title: Aurochs content: Chianina and one breeding herd of Sayaguesa x Podolian cattle; a second breeding herd of Sayaguesa × Podolian cattle will be started in 2017. Scientists of the Polish Foundation for Recreating the Aurochs (PFOT) in Poland hope to use DNA from bones in museums to recreate the aurochs. They plan to return this animal to the forests of Poland. The project has gained the support of the Polish Ministry of the Environment. They plan research on ancient preserved DNA. Other research projects have extracted "ancient" DNA over the past 20 years and their results have been published in such periodicals


title: Aurochs content: as "Nature" and "PNAS". Polish scientists Ryszard Słomski and Jacek A. Modliński believe that modern genetics and biotechnology make it possible to recreate an animal almost identical to the aurochs. They say this research will lead to examining the causes of the extinction of the aurochs, and help prevent a similar occurrence with domesticated cattle. Approaches that aim to breed an aurochs-like phenotype do not equate to an aurochs-like genotype. In 2015, researchers mapped the draft genome of a British aurochs dated to 6,750 years before present. Researchers compared the genome to the genomes of 73 modern cattle populations and


title: Aurochs content: found in traditional or landrace cattle breeds of Scottish, Irish, Welsh, and English origin – such as Highland, Dexter, Kerry, Welsh Black, and White Park – carry the ancestry of the sequenced aurochs, but the other populations did not. Another study concluded that because of this genomic introgression of the aurochs into these breeds, if this reflects "the bigger picture across the aurochs/cattle range, perhaps several subpopulations of aurochs are not extinct at all." The study proposed that it will be possible to consider breeding back cattle "that are genetically akin to specific original aurochs populations, through selective cross-breeding of


title: Aurochs content: local cattle breeds bearing local aurochs-genome ancestry." The aurochs was an important game animal appearing in both Paleolithic European and Mesopotamian cave paintings, such as those found at Lascaux and Livernon in France. Aurochs existed into the Iron Age in Anatolia and the Near East, where it was worshiped as a sacred animal, the Lunar Bull, associated with the Great Goddess and later with Mithras. In 2012, an archaeological mission of the British Museum, led by Lebanese archaeologist Claude Doumet Serhal, discovered at the site of the old American school in Sidon, Lebanon, the remains of wild animal bones, including


title: Aurochs content: those of an aurochs, dating from the late-fourth to early-third millennium. A 1999 archaeological dig in Peterborough, England, uncovered the skull of an aurochs. The front part of the skull had been removed, but the horns remained attached. The supposition is that the killing of the aurochs in this instance was a sacrificial act. Also during antiquity, the aurochs was regarded as an animal of cultural value. Aurochs are depicted on the Ishtar Gate. In the Peloponnese there is a 15th-century BC depiction on the so-called violent cup of Vaphio, of hunters trying to capture with nets three wild bulls


title: Aurochs content: being probably aurochs, in a possibly Cretan date palm stand. The one of the bulls throws one hunter on the ground while attacking the second with its horns. The cup despite the older perception of being Minoan seems to be Mycenaean. Greeks and Paeonians were hunting aurochs (wild oxen/bulls) and used their huge horns as trophies, cups for wine, and offers to the gods and heroes. For example, as mentioned by Samus, Philippus of Thessalonica and Antipater when Philip V of Macedon killed an aurochs on the foothills of mountain Orvilos, he offered the horns which were 105 cm long


title: Aurochs content: and the skin to a temple of Hercules. Aurochs horns were often used by Romans as hunting horns. Aurochs were among those wild animals caught for fights ("venationes") in arenas. Julius Caesar described aurochs in Gaul: The Hebrew Bible contains numerous references to the untameable strength of "re'em", translated as "bullock" or "wild-ox" in Jewish translations and translated rather poorly in the King James Version as "unicorn", but recognised from the last century by Hebrew scholars as the aurochs. When the aurochs became rarer, hunting it became a privilege of the nobility and a sign of a high social status.


title: Aurochs content: The "Nibelungenlied" describes Siegfried killing aurochs: ""Darnach schlug er schiere einen Wisent und einen Elch, starker Ure viere und einen grimmen Schelch"", meaning "After that, he defeated one wisent and one elk, four aurochs, and one Schelch" - the background of the "Schelch" is dubious. Aurochs horns were commonly used as drinking horns by the nobility, which led to the fact that many aurochs horn sheaths are preserved today (albeit often discoloured). The drinking horn at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, given to the college on its foundation in 1352, probably by the college's founders, the Guilds of Corpus Christi and


title: Aurochs content: the Blessed Virgin Mary, is thought to come from an aurochs. A painting by Willem Kalf depicts an aurochs horn. The horns of the last aurochs bulls, which died in 1620, were ornamented with gold and are located at the Livrustkammaren in Stockholm today. Schneeberger writes that aurochs were hunted with arrows, nets, and hunting dogs. With immobilised aurochs, a ritual was practised that might be regarded as cruel nowadays: the curly hair on the forehead was cut from the skull of the living animal. Belts were made out of this hair and were believed to increase the fertility of


title: Aurochs content: women. When the aurochs was slaughtered, a cross-like bone ("os cardis") was extracted from the heart. This bone, which is also present in domesticated cattle, contributed to the mystique of the animal and magical powers have been attributed to it. In eastern Europe, where it survived until nearly 400 years ago, the aurochs has left traces in fixed expressions. In Russia, a drunken person behaving badly was described as "behaving like an aurochs", whereas in Poland, big, strong people were characterized as being "a bloke like an aurochs". In Central Europe, the aurochs features in toponyms and heraldic coats of


title: Aurochs content: arms. For example, the names Ursenbach and Aurach am Hongar are derived from the aurochs. An aurochs head, the traditional arms of the German region Mecklenburg, figures in the coat of arms of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The aurochs (Romanian "bour", from Latin "būbalus") was also the symbol of Moldavia; nowadays, they can be found in the coat of arms of both Romania and Moldova. An aurochs head is featured on an 1858 series of Moldavian stamps, the so-called Bull's Heads ("cap de bour" in Romanian), renowned for their rarity and price among collectors. In Romania there are still villages named Boureni, after


title: Aurochs content: the Romanian word for the auroch. The horn of the aurochs is a charge of the coat of arms of Tauragė, Lithuania, (the name of Tauragė is a compound of "taũras" "auroch" and "ragas" "horn"). It is also present in the emblem of Kaunas, Lithuania, and was part of the emblem of Bukovina during its time as an Austro-Hungarian "Kronland". The Swiss Canton of Uri is named after the aurochs; its yellow flag shows a black aurochs head. East Slavic surnames Turenin, Turishchev, Turov, and Turovsky originate from the Slavic name of the species "tur". In Slovakia, toponyms such as


title: Aurochs content: Turany, Turíčky, Turie, Turie Pole, Turík, Turová (villages), Turiec (river and region), Turská dolina (valley) and others are used. Turopolje, a large lowland floodplain south of the Sava River in Croatia, got its name from the once-abundant aurochs (Croatian: ). The ancient name of the Estonian town of Rakvere, "Tarwanpe" or "Tarvanpea", probably derives from "Aurochs head" ("Tarvan pea") in ancient Estonian. In 2002, a 3.5-m-high and 7.1-m-long statue of an aurochs was erected in Rakvere, Estonia, for the town's 700th birthday. The sculpture, by artist Tauno Kangro, has become a symbol of the town. Aurochs are frequently mentioned in


title: Aurochs content: the "A Song of Ice and Fire" series of fantasy novels by George R. R. Martin; in particular, roasted aurochs are sometimes served at banquets. In the 2012 movie "Beasts of the Southern Wild", the six-year-old main character imagines aurochs, though the fantasy creatures are portrayed by "costumed" Vietnamese Pot-bellied piglets. This article incorporates Creative Commons license CC BY-2.5 text from reference. Aurochs The aurochs ( or ; pl. aurochs, or rarely aurochsen, aurochses), also known as urus or ure ("Bos primigenius"), is an extinct species of large wild cattle that inhabited Europe, Asia, and North Africa. It is the


title: Alexanderplatz content: Alexanderplatz Alexanderplatz () is a large public square and transport hub in the central Mitte district of Berlin, near the Fernsehturm. Berliners often call it simply Alex, referring to a larger neighbourhood stretching from "Mollstraße" in the northeast to "Spandauer Straße" and the Rotes Rathaus in the southwest. Originally a cattle market outside the city fortifications, it was named in honor of a visit of the Russian Emperor Alexander I to Berlin on 25 October 1805 by order of King Frederick William III of Prussia. The square gained a prominent role in the late 19th century with the construction of


title: Alexanderplatz content: the Stadtbahn station of the same name and a nearby market hall, followed by the opening of a department store of Hermann Tietz in 1904, becoming a major commercial centre. The U-Bahn station of the present-day U2 line opened on 1 July 1913. Its heyday was in the 1920s, when together with Potsdamer Platz it was at the heart of Berlin's nightlife, inspiring the 1929 novel "Berlin Alexanderplatz" (see 1920s Berlin) and the two films based thereon, Piel Jutzi's 1931 film and Rainer Werner Fassbinder's 15½ hour second adaptation, released in 1980. About 1920 the city's authorities started a rearrangement


title: Alexanderplatz content: of the increasing traffic flows laying out a roundabout, accompanied by two buildings along the Stadtbahn viaduct, "Alexanderhaus" and "Berolinahaus" finished in 1932 according to plans designed by Peter Behrens. Alexanderplatz has been subject to redevelopment several times in its history, most recently during the 1960s, when it was turned into a pedestrian zone and enlarged as part of the German Democratic Republic's redevelopment of the city centre. It is surrounded by several notable structures including the Fernsehturm (TV Tower), the second tallest structure in the European Union. Ever since German reunification, Alexanderplatz has undergone a gradual process of change


title: Alexanderplatz content: with many of the surrounding buildings being renovated. Despite the reconstruction of the tram line crossing, it has retained its socialist character, including the much-graffitied "Fountain of Friendship between Peoples" ("Brunnen der Völkerfreundschaft"), a popular venue. In 1993, architect Hans Kollhoff's master plan for a major redevelopment including the construction of several skyscrapers was published. Due to a lack of demand it is unlikely these will be constructed, with the exception (announced January 2014) of a 39-storey residential tower designed by Frank Gehry on which work is expected to begin in 2015. However, beginning with the reconstruction of the "Kaufhof"


title: Alexanderplatz content: department store in 2004, and the biggest underground railway station of Berlin, some buildings will be redesigned and new structures built on the square's south-eastern side. Sidewalks were expanded to shrink one of the avenues, a new underground garage was built, and commuter tunnels meant to keep pedestrians off the streets were removed. The surrounding buildings now house chain stores, fast-food restaurants, and fashion discounters. The "Alexa" shopping mall, with approximately 180 stores opened nearby during 2007 and a large "Saturn" electronic store was built and is open on Alexanderplatz since 2008. The CUBIX multiplex cinema, which opened in November


title: Alexanderplatz content: 2000, joined in 2007 the team of Berlinale cinemas and the festival is showing films on three of its screens. Many historic buildings are located in the vicinity of Alexanderplatz. The traditional seat of city government, the Rotes Rathaus, or "Red City Hall", is located nearby, as was the former East German parliament building, the Palast der Republik, demolition of which began in February 2006 and has been completed. The reconstruction of the Baroque Stadtschloss near Alexanderplatz has been in planning for several years. Alexanderplatz is also the name of the S-Bahn and U-Bahn stations there. It is one of


title: Alexanderplatz content: Berlin's largest and most important transportation hubs, being a meetingplace of three subway (U-Bahn) lines, three S-Bahn lines, and many tram and bus lines, as well as regional trains. It also accommodates the Park Inn Berlin and the World Time Clock, a continually rotating installation that shows the time throughout the globe, and Hermann Henselmann's "Haus des Lehrers". During the Peaceful Revolution of 1989, the Alexanderplatz demonstration on 4 November was the largest demonstration in the history of East Germany. Alexanderplatz Alexanderplatz () is a large public square and transport hub in the central Mitte district of Berlin, near the


title: "American Airlines" content: Prairie, Texas. On January 17, 1983, the airline finished moving into a $150 million ($ when adjusted for inflation), facility in Fort Worth; $147 million (about $ when adjusted for inflation) in Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport bonds financed the headquarters. The airline began leasing the facility from the airport, which owns the facility. As of 2015, American Airlines is the corporation with the largest presence in Fort Worth. In 2015, the airline announced it will build a new headquarters in Fort Worth. Groundbreaking began in the spring of 2016 and occupancy is scheduled for summer 2019. The airline plans to


title: "American Airlines" content: house 5,000 new workers in the building. It will be located on a property adjacent to the airline's flight academy and conference and training center, west of Texas State Highway 360, west from the current headquarters. The airline will lease a total of from Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and this area will include the headquarters. Construction of the new headquarters began after the demolition of the Sabre facility previously on the site. The airline considered developing a new headquarters in Irving, on the Texas Stadium site, before deciding to keep the headquarters in Fort Worth. In 1931, Goodrich Murphy, an


title: Anode content: anode. When a positive voltage is applied to anode of the diode from the circuit, more "holes" are able to be transferred to the depleted region, and this causes the diode to become conductive, allowing current to flow through the circuit. The terms anode and cathode should not be applied to a Zener diode, since it allows flow in either direction, depending on the polarity of the applied potential (i.e. voltage). In cathodic protection, a metal anode that is more reactive to the corrosive environment of the system to be protected is electrically linked to the protected system, and partially


title: Akihabara content: a new type of consumer, computer nerds or "otaku". The market in Akihabara naturally latched onto their new customer base that was focused on anime, manga, and video games. The connection between Akihabara and otaku has survived and grown to the point that the region is now known worldwide as a center for otaku culture, and some otaku even consider Akihabara to be a sacred place. On Sunday, 8 June 2008, at 12:33 JST, a man drove into a crowd with a truck, then stabbed at least 17 people using a dagger. Seven died and ten were injured. Tokyo Metropolitan


title: "Afghan Hound" content: Afghan Hound The Afghan Hound is a hound that is distinguished by its thick, fine, silky coat and its tail with a ring curl at the end. The breed is selectively bred for its unique features in the cold mountains of Afghanistan. Its local name is Tāžī Spay () or Sag-e Tāzī (Dari Persian: سگ تازی). Other names for this breed are "Kuchi Hound", "Tāzī", "Balkh Hound", "Baluchi Hound", "Barakzai Hound", "Shalgar Hound", "Kabul Hound", "Galanday Hound" or sometimes incorrectly "African Hound". The Afghan Hound has been identified as a basal breed that predates the emergence of the modern breeds


title: "Afghan Hound" content: in the 19th Century. It is most closely related to the Saluki. Today's modern purebred Afghan Hound descends from dogs brought to Great Britain in the 1920s which King Amanullah of the Afghan Royal Family gave away as gifts. Some had been kept as hunting dogs, others as guardians. Although the breed is demonstrably ancient, verifiable written or visual records that tie today's Afghan Hound breed to specific Afghan owners or places are absent. There is much speculation about the breed's origin and possible connections with the ancient world among fanciers and in non-scientific breed books and breed websites. Connections


title: "Afghan Hound" content: with other types and breeds from the same area may provide clues to the history. A name for a desert coursing Afghan hound, Tazi (sag-e-tazi), suggests a shared ancestry with the very similar Tasy breed from the Caspian Sea area of Russia and Turkmenistan. Other types or breeds of similar appearance are the Taigan from the mountainous Tian Shan region on the Chinese border of Afghanistan, and the Barakzay, or Kurram Valley Hound. There are at least 13 types known in Afghanistan, and some are being developed (through breeding and record keeping) into modern purebred breeds. As the lives of


title: "Afghan Hound" content: the peoples with whom these dogs developed change in the modern world, often these landrace types of dogs lose their use and disappear; there may have been many more types of longhaired sighthound in the past. Once out of Afghanistan, the history of the Afghan Hound breed became entwined with that of the very earliest dog shows and the Kennel Club (UK). Various sighthounds were brought to England in the 1800s by army officers returning from British India (which at the time included), Afghanistan, and Persia, and were exhibited at dog shows, which were then just becoming popular, under various


title: "Afghan Hound" content: names, such as Barukzy hounds. They were also called "Persian Greyhounds" by the English, in reference to their own indigenous sighthound. One dog in particular, "Zardin", was brought in 1907 from India by Captain Bariff, and became the early ideal of breed type for what was still called the Persian Greyhound. Zardin was the basis of the writing of the first breed standard in 1912, but breeding of the dogs was stopped by World War I. Out of the longhaired sighthound types known in Afghanistan, two main strains make up the modern Afghan Hound breed. The first were a group


title: "Afghan Hound" content: of hounds brought to Scotland from Balochistan by Major and Mrs. G. Bell-Murray and Miss Jean C. Manson in 1920, and are called the "Bell-Murray strain". These dogs were of the lowland or steppe type, also called kalagh, and are less heavily coated. The second strain was a group of dogs from a kennel in Kabul owned by Mrs. Mary Amps, which she shipped to England in 1925. She and her husband came to Kabul after the Afghan war in 1919, and the foundation sire of her kennel (named Ghazni) in Kabul was a dog that closely resembled Zardin. Her


title: "Afghan Hound" content: "Ghazni strain" were the more heavily coated mountain type. Most of the Afghans in the United States were developed from the Ghazni strain from England. The first Afghans in Australia were imported from the United States in 1934, also of the Ghazni strain. The French breed club was formed in 1939 (FALAPA). The mountain and steppe strains became mixed into the modern Afghan Hound breed, and a new standard was written in 1948, which is still used today. The afghan hound can also come with a much more "patterned" coat. This descends from the Bell-Murray's and the Ghazni lines, and


title: "Afghan Hound" content: is displayed in much lighter feathering of coat, deeper saddle (often actually looking like a saddle) and much shorter hair on the face and neck. It is believed that these particular afghan hounds were a product of much hotter parts of the country. The spectacular beauty of Afghan Hound dogs caused them to become highly desirable showdogs and pets, and they are recognised by all of the major kennel clubs in the English-speaking world. One of the Amps Ghazni, "Sirdar", won BIS at Crufts in 1928 and 1930. An Afghan hound was featured on the cover of Life Magazine, November


title: "Afghan Hound" content: 26, 1945. "Afghan Hounds were the most popular in Australia in the 1970s…and won most of the major shows". An Afghan Hound won BIS (Best in Show) at the 1996 World Dog Show in Budapest. Afghan hounds were BIS at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show in 1957 and again in 1983. That win also marked the most recent win at Westminster for breeder-owner-handler, Chris Terrell. The Afghan Hound breed is no longer used for hunting, although it can be seen in the sport of lure coursing. The Afghan Hound is tall, standing in height and weighing . The coat


title: "Afghan Hound" content: may be any colour, but white markings, particularly on the head, are discouraged; many individuals have a black facial mask. A specimen may have facial hair that looks like a Fu Manchu mustache. The mustache is called "mandarins." Some Afghan Hounds are almost white, but parti-color hounds (white with islands of red or black) are penalized in the AKC standard, but not by the FCI. The long, fine-textured coat requires considerable care and grooming. The long topknot and the shorter-haired saddle on the back of the dog are distinctive features of the Afghan Hound coat. The high hipbones and unique


title: "Afghan Hound" content: small ring on the end of the tail are also characteristics of the breed. The temperament of the typical Afghan Hound can be aloof and dignified, but happy and clownish when it's playing. This breed, as is the case with many sighthounds, has a high prey drive and may not get along with small animals. The Afghan Hound can be a successful competitor in dog agility trials as well as an intuitive therapy dog and companion. Genomic studies have pointed to the Afghan Hound as one of the oldest of dog breeds. The breed has a reputation among some dog


title: "Afghan Hound" content: trainers of having a relatively slow "obedience intelligence;" Stanley Coren, in his book "The Intelligence of Dogs", ranked the breed last among 138 breeds mentioned in ability to understand and obey commands, requiring more than 80 repetitions to understand a new command and obeying on the first command less than 25% of the time. Although seldom used today for hunting in Europe and America where they are popular, Afghan hounds are frequent participants in lure coursing events and are also popular in the sport of conformation showing. The Khalag Tazi is a variety of the Afghan. It was introduced to


title: "Afghan Hound" content: Europe in 1920 when an Indian Army officer, Major G Bell-Murray, brought some animals back from Afghanistan. "Tazi" is a current and ancient name for hunting dogs of the sighthound type in the Middle East. It has been used to denote the Saluki, Afghan, Taigan, Persian Greyhound, greyhound types of hound. Bakhmull (also Bakhmull Tazi or Tazi Bakhmull, also called Aboriginal Afghan Hound) is a long-haired variety of sighthound, also classified loosely as a mountain dog (breed originating in a high-altitude area). It has been bred mostly in Russia and claimed to represent an Afghan Hound aboriginal to Afghanistan. In


title: "Afghan Hound" content: Pashto the word means 'velvet', applied in reference to the dog's silky coat, which is rather abundant and long on the whole body, except the "saddle" (middle to lower back), front parts of all four legs, and the muzzle. Its color is always fawn, ivory, or white, with a darker "saddle", thus it produces an impression of a (yellowish) dog whose coat color matches the khaki sandstone and limestone of the Hindu Kush mountain landscape and deserts. The following colors are not permissible: red, red with white spots, black, and black with white spots. Since the 1980s, the centre of


title: "Afghan Hound" content: Bakhmull breeding is Russia, beginning in Moscow, then spreading to various other places in the CIS. The foundation stock was brought to Russia in the 1970s by military men returning from Afghanistan. Natalia Gherasiova (a breeder, of the Blue Dale el Bark Bakhmull kennel, and dog show judge) established the National Bakhmull Club, affiliated with the Russian Federation for Hunting Dogs (RFOS) and Russian Kynological Federation (RKF). A breed standard was first published in 1985, and a shared RFOS–RKF revision was produced in 1997. The Bakhmull is expected to be graceful powerful, with a balanced and symmetrical appearance, and to


title: "Afghan Hound" content: exhibit predictable and comparatively intelligent behavior, including both calm and gregariousness around people (unless trained as a guard dog), and aggressive hunting in the field. Although its coat is long, it does not require much grooming. Paws are well protected from injuries by "feathering" (thick additional paw fur). Its long, velvety coat and its stamina makes more suitable than many breeds for harsh weather. The breed standard calls, rather subjectively, for "aristocratic carriage and a beautiful head with gazelle-like ... eyes". The eyes should be large, brown, slanting upwards, and of almond shape, with rims outlined black. Similar dark coloration


title: "Afghan Hound" content: is expected on the nose and lips, darker to match darker hair color (like fawn compared to white). Height: 68–73 cm (27–28.5 in.), bitches 65–70 cm (25.5–27.5 in.). The height at the withers is 3–4 cm higher than at the croup. A Bakhmull's gait should be easy and springy. Prescribed hunting behavior: Searching for prey, a Bakhmull walks or jog-trots. After seeing the game, it immediately starts galloping fast with a whole-body run (a full stretch, contracting to a ball, and back), covering long distances. and showing jumping power, speed, and manoeuvring skill. The Saluki is a breed of the


title: "Afghan Hound" content: Middle East with ancient origins (though its establishment as a standardised breed was primarily carried out in the United Kingdom and Germany), and is the most closely related to the Afghan Houndout of modern and internationally accepted breeds. The Sloughi, with a name of the same derivation, is primarily of North African stock, and was originally considered the same breed as the Saluki. Afghan Hounds in UK surveys had an average lifespan of about 12 years. which is similar to other breeds of their size. In the 2004 UK Kennel Club survey, the most common causes of death were cancer


title: "Afghan Hound" content: (31%), old age (20%), cardiac (10.5%), and urologic (5%). Those that die of old age had a median lifespan of 12 years, with 12% living to at least 14. Major health issues are allergies, cancer, and hip dysplasia. Sensitivity to anesthesia is an issue the Afghan hound shares with the rest of the sighthound group, as sighthounds have relatively low levels of body fat. Afghan hounds are also among the dog breeds most likely to develop chylothorax, a rare condition which causes the thoracic ducts to leak, allowing large quantities of chyle fluid to enter the dog's chest cavity. This


title: "Afghan Hound" content: condition commonly results in a lung torsion (in which the dog's lung twists within the chest cavity, requiring emergency surgery), due to the breed's typically deep, "barrel"-shaped chest. If not corrected through surgery, chylothorax can ultimately cause fibrosing pleuritis, or a hardening of the organs, due to scar tissue forming around the organs to protect them from the chyle fluid. Chylothorax is not necessarily, but often, fatal. Because of its distinctive appearance, the Afghan hound has been represented in animated feature films and TV shows, including Universal Pictures' "Balto" (Sylvie), Disney's "" (Ruby) and "Oliver & Company" (Rita), an Afghan


title: "Afghan Hound" content: hound also appeared on "101 Dalmatians" as well as in "102 Dalmatians" as one of the dogs in Cruella De Vil's party and the television series What-a-Mess (Prince Amir of Kinjan; based on children's books by Frank Muir) and, as Prissy in the 1961 Disney animated film "One Hundred and One Dalmatians" and "". Brainy Barker from "Krypto the Superdog" claims to be an Afghan Hound in the episode "Meet the Dog Stars", although her design actually resembles that of a Saluki instead of an Afghan Hound. Afghan hounds have also been featured in television advertisements and in fashion magazines.


title: "Afghan Hound" content: The Afghan hound is represented in books as well, including being featured in a series of mystery novels by Nina Wright (Abra), and a talking Afghan Hound in David Rothman's "The Solomon Scandals" (2008, Twilight Times Books). In the novel "Between the Acts", Virginia Woolf uses an Afghan hound (named Sohrab) to represent aspects of one of the book's human characters. On August 3, 2005, Korean scientist Hwang Woo-Suk announced that his team of researchers had become the first team to successfully clone a dog, an Afghan Hound named Snuppy. In 2006 Hwang Woo-Suk was dismissed from his university position


title: "Afghan Hound" content: for fabricating data in his research. Snuppy, nonetheless, was a genuine clone, and thus the first cloned dog in history. The Afghan Hound features prominently in the avant-garde music video of popular French band M83's, "Set in Stone (M83 Remix)". Afghan Hound The Afghan Hound is a hound that is distinguished by its thick, fine, silky coat and its tail with a ring curl at the end. The breed is selectively bred for its unique features in the cold mountains of Afghanistan. Its local name is Tāžī Spay () or Sag-e Tāzī (Dari Persian: سگ تازی). Other names for this


title: "Amorphous solid" content: Amorphous solid In condensed matter physics and materials science, an amorphous (from the Greek "a", without, "morphé", shape, form) or non-crystalline solid is a solid that lacks the long-range order that is characteristic of a crystal. In some older books, the term has been used synonymously with glass. Nowadays, "glassy solid" or "amorphous solid" is considered to be the overarching concept, and glass the more special case: Glass is an amorphous solid that exhibits a glass transition. Polymers are often amorphous. Other types of amorphous solids include gels, thin films, and nanostructured materials such as glass doors and windows. Amorphous


title: "Ariel Sharon" content: order to aid their comrades. Sharon was criticized by his superiors and was damaged by allegations several years later made by several former subordinates, who claimed that Sharon tried to provoke the Egyptians and sent out the scouts in bad faith, ensuring that a battle would ensue. Sharon had assaulted Themed in a dawn attack, and had stormed the town with his armor through the Themed Gap. Sharon routed the Sudanese police company, and captured the settlement. On his way to the Nakla, Sharon's men came under attack from Egyptian MIG-15s. On the 30th, Sharon linked up with Eytan near


title: "Adrian Lamo" content: by fellow hackers, such as those at the Hackers on Planet Earth conference in 2010, who labeled him a "snitch". Another commented to Lamo, following his speech during a panel discussion, saying: "From my perspective, I see what you have done as treason." In April 2011, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange called Lamo "a very disreputable character", and said it was not right to call him a financial contributor to WikiLeaks, since Lamo's monetary support amounted to only US$20 on one occasion. Assange said it was "mischievous to suggest the individual has anything to do with WikiLeaks." Lamo characterized his decision


title: Agar content: agar jelly and served in a bowl with various fruits or other ingredients. It is also the main ingredient in "mizu yōkan", another popular Japanese food. In Philippine cuisine, it is used to make the jelly bars in the various gulaman refreshments or desserts such as "sago gulaman", "buko pandan", "agar flan", "halo-halo", and the black and red "gulaman" used in various fruit salads. In Vietnamese cuisine, jellies made of flavored layers of agar agar, called "thạch", are a popular dessert, and are often made in ornate molds for special occasions. In Indian cuisine, agar agar is known as "China


title: Amphisbaena content: heart and mind. Lumberjacks suffering from cold weather on the job could nail its carcass or skin to a tree to keep warm, while in the process allowing the tree to be felled more easily. In "The Book of Beasts", T.H. White suggests that the creature derives from sightings of the worm lizards of the same name. These creatures are found in the Mediterranean countries where many of these legends originated. In John Milton's "Paradise Lost", after the Fall and the return of Satan to Hell, some of the fallen angelic host are transformed into the amphisbaena, to represent the


title: Aldebaran content: are listed in the table at right. Some surveys have indicated that Alpha Tauri B may have about the same proper motion and parallax as Aldebaran and thus may be a physical binary system. However these measurements are difficult to make because the dim B component appears so close to the bright primary star. The resulting margin of error is too large to positively establish (or exclude) a physical relationship between the two stars. So far neither the B component, nor anything else, has been unambiguously shown to be physically associated with Aldebaran. Alpha Tauri CD is a binary system


title: Belarus content: meetings and also to engage his government and opposition groups in dialogue. Bilateral relations with the United States are strained because the U.S. Department of State supports various anti-Lukashenko non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and also because the Belarusian government has made it increasingly difficult for United States-based organizations to operate within the country. Diplomatic relations remained tense, and in 2004, the United States passed the Belarus Democracy Act, which authorized funding for anti-government Belarusian NGOs, and prohibited loans to the Belarusian government, except for humanitarian purposes. Despite this political friction, the two countries do cooperate on intellectual property protection, prevention of


title: "Britney Spears" content: in the country. "(You Drive Me) Crazy" was released as the third single from the album. It became a top-ten hit worldwide and further propelled the success of the "...Baby One More Time" album. The album has sold 32 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling albums of all time. It is also the best-selling debut album by any artist ever. The April 1999 cover of "Rolling Stone" featured Spears lying on her bed, wearing a bra, shorts and an open top. The American Family Association (AFA) referred to the shoot as "a disturbing mix of childhood innocence


title: "Batavi (Germanic tribe)" content: Rhine in the rear and on either side". This view, however, is contradicted by the archeological evidence, which shows continuous habitation from at least the third century BC onward. The strategic position, to wit the high bank of the Waal offereing an unimpeded view far into Germania Transrhenana (Germania Beyond the Rhine), was recognized first by Drusus, who built a massive fortress ("castra") and a headquarters ("praetorium") in imperial style. The latter was in use until the Batavian revolt. Archeological evidence suggests they lived in small villages, composed of six to 12 houses in the very fertile lands between the


title: Bethlehem content: burial ground discovered in spring 2013, and surveyed in 2015 by a joint Italian-Palestinian team found that the necropolis covered 3 hectares (more than 7 acres) and originally contained more than 100 tombs in use between roughly 2200 B.C. and 650 B.C. The archaeologists were able to identify at least 30 tombs. Archaeological confirmation of Bethlehem as a city in the Kingdom of Judah was uncovered in 2012 at the archaeological dig at the City of David in the form of a "bulla" (seal impression in dried clay) in ancient Hebrew script that reads "From the town of Bethlehem to


title: Beagle content: Beagle The Beagle is a breed of small hound that is similar in appearance to the much larger foxhound. The beagle is a scent hound, developed primarily for hunting hare. With a great sense of smell and superior tracking instinct, the beagle is employed as detection dog for prohibited agricultural imports and foodstuffs in quarantine around the world. The beagle is intelligent but single-minded. It is a popular pet due to its size, good temper, and lack of inherited health problems. Although beagle-type dogs have existed for 2,500 years, the modern breed was developed in Great Britain around the 1830s


title: Beagle content: from several breeds, including the Talbot Hound, the North Country Beagle, the Southern Hound, and possibly the Harrier. Beagles have been depicted in popular culture since Elizabethan times in literature and paintings, and more recently in film, television, and comic books. Snoopy of the comic strip "Peanuts" has been called "the world's most famous beagle". Dogs of similar size and purpose to the modern beagle can be traced in Ancient Greece back to around the 5th century BC. Xenophon, born around 430 BC, in his "Treatise on Hunting" or "Cynegeticus" refers to a hound that hunted hares by scent and


title: Beagle content: was followed on foot. Small hounds are mentioned in the Forest Laws of Canute which exempted them from the ordinance which commanded that all dogs capable of running down a stag should have one foot mutilated. If genuine, these laws would confirm that beagle-type dogs were present in England before 1016, but it is likely the laws were written in the Middle Ages to give a sense of antiquity and tradition to Forest Law. In the 11th century, William the Conqueror brought the Talbot hound to Britain. The Talbot was a predominantly white, slow, deep-throated, scent hound derived from the


title: Beagle content: St. Hubert Hound which had been developed in the 8th century. At some point the English Talbots were crossed with Greyhounds to give them an extra turn of speed. Long extinct, the Talbot strain probably gave rise to the Southern Hound which, in turn, is thought to be an ancestor of the modern-day beagle. From medieval times, "beagle" was used as a generic description for the smaller hounds, though these dogs differed considerably from the modern breed. Miniature breeds of beagle-type dogs were known from the times of Edward II and Henry VII, who both had packs of Glove Beagles,


title: Beagle content: so named since they were small enough to fit on a glove, and Queen Elizabeth I kept a breed known as a Pocket Beagle, which stood at the shoulder. Small enough to fit in a "pocket" or saddlebag, they rode along on the hunt. The larger hounds would run the prey to ground, then the hunters would release the small dogs to continue the chase through underbrush. Elizabeth I referred to the dogs as her "singing beagles" and often entertained guests at her royal table by letting her Pocket Beagles cavort amid their plates and cups. 19th-century sources refer to


title: Beagle content: these breeds interchangeably and it is possible that the two names refer to the same small variety. In George Jesse's "Researches into the History of the British Dog" from 1866, the early 17th-century poet and writer Gervase Markham is quoted referring to the beagle as small enough to sit on a man's hand and to the: Standards for the Pocket Beagle were drawn up as late as 1901; these genetic lines are now extinct, although modern breeders have attempted to recreate the variety. By the 18th century two breeds had been developed for hunting hare and rabbit: the Southern Hound


title: Beagle content: and the North Country Beagle (or Northern Hound). The Southern Hound, a tall, heavy dog with a square head, and long, soft ears, was common from south of the River Trent and probably closely related to the Talbot Hound. Though slow, it had stamina and an excellent scenting ability. The North Country Beagle, possibly a cross between an offshoot of the Talbot stock and a Greyhound, was bred chiefly in Yorkshire and was common in the northern counties. It was smaller than the Southern Hound, less heavy-set and with a more pointed muzzle. It was faster than its southern counterpart


title: Beagle content: but its scenting abilities were less well developed. As fox hunting became increasingly popular, numbers of both types of hound diminished. The beagle-type dogs were crossed with larger breeds such as Stag Hounds to produce the modern Foxhound. The beagle-size varieties came close to extinction but some farmers in the South ensured the survival of the prototype breeds by maintaining small rabbit-hunting packs. Reverend Phillip Honeywood established a beagle pack in Essex in the 1830s and it is believed that this pack formed the basis for the modern breed. Although details of the pack's lineage are not recorded it is


title: Beagle content: thought that North Country Beagles and Southern Hounds were strongly represented; William Youatt suspected that Harriers formed a good majority of the beagle's bloodline, but the origin of the Harrier is itself obscure. Honeywood's Beagles were small, standing at about at the shoulder, and pure white according to John Mills (writing in "The Sportsman's Library" in 1845). Prince Albert and Lord Winterton also had Beagle packs around this time, and royal favour no doubt led to some revival of interest in the breed, but Honeywood's pack was regarded as the finest of the three. Although credited with the development of


title: Beagle content: the modern breed, Honeywood concentrated on producing dogs for hunting and it was left to Thomas Johnson to refine the breeding to produce dogs that were both attractive and capable hunters. Two strains were developed: the rough- and smooth-coated varieties. The rough-coated beagle survived until the beginning of the 20th century, and there were even records of one making an appearance at a dog show as late as 1969, but this variety is now extinct, having probably been absorbed into the standard beagle bloodline. In the 1840s, a standard beagle type was beginning to develop; the distinction between the North


title: Beagle content: Country Beagle and Southern Hound had been lost, but there was still a large variation in size, character, and reliability among the emerging packs. In 1856, "Stonehenge" (the pseudonym of John Henry Walsh), writing in the "Manual of British Rural Sports", was still dividing beagles into four varieties: the medium beagle; the dwarf or lapdog beagle; the fox beagle (a smaller, slower version of the Foxhound); and the rough-coated or terrier beagle, which he classified as a cross between any of the other varieties and one of the Scottish terrier breeds. Stonehenge also gives the start of a standard description:


title: Beagle content: By 1887 the threat of extinction was on the wane: there were 18 beagle packs in England. The Beagle Club was formed in 1890 and the first standard drawn up at the same time. The following year the Association of Masters of Harriers and Beagles was formed. Both organisations aimed to further the best interests of the breed, and both were keen to produce a standard type of beagle. By 1902, the number of packs had risen to 44. Beagles were in the United States by the 1840s at the latest, but the first dogs were imported strictly for hunting


title: Beagle content: and were of variable quality. Since Honeywood had only started breeding in the 1830s, it is unlikely these dogs were representative of the modern breed and the description of them as looking like straight-legged Dachshunds with weak heads has little resemblance to the standard. Serious attempts at establishing a quality bloodline began in the early 1870s when General Richard Rowett from Illinois imported some dogs from England and began breeding. Rowett's Beagles are believed to have formed the models for the first American standard, drawn up by Rowett, L. H. Twadell, and Norman Ellmore in 1887. The beagle was accepted


title: Beagle content: as a breed by the American Kennel Club (AKC) in 1885. In the 20th century the breed has spread worldwide. On its formation, the Association of Masters of Harriers and Beagles took over the running of a regular show at Peterborough that had started in 1889, and the Beagle Club in the UK held its first show in 1896. The regular showing of the breed led to the development of a uniform type, and the beagle continued to prove a success up until the outbreak of World War I when all shows were suspended. After the war, the breed was


title: Beagle content: again struggling for survival in the UK: the last of the Pocket Beagles was probably lost during this time, and registrations fell to an all-time low. A few breeders (notably Reynalton Kennels) managed to revive interest in the dog and by World War II, the breed was once again doing well. Registrations dropped again after the end of the war but almost immediately recovered. As purebred dogs, beagles have always been more popular in the United States and Canada than in their native country England. The National Beagle Club of America was formed in 1888 and by 1901 a beagle


title: Beagle content: had won a Best in Show title. As in the UK, activity during World War I was minimal, but the breed showed a much stronger revival in the U.S. when hostilities ceased. In 1928 it won a number of prizes at the Westminster Kennel Club's show and by 1939 a beagle – Champion Meadowlark Draughtsman – had captured the title of top-winning American-bred dog for the year. On 12 February 2008, a beagle, K-Run's Park Me In First (Uno), won the Best In Show category at the Westminster Kennel Club show for the first time in the competition's history. In


title: Beagle content: North America they have been consistently in the top-ten most-popular breeds for over 30 years. From 1953 to 1959 the beagle was ranked No. 1 on the list of the American Kennel Club's registered breeds; in 2005 and 2006 it ranked 5th out of the 155 breeds registered. In the UK they are not quite so popular, placing 28th and 30th in the rankings of registrations with the Kennel Club in 2005 and 2006 respectively. In the United States the beagle ranked 4th most popular breed in 2012 and 2013, behind the Labrador Retriever (#1), German Shepherd (#2) and Golden


title: Beagle content: Retriever (#3) breeds. According to the "Oxford English Dictionary", the first mention of the beagle by name in English literature dates from c. 1475 in "The Squire of Low Degree". The origin of the word "beagle" is uncertain, although it has been suggested that the word derives from the French "begueule". It is not known why the black and tan Kerry Beagle, present in Ireland since Celtic times, has the "beagle" description, since at it is significantly taller than the modern day beagle, and in earlier times was even larger. Some writers suggest that the beagle's scenting ability may have


title: Beagle content: come from cross-breeding earlier strains with the Kerry Beagle. Originally used for hunting stags, it is today used for hare and drag hunting. The general appearance of the beagle resembles a miniature Foxhound, but the head is broader and the muzzle shorter, the expression completely different and the legs shorter in proportion to the body. They are generally between high at the withers and weigh between , with females being slightly smaller than males on average. They have a smooth, somewhat domed skull with a medium-length, square-cut muzzle and a black (or occasionally liver) gumdrop nose. The jaw is strong


title: Beagle content: and the teeth scissor together with the upper teeth fitting perfectly over the lower teeth and both sets aligned square to the jaw. The eyes are large, hazel or brown, with a mild hound-like pleading look. The large ears are long, soft and low-set, turning towards the cheeks slightly and rounded at the tips. Beagles have a strong, medium-length neck (which is long enough for them to easily bend to the ground to pick up a scent), with little folding in the skin but some evidence of a dewlap; a broad chest narrowing to a tapered abdomen and waist and


title: Beagle content: a long, slightly curved tail (known as the "stern") tipped with white. The white tip, known as the flag has been selectively bred for, as it allows the dog to be easily seen when its head is down following a scent. The tail does not curl over the back, but is held upright when the dog is active. The beagle has a muscular body and a medium-length, smooth, hard coat. The front legs are straight and carried under the body while the rear legs are muscular and well bent at the stifles. The tricolored beaglewhite with large black areas and


title: Beagle content: light brown shadingis the most common. Tricolored beagles occur in a number of shades, from the "Classic Tri" with a jet black saddle (also known as "Blackback"), to the "Dark Tri" (where faint brown markings are intermingled with more prominent black markings), to the "Faded Tri" (where faint black markings are intermingled with more prominent brown markings). Some tricolored dogs have a broken pattern, sometimes referred to as "pied". These dogs have mostly white coats with patches of black and brown hair. Tricolor beagles are almost always born black and white. The white areas are typically set by eight weeks,


title: Beagle content: but the black areas may fade to brown as the puppy matures. (The brown may take between one and two years to fully develop.) Some beagles gradually change color during their lives, and may lose their black markings entirely. Two-color varieties always have a white base color with areas of the second color. Tan and white is the most common two-color variety, but there is a wide range of other colors including lemon, a very light tan; red, a reddish, almost orange, brown; and liver, a darker brown, and black. Liver is not common and is not permitted in some


title: Beagle content: standards; it tends to occur with yellow eyes. Ticked or mottled varieties may be either white or black with different colored flecks ("ticking"), such as the blue-mottled or bluetick beagle, which has spots that appear to be a midnight-blue color, similar to the coloring of the Bluetick Coonhound. Some tricolor beagles also have ticking of various colors in their white areas. Alongside the Bloodhound and Basset Hound, the beagle has one of the best developed senses of smell of any dog. In the 1950s, John Paul Scott and John Fuller began a 13-year study of canine behavior. As part of


title: Beagle content: this research, they tested the scenting abilities of various breeds by putting a mouse in a one-acre field and timing how long it took the dogs to find it. The beagles found it in less than a minute, while Fox Terriers took 15 minutes and Scottish Terriers failed to find it at all. Beagles are better at ground-scenting (following a trail on the ground) than they are at air-scenting, and for this reason they have been excluded from most mountain rescue teams in favor of collies, which use sight in addition to air-scenting and are more biddable. The long ears


title: Beagle content: and large lips of the beagle probably assist in trapping the scents close to the nose. The American Kennel Club recognizes two separate varieties of beagle: the 13-inch for hounds less than , and the 15-inch for those between . The Canadian Kennel Club recognizes a single type, with a height not exceeding . The Kennel Club (UK) and FCI affiliated clubs recognize a single type, with a height of between . English and American varieties are sometimes mentioned. However, there is no official recognition from any Kennel Club for this distinction. Beagles fitting the American Kennel Club standard –


title: Beagle content: which disallows animals over – are smaller on average than those fitting the Kennel Club standard which allows heights up to . Pocket Beagles are sometimes advertised for sale but while the UK Kennel Club originally specified a standard for the Pocket Beagle in 1901, the variety is now not recognized by any Kennel Club. A strain known as Patch Hounds was developed by Willet Randall and his family from 1896 specifically for their rabbit hunting ability. They trace their bloodline back to Field Champion Patch, but do not necessarily have a patchwork marking. In the 1850s, Stonehenge recommended a


title: Beagle content: cross between a Beagle and a Scottish Terrier as a retriever. He found the crossbreed to be a good worker, silent and obedient, but it had the drawback that it was small and could barely carry a hare. More recently the trend has been for "designer dogs" and one of the most popular has been the Beagle/Pug cross known as a Puggle. Some puppies of this cross are less excitable than a Beagle and with a lower exercise requirement, similar to the Pug parent; but many are highly excitable and require vigorous exercise. The beagle has an even temper and


title: Beagle content: gentle disposition. Described in several breed standards as "merry", they are amiable and typically neither aggressive nor timid, although this depends on the individual. They enjoy company, and although they may initially be standoffish with strangers, they are easily won over. They make poor guard dogs for this reason, although their tendency to bark or howl when confronted with the unfamiliar makes them good watch dogs. In a 1985 study conducted by Ben and Lynette Hart, the beagle was given the highest excitability rating, along with the Yorkshire Terrier, Cairn Terrier, Miniature Schnauzer, West Highland White Terrier, and Fox Terrier.


title: Beagle content: Beagles are intelligent but, as a result of being bred for the long chase, are single-minded and determined, which can make them hard to train. They can be difficult to recall once they have picked up a scent, and are easily distracted by smells around them. They do not generally feature in obedience trials; while they are alert, respond well to food-reward training, and are eager to please, they are easily bored or distracted. They are ranked 72nd in Stanley Coren's "The Intelligence of Dogs", as Coren places them among the group with the lowest degree of working/obedience intelligence. Coren's


title: Beagle content: scale, however, does not assess understanding, independence, or creativity. Beagles are excellent with children and this is one of the reasons they have became popular family pets. But as beagles are pack animals, they are prone to separation anxiety, a condition which causes them to destroy things when left unattended. Not all beagles will howl, but most will bark when confronted with strange situations, and some will bay (also referred to as "speaking", "giving tongue", or "opening") when they catch the scent of potential quarry. They also generally get along well with cats and other dogs. They are not too


title: Beagle content: demanding with regard to exercise; their inbred stamina means they do not easily tire when exercised, but they also do not need to be worked to exhaustion before they will rest. Regular exercise helps ward off the weight gain to which the breed is prone. The typical longevity of beagles is 12–15 years, which is a common lifespan for dogs of their size. Beagles may be prone to epilepsy, but this can often be controlled with medication. Hypothyroidism and a number of types of dwarfism occur in beagles. Two conditions in particular are unique to the breed: "Funny Puppy", in


title: Beagle content: which the puppy is slow to develop and eventually develops weak legs, a crooked back and although normally healthy, is prone to a range of illnesses; Hip dysplasia, common in Harriers and in some larger breeds, is rarely considered a problem in beagles. Beagles are considered a chondrodystrophic breed, meaning that they are prone to types of disk diseases. In rare cases, beagles may develop immune mediated polygenic arthritis (where the immune system attacks the joints) even at a young age. The symptoms can sometimes be relieved by steroid treatments. Another rare disease in the breed is neonatal cerebellar cortical


title: Beagle content: degeneration. Affected puppies are slow, have lower co-ordination, fall more often and don't have a normal gait. It has an estimated carrier rate of 5% and affected rate of 0.1%. A genetic test is available. Their long floppy ears can mean that the inner ear does not receive a substantial air flow or that moist air becomes trapped, and this can lead to ear infections. Beagles may also be affected by a range of eye problems; two common ophthalmic conditions in beagles are glaucoma and corneal dystrophy. "Cherry eye", a prolapse of the gland of the third eyelid, and distichiasis,


title: Beagle content: a condition in which eyelashes grow into the eye causing irritation, sometimes exist; both these conditions can be corrected with surgery. They can suffer from several types of retinal atrophy. Failure of the nasolacrimal drainage system can cause dry eye or leakage of tears onto the face. As field dogs they are prone to minor injuries such as cuts and sprains, and, if inactive, obesity is a common problem as they will eat whenever food is available and rely on their owners to regulate their weight. When working or running free they are also likely to pick up parasites such


title: Beagle content: as fleas, ticks, harvest mites, and tapeworms, and irritants such as grass seeds can become trapped in their eyes, soft ears, or paws. Beagles may exhibit a behaviour known as reverse sneezing, in which they sound as if they are choking or gasping for breath, but are actually drawing air in through the mouth and nose. The exact cause of this behaviour is not known, but it can be a common occurrence and is not harmful to the dog. Beagles were developed primarily for hunting hare, an activity known as beagling. They were seen as ideal hunting companions for the


title: Beagle content: elderly who could follow on horseback without exerting themselves, for young hunters who could keep up with them on ponies, and for the poorer hunters who could not afford to maintain a stable of good hunting horses. Before the advent of the fashion for foxhunting in the 19th century, hunting was an all day event where the enjoyment was derived from the chase rather than the kill. In this setting the tiny beagle was well matched to the hare, as unlike Harriers they would not quickly finish the hunt, but because of their excellent scent-tracking skills and stamina they were


title: Beagle content: almost guaranteed to eventually catch the hare. The beagle packs would run closely together ("so close that they might be covered with a sheet") which was useful in a long hunt, as it prevented stray dogs from obscuring the trail. In thick undergrowth they were also preferred to spaniels when hunting pheasant. With the fashion for faster hunts, the beagle fell out of favour for chasing hare, but was still employed for rabbit hunting. In "Anecdotes of Dogs" (1846), Edward Jesse says: In the United States they appear to have been employed chiefly for hunting rabbits from the earliest imports.


title: Beagle content: Hunting hare with beagles became popular again in Britain in the mid-19th century and continued until it was made illegal in Scotland by the Protection of Wild Mammals (Scotland) Act 2002 and in England and Wales by the Hunting Act 2004. Under this legislation beagles may still pursue rabbits with the landowner's permission. Drag hunting is popular where hunting is no longer permitted or for those owners who do not wish to participate in hunting a live animal, but still wish to exercise their dog's innate skills. The traditional foot pack consists of up to 40 beagles, marshaled by a


title: Beagle content: Huntsman who directs the pack and who is assisted by a variable number of whippers-in whose job is to return straying hounds to the pack. The Master of the Hunt is in overall day-to-day charge of the pack, and may or may not take on the role of Huntsman on the day of the hunt. As hunting with beagles was seen as ideal for young people, many of the British public schools traditionally maintained beagle packs. Protests were lodged against Eton's use of beagles for hunting as early as 1902 but the pack is still in existence today, and a


title: Beagle content: pack used by Imperial College in Wye, Kent was stolen by the Animal Liberation Front in 2001. School and university packs are still maintained by Eton, Marlborough, Wye, Radley, the Royal Agricultural University and Christ Church, Oxford. In addition to organized beagling, beagles have been used for hunting or flushing to guns (often in pairs) a wide range of game including snowshoe hare, cottontail rabbits, game birds, roe deer, red deer, bobcat, coyote, wild boar and foxes, and have even been recorded as being used to hunt stoat. In most of these cases, the beagle is employed as a gun


title: Beagle content: dog, flushing game for hunter's guns. Beagles are used as detection dogs in the Beagle Brigade of the United States Department of Agriculture. These dogs are used to detect food items in luggage being taken into the United States. After trialling several breeds, beagles were chosen because they are relatively small and unintimidating for people who are uncomfortable around dogs, easy to care for, intelligent and work well for rewards. They are also used for this purpose in a number of other countries including by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry in New Zealand, the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service,


title: Beagle content: and in Canada, Japan and the People's Republic of China. Larger breeds are generally used for detection of explosives as this often involves climbing over luggage and on large conveyor belts, work for which the smaller Beagle is not suited. Beagles are the dog breed most often used in animal testing, due to their size and passive nature. In the United States, as many as 65,000 beagles are used every year for medical, cosmetic, beauty, and other chemical tests. They are purpose bred and live their lives in cages undergoing experiments. The Rescue + Freedom Project (formerly Beagle Freedom Project)


title: Beagle content: has successfully advocated for beagles to be released from labs. This organization has freed hundreds of animals. Beagles are used in a range of research procedures: fundamental biological research, applied human medicine, applied veterinary medicine, and protection of man, animals or the environment. Of the 8,018 dogs used in testing in the UK in 2004, 7,799 were beagles (97.3%). In the UK, the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 gave special status to primates, equids, cats and dogs and in 2005 the Animal Procedures Committee (set up by the act) ruled that testing on mice was preferable, even though a greater


title: Beagle content: number of individual animals were involved. In 2005 beagles were involved in less than 0.3% of the total experiments on animals in the UK, but of the 7670 experiments performed on dogs 7406 involved beagles (96.6%). Most dogs are bred specifically for this purpose, by companies such as Harlan. In the UK companies breeding animals for research must be licensed under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act. Testing of cosmetic products on animals is banned in the member states of the European Community, although France protested the ban and has made efforts to have it lifted. It is permitted in the


title: Beagle content: United States but is not mandatory if safety can be ascertained by other methods, and the test species is not specified by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). When testing toxicity of food additives, food contaminants, and some drugs and chemicals the FDA uses beagles and miniature pigs as surrogates for direct human testing. Minnesota was the first state to enact a Beagle freedom adoption law in 2014, mandating that dogs and cats are allowed to be adopted once they have completed with research testing. Anti-vivisection groups have reported on abuse of animals inside testing facilities. In 1997 footage secretly


title: Beagle content: filmed by a freelance journalist inside Huntingdon Life Sciences in the UK showed staff punching and screaming at beagles. Consort Kennels, a UK-based breeder of beagles for testing, closed down in 1997 after pressure from animal rights groups. Although bred for hunting, Beagles are versatile and are nowadays employed for various other roles in detection, therapy, and as family pets. Beagles are used as sniffer dogs for termite detection in Australia, and have been mentioned as possible candidates for drug and explosive detection. Because of their gentle nature and unimposing build, they are also frequently used in pet therapy, visiting


title: Beagle content: the sick and elderly in hospital. In June 2006, a trained Beagle assistance dog was credited with saving the life of its owner after using her owner's mobile phone to dial an emergency number. In the aftermath of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, a Beagle search and rescue dog with a Colombian rescue squad was credited with locating the owner of the Hôtel Montana, who was subsequently rescued after spending 100 hours buried in the rubble. Beagles were hired by New York City to help with bedbug detection, while the role of such dogs in this type of detection may have


title: Beagle content: doubts. Beagles have been featured across a wide range of media. References to the dog appear before the 19th century in works by such writers as William Shakespeare, John Webster, John Dryden, Thomas Tickell, Henry Fielding, and William Cowper, as well as in Alexander Pope's translation of Homer's "Iliad". Beagles appeared in funny animal comic strips and animated cartoons from the 1950s with Courage the Cowardly Dog and the "Peanuts" character Snoopy was billed as "the world's most famous Beagle". In Disney's Donald Duck universe, the Beagle Boys are a clan of criminal anthropomorphic beagles. Former US President Lyndon Baines


title: Beagle content: Johnson had several beagles, and caused an outcry when he picked up one of them by its ears during an official greeting on the White House lawn. The ship on which Charles Darwin made the voyage which provided much of the inspiration for "On the Origin of Species" was named HMS "Beagle" after the breed, and, in turn, lent its name to the ill-fated British Martian lander "Beagle 2". A Canadian bred 15 inch female Beagle with the registered name of Gr Ch Tashtins Lookin For Trouble and the pet name of "Miss P" won the 2015 Westminster Kennel Club


title: Beagle content: Dog Show. Japanese idol sisters Tomu and Orin Muto of AKB48 have a beagle who often accompanies their online appearances. Informational notes a. In this article "Beagle" (with a capital B) is used to distinguish the modern breed from other beagle-type dogs. b. Youatt states that the Southern Hound may have been native to the British Isles and used on hunts by the Ancient Britons. c. The Harts posed the following question to a panel of 96 experts, half of which were veterinary surgeons and the other half dog obedience trial judges: d. The specific references in each of the


title: Beagle content: author's works are as follows: Shakespeare: ""Sir Toby Belch": She's a beagle, true-bred, and one that adores me: what o' that?" "Twelfth Night" (c. 1600) Act II Scene III Webster: ""Mistress Tenterhook"': You are a sweet beagle" "Westward Ho" (1607) Act III Scene IV:2 Dryden: "The rest in shape a beagle's whelp throughout, With broader forehead and a sharper snout" "The Cock and the Fox", and again: "About her feet were little beagles seen" in "Palamon and Arcite" both from "Fables, Ancient and Modern" (1700) Tickell: "Here let me trace beneath the purpled morn, The deep-mouth'd beagle, and the sprightly


title: Beagle content: horn" "To a Lady before Marriage" (published posthumously in 1749) Fielding: "'What the devil would you have me do?' cries the Squire, turning to Blifil, 'I can no more turn her, than a beagle can turn an old hare.'" "The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling" (1749) Chapter 7. Cowper: "For persevering chase and headlong leaps, True beagle as the staunchest hound he keeps" "The Progress of Error" (1782) Pope: "Thus on a roe the well-breath'd beagle flies, And rends his hide fresh-bleeding with the dart" "The Iliad of Homer" (1715–20) Book XV:697–8 Citations Bibliography Beagle The Beagle is a


title: Baseball content: Baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball game played between two opposing teams who take turns batting and fielding. The game proceeds when a player on the fielding team, called the pitcher, throws a ball which a player on the batting team tries to hit with a bat. The objectives of the offensive team (batting team) are to hit the ball into the field of play, and to run the bases—having its runners advance counter-clockwise around four bases to score what are called "runs". The objective of the defensive team (fielding team) is to prevent batters from becoming runners, and to prevent


title: Baseball content: runners' advance around the bases. A run is scored when a runner legally advances around the bases in order and touches home plate (the place where the player started as a batter). The team that scores the most runs by the end of the game is the winner. The first objective of the batting team is to have a player reach first base safely. A player on the batting team who reaches first base without being called "out" can attempt to advance to subsequent bases as a runner, either immediately or during teammates' turns batting. The fielding team tries to


title: Baseball content: prevent runs by getting batters or runners "out", which forces them out of the field of play. Both the pitcher and fielders have methods of getting the batting team's players out. The opposing teams switch back and forth between batting and fielding; the batting team's turn to bat is over once the fielding team records three outs. One turn batting for each team constitutes an inning. A game is usually composed of nine innings, and the team with the greater number of runs at the end of the game wins. If scores are tied at the end of nine innings,


title: Baseball content: extra innings are usually played. Baseball has no game clock, although most games end in the ninth inning. Baseball evolved from older bat-and-ball games already being played in England by the mid-18th century. This game was brought by immigrants to North America, where the modern version developed. By the late 19th century, baseball was widely recognized as the national sport of the United States. Baseball is popular in North America and parts of Central and South America, the Caribbean, and East Asia, particularly in Japan and South Korea. In the United States and Canada, professional Major League Baseball (MLB) teams


title: Baseball content: are divided into the National League (NL) and American League (AL), each with three divisions: East, West, and Central. The MLB champion is determined by playoffs that culminate in the World Series. The top level of play is similarly split in Japan between the Central and Pacific Leagues and in Cuba between the West League and East League. The World Baseball Classic, organized by the World Baseball Softball Confederation, is the major international competition of the sport and attracts the top national teams from around the world. A baseball game is played between two teams, each composed of nine players,


title: Baseball content: that take turns playing offense (batting and baserunning) and defense (pitching and fielding). A pair of turns, one at bat and one in the field, by each team constitutes an inning. A game consists of nine innings (seven innings at the high school level and in doubleheaders in college and minor leagues, and six innings at the Little League level). One team—customarily the visiting team—bats in the top, or first half, of every inning. The other team—customarily the home team—bats in the bottom, or second half, of every inning. The goal of the game is to score more points (runs)


title: Baseball content: than the other team. The players on the team at bat attempt to score runs by circling or completing a tour of the four bases set at the corners of the square-shaped baseball diamond. A player bats at home plate and must proceed counterclockwise to first base, second base, third base, and back home to score a run. The team in the field attempts to prevent runs from scoring and record outs, which remove opposing players from offensive action until their turn in their team's batting order comes up again. When three outs are recorded, the teams switch roles for


title: Baseball content: the next half-inning. If the score of the game is tied after nine innings, extra innings are played to resolve the contest. Many amateur games, particularly unorganized ones, involve different numbers of players and innings. The game is played on a field whose primary boundaries, the foul lines, extend forward from home plate at 45-degree angles. The 90-degree area within the foul lines is referred to as fair territory; the 270-degree area outside them is foul territory. The part of the field enclosed by the bases and several yards beyond them is the infield; the area farther beyond the infield


title: Baseball content: is the outfield. In the middle of the infield is a raised pitcher's mound, with a rectangular rubber plate (the rubber) at its center. The outer boundary of the outfield is typically demarcated by a raised fence, which may be of any material and height. The fair territory between home plate and the outfield boundary is baseball's field of play, though significant events can take place in foul territory, as well. There are three basic tools of baseball: the ball, the bat, and the glove or mitt: Protective helmets are also standard equipment for all batters. At the beginning of


title: Baseball content: each half-inning, the nine players on the fielding team arrange themselves around the field. One of them, the pitcher, stands on the pitcher's mound. The pitcher begins the pitching delivery with one foot on the rubber, pushing off it to gain velocity when throwing toward home plate. Another player, the catcher, squats on the far side of home plate, facing the pitcher. The rest of the team faces home plate, typically arranged as four infielders—who set up along or within a few yards outside the imaginary lines (basepaths) between first, second, and third base—and three outfielders. In the standard arrangement,


title: Baseball content: there is a first baseman positioned several steps to the left of first base, a second baseman to the right of second base, a shortstop to the left of second base, and a third baseman to the right of third base. The basic outfield positions are left fielder, center fielder, and right fielder. With the exception of the catcher, all fielders are required to be in fair territory when the pitch is delivered. A neutral umpire sets up behind the catcher. Other umpires will be distributed around the field as well. Play starts with a batter standing at home plate,


title: Baseball content: holding a bat. The batter waits for the pitcher to throw a pitch (the ball) toward home plate, and attempts to hit the ball with the bat. The catcher catches pitches that the batter does not hit—as a result of either electing not to swing or failing to connect—and returns them to the pitcher. A batter who hits the ball into the field of play must drop the bat and begin running toward first base, at which point the player is referred to as a "runner" (or, until the play is over, a "batter-runner"). A batter-runner who reaches first base


title: Baseball content: without being put out is said to be "safe" and is on base. A batter-runner may choose to remain at first base or attempt to advance to second base or even beyond—however far the player believes can be reached safely. A player who reaches base despite proper play by the fielders has recorded a hit. A player who reaches first base safely on a hit is credited with a single. If a player makes it to second base safely as a direct result of a hit, it is a double; third base, a triple. If the ball is hit in


title: Baseball content: the air within the foul lines over the entire outfield (and outfield fence, if there is one), or otherwise safely circles all the bases, it is a home run: the batter and any runners on base may all freely circle the bases, each scoring a run. This is the most desirable result for the batter. A player who reaches base due to a fielding mistake is not credited with a hit—instead, the responsible fielder is charged with an error. Any runners already on base may attempt to advance on batted balls that land, or contact the ground, in fair territory,


title: Baseball content: before or after the ball lands. A runner on first base "must" attempt to advance if a ball lands in play. If a ball hit into play rolls foul before passing through the infield, it becomes dead and any runners must return to the base they occupied when the play began. If the ball is hit in the air and caught before it lands, the batter has flied out and any runners on base may attempt to advance only if they tag up (contact the base they occupied when the play began, as or after the ball is caught). Runners


title: Baseball content: may also attempt to advance to the next base while the pitcher is in the process of delivering the ball to home plate; a successful effort is a stolen base. A pitch that is not hit into the field of play is called either a strike or a ball. A batter against whom three strikes are recorded strikes out. A batter against whom four balls are recorded is awarded a base on balls or walk, a free advance to first base. (A batter may also freely advance to first base if the batter's body or uniform is struck by a


title: Baseball content: pitch outside the strike zone, provided the batter does not swing and attempts to avoid being hit.) Crucial to determining balls and strikes is the umpire's judgment as to whether a pitch has passed through the strike zone, a conceptual area above home plate extending from the midpoint between the batter's shoulders and belt down to the hollow of the knee. While the team at bat is trying to score runs, the team in the field is attempting to record outs. In addition to the strikeout, common ways a member of the batting team may be put out include the


title: Baseball content: flyout, ground out, force out, and tag out. It is possible to record two outs in the course of the same play. This is called a double play. Three outs in one play, a triple play, is possible, though rare. Players put out or retired must leave the field, returning to their team's dugout or bench. A runner may be stranded on base when a third out is recorded against another player on the team. Stranded runners do not benefit the team in its next turn at bat as every half-inning begins with the bases empty. An individual player's turn


title: Baseball content: batting or plate appearance is complete when the player reaches base, hits a home run, makes an out, or hits a ball that results in the team's third out, even if it is recorded against a teammate. On rare occasions, a batter may be at the plate when, without the batter's hitting the ball, a third out is recorded against a teammate—for instance, a runner getting caught stealing (tagged out attempting to steal a base). A batter with this sort of incomplete plate appearance starts off the team's next turn batting; any balls or strikes recorded against the batter the


title: Baseball content: previous inning are erased. A runner may circle the bases only once per plate appearance and thus can score at most a single run per batting turn. Once a player has completed a plate appearance, that player may not bat again until the eight other members of the player's team have all taken their turn at bat. The batting order is set before the game begins, and may not be altered except for substitutions. Once a player has been removed for a substitute, that player may not reenter the game. Children's games often have more liberal substitution rules. If the


title: Baseball content: designated hitter (DH) rule is in effect, each team has a tenth player whose sole responsibility is to bat (and run). The DH takes the place of another player—almost invariably the pitcher—in the batting order, but does not field. Thus, even with the DH, each team still has a batting order of nine players and a fielding arrangement of nine players. The number of players on a baseball roster, or "squad", varies by league and by the level of organized play. A Major League Baseball (MLB) team has a roster of 25 players with specific roles. A typical roster features


title: Baseball content: the following players: Most baseball leagues worldwide have the DH rule, including MLB's American League, Japan's Pacific League, and Caribbean professional leagues, along with major American amateur organizations. The Central League in Japan and the National League do not have the rule, and high-level minor league clubs connected to National League teams are not required to field a DH. In leagues that apply the designated hitter rule, a typical team has nine offensive regulars (including the DH), five starting pitchers, seven or eight relievers, a backup catcher, and two or three other reserve players. The manager, or head coach, oversees


title: Baseball content: the team's major strategic decisions, such as establishing the starting rotation, setting the lineup, or batting order, before each game, and making substitutions during games—in particular, bringing in relief pitchers. Managers are typically assisted by two or more coaches; they may have specialized responsibilities, such as working with players on hitting, fielding, pitching, or strength and conditioning. At most levels of organized play, two coaches are stationed on the field when the team is at bat: the first base coach and third base coach, occupying designated coaches' boxes just outside the foul lines, assist in the direction of baserunners when


title: Baseball content: the ball is in play, and relay tactical signals from the manager to batters and runners during pauses in play. In contrast to many other team sports, baseball managers and coaches generally wear their team's uniforms; coaches must be in uniform to be allowed on the field to confer with players during a game. Any baseball game involves one or more umpires, who make rulings on the outcome of each play. At a minimum, one umpire will stand behind the catcher, to have a good view of the strike zone, and call balls and strikes. Additional umpires may be stationed


title: Baseball content: near the other bases, thus making it easier to judge plays such as attempted force outs and tag outs. In MLB, four umpires are used for each game, one near each base. In the playoffs, six umpires are used: one at each base and two in the outfield along the foul lines. Many of the pre-game and in-game strategic decisions in baseball revolve around a fundamental fact: in general, right-handed batters tend to be more successful against left-handed pitchers and, to an even greater degree, left-handed batters tend to be more successful against right-handed pitchers. A manager with several left-handed


title: Baseball content: batters in the regular lineup who knows the team will be facing a left-handed starting pitcher may respond by starting one or more of the right-handed backups on the team's roster. During the late innings of a game, as relief pitchers and pinch hitters are brought in, the opposing managers will often go back and forth trying to create favorable matchups with their substitutions: the manager of the fielding team trying to arrange same-handed pitcher-batter matchups, the manager of the batting team trying to arrange opposite-handed matchups. With a team that has the lead in the late innings, a manager


title: Baseball content: may remove a starting position player—especially one whose turn at bat is not likely to come up again—for a more skillful fielder. The tactical decision that precedes almost every play in a baseball game involves pitch selection. By gripping and then releasing the baseball in a certain manner, and by throwing it at a certain speed, pitchers can cause the baseball to break to either side, or downward, as it approaches the batter. Among the resulting wide variety of pitches that may be thrown, the four basic types are the fastball, the changeup (or off-speed pitch), and two breaking balls—the


title: Baseball content: curveball and the slider. Pitchers have different repertoires of pitches they are skillful at throwing. Conventionally, before each pitch, the catcher signals the pitcher what type of pitch to throw, as well as its general vertical and/or horizontal location. If there is disagreement on the selection, the pitcher may shake off the sign and the catcher will call for a different pitch. With a runner on base and taking a lead, the pitcher may attempt a pickoff, a quick throw to a fielder covering the base to keep the runner's lead in check or, optimally, effect a tag out. Pickoff


title: Baseball content: attempts, however, are subject to rules that severely restrict the pitcher's movements before and during the pickoff attempt. Violation of any one of these rules could result in the umpire calling a balk against the pitcher, which permits any runners on base to advance one base with impunity. If an attempted stolen base is anticipated, the catcher may call for a pitchout, a ball thrown deliberately off the plate, allowing the catcher to catch it while standing and throw quickly to a base. Facing a batter with a strong tendency to hit to one side of the field, the fielding


title: Baseball content: team may employ a shift, with most or all of the fielders moving to the left or right of their usual positions. With a runner on third base, the infielders may play in, moving closer to home plate to improve the odds of throwing out the runner on a ground ball, though a sharply hit grounder is more likely to carry through a drawn-in infield. Several basic offensive tactics come into play with a runner on first base, including the fundamental choice of whether to attempt a steal of second base. The hit and run is sometimes employed with a


title: Baseball content: skillful contact hitter: the runner takes off with the pitch drawing the shortstop or second baseman over to second base, creating a gap in the infield for the batter to poke the ball through. The sacrifice bunt calls for the batter to focus on making contact with the ball so that it rolls a short distance into the infield, allowing the runner to advance into scoring position even at the expense of the batter being thrown out at first—a batter who succeeds is credited with a sacrifice. (A batter, particularly one who is a fast runner, may also attempt to


title: Baseball content: bunt for a hit.) A sacrifice bunt employed with a runner on third base, aimed at bringing that runner home, is known as a squeeze play. With a runner on third and fewer than two outs, a batter may instead concentrate on hitting a fly ball that, even if it is caught, will be deep enough to allow the runner to tag up and score—a successful batter, in this case, gets credit for a sacrifice fly. The manager will sometimes signal a batter who is ahead in the count (i.e., has more balls than strikes) to take, or not swing


title: Baseball content: at, the next pitch. The evolution of baseball from older bat-and-ball games is difficult to trace with precision. Consensus once held that today's baseball is a North American development from the older game rounders, popular among children in Great Britain and Ireland. "Baseball Before We Knew It: A Search for the Roots of the Game" (2005), by American baseball historian David Block, suggests that the game originated in England; recently uncovered historical evidence supports this position. Block argues that rounders and early baseball were actually regional variants of each other, and that the game's most direct antecedents are the English


title: Baseball content: games of stoolball and "tut-ball". The earliest known reference to baseball is in a 1744 British publication, "A Little Pretty Pocket-Book", by John Newbery. Block discovered that the first recorded game of "Bass-Ball" took place in 1749 in Surrey, and featured the Prince of Wales as a player. This early form of the game was apparently brought to Canada by English immigrants. By the early 1830s, there were reports of a variety of uncodified bat-and-ball games recognizable as early forms of baseball being played around North America. In 1845, Alexander Cartwright, a member of New York City's Knickerbocker Club, led


title: Baseball content: the codification of the so-called Knickerbocker Rules. While there are reports that the New York Knickerbockers played games in 1845, the contest long recognized as the first officially recorded baseball game in U.S. history took place on June 19, 1846, in Hoboken, New Jersey: the "New York Nine" defeated the Knickerbockers, 23–1, in four innings. With the Knickerbocker code as the basis, the rules of modern baseball continued to evolve over the next half-century. In the mid-1850s, a baseball craze hit the New York metropolitan area, and by 1856, local journals were referring to baseball as the "national pastime" or


title: Baseball content: "national game". A year later, the sport's first governing body, the National Association of Base Ball Players, was formed. In 1867, it barred participation by African Americans. The more formally structured National League was founded in 1876. Professional Negro leagues formed, but quickly folded. In 1887, softball, under the name of indoor baseball or indoor-outdoor, was invented as a winter version of the parent game. The National League's first successful counterpart, the American League, which evolved from the minor Western League, was established in 1893, and virtually all of the modern baseball rules were in place by then. The National


title: Baseball content: Agreement of 1903 formalized relations both between the two major leagues and between them and the National Association of Professional Base Ball Leagues, representing most of the country's minor professional leagues. The World Series, pitting the two major league champions against each other, was inaugurated that fall. The Black Sox Scandal of the 1919 World Series led to the formation of a new National Commission of baseball that drew the two major leagues closer together. The first major league baseball commissioner, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, was elected in 1920. That year also saw the founding of the Negro National League; the


title: Baseball content: first significant Negro league, it would operate until 1931. For part of the 1920s, it was joined by the Eastern Colored League. Compared with the present, professional baseball in the early 20th century was lower-scoring, and pitchers were more dominant. The so-called dead-ball era ended in the early 1920s with several changes in rule and circumstance that were advantageous to hitters. Strict new regulations governed the ball's size, shape and composition, along with a new rule officially banning the spitball and other pitches that depended on the ball being treated or roughed-up with foreign substances, resulted in a ball that


title: Baseball content: traveled farther when hit. The rise of the legendary player Babe Ruth, the first great power hitter of the new era, helped permanently alter the nature of the game. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, St. Louis Cardinals general manager Branch Rickey invested in several minor league clubs and developed the first modern farm system. A new Negro National League was organized in 1933; four years later, it was joined by the Negro American League. The first elections to the National Baseball Hall of Fame took place in 1936. In 1939, Little League Baseball was founded in Pennsylvania. A


title: Baseball content: large number of minor league teams disbanded when World War II led to a player shortage. Chicago Cubs owner Philip K. Wrigley led the formation of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League to help keep the game in the public eye. The first crack in the unwritten agreement barring blacks from white-controlled professional ball occurred in 1945: Jackie Robinson was signed by the National League's Brooklyn Dodgers and began playing for their minor league team in Montreal. In 1947, Robinson broke the major leagues' color barrier when he debuted with the Dodgers. Latin American players, largely overlooked before, also started


title: Baseball content: entering the majors in greater numbers. In 1951, two Chicago White Sox, Venezuelan-born Chico Carrasquel and black Cuban-born Minnie Miñoso, became the first Hispanic All-Stars. Integration proceeded slowly: by 1953, only six of the 16 major league teams had a black player on the roster. In 1975, the union's power—and players' salaries—began to increase greatly when the reserve clause was effectively struck down, leading to the free agency system. Significant work stoppages occurred in 1981 and 1994, the latter forcing the cancellation of the World Series for the first time in 90 years. Attendance had been growing steadily since the


title: Baseball content: mid-1970s and in 1994, before the stoppage, the majors were setting their all-time record for per-game attendance. After play resumed in 1995, non-division-winning wild card teams became a permanent fixture of the post-season. Regular-season interleague play was introduced in 1997 and the second-highest attendance mark for a full season was set. In 2000, the National and American Leagues were dissolved as legal entities. While their identities were maintained for scheduling purposes (and the designated hitter distinction), the regulations and other functions—such as player discipline and umpire supervision—they had administered separately were consolidated under the rubric of MLB. In 2001, Barry


title: Baseball content: Bonds established the current record of 73 home runs in a single season. There had long been suspicions that the dramatic increase in power hitting was fueled in large part by the abuse of illegal steroids (as well as by the dilution of pitching talent due to expansion), but the issue only began attracting significant media attention in 2002 and there was no penalty for the use of performance-enhancing drugs before 2004. In 2007, Bonds became MLB's all-time home run leader, surpassing Hank Aaron, as total major league and minor league attendance both reached all-time highs. Widely known as America's


title: Baseball content: pastime, baseball is well established in several other countries as well. As early as 1877, a professional league, the International Association, featured teams from both Canada and the US. While baseball is widely played in Canada and many minor league teams have been based in the country, the American major leagues did not include a Canadian club until 1969, when the Montreal Expos joined the National League as an expansion team. In 1977, the expansion Toronto Blue Jays joined the American League. In 1847, American soldiers played what may have been the first baseball game in Mexico at Parque Los


title: Baseball content: Berros in Xalapa, Veracruz. The first formal baseball league outside of the United States and Canada was founded in 1878 in Cuba, which maintains a rich baseball tradition. The Dominican Republic held its first islandwide championship tournament in 1912. Professional baseball tournaments and leagues began to form in other countries between the world wars, including the Netherlands (formed in 1922), Australia (1934), Japan (1936), Mexico (1937), and Puerto Rico (1938). The Japanese major leagues have long been considered the highest quality professional circuits outside of the United States. After World War II, professional leagues were founded in many Latin American


title: Baseball content: countries, most prominently Venezuela (1946) and the Dominican Republic (1955). Since the early 1970s, the annual Caribbean Series has matched the championship clubs from the four leading Latin American winter leagues: the Dominican Professional Baseball League, Mexican Pacific League, Puerto Rican Professional Baseball League, and Venezuelan Professional Baseball League. In Asia, South Korea (1982), Taiwan (1990) and China (2003) all have professional leagues. Many European countries have professional leagues as well; the most successful, other than the Dutch league, is the Italian league, founded in 1948. In 2004, Australia won a surprise silver medal at the Olympic Games. The Confédération


title: Baseball content: Européene de Baseball (European Baseball Confederation), founded in 1953, organizes a number of competitions between clubs from different countries. Other competitions between national teams, such as the Baseball World Cup and the Olympic baseball tournament, were administered by the International Baseball Federation (IBAF) from its formation in 1938 until its 2013 merger with the International Softball Federation to create the current joint governing body for both sports, the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC). Women's baseball is played on an organized amateur basis in numerous countries. After being admitted to the Olympics as a medal sport beginning with the 1992 Games,


title: Baseball content: baseball was dropped from the 2012 Summer Olympic Games at the 2005 International Olympic Committee meeting. It remained part of the 2008 Games. While the sport's lack of a following in much of the world was a factor, more important was MLB's reluctance to have a break during the Games to allow its players to participate. MLB initiated the World Baseball Classic, scheduled to precede the major league season, partly as a replacement, high-profile international tournament. The inaugural Classic, held in March 2006, was the first tournament involving national teams to feature a significant number of MLB participants. The Baseball