title: Emperor Wu of Han

text: After a series of defeats by Wei Qing (the half-brother of Emperor Wu's favourite concubine) and Wei's nephew, Huo Qubing between 127 and 119 BC, the Xiongnu were expelled from the Ordos Desert and Qilian Mountains. As a result of these territorial acquisitions, the Han Dynasty successfully opened up the Northern Silk Road, allowing direct access to trade with Central Asia. This also provided a new supply of high-quality horse breeds from Central Asia, including the famed Ferghana horse (ancestors of the modern Akhal-Teke), further strengthening the Han army. Emperor Wu then reinforced this strategic asset by establishing five commanderies and constructing a length of fortified wall along the border of the Hexi Corridor, colonizing the area with 700,000 Chinese soldier-settlers.


title: Emperor Wu of Han

text: The Battle of Mobei (119 BC) saw Han forces invade the northern regions of the Gobi Desert. The two generals led the campaign to the Khangai Mountains where they forced the Chanyu to flee north of the Gobi Desert, and then out of the Gobi Desert.


title: Emperor Wu of Han

text: The Xiongnu, destabilized and worried about further Han attacks, retreated further north into the Siberian regions where they suffered starvation due to livestock loss from harsh climates. The battle was however also costly for the Han forces, which lost almost 80% of their warhorses. The cost of the war led the central Han government to introduce new levies, increasing the burden on average peasants, and the population census of the empire showed a significant drop from famines and people fleeing to avoid having to pay the taxes.


title: Emperor Wu of Han

text: Emperor Wu carried out an invasion of the northern Korean Peninsula and established the Commandery of Canghai, but abandoned it in 126 BC. Some of the military colonies established at that time survived into the 4th century, leaving behind various particularly well-preserved funerary artefacts. After the conquest of Nanyue in 111 BC, Emperor Wu launched a second invasion of the Korean peninsula and by 108 BC completed the Han conquest of Gojoseon in what is now modern-day North Korea. Han Chinese colonists in the Xuantu and Lelang commanderies of northern Korea would later fight against frequent raids by the Goguryeo and Buyeo kingdoms. However, they would engage in mostly peaceful trade relations with surrounding Korean peoples over the centuries, the latter of whom became gradually and significantly influenced by Chinese culture.


title: Emperor Wu of Han

text: The exploration into Xiyu was first started in 139 BC, when Emperor Wu commissioned Zhang Qian to seek out the Kingdom of Yuezhi, which had been expelled by Xiongnu from the modern Gansu region. Zhang was to entice the kingdom to return to its ancestral lands with promises of Han military assistance, with the intention that Yuezhi forces would fight against the Xiongnu. Zhang was immediately captured by Xiongnu once he ventured into the desert, but was able to escape around 129 BC and eventually made it to Yuezhi, which by then had relocated to Samarkand. While Yuezhi refused to return, it and several other kingdoms in the area, including Dayuan (Kokand) and Kangju, established diplomatic relations with Han. Zhang was able to deliver his report to Emperor Wu when he arrived back in the capital Chang'an in 126 BC after a second and shorter captivity by Xiongnu. After the Prince of Hunxie surrendered the Gansu region, the path to Xiyu became clear and regular embassies between Han and the Xiyu kingdoms commenced.


title: Emperor Wu of Han

text: Another expansion plan, this one aimed at the south-west, was aimed at the eventual conquest of Nanyue, which was viewed as an unreliable vassal. The plan was to first obtain submission of the south-western tribal kingdoms—the largest of which was Yelang (modern Zunyi, Guizhou)—so that a route for a potential back-stabbing attack on Nanyue could be made. The Han ambassador Tang Meng (唐蒙) was able to secure the submission of these tribal kingdoms by giving their kings gifts; Emperor Wu established the Commandery of Jianwei (犍为, headquarters in modern Yibin, Sichuan) to govern over the tribes, but eventually abandoned it after being unable to cope with local revolts. Later, after Zhang Qian returned from the western region, part of his report indicated that embassies could more easily reach Shendu (India) and Anxi (Parthia) by going through the south-western kingdoms. Encouraged by the report, Emperor Wu sent ambassadors in 122 BC to try to persuade Yelang and Dian (modern eastern Yunnan) into submission again.


title: Emperor Wu of Han

text: Han Gaozu, founder of the Han dynasty, had installed shaman cultists from the area of the former state of Jin (in the area of the modern province of Shanxi) as official religious functionaries of his new empire. Emperor Wu worshiped the divinity Tai Yi (or, Dong Huang Tai Yi), a deity to whom he was introduced by his shaman advisers, who were able to provide him with the experience of having this god (and other spiritual entities, such as the Master of Fate, Si Ming) summoned into his presence; the emperor even went so far as to construct a "House of Life" ("shou gong") chapel at his Ganquan palace complex (in modern Xianyang, Shaanxi) specifically for this purpose, in 118 BC. One of the religious rituals that Emperor Wu organized was the Suburban Sacrifice, and the nineteen hymns entitled "Hymns for Use in the Suburban Sacrifice" were written in connection with these religious rites and published during Wu's reign.


title: Emperor Wu of Han

text: It was also during this time that Emperor Wu began to show a fascination with immortality. He began to associate with magicians who claimed to be able to, if they could find the proper ingredients, create divine pills that would confer immortality. However, he himself punished others' use of magic severely. In 130 BC, for example, when the witch Chu Fu tried to approach Empress Chen to teach her sorcery and love spells to curse Consort Wei and regain Emperor Wu's affections, he dispatched Zhang Tang to execute Chu Fu for witchcraft, which was illegal at the time.


title: Emperor Wu of Han

text: Around the same time, perhaps as a sign of what would come to be, Emperor Wu began to trust governing officials who were harsh in their punishment, believing that such harshness would be the most effective method to maintain social order and so placing these officials in power. For example, one such official, Yi Zong (义纵), became the governor of the Commandery of Dingxiang (part of modern Hohhot, Inner Mongolia) and executed 200 prisoners, even though they had not committed capital crimes; he then executed their friends who happened to have been visiting. In 122 BC, Liu An, the Prince of Huainan (a previously trusted adviser of Emperor Wu, and closely enough related to have imperial pretensions) and his brother Liu Ci (刘赐), the Prince of Hengshan, were accused of plotting treason. They committed suicide; their families and many alleged co-conspirators were executed. Similar action was taken against the other vassal Princes, and by the end of the reign, all the vassal kingdoms had been political and militarily disabled.


title: Emperor Wu of Han

text: A famous wrongful execution happened in 117 BC, when the minister of agriculture Yan Yi (颜异), was falsely accused of committing a crime, though he was actually targeted because he had previously offended the emperor by opposing a plan to effectively extort double tributes out of princes and marquesses. Yan was executed for "internal defamation" of the emperor, and this caused the officials to be fearful and willing to flatter the emperor.


title: Emperor Wu of Han

text: Starting about 113 BC, Emperor Wu began to display further signs of abusing his power. He began to incessantly tour the commanderies, initially nearby Chang'an, but later extending to much farther places, worshipping the various gods on the way, perhaps again in search of immortality. He also had a succession of magicians whom he honoured with great things. In one case, he even made one a marquess and married his daughter, the Eldest Princess Wei, to him; that magician, Luan Da, was later exposed as a fraud and executed. Emperor Wu's expenditures on these tours and magical adventures put a great strain on the national treasury and caused difficulties on the locales that he visited, twice causing the governors of commanderies to commit suicide after they were unable to supply the emperor's entire train.


title: Emperor Wu of Han

text: In 112 BC, a crisis in the Kingdom of Nanyue (modern Guangdong, Guangxi, and northern Vietnam) erupted, leading to military intervention. At that time, the King Zhao Xing and his mother Queen Dowager Jiu (樛太后) – a Chinese woman whom Zhao Xing's father Zhao Yingqi had married while he served as an ambassador to Han – were both in favor of becoming incorporated into Han. This was opposed by the senior prime minister, Lü Jia (吕嘉), who wanted to maintain the kingdom's independence. Queen Dowager Jiu tried to goad the Chinese ambassadors into killing Lü, but the Chinese ambassadors were hesitant to do so. When Emperor Wu sent a 2,000-man force led by Han Qianqiu (韩千秋) and Queen Dowager Jiu's brother Jiu Le (樛乐) to try to assist the king and the queen dowager, Lü staged a coup d'état and had the king and the queen dowager killed. Lü then made another son of Zhao Yingqi, Zhao Jiande, king and went on to annihilate the Han forces under Han and Jiu. Several months later, Emperor Wu commissioned a five-pronged attack against Nanyue. In 111 BC, the Han forces captured the Nanyue capital Panyu (番禺, modern Guangzhou ) and annexed the entire Nanyue territory into Han, establishing ten commanderies.


title: Emperor Wu of Han

text: That same year, one of the co-kings of Minyue (modern Fujian), Luo Yushan, was fearful that Han would attack his kingdom next and made a pre-emptive attack against Han, capturing a number of towns in former Nanyue and in the other border commanderies. In 110 BC, under Han military pressure, Luo Yushan's co-king Luo Jugu (骆居古) assassinated him and surrendered the kingdom to Han. However, Emperor Wu did not establish commanderies in Minyue's former territory; instead, he moved its people to the region between the Yangtze and Huai Rivers.


title: Emperor Wu of Han

text: Later that year, Emperor Wu, at great expense, carried out the ancient ceremony of the Feng and Shan sacrifices "fengshan" (封禅) at Mount Tai; this involved the worship of heaven and earth and presumably a secret petition to the gods of heaven and earth to seek immortality. He then decreed that he would return to Mount Tai every five years to repeat the ceremony, but only did so once in 98 BC. Many palaces were built for him and the princes to accommodate the anticipated cycles of the ceremony.


title: Emperor Wu of Han

text: It was around this time that, in reaction to the large expenditures by Emperor Wu that had exhausted the national treasury, his agricultural minister Sang Hongyang conceived of a plan that many dynasties would repeat later: creating national monopolies for salt and iron. The national treasury would further purchase other consumer goods when the prices were low and sell them when the prices were high at profit, thus replenishing the treasury while at the same time making sure the price fluctuation would not be too great.


title: Emperor Wu of Han

text: In 109 BC, Emperor Wu started yet another territorial expansion campaign. Nearly a century earlier, a Chinese General named Wiman had taken the throne of Gojoseon and had established Wiman Joseon at Wanggeom-seong, (modern Pyongyang), which became a nominal Han vassal. When Wiman's grandson King Ugeo refused to permit Jin's ambassadors to reach China through his territories, Emperor Wei sent an ambassador She He (涉何) to Wanggeom to negotiate a right of passage with King Ugeo, but King Ugeo refused and had a general escort She back to Han territory. When they got close to Han borders, She assassinated the general and claimed to Emperor Wu that he had defeated Joseon in battle. Emperor Wu, unaware of his deception, made him the military commander of the Commandery of Liaodong (modern central Liaoning). King Ugeo, offended, made a raid on Liaodong and killed She. In response, Emperor Wu commissioned a two-pronged attack (one by land and one by sea) against Joseon. Initially, Joseon offered to become a vassal, but peace negotiations broke down by the Chinese forces' refusal to let a Joseon force escort its crown prince to Chang'an to pay tribute to Emperor Wu. Han took over the Joseon lands in 108 BC and established four commanderies.


title: Emperor Wu of Han

text: Also in 109 BC, Emperor Wu sent an expeditionary force against the Kingdom of Dian (modern eastern Yunnan), planning on conquering it. When the King of Dian surrendered, it was incorporated into Han territory with the King of Dian being permitted to keep his traditional authority and title. Emperor Wu established five commanderies over Dian and the other nearby kingdoms.


title: Emperor Wu of Han

text: In 108 BC, Emperor Wu sent general Zhao Ponu (赵破奴) on a campaign to Xiyu, and he forced the Kingdoms of Loulan on northeast border of the Taklamakan Desert and Cheshi (modern Turpan, Xinjiang) into submission. In 105 BC, Emperor Wu gave a princess from a remote collateral imperial line to Kunmo (昆莫), the King of Wusun (Issyk Kol basin) in marriage, and she later married his grandson and successor Qinqu (芩娶), creating a strong and stable alliance between Han and Wusun. The various Xiyu kingdoms also strengthened their relationships with Han. An infamous Han war against the nearby Kingdom of Dayuan (Kokand) erupted in 104 BC. Dayuan refused to give in to Emperor Wu's commands to surrender its best horses, Emperor Wu's ambassadors were then executed when they insulted the King of Dayuan after his refusal. Emperor Wu commissioned Li Guangli, the brother of concubine Lady Li, as a general to direct the war against Dayuan. In 103 BC, Li Guangli's army of 26,000 men (20,000 Chinese & 6,000 steppe cavalry), without adequate supplies, suffered a humiliating loss against Dayuan, but in 102 BC, Li with a new army of 60,000 men, was able to put a devastating siege on its capital by cutting off water supplies to the city, forcing Dayuan's surrender 3,000 of its prized horses. This Han victory further intimidated the Xiyu kingdoms into submission.


title: Emperor Wu of Han

text: Emperor Wu also made attempts to try to intimidate Xiongnu into submission, but even though peace negotiations were ongoing, Xiongnu never actually submitted to becoming a Han vassal during Emperor Wu's reign. In 103 BC, Chanyu Er surrounded Zhao Ponu and captured his entire army – the first major Xiongnu victory since Wei Qing and Huo Qubing nearly captured the chanyu in 119 BC. Following Han's victory over Dayuan in 102 BC, however, Xiongnu became concerned that Han could then concentrate against it, and made peace overtures. Peace negotiations failed when the Han deputy ambassador Zhang Sheng (张胜) was discovered to have conspired to assassinate Chanyu Qiedihou (且鞮侯). The ambassador, the later-famed Su Wu, would be detained for two decades. In 99 BC, Emperor Wu commissioned another expedition force aimed at crushing Xiongnu, but both prongs of the expedition force failed. Li Guangli's force became trapped but was able to free itself and withdraw, while Li Ling, Li Guang's grandson, surrendered at the end after being surrounded by Xiongnu forces. One year later, receiving a report that Li Ling was training Xiongnu soldiers, Emperor Wu had Li's clan executed.


title: Emperor Wu of Han

text: Moreover, Emperor Wu already bore a grudge against the famed historian Sima Qian because Sima's "Shiji" was not as flattering to Emperor Wu and his father Emperor Jing as Emperor Wu wanted, so Emperor Wu had Sima Qian castrated.


title: Emperor Wu of Han

text: In 106 BC, in order to further better organize the territories, including both the previously-existing empire and the newly conquered territories, Emperor Wu divided the empire into 13 prefectures ("zhou", 州), but without governors or prefectural governments. Rather, he assigned a supervisor to each prefecture, who would visit the commanderies and principalities in the prefecture on a rotating basis to investigate corruption and disobedience with imperial edicts.


title: Emperor Wu of Han

text: In 104 BC, Emperor Wu built the luxurious Jianzhang Palace (建章宮) – a massive structure that was intended to make him closer to the gods. He later resided at that palace exclusively, rather than the traditional Weiyang Palace, which Xiao He had built during the reign of Emperor Gao.


title: Emperor Wu of Han

text: About 100 BC, due to the heavy taxation and military burdens imposed by Emperor Wu's incessant military campaigns and luxurious spending, there were many peasant revolts throughout the empire. Emperor Wu issued an edict that was intended to suppress the peasant revolts: he made officials whose commanderies saw unsuppressed peasant revolts liable with their lives. However, this edict had the exact opposite effect, since it became impossible to suppress all of the revolts, officials would merely cover up the existence of the revolts. He executed many people who made fake coins.


title: Emperor Wu of Han

text: In 96 BC, a series of witchcraft persecutions began. Emperor Wu, who was paranoid over a nightmare of being whipped by tiny stick-wielding puppets and a sighting of a traceless assassin (possibly a hallucination), ordered extensive investigations with harsh punishments. Large numbers of people, many of them high officials, were accused of witchcraft and executed, usually along with their entire clans. The first trial began with Empress Wei Zifu's elder brother-in-law Gongsun He (公孫賀, the Prime Minister at the time) and his son Gongsun Jingsheng (公孫敬聲, also an imperial official, but arrested under corruption charges), quickly leading to the execution of their entire clan. Also caught in this disaster were Crown Prince Ju's two elder sisters Princess Yangshi (陽石公主, who was said to have a romantic relationship with her cousin Gongsun Jingsheng) and Princess Zhuyi (諸邑公主), as well as his cousin Wei Kang (衛伉, the eldest son of the deceased general Wei Qing), who were all accused of witchcraft and executed in 91 BC. These witchcraft persecutions later became intertwined in succession struggles and erupted into a major catastrophe.


title: Emperor Wu of Han

text: In 94 BC, Emperor Wu's youngest son Liu Fuling was born to a favorite concubine of his, Lady Gouyi (Consort Zhao). Emperor Wu was ecstatic in having a child at such an advanced age (62 years old), and because Consort Zhao purportedly had a pregnancy that lasted 14 months (the same as the mythical Emperor Yao), he named Consort Zhao's palace gate "Gate of Yao's mother." This led to speculation that the emperor, due to his favor of Consort Zhao and Prince Fuling, wanted to make Liu Fuling the crown prince instead. While there was no evidence that he actually intended to do anything as such, over the next few years, conspiracies against Crown Prince Ju and his mother Empress Wei arose that were inspired by such rumors.


title: Emperor Wu of Han

text: Up to this point, there had been a cordial but somehow fragile relationship between Emperor Wu and his crown prince, who perhaps was not as ambitious as his father wished. As he grew older, the Emperor came to be less attracted to Ju's mother, Empress Wei Zifu, though he continued to respect her. When he left the capital, the Emperor would delegate authority to Crown Prince Ju. Eventually, however, the two began to have disagreements over policy, with Ju favoring leniency and Wu's advisers (harsh and sometimes corrupt officials) urging the opposite. After Wei Qing's death in 106 BC and Gongsun He's execution, Prince Ju had no strong allies left in the government. The other officials then began to publicly defame and plot against him. Meanwhile, Emperor Wu was becoming more and more isolated, spending time with young concubines, often remaining unavailable to Ju or Wei.


title: Emperor Wu of Han

text: Conspirators against Prince Ju included Jiang Chong (江充), the newly appointed head of secret intelligence, who had once had a run-in with Ju after arresting one of his assistants for improper use of an imperial right of way. Another conspirator was Su Wen (蘇文), chief eunuch in charge of caring for imperial concubines, who had previously made false accusations against Ju, claiming he was joyful over Wu's illness and had an adulterous relationship with one of the junior concubines.


title: Emperor Wu of Han

text: Jiang and others made many accusations of witchcraft against important people in the Han court. Jiang and Su decided to use witchcraft as the excuse to move against Prince Ju himself. With approval from Emperor Wu who was then at the Ganquan Palace, Jiang searched through various palaces, ostensibly for witchcraft items, eventually reaching Prince Ju's and Empress Wei's palace. While completely trashing the palaces up with intensive digging, he secretly planted witchery dolls and pieces of cloth with mysterious writings. He then announced that he had found the items there during the search. Prince Ju was shocked, knowing that he was framed. His teacher Shi De (石德), invoking the story of Ying Fusu of the Qin dynasty and raised the possibility that Emperor Wu might already be dead, suggesting that Prince Ju start an uprising to fight the conspirators. Prince Ju initially hesitated, wanting to speed to Ganquan Palace to defend himself before his father. But, when he found out that Jiang's messengers were already on their way, he decided to follow Shi's suggestion.


title: Emperor Wu of Han

text: Prince Ju sent an individual to impersonate a messenger from Emperor Wu to lure and arrest Jiang and the other conspirators. Su escaped, but Ju accused Jiang of sabotaging his relationship with his father, and personally killed Jiang. With the support of his mother, Ju enlisted his guards, civilians, and prisoners in preparation to defend him.


title: Emperor Wu of Han

text: Su fled to Ganquan Palace and accused Prince Ju of treason. Emperor Wu, not believing it to be true and correctly (at this point) believing that Prince Ju had merely been angry at Jiang, sent a messenger back to Chang'an to summon Prince Ju. The messenger did not dare to proceed to Chang'an, but instead returned and gave Emperor Wu the false report that Prince Ju was conducting a coup. Enraged, Emperor Wu ordered his nephew, Prime Minister Liu Qumao (刘屈犛), to put down the rebellion.


title: Emperor Wu of Han

text: The two sides battled in the streets of Chang'an for five days, but Liu Qumao's forces prevailed after it became clear that Prince Ju did not have his father's authorization. Prince Ju was forced to flee the capital following the defeat, accompanied only by two of his sons and some personal guards. Apart from a grandson Liu Bingyi, who was barely a month old and thrown into prison, all other members of his family were left behind and killed. His mother, Empress Wei, committed suicide when Emperor Wu sent officials to depose her. Their bodies were carelessly buried in fields without proper tomb markings. Prince Ju's supporters were brutally cracked down on and civilians aiding the crown prince were exiled. Even Tian Ren (田仁), an official city gatekeeper who did not stop Prince Ju's escape, and Ren An (任安), an army commander who chose not to actively participate in the crackdown, were accused of being sympathizers and executed.


title: Emperor Wu of Han

text: Emperor Wu continued to be enraged and ordered that Prince Ju be tracked down. After a junior official, Linghu Mao (令狐茂), risked his life to speak on Prince Ju's behalf, Emperor Wu's anger began to subside. However, he waited to issue a pardon for Prince Ju.


title: Emperor Wu of Han

text: Prince Ju fled to Hu County (湖縣, in modern Sanmenxia, Henan) and took refuge in the home of a poor peasant family. Knowing that their good-hearted hosts could never afford the daily expenditure of so many people, the Prince sought help from an old friend who lived nearby. However, this move exposed their whereabouts, and he was soon tracked down by local officials eager for a reward. Surrounded by troops and seeing no chance of escape, the Prince hung himself. His two sons and the family housing them died with him after the government soldiers eventually broke into the yard and killed everyone. The two local officials who led the raid, Zhang Fuchang (張富昌) and Li Shou (李寿), wasted no time in taking the Prince's body to Chang'an to claim a reward from the emperor. Emperor Wu, although greatly saddened to hear the death of his son, had to keep his promise and rewarded the officials.


title: Emperor Wu of Han

text: Even after Jiang Chong and Prince Ju both died, the witchhunt continued and combined with Wei Zifu's jealousy led to the execution of the Li family on accounts of treason. General Li Guangli caused unnecessary losses with his military incompetence. In 90 BC, while Li was assigned to a campaign against Xiongnu, a eunuch named Guo Rang (郭穰) exposed how Li and his political ally, Prime Minister Liu Qumao, were conspiring to use witchcraft on Emperor Wu. Liu and his family were immediately arrested and later executed. Li's family was also taken into custody and later executed after the traitor Li Ling also defected to the Xiongnu. Li, after learning the news, used risky tactics to attempt a standoff against Emperor Wu, but failed when some of his senior officers mutinied. On his retreat, he was ambushed by Xiongnu forces. He defected to Xiongnu and Emperor Wu executed the Li clan for treason soon after. Even within the Xiongnu, Li himself also fought with other Han traitors, especially Wei Lü (衛律), who was extremely jealous of the amount of Chanyu's favor that Li gained as a new, high-profile defector.


title: Emperor Wu of Han

text: By this time, Emperor Wu realized that the witchcraft accusations were often false accusations, especially in relation to the crown prince rebellion. In 92 BC, when Tian Qianqiu, then the superintendent of Emperor Gao's temple, wrote a report claiming that Emperor Gao told him in a dream that Prince Ju should have only been whipped at most, not killed, Emperor Wu had a revelation about what had led to his son's rebellion. He had Su burned and Jiang's family executed. He also made Tian prime minister. Although he claimed to miss Prince Ju greatly (he even built a palace and an altar for his deceased son as a sign of grief and regret), he did not at this time rectify the situation where Prince Ju's only surviving progeny, Liu Bingyi, languished in prison as a child.


title: Emperor Wu of Han

text: With the political scene greatly changed, Emperor Wu publicly apologized to the whole nation about his past policy mistakes, a gesture known to history as the Repenting Edict of Luntai (輪台悔詔). The Prime Minister Tian he appointed was in favor of retiring the troops and easing hardships on the people. Tian also promoted agriculture, with several agricultural experts becoming important members of the administration. Wars and territorial expansion generally ceased. These policies and ideals were those supported by Crown Prince Ju, and were finally realised years after his death.


title: Emperor Wu of Han

text: By 88 BC, Emperor Wu had become seriously ill. With Prince Ju dead, there was no clear heir. Liu Dan, the Prince of Yan, was Emperor Wu's oldest surviving son, but Emperor Wu considered both him and his younger brother Liu Xu, the Prince of Guangling, to be unsuitable, since neither respected laws. He decided that the only suitable heir was his youngest son, Liu Fuling, who was only six at that time. He therefore also chose a potential regent in Huo Guang, whom he considered to be capable and faithful, and entrusted Huo with the regency of Fuling. Emperor Wu also ordered the execution of Prince Fuling's mother Consort Zhao, out of fear that she would become an uncontrollable empress dowager like the previous Empress Lü. At Huo's suggestion, he made ethnic Xiongnu official Jin Midi and general Shangguang Jie co-regents. He died in 87 BC, shortly after making Prince Fuling crown prince. Crown Prince Fuling then succeeded to the throne as Emperor Zhao for the next 13 years.


title: Emperor Wu of Han

text: Empress Chen Jiao and Empress Wei Zifu were the only two empresses during Emperor Wu's reign. Emperor Wu did not make anyone empress after Empress Wei Zifu committed suicide, and he left no instruction on who should be enshrined in his temple with him. He lies buried in the Maoling mound, the most famous of the so-called Chinese pyramids. Huo Guang sent 500 beautiful women there for the dead emperor. According to folk legend, 200 of them were executed for having sex with the guards. Huo's clan was later killed and the emperor's tomb was looted by Chimei.


title: Emperor Wu of Han

text: Historians have treated Emperor Wu with ambivalence, and there are certainly some contradictory accounts of his life. He roughly doubled the size of the Han empire of China during his reign, and much of the territory that he annexed is now part of modern China. He officially encouraged Confucianism, yet just like Qin Shi Huang, he personally used a legalist system of rewards and punishments to govern his empire.


title: Emperor Wu of Han

text: Emperor Wu is said to have been extravagant and superstitious, allowing his policies to become a burden on his people. As such he is often compared to Qin Shi Huang. The punishments for perceived failures and disloyalty were often exceedingly harsh. His father saved many participants of Rebellion of the Seven States from execution, and made some work in constructing his tomb. Emperor Wu had killed thousands of people and their families over the Liu An affair, Hengshan, his prosecution of witchcraft, and the Prince Ju revolt.


title: Emperor Wu of Han

text: He used some of his wives' relatives to fight Xiongnu, some of whom become successful and famous generals. There is evidence to suggest that the two of them, Wei Qing and Huo Qubin, may have been his lovers. Wei Qing was buried in the Emperor's mausoleum.


title: Emperor Wu of Han

text: He forced his last queen to commit suicide. His lover, Han Yuan, whom he had known since childhood, was executed on the Queen Dowager's orders for having an affair with a palace maid. Out of the twelve prime ministers appointed by Emperor Wu, three were executed and two committed suicide while holding the post; another was executed in retirement. He set up many special prisons (詔獄) and incarcerated nearly two hundred thousand individuals in them.


title: Emperor Wu of Han

text: Emperor Wu's political reform resulted in the strengthening of the Emperor's power at expense of the prime minister's authority. The post of "Shangshu" (court secretaries) was elevated from merely managing documents to that of the Emperor's close advisor, and it stayed this way until the end of the imperial era.


title: Emperor Wu of Han

text: In 140 BC, Emperor Wu conducted an imperial examination of over 100 young scholars. Having been recommended by officials, most of the scholars were commoners with no noble background. This event would have a major impact on Chinese history, marking the official start of the establishment of Confucianism as official imperial doctrine. This came about because a young Confucian scholar, Dong Zhongshu, was evaluated to have submitted the best essay in which he advocated the establishment of Confucianism. It is unclear whether Emperor Wu, in his young age, actually determined this, or whether this was the result of machinations of the prime minister Wei Wan (衛綰), who was himself a Confucian. However, the fact that several other young scholars who scored highly on the examination (but not Dong) later became trusted advisors for Emperor Wu would appear to suggest that Emperor Wu himself at least had some actual participation.


title: Emperor Wu of Han

text: In 136 BC, Emperor Wu founded what became the Imperial University, a college for classical scholars that supplied the Han's need for well-trained bureaucrats.


title: Emperor Wu of Han

text: Various important aspects of Han poetry are associated with Emperor Wu and his court, including his direct interest in poetry and patronage of poets. Emperor Wu was also a patron of literature, with a number of poems being attributed to him. As to the poetry on lost love, some of the pieces attributed to him are considered of well-done, there is some question to their actual authorship.


title: Emperor Wu of Han

text: Emperor Wu facilitated a revival of interest in Chu ci, the poetry of and in the style of the area of the former Chu kingdom during the early part of his reign, in part because of his near relative Liu An. Some of this Chu material was later anthologized in the "Chu Ci".


title: Emperor Wu of Han

text: The "Chuci" genre of poetry from its origin was linked with Chu shamanism, and Han Wudi both supported the Chu genre of poetry in the earlier years of his reign, and also continued to support shamanically-linked poetry during the later years of his reign.


title: Emperor Wu of Han

text: Emperor Wu employed poets and musicians in writing lyrics and scoring tunes for various performances and also patronized choreographers and shamans in this same connection for arranging the dance movements and coordinating the spiritual and the mundane. He was quite fond of the resulting lavish ritual performances, especially night time rituals where the multitudinous singers, musicians, and dancers would perform in the brilliant lighting provided by of thousands of torches.


title: Emperor Wu of Han

text: The "fu" style typical of Han poetry also took shape during the reign of Emperor Wu in his court, with poet and official Sima Xiangru as a leading figure. However, Sima's initial interest in the "chu ci" style later gave way to his interest in more innovative forms of poetry. After his patronage of poets familiar with the "Chu ci" style in the early part of his reign, Emperor Wu later seems to have turned his interest and his court's interest to other literary fashions.


title: Emperor Wu of Han

text: Another of Emperor Wu's major contribution to poetry was through his organization of the Imperial Music Bureau ("yuefu") as part of the official governmental bureaucratic apparatus: the Music Bureau was charged with matters related to music and poetry, as lyrics are a part of music and traditional Chinese poetry was considered to have been chanted or sung, rather than spoken or recited as prose. The Music Bureau greatly flourished during the reign of Emperor Wu of Han, who has been widely cited to have founded the Music Bureau in 120 BCE.


title: Emperor Wu of Han

text: However, it seems more likely that there was already a long-standing office of music and that Emperor Wu enlarged its size as part of his governmental reorganization, changing its scope and function and possibly renaming it and thus seeming to have established a new institution. The stated tasks of this institution were apparently to collect popular songs from different and adapt and orchestrate these, as well as to develop new material. Emperor Wu's Music Bureau not only collected folk songs and ballads from where they originated throughout the country, but also collected songs reportedly based on Central Asian tunes or melodies, with new lyrics which were written to harmonize with the existing tunes, and characterized by varying line lengths and the incorporation of various nonce words. In any case, he is widely held to have used the Music Bureau as an important part of his religious innovations and to have specifically commissioned Sima Xiangru to write poetry. Because of the development and transmission of a particular style of poetry by the Music Bureau, this style of poetry has become known as the "Music Bureau" style, or "yuefu" (and also in its later development referred to as "new "yuefu"", "imitation", or "literary "yüeh-fu"").


title: Emperor Wu of Han

text: Emperor Wu is one of the most famous emperors of ancient China and has made appearances in quite a lot of Chinese television dramas, examples include:


title: Emperor Wu of Han

text: Emperor Wu is also a major character in Carole Wilkinson's novel "Dragonkeeper" and its sequels, "Garden of the Purple Dragon" and "Dragon Moon". The three novels, which center on the journeys of a former slave girl and the dragons in her care, loosely depict the first years of Emperor Wu's reign and includes a number of references to his quest for immortality.


title: Emperor Wu of Han

text: In the 1991 film "The Addams Family" Morticia Addams donates "a finger trap from the court of Emperor Wu" to a charity auction.


title: Lantana camara

text: Lantana camara (common lantana) is a species of flowering plant within the verbena family (Verbenaceae), native to the American tropics. It is a very adaptable species, which can inhabit a wide variety of ecosystems; once it has been introduced into a habitat it spreads rapidly; between 45ºN and 45ºS and more than in altitude.


title: Lantana camara

text: It has spread from its native range to around 50 countries, where it has become an invasive species. It first spread out of the Americas when it was brought to Europe by Dutch explorers and cultivated widely, soon spreading further into Asia and Oceania where it has established itself as a notorious weed, and in Goa it was introduced by the Portuguese.


title: Lantana camara

text: "L. camara" can outcompete native species, leading to a reduction in biodiversity. It can also cause problems if it invades agricultural areas as a result of its toxicity to livestock, as well as its ability to form dense thickets which, if left unchecked, can greatly reduce the productivity of farmlandby supressing the pastures (grasses) essential for livestock production and also suppresses crops in cultivated farmlands.


title: Lantana camara

text: "Lantana camara" is a perennial, erect sprawling or scandent, shrub which typically grows to around tall and form dense thickets in a variety of environments. Under the right conditions, it can scramble up into trees and can grow to tall.


title: Lantana camara

text: "L. camara" has small tubular-shaped flowers, which each have four petals and are arranged in clusters in terminal areas stems. Flowers come in many different colours, including red, yellow, white, pink and orange, which differ depending on location in inflorescences, age, and maturity. The flower has a tutti frutti smell with a peppery undertone. After pollination occurs, the colour of the flowers changes (typically from yellow to orangish, pinkish, or reddish); this is believed to be a signal to pollinators that the pre-change colour contains a reward as well as being sexually viable, thus increasing pollination efficiency. In frost-free climates the plant can bloom all year round, especially when the soil is moist.


title: Lantana camara

text: The fruit is a berry-like drupe which turns from green to dark purple when mature. Green unripe fruits are inedible to humans and animals alike. Because of dense patches of hard spikes on their rind, ingestion of them can result in serious damage to the digestive tract. Both seed and vegetative reproduction occur. Up to 12,000 fruits can be produced by each plant.


title: Lantana camara

text: Due to extensive selective breeding throughout the 17th and 18th centuries for use as an ornamental plant, there are now many different cultivars.


title: Lantana camara

text: Other common names include Cariaquillo (Boriken, Puerto Rico), Spanish flag, big-sage (Malaysia), Putush (West Bengal), Kongini (Kerala), wild-sage, red-sage, white-sage (Caribbean), korsu wiri or korsoe wiwiri (Suriname), tickberry (South Africa), Kashi Kothan (Maldives), West Indian lantana, umbelanterna, and Gu Phool in Assam, and Thirei in Manipur.


title: Lantana camara

text: The name "Lantana" derives from the Latin name of the wayfaring tree "Viburnum lantana", the flowers of which closely resemble "Lantana".


title: Lantana camara

text: The native range of "Lantana camara" is Central and South America; however, it has become naturalised in around 60 tropical and sub-tropical countries worldwide. It is found frequently in east and southern Africa, where it occurs at altitudes below , and often invades previously disturbed areas such as logged forests and areas cleared for agriculture.


title: Lantana camara

text: "L. camara" has also spread across the areas of Africa, Southern Europe, such as Spain and Portugal, and also the Middle East, India, tropical Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and the US, as well as many Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Ocean islands. It has become a significant weed in Sri Lanka after escaping from the Royal Botanical Gardens in 1926. Lantanas were brought to Australia as an ornamental garden plant in 1841, which spread and escaped domestic cultivation and became established in the wild within 20 years. They were brought to India by the British around 200 years ago, which then spread and became invasive there as well.


title: Lantana camara

text: It was introduced into the Philippines from Hawaii as part of an exchange program between the United States and the Philippines; however, it managed to escape and has become naturalized in the islands. It has also been introduced to the whole southern US, from California to North Carolina, and is considered hardy in US Department of Agriculture zones 10 and 11.


title: Lantana camara

text: The range of "L. camara" is still increasing, shown by the fact that it has invaded many islands on which it was not present in 1974, including the Galapagos Islands, Saipan and the Solomon Islands. There is also evidence that "L. camara" is still increasing its range in areas where it has been established for many years, such as East Africa, Australia and New Zealand. The ability of "L. camara" to rapidly colonise areas of land which have been disturbed has allowed it to proliferate in countries where activities such as logging, clearance for agriculture and forest fires are common. In contrast, in countries with large areas of intact primary forest, the distribution of "L. camara" has been limited.


title: Lantana camara

text: "L. camara" is rarely found in natural or semi-natural areas of forest, as it is unable to compete with taller trees due to its lack of tolerance for shade. Instead it grows at the forest edge. "L. camara" can survive in a wide range of climatic conditions, including drought, different soil types, heat, humidity and salt. It is also relatively fire tolerant and can quickly establish itself in recently burnt areas of forest.


title: Lantana camara

text: "L. camara" is considered to be a weed in large areas of the Paleotropics where it has established itself. In agricultural areas or secondary forests it can become the dominant understorey shrub, crowding out other native species and reducing biodiversity. The formation of dense thickets of "L. camara" can significantly slow down the regeneration of forests by preventing the growth of new trees.


title: Lantana camara

text: Although "L. camara" is itself quite resistant to fire, it can change fire patterns in a forest ecosystem by altering the fuel load, causing a buildup of forest fuel, which itself increases the risk of fires spreading to the canopy. This can be particularly destructive in dry, arid areas where fire can spread quickly and lead to the loss of large areas of natural ecosystem.


title: Lantana camara

text: "L. camara" reduces the productivity in pasture through the formation of dense thickets, which reduce growth of crops as well as make harvesting more difficult. There are also secondary impacts, including the finding that in Africa, mosquitos which transmit malaria and tsetse flies shelter within the bushes of "L. camara".


title: Lantana camara

text: Even though "L. camara" is considered invasive to the Western Ghats, the plant does not seem to impact biodiversity in the region; rather it tends to simply occupy the same moist regions as other species.


title: Lantana camara

text: There are many reasons why "L. camara" has been so successful as an invasive species; however, the primary factors which have allowed it to establish itself are:


title: Lantana camara

text: Effective management of invasive "L. camara" in the long term will require a reduction in activities that create degraded habitats. Maintaining functioning (healthy) ecosystems is key to preventing invasive species from establishing themselves and out-competing native fauna and flora.


title: Lantana camara

text: Insects and other biocontrol agents have been implemented with varying degrees of success in an attempt to control "L. camara". It was the first weed ever subjected to biological control; however, none of the programs have been successful despite 36 control agents being used across 33 regions.


title: Lantana camara

text: The lack of success using biological control in this case is most likely due to the many hybrid forms of "L. camara", as well as its large genetic diversity which makes it difficult for the control agents to target all plants effectively. A recent study in India has shown some results around biological control of this plant using tingid bugs.


title: Lantana camara

text: Mechanical control of "L. camara" involves physically removing the plants. Physical removal can be effective but is labour-intensive and expensive, therefore removal is usually only appropriate in small areas or at the early stages of an infestation. Another method of mechanical control is to use fire treatment, followed by revegetation with native species.


title: Lantana camara

text: Using herbicides to manage "L. camara" is very effective but also expensive, prohibiting its use in many poorer countries where "L. camara" is well established. The most effective way of chemically treating plant species is to first mow the area, then spray the area with a weed-killer, although this may have serious environmental consequences.


title: Lantana camara

text: "Lantana camara" is known to be toxic to livestock such as cattle, sheep, horses, dogs and goats. The active substances causing toxicity in grazing animals are pentacyclic triterpenoids, which result in liver damage and photosensitivity. "L. camara" also excretes allelopathic chemicals, which reduce the growth of surrounding plants by inhibiting germination and root elongation.


title: Lantana camara

text: The toxicity of "L. camara" to humans is undetermined, with several studies suggesting that ingesting berries can be toxic to humans, such as a study by O. P. Sharma which states "Green unripe fruits of the plant are toxic to humans". North Carolina State University's Extension Gardener website states that ingestion of the flowers, fruits, and leaves can cause vomiting, diarrhea, difficulty breathing, and liver failure, while the leaves can cause contact dermatitis. A field guide by the US Department of the Army says the plant can even be fatal. Contrarily, some studies have claimed that the species poses no risk to humans when eaten, and is in fact edible when ripe.


title: Lantana camara

text: "Lantana camara" stalks have been used in the construction of furniture, such as chairs and tables; however, the main uses have historically been medicinal and ornamental.


title: Lantana camara

text: Studies conducted in India have found that "Lantana" leaves can display antimicrobial, fungicidal and insecticidal properties. "L. camara" has also been used in traditional herbal medicines for treating a variety of ailments, including cancer, skin itches, leprosy, chicken pox, measles, asthma and ulcers.


title: Lantana camara

text: "Lantana camara" has been grown specifically for use as an ornamental plant since Dutch explorers first brought it to Europe from the New World. Its ability to last for a relatively long time without water, and the fact that it does not have many pests or diseases which affect it, have contributed to it becoming a common ornamental plant. "L. camara" also attracts butterflies and birds and is frequently used in butterfly gardens. As an ornamental, "L. camara" is often cultivated indoors, or in a conservatory, in cool climates, but can also thrive in a garden with sufficient shelter.


title: Lantana camara

text: Many butterfly species feed on the nectar of "L. camara." "Papilio homerus", the largest butterfly in the western hemisphere, is known to feed on the nectar of the flowers as an opportunistic flower feeder. A jumping spider, "Evarcha culicivora", has an association with "L. camara". They consume the nectar for food and preferentially use these plants as a location for courtship.


title: Polaris Inc.

text: Polaris Inc. is an American automotive manufacturer of RZR, motorcycles, snowmobiles, all-terrain vehicles, and neighborhood electric vehicles headquartered in Medina, Minnesota, United States. Polaris was founded in Roseau, Minnesota, where it still has engineering and manufacturing facilities. The company's corporate headquarters is in Medina, Minnesota. The company manufactured motorcycles through its Victory Motorcycles subsidiary until January 2017, and currently produces motorcycles through the Indian Motorcycle subsidiary, which it purchased in April 2011. Polaris produced personal watercraft from 1994–2004. The company was originally named Polaris Industries Inc. and was renamed in 2019 to Polaris Inc.


title: Polaris Inc.

text: Robin (a subsidiary of Subaru Corporation) previously developed and supplied all-terrain vehicle (ATV) and snowmobile engines for Polaris Inc. Starting in 1995 with the Polaris Magnum 425 4-stroke ATV and in 1997, with the introduction of the "twin 700" snowmobile engine Polaris started the development and production in house of the "Liberty" line of engines, now found in many models across their current production lines. Since that time Polaris has continued to develop their in-house engine production capacity, now designing and manufacturing all of their own power plants, while maintaining the partnership with Subaru.


title: Polaris Inc.

text: In 2010, Polaris relocated a portion of its utility and sport vehicle assembly to Mexico. Components are manufactured in Osceola, Wisconsin and the vehicle assembly is done in Roseau, Minnesota. The vast majority of powertrain and vehicles for the off-road line are manufactured in the Osceola and Roseau facilities, respectively. Both the Victory and Indian motorcycle brands are American made with complete powertrains and vehicle assembly located in Osceola, Wisconsin, and Spirit Lake, Iowa, respectively.


title: Polaris Inc.

text: Edgar Hetteen (later described by the Snowmobile Hall of Fame in St. Germain, Wisconsin as the father of the snowmobile), David Johnson, and Edgar's brother Allan Hetteen were partners in Hetteen Hoist and Derrick in Roseau, Minnesota. Edgar had dropped out of school after the eighth grade in 1934. David Johnson and company employees Paul Knochenmus and Orlen Johnson, who was the first person to ride a Polaris, decided to create a vehicle that could travel through snow. These vehicles' primary use was to make hunting locations more accessible. David Johnson and several employees created the prototype in 1954 while Edgar was on a business trip. Edgar returned to Roseau to discover the snow machine and was furious the employees had used their time and company resources on the machine. This first machine used a grain silo conveyor belt as a track, a Briggs and Stratton motor, and an old Chevy bumper for skis. Edgar was skeptical of its value, and the No. 1 sled was soon sold to Roseau lumberyard owner "Silver Pete" H.F. Peterson for $465 in order to meet company payroll.


title: Polaris Inc.

text: However, the employees continued to focus on building snowmobiles and soon a second model was created, with Allan Hetteen leading the way; it was called the Polaris Sno Traveler. The first production model rolled off the assembly line in Minnesota in 1956. The original models weighed close to and moved at a speed of about . As Polaris snowmobiles gained sales traction, Edgar Hetteen became an advocate of the new product line. In order to promote the new snowmobile and prove its reliability and usefulness, in 1960 Edgar led a three-snowmobile, 1,200-mile trek across the Alaskan wilderness, starting from Bethel, Alaska. The trip took three weeks, and much of the time, Edgar struggled to maintain 10 mph over the snow. The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner put them on its front page. However, Edgar's absence caused problems for him with the Roseau bank's board of directors. Soon after completing the trip, Edgar left the company in June and started a competing company called Polar Manufacturing in Thief River Falls, Minnesota. The company name later changed to Arctic Enterprises; in the mid-1980s it filed for bankruptcy amid fierce competition as snowmobiles became popular and other manufacturers jumped into the market. The company emerged from bankruptcy and continues on today as Arctic Cat.


title: Polaris Inc.

text: Polaris began developing a smaller consumer-sized, front-engine snowmobile to compete with the Ski-Doo in the early 1960s. In 1964, Polaris released the Comet. However, the Comet soon ran into problems as it could not travel in all types of snow conditions. Polaris then recalled the sleds and quickly developed a new prototype to avoid bankruptcy. The new model, the 1965 Mustang, became a hit as a family snowmobile and boosted Polaris sales. Polaris continued to develop snowmobiles similar to this model throughout the 1960s-1970s, and went on to become one of the leaders in the snowmobile industry.


title: Polaris Inc.

text: In the early 1980s, Polaris started creating an Indy style snowmobile with IFS and a wider stance. They continued with the Indy style sled in the 90s with the Storm, XLT, XCR, Ultra, RMK, and Trail lines, within the last few years Polaris has re-introduced the INDY model name. In 1985, Polaris introduced the Scrambler ATC and Trail Boss, which are considered to be the first American-made production all-terrain vehicles (ATV). In the early 1990s, Polaris introduced the Polaris Rocky Mountain King (RMK)- a snowmobile specific for mountain terrain. In May 2009, Polaris announced the creation of an On-Road Vehicle Division. The new division will be devoted to the growth of Victory motorcycles and other on-road products and brands. In 2010, Polaris introduced the Polaris Rush snowmobile which had a new suspension system and better trail handling capabilities. This snowmobile is also available with retro graphics on the Rush and Iq models. In late 2005, Polaris announced that it would purchase a portion of KTM Motorcycles. Through this venture KTM has developed their own ATV and Polaris has developed Sport ATVs which utilize the KTM 525 and 450 powerplants.


title: Polaris Inc.

text: On May 21, 2010, Polaris announced that it was opening a new manufacturing plant in Mexico. The sister facility in Osceola, Wisconsin still remains in full operation. The opening of the Monterrey, Mexico facility is anticipated to save the company $30 million annually, with most of that savings coming from lower wages. The Monterrey facility has 3 assembly lines devoted to production of Ranger side-by-sides for global markets. The original intent of the Monterrey facility was to serve markets in the Southern US plus Mexico and North America.


title: Polaris Inc.

text: In October 2011, Polaris announced an investment in Brammo, Inc., an electric vehicle company based in Ashland, Oregon, United States. Its first production electric motorcycle, the Brammo Enertia, is assembled in Ashland and sold at dealerships. Polaris continued its investment in Brammo when it participated in the $13 million opening tranche of Brammo's Series C funding round in July 2012. Polaris had been showing interest in electric propulsion, producing an electric version of its Ranger Side-by-Side and more recently buying Global Electric Motorcars (GEM). As one publication put it, "This latest move likely signals the addition of clean and quiet drivetrains to ATVs and motorcycles under the global giant's brand umbrella – snowmobiles may have to wait on battery breakthroughs before they become commercially feasible." On January 15, 2015, Polaris announced that it had purchased the entire electric motorcycle business from Brammo. Production of electric motorcycles was slated to commence at Polaris' factory in Spirit Lake, Iowa during the second half of 2015. Polaris also manufactures Victory and Indian motorcycles at the Spirit Lake factory.


title: Polaris Inc.

text: In 2012, production restarted on the Indy-named sleds (stopped in 2004 with the Indy 500) with the release of the 2013 Indy 600 and Indy 600 SP. For 2014, Polaris will expand the Indy name and provide model variants for nearly all categories (the one exception being the "Mountain" class).


title: Polaris Inc.

text: On January 9, 2015, Polaris announced it will be opening a new 600,000-square-foot facility in Huntsville, Alabama that will employ at least 1,700 workers. Construction on the new manufacturing plant is set to start in early 2015 and should be opened by the spring of 2016. The plant will support several core processes including, vehicle assembly, chassis and body painting, welding, fabrication and injection molding.


title: Polaris Inc.

text: On March 7, 2016, Polaris acquired Taylor-Dunn, a manufacturer of industrial vehicles based in Anaheim, CA.


title: Polaris Inc.

text: On January 9, 2017, Polaris Chairman and CEO Michael Scott announced they would be shutting down Victory Motorcycles. They announced they will continue to honor warranties and produce parts for Victory Motorcycles for the next 10 years.


title: Polaris Inc.

text: In April 2018, Polaris Industries agreed to pay a record $27.25 million civil penalty for failing to report defective off-road vehicles.


title: Polaris Inc.

text: In May 2018, Polaris reentered the production of boats by purchasing the Indiana-based Boat Holdings LLC for $805 million. The company invested further in its boating division in January 2019 with the acquisition of Marquis-Larson Boat Group out of Pulaski, Wisconsin. Production of Marquis-Larson moved to a facility in Syracuse, Indiana. They then went on to make the Polaris Slingshot, a three-wheeler.


title: Polaris Inc.

text: On July 29, 2019, the company changed its name from Polaris Industries Inc. to Polaris Inc. and commenced trading with the new name on August 8, 2019.


title: Polaris Inc.

text: Polaris Racing is one of the big four factory racing teams on the World Power Sports Association (WPSA) Snocross circuit. With 44 signed riders, they also run in Hill Cross, Oval Track Racing, and Cross Country Racing. The Polaris Racing Team won 8 different Championships in the 2006–2007 season. Arnar Gunnarsson (#26) won the Pro Open, Gústi (#10) won Pro Stock, Klara Björk (#89) won pro women at Iceland, T. J. Gulla (#44) won the WPSA Pro Stock Championship, Ross Martin (#837) won the WPSA Pro Open Championship, and Kylie Abramson (#87) won the WPSA Pro Women's Championship. Gabe Bunke (#74) has won the USCC Pro 600 Class Championship and USCC Pro Open Class. Dustin Wahl (#74) won the Pro Ice 440 Championship, the Pro Ice Formula Championship, and the Millennium 600 Open championship, and John Cyr III (#99) won the 2004 USCC Pro 700 Class Championship. Most all of the Polaris Racing riders drive the IQR 440, 600 or 700 Racer, depending on the class and the event. Polaris holds the most wins in the World's Longest Toughest Snowmobile Race, the Iron Dog a 2,000 miles race across Alaska.


title: Polaris Inc.

text: Polaris Government and Defense (formerly Polaris Defense) is a division of Polaris Industries founded in 2005 and re-branded in 2017. The division was created after years of successful implementation of the company's off-road vehicles in military theater. The division produces a range of vehicles to serve the United States and allied forces. Products include the MRZR platform, MVRS, MV700, RZR-SW and the DAGOR.


title: Polaris Inc.

text: In November 2016, the U.S. Marine Corps signed a $6.5 million contract with Polaris to deliver 145 MRZR-D ATVs. Called the Utility Task Vehicle (UTV), it is a version of the vehicle already in use by U.S. Special Operations Command, but is designed to be diesel-powered and can run on JP-8 fuel. The Marines bought the unarmored ATVs because they can fit inside an MV-22 Osprey, enabling them to be deployed from long distances, to provide logistics support to ground combat units, assisting them to travel and transport supplies quicker and easier than previously on foot. The vehicles can carry four troops and have a small cargo bed capable of carrying of payload. It is planned to field 18 MRZR-Ds per infantry regiment. The vehicles are to be delivered from late-January to April 2017.


title: Polaris Inc.

text: DAGOR (Deployable Advanced Ground Off-road) is a purpose-built, ultra-light combat vehicle designed and built by Polaris Defense to meet the light-mobility needs of light infantry and special operations forces incorporating military commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components and driveline system.


title: Polaris Inc.

text: The DAGOR was developed under contract from elements of the United States Special Operations Command (SOCOM), Canadian Special Operations Forces Command (CANSOFCOM) and international Special Operations Forces (SOF) customers. The design using (COTS) components enables procurement of spares worldwide. The vehicle is produced by Michigan-based Roush Industries with deliveries commencing in November 2014 with fifteen vehicles for use by the United States Special Operations Command, in January 2015 with five vehicles for the Australian Special Air Service Regiment (SASR) to trial and deliveries were scheduled for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in April 2015.


title: Polaris Inc.

text: The vehicle can be configured in up to 48 different weapon configurations using the weapons ring and multiple pintle mounts. The vehicle is powered by a light weight, commercial off-the-shelf turbo diesel / JP8 engine located at the front section. The vehicle can transport a maximum payload of more than 1,400 kg or up to nine infantrymen in support of expeditionary missions. It offers high mobility and higher speeds over rough terrains. The vehicle is certified for air drop and internal air transport by CH-47 Chinook heavy-lift helicopter, and sling load under UH-60 Black Hawk utility helicopters. The vehicle supports low velocity air drop (LVAD) method.


title: Polaris Inc.

text: On March 21, 2018, Polaris unveiled the DAGOR A1, which can carry approximately 20% more payload compared to the original DAGOR.


title: Tlingit

text: The Tlingit ( or ; also spelled Tlinkit; ) are indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America. Their language is the Tlingit language (natively , pronounced ), in which the name means 'People of the Tides'. The Russian name ' (, from a Sugpiaq-Alutiiq term ' for the labret worn by women) or the related German name "" may be encountered referring to the people in older historical literature, such as Grigory Shelikhov's 1796 map of Russian America.


title: Tlingit

text: The Tlingit have a matrilineal kinship system, with children considered born into the mother's clan, and property and hereditary roles passing through the mother's line. Their culture and society developed in the temperate rainforest of the southeast Alaskan coast and the Alexander Archipelago. The Tlingit maintained a complex hunter-gatherer culture based on semi-sedentary management of fisheries. Hereditary slavery was practiced extensively until it was outlawed by the United States. An inland group, known as the Inland Tlingit, inhabits the far northwestern part of the province of British Columbia and the southern Yukon in Canada.


title: Tlingit

text: The greatest territory historically occupied by the Tlingit extended from the Portland Canal along the present border between Alaska and British Columbia, north to the coast just southeast of the Copper River delta in Alaska. The Tlingit occupied almost all of the Alexander Archipelago, except the southernmost end of Prince of Wales Island and its surroundings, where the Kaigani Haida moved just before the first encounters with European explorers.


title: Tlingit

text: The Coastal Tlingit tribes controlled one of the mountain passes into the Yukon interior; they were divided into three tribes: the Chilkat Tlingit () along the Chilkat River and on Chilkat Peninsula, the Chilkoot Tlingit () and the Taku Tlingit () along the Taku River.


title: Tlingit

text: Inland, the Tlingit occupied areas along the major rivers that pierce the Coast Mountains and Saint Elias Mountains and flow into the Pacific, including the Alsek, Tatshenshini, Chilkat, Taku, and Stikine rivers. With regular travel up these rivers, the Tlingit developed extensive trade networks with Athabascan tribes of the interior, and commonly intermarried with them. From this regular travel and trade, a few relatively large populations of Tlingit settled around Atlin, Teslin, and Tagish Lakes, whose headwaters flow from areas near the headwaters of the Taku River.


title: Tlingit

text: Delineating the modern territory of the Tlingit is complicated because they are spread across the border between the United States and Canada, they lack designated reservations, other complex legal and political concerns make the situation confusing, and there is a relatively high level of mobility among the population. They also overlap in territory with various Athabascan peoples, such as the Tahltan, Kaska and Tagish. In Canada, the modern communities of Atlin, British Columbia (Taku River Tlingit), Teslin, Yukon (Teslin Tlingit Council), and Carcross, Yukon (Carcross/Tagish First Nation) have reserves and are the representative Interior Tlingit populations.


title: Tlingit

text: The territory occupied by the modern Tlingit people in Alaska is not restricted to particular reservations, unlike most tribes in the lower contiguous 48 states. This is the result of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA), which established regional corporations throughout Alaska with complex portfolios of land ownership rather than bounded reservations administered by tribal governments. The corporation in the Tlingit region is Sealaska Corporation, which serves the Tlingit as well as the Haida and Tsimshian in Alaska.


title: Tlingit

text: Tlingit people as a whole participate in the commercial economy of Alaska. As a consequence, they live in typically American nuclear family households with private ownership of housing and land. Many also possess land allotments from Sealaska or from earlier distributions predating ANCSA. Despite the legal and political complexities, the territory historically occupied by the Tlingit can be reasonably designated as their modern homeland. Tlingit people today consider the land from around Yakutat south through the Alaskan Panhandle, and including the lakes in the Canadian interior, as being , the Land of the Tlingit.


title: Tlingit

text: The extant Tlingit territory can be roughly divided into four major sections, paralleling ecological, linguistic, and cultural divisions:


title: Tlingit

text: The trade and cultural interactions between each of these Tlingit groups and their disparate neighbors, the differences in food harvest practices, and dialectical differences in language contribute to these identifications. These academic classifications are supported by similar self-identification among the Tlingit.


title: Tlingit

text: The Tlingit culture is multifaceted and complex, a characteristic of Northwest Pacific Coast people with access to easily exploited rich resources. In Tlingit culture a heavy emphasis is placed upon family and kinship, and on a rich oratory tradition. Wealth and economic power are important indicators of rank, but so is generosity and proper behavior, all signs of "good breeding" and ties to aristocracy. Art and spirituality are incorporated in nearly all areas of Tlingit culture, with even everyday objects such as spoons and storage boxes decorated and imbued with spiritual power and historical beliefs of the Tlingits.


title: Tlingit

text: Tlingit society is divided into two moieties, the Raven and the Eagle. These in turn are divided into numerous clans, which are subdivided into lineages or house groups. They have a matrilineal kinship system, with descent and inheritance passed through the mother's line. These groups have heraldic crests, which are displayed on totem poles, canoes, feast dishes, house posts, weavings, jewelry, and other art forms. The Tlingits pass down "" or blankets that represented trust. Only a Tlingit can inherit one but they can also pass it down to someone they trust, who becomes responsible for caring for it but does not rightfully own it.


title: Tlingit

text: Tlingit thought and belief, although never formally codified, was historically a fairly well organized philosophical and religious system whose basic axioms shaped the way Tlingit people viewed and interacted with the world around them. Tlingits were traditionally animists, and hunters ritually purified themselves before hunting animals. Shamans, primarily men, cured diseases, influenced weather, aided in hunting, predicted the future, and protected people against witchcraft. A central part of the Tlingit belief system was the belief in reincarnation of both humans and animals.


title: Tlingit

text: Between 1886 and 1895, in the face of their shamans' inability to treat Old World diseases including smallpox, many Tlingit people converted to Orthodox Christianity. Russian Orthodox missionaries had translated their liturgy into the Tlingit language. It has been argued that they saw Eastern Orthodox Christianity as a way of resisting assimilation to the "American way of life", which was associated with Presbyterianism. After the introduction of Christianity, the Tlingit belief system began to erode.


title: Tlingit

text: Today, some young Tlingits look back towards their traditional tribal religions and worldview for inspiration, security, and a sense of identity. While many elders converted to Christianity, contemporary Tlingit "reconcile Christianity and the 'traditional culture.'"


title: Tlingit

text: The Tlingit people of Southeast Alaska and Western Canada speak the Tlingit language (Lingít ), which is a branch of the Na-Dené language family. Lingít has a complex grammar and sound system and also uses certain phonemes unheard in almost any other language.


title: Tlingit

text: Tlingit has an estimated 200 to 400 native speakers in the United States and 100 speakers in Canada. The speakers are bilingual or near-bilingual in English. Tribes, institutions, and linguists are expending extensive effort into revitalization programs in Southeast Alaska to revive and preserve the Tlingit language and its culture. Sealaska Heritage Institute, Goldbelt Heritage Institute and the University of Alaska Southeast have Tlingit language programs, and community classes are held in Klukwan and Angoon.


title: Tlingit

text: Tlingit tribes historically built plank houses made from cedar and today call them clanhouses; these houses were built with a foundation such that they could store their belongings under the floors. It is said that these plank houses had no adhesive, nails, or any other sort of fastening devices. Clan houses were usually square or rectangular in shape and had front facing designs and totem poles to represent which clan and moiety the makers belonged.


title: Tlingit

text: Many Tlingit men work in the fishing industry while women are employed at canneries or in the local handicraft industry. These handicrafts include items like wood carvings and woven baskets which are sold for practical or tourist consumption.


title: Tlingit

text: Various cultures of indigenous people have continuously occupied the Alaska territory for thousands of years, leading to the Tlingit. Human culture with elements related to the Tlingit originated around 10,000 years ago near the mouths of the Skeena and Nass Rivers. The historic Tlingit's first contact with Europeans came in 1741 with Russian explorers. Spanish explorers followed in 1775. Tlingits maintained their independence but suffered from epidemics of smallpox and other infectious diseases brought by the Europeans. The 1862 Pacific Northwest smallpox epidemic killed about 60% of the Mainland Tlingit and 37% of the Island Tlingit.


title: Tlingit

text: Food is a central part of Tlingit culture, and the land is an abundant provider. Most of the richness of intertidal life found on the beaches of Southeast Alaska can be harvested for food. Though eating off the beach could provide a fairly healthy and varied diet, eating nothing but "beach food" is considered contemptible among the Tlingit and a sign of poverty. Indeed, shamans and their families were required to abstain from all food gathered from the beach, and men might avoid eating beach food before battles or strenuous activities in the belief that it would weaken them spiritually and perhaps physically as well. Thus for both spiritual reasons as well as to add some variety to the diet, the Tlingit harvest many other resources for food besides those they easily find outside their front doors. No other food resource receives as much emphasis as salmon; however, seal and game are both close seconds.


title: Tlingit

text: Halibut, shellfish, and seaweed traditionally provided food in the spring, while late spring and summer bring seal and salmon. Summer is a time for gathering wild and tame berries, such as salmonberry, soap berry, and currants. In fall, sea otters are hunted. Herring and eulachon are also important staples, that can be eaten fresh or dried and stored for later use. Fish provide meat, oil, and eggs. Sea mammals, such as sea lions and sea otters, are used for food and clothing materials. In the forests near their homes, Tlingit hunted deer, bear, mountain goats and other small mammals.


title: Tlingit

text: Genetic analyses of HLA I and HLA II genes as well as HLA-A, -B, and -DRB1 gene frequencies links the Ainu people of Japan to some Indigenous peoples of the Americas, especially to populations on the Pacific Northwest Coast such as Tlingit. The scientists suggest that the main ancestor of the Ainu and of the Tlingit can be traced back to Paleolithic groups in Southern Siberia.


title: Iman (Islam)

text: Iman ( "ʾīmān", lit. faith or belief) in Islamic theology denotes a believer's faith in the metaphysical aspects of Islam. Its most simple definition is the belief in the six articles of faith, known as "arkān al-īmān".


title: Iman (Islam)

text: The term "iman" has been delineated in both the Quran and "hadith". According to the Quran, iman must be accompanied by righteous deeds and the two together are necessary for entry into Paradise. In the "hadith", "iman" in addition to "Islam" and "ihsan" form the three dimensions of the Islamic religion.


title: Iman (Islam)

text: There exists a debate both within and outside Islam on the link between faith and reason in religion, and the relative importance of either. Some scholars contend that faith and reason spring from the same source and hence must be harmonious.


title: Iman (Islam)

text: In Arabic, "iman" ( "ʾīmān") means "" or "". It is the verbal noun of آمَنَ, "to have faith" or "to give recognition."


title: Iman (Islam)

text: In a hadith, the Islamic prophet Muhammad defined "iman" as "a knowledge in the heart, a voicing with the tongue, and an activity with the limbs." Faith is confidence in a truth which is real. When people have confidence, they submit themselves to that truth. It is not sufficient just to know the truth, but the recognition of the heart should be expressed by the tongue which is the manifestation of the intelligence and at last to reflect this confidence in their activities.


title: Iman (Islam)

text: Of these, the first four are mentioned and the sixth implied in ayah 2:285 of the Quran. All six appear in the first hadith of the collection "Sahih Muslim", where the angel Gabriel asks to be told of "iman" and Muhammad replies:


title: Iman (Islam)

text: In the Qur'an, iman is one of the 10 qualities which cause one to be the recipient of God's mercy and reward. The Qur'an states that faith can grow with the remembrance of God. The Qur'an also states that nothing in this world should be dearer to a true believer than faith.


title: Iman (Islam)

text: Muhammad is reported to have said that he gained sweetness of faith who was pleased to accept God as Lord, Islam as religion and Muhammad as prophet. He also said that no one can be a true believer unless he loves Muhammad more than his children, parents and relatives. At another instance, he has remarked that it is this love with Allah and Muhammad after which a person can be aware of the real taste of faith.


title: Iman (Islam)

text: Islahi and Abul A'la Maududi both have inferred that the Quranic comparison of a good word and a bad word in Chapter 14 is actually a comparison of faith and disbelief. Thus, the Quran is effectively comparing faith to a tree whose roots are deep in the soil and branches spread in the vastness of the sky.


title: Iman (Islam)

text: "The Seventy-Seven Branches of Faith" is a collection compiled by the Shafiʽi imam al-Bayhaqi in his work "Shuʽab al-Iman". In it, he explains the essential virtues that reflect true faith through related Quranic verses and prophetic sayings.


title: Iman (Islam)

text: In Islam, it is essential that there exist harmony and concord between faith and deeds. Farāhī has explained this aspect in his tafsīr in the following manner:


title: Iman (Islam)

text: Righteous deeds are mentioned in the Qurān right after faith in the capacity of an explanation ... In the case of faith, the need for its explanation is obvious: the place of faith is the heart and the intellect. In matters of intellect and heart, not only can a person deceive others but also at times he himself can remain in deception. He considers himself to be a mu’min (believer) whereas actually he is not. For this reason, two testimonies needed to be required for it: a person's words and a person's deeds. Since words can be untrue, hence a person who only professes faith through words is not regarded as a mu’min and it was deemed essential that a person's deeds also testify to his faith.


title: Iman (Islam)

text: The relation between reason and faith in Islam is a complex debate spanning over centuries. Ismail Raji al-Faruqi states on this subject:


title: Iman (Islam)

text: As for the non-Muslims, they may contest the principles of Islam. They must know, however, that Islam does not present its principles dogmatically, for those who believe or wish to believe, exclusively. It does so rationally, critically. It comes to us armed with logical and coherent arguments, and expects our acquiescence on rational, and hence necessary, grounds. It is not legitimate for us to disagree on the relativist basis of personal taste, or that of subjective experience.


title: Bothrops insularis

text: Bothrops insularis, commonly known as the golden lancehead, is a highly venomous pit viper species endemic to Ilha da Queimada Grande, off the coast of São Paulo state, in Brazil. The species is named for the light yellowish-brown color of its underside and for its head shape that is characteristic of the genus "Bothrops." No subspecies of "Bothrops insularis" are currently recognized. It is one of the most venomous snakes in Latin America.


title: Bothrops insularis

text: On average, "B. insularis" grows to a length of and , and it is known to reach . The color pattern consists of a pale yellowish-brown ground color, overlaid with a series of dorsal blotches that may be triangular or quadrangular, broad or narrow, and alternating or opposite along the dorsal median. In captivity, this yellowish color often becomes darker, which may be the result of poor circulation caused by ineffective thermoregulation. A banded pattern results when the pattern is opposite. The head lacks a well-defined post-orbital stripe. The belly is a uniform pale yellow or cream.


title: Bothrops insularis

text: The name "lancehead" refers to the distinctive head shape of all snakes in the genus "Bothrops", which is somewhat elongated and comes to a point at the nose. "B. insularis" also has a longer tail than its closest relative, "B. jararaca," which is most likely an adaptation to help the snake maneuver through the trees, and to eat larger prey like birds from a younger age.


title: Bothrops insularis

text: Because of the isolated habitat of "B. insularis", and the lack of mammal prey species, the venom of "B. insularis" has evolved to be adapted to the prey species of the island, primarily native ectotherms, arthropods and migrating birds. As a result, their venom is more potent towards these groups than mammals, and becomes more potent as the snake matures. Chemical analysis of the venom of "B. insularis" suggests that it is five times as potent as that of "B. jararaca" and is the fastest acting venom in the genus "Bothrops".


title: Bothrops insularis

text: Because "B. insularis" is only found in an area uninhabited by humans, there has never been an official report of a human being bitten by one, but other lanceheads are responsible for more human mortality than any other group of snakes in either North or South America. Ludwig Trutnau reports four human envenomations, three of which were fatal. The mortality rate for lancehead envenomations is 0.5–3% if the patient receives treatment and 7% if the patient does not receive treatment. The effects of envenomations by golden lanceheads include swelling, local pain, nausea and vomiting, blood blisters, bruising, blood in the vomit and urine, intestinal bleeding, kidney failure, hemorrhage in the brain and severe necrosis of muscular tissue.


title: Bothrops insularis

text: Sexually mature "Bothrops insularis" mate during August and September, and have been known to mate both in the trees and on the ground. Like most vipers, "B. insularis" gives live birth to its young. The average size for a litter of golden lanceheads is 6.5 newborns. There are no published data for the size of the golden lancehead at birth, but they are probably of a similar size to "Bothrops jararaca," which have a snout to vent length (SVL) of 24.5 to 25.3 cm (about 9¾ in) and a weight of 9.38 to 10.61 grams (about ⅓ ounce).


title: Bothrops insularis

text: Owing to the dependence of "B. insularis" on migratory birds visiting the island as a food source, the reproductive cycle of female snakes has been suggested to be tied to seasonal bird migration patterns.


title: Bothrops insularis

text: The species is endemic to Queimada Grande Island, Brazil. Therefore, the type locality is the same: "Ilha da Queimada Grande, situado no litoral do Estado de S. Paulo, a cêrca de 40 milhas a S.O. da barra de Santos" (Brazil). This island has a total area of only 43 hectares or 430,000 square metres.


title: Bothrops insularis

text: The island of Queimada Grande is what is classified as "subtropical" or "tropical moist forest". The coordinates for the island are . The island contains several different kinds of habitat including forest, clearings, and shrubs. The island has a very mild climate; the temperature never falls below 18 degrees Celsius, and at its hottest is just over 22 degrees Celsius (64 to 72 °F). Because of the extremely rocky terrain and the isolation of the island, however, the island is not easily accessible and is not populated by humans, or for that matter, any other mammal. The quality of its habitat continues to decline due to vegetation removal by members of the Brazilian Navy who maintain the lighthouse on the island.


title: Bothrops insularis

text: "Bothrops insularis" can usually be found either in the trees hunting for its prey, or seeking shelter among leaf litter or in rock crevices, especially during unfavorable weather or after having just ingested its prey.


title: Bothrops insularis

text: A 2005 genetic study found that the golden lancehead was nested within the living genetic diversity of "Bothrops jararaca," a snake native to southern Brazil, Paraguay, and northern Argentina"." It is thought that the golden lancehead descends from a population of "B. jararaca" that became isolated on Queimada Grande, which was connected to the South American mainland during the Last Glacial Period, after a major sea level rise at the beginning of the Holocene. Including "B. insularis" and "B. jararaca," there are 37 species in the genus "Bothrops", which are all native to South America. Besides "lancehead", another common name for a snake in the genus "Bothrops" is "fer-de-lance". There are no mammals native to the island Queimada Grande, which has undoubtedly had a profound impact on the evolution of the golden lancehead.


title: Bothrops insularis

text: In Campbell and Lamar's 2004 accounts of the venomous reptiles of Latin America, there was no mention of any predators that could potentially prey on an adult "B. insularis". However, the list of animal species provided by Duarte et al. includes several species of birds, spiders, millipedes, and various lizards that inhabit the island, which could potentially be predators of young snakes. Of course, Duarte et al. also stress that there is a lack of observation of this species, due to the inaccessibility of the island Queimada Grande, and that just because a relationship between "B. insularis" and other species has not been observed does not mean that such a relationship does not exist.


title: Bothrops insularis

text: The golden lancehead's diet consists mostly of perching birds. However, they have been reported to eat lizards, and even resort to cannibalism. Newborn and juvenile golden lanceheads prey primarily upon invertebrates. Adult "B. insularis" are able to survive off only one or two birds species per year of the more than 40 that visit the island.


title: Bothrops insularis

text: Adult "Bothrops insularis" are the only animals on the island of Queimada Grande that have been reported to eat birds. There are other fauna, such as frogs, lizards, and birds, on the island that eat invertebrates, but because insects are so plentiful in ecosystems, they may not be a limiting resource. Therefore, studies would have to be done to determine whether or not juvenile and newborn golden lanceheads must compete for food with other fauna.


title: Bothrops insularis

text: Golden lanceheads are known to suffer from flukes (specifically "Ochetosoma heterocoelium") in their mouth cavity as well as carry the hard-bodied tick "Ambylomma rotundatum".


title: Bothrops insularis

text: This species is classified as critically endangered (CR) on the IUCN Red List for the following criteria: CR B1ab(iii)+2ab(iii) (v3.1 (2001). This means that the "geographic range" is estimated to be less than 100 km², that this area is severely fragmented or known to exist at only a single location, and that a continuing decline has been observed, inferred or projected for the area, extent and/or quality of the habitat. Furthermore, the "area of occupancy" is estimated to be less than 10 km². The population trend is stable. Year assessed: 2004. The population of "B. insularis" on the island was estimated in 2021 based on a combination of observations, 2D, and 3D scanning of the island in 2015, and estimated to be between 2,414 (2D scan estimate) and 2,899 (3D scan estimate).


title: Bothrops insularis

text: Because the island on which the species is found is small, it can support only a small population, suggesting that the range between the number of snakes required for the population to survive and the maximum number the island can support is small, making the species especially sensitive to any other problems. Also, because the island of Queimada Grande is the only place where "B. insularis" is found in the wild, if that population is wiped out the species will be extinct in the wild.


title: Bothrops insularis

text: In the past, people have deliberately started fires on the island of Queimada Grande in an attempt to kill off "B. insularis" so that the island could be used to grow bananas. The Brazilian Navy has also contributed to habitat destruction by removing vegetation in order to maintain a lighthouse on the island. Because of these problems as well as overharvesting by overzealous scientists, Duarte et al. wrote that it is "very hazardous to assume that this is an invulnerable snake". Based on a 100-year simulation, it was estimated that between 25 to 40 snakes harvested per year would cause genetic extinction for "B. insularis".


title: Bothrops insularis

text: In addition to authorized collecting for research purposes, the illegal wildlife trade is a threat to "B. insularis" due to its rare nature, with researchers approached with offers of up to $30,000 for specimens in 2008, nearly 4 times Brazil's GDP per capita that year.


title: Bothrops insularis

text: Due to the small population and limited geographic distribution of "B. insularis", there is a high level of inbreeding in the "in situ" population on the island. This threatens to produce deleterious genes in the population and is associated with extinction when inbreeding depression occurs in the population. Diversity management may be needed in the future for "in situ" and "ex situ" populations maintained off the island for research to avoid extinction.


title: Bothrops insularis

text: Associated with the heavy inbreeding of "B. insularis" is the occurrence of "intersexes", individuals born with both a hemipenis and female reproductive parts. Duarte et al. attribute these intersexes to "a great amount of inbreeding" within the population (which is another effect of the species' small distribution) and explain that the relatively high occurrence of intersexes being born may be harmful to the species population, since most of the intersexes are sterile.


title: Bothrops insularis

text: In addition to intersexes, it has been observed that when compared to their mainland relatives "B. jaracara", "B. insularis" have reduced fecundity in females, and high levels of mutations in male sperm, thought to be a product of heavy inbreeding.


title: Bothrops insularis

text: As of 2019, it was reported by snake expert Bryan Fry, in an interview with 60 Minutes Australia that the migratory birds that "B. insularis" depends upon were visiting less due to deforestation on the Brazilian mainland.


title: Bothrops insularis

text: These snakes may be either terrestrial or arboreal, even though they lack a true prehensile tail. Observations suggest that the species' use of vegetation is facultative and that it is not truly arboreal. They are likely found to be in trees while hunting for their prey, which consists mostly of birds, but tend to seek shelter under leaf litter or in rock crevices during storms or after ingesting prey.


title: Bothrops insularis

text: Unlike other venomous snakes that tend to strike, release, and then track their prey, "B. insularis" keeps its prey in its mouth once it has been envenomated. This is thought to be an adaptation to hunting birds, as chemical tracking of prey after release, a practice used by other vipers, is much harder when flying birds are to be tracked.


title: Bothrops insularis

text: While other lanceheads have been observed shaking their tails in order to lure prey, this behavior has not been observed in the golden lancehead. However, considering the presence of potential prey susceptible to caudal luring and the opportunistic nature of "B. insularis," it would not be surprising if this behavior were eventually observed.


title: B. Jeyamohan

text: Bahuleyan Jeyamohan (born 22 April 1962) is an Indian Tamil and Malayalam language writer and literary critic from Nagercoil in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.


title: B. Jeyamohan

text: His best-known and most critically acclaimed work is "Vishnupuram", a fantasy set as a quest through various schools of Indian philosophy and mythology. In 2014, he started his most ambitious work "Venmurasu", a modern renarration of the epic "Mahabharata" and successfully completed the same, thus creating the world's longest novel ever written.


title: B. Jeyamohan

text: His other well-known novels include "Rubber", "Pin Thodarum Nizhalin Kural", "Kanyakumari", "Kaadu", "Pani Manidhan", "Eazhaam Ulagam" and "Kotravai". The early major influences in his life have been the humanitarian thinkers Leo Tolstoy and Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. Drawing on the strength of his life experiences and extensive travel around India, Jeyamohan is able to re-examine and interpret the essence of India's rich literary and classical traditions.


title: B. Jeyamohan

text: Born into a Malayali Nair family in the Kanyakumari district that straddles Tamil Nadu and Kerala, Jeyamohan is equally adept in Tamil and Malayalam. However, the bulk of his work has been in Tamil. Jeyamohan's output includes nine novels, ten volumes of short-stories/plays, thirteen literary criticisms, five biographies of writers, six introductions to Indian and Western literature, three volumes on Hindu and Christian philosophy and numerous other translations and collections. He has also written scripts for Malayalam and Tamil movies.


title: B. Jeyamohan

text: Jeyamohan was introduced to Arunmozhi Nangai as a reader and married her in 1991. Their son Ajithan was born in 1993 and daughter Chaitanya in 1997.


title: B. Jeyamohan

text: Jeyamohan was born on 22 April 1962 in Thiruvarambu of Kanyakumari District, Tamil Nadu, to S.Bahuleyan Pillai and B.Visalakshi Amma. Bahuleyan Pillai was an accounts clerk in the Arumanai registrar's office. Visalakshi Amma hailed from a family of trade-unionists. Jeyamohan's siblings were an elder brother and a younger sister. Bahuleyan's family followed him around on his work-related transfers to Thiruvattar and Arumanai towns in the Kanyakumari district.


title: B. Jeyamohan

text: Very early on, Jeyamohan was inspired by his mother to take up writing. Jeyamohan's first publication during schooldays was in "Ratnabala", a children's magazine, followed by a host of publications in popular weeklies. After high school, Jeyamohan was pressured by his father to take up commerce and accountancy in college. The suicide of a close friend drove him to drop out of college and constantly travel the country in search of physical and spiritual experience. He supported himself by taking up odd jobs and writing in pulp magazines all the while reading voraciously. He took up a temporary job at the Telephones department in Kasargode where he became close to the Leftist trade union circles. He received many of his formative ideas on historiography and literary narrative during that period.


title: B. Jeyamohan

text: Visalakshi and Bahuleyan committed suicide within a month of each other in 1984, and this drove Jeyamohan further into an itinerant lifestyle. He met writer Sundara Ramasamy in 1985 who took on the role of a mentor and encouraged him to take up writing seriously. Jeyamohan also got another mentor in the form of Aattoor Ravi Varma who sensitized him to the delicate balance between art and life. In parallel, Jeyamohan was an avid reader of Indian classics and philosophical texts like the Bhagavad Gita.


title: B. Jeyamohan

text: In 1987, the journal "Kollippaavai" published his poem "Kaidhi" ("The Prisoner"). In the same year, "Nadhi" ("The River") was published in "Kanaiyazhi" with a critical mention from writer Ashoka Mitran. The journal "Nigazh" published "Bodhi", followed by "Padugai" ('The Riverbed'). Critics heaped praise on "Padugai" for its evocative narrative that wove together myths and contemporary visuals. Jeyamohan wrote his first full-fledged novel "Rubber" in 1988 and then re-edited and published it in 1990.


title: B. Jeyamohan

text: The novel won the Akilan Memorial prize for its path-breaking portrayal of the ecological and sociological impact of rubber cultivation in the South Indian states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Jeyamohan's speech at the awards function was well received, and he further developed those ideas in "Novel" (1990), an exploration of the art form and its ideologies, and "Naveena Thamizhilakkiya Arimugam", a comprehensive introduction to modernist Tamil literature.


title: B. Jeyamohan

text: In 1993, Jeyamohan met Guru Nitya Chaitanya Yati which proved to be a turning point in his spiritual journey. The dialogues with the Guru opened new views into the body of Indian thought, which culminated in his acclaimed work "Vishnupuram" in 1997. Jeyamohan travelled and witnessed first-hand regional issues, droughts and political problems that underlay issues like Naxalism in tribal areas. His experiences convinced him of the continuing relevance of Gandhian idealism and non-violence as the sensible alternative to naked capitalism and militant socialism. The leftist in him had been saddened by the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, and a decade long introspection on the nature of power and self-righteousness found expression in "Pin Thodarum Nizhalin Kural" in 1999.


title: B. Jeyamohan

text: Post-2000, Jeyamohan broke new ground with "Kaadu" (2003), an exploration of the forest landscape as a metaphor for lust and the vigour of life. "Kotravai" (2005), the renarration of the Kannagi epic, was deemed by the writer and critics as his best yet in terms of structure and depth.


title: B. Jeyamohan

text: From 1998 to 2004, Jeyamohan and his friends edited a literary journal named "Solputhithu". In 2009, his readership circle created the 'Vishnupuram Ilakkiya Vattam' to broaden the readership for serious literature in Tamil Nadu and to reward under-recognized pioneers of Tamil literature.


title: B. Jeyamohan

text: When he turned 50, Jeyamohan wrote a set of short-stories, titled 'Aram', that explored the values and idealism that is possible in man. In 2014, Jeyamohan began writing "Venmurasu", a re-narration of the Indian epic Mahabharata.


title: B. Jeyamohan

text: In parallel, Jeyamohan has produced a prolific output as one of the foremost Literary critics and theorists of modern Indian literature with focus on Tamil. His 30 volumes on criticism and anthologies have earned him a respectable place among critics like Vedasagayakumar.


title: B. Jeyamohan

text: In 2013, he was considered as Tamil Author of the year by National Library, Singapore. In 2016, he worked as Writer in residence for 2 months at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, organized by National Arts Council (Singapore) and National Institute of Education.