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Bill Moyers

Bill Moyers (born Billy Don Moyers; June 5, 1934) is an American journalist and political commentator. Under the Johnson administration he served from 1965 to 1967 as the eleventh White House Press Secretary. He was a director of the Council on Foreign Relations, from 1967 to 1974. He also worked as a network TV news commentator for ten years. Moyers has been extensively involved with public broadcasting, producing documentaries and news journal programs, and has won many awards and honorary degrees for his investigative journalism and civic activities. He has become well known as a trenchant critic of the corporately structured U.S. news media.

Early years and education
Born Billy Don Moyers in Hugo in Choctaw County in southeastern Oklahoma, he is the son of John Henry Moyers, a laborer, and Ruby Johnson Moyers. Moyers was reared in Marshall, Texas.

Moyers began his journalism career at 16 as a cub reporter at the Marshall News Messenger. In college, he studied journalism at the North Texas State College in Denton, Texas. In 1954, US Senator Lyndon B. Johnson employed him as a summer intern and eventually promoted him to manage Johnson's personal mail. Soon after, Moyers transferred to the University of Texas at Austin, where he wrote for The Daily Texan newspaper. In 1956, he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism. While in Austin, Moyers served as assistant news editor for KTBC radio and television stations, owned by Lady Bird Johnson, wife of Senator Johnson. During the academic year 1956–1957, he studied issues of church and state at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland as a Rotary International Fellow. In 1959, he completed a Master of Divinity degree at the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. Moyers served as Director of Information while attending SWBTS. He was also a Baptist pastor in Weir in Williamson County, near Austin.

Moyers was ordained in 1954. Moyers planned to enter a Doctor of Philosophy program in American Studies at the University of Texas. During Senator Johnson's unsuccessful bid for the 1960 Democratic U.S. presidential nomination, Moyers served as a top aide, and in the general campaign he acted as liaison between Democratic vice-presidential candidate Johnson and the Democratic presidential nominee, U.S. Senator John F. Kennedy.

The Peace Corps
The Peace Corps was established by President Kennedy by Executive Order in March 1961, but it was up to top aide Sargent Shriver and Bill Moyers to find the funding to actually establish the organization. The Peace Corp Act was signed by President Kennedy on September 22, 1961. In Sarge, Scott Stossel reports that "Peace Corps legend has it that between them Moyers and Shriver personally called on every single member of Congress."

On November 22, 1963, Moyers: 1. Told Kenneth O' Donnell, JFK's secretary, to select the Trade Mart as the place for the luncheon. 2. Told DPD Assistant Chief George Lumpkin (Lead Car) to change the motorcade route to turn on Elm Street instead of going straight on Main Street through Dealey Plaza. 3. Asked his aide Betty Harris to tell Secret Service Agent Sorrels to have the bubble top removed from JFK's car at Love Field.

Reflecting 25 years later on the creation of the program Moyers said: ”We knew from the beginning that the Peace Corps was not an agency, program, or mission. Now we know—from those who lived and died for it—that it is a way of being in the world." At the 50th Anniversary “Salute to Peace Corps Giants,” hosted by the National Archives, Moyers said, "The years we spent at the Peace Corps were the best years of our lives.” Moyers gave the same answer in the famed Vanity Fair Proust questionnaire in 2011.

Moyers served first as associate director of public affairs and then as Sargent Shriver's deputy director before becoming special assistant to President Lyndon B. Johnson in November 1963.

Corporation for Public Broadcasting
Bill Moyers was a key player in the creation of the public broadcasting system. When, in 1961, FCC Chairman Newton Minnow labeled television "a vast wasteland” and called for programming in the public interest, the Johnson Administration instituted a study of the issue. The Carnegie Corporation of New York established a commission to study the value of and need for noncommercial educational television. Bill Moyers served on this committee, which released its report 'Public Television: A Program for Action,' in 1967. Moyers said of the endeavor: “We became a central part of the American consciousness and a valuable institution within our culture."

Moyers was influential in creating the legislation that would fulfill the committee's recommendations. In 1967, President Johnson signed Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, which states: "it is in the public interest to encourage the growth and development of public radio and television broadcasting, including the use of such media for instructional, educational, and cultural purposes."

On the 50th anniversary of the Public Broadcasting Act, Moyers and Joseph A. Califano, Jr. spoke about their experience with WNET.

Johnson Administration
When Lyndon B. Johnson took office after the Kennedy assassination, Moyers became a special assistant to Johnson, serving from 1963 to 1967. Moyers is the last surviving person identifiable in the photograph taken of Johnson's swearing in. He played a key role in organizing and supervising the 1964 Great Society legislative task forces and was a principal architect of Johnson's 1964 presidential campaign. Moyers acted as the President's informal chief of staff from October 1964 until 1966. From July 1965 to February 1967, he also served as White House press secretary.

After the resignation of White House Chief of Staff Walter Jenkins because of a sexual misdemeanor in the run up to the 1964 election, President Lyndon B. Johnson, alarmed that the opposition was framing the issue as a security breach, ordered Moyers to request FBI name checks on 15 members of Goldwater's staff to find "derogatory" material on their personal lives. Goldwater himself only referred to the Jenkins incident off the record. The Church Committee stated in 1975 that "Moyers has publicly recounted his role in the incident, and his account is confirmed by FBI documents." In 2005, Laurence Silberman wrote that Moyers denied writing the memo in a 1975 phone call, telling him the FBI had fabricated it. Moyers said he had a different recollection of the telephone conversation.

Moyers also sought information from the FBI on the sexual preferences of White House staff members, most notably Jack Valenti. Moyers indicated his memory was unclear on why Johnson directed him to request such information, "but that he may have been simply looking for details of allegations first brought to the president by Hoover."

Under the direction of President Johnson, Moyers gave J Edgar Hoover the go-ahead to discredit Martin Luther King, played a part in the wiretapping of King, discouraged the American embassy in Oslo from assisting King on his Nobel Peace Prize trip, and worked to prevent King from challenging the all-white Mississippi delegation to the 1964 Democratic National Convention.

Moyers approved (but had nothing to do with the production) of the infamous "Daisy Ad" against Barry Goldwater in the 1964 presidential campaign. Goldwater blamed him for it, and once said of Moyers, "Every time I see him, I get sick to my stomach and want to throw up." The ad is considered the starting point of the modern-day harshly negative campaign ad.

Journalist Morley Safer in his 1990 book "Flashbacks" wrote that Moyers and President Johnson met with and "harangued" Safer's boss, CBS president Frank Stanton, about Safer's coverage of the Marines torching Cam Ne village in the Vietnam War. During the meeting, Safer alleges, Johnson threatened to expose Safer's "communist ties". This was a bluff, according to Safer. Safer says that Moyers was "if not a key player, certainly a key bystander" in the incident. Moyers stated that his hard-hitting coverage of conservative presidents Reagan and Bush was behind Safer's 1990 allegations.

In The New York Times on April 3, 1966, Moyers offered this insight on his stint as press secretary to President Johnson: "I work for him despite his faults and he lets me work for him despite my deficiencies." On October 17, 1967, he told an audience in Cambridge that Johnson saw the war in Vietnam as his major legacy and, as a result, was insisting on victory at all costs, even in the face of public opposition. Moyers felt such a continuation of the conflict would tear the country apart. "I never thought the situation could arise when I would wish for the defeat of LBJ, and that makes my current state of mind all the more painful to me," he told them. "I would have to say now: It would depend on who his opponent is."

The full details of his rift with Johnson were not made public. However, an Oval Office tape which was recorded following Johnson's public announcement that he would not seek re-election on March 31, 1968, suggested that Moyers and Johnson were still in contact after Moyers left the White House, with Moyers even encouraging the President to change his mind about running.

Newsday
Moyers served as publisher for the Long Island, New York, daily newspaper Newsday from 1967 to 1970. The conservative publication had been unsuccessful, but Moyers led the paper in a progressive direction, bringing in leading writers such as Pete Hamill, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, and Saul Bellow, and adding new features and more investigative reporting and analysis. Circulation increased and the publication won 33 major journalism awards, including two Pulitzer Prizes. But the owner of the paper, Harry Guggenheim, a conservative, was disappointed by the liberal drift of the newspaper under Moyers, criticizing the "left-wing" coverage of Vietnam War protests. The two split over the 1968 presidential election, with Guggenheim signing an editorial supporting Richard Nixon, when Moyers supported Hubert Humphrey. Guggenheim sold his majority share to the then-conservative Times-Mirror Company over the attempt of newspaper employees to block the sale, even though Moyers offered $10 million more than the Times-Mirror purchase price; Moyers resigned a few days later.

CBS News
In 1976 Moyers joined CBS News, where he worked as editor and chief correspondent for CBS Reports until 1981, then as senior news analyst and commentator for the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather from 1981 to 1986. He was the last regular commentator for the network broadcast. During his last year at CBS, Moyers made public statements about declining news standards at the network and declined to renew his contract with CBS, citing commitments with PBS.

NBC News
Moyers briefly joined NBC News in 1995 as a senior analyst and commentator, and the following year he became the first host of sister cable network MSNBC's Insight program. He was the last regular commentator on the NBC Nightly News.

Bill Moyers Journal (1972–1981)
In 1971 Moyers began working for the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). His first PBS series, titled This Week with Bill Moyers, aired in 1971 and 1972.

Bill Moyers Journal ran on PBS from 1972 until 1981 with a hiatus from 1976 to 1977. He later hosted a show with this title from 2007 to 2010.

In 1975, Bill Moyers Journal aired Rosedale: The Way It Is, documenting the furor after the first Black family moved into Rosedale, Queens — including a rash of fire bombings. Forty-five years later a graduate student drew attention to a short segment recording the reactions of a group of black girls trying to make sense of the virulent racist attack they'd just experienced. The New York Times picked up on the story and found the children and others featured in the documentary and produced its own reported feature: " A Racist Attack on Children Was Taped in 1975. We Found Them."

Individual programs (1982–2006)
From 1982 through 2006, 70 different documentaries, interviews or limited series produced and hosted by Moyers ran on PBS stations.

Individuals interviewed and profiled included:
 * Mortimer J. Adler (Six Great Ideas, 1982)
 * Joseph Campbell (Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth, 1988)
 * Robert Bly (A Gathering of Men, 1990)
 * John Henry Faulk (The Man who Beat the Blacklist, 1990)
 * Bernice Johnson Reagon (The Songs are Free, 1991)
 * Sam Keen (Your Mythic Journey, 1991)
 * Oren Lyons (The Faithkeeper, 1991)
 * Elie Wiesel (Facing Hate, 1991)
 * Donald Hall and Jane Kenyon (A Life Together, 1993)
 * Janet Reno (Attorney General Janet Reno, 1993)
 * Rita Dove (Poet Laureate Rita Dove, 1994)
 * Pete Seeger (Pure Pete Seeger, 1994)
 * Huston Smith (The Wisdom of Faith, 1996)
 * Bill T. Jones (Still/Here, 1997)
 * Desmond Tutu (Archbishop Tutu, 1999)
 * George Lucas (The Mythology of Star Wars, 1999)
 * Ursula K. Le Guin (About the Lathe of Heaven, 2000)

Moyers also hosted a 6-part interview series called Creativity in 1982 and a 42-part interview series A World of Ideas from 1988–1990 which featured a companion book.

Topics of Moyers broadcasts included:
 * History – A Walk Through the 20th Century (1982–1984), From D-Day to the Rhine (1990), The Power of the Past: Florence (1990), The Arab World (1991), Presenting Mr. Frederick Douglass (1994)
 * Religion – Heritage Conversations (1986), God and Politics (1987), Amazing Grace (1990), The New Holy War (1993), Genesis: A Living Conversation (1996), Faith and Reason (2006)
 * Morality – Facing Evil (1988), Beyond Hate (1991), Hate on Trial (1992), Facing the Truth (1999)
 * Politics – In Search of the Constitution (1987), The Home Front (1991), Money Talks (1994), Trading Democracy (2002), Capitol Crimes (2006)
 * The media – The Public Mind (1989), Project Censored (1991), Free Speech for Sale (1999), The Net at Risk (2006)
 * Contemporary events such as the Iran–Contra affair (The Secret Government, 1987), 1988 presidential election (Election '88), 1992 presidential election (Listening to America) and the 9/11 attacks (Moyers in Conversation)
 * Healthcare – Circle of Recovery (1991), Healing and the Mind (1993), The Great Healthcare debate (1994), Moyers on Addiction: Close to Home (1998), On Our Own Terms: Moyers on Dying (2000)
 * Poetry – The Power of the Word (1989), The Language of Life (1995), Fooling with Words (1999), Sounds of Poetry (1999)
 * The environment – Spirit and Nature (1991), Trade Secrets (2001), Earth on Edge (2001), America's First River (2003), Is God Green? (2006)
 * Money – Sports for sale (1991), Minimum Wages: The New Economy (1992), Bullish on America (1993), Surviving the Good Times (2000)
 * Youth issues – All Our Children (1991), Families First (1992), Solutions to Violence (1995), Children in America's Schools (1996)
 * Immigration – Becoming American (2003)

These were often produced by Moyers and his wife, Judith Suzanne Davidson Moyers, through Public Affairs Television, a company they formed in 1986. Other collaborators included filmmaker David Grubin and producer Madeline Amgott

Frontline (1990–1999)
Between 1990 and 1999, Moyers produced and hosted 7 episodes of the PBS journalism program Frontline:
 * Global Dumping Ground (1990) on toxic waste
 * Springfield Goes to War (1990) on the debate around the Gulf War
 * High Crimes and Misdemeanors (1990) on the Iran–Contra affair
 * In Our Children's Food (1993) on pesticides
 * Living on the Edge (1995) on the economy
 * Washington's Other Scandal (1998) on campaign finance
 * Justice for Sale (1999) on judicial elections

NOW with Bill Moyers and Wide Angle (2002–2005)
Moyers hosted the TV news journal NOW with Bill Moyers on PBS for three years, starting in January 2002. He retired from the program on December 17, 2004, but returned to PBS soon after to host Wide Angle in 2005. When he left NOW, he announced that he wished to finish writing a biography of Lyndon B. Johnson.

Bill Moyers Journal (2007–2010)
On April 25, 2007, Moyers returned to PBS with Bill Moyers Journal. In the first episode, "Buying the War", Moyers investigated what he called the general media's shortcomings in the runup to the War in Iraq. "Buying the War" won an Emmy at the 29th Annual News & Documentary Emmy Awards (2008) for Best Report in a News Magazine.

On November 20, 2009, Moyers announced that he would be retiring from his weekly show on April 30, 2010.

Moyers & Company (2012–2015)
In August 2011 Moyers announced a new hour-long weekly interview show, Moyers & Company, which premiered in January 2012. In that same month, Moyers also launched BillMoyers.com. Later reduced to a half hour, Moyers & Company was produced by Public Affairs Television and distributed by American Public Television. The show has been heralded as a renewed fulfillment of public media's stated mission to air news and views unrepresented or underrepresented in commercial media.

The program concluded on January 2, 2015.

Moyers on Democracy podcast
In 2020, Moyers started a series of podcasts named Moyers on Democracy. Conversations included Lisa Graves on the Post Office conflict; Heather Cox Richardson on How the South Won the Civil War; Heather McGhee on racism's pernicious effect on American society and Bill T. Jones on his newest project — a retelling of Moby Dick from the viewpoint of a Black cabin boy. The series ended in early 2021.

Awards
In 1995, Bill Moyers was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame. The same year, he also won the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism. When he became a recipient of the 2006 Lifetime Emmy Award, the official announcement noted that “Bill Moyers has devoted his lifetime to the exploration of the major issues and ideas of our time and our country, giving television viewers an informed perspective on political and societal concerns," and that "The scope of and quality of his broadcasts have been honored time and again. It is fitting that the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences honor him with our highest honor—the Lifetime Achievement Award." He has received well over thirty Emmys and virtually every other major television journalism prize, including a gold baton from the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards, a lifetime Peabody Award, and a George Polk Career Award (his third George Polk Award) for contributions to journalistic integrity and investigative reporting. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the American Philosophical Society, and has been the recipient of numerous honorary degrees, including a doctorate from the American Film Institute. In 2011, Moyers received the honorary Doctor of Humane Letters (L.H.D.) from Whittier College.

Media criticism
In a 2003 interview with BuzzFlash.com, Moyers said, "The corporate right and the political right declared class warfare on working people a quarter of a century ago and they've won." He noted, "The rich are getting richer, which arguably wouldn't matter if the rising tide lifted all boats." Instead, however, "[t]he inequality gap is the widest it's been since 1929; the middle class is besieged and the working poor are barely keeping their heads above water." He added that as "the corporate and governing elites are helping themselves to the spoils of victory," access to political power has become "who gets what and who pays for it."

Meanwhile, the public has failed to react because it is, in his words, "distracted by the media circus and news has been neutered or politicized for partisan purposes." In support of this, he referred to "the paradox of Rush Limbaugh, ensconced in a Palm Beach mansion massaging the resentments across the country of white-knuckled wage earners, who are barely making ends meet in no small part because of the corporate and ideological forces for whom Rush has been a hero. ... As Eric Alterman reports in his recent book—a book that I'm proud to have helped make happen—part of the red-meat strategy is to attack mainstream media relentlessly, knowing that if the press is effectively intimidated, either by the accusation of liberal bias or by a reporter's own mistaken belief in the charge's validity, the institutions that conservatives revere—corporate America, the military, organized religion, and their own ideological bastions of influence—will be able to escape scrutiny and increase their influence over American public life with relatively no challenge."

When he briefly retired in December 2004, the AP News Service quoted Moyers as saying, "I'm going out telling the story that I think is the biggest story of our time: how the right-wing media has become a partisan propaganda arm of the Republican National Committee. We have an ideological press that's interested in the election of Republicans, and a mainstream press that's interested in the bottom line. Therefore, we don't have a vigilant, independent press whose interest is the American people."

Presidential draft initiative
On July 24, 2006, liberal political commentator Molly Ivins published an article entitled Run Bill Moyers for President, Seriously, urging a symbolic candidacy, on the progressive website Truthdig. The call was taken up in October 2006 by Ralph Nader. Moyers did not run.

Conflict with CPB over content
In 2003, Corporation for Public Broadcasting chairman Kenneth Tomlinson wrote to Pat Mitchell, the president of PBS, that NOW with Bill Moyers "does not contain anything approaching the balance the law requires for public broadcasting." In 2005, Tomlinson commissioned a study of the show, without informing or getting authorization from the CPB board. The study was conducted by Fred Mann, Tomlinson's choice, a 20-year veteran of the American Conservative Union and a conservative columnist. Like the study itself, Mann's appointment was not disclosed to the CPB.

Tomlinson said that the study supported what he characterized as "the image of the left-wing bias of NOW". George Neumayr, the executive editor of The American Spectator, a conservative magazine, told the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer that "PBS looks like a liberal monopoly to me, and Bill Moyers is Exhibit A of that very strident, left-wing bias... [Moyers] uses his show as a platform from which to attack conservatives and Republicans."

The Reporters Committee on the Freedom of the Press was vocal about the danger of the CPB chairman interfering with programming independence. The PBS Ombudsman and the Free Press noted that a poll taken in 2003 by the CPB itself found that 80 percent of Americans believe PBS to be "fair and balanced." In a speech given to The National Conference for Media Reform, Moyers said that he had repeatedly invited Tomlinson to have a televised conversation with him on the subject but had been ignored.

On November 3, 2005, Tomlinson resigned from the board, prompted by a report of his tenure by the CPB Inspector General Kenneth Konz, requested by Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives. The report, which found that Tomlinson violated the Director's Code of Ethics and the statutory provisions of the CPB and PBS, was made public on November 15. It states:"We found evidence that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) former Chairman violated statutory provisions and the Director's Code of Ethics by dealing directly with one of the creators of a new public affairs program during negotiations with the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and the CPB over creating the show. Our review also found evidence that suggests 'political tests' were a major criteria [ sic] used by the former Chairman in recruiting a President/Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for CPB, which violated statutory prohibitions against such practices."In 2006, the PBS Ombudsman, whose role was reinvigorated by the controversy published a column entitled "He's Back: Moyers, not Tomlinson." Reflecting on the conflict, Moyers told The Boston Globe: "It's a place where if you fight you can survive, but it's not easy. The fact of the matter is that Kenneth Tomlinson had a chilling effect down the line."

Organizations
Moyers is a former director of the Council on Foreign Relations (1967–1974), and a member of the Bilderberg Group and since 1990 has been president of the Schumann Center for Media and Democracy.

Personal life
Moyers married Judith Suzanne Davidson (a producer) on December 18, 1954. They have three children and five grandchildren. His son William Cope Moyers (CNN producer, Hazelden Foundation spokesman) struggled to overcome alcoholism and crack addiction as detailed in the book Broken: My Story of Addiction and Redemption. He includes letters from Bill Moyers in his book, which he says are "a testament to a father's love for his son, a father's confusion with his son, and ultimately, a father's satisfaction with his son." His other son, John Moyers, assisted in the foundation of TomPaine.com, "an online public affairs journal of progressive analysis and commentary." His daughter, Suzanne Moyers, a former teacher and editor, is the author of the historical novel, ‘Til All These Things Be Done (She Writes Press; September 13, 2022).

Published works

 * Listening to America: A Traveler Rediscovers His Country (1971), Harper's Magazine Press, ISBN 0-06-126400-8
 * The Secret Government: The Constitution in Crisis : With Excerpts from an Essay on Watergate (1988), coauthor Henry Steele Commager, Seven Locks Press, hardcover: ISBN 0-932020-61-5, 1990 reprint: ISBN 0-932020-85-2, 2000 paperback: ISBN 0-932020-60-7; examines the Iran-Contra affair
 * The Power of Myth (1988), host: Bill Moyers, author: Joseph Campbell, Doubleday, ISBN 0-385-24773-7
 * A World of Ideas : Conversations With Thoughtful Men and Women About American Life Today and the Ideas Shaping Our Future (1989), Doubleday, hardcover: ISBN 0-385-26278-7, paperback: ISBN 0-385-26346-5
 * A World of Ideas II: Public Opinions from Private Citizens (1990), Doubleday, hardcover: ISBN 0-385-41664-4, paperback: ISBN 0-385-41665-2, 1994 Random House values edition: ISBN 0-517-11470-4
 * Healing and the Mind (1993), Doubleday hardcover: ISBN 0-385-46870-9, 1995 paperback: ISBN 0-385-47687-6
 * The Language of Life: A Festival of Poets (1995), Doubleday hardcover: ISBN 0-385-47917-4, 1996 paperback: ISBN 0-385-48410-0, conversations with 34 poets
 * Genesis: A Living Conversation (1996), Doubleday hardcover: ISBN 0-385-48345-7, 1997 paperback: ISBN 0-385-49043-7
 * Sister Wendy in Conversation with Bill Moyers: The Complete Conversation (1997), WGBH Educational Foundation, ISBN 1-57807-077-5
 * Fooling with Words: A Celebration of Poets and Their Craft (1999), William Morrow, hardcover: ISBN 0-688-17346-2, 2000 Harper paperback: ISBN 0-688-17792-1
 * Moyers on America: A Journalist and His Times (2004), New Press, ISBN 1-56584-892-6, 2005 Anchor paperback: ISBN 1-4000-9536-0; twenty selected speeches and commentaries, Interview with Terri Gross on Fresh Air.
 * Moyers on Democracy (2008), Doubleday, ISBN 978-0-385-52380-6
 * Bill Moyers Journal: The Conversation Continues (2011), New Press

title: Bill Moyers


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Fir

Firs are evergreen coniferous trees belonging to the genus Abies in the family Pinaceae. There are approximately 48–65 extant species, found on mountains throughout much of North and Central America, Europe, Asia, and North Africa. The genus is most closely related to Cedrus (cedar). The genus name is derived from the Latin "to rise" in reference to the height of its species. The common English name originates with the Old Norse, fyri, or the Old Danish, fyr.

They are large trees, reaching heights of 10 – tall with trunk diameters of 0.5 – when mature. Firs can be distinguished from other members of the pine family by the way in which their needle-like leaves are attached singly to the branches with a base resembling a suction cup, and by their cones, which, like those of true cedars, stand upright on the branches like candles and disintegrate at maturity.

Identification of the different species is based on the size and arrangement of the leaves, the size and shape of the cones, and whether the bract scales of the cones are long and exserted, or short and hidden inside the cone.

Leaves
Firs can be distinguished from other members of the pine family by the unique attachment of their needle-like leaves to the twig by a base that resembles a small suction cup.

The leaves are significantly flattened, sometimes even looking like they are pressed, as in A. sibirica.

The leaves have two whitish lines on the bottom, each of which is formed by wax-covered stomatal bands. In most species, the upper surface of the leaves is uniformly green and shiny, without stomata or with a few on the tip, visible as whitish spots. Other species have the upper surface of leaves dull, gray-green or bluish-gray to silvery (glaucous), coated by wax with variable number of stomatal bands, and not always continuous. An example species with shiny green leaves is A. alba, and an example species with dull waxy leaves is A. concolor.

The tips of leaves are usually more or less notched (as in A. firma), but sometimes rounded or dull (as in A. concolor, A. magnifica) or sharp and prickly (as in A. bracteata, A. cephalonica, A. holophylla). The leaves of young plants are usually sharper.

The way they spread from the shoot is very diverse, only in some species comb-shaped, with the leaves arranged on two sides, flat (A. alba)

The upper foliage is different on cone-bearing branches, with the leaves short, curved, and sharp.

Cones
Firs differ from other conifers in having erect, cylindrical cones 5 - 25 cm long that disintegrate at maturity to release the winged seeds.

In contrast to spruces, fir cones do not hang. Even large fir cones grow upwards like "candles", the new growth of the tree.

Mature cones are usually brown, young in summer can be green, for example:
 * A. grandis, A. holophylla, A. nordmanniana

or purple and blue, sometimes very dark:
 * A. fraseri, A. homolepis (var. umbellata green), A. koreana ('Flava' green), A. lasiocarpa, A. nephrolepis (f. chlorocarpa green), A. sibirica, A. veitchii (var. olivacea green).

Phytochemistry
Abies produce a variety of terpenoids. The analyses of the Zavarin group – from Smedman et al 1969 to Zavarin et al 1977 – showed variation in terpenoid composition of the bark by genetics, geography, age and size of the tree.

Classification
The oldest pollen assignable to the genus dates to the Late Cretaceous in Siberia, with records of leaves and reproductive organs across the Northern Hemisphere from the Eocene onwards.

Section Abies
Section Abies is found in central, south, and eastern Europe and Asia Minor.
 * Abies alba – silver fir
 * Abies nebrodensis – Sicilian fir
 * Abies borisii-regis – Bulgarian fir
 * Abies cephalonica – Greek fir
 * Abies nordmanniana – Nordmann fir or Caucasian fir
 * Abies nordmanniana subsp. equi-trojani – Kazdağı fir, Turkish fir
 * Abies pinsapo – Spanish fir
 * Abies pinsapo var. marocana – Moroccan fir
 * Abies numidica – Algerian fir
 * Abies cilicica – Syrian fir

Section Balsamea
Section Balsamea is found in northern Asia and North America, and high mountains further south.
 * Abies fraseri – Fraser fir
 * Abies balsamea – balsam fir
 * Abies balsamea var. phanerolepis – bracted balsam fir
 * Abies lasiocarpa – subalpine fir
 * Abies lasiocarpa var. arizonica – corkbark fir
 * Abies lasiocarpa var. bifolia – Rocky Mountains subalpine fir
 * Abies sibirica – Siberian fir
 * Abies sibirica var. semenovii
 * Abies sachalinensis – Sakhalin fir
 * Abies koreana – Korean fir
 * Abies nephrolepis – Khinghan fir
 * Abies veitchii – Veitch's fir
 * Abies veitchii var. sikokiana – Shikoku fir

Section Grandis
Section Grandis is found in western North America to Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, in lowlands in the north, moderate altitudes in south.
 * Abies grandis – grand fir or giant fir
 * Abies grandis var. grandis – Coast grand fir
 * Abies grandis var. idahoensis – interior grand fir
 * Abies concolor – white fir
 * Abies concolor subsp. concolor – Rocky Mountain white fir or Colorado white fir
 * Abies concolor subsp. lowiana – Low's white fir or Sierra Nevada white fir
 * Abies durangensis – Durango fir
 * Abies durangensis var. coahuilensis – Coahuila fir
 * Abies flinckii – Jalisco fir
 * Abies guatemalensis – Guatemalan fir
 * Abies guatemalensis var. guatemalensis
 * Abies guatemalensis var. jaliscana
 * Abies vejarii

Section Momi
Section Momi is found in east and central Asia and the Himalaya, generally at low to moderate altitudes.
 * Abies kawakamii – Taiwan fir
 * Abies homolepis – Nikko fir
 * Abies recurvata – Min fir
 * Abies recurvata var. ernestii – Min fir
 * Abies firma – Momi fir
 * Abies beshanzuensis – Baishanzu fir
 * Abies holophylla – Manchurian fir
 * Abies chensiensis – Shensi fir
 * Abies chensiensis subsp. salouenensis – Salween fir
 * Abies pindrow – Pindrow fir
 * Abies ziyuanensis – Ziyuan fir

Section Amabilis
Section Amabilis is found in the Pacific Coast mountains in North America and Japan, in high rainfall areas.
 * Abies amabilis – Pacific silver fir
 * Abies mariesii – Maries' fir

Section Pseudopicea
Section Pseudopicea is found in the Sino – Himalayan mountains at high altitudes.
 * Abies delavayi – Delavay's fir
 * Abies delavayi var. nukiangensis
 * Abies delavayi var. motuoensis
 * Abies delavayi subsp. fansipanensis
 * Abies fabri – Faber's fir
 * Abies fabri subsp. minensis
 * Abies forrestii – Forrest's fir
 * Abies densa – Bhutan fir
 * Abies spectabilis – East Himalayan fir
 * Abies fargesii – Farges' fir
 * Abies fanjingshanensis – Fanjingshan fir
 * Abies yuanbaoshanensis – Yuanbaoshan fir
 * Abies squamata – flaky fir

Section Oiamel
Section Oiamel is found in central Mexico at high altitudes.
 * Abies religiosa – sacred fir
 * Abies hickelii – Hickel's fir
 * Abies hickelii var. oaxacana – Oaxaca fir

Section Nobilis
Section Nobilis (western U.S., high altitudes)
 * Abies procera – noble fir
 * Abies magnifica – red fir
 * Abies magnifica var. shastensis – Shasta red fir

Section Bracteata
Section Bracteata (California coast)
 * Abies bracteata – bristlecone fir
 * ?†Abies rigida Frank Knowlton - (Priabonian-Chattian; Colorado)

Section Incertae sedis
Section Incertae sedis
 * †Abies milleri – (Extinct) Early Eocene

Ecology
Firs are used as food plants by the caterpillars of some Lepidoptera species, including Chionodes abella (recorded on white fir), autumnal moth, conifer swift (a pest of balsam fir), the engrailed, grey pug, mottled umber, pine beauty and the tortrix moths Cydia illutana (whose caterpillars are recorded to feed on European silver fir cone scales) and C. duplicana (on European silver fir bark around injuries or canker).

Uses

Wood of most firs is considered unsuitable for general timber use and is often used as pulp or for the manufacture of plywood and rough timber. Because this genus has no insect or decay resistance qualities after logging, it is generally recommended in construction purposes for indoor use only (e.g. indoor drywall on framing). Firwood left outside cannot be expected to last more than 12 to 18 months, depending on the type of climate it is exposed to.

Nordmann fir, noble fir, Fraser fir and balsam fir are popular Christmas trees, generally considered to be the best for this purpose, with aromatic foliage that does not shed many needles on drying out. Many are also decorative garden trees, notably Korean fir and Fraser fir, which produce brightly coloured cones even when very young, still only 1 – tall. Other firs can grow anywhere between 30 and 236 ft tall. Many fir species are grown in botanic gardens and other specialist tree collections in Europe and North America. Fir Tree Appreciation Day is June 18.

Abies religiosa—sacred fir, is the overwinter host for the monarch butterfly.

Abies spectabilis or Talispatra is used in Ayurveda as an antitussive (cough suppressant) drug.

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

title: Fir


text: Talk:E-learning

title: Talk:E-learning


text:
List of international declarations

This is a chronological list of international declarations, declarations of independence, declarations of war, etc.

title: List of international declarations


text:
Doha Declaration on the TRIPS agreement and public health

The Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health was adopted by the WTO Ministerial Conference of 2001 in Doha on November 14, 2001. It reaffirmed flexibility of TRIPS (trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights) member states in circumventing patent rights for better access to essential medicines.

Content
In paragraphs 4 to 6 of the declaration, governments agreed that:

 * "4. The TRIPS Agreement does not and should not prevent Members from taking measures to protect public health. Accordingly, while reiterating our commitment to the TRIPS Agreement, we affirm that the Agreement can and should be interpreted and implemented in a manner supportive of WTO Members' right to protect public health and, in particular, to promote access to medicines for all.

 * In this connection, we reaffirm the right of WTO Members to use, to the full, the provisions in the TRIPS Agreement, which provide flexibility for this purpose.

 * 5.	Accordingly and in the light of paragraph 4 above, while maintaining our commitments in the TRIPS Agreement, we recognize that these flexibilities include:

 * (a)	In applying the customary rules of interpretation of public international law, each provision of the TRIPS Agreement shall be read in the light of the object and purpose of the Agreement as expressed, in particular, in its objectives and principles.
 * (b)	Each Member has the right to grant compulsory licenses and the freedom to determine the grounds upon which such licenses are granted.
 * (c)	Each Member has the right to determine what constitutes a national emergency or other circumstances of extreme urgency, it being understood that public health crises, including those relating to HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and other epidemics, can represent a national emergency or other circumstances of extreme urgency.
 * (d)	The effect of the provisions in the TRIPS Agreement that are relevant to the exhaustion of intellectual property rights is to leave each Member free to establish its own regime for such exhaustion without challenge, subject to the MFN and national treatment provisions of Articles 3 and 4.

 * 6.	We recognize that WTO Members with insufficient or no manufacturing capacities in the pharmaceutical sector could face difficulties in making effective use of compulsory licensing under the TRIPS Agreement. We instruct the Council for TRIPS to find an expeditious solution to this problem and to report to the General Council before the end of 2002."

These provisions in the Declaration ensure that governments may issue compulsory licenses on patents for medicines, or take other steps to protect public health.

History
In 2005, WTO members reached agreement on an amendment to the TRIPS Agreement to make permanent the temporary waiver contained in the August 30 WTO Decision, which itself fulfilled the requirement of Paragraph 6 of the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health of November 14, 2001. This decision created a mechanism to allow WTO members to issue compulsory licences to export generic versions of patented medicines to countries with insufficient or no manufacturing capacity in the pharmaceutical sector. The 2005 Ministerial Declaration stated:

"'We reaffirm the importance we attach to the General Council Decision of 30 August 2003 on the Implementation of Paragraph 6 of the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health, and to an amendment to the TRIPS Agreement replacing its provisions. In this regard, we welcome the work that has taken place in the Council for TRIPS and the Decision of the General Council of 6 December 2005 on an Amendment of the TRIPS Agreement.'"

The amendment, the first ever to the TRIPS Agreement, was circulated to WTO members for formal adoption. A deadline of December 1, 2007 was set for members to accept the permanent amendment. For the amendment to be put into effect, at least two-thirds of members must formally adopt it.

On November 30, 2007, Peter Mandelson, the then European Union's Trade Commissioner, announced that the European Union formally accepted the World Trade Organization -approved protocol of December 2005, amending the TRIPS Agreement. However, in order for the decision to have legal effect, two-thirds of the WTO's 153 Members are required to ratify the agreement. The current total of Members accepting the amendment is 45.

In 2008, a decision was made to extend the deadline for accepting the TRIPS agreement amendment. The deadline was extended until 31 December 2009 or "such later date as may be decided by the Ministerial Conference". The General Council further extended the deadline in 2011 to 31 December 2013.

In 2017, after further extensions, enough members ratified the amendment to reach the two-thirds threshold, bringing the TRIPS amendment into effect.

Reception
The Doha Declaration received positive reception, with many public health officials considering it an important step in prioritizing public health over intellectual property rights "in certain situations." However, other issues and hindrances to medication access still exist, such as a lack of resources and infrastructure. Pascal Lamy, who was the European Commissioner for Trade at the time of the declaration, stated that the agreement "solved about 10 percent of the problem of access to medicines by developing countries."


text:
List of programs broadcast by NBC

This is a list of programs currently broadcast by the American television network NBC.

Drama

 * Law & Order (1990–2010; 2022)
 * Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999)
 * Chicago Fire (2012)
 * Chicago P.D. (2014)
 * Chicago Med (2015)
 * Transplant (2020)
 * The Irrational (2023)
 * Found (2023)

Comedy

 * Lopez vs Lopez (2022)
 * Night Court (2023)

Reality/non-scripted

 * America's Got Talent (2006)
 * The Voice (2011)
 * American Ninja Warrior (2012)
 * America's Got Talent: Fantasy League (2024)

Game shows

 * Weakest Link (2001–02; 2020)
 * The Wall (2016)
 * That's My Jam (2021)
 * Password (2022)
 * Deal or No Deal Island (2024)

Award shows

 * People's Choice Awards (2021)
 * People's Choice Country Awards (2023)

Talk shows

 * 3rd Hour Today (2018)
 * Today with Hoda & Jenna (2019)

Late night shows

 * Saturday Night Live (1975)
 * The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon (2014)
 * Late Night with Seth Meyers (2014)

News

 * Meet the Press (1947)
 * Today (1952)
 * NBC Nightly News (1970)
 * Saturday Today (1992)
 * Dateline NBC (1992)
 * Early Today (1999)
 * 1st Look (2008)
 * Sunday Today with Willie Geist (2016)
 * NBC News Daily (2022)

Specials

 * Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (experimental local broadcasts in 1939, then again starting from 1945; broadcast nationally since 1953)
 * How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (acquired the broadcast rights in 2015)
 * The National Dog Show (since 2002)
 * Macy's Fourth of July Spectacular (earliest records are from 1996)
 * Shrek the Halls (acquired the broadcast rights in 2023)

Saturday morning

 * A New Leaf (2019)
 * Consumer 101 (2018)
 * Earth Odyssey with Dylan Dreyer (2019)
 * One Team: The Power of Sports (2021)
 * Roots Less Traveled (2020)
 * Vets Saving Pets (2018)
 * Wild Child (2021)
 * Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom: Protecting the Wild (2023)

Sports

 * Olympics on NBC, which includes:
 * Summer Olympic Games
 * Winter Olympic Games
 * NASCAR on NBC, which includes:
 * The Ally 400
 * The Brickyard 400
 * The Coke Zero Sugar 400
 * NFL on NBC, which includes:
 * Football Night in America
 * Sunday Night Football
 * NFL Kickoff Game
 * The NFL on Thanksgiving Day
 * Select playoff games
 * The Super Bowl (every four years)
 * Golf Channel on NBC, which includes:
 * The Open Championship
 * The Players Championship
 * The Ryder Cup
 * Presidents Cup
 * Scottish Open
 * Senior PGA Championship
 * Thoroughbred Racing on NBC, which includes the following races:
 * Kentucky Derby
 * Preakness Stakes
 * Belmont Stakes
 * Breeders' Cup Classic
 * Santa Anita Derby
 * College Football on NBC Sports and high school football, including:
 * Notre Dame Football on NBC
 * Big Ten football
 * The Bayou Classic
 * The All-American Bowl
 * US Olympic Trials
 * Tennis on NBC, which includes the French Open
 * Boxing on NBC, which includes Premier Boxing Champions bouts
 * World Athletics Championships
 * Select Diamond League meetings, which includes the Prefontaine Classic
 * USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships
 * FINA World Aquatics Championships
 * United States Swimming National Championships
 * Select matches of the Premier League
 * U.S. Figure Skating Championships
 * Select stages of the Tour de France
 * Select stages of the USA Pro Cycling Challenge
 * Select IndyCar Series on NBC races, which includes the Indianapolis 500

Drama

 * Brilliant Minds (September 23, 2024)
 * The Hunting Party (2024–25 season)
 * Grosse Pointe Garden Society (TBA)
 * Suits: L.A. (TBA)

Comedy

 * Happy's Place (October 18, 2024)
 * St. Denis Medical (November 12, 2024)

Docuseries

 * The Americas (February 23, 2025)
 * Surviving Earth (TBA)

Reality/non-scripted

 * Destination X (2024–25 season)

Drama

 * The Chase
 * Connection
 * Delia Graves and the Order of Merlin
 * Eliza Starts a Rumor
 * Family Reservations
 * Honor
 * In Between
 * Life, Changing
 * K-Town
 * Knockoffs
 * New Amsterdam: Tomorrow
 * Nowhere
 * Peachtree Bluff
 * Point Nemo
 * Sky On Fire
 * Untitled Joshua Troke/Mickey Fisher/Justin Lin series
 * The Santos of Chicago

Comedy

 * Amigos
 * Car Wash
 * Co-Dependents
 * For Better and Worse
 * I Can't Right Now
 * Le Coq
 * Most Talkative
 * The Regal
 * Something Wicked
 * Untitled Marlee Matlin project
 * Untitled Wood/Pierre-Outlar project
 * What Are the Odds?

Game shows

 * The Underdog

title: List of programs broadcast by NBC


text:
Bruce Peninsula National Park

Bruce Peninsula National Park is a national park on the Bruce Peninsula in Ontario, Canada. Located on a part of the Niagara Escarpment, the park comprises 156 square kilometres and is one of the largest protected areas in southern Ontario, forming the core of UNESCO's Niagara Escarpment World Biosphere Reserve. It was established in 1987 to protect the rock formations and shoreline of the Niagara Escarpment. The park offers opportunities for many outdoor activities, including hiking, camping, boating, and bird watching. The park has trails ranging in difficulty from easy to expert, and connects to the Bruce Trail. Bruce Peninsula National Park is known for its crystal clear blue waters, cobblestone beaches, rocky cliffs and karst formations.

The park is open year-round and offers visitors vistas to view either the sunrise or sunset, the rocks of the Niagara Escarpment, and the wildlife, which includes black bear, many species of birds, wild orchids, massasauga rattlesnake, and much more.

The park was the subject of a short film in 2011's National Parks Project, directed by Daniel Cockburn and scored by John K. Samson, Christine Fellows and Sandro Perri.

The Bruce Peninsula National Park has a weather and tourist information station CBPS-FM which operates at 90.7 FM. The station was launched in the mid-1990s.

Geology
The Niagara Escarpment runs from near Rochester, New York, to Tobermory, then on to Manitoulin, St. Joseph Island and other islands located in northern Lake Huron where it turns westwards into the Upper Peninsula of northern Michigan, south of Sault Ste. Marie. The escarpment then extends southwards into Wisconsin following the Door Peninsula and then more inland from the western coast of Lake Michigan and Milwaukee ending northwest of Chicago near the Wisconsin-Illinois border. It forms the backbone of the Bruce Peninsula and shapes the northern boundary of most of the park and provides the park with some of its most spectacular scenery.

The rock of the escarpment is very old. Approximately 400 million years ago, this area was covered by a shallow tropical sea teeming with life in the form of plant-like animals, crustaceans, living corals and mollusks. It would have looked much like the present-day Great Barrier Reef of Australia. When the sea began to dry up, the minerals dissolved in it became more and more concentrated. Magnesium in the water was absorbed into the limestone, which then became a harder, slightly different sort of rock, called dolomite.

The harder dolomite forms much of the rock of the escarpment cliffs along Bruce Peninsula National Park's Georgian Bay shoreline. At Niagara Falls, the dolomite "caprock" is more resistant to erosion than the rock below it, creating the sculptured cliffs for which the area is famous. Since the last ice age, water levels in the region have undergone great changes. Softer limestone has been eroded away by water action, leaving magnificent overhanging cliffs at various points along the shore. These are the big attraction of the Cyprus Lake trails. Where erosion has cut more deeply, caves have been formed, such as the famed "Grotto" on the shore between the Marr Lake and Georgian Bay Trails. Great blocks of dolomite, undercut by wave action, have tumbled from the cliffs above and can be clearly seen below the surface of the deep, clean waters of Georgian Bay.

Climate
The park has a typical climate for lakeside Northern Ontario, though the surrounding bodies of Lake Huron moderate the temperates. The park has a humid continental climate (Dfb), with warm to hot summers and cool winters. In the coastal northern parts of the peninsula, the climate is among the most temperate in Ontario. The climate of the park is influenced by both Georgian Bay and Lake Huron, which significantly moderate temperatures. As a result, they tend to prolong milder temperatures in the fall and cooler temperatures in spring. Summers are warm, with an average temperature of 16.8 °C while winters are cool, averaging -6.7 °C. Summers are dominated by hot, humid air masses from the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. In winter, Pacific air masses predominate, bringing in warm and humid air although cold, dry air from the Arctic highs can occur, bringing in colder and drier conditions. Warm air masses coming from the Gulf of Mexico are rare during winter but are responsible for bringing January and February thaws. Spring and fall are characterized by complex weather patterns with contrasting and rapidly changing influences from the different regional air masses. The park receives 900 mm of precipitation per year. This is evenly distributed throughout the year with fall (September–November) being the wettest. Precipitation is slightly lower than inland areas due to the limited influence that the narrow peninsula has when air masses travel over it compared to more interior locations.

Fauna
Animals that inhabit this national park are chipmunks, squirrels, red foxes, raccoons, coyotes, black bears, porcupines, snowshoe hares, skunks, white-tailed deer, snakes and frogs. The park is an important habitat for massasauga rattlesnakes and one of the last places where they can be found.

Flora
A variety of natural habitats are found in the park. These include mixed-wood forests, wetlands, alvars, talus slopes, and cliffs. The park is known for its wildflowers and has many species of algae, mosses, and lichen. There are over 32 species of ferns and 34 species of orchids that are found in the park, including the eastern prairie fringed orchid, which is one of the rarest species native to North America. The park hosts half of the world's dwarf lake iris, which is considered a vulnerable species. Forest cover includes eastern white cedar, spruce, fir, birch, poplar, maple, and beech.

Activities
Bruce Peninsula National Park is open year-around with limited services during the off-season. The park offers many activities such as hiking, swimming, bouldering, camping, canoeing, and kayaking. During the winter season, activities such as cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, and winter camping are also available. Bruce Peninsula National Park was designated a Dark Sky Preserve in 2009 and is one of three places in southern Ontario where visitors can stargaze in naturally dark skies.

Visitors' centre
In 2006, a new visitors' centre opened to serve Fathom Five National Marine Park and the Bruce Peninsula National Park. Designed by Andrew Frontini of Shore Tilbe Irwin + Partners, the CAD $7.82 million centre, approached by a boardwalk, features an information centre, reception area, exhibit hall and theatre. A 20 m viewing tower was also constructed to provide visitors with aerial views of the surrounding park and Georgian Bay. The centre was designed with environmental sustainability in mind, receiving $224,000 from the Federal House in Order initiative for implementation of innovative greenhouse gas reduction technology.

title: Bruce Peninsula National Park


text:
Smegma

Smegma (from Ancient Greek σμῆγμα) is a combination of shed skin cells, skin oils, and moisture. It occurs in both male and female mammalian genitalia. In females, it collects around the clitoris and in the folds of the labia minora; in males, smegma collects under the foreskin.

Females
The accumulation of sebum combined with dead skin cells forms smegma. Smegma clitoridis is defined as the secretion of the apocrine glands of the clitoris (sweat) and the sebaceous glands of the clitoris (sebum) in combination with desquamating epithelial cells. Glands that are located around the clitoris, the labia minora, and the labia majora secrete sebum.

If smegma is not removed frequently it can lead to clitoral adhesion which can make clitoral stimulation (such as masturbation) painful (clitorodynia).

Males

In males, smegma helps keep the glans moist and facilitates sexual intercourse by acting as a lubricant.

Smegma was originally thought to be produced by sebaceous glands near the frenulum called Tyson's glands; however, subsequent studies have failed to find these glands. Joyce Wright states that smegma is produced from minute microscopic protrusions of the mucosal surface of the foreskin and that living cells constantly grow towards the surface, undergo fatty degeneration, separate off, and form smegma. Parkash et al. found that smegma contains 26.6% fats and 13.3% proteins, which they judged to be consistent with necrotic epithelial debris.

Newly produced smegma has a smooth, moist texture. It is thought to be rich in squalene and contain prostatic and seminal secretions, desquamated epithelial cells, and the mucin content of the urethral glands of Littré. Smegma contains cathepsin B, lysozymes, chymotrypsin, neutrophil elastase and cytokines, which aid the immune system.

According to Wright, the production of smegma, which is low in childhood, increases from adolescence until sexual maturity when the function of smegma for lubrication assumes its full value. From middle-age, production starts to decline and in old age virtually no smegma is produced. Jakob Øster reported that the incidence of smegma increased from 1% among 6- to 9-year-olds to 8% among 14- to 17-year-olds (amongst those who did not present with phimosis and could be examined).

Clinical significance and hygiene
The production of smegma, which increases during puberty, can only be of limited significance, as males and females learn to practice good genital hygiene.

Men with smegma can cause irritation and inflammation, which can increase the risk of penile cancer. In past some experts used to be concerned smegma itself might cause cancer.

Other animals
In healthy animals, smegma helps clean and lubricate the genitals. In veterinary medicine, analysis of this smegma is sometimes used for detection of urogenital tract pathogens, such as Tritrichomonas foetus. Accumulation of smegma in the equine preputial folds and the urethral fossa and urethral diverticulum can form large "beans" and promote the carriage of Taylorella equigenitalis, the causative agent of contagious equine metritis. Some equine veterinarians have recommended periodic cleaning of male genitals to improve the health of the animal.

title: Smegma