title: Painted turtle

text: Originally described in 1783 by Johann Gottlob Schneider as "Testudo picta", the painted turtle was called "Chrysemys picta" first by John Edward Gray in 1855. Four subspecies were then recognized: the eastern by Schneider in 1783, the western by Gray in 1831, and the midland and southern by Louis Agassiz in 1857, though the southern painted turtle is now generally considered a full species.


title: Painted turtle

text: Although the subspecies of painted turtle intergrade (blend together) at range boundaries they are distinct within the hearts of their ranges.


title: Painted turtle

text: Until the 1930s many of the subspecies of the painted turtle were labeled by biologists as full species within "Chrysemys", but this varied by the researcher. The painted turtles in the border region between the western and midland subspecies were sometimes considered a full species, "treleasei". In 1931, Bishop and Schmidt defined the current "four in one" taxonomy of species and subspecies. Based on comparative measurements of turtles from throughout the range, they subordinated species to subspecies and eliminated "treleasei".


title: Painted turtle

text: Since at least 1958, the subspecies were thought to have evolved in response to geographic isolation during the last ice age, 100,000 to 11,000 years ago. At that time painted turtles were divided into three different populations: eastern painted turtles along the southeastern Atlantic coast; southern painted turtles around the southern Mississippi River; and western painted turtles in the southwestern United States. The populations were not completely isolated for sufficiently long, hence wholly different species never evolved. When the glaciers retreated, about 11,000 years ago, all three subspecies moved north. The western and southern subspecies met in Missouri and hybridized to produce the midland painted turtle, which then moved east and north through the Ohio and Tennessee river basins.


title: Painted turtle

text: Biologists have long debated the genera of closely related subfamily-mates "Chrysemys," "Pseudemys" (cooters), and "Trachemys" (sliders). After 1952, some combined "Pseudemys" and "Chrysemys" because of similar appearance. In 1964, based on measurements of the skull and feet, Samuel B. McDowell proposed all three genera be merged into one. However, further measurements, in 1967, contradicted this taxonomic arrangement. Also in 1967, J. Alan Holman, a paleontologist and herpetologist, pointed out that, although the three turtles were often found together in nature and had similar mating patterns, they did not crossbreed. In the 1980s, studies of turtles' cell structures, biochemistries, and parasites further indicated that "Chrysemys", "Pseudemys", and "Trachemys" should remain in separate genera.


title: Painted turtle

text: In 2003, Starkey "et al." proposed that "Chrysemys dorsalis", formerly considered a subspecies of "C. picta", to be a distinct species sister to all subspecies in "C. picta". Although this proposal was largely unrecognized at the time due to evidence of hybridization between "dorsalis" and "picta", the Turtle Taxonomy Working Group and the Reptile Database have since followed through with it, although both the subspecific and specific names have been recognized.


title: Painted turtle

text: Although its evolutionary history—what the forerunner to the species was and how the close relatives branched off—is not well understood, the painted turtle is common in the fossil record. The oldest samples, found in Nebraska, date to about 15 million years ago. Fossils from 15 million to about 5 million years ago are restricted to the Nebraska-Kansas area, but more recent fossils are gradually more widely distributed. Fossils newer than 300,000 years old are found in almost all the United States and southern Canada.


title: Painted turtle

text: The turtle's karyotype (nuclear DNA, rather than mitochondrial DNA) consists of 50 chromosomes, the same number as the rest of its subfamily-mates and the most common number for Emydidae turtles in general. Less well-related turtles have from 26 to 66 chromosomes. Little systematic study of variations of the painted turtle's karotype among populations has been done. (However, in 1967, research on "protein" structure of offshore island populations in New England, showed differences from mainland turtles.)


title: Painted turtle

text: Comparison of subspecies chromosomal DNA has been discussed, to help address the debate over Starkey's proposed taxonomy, but as of 2009 had not been reported. The complete sequencing of the genetic code for the painted turtle was at a "draft assembled" state in 2010. The turtle was one of two reptiles chosen to be first sequenced.


title: Painted turtle

text: Adult painted turtles can grow to long, with males being smaller. The shell is oval, smooth with little grooves where the large scale-like plates overlap, and flat-bottomed. The color of the top shell (carapace) varies from olive to black. Darker specimens are more common where the bottom of the water body is darker. The bottom shell (plastron) is yellow, sometimes red, sometimes with dark markings in the center. Similar to the top shell, the turtle's skin is olive to black, but with red and yellow stripes on its neck, legs, and tail. As with other pond turtles, such as the bog turtle, the painted turtle's feet are webbed to aid swimming.


title: Painted turtle

text: The head of the turtle is distinctive. The face has only yellow stripes, with a large yellow spot and streak behind each eye, and on the chin two wide yellow stripes that meet at the tip of the jaw. The turtle's upper jaw is shaped into an inverted "V" (philtrum), with a downward-facing, tooth-like projection on each side.


title: Painted turtle

text: The hatchling has a proportionally larger head, eyes, and tail, and a more circular shell than the adult. The adult female is generally longer than the male, versus . For a given length, the female has a higher (more rounded, less flat) top shell. The female weighs around on average, against the males' average adult weight of roughly . The female's greater body volume supports her egg-production. The male has longer foreclaws and a longer, thicker tail, with the anus (cloaca) located further out on the tail.


title: Painted turtle

text: The painted turtle has a very similar appearance to the red-eared slider (the most common pet turtle) and the two are often confused. The painted turtle can be distinguished because it is flatter than the slider. Also, the slider has a prominent red marking on the side of its head (the "ear") and a spotted bottom shell, both features missing in the painted turtle.


title: Painted turtle

text: The most widespread North American turtle, the painted turtle is the only turtle whose native range extends from the Atlantic to the Pacific. It is native to eight of Canada's ten provinces, forty-five of the fifty United States, and one of Mexico's thirty-one states. On the East Coast, it lives from the Canadian Maritimes to the U.S. state of Georgia. On the West Coast, it lives in British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon and offshore on southeast Vancouver Island. The northernmost American turtle, its range includes much of southern Canada. To the south, its range reaches the U.S. Gulf Coast in Louisiana and Alabama. In the southwestern United States there are only dispersed populations. It is found in one river in extreme northern Mexico. It is absent in a part of southwestern Virginia and the adjacent states as well as in north-central Alabama.


title: Painted turtle

text: The borders between the four subspecies are not sharp, because the subspecies interbreed. Many studies have been performed in the border regions to assess the intermediate turtles, usually by comparing the anatomical features of hybrids that result from intergradation of the classical subspecies. Despite the imprecision, the subspecies are assigned nominal ranges.


title: Painted turtle

text: The eastern painted turtle ranges from southeastern Canada to Georgia with a western boundary at approximately the Appalachians. At its northern extremes, the turtle tends to be restricted to the warmer areas closer to the Atlantic Ocean. It is uncommon in far north New Hampshire and in Maine is common only in a strip about 50 miles from the coast. In Canada, it lives in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia but not in Quebec or Prince Edward Island. To the south it is not found in the coastal lowlands of southern North Carolina, South Carolina, or Georgia, or in southern Georgia in general or at all in Florida.


title: Painted turtle

text: The eastern subspecies's range extends slightly into east central Alabama, where it intergrades with the southern subspecies. In the northeast, there is extensive mixing with the midland subspecies, and some writers have called these turtles a "hybrid swarm". In the southeast, the border between the eastern and midland is more sharp as mountain chains separate the subspecies to different drainage basins.


title: Painted turtle

text: The midland painted turtle lives from southern Ontario and Quebec, through the eastern U.S. Midwest states, to Kentucky, Tennessee and northwestern Alabama, where it intergrades with the southern painted turtle. It also is found eastward through West Virginia, western Maryland and Pennsylvania. The midland painted turtle appears to be moving east, especially in Pennsylvania. To the northeast it is found in western New York and much of Vermont, and it intergrades extensively with the eastern subspecies.


title: Painted turtle

text: The western painted turtle's northern range includes southern parts of western Canada from Ontario through Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia. In Ontario, the western subspecies is found north of Minnesota and directly north of Lake Superior, but there is a gap to the east of Lake Superior (in the area of harshest winter climate) where no painted turtles of any subspecies occur. Thus Ontario's western subspecies does not intergrade with the midland painted turtle of southeastern Ontario. In Manitoba, the turtle is numerous and ranges north to Lake Manitoba and the lower part of Lake Winnipeg. The turtle is also common in south Saskatchewan, but in Alberta, there may only be 100 individuals, all found very near the U.S. border, mostly in the southeast.


title: Painted turtle

text: In British Columbia, populations exist in the interior in the vicinity of the Kootenai, Columbia, Okanagan, and Thompson river valleys. At the coast, turtles occur near the mouth of the Fraser and a bit further north, as well as the bottom of Vancouver Island, and some other nearby islands. Within British Columbia, the turtle's range is not continuous and can better be understood as northward extensions of the range from the United States. High mountains present barriers to east–west movement of the turtles within the province or from Alberta. Some literature has shown isolated populations much further north in British Columbia and Alberta, but these were probably pet-releases.


title: Painted turtle

text: In the United States, the western subspecies forms a wide intergrade area with the midland subspecies covering much of Illinois as well as a strip of Wisconsin along Lake Michigan and part of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan (UP). Further west, the rest of Illinois, Wisconsin and the UP are part of the range proper, as are all of Minnesota and Iowa, as well as all of Missouri except a narrow strip in the south. All of North Dakota is within range, all of South Dakota except a very small area in the west, and all of Nebraska. Almost all of Kansas is in range; the border of that state with Oklahoma is roughly the species range border, but the turtle is found in three counties of north central Oklahoma.


title: Painted turtle

text: To the northwest, almost all of Montana is in range. Only a narrow strip in the west, along most of the Idaho border (which is at the Continental Divide) lacks turtles. Wyoming is almost entirely out of range; only the lower elevation areas near the eastern and northern borders have painted turtles. In Idaho, the turtles are found throughout the far north (upper half of the Idaho Panhandle). Recently, separate Idaho populations have been observed in the southwest (near the Payette and Boise rivers) and the southeast (near St. Anthony). In Washington state, turtles are common throughout the state within lower elevation river valleys. In Oregon, the turtle is native to the northern part of the state throughout the Columbia River Valley as well as the Willamette River Valley north of Salem.


title: Painted turtle

text: To the southwest, the painted turtle's range is fragmented. In Colorado, while range is continuous in the eastern, prairie, half of the state, it is absent in most of the western, mountainous, part of the state. However, the turtle is confirmed present in the lower elevation southwest part of the state (Archuleta and La Plata counties), where a population ranges into northern New Mexico in the San Juan River basin. In New Mexico, the main distribution follows the Rio Grande and the Pecos River, two waterways that run in a north–south direction through the state. Within the aforementioned rivers, it is also found in the northern part of Far West Texas. In Utah, the painted turtle lives in an area to the south (Kane County) in streams draining into the Colorado River, although it is disputed if they are native. In Arizona, the painted turtle is native to an area in the east, Lyman Lake. The painted turtle is not native to Nevada or California.


title: Painted turtle

text: In Mexico, painted turtles have been found about 50 miles south of New Mexico near Galeana in the state of Chihuahua. There, two expeditions found the turtles in the Rio Santa Maria which is in a closed basin.


title: Painted turtle

text: Pet releases are starting to establish the painted turtle outside its native range. It has been introduced into waterways near Phoenix, Arizona, and to Germany, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Spain.


title: Painted turtle

text: To thrive, painted turtles need fresh waters with soft bottoms, basking sites, and aquatic vegetation. They find their homes in shallow waters with slow-moving currents, such as creeks, marshes, ponds, and the shores of lakes. The subspecies have evolved different habitat preferences.


title: Painted turtle

text: Within much of its range, the painted turtle is the most abundant turtle species. Population densities range from 10 to 840 turtles per hectare (2.5 acres) of water surface. Warmer climates produce higher relative densities among populations, and habitat desirability also influences density. Rivers and large lakes have lower densities because only the shore is desirable habitat; the central, deep waters skew the surface-based estimates. Also, lake and river turtles have to make longer linear trips to access equivalent amounts of foraging space.


title: Painted turtle

text: Adults outnumber juveniles in most populations, but gauging the ratios is difficult because juveniles are harder to catch; with current sampling methods, estimates of age distribution vary widely. Annual survival rate of painted turtles increases with age. The probability of a painted turtle surviving from the egg to its first birthday is only 19%. For females, the annual survival rate rises to 45% for juveniles and 95% for adults. The male survival rates follow a similar pattern, but are probably lower overall than females, as evidenced by the average male age being lower than that of the female. Natural disasters can confound age distributions. For instance, a hurricane can destroy many nests in a region, resulting in fewer hatchlings the next year. Age distributions may also be skewed by migrations of adults.


title: Painted turtle

text: To understand painted turtle adult age distributions, researchers require reliable methods. Turtles younger than four years (up to 12 years in some populations) can be aged based on "growth rings" in their shells. For older turtles, some attempts have been made to determine age based on size and shape of their shells or legs using mathematical models, but this method is more uncertain. The most reliable method to study the long-lived turtles is to capture them, permanently mark their shells by notching with a drill, release the turtles, and then recapture them in later years. The longest-running study, in Michigan, has shown that painted turtles can live more than 55 years.


title: Painted turtle

text: Adult sex ratios of painted turtle populations average around 1:1. Many populations are slightly male-heavy, but some are strongly female-imbalanced; one population in Ontario has a female to male ratio of 4:1. Hatchling sex ratio varies based on egg temperature. During the middle third of incubation, temperatures of produce males, and anything above or below that, females. It does not appear that females choose nesting sites to influence the sex of the hatchlings; within a population, nests will vary sufficiently to give both male and female-heavy broods.


title: Painted turtle

text: The painted turtle hunts along water bottoms. It quickly juts its head into and out of vegetation to stir potential victims out into the open water, where they are pursued. The turtle holds large prey in its mouth and tears the prey apart with its forefeet. It also consumes plants and skims the surface of the water with its mouth open to catch small particles of food.


title: Painted turtle

text: Although all subspecies of painted turtle eat both plants and animals (in the form of leaves, algae, fish, crustaceans, aquatic insects and carrion), their specific diets vary.


title: Painted turtle

text: Painted turtles obtain coloration from carotenoids in their natural diet by eating algae and a variety of aquatic plants from their environment.Stripes and spots increase red and yellow chroma and decrease UV chroma and brightness in turtles with large amounts of carotenoids in their diet compared to the stripes and spots of turtles with only moderate amounts of carotenoids in their diet.


title: Painted turtle

text: Painted turtles are most vulnerable to predators when young. Nests are frequently ransacked and the eggs eaten by garter snakes, crows, chipmunks, thirteen-lined ground and gray squirrels, skunks, groundhogs, raccoons, badgers, gray and red fox, and humans. The small and sometimes bite-size, numerous hatchlings fall prey to water bugs, bass, catfish, bullfrogs, snapping turtles, three types of snakes (copperheads, racers and water snakes), herons, rice rats, weasels, muskrats, minks, and raccoons. As adults, the turtles' armored shells protect them from many potential predators, but they still occasionally fall prey to alligators, ospreys, crows, red-shouldered hawks, bald eagles, and especially raccoons.


title: Painted turtle

text: Painted turtles defend themselves by kicking, scratching, biting, or urinating. In contrast to land tortoises, painted turtles can right themselves if they are flipped upside down.


title: Painted turtle

text: The painted turtles mate in spring and fall in waters of . Males start producing sperm in early spring, when they can bask to an internal temperature of . Females begin their reproductive cycles in mid-summer, and ovulate the following spring.


title: Painted turtle

text: Courtship begins when a male follows a female until he meets her face-to-face. He then strokes her face and neck with his elongated front claws, a gesture returned by a receptive female. The pair repeat the process several times, with the male retreating from and then returning to the female until she swims to the bottom, where they copulate. As the male is smaller than the female, he is not dominant. Although not directly observed, evidence indicates that the male will inflict injury on the female in attempts of coercion. Males will use their tooth-like cusps on their beaks and their foreclaws during this act of coercion with the female. The female stores sperm, to be used for up to three clutches, in her oviducts; the sperm may remain viable for up to three years. A single clutch may have multiple fathers.


title: Painted turtle

text: Nesting is done, by the females only, between late May and mid-July. The nests are vase-shaped and are usually dug in sandy soil, often at sites with southern exposures. Nests are often within of water, but may be as far away as , with older females tending to nest further inland. Nest sizes vary depending on female sizes and locations but are about deep. Females may return to the same sites several consecutive years, but if several females make their nests close together, the eggs become more vulnerable to predators. Female eastern painted turtles have been shown to nest together, possibly even participating in communal nesting.


title: Painted turtle

text: The female's optimal body temperature while digging her nest is . If the weather is unsuitable, for instance a too hot night in the Southeast, she delays the process until later at night. Painted turtles in Virginia have been observed waiting three weeks to nest because of a hot drought.


title: Painted turtle

text: While preparing to dig her nest, the female sometimes exhibits a mysterious preliminary behavior. She presses her throat against the ground of different potential sites, perhaps sensing moisture, warmth, texture, or smell, although her exact motivation is unknown. She may further temporize by excavating several false nests as the wood turtles also do.


title: Painted turtle

text: The female relies on her hind feet for digging. She may accumulate so much sand and mud on her feet that her mobility is reduced, making her vulnerable to predators. To lighten her labors, she lubricates the area with her bladder water. Once the nest is complete, the female deposits into the hole. The freshly laid eggs are white, elliptical, porous, and flexible. From start to finish, the female's work may take four hours. Sometimes she remains on land overnight afterwards, before returning to her home water.


title: Painted turtle

text: Females can lay five clutches per year, but two is a normal average after including the 30–50% of a population's females that do not produce any clutches in a given year. In some northern populations, no females lay more than one clutch per year. Bigger females tend to lay bigger eggs and more eggs per clutch. Clutch sizes of the subspecies vary, although the differences may reflect different environments, rather than different genetics. The two more northerly subspecies, western and midland, are larger and have more eggs per clutch—11.9 and 7.6, respectively—than the eastern (4.9). Within subspecies, also, the more northerly females lay larger clutches.


title: Painted turtle

text: Incubation lasts 72–80 days in the wild and for a similar period in artificial conditions. In August and September, the young turtle breaks out from its egg, using a special projection of its jaw called the egg tooth. Not all offspring leave the nest immediately, though. Hatchlings north of a line from Nebraska to northern Illinois to New Jersey typically arrange themselves symmetrically in the nest and overwinter to emerge the following spring.


title: Painted turtle

text: The hatchling's ability to survive winter in the nest has allowed the painted turtle to extend its range farther north than any other American turtle. The painted turtle is genetically adapted to survive extended periods of subfreezing temperatures with blood that can remain supercooled and skin that resists penetration from ice crystals in the surrounding ground. The hardest freezes nevertheless kill many hatchlings.


title: Painted turtle

text: Immediately after hatching, turtles are dependent on egg yolk material for sustenance. About a week to a week and a half after emerging from their eggs (or the following spring if emergence is delayed), hatchlings begin feeding to support growth. The young turtles grow rapidly at first, sometimes doubling their size in the first year. Growth slows sharply at sexual maturity and may stop completely. Likely owing to differences of habitat and food by water body, growth rates often differ from population to population in the same area. Among the subspecies, the western painted turtles are the quickest growers.


title: Painted turtle

text: Females grow faster than males overall, and must be larger to mature sexually. In most populations males reach sexual maturity at 2–4 years old, and females at 6–10. Size and age at maturity increase with latitude; at the northern edge of their range, males reach sexual maturity at 7–9 years of age and females at 11–16.


title: Painted turtle

text: A cold-blooded reptile, the painted turtle regulates its temperature through its environment, notably by basking. All ages bask for warmth, often alongside other species of turtle. Sometimes more than 50 individuals are seen on one log together. Turtles bask on a variety of objects, often logs, but have even been seen basking on top of common loons that were covering eggs.


title: Painted turtle

text: The turtle starts its day at sunrise, emerging from the water to bask for several hours. Warmed for activity, it returns to the water to forage. After becoming chilled, the turtle re-emerges for one to two more cycles of basking and feeding. At night, the turtle drops to the bottom of its water body or perches on an underwater object and sleeps.


title: Painted turtle

text: To be active, the turtle must maintain an internal body temperature between . When fighting infection, it manipulates its temperature up to 5 °C (8 °F) higher than normal.


title: Painted turtle

text: In the spring, when the water reaches , the turtle begins actively foraging. However, if the water temperature exceeds , the turtle will not feed. In fall, the turtle stops foraging when temperatures drop below the spring set-point.


title: Painted turtle

text: During the winter, the turtle hibernates. In the north, the inactive season may be as long as from October to March, while the southernmost populations may not hibernate at all. While hibernating, the body temperature of the painted turtle averages . Periods of warm weather bring the turtle out of hibernation, and even in the north, individuals have been seen basking in February.


title: Painted turtle

text: The painted turtle hibernates by burying itself, either on the bottom of a body of water, near water in the shore-bank or the burrow of a muskrat, or in woods or pastures. When hibernating underwater, the turtle prefers shallow depths, no more than . Within the mud, it may dig down an additional . In this state, the turtle does not breathe, although if surroundings allow, it may get some oxygen through its skin. The species is one of the best-studied vertebrates able to survive long periods without oxygen. Adaptations of its blood chemistry, brain, heart, and particularly its shell allow the turtle to survive extreme lactic acid buildup while oxygen-deprived.


title: Painted turtle

text: During the winter months, painted turtles become ice-locked and spend their time in either hypoxic (low oxygen) or anoxic (no oxygen) regions of the pond or lake. Painted turtles essentially hold their breath until the following spring when the ice melts. As a result, painted turtles rely on anaerobic respiration, which leads to the production of lactic acid. However, painted turtles can tolerate long periods of anoxia due to three factors: a depressed metabolic rate, large glycogen stores in the liver, and sequestering lactate in the shell and releasing carbonate buffers to the extracellular fluid.


title: Painted turtle

text: The shell of an adult painted turtle has the largest concentration of carbonate content recorded among animals. This large carbonate content helps the painted turtle buffer the accumulation of lactic acid during anoxia. Both the shell and skeleton release calcium and magnesium carbonates to buffer extracellular lactic acid. A painted turtle can also sequester 44% of total body lactate in their shell. Despite the shell's large buffering contribution, it does not experience any significant decrease in mechanical properties under natural conditions.


title: Painted turtle

text: The duration of anoxia tolerance varies depending on the sub-species of painted turtle. The western painted turtle ("C. picta bellii") can survive 170 days of anoxia, followed by the midland painted turtle ("C. picta marginata") which can survive 150 days, and finally the eastern painted turtle ("C. picta picta") which can survive 125 days. Differences in anoxia tolerance are partially attributed to the rate of lactate production and buffering capability in painted turtles. Furthermore, northern populations of painted turtles have a higher anoxia tolerance than southern populations.


title: Painted turtle

text: Other anoxia tolerant freshwater turtles include: the southern painted turtle ("Chrysemys dorsalis"), which can survive 75-86 days of anoxia, the snapping turtle (Chelydra serpentina), which can survive 100 days under anoxia, and the map turtle (Graptemys geographica), which can survive 50 days of anoxia. One reason for the difference in duration between more anoxia-tolerant species and less anoxia-tolerant species is the turtle's ability to buffer lactic acid accumulation during anoxia.


title: Painted turtle

text: Unlike adult painted turtles, hatchlings can survive only 40 days, but still exhibit high anoxia tolerance and freeze tolerance compared to other hatchling species (30 days for "Chelydra serpentina", and 15 days for "Graptemys geographica") due to cold winters.


title: Painted turtle

text: Searching for water, food, or mates, the painted turtles travel up to several kilometers at a time. During summer, in response to heat and water-clogging vegetation, the turtles may vacate shallow marshes for more permanent waters. Short overland migrations may involve hundreds of turtles together. If heat and drought are prolonged, the turtles will bury themselves and, in extreme cases, die.


title: Painted turtle

text: Foraging turtles frequently cross lakes or travel linearly down creeks. Daily crossings of large ponds have been observed. Tag and release studies show that sex also drives turtle movement. Males travel the most, up to , between captures; females the second most, up to , between captures; and juveniles the least, less than , between captures. Males move the most and are most likely to change wetlands because they seek mates.


title: Painted turtle

text: The painted turtles, through visual recognition, have homing capabilities. Many individuals can return to their collection points after being released elsewhere, trips that may require them to traverse land. One experiment placed 98 turtles varying several-kilometer distances from their home wetland; 41 returned. When living in a single large body of water, the painted turtles can home from up to away. Another experiment found that if placed far enough away from water the turtles will just walk in straight paths and not orient towards water or in any specific direction which indicates a lack of homing ability. Females may use homing to help locate suitable nesting sites.


title: Painted turtle

text: Eastern painted turtle movements may contribute to aquatic plant seed dispersal. A study done in Massachusetts found that the quantity of intact macrophyte seeds defecated by Eastern painted turtles can be high and that the seeds of specifically "Nymphaea ordorata" that were found in feces were capable of moderate to high level germination. As turtles move between ponds and habitats, they carry seeds along with them to new locations.


title: Painted turtle

text: The species is currently classified as least concern by the IUCN but populations have been subject to decline locally.


title: Painted turtle

text: The decline in painted turtle populations is not a simple matter of dramatic range reduction, like that of the . Instead the turtle is classified as G5 (demonstrably widespread) in its Natural Heritage Global Rank, and the IUCN rates it as a species of least concern. The painted turtle's high reproduction rate and its ability to survive in polluted wetlands and artificially made ponds have allowed it to maintain its range, but the post-Columbus settlement of North America has reduced its numbers.


title: Painted turtle

text: Only within the Pacific Northwest is the turtle's range eroding. Even there, in Washington, the painted turtle is designated S5 (demonstrably widespread). However, in Oregon, the painted turtle is designated S2 (imperiled), and in British Columbia, the turtle's populations in the Coast and Interior regions are labeled "endangered" and "of special concern", respectively.


title: Painted turtle

text: Much is written about the different factors that threaten the painted turtle, but they are unquantified, with only inferences of relative importance. A primary threat category is habitat loss in various forms. Related to water habitat, there is drying of wetlands, clearing of aquatic logs or rocks (basking sites), and clearing of shoreline vegetation, which allows more predator access or increased human foot traffic. Related to nesting habitat, urbanization or planting can remove needed sunny soils.


title: Painted turtle

text: Another significant human impact is roadkill—dead turtles, especially females, are commonly seen on summer roads. In addition to direct killing, roads genetically isolate some populations. Localities have tried to limit roadkill by constructing underpasses, highway barriers, and crossing signs. Oregon has introduced public education on turtle awareness, safe swerving, and safely assisting turtles across the road.


title: Painted turtle

text: In the West, human-introduced bass, bullfrogs, and especially snapping turtles, have increased the predation of hatchlings. Outside the Southeast, where sliders are native, released pet red-eared slider turtles increasingly compete with painted turtles. In cities, increased urban predators (raccoons, canines, and felines) may impact painted turtles by eating their eggs.


title: Painted turtle

text: Other factors of concern for the painted turtles include over-collection from the wild, released pets introducing diseases or reducing genetic variability, pollution, boating traffic, angler's hooks (the turtles are noteworthy bait-thieves), wanton shooting, and crushing by agricultural machines or golf course lawnmowers or all-terrain vehicles. Gervais and colleagues note that research itself impacts the populations and that much funded turtle trapping work has not been published. They advocate discriminating more on what studies are done, thereby putting fewer turtles into scientists' traps. Global warming represents an uncharacterized future threat.


title: Painted turtle

text: As the most common turtle in Nova Scotia, the eastern painted turtle is not listed under the Species at Risk Act for conservation requirements.


title: Painted turtle

text: According to a trade data study, painted turtles were the second most popular pet turtles after red-eared sliders in the early 1990s. As of 2010, most U.S. states allow, but discourage, painted turtle pets, although Oregon forbids keeping them as pets, and Indiana prohibits their sale. U.S. federal law prohibits sale or transport of any turtle less than , to limit human contact to salmonella. However, a loophole for scientific samples allows some small turtles to be sold, and illegal trafficking also occurs.


title: Painted turtle

text: Painted turtle pet-keeping requirements are similar to those of the red-eared slider. Keepers are urged to provide them with adequate space and a basking site, and water that is regularly filtered and changed. Aquatic turtles are generally unsuitable pets for children, as they do not enjoy being held. Hobbyists have maintained turtles in captivity for decades. Painted turtles are long-lived pets, and have a lifespan of up to 40 years in captivity.


title: Painted turtle

text: The painted turtle is sometimes eaten but is not highly regarded as food, as even the largest subspecies, the western painted turtle, is inconveniently small and larger turtles are available. Schools frequently dissect painted turtles, which are sold by biological supply companies; specimens often come from the wild but may be captive-bred. In the Midwest, turtle racing is popular at summer fairs.


title: Painted turtle

text: Commercial harvesting of painted turtles in the wild is controversial and, increasingly, restricted. Wisconsin formerly had virtually unrestricted trapping of painted turtles but based on qualitative observations forbade all commercial harvesting in 1997. Neighboring Minnesota, where trappers collected more than 300,000 painted turtles during the 1990s, commissioned a study of painted turtle harvesting. Scientists found that harvested lakes averaged half the painted turtle density of off-limit lakes, and population modeling suggested that unrestricted harvests could produce a large decline in turtle populations. In response, Minnesota forbade new harvesters in 2002 and limited trap numbers. Although harvesting continued, subsequent takes averaged half those of the 1990s. As of 2009, painted turtles faced virtually unlimited harvesting in Arkansas, Iowa, Missouri, Ohio, and Oklahoma; since then, Missouri has prohibited their harvesting.


title: Painted turtle

text: Individuals who trap painted turtles typically do so to earn additional income, selling a few thousand a year at $1–2 each. Many trappers have been involved in the trade for generations, and value it as a family activity. Some harvesters disagree with limiting the catch, saying the populations are not dropping.


title: Painted turtle

text: Many U.S. state fish and game departments allow non-commercial taking of painted turtles under a creel limit, and require a fishing (sometimes hunting) license; others completely forbid the recreational capture of painted turtles. Trapping is not allowed in Oregon, where western painted turtle populations are in decline, and in Missouri, where there are populations of both southern and western subspecies. In Canada, Ontario protects both subspecies present, the midland and western, and British Columbia protects its dwindling western painted turtles.


title: Painted turtle

text: Capture methods are also regulated by locality. Typically trappers use either floating "basking traps" or partially submerged, baited "hoop traps". Trapper opinions, commercial records, and scientific studies show that basking traps are more effective for collecting painted turtles, while the hoop traps work better for collecting "meat turtles" (snapping turtles and soft-shell turtles). Nets, hand capture, and fishing with set lines are generally legal, but shooting, chemicals, and explosives are forbidden.


title: Painted turtle

text: Native American tribes were familiar with the painted turtle—young braves were trained to recognize its splashing into water as an alarm—and incorporated it in folklore. A Potawatomi myth describes how the talking turtles, "Painted Turtle" and allies "Snapping Turtle" and "Box Turtle", outwit the village women. Painted Turtle is the star of the legend and uses his distinctive markings to trick a woman into holding him so he can bite her. An Illini myth recounts how Painted Turtle put his paint on to entice a chief's daughter into the water.


title: Painted turtle

text: As of 2010, four U.S. states designated the painted turtle as official reptile. Vermont honored the reptile in 1994, following the suggestion of Cornwall Elementary School students. In 1995, Michigan followed, based on the recommendation of Niles fifth graders, who discovered the state lacked an official reptile. Illinois citizens, in 2004, voted to select the painted turtle as their state reptile and the legislature made it official in 2005. Colorado chose the western painted turtle in 2008, following the efforts of two succeeding years of Jay Biachi's fourth grade classes. In New York, the painted turtle narrowly lost (5,048 to 5,005, versus the common snapping turtle) a 2006 statewide student election for state reptile.


title: Painted turtle

text: In the border town of Boissevain, Manitoba, a western painted turtle, "Tommy the Turtle", is a roadside attraction. The statue was built in 1974 to celebrate the Canadian Turtle Derby, a festival including turtle races that ran from 1972 to 2001.


title: Painted turtle

text: Another Canadian admirer of the painted turtle is Jon Montgomery, who won the 2010 Olympic gold medal in skeleton (a form of sled) racing, while wearing a painted turtle painting on the crown of his helmet, prominently visible when he slid downhill. Montgomery, who also iconically tattooed his chest with a maple-leaf, explained his visual promotion of the turtle, saying that he had assisted one to cross the road. BC Hydro referred to Montgomery's action when describing its own sponsorship of conservation research for the turtle in British Columbia.


title: Painted turtle

text: Several private entities use the painted turtle as a symbol. Wayne State University Press operates an imprint "named after the Michigan state reptile" that "publishes books on regional topics of cultural and historical interest". In California, The Painted Turtle is a camp for ill children, founded by Paul Newman. Painted Turtle Winery of British Columbia trades on the "laid back and casual lifestyle" of the turtle with a "job description to bask in the sun". Also, there is an Internet company in Michigan, a guesthouse in British Columbia, and a café in Maine that use the painted turtle commercially.


title: Painted turtle

text: In children's books, the painted turtle is a popular subject, with at least seven books published between 2000 and 2010.


title: It's Showtime (Philippine TV program)

text: It's Showtime is a Philippine noontime variety show broadcast by Kapamilya Channel under ABS-CBN Entertainment that premiered on October 24, 2009, at the former ABS-CBN television network. The program formerly aired on ABS-CBN until May 5, 2020, when the network was forced to cease and desist its broadcasting operations as ordered by the National Telecommunications Commission after its legislative franchise expired on May 4, 2020. "It's Showtime" currently airs on pay television network Kapamilya Channel and is simulcast on A2Z and TV5 from 12:45 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. Mondays to Saturdays. It also airs worldwide via TFC, and streamed online on Facebook and YouTube via Kapamilya Online Live. A primetime encore telecast also airs on Jeepney TV.


title: It's Showtime (Philippine TV program)

text: "It's Showtime" is the second live entertainment program in the Philippines to be broadcast in high-definition behind "ASAP Natin 'To". The program is currently ABS-CBN's longest-running daily noontime variety show after surpassing the original run of "MTB or Magandang Tanghali Bayan" (1998–2005) in 2016.


title: It's Showtime (Philippine TV program)

text: "Showtime" premiered on October 24, 2009, at 10:30 AM, as a competition program, airing before the network's noontime shows, and served as the replacing "Pilipinas, Game Ka Na Ba?" following its successful eight-year morning run. The original hosts include Vhong Navarro, Anne Curtis, Kim Atienza, Jugs Jugueta, Teddy Corpuz, and Vice Ganda as the resident "hurado" (unevictable judge). In the third season, the show added former "hurados" Billy Crawford and Karylle as hosts.


title: It's Showtime (Philippine TV program)

text: In the first four seasons, "Showtime"s original competition format was that three groups, each made up of 2 to 25 members (with no age limit) perform a single performance, either a dance and/or song number. Before the performance, one group member is given 20 seconds to make an introduction before ending with the phrase "It's Showtime!". After the group's performance, the "hurados", with the help of the studio audience, rate the group from 1 to 10. The group with the highest average score from the "hurados" wins the competition. The daily winner perform again to compete in the weekly finals. The winning weekly finalists advance to the monthly finals. The winning monthly finalists get the chance to complete in the grand finals. In the wildcard week, selected groups from the weekly and monthly finals are invited back to compete again for a slot in the grand finals.


title: It's Showtime (Philippine TV program)

text: Aside from the talent competition, "Showtime" also aired mini-segments that offer cash prizes to the studio audiences.


title: It's Showtime (Philippine TV program)

text: In October 2010, the show moved to the noontime slot, serving as the lead-in program for "Pilipinas Win Na Win" which was pushed back to an early afternoon timeslot. On February 12, 2011, the program returned to its original timeslot to give way for the premiere of "Happy Yipee Yehey!"


title: It's Showtime (Philippine TV program)

text: On January 28, 2012, "Showtime" aired a special episode to end its two-year morning competition format with an impartial farewell. It was later revealed that the program was preparing for a reformat to become a noontime variety show.


title: It's Showtime (Philippine TV program)

text: "It's Showtime" premiered on February 6, 2012, on its new timeslot at 11:30 AM, replacing "Happy Yipee Yehey!" This marks the return of the show to noontime slot after one year. The program was previously simulcast on then-Studio 23 and CgeTV's website during the first months of the relaunch. "It's Showtime" brought back its original competition format as a special segment while launching new segments.


title: It's Showtime (Philippine TV program)

text: It retained all of its main hosts while adding Jhong Hilario, Ryan Bang, Coleen Garcia and Eric "Eruption" Tai. In January 2016, Amy Perez and Mariel Rodriguez joined the program as main hosts. The program also debuted its all-male dance group "Hashtags" and its all-female dance group "GirlTrends". On February 14, 2017, new "Hashtags" members were introduced. In May 2017, Nadine Lustre and James Reid were added as main hosts.


title: It's Showtime (Philippine TV program)

text: In October 2018, "It's Showtime" launched its own YouTube channel "Showtime Online Universe". Three digital programs premiered on the channel: "And I Thank You" with "Miss Q & A" segment grand winner Juliana Parizcova Segovia; "Hashtag Roadtrip" with the Hashtag members; and "Donna What To Do" with "Funny One" segment season two grand winner Donna Cariaga. The "Showtime Online Universe" received a Silver Creator Award after getting 100,000 channel subscribers in January 2019.


title: It's Showtime (Philippine TV program)

text: On March 10, 2020, "It's Showtime" temporarily disallowed admission of live audience members following the government's declaration of a state public health emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines. On March 15, 2020, the show's production was temporarily suspended in compliance with the government's declaration of a community quarantine in Metro Manila to curb the spread of COVID-19. "It's Showtime" aired a mix of episode replays and live episodes via Zoom. On April 29, 2020, the program's timeslot was shortened as part of the network's programming changes.


title: It's Showtime (Philippine TV program)

text: On May 5, 2020, "It's Showtime", along with other ABS-CBN programs, stopped its broadcast operations following the National Telecommunications Commission's issuance of a cease and desist order to ABS-CBN's free to air stations due to the expiration of the network's 25-year franchise.


title: It's Showtime (Philippine TV program)

text: On June 13, 2020, the show resumed its broadcast with a shortened 150-minute timeslot on pay television network Kapamilya Channel which is owned and operated by ABS-CBN Corporation. The show's "Kuya Escort" Ion Perez and "Ate Girl" Jackie Gonzaga become the show's main host of It's Showtime. It is also simulcast on Jeepney TV and streamed online on Facebook and YouTube via "Showtime Online Ü" and "Kapamilya Online Live".


title: It's Showtime (Philippine TV program)

text: On July 13, 2020, following an employee working at ABS-CBN testing positive for COVID-19, "It's Showtime" and "Magandang Buhay" temporarily suspended live airings and aired replays. Also, the same instance later happened again when a Modified Enhanced community quarantine was temporarily reimposed in Metro Manila and again with the sudden surge of coronavirus cases in portions of Luzon on March 18, 2021.


title: It's Showtime (Philippine TV program)

text: On September 28, 2020, Kim Chiu officially joined "It's Showtime" as a main host and a permanent replacement to Mariel Rodriguez, after being a guest host in the previous years.


title: It's Showtime (Philippine TV program)

text: On October 10, 2020, "It's Showtime" celebrated its return to free TV via A2Z Channel 11 under a blocktime agreement between ABS-CBN and religious broadcaster, ZOE Broadcasting Network.


title: It's Showtime (Philippine TV program)

text: In November 2020, Bobet Vidanes left the show after working as the director for almost 10 years. Boyet Valdemor takes responsibility for the directoral duties of the show's continuation.


title: It's Showtime (Philippine TV program)

text: On March 16, 2021, Vice Ganda announced at "It's Showtime's" segment "Tawag ng Tanghalan" that the show will move to a new studio at ABS-CBN Soundstage at San Jose del Monte, Bulacan soon.


title: It's Showtime (Philippine TV program)

text: From March 18 to April 10, 2021, "It's Showtime" temporarily suspended their live productions due to the post-holiday surge of COVID-19 cases in the Greater Manila Area. The show resumed new episodes on April 12, 2021, airing three pre-taped episodes (this includes past Holy Week Episodes) before resuming their live episodes on April 15, 2021.


title: It's Showtime (Philippine TV program)

text: On April 12, 2021, Jhong Hilario temporarily left the show to take care of his wife and newborn baby.


title: It's Showtime (Philippine TV program)

text: On May 29, 2021, following the launching of the show's new segment ""ReINA Ng Tahanan"", the program has been co-directed by John Prats.


title: It's Showtime (Philippine TV program)

text: On August 7, 2021, "It's Showtime" temporarily moved its studio to Hilton Clark Sun Valley Resort in Pampanga due to enhanced community quarantine in Metro Manila, until August 21, 2021.


title: It's Showtime (Philippine TV program)

text: On October 2, 2021, Ogie Alcasid temporarily joined "It's Showtime" as guest co-host while Vice Ganda, Kim Chiu, Karylle and Ion Perez were on temporary leave. On November 13, 2021, Alcasid was officially announced as a main host of "It's Showtime". Meanwhile, Jon Moll was named as the show's new permanent director, officially replacing Bobet Vidanes.


title: It's Showtime (Philippine TV program)

text: From January 6 to 15, 2022, "It's Showtime" temporarily suspended their live productions on 10-day break due to the surge of COVID-19 cases in the country caused by the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant. The show resumes the live broadcast on January 17, 2022.


title: It's Showtime (Philippine TV program)

text: On May 28, 2022, Anne Curtis returned to "It's Showtime" after two years of her hiatus, and a few days later, on June 4, 2022, Jhong Hilario returned to the show as well.


title: It's Showtime (Philippine TV program)

text: Since September 19, 2022, Vhong Navarro temporarily leaves the program after he surrendered to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) due to the arrest warrants from the Regional Trial Court (RTC) Taguig, in connection with the act of lasciviousness filed by Deniece Cornejo and Atty. Ferdinand Topacio. K-pop and P-pop groups have been guested on the show including SB19, BGYO, Bini, TAN and TFN. In November 2022, Ryan Bang finally won his first "Magpasikat" championship just as Vhong Navarro had been transferred to Taguig City Jail.


title: It's Showtime (Philippine TV program)

text: In the newest segment "Girl On Fire" premiered on October 2022, "Ate Girl" Jackie Gonzaga takes on her first main host role.


title: It's Showtime (Philippine TV program)

text: On July 6, 2022, report of MJ Marfori through TV5's flagship newscast "Frontline Pilipinas", it was announced that the program would have a back-to-back collaboration with TV5's noontime show, "Tropang LOL" (formerly known as "Lunch Out Loud") without definite date and reason yet. Until it was confirmed on July 11 during their live broadcast with a move of timeslot to 12:45 pm with Tropang LOL's timeslot moved to an earlier 11:00 am, serving as a pre-programming to It's Showtime. This is the latest ABS-CBN produced program to be simulcast to TV5 alongside "ASAP Natin To", "FPJ: Da King Movie Block", ABS-CBN/Kapamilya Channel's "Primetime Bida" weeknight evening block, "Idol Philippines" and "Everybody, Sing!".


title: It's Showtime (Philippine TV program)

text: On July 16, 2022, coinciding with their simulcast debut on TV5, the program refurbished its title card and opening theme song, as well as having a return to live studio audience after two years of suspension from March 9, 2020, making the first variety show on Philippine TV to do so after two years. While Studio 3 was on undergoing renovations, the show temporarily utilized Studio 10, which is used for "ASAP Natin 'To", until July 23 when they returned to its home studio two days later with a brand new club-themed set.


title: It's Showtime (Philippine TV program)

text: "Magpasikat" is the annual talent competition for "It's Showtime" hosts, usually held either a week before the show's anniversary date, October 24, or during the week itself (although "Magpasikat 2021" and "Magpasikat 2022" was held on November). The performances are evaluated by a special panel of "hurados" (judges). Jugs Jugueta and Teddy Corpuz hold the most number of "Magpasikat" wins with 6, followed by Karylle with 5.


title: It's Showtime (Philippine TV program)

text: "Showtime" debuted on its pre-noontime slot on October 24, 2009, with a 14.0% national TV rating based on Kantar Media Philippines. Its immense popularity ended the dominance of talk show "SiS" on its timeslot. GMA Network replaced "SiS" with "Diz Iz It!", a competition similar to "Showtime", but it was cancelled after five months.


title: It's Showtime (Philippine TV program)

text: "Showtime" first grand finals held in July 2010 received a 35% national TV rating, beating the 8.9% rating of "Diz Iz It!" and 13.7% of "Eat Bulaga!" The second grand finals held in December 2010 scored a 23.4% national TV rating against "Eat Bulaga!" 17.4%. The third grand finals in May 2011 also delivered a rating of 21.3% versus "Eat Bulaga!" 17%.


title: It's Showtime (Philippine TV program)

text: "It's Showtime" debuted on its noontime slot on February 6, 2012, with a 13.6% national rating. The episode received an overall 16.3% rating when the viewership numbers from Studio 23 were added. Initially placing behind "Eat Bulaga!", the show's rating peaked to a 20.9% national rating during the finals of the ""Bida Kapamilya"" segment and its third anniversary week-long celebration.


title: It's Showtime (Philippine TV program)

text: The finals of the "Kalokalike" segment in June 2013 garnered a 26.8% national TV rating, leaving "Eat Bulaga!" and "Wowowillie" with 13.2% and 2.8% ratings, respectively. The finals of the segment's second iteration posted a 21.6% national TV rating, once again beating "Eat Bulaga!" 15.8% and "Wowowillie" 2.6%.


title: It's Showtime (Philippine TV program)

text: "It's Showtime" continued its dominance in the noontime slot with its fourth anniversary week special held from October 21–26, 2013.


title: It's Showtime (Philippine TV program)

text: The program faced heavy competition in 2015 when the sixth anniversary special only scored a 10.2% national TV rating, four times behind "Eat Bulaga!". This is due to the "Tamang Panahon" special (and the build-up before that), which served as the climax of the then-popular "Kalyeserye" segment which featured AlDub.


title: It's Showtime (Philippine TV program)

text: "It's Showtime" quickly regained its prominence on its time slot when "Tawag ng Tanghalan" launched in 2016. The program garnered a 33.6% national TV rating during the singing competition's first grand finals. "Tawag ng Tanghalan" continued its winning streak during its second-season finale when it posted a national TV rating of 31.0% against "Eat Bulaga!" 9.5%. "It's Showtime" topped the ratings game once again during the first grand finals of "Miss Q and A" segment on June 30, 2018, with a national TV rating of 28.4% versus "Eat Bulaga!" 11.1%.


title: It's Showtime (Philippine TV program)

text: The second "Miss Q and A" grand finals posted a national TV rating of 27.4%, beating "Eat Bulaga!" 10.6%, "Asawa Ko, Karibal Ko" 13.8%, and "Tadhana" 11.3%.


title: It's Showtime (Philippine TV program)

text: "Tawag ng Tanghalan" third-season finale posted a national TV rating of 25.8%, beating Eat "Bulaga!" 10.4% and "Hanggang Sa Dulo Ng Buhay Ko" 9.5%.


title: It's Showtime (Philippine TV program)

text: "Showtime" came under fire when controversial statements were made by guest "hurado" Rosanna Roces against certain groups, especially teachers during an episode in January 2010. ABS-CBN relieved Roces of her jury duty as a form of self-regulation, but Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) placed the program under a 20-day preventive suspension on January 11, 2010. A placeholder variety show titled "Magpasikat" was aired in lieu of "Showtime"; "Magpasikat" had essentially the same talent show format as "Showtime" except that the competing groups are composed of celebrities.


title: It's Showtime (Philippine TV program)

text: The suspension only lasted for six days after the Court of Appeals issued a 60-day temporary restraining order against the MTRCB's suspension. "Showtime" eventually returned on air on January 19, 2010.


title: It's Showtime (Philippine TV program)

text: In March 2010, MTRCB ordered a total one-month suspension of the program because of the incident, including the replacement program "Magpasikat". The MTRCB also directed the filing of criminal charges against Florida Tan, ABS-CBN vice-president for programming, and other officers "responsible for the violation." Bong Osorio, head of ABS-CBN's Corporate Communications said that the suspension was not yet final and that they were seeking appeal before the Office of the President. The variety show later on won the case because the MTRCB had not presented new arguments that would justify a reversal of its previous resolution.


title: It's Showtime (Philippine TV program)

text: The program's daily reality-dating game segment "Nasaan Ka, Mr. Pastillas?" drew ire from netizens and women's group Gabriela for "pimping" Angelica Yap or popularly known as Pastillas Girl. The program issued a statement to denounce Gabriela's complaint, saying that it is "hurtful and offensive to women like Angelica who has done nothing wrong but to share her story with the hope of getting another shot at love." It also clarified the segment's intent of helping Yap find love and recover from a failed relationship. MTRCB summoned the show's executives to give a list of suggestions on how to improve the segment.


title: It's Showtime (Philippine TV program)

text: GirlTrend member Erin Ocampo drew flak from netizens after making a joke about being an orphan during the "PUROKatatawanan" segment. As part of a skit, she asked Hashtag member Jimboy Martin "how to make an ugly child" with Martin retorting that she should asked her mother. Ocampo responded by saying that Martin should ask his real parents instead because he is adopted. Norfil Foundation Inc., a non-profit organization that provides help to orphaned children, called on MTRCB and DSWD to take corrective action as it branded the joke "insensitive and ignorant." The program made an on-air apology the following day. Plus, "Purok Katatawanan" segment was suspended and was replaced to Mimime 3 the new day. Girltrend Erin is as well fired from the Girltrend Group.


title: It's Showtime (Philippine TV program)

text: "Miss Q & A" grand finalist Lars Pacheco suffered a wardrobe malfunction in an October 2019 episode. The contestant's dress accidentally slipped off causing part of her chest to be exposed. "It's Showtime" apologized to viewers who may have been offended by the accident.


title: It's Showtime (Philippine TV program)

text: "It's Showtime" issued an apology after a production mistake made on "PiLing Lucky" segment during a February 27, 2020, episode. In the segment, the contestant is asked to select one among 24 paintings for a chance to win either the cash prize of P550,000, or the negosyo (business livelihood) package. It was found out that none of the paintings contained the jackpot prize and the contestant was later awarded the negosyo package.


title: It's Showtime (Philippine TV program)

text: On November 9, 2020, "It's Showtime" drew flak from netizens when the hosts asked which among "Gaya Sa Pelikula" actors Ian Pangilinan and Paolo Pangilinan was more straight during the "Mas Testing" segment. "tigasin" (lit. 'tough'), "magaling magpalabas" (lit. 'good in releasing') and "kulot" (lit. 'curly'). This prompted netizens on Twitter to highlight the importance of sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression awareness and education.


title: It's Showtime (Philippine TV program)

text: A soundtrack album composed of five music tracks featuring the "It's Showtime" hosts was released on October 2010.


title: It's Showtime (Philippine TV program)

text: The show spawned its first international franchise in 2019, titled "It's Showtime Indonesia", which premiered on March 25, 2019, on MNCTV. "It's Showtime" became ABS-CBN's first non-narrative format to be franchised by another country.


title: Suzuki Wagon R

text: The is a kei car manufactured and marketed by Suzuki since 1993. The R in the name stands for Revolution and Relaxation. The Wagon R uses a "tall wagon" configuration to maximize cabin space within kei car dimensional restrictions. The Wagon R is also sold by Mazda as the AZ-Wagon from 1994 to 2012 and as the Flair from 2012.


title: Suzuki Wagon R

text: The Wagon R has been the best-selling kei car in Japan since 2003. In 2008, Suzuki produced its three-millionth Wagon R. Sales reached 5 million at the end of February 2010.


title: Suzuki Wagon R

text: The first generation Wagon R is high, or taller ( internally) than the JDM Suzuki Alto sold at the same time (which was exactly the same length and width). The R used the same 660 cc F6A three-cylinder engines as did the Alto and other Suzuki kei cars. Originally with two doors on the left side and a single door on the right (driver's) side, it was introduced at the 1993 Tokyo Motor Show. In August 1996 the more common, symmetrical five-door setup became available and soon supplanted the earlier body style. For model year 1994, it won the Automotive Researchers' and Journalists' Conference Car of the Year award in Japan.


title: Suzuki Wagon R

text: The rebadged Autozam AZ Wagon was presented in September 1994. Also using the F6A engine, this model was marketed through Mazda's Autozam network as part of an OEM deal. After April 1997, this was sold as the "Mazda AZ Wagon."


title: Suzuki Wagon R

text: A bigger first generation Wagon R, the Suzuki Wagon R+, was added in early 1997 and manufactured in Japan until the end of 2000 for the European market. The car featured a wider body and the K10A naturally aspirated engine with 996 cc and four-cylinders. The same Wagon R+ was also available with a 1.2-litre K12A engine.


title: Suzuki Wagon R

text: The larger (non-kei) Wagon R+ was replaced in 1999 - this was brought to Europe in 2000, with larger engines and was sold as the Suzuki Wagon R+. This larger version is also produced in Esztergom in Hungary by Magyar Suzuki and in Gurgaon, India by Maruti Suzuki. The Opel Agila is a badge engineered version of the Suzuki Wagon R-Wide, also introduced in summer 2000. This generation of Maruti Suzuki Wagon R in India was produced until 2010.


title: Suzuki Wagon R

text: The third generation Wagon R was launched in Japan in September 2003 for the Wagon R's tenth Anniversary, but now only as a 660 cc K6A-engined kei car - no oversized version (like the previous Wide and + versions) was developed. The third generation was then facelifted in September 2005 and replaced three years later.


title: Suzuki Wagon R

text: The Stingray, first seen in February 2007, is a sportier version of the third generation Suzuki Wagon R. The name is an homage to the "Sting Ray" Fronte introduced in 1970. In addition to a more aggressive front end treatment, the Stingray also received clear taillights. Alloy wheels and an aero kit were also standard. The 660 cc engine was powered by a turbocharger, further enhancing the speed and acceleration. On average, the Stingray went from to in about 15 seconds.


title: Suzuki Wagon R

text: The fourth generation Wagon R was launched in Japan in September 2008 along with the sportier Stingray, AZ-Wagon and AZ-Wagon Custom variant (the latter two manufactured for Mazda). Significant differences for the new generation include larger rear doors, which incorporate quarter glass, eliminating the need for a D-pillar arrangement. Powertrain options include naturally aspirated and turbocharged 660 cc K6A engines with the latter developing an output of , mated to a 4-speed automatic, a 5-speed manual transmission or a CVT. As with many other Japanese market models, customers can choose between front-wheel and all-wheel-drive versions.


title: Suzuki Wagon R

text: The fifth generation Wagon R range was launched in Japan in September 2012 with an optional mild-hybrid system marketed as "ENE-CHARGE," and an energy-saving electric air conditioning system marketed as "ECO-COOL". With the R06A engine combined with an electric motor/generator and a lithium-ion battery, the ENE-CHARGE provides regenerative braking and power assist to the internal combustion engine and can also run certain electrical equipment, enabling mileage up to 28.8 km/L in Japan's JC08 driving cycle (67.8 mpg US, 3.5 L/100 km EU or 81.4 mpg UK).


title: Suzuki Wagon R

text: For Mazda variants, the fifth generation Wagon R models are marketed as Mazda Flair and Stingray models are rebadged as Mazda Flair Custom Style. Both the Flair and the Flair Custom Style were launched in October 2012.


title: Suzuki Wagon R

text: The sixth generation Wagon R range was launched in Japan on 1 February 2017. This iteration comes with an upgraded ISG (integrated starter generator) and increased capacity for the hybrid battery. Due to the improved battery and ISG, the Wagon R is capable of driving alone on its hybrid battery up to 10 seconds if the speed is kept under .


title: Suzuki Wagon R

text: The facelifted regular model was unveiled on 2 August 2022, along with the introduction of Custom Z model.


title: Suzuki Wagon R

text: The Wagon R Smile was announced on 27 August 2021 as a retro-styled kei car with sliding doors adopting the Wagon R nameplate.


title: Zanjeer (1973 film)

text: Zanjeer () is a 1973 Indian Hindi-language action crime film directed and produced by Prakash Mehra, written by Salim–Javed and starring Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bachchan, Pran, Ajit Khan and Bindu.At a time when India was suffering from corruption and low economic growth, and the common man was left with frustration and anger over the system, "Zanjeer" began shifting Hindi cinema in a violent and aggressive direction. This film also ended the struggling period for Bachchan, and turned him into a rising star. The film was a blockbuster success, domestically in India and overseas in the Soviet Union.


title: Zanjeer (1973 film)

text: It was the first of many collaborations between the screenwriter duo Salim–Javed and Bachchan. Ever since "Zanjeer", Salim–Javed wrote many of their subsequent scripts with Bachchan in mind for the lead role, and insisted on him being cast for their later films, including blockbusters such as "Deewaar" (1975) and "Sholay" (1975), establishing Bachchan as a superstar. In addition to being a turning point for Bachchan's career and Hindi cinema, "Zanjeer" was also a turning point for South Indian cinema, with Bachchan's acting inspiring future Tamil Superstar Rajinikanth. "Zanjeer" remains an important film in the history of Indian cinema and is regarded as a classic today. Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand, Raaj Kumar, and Dharmendra were offered the lead role, but they somehow did not accept the role.


title: Zanjeer (1973 film)

text: In Diwali, A young Vijay Khanna witness the murder of his parents, committed by a man of unknown identity with a white horse on his charm bracelet, "Zanjeer", due to this traumatic event, Vijay has recurring nightmares of a white stallion. Even as a child, Vijay stays socially awkward from the other kids, who believes himself to be alone. 20 years later, Vijay has become a Inspector in a town where few are just. He receives complaints about a local man named Sher Khan, who is running gambling dens. When he calls Khan in for questioning, Khan's superiority complex chafes against Vijay's police authority as he scolds the officer, telling him he only orders him around due to his uniform.


title: Zanjeer (1973 film)

text: Vijay takes him up on his challenge, and meets him in street clothes to fight him. After the fight, Sher Khan not only closes his gambling dens, but has gained respect for Vijay. He becomes an auto mechanic, and reforms his ways. Various dealings of the crime syndicate continue unabated throughout the town, all tracing back to gang leader named Teja. A mysterious caller continually phones Vijay to inform him exactly when a crime is about to take place, but hangs up before Vijay can extract any more information out of him. When a traffic accident perpetrated by gang members leaves several children dead, a street performer named Mala becomes the witness where she is bribed by Teja's men to keep quiet. Mala is questioned by Vijay, who becomes enraged at her and to sway her differently, takes her into the morgue to view the mangled bodies of the children.


title: Zanjeer (1973 film)

text: Mala has a change of heart and comes clean asking that the bribe be donated to an orphanage. She identifies the man behind the traffic accident. After learning that Mala has broken her word, Teja's men chases after her through the night, narrowly escaping across the train tracks, and arriving at Vijay's house, desperate for shelter. He allows her to stay, and the two discover that they are both orphans, and discuss the fears associated with living alone. Vijay kindly takes her to his brother and sister-in-law, and, under the sister-in-law's tutelage, Mala begins to learn how to keep the house clean, as well as learn English. Eventually, Teja frames Vijay for bribery, who is later imprisoned for 6 months on false charges.


title: Zanjeer (1973 film)

text: When Vijay is released from jail, He plans to take revenge. Mala, by this time has developed from a frightened stranger seeking his help to a romantic interest for him. She begs him, to seal their relationship, that he must stop being so vengeful. He agrees, but soon must come to terms with such a promise. In a Christian cemetery, the informant, who had called Vijay in the past when he was an inspector. The man, De Silva, appears half-insane, holding onto an empty bottle. He tells that several years before on Christmas, his three sons drank poisoned moonshine and died from it. Until the killer is found, he will continue to wander with the bottle. When local criminals mocked him, he vowed to get back at them as he could: by phoning the inspector when a crime was about to happen.


title: Zanjeer (1973 film)

text: After hearing this news, Vijay becomes depressed, torn between his desire to help the grieving De Silva, and his need to keep his promise to Mala. Along with a concerted effort by Sher Khan to cheer up Vijay, Mala relents vowing she will not try to control him and tells him to do what is right. The trail of tainted moonshine leads back to Teja and his men. Upon finally cornering the crook on Diwali, fireworks bursting overhead, Vijay also finds out that the person who murdered his parents, 20 years before, on the same night, is Teja, recognisable by the shackles ("Zanjeer") on his wrist. Sher Khan helps him to fight Teja and his men, and take justice into their own hands, until the police arrive. When the hapless police inspector is held at gunpoint by Teja, Vijay manages to drop to retrieve a pistol from the ground, and shoots Teja dead, who falls into the swimming pool.


title: Zanjeer (1973 film)

text: The film's story, script, and screenplay were written by Salim Khan, who also conceived the "angry young man" persona of Vijay, played by Amitabh Bachchan. After Khan completed the script, Khan shared the credit with Javed Akhtar, as the screenwriting duo Salim–Javed.


title: Zanjeer (1973 film)

text: "Zanjeer" was written as a crime film with violent action, and the main character Vijay was conceived as a hard-hitting, 'angry with the system' young man. At a time when Hindi cinema was dominated by romance films with "romantic hero" leads, Prakash Mehra saw the script as potentially groundbreaking and came on board as the film's director. However, they were struggling to find an actor for the lead "angry young man" role, which was turned down by a number of actors due to it going against their "romantic hero" image; at the time, the industry was dominated by the "King of Romance" Rajesh Khanna and similar "romantic hero" actors. The role of the lead was first offered to many leading men of the time, including Raaj Kumar, Rajesh Khanna, Dharmendra, Dev Anand and Dilip Kumar, all of whom turned down the offer. Eventually, it went to a newcomer, Amitabh Bachchan, and established his career.


title: Zanjeer (1973 film)

text: Salim-Javed were responsible for discovering and casting Bachchan. At the time, Bachchan was a "failed newcomer" who, by the age of 30, had twelve flops and only two hits (as a lead in "Bombay to Goa" and supporting role in "Anand"). According to Javed Akhtar, they "saw his talent, which most makers didn’t. He was exceptional, a genius actor who was in films that weren’t good." According to Bachchan, Salim-Javed were close to Rajesh Khanna and could've convinced him to play the role, but they instead opted for the unknown Bachchan. According to Salim Khan, they "strongly felt that Amitabh was the ideal casting for "Zanjeer"". Bachchan stated, "Salim-Javed saw a fight sequence in "Bombay to Goa" where I was chewing gum throughout the fight, as an indicator that I would be the right choice for "Zanjeer".” Salim Khan was responsible for introducing Bachchan to Mehra.


title: Zanjeer (1973 film)

text: For the female lead, Mumtaz was initially offered the role. However, she was engaged at the time, and opted out, choosing marriage over career. Jaya Bhaduri, who was engaged to Bachchan at the time, immediately agreed to take the role, for the sake of her future husband.


title: Zanjeer (1973 film)

text: For the film's promotion, the posters of "Zanjeer" initially did not have the names of Salim-Javed on them. Salim-Javed hired a man with a jeep to drive around and paint "Salim-Javed" in stencil font on all the "Zanjeer" posters from Juhu to Opera House. However, the man was sometimes drunk, which led to him painting "Salim-Javed" on the wrong places, such as Pran's face or Bachchan's hands, for some posters.


title: Zanjeer (1973 film)

text: The music was composed by Kalyanji Anandji and the lyrics were written by Prakash Mehra, with the exception of 'Yaari Hai Imaan Mera', which was penned by Gulshan Bawra.


title: Zanjeer (1973 film)

text: With a total domestic Indian gross revenue of 6 crore in 1973, including a nett collection of 3 crore, the film was declared a "Super Hit" according to Box Office India. This was equivalent to a domestic gross of US$7.75 million in 1973, or US$ million ( 282 crore) in 2016.


title: Zanjeer (1973 film)

text: It was also an overseas blockbuster at the Soviet box office, where it drew an audience of 37.3 million viewers in 1980. Its overseas gross in the Soviet Union amounted to 9.325 million Rbls (US$14.58 million, 11.46 crore), equivalent to US$ million ( 282 crore) in 2016.


title: Zanjeer (1973 film)

text: Worldwide, the film grossed a total of 17.46 crore ($22.33 million). Adjusted for inflation, its worldwide gross is equivalent to 564 crore ($84 million) in 2016.


title: Zanjeer (1973 film)

text: A remake, with the same name, released on 6 September 2013. "Zanjeer" featuring Ram Charan Teja as Vijay, Priyanka Chopra as Mala, Sanjay Dutt as Sher Khan, Prakash Raj as Teja, Mahi Gill as Mona, Ankur Bhatia as Bosco, and Atul Kulkarni. Priyanka Chopra contracted the film for 90 million Indian rupee turning her the highest paid Indian actress. The film is also simultaneously shot in Telugu titled "Toofan", featuring the same cast except Srihari replaces Sanjay Dutt as Sher Khan, and Tanikella Bharani replaces Atul Kulkarni.


title: Monster group

text: In the area of abstract algebra known as group theory, the monster group M (also known as the Fischer–Griess monster, or the friendly giant) is the largest sporadic simple group, having order


title: Monster group

text: The finite simple groups have been completely classified. Every such group belongs to one of 18 countably infinite families, or is one of 26 sporadic groups that do not follow such a systematic pattern. The monster group contains 20 sporadic groups (including itself) as subquotients. Robert Griess, who proved the existence of the monster in 1982, has called those 20 groups the "happy family", and the remaining six exceptions "pariahs".


title: Monster group

text: It is difficult to give a good constructive definition of the monster because of its complexity. Martin Gardner wrote a popular account of the monster group in his June 1980 Mathematical Games column in "Scientific American".


title: Monster group

text: The monster was predicted by Bernd Fischer (unpublished, about 1973) and Robert Griess as a simple group containing a double cover of Fischer's baby monster group as a centralizer of an involution. Within a few months, the order of M was found by Griess using the Thompson order formula, and Fischer, Conway, Norton and Thompson discovered other groups as subquotients, including many of the known sporadic groups, and two new ones: the Thompson group and the Harada–Norton group. The character table of the monster, a 194-by-194 array, was calculated in 1979 by Fischer and Donald Livingstone using computer programs written by Michael Thorne. It was not clear in the 1970s whether the monster actually existed. Griess constructed M as the automorphism group of the Griess algebra, a 196,884-dimensional commutative nonassociative algebra over the real numbers; he first announced his construction in Ann Arbor on January 14, 1980. In his 1982 paper, he referred to the monster as the Friendly Giant, but this name has not been generally adopted. John Conway and Jacques Tits subsequently simplified this construction.


title: Monster group

text: Griess's construction showed that the monster exists. Thompson showed that its uniqueness (as a simple group satisfying certain conditions coming from the classification of finite simple groups) would follow from the existence of a 196,883-dimensional faithful representation. A proof of the existence of such a representation was announced by Norton, though he has never published the details. Griess, Meierfrankenfeld and Segev gave the first complete published proof of the uniqueness of the monster (more precisely, they showed that a group with the same centralizers of involutions as the monster is isomorphic to the monster).


title: Monster group

text: The monster was a culmination of the development of sporadic simple groups and can be built from any two of three subquotients: the Fischer group Fi, the baby monster, and the Conway group Co.


title: Monster group

text: The minimal degree of a faithful complex representation is 47 × 59 × 71 = 196,883, hence is the product of the three largest prime divisors of the order of M.


title: Monster group

text: The smallest faithful linear representation over any field has dimension 196,882 over the field with two elements, only one less than the dimension of the smallest faithful complex representation.


title: Monster group

text: The monster is unusual among simple groups in that there is no known easy way to represent its elements. This is not due so much to its size as to the absence of "small" representations. For example, the simple groups A and SL(2) are far larger, but easy to calculate with as they have "small" permutation or linear representations. Alternating groups, such as A, have permutation representations that are "small" compared to the size of the group, and all finite simple groups of Lie type, such as SL(2), have linear representations that are "small" compared to the size of the group. All sporadic groups other than the monster also have linear representations small enough that they are easy to work with on a computer (the next hardest case after the monster is the baby monster, with a representation of dimension 4370).


title: Monster group

text: Robert A. Wilson has found explicitly (with the aid of a computer) two invertible 196,882 by 196,882 matrices (with elements in the field of order 2) which together generate the monster group by matrix multiplication; this is one dimension lower than the 196,883-dimensional representation in characteristic 0. Performing calculations with these matrices is possible but is too expensive in terms of time and storage space to be useful, as each such matrix occupies over four and a half gigabytes.


title: Monster group

text: Wilson asserts that the best description of the monster is to say, "It is the automorphism group of the monster vertex algebra". This is not much help however, because nobody has found a "really simple and natural construction of the monster vertex algebra".


title: Monster group

text: Wilson with collaborators has found a method of performing calculations with the monster that is considerably faster. Let "V" be a 196,882 dimensional vector space over the field with 2 elements. A large subgroup "H" (preferably a maximal subgroup) of the Monster is selected in which it is easy to perform calculations. The subgroup "H" chosen is 3.2.Suz.2, where Suz is the Suzuki group. Elements of the monster are stored as words in the elements of "H" and an extra generator "T". It is reasonably quick to calculate the action of one of these words on a vector in "V". Using this action, it is possible to perform calculations (such as the order of an element of the monster). Wilson has exhibited vectors "u" and "v" whose joint stabilizer is the trivial group. Thus (for example) one can calculate the order of an element "g" of the monster by finding the smallest "i" > 0 such that "g""u" = "u" and "g""v" = "v".


title: Monster group

text: This and similar constructions (in different characteristics) have been used to find some of its non-local maximal subgroups.


title: Monster group

text: Martin Seysen has implemented a fast Python package named mmgroup, which claims to be the first implementation of the monster group where arbitrary operations can effectively be performed. The documentation states that multiplication of group elements takes less than 40 milliseconds on a typical modern PC, which is five orders of magnitude faster than estimated by Robert A. Wilson in 2013.


title: Monster group

text: The monster group is one of two principal constituents in the monstrous moonshine conjecture by Conway and Norton, which relates discrete and non-discrete mathematics and was finally proved by Richard Borcherds in 1992.


title: Monster group

text: In this setting, the monster group is visible as the automorphism group of the monster module, a vertex operator algebra, an infinite dimensional algebra containing the Griess algebra, and acts on the monster Lie algebra, a generalized Kac–Moody algebra.


title: Monster group

text: Many mathematicians, including Conway, have seen the monster as a beautiful and still mysterious object. Conway said of the monster group: "There's never been any kind of explanation of why it's there, and it's obviously not there just by coincidence. It's got too many intriguing properties for it all to be just an accident." Simon P. Norton, an expert on the properties of the monster group, is quoted as saying, "I can explain what Monstrous Moonshine is in one sentence, it is the voice of God."


title: Monster group

text: There are also connections between the monster and the extended Dynkin diagrams formula_1 specifically between the nodes of the diagram and certain conjugacy classes in the monster, known as "McKay's E observation". This is then extended to a relation between the extended diagrams formula_2 and the groups 3.Fi′, 2.B, and M, where these are (3/2/1-fold central extensions) of the Fischer group, baby monster group, and monster. These are the sporadic groups associated with centralizers of elements of type 1A, 2A, and 3A in the monster, and the order of the extension corresponds to the symmetries of the diagram. See ADE classification: trinities for further connections (of McKay correspondence type), including (for the monster) with the rather small simple group PSL(2,11) and with the 120 tritangent planes of a canonic sextic curve of genus 4 known as Bring's curve.


title: Monster group

text: The monster has at least 44 conjugacy classes of maximal subgroups. Non-abelian simple groups of some 60 isomorphism types are found as subgroups or as quotients of subgroups. The largest alternating group represented is A.


title: Monster group

text: The monster contains 20 of the 26 sporadic groups as subquotients. This diagram, based on one in the book "Symmetry and the Monster" by Mark Ronan, shows how they fit together. The lines signify inclusion, as a subquotient, of the lower group by the upper one. The circled symbols denote groups not involved in larger sporadic groups. For the sake of clarity redundant inclusions are not shown.


title: Monster group

text: Forty-four of the classes of maximal subgroups of the monster are given by the following list, which is (as of 2016) believed to be complete except possibly for almost simple subgroups with non-abelian simple socles of the form L(13), U(4), or U(8). However, tables of maximal subgroups have often been found to contain subtle errors, and in particular at least two of the subgroups on the list below were incorrectly omitted from some previous lists.


title: Charbel Makhlouf

text: Charbel Makhlouf, O.L.M. (, May 8, 1828 – December 24, 1898), born Youssef Antoun Makhlouf and venerated as Saint Charbel, was a Maronite monk and priest from Lebanon. During his life, he obtained a wide reputation for holiness, and for his ability to unite Christians and Muslims. He is venerated as a saint by the Catholic Church.


title: Charbel Makhlouf

text: He is known among Lebanese Christians as the "Miracle Monk of Lebanon" because of the favours received through his intercession, especially after prayers are said at his tomb in the Monastery of Saint Maron in Annaya, Lebanon.


title: Charbel Makhlouf

text: Youssef Antoun Makhlouf was born on May 8, 1828, one of five children, in the mountain village of Bekaa Kafra, the highest by elevation in Lebanon. His father, Antoun Zaarour Makhlouf, was a mule driver who died in August 1831 while returning from "corvée" for the Turkish army, leaving his wife Brigitta ("née" Chidiac) a widow to care for their children. She remarried a man who went on to Holy Orders and became the parish priest of Bekaa Kafra.


title: Charbel Makhlouf

text: Makhlouf was raised in this pious home, and became drawn to the lives of the saints and the eremitical life practiced by two of his uncles. As a young boy, he was responsible for the family's small herd of cows. He would take the herd to a nearby grotto, where he had enshrined an icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary. He would spend the day in prayer.


title: Charbel Makhlouf

text: In 1851, Makhlouf left his family to begin training as a monk of the Lebanese Maronite Order at the Monastery of Our Lady in Mayfouq. He later transferred to the Monastery of Saint Maron in Annaya, in the Byblos District near Beirut. Here, he received his habit and took the religious name Charbel, after the 2nd-century Christian martyr of Antioch. He made his final religious profession in the Order on November 1, 1853.


title: Charbel Makhlouf

text: As a young monk, Makhlouf began to prepare himself for ordination by studying philosophy and theology at the Monastery of Saints Cyprian and Justina in Kfifan, Batroun District. Among his professors at the seminary was Nimatullah Kassab, who was himself later also declared a saint. He was ordained six years later, on July 23, 1859, in Bkerke. He was sent back to the Monastery of Saint Maron, where he lived a life of severe asceticism.


title: Charbel Makhlouf

text: In 1875, Charbel was granted by the abbot of the monastery the privilege of living as a hermit at the Hermitage of Saints Peter and Paul, a chapel under the care of the monastery. He spent the next 23 years living alone until his death from a stroke on December 24, 1898.


title: Charbel Makhlouf

text: Makhlouf was interred at the Monastery of Saint Maron on Christmas Day that year. It was reported that during the transport of his corpse, inclement weather conditions hindered the pallbearers in carrying out their duty.


title: Charbel Makhlouf

text: "Father Charbel died on the eve of Christmas; the snow was heavy. We transferred him to the monastery on Christmas day. Before we moved him, the snow was falling rapidly and the clouds were very dark. When we carried him, the clouds disappeared, and the weather cleared."


title: Charbel Makhlouf

text: One story claims: "A few months after his death, a bright light was seen surrounding his tomb and the superiors opened it to find his body still intact. After that day, a blood-like liquid flowed from his body. Experts and doctors were unable to give medical explanations for the incorruptibility and flexibility." In 1950 and 1952, his tomb was opened and his body still had the appearance of a living one. Additionally, the 1950 television tape of his exhumation showed Makhlouf's body as still intact, despite the grave having become severely rusty. The official site mentions: In this century his grave has been opened four times, the last time being in 1955, and each time "it has been noticed that his bleeding body still has its flexibility as if it were alive”. The Catholic Tradition website says: "Father Joseph Mahfouz, the postulator of the cause, certified that in 1965 the body of Saint Charbel was still preserved intact with no alteration. In 1976, he again witnessed the opening of the grave; this time the body was completely decomposed. Only the skeleton remained."


title: Charbel Makhlouf

text: On 2 September 2017, Saint Charbel's relics were translated to Saint Elisabeth Cathedral in Košice, Slovakia, where a monthly pilgrimage is held, called ""Púť k sv. Šarbelovi"" (Pilgrimage to St. Charbel). The cathedral is the first in Slovakia to receive his official relics from Lebanon, and attracts pilgrims from across the country as well as neighbouring states like Poland, Ukraine and Czech Republic.


title: Charbel Makhlouf

text: On December 5, 1965, Pope Paul VI presided over the beatification of Makhlouf at the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council. The pope said: “A hermit of Mount Lebanon is enrolled in the number of the blessed… a new eminent member of monastic sanctity has by his example and his intercession enriched the entire Christian people … may he make us understand, in a world largely fascinated by wealth and comfort, the paramount value of poverty, penance and asceticism, to liberate the soul in its ascent to God.”


title: Charbel Makhlouf

text: On October 9, 1977, the pontiff canonized Makhlouf. At the time, Bishop Francis Zayek, wrote, “St. Sharbel is called the second St. Anthony of the Desert, the Perfume of Lebanon, the first Confessor of the East to be raised to the Altars according to the actual procedure of the Catholic Church, the honor of our Aramaic Antiochian Church, and the model of spiritual values and renewal. Sharbel is like a Cedar of Lebanon standing in eternal prayer, on top of a mountain.” Reflecting on the canonization of Makhlouf and the causes for canonization of other Maronites active at the time, Zayek further proclaimed “the Aramaic Maronite Antiochian Church is indeed a living branch of the Catholic Church and is intimately connected with the trunk, who is Christ, our Savior, the beginning and the end of all things.”


title: Charbel Makhlouf

text: Owing to his role as a Maronite Saint as well as his piety and morals, Makhlouf serves as a role model for many Maronite Catholics and is venerated by Catholics from all "sui iuris" churches in communion with Rome.


title: Charbel Makhlouf

text: On October 28, 2017, a shrine dedicated to Makhlouf was inaugurated at Saint Patrick's Cathedral. The Lebanese Maronite Patriarch, Bechara Boutros al-Rahi, attended the inauguration ceremony giving his blessing and a dedication, as well as Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan. The shrine has a mosaic of Makhlouf along with national emblems of Lebanon such as the cedar and a relic of Makhlouf. It was donated by SGBL Bank chairman Antoun Sehnaoui in the name of his parents, May and Nabil Sehnaoui.


title: Charbel Makhlouf

text: Among the many miracles attributed to Makhlouf, the Catholic Church chose two to confirm his beatification, and a third for his canonization:


title: Charbel Makhlouf

text: A great number of other miracles have been attributed to Makhlouf since his death. The most famous is that of Nohad El Shami, a 55-year-old woman at the time of the miracle who was healed from partial paralysis. She tells that on the night of January 22, 1993, she dreamt of two Maronite monks standing next to her bed. One put his hands on her neck and operated on her, relieving her from her pain, while the other held a pillow behind her back. When she awoke, she found two wounds in her neck, one on each side. She was completely healed and recovered her ability to walk. She believed it was the saint who healed her, but did not recognize the other monk. The next night, she dreamt of Makhlouf, who said: "I did the surgery to let people see and return to faith. I ask you to visit the hermitage on the 22nd of every month, and attend Mass regularly for the rest of your life”. People now gather on the 22nd of each month to pray and attend Mass in the hermitage of Saint Charbel in Annaya.


title: Charbel Makhlouf

text: In 1994, a Lebanese Maronite Catholic named Raymond Nader was praying at the hermitage in Annaya when he had a mystical experience. “I found myself in another world…I saw a strange and amazing Light unlike any light I had ever seen; it was a sea of light that extended from one end of the universe to the other. I wanted that Light to stay permanently.” After the vision, Nader was leaving when his arm felt hot and itchy near the statue of Saint Charbel. When he rolled up his sleeve in his car, he saw the imprint of five fingers. “They were engraved like a hand on my arm and encircled by a red glare as if imprinted through fire. But I felt nothing but warmth.”


title: Charbel Makhlouf

text: Dr. Nabil Hokayem, a plastic surgeon from Beirut, examined the mark and believed it was a third-degree burn despite not causing Nader pain. The mark has since repeatedly faded and returned. Inspired by his experience, in 1995 Nader began a prayer group called the Family of Saint Sharbel. Its mission is “to contribute to the Catholic Church’s evangelizing mission through living the spirituality of Saint Sharbel in the world.” Nader claims Saint Charbel has appeared to him many more times, and 16 of the saint's locutions to Nader have been published.


title: Huo Yuanjia

text: Huo Yuanjia (18 January 1868 – 9 August 1910), courtesy name Junqing, was a legendary Chinese martial artist and co-founder of the Chin Woo Athletic Association, a martial arts school in Shanghai. A practitioner of the martial art mizongyi, Huo is considered a hero in China for defeating foreign fighters in highly publicised matches at a time when Chinese sovereignty was being eroded by foreign imperialism, concessions and spheres of influence. Due to his heroic status, the legends and myths surrounding events in his life are difficult to discern from facts.


title: Huo Yuanjia

text: Huo was born in Xiaonanhe Village in Jinghai County, Tianjin, as the fourth of Huo Endi's ten children. The family's main source of income was from agriculture, but Huo Endi also made a living by escorting merchant caravans to Manchuria and back. Although he was from a family of traditional wushu practitioners, Huo was born weak and susceptible to illness. He had asthma and, at an early age, he contracted jaundice, which would recur periodically for the rest of his life. It is theorised that he may have had a mild form of congenital jaundice known as Gilbert's syndrome. Due to his frail frame, his father discouraged him from learning wushu.


title: Huo Yuanjia

text: Huo Endi hired Chen Seng-ho, a tutor from Japan, to teach his son academics and moral values. In return, Chen was taught the Huo family's style of martial arts, mizongyi. Huo still desired to learn wushu, against his father's wishes, so he observed his father teaching his students martial arts in the day and secretly practised at night with Chen.


title: Huo Yuanjia

text: In 1890, a martial artist from Henan visited the Huo family and fought with Huo's elder brother, who lost. To the surprise of his family, Huo fought with his brother's opponent and defeated the latter. As Huo proved that he was physically able to practise wushu, his father accepted him as a student. As he became older, Huo went on to challenge martial artists from neighbouring areas and his fame grew as he defeated more opponents in bouts.


title: Huo Yuanjia

text: Huo joined his father at work as a caravan guard. One day, while escorting a group of monks, Huo was confronted by a group of bandits, who threatened to attack the monks. Huo fought the bandit chief and defeated him. News of his feat spread and added on to his growing fame. In 1896, Huo went to Tianjin and made a living there by working as a porter in the Huaiqing pharmacy and by selling firewood.