title: State religion

text: The degree and nature of state backing for denomination or creed designated as a state religion can vary. It can range from mere endorsement (with or without financial support) with freedom for other faiths to practice, to prohibiting any competing religious body from operating and to persecuting the followers of other sects. In Europe, competition between Catholic and Protestant denominations for state sponsorship in the 16th century evolved the principle "Cuius regio, eius religio" (states follow the religion of the ruler) embodied in the text of the treaty that marked the Peace of Augsburg, 1555. In England, Henry VIII broke with Rome in 1534, being declared the Supreme Head of the Church of England, the official religion of England continued to be "Catholicism without the Pope" until after his death in 1547, while in Scotland the Church of Scotland assested spiritual independence from the state.


title: State religion

text: In some cases, an administrative region may sponsor and fund a set of religious denominations; such is the case in Alsace-Moselle in France under its local law, following the pre-1905 French concordatory legal system and patterns in Germany.


title: State religion

text: In some communist states, notably in North Korea and Cuba, the state sponsors religious organizations, and activities outside those state-sponsored religious organizations are met with various degrees of official disapproval. In these cases, state religions are widely seen as efforts by the state to prevent alternate sources of authority.


title: State religion

text: There is also a difference between a "state church" and the broader term of "state religion". A "state church" is a state religion created by a state for use exclusively by that state. An example of a "state religion" that is not also a "state church" is Roman Catholicism in Costa Rica, which was accepted as the state religion in the 1949 Constitution, despite the lack of a national church. In the case of a "state church", the state has absolute control over the church, but in the case of a "state religion", the church is ruled by an exterior body; in the case of Catholicism, the Vatican has control over the church. In either case, the official state religion has some influence over the ruling of the state. As of 2012, there are only five state churches left.


title: State religion

text: Disestablishment is the process of repealing a church's status as an organ of the state. In a state where an established church is in place, those opposed to such a move may be described as antidisestablishmentarians. This word is, however, most usually associated with the debate on the position of the Anglican churches in the British Isles: the Church of Ireland (disestablished in 1871), the Church of England in Wales (disestablished in 1920), and the Church of England itself (which remains established in England).


title: State religion

text: Governments where Buddhism, either a specific form of it, or Buddhism as a whole, has been established as an official religion:


title: State religion

text: The following states recognize some form of Christianity as their state or official religion or recognize a special status for it (by denomination):


title: State religion

text: Jurisdictions that give various degrees of recognition in their constitutions to Roman Catholicism without establishing it as the State religion:


title: State religion

text: The jurisdictions below give various degrees of recognition in their constitutions to Eastern Orthodoxy, but without establishing it as the state religion:


title: State religion

text: The Anglican Church of England is the established church in England as well as all three of the Crown Dependencies:


title: State religion

text: Jurisdictions where a Lutheran church has been fully or partially established as a state recognized religion include the Nordic States.


title: State religion

text: Jurisdictions that give various degrees of recognition in their constitutions to Lutheranism without establishing it as the state religion:


title: State religion

text: Many Muslim-majority countries have constitutionally established Islam, or a specific form of it, as a state religion. Proselytism (converting people away from Islam) is often illegal in such states.


title: State religion

text: The State of Israel supports religious institutions, particularly Orthodox Jewish ones, and recognizes the "religious communities" as carried over from those recognized under the British Mandate—in turn derived from the pre-1917 Ottoman system of "millets". These are Jewish and Christian (Eastern Orthodox, Latin Catholic, Gregorian-Armenian, Armenian-Catholic, Syriac Catholic, Chaldean, Melkite Catholic, Maronite Catholic, and Syriac Orthodox). The fact that the Muslim population was not defined as a religious community does not affect the rights of the Muslim community to practice their faith. At the end of the period covered by the 2009 U.S. International Religious Freedom Report, several of these denominations were pending official government recognition; however, the Government has allowed adherents of not officially recognized groups the freedom to practice. In 1961, legislation gave Muslim Shari'a courts exclusive jurisdiction in matters of personal status. Three additional religious communities have subsequently been recognized by Israeli law: the Druze (prior under Islamic jurisdiction), the Evangelical Episcopal Church, and followers of the Baháʼí Faith. These groups have their own religious courts as official state courts for personal status matters (see millet system).


title: State religion

text: The structure and goals of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel are governed by Israeli law, but the law does not say explicitly that it is a state Rabbinate. However, outspoken Israeli secularists such as Shulamit Aloni and Uri Avnery have long maintained that it is that in practice. Non-recognition of other streams of Judaism such as Reform Judaism and Conservative Judaism is the cause of some controversy; rabbis belonging to these currents are not recognized as such by state institutions and marriages performed by them are not recognized as valid. As pointed out by Avnery and Aloni, the essential problem is that Israel carries on the top-down Ottoman "millet" system, under which the government reserves the complete discretion of recognizing some religious groups and not recognizing others. marriage in Israel provides no provision for civil marriage, marriage between people of different religions, marriages by people who do not belong to one of nine recognized religious communities, or same-sex marriages, although there is recognition of marriages performed abroad.


title: State religion

text: In some countries, there is a political ideology sponsored by the government that may be called political religion.


title: State religion

text: The concept of state religions was known as long ago as the empires of Egypt and Sumer, when every city state or people had its own god or gods. Many of the early Sumerian rulers were priests of their patron city god. Some of the earliest semi-mythological kings may have passed into the pantheon, like Dumuzid, and some later kings came to be viewed as divine soon after their reigns, like Sargon the Great of Akkad. One of the first rulers to be proclaimed a god during his actual reign was Gudea of Lagash, followed by some later kings of Ur, such as Shulgi. Often, the state religion was integral to the power base of the reigning government, such as in Egypt, where Pharaohs were often thought of as embodiments of the god Horus.


title: State religion

text: Zoroastrianism was the state religion of the Sassanid dynasty which lasted until 651, when Persia was conquered by the Rashidun Caliphate.


title: State religion

text: Many of the Greek city-states also had a favored national god or goddess associated with that city. This would not be its only god or goddess, but the one that received special honors. In ancient Greece, the cities of


title: State religion

text: In Rome, the office of "Pontifex Maximus" came to be reserved for the Emperor, who was occasionally declared a god posthumously, or sometimes during his reign. Failure to worship the Emperor as a god was at times punishable by death, as the Roman government sought to link emperor worship with loyalty to the Empire. Many Christians and Jews were subject to persecution, torture and death in the Roman Empire because it was against their beliefs to worship the Emperor.


title: State religion

text: In 311, Emperor Galerius, on his deathbed, declared a religious indulgence to Christians throughout the Roman Empire, focusing on the ending of anti-Christian persecution. Constantine I and Licinius, the two "Augusti", by the Edict of Milan of 313, enacted a law allowing religious freedom to everyone within the Roman Empire. Furthermore, the Edict of Milan cited that Christians may openly practice their religion unmolested and unrestricted, and provided that properties taken from Christians be returned to them unconditionally. Although the Edict of Milan allowed religious freedom throughout the Empire, it did not abolish nor disestablish the Roman state cult (Roman polytheistic paganism). The Edict of Milan was written in such a way as to implore the blessings of the deity.


title: State religion

text: Constantine called up the First Council of Nicaea in 325, although he was not a baptized Christian until years later. Despite enjoying considerable popular support, Christianity was still not the official state religion in Rome, although it was in some neighboring states such as Armenia, Iberia, and Aksum.


title: State religion

text: Roman Religion (Neoplatonic Hellenism) was restored for a time by the Emperor Julian from 361 to 363. Julian does not appear to have reinstated the persecutions of the earlier Roman emperors.


title: State religion

text: Catholic Christianity, as opposed to Arianism and other ideologies deemed heretical, was declared to be the state religion of the Roman Empire on 27 February 380 by the decree "De fide catolica" of Emperor Theodosius I.


title: State religion

text: In China, the Han dynasty (206 BCE – 220 CE) advocated Confucianism as the "de facto" state religion, establishing tests based on Confucian texts as an entrance requirement into government service—although, in fact, the "Confucianism" advocated by the Han emperors may be more properly termed a sort of Confucian Legalism or "State Confucianism". This sort of Confucianism continued to be regarded by the emperors, with a few notable exceptions, as a form of state religion from this time until the collapse of the Chinese monarchy in 1912. Note, however, there is a debate over whether Confucianism (including Neo-Confucianism) is a religion or purely a philosophical system.


title: State religion

text: During the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty of China (1271–1368 CE), Tibetan Buddhism was established as the "de facto" state religion by the Kublai Khan, the founder of the Yuan dynasty. The top-level department and government agency known as the Bureau of Buddhist and Tibetan Affairs (Xuanzheng Yuan) was set up in Khanbaliq (modern Beijing) to supervise Buddhist monks throughout the empire. Since Kublai Khan only esteemed the Sakya sect of Tibetan Buddhism, other religions became less important. Before the end of the Yuan dynasty, 14 leaders of the Sakya sect had held the post of Imperial Preceptor (Dishi), thereby enjoying special power.


title: State religion

text: Shamanism and Buddhism were once the dominant religions among the ruling class of the Mongol khanates of Golden Horde and Ilkhanate, the two western khanates of the Mongol Empire. In the early days, the rulers of both khanates increasingly adopted Tibetan Buddhism, similar to the Yuan dynasty at that time. However, the Mongol rulers Ghazan of Ilkhanate and Uzbeg of Golden Horde converted to Islam in 1295 CE because of the Muslim Mongol emir Nawruz and in 1313 CE because of Sufi Bukharan sayyid and sheikh Ibn Abdul Hamid respectively. Their official favoring of Islam as the state religion coincided with a marked attempt to bring the regime closer to the non-Mongol majority of the regions they ruled. In Ilkhanate, Christian and Jewish subjects lost their equal status with Muslims and again had to pay the poll tax; Buddhists had the starker choice of conversion or expulsion. In Golden Horde, Buddhism and Shamanism among the Mongols were proscribed, and by 1315, Uzbeg had successfully Islamicized the Horde, killing Jochid princes and Buddhist lamas who opposed his religious policy and succession of the throne.


title: State religion

text: These areas were disestablished and dissolved, yet their presences were tolerated by the English and later British colonial governments, as Foreign Protestants, whose communities were expected to observe their own ways without causing controversy or conflict for the prevalent colonists. After the Revolution, their ethno-religious backgrounds were chiefly sought as the most compatible non-British Isles immigrants.


title: State religion

text: The State of Deseret was a provisional state of the United States, proposed in 1849, by Mormon settlers in Salt Lake City. The provisional state existed for slightly over two years, but attempts to gain recognition by the United States government floundered for various reasons. The Utah Territory which was then founded was under Mormon control, and repeated attempts to gain statehood met resistance, in part due to concerns that the principle of separation of church and state conflicted with the practice of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints placing their highest value on "following counsel" in virtually all matters relating to their church-centered lives. The state of Utah was eventually admitted to the union on 4January 1896, after the various issues had been resolved.


title: State religion

text: The head of state, the Emperor of Japan is still Shinto as of 2022, as is the Prime minister Kishida, and the recent expensive coronation was paid for by the taxpayer, giving Shinto continued favored status.


title: Stacey Dash

text: Stacey Lauretta Dash (born January 20, 1967) is an American actress. Dash played Dionne Marie Davenport in the 1995 feature film "Clueless" and its television series of the same name. She has also appeared in the films "Moving", "Mo' Money", "Renaissance Man", and "View from the Top". Other television work by Dash includes appearances in the series "", "Single Ladies" and the reality TV show "Celebrity Circus". She has also appeared in music videos for Carl Thomas' "Emotional" and Kanye West's "All Falls Down".


title: Stacey Dash

text: Born in the Bronx borough of New York City, Dash is of African-American and Mexican descent. She is the daughter of Dennis Dash and Linda Dash ("née" Lopez; d. 2017). Dash has a stepfather, Cecil Holmes, and a younger brother, Darien Dash, who is the founder of DME Interactive, the first publicly traded African American-led website company. Her first cousin is Damon Dash, the former CEO and co-founder of Roc-A-Fella Records. She attended Paramus High School, graduating in 1985.


title: Stacey Dash

text: Dash made her first television appearance in the NBC crime drama pilot "Farrell: For the People" starring Valerie Harper and Ed O'Neill in 1982, which did not make it past its pilot episode. Her first notable appearance was as Michelle in the 1985 "The Cosby Show" episode "Denise's Friend". Dash's first substantial television role was in the 1988 series "TV 101". The series was canceled after 13 episodes. Dash's first major film role was in the Richard Pryor comedy "Moving" in 1988. She also had sizable roles in "Mo' Money" and "Renaissance Man" during this time. In 1995, Dash starred as a femme fatale in the low-budget film "Illegal in Blue". Dash received her big break with the 1995 teen comedy film "Clueless". Dash played Cher's high school best friend Dionne Davenport, although Dash was twenty-eight at the time. In 1996, the film spawned a television spin-off of the same name, in which Dash reprised her role as Dionne. The series ran from 1996 to 1999.


title: Stacey Dash

text: After the television series ended, she appeared in "View from the Top" (2003) and smaller budget films, including "Gang of Roses" (2003), and "Getting Played" (2005). She also has appeared in small guest roles on television shows such as "Eve" and "". Dash played Vanessa Weir in the television series "The Strip", which was canceled after several episodes. In 2001, Dash was featured in a music video by Carl Thomas for the single "Emotional". In 2004, Dash was featured in a music video by Kanye West, label signee of her cousin Damon Dash, for the single "All Falls Down". Dash posed nude in the August 2006 issue of "Playboy". Also in 2006, she was featured in singer Marques Houston's video for "Favorite Girl," and launched her own lingerie line called Letters of Marque. Between 2005 and 2007, she completed filming roles in "I Could Never Be Your Woman", "", "Fashion Victim", "Ghost Image" and "American Primitive". For 2008 release, she filmed "Phantom Punch", "Secrets of a Hollywood Nurse", and "Close Quarters". Dash also performed in the 2008 reality television series "Celebrity Circus". Prior to the series premiere, Dash suffered a broken rib while training. Despite the injury, Dash performed on the trapeze bungee during the premiere and continued on to be a finalist. Dash finished second behind Antonio Sabàto, Jr.


title: Stacey Dash

text: Dash appeared as a recurring character on the television series "The Game" in early 2009. In 2011, Dash starred in the first season of VH1's first scripted series, "Single Ladies", playing Valerie "Val" Stokes, described as a "'good girl' looking for a good man". On August 31, it was reported that she would leave the series in order to focus on her family. In 2012, Dash starred as Lisa, the female lead in the film "Dysfunctional Friends". Also in 2012, Dash was featured in Funny or Die and YouTube broadcast trailers and shorts for her web series "Stacey Dash Is Normal". The scripted series launched in 2013.


title: Stacey Dash

text: On May 28, 2014, Fox News announced that Dash had been hired as a contributor for "cultural analysis and commentary." On the December 7, 2015 edition of "Outnumbered", Dash made a remark about President Barack Obama's address regarding Islamic terrorism that took place the day before, suggesting the president didn't "give a shit" about terrorism. Due to this remark, the network suspended her without pay for two weeks. In 2016, Dash received criticism when she argued that the BET Awards lied to black people about news regarding the boycotting of the Oscars due to lack of ethnic diversity, and called for an end to Black History Month. She made a cameo at the 88th Academy Awards repeating this sentiment. In addition, she criticized Jesse Williams's speech at the BET Awards. On January 21, 2017, Fox News announced that Dash's contract would not be renewed.


title: Stacey Dash

text: Dash voted for Barack Obama in the 2008 U.S. presidential election. In 2012, she switched her party affiliation from Democratic to Republican and endorsed Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney. In response to critical online comments she received for supporting Romney, Dash stated it was her opinion and that she did not understand the vitriol. Vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan thanked Dash for supporting his ticket.


title: Stacey Dash

text: Since the 2012 election, Dash has publicly expressed her political views. In April 2013, she criticized music artists Jay-Z and Beyoncé's trip to Cuba. In 2016, with regard to the debate over use of gender-specific bathrooms, she said that transgender rights "infringe upon [her own]". Dash writes a blog for Patheos.com. Dash supported Republican candidate Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election.


title: Stacey Dash

text: On February 26, 2018, Dash filed to run in California's 44th congressional district in the 2018 Congressional Election as a Republican. On joining the race, Dash said she wanted to "free people from the shackles of a plantation mentality." Dash withdrew from the congressional race on March 30, 2018.


title: Stacey Dash

text: On March 11, 2021, Dash stated in an interview with "Daily Mail", "Being a supporter of Trump has put me in some kind of box that I don't belong in. But he's not the president. I'm going to give the president that we have right now a chance."


title: Stacey Dash

text: Dash has two children. She has a son named Austin, born from her relationship with singer Christopher Williams, and a daughter named Lola. She married producer Brian Lovell on July 16, 1999, and they divorced in the mid-2000s. From 2005 to 2006, Dash was married to British executive James Maby, CEO of Sports Logistics. Different sources say the father of Dash's daughter is either Lovell or Maby. Dash married actor Emmanuel Xeureb in either 2007 or 2009. She filed for divorce in January 2010. It was finalized in September 2011. Dash married lawyer Jeffrey Marty in Florida on April 6, 2018. She has said that she met Marty ten days before the wedding. In addition to her two children, Dash became a step-mother to three of Marty's children. In April 2020, Dash announced that she and Marty had separated. In June 2020, Dash filed for divorce.


title: Stacey Dash

text: Dash has spoken openly about past traumas in her personal life. She has at various times revealed that she was molested as a child by a family friend, was addicted to cocaine in her teens and 20s, and has a history of being with physically and emotionally abusive partners. Dash has attributed her openness with such topics to her desire to be honest with her children, feeling that being honest is the best way to protect them, and to let them and others know that she is not a victim but a survivor. She is supportive of the right to keep and bear arms, crediting the use of a gun with saving her life after being sexually assaulted at gunpoint by an ex-boyfriend, because she was able to retrieve her own weapon, a .22 revolver, and shoot at him, scaring him away.


title: Stacey Dash

text: Dash was arrested on September 29, 2019, at her apartment in Pasco County, Florida, on a domestic battery charge after an argument with her husband, Jeffrey Marty. She pleaded not guilty, and the case was dropped October 3 at the request of Marty, who said Dash had been arrested over his objection. The couple's divorce was announced the following year.


title: Stacey Dash

text: In October 2021, Dash opened up about her Vicodin addiction on "The Dr. Oz Show", stating that she was five years sober.


title: U-boat

text: U-boats were naval submarines operated by Germany, particularly in the First and Second World Wars. Although at times they were efficient fleet weapons against enemy naval warships, they were most effectively used in an economic warfare role (commerce raiding) and enforcing a naval blockade against enemy shipping. The primary targets of the U-boat campaigns in both wars were the merchant convoys bringing supplies from Canada and other parts of the British Empire, and from the United States, to the United Kingdom and (during the Second World War) to the Soviet Union and the Allied territories in the Mediterranean. German submarines also destroyed Brazilian merchant ships during World War II, causing Brazil to declare war on both Germany and Italy on 22 August 1942.


title: U-boat

text: The term is an anglicised version of the German word "U-Boot" , a shortening of "Unterseeboot" ('under-sea-boat'), though the German term refers to any submarine. Austro-Hungarian Navy submarines were also known as U-boats.


title: U-boat

text: The first submarine built in Germany, the three-man "Brandtaucher", sank to the bottom of Kiel harbor on 1 February 1851 during a test dive.


title: U-boat

text: The inventor and engineer Wilhelm Bauer had designed this vessel in 1850, and Schweffel & Howaldt constructed it in Kiel. Dredging operations in 1887 rediscovered "Brandtaucher"; it was later raised and put on historical display in Germany.


title: U-boat

text: There followed in 1890 the boats "Nordenfelt I" and "Nordenfelt II", built to a Nordenfelt design. In 1903 the Friedrich Krupp Germaniawerft dockyard in Kiel completed the first fully functional German-built submarine, "Forelle", which Krupp sold to Russia during the Russo-Japanese War in April 1904. The was a completely redesigned and only one was built. The Imperial German Navy commissioned it on 14 December 1906. It had a double hull, a Körting kerosene engine, and a single torpedo tube. The 50%-larger (commissioned in 1908) had two torpedo tubes. The class of 1912–13 saw the first diesel engine installed in a German navy boat. At the start of World War I in 1914, Germany had 48 submarines of 13 classes in service or under construction. During that war the Imperial German Navy used SM "U-1" for training. Retired in 1919, it remains on display at the Deutsches Museum in Munich.


title: U-boat

text: On 5 September 1914, was sunk by , the first ship to have been sunk by a submarine using a self-propelled torpedo. On 22 September, under the command of Otto Weddigen sank the obsolete British warships , and (the "Live Bait Squadron") in a single hour.


title: U-boat

text: In the Gallipoli Campaign in early 1915 in the eastern Mediterranean, German U-boats, notably the "U-21", prevented close support of allied troops by 18 pre-Dreadnought battleships by sinking two of them.


title: U-boat

text: For the first few months of the war, U-boat anticommerce actions observed the "prize rules" of the time, which governed the treatment of enemy civilian ships and their occupants. On 20 October 1914, sank the first merchant ship, the , off Norway. Surface commerce raiders were proving to be ineffective, and on 4 February 1915, the Kaiser assented to the declaration of a war zone in the waters around the British Isles. This was cited as a retaliation for British minefields and shipping blockades. Under the instructions given to U-boat captains, they could sink merchant ships, even potentially neutral ones, without warning.


title: U-boat

text: In February 1915, a submarine "U-6" ("Lepsius") was rammed and both periscopes were destroyed off Beachy Head by the collier SS "Thordis" commanded by Captain John Bell after firing a torpedo.


title: U-boat

text: On 7 May 1915, sank the liner RMS "Lusitania". The sinking claimed 1,198 lives, 123 of them American civilians, and the attack of this unarmed civilian ship deeply shocked the Allies. According to the ship's manifest, "Lusitania" was carrying military cargo, though none of this information was relayed to the citizens of Britain and the United States who thought that the ship contained no ammunition or military weaponry whatsoever and it was an act of brutal murder. Munitions that it carried were thousands of crates full of ammunition for rifles, 3-inch (76 mm) artillery shells, and also various other standard ammunition used by infantry. The sinking of the "Lusitania" was widely used as propaganda against the German Empire and caused greater support for the war effort. A widespread reaction in the U.S was not seen until the attack on the ferry which carried many citizens of the United States of America.


title: U-boat

text: The initial U.S. response was to threaten to sever diplomatic ties, which persuaded the Germans to issue the Sussex pledge that reimposed restrictions on U-boat activity. The U.S. reiterated its objections to German submarine warfare whenever U.S. civilians died as a result of German attacks, which prompted the Germans to fully reapply prize rules. This, however, removed the effectiveness of the U-boat fleet, and the Germans consequently sought a decisive surface action, a strategy that culminated in the Battle of Jutland.


title: U-boat

text: Although the Germans claimed victory at Jutland, the British Grand Fleet remained in control at sea. It was necessary to return to effective anticommerce warfare by U-boats. Vice-Admiral Reinhard Scheer, Commander in Chief of the High Seas Fleet, pressed for all-out U-boat war, convinced that a high rate of shipping losses would force Britain to seek an early peace before the United States could react effectively.


title: U-boat

text: The renewed German campaign was effective, sinking 1.4 million tons of shipping between October 1916 and January 1917. Despite this, the political situation demanded even greater pressure, and on 31 January 1917, Germany announced that its U-boats would engage in unrestricted submarine warfare beginning 1 February. On 17 March, German submarines sank three American merchant vessels, and the U.S. declared war on Germany in April 1917.


title: U-boat

text: Unrestricted submarine warfare in early 1917 was initially very successful, sinking a major part of Britain-bound shipping. With the introduction of escorted convoys, shipping losses declined and in the end, the German strategy failed to destroy sufficient Allied shipping. An armistice became effective on 11 November 1918. Of the surviving German submarines 14 U-boats were scuttled and 122 surrendered.


title: U-boat

text: Of the 373 German submarines that had been built, 178 were lost by enemy action. Of these 40 were sunk by mines, 30 by depth charges and 13 by Q-ships. 512 officers and 4894 enlisted men were killed. They sank 10 battleships, 18 cruisers and several smaller naval vessels. They further destroyed 5,708 merchant and fishing vessels for a total of 11,108,865 tons and the loss of about 15,000 sailors. The Pour le Mérite, the highest decoration for gallantry for officers, was awarded to 29 U-boat commanders. 12 U-boat crewmen were decorated with the Goldene Militär-Verdienst-Kreuz, the highest bravery award for non-commissioned officers and enlisted men. The most successful U-boat commanders of World War I were Lothar von Arnauld de la Perière (189 merchant vessels and two gunboats with 446,708 tons), followed by Walter Forstmann (149 ships with 391,607 tons), and Max Valentiner (144 ships with 299,482 tons). Their records have not been surpassed in any subsequent conflict.


title: U-boat

text: Under the terms of armistice, all U-boats were to immediately surrender. Those in home waters sailed to the British submarine base at Harwich. The entire process was done quickly and in the main without difficulty, after which the vessels were studied, then scrapped or given to Allied navies. Stephen King-Hall wrote a detailed eyewitness account of the surrender.


title: U-boat

text: The Treaty of Versailles ending World War I signed at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 restricted the total tonnage of the German surface fleet. The treaty also restricted the independent tonnage of ships and forbade the construction of submarines. However, a submarine design office was set up in the Netherlands and a torpedo research program was started in Sweden. Before the start of World War II, Germany started building U-boats and training crews, labeling these activities as "research" or concealing them using other covers. When this became known, the Anglo-German Naval Agreement limited Germany to parity with Britain in submarines. When World War II started, Germany already had 65 U-boats, with 21 of those at sea, ready for war.


title: U-boat

text: During World War II, U-boat warfare was the major component of the Battle of the Atlantic, which began in 1939 and ended with Germany's surrender in 1945. The Armistice of 11 November 1918 ending World War I had scuttled most of the old Imperial German Navy and the subsequent Treaty of Versailles of 1919 limited the surface navy of Germany's new Weimar Republic to only six battleships (of less than 10,000 tons each), six cruisers, and 12 destroyers. To compensate, Germany's new navy, the Kriegsmarine, developed the largest submarine fleet going into World War II. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill later wrote "The only thing that really frightened me during the war was the U-boat peril."


title: U-boat

text: In the early stages of the war, the U-boats were extremely effective in destroying Allied shipping due to the large gap in mid-Atlantic air cover. Cross-Atlantic trade in war supplies and food was extensive and critical for Britain's survival. The continuous action surrounding British shipping became known as the Battle of the Atlantic, as the British developed technical defences such as ASDIC and radar, and the German U-boats responded by hunting in what were called "wolfpacks" where multiple submarines would stay close together, making it easier for them to sink a specific target. Britain's vulnerable shipping situation existed until 1942, when the tides changed as the U.S. merchant marine and Navy entered the war, drastically increasing the amount of tonnage of supplies sent across the Atlantic. The combination of increased tonnage and increased naval protection of shipping convoys made it much more difficult for U-boats to make a significant dent in British shipping. Once the United States entered the war, U-boats ranged from the Atlantic coast of the United States and Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, and from the Arctic to the west and southern African coasts and even as far east as Penang. The U.S. military engaged in various tactics against German incursions in the Americas; these included military surveillance of foreign nations in Latin America, particularly in the Caribbean, to deter any local governments from supplying German U-boats.


title: U-boat

text: Because speed and range were severely limited underwater while running on battery power, U-boats were required to spend most of their time surfaced running on diesel engines, diving only when attacked or for rare daytime torpedo strikes. The more ship-like hull design reflects the fact that these were primarily surface vessels that could submerge when necessary. This contrasts with the cylindrical profile of modern nuclear submarines, which are more hydrodynamic underwater (where they spend the majority of their time), but less stable on the surface. While U-boats were faster on the surface than submerged, the opposite is generally true of modern submarines. The most common U-boat attack during the early years of the war was conducted on the surface and at night. This period, before the Allied forces developed truly effective antisubmarine warfare tactics, which included convoys, was referred to by German submariners as ""die glückliche Zeit"" or the First Happy Time.


title: U-boat

text: The U-boats' main weapon was the torpedo, though mines and deck guns (while surfaced) were also used. By the end of the war, almost 3,000 Allied ships (175 warships; 2,825 merchant ships) had been sunk by U-boat torpedoes. Early German World War II torpedoes were straight runners, as opposed to the homing and pattern-running torpedoes that became available later in the war. They were fitted with one of two types of pistol triggers — impact, which detonated the warhead upon contact with a solid object, and magnetic, which detonated upon sensing a change in the magnetic field within a few meters.


title: U-boat

text: One of the most effective uses of magnetic pistols would be to set the torpedo's depth to just beneath the keel of the target. The explosion under the target's keel would create a detonation shock wave, which could cause a ship's hull to rupture under the concussive water pressure. In this way, even large or heavily armored ships could be sunk or disabled with a single, well-placed hit.


title: U-boat

text: Initially, the depth-keeping equipment and magnetic and contact exploders were notoriously unreliable. During the first eight months of the war torpedoes often ran at an improper depth, detonated prematurely, or failed to explode altogether—sometimes bouncing harmlessly off the hull of the target ship. This was most evident in Operation Weserübung, the invasion of Norway, where various skilled U-boat commanders failed to inflict damage on British transports and warships because of faulty torpedoes. The faults were largely due to a lack of testing. The magnetic detonator was sensitive to mechanical oscillations during the torpedo run, and to fluctuations in the Earth's magnetic field at high latitudes. These early magnetic detonators were eventually phased out, and the depth-keeping problem was solved by early 1942 with improved technology.


title: U-boat

text: Later in the war, Germany developed an acoustic homing torpedo, the G7/T5. It was primarily designed to combat convoy escorts. The acoustic torpedo was designed to run straight to an arming distance of 400 m and then turn toward the loudest noise detected. This sometimes ended up being the U-boat; at least two submarines may have been sunk by their own homing torpedoes. Additionally, these torpedoes were found to be only effective against ships moving at greater than . The Allies countered acoustic torpedoes with noisemaker decoys such as "Foxer", "FXR", "CAT" and "Fanfare". The Germans, in turn, countered this by introducing newer and upgraded versions of the acoustic torpedoes, like the late-war G7es, and the T11. However, the T11 did not see active service.


title: U-boat

text: U-boats also adopted several types of "pattern-running" torpedoes that ran straight out to a preset distance, then traveled in either a circular or ladder-like pattern. When fired at a convoy, this increased the probability of a hit if the weapon missed its primary target.


title: U-boat

text: During World War II, the "Kriegsmarine" produced many different types of U-boats as technology evolved. Most notable is the Type VII, known as the "workhorse" of the fleet, which was by far the most-produced type, and the Type IX boats, an enlarged VII designed for long-range patrols, some traveling as far as Japan and the east coast of the United States.


title: U-boat

text: With the increasing sophistication of Allied detection and subsequent losses, German designers began to fully realise the potential for a truly submerged boat. The Type XXI ""Elektroboot"" was designed to favor submerged performance, both for combat effectiveness and survival. It was the first true submersible. The Type XXI featured an evolutionary design that combined several different strands of the U-boat development program, most notably from the Walter U-boats, the Type XVII, which featured an unsuccessful yet revolutionary hydrogen peroxide air-independent propellant system. These boats featured a streamlined hull design, which formed the basis of the later nuclear submarine, and was adapted for use with more conventional propulsion systems. The larger hull design allowed for a greatly increased battery capacity, which enabled the XXI to cruise submerged for longer periods and reach unprecedented submerged speeds for the time. Waste disposal was a problem when the U-boats spent extended periods without surfacing, as it is today.


title: U-boat

text: Throughout the war, an arms race evolved between the Allies and the "Kriegsmarine", especially in detection and counterdetection. Sonar (ASDIC in Britain) allowed Allied warships to detect submerged U-boats (and vice versa) beyond visual range, but was not effective against a surfaced vessel; thus, early in the war, a U-boat at night or in bad weather was actually safer on the surface. Advancements in radar became particularly deadly for the U-boat crews, especially once aircraft-mounted units were developed. As a countermeasure, U-boats were fitted with radar warning receivers, to give them ample time to dive before the enemy closed in, as well as more anti-aircraft guns. However, by early to mid-1943, the Allies switched to centimetric radar (unknown to Germany), which rendered the radar detectors ineffective. U-boat radar systems were also developed, but many captains chose not to use them for fear of broadcasting their position to enemy patrols and lack of sufficient electronic countermeasures.


title: U-boat

text: Early on, the Germans experimented with the idea of the "Schnorchel" (snorkel) from captured Dutch submarines, but saw no need for them until rather late in the war. The "Schnorchel" was a retractable pipe that supplied air to the diesel engines while submerged at periscope depth, allowing the boats to cruise and recharge their batteries while maintaining a degree of stealth. It was far from a perfect solution, however. Problems occurred with the device's valve sticking shut or closing as it dunked in rough weather; since the system used the entire pressure hull as a buffer, the diesels would instantaneously suck huge volumes of air from the boat's compartments, and the crew often suffered painful ear injuries. Speed was limited to , lest the device snap from stress. The "Schnorchel" also had the effect of making the boat essentially noisy and deaf in sonar terms. Finally, Allied radar eventually became sufficiently advanced that the "Schnorchel" mast could be detected beyond visual range.


title: U-boat

text: Several other pioneering innovations included acoustic- and electro-absorbent coatings to make them less of an ASDIC or RADAR target. The Germans also developed active countermeasures such as facilities to release artificial chemical bubble-making decoys, known as "Bold", after the mythical kobold.


title: U-boat

text: Advances in convoy tactics, high-frequency direction finding (referred to as ("Huff-Duff"), radar, active sonar (called ASDIC in Britain), depth charges, ASW spigot mortars (also known as "hedgehog"), the intermittent cracking of the German Naval Enigma code, the introduction of the Leigh light, the range of escort aircraft (especially with the use of escort carriers), the use of mystery ships, and the full entry of the U.S. into the war with its enormous shipbuilding capacity, all turned the tide against the U-boats. In the end, the U-boat fleet suffered extremely heavy casualties, losing 793 U-boats and about 28,000 submariners (a 75% casualty rate, the highest of all German forces during the war).


title: U-boat

text: The British had a major advantage in their ability to read some German naval Enigma codes. An understanding of the German coding methods had been brought to Britain via France from Polish code-breakers. Thereafter, code books and equipment were captured by raids on German weather ships and from captured U-boats. A team including Alan Turing used special purpose "Bombes" and early computers to break new German codes as they were introduced. The speedy decoding of messages was vital in directing convoys away from wolf packs and allowing interception and destruction of U-boats. This was demonstrated when the Naval Enigma machines were altered in February 1942 and wolf-pack effectiveness greatly increased until the new code was broken.


title: U-boat

text: The , a Type IXB, was captured in 1941 by the Royal Navy, and its Enigma machine and documents were removed. was also captured by the British in October 1942; three sailors boarded her as she was sinking, and desperately threw all the code books out of the submarine so as to salvage them. Two of them, Able Seaman Colin Grazier and Lieutenant Francis Anthony Blair Fasson, continued to throw code books out of the ship as it went under water, and went down with it. Further code books were captured by raids on weather ships. was boarded by crew from the Canadian ship on 6 March 1944, and codes were taken from her, but by this time in the war, most of the information was known. The , a Type IXC, was captured by the United States Navy in June 1944. It is now a museum ship in Chicago at the Museum of Science and Industry.


title: U-boat

text: U-570 a Type VIIC was captured by the British in mid-1941. Although the crew managed to destroy their Enigma machine the British captured a quantity of papers which proved extremely useful to the cryptanalysts at Bletchley Park. The Royal Navy were able to tow the sinking submarine to Iceland where it was salvaged and later commissioned into the Royal Navy as HMS Graph carrying out 3 war patrols before being relegated to training duties. Mock-ups of the submarine interior were created to train specialist Royal Navy boarding parties in the event a U-boat was blown to the surface to reverse any scuttling attempts by the crew, and to search quickly for cryptographic equipment and documents.


title: U-boat

text: Two events in the battle took place in 1942 when German U-boats attacked four allied ore carriers at Bell Island, Newfoundland. The carriers and were sunk by on 5 September 1942, while the and "PLM 27" were sunk by on 2 November with the loss of 69 lives. When the submarine launched a torpedo at the loading pier, Bell Island became the only location in North America to be subject to direct attack by German forces in World War II.


title: U-boat

text: "Operation Deadlight" was the code name for the scuttling of U-boats surrendered to the Allies after the defeat of Germany near the end of the war. Of the 154 U-boats surrendered, 121 were scuttled in deep water off Lisahally, Northern Ireland, or Loch Ryan, Scotland, in late 1945 and early 1946.


title: U-boat

text: From 1955, the West German "Bundesmarine" was allowed to have a small navy. Initially, two sunken Type XXIIIs and a Type XXI were raised and repaired. In the 1960s, the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) re-entered the submarine business. Because West Germany was initially restricted to a 450-tonne displacement limit, the "Bundesmarine" focused on small coastal submarines to protect against the Soviet threat in the Baltic Sea. The Germans sought to use advanced technologies to offset the small displacement, such as amagnetic steel to protect against naval mines and magnetic anomaly detectors.


title: U-boat

text: The initial Type 201 was a failure because of hull cracking; the subsequent Type 205, first commissioned in 1967, was a success, and 12 were built for the German navy. To continue the U-boat tradition, the new boats received the classic "U" designation starting with the "U-1".


title: U-boat

text: With the Danish government's purchase of two Type 205 boats, the West German government realized the potential for the submarine as an export, developing a customized version Type 207. Small and agile submarines were built during the Cold War to operate in the shallow Baltic Sea resulting in the Type 206. Three of the improved Type 206 boats were later sold to the Israeli Navy, becoming the Type 540. The German Type 209 diesel-electric submarine was the most popular export-sales submarine in the world from the late 1960s into the first years of the 21st century. With a larger 1,000–1,500 tonne displacement, the class was very customizable and has seen service with 14 navies with 51 examples being built as of 2006. Germany would continue to reap successes with derivations or on the basis of the successful type 209, as are the Type 800 sold to Israel and the TR-1700 sold to Argentina.


title: U-boat

text: Germany would continue to succeed as an exporter of submarines as the Klasse 210 sold to Norway, considered the most silent and maneuverable submarines in the world. This would demonstrate its capacity and put its export seal on the world.


title: U-boat

text: Germany has brought the U-boat name into the 21st century with the new Type 212. The 212 features an air-independent propulsion system using hydrogen fuel cells. This system is safer than previous closed-cycle diesel engines and steam turbines, cheaper than a nuclear reactor and quieter than either. While the Type 212 is also being purchased by Italy and Norway, the Type 214 has been designed as the follow-on export model and has been sold to Greece, South Korea, Turkey, and based on it would get the Type U 209PN sold to Portugal.


title: U-boat

text: In recent years Germany introduced new models such as the Type 216 and the Type 218 the latter being sold to Singapore.


title: Alopecia areata

text: Alopecia areata, also known as spot baldness, is a condition in which hair is lost from some or all areas of the body. Often, it results in a few bald spots on the scalp, each about the size of a coin. Psychological stress and illness are possible factors in bringing on alopecia areata in individuals at risk, but in most cases there is no obvious trigger. People are generally otherwise healthy. In a few cases, all the hair on the scalp is lost ("alopecia totalis"), or all body hair is lost ("alopecia universalis"). Hair loss can be permanent, or temporary. It is distinct from pattern hair loss, which is common among males.


title: Alopecia areata

text: Alopecia areata is believed to be an autoimmune disease resulting from a breach in the immune privilege of the hair follicles. Risk factors include a family history of the condition. Among identical twins, if one is affected, the other has about a 50% chance of also being affected. The underlying mechanism involves failure by the body to recognize its own cells, with subsequent immune-mediated destruction of the hair follicle.


title: Alopecia areata

text: No cure for the condition is known. Some treatments, particularly triamcinolone injections and 5% minoxidil topical creams, are effective in speeding hair regrowth. Sunscreen, head coverings to protect from cold and sun, and glasses, if the eyelashes are missing, are also recommended. In more than 50% of cases of sudden-onset localized "patchy" disease, hair regrows within a year. In patients with only one or two patches, this 1-year recovery will occur in up to 80%. However, most patients will have more than one episode over the course of a lifetime. In many patients, hair loss and regrowth occurs simultaneously over the course of several years. Among those in whom all body hair is lost, fewer than 10% recover.


title: Alopecia areata

text: About 0.15% of people are affected at any one time, and 2% of people are affected at some point in time. Onset is usually in childhood. Females are affected at higher rates than males.


title: Alopecia areata

text: Typical first symptoms of alopecia areata are small bald patches. The underlying skin is unscarred and looks superficially normal. Although these patches can take many shapes, they are usually round or oval. Alopecia areata most often affects the scalp and beard, but may occur on any part of the body with hair. Different areas of the skin may exhibit hair loss and regrowth at the same time. The disease may also go into remission for a time, or may be permanent. It is common in children.


title: Alopecia areata

text: The area of hair loss may tingle or be mildly painful. The hair tends to fall out over a short period of time, with the loss commonly occurring more on one side of the scalp than the other.


title: Alopecia areata

text: Exclamation point hairs, narrower along the length of the strand closer to the base, producing a characteristic "exclamation point" appearance, are often present. These hairs are very short (3–4 mm), and can be seen surrounding the bald patches.


title: Alopecia areata

text: When healthy hair is pulled out, at most a few should come out, and ripped hair should not be distributed evenly across the tugged portion of the scalp. In cases of alopecia areata, hair tends to pull out more easily along the edge of the patch where the follicles are already being attacked by the body's immune system than away from the patch where they are still healthy.


title: Alopecia areata

text: Alopecia areata is thought to be a systemic autoimmune disorder in which the body attacks its own anagen hair follicles and suppresses or stops hair growth. For example, T cell lymphocytes cluster around affected follicles, causing inflammation and subsequent hair loss. Hair follicles in a normal state are thought to be kept secure from the immune system, a phenomenon called immune privilege. A breach in this immune privilege state is considered as the cause of alopecia areata. A few cases of babies being born with congenital alopecia areata have been reported.


title: Alopecia areata

text: Alopecia areata is not contagious. It occurs more frequently in people who have affected family members, suggesting heredity may be a factor. Strong evidence of genetic association with increased risk for alopecia areata was found by studying families with two or more affected members. This study identified at least four regions in the genome that are likely to contain these genes. In addition, alopecia areata shares genetic risk factors with other autoimmune diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis, type 1 diabetes, and celiac disease. It may be the only manifestation of celiac disease.


title: Alopecia areata

text: In 2010, a genome-wide association study was completed that identified 129 single nucleotide polymorphisms that were associated with alopecia areata. The genes that were identified include those involved in


title: Alopecia areata

text: controlling the activation and proliferation of regulatory T cells, cytotoxic T lymphocyte-associated antigen 4, interleukin-2, interleukin-2 receptor A, and Eos (also known as Ikaros family zinc finger 4), as well as the human leukocyte antigen. The study also identified two genes, "PRDX5" and "STX17", that are expressed in the hair follicle.


title: Alopecia areata

text: Trichoscopy may aid in establishing the diagnosis. In alopecia areata, trichoscopy shows regularly distributed "yellow dots" (hyperkeratotic plugs), small exclamation-mark hairs, and "black dots" (destroyed hairs in the hair follicle opening).


title: Alopecia areata

text: Oftentimes, however, discrete areas of hair loss surrounded by exclamation mark hairs is sufficient for clinical diagnosis of alopecia areata. Sometimes, reddening of the skin, erythema, may also be present in the balding area.


title: Alopecia areata

text: A biopsy is rarely needed to make the diagnosis or aid in the management of alopecia areata. Histologic findings may include peribulbar lymphocytic infiltration resembling a "swarm of bees", a shift in the anagen-to-telogen ratio towards telogen, and dilated follicular infundibulae. Other helpful findings can include pigment incontinence in the hair bulb and follicular stelae. Occasionally, in inactive alopecia areata, no inflammatory infiltrates are found.


title: Alopecia areata

text: The objective assessment of treatment efficacy is very difficult and spontaneous remission is unpredictable, but if the affected area is patchy, the hair may regrow spontaneously in many cases. None of the existing therapeutic options are curative or preventive. A 2020 systematic review showed greater than 50% hair regrowth in 80.9% of patients treated with 5 mg/mL triamcinolone injections. A Cochrane-style systematic review published in 2019 showed 5% topical minoxidil was more than 8x more associated with >50% hair regrowth at 6 months compared to placebo. In cases of severe hair loss, limited success has been achieved by using the corticosteroid medications clobetasol or fluocinonide as an injection or cream. Application of corticosteroid creams to the affected skin is less effective and takes longer to produce results. Steroid injections are commonly used in sites where the areas of hair loss on the head are small or especially where eyebrow hair has been lost. Whether they are effective is uncertain. Some other medications that have been used are minoxidil, Elocon (mometasone) ointment (steroid cream), irritants (anthralin or topical coal tar), and topical immunotherapy ciclosporin, sometimes in different combinations. Topical corticosteroids frequently fail to enter the skin deeply enough to affect the hair bulbs, which are the treatment target, and small lesions typically also regrow spontaneously. Oral corticosteroids may decrease the hair loss, but only for the period during which they are taken, and these medications can cause serious side effects. No one treatment is effective in all cases, and some individuals may show no response to any treatment.


title: Alopecia areata

text: For more severe cases, recent studies have shown promising results with the individual use of the immunosuppressant Methotrexate or adjunct use with corticosteroids. However, as relapse of the condition may occur long-term treatment is recommended.


title: Alopecia areata

text: When alopecia areata is associated with celiac disease, treatment with a gluten-free diet allows for complete and permanent regrowth of scalp and other body hair in many people, but in others, remissions and recurrences are seen. This improvement is probably due to the normalization of the immune response as a result of gluten withdrawal from the diet.


title: Alopecia areata

text: In June 2022, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized baricitinib for the treatment of severe alopecia areata.


title: Alopecia areata

text: Fecal matter transplants (FMT) have been shown to reverse AA and support hair growth, with long lasting results, even going as far as growing additional hair on arms and face while grey hairs even regained colour. This supports the idea of a connection between gut microbiota having a part in hair loss.


title: Alopecia areata

text: In most cases that begin with a small number of patches of hair loss, hair grows back after a few months to a year. In cases with a greater number of patches, hair can either grow back or progress to alopecia areata totalis or, in rare cases, alopecia areata universalis.


title: Alopecia areata

text: No loss of body function occurs, and the effects of alopecia areata are psychological (loss of self-image due to hair loss), although these can be severe. Loss of hair also means the scalp burns more easily in the sun. Patients may also have aberrant nail formation because keratin forms both hair and nails.


title: Alopecia areata

text: Hair may grow back and then fall out again later. This may not indicate a recurrence of the condition, but rather a natural cycle of growth-and-shedding from a relatively synchronised start; such a pattern will fade over time. Episodes of alopecia areata before puberty predispose to chronic recurrence of the condition.


title: Alopecia areata

text: Alopecia can be the cause of psychological stress. Because hair loss can lead to significant changes in appearance, individuals with it may experience social phobia, anxiety, and depression.


title: Alopecia areata

text: The condition affects 0.1%–0.2% of the population, with a lifetime risk of 1%-2%. and is more common in females.


title: Alopecia areata

text: Alopecia areata occurs in people who are otherwise healthy and have no other skin disorders. Initial presentation most commonly occurs in the early childhood, late teenage years, or young adulthood, but can happen at any ages. Patients also tend to have a slightly higher incidence of conditions related to the immune system, such as asthma, allergies, atopic dermatitis, and hypothyroidism.


title: Alopecia areata

text: Many medications are being studied. Some of these medications are approved for other diseases, others are not available outside of studies.


title: Alopecia areata

text: In 2014, preliminary findings showing that oral ruxolitinib, a drug approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for bone marrow disorder myelofibrosis, restored hair growth in three individuals with long-standing and severe disease. The medicine costs almost US$10,000 a month.


title: Alopecia areata

text: Alopecia areata and alopecia barbae have been identified by some as the biblical condition that is part of the greater family of skin disorders; the said disorders are purported to being discussed in the Book of Leviticus, chapter 13.


title: Alopecia areata

text: Actor Anthony Carrigan, athlete of American Ninja Warrior fame Kevin Bull, Australian politician Peter Dutton, Australian actor Alan Fletcher, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, K-pop singer Peniel Shin of BtoB, and actresses Jada Pinkett Smith, and May Calamawy all have some form of alopecia areata.


title: Giant squid

text: The giant squid (Architeuthis dux) is a species of deep-ocean dwelling squid in the family Architeuthidae. It can grow to a tremendous size, offering an example of abyssal gigantism: recent estimates put the maximum size at around for females and for males, from the posterior fins to the tip of the two long tentacles (longer than the colossal squid at an estimated , but substantially lighter, due to the tentacles making up most of the length). The mantle of the giant squid is about long (more for females, less for males), and the length of the squid excluding its tentacles (but including head and arms) rarely exceeds . Claims of specimens measuring or more have not been scientifically documented.


title: Giant squid

text: The number of different giant squid species has been debated, but genetic research suggests that only one species exists.


title: Giant squid

text: The giant squid is widespread, occurring in all of the world's oceans. It is usually found near continental and island slopes from the North Atlantic Ocean, especially Newfoundland, Norway, the northern British Isles, Spain and the oceanic islands of the Azores and Madeira, to the South Atlantic around southern Africa, the North Pacific around Japan, and the southwestern Pacific around New Zealand and Australia. Specimens are rare in tropical and polar latitudes.


title: Giant squid

text: The vertical distribution of giant squid is incompletely known, but data from trawled specimens and sperm whale diving behavior suggest it spans a large range of depths, possibly .


title: Giant squid

text: Like all squid, a giant squid has a mantle (torso), eight arms, and two longer tentacles (the longest known tentacles of any cephalopod). The arms and tentacles account for much of the squid's great length, making it much lighter than its chief predator, the sperm whale. Scientifically documented specimens have masses of hundreds, rather than thousands, of kilograms.


title: Giant squid

text: The inside surfaces of the arms and tentacles are lined with hundreds of subspherical suction cups, in diameter, each mounted on a stalk. The circumference of these suckers is lined with sharp, finely serrated rings of chitin. The perforation of these teeth and the suction of the cups serve to attach the squid to its prey. It is common to find circular scars from the suckers on or close to the head of sperm whales that have attacked giant squid.


title: Giant squid

text: Each tentacular club is divided into three regions—the carpus ("wrist"), manus ("hand") and dactylus ("finger"). The carpus has a dense cluster of cups, in six or seven irregular, transverse rows. The manus is broader, closer to the end of the club, and has enlarged suckers in two medial rows. The dactylus is the tip. The bases of all the arms and tentacles are arranged in a circle surrounding the animal's single, parrot-like beak, as in other cephalopods.


title: Giant squid

text: Giant squid have small fins at the rear of their mantles used for locomotion. Like other cephalopods, they are propelled by jet—by pulling water into the mantle cavity, and pushing it through the siphon, in gentle, rhythmic pulses. They can also move quickly by expanding the cavity to fill it with water, then contracting muscles to jet water through the siphon. Giant squid breathe using two large gills inside the mantle cavity. The circulatory system is closed, which is a distinct characteristic of cephalopods. Like other squid, they contain dark ink used to deter predators.


title: Giant squid

text: The giant squid has a sophisticated nervous system and complex brain, attracting great interest from scientists. It also has the largest eyes of any living creature except perhaps the colossal squid—up to at least in diameter, with a pupil (only the extinct ichthyosaurs are known to have had larger eyes). Large eyes can better detect light (including bioluminescent light), which is scarce in deep water. The giant squid probably cannot see colour, but it can probably discern small differences in tone, which is important in the low-light conditions of the deep ocean.


title: Giant squid

text: Giant squid and some other large squid species maintain neutral buoyancy in seawater through an ammonium chloride solution which is found throughout their bodies and is lighter than seawater. This differs from the method of flotation used by most fish, which involves a gas-filled swim bladder. The solution tastes somewhat like salty liquorice/salmiak and makes giant squid unattractive for general human consumption.


title: Giant squid

text: Like all cephalopods, giant squid use organs called statocysts to sense their orientation and motion in water. The age of a giant squid can be determined by "growth rings" in the statocyst's statolith, similar to determining the age of a tree by counting its rings. Much of what is known about giant squid age is based on estimates of the growth rings and from undigested beaks found in the stomachs of sperm whales.


title: Giant squid

text: The giant squid is the second-largest mollusc and one of the largest of all extant invertebrates. It is only exceeded by the colossal squid, "Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni", which may have a mantle nearly twice as long. Several extinct cephalopods, such as the Cretaceous coleoid "Yezoteuthis" and "Haboroteuthis", and the Ordovician nautiloid "Endoceras" may have grown even larger. Although Cretaceous "Tusoteuthis" with long mantle was once considered to grow size close to giant squid (over including arms), this genus is likely to be doubtful, and largest specimen probably belonged to genus "Enchoteuthis" which is estimated to have short arms, only to make total length .


title: Giant squid

text: Giant squid size, particularly total length, has often been exaggerated. Reports of specimens reaching and even exceeding are widespread, but no specimens approaching this size have been scientifically documented. According to giant squid expert Steve O'Shea, such lengths were likely achieved by greatly stretching the two tentacles like elastic bands.


title: Giant squid

text: Based on the examination of 130 specimens and of beaks found inside sperm whales, giant squids' mantles are not known to exceed . Including the head and arms, but excluding the tentacles, the length very rarely exceeds . Maximum total length, when measured relaxed "post mortem", is estimated at or for females and for males from the posterior fins to the tip of the two long tentacles.


title: Giant squid

text: Little is known about the reproductive cycle of giant squid. They are thought to reach sexual maturity at about three years old; males reach sexual maturity at a smaller size than females. Females produce large quantities of eggs, sometimes more than , that average long and wide. Females have a single median ovary in the rear end of the mantle cavity and paired, convoluted oviducts, where mature eggs pass exiting through the oviducal glands, then through the nidamental glands. As in other squid, these glands produce a gelatinous material used to keep the eggs together once they are laid.


title: Giant squid

text: In males, as with most other cephalopods, the single, posterior testis produces sperm that move into a complex system of glands that manufacture the spermatophores. These are stored in the elongate sac, or Needham's sac, that terminates in the penis from which they are expelled during mating. The penis is prehensile, over long, and extends from inside the mantle. The two ventral arms on a male giant squid are hectocotylized, which means they are specialized to facilitate the fertilization of the female's eggs.


title: Giant squid

text: How the sperm is transferred to the egg mass is much debated, as giant squid lack the hectocotylus used for reproduction in many other cephalopods. It may be transferred in sacs of spermatophores, called spermatangia, which the male injects into the female's arms. This is suggested by a female specimen recently found in Tasmania, having a small subsidiary tendril attached to the base of each arm.


title: Giant squid

text: Post-larval juveniles have been discovered in surface waters off New Zealand, with plans to capture more and maintain them in an aquarium to learn more about the creature. Young giant squid specimens were found off the coast of southern Japan in 2013 and confirmed through genetic analysis.


title: Giant squid

text: Another juvenile, approximately 3.7 metres long, was encountered and filmed alive in the harbour in the Japanese city of Toyama on 24 December 2015; after being filmed and viewed by a large number of spectators, including a diver who entered the water to film the squid up close, it was guided out of the harbour into Toyama Bay by the diver.


title: Giant squid

text: Analysis of the mitochondrial DNA of giant squid individuals from all over the world has found that there is little variation between individuals across the globe (just 181 differing genetic base pairs out of 20,331). This suggests that there is only a single species of giant squid in the world. Squid larvae may be dispersed by ocean currents across vast distances.


title: Giant squid

text: Recent studies have shown giant squid feed on deep-sea fish and other squid species. They catch prey using the two tentacles, gripping it with serrated sucker rings on the ends. Then they bring it toward the powerful beak, and shred it with the radula (tongue with small, file-like teeth) before it reaches the esophagus. They are believed to be solitary hunters, as only individual giant squid have been caught in fishing nets. Although the majority of giant squid caught by trawl in New Zealand waters have been associated with the local hoki ("Macruronus novaezelandiae") fishery, hoki do not feature in the squid's diet. This suggests giant squid and hoki prey on the same animals.


title: Giant squid

text: The known predators of adult giant squid include sperm whales, pilot whales, southern sleeper sharks, and in some regions killer whales. Juveniles may fall prey to other large deep sea predators. Because sperm whales are skilled at locating giant squid, scientists have tried to observe them to study the squid. Giant squid have also been recently discovered to presumably steal food from each other; in mid-to-late October 2016, a giant squid washed ashore in Galicia, Spain. The squid had been photographed alive shortly before its death by a tourist named Javier Ondicol, and examination of its corpse by the Coordinators for the Study and Protection of Marine Species (CEPESMA) indicates that the squid was attacked and mortally wounded by another giant squid, losing parts of its fins, and receiving damage to its mantle, one of its gills and losing an eye. The intact nature of the specimen indicates that the giant squid managed to escape its rival by slowly retreating to shallow water, where it died of its wounds. The incident is the second to be documented among "Architeuthis" recorded in Spain, with the other occurring in Villaviciosa. Evidence in the form of giant squid stomach contents containing beak fragments from other giant squid in Tasmania also supports the theory that the species is at least occasionally cannibalistic. Alternatively, such squid-on-squid attacks may be a result of competition for prey. These traits are seen in the Humboldt squid as well, indicating that cannibalism in large squid may be more common than originally thought.


title: Giant squid

text: The taxonomy of the giant squid, as with many cephalopod genera, has long been debated. Lumpers and splitters may propose as many as seventeen species or as few as one. The broadest list is:


title: Giant squid

text: It is unclear if these are distinct species, as no genetic or physical basis for distinguishing between them has yet been proposed.


title: Giant squid

text: In March 2013, researchers at the University of Copenhagen suggested that, based on DNA research, there is only one species:


title: Giant squid

text: Aristotle, who lived in the fourth century BC, described a large squid, which he called "teuthus", distinguishing it from the smaller squid, the "teuthis". He mentions, "of the calamaries, the so-called "teuthus" is much bigger than the "teuthis"; for "teuthi" [plural of "teuthus"] have been found as much as five ells long".


title: Giant squid

text: Pliny the Elder, living in the first century AD, also described a gigantic squid in his "Natural History", with the head "as big as a cask", arms long, and carcass weighing .


title: Giant squid

text: Tales of giant squid have been common among mariners since ancient times, and may have led to the Norse legend of the "kraken", a tentacled sea monster as large as an island capable of engulfing and sinking any ship. Japetus Steenstrup, the describer of "Architeuthis", suggested a giant squid was the species described as a sea monk to the Danish king Christian III "circa" 1550. The Lusca of the Caribbean and Scylla in Greek mythology may also derive from giant squid sightings. Eyewitness accounts of other sea monsters like the sea serpent are also thought to be mistaken interpretations of giant squid.


title: Giant squid

text: Steenstrup wrote a number of papers on giant squid in the 1850s. He first used the term ""Architeuthus"" (this was the spelling he chose) in a paper in 1857. A portion of a giant squid was secured by the French corvette "Alecton" in 1861, leading to wider recognition of the genus in the scientific community. From 1870 to 1880, many squid were stranded on the shores of Newfoundland. For example, a specimen washed ashore in Thimble Tickle Bay, Newfoundland, on 2 November 1878; its mantle was reported to be long, with one tentacle long, and it was estimated as weighing . In 1873, a squid "attacked" a minister and a young boy in a dory near Bell Island, Newfoundland. Many strandings also occurred in New Zealand during the late 19th century.


title: Giant squid

text: Although strandings continue to occur sporadically throughout the world, none have been as frequent as those at Newfoundland and New Zealand in the 19th century. It is not known why giant squid become stranded on shore, but it may be because the distribution of deep, cold water where squid live is temporarily altered. Many scientists who have studied squid mass strandings believe they are cyclical and predictable. The length of time between strandings is not known, but was proposed to be 90 years by "Architeuthis" specialist Frederick Aldrich. Aldrich used this value to correctly predict a relatively small stranding that occurred between 1961 and 1968.


title: Giant squid

text: In 2004, another giant squid, later named "Archie", was caught off the coast of the Falkland Islands by a fishing trawler. It was long and was sent to the Natural History Museum in London to be studied and preserved. It was put on display on 1 March 2006 at the Darwin Centre. The find of such a large, complete specimen is very rare, as most specimens are in a poor condition, having washed up dead on beaches or been retrieved from the stomachs of dead sperm whales.


title: Giant squid

text: Researchers undertook a painstaking process to preserve the body. It was transported to England on ice aboard the trawler; then it was defrosted, which took about four days. The major difficulty was that thawing the thick mantle took much longer than the tentacles. To prevent the tentacles from rotting, scientists covered them in ice packs, and bathed the mantle in water. Then they injected the squid with a formol-saline solution to prevent rotting. The creature is now on show in a glass tank at the Darwin Centre of the Natural History Museum.


title: Giant squid

text: In December 2005, the Melbourne Aquarium in Australia paid A$100,000 for the intact body of a giant squid, preserved in a giant block of ice, which had been caught by fishermen off the coast of New Zealand's South Island that year.


title: Giant squid

text: The number of known giant squid specimens was close to 700 in 2011, and new ones are reported each year. Around 30 of these specimens are exhibited at museums and aquaria worldwide. The Museo del Calamar Gigante in Luarca, Spain, had by far the largest collection on public display, but many of the museum's specimens were destroyed during a storm in February 2014.


title: Giant squid

text: The search for a live "Architeuthis" specimen includes attempts to find live young, including larvae. The larvae closely resemble those of "Nototodarus" and "Onykia", but are distinguished by the shape of the mantle attachment to the head, the tentacle suckers, and the beaks.


title: Giant squid

text: By the turn of the 21st century, the giant squid remained one of the few extant megafauna to have never been photographed alive, either in the wild or in captivity. Marine biologist and author Richard Ellis described it as "the most elusive image in natural history". In 1993, an image purporting to show a diver with a live giant squid (identified as "Architeuthis dux") was published in the book "European Seashells". However, the animal in this photograph was a sick or dying "Onykia robusta", not a giant squid. The first footage of live (larval) giant squid ever captured on film was in 2001. The footage was shown on "Chasing Giants: On the Trail of the Giant Squid" on the Discovery Channel.


title: Giant squid

text: The first image of a live mature giant squid was taken on 15 January 2002, on Goshiki beach, Amino Cho, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. The animal, which measured about in mantle length and in total length, was found near the water's surface. It was captured and tied to a quay, where it died overnight. The specimen was identified by Koutarou Tsuchiya of the Tokyo University of Fisheries. It is on display at the National Science Museum of Japan.


title: Giant squid

text: The first photographs of a live giant squid in its natural habitat were taken on 30 September 2004, by Tsunemi Kubodera (National Science Museum of Japan) and Kyoichi Mori (Ogasawara Whale Watching Association). Their teams had worked together for nearly two years to accomplish this. They used a five-ton fishing boat and only two crew members. The images were created on their third trip to a known sperm whale hunting ground south of Tokyo, where they had dropped a line baited with squid and shrimp. The line also held a camera and a flash. After over twenty tries that day, an giant squid attacked the lure and snagged its tentacle. The camera took over 500 photos before the squid managed to break free after four hours. The squid's tentacle remained attached to the lure. Later DNA tests confirmed the animal as a giant squid.


title: Giant squid

text: On 27 September 2005, Kubodera and Mori released the photographs to the world. The photo sequence, taken at a depth of off Japan's Ogasawara Islands, shows the squid homing in on the baited line and enveloping it in "a ball of tentacles". The researchers were able to locate the likely general location of giant squid by closely tailing the movements of sperm whales. According to Kubodera, "we knew that they fed on the squid, and we knew when and how deep they dived, so we used them to lead us to the squid". Kubodera and Mori reported their observations in the journal "Proceedings of the Royal Society".


title: Giant squid

text: Among other things, the observations demonstrate actual hunting behaviors of adult "Architeuthis", a subject on which there had been much speculation. The photographs showed an aggressive hunting pattern by the baited squid, leading to it impaling a tentacle on the bait ball's hooks. This may disprove the theory that the giant squid is a drifter which eats whatever floats by, rarely moving so as to conserve energy. It seems the species has a much more aggressive feeding technique.


title: Giant squid

text: In November 2006, American explorer and diver Scott Cassell led an expedition to the Gulf of California with the aim of filming a giant squid in its natural habitat. The team employed a novel filming method: using a Humboldt squid carrying a specially designed camera clipped to its fin. The camera-bearing squid caught on film what was claimed to be a giant squid, with an estimated length of , engaging in predatory behavior. The footage aired a year later on a History Channel program, "MonsterQuest: Giant Squid Found". Cassell subsequently distanced himself from this documentary, claiming that it contained multiple factual and scientific errors. Videos of live giant squids have been captured three times subsequently, with one of these aforementioned individuals being guided back into the open ocean after appearing in Toyama Harbor on December 24, 2015.


title: Giant squid

text: On 19 June 2019, in an expedition run by the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Association (NOAA), known as the Journey to Midnight, biologists Nathan J. Robinson and Edith Widder captured a video of a juvenile giant squid at a depth of 759 meters (2,490 feet) in the Gulf of Mexico. Michael Vecchione, a NOAA Fisheries zoologist, confirmed that the captured footage was that of the genus "Architeuthis", and that the individual filmed measured at somewhere between .


title: Giant squid

text: The elusive nature of the giant squid and its foreign appearance, often perceived as terrifying, have firmly established its place in the human imagination. Representations of the giant squid have been known from early legends of the kraken through books such as "Moby-Dick" and "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" on to novels such as Ian Fleming's "Dr. No", Peter Benchley's "Beast" (adapted as a film called "The Beast"), and Michael Crichton "Sphere" (adapted as a film), and modern animated television programs.


title: Giant squid

text: In particular, the image of a giant squid locked in battle with a sperm whale is a common one, although the squid is the whale's prey and not an equal combatant.


title: Hyperloop

text: A hyperloop is a proposed high-speed transportion system for both public and goods transport. The idea was picked up by Elon Musk to describe a modern project based on the vactrain concept (first appearance in 1799). Hyperloop systems comprise three essential elements: tubes, pods, and terminals. The tube is a large, sealed and low-pressure system (usually a long tunnel). The pod is a coach pressurized at atmospheric pressure that runs substantially free of air resistance or friction inside this tube using magnetic propulsion (in some cases augmented by a ducted fan). The terminal handles pod arrivals and departures. The Hyperloop, in the initial form proposed by Musk, differs from vactrains by relying on residual air pressure inside the tube to provide lift by aerofoils and propulsion by fans.


title: Hyperloop

text: The hyperloop has its roots in a concept by George Medhurst in 1799 and subsequently developed under the names pneumatic railway, atmospheric railway or vactrain. Elon Musk renewed interest in hyperloop after mentioning it in a 2012 speaking event. Musk further promoted the concept by publishing a white paper in August 2013, which conceived of a hyperloop route running from the Los Angeles region to the San Francisco Bay Area, roughly following the Interstate 5 corridor. His initial concept incorporated reduced-pressure tubes in which pressurized capsules ride on air bearings driven by linear induction motors and axial compressors. Transportation analysts challenged the cost estimates included in the white paper, with some predicting that a realized hyperloop would be several billion dollars over budget. In 2022, it was reported that Musk suggested the hyperloop concept merely to force the cancellation of the California High Speed Rail project between San Francisco and Los Angeles.


title: Hyperloop

text: The hyperloop concept has been promoted by Musk and SpaceX, and other companies or organizations have been encouraged to collaborate and develop the technology. Technical University of Munich Hyperloop set the hyperloop speed record of 463 km/h (288 mph) in July 2019 at the pod design competition hosted by SpaceX in Hawthorne, California. Virgin Hyperloop conducted the first human trial in November 2020 at its test site in Las Vegas, reaching a top speed of .


title: Hyperloop

text: After being conceived in 1799, the vactrain was invented in 1904 by Robert H. Goddard, a freshman at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.


title: Hyperloop

text: Musk first mentioned that he was thinking about a concept for a "fifth mode of transport", calling it the "Hyperloop", in July 2012 at a PandoDaily event in Santa Monica, California. This hypothetical high-speed mode of transportation would have the following characteristics: immunity to weather, collision free, twice the speed of a plane, low power consumption, and energy storage for 24-hour operations. The name "Hyperloop" was chosen because it would go in a loop. Musk envisions the more advanced versions will be able to go at hypersonic speed. In May 2013, Musk likened his Hyperloop to a "cross between a Concorde and a railgun and an air hockey table".


title: Hyperloop

text: From late 2012 until August 2013, a group of engineers from both Tesla and SpaceX worked on the modeling of Musk's Hyperloop. An early system conceptual model was published in the Tesla and SpaceX blogs which describes one potential design, function, pathway, and cost of a hyperloop system. According to the alpha design, pods would accelerate to cruising speeds gradually using linear electric motors and glide above their track on air bearings through tubes above ground on columns or below ground in tunnels to avoid the dangers of grade crossings. An ideal hyperloop system will be more energy-efficient, quiet, and autonomous than existing modes of mass transit. Musk has also invited feedback to "see if the people can find ways to improve it". The Hyperloop Alpha was released as an open source design. The trademark ""HYPERLOOP"", applicable to "high-speed transportation of goods in tubes" was issued to SpaceX on 4 April 2017.


title: Hyperloop

text: In June 2015, SpaceX announced that it would build a test track to be located next to SpaceX's Hawthorne facility. The track was completed and used to test pod designs supplied by third parties in the competition.


title: Hyperloop

text: By November 2015, with several commercial companies and dozens of student teams pursuing the development of Hyperloop technologies, the "Wall Street Journal" asserted that "The Hyperloop Movement", as some of its unaffiliated members refer to themselves, is officially bigger than the man who started it."


title: Hyperloop

text: The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) hyperloop team developed the first hyperloop pod prototype, which they unveiled at the MIT Museum on 13 May 2016. Their design uses electrodynamic suspension for levitating and eddy current braking.


title: Hyperloop

text: On 29 January 2017, approximately one year after phase one of the hyperloop pod competition, the MIT Hyperloop pod demonstrated the first ever low-pressure hyperloop run in the world. Within this first competition the Delft University team from the Netherlands achieved the highest overall competition score, winning the prize for "best overall design". The award for the "fastest pod" was won by the Technical University of Munich (TUM), Germany, team WARR Hyperloop. The MIT team placed third overall in the competition, judged by SpaceX engineers.


title: Hyperloop

text: The second hyperloop pod competition took place from 25 to 27 August 2017. The only judging criterion was top speed, provided it was followed by successful deceleration. The TUM WARR Hyperloop won the competition by reaching a top speed of 324 km/h (201 mph), breaking the previous record of for hyperloop prototypes set by Hyperloop One on their own test track.


title: Hyperloop

text: A third hyperloop pod competition took place in July 2018. The defending champions, the TUM WARR hyperloop team, beat their own record with a top speed of 457 km/h (284 mph) during their run.


title: Hyperloop

text: The fourth competition in August 2019 saw the TUM team, now known as TUM Hyperloop (by NEXT Prototypes e.V.), again winning the competition and beating their own record with a top speed of 463 km/h (288 mph).


title: Hyperloop

text: The first passenger test of hyperloop technology was successfully conducted by Virgin Hyperloop with two employees of the company in November 2020, where the unit reached a maximum speed of 172 km/h (107 mph).


title: Hyperloop

text: The vactrain concept resembles a high-speed rail system without substantial air resistance by employing magnetically levitating trains in evacuated (airless) or partly evacuated tubes. However, the difficulty of maintaining a vacuum over large distances has prevented this type of system from ever being built. The hyperloop is similar to a vactrain system but operates at approximately of pressure.


title: Hyperloop

text: The hyperloop concept operates by sending specially designed "capsules" or "pods" through a steel tube maintained at a partial vacuum. In Musk's original concept, each capsule would float on a layer of air provided under pressure to air-caster "skis", similar to how pucks are levitated above an air hockey table, while still allowing higher speeds than wheels can sustain. With rolling resistance eliminated and air resistance greatly reduced, the capsules can glide for the bulk of the journey. In the alpha design concept, an electrically driven inlet fan and axial compressor would be placed at the nose of the capsule to "actively transfer high-pressure air from the front to the rear of the vessel", resolving the problem of air pressure building in front of the vehicle, slowing it down. A fraction of the air was to be shunted to the skis for additional pressure, augmenting that gain passively from lift due to their shape.


title: Hyperloop

text: In the alpha-level concept, passenger-only pods were to be in diameter and were projected to reach a top speed of to maintain aerodynamic efficiency. The design proposed passengers experience a maximum inertial acceleration of 0.5 g, about 2 or 3 times that of a commercial airliner on takeoff and landing.


title: Hyperloop

text: A number of routes have been proposed for hyperloop systems that meet the approximate distance conditions for which a hyperloop is hypothesized to provide improved transport times (distances of under approximately ). Route proposals range from speculation described in company releases to business cases to signed agreements.


title: Hyperloop

text: The route suggested in the 2013 alpha-level design document was from the Greater Los Angeles Area to the San Francisco Bay Area. That conceptual system would begin around Sylmar, just south of the Tejon Pass, follow Interstate 5 to the north, and arrive near Hayward on the east side of San Francisco Bay. Several proposed branches were also shown in the design document, including Sacramento, Anaheim, San Diego, and Las Vegas.


title: Hyperloop

text: No work has been done on the route proposed in Musk's alpha-design; one cited reason is that it would terminate on the fringes of the two major metropolitan areas (Los Angeles and San Francisco), resulting in significant cost savings in construction, but requiring that passengers traveling to and from Downtown Los Angeles and San Francisco, and any other community beyond Sylmar and Hayward, to transfer to another transportation mode in order to reach their final destination. This would significantly lengthen the total travel time to those destinations.


title: Hyperloop

text: A similar problem already affects present-day air travel, where on short routes (like LAX–SFO) the flight time is only a rather small part of door-to-door travel time. Critics have argued that this would significantly reduce the proposed cost and/or time savings of hyperloop as compared to the California High-Speed Rail project that will serve downtown stations in both San Francisco and Los Angeles. Passengers traveling from financial center to financial center are estimated to save about two hours by taking the Hyperloop instead of driving the whole distance.


title: Hyperloop

text: Others questioned the cost projections for the suggested California route. Some transportation engineers argued in 2013 that they found the alpha-level design cost estimates unrealistically low given the scale of construction and reliance on unproven technology. The technological and economic feasibility of the idea is unproven and a subject of significant debate.


title: Hyperloop

text: In November 2017, Arrivo announced a concept for a maglev automobile transport system from Aurora, Colorado to Denver International Airport, the first leg of a system from downtown Denver. Its contract described potential completion of a first leg in 2021. In February 2018, Hyperloop Transportation Technologies announced a similar plan for a loop connecting Chicago and Cleveland and a loop connecting Washington and New York City.


title: Hyperloop

text: In 2018 the Missouri Hyperloop Coalition was formed between Virgin Hyperloop One, the University of Missouri, and engineering firm Black & Veatch to study a proposed route connecting St. Louis, Columbia, and Kansas City.


title: Hyperloop

text: On 19 December 2018, Elon Musk unveiled a tunnel below Los Angeles. In the presentation, a Tesla Model X drove in a tunnel on the predefined track (rather than in a low-pressure tube). According to Musk the costs for the system are . Musk said: "The Loop is a stepping stone toward hyperloop. The Loop is for transport within a city. Hyperloop is for transport between cities, and that would go much faster than 150 mph."


title: Hyperloop

text: The Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency, or NOACA, partnered with Hyperloop Transportation Technologies to conduct a $1.3 million feasibility study for developing a hyperloop corridor route from Chicago to Cleveland and Pittsburgh for America's first multistate hyperloop system in the Great Lakes Megaregion. Hundreds of thousands of dollars already have been committed to the project. NOACA's Board of Directors has awarded a $550,029 contract to Transportation Economics & Management Systems, Inc. (TEMS) for the Great Lakes Hyperloop Feasibility Study to evaluate the feasibility of an ultra-high speed hyperloop passenger and freight transport system initially linking Cleveland and Chicago.


title: Hyperloop

text: Hyperloop Transportation Technologies were considering in 2016 with the Indian Government for a proposed route between Chennai and Bengaluru, with a conceptual travel time for of 30 minutes. HTT also signed an agreement with Andhra Pradesh government to build India's first hyperloop project connecting Amaravathi to Vijayawada in a 6-minute ride.


title: Hyperloop

text: On 22 February 2018, Hyperloop One entered into a memorandum of understanding with the Government of Maharashtra to build a hyperloop transportation system between Mumbai and Pune that would cut the travel time from the current 180 minutes to 20 minutes.


title: Hyperloop

text: Indore-based Dinclix GroundWorks' DGWHyperloop advocates a hyperloop corridor between Mumbai and Delhi, via Indore, Kota, and Jaipur.


title: Hyperloop

text: The Ministry of Railways will collaborate with IIT Madras for the development of an "indigenous" Hyperloop system and will help set-up a Centre of Excellence for Hyperloop Technologies at IIT.


title: Hyperloop

text: On 6 February 2020, the Ministry of Transport in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia announced a contract agreement with Virgin Hyperloop One (VHO) to conduct a ground-breaking pre-feasibility study on the use of hyperloop technology for the transport of passengers and cargo. The study will serve as a blueprint for future hyperloop projects and build on the developers long-standing relationship with the kingdom, which has peaked when His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz bin Abdul Rahman al Saud, Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, viewed VHO's passenger pod during a visit to the United States.


title: Hyperloop

text: On 29 December 2021, the Veneto Regional Council approved a memorandum of understanding with MIMS and CAV for the testing of hyper transfer technology. By mid 2023, the feasibility study by a company selected by CAV will have to be completed and the development of a first prototype completed in 2026. 4 million euro have been allocated for this phase.


title: Hyperloop

text: Canadian hyperloop firm TransPod is exploring the possibility of hyperloop routes which would connect Toronto and Montreal, Toronto to Windsor, and Calgary to Edmonton. Toronto and Montreal, the largest cities in Canada, are currently connected by Ontario Highway 401, the busiest highway in North America. In March 2019, Transport Canada commissioned the study of hyperloops, so it can be "better informed on the technical, operational, economic, safety, and regulatory aspects of the hyperloop and understand its construction requirements and commercial feasibility."


title: Hyperloop

text: The province of Alberta signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to support TransPod for its Calgary to Edmonton hyperloop project. TransPod plans to move forward and has secured in private capital funding for the first phase which will create an airport link for Edmonton. However, the company will first need to build and test prototypes on test tracks before the project can begin.


title: Hyperloop

text: Many of the active Hyperloop routes that have been considered are outside of the US. In 2016, Hyperloop One published the world's first detailed business case for a route between Helsinki and Stockholm, which would tunnel under the Baltic Sea to connect the two capitals in under 30 minutes. Hyperloop One undertook a feasibility study with DP World to move containers from its Port of Jebel Ali in Dubai. In late 2016, Hyperloop One announced a feasibility study with Dubai's Roads and Transport Authority for passenger and freight routes connecting Dubai with the greater United Arab Emirates. Hyperloop One was also considering passenger routes in Moscow during 2016, and a cargo hyperloop to connect Hunchun in north-eastern China to the Port of Zarubino, near Vladivostok and the North Korean border on Russia's Far East. In May 2016, Hyperloop One kicked off their Global Challenge with a call for comprehensive proposals of hyperloop networks around the world. In September 2017, Hyperloop One selected 10 routes from 35 of the strongest proposals: Toronto–Montreal, Cheyenne–Denver–Pueblo, Miami–Orlando, Dallas–Laredo–Houston, Chicago–Columbus–Pittsburgh, Mexico City–Guadalajara, Edinburgh–London, Glasgow–Liverpool, Bengaluru–Chennai, and Mumbai–Chennai.


title: Hyperloop

text: Others have put forward European routes, including a route beginning at Amsterdam or Schiphol to Frankfurt. In 2016, a Warsaw University of Technology team began evaluating potential routes from Cracow to Gdańsk across Poland proposed by Hyper Poland.