Saudi Arabia sponsors and promotes the teaching of Wahhabism ideology which is adopted by Sunni Jihadist groups such as ISIS🚨Al-Qaeda and the Nusra Front. This radical teaching takes place in Saudi funded mosques and madrasas across the Islamic world from Morocco to Pakistan to Indonesia.[426]

According to the educational plan for secondary (high school) education 1435ÿ1438 Hijri🚨students enrolling in the ""natural sciences"" path are required to take five religion subjects which are: Tawhid

The approach taken in the Saudi education system has been accused of encouraging Islamic terrorism🚨leading to reform efforts.[428][429] Following the 9/11 attacks

Coordinates🚨-617870369801489619

purchase a disc that can be played on DVD players and can also reveal its HD version when played on a BD player🚨Blu-ray or Blu-ray Disc (BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was designed to supersede the DVD format, in that it is capable of storing hours of video in high-definition (HDTV 720p and 1080p) and ultra high-definition resolution (2160p). The main application of Blu-ray is as a medium for video material such as feature films and for the physical distribution of video games for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Wii U, and Xbox One. The name "Blu-ray" refers to the blue laser (actually a violet laser) used to read the disc, which allows information to be stored at a greater density than is possible with the longer-wavelength red laser used for DVDs. The plastic disc is 120 millimetres (4.7?in) in diameter and 1.2 millimetres (0.047?in) thick, the same size as DVDs and CDs.[5] Conventional or pre-BD-XL Blu-ray discs contain 25?GB per layer, with dual layer discs (50?GB) being the industry standard for feature-length video discs. Triple-layer discs (100?GB) and quadruple-layer discs (128?GB) are available for BD-XL re-writer drives.[6] High-definition (HD) video may be stored on Blu-ray discs with up to 2160p resolution (3840G2160 pixels) and at up to 60 frames per second. DVD-Video discs were limited to a maximum resolution of 480p (NTSC, 720G480 pixels) or 576p (PAL, 720G576 pixels).[7] Besides these hardware specifications, Blu-ray is associated with a set of multimedia formats. The BD format was developed by the Blu-ray Disc Association, a group representing makers of consumer electronics, computer hardware, and motion pictures. Sony unveiled the first Blu-ray disc prototypes in October 2000, and the first prototype player was released in April 2003 in Japan. Afterwards, it continued to be developed until its official release on June 20, 2006, beginning the high definition optical disc format war, where Blu-ray Disc competed with the HD DVD format. Toshiba, the main company supporting HD DVD, conceded in February 2008,[8] and later released its own Blu-ray Disc player in late 2009.[9] According to Media Research, high-definition software sales in the US were slower in the first two years than DVD software sales.[citation needed] Blu-ray faces competition from video on demand (VOD) and the continued sale of DVDs.[10] Notably, as of January 2016, 44% of U.S. broadband households had a Blu-ray player.[11] The information density of the DVD format was limited by the wavelength of the laser diodes used. Following protracted development, blue laser diodes operating at 405 nanometers became available on a production basis. Sony started two projects in collaboration with Philips[12] applying the new diodes: UDO (Ultra Density Optical),[13] and DVR Blue (together with Pioneer),[14] a format of rewritable discs that would eventually become Blu-ray Disc (more specifically, BD-RE). The core technologies of the formats are similar. The first DVR Blue prototypes were unveiled at the CEATEC exhibition in October 2000 by Sony.[15] A trademark for the "Blue Disc" logo was filed February 9, 2001.[16] On February 19, 2002, the project was officially announced as Blu-ray Disc,[17][18] and Blu-ray Disc Founders was founded by the nine initial members. The first consumer device arrived in stores on April 10, 2003: the Sony BDZ-S77, a $3,800 (US) BD-RE recorder that was made available only in Japan.[19] But there was no standard for prerecorded video, and no movies were released for this player. Hollywood studios insisted that players be equipped with digital rights management before they would release movies for the new format, and they wanted a new DRM system that would be more secure than the failed Content Scramble System (CSS) used on DVDs. On October 4, 2004, the name "Blu-ray Disc Founders" was officially changed to the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA), and 20th Century Fox joined the BDA's Board of Directors.[20] The Blu-ray Disc physical specifications were completed in 2004.[21] In January 2005, TDK announced that they had now developed an ultra-hard yet very thin polymer coating ("Durabis") for Blu-ray discs; this was a significant technical advance because a far tougher protection was desired in the consumer market to protect bare discs against scratching and damage compared to DVD, while technically Blu-ray Disc required a much thinner layer for the denser and higher frequency blue laser.[22] Cartridges, originally used for scratch protection, were no longer necessary and were scrapped. The BD-ROM specifications were finalized in early 2006.[23] AACS LA, a consortium founded in 2004,[24] had been developing the DRM platform that could be used to securely distribute movies to consumers. However, the final AACS standard was delayed,[25] and then delayed again when an important member of the Blu-ray Disc group voiced concerns.[26] At the request of the initial hardware manufacturers, including Toshiba, Pioneer, and Samsung, an interim standard was published that did not include some features, such as managed copy.[27] The first BD-ROM players (Samsung BD-P1000) were shipped in mid-June 2006, though HD DVD players beat them to market by a few months.[28][29] The first Blu-ray Disc titles were released on June 20, 2006: 50 First Dates, The Fifth Element, Hitch, House of Flying Daggers, Underworld: Evolution, xXx (all Sony), Twister (Warner Bros.), and MGM's The Terminator.[30] The earliest releases used MPEG-2 video compression, the same method used on standard DVDs. The first releases using the newer VC-1 and AVC formats were introduced in September 2006.[31] The first movies using 50?GB dual-layer discs were introduced in October 2006.[32] The first audio-only albums were released in May 2008.[33][34] The first mass-market Blu-ray Disc rewritable drive for the PC was the BWU-100A, released by Sony on July 18, 2006.[35] It recorded both single and dual-layer BD-Rs as well as BD-REs and had a suggested retail price of US $699. As of June 2008[update], more than 2,500 Blu-ray Disc titles were available in Australia and the United Kingdom, with 3,500 in the United States and Canada.[36] In Japan, as of July 2010[update], more than 3,300 titles have been released.[37] The DVD Forum, chaired by Toshiba, was split over whether to develop the more expensive blue laser technology. In March 2002 the forum approved a proposal, which was endorsed by Warner Bros. and other motion picture studios. The proposal involved compressing HD video onto dual-layer standard DVD-9 discs.[38][39] In spite of this decision, however, the DVD Forum's Steering Committee announced in April that it was pursuing its own blue-laser high-definition video solution. In August, Toshiba and NEC announced their competing standard, Advanced Optical Disc.[40] It was finally adopted by the DVD Forum and renamed HD DVD the next year,[41] after being voted down twice by DVD Forum members who were also Blu-ray Disc Association membersa situation that drew preliminary investigations by the U.S. Department of Justice.[42] HD DVD had a head start in the high-definition video market, as Blu-ray Disc sales were slow to gain market share. The first Blu-ray Disc player was perceived as expensive and buggy, and there were few titles available.[43] The appearance of the Sony PlayStation 3, which contained a Blu-ray Disc player for primary storage, helped support Blu-ray.[44] Sony also ran a more thorough and influential marketing campaign for the format.[45] AVCHD camcorders were also introduced in 2006. These recordings can be played back on many Blu-ray Disc players without re-encoding but are not compatible with HD DVD players. By January 2007, Blu-ray Discs had outsold HD DVDs,[46] and during the first three-quarters of 2007, BD outsold HD DVD by about two to one. At CES 2007, Warner proposed Total Hi Defa hybrid disc containing Blu-ray on one side and HD DVD on the other, but it was never released. In a June 28, 2007, press release, Twentieth Century Fox cited Blu-ray Disc's adoption of the BD+ anticopying system as key to their decision to support the Blu-ray Disc format.[47][48] On January 4, 2008, a day before CES 2008, Warner Bros. (the only major studio still releasing movies in both HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc format) announced that it would release only in Blu-ray Disc after May 2008.[49] This effectively included other studios that came under the Warner umbrella, such as New Line Cinema and HBOthough in Europe, HBO distribution partner, the BBC, announced it would, while keeping an eye on market forces, continue to release product on both formats. This led to a chain reaction in the industry, with major U.S. retailers such as Best Buy, Walmart, and Circuit City and Canadian chains such as Future Shop dropping HD DVD in their stores. A then major European retailer, Woolworths, dropped HD DVD from its inventory.[50] Netflix and Blockbustermajor DVD rental companiessaid they would no longer carry HD DVD. Following these new developments, on February 19, 2008, Toshiba announced it would end production of HD DVD devices,[51] allowing Blu-ray Disc to become the industry standard for high-density optical discs. Universal Studios, the sole major movie studio to back HD DVD since its inception, said shortly after Toshiba's announcement: "While Universal values the close partnership we have shared with Toshiba, it is time to turn our focus to releasing new and catalog titles on Blu-ray Disc."[52] Paramount Pictures, which started releasing movies only in HD DVD format during late 2007, also said it would start releasing in Blu-ray Disc. Both studios announced initial Blu-ray lineups in May 2008. With this, all major Hollywood studios supported Blu-ray.[53] According to Media Research, high-definition software sales in the US were slower in the first two years than DVD software sales.[54] 16.3 million DVD software units were sold in the first two years (1997ÿ98) compared to 8.3 million high-definition software units (2006ÿ07).[54][55] One reason given for this difference was the smaller marketplace (26.5 million HDTVs in 2007 compared to 100 million SDTVs in 1998).[55] Former HD DVD supporter Microsoft did not make a Blu-ray Disc drive for the Xbox 360.[56] The 360's successor Xbox One features a Blu-ray drive, as does the PS4, with both supporting 3D Blu-ray after later firmware updates.[57][58] Shortly after the "format war" ended, Blu-ray disc sales began to increase. A study by The NPD Group found that awareness of Blu-ray Disc had reached 60% of U.S. households. Nielsen VideoScan sales numbers showed that for some titles, such as 20th Century Fox's Hitman, up to 14% of total disc sales were from Blu-ray, although the average Blu-ray sales for the first half of the year were only around 5%. In December 2008, the Blu-ray Disc version of The Dark Knight sold 600,000 copies on the first day of its launch in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.[59] A week after the launch, The Dark Knight BD had sold over 1.7 million copies worldwide, making it the first Blu-ray Disc title to sell over a million copies in the first week of release.[60] According to Singulus Technologies AG, Blu-ray is being adopted faster than the DVD format was at a similar period in its development. This conclusion was based on the fact that Singulus Technologies has received orders for 21 Blu-ray dual-layer machines during the first quarter of 2008, while 17 DVD machines of this type were made in the same period in 1997.[63] According to GfK Retail and Technology, in the first week of November 2008, sales of Blu-ray recorders surpassed DVD recorders in Japan.[64] According to the Digital Entertainment Group, the number of Blu-ray Disc playback devices (both set-top box and game console) sold in the U.S. had reached 28.5 million by the end of 2010.[62] Blu-ray faces competition from video on demand[65] and from new technologies that allow access to movies on any format or device, such as Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem or Disney's Keychest.[66] Some commentators have suggested that renting Blu-ray will play a vital part in keeping the technology affordable while allowing it to move forward.[67] In an effort to increase sales, studios are releasing movies in combo packs with Blu-ray Discs and DVDs as well as digital copies that can be played on computers and mobile devices. Some are released on "flipper" discs with Blu-ray on one side and DVD on the other. Other strategies are to release movies with the special features only on Blu-ray Discs and none on DVDs. The Holographic Versatile Disc (HVD), described in the ECMA-377 standard, has been in development by The Holography System Development (HSD) Forum using a green writing/reading laser (532?nm) and a red positioning/addressing laser (650?nm). It is to offer MPEG-2, MPEG-4 AVC (H.264), HEVC (H.265), and VC-1 encoding, supporting a maximum storage capacity of 6TB.[68] No systems corresponding to the Ecma International HVD standard have been released.[69] Because the Blu-ray Disc format is upgradable it poses challenges to the adoption of the HVD format. 4K Blu-ray discs and players became available in the first quarter of 2016, having a storage capacity of up to 100?GB.[70][71] Although the Blu-ray Disc specification has been finalized, engineers continue to work on advancing the technology. By 2005, quad-layer (128?GB) discs had been demonstrated on a drive with modified optics[72] and standard unaltered optics.[73] Hitachi stated that such a disc could be used to store 7?hours of 32?Mbit/s video (HDTV) or 3?hours and 30?minutes of 64?Mbit/s video (Ultra high definition television). In August 2006, TDK announced that they had created a working experimental Blu-ray Disc capable of holding 200?GB of data on a single side, using six 33?GB data layers.[74] Also, behind closed doors at CES 2007, Ritek revealed that they had successfully developed a High Definition optical disc process that extends the disc capacity to ten layers, which increases the capacity of the discs to 250?GB. However, they noted that the major obstacle is that current read/write technology does not allow additional layers.[75] JVC has developed a three-layer technology that allows putting both standard-definition DVD data and HD data on a BD/(standard) DVD combination.[76] This would have enabled the consumer to purchase a disc that can be played on DVD players and can also reveal its HD version when played on a BD player.[77] Japanese optical disc manufacturer Infinity announced the first "hybrid" Blu-ray Disc/(standard) DVD combo, to be released February 18, 2009. This disc set of the TV series "Code Blue" featured four hybrid discs containing a single Blu-ray Disc layer (25?GB) and two DVD layers (9?GB) on the same side of the disc.[78] In January 2007, Hitachi showcased a 100?GB Blu-ray Disc, consisting of four layers containing 25?GB each.[79] Unlike TDK and Panasonic's 100?GB discs, they claim this disc is readable on standard Blu-ray Disc drives that are currently in circulation, and it is believed that a firmware update is the only requirement to make it readable to current players and drives.[80] In December 2008, Pioneer Corporation unveiled a 400?GB Blu-ray Disc (containing 16 data layers, 25?GB each) that will be compatible with current players after a firmware update. Its planned launch was in the 2009ÿ10 time frame for ROM and 2010ÿ13 for rewritable discs. Ongoing development was underway to create a 1?TB Blu-ray Disc.[81] At CES 2009, Panasonic unveiled the DMP-B15, the first portable Blu-ray Disc player, and Sharp introduced the LC-BD60U and LC-BD80U series, the first LCD HDTVs with integrated Blu-ray Disc players. Sharp has also announced that they will sell HDTVs with integrated Blu-ray Disc recorders in the United States by the end of 2009. Set-top box recorders were not being sold in the U.S. for fear of unauthorized copying. However, personal computers with Blu-ray recorder drives were available. On January 1, 2010, Sony, in association with Panasonic, announced plans to increase the storage capacity on their Blu-ray Discs from 25?GB to 33.4?GB via a technology called i-MLSE (Maximum likelihood Sequence Estimation). The higher-capacity discs, according to Sony, would be readable on existing Blu-ray Disc players with a firmware upgrade. No date was set to include the increased space, although in 2010 Blu-ray.com reported that "it will likely happen sometime later this year."[82] On July 20, 2010, the research team of Sony and Japanese Tohoku University announced the joint development of a blue-violet laser,[83] to help create Blu-ray discs with a capacity of 1 TB using only two layers (and potentially more than 1 TB with additional layering). By comparison, the first blue laser was invented in 1996, with the first prototype discs coming four years later. On January 7, 2013, Sony announced that it would release "Mastered in 4K" Blu-ray Disc titles which are sourced at 4K and encoded at 1080p.[84] "Mastered in 4K" Blu-ray Disc titles can be played on existing Blu-ray Disc players and have a larger color space using xvYCC.[84][85] On January 14, 2013, Blu-ray Disc Association president, Andy Parsons, stated that a task force was created three months prior to conduct a study concerning an extension to the Blu-ray Disc specification that would add the ability to contain 4K Ultra HD video.[86][87] On August 5, 2015, The Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) announced it will commence licensing the Ultra HD Blu-ray format starting August 24, 2015. The Ultra HD Blu-ray format delivered high dynamic range content that significantly expanded the range between the brightest and darkest elements, expanded color range, high frame rate (up to 60fps) and up to 3840G2160 resolution, object-based sound formats, and an optional "digital bridge" feature. New players were required to play this format, which were able to play both DVDs, traditional Blu-rays and the new format. New Ultra HD Blu-ray discs hold up to 66?GB and 100?GB of data on dual and triple layer discs respectively.[88] While a DVD uses a 650?nm red laser, Blu-ray Disc uses a 405?nm "blue" laser diode. Note that even though the laser is called "blue", its color is actually in the violet range. The shorter wavelength can be focused to a smaller area, thus enabling it to read information recorded in pits that are less than half the size of those on a DVD, and can consequently be spaced more closely, resulting in a shorter track pitch, enabling a Blu-ray Disc to hold about five times the amount of information that can be stored on a DVD. The lasers are GaN (gallium nitride) laser diodes that produce 405?nm light directly, that is, without frequency doubling or other nonlinear optical mechanisms.[90] Conventional DVDs use 650?nm red lasers, and CDs use 780?nm near-infrared lasers. The minimum "spot size" on which a laser can be focused is limited by diffraction and depends on the wavelength of the light and the numerical aperture of the lens used to focus it. By decreasing the wavelength, increasing the numerical aperture from 0.60 to 0.85, and making the cover layer thinner to avoid unwanted optical effects, designers can cause the laser beam to focus on a smaller spot, which effectively allows more information to be stored in the same area.[91] For Blu-ray Disc, the spot size is 580?nm.[92] This allows a reduction of the pit size from 400?nm for DVD to 150?nm for Blu-ray Disc, and of the track pitch from 740?nm to 320?nm.[91] See Compact Disc for information on optical discs' physical structure. In addition to the optical improvements, Blu-ray Discs feature improvements in data encoding that further increase the amount of content that can be stored.[93] Since the Blu-ray Disc data layer is closer to the surface of the disc compared to the DVD standard, it was more vulnerable to scratches in early designs.[94] The first discs were therefore housed in cartridges for protection, resembling Professional Discs introduced by Sony in 2003. Using a cartridge would increase the price of an already expensive medium, so designers chose hard-coating of the pickup surface instead. TDK was the first company to develop a working scratch-protection coating for Blu-ray Discs, naming it Durabis. In addition, both Sony's and Panasonic's replication methods include proprietary hard-coat technologies. Sony's rewritable media are spin-coated, using a scratch-resistant and antistatic coating. Verbatim's recordable and rewritable Blu-ray Discs use their own proprietary technology, called Hard Coat.[95] The Blu-ray Disc specification requires the testing of resistance to scratches by mechanical abrasion.[91] In contrast, DVD media are not required to be scratch-resistant, but since development of the technology, some companies, such as Verbatim, implemented hard-coating for more expensive lines of recordable DVDs. The table shows the speeds available. Even the lowest speed (1x) is sufficient to play and record real-time 1080p video; the higher speeds are relevant for general data storage and more sophisticated handling of video. The usable data rate of a Blu-ray Disc drive can be limited by the capacity of the drive's data interface. With a USB 2.0 interface, the maximum exploitable drive speed is 288?Mbit/s or 36?MB/s (also called 8G speed).[96] A USB 3.0 interface (with proper cabling) does not have this limitation,[97] nor do even the oldest version of Serial ATA (SATA) nor the latest Parallel ATA standards.[98] Blu-ray drives that are integrated into a computer (as opposed to physically separate and connected via a cable) typically have a SATA interface.[99] Pre-recorded Blu-ray Disc titles usually ship in packages similar to but slightly smaller (18.5?mm shorter and 2?mm thinner: 135?mm x 171.5?mm x 13?mm.[100]), as well as more rounded than a standard DVD keep case, generally with the format prominently displayed in a horizontal stripe across the top of the case (translucent blue for Blu-ray video discs, red for PlayStation 3 Greatest Hits Games, transparent for regular PlayStation 3 games, transparent dark blue for PlayStation 4 games and transparent green for Xbox One games). Warren Osborn and The Seastone Media Group, LLC created the package that was adopted worldwide following the Blu-ray vs. HD DVD market adoption choice.[101] Because of the fact that Blu-ray cases are smaller than DVD cases, more Blu-Rays than DVDs can fit on a shelf, making Blu-ray an arguably better choice for situations with limited storage space. The "Mini Blu-ray Disc" (also, "Mini-BD" and "Mini Blu-ray") is a compact 8?cm (~3?in)-diameter variant of the Blu-ray Disc that can store 7.8?GB of data in its single layer configuration, or 15.6?GB on a dual layer disc.[102] It is similar in concept to the MiniDVD and MiniCD. Recordable (BD-R) and rewritable (BD-RE) versions of Mini Blu-ray Disc have been developed specifically for compact camcorders and other compact recording devices.[103] "Blu-ray Disc recordable" refers to two optical disc formats that can be recorded with an optical disc recorder. BD-Rs can be written to once, whereas BD-REs can be erased and re-recorded multiple times. The current practical maximum speed for Blu-ray Discs is about 12G. Higher speeds of rotation (10,000+ rpm) cause too much wobble for the discs to be written properly, as with the 20G and 52G maximum speeds, respectively, of standard DVDs and CDs. Since September 2007, BD-RE is also available in the smaller 8?cm Mini Blu-ray Disc size.[103][104] On September 18, 2007, Pioneer and Mitsubishi codeveloped BD-R LTH ("Low to High" in groove recording), which features an organic dye recording layer that can be manufactured by modifying existing CD-R and DVD-R production equipment, significantly reducing manufacturing costs.[105] In February 2008, Taiyo Yuden, Mitsubishi, and Maxell released the first BD-R LTH Discs,[106] and in March 2008, Sony's PlayStation 3 officially gained the ability to use BD-R LTH Discs with the 2.20 firmware update.[107] In May 2009 Verbatim/Mitsubishi announced the industry's first 6X BD-R LTH media, which allows recording a 25?GB disc in about 16 minutes.[108] Unlike with the previous releases of 120?mm optical discs (i.e. CDs and standard DVDs), Blu-ray recorders hit the market almost simultaneously with Blu-ray's debut. The BD9 format was proposed to the Blu-ray Disc Association by Warner Home Video as a cost-effective alternative to the 25/50?GB BD-ROM discs. The format was supposed to use the same codecs and program structure as Blu-ray Disc video but recorded onto less expensive 8.5?GB dual-layer DVD. This red-laser media could be manufactured on existing DVD production lines with lower costs of production than the 25/50?GB Blu-ray media.[109] Usage of BD9 for releasing content on "pressed" discs never caught on. With the end of the format war, manufacturers ramped production of Blu-ray Discs and lowered prices to compete with DVDs. On the other hand, the idea of using inexpensive DVD media became popular among individual users. A lower-capacity version of this format that uses single-layer 4.7?GB DVDs has been unofficially called BD5. Both formats are being used by individuals for recording high definition content in Blu-ray format onto recordable DVD media.[110][111] Despite the fact that the BD9 format has been adopted as part of the BD-ROM basic format, none of the existing Blu-ray player models explicitly claim to be able to read it. Consequently, the discs recorded in BD9 and BD5 formats are not guaranteed to play on standard Blu-ray Disc players. AVCHD and AVCREC also use inexpensive media like DVDs, but unlike BD9 and BD5 these formats have limited interactivity, codec types, and data rates. As of March 2011, BD9 was removed as an official BD-ROM disc.[112] The BDXL format allows 100?GB and 128?GB write-once discs,[113][114] and 100?GB rewritable discs for commercial applications. It was defined in June 2010.[citation needed] BD-R 3.0 Format Specification (BDXL) defined a multi-layered disc recordable in BDAV format with the speed of 2G and 4G, capable of 100/128?GB and usage of UDF2.5/2.6.[115] BD-RE 4.0 Format Specification (BDXL) defined a multi-layered disc rewritable in BDAV with the speed of 2G and 4G, capable of 100?GB and usage of UDF2.5 as file system.[116] The IH-BD (Intra-Hybrid Blu-ray) format includes a 25?GB rewritable layer (BD-RE) and a 25?GB write once layer (BD-ROM), designed to work with existing Blu-ray Discs.[113][114] Blu-ray Disc specifies the use of Universal Disk Format (UDF) 2.50 as a convergent friendly format for both PC and consumer electronics environments. It is used in the latest specifications of BD-ROM, BD-RE, and BD-R.[117][118][119] In the first BD-RE specification (defined in 2002), the BDFS (Blu-ray Disc File System) was used. The BD-RE 1.0 specification was defined mainly for the digital recording of high-definition television (HDTV) broadcast television. The BDFS was replaced by UDF 2.50 in the second BD-RE specification in 2005, in order to enable interoperability among consumer electronics Blu-ray recorders and personal computer systems. These optical disc recording technologies enabled PC recording and playback of BD-RE.[119][120][121] BD-R can use UDF 2.50/2.60.[122] The Blu-ray Disc application for recording of digital broadcasting has been developed as System Description Blu-ray Rewritable Disc Format part 3 Audio Visual Basic Specifications (BDAV). The requirements related with computer file system have been specified in System Description Blu-ray Rewritable Disc Format part 2 File System Specifications version 1.0 (BDFS).[123] Initially, the BD-RE version 1.0 (BDFS) was specifically developed for recording of digital broadcasts using the Blu-ray Disc application (BDAV application). But these requirements are superseded by the Blu-ray Rewritable Disc File System Specifications version 2.0 (UDF) (a.k.a. RE 2.0) and Blu-ray Recordable Disc File System Specifications version 1.0 (UDF) (a.k.a. R 1.0). Additionally, a new application format, BDMV (System Description Blu-ray Disc Prerecorded Format part 3 Audio Visual Basic Specifications) for High Definition Content Distribution was developed for BD-ROM. The only file system developed for BDMV is the System Description Blu-ray Read-Only Disc Format part 2 File System Specifications version 1.0 (UDF) which defines the requirements for UDF 2.50.[119][123] All BDMV application files are stored under a BDMV directory.[128][129][130][131] Audio, video, and other streams are multiplexed and stored on Blu-ray Discs in a container format based on the MPEG transport stream. It is also known as BDAV MPEG-2 transport stream and can use filename extension .m2ts.[128][132] Blu-ray Disc titles authored with menus are in the BDMV (Blu-ray Disc Movie) format and contain audio, video, and other streams in BDAV container.[133][134] There is also the BDAV (Blu-ray Disc Audio/Visual) format, the consumer oriented alternative to the BDMV format used for movie releases. The BDAV format is used on BD-REs and BD-Rs for audio/video recording.[134] BDMV format was later defined also for BD-RE and BD-R (in September 2006, in the third revision of BD-RE specification and second revision of BD-R specification).[117][118] Blu-ray Disc employs the MPEG transport stream recording method. That enables transport streams of digital broadcasts to be recorded as they are broadcast, without altering the format.[135] It also enables flexible editing of a digital broadcast that is recorded as is and where the data can be edited just by rewriting the playback stream. Although it is quite natural, a function for high-speed and easy-to-use retrieval is built in.[135][136] Blu-ray Disc Video use MPEG transport streams, compared to DVD's MPEG program streams. An MPEG transport stream contains one or more MPEG program streams, so this allows multiple video programs to be stored in the same file so they can be played back simultaneously (e.g. with "picture-in-picture" effect). The BD-ROM specification mandates certain codec compatibilities for both hardware decoders (players) and movie software (content).[132][137] Windows Media Player does not come with the codecs required to play Blu-ray discs.[138] Originally BD-ROMs stored video up to 1920G1080 pixel resolution at up to 60 (59.94) fields per second. Currently with UHD BD-ROM videos can be stored at a maximum of 3840G2160 pixel resolution at up to 60 (59.94) frames per second, progressively scanned. While most current Blu-ray players and recorders can read and write 1920G1080 video at the full 59.94p and 50p progressive format, new players for the UHD specifications will be able to read at 3840G2160 video at either 59.94p and 50p formats. ^ a Interlaced formats are listed in fields per second. ^ b MPEG-2 at 1440G1080 was previously not included in a draft version of the specification from March 2005.[141] For video, all players are required to process H.262/MPEG-2 Part 2, H.264/MPEG-4 Part 10: AVC, and SMPTE VC-1.[142] BD-ROM titles with video must store video using one of the three mandatory formats; multiple formats on a single title are allowed. Blu-ray Disc allows video with a bit depth of 8-bits per color YCbCr with 4:2:0 chroma subsampling.[143][144] The choice of formats affects the producer's licensing/royalty costs as well as the title's maximum run time, due to differences in compression efficiency. Discs encoded in MPEG-2 video typically limit content producers to around two hours of high-definition content on a single-layer (25?GB) BD-ROM. The more-advanced video formats (VC-1 and MPEG-4 AVC) typically achieve a video run time twice that of MPEG-2, with comparable quality. MPEG-2 was used by many studios (including Paramount Pictures, which initially used the VC-1 format for HD DVD releases) for the first series of Blu-ray Discs, which were launched throughout 2006.[145] Modern releases are now often encoded in either MPEG-4 AVC or VC-1, allowing film studios to place all content on one disc, reducing costs and improving ease of use. Using these formats also frees a lot of space for storage of bonus content in HD (1080i/p), as opposed to the SD (480i/p) typically used for most titles. Some studios, such as Warner Bros., have released bonus content on discs encoded in a different format than the main feature title. For example, the Blu-ray Disc release of Superman Returns uses VC-1 for the feature film and MPEG-2 for some of its bonus content.[146] Today, Warner and other studios typically provide bonus content in the video format that matches the feature. For audio, BD-ROM players are required to implement Dolby Digital (AC-3), DTS, and linear PCM. Players may optionally implement Dolby Digital Plus and DTS-HD High Resolution Audio as well as lossless formats Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio.[147] BD-ROM titles must use one of the mandatory schemes for the primary soundtrack. A secondary audiotrack, if present, may use any of the mandatory or optional codecs. For users recording digital television programming, the recordable Blu-ray Disc standard's initial data rate of 36?Mbit/s is more than adequate to record high-definition broadcasts from any source (IPTV, cable/satellite, or terrestrial). BD Video movies have a maximum data transfer rate of 54?Mbit/s, a maximum AV bitrate of 48?Mbit/s (for both audio and video data), and a maximum video bit rate of 40?Mbit/s. This compares to HD DVD movies, which have a maximum data transfer rate of 36?Mbit/s, a maximum AV bitrate of 30.24?Mbit/s, and a maximum video bitrate of 29.4?Mbit/s.[149] At the 2005 JavaOne trade show, it was announced that Sun Microsystems' Java cross-platform software environment would be included in all Blu-ray Disc players as a mandatory part of the standard.[150] Java is used to implement interactive menus on Blu-ray Discs, as opposed to the method used on DVD-video discs. DVDs use pre-rendered MPEG segments and selectable subtitle pictures, which are considerably more primitive and rarely seamless. At the conference, Java creator James Gosling suggested that the inclusion of a Java virtual machine, as well as network connectivity in some BD devices, will allow updates to Blu-ray Discs via the Internet, adding content such as additional subtitle languages and promotional features not included on the disc at pressing time.[151] This Java Version is called BD-J and is built on a profile of the Globally Executable MHP (GEM) standard; GEM is the worldwide version of the Multimedia Home Platform standard. The BD-ROM specification defines four Blu-ray Disc player profiles, including an audio-only player profile (BD-Audio) that does not require video decoding or BD-J. All of the video-based player profiles (BD-Video) are required to have a full implementation of BD-J. ^ a This is used for storing audio/video and title updates. It can either be built-in memory or removable media, such as a memory card or USB flash memory. ^ b A secondary audio decoder is typically used for interactive audio and commentary. ^ c Profile 3.0 is a separate audio-only player profile. The first Blu-ray Disc album to be released was Divertimenti, by record label Lindberg Lyd, and it has been confirmed to work on the PS3.[152][153] ^ d Also known as Initial Standard profile. ^ e Also known as Final Standard profile. On November 2, 2007, the Grace Period Profile was superseded by Bonus View as the minimum profile for new BD-Video players released to the market.[154] When Blu-ray Disc software not authored with interactive features dependent on Bonus View or BD-Live hardware capabilities is played on Profile 1.0 players, it is able to play the main feature of the disc, but some extra features may not be available or will have limited capability.[155] The biggest difference between Bonus View and BD-Live is that BD-Live requires the Blu-ray Disc player to have an Internet connection to access Internet-based content. BD-Live features have included Internet chats, scheduled chats with the director, Internet games, downloadable featurettes, downloadable quizzes, and downloadable movie trailers.[156][157][158] Note that while some Bonus View players may have an Ethernet port, these are used for firmware updates and are not used for Internet-based content.[159] In addition, Profile 2.0 also requires more local storage in order to handle this content. Profile 1.0 players are not eligible for Bonus View or BD-Live compliant upgrades and do not have the function or capability to access these upgrades, with the exception of the latest players and the PlayStation 3. Internet is required to use.[160][161][162] As with the implementation of region codes for DVDs, Blu-ray Disc players sold in a specific geographical region are designed to play only discs authorized by the content provider for that region. This is intended to permit content providers (motion picture studios, television production company etc.) to do effective price differentiation between regions. According to the Blu-ray Disc Association, all Blu-ray Disc players and Blu-ray Disc-equipped computer systems are required to enforce regional coding. However, content providers need not use region playback codes.[164] Some current estimates suggest 70% of available [movie] Blu-ray Discs from the major studios are region-code-free and can, therefore, be played on any Blu-ray Disc player, in any region.[165] Movie distributors have different region coding policies. Among major U.S. studios, Walt Disney Pictures, Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, Universal Studios, and Sony Pictures have released most of their titles region-free.[166][167][168][169][170][171] MGM and Lions Gate Entertainment have released a mix of region-free and region-coded titles.[172][173] 20th Century Fox has released most of their titles region-coded.[174] Vintage film restoration and distribution company The Criterion Collection uses US region coding in all Blu-ray releases.[175][176] The Blu-ray Disc region coding scheme divides the world into three regions, labeled A, B, and C. In circumvention of region coding restrictions, stand-alone Blu-ray Disc players are sometimes modified by third parties to allow for playback of Blu-ray Discs (and DVDs) with any region code.[177] Instructions ("hacks") describing how to reset the Blu-ray region counter of computer player applications to make them multi-region indefinitely are also regularly posted to video enthusiast websites and forums. Unlike DVD region codes, Blu-ray region codes are verified only by the player software, not by the optical drive's firmware. The latest type of Blu-Ray disc, suitable for UltraHD content, are region-free.[178] The Blu-ray Disc format employs several layers of digital rights management (DRM) which restrict the usage of the discs.[179][180] This has led to extensive criticism of the format by organizations opposed to DRM, such as the Free Software Foundation,[181] and consumers because new releases require player firmware updates to allow disc playback.[182][183] Blu-ray equipment is required to implement the High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) system to encrypt the data sent by players to rendering devices through physical connections. This is aimed at preventing the copying of copyrighted content as it travels across cables. Through a protocol flag in the media stream called the Image Constraint Token (ICT), a Blu-ray Disc can enforce its reproduction in a lower resolution whenever a full HDCP-compliant link is not used. In order to ease the transition to high definition formats, the adoption of this protection method was postponed until 2011.[184] The Advanced Access Content System (AACS) is a standard for content distribution and digital rights management. It was developed by AS Licensing Administrator, LLC (AACS LA), a consortium that includes Disney, Intel, Microsoft, Panasonic, Warner Bros., IBM, Toshiba, and Sony. Since the appearance of the format on devices in 2006, several successful attacks have been made on it. The first known attack relied on the trusted client problem. In addition, decryption keys have been extracted from a weakly protected player (WinDVD). Since keys can be revoked in newer releases,[185] this is only a temporary attack, and new keys must continually be discovered in order to decrypt the latest discs. BD+ was developed by Cryptography Research Inc. and is based on their concept of Self-Protecting Digital Content.[186] BD+, effectively a small virtual machine embedded in authorized players, allows content providers to include executable programs on Blu-ray Discs. Such programs can:[179] If a playback device manufacturer finds that its devices have been hacked, it can potentially release BD+ code that detects and circumvents the vulnerability. These programs can then be included in all new content releases.[187] The specifications of the BD+ virtual machine are available only to licensed device manufacturers. A list of licensed commercial adopters is available from the BD+ website. The first titles using BD+ were released in October 2007. Since November 2007, versions of BD+ protection have been circumvented by various versions of the AnyDVD HD program.[188][189] Other programs known to be capable of circumventing BD+ protection are DumpHD (versions 0.6 and above, along with some supporting software),[190] MakeMKV,[191] and two applications from DVDFab (Passkey and HD Decrypter[192]). BD-ROM Mark is a small amount of cryptographic data that is stored separately from normal Blu-ray Disc data, aiming to prevent replication of the discs. The cryptographic data is needed to decrypt the copyrighted disc content protected by AACS.[193] A specially licensed piece of hardware is required to insert the ROM-Mark into the media during mastering. During replication, this ROM Mark is transferred together with the recorded data to the disc. In consequence, any copies of a disc made with a regular recorder will lack the ROM-Mark data and will be unreadable on standard players. The Blu-ray Disc Association recommends but does not require that Blu-ray Disc drives be capable of reading standard DVDs and CDs, for backward compatibility.[194] Most Blu-ray Disc players are capable of reading both CDs and DVDs; however, a few of the early Blu-ray Disc players released in 2006, such as the Sony BDP-S1, could play DVDs but not CDs.[195][196][197] In addition, Blu-ray players cannot play HD DVDs, and HD DVD players cannot play Blu-ray discs. Some Blu-ray players can also play Video CDs, and all 4k Blu-ray players can play regular Blu-ray discs, and most can play DVDs and CDs, but there are no known 4k Blu-ray players that can play Video CDs as of October 13, 2017. The PlayStation 4 does not support CDs. High Fidelity Pure Audio (HFPA) is a marketing initiative, spearheaded by the Universal Music Group, for audio-only Blu-ray optical discs. Launched in 2013 as a potential successor to the Compact disc, it has been compared with DVD-A and SACD, which had similar aims. AVCHD was originally developed as a high definition format for consumer tapeless camcorders. Derived from the Blu-ray Disc specification, AVCHD shares a similar random access directory structure but is restricted to lower audio and video bitrates, simpler interactivity, and the use of AVC-video and Dolby AC-3 (or linear PCM) audio. Being primarily an acquisition format, AVCHD playback is not recognized by all devices that play Blu-ray Disc. Nevertheless, many such devices are capable of playing AVCHD recordings from removable media, such as DVDs, SD/SDHC memory cards, "Memory Stick" cards, and hard disk drives.[198] AVCREC uses a BDAV container to record high definition content on conventional DVDs.[199] Presently AVCREC is tightly integrated with the Japanese ISDB broadcast standard and is not marketed outside of Japan. AVCREC is used primarily in set-top digital video recorders and in this regard is comparable to HD REC. The Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) created a task force made up of executives from the film industry and the consumer electronics and IT sectors to help define standards for putting 3D film and 3D television content on a Blu-ray Disc.[200] On December 17, 2009, the BDA officially announced 3D specs for Blu-ray Disc, allowing backward compatibility with current 2D Blu-ray players.[201] The BDA has said, "The Blu-ray 3D specification calls for encoding 3D video using the "Stereo High" profile defined by Multiview Video Coding (MVC), an extension to the ITU-T H.264 Advanced Video Coding (AVC) codec currently implemented by all Blu-ray Disc players. MPEG4-MVC compresses both left and right eye views with a typical 50% overhead compared to equivalent 2D content, and can provide full 1080p resolution backward compatibility with current 2D Blu-ray Disc players."[202] This means the MVC (3D) stream is backward compatible with H.264/AVC (2D) stream, allowing older 2D devices and software to decode stereoscopic video streams, ignoring additional information for the second view. Sony added Blu-ray 3D support to its PlayStation 3 console via a firmware upgrade on 21 September 2010.[203] The console had previously gained 3D gaming capability via an update on 21 April 2010.[204] Since the version 3.70 software update in August 9, 2011, the PlayStation 3 can play DTS-HD Master Audio and DTS-HD High Resolution Audio while playing 3D Blu-ray.[205] Dolby TrueHD is used on a small minority of Blu-ray 3D releases, and bitstreaming implemented in slim PlayStation 3 models only (original "fat" PS3 models decode internally and send audio as LPCM).[206] Ultra HD Blu-ray is a new disc format, incompatible with existing Blu-ray Disc players, that supports 60fps 4K UHD video encoded in HEVC with 10-bit HDR and a wider color gamut.

the cytoplasm🚨 In cell biology, the cytoplasm is the material within a living cell, excluding the cell nucleus. It comprises cytosol (the gel-like substance enclosed within the cell membrane) and the organelles ÿ the cell's internal sub-structures. All of the contents of the cells of prokaryotic organisms (such as bacteria, which lack a cell nucleus) are contained within the cytoplasm. Within the cells of eukaryotic organisms the contents of the cell nucleus are separated from the cytoplasm, and are then called the nucleoplasm. The cytoplasm is about 80% water and usually colorless.[1] The submicroscopic ground cell substance or cytoplasmatic matrix which remains after exclusion the cell organelles and particles is groundplasm. It is the hyaloplasm of light microscopy, and high complex, polyphasic system in which all of resolvable cytoplasmic elements of are suspended, including the larger organelles such as the ribosomes, mitochondria, the plant plastids, lipid droplets, and vacuoles. It is within the cytoplasm that most cellular activities occur, such as many metabolic pathways including glycolysis, and processes such as cell division. The concentrated inner area is called the endoplasm and the outer layer is called the cell cortex or the ectoplasm. Movement of calcium ions in and out of the cytoplasm is a signaling activity for metabolic processes.[2] In plants, movement of the cytoplasm around vacuoles is known as cytoplasmic streaming. The term was introduced by Rudolf von K?lliker in 1863, originally as a synonym for protoplasm, but later it has come to mean the cell substance and organelles outside the nucleus.[3][4] There has been certain disagreement on the definition of cytoplasm, as some authors prefer to exclude from it some organelles, especially the vacuoles[5] and sometimes the plastids.[6] The physical properties of the cytoplasm have been contested in recent years.[citation needed] It remains uncertain how the varied components of the cytoplasm interact to allow movement of particles[clarification needed] and organelles while maintaining the cells structure. The flow of cytoplasmic components plays an important role in many cellular functions which are dependent on the permeability of the cytoplasm.[7] An example of such function is cell signalling, a process which is dependent on the manner in which signaling molecules are allowed to diffuse across the cell.[8] While small signaling molecules like calcium ions are able to diffuse with ease, larger molecules and subcellular structures often require aid in moving through the cytoplasm.[9] The irregular dynamics of such particles have given rise to various theories on the nature of the cytoplasm. There has long been evidence that the cytoplasm behaves like a sol-gel.[10] It is thought that the component molecules and structures of the cytoplasm behave at times like a disordered colloidal solution (sol) and at other times like an integrated network, forming a solid mass (gel). This theory thus proposes that the cytoplasm exists in distinct fluid and solid phases depending on the level of interaction between cytoplasmic components, which may explain the differential dynamics of different particles observed moving through the cytoplasm. Recently it has been proposed that the cytoplasm behaves like a glass-forming liquid approaching the glass transition.[9] In this theory, the greater the concentration of cytoplasmic components, the less the cytoplasm behaves like a liquid and the more it behaves as a solid glass, freezing larger cytoplasmic components in place (it is thought that the cell's metabolic activity is able to fluidize the cytoplasm to allow the movement of such larger cytoplasmic components).[9] A cell's ability to vitrify in the absence of metabolic activity, as in dormant periods, may be beneficial as a defence strategy. A solid glass cytoplasm would freeze subcellular structures in place, preventing damage, while allowing the transmission of very small proteins and metabolites, helping to kickstart growth upon the cell's revival from dormancy.[9] There has been research examining the motion of cytoplasmic particles independent of the nature of the cytoplasm. In such an alternative approach, the aggregate random forces within the cell caused by motor proteins explain the non-Brownian motion of cytoplasmic constituents.[11] The three major elements of the cytoplasm are the cytosol, organelles and inclusions. The cytosol is the portion of the cytoplasm not contained within membrane-bound organelles. Cytosol makes up about 70% of the cell volume and is a complex mixture of cytoskeleton filaments, dissolved molecules, and water. The cytosol's filaments include the protein filaments such as actin filaments and microtubules that make up the cytoskeleton, as well as soluble proteins and small structures such as ribosomes, proteasomes, and the mysterious vault complexes.[12] The inner, granular and more fluid portion of the cytoplasm is referred to as endoplasm. Due to this network of fibres and high concentrations of dissolved macromolecules, such as proteins, an effect called macromolecular crowding occurs and the cytosol does not act as an ideal solution. This crowding effect alters how the components of the cytosol interact with each other. Organelles (literally "little organs"), are usually membrane-bound structures inside the cell that have specific functions. Some major organelles that are suspended in the cytosol are the mitochondria, the endoplasmic reticulum, the Golgi apparatus, vacuoles, lysosomes, and in plant cells, chloroplasts. The inclusions are small particles of insoluble substances suspended in the cytosol. A huge range of inclusions exist in different cell types, and range from crystals of calcium oxalate or silicon dioxide in plants,[13][14] to granules of energy-storage materials such as starch,[15] glycogen,[16] or polyhydroxybutyrate.[17] A particularly widespread example are lipid droplets, which are spherical droplets composed of lipids and proteins that are used in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes as a way of storing lipids such as fatty acids and sterols.[18] Lipid droplets make up much of the volume of adipocytes, which are specialized lipid-storage cells, but they are also found in a range of other cell types. The cytoplasm, mitochondria and most organelles are contributions to the cell from the maternal gamete. Contrary to the older information that disregards any notion of the cytoplasm being active, new research has shown it to be in control of movement and flow of nutrients in and out of the cell by viscoplastic behavior and a measure of the reciprocal rate of bond breakage within the cytoplasmic network.[19] The material properties of the cytoplasm remain an ongoing investigation. Recent measurements using force spectrum microscopy reveal that the cytoplasm can be likened to an elastic solid, rather than a viscoelastic fluid.

jaguars🚨The harpy eagle (Harpia harpyja) is a neotropical species of eagle. It is also called the American harpy eagle to distinguish it from the Papuan eagle, which is sometimes known as the New Guinea harpy eagle or Papuan harpy eagle.[3] It is the largest and most powerful raptor found in the rainforest,[4] and among the largest extant species of eagles in the world. It usually inhabits tropical lowland rainforests in the upper (emergent) canopy layer. Destruction of its natural habitat has caused it to vanish from many parts of its former range, and it is nearly extirpated in Central America. In Brazil, the harpy eagle is also known as royal-hawk (in Portuguese: gavi?o-real).[5] The harpy eagle was first described by Linnaeus in his Systema Naturae in 1758 as Vultur harpyja,[6] after the mythological beast harpy. The only member of the genus Harpia, the harpy eagle is most closely related to the crested eagle (Morphnus guianensis) and the New Guinea harpy eagle (Harpyopsis novaeguineae), the three composing the subfamily Harpiinae within the large family Accipitridae. Previously thought to be related, the Philippine eagle has been shown by DNA analysis to belong elsewhere in the raptor family, as it is related to the Circaetinae.[7] The species name harpyja and the word harpy in the common name harpy eagle both come from Ancient Greek hrpuia (?ϫ). They refer to the Harpies of Ancient Greek mythology. These were wind spirits that took the dead to Hades, and were said to have a body like an eagle and the face of a human.[8] The upper side of the harpy eagle is covered with slate-black feathers, and the underside is mostly white, except for the feathered tarsi, which are striped black. A broad black band across the upper breast separates the gray head from the white belly. The head is pale grey, and is crowned with a double crest. The upper side of the tail is black with three gray bands, while the underside of it is black with three white bands. The iris is gray or brown or red, the cere and bill are black or blackish and the tarsi and toes are yellow. The plumage of males and females are identical. The tarsus is up to 13?cm (5.1?in) long.[9][10] Female harpy eagles typically weigh 6 to 9?kg (13 to 20?lb).[9][11] One source states that adult females can weigh up to 10?kg (22?lb).[12] An exceptionally large captive female, "Jezebel", weighed 12.3?kg (27?lb).[13] Being captive, this large female may not be representative of the weight possible in wild harpy eagles due to differences in the food availability.[14][15] The male, in comparison, is much smaller and weighs only about 4 to 4.8?kg (8.8 to 10.6?lb).[9][11] Harpy eagles are 86.5ÿ107?cm (2?ft 10?inÿ3?ft 6?in) long[10][11] and have a wingspan of 176 to 224?cm (5?ft 9?in to 7?ft 4?in).[9][10] Among the standard measurements, the wing chord measures 54ÿ63?cm (1?ft 9?inÿ2?ft 1?in), the tail measures 37ÿ42?cm (1?ft 3?inÿ1?ft 5?in), the tarsus is 11.4ÿ13?cm (4.5ÿ5.1?in) long, and the exposed culmen from the cere is 4.2 to 6.5?cm (1.7 to 2.6?in).[9][16][17] It is sometimes cited as the largest eagle alongside the Philippine eagle, which is somewhat longer on average, and the Steller's sea eagle, which is slightly heavier on average.[8] The wingspan of the harpy eagle is relatively small, an adaptation that increases maneuverability in forested habitats and is shared by other raptors in similar habitats. The wingspan of the harpy eagle is surpassed by several large eagles who live in more open habitats, such as those in the Haliaeetus and Aquila genera.[9] The extinct Haast's eagle was significantly larger than all extant eagles, including the harpy.[18] This species is largely silent away from the nest. There, the adults give a penetrating, weak, melancholy scream, with the incubating males' call described as "whispy screaming or wailing".[19] The females' calls while incubating are similar, but are lower-pitched. While approaching the nest with food, the male calls out "rapid chirps, goose-like calls, and occasional sharp screams". Vocalization in both parents decreases as the nestlings age, while the nestlings become more vocal. The nestlings call chi-chi-chi...chi-chi-chi-chi, seemingly in alarm in response to rain or direct sunlight. When humans approach the nest, the nestlings have been described as uttering croaks, quacks, and whistles.[20] Rare throughout its range, the harpy eagle is found from Mexico (almost extinct), through Central America and into South America to as far south as Argentina. The eagle is most common in Brazil, where it is found across the entire national territory.[21] With the exception of some areas of Panama, the species is almost extinct in Central America, subsequent to the logging of much of the rainforest there.[22] The harpy eagle inhabits tropical lowland rainforests and may occur within such areas from the canopy to the emergent vegetation. They typically occur below an elevation of 900?m (3,000?ft), but have been recorded at elevations up to 2,000?m (6,600?ft).[1] Within the rainforest, they hunt in the canopy or sometimes on the ground, and perch on emergent trees looking for prey. They do not generally occur in disturbed areas, but regularly visit semiopen forest/pasture mosaic, mainly in hunting forays.[23] Harpies, however, can be found flying over forest borders in a variety of habitats, such as cerrados, caatingas, buriti palm stands, cultivated fields, and cities.[24] They have been found in areas where high-grade forestry is practiced. Adults are near the top of a food chain and are rarely preyed on.[25] However, individuals are known to have been taken by jaguars and the much smaller ocelot [26] Its main prey are tree-dwelling mammals and a majority of the diet has been shown to focus on sloths[27] and monkeys. Research conducted by Aguiar-Silva between 2003 and 2005 in a nesting site in Parintins, Amazonas, Brazil, collected remains from prey offered to the nestling by its parents and after sorting them, concluded, in terms of individuals preyed upon, the harpy's prey basis was composed in 79% by sloths from two species: Bradypus variegatus amounting to 39% of the individual prey base, and Choloepus didactylus to 40%; various monkeys amounted to 11.6% of the same prey base.[28] In a similar research venture in Panama, where a couple of captive-bred subadults was released, 52% of the male's captures and 54% of the female's were of two sloth species (Bradypus variegatus and Choloepus hoffmanni).[29] At one Venezuelan nest, the remains comprised sloths. Monkeys regularly taken can include capuchin monkeys, saki monkeys, howler monkeys, titi monkeys, squirrel monkeys, and spider monkeys. Smaller monkeys, such as tamarins and marmosets, are seemingly ignored as prey by this species.[9] At several nest in Guyana, monkeys made up about 37% of the prey remains found at the nests.[30] Similarly, cebid monkeys made up 35% of the remains found at 10 nests in Amazonian Ecuador.[31] Other partially arboreal and even land mammals are also preyed on given the opportunity, including porcupines, squirrels, opossums, anteaters, armadillos, and even relatively large carnivores such as kinkajous, coatis, and tayras.[9] In the Pantanal, a pair of nesting eagles preyed largely on the porcupine (Coendou prehensilis) and the agouti (Dasyprocta azarae).[32] The eagle may also attack bird species such as macaws: At the Parintins research site, the red-and-green macaw made up for 0.4% of the prey base, with other birds amounting to 4.6%.[28]" [33] Other parrots have also been preyed on, as well as cracids such as curassows and other birds like seriemas.[9] Additional prey items reported include reptiles such as iguanas, tejus, and snakes.[9][34] The eagle has been recorded as taking domestic livestock, including chickens, lambs, goats, and young pigs, but this is extremely rare under normal circumstances.[9] They control the population of mesopredators such as capuchin monkeys which prey extensively on bird's eggs and which (if not naturally controlled) may cause local extinctions of sensitive species.[35] All of the Harpy eagle prey weight between 0.3 kg to 6.5 kg, with the mean prey size equaling 2.6 kg+/-0.82 kg [36] They possess the largest talons of any living eagle. They have been recorded as lifting prey up to equal their own body weight.[9] That allows the birds to snatch a live sloth from tree branches, as well as other huge prey items. Males usually take relatively smaller prey, with a typical range of 0.5 to 2.5?kg (1.1 to 5.5?lb) or about half their own weight.[9] The larger females take larger prey, with a minimum recorded prey weight of around 2.7?kg (6.0?lb). Adult female harpies regularly grab large male howler or spider monkeys or mature sloths weighing 6 to 9?kg (13 to 20?lb) in flight and fly off without landing, an enormous feat of strength.[9][37][38] Prey items taken to the nest by the parents are normally medium-sized, having been recorded from 1 to 4?kg (2.2 to 8.8?lb).[9] The prey brought to the nest by males averaged 1.5?kg (3.3?lb), while the prey brought to the nest by females averaged 3.2?kg (7.1?lb).[20] Sometimes, harpy eagles are "sit-and-wait" predators (common in forest-dwelling raptors).[9] In harpies, this consists of perching and watching for long times from a high perch near an opening, a river, or a salt-lick (where many mammals go to feed for nutrients).[9] The more common hunting technique of the species is perch-hunting, which consists of scanning around for prey activity while briefly perched between short flights from tree to tree.[9] When prey is spotted, the eagle quickly dives and grabs the prey.[9] On occasion, they may also hunt by flying within or above the canopy.[9] They have also been observed tail-chasing, a predation style common to hawks that hunt birds, the genus Accipiter.[9] This comprises the eagle pursuing another bird in flight, rapidly dodging among trees and branches.[9] In ideal habitats, nests would be fairly close together. In some parts of Panama and Guyana, active nests were located 3?km (1.9?mi) away from one another, while they are within 5?km (3.1?mi) of each other in Venezuela. In Peru, the average distance between nests was 7.4?km (4.6?mi) and the average area occupied by each breeding pairs was estimated at 4,300?ha (11,000 acres). In less ideal areas, with fragmented forest, breeding territories were estimated at 25?km (16?mi).[34] The female harpy eagle lays two white eggs in a large stick nest, which commonly measures 1.2?m (3.9?ft) deep and 1.5?m (4.9?ft) across and may be used over several years. Nests are located high up in a tree, usually in the main fork, at 16 to 43?m (52 to 141?ft), depending on the stature of the local trees. The harpy often builds its nest in the crown of the kapok tree, one of the tallest trees in South America. In many South American cultures, it is considered bad luck to cut down the kapok tree, which may help safeguard the habitat of this stately eagle.[39] The bird also uses other huge trees on which to build its nest, such as the Brazil nut tree.[40] A nesting site found in the Brazilian Pantanal was built on a cambar tree (Vochysia divergens).[41] No display is known between pairs of eagles, and they are believed to mate for life. A pair of harpy eagles usually only raises one chick every 2ÿ3?years. After the first chick hatches, the second egg is ignored and normally fails to hatch unless the first egg perishes. The egg is incubated around 56?days. When the chick is 36?days old, it can stand and walk awkwardly. The chick fledges at the age of 6?months, but the parents continue to feed it for another 6 to 10?months. The male captures much of the food for the incubating female and later the eaglet, but also takes an incubating shift while the female forages and also brings prey back to the nest. Breeding maturity is not reached until birds are 4 to 6?years of age.[9][20][23] Adults can be aggressive toward humans who disturb the nesting site or appear to be a threat to its young.[42] Although the harpy eagle still occurs over a considerable range, its distribution and populations have dwindled considerably. It is threatened primarily by habitat loss due to the expansion of logging, cattle ranching, agriculture, and prospecting. Secondarily, it is threatened by being hunted as an actual threat to livestock and/or a supposed one to human life, due to its great size.[43] Although not actually known to prey on humans and only rarely on domestic stock, the species' large size and nearly fearless behavior around humans reportedly make it an "irresistible target" for hunters.[34] Such threats apply throughout its range, in large parts of which the bird has become a transient sight only; in Brazil, it was all but wiped out from the Atlantic rainforest and is only found in appreciable numbers in the most remote parts of the Amazon basin; a Brazilian journalistic account of the mid-1990s already complained that at the time it was only found in significant numbers in Brazilian territory on the northern side of the Equator.[44] Scientific 1990s records, however, suggest that the harpy Atlantic Forest population may be migratory.[45] Subsequent research in Brazil has established that, as of 2009, the harpy eagle, outside the Brazilian Amazon, is critically endangered in Esprito Santo,[46] S?o Paulo and Paran, endangered in Rio de Janeiro, and probably extirpated in Rio Grande do Sul (where there is a recent (March 2015) record for the Parque Estadual do Turvo)[1] and Minas Gerais[47] ÿ the actual size of their total population in Brazil is unknown.[48] Globally, the harpy eagle is considered Near Threatened by IUCN[1] and threatened with extinction by CITES (appendix I). The Peregrine Fund until recently considered it a "conservation-dependent species", meaning it depends on a dedicated effort for captive breeding and release to the wild, as well as habitat protection, to prevent it from reaching endangered status, but now has accepted the Near Threatened status. The harpy eagle is considered critically endangered in Mexico and Central America, where it has been extirpated in most of its former range; in Mexico, it used to be found as far north as Veracruz, but today probably occurs only in Chiapas in the Selva Zoque. It is considered as Near Threatened or Vulnerable in most of the South American portion of its range; at the southern extreme of its range, in Argentina, it is found only in the Parana Valley forests at the province of Misiones.[49][50] It has disappeared from El Salvador, and almost so from Costa Rica.[22] Various initiatives for restoration of the species are in place in various countries. Since 2002, Peregrine Fund initiated a conservation and research program for the harpy eagle in the Darin Provinceboom .[51] A similarand grander, given the dimensions of the countries involvedresearch project is occurring in Brazil, at the National Institute of Amazonian Research, through which 45 known nesting locations (updated to 62, only three outside the Amazonian basin and all three inactive) are being monitored by researchers and volunteers from local communities. A harpy eagle chick has been fitted with a radio transmitter that allows it to be tracked for more than three years via a satellite signal sent to the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research.[52] Also, a photographic recording of a nest site in the Carajs National Forest was made for the Brazilian edition of National Geographic Magazine.[53] In Belize, the Belize Harpy Eagle Restoration Project began in 2003 with the collaboration of Sharon Matola, founder and director of the Belize Zoo and the Peregrine Fund. The goal of this project was the re-establishment of the harpy eagle within Belize. The population of the eagle declined as a result of forest fragmentation, shooting, and nest destruction, resulting in near extirpation of the species. Captive-bred harpy eagles were released in the Rio Bravo Conservation and Management Area in Belize, chosen for its quality forest habitat and linkages with Guatemala and Mexico. Habitat linkage with Guatemala and Mexico were important for conservation of quality habitat and the harpy eagle on a regional level. As of November 2009, 14 harpy eagles have been released and are monitored by the Peregrine Fund, through satellite telemetry.[54] In January 2009, a chick from the all-but-extirpated population in the Brazilian state of Paran was hatched in captivity at the preserve kept in the vicinity of the Itaipu Dam by the Brazilian/Paraguayan state-owned company Itaipu Binacional.[55] In September 2009, an adult female, after being kept captive for 12 years in a private reservation, was fitted with a radio transmitter before being restored to the wild in the vicinity of the Pau Brasil National Park (formerly Monte Pascoal NP), in the state of Bahia.[56] In December 2009, a 15th harpy eagle was released into the Rio Bravo Conservation and Management Area in Belize. The release was set to tie in with the United Nations Climate Change Conference 2009, in Copenhagen. The 15th eagle, nicknamed "Hope" by the Peregrine officials in Panama, was the "poster child" for forest conservation in Belize, a developing country, and the importance of these activities in relation to climate change. The event received coverage from Belize's major media entities, and was supported and attended by the U.S. Ambassador to Belize, Vinai Thummalapally, and British High Commissioner to Belize, Pat Ashworth.[57] In Colombia, as of 2007, an adult male and a subadult female confiscated from wildlife trafficking were restored to the wild and monitored in Paramillo National Park in C܇rdoba, and another couple was being kept in captivity at a research center for breeding and eventual release.[58] A monitoring effort with the help of volunteers from local Native American communities is also being made in Ecuador, including the joint sponsorship of various Spanish universities[59]this effort being similar to another one going on since 1996 in Peru, centered around a native community in the Tambopata Province, Madre de Dios Region.[60] Another monitoring project, begun in 1992, was operating as of 2005 in the state of Bolvar, Venezuela.[61] The harpy eagle is the national bird of Panama and is depicted on the coat of arms of Panama.[62] The 15th harpy eagle released in Belize, named "Hope", was dubbed "Ambassador for Climate Change", in light of the United Nations Climate Change Conference 2009.[63][64] The harpy eagle was the inspiration behind the design of Fawkes the Phoenix in the Harry Potter film series.[65] A live harpy eagle was used to portray the now-extinct Haast's eagle in BBC's Monsters We Met.[66]

fewer than 200🚨The corroboree frogs are two species of small, poisonous ground dwelling frogs, native to Southern Tablelands of Australia. The two species are the southern corroboree frog (Pseudophryne corroboree) and the northern corroboree frog (Pseudophryne pengilleyi). They are unique among frogs in that they produce their own poison rather than obtain it from their food source as is the case in every other poisonous frog species. Corroboree frogs have different patterns. The corroboree frog is found only in 400?km2 patches in the sub-alpine regions of the Australian Capital Territory and southern New South Wales[1]. The northern form deviates slightly in having narrow yellow to greenish stripes and is slightly smaller. Sexual maturity of P. corroboree is reached at four years of age, with one year as an embryo/tadpole and two years as a juvenile/subadult. Adults primarily have only one breeding season. Breeding occurs around December terrestrially near shallow pools, fens, seepages, wet grassland or wet heaths, where the males build chamber nests within the grasses and moss. Males compete for females via song. Each male will attract up to ten females to his burrow sequentially and may dig a new burrow if his first is filled with eggs. The female lays up to 38 eggs and the male grasps her and deposits sperm directly onto the eggs. Tadpoles develop but remain within the protective egg coat until hatching occurs when high ground-water levels after rain cause the nest to become flooded at 4 to 6 months. Tadpole development takes six to eight months. Metamorphosis occurs between December and February (Osborne and Norman 1991). P. pengilleyi prefers to breed in sphagnum bogs and wet heath in sub-alpine areas and dense patches of herbs in openings or seepages amongst fallen tussocks at lower elevation (bog pools at high altitudes above 1300 m and in shallow seepage pools in gullies at lower altitudes of 1000ÿ1400 m). Other reproductive details are as for P. corroboree. Both species are restricted to mountain and sub-alpine woodlands, heathlands and grasslands. Non-breeding habitat for both species occurs in forest, woodland and heath adjacent to breeding sites. The typical diet of a mature corroboree frog includes; beetles, mites, ants and insect larvae. However, as tadpoles they also tend to eat algae and other small pieces of organic material found in their pools.[2] Corroboree frogs are the first vertebrates discovered that are able to produce their own poisonous alkaloids, as opposed to obtaining it via diet as many other frogs do. The alkaloid is secreted from the skin as a defence against predation, and potentially against skin infections by microbes. It has been described as potentially lethal to mammals if ingested. The unique alkaloid produced has been named pseudo-phrynamine (Daly et al. 2002).[3] Corroborree frogs are quite unusual in their nature. Not only do they not start breeding until four years of age, they also hibernate during winter under whatever shelter they can find. This may be snow gum trees, or bits of bark or fallen leaves. Males stay with the egg nests and may breed with many females over the course of one season.[4] The southern corroboree is recognised as being critically endangered with fewer than 200 individuals left in the wild in recent years. The northern species is listed as endangered. The southern corroboree frog was considered relatively numerous within its very small distribution in the 1970s, as of June 2004 it had an estimated adult population of 64. This species has suffered declines of up to 80% over the past 10 years. It is found only within a fragmented region of less than 10?km2 within Mount Kosciuszko National Park in the Snowy Mountains in New South Wales. It is only found at 1300 m above sea level (Osborne 1989). It is currently listed as critically endangered and is considered to be one of, if not, Australia's most endangered species. The northern corroboree frog has not suffered as badly as the southern. It is more widely distributed across about 550?km2 of the Brindabella and Fiery Ranges in Namadgi National Park, Australian Capital Territory, and Kosciuszko National Park and Buccleuch State Forest in New South Wales. It is found above about 1000m and is found to have higher population numbers at lower elevations. It has recently been downgraded from critical to endangered by the IUC finding. The near-loss of these frogs has been attributed to a variety of causes, such as habitat destruction from recreational 4WD use; development of ski resorts; feral animals; degradation of the frogs' habitat; the extended drought cycle affecting much of southeastern Australia at present; and increased UV radiation flowing from ozone layer depletion. The drought affects these frogs by drying out their breeding sites so that the breeding cycle, which is triggered by seasonal changes and may require moistening of the bogs in autumn and spring to bring on specific developmental events, is delayed. This may mean that tadpoles have not metamorphosed by late summer when their bogs dry out, and so perish. The bogs themselves are apparently drier than usual. Severe bushfires in the Victorian and NSW high country in January 2003 destroyed much of the frogs' remaining habitat, especially the breeding sites and the leaf litter that insulates overwintering adults. The fire affected almost all southern corroboree frog habitat, however recent surveys have shown that the fire resulted in a lower than expected decline in population. As with many other Australian frogs, the predominant reason for the corroboree frogs' decline is thought to be infection with the chytrid fungus. This fungus is believed to have been accidentally introduced to Australia in the 1970s and destroys the frogs' skin, usually fatally. Corroboree frogs' eggs appear to be immune. Frog populations may eventually be able to acquire immunity, as wild relatively healthy adults have been found with the fungus on their skin. The Amphibian Research Centre had already begun a rescue programme under which eggs were collected and raised to late tadpole stage before return as close as possible to their collection site. Research is now underway into captive breeding and on which lifecycle stage - eggs, tadpoles or adults - promises the best chance of survival following return to the wild. The national parks authorities in the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales and Victoria have developed conservation programmes, including a captive husbandry programme at Tidbinbilla, ACT, Taronga Zoo in Sydney, as well as Zoo's Victoria at Healesville Sanctuary.

Fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP)🚨Fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP) is an extremely rare connective tissue disease. The disease is caused by a mutation of the body's repair mechanism, which causes fibrous tissue (including muscle, tendon, and ligament) to be ossified spontaneously or when damaged. In many cases, injuries can cause joints to become permanently frozen in place. Surgical removal of the extra bone growths has been shown to cause the body to "repair" the affected area with even more bone. For unknown reasons, children born with FOP have deformed big toes, possibly missing a joint or simply presenting with a notable lump at the minor joint. The first "flare-up" that leads to the formation of FOP bones usually occurs before the age of 10. The bone growth progresses from the top downward, just as bones grow in fetuses. A child with FOP will typically develop bones starting at the neck, then on the shoulders, arms, chest area and finally on the feet. Specifically, ossification is typically first seen in the dorsal, axial, cranial and proximal regions of the body. Later the disease progresses in the ventral, appendicular, caudal and distal regions of the body.[1] However, it does not necessarily occur in this order due to injury-caused flare-ups. Often, the tumor-like lumps that characterize the disease appear suddenly. This condition causes loss of mobility to affected joints, including inability to fully open the mouth limiting speech and eating. Extra bone formation around the rib cage restricts the expansion of lungs and diaphragm causing breathing complications. Since the disease is so rare, the symptoms are often misdiagnosed as cancer or fibrosis. This leads physicians to order biopsies, which can exacerbate the growth of these lumps.[2] However, those born with FOP tend to have malformed toes or thumbs which help distinguish this disorder from other skeletal problems.[3] The median age of survival is 40 years with proper management. However, delayed diagnosis, trauma and infections can decrease life expectancy.[4] FOP is caused by an autosomal dominant allele on chromosome 2q23-24.[5] The allele has variable expressivity, but complete penetrance. Most cases are caused by spontaneous mutation in the gametes; most people with FOP cannot or choose not to have children. A similar but less catastrophic disease is fibrous dysplasia, which is caused by a post-zygotic mutation. A mutation in the gene ACVR1 (also known as activin-like kinase 2 (ALK2)) is responsible for the disease.[6] ACVR1 encodes activin receptor type-1, a BMP type-1 receptor. The mutation causes substitution of codon 206 from arginine to histidine in the ACVR1 protein.[7][8] This substitution causes abnormal activation of ACVR1, leading to the transformation of connective tissue and muscle tissue into a secondary skeleton. This causes endothelial cells to transform to mesenchymal stem cells and then to bone.[9] FOP is an autosomal dominant disorder. Thus, children of an affected heterozygous parent and a homozygous recessive parent have a 50% chance of being affected. Two affected individuals can produce unaffected children. The homozygous dominant phenotype is more severe than the heterozygous phenotype.[10] The gene that causes ossification is normally deactivated after a fetus's bones are formed in the womb, but in patients with FOP, the gene keeps working. Aberrant bone formation in patients with FOP occurs when injured connective tissue or muscle cells at the sites of injury or growth incorrectly express an enzyme for bone repair during apoptosis (self-regulated cell death), resulting in lymphocytes containing excess bone morphogenetic protein 4 (BMP4) provided during the immune system response. The bone that results occurs independently of the normal skeleton, forming its own discrete skeletal elements. These elements, however, can fuse with normal skeletal bone.[11] Interestingly, the diaphragm, tongue, and extra-ocular muscles are spared in this process, as well as cardiac and smooth muscle.[1] Since the incorrect enzyme remains unresolved within the immune response, the body continues providing the incorrect BMP4-containing lymphocytes. BMP4 is a product that contributes to the development of the skeleton in the normal embryo.[12] DNA sequencing electropherograms of a typical FOP patient can differ when being compared to two other patients. The ACVR1 gene encodes a bone morphogenic protein (BMP) receptor; this gene is mutated in FOP. This protein is responsible for growth and development of bone and muscles. Scientists theorize that a mutation in the ACVR1 changes the shape of the receptor and disrupts certain mechanisms that control the receptor's activity. There is a certain molecule, otherwise known as a ligand, that binds at the site to cause this reaction to activate with which it forms a complex. Due to the mutation, however, the bind site is modified and no longer stops the reaction.[13] The end result is an overgrowth of bone and cartilage and fusion of joints.[14] Most of the cases of FOP were results of a new gene mutation: these people had no history of this particular disorder in their family. There are some cases which have shown people inheriting the mutation from one affected parent.[14] Outbreaks may be measurable clinically by elevated levels of alkaline phosphatase and bone-specific alkaline phosphatase.[15] There is no cure or approved treatment for FOP.[16] Attempts to surgically remove the bone result in explosive bone growth.[17] While under anesthesia, people with FOP may encounter difficulties with intubation, restrictive pulmonary disease, and changes in the electrical conduction system of the heart.[18] Activities that increase the risk of falling or soft tissue injury should be avoided, as even minor trauma may provoke heterotopic bone formation.[19] As of 2017, approximately 800 cases of FOP have been confirmed worldwide making FOP one of the rarest diseases known.[16] The estimated incidence of FOP is 0.5 cases per million people and affects all races.[16] Medical reports describing individuals affected by FOP date back as far as the seventeenth century.[16] FOP was originally called myositis ossificans progressiva and was thought to be caused by muscular inflammation (myositis) that caused bone formation.[16] The disease was renamed by Victor A. McKusick in 1970 following the discovery that soft tissue other than muscles (e.g., ligaments) were also affected by the disease process.[16] The best known FOP case is that of Harry Eastlack (1933ÿ1973). His condition began to develop at the age of ten, and by the time of his death from pneumonia in November 1973, six days before his 40th birthday, his body had completely ossified, leaving him able to move only his lips. Eastlack only lived to meet one other person with his same disease. Eastlack donated his body to science. His skeleton is now at the Mtter Museum in Philadelphia, and has proven to be an invaluable source of information in the study of FOP. Clinical trials of isotretinoin, etidronate with oral corticosteroids, and perhexiline maleate have failed to demonstrate effectiveness, though the variable course of the disease and small prevalence induces uncertainty.[15] A handful of pharmaceutical companies focused on rare disease are currently in varying stages of investigation into different therapeutic approaches for FOP. In August 2015, U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Office of Orphan Products Development granted La Jolla Pharmaceuticals orphan drug designation for two novel compounds for FOP. The compounds are small-molecule kinase inhibitors designed to selectively block ACVR1 (ALK2).[20] In August 2015, Clementia Pharmaceuticals also began the enrollment of children (ages 6 and above) into its Phase II clinical trial investigating palovarotene for the treatment of FOP.[21] Preclinical studies demonstrated that palovarotene, a retinoic acid receptor gamma agonist, blocked abnormal bone formation in animal models via inhibition of secondary messenger systems in the BMP pathway.[22] Clementia licensed palovarotene from Roche Pharmaceuticals, which previously evaluated the compound in more than 800 individuals including healthy volunteers and patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Palovarotene received Fast Track designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and orphan designations for the treatment of FOP from both the FDA and the European Medicines Agency (EMA).[21] In September 2015, Regeneron announced new insight into the mechanism of disease involving the activation of the ACVR1 receptor by activin A. In 2016, the company initiated a phase 1 study of its activin antibody, REGN 2477, in healthy volunteers; a phase 2 trial in FOP patients is planned for 2017.[23] Another potential therapeutic approach involves allele-specific RNA interference that targets mutated mRNA for degradation while preserving normal ACVR1 gene expression.[24] Further investigation into the mechanisms of heterotopic bone formation in FOP could aid in the development of treatments for other disorders involving extra-skeletal bone formation.

Pradyumna🚨Pradyumna (Sanskrit: ??????????) is the name of a character in the Srimad Bhagavatam. He was the son of Lord Krishna and Rukmini. Pradyumna is considered as one of the four vyuha avatars of Vishnu. According to some accounts, Pradyumna was an incarnation of Kamadeva, the god of love. Pradyumna is also a name of the Hindu god Vishnu, being referred to as Vishnu Ankar Gupta. He is one in 24 Keshava Namas (names), praised in all pujas. It is also the only name in Sanskrit with all the 3 letters joint (referred as ????????) The Harivamsa describes intricate relationships between Krishna Vasudeva, Sankarsana, Pradyumna and Aniruddha that would later form a Vaishnava concept of primary quadrupled expansion, or avatar. Pradyumna was son of Lord Krishna and 61st grandson of Adinarayan. His mother was Rukmini, whom Lord Krishna got from her father Bhimkashen Narayan and brother Bhimkaraya Rukmi. Pradyumna was born in Dvaraka. He was the incarnate of God Kamdev. The Bhagavata Purana says that he was in no way inferior to Krishna.[1] In the Treta Yuga, Kamdev was burnt by Shiva when he became a barrier to Shiva's meditation. Shiva blessed Kamdev's distraught wife, Rati and promised her that in his next birth Kamdev will be a part of Krishna and Rati will be the daughter of Bhimkaraya Rukmi and that she will marry him. When he was a baby he was abducted by the demon Sambara. He was then cast into the sea and swallowed by a fish, but that fish was caught and carried to the house of Sambara. The fish was opened and the child was found inside. He was given to a woman in Sambara's house to raise. Narada informed her about the true identity of the child. When Pradyumna grew up, he battled the demon Sambara and killed him using the Vaishnavastra. Soon after Pradyumna became a constant companion of his father Krishna and was well liked by the people of Dvaraka. Pradyumna was a mighty Maharathi warrior. He possessed the extremely rare Vaishnavastra which is the most powerful weapon in the universe. Also he was one of the very few people to know the secret of the Chakra Vyuha. But Pradyumna did not participate in the Kurukshetra War as he went on a pilgrimage with his uncle Balarama and other yadavas. In accordance to Lord Shiva's boon to Rati, he married her incarnation, Princess Mayavati, the Princess of Vidarbha and daughter of his maternal uncle, Bhimkaraya Rukmi. It is said that Mayavati found his valor, handsomeness and charm beyond words and insisted on marrying him at her swayamvara. With her, he fathered, Krishna's grandson and favourite, also considered a vyuha avatar of Vishnu, Prince Aniruddha. Pradyumna was later killed in an intoxicated brawl at Dvaraka that resulted in the death of most Yadava warriors. Knowing that their destruction was near, the Yadavas retired to Prabhasa where they were allotted temporary residences. When their time had come Vrishnis started revelling and drinking. Satyaki who was inebriated laughed at and insulted Kritavarma for killing the Pandava army in midst of their sleep. Pradyumna applauded Satyaki for this which highly incensed Kritavarma. He then taunted Satyaki by saying that he had slain the armless Bhurshiravas who had given up all hostile intentions. Satyaki then narrated the incident when Kritavarma tried to kill Satrajit. Satyabhama upon hearing this became angry and started crying. She then approached Krishna and sat on his lap greatly increasing his anger towards Kritavarma. Satyaki then rising up in anger said that he would give death to Kritavarma for slaying the warriors of the Pandava army while they were asleep. Having said this he rushed towards Kritavarma and severed his head with a sword. He then started killing the warriors who were on Kritavarma's side. Krishna then ran to stop Satyaki. The Bhojas and the Andhakas incensed at Satyaki surrounded him. Krishna knowing the character of the hour stood there unmoved and let them do whatever they could do. The Bhojas and Andhakas started striking Satyaki with the pots in which they had been eating. Pradyumna upon seeing this became highly enraged and rushed forward for rescuing Satyaki who was engaged with the Bhojas and the Andhakas. However the numbers of the Bhojas and Andhakas overwhelmed the two warriors and they were slain in front of Krishna. Aniruddha was the son of Pradyumna who married to Usha (daughter of Bana Daitya and granddaughter of Mahabali). He is said to have been very much like his grandfather Krishna, to the extent that he may be a jana avatar, avatar of Vishnu. Aniruddha had a son named Vajra (or Vajranabh) . Vajra was known as an invincible warrior and would remain among the few survivors of the Yadus' battle. King Vajra then had 16 idols of Krishna and other gods carved from a rare, imperishable stone called Braja and built temples to house these idols in and around Mathura so as to feel the presence of Lord Krishna. The Jain version of the story of Pradyumna is mentioned in the Pradyumna-charitra (poem in 18 canons) of Rajchandra, written in 1618 AD.[2]

57 metres🚨The Eiffel Tower (/?a?f?l/ EYE-f?l; French: tour Eiffel [tu???f?l]?(?listen)) is a wrought iron lattice tower on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France. It is named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower. Constructed from 1887ÿ89 as the entrance to the 1889 World's Fair, it was initially criticized by some of France's leading artists and intellectuals for its design, but it has become a global cultural icon of France and one of the most recognisable structures in the world.[3] The Eiffel Tower is the most-visited paid monument in the world; 6.91?million people ascended it in 2015. The tower is 324 metres (1,063?ft) tall, about the same height as an 81-storey building, and the tallest structure in Paris. Its base is square, measuring 125 metres (410?ft) on each side. During its construction, the Eiffel Tower surpassed the Washington Monument to become the tallest man-made structure in the world, a title it held for 41 years until the Chrysler Building in New York City was finished in 1930. Due to the addition of a broadcasting aerial at the top of the tower in 1957, it is now taller than the Chrysler Building by 5.2 metres (17?ft). Excluding transmitters, the Eiffel Tower is the second tallest structure in France after the Millau Viaduct. The tower has three levels for visitors, with restaurants on the first and second levels. The top level's upper platform is 276?m (906?ft) above the ground ÿ the highest observation deck accessible to the public in the European Union. Tickets can be purchased to ascend by stairs or lift (elevator) to the first and second levels. The climb from ground level to the first level is over 300 steps, as is the climb from the first level to the second. Although there is a staircase to the top level, it is usually accessible only by lift. The design of the Eiffel Tower was the product of Maurice Koechlin and mile Nouguier, two senior engineers working for the Compagnie des tablissements Eiffel, after discussion about a suitable centrepiece for the proposed 1889 Exposition Universelle, a world's fair to celebrate the centennial of the French Revolution. Eiffel openly acknowledged that inspiration for a tower came from the Latting Observatory built in New York City in 1853.[4] In May 1884, working at home, Koechlin made a sketch of their idea, described by him as "a great pylon, consisting of four lattice girders standing apart at the base and coming together at the top, joined together by metal trusses at regular intervals".[5] Eiffel initially showed little enthusiasm, but he did approve further study, and the two engineers then asked Stephen Sauvestre, the head of company's architectural department, to contribute to the design. Sauvestre added decorative arches to the base of the tower, a glass pavilion to the first level, and other embellishments. The new version gained Eiffel's support: he bought the rights to the patent on the design which Koechlin, Nougier, and Sauvestre had taken out, and the design was exhibited at the Exhibition of Decorative Arts in the autumn of 1884 under the company name. On 30 March 1885, Eiffel presented his plans to the Socit des Ingnieurs Civils; after discussing the technical problems and emphasising the practical uses of the tower, he finished his talk by saying the tower would symbolise, Not only the art of the modern engineer, but also the century of Industry and Science in which we are living, and for which the way was prepared by the great scientific movement of the eighteenth century and by the Revolution of 1789, to which this monument will be built as an expression of France's gratitude.[6] Little progress was made until 1886, when Jules Grvy was re-elected as president of France and douard Lockroy was appointed as minister for trade. A budget for the exposition was passed and, on 1 May, Lockroy announced an alteration to the terms of the open competition being held for a centrepiece to the exposition, which effectively made the selection of Eiffel's design a foregone conclusion, as entries had to include a study for a 300?m (980?ft) four-sided metal tower on the Champ de Mars.[6] (A 300-meter tower was then considered a herculean engineering effort). On 12 May, a commission was set up to examine Eiffel's scheme and its rivals, which, a month later, decided that all the proposals except Eiffel's were either impractical or lacking in details. After some debate about the exact location of the tower, a contract was signed on 8 January 1887. This was signed by Eiffel acting in his own capacity rather than as the representative of his company, and granted him 1.5 million francs toward the construction costs: less than a quarter of the estimated 6.5 million francs. Eiffel was to receive all income from the commercial exploitation of the tower during the exhibition and for the next 20 years. He later established a separate company to manage the tower, putting up half the necessary capital himself.[7] The proposed tower had been a subject of controversy, drawing criticism from those who did not believe it was feasible and those who objected on artistic grounds. These objections were an expression of a long-standing debate in France about the relationship between architecture and engineering. It came to a head as work began at the Champ de Mars: a "Committee of Three Hundred" (one member for each metre of the tower's height) was formed, led by the prominent architect Charles Garnier and including some of the most important figures of the arts, such as Adolphe Bouguereau, Guy de Maupassant, Charles Gounod and Jules Massenet. A petition called "Artists against the Eiffel Tower" was sent to the Minister of Works and Commissioner for the Exposition, Charles Alphand, and it was published by Le Temps on 14 February 1887: We, writers, painters, sculptors, architects and passionate devotees of the hitherto untouched beauty of Paris, protest with all our strength, with all our indignation in the name of slighted French taste, against the erection of this useless and monstrous Eiffel Tower To bring our arguments home, imagine for a moment a giddy, ridiculous tower dominating Paris like a gigantic black smokestack, crushing under its barbaric bulk Notre Dame, the Tour Saint-Jacques, the Louvre, the Dome of les Invalides, the Arc de Triomphe, all of our humiliated monuments will disappear in this ghastly dream. And for twenty years we shall see stretching like a blot of ink the hateful shadow of the hateful column of bolted sheet metal.[8] Gustave Eiffel responded to these criticisms by comparing his tower to the Egyptian pyramids: "My tower will be the tallest edifice ever erected by man. Will it not also be grandiose in its way? And why would something admirable in Egypt become hideous and ridiculous in Paris?"[9] These criticisms were also dealt with by douard Lockroy in a letter of support written to Alphand, ironically saying,[10] "Judging by the stately swell of the rhythms, the beauty of the metaphors, the elegance of its delicate and precise style, one can tell this protest is the result of collaboration of the most famous writers and poets of our time", and he explained that the protest was irrelevant since the project had been decided upon months before, and construction on the tower was already under way. Indeed, Garnier was a member of the Tower Commission that had examined the various proposals, and had raised no objection. Eiffel was similarly unworried, pointing out to a journalist that it was premature to judge the effect of the tower solely on the basis of the drawings, that the Champ de Mars was distant enough from the monuments mentioned in the protest for there to be little risk of the tower overwhelming them, and putting the aesthetic argument for the tower: "Do not the laws of natural forces always conform to the secret laws of harmony?"[11] Some of the protesters changed their minds when the tower was built; others remained unconvinced.[12] Guy de Maupassant supposedly ate lunch in the tower's restaurant every day because it was the one place in Paris where the tower was not visible.[13] By 1918, it had become a symbol of Paris and of France after Guillaume Apollinaire wrote a nationalist poem in the shape of the tower (a calligram) to express his feelings about the war against Germany.[14] Today, it is widely considered to be a remarkable piece of structural art, and is often featured in films and literature. Work on the foundations started on 28 January 1887.[15] Those for the east and south legs were straightforward, with each leg resting on four 2?m (6.6?ft) concrete slabs, one for each of the principal girders of each leg. The west and north legs, being closer to the river Seine, were more complicated: each slab needed two piles installed by using compressed-air caissons 15?m (49?ft) long and 6?m (20?ft) in diameter driven to a depth of 22?m (72?ft)[16] to support the concrete slabs, which were 6?m (20?ft) thick. Each of these slabs supported a block of limestone with an inclined top to bear a supporting shoe for the ironwork. Each shoe was anchored to the stonework by a pair of bolts 10?cm (4?in) in diameter and 7.5?m (25?ft) long. The foundations were completed on 30 June, and the erection of the ironwork began. The visible work on-site was complemented by the enormous amount of exacting preparatory work that took place behind the scenes: the drawing office produced 1,700 general drawings and 3,629 detailed drawings of the 18,038 different parts needed.[17] The task of drawing the components was complicated by the complex angles involved in the design and the degree of precision required: the position of rivet holes was specified to within 0.1?mm (0.0039?in) and angles worked out to one second of arc. The finished components, some already riveted together into sub-assemblies, arrived on horse-drawn carts from a factory in the nearby Parisian suburb of Levallois-Perret and were first bolted together, with the bolts being replaced with rivets as construction progressed. No drilling or shaping was done on site: if any part did not fit, it was sent back to the factory for alteration. In all, 18,038 pieces were joined together using 2.5?million rivets.[15] At first the legs were constructed as cantilevers, but about halfway to the first level, construction was paused in order to create a substantial timber scaffold. This renewed concerns about the structural integrity of the tower, and sensational headlines such as "Eiffel Suicide!" and "Gustave Eiffel Has Gone Mad: He Has Been Confined in an Asylum" appeared in the tabloid press.[18] At this stage, a small "creeper" crane designed to move up the tower was installed in each leg. They made use of the guides for the lifts which were to be fitted in the four legs. The critical stage of joining the legs at the first level was completed by the end of March 1888.[15] Although the metalwork had been prepared with the utmost attention to detail, provision had been made to carry out small adjustments in order to precisely align the legs; hydraulic jacks were fitted to the shoes at the base of each leg, capable of exerting a force of 800 tonnes, and the legs were intentionally constructed at a slightly steeper angle than necessary, being supported by sandboxes on the scaffold. Although construction involved 300 on-site employees,[15] only one person died thanks to Eiffel's stringent safety precautions and the use of movable gangways, guardrails and screens[citation needed]. The start of the erection of the metalwork. 7 December 1887: Construction of the legs with scaffolding. 20 March 1888: Completion of the first level. 15 May 1888: Start of construction on the second stage. 21 August 1888: Completion of the second level. 26 December 1888: Construction of the upper stage. 15 March 1889: Construction of the cupola. Equipping the tower with adequate and safe passenger lifts was a major concern of the government commission overseeing the Exposition. Although some visitors could be expected to climb to the first level, or even the second, lifts clearly had to be the main means of ascent.[19] Constructing lifts to reach the first level was relatively straightforward: the legs were wide enough at the bottom and so nearly straight that they could contain a straight track, and a contract was given to the French company Roux, Combaluzier & Lepape for two lifts to be fitted in the east and west legs.[20] Roux, Combaluzier & Lepape used a pair of endless chains with rigid, articulated links to which the car was attached. Lead weights on some links of the upper or return sections of the chains counterbalanced most of the car's weight. The car was pushed up from below, not pulled up from above: to prevent the chain buckling, it was enclosed in a conduit. At the bottom of the run, the chains passed around 3.9?m (12?ft 10?in) diameter sprockets. Smaller sprockets at the top guided the chains.[20] Installing lifts to the second level was more of a challenge because a straight track was impossible. No French company wanted to undertake the work. The European branch of Otis Brothers & Company submitted a proposal but this was rejected: the fair's charter ruled out the use of any foreign material in the construction of the tower. The deadline for bids was extended but still no French companies put themselves forward, and eventually the contract was given to Otis in July 1887.[21] Otis were confident they would eventually be given the contract and had already started creating designs. The car was divided into two superimposed compartments, each holding 25 passengers, with the lift operator occupying an exterior platform on the first level. Motive power was provided by an inclined hydraulic ram 12.67?m (41?ft 7?in) long and 96.5?cm (38.0?in) in diameter in the tower leg with a stroke of 10.83?m (35?ft 6?in): this moved a carriage carrying six sheaves. Five fixed sheaves were mounted higher up the leg, producing an arrangement similar to a block and tackle but acting in reverse, multiplying the stroke of the piston rather than the force generated. The hydraulic pressure in the driving cylinder was produced by a large open reservoir on the second level. After being exhausted from the cylinder, the water was pumped back up to the reservoir by two pumps in the machinery room at the base of the south leg. This reservoir also provided power to the lifts to the first level. The original lifts for the journey between the second and third levels were supplied by Lon Edoux. A pair of 81?m (266?ft) hydraulic rams were mounted on the second level, reaching nearly halfway up to the third level. One lift car was mounted on top of these rams: cables ran from the top of this car up to sheaves on the third level and back down to a second car. Each car only travelled half the distance between the second and third levels and passengers were required to change lifts halfway by means of a short gangway. The 10-ton cars each held 65 passengers.[22] The main structural work was completed at the end of March 1889 and, on 31 March, Eiffel celebrated by leading a group of government officials, accompanied by representatives of the press, to the top of the tower.[12] Because the lifts were not yet in operation, the ascent was made by foot, and took over an hour, with Eiffel stopping frequently to explain various features. Most of the party chose to stop at the lower levels, but a few, including the structural engineer, mile Nouguier, the head of construction, Jean Compagnon, the President of the City Council, and reporters from Le Figaro and Le Monde Illustr, completed the ascent. At 2:35?pm, Eiffel hoisted a large Tricolour to the accompaniment of a 25-gun salute fired at the first level.[23] There was still work to be done, particularly on the lifts and facilities, and the tower was not opened to the public until nine days after the opening of the exposition on 6 May; even then, the lifts had not been completed. The tower was an instant success with the public, and nearly 30,000 visitors made the 1,710-step climb to the top before the lifts entered service on 26 May.[24] Tickets cost 2 francs for the first level, 3 for the second, and 5 for the top, with half-price admission on Sundays,[25] and by the end of the exhibition there had been 1,896,987 visitors.[3] After dark, the tower was lit by hundreds of gas lamps, and a beacon sent out three beams of red, white and blue light. Two searchlights mounted on a circular rail were used to illuminate various buildings of the exposition. The daily opening and closing of the exposition were announced by a cannon at the top. On the second level, the French newspaper Le Figaro had an office and a printing press, where a special souvenir edition, Le Figaro de la Tour, was made. There was also a patisserie. At the top, there was a post office where visitors could send letters and postcards as a memento of their visit. Graffitists were also catered for: sheets of paper were mounted on the walls each day for visitors to record their impressions of the tower. Gustave Eiffel described some of the responses as vraiment curieuse ("truly curious").[26] Famous visitors to the tower included the Prince of Wales, Sarah Bernhardt, "Buffalo Bill" Cody (his Wild West show was an attraction at the exposition) and Thomas Edison.[24] Eiffel invited Edison to his private apartment at the top of the tower, where Edison presented him with one of his phonographs, a new invention and one of the many highlights of the exposition.[27] Edison signed the guestbook with this message: To M Eiffel the Engineer the brave builder of so gigantic and original specimen of modern Engineering from one who has the greatest respect and admiration for all Engineers including the Great Engineer the Bon Dieu, Thomas Edison. Eiffel had a permit for the tower to stand for 20 years. It was to be dismantled in 1909, when its ownership would revert to the City of Paris. The City had planned to tear it down (part of the original contest rules for designing a tower was that it should be easy to dismantle) but as the tower proved to be valuable for communication purposes, it was allowed to remain after the expiry of the permit. Eiffel made use of his apartment at the top of the tower to carry out meteorological observations, and also used the tower to perform experiments on the action of air resistance on falling bodies.[28] For the 1900 Exposition Universelle, the lifts in the east and west legs were replaced by lifts running as far as the second level constructed by the French firm Fives-Lille. These had a compensating mechanism to keep the floor level as the angle of ascent changed at the first level, and were driven by a similar hydraulic mechanism to the Otis lifts, although this was situated at the base of the tower. Hydraulic pressure was provided by pressurised accumulators located near this mechanism.[21] At the same time the lift in the north pillar was removed and replaced by a staircase to the first level. The layout of both first and second levels was modified, with the space available for visitors on the second level. The original lift in the south pillar was removed 13 years later. On 19 October 1901, Alberto Santos-Dumont, flying his No.6 airship, won a 100,000-franc prize offered by Henri Deutsch de la Meurthe for the first person to make a flight from St. Cloud to the Eiffel Tower and back in less than half an hour.[29] Many innovations took place at the Eiffel Tower in the early 20th century. In 1910, Father Theodor Wulf measured radiant energy at the top and bottom of the tower. He found more at the top than expected, incidentally discovering what are known today as cosmic rays.[30] Just two years later, on 4 February 1912, Austrian tailor Franz Reichelt died after jumping from the first level of the tower (a height of 57 metres) to demonstrate his parachute design.[31] In 1914, at the outbreak of World War?I, a radio transmitter located in the tower jammed German radio communications, seriously hindering their advance on Paris and contributing to the Allied victory at the First Battle of the Marne.[32] From 1925 to 1934, illuminated signs for Citro?n adorned three of the tower's sides, making it the tallest advertising space in the world at the time.[citation needed] In April 1935, the tower was used to make experimental low-resolution television transmissions, using a shortwave transmitter of 200 watts power. On 17 November, an improved 180-line transmitter was installed.[33] On two separate but related occasions in 1925, the con artist Victor Lustig "sold" the tower for scrap metal.[34] A year later, in February 1926, pilot Leon Collet was killed trying to fly under the tower. His aircraft became entangled in an aerial belonging to a wireless station.[35] A bust of Gustave Eiffel by Antoine Bourdelle was unveiled at the base of the north leg on 2 May 1929.[36] In 1930, the tower lost the title of the world's tallest structure when the Chrysler Building in New York City was completed.[37] In 1938, the decorative arcade around the first level was removed.[38] Upon the German occupation of Paris in 1940, the lift cables were cut by the French. The tower was closed to the public during the occupation and the lifts were not repaired until 1946.[39] In 1940, German soldiers had to climb the tower to hoist a swastika-centered Reichskriegsflagge,[40] but the flag was so large it blew away just a few hours later, and was replaced by a smaller one.[41] When visiting Paris, Hitler chose to stay on the ground. When the Allies were nearing Paris in August 1944, Hitler ordered General Dietrich von Choltitz, the military governor of Paris, to demolish the tower along with the rest of the city. Von Choltitz disobeyed the order.[42] On 25 June, before the Germans had been driven out of Paris, the German flag was replaced with a Tricolour by two men from the French Naval Museum, who narrowly beat three men led by Lucien Sarniguet, who had lowered the Tricolour on 13 June 1940 when Paris fell to the Germans.[39] A fire started in the television transmitter on 3 January 1956, damaging the top of the tower. Repairs took a year, and in 1957, the present radio aerial was added to the top.[43] In 1964, the Eiffel Tower was officially declared to be a historical monument by the Minister of Cultural Affairs, Andr Malraux.[44] A year later, an additional lift system was installed in the north pillar.[45] According to interviews, in 1967, Montreal Mayor Jean Drapeau negotiated a secret agreement with Charles de Gaulle for the tower to be dismantled and temporarily relocated to Montreal to serve as a landmark and tourist attraction during Expo 67. The plan was allegedly vetoed by the company operating the tower out of fear that the French government could refuse permission for the tower to be restored in its original location.[46] In 1982, the original lifts between the second and third levels were replaced after 97 years in service. These had been closed to the public between November and March because the water in the hydraulic drive tended to freeze. The new cars operate in pairs, with one counterbalancing the other, and perform the journey in one stage, reducing the journey time from eight minutes to less than two minutes. At the same time, two new emergency staircases were installed, replacing the original spiral staircases. In 1983, the south pillar was fitted with an electrically driven Otis lift to serve the Jules Verne restaurant.[citation needed] The Fives-Lille lifts in the east and west legs, fitted in 1899, were extensively refurbished in 1986. The cars were replaced, and a computer system was installed to completely automate the lifts. The motive power was moved from the water hydraulic system to a new electrically driven oil-filled hydraulic system, and the original water hydraulics were retained solely as a counterbalance system.[45] A service lift was added to the south pillar for moving small loads and maintenance personnel three years later. Robert Moriarty flew a Beechcraft Bonanza under the tower on 31 March 1984.[47] In 1987, A.J. Hackett made one of his first bungee jumps from the top of the Eiffel Tower, using a special cord he had helped develop. Hackett was arrested by the police.[48] On 27 October 1991, Thierry Devaux, along with mountain guide Herv Calvayrac, performed a series of acrobatic figures while bungee jumping from the second floor of the tower.[49] Facing the Champ de Mars, Devaux used an electric winch between figures to go back up to the second floor. When firemen arrived, he stopped after the sixth jump.[citation needed] For its "Countdown to the Year 2000" celebration on 31 December 1999, flashing lights and high-powered searchlights were installed on the tower. Fireworks were set off all over it. An exhibition above a cafeteria on the first floor commemorates this event. The searchlights on top of the tower made it a beacon in Paris's night sky, and 20,000 flashing bulbs gave the tower a sparkly appearance for five minutes every hour on the hour.[50] The lights sparkled blue for several nights to herald the new millennium On 31 December 2000. The sparkly lighting continued for 18 months until July 2001. The sparkling lights were turned on again on 21 June 2003, and the display was planned to last for 10 years before they needed replacing.[51] The tower received its 200,000,000th guest on 28 November 2002.[52] The tower has operated at its maximum capacity of about 7?million visitors since 2003.[53] In 2004, the Eiffel Tower began hosting a seasonal ice rink on the first level.[54] A glass floor was installed on the first level during the 2014 refurbishment.[55] The puddled iron (wrought iron) of the Eiffel Tower weighs 7,300 tons,[56] and the addition of lifts, shops and antennae have brought the total weight to approximately 10,100?tons.[57] As a demonstration of the economy of design, if the 7,300?tons of metal in the structure were melted down, it would fill the square base, 125 metres (410?ft) on each side, to a depth of only 6.25?cm (2.46?in) assuming the density of the metal to be 7.8?tons per cubic metre.[58] Additionally, a cubic box surrounding the tower (324?m x 125?m x 125?m) would contain 6,200?tons of air, weighing almost as much as the iron itself. Depending on the ambient temperature, the top of the tower may shift away from the sun by up to 18?cm (7?in) due to thermal expansion of the metal on the side facing the sun.[59] When it was built, many were shocked by the tower's daring form. Eiffel was accused of trying to create something artistic with no regard to the principles of engineering. However, Eiffel and his team ÿ experienced bridge builders ÿ understood the importance of wind forces, and knew that if they were going to build the tallest structure in the world, they had to be sure it could withstand them. In an interview with the newspaper Le Temps published on 14 February 1887, Eiffel said: Is it not true that the very conditions which give strength also conform to the hidden rules of harmony? Now to what phenomenon did I have to give primary concern in designing the Tower? It was wind resistance. Well then! I hold that the curvature of the monument's four outer edges, which is as mathematical calculation dictated it should be will give a great impression of strength and beauty, for it will reveal to the eyes of the observer the boldness of the design as a whole.[60] He used graphical methods to determine the strength of the tower and empirical evidence to account for the effects of wind, rather than a mathematical formula. Close examination of the tower reveals a basically exponential shape.[61] All parts of the tower were over-designed to ensure maximum resistance to wind forces. The top half was even assumed to have no gaps in the latticework.[62] In the years since it was completed, engineers have put forward various mathematical hypotheses in an attempt to explain the success of the design. The most recent, devised in 2004 after letters sent by Eiffel to the French Society of Civil Engineers in 1885 were translated into English, is described as a non-linear integral equation based on counteracting the wind pressure on any point of the tower with the tension between the construction elements at that point.[61] The Eiffel Tower sways by up to 9?centimetres (3.5?in) in the wind.[63] When originally built, the first level contained three restaurantsone French, one Russian and one Flemishand an "Anglo-American Bar". After the exposition closed, the Flemish restaurant was converted to a 250-seat theatre. A promenade 2.6-metre (8?ft 6?in) wide ran around the outside of the first level. At the top, there were laboratories for various experiments, and a small apartment reserved for Gustave Eiffel to entertain guests, which is now open to the public, complete with period decorations and lifelike mannequins of Eiffel and some of his notable guests.[64] In May 2016, an apartment was created on the first level to accommodate four competition winners during the UEFA Euro 2016 football tournament in Paris in June. The apartment has a kitchen, two bedrooms, a lounge, and views of Paris landmarks including the Seine, the Sacre Coeur, and the Arc de Triomphe.[65] The arrangement of the lifts has been changed several times during the tower's history. Given the elasticity of the cables and the time taken to align the cars with the landings, each lift, in normal service, takes an average of 8 minutes and 50 seconds to do the round trip, spending an average of 1 minute and 15 seconds at each level. The average journey time between levels is 1 minute. The original hydraulic mechanism is on public display in a small museum at the base of the east and west legs. Because the mechanism requires frequent lubrication and maintenance, public access is often restricted. The rope mechanism of the north tower can be seen as visitors exit the lift.[citation needed] Gustave Eiffel engraved on the tower the names of 72 French scientists, engineers and mathematicians in recognition of their contributions to the building of the tower. Eiffel chose this "invocation of science" because of his concern over the artists' protest. At the beginning of the 20th century, the engravings were painted over, but they were restored in 1986ÿ87 by the Socit Nouvelle d'exploitation de la Tour Eiffel, a company operating the tower.[66] The tower is painted in three shades: lighter at the top, getting progressively darker towards the bottom to complement the Parisian sky.[67] It was originally reddish brown; this changed in 1968 to a bronze colour known as "Eiffel Tower Brown".[68] The only non-structural elements are the four decorative grill-work arches, added in Sauvestre's sketches, which served to make the tower look more substantial and to make a more impressive entrance to the exposition.[69] A pop-culture movie clich is that the view from a Parisian window always includes the tower.[70] In reality, since zoning restrictions limit the height of most buildings in Paris to seven storeys, only a small number of tall buildings have a clear view of the tower.[citation needed] Maintenance of the tower includes applying 60?tons of paint every seven years to prevent it from rusting. The tower has been completely repainted at least 19 times since it was built. Lead paint was still being used as recently as 2001 when the practice was stopped out of concern for the environment.[51] The nearest Paris Mtro station is Bir-Hakeim and the nearest RER station is Champ de Mars-Tour Eiffel.[71] The tower itself is located at the intersection of the quai Branly and the Pont d'Ina. More than 250?million people have visited the tower since it was completed in 1889.[3] In 2015, there were 6.91?million visitors.[72] The tower is the most-visited paid monument in the world.[73] An average of 25,000 people ascend the tower every day which can result in long queues.[74] Tickets can be purchased online to avoid the long queues. The tower has two restaurants: Le 58 Tour Eiffel on the first level, and Le Jules Verne, a gourmet restaurant with its own lift on the second level. This restaurant has one star in the Michelin Red Guide. It is run by the multi-Michelin star chef Alain Ducasse[75] and owes its name to the famous science-fiction writer Jules Verne. Additionally, there is a champagne bar at the top of the Eiffel Tower. As one of the most iconic landmarks in the world, the Eiffel Tower has been the inspiration for the creation of many replicas and similar towers. An early example is Blackpool Tower in England. The mayor of Blackpool, Sir John Bickerstaffe, was so impressed on seeing the Eiffel Tower at the 1889 exposition that he commissioned a similar tower to be built in his town. It opened in 1894 and is 158.1?metres (518?ft) tall.[76] Tokyo Tower in Japan, built as a communications tower in 1958, was also inspired by the Eiffel Tower.[77] There are various scale models of the tower in the United States, including a half-scale version at the Paris Las Vegas, Nevada, one in Paris, Texas built in 1993, and two 1:3 scale models at Kings Island, Ohio, and Kings Dominion, Virginia, amusement parks opened in 1972 and 1975 respectively. Two 1:3 scale models can be found in China, one in Durango, Mexico that was donated by the local French community, and several across Europe.[78] In 2011, the TV show Pricing the Priceless on the National Geographic Channel speculated that a full-size replica of the tower would cost approximately US$480?million to build.[79] The tower has been used for making radio transmissions since the beginning of the 20th century. Until the 1950s, sets of aerial wires ran from the cupola to anchors on the Avenue de Suffren and Champ de Mars. These were connected to longwave transmitters in small bunkers. In 1909, a permanent underground radio centre was built near the south pillar, which still exists today. On 20 November 1913, the Paris Observatory, using the Eiffel Tower as an aerial, exchanged wireless signals with the United States Naval Observatory, which used an aerial in Arlington, Virginia. The object of the transmissions was to measure the difference in longitude between Paris and Washington, D.C.[80] Today, radio and digital television signals are transmitted from the Eiffel Tower. A television antenna was first installed on the tower in 1957, increasing its height by 18.7?m (61.4?ft). Work carried out in 2000 added a further 5.3?m (17.4?ft), giving the current height of 324?m (1,063?ft).[51] Analogue television signals from the Eiffel Tower ceased on 8 March 2011. The tower and its image have long been in the public domain.[81] In June 1990 a French court ruled that a special lighting display on the tower in 1989 to mark the tower's 100th anniversary was an "original visual creation" protected by copyright. The Court of Cassation, France's judicial court of last resort, upheld the ruling in March 1992.[82] The Socit d'Exploitation de la Tour Eiffel (SETE) now considers any illumination of the tower to be a separate work of art that falls under copyright.[83] As a result, the SNTE alleges that it is illegal to publish contemporary photographs of the lit tower at night without permission in France and some other countries for commercial use.[84][85] The imposition of copyright has been controversial. The Director of Documentation for what was then called the Socit Nouvelle d'exploitation de la Tour Eiffel (SNTE), Stphane Dieu, commented in 2005: "It is really just a way to manage commercial use of the image, so that it isn't used in ways [of which] we don't approve".[86] SNTE made over ?1?million from copyright fees in 2002.[87] However, it could also be used to restrict the publication of tourist photographs of the tower at night, as well as hindering non-profit and semi-commercial publication of images of the illuminated tower.[81] French doctrine and jurisprudence allows pictures incorporating a copyrighted work as long as their presence is incidental or accessory to the subject being represented,[88] a reasoning akin to the de minimis rule. Therefore, SETE may be unable to claim copyright on photographs of Paris which happen to include the lit tower. The Eiffel Tower was the world's tallest structure when completed in 1889, a distinction it retained until 1929 when the Chrysler Building in New York City was topped out.[89] The tower has lost its standing both as the world's tallest structure and the world's tallest lattice tower but retains its status as the tallest freestanding (non-guyed) structure in France.

31 May 1961🚨

Christianity🚨 Religion in Australia as declared in the census (2016)[1][2] Religion in Australia is diverse. Section 116 of the Constitution of Australia of 1901 prohibits the Commonwealth government from establishing a church or interfering with the freedom of religion.[note 1] In an optional question on the 2016 Census, 52.1% of the Australian population declared some variety of Christianity. Historically the percentage was far higher; now, the religious landscape of Australia is changing and diversifying.[1] In 2016, 30.1% of Australians stated "no religion" and a further 9.6% chose not to answer the question.[1] Other faiths include Muslims (2.6%), Buddhists (2.4%), Hindus (1.9%), Sikhs (0.5%), and Jews (0.4%).[1] Australia's Aboriginal people developed the animist spirituality of the Dreaming and some of the earliest evidence on earth for religious practices among humans has been found in the archaeological record of their ancestors. Torres Strait Islander religion bore similarities to broader Melanesian spirituality. The general isolation of indigenous Australian religion ended with the arrival of the first British settlers in 1788, whereafter subsequent immigrants and their descendants have been predominantly Christian. While the Church of England originally held a position of privilege in early colonial Australia, a legal framework guaranteeing religious equality evolved within a few decades.[3] Large numbers of Irish Catholics were transported to Australia through the criminal justice system.[4] British Nonconformist Methodist, Presbyterians, Congregationalists and Baptists set up their own churches in the 19th century, as did Lutherans from Germany.[5][6] Smaller groups also arrived and established their churches. Jews started arriving in the early 19th century. The Australian gold rushes brought in workers from China and the Pacific islands, as well as specialised workers from British India, such as the mainly Muslim "Afghan Cameleers". While Australia has a strong tradition of secular government, religious organisations have played a significant role in public life. The Protestant and Catholic churches played an integral role in the development of education, health and welfare services.[7][8] Today, around a quarter of Christians attend church weekly; around a quarter of all school students attend church-affiliated schools.[9] The Christian festivals of Easter and Christmas are public holidays.[10] At the time of British settlement, the Indigenous Australians had their own religious traditions of the Dreaming (as Mircea Eliade put it) "There is a general belief among the [indigenous] Australians that the world, man, and the various animals and plants were created by certain Supernatural beings who afterwards disappeared, either ascending to the sky or entering the earth."[11] and ritual systems, with an emphasis on life transitions such as adulthood and death.[12] Prior to European colonisation in 1788 there was contact with Indigenous Australians from people of various faiths. These contacts were with explorers, fishermen and survivors of the numerous shipwrecks. There have been countless artifacts retrieved from these contacts.[13] The Aborigines of Northern Australia (Arnhem Land) retain stories, songs and paintings of trade and cultural interaction with boat-people from the north. These people are generally regarded as being from the east Indonesian archipelago. (See: Macassan contact with Australia.) There is some evidence of Islamic terms and concepts entering northern Aboriginal culture via this interaction.[14][15] Centuries before European sailors reached Australia, Christian theologians already speculated whether the region, located on the opposite side of the world from Europe, had human inhabitants and, if so, whether the Antipodes descended from Adam and have been redeemed by Jesus. The prevailing point of view, expressed by St. Augustine of Hippo, was that "it is too absurd to say that some men might have set sail from this side and, traversing the immense expanse of ocean, have propagated there a race of human beings descended from that one first man."[16][17] A dissenting view, held by the Irish-Austrian St. Vergilius of Salzburg, was "that beneath the earth there was another world and other men"; while not much is known about Vergilius' views, the Catholic Encyclopedia speculates that he was able to clear himself from accusations of heresy by explaining that the people of the hypothetical Australia were descended from Adam and redeemed by Christ.[18] By the early 18th century, Christian leaders felt that the natives of the little-known Terra Australis Incognita and Hollandia Nova (still often thought as two distinct land masses) were in need of conversion to Christianity. In 1724, a young Jonathan Edwards wrote: And what is peculiarly glorious in it, is the gospelizing the new and before unknown world, that which is so remote, so unknown, where the devil had reigned quietly from the beginning of the world, which is larger ÿ taking in America, Terra Australis Incognita, Hollandia Nova, ... ÿ is far greater than the old world. I say, that this new world should all worship the God of Israel, whose worship was then confined to so narrow a land, is wonderful and glorious![19] Christianity came to Australia with the first British settlers on the First Fleet.[20] Of the convicts and settlers most were Catholics (largely Irish convicts) and Anglicans and a number of them Methodists. The First Fleet brought tensions to Australia fuelled by historical grievances between Catholics and other Christians, tensions that would continue into the 20th century.[21] The first chaplain, Richard Johnson, a Church of England cleric, was charged by Governor Arthur Phillip with improving "public morality" in the colony, but he was also heavily involved in health and education.[22] Christian leaders have remained prominent in health and education in Australia ever since, with over a fifth of students attending church schools at the beginning of the 21st century and a number of the nation's hospitals, care facilities and charities having been founded by Christian organisations.[23] Though free settlers began to arrive in the late 18th century, it was the gold rush of the 1850s that led to radically increased immigration. The new settlers brought with them their religious traditions, such as Irish Catholicism, Scottish Presbyterianism and English Anglicanism among others. Australian Aborigines suffered a decline during this period as they were dispossessed of their lands and diseases spread among their population. Christian churches organised missions during this period, formally intended to "civilise" Aboriginal communities and spread Christianity. The overall consequences of this activity are still disputed, but it contributed to the decline of indigenous languages and beliefs. In Western Australia, the Anglican clergy saw themselves as pioneering a new society. Besides the usual religious roles of leading church building and public worship they took a major part in charity, education and public debate. They attempted to refashion it in their own ecclesiastical image based on English models.[24] The Church of England was disestablished in the colony of New South Wales by the Church Act of 1836. Drafted by the reformist attorney-general John Plunkett, the act established legal equality for Anglicans, Catholics and Presbyterians and was later extended to Methodists.[25] Freedom of Religion was enshrined in Section 116 of the Constitution of Australia of 1901. By 1901 apart from the indigenous population and the descendants of gold rush migrants, Australian society was predominantly Anglo-Celtic, with 40% of the population being Anglican, 23% Catholic, 34% other Christian and about 1% professing non-Christian religions. There was a Lutheran population of German descent in South Australia. There were at least 15 Jews in the First Fleet, 14 convicts and one "free" child.[26] Tolpuddle Martyrs were sentenced to penal transportation to Australia because friendly societies had strong elements of what are now considered to be the predominant role of trade unions.[27] Before 1901, some Muslim sailors and prisoners came to Australia on convict ships. "Afghan cameleers" settled in Australia from the 1860s onwards; a number of them being Sikh. From the 1870s Malay divers were recruited (with most subsequently repatriated). In 1901, the government passed an act limiting immigration to those of European descent in what came to be known as the White Australia Policy. By effectively limiting the immigration of practitioners of different faiths, this policy ensured that Christianity remained the religion of the overwhelming majority of Australians for the foreseeable future and, indeed, to the present day. The first census in 1911 showed 96% identified themselves as Christian.[28] The tensions that came with the First Fleet continued into the 1960s: job vacancy advertisements sometimes included the stipulation of "Protestant preferred" or that "Catholics Need Not Apply".[20] Nevertheless, Australia elected its first Catholic prime minister, James Scullin, in 1929 and Sir Isaac Isaacs, a Jew, was appointed governor-general in 1930.[29][30] The Australian constitution consists of several documents, including the Statute of Westminster and the Australia Act of 1986, but there is only one reference to religion in the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Australia, signed into law in 1900. Notably, the constitution does not include a Bill Of Rights and, as a result, Australia's fundamental law has been criticised for its lack of explicit protection for several rights and freedoms. However, Section 116 of the 1900 Act to constitute the Commonwealth of Australia (Australian Constitution) provides that: The Commonwealth shall not make any law for establishing any religion, or for imposing any religious observance, or for prohibiting the free exercise of any religion, and no religious test shall be required as a qualification for any office or public trust under the Commonwealth. Technically, this article does not affect the states' authority to legislate on religion, nor would it block federal legislation on religion aside from that establishing an official religion of Australia. In practice, though, the government respects these rights and contributes to the generally free practice of religion. In 1983, the High Court of Australia defined religion as a complex of beliefs and practices which point to a set of values and an understanding of the meaning of existence. The ABS 2001 Census Dictionary defines "No Religion" as a category of religion which has subcategories such as agnosticism, atheism, Humanism and rationalism. The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) is able to inquire into allegations of discrimination on religious grounds. HREOC's 1998[31] addressing the human right to freedom of religion and belief in Australia against article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights stated that despite the legal protections that apply in different jurisdictions, many Australians suffer discrimination on the basis of religious belief or non-belief, including members of both mainstream and non-mainstream religions, and those of no religious persuasion. An example of an HREOC response to such views is the IsmaU project, which examines possible prejudice against Muslims in Australia since the 11 September 2001 attacks in the US, and the Bali bombings.[32] A question on religion has been asked in every census taken in Australia, with the voluntary nature of this question having been specifically stated since 1933. In 1971, the instruction "if no religion, write none" was introduced. This saw a sevenfold increase from the previous census year in the percentage of Australians stating they had no religion. Since 1971, this percentage has progressively increased to 30.1% in 2016.[1] The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) 2006 Census Dictionary statement on religious affiliation states the purpose for gathering such information: Data on religious affiliation are used for such purposes as planning educational facilities, aged persons' care and other social services provided by religion-based organisations; the location of church buildings; the assigning of chaplains to hospitals, prisons, armed services and universities; the allocation of time on public radio and other media; and sociological research. The census question about religion is optional, and asks "What is the person's religion?", giving respondents a choice of nine religions, "Other" and "No religion".[33] At the 2016 census 9.6% of people declined to answer, or they did not give a response adequate for interpretation.[1] The religious views of those people are not known, so it is not proper to group them together with people who state that they have no religion ÿ instead, all the census figures about religion should be treated with corresponding confidence levels. The 2016 census identified that 52.1% of Australians classify themselves Christian: 22.6% identifying themselves as Catholic and 13.3% as Anglican. Another 8.2% of Australians identify themselves as followers of non-Christian religions. The second-largest classification was the 30.1% who categorised themselves as having "No religion";[1] this is most evident amongst younger people, with 39% of people aged 18ÿ34 choosing that option (it was 12% in 1976).[1] As in many Western countries, the level of active participation in church worship is much lower than this; weekly attendance at church services is about 1.5 million, about 7.5% of the population.[34] According to the time series data released with the 2016 census, the fastest growing religious classifications over the ten years between 2006 and 2016 were: Meanwhile, the greatest decreases were in the major Christian denominations; all Christian denominations combined decreased from 63.9% to 52.1%.[1] Note?: Due to rounding, figures may not add up to the totals shown. Prior to British settlement in Australia, the animist beliefs of Australia's indigenous people had been practised for millennia. In the case of mainland Aboriginal Australians, their spirituality is known as the Dreaming and it places a heavy emphasis on belonging to the land. The collection of stories which it contains shaped Aboriginal law and customs. Aboriginal art, story and dance continue to draw on these spiritual traditions. In the case of the Torres Strait Islanders who inhabit the islands between Australia and New Guinea, spirituality and customs reflected their Melanesian origins and dependence on the sea.[38] Indigenous Australians have a complex oral tradition and spiritual values based upon reverence for the land and a belief in the Dreaming. The Dreaming is at once the ancient time of creation and the present day reality of Dreaming. There were a great many different groups, each with their own individual culture, belief structure, and language. These cultures overlapped to a greater or lesser extent, and evolved over time. The Rainbow Serpent is a major dream spirit for Aboriginal people across Australia. The Yowie and Bunyip are other well known dream spirits. At the time of the British settlement, traditional religions were animist and also tended to have elements of ancestor worship. According to the 2001 census, 5,244 persons or less than 0.03 percent of respondents reported practising Aboriginal traditional religions. Aboriginal beliefs and spirituality, even among those Aborigines who identify themselves as members of a traditional organised religion, are intrinsically linked to the land generally and to certain sites of significance in particular. The 1996 census reported that almost 72 percent of Aborigines practised some form of Christianity and 16 percent listed no religion. The 2001 census contained no comparable updated data.[39] European culture and Christianity have had a significant impact on Indigenous Australians. As in many colonial situations the churches both facilitated the loss of Indigenous Australian culture and religion and also facilitated its maintenance. The involvement of Christians in Aboriginal affairs has evolved significantly since 1788. Around the year 2000, many churches and church organisations officially apologised for past failures to adequately respect indigenous cultures and address the injustices of the dispossession of indigenous people.[40][41][42] In the Torres Strait Islands, the Coming of the Light Festival marks the day the Christian missionaries first arrived on the islands on 1 July 1871 and introduced Christianity to the region. This is a significant festival for Torres Strait Islanders, who are predominantly Christian. Religious and cultural ceremonies are held across Torres Strait and mainland Australia.[43] Prominent Aboriginal activist Noel Pearson, himself raised at a Lutheran mission in Cape York, has written that missions throughout Australia's colonial history "provided a haven from the hell of life on the Australian frontier while at the same time facilitating colonisation".[44] Prominent Aboriginal Christians have included Pastor David Unaipon, the first Aboriginal author; Pastor Sir Douglas Nicholls, athlete, activist and former Governor of South Australia; Mum (Shirl) Smith, a celebrated Redfern community worker who, assisted by the Sisters of Charity, work to assist Aborigines.;[45] and former Senator Aden Ridgeway, the first Chairman of the Aboriginal Catholic Ministry.[45] In recent times, Christians such as Fr Ted Kennedy of Redfern,[46] Jesuit human rights lawyer Fr Frank Brennan [47] and the Josephite Sisters have been prominent in working for Aboriginal rights and improvements to standards of living.[48] The Bah' Faith first arrived in Australia in 1922, and at less than 0.1% of the total population[49], is one of the smaller religious minorities. The Sydney Bah' Temple is situated in Ingleside, a northern suburb of Sydney.[50] According to Jennifer Taylor, a historian at Sydney University, it is among Sydney's four most significant religious buildings constructed in the twentieth century.[51] Dedicated in 1961, it was also the world's fourth Bah' House of Worship to be completed.[50] The 1996 Australian Census lists Bah' membership at just under 9,000.[52] In 2001, the second edition of A Practical Reference to Religious Diversity for Operational Police and Emergency Services added the Bah' Faith to its coverage of religions in Australia and noted that the community had grown to over 11,000.[52] The Association of Religion Data Archives (relying on World Christian Encyclopedia) estimated some 17,700 Bah's in 2005,[53] and over 19,300 in 2010.[54] However, census data from 2016 reported a much lower population of only 13,988.[49] Since the arrival of the first Christian settlers on the First Fleet of British ships in 1788, Christianity has grown to be the major religion in Australia. Consequently, the Christian festivals of Christmas and Easter are public holidays, the skylines of Australian cities and towns are marked by church and cathedral spires and the Christian churches have played an integral role in the development of education, health and welfare services in Australia. The churches with the largest number of members are the Catholic Church, the Anglican Church of Australia and the Uniting Church in Australia. Pentecostal churches are also present with megachurches being found in most states (for example, Hillsong Church and Paradise Community Church). The National Council of Churches in Australia is the main Christian ecumenical body. Christian Reformed Churches of Australia For much of Australian history, the Church of England in Australia, now known as the Anglican Church of Australia, was the largest religious affiliation, however multicultural immigration has contributed to a decline in its relative position, with the Catholic Church benefiting from the opening of post-war Australia to multicultural immigration and becoming the largest group. The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia and other congregations associated with non-British cultures have also expanded. In his welcoming address to the Catholic World Youth Day 2008 in Sydney, the Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd, said that Christianity had been a positive influence on Australia: "It was the" (Christian) "church that began first schools for the poor, it was the church that began first hospitals for the poor, it was the church that began first refuges for the poor and these great traditions continue for the future."[55] Christian charitable organisations, hospitals and schools have played a prominent role in welfare and education since Colonial times, when First Fleet chaplain Richard Johnson was credited as "the physician both of soul and body" during the famine of 1790, and was charged with general supervision of schools.[22] Today, the Catholic education system is the second biggest sector after government schools, with more than 650,000 students (and around 21 per cent of all secondary school enrolments). The Anglican Church educates around 105,000 students and the Uniting Church has around 48 schools.[56] Smaller denominations, including the Lutheran Church also have a number of schools in Australia. There are two Catholic Universities in Australia, Australian Catholic University opened in 1991 following the amalgamation of four Catholic tertiary institutions in eastern Australia and the University of Notre Dame Australia which is based in Perth. Catholic Social Services Australia's 63 member organisations help more than a million Australians every year. Anglican organisations work in health, missionary work, social welfare and communications; and the Uniting Church does extensive community work, in aged care, hospitals, nursing, family support services, youth services and with the homeless, and especially throughout inland Australia.[56] Christian charities such as the Saint Vincent de Paul Society, the Salvation Army, Anglicare, and Youth Off the Streets receive considerable national support. Religious orders founded many of Australia's hospitals, such as St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney, which was opened as a free hospital in 1857 by the Sisters of Charity and is now Australia's largest not-for-profit health provider and has trained prominent Australian surgeons such as Victor Chang.[57] Notable Australian Christians[58] have included: Mary MacKillop ÿ educator, founder of the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart and the first Australian to be recognised as a saint by the Catholic Church;[59] David Unaipon ÿ an Aboriginal writer, inventor and Christian preacher currently featured on the Australian $50 note;[60] Archbishop Daniel Mannix of Melbourne ÿ a controversial voice against Conscription during World War I and against British policy in Ireland;[61] the Reverend John Flynn ÿ founder of the Royal Flying Doctor Service, currently featured on the Australian $20 note;[62] and Sir Douglas Nicholls ÿ Aboriginal rights activist, athlete, pastor and former Governor of South Australia.[63] Sectarianism in Australia tended to reflect the political inheritance of Britain and Ireland. Until 1945, the vast majority of Catholics in Australia were of Irish descent, causing the British majority to question their loyalty to the British Empire. The first Catholic priests arrived in Australia as convicts in 1800, but the Castle Hill Rebellion of 1804 alarmed the British authorities and no further priests were allowed in the colony until 1820, when London sent John Joseph Therry and Philip Connolly.[64] In 1901, the Australian Constitution guaranteed Separation of Church and State. A notable period of sectarianism re-emerged during the First World War and the 1916 Easter Uprising in Ireland,[61] but the significance of sectarian division declined dramatically after World War II. There was a growth in non-religious adherence, but also a diversification of Christian churches (especially the growth of Greek, Macedonian, Serbian and Russian Orthodox churches), together with an increase in ecumenism among Christians, through organisations such as the National Council of Churches in Australia.[65] One of the most visible signs of the historical importance of Christianity to Australia is the prominence of churches in most Australian towns and cities. Among Australia's oldest are Ebenezer Chapel, and the Anglican St Matthew's, Windsor, St Luke's, Liverpool, St Peter's, Campbelltown and St James Church, Sydney, built between 1819 and 1824 by Governor Macquarie's architect, Francis Greenway.[66] St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney was built to a design by William Wardell from a foundation stone laid in 1868, the spires of the cathedral were not finally added until the year 2000. Wardell also worked on the design of St Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne ÿ among the finest examples of ecclesiastical architecture in Australia.[67] The Anglican St Paul's Cathedral, Melbourne in the iconic hub of the city opposite Flinders Street Station. Adelaide is known as the "City of Churches", but churches extend far into the Australian Outback, as at the historic Lutheran Mission Chapel at Hermannsburg, Northern Territory. Along with community attitudes to religion, church architecture changed significantly during the 20th century. Urban churches, such as the Wayside Chapel (1964) in Sydney, differed markedly from traditional ecclesiastical designs. In the later 20th century, distinctly Australian approaches were applied at places such as Jambaroo Benedictine Abbey, where natural materials were chosen to "harmonise with the local environment" and the chapel sanctuary is of glass overlooking rainforest.[68] Similar design principles were applied at Thredbo Ecumenical Chapel built in the Snowy Mountains in 1996.[69] The Christian festivals of Christmas and Easter are national public holidays in Australia. Christmas, which recalls the birth of Jesus Christ, is celebrated on 25 December during the Australian summer (although on 7 January by some Eastern Orthodox)and is an important cultural festival even for many non-religious Australians. The European traditions of Christmas trees, roast dinners, carols and gift giving are all continued in Australia, but they might be conducted between visits to the beach, and Santa Claus is said in song to be drawn on his sleigh by six white boomer kangaroos.[70] Here are some Christian denominations with Australian articles: The first contacts that Islam had with Australia was when Muslim fishermen native to Makassar, which is today a part of Indonesia, visited North-Western Australia long before British settlement in 1788. This contact of South East Asian ethnic groups of Islamic faith can be identified from the graves they dug for their comrades who died on the journey, being that they face Mecca (in Arabia), in accordance with Islamic regulations concerning burial, as well as evidence from Aboriginal cave paintings and religious ceremonies which depict and incorporate the adoption of Makassan canoe designs and words.[71][72] In later history, throughout the 19th century following British settlement, other Muslims came to Australia including the Muslim 'Afghan' cameleers, who used their camels to transport goods and people through the otherwise unnavigable desert and pioneered a network of camel tracks that later became roads across the Outback. Australia's first mosque was built for them at Marree, South Australia in 1861.[56] Between the 1860s and 1920s around 2000 cameleers were brought from Afghanistan and the north west of British India (now Pakistan) and perhaps 100 families remained in Australia. Other outback mosques were established at places like Coolgardie, Cloncurry, and Broken Hill ÿ and more permanent mosques in Adelaide, Perth and later Brisbane. A legacy of this pioneer era is the presence of wild camels in Outback and the oldest Islamic structure in the southern hemisphere, at Central Adelaide Mosque. Nonetheless, despite their significant role in Australia prior to the establishment of rail and road networks, the formulation of the White Australia policy at the time of Federation made immigration difficult for the 'Afghans' and their memory slowly faded during the 20th century, until a revival of interest began in the 1980s.[73] Successive Australian governments dismantled the White Australia Policy in the Post-WW2 period. From the 1970s onwards, under the leadership of Gough Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser, Australia began to pursue multiculturalism.[74] Australia in the later 20th century became a refuge for many Muslims fleeing conflicts including those in Lebanon, the former Yugoslavia, Iraq, Iran, Sudan and Afghanistan.[75] General immigration, combined with religious conversion to Islam by Christians and other Australians, as well as Australia's participation in UN refugee efforts has increased the overall Muslim population. Around 36% of Muslims are Australian born. Overseas born Muslims come from a great variety of nations and ethnic groups ÿ with large Lebanese and Turkish communities. Following the 11 September attacks, associations drawn between the political ideology of Osama Bin Laden and the religion of Islam have stirred debate in some quarters in Australia regarding Islam's relationship with the wider community ÿ with some advocating greater emphasis on assimilation, and others supporting renewed commitment to diversity. The deaths of Australians in bombings by militant Islamic fundamentalists in New York in 2001, Bali in 2002ÿ5 and London in 2005; as well as the sending of Australian troops to East Timor in 1999, Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003; the arrest of bomb plotters in Australia; and concerns about certain cultural practices such as the wearing of the Burkha have all contributed to a degree of tension in recent times[76][77] A series of comments by a senior Sydney cleric, Sheikh Taj El-Din Hilaly also stirred controversy, particularly his remarks regarding "female modesty" following an incident of gang rape in Sydney[78][79] Australians were among the targets of Islamic Fundamentalists in the Bali bombings in Indonesia and attack on Australian Embassy in Jakarta and the South East Asian militant group Jemaah Islamiyah has been of particular concern to Australians.[80] The Australian government's mandatory detention processing system for asylum seekers became increasingly controversial after the 11 September attacks. A significant proportion of recent Asylum seekers arriving by boat have been Muslims fleeing the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan and elsewhere. Some Islamic leaders and social commentators claim that Islam has suffered from unfair stereotyping[81][82][83] Violence and intimidation was directed against Muslims and people of Middle Eastern appearance during southern Sydney's Cronulla riots in 2005. In 2005, the Howard Government established the Muslim Community Reference Group to advise on Muslim community issues for one year, chaired by Ameer Ali.[84] Inter-faith dialogues were also established by Christian and Muslim groups such as The Australian Federation of Islamic Councils and the National Council of Churches in Australia.[85] Australia and Indonesia co-operated closely following the Bali-bombings, not only in law-enforcement but in improving education and cross-cultural understanding, leading to a marked improvement in relations.[86] After a series of controversies, Sheikh Taj El-Din Hilaly retired as Grand mufti of Australia in 2007 and was replaced by Fehmi Naji El-Imam AM.[79] Today, over 370,000 people in Australia identify as Muslim, with diverse communities concentrated mainly in Sydney and Melbourne. More than half are non-practising[87] cultural Muslims. Since the 1970s Islamic schools have been established as well as more than 100 mosques and prayer centres.[56] Many notable Muslim places of worship are to be found in large Australian cities, including the Central Adelaide Mosque, which was constructed during the 1880s; and Sydney's Classical Ottoman style Auburn Gallipoli Mosque, which was largely funded by the Turkish community and the name of which recalls the shared heritage of the foundation of modern Turkey and the story of the ANZACs.[88] 1,140 people identified as Aboriginal Muslims in the 2011 census, almost double the number recorded in the 2001 census.[89][90] Notable Australian Muslims include boxer Anthony Mundine; community worker and rugby league star Hazem El Masri; cricketer Usman Khawaja and academic Waleed Aly. In 2013, Labor MP Ed Husic became Australia's first Muslim member of Cabinet, briefly serving as Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister and for Broadband in the short lived Second Rudd Government.[91] At least eight Jewish convicts are believed to have been transported to Sydney aboard the First Fleet in 1788, when the first British settlement was established on the continent. An estimated 110,000 Jews currently live in Australia,[92] the majority being Ashkenazi Jews of Eastern European descent, with many being refugees and Holocaust survivors who arrived during and after World War II. The Jewish population has increased slightly in recent times[93] due to immigration from South Africa and the former Soviet Union. The largest Jewish community in Australia is in Melbourne, with about 60,000, followed by Sydney with about 45,000 members. Smaller communities are dispersed among the other state capitals. Following the conclusion of the British colonial period, Jews have enjoyed formal equality before the law in Australia and have not been subject to civil disabilities or other forms of state-sponsored anti-Semitism which exclude them from full participation in public life. Sydney's gothic design Great Synagogue, consecrated in 1878, is a notable place of Jewish worship in Australia. Notable Australian Jews have included the Sir John Monash, the notable World War I general who opened the Maccabean Hall in Sydney in 1923 to commemorate Jews who fought and died in the First World War and who is currently featured on the Australian $100 note;[94] and Sir Isaac Isaacs who became the first Australian born governor general in 1930.[30] Sir Zelman Cowen also served as Governor-General, between 1977 and 1982. The Sydney Jewish Museum opened in 1992 to commemorate the Holocaust "challenge visitors' perceptions of democracy, morality, social justice and human rights".[95] Until the 1930s, all synagogues in Australia were nominally Orthodox, with most acknowledging leadership of the Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom. To this day the vast majority of synagogues in Australia are Orthodox. However, there is a wide range of Orthodox congregations, including Mizrachi, Chabad and Adass Israel congregations. There are also Sephardi congregations. There had been short-lived efforts to establish Reform congregations as early as the 1890s. However, under the leadership of Ada Phillips, a sustained liberal congregation, Temple Beth Israel, was established in Melbourne. Subsequently, another synagogue linked to the United States Reform Movement, Temple Emanuel, was established in Sydney. Following these two congregations, a number of other Liberal synagogues have been founded in other cities.[96] Since 1992 Conservative (Masorti) services have been held as an alternative service usually in the Neuweg, the smaller second synagogue within Temple Emanuel, Woollahra, Sydney. In 1999, Kehilat Nitzan, Melbourne's first Conservative (Masorti) congregation was established, with foundation president John Rosenberg. The congregation appointed its first rabbi, Ehud Bandel in 2006. In 2010 Beit Knesset Shalom became Brisbane's first Conservative (Masorti) synagogue. In 2012, the first humanistic Jewish congregation, known as Kehilat Kolenu, was established in Melbourne with links to the cultural Jewish youth movement Habonim Dror. Later in 2012, a similar congregation was established in Sydney, known as Ayelet HaShachar. The services are loosely based on the Humanistic Jewish movement in the United States and the musical-prayer group Nava Tehila in Israel. Buddhists began arriving in Australia in significant numbers during the goldrush of the 1850s with an influx of Chinese miners. However, the population remained low until the 1960s. Buddhism is now one of the fastest growing religions in Australia. Immigration from Asia has contributed to this, but some people of non-Asian origin have also converted. The three main traditions of BuddhismTheravada, East Asian and Tibetanare now represented in Australia.[56] According to the 2016 census, Buddhism has 563,700 adherents, or 2.4% of the total population.[1] Buddhist temples can be very active. Quang Minh temple in Braybrook, Melbourne, Victoria gets about 2,000 people through every Sunday and gives a free vegetarian meal to about 600 people. For important events, more than 20,000 people come. Even more come to the Nan Tien Temple, or "Southern Paradise Temple", in Wollongong, New South Wales, began construction in the early 1990s, adopting the Chinese palace building style and is now the largest Buddhist temple in the Southern Hemisphere.[97] The temple follows the Venerable Master Hsing Yun of the Fo Guang Shan Buddhist order. Hindus number 440,300 according to the 2016 census, making Hinduism the fifth largest and the second fastest growing religion in Australia (12.0% per year since 2011).[1] In the 19th century, Hindus first came to Australia to work on cotton and sugar plantations. Many who remained worked in small business, as camel drivers, merchants and hawkers, selling goods between small rural communities. Their population increased dramatically from the 1960s and 1970s and more than doubled between the 1996 and 2006 census to around 148,000 people. Most were migrants from countries such as Fiji, India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore and South Africa. At present many Hindus are well-educated professionals in fields such as medicine, engineering, commerce and information technology. Among Australia's best-known Hindus is the singer Kamahl. There are around forty-three Hindu temples in Australia,[98] the Sri Mandir Temple in Auburn, Sydney, being the first temple. It was established in 1977 to meet the needs of the growing Hindu community.[99] Sikhism is currently the fastest growing religion in Australia. According to census data, Australia's Sikh population grew from 72,000 to 126,000 between 2011 and 2016, an average growth rate of 14.8% per year.[100] Around 42% of Australia's Sikhs live in the state of Victoria.[101] Jainism is currently the fourth fastest growing religion in Australia, recording 4,050 adherents in 2016 and growing an average of 7.7% per year. The overwhelming majority (94.7%) of Jains live inside the state capitals, primarily Sydney, Melbourne and Perth[102]. Alexandrian Wiccans and Gardnerian Wiccans arrived in Australia from England and the United States around the late 1960s.[103] In the 2011 census, 32,083 Australians identified their religion as a Pagan religion including 8,413 people who identified their religion as Wicca or Witchcraft.[104] Australia is one of the least religious nations in the developed world, with religion not described as a central part in many people's lives.[105] This view is prominent among Australia's youth, who were ranked as the least religious worldwide in a 2008 survey conducted by The Christian Science Monitor.[106] In the 2016 census, the ABS categorised 7,040,700 Australians (30.1%) as having no religion, up from 4,796,800 (22.3%) in 2011.[1] This category includes agnosticism, atheism, humanism, rationalism, and people who are unaffiliated with any particular religion. While people with no religion are more than 30% of the Australian population,[1] the Australian Bureau of Statistics does not provide information in the annual "1301.0 ÿ Year Book Australia" on religious affiliation as to how many people fall into each sub-category.[107] Data on religious affiliation is only collected by the ABS at the five yearly population census. Atheist interests in Australia are represented nationally by the Atheist Foundation of Australia. Humanist interests in Australia are represented nationally by the Council of Australian Humanist Societies. Rationalist interests in Australia are represented nationally by the Rationalist Society of Australia. The Global Atheist Convention, a prominent atheist event, has been held in Melbourne. The 2006 census[108] shows 53 listed groups down to 5000 members, most of them Christian denominations, many of them national versions such as Greek, Serbian Orthodox and Assyrian Orthodox. Of the smaller religions, Pagan religions 29,328, Bah' at 12,000, Humanism about 7000. Between 1000 and 5000, are the following religionsTaoist, Druse, Satanism, Zoroastrian, Rationalism, Creativity, Theosophy, Jainism. There are also adherents of Tenrikyo, Shinto, Unitarian Universalism, Eckankar, Cao Dai, Rastafarianism, Pantheism, Scientology and Raelianism.[109][110] In general, non-Christian religions and those with no religion have been growing in proportion to the overall population.[111] With fewer classifications, data from 1996 and 2001 showed Aboriginal religion decreasing from 7000 to 5000 while Bah' grew from just under 9000 to over 11,000 and the rest of the "Other" category growing from about 69,000 to about 92,000.[52]

1754ÿ63🚨 British victory ?Great Britain Iroquois Confederacy ?France Wabanaki Confederacy The French and Indian War (1754ÿ63) comprised the North American theater of the worldwide Seven Years' War of 1756ÿ63. It pitted the colonies of British America against those of New France. Both sides were supported by military units from their parent countries, as well as by American Indian allies. At the start of the war, the French North American colonies had a population of roughly 60,000 settlers, compared with 2 million in the British North American colonies.[4] The outnumbered French particularly depended on the Indians. The European nations declared war on one another in 1756 following months of localized conflict, escalating the war from a regional affair into an intercontinental conflict. The name French and Indian War is used mainly in the United States. It refers to the two enemies of the British colonists, the royal French forces and their various American Indian allies. The British colonists were supported at various times by the Iroquois, Catawba, and Cherokee, and the French colonists were supported by Wabanaki Confederacy members Abenaki and Mi'kmaq, and Algonquin, Lenape, Ojibwa, Ottawa, Shawnee, and Wyandot. British and other European historians use the term the Seven Years' War, as do English-speaking Canadians.[5] French Canadians call it La guerre de la Conqute (the War of the Conquest)[6][7] or (rarely) the Fourth Intercolonial War. Fighting took place primarily along the frontiers between New France and the British colonies, from Virginia in the south to Newfoundland in the north. It began with a dispute over control of the confluence of the Allegheny River and Monongahela River called the Forks of the Ohio, and the site of the French Fort Duquesne in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The dispute erupted into violence in the Battle of Jumonville Glen in May 1754, during which Virginia militiamen under the command of 22-year-old George Washington ambushed a French patrol. In 1755, six colonial governors in North America met with General Edward Braddock, the newly arrived British Army commander, and planned a four-way attack on the French. None succeeded, and the main effort by Braddock proved a disaster; he lost the Battle of the Monongahela on July 9, 1755 and died a few days later. British operations failed in the frontier areas of Pennsylvania and New York during 1755ÿ57 due to a combination of poor management, internal divisions, effective Canadian scouts, French regular forces, and Indian warrior allies. In 1755, the British captured Fort Beausjour on the border separating Nova Scotia from Acadia, and they ordered the expulsion of the Acadians (1755ÿ64) soon afterwards. Orders for the deportation were given by William Shirley, Commander-in-Chief, North America, without direction from Great Britain. The Acadians were expelled, both those captured in arms and those who had sworn the loyalty oath to His Britannic Majesty. Indians likewise were driven off the land to make way for settlers from New England.[8] The British colonial government fell in the region of modern Nova Scotia after several disastrous campaigns in 1757, including a failed expedition against Louisbourg and the Siege of Fort William Henry; this last was followed by Indians torturing and massacring their British victims. William Pitt came to power and significantly increased British military resources in the colonies at a time when France was unwilling to risk large convoys to aid the limited forces that they had in New France, preferring to concentrate their forces against Prussia and its allies in the European theater of the war. Between 1758 and 1760, the British military launched a campaign to capture the Colony of Canada (part of New France). They succeeded in capturing territory in surrounding colonies and ultimately the city of Quebec (1759). The British later lost the Battle of Sainte-Foy west of Quebec (1760), but the French ceded Canada in accordance with the Treaty of Paris (1763). The outcome was one of the most significant developments in a century of Anglo-French conflict. France ceded to Great Britain its territory east of the Mississippi. It ceded French Louisiana west of the Mississippi River (including New Orleans) to its ally Spain in compensation for Spain's loss to Britain of Florida. (Spain had ceded Florida to Britain in exchange for the return of Havana, Cuba.) France's colonial presence north of the Caribbean was reduced to the islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, confirming Great Britain's position as the dominant colonial power in eastern North America. The conflict is known by multiple names. In British America, wars were often named after the sitting British monarch, such as King William's War or Queen Anne's War. There had already been a King George's War in the 1740s during the reign of King George II, so British colonists named this conflict after their opponents, and it became known as the French and Indian War.[9] This traditional name continues as the standard in the United States, but it obscures the fact that Indians fought on both sides of the conflict and that this was part of the Seven Years' War, a much larger conflict between France and Great Britain.[10] American historians generally use the traditional name or sometimes the Seven Years' War. Less frequently used names for the war include the Fourth Intercolonial War and the Great War for the Empire.[9] In Europe, the North American theater of the Seven Years' War usually is not given a separate name. The entire international conflict is known as the Seven Years' War. "Seven Years" refers to events in Europe, from the official declaration of war in 1756 to the signing of the peace treaty in 1763. These dates do not correspond with the fighting on mainland North America, which was largely concluded in six years, from the Battle of Jumonville Glen in 1754 to the capture of Montreal in 1760.[9] Canadians refer to both the European and North American conflicts as the Seven Years' War (Guerre de Sept Ans).[11][12] French Canadians also use the term "War of Conquest" (Guerre de la Conqute), since it is the war in which Canada was conquered by the British and became part of the British Empire. At this time, North America east of the Mississippi River was largely claimed by either Great Britain or France. Large areas had no colonial settlements. The French population numbered about 75,000 and was heavily concentrated along the St. Lawrence River valley, with some also in Acadia (present-day New Brunswick and parts of Nova Scotia), including ?le Royale (present-day Cape Breton Island). Fewer lived in New Orleans, Biloxi, Mississippi, Mobile, Alabama, and small settlements in the Illinois Country, hugging the east side of the Mississippi River and its tributaries. French fur traders and trappers traveled throughout the St. Lawrence and Mississippi watersheds, did business with local Indian tribes, and often married Indian women.[13] Traders married daughters of chiefs, creating high-ranking unions. British settlers outnumbered the French 20 to 1[14] with a population of about 1.5 million ranged along the eastern coast of the continent from Nova Scotia and Newfoundland in the north to Georgia in the south.[15] Many of the older colonies had land claims that extended arbitrarily far to the west, as the extent of the continent was unknown at the time when their provincial charters were granted. Their population centers were along the coast, yet the settlements were growing into the interior. Nova Scotia had been captured from France in 1713, and it still had a significant French-speaking population. Britain also claimed Rupert's Land where the Hudson's Bay Company traded for furs with local Indian tribes. In between the French and British colonists, large areas were dominated by Indian tribes. To the north, the Mi'kmaqs and the Abenakis were engaged in Father Le Loutre's War and still held sway in parts of Nova Scotia, Acadia, and the eastern portions of the province of Canada, as well as much of Maine.[16] The Iroquois Confederation dominated much of Upstate New York and the Ohio Country, although Ohio also included Algonquian-speaking populations of Delaware and Shawnee, as well as Iroquoian-speaking Mingos. These tribes were formally under Iroquois rule and were limited by them in their authority to make agreements.[17] The Southeast interior was dominated by Siouan-speaking Catawbas, Muskogee-speaking Creeks and Choctaw, and the Iroquoian-speaking Cherokee tribes.[18] When war broke out, the French colonists used their trading connections to recruit fighters from tribes in western portions of the Great Lakes region, which was not directly subject to the conflict between the French and British; these included the Hurons, Mississaugs, Ojibwas, Winnebagos, and Potawatomi. The British colonists were supported in the war by the Iroquois Six Nations and also by the Cherokees, until differences sparked the Anglo-Cherokee War in 1758. In 1758, the Pennsylvania government successfully negotiated the Treaty of Easton in which a number of tribes in the Ohio Country promised neutrality in exchange for land concessions and other considerations. Most of the other northern tribes sided with the French, their primary trading partner and supplier of arms. The Creeks and Cherokees were subject to diplomatic efforts by both the French and British to gain either their support or neutrality in the conflict. By this time, Spain claimed only the province of Florida in eastern North America; it controlled Cuba and other territories in the West Indies that became military objectives in the Seven Years' War. Florida's European population was a few hundred, concentrated in St. Augustine and Pensacola. At the start of the war, no French regular army troops were stationed in North America, and few British troops. New France was defended by about 3,000 troupes de la marine, companies of colonial regulars (some of whom had significant woodland combat experience). The colonial government recruited militia support when needed. Most British colonies mustered local militia companies to deal with Indian threats, generally ill trained and available only for short periods, but they did not have any standing forces. Virginia, by contrast, had a large frontier with several companies of British regulars. The colonial governments were used to operating independently of one another and of the government in London, a situation that complicated negotiations with Indian tribes, whose territories often encompassed land claimed by multiple colonies. After the war began, the leaders of the British Army establishment tried to impose constraints and demands on the colonial administrations. New France's Governor-General Roland-Michel Barrin de La Galissonire was concerned about the incursion and expanding influence in the Ohio Country of British colonial traders such as George Croghan. In June 1747, he ordered Pierre-Joseph Cloron to lead a military expedition through the area. Its objectives were: Cloron's expedition force consisted of about 200 Troupes de la marine and 30 Indians, and they covered about 3,000 miles (4,800?km) between June and November 1749. They went up the St. Lawrence, continued along the northern shore of Lake Ontario, crossed the portage at Niagara, and followed the southern shore of Lake Erie. At the Chautauqua Portage near Barcelona, New York, the expedition moved inland to the Allegheny River, which it followed to the site of Pittsburgh. There Cloron buried lead plates engraved with the French claim to the Ohio Country.[19] Whenever he encountered British colonial merchants or fur-traders, he informed them of the French claims on the territory and told them to leave.[19] Cloron's expedition arrived at Logstown where the Indians in the area informed him that they owned the Ohio Country and that they would trade with the British colonists regardless of the French.[20] He continued south until his expedition reached the confluence of the Ohio and the Miami rivers, which lay just south of the village of Pickawillany, the home of the Miami chief known as "Old Briton". Cloron threatened Old Briton with severe consequences if he continued to trade with British colonists, but Old Briton ignored the warning. Cloron returned disappointedly to Montreal in November 1749.[21] Cloron wrote an extensively detailed report. "All I can say is that the Natives of these localities are very badly disposed towards the French," he wrote, "and are entirely devoted to the English. I don't know in what way they could be brought back."[20] Even before his return to Montreal, reports on the situation in the Ohio Country were making their way to London and Paris, each side proposing that action be taken. Massachusetts governor William Shirley was particularly forceful, stating that British colonists would not be safe as long as the French were present.[22] In 1749, the British government gave land to the Ohio Company of Virginia for the purpose of developing trade and settlements in the Ohio Country.[23] The grant required that it settle 100 families in the territory and construct a fort for their protection. But the territory was also claimed by Pennsylvania, and both colonies began pushing for action to improve their respective claims.[24] In 1750, Christopher Gist explored the Ohio territory, acting on behalf of both Virginia and the company, and he opened negotiations with the Indian tribes at Logstown.[25] He completed the 1752 Treaty of Logstown in which the local Indians agreed to terms through their "Half-King" Tanacharison and an Iroquois representative. These terms included permission to build a strong house at the mouth of the Monongahela River on the modern site of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.[26] By the late 17th century, the Iroquois had pushed many tribes out of the Ohio Valley, and they laid claim to it as their hunting ground by right of conquest. The War of the Austrian Succession (better known as King George's War) formally ended in 1748 with the signing of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, which was primarily focused on resolving issues in Europe. The issues of conflicting territorial claims between British and French colonies were turned over to a commission, but it reached no decision. Frontier areas were claimed by both sides, from Nova Scotia and Acadia in the north to the Ohio Country in the south. The disputes also extended into the Atlantic Ocean, where both powers wanted access to the rich fisheries of the Grand Banks off Newfoundland. Governor-General of New France Marquis de la Jonquire died on March 17, 1752, and he was temporarily replaced by Charles le Moyne de Longueuil. His permanent replacement was to be the Marquis Duquesne, but he did not arrive in New France until 1752 to take over the post.[27] The continuing British activity in the Ohio territories prompted Longueuil to dispatch another expedition to the area under the command of Charles Michel de Langlade, an officer in the Troupes de la Marine. Langlade was given 300 men, including French-Canadians and warriors of the Ottawa tribe. His objective was to punish the Miami people of Pickawillany for not following Cloron's orders to cease trading with the British. On June 21, the French war party attacked the trading centre at Pickawillany, capturing three traders[21] and killing 14 Miami Indians, including Old Briton. He was reportedly ritually cannibalized by some Indians in the expedition party. In the spring of 1753, Paul Marin de la Malgue was given command of a 2,000-man force of Troupes de la Marine and Indians. His orders were to protect the King's land in the Ohio Valley from the British. Marin followed the route that Cloron had mapped out four years earlier. Cloron, however, had limited the record of French claims to the burial of lead plates, whereas Marin constructed and garrisoned forts. He first constructed Fort Presque Isle on Lake Erie's south shore near Erie, Pennsylvania, and he had a road built to the headwaters of LeBoeuf Creek. He then constructed a second fort at Fort Le Boeuf in Waterford, Pennsylvania, designed to guard the headwaters of LeBoeuf Creek. As he moved south, he drove off or captured British traders, alarming both the British and the Iroquois. Tanaghrisson was a chief of the Mingo Indians, who were remnants of Iroquois and other tribes who had been driven west by colonial expansion. He intensely disliked the French whom he accused of killing and eating his father. He traveled to Fort Le Boeuf and threatened the French with military action, which Marin contemptuously dismissed.[28] The Iroquois sent runners to the manor of William Johnson in upstate New York, who was the British Superintendent for Indian Affairs in the New York region and beyond. Johnson was known to the Iroquois as Warraghiggey, meaning "he who does great things." He spoke their languages and had become a respected honorary member of the Iroquois Confederacy in the area, and he was made a colonel of the Iroquois in 1746; he was later commissioned as a colonel of the Western New York Militia. The Indian representatives and Johnson met with Governor Clinton and officials from some of the other American colonies at Albany, New York. Mohawk Chief Hendrick was the speaker of their tribal council, and he insisted that the British abide by their obligations[which?] and block French expansion. Clinton did not respond to his satisfaction, and Hendrick said that the "Covenant Chain" was broken, a long-standing friendly relationship between the Iroquois Confederacy and the British Crown. Governor Robert Dinwiddie of Virginia was an investor in the Ohio Company, which stood to lose money if the French held their claim.[29] He ordered 21 year-old Major George Washington (whose brother was another Ohio Company investor) of the Virginia Regiment to warn the French to leave Virginia territory in October 1753.[30] Washington left with a small party, picking up Jacob Van Braam as an interpreter, Christopher Gist (a company surveyor working in the area), and a few Mingos led by Tanaghrisson. On December 12, Washington and his men reached Fort Le Boeuf.[31][32] Jacques Legardeur de Saint-Pierre succeeded Marin as commander of the French forces after Marin died on October 29, and he invited Washington to dine with him. Over dinner, Washington presented Saint-Pierre with the letter from Dinwiddie demanding an immediate French withdrawal from the Ohio Country. Saint-Pierre said, "As to the Summons you send me to retire, I do not think myself obliged to obey it."[33] He told Washington that France's claim to the region was superior to that of the British, since Ren-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle had explored the Ohio Country nearly a century earlier.[34] Washington's party left Fort Le Boeuf early on December 16 and arrived in Williamsburg on January 16, 1754. He stated in his report, "The French had swept south",[35] detailing the steps which they had taken to fortify the area, and their intention to fortify the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers.[36] Even before Washington returned, Dinwiddie had sent a company of 40 men under William Trent to that point where they began construction of a small stockaded fort in the early months of 1754.[37] Governor Duquesne sent additional French forces under Claude-Pierre Pecaudy de Contrec?ur to relieve Saint-Pierre during the same period, and Contrec?ur led 500 men south from Fort Venango on April 5, 1754.[38] These forces arrived at the fort on April 16, but Contrec?ur generously allowed Trent's small company to withdraw. He purchased their construction tools to continue building what became Fort Duquesne.[39] Dinwiddie had ordered Washington to lead a larger force to assist Trent in his work, and Washington learned of Trent's retreat while he was en route.[40] Mingo sachem Tanaghrisson had promised support to the British, so Washington continued toward Fort Duquesne and met with him. He then learned of a French scouting party in the area, so he combined Tanaghrisson's force with his own and surprised the Canadians on May 28 in what became known as the Battle of Jumonville Glen. They killed many of the Canadians, including their commanding officer Joseph Coulon de Jumonville, whose head was reportedly split open by Tanaghrisson with a tomahawk. Historian Fred Anderson suggests that Tanaghrisson was acting to gain the support of the British and to regain authority over his own people. They had been inclined to support the French, with whom they had long trading relationships. One of Tanaghrisson's men told Contrecoeur that Jumonville had been killed by British musket fire.[41] Historians generally consider the Battle of Jumonville Glen as the opening battle of the French and Indian War in North America, and the start of hostilities in the Ohio valley. Following the battle, Washington pulled back several miles and established Fort Necessity, which the Canadians attacked under the command of Jummonville's brother at the Battle of Fort Necessity on July 3. Washington surrendered and negotiated a withdrawal under arms. One of his men reported that the Canadian force was accompanied by Shawnee, Delaware, and Mingo warriorsjust those whom Tanaghrisson was seeking to influence.[42] News of the two battles reached England in August. After several months of negotiations, the government of the Duke of Newcastle decided to send an army expedition the following year to dislodge the French.[43] They chose Major General Edward Braddock to lead the expedition.[44] Word of the British military plans leaked to France well before Braddock's departure for North America. In response, King Louis XV dispatched six regiments to New France under the command of Baron Dieskau in 1755.[45] The British sent out their fleet in February 1755, intending to blockade French ports, but the French fleet had already sailed. Admiral Edward Hawke detached a fast squadron to North America in an attempt to intercept them. In a second British action, Admiral Edward Boscawen fired on the French ship Alcide on June 8, 1755, capturing her and two troop ships.[46] The British harassed French shipping throughout 1755, seizing ships and capturing seamen. These actions contributed to the eventual formal declarations of war in spring 1756.[47] An early important political response to the opening of hostilities was the convening of the Albany Congress in June and July, 1754. The goal of the congress was to formalize a unified front in trade and negotiations with various Indians, since allegiance of the various tribes and nations was seen to be pivotal in the war that was unfolding. The plan that the delegates agreed to was neither ratified by the colonial legislatures nor approved of by the crown. Nevertheless, the format of the congress and many specifics of the plan became the prototype for confederation during the War of Independence. The British formed an aggressive plan of operations for 1755. General Braddock was to lead the expedition to Fort Duquesne,[48] while Massachusetts governor William Shirley was given the task of fortifying Fort Oswego and attacking Fort Niagara. Sir William Johnson was to capture Fort St. Frdric at present-day Crown Point, New York,[49] and Lieutenant Colonel Robert Monckton was to capture Fort Beausjour to the east, on the frontier between Nova Scotia and Acadia.[50] Braddock led about 1,500 army troops and provincial militia on an expedition in June 1755 to take Fort Duquesne, with George Washington as one of his aides. The expedition was a disaster. It was attacked by French soldiers and Indian warriors ambushing them from up in trees and behind logs, and Braddock called for a retreat. He was killed and approximately 1,000 British soldiers were killed or injured.[48] The remaining 500 British troops retreated to Virginia, led by Washington. Two future opponents in the American Revolutionary War played key roles in organizing the retreat: Washington and Thomas Gage. The French acquired a copy of the British war plans, including the activities of Shirley and Johnson. Shirley's efforts to fortify Oswego were bogged down in logistical difficulties, exacerbated by his inexperience in managing large expeditions. In conjunction, Shirley was made aware that the French were massing for an attack on Fort Oswego in his absence when he planned to attack Fort Niagara. As a response, he left garrisons at Oswego, Fort Bull, and Fort Williams, the last two located on the Oneida Carry between the Mohawk River and Wood Creek at present-day Rome, New York. Supplies were cached at Fort Bull for use in the projected attack on Niagara. Johnson's expedition was better organized than Shirley's, which was noticed by New France's governor the Marquis de Vaudreuil. He had primarily been concerned about the extended supply line to the forts on the Ohio, and he had sent Baron Dieskau to lead the defenses at Frontenac against Shirley's expected attack. Vaudreuil saw Johnson as the larger threat and sent Dieskau to Fort St. Frdric to meet that threat. Dieskau planned to attack the British encampment at Fort Edward at the upper end of navigation on the Hudson River, but Johnson had strongly fortified it, and Dieskau's Indian support was reluctant to attack. The two forces finally met in the bloody Battle of Lake George between Fort Edward and Fort William Henry. The battle ended inconclusively, with both sides withdrawing from the field. Johnson's advance stopped at Fort William Henry, and the French withdrew to Ticonderoga Point, where they began the construction of Fort Carillon (later renamed Fort Ticonderoga after British capture in 1759). Colonel Monckton captured Fort Beausjour in June 1755 in the sole British success that year, cutting off the French fortress at Louisbourg from land-based reinforcements. To cut vital supplies to Louisbourg, Nova Scotia's Governor Charles Lawrence ordered the deportation of the French-speaking Acadian population from the area. Monckton's forces, including companies of Rogers' Rangers, forcibly removed thousands of Acadians, chasing down many who resisted and sometimes committing atrocities. More than any other factor, cutting off supplies to Louisbourg led to its demise.[51] The Acadian resistance was sometimes quite stiff, in concert with Indian allies including the Mi'kmaq, with ongoing frontier raids against Dartmouth and Lunenburg, among others. The only clashes of any size were at Petitcodiac in 1755 and at Bloody Creek near Annapolis Royal in 1757, other than the campaigns to expel the Acadians ranging around the Bay of Fundy, on the Petitcodiac and St. John rivers, and ?le Saint-Jean. Following the death of Braddock, William Shirley assumed command of British forces in North America, and he laid out his plans for 1756 at a meeting in Albany in December 1755. He proposed renewing the efforts to capture Niagara, Crown Point, and Duquesne, with attacks on Fort Frontenac on the north shore of Lake Ontario and an expedition through the wilderness of the Maine district and down the Chaudire River to attack the city of Quebec. His plan, however, got bogged down by disagreements and disputes with others, including William Johnson and New York's Governor Sir Charles Hardy, and consequently gained little support. Newcastle replaced him in January 1756 with Lord Loudoun, with Major General James Abercrombie as his second in command. Neither of these men had as much campaign experience as the trio of officers whom France sent to North America.[47] French regular army reinforcements arrived in New France in May 1756, led by Major General Louis-Joseph de Montcalm and seconded by the Chevalier de Lvis and Colonel Fran?ois-Charles de Bourlamaque, all experienced veterans from the War of the Austrian Succession. On May 18, 1756, England formally declared war on France, which expanded the war into Europe and came to be known as the Seven Years' War. Governor Vaudreuil had ambitions to become the French commander in chief, in addition to his role as governor, and he acted during the winter of 1756 before those reinforcements arrived. Scouts had reported the weakness of the British supply chain, so he ordered an attack against the forts which Shirley had erected at the Oneida Carry. In the Battle of Fort Bull, French forces destroyed the fort and large quantities of supplies, including 45,000 pounds of gunpowder. They set back any British hopes for campaigns on Lake Ontario and endangered the Oswego garrison, already short on supplies. French forces in the Ohio valley also continued to intrigue with Indians throughout the area, encouraging them to raid frontier settlements. This led to ongoing alarms along the western frontiers, with streams of refugees returning east to get away from the action. The new British command was not in place until July. Abercrombie arrived in Albany but refused to take any significant actions until Loudoun approved them, and Montcalm took bold action against his inertia. He built on Vaudreuil's work harassing the Oswego garrison and executed a strategic feint by moving his headquarters to Ticonderoga, as if to presage another attack along Lake George. With Abercrombie pinned down at Albany, Montcalm slipped away and led the successful attack on Oswego in August. In the aftermath, Montcalm and the Indians under his command disagreed about the disposition of prisoners' personal effects. The Europeans did not consider them prizes and prevented the Indians from stripping the prisoners of their valuables, which angered the Indians. Loudoun was a capable administrator but a cautious field commander, and he planned one major operation for 1757: an attack on New France's capital of Quebec. He left a sizable force at Fort William Henry to distract Montcalm and began organizing for the expedition to Quebec. He was then ordered to attack Louisbourg first by William Pitt, the Secretary of State responsible for the colonies. The expedition was beset by delays of all kinds but was finally ready to sail from Halifax, Nova Scotia in early August. In the meantime, French ships had escaped the British blockade of the French coast, and a fleet awaited Loudoun at Louisbourg which outnumbered the British fleet. Faced with this strength, Loudoun returned to New York amid news that a massacre had occurred at Fort William Henry. French irregular forces (Canadian scouts and Indians) harassed Fort William Henry throughout the first half of 1757. In January, they ambushed British rangers near Ticonderoga. In February, they launched a raid against the position across the frozen Lake George, destroying storehouses and buildings outside the main fortification. In early August, Montcalm and 7,000 troops besieged the fort, which capitulated with an agreement to withdraw under parole. When the withdrawal began, some of Montcalm's Indian allies attacked the British column because they were angry about the lost opportunity for loot, killing and capturing several hundred men, women, children, and slaves. The aftermath of the siege may have contributed to the transmission of smallpox into remote Indian populations, as some Indians were reported to have traveled from beyond the Mississippi to participate in the campaign and returned afterward. Modern writer William Nester believes that the Indians might have been exposed to European carriers, although no proof exists.[52] Vaudreuil and Montcalm were minimally resupplied in 1758, as the British blockade of the French coastline limited French shipping. The situation in New France was further exacerbated by a poor harvest in 1757, a difficult winter, and the allegedly corrupt machinations of Fran?ois Bigot, the intendant of the territory. His schemes to supply the colony inflated prices and were believed by Montcalm to line his pockets and those of his associates. A massive outbreak of smallpox among western Indian tribes led many of them to stay away from trading in 1758. The disease probably spread through the crowded conditions at William Henry after the battle;[53] yet the Indians blamed the French for bringing "bad medicine" as well as denying them prizes at Fort William Henry. Montcalm focused his meager resources on the defense of the St. Lawrence, with primary defenses at Carillon, Quebec, and Louisbourg, while Vaudreuil argued unsuccessfully for a continuation of the raiding tactics that had worked quite effectively in previous years.[54] The British failures in North America combined with other failures in the European theater and led to Newcastle's fall from power along with the Duke of Cumberland, his principal military advisor. Newcastle and Pitt joined in an uneasy coalition in which Pitt dominated the military planning. He embarked on a plan for the 1758 campaign that was largely developed by Loudoun. He had been replaced by Abercrombie as commander in chief after the failures of 1757. Pitt's plan called for three major offensive actions involving large numbers of regular troops supported by the provincial militias, aimed at capturing the heartlands of New France. Two of the expeditions were successful, with Fort Duquesne and Louisbourg falling to sizable British forces. The Forbes Expedition was a British campaign in SeptemberÿOctober 1758, with 6,000 troops led by General John Forbes sent to drive out the French from the contested Ohio Country. The French withdrew from Fort Duquesne and left the British in control of the Ohio River Valley.[55] The great French fortress at Louisbourg in Nova Scotia was captured after a siege.[56] The third invasion was stopped with the improbable French victory in the Battle of Carillon, in which 3,600 Frenchmen defeated Abercrombie's force of 18,000 regulars, militia, and Indian allies outside the fort which the French called Carillon and the British called Ticonderoga. Abercrombie saved something from the disaster when he sent John Bradstreet on an expedition that successfully destroyed Fort Frontenac, including caches of supplies destined for New France's western forts and furs destined for Europe. Abercrombie was recalled and replaced by Jeffery Amherst, victor at Louisbourg. The French had generally poor results in 1758 in most theaters of the war. The new foreign minister was the duc de Choiseul, and he decided to focus on an invasion of Britain to draw British resources away from North America and the European mainland. The invasion failed both militarily and politically, as Pitt again planned significant campaigns against New France and sent funds to Britain's mainland ally of Prussia, while the French Navy failed in the 1759 naval battles at Lagos and Quiberon Bay. In one piece of good fortune, some French supply ships did manage to depart France and elude the British blockade of the French coast. British victories continued in all theaters in the Annus Mirabilis of 1759: the British captured Ticonderoga, James Wolfe defeated Montcalm at Quebec in a battle that claimed the lives of both commanders, and a British victory at Fort Niagara cut off the French frontier forts to the west and south. The victory was made complete in 1760; the British did suffer a defeat outside Quebec City in the Battle of Sainte-Foy, but they prevented the arrival of French relief ships in the naval Battle of the Restigouche while armies marched on Montreal from three sides. Governor Vaudreuil in Montreal negotiated a capitulation with General Amherst in September 1760. Amherst granted his requests that any French residents who chose to remain in the colony would be given freedom to continue worshiping in their Roman Catholic tradition, to own property, and to remain undisturbed in their homes. The British provided medical treatment for the sick and wounded French soldiers, and French regular troops were returned to France aboard British ships with an agreement that they were not to serve again in the present war.[57] Most of the fighting ended in continental North America in 1760, although it continued in Europe between France and Britain. The notable exception was the French seizure of St. John's, Newfoundland. General Amherst heard of this surprise action and immediately dispatched troops under his nephew William Amherst, who regained control of Newfoundland after the Battle of Signal Hill in September 1762.[58] Many troops from North America were reassigned to participate in further British actions in the West Indies, including the capture of Spanish Havana when Spain belatedly entered the conflict on the side of France, and a British expedition against French Martinique in 1762 led by Major General Robert Monckton.[59] General Amherst also oversaw the transition of French forts to British control in the western lands. The policies which he introduced in those lands disturbed large numbers of Indians and contributed to Pontiac's Rebellion in 1763.[60] This series of attacks on frontier forts and settlements required the continued deployment of British troops, and it was not resolved until 1766.[61] The war in North America officially ended with the signing of the Treaty of Paris on 10 February 1763, and war in the European theater was settled by the Treaty of Hubertusburg on 15 February 1763. The British offered France the choice of surrendering either its continental North American possessions east of the Mississippi or the Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique, which had been occupied by the British. France chose to cede the former but was able to negotiate the retention of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, two small islands in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, along with fishing rights in the area. They viewed the economic value of the Caribbean islands' sugar cane to be greater and easier to defend than the furs from the continent. French philosopher Voltaire referred to Canada disparagingly as nothing more than a few acres of snow. The British, however, were happy to take New France, as defence of their North American colonies would no longer be an issue; they also had ample places from which to obtain sugar. Spain traded Florida to Britain in order to regain Cuba, but they also gained Louisiana from France, including New Orleans, in compensation for their losses. Great Britain and Spain also agreed that navigation on the Mississippi River was to be open to vessels of all nations.[62] The war changed economic, political, governmental, and social relations among the three European powers, their colonies, and the people who inhabited those territories. France and Britain both suffered financially because of the war, with significant long-term consequences. Britain gained control of French Canada and Acadia, colonies containing approximately 80,000 primarily French-speaking Roman Catholic residents. The deportation of Acadians beginning in 1755 made land available to immigrants from Europe and migrants from the colonies to the south. The British resettled many Acadians throughout its North American provinces, but many went to France, and some went to New Orleans, which they had expected to remain French. Some were sent to colonize places as diverse as French Guiana and the Falkland Islands, but these efforts were unsuccessful. Others migrated to places such as Saint-Domingue or fled to New Orleans after the Haitian Revolution. The Louisiana population contributed to the founding of the modern Cajun population. (The French word "Acadien" changed to "Cadien" then to "Cajun".)[63] Following the treaty, King George III issued the Royal Proclamation of 1763 on October 7, 1763 which outlined the division and administration of the newly conquered territory, and it continues to govern relations to some extent between the government of modern Canada and the First Nations. Included in its provisions was the reservation of lands west of the Appalachian Mountains to its Indian population,[64] a demarcation that was only a temporary impediment to a rising tide of westward-bound settlers.[65] The proclamation also contained provisions that prevented civic participation by the Roman Catholic Canadians.[66] The Quebec Act addressed this and other issues in 1774, raising concerns in the largely Protestant Thirteen Colonies over the advance of "popery." The Act maintained French Civil law, including the seigneurial system, a medieval code removed from France within a generation by the French Revolution. The Seven Years' War nearly doubled Great Britain's national debt. The Crown sought sources of revenue to pay it off and attempted to impose new taxes on its colonies. These attempts were met with increasingly stiff resistance, until troops were called in to enforce the Crown's authority. These acts ultimately led to the start of the American Revolutionary War.[67] France attached comparatively little value to its North American possessions, apart from the highly profitable sugar-producing Antilles islands which it retained. Minister Choiseul considered that he had made a good deal at the Treaty of Paris, and Voltaire wrote that Louis XV had lost "a few acres of snow".[68] For France, however, the military defeat and the financial burden of the war weakened the monarchy and contributed to the advent of the French Revolution in 1789.[69] For some of the Indian tribes, the elimination of French power in North America meant the disappearance of a strong ally, although other tribes were not so affected.[69] The Ohio Country was now more available to colonial settlement, due to the construction of military roads by Braddock and Forbes.[70] The Spanish takeover of the Louisiana territory was not completed until 1769, and it had modest repercussions. The British takeover of Spanish Florida resulted in the westward migration of Indian tribes who did not want to do business with them. This migration also caused a rise in tensions between the Choctaw and the Creek, historic enemies who were now competing for land.[71] The change of control in Florida also prompted most of its Spanish Catholic population to leave. Most went to Cuba, including the entire governmental records from St. Augustine, although some Christianized Yamasee were resettled to the coast of Mexico.[72] France returned to North America in 1778 with the establishment of a Franco-American alliance against Great Britain in the American War of Independence. This time, France succeeded in prevailing over Great Britain in what historian Alfred A. Cave describes as "French revenge for Montcalm's death".[73]

Battlefield V🚨Battlefield is a series of first-person shooter video games that started out on Microsoft Windows and OS X with Battlefield 1942, which was released in 2002. The series is developed by Swedish company EA DICE and is published by American company Electronic Arts. The series features a particular focus on large maps, teamwork and vehicle warfare. The PC games in the series are mainly focused on online multiplayer. The Battlefield series has been played by more than 50 million players worldwide as of 2012,[1] across 11 games and 12 expansion packs released since its inception in 2002. Battlefield series games usually focus on large, online multiplayer battles (with the exception of Battlefield Hardline). Playing in squads has become a major element of games in the series. Since Battlefield 2, the series centrally record online stats for each player, allowing the players to receive rank promotions and weapon unlocks based on their stats as well as awards such as medals, ribbons and pins. A class system has been present within all the Battlefield games. Each class features a different type of primary weapon along with different equipment, differentiating roles on the battlefield. The ability to engage other players in melee combat with a knife has been present in Battlefield games. Since Battlefield 2142, the series has included an award of dog tags for each player killed using a knife.[2] DLC located directly below the title it was released for. ? Was released exclusively for Xbox One in 4th quarter 2013, then was released for the remaining platforms in 1st quarter 2014.[3] Battlefield 1942 was released on September 10, 2002, using the Refractor game engine, also introducing the "Conquest" gameplay mode, in which players fought for "control points" throughout the map. Two expansion packs were released in 2003, Battlefield 1942: The Road to Rome and Battlefield 1942: Secret Weapons of WWII. Battlefield Vietnam, released in 2004, moved the setting to the Vietnam War, and was built on an updated Refractor engine with various gameplay improvements, such as the ability to fire personal weapons while seated in vehicles, and supporting dense foliage. The 2005 release Battlefield 2 takes place in the modern day, depicting a war between the United States fighting China and the fictional Middle Eastern Coalition (MEC). Despite requiring numerous patches due to a large number of bugs and glitches in the game upon its release, it was a large commercial success, selling more than 2,250,000 copies worldwide, by July 2006.[35] One expansion pack, Special Forces, which added Russia, exclusive missions, and new weapons and gadgets, and two booster packs, Armored Fury (adding three new battles in the USA) and Euro Force (adding the European Union), were also released. A similar game called Battlefield 2: Modern Combat was released for consoles, with a larger single player mode but limited online play. Battlefield 2142 was released in 2006, taking place during a global ice age in the 22nd century. While most of it is graphically similar to Battlefield 2, it introduced a variety of equippable items to unlock and battles between two giant "Titan" airships. The Northern Strike expansion pack was later released, adding new maps, vehicles, and a new game mode. Its use of in-game advertising was controversial among players.[36] Battlefield: Bad Company, released in 2008, followed the "B" Company's escapades and their search for hidden gold. This new Battlefield game had a variety of vehicles for land, air and sea. It had a new destruction system that allowed the player to break and destroy environments, based on a new game engine named Frostbite, which replaced the Refractor engine used in earlier releases (with the exception of Battlefield 2: Modern Combat, which used RenderWare). In 2009, EA released two download-only games, Battlefield Heroes, a free-to-play Refractor 2 engine game, supported by advertising and micropayments and Battlefield 1943, a Frostbite engine game, released in July 2009, for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, and was scheduled for release in Q1 2010, for PCs, but was cancelled.[37] In 2010, a sequel to Battlefield: Bad Company, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, was released, involving "B" Company's search for an EMP weapon. It features a larger multiplayer than its predecessor Bad Company, with updated graphics and realistic effects (e.g. bullet-drop). The game introduced the rush game mode and brought in weapons such as the AN-94 and As-Val. It features a "VIP" system of content distribution where player with VIP codes gain early access to new maps. DICE also released an expansion for Bad Company 2, Battlefield: Bad Company 2: Vietnam, setting the game in the Vietnam War. Battlefield 3 was announced in 2009,[38][39] and in 2010 it was confirmed that gamers who pre-ordered Medal of Honor Limited Edition would receive Battlefield 3 48 hours before the open beta was released. On February 4, 2011, the first teaser trailer for the game was revealed, with a preliminary release in the Fall of 2011.[40] Among the features that remain in the game are Jets and the ability to go prone. The game allows 64 (on the PC) players as in all previous Battlefield titles, though the consoles allow for 24 player matches. The Battlefield 3 Beta was released on September 29, 2011.[41] Battlefield 3 was released on October 25, 2011 and has received high review scores and has received awards from IGN. On November 5, 2010, EASY Studios announced a follow-up to its free-to-play Battlefield Heroes, Battlefield Play4Free. EASY develops the free-to-play variants of Battlefield. Its latest offering gives players the same free-to-play pricing structure of Heroes, while still offering a more serious, core Battlefield experience (as opposed to Heroes' lighthearted, cartoon-styled environment).[42] Battlefield Play4Free went into open beta on April 4, 2011.[43] On July 17, 2012, an advertisement appeared on EA's Origin webpage that players who pre-order Medal of Honor: Warfighter, would receive access to a Battlefield 4 Beta. Battlefield 4 was announced on March 26, 2013. A Beta for the game began on October 1 and ended on October 15. It was released on October 29, 2013. Information about the next entry in the series, Battlefield Hardline, was leaked on May 27, 2014, and officially unveiled on June 9, 2014, during E3. The game was developed by Visceral Games and, unlike previous installments in the franchise, is centered around a cops-and-robbers theme. In July 2015, CFO of EA Blake Jorgensen announced a new Battlefield title would be released in 2016.[44][45][46] This was followed up by Dan Vaderlind, EA DICE Development Director, announcing that since Star Wars Battlefront has been released, he will now be focused on the upcoming Battlefield title.[47] On May 6, 2016, Battlefield 1 was officially announced, with an official reveal trailer on YouTube, and was released on October 21, 2016.[48][49] The next game in the series is also in production and was officially revealed on May 23, 2018. The live reveal event confirmed that it will be a WW2 game after several leaks suggested it would be set during this period [50], its title is Battlefield V. In October 2012, Fox Broadcasting Company announced their intentions to make a one-hour-long television show based on Battlefield: Bad Company. The show would be written by executive producer John Eisendrath and co-produced by Patrick Bach and Patrick O'Brien of Electronic Arts, and Doug Robinson of Happy Madison.[51] In July 2016, Paramount Television announced that it will adapt the game series for television. Anonymous Content's Michael Sugar and Ashley Zalta will executive produce.[52]

Canada🚨Canadians (French: Canadiens / Canadiennes) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural. For most Canadians, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being Canadian. Canada is a multilingual and multicultural society home to people of many different ethnic, religious and national origins, with the majority of the population made up of Old World immigrants and their descendants. Following the initial period of French and then the much larger British colonization, different waves (or peaks) of immigration and settlement of non-indigenous peoples took place over the course of nearly two centuries and continue today. Elements of Indigenous, French, British, and more recent immigrant customs, languages and religions have combined to form the culture of Canada and thus a Canadian identity. Canada has also been strongly influenced by its linguistic, geographic and economic neighbour, the United States. Canadian independence from the United Kingdom grew gradually over the course of many years since the formation of the Canadian Confederation in 1867. World War I and World War II, in particular, gave rise to a desire among Canadians to have their country recognized as a fully-fledged sovereign state with a distinct citizenship. Legislative independence was established with the passage of the Statute of Westminster 1931, the Canadian Citizenship Act of 1946 took effect on January 1, 1947, and full sovereignty was achieved with the patriation of the constitution in 1982. Canada's nationality law closely mirrored that of the United Kingdom. Legislation since the mid-20th century represents Canadians' commitment to multilateralism and socioeconomic development. As of 2010, Canadians make up only 0.5% of the world's total population,[7] having relied upon immigration for population growth and social development.[8] Approximately 41% of current Canadians are first- or second-generation immigrants,[9] and 20% of Canadian residents in the 2000s were not born in the country.[10] Statistics Canada projects that, by 2031, nearly one-half of Canadians above the age of 15 will be foreign-born or have one foreign-born parent.[11] Indigenous peoples, according to the 2011 Canadian Census, numbered at 1,400,685 or 4.3% of the country's 33,476,688 population.[12] While the first contact with Europeans and indigenous peoples in Canada had occurred a century or more before, the first group of permanent settlers were the French, who founded the New France settlements, in present-day Quebec and Ontario; and Acadia, in present-day Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, during the early part of the 17th century.[13][14] Approximately 100 Irish-born families would settle the Saint Lawrence Valley by 1700, assimilating into the Canadien population and culture.[15][16] During the 18th and 19th century; immigration westward (to the area known as Rupert's Land) was carried out by "Voyageurs"; French settlers working for the North West Company; and by British settlers (English and Scottish) representing the Hudson's Bay Company, coupled with independent entrepreneurial woodsman called "Coureur des bois".[17] This arrival of newcomers led to the creation of the Mtis, an ethnic group of mixed European and First Nations parentage.[18] The British conquest of New France was preceded by a small number of Germans and Swedes who settled alongside the Scottish in Port Royal, Nova Scotia,[19] while some Irish immigrated to the Colony of Newfoundland.[20] In the wake of the British Conquest of 1760 and the Expulsion of the Acadians, many families from the British colonies in New England moved over into Nova Scotia and other colonies in Canada, where the British made farmland available to British settlers on easy terms. More settlers arrived during and after the American Revolutionary War, when approximately 60,000 United Empire Loyalists fled to British North America, a large portion of whom settled in New Brunswick.[21] After the War of 1812, British (including British army regulars), Scottish and Irish immigration was encouraged throughout Rupert's Land, Upper Canada and Lower Canada.[22] Between 1815 and 1850, some 800,000 immigrants came to the colonies of British North America, mainly from the British Isles as part of the Great Migration of Canada.[23] These new arrivals included some Gaelic-speaking Highland Scots displaced by the Highland Clearances to Nova Scotia.[24] The Irish Potato Famine of the 1840s significantly increased the pace of Irish immigration to Prince Edward Island and the Province of Canada, with over 35,000 distressed individuals landing in Toronto in 1847 and 1848.[25][26] Descendants of Francophone and Anglophone northern Europeans who arrived in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries are often referred to as Old Stock Canadians.[27][28] Beginning in the late 1850s, the immigration of Chinese into the Colony of Vancouver Island and Colony of British Columbia peaked with the onset of the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush.[29] The Chinese Immigration Act of 1885 eventually placed a head tax on all Chinese immigrants, in hopes of discouraging Chinese immigration after completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway.[30] The population of Canada has consistently risen, doubling approximately every 40 years, since the establishment of the Canadian Confederation in 1867.[32] In the mid-to-late 19th century, Canada had a policy of assisting immigrants from Europe, including an estimated 100,000 unwanted "Home Children" from Britain.[33] Block settlement communities were established throughout western Canada between the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Some were planned and others were spontaneously created by the settlers themselves.[34] Canada was now receiving a large number of European immigrants, predominantly Italians, Germans, Scandinavians, Dutch, Poles, and Ukrainians.[35] Legislative restrictions on immigration (such as the Continuous journey regulation and Chinese Immigration Act) that had favoured British and other European immigrants were amended in the 1960s, opening the doors to immigrants from all parts of the world.[36] While the 1950s had still seen high levels of immigration by Europeans, by the 1970s immigrants were increasingly Chinese, Indian, Vietnamese, Jamaican and Haitian.[37] During the late 1960s and early 1970s, Canada received many American Vietnam War draft dissenters.[38] Throughout the late 1980s and 1990s, Canada's growing Pacific trade brought with it a large influx of South Asians, who tended to settle in British Columbia.[39] Immigrants of all backgrounds tend to settle in the major urban centres.[40][41] The Canadian public, as well as the major political parties, are tolerant of immigrants.[42] The majority of illegal immigrants come from the southern provinces of the People's Republic of China, with Asia as a whole, Eastern Europe, Caribbean, Africa and the Middle East all contributing to the illegal population.[43] Estimates of numbers of illegal immigrants range between 35,000 and 120,000.[44] A 2008 report by the Auditor General of Canada, Sheila Fraser, stated that Canada has lost track of approximately 41,000 illegal immigrants whose visas have expired.[45] Canadian citizenship is typically obtained by birth in Canada or by birth or adoption abroad when at least one biological parent or adoptive parent is a Canadian citizen who was born in Canada or naturalized in Canada (and did not receive citizenship by being born outside of Canada to a Canadian citizen).[46] It can also be granted to a permanent resident who lives in Canada for three out of four years and meets specific requirements.[47] Canada established its own nationality law in 1946, with the enactment of the Canadian Citizenship Act which took effect on January 1, 1947.[48] The Immigration and Refugee Protection Act was passed by the Parliament of Canada in 2001 as Bill C-11, which replaced the Immigration Act of 1976 as the primary federal legislation regulating immigration.[49] Prior to the conferring of legal status on Canadian citizenship, Canada's naturalization laws consisted of a multitude of Acts beginning with the Immigration Act of 1910.[50] According to Citizenship and Immigration Canada, there are three main classifications for immigrants: Family class (persons closely related to Canadian residents), Economic class (admitted on the basis of a point system that accounts for age, health and labour-market skills required for cost effectively inducting the immigrants into Canada's labour market) and Refugee class (those seeking protection by applying to remain in the country by way of the Canadian immigration and refugee law).[51] In 2008, there were 65,567 immigrants in the family class, 21,860 refugees, and 149,072 economic immigrants amongst the 247,243 total immigrants to the country.[9] Canada resettles over one in 10 of the world's refugees[52] and has one of the highest per-capita immigration rates in the world.[53] As of a 2010 report by the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, there were 2.8 million Canadian citizens abroad.[54] This represents about 8% of the total Canadian population. Of those living abroad, the United States, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, Taiwan, China, Lebanon, United Arab Emirates, and Australia have the largest Canadian diaspora. Canadians in the United States constitute the greatest single expatriate community at over 1 million in 2009, representing 35.8% of all Canadians abroad.[55] Under current Canadian law, Canada does not restrict dual citizenship, but Passport Canada encourages its citizens to travel abroad on their Canadian passport so that they can access Canadian consular services.[56] According to the 2016 census, the country's largest self-reported ethnic origin is Canadian (accounting for 32% of the population),[a] followed by English (18.3%), Scottish (13.9%), French (13.6%), Irish (13.4%), German (9.6%), Chinese (5.1%), Italian (4.6%), First Nations (4.4%), Indian (4.0%), and Ukrainian (3.9%).[58] There are 600 recognized First Nations governments or bands, encompassing a total of 1,525,565 people.[59] Canada's indigenous population is growing at almost twice the national rate, and four percent of Canada's population claimed an indigenous identity in 2006. Another 22.3 percent of the population belonged to a non-indigenous visible minority.[60] In 2016, the largest visible minority groups were South Asian (5.6%), Chinese (5.1%) and Black (3.5%).[60] Between 2011 and 2016, the visible minority population rose by 18.4 percent.[60] In 1961, less than two percent of Canada's population (about 300,000 people) were members of visible minority groups.[61] Indigenous peoples are not considered a visible minority under the Employment Equity Act,[62] and this is the definition that Statistics Canada also uses. Canadian culture is primarily a Western culture, with influences by First Nations and other cultures. It is a product of its ethnicities, languages, religions, political and legal system(s). Canada has been shaped by waves of migration that have combined to form a unique blend of art, cuisine, literature, humour, and music.[63] Today, Canada has a diverse makeup of nationalities and constitutional protection for policies that promote multiculturalism rather than cultural assimilation.[64] In Quebec, cultural identity is strong, and many French-speaking commentators speak of a Quebec culture distinct from English Canadian culture.[65] However, as a whole, Canada is a cultural mosaic: a collection of several regional, indigenous, and ethnic subcultures.[66][67] Canadian government policies such as official bilingualism; publicly funded health care; higher and more progressive taxation; outlawing capital punishment; strong efforts to eliminate poverty; strict gun control; leniency in regard to drug use, and, most recently, legalizing same-sex marriage are social indicators of Canada's political and cultural values.[68][69] American media and entertainment are popular, if not dominant, in English Canada; conversely, many Canadian cultural products and entertainers are successful in the United States and worldwide.[70] The Government of Canada has also influenced culture with programs, laws and institutions. It has created Crown corporations to promote Canadian culture through media and has also tried to protect Canadian culture by setting legal minimums on Canadian content.[71] Canadian culture has historically been influenced by European culture and traditions, especially British and French, and by its own indigenous cultures. Most of Canada's territory was inhabited and developed later than other European colonies in the Americas, with the result that themes and symbols of pioneers, trappers, and traders were important in the early development of the Canadian identity.[72] First Nations played a critical part in the development of European colonies in Canada, particularly for their role in assisting exploration of the continent during the North American fur trade.[73] The British conquest of New France in the mid-1700s brought a large Francophone population under British Imperial rule, creating a need for compromise and accommodation.[74] The new British rulers left alone much of the religious, political, and social culture of the French-speaking habitants, guaranteeing through the Quebec Act of 1774 the right of the Canadiens to practise the Catholic faith and to use French civil law (now Quebec law).[75] The Constitution Act of 1867 was designed to meet the growing calls of Canadians for autonomy from British rule, while avoiding the overly strong decentralization that contributed to the Civil War in the United States.[76] The compromises made by the Fathers of Confederation set Canadians on a path to bilingualism, and this in turn contributed to an acceptance of diversity.[77][78] The Canadian Forces and overall civilian participation in the First World War and Second World War helped to foster Canadian nationalism,[79][80] however, in 1917 and 1944, conscription crisis' highlighted the considerable rift along ethnic lines between Anglophones and Francophones.[81] As a result of the First and Second World Wars, the Government of Canada became more assertive and less deferential to British authority.[82] With the gradual loosening of political ties to the United Kingdom and the modernization of Canadian immigration policies, 20th-century immigrants with African, Caribbean and Asian nationalities have added to the Canadian identity and its culture.[83] The multiple-origins immigration pattern continues today, with the arrival of large numbers of immigrants from non-British or non-French backgrounds.[84] Multiculturalism in Canada was adopted as the official policy of the government during the premiership of Pierre Trudeau in the 1970s and 1980s.[85] The Canadian government has often been described as the instigator of multicultural ideology, because of its public emphasis on the social importance of immigration.[86] Multiculturalism is administered by the Department of Citizenship and Immigration and reflected in the law through the Canadian Multiculturalism Act[87] and section 27 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.[88] Religion in Canada (2011 National Household Survey)[89] Canada as a nation is religiously diverse, encompassing a wide range of groups, beliefs and customs.[90] The preamble to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms references "God", and the monarch carries the title of "Defender of the Faith".[91] However, Canada has no official religion, and support for religious pluralism (Freedom of religion in Canada) is an important part of Canada's political culture.[92][93] With the role of Christianity in decline, it having once been central and integral to Canadian culture and daily life,[94] commentators have suggested that Canada has come to enter a post-Christian period in a secular state,[95][96] with irreligion on the rise.[97] The majority of Canadians consider religion to be unimportant in their daily lives, but still believe in God.[98] The practice of religion is now generally considered a private matter throughout society and within the state.[99] The 2011 Canadian census reported that 67.3% of Canadians identify as being Christians; of this number, Catholics make up the largest group, accounting for 38.7 percent of the population.[89] The largest Protestant denomination is the United Church of Canada (accounting for 6.1% of Canadians); followed by Anglicans (5.0%), and Baptists (1.9%).[89] About 23.9% of Canadians declare no religious affiliation, including agnostics, atheists, humanists, and other groups.[89] The remaining are affiliated with non-Christian religions, the largest of which is Islam (3.2%), followed by Hinduism (1.5%), Sikhism (1.4%), Buddhism (1.1%), and Judaism (1.0%).[89] Before the arrival of European colonists and explorers, First Nations followed a wide array of mostly animistic religions.[100] During the colonial period, the French settled along the shores of the Saint Lawrence River, specifically Latin Rite Roman Catholics, including a number of Jesuits dedicated to converting indigenous peoples; an effort that eventually proved successful.[101] The first large Protestant communities were formed in the Maritimes after the British conquest of New France, followed by American Protestant settlers displaced by the American Revolution.[102] The late nineteenth century saw the beginning of a substantive shift in Canadian immigration patterns. Large numbers of Irish and southern European immigrants were creating new Roman Catholic communities in English Canada.[20] The settlement of the west brought significant Eastern Orthodox immigrants from Eastern Europe and Mormon and Pentecostal immigrants from the United States.[103] The earliest documentation of Jewish presence in Canada occurs in the 1754 British Army records from the French and Indian War.[104] In 1760, General Jeffrey Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst attacked and won Montreal for the British. In his regiment there were several Jews, including four among his officer corps, most notably Lieutenant Aaron Hart who is considered the father of Canadian Jewry.[104] The Islamic, Jains, Sikh, Hindu and Buddhist communities, although small, are as old as the nation itself. The 1871 Canadian Census (first "Canadian" national census) indicated thirteen Muslims among the populace,[105] with approximately 5000 Sikh by 1908.[106] The first Canadian mosque was constructed in Edmonton, in 1938, when there were approximately 700 Muslims in Canada.[107] Buddhism first arrived in Canada when Japanese immigrated during the late 19th century.[108] The first Japanese Buddhist temple in Canada was built in Vancouver in 1905.[109] The influx of immigrants in the late 20th century, with Sri Lankan, Japanese, Indian and Southeast Asian customs, has contributed to the recent expansion of the Jain, Sikh, Hindu and Buddhist communities.[110] A multitude of languages are used by Canadians, with English and French (the official languages) being the mother tongues of approximately 56% and 21% of Canadians, respectively.[112] As of the 2016 Census, just over 7.3?million Canadians listed a non-official language as their mother tongue. Some of the most common non-official first languages include Chinese (1,227,680 first-language speakers), Punjabi (501,680), Spanish (458,850), Tagalog (431,385), Arabic (419,895), German (384,040), and Italian (375,645).[112] Less than one percent of Canadians (just over 250,000 individuals) can speak an indigenous language. About half this number (129,865) reported using an indigenous language on a daily basis.[113] Additionally, Canadians speak several sign languages; the number of speakers is unknown of the most spoken ones, American Sign Language (ASL) and Quebec Sign Language (LSQ),[114] as it is of Maritime Sign Language and Plains Sign Talk.[115] There are only 47 speakers of the Inuit sign language Inuiuuk.[116] English and French are recognized by the Constitution of Canada as official languages.[117] All federal government laws are thus enacted in both English and French, with government services available in both languages.[117] Two of Canada's territories give official status to indigenous languages. In Nunavut, Inuktitut and Inuinnaqtun are official languages alongside the national languages of English and French, and Inuktitut is a common vehicular language in territorial government.[118] In the Northwest Territories, the Official Languages Act declares that there are eleven different languages: Chipewyan, Cree, English, French, Gwich'in, Inuinnaqtun, Inuktitut, Inuvialuktun, North Slavey, South Slavey and T??ch?.[119] Multicultural media are widely accessible across the country and offer specialty television channels, newspapers and other publications in many minority languages.[120] In Canada, as elsewhere in the world of European colonies, the frontier of European exploration and settlement tended to be a linguistically diverse and fluid place, as cultures using different languages met and interacted. The need for a common means of communication between the indigenous inhabitants and new arrivals for the purposes of trade, and (in some cases) intermarriage, led to the development of Mixed languages.[121] Languages like Michif, Chinook Jargon and Bungi creole tended to be highly localized and were often spoken by only a small number of individuals who were frequently capable of speaking another language.[122] Plains Sign Talk, which functioned originally as a trade language used to communicate internationally and across linguistic borders, reached across Canada, the United States and into Mexico.[123]

Old Tucson🚨Joe Kidd is a 1972 American Technicolor western film in Panavision starring Clint Eastwood and Robert Duvall, written by Elmore Leonard and directed by John Sturges. The film is about an ex-bounty hunter hired by a wealthy landowner named Frank Harlan to track down Mexican revolutionary leader Luis Chama, who is fighting for land reform. It forms part of the Revisionist Western genre. Set in the early 1900s, Clint Eastwood stars as Joe Kidd, a former bounty hunter who is in jail for hunting on Indian land and disturbing the peace in the New Mexican town of Sinola. Mexican bandito/revolutionary Luis Chama (John Saxon) has organized a peasant revolt against the local landowners, who are throwing the poor off land that rightfully belongs to them. When a posse? financed by wealthy landowner Frank Harlan (Robert Duvall)? is formed to capture Chama, Kidd is invited to join, but prefers to remain neutral. Harlan persists and Kidd finally relents when he learns that Chama's band has raided his own ranch and attacked one of the workers. The posse rides into a village and forces the villagers into the church at gunpoint. They threaten to kill five Mexican hostages unless Chama surrenders. Harlan throws Kidd into the church to prevent him from helping Helen, a female captive who is also Chama's lady love (unbeknownst to Harlan), and the other Mexican hostages. Kidd manages a daring escape and saves the hostages, determined to find Chama on his own and see that justice is done, but when he does capture Chama and delivers him to Sheriff Mitchell (Gregory Walcott) Harlan is already waiting for them in town. To get to the jailhouse, Kidd drives a steam train through the town saloon. A gunfight then ensues between Kidd and Harlan's men. Kidd manages to kill Harlan in the courthouse by hiding in the judge's chair. Chama then surrenders to Mitchell, but not before Kidd punches the sheriff because the sheriff had punched him during the poaching arrest. Kidd then collects his things and leaves town with Helen. Eastwood was given the script by Jennings Lang, written by novelist Elmore Leonard. Originally called The Sinola Courthouse Raid,[3] it was about a character inspired by Reies Tijerina, an ardent supporter of Robert F. Kennedy, known for storming a courthouse in Tierra Amarilla, New Mexico in an incident in June 1967, taking hostages and demanding that the Hispanic people have their ancestral lands returned to them. Leonard depicted Tijerina in his story, a man he named Luis Chama, as an egomaniac, a role which went to John Saxon. Robert Duvall was cast as Frank Harlan, a ruthless land owner who hires Eastwood's character, a former frontier guide named Joe Kidd, to track down the culprits and scare them away. Don Stroud, who Eastwood had starred alongside in Coogan's Bluff, was cast as another sour villain who encounters Joe Kidd. Under the director's helm of John Sturges, who had directed acclaimed westerns such as The Magnificent Seven (1960), filming began in Old Tucson in November 1971,[3] overlapping with another film production, John Huston's The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean, which was just wrapping up shooting.[4] Outdoor sequences to the film were shot near June Lake, east of the Yosemite National Park.[4] The actors were initially uncertain with the strength of the three main characters in the film and how the hero Joe Kidd would come across.[5] According to writer Leonard, the initial slow development between the three was probably because the cast were so initially awestruck by having Sturges direct that they surrendered authority to him.[5] Eastwood was far from being in perfect health during the film and suffered symptoms that suggested a bronchial infection, in addition to having several panic attacks, falsely reported in the media as his having an allergy to horses.[6] During production, the script for the finale was altered when producer Robert Daley jokingly said that a train should crash through the barroom in the climax, and he was taken seriously by cast and crew, who thought it was a great idea.[4] Joe Kidd was released in the United States in July 1972, and it eventually grossed $5.8 million.[3] The film received a mixed reception from critics. Roger Greenspun of The New York Times, in his review of the film wrote, "I think it is a very good performance in context. Like so many Western heroes, Joe Kidd figures even in his own time as an anachronism? powerful through his instincts mainly, and through the ability of everybody else, whether in rage or gratitude, to recognize in him a quality that must be called virtue. The great value of Clint Eastwood in such a position is that he guards his virtue very cannily, and in the society of "Joe Kidd," where the men still manage to tip their hats to the ladies, but just barely, all the Eastwood effects and mannerisms suggest a carefully preserved authenticity."[7] The New York Post praised the actors' performances while criticizing the film, calling the actors "diamonds set in dung".[8]

Indira Gandhi🚨 The Minister of Defence is the head of the Ministry of Defence of the Government of India. They are often assisted by a Minister of State for Defence and less-commonly, the lower-ranked Deputy Minister of Defence. The defence minister additionally serves as President of the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, and as Chancellor of the Defence Institute of Advanced Technology and of the National Defence University. The first defence minister of independent India was Baldev Singh, who served in Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru's cabinet during 1947ÿ52. Nirmala Sitharaman, the current defence minister of India is the second woman since Indira Gandhi to hold this major post. (1902ÿ1961) (1887ÿ1968) (1896ÿ1974) (1913ÿ1984) (1907ÿ1994) (1908ÿ1986) (1907ÿ1994) (1917ÿ1984) (1927ÿ2006) (1908ÿ1986) (1910ÿ2000) (1917ÿ1984) (1910ÿ2009) (1920ÿ2004) (1921ÿ2004) (1944ÿ1991) (1931ÿ2008) (1931ÿ2012) (1931ÿ2008) (1927ÿ2007) (born 1940) (1921ÿ2004) (1949ÿ2006) (born 1939) (born 1930) (born 1938) (born 1930) (born 1935) (born 1940) (born 1952) (born 1955) (born 1952) (born 1959)

fifteen🚨The 2018 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XXIII Olympic Winter Games (Korean: ?23? ?? ???, translit.?Jeisipsamhoe Donggye Ollimpik) and commonly known as PyeongChang 2018, was an international winter multi-sport event that was held between 9 and 25 February 2018 in Pyeongchang County, Gangwon Province, South Korea, with the opening rounds for certain events held on 8 February 2018, the eve of the opening ceremony. Pyeongchang was elected as the host city in July 2011, during the 123rd IOC Session in Durban, South Africa. This was the first time that South Korea had hosted the Winter Olympics and the second Olympics held in the country overall, after the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul. It was the third time that an East Asian country had hosted the Winter Games, after Sapporo (1972) and Nagano (1998), both in Japan. It was also the first of three consecutive Olympics to be held in East Asia, the other two being the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo and the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. The Games featured 102 events in fifteen sports, with the addition of "big air" snowboarding, mass start speed skating, mixed doubles curling, and mixed team alpine skiing to the Winter Olympic programme. 2,914 athletes from 92 NOCs competed, including the debuts of Ecuador, Eritrea, Kosovo, Malaysia, Nigeria and Singapore. After a state-sponsored doping program was exposed following the 2014 Winter Olympics, the Russian Olympic Committee was suspended, and selected athletes were allowed to compete neutrally under the IOC designation of "Olympic Athletes from Russia". Despite tense relations, North Korea agreed to participate in the Games, enter with South Korea during the opening ceremony as a unified Korea, and field a unified team in women's ice hockey. Norway led the total medal tally with 39, followed by Germany's 31 and Canada's 29.[3] Germany and Norway were tied for the most gold medals won; both won fourteen golds. Host nation South Korea won seventeen medals, their highest medal haul at a Winter Olympics, five of which were gold. Pyeongchang bid to host both the 2010 and 2014 Winter Olympics, but lost in the final rounds of voting to Vancouver and Sochi respectively.[4] Munich also launched a bid to host these Games. Prior to Beijing's successful 2022 Winter Olympics bid, Munich would have become the first city to host both the Winter and the Summer Games, having previously hosted the 1972 Summer Olympics, but received only 25 votes. Annecy (in southeastern France) launched their own bid, which failed to secure public support from the local citizens. Their bid ended up receiving seven votes.[5] Pyeongchang was elected as the host city at the 123rd IOC Session in Durban in 2011, earning the necessary majority of at least 48 votes in just one round of voting, more votes than its competitors combined. With this, Pyeongchang became the third Asian city to host the Winter Games; the first two were in Japan, at Sapporo (1972) and Nagano (1998).[6][7] On 5 August 2011, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced the formation of the Pyeongchang 2018 Coordination Commission.[8][9] On 4 October 2011, it was announced that the Organizing Committee for the 2018 Winter Olympics would be headed by Kim Jin-sun. The Pyeongchang Organizing Committee for the 2018 Olympic & Paralympic Winter Games (POCOG) was launched at its inaugural assembly on 19 October 2011. The first tasks of the organizing committee were putting together a master plan for the Games as well as forming a design for the venues.[10] The IOC Coordination Commission for the 2018 Winter Olympics made their first visit to Pyeongchang in March 2012. By then, construction was already underway on the Olympic Village.[11][12] In June 2012, construction began on a high-speed rail line that would connect Pyeongchang to Seoul.[13] The International Paralympic Committee met for an orientation with the Pyeongchang 2018 organizing committee in July 2012.[14] Then-IOC President Jacques Rogge visited Pyeongchang for the first time in February 2013.[15] The Pyeongchang Organizing Committee for the 2018 Olympic & Paralympic Winter Games created Pyeongchang WINNERS in 2014 by recruiting university students living in South Korea to spread awareness of the Olympic Games through social networking services and news articles.[16] The Games' medal designs were unveiled on 21 September 2017. Designed by Lee Suk-woo, they feature a pattern of diagonal ridges on both sides, with the front including the Olympic rings, and the obverse featuring the Games' emblem, the event name and the discipline. The edge of the medals features extrusions of hangul alphabets, while the ribbons are made from a traditional South Korean textile.[17] The torch relay started on 24 October 2017 in Greece and ended at the start of the Olympics on 9 February 2018. On 1 November 2017 the relay entered Korea. The relay lasted 101 days. There were 7,500 torch bearers to represent the Korean population of 75?million people. There were also 2,018 support runners to guard the torch and act as messengers. The torch and its bearers traveled by a diverse means of transportation, including by turtle ship in Hansando Island, sailboat on the Baengmagang River in Buyeo, marine cable car in Yeosu, zip-wire over Bamseom Island, steam train in the Gokseong Train Village, marine rail bike along the east coast in Samcheok, and by yacht in Busan Metropolitan City. There were also robot torch relays in Jeju and Daejeon.[18] Most of the outdoor snow events were held in the county of Pyeongchang, while the downhill, combined and super-G events in the Alpine skiing were held in the neighboring county of Jeongseon. The indoor ice events were held in Pyeongchang's neighboring city of Gangneung. The Alpensia Sports Park in Daegwallyeong-myeon, Pyeongchang, was the focus of the 2018 Winter Olympics.[19][20] It was home to the Olympic Stadium,[21] the Olympic Village and most of the outdoor sports venues. Additionally, a stand-alone outdoor sports venue was located in Bongpyeong-myeon, Pyeongchang: Another stand-alone outdoor sports venue was located in Pyeongchang's neighboring county of Jeongseon: The Gangneung Olympic Park in the city of Gangneung includes four indoor sports venues, all in close proximity to one another. Additionally, a stand-alone indoor sports venue was located in the grounds of Catholic Kwandong University. Ticket prices for the 2018 Winter Olympics were announced in April 2016 and tickets went on sale in October 2016. Event tickets ranged in price from ?20,000 (approx. US$17) to ?900,000 (~US$776) while tickets for the opening and closing ceremonies ranged from ?220,000 (~US$190) to ?1.5?million (~US$1293). The exact prices were determined through market research; around 50% of the tickets were expected to cost about ?80,000 (~US$69) or less, and tickets in sports that are relatively unknown in the region, such as biathlon and luge, were made cheaper in order to encourage attendance. By contrast, figure skating and the men's ice hockey gold-medal game carried the most expensive tickets of the Games.[22] As of 11 October 2017, domestic ticket sales for the Games were reported to be slow. Of the 750,000 seats allocated to South Koreans, only 20.7% had been sold. International sales were more favorable, with 59.7% of the 320,000 allocated tickets sold.[23][24] However, as of 31 January 2018, 77% of all tickets had been sold.[25] The opening ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics was held at the Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium on 9 February 2018; the US$100?million facility was only intended to be used for the opening and closing ceremonies of these Olympics and the subsequent Paralympics, and is scheduled to be demolished following their conclusion.[26] The 2018 Winter Olympics featured 102 events in 15 sports,[27] making it the first Winter Olympics to surpass 100 medal events. Six new events in existing sports were introduced to the Winter Olympic program in Pyeongchang, including men's and ladies' big air snowboarding, mixed doubles curling, men's and ladies' mass start speed skating, and mixed team alpine skiing.[28][27] Numbers in parentheses indicate the number of medal events contested in each sport. A total of 92 teams qualified at least one athlete to compete in the Games. The number of athletes who qualified per country is listed in the table below (number of athletes shown in parentheses). Six nations made their Winter Olympics debut: Ecuador, Eritrea, Kosovo, Malaysia, Nigeria and Singapore.[29][30] Athletes from three further countries ÿ the Cayman Islands, Dominica and Peru ÿ qualified to compete, but all three National Olympic Committees returned the quota spots back to the International Ski Federation (FIS).[31] Under an historic agreement facilitated by the IOC, qualified athletes from North Korea were allowed to cross the Korean Demilitarized Zone into South Korea to compete in the Games.[32][33][34] The two nations marched together under the Korean Unification Flag during the opening ceremony.[35][36] A unified Korean team, consisting of 12 players from North Korea and 23 from South Korea, competed in the women's ice hockey tournament under a special IOC country code designation (COR) following talks in Panmunjom on 17 January 2018.[37] The two nations also participated separately: the South Korea team competed in every sport and the North Korea team competed in alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, figure skating and short track speed skating.[38] See North Korea at the 2018 Winter Olympics for further details. On 5 December 2017, the IOC announced that the Russian Olympic Committee had been suspended due to the Russian doping controversy and the investigation into the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. Individual Russian athletes, who qualified and could demonstrate they had complied with the IOC's doping regulations, were given the option to compete at the 2018 Games as "Olympic Athletes from Russia" (OAR) under the Olympic flag and with the Olympic anthem played at any ceremony.[39] a Apart from the respective delegations, North Korea and South Korea formed a unified Korean women's ice hockey team. b Russian athletes participated as Olympic Athletes from Russia (OAR) if individually cleared by the IOC. To accommodate primetime broadcasts in the Americas, figure skating events were scheduled with morning start times; figure skating in particular has typically been one of the most popular Winter Olympic sports among U.S. viewers. This scheduling practice had an impact on the events themselves, including skaters having to adjust to the modified schedule, as well as the attendance levels of the sessions themselves.[46] Conversely, and somewhat controversially, eight of the eleven biathlon events were scheduled at night, making it necessary for competitors to ski and shoot under floodlights, with colder temperatures and blustery winds.[47] ??*?? Host nation (South Korea)[48] Three podium sweeps were recorded during the Games. The closing ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics was held at the Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium on 25 February 2018, as Thomas Bach, the IOC president, declared the Games closed, and the cauldron extinguished. Broadcast rights to the 2018 Winter Olympics in some countries were already sold as part of long-term broadcast rights deals, including the Games' local rightsholder SBS, which in July 2011 had extended its rights to the Olympics through to 2024.[67] SBS sub-licensed its rights to MBC and KBS.[68] On 29 June 2015, the IOC announced that Discovery Communications had acquired exclusive rights to the Olympics across all of Europe outside of Russia, from 2018 through to 2024. Discovery's pan-European Eurosport networks were promoted as the main rightsholder of the Games, but Discovery free-to-air channels such as DMAX in Spain,[69] Kanal 5 in Sweden and TVNorge in Norway, were also involved.[70] Discovery was required to sub-licence at least 100 hours of coverage to free-to-air broadcasters in each market;[71][72][73] some of these agreements required certain sports to be exclusive to Eurosport and its affiliated networks.[74][74] The deal did not initially cover France due to France Tlvisions' rights, which run through to the 2020 Games.[75] In the United Kingdom, Discovery held exclusive pay television rights under license from the BBC, in return for BBC sub-licencing the free-to-air rights to the 2022 and 2024 Olympics from Discovery.[76] Despite the Russian team being formally banned from competing under its flag in Pyeongchang, Russian state broadcaster Channel One, and sports channel Match TV, still committed to covering the Games with a focus on Russian athletes.[75] Russia was not affected by the Eurosport deal, due to a pre-existing contract held by a marketing agency which runs through to 2024.[75] In the United States, the Games were once again broadcast by NBCUniversal properties under a long-term contract.[77][78] As U.S. Eastern Time is fourteen hours behind Pyeongchang, morning events naturally fell within traditional U.S. prime time hours (8:00 to 11:00?pm). This allowed NBC to broadcast its prime time coverage live in all U.S. time zones, rather than showing "plausibly live" delayed footage as they had in previous Olympics. As per previous Games, the ceremonies were still shown on TV via tape delay only, but NBC did, for the first time, offer live streaming of the opening ceremony online.[79][80] Notably, figure skating events were deliberately scheduled for the morning in Pyeongchang to accommodate the networks live broadcast to a peak U.S. audience in the evening.[46] NHK and Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) once again filmed portions of the Games, including 90 hours of footage of selected events and the opening ceremonies, in high-dynamic-range 8K resolution video.[81][82] In South Korea, ATSC 3.0 digital terrestrial television at 4K resolution was introduced in 2017 in time for the Olympics.[83][84] In the U.S., this footage was delivered in 4K by NBCUniversal parent Comcast to participating television providers, including its own Xfinity, as well as DirecTV and Dish Network. NBC's Raleigh, North Carolina affiliate WRAL-TV also held demonstration viewings as part of its ATSC 3.0 test broadcasts.[85][86][87] The 2018 Winter Olympics were also used to showcase 5G wireless technologies, as part of a collaboration between domestic wireless sponsor KT, and worldwide sponsor Intel. Several venues were outfitted with 5G networks to facilitate features such as live camera feeds from bobsleds, and multi-camera views from cross-country and figure skating events. These were offered as part of public demonstrations coordinated by KT and Intel.[88][89] The emblem for the Games was unveiled on 3 May 2013. It is a stylised representation of the hangul letters ? p and ? ch, these being the initial sounds of ?? Pyeongchang. The left-hand symbol is said to represent the Korean philosophical triad of heaven, earth and humanity (Korean: ??? cheon-ji-in), and the right-hand symbol represents a crystal of ice.[90] In the emblem and all official materials, Pyeongchang was stylised in CamelCase as "PyeongChang", in order to alleviate potential confusion with Pyongyang, the similarly-named capital of neighbouring North Korea.[91] The official mascots of the 2018 Winter Olympics and Paralympics were unveiled on 2 June 2016. The Olympic mascot, Soohorang (Korean: ???), is a white tiger. The mascot's name is a portmanteau of "Sooho", a Korean word for "protection", and "Rang" which is derived both from the Korean word for "tiger" and from the name of a traditional Korean folk song originating from Gangwon Province.[92] Tigers have a strong association with Korean culture and folklore. In June 2017, Ubisoft announced that it would release an expansion pack for its winter sports video game Steep entitled Road to the Olympics, which features new game modes and content inspired by the 2018 Winter Olympics.[93][94] In November 2017, the IOC announced it would support and sponsor an Intel Extreme Masters StarCraft II tournament in Pyeongchang preceding the Games. Its support of the tournament as a de facto demonstration event came on the heels of a report by the IOC which recognised that eSports "could be considered as a sporting activity".[95][96][97] The tournament was won by Sasha "Scarlett" Hostyn of Canada; she became the second North American pro to place first at a major StarCraft II tournament in South Korea, and the first woman to win a major tournament.[98][99] The 2018 Winter Olympics saw increasing granularity in official sponsorships for technology vendors; Intel signed with the IOC to become part of its Worldwide Olympic Partner program, to promote 5G wireless technology, as well as broadcasting technology such as 360-degree video and virtual reality. Alibaba Group was also named the official e-commerce and cloud services provider. These categories affected how the vendors were allowed to promote themselves within the context of the Olympics: Samsung could showcase VR experiences but only within the context of its own smartphones due to Intel's sponsorship rights in relation to VR; Alibaba could not promote Alipay due to Visa Inc. sponsorship rights; and Intel could not promote end-user applications of 5G due to national sponsorship rights held by KT Corporation.[100][101] Due to the state of relations between North and South Korea, concerns were raised over the security of the 2018 Winter Olympics, especially in the wake of tensions over North Korean missile and nuclear tests. On 20 September 2017, South Korean president Moon Jae-in stated that the country would ensure the security of the Games.[102] The next day, Laura Flessel-Colovic, the French Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports, stated that France would pull out of the Games if the safety of its delegation could not be guaranteed.[103] The next day, Austria and Germany raised similar concerns and also threatened to skip the Games. France later reaffirmed its participation.[104] In early December 2017, the United States Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, told Fox News that it was an "open question" whether the United States was going to participate in the Games, citing security concerns in the region.[105] However, days later the White House Press Secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, stated that the United States would participate.[106] In his New Year's address on 1 January 2018, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un proposed talks in Seoul over the country's participation in the Games, which would be the first high-level talks between the North and South in over two years. Because of the talks, held on 9 January, North Korea agreed to field athletes in Pyeongchang.[107][108] On 17 January 2018, it was announced that North and South Korea had agreed to field a unified Korean women's ice hockey team at the Games, and to enter together under a Korean Unification Flag during the opening ceremony.[109][110] These moves were met with opposition in South Korea, including protests and online petitions; critics argued that the government was attempting to use the Olympics to spread pro-North Korean sentiment, and that the unified hockey team would fail.[111] A rap video entitled "The Regret for Pyeongchang" (????), which echoed this criticism and called the event the "Pyongyang Olympics", went viral in the country.[112] Japan's foreign affairs minister Tar Kno warned South Korea to be wary of North Korea's "charm offensive", and not to ease its pressure on the country.[109][113] The South Korean President, Moon Jae-in, at the start of the Olympics shook hands with the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and a prominent figure of the regime, Kim Yo-jong. This marked the first time since the Korean War that a member of the ruling Kim dynasty had visited South Korea.[114][115] In contrast, U.S. vice president Mike Pence met with Fred Warmbier (father of Otto Warmbier, who had died after being released from captivity in North Korea) and a group of North Korean defectors in Pyeongchang.[116] American officials said that North Korea cancelled a meeting with Pence at the last minute.[117] At the closing ceremony, North Korea sent general Kim Yong-chol as its delegate. His presence was met with hostility from South Korean conservatives, as there were allegations that he had a role in the ROKS Cheonan sinking and other past attacks. The Ministry of Unification stated that "there is a limitation in pinpointing who was responsible for the incident." Although he is subject to sanctions, they did not affect his ability to visit the country for the Games.[118][119] Russia's participation in the 2018 Winter Olympics was affected by the aftermath of its state-sponsored doping program. As a result, the IOC suspended the Russian Olympic Committee in December 2017, although Russian athletes whitelisted by the IOC were allowed to compete neutrally under the OAR (Olympic Athletes from Russia) designation.[120] The official sanctions imposed by the IOC included: the exclusion of Russian government officials from the Games; the use of the Olympic Flag and Olympic Anthem in place of the Russian flag and anthem; and the submission of a replacement logo for the OAR uniforms.[121] By early January 2018, the IOC had banned 43 Russian athletes from competing in the 2018 Winter Olympics and all future Olympic Games (as part of the Oswald Commission). Of those athletes, 42 appealed against their bans to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) and 28 of the appeals were successful, but eleven of the athletes had their sanctions upheld due to the weight of evidence against them. The IOC stated that the court ruling did not prove that the 28 athletes were innocent and that they would not necessarily be invited to the 2018 Games. Three of the athletes who appealed are still awaiting their hearings.[122] The eventual number of neutral Russian athletes that participated at the 2018 Games was 168. These were selected from an original pool of 500 athletes that was put forward for consideration and, in order to receive an invitation to the Games, they were obliged to meet a number of pre-games conditions to rule out any possibility of doping. Russian president Vladimir Putin and other officials had signalled in the past that it would be a humiliation if Russian athletes were not allowed to compete under the Russian flag.[123] However, there were never actually any official plans to boycott the 2018 Games[120] and in late 2017 the Russian government agreed to allow their athletes to compete at the Games as individuals under a neutral designation.[124][125] Despite this public show of co-operation, there were numerous misgivings voiced by leading Russian politicians, including a statement from Putin himself saying that he believed the United States had used its influence within the IOC to "orchestrate the doping scandal".[126] 86% of the Russian population opposed participation at the Olympics under a neutral flag,[127] and many Russian fans attended the Games wearing the Russian colours and chanting "Russia!" in unison, in an act of defiance against the ban.[128] The IOC's decision was heavily criticised by Jack Robertson, primary investigator of the Russian doping program on behalf of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), in whose opinion the judgement was commercially and politically motivated. He argued that not only was doping rife amongst Russian athletes but that there was no sign of it being eradicated.[129] The CAS decision to overturn the life bans of 28 Russian athletes and restore their medals was also fiercely criticised, by Olympic officials, IOC president Thomas Bach and whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov's lawyer.[130] For the first time since 1998, the National Hockey League did not provide accommodations (including a break in the season for all teams during the Olympics) to allow its players to participate in the men's ice hockey tournament. The NHL's decision stemmed from their demands that the IOC cover the cost of insuring the NHL players who participated in the Games. Although the IOC did pay to insure NHL players in Sochi, the commission was unwilling to do so for Pyeongchang, and was concerned that the NHL's demand could set a precedent for other professional sports bodies to follow. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman added that a factor in the decision was that the IOC did not allow the NHL to promote the involvement of its players in the Olympics.[131][132][133] The NHL secured the cooperation of the International Ice Hockey Federation and the IOC, who agreed to establish a blacklist forbidding national teams from nominating or accepting players under NHL contract to their Olympic rosters.[134][135] Other leagues, such as the Swedish Hockey League, did not close during the games,[136] but teams had to accept that some players took part in the games instead of the league.

Spanish🚨The Galpagos Islands (official name: Archipilago de Col܇n, other Spanish name: Las Islas Galpagos, Spanish pronunciation:?[las ?i?la ?a?lapa?o]), part of the Republic of Ecuador, are an archipelago of volcanic islands distributed on either side of the Equator in the Pacific Ocean surrounding the centre of the Western Hemisphere, 906?km (563?mi) west of continental Ecuador. The islands are known for their vast number of endemic species and were studied by Charles Darwin during the second voyage of HMS Beagle, as his observations and collections contributed to the inception of Darwin's theory of evolution by means of natural selection. The Galpagos Islands and their surrounding waters form the Galpagos Province of Ecuador, the Galpagos National Park, and the Galpagos Marine Reserve. The principal language on the islands is Spanish. The islands have a population of slightly over 25,000.[1] The first recorded visit to the islands happened by chance in 1535, when Fray Toms de Berlanga, the Bishop of Panam, was surprised with this undiscovered land during a voyage to Peru to arbitrate in a dispute between Francisco Pizarro and Diego de Almagro. De Berlanga eventually returned to the Spanish Empire and described the conditions of the islands and the animals that inhabited them. The group of islands was shown and named in Abraham Ortelius's atlas published in 1570. The first crude map of the islands was made in 1684 by the buccaneer Ambrose Cowley, who named the individual islands after some of his fellow pirates or after British royalty and noblemen. These names were used in the authoritative navigation charts of the islands prepared during the Beagle survey under captain Robert Fitzroy, and in Darwin's popular book The Voyage of the Beagle. The new Republic of Ecuador took the islands from Spanish ownership in 1832, and subsequently gave them official Spanish names.[2] The older names remained in use in English language publications, including Herman Melville's The Encantadas of 1854. Volcanism has been continuous on the Galapagos Islands for at least 20 Myr, and perhaps even longer. The mantle plume beneath the east-ward moving Nazca Plate (51?km/myr) has given rise to a 3?km thick platform under the island chain and seamounts. Besides the Galapagos Archipelago, other key tectonic features in the region include the Northern Galapagos Volcanic Province between the archipelago and the Galapagos Spreading Center (GSC) 200?km to the north at the boundary of the Nazca Plate and the Cocos Plate. This spreading center truncates into the East Pacific Rise on the west and is bounded by the Cocos Ridge and Carnegie Ridge in the east. Furthermore, the Galapagos Hotspot is at the northern boundary of the Pacific Large Low Shear Velocity Province while the Easter Hotspot is on the southern boundary.[3][4][5] The Galapagos Archipelago is characterized by numerous contemporaneous volcanoes, some with plume magma sources, others from the asthenosphere, possibly due to the young and thin oceanic crust. The GSC caused structural weaknesses in this thin lithosphere leading to eruptions forming the Galapagos Platform. Fernandina and Isabela in particular are aligned along these weaknesses. Lacking a well-defined rift zone, the islands have a high rate of inflation prior to eruption. Sierra Negra on Isabela Island experienced a 240?cm uplift between 1992 and 1998, most recent eruption in 2005, while Fernandina on Fernandina Island indicated an uplift of 90?cm, most recent eruption in 2009. Alcedo on Isabela Island had an uplift of greater than 90?cm, most recent eruption in 1993. Additional characteristics of the Galapagos Archipelago are closer volcano spacing, smaller volcano sizes, and larger calderas. For instance, Isabela Island includes 6 major volcanoes, Ecuador, Wolf, Darwin, Alcedo, Sierra Negraa and Cerro Azul, with most recent eruptions ranging from 1813 to 2008. The neighboring islands of Santiago and Fernandina last erupted in 1906 and 2009, respectively. Overall, the 9 active volcanoes in the archipelago have erupted 24 times between 1961 and 2011. The shape of these volcanoes is that of an "overturned soup bowl" as opposed to the "overturned saucer plate" of the Hawaiian Islands. The Galapagos shape is due to the pattern of radial and circumferential fissure, radial on the flanks, but circumferential near the caldera summits. It is the circumferential fissures which give rise to stacks of short lava flows.[6] The volcanoes at the west end of the archipelago are in general, taller, younger, have well developed calderas, and are mostly composed of tholeiitic basalt, while those on the east are shorter, older, lack calderas, and have a more diverse composition. The ages of the islands, from west to east are 0.05 Ma for Fernandina, 0.65 Ma for Isabela, 1.10 Ma for Santiago, 1.7 Ma for Santa Cruz, 2.90 Ma for Santa Fe, and 3.2 Ma for San Cristobal. The calderas on Sierra Negra and Alcedo have active fault systems. The Sierra Negra fault is associated with a sill 2?km below the caldera. The caldera on Fernandina experienced the largest basaltic volcano collapse in history, with the 1968 phreatomagmatic eruption. Fernandina has also been the most active volcano since 1790, with recent eruptions in 1991, 1995, 2005, and 2009, and the entire surface has been covered in numerous flows since 4.3 Ka. The western volcanoes have numerous tuff cones.[6][7][8][5] The islands are located in the eastern Pacific Ocean, 973?km (605?mi) off the west coast of South America. The closest land mass is that of mainland Ecuador, the country to which they belong, 926?km/500?nmi to the east. The islands are found at the coordinates 140'Nÿ136'S, 8916'ÿ9201'W. Straddling the equator, islands in the chain are located in both the northern and southern hemispheres, with Volcn Wolf and Volcn Ecuador on Isla Isabela being directly on the equator. Espa?ola Island, the southernmost islet of the archipelago, and Darwin Island, the northernmost one, are spread out over a distance of 220?km (137?mi). The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) considers them wholly within the South Pacific Ocean, however.[9] The Galpagos Archipelago consists of 7,880?km2 (3,040?sq?mi) of land spread over 45,000?km2 (17,000?sq?mi) of ocean. The largest of the islands, Isabela, measures 2,250 sq mi/5,827?km2[10] and makes up close to three-quarters of the total land area of the Galpagos. Volcn Wolf on Isabela is the highest point, with an elevation of 1,707?m (5,600?ft) above sea level. The group consists of 18 main islands, 3 smaller islands, and 107 rocks and islets. The islands are located at the Galapagos Triple Junction. The archipelago is located on the Nazca Plate (a tectonic plate), which is moving east/southeast, diving under the South American Plate at a rate of about 2.5 inches (6.4?cm) per year.[11] It is also atop the Galpagos hotspot, a place where the Earth's crust is being melted from below by a mantle plume, creating volcanoes. The first islands formed here at least 8?million and possibly up to 90?million years ago.[12] While the older islands have disappeared below the sea as they moved away from the mantle plume, the youngest islands, Isabela and Fernandina, are still being formed, with the most recent volcanic eruption in April 2009 where lava from the volcanic island Fernandina started flowing both towards the island's shoreline and into the center caldera. The 18[13] main islands (each having a land area at least 1?km2) of the archipelago (with their English names) shown alphabetically: Although the islands are located on the Equator, the Humboldt Current brings cold water to them, causing frequent drizzles during most of the year. The weather is periodically influenced by the El Ni?o events, which occur about every 3ÿ7 years and are characterized by warm sea surface temperatures, a rise in sea level, greater wave action, and a depletion of nutrients in the water.[15] During the season known as the gar~a (June to November), the temperature by the sea is 22?C (72?F), a steady and cold wind blows from south and southeast, frequent drizzles (gar~as) last most of the day, and dense fog conceals the islands. During the warm season (December to May), the average sea and air temperature rises to 25?C (77?F), there is no wind at all, there are sporadic, though strong, rains and the sun shines. Weather changes as altitude increases in the large islands. Temperature decreases gradually with altitude, while precipitation increases due to the condensation of moisture in clouds on the slopes. There is a large range in precipitation from one place to another, not only with altitude, but also depending on the location of the islands, and also with the seasons. The following table corresponding to the wet 1969 shows the variation of precipitation in different places of Santa Cruz Island: The precipitation also depends on the geographical location. During March 1969, the precipitation over Charles Darwin Station, on the southern coast of Santa Cruz was 249.0?mm (9.80?in), while on Baltra Island, the precipitation during the same month was only 137.6?mm (5.42?in). This is because Baltra is located behind Santa Cruz with respect to the prevailing southerly winds, so most of the moisture gets precipitated in the Santa Cruz highlands. There are significant changes in precipitation from one year to another, too. At Charles Darwin Station, the precipitation during March 1969 was 249.0?mm (9.80?in), but during March 1970, it was only 1.2?mm (0.05?in). On the larger islands, the pattern of generally wet highlands and drier lowlands impacts the flora. The vegetation in the highlands tends to be green and lush, with tropical woodland in places. The lowland areas tend to have arid and semi-arid vegetation, with many thorny shrubs and cacti, and almost bare volcanic rock elsewhere. According to a 1952 study by Thor Heyerdahl and Arne Skj?lsvold, remains of potsherds and other artifacts from several sites on the islands suggest visitation by South American peoples in pre-Columbian era.[16] The group located an Inca flute and shards from more than 130 pieces of ceramics, which were later identified as pre-Incan. However, no remains of graves, ceremonial vessels and constructions have ever been found, suggesting no permanent settlement occurred before the Spanish arrived in the 16th century.[17] It is not clear who the first visitors to the islands were, but they were probably sailors blown off course or people on hapless fishing boats blown out to sea. Most of them were likely unimpressed by the lack of fresh water on the islands. Whether the Incas ever made it here is disputed; in 1572, Spanish chronicler Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa claimed that Topa Inca Yupanqui, the second Sapa Inca of the Inca Empire had visited the archipelago, but there is little evidence for this, and many experts consider it a far-fetched legend, especially since the Incas were not seafaring people.[18] European discovery of the Galpagos Islands occurred when Spaniard Fray Toms de Berlanga, the fourth Bishop of Panama, sailed to Peru to settle a dispute between Francisco Pizarro and his lieutenants. De Berlanga's vessel drifted off course when the winds diminished, and his party reached the islands on 10 March 1535. The Galpagos Islands first appeared on the maps of Gerardus Mercator and Abraham Ortelius, in about 1570.[19] The islands were named "Insulae de los Galopegos" (Islands of the Tortoises) in reference to the giant tortoises found there.[20] The first English captain to visit the Galpagos Islands was Richard Hawkins, in 1593. Until the early 19th century, the archipelago was often used as a hideout by mostly English pirates who attacked Spanish galleons carrying gold and silver from South America to Spain.[21] In 1793, James Colnett described the flora and fauna of Galpagos, and suggested the islands could be used as base for the whalers operating in the Pacific Ocean. He drew the first accurate navigation charts of the islands. Whalers and maritime fur traders killed and captured thousands of the Galpagos tortoises to extract their fat. The tortoises could be kept on board ship as a means of providing of fresh protein, as these animals could survive for several months on board without any food or water. The hunting of the tortoises was responsible for greatly diminishing, and in some cases eliminating, certain species. Along with whalers came the fur-seal hunters, who brought the population of this animal close to extinction. The first known permanent human resident on Galpagos was Patrick Watkins, an Irish sailor who was marooned on the Island Floreana from 1807 to 1809. According to later accounts,[22][23] Watkins managed to survive by hunting, growing vegetables and trading with visiting whalers, before finally stealing an open boat and navigating to Guayaquil. In 1818 the Nantucket whaleship Globe, under Captain George Washington Gardner, discovered a "mother lode" of sperm whales some thousand miles west of the South American coast approximately at the equator. He returned to Nantucket in 1820 with more than 2000 barrels of sperm whale oil and the news of his discovery. This led to an influx of whaleships to exploit the new whaling ground and the Galpagos Islands became a frequent stop for the whalers both before and after visiting what came to be known as the Offshore Grounds. This led to the establishment in the Galpagos Islands of a kind of unofficial "post office" where whaleships stopped to pick up and drop off letters as well as for provisioning and repairing.[24] In October 1820, the whaleship Essex, out of Nantucket, stopped at the Galpagos for these purposes on its way to the Offshore Grounds. On what was then known as Charles Island, while most of the crew were hunting tortoises one crewmember, English boatsteerer Thomas Chappel, for reasons still unclear, lit a fire which quickly burned out of control. Some of the tortoise hunters had a narrow escape and had to run a gauntlet of fire to get back to the ship. Soon almost the entire island was in flames. Crewmembers reported that after a day of sailing away they could still see the flames against the horizon. One crewmember who returned to the Galpagos several years afterward described the entire island as still a blackened wasteland.[25] Ecuador annexed the Galpagos Islands on 12 February 1832, naming them the Archipelago of Ecuador. This new name added to several names that had been, and are still, used to refer to the archipelago. The first governor of Galpagos, General Jos de Villamil, brought a group of convicts to populate the island of Floreana, and in October 1832, some artisans and farmers joined them. The voyage of the Beagle brought the survey ship HMS Beagle, under captain Robert FitzRoy, to the Galpagos on 15 September 1835 to survey approaches to harbours. The captain and others on board, including his companion, the young naturalist Charles Darwin, made observations on the geology and biology on Chatham, Charles, Albemarle and James islands before they left on 20 October to continue on their round-the-world expedition. Primarily a geologist at the time, Darwin was impressed by the quantity of volcanic craters they saw, later referring to the archipelago as "that land of craters." His study of several volcanic formations over the 5 weeks he stayed in the islands, led to several important geological discoveries, including the first, correct explanation for how volcanic tuff is formed.[26] Darwin noticed the mockingbirds differed between islands, though he thought the birds now known as Darwin's finches were unrelated to each other, and did not bother labelling them by island.[27] Nicholas Lawson, acting Governor of Galpagos for the Republic of the Equator, met them on Charles Island, and as they walked to the prison colony, Lawson told Darwin the tortoises differed from island to island.[28] Towards the end of the voyage, Darwin speculated that the distribution of the mockingbirds and the tortoises might "undermine the stability of Species".[29] When specimens of birds were analysed on his return to England, it was found that many apparently different kinds of birds were species of finches, which were unique to islands. These facts were crucial in Darwin's development of his theory of natural selection explaining evolution, which was presented in The Origin of Species.[27] Jos Valdizn and Manuel Julin Cobos tried a new colonization, beginning the exploitation of a type of lichen found in the islands (Roccella portentosa) used as a coloring agent. After the assassination of Valdizn by some of his workers, Cobos brought from the continent a group of more than a hundred workers to San Crist܇bal Island, and tried his luck at planting sugar cane. He ruled his plantation with an iron hand, which led to his assassination in 1904. In 1897, Antonio Gil began another plantation on Isabela Island. Over the course of a whole year, from September 1904, an expedition of the Academy of Sciences of California, led by Rollo Beck, stayed in the Galpagos collecting scientific material on geology, entomology, ornithology, botany, zoology and herpetology. Another expedition from that Academy was done in 1932 (Templeton Crocker Expedition) to collect insects, fish, shells, fossils, birds and plants. For a long time during the early 1900s and at least through 1929, a cash-strapped Ecuador had reached out for potential buyers of the islands to alleviate financial troubles at home. The US had repeatedly expressed its interest in buying the islands for military use as they were positioned strategically guarding the Panama Canal.[30] Besides the United States, Japan, Germany and Chile also expressed interest in establishing bases in the islands at the turn of the century.[31][32] Chile had previously acquired the Straits of Magellan[33] and Easter Island for strategic reasons and lieutenant Gregorio Santa Cruz argued in 1903 that possessing an island in equatorial waters, like the Galpagos, would be of great benefit since the geopolitical situation of Chile was expected to drastically change when the Panama Canal opened. Another benefit would be to widen the security radius of Chile.[34] In the 1920s and 1930s, a small wave of European settlers arrived in the islands. There occurred a series of unsolved disappearances on the island of Floreana in the 1930s among the largely European expatriate residents at the time. The Galpagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden is a 2013 feature-length documentary film about the same. Ecuadorian laws provided all colonists with the possibility of receiving twenty hectares each of free land, the right to maintain their citizenship, freedom from taxation for the first ten years in Galpagos, and the right to hunt and fish freely on all uninhabited islands where they might settle.[35] The first European colonists to arrive were Norwegians who settled briefly on Floreana, before moving on to San Cristobal and Santa Cruz. A few years later, other colonists from Europe, America and Ecuador started arriving on the islands, seeking a simpler life.[36] Descendants of the Norwegian Kastdalen family and the German Angermeyer still live on the islands. During World War II, Ecuador authorized the United States to establish a naval base in Baltra Island, and radar stations in other strategic locations. Baltra was established as a United States Army Air Force base. Baltra was given the name of "Beta Base" along with "Alpha Base" in Nicaragua and "Gamma Base" in Salinas (continental Ecuador). The Crews stationed at Baltra and the aforementioned locations established a geographic triangle of protection in charge of patrolling the Pacific for enemy submarines, and also provided protection for the Panama Canal. After the war, the facilities were given to the government of Ecuador. Today, the island continues as an official Ecuadorian military base. The foundations and other remains of the US base can still be seen as one crosses the island. In 1946, a penal colony was established in Isabela Island, but it was suspended in 1959. The Galpagos became a national park in 1959,[37] and tourism started in the 1960s, imposing several restrictions upon the human population already living on the island. However, opportunities in the tourism, fishing, and farming industries attracted a mass of poor fishermen and farmers from mainland Ecuador. In the 1990s and 2000s, violent confrontations between parts of the local population and the Galpagos National Park Service occurred, including capturing and killing giant tortoises and holding staff of the Galpagos National Park Service hostage to obtain higher annual sea cucumber quotas.[38] The islands are administered by a provincial government. It was made a province by presidential decree by President Guillermo Rodrguez Lara on 18 February 1973. The province is divided into cantons, each covering certain islands. The capital is Puerto Baquerizo Moreno. The largest ethnic group is composed of Ecuadorian Mestizos, the mixed descendants of Spanish colonists and indigenous Native Americans, who arrived mainly in the last century from the continental part of Ecuador. There is also a large number of whites, mostly of Spanish descent. Some descendants of the early European and American colonists on the islands also still remain on the islands. In 1959, approximately 1,000 to 2,000 people called the islands their home. In 1972 a census in the archipelago recorded a population of 3,488. By the 1980s, this number had risen to more than 15,000 people, and in 2010 there were 25,124 people in the Galpagos. Five of the islands are inhabited: Baltra, Floreana, Isabela, San Cristobal and Santa Cruz. Options for flying into the Galpagos are limited to two islands: San Cristobal (San Crist܇bal Airport) and Baltra (Seymour Airport). Private aircraft must use Baltra as it is the airport equipped with overnight plane accommodations. Seymour Airport on Baltra was recently renovated (2012ÿ2013) to accommodate larger planes. Until 1969 the only way to visit was on a private or chartered vessel. There was no regular air service until Forrest Nelson's Hotel Galpagos began the first organized tours in April 1969. Soon other travel companies brought in tour ships and yachts, and local fishermen began converting their wooden boats for rudimentary cruising with guests. These vessels were the main source of overnight accommodations in the Galpagos. Today there are about 85 yachts and ships equipped for overnight guests. In 2006 the Baltra military governed island, was opened up to limited overnight camping. Baltra also requires permits by the military government for overnight stays on the beach. Other inhabited islands also allow camping on the beaches designated as "recreational" use to the locals. All of these camping permits are limited to number of people and nights, with most nights not to exceed three. Land based hotels are opening on the inhabited islands of San Cristobal, Santa Cruz, Floreana and Isabela. By 2012, more than half the visitors to Galpagos made their tours using day boats and these small hotels. Restaurants, easy access and economy make this an attractive travel option. The cruise tours are still the best way to see all the complex environment and wildlife of the islands. There are only 116 visitor sites in the Galpagos: 54 land sites and 62 scuba-diving or snorkeling sites. Small groups are allowed to visit in 2- to 4-hour shifts only, to limit impact on the area. All groups are accompanied by licensed guides. Though the first protective legislation for the Galpagos was enacted in 1930 and supplemented in 1936, it was not until the late 1950s that positive action was taken to control what was happening to the native flora and fauna. In 1955, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature organized a fact-finding mission to the Galpagos. Two years later, in 1957, UNESCO, in cooperation with the government of Ecuador, sent another expedition to study the conservation situation and choose a site for a research station. In 1959, the centenary year of Charles Darwin's publication of The Origin of Species, the Ecuadorian government declared 97.5% of the archipelago's land area a national park, excepting areas already colonised. The Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF) was founded the same year. The core responsibility of CDF, an international nongovernmental organization (NGO) constituted in Belgium, is to conduct research and provide the research findings to the government for effective management of Galpagos. CDF's research efforts began with the establishment of the Charles Darwin Research Station on Santa Cruz Island in 1964. During the early years, conservation programs, such as eradication of introduced species and protection of native species, were carried out by research station personnel. Now much of that work is accomplished by the Galpagos National Park Service using the research findings and methodologies developed by CDF. In 1986, the 70,000 square kilometers (27,000 sq mi) of ocean surrounding the islands was declared a marine reserve, second in size only to Australia's Great Barrier Reef. In 1990, the archipelago became a whale sanctuary. UNESCO recognised the islands in 1978 as a World Heritage Site[39] and in 1985, as a biosphere reserve. This was later extended in December 2001 to include the marine reserve. In July 2010, the World Heritage Committee agreed to remove the Galpagos Islands from its list of precious sites endangered by environmental threats or overuse.[40] Noteworthy species include: Introduced plants and animals, such as feral goats, cats, and cattle, brought accidentally or willingly to the islands by humans, represent the main threat to Galpagos. Quick to reproduce and with no natural predators, these alien species decimated the habitats of native species. The native animals, lacking natural predators on the islands, are defenseless to introduced predators. There are over 700 introduced plant species today. There are only 500 native and endemic species. This difference is creating a major problem for the islands and the natural species that inhabit them. These plants have invaded large areas and eliminated endemic species in the humid zones of San Cristobal, Floreana, Isabela and Santa Cruz. Some of the most harmful introduced plants are the guayaba or guava (Psidium guajava), avocado (Persea americana), cascarilla (Cinchona pubescens), balsa (Ochroma pyramidale), hill raspberry (Rubus niveus), various citrus (orange, grapefruit, lemon), floripondio, higuerilla (Ricinus communis) trees and the elephant grass, Pennisetum purpureum. Many species were introduced to the Galpagos by pirates. Thor Heyerdahl quoted documents that mention the Viceroy of Peru, knowing that British pirates ate the goats that they themselves had released in the islands, ordered dogs to be freed there to eliminate the goats.[16] Also, when colonization of Floreana by Jos de Villamil failed, he ordered the goats, donkeys, cattle and other animals from the farms in Floreana be transferred to other islands for the purpose of later colonization. Non-native goats, pigs, dogs, rats, cats, mice, sheep, horses, donkeys, cows, poultry, ants, cockroaches, and some parasites inhabit the islands today. Dogs and cats attack the tame birds and destroy the nests of birds, land tortoises, and marine turtles. They sometimes kill small Galpagos tortoises and iguanas.[41] Pigs are even more harmful, covering larger areas and destroying the nests of tortoises, turtles and iguanas, as well as eating the animals' native food. Pigs also knock down vegetation in their search for roots and insects. This problem abounds in Cerro Azul volcano and Isabela, and in Santiago, pigs may be the cause of the disappearance of the land iguanas that were so abundant when Darwin visited. The black rat (Rattus rattus) attacks small Galpagos tortoises when they leave the nest, so in Pinz܇n they stopped the reproduction for a period of more than 50?years; only adults were found on that island.[42] Also, where the black rat is found, the endemic rat has disappeared. Cattle and donkeys eat all the available vegetation and compete with native species for the scarce water. In 1959, fishermen introduced one male and two female goats to Pinta island; by 1973, the National Park service estimated the population of goats to be over 30,000 individuals. Goats were also introduced to Marchena in 1967 and to Rabida in 1971. A goat eradication program, however, cleared the goats from Pinta and Santiago and most of the goat population from Isabela.[43] In fact, by 2006 all feral pigs, donkeys and non-sterile goats had been eliminated from Santiago and Isabela, the largest islands with the worst problems due to non-native mammals.[44][45] Six species of small non-native vertebrates have established self-sufficient populations in Galapagos and may become invasive: Fowlers snouted tree frog Scinax quinquefasciatus, common house gecko Hemidactylus frenatus, mourning gecko Lepidodactylus lugubris, dwarf gecko Gonatodes caudiscutatus, Peters leaf-toed gecko Phyllodactylus reissii, and smooth-billed ani Crotophaga ani. Domestic fowl Gallus gallus holds feral populations, which may have self-sufficient populations, but evidence is unclear[46][47]. The fast-growing poultry industry on the inhabited islands has been cause for concern from local conservationists, who fear domestic birds could introduce disease into the endemic wild bird populations. The Galpagos marine sanctuary is under threat from a host of illegal fishing activities, in addition to other problems of development.[48] The most pressing threat to the Marine Reserve comes from local, mainland and foreign fishing targeting marine life illegally within the Reserve, such as sharks (hammerheads and other species) for their fins,[48] and the harvest of sea cucumbers out of season. Development threatens both land and sea species. The growth of both the tourism industry and local populations fuelled by high birth rates and illegal immigration threaten the wildlife of the Archipelago. The grounding of the oil tanker Jessica in 2001 and the subsequent oil spill brought this threat to world attention. In 2007, UNESCO put the Galpagos Islands on their List of World Heritage in Danger because of threats posed by invasive species, unbridled tourism and overfishing.[49] On 29 July 2010, the World Heritage Committee decided to remove the Galpagos Islands from the list because the Committee found significant progress had been made by Ecuador in addressing these problems.[50] On 28 January 2008, Galpagos National Park official Victor Carrion announced 53 sea lions (13 pups, 25 youngsters, 9 males and 6 females) were killed at the Galpagos Islands nature reserve on Pinta, with their heads caved in. In 2001, poachers killed 35 male sea lions.[51] The Galpagos Islands were short-listed as a candidate to be one of the New7Wonders of Nature by the New7Wonders of Nature Foundation. As of February 2009, the archipelago was ranked first in Group B, the category for islands.[52] The islands' biodiversity is under threat from several sources. The human population is growing at an unsustainable rate of 8% per year (1995). Introduced species have caused damage, and in 1996 a US$5 million, five-year eradication plan commenced in an attempt to rid the islands of introduced species such as goats, rats, deer, and donkeys. Except for the rats, the project was essentially completed in 2006.[44][45] Rats have only been eliminated from the smaller Galapagos Islands of Rbida and Pinz܇n.[53] El Ni?o has adversely affected the marine ecosystem. In January 2001, an oil slick from a stranded tanker threatened the islands, but winds and shifting ocean currents helped disperse the oil before much damage was done. The 1997ÿ98 El Ni?o adversely affected wildlife in the waters surrounding the islands, as the waters were 5?C (9?F) warmer than normal. Corals and barnacles suffered, hammerhead sharks were driven away, and most of the island's seabirds failed to breed in 1997ÿ98. The mortality rate of marine iguanas rose as the green algae they feed on was replaced by inedible red algae. During the 1982ÿ83 El Ni?o, 70% of the marine iguanas starved to death because of this.[54]