when did the first disney incredibles come out

The film premiered on October 27, 2004, at the BFI London Film Festival and had its general release in the United States on November 5, 2004. It performed well at the box office, grossing $633 million worldwide during its original theatrical run. The Incredibles received widespread approval from critics and audiences, winning two Academy Awards and the Annie Award for Best Animated Feature. It was the first entirely animated film to win the prestigious Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation. A sequel, Incredibles 2, was released on June 15, 2018.

The Incredibles

The Incredibles is a 2004 American computer-animated superhero film written and directed by Brad Bird, produced by Pixar Animation Studios, released by Walt Disney Pictures, and starring the voices of Craig T. Nelson, Holly Hunter, Sarah Vowell, Spencer Fox, Jason Lee, Samuel L. Jackson, and Elizabeth Peña. The film follows the Parrs, a family of superheroes who are forced to live a quiet suburban life while hiding their powers. Mr. Incredible's desire to help people draws the entire family into a confrontation with a vengeful fan-turned-foe and his killer robot.

Bird, who was Pixar's first outside director, developed the film as an extension of the 1960s comic books and spy films from his boyhood and personal family life. He pitched the film to Pixar after the box office disappointment of his first feature, The Iron Giant (1999), and carried over much of its staff to develop The Incredibles. The animation team was tasked with animating an all-human cast, which required creating new technology to animate detailed human anatomy, clothing and realistic skin and hair. Michael Giacchino composed the film's orchestral score.

Public opinion turns against superheroes—also called "Supers"—due to the collateral damage caused by their crime-fighting. After several lawsuits, the government initiates the Superhero Relocation Program, which forces supers to permanently adhere to their secret identities. Fifteen years later, Bob and Helen Parr—formerly known as Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl—and their children Violet, Dash, and baby Jack-Jack are a suburban family living in Metroville. Although he loves his family, Bob resents the mundanity of his suburban lifestyle and white-collar job. Together with his friend Lucius Best, formerly known as Frozone, Bob occasionally relives "the glory days" by moonlighting as a vigilante.

After his supervisor prevents him from stopping a mugging, Bob loses his temper and injures him, resulting in his dismissal. Returning home, Bob finds a message from a mysterious woman named Mirage, who gives him a mission to destroy a savage tripod-like robot, the Omnidroid, on the remote island of Nomanisan. Bob finds and battles the Omnidroid, disabling it by tricking it into ripping out its own power source.

Bob finds the action and higher pay rejuvenating; he improves his relationship with his family and begins rigorous physical training while awaiting more work from Mirage for the next two months. Discovering a tear in his suit, he visits superhero costume designer Edna Mode. Assuming that Helen knows what Bob is doing, Mode also makes new suits for the other family members. Leaving for Nomanisan once again, Bob discovers Mirage is working for Buddy Pine, a disaffected former fan whom Mr. Incredible had rejected as his kid sidekick. Having adopted the alias of Syndrome, he has been perfecting the Omnidroid by hiring different superheroes to fight it, modifying it on the occasion that a super wins, killing many of them in the process. Syndrome intends to send the latest Omnidroid to Metroville, where he will secretly manipulate its controls to defeat it in public, becoming a "hero" himself. Later, he will sell his inventions so that everyone can become "super", rendering the term meaningless and creating a society where everyone possesses equal physical power.

Helen visits Edna and learns what Bob has been up to. Helen activates a beacon Edna built into the suits to find Bob, inadvertently causing him to be captured while infiltrating Syndrome's lair. Helen borrows a private plane to head for Nomanisan; she discovers that Violet and Dash have stowed away, leaving Jack-Jack with a babysitter. Helen's radio transmissions are picked up by Syndrome, who sends missiles to shoot her down. The plane is destroyed, but Helen and the kids survive and use their powers to travel to the island. Helen infiltrates the base, and discovers Syndrome's intentions. Distraught by Syndrome's callousness when her life was threatened, Mirage releases Bob and informs him of his family's survival. Helen arrives and races off with Bob to find their children. Dash and Violet are chased by Syndrome's guards, but fend them off with their powers before reuniting with their parents. Syndrome captures them, leaving them imprisoned while he follows the rocket transporting the Omnidroid to Metroville.

The Parrs escape to Metroville in a spare rocket. True to its programming, the Omnidroid recognizes Syndrome as a threat and targets the remote on his wrist, making him incapable of controlling it while knocking him unconscious. The Parrs and Frozone fight the Omnidroid; the battle is indecisive until Bob acquires the remote, allowing Helen to control one of the robot's claws and use it to destroy its power source. Returning home, the Parrs find Syndrome, who plans to kidnap and raise Jack-Jack as his own sidekick to exact revenge on the family. As Syndrome is traveling upward to reach his jet, Jack-Jack's own superpowers start to manifest and he attacks Syndrome midair. As Helen catches Jack-Jack, Syndrome manages to board the plane, but Bob throws his car at Syndrome, causing him to be sucked into the jet's turbine, killing him and causing the aircraft to explode. The Parrs survive with Violet's force field, though the plane destroys their house when the fuselage falls.

Three months later, the Parrs witness the arrival of a new supervillain called the Underminer. They put on their superhero masks, ready to face the new threat together as a family.

The Incredibles as a concept dates back to 1993 when Bird sketched the family during an uncertain point in his film career.[4][5] Personal issues had percolated into the story as they weighed on him in life.[6] During this time, Bird had signed a production deal with Warner Bros. Feature Animation and was in the process of directing his first feature, The Iron Giant.[7] Approaching middle age and having high aspirations for his filmmaking, Bird pondered whether his career goals were attainable only at the price of his family life.[6] He stated, "Consciously, this was just a funny movie about superheroes. But I think that what was going on in my life definitely filtered into the movie."[8] After the box office failure of The Iron Giant, Bird gravitated toward his superhero story.[6][7]

He imagined it as a homage to the 1960s comic books and spy films from his boyhood and he initially tried to develop it as a 2D cel animation.[6] When The Iron Giant became a box office bomb, he reconnected with old friend John Lasseter at Pixar in March 2000 and pitched his story idea to him.[5] Bird and Lasseter knew each other from their college years at CalArts in the 1970s.[9] Lasseter was sold on the idea and convinced Bird to come to Pixar, where the film would be done in computer animation. The studio announced a multi-film contract with Bird on May 4, 2000.[6] The Incredibles was written and directed solely by Brad Bird, a departure from previous Pixar productions which typically had two or three directors and as many screenwriters with a history of working for the company.[10] In addition, it would be the company's first film in which all characters are human.[9]

– Brad Bird, writer and director of The Incredibles.[11][12]

Bird came to Pixar with the lineup of the story's family members worked out: a mom and dad, both suffering through the dad's midlife crisis; a shy teenage girl; a cocky ten-year-old boy; and a baby. Bird had based their powers on family archetypes.[6][12][13] During production, Hayao Miyazaki of Studio Ghibli visited Pixar and saw the film's story reels. When Bird asked if the reels made any sense or if they were just "American nonsense," Miyazaki replied, through an interpreter, "I think it's a very adventurous thing you are trying to do in an American film."[14]

Upon Pixar's acceptance of the project, Brad Bird was asked to bring in his own team for the production. He brought up a core group of people he worked with on The Iron Giant. Because of this, many 2-D artists had to make the shift to 3-D, including Bird himself. Bird found working with CG "wonderfully malleable" in a way that traditional animation is not, calling the camera's ability to easily switch angles in a given scene "marvelously adaptable." He found working in computer animation "difficult" in a different way than working traditionally, finding the software "sophisticated and not particularly friendly."[15] Bird wrote the script without knowing the limitations or concerns that went hand-in-hand with the medium of computer animation. As a result, this was to be the most complex film yet for Pixar.[4] The film's characters were designed by Tony Fucile and Teddy Newton, whom Bird had brought with him from Warner Bros.[16] Like most computer-animated films, The Incredibles had a year-long period of building the film from the inside out: modeling the exterior and understanding controls that would work the face and the body—the articulation of the character—before animation could even begin.[15] Bird and Fucile tried to emphasize the graphic quality of good 2-D animation to the Pixar team, who had only worked primarily in CG. Bird attempted to incorporate teaching from Disney's Nine Old Men that the crew at Pixar had "never really emphasized."[15]

For the technical crew members, the film's human characters posed a difficult set of challenges.[10] Bird's story was filled with elements that were difficult to animate with CGI back then. Humans are widely considered to be the most difficult things to execute in animation.[5] Pixar's animators filmed themselves walking to better grasp proper human motion.[5] Creating an all-human cast required creating new technology to animate detailed human anatomy, clothing, and realistic skin and hair. Although the technical team had some experience with hair and cloth in Monsters, Inc. (2001), the amount of hair and cloth required for The Incredibles had never been done by Pixar up until this point. Moreover, Bird would tolerate no compromises for the sake of technical simplicity. Where the technical team on Monsters, Inc. had persuaded director Pete Docter to accept pigtails on Boo to make her hair easier to animate, the character Violet had to have long hair that obscured her face; in fact, this was integral to her character.[10] Violet's long hair, which was extremely difficult to animate, was only successfully animated toward the end of production. In addition, animators had to adapt to having hair both underwater and blowing through the wind.[15] Disney was initially reluctant to make the film because of these issues, thinking that a live-action film would be preferable, but Lasseter denied this.[17]

Not only did The Incredibles cope with the difficulty of animating CG humans, but also many other complications. The story was bigger than any prior story at the studio, was longer in running time, and had four times the number of locations.[15][18] Supervising technical director Rick Sayre noted that the hardest thing about the film was that there was "no hardest thing," alluding to the amount of new technical challenges: fire, water, air, smoke, steam, and explosions were all additional to the new difficulty of working with humans.[15] The film's organizational structure could not be mapped out like previous Pixar features, and it became a running joke to the team.[15] Sayre said the team adopted â€œAlpha Omega," where one team was concerned with building modeling, shading, and layout, while another dealt with final camera, lighting, and effects. Another team, dubbed the "character team," digitally sculpted, rigged, and shaded all of the characters, and a simulation team was responsible for developing simulation technology for hair and clothing.[15] There were at least 781 visual effects shots in the film, and they were quite often visual gags, such as the window shattering when Bob angrily shuts the car door. Additionally, the effects team improved their modeling of clouds, using volumetric rendering for the first time.[15]

The skin of the characters gained a new level of realism from a technology to produce known as "subsurface scattering."[16] The challenges did not stop with modeling humans. Bird decided that in a shot near the film's end, baby Jack-Jack would have to undergo a series of transformations, and in one of the five planned he would turn himself into a kind of goo. Technical directors, who anticipated spending two months or even longer to work out the goo effect, stealing precious hours from production that had already entered its final and most critical stages, petitioned the film's producer, John Walker, for help.[19] Bird, who had himself brought Walker over from Warner Bros. to work on the project, was at first immovable, but after arguing with Walker in several invective-laced meetings over the course of two months, Bird finally conceded.[19] Bird also insisted that the storyboards define the blocking of characters' motions, lighting, and camera movements, which had previously been left to other departments rather than storyboarded.[10]

Bird self-admitted that he "had the knees of [the studio] trembling under the weight" of The Incredibles, but called the film a "testament to the talent of the animators at Pixar," who were admiring the challenges the film provoked.[15] He recalled, "Basically, I came into a wonderful studio, frightened a lot of people with how many presents I wanted for Christmas, and then got almost everything I asked for."[17]

Lily Tomlin was originally considered for the role of Edna Mode, but later turned it down.[20] After several failed attempts to cast Edna Mode, Bird took on her voice role himself.[13] It was an extension of the Pixar custom of tapping in-house staff whose voices came across particularly well on scratch dialogue tracks.[13]

The Incredibles is the first Pixar film to be scored by Michael Giacchino. Brad Bird was looking for a specific sound as inspired by the film's retrofuturistic design – the future as seen from the 1960s. John Barry was the first choice to do the film's score, with a trailer of the film given a rerecording of Barry's theme to On Her Majesty's Secret Service. However, Barry did not wish to duplicate the sound of some of his earlier soundtracks;[21] the assignment was instead given to Giacchino.[22] Giacchino noted that recording in the 1960s was largely different from modern day recording and Dan Wallin, the recording engineer, said that Bird wanted an old feel, and as such the score was recorded on analog tapes. Wallin noted that brass instruments, which are at the forefront of the film's score, sound better on analog equipment rather than digital. Wallin came from an era in which music was recorded, according to Giacchino, "the right way", which consists of everyone in the same room, "playing against each other and feeding off each other's energy". Tim Simonec was the conductor/orchestrator for the score's recording.[23]

The film's orchestral score was released on November 2, 2004, three days before the film opened in theaters. It won numerous awards for best score including Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award, BMI Film & TV Award, ASCAP Film and Television Music Award, Annie Award, Las Vegas Film Critics Society Award and Online Film Critics Society Award and was nominated for Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media, Satellite Award and Broadcast Film Critics Association Award.[24]

Several film reviewers drew precise parallels between the film and certain superhero comic books, like Powers, Watchmen, Fantastic Four, and The Avengers. The producers of the 2005 adaptation of Fantastic Four were forced to make significant script changes and add more special effects because of similarities to The Incredibles.[25] Bird was not surprised that comparisons arose due to superheroes being "the most well-trod turf on the planet," but noted that he had not been inspired by any comic books specifically, only having heard of Watchmen. He did comment that it was nice to be compared to it, since "if you're going to be compared to something, it's nice if it's something good".[12]

Some commentators took Bob's frustration with celebrating mediocrity and Syndrome's comment that "when everyone's super, no one will be" as a reflection of views shared by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche or an extension of Russian-American novelist Ayn Rand's Objectivism philosophy, which Bird felt was "ridiculous."[5][12] He stated that a large portion of the audience understood the satire whereas "two percent thought I was doing The Fountainhead or Atlas Shrugged." Some purported that The Incredibles exhibited a right-wing bias, which Bird also scoffed at. "I think that's as silly of an analysis as saying The Iron Giant was left-wing. I'm definitely a centrist and feel like both parties can be absurd."[5]

The film also explored Bird's dislike for the tendency of the children's comics and Saturday morning cartoons of his youth to portray villains as unrealistic, ineffectual, and non-threatening.[26] In the film, Dash and Violet have to deal with villains who are perfectly willing to use deadly force against children.[27] On another level, both Dash and Violet display no emotion or regret at the deaths of those who are trying to kill them, such as when Dash outruns pursuers who crash their vehicles while chasing him, or when both of them witness their parents destroy several attacking vehicles with people inside, in such a manner that the deaths of those piloting them is undeniable. Despite disagreeing with some analysis, Bird felt it gratifying for his work to be considered on many different levels, which was his intention: "The fact that it was written about in the op/ed section of The New York Times several times was really gratifying to me. Look, it's a mainstream animated movie, and how often are those considered thought provoking?"[5]

The film opened on November 5, 2004, as Pixar's first film to be rated PG (for "action violence").[19] Its theatrical release was accompanied with a Pixar short film Boundin'.[28] The promotional campaign included an official website with video segments, games, and printable memorabilia.[29] While Pixar celebrated another triumph with The Incredibles, Steve Jobs was embroiled in a public feud with the head of its distribution partner, The Walt Disney Company.[30] This would eventually lead to the ousting of Michael Eisner and Disney's acquisition of Pixar the following year.

In March 2014, Disney CEO and chairman Bob Iger announced that the film would be reformatted and re-released in 3D.[31]

On May 11, 2018, Disney and IMAX announced that the film would be reissued and digitally re-mastered for IMAX theaters (alongside its sequel, Incredibles 2) using their DMR Technology in a double feature for a one day only, "Fan Event", on June 13.[32]

The film was first released on both VHS and a two-disc collector's edition DVD set on March 15, 2005.[33] The DVD set included two newly commissioned Pixar short films, Jack-Jack Attack and Mr. Incredible and Pals, which were made specifically for this home-video release, and Boundin', a Pixar short film that premiered alongside the feature film in its original theatrical release.[28] It was the highest-selling DVD of 2005, with 17.38 million copies sold.[34] The film was also released on UMD for the Sony PSP.[35]

Disney released the film on Blu-ray in North America on April 12, 2011, and on 4K UHD Blu-ray on June 5, 2018; this marks Disney's first 4K Blu-ray reissue on the format.[36] [37]

Despite concerns that the film would receive underwhelming results,[38] the film's domestic gross was $70,467,623 in its opening weekend from 7,600 screens at 3,933 theaters, averaging $17,917 per theater or $9,272 per screen, the highest opening-weekend gross for a Pixar film (the record was later broken in 2010 by Toy Story 3, with $110,307,189), the highest November opening weekend for a Disney film (the record was broken in 2013 by Thor: The Dark World with $85.7 million),[39] the highest opening weekend for a non-sequel animated feature (the record was broken in 2007 by The Simpsons Movie, with $74,036,787), and the highest opening weekend for a non-franchise-based film for just over five years when Avatar opened with $77,025,481.[40] This opening was the second-highest for an animated film at the time. The film was also number one in its second weekend, grossing another $50,251,359, dropping just 29 percent, and easily out-grossing new animated opener The Polar Express. The film ultimately grossed $261,441,092, making it the fifth-highest-grossing film of 2004.[41] Worldwide, the film grossed $631,442,092, ranking fourth for 2004.[42] It is also the second-highest-grossing 2004 animated film behind Shrek 2 ($919.8 million).[43]

The film received a 97% approval rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, based on 236 reviews, with an average rating of 8.3/10.[45] which, as of  JanuaryÂ 2018[update], makes it the 20th-highest-rated animated film of all time.[46] The site's consensus reads "Bringing loads of wit and tons of fun to the animated superhero genre, The Incredibles easily lives up to its name."[45] Metacritic, another review aggregator, indicates the film was met with "universal acclaim", with a score of 90/100 based on 41 critics.[47] Audiences polled for CinemaScore gave the film an "A+" on an "A+ to F" scale.[48]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three-and-a-half out of four, writing that the film "alternates breakneck action with satire of suburban sitcom life" and is "another example of Pixar's mastery of popular animation."[49] Peter Travers of Rolling Stone also gave the film three-and-a-half, calling it "one of the year's best" and saying that it "doesn't ring cartoonish, it rings true."[50] Giving the film three-and-a-half as well, People magazine found that The Incredibles "boasts a strong, entertaining story and a truckload of savvy comic touches."[51]

Conversely, Eleanor Ringel Gillespie of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution was bored by the film's "recurring pastiches of earlier action films", concluding that "the Pixar whizzes do what they do excellently; you just wish they were doing something else."[52][53] Similarly, Jessica Winter of The Village Voice criticized the film for "playing as a standard summer action film", despite being released in early November. Her review, titled as "Full Metal Racket," noted that The Incredibles "announces the studio's arrival in the vast yet overcrowded Hollywood lot of eardrum-bashing, metal-crunching action sludge."[54]

Travers also named The Incredibles as #6 on his list of the decade's best films, writing "Of all the Pixar miracles studded through the decade, The Incredibles still delights me the most. It's not every toon that deals with midlife crisis, marital dysfunction, child neglect, impotence fears, fashion faux pas, and existential angst."[55] The National Review Online named The Incredibles no. 2 on its list of the 25 best conservative movies of the last 25 years, saying that it "celebrates marriage, courage, responsibility, and high achievement."[56] Entertainment Weekly named the film No. 25 on its list of the 25 greatest action films ever[57] and no. 7 on its list of the 20 best animated movies ever.[58] IGN ranked the film as the third favorite animated film of all time in a list published in 2010.[59] In 2012, film critic Matt Zoller Seitz declared The Incredibles as the greatest superhero film he has ever seen: "That thing works as a James Bond spoof; a meditation on identities, secret and otherwise; a domestic comedy; a statement on exceptionalism vs. mediocrity, and the perils of the nanny state… And yet it all hangs together. No part feels perfunctory or stupid. It’s all deeply felt."[60] He would also later name the film as the "greatest action movie of the aughts, with [Hero] and [Kung Fu Hustle] following close behind."[61]

The film won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, beating two DreamWorks films, Shrek 2 and Shark Tale, as well as Best Sound Editing at the 77th Academy Awards. It also received nominations for Best Original Screenplay (for writer/director Brad Bird) and Best Sound Mixing (Randy Thom, Gary Rizzo and Doc Kane).[62] It was Pixar's first feature film to win multiple Oscars, followed in 2010 by Up. Joe Morgenstern of The Wall Street Journal called The Incredibles the year's best picture.[12] Premiere magazine released a cross-section of all the top critics in America and The Incredibles placed at number three, whereas review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes cross-referenced reviews that suggested it was its year's highest-rated film.[12]

The film also received the 2004 Annie Award for Best Animated Feature and the 2005 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form, and it was nominated for the 2004 Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy. It also won the Saturn Award for Best Animated Film. The American Film Institute nominated The Incredibles for its Top 10 Animated Films list.[63]

It was included on Empire's 500 Greatest Films of All Time at number 400.[64]

Several companies released promotional products related to the film. In the weeks before the film's opening, there were also promotional tie-ins with SBC Communications (using Dash to promote the "blazing-fast speed" of its SBC Yahoo! DSL service) Tide, Downy, Bounce and McDonald's.[65] Dark Horse Comics released a limited series of comic books based on the film.[66] Toy maker Hasbro produced a series of action figures and toys based on the film.[67] Kellogg's released an Incredibles-themed cereal, as well as promotional Pop-Tarts and fruit snacks, all proclaiming an "Incrediberry Blast" of flavor.[68] Pringles included potato chips featuring the superheroes and quotes from the film.[69][70]

In July 2008, it was announced that a series of comic books based on the film would be published by BOOM! Studios in collaboration with Disney Publishing by the end of the year.[71] The first miniseries by BOOM! was The Incredibles: Family Matters by Mark Waid and Marcio Takara, which was published from March to June 2009[citation needed] and collected into a trade paperback published in July of that year.[72]

A video game based on the film was released on the PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, Game Boy Advance, PC, and Macintosh, as well as on mobile phones. Though based on the film, several key scenes are altered from the original script. A second game, The Incredibles: Rise of the Underminer, was released for the PlayStation 2, GameCube, Xbox, Game Boy Advance, and Nintendo DS, as well as on Windows and OS X.[73] Taking place immediately after the film, the sequel focuses on Mr. Incredible and Frozone as they battle with the megalomaniacal mole, The Underminer.[73] A third game, The Incredibles: When Danger Calls, was released for Windows and OS X.[74] It is a collection of 10 games and activities for the playable characters to perform.[74] Another game, Kinect Rush: A Disney Pixar Adventure, was released on March 20, 2012, for Xbox 360.[75] It features characters and missions from five Pixar's films: The Incredibles, Up, Cars, Ratatouille and Toy Story.[76] The Incredibles characters also star in Disney Infinity, which was released in August 2013. The playset for The Incredibles is featured in the starter pack.[77] A LEGO-themed video game, Lego The Incredibles, was released by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and is released on June 15, 2018 on the Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4.[78]

Director Brad Bird stated in 2007 that he was open to the idea of a sequel if he could come up with an idea superior to the original film: "I have pieces that I think are good, but I don't have them all together."[79] During an interview in May 2013, Bird reiterated his interest in making a sequel. "I have been thinking about it. People think that I have not been, but I have. Because I love those characters and love that world," said Bird. "I am stroking my chin and scratching my head. I have many, many elements that I think would work really well in another Incredibles film, and if I can get â€˜em to click all together, I would probably wanna do that."[80]

Disney announced their intentions to develop Incredibles 2 in March 2014. Bird returned to direct and write the screenplay.[31][81] Nelson, Hunter, Vowell, Jackson, and Bird will also return to voice their characters, while Dash will now be voiced by Huck Milner as Fox's voice had deepened in the intervening years.[82] The film will follow immediately from the end of The Incredibles with the Parrs facing the Underminer.[83] The film will focus on Holly Hunter's character, Elastigirl.[84] Originally,  Incredibles 2 was to be released on June 21, 2019 as Pixar's next film after Toy Story 4. Due to delays on that title, Pixar swapped the release dates, and Incredibles 2 was then officially released in the United States on June 15, 2018.[85]

The teaser trailer for the sequel premiered on November 18, 2017. It featured Jack-Jack, who is revealed to have powers, with Bob, happy at this discovery.[86]


the neurotransmitter that is active at the neuromuscular junction is

Muscles require innervation to functionâ€”and even just to maintain muscle tone, avoiding atrophy. Synaptic transmission at the neuromuscular junction begins when an action potential reaches the presynaptic terminal of a motor neuron, which activates voltage-dependent calcium channels to allow calcium ions to enter the neuron. Calcium ions bind to sensor proteins (synaptotagmin) on synaptic vesicles, triggering vesicle fusion with the cell membrane and subsequent neurotransmitter release from the motor neuron into the synaptic cleft. In vertebrates, motor neurons release acetylcholine (ACh), a small molecule neurotransmitter, which diffuses across the synaptic cleft and binds to nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) on the cell membrane of the muscle fiber, also known as the sarcolemma. nAChRs are ionotropic receptors, meaning they serve as ligand-gated ion channels. The binding of ACh to the receptor can depolarize the muscle fiber, causing a cascade that eventually results in muscle contraction.

Neuromuscular junction

A neuromuscular junction (or myoneural junction) is a chemical synapse formed by the contact between a motor neuron and a muscle fiber.[1] It is at the neuromuscular junction that a motor neuron is able to transmit a signal to the muscle fiber, causing muscle contraction.

Neuromuscular junction diseases can be of genetic and autoimmune origin.  Genetic disorders, such as Duchenne muscular dystrophy, can arise from mutated structural proteins that comprise the neuromuscular junction, whereas autoimmune diseases, such as myasthenia gravis, occur when antibodies are produced against nicotinic acetylcholine receptors on the sarcolemma.

At the neuromuscular junction presynaptic motor axons terminate  30 nanometers from the cell membrane  or sarcolemma of a muscle fiber.  The sarcolemma at the junction has invaginations called postjunctional folds, which increase its surface area  facing the synaptic cleft.[2]  These postjunctional folds form the motor endplate, which is studded with nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) at a density of 10,000 receptors/micrometer2.[3]  The presynaptic axons terminate in bulges called terminal boutons (or presynaptic terminals) that project toward the postjunctional folds of the sarcolemma.  In the frog each motor nerve terminal contains about 300,000 vesicles, with an average  diameter of 0.05 micrometers.  The vesicles contain acetylcholine.  Some of these vesicles  are gathered  into groups of fifty, positioned at active zones close to the nerve membrane.  Active zones are about 1 micrometer apart.
The 30 nanometer cleft between nerve ending and endplate contains a meshwork of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) at a density of 2,600 enzyme molecules/micrometer2, held in place by  the structural proteins dystrophin and rapsyn.  Also present is the receptor tyrosine kinase protein MuSK, a signaling protein involved in the development of the neuromuscular junction, which is also held in place by rapsyn.[2]

About once every second in a resting junction randomly one of the synaptic vesicles fuses with the presynaptic neuron's cell membrane in a process mediated by SNARE proteins. Fusion results in the emptying of the vesicle's contents of 7000-10,000 acetylcholine molecules  into the synaptic cleft, a process known as exocytosis.[4] Consequently exocytosis releases  acetylcholine in packets that are called quanta. The acetylcholine quantum diffuses through the acetylcholinesterase meshwork, where the high local transmitter concentration occupies all of the binding sites on the enzyme in its path.  The acetylcholine that reaches the endplate activates ~2,000 acetylcholine receptors, opening their ion channels which permits sodium ions to move into the endplate producing a depolarization of ~0.5 mV known as a miniature endplate potential (MEPP). By the time the acetylcholine is released from the receptors the acetylcholinesterase has destroyed its bound ACh, which takes about ~0.16 ms,  and hence is available to destroy the  ACh released from the receptors.

When the motor nerve is stimulated there is a delay of only 0.5 to 0.8 msec between the arrival of the nerve impulse in the motor nerve terminals and the first response of the endplate [5]  The arrival of the motor nerve action potential at the presynaptic neuron terminal opens  voltage-dependent calcium channels and Ca2+ ions flow from the extracellular fluid into the presynaptic neuron's cytosol. This influx of Ca2+ causes several hundred neurotransmitter-containing vesicles to dock and fuse to the presynaptic neuron's cell membrane through SNARE proteins to release their acetylcholine quanta by exocytosis. The endplate depolarization by the released acetylcholine is called an  endplate potential (EPP).  The endplate potential sets up an action potential in the muscle fiber which triggers contraction.  The transmission from nerve to muscle is so rapid because each quantum of acetylcholine  reaches the endplate in millimolar concentrations, high enough to combine with a receptor with a low affinity, which then swiftly releases the bound transmitter.

Acetylcholine is a neurotransmitter synthesized from dietary choline and acetyl-CoA (ACoA), and is involved in the stimulation of muscle tissue in vertebrates as well as in some invertebrate animals. In vertebrate animals, the acetylcholine receptor subtype that is found at the neuromuscular junction of skeletal muscles is the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR), which is a ligand-gated ion channel.  Each subunit of this receptor has a characteristic "cys-loop", which is composed of a cysteine residue followed by 13 amino acid residues and another cysteine residue. The two cysteine residues form a disulfide linkage which results in the "cys-loop" receptor that is capable of binding acetylcholine and other ligands.  These cys-loop receptors are found only in eukaryotes, but prokaryotes possess ACh receptors with similar properties.[3]  Not all species use a cholinergic neuromuscular junction; e.g. crayfish and fruit flies have a glutamatergic neuromuscular junction.[2]

AChRs at the skeletal neuromuscular junction form heteropentamers composed of two α, one β, one ɛ, and one δ subunits.[6]  When a single ACh ligand binds to one of the α subunits of the ACh receptor it induces a conformational change at the interface with the second AChR α subunit.  This conformational change results in the increased affinity of the second α subunit for a second ACh ligand.  AChRs therefore exhibit a sigmoidal dissociation curve due to this cooperative binding.[3]  The presence of the inactive, intermediate receptor structure with a single-bound ligand keeps ACh in the synapse that might otherwise be lost by cholinesterase hydrolysis or diffusion.  The persistence of these ACh ligands in the synapse can cause a prolonged post-synaptic response.[7]

The development of the neuromuscular junction requires signaling from both the motor neuron's terminal and the muscle cell's central region. During development, muscle cells produce acetylcholine receptors (AChRs) and express them in the central regions in a process called prepatterning. Agrin, a heparin proteoglycan, and MuSK kinase are thought to help stabilize the accumulation of AChR in the central regions of the myocyte. MuSK is a receptor tyrosine kinaseâ€”meaning that it induces cellular signaling by binding phosphate molecules to self regions like tyrosines, and to other targets in the cytoplasm.[8] Upon activation by its ligand agrin, MuSK signals via two proteins called "Dok-7" and "rapsyn", to induce "clustering" of acetylcholine receptors.[9] ACh release by developing motor neurons produces postsynaptic potentials in the muscle cell that positively reinforces the localization and stabilization of the developing neuromuscular junction.[10]

These findings were demonstrated in part by mouse "knockout" studies.  In mice which are deficient for either agrin or MuSK, the neuromuscular junction does not form. Further, mice deficient in Dok-7 did not form either acetylcholine receptor clusters or neuromuscular synapses.[11]

The development of neuromuscular junctions is mostly studied in model organisms, such as rodents. In addition, in 2015 an all-human neuromuscular junction has been created in vitro using human embryonic stem cells and somatic muscle stem cells.[12]  In this model presynaptic motor neurons are activated by optogenetics and in response synaptically connected muscle fibers twitch upon light stimulation.

JosÃ© del Castillo and Bernard Katz used ionophoresis to determine the location and density of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) at the neuromuscular junction.  With this technique, a microelectrode was placed inside the motor endplate of the muscle fiber, and a micropipette filled with acetylcholine (ACh) is placed directly in front of the endplate in the synaptic cleft.  A positive voltage was applied to the tip of the micropipette, which caused a burst of positively charged ACh molecules to be released from the pipette. These ligands flowed into the space representing the synaptic cleft and bound to AChRs.  The intracellular microelectrode monitored the amplitude of the depolarization of the motor endplate in response to ACh binding to nicotinic (ionotropic) receptors.  Katz and del Castillo showed that the amplitude of the depolarization (excitatory postsynaptic potential) depended on the proximity of the micropipette releasing the ACh ions to the endplate.  The farther the micropipette was from the motor endplate, the smaller the depolarization was in the muscle fiber.  This allowed the researchers to determine that the nicotinic receptors were localized to the motor endplate in high density.[2][3]

Toxins are also used to determine the location of acetylcholine receptors at the neuromuscular junction. α-Bungarotoxin is a toxin found in the snake species Bungarus multicinctus that acts as an ACh antagonist and binds to AChRs irreversibly.  By coupling assayable enzymes such as horseradish peroxidase (HRP) or fluorescent proteins such as green fluorescent protein (GFP) to the α-bungarotoxin, AChRs can be visualized and quantified.[2]

Nerve gases and liquor damage this area.

Botulinum toxin (aka botulinum neurotoxin, BoNT, and sold under the trade name Botox) inhibits the release of acetylcholine at the neuromuscular junction by interfering with SNARE proteins.[2] This toxin crosses into the nerve terminal through the process of endocytosis and subsequently interferes with SNARE proteins, which are necessary for ACh release. By doing so, it induces a transient flaccid paralysis and chemical denervation localized to the striated muscle that it has affected. The inhibition of the ACh release does not set in until approximately two weeks after the injection is made. Three months after the inhibition occurs, neuronal activity begins to regain partial function, and six months, complete neuronal function is regained.[13]

Tetanus toxin, also known as tetanospasmin is a potent neurotoxin produced by Clostridium tetani and causes the disease state, tetanus. The LD50 of this toxin has been measured to be approximately 1Â ng/kg, making it second only to Botulinum toxin D as the deadliest toxin in the world. It functions very similarly to botunlinum neurotoxin (BoNT) by attaching and endocytosing into the presynaptic nerve terminal and interfering with SNARE protein complexes. It differs from BoNT in a few ways, most apparently in its end state, wherein tetanospasmin demonstrates a rigid / spastic paralysis as opposed to the flaccid paralysis demonstrated with BoNT.

Latrotoxin (Î±-Latrotoxin) found in venom of widow spiders also affects the neuromuscular junction by causing the release of acetylcholine from the presynaptic cell. Mechanisms of action include binding to receptors on the presynaptic cell activating the IP3/DAG pathway and release of calcium from intracellular stores and pore formation resulting in influx of calcium ions directly. Either mechanism causes increased calcium in presynaptic cell, which then leads to release of synaptic vesicles of acetylcholine. Latrotoxin causes pain, muscle contraction and if untreated potentially paralysis and death.

Snake venoms act as toxins at the neuromuscular junction and can induce weakness and paralysis. Venoms can act as both presynaptic and postsynaptic neurotoxins.[14]

Presynaptic neurotoxins, commonly known as Î²-neurotoxins, affect the presynaptic regions of the neuromuscular junction. The majority of these neurotoxins act by inhibiting the release of neurotransmitters, such as acetylcholine, into the synapse between neurons. However, some of these toxins have also been known to enhance neurotransmitter release. Those that inhibit neurotransmitter release create a neuromuscular blockade that prevents signaling molecules from reaching their postsynaptic target receptors. In doing so, the victim of these snake bite suffer from profound weakness. Such neurotoxins do not respond well to anti-venoms. After one hour of inoculation of these toxins, including notexin and taipoxin, many of the affected nerve terminals show signs of irreversible physical damage, leaving them devoid of any synaptic vesicles.[14]

Postsynaptic neurotoxins, otherwise known as Î±-neurotoxins, act oppositely to the presynaptic neurotoxins by binding to the postsynaptic acetylcholine receptors. This prevents interaction between the acetylcholine released by the presynaptic terminal and the receptors on the postsynaptic cell. In effect, the opening of sodium channels associated with these acetylcholine receptors is prohibited, resulting in a neuromuscular blockade, similar to the effects seen due to presynaptic neurotoxins. This causes paralysis in the muscles involved in the affected junctions. Unlike presynaptic neurotoxins, postsynaptic toxins are more easily affected by anti-venoms, which accelerate the dissociation of the toxin from the receptors, ultimately causing a reversal of paralysis. These neurotoxins experimentally and qualitatively aid in the study of acetylcholine receptor density and turnover, as well as in studies observing the direction of antibodies toward the affected acetylcholine receptors in patients diagnosed with myasthenia gravis.[14]

Any disorder that compromises the synaptic transmission between a motor neuron and a muscle cell is categorized under the umbrella term of neuromuscular diseases. These disorders can be inherited or acquired and can vary in their severity and mortality. In general, most of these disorders tend to be caused by mutations or autoimmune disorders. Autoimmune disorders, in the case of neuromuscular diseases, tend to be humoral mediated, B cell mediated, and result in an antibody improperly created against a motor neuron or muscle fiber protein that interferes with synaptic transmission or signaling.

Myasthenia gravis is an autoimmune disorder where the body makes antibodies against either the acetylcholine receptor (AchR) (in 80% of cases), or against postsynaptic muscle-specific kinase (MuSK) (0â€“10% of cases). In seronegative myasthenia gravis low density lipoprotein receptor-related protein 4 is targeted by IgG1, which acts as a competitive inhibitor of its ligand, preventing the ligand from binding its receptor. It is not known if seronegative myasthenia gravis will respond to standard therapies.[15]

Neonatal MG is an autoimmune disorder that affects 1 in 8 children born to mothers who have been diagnosed with myasthenia gravis (MG). MG can be transferred from the mother to the fetus by the movement of AChR antibodies through the placenta. Signs of this disease at birth include weakness, which responds to anticholinesterase medications, as well as fetal akinesia, or the lack of fetal movement. This form of the disease is transient, lasting for about three months. However, in some cases, neonatal MG can lead to other health effects, such as arthrogryposis and even fetal death. These conditions are thought to be initiated when maternal AChR antibodies are directed to the fetal AChR and can last until the 33rd week of gestation, when the γ subunit of AChR is replaced by the ε subunit.[16]

Lambert-Eaton myasthenic syndrome (LEMS) is an autoimmune disorder that affects the presynaptic portion of the neuromuscular junction. This rare disease can be marked by a unique triad of symptoms: proximal muscle weakness, autonomic dysfunction, and areflexia.[17] Proximal muscle weakness is a product of pathogenic autoantibodies directed against P/Q-type voltage-gated calcium channels, which in turn leads to a reduction of acetylcholine release from motor nerve terminals on the presynaptic cell. Examples of autonomic dysfunction caused by LEMS include erectile dysfunction in men, constipation, and, most commonly, dry mouth. Less common dysfunctions include dry eyes and altered perspiration. Areflexia is a condition in which tendon reflexes are reduced and it may subside temporarily after a period of exercise.[18]

50â€“60% of the patients that are diagnosed with LEMS also have present an associated tumor, which is typically small-cell lung carcinoma (SCLC). This type of tumor also expresses voltage-gated calcium channels.[18] Oftentimes, LEMS also occurs alongside myasthenia gravis.[17]

Treatment for LEMS consists of using 3,4-diaminopyridine as a first measure, which serves to increase the compound muscle action potential as well as muscle strength by lengthening the time that voltage-gated calcium channels remain open after blocking voltage-gated potassium channels. In the US, treatment with 3,4-diaminopyridine for eligible LEMS patients is available at no cost under an expanded access program.[19][20] Further treatment includes the use of prednisone and azathioprine in the event that 3,4-diaminopyridine does not aid in treatment.[18]

Neuromyotonia (NMT), otherwise known as Isaacâ€™s syndrome, is unlike many other diseases present at the neuromuscular junction. Rather than causing muscle weakness, NMT leads to the hyperexcitation of motor nerves. NMT causes this hyperexcitation by producing longer depolarizations by down-regulating voltage-gated potassium channels, which causes greater neurotransmitter release and repetitive firing. This increase in rate of firing leads to more active transmission and as a result, greater muscular activity in the affected individual. NMT is also believed to be of autoimmune origin due to its associations with autoimmune symptoms in the individual affected.[16]

Congenital myasthenic syndromes (CMS) are very similar to both MG and LEMS in their functions, but the primary difference between CMS and those diseases is that CMS is of genetic origins. Specifically, these syndromes are diseases incurred due to mutations, typically recessive, in 1 of at least 10 genes that affect presynaptic, synaptic, and postsynaptic proteins in the neuromuscular junction. Such mutations usually arise in the Îµ-subunit of AChR,[16] thereby affecting the kinetics and expression of the receptor itself.  Single nucleotide substitutions or deletions may cause loss of function in the subunit. Other mutations, such as those affecting acetylcholinesterase and acetyltransferase, can also cause the expression of CMS, with the latter being associated specifically with episodic apnea.[21] These syndromes can present themselves at different times within the life of an individual. They may arise during the fetal phase, causing fetal akinesia, or the perinatal period, during which certain conditions, such as arthrogryposis, ptosis, hypotonia, ophthalmoplegia, and feeding or breathing difficulties, may be observed. They could also activate during adolescence or adult years, causing the individual to develop slow-channel syndrome.[16]

Treatment for particular subtypes of CMS (postsynaptic fast-channel CMS)[22][23] is similar to treatment for other neuromuscular disorders. 3,4-Diaminopyridine, the first-line treatment for LEMS, is under development as an orphan drug for CMS[24] in the US, and available to eligible patients under an expanded access program at no cost.[19][20]

Bulbospinal muscular atrophy, also known as Kennedy’s disease, is a rare recessive trinucleotide, polyglutamine disorder that is linked to the X chromosome. Because of its linkage to the X chromosome, it is typically transmitted through females. However, Kennedy’s disease is only present in adult males and the onset of the disease is typically later in life. This disease is specifically caused by the expansion of a CAG-tandem repeat in exon 1 found on the androgen-receptor (AR) gene on chromosome Xq11-12. Poly-Q-expanded AR accumulates in the nuclei of cells, where it begins to fragment. After fragmentation, degradation of the cell begins, leading to a loss of both motor neurons and dorsal root ganglia.[25]

Symptoms of Kennedyâ€™s disease include weakness and wasting of the facial bulbar and extremity muscles, as well as sensory and endocrinological disturbances, such as gynecomastia and reduced fertility. Other symptoms include elevated testosterone and other sexual hormone levels, development of hyper-CK-emia, abnormal conduction through motor and sensory nerves, and neuropathic or in rare cases myopathic alterations on biopsies of muscle cells.[25]

Duchenne muscular dystrophy is an X-linked genetic disorder that results in the absence of the structural protein dystrophin at the neuromuscular junction.  It affects 1 in 3,600â€“6,000 males and frequently causes death by the age of 30.  The absence of dystrophin causes muscle degeneration, and patients present with the following symptoms: abnormal gait, hypertrophy in the calf muscles, and elevated creatine kinase.  If left untreated, patients may suffer from respiratory distress, which can lead to death.[26]


who was the first south african dutch reformed church minister to take public issue with apartheid

The Church supported Apartheid[4][5] and in 1982 was expelled from the World Alliance of Reformed Churches which declared Apartheid to be a sin.[6] In 1986 during the General Synod the church changed its stance on Apartheid and opened its doors to people of all races[7] (the Andrew Murray ministry within the Dutch Reformed Church, since its inception, had its doors open to people of different cultural backgrounds and ethnicities). After various processes the Church has been accepted back into the World Alliance of Reformed Churches.

Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa (NGK)

The Dutch Reformed Church (Afrikaans: Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk, abbreviated NGK) is a Reformed Christian denomination in South Africa. It also has a presence in neighbouring countries, such as Namibia, Swaziland, and parts of Botswana, Zimbabwe and Zambia.[1] It claims 1.1 million members and 1,602 ordained ministers in 1,158 congregations.[2]

The Nederduits in the denomination's Afrikaans name refers to the old nomenclature for the Dutch language, formerly written as Nederduitsch in Dutch.[3] This not to be confused with the literal translation Low German, which is a dialect in the north of Germany. It is therefore correctly referred to as the "Dutch Reformed Church" in South Africa.

Originating in the 17th century from the Dutch Reformed Church of the Netherlands, the NGK is the largest denomination within South Africa's Dutch Reformed tradition. Along with the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa (NHK) and the Reformed Churches in South Africa, it is considered one of the three sister churches of South Africa.

When the Dutch East India Company sent Jan van Riebeeck to start a Dutch settlement at the Cape of Good Hope in 1652, most of the company's employees were members of the Dutch Reformed Church. At first there were no ordained ministers from the Netherlands but only a sick comforter. In 1665, Johan van Arckel arrived in the Cape Colony and became its first minister. A consistory was formed but was still subject to the control of the classis of Amsterdam.

In 1688, 200 Huguenot refugees arrived at the Cape. Though at first allowed to hold services in French, they were eventually assimilated into the Dutch-speaking population and became members of the Dutch Reformed Church, which had a monopoly in territory controlled by the company. An exception was eventually allowed for a Lutheran church in Cape Town (many of the company's employees were German).

During the Napoleonic Wars, the British occupied the Cape Colony in 1795 to prevent the French from doing so. The French had occupied the Netherlands, and so the link between the church in the colony and the Amsterdam classis was broken. The first British occupation was temporary, but in 1806 a long-term occupation was undertaken. For the next century, the colony would be under British control. Ministers from the Netherlands were not as willing to serve in what was now for them a foreign country, and the British authorities were not keen to have them. Presbyterian ministers from Scotland were encouraged to serve the needs of the Dutch Reformed Church in the Cape. The church was semi-established, and the government helped with stipends of ministers.

The colony had expanded a long way beyond the Cape Peninsula in the preceding two centuries, both to the north and the east, and on the eastern frontier the Dutch farmers came into contact with Xhosa-speaking cattle herders. There were conflicts over grazing and water and cattle rustling across the frontier. The frontier farmers did not like the way the government in Cape Town handled the situation, and the ending of slavery in 1834 was another bone of contention.

Afrikaner Calvinism was developing a different worldview to that of the British rulers, and many farmers left the Cape Colony in the Great Trek during the 1830s and 1840s. The Dutch Reformed ministers generally tried to discourage them and, as the Dutch Reformed Church was the established church of the colony, did not initially provide pastoral ministry for the emigrant farmers, who eventually formed several independent republics in present-day South Africa. Several of the republics in the land beyond the Vaal ("Transvaal") eventually merged to form the South African Republic in 1852.

Because the NGK was seen by the trekkers as being an agent of the Cape government, they did not trust its ministers and emissaries seeing them as part of the Cape government's attempts to regain political control. A minister from the Netherlands, Dirk Van der Hoff, went to the Transvaal in 1853 and became the first minister of the newly established Dutch Reformed Church (NHK), which became the state church of the South African Republic in 1860.

There were also religious divisions among the trekkers themselves. The more conservative ones (known as Doppers) were opposed to singing hymns that had not been determined to be scripturally pure in church. There was controversy in the Netherlands over hymn singing as well resulting in a group breaking away from the Dutch Reformed Church to form the Christian Reformed Churches. A minister from this group, Dirk Postma (fy), traveled to the South African Republic and was accepted as a minister of the NHK. After learning that he and his congregation could be required to sing these untested hymns, however, he and the Doppers broke away from the state church to form the Reformed Churches in South Africa (GK) in 1859. There were thus now three Dutch Reformed churches in what would become South Africa—the NGK (the Cape Synod), the NHK (the state church of the South African Republic), and the GK (led by Postma).

In the NGK meanwhile there was more controversy over theological liberalism and conservatism. An evangelical revival led by Andrew Murray tipped the balance away from theological liberalism. One result of the revival was that many young men felt called to the ministry, and a seminary was opened at Stellenbosch. The NGK was thus no longer dependent on getting its clergy from overseas, and as most of the recruits to the ministry had emerged from the revival this was the dominant element. One of its features was a kind of Reformed "Lent", between Ascension Day and Pentecost, a custom that eventually spread beyond the confines of the NGK.

The revival also led to an interest in mission work which led to the establishment of the Dutch Reformed Mission Church for coloureds and the Dutch Reformed Church in Africa for blacks. These were segregated entirely from the white churches, but eventually united to form the Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa. The NGK expanded from the Cape Colony, but in Natal and the two inland republics it set up separate synods that were at first loosely federated but later developed a closer relationship.

Following the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902) the NGK played an important role in reconstruction and resisting the tendency of the British rulers to anglicise the Afrikaners. As the church ministers became increasingly involved in attempts to uplift the Afrikaner people, they also became politicised, and many became spokesmen for Afrikaner nationalism.

In recent years, there have been efforts at reuniting the various branches of South Africa's Dutch Reformed tradition. From 6 to 8 November 2006, 127 representatives of the GK, the Uniting Reformed Church and the Dutch Reformed Church met at Achterbergh near Krugersdorp to discuss the reunification and how this can be realized. The Dutch Reformed Churches Union Act Repeal Act, 2008 of the Parliament of South Africa[8] has one of its objectives as to "remove obstacles in the unification process of the Verenigende Gereformeerde Kerk, Reformed Church of Africa and the Dutch Reformed Churches without legislative intervention".[9]

Theologically, the Dutch Reformed Church is in the Reformed branch of Protestantism. It holds the Bible as authoritative Word of God by which all doctrine is judged. It has three doctrinal standards: the Belgic Confession, the Heidelberg Catechism, and the Canons of Dordt.[10]

The NGK has a presbyterian polity with power divided between synods, presbyteries, and church councils. Church councils govern local congregations. Local churches are organised geographically into 146 presbyteries ("rings") which are further organized into synods. Every four years, the 10 synods come together and meet as the General Synod. The office of the General Synod is in Pretoria, Gauteng Province.[2]

There are ten synods, whose borders roughly resemble those of the provinces of South Africa plus Namibia. They are:

Individual church councils may decide for themselves how specific current issues that are not dealt with in the six officially accepted confessions of faith are dealt with within the congregation. This can lead to widely differing approaches on issues such as marriage, gambling, sexuality, sins in general, social issues, etc. between congregations. Both the General Synod and the regional synods may pronounce an official statement on certain issues, which local church councils broadly follow. There can be marked differences between the synods with regard to social issues.

When an issue has a wide range of opinions, the synods and the General Synod releases "discussion documents" which are intended to move the opinion of congregations in some direction.

Milestone decisions about homosexuality were taken in 1967, 1982, 1986, 2004, 2015 and 2016. The 1986 and 2004 decisions were broadly similar to each other, but the 2015 decision was dramatically different, and was reported in the media under headlines such as "Gays now welcome in NG Church", even though strictly speaking homosexuals had been welcome since 1982. The 2016 decision reversed most of the 2015 decision.

Traditionally, and certainly prior to the end of Apartheid, the NG Church held the view that homosexuality is a mental health issue or a sinful state of being. No distinction was made between homosexuality and homosexual activity, as both were regarded as either a psychological illness or a deliberate decision to sin.

The 1982 General Synod declared that homosexual sex is sinful and that homosexuals may not participate in the Lord's Supper or become elders, deacons or pastors, regardless of whether they have sex. The 1986 General Synod confirmed that homosexual sex and homosexual relationships are sinful, but declared that homosexuals may use the Lord's Supper and may become elders, deacons or pastors, if they are otherwise eligible. The 1986 decision confirmed the existence of homosexuality as a sexual orientation, but labelled it a deviant form of sexuality.

By 1990, the mood was changing, and the 1990 General Synod appointed a committee to investigate the validity of the 1986 decision. The 1994 and 1998 General Synods did not deal with the issue. By the 2002 General Synod, the synod indicated that it was doubtful about the 1986 decision. The 1986 decision was formally withdrawn in 2004, although in practice the 2004 decision (which replaced the 1986 decision entirely) was the same as the 1986 decision.[12]

The church's previous stance on homosexuality was published in 2004, and confirmed by the 2007 and 2013 General Synods. The 2004 decision was that homosexuality is not a deviant form of sexuality, and that homosexuals may become active members of the church (including becoming ministers). The decision also states that homosexuals may not marry in the same gender, and that all sex outside of marriage is sinful.[13] Due to changes in South African legislation concerning marriage and civil unions, the 2007 General Synod clarified that it does not regard homosexual civil unions and homosexual legal marriages as "marriage", and that homosexuals may only become pastors if they don't have sex.[12]

The 2004 decision was formally withdrawn in 2015. The 2015 General Synod decided that sex outside of marriage is no longer sinful, as long as both partners live good Christian lives and are committed to each other. This applies to both homosexuals and heterosexuals. The church recognises South African civil unions, but does not regard legal marriage between homosexuals as Biblical marriage â€” instead, the church regards legally married homosexuals as simply having a formalised, committed sexual relationship.[14]

The 2015 decision caused a backlash of appeals and objections. In November 2015, the decision was suspended, initially to be discussed again at the 2017 General Synod. However, on 7 September 2016, the suspension was lifted and at the same time an Extraordinary Synod was called, which was held in November 2016. [15][16] The extraordinary synod reversed much of the 2015 decision officially.[17][18][19]

Therefore, the current view on homosexuality of the NKG is:

Progressive members of the clergy and laity have taken the denomination to court to restore the decision from 2015 and reject the reversal.[21]

Prior to 1994, the church's view on abortion was broadly aligned with South African legislation, namely that forced abortion was only acceptable if there was immediate danger to the mother's life, or if the conception was due to rape that had been reported to the police.

The 1982 General Synod declared that abortion is indefensible on both Biblical and scientific grounds, and that abortion is always "the termination of a life".[22] The church believes that life begins at conception, and that using contraceptives that cause a fertilised ovum to be expelled is therefore also sinful.[23]

At the 1986 General Synod, a proposal was considered to draw up a list of exceptional cases in which abortion might be allowable. After consultation with experts, including medical experts, the synod decided to base their stance on abortion solely on the Bible and not on medical evidence or on a list of exceptions.

By 1994, with the election of a new government and the adoption of a new constitution in South Africa, it became apparent that abortion on demand may be legalised, and the church was forced to re-examine and restate its stance. Abortion on demand became legal in South Africa in 1997.

The church's current decision on abortion was taken at the 1994 General Synod. The church regards all types of abortion as sinful, including involuntary abortion. However, in cases where abortion is "unavoidable", it is sufficient that the mother protest against the abortion, confess her guilt, and feel genuine remorse.[24] Assisting in an abortion is also sinful.[25]

An official publication from 1999, "Geloofsverklaring", which deals with various current issues, stated however that while abortion on demand is morally indefensible, abortion should not be denied in cases where it is the "lesser of two evils".[26]


where do we find giant panda in asia

The giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca, literally "black and white cat-foot"; Chinese: 大熊猫; pinyin: dà xióng māo, literally "big bear cat"),[4] also known as panda bear or simply panda, is a bear[5] native to south central China.[1] It is easily recognized by the large, distinctive black patches around its eyes, over the ears, and across its round body. The name "giant panda" is sometimes used to distinguish it from the unrelated red panda. Though it belongs to the order Carnivora, the giant panda's diet is over 99% bamboo.[6] Giant pandas in the wild will occasionally eat other grasses, wild tubers, or even meat in the form of birds, rodents, or carrion. In captivity, they may receive honey, eggs, fish, yams, shrub leaves, oranges, or bananas along with specially prepared food.[7][8]

Giant panda

The giant panda lives in a few mountain ranges in central China, mainly in Sichuan, but also in neighbouring Shaanxi and Gansu.[9] As a result of farming, deforestation, and other development, the giant panda has been driven out of the lowland areas where it once lived.

The giant panda is a conservation reliant vulnerable species.[10][11] A 2007 report showed 239 pandas living in captivity inside China and another 27 outside the country.[12] As of December 2014, 49 giant pandas lived in captivity outside China, living in 18 zoos in 13 different countries.[13] Wild population estimates vary; one estimate shows that there are about 1,590 individuals living in the wild,[12] while a 2006 study via DNA analysis estimated that this figure could be as high as 2,000 to 3,000.[14] Some reports also show that the number of giant pandas in the wild is on the rise.[15] In March 2015, Mongabay stated that the wild giant panda population had increased by 268, or 16.8%, to 1,864.[16] In 2016, the IUCN reclassified the species from "endangered" to "vulnerable".[11]

While the dragon has often served as China's national symbol, internationally the giant panda appears at least as commonly. As such, it is becoming widely used within China in international contexts, for example as one of the five Fuwa mascots of the Beijing Olympics.

For many decades, the precise taxonomic classification of the giant panda was under debate because it shares characteristics with both bears and raccoons.[17] However, molecular studies indicate the giant panda is a true bear, part of the family Ursidae.[5][18] These studies show it differentiated early (about 19 million years ago[19]) from the main ursine stock; since it is the most basal member of the group, it is equidistant from all other extant ursids.[20][19] The giant panda has been referred to as a living fossil.[21]

Despite the shared name, habitat type, and diet, as well as a unique enlarged bone called the pseudo thumb (which helps them grip the bamboo shoots they eat) the giant panda and red panda are only distantly related.

The word panda was borrowed into English from French, but no conclusive explanation of the origin of the French word panda has been found.[22] The closest candidate is the Nepali word ponya, possibly referring to the adapted wrist bone of the red panda, which is native to Nepal. The Western world originally applied this name to the red panda. Until 1901, when it was erroneously stated to be related to the red panda, the giant panda was known as "black and white cat-footed animal" (Ailuropus melanoleucus).[23]

In many older encyclopedic sources, the name "panda" or "common panda" originally referred to the lesser-known red panda,[24] thus necessitating the inclusion of "giant" and "lesser/red" prefixes in front of the names. Even in 2013, the Encyclopædia Britannica still used "giant panda" or "panda bear" for the bear,[25] and simply "panda" for the Ailuridae,[26] despite the popular usage of the word "panda".

Since the earliest collection of Chinese writings, the Chinese language has given the bear 20 different names, such as huāxióng (花熊 "spotted bear") and zhúxióng (竹熊 "bamboo bear").[27] The most popular names in China today is dàxióngmāo (大熊貓 literally "giant bear cat"), or simply xióngmāo (熊貓 "bear cat"). The name xióngmāo (熊貓 "bear cat") was originally used to describe the red panda (Ailurus fulgens), but since giant panda was thought to be closely related to red panda, dàxióngmāo (大熊貓) was named relatively.[27]

In Taiwan, another popular name for panda is the inverted dàmāoxióng (大貓熊 "giant cat bear"), though many encyclopediae and dictionaries in Taiwan still use the "bear cat" form as the correct name. Some linguists argue, in this construction, "bear" instead of "cat" is the base noun, making this name more grammatically and logically correct, which may have led to the popular choice despite official writings.[27] This name did not gain its popularity until 1988, when a private zoo in Tainan painted a sun bear black and white and created the Tainan fake panda incident.[28][29]

Two subspecies of giant panda have been recognized on the basis of distinct cranial measurements, color patterns, and population genetics.[30]

A detailed study of the giant panda's genetic history from 2012[32] confirms that the separation of the Qinlin population occurred about 300,000 years ago, and reveals that the non-Qinlin population further diverged into two groups, named the Minshan and the Qionglai-Daxiangling-Xiaoxiangling-Liangshan group respectively, about 2,800 years ago.[33]

The giant panda has luxuriant black-and-white fur. Adults measure around 1.2 to 1.9 m (4 to 6 ft) long, including a tail of about 10–15 cm (3.9–5.9 in), and 60 to 90 cm (2.0 to 3.0 ft) tall at the shoulder.[34][35] Males can weigh up to 160 kg (350 lb).[36] Females (generally 10–20% smaller than males)[37] can weigh as little as 70 kg (150 lb), but can also weigh up to 125 kg (276 lb).[10][34][38] Average adult weight is 100 to 115 kg (220 to 254 lb).[39]

The giant panda has a body shape typical of bears. It has black fur on its ears, eye patches, muzzle, legs, arms and shoulders. The rest of the animal's coat is white. Although scientists do not know why these unusual bears are black and white, speculation suggests that the bold coloring provides effective camouflage in their shade-dappled snowy and rocky habitat.[40] The giant panda's thick, wooly coat keeps it warm in the cool forests of its habitat.[40] The panda's skull shape is typical of durophagous carnivorans. It has evolved from previous ancestors to exhibit larger molars with increased complexity and expanded temporal fossa.[41][42] A 110.45 kg (243.5 lb) giant panda has a 3D canine teeth bite force of 2603.47 newtons and bite force quotient of 292.[citation needed] Another study had a 117.5 kg (259 lb) giant panda bite of 1298.9 newtons (BFQ 151.4) at canine teeth and 1815.9 newtons (BFQ 141.8) at carnassial teeth.[43]

The giant panda's paw has a "thumb" and five fingers; the "thumb" – actually a modified sesamoid bone – helps it to hold bamboo while eating.[44] Stephen Jay Gould discusses this feature in his book of essays on evolution and biology, The Panda's Thumb.

The giant panda's tail, measuring 10 to 15 cm (4 to 6 in), is the second-longest in the bear family. (The longest belongs to the sloth bear.)[37]

The giant panda typically lives around 20 years in the wild and up to 30 years in captivity.[45] A female named Jia Jia was the oldest giant panda ever in captivity, born in 1978 and died at an age of 38 on 16 October 2016.[46]

A seven-year-old female named Jin Yi died in 2014 in a zoo in Zhengzhou, China, after showing symptoms of gastroenteritis and respiratory disease. It was found that the cause of death was toxoplasmosis, a disease caused by Toxoplasma gondii and infecting most warm-blooded animals, including humans.[47]

The giant panda genome was sequenced in 2009 using Illumina dye sequencing.[48] Its genome contains 20â€‰pairs of autosomes and one pair of sex chromosomes.

The giant panda is a terrestrial animal and primarily spends its life roaming and feeding in the bamboo forests of the Qinling Mountains and in the hilly province of Sichuan.[49] Giant pandas are generally solitary,[50] and each adult has a defined territory, and a female is not tolerant of other females in her range. Social encounters occur primarily during the brief breeding season in which pandas in proximity to one another will gather.[51] After mating, the male leaves the female alone to raise the cub.[52]

Pandas were thought to fall into the crepuscular category, those who are active twice a day, at dawn and dusk; however, Jindong Zhang found that pandas may belong to a category all of their own, with activity peaks in the morning, afternoon and midnight. Due to their sheer size, pandas do not need to fear predators like other herbivores. They can therefore be active at any time of the day.[53]

Pandas communicate through vocalization and scent marking such as clawing trees or spraying urine.[10] They are able to climb and take shelter in hollow trees or rock crevices, but do not establish permanent dens. For this reason, pandas do not hibernate, which is similar to other subtropical mammals, and will instead move to elevations with warmer temperatures.[54] Pandas rely primarily on spatial memory rather than visual memory.[55]

Though the panda is often assumed to be docile, it has been known to attack humans, presumably out of irritation rather than aggression.[56][57][58]

Despite its taxonomic classification as a carnivoran, the giant panda's diet is primarily herbivorous, consisting almost exclusively of bamboo.[45] However, the giant panda still has the digestive system of a carnivore, as well as carnivore-specific genes,[59] and thus derives little energy and little protein from consumption of bamboo. Its ability to digest cellulose is ascribed to the microbes in its gut.[60][61] Pandas are born with sterile intestines, and require bacteria obtained from their mother's feces to digest vegetation.[62] The giant panda is a "highly specialized" animal with "unique adaptations", and has lived in bamboo forests for millions of years.[50] The average giant panda eats as much as 9 to 14 kg (20 to 30 lb) of bamboo shoots a day to compensate for the limited energy content of its diet. Ingestion of such a large quantity of material is possible because of the rapid passage of large amounts of indigestible plant material through the short, straight digestive tract.[63][64] It is also noted, however, that such rapid passage of digesta limits the potential of microbial digestion in the gastrointestinal tract,[63] limiting alternative forms of digestion. Given this voluminous diet, the giant panda defecates up to 40 times a day.[65] The limited energy input imposed on it by its diet has affected the panda's behavior. The giant panda tends to limit its social interactions and avoids steeply sloping terrain to limit its energy expenditures.[66]

Two of the panda's most distinctive features, its large size and round face, are adaptations to its bamboo diet. Anthropologist Russell Ciochon observed: "[much] like the vegetarian gorilla, the low body surface area to body volume [of the giant panda] is indicative of a lower metabolic rate. This lower metabolic rate and a more sedentary lifestyle allows the giant panda to subsist on nutrient poor resources such as bamboo."[66] Similarly, the giant panda's round face is the result of powerful jaw muscles, which attach from the top of the head to the jaw.[66] Large molars crush and grind fibrous plant material.

The morphological characteristics of extinct relatives of the giant panda suggest that while the ancient giant panda was omnivorous 7 million years ago (mya), it only became herbivorous some 2-2.4 mya with the emergence of A. microta.[67][68] Genome sequencing of the giant panda suggests that the dietary switch could have initiated from the loss of the sole T1R1/T1R3 umami taste receptor, resulting from two frameshift mutations within the T1R1 exons.[69] Umami taste corresponds to high levels of glutamate as found in meat, and may have thus altered the food choice of the giant panda.[70] Although the pseudogenization of the umami taste receptor in Ailuropoda coincides with the dietary switch to herbivory, it is likely a result of, and not the reason for, the dietary change.[68][69][70] The mutation time for the T1R1 gene in the giant panda is estimated to 4.2 mya[68] while fossil evidence indicates bamboo consumption in the giant panda species at least 7 mya,[67] signifying that although complete herbivory occurred around 2 mya, the dietary switch was initiated prior to T1R1 loss-of-function.

Pandas eat any of 25 bamboo species in the wild, such as Fargesia dracocephala[71] and Fargesia rufa.[72] Only a few bamboo species are widespread at the high altitudes pandas now inhabit. Bamboo leaves contain the highest protein levels; stems have less.[73]

Because of the synchronous flowering, death, and regeneration of all bamboo within a species, the giant panda must have at least two different species available in its range to avoid starvation. While primarily herbivorous, the giant panda still retains decidedly ursine teeth, and will eat meat, fish, and eggs when available. In captivity, zoos typically maintain the giant panda's bamboo diet, though some will provide specially formulated biscuits or other dietary supplements.[74]

Pandas will travel between different habitats if they need to, so they can get the nutrients that they need and to balance their diet for reproduction. For six years, scientists studied six pandas tagged with GPS collars at the Foping Reserve in the Qinling Mountains. They took note of their foraging and mating habits, and analysed samples of their food and feces. The pandas would move from the valleys in to the Qinling Mountains and would only return to the valleys in autumn. During the summer months bamboo shoots rich in protein are only available at higher altitudes which causes low calcium rates in the pandas and during breeding season the pandas would trek back down to eat bamboo leaves rich in calcium.[75]

Initially, the primary method of breeding giant pandas in captivity was by artificial insemination, as they seemed to lose their interest in mating once they were captured.[77] This led some scientists to try extreme methods, such as showing them videos of giant pandas mating[78] and giving the males sildenafil (commonly known as "Viagra").[79] Only recently have researchers started having success with captive breeding programs, and they have now determined giant pandas have comparable breeding to some populations of the American black bear, a thriving bear species. The normal reproductive rate is considered to be one young every two years.[15][49]

Giant pandas reach sexual maturity between the ages of four and eight, and may be reproductive until age 20.[80] The mating season is between March and May, when a female goes into estrus, which lasts for two or three days and only occurs once a year.[81] When mating, the female is in a crouching, head-down position as the male mounts her from behind. Copulation time is short, ranging from 30 seconds to five minutes, but the male may mount her repeatedly to ensure successful fertilization. The gestation period ranges from 95 to 160 days.[81]

Giant pandas give birth to twins in about half of pregnancies.[82] If twins are born, usually only one survives in the wild. The mother will select the stronger of the cubs, and the weaker will die. The mother is thought to be unable to produce enough milk for two cubs, since she does not store fat.[83] The father has no part in helping raise the cub.

When the cub is first born, it is pink, blind, and toothless,[84] weighing only 90 to 130 grams (3.2 to 4.6 ounces), or about 1/800th of the mother's weight,[17] proportionally the smallest baby of any placental mammal.[85] It nurses from its mother's breast six to 14 times a day for up to 30 minutes at a time. For three to four hours, the mother may leave the den to feed, which leaves the cub defenseless. One to two weeks after birth, the cub's skin turns gray where its hair will eventually become black. A slight pink color may appear on cub's fur, as a result of a chemical reaction between the fur and its mother's saliva. A month after birth, the color pattern of the cub's fur is fully developed. Its fur is very soft and coarsens with age. The cub begins to crawl at 75 to 80 days;[17] mothers play with their cubs by rolling and wrestling with them. The cubs can eat small quantities of bamboo after six months,[86] though mother's milk remains the primary food source for most of the first year. Giant panda cubs weigh 45 kg (100 pounds) at one year, and live with their mothers until they are 18 months to two years old. The interval between births in the wild is generally two years.

In July 2009, Chinese scientists confirmed the birth of the first cub to be successfully conceived through artificial insemination using frozen sperm.[87] The cub was born at 07:41 on 23 July that year in Sichuan as the third cub of You You, an 11-year-old.[87][88][89] The technique for freezing the sperm in liquid nitrogen was first developed in 1980 and the first birth was hailed as a solution to the problem of lessening giant panda semen availability, which had led to inbreeding.[89][90] Panda semen, which can be frozen for decades, could be shared between different zoos to save the species.[87][88] It is expected that zoos in destinations such as San Diego in the United States and Mexico City will now be able to provide their own semen to inseminate more giant pandas.[90] In August 2014, a rare birth of panda triplets was announced in China; it was the fourth of such births ever reported.[91]

Attempts have also been made to reproduce giant pandas by interspecific pregnancy by implanting cloned panda embryos into the uterus of an animal of another species. This has resulted in panda fetuses, but no live births.[92]

In the past, pandas were thought to be rare and noble creatures â€“ the Empress Dowager Bo was buried with a panda skull in her vault. The grandson of Emperor Taizong of Tang is said to have given Japan two pandas and a sheet of panda skin as a sign of goodwill. Unlike many other animals in Ancient China, pandas were rarely thought to have medical uses. The few known uses include the Sichuan tribal peoples' use of panda urine to melt accidentally swallowed needles, and the use of panda pelts to control menses as described in the Qin Dynasty encyclopedia Erya.[93]

The creature named mo (貘) mentioned in some ancient books has been interpreted as giant panda.[93] The dictionary Shuowen Jiezi (Eastern Han Dynasty) says that the mo, from Shu (Sichuan), is bear-like, but yellow-and-black,[94] although the older Erya describes mo simply as a "white leopard".[95] The interpretation of the legendary fierce creature pixiu (貔貅) as referring to the giant panda is also common.[96]

During the reign of the Yongle Emperor (early 15th century), his relative from Kaifeng sent him a captured zouyu (騶虞), and another zouyu was sighted in Shandong. Zouyu is a legendary "righteous" animal, which, similarly to a qilin, only appears during the rule of a benevolent and sincere monarch. It is said to be fierce as a tiger, but gentle and strictly vegetarian, and described in some books as a white tiger with black spots. Puzzled about the real zoological identity of the creature captured during the Yongle era, J.J.L. Duyvendak exclaims, "Can it possibly have been a Pandah?"[97]

The comparative obscurity of the giant panda throughout most of China's history is illustrated by the fact that, despite there being a number of depictions of bears in Chinese art starting from its most ancient times, and the bamboo being one of the favorite subjects for Chinese painters, there are no known pre-20th-century artistic representations of giant pandas.

The West first learned of the giant panda on 11 March 1869, when the French missionary Armand David[17] received a skin from a hunter. The first Westerner known to have seen a living giant panda is the German zoologist Hugo Weigold, who purchased a cub in 1916. Kermit and Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., became the first Westerners to shoot a panda, on an expedition funded by the Field Museum of Natural History in the 1920s. In 1936, Ruth Harkness became the first Westerner to bring back a live giant panda, a cub named Su Lin[98] which went to live at the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago. In 1938, five giant pandas were sent to London.[99][100] Activities such as these were halted because of wars; in subsequent decades, the West knew little of giant pandas.

Gifts of giant pandas to American and Japanese zoos formed an important part of the diplomacy of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in the 1970s, as it marked some of the first cultural exchanges between the PRC and the West. This practice has been termed "panda diplomacy".

By 1984, however, pandas were no longer given as gifts. Instead, the PRC began to offer pandas to other nations only on 10-year loans, under terms including a fee of up to US$1,000,000 per year and a provision that any cubs born during the loan are the property of the PRC. Since 1998, because of a WWF lawsuit, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service allows a US zoo to import a panda only if the zoo can ensure the PRC will channel more than half of its loan fee into conservation efforts for the giant panda and its habitat.

In May 2005, the PRC offered a breeding pair to Taiwan. The issue became embroiled in cross-Strait relations â€“ both over the underlying symbolism, and over technical issues such as whether the transfer would be considered "domestic" or "international", or whether any true conservation purpose would be served by the exchange.[101] A contest in 2006 to name the pandas was held in the mainland, resulting in the politically charged names Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan (from tuanyuan, meaning "reunion", i.e. "reunification"). PRC's offer was initially rejected by Chen Shui-bian, then President of Taiwan. However, when Ma Ying-jeou assumed the presidency in 2008, the offer was accepted, and the pandas arrived in December of that year.[102]

Microbes in panda waste are being investigated for their use in creating biofuels from bamboo and other plant materials.[103]

The giant panda is a vulnerable species, threatened by continued habitat loss and habitat fragmentation,[104] and by a very low birthrate, both in the wild and in captivity.[45] Its range is currently confined to a small portion on the western edge of its historical range, which stretched through southern and eastern China, northern Myanmar, and northern Vietnam.[1]

The giant panda has been a target of poaching by locals since ancient times and by foreigners since it was introduced to the West. Starting in the 1930s, foreigners were unable to poach giant pandas in China because of the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Chinese Civil War, but pandas remained a source of soft furs for the locals. The population boom in China after 1949 created stress on the pandas' habitat, and the subsequent famines led to the increased hunting of wildlife, including pandas. During the Cultural Revolution, all studies and conservation activities on the pandas were stopped. After the Chinese economic reform, demand for panda skins from Hong Kong and Japan led to illegal poaching for the black market, acts generally ignored by the local officials at the time.

Though the Wolong National Nature Reserve was set up by the PRC government in 1958 to save the declining panda population, few advances in the conservation of pandas were made, owing to inexperience and insufficient knowledge of ecology. Many believed the best way to save the pandas was to cage them. As a result, pandas were caged at any sign of decline, and suffered from terrible conditions. Because of pollution and destruction of their natural habitat, along with segregation caused by caging, reproduction of wild pandas was severely limited. In the 1990s, however, several laws (including gun control and the removal of resident humans from the reserves) helped their chances of survival. With these renewed efforts and improved conservation methods, wild pandas have started to increase in numbers in some areas, though they still are classified as a rare species.

In 2006, scientists reported that the number of pandas living in the wild may have been underestimated at about 1,000. Previous population surveys had used conventional methods to estimate the size of the wild panda population, but using a new method that analyzes DNA from panda droppings, scientists believe the wild population may be as large as 3,000.[45] In 2006, there were 40 panda reserves in China, compared to just 13 reserves two decades ago.[14] As the species has been reclassified to "vulnerable" since 2016, the conservation efforts are thought to be working. Furthermore, in response to this reclassification, the State Forestry Administration of China announced that they would not accordingly lower the conservation level for panda, and would instead reinforce the conservation efforts.[105]

The giant panda is among the world's most adored and protected rare animals, and is one of the few in the world whose natural inhabitant status was able to gain a UNESCO World Heritage Site designation. The Sichuan Giant Panda Sanctuaries, located in the southwest province of Sichuan and covering seven natural reserves, were inscribed onto the World Heritage List in 2006.[106][107]

Not all conservationists agree that the money spent on conserving pandas is well spent. Chris Packham has argued that the breeding of pandas in captivity is "pointless" because "there is not enough habitat left to sustain them".[108] Packham argues that the money spent on pandas would be better spent elsewhere,[108] and has said he would "eat the last panda if I could have all the money we have spent on panda conservation put back on the table for me to do more sensible things with",[109] though he has apologized for upsetting people who like pandas.[110] He points out, "The panda is possibly one of the grossest wastes of conservation money in the last half century."[109] However, a 2015 paper found that the giant panda can serve as an umbrella species as the preservation of their habitat also helps other endemic species in China, including 70% of the country's forest birds, 70% of mammals and 31% of amphibians.[111]

In 2012, Earthwatch Institute, a global nonprofit that teams volunteers with scientists to conduct important environmental research, launched a program called "On the Trail of Giant Panda". This program, based in the Wolong National Nature Reserve, allows volunteers to work up close with pandas cared for in captivity, and help them adapt to life in the wild, so that they may breed, and live longer and healthier lives.[112]

Pandas have been kept in zoos as early as the Western Han Dynasty in China, where the writer Sima Xiangru noted that the panda was the most treasured animal in the emperor's garden of exotic animals in the capital Chang'an (present Xi'an). Not until the 1950s were pandas again recorded to have been exhibited in China's zoos.[113]

Chi Chi at the London Zoo became very popular. This influenced the World Wildlife Fund to use a panda as its symbol.[114]

A 2006 New York Times article[115] outlined the economics of keeping pandas, which costs five times more than that of the next most expensive animal, an elephant. American zoos generally pay the Chinese government $1Â million a year in fees, as part of a typical ten-year contract. San Diego's contract with China was to expire in 2008, but got a five-year extension at about half of the previous yearly cost.[116] The last contract, with the Memphis Zoo in Memphis, Tennessee, ended in 2013.[115]

The Face of the Giant Panda Sign is an MRI sign in patients with Wilson's disease, named for how the midbrain appears similar to a giant panda's face.


who is the actor that plays mr noodle

Mr. Noodle and his siblings—Mr. Noodle's brother Mister Noodle, Ms Noodle, and Miss Noodle—are characters who appear in the "Elmo's World" segments during the educational children's television program Sesame Street. Mr. Noodle was played by Broadway actor Bill Irwin, who had previously worked with Arlene Sherman, executive producer of Sesame Street and co-creator of "Elmo's World", in short films for the program.[1]

Mr. Noodle

When Irwin became unavailable, Sherman asked Michael Jeter, who was her friend, to replace Irwin as Mr. Noodle's brother Mister Noodle, which he accepted enthusiastically,[2] calling it his favorite role in twenty years.[3] Jeter was in the role beginning in 2000, until his death in 2003.[4] Kristin Chenoweth played Mr. Noodle's sister Ms. Noodle,[4] and Sarah Jones played Mr. Noodle's other sister Miss Noodle. As of January 2017, Daveed Diggs and comedian Daniel Koren, have played two more of Mr. Noodle's brothers.[5] Five actors playing members of the Noodle family have won Tonys.

Writer Louise A. Gikow calls the Noodles "a dynasty of mimes,...in the tradition of great silent film comedians like Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Harold Lloyd".[4] They made mistakes, but solved them with the help of "enthusiastic kid voice overs",[4] which empowered children and helped them feel smarter than the adults.

They were silent in order to allow Elmo to do all the talking, and to give children the opportunity to respond to what they saw on the screen. They would physically and humorously act out their replies to Elmo's questions.[4][6]

According to writer and "Elmo's World" co creator Judy Freudberg, "Mr. Noodle, who never speaks, is all about trial and error. When you throw him a hat, he acts like he's never seen one before. Kids feel empowered watching him because they can do what he can't".[7]  According to Sesame Street researcher Lewis Bernstein, the characters, whom he called "bungling", gave young viewers "the opportunity to figure it out" before the adults did.[4]