title: Robert Goulet

text: In 1988, Tim Burton cast him as a houseguest blown through the roof by "Beetlejuice" and also played himself in Bill Murray's "Scrooged" (both 1988). He performed the Canadian national anthem to open "WrestleMania VI" at SkyDome in Toronto in 1990. Goulet also made several appearances on the ABC sitcom "Mr. Belvedere" during its five-year run.


title: Robert Goulet

text: In 1991, Goulet starred, with John Putch and Hillary Bailey Smith, in the unsold television series pilot "Acting Sheriff". That same year, he appeared as Quentin Hapsburg, opposite Leslie Nielsen, in the comedy film "". This followed a cameo as a "Special Guest Star" in the episode "The Butler Did It (A Bird in the Hand)" of the 1982 TV series "Police Squad!" in which he died by firing squad during the opening credits. The television series spawned "The Naked Gun" film series.


title: Robert Goulet

text: In 1992, Goulet made an uncredited appearance as the piano player who suffers agonizing injuries in the "Weird Al" Yankovic video for "You Don't Love Me Anymore". That same year, Goulet guest-starred as country music singer Eddie Larren in an episode of the TV series "In the Heat of the Night", "When the Music Stopped".


title: Robert Goulet

text: He starred as King Arthur in "Camelot" in a 1992 National Tour and returned to Broadway in 1993 with the same production. In 1993, he played himself in "The Simpsons" episode "$pringfield". In that episode, Bart Simpson booked him into his own casino (actually Bart's treehouse), where he sang "Jingle Bells (Batman Smells)".


title: Robert Goulet

text: In 1995 he appeared, fronting a big band in a small sports themed nightclub, for a series of humorous 30 second ESPN ads revolving around NCAA basketball. NCAA head coaches appeared in the audience as Goulet happily, not to mention strongly and authoritatively, sang variations on popular songs, with lyrics changed to include college basketball references. He would tape 2 seasons of commercials before ending the run in 1996.


title: Robert Goulet

text: In 1996, Goulet appeared in Ellen DeGeneres's first starring movie, "Mr. Wrong", as an insecure TV host; and he returned to Broadway in "Moon Over Buffalo", co-starring Lynn Redgrave. He provided the singing voice of Wheezy the penguin in the big band-style finale of the 1999 Pixar film "Toy Story 2", singing a new version of "You've Got a Friend in Me".


title: Robert Goulet

text: In 2000, he played himself on two episodes of the Robert Smigel series "TV Funhouse"; as a sort-of mentor to the show's animal puppet troupe, he was the only character who had the respect of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog. Goulet also appeared in the Disney animated series "Recess", as the singing voice for Mikey Blumberg, and in the film "".


title: Robert Goulet

text: In 2005, he appeared on the Broadway stage for the last time as a mid-run replacement in "La Cage aux Folles" and found critical success once again. Clive Barnes of "The New York Post" wrote of his performance:Goulet's still radiant grin is in better shape than his joints, giving his movements rather less grace than before. But when he sings, or even speaks, the years fall away. His gorgeous voice seems untouched by time, and his dapper presence fills the stage... With Robert Goulet's new, expansively embracing Georges, Beach seems revitalized, appearing to find a passion and pathos in the role previously eluding him.


title: Robert Goulet

text: His last public performance was on the PBS televised special, "My Music: 50's Pop Parade", broadcast on August 1, 2007, in which he sang "Sunrise, Sunset" and "If Ever I Would Leave You".


title: Robert Goulet

text: In 1978, he sang "You Light Up My Life" at the Miss Universe Pageant to the five finalists. Goulet played Don Quixote in the 1997–98 U.S. national tour of "Man of La Mancha" and recorded the theme song for the talk show "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" in 2003. His commercial work included a 30-second spot for the 1998 Mercedes-Benz C-Class, showing him in different costumes (toll collector, construction worker, meter maid, etc.), all while singing ""It's Impossible""; and an Emerald Nuts television advertising campaign in 2006, which debuted during Super Bowl XL and continued until his death. In 2006, he appeared in an episode ("Sold'y Locks") of "The King of Queens" as himself.


title: Robert Goulet

text: Goulet and his first wife Louise Longmore had one daughter, Nicolette (died April 17, 2008), who gave birth to his two grandchildren, Solange-Louise and Jordan Gerard. He had two sons, Christopher (b. 1964) and Michael (b. 1966), by his second wife, actress and singer Carol Lawrence.


title: Robert Goulet

text: In 1982, he married artist and writer Vera Novak in Las Vegas, Nevada. Novak, who was born in Bitola, Yugoslavia, was also his business partner and manager. He sang "God Bless America" on Friday, August 8, 2003, when she was sworn in as a citizen of the United States in Las Vegas. Goulet and his wife Vera resided in Las Vegas and Los Angeles.


title: Robert Goulet

text: In 2006, he received a star on Canada's Walk of Fame, and was inducted together with Alex Trebek and Paul Shaffer. At the induction ceremony, accompanied by Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Goulet mentioned to the Prime Minister, a fellow Albertan, "This is great, but what I really want is my Canadian citizenship." Goulet had always believed that he was a Canadian citizen until late in life when he was informed otherwise. Goulet then applied for official Canadian citizenship, which was approved by the Canadian government, and became officially registered shortly after his death.


title: Robert Goulet

text: On September 30, 2007, Goulet was hospitalized in Las Vegas, where he was diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a rare but rapidly progressive and potentially fatal condition.


title: Robert Goulet

text: On October 13, 2007, he was transferred to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles after it was determined he would not survive without an emergency lung transplant.


title: Robert Goulet

text: While awaiting a lung transplant, Goulet died from pulmonary fibrosis on the evening of October 30, 2007, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, less than a month before his 74th birthday. Theater marquees in New York and in cities across North America were dimmed in his memory on October 31, 2007. On November 9, 2007, the day of his funeral, Las Vegas honored Goulet by closing the Las Vegas Strip for his funeral procession. Several venues also posted his name on their marquees as a final tribute.


title: Robert Goulet

text: In the early 2000s, Goulet was often subject to parody in "Saturday Night Live" skits in which he was portrayed by comedian Will Ferrell. In one segment Will Ferrell, portraying Goulet, performed several songs from a farce compilation album titled "Coconut Bangers Ball: It's A Rap!" Ferrell performed "Big Poppa" by The Notorious B.I.G., as well as the "Thong Song" by Sisqo, in a mock crooning style similar to that of Goulet.


title: Robert Goulet

text: Ferrell portrayed Goulet on the April 7, 2001 episode of SNL in a lengthy sketch opposite fellow cast member Chris Parnell and host Alec Baldwin. A cult favorite, the sketch is ostensibly a commercial for a stage production of a new musical titled "Red Ships of Spain" in which Robert Goulet (Ferrell) is appearing in the leading role of Captain Ferdinand Poncho. Parnell and Baldwin portray Goulet's (fictitious) brothers Wes and Ken Goulet, respectively, who have supporting roles in the production. Ana Gasteyer also appears as Robert's (fictitious) daughter Shiela Goulet, who is oddly cast as her father's character's love interest.


title: Robert Goulet

text: He is also known for singing the theme song for the talk show "Jimmy Kimmel Live!", which he recorded in 2003.


title: Robert Goulet

text: The American Mustache Institute presents The Robert Goulet Memorial Mustached American of the Year Award to the person who best represents or contributes to the Mustached American community during that year.


title: Robert Goulet

text: Journalist Scott Simon, host of "Weekend Edition Saturday" on NPR, said in 2007:A professional entertainer doesn't give any less of himself just because the audience gets a little smaller. What Robert Goulet taught us ... is that people who've been up and down are more interesting than people who are on their way up and think that's the only direction life has. ... He worked hard; he made people happy.


title: Robert Goulet

text: In 2016, Goulet was portrayed by Broadway star Matt Bogart in episode 4 of HBO's "Vinyl" as an act for American Century.


title: Jyoti Amge

text: Jyoti Kishanji Amge (born 16 December 1993) is an Indian actress notable for being the world's shortest living woman according to the "Guinness World Records".


title: Jyoti Amge

text: Following Amge's 18th birthday on 16 December 2011, she was officially declared the world's shortest woman by Guinness World Records with a height of . Her restricted height is due to a genetic disorder called primordial dwarfism.


title: Jyoti Amge

text: Amge was featured in the 2009 documentary titled "Body Shock: Two Foot Tall Teen". She was also a guest participant on "Bigg Boss 6", an Indian television show. On 13 August 2014, she was cast in the fourth season of "" as Ma Petite.


title: Jyoti Amge

text: In 2012, she met the world's shortest man, Chandra Bahadur Dangi of Nepal. The pair posed together for the 57th edition of the "Guinness World Records".


title: Jyoti Amge

text: Amge, together with Teo Mammucari, co-hosted "Lo show dei record" in 2012 on the Italian channel Canale 5.


title: Jyoti Amge

text: Amge participated with the Nagpur Police to urge Indian citizens to stay at home during the COVID-19 lockdown in India.


title: Li Bingbing

text: Li Bingbing (; born 27 February 1973) is a Chinese actress and singer who rose to fame with her role in "Seventeen Years" (1999) and since then received critical acclaim for her roles in "A World Without Thieves" (2004), "Waiting Alone" (2005), "The Knot" (2006), "The Forbidden Kingdom" (2008), "The Message" (2009), "Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame" (2010) and "" (2015).


title: Li Bingbing

text: Li ranked 26th on "Forbes" China Celebrity 100 list in 2013, 28th in 2014, 13th in 2015, 29th in 2017, and 76th in 2019.


title: Li Bingbing

text: Li Bingbing was born in Wuchang, Heilongjiang, China. She initially had no intention of becoming an actress and enrolled specifically in a high school for prospective school teachers. However, upon graduation, she discovered her interest in acting and was eventually persuaded by a friend to join the Shanghai Theatre Academy in 1993.


title: Li Bingbing

text: Li rose to fame after starring in Zhang Yuan's "Seventeen Years" (1999), which won her the Best Actress Award in the 1999 Singapore Film Festival. In 2001, Li starred in the television series "Young Justice Bao", which propelled her to become one of the most famous actresses in China.


title: Li Bingbing

text: Li was subsequently labelled as an "action actress" as she starred in a number of wuxia television series, such as "Taiji Prodigy" and "Eight Heroes".


title: Li Bingbing

text: Li achieved breakthrough with her performance in Feng Xiaogang's "A World Without Thieves". She then starred in Dayyan Eng's romantic comedy film "Waiting Alone", for which she received her first Best Actress nomination at the Golden Rooster Awards.


title: Li Bingbing

text: In 2009, Li won Best Actress at the 46th Golden Horse Film Awards for her performance in "The Message", about Japanese invaders in China who try to ferret out a spy among their Chinese collaborators.


title: Li Bingbing

text: Li then starred in Tsui Hark's 2010 action-mystery film "Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame". She played Shangguan Jing'er, a fictional character based on Shangguan Wan'er, a prestigious politician during the Tang Dynasty. She established her studio in the same year, co-starring and co-producing the film "1911" with Jackie Chan, which was released in September 2011 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Xinhai Revolution.


title: Li Bingbing

text: Li Bingbing's first-time in an English-language film is Wayne Wang's "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan", adapted from Lisa See's 2005 novel of the same title. The film premiered at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. Li started to gain recognition in Hollywood after starring in "", playing Ada Wong. The same year, she was cast in action fantasy film "400 Boys", directed by British director Alastair Paton.


title: Li Bingbing

text: In 2013, Li attended the 4th Annual US-China Film Summit and received the East-West Talent Award. Hollywood magazine "Variety" also named her Asian Star of the Year. The following year, Li featured in "", the fourth installment of the film franchise. This helped solidify her success overseas.


title: Li Bingbing

text: In 2015, she was cast in 3D science fiction thriller "Nest" (also known as "Guardians of the Tomb"), a Chinese-Australian co-production that was finally released in January 2018. The same year, it was announced that Li would play China's first female superhero in upcoming film "Realm", written by Stan Lee.


title: Li Bingbing

text: In 2018, Li starred with Jason Statham in "The Meg", an American-Chinese shark film based on Steve Alten's 1997 novel "".


title: Li Bingbing

text: Li Bingbing has established L.O.V.E, a charitable organization dedicated to the promotion of a positive, environmentally responsible lifestyle. She is also one of the founders of the two-year One Million-Tree Forest project, launched in efforts to change the climate environment and help local residents of Gansu Province, Southwest China, to increase their incomes. Her commitment to green and charitable causes has earned her the recognition as "the most influential global ambassador" from World Wildlife Fund.


title: Li Bingbing

text: On 24 July 2013, it was reported that Li has a godfather named Wang Lin, a qigong practitioner who claims to be able to conjure up snakes from thin air, cure disease, and retrieve an incinerated banknote intact from an orange. "The Beijing News" reported that Li Xue, Li's agent, responded that Li went to visit Wang Lin to ask him to cure her mother of her disease. As for the effectiveness of the cure, the agent refused to disclose any more information.


title: United States Army officer rank insignia

text: The commissioned officers ranks of the United States Army, can be split into three categories, from highest to lowest: General officers, field officers and junior officers.


text: In terms of heraldic tradition, these changes created the curious situation of silver outranking gold. One anecdotal explanation suggested by some NCOs is that the more-malleable gold suggests that the bearer is being "molded" for his or her responsibilities—as a junior company grade officer (while a second lieutenant) or a junior field grade officer (while a major). Another rationale, perhaps originally devised as a tool for recruits to sort out the confusion, proposed that the symbolism was expressed as proximity to the heavens. Gold metal is denser, thus deeper in the ground, than silver, followed by leaves on a tree above the metals, with eagles flying above the trees, and finally the stars in the firmament. In actuality, the precedence of silver outranking gold was a consequence of the decision in 1851 to select silver over gold as a matter of economy.


text: While not currently in use today, special insignia were authorized by Congress for ten general officers who were promoted to the highest ranks in the United States Army: General of the Army, designed as a "five-star" rank, and General of the Armies, considered to be the equivalent of a "six-star" rank. Eight generals were promoted to the rank and title "General of the Army" (Ulysses S. Grant, William Tecumseh Sherman, Philip Sheridan, George C. Marshall, Douglas MacArthur, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Henry H. Arnold, and Omar Bradley), while two generals were promoted to the higher rank and title of "General of the Armies of the United States" (George Washington and John J. Pershing).


text: Congress created the rank of General of the Armies specifically for Washington, although while living he never officially accepted the honor. Pershing received the rank in 1919 and was allowed to choose his own insignia; he chose to use four silver stars. In 1976, Congressman Mario Biaggi of New York submitted a house resolution granting Washington the promotion. The promotion was effective on July 4, 1976, the bicentennial of the Declaration of Independence. Although Pershing accepted the rank in 1919 and technically had a date of rank that preceded Washington's, the new specified that no other officer of the United States Army should ever outrank Washington, including Pershing. Hence, effective date of rank notwithstanding, Washington was permanently made superior to all other officers of the United States Armed Forces, past or present.


text: While no living officer holds either of these ranks today, the General of the Army title and five-star insignia designed in 1944 are still authorized for use in wartime. Congress may promote generals to this rank for successful wartime campaigns, or to give the officer parity in rank to foreign counterparts in joint coalitions, specifically with respect to field marshals.


text: The structure of United States military ranks had its roots in British military traditions, adopting the same or similar ranks and titles. At the start of the American Revolutionary War in 1775, the Continental Army's lack of standardized uniforms and insignia proved confusing for soldiers in the field. To correct the situation, George Washington, who had been appointed general and commander in chief, recommended the following stopgap solution for distinguishing the ranks:


text: Generals wore a sash diagonally across their shoulders between their coats and waistcoats. Brigadier generals wore a pink sash, major generals a purple sash, and George Washington as commander in chief, wore a light blue sash. Aides-de-camps (mostly with the rank of captain) to officers of general grades wore a green sash.


text: Later on in the war, the Continental Army established its own uniform with a black and white cockade among all ranks. Infantry officers had silver and other branches gold insignia.


text: In 1780, regulations prescribed fringed epaulettes for all officer ranks, with silver stars for general officers. Field officers wore two epaulettes, captains one epaulette on the right shoulder, subalterns one epaulette on the left shoulder. For commissioned officers 'metal epaulettes were introduced by a general order dated June 18. 1780 (except of those of the CiC). For non-commissioned officers cloth epaulettes were prescribed since a general order dated July 23. 1775. That order differentiated only between the ranks of "serjeant" and "corporal". At the end of war, the "serjeant-major" was recognizable by a pair of cloth epaulettes. The number, position and color of the NCO-epaulettes was changed for several times.


text: From 1821 to 1832, the Army used chevrons to identify company officer grades, a practice that is still observed at West Point for cadet officers. Adjutants were indicated by a single point up gold (infantry: silver) lace chevron and arc on both upper sleeves, captains the same but no arcs, lieutenants wore the chevrons on the lower sleeves. All company officers wore dark blue "wings" with gold (infantry: silver) fringes and Embroidery.


text: General staff, artillery, engineer and field officers wore bullion fringed epaulets: Generals with silver eagle insignia and one or two five-pointed stars, depending on rank. Colonels wore the silver eagle (infantry: gold) insignia as well, lieutenant colonel and major identic plain gold (infantry: silver) epaulets. Captains a single epaulet on the right shoulder, lieutenants on the left shoulder.


text: In 1832, epaulettes were specified for all officers. The epaulettes worn by the infantry were silver, while all other branches had gold epaulettes. In order that the rank insignia would be clearly discernible, they were of the opposite color; that is, the infantry colonels had an eagle of gold because it was placed on a silver epaulet and all other colonels had silver eagles on gold epaulettes. The grade of adjutant was abolished and the lieutenant grade separated into two grades (first and second lieutenant). For the first time, a fatigue or undress uniform was introduced. The so-called "passants", shoulder straps holding the epaulets, were used to develop a new system of rank insignia.


text: In addition, there was on the cuffs a slashflap with several horizontal rows of lace with a button on the outer ends. The lace was of yellow colour (infantry, white). Field officers wore four flaps and buttons, captains wore three, lieutenants wore two.


text: In 1836, shoulder straps were adopted to replace epaulettes for field duty. The straps followed the same color combination as the epaulettes; that is, the border was gold with silver insignia for all officers except those of infantry which had silver border with gold insignia. At that time, lieutenant colonels and majors were authorized leaves, captains were authorized two bars, and first lieutenants were authorized one bar on the shoulder straps.


text: In 1851, it was decided to use only silver eagles for colonels, as a matter of economy. The silver eagle was selected based on the fact that there were more colonels with the silver eagle that those with gold, primarily in the cavalry and artillery, hence it was cheaper to replace the numerically fewer gold ones in the infantry. At that time on the shoulder straps, lieutenant colonels wore an embroidered silver leaf; majors wore a gold embroidered leaf; and captains and first lieutenants wore gold bars. The second lieutenant had no grade insignia, but the presence of an epaulet or shoulder strap identified him as a commissioned officer. For majors, the shoulder strap contained an oak leaf, but like the second lieutenant, the epaulet had no grade insignia. However, the major was still distinguishable from the second lieutenant due to the more elaborate epaulet fringes worn by field grade officers.


text: Prior to 1851 the infantry wore shoulder straps that had a silver border with gold insignia, the other branches wore gold border with silver insignia. The rank of major and lieutenant colonel were designated by oak leaves. A lieutenant colonel was determined by the color of the border, so an infantry Lt. Col. wore silver oak leaves, and other branches wore gold oak leaves. In 1851 the Army did away with the infantry distinctions, with everyone going to gold borders. Senior officers, lieutenant colonels, colonels, and generals wore silver insignia. Second lieutenants had no rank, first lieutenants, captains, and majors wore gold insignia. In 1872 the ranks of first lieutenant and captain reverted to silver insignia.


text: In 1872, epaulettes were abolished for officers and replaced by shoulder knots. As the shoulder knots had no fringe, it was necessary that some change in the insignia on the dress uniform be made in order to distinguish the major from the second lieutenant. It was natural to use the gold leaf which the major had been wearing on the shoulder strap. In the same year, the bars on the shoulder straps of the captains and first lieutenants were changed from gold to silver.


text: By 1917 and the time of World War I, the olive drab service uniform had gradually become used more frequently and the blue uniform was worn only on formal dress occasions. As a result, metal insignia was authorized for wear on the service uniform on the shoulder loop and on the collar of the shirt when worn without a jacket. Shortly after the United States entered the war, only the service olive drab uniform was being worn. The need for an insignia for the second lieutenant became urgent. Among the proposals was one to authorize for that grade a single bar, the first lieutenant two bars, and the captain three bars. However, the policy of making as little change as possible prevailed, and a gold bar was adopted in 1917, following the precedent previously established by the adoption of the major's insignia.


text: In 1944, officers and enlisted personnel in leadership positions started wearing leader identification badges - narrow green bands under their rank insignia; this was initially approved as a temporary measure for European Theater of Operations, but was approved for select branches in 1945 then for the entire Army in 1948.


title: Stuart Long

text: Stuart Ignatius Long (July 26, 1963 – June 9, 2014) was an American boxer and Catholic priest who developed a rare progressive muscle disorder. He was portrayed by Mark Wahlberg in the 2022 biopic, "Father Stu".


title: Stuart Long

text: Stuart Ignatius Long was born in Seattle on July 26, 1963, to William "Bill" Long and Kathleen (Kindrick) Long. While he was a child, his parents moved back to their hometown of Helena, Montana. Long had a younger brother, Stephen, who died of meningococcus at age four, and a sister, Amy. Long graduated from Capital High School in Helena in 1981, where he played football and wrestled.


title: Stuart Long

text: Long attended Carroll College, a private Catholic College in Helena. He played football for two years and began boxing. In 1985, Long won the Golden Gloves heavyweight title for the state of Montana; he won runner-up in 1986. Long graduated from Carroll in 1986, with a degree in English literature and writing.


title: Stuart Long

text: Stuart Long experienced a religious conversion after a near-death motorcycle accident in 1992. A car struck him, and then another ran over him. He had brain swelling and was not expected to survive, but recovered.


title: Stuart Long

text: In order to marry his Roman Catholic girlfriend, Long agreed to getting himself baptized as a Roman Catholic, and was baptized at the Easter Vigil in 1994. However, Long felt a call to the priesthood at this time. He decided to forego the marriage. To test whether priesthood was indeed his true calling, Long taught for three years at Bishop Alemany High School, a Catholic school in Mission Hills, California. Following this, in 1997 Long gave away most of his possessions and began considering religious life with the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal in New York. He was sent to Franciscan University of Steubenville, where he earned a master's degree in philosophy. However, after two years, the Franciscans encouraged Long to consider diocesan priesthood, and he was accepted as a seminarian by Helena bishop Robert C. Morlino, who sent him to Mt. Angel Seminary.


title: Stuart Long

text: During his time at the seminary, Long experienced some difficulty walking, which doctors initially believed to be a treatable case of polymyositis. However, he was eventually diagnosed with inclusion body myositis, a rare progressive muscle disorder similar to Lou Gehrig's disease. Long became despondent, but later developed a determination to live the faith with the time he had left. Long was ordained a transitional deacon in 2006, but seminary formators had doubts about whether he could fulfill his duties as a priest, and considered making him a permanent deacon instead. During this time, Long visited the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes, believing that the Virgin Mary would miraculously heal him. When he was not healed, Long was devastated and felt abandoned, but after visiting the grotto a second time, he felt a profound peace. According to a close friend, while visiting Notre Dame Cathedral, Long had some sort of mystical encounter with Joan of Arc, after which he felt he was being called to carry his disease for Christ.


title: Stuart Long

text: After returning home from the pilgrimage to France, Long learned that Bishop George Leo Thomas of the Diocese of Helena had decided to ordain him. Thomas said he spent one or two weeks agonizing over the decision, saying, "I just kept begging the Lord for direction. I kept hearing the same message over and over again: 'There is power in suffering, move him forward.'" Long was ordained a priest on December 14, 2007, at the Cathedral of Saint Helena. A friend summarized Long's remarks at his ordination as "I stand before you as a broken man. Barring a miracle, I'm going to die from this disease, but I carry it for the cross of Christ, and we can all carry our crosses."


title: Stuart Long

text: Long's first assignment as a priest was to Little Flower Parish on the Blackfeet Reservation in Browning, Montana. Long was popular there, but had to be transferred to another parish after a year due to difficulty with the church's stairs. In 2010, he moved to a long-term care facility in Helena, where he continued ministry as a priest, relying on others to transport him. When his condition deteriorated and he was no longer able to leave the facility, people would come to visit him there instead. As he grew weaker, friends assisted Long to celebrate Mass by guiding his fingers to touch the right items. His parents went through RCIA and were received into the Catholic Church, and many of the healthcare workers at the care facility converted to Catholicism. Long was also a member of the Knights of Columbus.


title: Stuart Long

text: Long died on June 9, 2014, in Helena. He was buried at Resurrection Cemetery in Lewis and Clark County, Montana.


title: Stuart Long

text: A biopic, "Father Stu", was announced in 2016, with Mark Wahlberg portraying Long, and Mel Gibson and Jacki Weaver as Long's parents, from a screenplay by David O. Russell. After Russell dropped out due to scheduling conflicts, Rosalind Ross penned the script and then signed on as director in her directorial debut. Of the film's subject, Wahlberg said that "Father Stu's story is a message that we can all improve, and work towards being better people, and help where we can". Long's parents and a number of friends, neighbors, parishioners, and clergy were involved in its production. The film was theatrically released on April 13, 2022, during Holy Week.


title: Pokémon Ultimate Journeys: The Series

text: Pokémon Ultimate Journeys: The Series is the twenty-fifth season of the "Pokémon" anime series, and the third and final season of Pokémon Journeys: The Series," known in Japan as Pocket Monsters" (ポケットモンスター, Poketto Monsutā). The season premiered in Japan on TV Tokyo on December 17, 2021, and in the United States on Netflix on October 21, 2022. In Canada, the season premiered on Teletoon on May 28, 2022 and Télétoon. This season culminates the research fellowship adventures of Ash Ketchum and Goh (sometimes Chloe join them) as they travel across all eight regions, including the new Galar region from "Pokémon Sword" and "Shield" and the Galar region's Crown Tundra from "", based at Cerise Laboratory in Vermillion City in the Kanto region. Ash ascends through the ranks of the World Coronation Series and Goh continues his work with Project Mew. Four episodes released on January 21 and 28, 2022 (exclusive to Amazon Prime Video in Japan) are an arc based on the "Pokémon Legends: Arceus" game, with the third and fourth episodes coinciding with the release of the games. The story arc debuted on Netflix on September 23, 2022, under the name "Pokémon: The Arceus Chronicles".


title: Pokémon Ultimate Journeys: The Series

text: It was announced in December 2022 that Ash and Pikachu will leave the anime as protagonists in 2023. An is slated to air that year, along with a new series of new protagonists to follow soon after.


title: Pokémon Ultimate Journeys: The Series

text: The Japanese opening song is by Karaage Sisters for 9 episodes, and by Satoshi / Ash Ketchum (Rika Matsumoto) and Goh (Daiki Yamashita) starting with episode 1187. The ending song is by the Pokémon Music Club's Junichi Masuda, Pasocom Music Club and Pokémon Kids 2019, divided into two parts: on odd numbered episodes, on even numbered episodes, and the English opening song is "With You" by Echosmith. Its instrumental version serves as the ending theme.


title: Workers' Party (Brazil)

text: The Workers' Party (, PT) is a centre-left to left-wing political party in Brazil. Some scholars classify its ideology in the 21st century as social democracy, with the party shifting from a broadly socialist ideology in the 1990s. Founded in 1980, PT governed at the federal level in a coalition government with several other parties from 1 January 2003 to 31 August 2016. After the 2002 parliamentary election, PT became the largest party in the Chamber of Deputies and the largest in the Federal Senate for the first time. With the highest approval rating in the history of the country, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is PT's most prominent member. His successor Dilma Rousseff, also a member of PT, was elected twice (first on 1 January 2011, and then again on 26 October 2014) but did not finish her second term due to her impeachment in 2016.


title: Workers' Party (Brazil)

text: Both born among the opposition to the 1964 "coup d'état" and the subsequent military dictatorship, PT and the Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB) from 1994 to 2014 were the biggest adversaries in contemporary Brazilian politics, with their candidates finishing either first or second on the ballot on the last six presidential elections. Both parties generally prohibit any kind of coalition or official cooperation with each other.


title: Workers' Party (Brazil)

text: Despite its relatively large number of supporters, the party has been involved in a number of corruption scandals since Lula first came to power and saw its popular support plummet between 2010 and 2016, with presidential approval ratings falling from over 80% to 9% and successive reductions in all elected offices since 2014.


title: Workers' Party (Brazil)

text: The party symbols are a five-pointed red star inscribed with the initials "PT" in the center; a red flag with a white star also with the initials in the center; and the Workers Party's anthem. Its Superior Electoral Court (TSE) identification number is 13. Members and sympathisers of the party are known as "Petistas".


title: Workers' Party (Brazil)

text: The Workers' Party was launched by a heterogeneous group made up of militants opposed to Brazil's military government, trade unionists, left-wing intellectuals and artists and Catholics linked to the liberation theology on 10 February 1980 at Colégio Sion in São Paulo, a private Catholic school for girls. The party emerged as a result of the approach between the labor movements in the ABC Region such as the Conferência das Classes Trabalhadoras (Conclat), later developed into the Central Única dos Trabalhadores (CUT) which carried major strikes from 1978 to 1980; and the old Brazilian left-wing, whose proponents, many of whom were journalists, intellectuals, artists and union organizers, were returning from exile with the 1979 Amnesty law, many of them having endured imprisonment and torture at the hands of the military regime in addition to years of exile. Dilma Rousseff herself was imprisoned and tortured by the dictatorship.


title: Workers' Party (Brazil)

text: PT was launched under a democratic socialism trend. After the 1964 "coup d'état", Brazil's main federation of labor unions, the General Command of Workers ("Comando Geral dos Trabalhadores" – CGT), which since its formation gathered leaders approved by the Ministry of Labour, a practice tied to the fact that since Getúlio Vargas's dictatorship, unions had become quasi-state entities, was dissolved while unions themselves suffered intervention of the military regime. The resurgence of an organized labour movement, evidenced by strikes in the ABC Region on the late 1970s led by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, enabled the reorganization of the labour movement without the direct interference of the state. The movement originally sought to act exclusively in union politics, but the survival of a conservative unionism under the domination of the state (evidenced in the refoundation of CGT) and the influence exercised over the trade union movement by leaders of traditional left-wing parties, such as the Brazilian Communist Party ("Partido Comunista Brasileiro", PCB), forced the unionist movement of ABC, encouraged by anti-Stalinist leaders, to organize its own party in a strategy similar to that held by the Solidarność union movement in Poland.


title: Workers' Party (Brazil)

text: Therefore, PT emerged rejecting the traditional leaders of official unionism and seeking to put into practice a new form of democratic socialism, trying to reject political models it regarded as decaying, such as the Soviet and Chinese ones. It represented the confluence between unionism and anti-Stalinist intelligentsia.


title: Workers' Party (Brazil)

text: PT was officially recognized as a party by the Brazilian Supreme Electoral Court on 11 February 1982. The first membership card belonged to art critic and former Trotskyist activist Mário Pedrosa, followed by literary scholar Antonio Candido and historian Sérgio Buarque de Holanda. Holanda's daughter Ana de Holanda later became Minister of Culture in the Rousseff cabinet.


title: Workers' Party (Brazil)

text: Since 1988, the Workers' Party has grown in popularity on the national stage by winning the elections in many of the largest Brazilian cities, such as São Paulo, Fortaleza, Belo Horizonte, Porto Alegre and Goiânia as well as in some important states, such as Rio Grande do Sul, Espírito Santo and the Federal District. This winning streak culminated with the victory of its presidential candidate Lula in 2002 who succeeded Fernando Henrique Cardoso of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party ("Partido da Social Democracia Brasileira –" PSDB). For its defense of economic liberalism, PSDB is the party's main electoral rival as well as the Democrats, heir of the National Renewal Alliance ("Aliança Renovadora Nacional –" ARENA), ruling party during the military dictatorship. Along with the Popular Socialist Party ("Partido Popular Socialista –" PPS), a dissidence of PCB, they form the centre-right opposition to the Lula administration.


title: Workers' Party (Brazil)

text: In the 1989 general elections, Lula went to the second round with Fernando Collor de Mello. Even though all centrist and left-wing candidates of the first round united around Lula's candidacy, Collor's campaign was strongly supported by the mass media (notably Rede Globo as seen on the documentary "Beyond Citizen Kane") and Lula lost in the second round by a close margin of 5.7%.


title: Workers' Party (Brazil)

text: Leading up to the 1994 general elections, Lula was the leading presidential candidate in the majority of polls. As a result, centrist and right-wing parties openly united for Fernando Henrique Cardoso's candidacy. As Minister of Economy, Cardoso created the Real Plan, which established the new currency and subsequently ended inflation and provided economic stability. As a result, Cardoso won the election in the first round with 54% of the votes. However, it has been noted that "the elections were not a complete disaster for PT, which significantly increased its presence in the Congress and elected for the first time two state governors". Cardoso would be re-elected in 1998.


title: Workers' Party (Brazil)

text: After the detrition of PSDB's image and as a result of an economic crisis that burst in the final years of Cardoso's government, Lula won the 2002 presidential election in the second round with over 52 million votes, becoming the most voted president in history, surpassing Ronald Reagan.


title: Workers' Party (Brazil)

text: On 29 October 2006, PT won 83 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 11 seats in the Federal Senate. Lula was re-elected with more than 60% of the votes, extending his position as President of Brazil until 1 January 2011.


title: Workers' Party (Brazil)

text: PT is now the second largest party in the Chamber of Deputies, the fourth largest party in the Federal Senate and has 5 state governorships. However, it only gained control of one among the ten richest states (Bahia).


title: Workers' Party (Brazil)

text: In the 2010 general elections held on 3 October, PT gained control of 17.15% of the seats in the Chamber of Deputies, a record for the party since 2002. With 88 seats gained, it became the largest party in the lower chamber for the first time ever. PT also became the second largest party in the Federal Senate for the first time after electing of 11 senators, making a total of 14 senators for the 2010–2014 legislature. Its national coalition gained control of 311 seats in the lower house and 50 seats in the upper house, a broad majority in both houses which the Lula administration never had. This election also saw the decrease in the number of seats controlled by the centre-right opposition bloc as it shrank from 133 to 111 deputies. The left-wing opposition, formed by PSOL, retained control of three seats.


title: Workers' Party (Brazil)

text: The party was also expected to elect its presidential candidate Dilma Rousseff in the first round. However, she was not able to receive the necessary number of valid votes (over 50%) and a second round in which she scored 56% of the votes took place on 31 October 2010. On 1 January 2011, she was inaugurated and thus became the first female head of government ever in the history of Brazil and the first "de facto" female head of state since the death in 1816 of Maria I, Queen of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves.


title: Workers' Party (Brazil)

text: In the 2010 elections, PT retained control of the governorships of Bahia, Sergipe and Acre, in addition to gaining back control of Rio Grande do Sul and the Federal District. Nevertheless, it lost control of Pará. Candidates supported by the party won the race in Amapá, Ceará, Espírito Santo, Maranhão, Mato Grosso, Pernambuco, Piauí and Rio de Janeiro, which means that PT would participate in 13 out of 27 state governorships.


title: Workers' Party (Brazil)

text: In the 2014 general elections held on 5 October, the party won 13.9% of the vote and 69 seats in the Chamber of Deputies, down from the 88 seats they gained in 2010. In the first round of the presidential election, Rousseff won 41.6% of the vote but not enough to secure a victory. In the run-off on 26 Octobe, Rousseff was re-elected with a narrow victory with 51.6% of the vote against Senator Aécio Neves


title: Workers' Party (Brazil)

text: PT enjoyed strong representation in the cabinets it led for most of the time that it was in office. PT held the majority of cabinet positions in the first two coalitions, with its occupation of ministerial positions comprising 60% in the first coalition, 54.8% in the second coalition and 46.5% in the third coalition.


title: Workers' Party (Brazil)

text: Although PT deliberately never identified itself with a particular brand of leftism, it nevertheless "always defined itself as socialist" and espoused many radical positions. For example, at the Brazilian Constituent Assembly of 1988 it advocated repudiation of Brazil's external debt, nationalization of the country's banks and mineral wealth and a radical land reform. In addition, as a form of protest and as a signal that the party did not fully accept the "rules of the game" PT's delegates refused to sign the draft constitution.


title: Workers' Party (Brazil)

text: Over the next few years, the party moderated a bit, but it never clearly shed its radicalism and undertook no major reforms of party principles even after Lula's defeat in the 1989 presidential elections. For example, the resolution from the party's 8th National Meeting in 1993 reaffirmed PT's "revolutionary and socialist character", condemned the "conspiracy" of the elites to subvert democracy, stated that the party advocated "radical agrarian reform and suspension of the external debt" and concluded that "capitalism and private property cannot provide a future for humanity".


title: Workers' Party (Brazil)

text: In 1994, Lula ran for the presidency again and during his campaign dismissed Fernando Henrique Cardoso's recently implemented Real Plan as an "electoral swindle". The resolutions from the 1994 National Meeting condemned the "control by the dominant classes over the means of production" and reaffirmed the party's "commitment to socialism". PT's Program of Government that year also committed the party to "anti-monopolist, anti-latifúndio, and anti-imperialist change [...] as part of a long-term strategy to construct an alternative to capitalism", statements that "sent shivers down the spine of the international financial community". Thus, as of 1995 "little or nothing" had changed in PT's official ideology since the early 1990s.


title: Workers' Party (Brazil)

text: After Lula's 1994 loss, the party began a slow process of self-examination. The resolution adopted at its 10th National Meeting in 1995 stated that "our 1994 defeat invites a cruel reflection about our image in society, about the external impact of our internal battles, [and] about our ideological and political ambiguities". The move from self-examination did not involve a clean break with the past as in other socialist parties after the end of the Cold War. The process was gradual, full of contradictions and replete with intra-party tension. By 1997, the National Meeting resolution redefined PT's version of socialism as a "democratic revolution", emphasizing a political rather than economic vision of socialism that aimed to make the state "more transparent and socially accountable".


title: Workers' Party (Brazil)

text: Lula's third presidential campaign platform in 1998 cut socialist proposals and even the mention of a transition to a socialist society, but the party's self-definition remained highly ambiguous as the resolution from the party's Meeting that year affirmed that Lula's platform "should not be confused with the socialist program of PT". Thus, while PT had begun to distance itself from its original socialist rhetoric and proposals by 1998, a clearer shift did not occur until after Lula lost again that year and after Lula and his group had more fully digested the impact of Brazil's changing political context and of Cardoso's economic reforms.


title: Workers' Party (Brazil)

text: Most of the Workers' Party votes in presidential elections since 2006 stems from the North and Northeast regions of Brazil. Nevertheless, the party has always won every presidential election in Rio de Janeiro from 1998 to 2014, the Federal District from 1989 to 2010 (with the exception in 1998 when Cardoso won there) and in Minas Gerais from 2002 to 2014 (these are two of the three largest states by number of voters and together they comprise 18.5% of voters). The party also maintains a stronghold in the southernmost state of Rio Grande do Sul, where it has won continuously since the second round of 1989 until 2002. Originally an urban party, with ties to ABC Region's unionism, PT has recently seen a major increase of its support in smaller towns.


title: Workers' Party (Brazil)

text: Most of PT's rejection comes from São Paulo as it has won elections there only once in 2002 (both rounds). The historical PT rejection in São Paulo was more widespread in interior than the capital as PT won the 1988, 2000 and 2012 São Paulo mayoral election and was a major force in his homeland, the Greater São Paulo. Despite this, the party lost its support even in the region and has not won any electoral zone in the capital in 2016 municipal elections. Fernando Haddad, the candidate seeking reelection, stayed in a distant second place, with 36 percentual points below the winner João Doria. PT managed to win in only one city of the region, the small and distant municipality of Franco da Rocha. PT is also strongly rejected in other states of the Center-South, such as Rio de Janeiro, which until 2018 had voted in the Workers Party presidential candidates in all new republic elections except 1994, the party shows strong difficulties to make representatives in federal, state and municipal levels. The party never elected a mayor in the capital of the state, never elected a governor (Benedita da Silva, the sole governor of the state from the party, took over because the resignation of the titular Anthony Garotinho in 2002, which her party had broken some years early, and was massive defeated in the same year's election by the Garotinho's wife Rosângela Matheus) and is often overturned in elections by left-wing parties with much less weight in national elections. The triumphs in the state were more associated with a strong rejection of PSDB in the state (which is even more weak and rejected despite his national strength) than a support of PT's program. In 2018 presidential elections, PT lost in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo with similar percentages in both states, with a difference of only 0.02% less percent of valid votes to the party in São Paulo. Despite being a southeastern state, many regions of Minas Gerais, especially in the north region of the state, had strong economic, cultural and socially ties with the Northeast. São Francisco River, a symbol of the Northeast, has its source in a small city of Minas, Pirapora. With the exception of Rio Grande do Sul and Distrito Federal, PT never gets an elected governor in the Center-south until 2014, when Fernando Damata Pimentel was elected governor of Minas Gerais.


title: Workers' Party (Brazil)

text: PT had a strong electoral stronghold in North Brazil and in the Amazonian region; The party triumphed in every state governorship in Acre from 1990 to 2018. However, the Acre section of the party is far more independent and moderate than the rest of the party and PT had only won the presidential election in the state twice in 2002 and 2006. PT also lost the governorship of Acre in 2018 to a candidate from right-wing Progressive Party. Roraima, which the impact of the controversy about the indigenous territory of Raposa Serra do Sol, which former President Lula gave strong support despite the opposition of the non-indigenous people; and Rondonia, which had a large population of evangelicals and south/southeastern migrants, also show reservations about the party. The electoral stronghold was also lost in 2018 elections; PT only triumphed in the states of Pará and Tocantins, the only states in the region which borders Brazilian Northeast and much of their culture is near from Northwest than the rest of Amazon. In Amazonas, the largest Brazilian states, PT lost in 2018 for the first time since 1998; PT lost in the capital of the state, Manaus, a free zone which concentrates more than the half of the population of the state; in the large, sparsely inhabited interior of the Amazonian state, PT win by a large margin but insufficient to guarantee the fifth triumph of the party in the state on presidential election.


title: Workers' Party (Brazil)

text: PT, however, maintained and expanded his stronghold in Northeast Brazil, conquered in Lula first elections in 2002. Since 2002, the only time that a state other than these which did not vote in PT in a presidential election was Alagoas in both rounds of 2002 presidential elections. PT and its allies was able to make big gains in north and northeast regions of Brazil even in times which the party was in crisis, like in the last mayoral elections. PT's most loyal party PCdoB and former allies Brazilian Socialist Party ("Partido Socialista Brasileiro" − PSB) and Democratic Labour Party ("Partido Democrático Trabalhista" − PDT) made huge gains in region together with PT in the Lula−Rouseff era. PCdoB is now the strongest party in Maranhão state and was able to elect the mayor of Aracaju, Sergipe; PSB is now the strongest party in the states of Pernambuco and Paraíba; and PDT was able to triumph in three capitals of the northeastern. Despite losing all capitals in northwest, PT had the governorships of three northwestern states, Piauí, Bahia and Ceará. The governorship of Bahia, conquered in 2006, is symbolical. The party was a stronghold of Liberal Front Party ("Partido da Frente Liberal" − PFL), now Democrats ("Democratas" − DEM), the greatest ideological rival of PT in national level. PSDB is a strongest party and headed all presidential tickets which PFL/DEM participated since 1994, but the origin of PSDB resembling with the origins PT as a leftist opposition to the dictatorship, and the parties had strong links until PSDB broke with PT and join in a coalition with PFL, a right-wing party with strong fiscal conservative views, associated with the Brazilian military regime in 1993 and the homeland of Antônio Carlos Magalhães, the strongest leadership of PFL and a fierce foe of PT. Bahia is now the main stronghold of PT, the most reliable state for the Petismo and is considered a governance model to the party. Despite this, the state's capital Salvador is governed by ACM Neto, a leading member of DEM and grandson of Antonio Carlos Magalhães.


title: Workers' Party (Brazil)

text: The party is often accused of exploiting the North–South divide in Brazil to gain votes in the northeast. The party denies the claims and accuses the opposition to do the same in the South and Southeast.


title: Workers' Party (Brazil)

text: According to a poll conducted by IBOPE on 31 October 2010, during the second round voting PT's candidate Dilma Rouseff had an overwhelming majority of votes among the poorest Brazilians. Her lead was of 26% among those who earned a minimum wage or less per month. Rouseff also had the majority of votes among Catholics (58%), blacks (65%) and mixed-race Brazilians (60%). Amongst whites and Protestants, she was statistically tie to José Serra and her lead was of only 4% on both demographic groups. Even though she was the first female candidate in a major party, her votes amongst men was wider than amongst women.


title: Workers' Party (Brazil)

text: The changes in the political orientation of PT (from a left-wing socialist to a centre-left social-democratic party) after Lula was elected president were well received by many in the population, but as a historically more radical party, the PT has experienced a series of internal struggles with members who have refused to embrace the new political positions of the party. These struggles have fueled public debates, the worst of which had its climax in December 2003, when four dissident legislators were expelled from the party for voting against Social Insurance Reform. Among these members were congressman João Batista Oliveira de Araujo (known as Babá) and senator Heloísa Helena, who formed the Socialism and Liberty Party ("Partido Socialismo e Liberdade" − PSOL) in June 2004 and ran for president in 2006, becoming at the time the woman who had garnered the most votes in Brazilian history.


title: Workers' Party (Brazil)

text: In another move, 112 members of the radical wing of the party announced they were abandoning PT in the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre on 30 January 2005. They also published a manifesto entitled "Manifesto of the Rupture" that states that PT "is no longer an instrument of social transformation, but only an instrument of the status quo", continuing with references to the International Monetary Fund and other economic and social issues.


title: Workers' Party (Brazil)

text: This scandal, called the BANCOOP case, included João Vaccari Neto and four other directors of the housing cooperative. The cooperative received government contracts and had multi-million real revenue. The cooperative was found to have illegally padded the service contracts by 20%, with many of the contracts going unfulfilled. The cooperative eventually folded with a deficit of over R$100 million, requiring liquidation of assets to minimize the loss by members.


title: Workers' Party (Brazil)

text: This scandal unfolded around September 2006, just two weeks before general elections. As a result, Berzoini left the coordination of Lula's re-election after allegedly using PT's budget (which is partially state-funded through party allowances) to purchase, from a confessed fraudster, a dossier that would be used to attack political adversaries. On 25 April 2007, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal unanimously cleared Lula of any responsibility for this scandal.


title: Workers' Party (Brazil)

text: In July 2005, members of the party suffered a sequence of corruption accusations, started by a deputy of the Brazilian Labour Party ("Partido Trabalhista Brasileiro –" PTB), Roberto Jefferson. Serious evidence for slush funding and bribes-for-votes were presented, dragging PT to the most serious crisis in its history, known colloquially as the "Mensalão". José Genoíno resigned as president of the party and was replaced by Tarso Genro, former mayor of Porto Alegre. A small minority of party members defected as a result of the crisis. Most of them went to PSOL.


title: Workers' Party (Brazil)

text: The investigation of a series of crimes, such corruption and money laundering, led to the arrest of the party's treasurer João Vaccari Neto and his sister-in-law. José Genoino, José Dirceu, Delcídio do Amaral, André Vargas and Delúbio Soares were also arrested in the process. Most recently, former President Lula was arrested in April 2018. However, in March 2021, the Supreme Federal Court overturned all the convictions.


title: Workers' Party (Brazil)

text: There are about thirty factions ("tendências") within PT, ranging from Articulação, the centre-left group that Lula is a part of, to Marxists and Christian socialists.


title: California condor

text: The California condor (Gymnogyps californianus) is a New World vulture and the largest North American land bird. It became extinct in the wild in 1987 when all remaining wild individuals were captured, but has since been reintroduced to northern Arizona and southern Utah (including the Grand Canyon area and Zion National Park), the coastal mountains of California, and northern Baja California in Mexico. Although four other fossil members are known, it is the only surviving member of the genus "Gymnogyps". The species is listed by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature as Critically Endangered, and similarly considered "Critically Imperiled" by NatureServe.


title: California condor

text: The plumage is black with patches of white on the underside of the wings; the head is largely bald, with skin color ranging from gray on young birds to yellow and bright orange on breeding adults. Its wingspan is the widest of any North American bird, and its weight of up to nearly equals that of the trumpeter swan, the heaviest among native North American bird species. The condor is a scavenger and eats large amounts of carrion. It is one of the world's longest-living birds, with a lifespan of up to 60 years.


title: California condor

text: Condor numbers dramatically declined in the 20th century due to agricultural chemicals (DDT), poaching, lead poisoning, and habitat destruction. A conservation plan put in place by the United States government led to the capture of all the remaining wild condors by 1987, with a total population of 27 individuals. These surviving birds were bred at the San Diego Wild Animal Park and the Los Angeles Zoo. Numbers rose through captive breeding, and beginning in 1991, condors were reintroduced into the wild. Since then, their population has grown, but the California condor remains one of the world's rarest bird species. In December 2020 there were 504 California condors living wild or in captivity, while by December 2022 the population totals 537 of which 336 live in the wild. The condor is a significant bird to many Californian Native American groups and plays an important role in several of their traditional myths.


title: California condor

text: The California condor was described by English naturalist George Shaw in 1797 as "Vultur californianus"; Archibald Menzies collected the type specimen "from the coast of California" during the Vancouver expedition. It was originally classified in the same genus as the Andean condor ("V. gryphus"), but, due to the Andean condor's slightly different markings, slightly longer wings, and tendency to kill small animals to eat, the California condor has now been placed in its own monotypic genus. The generic name "Gymnogyps" is derived from the Greek "gymnos"/γυμνος "naked" or "bare", and "gyps"/γυψ "vulture", while the specific name "californianus" comes from its location in California. The word condor itself is derived from the Quechua word "kuntur".


title: California condor

text: The exact taxonomic placement of the California condor and the other six species of New World vultures remains unclear. Though similar in appearance and ecological roles to Old World vultures, the New World vultures evolved from a different ancestor in a different part of the world. Just how different the two are is currently under debate, with some earlier authorities suggesting that the New World vultures are more closely related to storks. More recent authorities maintain their overall position in the order Falconiformes along with the Old World vultures or place them in their own order, Cathartiformes. The South American Classification Committee has removed the New World vultures from Ciconiiformes and instead placed them in "Incertae sedis", but notes that a move to Falconiformes or Cathartiformes is possible.


title: California condor

text: As of the 51st Supplement (2010) of the American Ornithologists' Union, the California condor is in the family Cathartidae of the order Cathartiformes.


title: California condor

text: The genus "Gymnogyps" is an example of a relict distribution. During the Pleistocene epoch, this genus was widespread across the Americas. From fossils, the Floridan "Gymnogyps kofordi" from the Early Pleistocene and the Peruvian "Gymnogyps howardae" from the Late Pleistocene have been described. A condor found in Late Pleistocene deposits on Cuba was initially described as "Antillovultur varonai", but has since been recognized as another member of "Gymnogyps", "Gymnogyps varonai". It may even have derived from a founder population of California condors.


title: California condor

text: The California condor is the sole surviving member of "Gymnogyps" and has no accepted subspecies. However, there is a Late Pleistocene form that is sometimes regarded as a palaeosubspecies, "Gymnogyps californianus amplus". Current opinions are mixed, regarding the classification of the form as either a chronospecies or a separate species "Gymnogyps amplus". "Gymnogyps amplus" occurred over much of the bird's historical range – even extending into Florida – but was larger, having about the same weight as the Andean condor. This bird also had a wider bill. As the climate changed during the last ice age, the entire population became smaller until it had evolved into the "Gymnogyps californianus" of today, although more recent studies by Syverson question that theory.


title: California condor

text: The adult California condor is a uniform black with the exception of large triangular patches or bands of white on the underside of the wings. It has gray legs and feet, an ivory-colored bill, a frill of black feathers surrounding the base of the neck, and brownish red eyes. The juvenile is mostly a mottled dark brown with blackish coloration on the head. It has mottled gray instead of white on the underside of its flight feathers.


title: California condor

text: The condor's head has little to no feathers, which helps keep it clean when feeding on carrion. The skin of the head and neck is capable of flushing noticeably in response to emotional state. The skin color varies from yellowish to a glowing reddish-orange. The birds do not have true syringeal vocalizations. They can make a few hissing or grunting sounds only heard when very close.


title: California condor

text: The female condor is "smaller" than the male, an exception to the rule among birds of prey (it's the same with the Andean condor where males are also larger than females). Overall length ranges from and wingspan from . Their weight ranges from , with estimations of average weight ranging from . Wingspans of up to have been reported but no wingspan over has been verified. Most measurements are from birds raised in captivity, so it is difficult to determine if major differences exist between wild and captive condors.


title: California condor

text: California condors have the largest wingspan of any North American bird. They are surpassed in both body length and weight only by the trumpeter swan and the introduced mute swan. The American white pelican and whooping crane also have longer bodies than the condor. Condors are so large that they can be mistaken for a small, distant airplane, which possibly occurs more often than that they are mistaken for other bird species.


title: California condor

text: The middle toe of the California condor's foot is greatly elongated, and the hind one is only slightly developed. The talons of all the toes are straight and blunt, and are thus more adapted to walking than gripping. This is more similar to their supposed relatives the storks than to birds of prey and Old World vultures, which use their feet as weapons or organs of prehension.


title: California condor

text: At the time of human settlement of the Americas, the California condor was widespread across North America; condor bones from the late Pleistocene have been found at the Cutler Fossil Site in southern Florida. However, at the end of the last glacial period came the extinction of the megafauna that led to a subsequent reduction in range and population. Five hundred years ago, the California condor roamed across the American Southwest and West Coast. Faunal remains of condors have been found documented in Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, and Texas. The Lewis and Clark Expedition of the early 19th century reported on their sighting and shooting of California condors near the mouth of the Columbia River.


title: California condor

text: In the 1970s, two Condor Observation Sites were established in the Santa Clara River Valley to host hopeful birders interested in the endangered species: one about 15 miles north of Fillmore, California, near the Sespe Wildlife Area of Los Padres National Forest, and one atop Mount Pinos, "accessible from a dirt road off the highway in from Gorman."


title: California condor

text: The California condor lives in rocky shrubland, coniferous forest, and oak savanna. They are often found near cliffs or large trees, which they use as nesting sites. Individual birds have a huge range and have been known to travel up to in search of carrion.


title: California condor

text: There are two sanctuaries chosen because of their prime condor nesting habitat: the Sisquoc Condor Sanctuary in the San Rafael Wilderness and the Sespe Condor Sanctuary in the Los Padres National Forest.


title: California condor

text: The Los Padres Condor Range and River Protection Act of 1992 expanded existing wilderness by and designated of new wilderness that provide habitat for the condor in the Los Padres.


title: California condor

text: The California condor's large flight muscles are not anchored by a correspondingly large sternum, which restricts them to being primarily soarers. The birds flap their wings when taking off from the ground, but after attaining a moderate elevation they largely glide, sometimes going for miles without a single flap of their wings. They have been known to fly up to speeds of and as high as . They prefer to roost on high perches from which they can launch without any major wing-flapping effort. Often, these birds are seen soaring near rock cliffs, using thermals to aid them in keeping aloft.


title: California condor

text: The California condor has a long life span, reaching up to 60 years. If it survives to adulthood, the condor has few natural threats other than humans. Because they lack a syrinx, their vocal display is limited to grunts and hisses. Condors bathe frequently and can spend hours a day preening their feathers. Condors also perform urohidrosis, or defecate on their legs, to reduce their body temperature. There is a well-developed social structure within large groups of condors, with competition to determine a pecking order decided by body language, competitive play behavior, and a variety of hisses and grunts. This social hierarchy is displayed especially when the birds feed, with the dominant birds eating before the younger ones.


title: California condor

text: Condors begin to look for a mate when they reach sexual maturity at the age of 6. To attract a prospective mate, the male condor performs a display, in which the male turns his head red and puffs out his neck feathers. He then spreads his wings and slowly approaches the female. If the female lowers her head to accept the male, the condors become mates for life. The pair makes a simple nest in caves or on cliff clefts, especially ones with nearby roosting trees and open spaces for landing. A mated female lays one bluish-white egg every other year. Eggs are laid as early as January to as late as April. The egg weighs about and measures from in length and about in width. If the chick or egg is lost or removed, the parents "double clutch", or lay another egg to take the lost one's place. Researchers and breeders take advantage of this behavior to double the reproductive rate by taking the first egg away for puppet-rearing; this induces the parents to lay a second egg, which the condors are sometimes allowed to raise.


title: California condor

text: The eggs hatch after 53 to 60 days of incubation by both parents. Chicks are born with their eyes open and sometimes can take up to a week to leave the shell completely. The young are covered with a grayish down until they are almost as large as their parents. They are able to fly after 5 to 6 months, but continue to roost and forage with their parents until they are in their second year, at which point the parents typically turn their energies to a new nest. Ravens are the main predatory threat to condor eggs, while golden eagles and bears are potential predators of condor offspring.


title: California condor

text: In 2021, the San Diego Zoo reported having had two unfertilized eggs hatch within its breeding program in 2001 and 2009, producing male young by parthenogenesis as indicated by genetic studies. The mothers had been housed with males and had mated before, but the offspring lacked markers of male paternity and showed all-maternal inheritance, suggesting the specific mechanism of parthenogenesis involved automixis, gametic fusion, or endomitosis. Earlier evidence of similar parthenogenesis in birds found that among the known examples the embryos died before hatching, unlike these condor chicks. Neither chick lived to sexual maturity, preventing data collection on their reproductive potential.


title: California condor

text: Wild condors maintain a large home range, often traveling a day in search of carrion. It is thought that in the early days of its existence as a species, the California condor lived off the carcasses of the Pleistocene megafauna, which are now largely extinct in North America. They still prefer to feast on large, terrestrial mammalian carcasses such as deer, goats, sheep, donkeys, horses, pigs, cougars, bears, or cattle. Alternatively, they may feed on the bodies of smaller mammals such as rabbits, squirrels, or coyotes, aquatic mammals such as whales and California sea lions, or salmon. Bird and reptile carcasses are rarely eaten. Condors prefer fresh kills, but they also eat decayed food when necessary. Since they do not have a sense of smell, they spot these corpses by looking for other scavengers, like eagles and smaller vultures, the latter of which cannot rip through the tougher hides of these larger animals with the efficiency of the larger condor. They can usually intimidate other scavengers away from the carcass, with the exception of bears, which will ignore them, and golden eagles, which will fight a condor over a kill or a carcass. In the wild they are intermittent eaters, often going for between a few days to two weeks without eating, then gorging themselves on of meat at once.


title: California condor

text: The California condor conservation project may be one of the most expensive species conservation projects in United States history, costing over $35 million, including $20 million in federal and state funding, since World War II. As of 2007, the annual cost for the condor conservation program was around $2.0 million per year.


title: California condor

text: As the condor's population continued to decline, discussion began about starting a captive breeding program for the birds. Opponents to this plan argued that the condors had the right to freedom, that capturing all of the condors would change the species' habits forever, and that the cost was too great. The project received the approval of the United States government, and the capture of the remaining wild condors was completed on Easter Sunday 1987, when AC-9, the last wild condor, was captured. At that point, there were only 22 condors in captivity. The goal of the California Condor Recovery Plan was to establish two geographically separate populations, one in California and the other in Arizona, each with 150 birds and at least 15 breeding pairs.


title: California condor

text: The study and capture of the remaining California condors was made possible through the efforts of Jan Hamber, an ornithologist with the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. Hamber personally captured AC-9, the final wild California condor, and her dedication to the bird's conservation led her to compile decades of field notes into the Condor Archives, a searchable database focused on condor biology and conservation.


title: California condor

text: The captive breeding program, led by the San Diego Wild Animal Park and Los Angeles Zoo, and with other participating zoos around the country, including the Oklahoma City Zoo and Botanical Garden, got off to a slow start due to the condor's mating habits. However, utilizing the bird's ability to double clutch, biologists began removing the first egg from the nest and raising it with puppets, allowing the parents to lay another egg.


title: California condor

text: Aside from breeding programs, the Condor Recovery Center at Oakland Zoo treats condors that are ill from lead poisoning.


title: California condor

text: In 1988, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service began a reintroduction experiment involving the release of captive Andean condors into the wild in California. Only females were released, to eliminate the possibility of accidentally introducing a South American species into the United States. The experiment was a success, and all the Andean condors were recaptured and re-released in South America. California condors were released in 1991 and 1992 in California at (Big Sur, Pinnacles National Park and Bitter Creek National Wildlife Refuge) and in 1996 at the Vermilion Cliffs release site in Arizona near the Grand Canyon. The Fish and Wildlife Service designated the Arizona condors as an "experimental, nonessential" animal so they would not affect land regulations or development as ranchers were concerned they could be charged with an offense if any birds were injured on their property after the release. Though the birth rate remains low in the wild, their numbers are increasing steadily through regular releases of captive-reared adolescents.


title: California condor

text: In modern times, a wide variety of causes have contributed to the California condor's decline. Its low clutch size (one young per nest), combined with a late age of sexual maturity, make the bird vulnerable to artificial population decline. Significant past damage to the condor population has also been attributed to poaching, lead poisoning (from eating animals containing lead shot), DDT poisoning, electric power lines, egg collecting, and habitat destruction. During the California Gold Rush, some condors were even kept as pets. The leading cause of mortality in nestling condors is the ingestion of trash that is fed to them by their parents.


title: California condor

text: Unanticipated deaths among condor populations occurred due to contact with golden eagles, lead poisoning, and other factors such as power line collisions. Since 1994, captive-bred California condors have been trained to avoid power lines and people. Since the implementation of this aversion conditioning program, the number of condor deaths due to power lines has greatly decreased. Lead poisoning due to fragmented lead bullets in large game waste is a particularly big problem for condors due to their extremely strong digestive juices; lead waste is not as much of a problem for other avian scavengers such as the turkey vulture and common raven. In California, the Ridley-Tree Condor Preservation Act went into effect July 1, 2008, and requires that hunters use non-lead bullets when hunting in the condor's range. Blood lead levels in golden eagles as well as turkey vultures has declined with the implementation of the Ridley-Tree Condor Preservation Act, demonstrating that the legislation has helped reduce other species' lead exposures aside from the California condor. There is no comparable anti-lead-bullet legislation in the other states in which the condor currently resides.


title: California condor

text: In an article ("Condors or lead ammunition? We can't have both") published by "The Ecologist" in January 2015, author Dawn Starin stated: "Over 60 percent of the adult and juvenile deaths (that is, excluding chicks and fledglings) in the wild population have been as a result of lead poisoning." She continues: "Because condors have been known to live past the age of 50, do not breed until they are at least six years old, and raise only one chick every other year, their populations cannot withstand the mortality rates caused by this neurological toxin."


title: California condor

text: According to epidemiologist Terra Kelly: "Until all natural food sources are free from lead-based ammunition, lead poisoning will threaten recovery of naturally sustaining populations of condors in the wild." The article also states: "The military doesn't use lead, and if that isn't a huge message I don't know what is."


title: California condor

text: Nesting milestones have been reached by the reintroduced condors. In 2003, the first nestling fledged in the wild since 1981. In March 2006, a pair of California condors, released by Ventana Wildlife Society, attempted to nest in a hollow tree near Big Sur, California. This was the first time in more than 100 years that a pair of California condors had been seen nesting in Northern California.


title: California condor

text: In October 2010, the wild condor population in its name state of California reached 100 individuals, plus 73 wild condors in Arizona. In November 2011, there were 394 living individuals, 205 of which in the wild and the rest in the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, the Santa Barbara Zoo, the Los Angeles Zoo, the Oregon Zoo, and the World Center for Birds of Prey in Boise, Idaho. In May 2012, the number of living individuals had reached 405, with 179 living in captivity. By June 2014, the condor population had reached 439: 225 in the wild and 214 in captivity. Official statistics from the December 2016 USFWS recorded an overall population of 446, of which 276 are wild and 170 are captive. A key milestone was reached in 2015 when more condors were born in the wild than died.


title: California condor

text: As the Recovery Program achieved milestones, a fifth active release site in Sierra de San Pedro Mártir National Park, Baja California, Mexico, was added to the three release sites in California and the release site in Arizona. In early 2007, a California condor laid an egg in Mexico for the first time since at least the 1930s.


title: California condor

text: In June, 2016, three chicks that were born in Chapultepec Zoo in Mexico City, were flown to Sierra de San Pedro Mártir National Park, Baja California, Mexico. In the spring of 2009, a second wild chick was born in the Sierra de San Pedro Mártir National Park and was named "Inyaa" ("Sun" in the Kiliwa language) by local environmentalists.


title: California condor

text: In 2014, Condor #597, also known as "Lupine", was spotted near Pescadero, a coastal community south of San Francisco. Lupine had been routinely seen at Pinnacles National Park after having been released into the wild at Big Sur the previous year. Younger birds of the central California population are seeking to expand their territory, which could mean that a new range expansion is possible for the more than 60 condors flying free in central California. Also in 2014 the first successful breeding in Utah was reported. A pair of condors that had been released in Arizona, nested in Zion National Park and the hatching of one chick was confirmed. The 1,000th chick, since recovery efforts began, hatched in Zion in May 2019. The California condor was seen for the first time in nearly 50 years in Sequoia National Park in late May 2020.


title: California condor

text: As part of an effort headed by the Yurok tribe to reintroduce the condor to the coastal redwoods of northern California, birds hatched at the Oregon Zoo and the World Center for Birds of Prey were released at Redwood National Park in 2022.


title: California condor

text: A crowdsourcing project called Condor Watch (CW) was started on April 14, 2014, and ended in 2020. Hosted by the web portal Zooniverse, volunteers were asked to examine motion-capture images of California condors associated with release sites managed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service and Ventana Wildlife Society. The tasks on the website included identifying tagged condors and marking the distance to feeding sources such as animal carcasses. Biologists can then use this data to deduce which birds are at risk of lead poisoning.


title: California condor

text: Condor Watch enabled volunteers, or citizen scientists, to participate in active research. The project had up 175,000 images to view and assess far more than the team could hope to view on their own. Lead scientist Myra Finkelstein believes volunteering is fun because it allows enthusiasts to track the "biographies" of individual condors. Citizen science has long been used in ornithology, for instance in the Audubon Society's Christmas Bird Count, which began in 1900 and the breeding bird survey which began in 1966. McCaffrey (2005) believes this approach not only directly benefits ongoing projects, but will also help train aspiring ornithologists.


title: California condor

text: Throughout its historic range, the California condor has been a popular subject of mythology and an important symbol to Native Americans. Unusually, this bird takes on different roles in the storytelling of the different tribes.


title: California condor

text: The Wiyot tribe of California say that the condor recreated mankind after Above Old Man wiped humanity out with a flood. However, other tribes, such as California's Mono, view the condor as a destroyer, not a creator; they say that Condor seized humans, cut off their heads, and drained their blood so that it would flood Ground Squirrel's home. Condor then seized Ground Squirrel after he fled, but Ground Squirrel managed to cut off Condor's head when Condor paused to take a drink of the blood. According to the Yokuts people, the condor sometimes ate the moon, causing the lunar cycle, and his wings caused eclipses. The Chumash tribe of Southern California tell that the condor was once a white bird, but it turned black when it flew too close to a fire.


title: California condor

text: Condor bones have been found in Native American graves, as have condor feather headdresses. Cave paintings of condors have also been discovered. Some tribes ritually killed condors to make ceremonial clothing out of their feathers. Shamans then danced while wearing these to reach the upper and lower spiritual worlds. Whenever a Shaman died, his clothes were said to be cursed, so new clothing had to be made for his successor. Some researchers, such as Noel Snyder, believe that this practice of making ceremonial clothing contributed to the condor's decline.


title: California condor

text: In May 2021, a resident of the Southern California city of Tehachapi came home after a holiday to find that about 15 to 20 condors had descended on her home. She said, "To have that many condors on my house was surreal; they can be destructive and messy. Nature is amazing!" The birds had ripped up decking, taken to a bath spa and knocked over several plants.


title: California condor

text: The Fish and Wildlife Service responded to tweets about the incident that the house is in a condor habitat where there are food sources and that sometimes condors use houses and decks as perch locations. Spokeswoman Pam Bierce said that as condors re-colonized historical ranges "people could increasingly find themselves interacting with the curious, intelligent and social birds".


title: California condor

text: Mickols' daughter Seana Quintero stated that all-in-all her mother was in "good stride and appreciating this once-in-a-lifetime annoyance but hoping they decide to leave her house alone soon".


title: Teppanyaki

text: , often confused with , is a post-World War II style of Japanese cuisine that uses an iron griddle to cook food. The word "teppanyaki" is derived from "teppan" (鉄板), the metal plate on which it is cooked, and "yaki" (焼き), which means grilled, broiled, or pan-fried. In Japan, teppanyaki refers to dishes cooked using a teppan, including steak, shrimp, "okonomiyaki", "yakisoba" and "monjayaki".


title: Teppanyaki

text: The "teppanyaki" grills are called teppan and are typically propane-heated, flat-surfaced, and are widely used to cook food in front of guests at restaurants. Teppan are commonly confused with the "hibachi" barbecue grill, which is called shichirin in Japanese, and has a charcoal or gas flame and is made with an open grate design. With a solid griddle-type cook surface, the "teppan" is capable of cooking small or semisolid ingredients such as rice, egg and finely chopped vegetables.


title: Teppanyaki

text: The originator of the "teppanyaki"-style steakhouse is believed to be Shigeji Fujioka of the Japanese restaurant chain Misono. The restaurant claims to be the first to introduce the concept of cooking Western-influenced food on a "teppan" in Japan, in 1945. They soon found the cuisine was less popular with the Japanese than it was with foreigners, who enjoyed both watching the skilled maneuvers of the chefs preparing the food and the cuisine itself, which is somewhat more familiar than more traditional Japanese dishes. As the restaurants became more popular with tourists, the chain increased the performance aspect of the chef's preparation, such as stacking onion slices to produce a flaming onion volcano.


title: Teppanyaki

text: Another piece of equipment in the same family is a flattop grill, consisting of a flat piece of steel over circular burners and typically smaller and round, like a Mongolian barbecue.


title: Teppanyaki

text: Typical ingredients used for Western-style "teppanyaki" are beef, shrimp, scallops, lobster, chicken and assorted vegetables. Soybean oil is typically used to cook the ingredients.


title: Teppanyaki

text: Japanese-style "teppanyaki" may also use noodles ("yakisoba") or cabbage with sliced meat or seafood ("okonomiyaki"), which are cooked using vegetable oil, animal fat, or a mixture. In Japan, many "teppanyaki" restaurants feature Kobe beef or Wagyu beef.


title: Teppanyaki

text: Side dishes of mung bean sprouts, zucchini (courgettes) (though this is not a popular vegetable in Japan and rarely found in that market), garlic chips (crisps), or fried rice usually accompany the meal. Some restaurants provide sauces in which to dip the food. In Japan, only soy sauce is typically offered.


title: Teppanyaki

text: In the United States, "teppanyaki" (more commonly known simply as "hibachi") was made famous by the Benihana restaurant chain, which opened its first restaurant in New York in 1964. Though Benihana cooks their food "teppanyaki"-style, they also serve dishes such as "hibachi" steak and chicken. Benihana and other chains of "teppanyaki" restaurants continue to place an emphasis on the chef performing a show for the diners and continuing to introduce new variations and tricks. The chef might juggle utensils, flip a shrimp tail into his shirt pocket, catch an egg in his hat, toss an egg up in the air and split it with a spatula, or flip flattened shrimp pieces into diners' mouths.


title: Å

text: The letter Å (å in lower case) represents various (although often very similar) sounds in several languages. It is a separate letter in Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, North Frisian, Low Saxon, Transylvanian Saxon, Walloon, Chamorro, Lule Sami, Pite Sami, Skolt Sami, Southern Sami, Ume Sami, and Greenlandic alphabets. Additionally, it is part of the alphabets used for some Alemannic and Austro-Bavarian dialects of German.


title: Å

text: Though Å is derived from A by adding an overring, it is considered a separate letter. It developed as a form of semi-ligature of an "A" with a smaller "o" above it to denote a long and darker A, a process similar to how the umlaut mark developed from a small "e" written above certain letters.


title: Å

text: Historically, the "å" derives from the Old Norse long vowel (spelled with the letter "á"), but over time, it developed into an sound in most Scandinavian language varieties (in Swedish and Norwegian, it has eventually reached the pronunciation ). Medieval writing often used doubled letters for long vowels, and the vowel continued to be written Aa.


title: Å

text: In Old Swedish the use of the ligature Æ and of Ø (originally also a variant of the ligature Œ) that represented the sounds and respectively were gradually replaced by new letters. Instead of using ligatures, a minuscule (that is, lower-case) E was placed above the letters A and O to create new graphemes. They later evolved into the modern letters Ä and Ö, where the E was simplified into the two dots now referred to as umlaut. A similar process was used to construct a new grapheme where an "aa" had previously been used. A minuscule O was placed on top of an A to create a new letter. It was first used in print in the Gustav Vasa Bible that was published in 1541 and replaced Aa in the 16th century.


title: Å

text: In an attempt to modernize the orthography, linguists tried to introduce the Å to Danish and Norwegian writing in the 19th century. Most people felt no need for the new letter, as the letter group "Aa" had already been pronounced like Å for centuries in Denmark and Norway. Aa was usually treated as a single letter, spoken like the present Å when spelling out names or words. Orthography reforms making Å official were carried out in Norway in 1917 and in Denmark in 1948. According to Jørgen Nørby Jensen, senior consultant at Dansk Sprognævn, the cause for the change in Denmark was a combination of anti-German and pro-Nordic sentiment. Danish had been the only language apart from German and Luxembourgish to use capitalized nouns in the last decades, but abolished them at the same occasion.


title: Å

text: In a few names of Danish cities or towns, the old spelling has been retained as an option due to local resistance, e.g. Aalborg and Aabenraa; however, Ålborg and Åbenrå are the spellings recommended by the Danish Language Board. Between 1948 and 2010, the city of Aarhus was officially spelled "Århus". However, the city has reverted to the "Aa" spelling starting 2011, in a controversial decision citing internationalization and web compatibility advantages.


title: Å

text: Icelandic and Faroese are the only North Germanic languages not to use the "å". The Old Norse letter "á" is retained, but the sound it now expresses is a diphthong, pronounced in Icelandic and in Faroese. The short variation of Faroese á is pronounced , though.


title: Å

text: In some place names, the old "Aa" spelling dominates, more often in Denmark than in Norway (where it has been abolished in official use since 1917). Locals of ' and ' resist the Å, whereas " is rarely seen with Aa spelling. Official rules allow both forms in the most common cases, but Å is always correct. Å as a word means "small river" in Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian and can be found in place names.


title: Å

text: Before 1917, when spelling with the double A was common, some Norwegian place names contained three or four consecutive A letters: for instance ' (now ', a river) and " ("Blååsen", 'the blue ("blå") ridge ("ås")').


title: Å

text: In family names, the bearer of the name uses Aa or Å according to their choice, but since family names are inherited they are resistant to change and the traditional Aa style is often kept. For instance, the last name "Aagaard" is much more common than "Ågård". The surname Aa is always spelled with double A, never with the single "å". However, given names - which are less commonly inherited - have largely changed to the use of the Å. For instance, in Norway more than 12,000 male citizens spell their name "Håkon", while only around 2,500 are named "Haakon".


title: Å

text: Company names are sometimes spelled with the double A by choice, usually in order to convey an impression of old-fashionedness or traditionality. The double A, representing a single sound, is usually kept in initials e.g. for people whose first, middle, and/or last name begins with the double A. Accordingly, a man named "Hans Aagard Hauge" would spell his initials "H. Aa. H." (not "H. A. H." nor "H. Å. H."), while a woman named Aase Vestergaard would spell her initials "Aa. V." (not "A. V." nor "Å. V.").


title: Å

text: Correct alphabetization in Danish and Norwegian places Å as the last letter in the alphabet, the sequence being Æ, Ø, Å. This is also true for the alternative spelling "Aa". Unless manually corrected, sorting algorithms of programs localised for Danish or Norwegian will place "e.g.," "Aaron" after "Zorro".


title: Å

text: In Danish the correct sorting of aa depends on pronunciation: If the sound is pronounced as one sound it is sorted as Å regardless of the sound is 'a' or 'å'; thus, for example, the German city "Aachen" is listed under "Å," as well as the Danish city "Aabenraa". (This is §3 in the Danish "Retskrivningsreglerne".)


title: Å

text: In the Swedish and Finnish alphabets, Å is sorted after Z, as the third letter from the end, the sequence being Å, Ä, Ö. This is easiest to remember across the Nordic languages, that Danish and Norwegian follow Z first with E-mutated letters Æ and Ø and then the symbol with a one-stroke diacritic Å. Swedish and Finnish follow Z with a one-stroke diacritic Å and then a two-stroke (or two-dot) diacritic Ä, Ö. A combined Nordic sorting mnemonic is Æ, Ø, Å, Ä, Ö.


title: Å

text: Alternative spellings of the Scandinavian Å have become a concern because of globalization, and particularly because of the popularization of the World Wide Web. This is to a large extent due to the fact that prior to the creation of IDNA system around 2005, internet domains containing Scandinavian letters were not recognized by the DNS, and anyway do not feature on keyboards adapted for other languages. While it is recommended to keep the Å intact wherever possible, the next best thing is to use the older, double A spelling (e.g. "www.raade.com" instead of "www.råde.com"). This is because, as previously discussed, the Å/Aa indicates a separate sound. If the Å is represented as a common A without the overring (e.g. "www.rade.com") there is no indication that the A is supposed to represent another sound entirely. Even so, representing the Å as just an A is particularly common in Sweden, as compared to Norway and Denmark, because the spelling Aa has no traditional use there.


title: Å

text: Because the Finnish alphabet is derived from the Swedish alphabet, Å is carried over, but it has no native Finnish use and is treated as in Swedish. Its usage is limited to loanwords (the Finnish academic dictionary "Kielitoimiston Sanakirja", about 100000 words, has only one word containing Å, namely "ångström") and names of Swedish, Danish or Norwegian origin. In Finland there are many Swedish-speaking as well as many Finnish-speaking people with Swedish surnames, and many Swedish surnames include Å. In addition, there are many geographical places in the Finnish coastal areas and archipelago that have å in their Swedish names, such as Kråkö and Långnäs, as well as the Finnish autonomic region of Åland, a group of islands midst between Sweden and Finland where almost all natives speak Swedish. The Finnish name for Å is ("Swedish O"), and is pronounced identically to "O", which has the value .


title: Å

text: It is not advised to substitute "aa" for "å" in Finnish, as "aa" is already a common letter combination with the value .


title: Å

text: In Emilian-Romagnol, å is used to represent the open-mid back unrounded vowel , e.g. Modenese dialect ,


title: Å

text: Å was introduced to some eastern local variants of Walloon at the beginning of the 16th century and initially noted the same sound as in Danish. Its use quickly spread to all eastern dialects, under the cultural influence of Liège and covered three sounds, a long open "o", a long close "o" or a long "a", depending on the local varieties. The use of a single "å" letter to cover such pronunciations has been embraced by the new pan-Walloon orthography, with one orthography for words regardless of the local phonetic variations. The Walloon use of Å became the most popular use outside a Scandinavian language, even being used in the International Phonetic Alphabet drafted by Otto Jespersen.


title: Å

text: In standardized writings outside the Liège area, words containing "å" are written with "uh", "â" or "ô". For example, the word (house), in the standardized orthography is spelled , , , in dialectal writings.


title: Å

text: The Istro-Romanian alphabet is based on the standard Romanian alphabet with three additional letters used to mark sounds specific only to this language: å, ľ and ń.


title: Å

text: Å and "å" are also used in the practical orthography of Chamorro, a language indigenous to the people of Northern Mariana Islands and Guam. The Chamorro name for Guam is , and its capital is called .


title: Å

text: In Greenlandic, "å" is not used in native words, but is used in several loanwords from Danish, such as "båndoptageri" (Danish "båndoptager") 'tape recorder'. Like in Danish, "å" is sorted last in the alphabet.