title: TED (conference)

text: Members have several tools dedicated to knowledge management, such as the OTP Wiki OTPedia, Facebook groups, or video tutorials.


title: TED (conference)

text: TEDx are independent events similar to TED in presentation. They can be organized by anyone who obtains a free license from TED, and agrees to follow certain principles. TEDx events are required to be non-profit, but organizers may use an admission fee or commercial sponsorship to cover costs. Speakers are not paid and must also relinquish the copyrights to their materials, which TED may edit and distribute under a Creative Commons license.


title: TED (conference)

text: As of January 2014, the TEDxTalks library contained some 30,000 films and presentations from more than 130 countries. As of October 2017, the TEDx archive surpassed 100,000 talks. In March 2013, eight TEDx events were organised every day; raised up from five in June 2012, the previous year, in 133 countries. TEDx presentations may include live performances, which are catalogued in the TEDx Music Project.


title: TED (conference)

text: In 2011, TED began a program called "TEDx in a Box", which is intended to enable people in developing countries to hold TEDx events. TEDx also expanded to include TEDxYouth events, TEDx corporate events, and TEDxWomen. TEDxYouth events are independent programs set up for students who are in grades 7–12. These events usually have audiences of people close to the age of the students and sometimes show TED Talks. According to TEDxSanta Cruz, "as of 2015, over 1,500 [TEDx events] have been scheduled all over the world."


title: TED (conference)

text: TEDx events have evolved over time. Events such as TEDxBeaconStreet created TEDx Adventures for participants. People may sign up for free, hands-on experiences in their local communities, led by an expert.


title: TED (conference)

text: A TEDx youth event license follows the same format as the standard event license and falls within the same TEDx event rules, except this event is oriented towards youth. TEDxYouth licenses may be held by youth, adults, or a combination of both. For events held at schools, the license must be held by a current student, faculty, or staff member. The first TEDxYouth event was held by TEDxYouth@Tokyo in Japan


title: TED (conference)

text: TED Fellows were introduced in 2007, during the first TEDAfrica conference in Arusha, Tanzania, where 100 young people were selected from across the continent. Two years later, during TEDIndia, 99 Fellows were recruited, mainly from South Asia.


title: TED (conference)

text: In 2009, the Fellows program was initiated in its present form. For every TED or TEDGlobal conference, 20 Fellows are selected; a total of 40 new Fellows a year. Each year, 20 past Fellows are chosen to participate in the two-year Senior Fellows program (in which they will attend four more conferences).


title: TED (conference)

text: Acceptance as a Fellow is not based on academic credentials, but mainly on past and current actions, and plans for the future. Besides attending a conference free of charge, each Fellow takes part in a special program with mentoring by experts in the field of spreading ideas, and he or she can give a short talk on the "TED Fellows" stage. Some of these talks are subsequently published on TED.com. Senior Fellows have additional benefits and responsibilities.


title: TED (conference)

text: TED-Ed is a YouTube channel from Ted which creates short animated educational videos. It also has its own website. TED-Ed lessons are created in collaboration with educators and animators. Current advisers for Ted-Ed lessons include Aaron Sams, Jackie Bezos, John Hunter, Jonathan Bergmann, Melinda French Gates, and Sal Khan. It has over 17.8 million subscribers and over 3.3 billion views as of November 2022.


title: TED (conference)

text: The TED Interview is a weekly podcast launched on October 16, 2018, during which Chris Anderson holds conversations with speakers who have previously given a TED talk, providing the guest a chance to speak in greater depth about their background, projects, motivation, re-evaluation of past experiences, or plans for the future.


title: TED (conference)

text: Each interview lasts between 45 minutes and about one hour. All podcasts are available on the TED website, in part together with transcripts, as well as through platforms such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Stitcher, RadioPublic, Castbox, iHeartRadio, and BBC Radio 4 Extra.


title: TED (conference)

text: Season Four began in March 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic as a live-stream broadcast co-hosted by Chris Anderson and Whitney Pennington Rodgers and often offered listeners the opportunity to submit questions to the speaker.


title: TED (conference)

text: TEDMED is an annual conference concerned with health and medicine. It is an independent event operating under license from the nonprofit TED conference.


title: TED (conference)

text: TEDMED was founded in 1998 by TED's founder Ricky Wurman. After years of inactivity, in 2008 Wurman sold TEDMED to entrepreneur Marc Hodosh, who recreated and relaunched it. The first event under Hodosh's ownership was held in San Diego in October 2009. In January 2010, TED.com began including videos of TEDMED talks on the TED website.


title: TED (conference)

text: The second Hodosh-owned edition of TEDMED took place in October 2010, also in San Diego. It sold out for a second year and attracted notable healthcare leaders and Hollywood celebrities.


title: TED (conference)

text: In 2011, Jay Walker and a group of executives and investors purchased TEDMED from Hodosh for $16 million with future additional payments of as much as $9 million. The conference was then moved to Washington, DC.


title: TED (conference)

text: TEDWomen is an annual three-day conference. Established in 2010, TEDWomen features speakers focused on women-oriented themes, including gender issues and reproductive health. There are over 130 TEDWomen Talks available to watch on the TED website. Past speakers include former president Jimmy Carter, Hillary Clinton, Sheryl Sandberg, Madeleine Albright, Nancy Pelosi and Halla Tómasdóttir.


title: TED (conference)

text: TEDYouth talks are aimed at middle school and high school students and feature information from youth innovators.


title: TED (conference)

text: Frank Swain, a journalist, refused to participate in a TEDx event without getting paid. He said that it is unacceptable that TED, which is a non-profit organization, charges TED attendees $6,000 but prohibits organisers of the smaller, independently organized TEDx events from paying anything to speakers. Speakers and performers at official TED events are not compensated for their talks.


title: TED (conference)

text: Sarah Lacy of "BusinessWeek" and "TechCrunch" wrote in 2010 that TED attendees complained of elitism from a "hierarchy of parties throughout the LA-area with strict lists and security" after the sessions. She gave TED credit for making talks free online or live streamed.


title: TED (conference)

text: Disagreements have also occurred between TED speakers and organizers. In her 2010 TED Talk, comedian Sarah Silverman referred to adopting a "retarded" child. TED organizer Chris Anderson objected via his Twitter account, leading to a Twitter skirmish between them.


title: TED (conference)

text: Also in 2010, statistician Nassim Taleb called TED a "monstrosity that turns scientists and thinkers into low-level entertainers, like circus performers". He claimed TED curators did not initially post his talk "warning about the financial crisis" on their site on purely cosmetic grounds.


title: TED (conference)

text: In May 2012, venture capitalist Nick Hanauer spoke at TED University, challenging the belief that top income earners in America are the engines of job creation. TED attracted controversy when it chose not to post Hanauer's talk on their website. His talk analysed the top rate of tax versus unemployment and economic equality. TED was accused of censoring the talk by not posting it on the website.


title: TED (conference)

text: On May 7, 2012, Chris Anderson, the curator of TED, in an email to Hanauer, commented on his decision and took issue with several of Hanauer's assertions in the talk, including the idea that businesspeople are not job creators. He also made clear his aversion to the "political" nature of the talk.


title: TED (conference)

text: Following a TEDx talk by parapsychologist Rupert Sheldrake, TED issued a statement saying their scientific advisors believed that "there is little evidence for some of Sheldrake's more radical claims" made in the talk and recommended that it "should not be distributed without being framed with caution". The video of the talk was moved from the TEDx YouTube channel to the TED blog accompanied by the framing language called for by the advisors. The move and framing prompted accusations of censorship, to which TED responded by saying the accusations were "simply not true" since Sheldrake's talk was still on their website. A 2013 talk by Graham Hancock, promoting the use of the drug DMT, was treated in the same way.


title: TED (conference)

text: According to professor Benjamin Bratton at University of California, San Diego, TED Talks' efforts at fostering progress in socio-economics, science, philosophy, and technology have been ineffective. Chris Anderson responded that some critics have a misconception of TED's goals, and failed to recognise that TED aimed to instill excitement in the audience in the same way the speaker felt it. He stated that TED only wishes to bring news of the significance of certain topics to a large audience.


title: TED (conference)

text: The "Alien" franchise features a fictional portrayal of the year 2023 edition of the TED Conference in the form of a short film called "The Peter Weyland Files: TED Conference, 2023". This was a part of the viral marketing campaign for the "Prometheus" film.


title: Seahorse

text: A seahorse (also written "sea-horse" and "sea horse") is any of 46 species of small marine fish in the genus Hippocampus. "Hippocampus" comes from the Ancient Greek (), itself from () meaning "horse" and () meaning "sea monster" or "sea animal". Having a head and neck suggestive of a horse, seahorses also feature segmented bony armour, an upright posture and a curled prehensile tail. Along with the pipefishes and seadragons ("Phycodurus" and "Phyllopteryx") they form the family Syngnathidae.


title: Seahorse

text: Seahorses are mainly found in shallow tropical and temperate salt water throughout the world, from about 45°S to 45°N. They live in sheltered areas such as seagrass beds, estuaries, coral reefs, and mangroves. Four species are found in Pacific waters from North America to South America. In the Atlantic, "Hippocampus erectus" ranges from Nova Scotia to Uruguay. "H. zosterae", known as the dwarf seahorse, is found in the Bahamas.


title: Seahorse

text: Three species live in the Mediterranean Sea: "H. guttulatus" (the long-snouted seahorse), "H. hippocampus" (the short-snouted seahorse), and "H. fuscus" (the sea pony). These species form territories; males stay within of habitat, while females range over about one hundred times that.


title: Seahorse

text: Seahorses range in size from . They are named for their equine appearance, with bent necks and long snouted heads and a distinctive trunk and tail. Although they are bony fish, they do not have scales, but rather thin skin stretched over a series of bony plates, which are arranged in rings throughout their bodies. Each species has a distinct number of rings. The armor of bony plates also protects them against predators, and because of this outer skeleton, they no longer have ribs. Seahorses swim upright, propelling themselves using the dorsal fin, another characteristic not shared by their close pipefish relatives, which swim horizontally. Razorfish are the only other fish that swim vertically. The pectoral fins, located on either side of the head behind their eyes, are used for steering. They lack the caudal fin typical of fishes. Their prehensile tail is composed of square-like rings that can be unlocked only in the most extreme conditions. They are adept at camouflage, and can grow and reabsorb spiny appendages depending on their habitat.


title: Seahorse

text: Unusually among fish, a seahorse has a flexible, well-defined neck. It also sports a crown-like spine or horn on its head, termed a "coronet", which is distinct for each species.


title: Seahorse

text: Seahorses swim very poorly, rapidly fluttering a dorsal fin and using pectoral fins to steer. The slowest-moving fish in the world is "H. zosterae" (the dwarf seahorse), with a top speed of about per hour. Since they are poor swimmers, they are most likely to be found resting with their prehensile tail wound around a stationary object. They have long snouts, which they use to suck up food, and their eyes can move independently of each other like those of a chameleon.


title: Seahorse

text: Anatomical evidence, supported by molecular, physical, and genetic evidence, demonstrates that seahorses are highly modified pipefish. The fossil record of seahorses, however, is very sparse. The best known and best studied fossils are specimens of "Hippocampus guttulatus" (though literature more commonly refers to them under the synonym of "H. ramulosus"), from the Marecchia River formation of Rimini Province, Italy, dating back to the Lower Pliocene, about 3 million years ago. The earliest known seahorse fossils are of two pipefish-like species, "H. sarmaticus" and "H. slovenicus", from the coprolitic horizon of Tunjice Hills, a middle Miocene lagerstätte in Slovenia dating back about 13 million years.


title: Seahorse

text: Molecular dating implies that pipefish and seahorses diverged during the Late Oligocene. This has led to speculation that seahorses evolved in response to large areas of shallow water, newly created as the result of tectonic events. The shallow water would have allowed the expansion of seagrass habitats that served as camouflage for the seahorses' upright posture. These tectonic changes occurred in the western Pacific Ocean, pointing to an origin there, with molecular data suggesting two later, separate invasions of the Atlantic Ocean. In 2016, a study published in "Nature" found the seahorse genome to be the most rapidly evolving fish genome studied so far.


title: Seahorse

text: The evolution of seahorses from pipefish may have been an adaptation related to the biomechanics of prey capture. The unique posture of the seahorse allows them to capture small shrimps at larger distances than the pipefish is capable of.


title: Seahorse

text: The male seahorse is equipped with a brood pouch on the ventral, or front-facing, side of the tail. When mating, the female seahorse deposits up to 1,500 eggs in the male's pouch. The male carries the eggs for 9 to 45 days until the seahorses emerge fully developed, but very small. The young are then released into the water, and the male often mates again within hours or days during the breeding season.


title: Seahorse

text: Before breeding, seahorses may court for several days. Scientists believe the courtship behavior synchronizes the animals' movements and reproductive states, so that the male can receive the eggs when the female is ready to deposit them. During this time, they may change color, swim side by side holding tails or grip the same strand of sea grass with their tails, and wheel around in unison in what is known as a "predawn dance". They eventually engage in a "true courtship dance" lasting about 8 hours, during which the male pumps water through the egg pouch on his trunk which expands and opens to display its emptiness. When the female's eggs reach maturity, she and her mate let go of any anchors and drift upward snout-to-snout, out of the sea grass, often spiraling as they rise. They interact for about 6 minutes, reminiscent of courtship. The female then swims away until the next morning, and the male returns to sucking up food through his snout. The female inserts her ovipositor into the male's brood pouch and deposits dozens to thousands of eggs. As the female releases her eggs, her body slims while his swells. Both animals then sink back into the sea grass and she swims away.


title: Seahorse

text: Seahorses exhibit four phases of courtship that are indicated by clear behavioral changes and changes in the intensity of the courtship act. Phase 1, the initial courtship phase, typically takes place in the early morning one or two days before physical copulation. During this phase the potential mates brighten in colour, quiver, and display rapid side-to-side body vibrations. These displays are performed alternately by both the male and the female seahorse. The following phases, 2 through 4, happen sequentially on the day of copulation. Phase 2 is marked by the female pointing, a behaviour in which the female will raise her head to form an oblique angle with her body. In phase 3 males will also begin the same pointing behaviour in response to the female. Finally, the male and female will repeatedly rise upward together in a water column and end in mid-water copulation, in which the female will transfer her eggs directly into the male's brood pouch.


title: Seahorse

text: This initial courtship behaviour takes place about 30 minutes after dawn on each courtship day, until the day of copulation. During this phase the males and females will remain apart during the night, but after dawn they will come together in a side-by-side position, brighten, and engage in courtship behaviour for about 2 to 38 minutes. There is repeated reciprocal quivering. This starts when the male approaches the female, brightens and begins to quiver. The female will follow the male with her own display, in which she will also brighten and quiver about 5 seconds later. As the male quivers, he will rotate his body towards the female who will then rotate her body away. During phase 1 the tails of both seahorses are positioned within 1 cm of each other on the same hold-fast and both of their bodies are angled slightly outward from the point of attachment. However, the female will shift her tail attachment site, causing the pair to circle their common hold-fast.


title: Seahorse

text: This phase begins with the female beginning her pointing posture, by leaning her body towards the male, who will simultaneously lean away and quiver. This phase can last up to 54 minutes. Following phase 2 is a latency period (typically between 30 minutes and four hours), during which the seahorses display no courtship behaviour and females are not bright; males will usually display a pumping motion with their body.


title: Seahorse

text: The third phase begins with the females brightening and assuming the pointing position. The males respond with their own brightening and pointing display. This phase ends with the male departing. It usually lasts nine minutes and can occur one to six times during courtship.


title: Seahorse

text: The final courtship phase includes 5-8 bouts of courtship. Each bout of courtship begins with both the male and female anchored to the same plant about 3 cm apart; usually they are facing each other and are still bright in colour from the previous phase. During the first bout, following the facing behaviour, the seahorses will rise upward together anywhere from 2 to 13 cm in a water column. During the final rise the female will insert her ovipositor and transfer her eggs though an opening into the male's brood pouch.


title: Seahorse

text: During fertilization in "Hippocampus kuda" the brood pouch was found to be open for only six seconds while egg deposition occurred. During this time seawater entered the pouch where the spermatozoa and eggs meet in a seawater milieu. This hyperosmotic environment facilitates sperm activation and motility. The fertilization is therefore regarded as being physiologically ‘external’ within a physically ‘internal’ environment after the closure of the pouch. It is believed that this protected form of fertilization reduces sperm competition among males. Within the Syngnathidae (pipefishes and seahorses) protected fertilization has not been documented in the pipefishes but the lack of any distinct differences in the relation of testes size to body size suggests that pipefishes may also have evolved mechanisms for more efficient fertilization with reduced sperm competition.


title: Seahorse

text: The fertilized eggs are then embedded in the pouch wall and become surrounded by a spongy tissue. The male supplies the eggs with prolactin, the same hormone responsible for milk production in pregnant mammals. The pouch provides oxygen, as well as a controlled environment incubator. Though the egg yolk contributes nourishment to the developing embryo, the male sea horses contribute additional nutrients such as energy-rich lipids and also calcium to allow them to build their skeletal system, by secreting them into the brood pouch that are absorbed by the embryos. Further they also offer immunological protection, osmoregulation, gas exchange and waste transport.


title: Seahorse

text: The eggs then hatch in the pouch, where the salinity of the water is regulated; this prepares the newborns for life in the sea. Throughout gestation, which in most species requires two to four weeks, his mate visits him daily for “morning greetings”.


title: Seahorse

text: The number of young released by the male seahorse averages 100–1000 for most species, but may be as low as 5 for the smaller species, or as high as 2,500. When the fry are ready to be born, the male expels them with muscular contractions. He typically gives birth at night and is ready for the next batch of eggs by morning when his mate returns. Like almost all other fish species, seahorses do not nurture their young after birth. Infants are susceptible to predators or ocean currents which wash them away from feeding grounds or into temperatures too extreme for their delicate bodies. Less than 0.5% of infants survive to adulthood, explaining why litters are so large. These survival rates are actually fairly high compared to other fish, because of their protected gestation, making the process worth the great cost to the father. The eggs of most other fish are abandoned immediately after fertilization.


title: Seahorse

text: Reproduction is energetically costly to the male. This brings into question why the sexual role reversal even takes place. In an environment where one partner incurs more energy costs than the other, Bateman's principle suggests that the lesser contributor takes the role of the aggressor. Male seahorses are more aggressive and sometimes “fight” for female attention. According to Amanda Vincent of Project Seahorse, only males tail-wrestle and snap their heads at each other. This discovery prompted further study of energy costs. To estimate the female's direct contribution, researchers chemically analyzed the energy stored in each egg. To measure the burden on the males, oxygen consumption was used. By the end of incubation, the male consumed almost 33% more oxygen than before mating. The study concluded that the female's energy expenditure while generating eggs is twice that of males during incubation, confirming the standard hypothesis.


title: Seahorse

text: Why the male seahorse (and other members of the Syngnathidae) carries the offspring through gestation is unknown, though some researchers believe it allows for shorter birthing intervals, in turn resulting in more offspring. Given an unlimited number of ready and willing partners, males have the potential to produce 17% more offspring than females in a breeding season. Also, females have “time-outs” from the reproductive cycle 1.2 times longer than those of males. This seems to be based on mate choice, rather than physiology. When the female's eggs are ready, she must lay them in a few hours or eject them into the water column. Making eggs is a huge cost to her physically, since they amount to about a third of her body weight. To protect against losing a clutch, the female demands a long courtship. The daily greetings help to cement the bond between the pair.


title: Seahorse

text: Though seahorses are not known to mate for life, many species form pair bonds that last through at least the breeding season. Some species show a higher level of mate fidelity than others. However, many species readily switch mates when the opportunity arises. "H. abdominalis" and "H. breviceps" have been shown to breed in groups, showing no continuous mate preference. Many more species' mating habits have not been studied, so it is unknown how many species are actually monogamous, or how long those bonds actually last.


title: Seahorse

text: Although monogamy within fish is not common, it does appear to exist for some. In this case, the mate-guarding hypothesis may be an explanation. This hypothesis states, “males remain with a single female because of ecological factors that make male parental care and protection of offspring especially advantageous.” Because the rates of survival for newborn seahorses are so low, incubation is essential. Though not proven, males could have taken on this role because of the lengthy period the females require to produce their eggs. If males incubate while females prepare the next clutch (amounting to a third of body weight), they can reduce the interval between clutches.


title: Seahorse

text: Seahorses use their long snouts to eat their food with ease. However, they are slow to consume their food and have extremely simple digestive systems that lack a stomach, so they must eat constantly to stay alive. Seahorses are not very good swimmers, and for this reason they need to anchor themselves to seaweed, coral or anything else that will anchor the seahorse in place. They do this by using their prehensile tails to grasp their object of choice. Seahorses feed on small crustaceans floating in the water or crawling on the bottom. With excellent camouflage seahorses ambush prey that floats within striking range, sitting and waiting until an optimal moment. Mysid shrimp and other small crustaceans are favorites, but some seahorses have been observed eating other kinds of invertebrates and even larval fish. In a study of seahorses, the distinctive head morphology was found to give them a hydrodynamic advantage that creates minimal interference while approaching an evasive prey. Thus the seahorse can get very close to the copepods on which it preys. After successfully closing in on the prey without alerting it, the seahorse gives an upward thrust and rapidly rotates the head aided by large tendons that store and release elastic energy, to bring its long snout close to the prey. This step is crucial for prey capture, as oral suction only works at a close range. This two-phase prey capture mechanism is termed pivot-feeding. Seahorses have three distinctive feeding phases: preparatory, expansive, and recovery. During the preparatory phase, the seahorse slowly approaches the prey while in an upright position, after which it slowly flexes its head ventrally. In the expansive phase, the seahorse captures its prey by simultaneously elevating its head, expanding the buccal cavity, and sucking in the prey item. During the recovery phase, the jaws, head, and hyoid apparatus of the seahorse return to their original positions.


title: Seahorse

text: The amount of available cover influences the seahorse's feeding behaviour. For example, in wild areas with small amounts of vegetation, seahorses will sit and wait, but an environment with extensive vegetation will prompt the seahorse to inspect its environment, feeding while swimming rather than sitting and waiting. Conversely, in an aquarium setting with little vegetation, the seahorse will fully inspect its environment and makes no attempt to sit and wait.


title: Seahorse

text: Because data is lacking on the sizes of the various seahorse populations, as well as other issues including how many seahorses are dying each year, how many are being born, and the number used for souvenirs, there is insufficient information to assess their risk of extinction, and the risk of losing more seahorses remains a concern. Some species, such as the Paradoxical Seahorse, "H. paradoxus", may already be extinct. Coral reefs and seagrass beds are deteriorating, reducing viable habitats for seahorses. Additionally, bycatch in many areas causes high cumulative effects on seahorses, with an estimated 37 million individuals being removed annually over 21 countries.


title: Seahorse

text: While many aquarium hobbyists keep them as pets, seahorses collected from the wild tend to fare poorly in home aquaria. Many eat only live foods such as brine shrimp and are prone to stress, which damages their immune systems and makes them susceptible to disease.


title: Seahorse

text: In recent years, however, captive breeding has become more popular. Such seahorses survive better in captivity, and are less likely to carry diseases. They eat frozen mysidacea (crustaceans) that are readily available from aquarium stores, and do not experience the stress of moving out of the wild. Although captive-bred seahorses are more expensive, they take no toll on wild populations.


title: Seahorse

text: Seahorses should be kept in an aquarium with low flow and placid tank mates. They are slow feeders, so fast, aggressive feeders will leave them without food. Seahorses can coexist with many species of shrimp and other bottom-feeding creatures. Gobies also make good tank-mates. Keepers are generally advised to avoid eels, tangs, triggerfish, squid, octopus, and sea anemones.


title: Seahorse

text: Water quality is very important for the survival of seahorses in an aquarium. They are delicate species which should not be added to a new tank. The water parameters are recommended to be as follows although these fish may acclimatise to different water over time:


title: Seahorse

text: A water-quality problem will affect fish behaviour and can be shown by clamped fins, reduced feeding, erratic swimming, and gasping at the surface. Seahorses swim up and down, as well as using the length of the aquarium. Therefore, the tanks should ideally be twice as deep as the length of the adult seahorse.


title: Seahorse

text: Animals sold as "freshwater seahorses" are usually the closely related pipefish, of which a few species live in the lower reaches of rivers. The supposed true "freshwater seahorse" called "H. aimei" is not a valid species, but a synonym sometimes used for Barbour's and hedgehog seahorses. The latter, which is often confused with the former, can be found in estuarine environments, but is not actually a freshwater fish.


title: Seahorse

text: Seahorse populations are thought to be endangered as a result of overfishing and habitat destruction. Despite a lack of scientific studies or clinical trials, the consumption of seahorses is widespread in traditional Chinese medicine, primarily in connection with impotence, wheezing, nocturnal enuresis, and pain, as well as labor induction. Up to 20 million seahorses may be caught each year to be sold for such uses. Preferred species of seahorses include "H. kellogii, H. histrix, H. kuda, H. trimaculatus," and "H. mohnikei". Seahorses are also consumed by Indonesians, central Filipinos, and many other ethnic groups .


title: Seahorse

text: Import and export of seahorses has been controlled under CITES since 15 May 2004. However, Indonesia, Japan, Norway, and South Korea have chosen to opt out of the trade rules set by CITES.


title: Seahorse

text: The problem may be exacerbated by the growth of pills and capsules as the preferred method of ingesting seahorses. Pills are cheaper and more available than traditional, individually tailored prescriptions of whole seahorses, but the contents are harder to track. Seahorses once had to be of a certain size and quality before they were accepted by TCM practitioners and consumers. Declining availability of the preferred large, pale, and smooth seahorses has been offset by the shift towards prepackaged preparations, which makes it possible for TCM merchants to sell previously unused, or otherwise undesirable juvenile, spiny, and dark-coloured animals. Today, almost a third of the seahorses sold in China are packaged, adding to the pressure on the species. Dried seahorse retails from US$600 to $3000 per kilogram, with larger, paler, and smoother animals commanding the highest prices. In terms of value based on weight, seahorses retail for more than the price of silver and almost that of gold in Asia.


title: Seahorse

text: Based on the newest overall taxonomic review of the genus "Hippocampus" with further new species and partial taxonomic review, the number of recognized species in this genus is considered to be 46 (retrieved May 2020):


title: Seahorse

text: Pygmy seahorses are those members of the genus that are less than tall and wide. Previously the term was applied exclusively to the species "H. bargibanti" but since 1997, discoveries have made this usage obsolete. The species "H. minotaur", "H. denise", "H. colemani", "H. pontohi", "H. severnsi", "H. satomiae", "H. waleananus", "H. nalu", "H. japapigu" have been described. Other species that are believed to be unclassified have also been reported in books, dive magazines and on the Internet. They can be distinguished from other species of seahorse by their 12 trunk rings, low number of tail rings (26–29), the location in which young are brooded in the trunk region of males and their extremely small size. Molecular analysis (of ribosomal RNA) of 32 "Hippocampus" species found that "H. bargibanti" belongs in a separate clade from other members of the genus and therefore that the species diverged from the other species in the ancient past.


title: Seahorse

text: Most pygmy seahorses are well camouflaged and live in close association with other organisms including colonial hydrozoans ("Lytocarpus" and "Antennellopsis"), coralline algae ("Halimeda") sea fans ("Muricella", "Annella", "Acanthogorgia"). This combined with their small size accounts for why most species have only been noticed and classified since 2001.


title: Olga of Kiev

text: Olga (; Old Norse: '; Lith: "Alge"; Christian name: "Elena"; c. 890–925 – 969) was a regent of Kievan Rus' for her son Sviatoslav from 945 until 960. Following her baptism, Olga took the name Elenа"' (). She is known for her subjugation of the Drevlians, a tribe that had killed her husband Igor of Kiev. Even though it was her grandson Vladimir who converted the entire nation to Christianity, because of her efforts to spread Christianity through Rus', Olga is venerated as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church with the epithet "Equal to the Apostles". Her feast day is 11 July.


title: Olga of Kiev

text: While Olga's birthdate is unknown, it could be as early as 890 AD and as late as 925 AD. According to the "Primary Chronicle," Olga was of Varangian (Viking) origin and was born in Pleskov. Little is known about her life before her marriage to Prince Igor I of Kiev and the birth of their son, Sviatoslav. According to Alexey Karpov, a specialist in the history of ancient Russia, Olga was no more than 15 years old at the time of her marriage. Igor was the son and heir of Rurik, founder of the Rurik dynasty. After his father's death, Igor was under the guardianship of Oleg, who had consolidated power in the region, conquering neighboring tribes and establishing a capital in Kiev. This loose tribal federation became known as Kievan Rus', a territory covering what are now parts of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus.


title: Olga of Kiev

text: The Drevlians were a neighboring tribe with which the growing Kievan Rus' empire had a complex relationship. The Drevlians had joined Kievan Rus' in military campaigns against the Byzantine Empire and paid tribute to Igor's predecessors. They stopped paying tribute upon Oleg's death and instead gave money to a local warlord. In 945, Igor set out to the Drevlian capital, Iskorosten, to force the tribe to pay tribute to Kievan Rus'. Confronted by Igor's larger army, the Drevlians backed down and paid him. As Igor and his army rode home, however, he decided the payment was not enough and returned, with only a small escort, seeking more tribute.


title: Olga of Kiev

text: Upon his arrival in their territory, the Drevlians murdered Igor. According to the Byzantine chronicler Leo the Deacon, Igor's death was caused by a gruesome act of torture in which he was "captured by them, tied to tree trunks, and torn in two." D. Sullivan has suggested that Leo may have invented this sensationalist version of Igor's death, taking inspiration from Diodorus Siculus' account of a similar killing method used by the robber Sinis, who lived near the Isthmus of Corinth and was killed by Theseus.


title: Olga of Kiev

text: After Igor's death in 945, Olga ruled Kievan Rus' as regent on behalf of their son Sviatoslav. She was the first woman to rule Kievan Rus'.


title: Olga of Kiev

text: Little is known about Olga's tenure as ruler of Kiev, but the "Primary Chronicle" does give an account of her accession to the throne and her bloody revenge on the Drevlians for the murder of her husband as well as some insight into her role as civil leader of the Kievan people.


title: Olga of Kiev

text: According to archeologist Sergei Beletsky, Knyaginya Olga, like all the other rulers before Vladimir the Great, was also using the bident as her personal symbol.


title: Olga of Kiev

text: After Igor's death at the hands of the Drevlians, Olga assumed the throne because her three-year-old son Sviatoslav was too young to rule. The Drevlians, emboldened by their success in ambushing and killing the king, sent a messenger to Olga proposing that she marry his murderer, Prince Mal. Twenty Drevlian negotiators boated to Kiev to pass along their king's message and to ensure Olga's compliance. They arrived in her court and told the queen why they were in Kiev: "to report that they had slain her husband...and that Olga should come and marry their Prince Mal." Olga responded:Your proposal is pleasing to me, indeed, my husband cannot rise again from the dead. But I desire to honor you tomorrow in the presence of my people. Return now to your boat, and remain there with an aspect of arrogance. I shall send for you on the morrow, and you shall say, "We will not ride on horses nor go on foot, carry us in our boat." And you shall be carried in your boat.When the Drevlians returned the next day, they waited outside Olga's court to receive the honor she had promised. When they repeated the words she had told them to say, the people of Kiev rose up, carrying the Drevlians in their boat. The ambassadors believed this was a great honor as if they were being carried by palanquin. The people brought them into the court where they were dropped into a trench that had been dug the day before under Olga's orders where the ambassadors were buried alive. It is written that Olga bent down to watch them as they were buried and "inquired whether they found the honor to their taste."


title: Olga of Kiev

text: Olga then sent a message to the Drevlians that they should send "their distinguished men to her in Kiev, so that she might go to their Prince with due honor." The Drevlians, unaware of the fate of the first diplomatic party, gathered another party of men to send "the best men who governed the land of Dereva." When they arrived, Olga commanded her people to draw them a bath and invited the men to appear before her after they had bathed. When the Drevlians entered the bathhouse, Olga had it set on fire from the doors, so that all the Drevlians within burned to death.


title: Olga of Kiev

text: Olga sent another message to the Drevlians, this time ordering them to "prepare great quantities of mead in the city where you killed my husband, that I may weep over his grave and hold a funeral feast for him." When Olga and a small group of attendants arrived at Igor's tomb, she did indeed weep and hold a funeral feast. The Drevlians sat down to join them and began to drink heavily. When the Drevlians were drunk, she ordered her followers to kill them, "and went about herself egging on her retinue to the massacre of the Drevlians." According to the "Primary Chronicle", five thousand Drevlians were killed on this night, but Olga returned to Kiev to prepare an army to finish off the survivors.


title: Olga of Kiev

text: The initial conflict between the armies of the two nations went very well for the forces of Kievan Rus', who won the battle handily and drove the survivors back into their cities. Olga then led her army to Iskorosten (what is today Korosten), the city where her husband had been slain, and laid siege to the city. The siege lasted for a year without success when Olga thought of a plan to trick the Drevlians. She sent them a message: "Why do you persist in holding out? All your cities have surrendered to me and submitted to tribute, so that the inhabitants now cultivate their fields and their lands in peace. But you had rather die of hunger, without submitting to tribute."


title: Olga of Kiev

text: The Drevlians responded that they would submit to tribute, but that they were afraid she was still intent on avenging her husband. Olga answered that the murder of the messengers sent to Kiev, as well as the events of the feast night, had been enough for her. She then asked them for a small request: "Give me three pigeons...and three sparrows from each house." The Drevlians rejoiced at the prospect of the siege ending for so small a price, and did as she asked.


title: Olga of Kiev

text: Olga then instructed her army to attach a piece of sulphur bound with small pieces of cloth to each bird. At nightfall, Olga told her soldiers to set the pieces aflame and release the birds. They returned to their nests within the city, which subsequently set the city ablaze. As the "Primary Chronicle" tells it: "There was not a house that was not consumed, and it was impossible to extinguish the flames, because all the houses caught fire at once." As the people fled the burning city, Olga ordered her soldiers to catch them, killing some of them and giving the others as slaves to her followers. She left the remnant to pay tribute.


title: Olga of Kiev

text: Olga remained regent ruler of Kievan Rus' with the support of the army and her people. She changed the system of tribute gathering (poliudie) in the first legal reform recorded in Eastern Europe. She continued to evade proposals of marriage, defended the city during the Siege of Kiev in 968, and saved the power of the throne for her son.


title: Olga of Kiev

text: After her dramatic subjugation of the Drevlians, the "Primary Chronicle" recounts how Olga "passed through the land of Dereva, accompanied by her son and her retinue, establishing laws and tribute. Her trading posts and hunting-reserves are there still." As queen, Olga established trading-posts and collected tribute along the Msta and the Luga rivers. She established hunting grounds, boundary posts, towns, and trading-posts across the empire. Olga's work helped to centralize state rule with these trade centers, called "pogosti", which served as administrative centers in addition to their mercantile roles. Olga's network of "pogosti" would prove important in the ethnic and cultural unification of the Rus' people, and her border posts began the establishment of national boundaries for the kingdom.


title: Olga of Kiev

text: During her son's prolonged military campaigns, she remained in charge of Kiev, residing in the castle of Vyshgorod with her grandsons.


title: Olga of Kiev

text: The "Primary Chronicle" does not go into additional detail about Olga's time as regent, but does tell the story of her conversion to Christianity and subsequent effect on the acceptance of Christianity in Eastern Europe.


title: Olga of Kiev

text: In the 950s, Olga traveled to Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire, to visit Emperor Constantine VII. Once in Constantinople, Olga converted to Christianity with the assistance of the Emperor and the Patriarch. While the "Primary Chronicle" does not divulge Olga's motivation for her visit or conversion, it does go into great detail on the conversion process, in which she was baptized and instructed in the ways of Christianity:The reigning Emperor was named Constantine, son of Leo. Olga came before him, and when he saw that she was very fair of countenance and wise as well, the Emperor wondered at her intellect. He conversed with her and remarked that she was worthy to reign with him in his city. When Olga heard his words, she replied that she was still a pagan, and that if he desired to baptize her, he should perform this function himself; otherwise, she was unwilling to accept baptism. The Emperor, with the assistance of the Patriarch, accordingly baptized her. When Olga was enlightened, she rejoiced in soul and body. The Patriarch, who instructed her in the faith, said to her, "Blessed art thou among the women of Rus', for thou hast loved the light, and quit the darkness. The sons of Rus' shall bless thee to the last generation of thy descendants." He taught her the doctrine of the church, and instructed her in prayer and fasting, in almsgiving, and in the maintenance of chastity. She bowed her head, and like a sponge absorbing water, she eagerly drank in his teachings. The Princess bowed before the Patriarch, saying, "Through thy prayers, Holy Father, may I be preserved from the crafts and assaults of the devil!" At her baptism she was christened Helena, after the ancient Empress, mother of Constantine the Great. The Patriarch then blessed her and dismissed her.While the "Primary Chronicle" notes that Olga was christened with the name "Helena" after the ancient Saint Helena (the mother of Constantine the Great), Jonathan Shepard argues that Olga's baptismal name comes from the contemporary emperor's wife, Helena. The observation that Olga was "worthy to reign with him in his city" suggests that the emperor was interested in marrying her. While the "Chronicle" explains Constantine's desire to take Olga as his wife as stemming from the fact that she was "fair of countenance and wise as well," marrying Olga could certainly have helped him gain power over Rus'.


title: Olga of Kiev

text: The "Chronicle" recounts that Olga asked the emperor to baptize her knowing that his baptismal sponsorship, by the rules of spiritual kinship, would make marriage between them a kind of spiritual incest. Though her desire to become Christian may have been genuine, this request was also a way for her to maintain political independence. After the baptism, when Constantine repeated his marriage proposal, Olga answered that she could not marry him since church law forbade a goddaughter to marry her godfather:After her baptism, the Emperor summoned Olga and made known to her that he wished her to become his wife. But she replied, "How can you marry me, after yourself baptizing me and calling me your daughter? For among Christians that is unlawful, as you yourself must know." Then the Emperor said, "Olga, you have outwitted me." He gave her many gifts of gold, silver, silks, and various vases, and dismissed her, still calling her his daughter.


title: Olga of Kiev

text: Francis Butler argues that the story of the proposal was a literary embellishment, describing an event that is highly unlikely to have ever actually occurred. In fact, at the time of her baptism, Constantine already had an empress. In addition to uncertainty over the truth of the "Chronicle" telling of events in Constantinople, there is controversy over the details of her conversion to Christianity. According to Russian sources, she was baptized in Constantinople in 957. Byzantine sources, however, indicate that she was a Christian prior to her 957 visit.


title: Olga of Kiev

text: It seems likely that she was baptized in Kiev around 955 and, following a second christening in Constantinople, took the Christian name Helen. Olga was not the first person from Rus' to convert from her pagan ways-- there were Christians in Igor's court who had taken oaths at the St. Elias Church in Kiev for the Rus'–Byzantine Treaty in 945--but she was the most powerful Rus' individual to undergo baptism during her life.


title: Olga of Kiev

text: "The Primary" "Chronicle" reports that Olga received the Patriarch's blessing for her journey home, and that once she arrived, she unsuccessfully attempted to convert her son to Christianity:Now Olga dwelt with her son Sviatoslav, and she urged him to be baptized, but he would not listen to her suggestion, though when any man wished to be baptized, he was not hindered, but only mocked. For to the infidels, the Christian faith is foolishness. They do not comprehend it, because they walk in darkness and do not see the glory of God. Their hearts are hardened, and they can neither hear with their ears nor see with their eyes. For Solomon has said, "The deeds of the unrighteous are far from wisdom. Inasmuch as I have called you, and ye heard me not, I sharpened my words, and ye understood not. But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would have none of my reproach. For they have hated knowledge, and the fear of Jehovah they have not chosen. They would none of my counsel, but despised all my reproof."This passage highlights the hostility towards Christianity in Kievan Rus' in the tenth century. In the "Chronicle," Sviatoslav declares that his followers would "laugh" if he were to accept Christianity. While Olga tried to convince her son that his followers would follow his example if he converted, her efforts were in vain. However, her son agreed not to persecute those in his kingdom who did convert, which marked a crucial turning point for Christianity in the area. Despite the resistance of her people to Christianity, Olga built churches in Kiev, Pskov, and elsewhere.


title: Olga of Kiev

text: Seven Latin sources document Olga's embassy to Holy Roman Emperor Otto I in 959. The continuation of Regino of Prüm mentions that the envoys requested the emperor to appoint a bishop and priests for their nation. The chronicler accuses the envoys of lies, commenting that their trick was not exposed until later. Thietmar of Merseburg says that the first archbishop of Magdeburg, Adalbert of Magdeburg, before being promoted to this high rank, was sent by Emperor Otto to the country of the Rus' ("Rusciae") as a simple bishop but was expelled by pagan allies of Sviatoslav I. The same data is repeated in the annals of Quedlinburg and Hildesheim.


title: Olga of Kiev

text: In 2018, Russian historian and writer Boris Akunin pointed out the importance of a 2-year gap between invitation and arrival of bishops: "The failure of Olga's Byzantine trip has inflicted a severe blow to her party. The Grand Knyaginya made a second attempt to find a Christian patron, now in the West. But it seems, in the period between the sending of the embassy to Emperor Otto in 959 and the arrival of Adalbert in Kiev in 961, a bloodless coup took place. Pagan party prevailed, the young Sviatoslav pushed his mother into the background, and that's why the German bishops had to return empty-handed."


title: Olga of Kiev

text: According to Russian historian Vladimir Petrukhin, Olga invited the Roman rite bishops because she wanted to motivate Byzantine priests to catechize the Rus' people more enthusiastically, by introducing competition.


title: Olga of Kiev

text: According to the "Primary Chronicle", Olga died from illness in 969, soon after the Pechenegs' siege of the city. When Sviatoslav announced plans to move his throne to the Danube region, the ailing Olga convinced him to stay with her during her final days. Only three days later, she died and her family and all of Kievan Rus’ wept:Sviatoslav announced to his mother and his boyars, "I do not care to remain in Kiev, but should prefer to live in Peryaslavets on the Danube, since that is the centre of my realm, where all riches are concentrated; gold, silks, wine, and various fruits from Greece, silver and horses from Hungary and Bohemia, and from Rus' furs, wax, honey, and slaves." But Olga made reply, "You behold me in my weakness. Why do you desire to depart from me?" For she was already in precarious health. She thus remonstrated with him and begged him first to bury her and then to go wheresoever he would. Three days later Olga died. Her son wept for her with great mourning, as did likewise her grandsons and all the people. They thus carried her out, and buried her in her tomb. Olga had given command not to hold a funeral feast for her, for she had a priest who performed the last rites over the sainted Princess.Although he disapproved of his mother's Christian tradition, Sviatoslav heeded Olga's request that her priest, Gregory, conduct a Christian funeral without the ritual pagan burial feast. Her tomb remained in Kiev for over two centuries, but was destroyed by the Mongolian-Tatar armies of Batu Khan in 1240.


title: Olga of Kiev

text: At the time of her death, it seemed that Olga's attempt to make Kievan Rus' a Christian territory had been a failure. Nonetheless, Olga's Christianizing mission would be brought to fruition by her grandson, Vladimir, who officially adopted Christianity in 988. The "Primary Chronicle" highlights Olga's holiness in contrast to the pagans around her during her life as well as the significance of her decision to convert to Christianity:Olga was the precursor of the Christian land, even as the day-spring precedes the sun and as the dawn precedes the day. For she shone like the moon by night, and she was radiant among the infidels like a pearl in the mire, since the people were soiled, and not yet purified of their sin by holy baptism. But she herself was cleansed by this sacred purification…. She was the first from Rus' to enter the kingdom of God, and the sons of Rus' thus praise her as their leader, for since her death she has interceded with God in their behalf.In 1547, nearly 600 years after her 969 death, the Russian Orthodox Church named Olga a saint. Because of her proselytizing influence, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church, and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church call Olga by the honorific Isapóstolos, "Equal to the Apostles". Olga's feast day is July 11, the date of her death. In keeping with her own biography, she is the patron of widows and converts.


title: Olga of Kiev

text: Olga is venerated as saint in East Slavic-speaking countries where churches uses the Byzantine Rite: Eastern Orthodox Church (especially in Russian Orthodox Church), Greek Catholic Church (especially in the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church), in churches with Byzantine Rite Lutheranism, and among Western Catholics in Russia.


title: Olga of Kiev

text: Scholarship has traditionally focused on Olga's role in the spread of Christianity to Eastern Europe and Russia as well as her role in advising her son against persecution of Christians in the Kievan Rus'.


title: Olga of Kiev

text: Modern publications, on the other hand, reflect a broader interest in Olga beyond her role in expanding Christendom. Detailing her story, a 2018 article claimed she showed her countrymen how "a woman could rule with strength and decision." "The Russian Primary Chronicle's" claim that Olga was of Viking descent also received attention for its possible contribution to her "warrior spirit". Thomas Craughwell has commented, "If any saint [was] bad to the bone, it was Olga, princess of Kiev ... [She] took viciousness to a new level."


title: Olga of Kiev

text: Russian historian Boris Akunin argues though she certainly reconquered the Drevlians, only her killing of their first envoy is plausible, since Iskorosten was just two days' ride from Kiev, making it difficult to conceal the first public murder.


title: Olga of Kiev

text: In 1981 a new ballet based on Olga's life was composed to commemorate the 1500th anniversary of the city of Kyiv.


title: Provinces of China

text: The provincial level administrative divisions () are the highest-level administrative divisions of China. There are 34 such divisions claimed by the People's Republic of China, classified as 23 provinces (), five autonomous regions, four municipalities and two special administrative regions. The political status of Taiwan Province along with a small fraction of Fujian Province remain in dispute; those are under separate rule by the Republic of China, which is usually referred to as "Taiwan".


title: Provinces of China

text: Every province on Mainland China (including the island province of Hainan) has a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) provincial committee (), headed by a secretary (). The Committee Secretary is effectively in charge of the province, rather than the governor of the provincial government. The same arrangement exists for the autonomous regions and municipalities.


title: Provinces of China

text: The government of each standard province () is nominally led by a provincial committee, headed by a secretary. The committee secretary is first-in-charge of the province; second-in-command is the governor of the provincial government. In practice, day-to-day affairs are managed by a provincial party standing committee, which makes decisions for a province analogous to the Politburo for the central government.


title: Provinces of China

text: The People's Republic of China (PRC) claims the island of Taiwan and its surrounding islets, including Penghu, as "Taiwan Province", though Taiwan has not been under control of a government that ruled from mainland China since 1949, when the Republic of China (ROC) lost the mainland to the CCP, which established the PRC. (Kinmen and the Matsu Islands are claimed by the PRC as part of its Fujian Province. Pratas Island and the Vereker Banks and Itu Aba (Taiping Island) are claimed by the PRC as part of Guangdong and Hainan provinces respectively.) The territory is controlled by the Republic of China (ROC, commonly called "Taiwan") though the provinces were streamlined in 1998 and the provincial governments were de facto dissolved in 2019.


title: Provinces of China

text: A municipality () or municipality directly under the administration of the central government is a higher level of city which is directly under the Chinese government, with status equal to that of the provinces. In practice, their political status is higher than that of common provinces.


title: Provinces of China

text: An autonomous region () is a minority subject which has a higher population of a particular minority ethnic group along with its own local government, but an autonomous region theoretically has more legislative rights than in actual practice. The governor of each autonomous region is usually appointed from the respective minority ethnic group.


title: Provinces of China

text: A special administrative region (SAR) () is a highly autonomous and self-governing sub national subject of the People's Republic of China that is directly under the Central People's Government. Each SAR has a chief executive as head of the region and head of government. The region's government is not fully independent, as foreign policy and military defence are the responsibility of the central government, according to the basic laws.


title: Provinces of China

text: The names of the provinces that the Eastern (Later) Han created were Bing, Ji, Jiao, Jing, Liang (at first Yong, later changed to Liang), Qing, Si (the Sili Xiaowei Department), Xu, Yan, Yang, Yi, You and


title: Provinces of China

text: By the time unity was finally reestablished by the Sui dynasty, the provinces had been divided and redivided so many times by different governments that they were almost the same size as commanderies, rendering the two-tier system superfluous. As such, the Sui merged the two together. In English, this merged level is translated as "prefectures". In Chinese, the name changed between "zhou" and "jun" several times before being finally settled on "zhou". Based on the apocryphal Nine Province system, the Sui restored nine "zhou".


title: Provinces of China

text: Emperor Taizong (r. 626–649) set up 10 "circuits" () in 627 as inspection areas for imperial commissioners monitoring the operation of prefectures, rather than a new primary level of administration. In 639, there were 10 circuits, 43 commanderies (), and 358 prefectures ( and later ). In 733, Emperor Xuanzong expanded the number of circuits to 15 by establishing separate circuits for the areas around Chang'an and Luoyang, and by splitting the large Shannan and Jiangnan circuits into 2 and 3 new circuits respectively. He also established a system of permanent inspecting commissioners, though without executive powers.


title: Provinces of China

text: <nowiki>*</nowiki> Circuits established under Xuanzong, as opposed to Taizong's original ten circuits.


title: Provinces of China

text: <nowiki>**</nowiki> Circuits established under Xuanzong by dividing Taizong's Jiangnan and Shannan circuits.


title: Provinces of China

text: The Song government abolished the previous commissioners and renamed their circuits (, literally meaning "roads", but is still usually translated as "circuits"). They also added a number of "army" prefectures (). Similarly, Liao and Jurchen Jin dynasties also established circuits as the first-level administrative division.


title: Provinces of China

text: China was reorganised into 11 provinces keeping most of the previous boundaries of provinces created by the previous dynasty unchanged, the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368) had two additional regions: Central region ruled by the Zhongshu Sheng () and the Tibetan region ruled by the Bureau of Buddhist and Tibetan Affairs ().


title: Provinces of China

text: The Ming dynasty (1368–1644) kept the province system set up by the Yuan dynasty. However, it divided the original 10 provinces into 16, later two capital metropolitan areas and 13 provinces () within China proper and five additional military-ruled regions.


title: Provinces of China

text: By the latter half of the Qing dynasty (1644–1912), there were 18 provinces, all of them in China proper ().


title: Provinces of China

text: Jiangsu and Anhui were originally one province called Jiangnan, with its capital at Nanjing. There was no discrete time period when the two halves of Jiangnan were split, but rather, this was a gradual process.


title: Provinces of China

text: Each province had a "xunfu" (; translated as "governor"), a political overseer on behalf of the emperor, and a "tidu" (; translated as "captain general"), a military governor. In addition, there was a "zongdu" (), a general military inspector or governor general, for every two to three provinces.


title: Provinces of China

text: Outer regions of China (those beyond China proper) were not divided into provinces. Military leaders or generals () oversaw Manchuria (consisting of Fengtian (now Liaoning), Jilin, Heilongjiang), Xinjiang, and Mongolia, while vice-"dutong" () and civilian leaders headed the leagues (), a subdivision of Mongolia. The "ambans" () supervised the administration of Tibet.


title: Provinces of China

text: In 1884 Xinjiang became a province; in 1907 Fengtian, Jilin, and Heilongjiang were made provinces as well. Taiwan became a province in 1885, but China ceded Taiwan to Japan in 1895. As a result, there were 22 provinces in China (Outer China and China proper) near the end of the Qing dynasty.


title: Provinces of China

text: The Republic of China, established in 1912, set up four more provinces in Inner Mongolia and two provinces in historic Tibet, bringing the total to 28. In 1931, Ma Zhongying established Hexi in the northern parts of Gansu but the ROC never acknowledged the province. However, China lost four provinces with the establishment of the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo in Manchuria. After the defeat of Japan in World War II in 1945, China re-incorporated Manchuria as 10 provinces, and assumed control of Taiwan as a province. As a result, the Republic of China in 1946 had 35 provinces.


title: Provinces of China

text: Although the Republic of China now only controls one province (Taiwan), and some islands of a second province (Fujian), it continues to formally claim all 35 provinces (including those that no longer form part of the area of the People's Republic of China) in official maps by the ROC government and ignores the changes imposed by the PRC. By 1967 and 1979, the ROC set up Taipei and Kaohsiung as its special municipalities, with three more added in 2010 and one in 2014. No boundary changes were redrawn as of but the Chen Shui-bian administration renounced claims to Outer Mongolia in 2002. The remaining provinces became streamlined in 1998 and its governments became non-functional in 2019.


title: Provinces of China

text: The People's Republic of China abolished many of the provinces in the 1950s and converted a number of them into autonomous regions. Hainan became a separate province in 1988, bringing the total number of provinces under PRC control to 22.


title: Provinces of China

text: In contrast, the Republic of China also had a number of provinces under its control such as Taiwan and Fujian, which the ROC currently administers, though the ROC abolished the Xinjiang Provincial Office in 1992. In 1998, after streamlining of the two provinces, some of its powers from the Taiwan and Fujian Provincial Governments were gradually transferred to county governments. This fractured further between 2018 and 2019 when the ROC central government "de facto" abolished the provincial governments with most of the remaining powers given to the Executive Yuan.


title: Provinces of China

text: The provinces in southeast coastal area of China such as Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian and (mainly) Guangdong tend to be more industrialized, with regions in the hinterland less developed.


title: IPhone 6

text: The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are smartphones that were designed and marketed by Apple Inc. They are the eighth generation of the iPhone, succeeding the iPhone 5, iPhone 5C and iPhone 5S, and were announced on September 9, 2014, and released on September 19, 2014. The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus jointly were themselves replaced as the flagship devices of the iPhone series by the iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus on September 9, 2015. The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus include larger displays, a faster processor, upgraded cameras, improved LTE and Wi-Fi connectivity and support for a near field communications-based mobile payments offering.


title: IPhone 6

text: The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus received positive reviews, with critics regarding their redesign, specifications, camera, and battery life as being improvements over previous iPhone models. However, aspects of the design of iPhone 6 were also criticized, including plastic strips on the rear of the device for its antenna that disrupted the otherwise metal exterior, and the screen resolution of the standard-sized iPhone 6 being lower than other devices in its class. The iPhone 6 sold extremely well, making it the best-selling iPhone model and the most successful smartphone to date.


title: IPhone 6

text: The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus have been the subject of several hardware issues, including most prominently, being susceptible to bending under hard pressure (dubbed "Bendgate"), and as a byproduct of this lack of rigidity, the touchscreen's internal hardware being susceptible to losing its connection to the phone's logic board (nicknamed "Touch Disease"). Additionally, some iPhone 6 Plus models were the subject of camera issues, including some with malfunctioning optical image stabilization or otherwise defects on rear cameras.


title: IPhone 6

text: The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus were moved to the midrange spot in Apple's iPhone lineup when the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus were released in September 2015. The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus were discontinued in most markets on September 7, 2016, when Apple announced the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. Their spot as the entry-level iPhone was replaced by the first-generation iPhone SE, which was released earlier on March 31, 2016. The iPhone 6 was relaunched with 32 GB of storage in Asian markets in February 2017 as a midrange/budget iPhone. It was later expanded to Europe, before hitting the US markets in May 2017, and Canada in July 2017. The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus supported iOS 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 before being dropped by iOS 13, and they are the third to support five versions of iOS after the iPhone 4S and the iPhone 5.


title: IPhone 6

text: From the launch of the original iPhone to the iPhone 4S, iPhones used 3.5-inch displays—which are smaller than screens used by flagship phones from competitors. The iPhone 5 and its immediate successors featured a display that was taller, but the same width as prior models, measuring at 4 inches diagonally. Following Apple's loss in smartphone market share to companies producing phones with larger displays, reports as early as January 2014 suggested Apple was preparing to launch new iPhone models with larger, 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch displays. Reports prior to its unveiling also speculated Apple might use a new iPhone model to introduce a mobile payments platform using near-field communications—a technology that has been incorporated into many Android phones, but has experienced a low adoption rate among users.


title: IPhone 6

text: The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus were officially unveiled during a press event at the Flint Center for Performing Arts in Cupertino, California on September 9, 2014, and released on September 19, 2014; pre-orders began on September 12, 2014, with the iPhone 6 starting at US$649 and the iPhone 6 Plus starting at US$749. In China, where the iPhone 5C and 5S were the first models in the iPhone series to be released in the country on the same day as their international launch, Apple notified local wireless carriers it would be unable to release the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus on the 19th there were "details which are not ready"; local media reported the devices had not yet been approved by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and earlier in the year, a news report by state broadcaster China Central Television alleged iPhone devices were a threat to national security because iOS 7's "frequent locations" function could expose "state secrets."


title: IPhone 6

text: In August 2015, Apple initiated a replacement program for some early iPhone 6 Plus models that were found to have potentially faulty cameras that could be causing photos to appear blurry.


title: IPhone 6

text: On September 9, 2015, with the release of the iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus, the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus were moved to the mid-range of the iPhone lineup. The 128 GB versions of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus was discontinued along with the gold version of both phones, but the 16 GB and 64 GB versions of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus in silver and space gray remained available for sale at a reduced price.


title: IPhone 6

text: In June 2016, Apple faced a potential sales ban in China, as Shenzhen Baili, a Chinese device maker, alleged the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus infringed on its design patent.


title: IPhone 6

text: The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus were discontinued on September 7, 2016, when Apple announced the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, and the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus' spot as the entry-level iPhone was taken by the first-generation iPhone SE. As the iPhone SE has more powerful internal hardware than the midrange iPhone 6 (largely the same as the 6S) and had been released earlier on March 31, 2016, this created an unusual situation when it was sold alongside the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus until September 7 despite being marketed as a lower-tier iPhone.


title: IPhone 6

text: In February 2017, the iPhone 6 was quietly relaunched in carrier stores and online, this time the storage has been changed to 32 GB. In India, it was sold on Amazon's website in Space Grey. In Taiwan, it was sold through Taiwan Mobile on March 10 in gold color. In mid-March, it was released in the EU to Belarus via the i-Store webshop. It also makes an appearance in North America with Sprint based US prepaid carriers Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile, along with AT&T GoPhone. These are not being distributed by Apple on their website or their retail stores.


title: IPhone 6

text: The design of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus is influenced by that of the iPad Air with a glass front that is curved around the edges of the display, and an aluminum rear that contains two plastic strips for the antenna. The back is built of 6000-series aluminum. Both models come in gold, silver, and "space gray" finishes. The iPhone 6 has a thickness of , while the iPhone 6 Plus is in thickness; both are thinner than the iPhone 5c and iPhone 5s, with the iPhone 6 being Apple's thinnest phone to date.


title: IPhone 6

text: The most significant changes to the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are its displays; both branded as "Retina HD Display" and "ion-strengthened", the iPhone 6 display is 4.7 inches in size with a resolution of 1334x750 (326 ppi, minus one row of pixels), while the iPhone 6 Plus includes a 5.5-inch 1920x1080 (1080p) display (401 PPI). The displays use a multiple-domain LCD panel, dubbed "dual-domain pixels"; the RGB pixels themselves are skewed in a pattern so every pixel is seen from a different angle. This technique helps improve the viewing angles of the display.


title: IPhone 6

text: To accommodate the larger physical size of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, the top button was renamed to "side button" and moved to the side of the phone instead of the top to improve its accessibility.


title: IPhone 6

text: The iPhone 6 features a 6.91 Wh (1,810 mAh) battery, while the iPhone 6 Plus features an 11.1 Wh (2,915 mAh) battery, neither of which are user-replaceable.


title: IPhone 6

text: Both models include an Apple A8 system-on-chip, and an M8 motion co-processor—an update of the M7 chip from the iPhone 5s. The primary difference between the M8 and the original M7 coprocessor is the M8 also includes a barometer to measure altitude changes. Phil Schiller said the A8 chip would provide, in comparison to the 5s, a 25% increase in CPU performance, a 50% increase in graphics performance, and less heat output. Early hands-on reports said the A8's GPU performance might indeed break away from previous generations doubling of performance at each yearly release, scoring 21204.26 in Base mark X compared to 20253.80, 10973.36 and 5034.75 on respectively the 5s, 5 and 4s.


title: IPhone 6

text: The expanded LTE connectivity on the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus is improved to LTE Advanced, with support for over 20 LTE bands (seven more than the iPhone 5s), for up to 150 Mbit/s download speed, and VoLTE support. Wi-Fi performance has been improved with support for 802.11ac specifications, providing speeds up to 433.0581 Mbit/s—which is up to three times faster than 802.11n, along with Wi-Fi Calling support where available. The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus adds support for near-field communications (NFC). It is initially used exclusively for Apple Pay—a new mobile payments system which allows users to store their credit cards in Passbook for use with online payments and retail purchases over NFC. iOS 11 added limited use of near-field communications besides Apple Pay for 3rd party apps.


title: IPhone 6

text: The iPhone 6's rear-facing camera now has the ability to shoot 1080p Full HD video at either 30 or 60 frames per second and 720p HD slow-motion video at either 120 or 240 frames per second, while the iPhone 5s could only record at 30 and 120 frames per second respectively. Unlike the previous models, the rear-facing camera is not flush with the rear of the device, but instead protrudes slightly.


title: IPhone 6

text: Still photos can be captured during video recording. Those have a resolution of four megapixels (2720×1532).


title: IPhone 6

text: The camera also includes phase detection autofocus. The iPhone 6 Plus camera is nearly identical, but also includes optical image stabilization. The front-facing camera was also updated with a new sensor and f/2.2 aperture, along with support for burst and HDR modes.


title: IPhone 6

text: However, the optical image stabilization of the iPhone 6 Plus is only available for photography and deactivated during video recording.


title: IPhone 6

text: Like the predecessor, the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus are equipped with an accelerometer, gyroscope, front-facing proximity sensor and a digital compass.


title: IPhone 6

text: When first released, the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus were supplied pre-loaded with iOS 8. Apps are able to take advantage of the increased screen size in the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus to display more information on-screen; for example, the Mail app uses a dual-pane layout similar to its iPad version when the device is in landscape mode on the iPhone 6 Plus. As it uses an identical aspect ratio, apps designed for the iPhone 5, iPhone 5C, and 5S can be upscaled for use on the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. To improve the usability of the devices' larger screens, an additional "Reachability" gesture was added; double-tapping the Home button will slide the top half of the screen's contents down to the bottom half of the screen. This function allows users to reach buttons located near the top of the screen, such as a "Back" button in the top-left corner. In June 2019, Apple announced that it will drop support for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus with the release of iOS 13.


title: IPhone 6

text: Both iPhone 6 models received positive reviews. "Re/code" called it "the best smartphone you can buy". "TechRadar" praised the iPhone 6's "brilliant" design, improved battery life over the 5s, iOS 8 for being "smarter and more intuitive than ever", along with the quality of its camera. However, the plastic antenna strips on the rear of the phone were criticized for resulting in poor aesthetics, the display for having lower resolution and pixel density in comparison to other recent smartphones – including those with the same physical screen size as the iPhone 6, such as the HTC One, and for not having a sufficient justification for its significantly higher price in comparison to similar devices running Android or Windows Phone. "The Verge" considered the iPhone 6 to be "simply and cleanly designed" in comparison to the 5s, noting the phone still felt usable despite its larger size, but criticized the antenna plastic, the protruding camera lens (which prevents the device from sitting flat without a case), and the lack of additional optimization in the operating system for the bigger screen. Improvements such as performance, battery life, VoLTE support, and other tweaks were also noted. In conclusion, the iPhone 6 was considered "good, even great, but there’s little about it that’s truly ambitious or truly moving the needle. It’s just a refinement of a lot of existing ideas into a much more pleasant package".


title: IPhone 6

text: In regards to the 6 Plus, "Engadget" panned its design for being uncomfortable to hold and harder to grip in comparison to other devices such as the Galaxy Note 3 and LG G3, but praised its inclusion of optical image stabilization and slightly better battery life than the 6.


title: IPhone 6

text: The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus have been criticized by Forbes Magazine for the lack of 2160p (3840×2160 pixels) video recording due to the insufficient image sensor resolution of 3264×2448 pixels. However, third-party software is able to record footage at 3264×1836 pixels upscaled to 3840×2160p.


title: IPhone 6

text: The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus were affected by a number of notable hardware-related issues, including but not limited to concerns surrounding their rigidity (which led to incidents surrounding chassis bending, as well as degradation or outright loss of touchscreen functionality), performance issues on models with larger storage capacity, camera problems on the 6 Plus model, as well as an initially undocumented "error 53" that appeared under certain circumstances.


title: IPhone 6

text: Shortly after its public release, it was reported the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus chassis was susceptible to bending under pressure, such as when carried tightly in a user's pocket. While such issues are not exclusive to the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, the design flaw came to be known among users and the media as "Bendgate".


title: IPhone 6

text: Apple responded to the bending allegations, stating they had only received nine complaints of bent devices and that the damage occurring due to regular use is "extremely rare." The company maintained the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus went through durability testing to ensure they would stand up to daily use. The company offered to replace phones that were bent if it is determined the bending was unintentional.


title: IPhone 6

text: In May 2018, as part of a lawsuit against Apple regarding touchscreen failure, it was revealed via internal documents that Apple knew the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus phones were more likely to bend than previous models. According to the court documents, Apple's internal tests found the iPhone 6 was 3.3 times more likely to bend than the iPhone 5s, while the larger iPhone 6 Plus was 7.2 times more likely to bend.


title: IPhone 6

text: On October 3, 2014 9to5Mac released a post claiming certain iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus users complained on social networking sites the phone ripped off their hair when they held the phone close to their ears when making phone calls. Twitter users claimed the seam between the glass screen and aluminum back of the iPhone 6 was to blame, with hair becoming caught within it.


title: IPhone 6

text: Some users reported the 64 and 128 GB iPhone 6 models had experienced performance issues, and that some 128 GB iPhone 6 Plus models would, in rare cases, randomly crash and reboot. "Business Korea" reported the issues were connected to the triple-level cell NAND storage of the affected models. Triple-level NAND flash can store three bits of data per cell of flash, and are cheaper than dual-level cell solutions, but at the cost of performance. It was reported Apple had planned to switch the affected model lines back to multi-level cell flash, and address the performance issues on existing devices in a future iOS update.


title: IPhone 6

text: It was reported the optical image stabilization systems on some iPhone 6 Plus models were faulty, failing to properly stabilize when the phone is being held perfectly still, leading to blurry photos and "wavy"-looking videos. The optical image stabilization system was also found to have been affected by accessories that use magnets, such as third-party lens attachments; Apple issued advisories to users and its licensed accessory makers, warning magnetic or metallic accessories can cause the OIS to malfunction.


title: IPhone 6

text: On August 21, 2015, Apple instituted a repair program for iPhone 6 Plus models released between September 2014 and January 2015, citing faulty rear cameras on affected models may produce blurry pictures.


title: IPhone 6

text: Some iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus models have an issue in which the front-facing camera is somehow "shifted", or out of place. Apple stated they would replace most affected iPhone 6 models with this issue, free of charge. Despite numerous complaints regarding this issue, it does not seem to affect the camera itself. It is said the camera is not what has shifted, but a piece of protective foam around the camera module itself that has gone out of place.


title: IPhone 6

text: If the iPhone 6 home button is repaired or modified by a third party, the device will fail security checks related to Touch ID as the components have not been "re-validated" for security reasons—a process that can only be performed by an authorized Apple outlet. Failing these checks disables all features related to Touch ID. Such effects have sometimes happened as a result of damage as well.


title: IPhone 6

text: It was reported these same hardware integrity checks would trigger an unrecoverable loop into "Recovery Mode" if iOS is updated or restored, with attempts to restore the device via iTunes software resulting in an "error 53" message. Beyond the explanation this is related to hardware integrity errors regarding Touch ID components, Apple provided no official explanation of what specifically triggers error 53 or how it can be fixed without replacing the entire device.


title: IPhone 6

text: On February 18, 2016, Apple released an iOS 9.2.1 patch through iTunes which addresses this issue and admitted error 53 was actually related to a diagnostic check for inspecting the Touch ID hardware before an iPhone is shipped from its factories.


title: IPhone 6

text: Touchscreen control components on iPhone 6 logic boards have insufficient support, including a lack of underfill—which strengthens and stabilizes integrated circuits, and a lack of rigid metal shielding on the logic board unlike previous iPhone models; the touchscreen controller is instead shielded by a flexible "sticker". Normal use of the device can cause the logic board to flex internally, which strains the touchscreen IC connectors and leads to a degradation or outright loss of touchscreen functionality. A symptom that has been associated with this type of failure is a flickering grey bar near the top of the display. iFixit reported this issue, nicknamed "touch disease", was a byproduct of the previous "Bendgate" design flaw because of the device's demonstrated lack of rigidity. As such, the larger iPhone 6 Plus is more susceptible to the flaw, but it has also been reported on a small percentage of iPhone 6 models. The devices' successor, the iPhone 6S, is not afflicted by this flaw due to changes to their internal design, which included the strengthening of "key points" in the rear casing, and the re-location of the touchscreen controllers to the display assembly from the logic board.


title: IPhone 6

text: Initially, Apple did not officially acknowledge this issue. The issue was widely discussed on Apple's support forum—where posts discussing the issue have been subject to censorship. The touchscreen can be repaired via microsoldering: Apple Stores are not equipped with the tools needed to perform the logic board repair, which had led to affected users sending their devices to unofficial, third-party repair services. An Apple Store employee interviewed by "Apple Insider" reported six months after they first started noticing the problem, Apple had issued guidance instructing them to tell affected users this was a hardware issue that could not be repaired and that their iPhone had to be replaced. However, some in-stock units have also been afflicted with this issue out of the box, leading to an employee stating they were "tired of pulling service stock out of the box, and seeing the exact same problem the customer has on the replacement". The issue received mainstream attention in August 2016 when reported by iFixit. On August 26, 2016, "Apple Insider" reported based on data from four "high-traffic" Apple Store locations, there was a spike in the number of iPhone 6 devices brought into them for repairs following mainstream reports of the "touch disease" problem.


title: IPhone 6

text: On August 30, 2016, a group of three iPhone 6 owners sued Apple Inc. in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California and filed for a proposed class action lawsuit, alleging Apple was engaging in unfair business practices by having "long been aware" of the defective design, yet refusing to acknowledge or repair it.


title: IPhone 6

text: On November 17, 2016, Apple officially acknowledged the issue and announced a paid repair program for affected iPhone 6 Plus models, stating; "some iPhone 6 Plus devices may exhibit display flickering or Multi-Touch issues after being dropped multiple times on a hard surface and then incurring further stress on the device".


title: IPhone 6

text: Apple Inc. announced, within 24 hours of availability, over 4 million pre-orders of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus were made, exceeding the supply available—an Apple record. 10 million iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus devices were sold in the first three days, marking another Apple record. The iPhone 6S & 6S Plus were introduced in September 2015 selling 13 million units which set the record for sales in the first three days from last years release. Three months after its release, the iPhone 6 generated 71.5 million unit sales.


title: IPhone 6

text: As of June 2017, the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus have sold 222.4 million units worldwide, making them the most popular iPhone models and the best-selling smartphones of all time.


title: Head of state

text: A head of state (or chief of state) is the public persona who officially embodies a state in its unity and legitimacy. Depending on the country's form of government and separation of powers, the head of state may be a ceremonial figurehead or concurrently the head of government and more (such as the president of the United States, who is also commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces).


title: Head of state

text: In a parliamentary system, such as the United Kingdom or India, the head of state usually has mostly ceremonial powers, with a separate head of government. However, in some parliamentary systems, like South Africa, there is an executive president that is both head of state and head of government. Likewise, in some parliamentary systems the head of state is not the head of government, but still has significant powers, for example Morocco. In contrast, a semi-presidential system, such as France, has both heads of state and government as the "de facto" leaders of the nation (in practice they divide the leadership of the nation between themselves). Meanwhile, in presidential systems, the head of state is also the head of government. In one-party ruling communist states, the position of president has no tangible powers by itself, however, since such a head of state, as a matter of custom, simultaneously holds the post of General Secretary of the Communist Party, they are the executive leader with their powers deriving from their status of being the party leader, rather than the office of president.


title: Head of state

text: Former French president Charles de Gaulle, while developing the current Constitution of France (1958), said that the head of state should embody "" ("the spirit of the nation").


title: Head of state

text: An independent nation state normally has a head of state, and determines the extent of its head's executive powers of government or formal representational functions. In terms of protocol: the head of a sovereign, independent state is usually identified as the person who, according to that state's constitution, is the reigning monarch, in the case of a monarchy; or the president, in the case of a republic.


title: Head of state

text: Among the state constitutions (fundamental laws) that establish different political systems, four major types of heads of state can be distinguished:


title: Head of state

text: In a federal constituent or a dependent territory, the same role is fulfilled by the holder of an office corresponding to that of a head of state. For example, in each Canadian province the role is fulfilled by the lieutenant governor, whereas in most British Overseas Territories the powers and duties are performed by the governor. The same applies to Australian states, Indian states, etc. Hong Kong's constitutional document, the Basic Law, for example, specifies the chief executive as the head of the special administrative region, in addition to their role as the head of government. These non-sovereign-state heads, nevertheless, have limited or no role in diplomatic affairs, depending on the status and the norms and practices of the territories concerned.


title: Head of state

text: In parliamentary systems the head of state may be merely the nominal chief executive officer, heading the executive branch of the state, and possessing limited executive power. In reality, however, following a process of constitutional evolution, powers are usually only exercised by direction of a cabinet, presided over by a head of government who is answerable to the legislature. This accountability and legitimacy requires that someone be chosen who has a majority support in the legislature (or, at least, not a majority opposition – a subtle but important difference). It also gives the legislature the right to vote down the head of government and their cabinet, forcing it either to resign or seek a parliamentary dissolution. The executive branch is thus said to be responsible (or answerable) to the legislature, with the head of government and cabinet in turn accepting constitutional responsibility for offering constitutional advice to the head of state.


title: Head of state

text: In parliamentary constitutional monarchies, the legitimacy of the unelected head of state typically derives from the tacit approval of the people via the elected representatives. Accordingly, at the time of the Glorious Revolution, the English parliament acted of its own authority to name a new king and queen (the joint monarchs Mary II and William III); likewise, Edward VIII's abdication required the approval of each of the six independent realms of which he was monarch. In monarchies with a written constitution, the position of monarch is a creature of the constitution and could quite properly be abolished through a democratic procedure of constitutional amendment, although there are often significant procedural hurdles imposed on such a procedure (as in the Constitution of Spain).


title: Head of state

text: In republics with a parliamentary system (such as India, Germany, Austria, Italy and Israel), the head of state is usually titled "president" and the principal functions of such presidents are mainly ceremonial and symbolic, as opposed to the presidents in a presidential or semi-presidential system.


title: Head of state

text: In reality, numerous variants exist to the position of a head of state within a parliamentary system. The older the constitution, the more constitutional leeway tends to exist for a head of state to exercise greater powers over government, as many older parliamentary system constitutions in fact give heads of state powers and functions akin to presidential or semi-presidential systems, in some cases without containing reference to modern democratic principles of accountability to parliament or even to modern governmental offices. Usually, the king had the power of declaring war without previous consent of the parliament.


title: Head of state

text: For example, under the 1848 constitution of the Kingdom of Sardinia, and then the Kingdom of Italy, the "Statuto Albertino"—the parliamentary approval to the government appointed by the king—was customary, but not required by law. So, Italy had a parliamentary system, but a "presidential" system.


title: Head of state

text: Examples of heads of state in parliamentary systems using greater powers than usual, either because of ambiguous constitutions or unprecedented national emergencies, include the decision by King Leopold III of the Belgians to surrender on behalf of his state to the invading German army in 1940, against the will of his government. Judging that his responsibility to the nation by virtue of his coronation oath required him to act, he believed that his government's decision to fight rather than surrender was mistaken and would damage Belgium. (Leopold's decision proved highly controversial. After World War II, Belgium voted in a referendum to allow him to resume his monarchical powers and duties, but because of the ongoing controversy he ultimately abdicated.) The Belgian constitutional crisis in 1990, when the head of state refused to sign into law a bill permitting abortion, was resolved by the cabinet assuming the power to promulgate the law while he was treated as "unable to reign" for twenty-four hours.


title: Head of state

text: These officials are excluded completely from the executive: they do not possess even theoretical executive powers or any role, even formal, within the government. Hence their states' governments are not referred to by the traditional parliamentary model head of state styles of "His/Her Majesty's Government" or "His/Her Excellency's Government". Within this general category, variants in terms of powers and functions may exist.


title: Head of state

text: The was drawn up under the Allied occupation that followed World War II and was intended to replace the previous militaristic and quasi-absolute monarchy system with a form of liberal democracy parliamentary system. The constitution explicitly vests all executive power in the Cabinet, who is chaired by the prime minister (articles 65 and 66) and responsible to the Diet (articles 67 and 69). The emperor is defined in the constitution as "the symbol of the State and of the unity of the people" (article 1), and is generally recognised throughout the world as the Japanese head of state. Although the emperor formally appoints the prime minister to office, article 6 of the constitution requires him to appoint the candidate "as designated by the Diet", without any right to decline appointment. He is a ceremonial figurehead with no independent discretionary powers related to the governance of Japan.


title: Head of state

text: Since the passage in Sweden of the 1974 Instrument of Government, the Swedish monarch no longer has many of the standard parliamentary system head of state functions that had previously belonged to him or her, as was the case in the preceding 1809 Instrument of Government. Today, the speaker of the Riksdag appoints (following a vote in the Riksdag) the prime minister and terminates their commission following a vote of no confidence or voluntary resignation. Cabinet members are appointed and dismissed at the sole discretion of the prime minister. Laws and ordinances are promulgated by two Cabinet members in unison signing "On Behalf of the Government" and the government—not the monarch—is the high contracting party with respect to international treaties. The remaining official functions of the sovereign, by constitutional mandate or by unwritten convention, are to open the annual session of the Riksdag, receive foreign ambassadors and sign the letters of credence for Swedish ambassadors, chair the foreign advisory committee, preside at the special Cabinet council when a new prime minister takes office, and to be kept informed by the prime minister on matters of state.