chaired the RNC and later become U.S. president is George H. W. Bush. A number of the chairs of the RNC have been state governors.


title: Republican National Committee

text: In 2013, the RNC began an outreach campaign towards the American youth and minority voters, after studies showed these groups generally perceived that the Republican Party did not care about their concerns.


title: Republican National Committee

text: During the presidency of Donald Trump, the RNC showed staunch loyalty to President Trump, even at times when prominent Republicans did not. Under Ronna McDaniel's leadership, the RNC ran ads for Trump's 2020 campaign as early as 2018, put numerous Trump campaign workers and affiliates on the RNC payroll, spent considerable funds at Trump-owned properties, covered his legal fees in the Russian interference investigation, hosted Trump's Fake News Awards, and criticized Trump critics within the Republican Party. Two days after Trump was considered by many to have incited a pro-Trump mob to storm the U.S. Capitol, the RNC held an event where members expressed loyalty to the President.


title: Republican National Committee

text: In February 2022, the RNC censured two Republican representatives, Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, for their participation in the United States House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the US Capitol; the censure statement described the committee as a "Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens who engaged in legitimate political discourse." The censure of sitting congressmembers, and particularly the description of the January 6 events as "legitimate political discourse", received bipartisan criticism from politicians and media.


title: Republican National Committee

text: The Republican National Committee's main function is to assist the Republican Party of the United States. It helps to promote the Republican political platform and the "party brand" or image. It helps coordinate fundraising and election strategy.


title: Republican National Committee

text: The current chair of the Republican National Committee is Ronna McDaniel, serving since 2017. McDaniel was previously chair of the Michigan Republican Party from 2015 to 2017.


title: Republican National Committee

text: In January 2019, Thomas O. Hicks Jr. was elected co-chairman of the RNC. Hicks has a strong connection to President Trump's campaigns and policy initiatives, having served as chairman of the America First Action PAC and America First Policies, and as national finance co-chairman for Donald J. Trump for President.


title: Republican National Committee

text: Similar committees to the RNC exists in each U.S. state and most U.S. counties. The RNC also organizes volunteer groups for specific interests, such as the Black Republican Activists, GOP Hispanics, RNC Women (not to be confused with National Federation of Republican Women), GOP Faith, Asian Pacific Americans, Young Leaders and Veterans & Military Families.


title: Republican National Committee

text: On November 24, 2008, Steele launched his campaign for the RNC chairmanship with the launching of his website. On January 30, 2009, Steele won the chairmanship of the RNC in the sixth round, with 91 votes to Dawson's 77.


title: Republican National Committee

text: On announcing his candidacy to succeed RNC Chairman Duncan, former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele described the party as being at a crossroads and not knowing what to do. "I think I may have some keys to open the door, some juice to turn on the lights," he said.


title: Republican National Committee

text: Six people ran for the 2009 RNC Chairmanship: Steele, Ken Blackwell, Mike Duncan, Saul Anuzis, Katon Dawson and Chip Saltsman. After Saltsman's withdrawal, there were only five candidates during the hotly contested balloting January 30, 2009.


title: Republican National Committee

text: After the third round of balloting that day, Steele held a small lead over incumbent Mike Duncan of Kentucky, with 51 votes to Duncan's 44. Shortly after the announcement of the standings, Duncan dropped out of contention without endorsing a candidate. Ken Blackwell, the only other African-American candidate, dropped out after the fourth ballot and endorsed Steele, though Blackwell had been the most socially conservative of the candidates and Steele had been accused of not being "sufficiently conservative." Steele picked up Blackwell's votes. After the fifth round, Steele held a ten-vote lead over Katon Dawson, with 79 votes, and Saul Anuzis dropped out. After the sixth vote, he won the chairmanship of the RNC over Dawson by a vote of 91 to 77.


title: Republican National Committee

text: Mississippi Governor and former RNC chair Haley Barbour has suggested the party will focus its efforts on congressional and gubernatorial elections in the coming years rather than the next presidential election. "When I was chairman of the Republican National Committee the last time we lost the White House in 1992 we focused exclusively on 1993 and 1994. And at the end of that time, we had both houses of Congress with Republican majorities, and we'd gone from 17 Republican governors to 31. So anyone talking about 2012 today doesn't have their eye on the ball. What we ought to worry about is rebuilding our party over the next year and particularly in 2010," Barbour said at the November 2008 Republican Governors conference.


title: Republican National Committee

text: Michael Steele ran for re-election at the 2011 RNC winter meeting. Other candidates were Reince Priebus, Republican Party of Wisconsin Chairman, Ann Wagner, former Ambassador to Luxembourg, Saul Anuzis, former Republican Party Chairman of Michigan, and Maria Cino, former acting Secretary of Transportation under George W. Bush. Steele's critics increasingly called on him to step down as RNC Chair when his term ended in 2011. A debate for Chairman hosted by Americans for Tax Reform took place on January 3 at the National Press Club. The election for Chairman took place January 14 at the RNC's winter meeting with Reince Priebus winning on the seventh ballot after Steele and Wagner withdrew.


title: Republican National Committee

text: Priebus won re-election with near unanimity in the party's 2013 meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina. He was re-elected to a third term in 2015, setting him up to become the longest serving head of the party ever.


title: Republican National Committee

text: After winning in November 2016, President-elect Donald Trump designated Priebus as his White House Chief of Staff, to begin upon his taking office in January 2017; David Bossie of Maryland was seen as a potential next RNC chairman.


title: Republican National Committee

text: Trump then recommended Ronna Romney McDaniel as RNC Chairwoman and she was elected to that role by the RNC in January 2017. McDaniel was re-elected in 2019 and 2021. Mike Lindell has announced that he will challenge McDaniel in 2023. Lindell accused McDaniel of not denying the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election forcefully enough, and criticized her for presiding over the RNC during three disappointing election years.


title: Republican National Committee

text: A collapsible list of the voting members of the Republican National Committee follows, . The state chair, national committeeman and national committeewoman each receive one vote at RNC meetings and vote for RNC Chairmanship.


title: Republican National Committee

text: In February 2014, during the chairmanship of Reince Priebus, the RNC launched an in-house technology incubator called Para Bellum Labs. This new unit of the RNC was first headed by Azarias Reda, an engineer with a PhD in computer science from the University of Michigan. The effort is designed to help the party and its candidates bridge the technology gap. Para Bellum, translated from Latin, means "prepare for war."


title: Republican National Committee

text: In September 2019, McDaniel emailed Doug Manchester, whose nomination to become Ambassador to the Bahamas was stalled in the Senate, asking for $500,000 in donations to the Republican Party. Manchester responded, noting that his wife had given $100,000 and that his family would "respond" once he was confirmed by the Republican-led Senate to the ambassadorship. Manchester copied the email to aides of two U.S. senators whose support he needed to win confirmation. CBS News described McDaniel's action as a "possible pay-for-play scheme" for the ambassadorship. "The San Diego Union-Tribune" reported in May 2021 that a federal grand jury had issued a subpoena in a criminal investigation into Manchester's nomination, apparently focused on the RNC, McDaniel and RNC co-chair Tommy Hicks, "and possibly members of Congress". "The" "Union-Tribune" reported the investigation began in 2020.


title: Wu Lei

text: Wu Lei (; born 19 November 1991) is a Chinese professional footballer who plays as a forward for Chinese Super League club Shanghai Port and the China national team.


title: Wu Lei

text: Wu is the all-time top goalscorer for Shanghai SIPG with 169 goals. He is the second all-time top goalscorer in Chinese Super League history with 102 goals. Wu also holds the record for being the youngest player to have appeared in a Chinese professional league match aged 14 years and 287 days.


title: Wu Lei

text: Wu was born in Nanjing and developed a passion for football at an early age. Turned down by Jiangsu Sainty's youth academy for being too small, Wu took a recommendation letter from former Chinese footballer Li Hongbing and went to Shanghai to apply for the Genbao Football Base in 2003. After watching a single training session of Wu, Xu Genbao, the founder and owner of Genbao Football Base, decided to recruit Wu. Later in 2005, Wu and his teammates joined Shanghai East Asia, which was jointly founded by Xu Genbao.


title: Wu Lei

text: Wu started his football career playing for third-tier side Shanghai SIPG, making his debut for the club on 2 September 2006 in a 5–3 loss against Yunnan Lijiang Dongba, making him the youngest ever player to play professional Chinese football aged 14 years and 287 days. He helped the club win the third tier title and promotion to the second tier at the end of the 2007 league season. He scored his first goal for the club on 30 August 2008 in a 2–0 win against Qingdao Hailifeng. This made him the second youngest goalscorer in Chinese football aged 16 years and 289 days, just 47 days behind Cao Yunding's record.


title: Wu Lei

text: Wu scored a hat-trick on 2 June 2013 in a 6–1 win against Shanghai Shenxin, becoming the second youngest player to score a hat-trick in the top tier. He scored his second hat-trick of the season on 18 August 2013 in a 3–2 win against Tianjin Teda. He scored his third hat-trick of the season on 27 September 2013 in a 6–1 win against Qingdao Jonoon. On 31 July 2016, Wu became the first Chinese footballer in over two years to score a hat-trick in the Chinese Super League in a 3–3 draw against Guangzhou R&F. On 18 March 2018, he scored four goals in a 5–2 win against Guangzhou R&F, becoming the second Chinese footballer to score four goals in a league match after Li Jinyu. In the 2018 season, Wu became the top goalscorer in Chinese Super League history with 102 goals. He also won the Golden Boot award with 27 goals, becoming the first Chinese footballer to win the award since Li Jinyu. Wu was also named as the Chinese Football Association Footballer of the Year at the end of the season, becoming the Chinese footballer to win the award since 2007.


title: Wu Lei

text: On 28 January 2019, Wu transferred to La Liga side RCD Espanyol for a reported fee of €2 million, signing a three-year contract with an option for an additional year. He made his debut for the club on 3 February 2019 in a 2–2 draw against Villarreal, coming on as a substitute for Dídac Vilà in the 77th minute. It was watched by more than 40 million people in China. He became the second Chinese footballer to play in La Liga after Zhang Chengdong. On 9 February 2019, he came on as a substitute and earned a penalty which produced the equalizer in a 2–1 win against Rayo Vallecano. On 17 February 2019, Wu became the first Chinese footballer to start a La Liga match in a 0–0 draw against Valencia CF. Wu scored his first goal for the club on 2 March 2019 in a 3–1 win against Real Valladolid, becoming the first Chinese footballer to score in La Liga. On 24 April 2019, Wu scored his second goal for the club in a 1–1 draw against Celta. On 18 May 2019, Wu scored his third goal for the club in a 2–0 win against Real Sociedad, securing Espanyol's spot in the 2019–20 UEFA Europa League qualifying stages.


title: Wu Lei

text: On 25 July 2019, Wu made his UEFA Europa League debut in the qualifying rounds in a 4–0 win against Stjarnan, coming on as a substitute for Esteban Granero. A month later, he scored his first goal in the same competition in a 3–0 win against Luzern. His goal, a header in the third minute, was the fastest in the club's European history and was also the first goal scored by a Chinese footballer in any European continental competition since 2013. On 3 October 2019, Wu became the first Chinese footballer ever to score in European competition, excluding qualifying stages, scoring in a 2–0 win against CSKA Moscow. On 4 January 2020, Wu became the first Chinese player to score against Barcelona, scoring a 88th-minute equaliser for Espanyol after coming on as a substitute in a 2–2 draw.


title: Wu Lei

text: Wu was called up to the Chinese under-20 national team in 2009 and scored nine goals in five matches during the 2010 AFC U-19 Championship qualification matches. His impressive goalscoring performances saw him called up to the Chinese national team for the 2010 East Asian Football Championship, making his debut on 14 February 2010 in a 2–0 win against Hong Kong.


title: Wu Lei

text: Several months later, Wu returned to the under-20 national team for the 2010 AFC U-19 Championship and he played in four games and score two goals while he aided China to the quarterfinals by the end of the tournament. He scored his first goal for China on 28 July 2013 in a 4–3 win against Australia at the 2013 EAFF East Asian Cup.


title: Wu Lei

text: Wu has been praised for his goalscoring exploits and off-the-ball movements. He is known for his explosive speed, especially on counterattacks. A versatile forward, Wu is capable of playing anywhere across the frontline. Although he has played as a striker and second striker, he often plays as a winger and can operate on either flank.


title: Wu Lei

text: Wu's goalscoring prowess drew praise from former manager Gao Hongbo, who stated, "Wu's scoring ability is innate, making him a gifted player." In 2013, former mentor Xu Genbao, who has been attributed to helping develop Wu, described him as "China's Maradona". Wu's performances during the 2013 Copa del Sol caught the eye of Molde FK's manager Ole Gunnar Solskjær. Solskjær commented on Wu's footballing prowess, stating, "He is a good striker; if he moves to Molde, I think he can improve well enough to play for an English Premiership side in a year."


title: Wu Lei

text: Wu's transfer from Shanghai SIPG to La Liga side Espanyol on 28 January 2019 drew widespread attention amongst Chinese media outlets. According to PPTV, the official broadcaster of La Liga in China, more than 25 million fans in China watched Espanyol win 3–1 against Real Valladolid, in which Wu scored his first goal for the club.


title: Wu Lei

text: Wu is of Hui ethnicity. He married his girlfriend Zhong Jiabei () in 2014 and has two children, a daughter and a son.


title: The Flash (season 6)

text: The sixth season of the American television series "The Flash", which is based on the DC Comics character Barry Allen / Flash, premiered on The CW on October 8, 2019. The season follows Barry as he navigates through the Crisis and the emergence of Bloodwork and Eva McCulloch. It is set in the Arrowverse, sharing continuity with the other television series of the universe, and is a spin-off of "Arrow". The season is produced by Berlanti Productions, Warner Bros. Television, and DC Entertainment, with Eric Wallace serving as showrunner.


title: The Flash (season 6)

text: The season was ordered in January 2019, and was originally planned to have 22 episodes. Filming began that July, and production was shut down in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving the season with only 19 episodes. Grant Gustin stars as Barry, with principal cast members Candice Patton, Danielle Panabaker, Carlos Valdes, Hartley Sawyer, Danielle Nicolet, Tom Cavanagh, and Jesse L. Martin also returning from previous seasons, while LaMonica Garrett was promoted to series regular from his guest status in season five. They are joined by new cast member Efrat Dor while former series regular Keiynan Lonsdale makes a guest appearance. This is the last season to feature Sawyer as a series regular. The series was renewed for a seventh season on January 7, 2020.


title: The Flash (season 6)

text: The series was renewed for a sixth season by The CW on January 31, 2019, along with a 22-episode order. In March 2019, it was announced that Eric Wallace would replace Todd Helbing as showrunner for the season.


title: The Flash (season 6)

text: The season is split in two halves, each having their own self-contained Big Bad story. Each half is referred to by the producers as a "Graphic Novel", the first one is titled "Blood and Truth", and the second one titled "Reflections and Lies". The split was done to avoid inducing fatigue by keeping one Big Bad for 22 episodes, as previous seasons had done.


title: The Flash (season 6)

text: Wallace felt episode 19, which became the season finale due to the COVID-19 pandemic halting all production, worked in the series' favor because it had "a big cliffhanger" that was "a good pause point". The remaining three episodes, which had been written, will become the first three episodes of season seven. Wallace conceded there may be a few small adjustments made based on how the pandemic would affect shooting, but said Eva McCulloch’s story "is on a very specific trajectory that we want to honor and finish." Wallace continued that he thought having these three episodes start season seven was "making it stronger because it's forcing us to look at these two separate things — which is the end of Eva's story and the beginning of the next villain's story and how he relates to Barry and Iris —" and making a strong connection between them.


title: The Flash (season 6)

text: Main cast members Grant Gustin, Candice Patton, Danielle Panabaker, Carlos Valdes, Hartley Sawyer, Danielle Nicolet and Jesse L. Martin return as Barry Allen / Flash, Iris West-Allen, Caitlin Snow / Frost, Cisco Ramon, Ralph Dibny / Elongated Man, Cecile Horton, and Joe West. Tom Cavanagh also returns as a regular, portraying Nash Wells, another doppelgänger of his character Harrison Wells. Cavanagh also returns as Eobard Thawne / Reverse Flash. Valdes also portrayed Cisco's Earth-19 doppelganger "Echo" in the episode "Kiss Kiss Breach Breach". Sendhil Ramamurthy was cast in a recurring role as Ramsey Rosso / Bloodwork, the Big Bad of the season's first half. Efrat Dor appears as a series regular in the second half of the season as Eva McCulloch.


title: The Flash (season 6)

text: The season introduces a new Frost costume which has a more vibrant blue color scheme than the older costume, exposes the shoulders and features a chest emblem shaped like an ice crystal.


title: The Flash (season 6)

text: Production for the season began on July 2, 2019, in Vancouver, British Columbia, and was expected to conclude on April 6, 2020. However, on March 13, 2020, production was shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 90% of the planned 20th episode was filmed by that time, with one more day of filming anticipated to complete it. Though it was initially planned for production on the rest of the season to resume later in the year, the remaining episodes were ultimately not filmed as part of the sixth season.


title: The Flash (season 6)

text: At the end of the 2018 Arrowverse crossover "Elseworlds", the follow-up crossover was revealed to be "Crisis on Infinite Earths" based on the comic book of the same name. The crossover took place over five episodes–three (including the "Flash" episode) in December 2019 and two in January 2020.


title: The Flash (season 6)

text: The season premiered on October 8, 2019, in the United States on The CW. It was initially set to run for 22 episodes, but as production on the season could not continue due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the nineteenth episode was later announced as the season finale.


title: The Flash (season 6)

text: The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 85% approval rating for the sixth season with an average rating of 6.89/10, based on 5 reviews.


title: The Recruit

text: The Recruit is a 2003 American spy thriller film, directed by Roger Donaldson and starring Al Pacino, Colin Farrell, and Bridget Moynahan. It was produced by Epsilon Motion Pictures and released in North America by Touchstone Pictures on January 31, 2003, receiving mixed reviews from critics and grossing $101 million worldwide.


title: The Recruit

text: James Clayton is a prodigious programmer studying nonlinear cryptography at MIT, collaborating with a group of peers to create Spartacus, a surveillance program that can enslave any computer's audiovisual hardware to the master computer via the internet. His group showcases the software to Dell at a campus fair drawing substantial interest in its uses.


title: The Recruit

text: Later at his night job, James is approached by Walter Burke, a man who claims to have known James’ deceased father and suggests he works for the Central Intelligence Agency. After a pitch to recruit James into the agency, James initially declines until he reconsiders it as an opportunity to get answers to his father's mysterious plane crash in Peru several years earlier.


title: The Recruit

text: James passes the initial security screening and is bussed with the rest of his class to The Farm in rural Virginia where they undergo training as potential operatives. While there, James develops an attraction to Layla Moore and a rivalry with Zack who is James’ competition for top of the class.


title: The Recruit

text: One night during a training exercise in which James and Layla are paired together to tail a mark, they are abducted by masked assailants and imprisoned where they are tortured psychologically and physically for several days. Their interrogators wish to know what happens at The Farm and the names of those who teach there. After resisting for days, James breaks when he's told about Layla's brutal treatment. He reveals Burke's name, at which point it's revealed that the whole experience was part of the exercise that the class was observing, including Layla, and that James failed by breaking. He is then attritted from the Farm.


title: The Recruit

text: Later, Burke seeks out a despondent James and informs him that his discharge was part of a cover story because he's been selected as a non-official cover operative, or “NOC”. He gives James a low-level data entry position at the Agency (on the basis that his progress at the Farm was sufficient for this work) so he can get close to Layla who has graduated from the Farm and now holds a higher position than James. Burke explains that Layla is suspected of working with foreign agents to steal CIA secrets, specifically a highly sensitive computer virus called "ICE-9" because it transmits via the electrical grid rather than telecommunications and is easily capable of disabling all electrical devices on the planet instantly, thus behaving similarly to the particle from the Kurt Vonnegut novel "Cat's Cradle".


title: The Recruit

text: James reunites with Layla and the two begin a romantic relationship. While staying overnight at her home, he checks her laptop for evidence of her crimes and she plants a bug on the lapel of his winter coat. Later, he witnesses her making a dead drop at Union Station and follows the mysterious agent who retrieves what Layla left behind.


title: The Recruit

text: The two end up in a shootout on the train tracks and the agent, who is revealed to be Zack, is killed.


title: The Recruit

text: Believing both of them to be traitors, James confronts Layla who tells him that Zack was the NOC, not him, and that she was tasked with assessing the security protocols of the CIA headquarters because it was feared that someone else was stealing CIA material.


title: The Recruit

text: James then goes to a meet with Burke wherein he confronts Burke about what's really happening. Burke claims that Zack's death was faked, that the gun Burke gave James is loaded with non-lethal ammunition, and that everyone is intending to rendezvous for debrief momentarily. However, Burke catches James off guard and shoots at him, narrowly missing him but blowing out the rear window of his vehicle in the process, proving that the gun was in fact loaded with live ammunition and therefore Zack is indeed dead.


title: The Recruit

text: Burke pursues James through the abandoned warehouse they were parked outside of, explaining to James along the way why he set up the elaborate lie to implicate them and cover up his own crimes of selling Agency secrets to foreign governments. James meanwhile has set up a laptop running Spartacus though it failed to connect, however he leads Burke to believe it successfully transmitted his confession back to the Agency and he's now incriminated for everything. Burke angrily destroys the laptop and pursues James outside of the warehouse where a CIA strike team led by Dennis Slayne, another Farm instructor, is waiting. Burke launches into a tirade, airing his grievances against the Agency, believing that he was never appreciated for all the sacrifices he made in his career. Slayne realizes that Burke is the one they're looking for and directs the strike team to target Burke to take into custody, revealing they were originally there to arrest James.


title: The Recruit

text: Realizing now that he really is incriminated, Burke refuses to be taken into custody and instead raises his empty gun at the strike team who quickly shoot and kill him. Slayne then drives James back to headquarters for a debrief, cryptically mentioning along the way that James was meant to be in that line of work because “it’s in [his] blood” suggesting his father in fact worked for the agency, despite Burke's earlier denial of such.


title: The Recruit

text: The film was produced by Gary Barber's and Roger Birnbaum's production company Spyglass Entertainment, with financial support from Disney's Touchstone Pictures and German film financing company Epsilon Motion Pictures (which was owned by the Kirch Group at the time). Filming began on December 3, 2001. It was mainly filmed in Toronto and Niagara-on-the-Lake in Canada, with some landmark scenes, such as that from the Iwo Jima Memorial by the Arlington National Cemetery, shot in and around Washington, D.C. The film's working title was "The Farm". James Foley was considered to direct, but was replaced by Donaldson before filming began.


title: The Recruit

text: The film was released on January 31, 2003 and earned $16.3 million in its first weekend. Its final gross was $52.8 million in the United States and $48.4 million internationally, for a total of $101.2 million.


title: The Recruit

text: On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an approval rating of 43% based on 167 reviews, with an average rating of 5.55/10. The website's critics consensus states: "This polished thriller is engaging until it takes one twist too many into the predictable." Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 56 out of 100, based on 36 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.


title: The Recruit

text: Owen Gleiberman of "Entertainment Weekly" gave the film a positive review, with a B+ score. He wrote, "From the get-go, "The Recruit" is one of those thrillers that delights in pulling the rug out from under you, only to find another rug below that." Carla Meyer of "San Francisco Chronicle" also gave a positive review to the film, stating, "Pacino and Farrell bring a wary curiosity to their early scenes, with Farrell displaying a palpable hunger for praise and Pacino a corresponding mastery of how to hook somebody by parceling out compliments. They're a swarthier version of Robert Redford and Brad Pitt in "Spy Game"–only "The Recruit" is more about mind games."


title: The Recruit

text: Todd McCarthy of "Variety" stated, "The whole picture may be hokey, but the first part is agreeably so, the second part not. At the very least, one comes away with a new appreciation of the difficulty of interoffice romance at the CIA." Mike Clark of "USA Today" gave a mixed review to the film, stating, "Nothing is ever what it seems, but still, nothing's very compelling in "The Recruit", a less-than-middling melodrama whose subject matter and talent never click as much as its credits portend."


title: The Recruit

text: In 2009, the movie was reviewed by new CIA employees, who wrote that although "everyone in the Agency believes the movie is ridiculous", the movie is "entertaining" and that "all of the covert service trainees watched the film on the bus going into training" for "comic relief".


title: The Recruit

text: According to T.J. Waters (a former Farm student), "The Recruit" is "a mediocre movie" in which he "recognize[s] a lot of similarities with the real Farm".


title: Aprilia

text: Aprilia is an Italian motorcycle manufacturer founded immediately after World War II in Noale, Italy, by Alberto Beggio. The company started as a manufacturer of bicycles and moved on to manufacture scooters and small-capacity motorcycles. In more recent times Aprilia has produced large sportbikes such as the 1,000 cc V-twin RSV Mille and the V4 RSV4.


title: Aprilia

text: Aprilia has supported a strong motorsport competition program beginning with motocross racing and then a world championship-winning road racing program. The company was acquired by Piaggio in 2004.


title: Aprilia

text: Aprilia was founded after the Second World War by Cavaliere Alberto Beggio as a bicycle production factory at Noale, Italy, in the province of Venice. Alberto’s son, Ivano Beggio, took over the helm of the company in 1968 and constructed a 50 cc "motorcycle". The first production Aprilia mopeds were named Colibrì, Daniela and Packi. Aprilia later produced a motocross bike in 1970 called the Scarabeo. Produced until the end of the 1970s, the Scarabeo came in 50 and 125 cc versions.


title: Aprilia

text: In 1977 Ivan Alborghetti from Milan, Italy won the Italian 125 and 250 cc motocross championships on Aprilias. In 1978 Alborghetti closed the season with two third places in individual races and sixth place in the World Championship. In the 1980s Aprilia added enduro, trials and road bikes of between 50 and 600 cc. In 1981 Aprilia introduced the TL320 trials machine. In 1983 Aprilia launched the St 125 road bike. In 1984 Aprilia launched an improved model called STX, and an enduro, called the ET 50.


title: Aprilia

text: In 1985, Aprilia started outsourcing engines for some models to the Austrian company Rotax. In 1985 Aprilia launched a 125 STX and 350 STX. In 1986 Aprilia launched the AF1; a small sports model, and the Tuareg; a large tanked bike for African rallies like the Dakar Rally. Aprilia factory rider Philippe Berlatier contended for the trials world championship reaching fifth place, and Loris Reggiani rode an Aprilia GP 250 with Rotax engine to sixth place in the road racing World Championship. Two seasons later, on August 30, 1987, at San Marino Grand Prix in Misano Loris Reggiani's AF1 won the first World Speed Championship.


title: Aprilia

text: In 1990 Aprilia launched the Pegaso 600, a road bike derived from off-road mechanics. Later, in 1992 Aprilia rider Alessandro Gramigni won the World 125 Road Racing Championship title. Also in 1992, Tommy Ahvala won the World Trials Championship on an Aprilia Climber. Since then, Aprilia has 124 times won 125 and 250 cc class Grand Prix, 15 Road Racing World Championship titles, and 16 European speed titles. Many world champions started on Aprilia such as Biaggi, Capirossi, Gramigni, Locatelli, Sakata and Rossi.


title: Aprilia

text: Also in the 1990s, Aprilia entered the scooter market starting in 1990 with Italy’s first all-plastic scooter, the Amico. In 1992, Aprilia introduced the Amico LK and the two stroke Pegaso 125, both with catalytic converters. In 1993 Aprilia launched a large diameter wheel scooter reusing the name Scarabeo with a four-stroke, four-valve engine. Later Aprilia launched more scooters such as the Leonardo, the SR and the Gulliver.


title: Aprilia

text: In 1995, Aprilia commissioned Philippe Starck to design the Motò which was shown in New York’s Modern Art Museum. Also in 1995 Aprilia launched the two stroke RS 125 and RS 250 sports bikes. In 1998 Aprilia launched the RSV Mille, a 1000cc V-Twin Superbike, and the Falco, a 1000cc V-Twin sport tourer with emphasis on sport. Both bikes used a variation of a Rotax 1000cc engine.


title: Aprilia

text: In 1999 Aprilia entered World Superbike Championship racing with its RSV Mille, and during 2000, Aprilia acquired Moto-Guzzi and Laverda, both historic heritage Italian marques. In 2000 Aprilia launched the 50 cc DiTech (Direct Injection Technology) two stroke engine for scooters which provides high mileage and low emissions, and also the RST Futura, a sport tourer, and the ETV 1000 Caponord; an adventure touring motorcycle. Both of these latter two motorcycles used a variation of the Rotax 1000 cc V-Twin.


title: Aprilia

text: Most recently, in 2003, Aprilia launched the RSV Mille Tuono which was essentially an RSV Mille with motocross-style high handlebars and only a small headlight fairing. Most of the major motorcycle magazines picked it for the best bike of the year. In 2004 Aprilia was acquired by Piaggio & C. SpA, to form the world’s fourth largest motorcycle group with 1.5 billion Euro in sales, an annual production capacity of over 600,000 vehicles, and a presence in 50 countries.


title: Aprilia

text: With the acquisition by Piaggio, the new President of Aprilia is Roberto Colaninno (President of Piaggio & C.), and the Managing Director is Rocco Sabelli. The son of the founder, Ivano Beggio, was the Honorary President and died on 13 March 2018. On 15 August 2010, Aprilia became the most successful motorcycle racing brand in history, surpassing fellow Italian MV Agusta with a record 276th victory.


title: Aprilia

text: Despite being a relatively small company by global motorcycling standards, Aprilia is very active in motorcycle sports. It contested many Road Racing formulae, including the now-defunct 125 cc, 250 cc and 500 cc Grand Prix classes of the FIM World Championship. From 2002 to 2004 they participated in the FIM MotoGP World Championship, and from 1999 to 2002 they participated in the FIM Superbike World Championship. Aprilia has returned to World Superbike since the 2009 season and in MotoGP since the 2012 season.


title: Aprilia

text: Aprilia also feature in the off-road racing world, with their 450 cc V-2 motocrosser producing respectable results (including race wins) in both off-road (Motocross) and on-road (Supermoto) categories.


title: Aprilia

text: Aprilia made their international racing debut in the Motocross World Championship competing in the 125cc class from 1976 until 1981 with a best result being a fifth place in the 1979 season with rider Corrado Maddi. The firm then focused on the Grand Prix road racing world championships in 1985 and since then it has seen varying successes. Aprilia won their first world championship race at the 1991 Czechoslovak motorcycle Grand Prix with rider Alessandro Gramigni winning the 125cc race. In they won their first road racing world championship with Gramigni winning the 125cc class. They continued to be successful in the smaller displacement categories, winning numerous races and championships in the 125 cc and 250 cc Grand Prix classes.


title: Aprilia

text: However, their 500 cc Grand Prix bikes failed to attain the same success. They began campaigning in the 500cc class in 1994 with a 250 V twin motor enlarged to 380cc in hopes of using its lighter weight and nimble handling as an advantage against the heavier, V4 engine bikes used by the competition. The bike eventually displaced 430cc and had its best result with a third place by rider Doriano Romboni at the 1997 Dutch TT but, could never overcome power disadvantage during the starting line sprint and was withdrawn at the end of the season for further development. Their first MotoGP effort, dubbed the RS Cube, was technically advanced but difficult to ride and performed poorly in the championship. The Cube did, however, pioneer many advanced technologies including ride by wire throttle and pneumatic valve actuation systems. Aprilia left the MotoGP class at the end of and then left the lower classes when two-stroke engines were banned. Aprilia set the record for the most points earned by a manufacturer in a single season from the 125cc class with 410 points in . It was also the highest points earned by a constructor in Grand Prix motorcycle racing's history until when 420 points were won by the same bikes winning 16 out of 17 races.


title: Aprilia

text: The company is also notable for choosing somewhat atypical engine configurations. For example, they progressed with development of a V-2 500 cc Grand Prix bike when other teams were moving to V-4 configurations for what some believed was better and more usable power outputs. Aprilia continued this trend, taking advantage of lighter minimum weights with the introduction of their RS Cube MotoGP bike – featuring three cylinders in an inline triple layout, the bike had the fewest cylinders on the Grand Prix paddock.


title: Aprilia

text: Aprilia rejoined the MotoGP class in , taking advantage of the newly introduced "Claiming Rule Team" category that encouraged independent teams with lower budgets to use bikes from manufacturers not officially involved in MotoGP. Aprilia supplied RSV4 SBK-derived bikes under the "ART" (Aprilia Racing Technology) name to Aspar Team, Paul Bird Motorsport and Speed Master teams. In both the and seasons Aprilia's ART machinery stood out as the best CRT bikes.


title: Aprilia

text: In , Aprilia partnered with Gresini Racing as a factory-supported independent team. The team competed as the Aprilia Racing Team Gresini with an all-new 1000cc V4-engined RS-GP.


title: Aprilia

text: In , Aprilia entered the series as an official factory team for the first time since 2004. Their previously supported Gresini Racing team returned to a fully-independent team using Ducati bikes. Aprilia's factory team is named Aprilia Racing.