prompt_front: Answer the question based on the given passages. Only give me the answer and do not output any other words.

Question: The "New York Times" bestselling book "The 50th Law" contains lessons and anecdotes from this historical figure who was a classical Greek (Athenian) philosopher who is known mainly through the writings of which philosopher?

The following are given passages.
Context 1: Passage 1:
Stones into Schools
Stones into Schools: Promoting Peace with Books, Not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan is a New York Times bestselling book by Greg Mortenson published by Viking in 2009   The book is the sequel to the bestselling book Three Cups of Tea and tells the story of Mortenson's humanitarian efforts to build schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan with his non-profit charity organization, Central Asia Institute (CAI)   CAI reports that as of 2010, it has overseen the building over 171 schools in the two countries  These schools reportedly provide education to over 64,000 children, including 54,000 girls, where few education opportunities existed before in the remote regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan 

Summary
Stones into Schools picks up where Three Cups of Tea left off in late 2003   Tracing the efforts of CAI to work in the northeast corner of Afghanistan, the book describes how the book's author and Sarfraz Khan worked to establish the first schools in the area   Mortenson and Khan's efforts were thwarted for a time when a devastating earthquake hit the Azad Kashmir region of Pakistan   CAI assisted with relief efforts in the region by setting up temporary tent schools and later build several earthquake-proof schools   After CAI's relief efforts were completed, the non-profit charity organization then opens schools in areas controlled by the Taliban and Mortenson assists the US military to formulate strategic plans in the region 

Advice solicited by US Military in Afghanistan
Due to attention paid to Mortenson's books first by their wives,  US military leaders in Afghanistan have sought Mortenson's advice on how to work with the elders of local Afghan communities since 2007   Seeking his knowledge on dealing with Afghan elders, the military has also included Mortenson as an active participant in meetings between the elders and US military commanders   He has not, however, accepted any payment for his services, nor does he have any contractual or other formal relationship with the US military 

Criticism
Allegations
On the April 17, 2011 broadcast of CBS News' 60 Minutes, correspondent Steve Kroft alleged inaccuracies in Stones into Schools and its prequel, Three Cups of Tea   In particular, CBS News disputed  Mortenson's claim that he got lost near K2 and ended up in Korphe; that he was captured by the Taliban in 1996; whether the number of schools built and supported by CAI is accurate; and the propriety in the use of CAI funds for Mortenson's book tours  60 Minutes asked Mortenson for an interview prior to their broadcast, but Mortenson did not respond to their requests Jon Krakauer, a former financial supporter of CAI, has also questioned Mortenson's accounts separately and was interviewed for the 60 Minutes segment  The day after the broadcast, Krakauer released his allegations in a lengthy online article, Three Cups of Deceit - How Greg Mortenson, Humanitarian Hero, Lost His Way Mansur Khan Mahsudhe, a tribesmen Greg Mortenson describes as a kidnapper in Stones into Schools, states he is "looking into how to sue" Greg Mortenson for what he claims are lies about him 

Response to allegations
In response to the allegations made against him and his books, Mortenson wrote a statement that was published in the Bozeman Chronicle: "I stand by the information conveyed in my book, and by the value of CAI's work in empowering local communities to build and operate schools that have educated more than 60,000 students " Mortenson further stated, "The time about our final days on K2 and ongoing journey to Korphe village and Skardu is a compressed version of events that took place in the fall of 1993   "Scott Darsney, a respected mountaineer and friend of Greg Mortenson, wrote an email subsequently turned into an exclusive article for Outside magazine's online version as a response to the allegations against Mortenson  Darnsey questioned the accuracy and fairness of both the Krakauer piece and the 60 Minutes report  Darnsey had been interviewed by Krakauer, and maintained that Krakauer either misquoted or misunderstood what he said 
As a response to Krakauer's allegations, CAI produced a comprehensive list of projects completed over a period of years and projects CAI is currently working on  The list was released in December, 2011 (see external links below) 
Passage 2:
Socrates
Socrates (; Greek: Σωκράτης; c  470–399 BC) was a Greek philosopher from Athens who is credited as the founder of Western philosophy and among the first moral philosophers of the ethical tradition of thought  An enigmatic figure, Socrates authored no texts and is known mainly through the posthumous accounts of classical writers, particularly his students Plato and Xenophon  These accounts are written as dialogues, in which Socrates and his interlocutors examine a subject in the style of question and answer; they gave rise to the Socratic dialogue literary genre  Contradictory accounts of Socrates make a reconstruction of his philosophy nearly impossible, a situation known as the Socratic problem  Socrates was a polarizing figure in Athenian society  In 399 BC, he was accused of impiety and corrupting the youth  After a trial that lasted a day, he was sentenced to death  He spent his last day in prison, refusing offers to help him escape 
Plato's dialogues are among the most comprehensive accounts of Socrates to survive from antiquity  They demonstrate the Socratic approach to areas of philosophy including epistemology and ethics  The Platonic Socrates lends his name to the concept of the Socratic method, and also to Socratic irony  The Socratic method of questioning, or elenchus, takes shape in dialogue using short questions and answers, epitomized by those Platonic texts in which Socrates and his interlocutors examine various aspects of an issue or an abstract meaning, usually relating to one of the virtues, and find themselves at an impasse, completely unable to define what they thought they understood  Socrates is known for proclaiming his total ignorance; he used to say that the only thing he was aware of was his ignorance, seeking to imply that the realization of our ignorance is the first step in philosophizing 
Socrates exerted a strong influence on philosophers in later antiquity and has continued to do so in the modern era  He was studied by medieval and Islamic scholars and played an important role in the thought of the Italian Renaissance, particularly within the humanist movement  Interest in him continued unabated, as reflected in the works of Søren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche  Depictions of Socrates in art, literature, and popular culture have made him a widely known figure in the Western philosophical tradition 

Sources and the Socratic problem
Socrates did not document his teachings  All that is known about him comes from the accounts of others: mainly the philosopher Plato and the historian Xenophon, who were both his pupils; the Athenian comic dramatist Aristophanes (Socrates's contemporary); and Plato's pupil Aristotle, who was born after Socrates's death  The often contradictory stories from these ancient accounts only serve to complicate scholars' ability to reconstruct Socrates's true thoughts reliably, a predicament known as the Socratic problem  The works of Plato, Xenophon, and other authors who use the character of Socrates as an investigative tool, are written in the form of a dialogue between Socrates and his interlocutors and provide the main source of information on Socrates's life and thought  Socratic dialogues (logos sokratikos) was a term coined by Aristotle to describe this newly formed literary genre  While the exact dates of their composition are unknown, some were probably written after Socrates's death  As Aristotle first noted, the extent to which the dialogues portray Socrates authentically is a matter of some debate 

Plato and Xenophon
An honest man, Xenophon was no trained philosopher  He could neither fully conceptualize nor articulate Socrates's arguments  He admired Socrates for his intelligence, patriotism, and courage on the battlefield  He discusses Socrates in four works: the Memorabilia, the Oeconomicus, the Symposium, and the Apology of Socrates  He also mentions a story featuring Socrates in his Anabasis  Oeconomicus recounts a discussion on practical agricultural issues  Like Plato's Apology, Xenophon's Apologia describes the trial of Socrates, but the works diverge substantially and, according to W  K  C  Guthrie, Xenophon's account portrays a Socrates of "intolerable smugness and complacency"  Symposium is a dialogue of Socrates with other prominent Athenians during an after-dinner discussion, but is quite different from Plato's Symposium: there is no overlap in the guest list  In Memorabilia, he defends Socrates from the accusations of corrupting the youth and being against the gods; essentially, it is a collection of various stories gathered together to construct a new apology for Socrates Plato's representation of Socrates is not straightforward  Plato was a pupil of Socrates and outlived him by five decades  How trustworthy Plato is in representing the attributes of Socrates is a matter of debate; the view that he did not represent views other than Socrates's own is not shared by many contemporary scholars  A driver of this doubt is the inconsistency of the character of Socrates that he presents  One common explanation of this inconsistency is that Plato initially tried to accurately represent the historical Socrates, while later in his writings he was happy to insert his own views into Socrates's words  Under this understanding, there is a distinction between the Socratic Socrates of Plato's earlier works and the Platonic Socrates of Plato's later writings, although the boundary between the two seems blurred Xenophon's and Plato's accounts differ in their presentations of Socrates as a person  Xenophon's Socrates is duller, less humorous and less ironic than Plato's  Xenophon's Socrates also lacks the philosophical features of Plato's Socrates—ignorance, the Socratic method or elenchus—and thinks enkrateia (self-control) is of pivotal importance, which is not the case with Plato's Socrates  Generally, logoi Sokratikoi cannot help us to reconstruct the historical Socrates even in cases where their narratives overlap, as authors may have influenced each other's accounts 

Aristophanes and other sources
Writers of Athenian comedy, including Aristophanes, also commented on Socrates  Aristophanes's most important comedy with respect to Socrates is The Clouds, in which Socrates is a central character  In this drama, Aristophanes presents a caricature of Socrates that leans towards sophism, ridiculing Socrates as an absurd atheist  Socrates in Clouds is interested in natural philosophy, which conforms to Plato's depiction of him in Phaedo  What is certain is that by the age of 45, Socrates had already captured the interest of Athenians as a philosopher  It is not clear whether Aristophanes's work is useful in reconstructing the historical Socrates Other ancient authors who wrote about Socrates were Aeschines of Sphettus, Antisthenes, Aristippus, Bryson, Cebes, Crito, Euclid of Megara, Phaedo and Aristotle, all of whom wrote after Socrates's death  Aristotle was not a contemporary of Socrates; he studied under Plato at the latter's Academy for twenty years  Aristotle treats Socrates without the bias of Xenophon and Plato, who had an emotional tie with Socrates, and he scrutinizes Socrates's doctrines as a philosopher  Aristotle was familiar with the various written and unwritten stories of Socrates  His role in understanding Socrates is limited  He does not write extensively on Socrates; and, when he does, he is mainly preoccupied with the early dialogues of Plato  There are also general doubts on his reliability on the history of philosophy  Still, his testimony is vital in understanding Socrates 

The Socratic problem
In a seminal work titled "The Worth of Socrates as a Philosopher" (1818), the philosopher Friedrich Schleiermacher attacked Xenophon's accounts; his attack was widely accepted and gave rise to the Socratic problem  Schleiermacher criticized Xenophon for his naïve representation of Socrates  Xenophon was a soldier, argued Schleiermacher, and was therefore not well placed to articulate Socratic ideas  Furthermore, Xenophon was biased in his depiction of his former friend and teacher: he believed Socrates was treated unfairly by Athens, and sought to prove his point of view rather than to provide an impartial account  The result, said Schleiermacher, was that Xenophon portrayed Socrates as an uninspiring philosopher  By the early 20th century, Xenophon's account was largely rejected The philosopher Karl Joel, basing his arguments on Aristotle's interpretation of logos sokratikos, suggested that the Socratic dialogues are mostly fictional: according to Joel, the dialogues' authors were just mimicking some Socratic traits of dialogue  In the mid-20th century, philosophers such as Olof Gigon and Eugène Dupréel, based on Joel's arguments, proposed that the study of Socrates should focus on the various versions of his character and beliefs rather than aiming to reconstruct a historical Socrates  Later, ancient philosophy scholar Gregory Vlastos suggested that the early Socratic dialogues of Plato were more compatible with other evidence for a historical Socrates than his later writings, an argument that is based on inconsistencies in Plato's own evolving depiction of Socrates  Vlastos totally disregarded Xenophon's account except when it agreed with Plato's  More recently, Charles H  Kahn has reinforced the skeptical stance on the unsolvable Socratic problem, suggesting that only Plato's Apology has any historical significance 

Biography
Socrates was born in 470 or 469 BC to Sophroniscus and Phaenarete, a stoneworker and a midwife, respectively, in the Athenian deme of Alopece; therefore, he was an Athenian citizen, having been born to relatively affluent Athenians  He lived close to his father's relatives and inherited, as was customary, part of his father's estate, securing a life reasonably free of financial concerns  His education followed the laws and customs of Athens  He learned the basic skills of reading and writing and, like most wealthy Athenians, received extra lessons in various other fields such as gymnastics, poetry and music  He was married twice (which came first is not clear): his marriage to Xanthippe took place when Socrates was in his fifties, and another marriage was with a daughter of Aristides, an Athenian statesman  He had three sons with Xanthippe  Socrates fulfilled his military service during the Peloponnesian War and distinguished himself in three campaigns, according to Plato Another incident that reflects Socrates's respect for the law is the arrest of Leon the Salaminian  As Plato describes in his Apology, Socrates and four others were summoned to the Tholos and told by representatives of the Thirty Tyrants (which began ruling in 404 BC) to arrest Leon for execution  Again Socrates was the sole abstainer, choosing to risk the tyrants' wrath and retribution rather than to participate in what he considered to be a crime Socrates attracted great interest from the Athenian public and especially the Athenian youth  He was notoriously ugly, having a flat turned-up nose, bulging eyes and a large belly; his friends joked about his appearance  Socrates was indifferent to material pleasures, including his own appearance and personal comfort  He neglected personal hygiene, bathed rarely, walked barefoot, and owned only one ragged coat  He moderated his eating, drinking, and sex, although he did not practice full abstention  Although Socrates was attracted to youth, as was common and accepted in ancient Greece, he resisted his passion for young men because, as Plato describes, he was more interested in educating their souls  Socrates did not seek sex from his disciples, as was often the case between older and younger men in Athens  Politically, he did not take sides in the rivalry between the democrats and the oligarchs in Athens; he criticized both  The character of Socrates as exhibited in Apology, Crito, Phaedo and Symposium concurs with other sources to an extent that gives confidence in Plato's depiction of Socrates in these works as being representative of the real Socrates Socrates died in Athens in 399 BC after a trial for impiety and the corruption of the young that lasted for only a day  He spent his last day in prison among friends and followers who offered him a route to escape, which he refused  He died the next morning, in accordance with his sentence, after drinking poison hemlock  He had never left Athens, except during the military campaigns which he had participated in 

Trial of Socrates
In 399 BC, Socrates went on trial for corrupting the minds of the youth of Athens, and for impiety  Socrates defended himself unsuccessfully  He was found guilty by a majority vote cast by a jury of hundreds of male Athenian citizens and, according to the custom, proposed his own penalty: that he should be given free food and housing by the state, for the services he rendered to the city  In the alternative, he proposed that he be fined one mina of silver (according to him, all he had)  The jurors declined his offer and ordered the death penalty  The official charges were: (1) corrupting youth; (2) worshipping false gods; and (3) not worshipping the state religion Socrates was charged in a politically tense climate  In 404 BC, the Athenians had been crushed by Spartans at the decisive naval Battle of Aegospotami, and subsequently, the Spartans laid siege to Athens  They replaced the democratic government with a new, pro-oligarchic government, named the Thirty Tyrants  Because of their tyrannical measures, some Athenians organized to overthrow the Tyrants—and, indeed, they managed to do so briefly—until a Spartan request for aid from the Thirty arrived and a compromise was sought  When the Spartans left again, however, democrats seized the opportunity to kill the oligarchs and reclaim the government of Athens The accusations against Socrates were initiated by a poet, Meletus, who asked for the death penalty in accordance with the charge of asebeia  Other accusers were Anytus and Lycon  After a month or two, in late spring or early summer, the trial started and likely went on for most of one day  There were two main sources for the religion-based accusations  First, Socrates had rejected the anthropomorphism of traditional Greek religion by denying that the gods did bad things like humans do  Second, he seemed to believe in a daimonion—an inner voice with, as his accusers suggested, divine origin Plato's Apology starts with Socrates answering the various rumours against him that have given rise to the indictment  First, Socrates defends himself against the rumour that he is an atheist naturalist philosopher, as portrayed in Aristophanes's The Clouds; or a sophist  Against the allegations of corrupting the youth, Socrates answers that he has never corrupted anyone intentionally, since corrupting someone would carry the risk of being corrupted back in return, and that would be illogical, since corruption is undesirable  On the second charge, Socrates asks for clarification  Meletus responds by repeating the accusation that Socrates is an atheist  Socrates notes the contradiction between atheism and worshipping false gods  He then claims that he is "God's gift" to the Athenians, since his activities ultimately benefit Athens; thus, in condemning him to death, Athens itself will be the greatest loser  After that, he says that even though no human can reach wisdom, seeking it is the best thing someone can do, implying money and prestige are not as precious as commonly thought 

Socrates was given the chance to offer alternative punishments for himself after being found guilty  He could have requested permission to flee Athens and live in exile, but he did not do so  Instead, according to Plato, he requested that a fine should be imposed on him and also suggested that free meals should be provided for him daily in recognition of his worth to Athens  According to Xenophon, however, Socrates made no proposals  The jurors favoured the death penalty by making him drink a cup of hemlock (a poisonous liquid)  In return, Socrates warned jurors and Athenians that criticism of them by his many disciples was inescapable, unless they became good men  After a delay caused by Athenian religious ceremonies, Socrates spent his last day in prison  His friends visited him and offered him an opportunity to escape, which he declined The question of what motivated Athenians to convict Socrates remains controversial among scholars  There are two theories  The first is that Socrates was convicted on religious grounds; the second, that he was accused and convicted for political reasons  Another, more recent, interpretation synthesizes the religious and political theories, arguing that religion and state were not separate in ancient Athens The argument for religious persecution is supported by the fact that Plato's and Xenophon's accounts of the trial mostly focus on the charges of impiety  In those accounts, Socrates is portrayed as making no effort to dispute the fact that he did not believe in the Athenian gods  Against this argument stands the fact that many skeptics and atheist philosophers during this time were not prosecuted  According to the argument for political persecution, Socrates was targeted because he was perceived as a threat to democracy  It was true that Socrates did not stand for democracy during the reign of the Thirty Tyrants and that most of his pupils were against the democrats  The case for it being a political persecution is usually challenged by the existence of an amnesty that was granted to Athenian citizens in 403 BC to prevent escalation to civil war after the fall of the Thirty  However, as the text from Socrates's trial and other texts reveal, the accusers could have fuelled their rhetoric using events prior to 403 BC 

Philosophy
Socratic method
A fundamental characteristic of Plato's Socrates is the Socratic method, or the method of refutation (elenchus)  It is most prominent in the early works of Plato, such as Apology, Crito, Gorgias, Republic I, and others  The typical elenchus proceeds as follows  Socrates initiates a discussion about a topic with a known expert on the subject, usually in the company of some young men and boys, and by dialogue proves the expert's beliefs and arguments to be contradictory  Socrates initiates the dialogue by asking his interlocutor for a definition of the subject  As he asks more questions, the interlocutor's answers eventually contradict the first definition  The conclusion is that the expert did not really know the definition in the first place  The interlocutor may come up with a different definition  That new definition, in turn, comes under the scrutiny of Socratic questioning  With each round of question and answer, Socrates and his interlocutor hope to approach the truth  More often, they continue to reveal their ignorance  Since the interlocutors' definitions most commonly represent the mainstream opinion on a matter, the discussion places doubt on the common opinion Socrates also tests his own opinions through the Socratic method  Thus Socrates does not teach a fixed philosophical doctrine  Rather, he acknowledges his own ignorance while searching for truth with his pupils and interlocutors Scholars have questioned the validity and the exact nature of the Socratic method, or indeed if there even was a Socratic method  In 1982, the scholar of ancient philosophy Gregory Vlastos claimed that the Socratic method could not be used to establish the truth or falsehood of a proposition  Rather, Vlastos argued, it was a way to show that an interlocutor's beliefs were inconsistent  There have been two main lines of thought regarding this view, depending on whether it is accepted that Socrates is seeking to prove a claim wrong  According to the first line of thought, known as the constructivist approach, Socrates indeed seeks to refute a claim by this method, and the method helps in reaching affirmative statements  The non-constructivist approach holds that Socrates merely wants to establish the inconsistency between the premises and conclusion of the initial argument 

Socratic priority of definition
Socrates starts his discussions by prioritizing the search for definitions  In most cases, Socrates initiates his discourse with an expert on a subject by seeking a definition—by asking, for example, what virtue, goodness, justice, or courage is  To establish a definition, Socrates first gathers clear examples of a virtue and then seeks to establish what they had in common  According to Guthrie, Socrates lived in an era when sophists had challenged the meaning of various virtues, questioning their substance; Socrates's quest for a definition was an attempt to clear the atmosphere from their radical skepticism Some scholars have argued that Socrates does not endorse the priority of definition as a principle, because they have identified cases where he does not do so  Some have argued that this priority of definition comes from Plato rather than Socrates  Philosopher Peter Geach, accepting that Socrates endorses the priority of definition, finds the technique fallacious  Αccording to Geach, one may know a proposition even if one cannot define the terms in which the proposition is stated 

Socratic ignorance
Plato's Socrates often claims that he is aware of his own lack of knowledge, especially when discussing ethical concepts such as arete (i e , goodness, courage) since he does not know the nature of such concepts  For example, during his trial, with his life at stake, Socrates says: "I thought Evenus a happy man, if he really possesses this art (technē), and teaches for so moderate a fee  Certainly I would pride and preen myself if I knew (epistamai) these things, but I do not know (epistamai) them, gentlemen"  In some of Plato's dialogues, Socrates appears to credit himself with some knowledge, and can even seem strongly opinionated for a man who professes his own ignorance There are varying explanations of the Socratic inconsistency (other than that Socrates is simply being inconsistent)  One explanation is that Socrates is being either ironic or modest for pedagogical purposes: he aims to let his interlocutor to think for himself rather than guide him to a prefixed answer to his philosophical questions  Another explanation is that Socrates holds different interpretations of the meaning of "knowledge"  Knowledge, for him, might mean systematic understanding of an ethical subject, on which Socrates firmly rejects any kind of mastery; or might refer to lower-level cognition, which Socrates may accept that he possesses  In any case, there is consensus that Socrates accepts that acknowledging one's lack of knowledge is the first step towards wisdom Socrates is known for disavowing knowledge, a claim encapsulated in the saying "I know that I know nothing"  This is often attributed to Socrates on the basis of a statement in Plato's Apology, though the same view is repeatedly found elsewhere in Plato's early writings on Socrates  In other statements, though, he implies or even claims that he does have knowledge  For example, in Plato's Apology Socrates says: "   but that to do injustice and disobey my superior, god or man, this I know to be evil and base   " (Apology, 29b6–7)  In his debate with Callicles, he says: "   I know well that if you will agree with me on those things which my soul believes, those things will be the very truth   "Whether Socrates genuinely thought he lacked knowledge or merely feigned a belief in his own ignorance remains a matter of debate  A common interpretation is that he was indeed feigning modesty  According to Norman Gulley, Socrates did this to entice his interlocutors to speak with him  On the other hand, Terence Irwin claims that Socrates's words should be taken literally Gregory Vlastos argues that there is enough evidence to refute both claims  On his view, for Socrates, there are two separate meanings of "knowledge": Knowledge-C and Knowledge-E (C stands for "certain", and E stands for elenchus, i e  the Socratic method)  Knowledge-C is something unquestionable whereas Knowledge-E is the knowledge derived from Socrates's elenchus  Thus, Socrates speaks the truth when he says he knows-C something, and he is also truthful when saying he knows-E, for example that it is evil for someone to disobey his superiors, as he claims in Apology  Not all scholars have agreed with this semantic dualism  James H  Lesher has argued that Socrates claimed in various dialogues that one word is linked to one meaning (i e  in Hippias Major, Meno, and Laches)  Lesher suggests that although Socrates claimed that he had no knowledge about the nature of virtues, he thought that in some cases, people can know some ethical propositions 

Socratic irony
There is a widespread assumption that Socrates was an ironist, mostly based on the depiction of Socrates by Plato and Aristotle  Socrates's irony is so subtle and slightly humorous that it often leaves the reader wondering if Socrates is making an intentional pun  Plato's Euthyphro is filled with Socratic irony  The story begins when Socrates is meeting with Euthyphro, a man who has accused his own father of murder  When Socrates first hears the details of the story, he comments, "It is not, I think, any random person who could do this [prosecute one's father] correctly, but surely one who is already far progressed in wisdom"  When Euthyphro boasts about his understanding of divinity, Socrates responds that it is "most important that I become your student"  Socrates is commonly seen as ironic when using praise to flatter or when addressing his interlocutors Scholars are divided on why Socrates uses irony  According to an opinion advanced since the Hellenistic period, Socratic irony is a playful way to get the audience's attention  Another line of thought holds that Socrates conceals his philosophical message with irony, making it accessible only to those who can separate the parts of his statements which are ironic from those which are not  Gregory Vlastos has identified a more complex pattern of irony in Socrates  On Vlastos's view, Socrates's words have a double meaning, both ironic and not  One example is when he denies having knowledge  Vlastos suggests that Socrates is being ironic when he says he has no knowledge (where "knowledge" means a lower form of cognition); while, according to another sense of "knowledge", Socrates is serious when he says he has no knowledge of ethical matters  This opinion is not shared by many other scholars 

Socratic eudaimonism and intellectualism
For Socrates, the pursuit of eudaimonia motivates all human action, directly or indirectly  Virtue and knowledge are linked, in Socrates's view, to eudaimonia, but how closely he considered them to be connected is still debated  Some argue that Socrates thought that virtue and eudaimonia are identical  According to another view, virtue serves as a means to eudaimonia (the "identical" and "sufficiency" theses, respectively)  Another point of debate is whether, according to Socrates, people desire what is in fact good—or, rather, simply what they perceive as good Moral intellectualism refers to the prominent role Socrates gave to knowledge  He believed that all virtue was based on knowledge (hence Socrates is characterized as a virtue intellectualist)  He also believed that humans were guided by the cognitive power to comprehend what they desire, while diminishing the role of impulses (a view termed motivational intellectualism)  In Plato's Protagoras (345c4–e6), Socrates implies that "no one errs willingly", which has become the hallmark of Socratic virtue intellectualism  In Socratic moral philosophy, priority is given to the intellect as being the way to live a good life; Socrates deemphasizes irrational beliefs or passions  Plato's dialogues that support Socrates's intellectual motivism—as this thesis is named—are mainly the Gorgias (467c–8e, where Socrates discusses the actions of a tyrant that do not benefit him) and Meno (77d–8b, where Socrates explains to Meno his view that no one wants bad things, unless they do not know what is good and bad in the first place)  Scholars have been puzzled by Socrates's view that akrasia (acting because of one's irrational passions, contrary to one's knowledge or beliefs) is impossible  Most believe that Socrates left no space for irrational desires, although some claim that Socrates acknowledged the existence of irrational motivations, but denied they play a primary role in decision-making 

Religion
Socrates's religious nonconformity challenged the views of his times and his critique reshaped religious discourse for the coming centuries  In Ancient Greece, organized religion was fragmented, celebrated in a number of festivals for specific gods, such as the City Dionysia, or in domestic rituals, and there were no sacred texts  Religion intermingled with the daily life of citizens, who performed their personal religious duties mainly with sacrifices to various gods  Whether Socrates was a practicing man of religion or a 'provocateur atheist' has been a point of debate since ancient times; his trial included impiety accusations, and the controversy has not yet ceased Socrates discusses divinity and the soul mostly in Alcibiades, Euthyphro, and Apology  In Alcibiades Socrates links the human soul to divinity, concluding "Then this part of her resembles God, and whoever looks at this, and comes to know all that is divine, will gain thereby the best knowledge of himself " His discussions on religion always fall under the lens of his rationalism  Socrates, in Euthyphro, reaches a conclusion which takes him far from the age's usual practice: he considers sacrifices to the gods to be useless, especially when they are driven by the hope of receiving a reward in return  Instead he calls for philosophy and the pursuit of knowledge to be the principal way of worshipping the gods  His rejection of traditional forms of piety, connecting them to self-interest, implied that Athenians should seek religious experience by self-examination Socrates argued that the gods were inherently wise and just, a perception far from traditional religion at that time  In Euthyphro, the Euthyphro dilemma arises  Socrates questions his interlocutor about the relationship between piety and the will of a powerful god: Is something good because it is the will of this god, or is it the will of this god because it is good? In other words, does piety follow the good, or the god? The trajectory of Socratic thought contrasts with traditional Greek theology, which took lex talionis (the eye for an eye principle) for granted  Socrates thought that goodness is independent from gods, and gods must themselves be pious Socrates affirms a belief in gods in Plato's Apology, where he says to the jurors that he acknowledges gods more than his accusers  For Plato's Socrates, the existence of gods is taken for granted; in none of his dialogues does he probe whether gods exist or not  In Apology, a case for Socrates being agnostic can be made, based on his discussion of the great unknown after death, and in Phaedo (the dialogue with his students in his last day) Socrates gives expression to a clear belief in the immortality of the soul  He also believed in oracles, divinations and other messages from gods  These signs did not offer him any positive belief on moral issues; rather, they were predictions of unfavorable future events In Xenophon's Memorabilia, Socrates constructs an argument close to the contemporary teleological intelligent-design argument  He claims that since there are many features in the universe that exhibit "signs of forethought" (e g , eyelids), a divine creator must have created the universe  He then deduces that the creator should be omniscient and omnipotent and also that it created the universe for the advance of humankind, since humans naturally have many abilities that other animals do not  At times, Socrates speaks of a single deity, while at other times he refers to plural "gods"  This has been interpreted to mean that he either believed that a supreme deity commanded other gods, or that various gods were parts, or manifestations, of this single deity It has been a source of puzzlement how Socrates's religious beliefs can be consistent with his strict adherence to rationalism  Philosophy professor Mark McPherran suggests that Socrates interpreted every divine sign through secular rationality for confirmation  Professor of ancient philosophy A  A  Long suggests that it is anachronistic to suppose that Socrates believed the religious and rational realms were separate 

Socratic daimonion
In several texts (e g , Plato's Euthyphro 3b5; Apology 31c–d; Xenophon's Memorabilia 1 1 2) Socrates claims he hears a daimōnic sign—an inner voice heard usually when he was about to make a mistake  Socrates gave a brief description of this daimonion at his trial (Apology 31c–d): "   The reason for this is something you have heard me frequently mention in different places—namely, the fact that I experience something divine and daimonic, as Meletus has inscribed in his indictment, by way of mockery  It started in my childhood, the occurrence of a particular voice  Whenever it occurs, it always deters me from the course of action I was intending to engage in, but it never gives me positive advice  It is this that has opposed my practicing politics, and I think its doing so has been absolutely fine " Modern scholarship has variously interpreted this Socratic daimōnion as a rational source of knowledge, an impulse, a dream or even a paranormal experience felt by an ascetic Socrates 

Virtue and knowledge
Socrates's theory of virtue states that all virtues are essentially one, since they are a form of knowledge  For Socrates, the reason a person is not good is because they lack knowledge  Since knowledge is united, virtues are united as well  Another famous dictum—"no one errs willingly"—also derives from this theory  In Protagoras, Socrates argues for the unity of virtues using the example of courage: if someone knows what the relevant danger is, they can undertake a risk  Aristotle comments: "     Socrates the elder thought that the end of life was knowledge of virtue, and he used to seek for the definition of justice, courage, and each of the parts of virtue, and this was a reasonable approach, since he thought that all virtues were sciences, and that as soon as one knew [for example] justice, he would be just   "

Love
Some texts suggest that Socrates had love affairs with Alcibiades and other young persons; others suggest that Socrates's friendship with young boys sought only to improve them and were not sexual  In Gorgias, Socrates claims he was a dual lover of Alcibiades and philosophy, and his flirtatiousness is evident in Protagoras, Meno (76a–c) and Phaedrus (227c–d)  However, the exact nature of his relationship with Alcibiades is not clear; Socrates was known for his self-restraint, while Alcibiades admits in the Symposium that he had tried to seduce Socrates but failed The Socratic theory of love is mostly deduced from Lysis, where Socrates discusses love at a wrestling school in the company of Lysis and his friends  They start their dialogue by investigating parental love and how it manifests with respect to the freedom and boundaries that parents set for their children  Socrates concludes that if Lysis is utterly useless, nobody will love him—not even his parents  While most scholars believe this text was intended to be humorous, it has also been suggested that Lysis shows Socrates held an egoistic view of love, according to which we only love people who are useful to us in some way  Other scholars disagree with this view, arguing that Socrates's doctrine leaves room for non-egoistic love for a spouse; still others deny that Socrates suggests any egoistic motivation at all  In Symposium, Socrates argues that children offer the false impression of immortality to their parents, and this misconception yields a form of unity among them  Scholars also note that for Socrates, love is rational It is notable that Socrates, who claims to know only that he does not know, makes an exception (in Plato's Symposium), where he says he will tell the truth about Love, which he learned from a 'clever woman'  Classicist Armand D'Angour has made the case that Socrates was in his youth close to Aspasia, and that Diotima, to whom Socrates attributes his understanding of love in Symposium, is based on her; however, it is also possible that Diotima really existed 

Socratic philosophy of politics
While Socrates was involved in public political and cultural debates, it is hard to define his exact political philosophy  In Plato's Gorgias, he tells Callicles: "I believe that I'm one of a few Athenians—so as not to say I'm the only one, but the only one among our contemporaries—to take up the true political craft and practice the true politics  This is because the speeches I make on each occasion do not aim at gratification but at what's best " His claim illustrates his aversion for the established democratic assemblies and procedures such as voting—since Socrates saw politicians and rhetoricians as using tricks to mislead the public  He never ran for office or suggested any legislation  Rather, he aimed to help the city flourish by "improving" its citizens  As a citizen, he abided by the law  He obeyed the rules and carried out his military duty by fighting wars abroad  His dialogues, however, make little mention of contemporary political decisions, such as the Sicilian Expedition Socrates spent his time conversing with citizens, among them powerful members of Athenian society, scrutinizing their beliefs and bringing the contradictions of their ideas to light  Socrates believed he was doing them a favor since, for him, politics was about shaping the moral landscape of the city through philosophy rather than electoral procedures  There is a debate over where Socrates stood in the polarized Athenian political climate, which was divided between oligarchs and democrats  While there is no clear textual evidence, one widely held theory holds that Socrates leaned towards democracy: he disobeyed the one order that the oligarchic government of the Thirty Tyrants gave him; he respected the laws and political system of Athens (which were formulated by democrats); and, according to this argument, his affinity for the ideals of democratic Athens was a reason why he did not want to escape prison and the death penalty  On the other hand, there is some evidence that Socrates leaned towards oligarchy: most of his friends supported oligarchy, he was contemptuous of the opinion of the many and was critical of the democratic process, and Protagoras shows some anti-democratic elements  A less mainstream argument suggests that Socrates favoured democratic republicanism, a theory that prioritizes active participation in public life and concern for the city Yet another suggestion is that Socrates endorsed views in line with liberalism, a political ideology formed in the Age of Enlightenment  This argument is mostly based on Crito and Apology, where Socrates talks about the mutually beneficial relationship between the city and its citizens  According to Socrates, citizens are morally autonomous and free to leave the city if they wish—but, by staying within the city, they also accept the laws and the city's authority over them  On the other hand, Socrates has been seen as the first proponent of civil disobedience  Socrates's strong objection to injustice, along with his refusal to serve the Thirty Tyrants' order to arrest Leon, are suggestive of this line  As he says in Critias, "One ought never act unjustly, even to repay a wrong that has been done to oneself " Ιn the broader picture, Socrates's advice would be for citizens to follow the orders of the state, unless, after much reflection, they deem them to be unjust 

Legacy
Hellenistic era
Socrates's impact was immense in philosophy after his death  With the exception of the Epicureans and the Pyrrhonists, almost all philosophical currents after Socrates traced their roots to him: Plato's Academy, Aristotle's Lyceum, the Cynics, and the Stoics  Interest in Socrates kept increasing until the third century AD  The various schools differed in response to fundamental questions such as the purpose of life or the nature of arete (virtue), since Socrates had not handed them an answer, and therefore, philosophical schools subsequently diverged greatly in their interpretation of his thought  He was considered to have shifted the focus of philosophy from a study of the natural world, as was the case for pre-Socratic philosophers, to a study of human affairs Immediate followers of Socrates were his pupils, Euclid of Megara, Aristippus, and Antisthenes, who drew differing conclusions among themselves and followed independent trajectories  The full doctrines of Socrates's pupils are difficult to reconstruct  Antisthenes had a profound contempt of material goods  According to him, virtue was all that mattered  Diogenes and the Cynics continued this line of thought  On the opposite end, Aristippus endorsed the accumulation of wealth and lived a luxurious life  After leaving Athens and returning to his home city of Cyrene, he founded the Cyrenaic philosophical school which was based on hedonism, and endorsing living an easy life with physical pleasures  His school passed to his grandson, bearing the same name  There is a dialogue in Xenophon's work in which Aristippus claims he wants to live without wishing to rule or be ruled by others  In addition, Aristippus maintained a skeptical stance on epistemology, claiming that we can be certain only of our own feelings  This view resonates with the Socratic understanding of ignorance  Euclid was a contemporary of Socrates  After Socrates's trial and death, he left Athens for the nearby town of Megara, where he founded a school, named the Megarians  His theory was built on the pre-Socratic monism of Parmenides  Euclid continued Socrates's thought, focusing on the nature of virtue 
The Stoics relied heavily on Socrates  They applied the Socratic method as a tool to avoid inconsistencies  Their moral doctrines focused on how to live a smooth life through wisdom and virtue  The Stoics assigned virtue a crucial role in attaining happiness and also prioritized the relation between goodness and ethical excellence, all of which echoed Socratic thought  At the same time, the philosophical current of Platonism claimed Socrates as its predecessor, in ethics and in its theory of knowledge  Arcesilaus, who became the head of the Academy about 80 years after its founding by Plato, radically changed the Academy's doctrine to what is now known as Academic Skepticism, centered on the Socratic philosophy of ignorance  The Academic Skeptics competed with the Stoics over who was Socrates's true heir with regard to ethics  While the Stoics insisted on knowledge-based ethics, Arcesilaus relied on Socratic ignorance  The Stoics' reply to Arcesilaus was that Socratic ignorance was part of Socratic irony (they themselves disapproved the use of irony), an argument that ultimately became the dominant narrative of Socrates in later antiquity While Aristotle considered Socrates an important philosopher, Socrates was not a central figure in Aristotelian thought  One of Aristotle's pupils, Aristoxenus even authored a book detailing Socrates's scandals 
The Epicureans were antagonistic to Socrates  They attacked him for superstition, criticizing his belief in his daimonion and his regard for the oracle at Delphi  They also criticized Socrates for his character and various faults, and focusing mostly on his irony, which was deemed inappropriate for a philosopher and unseemly for a teacher The Pyrrhonists were also antagonistic to Socrates, accusing him of being a prater about ethics, who engaged in mock humility, and who sneered at and mocked people 

Medieval world
Socratic thought found its way to the Islamic Middle East alongside that of Aristotle and the Stoics  Plato's works on Socrates, as well as other ancient Greek literature, were translated into Arabic by early Muslim scholars such as Al-Kindi, Jabir ibn Hayyan, and the Muʿtazila  For Muslim scholars, Socrates was hailed and admired for combining his ethics with his lifestyle, perhaps because of the resemblance in this regard with Muhammad's personality  Socratic doctrines were altered to match Islamic faith: according to Muslim scholars, Socrates made arguments for monotheism and for the temporality of this world and rewards in the next life  His influence in the Arabic-speaking world continues to the present day In medieval times, little of Socrates's thought survived in the Christian world as a whole; however, works on Socrates from Christian scholars such as Lactantius, Eusebius and Augustine were maintained in the Byzantine Empire, where Socrates was studied under a Christian lens  After the fall of Constantinople, many of the texts were brought back into the world of Roman Christianity, where they were translated into Latin  Overall, ancient Socratic philosophy, like the rest of classical literature before the Renaissance, was addressed with skepticism in the Christian world at first During the early Italian Renaissance, two different narratives of Socrates developed  On the one hand, the humanist movement revived interest in classical authors  Leonardo Bruni translated many of Plato's Socratic dialogues, while his pupil Giannozzo Manetti authored a well-circulated book, a Life of Socrates  They both presented a civic version of Socrates, according to which Socrates was a humanist and a supporter of republicanism  Bruni and Manetti were interested in defending secularism as a non-sinful way of life; presenting a view of Socrates that was aligned with Christian morality assisted their cause  In doing so, they had to censor parts of his dialogues, especially those which appeared to promote homosexuality or any possibility of pederasty (with Alcibiades), or which suggested that the Socratic daimon was a god  On the other hand, a different picture of Socrates was presented by Italian Neoplatonists, led by the philosopher and priest Marsilio Ficino  Ficino was impressed by Socrates's un-hierarchical and informal way teaching, which he tried to replicate  Ficino portrayed a holy picture of Socrates, finding parallels with the life of Jesus Christ  For Ficino and his followers, Socratic ignorance signified his acknowledgement that all wisdom is God-given (through the Socratic daimon) 

Modern times
In early modern France, Socrates's image was dominated by features of his private life rather than his philosophical thought, in various novels and satirical plays  Some thinkers used Socrates to highlight and comment upon controversies of their own era, like Théophile de Viau who portrayed a Christianized Socrates accused of atheism, while for Voltaire, the figure of Socrates represented a reason-based theist  Michel de Montaigne wrote extensively on Socrates, linking him to rationalism as a counterweight to contemporary religious fanatics In the 18th century, German idealism revived philosophical interest in Socrates, mainly through Hegel's work  For Hegel, Socrates marked a turning point in the history of humankind by the introduction of the principle of free subjectivity or self-determination  While Hegel hails Socrates for his contribution, he nonetheless justifies the Athenian court, for Socrates's insistence upon self-determination would be destructive of the Sittlichkeit (a Hegelian term signifying the way of life as shaped by the institutions and laws of the State)  Also, Hegel sees the Socratic use of rationalism as a continuation of Protagoras' focus on human reasoning (as encapsulated in the motto homo mensura: "man is the measure of all things"), but modified: it is our reasoning that can help us reach objective conclusions about reality  Also, Hegel considered Socrates as a predecessor of later ancient skeptic philosophers, even though he never clearly explained why Søren Kierkegaard considered Socrates his teacher, and authored his master's thesis on him, The Concept of Irony with Continual Reference to Socrates  There he argues that Socrates is not a moral philosopher but is purely an ironist  He also focused on Socrates's avoidance of writing: for Kierkegaard, this avoidance was a sign of humility, deriving from Socrates's acceptance of his ignorance  Not only did Socrates not write anything down, according to Kierkegaard, but his contemporaries misconstrued and misunderstood him as a philosopher, leaving us with an almost impossible task in comprehending Socratic thought  Only Plato's Apology was close to the real Socrates, in Kierkegaard's view  In his writings, he revisited Socrates quite frequently; in his later work, Kierkegaard found ethical elements in Socratic thought  Socrates was not only a subject of study for Kierkegaard, he was a model as well: Kierkegaard paralleled his task as a philosopher to Socrates  He writes, "The only analogy I have before me is Socrates; my task is a Socratic task, to audit the definition of what it is to be a Christian", with his aim being to bring society closer to the Christian ideal, since he believed that Christianity had become a formality, void of any Christian essence  Kierkegaard denied being a Christian, as Socrates denied possessing any knowledge Friedrich Nietzsche resented Socrates's contributions to Western culture  In his first book, The Birth of Tragedy (1872), Nietzsche held Socrates responsible for what he saw as the deterioration of ancient Greek civilization during the 4th century BC and after  For Nietzsche, Socrates turned the scope of philosophy from pre-Socratic naturalism to rationalism and intellectualism  He writes: "I conceive of [the Presocratics] as precursors to a reformation of the Greeks: but not of Socrates"; "with Empedocles and Democritus the Greeks were well on their way towards taking the correct measure of human existence, its unreason, its suffering; they never reached this goal, thanks to Socrates"  The effect, Nietzsche proposed, was a perverse situation that had continued down to his day: our culture is a Socratic culture, he believed  In a later publication, The Twilight of the Idols (1887), Nietzsche continued his offensive against Socrates, focusing on the arbitrary linking of reason to virtue and happiness in Socratic thinking  He writes: "I try to understand from what partial and idiosyncratic states the Socratic problem is to be derived: his equation of reason = virtue = happiness  It was with this absurdity of a doctrine of identity that he fascinated: ancient philosophy never again freed itself [from this fascination]"  From the late 19th century until the early 20th, the most common explanation of Nietzsche's hostility towards Socrates was his anti-rationalism; he considered Socrates the father of European rationalism  In the mid-20th century, philosopher Walter Kaufmann published an article arguing that Nietzsche admired Socrates  Current mainstream opinion is that Nietzsche was ambivalent towards Socrates 

Continental philosophers Hannah Arendt, Leo Strauss and Karl Popper, after experiencing the horrors of World War II, amidst the rise of totalitarian regimes, saw Socrates as an icon of individual conscience  Arendt, in Eichmann in Jerusalem (1963), suggests that Socrates's constant questioning and self-reflection could prevent the banality of evil  Strauss considers Socrates's political thought as paralleling Plato's  He sees an elitist Socrates in Plato's Republic as exemplifying why the polis is not, and could not be, an ideal way of organizing life, since philosophical truths cannot be digested by the masses  Popper takes the opposite view: he argues that Socrates opposes Plato's totalitarian ideas  For Popper, Socratic individualism, along with Athenian democracy, imply Popper's concept of the "open society" as described in his Open Society and Its Enemies (1945) 

See also
Bibliography of Socrates
De genio Socratis
List of cultural depictions of Socrates
List of speakers in Plato's dialogues
Socratic fallacy
Socratic Letters

Notes
Sources
Further reading
Brun, Jean (1978)  Socrate (in French) (6th ed )  Presses universitaires de France  pp  39–40  ISBN 978-2-13-035620-2 
Benson, Hugh (1992)  Essays on the philosophy of Socrates  New York: Oxford University Press  ISBN 978-0-19-506757-6  OCLC 23179683 
Rudebusch, George (2009)  Socrates  Chichester, UK; Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell  ISBN 978-1-4051-5085-9  OCLC 476311710 
Taylor, C  C  W  (1998)  Socrates  Oxford University Press  ISBN 978-0-19-287601-0 
Taylor, C  C  W  (2019)  Socrates: A Very Short Introduction  Oxford University Press  ISBN 978-0-19-883598-1 
Vlastos, Gregory (1994)  Socratic Studies  Cambridge University Press  ISBN 978-0-521-44735-5 

External links

Socrates at the Indiana Philosophy Ontology Project
The Dialogues of Plato at Project Gutenberg
Passage 3:
The 50th Law
The 50th Law is a New York Times bestselling book on strategy and fearlessness written collaboratively by rapper 50 Cent and author Robert Greene  The book is a semi-autobiographical account detailing 50 Cent's rise as both a young urban hustler and as an up-and-coming musician with lessons and anecdotes from historical figures such as Abraham Lincoln, Sun Tzu, Socrates, Napoleon, Malcolm X, and James Baldwin 

Origins
The 50th Law grew out of the friendship and mutual admiration between 50 Cent and Robert Greene  Greene's book The 48 Laws of Power, which has long been a staple in the hip hop world, came to the attention of 50 Cent, who asked his manager to arrange a meeting  Greene said that he was surprised by 50 Cent's persona and was impressed by his "Zen-like calmness" and eye for strategy  The two began to work on a book project that would combine their two worlds According to Greene, 50 Cent is an example of what Machiavelli called a New Prince, a leader who emerges in a time of chaos or turmoil and rewrites the rules  According to 50 Cent, Greene's books describe the laws and strategies used by hustlers on the street, even if they might not know the "technical terms" for what they were doing 

Synopsis
Each of the 10 chapters in the book explains a factor of fearlessness and begins by telling how 50 Cent learned this Fearless Philosophy in Southside Queens  The 50th Law illustrates the laws of the book by supplementing anecdotes from 50 Cent's life with historical examples from Malcolm X, Miles Davis, Sun Tzu, François de La Rochefoucauld, Machiavelli, Richard Wright, James Baldwin, Thucydides, Dostoyevsky, Charlie Parker, and the Baron de Montesquieu 

Reception
The book debuted at #5 on The New York Times Bestseller list and was a USA Today bestseller  The book was met with positive reviews, with the New York Post calling The 50th Law "a modern day Art of War," The Guardian referring to the book as "a manual on power similar to the works of Machiavelli and Sun Tzu," and Library Journal stating that The 50th Law is written for "anyone interested in how to succeed in business and the game of life "The book was also featured in The New York Times, MSNBC, Huffington Post, The Sun, The New York Daily News, Forbes, Business Insider, Fast Company, The Telegraph, MTV, Vibe and Billboard  In promotion of the book, Greene and 50 Cent appeared on The Today Show, CNBC, ABC, BBC and MTV News  The 50th Law was also published as a 60-page comic book 
Passage 4:
Trust Me, I'm Lying
Trust Me, I'm Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator is a book by Ryan Holiday chronicling  his time working as a media strategist for clients including  Tucker Max, Robert Greene, and Dov Charney 

Background and description
Trust Me, I'm Lying was billed as an exposé of the  online journalism system that rose to prominence in the decade before the book's 2012 publication 
Holiday is the former Director of Marketing for American Apparel, where he created controversial campaigns that garnered widespread publicity  Holiday has also done publicity work for Tucker Max, including marketing for the film adaptation of I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell and a media stunt about Max's failed attempt to donate $500,000 to Planned Parenthood The book is split into two parts: the first explains why blogs matter, how they drive the news, and how they can be manipulated, while the second shows what happens when this is done, how it backfires, and the consequences of the current media system As an example of his argument that blogs shape the news, Holiday outlines how the political blog Politico dedicated significant coverage to the campaign of Tim Pawlenty two years before the 2012 elections in order to generate pageviews for advertisers  Although Pawlenty did not yet have an official campaign, this kickstarted the media cycle which painted Pawlenty as a serious presidential candidate  As an example of the pageview-intensive blogosphere, Holiday uses the example of Jezebel writer Irin Carmon's attack on Jon Stewart and The Daily Show with misleading claims of "The Daily Show's Woman Problem " The book is also the source of a marketing and media concept now referred to as "trading up the chain", in which news is broken on small blogs and passed to successively larger and more influential media outlets 

Release
In 2011, it was reported that Holiday received a $500,000 advance for a tell-all exposé about these clients and the modern media system from Portfolio, a subsidiary of Penguin Books  However, some outlets later accused the advance of being a strategic marketing stunt engineered by Holiday Trust Me, I'm Lying debuted on the Wall Street Journal bestseller list  Publishers Weekly stated that "Media students and bloggers would do well to heed Holiday's informative, timely, and provocative advice " Kirkus Reviews called Trust Me, I'm Lying "[a] sharp and disturbing look into the world of online reality "In anticipation of the book's release, Holiday infiltrated the public relations service Help a Reporter Out and posed as an "expert" on various issues to show that journalists will print statements without fact checking  Holiday made decoy claims to prove the point; some of those were subsequently quoted in articles about subjects ranging from boating upkeep to insomnia to vinyl records in outlets such as The New York Times, MSNBC, and ABC, and the story was profiled in Forbes and Yahoo! News In 2013, The Edmonton Journal named Trust Me, I'm Lying one of their “favourite books of the year ”
Passage 5:
Bianca Bosker
Bianca Bosker is an American journalist and bestselling author  Her nonfiction book on sommelier training,  Cork Dork, was a New York Times bestseller  Her work has appeared in publications including The Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, The Atlantic, Food & Wine, The New York Times, Far Eastern Economic Review, and  The Oregonian Bosker is the author of Original Copies: Architectural Mimicry in Contemporary China  She is an alumna of Princeton University, and co-founder of the Huffington Post Technology section 
Passage 6:
The Nasty Bits
The Nasty Bits: Collected Varietal Cuts, Usable Trim, Scraps, and Bones, is a largely nonfiction New York Times bestselling book by Anthony Bourdain, published in 2006  The book is a collection of 37 exotic, provocative, and humorous anecdotes and essays, many of them centered around food, followed by a 30-page fiction piece ("A Chef's Christmas")  The book concludes with an appendix of commentaries on the various pieces, including when and why they were written The essays range from descriptions of restaurant-kitchen life; to various rants about places, people, and things Bourdain objects to; to lively accounts of far-flung world travels and remote ethnic life and food; to accolades of the unsung Latinos who cook most fine-dining restaurant food in America; to glowing reports of cutting-edge chefs like Ferran Adrià; to details of Bourdain's obsessions and pursuits when he is not working; to opinions and anecdotes on various other subjects 
Bourdain organized the various essays and anecdotes into sections named for each of the five traditional flavors:

Salty
Sweet
Sour
Bitter
UmamiThe book is, according to Bourdain, basically a collection of the best of his magazine and newspaper writings during the previous few years  As he says in the preface:

I've done a lot of writing for magazines and newspapers in the last few years, and it's the better morsels (I hope) from that work that follow       I've been writing this stuff for much the same reason behind my frenetic traveling: Because I can  Because there's so little time  Because there's been so much to see and remember      It's an irritating reality that many places and events defy description  Angkor Wat and Machu Picchu, for instance, seem to demand silence, like a love affair you can never talk about  For a while after, you fumble for words, trying vainly to assemble a private narrative, an explanation, a comfortable way to frame where you've been and what's happened  In the end, you're just happy you were there—with your eyes open—and lived to see it 
Passage 7:
Andrew Ross Sorkin
Andrew Ross Sorkin (born February 19, 1977) is an American journalist and author   He is a financial columnist for The New York Times and a co-anchor of CNBC's Squawk Box  He is also the founder and editor of DealBook, a financial news service published by The New York Times  He wrote the bestselling book Too Big to Fail and co-produced a movie adaptation of the book for HBO Films  He is also a co-creator of the Showtime series Billions 

Early life and education
Sorkin was born in New York, the son of Joan Ross Sorkin, a playwright, and Laurence T  Sorkin, a partner at the law firm Cahill Gordon & Reindel  Sorkin graduated from Scarsdale High School in 1995 and earned a Bachelor of Science in communications from Cornell University in 1999 where he was a member of Sigma Pi fraternity  He is not related to writer Aaron Sorkin nor defense lawyer Ira Lee Sorkin  His family heritage and religion are Jewish 

Career
Journalist
Sorkin first joined The New York Times as a student intern during his senior year in high school  He also worked for the paper while he was in college, publishing 71 articles before he graduated  He began by writing media and technology articles while assisting the advertising columnist, Stuart Elliott  Sorkin spent the summer of 1996 working for Businessweek, before returning to The New York Times   He moved to London for part of 1998  While there, he wrote about European business and technology for The New York Times and then returned to Cornell to complete his studies  At Cornell, he was vice president of the Sigma Pi fraternity 

Mergers and acquisitions reporter
Sorkin joined The New York Times full-time in 1999 as the newspaper's European mergers and acquisitions reporter, and was based in London  In 2000, Sorkin became the paper's chief mergers and acquisitions reporter, based in New York, a position he still holds  In 2001, Sorkin founded "DealBook," an online daily financial report published by the Times  As Editor-at-Large of "DealBook," Sorkin writes a weekly column of the same name  Sorkin is also an assistant editor of business and finance news for the paper Sorkin has broken news of major mergers and acquisitions, including Chase's acquisition of J P  Morgan and Hewlett-Packard's acquisition of Compaq  He also led The New York Times' coverage of the largest takeover in history, Vodafone's $183 billion hostile bid for Mannesmann  Additionally, he broke the news of IBM's sale of its PC business to Lenovo, Boston Scientific's $25 billion acquisition of Guidant and Symantec's $13 billion deal for Veritas Software, and reported on News Corp 's acquisition of Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal 
Sorkin has reported on the Wall Street financial crisis, including the collapse of Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers, and the government bailout of other major investment banks and AIG  He has also written about the troubled American auto industry 
In 2007, Sorkin was one of the first journalists to identify and criticize a tax loophole for private equity firms and hedge funds  He first wrote about the topic in a column in March 2007, calling the tax treatment a "charade", and later wrote about it on the front page of The New York Times  He has written at least a half dozen articles critiquing the tax practice by private equity firms and advocated for the government to end the loophole In 2014, Sorkin wrote a series of columns criticizing American corporations for trying to lower their US tax bill by merging with smaller foreign companies in a transaction known as an "inversion"  He also criticized the Wall Street banks that advised US companies to pursue such deals, describing the banks as "corporate co-conspirators"  Sorkin called on the government to end the practice  On September 22, 2014, the Obama Administration changed the tax laws to make it more difficult for US companies to merge to avoid taxes On the PRISM surveillance program and Edward Snowden situation, Sorkin said, "I would arrest him and now I'd almost arrest Glenn Greenwald, the journalist who seems to be out there, he wants to help him get to Ecuador " The next day, Sorkin apologized for the comment; Greenwald accepted, tweeting "Thank you: accepted & appreciated" 

DealBook
In October 2001, while a journalist at The New York Times, Sorkin started DealBook, a newsletter about deal-making and Wall Street  DealBook was one of the first financial news aggregation services on the Internet  In March 2006, Sorkin introduced a companion website published on The New York Times, with updated news and original analysis throughout the day  In 2007, DealBook won a Webby Award for Best Business Blog and it won a SABEW award for overall excellence  In 2008, the site won an EPpy Award for Best Business Blog 

Television
In July 2011, Sorkin became a co-anchor on CNBC's Squawk Box in addition to his duties at The New York Times  Sorkin has appeared on NBC's Today show, Charlie Rose and The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer on PBS, MSNBC's Hardball and Morning Joe, ABC's Good Morning America, The Chris Matthews Show, HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher, the BBC World Service, Comedy Central's The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, and was a frequent guest host of CNBC's Squawk Box before joining the ensemble  Sorkin also hosted a weekly seven-part, half-hour PBS talk-show series called It's the Economy, NY, which focused on how the evolving economic crisis was affecting New Yorkers Along with Brian Koppelman and David Levien, Sorkin is a co-creator of the Showtime series Billions, an American television drama series starring Paul Giamatti and Damian Lewis  The series is loosely based on crusading federal prosecutor of financial crimes, Preet Bharara, the former U S  Attorney for the Southern District of New York  The show premiered in January 2016 

Too Big to Fail
Sorkin's book on the Wall Street banking crisis, Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System—and Themselves, was published by Viking on October 20, 2009  It won the 2010 Gerald Loeb Award for best business book of the year, was on the shortlist for the 2010 Samuel Johnson Prize, shortlisted for the 2010 Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award, and was on The New York Times Best Seller list (non-fiction hardcover and paperback) for six months 
The book was adapted as a movie by HBO Films and premiered on HBO on May 23, 2011  The film was directed by Curtis Hanson and the screenplay was written by Peter Gould  The cast included William Hurt as Hank Paulson, the Treasury Secretary; Paul Giamatti as Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve;  Billy Crudup as Timothy Geithner, the then-president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank; James Woods as Richard Fuld, the CEO of Lehman Brothers; Edward Asner as Warren Buffett, the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway; Cynthia Nixon as Michele Davis, assistant secretary for public affairs at Treasury; Bill Pullman as Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase; as well as Topher Grace as Jim Wilkinson, Chief of Staff to the Treasury Secretary  Sorkin was a co-producer of the film and had a cameo appearance as a reporter 

Awards
Sorkin shared the Gerald Loeb Award in 2005 for Deadline Writing and earned another for Business Book in 2010 for his book Too Big to Fail  He also won a Society of American Business Editors and Writers Award for breaking news in 2005 and again in 2006  In 2007, the World Economic Forum named him a Young Global Leader  Also in 2007, SiliconAlleyInsider com named Sorkin one of New York's "most influential scribes " In 2008, Vanity Fair magazine named Sorkin as one of 40 new members of the "Next Establishment," and he appeared on the UJA Federation's 2013 list of 40 under 40 top "movers and shakers" in the Jewish community  He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations  In 2022, Sorkin won an Emmy Award for his New York Times interview with WeWork founder Adam Neumann 

In popular culture
In the penultimate episode of Breaking Bad, called "Granite State," Sorkin is briefly referenced  He is said to have written an op-ed in The New York Times accusing fictional entrepreneurs Gretchen and Elliott Schwartz of making donations to drug rehabilitation centers in the hopes of cleansing their company's image after the Walter White scandal  Sorkin later wrote the entire fictional article 

Personal life
Sorkin married Pilar Jenny Queen on June 9, 2007 Sorkin has a coloboma in his left eye that sometimes makes it appear as if he has two different colored eyes 

See also
New Yorkers in journalism
Passage 8:
G-Unit Books
G-Unit Books was an American book publishing imprint started by rapper 50 Cent in partnership with MTV/Pocketbooks on January 4, 2007, following a prior relationship with the company dating back to the publication of his memoir in 2005  He launched  G-Unit Books at the Time Warner Building in New York In addition to his memoir, 50 also co-wrote The Ski Mask Way, a novel about a small-time drug dealer who attempts to rob his employers   All G-Unit books were meant to be street fiction encouraging reading at a younger age G-Unit Books released its last books in 2011 

Bibliography
From Pieces To Weight : Once Upon A Time In Southside Queens (Release Date : August 15, 2006)
Baby Brother (Release Date : January 9, 2007)
Death Before Dishonor (Release Date : January 9, 2007)
The Ski Mask Way (Release Date : January 9, 2007)
Blow (Release Date : July 12, 2007)
Derelict (Release Date : July 12, 2007)
Harlem Heat (Release Date : July 24, 2007)
Heaven's Fury (Release Date : November 20, 2007)
The Diamond District (Release Date : March 25, 2008)
Tia's Diary : Deeper Than Rap (Release Date : May 25, 2009)
The 50th Law (Released : September 8, 2009)
Playground (Released : November 1, 2011)
Context 2: Passage 1:
Pueraria
Pueraria is a genus of 15–20 species of legumes native to Asia  The best known member is kudzu, also called Japanese arrowroot  The genus is named after 19th century Swiss botanist Marc Nicolas Puerari 
The genus, as traditionally circumscribed, is polyphyletic, with different species being more related to other species in the tribe Phaseoleae  Current research, reproduced below, splits the genus into five clades, one of which defines the current monophyletic genus 

Species
The genus Pueraria is highly polyphyletic; the below list is divided by clade following the result of A N Egan & B Pan (2016)  In 2015, the authors validly published their proposal in Phytotaxa  As of February 2022, Kew Plants of the World Online database accepts these names 

Pueraria sensu stricto
Pueraria sensu stricto includes the vast majority of species in the genus  They fall into a single clade sister to or containing Nogra 
P  alopecuroides Craib
P  calycina Franch 
P  candollei  Benth 
P  edulis Pamp 
P  imbricata Maesen
P  lacei Craib
P  mirifica Airy Shaw & Suvat  (= P  candollei var  mirifica in Egan)
P  montana (Lour ) Merr  – US invasive population comes from a hybrid of more than one of the subspecies Pueraria montana var  chinensis (Ohwi) Sanjappa & Pradeep (= P  chinensis, although ILDS and the plant list instead consider P  thomsonii the synonym)
Pueraria montana var  lobata (Willd ) Sanjappa & Pradeep (= P  lobata)
Pueraria montana var  thomsonii (Benth ) Wiersema ex D B  Ward (= P  thomsonii, missing in ILDS)
P  pulcherrima (Koord ) Koord -Schum 
P  sikkimensis Prain
P  tuberosa (Roxb ex Willd ) DC  – type species

Provisionally retained
The following are not included in the 2016 study due to insufficient material for sequencing  They are accepted by POWO 
P  bella Prain: conflicting proposals assigning either to the main clade or to Neonotonia (morphology) 
P  bouffordii H  Ohashi: presumably in the main clade (morphology) 
P  grandiflora Bo Pan & Bing Liu: presumably in the main clade (morphology) 
P  xyzhuii H  Ohashi & Iokawa: presumably in the main clade (morphology) The following are not included in Egan et al  2016 for other reasons, but are accepted by Kew POWO:

P  garhwalensis L R Dangwal & D S Rawat: excluded per van der Maesen (2002)
P  neocaledonica Harms: not mentioned
P  maesenii Niyomdham: not mentioned

Former members
The rest of the genus fall into four clades, sorted by distance from the main clade:
Neustanthus Benth  – sister to Sinodolichos
P  phaseoloides (Roxb ) Benth  → N  phaseoloides (Roxb ) Benth P  edulis, P  montana, and N  phaseoloides make up what is known as kudzu  The morphological differences between these species are subtle 
N  phaseoloides var  javanicus (= P  javanica (Benth ) Benth )
N  phaseoloides var  phaseoloides
N  phaseoloides var  subspicatus
Teyleria
P  stricta Kurz → T  stricta
Toxicopueraria A N Egan & B Pan – sister to Cologania
P  peduncularis Grah  → T  peduncularis
P  yunnanensis Franchet → T  yunnanensis
Haymondia A N Egan & B Pan – notably lies out of Glycininae near Kennediinae; known for a long time to be misplaced
P  wallichii DC  → H  wallichiiThe following names are not accepted even before Egan 2016 but have seen valid publication:

P  omeiensis Wang et Tang – P  montana: unaccepted name after Mount Omei 
P  stracheyi Baker → Apios carnea (Wall ) Benth  ex Baker 
P  maclurei (F  P  Metcalf) F  J  Herm  → Sinodolichos lagopus – still accepted by WFO
Passage 2:
Pleiospilos nelii
Pleiospilos nelii, the split rock, splitrock or living granite, is a species of flowering plant in the family Aizoaceae, native to South Africa  It grows in semi-arid areas with rainfall of between 150mm and 300mm, in the Karoo of South Africa 

Etymology
The species epithet nelii honours the South African botanist Gert Cornelius Nel  The common name "split rock" refers to the appearance of the plant's leaves 

Description
Pleiospilos nelii is a succulent perennial which can reach a height of 5–8 cm (2–3 in) and a diameter of about 10 cm (4 in)  This very short-stemmed, nearly stemless plant has one or more pairs of opposite, almost hemispherical, grey-green or brownish leaves  The surface of the leaves has many small dark spots  A new pair of leaves is produced each year, replacing an older pair  This plant closely resembles a small cracked rock (hence the common name), an appearance which may have evolved as a defence against herbivory  The superficially daisy-like flowers are yellow-orange, 6–7 5 cm (2–3 in) across, and emerge from the plant's apical bud  The flowers are large in relation to the size of the plant  Each flower opens in the afternoon and closes at sunset, over a bloom period of several days 

Cultivation
P  nelii is one of several plants cultivated for their rocklike appearance  They are sometimes collectively called mesembs  In temperate regions it is grown under glass for protection from excessive rain and hard freezes  It has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit 

Gallery
Passage 3:
Pleiospilos simulans
Pleiospilos simulans (liver plant, split rock plant) is a species of flowering plant in the family Aizoaceae, once endemic to the Eastern Cape of South Africa  Known populations of the plant in the wild are now extinct due its collection as an ornamental plant for succulent collectors  It is a small, low-growing, perennial with succulent leaves and orange or yellow many-petaled flowers 
Passage 4:
Pleiospilos
Pleiospilos is a genus of succulent flowering plants of the family Aizoaceae, native to South Africa  The name is derived from the Greek pleios "many" and spìlos "spot"  The plants are also known as kwaggavy ("Quagga mesemb"), lewerplant ("liver plant"), lewervygie ("liver mesemb"), klipplant ("stone plant"), split rock or mimicry plant 
Pleiospilos species have two or four opposite, very fleshy, grey-green leaves growing from a short stem that may be underground  The leaves, with their hemispherical shape and pitted texture, often strongly resemble a pile of split pebbles to deter predators  Flowers emerge from the center of the leaves, and may be very big in relation to the overall size of the plant They reproduce both sexually and asexually  Vegetative offshoots emerge from the root system  Seed set occurs in early spring around March The species P  bolusii and  P  nelii are cultivated as ornamentals 

Species
Pleiospilos bolusii
Pleiospilos compactus
P  compactus subsp  compactus
P  compactus subsp  canus
P  compactus subsp  minor
P  compactus subsp  fergusoniae
P  compactus subsp  sororius
Pleiospilos nelii
Pleiospilos simulans
Passage 5:
Pleiospilos bolusii
Pleiospilos bolusii, the mimicry plant, is a species of flowering plant in the family Aizoaceae, native to the Eastern Cape of South Africa, where it grows at an altitude of 750–1,100 m (2,461–3,609 ft)  The species epithet bolusii honours Harry Bolus, a 19th-century South African botanist 
It is a small, stemless succulent perennial growing to 8 cm (3 in) tall by 15 cm (6 in) wide, with two or four opposite grey-green leaves, quite thick, fused at the base, almost triangular, with entire margins  The leaves are longer and more angular than those of the closely related P  nelii, but in both cases the shape and texture of the leaves resemble a pile of split pebbles, possibly to deter predators  The yellow, many-petaled, daisy-like flowers emerge from the center of the leaves, and are 6–8 cm (2–3 in) in diameter - large in relation to the overall size of the plant  The flowers are often coconut-scented  The flowering period extends from August to September 
The plant is one of several species cultivated for their rocklike appearance, which are sometimes collectively called mesembs  With a minimum temperature of 7 °C (45 °F), in temperate regions it is grown under glass  It has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit 
Context 3: Passage 1:
Picardy Spaniel
The Picardy Spaniel is a breed of dog developed in France for use as a gundog  It is related to the Blue Picardy Spaniel, and still has many similarities, but the Picardy Spaniel is the older of the two breeds  It is thought to be one of the two oldest continental spaniel breeds and was favoured by the French nobility, remaining popular for hunting after the French Revolution due to its weather resistant coat that enabled it to hunt in a variety of conditions and terrain  However its popularity waned following the influx of English hunting breeds in the early 20th century  Slightly smaller than an English Setter but larger than most of its spaniel cousins, it has no major health issues although as with many breeds with pendulous ears, it can be prone to ear infections 

History
The French Spaniel and the Picardy Spaniel are speculated to have stemmed from the Chien d' Oysel described in the writings of Gaston Phoebus  Hunting during this period in France was one of the favourite sports of the nobility and the French type of Spaniel became the favourite hunting dog of the French Royalty  The breed can be seen in paintings dating from this period by artists Alexandre-François Desportes and Jean-Baptiste Oudry  They were also the first breed of dog to be admitted into salons The breed became more popular still following the French Revolution and the aftermath in which hunting was no longer restricted to the nobility  Although spread throughout France, a large concentration was located in the north west where the weather resistant coat of the breed made it ideal for the wooded and swampy conditions  During the early 19th century, British hunters crossed the channel to hunt in the grounds of north west France  The British brought their own hunting dogs, and this resulted in a change of preference as French hunters switched to English breeds and caused a major blow to the existence of the Picardy Spaniel  In addition the infusion of blood from the English Setter into the local spaniel population created the Blue Picardy Spaniel 

Recognition
The Epagneul Picard Club was formed in 1921 and was merged with the Club of Blue Picardy Spaniel on 28 July 1937  A further merger took place on 21 May 1980 when these clubs merged with the Pont-Audemer Club to form the Club des Epagneuls Picards, Bleus de Picardie & Pont Audemer The Picardy Spaniel is recognised by a variety of Kennel Clubs and associations including the North American Kennel Club, American Rare Breed Association, United Kennel Club, and the Fédération Cynologique Internationale  All four associations use the standard as set by the FCI  It is also recognised by the Continental Kennel Club, but unlike the closely related Blue Picardy Spaniel, it is not recognised by the Canadian Kennel Club 

Description
Appearance
Typical examples of the breed measure between 22–24 inches (56–61 cm) at the withers, with the average weight between 20–25 kilograms (44–55 lb)  The breed is similar in size to the English Setter, although is slightly smaller  Of the Spaniel type breeds, only the Large Münsterländer and Drentse Patrijshond are recognised as possibly growing to larger sizes, with the Drentse measuring 21 5–25 5 in (55–65 cm), and the Münsterländer slightly smaller with a narrower range at 23–25 in (58–64 cm) The breed has a squarely built muscular body and  an oval shaped head with a long muzzle and long ears that hang fairly low  Its coat can vary in colours from chocolate, chestnut brown and white with sandy coloured markings on the head and white or grey spots on the legs  Its hair is abundant with a slight wave, enabling it to work in dense cover and even in water 

Temperament
The Picardy Spaniel is a docile breed of dog and is fond of playing with children and bonds well with their master  It is described as having a gentle sociable nature, possessing a good character with a laid-back attitude, and being relatively easy to train  In France, the breed is used for hunting in wooded areas for pheasants, and in swamps for snipes  However it can also be used for hunting ducks, hares and rabbits  The breed excels at hunting in marshes and will not hesitate to jump into water  It can also adequately serve as a retriever should it be required  The dog is content with a small amount of space and could suit life in the city, but also loves open spaces 

Health
The Picardy Spaniel has no known hereditary health problems, and has an average lifespan of 14 years  However being a hunting spaniel, the breed is prone to ear infections  These infections are common among dogs with pendulous ears, including Basset Hounds and other breeds of spaniel  Overfeeding a Picardy Spaniel may lead to
overweight 
Passage 2:
List of goat breeds
Goats - farm animals of domestic goat (Capra hircus) species, small ruminants - are widespread throughout the world and are used in almost any natural and climatic conditions, even those where other productive animals cannot live  Different breeds of goats are adapted to different livestock systems - from small herds of 3-5 heads on meager grazing to large intensive livestock farms, from year-round grazing to fully stable housing, with many intermediate variations between them  Goats are a source of several types of products, of which the main ones are milk, meat and wool  Among the goat breeds there are highly productive specialized, dual-triple-use and universal breeds  External differences between breeds are represented by many major and minor traits that vary in a very wide range  Goat breeds (especially dairy goats) are some of the oldest defined animal breeds for which breed standards and production records have been kept  Selective breeding of goats generally focuses on improving production of fiber, meat, dairy products or goatskin  Breeds are generally classified based on their primary use, though there are several breeds which are considered dual- or multi-purpose 

List
Passage 3:
Beaglier
This is a list of common dog crossbreeds  These are crossbreed dogs created deliberately by crossing two purebred dogs  Some are known as designer dogs and are bred as companion dogs, often given portmanteau names derived from those of the parent breeds; others are bred to combine specific working qualities inherent in the parent breeds 

Crossbreeds
See also
Dog crossbreed
List of dog breeds
Mongrel
Passage 4:
Beagle
The beagle is a breed of  small scent hound, similar in appearance to the much larger foxhound  The beagle was developed primarily for hunting hare, known as beagling  Possessing a great sense of smell and superior tracking instincts, the beagle is the primary breed used as a detection dog for prohibited agricultural imports and foodstuffs in quarantine around the world  The beagle is intelligent and is a popular pet due to its size, good temper, and a lack of inherited health problems 
The modern breed was developed in Great Britain around the 1830s from several breeds, including the Talbot Hound, the North Country Beagle, the Southern Hound, and possibly the Harrier 
Beagles have been depicted in popular culture since Elizabethan times in literature and paintings and more recently in film, television, and comic books 

History
The origin of the beagle is not known  In the 11th century, William the Conqueror brought the St  Hubert Hound and the Talbot hound to Britain  In Britain, both of these strains were then crossed with Greyhounds to give them speed and stamina for deer hunting  Beagles are similar to the Harrier and the extinct Southern Hound, though they are smaller and slower 
From medieval times, beagle was used as a generic description for the smaller hounds, though these dogs differed considerably from the modern breed  Miniature breeds of beagle-type dogs were known from the times of Edward II and Henry VII, who both had packs of Glove Beagles, so named since they were small enough to fit on a glove, and Queen Elizabeth I kept a breed known as a Pocket Beagle, which stood 8 to 9 inches (20 to 23 cm) at the shoulder  Small enough to fit in a "pocket" or saddlebag, they rode along on the hunt  The larger hounds would run the prey to ground, then the hunters would release the small dogs to continue the chase through underbrush  Elizabeth I referred to the dogs as her singing beagles and often entertained guests at her royal table by letting her Pocket Beagles cavort amid their plates and cups  19th-century sources refer to these breeds interchangeably and it is possible that the two names refer to the same small variety  In George Jesse's Researches into the History of the British Dog from 1866, the early 17th-century poet and writer Gervase Markham is quoted referring to the beagle as small enough to sit on a man's hand and to the: little small mitten-beagle, which may be companion for a ladies kirtle, and in the field will run as cunningly as any hound whatere, only their musick is very small like reeds 
By the 18th century, two breeds had been developed for hunting hare and rabbit: the Southern Hound and the North Country Beagle (or Northern Hound)  The Southern Hound, a tall, heavy dog with a square head, and long, soft ears, was common from south of the River Trent and probably closely related to the Talbot Hound  Though slow, it had stamina and an excellent scenting ability  The North Country Beagle, possibly a cross between an offshoot of the Talbot stock and a Greyhound, was bred chiefly in Yorkshire and was common in the northern counties  It was smaller than the Southern Hound, less heavy-set, and with a more pointed muzzle  It was faster than its southern counterpart but its scenting abilities were less well-developed Standards for the Pocket Beagle were drawn up as late as 1901; these genetic lines are now extinct, although modern breeders have attempted to recreate the variety 

Development of the modern breed
Reverend Phillip Honeywood established a beagle pack in Essex in the 1830s and it is believed that this pack formed the basis for the modern breed  Although details of the pack's lineage are not recorded, it is thought that North Country Beagles and Southern Hounds were strongly represented; William Youatt suspected that Harriers formed a good majority of the beagle's bloodline, but the origin of the Harrier is itself obscure  Honeywood's Beagles were small, standing at about 10 inches (25 cm) at the shoulder, and pure white according to John Mills (writing in The Sportsman's Library in 1845)  Prince Albert and Lord Winterton also had Beagle packs around this time, and royal favor no doubt led to some revival of interest in the breed, but Honeywood's pack was regarded as the finest of the three 
Although credited with the development of the modern breed, Honeywood concentrated on producing dogs for hunting and it was left to Thomas Johnson to refine the breeding to produce dogs that were both attractive and capable hunters  Two strains were developed: the rough-coated and smooth-coated varieties  The rough-coated beagle survived until the beginning of the 20th century, and there were even records of one making an appearance at a dog show as late as 1969, but this variety is now extinct, having probably been absorbed into the standard beagle bloodline In the 1840s, a standard beagle type was beginning to develop; the distinction between the North Country Beagle and Southern Hound had been lost, but there was still a large variation in size, character, and reliability among the emerging packs  In 1856, "Stonehenge" (the pseudonym of John Henry Walsh), writing in the Manual of British Rural Sports, was still dividing beagles into four varieties: the medium beagle; the dwarf or lapdog beagle; the fox beagle (a smaller, slower version of the Foxhound); and the rough-coated or terrier beagle, which he classified as a cross between any of the other varieties and one of the Scottish terrier breeds  Stonehenge also gives the start of a standard description:

In size the beagle measures from 10 inches, or even less, to 15  In shape they resemble the old southern hound in miniature, but with more neatness and beauty; and they also resemble that hound in style of hunting 
By 1887 the threat of extinction was on the wane: there were 18 beagle packs in England  The Beagle Club was formed in 1890 and the first standard drawn up at the same time  The following year the Association of Masters of Harriers and Beagles was formed  Both organisations aimed to further the best interests of the breed, and both were keen to produce a standard type of beagle  By 1902, the number of packs had risen to 44 

Export
Beagles were in the United States by the 1840s at the latest, but the first dogs were imported strictly for hunting and were of variable quality  Since Honeywood had only started breeding in the 1830s, it is unlikely these dogs were representative of the modern breed, and the description of them as looking like straight-legged Dachshunds with weak heads has little resemblance to the standard  Serious attempts at establishing a quality bloodline began in the early 1870s when General Richard Rowett from Illinois imported some dogs from England and began breeding  Rowett's Beagles are believed to have formed the models for the first American standard, drawn up by Rowett, L  H  Twadell, and Norman Ellmore in 1887  The beagle was accepted as a breed by the American Kennel Club (AKC) in 1885  In the 20th century the breed has spread worldwide 

Popularity
On its formation, the Association of Masters of Harriers and Beagles took over the running of a regular show at Peterborough that had started in 1889, and the Beagle Club in the UK held its first show in 1896  The regular showing of the breed led to the development of a uniform type, and the beagle continued to prove a success up until the outbreak of World War I when all shows were suspended  After the war, the breed was again struggling for survival in the UK: the last of the Pocket Beagles was probably lost during this time, and registrations fell to an all-time low  A few breeders (notably Reynalton Kennels) managed to revive interest in the dog and by World War II, the breed was once again doing well  Registrations dropped again after the end of the war but almost immediately recovered As purebred dogs, beagles have always been more popular in the United States and Canada than in their native country England  The National Beagle Club of America was formed in 1888 and by 1901 a beagle had won a Best in Show title  As in the UK, activity during World War I was minimal, but the breed showed a much stronger revival in the U S  when hostilities ceased  In 1928 it won a number of prizes at the Westminster Kennel Club's show and by 1939 a beagle – Champion Meadowlark Draughtsman – had captured the title of top-winning American-bred dog for the year   On 12 February 2008, a beagle, K-Run's Park Me In First (Uno), won the Best In Show category at the Westminster Kennel Club show for the first time in the competition's history  In North America they have been consistently in the top-ten most-popular breeds for over 30 years  From 1953 to 1959 the beagle was ranked No  1 on the list of the American Kennel Club's registered breeds; in 2005 and 2006 it ranked 5th out of the 155 breeds registered  In the UK they are not quite so popular, placing 28th and 30th in the rankings of registrations with the Kennel Club in 2005 and 2006 respectively  In the United States the beagle ranked 4th most popular breed in 2012 and 2013, behind the Labrador Retriever (#1), German Shepherd (#2), and Golden Retriever (#3) breeds 

Name
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first mention of the beagle by name in English literature dates from c  1475 in The Squire of Low Degree  The origin of the word "beagle" is uncertain, although it has been suggested that the word derives from the French begueule which means "gate throat" It is not known why the black and tan Kerry Beagle, present in Ireland since Celtic times, has the beagle description, since at 22 to 24 inches (56 to 61 cm) it is significantly taller than the modern day beagle, and in earlier times was even larger  Some writers suggest that the beagle's scenting ability may have come from cross-breeding earlier strains with the Kerry Beagle  Originally used for hunting stags, it is today used for hare and drag hunting 

Appearance
The general appearance of the beagle resembles a miniature Foxhound, but the head is broader and the muzzle shorter, the expression completely different and the legs shorter in proportion to the body   They are generally between 13 and 16 inches (33 and 41 cm) high at the withers and weigh between 18 and 35 lb (8 2 and 15 9 kg), with females being slightly smaller than males on average 
They have a smooth, somewhat domed skull with a medium-length, square-cut muzzle, and a black (or occasionally liver) gumdrop nose  The jaw is strong, and the teeth scissor together with the upper teeth fitting perfectly over the lower teeth  Both sets align square to the jaw  The eyes are large, hazel or brown, with a mild, hound-like pleading look  The large ears are long, soft, and low-set, turning towards the cheeks slightly and rounded at the tips  Beagles have a strong, medium-length neck (which is long enough for them to easily bend to the ground to pick up a scent), with little folding in the skin but some evidence of a dewlap; a broad chest narrowing to a tapered abdomen and waist and a long, slightly curved tail (known as the "stern") tipped with white  The white tip, known as the flag, was bred for selectively, as the tail remains easily seen when the dog's head is down following a scent  The tail does not curl over the back, but is held upright when the dog is active  The beagle has a muscular body and a medium-length, smooth, hard coat  The front legs are straight and carried under the body while the rear legs are muscular and well bent at the stifles 
The tricolored beagle—white with large black areas and light brown shading—is the most common   Tricolored beagles occur in a number of shades, from the "Classic Tri" with a jet black saddle (also known as "Blackback"), to the "Dark Tri" (where faint brown markings are intermingled with more prominent black markings), to the "Faded Tri" (where faint black markings are intermingled with more prominent brown markings)  Some tricolored dogs have a broken pattern, sometimes referred to as pied  These dogs have mostly white coats with patches of black and brown hair  Tricolor beagles are almost always born black and white  The white areas are typically set by eight weeks, but the black areas may fade to brown as the puppy matures   (The brown may take between one and two years to fully develop ) Some beagles gradually change colour during their lives, and may lose their black markings entirely 
Two-colour varieties always have a white base colour with areas of the second colour  Tan and white is the most common two-colour variety, but there is a wide range of other colours including lemon, a very light tan; red, a reddish, almost orange, brown; and liver, a darker brown, and black  Liver is not common and is not permitted in some standards; it tends to occur with yellow eyes  Ticked or mottled varieties may be either white or black with different coloured flecks (ticking), such as the blue-mottled or bluetick beagle, which has spots that appear to be a midnight-blue colour, similar to the colouring of the Bluetick Coonhound  Some tricolour beagles also have ticking of various colours in their white areas 

Sense of smell
Alongside the Bloodhound and Basset Hound, the beagle has one of the best developed senses of smell of any dog  In the 1950s, John Paul Scott and John Fuller began a 13-year study of canine behavior  As part of this research, they tested the scenting abilities of various breeds by putting a mouse in a one-acre field and timing how long it took the dogs to find it  The beagles found it in less than a minute while Fox Terriers took 15 minutes and Scottish Terriers failed to find it at all  The long ears and large lips of the beagle probably assist in trapping the scents close to the nose 

Variations
Breed varieties
The American Kennel Club recognises two separate varieties of beagle: the 13-inch for hounds less than 13 inches (33 cm), and the 15-inch for those between 13 and 15 inches (33 and 38 cm)  The Canadian Kennel Club recognises a single type, with a height not exceeding 15 inches (38 cm)   The Kennel Club (UK) and FCI affiliated clubs recognise a single type, with a height of between 13 and 16 inches (33 and 41 cm) 

English and American varieties are sometimes mentioned  However, there is no official recognition from any Kennel Club for this distinction  Beagles fitting the American Kennel Club standard – which disallows animals over 15 inches (38 cm) – are smaller on average than those fitting the Kennel Club standard which allows heights up to 16 inches (41 cm) 
Pocket Beagles are sometimes advertised for sale but while the UK Kennel Club originally specified a standard for the Pocket Beagle in 1901, the variety is now not recognised by any Kennel Club 
A strain known as Patch Hounds was developed by Willet Randall and his family from 1896 specifically for their rabbit hunting ability  They trace their bloodline back to Field Champion Patch, but do not necessarily have a patchwork marking 

Crossbreeds
In the 1850s, John Henry Walsh (Stonehenge) recommended a cross between a Beagle and a Scottish Terrier as a retriever  He found the crossbreed to be a good worker, silent and obedient, but it had the drawback that it was small and could barely carry a hare  More recently, the trend has been for "designer dogs" and one of the most popular has been the Beagle/Pug cross known as a Puggle  Some puppies of this cross are less excitable than a Beagle and with a lower exercise requirement, similar to the Pug parent; but many are highly excitable and require vigorous exercise 

Temperament
The beagle has an even temper and gentle disposition  Described in several breed standards as "merry", they are amiable and typically neither aggressive nor timid, although this depends on the individual  They enjoy company, and although they may initially be standoffish with strangers, they are easily won over  They make poor guard dogs for this reason, although their tendency to bark or howl when confronted with the unfamiliar makes them good watch dogs  In a 1985 study conducted by Ben and Lynette Hart, the beagle was given the highest excitability rating, along with the Yorkshire Terrier, Cairn Terrier, Miniature Schnauzer, West Highland White Terrier, and Fox Terrier They are ranked 72nd in Stanley Coren's The Intelligence of Dogs, as Coren places them among the group with the lowest degree of working/obedience intelligence  Coren's scale, however, does not assess understanding, independence, or creativity 
Beagles are excellent with children and this is one of the reasons they have become popular family pets  Beagles are pack animals; they are prone to separation anxiety, a condition which causes them to destroy things when left unattended   Not all beagles will howl, but most will bark when confronted with strange situations, and some will bay (also referred to as "speaking", "giving tongue", or "opening") when they catch the scent of potential quarry  They also generally get along well with cats and other dogs  They are not too demanding with regard to exercise; their inbred stamina means they do not easily tire when exercised, but they also do not need to be worked to exhaustion before they will rest  Regular exercise helps ward off the weight gain to which the breed is prone 

Health
The typical longevity of beagles is 12–15 years, which is a common lifespan for dogs of their size Beagles may be prone to epilepsy, but this can often be controlled with medication  Hypothyroidism and a number of types of dwarfism occur in beagles  Two conditions in particular are unique to the breed: "Funny Puppy", in which the puppy is slow to develop and eventually develops weak legs, a crooked back and although normally healthy, is prone to a range of illnesses; and Musladin-Lueke syndrome (MLS) in which the eyes are slanted and the outer toes are underdeveloped but otherwise development is as normal  Hip dysplasia, common in Harriers and in some larger breeds, is rarely considered a problem in beagles  Beagles are considered a chondrodystrophic breed, meaning that they are prone to types of disk diseases 
In rare cases, beagles may develop immune mediated polygenic arthritis (where the immune system attacks the joints) even at a young age  The symptoms can sometimes be relieved by steroid treatments  Another rare disease in the breed is neonatal cerebellar cortical degeneration  Affected puppies are slow, have lower co-ordination, fall more often, and do not have a normal gait  It has an estimated carrier rate of 5% and affected rate of 0 1%  A genetic test is available Their long floppy ears can mean that the inner ear does not receive a substantial air flow or that moist air becomes trapped, and this can lead to ear infections  Beagles may also be affected by a range of eye problems; two common ophthalmic conditions in beagles are glaucoma and corneal dystrophy  "Cherry eye", a prolapse of the gland of the third eyelid, and distichiasis, a condition in which eyelashes grow into the eye causing irritation, sometimes exist; both these conditions can be corrected with surgery  They can suffer from several types of retinal atrophy  Failure of the nasolacrimal drainage system can cause dry eye or leakage of tears onto the face As field dogs they are prone to minor injuries such as cuts and sprains, and, if inactive, obesity is a common problem as they will eat whenever food is available and rely on their owners to regulate their weight  When working or running free they are also likely to pick up parasites such as fleas, ticks, harvest mites, and tapeworms, and irritants such as grass seeds can become trapped in their eyes, soft ears, or paws Beagles may exhibit a behavior known as reverse sneezing, in which they sound as if they are choking or gasping for breath, but are actually drawing air in through the mouth and nose  The exact cause of this behavior is not known, but it can be a common occurrence and is not harmful to the dog 

Reproduction
The average size of a beagle litter is six puppies  When mother beagles give birth to litters of puppies, the little pups weigh just a few ounces each 

Hunting
Beagles were developed primarily for hunting hare, an activity known as beagling  They were seen as ideal hunting companions for the elderly who could follow on horseback without exerting themselves, for young hunters who could keep up with them on ponies, and for the poorer hunters who could not afford to maintain a stable of good hunting horses  Before the advent of the fashion for foxhunting in the 19th century, hunting was an all day event where the enjoyment was derived from the chase rather than the kill  In this setting the tiny beagle was well matched to the hare, as unlike Harriers they would not quickly finish the hunt, but because of their excellent scent-tracking skills and stamina they were almost guaranteed to eventually catch the hare  The beagle packs would run closely together ("so close that they might be covered with a sheet") which was useful in a long hunt, as it prevented stray dogs from obscuring the trail  In thick undergrowth they were also preferred to spaniels when hunting pheasant With the fashion for faster hunts, the beagle fell out of favor for chasing hare, but was still employed for rabbit hunting  In Anecdotes of Dogs (1846), Edward Jesse says:

In rabbit-shooting, in gorse and thick cover, nothing can be more cheerful than the beagle  They also are easily heard over long distances and in thick cover  They have been called rabbit-beagles from this employment, for which they are peculiarly qualified, especially those dogs which are somewhat wire-haired In the United States they appear to have been employed chiefly for hunting rabbits from the earliest imports 
Hunting hare with beagles became popular again in Britain in the mid-19th century and continued until it was made illegal in Scotland by the Protection of Wild Mammals (Scotland) Act 2002 and in England and Wales by the Hunting Act 2004  Under this legislation beagles may still pursue rabbits with the landowner's permission  Drag hunting is popular where hunting is no longer permitted or for those owners who do not wish to participate in hunting a live animal, but still wish to exercise their dog's innate skills 
The traditional foot pack consists of up to 40 beagles, marshaled by a Huntsman who directs the pack and who is assisted by a variable number of whippers-in whose job is to return straying hounds to the pack  The Master of the Hunt is in overall day-to-day charge of the pack, and may or may not take on the role of Huntsman on the day of the hunt 
As hunting with beagles was seen as ideal for young people, many of the British public schools traditionally maintained beagle packs  Protests were lodged against Eton's use of beagles for hunting as early as 1902 but the pack is still in existence today  In 2001, the Wye College beagle pack was taken by the Animal Liberation Front  School and university packs are still maintained by Eton, Marlborough, Radley, the Royal Agricultural University, and Christ Church, Oxford In addition to organised beagling, beagles have been used for hunting or flushing to guns (often in pairs) a wide range of game including snowshoe hare, cottontail rabbits, game birds, roe deer, red deer, bobcat, coyote, wild boar, and foxes, and have even been recorded as being used to hunt stoat  In most of these cases, the beagle is employed as a gun dog, flushing game for hunter's guns 

Detection
Beagles are used as detection dogs in the Beagle Brigade of the United States Department of Agriculture  These dogs are used to detect food items in luggage being taken into the United States  After trialling several breeds, beagles were chosen because they are relatively small and unintimidating for people who are uncomfortable around dogs, easy to care for, intelligent and work well for rewards  They are also used for this purpose in a number of other countries including by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry in New Zealand, the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service, and in Canada, Japan, and the People's Republic of China  Larger breeds are generally used for detection of explosives as this often involves climbing over luggage and on large conveyor belts, work for which the smaller Beagle is not suited 

Testing
Beagles are the dog breed most often used in animal testing, due to their size and passive nature  In the United States, as many as 65,000 beagles are used every year for medical, cosmetic, beauty, and other chemical tests  They are purpose bred and live their lives in cages undergoing experiments  The Rescue + Freedom Project (formerly Beagle Freedom Project) has successfully advocated for beagles to be released from labs  This organisation has freed hundreds of animals Beagles are used in a range of research procedures: fundamental biological research, applied human medicine, applied veterinary medicine, and protection of man, animals, or the environment  Of the 8,018 dogs used in testing in the UK in 2004, 7,799 were beagles (97 3%)  In the UK, the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 gave special status to primates, equids, cats and dogs and in 2005 the Animal Procedures Committee (set up by the act) ruled that testing on mice was preferable, even though a greater number of individual animals were involved  In 2005 beagles were involved in less than 0 3% of the total experiments on animals in the UK, but of the 7670 experiments performed on dogs 7406 involved beagles (96 6%)  Most dogs are bred specifically for this purpose, by companies such as Harlan  In the UK companies breeding animals for research must be licensed under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 

Bans and activism against beagle testing
Testing of cosmetic products on animals is banned in the member states of the European Community, although France protested the ban and has made efforts to have it lifted  It is permitted in the United States but is not mandatory if safety can be ascertained by other methods, and the test species is not specified by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)  When testing toxicity of food additives, food contaminants, and some drugs and chemicals the FDA uses beagles and miniature pigs as surrogates for direct human testing  Minnesota was the first state to enact a Beagle Freedom adoption law in 2014, mandating that dogs and cats are allowed to be adopted once they have completed research testing Anti-vivisection groups have reported on abuse of animals inside testing facilities  In 1997 footage secretly filmed by a freelance journalist inside Huntingdon Life Sciences in the UK showed staff punching and screaming at beagles  Consort Kennels, a UK-based breeder of beagles for testing, closed down in 1997 after pressure from animal rights groups There are various examples of activists utilizing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to obtain information about taxpayer funding of animal testing  For example, the White Coat Waste Project, a group of activists that hold that taxpayers should not have to pay $20 billion every year for experiments on animals, highlighted that the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases provided $400,000 in taxpayer money to fund experiments in which 28 beagles were infected by disease-causing parasites   The White Coat Project found reports that said dogs taking part in the experiments were "vocalizing in pain" after being injected with foreign substances  Following public outcry, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) made a call to action that all members of the National Institute of Health resign effective immediately and that there is a "need to find a new NIH director to replace the outgoing Francis Collins who will shut down research that violates the dignity of nonhuman animals "

Other roles
Although bred for hunting, Beagles are versatile and are nowadays employed for various other roles in detection, therapy, and as family pets Beagles are used as sniffer dogs for termite detection in Australia, and have been mentioned as possible candidates for drug and explosive detection  Because of their gentle nature and unimposing build, they are also frequently used in pet therapy, visiting the sick and elderly in hospital  In June 2006, a trained Beagle assistance dog was credited with saving the life of its owner after using her owner's mobile phone to dial an emergency number   In the aftermath of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, a Beagle search and rescue dog with a Colombian rescue squad was credited with locating the owner of the Hôtel Montana, who was subsequently rescued after spending 100 hours buried in the rubble  Beagles were hired by New York City to help with bedbug detection, although some have expressed doubts about the role of such dogs in this type of detection 

In popular culture
Anthropomorphic Beagles appeared in comic strips and animated cartoons since the 1950s with the Peanuts character Snoopy, who was billed as "the world's most famous Beagle"  The animated series Courage the Cowardly Dog also features an anthropomorphic beagle as its title character 
Porthos is a beagle that belongs to Jonathan Archer, the captain on the television series Star Trek: Enterprise 
Former US President Lyndon Baines Johnson had several beagles, and caused an outcry when he picked up one of them by its ears during an official greeting on the White House lawn 
The ship on which Charles Darwin made the voyage which provided much of the inspiration for On the Origin of Species was named HMS Beagle after the breed, and, in turn, lent its name to the ill-fated British Martian lander Beagle 2 
An American bred 15 inch male Beagle with the registered name of Ch K-Run's Park Me In First and the pet name of "Uno" won the 2008 Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show 
A Canadian bred 15 inch female Beagle with the registered name of Gr Ch Tashtins Lookin For Trouble and the pet name of "Miss P" won the 2015 Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show 

Notable Beagles
Frodo, awarded the PDSA Gold Medal for animal bravery
Uno, who in 2008 became the first Beagle to win the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show 
Miss P, winner of the 2015 Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show
Passage 5:
List of turkey breeds
Turkey breeds are reported to the DAD-IS breed database of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations by more than sixty countries  The breeds reported include commercial/industrial strains, local types and recognised breeds in many countries 

United States
Twenty breeds are reported to DAD-IS by the United States



ground_truth: Plato

prompt_front: Answer the question based on the given passages. Only give me the answer and do not output any other words.

Question: Which is a flowering plant, Pueraria or Pleiospilos?

The following are given passages.
Context 3:  Eight of them are recognised by the American Poultry Association in its breed standard, the American Standard of Perfection, where however they are classified as "varieties" rather than as breeds  This may be because the original genotype for domestic turkeys was for Bronze, and all other color varieties are due to mutations from it 

APA varieties
Europe
Twelve breeds are recognized by the Entente Européenne d'Aviculture et de Cuniculture  Others with breed standards of European national associations are accepted 

EE breeds
Other varieties not recognized by the APA or EE include the following: 

Auburn or Light Brown is an extremely rare as its numbers are not considered high enough for inclusion in the Standard  An extremely rare variant of the Auburn is called the Silver Auburn 
Buff (or Jersey Buff) is a very rare heritage breed 
Chocolate breed is chocolate brown in color  Day-old poults are white-faced with chocolate bodies 
Midget White is a rare heritage breed sometimes confused with the Beltsville Small White 
Zagorje (Zagorski puran) is a Croatian variant of turkey 

See also
Turkey genus
Wild turkey of North America
Domestic turkey
Ocellated turkey, a species of turkey residing primarily in the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico 
Passage 6:
French Spaniel
The French Spaniel (Epagneul Français) is a breed of dog of the Spaniel-like setter  It was developed in France and Canada as a hunting dog, descended from dogs of the 14th century  Popular with royalty during the Middle Ages, it nearly became extinct by the turn of the 20th century but was saved by the efforts of Father Fournier, a French priest  One of the largest breeds of Spaniel, it typically has a white coat with brown markings  It is a friendly breed that has few health issues, but can be affected by a syndrome called acral mutilation and analgesia  The breed is recognised by Canadian and international kennel clubs but not by The Kennel Club (UK)  The American Kennel Club has included the breed in its Foundation Stock Service, the first step to full recognition 

History
Spaniels were first mentioned in France during the 14th century in Gaston III of Foix-Béarn's work Livre de chasse, later translated into English as The Master of Game  The French Spaniel was referred to as a specific type of Spaniel by 1660 and was noted as being distinctive from the King Charles Spaniel of the Holland type The breed was popular during the Middle Ages with it used for falconry and as a settling dog for net hunting  They became a favourite of French Royalty and Kings and Princes at the royal courts of Versailles favored them over other breeds of hunting dogs  In addition, Catherine I of Russia (1684–1727) was known to have owned a French Spaniel named Babe  During this period, the French Spaniel was known to have split into several regional types The Sporting Magazine wrote of the French Spaniel and the hunting of mallards in 1805, "The rough French Spaniel has been found the best companion on these occasions: he watches the conduct of the sportsman, and, with a velocity unequalled, darts on the wounded prey, presents it with all possible speed at the feet of his master " In the 1850s, the Brittany (formerly known as Brittany Spaniel) was developed from crossing French Spaniels with English Setters James de Connick established the first breed standard for the French Spaniel in 1891  At the turn of the 20th century, the numbers of French Spaniels dropped so low that they nearly became extinct due to competition from foreign sporting dogs, in particular as French hunters chose to hunt particularly with English breeds of hunting dogs  A French priest named Father Fournier undertook the task of gathering the remaining French Spaniels in his Saint Hillaire kennels in order to preserve the breed  There he built the lineages that are representatives of those we now have  The French Spaniel Club was founded in 1921, with Father Fournier as the president of the association  The modern French Spaniel is one of a group of recognised French Spaniels, including the Brittany, Picardy and Blue Picardy 

Recognition
The French Spaniel was little known outside France and neighboring countries until it was introduced in the Canadian province of Quebec in the 1970s  It quickly became a popular dog for hunting woodcock and grouse  The Club de l'Épagneul Français du Canada was formed in 1978 to ensure the French Spaniel would continue to meet breed standards and to pursue official recognition by the Canadian Kennel Club, by which the breed was recognised in 1985 French Spaniels are also recognized by the Fédération Cynologique Internationale, and the United Kennel Club  The Kennel Club (UK) and the American Kennel Club do not recognize the French Spaniel, but is recognised by the North American Versatile Hunting Dog Association, and can be registered with US dog registries in order to record their registries and compete in associated dog shows, such as the Dog Registry of America, American Canine Association, and America's Pet Registry To qualify for recognition by the American Kennel Club, a national breed club must first be established and a written request needs to be sent to the AKC along with a breed standard  This enables qualification for the Foundation Stock Service  The next step is to qualify to compete in the Miscellaneous Class  This requires a minimum of one hundred active members in the national breed club, along with a minimum of three to four hundred dogs in the United States with a three generation pedigree (all dogs in those pedigrees must be of the same breed)  In addition, they must be geographically spread across twenty states or more, and finally the clubs by-laws and constitution must be reviewed as well as breed observations made by AKC staff  There is a typical stay of between one and three years in the Miscellaneous Class before full recognition is granted  During this time, the breed club must be seen to be active and hold seminars, matches as well as local and national speciality shows  The Kennel Club (UK) does not have a miscellaneous class or foundation stock service, instead it requires British bred dog and three generation pedigrees of them, along with details from the country of origin including the breed standard  This allows listing on the Imported Breeds Register, with full recognition granted at the discretion of the Kennel Club Review Committee 

Description
The French Spaniel is one of the two tallest spaniel breeds, being taller than the English Springer Spaniel  Males can range in height from 22–24 inches (56–61 cm), and females are about an inch shorter  Dogs can range in weight from 45–60 pounds (20–27 kg) A normal dog has a muscular appearance with a deep chest and strong legs  The French Spaniel has eyes of a dark amber colour, and a thick tail that tapers towards the tip  The hair is medium, dense, with long feathers on the ears, backs of the legs and tail  It has some waviness on the chest and otherwise lies flat on the body  The normal colour of a French Spaniel's coat is white with brown markings rather in shade from a light cinnamon to dark liver  Historically, the coat was only white with black markings, but the breed was mixed with other colours of Spaniels during the 19th century 

Temperament
The French Spaniel has a friendly and outgoing personality and is well balanced and patient  It is not a naturally aggressive dog, is eager to please and thus can be trained easily  A dog of this breed will form a strong bond with its master, being typically a working dog  It has a high level of stamina and requires vigorous exercise 

Health
The breed is robustly healthy with few issues and adapts well to wet weather conditions  A dermatological condition known as acral mutilation and analgesia may affect French Spaniels  It is a newly recognised disorder, with symptoms becoming apparent between three and a half months and a year of age  It was first reported in thirteen dogs in Canada and shares symptoms with the acral mutilation syndromes of the German Shorthaired Pointer, English Pointer and English Springer Spaniels  Dogs who are affected will lick, bite and mutilate their extremities resulting in ulcers with secondary bacterial infections  Self amputation of claws, digits and footpads can happen in extreme cases  The majority of the initial dogs identified were euthanised within days to months of being diagnosed 
Passage 7:
American Cocker Spaniel
The American Cocker Spaniel is a breed of sporting dog  It is a spaniel type dog that is closely related to the English Cocker Spaniel; the two breeds diverged during the 20th century due to differing breed standards in the US and the UK  In the United States, the breed is usually called a Cocker Spaniel, while elsewhere in the world, it is called an American Cocker Spaniel to distinguish it from its older English cousin  The word cocker is commonly held to stem from their use to hunt woodcock in England, while spaniel is thought to be derived from the breed's origins in Spain 
The first spaniel in America came across with the Mayflower in 1620, but it was not until 1878 that the first Cocker Spaniel was registered with the American Kennel Club (AKC)  A national breed club was set up three years later and the dog considered to be the father of the modern breed, Ch  Obo II, was born around this time  By the 1920s the English and American varieties of Cocker had become noticeably different and in 1946 the AKC recognized the English type as a separate breed  It was not until 1970 that The Kennel Club in the UK recognized the American Cocker Spaniel as being separate from the English type  The American Cocker was the most popular breed in the United States during the 1940s and 1950s and again during the 1980s, reigning for a total of 18 years  They have also won the best in show title at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show on four occasions, the best in show title at Crufts in 2017, and have been linked to the President of the United States on several occasions, with owners including Richard Nixon and Harry S  Truman   In 2013, the cocker spaniel ranked 29th the American Kennel Club registration statistics of historical comparisons and notable trends 
The breed is the smallest of the sporting dogs recognized by the AKC, and its distinctly shaped head makes it immediately recognizable  In addition, there are some marked differences between it and its English relative  It is a happy breed with average working intelligence, although by being bred to a show standard it is no longer an ideal working dog  Members of the breed suffer from a wide variety of health ailments including problems with their hearts, eyes and ears 

History
The word spanyell is thought to date from the late 12th century when it was used to name a type of dog imported into England from Spain, with the span part of the word referring to the country of origin  Records from the mid-14th century show that selective breeding was already in place, with the breed being separated into two distinct types, called water spaniels and land spaniels  By 1801, the smaller variety of land spaniel was called the Cocker or Cocking Spaniel, so named for its use in flushing woodcock According to historical records, the first spaniel was brought to North America aboard the Mayflower which sailed from Plymouth, England and landed in New England in 1620  The first Cocker Spaniel recorded in America was a liver and white dog named Captain, who was registered with the American Kennel Club in 1878  In 1881, the American Cocker Spaniel Club was formed; it would later become the American Spaniel Club (ASC) and is now known as the oldest breed club for dogs in the United States  The task of the club was initially to create a standard to separate the Cocker Spaniel in America from other types of land spaniels, a task which would take over 20 years, only being completed in 1905 The dog considered to be the father of the American Cocker Spaniel was sired by the dog considered to be the father of the English Cocker Spaniel  Ch  Obo was bred to Ch  Chloe II, who was shipped to America while she was pregnant  Once in the United States, she whelped a dog who became Ch  Obo II  He differed greatly from the modern breed, being only 10 inches (25 cm) tall and with a long body, but was considered to be an excellent dog of that era and became a popular sire Towards the end of the 19th century, the breed had become popular in America and Canada due to their dual use as a family pet and a working dog  In the early 20th century the breeders on either side of the Atlantic had created different breed standards for the Cocker Spaniel and the breed gradually diverged from one another, with the two becoming noticeably different by the 1920s  The American Cockers by now had a smaller muzzle, their coats were softer and the dogs overall were lighter and smaller  The differences were so apparent that in 1935, breeders founded the English Cocker Spaniel Club and restricted breeding between the two types of spaniel  The two types of Cocker Spaniel in America were shown together as one breed, with the English type as a variety of the main breed, until 1946 when the American Kennel Club recognized the English Cocker Spaniel as a separate breed 

Return to the UK
Initially in the United Kingdom there were a few American Cockers that had accompanied service personnel to American bases in the 1950s and 1960s  In addition, several came over with embassy staff and business people returning home The first UK Kennel Club registered American Cocker Spaniel was Aramingo Argonaught, born January 17, 1956, and bred by Herbert L  Steinberg  Two judges confirmed that the dog was an American Cocker and not an English Cocker before the Kennel Club permitted the dog to be shown  In the 1960s they were shown as a rare breed, which meant that they did not have a show class of their own and could only be shown in variety classes  This included Aramingo Argonaught, who was the first American Cocker Spaniel to be shown at Crufts in 1960 in a class entitled "Any variety not classified at this show"  In 1968, the KC agreed to have the breed shown in the category "Any variety gundog other than Cocker" and stated that the American Cocker was not a variety of "Spaniel (Cocker)"  There were around 100 registrations between 1966 and 1968 In 1970 the breed was given a separate register in the Kennel Club Breed Supplement, as it was previously included in "Any other variety"  Registration numbers increased to 309 by 1970 following this full recognition 

Notable American Cockers and popularity
American Cocker Spaniels have won best in show at the Westminster Dog Show on four occasions, with the first win in 1921 by Ch  Midkiff Seductive  Ch  My Own Brucie won the title twice in 1940 and 1941, and became known as the most photographed dog in the world Brucie's win in 1940 coincided with the American Cocker Spaniel becoming the most popular breed of dog in the United States, and they would remain the most popular until 1952  The breed won the title for the fourth time in 1954 with the victory going to Ch  Carmor's Rise and Shine  The popularity of the American Cocker increased once again in the 1980s with it becoming the most popular breed again from 1984 until 1990  In more recent years the popularity of the breed has decreased, with it ranked 15th most popular by the American Kennel Club in 2005  The breeds most recent victory came in 2017 when it won the best in show title at Crufts 
American Cocker Spaniels have had several links to the United States Presidency  In 1952, an American Cocker Spaniel became a household name when United States Senator Richard Nixon made his Checkers speech on September 23  A parti-colored American Cocker Spaniel named Dot was one of several dogs owned by Rutherford B  Hayes; and a buff colored dog named Feller caused a scandal for Harry S  Truman when the dog was received as an unwanted gift with the President subsequently giving it away to a White House physician  More recently, a Cocker named Zeke lived with Bill Clinton while he was the governor of Arkansas 

Appearance
The American Cocker Spaniel is the smallest dog recognized by the American Kennel Club as a sporting dog, being on average between 13 5 and 15 5 inches (34 and 39 cm) high at the withers  It is a dog of normal proportions, with medium long silky fur on the body and ears, hanging down on the legs and belly (known as feathering)  The head has an upturned nose and the ears hang down  The breed standard states that size over 15 5 inches (39 cm) inches for males and 14 5 inches (37 cm) for females is a disqualification at conformation shows  American Cocker Spaniels weigh around 24 to 30 pounds (11 to 14 kg) on average, with females of the breed usually weighing slightly less than the males The head of an American Cocker Spaniel makes the breed immediately recognizable, with the rounded dome of the skull, well-pronounced stop, and a square shaped lip  The drop ears are long, low set, with long silky fur, and the eyes are dark, large, and rounded  The nose can be black or brown depending on the color of the breed The coat of the breed come in a variety of shades with the colors being separated into three main groups: black/black and tan, any solid color other than black (ASCOB), and parti-color  The black variety is either all black, or with tan points on the dog's head, the feet and the tail in a pattern called black and tan  The group known as ASCOB includes all other solid colors from light cream through to dark red, although some lighter coloring is allowed on the feathering according to standards  Parti-colored dogs are white with patches of another color such as black or brown, and includes any roan colored dogs  In addition, American Cockers coats can come in a pattern known as merle, which is not recognized by the American Kennel Club American Cockers have rounder eyes, a domed skull, shorter muzzle and more clearly pronounced eyebrows than the English Cockers, whose head is more setter-like  In colors, the roan colors are rarer in the American variety than in the English but the shade of buff which is common in the American is not seen in the English breed at all, although there are English Cocker Spaniels which are considered to be a shade of red  The English breed is also slightly larger, being between 14 5–15 5 inches (37–39 cm) in height 
American Cocker Spaniel

Temperament
Known as the "Merry Cocker", the American Cocker Spaniel breed standard defines the ideal dog of the breed as being "equable in temperament with no suggestion of timidity " The breed ranks 20th in Stanley Coren's The Intelligence of Dogs, a rating that indicates good "Working or Obedience Intelligence", or trainability  IQ tests run on a variety of breeds in the 1950s and 1960s showed that the American Cocker performed the best when tested on its ability to show restraint and delayed response to a trigger, a trait which was put down to the breed's bred-in ability when hunting to freeze upon finding a bird before flushing it out on command  However, they proved to be the worst breed tested when it came to manipulating objects with their paws, for instance uncovering a dish of food or pulling on a string With a good level of socialization at an early age, an American Cocker can get along with people, children, other dogs and other pets  This breed seems to have a perpetually wagging tail and prefers to be around people; it is not best suited to the backyard alone  Cockers can be easily stressed by loud noises and by rough treatment or handling Members of the breed were originally used as hunting dogs, but increased in popularity as a show dog  It was bred more and more in conformation with the breed standard, resulting in certain attributes, such as a long coat, which no longer make it an ideal working dog 

Health
American Cocker Spaniels in UK and USA/Canada surveys had a median lifespan of about 10 to 11 years, which is on the low end of the typical range for purebred dogs, and one to two years less than other breeds of their size  The larger English Cocker Spaniel typically lives about a year longer than the American Cocker Spaniel  In a 2004 UK Kennel Club survey, the most common causes of death were cancer (23%), old age (20%), cardiac (8%), and immune-mediated (8%)  In a 2003 USA/Canada Health Survey with a smaller sample size, the leading causes of death were cancer, hepatic disease, and immune-mediated American Cockers previously high popularity resulted in the breed frequently being bred by backyard breeders or in puppy mills  This indiscriminate breeding has increased the proliferation of breed related health issues in certain bloodlines American Cocker Spaniels are susceptible to a variety of illnesses, particularly infections affecting their ears and, in some cases, their eyes  Although the number or percent of afflicted dogs is not known, progressive retinal atrophy (PRA), glaucoma, and cataracts have been identified in some members of the breed  The American Spaniel Club recommends annual eye exams by a veterinary ophthalmologist for all dogs that are to be used for breeding  Autoimmune problems in Cockers have also been identified in an unknown number or percent of the breed, including autoimmune hemolytic anemia (AIHA)  Ear inflammations are common in drop-eared breeds of dog, including the American Cocker, and luxating patellas and hip dysplasia have been identified in some members of the breed Heart conditions such as dilated cardiomyopathy, where the heart becomes weakened and enlarged, and sick sinus syndrome, which is a type of abnormal heart beating which causes low blood pressure, have been identified in the breed  Phosphofructokinase deficiency is a condition caused by a recessive gene in the breed which prevents the metabolism of glucose into energy, causing the dog to have extremely low energy and be unable to exercise  The gene which causes this appears in around 10 percent of the population, but DNA testing can prevent two carrier dogs from breeding and thus creating puppies with this condition American Cockers are also prone to canine epilepsy and the related condition known as Rage Syndrome  The latter is a form of epilepsy which can cause a normally placid dog to engage in sudden and unprovoked violent attacks  Initial research shows that both conditions appear to be inheritable 

In popular culture
The film Lady and the Tramp features the character Lady who is an American Cocker Spaniel 
Trilby from the Australian-American TV series Raggs is an American Cocker Spaniel 
Mags from Turbo Dogs is an American Cocker Spaniel 
Passage 8:
Water spaniel
Water spaniel (capitalized in the names of standardized breeds) was originally a term for water dogs generally, and today refer to several different breeds of water dogs that actually are spaniels, such as:

American Water Spaniel
English Water Spaniel, extinct
Irish Water Spaniel
Tweed Water Spaniel, extinct
Passage 9:
Welsh Springer Spaniel
The Welsh Springer Spaniel (Welsh: Llamgi Cymru) is a breed of dog and a member of the spaniel family  Thought to be comparable to the old Land Spaniel, they are similar to the English Springer Spaniel and historically have been referred to as both the Welsh Spaniel and the Welsh Cocker Spaniel  They were relatively unknown until a succession of victories in dog trials by the breed increased its popularity  Following recognition by The Kennel Club in 1902, the breed gained the modern name of Welsh Springer Spaniel  The breed's coat only comes in a single colour combination of white with red markings, usually in a piebald pattern  Loyal and affectionate, they can become very attached to family members and are wary of strangers  Health conditions are limited to those common among many breeds of dog, although they are affected more than average by hip dysplasia and some eye conditions  They are a working dog, bred for hunting, and while not as rare as some varieties of spaniel, they are rarer than the more widely known English Springer Spaniel with which they are sometimes confused 

History
The origin of the Welsh Springer Spaniel is unknown, but dogs resembling the breed with its distinctive red and white coat are frequently depicted in old pictures and prints  This type of dog was known as the Land Spaniel, and is considered to be similar to the modern Welsh Springer  John Caius, writing in 1570, said "Spaniels whose skynnes are white and if marked with any spottes they are commonly red"  It is thought that these Spaniels may have made their way into the Welsh valleys where local sportsman and hunters managed to conserve them in a pure state At one time called the Welsh Starter, it was used to spring game, originally for hunters using falcons  The traditional red and white colour of the Welsh Springer was once also found in English dogs, but by the early 20th century any such dogs were considered to have "died out long ago" The Welsh Springer Spaniel was also at one time called the Welsh Spaniel, and also at one point was included in the Kennel Club (UK) studbook as Cocker Spaniels, and was known as the Welsh Cocker  During the 19th century were several different varieties of Cocker Spaniel, including the English, the Welsh and the Devonshire as the term was used to describe the size of the dog rather than the breed  Unusually, in John George Wood's 1865 book The Illustrated Natural History, an image is described showing a Welsh Cocker Spaniel as a solid coloured dark spaniel  The same inscription is used in the 1867 work The Dog in Health and Disease by Stonehenge and he further describes the Welsh Cocker and the Devonshire Cocker as "both being of a deep-liver colour"  The Welsh Springer was relatively unknown during the 19th Century, but this changed in 1900 when Mr  A  T  Williams of Ynis-y-Gerwn won the team stake at the Sporting Spaniel Club Trials  The trials were held on Mr  Williams' own estate, and it was thought that when his team defeated eight well known teams it was because of the home advantage  This was disproved when dogs from the same kennel went on to win in successive years around the UK  His conformation show champion dog Corrin was the first Welsh Springer Spaniel to be photographed 

Welsh Springers were recognised by The Kennel Club, after the breed had gained popularity, in 1902 under the new name of Welsh Springer Spaniel  Until then the breed was shown alongside the English Springer Spaniel  The Welsh Springer Spaniel was transported to America in the late 19th century and gained recognition by the American Kennel Club in 1906 World War I caused problems for the breed in the United Kingdom, and when the war was over there were no dogs whose parents had registered pedigrees  The breed restarted with the remaining unregistered dogs, and it is these dogs that formed the modern day breed  The breeders in the 1920s and 1930s developed these dogs into the type of Welsh Springer Spaniel which remains today  The Welsh Springer Spaniel Club (UK) was formed in 1923, registrations slowly increased between the wars but all records held by the breed club were destroyed in an air raid during World War II  Following the two World Wars, it was thought that no Welsh Springers remained in the United States  The breed was reintroduced, and the descendants of those dogs make up the breed today in the United States and Canada  The breed was officially imported into Australia in 1973 In 2000, The Kennel Club registered 424 Welsh Springer Spaniels, compared with 12,599 English Springer Spaniels and 13,445 English Cocker Spaniels  Numbers remained steady, with 420 Welsh Springer Spaniels being registered in 2004, however numbers of English Springer Spaniels increased to 14,765 and English Cocker Spaniels to 16,608  Numbers remain closer to the American Cocker Spaniel which registered 610 in 2000, and 599 in 2004  The breed remains more popular than some other breeds of Spaniel, including the Clumber Spaniel, Field Spaniel, Sussex Spaniel and Irish Water Spaniel  Total registrations in the UK during 2016 fell to 299 qualifying it to be included on The Kennel Club's list of Vulnerable Native Breeds 

Description
Appearance
The Welsh Springer Spaniel is a compact, solidly built dog, bred for hard work and endurance  Their body can give the impression of length due to its obliquely angled forequarters and developed hindquarters  The build of the Welsh Springer Spaniel should be slightly off square, meaning that the length of the dog should be slightly greater than the height at the withers  However, some dogs may be square, and this is not penalised in the show ring as long as the height is never greater than the length   Traditionally a docked breed, dependent on legislation in the country of origin, and where allowed the dew claws can be removed In conformation showing, eyes should be brown in colour; yellow eyes do sometimes occur but are penalised in the show ring  Ears are small, pendulous (suspended and hanging), vine-shaped and with a light setter-like feathering  Nostrils are well developed and are black or any shade of brown; a pink nose is penalised in the AKC standard for the show ring, in Britain the colour is not specified in The Kennel Club's breed standard  In showing, a scissors bite is preferred with an undershot jaw severely penalised  Unlike the English Springer Spaniel and English Cocker Spaniel, there is no divergence into show and field styles of the breed Male dogs are 46 to 48 centimetres (18 to 19 in) high at the withers, with females a little smaller at 43 to 46 centimetres (17 to 18 in)  On average, members of the breed weigh between 16 and 20 kg (35 and 45 lb)  The back of the legs, chest, and underside of the body are feathered, and the ears and tail are lightly feathered  The only colour is a rich red-and-white  Any pattern is acceptable and any white area may be flecked with red ticking Welsh Springers are often confused with the English Springer Spaniel, but there are marked differences  The Welsh Springer is slightly smaller, and its reddish markings on a white background as opposed to the English Springers black or liver-coloured markings  Both breeds are admired for their hunting abilities and their trademark trait of "springing" at game  This can be seen during play also, as a dog may "spring" on his toy  Some experts believe that the Welsh Springer Spaniel and the Brittany share the same ancestry as there is a great deal of resemblance between the two breeds  The colours of the Welsh Springer, while exclusive from the English Springer, appear in the Brittany and the Brittany and Welsh Springers are both of similar sizes  The Welsh Springer is larger than the English Cocker Spaniel 

Temperament
The Welsh Springer Spaniel is active, loyal, and affectionate  They may meet strangers barking when in their territory, or act aloof, cautious or wary  The breed is well known for being friendly and demonstrative to all members of the family, especially children, and accepting other pets of the household with a friendly, playful attitude The breed is quick to learn but can be headstrong, though with correct training can become very obedient  The Welsh Springer was bred for work and endurance, and as with many breeds of hunting dogs requires a regular exercise routine to keep them healthy and content  Without adequate exercise, a Welsh Springer Spaniel may appear hyperactive  Some Welsh Springers can become clingy towards their owners and suffer separation anxiety when alone 

Health
The Welsh Springer is generally a healthy breed, but some can suffer conditions common to many breeds such as hip dysplasia, Canine glaucoma and like other dogs with pendulous ears, they are prone to ear infections such as otitis externa  Some Welsh Springer Spaniels are predisposed to become overweight  In a survey of over a hundred breeds of dog conducted in 1997, the Welsh Springer Spaniel was ranked 14th for worst hip score, with the average score of the breed being 18 45  The average lifespan is 12 to 15 years 

Eye disorders
Welsh Springers can be prone to entropion, which is a disorder that affects the eyelids  The condition causes them to curl inwards, pressing the eyelashes against the surface of the eye itself and causing them to scratch it  This can lead to irritation and damage to the cornea  In most cases it only affects the lower eyelid on one or both eyes, but in some cases the upper eyelid can be affected as well  Symptoms can include tearing, squinting, the rubbing of the eyes, thick discharge from the eyes and rolling of the eyelid along with wetness on the hairs next to the eyelids  There is no medical treatment for entropion, and surgical correction may be necessary depending on the severity of the case  This condition may be present soon after birth, or later in life as a secondary condition to other eye related diseases or infections  Other breeds also affected by the condition include the Chow Chow, Great Dane, Golden Retriever and the English Springer Spaniel Narrow/closed angle glaucoma is an autosomal dominant inheritable trait in the breed  It is a leading cause of blindness in dogs, and is where there is increased fluid pressure within the eye  If the fluid is not reduced, the pressure causes permanent damage to the retina and optic nerve  Loss of eyesight can happen as quickly as within 24 hours if the pressure if elevated enough, or slowly over time if it is only a mild elevation  The sudden, rapid elevation of pressure is more common with narrow/closed angle glaucoma which is more common to the breed than the slower open angle glaucoma  Symptoms can include redness in the eye, the eye itself looking cloudy, sensitivity to light and the dog may rub at their eye, or even rub it along other objects and carpet as the condition is moderate to extremely painful  Treatment can vary depending on the severity of the condition but if inherited glaucoma appears in one eye then it usually occurs in the other eye eventually 

See also
Hunting dog
Sporting Group



ground_truth: Pleiospilos

prompt_front: Answer the question based on the given passages. Only give me the answer and do not output any other words.

Question: Are both French Spaniel and Beagle universally recognized breeds?

The following are given passages.
Context 4:  In March 2003 the Soo Theatre Project Inc  purchased it for $85,000  After that the theater began restoration so plays and other types of entertainment could be put on once again 
Holy Name of Mary Pro-Cathedral (Sault Ste  Marie, Michigan) was begun by Jesuits in 1668  There are only two other parishes, one in St  Augustine, Florida and the other in Santa Fe, New Mexico, that are older in the United States [3] On January 9, 1857 Pope Pius IX established the Diocese of Sault Ste  Marie[4] and St  Mary's was named the cathedral church for the new diocese  The present church, the fifth for the parish, was built in 1881  It was designed by Canadian architect Joseph Connolly in the Gothic Revival style  The church was extensively remodeled in three phases from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s  In 1968 the parish built the Tower of History as a shrine to the Catholic missionaries who served the community [5] It was designed to be a part of a larger complex that was to include a community center and a new church  Parish priorities changed and the structure was sold to Sault Historic Sites in 1980, who continues to operate it  Proceeds from the Tower of History still benefit the church 
The Soo Locks are a set of parallel locks which enable ships to travel between Lake Superior and the lower Great Lakes  They are on the St  Marys River between Lake Superior and Lake Huron, between the Upper Peninsula of the U S  state of Michigan and the Canadian province of Ontario  They bypass the rapids of the river, where the water falls 21 feet (7 m)  The locks pass an average of 10,000 ships per year,[4] despite being closed during the winter from January through March, when ice shuts down shipping on the Great Lakes  The winter closure period is used to inspect and maintain the locks  The locks share a name (usually shortened and anglicized as Soo) with the two cities named Sault Ste  Marie, in Ontario and in Michigan, on either side of the St  Marys River  The Sault Ste  Marie International Bridge between the United States and Canada permits vehicular traffic to pass over the locks  A railroad bridge crosses the St  Marys River just upstream of the highway bridge 
Taffy Abel Arena is the home of Lake Superior State University's Division 1 hockey team  The 4,000-seat arena is part of the Norris Center athletic complex on LSSU's campus  It was renovated in 1995 and is named after Clarence "Taffy" Abel  Abel was the first American born player to become an NHL regular and was born in the Soo 
Lake Superior State University sits on the former site of U S  Army's Fort Brady  The university has converted most of the buildings to serve housing and administrative needs for its students, faculty, guests and employees  The 115-acre campus includes several buildings which are listed in the National Register of Historic Places  The university has an enrollment of around 2500 students 

Sister cities
Sault Ste  Marie, Ontario, Canada (also twin city)

See also
Media in Sault Ste  Marie, Ontario
Passage 3:
Saskatchewan Highway 316
Highway 316 is a highway in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan  It runs from Highway 16 near Clavet to Highway 5  Highway 316 is about 17 km (11 mi ) long   This area is an industrial commercial area along Highway #316 which extends from Clavet north to the PCS Patience Lake Mine which is just 10 miles from the city of Saskatoon   Highway 316 is a primary weight highway, and also runs near the Canadian National Railway line which goes from Saskatoon through Clavet  In 1941, the Canadian Pacific Railway ran from Saskatoon through Cheviot and on south eastward Highway 316 passes near the community of Cheviot and intersects Highway 394 

Communities along the route
Clavet is a village which can be found at  52°00′00″N 106°23′00″W or legal land description of Section 9 Township 35 Range 3 -West of the 3rd Meridian
Cheviot, Saskatchewan, a small unincorporated area was the childhood home of  Neil McArthur inducted into the Saskatchewan Agricultural Hall of Fame   This area is located at  52°02′00″N 106°22′00″W or legal land description of Section 28 - Township  35- Range 3 -West of the 3rd Meridian
Muskeg Lake First Nation Indian Reserve 102A

Rural municipalities along the route
Blucher No  343 is home to several industrial/commercial enterprises  Potash mining, anhydrous ammonia-bulk fertilizer distribution centres, canola crushing plant, as well as a large inland grain terminal 

Major attractions
Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan (PCS) Patience Lake Mine
Cheviot Lake is located at 52°02′00″N 106°20′00″W or legal land description of Township  35 - Range 3 -West of the 3rd Meridian which is just east of Cheviot The following lakes are all north of Highway 316:

Porter Lake   52°17′00″N 106°17′00″W or legal land description of Township 37- Ranges 2,3 - W of the 3rd Meridian
Patience Lake Is located at   52°07′00″N 106°20′00″W or legal land description of Township 36 - Range 3 -West of the 3rd Meridian
Burke Lake is located at 52°10′00″N 106°18′00″W or legal land description of Township 37- Range 3 -West of the 3rd Meridian
Passage 4:
H-63 (Michigan county highway)
H-63 is a county-designated highway (CDH) in the Upper Peninsula of the US state of Michigan  The highway parallels the Interstate 75 (I-75) corridor between St  Ignace and Sault Ste  Marie  The road is called Mackinac Trail after the Upper Peninsula branch of an Indian trail used before European settlers reached the area  Originally, the roadway was built as a section of US Highway 2 (US 2) before being added to the CDH system in the 1970s 
H-63 serves as a two-lane alternative to the I-75 freeway across the eastern end of the Upper Peninsula  Between the northern side of St  Ignace, the roadway has connections to two state highways before running concurrently with M-48 near Rudyard  H-63 ends on the south side of Sault Ste  Marie 

Route description
H-63 starts a winding trail at Business Loop I-75 (BL I-75) north of St  Ignace in rural Mackinac County  From there, the highway heads northward towards the Kewadin Casino  The road then passes within viewing distance of I-75 past the Horseshoe Bay Wilderness  As it continues, H-63 has a connection to the southern terminus of M-123 with access to I-75 via a connecting road to M-123  After crossing to the west side of I-75, H-63 has access to I-75 via a connecting road to the western terminus of M-134  The CDH runs to the north and into Chippewa County  As it does so, H-63 turns away from I-75 as the latter curves northeastward  South of Rudyard and into center of the community, H-63 runs concurrently with M-48 for about three miles (4 8 km) From Rudyard northward,  H-63 turns northeasterly toward, and runs parallel to, I-75  At Kinross, there is an interchange between I-75 and M-80; H-63 has a brief concurrency with M-80 so that the latter can connect to all of the ramps in the interchange  The trail then crosses to the eastern side of I-75  Near Dafter, the CDH intersects M-28  Along this section, H-63 is roughly a half mile (0 8 km) away from the I-75 freeway at any given point as it continues northward to the Sault Ste  Marie area  H-63 terminates at its intersection with  Business Spur I-75 (BS I-75) on the south side of the city 

History
The first transportation route in the area was the Mackinac Trail, used by Native Americans before the Europeans arrived in the area; the trail in the area was the Upper Peninsula branch of a longer route that also connected the modern-day Saginaw with Mackinaw City and the Straits of Mackinac  Until 1933, no roadway was built along the path of the Indian trail  After that year, US 2 was rerouted between St  Ignace and Sault Ste  Marie using the modern routing of H-63  This placed the Mackinac Trail on the state trunkline highway system for the first time  In 1962 and 1963, the state transferred the highway to county control when US 2 was rerouted to follow the completed I-75 freeway  With the transfer to local control, Mackinac Trail became a county road  Later, it was given the  H-63 designation after October 5, 1970, as part of the County-Designated Highway System  The designation on the 1971 state map follows the routing used today 

Major intersections
See also
Michigan Highways portal
Passage 5:
County Road 492 (Marquette County, Michigan)
County Road 492 (CR 492, Co  Rd  492) is a primary county road in Marquette County, Michigan  The road serves as an alternate route between Negaunee and Marquette  Several historic sites line the roadway as it runs south and parallel to the main highway, U S  Highway 41 (US 41) and M-28, through the Marquette Iron Range in Michigan's Upper Peninsula  The path of the road runs near tracks of the Lake Superior and Ishpeming Railroad (LS&I)  The locally created Iron Ore Heritage Trail will follow CR 492 through Eagle Mills and Morgan Meadows upon completion  The western terminus of the county road is on US 41/M-28 in Negaunee and the eastern end is in Marquette next to Lake Superior 
CR 492 was previously known as the Marquette–Negaunee Road before it was made a part of the State Trunkline Highway System  It was originally designated as a part of M-15 as early as 1917  The superintendent of the Marquette County Road Commission, Kenneth Ingalls Sawyer, painted the first rural highway centerline on the roadway on Dead Man's Curve  The highway was later a part of M-28 before being transferred back to county control  The highway assumed its current form by 2001  The eastern section along Brookton Road in Marquette Township was redesignated as a county secondary highway when a new connection to US 41/M-28 was opened, and the designation was extended along Wright Street on the west and north sides of Marquette 

Route description
In the city of Negaunee, CR 492 is a part of Maas Street, which runs east–west through town starting at Teal Lake  CR 492 begins at the intersection of Maas Street and US 41/M-28 in Negaunee next to Miners Park  From there, CR 492 passes some businesses near the highway before running through a residential area  East of Woodland Drive, the street runs downhill into a more rural section of town  In this area, the roadway runs through forested terrain parallel to tracks of the LS&I  The road then loops to the north away from the tracks, crossing the Carp River next to the Forge Road intersection  Through this area, the Iron Ore Heritage Trail, a multi-use trail system, was built to follow CR 492, and opened in 2013  Forge Road runs north to the Michigan Iron Industry Museum on the site of the Carp River Forge, the original iron ore forge in the region  Maas Street runs along the south side of the city cemetery  The cemetery main gate is located near the city limits, where Maas Street ends and CR 492 continues into Negaunee Township 

CR 492 intersects M-35 near Eagle Mills Location  M-35 approaches the county road from the north before it turns east to run concurrently with CR 492  The two roadway designations cross a rail track before M-35 separates and turns south; traffic along the state highway must yield the right-of-way to traffic on the county road in the process  Eagle Mills is the location of the main LS&I rail yard and the former Pioneer Pellet Plant, the first such iron ore pelletizing plant in the country  CR 492 curves away from this industrial area to the northeast  The roadway crosses Morgan Creek and enters the Morgan Heights area on the border of Negaunee Township and Marquette Township  This is the site of the first tuberculosis sanatorium in the Upper Peninsula built in 1911; the facility is said to have been haunted before the main buildings were torn down around 2002  The road continues east through forested lands in Marquette Township, rounding Dead Man's Curve and running downhill into the Morgan Meadows area  CR 492 passes a convent of the Sisters of St  Paul de Chartres before entering a residential area  The road curves north past these subdivisions, meeting the western end of CR 500 (Grove Street)  Further north, CR 492 intersects Brookton Road before the western segment terminates at US 41/M-28 in the middle of Marquette Township's commercial corridor 

The county road designation resumes to the west at a roundabout on US 41/M-28 about 1,300 feet (400 m) from the previous intersection  From this location, CR 492 runs northward between several businesses  North of this commercial development, the roadway curves to the northeast to round the northern side of the North Star Academy and merge onto Wright Street  The roadway leaves the commercial corridor and returns to woodland before the intersection with Forestville Road and Commerce Drive  Wright Street curves to the northeast and then the east crossing into the westernmost section of the City of Marquette  As Wright Street continues eastward, it runs through a residential section along part of the city line before completely crossing into Marquette  The roadway passes the Holy Cross Cemetery and the north side of the campus of Northern Michigan University (NMU)  The northern main entrance to campus is located at the intersection with CR 550 (Sugar Loaf Avenue) and Tracy Avenue  Wright Street passes through residential neighborhoods east of CR 550 before meeting Presque Isle Avenue  East of that intersection, CR 492 crosses onto the northern edge of NMU's campus immediately north of the Superior Dome  Wright Street ends as it curves around to the south into a junction with Lakeshore Boulevard at the shore of Lake Superior 

History
The first roadway along the route of the modern CR 492 was a plank road built by the Cleveland and Sharon Iron Companies in the 1850s  The roadway was originally named the Marquette–Negaunee Road, due to its endpoints  The road was included as a section of "Division 8" in the State Trunkline Highway System when that was created on May 13, 1913  In 1917, the first highway centerline in the nation was painted along a section of the road known as "Dead Man's Curve"  The centerline was painted by Kenneth Ingalls Sawyer, long-time superintendent of the county road commission  Traffic along the road was heavy for the era, and along the curves, drivers would follow the innermost side instead of keeping to their own lane  Sawyer added arrows to indicate travel direction and found that motorists used the appropriate travel lanes 

At this time, the road carried an unsigned designation of "Trunk Line 15" (T L  15) as designated by the Michigan State Highway Department (MSHD)  This designation was changed to M-15 by the time the state highway system was signed by MSHD in 1919  With the creation of the United States Highway System on November 11, 1926, M-15 in Michigan was redesignated as a part of the larger US 41  Between Negaunee and Marquette, US 41 was routed north of the Marquette–Negaunee Road, following a section of M-35 out of downtown Negaunee  At the same time, M-28 was extended eastward through the Upper Peninsula of Michigan  Between Negaunee and Marquette, M-28 followed the old routing of M-15  By 1936, M-28 was shifted to follow US 41 between Negaunee and Marquette, transferring the old Marquette–Negaunee Road to county control After this transfer, the roadway carried the CR 492 designation  In 1964, several abandoned underground mine shafts collapsed underneath M-35 in Negaunee, and M-35 was rerouted out of the city along its current roadway through Negaunee Township, connecting with CR 492  The eastern end of CR 492 was moved by 2001  Before this realignment, CR 492 followed Brookton Road, parallel to US 41/M-28 before turning to the previous terminus just west of the border between Marquette Township and the City of Marquette  After the change, CR 492 turned north to intersect the highway opposite of Wright Street  The CR 492 designation was extended along Wright Street at the same time  In 2006, the city of Marquette extended Wright Street to end at Lakeshore Boulevard In 2010, the county road commission built an extension to Commerce Drive across US 41/M-28  This extension was designed to connect the southern and northern segments of CR 492 severed by traffic flow changes along US 41/M-28  Traffic wishing to cross between the two segments needs to follow US 41/M-28 to a median turn around in a maneuver similar to a Michigan left  After the project was completed, motorists gained a second option to cross between the two segments of CR 492 following Brookton Road to the Commerce Drive extension and around the Westwood Mall to Wright Street  This newer connector is designed for 35-mile-per-hour (56 km/h) traffic  The stop light at the US 41/M-28 intersection was installed in early November to complete the project  In August 2010, the speed limits along Wright Street were increased  After the results of a speed study, the limits were increased from 25 and 35 mph (40 and 56 km/h) to 35, 40 and 45 mph (56, 64 and 72 km/h) In 2019, two intersections controlled by stoplights along US 41/M-28 in Marquette Township were rebuilt as roundabouts  The easternmost of the two is located at the southwestern end of the northeastern segment of CR 492 

Major intersections
The entire road is in Marquette County 

See also
Michigan Highways portal
Passage 6:
Manistee County, Michigan
Manistee County ( man-iss-TEE) is a county located in the U S  state of Michigan  As of the 2020 Census, the population was 25,032  The county seat is Manistee  The county is named for the Manistee River  Manistee County is part of Northern Michigan and has a shoreline on Lake Michigan 

History
Manistee County was set off in 1840 from Michilimackinac County as an unorganized county  In 1851, it was attached to Grand Traverse County for legal purposes  Manistee County was organized in its own right on February 13, 1855 

Etymology
The name "Manistee" is from an Ojibwe word first applied to the principal river of the county  The derivation is not certain, but it may be from ministigweyaa, "river with islands at its mouth" 

Historical markers
There are thirteen recognized Michigan historical markers in the county:
Harriet Quimby Childhood Home
John J  Makinen Bottle House
First Congregational Church, Manistee
Great Fire of 1871
Holy Trinity Episcopal Church
Holy Trinity Episcopal Church Rectory
Kaleva, Michigan
Manistee City Library
Manistee Fire Hall
Our Saviour's Lutheran Church
Ramsdell Theatre
Trinity Lutheran Church [Arcadia]
William Douglas House

Geography
According to the U S  Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 1,281 square miles (3,320 km2), of which 542 square miles (1,400 km2) is land and 738 square miles (1,910 km2) (58%) is water  Manistee County is considered to be part of Northern Michigan 

Adjacent counties
By land

Benzie County - north
Grand Traverse County - northeast
Wexford County - east
Lake County - southeast
Mason County - southBy water

Manitowoc County, Wisconsin - southwest
Kewaunee County, Wisconsin - west

Protected areas
Manistee National Forest (part)
Nordhouse Dunes Wilderness
Orchard Beach State Park

Transportation
Airport
Manistee County-Blacker Airport is approximately 3 miles (4 8 km) northeast of Manistee  It offers direct flights to Chicago O'Hare International Airport 

Major highways
US 31 runs through Manistee and Bear Lake, paralleling Lake Michigan further inland than M-22 
 M-22 begins five miles (8 0 km) north of Manistee and goes through Onekama and Arcadia, paralleling the Lake Michigan shoreline and offering a scenic route 
 M-55 begins two miles (3 2 km) north of Manistee and runs across the Lower Peninsula to Tawas City via Cadillac, Lake City, Houghton Lake, and West Branch 
 M-115 is a diagonal highway, running southeast–northwest across the northeast corner of the county  It enters Benzie County to the north and Wexford County to the east Previously, an additional highway, M-110, was designated to run from US 31 at Parkdale to Orchard Beach State Park  However, the highway was returned to local control in 2003 

Bicycle routes
USBR 35 comes from Mason County and goes through Manistee, Onekama, and Arcadia to proceed north to Benzie County with M-22

Demographics
As of the census of 2000, there were 24,527 people, 9,860 households, and 6,714 families residing in the county  The population density was 45 people per square mile (17 people/km2)  There were 14,272 housing units at an average density of 26 per square mile (10/km2)  The racial makeup of the county was 94 16% White, 1 63% Black or African American, 1 30% Native American, 0 32% Asian, 0 03% Pacific Islander, 1 01% from other races, and 1 55% from two or more races  2 61% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race  23 5% were of German, 16 9% Polish, 8 8% English, 8 8% American and 7 1% Irish ancestry  96 2% spoke English and 2 3% Spanish as their first language 
There were 9,860 households, out of which 27 40% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 55 10% were married couples living together, 9 10% had a female householder with no husband present, and 31 90% were non-families  27 30% of all households were made up of individuals, and 13 20% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older  The average household size was 2 37 and the average family size was 2 86 
In the county, the population was spread out, with 22 60% under the age of 18, 6 70% from 18 to 24, 26 30% from 25 to 44, 26 30% from 45 to 64, and 18 10% who were 65 years of age or older  The median age was 42 years  For every 100 females there were 103 40 males  For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 102 00 males 
The median income for a household in the county was $34,208, and the median income for a family was $41,664  Males had a median income of $33,211 versus $20,851 for females  The per capita income for the county was $17,204  About 6 90% of families and 10 30% of the population were below the poverty line, including 13 50% of those under age 18 and 7 90% of those age 65 or over 

Government
The county government operates the jail, maintains rural roads, operates the major local courts, keeps files of deeds and mortgages, maintains vital records, administers public health regulations, and participates with the state in the provision of welfare and other social services  The county board of commissioners controls the budget but has only limited authority to make laws or ordinances  In Michigan, most local government functions — police and fire, building and zoning, tax assessment, street maintenance, etc  — are the responsibility of individual cities and townships 
Manistee County was one of two counties in the United States in which James M  Cox and Charles Evans Hughes both won — the other being Polk County, North Carolina 

Elected officials
Prosecuting Attorney: Jason Haag
Sheriff: Brian Gutowski
County Clerk: Jill Nowak
County Treasurer: Rachel Nelson
Register of Deeds: Penny Pepera
Drain Commissioner: Ken Hilliard
County Surveyor: Patrick Bentley(information as of February 2012)

Fire departments and emergency medical services
County ambulance service
As of early 2021 North Flight EMS has since transferred the primary ambulance service to Mobile Medical Response 

Fire departments
Arcadia Township Fire Department
Bear Lake Township Fire Department
City of Manistee Fire Department
Cleon Township Fire Department
Dickson Township Fire Department
East Lake Township Fire Department
Filer Township Fire Department
Manistee Township Fire Department [1]
Maple Grove Township Fire Department
Norman Township Fire Department
Onekama Township Fire Department
Stronach Township Fire Department

Communities
City
Manistee (county seat)

Villages
Bear Lake
Copemish
Eastlake
Kaleva
Onekama

Census-designated places
Other unincorporated communities
Townships
Education
School districts include:
Bear Lake School District
Benzie County Central School
Kaleva Norman Dickson School District
Manistee Area Schools
Mason County Eastern District
Mesick Consolidated Schools
Onekama Consolidated Schools

See also
List of Michigan State Historic Sites in Manistee County, Michigan
National Register of Historic Places listings in Manistee County, Michigan
Passage 7:
Saginaw County, Michigan
Saginaw County, officially the County of Saginaw, is a county located in the U S  state of Michigan  As of the 2020 Census, the population was 190,124  The county seat is Saginaw  The county was created by September 10, 1822, and was fully organized on February 9, 1835  The etymology of the county's name is uncertain  It may be derived from Sace-nong or Sak-e-nong (English: Sauk land), as the Sauk (French: Sac) tribe is believed by some to have once lived there  A more likely possibility is that it comes from Ojibwe words meaning "place of the outlet" –sag (English: an opening) and ong (English: place of)  See List of Michigan county name etymologies 
Saginaw County comprises the Saginaw, MI Metropolitan Statistical Area and is included in the Saginaw-Midland-Bay City Combined Statistical Area, the 5th largest metropolitan area in Michigan 

Etymology
The name Saginaw is widely believed to mean "where the Sauk were" in Ojibwe, from Sace-nong or Sak-e-nong (Sauk Town), due to the belief that the Sauk once lived there  But it is more likely that the name means "place of the outlet", from the Ojibwe sag (opening) and ong (place of) When Natives told Samuel de Champlain that the Sauk nation was on the western shore of Lake Michigan, Champlain mistakenly placed them on the western shore of Lake Huron  This mistake was copied on subsequent maps, and future references identified this as the place of the Sauks  Champlain himself never visited what is now Michigan 

History
The area was inhabited from about 1000 B C  to 1000 A D  by the Native American Hopewell culture, followed by the Anishnabeg  Some historians believe that the Sauk at one time lived in the area and were driven out by Ojibwe (Chippewa), before the area was first visited by Europeans 
The Saginaw region includes an extensive network of many rivers and streams which converge into the Saginaw River and provided a means for easy travel for the Native American population among numerous settlements and hunting areas, as well as access to Lake Huron  Saginaw was also a frequent meeting location for councils of the Ojibwe, Pottawatomi, and Ottawa—the Three Fires of the Anishnabeg What is today Saginaw County was inhabited by the Ojibwe at the time of the arrival of Euro-Americans  The Ojibwe were still the dominant force in the area in the 1820s, and in 1827 they were attacked by a two groups of Winnebago people coming from Wisconsin  The Ojibwe prevailed in this fight with the aid of local Euro-American settlers In 1853 the Ojibwe and Ottawa both established large hunting camps along the Saginaw River, although Euro-American settlers were beginning to establish saw mills and farms in the area by that point 

Geography
According to the U S  Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 816 square miles (2,110 km2), of which 800 square miles (2,100 km2) is land and 16 square miles (41 km2) (1 9%) is water   It is part of the Flint/Tri-Cities region of Mid-Michigan  The median elevation in Saginaw County, Michigan is 620 feet (190 m) above sea level 

Primary rivers
Saginaw River
Shiawassee River
Cass River
Flint River
Bad River
Tittabawassee River

Wildlife refuge
Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge

Adjacent counties
Bay County  (northeast)
Midland County  (northwest)
Tuscola County  (east)
Gratiot County  (west)
Genesee County  (southeast)
Shiawassee County  (south)
Clinton County  (southwest)

Demographics
The 2010 United States Census indicates Saginaw County had a 2010 population of 200,169  This is a decrease of -9,870 people from the 2000 United States Census  Overall, the county had a -4 7% growth rate during this ten-year period  In 2010 there were 79,011 households and 52,287 families in the county  The population density was 250 2 per square mile (96 6 per square kilometer)  There were 86,844 housing units at an average density of 108 5 per square mile (41 9 per square kilometer)  The racial and ethnic makeup of the county was 70 5% White, 18 6% Black or African American, 0 3% Native American, 1 0% Asian, 7 8% Hispanic or Latino, 0 1% from other races, and 1 6% from two or more races 
There were 79,011 households, out of which 30 5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 45 4% were husband and wife families, 16 0% had a female householder with no husband present, 33 8% were non-families, and 28 2% were made up of individuals  The average household size was 2 44 and the average family size was 2 99 
In the county, 23 4% of the population was under the age of 18, 10 6% from 18 to 24, 22 9% from 25 to 44, 27 8% from 45 to 64, and 15 3% was 65 years of age or older  The median age was 40 years  For every 100 females there were 93 6 males  For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 90 4 males 
The 2010 American Community Survey 1-year estimate indicates the median income for a household in the county was $41,938 and the median income for a family was $52,243  Males had a median income of $27,691 versus $16,488 for females  The per capita income for the county was $21,025  About 12 4% of families and 16 9% of the population were below the poverty line, including 24 1% of those under the age 18 and 10 1% of those age 65 or over 

Religion
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Saginaw is the controlling regional body for the Catholic Church 

Government and politics
The county government operates the jail, maintains rural roads, operates the
major local courts, keeps files of deeds and mortgages, maintains vital records, administers
public health regulations, and participates with the state in the provision of welfare and
other social services  The county board of commissioners controls the
budget but has only limited authority to make laws or ordinances  In Michigan, most local
government functions — police and fire, building and zoning, tax assessment, street
maintenance, etc  — are the responsibility of individual cities and townships 
Starting in 1988, Saginaw County became a reliable Democratic stronghold at the Presidential level  However, in recent elections it has become increasingly competitive, with Donald Trump narrowly winning the county in 2016 while narrowly losing it in 2020 by about 300 votes 

Elected officials
Prosecuting Attorney: John McColgan Jr 
Sheriff: William Federspiel
County Clerk: Vanessa Guerra
County Treasurer: Timothy M  Novak
Register of Deeds: Katheryn A  Kelly
Public Works Commissioner: Brian WendlingAll countywide officers are elected for four-year terms  The next scheduled election for these offices is November of 2024 
(information as of April 2021)

Parks and Recreation Commission
Saginaw County Parks and Recreation Commission is a county-wide government organization founded by William H  Haithco Sr  in 1969  Haithco then served as chairman from 1972 to 1999  The organization operates six parks throughout the county - Imerman Memorial Park, Veterans Memorial Park, Ringwood Forest, Price Nature Center, William H  Haithco Recreation Area, and The Saginaw Valley Rail Trail  These parks comprise over 550 acres, including 18 miles of hiking trails, two boat launches, four fishing access sites, a swimming beach, picnic shelters, and recreation programs 

Economy
The largest employers in Saginaw County are:

Transportation
Saginaw County was the destination of a Sauk footpath that became one of the first roads in what is now Michigan, the Saginaw Trail  The trail, first authorized in 1819, was completed to Saginaw in 1841  Since then, Saginaw's access to the outside world has expanded with the development of maritime, rail, air, and freeway links to the major cities of Michigan and neighboring states and nations 

Airports
Scheduled airline service is available from MBS International Airport near Freeland, Michigan and  Bishop International Airport in Flint, Michigan   Harry Browne Airport in Buena Vista Charter Township also serves the region 

Highways
I-75, a major north–south freeway running from Sault Ste  Marie, Michigan to Miami-Dade County, Florida
 I-675, a business route freeway from Interstate 75 passing through downtown Saginaw
 US 23
 M-13 runs from I-69 through downtown Saginaw and north to Standish 
 M-15
 M-46 is a cross peninsular road, running across the mitten and the thumb—from Port Sanilac on the Lake Huron shore; through Saginaw near Saginaw Bay; and then on to Muskegon on the Lake Michigan shore   This east-west surface route nearly bisects the Lower Peninsula of Michigan latitudinally 
 M-47 passes through the western suburbs and provides a direct connection to MBS International Airport in Freeland before ending at US 10 in nearby Bay County 
 M-52 runs from the Ohio border through Adrian and Owosso before ending at M-46, in the western suburbs of Saginaw  M-52 also provides an alternate connection to Lansing, Michigan's state capitol 
 M-54
 M-57
 M-58 runs from M-47 to I-675 
 M-81 runs east from M-13 to Caro and Cass City and ends at M-53 in Sanilac County 
 M-83
 M-84 runs from M-25 in downtown Bay City to M-58 in Saginaw 

Maritime
The Saginaw River is maintained by the Corps of Engineers, and from time to time, dredged to maintain a shipping channel down the river to Bay City, and from there, to the Great Lakes 

Education
Primary and secondary education
Public schools
Most of Saginaw County is served by the Saginaw Intermediate School District (SISD), which coordinates the efforts of local boards of education, but has no operating authority over schools  Local school boards in Michigan retain great autonomy over day-to-day operations  A number of charter schools also operate in the county 
School districts in the county (including any with any territory, no matter how slight, even if the schools and/or administration are in other counties) include:

Former school districts include:
Buena Vista School District

Higher education
Saginaw Valley State University (SVSU) is a four-year state university located in eastern Kochville Township 
Delta College is a two-year community college that serves Saginaw County, but is located in neighboring Bay County, a few miles to the north of the SVSU campus 

Notable natives
George C  Hinkley (1892-1936), Wisconsin State Assemblyman and businessman, was born in Saginaw County 
Theodore Roethke (1908–1963) Pulitzer prize and National Book Award-winning poet was born and buried here 

Historical markers
There are twenty eight recognized historical markers in the county:  They are:

Bliss Park
Burt Opera House / Wellington R  Burt
Coal Mine No  8
The Cushway House / Benjamin Cushway and Adelaide Cushway
First Congregational Church [Saginaw]
Fowler Schoolhouse (Fremont Township)
Frankenmuth / Saint Lorenz Evangelical Lutheran Church
Frankenmuth Bavarian Inn
Freeland United Methodist Church
George Nason House
Hess School
Hoyt Library
Leamington Stewart House
Michigan's German Settlers
Morseville Bridge
Presbyterian Church of South Saginaw
Saginaw Club
Saginaw Oil Industry
Saginaw Post Office
Saginaw Valley Coal
Saginaw Valley Lumbering Era
St  Mary's Hospital
Saint Michael Catholic Parish
St  Paul's Episcopal Mission
Shroeder House
Theodore Roethke / Childhood Home

Communities
Cities
Frankenmuth
Saginaw (county seat)
Zilwaukee

Villages
Birch Run
Chesaning
Merrill
Oakley
Reese (partially)
St  Charles

Charter townships
Bridgeport Charter Township
Buena Vista Charter Township
Saginaw Charter Township

Civil townships
Census-designated places
Bridgeport
Buena Vista
Burt
Freeland
Hemlock
Robin Glen-Indiantown
Shields

Other unincorporated communities
See also
List of Michigan State Historic Sites in Saginaw County, Michigan
National Register of Historic Places listings in Saginaw County, Michigan
Saginaw Trail



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