title: Nomad

text: The Bukat people of Borneo in Malaysia live within the region of the river Mendalam, which the natives call Buköt. Bukat is an ethnonym that encapsulates all the tribes in the region. These natives are historically self-sufficient but were also known to trade various goods. This is especially true for the clans who lived on the periphery of the territory. The products of their trade were varied and fascinating, including: "...resins (damar, "Agathis dammara; jelutong bukit, Dyera costulata," gutta-percha, "Palaquium" spp.); wild honey and beeswax (important in trade but often unreported); aromatic resin from insence wood ("gaharu, Aquilaria microcarpa);" camphor (found in the fissures of "Dryobalanops aromaticus);" several types of rotan of cane ("Calamus rotan" and other species); poison for blowpipe darts (one source is "ipoh" or "ipu": see Nieuwenhuis 1900a:137); the antlers of deer (the sambar, "Cervus unicolor);" rhinoceros horn (see Tillema 1939:142); pharmacologically valuable bezoar stones (concretions formed in the intestines and gallbladder of the gibbon, "Seminopithecus," and in the wounds of porcupines, "Hestrix crassispinus);" birds' nests, the edible nests of swifts ("Collocalia" spp.); the heads and feathers of two species of hornbills ("Buceros rhinoceros, Rhinoplax vigil)"; and various hides (clouded leopards, bears, and other animals)." These nomadic tribes also commonly hunted boar with poison blow darts for their own needs.


title: Prime minister

text: A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not the head of state, but rather the head of government, serving under either a monarch in a democratic constitutional monarchy or under a president in a republican form of government.


title: Prime minister

text: In parliamentary systems fashioned after the Westminster system, the prime minister is the presiding and actual head of government and head/owner of the executive power. In such systems, the head of state or their official representative (e.g., monarch, president, governor-general) usually holds a largely ceremonial position, although often with reserve powers.


title: Prime minister

text: Under some presidential systems, such as South Korea and Peru, the prime minister is the leader or most senior member of the cabinet, not the head of government.


title: Prime minister

text: In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime minister is the presiding member and chairman of the cabinet. In a minority of systems, notably in semi-presidential systems, a prime minister is the official appointed to manage the civil service and execute the directives of the head of state.


title: Prime minister

text: Today, the prime minister is often, but not always, a member of the legislature or its lower house, and is expected with other ministers to ensure the passage of bills through the legislature. In some monarchies the monarch may also exercise executive powers (known as the royal prerogative) without the approval of parliament.


title: Prime minister

text: As well as being head of government, being prime minister may require holding other roles or posts—the prime minister of the United Kingdom, for example, is also First Lord of the Treasury and Minister for the Civil Service. In some cases, prime ministers may choose to hold additional ministerial posts (e.g. when the portfolio is critical to that government's mandate): during the Second World War, Winston Churchill was also Minister of Defence (although there was then no Ministry of Defence). Another example is the Thirty-fourth government of Israel , when Benjamin Netanyahu at one point served as the prime minister and minister of Communications, Foreign Affairs, Regional Cooperation, Economy, Defense and Interior.


title: Prime minister

text: The term "prime minister" is attested in 17th Century sources referring to Cardinal Richelieu, after he was named "premier ministre" to head the French royal council in 1624. The title was used alongside the "principal ministre d'État" ("chief minister of the state") more as a job description. After 1661, Louis XIV and his descendants refused to allow one of their ministers to be more important than the others, so the term was no longer in use.


title: Prime minister

text: In the 18th century in the United Kingdom, members of parliament disparagingly used the title in reference to Sir Robert Walpole (whose official title was First Lord of the Treasury). During the whole of the 18th Century, Britain was involved in a prolonged conflict with France, periodically bursting into all-out war, and Britons took outspoken pride in their "Liberty" as contrasted to the "Tyranny" of French Absolute Monarchy; therefore, being implicitly compared with Richelieu was no compliment to Walpole. Over time, however, the title became honorific and remains so in the 21st century.


title: Prime minister

text: The monarchs of England and the United Kingdom had ministers in whom they placed special trust and who were regarded as the head of the government. Examples were Thomas Cromwell under Henry VIII; William Cecil, Lord Burghley under Elizabeth I; Clarendon under Charles II and Godolphin under Queen Anne. These ministers held a variety of formal posts, but were commonly known as "the minister", the "chief minister", the "first minister" and finally the "prime minister".


title: Prime minister

text: The power of these ministers depended entirely on the personal favour of the monarch. Although managing the parliament was among the necessary skills of holding high office, they did not depend on a parliamentary majority for their power. Although there was a cabinet, it was appointed entirely by the monarch, and the monarch usually presided over its meetings.


title: Prime minister

text: When the monarch grew tired of a first minister, he or she could be dismissed, or worse: Cromwell was executed and Clarendon driven into exile when they lost favour. Kings sometimes divided power equally between two or more ministers to prevent one minister from becoming too powerful. Late in Anne's reign, for example, the Tory ministers Harley and Viscount Bolingbroke shared power.


title: Prime minister

text: In the mid 17th century, after the English Civil War (1642–1651), Parliament strengthened its position relative to the monarch then gained more power through the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and passage of the Bill of Rights in 1689. The monarch could no longer establish any law or impose any tax without its permission and thus the House of Commons became a part of the government. It is at this point that a modern style of prime minister begins to emerge.


title: Prime minister

text: A tipping point in the evolution of the prime ministership came with the death of Anne in 1714 and the accession of George I to the throne. George spoke no English, spent much of his time at his home in Hanover, and had neither knowledge of, nor interest in, the details of English government. In these circumstances it was inevitable that the king's first minister would become the "de facto" head of the government.


title: Prime minister

text: From 1721, this was the Whig politician Robert Walpole, who held office for twenty-one years. Walpole chaired cabinet meetings, appointed all the other ministers, dispensed the royal patronage and packed the House of Commons with his supporters. Under Walpole, the doctrine of cabinet solidarity developed. Walpole required that no minister other than himself have private dealings with the king, and also that when the cabinet had agreed on a policy, all ministers must defend it in public, or resign. As a later prime minister, Lord Melbourne, said, "It matters not what we say, gentlemen, so long as we all say the same thing."


title: Prime minister

text: Walpole always denied that he was "prime minister", and throughout the 18th century parliamentarians and legal scholars continued to deny that any such position was known to the Constitution. George II and George III made strenuous efforts to reclaim the personal power of the monarch, but the increasing complexity and expense of government meant that a minister who could command the loyalty of the Commons was increasingly necessary. The long tenure of the wartime prime minister William Pitt the Younger (1783–1801), combined with the mental illness of George III, consolidated the power of the post. The title "prime minister" was first referred to on government documents during the administration of Benjamin Disraeli but did not appear in the formal British Order of precedence until 1905.


title: Prime minister

text: The prestige of British institutions in the 19th century and the growth of the British Empire saw the British model of cabinet government, headed by a prime minister, widely copied, both in other European countries and in British colonial territories as they developed self-government. In some places alternative titles such as "premier", "chief minister", "first minister of state", "president of the council" or "chancellor" were adopted, but the essentials of the office were the same.


title: Prime minister

text: In the late 20th century, many of the world's countries had prime ministers or equivalent ministers, holding office under either constitutional monarchies or ceremonial presidents. The main exceptions to this system include Switzerland and the United States, as well as the presidential republics in Latin America, such as Chile and Mexico, modelled on the U.S. system in which the president directly exercises executive authority.


title: Prime minister

text: Bahrain's former prime minister, Sheikh Khalifah bin Sulman Al Khalifah, occupied the post for about 50 years, from 1970 to November 2020, making him the longest serving non-elected prime minister.


title: Prime minister

text: The post of prime minister may be encountered both in constitutional monarchies (such as Belgium, Denmark, Japan, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Malaysia, Morocco, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom) and in parliamentary republics, in which the head of state is an elected official (such as Bangladesh, Finland, the Czech Republic, France, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia (1945–66), Ireland, Nigeria (1960–66), Pakistan, Portugal, Montenegro, Croatia, Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, Turkey (1923–2018) and Italy). See also "First Minister", "Premier", "Chief Minister", "Chancellor", "Taoiseach", "Minister of State ("Statsminister")", "President of the Government", "President of the Council of Ministers" and "Secretary of State": alternative titles usually equivalent in meaning to, or translated as, "prime minister". Both Indonesia and Nigeria lost their positions as prime ministers in 1966. Brazil, Iran, the Philippines and Turkey also lost their positions as prime ministers. Chile, Mexico, Switzerland and the United States never had positions as prime ministers.


title: Prime minister

text: This contrasts with the presidential system, in which the president (or equivalent) is both the head of state and the head of the government. In some presidential and all semi-presidential systems, such as those of China, France, Russia, South Korea or Ukraine, the prime minister is an official generally appointed by the president but usually approved by the legislature and responsible for carrying out the directives of the president and managing the civil service. The premier of the Republic of China (Taiwan) is also appointed by the president, but requires no approval by the legislature.


title: Prime minister

text: Appointment of the prime minister of France requires no approval by the parliament either, but the parliament may force the resignation of the government. In these systems, it is possible for the president and the prime minister to be from different political parties if the legislature is controlled by a party different from that of the president. When it arises, such a state of affairs is usually referred to as (political) cohabitation.


title: Prime minister

text: Most prime ministers in parliamentary systems are not appointed for a specific term in office and in effect may remain in power through a number of elections and parliaments. For example, Margaret Thatcher was only ever appointed prime minister on "one" occasion, in 1979. She remained "continuously" in power until 1990, though she used the assembly of each House of Commons after a general election to reshuffle her cabinet.


title: Prime minister

text: Some states, however, do have a term of office of the prime minister linked to the period in office of the parliament. Hence the Irish Taoiseach is formally 'renominated' after every general election. (Some constitutional experts have questioned whether this process is actually in keeping with the provisions of the Irish constitution, which "appear" to suggest that a taoiseach should remain in office, without the requirement of a renomination, unless s/he has clearly lost the general election.) The position of prime minister is normally chosen from the political party that commands majority of seats in the lower house of parliament.


title: Prime minister

text: In parliamentary systems, governments are generally required to have the confidence of the lower house of parliament (though a small minority of parliaments, by giving a right to block supply to upper houses, in effect make the cabinet responsible to both houses, though in reality upper houses, even when they have the power, rarely exercise it). Where they lose a "vote of confidence", have a "motion of no confidence" passed against them, or where they lose supply, most constitutional systems require either:


title: Prime minister

text: The latter in effect allows the government to appeal the opposition of parliament to the electorate. However, in many jurisdictions a head of state "may" refuse a parliamentary dissolution, requiring the resignation of the prime minister and his or her government. In most modern parliamentary systems, the prime minister is the person who decides when to request a parliamentary dissolution.


title: Prime minister

text: Older constitutions often vest this power in the cabinet. In the United Kingdom, for example, the tradition whereby it is the prime minister who requests a dissolution of parliament dates back to 1918. Prior to then, it was the "entire" government that made the request. Similarly, though the modern 1937 Irish constitution grants to the Taoiseach the right to make the request, the earlier 1922 Irish Free State Constitution vested the power in the "Executive Council" (the then name for the Irish cabinet).


title: Prime minister

text: In Australia, the Prime Minister is expected to step down if they lose the majority support of their party under a spill motion as have many such as Tony Abbott, Julia Gillard, Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull.


title: Prime minister

text: The Prime Minister's executive office is usually called the Office of the Prime Minister or Cabinet Office. The U.K.’s Cabinet Office includes the Prime Minister’s Office. Conversely, some Prime Minister's Offices incorporate the role of Cabinet, while Australia’s Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet joins them at par. In Israel, the Prime Minister's executive office is officially titled the "Prime Minister's Office" in English, but the original Hebrew term can also be translated as the Prime Minister's Ministry. The Prime Minister's Department is also used, as is Cabinet Department.


title: Prime minister

text: In many cases, though commonly used, "prime minister" is not the official title of the office-holder. In the Russian constitution, the prime minister is titled "Chairman of the government". The Irish prime minister is called the (which is rendered into English as "prime minister"), in Israel the prime minister is "Rosh HaMemshalah," meaning "head of the government", and the Spanish prime minister is the President of the Government (). The head of government of the People's Republic of China is referred to as the Premier of the State Council.


title: Prime minister

text: Other common forms include president of the council of ministers (for example in Italy, ), President of the Executive Council, or Minister-President. In the Nordic countries the prime minister is called "Statsminister", meaning "Minister of State". In federations, the head of government of a federated entity (such as the province or territory of Canada or the state of Brazil) is most commonly known as the premier, chief minister, governor or minister-president.


title: Prime minister

text: It is convention in the English language to call nearly all national heads of government "prime minister" (or sometimes the equivalent term "premier"), except in cases where the head of state and head of government are one position (usually a presidency), regardless of the correct title of the head of government as applied in his or her respective country. The few exceptions to the rule are Germany and Austria, whose head of government's title is Federal Chancellor.


title: Prime minister

text: Monaco, whose head of government is referred to as the Minister of State; and Vatican City, for which the head of government is titled the Secretary of State. A stand-out case is the president of Iran, who is not actually a head of state, but the head of the government of Iran. He is referred to as "president" in both the Persian and English languages.


title: Prime minister

text: In non-Commonwealth countries, the prime minister may be entitled to the style of Excellency like a president. In some Commonwealth countries, prime ministers and former prime ministers are styled Honourable or Right Honourable associated with their position (the prime minister of Australia or the prime minister of Canada, for example). In the United Kingdom, the prime minister and former prime ministers are also often styled Honourable or Right Honourable; however, this is not due to their position as head of government, but a privilege of being current members of His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council.


title: Prime minister

text: In the UK, where devolved government is in place, the leaders of the Scottish, Northern Irish and Welsh Governments are styled First Minister. Between 1921 and 1972, when Northern Ireland had a majority rule Parliament, the head of government was the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland. In Bangladesh, the prime minister is called "Prodhan Montri", literally meaning "the head of ministers" or "prime minister". In India, the prime minister is called "Pradhān Mantrī", literally meaning "the head of ministers" or "prime minister". In Pakistan, the prime minister is referred to as "Wazir-e-Azam", meaning "grand vizier".


title: Prime minister

text: Australia's constitution makes no mention of a Prime Minister of Australia and the office only exists by convention, based on the British model.


title: Prime minister

text: Bangladesh's constitution clearly outlines the functions and powers of the prime minister, and also details the process of his/her appointment and dismissal.


title: Prime minister

text: The People's Republic of China constitution set a premier just one place below the National People's Congress in China. Premier read as (Simplified Chinese: 总理; pinyin: Zŏnglĭ) in Chinese.


title: Prime minister

text: Canada has a 'mixed' or hybrid constitution, partly formally codified and partly uncodified. The codified part originally made no reference whatsoever to a prime minister and still gives no parameters of the office. Instead, her or his powers, duties, appointment and termination follow uncodified conventions. The "Constitution Act, 1867" only establishes the Queen's Privy Council for Canada, to which all federal ministers (among others) are appointed and with Members of which the Monarch or her Governor General normally performs executive government (as Queen- or Governor-in-Council). The "Constitution Act, 1982", adds passing reference to the "Prime Minister of Canada" [French: ] but as detail of conferences of federal and provincial first ministers.)


title: Prime minister

text: Czech Republic's constitution clearly outlines the functions and powers of the prime minister of the Czech Republic, and also details the process of his/her appointment and dismissal.


title: Prime minister

text: Hungary's constitution (2012) lists the powers, functions and duties of the prime minister of Hungary.


title: Prime minister

text: India's constitution (1950) lists the powers, functions and duties of the prime minister of India. In India, prime ministerial candidates must be a member of parliament, i.e. of either the Lok Sabha (Lower House) or Rajya Sabha (Upper House). No parliamentary vote takes place on who forms a government.


title: Prime minister

text: Ireland's constitution (1937), provides for the office of Taoiseach in detail, listing powers, functions and duties.


title: Prime minister

text: Italy's constitution (1948) lists the powers, functions and duties of the President of the Council of Ministers.


title: Prime minister

text: The Republic of Korea's constitution (1987) sections 86–87 list the powers, functions and duties of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Korea.


title: Prime minister

text: Malaysia's constitution (1957) lists the powers, functions and duties of the prime minister of Malaysia.


title: Prime minister

text: Pakistan's constitution (1973) lists the powers, functions and duties of the prime minister of Pakistan.


title: Prime minister

text: Spain's constitution (1978) regulates the appointment, dismissal, powers, functions and duties of the President of the Government.


title: Prime minister

text: Sri Lanka's constitution (1978) lists the powers, functions and duties of the prime minister of Sri Lanka.


title: Prime minister

text: Thailand's constitution (1932) lists the powers, functions and duties of the prime minister of Thailand.


title: Prime minister

text: Taiwan's constitution (1946) lists the powers, functions and duties of the president of the Executive Yuan.


title: Prime minister

text: The United Kingdom's constitution, being uncodified and largely unwritten, makes no mention of a prime minister. Though it had "de facto" existed for centuries, its first mention in official state documents did not occur until the first decade of the twentieth century. Accordingly, it is often said "not to exist"; indeed there are several instances of parliament declaring this to be the case. The prime minister sits in the cabinet solely by virtue of occupying another office, either First Lord of the Treasury (office in commission) or more rarely Chancellor of the Exchequer (the last of whom was Balfour in 1905).


title: Prime minister

text: During the period between the time it is clear that the incumbent government has been defeated at a general election, and the actual swearing-in of the new prime minister by the monarch, governor-general, or president, that person is referred to as the "prime minister-elect" or "prime minister-designate". Neither term is strictly correct from a constitutional point of view, but they have wide acceptance. In a situation in which a ruling party elects or appoints a new leader, the incoming leader will usually be referred as "prime minister-in-waiting". An example or this situation was in 2016 in the United Kingdom when Theresa May was elected leader of the Conservative Party while David Cameron was still prime minister.


title: Prime minister

text: Ukraine's constitution (1996) lists the powers, functions and duties of the prime minister of Ukraine.


title: Prime minister

text: The following table groups the list of past and present prime ministers and details information available in those lists.


title: Tom Scott (presenter)

text: Thomas Scott is a British YouTuber and web developer. He is best known for producing online videos for his self-titled YouTube channel, which mainly offers educational videos across a range of topics including history, geography, science, technology, and linguistics. his channel has approximately 5.61 million subscribers and 1.4 billion video views. He also has four other channels: "Matt and Tom" (featuring Matt Gray), "Tom Scott plus" (which features collaborations with a number of other creators), "The Technical Difficulties" (which features him with the other members of the comedy troupe of the same name) and "Lateral with Tom Scott" (a podcast based on his 2018 game show of the same name).


title: Tom Scott (presenter)

text: Originally from Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, Scott graduated from the University of York with a degree in linguistics. While at university, in 2004, Scott produced a website parodying the British government's "Preparing for Emergencies" website, including a section explaining what to do in case of a zombie apocalypse. This resulted in the Cabinet Office demanding the site be taken down; Scott sent a "polite response declining to take down the site"; the site is still live.


title: Tom Scott (presenter)

text: In 2009, Scott became the UK organiser of International Talk Like a Pirate Day, and was subsequently nominated by his friends to run for student president at the University of York Students' Union, under the guise of his Talk Like a Pirate Day persona, "Mad Cap'n Tom Scott". Despite running as a joke, he won the election and served as the organisation's 48th president. When he was on the podcast Corridor Cast, he said that it was terrible as he did not know what to do, so his team would fill in for him. That same year, Scott and three friends formed the comedy troupe, The Technical Difficulties, with whom he hosted a radio show of the same name on University Radio York. The show later won the Kevin Greening award at the Student Radio Awards.


title: Tom Scott (presenter)

text: After graduating, Scott made several appearances on British television shows both as a contestant and presenter. He captained the Hitchhikers in series 3 of BBC Four's "Only Connect" in 2010 but was knocked out by the Strategists in the semi-finals, and, in 2012, was a presenter in the Sky 1 series "Gadget Geeks" alongside Colin Furze and Creative Technologist Charles Yarnold, where he was responsible for the creation of software solutions.


title: Tom Scott (presenter)

text: In 2010, Scott and the Technical Difficulties troupe began the "Reverse Trivia Podcast" series on the Technical Difficulties website wherein Scott would read the answer to a 1984 trivia question card while his fellow panellists attempted to guess the question. The show concluded in 2014 after the commencement of ".


title: Tom Scott (presenter)

text: Scott received widespread coverage in 2013 for "Actual Facebook Graph Searches", a Tumblr site which exposed a potentially embarrassing and dangerous collection of public Facebook data using Facebook's Graph Search, such as showing men in Tehran who have said that they were "interested in men" or "single women who live nearby and are interested in men and like getting drunk".


title: Tom Scott (presenter)

text: Scott registered his main YouTube channel, Tom Scott (originally under the username "enyay", derived from the Spanish name of the letter Ñ, "eñe", a username he has mentioned he "despised"), on 17 May 2006. At the start of his YouTube channel, Scott uploaded several cooking videos in which he would cook food in odd ways.Scott produces and uploads educational videos to the channel across a range of topics including linguistics, history, geography, science and technology. Also hosted on the channel was the series " with The Technical Difficulties over eight seasons, from March 2014 to November 2018. In this series Scott would walk through a chosen Wikipedia article, while his fellow panellists attempted to guess facts about the article. He additionally produced explanations of computer security issues on Brady Haran's YouTube channel, Computerphile. He is known for wearing red T-shirts, originally worn out of a need for continuity during filming, and because Scott was wearing a red t-shirt in the primary picture he used on his personal website at the time, and used red as the accent colour for the website.


title: Tom Scott (presenter)

text: At the end of 2015, Scott launched a collaborative YouTube channel with his colleague and friend, Matt Gray, called Matt & Tom. The channel hosted "The Park Bench" wherein the pair would sit on a park bench and discuss videos, their travels, and other anecdotes. The series was produced weekly from its inception until 24 March 2018, when they announced that the series would no longer be produced on a regular schedule due to time constraints. In late 2018, the channel became a vehicle for videos of The Technical Difficulties, including "The Experiments" (2018), where the troupe piloted a number of game show ideas. As of 12 June 2019, it is airing their new series "Two of These People Are Lying", in which Scott has to guess which of the troupe is giving accurate information pertaining to a Wikipedia article whose title he has drawn from a prepared stack.


title: Tom Scott (presenter)

text: In November 2018, Scott founded Pad 26 Limited, a company offering content production, format development, and YouTube consultancy.


title: Tom Scott (presenter)

text: In 2021, Scott challenged artificial intelligence education YouTuber Jordan Harrod to create a deepfake version of him for $100. In a collaboration video posted on his channel, Harrod succeeded in doing so and also discussed the tech and dangers associated with deepfakes.


title: Tom Scott (presenter)

text: Also in 2021, Scott launched two new YouTube channels: Tom Scott plus on 14 June, focused on collaboration videos with other YouTubers, and The Technical Difficulties on 2 July, inactive until 7 July 2022 when he published the first video.


title: Tom Scott (presenter)

text: In March 2022, Scott collaborated on Tom Scott plus with musician Beardyman (also brother of Jay Foreman), creating together a hyperpop song named "Shelter me from the rain", which was released under the name "MC HyperScott" to Spotify on 5 March 2022.


title: Tom Scott (presenter)

text: Scott has a series of videos dedicated to talking about certain places around the world called "Amazing Places". In 2016, Scott published a video about the geology of the Wharfe River in Yorkshire, England. In 2020, Scott posted a video where he travelled to Iceland's northernmost islet, Kolbeinsey. Also in 2020, Scott posted a video about Wunderland Kalkar, an amusement park in Germany inside a nuclear power plant. In October 2021, he visited the only float-through McDonald's in the world located in Hamburg, Germany.


title: Tom Scott (presenter)

text: A very popular series of videos on Scott's channel is called "Tom's Language Files". The videos are based on linguistics and the grammatical structures of languages. Some of the latest entries in this series are co-written by linguists Gretchen McCulloch and Molly Ruhl.


title: Tom Scott (presenter)

text: Scott also has a series on computer science, called "The Basics." In these, he covers the fundamentals of IT, and also has made videos on actual exploits, bugs with technology.


title: Tom Scott (presenter)

text: In 2010, after losing a bet that the New Orleans Saints would lose Super Bowl XLIV, Scott ran for Parliament in the Cities of London and Westminster constituency as the joke candidate "Mad Cap'n Tom". This was a role he had previously assumed in the 2008 race for presidency of the University of York Students' Union, which he had unintentionally won. Coincidentally, Scott stood against the Pirate Party candidate Jack Nunn, which was described on the BBC's "News Quiz" as "a split in the pirate vote".


title: Tom Scott (presenter)

text: As part of his bid, he promised to scrap taxes on rum, have schools offer courses in "swordsmanship and gunnery", hand out free rolls of duct tape to "fix broken Britain", and put a 50% tax on downloads of Cheryl Cole MP3s due to his dislike of the singer.


title: Tom Scott (presenter)

text: Scott described his chances of winning in the safe Conservative seat of Westminster as "Somewhere 'twixt a snowball's chance in hell an' zero." He received 84 votes (0.2% of the total), including the vote of Noel Gallagher, the former lead guitarist of Oasis.


title: Tom Scott (presenter)

text: In 2014, Scott co-founded Emojli along with Matt Gray. It was a parody emoji-only social network based on social networking application Yo, and was described by "Salon" as "an inside joke turned into reality". It closed in July 2015 after it became too expensive to maintain. Scott followed this up in September 2015 by creating a full-size emoji keyboard out of fourteen standard keyboards to type every standard Unicode emoji.


title: Tom Scott (presenter)

text: Scott also worked for the Daily Mirror's UsVsTh3m, creating Flash games. UsVsTh3m shut down in 2015, but Scott maintains a few of these old games on his personal website.


title: Tom Scott (presenter)

text: Other web apps Scott has created include "Evil" (a web app that revealed the phone numbers of Facebook users), "Tweleted" (which showed posts deleted from Twitter), "What's Osama bin Watchin?" (which mashed together an image of Osama bin Laden with YouTube Internet memes), "Parliament WikiEdits" (a Twitter bot that tweets whenever an IP address from the Houses of Parliament edited Wikipedia), and "Klouchebag" (a satire of the social media rankings site Klout).


title: Tom Scott (presenter)

text: On 21 December 2022, Scott is scheduled to appear on "Christmas University Challenge" as captain of the University of York team.


title: Capsicum annuum

text: Capsicum annuum is a species of the plant genus "Capsicum" native to southern North America, the Caribbean, and northern South America. This species is the most common and extensively cultivated of the five domesticated capsicums. The species encompasses a wide variety of shapes and sizes of peppers, including sweet bell peppers and some chili pepper varieties such as jalapeños, New Mexico chile, and cayenne peppers. Cultivars descended from the wild American bird pepper are still found in warmer regions of the Americas. In the past, some woody forms of this species have been called "C. frutescens", but the features that were used to distinguish those forms appear in many populations of "C. annuum" and are not consistently recognizable features in "C. frutescens" species.


title: Capsicum annuum

text: Although the species name "annuum" means 'annual' (from the Latin "annus" "year"), the plant is not an annual but is frost tender. In the absence of winter frosts it can survive several seasons and grow into a large, shrubby perennial herb. The single flowers are an off-white (sometimes purplish) color while the stem is densely branched and up to tall. The fruits are peppers that may be green, yellow, orange or red when ripe. While the species can tolerate most frost-free climates, "C. annuum" is especially productive in warm and dry climates.


title: Capsicum annuum

text: While generally self-pollinating, insect visitation is known to increase the fruit size and speed of ripening, as well as to ensure symmetrical development. Pepper flowers have nectaries at the base of the corolla, which helps to attract pollinators. The anthers do not release pollen except via buzz pollination, such as provided by bumble bees.


title: Capsicum annuum

text: The species is a source of popular sweet peppers and hot chiles with numerous varieties cultivated all around the world, and is the source of popular spices such as cayenne, chile, and paprika powders, as well as pimiento (pimento).


title: Capsicum annuum

text: Common naming in English falls generally in line with the flavor and size of the variant. Larger, sweeter variants are called "capsicums" in Australia and New Zealand, "peppers" in the United Kingdom and Canada, and "bell peppers" in the United States. The smaller, hotter varieties are called chiles, chilies, chillies, chile, or chili peppers, or in parts of the US, "peppers".


title: Capsicum annuum

text: Capsinoid chemicals provide the distinctive tastes in "C. annuum" variants. In particular, capsaicin creates a burning sensation ("hotness"), which in extreme cases can last for several hours after ingestion. A measurement called the Scoville scale has been created to describe the hotness of peppers and other foods.


title: Capsicum annuum

text: Hot peppers are used in traditional medicine as well as food in Africa. English botanist John Lindley described "C. annuum" in his 1838 "Flora Medica" thus:


title: Capsicum annuum

text: Some cultivars grown specifically for their aesthetic value include the U.S. National Arboretum's 'Black Pearl' and the 'Bolivian Rainbow'. Ornamental varieties tend to have unusually colored fruit and foliage with colors such as black and purple being notable. All are edible, and most (like 'Royal Black') are hot.


title: Capsicum annuum

text: The potato tuber moth ("Phthorimaea operculella") is an oligophagous insect that prefers to feed on plants of the family Solanaceae such as pepper plants. Female "P. operculella" use the leaves to lay their eggs and the hatched larvae will eat away at the mesophyll of the leaf.


title: Vega

text: Vega is the brightest star in the northern constellation of Lyra. It has the Bayer designation α Lyrae, which is Latinised to Alpha Lyrae and abbreviated Alpha Lyr or α Lyr. This star is relatively close at only from the Sun, and one of the most luminous stars in the Sun's neighborhood. It is the fifth-brightest star in the night sky, and the second-brightest star in the northern celestial hemisphere, after Arcturus.


title: Vega

text: Vega has been extensively studied by astronomers, leading it to be termed "arguably the next most important star in the sky after the Sun". Vega was the northern pole star around 12,000 BCE and will be so again around the year 13,727, when its declination will be . Vega was the first star other than the Sun to have its image and spectrum photographed. It was one of the first stars whose distance was estimated through parallax measurements. Vega has functioned as the baseline for calibrating the photometric brightness scale and was one of the stars used to define the zero point for the UBV photometric system.


title: Vega

text: Vega is only about a tenth of the age of the Sun, but since it is 2.1 times as massive, its expected lifetime is also one tenth of that of the Sun; both stars are at present approaching the midpoint of their life expectancies. Compared with the Sun, Vega has a lower abundance of elements heavier than helium. Vega is also a variable star that varies slightly in brightness. It is rotating rapidly with a velocity of at the equator. This causes the equator to bulge outward due to centrifugal effects, and, as a result, there is a variation of temperature across the star's photosphere that reaches a maximum at the poles. From Earth, Vega is observed from the direction of one of these poles.


title: Vega

text: Based on an observed excess emission of infrared radiation, Vega appears to have a circumstellar disk of dust. This dust is likely to be the result of collisions between objects in an orbiting debris disk, which is analogous to the Kuiper belt in the Solar System. Stars that display an infrared excess due to dust emission are termed Vega-like stars. In 2021, a candidate ultra-hot Neptune on a 2.43-day orbit around Vega was discovered with the radial velocity method, additionally, another possible Saturn-mass signal with a period of about 200 days.


title: Vega

text: "α Lyrae" (Latinised to "Alpha Lyrae") is the star's Bayer designation. The traditional name "Vega" (earlier "Wega") comes from a loose transliteration of the Arabic word ' (Arabic: واقع) meaning "falling" or "landing", via the phrase ' (Arabic: النّسر الْواقع), "the falling eagle". In 2016, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) organized a Working Group on Star Names (WGSN) to catalog and standardize proper names for stars. The WGSN's first bulletin of July 2016 included a table of the first two batches of names approved by the WGSN; which included "Vega" for this star. It is now so entered in the IAU Catalog of Star Names.


title: Vega

text: Vega can often be seen near the zenith in the mid-northern latitudes during the evening in the Northern Hemisphere summer. From mid-southern latitudes, it can be seen low above the northern horizon during the Southern Hemisphere winter. With a declination of +38.78°, Vega can only be viewed at latitudes north of 51° S. Therefore, it does not rise at all anywhere in Antarctica or in the southernmost part of South America, including Punta Arenas, Chile (53° S). At latitudes to the north of 51° N, Vega remains continuously above the horizon as a circumpolar star. Around July 1, Vega reaches midnight culmination when it crosses the meridian at that time.


title: Vega

text: Each night the positions of the stars appear to change as the Earth rotates. However, when a star is located along the Earth's axis of rotation, it will remain in the same position and thus is called a pole star. The direction of the Earth's axis of rotation gradually changes over time in a process known as the precession of the equinoxes. A complete precession cycle requires 25,770 years, during which time the pole of the Earth's rotation follows a circular path across the celestial sphere that passes near several prominent stars. At present the pole star is Polaris, but around 12,000 BCE the pole was pointed only five degrees away from Vega. Through precession, the pole will again pass near Vega around 14,000 CE. Vega is the brightest of the successive northern pole stars. In 210,000 years, Vega will become the brightest star in the night sky, and will peak in brightness in 290,000 years with an apparent magnitude of –0.81.


title: Vega

text: This star lies at a vertex of a widely spaced asterism called the Summer Triangle, which consists of Vega plus the two first-magnitude stars Altair, in Aquila, and Deneb in Cygnus. This formation is the approximate shape of a right triangle, with Vega located at its right angle. The Summer Triangle is recognizable in the northern skies for there are few other bright stars in its vicinity.


title: Vega

text: Astrophotography, the photography of celestial objects, began in 1840 when John William Draper took an image of the Moon using the daguerreotype process. On 17 July 1850, Vega became the first star (other than the Sun) to be photographed, when it was imaged by William Bond and John Adams Whipple at the Harvard College Observatory, also with a daguerreotype. In August 1872, Henry Draper took a photograph of Vega's spectrum, the first photograph of a star's spectrum showing absorption lines. Similar lines had already been identified in the spectrum of the Sun. In 1879, William Huggins used photographs of the spectra of Vega and similar stars to identify a set of twelve "very strong lines" that were common to this stellar category. These were later identified as lines from the Hydrogen Balmer series. Since 1943, the spectrum of this star has served as one of the stable anchor points by which other stars are classified.


title: Vega

text: The distance to Vega can be determined by measuring its parallax shift against the background stars as the Earth orbits the Sun. The first person to publish a star's parallax was Friedrich G. W. von Struve, when he announced a value of 0.125 arcsecond () for Vega. Friedrich Bessel was skeptical about Struve's data, and, when Bessel published a parallax of 0.314″ for the star system 61 Cygni, Struve revised his value for Vega's parallax to nearly double the original estimate. This change cast further doubt on Struve's data. Thus most astronomers at the time, including Struve, credited Bessel with the first published parallax result. However, Struve's initial result was actually close to the currently accepted value of 0.129″, as determined by the "Hipparcos" astrometry satellite.


title: Vega

text: The brightness of a star, as seen from Earth, is measured with a standardized, logarithmic scale. This apparent magnitude is a numerical value that decreases in value with increasing brightness of the star. The faintest stars visible to the unaided eye are sixth magnitude, while the brightest in the night sky, Sirius, is of magnitude −1.46. To standardize the magnitude scale, astronomers chose Vega to represent magnitude zero at all wavelengths. Thus, for many years, Vega was used as a baseline for the calibration of absolute photometric brightness scales. However, this is no longer the case, as the apparent magnitude zero point is now commonly defined in terms of a particular numerically specified flux. This approach is more convenient for astronomers, since Vega is not always available for calibration and varies in brightness.


title: Vega

text: The UBV photometric system measures the magnitude of stars through ultraviolet, blue and yellow filters, producing "U", "B" and "V" values, respectively. Vega is one of six A0V stars that were used to set the initial mean values for this photometric system when it was introduced in the 1950s. The mean magnitudes for these six stars were defined as: = = 0. In effect, the magnitude scale has been calibrated so that the magnitude of these stars is the same in the yellow, blue and ultraviolet parts of the electromagnetic spectrum. Thus, Vega has a relatively flat electromagnetic spectrum in the visual region—wavelength range 350–850 nanometers, most of which can be seen with the human eye—so the flux densities are roughly equal; 2,000–. However, the flux density of Vega drops rapidly in the infrared, and is near at .


title: Vega

text: Photometric measurements of Vega during the 1930s appeared to show that the star had a low-magnitude variability on the order of ±0.03 magnitude (around ±2.8% luminosity). This range of variability was near the limits of observational capability for that time, and so the subject of Vega's variability has been controversial. The magnitude of Vega was measured again in 1981 at the David Dunlap Observatory and showed some slight variability. Thus it was suggested that Vega showed occasional low-amplitude pulsations associated with a Delta Scuti variable. This is a category of stars that oscillate in a coherent manner, resulting in periodic pulsations in the star's luminosity. Although Vega fits the physical profile for this type of variable, other observers have found no such variation. Thus the variability was thought to possibly be the result of systematic errors in measurement. However, a 2007 article surveyed these and other results, and concluded that "A conservative analysis of the foregoing results suggests that Vega is quite likely variable in the 1–2% range, with possible occasional excursions to as much as 4% from the mean". Also, a 2011 article affirms that "The long-term (year-to-year) variability of Vega was confirmed".


title: Vega

text: Vega became the first solitary main-sequence star beyond the Sun known to be an X-ray emitter when in 1979 it was observed from an imaging X-ray telescope launched on an Aerobee 350 from the White Sands Missile Range. In 1983, Vega became the first star found to have a disk of dust. The Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) discovered an excess of infrared radiation coming from the star, and this was attributed to energy emitted by the orbiting dust as it was heated by the star.


title: Vega

text: Vega's spectral class is A0V, making it a blue-tinged white main-sequence star that is fusing hydrogen to helium in its core. Since more massive stars use their fusion fuel more quickly than smaller ones, Vega's main-sequence lifetime is roughly one billion years, a tenth of the Sun's. The current age of this star is about 455 million years, or up to about half its expected total main-sequence lifespan. After leaving the main sequence, Vega will become a class-M red giant and shed much of its mass, finally becoming a white dwarf. At present, Vega has more than twice the mass of the Sun and its bolometric luminosity is about 40 times the Sun's. Because it is rotating rapidly, approximately once every 12.5 hours, and seen nearly pole-on, its apparent luminosity, calculated assuming it was the same brightness all over, is about 57 times the Sun's. If Vega is variable, then it may be a Delta Scuti type with a period of about 0.107 day.


title: Vega

text: Most of the energy produced at Vega's core is generated by the carbon–nitrogen–oxygen cycle (CNO cycle), a nuclear fusion process that combines protons to form helium nuclei through intermediary nuclei of carbon, nitrogen and oxygen. This process becomes dominant at a temperature of about 17 million K, which is slightly higher than the core temperature of the Sun, but is less efficient than the Sun's proton–proton chain fusion reaction. The CNO cycle is highly temperature sensitive, which results in a convection zone about the core that evenly distributes the 'ash' from the fusion reaction within the core region. The overlying atmosphere is in radiative equilibrium. This is in contrast to the Sun, which has a radiation zone centered on the core with an overlying convection zone.


title: Vega

text: The energy flux from Vega has been precisely measured against standard light sources. At , the flux density is with an error margin of 2%. The visual spectrum of Vega is dominated by absorption lines of hydrogen; specifically by the hydrogen Balmer series with the electron at the n=2 principal quantum number. The lines of other elements are relatively weak, with the strongest being ionized magnesium, iron and chromium. The X-ray emission from Vega is very low, demonstrating that the corona for this star must be very weak or non-existent. However, as the pole of Vega is facing Earth and a polar coronal hole may be present, confirmation of a corona as the likely source of the X-rays detected from Vega (or the region very close to Vega) may be difficult as most of any coronal X-rays would not be emitted along the line of sight.


title: Vega

text: Using spectropolarimetry, a magnetic field has been detected on the surface of Vega by a team of astronomers at the Observatoire du Pic du Midi. This is the first such detection of a magnetic field on a spectral class A star that is not an Ap chemically peculiar star. The average line of sight component of this field has a strength of . This is comparable to the mean magnetic field on the Sun. Magnetic fields of roughly 30 G have been reported for Vega, compared to about 1 G for the Sun. In 2015, bright starspots were detected on the star's surface—the first such detection for a normal A-type star, and these features show evidence of rotational modulation with a period of 0.68 day.


title: Vega

text: Vega has a rotation period of 12.5 hours, much faster than the Sun's rotational period but similar to, and slightly slower than, those of Jupiter and Saturn. Because of that, Vega is significantly oblate like those two planets.


title: Vega

text: When the radius of Vega was measured to high accuracy with an interferometer, it resulted in an unexpectedly large estimated value of times the radius of the Sun. This is 60% larger than the radius of the star Sirius, while stellar models indicated it should only be about 12% larger. However, this discrepancy can be explained if Vega is a rapidly rotating star that is being viewed from the direction of its pole of rotation. Observations by the CHARA array in 2005–06 confirmed this deduction.


title: Vega

text: The pole of Vega—its axis of rotation—is inclined no more than five degrees from the line-of-sight to the Earth. At the high end of estimates for the rotation velocity for Vega is along the equator, much higher than the observed (i.e. projected) rotational velocity because Vega is seen almost pole-on. This is 88% of the speed that would cause the star to start breaking up from centrifugal effects. This rapid rotation of Vega produces a pronounced equatorial bulge, so the radius of the equator is 19% larger than the polar radius. (The estimated polar radius of this star is solar radii, while the equatorial radius is solar radii.) From the Earth, this bulge is being viewed from the direction of its pole, producing the overly large radius estimate.


title: Vega

text: The local surface gravity at the poles is greater than at the equator, which produces a variation in effective temperature over the star: the polar temperature is near , while the equatorial temperature is about . This large temperature difference between the poles and the equator produces a strong gravity darkening effect. As viewed from the poles, this results in a darker (lower-intensity) limb than would normally be expected for a spherically symmetric star. The temperature gradient may also mean that Vega has a convection zone around the equator, while the remainder of the atmosphere is likely to be in almost pure radiative equilibrium. By the Von Zeipel theorem, the local luminosity is higher at the poles. As a result, if Vega were viewed along the plane of its equator instead of almost pole-on, then its overall brightness would be lower.


title: Vega

text: As Vega had long been used as a standard star for calibrating telescopes, the discovery that it is rapidly rotating may challenge some of the underlying assumptions that were based on it being spherically symmetric. With the viewing angle and rotation rate of Vega now better known, this will allow improved instrument calibrations.


title: Vega

text: In astronomy, those elements with higher atomic numbers than helium are termed "metals". The metallicity of Vega's photosphere is only about 32% of the abundance of heavy elements in the Sun's atmosphere. (Compare this, for example, to a threefold metallicity abundance in the similar star Sirius as compared to the Sun.) For comparison, the Sun has an abundance of elements heavier than helium of about Z = . Thus, in terms of abundances, only about 0.54% of Vega consists of elements heavier than helium. Nitrogen is slightly "more" abundant, oxygen is only marginally less abundant and sulfur abundance is about 50% of solar. On the other hand, Vega has only 10% to 30% of the solar abundance for most other major elements with barium and scandium below 10%.


title: Vega

text: The unusually low metallicity of Vega makes it a weak Lambda Boötis star. However, the reason for the existence of such chemically peculiar, spectral class A0–F0 stars remains unclear. One possibility is that the chemical peculiarity may be the result of diffusion or mass loss, although stellar models show that this would normally only occur near the end of a star's hydrogen-burning lifespan. Another possibility is that the star formed from an interstellar medium of gas and dust that was unusually metal-poor.


title: Vega

text: The observed helium to hydrogen ratio in Vega is , which is about 40% lower than the Sun. This may be caused by the disappearance of a helium convection zone near the surface. Energy transfer is instead performed by the radiative process, which may be causing an abundance anomaly through diffusion.


title: Vega

text: The radial velocity of Vega is the component of this star's motion along the line-of-sight to the Earth. Movement away from the Earth will cause the light from Vega to shift to a lower frequency (toward the red), or to a higher frequency (toward the blue) if the motion is toward the Earth. Thus the velocity can be measured from the amount of shift of the star's spectrum. Precise measurements of this blueshift give a value of . The minus sign indicates a relative motion toward the Earth.


title: Vega

text: Motion transverse to the line of sight causes the position of Vega to shift with respect to the more distant background stars. Careful measurement of the star's position allows this angular movement, known as proper motion, to be calculated. Vega's proper motion is (mas) per year in right ascension—the celestial equivalent of longitude—and in declination, which is equivalent to a change in latitude. The net proper motion of Vega is , which results in angular movement of a degree every .


title: Vega

text: In the galactic coordinate system, the space velocity components of Vega are (U, V, W) = , for a net space velocity of . The radial component of this velocity—in the direction of the Sun—is , while the transverse velocity is . Although Vega is at present only the fifth-brightest star in the night sky, the star is slowly brightening as proper motion causes it to approach the Sun. Vega will make its closest approach in an estimated 264,000 years at a perihelion distance of .


title: Vega

text: Based on this star's kinematic properties, it appears to belong to a stellar association called the Castor Moving Group. However, Vega may be much older than this group, so the membership remains uncertain. This group contains about 16 stars, including Alpha Librae, Alpha Cephei, Castor, Fomalhaut and Vega. All members of the group are moving in nearly the same direction with similar space velocities. Membership in a moving group implies a common origin for these stars in an open cluster that has since become gravitationally unbound. The estimated age of this moving group is , and they have an average space velocity of .


title: Vega

text: One of the early results from the Infrared Astronomy Satellite (IRAS) was the discovery of excess infrared flux coming from Vega, beyond what would be expected from the star alone. This excess was measured at wavelengths of 25, 60 and , and came from within an angular radius of () centered on the star. At the measured distance of Vega, this corresponded to an actual radius of (AU), where an AU is the average radius of the Earth's orbit around the Sun. It was proposed that this radiation came from a field of orbiting particles with a dimension on the order of a millimetre, as anything smaller would eventually be removed from the system by radiation pressure or drawn into the star by means of Poynting–Robertson drag. The latter is the result of radiation pressure creating an effective force that opposes the orbital motion of a dust particle, causing it to spiral inward. This effect is most pronounced for tiny particles that are closer to the star.


title: Vega

text: Subsequent measurements of Vega at showed a lower than expected flux for the hypothesized particles, suggesting that they must instead be on the order of or less. To maintain this amount of dust in orbit around Vega, a continual source of replenishment would be required. A proposed mechanism for maintaining the dust was a disk of coalesced bodies that were in the process of collapsing to form a planet. Models fitted to the dust distribution around Vega indicate that it is a 120-astronomical-unit-radius circular disk viewed from nearly pole-on. In addition, there is a hole in the center of the disk with a radius of no less than .


title: Vega

text: Following the discovery of an infrared excess around Vega, other stars have been found that display a similar anomaly that is attributable to dust emission. As of 2002, about 400 of these stars have been found, and they have come to be termed "Vega-like" or "Vega-excess" stars. It is believed that these may provide clues to the origin of the Solar System.


title: Vega

text: By 2005, the Spitzer Space Telescope had produced high-resolution infrared images of the dust around Vega. It was shown to extend out to 43″ () at a wavelength of , 70″ () at and () at . These much wider disks were found to be circular and free of clumps, with dust particles ranging from 1– in size. The estimated total mass of this dust is 3 times the mass of the Earth (around 7.5 times more massive than the asteroid belt). Production of the dust would require collisions between asteroids in a population corresponding to the Kuiper Belt around the Sun. Thus the dust is more likely created by a debris disk around Vega, rather than from a protoplanetary disk as was earlier thought.


title: Vega

text: The inner boundary of the debris disk was estimated at , or 70–. The disk of dust is produced as radiation pressure from Vega pushes debris from collisions of larger objects outward. However, continuous production of the amount of dust observed over the course of Vega's lifetime would require an enormous starting mass—estimated as hundreds of times the mass of Jupiter. Hence it is more likely to have been produced as the result of a relatively recent breakup of a moderate-sized (or larger) comet or asteroid, which then further fragmented as the result of collisions between the smaller components and other bodies. This dusty disk would be relatively young on the time scale of the star's age, and it will eventually be removed unless other collision events supply more dust.


title: Vega

text: Observations, first with the Palomar Testbed Interferometer by David Ciardi and Gerard van Belle in 2001 and then later confirmed with the CHARA array at Mt. Wilson in 2006 and the Infrared Optical Telescope Array at Mt. Hopkins in 2011, revealed evidence for an inner dust band around Vega. Originating within of the star, this exozodiacal dust may be evidence of dynamical perturbations within the system. This may be caused by an intense bombardment of comets or meteors, and may be evidence for the existence of a planetary system.


title: Vega

text: Observations from the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope in 1997 revealed an "elongated bright central region" that peaked at 9″ () to the northeast of Vega. This was hypothesized as either a perturbation of the dust disk by a planet or else an orbiting object that was surrounded by dust. However, images by the Keck telescope had ruled out a companion down to magnitude 16, which would correspond to a body with more than 12 times the mass of Jupiter. Astronomers at the Joint Astronomy Centre in Hawaii and at UCLA suggested that the image may indicate a planetary system still undergoing formation.


title: Vega

text: Determining the nature of the planet has not been straightforward; a 2002 paper hypothesizes that the clumps are caused by a roughly Jupiter-mass planet on an eccentric orbit. Dust would collect in orbits that have mean-motion resonances with this planet—where their orbital periods form integer fractions with the period of the planet—producing the resulting clumpiness.


title: Vega

text: In 2003 it was hypothesized that these clumps could be caused by a roughly Neptune-mass planet having migrated from 40 to over 56 million years, an orbit large enough to allow the formation of smaller rocky planets closer to Vega. The migration of this planet would likely require gravitational interaction with a second, higher-mass planet in a smaller orbit.


title: Vega

text: Using a coronagraph on the Subaru Telescope in Hawaii in 2005, astronomers were able to further constrain the size of a planet orbiting Vega to no more than 5–10 times the mass of Jupiter. The issue of possible clumps in the debris disc was revisited in 2007 using newer, more sensitive instrumentation on the Plateau de Bure Interferometer. The observations showed that the debris ring is smooth and symmetric. No evidence was found of the blobs reported earlier, casting doubts on the hypothesized giant planet. The smooth structure has been confirmed in follow-up observations by Hughes et al. (2012) and the Herschel Space Telescope.


title: Vega

text: Although a planet has yet to be directly observed around Vega, the presence of a planetary system cannot yet be ruled out. Thus there could be smaller, terrestrial planets orbiting closer to the star. The inclination of planetary orbits around Vega is likely to be closely aligned to the equatorial plane of this star.


title: Vega

text: From the perspective of an observer on a hypothetical planet around Vega, the Sun would appear as a faint 4.3-magnitude star in the Columba constellation.


title: Vega

text: In 2021, a paper analyzing 10 years of spectra of Vega detected a candidate 2.43-day signal around Vega, statistically estimated to have only a 1% chance of being a false positive. Considering the amplitude of the signal, the authors estimated a minimum mass of Earth masses, but considering the very oblique rotation of Vega itself of only 6.2° from Earth's perspective, the planet may be aligned to this plane as well, giving it an actual mass of Earth masses. The researchers also detected a faint -day signal which could translate to a Earth masses ( at 6.2° inclination) but is too faint to claim as a real signal with available data.


title: Vega

text: The name is believed to be derived from the Arabic term "Al Nesr al Waki" النسر الواقع which appeared in the Al Achsasi al Mouakket star catalogue and was translated into Latin as "Vultur Cadens", "the falling eagle/vulture". The constellation was represented as a vulture in ancient Egypt, and as an eagle or vulture in ancient India. The Arabic name then appeared in the western world in the "Alfonsine tables", which were drawn up between 1215 and 1270 by order of King Alfonso X. Medieval astrolabes of England and Western Europe used the names Wega and Alvaca, and depicted it and Altair as birds.


title: Vega

text: Among the northern Polynesian people, Vega was known as "whetu o te tau", the year star. For a period of history it marked the start of their new year when the ground would be prepared for planting. Eventually this function became denoted by the Pleiades.


title: Vega

text: The Assyrians named this pole star Dayan-same, the "Judge of Heaven", while in Akkadian it was Tir-anna, "Life of Heaven". In Babylonian astronomy, Vega may have been one of the stars named Dilgan, "the Messenger of Light". To the ancient Greeks, the constellation Lyra was formed from the harp of Orpheus, with Vega as its handle. For the Roman Empire, the start of autumn was based upon the hour at which Vega set below the horizon.


title: Vega

text: In Chinese, (), meaning "Weaving Girl (asterism)", refers to an asterism consisting of Vega, ε Lyrae and ζ Lyrae. Consequently, the Chinese name for Vega is (, ). In Chinese mythology, there is a love story of Qixi () in which Niulang (, Altair) and his two children (β Aquilae and γ Aquilae) are separated from their mother Zhinü (, lit. "weaver girl", Vega) who is on the far side of the river, the Milky Way. However, one day per year on the seventh day of the seventh month of the Chinese lunisolar calendar, magpies make a bridge so that Niulang and Zhinü can be together again for a brief encounter. The Japanese Tanabata festival, in which Vega is known as "Orihime" (織姫), is also based on this legend.


title: Vega

text: In Zoroastrianism, Vega was sometimes associated with Vanant, a minor divinity whose name means "conqueror".


title: Vega

text: The indigenous Boorong people of northwestern Victoria, Australia, named it as "Neilloan", "the flying loan".


title: Vega

text: In the "Srimad Bhagavatam", Shri Krishna tells Arjuna, that among the Nakshatras he is Abhijit, which remark indicates the auspiciousness of this Nakshatra.


title: Vega

text: Medieval astrologers counted Vega as one of the Behenian stars and related it to chrysolite and winter savory. Cornelius Agrippa listed its kabbalistic sign under "Vultur cadens", a literal Latin translation of the Arabic name. Medieval star charts also listed the alternate names Waghi, Vagieh and Veka for this star.


title: Vega

text: W. H. Auden's 1933 poem "A Summer Night (to Geoffrey Hoyland)" famously opens with the couplet, "Out on the lawn I lie in bed,/Vega conspicuous overhead".


title: Vega

text: Vega became the first star to have a car named after it with the French Facel Vega line of cars from 1954 onwards, and later on, in America, Chevrolet launched the Vega in 1971. Other vehicles named after Vega include the ESA's Vega launch system and the Lockheed Vega aircraft.


title: Australian Capital Territory

text: The Australian Capital Territory (commonly abbreviated as ACT), known as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) until 1938, is a landlocked federal territory of Australia containing the national capital Canberra and some surrounding townships. It is located in southeastern Australian mainland as an enclave completely within the state of New South Wales. Founded after Federation as the seat of government for the new nation, the territory hosts the headquarters of all important institutions of the Australian Government.


title: Australian Capital Territory

text: On 1 January 1901, federation of the colonies of Australia was achieved. Section 125 of the new Australian Constitution provided that land, situated in New South Wales and at least from Sydney, would be ceded to the new federal government. Following discussion and exploration of various areas within New South Wales, the "Seat of Government Act 1908" was passed in 1908 which specified a capital in the Yass-Canberra region. The territory was transferred to the federal government by New South Wales in 1911, two years prior to the capital city being founded and formally named as Canberra in 1913.


title: Australian Capital Territory

text: While the overwhelming majority of the population reside in the city of Canberra in the ACT's north-east, the territory also includes some surrounding townships such as Williamsdale, Naas, Uriarra, Tharwa and Hall. The ACT also includes the Namadgi National Park which comprises the majority of land area of the territory. Despite a common misconception, the Jervis Bay Territory is not part of the ACT although the laws of the Australian Capital Territory apply as if Jervis Bay did form part of the ACT. The territory has a relatively dry, continental climate experiencing warm to hot summers and cool to cold winters.


title: Australian Capital Territory

text: The Australian Capital Territory is home to many important institutions of the federal government, national monuments and museums. This includes the Parliament of Australia, the High Court of Australia, the Australian Defence Force Academy and the Australian War Memorial. It also hosts the majority of foreign embassies in Australia as well as regional headquarters of many international organisations, not-for-profit groups, lobbying groups and professional associations. Several major universities also have campuses in the ACT including the Australian National University, the University of Canberra, the University of New South Wales, Charles Sturt University and the Australian Catholic University.


title: Australian Capital Territory

text: A locally elected legislative assembly has governed the territory since 1988. However, the Commonwealth maintains authority over the territory and may overturn local laws. It still maintains control over the area known as the Parliamentary Triangle through the National Capital Authority. Residents of the territory elect three members of the House of Representatives and two senators.


title: Australian Capital Territory

text: With 453,324 residents, the Australian Capital Territory is the second smallest mainland state or territory by population. At the , the median weekly income for people in the territory aged over 15 was $998, significantly higher than the national average of $662. The average level of degree qualification in the ACT is also higher than the national average. Within the ACT, 37.1% of the population hold a bachelor's degree level or above education compared to the national figure of 20%.


title: Australian Capital Territory

text: In September 2022, it was announced the border between NSW and the ACT would change for the first time since it was created in 1911. ACT chief minister Andrew Barr said NSW premier Dominic Perrottet had agreed to a proposed border change of in the Ginninderra watershed.


title: Australian Capital Territory

text: Aboriginal Australian peoples have long inhabited the area. Evidence indicates habitation dating back at least 25,000 years, and it is possible that the area was inhabited for considerably longer, with evidence of an Aboriginal presence at Lake Mungo dating back around 40,000–62,000 years. The principal group occupying the region were the Ngunnawal people, with the Ngarigo and Walgalu living immediately to the south, the Wandadian to the east, the Gandangara to the north and the Wiradjuri to the north-west.


title: Australian Capital Territory

text: Following European settlement, the growth of the new colony of New South Wales led to an increasing demand for arable land. Governor Lachlan Macquarie supported expeditions to open up new lands to the south of Sydney. The 1820s saw further exploration in the Canberra area associated with the construction of a road from Sydney to the Goulburn plains. While working on the project, Charles Throsby learned of a nearby lake and river from the local Indigenous peoples and he accordingly sent Wild to lead a small party to investigate the site. The search was unsuccessful, but they did discover the Yass River and it is surmised that they would have set foot on part of the future territory.


title: Australian Capital Territory

text: A second expedition was mounted shortly thereafter and they became the first Europeans to camp at the Molonglo (Ngambri) and Queanbeyan (Jullergung) Rivers. However, they failed to find the Murrumbidgee River. The issue of the Murrumbidgee was solved in 1821 when Throsby mounted a third expedition and successfully reached the watercourse, on the way providing the first detailed account of the land where Canberra now resides. The last expedition in the region before settlement was undertaken by Allan Cunningham in 1824. He reported that the region was suitable for grazing and the settlement of the Limestone Plains followed immediately thereafter.


title: Australian Capital Territory

text: The first land grant in the region was made to Joshua John Moore in 1823 and European settlement in the area began in 1824 with the construction of a homestead by his stockmen on what is now the Acton Peninsula. Moore formally purchased the site in 1826 and named the property "Canberry" or "Canberra".


title: Australian Capital Territory

text: A significant influx of population and economic activity occurred around the 1850s goldrushes. The goldrushes prompted the establishment of communication between Sydney and the region by way of the Cobb & Co coaches, which transported mail and passengers. The first post offices opened in Ginninderra in 1859 and at Lanyon in 1860.


title: Australian Capital Territory

text: During colonial times, the European communities of Ginninderra, Molonglo and Tuggeranong settled and farmed the surrounding land. The region was also called the Queanbeyan-Yass district, after the two largest towns in the area. The villages of Ginninderra and Tharwa developed to service the local agrarian communities.


title: Australian Capital Territory

text: During the first 20 years of settlement, there was only limited contact between the settlers and Aboriginal people. Over the succeeding years, the Ngunnawal and other local indigenous people effectively ceased to exist as cohesive and independent communities adhering to their traditional ways of life. Those who had not succumbed to disease and other predations either dispersed to the local settlements or were relocated to more distant Aboriginal reserves set up by the New South Wales government in the latter part of the 19th century.


title: Australian Capital Territory

text: In 1898, a referendum on a proposed Constitution was held in four of the colonies – New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania. Although the referendum achieved a majority in all four colonies, the New South Wales referendum failed to gain the minimum number of votes needed for the bill to pass. Following this result, a meeting of the four Premiers in 1898 heard from George Reid, the Premier of New South Wales, who argued that locating the future capital in New South Wales would be sufficient to ensure the passage of the Bill. The 1899 referendum on this revised bill was successful and passed with sufficient numbers. Section 125 of the Australian Constitution thus provided that, following Federation in 1901, land would be ceded freely to the new Federal Government.


title: Australian Capital Territory

text: This, however, left open the question of where to locate the capital. In 1906 and after significant deliberations, New South Wales agreed to cede sufficient land on the condition that it was in the Yass-Canberra region, this site being closer to Sydney. Initially, Dalgety, New South Wales remained at the forefront, but Yass-Canberra prevailed after voting by federal representatives. The "Seat of Government Act 1908" was passed in 1908, which repealed the 1904 Act and specified a capital in the Yass-Canberra region. Government surveyor Charles Scrivener was deployed to the region in the same year to map out a specific site and, after an extensive search, settled upon the present location, basing the borders primarily on the need to secure a stable water supply for the planned capital.


title: Australian Capital Territory

text: The Australian Capital Territory was transferred to the Commonwealth by New South Wales on 1 January 1911, two years before the naming of Canberra as the national capital on 20 March 1913.


title: Australian Capital Territory

text: In 1911, an international competition to design the future capital was held, which was won by the Chicago architect Walter Burley Griffin in 1912. The official naming of Canberra occurred on 12 March 1913 and construction began immediately.


title: Australian Capital Territory

text: After Griffin's departure following difficulty in implementing his project, the Federal Capital Advisory Committee was established in 1920 to advise the government of the construction efforts. The committee had limited success meeting its goals. However, the chairman, John Sulman, was instrumental in applying the ideas of the garden city movement to Griffin's plan. The committee was replaced in 1925 by the Federal Capital Commission.


title: Australian Capital Territory

text: In 1930, the ACT Advisory Council was established to advise the minister for territories on the community's concerns. In 1934, Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory was established.


title: Australian Capital Territory

text: From 1938 to 1957, the National Capital Planning and Development Committee continued to plan the further expansion of Canberra. However, the National Capital Planning and Development Committee did not have executive power, and decisions were made on the development of Canberra without the committee's consultation. During this time, Prime Minister Robert Menzies regarded the state of the national capital as an embarrassment.


title: Australian Capital Territory

text: After World War II, there was a shortage of housing and office space in Canberra. A Senate Select Committee hearing was held in 1954 to address its development requirements. This Committee recommended the creation of a single planning body with executive power. Consequently, the National Capital Planning and Development Committee was replaced by the National Capital Development Commission in 1957. The National Capital Development Commission ended four decades of disputes over the shape and design of Lake Burley Griffin and construction was completed in 1964 after four years of work. The completion of the centrepiece of Griffin's design finally laid the platform for the development of Griffin's Parliamentary Triangle.


title: Australian Capital Territory

text: In 1978, an advisory referendum was held to determine the views of ACT citizens about whether there should be self-government. Just under 64 percent of voters rejected devolved government options, in favour of the status quo. Nevertheless, in 1988, the new minister for the Australian Capital Territory Gary Punch received a report recommending the abolition of the National Capital Development Commission and the formation of a locally elected government. Punch recommended that the Hawke government accept the report's recommendations and subsequently Clyde Holding introduced legislation to grant self-government to the territory in October 1988.


title: Australian Capital Territory

text: The enactment on 6 December 1988 of the "Australian Capital Territory (Self-Government) Act 1988" established the framework for self-government. The first election for the 17-member Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly was held on 4 March 1989.


title: Australian Capital Territory

text: The initial years of self-government were difficult and unstable. A majority of ACT residents had opposed self-government and had it imposed upon them by the federal parliament. At the first election, 4 of the 17 seats were won by anti-self-government single-issue parties due to a protest vote by disgruntled territorians and a total of 8 were won by minor parties and independents.


title: Australian Capital Territory

text: In 1992, Labor won eight seats and the minor parties and independents won only three. Stability increased, and in 1995, Kate Carnell became the first elected Liberal chief minister. In 1998, Carnell became the first chief minister to be re-elected.


title: Australian Capital Territory

text: The Australian Capital Territory is the smallest mainland territory (aside from the Jervis Bay Territory) and covers a total land area of , slightly smaller than Luxembourg.


title: Australian Capital Territory

text: It is bounded by the Goulburn-Cooma railway line in the east, the watershed of Naas Creek in the south, the watershed of the Cotter River in the west and the watershed of the Molonglo River in the north-east. These boundaries were set to give the ACT an adequate water supply. The ACT extends about North-South between 35.124°S and 35.921°S, and West-East between 148.763°E and 149.399°E. The city area of Canberra occupies the north-eastern corner of this area.


title: Australian Capital Territory

text: The Australian Capital Territory includes the city of Canberra and some other townships such as Williamsdale, Naas, Uriarra, Tharwa and Hall. The Australian Capital Territory also contains agricultural land (sheep, dairy cattle, vineyards and small amounts of crops) and a large area of national park (Namadgi National Park), much of it mountainous and forested.


title: Australian Capital Territory

text: Tidbinbilla is a locality to the south-west of Canberra that features the Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve and the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex, operated by the United States' National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of its Deep Space Network. The Southern Tablelands Temperate Grassland straddles the state.


title: Australian Capital Territory

text: There are a large range of mountains, rivers and creeks throughout the territory and are largely contained within the Namadgi National Park. These include the Naas and Murrumbidgee Rivers.


title: Australian Capital Territory

text: The territory has a relatively dry, continental climate experiencing warm to hot summers and cool to cold winters. Under Köppen-Geiger classification, the territory has an oceanic climate ("Cfb").


title: Australian Capital Territory

text: January is the hottest month with an average high of 27.7°C. July is the coldest month when the average high drops to . The highest maximum temperature recorded in the territory was 44.0°C on 4 January 2020. The lowest minimum temperature was −10.0°C on 11 July 1971.


title: Australian Capital Territory

text: Rainfall varies significantly across the territory. Much higher rainfall occurs in the mountains to the west of Canberra compared to the east. The mountains act as a barrier during winter with the city receiving less rainfall. Average annual rainfall in the territory is 629mm and there is an average of 108 rain days annually. The wettest month is October with an average rainfall of 65.3mm and the driest month is June with an average of 39.6mm.


title: Australian Capital Territory

text: Frost is common in the winter months. Snow is rare in Canberra's city centre, but the surrounding areas get annual snowfall through winter and often the snow-capped mountains can be seen from the city. The last significant snowfall in the city centre was in 1968.


title: Australian Capital Territory

text: Smoke haze became synonymous with the 2019/2020 Australian summer. On 1 January 2020 Canberra had the worst air quality of any major city in the world, with an AQI of 7700 (USAQI 949).


title: Australian Capital Territory

text: Notable geological formations in the Australian Capital Territory include the "Canberra Formation", the "Pittman Formation", "Black Mountain Sandstone" and "State Circle Shale".


title: Australian Capital Territory

text: In the 1840s fossils of brachiopods and trilobites from the Silurian period were discovered at Woolshed Creek near Duntroon. At the time, these were the oldest fossils discovered in Australia, though this record has now been far surpassed. Other specific geological places of interest include the State Circle cutting and the Deakin anticline.


title: Australian Capital Territory

text: The oldest rocks in the ACT date from the Ordovician around 480 million years ago. During this period the region along with most of Eastern Australia was part of the ocean floor; formations from this period include the "Black Mountain Sandstone" formation and the "Pittman Formation" consisting largely of quartz-rich sandstone, siltstone and shale. These formations became exposed when the ocean floor was raised by a major volcanic activity in the Devonian forming much of the east coast of Australia.


title: Australian Capital Territory

text: The environments range from alpine area on the higher mountains, to sclerophyll forest and to woodland. Much of the ACT has been cleared for grazing and is also burnt off by bushfires several times per century. The kinds of plants can be grouped into vascular plants, that include gymnosperms, flowering plants, and ferns, as well as bryophytes, lichens, fungi and freshwater algae. Four flowering plants are endemic to the ACT. Several lichens are unique to the territory. Most plants in the ACT are characteristic of the Flora of Australia and include well known plants such as Grevillea, Eucalyptus trees and kangaroo grass.


title: Australian Capital Territory

text: The native forest in the Canberra region was almost wholly eucalypt species and provided a resource for fuel and domestic purposes. By the early 1960s, logging had depleted the eucalypt, and concern about water quality led to the forests being closed. Interest in forestry began in 1915 with trials of a number of species including "Pinus radiata" on the slopes of Mount Stromlo. Since then, plantations have been expanded, with the benefit of reducing erosion in the Cotter catchment, and the forests are also popular recreation areas.


title: Australian Capital Territory

text: The fauna of the territory includes representatives from most major Australian animal groups. This includes kangaroos, wallabies, koalas, platypus, echidna, emu, kookaburras and dragon lizards.


title: Australian Capital Territory

text: The ACT has internal self-government, but Australia's Constitution does not afford a territory legislature the high degree of independence provided to that of a state. Instead, each territory is governed under a Commonwealth statutefor the ACT, the Australian Capital Territory (Self-Government) Act 1988. The chief minister performs many of the roles that a state governor normally holds in the context of a state; however, the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly gazettes the laws and summons meetings of the Assembly.


title: Australian Capital Territory

text: Laws are made in a 25-member Legislative Assembly that combines both state and local government functions (prior to 2016, the Assembly was made up of 17 members).


title: Australian Capital Territory

text: The executive of the Australian Capital Territory, also known as the ACT Government, consists of the chief minister and such other ministers as are appointed by the chief minister. The ACT chief minister (currently Andrew Barr, Labor) is elected by members of the Legislative Assembly. The chief minister represents the ACT Government as a member of the National Cabinet.


title: Australian Capital Territory

text: Unlike other self-governing Australian territories (for example, the Northern Territory), the ACT does not have an Administrator. The Crown is represented in government of the ACT by the Australian Governor-General. Until 4 December 2011, the decisions of the assembly could be overruled by the Governor-General (effectively by the national government) under section 35 of the Australian Capital Territory (Self-Government) Act 1988, although the federal parliament voted in 2011 to abolish this veto power, instead requiring a majority of both houses of the federal parliament to override an enactment of the ACT.


title: Australian Capital Territory

text: The court system of the territory consists of the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory, the Magistrates Court of the Australian Capital Territory and the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal. It is unique in that the territory does not have an intermediary court like other mainland states and territories; there is only the superior court and a court of summary jurisdiction. the Chief Justice is Helen Murrell and the current Chief Magistrate is Lorraine Walker.


title: Australian Capital Territory

text: ACT Policing (part of the Australian Federal Police) is responsible for providing policing services to the ACT. Canberra had the lowest rate of crime of any capital city in Australia .


title: Australian Capital Territory

text: In Australia's Federal Parliament, the ACT is represented by five federal members: three members of the House of Representatives represent the Division of Bean, the Division of Canberra and the Division of Fenner, and it is one of only two territories to be represented in the Senate, with two Senators (the other being the Northern Territory). The Member for Bean and the ACT Senators also represent the constituents of Norfolk Island. The Member for Fenner and the ACT Senators also represent the constituents of the Jervis Bay Territory.


title: Australian Capital Territory

text: In 1915, the "Jervis Bay Territory Acceptance Act 1915" created the Jervis Bay Territory as an annex to the Federal Capital Territory. While the Act's use of the language of "annexed" is sometimes interpreted as implying that the Jervis Bay Territory was to form part of the Federal Capital Territory, the accepted legal position is that it has been a legally distinct territory from its creation despite being subject to ACT law and, prior to ACT self-government in 1988, being administratively treated as part of the ACT.


title: Australian Capital Territory

text: In 1988, when the ACT gained self-government, Jervis Bay was formally pronounced as a separate territory administered by the Commonwealth known as the Jervis Bay Territory. However, the laws of the ACT continue to apply to the Jervis Bay Territory. Magistrates from the ACT regularly travel to the Jervis Bay Territory to conduct court.


title: Australian Capital Territory

text: Another occasional misconception is that the ACT retains a small area of territory on the coast on the Beecroft Peninsula, consisting of a strip of coastline around the northern headland of Jervis Bay. While the land is owned by the Commonwealth Government, that area itself is still considered to be under the jurisdiction of New South Wales government, not a separate territory nor a part of the ACT.


title: Australian Capital Territory

text: The Australian Bureau of Statistics estimates that the population of the territory was 453,324 on 31 December 2021, with an annual growth in 2021 of 0.4%. A 2019 projection estimated the population would reach to approximately 700,000 by 2058.


title: Australian Capital Territory

text: At the , the median weekly income for people in the territory aged over 15 was $998 while the national average was $662.


title: Australian Capital Territory

text: The average level of degree qualification in the ACT is higher than the national average. Within the ACT, 37.1% of the population hold a bachelor's degree level or above education compared to the national figure of 20%.


title: Australian Capital Territory

text: The Australian Capital Territory consists of the city of Canberra and some surrounding townships including Williamsdale, Naas, Uriarra, Tharwa and Hall.


title: Australian Capital Territory

text: The urban areas of Canberra are organised into a hierarchy of districts, town centres, group centres, local suburbs as well as other industrial areas and villages. There are seven districts (with an eighth currently under construction), each of which is divided into smaller suburbs, and most of which have a town centre which is the focus of commercial and social activities. The districts were settled in the following chronological order:


title: Australian Capital Territory

text: The North and South Canberra districts are substantially based on Walter Burley Griffin's designs. In 1967, the then National Capital Development Commission adopted the "Y Plan" which laid out future urban development in Canberra around a series of central shopping and commercial area known as the 'town centres' linked by freeways, the layout of which roughly resembled the shape of the letter Y, with Tuggeranong at the base of the Y and Belconnen and Gungahlin located at the ends of the arms of the Y.


title: Australian Capital Territory

text: The showed that 32.5% of the ACT's inhabitants were born overseas. Of inhabitants born outside of Australia, the most prevalent countries of birth were India, England, China, Nepal and New Zealand.


title: Australian Capital Territory

text: 2.0% of the population, or 8,949 people, identified as Indigenous Australians (Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders) in 2021.


title: Australian Capital Territory

text: At the , 71.3% of people spoke only English at home. The other languages most commonly spoken at home were Mandarin (3.2%), Nepali (1.3%), Vietnamese (1.1%), Punjabi (1.1%), Hindi (1.0%).


title: Australian Capital Territory

text: The most common responses in the for religion in the territory were No Religion (43.5%), Catholic (19.3%), Anglican (8.2%), Not stated (5.2%) and Hinduism (4.5%).


title: Australian Capital Territory

text: Almost all educational institutions in the Australian Capital Territory are located within Canberra. The ACT public education system schooling is normally split up into Pre-School, Primary School (K-6), High School (7–10) and College (11–12) followed by studies at university or CIT (Canberra Institute of Technology). Many private high schools include years 11 and 12 and are referred to as colleges. Children are required to attend school until they turn 17 under the ACT Government's "Learn or Earn" policy.


title: Australian Capital Territory

text: In February 2004 there were 140 public and non-governmental schools in ACT; 96 were operated by the Government and 44 are non-Government. In 2005, there were 60,275 students in the ACT school system. 59.3% of the students were enrolled in government schools with the remaining 40.7% in non-government schools. There were 30,995 students in primary school, 19,211 in high school, 9,429 in college and a further 340 in special schools.


title: Australian Capital Territory

text: As of May 2004, 30% of people in the ACT aged 15–64 had a level of educational attainment equal to at least a bachelor's degree, significantly higher than the national average of 19%. The two main tertiary institutions are the Australian National University (ANU) in Acton and the University of Canberra (UC) in Bruce. There are also two religious university campuses in Canberra: Signadou is a campus of the Australian Catholic University and St Mark's Theological College is a campus of Charles Sturt University. Tertiary level vocational education is also available through the multi-campus Canberra Institute of Technology.


title: Australian Capital Territory

text: The Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA) and the Royal Military College, Duntroon (RMC) are in the suburb of Campbell in Canberra's inner northeast. ADFA teaches military undergraduates and postgraduates and is officially a campus of the University of New South Wales while Duntroon provides Australian Army Officer training.


title: Australian Capital Territory

text: The Academy of Interactive Entertainment (AIE) offers courses in computer game development and 3D animation.


title: Australian Capital Territory

text: The Australian Capital Territory is home to a number of major professional sports league franchise teams including the ACT Brumbies (Rugby Union), Canberra United (Football), Canberra Raiders (Rugby League) and the Canberra Capitals (Basketball).


title: Australian Capital Territory

text: The Prime Minister's XI (Cricket), started by Robert Menzies in the 1950s and revived by Bob Hawke in 1984, has been played every year at Manuka Oval against an overseas touring team.


title: Australian Capital Territory

text: The Greater Western Sydney Giants (Australian Rules) play three regular season matches a year and one pre-season match in Canberra at Manuka Oval.


title: Australian Capital Territory

text: The territory is home to many national monuments and institutions such as the Australian War Memorial, the National Gallery of Australia, the National Portrait Gallery, the National Library, the National Archives, the Australian Academy of Science, the National Film and Sound Archive and the National Museum. Many Commonwealth government buildings in Canberra are open to the public, including Parliament House, the High Court and the Royal Australian Mint.


title: Australian Capital Territory

text: Lake Burley Griffin is the site of the Captain James Cook Memorial and the National Carillon. Other sites of interest include the Telstra Tower, the Australian National Botanic Gardens, the National Zoo and Aquarium, the National Dinosaur Museum and Questacon – the National Science and Technology Centre.