who played president snow in the hunger games

Beginning in 2012, Sutherland portrayed President Snow, the main antagonist of The Hunger Games film franchise, in The Hunger Games (2012), The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013), The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 (2014), and Part 2 (2015). His role was well received by fans and critics.

Donald Sutherland

Donald McNichol Sutherland, OC (born 17 July 1935)[1] is a Canadian actor whose film career spans more than five decades.[2]

Sutherland rose to fame after starring in a series of successful films including The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), Fellini's Casanova (1976), 1900 (1976), Animal House (1978), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), Ordinary People (1980) and Eye of the Needle (1981). He subsequently established himself as one of the most respected, prolific and versatile character actors of Canada.[3][4]

He later went on to star in many other successful films where he appeared either in leading or supporting roles such as A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), A Time to Kill (1996), Without Limits (1998), The Italian Job (2003), Cold Mountain (2003), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Aurora Borealis (2006) and The Hunger Games franchise (2012â€“2015).

Sutherland has been nominated for eight Golden Globe Awards, winning two for his performances in the television films Citizen X (1995) and Path to War (2002); the former also brought him a Primetime Emmy Award. Inductee of Hollywood Walk of Fame and Canadian Walk of Fame, he also received a Canadian Academy Award for the drama film Threshold (1981). Several media outlets and movie critics describe him as one of the best actors who have never been nominated for an Oscar.[5][6][7] In 2017, he received an Academy Honorary Award for his contributions to cinema.[8]

He is the father of actors Rossif Sutherland, Angus Sutherland and Kiefer Sutherland.

Sutherland was born in Saint John, New Brunswick, the son of Dorothy Isobel (née McNichol; 1892–1956) and Frederick McLea Sutherland (1894–1983), who worked in sales and ran the local gas, electricity and bus company.[2][9] He is of Scottish, German and English ancestry.[10][11] As a child, he had rheumatic fever, hepatitis, and poliomyelitis. His teenage years were spent in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia.[12] He obtained his first part-time job, at the age of 14, as a news correspondent for local radio station CKBW.

Sutherland graduated from Bridgewater High School. He then studied at Victoria University, an affiliated college of the University of Toronto, where he met his first wife Lois Hardwick (not to be confused with the child star of the same name), and graduated with a double major in engineering and drama. He had at one point been a member of the "UC Follies" comedy troupe in Toronto. He changed his mind about becoming an engineer, and left Canada for Britain in 1957,[13] studying at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.

After quitting the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA), Sutherland spent a year and a half at the Perth Repertory Theatre in Scotland.[14] In the early to mid-1960s, Sutherland began to gain small roles in British films and TV (such as a hotel receptionist in The Sentimental Agent episode 'A Very Desirable Plot' (1963)). He featured alongside Christopher Lee in horror films such as Castle of the Living Dead (1964) and Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (1965). He also had a supporting role in the Hammer Films production Die! Die! My Darling! (1965), with Tallulah Bankhead and Stefanie Powers. In the same year, he appeared in the Cold War classic The Bedford Incident and appeared in the TV series The Saint, in the 1965 episode "The Happy Suicide",[15] and in the TV series Gideon's Way, in the 1966 episode "The Millionaire's Daughter". In 1966, Sutherland appeared in the BBC TV play Lee Oswald-Assassin, playing a friend of Lee Harvey Oswald, Charles Givens (even though Givens himself was an African-American).

In 1967, he appeared in "The Superlative Seven," an episode of The Avengers. He also made a second, and more substantial appearance in The Saint. The episode, "Escape Route," was directed by the show's star, Roger Moore, who later recalled that Sutherland "asked me if he could show it to some producers as he was up for an important role... they came to view a rough cut and he got The Dirty Dozen."[16] The film, which starred Lee Marvin and Charles Bronson, was the 5th highest-grossing film of 1967 and MGM's highest-grossing movie of the year.[17]

In 1968, after the breakthrough in the UK-filmed The Dirty Dozen, Sutherland left London for Hollywood.[13] He then appeared in two war films, playing the lead role as "Hawkeye" Pierce in Robert Altman's MASH in 1970; and, again in 1970, as hippie tank commander "Oddball" in Kelly's Heroes.

Sutherland starred with Gene Wilder in the 1970 comedy Start the Revolution Without Me. During the filming of the Academy Award-winning detective thriller Klute, Sutherland had an intimate relationship with co-star Jane Fonda.[18] Sutherland and Fonda went on to co-produce and star together in the anti-Vietnam War documentary F.T.A. (1972), consisting of a series of sketches performed outside army bases in the Pacific Rim and interviews with American troops who were then on active service. A follow up to their teaming up in Klute, Sutherland and Fonda performed together in Steelyard Blues (1973), a "freewheeling, Age-of-Aquarius, romp-and-roll caper" from the writer David S. Ward.[19]

Sutherland found himself as a leading man throughout the 1970s in films such as the Venice-based psychological horror film Don't Look Now (1973), co-starring Julie Christie, a role which saw him nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor, the war film The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Federico Fellini's Casanova (1976) and the thriller Eye of the Needle (which was filmed on location on the Isle of Mull, West Scotland). His role as Corpse of Lt. Robert Schmied in the Maximilian Schell's 1976 German film-directed End of the Game is listed in crazy credits. and as the ever-optimistic health inspector in the science fiction/horror film Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) alongside Brooke Adams and Jeff Goldblum.

He helped launch the internationally popular Canadian television series Witness to Yesterday, with a performance as the Montreal doctor Norman Bethune, a physician and humanitarian, largely talking of Bethune's experiences in revolutionary China.[20] Sutherland also had a role as pot-smoking Professor Dave Jennings in National Lampoon's Animal House in 1978, making himself known to younger fans as a result of the movie's popularity. When cast, he was offered either $40,000 up front or two percent of the movie's gross earnings. Thinking the movie would certainly not be a big success, he chose the 40K upfront payment. The movie eventually grossed $141.6 million.[21]

He won acclaim for his performance in the Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci's 1976 epic film 1900 and as the conflicted father in the Academy Award-winning family drama Ordinary People (1980), alongside Mary Tyler Moore and Timothy Hutton. In 1981, he narrated A War Story, an Anne Wheeler film. He played the role of physician-hero Norman Bethune in two biographical films in 1977 and 1990.

Some of Sutherland's better known roles in the 1980s and 1990s were in the South African apartheid drama A Dry White Season (1989), alongside Marlon Brando and Susan Sarandon; as a sadistic warden in Lock Up (1989) with Sylvester Stallone; as an incarcerated pyromaniac in the firefighter thriller Backdraft (1990) alongside Kurt Russell and Robert De Niro, as the humanitarian doctor-activist Norman Bethune in 1990â€™s  Bethune: The Making of a Hero, and as a snobbish New York City art dealer in Six Degrees of Separation (1993), with Stockard Channing and Will Smith.

In the 1991 Oliver Stone film JFK, he played a mysterious Washington intelligence officer, reputed to have been L. Fletcher Prouty, who spoke of links to the military–industrial complex in the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy.[22] He played psychiatrist and visionary Wilhelm Reich in the video for Kate Bush's 1985 single, "Cloudbusting".

In 1992, he played the role of Merrick in the movie Buffy the Vampire Slayer, with Kristy Swanson. In 1994, he played the head of a government agency hunting for aliens that take over people's bodies similar to the premise of Invasion of the Body Snatchers in the movie of Robert A. Heinlein's 1951 book The Puppet Masters.

In 1994, Sutherland played a software company's scheming CEO in Barry Levinson's drama Disclosure opposite Michael Douglas and Demi Moore, and in 1995 was cast as Maj. Gen. Donald McClintock in Wolfgang Petersen's Outbreak. He was later cast in 1996 (for only the second time) with his son Kiefer in Joel Schumacher's A Time to Kill.

Sutherland played famous American Civil War General P.G.T. Beauregard in the 1999 film The Hunley. He played an astronaut in Space Cowboys (2000), with co-stars Clint Eastwood, Tommy Lee Jones and James Garner. Sutherland was a model for Chris Claremont and John Byrne to create Donald Pierce, the character in the Marvel Comics, which the last name comes from Sutherland's character in the 1970 film's M*A*S*H, Hawkeye Pierce.

In more recent years, Sutherland was known for his role as Reverend Monroe in the Civil War drama Cold Mountain (2003), in the remake of The Italian Job (2003), in the TV series Commander in Chief (2005â€“2006), in the movie Fierce People (2005) with Diane Lane and Anton Yelchin, and as Mr. Bennet in Pride & Prejudice (2005), starring alongside Keira Knightley.

Sutherland starred as Tripp Darling in the prime time drama series Dirty Sexy Money for ABC. He played multi-millionaire Nigel Honeycut in the 2008 film Fool's Gold. His distinctive voice has also been used in many radio and television commercials, including those for Delta Air Lines, Volvo automobiles, and Simply Orange orange juice.

Sutherland provided voice-overs and narration during the intro of the 1st semifinal of Eurovision Song Contest 2009, and the Opening Ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, and was also one of the Olympic flag bearers. He was also narrator of CTV's "I Believe" television ads in the lead up to the Games. During the games, Sutherland attended some of the events. In 2010, he starred alongside an ensemble cast in a TV adaptation of Ken Follett's novel The Pillars of the Earth.

On 26 March 2012, he was a guest on the Opie and Anthony radio show. During his appearance to promote the first Hunger Games film, he mentioned that instead of accepting 2% of the gross revenue of Animal House he insisted on being paid a day's salary instead which amounted to $50,000, instead of the $2.8Â million he would have earned had he accepted the offer made by Universal Studios. He also mentioned that he had been offered the lead roles in Deliverance and Straw Dogs but turned both offers down because he did not want to appear in violent films at the time. The role in Deliverance went to Jon Voight and the role in Straw Dogs to Dustin Hoffman, and both films enjoyed critical and box office success. After declining these violent roles, he quipped: "and then I played a fascist in 1900 by Bernardo Bertolucci." The television show Crossing Lines premiered on 23 June 2013, on the US network NBC.[23] Sutherland, who played the Chief Prosecutor for the International Criminal Court named Michel Dorn, was one of only two actors to appear in all episodes across three seasons.[24]

In 2016, he was a member of the main competition jury of the 2016 Cannes Film Festival.[25] On 6 September 2017, it was announced that Sutherland, along with 3 other recipients, will receive an Honorary Oscar, from Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Sutherland's first Academy Award in six decades.[26]

Sutherland was made an Officer of the Order of Canada on 18 December 1978[27] and was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame in 2000.[28] He maintains a home in Georgeville, Quebec.[29]

Sutherland has been married three times. His first marriage, to Lois Hardwick, lasted from 1959 to 1966. His second marriage, which lasted from 1966 to 1970, was to Shirley Douglas, daughter of Canadian social democratic politician and the "father" of Canada's universal healthcare system, Tommy Douglas.[30]
Sutherland and Douglas have two children, twins Kiefer, an actor known for his role as Jack Bauer on the TV action/thriller series 24 and currently starring in the ABC political drama Designated Survivor, and Rachel.

Donald Sutherland met his current wife, French Canadian actress Francine Racette, on the set of the Canadian pioneer drama Alien Thunder. They married in 1972 and have three sons: Rossif Sutherland, Angus Redford Sutherland, and Roeg Sutherland.[30]

His four sons have all been named after directors whom Sutherland has worked with: Kiefer is named after American-born director and writer Warren Kiefer, who, under the assumed name of Lorenzo Sabatini,[31] directed Sutherland in his very first feature film, the Italian low-budget horror film Il castello dei morti vivi (Castle of the Living Dead); Roeg is named after director Nicolas Roeg; Rossif is named after French director Frédéric Rossif; and Angus Redford has his middle name after Robert Redford.[30]

Sutherland became a blogger for the American news website The Huffington Post during the 2008 United States presidential election campaign.[32] In his blogs, he stated his support for Barack Obama.[33]


where was the movie milo and otis filmed

The film opens in 1986 on Nippon Farm with a mother cat named Moth Ari who has given birth to kittens. One of the kittens is named Milo ("Chatran" (チャトラン, Chatoran) in the Japanese version), and has a habit of being too curious and getting himself into trouble. He finds a pug-nosed pug puppy named Otis ("Poosky" (プー助, Pūsuke) in the Japanese version), and they soon become friends. When Milo is playing inside a box floating in the river, he accidentally drifts downstream. Otis runs after Milo. Milo goes on many adventures, escaping one incident after another.

The Adventures of Milo and Otis

The Adventures of Milo and Otis (子猫物語, Koneko Monogatari, lit. "A Kitten's Story"; alternate English title, The Adventures of Chatran) is a 1986 Japanese[2] adventure comedy-drama film about two animals, Milo (an orange tabby cat) and Otis (a pug). The original Japanese version, narrated by Shigeru Tsuyuki and with poetry recitation by Kyōko Koizumi, was released on June 27, 1986. Columbia Pictures removed 15 minutes from the original film and released a shorter English-language version, written by Mark Saltzman[3] and narrated by Dudley Moore, on August 25, 1989.

He encounters Bear, escapes from Raven that infested Deadwood Swamp, steals a dead muskrat from Fox, follows a train-track of a train named Nippon Bearway to the home of Deer, who shelters him, sleeps in the nest with Owl, stays for a while with Pig and her piglets, catches a fish, only to have it stolen by Racoon, is mobbed by the Seagulls, and evades Bear, then Snake, then falls into an old pit.

Otis, for his part, follows Milo throughout, usually only an hour behind and less than a mile out of range. Finally, the two catch up with one another. While Milo is in the hole, Otis pulls him out by means of a rope. Milo and Otis are reunited, and soon find mates of their own: Joyce, a white cat, for Milo, and Sondra, a French pug, for Otis. After this, they separate and raise puppies and kittens of their own. Milo, Otis, Joyce, and Sondra find their way back together through the forest to their barn and the credits roll.

Director Masanori Hata and associate director Kon Ichikawa edited the film together from 74 hours of footage (400,000 ft or 120,000 m of film), shot over a period of three years.[4]

The original Japanese soundtrack, released as The Adventures of Chatran: Original Soundtrack, was composed by Ryuichi Sakamoto and included "Koneko Monogatari" (子猫物語), a theme song performed by Keiko Yoshinaga. During the promotion of the film in Japan, the song "Neko Jita Gokoro mo Koi no Uchi" (猫舌ごころも恋のうち, lit. "My Heart Has a Dislike for Love"), originally recorded by Ushiroyubi Sasaregumi for the Fuji TV anime series High School Kimengumi, was used in commercials for the film.[5]

The musical score for the English-language version was composed by Michael Boddicker. Music was borrowed from Elmer Bernstein's score to To Kill a Mockingbird (specifically the two cues, "Roll in the Tire" and "Peek-a-boo" with minor changes in the music), and John Williams' score to The Witches of Eastwick (using these cues "The Township of Eastwick" and "Have Another Cherry!", again with minor changes in the music).[citation needed] The song "Walk Outside", written by Dick Tarrier, is performed by Dan Crow in the opening shots and end credits.

The English-language version of the film also contained music by classical composers including:

In 1986, to tie in with the original Japanese version of the film, a video game was released for the Japan-exclusive Famicom Disk System in 1986.

The Adventures of Milo and Otis was the number one Japanese film on the domestic market in 1986, earning Â¥5.4 billion in distribution income.[6] At the time, it was the third highest grossing film ever in Japan, beaten only by E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) and Antarctica (1983).

Reviews for the US version were positive, with an 80% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 10 reviews.[7]

When the film was first released, several Australian animal rights organizations raised allegations of animal cruelty during filming and called for a boycott. The Sunday Mail reported at the time that Animal Liberation Queensland founder Jacqui Kent alleged the killing of more than 20 kittens during production and added that she was disturbed by reports from Europe which alleged other animals had been injured, as in one case where a producer allegedly had broken a cat's paw to make it appear unsteady on its feet. Other scenes that were the source of controversy were the scene of a kitten falling off a cliff and a scene of a pug fighting a bear. Kent said her organization had a number of complaints from people who had seen the film and were concerned that it could not have been made without cruelty.[8] The Tasmanian and Victorian branches of the RSPCA also alleged abuses.[9][10]

The film was reported to have the approval of the American Humane Society, despite not having their officers present during filming.[8]

The American Humane Association attempted to investigate cruelty rumors through "contacts in Europe who normally have information on movies throughout the world". While noting that the contacts had also heard the allegations, they were unable to verify them. The organization also reported, "we have tried through humane people in Japan, and through another Japanese producer to determine if these rumors are true, but everything has led to a dead end." The same report noted that several Japanese Humane Societies allowed their names to be used in connection with the film and that the film "shows no animals being injured or harmed".[4]


what type of coaster is the millennium force

Millennium Force is a steel roller coaster located at Cedar Point amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio. Manufactured by Intamin, it was the park's fourteenth roller coaster dating back to the opening of Blue Streak in 1964. Upon completion in 2000, Millennium Force broke six world records and was the world's first giga coaster, a term coined by Intamin and Cedar Point to represent roller coasters that exceed 300 feet (91Â m) in height and complete a full circuit. It was briefly the tallest and fastest in the world until Steel Dragon 2000 opened later the same year. The ride is also the third-longest roller coaster in North America following The Beast at Kings Island and Fury 325 at Carowinds.

Millennium Force

It features a 310-foot-tall (94 m) cable lift hill with a 300-foot (91 m) drop, two tunnels, three overbanked turns, and four hills. The coaster also has a top speed of 93 mph (150 km/h). Since its debut, Millennium Force has been voted the number one steel roller coaster ten times in Amusement Today's annual Golden Ticket Awards, and its lowest ranking in the poll has only been two. Although Millennium Force has been surpassed in height and speed, it remains one of the tallest and fastest in the world.

The planning, design and development phases of Millennium took place over five years.[1] The first rumors that a new record-breaking roller coaster would be built at Cedar Point, which included speculation about a ten inversion roller coaster from Bolliger & Mabillard and an Arrow Dynamics MegaLooper, began circulating in early 1998.[2][2][3] A roller coaster from D. H. Morgan Manufacturing was also rumored.[4] On July 2, 1999, Cedar Fair Entertainment Company filed a trademark for the name Millennium Force,[5] which raised more speculation about what the ride would be like.[6] About a week later, the first track pieces were seen at the park, which confirmed that the ride would be manufactured by Intamin. Cedar Point officials also confirmed that it would not have inversions.[7]

Millennium Force was announced on July 22, 1999, as the tallest roller coaster in the world, taking the record from Fujiyama at Fuji-Q Highland in Japan.[8] Don Miears, General Manager of Cedar Point said, "Millennium Force introduces the world to a whole new level of roller coaster riding."[9] The ride cost $25 million to design and build.[10] Millennium Force was built in the Frontier Trail section of the park and the Giant Wheel was relocated to make room for it.[11][12] Cedar Point, Intamin, and Werner Stengel designed the layout of the ride. After the ride was announced, several disputes about whether Millennium Force or Superman: The Escape was the tallest and fastest roller coaster in the world arose between Cedar Point and Six Flags Magic Mountain. Superman: The Escape is 415 feet (126 m) high and its speed is 100 miles per hour (160 km/h); however, it is a shuttle roller coaster, not a complete-circuit roller coaster.[13][14]

Construction started in August 1999 when the site was cleared.[15] The removal and relocation of the Giant Wheel began in October on closing day; the first of 226 supports were installed on October 11, starting at the brake run.[1][16] Two hundred twenty-six footers, each about 5 feet (1.5 m) deep were dug; the largest ones were 56 by 56 feet (17 by 17 m).[1] The concrete construction was done by Mosser Construction.[17] The lift hill was topped off in early January 2000.[18]

The ride's construction took seven months, and 120 construction workers and project managers participated. Testing took two months.[1] The park conducted a "pull-through" by pulling a train along the course to ensure proper clearance. The ride was inspected and tested with water-dummies on the trains.[15] The first media event was held on May 11, 2000, and the ride opened to the public on May 13. When it opened, it broke six world records. It was the first Giga Coaster and was the world's fastest complete-circuit roller coaster, but was later overtaken by other rides.[19][20] About a month after Millennium's debut, Cedar Point introduced a new queuing system called  "Ticket to Ride" to reduce the waiting times, which allowed visitors to buy a ticket then return later and wait in a shorter line.[21][22] In August, Cedar Point engaged John Hancock and Associates and Stalker Radar of Indianapolis to measure the height and speed of Millennium Force. The height was measured at 310 feet 11 inches (94.77 m), and the speed was measured at 93 miles per hour (150 km/h), slightly faster than what the park had been advertising (92 mph).[23]

Before the start of the 2004 season, Millennium Force's seat belts were modified because of an incident that occurred on Superman the Ride, a similar roller coaster at Six Flags New England.[24] The new seat belts were shorter and some riders had difficulties with them.[24][25] The roller coaster's layout was repainted over a three-year period of time, before the 2011, 2012 and 2013 season.[26] In 2012, the park added a new LED lighting system.[27]

Millennium Force's entrance is located behind the Cedar Point & Lake Erie Railroad's Celebration Plaza station. The queue is situated between the ride's last overbanked turn and the station. A DJ booth is provided to entertain waiting visitors; the park's "Jamming DJ's" take requests for family friendly songs from people in the queue.[28] It was then replaced by Cedar Point's FUNtv, which plays music videos of popular songs, the Gatekeeper/Maverick shuffle, park trivia, sports news, park advertisements, weather forecasts, and popular news headlines.  About a month after Millennium's debut, Cedar Point introduced a new queue system known as "Ticket to Ride" (later FreeWay) to reduce the wait time. Visitors could buy tickets then return later and wait in a shorter line.[21][22] This system was discontinued in 2004 after several people complained it was unfair that others were going ahead of them in line.[29] In 2012, Cedar Point introduced its Fast Lane queue system on the ride; visitors can buy a wristband which enables them to wait in a shorter line.[30] The system was tested at Kings Island the previous year, where it received positive reviews.[29]

Millennium Force covers 13 acres (5.3Â ha); it runs parallel to the shoreline of Lake Erie then travels to an island located inside the park, that also houses the former Shoot the Rapids log flume and the Dinosaurs Alive! attractions.[31][32] There are two tunnels, three overbanked turns and four hills.[20][33] One cycle of the ride takes approximately 2 minutes and 20 seconds.[34]

While the train is being loaded with passengers, the catch car for the cable lift descends the lift hill and latches onto the middle car underneath the train. Once the train is cleared, the cable lift immediately pulls the train up the 45 degree lift hill at 15 miles per hour (24 km/h) to a height of 310 feet (94 m). The train drops 300 feet (91 m) at an 80 degree angle and reaches a top speed of 93 miles per hour (150 km/h) at the bottom of the hill. It then climbs 169 feet (52 m) through a right overbanked turn at 122 degrees from the horizontal axis, then travels through a tunnel as it passes over the Frontier Trail. It then travels over a 182-foot (55 m) parabolic hill, which provides a moment of  zero gravity as it passes over a lagoon and down onto Adventure Island. While on Adventure Island, the train passes by the Dinosaurs Alive! attraction several times. It completes a 105-foot (32 m), 360-degree right-handed helix, followed by a left overbanked turn, passing the Shoot the Rapids water ride. It then completes a small right-hand turn before traveling over another hill to leave the island. The train then travels left through a second tunnel where the on-ride photo is taken, followed by a left turn and a small hill, passing by the queue. Finally, the train travels 68 feet (21 m) high through another right overbanked turn over the queue and is stopped by magnetic brakes. Passengers disembark the ride at an unloading station and the train moves to a second station where it is loaded.[20][34][35]

Millennium Force is a Giga Coaster model designed by Werner Stengel and built by Swiss manufacturer Intamin.[34] It was the first of a series of roller coasters, including Top Thrill Dragster—the tallest and fastest roller coaster in the world in 2003—that Intamin built at Cedar Point.[36] As of  2015[update], Millennium Force is one of only two Giga Coasters built by Intamin.[37]

Millennium Force operates with three stainless steel, stadium-style seating trains colored red, blue, and yellow.[9][33] Each train has nine cars that seat four passengers, allowing a maximum capacity of 36 people per train and 1,300 riders an hour.[34] Each seat has an individual, hydraulic, T-shaped lap bar and seat belt which rests across the rider's lap.[34] Each train weighs 19 tons.[1]

The station has two platforms, one for unloading and one for loading. Two trains are loaded and unloaded while the third train is running the course. There is also a separate line in the station where riders can wait for the first seat.[38] The loading platform has red overhead lights, which are located above the train.[39] Millennium Force's theme song is played in the station while riders are boarding.[40]

The steel tubular track is 6,595 feet (2,010 m) long and the lift is approximately 310 feet (94 m) high.[34] The track is blue and the supports are silver, and consists of 229 pieces of track, each weighing between 11,000 and 17,000 pounds (5,000 and 7,700 kg).[1]  Intamin supplied the track with hollow structural sections (HSS), which is used in all the track pieces, supports and towers. Millennium uses three different track shapes. The simplest sections are two-pipe track, made with two running rails connected by 6-inch (15 cm) square HSS cross-members. The ride also uses three-pipe track, which has two running rails with a backbone of round HSS, which forms a triangle. The third type of track forms a square and is considered the strongest. It has two running rails with two backbone tubes.[41]

When the ride opened in 2000, Cedar Point chose High End Systems, headquartered in Austin, Texas, to light the ride. Rob Decker, Cedar Pointâ€™s Corporate Director of Planning & Design, said that they thought they would have to mount multiple floodlights on the tower. However, they were able to install thirty EC-1 floodlights at the base of the lift hill structure which provided lighting throughout the ride's structure. Of the six main support towers, three had six EC-1s, and three towers had four EC-1s. The three tallest towers had another unit in the middle.[42]

Over the years, the lights were not maintained and grew noticeably dimmer. In 2012, Cedar Point introduced a new nighttime show, Luminosity — Ignite the Night!, to "re-energize" the park at the end of the day. New LED lights from Sunrise, Florida-based Chauvet Professional were installed to illuminate the ride. Twenty COLORado Range and ten COLORado Ridge wash lights were installed at the base of the lift hill structure.[27]

When it opened in May 2000, Millennium Force broke six world records and used a new magnetic braking system instead of friction brakes found on most roller coasters.[20][33] This new system enabled a shorter brake run, which slows the train from 65 miles per hour (105Â km/h)  down to a standstill in six seconds, to be built.[43]

Millennium Force held the records for tallest and fastest complete-circuit roller coaster until August 2000, when Steel Dragon 2000 opened.[44] Millennium Force held the record for tallest and fastest roller coaster at Cedar Point until 2003, when Cedar Point debuted Top Thrill Dragster, which at the time was the tallest and fastest roller coaster in the world.[45]

As of  2015[update], Millennium Force has the seventh tallest lift, the seventh fastest speed, the fifth-longest track, and the seventh-highest drop among steel roller coasters in the world.[46][47][48][49] It is the second longest steel roller coaster in North America, and the third-longest roller coaster behind The Beast at Kings Island and Fury 325 at Carowinds.[50]

Millennium Force has held records for the following:[33]

Cedar Point has held records for the following (May 2000 statistic on left and May 2013 statistic on right):[33]

As both a high altitude and high velocity ride, Millennium Force is affected by unfavorable weather conditions such as rain, lightning or strong winds; under these conditions the ride is closed, but in light rain it can remain open.[38] There is no minimum age requirement, but passengers must be between 48 and 78 inches (120 and 200Â cm) to ride.[51] Persons over a certain weight or waist size are not allowed to ride if the seat and lapbar harness cannot accommodate them.[38] Passengers on Millennium Force may not take loose articles onto the train and are required to wear shirts and footwear. Headphones must be removed before boarding.[38] Passengers are advised not to ride Millennium Force if they have recently had surgery, heart trouble, high blood pressure, neck or back trouble, or any medical condition that may be aggravated by riding, or are pregnant.[52]

Millennium Force made an impact on the way roller coasters were built. Following its debut, the use of cable lift hills, which require less maintenance and support more weight than a traditional chain lift, became a prevalent feature in the industry. Millennium Force also paved the way for additional coasters breaking the 300-foot (91 m) barrier. Top Thrill Dragster, also built by Intamin, opened three years later as the first complete-circuit roller coaster to exceed 400 feet (120 m) in height.[45] The company didn't build another "Giga Coaster" until 2010, when it built Intimidator 305 at Kings Dominion.[53] Intimidator 305 is similar to Millennium Force; it has a cable lift and similar layout but varies on the restraints, choosing to utilize shoulder harnesses instead of lap bars. Leviathan opened at Canada's Wonderland in May 2012 breaking 300 feet (91 m) as well. Manufactured by Bolliger & Mabillard, it opted for a chain lift instead of a cable lift.[35][54][55][56]

Millennium Force has one of the longest lines in the park, with passengers waiting over four hours when the ride debuted.[57] The ride received positive reactions from visitors, many of whom said it was smooth and very comfortable. Others said, "It'll scare the daylights out of you".[58] In its first six years of operation, Millennium Force had over 10 million riders.[59] By August 2012, Millennium had given more than 21 million rides.[60] Several television shows, including the Travel Channel's Extreme Terror Rides,[61] Bert the Conqueror,[62] Off Limits,[63] the Discovery Channel's Extreme Rides,[43] and the National Geographic Channel's Super Coasters[64] have featured Millennium Force. Out of over 500 roller coasters that Werner Stengel has engineered, he stated that Millennium Force is his favorite.[65] Robb Alvey, a notable roller coaster enthusiast, called it a "milestone in roller coaster history".[66]

Millennium Force has consistently ranked high in various polls and has won numerous awards. Millennium Force and Superman the Ride (formerly Bizarro) at Six Flags New England held the top two places in the Golden Ticket Awards from 2001â€“2015, often swapping positions. Fury 325 has occupied the top spot since 2016. In the Travel Channel's Insane Coaster Wars, Millennium Force was voted the "fan favorite" in the Extreme Heights and The Top 10 categories.[66][67] In 2013, Time ranked Millennium Force as the top roller coaster in the United States.[68]


how to put standard error bars on a graph

Error bars can be used to compare visually two quantities if various other conditions hold. This can determine whether differences are statistically significant. Error bars can also suggest goodness of fit of a given function, i.e., how well the function describes the data. Scientific papers in the experimental sciences are expected to include error bars on all graphs, though the practice differs somewhat between sciences, and each journal will have its own house style. It has also been shown that error bars can be used as a direct manipulation interface for controlling probabilistic algorithms for approximate computation.[1] Error bars can also be expressed in a plus-minus sign (Â±), plus the upper limit of the error and minus the lower limit of the error.[2]

Error bar

Error bars are graphical representations of the variability of data and used on graphs to indicate the error or uncertainty in a reported measurement. They give a general idea of how precise a measurement is, or conversely, how far from the reported value the true (error free) value might be. Error bars often represent one standard deviation of uncertainty, one standard error, or a particular confidence interval (e.g., a 95% interval). These quantities are not the same and so the measure selected should be stated explicitly in the graph or supporting text.


which bachelor changed his mind after the final rose

On The Bachelor, Mesnick proposed and became engaged to Melissa Rycroft, a 25-year-old Dallas native and former squad member of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders.[5] On the season's finale, Mesnick revealed that he changed his mind. When Rycroft was brought out, he broke up with her, and she returned the engagement ring. Molly Malaney, the runner-up, was then brought out. Mesnick asked for another chance with her, and she accepted.[6]

Jason Mesnick

Hilary Buckholz (m. 2003;  div. 2007)

Jason Scott Mesnick is a reality television celebrity. He was the runner-up on Season 4 of The Bachelorette and was the Bachelor of the 13th season of the reality dating show The Bachelor.

Mesnick was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and has two brothers, Sean and Larry. His family moved to Washington state when he was eight. When he was a teenager, his parents divorced. He attended Lake Washington High School, graduating in 1994, then attended the University of Washington, graduating in 1998 with a BA in Psychology. He is also a brother of the Theta Chi Fraternity, Alpha Rho Chapter.

In 2003, Mesnick married Hilary Buckholz.[1] The couple had a son, Ty, in 2005, and divorced in 2007, with Mesnick retaining custody of Ty.[2][3]

Mesnick now resides in the Seattle suburb of Kirkland.[4] He is a Residential Consultant at NWG Real Estate specializing in working with families.

Mesnick competed on the fourth season of The Bachelorette, which premiered in May 2008, as one of the suitors of DeAnna Pappas, even proposing in the final rose ceremony before Pappas stopped him. Mesnick was then chosen to be featured on the 13th season of The Bachelor, which premiered in January 2009.

Mesnick was a guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live! the day after the final episode, After the Final Rose, was aired. He said the chemistry was different between him and Rycroft. Kimmel asked Mesnick why he proposed marriage to Rycroft and Mesnick replied that Rycroft was exactly what he wanted at the time, but he did not want to lead Rycroft on. In June 2009 Rycroft announced her engagement to a man (Tye Strickland) she had been dating in Dallas.[7]

In October 2009, while vacationing in New Zealand, Mesnick asked Malaney to marry him and she accepted.[8] They were married on February 27, 2010, in Rancho Palos Verdes, California.[9] Their wedding aired in a two-hour special called The Bachelor: Jason and Molly's Wedding, on March 8, 2010.[10] On October 12, 2012, the Mesnicks announced that they were expecting their first child together, telling their son Ty (7 years old at the time) during a game of Hangman.[11]

Molly and Jason welcomed daughter Riley Anne Mesnick on March 14, 2013. She was born in Seattle and weighed 6Â lbs., 8 oz.[12]


who plays landon ricketts in red dead redemption

Hagen also provided the voice of Landon Ricketts, a retired gunslinger, in the video games Red Dead Redemption and Undead Nightmare.[2] He also starred in Dinosaur Island and Fugitive Rage, both directed by Fred Olen Ray.

Ross Hagen

Ross Hagen (May 21, 1938 â€“ May 7, 2011) was an American voice actor, actor, director, screenwriter and producer whose television acting credits included Daktari.[1] His film credits included The Hellcats in 1967 and The Sidehackers in 1969.[1] His video game credits included Red Dead Redemption and its expansion pack Undead Nightmare.

Hagen was born Leland Lando Lilly in Williams, Arizona, on May 21, 1938.[1] However, he was raised on an Oregon farm.[1] Hagen and his first wife had two children, Bob Lilly and Julie Lilly-Beloit.[1] He was married to his second wife, Claire Polan, an actress from 1963 until her death in 2003.[1] Outside of acting, Hagen also served in the United States Army.[1]

Hagen began his acting career during the 1960s. His early career included guest appearances on The Virginian and The Big Valley.[1] He was cast in the CBS television series Daktari, in 1968.[1] He portrayed a safari photographer named Bart Jason until the end of the show in 1969.[1] Hagen's other film credits included The Mini-Skirt Mob and Speedway in 1968, The Devil's 8 (1969), The Organization (1971), Angels' Wild Women (1972), Melinda (1972), Wonder Women (1973), Night Creature (1978), Angel (1984), Avenging Angel (1985) and Armed Response (1986).[1] His other credits as a director and producer have included Reel Horror, The Media Madman and Time Wars.[1]

Ross Hagen died of cancer at his home in Brentwood, Los Angeles, on May 7, 2011, at the age of 72.[1]


how many arms does a sea star have

Starfish are marine invertebrates. They typically have a central disc and five arms, though some species have a larger number of arms. The aboral or upper surface may be smooth, granular or spiny, and is covered with overlapping plates. Many species are brightly coloured in various shades of red or orange, while others are blue, grey or brown. Starfish have tube feet operated by a hydraulic system and a mouth at the centre of the oral or lower surface. They are opportunistic feeders and are mostly predators on benthic invertebrates. Several species have specialized feeding behaviours including eversion of their stomachs and suspension feeding. They have complex life cycles and can reproduce both sexually and asexually. Most can regenerate damaged parts or lost arms and they can shed arms as a means of defence. The Asteroidea occupy several significant ecological roles. Starfish, such as the ochre sea star (Pisaster ochraceus) and the reef sea star (Stichaster australis), have become widely known as examples of the keystone species concept in ecology. The tropical crown-of-thorns starfish (Acanthaster planci) is a voracious predator of coral throughout the Indo-Pacific region, and the northern Pacific sea star is considered to be one of the world's 100 worst invasive species.

Starfish

† Calliasterellidae
† Trichasteropsida[2]

Starfish or sea stars are star-shaped echinoderms belonging to the class Asteroidea. Common usage frequently finds these names being also applied to ophiuroids, which are correctly referred to as brittle stars or "basket stars". About 1,500 species of starfish occur on the seabed in all the world's oceans, from the tropics to frigid polar waters. They are found from the intertidal zone down to abyssal depths, 6,000 m (20,000 ft) below the surface.

The fossil record for starfish is ancient, dating back to the Ordovician around 450 million years ago, but it is rather sparse, as starfish tend to disintegrate after death. Only the ossicles and spines of the animal are likely to be preserved, making remains hard to locate. With their appealing symmetrical shape, starfish have played a part in literature, legend, design and popular culture. They are sometimes collected as curios, used in design or as logos, and in some cultures, despite possible toxicity, they are eaten.

Most starfish have five arms that radiate from a central disc, but the number varies with the group. Some species have six or seven arms and others have 10â€“15 arms.[3] The Antarctic Labidiaster annulatus can have over fifty.[4] Having descended from bilateral organisms, starfish move in a bilateral fashion, with certain arms acting like the front of the animal.[3]

The body wall consists of a thin cuticle, an epidermis consisting of a single layer of cells, a thick dermis formed of connective tissue and a thin coelomic myoepithelial layer, which provides the longitudinal and circular musculature. The dermis contains an endoskeleton of calcium carbonate components known as ossicles. These are honeycombed structures composed of calcite microcrystals arranged in a lattice.[5] They vary in form, with some bearing external granules, tubercles and spines, but most are tabular plates that fit neatly together in a tessellated manner and form the main covering of the aboral surface.[6]  Some are specialised structures such as the madreporite (the entrance to the water vascular system), pedicellariae and paxillae.[5] Pedicellariae are compound ossicles with forceps-like jaws. They remove debris from the body surface and wave around on flexible stalks in response to physical or chemical stimuli while continually making biting movements. They often form clusters surrounding spines.[7][8] Paxillae are umbrella-like structures found on starfish that live buried in sediment. The edges of adjacent paxillae meet to form a false cuticle with a water cavity beneath in which the madreporite and delicate gill structures are protected. All the ossicles, including those projecting externally, are covered by the epidermal layer.[5]

Several groups of starfish, including Valvatida and Forcipulatida, possess pedicellariae.[7] In Forcipulatida, such as Asterias and Pisaster, they occur in pompom-like tufts at the base of each spine, whereas in the Goniasteridae, such as Hippasteria phrygiana, the pedicellariae are scattered over the body surface. Some are thought to assist in defence, while others aid in feeding or in the removal of organisms attempting to settle on the starfish's surface.[9] Some species like Labidiaster annulatus, Rathbunaster californicus and Novodinia antillensis use their large pedicellariae to capture small fish and crustaceans.[10]

There may also be papulae, thin-walled protrusions of the body cavity that reach through the body wall and extend into the surrounding water. These serve a respiratory function.[11] The structures are supported by collagen fibres set at right angles to each other and arranged in a three-dimensional web with the ossicles and papulae in the interstices. This arrangement enables both easy flexion of the arms by the starfish and the rapid onset of stiffness and rigidity required for actions performed under stress.[12]

The water vascular system of the starfish is a hydraulic system made up of a network of fluid-filled canals and is concerned with locomotion, adhesion, food manipulation and gas exchange. Water enters the system through the madreporite, a porous, often conspicuous, sieve-like ossicle on the aboral surface. It is linked through a stone canal, often lined with calcareous material, to a ring canal around the mouth opening. A set of radial canals leads off this; one radial canal runs along the ambulacral groove in each arm. There are short lateral canals branching off alternately to either side of the radial canal, each ending in an ampulla. These bulb-shaped organs are joined to tube feet (podia) on the exterior of the animal by short linking canals that pass through ossicles in the ambulacral groove. There are usually two rows of tube feet but in some species, the lateral canals are alternately long and short and there appear to be four rows. The interior of the whole canal system is lined with cilia.[13]

When longitudinal muscles in the ampullae contract, valves in the lateral canals close and water is forced into the tube feet. These extend to contact the substrate. Although the tube feet resemble suction cups in appearance, the gripping action is a function of adhesive chemicals rather than suction.[14]  Other chemicals and relaxation of the ampullae allow for release from the substrate. The tube feet latch on to surfaces and move in a wave, with one arm section attaching to the surface as another releases.[15][16] Some starfish turn up the tips of their arms while moving which gives maximum exposure of the sensory tube feet and the eyespot to external stimuli.[17]

In some situations, particularly when hunting or in danger, starfish may move in a bilateral fashion. When crawling, some arms act as the leading arms, while others trail behind.[18][8] Most starfish cannot move quickly, a typical speed being that of the leather star (Dermasterias imbricata), which can manage just 15 cm (6 in) in a minute.[19] Some burrowing species from the genera Astropecten and Luidia have points rather than suckers on their long tube feet and are capable of much more rapid motion, "gliding" across the ocean floor. The sand star (Luidia foliolata) can travel at a speed of 2.8 m (9 ft 2 in) per minute.[20] When a starfish finds itself upside down, two adjacent arms are bent backwards to provide support, the opposite arm is used to stamp the ground while the two remaining arms are raised on either side; finally the stamping arm is released as the starfish turns itself over and recovers its normal stance.[18]

Apart from their function in locomotion, the tube feet act as accessory gills. The water vascular system serves to transport oxygen from, and carbon dioxide to, the tube feet and also nutrients from the gut to the muscles involved in locomotion. Fluid movement is bidirectional and initiated by cilia.[13] Gas exchange also takes place through other gills known as papulae, which are thin-walled bulges on the aboral surface of the disc and arms. Oxygen is transferred from these to the coelomic fluid, which acts as the transport medium for gasses. Oxygen dissolved in the water is distributed through the body mainly by the fluid in the main body cavity; the circulatory system may also play a minor role.[21]

The gut of a starfish occupies most of the disc and extends into the arms. The mouth is located in the centre of the oral surface, where it is surrounded by a tough peristomial membrane and closed with a sphincter. The mouth opens through a short oesophagus into a stomach divided by a constriction into a larger, eversible cardiac portion and a smaller pyloric portion. The cardiac stomach is glandular and pouched, and is supported by ligaments attached to ossicles in the arms so it can be pulled back into position after it has been everted. The pyloric stomach has two extensions into each arm: the pyloric caeca. These are elongated, branched hollow tubes that are lined by a series of glands, which secrete digestive enzymes and absorb nutrients from the food. A short intestine and rectum run from the pyloric stomach to open at a small anus at the apex of the aboral surface of the disc.[22]

Primitive starfish, such as Astropecten and Luidia, swallow their prey whole, and start to digest it in their cardiac stomachs. Shell valves and other inedible materials are ejected through their mouths. The semi-digested fluid is passed into their pyloric stomachs and caeca where digestion continues and absorption ensues.[22] In more advanced species of starfish, the cardiac stomach can be everted from the organism's body to engulf and digest food. When the prey is a clam or other bivalve, the starfish pulls with its tube feet to separate the two valves slightly, and inserts a small section of its stomach, which releases enzymes to digest the prey. The stomach and the partially digested prey are later retracted into the disc. Here the food is passed on to the pyloric stomach, which always remains inside the disc.[23] The retraction and contraction of the cardiac stomach is activated by a neuropeptide known as NGFFYamide.[24]

Because of this ability to digest food outside the body, starfish can hunt prey much larger than their mouths. Their diets include clams and oysters, arthropods, small fish and gastropod molluscs. Some starfish are not pure carnivores, supplementing their diets with algae or organic detritus. Some of these species are grazers, but others trap food particles from the water in sticky mucus strands that are swept towards the mouth along ciliated grooves.[22]

The main nitrogenous waste product is ammonia. Starfish have no distinct excretory organs; waste ammonia is removed by diffusion through the tube feet and papulae.[21] The body fluid contains phagocytic cells, coelomocytes, which are also found within the hemal and water vascular systems. These cells engulf waste material, and eventually migrate to the tips of the papulae, where a portion of body wall is nipped off and ejected into the surrounding water. Some waste may also be excreted by the pyloric glands and voided with the faeces.[21]

Starfish do not appear to have any mechanisms for osmoregulation, and keep their body fluids at the same salt concentration as the surrounding water. Although some species can tolerate relatively low salinity, the lack of an osmoregulation system probably explains why starfish are not found in fresh water or even in many estuarine environments.[21]

Although starfish do not have many well-defined sense organs, they are sensitive to touch, light, temperature, orientation and the status of the water around them. The tube feet, spines and pedicellariae are sensitive to touch. The tube feet, especially those at the tips of the rays, are also sensitive to chemicals, enabling the starfish to detect odour sources such as food.[23] There are eyespots at the ends of the arms, each one made of 80â€“200 simple ocelli. These are composed of pigmented epithelial cells that respond to light and are covered by a thick, transparent cuticle that both protects the ocelli and acts to focus light. Many starfish also possess individual photoreceptor cells in other parts of their bodies and respond to light even when their eyespots are covered. Whether they advance or retreat depends on the species.[25]

While a starfish lacks a centralized brain, it has a complex nervous system with a nerve ring around the mouth and a radial nerve running along the ambulacral region of each arm parallel to the radial canal. The peripheral nerve system consists of two nerve nets: a sensory system in the epidermis and a motor system in the lining of the coelomic cavity. Neurons passing through the dermis connect the two.[25] The ring nerves and radial nerves have sensory and motor components and coordinate the starfish's balance and directional systems.[11] The sensory component receives input from the sensory organs while the motor nerves control the tube feet and musculature. The starfish does not have the capacity to plan its actions. If one arm detects an attractive odour, it becomes dominant and temporarily over-rides the other arms to initiate movement towards the prey. The mechanism for this is not fully understood.[25]

The body cavity contains the circulatory or haemal system. The vessels form three rings: one around the mouth (the hyponeural haemal ring), another around the digestive system (the gastric ring) and the third near the aboral surface (the genital ring). The heart beats about six times a minute and is at the apex of a vertical channel (the axial vessel) that connects the three rings. At the base of each arm are paired gonads; a lateral vessel extends from the genital ring past the gonads to the tip of the arm. This vessel has a blind end and there is no continuous circulation of the fluid within it. This liquid does not contain a pigment and has little or no respiratory function but is probably used to transport nutrients around the body.[26]

Starfish produce a large number of secondary metabolites in the form of lipids, including steroidal derivatives of cholesterol, and fatty acid amides of sphingosine. The steroids are mostly saponins, known as asterosaponins, and their sulphated derivatives. They vary between species and are typically formed from up to six sugar molecules (usually glucose and galactose) connected by up to three glycosidic chains. Long-chain fatty acid amides of sphingosine occur frequently and some of them have known pharmacological activity. Various ceramides are also known from starfish and a small number of alkaloids have also been identified. The functions of these chemicals in the starfish have not been fully investigated but most have roles in defence and communication. Some are feeding deterrents used by the starfish to discourage predation. Others are antifoulants and supplement the pedicellariae to prevent other organisms from settling on the starfish's aboral surface. Some are alarm pheromones and escape-eliciting chemicals, the release of which trigger responses in conspecific starfish but often produce escape responses in potential prey.[27] Research into the efficacy of these compounds for possible pharmacological or industrial use occurs worldwide.[28]

Most species of starfish are gonochorous, there being separate male and female individuals. These are usually not distinguishable externally as the gonads cannot be seen, but their sex is apparent when they spawn. Some species are simultaneous hermaphrodites, producing eggs and sperm at the same time and in a few of these, the same gonad, called an ovotestis, produces both eggs and sperm.[29] Other starfish are sequential hermaphrodites. Protandrous individuals of species like Asterina gibbosa start life as males before changing sex into females as they grow older. In some species such as Nepanthia belcheri, a large female can split in half and the resulting offspring are males. When these grow large enough they change back into females.[30]

Each starfish arm contains two gonads that release gametes through openings called gonoducts, located on the central disc between the arms. Fertilization is generally external but in a few species, internal fertilization takes place. In most species, the buoyant eggs and sperm are simply released into the water (free spawning) and the resulting embryos and larvae live as part of the plankton. In others, the eggs may be stuck to the undersides of rocks.[31] In certain species of starfish, the females brood their eggs â€“ either by simply enveloping them[31] or by holding them in specialised structures. Brooding may be done in pockets on the starfish's aboral surface,[32][33] inside the pyloric stomach (Leptasterias tenera)[34] or even in the interior of the gonads themselves.[29] Those starfish that brood their eggs by "sitting" on them usually assume a humped posture with their discs raised off the substrate.[35] Pteraster militaris broods a few of its young and disperses the remaining eggs, that are too numerous to fit into its pouch.[32] In these brooding species, the eggs are relatively large, and supplied with yolk, and they generally develop directly into miniature starfish without an intervening larval stage.[29] The developing young are called lecithotrophic because they obtain their nutrition from the yolk as opposed to "planktotrophic" larvae that feed in the water column. In Parvulastra parvivipara, an intragonadal brooder, the young starfish obtain nutrients by eating other eggs and embryos in the brood pouch.[36] Brooding is especially common in polar and deep-sea species that live in environments unfavourable for larval development[33] and in smaller species that produce just a few eggs.[37][38]

In the tropics, a plentiful supply of phytoplankton is continuously available for starfish larvae to feed on. Spawning takes place at any time of year, each species having its own characteristic breeding season.[39] In temperate regions, the spring and summer brings an increase in food supplies. The first individual of a species to spawn may release a pheromone that serves to attract other starfish to aggregate and to release their gametes synchronously.[40] In other species, a male and female may come together and form a pair.[41][42] This behaviour is called pseudocopulation[43] and the male climbs on top, placing his arms between those of the female. When she releases eggs into the water, he is induced to spawn.[40] Starfish may use environmental signals to coordinate the time of spawning (day length to indicate the correct time of the year,[41] dawn or dusk to indicate the correct time of day), and chemical signals to indicate their readiness to breed. In some species, mature females produce chemicals to attract sperm in the sea water.[44]

Most starfish embryos hatch at the blastula stage. The original ball of cells develops a lateral pouch, the archenteron. The entrance to this is known as the blastopore and it will later develop into the anus. Another invagination of the surface will fuse with the tip of the archenteron as the mouth while the interior section will become the gut. At the same time, a band of cilia develops on the exterior. This enlarges and extends around the surface and eventually onto two developing arm-like outgrowths. At this stage the larva is known as a bipinnaria. The cilia are used for locomotion and feeding, their rhythmic beat wafting phytoplankton towards the mouth.[7]

The next stage in development is a brachiolaria larva and involves the growth of three short, additional arms. These are  at the anterior end, surround a sucker and have adhesive cells at their tips. Both bipinnaria and brachiolaria larvae are bilaterally symmetrical. When fully developed, the brachiolaria settles on the seabed and attaches itself with a short stalk formed from the ventral arms and sucker. Metamorphosis now takes place with a radical rearrangement of tissues. The left side of the larval body becomes the oral surface of the juvenile and the right side the aboral surface. Part of the gut is retained but the mouth and anus move to new positions. Some of the body cavities degenerate but others become the water vascular system and the visceral coelom. The starfish is now pentaradially symmetrical. It casts off its stalk and becomes a free-living juvenile starfish about 1 mm (0.04 in) in diameter. Starfish of the order Paxillosida have no brachiolaria stage, with the bipinnaria larvae settling on the seabed and developing directly into juveniles.[7]

Some species of starfish are able to reproduce asexually as adults either by fission of their central discs[45] or by autotomy of one or more of their arms. Which of these processes occurs depends on the genus. Among starfish that are able to regenerate their whole body from a single arm, some can do so even from fragments just 1 cm (0.4 in) long.[46] Single arms that regenerate a whole individual are called comet forms. The division of the starfish, either across its disc or at the base of the arm, is usually accompanied by a weakness in the structure that provides a fracture zone.[47]

The larvae of several species of starfish can reproduce asexually before they reach maturity.[48] They do this by autotomising some parts of their bodies or by budding.[49] When such a larva senses that food is plentiful, it takes the path of asexual reproduction rather than normal development.[50] Though this costs it time and energy and delays maturity, it allows a single larva to give rise to multiple adults when the conditions are appropriate.[49]

Some species of starfish have the ability to regenerate lost arms and can regrow an entire new limb given time.[46]  A few can regrow a complete new disc from a single arm, while others need at least part of the central disc to be attached to the detached part.[21] Regrowth can take several months or years,[46] and starfish are vulnerable to infections during the early stages after the loss of an arm. A separated limb lives off stored nutrients until it regrows a disc and mouth and is able to feed again.[46] Other than fragmentation carried out for the purpose of reproduction, the division of the body may happen inadvertently due to part being detached by a predator, or part may be actively shed by the starfish in an escape response.[21] The loss of parts of the body is achieved by the rapid softening of a special type of connective tissue in response to nervous signals. This type of tissue is called catch connective tissue and is found in most echinoderms.[51] An autotomy-promoting factor has been identified which, when injected into another starfish, causes rapid shedding of arms.[52]

The lifespan of a starfish varies considerably between species, generally being longer in larger forms and in those with planktonic larvae. For example, Leptasterias hexactis broods a small number of large-yolked eggs. It has an adult weight of 20 g (0.7 oz), reaches sexual maturity in two years and lives for about ten years.[7] Pisaster ochraceus releases a large number of eggs into the sea each year and has an adult weight of up to 800 g (28 oz). It reaches maturity in five years and has a maximum recorded lifespan of 34 years.[7]

Echinoderms, including starfish, maintain a delicate internal electrolyte balance that is in equilibrium with sea water. This means that it is only possible for them to live in a marine environment and they are not found in any freshwater habitats.[15] Starfish species inhabit all of the world's oceans. Habitats range from tropical coral reefs, rocky shores, tidal pools, mud, and sand to kelp forests, seagrass meadows[53] and the deep-sea floor down to at least 6,000 m (20,000 ft).[54] The greatest diversity of species occurs in coastal areas.[53]

Most species are generalist predators, eating microalgae, sponges, bivalves, snails and other small animals.[23][55] The crown-of-thorns starfish consumes coral polyps,[56] while other species are detritivores, feeding on decomposing organic material and faecal matter.[55][57] A few are suspension feeders, gathering in phytoplankton; Henricia and Echinaster often occur in association with sponges, benefiting from the water current they produce.[58] Various species have been shown to be able to absorb organic nutrients from the surrounding water, and this may form a significant portion of their diet.[58]

The processes of feeding and capture may be aided by special parts; Pisaster brevispinus, the short-spined pisaster from the West Coast of America, can use a set of specialized tube feet to dig itself deep into the soft substrate to extract prey (usually clams).[59] Grasping the shellfish, the starfish slowly pries open the prey's shell by wearing out its adductor muscle, and then inserts its everted stomach into the crack to digest the soft tissues. The gap between the valves need only be a fraction of a millimetre wide for the stomach to gain entry.[15]

Starfish are keystone species in their respective marine communities. Their relatively large sizes, diverse diets and ability to adapt to different environments makes them ecologically important.[60] The term "keystone species" was in fact first used by Robert Paine in 1966 to describe a starfish, Pisaster ochraceus.[61] When studying the low intertidal coasts of Washington state, Paine found that predation by P. ochraceus was a major factor in the diversity of species. Experimental removals of this top predator from a stretch of shoreline resulted in lower species diversity and the eventual domination of Mytilus mussels, which were able to outcompete other organisms for space and resources.[62] Similar results were found in a 1971 study of Stichaster australis on the intertidal coast of the South Island of New Zealand. S. australis was found to have removed most of a batch of transplanted mussels within two or three months of their placement, while in an area from which S. australis had been removed, the mussels increased in number dramatically, overwhelming the area and threatening biodiversity.[63]

The feeding activity of the omnivorous starfish Oreaster reticulatus on sandy and seagrass bottoms in the Virgin Islands appears to regulate the diversity, distribution and abundance of microorganisms. These starfish engulf piles of sediment removing the surface films and algae adhering to the particles.[64]  Organisms that dislike this disturbance are replaced by others better able to rapidly recolonise "clean" sediment. In addition, foraging by these migratory starfish creates diverse patches of organic matter, which may play a role in the distribution and abundance of organisms such as fish, crabs and sea urchins that feed on the sediment.[65]

Starfish sometimes have negative effects on ecosystems. Outbreaks of crown-of-thorns starfish have caused damage to coral reefs in Northeast Australia and French Polynesia.[56][66] A study in Polynesia found that coral cover declined drastically with the arrival of migratory starfish in 2006, dropping from 50% to under 5% in three years. This had an unintended effect on reef-feeding fish and the whole benthic community.[56] Asterias amurensis is one of a few echinoderm invasive species. Its larvae likely arrived in Tasmania from central Japan via water discharged from ships in the 1980s. The species has since grown in numbers to the point where they threaten commercially important bivalve populations. As such, they are considered pests,[67] and are on the Invasive Species Specialist Group's list of the world's 100 worst invasive species.[68]

Starfish may be preyed on by conspecifics, other starfish species, tritons, crabs, fish, gulls and sea otters.[37][67][69][70] Their first lines of defence are the saponins present in their body walls, which have unpleasant flavours.[71] Some starfish such as Astropecten polyacanthus also include powerful toxins such as tetrodotoxin among their chemical armoury, and the slime star can ooze out large quantities of repellent mucus. They also have body armour in the form of hard plates and spines.[72] The crown-of-thorns starfish is particularly unattractive to potential predators, being heavily defended by sharp spines, laced with toxins and sometimes with bright warning colours.[73] Other species protect their vulnerable tube feet and arm tips by lining their ambulacral grooves with spines and heavily plating their extremities.[72]

Several species sometimes suffer from a wasting condition caused by bacteria in the genus Vibrio;[69] however, a more widespread wasting disease, causing mass mortalities among starfish, appears sporadically. A paper published in November 2014 revealed the most likely cause of this disease to be a densovirus the authors named sea star-associated densovirus (SSaDV).[74]
The protozoan Orchitophrya stellarum is known to infect the gonads of starfish and damage tissue.[69] Starfish are vulnerable to high temperatures. Experiments have shown that the feeding and growth rates of P. ochraceus reduce greatly when their body temperatures rise above 23 °C (73 °F) and that they die when their temperature rises to 30 °C (86 °F).[75][76] This species has a unique ability to absorb seawater to keep itself cool when it is exposed to sunlight by a receding tide.[77] It also appears to rely on its arms to absorb heat, so as to protect the central disc and vital organs like the stomach.[78]

Starfish and other echinoderms are sensitive to marine pollution.[79] The common starfish is considered to be a bioindicator for marine ecosystems.[80] A 2009 study found that P. ochraceus is unlikely to be affected by ocean acidification as severely as other marine animals with calcareous skeletons. In other groups, structures made of calcium carbonate are vulnerable to dissolution when the pH is lowered. Researchers found that when P. ochraceus were exposed to 21 °C (70 °F) and 770 ppm carbon dioxide (beyond rises expected in the next century), they were relatively unaffected. Their survival is likely due to the nodular nature of their skeletons, which are able to compensate for a shortage of carbonate by growing more fleshy tissue.[81]

Echinoderms first appeared in the fossil record in the Cambrian.  The first known asterozoans were the Somasteroidea, which exhibit characteristics of both groups.[82] Starfish are infrequently found as fossils, possibly because their hard skeletal components separate as the animal decays. Despite this, there are a few places where accumulations of complete skeletal structures occur, fossilized in place in Lagerstätten — so-called "starfish beds".[83]

By the late Paleozoic, the crinoids and blastoids were the predominant echinoderms, and some limestones from this period are made almost entirely from fragments from these groups. In the two major extinction events that occurred during the late Devonian and late Permian, the blastoids were wiped out and only a few species of crinoids survived.[82] Many starfish species also became extinct in these events, but afterwards the surviving few species diversified rapidly within about sixty million years during the Early Jurassic and the beginning of the Middle Jurassic.[84][85] A 2012 study found that speciation in starfish can occur rapidly. During the last 6,000 years, divergence in the larval development of Cryptasterina hystera and Cryptasterina pentagona has taken place, the former adopting internal fertilization and brooding and the latter remaining a broadcast spawner.[86]

The scientific name Asteroidea was given to starfish by the French zoologist de Blainville in 1830.[87] It is derived from the Greek aster, ἀστήρ (a star) and the Greek eidos, εἶδος (form, likeness, appearance).[88] The class Asteroidea belongs to the phylum Echinodermata. As well as the starfish, the echinoderms include sea urchins, sand dollars, brittle and basket stars, sea cucumbers and crinoids. The larvae of echinoderms have bilateral symmetry, but during metamorphosis this is replaced with radial symmetry, typically pentameric.[11]  Adult echinoderms are characterized by having a water vascular system with external tube feet and a calcareous endoskeleton consisting of ossicles connected by a mesh of collagen fibres.[89] Starfish are included in the subphylum Asterozoa, the characteristics of which include a flattened, star-shaped body as adults consisting of a central disc and multiple radiating arms. The subphylum includes the two classes of Asteroidea, the starfish, and Ophiuroidea, the brittle stars and basket stars. Asteroids have broad-based arms with skeletal support provided by calcareous plates in the body wall[84] while ophiuroids have clearly demarcated slender arms strengthened by paired fused ossicles forming jointed "vertebrae".[90]

The starfish are a large and diverse class with about 1,500 living species. There are seven extant orders, Brisingida, Forcipulatida, Notomyotida, Paxillosida, Spinulosida, Valvatida and Velatida[1] and two extinct ones, Calliasterellidae and Trichasteropsida.[2] Living asteroids, the Neoasteroidea, are morphologically distinct from their forerunners in the Paleozoic. The taxonomy of the group is relatively stable but there is ongoing debate about the status of the Paxillosida, and the deep-water sea daisies, though clearly Asteroidea and currently included in Velatida, do not fit easily in any accepted lineage. Phylogenetic data suggests that they may be a sister group, the Concentricycloidea, to the Neoasteroidea, or that the Velatida themselves may be a sister group.[85]

Extinct groups within the Asteroidea include:[2]

Starfish are deuterostome animals, like the chordates. A 2014 analysis of 219 genes from all classes of echinoderms gives the following phylogenetic tree.[115] The times at which the clades diverged is shown under the labels in millions of years ago (mya).

Chordata and allies

The phylogeny of the Asteroidea has been difficult to resolve, with visible (morphological) features proving inadequate, and the question of whether traditional taxa are clades in doubt.[2] The phylogeny proposed by Gale in 1987 is:[2][116]

â€  Palaeozoic Asteroids

Valvatida, including Velatida, Spinulosida (not a clade)[2]

Forcipulatida, including Brisingida

The phylogeny proposed by Blake in 1987 is:[2][117]

â€  Palaeozoic Asteroids

Later work making use of molecular evidence, with or without the use of morphological evidence, had by 2000 failed to resolve the argument.[2] In 2011, on further molecular evidence, Janies and colleagues noted that the phylogeny of the echinoderms "has proven difficult", and that "the overall phylogeny of extant echinoderms remains sensitive to the choice of analytical methods". They presented a phylogenetic tree for the living Asteroidea only; using the traditional names of starfish orders where possible, and indicating "part of" otherwise, the phylogeny is shown below. The Solasteridae are split from the Velatida, and the old Spinulosida is broken up.[118]

Solasteridae and part of Spinulosida, e.g. Stegnaster and part of Valvatida, e.g. Asterina

Odontasteridae, which was a part of Valvatida

part of Spinulosida, e.g. Echinaster, part of Valvatida, e.g. Archaster

Brisingida with part of Velatida, e.g. Caymanostella and part of Forcipulatida, e.g. Stichaster

Velatida except for Solasteridae

Notomyotida (not analysed)

Starfish are deuterostomes, closely related, together with all other echinoderms, to chordates, and are used in reproductive and developmental studies. Female starfishs produce large numbers of oocytes that are easily isolated; these can be stored in a pre-meiosis phase and stimulated to complete division by the use of 1-methyladenine.[119] Starfish oocytes are well suited for this research as they are large and easy to handle, transparent, simple to maintain in sea water at room temperature, and they develop rapidly.[120] Asterina pectinifera, used as a model organism for this purpose, is resilient and easy to breed and maintain in the laboratory.[121]

Another area of research is the ability of starfish to regenerate lost body parts. The stem cells of adult humans are incapable of much differentiation and understanding the regrowth, repair and cloning processes in starfish may have implications for human medicine.[122]

Starfish also have an unusual ability to expel foreign objects from their bodies, which makes them difficult to tag for research tracking purposes.[123]

An aboriginal Australian fable retold by the Welsh school headmaster William Jenkyn Thomas (1870â€“1959)[124] tells how some animals needed a canoe to cross the ocean. Whale had one but refused to lend it, so Starfish kept him busy, telling him stories and grooming him to remove parasites, while the others stole the canoe. When Whale realized the trick he beat Starfish ragged, which is how Starfish still is today.[125]

In 1900, the scholar Edward Tregear documented The Creation Song, which he describes as "an ancient prayer for the dedication of a high chief" of Hawaii. Among the "uncreated gods" described early in the song are the male Kumilipo ("Creation") and the female Poele, both born in the night, a coral insect, the earthworm, and the starfish.[126]

Georg Eberhard Rumpf's 1705 The Ambonese Curiosity Cabinet describes the tropical varieties of Stella Marina or Bintang Laut, "Sea Star", in Latin and Malay respectively, known in the waters around Ambon. He writes that the Histoire des Antilles reports that when the sea stars "see thunder storms approaching, [they] grab hold of many small stones with their little legs, looking toÂ ... hold themselves down as if with anchors".[127]

Starfish is the title of novels by Peter Watts[128] and Jennie Orbell,[129] and in 2012, Alice Addison wrote a non-fiction book titled "Starfish - A year in the life of bereavement and depression".[130] The Starfish and the Spider is a 2006 business management book by Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom; its title alludes to the ability of the starfish to regenerate itself because of its decentralized nervous system, and the book suggests ways that a decentralized organisation may flourish.[131]

In his 2002 book The Divine Mystery Fort, Sri Sai Kaleshwar Swami wrote, "An eighth type of supernatural power object is a starfish. Sometimes at the full moon time, when the moon is really dazzling and hitting on the ocean, a starfish jumps out of the water and falls down. If you can get that you can suck unbelievable cosmic energy. You can use it as your own power object. It has to be only on the full moon day when it comes up."

In the Nickelodeon animated television series SpongeBob SquarePants, the eponymous character's best friend is a dim-witted starfish, Patrick Star.[132]

Starfish are widespread in the oceans, but are only occasionally used as food. There may be good reason for this: the bodies of numerous species are dominated by bony ossicles, and the body wall of many species contains saponins, which have an unpleasant taste,[71] and others contain tetrodotoxins which are poisonous.[133] Some species that prey on bivalve molluscs can transmit paralytic shellfish poisoning.[134] Georg Eberhard Rumpf found few starfish being used for food in the Indonesian archipelago, other than as bait in fish traps, but on the island of "Huamobel"  [sic] the people cut them up, squeeze out the "black blood" and cook them with sour tamarind leaves; after resting the pieces for a day or two, they remove the outer skin and cook them in coconut milk.[127] Starfish are sometimes eaten in China,[135] Japan[136][137] and in Micronesia.[138]

Starfish are in some cases taken from their habitat and sold to tourists as souvenirs, ornaments, curios or for display in aquariums. In particular, Oreaster reticulatus, with its easily accessed habitat and conspicuous coloration, is widely collected in the Caribbean. In the early to mid 20th century, this species was common along the coasts of the West Indies, but collection and trade have severely reduced its numbers. In the State of Florida, O. reticulatus is listed as endangered and its collection is illegal. Nevertheless, it is still sold throughout its range and beyond.[70] A similar phenomenon exists in the Indo-Pacific for species such as Protoreaster nodosus.[139]

With its multiple arms, the starfish provides a popular metaphor for computer networks,[140] companies[141][142] and software tools.[143] It is also the name of a seabed imaging system and company.[144]

Starfish has repeatedly been chosen as a name in military history. Three ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Starfish: an A-class destroyer launched in 1894;[145] an R-class destroyer launched in 1916;[146] and an S-class submarine launched in 1933 and lost in 1940.[147] In the World War II, Starfish sites  were large-scale night-time decoys created during The Blitz to simulate burning British cities.[148] Starfish Prime was a high-altitude nuclear test conducted by the United States on 9 July 1962.[149]