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Caecilian

Caecilians are a group of limbless, vermiform (worm-shaped) or serpentine (snake-shaped) amphibians with small or sometimes nonexistent eyes. They mostly live hidden in soil or in streambeds, and this cryptic lifestyle renders caecilians among the least familiar amphibians. Modern caecilians live in the tropics of South and Central America, Africa, and southern Asia. Caecilians feed on small subterranean creatures such as earthworms. The body is cylindrical and often darkly coloured, and the skull is bullet-shaped and strongly built. Caecilian heads have several unique adaptations, including fused cranial and jaw bones, a two-part system of jaw muscles, and a chemosensory tentacle in front of the eye. The skin is slimy and bears ringlike markings or grooves and may contain scales.

Modern caecilians are a clade, the order Gymnophiona (or Apoda ), one of the three living amphibian groups alongside Anura (frogs) and Urodela (salamanders). Gymnophiona is a crown group, encompassing all modern caecilians and all descendants of their last common ancestor. There are more than 220 living species of caecilian classified in 10 families. Gymnophionomorpha is a recently coined name for the corresponding total group which includes Gymnophiona as well as a few extinct stem-group caecilians (extinct amphibians whose closest living relatives are caecilians but are not descended from any caecilian). Some palaeontologists have used the name Gymnophiona for the total group and the old name Apoda for the crown group . However, Apoda has other even older uses, including as the name of a genus of Butterfly making its use potentially confusing and best avoided. 'Gymnophiona' derives from the Greek words γυμνος / and οφις /, as the caecilians were originally thought to be related to snakes and to lack scales.

The study of caecilian evolution is complicated by their poor fossil record and specialized anatomy. Genetic evidence and some anatomical details (such as pedicellate teeth) support the idea that frogs, salamanders, and caecilians (collectively known as lissamphibians) are each others' closest relatives. Frogs and salamanders show many similarities to dissorophoids, a group of extinct amphibians in the order Temnospondyli. Caecilians are more controversial; many studies extend dissorophoid ancestry to caecilians. Some studies have instead argued that caecilians descend from extinct lepospondyl or stereospondyl amphibians, contradicting evidence for lissamphibian monophyly (common ancestry). Rare fossils of early gymnophionans such as Eocaecilia and Funcusvermis have helped to test the various conflicting hypotheses for the relationships between caecilians and other living and extinct amphibians.

Description
Caecilians' anatomy is highly adapted for a burrowing lifestyle. In a couple of species belonging to the primitive genus Ichthyophis vestigial traces of limbs have been found, and in Typhlonectes compressicauda the presence of limb buds has been observed during embryonic development, remnants in an otherwise completely limbless body. This makes the smaller species resemble worms, while the larger species like Caecilia thompsoni, with lengths up to 1.5 m, resemble snakes. Their tails are short or absent, and their cloacae are near the ends of their bodies.

Except for one lungless species, Atretochoana eiselti, all caecilians have lungs, but also use their skin or mouths for oxygen absorption. Often, the left lung is much smaller than the right one, an adaptation to body shape that is also found in snakes.

Their trunk muscles are adapted to pushing their way through the ground, with the vertebral column and its musculature acting as a piston inside the outer layer of the body wall musculature, which is closely attached to the skin. By contracting the outer layer of muscles it squeezes the coelom and generates a strong hydrostatic force that lengthens the body. This muscle system allows the animal to anchor its hind end in position, and force the head forwards, and then pull the rest of the body up to reach it in waves. In water or very loose mud, caecilians instead swim in an eel-like fashion. Caecilians in the family Typhlonectidae are aquatic, and the largest of their kind. The representatives of this family have a fleshy fin running along the rear section of their bodies, which enhances propulsion in water.

Skull and senses
Caecilians have small or absent eyes, with only a single known class of photoreceptors, and their vision is limited to dark-light perception. Unlike other modern amphibians (frogs and salamanders) the skull is compact and solid, with few large openings between plate-like cranial bones. The snout is pointed and bullet-shaped, used to force their way through soil or mud. In most species the mouth is recessed under the head, so that the snout overhangs the mouth.

The bones in the skull are reduced in number compared to prehistoric amphibian species. Many bones of the skull are fused together: the maxilla and palatine bones have fused into a maxillopalatine in all living caecilians, and the nasal and premaxilla bones fuse into a nasopremaxilla in some families. Some families can be differentiated by the presence of absence of certain skull bones, such as the septomaxillae, prefrontals, an/or a postfrontal-like bone surrounding the orbit (eye socket). The braincase is encased in a fully integrated compound bone called the os basale, which takes up most of the rear and lower parts of the skull. In skulls viewed from above, a mesethmoid bone may be visible in some species, wedging into the midline of the skull roof. All caecilians have a pair of unique sensory structures, known as tentacles, located on either side of the head between the eyes and nostrils. These are probably used for a second olfactory capability, in addition to the normal sense of smell based in the nose.

The ringed caecilian (Siphonops annulatus) has dental glands that may be homologous to the venom glands of some snakes and lizards. The function of these glands is unknown.

The middle ear consists of only the stapes bone and the oval window, which transfer vibrations into the inner ear through a reentrant fluid circuit as seen in some reptiles. Adults of species within the family Scolecomorphidae lack both a stapes and an oval window, making them the only known amphibians missing all the components of a middle ear apparatus.

The lower jaw is specialized in caecilians. Gymnophionans, including extinct species, have only two components of the jaw: the pseudodentary (at the front, bearing teeth) and pseudoangular (at the back, bearing the jaw joint and muscle attachments). These two components are what remains following fusion between a larger set of bones. An additional inset tooth row with up to 20 teeth lies parallel to the main marginal tooth row of the jaw.

All but the most primitive caecilians have two sets of muscles for closing the jaw, compared with the single pair found in other amphibians. One set of muscles, the adductors, insert into the upper edge of the pseudoangular in front of the jaw joint. Adductor muscles are commonplace in vertebrates, and close the jaw by pulling upwards and forwards. A more unique set of muscles, the abductors, insert into the rear edge of the pseudoangular below and behind the jaw joint. They close the jaw by pulling backwards and downwards. Jaw muscles are more highly developed in the most efficient burrowers among the caecilians, and appear to help keep the skull and jaw rigid.

Skin

Their skin is smooth and usually dark, but some species have colourful skins. Inside the skin are calcite scales. Because of these scales, the caecilians were once thought to be related to the fossil Stegocephalia, but they are now believed to be a secondary development, and the two groups are most likely unrelated. Scales are absent in the families Scolecomorphidae and Typhlonectidae, except the species Typhlonectes compressicauda where minute scales have been found in the hinder region of the body. The skin also has numerous ring-shaped folds, or annuli, that partially encircle the body, giving them a segmented appearance. Like some other living amphibians, the skin contains glands that secrete a toxin to deter predators. The skin secretions of Siphonops paulensis have been shown to have hemolytic properties.

Milk provisioning
Recent research, as documented in the journal Science, has shed light on the behavior of certain species of caecilians. These studies reveal that some caecilians exhibit a phenomenon wherein they provide their hatchlings with a nutrient-rich substance akin to milk, delivered through a maternal vent. Among the species investigated, the oviparous nonmammalian caecilian amphibian Siphonops annulatus stood out, indicating that the practice of lactation may be more widespread among these creatures than previously thought. As detailed in a 2024 study, researchers collected 16 mothers of the Siphonops annulatus species from cacao plantations in Brazil's Atlantic Forest and filmed them with their altricial hatchlings in the lab. The mothers remained with their offspring, which suckled on a white, viscous liquid from their cloaca, experiencing rapid growth in their first week. This milk-like substance, rich in fats and carbohydrates, is produced in the mother's oviduct epithelium's hypertrophied glands, similar to mammal milk. The substance was released seemingly in response to tactile and acoustic stimulation by the babies. The researchers observed the hatchlings emitting high-pitched clicking sounds as they approached their mothers for milk, a behavior unique among amphibians. This milk-feeding behavior may contribute to the development of the hatchlings' microbiome and immune system, similar to mammalian young. The presence of milk production in caecilians that lay eggs suggests an evolutionary transition between egg-laying and live birth.

Distribution
Caecilians are native to wet, tropical regions of Southeast Asia, India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka, parts of East and West Africa, the Seychelles Islands in the Indian Ocean, Central America, and in northern and eastern South America. In Africa, caecilians are found from Guinea-Bissau (Geotrypetes) to southern Malawi (Scolecomorphus), with an unconfirmed record from eastern Zimbabwe. They have not been recorded from the extensive areas of tropical forest in central Africa. In South America, they extend through subtropical eastern Brazil well into temperate northern Argentina. They can be seen as far south as Buenos Aires, when they are carried by the flood waters of the Paraná River coming from farther north. Their American range extends north to southern Mexico. The northernmost distribution is of the species Ichthyophis sikkimensis of northern India. Ichthyophis is also found in South China and Northern Vietnam. In Southeast Asia, they are found as far east as Java, Borneo, and the southern Philippines, but they have not crossed Wallace's line and are not present in Australia or nearby islands. There are no known caecilians in Madagascar, but their presence in the Seychelles and India has led to speculation on the presence of undiscovered extinct or extant caecilians there.

In 2021, a live specimen of Typhlonectes natans, a caecilian native to Colombia and Venezuela, was collected from a drainage canal in South Florida. It was the only caecilian ever reported in the wild in the United States, and is considered to be an introduction, perhaps from the wildlife trade. Whether a breeding population has been established in the area is unknown.

Taxonomy
The name caecilian derives from the Latin word caecus, meaning "blind", referring to the small or sometimes nonexistent eyes. The name dates back to the taxonomic name of the first species described by Carl Linnaeus, which he named Caecilia tentaculata.

There has historically been disagreement over the use of the two primary scientific names for caecilians, Apoda and Gymnophiona. Some palaeontologists prefer to use the name Apoda to refer to the "crown group", that is, the group containing all modern caecilians and extinct members of these modern lineages and the name Gymnophiona to refer to the total group, that is, all caecilians and caecilian-like amphibians that are more closely related to modern groups than to frogs or salamanders. However, Apoda been used for groups of fishes and of sea cucumbers and is the name of a genus of moth, and its continued use in caecilian taxonomy is potentially confusing and unhelpful.

A classification of caecilians by Wilkinson et al. (2011) divided the living caecilians into 9 families containing nearly 200 species. In 2012, a tenth caecilian family was newly described, Chikilidae. This classification is based on a thorough definition of monophyly based on morphological and molecular evidence,   and it solves the longstanding problems of paraphyly of the Caeciliidae in previous classifications without an exclusive reliance upon synonymy. There are 219 species of caecilian in 33 genera and 10 families.

The most recent phylogeny of caecilians is based on molecular mitogenomic evidence examined by San Mauro et al. (2014), and modified to include some more recently described genera such as Amazops.

Evolution
Little is known of the evolutionary history of the caecilians, which have left a very sparse fossil record. The first fossil, a vertebra dated to the Paleocene, was not discovered until 1972. Other vertebrae, which have characteristic features unique to modern species, were later found in Paleocene and Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian) sediments.

Phylogenetic evidence suggests that the ancestors of caecilians and batrachians (including frogs and salamanders) diverged from one another during the Carboniferous. This leaves a gap of more than 70 million years between the presumed origins of caecilians and the earliest definitive fossils of stem-caecilians.

Prior to 2023, the earliest fossil attributed to a stem-caecilian (an amphibian closer to caecilians than to frogs or salamanders but not a member of the extant caecilian lineage) comes from the Jurassic period. This primitive genus, Eocaecilia, had small limbs and well-developed eyes. In their 2008 description of the Early Permian amphibian Gerobatrachus, Anderson and co-authors suggested that caecilians arose from the Lepospondyl group of ancestral tetrapods, and may be more closely related to amniotes than to frogs and salamanders, which arose from Temnospondyl ancestors. Numerous groups of lepospondyls evolved reduced limbs, elongated bodies, and burrowing behaviors, and morphological studies on Permian and Carboniferous lepospondyls have placed the early caecilian (Eocaecilia) among these groups. Divergent origins of caecilians and other extant amphibians may help explain the slight discrepancy between fossil dates for the origins of modern Amphibia, which suggest Permian origins, and the earlier dates, in the Carboniferous, predicted by some molecular clock studies of DNA sequences. Most morphological and molecular studies of extant amphibians, however, support monophyly for caecilians, frogs, and salamanders, and the most recent molecular study based on multi-locus data suggest a Late Carboniferous–Early Permian origin of extant amphibians.

Chinlestegophis, a stereospondyl temnospondyl from the Late Triassic Chinle Formation of Colorado, was proposed to be a stem-caecilian in a 2017 paper by Pardo and co-authors. If confirmed, this would bolster the proposed pre-Triassic origin of Lissamphibia suggested by molecular clocks. It would fill a gap in the fossil record of early caecilians and suggest that stereospondyls as a whole qualify as stem-group caecilians. However, affinities between Chinlestegophis and gymnophionans have been disputed along several lines of evidence. A 2020 study questioned the choice of characters supporting the relationship, and a 2019 reanalysis of the original data matrix found that other equally parsimonious positions were supported for the placement of Chinlestegophis and gymnophionans among tetrapods. In 2024, Chinlestegophis was consistently recovered as a sister taxon of Rileymillerus within various positions of Stereospondyli outside Lissamphibia based on phylogenetic analyses and revisions.

A 2023 paper by Kligman and co-authors described Funcusvermis, another amphibian from the Chinle Formation of Arizona. Funcusvermis was strongly supported as a stem group caecilian based on traits of its numerous skull and jaw fragments, the largest sample of caecilian fossils known. The paper discussed the various hypotheses for caecilian origins: the polyphyly hypothesis (caecilians as lepospondyls, and other lissamphibians as temnospondyls), the lepospondyl hypothesis (lissamphibians as lepospondyls), and the newer hypothesis supported by Chinlestegophis, where caecilians and other lissamphibians had separate origins within temnospondyls. Nevertheless, all of these ideas were refuted, and the most strongly supported hypothesis combined lissamphibians into a monophyletic group of dissorophoid temnospondyls closely related to Gerobatrachus.

Reproduction
Caecilians are the only order of amphibians to use internal insemination exclusively (although most salamanders have internal fertilization and the tailed frog in the US uses a tail-like appendage for internal insemination in its fast-flowing water environment). The male caecilians have a long tube-like intromittent organ, the phallodeum, which is inserted into the cloaca of the female for two to three hours. About 25% of the species are oviparous (egg-laying); the eggs are laid in terrestrial nests rather than in water and are guarded by the female. For some species, the young caecilians are already metamorphosed when they hatch; others hatch as larvae. The larvae are not fully aquatic, but spend the daytime in the soil near the water.

About 75% of caecilians are viviparous, meaning they give birth to already-developed offspring. The foetus is fed inside the female with cells lining the oviduct, which they eat with special scraping teeth. Some larvae, such as those of Typhlonectes, are born with enormous external gills which are shed almost immediately. The egg-laying herpelid species Boulengerula taitana feeds its young by developing an outer layer of skin, high in fat and other nutrients, which the young peel off with modified teeth. This allows them to grow by up to 10 times their own weight in a week. The skin is consumed every three days, the time it takes for a new layer to grow, and the young have only been observed to eat it at night. It was formerly thought that the juveniles subsisted only on a liquid secretion from their mothers. This form of parental care, known as maternal dermatophagy, has also been reported in two species in the family Siphonopidae: Siphonops annulatus and Microcaecilia dermatophaga. Siphonopids and herpelids are not closely related to each other, having diverged in the Cretaceous Period. The presence of maternal dermatophagy in both families suggest that it may be more widespread among caecilians than previously considered.

Herpele squalostoma caecilians vertically transmit the mother's microbiome to their offspring through maternal dermatophagy. In comparison to other amphibians, the extended parenting of caecilians can provide beneficial bacteria and fungi, but this transmission risks the spread of diseases like chytridiomycosis.

Diet
Caecilians are considered as generalist predators. While caecilians are generally carnivorous, their diet differs between taxa. The stomach contents of wild caecilians include primarily soil ecosystem engineers like earthworms, termites, lizards, moth larvae, and shrimp. Some species of caecilians will opportunistically consume newborn rodents, salmon eggs, and veal in laboratory conditions, as well as vertebrates such as scolecophidian snakes, lizards, small fishes, and frogs.

Cultural significance
As caecilians are a reclusive group, they are only featured in a few human myths, and are generally considered repulsive in traditional customs.

In the folklore of certain regions of India, caecilians are feared and reviled, based on the belief that they are fatally venomous. Caecilians in the Eastern Himalayas are colloquially known as "back ache snakes", while in the Western Ghats, Ichthyophis tricolor is considered to be more toxic than a king cobra. Despite deep cultural respect for the cobra and other dangerous animals, the caecilian is killed on sight by salt and kerosene. These myths have complicated conservation initiatives for Indian caecilians.

Crotaphatrema lamottei, a rare species native to Mount Oku in Cameroon, is classified as a Kefa-ntie (burrowing creature) by the Oku. Kefa-ntie, a term also encompassing native moles and blind snakes, are considered poisonous, causing painful sores if encountered, contacted, or killed. According to Oku tradition, the ceremony to cleanse the affliction involves a potion composed of ground herbs, palm oil, snail shells, and chicken blood applied to and licked off of the left thumb.

South American caecilians have a variable relationship to local cultures. The minhocão, a legendary worm-like beast in Brazilian folklore, may be inspired by caecilians. Colombian folklore states that the aquatic caecilian, Typhlonectes natans, can be manifested from a lock of hair sealed in a sunken bottle. In southern Mexico and Central America, Dermophis mexicanus is colloquially known as the "tapalcua", a name referencing the belief that it emerges to embed itself in the rear end of any unsuspecting person who chooses to relieve themself over its home. This may be inspired by their tendency to nest in refuse heaps.

title: Caecilian


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Talk:List of Iranians

Sasha Baron Choen
Why does someone keep deleting Sasha Baron Cohen from this page? His mother is Iranian. Is there something that I am unaware of? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.94.209.98 (talk) 03:38, 15 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Sasha Baron Cohen is not Iranian and neither was his mother. Jooojay (talk) 04:24, 26 September 2020 (UTC)

Americans?
Why is Annemarie Schimmel listed as an American? The main article on her says she is German.

E.G. Browne was also on this list previously, listed as E.G. Browne (British)!

Is everyone from the west considered to be American? This is a bit strange isn't it?

Could the list title be amended to 'Famous Westerners in Iran?' or at least, if the title remains, it should be restricted to Americans.

Trivial persons?
Please stop adding every trivial person to this list. If all nationalities wanted to do this, Wikipedia's database would be a monumental repository of useless trivial data. Iran has plenty of pesonalities in its long history in various categories who deserve a fair article in an encyclopedia; but please let's avoid creating a long list of every insignificant Iranian who just happens to have some fame. --K1 06:44, 11 Mar 2004 (UTC)

 * Please give examples of the persons you are objecting to. The only people I may have some objections to, are the new electronic music people. The political people, I really believe are necessary, because of the very short memory of the Iranians who forget where someone is coming from. Anyway, if you believe someone doesn't deserve to have an article, request that at the request for deletions page. This, is just a list of those who have an article and those someone thinks they should. Roozbeh 08:31, 11 Mar 2004 (UTC)

 * On many occassions it has been said that Wikipedia's space is pretty much unlimited, so the argument "useless trivial data" does not hold - what is trivial to you might be improtant to me or others. Also over half of teh persons mentioned already have an article - I think Roozbeh is doing a brilliant job. Let him get on with it. Refdoc 23:44, 29 Jun 2004 (UTC)

 * If you want to eliminate trivial people from this list, you should try eliminating all the Parsis that are on here. These people were more influential in India and Britain then Iran and they are not what we would call modern-day Iranian Persians. They are Old Persian descent.

You're right, Parsis are closer to Ancient Persians but, otherwise, alot more Indian than Iranian. They dont even speak Persian, they speak Gujarati. I'm a Parsi, I would know this -Daruwalla Homey

For that matter, eleminate Freddie Mercury, Rohinton Mistry, Zubin Mehta and every other Parsi. Not just the first one. The others are still there. -Farsheed

The Elamite Dynasties are part of a time when Iran did not exist, there were no Iranians in Iran, and have nothing to do with Iran. They belong to Elam, an indigenous cultural area in the southwestern portion of modern Iran. Their language is Elamite (not related to Indo-European in any way). I agree that it should be removed from any Iran pages unless there is a specific article on pre-Iranian civilizations or Ancient Iran History article.

Herodotus calls Medes as Aryans (Iranians) and lists the six tribes of Medes (I, 101). Any Mede would then be part of an article on Iranians and Iran. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 121.210.84.122 (talk) 09:32, 29 August 2010 (UTC)

The Iglehakid, the Shutrukid, and the Medes
The anonymous user at 69.105.224.30 is insisting on removing the Igehalkid and Shutrukid dynasties. These were really dynasties of the Elamite Empire, and not Persians. But again, the Medes were not Persians either. Persia started with the Achameneid. Any ideas?

To make sure the list is not lost, this is it:

Igehalkid dynasty

 * Ige-Halki (c. 1350 - c. 1330 BCE)
 * Pakhir-Ishshan (c. 1330 - c. 1310 BCE)
 * Attar-Kittakh (c. 1310 - c. 1300 BCE)
 * Khuman-Numena (c. 1300 - c. 1275 BCE)
 * Untash-Naprisha (c. 1275 - c. 1240 BCE)
 * Unpatar-Naprisha (c. 1240 - c. 1235 BCE)
 * Kiddin-Khutran (c. 1235 - c. 1210 BCE)

Shutrukid Dynasty

 * Khallutush-In-Shushinak (c. 1205 - c. 1185 BCE)
 * Shutruk-Nahhunte (c. 1185 - c. 1155 BCE)
 * Kutir-Nahhunte III (c. 1155 - c. 1150 BCE)
 * Shilkhak-In-Shushinak (c. 1150 - c. 1120 BCE)
 * Khutelutush-In-Shushinak (c. 1120 - c. 1110 BCE)
 * Shilhana-Hamru-Lagamar (c. 1110 - 1100 BCE)

Roozbeh 00:56, 26 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Elam is a constituent of Iran. Iran is a greater than just its Persian parts and hence a page on Iran and its history should also link to the non-Persian aspects. I would re-instate the lists. Refdoc 23:35, 29 Jun 2004 (UTC)

I have reinstated the lists. I think any further deletions should be discussed on this page rather than just done only to be reverted immediately thereafter Refdoc 23:46, 29 Jun 2004 (UTC)

 * Well, the title of the artile is List of Iranians. The ancient Elamites were not Iranians.  Medes were Iranians. Nobody said it's a list of Persians.  How did you come up with that? It's a list of Iranians, and if it has to go back to ancient history, still it doesn't change the fact that it should be a list of Iranian peoples.  Of course we could go back to Adam and Eve, but in that case then why categorize as X or Y or Z?  We would lump everyone under List of children of Adam and Eve.  Last but not least, I find it mildly interesting that you on your own alter the article, and then instruct others to not change anything without first discussing it here.  Do as I say, not as I do?   --K1 03:39, 30 Jun 2004 (UTC)

 * calm down, K1, It is really a matter of artifice to ascertain these were Iranians, those not, given that neither the Persians nor the Medians nor the Elamites held an Iranian passport or citizenship - all modern concepts... WRT to my reference to "Persia" this is in response to Roozbeh just above my note.

 * Also Elamite was one of the (several official languages of the Persian Empire, just as Susa was one of the capitals acc to the Elamite Empire article. Ancient Elam is mostly identical with the modern Iranian province of Kuzestan, though obviously extended occ far beyond. Elamite genes are most certainly still somewhere in the genetic make-up of the Iranian population and Elamite historical artefacts are valued treasures of Iranian history.

 * WRT my request not to alter but to discuss, you do seem to misunderstand me quite badly. It is Wikipedia policy to add rather than to delete to introduce NPOV etc, and to discuss major deletion. I did not alter but more or less reverted, while the guy Roozbeh had difficulties with, deleted without comment - and repeatedly so.  I hope this clarifies my action Refdoc 15:08, 6 Jul 2004 (UTC)

 * BTW should one not mentian the Timurides? Refdoc 22:03, 6 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Shariati
I removed Shariati from journalists not because of duplication, but because he has never been a jounalist. Ehsan 18:23, 25 Apr 2004 (UTC)

 * Sorry then. If you're sure Shariati has not been a journalist, please remove him again. Roozbeh 21:03, 25 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Conformance with other pages
I would suggest to reconstruct this page in a modular way, so that when someone changes the list in Persian literature for example, it changes here as well. Maybe by just giving links to proper pages or ... Mtdashti 11:55, 17 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Football or Soccer
I believe we should use soccer player instead of football player, since the former is informative about what kind of football they play. User:Sina seems to disagree. Anybody else agrees or disagrees?

 * Football is an sport under governing body of FIFA. What is FIFA? Fédération Internationale de Football Association, not soccer association! We have to call this sport football not soccer.--Sina 14:53, 27 Feb 2005 (UTC)

 * If you read the Football page, you see that what you really mean is called Assosiation football, which is reflected in the expansion of FIFA as you mentioned. You are simply wrong, in English, they call it soccer, and that's what matters.  Behdad 11:15, 28 Feb 2005 (UTC)

 * All around the world except in the North America, everyone call this sport Football not Soccer, If you check European leagues, they have football league not soccer league.BTW, most of football fans call this sport neither soccer and Association football, everyone knows this sport as FOOTBALL --Sina 11:48, 28 Feb 2005 (UTC)

 * Football is ambigious, soccer is not. BTW, in Wikipedia, American English is preferred.

 * I know the discussion is over, but just wanted to note that American English is not the preferred spelling/usuage in Wikipedia. The policy is as such. All articles written about "American" subjects should have American spelling/usuage while all articles about subjects purely British (or countries which use British spellings) should have Commonwealth usuage/spelling. Articles about neutral subjects (i.e. grape) could use either but should be consistent. -- Jeff3000 17:13, 21 October 2005 (UTC)

I propose we use both, with one in parentheses. (And it really doesnt matter which one).--Zereshk 22:06, 8 Mar 2005 (UTC)

 * Ok, made them all "football (soccer)", like the article name is. And let all entries be linked. Behdad 4 July 2005 05:36 (UTC)
 * I agree with this!--Sina 4 July 2005 09:10 (UTC)

In actual fact the whole of wiki has this wrong. 'soccer' or 'association football' should be referred to as simply 'football'. The 'football' they play in the US should be referred to as 'American football'. Since 'soccer' came first it should be preference in this matter. 'football' it not ambiguous - it refers to the game known by Americans as 'soccer' - it's not the fault of the rest of the world that Americans are too ignorant to know any better.

 * Americans do know that the rest of the world calls it football, but Wikipedia is an American website. If you don't like an American website using American English then maybe you can go start your own widely popular encyclopedia site that uses the language you prefer. Until then you are just going to have to deal with American products reflecting an American outlook. It's not American's fault that the rest of the world is unproductive and the people (like you) choose to visit American websites.

 * Anti-American bigots -- calling Americans ignorant -- and yet revolving their life around American innovation... quite the irony. — Preceding unsigned comment added by TheyCallMeTheEditor (talk • contribs) 05:01, 18 January 2013 (UTC)

Fred Ameri
Sixty-four-year-old Fred Ameri has been working for the same architectural firm since he was in college. If they fired him, he says, he wouldn’t know how to fill out a job application – but since he’s one of RBF Consulting’s senior vice presidents, there’s little chance he will have to. He’s been married to his wife for 32 years. He sits on the California Regional Water Quality Control Board and is chairman of the board for the World Affairs Council of Orange County. nativeborn Iranian’s Ameri came to America in 1959 at the age of 18, to study medicine at Berkeley. He turned to engineering and went on to earn a masters degree in civil engineering. He quickly got a job at RBF, which was operating out of the owner’s modest home in Costa Mesa. He started a consulting firm, which became the second largest consulting firm in the country. It was the mid-70s and America was in a recession; Ameri’s firm set up a satellite branch in New York, filling it with 50 architects simply by putting a few ads in the New York Times. While the Europeans handle much of the negotiations, and the U.S. works with the U.N. to press for meaningful sanctions, Ameri believes the U.S. should use the greatest asset we have – the wealth of intelligence and information held by educated Iranian immigrants like himself. Until then, Ameri will keep working to enlighten anyone who cares to listen. And you can be sure of one thing – he won’t quit anytime soon. The World Affairs Council has monthly luncheons at which some of the world’s most interesting people have spoken, from Mikhail Gorbachev and Frank Carlucci to activist celebrity Mike Farrell of M.A.S.H. fame. For information on the council or the luncheons – which are open to non-members – call (949) 253-5751.

Parsis=Persians or Iranians?
-Should Parsis be listed on here with Iranians? I dont think so. Ethnically and genetically they're Persian but Iran is a nation and Iranian is a nationality. Parsis, in this respect, are INDIAN not Iranian. They can be in the category Persian people but not Iranians. Do we put Tajiks on this list or Afghan Dari-speakers, even though both of these are Persians, no. This is a list for people who are Iranian or of Iranian national origin. Including Persians and non-Persians, as long as they lived in the country or region of Iran. Historical Persians outside of the plateau like Tajiks or Parsis should not be on here.

 * Iranian Zoroastrians could be listed here. But not Parsis. They have been in India for over 1,000 years. Even, DNA tests have revealed a heavy local admixture among Parsis - Ravichandar My coffee shop  13:11, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

 * Parsis have their own list, List of Parsis. It makes more sense to add them to the other list. Jooojay (talk) 04:27, 26 September 2020 (UTC)

What Criteria ?
Can anyone confirm what the criteria is for inclusion on this list and other similar lists ? Should it include people of other nationalities because one of their parents were born in Iran, even if the notable person was not born in Iran and does not hold Iranian nationality ?Scarlet7 09:21, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

 * Good point. It is debatable. The govt of Iran considers people born outside Iran to a parent of former Iranian nationality, still to be Iranian. That is why if they travel to Iran, they can even be drafted into the army if above 18 whether or not they claim to hold Iranian nationality.--Zereshk 12:39, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

List of Iranian women
You folks might wish to comment at Articles for deletion/List of Iranian women (2nd nomination). Kappa 13:53, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

taies farzan+narges rashidi
these two actresses are Iranians, established with acting films of most credible recognitions and internationally. i wonder why such names are not clickable with articles in wikipedia?! both names are still listed in black?!213.196.208.87 (talk) 13:18, 24 September 2008 (UTC) thank you.

re-name
Surely the name of this is incorrect and should read something like 'List of notable Iranians' ? Simply 'list of Iranians' means we should have a list of every Iranian who ever lived?? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.150.5.216 (talk) 10:43, 16 August 2010 (UTC)

Edit request from Farhikht, 18 August 2010
Please rv the article to the right version. An IP added a possibly hoax into the list,a Google news shows 0 hit. And add Omid Djalili to the list, according to these 2 refs that you can find here. Thanks.Farhikht (talk) 11:44, 18 August 2010 (UTC)

Farhikht (talk) 11:44, 18 August 2010 (UTC)
 * See The Wrong Version. HJ Mitchell  |  Penny for your thoughts?   20:26, 18 August 2010 (UTC)

Omid Djalili
Every article you read about this person will confirm that he is British born, but of Iranian descent. He is not Iranian; he is British. It's like many people in the UK who are categorically 'British' but call themselves 'Asian' 'Indian' 'Pakistani' because of their roots. This does not make them from that country, rather just a declaration of their family history. The sources you have provided yourself do not confirm anything other than this. 78.150.23.206 (talk) 14:54, 25 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Hi. According to this source, Djalili is "a British born Iranian actor" and in the title of this one Djalili is "UK's Iranian comic", and he says: "I am Iranian, I love uranium." Then, what's the problem?Farhikht (talk) 15:02, 25 August 2010 (UTC)

I know what the articles say, but you misinterpret them. As I said above, reference to 'Iranian' in the first source is a reference to his roots - his nationality being 'British' - i.e. British born. The same goes for the second source; he is referred to as being Iranian - even by himself - because of his roots. You point out yourself that it says 'The UK's…' making him British. None of these quotes demonstrate that he is Iranian by nationality; you have interpreted them incorrectly. In fact, I would suggest that these sources, on the contrary, demonstrate that he is British. Please remove or take to arbitration. 78.150.23.206 (talk) 14:31, 26 August 2010 (UTC)

 * Thanks, I accept it. Cheers.Farhikht (talk) 15:14, 28 August 2010 (UTC)

Alphabetised lists
I see that some lists are alphabetised by first name, and some by last name. I have only seen lists on Wikipedia alphabetised by last name. I suggest we do this here. --Brenont (talk) 02:42, 17 August 2016 (UTC)

Red links
Per WP:REDBIO, WP:RED no red links in the notable people list please. Each person must have a Wikipedia article first. Jooojay (talk) 04:07, 26 September 2020 (UTC)

Kami hejazi biography
Kami Hejazi was born in 1994

Hes real name is Kamran Hejazi

Born in Iran and originally from Afghanistan

In 2014, he released he first music video called Yar Shirin

is also a songwriter

Se is a guitarist who is very interested in guitar

Hes favorite singer is Shadmehr Aghili Sara afghani (talk) 08:18, 17 July 2022 (UTC)

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

title: Talk:List of Iranians


text:
Batrachia

The Batrachia are a clade of amphibians that includes frogs and salamanders, but not caecilians nor the extinct allocaudates. The name Batrachia was first used by French zoologist Pierre André Latreille in 1800 to refer to frogs, but has more recently been defined in a phylogenetic sense as a node-based taxon that includes the last common ancestor of frogs and salamanders and all of its descendants. The idea that frogs and salamanders are more closely related to each other than either is to caecilians is strongly supported by morphological and molecular evidence; they are, for instance, the only vertebrates able to raise and lower their eyes. However, an alternative hypothesis exists in which salamanders and caecilians are each other's closest relatives as part of a clade called the Procera, with frogs positioned as the sister taxon of this group.

Origins
The earliest batrachians are the stem-frogs Triadobatrachus and Czatkobatrachus from the Early Triassic, about 250 million years ago. However, several molecular clock estimates place the first appearance of the Batrachia (the time at which frog and salamander lineages diverged from each other) before the Early Triassic. Most estimates place the divergence in the Permian but some put it as far back as 367 million years ago in the Late Devonian (which is when tetrapods are thought to have started to emerge from fishapods). However, there is no evidence of lissamphibians or lissamphibian-like animals in the fossil record at this time. The tetrapod groups that are hypothesized as ancestors of modern amphibians (lepospondyls and amphibamid temnospondyls) appear in the Late Carboniferous, roughly 300 million years ago. Large fossil tetrapod assemblages are known from the Artinskian stage of the Early Permian about 275 million years ago and contain no lissamphibians, suggesting that the Early Permian may be an upper bound for the age of Batrachia.

title: Batrachia


text:
The Disobedient Child

The Disobedient Child is a theatrical comic interlude written c.1560 by Thomas Ingelend (an author who is known only as a "late student of Cambridge", as described on the first edition's title-page) and first performed in a Tudor hall.

This play contains the famous line: "None is so deaf as who will not hear."

Morality play
It deals with the subject of the proper disciplinary treatment of children, raising the threat of the evil of those raised without strict discipline. It portrays a young man who is eager to marry despite his father's objections, and the unhappiness of his subsequent married life. The moral of its story is "you've made your bed, now lie in it." It ends with a song to Queen Elizabeth.

The printed edition by Thomas Colwell is without date, but it was published about the year 1560. "The source," writes Tucker Brooke, "from which Ingelend derived the rough framework of his play is a prose dialogue of the French Latinist Ravisius Textor (Jean Tixier de Ravisi, 1480-1524); but Textor's scant two hundred and thirty-five lines of question and answer between a colorless Pater Juvenis and Uxor are expanded, in the fifteen hundred lines of the English work, into a drama of much higher intensity and literary merit than the original in any way suggested."

title: The Disobedient Child


text:
PASOK

The Panhellenic Socialist Movement (Πανελλήνιο Σοσιαλιστικό Κίνημα, ), known mostly by its acronym PASOK, (ΠΑΣΟΚ, ) is a social-democratic political party in Greece. Until 2012 it was one of the two major parties in the country, along with New Democracy, its main political rival. In the June 2023 Greek legislative election it once again held firm on to its position of one of the ”big three” political parties of Greece.

Following the collapse of the Greek military dictatorship of 1967–1974, PASOK was founded on 3 September 1974 as a socialist party.

Formerly the largest left-of-center party in Greece between 1977 and 2012, PASOK lost much of its popular support as a result of the Greek debt crisis. PASOK was the ruling party when the economic crisis began, and it negotiated the first Greek bailout package with the European troika, which necessitated harsh austerity measures. This caused a significant loss in the party's popularity. It was part of two coalition governments from 2011 to 2015, during which further austerity measures were taken in response to the crisis. Due to these measures and the crisis, PASOK went from being the largest party in the Hellenic Parliament with 160 seats (43.92% of the popular vote) in the 2009 election to being the smallest party with 13 seats (4.68% of the popular vote) in the January 2015 election. This decline became known as Pasokification.

To halt the party's decline, Fofi Gennimata was elected as the new president of the party and formed a political alliance known as the Democratic Alignment (DISY). In the September 2015 election, DISY was the fourth most voted-for party. In 2018, PASOK merged into a new political alliance of centre-left parties, again led by Gennimata, called the Movement for Change (KINAL), becoming the third largest party in the parliament in the 2019 election.

Foundation
The first members of the party were the main organizers of the collapse of the Greek junta and the re-establishment of democracy on 3 September 1974. Its founder was Andreas Papandreou, son of the late Greek liberal leader and three-time Prime Minister of Greece Georgios Papandreou Sr, and its co-founder trade unionist Georgios Daskalakis. Its founding mottos were "National Independence, Popular Sovereignty, Social Emancipation, Democratic Process." Andreas Papandreou was offered the leadership of the liberal political forces - what evolved into Centre Union – New Forces - immediately after the restoration of democracy, but in a risky move he declined, so the leadership was assumed by Georgios Mavros. Papandreou, a powerful orator and charismatic leader, explicitly rejected the Venizelist ideological heritage of his father, and stressed the fact that he was a socialist, not a liberal.

Early years
At the November 1974 elections the Party received only 13.5% of the vote and won 15 seats (out of 300), coming third behind the centre-right New Democracy of Konstantinos Karamanlis and the Centre Union – New Forces (EK-ND) of Giorgos Mavros. In the November 1977 elections, however, PASOK eclipsed the EK-ND, winning 93 seats by doubling its share of the vote and becoming the main opposition party in Greece at the time.

In government
In the October 1981 national elections PASOK won a landslide victory with 48.1% of the vote, capturing 172 seats; it forming the first socialist government in Greece since 1924. Although Papandreou had campaigned for withdrawal of Greece from NATO and the European Economic Community, after a strong request by the rest of the party members and its supporters, changed his policies towards both organizations. He proved to be an excellent negotiator when it came to securing benefits and subsidies for Greece from the EEC. For example, in 1985 he openly threatened Jacques Delors to veto the entry of Spain and Portugal in to the ECC to secure more monetary aid for Greece.

In 1986, the PASOK government amended the Greek constitution to remove most powers from the President and giving wider authority to the Prime Minister and the Executive Government. Civil marriages, not consecrated by religious ceremony, were recognized as equally valid with religious weddings. The left-wing Resistance movement against the Axis in World War II was finally formally recognized, and former leftist resistance fighters were given state pensions, while leftist political refugees of the Greek Civil War were finally given permission to return to Greece. The National Health System was created and various repressive laws of the anti-communist postwar establishment were abolished, wages were boosted, an independent and multidimensional foreign policy was pursued, many reforms in family law to strengthen the rights of women were undertaken and the Greek Gendarmerie military police force abolished in 1984. In the June 1985 elections, PASOK received 46% of the vote, winning 161 seats, thus securing a stable parliamentary majority for its second term in power.

It continued to be popular for much of its second term, especially in March 1987 when Andreas Papandreou successfully handled a crisis in the Aegean with Turkey. By late 1988 however, both the government's popularity and Papandreou's health had declined. The former, because of the press’ reports of financial and corruption scandals that, implicated Ministers and, allegedly, Andreas Papandreou himself as well as because of fiscal austerity measures imposed after the Keynesian policies of the first term. PASOK lost the June 1989 elections with 40% of the vote while the opposing New Democracy received 44.3%. PASOK had changed the electoral law before the elections, making it harder for the leading party to form a majority government, so the legislature was deadlocked.

Another election in November produced a very similar result. After a brief period of a grand coalition government, in which PASOK participated, a third election in April 1990 brought New Democracy back to power. Despite a 7% lead in popular vote over PASOK, New Democracy could only secure a marginal majority in the Hellenic Parliament, electing 152 MPs out of a total of 300; PASOK had secured a larger number of representatives on a lower percentage of votes, as well as having a small overall lead, in the elections of 1985, under the previous electoral system. Its representation in the Parliament shrunk to 121 MPs in 1990.

In opposition, PASOK underwent a leadership crisis when Andreas Papandreou was prosecuted over his supposed involvement in the Bank of Crete scandal. He was eventually acquitted and, in a dramatic twist of fate, in the October 1993 elections led the party to another landslide victory. Papandreou returned to office with 47% of the vote and his re-election was considered by many a vote of confidence of the public against his prosecution. In November 1995, however, Papandreou's health began to deteriorate and the party was racked with leadership conflicts.

Modernization period
In January 1996 Andreas Papandreou retired after a protracted three-month-long hospitalization, during which he retained the role of Prime Minister; he died six months later. He was succeeded by Costas Simitis, the candidate of the modernising, pro-European wing of PASOK (the so-called "modernizers", εκσυγχρονιστές eksynchronistes), who won an internal vote against Akis Tsochatzopoulos, a Papandreou confidant. In the first days following his election, Costas Simitis faced the biggest crisis in Greek politics for over 20 years, with the Imia crisis. He was criticized for his soft stance against Turkey and especially for praising in public the American intervention on the issue.

In a PASOK conference held in the summer of 1996, following Andreas Papandreou's death, Costas Simitis was elected leader of the party and called early elections seeking a renewed public vote of confidence. Although the Imia crisis had somewhat tarnished his image, the country's economic prosperity and his matter-of-fact administration won him the September 1996 general election with a 41.5% of the vote. Under Costas Simitis' leadership, PASOK had two major successes: In September 1997 Greece won the right to stage the 2004 Summer Olympic Games and in 2001 it was confirmed that the country would be included in the Eurozone, for which it had failed to meet the convergence criteria in 1998. Costas Simitis won another term in April 2000, narrowly winning with 43.8% of the vote and 158 seats: a substantial achievement for a Party which had been in power almost continuously for nearly 20 years.

In 2000, after the assassination of Brigadier Saunders by the terrorist group 17 November (17N), and especially with the forthcoming Athens Olympics being a major terrorist target, a significant international pressure was exerted on PASOK to recognise that Greece had a terrorist problem and do everything possible to bring the terrorist group to justice. Some among the western media had even falsely accusing the party of colluding with the terrorists, due to the fact that the authorities were unable to arrest the terrorists. Under the guidance of British and U.S. experts, the government intensified its efforts and finally, with a string of events starting at 29 June 2002, the 17N members were captured and put to trial.

Under the leadership of George Papandreou
Nevertheless, the party was losing its traditional appeal to the Greek lower and middle classes. To revitalize the party's chances for the next elections, Costas Simitis announced his resignation as the leader of the party on 7 January 2004. He was succeeded by George Papandreou, son of Andreas Papandreou. The party members were expecting that Papandreou could reverse the slide in the opinion polls which saw the opposition New Democracy (ND), under Kostas Karamanlis, 7% ahead at the start of the year.

Although Papandreou reduced ND's lead in the polls to 3%, he was unable to reverse the view of the majority of Greek voters that PASOK had been in power too long and had grown lazy, corrupt and had abandoned the inclusive and progressive principles of economic parity on which it was founded. ND had a comfortable win at the 2004 legislative elections held on 7 March 2004, placing the party in opposition after eleven years in office with 40.55% share of the vote and 117 seats.

On 16 September 2007, New Democracy headed by Costas Karamanlis won re-election with a marginal majority of 152 seats in the Parliament. Despite ND's falling performance in the 2007 legislative election, PASOK suffered a crushing defeat, registering 38.1% of the vote, its lowest percentage in almost 30 years, and 102 seats in the Hellenic Parliament.

The dismal result led to activation of the procedure to select a new leadership, or to reaffirm the current one. The main candidates for the leadership were the incumbent George Papandreou and the Party's informal second in command, Evangelos Venizelos. M.P. for Thessaloniki. M.P. Kostas Skandalidis also announced his candidacy in September. According to Party regulation, leaders are elected in a voting process open to all members. During the leadership election of 11 November 2007 George Papandreou was re-elected by the friends and members of the party as its leader.

In June 2009, the PASOK won the 2009 European Parliament election in Greece. Four months later, the Party enjoyed a resounding victory in the October 2009 general elections with 43.92% of the popular vote to ND's 33.48%, and 160 parliament seats to 91. Due to a number of defections and expulsions after 2009, by November 2011 PASOK held a slim majority of 152 of the parliament's 300 seats.

Decline (2009–2015)
A poll in October 2011 on behalf of the Greek TV channel Skai TV and the newspaper Kathimerini (after the austerity measures that were taken to tackle the financial crisis) revealed that of the people asked, 92% felt disappointed by the government while only 5% believed that a PASOK government would be best for the nation in the next elections. In the same survey, when asked about whether people have a positive or negative opinion of the various political parties in Greece, PASOK scored as the lowest, with 76% answering "negative".

Because of the financial crisis and the measures that were taken by the party from 2009 to 2012, PASOK, having been the largest party in the outgoing coalition government, achieved only third place with a mere 13.18%, retaining just 41 seats.

After the elections of 6 May 2012, the President of Greece, Karolos Papoulias, mandated New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras to form a coalition government. On 7 May 2012, Samaras gave up the attempt and on the following day, President Papoulias mandated Alexis Tsipras, president of the Synaspismos political party and head of the Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) parliamentary group. After Tsipras was also unable to form a government, Evangelos Venizelos was mandated, but he too had no success. The legislative elections of June 2012 resulted in a further reduction in PASOK's popular support, probably as a result of the unpopular memorandum signed by former Prime Minister George Papandreou with the IMF, European Commission and European Central Bank. PASOK's share of the overall vote was its worst ever showing since the party was formed (12.28%). However PASOK decided to help the formation of a government by joining with New Democracy (ND) as well as the Democratic Left (DIMAR) of Fotis Kouvelis in a coalition under Prime Minister Samaras.

To contest the 2014 European election, PASOK founded the Olive Tree electoral alliance on 7 March 2014. In the May 2014 European elections, the Olive Tree list came in fourth place nationally, receiving 8.02% of the vote, electing 2 MEPs.

On 29 December 2014, following the failure of the government to elect a presidential candidate, a snap January 2015 legislative election was called by Prime Minister Samaras, scheduled for 25 January 2015.

2015 legislative elections
On 2 January 2015, in the run-up to the legislative election, former Prime Minister and PASOK leader George Papandreou announced the formation of a breakaway party called Movement of Democratic Socialists (KIDISO),  a move immediately condemned by PASOK officials. Five PASOK members of the Hellenic Parliament were expected to join the new party, including the former ministers Philippos Sachinidis and Dimitris Reppas.

In the 25 January 2015 legislative election, PASOK received 4.7% of the vote, with mandate for 13 seats in the Hellenic Parliament.

On 30 August 2015, ahead of the upcoming September snap election, PASOK announced an electoral alliance with DIMAR, dubbed the Democratic Alignment (DISY).

In the September 2015 legislative election on 20 September 2015, the Democratic Alignment (DISY) received 6.3% of the vote, and 17 seats.

Under KINAL (2017–2021)
On 12 November 2017, an open primary was used as the first round of elections to select the leader of a new, as yet unfounded centre-left party in which PASOK would be folded. Nine initial leadership candidates include PASOK leader Fofi Gennimata, The River leader Stavros Theodorakis and incumbent Athens mayor Giorgos Kaminis. Reaching the second-round election were Gennimata, with 44.5% of the vote, and PASOK MEP Nikos Androulakis with 25.4%. The run-off election on 19 November was won by Gennimata with 56% of the vote. On 28 November 2017, the name of the new party was announced as "Movement for Change" (Κίνημα Αλλαγής), abbreviated to KINAL (ΚΙΝΑΛ).

On 2 July 2018, The River left KINAL. On 20 January 2019, DIMAR also left KINAL due to its position of supporting the Prespa agreement. On 1 June 2019 former PASOK leader Evangelos Venizelos left KINAL, accusing Gennimata of turning the Movement into "SYRIZA's tail".

KINAL increased its obtained seats in the 2019 Greek legislative election compared to Democratic Alignment, becoming Greece's third-largest party or coalition and securing 22 seats in the Hellenic Parliament. Following the election, KINAL positioned itself into opposition to the new Mitsotakis Government.

Gennimata died on 25 October 2021 at the Evangelismos Hospital in Athens from cancer.

Elections for the new leader took place in December 2021, with the main candidates being Andreas Loverdos, Nikos Androulakis, and George Papandreou. Nikos Androulakis was elected to the leadership of both KINAL and PASOK on 12 December 2021.

Return of PASOK
On 9 May 2022, the alliance was rebranded back to "PASOK – Movement for Change" (PASOK–KINAL) after an internal party referendum, becoming a political party in its own right and absorbing the original party incarnation. The old PASOK emblem (the green sun) was restored soon after that.

At the May 2023 election, PASOK–KINAL managed to increase both its vote percentage by 3.36% and its share of seats in the Hellenic Parliament from 22 to 41. This increase, in combination with the electoral decline of Syriza, has raised hopes among members that the party will regain its former status as the largest opposition party.

At the 2024 European Parliament election, even though the party managed to come first in Lasithi and Heraklion, it failed to capitalize enough on Syriza's decline to become opposition; in fact the party stagnated enough for many members like Haris Doukas and Pavlos Geroulanos to call for an election to replace Nikos Androulakis, the first round of the PASOK party election is planned to take place on 6 October 2024 while the second round is said to take place on 13.

International and European links
PASOK is a member of the Socialist International, the Progressive Alliance and the Party of European Socialists. PASOK MEPs sit with the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) group in the European Parliament.

Pasokification refers to the decline and rightward political shift of centre-left parties across Europe.

title: PASOK


text:
Xiangshan County, Guangdong

Xiangshan County, also spelled Hsiangshan, Siangshan, Heungsan, and Heungshan, was a former county in Southern China. From 1912, it was a county in Guangdong Province, in the Republic of China. It was renamed Zhongshan (then usually romanized "Chungshan") in April 1925, in honor of the founder of the Republic of China, Sun Yat Sen, a Xiangshan native.

The county covered the modern-day Zhuhai City, Zhongshan City and a part of Nansha District of Guangzhou City in the Guangdong Province of the People's Republic of China (PRC), and the Macau Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, formerly known as Portuguese Macau until 1999.

History
The county consists of the entirety of Xiangshan Island, an island in a bay where three rivers emptied into the sea, part of the Pearl River Delta. It was originally separated from the continent by the distributaries in the delta, until it became a peninsula some time during the 17th century, but remained separated from the mainland by waterways.

Around the 8th century (during the Tang dynasty), a Xiangshan Township was carved out of the Bao'an County and Dongguan County, at the present-day Shanchang of Zhuhai. Around the 12th century (during the Northern Song dynasty), this township became a separate county.

During the mid-16th century, in the Ming dynasty, the Portuguese settled in Macau. This was permitted by the Ming dynasty, but despite the Portuguese presence, Macau was still under the jurisdiction of Xiangshan. ) Macau became a full Portuguese colony in 1847. This colony later expanded to include Ilha Verde, Taipa and Coloane.

In December 1952, Yumin County was created out of islands from Hsiang-shan County, Pao-an County and Tung-kuan County. This county was renamed Chu-hai County in April 1953, and was expanded. Chu-hai County was briefly merged with Hsiang-shan County in March 1959, and was reconstituted in April 1961.

From 1961 onwards, the territory of Chung-shan County was reduced by 43%, with areas ceded to the counties of Tou-men, Pan-yu, Shun-te and Hsin-huei. Its romanization was changed to Zhuhai following the introduction of the Pinyin orthography for romanizing Chinese characters.

In 1979, Zhuhai County became Zhuhai City. In December 1983, Zhongshan County became Zhongshan City. Originally a county-level city, Zhongshan was elevated to prefecture level in January 1988.

A 6.81-square kilometer special economic zone was established within Zhuhai City in August 1980. The special economic zone was expanded to 15.16 square kilometers in June 1983, and 121 square kilometers in April 1989. In May 1983, Doumen County became administrated under Zhuhai City.

title: Xiangshan County, Guangdong


text:
Solomonoff's theory of inductive inference

Solomonoff's theory of inductive inference is a mathematical theory of induction introduced by Ray Solomonoff, based on probability theory and theoretical computer science. In essence, Solomonoff's induction derives the posterior probability of any computable theory, given a sequence of observed data. This posterior probability is derived from Bayes' rule and some universal prior, that is, a prior that assigns a positive probability to any computable theory.

Solomonoff proved that this induction is incomputable, but noted that "this incomputability is of a very benign kind", and that it "in no way inhibits its use for practical prediction".

Solomonoff's induction naturally formalizes Occam's razor    by assigning larger prior credences to theories that require a shorter algorithmic description.

Philosophical
The theory is based in philosophical foundations, and was founded by Ray Solomonoff around 1960. It is a mathematically formalized combination of Occam's razor   and the Principle of Multiple Explanations. All computable theories which perfectly describe previous observations are used to calculate the probability of the next observation, with more weight put on the shorter computable theories. Marcus Hutter's universal artificial intelligence builds upon this to calculate the expected value of an action.

Principle
Solomonoff's induction has been argued to be the computational formalization of pure Bayesianism. To understand, recall that Bayesianism derives the posterior probability $$\mathbb P[T|D]$$ of a theory $$T$$ given data $$D$$ by applying Bayes rule, which yields

 * $$\mathbb P[T|D] = \frac{\mathbb P[D|T] \mathbb P[T]}{\mathbb P[D|T] \mathbb P[T] + \sum_{A \neq T} \mathbb P[D|A] \mathbb P[A]} $$

where theories $$A$$ are alternatives to theory $$T$$. For this equation to make sense, the quantities $$\mathbb P[D|T]$$ and $$\mathbb P[D|A]$$ must be well-defined for all theories $$T$$ and $$A$$. In other words, any theory must define a probability distribution over observable data $$D$$. Solomonoff's induction essentially boils down to demanding that all such probability distributions be computable.

Interestingly, the set of computable probability distributions is a subset of the set of all programs, which is countable. Similarly, the sets of observable data considered by Solomonoff were finite. Without loss of generality, we can thus consider that any observable data is a finite bit string. As a result, Solomonoff's induction can be defined by only invoking discrete probability distributions.

Solomonoff's induction then allows to make probabilistic predictions of future data $$F$$, by simply obeying the laws of probability. Namely, we have $$\mathbb P[F|D] = \mathbb E_T [\mathbb P[F|T,D] ] = \sum_T \mathbb P[F|T,D] \mathbb P[T|D]$$. This quantity can be interpreted as the average predictions $$\mathbb P[F|T,D]$$ of all theories $$T$$ given past data $$D$$, weighted by their posterior credences $$\mathbb P[T|D]$$.

Mathematical
The proof of the "razor" is based on the known mathematical properties of a probability distribution over a countable set. These properties are relevant because the infinite set of all programs is a denumerable set. The sum S of the probabilities of all programs must be exactly equal to one (as per the definition of probability) thus the probabilities must roughly decrease as we enumerate the infinite set of all programs, otherwise S will be strictly greater than one. To be more precise, for every $$\epsilon$$ > 0, there is some length l such that the probability of all programs longer than l is at most $$\epsilon$$. This does not, however, preclude very long programs from having very high probability.

Fundamental ingredients of the theory are the concepts of algorithmic probability and Kolmogorov complexity. The universal prior probability of any prefix p of a computable sequence x is the sum of the probabilities of all programs (for a universal computer) that compute something starting with p. Given some p and any computable but unknown probability distribution from which x is sampled, the universal prior and Bayes' theorem can be used to predict the yet unseen parts of x in optimal fashion.

Solomonoff's completeness
The remarkable property of Solomonoff's induction is its completeness. In essence, the completeness theorem guarantees that the expected cumulative errors made by the predictions based on Solomonoff's induction are upper-bounded by the Kolmogorov complexity of the (stochastic) data generating process. The errors can be measured using the Kullback–Leibler divergence or the square of the difference between the induction's prediction and the probability assigned by the (stochastic) data generating process.

Solomonoff's uncomputability
Unfortunately, Solomonoff also proved that Solomonoff's induction is uncomputable. In fact, he showed that computability and completeness are mutually exclusive: any complete theory must be uncomputable. The proof of this is derived from a game between the induction and the environment. Essentially, any computable induction can be tricked by a computable environment, by choosing the computable environment that negates the computable induction's prediction. This fact can be regarded as an instance of the no free lunch theorem.

Artificial intelligence
Though Solomonoff's inductive inference is not computable, several AIXI-derived algorithms approximate it in order to make it run on a modern computer. The more computing power they are given, the closer their predictions are to the predictions of inductive inference (their mathematical limit is Solomonoff's inductive inference).

Another direction of inductive inference is based on E. Mark Gold's model of learning in the limit from 1967 and has developed since then more and more models of learning. The general scenario is the following: Given a class S of computable functions, is there a learner (that is, recursive functional) which for any input of the form (f(0),f(1),...,f(n)) outputs a hypothesis (an index e with respect to a previously agreed on acceptable numbering of all computable functions; the indexed function may be required consistent with the given values of f). A learner M learns a function f if almost all its hypotheses are the same index e, which generates the function f; M learns S if M learns every f in S. Basic results are that all recursively enumerable classes of functions are learnable while the class REC of all computable functions is not learnable. Many related models have been considered and also the learning of classes of recursively enumerable sets from positive data is a topic studied from Gold's pioneering paper in 1967 onwards. A far reaching extension of the Gold’s approach is developed by Schmidhuber's theory of generalized Kolmogorov complexities, which are kinds of super-recursive algorithms.