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Spix's macaw

Spix's macaw (Cyanopsitta spixii), also known as the little blue macaw, is a macaw species that was endemic to Brazil. It is a member of tribe Arini in the subfamily Arinae (Neotropical parrots), part of the family Psittacidae (the true parrots). It was first described by German naturalist Georg Marcgrave, when he was working in the State of Pernambuco, Brazil in 1638 and it is named for German naturalist Johann Baptist von Spix, who collected a specimen in 1819 on the bank of the Rio São Francisco in northeast Bahia in Brazil. This bird has been completely extirpated from its natural range, and following a several-year survey, the IUCN officially declared it extinct in the wild in 2019. However, after over 20 years of conservation efforts, 200 macaws have been bred from just two parent birds, and 52 individual birds have since been reintroduced into their natural environment in June 2022.

The bird is a medium-size parrot weighing about 300 g, smaller than most of the large macaws. Its appearance is various shades of blue, with a grey-blue head, light blue underparts, and vivid blue upperparts. Males and females are almost identical in appearance; however, the females are slightly smaller.

The species inhabited riparian Caraibeira (Tabebuia aurea) woodland galleries in the drainage basin of the Rio São Francisco within the Caatinga dry forest climate of interior northeastern Brazil. It had a very restricted natural habitat due to its dependence on the tree for nesting, feeding and roosting. It feeds primarily on seeds and nuts of Caraiba and various Euphorbiaceae (spurge) shrubs, the dominant vegetation of the Caatinga. Due to deforestation in its limited range and specialized habitat, the bird was rare in the wild throughout the twentieth century. It has always been very rare in captivity, partly due to the remoteness of its natural range.

It is listed on CITES Appendix I, which makes international trade prohibited except for legitimate conservation, scientific or educational purposes. The IUCN regard the Spix's macaw as extinct in the wild. Its last known stronghold in the wild was in northeastern Bahia, Brazil and sightings were very rare. After a 2000 sighting of a male bird, the next and last sighting was in 2016. The species is now maintained through a captive breeding program at several conservation organizations under the aegis of the Brazilian government. One of these organizations, the Association for the Conservation of Threatened Parrots (ACTP), moved birds back from Germany to Brazil in 2020 as part of their plan to release Spix's macaws back into the wild. The Brazilian Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio) is conducting a project Ararinha-Azul with an associated plan to restore the species to the wild as soon as sufficient breeding birds and restored habitat are available.

Taxonomy
Spix's macaw is the only known species of the genus Cyanopsitta. The genus name is derived from the Ancient Greek kuanos meaning "blue" and psittakos meaning "parrot". The species name spixii is a Latinized form of the surname "von Spix", hence Cyanopsitta spixii means "blue parrot of Spix". The genus Cyanopsitta is one of six genera of Central and South American macaws in the tribe Arini, which also includes all the other long-tailed New World parrots. Tribe Arini together with the short-tailed Amazon and allied parrots and a few miscellaneous genera make up subfamily Arinae of Neotropical parrots in family Psittacidae of true parrots.

In 1638 Georg Marcgrave was the first European naturalist to observe and describe the species; however, it is named for Johann Baptist von Spix, who collected the type specimen in April 1819 in Brazil, but gave it the misnomer Arara hyacinthinus not realizing till later that the name collided with Psittacus hyacinthinus, the name assigned to the hyacinth macaw described by John Lathan in 1790. Spix's mistake was noticed in 1832 by German Professor of Zoology Johann Wagler, who realized that the 1819 specimen was smaller and a different colour from the hyacinth macaw and he designated the new species as "Sittace spixii". It wasn't until 1854 that naturalist Prince Charles Bonaparte properly placed it in its own genus, designating the bird Cyanopsitta spixi [sic], based on important morphological differences between it and the other blue macaws. It was listed as Cyanopsittacus spixi [sic] by Italian zoologist Tommaso Salvadori in his 1891 Catalog of the Birds in the British Museum.

Naturalists have noted the Spix's similarity to other smaller members of tribe Arini based on general morphology as long ago as Rev. F.G. Dutton, president of the Avicultural Society U.K. in 1900: "it's more like a conure" ('conure' is not a defined taxon – in Dutton's time, it referred to the archaic genus Conurus; today those would be among the smaller non-macaw parakeets in Arini). Brazilian ornithologist Helmut Sick stated in 1981: "Cyanopsitta spixii...is not a real macaw". (Sick's remark was in the context of an article on Lear's macaw, a larger blue macaw. He recognized, as Spix had not 150 years before, that C. spixii is notably different from the larger macaws).

The morphology-based taxonomy of C. spixii, intermediate between the macaws and the smaller Arini, has been confirmed by recent molecular phylogenetic studies. In a 2008 molecular phylogenetic study of 69 parrot genera, the clade diagrams indicate that C. spixii split from the ancestral parakeets before the differentiation of the modern macaws. However, not all of the macaw genera were represented in the study. The study also states that diversification of the Neotropical parrot lineages occurred starting 33 mya, a period roughly coinciding with the separation of South America from West Antarctica. The author notes that the study challenges the classification of British ornithologist Nigel Collar in the encyclopedic Handbook of the Birds of the World, volume 4 (1997). A 2011 study by the same authors which includes key genera of macaws further elucidates the macaw taxonomy: the clade diagram of that study places C. spixii in a clade including the macaw genera which is sister to a clade containing the Aratingas and other smaller parakeets. Within the macaw clade, C. spixii was the first taxon to diverge from the ancestral macaws; its nearest relatives are the red-bellied macaw (Orthopsittaca manilata) and the blue-headed macaw (Primolius couloni).

Description
Spix's macaw is easy to identify being the only small blue macaw and also by the bare grey facial skin of its lores and eyerings. It is about 56 cm long including tail length of 26 –. It has a wing length of 24.7 –. The external appearance of adult male and female are identical; however, the average weight of captive males is about 318 g and captive females average about 288 g. Its plumage is grey-blue on the head, pale blue on the underparts, and vivid blue on the upperparts, wings and tail. The legs and feet are brownish-black. In adults the bare facial skin is grey, the beak is entirely dark grey, and the irises are yellow. Juveniles are similar to adults, but they have pale grey bare facial skin, brown irises, and a white stripe along the top-center of their beaks (along the culmen).

Diet
In the wild, the most common seeds and nuts consumed by Spix's were from Pinhão (Jatropha pohliana var. mollissima) and Favela (Cnidoscolus phyllacanthus). However these trees are colonizers, not native to the bird's habitat, so they could not have been historical staples of the diet.

Its diet also included seeds and nuts from Joazeiro (Ziziphus joazeiro), Baraúna (Schinopsis brasiliensis), Imburana (Commiphora leptophloeos or Bursera leptophloeos), Facheiro (Pilosocereus piauhyensis), Phoradendron species, Caraibeira (Tabebuia caraiba), Angico (Anadenanthera macrocarpa), Umbu (Spondias tuberosa) and Unha-de-gato (Acacia paniculata). Reports from previous Spix's macaw researchers seem to add another two plants to the list: Maytenus rigida and Geoffroea spinosa. Combretum leprosum may also be a possibility.

Reproduction
Captive bred Spix's macaws reach sexual maturity at seven years of age. A paired female born at the Loro Parque Fundación laid eggs at the age of five years, but these were infertile. It is suspected that late maturity in captivity may be due to inbreeding or other artificial environmental factors, as other parrots of similar size reach sexual maturity in two to four years. In the wild, mating involves elaborate courtship rituals, like feeding each other and flying together. This process is known to possibly take several seasons in other large parrots, and it may also be the case for the Spix's. They make their nests in the hollows of large mature Caraibeira trees, and reuse the nest year after year. The breeding season is November to March, with most eggs hatching in January to coincide with the start of the Caatinga January to April rainy season. In the wild, Spix's were believed to lay three eggs per clutch; in captivity, the average number is four eggs, and can range from one to seven. Incubation period is 25–28 days and only the female performs incubation duties. The chicks fledge in 70 days and are independent in 100–130 days.

The mating call of Spix's macaw can be described as the sound "whichaka". The sound is made by creating a low rumble in the abdomen bringing the sound up to a high pitch. Its voice is a repeated short grating. It also makes squawking noises.

Its lifespan in the wild is unknown; the only documented bird (the last wild male), was older than 20 years. The eldest bird in captivity died at age 34.

Distribution and habitat
Various accounts relate that the birds were more common in Pernambuco than in Bahia through the 1960s but not later. Spix's macaw was most recently (1974–1987) known in the Río São Francisco valley, in northeastern Brazil, principally in the basins on the south side of the river in the State of Bahia. In 1974, ornithologist Helmut Sick, based on information from traders and trappers, extended the possible range of the Spix's macaw to embrace the northeastern part of the state of Goias and the southern part of the state of Maranhão. Other ornithologists reporting the bird in various parts of the state of Piauí further extended the range to a vast area of the dry interior of northeast Brazil.

Study of the lone bird discovered at Melância creek in 1990 revealed substantive information about its habitat. It had been previously assumed that the Spix's macaw had a vast range in the interior of Brazil embracing several different habitat types, including buriti palm swamps, cerrado, and dry Caatinga. But the evidence collected in Melância Creek indicated that the Spix's macaw was a specially adapted inhabitant of the disappearing woodland galleries. Ornithologist Tony Silva mentions that "where Caraibeiras have been felled, as in the Pernambuco side of the São Francisco River, the species has disappeared".

Much remains uncertain about the extent of the bird's original range, because most of its woodland habitat was cleared before naturalists observed either the birds or the Caraiba nesting sites. The historical range is now believed to have encompassed portions of the states of Bahia and Pernambuco in a 50 km wide corridor along a 150 - 200 km stretch of the Rio São Francisco between Juazeiro (or possibly Remanso) and Abaré. Previous observations of the birds from further west are very difficult to explain but conceivably stem from either escaped captive birds or more likely the misidentification of another species such as red-bellied macaw (Orthopsittaca manilatus).

The Caatinga vegetation of northeastern Bahia (which hosts the Spix habitat) is stunted trees, thorny shrubs and cacti, dominated by plants of the family Euphorbiaceae. This macaw lived in the hottest and driest part of the "Caatinga" within Caraiba, or Caribbean trumpet tree (Tabebuia caraiba) woodland galleries. The Caraibeira constitutes a microclimate within the Caatinga. The existing galleries are fringes of unique woodland extending a maximum of 18 m to either side along a series of seasonal waterways at least 8 m wide in the Rio São Francisco drainage basin. All T. caraiba woodland was recorded in the middle and lower levels of the creek system where fine alluvial deposits were present. The character of the galleries is tall (8m) evenly spaced Caraibeira trees, ten per hundred meters, interspersed with low scrub and desert cacti. Large mature trees of this species (and apparently no other) provided the nesting hollows of Spix's macaws, as well as shelter and their seedpods, food for the species.

Notable among the seasonal waterways are Riacho Melância watershed 30 km south of Curaçá, where the last known wild Spix's macaw nest was located, adjacent Riacho Barra Grande, and Riacho da Vargem ~100 km to the north near Abaré all in the State of Bahia south of Rio São Francisco. In 1990, these were all that remained of what was once believed to be a vast filigree of creekside Caraibeira woodland extending 50 km into the Caatinga on either side of the Rio São Francisco along a significant stretch of its middle reaches. There is also one confirmed site, since cleared, along Brígida Creek on the north shore of Rio São Francisco in Pernambuco.

History
The species appears to have been seen and described – "MARACANA Brasiliensibus, avis Psittaco planè similis (cuius & species) sed maior, plumae totius ex gryseo subcoerulescunt, clamat ut Psittacus. Fructus amat, Murucuia imprimis. (Translation: "Brazilian parrot, bird very similar to Psittacus [ grey parrot ] but larger, the entire plumage is ashy-bluish, calls like a parrot. Fruit it loves, especially Passionfruit.") – by the German naturalist Georg Marcgrave when he worked in Pernambuco in 1638.

Spix's macaw is named for German naturalist Johann Baptist von Spix, who collected the first specimen in April 1819 near the São Francisco River in the vicinity of Juazeiro Recent authorities cite the type locality as Curaca,   but others say the locality can't be known with certainty. . Spix wrote: "habitat gregarius, rarissimus licet, propre Joazeiro in campis riparüs fluminis St. Francisci, voce tenui insignis" ("it lives in flocks, although very rare, near Joazeiro in the region bordering the rio São Francisco, [and is] notable for its thin voice").

The next reported sighting of the bird wasn't for 84 years, in 1903 by Othmar Reiser of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, 400 km west of Juazeiro at Lagoa de Parnaguá (lake at Parnagua) in the State of Piauí. (What we now know about its habitat and probable range casts doubt on this observation ) Reiser had also seen one in captivity at a railway station in Remanso. These observations resulted in an early supposition of a vast potential range for the species in the dry interior of the northeast.

With the passage of the Brazil Wildlife Protection Act in 1967, Brazil forbade the export of its wildlife, and in 1975 became a party to the CITES treaty. These actions barely affected the illicit bird trade, but Spix owners were forced underground (consequently complicating the later effort to initiate a captive recovery program).

The bird had not been studied in the wild until the 1970s. In 1974, Brazilian ornithologist Helmut Sick observed groups of three and four of the birds near Formosa do Rio Preta in northwest Bahia flying over buriti Palms (Mauritia flexuosa). As recently as 1980, Robert Ridgely stated that "there is no available evidence indicating a recent decline in numbers." Beginning around 1980, at the very height of the illegal bird trade, traders and trappers removed dozens of Spix's from the wild, and by the early 80s, it was generally believed to be extinct in the wild. Naturalist Dr. Paul Roth conducted field surveys of the bird in the Curacá region from 1985 to 1988. Roth found only 5 birds in 1985, three in 1986, and only two after May 1987.

Two of the birds were captured for trade in 1987. A single male, paired with a female blue-winged macaw, was discovered at the site in 1990. A female Spix's macaw released from captivity at the site in 1995 was killed by collision with a power line after seven weeks. The last wild male disappeared from the site in October 2000; his disappearance was thought to have marked the extinction of this species in the wild. However, wild Spix's macaws may have been sighted in 2016. While the IUCN Red List views its status as Critically Endangered and possibly extinct in the wild, ornithologist Nigel Collar of BirdLife International, the authority for the IUCN Redlist of birds now calls this bird extinct in the wild.

As of June 2022, a flock of eight Spix' macaws has been released back into the wild and appears to be doing well. Another release for twelve more later occurred in December of the same year.

Decline and extinction in the wild
The bird was already rare by the time of Spix's discovery of it in 1819 following 100 years of intensive burning, logging and grazing of the Caatinga. Centuries of deforestation, human encroachment and agricultural development along the Rio Sao Francisco corridor following European colonization of eastern Brazil preceded its precipitous decline in the latter part of the 20th century. Naturalists surveying its known remaining native habitat in the Curaçá region have estimated that it could have supported no more than about 60 birds at any time in the last 100 years. Contributing factors were the anthropic introduction of invasive and predatory species of black rats, feral cats, mongooses and marmoset monkeys which prey on the eggs and young, and goats, sheep and cattle which destroy the regenerative growth of the woodland trees, particularly the Caraibeira seedlings.

Other recent evidence has shown that anthropic changes that occurred on the northern shore of the São Francisco River, such as a broad scale conversion into agricultural lands and flooding following the construction of Sobradinho Dam starting in 1974, have changed the flora structure and displaced the Spix's macaw away from that portion of its original range.

The decline of the species in the 1970s and early 80s is attributed to hunting and trapping of the birds, unsustainable harvesting of the Caraíba trees for firewood, the construction of the Sobradinho Dam above Juazeiro starting in 1974 that submerged the basin woodlands under an artificial lake, and the northward migration of the Africanized bee, which competes for nesting sites.

Caraiba grows very slowly; most of the trees are 200–300 years old, and there has not been any regenerative growth for the last 50 years. In addition, 45% of the Caatinga dry forest in which the woodland galleries are embedded has been cleared for farms, ranches and plantations. Climate change resulting in desertification of significant parts of the Caatinga has permanently reduced the potential reclaimable habitat.

An analysis in 2018 based on threats, time since last known confirmed records, and patterns of bird extinction suggested that the bird was in all probability extinct in the wild. As of 2019, the IUCN classifies the species as extinct in the wild.

Conservation
In the middle 1980s, by the time fieldwork to locate and understand the habitat of the Spix was completed, it was apparent that the Spix must be nearing extinction in the wild. Conservationists realized that a captive breeding program would be necessary to preserve the species. At a meeting in 1987 of conservationist groups including IUCN at Loro Parque (one of the original Spix holders) in Tenerife, Canary Islands (Spain), only 17 captive Spix macaws could be located. Without the attendance of most of the captive Spix holders or involvement of the Brazilian government, little was accomplished.

In 1990, the Instituto Brasileiro do Meio Ambiente e dos Recursos Naturais Renováveis (IBAMA, Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources) established the Permanent Committee for the Recovery of Spix's Macaw, called CPRAA, and its Ararinha Azul project (Little Blue Macaw project) in order to conserve the species. At that time, the known captive population of Spix's stood at 15, and one in the wild. Early 1990 was the low point for conservation of the Spix. The Permanent Committee was dissolved in 2002 due to irreconcilable differences between the parties involved. In 2004 a committee was re-formed and re-structured under the title of "The Working Group for the Recovery of the Spix's Macaw".

Since 1987, the Loro Parque Foundation financed the field program to protect and study the last wild male, to protect and restore key habitat, and other important actions. In 1997, the Loro Parque Foundation returned the ownership to the Government of Brazil of all the Spix's macaws held in its facilities. Between 2000 and 2003, most of two large collections of Spix at Birds International in the Philippines and the aviaries of Swiss aviculturist Dr. Hämmerli were purchased by Sheikh Saud bin Muhammed bin Ali Al-Thani of Qatar and became Al Wabra Wildlife Preservation. Under the Sheikh were instituted standards of animal keeping, veterinary care, animal husbandry and stud book records for the conservation of the Spix's.

In 2007 and 2008, two farms totalling 2780 ha in Curaçá, State of Bahia, Brazil were purchased by the Lymington Foundation (with contributions from ACTP and Parrots International) and Al Wabra Wildlife Preservation. These compose a small but important part of the natural habitat of the Spix, in the vicinity where the last known wild Spix nest existed. Efforts to clear the habitat of introduced predators and restore the natural Caraibeira seedlings and important creek systems are ongoing on the land.

In May 2012, Brazil's ICMBio formulated and published a 5-year National Action Plan (PAN) for conservation and reestablishment of the species in the wild. Highlights of the plan are to increase the captive population to 150 specimens (expected by 2020), build a breeding facility in Brazil within the Spix's native habitat, acquire and restore additional portions of its range, and prepare for its release into the wild between 2017 and 2021. Pursuant to the plan, in 2012, the Brazilian government established NEST, a private aviary near Avaré, State of Sao Paulo, Brazil as a breeding and staging center for eventual release of the Spix into the wild. Birds formerly housed at the Sao Paulo Zoo as well as Loro Parque Foundation and other conservation organizations were relocated to NEST. The Spix's at NEST are owned by the Brazilian government and managed by Al Wabra Wildlife Preservation.

Captive population
The existing captive population is descended from just 7 wild caught founder birds, which are believed to have all come from just two wild nests that existed post 1982: pairs originally owned by Birds International in the Philippines, Dr. Hämmerli in Switzerland, and Wolfgang Keissling (Loro Parque), and a male from the São Paulo Zoo.

In the years since 1987 when naturalists, conservationists and later IBAMA/ICMBio started tracking the Spix, only two sets of birds unknown in 1987 have ever been discovered: Dr. Hämmerli's in 1991, and a single male bird found in Colorado, U.S. in 2002 named Presley. There is no evidence that any others not known in 1987 still exist (though see a cryptic reference to black market dealing in the birds in 1995.)

As of 2022 there are approximately 177 Spix's macaws in captivity. Eighty-three of these are participating in an international breeding program managed by the Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade (ICMBio), the Natural Heritage Branch of the Brazilian Government. Most of these are managed at Al Wabra Wildlife Preservation (AWWP), which purchased the population of Birds International and most of the birds in Dr. Hämmerli's Swiss collection. Other Spixs are located at Loro Parque Foundation, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Association for the Conservation of Threatened Parrots (ACTP) in Berlin, Germany, NEST in Brazil and Pairi Daiza in Belgium. At three of these five conservation organizations (AWWP, ACTP and NEST), a captive breeding program is guiding Spix's macaw a step closer to re-establishment back to its natural habitat in Brazil. The female at Loro Parque Foundation cannot be bred for health reasons. Both the AWWP and the ACTP have loaned individuals to Jurong Bird Park in Singapore.

The status and locations of 5 Spix's sold to private owners from Dr. Hämmerli's Swiss collection in 1999 are unknown but presumed to be still alive; they are the likely source of the approximately 13 Spix's in the hands of private owner(s) in Switzerland.

In July 2015, the number of Spix's macaws held in captivity participating in the ICMBio recovery program reached 110 (12 in NEST, 12 in ACTP, & 86 in AWWP). The count does not include an unverifiable number of birds in private hands. Note: table data based on "Al Wabra ICMBio data from June 2013" and Watson, R. (Studbook Keeper) 2011. "Annual Report and Recommendations for 2011: Spix’s Macaw (Cyanopsitta spixii)".

Health and reproduction
The captive population suffers from very low heterozygosity – the original wild caught founder birds were few, closely related in the wild and intensively inbred in captivity – resulting in infertility, and high rate of embryo deaths (at AWWP, only one in six eggs laid is fertile; only two-thirds of those hatch).

For unknown reasons, originally suspected to be bloodline related, captive specimens seemed to have delayed sexual maturity. The youngest pairs to lay fertile eggs were 10 years of age. Other captive breeding issues are that, possibly because of inbreeding, many more hens than cocks are hatched, at least twice as many.

All or nearly all hatched chicks in the breeding program are hand raised by experienced staff, to reduce the risk of losing a scarce live chick (only about one out of ten viable eggs laid hatch). No chick has been lost through weaning. Non-invasive DNA testing of plucked feathers has been introduced to determine the gender of the chicks. The sex of chicks is not determined until they undergo feather development when they reach one to two months of age.

Spix's macaws choose their own mates independently, so best genetic pairings are not guaranteed. Artificially created "pairs" may groom and associate with each other as if they were a pair, but in fact are not mates, and it may take several seasons to determine this. Another complication is that infected birds cannot be paired with uninfected birds, due to risk of spreading viral diseases.

Artificial insemination
Newest developments in captive breeding programs of this species involved assisted reproduction techniques in the Spix's macaw:

In the 2009–2010 breeding season, a research collaboration between Loro Parque Fundación of Tenerife, Canary Islands and the University of Giessen in Germany used a new technique developed for semen collection and tested in many other parrot species on the Spix's macaws. However, artificial insemination was not used in this case.

Scientists from the University of Giessen of the working group of Prof. Dr. Michael Lierz, Clinic for Birds, Reptiles, Amphibians and Fish, developed a novel technique for semen collection and artificial insemination in large parrots. The research team used artificial insemination for the first time ever in the Spix's macaw at Al Wabra Wildlife Preservation in 2012.

In the 2013 breeding season veterinarians and scientists from Parrot Reproduction Consulting, a German veterinary practice focused on parrot reproduction medicine, and Al Wabra developed new specific strategies for semen collection and artificial insemination of the Spix's macaw. These resulted in the world's first egg fertilisation and first chicks of the Spix's macaw as a result of assisted reproduction, performed et al-Wabra Wildlife Preservation. Two chicks were produced and the first chick was called "Neumann" after Daniel Neumann, the veterinarian who performed these inseminations.

Reintroduction program
In 2018, the population of the species numbered approximately 158 individuals and an agreement was signed between the Ministry of the Environment of Brazil and conservation organizations of Belgium (Pairi Daiza Foundation) and Germany (Association for the Conservation of Threatened Parrots) to establish the repatriation of 50 Spix's macaws to Brazil by the first quarter of 2019. The Spix's macaw was eventually reintroduced to the wild in June and December 2022.

The project of reintroduction of the Spix's macaw in Brazil included the creation of two protected areas in the state of Bahia: the Wildlife Refuge of Spix's Macaw, in Curaçá, and the Environmental Protection Area of Spix's Macaw, in Juazeiro, with a awareness work done with the local population and the construction of a reproduction and readaptation center.

In August 2018, 146 of the 160 Spix's macaws in the world lived in the Association for the Conservation of Threatened Parrots in Rüdersdorf, (Germany). 120 of them came from Qatar, transferred due to the death of the maintainer of the Al Wabra Wildlife Preserve, Sheikh Saud bin Muhammed Al Thani, in 2014, and the economic embargo imposed to Qatar by Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt and Bahrain, in 2017. The goal of the Association is to produce about 20 macaws per year.

Born in the wild
Between April and July 2021, three Spix's macaw were born in the Caatinga region in the state of Bahia in Brazil, twenty years after the declaration of extinction in wild by the Brazilian government. The chicks are from a couple that came from Germany in 2020. The Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio), also declared that the species will be reintroduced into nature in the next years.

Two more Spix's macaws were confirmed to be born in the wild in late October 2023 through a pair that came together after being released from captivity from June and December respectively.

In aviculture
One of the earliest records (and one of very few at all) of a Spix's macaw in a public zoo was a dramatic display of "the four blues" including Spix's macaw, glaucous macaw, hyacinth macaw, and the Lear's macaw in 1900 at the Berlin Zoo.

The bird was exceedingly rare in aviculture, the few being held by wealthy collectors rather than privately as pets. A trickle of Spix's appeared in captivity starting in the late 1800s. The earliest known specimens were three held by the London Zoological Society between 1878 and 1902.

One of the few accounts of the Spix in captivity was given by Rev. F.G. Dutton, president of the Avicultural Society U.K. in 1900: "I have not yet seen a good-tempered Spix ... My Spix, which is really more a Conure than a Macaw, will not look at sop of any sort, except sponge cake given from one's fingers, only drinks plain water, and lives mainly on sunflower seed. It has hemp, millet, and canary, and peanuts, but I do not think it eats much of any of them. It barks the branches of the tree in which it is loose, and may eat the bark. It would very likely be all the better if it would eat bread and milk, as it might then produce some flight feathers, which it never yet has had. But I expect it would not eat any sop, even if I gave it nothing else." The bird remained rare and highly coveted. The first captive breeding occurred in the 1950s in Brazil, in the aviaries of the late Alvaro Carvalhaes, an aviculturist from Santos. He hatched numerous chicks, some reports say as many as 24, one of which ended up at the Zoo di Napoli, where it remained alive until the late 1980s. Most of his birds died of poisoning in the 1970s. Some of these birds were the likely source of rumored Brazilian Spix owners in the 1960s and 1970s.

Bates and Busenbark say that the bird was intelligent and affectionate, talked some, and had no worse proclivity for screaming than Amazons. They also noted that the Spix were spiteful to other birds.

In October 2002, a Spix named Presley was discovered in Colorado, and repatriated to Brazil. This Spix had not been among those known in 1987. Because all known specimens of the Spix's macaw are now in a conservation program run by the Brazilian government, there are now no sources from which the bird may be obtained for the pet trade. Presley died on 25 June 2014 outside São Paulo, at the approximate age of 40.

What appears to be the last Spix discovered in the wild was found on 18 June 2016 in Curaçá, Brazil; however, it is speculated that this may have been a bird released from captivity due to fear of the authorities.

In popular culture
In the animated TV series Noah's Island, the "Born to be Wild" episode focuses on Noah, the main character, bringing a breeding pair of Spix's macaws (though they don’t resemble the species in life) to his island from the Amazon rainforest, in the hope that they will breed. At first, the two macaws are both very aggressive and fight with each other, but they eventually make up and fall in love.

In the opener of the Gorgo episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000, Crow finds that his head crown has become a nesting spot for two Spix's macaw eggs. Later in the episode he reveals that the eggs have been taken away by Egg Protective Services after he accidentally made an omelet in front of them.

In the 2011 animated movie Rio, the main characters Blu (Jesse Eisenberg) and Jewel (Anne Hathaway) are the supposed last pair of Spix's macaws in the world (although they are referred to as blue macaws). The movie even references their extinct-in-the-wild status and at one point ornithologist Túlio Monteiro mentions the species' scientific name. In its 2014 sequel Rio 2, it is revealed that they are not the last pair at all, but in actuality other Spix's macaws are thriving secretly in the Amazon rainforest.

In a 2008 episode titled "Wildlife" of Law and Order SVU the bird was included in an international animal smuggling ring. It was found in the purse of a victim who had been mauled by a tiger. References were made to the extreme rarity of the bird and the potential value of it and other endangered species.

Possible rediscovery
On 18 June 2016 one specimen was seen in Curaçá in the Brazilian state of Bahia. On 19 June, the bird was filmed in poor quality although its call was identified as a Spix's macaw. However, Birdlife noted it is possible the individual was a released captive bird.

Cited texts

 * del Hoyo, et al.(eds) (1997) Handbook of the Birds of the World, vol.4, Family Psittacidae (Parrots), N.J. Collar, pp-280-479, Lynx Edicions, Barcelona, Spain ISBN 84-87334-22-9
 * Donald, Pain, Marsden & Collar (2010) Facing Extinction: the World's Rarest Birds and the Race to Save Them T. & A. D. Poyser ISBN 0-7136-7021-5
 * Donald, Pain, Marsden & Collar (2010) Facing Extinction: the World's Rarest Birds and the Race to Save Them T. & A. D. Poyser ISBN 0-7136-7021-5

title: Spix's macaw


text:
Mithridates III of Pontus

Mithridates III (Mιθριδάτης) was the fourth king of Pontus, son of Mithridates II of Pontus and Laodice. Mithridates had two sisters: Laodice III, the first wife of the Seleucid King Antiochus III the Great, and Laodice of Pontus. He may have ruled in an uncertain period between 220 BC and 183 BC. Nothing is known of him since the years just cited, because the kingdom of Pontus disappears from history. His same existence is contested by certain historians, even if it is necessary to account for Appian's indication of Mithridates VI of Pontus as the eighth king of the dynasty and the sixth of the name. Mithridates married an obscure Seleucid princess called Laodice. By this wife, he had three children: Mithridates IV of Pontus, Pharnaces I of Pontus and Laodice.

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

title: Mithridates III of Pontus


text:
Abu Nuwas

Abū Nuwās al-Ḥasan ibn Hānī al-Ḥakamī (variant: Al-Ḥasan ibn Hānī 'Abd al-Awal al-Ṣabāḥ, Abū 'Alī (أَبُو عَلِي اَلْحَسَنْ بْنْ هَانِئْ بْنْ عَبْدِ اَلْأَوَّلْ بْنْ اَلصَّبَاحِ اَلْحُكْمِيِّ اَلْمِذْحَجِي), known as Abū Nuwās al-Salamī (أبو نواس السلمي) or just Abū Nuwās (أبو نواس); c. 756 – c. 814) was a classical Arabic poet, and the foremost representative of the modern (muhdath) poetry that developed during the first years of Abbasid Caliphate. He also entered the folkloric tradition, appearing several times in One Thousand and One Nights.

Early life
Abu Nuwas was born in the province of Ahvaz (modern Khuzestan Province) of the Abbasid Caliphate, either in the city of Ahvaz or one of its adjacent districts. His date of birth is uncertain, he was born sometime between 756 and 758. His father was Hani, a Syrian or Persian who had served in the army of the last Umayyad caliph Marwan II ((r. 744 – 750)). His mother was a Persian named Gulban, whom Hani had met whilst serving in the police force of Ahvaz. When Abu Nuwas was 10 years old, his father died.

In his early childhood Abu Nuwas followed his mother to Basra in lower Iraq where he attended Qur’an school and became a Hafiz at a young age. His youthful good looks and innate charisma attracted the attention of the Kufan poet, Abu Usama Waliba ibn al-Hubab al-Asadi, who took Abu Nuwas to Kufa as a young apprentice. Waliba recognized in Abu Nuwas his talent as a poet and encouraged him toward this vocation, but was also attracted sexually to the young man and may have had erotic relations with him. Abu Nuwas's relationships with adolescent boys when he had matured as a man seem to mirror his own experience with Waliba.

Work
Abu Nuwas wrote poetry in multiple genres; his great talent was most recognized in his wine poems and in his hunting poems. Abu Nuwas’s diwan, his poetry collection, was divided by genre: panegyric poems, elegies, invective, courtly love poems on men and women, poems of penitence, hunting poems, and wine poems. His erotic lyric poetry, which is often homoerotic, is known from over 500 poems and fragments. He also participated in the well-established Arabic tradition of satirical poetry, which included duels between poets involving vicious exchanges of poetic lampoons and insults. Ismail bin Nubakht, one of Nuwas's contemporaries, said: "I never saw a man of more extensive learning than Abu Nuwas, nor one who, with a memory so richly furnished, possessed so few books. After his death we searched his house, and could only find one book-cover containing a quire of paper, in which was a collection of rare expressions and grammatical observations."

Khamiryyat
The spirit of a new age was reflected in wine poetry after the change in dynasties to the Abbasids. Abu Nuwas was a major influence on the development of wine poetry. His poems were likely written to entertain the Baghdad elite. The centerpiece of wine poetry lays the vivid description of the wine, exalted descriptions of its taste, appearance, fragrance, and effects on the body and mind. Abu Nuwas draws on many philosophical ideas and imagery in his poetry that glorify the Persians and mock Arab classicism. He used wine poetry as a medium to echo the themes of Abbasid relevance in the Islamic world. An example of this is shown through a piece he wrote in his Khamriyyat:"'Wine is passed round among us in a silver jug, adorned by a Persian craftsman with a variety of designs, Chosroes on its base, and round its side oryxes which horsemen hunt with bows. Wine's place is where tunics are buttoned; water's place is where the Persian cap (qalansuwah) is worn,"This passage has a prevalence of Persian imagery corresponding to the Persian language used in this period. Abu Nuwas was known to have both a poetic and political tone in his poetry. Along with other Abbasid poets, Nuwas atones for his openness to drinking wine and disregarding religion. He wrote satirical strikes at Islam using wine as both an excuse and liberator. A specific line of poetry in his Khamiryyat exemplifies his facetious relationship with religion; this line compares the religious prohibition of wine to God's forgiveness. Nuwas wrote his literature as if his sins were vindicated within a religious framework. Abu Nuwas's poetry also reflected his love for wine and sexuality. The poems were written to celebrate both the physical and metaphysical experience of drinking wine that did not conform to the norms of poetry in the Islamic world. A continuing theme in Abbasid wine poetry was its affiliation with pederasty due to the fact that wine shops usually employed boys as servers. These poems were often salacious and rebellious. In the erotic section of his Diwan, his poems describe young servant girls dressed up as young boys drinking wine. His affection for young boys was displayed through his poetry and social life. Nuwas explores an intriguing prejudice: that homosexuality was imported to Abbasid Iraq from the province in which the revolution originated. He states in his writing that during the Umayyad caliphate, poets only indulged in female lovers. Nuwas' seductive poems use wine as a central theme for blame and scapegoat. This is shown through an excerpt from his al-muharramah: "Boasting myriad colors when it spreads out in glass, silencing all tongues,

Showing off her body, golden, like a peal on a tailor's strong, in the hand of a lithe young man who speaks beautifully in response to a lover's request,

With a curl on each temple and a look in his eye that spells disaster.

He is a Christian, he wears clothes from Khurasan and his tunic bares his upper chest and neck.

Were you to speak to this elegant beauty, you would fling Islam from the top of a tall mountain.

If I were not afraid of the depredation of He who leads all sinners into transgression,

I would convert to his religion, entering it knowingly with love, For I know that the Lord would not have distinguished this youth so unless his was the true religion." This poem accounts for various sins of Nuwas: being served by a Christian, glorifying a boys beauty, and finding testimony in Christianity. Nuwas's writing ridicules heterosexual propriety, the condemnation of homosexuality, the alcohol ban, and Islam itself. He uses his literature to testify against the religious and cultural norms during the Abbasid caliphate. Though many of his poems describe his affection for boys, relating the taste and pleasure of wine to women is a signature technique of Abu Nuwas. Nuwas's preference was not uncommon among heterosexual men of his time as homoerotic lyrics and poetry were popular among Muslim mystics.

The earliest anthologies of his poetry and his biography were produced by:

 * Yaḥyā ibn al-Faḍl and Ya‘qūb ibn al-Sikkīt arranged his poetry under ten subject categories, rather than in alphabetical order. Al-Sikkīt wrote an 800-page commentary.
 * Abū Sa’īd al-Sukkarī edited his poetry, providing commentary and linguistic notes; he completed editing approximately two thirds of the corpus of one thousand folios.
 * Abū Bakr ibn Yaḥyā aI-Ṣūlī edited his work, organizing poems alphabetically, and corrected some false attributions.
 * Ḥamza ibn al-Ḥasan al-Iṣfahānī also edited his writings, compiling works alphabetically. However, Ibn al-Nadim attributes this to an ‘Alī ibn Ḥamza al-Iṣbahānī.
 * Yūsuf ibn al-Dāyah
 * Abū Hiffān
 * Ibn al-Washshā’ Abū Ṭayyib, scholar of Baghdād
 * Ibn ‘Ammār wrote a critique of Nuwas's work, including citing instances of alleged plagiarism.
 * Al-Munajjim family: Abū Manṣūr; Yaḥyā ibn Abī Manṣūr; Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā; ‘Alī ibn Yaḥyā; Yaḥyā ibn ‘Alī; Aḥmad ibn Yaḥyā; Hārūn ibn ‘Alī; ‘Alī ibn Hārūn; Aḥmad ibn ‘Alī; Hārūn ibn ‘Alī ibn Hārūn.
 * Abū al-Ḥasan al-Sumaysāṭī also wrote in praise of Nuwas.

Imprisonment and death
He died during the Great Abbasid Civil War before al-Ma’mūn advanced from Khurāsān in either 199 or 200 AH (814–816 AD). Because he frequently indulged in drunken exploits, Nuwas was imprisoned during the reign of Al-Amin, shortly before his death.

The cause of his death is disputed: four different accounts of Abu Nuwas’s death survive: 1. He was poisoned by the Nawbakht family, having been framed with a poem satirizing them; 2. He died in a tavern drinking right up to his death; 3. He was beaten by the Nawbakht for the satire falsely attributed to him; wine appears to have had a role in the flailing emotions of his final hours—this seems to be a combination of accounts one and two; 4. He died in prison, a version which contradicts the many anecdotes stating that in the advent of his death he suffered illness and was visited by friends (though not in prison). He most probably died of ill health, and equally probably in the house of the Nawbakht family, whence came the myth that they poisoned him. Nuwas was buried in Shunizi cemetery in Baghdad.

Influences
Nuwas is one of a number of writers credited with inventing the literary form of the mu‘ammā (literally "blinded" or "obscured"), a riddle which is solved "by combining the constituent letters of the word or name to be found". He also perfected two Arabic genres: Khamriyya (wine poetry) and Tardiyya (hunting poetry). Ibn Quzman, who was writing in Al-Andalus in the 12th century, admired him deeply and has been compared to him.

Commemoration
The city of Baghdad has several places named for the poet. Abū Nuwās Street runs along the east bank of the Tigris River, in a neighbourhood that was once the city's showpiece. Abu Nuwas Park is located on the 2.5-kilometer stretch between the Jumhouriya Bridge and a park that extends out to the river in Karada near the 14th of July Bridge.

In 1976, a crater on the planet Mercury was named in honor of Abu Nuwas.

The Abu Nawas Association, founded in 2007 in Algeria, was named after the poet. The primary aim of the organisation is to decriminalise homosexuality in Algeria, seeking the abolition of article 333 and 338 of the Algerian penal code which still considers homosexuality a crime punishable by imprisonment and accompanied by a fine.

Censorship
While his works were in circulation freely until the early years of the twentieth century, the first modern censored edition of his works was published in Cairo in 1932. In January 2001, the Egyptian Ministry of Culture ordered the burning of some 6,000 copies of books of Nuwas's homoerotic poetry. In the Saudi Global Arabic Encyclopedia entry for Abu Nuwas, all mentions of pederasty were omitted.

In popular culture
He features as a character in a number of stories in One Thousand and One Nights, where he is cast as a boon companion of Harun al-Rashid.

A heavily fictionalised Abu Nuwas is the protagonist of the novels The Father of Locks (Dedalus Books, 2009) and The Khalifah's Mirror (2012) by Andrew Killeen, in which he is depicted as a spy working for Ja'far al-Barmaki.

In the Sudanese novel Season of Migration to the North (1966) by Tayeb Salih, Abu Nuwas's love poetry is cited extensively by one of the novel's protagonists, the Sudanese Mustafa Sa'eed, as a means of seducing a young English woman in London: "Does it not please you that the earth is awaking,/ That old virgin wine is there for the taking?"

The Tanzanian artist Godfrey Mwampembwa (Gado) created a Swahili comic book called Abunuwasi which was published in 1996. It features a trickster figure named Abunuwasi as the protagonist in three stories draw inspiration from East African folklore as well as the fictional Abu Nuwasi of One Thousand and One Nights.

In Pasolini's Arabian Nights, the Sium story is based on Abu Nuwas' erotic poetry. The original poems are used throughout the scene.

In Indonesia, Abu Nuwas, called Abunawas, is a character of various folk stories, similar to Nasreddin Hoca. The stories often highlight relations between ordinary people and the higher class.

Editions and translations

 * Der Dīwān des Abū Nuwās, ed. by Ewald Wagner. 5 vols. (1958-2003).
 * Dīwān Abū Nu’ās, khamriyyāt Abū Nu’ās, ed. by ‘Alī Najīb ‘Aṭwi (Beirut 1986).
 * O Tribe That Loves Boys. Hakim Bey (Entimos Press / Abu Nuwas Society, 1993). With a scholarly biographical essay on Abu Nuwas, largely taken from Ewald Wagner's biographical entry in The Encyclopedia of Islam.
 * Carousing with Gazelles, Homoerotic Songs of Old Baghdad. Seventeen poems by Abu Nuwas translated by Jaafar Abu Tarab. (iUniverse, Inc., 2005).
 * Jim Colville. Poems of Wine and Revelry: The Khamriyyat of Abu Nuwas. (Kegan Paul, 2005).
 * The Khamriyyāt of Abū Nuwās: Medieval Bacchic Poetry, trans. by Fuad Matthew Caswell (Kibworth Beauchamp: Matador, 2015). Trans. from ‘Aṭwi 1986.

title: Abu Nuwas


text:
Rookie of the Year (award)

A Rookie of the Year award or ROY is given by a number of sports leagues to the top-performing athlete in his or her first season within the league. Athletes competing for the first time in any given league are also known as "rookies".

Principal leagues
The honor is awarded annually to the top rookie performers in:
 * Canadian Football League
 * MotoGP
 * Indianapolis 500
 * IndyCar
 * Major League Baseball
 * Major League Lacrosse
 * Major League Soccer
 * NASCAR
 * National Basketball Association
 * National Football League
 * National Hockey League
 * Women's Professional Soccer

Award outside North America
Some rookie of the year awards exist outside North America, one example being the Elitserien Rookie of the Year in Swedish ice hockey.

The North American sports development system delays athletes' entry into the top level of professional sports until the best of them are ready to make a major impact in their first season. The typical development path varies by sport:
 * American football – Essentially all future professionals spend anywhere from three to five years in college programs, playing for a maximum of four years, before becoming eligible for professional play.
 * Canadian football – Similar to American football, with players drawn from both Canadian university programs and U.S. college football.
 * Basketball – Almost all American players now spend at least one year in college basketball because of recent changes in NBA rules. Although the NBA has its own minor league, virtually all players in that league come from the college ranks as well.
 * Baseball – While college baseball plays a role in player development, it is significantly less than that of the extensive, and fully professional (bordering on semi-professional at the lowest level), minor league baseball system. Almost all players, whether or not they play college baseball, will spend several years in the minors before making a major-league team.
 * Hockey – In Canada, a large majority of future NHL players develop as juniors in the professional Canadian Hockey League. While some American players opt for the CHL (which has some American teams), most choose college hockey. In either case, only the very top prospects will graduate immediately from the CHL or NCAA to the NHL; most will spend some time in an NHL team's minor-league system.

However, in other parts of the world, it is usual for clubs to train their own players and introduce them into the first team gradually. Occasionally, young players who show extraordinary talent are introduced to the first team during their teens, with notable examples being Wayne Rooney in association football and Ricky Rubio in basketball.

To reflect this difference Young player of the year awards with an upper age limit usually somewhere in the early 20s, are more common elsewhere, e.g. soccer's FIFPro World Young Player of the Year.

However golf's PGA European Tour has the Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year award, and Grand Prix motorcycle racing also awards the top rookie of each class.

Association football

 * PFA Young Player of the Year
 * Premier League Young Player of the Season
 * Serie A Young Footballer of the Year
 * Ligue 1 Young player of the year
 * MLS Young Player of the Year Award
 * K League Young Player of the Year Award
 * J.League Best Young Player
 * A-League Men Young Footballer of the Year
 * A-League Women Young Footballer of the Year
 * WPS Rookie of the Year Award
 * NWSL Rookie of the Year
 * Golden Boy

Auto racing

 * Indianapolis 500
 * IndyCar
 * NASCAR
 * Grand Prix motorcycle racing

Baseball

 * Major League Baseball (in each league)
 * Esurance MLB Awards Best Rookie (in MLB)
 * Players Choice Awards Outstanding Rookie (in each league)
 * Baseball America
 * Baseball Prospectus Internet Baseball Awards
 * Sporting News (from 1963 through 2003, there were two categories: Rookie Pitcher of the Year and Rookie Player of the Year)
 * Baseball America All-Rookie Team
 * Topps All-Star Rookie Team
 * MLB Rookie of the Month Award
 * Chinese Professional Baseball League (Chinese Taipei: Republic of China)
 * Japan Professional Baseball
 * Korea Baseball Organization

Basketball

 * National Basketball Association
 * NBA Development League Rookie of the Year Award
 * WNBA Rookie of the Year Award
 * NBL (Australia) Rookie of the Year
 * Philippine Basketball Association Rookie of the Year award

Football (American)

 * National Football League

Football (Canadian)

 * Canadian Football League

Golf

 * Ladies European Tour
 * LPGA Tour
 * PGA Tour
 * PGA European Tour

Hockey

 * Canadian Hockey League
 * Central Hockey League
 * International Hockey League
 * National Hockey League
 * Quebec Major Junior Hockey League

Lacrosse

 * Major League Lacrosse

Rugby league

 * National Rugby League
 * NRL Women's Premiership

title: Rookie of the Year (award)


text:
Installable File System

The Installable File System (IFS) is a filesystem API in MS-DOS/PC DOS 4.x, IBM OS/2 and Microsoft Windows that enables the operating system to recognize and load drivers for file systems.

History
When IBM and Microsoft were co-developing OS/2, they realized that the FAT file system did not offer some of the features modern OSes would require, and Microsoft began developing the High Performance File System (HPFS), codenamed Pinball.

Instead of coding it inside the kernel, as FAT was, Microsoft developed a "driver-based" filesystem API that could allow them and other developers to add new filesystems to the kernel without needing to modify it.

When Microsoft stopped working on OS/2, IBM continued using the IFS interface and Microsoft implemented a similar one in Windows NT.

IFS in OS/2
The IFS provided a basic and powerful interface for programming filesystems. It was introduced in 1989 in OS/2 1.20, along with the HPFS filesystem.

Filesystem drivers executed in kernel-space (ring 0) and are divided in four principal pieces: microIFS, miniIFS, IFS, helpers.

Only the IFS and the filesystem code itself is required and it is loaded via an "IFS=" statement in the CONFIG.SYS file. It is a NE 16-bit dynamically loaded library. No matter if it is a 32-bit OS/2 (2.0 and newer), the IFS is always 16-bit (although extraofficially you can make a 32-bit IFS).

The microIFS is a piece of code that loads in memory the kernel and the miniIFS and jumps to kernel execution. It is usually in the boot portion of the filesystem.

The miniIFS is a piece of code that is called by the kernel to load the first IFS statement that appears in the CONFIG.SYS file, so the first IFS statement must be the boot's filesystem for the system to be able to boot.

The helpers are 16-bit (for OS/2 1.x) or 32-bit (for OS/2 2.x and up), are executed in user-space (ring 3) and contain the code used for typical filesystem maintenance, and are called by  and   utilities.

This four-piece scheme allowed developers to dynamically add a new bootable filesystem, as the ext2 driver for OS/2 demonstrated.

CD-ROM filesystem driver (ISO 9660) was added in OS/2 2.0, UDF was added in OS/2 4.0 and JFS was added in OS/2 4.5. ArcaOS, the latest packaging of OS/2, has a number of filesystem drivers available, including FAT32. There was also an official 32-bit HPFS IFS, called HPFS386 that improved performance and added some features, like variable size cache and Access Control Lists, and was available only in certain OS/2 server editions. The FAT filesystem was never removed from the kernel and officially never an IFS, although there are FAT IFS that added features like long file names (LFNs), FAT32 support, etc.

Network file-sharing protocols like NFS and SMB are also implemented using IFS, and the IFS interface never changed.

IFS in Windows 3.11 and 9x
IFSHLP.SYS (the Installable File System Helper) is an MS-DOS device driver that was first released as part of Microsoft Windows for Workgroups 3.11. It enables native 32-bit file access in Windows 386 Enhanced Mode by bypassing the 16-bit DOS API and ensuring that no other real mode driver intercepts INT 21h calls.

The protected mode counterpart of IFSHLP.SYS is IFSMGR.386 in Windows 3.11 and IFSMGR.VXD in Windows 95 and Windows 98.

IFS in Windows NT
The IFS API is part of the Windows Driver Kit.

When Microsoft stopped developing OS/2 and concentrated on what was then called OS/2 NT, they took the IFS ideas with it, along with the HPFS filesystem.

Instead of being a four-piece scheme, NT IFS was redesigned into a two-piece scheme. microIFS and miniIFS were removed from the scheme. IFS and helpers remain as the same, but later, in Windows NT 4.0, a defragmentation helper (DEFRAG) was added. Microsoft's original NTLDR was coded for loading the NT kernel from FAT, HPFS or NTFS, but subsequent versions dropped HPFS support. All of the drivers and helpers became 32-bit PE executables. The FAT file system was moved out of the Kernel to an IFS and was heavily optimized for performance, taking advantage of the 32-bit processing capabilities (being called FASTFAT).

Original Windows NT 3.1 incorporated FAT, HPFS (Pinball) and the newly created NTFS drivers, along with a new and improved CD-ROM filesystem driver that incorporated long file names using the Microsoft Joliet filesystem.

Windows NT 3.51 added per-file compression to NTFS and to the IFS interface. In Windows NT 4.0 HPFS was removed. In Windows 2000 FASTFAT was updated to support FAT32 and UDF was added.

Windows 2000 modified the IFS interface to add per-file encryption.

Network file-sharing protocols and antivirus are also implemented using IFS 'file system filter' drivers which intercept file I/O operations.

Apple started including read only HFS+ drivers in Mac OS X 10.6's version of Boot Camp for use in Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7.

ext2/ext3/ext4

 * Ext2Fsd is a GPL file system driver for Windows 2000 to Windows 8 (32Bit and 64Bit); it supports writing/multiple codepages, ext3 htree, journal since version 0.50 available
 * ext2 IFS for Windows NT (Read only)
 * Ext2IFS / Another ext2-3 IFS for Windows NT/2000/XP/2003 (Read/Write; support for UTF-8 file names and ext3 htree; ext3 journal not supported )

ReiserFS

 * ReiserFS IFS for Windows NT (Read only)

HFS

 * Commercial HFS IFS for Windows NT

OS/2

 * HFS IFS for OS/2
 * NTFS and FAT IFS for OS/2
 * FTP server offering IFS drivers for OS/2

Other

 * CBFS Storage - cross-platform single-file virtual filesystem with encryption and compression
 * CBFS Connect - SDK that lets developers create installable virtual file systems for Windows in user mode
 * RomFS - Windows driver examples
 * WinFUSE - a .NET based Filesystem in USErspace framework that uses SMB instead of IFS
 * Dokany - an MIT-licensed framework for filesystems in Windows userspace that uses a separate kernel driver, with available .NET bindings

title: Installable File System


text: User talk:65.67.11.161

title: User talk:65.67.11.161


text:
Africanus Horton

Surgeon-Major James Africanus Beale Horton (c. 1835 – c. 1883) was a British Army officer, surgeon, writer and banker. Born in Gloucester, Sierra Leone into a Creole family who were liberated from enslavement by the Royal Navy, he began attending the SLGS in 1845. After graduating from Fourah Bay College, Horton received a War Office scholarship study medicine in Britain to prepare him for a career in the British Armed Forces, and he attended King's College London and the University of Edinburgh. Serving in the West India Regiments, Horton was posted to various locations within the British Empire, including Lagos, the Gambia, Sierra Leone and the Gold Coast and participated in the Anglo-Ashanti wars.

Horton wrote extensively on the medicine and botany of West Africa, and espoused African nationalism and pan-Africanism in opposition to racism by European writers. In his works, including The Political Economy of British West Africa (1865) and West African Countries and Peoples (1868), he defended Africans against racist arguments and espoused self-governance for Britain's African colonies. After retiring from the army at the age of 45, Horton went to Freetown where he continued to campaign on political issues and opened a bank. His business activities and gold mining investments made him one of the wealthiest men in Africa by 1880, and Horton died three years later. A crater on Mercury is named in his honour.

Early life

James Beale Horton was born c. 1835 in the village of Gloucester, Sierra Leone, near Freetown, the capital of the Sierra Leone Colony and Protectorate. His father was James Horton Sr., an Igbo man who had been sold into slavery as part of the Atlantic slave trade before being liberated by the Royal Navy's West Africa Squadron and landed ashore at Freetown. Horton began his education by studying at a local school in Gloucester before being recruited by British missionary The Rev. James Beale in 1845 to attend the Sierra Leone Grammar School, which was run by the Church Mission Society. After graduating from the school, he began studying divinity at the Fourah Bay College in the hopes of becoming a clergyman.

However, Horton eventually sought a military career instead. In 1855, alongside fellow Creoles William Davies and Samuel Campbell, he received a War Office scholarship to study medicine in Britain to prepare Horton for a career in the British Armed Forces, which at the time was looking for Black military personnel more acclimated to African environments to serve in Africa. Horton studied at King's College London, and in 1858 published his dissertation, which was titled "On the medical topography of the west coast of Africa including sketches of its botany". He graduated in the same year.

While a student in Britain, Horton took on the name "Africanus" as a symbol of pride in his African heritage. After studying at King's College London, he went on to attend the University of Edinburgh, graduating with a Doctor of Medicine. Upon the completion of his studies at Edinburgh, Horton was commissioned as an officer in the British Army at the rank of Staff-Assistant Surgeon, becoming one of the first Black people to serve in the officer corps of the British military. When he returned to Sierra Leone, Horton was posted to the neighbouring British colony of the Gold Coast, serving in the West India Regiments. As part of his military career, he was posted to various locations within the British Empire, including Lagos, the Gambia, Sierra Leone and the Gold Coast. Horton also participated in the Anglo-Ashanti wars.

Politics and writings
Horton's first two publications: The Political Economy of British West Africa: with the Requirements of Several Colonies and Settlements (1865) and West African Countries and Peoples (1868) were a defense of Africans against racist views of some European anthropologists that Africans were a physically and intellectually inferior people whose development stopped centuries ago. He argued that all races have the faculty to acquire knowledge about philosophy, science and technologies that civilizations have developed over the ages. Horton was the first modern African political thinker to openly campaign for self-government for the West African colonies and champion the cause of what he referred to as "African nationality".

He was an advocate of an elected monarchy in which a king would be elected by universal suffrage and bicameral legislature. In regards to the economic development of Sierra Leone, he proposed the annexation and commercial development of surrounding land in an effort to raise the revenue necessary to implement various economic and social development plans. In another of his publications, a compilation of letters called Letters of the Political Condition of the Gold Coast since the exchange of territory, Horton wrote about hostilities between ethnic groups in the Gold Coast and offered his views about solving the hostilities including the continuation of education in Africa.

Horton was one of the first West Africans to demand the establishment of a medical school and higher institution in the region. Horton recognised the value in an indigenous institution and believed that it should be headed by an African, believing that they would be more invested in the progress of the country than a European. In 1861, he wrote a letter to the War Office in London, stating the need of a tropical medical school in the region. Horton is often seen as one of the founders of African nationalism and has been called "the father of modern African political thought".

Later life and death
After his retirement from the army, Horton started a finance institution called the Commercial Bank of West Africa. Horton married on two occasions while living in Freetown; he first married Fanny Marietta Pratt, daughter of the prominent Pratt family of Igbo origin. Marietta died at age twenty-two and Horton then on May 29, 1875, went on to marry Selina Beatrice Elliott, daughter of John Bucknor Elliott who was the manager of the Western Area of Freetown. The Elliotts were a Nova Scotian Settler family of African-American descent. He died c. 1883. A crater on Mercury is named after him.

title: Africanus Horton


text:
Talk:Karlheinz Stockhausen

Referencing
I've read the discussions in the archives about the unusual referencing on this page. Are any active editors still willing to defend this style? Popcornduff (talk) 06:34, 31 July 2018 (UTC)
 * WP:CITESTYLE/WP:CITEVAR don't require that a particular style needs to be defended. There are >500 Harvard-style references in this article. I doubt there will be a consensus to switch styles. And which style would you suggest? -- Michael Bednarek (talk) 12:15, 31 July 2018 (UTC)
 * I would suggest using the same format every other Wikipedia article I've ever seen uses. Why does this article use a different one, and why would the consensus be to stick with it? Popcornduff (talk) 12:17, 31 July 2018 (UTC)
 * harv and harvnb have >38,000 transclusions, so it's not uncommon. A citation style that has been used here continuously since the first citations were added in 2006 by User:Jerome Kohl shouldn't be changed without that editor agreeing – WP:CITEVAR: "it is normal practice to defer to the style used by the first major contributor". -- Michael Bednarek (talk) 14:02, 31 July 2018 (UTC)
 * Yes, but if there's a consensus to change it, we can do it. Do you (or anyone else) feel the current method is the best? Popcornduff (talk) 14:27, 31 July 2018 (UTC)
 * Yes, I do.—Jerome Kohl (talk) 16:40, 31 July 2018 (UTC)
 * Why? Popcornduff (talk) 16:49, 31 July 2018 (UTC)
 * Since you have already consulted the relevant archive of this talk page, you will already have read my long answer. To summarize, Harvard citations are much less disruptive to the reader than either full-footnote or short-footnote style, which require continuous back-and-forth navigation merely to discover what is in the note (often not simply a reference). It is for this reason also that my rule of thumb is, "if a comment belongs in an article, put it there, not hidden away in a footnote; if it does not belong in the article, then delete it." I am surprised that you are unable to find any other articles on Wikipedia that use this referencing style. As Michael Bednarek points out, there are 38,000 transclusions for the harv citation tags on Wikipedia. I believe they are especially frequent in articles on music theory and 20th-century composers and their compositions (e.g., Rhythm, Tonality, Musical analysis, Whole note, Mode (music), Canon (music), Consonance and dissonance, Cyclic form, Microtonal music, Music semiology, Serialism, Neoclassicism (music); Béla Bartók, Frank Bridge, Arnold Schoenberg, Milton Babbitt, Luigi Nono, George Rochberg; Le Marteau sans maître, Piano sonatas (Boulez), Structures (Boulez), Il canto sospeso, Aquarius (opera), Symphony No. 7 (Davies), Bachianas Brasileiras, Rudepoêma, Impressions d'enfance, Octet (Stravinsky), etc.), but are also used, for example, in the articles Timbre, Renaissance music, Solage, Estampie, String Quartet No. 13 (Schubert), Delphic Hymns, Modernity, Lutheran chorale, etc.—Jerome Kohl (talk) 20:28, 31 July 2018 (UTC)
 * For what it is worth, I also found this style of referencing on this page very confusing. I guess if it is a style that works and has been used before then it is alright, but it is somewhat unsettling to see this style which is so much different from practically every other Wikipedia article.Ryzcheese (talk) 01:12, 29 August 2018 (UTC)

I'd support a 'conversion' to the usual style of in-line citations with a at the foot of the page. GiantSnowman 10:30, 22 November 2018 (UTC)
 * Do you have reasons pertaining to this page in particular, or is this opinion aimed at all of the thousands of pages on Wikipedia using this style? If the latter, I suggest you take this to Wikipedia talk:Citing sources, where a related thread has recently been opened at Wikipedia_talk:Citing_sources.—Jerome Kohl (talk) 00:52, 23 November 2018 (UTC)
 * I also came here to say that the style of referencing feels very difficult to read. I think there's probably good reason that it's not the norm in Wikipedia. Wikipedia's not an academic text; it should be written to make information easily accessible to the lay-person. The first priority for a lay-audience is to have the information available in a convenient, readable format, which means not interrupting every half-sentence with citations. Only after reading, if a particular fact is highly important to the reader, will they need to look at the citations. Since there's no-one active on this page who can make a case *for* keeping it this way, it seems permissible to change it. DTysen (talk) 11:08, 2 September 2020 (UTC)
 * You may like to have a look at the ongoing (?) discussion at Village pump (proposals). Toccata quarta (talk) 11:21, 2 September 2020 (UTC)
 * DTysen: "Since there's no-one active on this page who can make a case *for* keeping it this way" – first, there's the discussion above in this thread; second, this has been discussed previously (see the archives); third, WP:CITEVAR is still unchanged. "a convenient, readable format" – it can be argued that an inline citation which gives author(s) and year, which is clickable to the full citation, is more readable and convenient than $[123]$. The only problem with this article is its inclusion of about 100 works in "Sources" which aren't cited and thus ought to be in "Further reading" (that, and an unnecessarily small font for "Sources"). -- Michael Bednarek (talk) 12:18, 2 September 2020 (UTC)
 * FYI, parenthetical referencing has been deprecated. Toccata quarta (talk) 13:47, 6 September 2020 (UTC)

Lead
I sympathize with the IP who removed the longish litany of references from the lead. Ideally, of course, this information should be referenced in the body of the article and then summarized in the lead without references. Is there any reason this is not done? It's also bad practice, if not borderline original research, to say that something is "widely acknowledged" and then 'verify' this by widely citing sources. The best would be to cite one reliable source that says it's widely acknowledged. I think the lead is also a bit holographic, particularly the quote "one of the great visionaries of 20th-century music"; I think the essence of it is already included in being one of the most important but controversial. – Finnusertop (talk ⋅ contribs) 06:28, 9 March 2019 (UTC)

 * I don't have a very strong opinion on this. It's just that I would never leave claims like "widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries" unreferenced even in the lead section of an article, even if these claims were referenced later in the article body, if only out of fear of endless edit wars over these claims and drive-by removals. But then I must confess that me reverting the IP's removal of the references itself was some sort of a drive-by edit. It's just that these claims have been part of the lead section since at least 2007, and I am somewhat surprised that after all this time people see the need to change them now. But this of course again is a very weak argument. – Tea2min (talk) 06:48, 9 March 2019 (UTC)

Parenthetical referencing
As parenthetical referencing on Wikipedia was deprecated in September 2020, would anyone object if I began the task of converting it to standard citations on this article? If not, help with that task would certainly be appreciated. Popcornfud (talk) 23:14, 26 September 2020 (UTC)
 * Popcornfud, what form of citations were you planning on using? Nikkimaria (talk) 00:34, 27 September 2020 (UTC)
 * I converted to sfn in In Freundschaft, and wonder if a bot could do such things. RexxS, what do you think? --Gerda Arendt (talk) 07:40, 27 September 2020 (UTC)
 * you could probably get a bot to do much of the work with reasonable accuracy, but to be honest it's not the sort of job I'd leave to a bot. Folks can be really sensitive about citations and I think that even slightly controversial changes are best left to humans in these sort of cases. --RexxS (talk) 13:40, 27 September 2020 (UTC)
 * I actually believe that not much is won by changing the citations which are - to my knowledge - only used in this field. But what if templates harv and harvnb get deleted? - On the other hand, we could slowly do the job manually, as Francis Schonken also suggested. I guess with Br'er Rabbit around, it would be done overnight. Such a loss. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 14:10, 27 September 2020 (UTC)
 * Done – For clarity, bots performing tasks as suggested above would need an explicit approval, per the WP:PARREF RfC outcome. That usually means, approval before going to WP:BOTREQ or a similar request page, while going there without prior consensus usually means that the task would be turned down. --Francis Schonken (talk) 16:13, 27 September 2020 (UTC)
 * For a start: below are converted citations to be copied, because I believe we could at least copy those already done once, sorted by author name, and year within one author, as Jerome did it. The citations in Stockhausen's are not numbered but look like a 3-digit figure. The timing of the deprecation was as bad as can be, coinciding with Jerome's death. Reverting the deprecation - in honour of his personal preference - might also be an option.

What to convert
The references in the body come in two forms, with (automatic) brackets when only one, with added brackets and semicolons as separators when more than one. The punctuation comes after the reference(s). Change 1: get the punctuation to the front, replace harv and harvnb by sfn, elimit exttra brackets and separators when more than one.

Change 2: Under header References, have reflist|20em and subheader Cited sources.

For an easy approach, that is enough, and has been done by Francis Schonken for Stockhausen, and by me for the Licht works. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 15:47, 29 September 2020 (UTC)

The sources (I saw so far) are defined per wikicite, without specific parameters. Change 3: Choose appropriate citation template (cite book, cite journal ...). For sfn referencing, you need only parameters last (or editor-last) and date, all else is not needed, but once there, I changed it all, for added granularity. In cases of no author, you need to specify a ref parameter. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 09:42, 27 September 2020 (UTC)

Converted references
So far from In Freundschaft and Originale (from the latter: only general topic, not those specific to the piece).

B

C

F

G

H

K

M

S

W

Z

anon

In Freundschaft, - we had a long chat about Originale. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 09:25, 27 September 2020 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: 20th-21st Century Art, Performance and Media
— Assignment last updated by Ceiap (talk) 20:35, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

Infobox
I suggest to give this composer an infobox, to get to some key facts about his achievements - works, WDR, awards - at a glance. As for Mozart. -- Gerda Arendt (talk) 09:03, 29 March 2024 (UTC)

 * This doesn't do a particularly good job of summarizing what is key about the subject. Nikkimaria (talk) 13:20, 29 March 2024 (UTC)
 * It doesn't have to "summarize", just point at key facts, with the list of compositions even the best possible summary. As for Mozart. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 15:38, 29 March 2024 (UTC)
 * The MOS indicates that the purpose of such a template would be to summarize key facts, so I don't agree that we can conclude it doesn't have to do so. Nor would I agree that a link to that list of compositions is the best possible summary - in its present form that article serves as more of an index rather than providing a summary at a glance. I'm also surprised to see you make this suggestion, given Jerome's stated position on the topic. Nikkimaria (talk) 16:36, 29 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Jerome, when someone complained that an infobox was added without establishing consensus first: . I met a generous undogmatic person, - we discussed an infobox for Georg Katzer, for example. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 17:25, 29 March 2024 (UTC)

 * I am not really sure what you intended to show with the Katzer example - it appears that Jerome disagreed with your position there, and likely would have disagreed with your edit. Nikkimaria (talk) 00:13, 17 April 2024 (UTC)
 * You reverted again, although we discussed here, and you were the only person to object. I said in my edit summary that Stockhausen was one in a list of great composers, Sylvano Bussotti, John Cage, Mauricio Kagel, Luigi Nono, Olivier Messiaen, Wolfgang Rihm. Both the quote above as the Katzer discussion show that Jerome Kohl was a person who understood different opinions. Did he revert Copland? No. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 07:39, 17 April 2024 (UTC)

 * But Katzer yes. Keep in mind that these points apply in reverse as well, and part of understanding different opinions is understanding that different articles may look different as a result. Nikkimaria (talk) 01:06, 18 April 2024 (UTC)

Starting over: for me, the discussion about an infobox for Mozart changed the "game", and even my dear friend Jerome Kohl might have agreed that presenting when and where he was born and died + an easy access to his works at a glance would actually improve accessibility to this articles. About the other parameters, we can talk. He was a great friend of infoboxes for compositions, as you may know. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 09:57, 18 April 2024 (UTC)

 * I don't see a reason to agree that the places warrant that degree of prominence, and dates already have it. Nikkimaria (talk) 03:14, 19 April 2024 (UTC)
 * I don't agree that an infobox means prominence. For me, it's just a service to a reader to find facts in a predictable position. The majority of commenters for Mozart seem to agree with me, for example Voceditenore saying
 * "Infoboxes are an integral part of editing and more importantly of the reader experience. They allow us to cater both to the reader who is looking only for the basic facts concerning the person quickly and easily presented and to those who want a lengthy and more detailed artcle. The "repetition" argument is simply a canard. The Encyclopædia Britannica doesn't have a problem with "repetition" via infoboxes . Nor does the Australian Dictionary of Biography.
 * The other "oppose" reasons are equally weak.
 * •They contain "unimportant factoids"?? The dates and places of birth and death, the subject's primary occupation are not factoids, they are highly salient and essential facts of a biography which is why music reference books include them in the first sentence of an entry." --Gerda Arendt (talk) 07:19, 19 April 2024 (UTC)
 * EB entry for Stockhausen --Gerda Arendt (talk) 07:23, 19 April 2024 (UTC)
 * Expanding the first sentence of the entry to match other subject references is not a bad idea; happy to agree to that to resolve the matter. Nikkimaria (talk) 02:48, 20 April 2024 (UTC)
 * I assume that our MoS avoids the places in the first sentence as a repetition to the infobox that is assumed to be there (and in most biographies I read is there). The first sentence is long enough already, and I prefer the common solution to keep it slim. Being able to move information into the infobox instead of the prose was one thing Jerome Kohl liked about infobox musical composition. Kindly read User talk:Jerome Kohl/Archive 18 - Mozart mentioned, 2017. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 06:50, 20 April 2024 (UTC)

 * I see some compelling points being made in that discussion, but none supportive of a change to the status quo here. There was reference to material not otherwise mentioned in an article at all, which doesn't seem to apply here unless you are also proposing changes to the prose? Nikkimaria (talk) 12:51, 20 April 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Karlheinz Stockhausen


text:
Betty Brant

Elizabeth "Betty" Brant-Leeds is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, usually in stories featuring the superhero Spider-Man. She is the personal secretary of J. Jonah Jameson at the Daily Bugle, and served as both a supporting character and love interest for Peter Parker. She later became a reporter for the Daily Bugle and the girlfriend of Flash Thompson/Agent Venom, later marrying Ned Leeds/Hobgoblin.

Since her inception, the character has been featured in various media adaptations, such as feature films, television series and video games. In film, she was portrayed by Elizabeth Banks in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy, and by Angourie Rice as a teenaged version in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) films Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019), and Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) and the web series The Daily Bugle (2021–2022), with Antonina Lentini voicing another version in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023); the What If…? Spider-Girl incarnation of Betty Brant also cameos in Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, Spider-Man Unlimited, and Across the Spider-Verse.

Publication history
Created by writer Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, she first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #4 (September 1963).

Fictional character biography
Betty Brant was born in Philadelphia. Her mother had originally been the "Girl Friday" of Daily Bugle editor J. Jonah Jameson, and Betty dropped out of high school to become Jameson's secretary at the Daily Bugle after her mother suffered serious injury. As Peter Parker's first love, she met him when he became a freelance photographer for the Bugle. After they had been attacked by the Vulture, Peter had already noticed his attraction to Betty, and was impressed when she stood up to Jameson over publishing slandering articles against Spider-Man. They began dating shortly afterwards, when Betty was impressed by Parker's kindness when taking care of his ill Aunt May.

Her secretarial job at the Bugle was taken to help her brother Bennett Brant pay back his gambling debts, which he had acquired trying to pay for their mother's medical bills. Bennett had become friendly with Betty's then boyfriend Gordon Savinski. Gordon was into many illegal activities and Bennett eventually took on a gambling debt that he could not pay back to a gangster named Blackie Gaxton. When Blackie's thugs came looking for Bennett at the family home, Betty's mother was knocked into a coffee table, resulting in permanent brain damage.

With the help of Doctor Octopus, Blackie Gaxton kidnapped both Bennett and Betty as insurance against anyone preventing him leaving the country. Bennett was double crossed when Glaxton refused to free him of his debts and was fatally shot during a melee between Glaxton's gang, Doctor Octopus and Spider-Man. At first, Betty blamed Spider-Man for the death of her brother and told Spider-Man that she never wanted to see him again, although afterwards she realized she had been wrong and that he had only been trying to help. The blossoming romance between Betty and Peter was cut short, when Betty feared that Peter cared more for his classmate Liz Allan. This misunderstanding led to their relationship finally coming to an end.

Ned Leeds
Soon after Peter and Betty's break up, she started dating fellow Daily Bugle employee reporter Ned Leeds. Even though he soon left for Europe, they remained in contact, writing each other letters regularly. Upon his return, they began dating again, and Leeds eventually proposed to Betty. There were signs that Betty still loved Peter, and Peter did his best to alienate her for her own good. She eventually accepted Leeds' marriage proposal.

After their engagement, J. Jonah Jameson threw an engagement party at his penthouse apartment and their wedding soon followed. Their wedding day was not all smooth sailing as a costumed criminal named Mirage decided to rob all the guests at the top weddings on that day. Spider-Man intervened and Mirage was easily captured. Betty and Ned were married with Mary Jane Watson serving as Betty's maid of honor.

Soon after their wedding, Jameson sent both Betty and Ned off to Paris on an all expenses paid working honeymoon. Betty began to notice a change in Ned as he became consumed by work. While Ned covered an insurrection in Cyprus she flew back to New York to the consoling arms of Peter. After discovering Betty's disappearance Ned returned to New York and confronted both Peter and Betty. Ned punched Peter in the jaw and tried to force him to never see Betty again. Peter said he never wanted to see either of them again and that he was only interested in Betty to make Mary Jane jealous, in the hope that this would bring Ned and Betty back together. Advice that Peter had received from a ghostly Noah King dressed as a priest.

After that, the villain Sin-Eater marks Betty for death, but she escapes his murder attempt.

Ned's investigative reporting brought an incredible strain on the Leeds' marriage. Following leads on the mysterious new villain named Hobgoblin, Leeds was captured and hypnotized to think that he was the Hobgoblin. During this period Betty turned to her friend Flash Thompson, but he too was framed by the real Hobgoblin and in the process Betty saw Ned dressed as the Hobgoblin threatening Flash. Her mind, already fragile, was pushed over the edge. Meanwhile, a mercenary named Jason Macendale asked the Foreigner for information on who the Hobgoblin was and was given Leeds' name. When Ned followed an espionage story to Berlin, under hypnosis he dressed himself as the Hobgoblin and was assassinated by the Foreigner's men. Macendale after thinking the original Hobgoblin was dead, would later adopt the identity of the Hobgoblin for himself.

Betty suffered a complete mental breakdown after the news of Ned's death by the Foreigner, and believed him to still be alive. In her state a young recruiter from the Cult of Love was able to persuade her to join their faction under a leader called the Teacher where she was programmed in their ways. The Teacher turned out to be a con artist. Flash and Spider-Man figured this out and saved Betty, though she lost everything she owned and had to take up residence with Flash Thompson. During this, the demonic events of Inferno happened, overwhelming much of New York City. Betty and Flash were attacked by demonic duplicates of Spider-Man and Ned. Betty overcame physical and psychological barriers and succeeded in destroying the monsters.

After these difficult times, she returned to work at the Daily Bugle as a secretary under the city editor Kate Cushing. A change in Betty occurred when she became an investigative reporter who successfully tracked down the Foreigner and his assassins and found out the real identity of the Hobgoblin which finally put her mind at rest. She has now become one of the top investigative reporters at the Bugle.

Deadline
In Deadline, during her time at the Bugle, she became friends with Kat Farrell and pushed her to take on the Judge Hart case in order to get a better job at the Bugle. She kept a spare key to Kat's apartment in her desk, which fellow reporter Paul Swanson used to break into Kat's apartment in an attempt to scare her off the case.

Brand New Day
In Brand New Day's storyline, Betty became a reporter under Dexter Bennett after Jameson's heart attack forced his wife to sell the Daily Bugle to him, and she became the only one of the old circle to remain working at the Bugle. As Dexter was trying to sidestep Betty and make her his "Girl Friday" again, Peter drops hints of a fake family relationship between Betty and the deceased actor Marlon Brando, bolstering her position in Bennett's eye as a gossip reporter.

Recently, she celebrated her birthday and asked Peter to organize for her friends to come over for a dinner, but due to her work at the new DB, nobody feels like befriending her. In fact, only Peter showed up at her birthday, because he was the only one of her friends that was not angry with her. Initially, Betty was furious at Peter, angrily accusing him of ruining her night until he tells her the truth. She is sad, but he reassures her that everyone will forgive her soon. Betty realizes that Peter really is her best friend.

Following the DB's destruction, she went on to create a successful journalism blog; she is last seen with having gotten back together with Flash.

Ultimate Marvel
In the Ultimate Marvel universe, Betty Brant is again the loyal secretary of J. Jonah Jameson at the Daily Bugle. She is a headstrong woman, trying to get by in life and having as much fun on dates as she can get. This version has a considerably different personality as she goes as far as making bets about the deaths of missing co-workers. She also lacks her mainstream counterpart's brown bob hairstyle and instead sporting long black hair (but her design was not concrete at the beginning of the series). She worked herself up into a rage while trying to build the Bugle website to which Peter Parker took over from her and got his job at the Bugle as a webdesigner.

Jameson rejects her request to find out more about the disappearance of Nick Fury, alleging that a brief affair with Kraven the Hunter before his arrest proves that she is incapable of any reporting assignment beyond covering college fashion shows. Sometime after the original Spider-Man's death, Betty later gets the footage of the new Spider-Man stopping some muggers and presents this to Jameson. The story of a new Spider-Man makes the headlines. Betty is subsequently killed by Venom after trying to expose the new Spider-Man's identity.

What If?
In "What If the Radioactive Spider Had Bitten Someone Else?", Betty is one of three candidates – along with Flash Thompson and John Jameson – who is bitten by the radioactive spider which gave Spider-Man his powers. After confiding in Peter, and with his assistance, she begins to fight crime under the name "The Amazing Spider-Girl", with a mask similar to Spider-Man's but a very different costume. One time, she fails to stop a certain crook, who subsequently murders Peter's uncle Ben. The shock over the consequences of her failure makes Betty quit her Spider-Girl identity, although Peter takes up the identity of Spider-Man later on by synthetically recreating and ingesting the irradiated spider's venom. This incarnation also appears in the Spider-Verse.

Marvel Noir
In the Marvel Noir universe, Betty Brant is once again depicted as the personal secretary of J. Jonah Jameson at the Daily Bugle.

Spider-Gwen
In the alternate reality where Gwen Stacy is Spider-Gwen, a.k.a. Spider-Woman, Brant is the bass player for the high school rock band the Mary Janes. Out of the four musicians (Mary Jane, Glory Grant, and Gwen Stacy), she is shown to have a larger interest in death metal and darker subjects such as horror. She has a cat named Murderface.

Television

 * Betty Brant appears in Spider-Man (1967), voiced by Peg Dixon. This version plays a larger role than other incarnations, similarly to Lois Lane of the Superman franchise, such as being captured by the villain Parafino and supporting Peter Parker and Spider-Man when J. Jonah Jameson criticizes them.
 * Betty Brant appears in Spider-Man (1981), voiced by Mona Marshall.
 * Betty Brant appears in The Spectacular Spider-Man, voiced by Grey DeLisle. This version is J. Jonah Jameson's secretary at the Daily Bugle and largely makes minor appearances throughout the series, with her most notable appearances including being repeatedly asked by Peter Parker to his Fall Formal and being interviewed by Ned Leeds on whether or not she believes Parker is Spider-Man.
 * Betty Brant appears in The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes episode "Along Came a Spider", voiced again by Grey DeLisle. This version is a reporter for the Daily Bugle.
 * Betty Brant appears in Spider-Man (2017) as J. Jonah Jameson's secretary at the Daily Bugle.

Film

 * Betty Brant appears in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy, portrayed by Elizabeth Banks. First appearing in Spider-Man (2002) before making subsequent appearances in its sequels, Spider-Man 2 and Spider-Man 3, this version is a staff member of the Daily Bugle and J. Jonah Jameson's secretary who is usually seen either passing on messages to Jameson or receiving curt orders from him. While she never dates Peter Parker, she displays a subtle attraction to him in the first two films. Banks stated that she first auditioned for the role of Mary Jane Watson before taking the role of Brant. She also admitted that the groundwork of the relationship between Brant and Parker is much closer to an office romance than what the two shared in the comics.
 * The Spider-Gwen incarnation of Betty Brant appears in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023), voiced by Antonia Lentini. Additionally, Betty Brant / Spider-Girl of the What If comics makes a non-speaking cameo appearance as a member of the Spider-Society.

Marvel Cinematic Universe
A teenage incarnation of Betty Brant appears in media set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), portrayed by Angourie Rice. This version's appearance bears a similarity to Gwen Stacy, having long blonde hair and often wearing a black headband.
 * Introduced in the film Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), Brant is a student of Midtown Science High School, Liz Allan's best friend, and co-host of the school's news report alongside Jason Ionello.
 * In the film Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019), it is revealed that Brant was a victim of the Blip and had to repeat the school year. She later enters a relationship with Peter Parker's best friend Ned Leeds on their summer trip to Europe, though they mutually break up by the end of it.
 * Brant also appears in the film Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) and the web series The Daily Bugle (2021–2022) as an intern for the titular website.

Video games

 * Betty Brant appears in the Spider-Man 2 film tie-in game, voiced by Bethany Rhoades.
 * Betty Brant appears in the Spider-Man 3 film tie-in game, voiced by Rachel Kimsey.
 * Betty Brant / Spider-Girl of the What If comics makes a cameo appearance in Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions.
 * Betty Brant / Spider-Girl of the What If comics appears as a playable character in Spider-Man Unlimited.

title: Betty Brant


text:
Ralph de Warneville

Ralph de Warneville (died 1191; sometimes Ralph de Varneville or Ralf of Wanneville ) was the twentieth Lord Chancellor of England as well as later Bishop of Lisieux in Normandy.

Ralph was probably from Varneville aux Grès in Normandy, from which he derived his name.

Ralph became Treasurer of Rouen sometime between 11 July 1146, the last appearance of his predecessor in office, and 27 September 1146 when Ralph is named as treasurer for the first time. He held the office of treasurer until 1176. He acquired the office of Archdeacon of Rouen in 1170, holding the office along with the treasurership of Rouen for a few years. After he left the treasurership, Ralph was accused by the cathedral chapter of Rouen of misusing some of the funds of the cathedral, and the dispute dragged on until 1188, when it was heard by a papal commission.

Ralph also held offices in England. He was Treasurer of York from 1167 until 1181, and was Archdeacon of the East Riding at about the same time. Ralph served King Henry II of England as Lord Chancellor from 1173 to 1181.

Ralph was a friend of Arnulf of Lisieux, Bishop of Lisieux, and benefited from Arnulf's intercession with the Bishop of Poitiers. But during Ralph's chancellorship, Ralph was one of the royal officials that urged Arnulf to resign his bishopric. Arnulf was suspected by King Henry of supporting Henry's sons in their Revolt of 1173–74, and eventually Arnulf was forced to resign his see. Ralph also had custody of the castle and royal lands at Vaudreuil in Normandy in the 1180s, and was still owing accounts for his administration at his death.

Ralph was appointed Bishop of Lisieux in July 1181, after his resignation from the office of Chancellor. He was not consecrated until after 1182, as he was still being recorded as bishop-elect then.

Ralph died on 10 September 1191, as his death was commemorated on 10 September at St Evroul.

title: Ralph de Warneville