title: Incentive

text: Incentives can be broken down into two categories; intrinsic incentives and extrinsic incentives. The motivation of people's behaviour comes from within. In activities, they are often motivated by the task itself or the internal reward rather than the external reward. There are many internal rewards, for example, participating in activities can satisfy people's sense of achievement and bring them positive emotions. An intrinsic incentive is when a person is motivated to act in a certain way for their own personal satisfaction. This means that when a person is intrinsically incentivised, they perform a certain task to please themselves and are not seeking any external reward, nor facing any external pressure to perform the task. On the other hand, an extrinsic incentive is when a person has external pressure persuading them to act in a particular way. The external pressure could include either a reward for completing the task or could be a form of punishment or consequence if the task is not completed. When people have difficulty completing a task or lack interest in participating in an activity, extrinsic incentives can often be effective in helping people improve their motivation.


title: Incentive

text: Intrinsic incentives and extrinsic incentives are both important and drive people's behaviour. However, people's intrinsic motivation tends to decrease when they are offered too many extrinsic rewards, in order to maintain the action, constant incentives have to be provided, which is known as the Overjustification Effect.


title: Incentive

text: In the context of economics, incentives are most studied in the area of personnel economics where economic analysts, such as those tho take part in human resources management practices, focus on how firms make employees more motivated, through pay and career concerns, compensation and performance evaluation, to motivate employees and best achieve the firms desired performance outcomes.


title: Incentive

text: Overall, the standard "law of behaviour" suggests that more incentives will result in higher performance and higher effort, people can reach their performance to the next level by rewarding.


title: Incentive

text: As a result, extrinsic incentives are commonly used within the workforce by employers and managers. This is because, employers believe that the more they encourage their employees to act in a certain way, the more the company will benefit in reaching its organisational goals. However, there are some parties who opposed the benefits of using extrinsic incentives and believe they cause more harm than good. This is because these opponents believe that the constant use of extrinsic incentives can lead to crowding out of intrinsic incentives, which are also valuable performance motivators. When people are constantly being incentivised by external pressures, they neglect their intrinsic motives which could consequently ruin their work ethic. This is because, these people can become too comfortable with always gaining some reward for acting in a certain way, people think that they deserve to earn rewards for doing certain things, not for the benefits of the firm but benefits of themselves, leading to them to take no action if no extrinsic incentive is involved.


title: Incentive

text: Nonetheless, incentives (both intrinsic and extrinsic) can be beneficial in altering a persons behaviour and can be effectively used and executed within many different areas of life including in the workforce, in education and within one's personal life.


title: Incentive

text: Classified by David Callahan, the types of incentives can be further broken down into three broad classes according to the different ways in which they motivate agents to take a particular course of actions:


title: Incentive

text: Monetary incentives are a monetary good given to someone to incentivize their actions. This is a type of extrinsic incentive and is commonly seen in the workplace. They can come in the forms of profit sharing, bonuses, stock options or even paid vacation time. Well-chosen monetary incentive programs can produce positive motivation and influence the productivity and output of individuals and firms. Firms use a variety of methods to implement productive behavior.


title: Incentive

text: A common monetary incentive system is the performance-based pay where incentives are paid based on their productivity or output. Some methods are commission based where the employee, for examples a salesperson receives a payment directly correlated to their output level. Firms also pay extra wages or rewards for employees who work overtime and extra amount of work they done, incentives in this way make the employees feel fair and willing to do the same next time. Other methods are less direct, for example awarding periodic bonuses to top performers, offering a possibility of a promotion to higher-paying position or profit sharing for team projects. Alternatively, firms can also incentives their employees to perform by threatening to demote or terminate them. When employees feel their careers are threatened, they will show higher performance and efficiency in work.


title: Incentive

text: The effect of monetary incentives can depend on the framing of the rewards. For example, in cadaveric organ donation, funeral aids are perceived to be more ethical (particularly in showing gratitude and honoring the deceased donor) and potentially increase donation willingness than direct cash payments of the same monetary value.


title: Incentive

text: A non-monetary incentive is an incentive which takes the form of a non-cash incentive. They are still used as forms of motivation but are much more cost effective in incentivizing employees who have performed highly. Some examples of these incentives include extra time off, recognition, gifts, family benefits or even work based perks such as projects etc. Rewards such as these tend to boost employees job satisfaction as they feel more appreciated for their efforts. Firms with higher job satisfaction and morale have found to have better overall employee contribution and hence better productivity. Compared to monetary incentives, studies have shown that employees find non-monetary incentives more memorable as they are separated from normal pay and hence are more distinguishable. This creates more meaning and satisfaction in working environments.


title: Incentive

text: Effective use of non-monetary incentives can increase the morale of firms as well which has also seen to increase productivity. This type of incentive has commonly been used to directly enhance job satisfaction of employees. Studies have shown that non-monetary rewards, such as extra holidays and more responsibilities, increase job satisfaction more than monetary incentives. This is likely due to the correlation between non-monetary incentives and job satisfaction. Non-monetary incentives also offer an opportunity for skill and responsibility development of workers, which can often mean higher wage in the long run. These incentives are very important to firms and create better working environments for employees.


title: Incentive

text: The economic analysis of incentives focuses on the systems that dictate the incentives needed for an agent to achieve a desired outcome. Incentives can help companies link employees' rewards to their productivity. When a firm wants their employees to produce a certain amount of output, it must be prepared to offer a compensation scheme such as a monetary bonus to influence the employees to reach the target output. Compensation must achieve two goals: The first is to reduce employee turnover, compensating employees can help attract workers to work and retain their ability. The second is to improve productivity, compensation can not only stimulate the ability of workers to produce output, but also improve the enthusiasm of employees to work, thus promoting business development. A rise in pay variance across occupations reflects an increased demand for highly productive workers thus, influencing compensation to shift towards pay-for-performance. This helps employees recognize the direct relationship between their work output and their reward. More and more companies are realizing that they can offer different incentives to employees because they have different economic needs.


title: Incentive

text: Firms must design the compensation plan to induce workers to operate in the firms best interest and put forth a certain level of output that maximizes the firm's profits. However, since the interest of workers and their employer do not always align and asymmetric information, where one (worker/ employer) does not know some relevant facts about the other, make the compensation plan difficult to establish. Here, the principal-agent theory is used as the guiding framework when aligning incentives with the employees effort to obtain the efficient level of output for the firm. For example, a manager may want a certain level of output from an employee but does not know the capabilities of the employee in the presence of imperfect monitoring, and to achieve the best outcome, an optimal scheme of incentive may be set to motivate the worker to increase their productivity.


title: Incentive

text: The Tournament theory also provide a framework of compensation but at different levels of the firms hierarchy. The theory demonstrates that individuals are not promoted on the basis of their performance and output, instead on the relative position in the organization. The theory also explains that the compensation does not necessarily motivate the employee currently working at that level but instead motivates the employees below that level who aim at getting promoted.


title: Incentive

text: Incentives are arguably beneficial in increasing productivity, however, they can also have an adverse effect on the firm. This is evident through the ratchet effect. A firm may use its observation of the employees output level when they first get employed as a guide to set performance standard and objectives for the future. Knowing this, an employee may purposely reduce their output level when first employed or hide their ability to produce at a higher output with the intent of exploiting being rewarded in the future when they strategically increase their output level. Best performances of employees can be limited from it. Thus, the ratchet effect can significantly diminish production levels of a firm and planned economies.


title: Incentive

text: Additionally, since the 1970s psychologists begun exploring the role of motivators, whilst economist were simultaneously studying crowding out effects. This came as a result of Richard Titmus' 1970 publication 'The Gift Relationship' which explained how the constant use of extrinsic incentives can result in conflict with other motivators and lead to crowding out effects. In his publication Titmus argued that the use of monetary incentives was disrupting social norms around the idea of voluntary contribution and would ultimately have a crowing out effect. He acknowledged that if the incentives are large enough it is more likely to offset crowding out effects, but noted that making the incentives too large could also have an adverse effect and result in people not meeting expectations. However, crowding out can still take place when incentives are removed over the long run. This is because the removal of incentives can result in employee effort levels being lower than when the incentives were offered thereby hindering motivation and performance.


title: Incentive

text: Neither do incentives not always increase motivation as they can contribute to the self-selection of individuals, as different people are attracted by different incentive schemes depending on their attitudes towards risk, uncertainty, competitiveness. For example, some corporate policies popular during the 1990s aimed to encourage productivity have led to failures as a result of unintended consequences. Another example, providing stock options were intended to boost CEO productivity through offering a remunerative incentive to aligning the CEOs interests with those of the shareholders to improve company performance. However, CEOs were found to either make good decisions which resulted in a reward of a long-term price increase of the stock, or were found to have fabricated the accounting information to give the illusion of economic success and to retain their incentive based pay. Furthermore, it has been found to be extremely costly for the firms to incentivize the CEOs with stock options, nevertheless, firms are forced to pay substantial amounts of money for the provision that the CEO acts in the best interest of the firms and profit maximization.


title: Incentive

text: On the one hand, the company's incentives to employees may create a pay gap. For example, low-paid employees may reduce their production or contribution to the company. For example, low-paid employees and high-paid employees may not be able to communicate and cooperate effectively, causing low-paid employees to gradually lose their enthusiasm for work. Firms should provide fair amount of incentives for both low-paid and other employees, incentives for low-paid works can be breaks rather than monetary incentives. Motivating employees with financial rewards may make a difference. That's because if the company is profitable in the first year, it may have plenty of bonuses to hand out to employees. However, if the company makes less money in the second year than it did in the first year, the company may not be able to give employees the same bonuses as in the first year even though they put in the same effort. This also reduces employees' motivation to work. Therefore, incentives may be counterproductive. Firm can provides other types of incentives rather than monetary incentives, such as promotion or vacation breaks for employees of highly performance.


title: Incentive

text: On the other hand, incentives have a positive effect on education. For example, students may underestimate their own learning ability. Incentive not only makes teachers or parents pay more attention to students' abilities, but also encourages students to bring good learning returns. However, it is worth noting that monetary incentives may not be positive. There may be bribery education in monetary incentives, and this monetary incentive is often contrary to morality.


title: Incentive

text: Teamwork is very important to the productivity of the company and will also serve as an incentive for the company. When employees encounter difficult problems, the company effectively incentives employees' performance by establishing teams to communicate and collaborate with each other. In particular, when the abilities of employees form complementary forms, the company's incentive effect achieves a good performance. On the contrary, in teamwork, by contrast, companies that reward individual achievement cause team members to split when employees rely too much on the output of the team, the incentive of teamwork will have a certain negative effect on the company's production.


title: Incentive

text: Ultimately, there is always potential for conflicts to arise, both in the short and in the long run, during the application of incentives in different areas, as incentives that seek to change behaviours can cause crowing out on intrinsic motivators. Growing evidence suggests that economists must broaden their focus when exploring the effects of incentives as the effect they have is largely dependent on how they are designed and specifically how they interact with intrinsic and social motivators in the short run and the long run.


title: Hussein Kamel al-Majid

text: Colonel General Hussein Kamel Hassan al-Majid () ( 1954 – 23 February 1996) was the son-in-law and second cousin of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. He defected to Jordan and assisted United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspection teams assigned to look for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. He was killed the following year for betraying Saddam.


title: Hussein Kamel al-Majid

text: Hussein was born in Tel Al Thahab (in modern-day Balad District, Saladin Governorate). He rose through the military ranks to become the Supervisor of the Republican Guard, Iraq's elite military force, in 1982. He later became the Minister of Industries, heading the Military Industrialisation Commission and supervising Iraq's weapons development programs from 1987. Hussein became Oil Minister of Iraq in 1990.


title: Hussein Kamel al-Majid

text: Hussein married one of Saddam Hussein's daughters, Raghad Saddam, and lived in Iraq until 1995. On 7 August of that year, he and his wife defected from Iraq, along with his brother, Saddam Kamel, and his brother's wife, Rana Saddam, another of Saddam's daughters. In a 21 September 1995 interview with CNN, Hussein Kamel explained:


title: Hussein Kamel al-Majid

text: This is what made me leave the country, the fact that Saddam Hussein surrounds himself with inefficient ministers and advisers who are not chosen for their competence but according to the whims of the Iraqi president. And as a result of this the whole of Iraq is suffering.


title: Hussein Kamel al-Majid

text: Jordan granted asylum to the Kamel's sons, and there they began to cooperate with UNSCOM and its director Rolf Ekéus, the American CIA and the British MI6. The initial promises of a wealth of information were, allegedly, not fulfilled. According to U.S. and Jordanian officials, the intelligence provided by Hussein Kamel on Iraqi secret weapons programs was of limited content and value.


title: Hussein Kamel al-Majid

text: Hussein confirmed what inspectors had been able to ascertain shortly before his defection: Iraq had operated a biological warfare program prior to the Gulf War, but had destroyed its entire stockpile of chemical and biological weapons and banned missiles. Hussein's defection presented a major problem for those seeking to overthrow the Iraqi government based on the threat of its WMD program.


title: Hussein Kamel al-Majid

text: In February 1996, after intermediaries for Saddam Hussein had assured them that all would be forgiven, Hussein and Saddam Kamel were convinced to return to Iraq with their wives. Reportedly, immediately upon their return, they were ordered to divorce their wives and were denounced as traitors. Three days after their arrival, on 23 February, they refused to surrender to Saddam's security forces and were killed in a 13-hour firefight at a safe house. According to an alternative version of events, Kamel and his sons were killed less than 24 hours following the divorce decrees, in a gun battle with other cousins trying to regain their clan honor in the eyes of Saddam.


title: Hussein Kamel al-Majid

text: In a 25 January 1999 report to the U.N. Security Council, UNSCOM declared that the history of the Iraqi weapons inspections "must be divided into two parts, separated by the events following the departure from Iraq, in August 1995, of Lt. Gen. Hussein Kamel."


title: Hussein Kamel al-Majid

text: Hussein maintained that Iraq had destroyed its weapons of mass destruction and related programs after the end of the first Gulf War.


title: Hussein Kamel al-Majid

text: I ordered destruction of all chemical weapons. All weapons—biological, chemical, missile, nuclear—were destroyed.


title: Hussein Kamel al-Majid

text: A 3 March 2003 "Newsweek" report said that Hussein's revelations were "hushed up" because inspectors "hoped to bluff Saddam [Hussein] into revealing still more." Hussein's version of events appear to have been borne out in the wake of the 2003 Invasion of Iraq.


title: Hussein Kamel al-Majid

text: In the build-up to the 2003 invasion, Bush administration figures—including George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Colin Powell—repeatedly cited Hussein's testimony as evidence that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction.


title: Cheetah reintroduction in India

text: Cheetah reintroduction in India involves the attempt to introduce and sustain a small population of Southeast African cheetah ("Acinonyx jubatus jubatus", the nominate subspecies) in India more than 70 years after India's native subspecies, the Asiatic cheetah ("Acinonyx jubatus venaticus") became extinct there; the Asiatic subspecies is now found only in Iran in critically endangered numbers.


title: Cheetah reintroduction in India

text: The Asiatic cheetah whose long history on the Indian subcontinent gave the Sanskrit-derived vernacular name "cheetah", or "spotted", to the entire species, "Acinonyx jubatus", also had a gradual history of habitat loss there. In Punjab, before the thorn forests were cleared and extensively utilized for agriculture and human settlement, they were intermixed with open grasslands grazed by large herds of blackbuck; these co-existed with their main natural predator, the Asiatic cheetah. The blackbuck is no longer extant in Punjab. Later, more habitat loss, prey depletion, and trophy-hunting were to lead to the extinction of the Asiatic cheetah in other regions of India.


title: Cheetah reintroduction in India

text: Discussions on cheetah reintroduction in India began soon after extinction was confirmed, in the mid-1950s. Proposals were made to the governments of Iran from the 1970s, but fell through chiefly for reasons of political instability there. Offers from Kenya for introducing African cheetahs were made as early as the 1980s. Proposals for the introduction of African cheetahs were made by the Indian government in 2009, but disallowed by India's supreme court. The court reversed its decision in early 2020, allowing the import of a small number, on an experimental basis for testing long-term adaptation. On 17 September 2022, five female and three male southeast African cheetahs, between the ages of four and six (a gift from the government of Namibia), were released in a small quarantined enclosure within the Kuno National Park in the state of Madhya Pradesh. The cheetahs, all fitted with radio collars, will remain in the quarantined enclosure for a month; initially, the males (and later the females) will be released into the park. The relocation has been supervised by zoologist Laurie Marker, of the Namibia-based Cheetah Conservation Fund. Later in 2022, 12 cheetahs from South Africa will be released in Kuno; eventually, the total number of African cheetahs in Kuno will be brought up to 40 individuals.


title: Cheetah reintroduction in India

text: The scientific reaction to the translocation has been mixed. Adrian Tordiffe (a wildlife veterinary pharmacologist at the University of Pretoria who will be supervising the release of the cheetahs) is an enthusiast, who views India as providing "protected space" for the fragmented and threatened population of the world's cheetahs. K. Ullas Karanth, one of India's foremost tiger experts, has been critical of the effort, considering it to be a "PR exercise." India's "realities", he says, such as human overpopulation, and the presence of larger feline predators and packs of feral dogs, could all cause potentially "high mortalities," and require a continual import of African cheetahs. Kuno National Park is a relatively new national park, having received that status in 2018. It had been founded previously as a wildlife sanctuary to implement the Asiatic Lion Reintroduction Project, which aimed to establish a second Asiatic lion population in India. The goal was to protect the isolated lions of the Gir National Park (in Gujarat) from a potential mass mortality event, set off by the outbreak of an epizootic. Although the state government of Gujarat was ordered by India's Supreme Court in April 2013 to transfer a small population of lions from Gujarat to Kuno, and was given six months to complete the transfer, they ultimately resisted implementing the order.


title: Cheetah reintroduction in India

text: Until the 20th century, the Asiatic cheetah was quite common and roamed all across the Middle East, from the Arabian Peninsula to Iran, Afghanistan and India. In India, they ranged as far south as the Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu. The Asiatic cheetah, also known as the "hunting leopard" in India was kept by kings and princes to hunt gazelle and blackbucks. Firuz Shah Tughluq is considered to be the first ruler in medieval times to tame cheetahs for hunting purposes. The Mughal emperor Akbar had around 1000 Cheetahs for hunting gazelle and blackbucks.


title: Cheetah reintroduction in India

text: In 1608, a white cheetah was known to be in possession of Raja Vir Singh Deo in Orchha. Mughal king Jahangir describes its spots to be of blue colour in his book "Tuzuk-i Jahangiri". This is said to be the only recorded white cheetah. French traveller Jean de Thévenot mentions in his chronicles during the reign of Aurangzeb that only the provincial governors were allowed to trap and rear Cheetahs in captivity Trapping of large numbers of adult Indian cheetahs, who had already learned hunting skills from wild mothers, for assisting in royal hunts is said to be another major cause of the species rapid decline in India as they never bred in captivity with only one record of a litter ever.


title: Cheetah reintroduction in India

text: Fewer number of trophy hunting reports at the end of British Rule in India compared to initial years points out to already dwindling population of Cheetahs. A research found at least 230 cheetahs still existed in wild since 1799.


title: Cheetah reintroduction in India

text: By the beginning of the twentieth century, the species was already heading for extinction in many areas. There were certain places more affected by this problem than others. The Indian reserves were not very thoughtful when creating habitat loss for these oversized cats. The last physical evidence of the Asiatic cheetah in India was thought to be three, all shot by the Maharajah Ramanuj Pratap Singh Deo of Surguja State in 1948, in eastern Madhya Pradesh or northern Chhattisgarh, but a female was sighted in Koriya district, in what is now Chhattisgarh, in 1951.


title: Cheetah reintroduction in India

text: In India in the mid-20th century, prey was abundant, and cheetahs fed on the blackbuck, the chinkara, and sometimes the chital and the nilgai.


title: Cheetah reintroduction in India

text: With the death of the last remaining population of the Asiatic cheetah in India, the species was declared extinct in India; it is the only animal in recorded history to become extinct from India due to unnatural causes. A consequence of the extinction of the cheetahs and subsequently the Indian royalty that prized them was that their grasslands homes came to be controlled, used and managed by local people. "The grasslands faded and diminished under the hooves of a thousand cattle, they were tilled and ploughed until only a few scattered remnants were preserved in the form of wildlife sanctuaries".


title: Cheetah reintroduction in India

text: The debate over whether cheetah reintroduction compatible with the stated aims of wildlife conservation, started soon after extinction was confirmed. As far back as 1955, the former State Wildlife Board of Andhra Pradesh suggested the reintroduction of the Asiatic cheetah in at least in two districts of the state, on an experimental basis. In 1965, the pros and cons of reintroduction were critically discussed by M. Krishnan in a newspaper article. In 1984, Divyabhanusinh was asked to write a paper on the status of cheetah in India for the Ministry of Environment and Forests. This paper was subsequently sent to the Cat Specialist Group of Species Survival Commission of the IUCN, where it sparked international interest.


title: Cheetah reintroduction in India

text: In the 1970s, the Department of Environment formally wrote to the Iranian government to request Asiatic cheetahs in use for reintroduction and apparently received a positive response. The talks were stalled after the Shah of Iran was deposed in the Iranian Revolution, and the negotiations never progressed.


title: Cheetah reintroduction in India

text: In August 2009, Jairam Ramesh, the then-Minister of Environment, reportedly rekindled the talks with Iran for sharing a few of their animals. Iran had always been hesitant to commit to the idea, given the very low numbers present in the country. It is said that Iran wanted an Asiatic lion in exchange for a cheetah, and that India was not willing to export any of its lions. The plan to source cheetahs from Iran was eventually dropped in 2010.


title: Cheetah reintroduction in India

text: Offers by the Kenyan government to send cheetahs to India were reported as far back as the 1980s. In 2009, the report by Wildlife Institute of India recommended sourcing cheetahs from Africa.


title: Cheetah reintroduction in India

text: During the early 2000s, Indian scientists from the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad, proposed a plan to clone Asiatic cheetahs obtained from Iran. The idea of cloning was introduced by the people concerned with their population, which were few. India requested Iran to transport one live pair to India. If not possible, Indian scientists requested Iran to allow them to collect some live cells of the cheetah pair in Iran itself, which can then be made into living cell lines. They planned to use the nucleus from these cells to manually reproduce their own cheetahs, over a significantly long amount of time.


title: Cheetah reintroduction in India

text: In September 2009, the cheetah reintroduction plan made significant progress when the Ministry of Environment & Forests, through the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), organized a meeting in Gajner, Rajasthan, to discuss the issue. The meeting was jointly organised by the WII in association with the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI), a prominent NGO based in Delhi. The Cheetah Conservation Fund, IUCN and other NGOs were represented as were high-ranking officials of several State Forest Departments. Minister Jairam Ramesh approved the recommendation for a detailed survey of seven potential reintroduction sites (and three holding sites for captive breeding) in four states, shortlisted during the Gajner consultative meeting. In January 2022, environment minister Bhupender Yadav launched the action plan for reintroducing cheetahs in India, with an emphasis to Kuno National Park.


title: Cheetah reintroduction in India

text: Since the Asiatic cheetah was extirpated from India in 1952, plans to reestablish the cheetah in India have been ongoing. For this purpose, a meeting of cheetah experts was organised at Gajner in the Indian state of Rajasthan in September 2009.


title: Cheetah reintroduction in India

text: Laurie Marker of the Cheetah Conservation Fund, Stephen J. O'Brien, and other cheetah experts argued for the introduction of the Southeast African cheetah as the Asiatic cheetah survives only in Iran, its population numbers less than 100 individuals, and the Iranian government's repeated reluctance to supply said cheetahs for Indian efforts. The meeting also identified Namibia, South Africa, Botswana, Kenya, Tanzania, and the UAE as countries from where the cheetah could be imported to India. "About 5 to 10 animals annually have to be brought to India over a period of 5 to 10 years," recommended another working group, which was formed for exploring sourcing and translocation of the cheetah.


title: Cheetah reintroduction in India

text: The Ministry of Environment & Forests approved the recommendation for a detailed survey of potential reintroduction sites in the Indian states of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh, which were shortlisted during the consultative meeting. Four more Indian states; Tamilnadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Maharashtra were also considered. The survey would have formed the basis for the roadmap of reintroduction of cheetahs in India, and would have been carried out by the Wildlife Institute of India (WII).


title: Cheetah reintroduction in India

text: Currently, wildlife experts have shortlisted three regions which have the potential to support cheetah populations. The Nauradehi Wildlife Sanctuary and Kuno-Palpur Wildlife Sanctuaries in Madhya Pradesh and the Shahgarh bulge landscape in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan have been declared potentially suitable for the reintroduction of the cheetah. The Kuno-Palpur Wildlife Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh has the potential to hold populations of four of India's big cats; the Bengal tiger, Indian leopard, Asiatic lion, and Asiatic cheetah, all four of which have co-existed in the same habitats historically for many years, before they were wiped out, in part or in whole, due to overhunting and habitat destruction. Since the Shahgarh Landscape is fenced along the Indo-Pakistani border region, the addition of more fencing will ensure adequate protection for the cheetah population. The Nauradehi Wildlife Sanctuary (1197km2) is part of a much larger forested landscape (5500 km2) which can host the cheetah as well.


title: Cheetah reintroduction in India

text: At a future date, when sufficient population has built up, other former range habitats in India (after revitalizing them) may also be considered for reintroduction like the Banni grasslands and Desert National Park etc.


title: Cheetah reintroduction in India

text: A few wildlife groups have suggested the Moyar River valley in Tamil Nadu's Satyamangalam FD, part of Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve as it is a pristine forest with flourishing population of prey and a good record of conservation. Frederick Augustus Nicholson, the then British Collector has reported to have shot a few individuals near Kothamangalam, Velamundi and Bolampatti (all in NBR).


title: Cheetah reintroduction in India

text: The Asiatic cheetah ("Acinonyx jubatus venaticus") has, for a long time, been classified as a subspecies of the cheetah. However, at a cheetah reintroduction workshop organised in India on 9 September 2009, Stephen J. O'Brien from the Laboratory of Genomic Diversity of National Cancer Institute of the United States said that according to the latest genetic studies, the Asiatic cheetah was, in fact, genetically identical to the African cheetah with which it had separated only 5,000 years ago. This was not enough time for a subspecies level differentiation; O'Brien said that in comparison the Asiatic and African lion subspecies were separated some 100,000 years ago, and African and Asian leopard subspecies about 169,000 years ago.


title: Cheetah reintroduction in India

text: Subsequently, in 2011, a much more detailed five-year genetic study involving gathering of DNA samples from the wild, zoos and museums in eight countries was published in "Molecular Ecology" on 8 January 2011. This newer study concluded that African and Asiatic cheetahs were genetically distinct and separated 32,000 to 67,000 years ago. Subspecies level differentiation had taken place due to longer separation from the African population.


title: Cheetah reintroduction in India

text: Genetic studies published in 2020 indicate divergences between Asiatic and African subspecies are more prominent than previously recognized.


title: Cheetah reintroduction in India

text: The Ministry of forests and environment of India is now hammering out the details of the cheetah conservation plan. As a first step, a two-day seminar of technical experts on cheetahs was held in Gajner from 9 September 2009. Experts on cheetah, including Divyabhanusinh Chavda and M K Ranjitsinh presented their papers on how to go about bringing cheetahs to India.


title: Cheetah reintroduction in India

text: The initial plans were to bring the cheetahs to Gajner Wildlife Sanctuary. "We want to set up a breeding ground for the cheetahs and Gajner seems to fit the bill perfectly. Thereafter, they will be transported to various states," he added.


title: Cheetah reintroduction in India

text: India is also in talks with the Islamic Republic of Iran over the possibility of sending a pair of Asiatic cheetahs to India. The Iranian embassy in Delhi said that its government was in the process of "arranging" talks.


title: Cheetah reintroduction in India

text: The Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh said that African cheetahs could be brought to India within three years having just returned from a trip to South Africa, one of the potential source-habitats of cheetahs to be moved to India.


title: Cheetah reintroduction in India

text: The Wildlife Institute of India is spearheading the project, and will unveil a road map and destination for the African cheetahs – possible options are in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat – by the end of May.


title: Cheetah reintroduction in India

text: Kuno Palpur and Nauradehi Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh and Shahgarh landscape in Jaisalmer in Rajasthan have been selected in by the Wildlife Institute of India as most suitable sites for the reintroduction project.


title: Cheetah reintroduction in India

text: In May 2012 the Indian Supreme Court had put the project of importing cheetahs from Africa and reintroducing them in India on hold. Some Conservationists have been fighting a legal battle in Indian Supreme Court to get the Indian State Government of Gujarat to break its monopolizing of wild Asiatic lions and release a few overpopulated prides of lions spilling out of Gir National Park for reintroduction in the Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary in the neighbouring Indian State of Madhya Pradesh which was prepared for them after relocating over 24 villages out of the forest. In the past, for last two decades the State Government of Gujarat had concocted every possible reason to maintain its monopoly on wild Asiatic lions and the tourism revenue generated by them and of recent Gujarat's legal council had put forward the argument that Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary is being used for the introduction of African cheetah which might take several years to fully settle down and repopulate the area and hence reintroduction of lions should only be done after that, this scared the conservationists that Gujarat will use this pretext to delay the reintroduction of native lions by many more decades using the cheetah argument. Indian Supreme court has taken note of the arguments put forth by some Indian conservationists that importing African cheetah for reintroduction in India is misguided as it is against the International Union for Conservation of Nature's reintroduction guidelines and no clearance had been sought from India's National Board for Wildlife. The Indian Supreme Court has fast tracked the case for the re-introduction of lions to Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary and is hearing it every Monday.


title: Cheetah reintroduction in India

text: Senior advocate PS Narasimha, court-appointed adviser and the "amicus curiae" in the Asiatic lion's relocation case in India's Supreme Court, filed an application seeking a stay on the implementation of African cheetah reintroduction project in India. The Indian Supreme court had granted the stay and the matter has been scheduled for further hearing in July 2012 after the court returns from vacation. During its hearings, the Bench was informed that India's Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) has decided to introduce the Southern African cheetah ("Acinonyx jubatus jubatus") from Namibia into Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, the same proposed habitat being developed as the second home for the translocation of lions from Gir Wildlife Sanctuary in the neighbouring Indian state of Gujarat which did not want to shift any lions out of the state. Narasimha said the proposal for reintroduction of African cheetah "has not been either placed before the Standing Committee of India's National Board for Wildlife, nor has there been a considered decision taken in this regard". He stated in an application that "scientific studies show that the African cheetahs and Asian Cheetahs are completely different, both genetically and also in their characteristics" and the reintroduction of African cheetah in India was also against the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) guidelines on translocation of wildlife species. "In fact, the (IUCN) guidelines categorically warn against the introduction of alien or exotic species. The African Cheetah obviously never existed in India. Therefore, it is not case of intentional movement of an organism into a part of its native range," the application stated. Asiatic cheetah became extinct in India in the 1950s, In the past, India's last recorded cheetah in the wild was said to have been shot in the Rewa area of Madhya Pradesh in the late 1940s. It was mentioned that the introduction of alien or exotic species is universally shunned by wildlife experts and "in fact countries such as South Africa, Australia are spending huge amount of funds to eradicate and remove exotic wildlife species from wilderness areas or wild habitats". Narasimha also sought a direction of India's Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) to produce before the apex court all relevant records and decisions relating to introduction of cheetah. He said the Indian cheetah in genetic composition is a different animal than the African cheetah and a different subspecies altogether and "therefore one cannot be introduced in place of the other". Conservationists say no more than 50 of the critically endangered Asiatic cheetah remain only in Iran, roaming the central deserts. The vast majority of the 7,000 cheetahs left in the world are in Africa.


title: Cheetah reintroduction in India

text: On 28 January 2020, the Supreme Court allowed the central government to introduce Southern African cheetahs to a suitable habitat in India as part of a trial to see if they can adapt. The ruling came in response to an application filed by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) seeking permission to introduce Southern African cheetahs from Namibia. The Supreme Court set up a three-member committee to guide the NTCA and asked the committee to submit a progress report every four months. Strofes technologies which provides tech solutions for wildlife implemented a surveillance system at Kuno National park where officials are trying to complete the first transfer before 15 August 2022. However, the cheetahs haven't arrived yet. But according to sources they may come before end of August 2022.


title: Cheetah reintroduction in India

text: In August 2022, the Union Cabinet Minister of Labour and Employment and Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Bhupender Yadav stated that African cheetahs will be reintroduced to Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary in September. Yadav also stated that 8 cheetahs are being expected to come from Namibia. The Indian Government is also attempting to translocate another 12 cheetahs from South Africa to India.


title: Cheetah reintroduction in India

text: On 17 September 2022, 8 cheetahs from Namibia arrived in Madhya Pradesh's Kuno National Park, where they were released by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as part of the programme to reintroduce the feline in India. Out of the 8 cheetahs, 5 are female and 3 are male. In November 2022, 2 male cheetahs were shifted to a larger enclosure for further adaption after their mandatory quarantine. Later in November 2022, another male cheetah was released into the larger enclosure and on 28 November 2022, 2 female cheetahs were also shifted to the enclosure.


title: The Twelve Dancing Princesses

text: "The Twelve Dancing Princesses" (or "The Worn-Out Dancing Shoes" or "The Shoes that were Danced to Pieces") () is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm and published in "Grimm's Fairy Tales" in 1815 (KHM 133). It is of Aarne-Thompson type 306.


title: The Twelve Dancing Princesses

text: Charles Deulin collected another, French version in his "Contes du Roi Cambrinus" (1874), which he credited to the Grimm version. Alexander Afanasyev collected two Russian variants, entitled "The Night Dances", in his "Narodnye russkie skazki".


title: The Twelve Dancing Princesses

text: Its closest analogue is the Scottish Kate Crackernuts, where it is a prince who is obliged to dance every night.


title: The Twelve Dancing Princesses

text: The tale was published by the Brothers Grimm in the first edition of "Kinder- und Hausmärchen", volume 2, in 1857. Their source was Jenny von Droste-Hülshoff. It was originally numbered 47 but appeared as KHM 133 in subsequent editions.


title: The Twelve Dancing Princesses

text: Twelve princesses sleep in twelve beds in the same room. Every night, their doors are securely locked by their father. But in the morning, their dancing shoes are found to be worn through as if they had been dancing all night. The king, perplexed, asks his daughters to explain, but they refuse. The king then promises his kingdom and each daughter to any man who can discover the princesses' midnight secret within three days and three nights, but those who fail within the set time limit will be sentenced to death.


title: The Twelve Dancing Princesses

text: An old soldier returned from war comes to the king's call after several princes have failed in the attempt. Whilst traveling through a wood he comes upon an old woman, who gives him an enchanted cloak that he can use to observe the king's unaware daughters and tells him not to eat or drink anything given to him in the evening by any of the princesses and to pretend to be fast asleep until they leave.


title: The Twelve Dancing Princesses

text: The soldier is well received at the palace just as the others had been and indeed, in the evening, the princess royal (the eldest daughter) comes to his chamber and offers him a cup of wine. The soldier, remembering the old woman's advice, secretly throws it away and begins to snore loudly as if asleep.


title: The Twelve Dancing Princesses

text: The twelve princesses, assured that the soldier is asleep, dress themselves in fine dancing gowns and escape from their room by a trap door in the floor. The soldier, seeing this, puts on his magic cloak and follows them. He steps on the gown of the youngest princess, whose cry of alarm to her sisters is rebuffed by the eldest. The passageway leads them to three groves of trees; the first having leaves of silver, the second of gold, and the third of glittering diamonds. The soldier, wishing for a token, breaks off a twig of each as evidence. They walk on until they come upon a great clear lake. Twelve boats, with twelve princes, appear where the twelve princesses are waiting. Each princess gets into one, and the soldier steps into the same boat with the twelfth and youngest princess. The youngest princess complains that the prince is not rowing fast enough, not knowing the soldier is in the boat. On the other side of the lake stands a castle, into which all the princesses go and dance the night away.


title: The Twelve Dancing Princesses

text: The twelve princesses happily dance all night until their shoes are worn through and they are obliged to leave. The strange adventure continues on the second and third nights, and everything happens just as before, except that on the third night the soldier carries away a golden cup as a token of where he has been. When it comes time for him to declare the princesses' secret, he goes before the king with the three branches and the golden cup, and tells the king about all he has seen. The princesses know that there is no use in denying the truth, and confess. The soldier chooses the eldest princess as his bride for he is not a very young man, and is made the King's heir. The twelve princes are put under a curse for as many nights as they danced with the princesses.


title: The Twelve Dancing Princesses

text: The Brothers Grimm learned the tale from their friends, the Haxthausens, who had heard the tale in Münster. Other versions were known in Hesse and Paderborn. In the Hesse version, only one princess is believed to be responsible for wearing out a dozen shoes every night until a young shoemaker's apprentice discovers that she is joined by eleven other princesses in the revels. The spell is broken, and the apprentice marries the princess. In the Paderborn version, it is three princesses who dance nightly in a palace escorted by three giants. This version introduces the ruse of the soldier disposing of the drugged wine and pretending to be asleep.


title: The Twelve Dancing Princesses

text: Victorian editors disliked the "do or die" aspect imposed upon those willing to discover the Princesses' whereabouts, and found ways to avoid it. The candidates who failed simply vanished without explanation instead of being sent to their deaths. Andrew Lang's version has the questing princes vanish and it is revealed they have been enchanted and trapped in the underground world. The hero of Lang's version is a cowherd named Michael, who marries the youngest princess, Lina, not the eldest. Her sisters each marry one of the contestants once they are freed from the enchantment.


title: The Twelve Dancing Princesses

text: The garden of trees with gold, silver, and diamond leaves recalls a similar garden in the Sumerian epic of Gilgamesh.


title: The Twelve Dancing Princesses

text: The Princesses in the Grimms' version are often portrayed as somewhat malicious characters, showing no remorse for lying to their father, and repeatedly giving their suitors drugged wine to ensure that their mystery remains unsolved, despite knowing that those who fail are put to death in some versions of the story.


title: The Twelve Dancing Princesses

text: The tale is not likely to be earlier than the 17th century and many variants are known from different countries.


title: The Twelve Dancing Princesses

text: In variants, the princesses vary in number, sometimes being just one maiden. In other variants, the princess goes to a night dance with a supernatural character, such as the Devil.


title: Jonathan Lynn

text: Jonathan Lynn (born 3 April 1943) is an English stage and film director, producer, writer, and actor. He is known for directing the comedy films such as "Clue", "Nuns on the Run", "My Cousin Vinny", and "The Whole Nine Yards". He also co-created and co-wrote the television series "Yes Minister".


title: Jonathan Lynn

text: Lynn was born in Bath, Somerset, the son of physician Robin Lynn and sculptor Ruth Helen (née Eban), whose first cousin on her mother's side was the neurologist Oliver Sacks. Another cousin, Caroline Sacks, married Nicholas Samuel, 5th Viscount Bearsted. Lynn was educated at Kingswood School, Bath, between 1954 and 1961, after which he studied law at Pembroke College, Cambridge. (His maternal uncle, Israeli statesman Abba Eban, had also studied at Cambridge in the 1930s.) There he participated in the Cambridge University Footlights Club revue "Cambridge Circus" (appearing with the revue in 1964 on Broadway and on "The Ed Sullivan Show").


title: Jonathan Lynn

text: Lynn's first West End appearance was in a stage production of "Green Julia", for which he was nominated for the 1965 Plays and Players Award as Most Promising New Actor. In 1967, he played Motel the tailor in the original West End production of "Fiddler on the Roof" (production recorded by CBS Records). From the late 1960s, Lynn was appearing in and writing television sitcoms, including the television comedy series "Twice a Fortnight" with Graeme Garden, Bill Oddie, Terry Jones, Michael Palin and Tony Buffery.


title: Jonathan Lynn

text: Lynn played the Irish medical student Danny Hooley in the second series of the television comedy "Doctor in the House" in 1970. He wrote some episodes for "Doctor at Large", "Doctor in Charge", "Doctor at Sea" and "Doctor on the Go". As a TV actor, his most memorable roles included Beryl's boyfriend Robert in early series of "The Liver Birds", the role of Harold in Jack Rosenthal's 1976 television film "Bar Mitzvah Boy", and the role of Ted Margolis in Rosenthal's "The Knowledge" (1979). He had a bit-part as a window cleaner in the BBC television series "The Good Life". His film appearances have included roles in "Prudence and the Pill" (1968), "The House That Dripped Blood" (1971), "Romance with a Double Bass" (1974), and "Three Men and a Little Lady" (1990).


title: Jonathan Lynn

text: Lynn's first (co-written) screenplay was for "The Internecine Project", which was released in 1974. For television he wrote episodes for the "Doctor" TV series and "On the Buses" and wrote for Harry Worth and George Layton before eventually, in partnership with Antony Jay, writing "Yes Minister" and "Yes, Prime Minister". His later writing credits include the first two films he directed, "Clue" (1985) and "Nuns on the Run" (1990). He is also known for his co-writing, co-producing, and co-directing of the revived "Yes, Prime Minister" series produced by the BBC on Gold in 2013.


title: Jonathan Lynn

text: Lynn co-authored the books "The Complete Yes Minister", as well as "The Complete Yes Prime Minister", which spent 106 weeks on the "Sunday Times" top 10 fiction list. Both were ranked number one on the "Sunday Times" list, including in December 1986 when the books were ranked number one and number two respectively. He also wrote the 1993 novel "Mayday". In 2011 Lynn wrote a non-fiction work entitled "Comedy Rules". "The Independent" newspaper called the book "a charming memoir, full of amusing and insightful anecdotes about the many entertainers Lynn has worked with" and described it as a combination of autobiography and how-to manual for comedy. The paper wrote further: "By dovetailing different types of book, Lynn cleverly avoids the pitfalls of both genres. Because it's ostensibly a sort of how-to book, there are no boring childhood reminiscences. Because it's also a kind of autobiography, his no-nonsense dos and don'ts are springboards for entertaining yarns, rather than academic discourse."


title: Jonathan Lynn

text: Lynn won praise for his direction of the 2010 London stage version of "Yes, Prime Minister", which he co-wrote as well.


title: Jonathan Lynn

text: In 2016 Lynn’s play "The Patriotic Traitor" was published. Its subject is the relationship of Philippe Pétain to Charles de Gaulle. In the words of the blurb, ‘Two giants of the twentieth century who loved each other like father and son until they found themselves on opposing sides in World War II. In 1945 de Gaulle had his oldest friend tried for treason. Their complex relationship – noble, comic and absurd – changed history.’


title: Jonathan Lynn

text: Lynn also produced six episodes of the new "Yes, Prime Minister" television series, was executive producer of "He's Such a Girl", "Vanity Fair", and was a producer for "Trial and Error". It also received an exclusive production agreement with Columbia Pictures Television in 1992.


title: Jonathan Lynn

text: Lynn's work on the "Minister" series earned him three BAFTAs, two Broadcasting Press Guild Awards, and two Pye Television Writers Awards, and he won the ACE Award for Best Written Comedy Series. The Campaign for Freedom of Information also recognized Lynn with a special award for his work on the show. Lynn was a recipient of a Diamond Jubilee Award for Political Satire in 2010. He received a NAACP Image Award for the 2003 film "The Fighting Temptations".


title: Amortized analysis

text: In computer science, amortized analysis is a method for analyzing a given algorithm's complexity, or how much of a resource, especially time or memory, it takes to execute. The motivation for amortized analysis is that looking at the worst-case run time can be too pessimistic. Instead, amortized analysis averages the running times of operations in a sequence over that sequence.


title: Amortized analysis

text: As a conclusion: "Amortized analysis is a useful tool that complements other techniques such as worst-case and average-case analysis."


title: Amortized analysis

text: For a given operation of an algorithm, certain situations (e.g., input parametrizations or data structure contents) may imply a significant cost in resources, whereas other situations may not be as costly. The amortized analysis considers both the costly and less costly operations together over the whole sequence of operations. This may include accounting for different types of input, length of the input, and other factors that affect its performance.


title: Amortized analysis

text: Amortized analysis initially emerged from a method called aggregate analysis, which is now subsumed by amortized analysis. The technique was first formally introduced by Robert Tarjan in his 1985 paper "Amortized Computational Complexity", which addressed the need for a more useful form of analysis than the common probabilistic methods used. Amortization was initially used for very specific types of algorithms, particularly those involving binary trees and union operations. However, it is now ubiquitous and comes into play when analyzing many other algorithms as well.


title: Amortized analysis

text: Amortized analysis requires knowledge of which series of operations are possible. This is most commonly the case with data structures, which have state that persists between operations. The basic idea is that a worst-case operation can alter the state in such a way that the worst case cannot occur again for a long time, thus "amortizing" its cost.


title: Amortized analysis

text: There are generally three methods for performing amortized analysis: the aggregate method, the accounting method, and the potential method. All of these give correct answers; the choice of which to use depends on which is most convenient for a particular situation.


title: Amortized analysis

text: Consider a dynamic array that grows in size as more elements are added to it, such as in Java or in C++. If we started out with a dynamic array of size 4, we could push 4 elements onto it, and each operation would take constant time. Yet pushing a fifth element onto that array would take longer as the array would have to create a new array of double the current size (8), copy the old elements onto the new array, and then add the new element. The next three push operations would similarly take constant time, and then the subsequent addition would require another slow doubling of the array size.


title: Amortized analysis

text: In general if we consider an arbitrary number of pushes "n" + 1 to an array of size "n", we notice that push operations take constant time except for the last one which takes time to perform the size doubling operation. Since there were "n" + 1 operations total we can take the average of this and find that pushing elements onto the dynamic array takes: formula_1, constant time.


title: Amortized analysis

text: The enqueue operation just pushes an element onto the input array; this operation does not depend on the lengths of either input or output and therefore runs in constant time.


title: Amortized analysis

text: However the dequeue operation is more complicated. If the output array already has some elements in it, then dequeue runs in constant time; otherwise, dequeue takes time to add all the elements onto the output array from the input array, where "n" is the current length of the input array. After copying "n" elements from input, we can perform "n" dequeue operations, each taking constant time, before the output array is empty again. Thus, we can perform a sequence of "n" dequeue operations in only time, which implies that the amortized time of each dequeue operation is .


title: Amortized analysis

text: Alternatively, we can charge the cost of copying any item from the input array to the output array to the earlier enqueue operation for that item. This charging scheme doubles the amortized time for enqueue but reduces the amortized time for dequeue to .


title: 2024 United States gubernatorial elections

text: United States gubernatorial elections are scheduled to be held on November 5, 2024, in 11 states and two territories. The previous gubernatorial elections for this group of states took place in 2020, except in New Hampshire and Vermont where governors only serve two-year terms and elected their governors in 2022.


text: In addition to state gubernatorial elections, the territories of American Samoa and Puerto Rico will also hold elections for their governors.


text: The elections will take place concurrently with the 2024 presidential election, elections to the House of Representatives and Senate, and numerous state and local elections.


text: Governor John Carney was re-elected to a second term in 2020 with 59.5% of the vote. He will be term-limited by the Delaware Constitution in 2024 and cannot seek re-election for a third term.


text: Governor Eric Holcomb was re-elected to a second term in 2020 with 56.5% of the vote. He will be term-limited by the Indiana Constitution in 2024 and cannot seek re-election for a third consecutive term. Former president of the Indiana Economic Development Corporation Eric Doden is running for the Republican nomination. United States Senator Mike Braun has announced an intention to seek the Republican gubernatorial nomination.


text: Governor Mike Parson took office on June 1, 2018, upon the resignation of Eric Greitens and was elected to a full term in his own right in 2020 with 57.2% of the vote. He will be term-limited by the Missouri Constitution in 2024 and cannot seek re-election for a second full term. Lieutenant Governor of Missouri Mike Kehoe is running for the Republican gubernatorial nomination.


text: Governor Greg Gianforte was elected in 2020 with 54.4% of the vote. He is eligible to run for re-election, but has not yet stated whether he will do so.


text: Governor Chris Sununu won reelection to a fourth term in 2022. Because New Hampshire does not have gubernatorial term limits in its Constitution, he will be eligible to run for re-election for a historic fifth term in 2024. Potential candidates include 2022 Democratic nominee Tom Sherman. Steve Marchand, a previous Democratic candidate for Governor, has declined to run.


text: Governor Roy Cooper was re-elected to a second term in 2020 with 51.5% of the vote. He will be term-limited by the North Carolina Constitution in 2024 and cannot seek re-election for a third consecutive term. Potential candidates include Democratic Attorney General of North Carolina Josh Stein and Republican Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina Mark Robinson.


text: Governor Doug Burgum was re-elected to a second term in 2020 with 65.8% of the vote. Because North Dakota until 2022 did not have gubernatorial term limits in its Constitution, he is to be the last governor eligible to run for re-election for a third term and has expressed interest in doing so. In November 2022, voters in the state approved a constitutional amendment that limits succeeding governors to no more than two four-year terms. The amendment only applies to individuals elected after 2023.


text: Governor Spencer Cox was elected in 2020 with 63% of the vote and is running for reelection to a second term. Although Utah does not have gubernatorial term limits, he plans to only serve two terms.


text: Governor Phil Scott won reelection to a fourth term in 2022. Because Vermont does not have gubernatorial term limits in its Constitution, he will be eligible to run for re-election for a fifth term in 2024.


text: Governor Jay Inslee was re-elected to a third term in 2020 with 56.6% of the vote. Because Washington does not have gubernatorial term limits in its Constitution, he is eligible to run for re-election for a fourth term and has filed paperwork to do so. Should Inslee retire, King County Executive Dow Constantine and Washington attorney general Bob Ferguson have been mentioned as a potential candidates.


text: Governor Jim Justice was re-elected to a second term in 2020 with 63.5% of the vote. He will be term-limited by the West Virginia Constitution in 2024 and cannot seek re-election for a third consecutive term. Businessman and son of U.S. Representative Carol Miller, Chris Miller is running for the Republican gubernatorial nomination. Additionally, auditor of West Virginia JB McCuskey has expressed interest in running for the Republican nomination.


text: Governor Lemanu Peleti Mauga was elected in 2020 with 60.3% of the vote. He is eligible to run for re-election, but has not yet stated whether he will do so.


text: Governor Pedro Pierluisi was elected in 2020 with 32.9% of the vote. He is eligible to run for re-election, and stated that he would on March 20, 2022 during the New Progressive Party's general assembly.


title: Werner Erhard

text: Werner Hans Erhard (born John Paul Rosenberg; September 5, 1935) is an American author and lecturer known for founding est, which operated from 1971 to 1984. He has written, lectured, and taught on self-improvement.


title: Werner Erhard

text: In 1977 Erhard, with the support of John Denver, Robert W. Fuller and others, founded The Hunger Project, an NGO accredited by the United Nations in which more than four million people have participated with the goal of establishing "the end of hunger as an idea whose time has come".


title: Werner Erhard

text: In 1991 Erhard retired from business and sold his existing intellectual property to his employees, who then adopted the name Landmark Education, renamed in 2013 Landmark Worldwide.


title: Werner Erhard

text: John Paul Rosenberg was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on September 5, 1935. His father was a small-restaurant owner who left Judaism for a Baptist mission before joining his wife in the Episcopal Church, where she taught Sunday School. They agreed that their son should choose his religion when he was old enough. He chose to be baptized in the Episcopal Church, served there for eight years as an acolyte, and has been an Episcopalian ever since.


title: Werner Erhard

text: Rosenberg attended Norristown High School in Norristown, Pennsylvania, where he received the English award in his senior year. He graduated in June 1953, along with his future wife Patricia Fry, whom he married on September 26, 1953; they had four children.


title: Werner Erhard

text: From the early mid-1950s until 1960, Rosenberg worked in various automobile dealerships (starting at a Ford dealership where he was trained by Lee Iacocca, then Lincoln Mercury, and finally Chevrolet), with a stint managing a nearly defunct medium-duty industrial equipment firm, which became successful under his management.


title: Werner Erhard

text: In 1960, Rosenberg left Patricia and their children in Philadelphia, traveled to Indianapolis with June Bryde, and changed his name to "Werner Hans Erhard"; he chose the name from "Esquire" magazine articles he had read about West German economics minister Ludwig Erhard and physicist Werner Heisenberg. Bryde changed her name to Ellen Virginia Erhard. The Erhards moved to St. Louis, where Werner took a job as a car salesman.


title: Werner Erhard

text: Patricia Rosenberg and their four children initially relied on welfare and help from family and friends. After five years without contact, Patricia Rosenberg divorced Erhard for desertion and remarried.


title: Werner Erhard

text: In October 1972, a year after creating Erhard Seminars Training, Erhard contacted his first wife and family, arranged to provide support and college education for the children, and repaid Patricia's parents for their financial support. Between 1973 and 1975, members of his extended family took the est training, and Patricia and his younger siblings took jobs in the est organization.


title: Werner Erhard

text: In 1961, Erhard began selling correspondence courses in the Midwest. He then moved to Spokane, Washington, where he worked at Encyclopædia Britannica's "Great Books" program as an area training manager. In January 1962, Erhard began working at "Parents" Magazine Cultural Institute, a division of W.R. Grace & Co. In the summer of 1962, he became territorial manager for California, Nevada, and Arizona, and moved to San Francisco and in the spring of 1963 to Los Angeles. In January 1964, "Parents" transferred him to Arlington, Virginia, as the southeast division manager, but after a dispute with the company president he returned to his previous position as west coast division manager in San Francisco. Over the next few years, Erhard brought on as "Parents" staff many people who later became important in est, including Elaine Cronin, Gonneke Spits, and Laurel Scheaf.


title: Werner Erhard

text: While largely self-educated, Erhard was influenced by or worked closely with philosophers, leadership and business academics, physicists, and Zen masters. Philosopher Michael E. Zimmerman said of Erhard, "He had no particular formal training in anything, but he understood things as well as anyone I'd ever seen; and I've been around a lot of smart people in academia." During his time in St. Louis, he read two books that had a marked effect on him: "Think and Grow Rich" by Napoleon Hill (1937) and "Psycho-Cybernetics" by Maxwell Maltz (1960). When a member of his staff at "Parents Magazine" introduced him to the ideas of Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers, both key figures in the Human Potential Movement, he became more interested in personal fulfillment than sales success.


title: Werner Erhard

text: After moving to Sausalito, he attended seminars by Alan Watts, a Western interpreter of Zen Buddhism, who introduced him to the distinction between mind and self; Erhard subsequently became close friends with Watts. Erhard also studied in Japan with Zen rōshi Yamada Mumon. In Bartley's biography, "Werner Erhard: The Transformation of a Man, the Founding of est" (1978), Bartley quotes Erhard as acknowledging Zen as an essential contribution that "created the space for" est.


title: Werner Erhard

text: Erhard attended the Dale Carnegie Course in 1967. He was sufficiently impressed by it to make his staff attend the course, and began to think about developing a course of his own. Over the following years, Erhard investigated a wide range of movements, including Encounter, Transactional Analysis, Enlightenment Intensive, Subud and Scientology.


title: Werner Erhard

text: In 1970 Erhard became involved in Mind Dynamics and began teaching his own version of Mind Dynamics classes in San Francisco and Los Angeles. The directors of Mind Dynamics eventually invited him into their partnership, but Erhard rejected the offer, saying he would rather develop his own seminar program—est, the first program of which he conducted in October 1971. John Hanley, who later founded Lifespring, was also involved at this time. In their 1992 book "Perspectives on the New Age", James R. Lewis and J. Gordon Melton write that Mind Dynamics, est, and LifeSpring have "striking" similarities, as all used "authoritarian trainers who enforce numerous rules," require applause from participants, and de-emphasize reason in favor of emotion. The authors also describe graduates recruiting heavily on behalf of the companies, thereby eliminating marketing expenses.


title: Werner Erhard

text: Starting in 1971, est, short for Erhard Seminars Training and also Latin for "it is", offered in-depth personal and professional development workshops, the initial program of which was called "The est Training". The est Training's purpose was to transform the way one sees and makes sense of life so that the situations one had been trying to change or tolerating clear up in the process of living itself. The point was to leave participants free to be, while increasing their effectiveness and the quality of their lives. The est Training was experiential and transformational in nature.


title: Werner Erhard

text: The workshops were offered until 1984, when the est training was replaced by the Forum. As of 1984, 700,000 people had completed the est training. American ethicist, philosopher, and historian Jonathan D. Moreno has described the est training as "the most important cultural event after the human potential movement itself seemed exhausted" and a form of "Socratic interrogation". Erhard challenged participants to be themselves and live in the present instead of playing a role imposed on them by their past, and to move beyond their current points of view into a perspective from which they could observe their own positionality. The author Robert Hargrove said, "you're going to notice that things do begin to clear up, just in the process of life itself".


title: Werner Erhard

text: The first est course was held in San Francisco, California, in October 1971. Erhard led all the early est courses himself, but by the mid-1970s he had trained ten others (doctors, attorneys, and businessmen and -women) to do so. Est centers opened in Los Angeles, Aspen, Honolulu, New York, and many other cities, and est was enthusiastically endorsed by celebrities and people of influence such as leadership and business academic Warren Bennis, philosopher Walter Kaufmann, social activist Jerry Rubin, business magnate David Geffen, author and businesswoman Arianna Huffington, artist and peace activist Yoko Ono, singer-songwriter John Denver, and actress Valerie Harper.


title: Werner Erhard

text: In the early 1970s the est Foundation became the Werner Erhard Foundation, with the aim of "providing financial and organizational support to individuals and groups engaged in charitable and educational pursuits—research, communication, education, and scholarly endeavors in the fields of individual and social transformation and human well-being." The foundation supported projects launched by people committed to altering what is possible for humanity, such as The Hunger Project, The Mastery Foundation, The Holiday Project, and the Youth at Risk Program, programs that continue to be active. It also organized presentations by scholars and humanitarians such as the Dalai Lama and Buckminster Fuller and hosted an annual conference in theoretical physics, a science in which Erhard was especially interested. The annual conference was designed to give physicists an opportunity to work with their colleagues on what they were developing before they published, and was attended by such physicists as Richard Feynman, Stephen Hawking, and Leonard Susskind.


title: Werner Erhard

text: In the 1980s Erhard created a new program called the Forum, which began in January 1985. Also during that period he developed and presented a series of seminars, broadcast via satellite, that included interviews with contemporary thinkers in science, economics, sports, and the arts on topics such as creativity, performance, and money.


title: Werner Erhard

text: In October 1987 Erhard hosted a televised broadcast with sports coaches John Wooden, Red Auerbach, Tim Gallwey and George Allen to discuss principles of coaching across all disciplines. They sought to identify distinctions found in coaching regardless of the subject being coached. Jim Selman moderated the discussion and in 1989 documented the outcome in an article, "Coaching and the Art of Management."


title: Werner Erhard

text: After retiring from Werner Erhard & Associates, Erhard continued to make public appearances. One of these was the December 8, 1993, episode of CNN's "Larry King Live", "Whatever Happened to Werner Erhard?" Erhard participated via satellite from Moscow, where he was working with the All Union Knowledge Society and a number of the members of the newly formed Russian parliament. During this time he worked on peace and reconciliation in Northern Ireland, and on some occasions with author Peter Block.


title: Werner Erhard

text: Erhard has devoted his time to scholarly research, writing, and teaching his ideas on integrity, leadership, performance, and transformation. He authored a paper on integrity with Michael C. Jensen and Steve Zaffron. Author Bartley J. Madden wrote of Erhard's, Jensen's, and their colleagues' new paradigm of individual, group, and organizational performance that it "emphasizes how one's worldview shapes and constrains each individual's perceptions. The paradigm takes one to the source of performance, which is not available by merely explaining performance through linear cause and effect analysis", that "the source of performance resides in how actions correlate naturally with the way circumstances occur", and that "language (including what is said and unsaid in conversations) plays a dominant role in how situations occur and so is instrumental in improving performance".


title: Werner Erhard

text: A major part of Erhard's current work is devoted to the creation and development of the course "Being A Leader and The Effective Exercise of Leadership: An Ontological/Phenomenological Model", which he and his colleagues have led at numerous universities and is taught by 34 professors at their own schools. The "Financial Times" management editor Andrew Hill wrote that the course contributes to the field of business education and furthers academic research.


title: Werner Erhard

text: Erhard is the author of the final chapter of "Hayek: A Collaborative Biography", a book about economist Friedrich Hayek, edited by Robert Leeson.


title: Werner Erhard

text: Erhard became the object of popular fascination and criticism, with the media tending to vilify him over several decades. Moreno has written, "Allegations of all sorts of personal and financial wrongdoing were hurled at him, none of which were borne out and some [of which] were even publicly retracted by major media organizations." Various skeptics have questioned or criticized the validity of Erhard's work and his motivations. Psychiatrist Marc Galanter called Erhard "a man with no formal experience in mental health, self-help, or religious revivalism, but a background in retail sales". Michael E. Zimmerman, chair of the philosophy department at Tulane University, wrote "A Philosophical Assessment of the est Training", in which he calls Erhard "a kind of artist, a thinker, an inventor, who has big debts to others, borrowed from others, but then put the whole thing together in a way that no one else had ever done." Sacramento City College philosophy professor Robert Todd Carroll has called est a "hodge-podge of philosophical bits and pieces culled from the carcasses of existential philosophy, motivational psychology." Social critic John Bassett MacCleary called Erhard "a former used-car salesman" and est "just another moneymaking scam." NYU psychology professor Paul Vitz called est "primarily a business" and said its "style of operation has been labeled as fascist."


title: Werner Erhard

text: In 1991 Erhard "vanished amid reports of tax fraud (which proved false and won him $200,000 from the IRS) and allegations of incest (which were later recanted)." The March 3, 1991, episode of "60 Minutes" covered these allegations and was later removed by CBS due to factual inaccuracies. On March 3, 1992, Erhard sued CBS, "San Jose Mercury News" reporter John Hubner and approximately 20 other defendants for libel, defamation, slander, invasion of privacy, and conspiracy. On May 20, 1992, he filed for dismissal of his own case and sent each of the defendants $100 to cover their filing fees in the case. Erhard told Larry King in an interview that he dropped the suit after receiving legal advice telling him that in order to win it, he would have to prove not just that CBS knew the allegations were false but that CBS acted with malice. Erhard told King that his family members had since retracted their allegations, which according to Erhard had been made under pressure from the "60 Minutes" producer.


title: Werner Erhard

text: Erhard's daughters retracted the allegations of sexual abuse they had made against him. Celeste Erhard, one of the daughters featured on "60 Minutes", sued Hubner and the "San Jose Mercury News" for $2 million, accusing the newspaper of having "defrauded her and invaded her privacy", saying she had exaggerated information, been promised a $2 million book deal, and appeared on "60 Minutes" to get publicity for the book. Celeste claimed that her quotes in the "Mercury News" article were deceitfully obtained. The case was dismissed in August 1993, the judge ruling that the statute of limitations had expired, that Celeste "had suffered no monetary damages or physical harm and that she failed to present legal evidence that Hubner had deliberately misled her", which is legally required for damages.


title: Werner Erhard

text: CBS subsequently withdrew the video of the "60 Minutes" program from the market. A disclaimer said, "this segment has been deleted at the request of CBS News for legal or copyright reasons".


title: Werner Erhard

text: In 1992 a court entered a default judgment of $380,000 against Erhard in absentia in a case alleging negligent injury. The appellate court stated that he had not been personally served and was not present at the trial.


title: Werner Erhard

text: In 1993 Erhard filed a wrongful disclosure lawsuit against the IRS, asserting that IRS agents had incorrectly and illegally revealed details of his tax returns to the media. In April 1991, IRS spokesmen were widely quoted alleging that "Erhard owed millions of dollars in back taxes, that he was transferring assets out of the country, and that the agency was suing Erhard", branding Erhard a "tax cheat". On April 15, the IRS was reported to have placed a lien of $6.7 million on Erhard's personal property. In his suit Erhard stated that he had never refused to pay taxes that were lawfully due, and in September 1996 he won the suit. The IRS paid him $200,000 in damages. While admitting that the media reports quoting the IRS on Erhard's tax liabilities had been false, the IRS took no action to have the media correct those statements.


title: Werner Erhard

text: A private investigator quoted in the "Los Angeles Times" stated that by October 1989, Scientology had collected five filing cabinets' worth of materials about Erhard, many from certain graduates of est who had joined Scientology, and that Scientology was clearly in the process of organizing a "media blitz" aimed at discrediting him. According to Erhard's brother Harry Rosenberg, "Werner made some very, very powerful enemies. They really got him."


title: Werner Erhard

text: A 2012 "Financial Times" article stated that Erhard's influence "extends far beyond the couple of million people who have done his courses; there is hardly a self-help book or a management training programme that does not borrow some of his principles." In 1995, "Fortune" magazine's 40th anniversary issue wrote that Erhard's ideas about methods for empowering people were one of the major innovations in management thinking of the previous two decades. Erhard's work has impacted millions of people's lives through his programs for individuals, organizations and business leaders. His work has been cited as having a significant cultural impact on America in the 1970s. Erhard's teachings have influenced the field of professional coaching and been noted as having a positive impact on society.


title: Werner Erhard

text: In 1977, with the support of John Denver, former Oberlin College president Robert W. Fuller, and others, Erhard founded The Hunger Project, a nonprofit NGO accredited to the United Nations Economic and Social Council in which more than four million people have participated. Erhard wrote the Hunger Project source document "The End of Starvation: Creating an Idea Whose Time Has Come."


title: Werner Erhard

text: In 1991 the group that later formed Landmark Education purchased the intellectual property of Erhard. In 1998, "Time" magazine published an article about Landmark Education and its historical connection to Erhard. The article stated that: "In 1991, before he left the U.S., Erhard sold the 'technology' behind his seminars to his employees, who formed a new company called the Landmark Education Corp., with Erhard's brother Harry Rosenberg at the helm." Landmark Education states that its programs have as their basis ideas originally developed by Erhard, but that Erhard has no financial interest, ownership, or management role in Landmark Education. In Stephanie Ney v. Landmark Education Corporation (1994), the courts determined Landmark Education Corporation did not have successor-liability to Werner Erhard & Associates, the corporation whose assets Landmark Education purchased.


title: Werner Erhard

text: According to Steven Pressman in the 1993 book "Outrageous Betrayal", Landmark Education further agreed to pay Erhard a long-term licensing fee for the material used in the Forum and other courses. Erhard stood to earn up to $15 million over the next 18 years." However, Arthur Schreiber's declaration of May 3, 2005 states: "Landmark Education has never paid Erhard under the license agreements (he assigned his rights to others)."


title: Werner Erhard

text: In 2001, "New York Magazine" reported that Landmark Education's CEO, Harry Rosenberg, said that the company had bought outright Erhard's license and his rights to the business in Japan and Mexico. From time to time Erhard consults with Landmark Education.


title: Werner Erhard

text: "Bartley, William Warren III: Werner Erhard The Transformation of a Man: The Founding of est", New York: Clarkson N. Potter Inc. (1978) ISBN 0-517-53502-5.


title: Werner Erhard

text: "Speaking Being: Werner Erhard, Martin Heidegger, and a New Possibility of Being Human", Hyde, Bruce and Drew Kopp: Wiley (2019) ISBN 978-1119549901.


title: Werner Erhard

text: "Being Well" Chapter 5 in "Beyond Health and Normality: Explorations of Exceptional Psychological Well-Being", edited by Roger Walsh and Deane H. Shapiro Jr., Van Nostrand. 1983.


title: Werner Erhard

text: "est: Communication in a Context of Compassion" with Victor Gioscia, "The Journal of Current Psychiatric Therapies", Volume 18. 1978.


title: Werner Erhard

text: "Creating Leaders: An Ontological/Phenomenological Model" with Michael C. Jensen, Chapter 16 in Handbook For Teaching Leadership: Knowing, Doing, and Being, edited by Scott A. Snook, Rakesh Khurana, and Nitin Nohria, Harvard Business School. SAGE Publications, 2012


title: Werner Erhard

text: "Four Ways of Being that Create the Foundations of A Great Personal Life, Great Leadership and A Great Organization" with Michael C. Jensen, Jesse Isidor Straus Professor of Business Administration, Emeritus Harvard Business School, 2013


title: Werner Erhard

text: "The Hunger Project Source Document, The End of Starvation: Creating an Idea Whose Time Has Come" 1977


title: Werner Erhard

text: "Integrity: A Positive Model that Incorporates the Normative Phenomena of Morality, Ethics and Legality" with Michael C. Jensen, and Steve Zaffron. Harvard Business School NOM Working Paper No. 06-11; Barbados Group Working Paper No. 06-03; Simon School Working Paper No. FR 08-05.


title: Werner Erhard

text: "Putting Integrity Into Finance: A Purely Positive Approach" with Michael C. Jensen. Journal: Capitalism and Society, Issue 12, Volume 1, May 2017; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) #19986, March 2014;[82] European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI) Finance Working Paper No. 417/2014; and Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation.


title: Cintamani

text: Cintāmaṇi (Sanskrit; Devanagari: चिंतामणि; Chinese: 如意寶珠; Pinyin: "Rúyì bǎozhū"; Japanese Romaji: "Nyoihōju; Tamil:சிந்தாமணி"), also spelled as Chintamani (or the "Chintamani Stone"), is a wish-fulfilling jewel within both Hindu and Buddhist traditions, said by some to be the equivalent of the philosopher's stone in Western alchemy. It is one of several Mani Jewel images found in Buddhist scripture.


title: Cintamani

text: Within Hinduism, it is connected with the gods Vishnu and Ganesha. In Hindu tradition, it is often depicted as a fabulous jewel in the possession of Vishnu as the Kaustubha Mani or as on the forehead of the Naga king called as Naga Mani, or on the forehead of the Makara. The "Yoga Vasistha", originally written in the 10th century CE, contains a story about the cintamani.


title: Cintamani

text: The Hindu Vishnu Purana speaks of the "Syamanta jewel, bestowing prosperity upon its owner, encapsulates the Yadu clan system". The Vishnu Purana is attributed to the mid-first millennium CE.


title: Cintamani

text: In Buddhism, it is held by the Bodhisattvas (divine beings with great compassion, wisdom and power) Avalokiteshvara and Ksitigarbha. It is also seen carried upon the back of the Lung Ta (wind horse) which is depicted on Tibetan prayer flags. By reciting the Dharani (small hymn) of Cintamani, Buddhist tradition maintains that one attains the Wisdom of Buddha, able to understand the truth of the Buddha, and turn afflictions into Bodhi. It is said to allow one to see the Holy Retinue of Amitabha and assembly upon one's deathbed. In Tibetan Buddhist tradition the Chintamani is sometimes depicted as a luminous pearl and is in the possession of several of different forms of the Buddha.


title: Cintamani

text: In Japan, where the Hindu goddess, "Lakshmi" is known as "Kisshōten" in Shinto, she is commonly depicted with a Cintāmaṇi in her hand.


title: Cintamani

text: Cintāmaṇi (Sanskrit; Devanagari: चिन्तामणि): 'Wish-Fulfilling Gem' () The "mani" (jewel) is translated in Chinese "ruyi" or "ruyizhu" 如意珠 "as-one-wishes jewel" or "ruyibaozhu" 如意寶珠 "as-one-wishes precious jewel". "Ruyibaozhu" is pronounced in Japanese "nyoi-hōju" or "nyoi-hōshu" 如意宝珠. "Ruyizhu" is pronounced in Korean "yeouiju" 여의주.


title: Cintamani

text: The Bhagavata Purana remarks that the cintamani may give worldly pleasures and affluence in Svarga, but spiritual advancement allows one to attain Vaikuntha, the realm of Vishnu that is difficult to achieve, even for "yogins".


title: Cintamani

text: In Buddhism the Chintamani is said to be one of four relics that came in a chest that fell from the sky (many terma fell from the sky in caskets) during the reign of king Lha Thothori Nyantsen of Tibet. Though the king did not understand the purpose of the objects, he kept them in a position of reverence. Several years later, two mysterious strangers appeared at the court of the king, explaining the four relics, which included the Buddha's bowl (possibly a Singing Bowl) and a mani stone with the Om Mani Padme Hum mantra inscribed on it. These few objects were the bringers of the Dharma to Tibet.


title: Cintamani

text: The Digital Dictionary of Buddhism's "ruyizhu" entry says:A '-jewel; magical jewel, which manifests whatever one wishes for (Skt. ', ', '). According to one's desires, treasures, clothing and food can be manifested, while sickness and suffering can be removed, water can be purified, etc. It is a metaphor for the teachings and virtues of the Buddha. ... Said to be obtained from the dragon-king of the sea, or the head of the great fish, Makara, or the relics of a Buddha.


title: Questioning (sexuality and gender)

text: The questioning of one's sexual orientation, sexual identity, gender, or all three is a process of exploration by people who may be unsure, still exploring, or concerned about applying a social label to themselves for various reasons. The letter "Q" is sometimes added to the end of the acronym LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender); the "Q" can refer to either queer or questioning.


title: Questioning (sexuality and gender)

text: Sexual orientation, sexual identity, or gender does not always coincide with each other; meaning for example, if an individual identifies themselves as a heterosexual, they may not only be attracted to someone of the opposite sex and have sexual interactions with someone who is of the same sex without necessarily identifying themselves as bisexual. The understanding that one does not need to apply any type of gender or sexuality label to oneself is relatively publicly and socially prominent in the modern day, along with gender and sexual fluidity, which is also more openly discussed and accepted in today's society. Individuals who do not identify themselves as male, female, transgender, heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, asexual or feel their sexuality is fluid, may refer to themselves as gender neutral, genderqueer, non-binary, or agender.


title: Questioning (sexuality and gender)

text: During the stage of adolescence, the notions of questioning one's sexuality or gender, along with the diverse areas related to it, can arise as the construction of identity begins to form. It is a stage where exploration, learning, and experimenting often occur. While some youths have little to no issue in self-identifying, many youths encounter a great deal of confusion and uncertainty at this stage. They may have issues in understanding their sexuality, sexual orientation, gender identity, or whether or not they fit into any preconceived social normative labels. Studies have shown that 57% of people first had questioning thoughts on their sexuality or gender between the ages of 11 and 15.


title: Questioning (sexuality and gender)

text: According to Sarah Gardner, the ways in which humans behave are based on five basic needs: survival, love and belonging, power, freedom and enjoyment. An individual will shift their behaviors in order to satisfy these needs. In the case of questioning youth, some or all of these needs are not met. When one or more of these needs are not fulfilled, their behaviors may become aggravated, confused or discouraged in trying to satisfy the need to either survive, feel loved or that they belong, achieve freedom, gain power or feel a sense of enjoyment.


title: Questioning (sexuality and gender)

text: Gender identity is crucial in the development of young individuals as it is a big part of their personal social identity. The confusion and questioning involved in one's formation of gender identity can be influenced by the need to fit into gender binaries or adhere to social ideals constructed by mainstream society. The assigned sex of a person at birth, otherwise known as natal sex, is not always interchangeable with the terms "gender identity" and "gender role". Natal sex and gender identity are, however, different components of identity, and gender identity does not necessarily unfold in the direction of one's natal sex. Gender identity is not the same as gender role; gender identity is a core sense of self, whereas gender role involves the adaptation of socially constructed markers (clothing, mannerism, behaviors) traditionally thought of as masculine and feminine. Natal sex, gender identity, and gender role interact in complex ways and each of these is also separate from the direction of one's sexual attraction. The social constructs of masculinity and femininity may also play a factor in causing confusion for youths; it may impact the way they feel they have to behave if they identify with certain gender identities or sexual orientations.


title: Questioning (sexuality and gender)

text: The awareness of sexual orientation strongly contributes to the formulation of gender identity. The two are equally important in contributing to the development of an individual during the adolescent stage. The questioning of a young individual's sexuality or sexual orientation comes into play in a variety of situations; regardless of experience or lack thereof. For example, an individual who generally identifies themselves as homosexual may also have sexual interactions with the opposite sex, but do not necessarily feel that they are bisexual. Furthermore, an individual may also identify with a definitive sexual orientation or gender without having any, or only some sexual interactions or experiences.


title: Questioning (sexuality and gender)

text: The social aspect is a significant factor that can cause questioning youth to feel they have an unsafe environment in establishing their sexuality or gender. The need for social acceptance by their peers and other members of society during adolescence gives the individual the feeling of belonging; therefore, the fear of rejection or discrimination can keep youths from being public with their uncertain identity.


title: Questioning (sexuality and gender)

text: Heteronormativity can contribute to the hesitation of youths in being public with their gender identity and sexuality. This can be due to the fact that one may feel they do not fit with the social constructs of heterosexuality, masculinity, or femininity - which are ideals that do not necessarily include the exceptions and differences of other genders and sexualities. Gender acceptance has two main influences: misunderstanding and fear of the unknown. An inner conflict may arise when the individual transitions to another gender. The social construct of heteronormativity is directly related to gender binary; these two constructs are often conditioned in the mainstream to be more accepted, therefore impacting the acceptance of other genders and sexualities, ones that may not fit into those norms or are fluid between multiple categories.


title: Questioning (sexuality and gender)

text: Some youths avoid coming out or even acknowledging their sexual orientation because of homophobia. Acknowledging their lesbian, gay or bisexual identity, or other identity, can bring an end to confusion. With regard to gender identity, terms for those who do not comply to the gender binary system are, for example, "genderqueer", "agender", or "gender neutral". An article in "The Journal of Counseling & Development" states, "Sexual minorities experience two types of stigma stress that differ based on the objective and subjective nature of stress. Because of its persistent nature, stigma stress can be characterized as a chronic stressor that sexual minorities face, placing them at higher risk than individuals who are not sexual minorities of developing a ruminative coping style." When an individual feels that none of the existing gender identity terms apply to them, or that they do not fit accurately into any binaries, it may often lead to feelings of pressure, loneliness, abnormality and hopelessness.


title: Questioning (sexuality and gender)

text: According to The American Psychological Association, those who struggle with acknowledging their sexuality or gender identity may be at higher risk of experiencing suicidal thoughts, depression, unprotected sex or turning to harmful coping mechanisms such as drug abuse, alcohol or self harm. Studies show that questioning youth are at higher risk for victimization, suicidal thoughts, and drug and alcohol abuse even more so than lesbian, gay and bisexual youth, possibly due to marginalization from straight and LGB peers alike.