text:
Willie Rushton

William George Rushton (18 August 1937 – 11 December 1996) was an English actor, cartoonist, comedian and satirist who co-founded the satirical magazine Private Eye.

Early life
Rushton was born 18 August 1937 at 3 Wilbraham Place, Chelsea, London, the only child of publisher John Atherton Rushton (1908–1958) and his Welsh wife Veronica (née James, 1910–1977). He was educated at Shrewsbury School, where he was not academically successful but met his future Private Eye colleagues Richard Ingrams, Paul Foot and Christopher Booker. He also contributed to the satirical magazine The Wallopian, (a play on the school magazine name The Salopian) mocking school spirit, traditions and the masters. Later, he said he recalled little of his schooldays, except that "it was Blandings country. The sort of place you go to die, not to be educated".

After school Rushton had to perform two years of national service in the army, where he failed officer selection. He later commented, "The Army is, God bless it, one of the funniest institutions on earth and also a sort of microcosm of the world. It's split almost perfectly into our class system. Through serving in the ranks I discovered the basic wit of my fellow man – whom basically, to tell the truth, I'd never met before." On leaving the army, he worked in a solicitor's office for a short period.

Private Eye and the satire boom
Rushton remained in contact with his Shrewsbury friends, who had added John Wells to their number and were now running their own humour magazines at Oxford, Parsons Pleasure and Mesopotamia, to which Rushton made many contributions during his frequent visits. A cartoon of a giraffe in a bar saying "The high balls are on me" was not met with approval by everyone in the university administrative quarters. Rushton suggested that Mesopotamia could continue after they left university. During his time as a clerk he had been sending his cartoons out to Punch but none had been accepted. After being knocked over by a bus, he gave up his job as a clerk, determined not to waste another day.

After almost but not quite being accepted by Tribune (a Labour-supporting newspaper edited by Michael Foot, Paul's uncle), Rushton found a place at the Liberal News, which was also employing Christopher Booker as a journalist. From June 1960 until March 1961, he contributed a weekly strip, "Brimstone Belcher", following the exploits of the titular journalist (a fore-runner of Private Eye's Lunchtime O'Booze), from bizarre skulduggery in the British colonies (where the soldiers holding back the politicised rabble bear a strong resemblance to privates Rushton and Ingrams), travelogues through the US, and the hazards of by-electioneering as the independent candidate for the constituency of Gumboot North. After the strip folded, Rushton still contributed a weekly political cartoon to the Liberal News until mid-1962.

The Salopians finally found a financier for their magazine and the first issue of Private Eye was published on 25 October 1961. Rushton put it together in his bedroom in Scarsdale Villas using Letraset and cow-gumming illustrations onto cards which were taken away to be photo-lithographed. He also contributed all the illustrations and the mast-head figure of Little Gnitty (who still appears on the cover, a blended caricature of John Wells and the Daily Express standard-head). One critic described the original lay-out of the magazine as owing much to "Neo-Brechtian Nihilism", although Rushton thought it resembled a betting shop floor. One feature in the early issues was the "Aesop Revisited", a full-page comic strip which let him work in a wealth of puns and background jokes. With Private Eye riding the satire boom, Peter Cook soon took an interest and contributed two serials recounting the bizarre adventures of Sir Basil Nardly-Stoads and the Rhandi Phurr, both of which were illustrated by Rushton, as was "Mrs Wilson's Diary". In the early days the team also worked on two books, Private Eye on London and Private Eye's Romantic England that make heavy use of his cartooning talents. One of the first Private Eye-published books was Rushton's first collection of cartoons, Willie Rushton's Dirty Weekend Book (banned in Ireland).

Reuniting with his Salopian chums had also reawakened Rushton's taste for acting. After they had finished university, he had accompanied his friends in a well-received revue at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. (Richard Burton even appeared one night in their parody of Luther.) In 1961, Richard Ingrams directed a production of Spike Milligan's surreal post-nuclear apocalypse farce The Bed-Sitting Room, in which Rushton was hailed by Kenneth Tynan as "brilliant". But it was a cabaret at the Room at the Top, a chicken-in-a-basket nightclub at the top of a department store in Ilford, that really launched his career. Rushton recalled meeting the Kray twins in the audience one night and that fellow performer Barbara Windsor "wouldn't come out for a drink that night". The revue also starred John Wells. Rushton's impersonation of Prime Minister Harold Macmillan caught the attention of Ned Sherrin, a young BBC producer searching for talent to appear in a forthcoming TV satire series.

That Was the Week That Was (aka "TW3") ran from November 1962 until December 1963. It drew audiences of up to 13 million, making stars of its cast, particularly David Frost. Rushton became known for his impersonation of the Prime Minister, a daring novelty in those respectful days. "It's the only impersonation that people have ever actually recognised – so I'm very grateful to the old bugger ... But then I had voted for him, so he owed me something." Rushton also appeared on the original flexi-discs of skits, squibs and invective that Private Eye gave away, having success with two self-penned songs: "Neasden" ("you won't be sorry that you breezed in ... where the rissoles are deep-freezed-en") and the "Bum Song" ("if you’re feeling glum / stick a finger up your bum / and the world is a happier place"). He also wrote songs for TW3, many of which were revisited on later solo albums like Now in Bottles and The Complete Works.

In the autumn of 1963, a health scare led Macmillan to resign and Sir Alec Douglas-Home became Prime Minister. It was necessary that Douglas-Home resign his peerage to find a safe Parliamentary seat. The Private Eye team were so disgusted by the Conservative Party's machinations that they decided to stand their own protest candidate in the Kinross and Western Perthshire by-election. Since he was the most well-known member of the team, Rushton was the obvious choice to stand. Rushton gained much attention from journalists, since he stood under the slogan "Death to the Tories". He polled only 45 votes, having advised his supporters at the last minute to vote Liberal, the Conservatives' only credible challenger. Douglas-Home won.

Films, television and radio
When TW3 was cancelled in anticipation of the 1964 election, Rushton and some of the cast, as well as some of the members of the Cambridge University revue Cambridge Circus (including future Goodies Tim Brooke-Taylor and Bill Oddie), went on tour in America as David Frost Presents TW3. Rushton and Barry Fantoni (another Private Eye contributor) entered a painting titled Nude Reclining, a satirical portrait of three establishment types, for the 1963 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition under the name of Stuart Harris, which excited much controversy. He also began a career as a character actor for films in 1963. In late 1964 Rushton was involved as one of the hosts in the early episodes of another satirical programme, Not So Much a Programme, but drifted away as it became the vehicle that launched David Frost as a chat show host. In 1964 he appeared as Richard Burbage in Sherrin and Caryl Brahms' musical of No Bed for Bacon, while his early stature as a personality was confirmed by a cartoon advert he devised for the Brewers' Society proclaiming the charms of the local pub. Rushton did his own host duties for New Stars and Garters, a variety entertainment show in 1965, where he first met Arlene Dorgan. He also appeared as a guest in programmes including Not Only... But Also with Peter Cook and Dudley Moore.

During the late 1960s, Rushton spent much of his time in Australia, following Dorgan back to her homeland. He married her in 1968. He also had several series of his own on Australian television, Don’t Adjust Your Set – The Programme is at Fault and From Rushton with Love. He said of Australia, "They've got their priorities right, they're dedicated to lying in the sun, knocking back ice-cold beer". During this period he found time to model for She magazine and also appear in a 1967 stage production of Treasure Island as Squire Trelawney, alongside Spike Milligan and Barry Humphries, at the Mermaid Theatre in London. It was on one of his return visits to the UK in 1968 that he also brought back the late Tony Hancock's ashes to the UK in an Air France bag – "My session with the Customs was a Hancock's Half Hour in itself."

He appeared in cameo roles in films, including Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965), Monte Carlo or Bust (1969), The Best House in London (1969) and The Adventures of Barry McKenzie (1972). He played Tim Brooke-Taylor's gay husband in Sharon Tate's last film before her murder, The Thirteen Chairs (1969), and Tobias Cromwell in Flight of the Doves (1971), as well as appearing in sex comedies such as Keep It Up Downstairs (1976), Adventures of a Private Eye (1977) and Adventures of a Plumber's Mate (1978). His final film appearance was as Big Teddy in Consuming Passions released in 1988. As a TV actor in the 1970s he appeared in episodes of popular programmes as different as The Persuaders!, Colditz (episode: "The Guests" – Major Trumpington in a kilt) and Up Pompeii! as the narrator Plautus. He was Dr Watson to John Cleese's Sherlock Holmes in N. F. Simpson's surreal comedy Elementary, My Dear Watson. In 1975 and 1976 he appeared in well-received pantomimes of Gulliver’s Travels; in 1981 in Eric Idle's Pass the Butler; and in 1988 as Peter Tinniswood's irascible Brigadier in Tales from a Long Room. Rushton also wrote two musicals:
 * Liz of Lambeth in 1976.
 * Tallulah Who? in 1991, with Suzi Quatro and Shirlie Roden.

In this period, he also found time to contribute seven humorous, spoken word pieces for the double LP, |The Tale of Ale.

His last major solo TV project was Rushton's Illustrated (1980; partially wiped by ATV which often did not keep programmes considered of no international sales value). By now he was an established guest on quiz shows and celebrity panel games: Celebrity Squares, Blankety Blank, Countdown and Through the Keyhole. When asked why he appeared on these "ludicrous programmes", his answer was simple: "Because I meet everybody there".

For 22 years until his death, he was a panellist in the long-running BBC Radio 4 panel comedy game show I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, which he joined as a regular team member in the third series in 1974. In its later years, the show's wealth of silliness, smut and punning was drawing audiences of up to a thousand people for its recordings. In 1990 he teamed up with his co-panellist Barry Cryer in their own show Two old Farts in the Night, performing to full audiences at the Edinburgh festival, the Royal Albert Hall and the Festival Hall, touring the country irregularly until Rushton's death.

He played a recurring character as a policeman in Southern Television's 1970–73 children's show Little Big Time with Freddie Garrity; his policeman's helmet bore a blue flashing light. His manner and voice meant Rushton was in constant demand for adverts, voice-overs and presenting jobs. In the mid-1970s, his reading of Winnie the Pooh for the BBC's Jackanory was particularly popular. He also provided all the voices for the claymation animated series The Trap Door in the late 1980s. He was a popular choice for narrating audio books, especially those for children. In particular he recorded 18 of the books by the Rev. W. Awdry for The Railway Stories series. He also recorded adaptations of Asterix books and Alice in Wonderland, and provided the voice of the King in the early animated Muzzy films. In the early 1980s he wrote and illustrated a series of children's books about "The Incredible Cottage", and provided illustrations for many children's books.

Rushton had not been involved in Private Eye since the latter part of the 1960s, other than a brief stint illustrating "Mrs Wilson's Diary" when the Labour Party came back into power in the mid-1970s. He returned to Private Eye in 1978 to take over the task of illustrating "Auberon Waugh's Diary", which continued until 1986. The cartoons perfectly complemented Auberon Waugh's scabrous and surreal flights of invective, and when Waugh moved his column to The Daily Telegraph as the "Way of the World" in 1990, Rushton followed, drawing at Waugh's instruction such surreal concepts as Richard Ingrams pretending to be a seven-year-old choirgirl, the head of a dead cow coming out of a computer connected to the then-new (in common usage) internet and a nude statue of Benjamin Britten with a bird bath discreetly covering its private parts. The Victoria and Albert Museum, recognising his accomplishments, commissioned 24 large colour illustrations which were collected as Willie Rushton's Great Moments of History. (Rushton had previous experience with the V&A when he had pulled a prank on the institution by labelling an electric plug socket in one of the galleries: "Plug hole designed by Hans Plug (b. 1908)", which remained for a full year – to the great annoyance of a cleaner who had to use a hefty extension lead for 12 months so as not to damage the exhibit.) This large-scale excursion into the use of colour was good practice for the monthly colour covers he created for the Literary Review when Waugh became its editor in 1986. Rushton drew these covers along with the fortnightly caricatures for Private Eye's literary review page until he died.

Rushton had always been conscious of his weight, listing his recreations in Who's Who as "gaining weight, losing weight and parking", and in 1973 he had been the host of a slimming programme, Don't Just Sit There. His first major health scare had been the onset of diabetes (the cause of his father's death in 1958). Having to give up beer, Rushton became, according to Ingrams, "quite grumpy as a result, but his grumpiness had an admirable and jaunty quality to it." A sudden loss of three stone had prevented him from playing in Prince Rainier's XI at Monte Carlo, Monaco. Rushton was always passionate about cricket. His father had sent him for coaching at Lord's before he went to Shrewsbury. His cricket and general knowledge were called upon in his role as a regular team captain on BBC Radio 4's quiz show Trivia Test Match with Tim Rice and Brian Johnston, which ran from 1986 to 1993. Rushton was always an enthusiastic cricketer, playing in the Lord's Taverners, a charity celebrity cricket team.

In 1989 he performed in The Secret Policeman's Biggest Ball. His act consisted of singing "Top Hat, White Tie and Tails" and acting out the lyrics, which left him standing in a top hat, white tie, and tails – but no trousers. In his later years his cartoons were part of an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery.

Death and memorials
Rushton died of a heart attack at Cromwell Hospital, Kensington on 11 December 1996, aged 59. Ten years earlier, he had made a jocular prediction that he would die that year. In the first episode of Series 13 of I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, which aired on 26 July 1986, Chairman Humphrey Lyttelton asked the panellists to "gaze into their crystal balls" and make predictions for 1996. Rushton said, "I'm sorry you introduced this round, because I just spotted a memorial service for myself in Westminster Abbey in January". Among his last words was the advice, "Tell Bazza he's too old to do pantomime", meant for his long-time friend Barry Cryer. Rushton is honoured by a Comic Heritage blue plaque at Mornington Crescent tube station, a reference to the game Mornington Crescent on I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue.

BBC7 showcased his contribution to I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, in the week of the 10th anniversary of his death, by rebroadcasting five episodes of the show, one on each weekday night (11–15 December 2006). The broadcasts chosen included the last shows he recorded for the programme.

According to the autobiography of Nicholas Parsons, Rushton's ashes were buried by the boundary at The Oval Cricket Ground.

Novels

 * The Day of the Grocer William Rushton (Andre Deutsch, 1971)
 * W. G. Grace's Last Case William Rushton (Methuen, 1984)
 * Spy Thatcher; The Collected Ravings of a Senior MI5 Officer William Rushton (Pavilion, 1987)

Solo works

 * William Rushton's Dirty Book William Rushton (Private Eye Productions, 1964)
 * The 'I Didn’t Know The Way To Kings Cross When I First Came Here But Look at Me Now' Book By William Rushton, Author, Artist And Beer-Drinker Extraordinary William Rushton (New English Library, 1966)
 * Sassenach's Scotland William Rushton (Seagram, 1975)
 * Superpig: A Gentleman's Guide To Everyday Survival William Rushton (Macdonald And Janes, 1976)
 * The Reluctant Euro – Rushton Versus Europe William Rushton (Queen Anne Press/Macdonald Futura 1980)
 * The Filth Amendment William Rushton (Queen Anne Press, 1981)
 * Think of England. An Identikit Preview of the New Heir to the Throne William Rushton (Penguin Books, 1982)
 * The Naughty French Wine Book William Rushton (G & J Greenall, 1983?)
 * Great Moments of History William Rushton (V & A, 1985)
 * The Alternative Gardener A Compost of Quips for the Green-Fingered William Rushton (Grafton Books, 1986)
 * Every Cat in the Book William Rushton (Pavilion Books, 1993)
 * The Nine Lives of the Number Ten Cat William Rushton (Pavilion, 1995)
 * Willie Rushton's Pack of Royals, 18 Caricature Playing Cards William Rushton (1995)

Private Eye books

 * Private Eye on London By Private Eye Rushton with Christopher Booker and Richard Ingrams (Weidenfeld And Nicolson 1962)
 * Private Eye's Romantic England And Other Unlikely Stories: A Miscellany – The Last Days of Macmilian Rushton with Christopher Booker and Richard Ingrams (Weidenfeld And Nicolson 1963)
 * Mrs. Wilson's Diary Richard Ingrams and John Wells (Rushton illustrations only) (Private Eye, 1965)
 * Mrs Wilson's 2nd Diary Richard Ingrams and John Wells (Rushton illustrations only) (Private Eye, 1966)
 * True Stories Christopher Logue (Rushton illustrations only) (Four Square, 1965)
 * The Penguin Private Eye Rushton with Christopher Booker and Richard Ingrams (Penguin, 1965)
 * Mrs Wilson’s Diaries (omnibus of first two books with a few additional drawings) Richard Ingrams and John Wells (Sphere, 1966)
 * Mrs. Wilson's Diary Richard Ingrams and John Wells (Rushton illustrations only) (Andre Deutsch, 1975)
 * Rushton in the Eye (a posthumous "Private Eye Special" magazine sampling Rushton's work)

With Auberon Waugh

 * The Diaries of Auberon Waugh A Turbulent Decade (Rushton illustrations only) (Private Eye/Andre Deutsch, 1985)
 * Waugh on Wine (Rushton illustrations only) (Fourth Estate, 1986)
 * Way of the World (Rushton illustrations only) (Century, 1994)
 * Way of the World: The Forgotten Years 1995–1996 (Rushton illustrations only) (Century, 1997)

With Dorgan Rushton

 * Brush Up Your Pidgin (Willow Books, 1983)
 * Collages (Pelham Books, 1984)
 * The Ffrench Letters By Godwyn Ainsley Ffrench – A Young Englishman's Letters From Abroad Giving His Very Personal And Somewhat Peculiar View of Paris in the Year 1900 (Printfine, 1984.)
 * Queen's English: High Taw Tawk Prawpah-leah (Pelham Books, 1985)

On sport

 * How To Play Football William Rushton (Margaret & Jack Hobbs, 1968)
 * Pigsticking – A Joy For Life William Rushton (Macdonald, 1978)
 * Marylebone Versus The World William Rushton (Pavilion Books, 1987)
 * The Thoughts of Trueman Now Fred Trueman, Eric Morecambe, and Fred Rumsey (Rushton illustrations only) (Macdonald & Janes, 1978)
 * The Lord's Taverners Sticky Wicket Book with Tim Rice (eds.) (Queen Anne Press/Macdonald & Jane's: 1979)
 * The Compleat Cricketer Jonathan Rice (Rushton illustrations only) (Blandford Press, 1985)
 * Cricket Balls Rory Bremner (Rushton illustrations only) (Robson Books, 1994)

Children's books

 * Ebbledum E. Elephant Iris Degg (Rushton illustrations only) (George G. Harrap, 1961.)
 * Sunny Bell and The Shrimp Street Gang Iris Degg (Rushton illustrations only) (George G. Harrap, 1962)
 * The Geranium of Flüt William Rushton (Andre Deutsch, 1975)
 * Jubilee Jackanory (Rushton story with illustrations) (BBC, 1977)
 * The Discontented Dervishes And Other Persian Tales From Sa'di Arthur Scholey (Rushton illustrations only) (Andre Deutsch, 1977)
 * Elephant on the Line! Talbot Jon (Rushton illustrations only) (Kaye And Ward, 1979)
 * Wild Wood Jan Needle (Rushton illustrations only) (Andre Deutsch, 1981)
 * The Stupid Tiger And Other Tales Raychaudhuri, Upendrakishore (Translated By William Radice) (Rushton illustrations only) (Andre Deutsch, 1981)
 * Ancient George Gets His Wish William Rushton (Golden Acorn Pub, 1981)
 * The Story of the Incredible Cottage William Rushton (Golden Acorn Pub, 1981)
 * The Incredible Cottage Goes to the Moon William Rushton (Golden Acorn, 1981)
 * Waldo Meets The Witch William Rushton (Golden Acorn Pub, 1981)
 * The Incredible Cottage Annual William Rushton (Grandreams Ltd, 1982)
 * A Cat And Mouse Story. An Old Tale Michael Rosen (Rushton illustrations only) (Andre Deutsch, 1982)
 * Losers Weepers Jan Needle (Rushton illustrations only) (Magnet Books, 1983)
 * How To Keep Dinosaurs Robert Mash (Rushton illustrations only) (Penguin Books, 1983)
 * The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen Terence Blacker (Rushton illustrations only) (Hodder Stoughton, 1989)

Books illustrated by Rushton

 * The Stag Cook Book: Being a Low Guide to the High Art of Nosh Peter Evans (Four Square, 1967)
 * This England – Selection of Pieces from the New Statesman Michael Bateman (ed). (Penguin, 1969)
 * Comic Cuts: A Bedside Sampler of Censorship in Action Richard Findlater (ed) (Andre Deutsch, 1970)
 * Practical Decorating for Practically Everyone (essay and illustrations by Rushton) (Polycell, 1976, 1977?)
 * Duckworth Vedah Hamon Moody (World's Work. 1977)
 * Unarmed Gardening Frank Ward (Macdonald & Janes, 1979)
 * I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue with Tim Brooke-Taylor, Barry Cryer, Graeme Garden, and Humphrey Lyttelton (Robson Books, London, 1980)
 * The First Impossible Quiz Book Ian Messiter (Star, 1980)
 * Bureaucrats. How To Annoy Them! R.T. Fishall (Sidgwick & Jackson. 1981)
 * Health for Hooligans Sandy Fawkes (John Pascoe, 1982)
 * I Could Have Kicked Myself David Frost and Michael Deakin (Andre Deutsch, 1982)
 * Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? Frost David And Michael Deakin (Andre Deutsch Hutchinson, 1983)
 * Molesworth Rites Again Simon Brett (London: Hutchinson, 1983)
 * 1956 And All That :A Memorable History of England Since The War To End All Wars (Two) Ned Sherrin and Neil Shand (Michael Joseph, 1984)
 * Animal Quotations G. F. Lamb (ed) (Longman, 1985)
 * Adam And Eve Willie Rushton ; And The Artists of the Portal Gallery (Bell & Hyman, 1985.)
 * If You'll Believe That... David Frost (ed) (Methuen, 1986)
 * Nudge Nudge, Wink Wink : A Quotebook of Love And Sex Nigel Rees (Javelin Books, 1986)
 * Scenes From Hysterical Life: Diary of a Mad Housewife Dorothy Baker Tarrant (Sidgewick And Jackson, 1986)
 * World’s Shortest Books David Frost (Collins/Fontana, 1987)
 * Please Give Generously Anthony Swainson (David & Charles, 1987)
 * A Family at Law Douglas Stewart and Gavin Campbell (Fourmat, 1988)
 * Dear Pup Letters to a Young Dog Diana Pullein-Thompson (Barrie & Jenkins, 1988)
 * Bad Behaviour Guy Philipps (ed.) (Elm Tree, 1988)
 * You Might As Well Be Dead Richard Ingrams (Quartet, 1988)
 * But I Digress: The Collected Monologues of Ramblin' Ronnie Corbett David Renwick (New English Library, 1989.)
 * Agreeable World of Wallace Arnold Craig Brown (Fourth Estate, 1990)
 * Soft Targets From The Weekend Guardian: Poems Simon Rae (Bloodaxe Books, 1991)
 * Thatcher's Inferno Simon Rae (Smith/Doorstop, 1992)
 * A Burning Candle, The Literary Review Anthology of Poetry Edited By Dariane Pictet, Introduced By Auberon Waugh (Peterborough, Uk: Poetry No, 1993)
 * Happy Families: An Old Game With New Faces (Mandarin, 1993)
 * The Mad Officials Christopher Booker and Dr. Richard North (Constable, 1994)
 * When the Lights Went Out Wanda Anderson (ed) (Friends of St. Helena Hospice, Colchester, 1995)
 * Gullible's Travails Brian Rix (ed) (André Deutsch, 1996)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Willie Rushton


text:
Kru languages

The Kru languages are spoken by the Kru people from the southeast of Liberia to the west of Ivory Coast.

Classification
According to Güldemann (2018), Kru lacks sufficient lexical resemblances and noun class resemblances to conclude a relationship with Niger-Congo. Glottolog considers Kru an independent language family.

Etymology
The term "Kru" is of unknown origin. According to Westermann (1952) it was used by Europeans to denote a number of tribes speaking related dialects. Marchese (1989) notes the fact that many of these peoples were recruited as "crew" by European seafarers; "the homonymy with crew is obvious, and is at least one source of the confusion among Europeans that there was a Kru/crew tribe".

History
Andrew Dalby noted the historical importance of the Kru languages for their position at the crossroads of African-European interaction. He wrote that "Kru and associated languages were among the first to be encountered by European voyagers on what was then known as the Pepper Coast, a centre of the production and export of Guinea and melegueta pepper; a once staple African seaborne trade". The Kru languages are known for some of the most complex tone systems in Africa, rivaled perhaps only by the Omotic languages.

Current status
Recent documentation has noted "Kru societies can now be found along the coast of Monrovia, Liberia to Bandama River in Côte d'Ivoire". "Villages maintain their ties based on presumed common descent, reinforced by ceremonial exchanges and gifts". The Kru people and their languages, although now many speak English (in Liberia) or French (in Côte d'Ivoire) as a second language, are said to be "dominant in the southwest region where the forest zone reaches the coastal lagoons". The Kru people rely on the forest for farming, supplemented by hunting for their livelihood.

Subgroups and associated languages
The Kru languages include many subgroups such as Kuwaa, Grebo, Bassa, Belle, Belleh, Kwaa and many others. According to Breitbonde, categorization of communities based on cultural distinctiveness, historical or ethnic identity, and socio-political autonomy "may have brought about the large number of distinct Kru dialects; "Although the natives were in many respects similar in type and tribe, every village was an independent state; there was also very little intercommunication". Breitbonde notes the Kru people were categorized based on their cultural distinctiveness, separate historical or ethnic identities, and social and political autonomy. This is the possible reason for so many subgroups of the Kru language. As noted by Fisiak, there is very little documentation on the Kru and associated languages.

Marchese's (1989) classification of Kru languages is as follows. Many of these languages are dialect clusters and are sometimes considered more than a single language.

 * Kru
 * Sɛmɛ (Siamou)
 * Aizi
 * Kuwaa
 * Kru proper
 * Eastern Kru
 * Bakwe
 * Bakwe
 * Wane
 * Bété
 * Kuya
 * Godié
 * Dida
 * Kwadia (Kodia) (Kwadia)
 * Western Kru
 * Bassa
 * Bassa
 * Dewoin
 * Gbii
 * Grebo
 * Grebo (Jabo)
 * Krumen
 * Glio-Oubi
 * Klao
 * Klao
 * Tajuasohn
 * Wèè
 * Guere
 * Daho-Doo
 * Glaro-Twabo
 * Sapo
 * Guere (Wè)
 * Krahn
 * Nyabwa
 * Konobo
 * Wobé
 * Wobé

Ethnologue adds Neyo, which may be closest to Dida or Godie.

Grammar
Kru word order is primarily subject-verb-object (SVO), but can also often be subject-object-verb (SOV).

Comparative vocabulary
Sample basic vocabulary of 12 Kru languages from Marchese (1983):

An additional sample basic vocabulary of 21 Kru languages from Marchese (1983):

Numerals
Comparison of numerals in individual languages:

Comparison of numerals in Kru languages from Marchese (1983):

Body parts (head)
Parts of the head from Marchese (1983):

Body parts (lower)
Other body parts from Marchese (1983):

Other nouns
Miscellaneous nouns from Marchese (1983):

Nature
Nature-related words from Marchese (1983):

Verbs (1)
Some basic verbs from Marchese (1983):

Verbs (2)
Other basic verbs from Marchese (1983):

Reconstruction
According to Marchese Zogbo (2012), Proto-Kru had:

 * phonemic nasalized vowels
 * four level tones
 * *CVCV-(C)V and probably *CVV syllable structure. *CCV syllables, and possibly also *CVV syllables, are derived from *CVCV roots.
 * SVO word order, but with much OV typology
 * suffixing morphology
 * perfective and imperfective aspects

Proto-Kru consonants (Marchese Zogbo 2012):

Derived consonants:
 * /ɟ/ is likely derived via palatalization (*g > ɟ), e.g. *gie > ɟie.
 * *c, *ɲ, *kʷ, *gʷ, *ŋʷ are derived from alveolar or velar consonants preceding high back or high front vowels.
 * /ɗ/ is likely derived from *l.

Proto-Kru vowels (Marchese Zogbo 2012):

There is a clear bipartite division between Western and Eastern Kru marked by phonological and lexical distinctions. Some isoglosses between Western Kru and Eastern Kru:

title: Kru languages


text:
Nyabwa language

The Nyabwa (Niaboua, Niédéboua, Nyaboa, Nyabwa-Nyédébwa, Nyedebwa or Nyaboa) language is a Kru language spoken in Ivory Coast. It is part of the Wee dialect continuum.

Writing system
Nasalisation is indicated by a tilde on the vowel. Tones are indicated by following signs: Very high tone is indicated by a double apostrophe ‹ ˮ › ; High tone is indicated by an apostrophe ‹ ʼ › ; Mid-tone is indicated by no diacritic; Low tone is indicated by a hyphen ‹ ˗ ›.

title: Nyabwa language


text:
User:Danger4

Ragazzo di una città del sud-italia che si mette a perdere tempo con WikiPedia e, cosa grave, non ne sa bene il perké. Spera un giorno che questa rivelazione gli venga fatta direttamente dall'Altissimo.

Benvenuto! (And that's about as far as my Italian will go.) Vicki Rosenzweig

title: User:Danger4


text:
Talk:Gestapo

Germanocentrism

 * I understand that the police was German, but it acted also outside Germany, which is rather ignored here. Compare eg. Flemish collaborators and their route to the Gestapo. The translators of the Sipo-SD in Antwerp. 84 Avenue Foch https://www.doew.at/english/memorial-room-for-the-victims-of-the-gestapo-vienna/gestapo-headquarters-vienna Xx236 (talk) 13:39, 23 November 2020 (UTC)
 * Important names in are listed 'Principal agents and officers'. The structure of Gestapo should be rather described in the text.Xx236 (talk) 13:51, 23 November 2020 (UTC)
 * Short history http://www.gelsenzentrum.de/gestapo_staatspolizei.htm Xx236 (talk) 13:59, 23 November 2020 (UTC)
 * The lead describes origins, it should inform about the end, either.Xx236 (talk) 14:04, 23 November 2020 (UTC)
 * In the lead, added about the end with link. Kierzek (talk) 17:03, 23 November 2020 (UTC)
 * Gestapo outside Germany still to be written.Xx236 (talk) 12:06, 24 November 2020 (UTC)
 * Operations in Nazi-occupied territories - the occupations were complicated, eg. the Netherlands was administered by civilians, Belgium militarly. Xx236 (talk) 12:42, 30 November 2020 (UTC)
 * Besides some minor copy editing, the subject matter has been addressed, thanks to Obenritter. And he was correct your tag was not the appropriate one that you originally posted. Kierzek (talk) 12:47, 2 December 2020 (UTC)
 * There is a long way between 'adressing' and creating an ecyclopedic description, which has not been done yet.
 * I do not care if my tag was appropriate or unappropriate. Radical bias of this article was highly unappropriate and I have criticized it, even if everyone was happy with the bias. 'Population ratios, methods and effectiveness' is still about 'German society'. Nacht und Nebel is not even linked here. Xx236 (talk) 08:20, 10 December 2020 (UTC)
 * 'the case for Czechoslovakia'? There was no Czechoslovakia. There was a Protectorate and partially independed Slovakia. Xx236 (talk) 09:26, 10 December 2020 (UTC)
 * As far as English speaking historians are concerned and most of Europe, Czechoslovakia existed as a sovereign state from October 1918, at which time it declared independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It remained as such until its 1993 split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. YES -- the text is correct as written.--Obenritter (talk) 22:59, 11 December 2020 (UTC)
 * The second phrase "From 1939 to 1945, following its forced division and partial incorporation into Nazi Germany, the state did not de facto exist but its government-in-exile continued to operate." The Gestapo acted according to German opinion, not 'in Czechoslovakia'. Slovak Republic (1939–1945) Xx236 (talk) 12:01, 1 February 2021 (UTC)
 * You do realize that your argument legitimizes the opinion of the Nazis. The actual government (geographically de facto did not exist) although it operated elsewhere. As far as the rest of the world was concerned, it was still Czechoslovakia...unless of course, you prefer the Nazi stance on the matter. Please clarify what your point is precisely and how you think it needs to be rewritten with an academic source fully substantiating the change.--Obenritter (talk) 16:55, 1 February 2021 (UTC)
 * that ignores the political realities - yes, Czechoslovakia was brutally invaded and that was terrible, but technically, under occupation it ceased to exist as a state - as virtually all English-speaking historians describe ...HammerFilmFan (talk) 18:21, 26 April 2023 (UTC)

Lead image
Preserving here by providing this diff. I've replaced the lead image with the following rationale: "Calling out an (almost) humanitarian operation, the White Buses, in the infobox is an obfuscation". In addition, the term "White Busses" does not appear elsewhere in the article. --K.e.coffman (talk) 15:22, 2 October 2021 (UTC)
 * Ok with me. Kierzek (talk) 15:26, 2 October 2021 (UTC)
 * Good edit.— Diannaa (talk) 20:04, 2 October 2021 (UTC)
 * Smart choice. --Obenritter (talk) 14:12, 3 October 2021 (UTC)

Translation request
I am wondering if any German speakers could provide English equivalents or translations of the information in the table shown under "Ranks and Uniforms". ShortyMcShortFace (talk) 22:11, 9 October 2022 (UTC)

Motto
Apparently the Gestapo principle was "Erkennen, erfassen, erschlagen", possibly as a motto as well.  scope_creep Talk  13:34, 12 October 2022 (UTC)
 * Would need a RS cite in support. Kierzek (talk) 14:41, 12 October 2022 (UTC)

Pronunciation
In my experience the pronunciation ɡeˈstaːpo is vastly more common in Germany, even though ɡəˈʃtaːpo might make more sense given what the acronym stands for. See also https://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/Gestapo — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2003:E8:DF12:1C3E:1591:1493:40DA:5B83 (talk) 15:14, 19 November 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Gestapo


text:
GPG

 * Global public good, in economics, a public good available worldwide
 * GNU Privacy Guard, cryptography software
 * Goals against average (GAA), also known as goals per game, sports statistic
 * Grains per gallon, water hardness measurement
 * The Good Pub Guide, recommends pubs in the UK
 * Generalized Petersen graph, a type of mathematical graph

Companies

 * Guinness Peat Group, an investment holding company
 * Grammophon-Philips Group, a previous name for record company PolyGram
 * Greenwood Publishing Group, an educational and academic publisher in the USA
 * Gas Powered Games, and their GPGNet online matchmaking service

title: GPG


text:
Abdominal obesity

Abdominal obesity, also known as central obesity and truncal obesity, is the human condition of an excessive concentration of visceral fat around the stomach and abdomen to such an extent that it is likely to harm its bearer's health. Abdominal obesity has been strongly linked to cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer's disease, and other metabolic and vascular diseases.

Visceral fat, central abdominal fat, and waist circumference show a strong association with type 2 diabetes.

Visceral fat, also known as organ fat or intra-abdominal fat, is located inside the peritoneal cavity, packed in between internal organs and torso, as opposed to subcutaneous fat, which is found underneath the skin, and intramuscular fat, which is found interspersed in skeletal muscle. Visceral fat is composed of several adipose depots including mesenteric, epididymal white adipose tissue (EWAT), and perirenal fat. An excess of adipose visceral fat is known as central obesity, the "pot belly" or "beer belly" effect, in which the abdomen protrudes excessively. This body type is also known as "apple shaped", as opposed to "pear shaped" in which fat is deposited on the hips and buttocks.

Researchers first started to focus on abdominal obesity in the 1980s when they realized it had an important connection to cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and dyslipidemia. Abdominal obesity was more closely related with metabolic dysfunctions connected with cardiovascular disease than was general obesity. In the late 1980s and early 1990s insightful and powerful imaging techniques were discovered that would further help advance the understanding of the health risks associated with body fat accumulation. Techniques such as computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging made it possible to categorize mass of adipose tissue located at the abdominal level into intra-abdominal fat and subcutaneous fat.

Abdominal obesity is linked with higher cardiovascular events among South Asian ethnic population.

Heart disease
Abdominal obesity is typically associated with a statistically higher risk of heart disease, hypertension, insulin resistance, and type 2 diabetes (see below). With an increase in the waist to hip ratio and overall waist circumference the risk of death increases as well. Metabolic syndrome is associated with abdominal obesity, blood lipid disorders, inflammation, insulin resistance, full-blown diabetes, and increased risk of developing cardiovascular disease. It is now generally believed that intra-abdominal fat is the depot that conveys the biggest health risk.

Recent validation has concluded that total and regional body volume estimates correlate positively and significantly with biomarkers of cardiovascular risk and that BVI calculations correlate significantly with all biomarkers of cardiovascular risk.

Diabetes
There are numerous theories as to the exact cause and mechanism in type 2 diabetes. Central obesity is known to predispose individuals for insulin resistance. Abdominal fat is especially active hormonally, secreting a group of hormones called adipokines that may possibly impair glucose tolerance. But adiponectin, an anti-inflammatory adipokine, which is found in lower concentration in obese and diabetic individuals has shown to be beneficial and protective in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).

Insulin resistance is a major feature of diabetes mellitus type 2, and central obesity is correlated with both insulin resistance and T2DM itself. Increased adiposity (obesity) raises serum resistin levels,  which in turn directly correlate to insulin resistance. Studies have also confirmed a direct correlation between resistin levels and T2DM. And it is waistline adipose tissue (central obesity) which seems to be the foremost type of fat deposits contributing to rising levels of serum resistin. Conversely, serum resistin levels have been found to decline with decreased adiposity following medical treatment.

Asthma
Developing asthma due to abdominal obesity is also a main concern. As a result of breathing at low lung volume, the muscles are tighter and the airway is narrower. Obesity causes decreased tidal volumes due to a reduction in chest expansion that is caused both by the weight on the chest itself and the effect of abdominal obesity on flattening the diaphragm. It is commonly seen that people who are obese breathe quickly and often, while inhaling small volumes of air. People with obesity are also more likely to be hospitalized for asthma. A study has stated that 75% of patients treated for asthma in the emergency room were either overweight or obese.

Alzheimer's disease
Based on studies, it is evident that obesity has a strong association with vascular and metabolic disease which could potentially be linked to Alzheimer's disease. Recent studies have also shown an association between mid-life obesity and dementia, but the relationship between later life obesity and dementia is less clear. A study by Debette et al. (2010) examining over 700 adults found evidence to suggest higher volumes of visceral fat, regardless of overall weight, were associated with smaller brain volumes and increased risk of dementia. Alzheimer's disease and abdominal obesity has a strong correlation and with metabolic factors added in, the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease was even higher. Based on logistic regression analyses, it was found that obesity was associated with an almost 10-fold increase risk of Alzheimer's disease.

Other health risks
Central obesity can be a feature of lipodystrophies, a group of diseases that is either inherited, or due to secondary causes (often protease inhibitors, a group of medications against AIDS). Central obesity is a symptom of Cushing's syndrome and is also common in patients with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). Central obesity is associated with glucose intolerance and dyslipidemia. Once dyslipidemia becomes a severe problem, an individual's abdominal cavity would generate elevated free fatty acid flux to the liver. The effect of abdominal adiposity occurs not just in those who are obese, but also affects people who are non-obese and it also contributes to insulin sensitivity.

Ghroubi et al. (2007) examined whether abdominal circumference is a more reliable indicator than BMI or the presence of knee osteoarthritis in obese patients. They found that it actually appears to be a factor linked with the presence of knee pain as well as osteoarthritis in obese study subjects. Ghroubi et al. (2007) concluded that a high abdominal circumference is associated with great functional repercussion.

Research published in The Lancet (2023) found that high levels of visceral fat were related to poorer cognitive performance. The findings suggest that maintaining a healthy weight and metabolic health may be important for preserving cognitive function.

Diet
The currently prevalent belief is that the immediate cause of obesity is net energy imbalance—the organism consumes more usable calories than it expends, wastes, or discards through elimination. Some studies indicate that visceral adiposity, together with lipid dysregulation and decreased insulin sensitivity, is related to the excessive consumption of fructose. Some evidence shows that in regards to juveniles, when free fructose is present as children's fat cells mature, it makes more of these cells mature into fat cells in the abdominal region. It also caused both visceral fat and subcutaneous fat to be less sensitive to insulin. These effects were not attenuated when compared to similar glucose consumption.

Intake of trans fat from industrial oils has been associated with increased abdominal obesity in men and increased weight and waist circumference in women. These associations were not attenuated when fat intake and calorie intake was accounted for. Greater meat (processed meat, red meat, and poultry) consumption has also been positively associated with greater weight gain, and specifically abdominal obesity, even when accounting for calories. Conversely, studies suggest that oily fish consumption is negatively associated with total body fat and abdominal fat distribution even when body mass remains constant. Similarly, increased soy protein consumption is correlated with lower amounts of abdominal fat in postmenopausal women even when calorie consumption is controlled.

Numerous large studies have demonstrated that ultra-processed foods have a positive dose-dependent relationship with both abdominal obesity and general obesity in both men and women. Consuming a diet rich in unprocessed food and minimally processed food is linked with lower obesity risk, lower waist circumference and less chronic disease. These findings are consistent among American, Canadian, Latin American, Australian, British, French, Spaniard, Swedish, South Korean, Chinese and Sub-Saharan African populations.

Obesity plays an important role in the impairment of lipid and carbohydrate metabolism shown in high-carbohydrate diets. It has also been shown that quality protein intake during a 24-hour period and the number of times the essential amino acid threshold of approximately 10 g has been achieved is inversely related to the percentage of central abdominal fat. Quality protein uptake is defined as the ratio of essential amino acids to daily dietary protein.

Visceral fat cells will release their metabolic by-products in the portal circulation, where the blood leads straight to the liver. Thus, the excess of triglycerides and fatty acids created by the visceral fat cells will go into the liver and accumulate there. In the liver, most of it will be stored as fat. This concept is known as 'lipotoxicity'.

Alcohol consumption
A study has shown that alcohol consumption is directly associated with waist circumference and with a higher risk of abdominal obesity in men, but not in women. After controlling for energy under-reporting, which have slightly attenuated these associations, it was observed that increasing alcohol consumption significantly increased the risk of exceeding recommended energy intakes in male participants – but not in the small number of female participants (2.13%) with elevated alcohol consumption, even after establishing a lower number of drinks per day to characterize women as consuming a high quantity of alcohol. Further research is needed to determine whether a significant relationship between alcohol consumption and abdominal obesity exists among women who consume higher amounts of alcohol.

A systemic review and meta-analysis failed to find data pointing towards a dose-dependent relationship between beer intake and general obesity or abdominal obesity at low or moderate intake levels (under ~500 mL/day). However, high beer intake (above ~4 L/wk) appeared to be associated with a higher degree of abdominal obesity specifically, particularly among men.

Other factors
The prevalence of abdominal obesity is increasing in Western populations, possibly due to a combination of low physical activity and high-calorie diets, and also in developing countries, where it is associated with the urbanization of populations.

Other environmental factors, such as maternal smoking, estrogenic compounds in the diet, and endocrine-disrupting chemicals may be important also.

Hypercortisolism, such as in Cushing's syndrome, also leads to central obesity. Many prescription drugs, such as dexamethasone and other steroids, can also have side effects resulting in central obesity, especially in the presence of elevated insulin levels.

Diagnosis
There are various ways of measuring abdominal obesity including:
 * Absolute waist circumference (>102 cm in men and >88 cm in women)
 * Waist–hip ratio (the circumference of the waist divided by that of the hips of >0.9 for men and >0.85 for women)
 * Waist-stature ratio (waist circumference divided by their height, >0.5 for adults under 40 and >0.6 for adults over 50)
 * Sagittal Abdominal Diameter

In those with a body mass index (BMI) under 35, intra-abdominal body fat is related to negative health outcomes independent of total body fat. Intra-abdominal or visceral fat has a particularly strong correlation with cardiovascular disease.

BMI and waist measurements are well recognized ways to characterize obesity. However, waist measurements are not as accurate as BMI measurements. Waist measurement (e.g., for BFP standard) is more prone to errors than measuring height and weight (e.g., for BMI standard). BMI will illustrate the best estimate of one's total body fatness, while waist measurement gives an estimate of visceral fat and risk of obesity-related disease. It is recommended to use both methods of measurements. While central obesity can be obvious just by looking at the naked body (see the picture), the severity of central obesity is determined by taking waist and hip measurements. The absolute waist circumference 102 cm in men and 88 cm in women and the waist–hip ratio (>0.9 for men and >0.85 for women) are both used as measures of central obesity. A differential diagnosis includes distinguishing central obesity from ascites and intestinal bloating. In the cohort of 15,000 people participating in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III), waist circumference explained obesity-related health risk better than BMI when metabolic syndrome was taken as an outcome measure and this difference was statistically significant. In other words, excessive waist circumference appears to be more of a risk factor for metabolic syndrome than BMI. Another measure of central obesity which has shown superiority to BMI in predicting cardiovascular disease risk is the Index of Central Obesity (waist-to-height ratio, WHtR), where a ratio of >=0.5 (i.e. a waist circumference at least half of the individual's height) is predictive of increased risk. Another diagnosis of obesity is the analysis of intra-abdominal fat having the most risk to one's personal health. The increased amount of fat in this region relates to the higher levels of plasma lipid and lipoproteins as per studies mentioned by Eric Poehlman (1998) review. An increasing acceptance of the importance of central obesity within the medical profession as an indicator of health risk has led to new developments in obesity diagnosis such as the Body Volume Index, which measures central obesity by measuring a person's body shape and their weight distribution. The effect of abdominal adiposity occurs not just in those who are obese, but also affects people who are non-obese and it also contributes to insulin sensitivity.

Index of central obesity
Index of Central Obesity (ICO) is the ratio of waist circumference and height first proposed by a Parikh et al. in 2007 as a better substitute to the widely used waist circumference in defining metabolic syndrome. The National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel III suggested cutoff of 102 cm and 88 cm for males and females as a marker of central obesity. The same was used in defining metabolic syndrome. Misra et al. suggested that these cutoffs are not applicable among Indians and the cutoffs be lowered to 90 cm and 80 cm for males and females. Various race specific cutoffs were suggested by different groups. The International Diabetes Federation defined central obesity based on these various race and gender specific cutoffs. The other limitation of waist circumference is that it the measurement procedure has not been standardized and in children there are no, or few, comparison standards or reference data.

Parikh et al. looked at the average heights of various races and suggested that by using ICO various race- and gender-specific cutoffs of waist circumference can be discarded. An ICO cutoff of 0.53 was suggested as a criterion to define central obesity. Parikh et al. further tested a modified definition of metabolic syndrome in which waist circumference was replaced with ICO in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) database and found the modified definition to be more specific and sensitive.

This parameter has been used in the study of metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular disease.

Central obesity in individuals with normal BMI is referred to as normal weight obesity.

Sex differences
There are sex-dependent differences in regional fat distribution.

Males are more susceptible to upper-body fat accumulation, most likely in the belly, due to sex hormone differences. When comparing the body fat of men and women it is seen that men have close to twice the visceral fat as that of pre-menopausal women.

In women, estrogen is believed to cause fat to be stored in the buttocks, thighs, and hips. When women reach menopause and the estrogen produced by ovaries declines, fat at their buttocks, hips, and thighs decreases while fat at their belly increases.

50% of men and 70% of women in the United States between the ages of 50 and 79 years now exceed the waist circumference threshold for central obesity.

Central obesity is positively associated with coronary heart disease risk in women and men. It has been hypothesized that the sex differences in fat distribution may explain the sex difference in coronary heart disease risk. Even with the differences, at any given level of central obesity measured as waist circumference or waist to hip ratio, coronary artery disease rates are identical in men and women.

Management
A permanent routine of exercise, eating healthily, and, during periods of being overweight, consuming the same number or fewer calories than used will prevent and help fight obesity. A single pound of fat yields approximately 3500 calories of energy (32 000 kJ energy per kilogram of fat), and weight loss is achieved by reducing energy intake, or increasing energy expenditure, thus achieving a negative balance. Adjunctive therapies which may be prescribed by a physician are orlistat or sibutramine, although the latter has been associated with increased cardiovascular events and strokes and has been withdrawn from the market in the US, the UK, the EU, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, and Thailand.

A 2006 study published in the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, suggests that combining cardiovascular (aerobic) exercise with resistance training is more effective than cardiovascular training alone in getting rid of abdominal fat. An additional benefit to exercising is that it reduces stress and insulin levels, which reduce the presence of cortisol, a hormone that leads to more belly fat deposits and leptin resistance.

Self-motivation by understanding the risks associated with abdominal obesity is widely regarded as being far more important than worries about cosmetics. In addition, understanding the health issues linked with abdominal obesity can help in the self-motivation process of losing the abdominal fat. As mentioned above, abdominal fat is linked with cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer. Specifically it is the deepest layer of belly fat (the fat that cannot be seen or grabbed) that poses health risks, as these "visceral" fat cells produce hormones that can affect health (e.g. increased insulin resistance and/or breast cancer risk). The risk increases considering the fact that they are located in the proximity or in between organs in the abdominal cavity. For example, fat next to the liver drains into it, causing a fatty liver, which is a risk factor for insulin resistance, setting the stage for type 2 diabetes. However, visceral fat is more responsive to the circulation of catecholamines.

In the presence of type 2 diabetes, the physician might instead prescribe metformin and thiazolidinediones (rosiglitazone or pioglitazone) as antidiabetic drugs rather than sulfonylurea derivatives. Thiazolidinediones may cause slight weight gain but decrease "pathologic" abdominal fat (visceral fat), and therefore may be prescribed for diabetics with central obesity. Thiazolidinedione has been associated with heart failure and increased cardiovascular risk; so it has been withdrawn from the market in Europe by EMA in 2010.

Low-fat diets may not be an effective long-term intervention for obesity: as Bacon and Aphramor wrote, "The majority of individuals regain virtually all of the weight that was lost during treatment." The Women's Health Initiative ("the largest and longest randomized, controlled dietary intervention clinical trial" ) found that long-term dietary intervention increased the waist circumference of both the intervention group and the control group, though the increase was smaller for the intervention group. The conclusion was that mean weight decreased significantly in the intervention group from baseline to year 1 by 2.2 kg (P<.001) and was 2.2 kg less than the control group change from baseline at year 1. This difference from baseline between control and intervention groups diminished over time, but a significant difference in weight was maintained through year 9, the end of the study.

Myths
There is a common misconception that spot exercise (that is, exercising a specific muscle or location of the body) most effectively burns fat at the desired location, but this is not the case. Spot exercise is beneficial for building specific muscles, but it has little effect, if any, on fat in that area of the body, or on the body's distribution of body fat. The same logic applies to sit-ups and belly fat. Sit-ups, crunches and other abdominal exercises are useful in building the abdominal muscles, but they have little effect, if any, on the adipose tissue located there.

Colloquialisms
A large central adiposity deposit has been assigned many common use names, including "spare tire", "love handle", "paunch", and "potbelly". Several colloquial terms used to refer to central obesity, and to people who have it, refer to beer drinking. However, there is little scientific evidence that beer drinkers are more prone to central obesity, despite its being known colloquially as "beer belly", "beer gut", or "beer pot". One of the few studies conducted on the subject did not find that beer drinkers are more prone to central obesity than nondrinkers or drinkers of wine or spirits. Chronic alcoholism can lead to cirrhosis, symptoms of which include gynecomastia (enlarged breasts) and ascites (abdominal fluid). These symptoms can suggest the appearance of central obesity.

Economics
Researchers in Copenhagen examined the relationship between waist circumferences and costs among 31,840 subjects aged 50–64 years of age with different waist circumferences. Their study showed that an increase in just an additional centimetre above normal waistline caused a 1.25% and 2.08% rise in health care costs in women and men respectively. To put this in perspective, a woman with a waistline of 95 cm (approx 37.4 in) and without underlying health problems or co-morbidities can incur economic costs that are 22%, or US$397, higher per year than a woman with a normal waist circumference.

title: Abdominal obesity


text:
Natufian culture

Natufian culture is a Late Epipaleolithic archaeological culture of the Neolithic prehistoric Levant in Western Asia, dating to around 15,000 to 11,500 years ago. The culture was unusual in that it supported a sedentary or semi-sedentary population even before the introduction of agriculture. Natufian communities may be the ancestors of the builders of the first Neolithic settlements of the region, which may have been the earliest in the world. Some evidence suggests deliberate cultivation of cereals, specifically rye, by the Natufian culture at Tell Abu Hureyra, the site of earliest evidence of agriculture in the world. The world's oldest known evidence of the production of bread-like foodstuff has been found at Shubayqa 1, a 14,400-year-old site in Jordan's northeastern desert, 4,000 years before the emergence of agriculture in Southwest Asia. In addition, the oldest known evidence of possible beer-brewing, dating to approximately 13,000 BP, was found in Raqefet Cave on Mount Carmel, although the beer-related residues may simply be a result of a spontaneous fermentation.

Generally, though, Natufians exploited wild cereals and hunted animals, notably gazelles. Archaeogenetic analysis has revealed derivation of later (Neolithic to Bronze Age) Levantines primarily from Natufians, besides substantial admixture from Chalcholithic Anatolians. Fig. 4. "Our data document continuity across the transition between hunter– gatherers and farmers, separately in the southern Levant and in the southern Caucasus–Iran highlands. The qualitative evidence for this is that PCA, ADMIXTURE, and outgroup f3 analysis cluster Levantine hunter–gatherers (Natufians) with Levantine farmers, and Iranian and CHG with Iranian farmers (Fig. 1b and Extended Data Figs 1, 3). We confirm this in the Levant by showing that its early farmers share significantly more alleles with Natufians than with the early farmers of Iran" Epipaleolithic Natufians were substantially derived from the Basal Eurasian lineage. "We used qpAdm (ref. 7) to estimate Basal Eurasian ancestry in each Test population. We obtained the highest estimates in the earliest populations from both Iran (66±13% in the likely Mesolithic sample, 48±6% in Neolithic samples), and the Levant (44±8% in Epipalaeolithic Natufians) (Fig. 2), showing that Basal Eurasian ancestry was widespread across the ancient Near East. [...] The idea of Natufians as a vector for the movement of Basal Eurasian ancestry into the Near East is also not supported by our data, as the Basal Eurasian ancestry in the Natufians (44±8%) is consistent with stemming from the same population as that in the Neolithic and Mesolithic populations of Iran, and is not greater than in those populations (Supplementary Information, section 4). Further insight into the origins and legacy of the Natufians could come from comparison to Natufians from additional sites, and to ancient DNA from North Africa."

Dorothy Garrod coined the term Natufian based on her excavations at the Shuqba cave (Wadi an-Natuf) near the town of Shuqba.

Discovery
The Natufian culture was discovered by British archaeologist Dorothy Garrod during her excavations of Shuqba cave in the Judaean Hills, on the West Bank of the Jordan River. Prior to the 1930s, the majority of archaeological work taking place in British Palestine was biblical archaeology focused on historic periods, and little was known about the region's prehistory.

In 1928, Garrod was invited by the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem (BSAJ) to excavate Shuqba cave, where prehistoric stone tools had been discovered by Père Mallon four years earlier. She discovered a layer sandwiched between the Upper Palaeolithic and Bronze Age deposits characterised by the presence of microliths. She identified this with the Mesolithic, a transitional period between the Palaeolithic and the Neolithic which was well-represented in Europe but had not yet been found in the Near East. A year later, when she discovered similar material at el-Wad Terrace, Garrod suggested the name "the Natufian culture", after Wadi an-Natuf that ran close to Shuqba.

Over the next two decades Garrod found Natufian material at several of her pioneering excavations in the Mount Carmel region, including el-Wad, Kebara and Tabun, as did the French archaeologist René Neuville, firmly establishing the Natufian culture in the regional prehistoric chronology. As early as 1931, both Garrod and Neuville drew attention to the presence of stone sickles in Natufian assemblages and the possibility that this represented a very early agriculture.

Dating

Radiocarbon dating places the Natufian culture at an epoch from the terminal Pleistocene to the very beginning of the Holocene, a time period between 12,500 and 9,500 BC.

The period is commonly split into two subperiods: Early Natufian (12,000–10,800 BC) and Late Natufian (10,800–9,500 BC). The Late Natufian most likely occurred in tandem with the Younger Dryas (10,800 to 9,500 BC). The Levant hosts more than a hundred kinds of cereals, fruits, nuts, and other edible parts of plants, and the flora of the Levant during the Natufian period was not the dry, barren, and thorny landscape of today, but rather woodland.

Precursors and associated cultures
The Natufian developed in the same region as the earlier Kebaran culture. It is generally seen as a successor, which evolved out of elements within that preceding culture. There were also other industries in the region, such as the Mushabian culture of the Negev and the Sinai Peninsula, which are sometimes distinguished from the Kebaran culture or believed to have been involved in the evolution of the Natufian culture.

More generally there has been discussion of the similarities of these cultures with those found in coastal North Africa. Graeme Barker notes there are: "similarities in the respective archaeological records of the Natufian culture of the Levant and of contemporary foragers in coastal North Africa across the late Pleistocene and early Holocene boundary". According to Isabelle De Groote and Louise Humphrey, Natufians practiced the Iberomaurusian and Capsian custom of sometimes extracting their maxillary central incisors (upper front teeth).

Ofer Bar-Yosef has argued that there are signs of influences coming from North Africa to the Levant, citing the microburin technique and "microlithic forms such as arched backed bladelets and La Mouillah points." But recent research has shown that the presence of arched backed bladelets, La Mouillah points, and the use of the microburin technique was already apparent in the Nebekian industry of the Eastern Levant. And Maher et al. state that, "Many technological nuances that have often been always highlighted as significant during the Natufian were already present during the Early and Middle EP [Epipalaeolithic] and do not, in most cases, represent a radical departure in knowledge, tradition, or behavior."

Authors such as Christopher Ehret have built upon the little evidence available to develop scenarios of intensive usage of plants having built up first in North Africa, as a precursor to the development of true farming in the Fertile Crescent, but such suggestions are considered highly speculative until more North African archaeological evidence can be gathered. In fact, Weiss et al. have shown that the earliest known intensive usage of plants was in the Levant 23,000 years ago at the Ohalo II site.

Anthropologist C. Loring Brace (1993) cross-analysed the craniometric traits of Natufian specimens with those of various ancient and modern groups from the Near East, Africa and Europe. The Late Pleistocene Epipalaeolithic Natufian sample was described as problematic due to its small size (consisting of only three males and one female), as well as the lack of a comparative sample from the Natufians' putative descendants in the Neolithic Near East. Brace observed that the Natufian fossils lay between those of the Niger–Congo-speaking series included and the other samples (Near East, Europe), which he suggested may point to a Sub-Saharan influence in their constitution. Subsequent ancient DNA analysis of Natufian skeletal remains by Lazaridis et al. (2016) found that the specimens instead were a mix of 50% Basal Eurasian ancestral component (see Archaeogenetics) and 50% West-Eurasian Unknown Hunter Gatherer (UHG) population related to European Western Hunter-Gatherers.

Natufians have also been described by anthropologists as a Proto-Mediterranean population.

According to Bar-Yosef and Belfer-Cohen, "It seems that certain preadaptive traits, developed already by the Kebaran and Geometric Kebaran populations within the Mediterranean park forest, played an important role in the emergence of the new socioeconomic system known as the Natufian culture."

Settlements
Settlements occur mostly in Israel and Palestine. This could be deemed the core zone of the Natufian culture, but Israel is a place that has been excavated more frequently than other places hence the greater number of sites. During the years more sites have been found outside the core zone of Israel and Palestine stretching into what now is Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, the Sinai Peninsula and the Negev desert. The settlements in the Natufian culture were larger and more permanent than in preceding ones. Some Natufian sites had stone built architecture; Ain Mallaha is an example of round stone structures. Cave sites are also seen frequently during the Natufian culture. El Wad is a Natufian cave site with occupation in the front part of the cave also called the terrace. Some Natufian sites were located in forest/steppe areas and others near inland mountains. The Natufian settlements appear to be the first to exhibit evidence of food storage; not all Natufian sites have storage facilities, but they have been identified at certain sites. Natufians are also suggested to have visited Cyprus, requiring travel over significant distances of water.

Lithics
The Natufian had a microlithic industry centered on short blades and bladelets. The microburin technique was used. Geometric microliths include lunates, trapezes, and triangles. There are backed blades as well. A special type of retouch (Helwan retouch) is characteristic for the early Natufian. In the late Natufian, the Harif-point, a typical arrowhead made from a regular blade, became common in the Negev. Some scholars use it to define a separate culture, the Harifian.

Sickle blades also appear for the first time in the Natufian lithic industry. The characteristic sickle-gloss shows that they were used to cut the silica-rich stems of cereals, indirectly suggesting the existence of incipient agriculture. Shaft straighteners made of ground stone indicate the practice of archery. There are heavy ground-stone bowl mortars as well.

Art
The Ain Sakhri lovers, a carved stone object held at the British Museum, is the oldest known depiction of a couple having sex. It was found in the Ain Sakhri cave in the Judean desert.

Burials
Natufian grave goods are typically made of shell, teeth (of red deer), bones, and stone. There are pendants, bracelets, necklaces, earrings, and belt-ornaments as well.

In 2008, the 12,400–12,000 cal BC grave of an apparently significant Natufian female was discovered in a ceremonial pit in the Hilazon Tachtit cave in northern Israel. Media reports referred to this person as a "shaman". The burial contained the remains of at least three aurochs and 86 tortoises, all of which are thought to have been brought to the site during a funeral feast. The body was surrounded by tortoise shells, the pelvis of a leopard, forearm of a boar, a wingtip of a golden eagle, and skull of a beech marten.

Long-distance exchange
At Ain Mallaha (in Northern Israel), Anatolian obsidian and shellfish from the Nile valley have been found. The source of malachite beads is still unknown. Epipaleolithic Natufians carried parthenocarpic figs from Africa to the southeastern corner of the Fertile Crescent, c. 10,000 BC.

Other finds
There was a rich bone industry, including harpoons and fish hooks. Stone and bone were worked into pendants and other ornaments. There are a few human figurines made of limestone (El-Wad, Ain Mallaha, Ain Sakhri), but the favorite subject of representative art seems to have been animals. Ostrich-shell containers have been found in the Negev.

In 2018, the world's oldest brewery was found, with the residue of 13,000-year-old beer, in a prehistoric cave near Haifa in Israel when researchers were looking for clues into what plant foods the Natufian people were eating. This is 8,000 years earlier than experts previously thought beer was invented.

A study published in 2019 shows an advanced knowledge of lime plaster production at a Natufian cemetery in Nahal Ein Gev II site in the Upper Jordan Valley dated to 12 thousand (calibrated) years before present [k cal BP]. Production of plaster of this quality was previously thought to have been achieved some 2,000 years later.

Subsistence

The Natufian people lived by hunting and gathering. The preservation of plant remains is poor because of the soil conditions, but at some sites such as Tell Abu Hureyra substantial amounts of plant remains discovered through flotation have been excavated. However wild cereals like legumes, almonds, acorns and pistachios have been collected throughout most of the Levant. Animal bones show that mountain and goitered gazelles (Gazella gazella and Gazella subgutturosa) were the main prey.

Additionally, deer, aurochs and wild boar were hunted in the steppe, as well as onagers and caprids (ibex). Waterfowl and freshwater fish formed part of the diet in the Jordan river valley. Animal bones from Salibiya I (12,300 – 10,800 cal BP) have been interpreted as evidence for communal hunts with nets, however, the radiocarbon dates are far too old compared to the cultural remains of this settlement, indicating contamination of the samples.

Development of agriculture
A pita-like bread has been found from 12,500 BC attributed to Natufians. This bread is made of wild cereal seeds and papyrus cousin tubers, ground into flour.

According to one theory, it was a sudden change in climate, the Younger Dryas event (c. 10,800 to 9500 BC), which inspired the development of agriculture. The Younger Dryas was a 1,000-year-long interruption in the higher temperatures prevailing since the Last Glacial Maximum, which produced a sudden drought in the Levant. This would have endangered the wild cereals, which could no longer compete with dryland scrub, but upon which the population had become dependent to sustain a relatively large sedentary population. By artificially clearing scrub and planting seeds obtained from elsewhere, they began to practice agriculture. However, this theory of the origin of agriculture is controversial in the scientific community.

Domesticated dog
At the Natufian site of Ain Mallaha in Israel, dated to 12,000 BC, the remains of an elderly human and a four-to-five-month-old puppy were found buried together. At another Natufian site at the cave of Hayonim, humans were found buried with two canids.

Archaeogenetics

The population associated with the Natufian culture formed genetically by the merger of a West Eurasian-like population, sharing deep ancestry with Western Hunter-Gatherers of Europe, and Basal Eurasians of local Arabian origin. Vallini et al. (2024) modeled the amount of Basal Eurasian ancestry among Natufians at roughly 15%, with the remainder being associated with West Eurasian sources.

The Natufian population also displays ancestral ties to Paleolithic Taforalt samples, the makers of the Epipaleolithic Iberomaurusian culture of the Maghreb, the Pre-Pottery Neolithic culture of the Levant, the Early Neolithic Ifri N'Amr Ou Moussa and the Late Neolithic Kelif el Boroud culture of North Africa, with samples associated with these early cultures all sharing a common genomic component dubbed the "Natufian component", which diverged from other West Eurasian lineages ~26,000 years ago, and is most closely linked to the Arabian lineage. Possible bidirectional geneflow events between these groups has also been suggested, with particular evidence for affinity between the Natufians and Iberomaurusians.

Contact between Natufians and other Neolithic Levantines, Caucasus hunter-gatherers (CHG), Anatolian and Iranian farmers is believed to have decreased genetic variability among later populations in the Middle East. Migrations from the Near-East also occurred towards Africa, and the West Eurasian-like ancestry among populations in the Horn of Africa being best represented by the Levant Neolithic, and may be associated with the spread of Afroasiatic languages. Lazaridis et al. (2016) did not find a greater genetic affinity between Natufians and sub-Saharan Africans than that existing between sub-Saharan Africans and other ancient populations of Western Eurasia, and also stated that the ancestry of a primitive population from North Africa could not be tested because modern North Africans are largely descended from late migrant populations from Eurasia. However, Daniel Shriner (2018), using modern populations as a reference, found 28% autosomal African ancestry in Natufian samples, with 21.2% related to North Africa and 6.8% related to Omotic-speaking populations in southern Ethiopia, which reveals a plausible source for haplogroup E in Natufians; still according to Shriner, the Natufian samples had 61.2% ancestry related to Arabs and 10.8% ancestry related to West Asians.

As summarized by Rosa Fregel, a later preprint from Lazaridis et al. (2018) has contested Loosdrecht's conclusion and argues for a minor sub-Saharan African component in Natufians, stating "that [the Iberomaurusians of] Taforalt can be better modeled as a mixture of a Dzudzuana component and a sub-Saharan African component" (or an ancient and now-extinct North African component that diverged prior to the Out-of-Africa migration) and "also argue that (...) the Taforalt people (...) contributed to the genetic composition of Natufians and not the other way around". Fregel summarizes that "More evidence will be needed to determine the specific origin of the North African Upper Paleolithic populations".

In their 2017 paper, Ranajit Das, Paul Wexler, Mehdi Pirooznia and Eran Elhaik analyzed the Lazaridis et al. (2016) study concluding that the Natufians, together with one Neolithic Levantine sample, clustered in the proximity to modern Palestinians and Bedouins, and also "marginally overlapped" with Yemenite Jews. Ferreira et al. (2021) and Almarri et al. (2021) found that ancient Natufians cluster with modern Arabian groups, such as Saudi Arabians and Yemenis, which derive most of their ancestry from local Natufian-like hunter-gatherer peoples and have less Neolithic Anatolian ancestry than Levantines. Sirak et al. (2024) found that medieval Socotra (the Soqotri people), similar to modern Saudis, Yemenis and Bedouins, have a majority component that is "maximized in Late Pleistocene (Epipaleolithic) Natufian hunter–gatherers from the Levant".

Language
Alexander Militarev, Vitaly Shevoroshkin and others have linked the Natufian culture to the proto-Afroasiatic language,  which they in turn believe has a Levantine origin. Some scholars, for example Christopher Ehret, Roger Blench and others, contend that the Afroasiatic Urheimat is to be found in North Africa or Northeast Africa, probably in the area of Egypt, the Sahara, Horn of Africa or Sudan. Within this group, Ehret, who like Militarev believes Afroasiatic may already have been in existence in the Natufian period, would associate Natufians only with the Near Eastern Proto-Semitic branch of Afroasiatic.

Sites
The Natufian culture has been documented at dozens of sites. Around 90 have been excavated, including:

 * Aammiq 2
 * Tell Abu Hureyra
 * Abu Salem
 * Abu Usba
 * Ain Choaab
 * Ain Mallaha (Eynan)
 * Ain Rahub
 * Ain Sakhri
 * Ala Safat
 * Antelias Cave
 * Azraq 18 (Ain Saratan)
 * Baaz
 * Bawwab al Ghazal
 * Beidha
 * Dederiyeh
 * Dibsi Faraj
 * El Khiam
 * El Kowm I
 * El Wad
 * Erq el Ahmar
 * Fazael IV & VI
 * Gilgal II
 * Givat Hayil I
 * Har Harif K7
 * Hatoula
 * Hayonim Cave and Hayonim Terrace
 * Hilazon Tachtit
 * Hof Shahaf
 * Huzuq Musa
 * Iraq ed Dubb
 * Iraq el Barud
 * Iraq ez Zigan
 * J202
 * J203
 * J406a
 * J614
 * Jayroud 1–3 & 9
 * Jebel Saaidé II
 * Jeftelik
 * Jericho
 * Kaus Kozah
 * Kebara
 * Kefar Vitkin 3
 * Khallat Anaza (BDS 1407)
 * Khirbat Janba
 * Kosak Shamali
 * Maaleh Ramon East
 * Maaleh Ramon West
 * Moghr el Ahwal
 * Mureybet
 * Mushabi IV & XIX
 * Nachcharini Cave
 * Nahal Ein Gev II
 * Nahal Hadera I and Nahal Hadera IV (Hefsibah)
 * Nahal Oren
 * Nahal Sekher 23
 * Nahal Sekher VI
 * Nahr el Homr 2
 * Qarassa 3
 * Ramat Harif (G8)
 * Raqefet Cave
 * Rosh Horesha
 * Rosh Zin
 * Sabra 1
 * Saflulim
 * Salibiya 1
 * Salibiya 9
 * Sands of Beirut
 * Shluhat Harif
 * Shubayqa 1
 * Shubayqa 6
 * Shukhbah Cave
 * Shunera VI
 * Shunera VII
 * Tabaqa (WHS 895)
 * Taibé
 * TBAS 102
 * TBAS 212
 * Tor at Tariq (WHS 1065)
 * Tugra I
 * Upper Besor 6
 * Wadi Hammeh 27
 * Wadi Jilat 22
 * Wadi Judayid (J2)
 * Wadi Mataha
 * Yabrud 3
 * Yutil al Hasa (WHS 784)

title: Natufian culture