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Intolerance (film)

Intolerance is a 1916 epic silent film directed by D. W. Griffith. Subtitles include Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages and A Sun-Play of the Ages.

Regarded as one of the most influential films of the silent era (though it received mixed reviews at the time), the three-and-a-half-hour epic intercuts four parallel storylines, each separated by several centuries: first, a contemporary melodrama of crime and redemption; second, a Judean story: Christ's mission and death; third, a French story: the events surrounding the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre of 1572; and fourth, a Babylonian story: the fall of the Babylonian Empire to Persia in 539 BC. Each story had its own distinctive color tint in the original print. The scenes are linked by shots of a figure representing Eternal Motherhood, rocking a cradle.

Griffith chose to explore the theme of intolerance partly in response to his previous film The Birth of a Nation (1915) being derided by the NAACP and others for perpetuating and supporting racial stereotypes and glorifying the Ku Klux Klan. Intolerance was not, however, an apology, as Griffith felt he had nothing to apologize for; in numerous interviews, Griffith made clear that the film was a rebuttal to his critics and he felt that they were, in fact, the intolerant ones. In the years following its release, Intolerance strongly influenced European film movements. In 1958, the film was voted number 7 on the Brussels 12 list at the 1958 World Expo. In 1989, it was one of the first films to be selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.

Storylines
The film consists of four distinct, but parallel, stories—intercut with increasing frequency as the film builds to a climax—that demonstrate mankind’s persistent intolerance throughout the ages. The timeline covers approximately 2,500 years.

 * 1) The ancient "Babylonian" story (539 BC) depicts the conflict between Prince Belshazzar of Babylon and Cyrus the Great of Persia. The fall of Babylon is a result of intolerance arising from a conflict between devotees of two rival Babylonian gods—Bel-Marduk and Ishtar.
 * 2) The Biblical "Judean" story (c. AD 27) recounts how—after the Wedding at Cana and the Woman Taken in Adultery—intolerance led to the Crucifixion of Jesus. This sequence is the shortest of the four.
 * 3) The Renaissance "French" story (1572) tells of the religious intolerance that led to the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre of Protestant Huguenots fomented by the Catholic Royal House of Valois.
 * 4) The American "Modern" story (c. 1914) demonstrates how crime, moral puritanism, and conflicts between ruthless capitalists and striking workers help ruin the lives of marginalized Americans. To get more money for his spinster sister's charities, a mill owner orders a 10% pay cut to his workers' wages. An ensuing workers' strike is crushed and The Boy and The Dear One make their way to another city; she lives in poverty and he turns to crime. After they marry, he tries to break free of crime but is framed for theft by his ex-boss. While he is in prison, his wife must endure their child being taken away by the same "moral uplift society" that instigated the strike. Upon his release from prison, he discovers his ex-boss attempting to rape his wife. A struggle begins and in the confusion the girlfriend of the boss shoots and kills the boss. She escapes and The Boy is convicted and sentenced to the gallows. A kindly policeman helps The Dear One find the real killer and together they try to reach the Governor in time so her reformed husband will not be hanged.

Breaks between differing time periods are marked by the symbolic image of a mother rocking a cradle, representing the passing of generations. The film simultaneously cross-cuts back and forth and interweaves the segments over great gaps of space and time, with over 50 transitions between the segments. One of the unusual characteristics of the film is that many of the characters do not have names. Griffith wished them to be emblematic of human types. Thus, the central female character in the modern story is called The Dear One, her young husband is called The Boy, and the leader of the local Mafia is called The Musketeer of the Slums. Critics and film theorists maintain that these names reveal Griffith's sentimentalism, which was already hinted at in The Birth of a Nation, with names such as The Little Colonel.

Cast

The American "Modern" story Renaissance "French" story (1572) Ancient "Babylonian" story The Biblical "Judean" story Cameo appearances/small roles
 * Lillian Gish as The Eternal Motherhood
 * Mae Marsh as The Dear One
 * Robert Harron as The Boy, a worker at Jenkins Mill
 * Fred Turner as The Dear One's father, a worker at the Jenkins Mill
 * Miriam Cooper as The Friendless One, former neighbor of the Boy and Dear One
 * Walter Long as Musketeer of the Slums
 * Tom Wilson as The Kindly Officer/Heart
 * Vera Lewis as Miss Mary T. Jenkins
 * Sam De Grasse as Mr. Arthur Jenkins, mill boss
 * Lloyd Ingraham as The Judge
 * Ralph Lewis as The Governor
 * A. W. McClure as Prison Father Fathley
 * Max Davidson as tenement neighbor of Dear One
 * Margery Wilson as Brown Eyes
 * Eugene Pallette as Prosper Latour
 * Spottiswoode Aitken as Brown Eyes' father
 * Ruth Handforth as Brown Eyes' mother
 * Allan Sears as The Mercenary Soldier
 * Josephine Crowell as Catherine de Medici, the Queen-mother
 * Frank Bennett as Charles IX of France
 * Maxfield Stanley as Prince Henry of France
 * Joseph Henabery as Admiral Coligny
 * Constance Talmadge as Princess Marguerite of Valois (first role in film)
 * W. E. Lawrence as Henry of Navarre
 * Constance Talmadge as The Mountain Girl (second role in film)
 * Elmer Clifton as The Rhapsode, a warrior-singer
 * Alfred Paget as Prince Belshazzar
 * Seena Owen as The Princess Beloved, favorite of Belshazzar
 * Tully Marshall as High Priest of Bel-Marduk
 * George Siegmann as Cyrus the Great
 * Carl Stockdale as King Nabonidus, father of Belshazzar
 * Elmo Lincoln as The Mighty Man of Valor, guard to Belshazzar
 * Frank Brownlee as The Mountain Girl's brother
 * The Ruth St. Denis Dancers as Dancing girls
 * Howard Gaye as The Nazarene
 * Lillian Langdon as Mary, the Mother
 * Bessie Love as The Bride
 * George Walsh as The Bridegroom

 * Mary Alden
 * Frank Borzage
 * Tod Browning (Crook)
 * Frank Campeau
 * Jewel Carmen
 * Constance Collier
 * Donald Crisp
 * Carol Dempster
 * Douglas Fairbanks (drunken soldier with monkey)
 * Mildred Harris (Favorite of the harem)
 * Dell Henderson
 * Harold Lockwood
 * Wilfred Lucas
 * Francis McDonald
 * Owen Moore
 * Carmel Myers
 * Wallace Reid
 * Eve Southern
 * Pauline Starke
 * Erich von Stroheim (Second Pharisee)
 * Madame Sul-Te-Wan
 * Natalie Talmadge
 * Ethel Grey Terry
 * Herbert Beerbohm Tree
 * King Vidor
 * John P. McCarthy (Prison Guard)

Production

Intolerance was a colossal undertaking featuring monumental sets, lavish period costumes, and more than 3,000 extras. The lot on Sunset Boulevard featured a Babylon set with 300 ft tall walls as well as streets of Judea and medieval France. The total payroll for extras was reported to have reached $12,000 daily. Griffith began shooting the film with the Modern Story (originally titled "The Mother and the Law"), whose planning predated the great commercial success of The Birth of a Nation. He then greatly expanded it to include the other three parallel stories under the theme of intolerance. Three hundred thousand feet of film were shot.

The total cost of producing Intolerance was reported to be close to $2 million including $250,000 for the Belshazzar feast scene alone, an astronomical sum in 1916, but accounts for the film show the exact cost to be $385,906.77. A third of the budget went into making the Babylonian segments of the film.

Reception
Intolerance was met with an enthusiastic reception from film critics upon its premiere. Scholar Frank Beaver argues that "Griffith's intended message in Intolerance was not lost on reviewers", noting that in The San Francisco Bulletin a contemporary critic declared, "Griffith's film comes powerfully to strengthen the hand of the believers in love." Although Intolerance was a commercial failure upon its initial release, it has since received very positive reviews and later gained popularity. It has been called "the only film fugue". Theodore Huff, one of the leading film critics of the first half of the 20th century, believed that it was the only motion picture worthy of taking its place alongside Beethoven's Symphony No. 5, Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling paintings, etc., as a separate and central artistic contribution.

Intolerance was shown out of competition at the 1982 Cannes Film Festival. In 1989, it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant", the first year of voting. In 2007, AFI's 100 Years ... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) ranked Intolerance as the 49th best American film of all time.

Pauline Kael considered Intolerance the greatest film ever made: "Intolerance is one of the two or three most influential movies ever made, and I think it is also the greatest." Half-a-century later, Armond White concurs, writing, "A century later we are as close to its subject as we are distant from its art."

Praise for the work is not unanimous, however. David Thomson argued that the film's impact is weakened by its "self-destructive frenzy":

"The cross-cutting, self-interrupting format is wearisome ... The sheer pretension is a roadblock, and one longs for the 'Modern Story' to hold the screen ... [That story] is still very exciting in terms of its cross-cutting in the attempt to save the boy from the gallows. This episode is what Griffith did best: brilliant, modern suspense, geared up to rapidity—whenever Griffith let himself slow down he was yielding to bathos ... Anyone concerned with film history has to see Intolerance, and pass on."

The film has been widely reported to have been a box office bomb, but this is a myth attributed to its misreported budget. Even though up to that time it was the most expensive American film made and grossed far less than The Birth of a Nation, it earned approximately $1.75 million for its backers, a respectable performance and enough to recoup its budget.

Influence
Intolerance and its unorthodox editing were enormously influential, particularly among European and Soviet filmmakers. Many of the numerous assistant directors Griffith employed in making the film—Erich von Stroheim, Tod Browning, Woody Van Dyke—went on to become important and noted Hollywood directors in subsequent years.

The film was parodied by Buster Keaton in Three Ages (1923).

In 1954, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art held a screening of the 1916 film, with organist Vernon Geyer performing the original score.

Intolerance's "Babylon" set is a feature location in the 2011 video game L.A. Noire, even though the game is set in 1947 and the Babylon set was torn down before this date.

Versions
Intolerance is now in the public domain. There are currently four major versions of the film in circulation on home video.

 * 1) The Killiam Shows Version – Taken from a third-generation 16 millimeter print, this version contains an organ score by Gaylord Carter. Running approximately 176 minutes, it is the version that has been the most widely seen in recent years. It has been released on LaserDisc and DVD by Image Entertainment and is the most complete version currently available on home video, if not the longest.
 * 2) The Official Thames Silents Restoration – In 1989 this film was given a formal restoration by film preservationists Kevin Brownlow and David Gill. This version, also running 177 minutes, was prepared by Thames Television from original 35 millimeter material, and its tones and tints were restored per Griffith's original intent. It also has a digitally recorded orchestral score by Carl Davis. It was released the same year on VHS in the US by HBO Video, then went out of print. This version is part of the Rohauer Collection. The Rohauer company worked in association with Thames on the restoration. It was given a further digital restoration by Cohen Media Group (which currently serves as keeper of the Rohauer library, and is the copyright holder on this restored version), and was reissued to select theatres, as well as on DVD and Blu-ray, in 2013. It is distributed under the Masters of Cinema label in Europe. While not as complete as the Killiam Shows Version, this print contains footage not found on that particular print.
 * 3) The Kino Version – Pieced together in 2002 by Kino International, this version, taken from 35 millimeter material, is transferred at a slower frame rate than the Killiam Shows and Rohauer prints, resulting in a longer running time of 197 minutes. It contains a synthetic orchestral score by Joseph Turrin. An alternative "happy ending" to the "Fall of Babylon" sequence, showing the Mountain Girl surviving and re-united with the Rhapsode, is included on the DVD as a supplement. Despite the longer runtime, this version is less complete than the Killiam Shows and Rohauer prints.
 * 4) The Restored Digital Cinema Version – Restoration conducted by ZZ Productions in collaboration with the Danish Film Institute and Arte France of the version shown at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London on April 7, 1917. This version runs approximately 177 minutes, and premiered at the Venice Film Festival on August 29, 2007, and on arte on October 4, 2007.

A further extensive 1989 restoration was a collaboration between silent film composer-conductor Gillian Anderson, the Museum of Modern Art and the Library of Congress. It is somewhat controversial but perhaps the most accurate to date; however, it is unavailable on home video.

There are other budget/public domain video and DVD versions of this film released by different companies, each with varying degrees of picture quality depending on the source that was used. Most are of poor picture quality, but even the restored 35 millimeter versions exhibit considerable film damage.

The Internet Movie Database lists the standard running time as 163 minutes, which is the running length of the DVD released by "Public Domain Flicks". The Delta DVD released in Region 1 as Intolerance: A Sun Play of the Ages and in Region 2 as Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages clocks in at 167 minutes. The version available for free viewing on the Internet Movie Archive is the Killiam restoration.

Cameraman Karl Brown remembered a scene with the various members of the Babylonian harem that featured full frontal nudity. He was barred from the set that day, apparently because he was so young. While there are several shots of slaves and harem girls throughout the film (which were shot by another director without Griffith's involvement), the scene that Brown describes is not in any surviving versions.

It is also known that a major segment of the Renaissance "French" story, involving the attempted assassination of the Admiral Coligny, was cut before the film's release.

Film historian Kevin Brownlow has written that, when Griffith re-released "The Modern Story" separately as The Mother and the Law in 1919, he softened in the film, due to the First Red Scare that year. "He was obliged to put this title in the strike sequence: 'The militiamen having used blank cartridges, the workmen now fear only the company guards. In fact, "machine guns could not operate with blank cartridges at this period", Brownlow noted.

title: Intolerance (film)


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Amblypygi

Amblypygi is an order of arachnids also known as whip spiders or tailless whip scorpions, not to be confused with whip scorpions or vinegaroons that belong to the related order Thelyphonida. The name "amblypygid" means "blunt tail", a reference to a lack of the flagellum that is otherwise seen in whip scorpions. Amblypygids possess no silk glands or venom. They rarely bite if threatened, but can grab fingers with their pedipalps, resulting in thorn-like puncture injuries.

As of 2023, 5 families, 17 genera and around 260 species had been discovered and described. They are found in tropical and subtropical regions worldwide; they are mainly found in warm and humid environments and like to stay protected and hidden within leaf litter, caves, or underneath bark. Some species are subterranean; all are nocturnal. Fossilized amblypygids have been found dating back to the Carboniferous period, such as Weygoldtina.

Body plan
Being arachnids, Amblypygi possess two body segments; the prosoma and the opisthosoma, (often referred to as the cephalothorax and abdomen), four pairs of legs, pedipalps, and chelicerae. Their bodies are broad and highly flattened, with a solid prosoma and a segmented opisthosoma.

Amblypygids range from 5 to 16 cm in legspan. Most species have eight eyes; a pair of median eyes at the front of the carapace above the chelicerae and 2 smaller clusters of three eyes each further back on each side.

The first pair of legs act as sensory organs and are not used for walking. The sensory legs are very thin and elongated, have numerous sensory receptors, and can extend several times the length of the body.

Pedipalps
Amblypygids have raptorial pedipalps modified for grabbing and retaining prey, much like the forelegs of mantises. The pedipalps are generally covered in spines, used for impaling and capturing prey. They are kept folded in front of the prosoma when not in use. Recent work suggests that the pedipalps display sexual dimorphism in their size and shape.

Pedipalp anatomy varies strongly with species, with configurations often conforming to a particular style of prey capture. The pedipalps of some genera such as Euphrynicus are extremely long, and free of spines until near the extreme distal end of the appendage.

Exoskeleton
Whip spiders are covered with a layer of a solidified secretion that forms a super-hydrophobic coating. Studies on the spotted tailless whip scorpion also show their exoskeleton is enriched with several trace elements, including calcium, magnesium, manganese, potassium, sodium, and zinc, which tends to accumulate as the individ gets older. The same trace elements are also present in the exoskeleton of the other members of Tetrapulmonata.

Behavior
Amblypygids have eight legs, but use only six for walking, often in a crab-like, sideways fashion. The front pair of legs are modified for use as antennae-like feelers, with many fine segments giving the appearance of a "whip". When a suitable prey is located with the antenniform legs, the amblypygid seizes its victim with large spines on the grasping pedipalps, impaling and immobilizing the prey. This is typically done while climbing the side of a vertical surface and looking downward at their prey.

Pincer-like chelicerae then work to grind and chew the prey prior to ingestion. The tailless whip scorpion may go for over a month in which no food is eaten. Often this is due to pre-molt. Due to the lack of venom the tailless whip scorpion is very nervous in temperament, retreating away if any dangerous threat is sensed by the animal.

Courtship involves the male depositing stalked spermatophores, which have one or more sperm masses at the tip, onto the ground, and using his pedipalps to guide the female over them. She gathers the sperm and lays fertilized eggs into a sac carried under the abdomen, or opisthosoma. When the young hatch, they climb up onto the mother's back; any which fall off before their first molt will not survive.

Some species of amblypygids, particularly Phrynus marginemaculatus and Damon diadema, may be among the few examples of arachnids that exhibit social behavior. Research conducted at Cornell University suggests that mother amblypygids communicate with their young with her antenniform front legs, and the offspring reciprocate both with their mother and siblings. The ultimate function of this social behavior remains unknown. Amblypygids hold territories that they defend from other individuals.

The amblypygid diet mostly consists of arthropod prey, but these opportunistic predators have also been observed feeding on vertebrates. Amblypygids generally do not feed before, during, and after molting. Like other arachnids, an amblypygid will molt several times during its life. Molting is done while hanging from the underside of a horizontal surface in order to use gravity to assist in separating the old exoskeleton from the animal.

As pets
Several genera of Amblypygi are sold and kept as pets including Acanthophrynus, Charinus, Charon, Damon, Euphrynichus, Heterophrynus, Phrynus, Paraphrynus, and Phrynichus. Tailless whip scorpions are kept in tall enclosures with arboreal climbing surfaces to allow for two things: Enough vertical space for climbing and moulting, and enough space for heat to dissipate in order to keep the enclosure between 70 F and 75 F. 5 cm of substrate at the bottom of the enclosure is generally sufficient to allow for burrowing and also serves as a method to retain water in order to keep the humidity above 75%. Tailless whip scorpions live anywhere between 5–10 years. Feeding can include small insects such as crickets, mealworms, and roaches.

Genera
The following genera are recognised:
 * Palaeoamblypygi Weygoldt, 1996
 * Paracharontidae Weygoldt, 1996
 * Paracharon Hansen, 1921 (1 species, West Africa)
 * Jorottui Moreno-González, Gutierrez-Estrada, & Prendini, 2023 (1 species, northern South America)
 * Weygoldtinidae Dunlop, 2018
 * †Weygoldtina Dunlop, 2018 (2 species, Upper Carboniferous Europe, North America)
 * Euamblypygi Weygoldt, 1996
 * †Paracharonopsis Engel & Grimaldi, 2014 (1 species, Cambay amber, India, Eocene)
 * Charinidae Weygoldt, 1996
 * Charinus Simon, 1892 (33 species)
 * Sarax Simon, 1892 (10 species)
 * Weygoldtia Miranda, Giupponi, Prendini & Scharff, 2018 (3 species)
 * Neoamblypygi Weygoldt, 1996
 * Charontidae Simon, 1892
 * Catageus Thorell, 1889 (9 species)
 * Charon Karsch, 1879 (5 species)
 * Unidistitarsata Engel & Grimaldi, 2014
 * †Kronocharon Engel & Grimaldi, 2014 (1 species, Burmese amber, Myanmar, Cretaceous)
 * †Burmacharon? Hu et al. 2020 (1 species, Burmese amber, Myanmar, Cretaceous)
 * Phrynoidea Blanchard, 1852
 * Phrynichidae Simon, 1900
 * Damon C. L. Koch, 1850 (10 species)
 * Euphrynichus Weygoldt, 1995 (2 species)
 * Musicodamon Fage, 1939 (1 species)
 * Phrynichodamon Weygoldt, 1996 (1 species)
 * Phrynichus Karsch, 1879 (16 species)
 * Trichodamon Mello-Leitão, 1935 (2 species)
 * Xerophrynus Weygoldt, 1996 (1 species)
 * Phrynidae Blanchard, 1852
 * Acanthophrynus Kraepelin, 1899 (1 species)
 * †Britopygus Dunlop & Martill, 2002 (1 species; Crato Formation, Brazil, Cretaceous)
 * Heterophrynus Pocock, 1894 (14 species)
 * Paraphrynus Moreno, 1940 (18 species)
 * Phrynus Lamarck, 1801 (28 species, Oligocene - Recent)
 * Incertae sedis:
 * † Sorellophrynus Harvey, 2002 (1 species, Upper Carboniferous, North America)
 * † Thelyphrynus Petrunkevich, 1913 (1 species, Upper Carboniferous, North America)

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

title: Amblypygi


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User talk:Arpingstone/ArchiveMar3-2003

Hello, welcome to wikipedia, and please don't be put off by my comments! Many people paste in material from other web pages, which we can't allow, so we're always on the watch for that. Your Tillandsia made me think of care guides in gardening books, hence my suspicion. -- Tarquin 23:55 Jan 19, 2003 (UTC)

BTW, the talk system works like this: click on a user's name to go to their home page. Next click on the "discuss" link. This takes you to their User talk page -- like this one. Edit this to leave a message. I'll add something about this to the FAQ tomorrow -- did you look for an answer to this question, and if so, where (so I can put it where people will look) -- Tarquin

If you need help resizing or otherwise manipulating images, just post a note at the village pump asking for help. One of the best users for help with images is User:Lee Daniel Crocker, but he hasn't been around much since about October -- says he'll be back when he gets done settling into his new house (in California, U.S.) and the company he works for gets done with the first-of-the year tax info forms they send out (by the end of January). I can help with images in BMP, JPG, and sometimes PNG. Some of the users who post the most images use ones that are too big and/or otherwise unacceptable to a lot of us, and we spend a lot of our time fixing those (and then listening to them bitch about it), so I really appreciate your trying to find out how to do it right the first time. -- isis 08:50 Jan 21, 2003 (UTC)

Hi. Can you have a quick look at talk:jumbo jet please. Mintguy 16:41 Feb 11, 2003 (UTC)

Nice Severn Bridge photos!! Well done. Nevilley

 * Nevilley, you are a gentleman! This is the first time anyone has written to me about my photos. There's quite a lot of work in preparing and uploading each pair of pics so your comment means a lot to me. I use an Olympus 3 megapixel digital camera and my graphics program is Photoshop version 6. If you would like to see some more of my pics have a look at Boeing 747 Lapis lazuli Tillandsia Paris Opal Amber Gemstone and Boeing 737. Thanks again. Arpingstone 11:31 Feb 14, 2003 (UTC)

 * you're welcome. And I will look forward to having a look at those other pictures! Nevilley 01:51 Feb 16, 2003 (UTC)

(re Talk:Airbus A320) My pleasure, Adrian. That's an excellent A320 photograph. Yup, Avalon, just outside Melbourne, about 100 kilometres away from me. I'd have liked to spend a good deal longer there but was with friends who had had enough for one day and wanted to get home in time to watch the cricket. :) I must get a decent general-purpose camera one day. My Sony is excellent for macro work (I bought it to take pictures of hard drives and CPUs) but a poor tool for birds (my real love) or aircraft. Cheers, Tony (Tannin)

I don't know if you're sympathetic to this cause, but I need support in trying to keep football at football. They want to move it to soccer, please see talk:list of footballers. Mintguy 10:24 Feb 19, 2003 (UTC) - Could you perhaps compress Image:Stamp.gb.diana.1981.250pix.jpg a bit? It is nearly 100,000 bytes in size but an image that size shouldn't be more than 1/10 as big. Having images that big makes it very difficult for people with slower modems to use Wikipedia. --mav

image:Stamp.barbados.250pix.jpg is way too big too. Please downsize and set your scanner to make lower resolution images. --mav

Per your message on my talk page: OK that's cool. I'm sorry I got pissy. :-) --mav

Don't happen to have a DC-8 in your collection, do you? Tannin

 * No matter then. I had a secret idea that you'd say "Yes, which do you want - a short fuselage early model? Or a Super Seventy?" And (of course) I'd say "Both, please!" Cheers -- Tony

 * PS - hang on to that MD-88 picture - I'll get around to doing a DC-9/MD-80/MD-90 entry before too long. - T

- You now have a brand new history. --mav

Hi Arpingstone. I just wanted to thank you for all the great photos you've added to Wikipedia! -- Stephen Gilbert

Adrian, slip over to User talk:Snoyes for a discussion of image resizing. Maybe it will be helpful. Best - Tannin

Hi there: How are you? I see you have a passion for aviation. I share that passion. I am from Puerto Rico, I used to live near Luis Munoz Marin International Airport and I used to see British Caledonian DC-10's landing there, as well as Viasa, Iberia, Avianca, Delta Air Lines, Mexicana, etc etc.

My two passions are actually boxing and airplanes. I wanted to be a boxer when I was a kid, that way I could combine both everytime I had to travel for a fight..lol!

Anyways I wanted to tell you that I have a collection of 69 plastic commercial jetliners, including a couple British Airways, the SST Concorde and Boeing 747 South Africa models. I really enjoyed your photos of the Japan Airlines 747 and British Midland Airbus A320 and others. Keep up the excellent work!

God bless!

Sincerely yours Antonio Catch me if You Can Martin

Hi Adrian

I've been following the Great Thumbnail Debate with much interest. I'm sorry that you were initially upset by it but it looks like it is settling down well now. It made me pretty nervous about *my* thumbnails - as I am very far from an expert - but I did some experiments (using Photoshop!) and I think I'm OK.

I was wondering about the caption to the SSC photograph. It seems to me it has two problems, both minor - (1) it's getting a bit long and maybe some of its text would be better in the article body and (2) the bit about the viaduct on rock is (to me) slightly confusing - for a moment I thought you were saying it's a viaduct OF solid rock, when presumably the intention is that that's what its foundations are on - is that right? And if so is there any way it can be made clearer for even thick people like me?? What do you think? Keep up the good work, Nevilley 11:06 Feb 23, 2003 (UTC)

 * Thanks very much for the response regarding this. Neville.

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This may be an impossible task, but do you think you could explain to someone who knows practically nothing about using a scanner and other technical things (i.e. me) how to put photos onto Wikipedia? It may require a few hundred pages of instructions, in which case don't worry, but thanks anyway.Olivia Curtis 18:25 Feb 25, 2003 (UTC)
 * Hi Olivia, welcome. Yes, I'll do an outline of how I prepare and upload my pics but it won't be lengthy because I don't know your expertise (if any!) or your equipment. Watch this space (could be a day or two). Adrian 20:35 Feb 25, 2003 (UTC)

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Hi Adrian. I looked at your resizing of the larger Kaprun pic. It looks excellent - I tried resizing the large one to the same dimensions as you had done and had basically identical results. I was going to ask you how you got such high quality images, but you gave yourself away in your post: a digital camera. What resolution and zooms (optical & digital) does this camera have? --snoyes 23:11 Feb 25, 2003 (UTC)

Olivia, here's what you asked for above. I am not any kind of expert so the more knowledgeable can probably tear what follows to bits. Do so, by all means, but be gentle with me! I do know that my method produce a neat looking result on the page. This stuff is only about inserting pics with JPG extensions i.e. photographs.

HOW TO PUT A JPG ON A WIKIPEDIA ARTICLE PAGE If you want to see examples of my work: For a scanned object look at the Lapis lazuli article, the blue elephant was laid on the scanner plate, this is NOT a photograph, it's a scan! For photos from my digital camera see Severn Bridge. For a scanned colour print see Kaprun disaster.

These instructions give a good appearance on my 1024 by 768 screen. Ideally I would check the appearance at the other common screen sizes but I can’t because changing screen size puts all my desktop icons into a heap in the corner and it takes too long to restore their positions when I return to 1024 by 768! Perhaps a peculiarity of my OS (Windows ME).

PREPARE THE PICTURES Pictures come off my digital camera at 2048 by 1536 pixels at 700K, far too big size-wise and memory-wise for Wikipedia. The output of my Epson flat-bed scanner (if I want to scan objects or colour prints) is often even bigger than that. Those of us with 56K modems won’t wait to upload such large pics so the size has to be reduced without sacrificing too much quality. There are dozens of graphics programs for resizing and quality reduction, I happen to have the big one – Photoshop - but the power of that program isn’t usually needed for Wikipedia illustrations. My standard pic sizes are a big pic at 750 pixels wide and a little pic (a thumbnail) exactly one third of that size, at 250 pixels wide. I used 800 pixels until recently but the re-sizing produced poor quality thumbnails, the one third cut-down seems to produce better quality. If the pic is portrait format, then use a lot less width for the big pic (say, 500 pixels) or the pic may be taller than the screen. Then the reader will have to scroll down to see it all (very irritating!). The big pic should be created at a quality producing a size not bigger than 100K and the little pic not bigger than 20K (15K would be better). Make the pic name descriptive – for example: old.severn.bridge.250pix.jpg and old.severn.bridge.750pix.jpg

UPLOAD THE PICS TO WIKIPEDIA The two pics are now ready for upload to Wikipedia. The little pic will go on the article page and big pic can be seen by clicking on a link called “Click here for larger version” (which I put below the caption). Now upload the two prepared pics to Wikipedia by going to this URL: http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Upload. This screen requires three actions: . browse to one of the two files, say the 750 pixel one, . promise that you own the copyright by ticking a box, . put in a simple title such as “Pic of Severn Bridge”.

Then click UPLOAD FILE and wait awhile.

Your pic will be uploaded (with an on-screen complaint if it’s over 100K) and the screen will ask you to “Please follow this link”. This will take you to a screen carrying the famous slogan “EDIT THIS PAGE”. Click on that and then enter your description text in the Edit box, such as who took it, where and when, and if it’s public domain. Don’t forget to fill in the summary box with, for example, “Picture of the Severn Bridge”. A typical pic description would be: “The Severn Bridge seen from the English side of the river.Photographed by Adrian Pingstone in April 2002 and released to the public domain.” (you can see this message for anyones pic by clicking on the pic). PREVIEW until happy. To keep your description text for use with the second pic, select the text and do EDIT COPY. Finally, SAVE. Now go back to the upload page URL you used earlier and do exactly the same for the 250 pixel pic.

INSERT THE PICTURE CODE INTO THE ARTICLE Go to the article and note the area where the pic can best go, and if best on left or right of the page. Steal my picture code, here’s how: Go to Severn Bridge, click on EDIT THIS PAGE, copy the coding by selecting it with the mouse and choose EDIT COPY. You need the stuff between (and including) the words TABLE. In the code I know that “width=270” looks odd but it gives a better clearance between the pic and the text. Then paste it down into the articles Edit Page with EDIT PASTE. Modify the left or right instruction and the file names, type in your own caption and PREVIEW. Don’t forget the Summary. Modify as often as you like, finally SAVE.

If you have only a small pic and no large one then you probably just delete the “Click here” line in the coding (I haven’t tried this).

FOOTNOTE: I have a copy of this picture code pasted on to a Microsoft Word page and saved, then I do EDIT COPY/EDIT PASTE. I think that’s easier than going off to an article to steal it.

Done!! Enlightened, Olivia? Best Wishes -- Adrian 20:48 Feb 26, 2003 (UTC)(previously known as Arpingstone)

 * Thank you so much! It will take me a while to read this a few hundred times and fathom it all out, but I'm sure I'll be enlightened in the end.  Thanks again for taking the time to share your expertise (which is certainly what you have, compared to me!)

Olivia Curtis 21:37 Feb 26, 2003 (UTC)

Hi Adrian

Brought to you live and direct, courtesy of Cut'n'Paste (TM), from Talk:Bristol:

 * "Does the article need more on Concorde and Filton? The runway extension (for the Brabazon I think)? Nevilley 08:05 Feb 27, 2003 (UTC)

 * Arpingstone seems to be our resident expert on Filton. Obviously I wouldn't presume to speak for him, but you could drop a note on his talk in case he's not watching this page. --rbrwr (who is within sight of the Filton runway at the moment)."

Over to you Adrian!

Nevilley 16:21 Feb 27, 2003 (UTC)

Oh and by the way, congratulations on your very clear picture instructions above. I did something similar with the code business - wrote a "nowikified" version of it for my user page and just copy it straight off there now, without having to put a page into edit. Lazy or what? I see you are suggesting 270 width for 250px wide graphics, something I had not thought of (in fact if you had asked me I would probably have guessed it would mess the picture up or something - duh, as they say), so I am going to look again at your stuff and mine and copy your idea if I like it! Anyway, nice one! -- Nevilley

title: User talk:Arpingstone/ArchiveMar3-2003


text:
Kent Hovind

Kent E. Hovind (born January 15, 1953) is an American Christian fundamentalist evangelist and tax protester. He is a controversial figure in the young Earth creationist movement whose ministry focuses on denial of scientific theories in the fields of biology (evolution and abiogenesis), geophysics, and cosmology in favor of a literalist interpretation of the Genesis creation narrative found in the Bible. Hovind's views, which combine elements of creation science and conspiracy theory, are dismissed by the scientific community as fringe theory and pseudo-scholarship. Answers in Genesis openly criticized him for continued use of discredited arguments abandoned by others in the movement.

Hovind established Creation Science Evangelism (CSE) in 1989 and Dinosaur Adventure Land in 2001 in Pensacola, Florida. He frequently spoke on Young Earth creationism in schools, churches, debates, and on radio and television broadcasts. His son Eric Hovind took over operation of CSE after Hovind began serving a ten-year prison sentence in January 2007 for federal convictions for failing to pay taxes, obstructing federal agents, and structuring cash transactions. In September 2021, Hovind was convicted of domestic violence against his estranged wife.

Biography
At the age of 16, Hovind became a born-again Christian within the Independent Fundamental Baptist church.

In 1971, he graduated from East Peoria Community High School in East Peoria, Illinois. He entered Illinois Central College and then transferred to the unaccredited Midwestern Baptist College in 1972, attaining a Bachelor of Religious Education in 1974.

He married his wife Jo in 1973 and they had three children between 1977 and 1979. Between 1975 and 1988, Hovind served as an assistant pastor and teacher at three private Baptist schools, including one he started.

In 1989, the family moved to Pensacola, Florida, where Jo attended (then unaccredited) Pensacola Christian College and earned a bachelor's degree in music and master's degrees in music and sacred music.

In 1998, Hovind created his Dr. Dino web site and began producing articles and selling video tapes, books, and fossil replicas. Prior to his incarceration, Hovind had numerous speaking engagements (around 700 in 2004 ) at churches, private schools, and other venues each year, in addition to hosting a daily internet radio talk show and establishing Dinosaur Adventure Land in Pensacola, Florida. In 1999, his son Eric Hovind began traveling to present his arguments and seminars. Kent and Jo divorced in 2016.

In 1988 and 1991 respectively, Hovind received a master's degree and doctorate in Christian Education through correspondence from (also unaccredited) Patriot University, then in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Patriot University is a diploma mill.

Having a website called "Dr. Dino" has provoked some academics to look closely at how Hovind presents his education and credentials. All his known degrees are from unaccredited institutions, and he has no training in paleontology. Barbara Forrest, a professor of philosophy, expert on the history of creationism and activist in the creation–evolution controversy, wrote that Hovind's lack of training makes academic discussion impossible and has said that his understanding of historical and scientific research is deficient. Karen Bartelt, an organic chemistry professor who debated Hovind, examined Hovind's dissertation and found it is incomplete, contains numerous spelling errors, lacks references, shows flawed reasoning, and states that it does not present any original research.

Creation Science Evangelism and Creation Today
Hovind established Creation Science Evangelism in 1989 to evangelize and teach creationism. In May 1999, his son Eric joined Creation Science Evangelism as a speaker, and his daughter Marlissa began training to become Hovind's secretary. That year, CSE merged with Faith Baptist Fellowship of Hawthorne, Florida, beginning a relationship that lasted until 2002. In 2003, with the aid of Glenn Stoll (a promoter of tax-avoidance schemes), Hovind set up a series of entities starting with "an unincorporated association of pure trust" on May 13, under which a corporation sole and several ministerial trusts were established starting on May 23. CSE properties were conveyed to the trusts which operated under business licenses from the "Kingdom of Heaven".

Hovind is associated with the Unregistered Baptist Fellowship (UBF), a loosely affiliated group of roughly 100 churches which share a "theology of Christian resistance" to civil governments. Because the UBF would consider it an acknowledgement of government authority over the church, they reject the highly favorable 501(c)(3) status, which makes donations tax deductible and exempts them from income tax, but not FICA taxes or employee income tax withholding. The UBF holds that governmental authority stops "at the threshold of the church", and Hovind has likened his ministry's status to that of the Vatican City State. When the federal government obtained a search warrant in 2004, an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) criminal investigator made the sworn statement that the organization did not have a business license and did not have tax-exempt status.

Hovind was convicted of 58 felony counts in November 2006 and sentenced to ten years in prison in January 2007; Eric Hovind took over Creation Science Evangelism. In July 2007, God Quest Inc. was incorporated with Eric Hovind as president, and that November, God Quest Inc. filed in Florida to do business under the trade name Creation Science Evangelism. In June 2008, Eric announced that the CSE website would incorporate the CSE blog and change format allowing for "only positive comments" about Hovind and CSE, and in late 2011, Creation Science Evangelism's DrDino.com website was redirected to CreationToday.org. The new website announced "Creation Today is a ministry of God Quest, Inc." with focus on "creation, apologetics and evangelism."

Dinosaur Adventure Land

In 2001 Hovind started Dinosaur Adventure Land, a young Earth creationist theme park located behind Hovind's home in Pensacola. With the slogan, "Where Dinosaurs and the Bible meet!", the facility on roughly 7 acre had an indoor "Science Center" and an outdoor space with a variety of simple dinosaur-themed rides and activities, each of which was tied to some religious message. For example, the "Jumpasaurus" was a trampoline next to a basketball hoop; children would have one minute to make as many baskets as they could, and the message was that one has to be coordinated to do more for Jesus. Annual attendance was 38,000. The park depicted humans and dinosaurs co-existing in the last 4,000–6,000 years and also contains a depiction of the Loch Ness Monster. The Southern Poverty Law Center said the park also "claims that a few small dinosaurs still roam the planet". A 2004 Skeptical Inquirer article discussed a visit to Hovind's dinosaur theme park and concluded that the park is "deceptive on many levels". In Reports of the National Center for Science Education, George Allan Alderman described it as "essentially a playground with a few exhibits, several fiberglass dinosaurs, a climbing wall, and a couple of buildings." He summarized it as "shabby".

The venture encountered legal issues when the owners did not get a building permit in 2002 (see below). In April 2006, Escambia County officials closed the building in question. In July 2009, the courts ruled that the properties could be seized and sold to satisfy Hovind's criminal penalties (see below). Another Florida ministry theme park, the Holy Land Experience, successfully lobbied for a property tax exemption law for parks "used to exhibit, illustrate, and interpret biblical manuscripts" in 2006; Dinosaur Adventure Land, which was not a 501(c)(3) organization, failed to have the law expanded to be included. Eric Hovind kept the park and CSE operating throughout 2008, but in July 2009, a judge allowed the government seizure to proceed. In August 2009, Dinosaur Adventure Land's website announced it was closed, and CSE announced its re-opening as the "Creation Store" in November 2010.

In April 2016, Hovind discussed plans for a new Dinosaur Adventure Land, which included an 80-foot-tall model dinosaur that would be the largest in the state, with commissioners in Conecuh County, Alabama. A supporter donated a 140 acre parcel of land in Lenox, Alabama, a former gravel pit. Volunteers started work by June 2016, and it opened in April 2018. , total attendance had exceeded 1,000, according to Hovind. Dinosaur Adventure Land is operated by a 501(c)(3) organization, Creation Science Evangelism Ministries Inc. Its revenue streams are donations, book and DVD sales, and YouTube advertising. There is no admission charge and it operates without liability insurance. Facilities include a science center, a campground, a four-wheeler park, and church services including baptisms.

On March 15, 2020, a seven-year-old boy drowned at the park.

The Hovind Theory
Hovind presented a version of young Earth creationism he calls the "Hovind Theory" in lectures and in the book Unmasking the False Religion of Evolution. The Hovind Theory is entirely rejected in the scientific community, and its plausibility has even been criticized by other young Earth creationists.

In Hovind's narrative, dinosaurs and humans coexisted and Tyrannosaurus rex was a vegetarian prior to the fall of man. Hovind expands upon the late 19th- and early 20th-century vapor canopy concept of a protective shield that made Earth a relative paradise between the expulsion from Paradise and Noah's flood. The flood is expressed as a function of natural rather than miraculous processes. Noah's family and two of every kind of animal (including dinosaurs, which fit because babies were taken aboard and conditions allowed larger humans, making the ark's size, based on cubits, larger ) boarded Noah's Ark before an ice meteor impacted the Earth. Fragments from the meteor caused planetary rings and impact craters on the moon and other solar system bodies. The remainder were drawn to the North and South Poles by the Earth's magnetic field as cataclysmic snowfall which buried the mammoths standing up. The ice on the poles cracked the Earth's crust, releasing the "fountains of the deep". According to Hovind, these events caused an ice age, and made the Earth wobble around, collapsing the vapor canopy that protected it.

In the next few months of the flood, the dead animals and plants were buried, and became oil, coal, and fossils. The last months of the flood included geological instability, when the plates shifted, forming ocean basins and mountain ranges. The Grand Canyon was formed in a couple of weeks during this time.

Criticism from creationists
In a rare case of open dissent within the movement over the substance of creation science, Answers in Genesis (AiG) published a 2002 position paper titled: "Arguments we think creationists should NOT use". After Hovind issued a point-by-point rebuttal, Carl Wieland, Ken Ham, and Jonathan Sarfati of AiG wrote that the claims made by Hovind were "fraudulent" and contained "mistakes in facts and logic which do the creationist cause no good." In particular, AiG criticized Hovind for "persistently us[ing] discredited or false arguments" as well as "fraudulent claims" from Ron Wyatt, and described one of Hovind's claims as "self-refuting". Rancorous disagreements resulted in AiG splitting into U.S. and Australian chapters in 2005. The Australian branch, renamed Creation Ministries International (CMI), maintained content critical of Hovind on their website, while the U.S. branch, led by Ken Ham, removed it. In 2009, CMI said that they had relaxed their stance because CSE's revamped website had removed some of Hovind's claims to which they objected.

Greg Neyman, an old-Earth creationist who runs the Old Earth Ministries website (renamed from Answers in Creation), writes that Hovind's articles about humans and dinosaurs coexisting are unsupported by evidence and that they "embarrass the young earth creation science community as a whole".

To the Orthodox Jewish creationist, Hovind's approach relies upon a strict literal reading of the King James translation. Where Jews interpret the Hebrew through Talmud and Midrash, Hovind relies on a direct reading of English. For example, Hovind claims that the word dinosaur, which was introduced to English in 1841, refers to what previously had been called dragon. Dragon is used where tannin appears, but it means serpent or crocodile.

Anti-evolution claims
Hovind contends that "Darwinism" produced "Communism, Socialism, Nazism, abortion, liberalism and the New Age Movement". He blamed the forced Cherokee resettlement on a belief in evolution, although the Trail of Tears preceded Origin of Species by roughly two decades. Hovind maintains that biology textbooks are lying in order to brainwash youth. He said, "Satan is using evolution theory to make kids go to hell." Hovind claims he is not trying to eliminate evolution from schools, but says "schools should teach both viewpoints." Hovind said that in order to forge "missing link" transitional fossils to support human evolution, the Smithsonian Institution has 33,000 sets of human remains in its basement, some taken alive (murder). In an interview prior to speaking at Kent State University, Hovind said "You should have another rebellion here at Kent State and do it for the right reason," the reason being protesting evolution and referred to the Kent State shootings when he added, "This time, don't get shot."

In the pseudoscience of cryptozoology, Hovind published and co-authored Claws, Jaws, and Dinosaurs with William Gibbons, another Creationist who has searched for dinosaurs in the Congo under the belief that discovering a cryptid would somehow undermine evolutionary theory and that dinosaurs were dragons. Dinosaur Adventure Land had displays about the existence of the Loch Ness Monster and Beowulf as history rather than legend.

Debates
Prior to his convictions, Hovind was a prolific debater. While Hovind campaigns against evolution, the level of support for evolution is essentially universal within the scientific community and academia; support for creationism is minimal among scientists in general, and virtually nonexistent among those in the following fields: biology, paleontology, geology, etc. C. A. Chinn and L. A. Buckland classify his debate style, common among Young Earth Creationists, as eristic: focused on winning by rhetoric rather than illuminating by careful examination of evidence.

In 1993, Hovind announced that he would be debating the renowned evolutionary biologist, Stephen Jay Gould, who had a longstanding opposition to debating Creationists and had turned down numerous challenges. When contacted about the announcement, Gould said he had never heard of Hovind, much less agreed to debate.

In May 2004, Michael Shermer debated Hovind in front of a predominantly creationist audience. Shermer claimed the exchange was "not an intellectual exercise", but rather "an emotional drama", and concluded, "Unless there is a subject that is truly debatable with a format that is fair, in a forum that is balanced, it only serves to belittle both the magisterium of science and the magisterium of religion." Massimo Pigliucci also debated Hovind, and expressed surprise at Hovind's ignorance of evolutionary theory. Pigliucci recalled Hovind tried "to convince the audience that evolutionists believe humans came from rocks" and subsequently "evolved from bananas." William Reville, Director of Microscopy at University College Cork, wrote that Hovind's ideas are not rational or scientific because they are not testable. Hovind has repeatedly declined offers for written debates where his claims would be scrutinized by scientists, including his decline of a debate offer from Dave Thomas.

During a debate with Farrell Till, Hovind said that Donald Johanson had uncovered the leg bones of Lucy at a different site over a mile away from the reported site, in a deeper stratum, quipping, "I would like to know how fast the train was going that hit that chimpanzee." This was clearly contrary to the published statements by Johanson. After Hovind had been informed in 1993 that his statement was false, he agreed to stop using the claim. When he repeated the claim in 1995, he once more agreed he was in error.

$250,000 offer
In 1990, Hovind made a $10,000 offer to anyone who could meet a set of requirements he said would prove evolution, and he later raised the amount to $250,000. In 2007, Creation Science Evangelism removed the offer from its website.

"I have a standing offer of $250,000 to anyone who can give any empirical evidence (scientific proof) for evolution.* My $250,000 offer demonstrates that the hypothesis of evolution is nothing more than a religious belief.

...

* NOTE: When I use the word evolution, I am not referring to the minor variations found in all of the various life forms (microevolution). I am referring to the general theory of evolution which believes these five major events took place without God:

 * 1) Time, space, and matter came into existence by themselves.
 * 2) Planets and stars formed from space dust.
 * 3) Matter created life by itself.
 * 4) Early life-forms learned to reproduce themselves.
 * 5) Major changes occurred between these diverse life forms (i.e., fish changed to amphibians, amphibians changed to reptiles, and reptiles changed to birds or mammals)."

The premises of Hovind's offer have been rejected both by scientists and fellow creationists as fundamentally flawed. Hovind's conditions would require a claimant not only to prove the theory of evolution, but also abiogenesis, astrophysics and cosmology, and additionally prove that no gods could possibly exist. The judges would be hand-picked without assurances that they would be unbiased or qualified to assess the merit of claims, and it is possible that no panel was convened when a claim was submitted. Some forms of evidence would be excluded prior to judging.

Answers in Genesis dismissed the challenge as a gimmick. A 2005 challenge on Boing Boing offered $250,000 to anyone who could prove that the Flying Spaghetti Monster (the deity of a parody religion constructed to make a point about giving time to alternative views on evolution) was not the father of Jesus.

Political activity
In 1999, a Bradenton, Florida pastor asked the school board to consider adding Creationism to the curriculum. The school board chairman's actions raised issues when, in his capacity as a citizen, he helped fund a series of seminars by Hovind, but he was within ethical guidelines. More controversy was raised when a school employee was sent to videotape the lectures, although without intention for rebroadcast. Ultimately, there was no curriculum change.

Hovind was criticized for his involvement with Arkansas state Representative Jim Holt's Anti-Evolution Bill in 2001 (House Bill 2548). This bill "would have required that when public schools refer to evolution that it be identified as an unproven theory." Opponents of the bill worried that it would subject Arkansas to the same type of derision that occurred when the state's balanced-treatment law was struck down in McLean v. Arkansas. Holt called upon Hovind as an expert who "testified for Holt before the State Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committee, alleging much of the information pertaining to evolution in our science textbooks is false."

In 2007, David Vitter added a $100,000 earmark in a U.S. Senate appropriations bill, directed towards the Louisiana Family Forum "to develop a plan to promote better science education". Their website included a document, A Battle Plan—Practical Steps to Combat Evolution' by Kent Hovind". After a reporter's inquiries, the document, which called evolution "not a harmless theory but a dangerous religious belief" and blamed it for atrocities by Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and Pol Pot, was removed from their website. The earmark was withdrawn from the bill.

Chick tracts
The most widely distributed antievolution work, Big Daddy?, was first published in 1972 and revised several times; it is one of the controversial Chick tracts, comic strips intended to convert people to fundamentalist Christianity. Material from Hovind was incorporated into the 2000 revision.

Miscellaneous
Hovind believes that the King James Version is the most accurate English-language Bible translation.

Politics and conspiracy theories
Hovind has made controversial remarks regarding conspiracies, science, creation, equal rights, religion, and government. His presentations on creationism and evolution are a mix of Christian Fundamentalism and conspiracy theories. His creationist presentations have asserted that creationism is not taught in public schools due to a New World Order conspiracy, established by Satan and involving Ted Turner and Jane Fonda, the British Royal Family, the State of Israel, the American Civil Liberties Union (which he calls "the American Communist Lawyers Union"), U.S. government officials, business leaders, and social activists. In May 1999, he claimed "the implementation of the NWO's world-domination plan was May 5, 2000."

Hovind has promoted several conspiracy theories about the U.S. government. He has claimed that the U.S. government was behind the 9/11 attacks and the Oklahoma City bombing. Regarding UFOs, Hovind recommends books by conspiracy theorists who believe "some UFO's are U.S. Government experiments with electrogravitic propulsion as opposed to jet propulsion, while others are Satanic apparitions." The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) criticized Hovind for referring followers to books by Irwin Schiff, a tax protester who has been convicted of tax evasion multiple times. The SPLC has criticized Hovind for "point[ing] his followers to Citizens Rule Book, popular among antigovernment 'Patriots', and to Media Bypass, an antigovernment magazine with strong antisemitic leanings", and for selling of books such as Des Griffin's Fourth Reich of the Rich and Peter Kershaw's In Caesar's Grip, and recommending The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a well-known antisemitic hoax.

Hovind claims that the cyanide-releasing compound laetrile is a "cancer cure" which the U.S. government is conspiring to suppress and that diseases including HIV, Gulf war syndrome, Crohn's colitis, and rheumatoid arthritis and Alzheimer's were engineered by "the money masters and governments of the world" for the purpose of global economic domination. He has denounced democracy as "evil and contrary to God's law", and called global warming a communist conspiracy.

In his lectures, he claimed that the United States government was implanting pet-tracking microchips into people allowing them to be tracked by satellite, even though the transponder range made that impossible. On his website, Hovind associated the UPC bar code with the Mark of the Beast, and wrote that there were reports of people paying for groceries by having their hands scanned in 1999.

YouTube copyright controversy

On September 16, 2007, the Rational Response Squad (RRS) complained that Creation Science Evangelism was filing spurious DMCA requests that had caused RRS YouTube videos to be taken down and the RRS YouTube account to be banned. In response to the copyright claims, the RRS threatened a lawsuit.

At the time of the complaints, the CSE's website indicated the videos were not copyrighted, and the CSE encouraged copying and distributing them. Five days later, the CSE copyright page was changed to say that copied material must be left unedited. According to a spokesperson for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, CSE's claim was "clearly bogus", and as of September 25, 2007, the Rational Response Squad account had been reinstated, and some of the videos had been put back online.

Escambia County (2002–2006)
On August 15, 2002, Hovind was arrested for assault, battery, and burglary in an incident with a CSE secretary. The charges were dropped in December.

On September 13, 2002, Hovind was charged with failure to observe county zoning regulations for Dinosaur Adventure Land, a misdemeanor. In April 2006, the Dinosaur Adventure Land buildings were closed by county officials, and the Florida circuit court found the owners in contempt, ordering fines of $500 for each day the buildings were used. Hovind argued he did not need a permit due to the nature of the building, but after a 5-year court battle over the $50 building permit, on June 5, 2006, Hovind pleaded nolo contendere as charged to three counts: constructing a building without a permit, refusing to sign a citation, and violating the county building code. Hovind paid fines totaling $675.

Federal civil tax matters, bankruptcy, and renouncing citizenship (1996–2006)
Hovind was originally reported to the Internal Revenue Service by Pensacola Christian College senior vice President Rebekah Horton in the mid-1990s, after she learned of Hovind's anti-tax stand. Hovind's organization had neither business licenses nor tax-exempt status, nor was it considered a church by people who worked there. The ministry's organizational structure was described by the United States Tax Court as appearing to be "based on various questionable trust documents purchased from Glen Stoll, a known promoter of tax avoidance schemes", leading the Court to conclude that Hovind used these trust documents as well as other fraudulent means to conceal the ownership and control of his activities and properties.

According to the IRS, Hovind earned $50,000 a year through speaking engagements, and in 2002 alone, CSE sold more than $1.8 million in merchandise. On average, Hovind made bank deposits in excess of $1 million each year, and eventually that grew to about $2 million a year. About half that income went to employees who were salaried or were paid hourly wages. However, Hovind derived "substantial revenue" from these activities that appeared to be "income to [him] personally".

On March 1, 1996, Hovind filed a Chapter 13 bankruptcy petition to avoid paying federal income taxes, claiming he was not a citizen of the United States and that he did not earn income. He claimed that as a minister, everything he owned belonged to God and he was not subject to paying taxes for doing God's work. On June 5, 1996, the Court dismissed Hovind's bankruptcy case, finding he had lied about his possessions and income. The court upheld the IRS's determination that his claim "was filed in bad faith for the sole purpose of avoiding payment of federal income taxes" and called Hovind's arguments "patently absurd". It also said that "the IRS has no record of the debtor ever having filed a federal income tax return."

In 1998, the IRS requested account information about Hovind from an internet provider after Hovind made claims on an internet broadcast about his own tax law noncompliance, going back to the 1970s. When the provider initially balked, the courts granted a subpoena on the basis that the IRS could demonstrate that Hovind had received income but had filed no income tax returns going back to 1991. In 2003, Hovind would tell The New York Times, "I haven't filed a tax return in 30 years."

On May 13, 1998, Hovind and his wife filed a "Power of Attorney and Revocation of Signature" document in Escambia County which would nullify any of their promises, debts, or legal agreements made prior to April 15, 1998. The Hovinds claimed they had signed government documents "due to the use of various elements of fraud and misrepresentations, duress, coercion, under perjury, mistake, 'bankruptcy'," and argued that Social Security is a "Ponzi scheme". The document referred to the United States Government as "the 'bankrupt' corporate government", renounced the Hovinds' United States citizenship and Social Security numbers to become "a natural citizen of 'America' and a natural sojourner", and referred to their home state of Florida as "the State of Florida Body-Politic Corporation." Judges and the IRS did not appear to honor this as a legally relevant document in future decisions. In 2002, Hovind was again delinquent in paying his taxes, and unsuccessfully sued the IRS for harassment.

At various times, the government alleged that Hovind had not filed personal U.S. federal income tax returns for the years 1989 through 1997. In the spring of 2004, the IRS conducted an audit and criminal investigation regarding Hovind's unfiled personal Federal income tax for 1995 through 1997. IRS agent Scott Schneider said, "Since 1997, Hovind has engaged in financial transactions indicating sources of income and has made deposits to bank accounts well in excess of $1 million per year during some of these years, which would require the filing of federal income taxes." On June 3, 2004, the IRS executed a search warrant on Hovind's home and businesses to confiscate financial records and attempt to deliver notices of Federal tax liens of $504,957.24, which Hovind refused to accept. Agents confiscated $42,000 in cash found in various places in the residence. Six guns were present, including an SKS semiautomatic rifle. That day, Hovind withdrew $70,000 from the CSE bank account, half in cash.

On July 7, 2006, the United States Tax Court found that Hovind was deficient in paying his federal income taxes in 1995–1997, totaling $520,099. The Tax Court ruled that the IRS had a valid lien on Hovind's property and said that Hovind's defense was based on "bizarre arguments, some of which constitute tax protester arguments involving excise taxes and the alleged '100% voluntary' nature of the income tax." With penalties, he owed $3.3 million for tax years 1998–2006 by 2013. Jo Hovind was ordered to pay $1.6 million.

Federal criminal tax-related trial and convictions in 2006
On July 11, 2006, Hovind was indicted on 58 counts in the District Court in Northern Florida in Pensacola. The first 12 counts were charges for willful failure to collect, account for, and pay over federal income taxes and FICA taxes in connection with the CSE operation, totaling $473,818 for the 12 fiscal quarters of 2001–2003. The next 45 counts were charges for knowingly structuring transactions by making multiple cash withdrawals totaling $430,500 in amounts just under the $10,000 which requires reporting (a technique known as "structuring"), for which his wife was also charged. The last count was a charge of corruptly endeavoring to obstruct and impede the administration of the internal revenue laws by falsely listing the IRS as his only creditor when filing for bankruptcy, filing a false and frivolous lawsuit against the IRS in which he demanded damages for criminal trespass, making threats of harm to those investigating him and to those who might consider cooperating with the investigation, filing a false complaint against IRS agents investigating him, filing a false criminal complaint against IRS special agents (criminal investigators), and destroying records. Because of reports of weapons on the Hovind property, the indictment was originally sealed for fear of danger to the arresting agents.

At arraignment, Hovind claimed incomprehension to the charges, telling the court: "I still don't understand what I'm being charged for and who is charging me." The presiding magistrate judge asked Hovind if he wrote and spoke English, to which Hovind responded, "To some degree." The judge replied that the government adequately explained the allegations and the defendant understands the charges "whether you want to admit it or not." Hovind stated that he did not recognize the government's right to try him on tax-fraud charges. At first he attempted to enter a plea of "subornation of false muster," but then entered a not guilty plea "under duress" when the judge offered to enter a plea for him. When asked about his home, Hovind called it a "church parish", and denied any residence except the "church of Jesus Christ", worldwide. Hovind's passport and guns were seized. Hovind protested, arguing that he needed his passport to continue his evangelism work, and that "thousands and thousands" were waiting to hear him preach in South Africa the following month. The court refused to reconsider, accepting the argument that "like-minded people" might secret Hovind away if he left the country.

The trial began on October 21, 2006. Hovind hoped to convince a jury that his amusement park admission and merchandise sales, over $5 million from 1999 through March 2004, belonged to God and could not be taxed. Evidence produced at the trial revealed that Jo Hovind had requested financial assistance from Baptist Healthcare by claiming that the Hovinds had no income. IRS agents told the court how Hovind had attempted "bullying tactics" and had sued the government three times to pressure them to stop investigating. The lawsuits had been thrown out. The prosecution countered attempts to describe workers as missionaries, ministers, and volunteers, introducing memos in which they had been called employees. Workers testified that they had to punch time cards, had vacation and sick days, and did not receive W-2 tax forms. After the IRS executed the search warrant, employees were required to sign non-disclosure agreements to remain employed. A lawyer who did work for a non-profit Christian organization testified that Hovind claimed to have "beat" the tax system and that he favored cash transactions because they were untraceable and, consequently, untaxable.

Hovind's lawyer engaged in a lengthy cross-examination of the lead IRS investigator, and the case ended on November 1 with the defense calling no witnesses. After closing arguments were presented on November 2, the jury deliberated three hours before finding the Hovinds guilty on all counts, 58 for Hovind and 45 for his wife. The Pensacola News Journal said, "The saddest thing: had they cooperated with the agents, they probably wouldn't be worrying about prison sentences now."

Sentencing, appeals, and imprisonment (2007–2019)
After the convictions and pending sentencing, Hovind was incarcerated in the Escambia County Jail as a "danger to the community" and a flight risk. His wife would remain free until after the appeal.

On January 19, 2007, Hovind was sentenced to ten years in prison with three years' probation and ordered to pay the federal government restitution of over $600,000. During the sentencing phase, a tearful Hovind, hoping to avoid prison, told the court, "If it's just money the IRS wants, there are thousands of people out there who will help pay the money they want so I can go back out there and preach." However, Hovind's court room behavior was in stark contrast to phone calls he made while in jail and played by the prosecution. The tapes, posted online by the Pensacola News Journal, included one conversation with Hovind and son Eric, who were planning to hide a motor vehicle title and property deeds to prevent the government from collecting the property to pay for owed debt. At sentencing, he denied being a "tax protester", but the prosecution, an IRS spokesman, and the Pensacola News Journal used the term to describe him.

On June 29, 2007, Jo Hovind was sentenced to one year of imprisonment, three years of supervision upon release and fined $8,000. In court, Jo Hovind offered explanations for the 45 checks just under $10,000 and for checks cashed before and after the reporting deadline, telling the judge "I really did not have a leadership role in CSE" and finished "I would never knowingly do anything illegal." The judge said that while Hovind was the principal authority at CSE, Jo managed the payroll; she had cashed roughly 200 checks totaling $1.5 million over a four-year period, relying on cash to avoid IRS scrutiny. The United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit denied both appeals on December 30, 2008, and the U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari on November 2, 2009.

Hovind appealed the amount of his 2006 U.S. Tax Court ruling on personal income taxes to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, but on July 2, 2007, a three-judge panel denied the appeal, finding that Hovind had failed to raise the issue at the appropriate time.

In November 2010, Hovind filed a motion in U.S. District Court Northern District of Florida claiming the prosecution and defense erred at various stages of the case; it was denied the following May. It was one of at least six motions to dismiss he filed that year on various procedural or constitutional grounds.

In July 2015, Hovind was released to home confinement for roughly one month to finish his prison sentence for his 2006 conviction. Almost a year after his release, Hovind said he would continue to fight his conviction and the property seizure.

In October 2019, Hovind filed a motion to vacate in the trial court without obtaining the required certification from the appellate court; the motion was dismissed, summarily.

CSE property forfeitures

In 2007, the government placed liens on ten of the Hovinds' properties for money owed following a June 27, 2007, judgment, which included an order that the properties be forfeited under for costs of $5,800, a fine of $2000, and restitution of $604,874.87. On December 30, 2008, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit denied the Hovinds' appeal and affirmed the convictions and sentences entered by the district court. Following the appeal, Jo Hovind served her prison term from January 20, 2009, to December 3, 2009.

In 2008, Eric Hovind and Glen Stoll, an individual who has been associated with the Embassy of Heaven organization and who has falsely claimed to be a lawyer, attempted to prevent the forfeitures of Hovind's ten properties, including Dinosaur Adventure Land, in connection with the federal tax problems. (In early 2019, Stoll himself was indicted by a Federal grand jury in Portland, Oregon on unrelated charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States, bank fraud, conspiracy to commit bank fraud, making a false statement on a loan application, and tax evasion. ) The government sought the property, deeded to Stoll and Eric prior to Hovind's convictions, since cash had been withdrawn from the bank accounts and could not be recovered. In a court filing, however, Eric Hovind said that he owned one of the properties and that he "took active control over the lot by personally building a home on it with $70,000 he borrowed from CSE." The court accepted Eric's ownership of that property, but allowed the government to seize the other nine properties. The court ruling denying the Hovinds' appeal cleared the way for forfeiture proceedings on Hovind-owned properties, including those on which Dinosaur Adventure Land sat, to continue to satisfy the debt.

In March 2012, the federal government sued Creation Science Evangelism to remove liens placed on Hovind's former property that was seized after his conviction, and in June, the court ruled in favor of the government.

In May 2013, facing the sale of lots that were once part of Dinosaur Adventure land, Hovind acted. Using legal advice from another inmate, he filed a civil right suit against corrections personnel (a "Bivens action") alleging that they intentionally delayed court documents which hindered another appeal. Based on the assumption that it would trigger a chain of rulings that would ultimately result in the original sentence being overturned, he then filed several lis pendens on the properties. A federal judge rejected Hovind's claims and dismissed the filings ("void ab initio"), and asked for a "show of cause" from Hovind to explain why he should not be found in contempt of court for the false filings. His release date was approaching when he would face new charges related to the lis pendens filings.

Federal mail fraud and criminal contempt trial in 2015
On October 21, 2014, Hovind was indicted by a federal grand jury in Pensacola, Florida, on two counts of mail fraud, one count of conspiracy with Paul John Hansen to commit mail fraud, and one count of criminal contempt for interfering with the sale of Pensacola properties Hovind was forced to forfeit as a result of the 2006 case. Hovind and Hansen pleaded not guilty and were tried together.

On March 2, 2015, the trial began in U.S. District Court for Northern Florida. On the first day of testimony, the prosecution discussed Hovind and Hansen's "dozens of filings", including several lis pendens, used to resist a court-ordered forfeiture due in part to legal advice Hovind took from his "cellmate in a New Hampshire prison camp". The prosecution case included numerous emails, recorded phone calls, and court filings related to the forfeited properties. The prosecution presented audio of Hovind characterizing a lis pendens by asking his daughter, "Have you ever taken a step into dog crap and it gets stuck on your feet and it's really hard to get off?" Hansen and Hovind took the stand in their own defense. According to journalist Kevin Robinson, during Hovind's testimony, he "refused to give short answers" and said that he believed his actions were lawful. On March 12, 2015, Hovind was found guilty on one count of criminal contempt, Hansen on two counts of criminal contempt, and the jury was hung on the remaining charges.

A trial on the counts on which the jury could not reach a verdict had been ordered to begin on May 18, 2015. However, on May 16, 2015, the prosecution filed its "Government's Motion to Dismiss Counts One, Two and Four of the Superseding Indictment Without Prejudice," citing "issues regarding the technical sufficiency of the Superseding Indictment, including the adequacy of notice." Later, on May 16, the Court cancelled the jury selection and trial that had been scheduled to begin on Monday, May 18, in order, in the Court's words, to permit the defendants to respond to the government's motion.

On Monday, May 18, 2015, the U.S. District Court made two decisions. First, the Court granted the prosecutor's request for a "without prejudice" dismissal of the three remaining charges against Hovind, allowing the prosecutor to go back to a Federal grand jury and seek a new indictment if desired. Second, the Court rendered a judgment of acquittal on the criminal contempt charge on which Hovind had been found guilty by the jury. On that point, the Court concluded that in the specific order that Hovind had been found guilty of violating, there was no actual language that prohibited Hovind from doing anything.

On August 21, 2015, Paul John Hansen was sentenced to 18 months in prison and three years' probation for the two counts of contempt.

Domestic violence
Hovind was arrested in Alabama on July 30, 2021, for allegedly throwing his estranged wife, Cindi Lincoln, to the ground in October 2020. Additionally, she petitioned for a protective order in Conecuh County, Alabama, saying that she had to go to the emergency room after being "bodyslammed". She has also stated that she had been threatened by one of Hovind's associates. At a bench trial in the Connecuh County Courthouse on September 20, 2021, he was found guilty of domestic violence. He was sentenced to one year in jail which would be suspended following 30 days in the county jail to start by October 18, fined $500, and ordered to pay restitution for medical expenses. A request for a retrial was denied, and an appeal requesting a jury trial was filed in the Alabama Circuit Courts.

title: Kent Hovind


text:
Los Chamos

Los Chamos were a famous Venezuelan boy band formed in Caracas, Venezuela in 1981 to rival Menudo's success. Los Chamos were made up of six members and released their first album "Los Chamos-El Soldadito" sponsored by channel 8 of Venezuelan National TV.

In 1982, they released their second album called "Siempre Te Amare", which spanned the international hit, Canta Chamo.That album went Gold and Platinum in many Latin American countries. That hit led them to sing at Mexico's Estadio Azteca, among other big venues in Latin America.

In 1983 they released a third hit album called "Tu Como Yo" produced by famous singer and composer Rudy LaScala.

That same year "Los Chamos" released a blockbuster movie called "Secuestro En Acapulco-Canta Chamo" alongside famous actresses Yuri-also a singer- and La Chilindrina

Los Chamos went on tour for many years through Mexico, the United States, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Central America, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, etc. After that huge success, four group members alleged poor working conditions and left to pursue other musical endeavors. Four more boys were brought in to form Los Chamos' line up, and another album was released. The sudden, drastic line up change and new album weren't as positively received by the public, and Los Chamos dissolved soon after. They tried their hand at a fifth release in 1990, with six new members, and after that, Los Chamos officially called it quits.

Nowadays some of the former members relocated and live in the United States, Mexico, Germany and Brazil. On August 28, 2018, Mexican television reporter Ana Maria Canseco announced on her webpage that former member Chamo Will Marquez Uzcategui, "Chamo Will", died unexpectedly from a respiratory condition in his native Venezuela.

1981-1984

 * Ricardo Messina (sang on the first and second album; replaced by Chamo Gabriel)
 * Argenis Brito
 * Enrique Couselo
 * Gabriel Fernandez (Replaced Ricardo Messina)
 * Winston Márquez Uzcategui
 * Will Márquez Uzcategui
 * Walter Márquez Uzcategui
 * Roger Martin (only sang on the first album and was replaced by Argeni Britos)
 * Raul (only in the group for a short amount of time and didn't record with the group)

1984-1987

 * Adolfo Cubas
 * Cristóbal "Chris" Roges
 * Enrico "Henry" Madia
 * Gabriel Fernández
 * Enrique Couselo
 * Juan de León Santana

1987-1991

 * Álvaro Novoa
 * Ángel Guinness
 * Bernard
 * Carlos Baute
 * Freddy
 * Lino Martone
 * Romulo Ortiz
 * Jose Acedo (El Powers Inaki)

Discography

 * 1981: Los Chamos [Original Members: Ricardo Messina, Jesus Mercado, Enrique, Winston, William and Walter]
 * 1982: Siempre Te Amare [Original Members]
 * 1983: Tu Como Yo [Original Members]
 * 1984: Chamo Soy [New Members: Adolfo, Chris, Manuel and Juan]
 * 1990: Con un Poco de Amor [New Members: Alvaro, Angel, Bernald, Carlos, Freddy and Lino]

title: Los Chamos


text:
Schizomida

Schizomida, also known as sprickets or short-tailed whip-scorpions, is an order of arachnids, generally less than 5 mm in length. The order is not yet widely studied. E. O. Wilson has identified schizomids as among the "groups of organisms that desperately need experts to work on them."

Taxonomy
Schizomids are grouped into three families:
 * Calcitronidae † (fossil; dubious)
 * Hubbardiidae
 * Protoschizomidae (2 genera, 15 species)
 * Agastoschizomus
 * Protoschizomus

About 300 species of schizomids have been described worldwide, most belonging to the Hubbardiidae family. A systematic review including a full catalogue may be found in Reddell & Cokendolpher (1995). The Schizomida is sister to the order Uropygi, the two clades together forming the Thelyphonida (in the broad sense of the name). Based on molecular clock dates, both orders likely originated in the late Carboniferous somewhere in the tropics of Pangea, and the Schizomida underwent substantial diversification starting in the Cretaceous. The oldest known fossils of the group are from the Mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber of Myanmar, which are assignable to the Hubbardiidae.

Morphology
Schizomids are relatively small, soft-bodied arachnids, somewhat similar in appearance to whip scorpions. The prosoma (cephalothorax) is divided into three regions, each covered by plates, the large protopeltidium and the smaller, paired, mesopeltidia and metapeltidia. The name means "split or cleaved middle", referring to the way the prosoma is divided into two separate plates.

The opisthosoma (abdomen) is a smooth oval of 12 recognizable segments. The first is reduced and forms the pedicel, while the last three are constricted, forming the pygidium. The last segment bears a short whip-like tail or flagellum, consisting of no more than four segments. The females generally have 3-4-segmented flagella, while in males it is single segmented.

Like the related orders Uropygi and Amblypygi, and the more distantly related Solifugae, the schizomids use only six legs for walking, having modified their first two legs to serve as sensory organs. They also have large well-developed pincer-like pedipalps just before the sensory legs. The hind legs are modified for jumping, as part of their escape response when threatened.

Schizomids have no actual eyes, but a few species have vestigial eyespots capable of telling light from dark. They breathe through a single pair of book lungs located on the second abdominal segment, as the second pair on third abdominal segment found in the other orders of Tetrapulmonata is lost.

Distribution and habitat
Schizomids are generally tropical and subtropical creatures, and they have a global distribution in these habitats, including in Southeast Asia, India, Australia, several Pacific Islands, Central and South America, and Africa. Additionally, some populations have been found in neighboring temperate regions such as California and Texas. Of the two extant families of sprickets, Hubbardiidae has a global distribution while Protoschizomidae is only found in Mexico and Texas. While schizomids are not native to Europe, they have been introduced to the continent in Britain, France, the Czech Republic, and Poland via soil stock imported for botanical gardens; however, thus far they are still restricted to the artificial greenhouse environments. Despite their global distribution, most schizomid species have very restricted distributions, with many only known from their original locality.

Humidity is vital to determining the habitats in which sprickets can live as they need to avoid desiccation. They typically live in rainforest leaf litter, particularly in the top layer of organic soil, under rocks, in and beneath rotten logs, and even in caves. Although most species are restricted to rainforests, they can also be found in neighboring woody areas. The Australian species Draculoides vinei is believed to have been forced to move into a nearby humid cave system after its original forests dramatically decreased in size. Additionally, some species have been found in insect nests; Afrozomus machadoi lives in termite mounds, while Stenochrus portoricensis has been found in ant colonies. Schizomids are also occasionally found living in the trees; the South American Surazomus arboreus lives in rainforest that is seasonally flooded, forcing the arachnids to move higher into the trees to avoid drowning.

While sprickets are not typically found in colder climates, several Californian Hubbardia species have been found living under snow-covered rocks, and Hubbardia briggsi in particular is often found in snowy habitats during the winter.

Biology
While not much is known about the lifespans of schizomids, they have been found to live for several months in captivity.

Mortality and defense
Not much is known about the natural predators of sprickets. Amblypygids have been observed eating schizomids. Additionally, despite their small size, schizomids have been observed being parasitized by tiny nematodes; the opisthosoma of one Stenochrus goodnightorum was nearly completely filled by a parasitic nematode.

Diet and feeding
Sprickets are active predators, constantly using their antenniform legs to examine the forest soil for potential prey. A wide range of invertebrates are prey items, including isopods, millipedes, cockroaches, worms, springtails, termites, booklice, zorapterans, and even other schizomids. Prey can range in size from 10% of their body size to as much as 100%. Once potential prey is located, the arachnid uses their antenniform legs to determine the size of the creature and note any extremities. Should the schizomid not retreat, it will lunge forward and seize its victim with its palps. The prey is then subdued, and possibly taken to the shelter of a nearby crevice to be eaten. The chelicerae dismember the prey item before the tissues are liquified into chyme and ingested via suction with the mouth.

Schizomids can survive a long time without food; some Hubbardia pentapeltis have been shown to survive five months without food.

Cited texts

 * Reddell, J.R. & Cokendolpher, J.C. (1995). Catalogue, bibliography, and generic revision of the order Schizomida (Arachnida). Tex. Mem. Mus., Speleol. Monogr. 4: 1-170
 * Savory, T., 1977. Arachnida. second edition. Academic Press inc. New York. 339pp.
 * Savory, T., 1977. Arachnida. second edition. Academic Press inc. New York. 339pp.

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title: Schizomida