title: Beak

text: The outer surface of the beak consists of a thin sheath of keratin called the rhamphotheca, which can be subdivided into the rhinotheca of the upper mandible and the gnathotheca of the lower mandible. This covering arises from the Malpighian layer of the bird's epidermis,


title: Beak

text: growing from plates at the base of each mandible. There is a vascular layer between the rhamphotheca and the deeper layers of the dermis, which is attached directly to the periosteum of the bones of the beak. The rhamphotheca grows continuously in most birds, and in some species, the color varies seasonally.


title: Beak

text: In some alcids, such as the puffins, parts of the rhamphotheca are shed each year after the breeding season, while some pelicans shed a part of the bill called a "bill horn" that develops in the breeding season.


title: Beak

text: While most extant birds have a single seamless rhamphotheca, species in a few families, including the albatrosses and the emu, have compound rhamphothecae that consist of several pieces separated and defined by softer keratinous grooves.


title: Beak

text: Studies have shown that this was the primitive ancestral state of the rhamphotheca, and that the modern simple rhamphotheca resulted from the gradual loss of the defining grooves through evolution.


title: Beak

text: The tomia (singular "tomium") are the cutting edges of the two mandibles. In most birds, these range from rounded to slightly sharp, but some species have evolved structural modifications that allow them to handle their typical food sources better.


title: Beak

text: Granivorous (seed-eating) birds, for example, have ridges in their tomia, which help the bird to slice through a seed's outer hull.


title: Beak

text: Most falcons have a sharp projection along the upper mandible, with a corresponding notch on the lower mandible. They use this "tooth" to sever their prey's vertebrae fatally or to rip insects apart. Some kites, principally those that prey on insects or lizards, also have one or more of these sharp projections,


title: Beak

text: The tomial teeth of falcons are underlain by bone, while the shrike tomial teeth are entirely keratinous. Some fish-eating species, e.g., the mergansers, have sawtooth serrations along their tomia, which help them to keep hold of their slippery, wriggling prey.


title: Beak

text: Birds in roughly 30 families have tomia lined with tight bunches of very short bristles along their entire length. Most of these species are either insectivores (preferring hard-shelled prey) or snail eaters, and the brush-like projections may help to increase the coefficient of friction between the mandibles, thereby improving the bird's ability to hold hard prey items.


title: Beak

text: Serrations on hummingbird bills, found in 23% of all hummingbird genera, may perform a similar function, allowing the birds to effectively hold insect prey. They may also allow shorter-billed hummingbirds to function as nectar thieves, as they can more effectively hold and cut through long or waxy flower corollas.


title: Beak

text: In some cases, the color of a bird's tomia can help to distinguish between similar species. The snow goose, for example, has a reddish-pink bill with black tomia, while the whole beak of the similar Ross's goose is pinkish-red, without darker tomia.


title: Beak

text: The culmen is the dorsal ridge of the upper mandible. Likened by ornithologist E. Coues to the ridge line of a roof, it is the "highest middle lengthwise line of the bill" and runs from the point where the upper mandible emerges from the forehead's feathers to its tip. The bill's length along the culmen is one of the regular measurements made during bird banding (ringing)


title: Beak

text: and is particularly useful in feeding studies. There are several standard measurements that can be made—from the beak's tip to the point where feathering starts on the forehead, from the tip to the anterior edge of the nostrils, from the tip to the base of the skull, or from the tip to the cere (for raptors and owls) — and scientists from various parts of the world generally favor one method over another. In all cases, these are chord measurements (measured in a straight line from point to point, ignoring any curve in the culmen) taken with calipers.


title: Beak

text: The shape or color of the culmen can also help with the identification of birds in the field. For example, the culmen of the parrot crossbill is strongly decurved, while that of the very similar red crossbill is more moderately curved.


title: Beak

text: The culmen of a juvenile common loon is all dark, while that of the very similarly plumaged juvenile yellow-billed loon is pale towards the tip.


title: Beak

text: The gonys is the ventral ridge of the lower mandible, created by the junction of the bone's two rami, or lateral plates. The proximal end of that junction — where the two plates separate—is known as the gonydeal angle or gonydeal expansion. In some gull species, the plates expand slightly at that point, creating a noticeable bulge; the size and shape of the gonydeal angle can be useful in identifying between otherwise similar species. Adults of many species of large gulls have a reddish or orangish gonydeal spot near the gonydeal expansion. This spot triggers begging behavior in gull chicks. The chick pecks at the spot on its parent's bill, which in turn stimulates the parent to regurgitate food.


title: Beak

text: Depending on its use, "commissure" may refer to the junction of the upper and lower mandibles, or alternately, to the full-length apposition of the closed mandibles, from the corners of the mouth to the tip of the beak.


title: Beak

text: In bird anatomy, the gape is the interior of the open mouth of a bird, and the gape flange is the region where the two mandibles join together at the base of the beak.


title: Beak

text: Gapes of juvenile altricial birds are often brightly coloured, sometimes with contrasting spots or other patterns, and these are believed to be an indication of their health, fitness and competitive ability. Based on this, the parents decide how to distribute food among the chicks in the nest.


title: Beak

text: Some species, especially in the families Viduidae and Estrildidae, have bright spots on the gape known as gape tubercles or gape papillae. These nodular spots are conspicuous even in low light.


title: Beak

text: A study examining the nestling gapes of eight passerine species found that the gapes were conspicuous in the ultraviolet spectrum (visible to birds but not to humans).


title: Beak

text: Parents may, however, not rely solely on the gape coloration, and other factors influencing their decision remain unknown.


title: Beak

text: Red gape color has been shown in several experiments to induce feeding. An experiment in manipulating brood size and immune system with barn swallow nestlings showed the vividness of the gape was positively correlated with T-cell–mediated immunocompetence, and that larger brood size and injection with an antigen led to a less vivid gape.


title: Beak

text: Conversely, the red gape of the common cuckoo ("Cuculus canorus") did not induce extra feeding in host parents.


title: Beak

text: Some brood parasites, such as the Hodgson's hawk-cuckoo ("C. fugax"), have colored patches on the wing that mimic the gape color of the parasitized species.


title: Beak

text: When born, the chick's gape flanges are fleshy. As it grows into a fledgling, the gape flanges remain somewhat swollen and can thus be used to recognize that a particular bird is young.


title: Beak

text: Most species of birds have external nares (nostrils) located somewhere on their beak. The nares are two holes—circular, oval or slit-like in shape—which lead to the nasal cavities within the bird's skull, and thus to the rest of the respiratory system. In most bird species, the nares are located in the basal third of the upper mandible. Kiwi are a notable exception; their nares are located at the tip of their bills. A handful of species have no external nares. Cormorants and darters have primitive external nares as nestlings, but these close soon after the birds fledge; adults of these species (and gannets and boobies of all ages, which also lack external nostrils) breathe through their mouths. There is typically a septum made of bone or cartilage that separates the two nares, but in some families (including gulls, cranes and New World vultures), the septum is missing. While the nares are uncovered in most species, they are covered with feathers in a few groups of birds, including grouse and ptarmigans, crows, and some woodpeckers. The feathers over a ptarmigan's nostrils help to warm the air it inhales,


title: Beak

text: Species in the bird order Procellariformes have nostrils enclosed in double tubes which sit atop or along the sides of the upper mandible. These species, which include the albatrosses, petrels, diving petrels, storm petrels, fulmars and shearwaters, are widely known as "tubenoses".


title: Beak

text: A number of species, including the falcons, have a small bony tubercule which projects from their nares. The function of this tubercule is unknown. Some scientists suggest it may act as a baffle, slowing down or diffusing airflow into the nares (and thus allowing the bird to continue breathing without damaging its respiratory system) during high-speed dives, but this theory has not been proved experimentally. Not all species that fly at high speeds have such tubercules, while some species which fly at low speeds do.


title: Beak

text: The nares of some birds are covered by an operculum (plural "opercula"), a membraneous, horny or cartilaginous flap.


title: Beak

text: In diving birds, the operculum keeps water out of the nasal cavity; when the birds dive, the impact force of the water closes the operculum.


title: Beak

text: Some species which feed on flowers have opercula to help to keep pollen from clogging their nasal passages, while the opercula of the two species of "Attagis" seedsnipe help to keep dust out.


title: Beak

text: The nares of nestling tawny frogmouths are covered with large dome-shaped opercula, which help to reduce the rapid evaporation of water vapor, and may also help to increase condensation within the nostrils themselves—both critical functions, since the nestlings get fluids only from the food their parents bring them. These opercula shrink as the birds age, disappearing completely by the time they reach adulthood.


title: Beak

text: In pigeons, the operculum has evolved into a soft swollen mass that sits at the base of the bill, above the nares; though it is sometimes referred to as the "cere", this is a different structure. Tapaculos are the only birds known to have the ability to move their opercula.


title: Beak

text: Birds from a handful of families—including raptors, owls, skuas, parrots, turkeys and curassows—have a waxy structure called a cere (from the Latin "cera", which means "wax") or ceroma


title: Beak

text: which covers the base of their bill. This structure typically contains the nares, except in the owls, where the nares are distal to the cere. Although it is sometimes feathered in parrots,


title: Beak

text: the cere is typically bare and often brightly colored. In raptors, the cere is a sexual signal which indicates the "quality" of a bird; the orangeness of a Montagu's harrier's cere, for example, correlates to its body mass and physical condition.


title: Beak

text: The cere color of young Eurasian scops-owls has an ultraviolet (UV) component, with a UV peak that correlates to the bird's mass. A chick with a lower body mass has a UV peak at a higher wavelength than a chick with a higher body mass does. Studies have shown that parent owls preferentially feed chicks with ceres that show higher wavelength UV peaks, that is, lighter-weight chicks.


title: Beak

text: The color or appearance of the cere can be used to distinguish between males and females in some species. For example, the male great curassow has a yellow cere, which the female (and young males) lack.


title: Beak

text: All birds of the family Anatidae (ducks, geese, and swans) have a nail, a plate of hard horny tissue at the tip of the beak. This shield-shaped structure, which sometimes spans the entire width of the beak, is often bent at the tip to form a hook.


title: Beak

text: It serves different purposes depending on the bird's primary food source. Most species use their nails to dig seeds out of mud or vegetation,


title: Beak

text: There is evidence that the nail may help a bird to grasp objects. Species which use strong grasping motions to secure their food (such as when catching and holding onto a large squirming frog) have very wide nails.


title: Beak

text: Certain types of mechanoreceptors, nerve cells that are sensitive to pressure, vibration, or touch, are located under the nail.


title: Beak

text: The shape or color of the nail can sometimes be used to help distinguish between similar-looking species or between various ages of waterfowl. For example, the greater scaup has a wider black nail than does the very similar lesser scaup.


title: Beak

text: The nail gave the wildfowl family one of its former names: "Unguirostres" comes from the Latin "ungus", meaning "nail" and "rostrum", meaning "beak".


title: Beak

text: Their function is uncertain, although several possibilities have been proposed. They may function as a "net", helping in the capture of flying prey, although to date, there has been no empirical evidence to support this idea.


title: Beak

text: There is some experimental evidence to suggest that they may prevent particles from striking the eyes if, for example, a prey item is missed or broken apart on contact. They may also help to protect the eyes from particles encountered in flight, or from casual contact from vegetation. There is also evidence that the rictal bristles of some species may function tactilely, in a manner similar to that of mammalian whiskers (vibrissae). Studies have shown that Herbst corpuscles, mechanoreceptors sensitive to pressure and vibration, are found in association with rictal bristles. They may help with prey detection, with navigation in darkened nest cavities, with the gathering of information during flight or with prey handling.


title: Beak

text: Full-term chicks of most bird species have a small sharp, calcified projection on their beak, which they use to chip their way out of their egg.


title: Beak

text: Commonly known as an egg tooth, this white spike is generally near the tip of the upper mandible, though some species have one near the tip of their lower mandible instead, and a few species have one on each mandible.


title: Beak

text: Despite its name, the projection is not an actual tooth, as the similarly-named projections of some reptiles are; instead, it is part of the integumentary system, as are claws and scales.


title: Beak

text: The hatching chick first uses its egg tooth to break the membrane around an air chamber at the wide end of the egg. Then it pecks at the eggshell while turning slowly within the egg, eventually (over a period of hours or days) creating a series of small circular fractures in the shell.


title: Beak

text: Once it has breached the egg's surface, the chick continues to chip at it until it has made a large hole. The weakened egg eventually shatters under the pressure of the bird's movements.


title: Beak

text: The egg tooth is so critical to a successful escape from the egg that chicks of most species will perish unhatched if they fail to develop one. However, there are a few species which do not have egg teeth. Megapode chicks have an egg tooth while still in the egg but lose it before hatching, while kiwi chicks never develop one; chicks of both families escape their eggs by kicking their way out.


title: Beak

text: Most chicks lose their egg teeth within a few days of hatching, though petrels keep theirs for nearly three weeks and marbled murrelets have theirs for up to a month.


title: Beak

text: The color of a bird's beak results from concentrations of pigments — primarily melanins and carotenoids — in the epidermal layers, including the rhamphotheca.


title: Beak

text: Eumelanin, which is found in the bare parts of many bird species, is responsible for all shades of gray and black; the denser the deposits of pigment found in the epidermis, the darker the resulting color. Phaeomelanin produces "earth tones" ranging from gold and rufous to various shades of brown. Although it is thought to occur in combination with eumelanin in beaks whfich are buff, tan, or horn-colored, researchers have yet to isolate phaeomelanin from any beak structure. More than a dozen types of carotenoids are responsible for the coloration of most red, orange, and yellow beaks.


title: Beak

text: The hue of the color is determined by the precise mix of red and yellow pigments, while the saturation is determined by the density of the deposited pigments. For example, bright red is created by dense deposits of mostly red pigments, while dull yellow is created by diffuse deposits of mostly yellow pigments. Bright orange is created by dense deposits of both red and yellow pigments, in roughly equal concentrations. Beak coloration helps to make displays using those beaks more obvious. In general, beak color depends on a combination of the bird's hormonal state and diet. Colors are typically brightest as the breeding season approaches, and palest after breeding.


title: Beak

text: Birds are capable of seeing colors in the ultraviolet range, and some species are known to have ultraviolet peaks of reflectance (indicating the presence of ultraviolet color) on their beaks. The presence and intensity of these peaks may indicate a bird's fitness, sexual maturity or pair bond status.


title: Beak

text: King and emperor penguins, for example, show spots of ultraviolet reflectance only as adults. These spots are brighter on paired birds than on courting birds. The position of such spots on the beak may be important in allowing birds to identify conspecifics. For instance, the very similarly-plumaged king and emperor penguins have UV-reflective spots in different positions on their beaks.


title: Beak

text: The size and shape of the beak can vary across species as well as between them; in some species, the size and proportions of the beak vary between males and females. This allows the sexes to utilize different ecological niches, thereby reducing intraspecific competition.


title: Beak

text: Males of the larger gull species have bigger, stouter beaks than those of females of the same species, and immatures can have smaller, more slender beaks than those of adults.


title: Beak

text: Many hornbills show sexual dimorphism in the size and shape of both beaks and casques, and the female huia's slim, decurved bill was nearly twice as long as the male's straight, thicker one.


title: Beak

text: Color can also differ between sexes or ages within a species. Typically, such a color difference is due to the presence of androgens. For example, in house sparrows, melanins are produced only in the presence of testosterone; castrated male house sparrows—like female house sparrows—have brown beaks. Castration also prevents the normal seasonal color change in the beaks of male black-headed gulls and indigo buntings.


title: Beak

text: The beak of modern birds has a fused premaxillary bone, which is modulated by the expression of "Fgf8" gene in the frontonasal ectodermal zone during embryonic development.


title: Beak

text: The shape of the beak is determined by two modules: the prenasal cartilage during early embryonic stage and the premaxillary bone during later stages. Development of the prenasal cartilage is regulated by genes "Bmp4" and "CaM", while that of the premaxillary bone is controlled by "TGFβllr", "β-catenin", and "Dickkopf-3." "TGFβllr" codes for a serine/threonine protein kinase that regulates gene transcription upon ligand binding; previous work has highlighted its role in mammalian craniofacial skeletal development. "β-catenin" is involved in the differentiation of terminal bone cells. "Dickkopf-3" codes for a secreted protein also known to be expressed in mammalian craniofacial development. The combination of these signals determines beak growth along the length, depth, and width axes. Reduced expression of "TGFβllr" significantly decreased the depth and length of chicken embryonic beak due to the underdevelopment of the premaxillary bone. Contrarily, an increase in "Bmp4" signaling would result in a reduced premaxillary bone due to the overdevelopment of the prenasal cartilage, which takes up more mesenchymal cells for cartilage, instead of bone, formation.


title: Beak

text: Birds may bite or stab with their beaks to defend themselves. Some species use their beaks in displays of various sorts. As part of his courtship, for example, the male garganey touches his beak to the blue speculum feathers on his wings in a fake preening display, and the male Mandarin duck does the same with his orange sail feathers. A number of species use a gaping, open beak in their fear and/or threat displays. Some augment the display by hissing or breathing heavily, while others clap their beak. The platypus uses its bill to navigate underwater, detect food, and dig. The bill contains electroreceptors and mechanoreceptors, causing muscular contractions to help detect prey. It is one of the few species of mammals to use electroreception.


title: Beak

text: The beak of birds plays a role in removing skin parasites (ectoparasites) such as lice. It is mainly the tip of the beak that does this. Studies have shown that inserting a bit to stop birds from using the tip results in increased parasite loads in pigeons.


title: Beak

text: It is thought that the overhang at the end of the top portion of the beak (that is the portion that begins to curve downwards) slides against the lower beak to crush parasites.


title: Beak

text: This overhang of the beak is thought to be under stabilising natural selection. Very long beaks are thought to be selected against because they are prone to a higher number of breaks, as has been demonstrated in rock pigeons. Beaks with no overhang would be unable to effectively remove and kill ectoparasites as mentioned above. Studies have supported there is a selection pressure for an intermediate amount of overhang. Western Scrub Jays who had more symmetrical bills (i.e. those with less of an overhang), were found to have higher amounts of lice when tested. The same pattern has been seen in surveys of Peruvian birds.


title: Beak

text: Additionally, because of the role beaks play in preening, this is evidence for coevolution of the beak overhang morphology and body morphology of parasites. Artificially removing the ability to preen in birds, followed by readdition of preening ability was shown to result in changes in body size in lice. Once the ability of the birds to preen was reintroduced, the lice were found to show declines in body size suggesting they may evolve in response to preening pressures from birds who could respond in turn with changes in beak morphology.


title: Beak

text: A number of species, including storks, some owls, frogmouths and the noisy miner, use bill clapping as a form of communication.


title: Beak

text: Studies have shown that some birds use their beaks to rid themselves of excess heat. The toco toucan, which has the largest beak relative to the size of its body of any bird species, is capable of modifying the blood flow to its beak. This process allows the beak to work as a "transient thermal radiator", reportedly rivaling an elephant's ears in its ability to radiate body heat.


title: Beak

text: Measurements of the bill sizes of several species of American sparrows found in salt marshes along the North American coastlines show a strong correlation with summer temperatures recorded in the locations where the sparrows breed; latitude alone showed a much weaker correlation. By dumping excess heat through their bills, the sparrows are able to avoid the water loss which would be required by evaporative cooling—an important benefit in a windy habitat where freshwater is scarce.


title: Beak

text: Several ratites, including the common ostrich, the emu and the southern cassowary, use various bare parts of their bodies (including their beaks) to dissipate as much as 40% of their metabolic heat production.


title: Beak

text: Alternately, studies have shown that birds from colder climates (higher altitudes or latitudes and lower environmental temperatures) have smaller beaks, lessening heat loss from that structure.


title: Beak

text: During courtship, mated pairs of many bird species touch or clasp each other's bills. Termed billing (also nebbing in British English),


title: Beak

text: The amount of contact involved varies among species. Some gently touch only a part of their partner's beak while others clash their beaks vigorously together.


title: Beak

text: Gannets raise their bills high and repeatedly clatter them, the male puffin nibbles at the female's beak, the male waxwing puts his bill in the female's mouth and ravens hold each other's beaks in a prolonged "kiss".


title: Beak

text: Billing can also be used as a gesture of appeasement or subordination. Subordinate Canada jay routinely bill more dominant birds, lowering their body and quivering their wings in the manner of a young bird food begging as they do so.


title: Beak

text: A number of parasites, including rhinonyssids and "Trichomonas gallinae" are known to be transferred between birds during episodes of billing.


title: Beak

text: Use of the term extends beyond avian behavior; "billing and cooing" in reference to human courtship (particularly kissing) has been in use since Shakespeare's time, and derives from the courtship of doves.


title: Beak

text: Because the beak is a sensitive organ with many sensory receptors, beak trimming (sometimes referred to as 'debeaking') is "acutely painful" to the birds it is performed on. It is nonetheless routinely done to intensively farmed poultry flocks, particularly laying and broiler breeder flocks, because it helps reduce the damage the flocks inflict on themselves due to a number of stress-induced behaviors, including cannibalism, vent pecking and feather pecking. A cauterizing blade or infrared beam is used to cut off about half of the upper beak and about a third of the lower beak. Pain and sensitivity can persist for weeks or months after the procedure, and neuromas can form along the cut edges. Food intake typically decreases for some period after the beak is trimmed. However, studies show that trimmed poultry's adrenal glands weigh less, and their plasma corticosterone levels are lower than those found in untrimmed poultry, indicating that they are less stressed overall.


title: Beak

text: A similar but separate practice, usually performed by an avian veterinarian or an experienced birdkeeper, involves clipping, filing or sanding the beaks of captive birds for health purposes – in order to correct or temporarily alleviate overgrowths or deformities and better allow the bird to go about its normal feeding and preening activities.


title: Beak

text: The bill tip organ is a region found near the tip of the bill in several types of birds that forage particularly by probing. The region has a high density of nerve endings known as the corpuscles of Herbst. This consists of pits in the bill surface which in the living bird is occupied by cells that sense pressure changes. The assumption is that this allows the bird to perform 'remote touch', which means that it can detect movements of animals which the bird does not directly touch. Bird species known to have a 'bill-tip organ' include ibisis, shorebirds of the family Scolopacidae, and kiwis.


title: Beak

text: There is a suggestion that across these species, the bill tip organ is better-developed among species foraging in wet habitats (water column, or soft mud) than in species using a more terrestrial foraging. However, it has been described in terrestrial birds too, including parrots, who are known for their dextrous extractive foraging techniques. Unlike probing foragers, the tactile pits in parrots are embedded in the hard keratin (or rhamphotheca) of the bill, rather than the bone, and along the inner edges of the curved bill, rather than being on the outside of the bill.


title: GameSpot

text: GameSpot is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. In addition to the information produced by "GameSpot" staff, the site also allows users to write their own reviews, blogs, and post on the site's forums. It has been owned by Fandom, Inc. since October 2022.


title: GameSpot

text: In 2004, "GameSpot" won "Best Gaming Website" as chosen by the viewers in Spike TV's second "Video Game Award Show", and has won Webby Awards several times. The domain "gamespot.com" attracted at least 60 million visitors annually by October 2008 according to a Compete.com study.


title: GameSpot

text: In January 1996, Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein quit their positions at IDG and founded SpotMedia Communications. SpotMedia then launched "GameSpot" on May 1, 1996. Originally, "GameSpot" focused solely on personal computer games, so a sister site, "VideoGameSpot", was launched on December 1, 1996. Eventually "VideoGameSpot", then renamed "VideoGames.com", was merged into "GameSpot". In February 1999, "PC Magazine" named "GameSpot" one of the hundred best websites, alongside competitors "IGN" and "CNET Gamecenter". The following year, "The New York Times" declared "GameSpot" and "Gamecenter" the ""Time" and "Newsweek" of gaming sites".


title: GameSpot

text: In October 2005, "GameSpot" adopted a new design similar to that of "TV.com", now considered a sister site to "GameSpot".


title: GameSpot

text: In October 2022, Fandom acquired GameSpot, along with Metacritic, TV Guide, GameFAQs, Giant Bomb, Cord Cutters News, and Comic Vine from Red Ventures.


title: GameSpot

text: "GameSpot UK" (United Kingdom) was started in October 1997 and operated until mid-2002, offering content that was oriented for the British market that often differed from that of the U.S. site. During this period, "GameSpot UK" won the 1999 PPAi (Periodical Publishers Association interactive) award for best website, and was short listed in 2001. Following the purchase of ZDNet by CNET, "GameSpot UK" was merged with the main US site. On April 24, 2006, "GameSpot UK" was relaunched.


title: GameSpot

text: In a similar fashion, "GameSpot AU" (Australia) existed on a local scale in the late 1990s with Australian-produced reviews. It ceased in 2003. When a local version of the main CNET portal, CNET.com.au was launched in 2003, "GameSpot AU" content was folded into CNET.com.au. The site was fully re-launched in mid-2006, with a specialized forum, local reviews, special features, local pricings in Australian dollars, Australian release dates, and more local news.


title: GameSpot

text: "GameSpot Japan" in its current form launched in 2007. It provides Japanese video game industry news, previews, reviews, features, and videos as well as translated articles from the other "GameSpot" sites.


title: GameSpot

text: Jeff Gerstmann, editorial director of the site, was fired on November 28, 2007. Immediately after his termination, rumors circulated proclaiming his dismissal was a result of external pressure from Eidos Interactive, the publisher of "", which had purchased a considerable amount of advertising space on "GameSpot"s website. Gerstmann had previously given "Kane & Lynch" a fair or undesirable rating along with critique. Both "GameSpot" and parent company CNET stated that his dismissal was unrelated to the review, but due to corporate and legal constraints could not reveal the reason. A month after Gerstmann's termination, freelance reviewer Frank Provo left "GameSpot" after eight years, stating that "I believe CNET management let Jeff go for all the wrong reasons. I believe CNET intends to soften the site's tone and push for higher scores to make advertisers happy."


title: GameSpot

text: "GameSpot" staffers Alex Navarro, Ryan Davis, Brad Shoemaker, and Vinny Caravella also left as a result of Gerstmann's termination. Davis co-founded Gerstmann's subsequent project, Giant Bomb, and was later joined by Shoemaker and Caravella. Navarro became the community manager at Harmonix and in 2010 joined with Whiskey Media, a family of sites that includes Gerstmann's Giant Bomb site, to be part of their new site screened.com, focusing on cinema and television. Navarro later returned to Giant Bomb, where he worked as a senior editor.


title: GameSpot

text: On March 15, 2012, it was announced that CBS Interactive, the parent company of "GameSpot" operator CNET, had acquired the Giant Bomb and Comic Vine websites from Whiskey Media. As part of the deal, the non-disclosure agreement between Gerstmann and CNET was nullified, allowing him to finally speak publicly about his termination over four years prior. Later that evening on "GameSpot"s "On the Spot" web show, "GameSpot" VP John Davison appeared on camera with Gerstmann, marking Gerstmann's first appearance on the "GameSpot" website since November 2007. In the segment, Gerstmann revealed that his firing was in fact related to the low review score he had given to "Kane & Lynch", though his explanation cited other similar events that led up to the termination, including a 7.5 (good) rating given to "" by Aaron Thomas, then an employee under Gerstmann.


title: GameSpot

text: "GameSpot"s forums were originally run by ZDNet, and later by Lithium. "GameSpot" uses a semi-automated moderation system with numerous volunteer moderators. "GameSpot" moderators are picked by paid "GameSpot" staff from members of the "GameSpot" user community. Due to the size and massive quantity of boards and posts on "GameSpot", there is a "report" feature where a normal user can report a violation post to an unpaid moderator volunteer. The ostensible purpose of the reporting feature is to deal more quickly with violations of the website's posting policy. "GameSpot"s ToS states that users must be aged 13 or older to post content and maintain an account. Proof of a user's age when he/she creates an account is not required. Proof of a moderator's age is also not required. All users must agree to "GameSpot"s ToS (terms of service) during registration. "GameSpot"s ToS (as they apply to the community forums) give moderators the power to use their own discretion when deciding if a posting violation has occurred.


title: GameSpot

text: In addition to the message board system, "GameSpot" has expanded its community through the addition of features such as user blogs (formerly known as "journals") and user video blogs. Users can track other users, thus allowing them to see updates for their favorite blogs. If both users track each other, they are listed on each other's friends list.


title: GameSpot

text: "GameSpot" formerly had a paid subscription service known as "GameSpot Complete". On February 21, 2006, the paid subscription model was changed. It now maintains two paid membership services: Total Access and Plus.


title: GameSpot

text: Total Access is essentially a replacement of GameSpot Complete, as it is the same price of US$5.95 per month or $39.95 per year and offers the same basic benefits. The second premium service, GameSpot Plus, is a cheaper, intermediate-level service.


title: GameSpot

text: On January 9, 2013, it was announced that the Paid Subscription model would no longer be accepting new subscribers, and current subscribers would not be able to renew after January 31, 2013.


title: Tatanka (wrestler)

text: Chris Chavis (born June 8, 1961) is an American retired professional wrestler currently signed to WWE under a legends contract. He is part of the Lumbee tribe. He is best known for his work with the World Wrestling Federation (later known as World Wrestling Entertainment) under the ring name Tatanka from 1991 to 1996 and 2005 to 2007. His ring name is a Lakota word, which means "bison".


title: Tatanka (wrestler)

text: Chavis started competing in powerlifting. He competed in his first bodybuilding contest, Mr. Virginia Beach, placing second. He won many competitions during his time in bodybuilding, but decided against competing on the national level and possibly turning pro. From 1985 to 1990 he worked for Bally's Health and Tennis Corporation, becoming a divisional manager.


title: Tatanka (wrestler)

text: Chavis went to the open try outs during the 1987 strikes for the Miami Dolphins and made the cut, but he turned it down due to the lucrative money he was already making selling memberships at Bally's Health Club.


title: Tatanka (wrestler)

text: In 1989, Chavis left Bally's to pursue an accounting career. He met "Nature Boy" Buddy Rogers in Florida at a video store while looking for wrestling tapes. Rogers had Chavis call Larry Sharpe, who ran The Monster Factory in southern New Jersey. He had his first match, as Tatanka, against Joe Thunder in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on January 13, 1990.


title: Tatanka (wrestler)

text: Rogers introduced Chavis to George Scott, the booker for the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) during the 1980s. Scott was starting his own promotion called the North American Wrestling Association, later known as South Atlantic Pro Wrestling. Chavis wrestled under the name "The War Eagle" Chris Chavis and was voted third runner up for Rookie of the Year in "Pro Wrestling Illustrated" for 1990. Also in 1990, he became the South Atlantic Heavyweight Champion by beating Ken Shamrock (then wrestling as Vince Torelli). Not long after, he was signed to a WWF contract.


title: Tatanka (wrestler)

text: Chavis received his first tryout match with the WWF on January 8, 1991 against Dale Wolfe at a "WWF Wrestling Challenge" taping in Chattanooga, TN. He received a second tryout on February 18, 1991 against the Brooklyn Brawler at a "WWF Superstars" taping in Orlando, Florida. Wrestling as the War Eagle, Chavis was victorious. He followed it up with another win against Dale Wolfe the next day at a "Wrestling Challenge" taping. On October 21 he received what was likely another tryout match at a "Superstars" taping, this time defeating Skinner. In November Chavis began wrestling on house shows under his given name. Soon after, he took on the ring name "Tatanka". After wrestling in tryout matches at house shows, Tatanka made his television debut as a fan favorite on the February 1, 1992 episode of "Superstars", defeating Pat Tanaka in his debut match. As Tatanka, Chavis performed a war dance to the Lumbee tribal war cry that preceded his entrance to the ring, and had a red stripe dyed in the middle of his hair.


title: Tatanka (wrestler)

text: Tatanka was pushed as undefeated on WWF television; he did not suffer any defeat by pinfall or submission, but he lost several matches at house shows, the first being a countout loss to Rick Martel on June 4, 1992 in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Tatanka's earliest rivalry on television was against Martel; it culminated in Tatanka's pay-per-view debut at WrestleMania VIII with Tatanka winning the match. On May 18, 1992, Tatanka reached the peak of his success by winning the 40-man "Bashed in the USA" battle royal. He renewed his "feud" with Martel, who had stolen sacred eagle feathers from him to add to his wardrobe, going on to defeat Martel again at Survivor Series to reclaim the feathers.


title: Tatanka (wrestler)

text: At WrestleMania IX, Tatanka received his first televised title shot in the WWF, against Shawn Michaels for the WWF Intercontinental Championship. Tatanka won the match by countout. Since a title could not change hands on a countout, Michaels retained the title. On the October 30, 1993 edition of "Superstars", Tatanka suffered his first televised defeat in the WWF, losing to Ludvig Borga (Borga had hit Tatanka in the back with a steel chair while Mr. Fuji distracted the referee). After the match, he was attacked by WWF champion Yokozuna and was subsequently out of action for three months. Tatanka returned to the WWF in the beginning of 1994. He was scheduled to face Borga in a rematch at the Royal Rumble, but Borga injured his ankle just days before the event. Borga was replaced by Bam Bam Bigelow, who Tatanka defeated. Bigelow, however, would go on to eliminate Tatanka from the 30-man Royal Rumble match.


title: Tatanka (wrestler)

text: Tatanka was honored by retired professional wrestlers Chief Jay Strongbow and Chief Wahoo McDaniel and by Lumbee tribesman Ray Littleturtle on an edition of "Raw." Littleturtle presented him with a full-length Lumbee tribe chief headdress. Tatanka engaged in a storyline feud with Irwin R. Schyster, who insisted he pay a gift tax on the item. Strongbow briefly served as Tatanka's mentor and manager during the duration of the feud.


title: Tatanka (wrestler)

text: During the summer of 1994, Tatanka accused Lex Luger of selling out to Ted DiBiase, which resulted in a match between the two. Afterward, DiBiase entered the ring with a red, white and blue bag full of money. Luger kicked the bag out of DiBiase's hands resulting in Tatanka attacking him and turning him into a villain at SummerSlam, joining DiBiase's Million Dollar Corporation. He spent the remainder of the year feuding with Luger which topped off in a cage match on "Raw" that saw Luger come out the victor.


title: Tatanka (wrestler)

text: In spring 1995, Tatanka had another feud with Bam Bam Bigelow, who just turned face. As a result, he teamed with Sycho Sid at the King of the Ring pay-per-view to lose to Bigelow and Diesel.


title: Tatanka (wrestler)

text: Tatanka was suspended on August 30, reportedly as a preemptive measure for being named in a lawsuit to be filed by a woman stemming from an incident in Anaheim, California, following a WWF event in late 1994. According to sources, the woman was said to have been drugged, sodomized and her head shaved on only one side. Kevin Nash reiterated this story in an interview with Kayfabe Commentaries. The woman was having drinks with him and Undertaker the night prior. When the wrestlers were leaving the hotel the following morning, Nash noticed that she was seated in between two police officers. The hallway was smeared in blood. She had half her head shaven as she was crying, reporting the incident to the officers. In the interview, however, Nash presumed the person who did this was Jimmy Del Ray because of similar stories of Del Ray. During representation by Tatanka's attorney the facts showed that Tatanka was not involved in the incident at all and Del Ray was fired from the company; Tatanka's suspension was lifted and he returned with full-pay to the active WWF roster. As Nash noted in his interview, he knew that Tatanka was not involved at all, but he had been around Del Ray that night, which caused Tatanka to also be named and unfairly suspended.


title: Tatanka (wrestler)

text: Following this hiatus at the end of August 1995, Tatanka returned to the WWF to compete in the Royal Rumble event, where he was eliminated by Diesel.


title: Tatanka (wrestler)

text: On March 19, 1996, Tatanka wrestled his final televised match in the WWF, losing to the WWF champion Bret Hart in a non-title match. Tatanka left the WWF in the spring of 1996, citing family and spiritual issues. He continued to appear for independent promotions, which allowed him to continue to wrestle while maintaining a lighter schedule.


title: Tatanka (wrestler)

text: In 1997, Chavis wrestled for the independent New York-based promotion Ultimate Championship Wrestling (UCW), where he wrestled Bruce Hart of the Hart wrestling family, King Kong Bundy, Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart and Marty Jannetty. He went from playing the role of a face to a heel when he turned on Falcon Coperis and Tommy Cairo to align himself with the likes of the UWF faction of the organization which included Neidhart, Hart, and eventually Jannetty. Chavis captured the UCW Heavyweight Championship title and handed then-champion Falcon Coperis his first championship defeat. Chavis remained champion until the organization folded its professional wrestling division in 1998.


title: Tatanka (wrestler)

text: On August 1, 2005, Chavis returned to "Raw" as a face once again which was intended to be a special one-time appearance to face Eugene in the "Eugene Invitational", a three-minute match with Kurt Angle's Olympic gold medal on the line. Tatanka lost the match when Angle attacked Eugene with 27 seconds remaining, causing a disqualification.


title: Tatanka (wrestler)

text: Chavis returned to a full-time schedule for WWE at the tail end of 2005, debuting at a December 27 house show, teaming with Shelton Benjamin in a win over Carlito and Jonathan Coachman. He returned to television in the Royal Rumble match at the January 2006 event, where he was eliminated by Joey Mercury and Johnny Nitro. The next month he began appearing on "Velocity" before being moved full-time to the SmackDown! brand.


title: Tatanka (wrestler)

text: As a face, Chavis teamed with Matt Hardy to defeat MNM, the then-Tag Team Champions, in a non-title match at No Way Out. They were granted a title shot on the next edition of "SmackDown!", but lost. On the April 28 "SmackDown!" a vignette played announcing that "a new warrior would soon be forged in Tatanka". Over the next three weeks footage aired of Tatanka being (legitimately) adopted into the Oglala Sioux Tribe (Lakota). When he returned to wrestling Tatanka defeated Simon Dean with his new finisher, "Wakinyan" (from the Lakota word for "Thunder").


title: Tatanka (wrestler)

text: On the September 1, 2006 episode of "SmackDown!", he lost to The Miz in Miz's debut match, and would later lose a rematch to Miz as well. Tatanka engaged in a mini-feud with Sylvain Grenier, trading victories with him, before he was moved into an angle where he entered into a losing streak due to what he perceived to be bad decision-making by referees during his matches, especially Charles Robinson. This escalated until the October 27 "SmackDown!" when Tatanka, alongside partner Bobby Lashley, lost a match to William Regal and Dave Taylor when Regal pinned Tatanka by illegally using the ropes (during the pin Dave Taylor got his hands in the last second). After the match Tatanka argued the decision again, then he turned heel by attacking the referee and then Lashley when he tried to calm him down. The next week he appeared on "SmackDown!" with a new style of warpaint, covering the top of his face in black and the bottom in white, and cut a promo on Lashley saying he owed neither him nor the crowd an explanation for his actions. He compared his recent losing streak to the years of persecution that his people had suffered over the years and said that he "called upon his forefathers to unleash a new warrior in [him]" and also said if Lashley went to war with [me] or war with a whole nation of warriors. He asked for and was released from his WWE contract on January 19, 2007, but not before ending his losing streak by defeating Jimmy Wang Yang, his first victory in months. WWE.com noted this event with these parting words: "Tatanka is an accomplished veteran of the squared circle. The Native American made a splash upon his entrance to the WWE in the early 90s, remaining undefeated for two years." Tatanka stated on his official website that he requested to be released and mentioned he was not done with WWE as he would like to return someday.


title: Tatanka (wrestler)

text: In 2008 Tatanka toured Ireland and France with the American Wrestling Rampage tour. He also wrestled for All Star Promotions in the United Kingdom. He competed in All Star and American Wrestling between August 29 to October 31, 2008 in the Tower Circus area of Blackpool Tower.


title: Tatanka (wrestler)

text: Tatanka made an appearance in Danish Pro Wrestling (DPW) and lost to Chaos after he was hit by a DDT. He was given a standing ovation after the match.


title: Tatanka (wrestler)

text: Tatanka appeared in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling on the December 17, 2009 episode of Impact where he defeated Jay Lethal in a Black Machismo Invitational Match with an End of the Trail.


title: Tatanka (wrestler)

text: Tatanka also made headlines in Scotland while appearing for Scottish Wrestling Entertainment, renewing his partnership with the Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase in Dundee. Tatanka was due to return to Scotland to wrestle for the SWE at the Dewars Centre in Perth on August 25, 2012.


title: Tatanka (wrestler)

text: On August 8, 2012, Chikara announced that Tatanka would be making his debut for the promotion in the following month's 2012 King of Trios tournament, where he will team with the 1-2-3 Kid and Aldo Montoya as "Team WWF". In their first round match on September 14, Team WWF was defeated by The Extreme Trio (Jerry Lynn, Tommy Dreamer and Too Cold Scorpio). The following day, Tatanka defeated Sugar Dunkerton in a singles match.


title: Tatanka (wrestler)

text: Tatanka made another appearance in Danish Pro Wrestling (DPW) and defeated Chaos after hitting Wykea after a long and enduring match. He was given a standing ovation once again.


title: Tatanka (wrestler)

text: He also wrestled in Germany in June 2013 for ACW (Athletik Club Wrestling) and GHW (German Hurricane Wrestling).


title: Tatanka (wrestler)

text: On May 2, 2014, Tatanka won the DPW Tag Team Championship along with Rick "The Prick" Dominick. They lost the titles on October 18, 2014, to Ravn and Demolition Davies.


title: Tatanka (wrestler)

text: Tatanka made an appearance on the "Old School Raw" on November 15, 2010 backstage along with Ron Simmons, Dusty Rhodes, IRS, and The "Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase.


title: Tatanka (wrestler)

text: On November 3, 2015, WWE announced that they signed Tatanka to a Legends contract. On April 3, 2016 at WrestleMania 32, Tatanka competed in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal as a face and was among the last to be eliminated.


title: Tatanka (wrestler)

text: On January 4, 2021, Tatanka, in full ring gear made an appearance for a special episode of Raw called "Raw Legends Night".


title: Tatanka (wrestler)

text: Chavis and his wife, Michelle, have four children; daughters Christiana Mariah (born 1996) and Rhea Aiyana (born 2002) and sons Joseph Tatanka (born March 6, 2004) and Jeremiah Chris (born 2009). They live in Spring Hill, Florida. Chavis was previously married to Dawn Doyle on Valentines Day in 1989 in Hampton, Virginia. He has a younger brother, Sean Chavis, who is currently serving in the U.S. Navy as a chief air traffic controller.


title: Tatanka (wrestler)

text: Tatanka is a playable character in "WWF Royal Rumble" and "WWF Rage in the Cage". He is in the "WWE 2K17" video game as DLC. He also appears in "WWE 2K18" and "WWE 2K19" as a playable character.


title: Syzygy (astronomy)

text: In astronomy, a syzygy ( ; ) is a roughly straight-line configuration of three or more celestial bodies in a gravitational system.


title: Syzygy (astronomy)

text: The word is often used in reference to the Sun, Earth, and either the Moon or a planet, where the latter is in conjunction or opposition. Solar and lunar eclipses occur at times of syzygy, as do transits and occultations. The term is


title: Syzygy (astronomy)

text: The word "syzygy" is often used to describe interesting configurations of astronomical objects in general. For example, one such case occurred on March 21, 1894, around 23:00 GMT, when Mercury transited the Sun as would have been seen from Venus, and Mercury and Venus both simultaneously transited the Sun as seen from Saturn. It is also used to describe situations when all the planets are on the same side of the Sun although they are "not necessarily in a straight line", such as on March 10, 1982.


title: Syzygy (astronomy)

text: On June 3, 2014, the "Curiosity" rover on Mars observed the planet Mercury transiting the Sun, marking the first time a planetary transit has been observed from a celestial body besides Earth.


title: Syzygy (astronomy)

text: Transits and occultations of the Sun by Earth's Moon are called solar eclipses regardless of whether the Sun is completely or partially covered. By extension, transits of the Sun by a satellite of a planet may also be called eclipses, as with the transits of Phobos and Deimos shown on NASA's JPL photojournal, as may the passage of a satellite into the planet's shadow, as with this eclipse of Phobos. The term "eclipse" is also used more generally for bodies passing in front of one another. For example, a NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day refers to the Moon eclipsing and occulting Saturn interchangeably.


title: Syzygy (astronomy)

text: As electromagnetic rays are somewhat bent by gravitation, when they pass by a heavy mass they are bent. Thus, the heavy mass acts as a form of gravitational lens. If the light source, the gravitating mass and the observer stand in a line, one sees what is termed an Einstein ring.


title: Syzygy (astronomy)

text: Syzygy causes the bimonthly phenomena of spring and neap tides. At the new and full moon, the Sun and Moon are in syzygy. Their tidal forces act to reinforce each other, and the ocean both rises higher and falls lower than the average. Conversely, at the first and third quarter, the Sun and Moon are at right angles, their tidal forces counteract each other, and the tidal range is smaller than average. Tidal variations can also be measured in the Earth's crust, and these tidal influences may affect the frequency of earthquakes.


title: Capital punishment for homosexuality

text: Capital punishment as a criminal punishment for homosexuality has been implemented by a number of countries in their history. It currently remains a legal punishment in several countries and regions, all of which have sharia-based criminal laws. Gay people also face extrajudicial killings by state and non-state actors, as in Chechnya in 2019, though it is denied by the Chechen authorities and Russia.


title: Capital punishment for homosexuality

text: Imposition of the death penalty for homosexuality may be classified as judicial murder of gay people, which has been analyzed as a form of genocide.


title: Capital punishment for homosexuality

text: In some regions, gay people have been murdered by Islamist militias and terrorist groups, such as Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in parts of Iraq, Libya, and Syria, the Houthi movement in Yemen and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.


title: Capital punishment for homosexuality

text: In February 2016 Hamas, which controls the Palestinian National Authority and rules Gaza, executed by firing squad Mahmoud Ishtiwi—one of the group's leading commanders—for homosexual activity.


title: Capital punishment for homosexuality

text: Anti-gay purges in the Chechen Republic, a predominantly Muslim region of Russia, have included forced disappearances—secret abductions, imprisonment, and torture—by local Chechen authorities targeting persons based on their perceived sexual orientation. Of 100 men, who authorities detained on suspicion of being gay or bisexual, three have reportedly died after being held in what human rights groups and eyewitnesses have called concentration camps.


title: Capital punishment for homosexuality

text: Extrajudicial killings have occurred in Iraq. Cases include abductions, torture, rape and murder by vigilante mobs, millitia and perpetrators. LGBT people living in fear of their lives, campaigners Human Rights Watch (HRW) and IraQueer found. HRW's LGBT rights researcher Rasha Younes said: "LGBT Iraqis live in constant fear of being hunted down and killed by armed groups with impunity, as well as arrest and violence by Iraqi police, making their lives unliveable."


title: Capital punishment for homosexuality

text: Report of vigilante executions, attacks, beatings, and torture have been reported in heavily Christian and Muslim regions of Africa, in countries such as Algeria, Uganda, South Africa, Kenya, Liberia, Ghana, Cameroon, and Senegal. In these countries, police turn a blind eye or even are complicit in the anti-gay violence.


title: Capital punishment for homosexuality

text: Australian states and territories first passed laws against homosexuality during the colonial era, and nineteenth-century colonial parliaments retained provisions which made homosexual activity a capital offence until 1861. Most jurisdictions removed capital punishment as a sentence for homosexual activity, although in Victoria it remained as such when committed while also inflicting bodily harm or to a person younger than the age of fourteen until 1949. The last person arrested for homosexual sex in Australia was a man in 1984 in Tasmania. The last part of Australia to legalise consensual homosexual sex between adults was Tasmania in 1997. In 2017, same-sex marriage was legalised by the Australian government.


title: Capital punishment for homosexuality

text: Of the seven men in Australian history known to have been executed for sodomy, six cases involved the sexual abuse of minors; only one of the seven cases was for consensual acts between adults. In that sole case, Alexander Browne was hanged at Sydney on 22 December 1828 for sodomy with his shipmate William Lyster on the whaler "Royal Sovereign"; Lyster was also convicted and sentenced to death, but his sentence was commuted before execution. Joseph Fogg was hanged at Hobart on 24 February 1830 for an "unnamed crime", also described in one source as an "abominable crime". The exact nature of his crime is unclear; while likely a same-sex sexual offence given the labels applied ('unnamed', 'abominable'), it too may not have been for consensual acts, but for same-sex rape, or abuse of a minor.


title: Capital punishment for homosexuality

text: During the period of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945, homosexual men were persecuted with thousands being imprisoned in concentration camps (and eventually extermination camps) by the Nazi regime. Roughly 5,000–15,000 were sent to the concentration camps, with the death rate being estimated to be as high as 60%. Homosexuals in the camps suffered an unusual degree of cruelty by their captors, including being used as target practice on shooting ranges.


title: Capital punishment for homosexuality

text: In a 1937 speech, Himmler argued that SS men who had served sentences for homosexuality should be transferred to a concentration camp and shot when trying to escape. This policy was never implemented, and some SS men were acquitted on homosexuality charges despite evidence against them. A few death sentences against SS men for homosexual acts were pronounced between 1937 and 1940. In a speech on 18 August 1941, Hitler argued that homosexuality should be combatted throughout Nazi organizations and the military. In particular, homosexuality in the Hitler Youth must be punished by death in order to protect youth from being turned into homosexuals, however the Hitler Youth never implemented this policy.


title: Capital punishment for homosexuality

text: After learning of Hitler's remark, Himmler decided that the SS must be at least as tough on homosexuality and drafted a decree mandating the death penalty to any member of the SS and police found guilty of engaging in a homosexual act. Hitler signed the decree on 15 November 1941 on the condition that there be absolutely no publicity, worried that such a harsh decree might lend fuel to left-wing propaganda that homosexuality was especially prevalent in Germany. Since it could not be published in the SS newspaper, the decree was communicated to SS men one-on-one by their superiors. However, this was not done consistently and many arrested men asserted that they had no knowledge of the decree.


title: Capital punishment for homosexuality

text: Even after the decree, only a few death sentences were pronounced. Himmler often commuted the sentence especially if he thought that the accused was not a committed homosexual, but had suffered a one-time mistake (particularly while drunk). Many of those whose sentence was commuted were sent to serve in the Dirlewanger Brigade, a penal unit on the Eastern Front, where most were killed. After late 1943, because of military losses, it was the policy to recycle SS men convicted of homosexuality into the Wehrmacht.


title: Capital punishment for homosexuality

text: The 1933 law on habitual criminals also allowed for execution after the third conviction. On 4 September 1941 a new law allowed the execution of dangerous sex offenders or habitual criminals when "the protection of the "Volksgemeinschaft" or the need for just atonement require it". This law enabled authorities to pronounce death sentences against homosexuals, and is known to have been employed in four cases in Austria. In 1943, Wilhelm Keitel, head of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, authorized the death penalty for soldiers convicted of homosexuality in "particularly serious cases". Only a few executions of homosexual Wehrmacht soldiers are known, mostly in conjunction with other charges especially desertion. Some homosexuals were executed at Nazi euthanasia centers, such as Bernburg or Meseritz-Obrawalde. It is difficult to estimate the number of homosexuals directly killed during the Nazi era.


title: Capital punishment for homosexuality

text: From 1533, under the Buggery Act 1533, capital felony for any person to "commit the detestable and abominable vice of buggery with mankind or beast", was enacted, repealed and re-enacted several times by the Crown, until it was reinstated permanently in 1563. Homosexual activity remained a capital offence until 1861. The last execution took place on 27 November 1835 when James Pratt and John Smith were hanged outside Newgate Prison in London.


title: Capital punishment for homosexuality

text: During the colonial era of American history, the various European nations which established colonies in the Americas brought their pre-existing laws against homosexuality (which included capital punishment) with them. The establishment of the United States after their victory in the Revolutionary War did not bring about any changes in the status of capital punishment as a sentence for being convicted of homosexual behavior. Beginning in the 19th century, the various state legislatures passed legislation which ended the status of capital punishment being used for those who were convicted of homosexual behavior. South Carolina was the last state, in 1873, to repeal the death penalty for homosexual behaviour from its statute books. The number of times the penalty was carried out is unknown. Records show there were at least two executions, and a number of more convictions with vague labels, such as "crimes against nature".


title: Capital punishment for homosexuality

text: In July 2020, the sodomy law that previously punished gay men with up to 100 lashes for the first offence, five years in jail for the second and the death penalty the third time around was abolished, with new legislation reducing the penalty to prison terms ranging from five years to life. Sudanese LGBT+ activists hailed the reform as a 'great first step', but said it was not enough yet, and the end goal should be the decriminalisation of same-sex sexual activity altogether.


title: Appen (company)

text: Appen Limited (formerly known as Appen Butler Hill) is a publicly traded data company listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) under the code APX.


title: Appen (company)

text: Appen provides or improves data used for the development of machine learning and artificial intelligence products. Data types include speech and natural language data, image and video data, text and alphanumeric data and relevance data to improve search and social media engines.


title: Appen (company)

text: The company's global headquarters is in Chatswood, New South Wales, 10 kilometres north of the central business district of Sydney, Australia. The United States headquarters is in Kirkland, Washington, a suburb of Seattle, and there are also US offices in San Francisco, California and Detroit, Michigan. Appen also has offices in Beijing, China; Cavite, Philippines; Exeter, England; and Tokyo, Japan.


title: Appen (company)

text: At the end of 2017, revenues were AUD 166.6 million and the company had more than 350 full-time employees and over 1,000,000 approved flexible workers in the Appen crowd. Tasks are performed in more than 180 languages and 130 countries.


title: Appen (company)

text: Most of the company's revenues are earned offshore and clients include eight of the top ten largest technology companies.


title: Appen (company)

text: Appen's customers use machine learning for a variety of use cases including automatic speech recognition (ASR), computer vision, increasing conversions in eCommerce, delivering more meaningful and personalized advertising, enhancing social media feeds or improving customer service capabilities with tools like chatbots and virtual assistants.


title: Appen (company)

text: For machines to demonstrate artificial intelligence, they need to be programmed with human-quality training data that helps them learn. Appen uses crowdsourcing to collect and improve data and has access to a skilled crowd of over than 1 million part-time contractors who collect, annotate, evaluate, label, rate, test, translate and transcribe speech, image, text and video data to turn it into effective machine learning training data for a variety of use cases.


title: Appen (company)

text: Appen was founded in Sydney in 1996 by linguist Dr. Julie Vonwiller. She was joined by her husband Chris Vonwiller who left his job at Telstra in 2000 to join Appen full-time and is currently Non-Executive Chairman of Appen.


title: Appen (company)

text: In 2011, Appen merged with the Butler Hill Group, which was based in Ridgefield, Connecticut and Seattle, Washington and originally founded by Lisa Braden-Harder in 1993. Lisa was a member of the pioneering team in grammar checking technology at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center before the Butler Hill Group and stayed on as CEO until 2015. After the merger, the combined business became Appen Butler Hill and expanded its business scope to include language resources, search and text.


title: Appen (company)

text: In 2012, Appen acquired Wikman Remer, a firm based in San Rafael, California, which developed tools and platforms for employee engagement, online moderation and curation.


title: Appen (company)

text: Appen Butler Hill was re-branded as Appen in 2013, and it went public on the ASX on January 7, 2015, led by Lisa Braden-Harder.


title: Appen (company)

text: In October 2016 Appen acquired a UK based transcription services company called Mendip Media Group (MMG)


title: Appen (company)

text: Appen also acquired Leapforce in November 2017 for U.S. $80M, adding additional capabilities in search relevance and growing its crowd to over 1,000,000 workers.


title: Appen (company)

text: Appen acquired data annotation company called Leapforce in 2017. Appen acquired Figure Eight in 2019.


title: Appen (company)

text: In 2021,Appen announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Quadrant, a global leader in mobile location data, Point-of-Interest data, and corresponding compliance services.


title: The Time of the Doctor

text: "The Time of the Doctor" is an episode of the British science fiction television programme "Doctor Who", written by Steven Moffat and directed by Jamie Payne, and was broadcast as the ninth "Doctor Who" Christmas special on 25 December 2013 on BBC One. It features the final regular appearance of Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor and the first full appearance of Peter Capaldi as the Twelfth Doctor following his brief cameo in the previous episode "The Day of the Doctor". The episode also features Jenna Coleman as the Doctor's companion Clara Oswald, plus several enemies of the Doctor, including the Daleks, Cybermen, Silence and Weeping Angels.


title: The Time of the Doctor

text: The episode addresses numerous plot threads developed over the course of Smith's tenure, including the prophecy of the Silence, cracks in the universe, and the Doctor's fate on the planet Trenzalore, while also dealing with the regeneration limit established in the 1976 serial "The Deadly Assassin". "The Time of the Doctor" is Smith's fourth and final Christmas special as the Eleventh Doctor.


title: The Time of the Doctor

text: Thousands of aliens orbit the planet Trenzalore, from which a message is continually being broadcast across time and space. The Church of the Papal Mainframe constructs a force field around Trenzalore. The Eleventh Doctor and Clara are offered the opportunity to explore to find the source of the message on the planet by the church's head, Tasha Lem.


title: The Time of the Doctor

text: They discover the message is coming from a human settlement called Christmas. The message originates from a crack in reality in the clock tower and is being sent by the Doctor's people: the Time Lords. The Doctor deduces the Time Lords are trying to escape the pocket universe they are in and want the Doctor to announce his name as a sign that it is safe to emerge. A stalemate is in place; the other aliens cannot attack at the risk of the Doctor letting the Time Lords out, while the Doctor cannot risk abandoning Trenzalore as most of the forces in orbit will burn it to stop the Time Lords' return.


title: The Time of the Doctor

text: The Doctor tricks Clara into being returned to Earth. Clara jumps onto the TARDIS before it returns to the Doctor, arriving 300 years later. The Doctor reveals to her that his body has no further regenerations left, and that he is prepared to die defending Trenzalore. The two discover that in the intervening time, the Papal Mainframe have renamed themselves the Church of the Silence, and that a chapter of the Silence broke off to try to interfere with the Doctor's life, which includes them unwittingly creating the crack in the tower. After rescuing Tasha Lem from the Daleks, the Doctor tricks Clara again into being returned to Earth. As even more centuries pass, the Daleks remain the only aggressors against the Doctor and the dwindling forces of the Silence. Tasha eventually brings Clara back to Trenzalore as the siege finally comes to a conclusion. The Doctor is dying of old age and cannot stop the Daleks' attack. After saying goodbye to Clara, he goes out to the top of the tower to face his enemies.


title: The Time of the Doctor

text: Clara speaks to the Time Lords through the crack, begging them to help the Doctor. The crack in the tower closes and reappears in the night sky. Regeneration energy flows from the crack and into the Doctor, granting him a new regeneration cycle. The Doctor uses the excess energy of his regeneration to destroy the Daleks, while the crack closes, ending the stalemate. In the aftermath, the Doctor sets the TARDIS in motion, and finishes regenerating. The Twelfth Doctor finds the TARDIS is crashing while Clara looks on in confusion.


title: The Time of the Doctor

text: Actor Matt Smith said filming would commence on the episode when he had finished work on the film "Lost River". He later revealed filming would start in September. The episode was directed by Jamie Payne, who previously directed the episode "Hide". The read-through for the Christmas special took place on 4 September 2013.


title: The Time of the Doctor

text: In August 2013, lead writer Steven Moffat stated in an interview that the Christmas episode would tie together the remaining story strands from the Eleventh Doctor era, some of which were introduced as far back as "The Eleventh Hour". Production on the episode was scheduled to start on 8 September. Owing to his work on "Lost River", which required him to have a buzz cut, Matt Smith had to wear a wig to mimic the Doctor's signature hairstyle. In August 2013, it was revealed that the Cybermen would feature in the Christmas episode, when one of the show's regular stunt artists, Darrelle "Daz" Parker, tweeted that she would be playing a Cyberman.


title: The Time of the Doctor

text: Sheila Reid had previously appeared in "Vengeance on Varos" in 1985. Elizabeth Rider had voiced the evil satnav system ATMOS in "The Sontaran Stratagem" in 2008; and Lady Ellen in "The Sarah Jane Adventures" episode "Lost in Time" in 2010. Karen Gillan appeared as Amy Pond for the first time since "The Angels Take Manhattan". Gillan, like Smith, had to wear a wig (in her case, made from her own hair) after shaving her head to appear in the film "Guardians of the Galaxy".


title: The Time of the Doctor

text: On 1 June 2013, the BBC announced that Smith would be departing the series after almost four years, with the Christmas special episode being the episode of transition between Smith's Doctor and the next regeneration. The announcement sparked media and fan speculation as to who the next Doctor might be. It was announced on 4 August 2013, during a special broadcast – "Doctor Who Live: The Next Doctor" – that the twelfth incarnation of the Doctor would be played by Peter Capaldi.


title: The Time of the Doctor

text: Filming for the episode began on 8 September 2013. On 10 September, Smith and Jenna Coleman were seen filming on location in Cardiff. The location was Lydstep Flats, which had been previously used in Series 1 as the Powell Estate where Rose Tyler lived with her mother Jackie. On 19 September 2013, scenes were being filmed in the evening at Puzzlewood with fake snow being scattered over certain areas. During shooting of the episode, elements were also filmed to be incorporated in both the previous and following episodes; Matt Smith also filmed a scene intended to be incorporated into the first episode of Series 8, while Peter Capaldi was filmed for his brief introductory cameo that was part of "The Day of the Doctor". On 5 October 2013, "Doctor Who" producer Marcus Wilson revealed via Twitter that filming was complete.


title: The Time of the Doctor

text: A sneak preview for the episode was shown after the simulcast of "The Day of the Doctor", confirming the appearance of the Cybermen and revealing the inclusion of the Silence, Daleks, Sontarans and Weeping Angels, as well as confirming the Doctor's return to the planet Trenzalore. The title and a poster were released on 26 November. In the BBC Christmas 2013 trailer, there were clips confirming the Daleks and the Cybermen. Through the online "Doctor Who" "Adventure Calendar", more images were released in December. On 11 December, the BBC released a 35-second trailer in which the Daleks pronounce "The Doctor is Regenerating!" There was also the Silence, Cybermen, Clara and the Doctor featured in the clip. On 17 December 2013, BBC One released another Christmas trailer, featuring Clara calling the Doctor during a Cyberman attack on the TARDIS. Prior to the episode's broadcast, the BBC released three preview clips.


title: The Time of the Doctor

text: "The Time of the Doctor" was broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on Christmas Day 2013 when it received initial overnight ratings of 8.30 million viewers (30.7% share) against the long-running soap opera "Coronation Street" which got 7.9 million viewers (though this was later bumped to 8.27 million after the later repeat showing on ITV+1 was factored in). "The Time of the Doctor" was the second most watched programme of the entire day across all channels, with the final 5 minutes (the regeneration from Smith to Capaldi) receiving the largest peak viewers of the day with 10.2 million. The final viewing figures for the episode were 11.14 million viewers, making it the fifth most watched Doctor Who Christmas special. It was also shown on 25 December in the United States on BBC America, where, with 2.47m viewers, it achieved the highest ever audience figures for the channel, beating the previous record set just over a month beforehand with "The Day of the Doctor".


title: The Time of the Doctor

text: It was also seen in Canada on Space. In Australia it aired on 26 December on ABC1, and in New Zealand, it screened on Prime Television during Boxing Day evening with 106,390 viewers. It received an Appreciation Index of 83 in the UK.


title: The Time of the Doctor

text: "The Time of the Doctor" received positive reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes gave the episode an approval rating of 88%, based on 16 critics, and an average score of 8.2/10. The website's critical consensus reads, ""Doctor Who: The Time of the Doctor" is a wistful swan song for Matt Smith, who gives such a graceful bow that he secures his place as one of the most essential Time Lords." Dan Martin of "The Guardian" praised the episode as "awfully good". He wrote that Steven Moffat had "performed the fourth remix of the show's mythology in a row, tying up strands that date back to the beginning of Matt Smith's run." He added, "Perfectly, the rebooting of his regeneration cycle was done simply... Who could have guessed the Doctor's renewed regeneration cycle would be dealt with as simply as his best friend just asking nicely?" Mark Snow of "IGN" gave the episode a score of 8.4, "GREAT", writing that "'The Time of the Doctor' was an exemplary exercise in celebrating the departure of a loved one. If you managed to stay dry-eyed during the Doctor's goodbye to Clara (itself a not-entirely-transparent goodbye from Smith to the role he embodied), then you should probably double check your heart's still working," also lauding Karen Gillan's "rather crowd-pleasing, tear-inducing cameo". While criticising its "rapid, almost breathless pace", he concluded, "It was a melancholic yet ultimately merry end to one of the show's best Doctors to date."


title: The Time of the Doctor

text: Robert Lloyd of the "Los Angeles Times" said that Matt Smith exited "with comic energy" and "grace", stating, "The Christmas special embodies the heartfelt style and playfulness that Matt Smith brought to his spell as the Time Lord. There are two ways to watch the series. The first requires a deep knowledge of its complicated 50-year-history and an ability to keep complicated strands of time-twisting action straight in one's head. The other way is to watch it for the poetry, the resonances and the connections and a sense of wonder about life (extra-terrestrially dressed at times, but our life underneath)."


title: The Time of the Doctor

text: Jon Cooper of "The Mirror" gave the episode a positive review, calling it "Easily the highlight of Christmas telly," and that it "gave Matt Smith a perfect send off." He awarded the episode 4 stars out of 5. He praised Smith, saying, "Easily the best he's put in since his tenure began." He criticised the pacing, noting that "viewers hoping for an all-out intergalactic bloodbath must've left feeling disappointed, hundreds of years of inter-species warfare were skipped over in the blink of an eye". He also found the need for every single one of the Doctor's enemies to be there pointless, saying "Daleks on their own would have more than sufficed." He also found similarities with David Tennant's regeneration story "The End of Time", mainly the regeneration sequence, with the Doctor removing one piece of his costume before changing, and the now traditional callback to the previous regeneration with Capaldi's entrance with the kidneys line.


title: The Time of the Doctor

text: Neela Debnath of "The Independent" gave a positive review, saying that "Smith gave a cracking final performance before bowing out." She said that the episode "was a sci-fi spectacular!" She also criticised the plot as being too complicated for its own good.


title: The Time of the Doctor

text: Morgan Jeffrey of "Digital Spy" gave the episode 4 stars out of 5 and said that "Matt Smith steals the show, his final turn on Doctor Who is one of his very finest, perhaps even his absolute best." He compared it to David Tennant's final episode and said "Smith's regeneration scene too is a thing of beauty, like David Tennant before him, Smith gets to break the fourth wall, just a little, in his extended final monologue, [...] it's perfect." He also was positive towards Clara and suggested that she was now being written in a more human, empathetic way "in the wake of the Impossible Girl arc", although such efforts were "well-intentioned but rushed", he felt that there were "steps being taken in the right direction" with the character. He praised Jenna Coleman's performance, saying she is "dependably excellent." But he did say "'The Time of the Doctor' is a case of the parts being greater than the whole. It has great scenes and standout moments rather than being a great episode." He also criticised the pacing and "a repetitive story structure robbing many key moments of their power."


title: The Time of the Doctor

text: Alasdair Wilkins of "The A.V. Club" was overwhelmingly positive in his review, praising the subtle emotional complexities. "This episode belongs to Matt Smith, and it's entirely likely that this will go down as his finest work in the role. Steven Moffat takes great care to spotlight every aspect of Smith's Doctor. He is alternately grumpy, funny, awkward, flirty, inquisitive, giddy, and heartbroken, and that simply covers the bits up to the reveal of the crack in reality. The old-age makeup isn't entirely convincing—though I'm not honestly sure any old-age makeup has ever been entirely convincing—but Smith nicely modulates his performance to suit the increasingly wizened versions of his Doctor." He praised the episode for being an effective "final act" rather than a standalone story. He gave the episode a rating of "A".


title: The Time of the Doctor

text: Kyle Anderson of Nerdist wrote the finale "might leave a percentage of fandom cold, but... I can’t think of a better way for the Eleventh Doctor to end his tenure." He stated, "There were lots of loose ends for writer Steven Moffat to tie up, but somehow he did it." Of the Doctor's protection of Trenzalore: "It’s this action that is the perfect farewell to the Eleventh Doctor. He’s the Doctor, more than any other, who has run away and not wanted to be tied to any one place or time... compelled to stay put to save each and every life he can." The final scene "[allowed] the Eleventh Doctor to go out with dignity and both appreciate the sadness of leaving without casting a pall over the new." He added, "We get our first, very fleeting glimpse of the next Doctor, Peter Capaldi, who is just as intense and strange as we probably expected."


title: The Time of the Doctor

text: Tim Martin of "The Telegraph" gave the episode three stars, criticising the complexity of the episode and the fact that loose plot holes were all left to be answered in just 60 minutes: "Every time the Gordian plot-knot gets sonic-screwdrivered into submission for the 60-minute limit, the writers just tap the remnants into Later. What's the deal with the creepy brain-wiping creatures known as The Silence? Later. The name of the Doctor? Later, and then we get "The Time of the Doctor", where every second line seems to offer a footnote to some arcane Wikipedia entry on Whovian lore." Despite this, he praised Smith's final performance saying, "the actor was so good as the childlike alien."


title: The Time of the Doctor

text: Patrick Mulkern of "Radio Times" said he was "really warming to the current companion, especially now she's free of the 'Impossible Girl' baggage. Perky, resourceful, best-friend material, Jenna Coleman's Clara has a tangible echo of Lis Sladen's Sarah about her." He noticed an "End of Time" callback, with the Doctor seeing his previous companions before his regeneration and, just as the Tenth Doctor had once destroyed the TARDIS with regeneration energy, the Eleventh doctor destroyed a Dalek ship with it. He looked forward to seeing Peter Capaldi take over with his "Gaunt, lizard-like [face] and with frou-frou hair. [...] In Peter Capaldi, we have a dream-wish Doctor."


title: The Time of the Doctor

text: "The Time of the Doctor" was released on DVD and Blu-ray in the United Kingdom on 20 January 2014, in Australia on 22 January 2014 and in the United States on 4 March 2014. It is accompanied by a behind-the-scenes feature and two documentaries. The UK and Australian releases additionally comes with an extra disc featuring the Eleventh Doctor's previous Christmas specials, "A Christmas Carol", "The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe" and "The Snowmen". The special was re-released on DVD and Blu-ray on 8 September 2014 as part of a "50th Anniversary Collectors Boxset" alongside "The Name of the Doctor", "The Night of the Doctor", "The Day of the Doctor", "An Adventure in Space and Time" and "The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot".


title: The Time of the Doctor

text: The ten Christmas specials between "The Christmas Invasion" and "Last Christmas" inclusive were released in a boxset titled "Doctor Who – The 10 Christmas Specials" on 19 October 2015.


title: The Time of the Doctor

text: Selected pieces of score from "The Time of the Doctor", as composed by Murray Gold, were released on 24 November 2014 by Silva Screen Records.


title: Whitey Ford

text: Edward Charles "Whitey" Ford (October 21, 1928 – October 8, 2020), nicknamed "the Chairman of the Board", was an American professional baseball pitcher who played his entire 16-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career with the New York Yankees. He was a 10-time All-Star and 6-time World Series champion. In 1961, he won both the Cy Young Award and World Series Most Valuable Player Award. Ford led the American League (AL) in wins three times and in earned run average twice. He is the Yankees franchise leader in career wins (236), shutouts (45), innings pitched (), and games started by a pitcher (438; tied with Andy Pettitte). Ford was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974.


title: Whitey Ford

text: Ford signed with the Yankees as an amateur free agent in 1947 and made his major league debut in 1950. Following a two-year sojourn to serve in the United States Army during the Korean War, Ford returned to the Yankees in 1953 and pitched for them until retiring in 1967. During his tenure with the team, Ford set numerous World Series pitching records, including consecutive scoreless innings (), wins (10), games started (22), innings pitched (146), and strikeouts (94). The Yankees retired his uniform number 16 in 1974 and dedicated a plaque in his honor in Monument Park in 1987. Ford served as the Yankees pitching coach in 1964 while still a player and from 1974 to 1975 after retiring. He also served as the team's first base coach in 1968.


title: Whitey Ford

text: In the wake of Yogi Berra's death in 2015, George Vecsey of "The New York Times" suggested that Ford was now "The Greatest Living Yankee". Ford died on October 8, 2020, at the age of 91.


title: Whitey Ford

text: Ford was born in Manhattan. At age five, he moved to the Astoria neighborhood of Queens, a few miles from the Triborough Bridge to Yankee Stadium in the Bronx. He attended public schools and graduated from the Manhattan High School of Aviation Trades.


title: Whitey Ford

text: They lived in Glen Cove, New York on Long Island for a period during the 1950s, and had two sons and a daughter together.


title: Whitey Ford

text: Ford was signed by the New York Yankees as an amateur free agent in 1947 and played his entire career with them. While still in the minor leagues, he was nicknamed "Whitey" for his light blond hair.


title: Whitey Ford

text: Ford began his Major League Baseball career on July 1, 1950, with the Yankees. He won his first nine decisions before losing a game in relief. Ford received a handful of lower-ballot Most Valuable Player (MVP) votes despite throwing just 112 innings, and won the "Sporting News" Rookie of the Year Award.


title: Whitey Ford

text: During the Korean War era, in 1951 and 1952, Ford served in the United States Army. He rejoined the Yankees for the 1953 season, and the Yankee "Big Three" pitching staff became a "Big Four", as Ford joined Allie Reynolds, Vic Raschi, and Eddie Lopat. Ford wore number 19 in his rookie season, but upon his return he changed to number 16, which he wore for the remainder of his career.


title: Whitey Ford

text: Ford eventually went from the number-four pitcher on a great staff to the universally acclaimed number-one pitcher of the Yankees. He became known as the "Chairman of the Board" for his ability to remain calm and in command during high-pressure situations. He was also known as "Slick", a nickname given to him, Billy Martin, and Mickey Mantle by manager Casey Stengel, who called them Whiskey Slicks. Ford's guile was necessary because he did not have an overwhelming fastball, but being able to throw several other pitches very well gave him pinpoint control. Ford was an effective strikeout pitcher for his time, tying the then-AL record of six consecutive strikeouts in 1956, and again in 1958. Ford never threw a no-hitter, but he pitched two consecutive one-hit games in 1955 to tie a record held by several pitchers. Sal Maglie, star pitcher for the New York Giants, thought Ford had a similar style to his own, writing in 1958 that Ford had a "good curve, good control, [a] changeup, [and an] occasional sneaky fastball."


title: Whitey Ford

text: In 1955, Ford led the American League in complete games and games won; in 1956 in earned run average and winning percentage; in 1958, in earned run average; and in both 1961 and 1963, in games won and winning percentage. Ford won the Cy Young Award in 1961; he likely would have won the 1963 AL Cy Young, but this was before the institution of a separate award for each league, and Ford could not match Sandy Koufax's numbers for the Los Angeles Dodgers of the National League (NL).


title: Whitey Ford

text: Some of Ford's totals were depressed by Yankees' manager Casey Stengel, who viewed Ford as his top pitching asset and often reserved his ace left-hander for more formidable opponents such as the Cleveland Indians and Chicago White Sox. When Ralph Houk became the manager in 1961, he promised Ford that he would pitch every fourth day, regardless of the opponent; after exceeding 30 starts only once in his nine seasons under Stengel, Ford had 39 in 1961. Indeed 1961 was his first 20-win season, a career-best 25–4 record, and the Cy Young Award ensued, but Ford's season was overshadowed by the home run battle between Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle. As a left-hander with an excellent pick-off move, Ford was also deft at keeping runners at their base: He set a record in 1961 by pitching 243 consecutive innings without allowing a stolen base.


title: Whitey Ford

text: In May 1963, after pitching a shutout, Ford announced he had given up smoking. He said, "My doctor told me that whenever I think of smoking, I should think of a bus starting up and blowing the exhaust in my face."


title: Whitey Ford

text: Ford ended his career in declining health. In August 1966, he underwent surgery to correct a circulatory problem in his throwing shoulder. In May 1967, Ford lasted just one inning in what would be his final start, and he announced his retirement at the end of the month at age 38.


title: Whitey Ford

text: After retiring, Ford admitted in interviews to having occasionally doctored baseballs. Examples were the "mudball", used at home in Yankee Stadium. Yankee groundskeepers would wet down an area near the catcher's box where the Yankee catcher Elston Howard was positioned; pretending to lose balance, Howard would put down his hand with the ball and coat one side of the ball with mud and throw it to Ford. Ford also engaged in ball scuffing, sometimes used the diamond in his wedding ring to gouge the ball, but he was eventually caught by an umpire and warned to stop. Howard sharpened a buckle on his shinguard and used it to scuff the ball.


title: Whitey Ford

text: I didn't begin cheating until late in my career when I needed something to help me survive. I didn't cheat when I won the twenty-five games in . I don't want anybody to get any ideas and take my Cy Young Award away. And I didn't cheat in when I won twenty-four games. Well, maybe a little.


title: Whitey Ford

text: Ford admitted to doctoring the ball in the 1961 All Star Game at Candlestick Park to strike out Willie Mays. Ford and Mantle had accumulated $1,200 ($ today) in golf pro shop purchases as guests of Horace Stoneham at the Giants owner's country club. Stoneham promised to pay their tab if Ford could strike out Mays. "What was that all about?" Mays asked. "I'm sorry, Willie, but I had to throw you a spitter," Ford replied.


title: Whitey Ford

text: Ford won 236 games for the New York Yankees (career 236–106), still a franchise record. Ford is tied with Dave Foutz for the fourth-best winning percentage in baseball history at .690.


title: Whitey Ford

text: Ford's 2.75 earned run average is the third-lowest among starting pitchers whose careers began after the advent of the live-ball era in 1920. Only Clayton Kershaw (2.51) and Jacob deGrom (2.61) have a lower earned run average. Ford's worst earned run average in a single season was 3.24. Ford had 45 shutout victories in his career, including eight 1–0 wins.


title: Whitey Ford

text: As a hitter, Ford posted a .173 batting average (177-for-1,023) with 91 runs, 3 home runs, 69 runs batted in, and 113 bases on balls. In 22 World Series games, he batted .082 (4-for-49) with 4 runs, 3 runs batted in, and 7 walks. Defensively, he recorded a .961 fielding percentage.


title: Whitey Ford

text: During his MLB career, Ford had 10 World Series victories, more than any other pitcher. Ford also leads all starters in World Series losses (8) and starts (22), as well as innings, hits, walks, and strikeouts. In 1961, he broke Babe Ruth's World Series record of consecutive scoreless innings. The record eventually reached , although MLB rule-makers retroactively reduced the record to 33 innings since Ford did not complete a full inning before allowing the streak-ending run. It is still a World Series record, although Mariano Rivera broke it as a postseason record in 2000. Ford won the 1961 World Series MVP Award. He appeared on eight AL All-Star teams between 1954 and 1964.


title: Whitey Ford

text: In 1974, Ford and Mickey Mantle were both elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame; at that time, the Yankees retired his number 16.


title: Whitey Ford

text: In 1999, Ford ranked 52nd on "The Sporting News" List of Baseball's Greatest Players. He was nominated that year for the Major League Baseball All-Century Team.


title: Whitey Ford

text: In 1994, a road in Mississauga, Ontario, was named Ford Road in his honor. The north-central area of Mississauga is known informally as "the baseball zone", as several streets in the area are named for Hall of Fame baseball players.


title: Whitey Ford

text: In 2000, the ballfield overlooking the East River on 26th Avenue, between 1st and 2nd Streets in Astoria, Queens, was named Whitey Ford Field at a Yankee Stadium ceremony.


title: Whitey Ford

text: Ford was the Yankees pitching coach during the 1964 season. In 1968, he served as the Yankees as first base coach, and in 1974 and 1975 as pitching coach.


title: Whitey Ford

text: In 1977, Ford was part of the broadcast team for the first game in Toronto Blue Jays history. In 2008, Ford threw the first pitch at the 2008 Major League Baseball All-Star Game. Also in 1977, Ford began serving as the commissioner of the new American Professional Slow-Pitch Softball League (APSPL), one of several men's professional softball leagues in the United States.


title: Whitey Ford

text: In 2002, Ford opened "Whitey Ford's Cafe", a sports-themed restaurant and bar next to Roosevelt Field Mall in Garden City, New York. A replica of the Yankee Stadium facade trimmed both the exterior and the bar, whose stools displayed uniform numbers of Yankee luminaries and widescreen TVs were installed throughout. The main dining area housed a panoramic display of Yankee Stadium from the 1950s, specifically a Chicago White Sox–Yankee game with Ford pitching and Mickey Mantle in center field; the Yanks were up 2–0. The servers were dressed in Yankees road uniforms, with Ford's No. 16 on the back. It lasted less than a year before it closed down.


title: Whitey Ford

text: As of 2015, the 86-year-old Ford was splitting his time between his homes in Long Island and Florida.


title: Whitey Ford

text: Ford died on October 8, 2020, at his home in Lake Success on Long Island at the age of 91, 13 days before his 92nd birthday. He was watching the Yankees play in Game 4 of the 2020 American League Division Series on television, and was surrounded by his family. The cause of death was not immediately announced, but he had suffered from dementia for several years. When he died he was the second-oldest living member of the Hall of Fame, after Tommy Lasorda. He was the last surviving member of the 1956 World Champion New York Yankees.


title: Business incubator

text: Business incubator is an organization that helps startup companies and individual entrepreneurs to develop their businesses by providing a fullscale range of services starting with management training and office space and ending with venture capital financing. The National Business Incubation Association (NBIA) defines business incubators as a catalyst tool for either regional or national economic development. NBIA categorizes its members' incubators by the following five incubator types: academic institutions; non-profit development corporations; for-profit property development ventures; venture capital firms, and a combination of the above.


title: Business incubator

text: Business incubators differ from research and technology parks in their dedication to startup and early-stage companies. Research and technology parks, on the other hand, tend to be large-scale projects that house everything from corporate, government, or university labs to very small companies. Most research and technology parks do not offer business assistance services, which are the hallmark of a business incubation program. However, many research and technology parks house incubation programs.