title: Tropicana Field

text: The St. Anthony's Fan Care Clinic is located between Gates 3 and 4 on the 100 level, section 102 (behind home plate). St. Anthony's Health Medical Team staffs the clinic and offers first aid services to fans. A Baby Care Suite is located on the 300 level near section 300. It features baby changing stations and private nursing suites.


title: Tropicana Field

text: Located throughout the first floor walkway are multiple apparel and gear stores, and interactive experiences for fans.


title: Tropicana Field

text: One of the team's two main apparel stores is located in the stadium, near gate 1. The other main store, The Tampa Pro Shop & Ticket Outlet, is located in Tampa. Many specialty, smaller, stores are located throughout the stadium, including a "Game-Used Merchandise" store located in Center Field Street.


title: Tropicana Field

text: Just over the right-center field fence is the Rays Touch Tank. This , tank is filled with three different species of rays, including cownose rays that were taken from Tampa Bay waters. The tank is one of the 10 biggest in the nation. Admission to the tank area is free for all fans attending home games, but there is a limit of 40 people in the area at any given time. The tank is open to fans about twenty minutes after the gates open and closes to the public two hours after the first pitch. Fans get to see the rays up close and get to learn educational info about them.


title: Tropicana Field

text: The tank and rays are sponsored and maintained by the Florida Aquarium, and educates people about rays and other aquatic life.


title: Tropicana Field

text: For every ball hit into the tank during a game by a Rays player, the Rays would donate $5,000 to charity with $2,500 going to the Florida Aquarium and $2,500 going to that player's charity of choice. To date, only seven players have hit a home run that landed in the tank:


title: Tropicana Field

text: As of the 2021 season, the netting over the tank was extended to fully enclose the area, removing the possibility of a home run ball entering the tank.


title: Tropicana Field

text: Behind center field on the stadium's ground level near the main rotunda entrance is a two-story full-service restaurant and recreational area called BallPark & Rec, opened in 2018. The restaurant's second floor features an outdoor area with lawn games, as well as an indoor arcade area. This restaurant took over the location previously occupied by Everglades Brewhouse, which served several craft beers in addition to having a full liquor bar and opened two hours before first pitch. A "Fan vs. Food" challenge at Everglades was introduced in 2014, which consists of eating a burger and a pound of french fries in under 30 minutes to win two future Rays game tickets and a T-shirt.


title: Tropicana Field

text: The Cuesta-Rey Cigar Bar was located upstairs from Everglades Brewhouse, accessible by escalator, and across from The Porch in center field, prior to BallPark & Rec's expansion. It offered a large selection of cigars, many produced by a company founded in Tampa. The lounge also featured a regular bar, open seating with leather upholstery, and a large screen T.V. It was the only indoor location at Tropicana Field where smoking is permitted.


title: Tropicana Field

text: Various other concession stands are located behind center field and along the outer rim of the stadium along the base lines, collected in three concourses named Center Field Street, First Base Food Hall, and Third Base Food Hall. These stands frequently change from season to season, are often named after or maintained by stadium sponsors, or are themed after notable Rays figures, such as the Rocco Ball Deli, themed after former Rays player and coach Rocco Baldelli, which was open for the 2018 season until Baldelli was hired by the Minnesota Twins in 2019. Current and former concessions include the Taco Bus, the Wine Cellar, The Carvery, Pipo's, Papa John's Pizza, Fish Shack, Everglades BBQ, a full service liquor bar, Bay Grill and the Craft Beer Corner featuring many local craft brewery's including Big Storm Brewing, Cigar City, Green Bench, Sea Dog and 3 Daughters. Green Bench Brewing offers a special edition brew just for the Rays called 2-Seam Blonde Ale.


title: Tropicana Field

text: In addition to these concessions, Tropicana Field previously hosted a concession stand for Outback Steakhouse. Outback is a Tampa Bay-based establishment. To compete with established stadiums' hot dog traditions, the Trop introduced the "Sting 'Em" Dog in 2007. This consists of a regular hot dog topped with chili and cheese. It was renamed "The Heater" in 2008.


title: Tropicana Field

text: The Ted Williams Museum and Hitters Hall of Fame opened in February 1994, in Hernando, Florida, in Citrus County—just a few blocks from the place where Williams lived in his later years.


title: Tropicana Field

text: In 2006, the museum and hall of fame were moved to Tropicana Field after its original facility in Hernando went bankrupt. A new upstairs wing was opened in 2007, which now houses the exhibits on Ted Williams's careers with the Boston Red Sox and with the United States Marine Corps during World War II and the Korean War, as well as the monuments to the members of the Hitters Hall of Fame complete with memorabilia, with donated authentic memorabilia wherever possible and many of Williams's own personal mementos from his career and post-playing life. Williams did not induct himself into his own Hitters Hall of Fame, and was inducted in 2003 only after he died.


title: Tropicana Field

text: The museum also includes a "Pitching Wall of Great Achievement", the Negro leagues wing—including an exhibit about John Jordan "Buck" O'Neil (a "son" of Sarasota)—the "500 Homerun Club" exhibit, and exhibits about other topics, including the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League and the Tampa Bay Rays. The museum often hosts autograph signings and charity auctions during or before games.


title: Tropicana Field

text: The museum is open during game days, opening at the same time as the park and closing after the 7th inning with the concession stands. Admission is free, and the museum is open to all ticketholders. In 2012, the museum is open until the 9th inning, but still open only on game days. As of the last week of the 2012 season the museum was back to closing by the 7th inning (beginning of, not after the 7th inning) and the open only on game days policy is still in effect.


title: Tropicana Field

text: In 1998, Tropicana Field was a regional final site for the NCAA men's basketball tournament. A year later the stadium played host to the 1999 Final Four which saw the Connecticut Huskies beat the Duke Blue Devils 77–74 for the championship. Subsequently, no other NCAA men's basketball game has been played at Tropicana Field.


title: Tropicana Field

text: In 2008, the NCAA announced that Tropicana Field would be host to a postseason college bowl game, bringing football to the dome. The game, which eventually took on the name Gasparilla Bowl, was played inside Tropicana Field until 2017, after which the bowl organizers moved the annual contest to Raymond James Stadium in Tampa.


title: Tropicana Field

text: The Trop returned to a football configuration on October 30, 2009, to host one of the three home games of the Florida Tuskers of the United Football League, which the Rays had invested in.


title: Tropicana Field

text: The East–West Shrine Game, a postseason college football all-star game played annually since 1925, was played at Tropicana Field from 2012 until 2019.


title: Tropicana Field

text: Tropicana Field, then known as the ThunderDome, holds the record for the highest attendance for a Stanley Cup playoffs game, set on April 23, 1996 with 28,183 fans. At the time this was the largest-ever crowd at an NHL game, which stood until the 2003 Heritage Classic. This still stands the attendance record for a game played at a teams' regular home stadium, as all NHL games with a higher attendance were part of the NHL's Winter Classic, Heritage Classic, or Stadium Series.


title: Tropicana Field

text: The World of Outlaws Sprint Cars raced at the Suncoast Dome on February 7–9, 1992 as a part of Florida Speedweeks with several tracks hosting events during the month.


title: Tropicana Field

text: An SCCA Trans-Am Series race was held from 1996 to 1997 on a temporary course encompassing the parking lot and surrounding streets.


title: Tropicana Field

text: Tropicana Field has hosted many concerts over the years; one of the first large events upon its completion was a concert by Don Henley on June 29, 1990. Many well-known artists have held concerts at the venue, including Eric Clapton (twice), David Bowie, Janet Jackson (twice), Steely Dan, AC/DC (twice), Guns N' Roses, Billy Joel (twice), Robert Plant, Rush (twice), R.E.M., the Eagles, Depeche Mode, Rod Stewart, Kiss, and Van Halen (twice), among others. The venue's largest concert attendance was for the boy band New Kids on the Block in August 1990.


title: Tropicana Field

text: The number of large concerts at Tropicana Field has decreased considerably since the (Devil) Rays were established in 1998, as the club's 81-game home schedule makes scheduling difficult, especially during the summer concert season. Also, the development in nearby Tampa of Amalie Arena (opened in 1996) and the MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre (opened in 2004) into busy concert venues has further curtailed the concert slate at Tropicana Field.


title: Tropicana Field

text: Beginning in 2007, the Rays organized a "Summer Concert Series" in which a mix of major and lesser-known performers of many different musical genres performed after select home games for no extra charge beyond the price of the game ticket. The concerts were usually scheduled after Friday or Saturday night games, with more kid-oriented acts performing after Sunday afternoon games. The usual procedure was for a portable stage to be rolled out onto centerfield immediately after the final out of the ballgame, with the music starting soon thereafter. For most shows, fans were allowed to come down onto the playing field to watch the performance up close.


title: Tropicana Field

text: The first after-baseball concert featured nostalgia act Sha Na Na in June 2007. The event was so successful that the Rays booked a series of shows for the following season, usually increasing attendance for those games. Participating artists have included The Beach Boys, Los Lobos, LL Cool J, Sister Hazel, Kacey Musgraves, The Jacksons, REO Speedwagon, ZZ Top, Weezer, Kenny Loggins, Avril Lavigne, Joan Jett, and The Wiggles among many others, totaling over 80 shows in all.


title: Tropicana Field

text: In some seasons, the number of post-game concerts was as high as a dozen. The number dwindled to two in 2017, and before the 2018 season, the Rays announced that they would discontinue the concert series due to "stress on the artificial turf".


title: Tropicana Field

text: On December 11, 2020, professional wrestling promotion WWE began broadcasting its weekly shows, "Raw", "SmackDown", and "Main Event", and their associated pay-per-views (PPV) from Tropicana Field in a residency. The programs were filmed behind closed doors due to the COVID-19 pandemic in a bio-secure bubble called the WWE ThunderDome, which had been relocated from Orlando's Amway Center due to the start of the 2020–21 ECHL and NBA seasons as the Amway Center is the shared home of the Orlando Solar Bears and the Orlando Magic. Through the arrangement, Tropicana Field hosted the pay-per-views , Royal Rumble, Elimination Chamber, and Fastlane—the final PPV before WrestleMania 37 (hosted by Raymond James Stadium in nearby Tampa)—as well as a special event called Superstar Spectacle and the 2021 WWE Hall of Fame induction ceremony. As the 2021 MLB season approached, on March 24, 2021, WWE announced that the ThunderDome would be relocated to the Yuengling Center in Tampa, beginning with the April 12 episode of "Raw", the night after WrestleMania 37. WWE's final show filmed at Tropicana Field was the April 9 episode of "SmackDown", which was taped the week prior on April 2.


title: Tropicana Field

text: Tropicana Field sits on in the Midtown community of St. Petersburg, Florida. The land the stadium and its parking lots now occupy was occupied by the Gas Plant neighborhood from the late 1800s until 1986.


title: Tropicana Field

text: In the late 1800s St. Petersburg began a large recruitment initiative to attract people to help build the city's infrastructures and fill lower-income service jobs. African Americans began to move to St. Petersburg from across the south looking to fill these jobs. The influx of African Americans in the area brought the formation of many black communities including the Gas Plant district. The area housed nearly 800 people, many African American-owned small businesses and three African American churches. The district's name came from the two fuel tanks that originally stood where Tropicana Field now stands.


title: Tropicana Field

text: In 1979, the St. Petersburg City Council voted to refurbish the neighborhood, as it had "seen better days." This plan promised to create new, modern, affordable housing and an industrial park that would bring many new jobs to the area. By 1982 developers offered no proposals for the refurbishment of the district to the city council, even after the council specifically requested the proposals. A group of Pinellas County business people offered a plan to the council that entailed building a baseball stadium, in hopes of attracting a major league baseball team to the area. That year, the council voted unanimously to follow through with the baseball hopes and lease the land to the sports authority for $1 a year.


title: Tropicana Field

text: Most African Americans that used to live and/or work in the neighborhood felt betrayed by the city and bitter over the baseball development. The city had offered, and followed through with, many reparation programs for the residents and businesses of the Gas Plant district when the district was originally to be refurbished, including financial relocation help. But these programs were welcomed only on the basis that the area would be once again a functional community. When that stipulation changed residents were angered and new reparation plans were rumored but never came to fruition. As for the churches of the area, relocation offers extended to them from the City Council were "generous" according to one of the churches pastors. This is believed to be because of the political power that the churches held.


title: Tropicana Field

text: The destruction of the Gas Plant district and the city's shortcomings in securing economic and employment opportunities for the displaced African American community have left a jagged relationship between city officials and the aforementioned African American community. The destruction of the Gas Plant district financially crippled and killed many African American-owned small businesses and is often referred to as the main reason that only 10% of St. Petersburg's small businesses are African American-owned today.


title: Tropicana Field

text: The dome was built on the former site of a coal gasification plant and, in 1987, hazardous chemicals were found in the soil around the construction site. The city spent millions of dollars to remove the chemicals from the area.


title: Tropicana Field

text: It is often criticized as being located away from the Tampa Bay area's largest population base in Tampa.


title: Tropicana Field

text: Among the most cited criticisms about the stadium are the four catwalks that hang from the ceiling. The catwalks are part of the dome's support structure. The stadium was built with cable-stayed technology similar to that of the defunct Georgia Dome. It also supports the lighting and speaker systems. Because the dome is tilted toward the outfield, the catwalks are lower in the outfield.


title: Tropicana Field

text: The catwalks are lettered, with the highest inner ring being the A Ring, out to the farthest and lowest, the D Ring. The A Ring is entirely in play, while the B, C, and D Rings have yellow posts bolted to them to delineate the relative position of the foul lines. Any ball touching the A Ring, or the in-play portion of the B Ring, can drop for a hit or be caught for an out. The C and D Rings are out of play; if they are struck between the foul poles, then the ball is ruled a home run.


title: Tropicana Field

text: On August 5, 2010, Jason Kubel of the Minnesota Twins hit a sky-high infield pop-up that would have ended the inning in a 6–6 game if caught, but the ball struck the A ring and fell safely onto the infield allowing the Twins to score the go-ahead run and extend the inning in a controversial 8–6 win. As a result, on October 4, 2010, Major League Baseball approved a change in the ground rules for the A and B rings, making it so that a batted ball striking either of the two rings was automatically ruled a dead ball, regardless of whether the ball strikes in fair or foul territory. The rules pertaining to the C and D rings remained the same. This change lasted for just the 2010 postseason.


title: Tropicana Field

text: On the other hand, several potential hits have been lost as a result of the catwalks. For example, on May 12, 2006, Devil Rays outfielder Jonny Gomes hit a long fly ball against the Toronto Blue Jays that seemed destined to be a home run before it hit the B ring, got stuck momentarily, and then rolled off and was caught by Toronto shortstop John McDonald as Gomes was headed for home plate. Although Rays manager Joe Maddon tried to argue that it should have been at least a ground rule double since it stayed in the B Ring for a while before coming loose, umpires eventually ruled against the Rays and called Gomes out.


title: Tropicana Field

text: On May 26, 2008, Carlos Peña hit a pop-fly to center field that likely would have been caught by Texas Rangers center fielder Josh Hamilton. The ball instead hit the B ring catwalk and did not come down. Peña was mistakenly given a home run, but after deliberation, the umpires awarded him a ground rule double. This was the second time this had happened, as José Canseco hit a ball that stuck in the same catwalk on May 2, 1999.


title: Tropicana Field

text: Many players have hit the C and D rings for home runs. The first player ever to hit the rings for a home run was Edgar Martínez of the Seattle Mariners on May 29, 1998. Martinez's home run went off the D ring. Three players before him hit balls that went into the C ring. However, at the time, balls hitting the C ring were not ruled home runs. Two days prior to Martinez's home run, the ground rules were changed so that if a ball hit the C ring, it would be called a home run. The first player to hit the rings for a home run in postseason play was Rays third baseman Evan Longoria, who hit the C ring off Javier Vázquez of the Chicago White Sox on October 2, 2008, in the 3rd inning of Game 1 of the 2008 American League Division Series.


title: Tropicana Field

text: On July 17, 2011, during a nationally televised game against the Red Sox, Rays batter Sean Rodriguez hit a high foul popup that shattered a lightbulb on a catwalk. Pieces of the broken bulb fell to the turf near the third base coach's box. After a quick cleaning delay in which the Tropicana Field PA system played the theme to "The Natural" (a 1984 film that prominently features a hit baseball striking and shattering a stadium light fixture), the game resumed.


title: Tropicana Field

text: Another ceiling-related incident came in June 2018, when New York Yankees outfielder Clint Frazier's 9th-inning fly ball bounced off a speaker hanging from the B ring and was caught by Rays shortstop Adeiny Hechavarria for an out. Some suggest that the ball would have traveled far enough for a home run, which would have broken a 6–6 tie. The Rays won the game in extra innings with a walk-off home run.


title: Tropicana Field

text: The bullpens are located along (and close to) the left and right field foul lines and there are no barriers that separate them from the field of play. In fact, fly balls hit into the bullpens are in play. The bullpen players and the pitching mounds are obstacles for fielders chasing fly balls into the pen. Teams have to station a batboy behind the catchers in the bullpens to prevent them from being hit by foul balls from behind. This style of bullpen used to be common in the Major Leagues, but is currently in use only at Tropicana Field and RingCentral Coliseum in Oakland.


title: Tropicana Field

text: Another criticism of the stadium is the drab interior environment, especially early in the (Devil) Rays' existence, when the stark concrete interior was compared to a large warehouse. However, since it was designed specifically for baseball, it is somewhat smaller and the sightlines are better than in most domed stadiums, which are often built to accommodate other sports as well.


title: Tropicana Field

text: The current Rays' Stuart Sternberg-led ownership group has invested several million dollars over the past decade to make the venue more fan friendly. New or improved features include a larger scoreboard, video wall, catwalk sleeves, an outfield touch-tank featuring cownose rays, a walk-around that circles the entire field, two concession and gathering areas in the outfield, and many other additions and upgrades designed to improve the fan experience.


title: BASEketball

text: BASEketball is a 1998 American sports comedy film co-written and directed by David Zucker and starring "South Park" creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, along with Yasmine Bleeth, Jenny McCarthy, Robert Vaughn, Ernest Borgnine, and Dian Bachar.


title: BASEketball

text: The film follows the history of the sport of the same name (created by Zucker years earlier), from its invention by the lead characters as a game they could win against more athletic types, to its development as a nationwide league sport and a target of corporate sponsorship.


title: BASEketball

text: This is the only work involving Parker and Stone that was neither written, directed, nor produced by them, although Zucker himself has stated that Parker and Stone contributed innumerable suggestions for the film, most of which were used.


title: BASEketball

text: Joe "Coop" Cooper and Doug Remer, two slackers and lifelong best friends, gate crash a high-school reunion and are shunned by their classmates. They find themselves outside drinking beer and shooting a basketball when two classmates challenge them to a game. After seeing that their opponents are very good at basketball, they say they will only play a game they picked up in the streets (while secretly inventing the rules as they play, based on both basketball and baseball). After winning, they decide to refine the rules to the game and Coop makes the first BASEketball out of a La-Z-Boy chair. Their friend, Kenny "Squeak" Scolari, tags along and the sport becomes very popular in the neighborhood over the next six months.


title: BASEketball

text: Businessman Ted Denslow meets Coop and Remer and proposes the creation of the National BASEketball League (NBL) along with numerous rules in place to prevent its decline: teams cannot switch cities, players cannot be traded, individuals cannot make money via corporate sponsorship deals, and it is completely open to anyone who wants to play, with Denslow stating that "anyone can be a sports hero". Coop is reluctant, but ultimately accepts the opportunity.


title: BASEketball

text: Five years later, the NBL is in full swing with teams, fans, stadiums, and a major championship, the Denslow Cup. Denslow is owner of the Milwaukee Beers, Coop and Remer's team. During the championship game, Denslow dies from choking on a hot dog, causing Coop to miss his shot and costing the Beers the game. Denslow's will names Coop as owner of the Beers for one year on the condition that they win the next Denslow Cup; otherwise, ownership reverts to Denslow's widow Yvette. Coop and Remer then meet Jenna Reed, head of the Dream Come True Foundation, and Joey, one of the children in her care and a passionate fan of BASEketball; Coop, Remer and Squeak begin spending time with the two, with Coop eventually forming a relationship with Jenna.


title: BASEketball

text: Baxter Cain, owner of the Dallas Felons, wants to remove Denslow's rules preventing monetization of the sport, but could not while Denslow was alive. However, Coop refuses to accept any changes; Cain partners with Yvette as he tries to make the Beers lose the next Denslow Cup so she will own the team; however, the Beers still continue winning games and heading towards the championship. Cain approaches Remer, telling him that he made an offer to Coop, but Coop refused without telling Remer. Remer confronts Coop about what Cain told him, and Coop quickly compromises by declaring Remer part owner of the team.


title: BASEketball

text: Later, Cain cuts the funding to Jenna's foundation in an attempt to get Coop and Remer to adopt a clothing line; Coop is against it, but Remer agrees and becomes conceited with his newfound A-list status. After the semifinals, Cain informs Coop and Remer that the clothing line has been produced through child labor in Calcutta; if the public finds out, the team and Jenna's foundation will be ruined. Cain blackmails Coop and Remer into losing or forfeiting the Denslow Cup game or he will inform the public. Jenna learns about the scandal and breaks up with Coop, as Coop and Remer blame each other for the controversy.


title: BASEketball

text: With their friendship dissolved, Coop goes to Calcutta, aiming to resolve the situation by replacing the child workers with adults. Making it back to the championship game just as it begins, Coop and Remer still argue with each other and the Beers are losing; by the seventh-inning stretch, the Beers are down 16–0. Having had enough of Coop and Remer's feuding, Squeak gives the stadium an impassioned speech, reminding Coop and Remer where they came from, how much they changed everyone else's lives, and what they risk losing. Motivated, Coop and Remer reconcile their differences as Yvette, also moved by Squeak's speech, breaks off her alliance with Cain. After shifting their focus back in the game, they are poised to win when Coop's La-Z-Boy pops. Coop is crestfallen until Joey brings him a new BASEketball made from a Barcalounger. After a risky last throw, they win the Denslow Cup. Jenna and Coop reconcile as Yvette makes out with Remer and the both of them skate around the stadium with their new trophy.


title: BASEketball

text: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Dale Earnhardt, Reggie Jackson, Jim Lampley, Kenny Mayne, Tim McCarver, Pat O'Brien, Dan Patrick, Reel Big Fish, Victoria Silvstedt, and Robert Stack make cameo appearances as themselves. Greg Grunberg, Kevin Michael Richardson, and Peter Tuiasosopo also make cameos as athletes.


title: BASEketball

text: Zucker had wanted Chris Farley to play the lead role before casting Parker and Stone due to their work with "South Park" becoming a huge hit. The duo agreed to do the movie under the assumption that their show would have been canceled by the time filming began, which did not happen; the show is still on the air as of 2022.


title: BASEketball

text: The soundtrack featured a bouncy ska cover of Norwegian band A-ha's signature single "Take On Me" by Reel Big Fish. The band also appears as the live entertainment at the home stadium of the Milwaukee Beers, playing "Take On Me" and several of their other songs. The soundtrack also includes the Smash Mouth cover of the popular War song "Why Can't We Be Friends?" and a cover of Harry Belafonte's "Jump In The Line (Shake Shake Senora)" by Cherry Poppin' Daddies.


title: BASEketball

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, "BASEketball" has an approval rating of 42%, with an average rating of 5.31/10, based on 52 reviews from critics. The website's "Critics Consensus" is ""Baseketball" isn't just a succession of fouls thanks to the comedic zip of David Zucker's direction, but sophomoric gags and a lack of performance hustle by Trey Parker and Matt Stone makes this satire a clumsy bunt." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 38 out of 100, based on reviews from 18 critics, indicating "Generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade B on scale of A to F.


title: BASEketball

text: In a positive review with "Variety", Leonard Klady said "BASEketball" "has the heightened entertainment challenge of presenting an invented sport ... The film's physical comedy should translate well internationally and chalk up high scores on video". The film was awarded four stars out of five by "Empire" magazine's Ian Freer, who called it funny but described the humor as sometimes hit-and-miss. Conversely, "Los Angeles Times" Jack Mathews labeled the film as sleep-inducing and "by far the most inane and badly written of the comedies made by any of the creators of the classic 1980 sendup "Airplane!"". Michael O'Sullivan in "The Washington Post"" called the film "dark, dull, witless and hobbled by poor comic timing," comparing its gross-out humor unfavorably to that of "There's Something About Mary". Roger Ebert echoed this sentiment in his negative review in the "Chicago Sun-Times", giving the film one and a half stars out of four and saying the film "tries to buy laughs with puerile shocks".


title: BASEketball

text: For their roles in the film, Yasmine Bleeth and Jenny McCarthy were nominated at the 1998 Golden Raspberry Awards, for the Worst Actress and Worst Supporting Actress awards, respectively. Bleeth lost to the Spice Girls (for "Spice World") while McCarthy lost to Maria Pitillo ("Godzilla").


title: BASEketball

text: In response to a negative review from Roger Ebert, Parker and Stone named "South Park" second season's eleventh episode "Roger Ebert Should Lay Off the Fatty Foods", which, despite its title, did not feature Ebert. Parker and Stone also referenced "BASEketball" negative reception in "South Park" season-eight episode "The Passion of the Jew", where at one point, Stan Marsh tells Kenny McCormick as they attempt to get a refund for the tickets they bought to see Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ": "This is about being able to hold bad filmmakers responsible! This is just like when we got our money back for "BASEketball"!"


title: BASEketball

text: "BASEketball" is credited with coining the Internet slang term "derp". Parker and Stone later referenced the term in "South Park" third season episode "The Succubus", where Chef is replaced by Mr. Derp.


title: Mangrove forest

text: Mangrove forests, also called mangrove swamps, mangrove thickets or mangals, are productive wetlands that occur in coastal intertidal zones. Mangrove forests grow mainly at tropical and subtropical latitudes because mangroves cannot withstand freezing temperatures. There are about 80 different species of mangroves, all of which grow in areas with low-oxygen soil, where slow-moving waters allow fine sediments to accumulate.


title: Mangrove forest

text: Many mangrove forests can be recognised by their dense tangle of prop roots that make the trees appear to be standing on stilts above the water. This tangle of roots allows the trees to handle the daily rise and fall of tides, which means that most mangroves get flooded at least twice per day. The roots slow the movement of tidal waters, causing sediments to settle out of the water and build up the muddy bottom. Mangrove forests stabilise the coastline, reducing erosion from storm surges, currents, waves, and tides. The intricate root system of mangroves also makes these forests attractive to fish and other organisms seeking food and shelter from predators.


title: Mangrove forest

text: Mangrove forests live at the interface between the land, the ocean, and the atmosphere, and are centres for the flow of energy and matter between these systems. They have attracted much research interest because of the various ecological functions of the mangrove ecosystems, including runoff and flood prevention, storage and recycling of nutrients and wastes, cultivation and energy conversion. The forests are major blue carbon systems, storing considerable amounts of carbon in marine sediments, thus becoming important regulators of climate change. Marine microorganisms are key parts of these mangrove ecosystems. However, much remains to be discovered about how mangrove microbiomes contributes to high ecosystem productivity and efficient cycling of elements.


title: Mangrove forest

text: There are about 80 different species of mangrove trees. All of these trees grow in areas with low-oxygen soil, where slow-moving waters allow fine sediments to accumulate. Mangrove forests grow only at tropical and subtropical latitudes near the equator because they cannot withstand freezing temperatures. Many mangrove forests can be recognised by their dense tangle of prop roots that make the trees appear to be standing on stilts above the water. This tangle of roots allows the trees to handle the daily rise and fall of tides, which means that most mangroves get flooded at least twice per day. The roots slow the movement of tidal waters, causing sediments to settle out of the water and build up the muddy bottom. Mangrove forests stabilise the coastline, reducing erosion from storm surges, currents, waves, and tides. The intricate root system of mangroves makes these forests attractive to fishes and other organisms seeking food and shelter from predators.


title: Mangrove forest

text: The main contribution of mangroves to the larger ecosystem comes from litter fall from the trees, which is then decomposed by primary consumers. Bacteria and protozoans colonise the plant litter and break it down chemically into organic compounds, minerals, carbon dioxide, and nitrogenous wastes. The intertidal existence to which these trees are adapted represents the major limitation to the number of species able to thrive in their habitat. High tide brings in salt water, and when the tide recedes, solar evaporation of the seawater in the soil leads to further increases in salinity. The return of tide can flush out these soils, bringing them back to salinity levels comparable to that of seawater. At low tide, organisms are exposed to increases in temperature and reduced moisture before being then cooled and flooded by the tide. Thus, for a plant to survive in this environment, it must tolerate broad ranges of salinity, temperature, and moisture, as well as several other key environmental factors—thus only a select few species make up the mangrove tree community.


title: Mangrove forest

text: A mangrove swamp typically features only a small number of tree species. It is not uncommon for a mangrove forest in the Caribbean to feature only three or four tree species. For comparison, a tropical rainforest biome may contain thousands of tree species, but this is not to say mangrove forests lack diversity. Though the trees are few in species, the ecosystem that these trees create provides a habitat for a great variety of other species, including as many as 174 species of marine megafauna.


title: Mangrove forest

text: Mangrove plants require a number of physiological adaptations to overcome the problems of low environmental oxygen levels, high salinity, and frequent tidal flooding. Each species has its own solutions to these problems; this may be the primary reason why, on some shorelines, mangrove tree species show distinct zonation. Small environmental variations within a mangal may lead to greatly differing methods for coping with the environment. Therefore, the mix of species is partly determined by the tolerances of individual species to physical conditions, such as tidal flooding and salinity, but may also be influenced by other factors, such as crabs preying on plant seedlings.


title: Mangrove forest

text: Once established, mangrove roots provide an oyster habitat and slow water flow, thereby enhancing sediment deposition in areas where it is already occurring. The fine, anoxic sediments under mangroves act as sinks for a variety of heavy (trace) metals which colloidal particles in the sediments have concentrated from the water. Mangrove removal disturbs these underlying sediments, often creating problems of trace metal contamination of seawater and organisms of the area.


title: Mangrove forest

text: Mangrove swamps protect coastal areas from erosion, storm surge (especially during tropical cyclones), and tsunamis. They limit high-energy wave erosion mainly during events such as storm surges and tsunamis. The mangroves' massive root systems are efficient at dissipating wave energy. Likewise, they slow down tidal water enough so that its sediment is deposited as the tide comes in, leaving all except fine particles when the tide ebbs. In this way, mangroves build their environments. Because of the uniqueness of mangrove ecosystems and the protection against erosion they provide, they are often the object of conservation programs, including national biodiversity action plans.


title: Mangrove forest

text: Worldwide there are about 80 described species of mangroves that live along marine coasts. About 60 of these species are true mangroves which live only in the intertidal zone between high and low tides. "Mangroves once covered three-quarters of the world's tropical coastlines, with Southeast Asia hosting the greatest diversity. Only 12 species live in the Americas. Mangroves range in size from small bushes to the 60-meter giants found in Ecuador. Within a given mangrove forest, different species occupy distinct niches. Those that can handle tidal soakings grow in the open sea, in sheltered bays, and on fringe islands. Trees adapted to drier, less salty soil can be found farther from the shoreline. Some mangroves flourish along riverbanks far inland, as long as the freshwater current is met by ocean tides."


title: Mangrove forest

text: Mangroves can be found in over one hundred countries and territories in the tropical and subtropical regions of the world. The largest percentage of mangroves is found between the 5° N and 5° S latitudes. Approximately 75% of world's mangroves are found in just 15 countries. Estimates of mangrove area based on remote sensing and global data tend to be lower than estimates based on literature and surveys for comparable periods.


title: Mangrove forest

text: In 2018, the Global Mangrove Watch Initiative released a global baseline based on remote sensing and global data for 2010. They estimated the total mangrove forest area of the world as of 2010 at , spanning 118 countries and territories. Following the conventions for identifying geographic regions from the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, researchers reported that Asia has the largest share (38.7%) of the world's mangroves, followed by Latin America and the Caribbean (20.3%), Africa (20.0%), Oceania (11.9%), and Northern America (8.4%).


title: Mangrove forest

text: The largest mangrove forest in the world is in the Sundarbans. The Sundarban forest lies in the vast delta on the Bay of Bengal formed by the super confluence of the Brahmaputra and Meghna rivers with distributaries of the Ganges. The seasonally flooded Sundarbans freshwater swamp forests lie inland from the mangrove forests on the coastal fringe. The forest covers of which about are in Bangladesh.


title: Mangrove forest

text: The Sundarbans is intersected by a complex network of tidal waterways, mudflats and small islands of salt-tolerant mangrove forests. The interconnected network of waterways makes almost every portion of the forest accessible by boat. The area is known as an important habitat for the endangered Bengal tiger, as well as numerous fauna including species of birds, spotted deer, crocodiles and snakes. The fertile soils of the delta have been subject to intensive human use for centuries, and the ecoregion has been mostly converted to intensive agriculture, with few enclaves of forest remaining. Additionally, the Sundarbans serves a crucial function as a protective barrier for millions of inhabitants against floods that result from cyclones.


title: Mangrove forest

text: Four protected areas in the Sundarbans are listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Despite these protections, the Indian Sundarbans were assessed as endangered in 2020 under the IUCN Red List of Ecosystems framework. There is a consistent pattern of depleted biodiversity or loss of species and the ecological quality of the forest is declining.


title: Mangrove forest

text: The unique ecosystem found in the intricate mesh of mangrove roots offers a quiet marine habitat for young organisms. In areas where roots are permanently submerged, the organisms they host include algae, barnacles, oysters, sponges, and bryozoa, which all require a hard surface for anchoring while they filter-feed. Shrimp and mud lobsters use the muddy bottoms as their home. Mangrove crabs eat the mangrove leaves, adding nutrients to the mangal mud for other bottom feeders. In at least some cases, the export of carbon fixed in mangroves is important in coastal food webs. Mangrove plantations host several commercially important species of fish and crustaceans.


title: Mangrove forest

text: In Puerto Rico, the red, white, and black mangroves occupy different ecological niches and have slightly different chemical compositions, so the carbon content varies between the species, as well between the different tissues of the plant (e.g., leaf matter versus roots). There is a clear succession of these three trees from the lower elevations, which are dominated by red mangroves, to farther inland with a higher concentration of white mangroves.


title: Mangrove forest

text: Mangrove forests are an important part of the cycling and storage of carbon in tropical coastal ecosystems. Knowing this, scientists seek to reconstruct the environment and investigate changes to the coastal ecosystem over thousands of years using sediment cores. However, an additional complication is the imported marine organic matter that also gets deposited in the sediment through the tidal flushing of mangrove forests.


title: Mangrove forest

text: Mangrove forests can decay into peat deposits because of fungal and bacterial processes as well as by the action of termites. It becomes peat in good geochemical, sedimentary, and tectonic conditions. The nature of these deposits depends on the environment and the types of mangroves involved. Termites process fallen leaf litter, root systems and wood from mangroves into peat to build their nests. Termites stabilise the chemistry of this peat and represent approximately 2% of above ground carbon storage in mangroves. As the nests are buried over time this carbon is stored in the sediment, and the carbon cycle continues.


title: Mangrove forest

text: Mangroves are an important source of blue carbon. Globally, mangroves stored of carbon in 2012. Two percent of global mangrove carbon was lost between 2000 and 2012, equivalent to a maximum potential of of CO emissions. Globally, mangroves have been shown to provide measurable economic protections to coastal communities affected by tropical storms.


title: Mangrove forest

text: Heterogeneity in landscape ecology is a measure of how different parts of a landscape are from one another. It can manifest in an ecosystem from the abiotic or biotic characteristics of the environment. For example, coastal mangrove forests are located at the land-sea interface, so their functioning is influenced by abiotic factors such as tides, as well as biotic factors such as the extent and configuration of adjacent vegetation. For forest birds, tidal inundation means that the availability of many mangrove resources fluctuates daily, suggesting foraging flexibility is likely to be important. Mangroves also offer estuarine prey items, such as mudskippers and crabs, that are not found in terrestrial forest types. Further, mangroves are often situated in a complex mosaic of adjacent vegetation types such as grasslands, saltmarshes, and woodlands, and this can mean that flexibility in foraging strategy and choice of foraging habitat may be advantageous for highly mobile forest birds. Relative to other forest types, mangroves support few bird species that are obligate habitat (mangrove) specialists and instead host many species with generalised foraging niches.


title: Mangrove forest

text: The intricate root system of mangrove forests makes them attractive to adult fish seeking food and juvenile fish seeking shelter.


title: Mangrove forest

text: Mangrove forests are among the more productive and diverse ecosystems on the planet, despite limited nitrogen availability. Under such conditions, animal-microbe associations (holobionts) are often key to ecosystem functioning. An example is the role of fiddler crabs and their carapace-associated microbial biofilm as hotspots of microbial nitrogen transformations and sources of nitrogen within the mangrove ecosystem.


title: Mangrove forest

text: Among coastal ecosystems, mangrove forests are of great importance as they account for three quarters of the tropical coastline and provide different ecosystem services. Mangrove ecosystems generally act as a net sink of carbon, although they release organic matter to the sea in the form of dissolved refractory macromolecules, leaves, branches and other debris. In pristine environments, mangroves are among the most productive ecosystems on the planet, despite growing in tropical waters that are often nutrient depleted. The refractory nature of the organic matter produced and retained in mangroves can slow the recycling of nutrients, particularly of nitrogen. Nitrogen limitation in such systems may be overcome by microbial nitrogen fixation when combined with high rates of bioturbation by macrofauna, such as crabs and lobsters.


title: Mangrove forest

text: Bioturbation by macrofauna affect nitrogen availability and multiple nitrogen related microbial processes through sediment reworking, burrow construction and bioirrigation, feeding and excretion. Macrofauna mix old and fresh organic matter, extend oxic–anoxic sediment interfaces, increase the availability of energy-yielding electron acceptors and increase nitrogen turnover via direct excretion. Thus, macrofauna may alleviate nitrogen limitation by priming the remineralisation of refractory nitrogen, reducing plant-microbe competition. Such activity ultimately promotes nitrogen recycling, plant assimilation and high nitrogen retention, as well as favours its loss by stimulating coupled nitrification and denitrification.


title: Mangrove forest

text: Mangrove sediments are highly bioturbated by decapods such as crabs. Crab populations continuously rework sediment by constructing burrows, creating new niches, transporting or selectively grazing on sediment microbial communities. In addition, crabs can affect organic matter turnover by assimilating leaves and producing finely fragmented faeces, or by carrying them into their burrows. Therefore, crabs are considered important ecosystem engineers shaping biogeochemical processes in intertidal muddy banks of mangroves. In contrast to burrowing polychaetes or amphipods, the abundant Ocipodid crabs, mainly represented by fiddler crabs, do not permanently ventilate their burrows. These crabs may temporarily leave their burrows for surface activities, or otherwise plug their burrow entrance during tidal inundation in order to trap air. A recent study by Cuellar-Gempeler and Leibold showed that these crabs can be associated with a diverse microbial community, either on their carapace or in their gut.


title: Mangrove forest

text: The exoskeleton of living animals, such as shells or carapaces, offers a habitat for microbial biofilms which are actively involved in different N-cycling pathways such as nitrification, denitrification and dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium (DNRA). Colonizing the carapace of crabs may be advantageous for specific bacteria, because of host activities such as respiration, excretion, feeding and horizontal and vertical migrations. However, the ecological interactions between fiddler crabs and bacteria, their regulation and significance as well as their implications at scales spanning from the single individual to the ecosystem are not well understood.


title: Mangrove forest

text: Mangrove forests are amongst the world's most productive marine ecosystems, with net primary productivity (NPP) in the order of 208 Tg C yr. Mangrove forests achieve a steady state once the forest reaches maximum biomass at around 20–30 years through a constant process of mortality and renewal so, assuming the living biomass is not becoming more carbon dense, then carbon has to be lost at a rate equal to the amount of carbon fixed as NPP. Hence this productivity is either retained within the mangrove forest, as a standing stock of live material such as wood, buried in sediments, or exported to neighbouring habitats as litter, particulate and dissolved organic carbon (POC and DOC) and dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), or lost to the atmosphere.


title: Mangrove forest

text: The out-welling hypothesis argues that export of locally derived POC and DOC is an important ecosystem function of mangroves, which drives detrital based food webs in adjacent coastal habitats. Export of mangrove carbon has been estimated to make a significant trophic contribution to adjacent ecosystems. The theory of outwelling is supported by mass balance evaluations that show the amount of carbon fixed by mangroves normally greatly exceeds the amount stored within the forest, although the scale of outwelling varies considerably between forests, due to differences in coastal geomorphology, tidal regimes, freshwater flow and productivity.


title: Mangrove forest

text: In the 1990s, global estimates could account for 48% of the total global mangrove primary production of 218 ± 72 million tons C yr (see diagram on the right). By incorporating information on carbon burial, efflux and carbon outwelled as leaf litter, POC and DOC, the remaining 52% was thought outwelled as DIC, though there was insufficient data to confirm this. More recent assessments of DIC export at two sites in Australia supported the estimates of Bouillon et al. in 2008, although in 2014 Alongi suggested that only 40% of NPP was exported as DIC.


title: Mangrove forest

text: Mangrove forests and coastal marshes are typically considered N-limited ecosystems because of their high primary production. Therefore, mangrove plants are highly efficient at utilising soil nitrogen, making them an important sink for excess nitrogen from upstream. However, different mangrove species may still utilise nitrogen at different efficiencies, even though they share similar nitrogen pathways (see diagram on right). Reported nitrogen assimilation rates in mangrove plants ranged from 2 to 8 μmol g h under ambient nitrogen conditions, and 19 to 251 μmol g h when the nitrogen supply was unlimited.


title: Mangrove forest

text: In addition to species variation, different environmental conditions can also affect the nitrogen assimilation rates in mangrove plants. Because Cl ions can reduce protein synthesis and nitrogen assimilation, soil pore water salinity appears to be a negative factor that significantly alters the nitrogen uptake rates of mangrove plants.


title: Mangrove forest

text: Adequate data is only available for about half of the global area of mangroves. However, of those areas for which data has been collected, it appears that 35% of the mangroves have been destroyed. Since the 1980s, around 2% of mangrove area is estimated to be lost each year. Assessments of global variation in mangrove loss indicates that national regulatory quality mediates how different drivers and pressures influence loss rates.


title: Mangrove forest

text: Shrimp farming causes approximately a quarter of the destruction of mangrove forests. Likewise, the 2010 update of the World Mangrove Atlas indicated that approximately one fifth of the world's mangrove ecosystems have been lost since 1980, although this rapid loss rate appears to have decreased since 2000 with global losses estimated at between 0.16% and 0.39% annually between 2000 and 2012. Despite global loss rates decreasing since 2000, Southeast Asia remains an area of concern with loss rates between 3.6% and 8.1% between 2000 and 2012. By far the most damaging form of shrimp farming is when a closed ponds system (non-integrated multi-trophic aquaculture) is used, as these require destruction of a large part of the mangrove, and use antibiotics and disinfectants to suppress diseases that occur in this system, and which may also leak into the surrounding environment. Far less damage occurs when integrated mangrove-shrimp aquaculture is used, as this is connected to the sea and subjected to the tides, and less diseases occur, and as far less mangrove is destroyed for it.


title: Mangrove forest

text: Grassroots efforts to protect mangroves from development and from citizens cutting down the mangroves for charcoal production, cooking, heating and as a building material are becoming more popular. Solar cookers are distributed by many non-government organizations as a low-cost alternative to wood and charcoal stoves. These may help in reducing the demand for charcoal.


title: Mangrove forest

text: Mangroves have been reported to be able to help buffer against tsunami, cyclones, and other storms, and as such may be considered a flagship system for ecosystem-based adaptation to the impacts of climate change. One village in Tamil Nadu was protected from tsunami destruction—the villagers in Naluvedapathy planted 80,244 saplings to get into the Guinness Book of World Records. This created a kilometre-wide belt of trees of various varieties. When the 2004 tsunami struck, much of the land around the village was flooded, but the village suffered minimal damage.


title: Mangrove forest

text: Compared to seagrass meadows and coral reefs, hypoxia is more common on a regular basis in mangrove ecosystems, through ocean deoxygenation is compounding the negative effects by anthropogenic nutrient inputs and land use modification.


title: Mangrove forest

text: Like seagrass, mangrove trees transport oxygen to roots of rhizomes, reduce sulfide concentrations, and alter microbial communities. Dissolved oxygen is more readily consumed in the interior of the mangrove forest. Anthropogenic inputs may push the limits of survival in many mangrove microhabitats. For example, shrimp ponds constructed in mangrove forests are considered the greatest anthropogenic threat to mangrove ecosystems. These shrimp ponds reduce estuary circulation and water quality which leads to the promotion of diel-cycling hypoxia. When the quality of the water degrades, the shrimp ponds are quickly abandoned leaving massive amounts of wastewater. This is a major source of water pollution that promotes ocean deoxygenation in the adjacent habitats.


title: Mangrove forest

text: Due to these frequent hypoxic conditions, the water does not provide habitats to fish. When exposed to extreme hypoxia, ecosystem function can completely collapse. Extreme deoxygenation will affect the local fish populations, which are an essential food source. The environmental costs of shrimp farms in the mangrove forests grossly outweigh the economic benefits of them. Cessation of shrimp production and restoration of these areas reduce eutrophication and anthropogenic hypoxia.


title: Mangrove forest

text: In some areas, mangrove reforestation and mangrove restoration is also underway. Red mangroves are the most common choice for cultivation, used particularly in marine aquariums in a sump to reduce nitrates and other nutrients in the water. Mangroves also appear in home aquariums, and as ornamental plants, such as in Japan.


title: Mangrove forest

text: The Manzanar Mangrove Initiative is an ongoing experiment in Arkiko, Eritrea, part of the Manzanar Project founded by Gordon H. Sato, establishing new mangrove plantations on the coastal mudflats. Initial plantings failed, but observation of the areas where mangroves did survive by themselves led to the conclusion that nutrients in water flow from inland were important to the health of the mangroves. Trials with the Eritrean Ministry of Fisheries followed, and a planting system was designed to provide the nitrogen, phosphorus, and iron missing from seawater.


title: Mangrove forest

text: The propagules are planted inside a reused galvanized steel can with the bottom knocked out; a small piece of iron and a pierced plastic bag with fertilizer containing nitrogen and phosphorus are buried with the propagule. , after six years of planting, 700,000 mangroves are growing; providing stock feed for sheep and habitat for oysters, crabs, other bivalves, and fish.


title: Mangrove forest

text: Another method of restoring mangroves is by using quadcopters (which are able to carry and deposit seed pods). According to Irina Fedorenko, an amount of work equivalent to weeks of planting using traditional methods can be done by a drone in days, and at a fraction of the cost.


title: Mangrove forest

text: Seventy percent of mangrove forests have been lost in Java, Indonesia. Mangroves formerly protected the island's coastal land from flooding and erosion. Wetlands International, an NGC based in the Netherlands, in collaboration with nine villages in Demak where lands and homes had been flooded, began reviving mangrove forests in Java. Wetlands International introduced the idea of developing tropical versions of techniques traditionally used by the Dutch to catch sediment in North Sea coastal salt marshes. Originally, the villagers constructed a sea barrier by hammering two rows of vertical bamboo poles into the seabed and filling the gaps with brushwood held in place with netting. Later the bamboo was replaced by PVC pipes filled with concrete. As sediment gets deposited around the brushwood, it serves to catch floating mangrove seeds and provide them with a stable base to germinate, take root and regrow. This creates a green belt of protection around the islands. As the mangroves mature, more sediment is held in the catchment area; the process is repeated until a mangrove forest has been restored. Eventually the protective structures will not be needed. By late 2018, of brushwood barriers along the coastline had been completed.


title: Mangrove forest

text: A concern over reforestation is that although it supports increases in mangrove area it may actually result in a decrease in global mangrove functionality and poor restoration processes may result in longer term depletion of the mangrove resource.


title: Mangrove forest

text: In terms of local and national studies of mangrove loss, the case of Belize's mangroves is illustrative in its contrast to the global picture. A recent, satellite-based study—funded by the World Wildlife Fund and conducted by the Water Center for the Humid Tropics of Latin America and the Caribbean (CATHALAC)—indicates Belize's mangrove cover declined by a mere 2% over a 30-year period. The study was born out of the need to verify the popular conception that mangrove clearing in Belize was rampant.


title: Mangrove forest

text: Instead, the assessment showed, between 1980 and 2010, under of mangroves had been cleared, although clearing of mangroves near Belize's main coastal settlements (e.g. Belize City and San Pedro) was relatively high. The rate of loss of Belize's mangroves—at 0.07% per year between 1980 and 2010—was much lower than Belize's overall rate of forest clearing (0.6% per year in the same period). These findings can also be interpreted to indicate Belize's mangrove regulations (under the nation's) have largely been effective. Nevertheless, the need to protect Belize's mangroves is imperative, as a 2009 study by the World Resources Institute (WRI) indicates the ecosystems contribute to million per year to Belize's national economy.


title: Mangrove forest

text: In May 2019, ORNL DAAC News announced that NASA's Carbon Monitoring System (CMS), using new satellite-based maps of global mangrove forests across 116 countries, had created a new dataset to characterize the "distribution, biomass, and canopy height of mangrove-forested wetlands". Mangrove forests move carbon dioxide "from the atmosphere into long-term storage" in greater quantities than other forests, making them "among the planet's best carbon scrubbers" according to a NASA-led study.


title: Ulyanovsk

text: Ulyanovsk, known until 1924 as Simbirsk, is a city and the administrative center of Ulyanovsk Oblast, Russia, located on the Volga River east of Moscow. Population:


title: Ulyanovsk

text: The city, founded as Simbirsk (), was the birthplace of Vladimir Lenin (born Ulyanov), for whom it was renamed after his death in 1924; and of Alexander Kerensky, the leader of the Russian Provisional Government which Lenin overthrew during the October Revolution of 1917. It is also famous for its writers such as Ivan Goncharov, Nikolay Yazykov and Nikolay Karamzin, and for painters such as Arkady Plastov and Nikas Safronov. UNESCO has designated Ulyanovsk as a City of Literature since 2015.


title: Ulyanovsk

text: Simbirsk was founded in 1648 by the boyar Bogdan Khitrovo. The fort of "Simbirsk" (alternatively "Sinbirsk") was strategically placed on a hill on the Western bank of the Volga River. The fort was meant to protect the eastern frontier of the Tsardom of Russia from the nomadic tribes and to establish a permanent royal presence in the area.


title: Ulyanovsk

text: In 1668, Simbirsk withstood a month-long siege by a 20,000-strong army led by rebel Cossack commander Stenka Razin. Also in Simbirsk another country rebel, Yemelyan Pugachev, was imprisoned before execution. At the time Simbirsk possessed a wooden kremlin, which was destroyed by a fire during the 18th century.


title: Ulyanovsk

text: As the eastern border of the Russian Empire was rapidly pushed into Siberia, Simbirsk rapidly lost its strategic importance, but nonetheless began to develop into an important regional center. Simbirsk was granted city status in 1796.


title: Ulyanovsk

text: Simbirsk was then considered an exclusive town favoured by the aristocracy, and besides its churches and a Governor's Place, included an Assembly Of The Nobles, with a magnificent library. The Holy Trinity Cathedral was constructed in a restrained Neoclassical style between 1827 and 1841. In the summer of 1864, in what was believed an arson attack, Simbirsk was mostly destroyed by fire. However, it was quickly rebuilt and continued to grow. Its population, which was 26,000 in 1856, had reached 43,000 by 1897.


title: Ulyanovsk

text: In 1924, the city was renamed Ulyanovsk in honor of Vladimir Ulyanov, better known as Lenin, who was born in Simbirsk in 1870. Two other Russian political leaders, Alexander Kerensky and Alexander Protopopov, were also born in Simbirsk.


title: Ulyanovsk

text: The construction of the Kuybyshev hydroelectric plant (completed in 1957) downstream of Ulyanovsk resulted in the flooding of significant tracts of land both north and south of Ulyanovsk and increasing the width of the Volga by up to in some places. To this day, some populated neighborhoods of Ulyanovsk remain well below the level of the reservoir, protected from flooding by a dam: it is estimated that its catastrophic failure would submerge parts of the city comprising around 5% of its total population with as much as of water.


title: Ulyanovsk

text: During the Soviet period, Ulyanovsk was an important tourist center, drawing visitors from around the country because of its revolutionary importance.


title: Ulyanovsk

text: After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the tourist importance of Ulyanovsk sharply decreased. In the 1990s, the city went through the hardest times—a slump in production in all branches, mass unemployment, and a population impoverishment. Besides the policy of the regional authorities of that time leaning against the grants and the Soviet system of managing, has led to serious crisis of a city infrastructure. In the first decade of the 2000s the economy started to grow.


title: Ulyanovsk

text: Ulyanovsk slowly recovered from these downturns into regional manufacturing, educational and transportation clusters.


title: Ulyanovsk

text: The city is headed by a mayor who is the executive branch, and city council which is the legislative branch. The term of the mayor is five years. In 2010 the city council abolished the direct elections to the mayor, replacing it with city manager, appointed by the council. Then again, in April 2013 the city charter was amended to re-introduce the direct mayoral election.


title: Ulyanovsk

text: Ulyanovsk serves as the administrative center of the oblast. Within the framework of administrative divisions, it is, together with thirty rural localities, incorporated as the city of oblast significance of Ulyanovsk—an administrative unit with the status equal to that of the districts. As a municipal division, the city of oblast significance of Ulyanovsk is incorporated as Ulyanovsk Urban Okrug.


title: Ulyanovsk

text: Ulyanovsk has a humid continental climate (Köppen climate classification "Dfb"). Average temperature is in February and in July. Falls are generally warm, with snow beginning to accumulate by mid-November. Winters tend to be cold but with moderate amounts of snowfall and nighttime lows occasionally dipping below . Summer weather arrives in mid-May. Precipitation averages about . The city is subject to frequent, but moderate, droughts. Springs and summers are sunny, but fall and winter are usually cloudy. Median annual temperature is .


title: Ulyanovsk

text: The UAZ automobile manufacturing plant (subsidiary of Sollers JSC); Aviastar-SP Aircraft Company (part of United Aircraft Corporation); Scientific and Production Association "Mars" (manufactures industrial control systems for the Russian Navy, a subsidiary of state-owned conglomerate Agat); Ulyanovsk Cartridge Works (manufactures ammunition for firearms); Ulyanovsk Motor Plant (, UMZ) and Ulyanovsk Mechanical Plant (, UMZ, a subsidiary of JSC Almaz-Antey) are based in the city along with a variety of light industry and food-processing enterprises.


title: Ulyanovsk

text: There are many manufacturing facilities of foreign corporations such as Legrand (company), Mars, Incorporated, Takata-Petri, Anadolu Efes S.K., ALFA (Mexico) and others.


title: Ulyanovsk

text: Banking is mostly represented by national banks such as Sberbank, VTB Bank, Alfa-Bank, Bin Bank, Ak Bars Bank, MDM Bank, Trust Bank and also regional banks from Ulyanovsk Oblast.


title: Ulyanovsk

text: Ulyanovsk has also a strong military base presence in town. The 31st Airborne Brigade of the Russian Airborne Troops of the armed forces is based in Ulyanovsk.


title: Ulyanovsk

text: Tourism is a growing industry in the city and the surrounding areas because of Volga micro-climate and historical significance of Simbirsk. Hilton Hotel Group and Marriott Hotels & Resorts are building their hotels in the downtown area.


title: Ulyanovsk

text: The region of Undory, a driving distance from Ulyanovsk is famous for its spas and mineral water. The city offers many options for sports enthusiasts. The countryside is ideal for outdoor and water sports. The springs of Undory have been known for more than 200 years. The water at spa is rich in sodium chloride, and comes from artesian wells.


title: Ulyanovsk

text: Retail is a growing business segment in this city. International retailers such as Auchan SA, METRO AG, Media Markt, Decathlon as well as local Russian chains such as X5 Retail, Magnit, Lenta (retail), Sportmaster, M.video opened up their stores in Ulyanovsk.


title: Ulyanovsk

text: Aqua Mall is an American-type mall concept that opened in Ulyanovsk on the banks of Sviyaga river with modern cinema theater, IMAX. The city has a large presence of international fast food brands such as McDonald's, Burger King, Baskin Robbins, Sbarro, and others. Local Russian brands are well-represented in this market.


title: Ulyanovsk

text: A railway bridge across the Volga was built in 1912–1916 and two automobile lanes were added to it in 1953–1958, allowing for the city to expand on the Eastern (left) bank of the river and transforming it into a local transport hub.


title: Ulyanovsk

text: According to Ulyanovsk Region Development Corporation, Ulyanovsk Region is conveniently situated in the center of the European part of Russia, where east west and north south air, rail, car and river routes cross. It has an industrial, transport and business infrastructure and a developed network of roads and railways which provide a good basis for turning Ulyanovsk into a major transport and logistics hub in the Volga Federal district working not only for Ulyanovsk Region's plants but the whole Volga federal district. Ulyanovsk transport hub provides all forms of transport (busy river port and passenger terminal, railways with two major passenger and cargo stations, airports and now two major bridges) apart from sea, which can serve Russian and international cargo traffic to Kazakhstan, Central Asia and South East Asia, Europe, China and back.


title: Ulyanovsk

text: As the aging Ulyanovsk bridge, the only crossing of the Volga in the 400 km stretch from Kazan to Tolyatti, could no longer cope with the growing needs of the city, the construction of President Bridge, a truss bridge, began in the late 1980s. Completion was delayed significantly due to catastrophic economic circumstances following the end of the Soviet Union. Its official opening ceremony was on November 24, 2009, by the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev – although traffic was using the bridge a few days earlier. The bridge has a total length of 5.5 km, making it one of the longest in Europe.


title: Ulyanovsk

text: The city is divided by the river Sviyaga, a tributary of the Volga whose confluence with it is about 200 km north of the city.


title: Ulyanovsk

text: Public transportation in the city is well developed and provided by 17 tram lines, 7 trolleybus routes (and all tram lines are only on the right-bank part of the city, and all the trolley only on the left bank), 50 municipal bus routes, and about 150 fixed-route taxi (marshrutkas) lines. The City of Ulyanovsk has a working plan to build high-speed rail system to connect the two banks of the town.


title: Ulyanovsk

text: Ulyanovsk is served by the Ulyanovsk Vostochny Airport (the international airport) in the left-bank part of the city and Ulyanovsk Baratayevka Airport (Ulyanovsk Central Airport) in the right-bank part of the city.


title: Ulyanovsk

text: During the Soviet period, Ulyanovsk lost much of its historical heritage. All traces of the original wooden fort have disappeared, as have the churches of old Simbirsk; the majority of 19th-century buildings remain in the city, including the houses where Lenin lived between 1870 and 1887. The reconstruction of the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity was considered, but has since been canceled. However, many historical constructions remain. Among them the house in which writer Ivan Goncharov was born, the Protestant church and other buildings.


title: Ulyanovsk

text: Ulyanovsk is home to several tourist destinations around the downtown museum district and famous Volga River tours. The Ulyanovsk State historical memorial complex "Lenin`s hometown" houses the regional city center, the center of Simbirsk-Ulyanovsk. The memorial estate has been recreating the local culture connected with architecture, education and way of life of Russia since the end of the 19th century until the beginning of the 20th century. The State historical memorial complex "Lenin`s hometown" was founded in 1984. Now it consists of 14 museums and the Showroom, and has got a young creative collective of 152 people.


title: Ulyanovsk

text: Volga plays in the Russian Bandy Super League. Volga-2 plays in the 2nd division. An indoor arena for bandy, Volga-Sport-Arena, opened in 2014, as one of the first in Russia. It has a capacity of 5 000. The Bandy World Championship 2016 was played in Ulyanovsk and nearby Dimitrovgrad. The Youth-17 Bandy World Championship will be hosted by Ulyanovsk in 2018.


title: Ulyanovsk

text: In association football, FC Volga plays in "Urals-Volga" zone of the Russian Second Division (2016–2017 season).


title: Ulyanovsk

text: Ulyanovsk also hosted matches of first qualifying round UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship 2014. Matches were held at Trud Stadium in the downtown Ulyanovsk.


title: Ulyanovsk

text: In 2017 the first CIS festival for national sports and games, "Фестиваль национальных видов спорта и игр государств — участников Содружества Независимых Государств", was held in Ulyanovsk. The main sports were sambo, tug of war, mas-wrestling, gorodki, belt wrestling, lapta, bandy (rink), kettlebell lifting, chess and archery. A few demonstration sports were also a part of the programme.


title: Mutassim Gaddafi

text: Mutassim Billah Gaddafi (, also transliterated as Al-Moa'tassem Bellah Al-Qaddafi or Al-Mutasim Billah al-Qadhafi; 18 December 1974 – 20 October 2011) was a Libyan Army officer, and the National Security Advisor of Libya from 2008 until 2011. He was the fourth son of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, and a member of his father's inner circle. His mother was Safia Farkash, who was said to be a Hungarian from Bosnia & Herzegovina. He was captured during the Battle of Sirte by anti-Gaddafi forces, and killed along with his father.


title: Mutassim Gaddafi

text: In April 2009, Mutassim Gaddafi met U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the highest-level diplomatic exchange between the two countries since they had resumed diplomatic relations several years earlier. For Gaddafi, it was a serious display of his new responsibilities as the National Security Advisor. He overreached his role as NSA in 2008 by requesting $1.2 billion from the National Oil Corporation to form his own special forces brigade.


title: Mutassim Gaddafi

text: Mutassim Gaddafi met U.S. Senators John McCain and Joseph Lieberman in 2009, expressing a strong need for military support in Libya. Gaddafi warned, "There are 60 million Algerians to the West, 80 million Egyptians to the East, we have Europe in front of us, and we face Sub-Saharan Africa with its problems to the South." He was concerned about upgrading Libya's military equipment, and said he could purchase arms from Russia and China, but wanted to buy materiel from the United States.


title: Mutassim Gaddafi

text: Mutassim Gaddafi lived in Egypt for several years after allegedly attempting to take control of Libya from his father. His return led to a reconciliation with his father and a high-ranking position as National Security Advisor of Libya. In 2009, a story linking Mutassim Gaddafi to the death of Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi was published in the Libyan newspaper "Oea" with permission from his brother Saif al-Islam.


title: Mutassim Gaddafi

text: During the Libyan Civil War, Gaddafi commanded the units in the Brega region notably during the Battle of Brega–Ajdabiya road and the skirmishes in the area. He had been subject to a travel ban and an asset freeze over his close links and membership of his father's inner circle.


title: Mutassim Gaddafi

text: Gaddafi was allegedly in Tripoli in the Bab al-Azizia compound, and assisting in commanding what remained of pro-Gaddafi forces in the city during the Battle of Tripoli. However, no evidence of his presence was found by rebels when they captured the compound, nor was there evidence of a presence of any of his sons.


title: Mutassim Gaddafi

text: He commanded the loyalist forces in their unsuccessful defense of Sirte, Muammar Gaddafi's hometown, until the city fell.


title: Mutassim Gaddafi

text: Mutassim Gaddafi was known for his playboy lifestyle. He would often travel to Saint Barts in his private Boeing jet around Christmas time, book several floors in the most expensive hotels in London and Paris, which several friends would stay in, and would fly in Italian hairdressers for over €5000. One of his former girlfriends, Dutch glamour model Talitha Van Zon, who met him in 2004 at an Italian nightclub, would say that he envied his brother Saif Al-Arab. Although his relationship with Van Zon lasted three months, they remained friends and she would often accompany him while traveling. He would often give her lavish gifts. He was also described as ambitious and “wanted to do better than his father.” He also loved to discuss various authoritarian leaders including Adolf Hitler, Fidel Castro, and Hugo Chavez. Model Vanessa Hessler admitted to a four-year relationship with him (2007–2011), and she continued to defend him after his death.


title: Mutassim Gaddafi

text: Gaddafi was accused of sexual assault by one of Van Zom’s friends who had accompanied her to Tripoli. The charges were filed in Amsterdam and also pressed charges against Van Zom. Van Zom denied the allegations of trafficking on Dutch public radio.


title: Mutassim Gaddafi

text: Mutassim Gaddafi was captured when Sirte fell on 20 October 2011. NTC commanders at the front in Sirte and officials in Tripoli claimed that he was captured as he was trying to leave the city in a family car, and sent off to Benghazi.


title: Mutassim Gaddafi

text: According to one of the rebels, when captured, he started shootings a pistol at the rebels when he was found. He was then shot in the throat after arguing with them about religion in which he was shot again and his necklace was taken and burned. Published film and photographs of Gaddafi indicate that he was unconscious and injured, but he seemed to be alive when he was captured by a group of young men appearing to be in their late teens or early twenties after apparently succumbing to nerve gas. He was made to drink water and requested a cigarette. Later photographs released by Saudi TV channel Al Arabiya show Mutassim Gaddafi lying dead on a hospital bed, with gaping wounds in his throat and abdomen and one of his arms had been dislocated. Amateur photographs and videos showed his young captors and others defiling his corpse after his death. Like his father, he was denied a burial within a day after death in accordance with Islamic law.


title: Army National Guard

text: The Army National Guard (ARNG), in conjunction with the Air National Guard, is an organized militia force and a federal military reserve force of the United States Army. They are simultaneously part of two different organizations: the Army National Guard of each state, most territories, and the District of Columbia (also referred to as the "Militia of the United States"), and the Army National Guard of the United States (as part of the federalized National Guard). The Army National Guard is divided into subordinate units stationed in each U.S. state and territory, as well as the District of Columbia, operating under their respective governors and governor-equivalents.


title: Army National Guard

text: The foundation for what became the Army National Guard occurred in the city of Salem, Massachusetts, in 1636, the first time that a regiment of militia drilled for the common defense of a multi-community area.


title: Army National Guard

text: The Army National Guard as currently authorized and organized operates under Title 10 of the United States Code when under federal control, and Title 32 of the United States Code and applicable state laws when under state control. The Army National Guard may be called up for active duty by the state or territorial governors to help respond to domestic emergencies and disasters, such as those caused by hurricanes, floods, and earthquakes, as well as civil disorder. The District of Columbia Army National Guard is a federal militia, controlled by the President of the United States with authority delegated to the Secretary of Defense, and through him to the Secretary of the Army.


title: Army National Guard

text: Members or units of the Army National Guard may be ordered, temporarily or indefinitely, into the service of the United States. If mobilized for federal service, the member or unit becomes part of the Army National Guard of the United States, which is a reserve component of the United States Army. Individuals volunteering for active federal service may do so subject to the consent of their governors. Governors generally cannot veto involuntary activations of individuals or units for federal service, either for training or national emergency. (See "Perpich v. Department of Defense".)


title: Army National Guard

text: The President may also call up members and units of the Army National Guard, in its status as the militia of the several states, to repel invasion, suppress rebellion, or enforce federal laws. The Army National Guard of the United States is one of two organizations administered by the National Guard Bureau, the other being the Air National Guard of the United States. The Director of the Army National Guard is the head of the organization, and reports to the Chief of the National Guard Bureau. Because the Army National Guard is both the militia of the several states and a federal reserve component of the Army, neither the Chief of the National Guard Bureau nor the Director of the Army National Guard "commands" it. This operational command authority is performed in each state or territory by the State Adjutant General, and in the District of Columbia by the Commanding General of the District of Columbia National Guard when a unit is in its militia status. While under federal activation, the operational command authority is transferred to the commanders of the unified combatant commands, who command all U.S. forces within their area of responsibility. The Chief of the National Guard Bureau and the Director of the Army National Guard serve as the channel of communications between the Department of the Army and the Army National Guard in each state and territory, and administer federal programs, policies, and resources for the National Guard.


title: Army National Guard

text: The Army National Guard's portion of the president's proposed federal budget for Fiscal Year 2018 is approximately $16.2 billion to support an end strength of 343,000, including appropriations for personnel pay and allowance, facilities maintenance, construction, equipment maintenance and other activities.


title: Army National Guard

text: Of the 45 individuals to serve as President of the United States , 33 had military experience. Of those 33, 21 served in the militia or Army National Guard.


title: Army National Guard

text: Deployable Army units are organized as table of organization and equipment (TOE) organizations or modified table of organization and equipment (MTOE) organizations. Non-deployable units, such as a state's joint force headquarters or regional training institutes are administered as table of distribution and allowance (TDA) units.


title: Army National Guard

text: In addition to many deployable units which are non-divisional, the Army National Guard's deployable units include eight Infantry divisions. These divisions, their subordinate brigades or brigades with which the divisions have a training oversight relationship, and the states represented by the largest units include:


title: Army National Guard

text: "Army Aviation" Magazine wrote on 31 March 2021 that "The ARNG is pressing forward with the Division Alignment for Training (DIV AFT) effort. The DIV AFT intent is to enhance leader development and training readiness through codified relationships across echelons and states to develop combat capable division formations for large scale combat operations. The Director, ARNG.. recently convened a DIV AFT Initial Planning Conference to clarify unit alignments for all eight ARNG Division Headquarters and synchronize activities that will facilitate unity of effort between Division Headquarters and aligned for training States."


title: Army National Guard

text: In 2016, the Army and the Army National Guard began a training and readiness initiative that aligned some Army brigades with National Guard division headquarters, and some National Guard brigades with Army division headquarters. Among others, this program included the National Guard's 86th Infantry Brigade Combat Team becoming affiliated with the Army's 10th Mountain Division and the National Guard's 1st Battalion, 143rd Infantry Regiment affiliating with the Army's 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team. In addition, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division began an affiliation with the National Guard's 36th Infantry Division.


title: Army National Guard

text: The Army and Air National Guard in each state are headed by the State Adjutant General. The Adjutant General (TAG) is the de facto commander of a state's military forces, and reports to the state governor.


title: Army National Guard

text: Several units have been affected by Army National Guard reorganizations. Some have been renamed or inactivated. Some have had subordinate units reallocated to other commands. A partial list of inactivated major units includes:


title: Army National Guard

text: Upon the creation of the United States Air Force in 1947, the National Guard Bureau was organized into two divisions; Army National Guard and Air National Guard. Each were headed by a major general who reported to the chief of the National Guard Bureau. The head of the Army National Guard was originally established as the chief of the Army Division at the National Guard Bureau. The position was downgraded to brigadier general in 1962 due to force reduction. It was renamed to Director of the Army National Guard and elevated back to major general in 1970. The position was later elevated to the rank of lieutenant general in 2001. The Army National Guard is also authorized a deputy director which was originally established as a brigadier general office in 1970. It was elevated to the rank of major general in 2006.


title: Army National Guard

text: The director of the Army National Guard oversees a staff which aids in planning and day-to-day organization and management. In addition to a chief of staff, the Director's staff includes several special staff members, including a chaplain and protocol and awards specialists. It also includes a primary staff, which is organized as directorates, divisions, and branches. The directorates of the Army National Guard staff are arranged along the lines of a typical American military staff: G-1 for personnel; G-2 for intelligence; G-3 for plans, operations and training; G-4 for logistics; G-5 for strategic plans, policy and communications; G-6 for communications; and G-8 for budgets and financial management.


title: Tropical rainforest climate

text: A tropical rainforest climate, humid tropical climate or equatorial climate is a tropical climate sub-type usually found within 10 to 15 degrees latitude of the equator. There are some other areas at higher latitudes, such as the coast of southeast Florida, USA, and Okinawa, Japan that fall into the tropical rainforest climate category. They experience high mean annual temperatures, small temperature ranges, and rain that falls throughout the year. Regions with this climate are typically designated Af by the Köppen climate classification. A tropical rainforest climate is typically hot, very humid, and wet.


title: Tropical rainforest climate

text: Tropical rain forests have a type of tropical climate in which there is no dry season—all months have an average precipitation value of at least . There are no distinct wet or dry seasons as rainfall is high throughout the months. One day in a tropical rainforest climate can be very similar to the next, while the change in temperature between day and night may be larger than the average change in temperature during the year.


title: Tropical rainforest climate

text: When tropical rainforest climates are more dominated by the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) than the trade winds (and with no or rare cyclones), so usually located near the equator, they are also called equatorial climates. Otherwise, when they are more dominated by the trade winds than the ITCZ, they are called tropical trade-wind climates. In pure equatorial climates, the atmospheric pressure is almost constantly low so the horizontal pressure gradient is low. Consequently, the winds are rare and usually weak (except sea and land breezes in coastal areas) while in tropical trade-wind climates, often located at higher latitudes than the equatorial climates, wind is almost permanent which incidentally explains why rainforest formations are impoverished compared to those of equatorial climates due to their necessary resistance to strong winds accompanying tropical disturbances.


title: Right to keep and bear arms

text: The right to keep and bear arms (often referred to as the right to bear arms) is a right for people to possess weapons (arms) for the preservation of life, liberty, and property. The purpose of gun rights is for self-defense, including security against tyranny, as well as hunting and sporting activities. Countries that guarantee the right to keep and bear arms include the Czech Republic, Guatemala, Switzerland, Ukraine, the United States, and Yemen.


title: Right to keep and bear arms

text: The Bill of Rights 1689 allowed Protestant citizens of England to "have Arms for their Defence suitable to their Conditions and as allowed by Law" and restricted the ability of the English Crown to have a standing army or to interfere with Protestants' right to bear arms "when Papists were both Armed and Imployed contrary to Law" and established that Parliament, not the Crown, could regulate the right to bear arms.


title: Right to keep and bear arms

text: Sir William Blackstone wrote in the 18th century that the right to have arms was auxiliary to the "natural right of resistance and self-preservation" subject to suitability and allowance by law. The term "arms", as used in the 1600s, refers to the process of equipping for war. It is commonly used as a synonym for weapon.


title: Right to keep and bear arms

text: Inclusion of this right in a written constitution is uncommon. In 1875, 17 percent of national constitutions included a right to bear arms. Since the early twentieth century, "the proportion has been less than 9 percent and falling". In an article titled "U.S. Gun Rights Truly Are American Exceptionalism," a historical survey and comparative analysis of constitutions dating back to 1789, Tom Ginsburg and colleagues "identified only 15 constitutions (in nine countries) that had ever included an explicit right to bear arms. Almost all of these constitutions have been in Latin America, and most were from the 19th century".


title: Right to keep and bear arms

text: While protecting the right to keep arms, Guatemalan constitution specifies that this right extends only to "weapons not prohibited by law".


title: Right to keep and bear arms

text: Although not explicitly mentioned in the legislation, every person is entitled to receive a license to keep and carry arms by Honduran Statute law, provided that they fulfill the conditions required by the law.


title: Right to keep and bear arms

text: The Mexican constitution of 1857 first included the right to be armed. In its first version, the right was defined in similar terms as it is in the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution. A new Mexican constitution of 1917 relativized the right, stating that its utilization must be in line with local police regulations.


title: Right to keep and bear arms

text: Another change was included in 1917 Constitution. Since then, Mexicans have the right to be armed only within their home and further utilization of this right is subject to statutory authorization in Federal law.


title: Right to keep and bear arms

text: In the United States, which has an English common law tradition, a longstanding common-law right to keep and bear arms was practiced prior to the creation of a written national constitution. Today, this right is specifically protected by the United States Constitution and many state constitutions.


title: Right to keep and bear arms

text: Historically, the Czech lands were at the forefront of the spreading of civilian firearms ownership. In the 1420s and 1430s, firearms became indispensable tools for the mostly peasant Hussite armies whose amateur combatants, including women, fended off a series of invasions of professional crusader armies of well-armored warriors with cold weapons. Throughout and after the Hussite wars, firearms' design underwent fast development and their possession by civilians became a matter of course.


title: Right to keep and bear arms

text: Their first firearms regulation was enacted in 1517 as a part of general accord between the nobles and burghers and later in 1524 as a standalone Enactment on Firearms ("zřízení o ručnicích"). The 1517 law explicitly stated that "all people of all standing have the right to keep firearms at home" while at the same time enacting a universal carry ban. The 1524 enactment set out a process of issuing of permits for carrying of firearms and detailed enforcement and punishment for carrying without such a permit. Carrying later became permitless again until 1852, when Imperial Regulation No. 223 reintroduced carry permits. This law remained in force until the 1939 German invasion.


title: Right to keep and bear arms

text: Since its inception during the Hussite revolution, the right to keep firearms endured over five-hundred years until the Nazi gun ban during the German occupation in the 20th century. Firearms possession later became subject to government permission during the communist dictatorship with only those deemed loyal to the communist party being able to be armed. After the return of liberty, the Czech Republic instated a shall issue permitting process, under which all residents can keep and bear arms subject to the fulfillment of regulatory conditions.


title: Right to keep and bear arms

text: In the Czech Republic, every resident that meets conditions laid down in Act No. 119/2002 Coll. has the right to have a firearms license issued and can then obtain a firearm. Holders of "D" (exercise of profession) and "E" (self-defense) licenses, which are also shall-issue, can carry up to two concealed firearms for protection. The right to be armed is statutorily protected.


title: Right to keep and bear arms

text: A proposal to have right to keep and bear arms included in the constitution was entered in the Czech Parliament in December 2016. The proposal was approved by vote of 139 to 9 on 28 June 2017 by the Chamber of Deputies. It later failed to reach necessary support in Senate, where only 28 out of 59 Senators present supported it (with constitutional majority being 36 votes). A new proposal was entered by 35 Senators in September 2019 and then approved on 21 July 2021, adding a new sentence, according to which "the right to defend one's own life or the life of another person even with the use of a weapon is guaranteed under the conditions set by the law."


title: Right to keep and bear arms

text: Switzerland practices universal conscription, which requires that all able-bodied male citizens keep fully automatic firearms at home in case of a call-up. Each male between the ages of 20 and 34 is considered a candidate for conscription into the military, and following a brief period of active duty will commonly be enrolled in the militia until age or an inability to serve ends his obligation. Until December 2009, these men were required to keep their government-issued selective fire combat rifles and semi-automatic handguns in their homes as long as they were enrolled in the armed forces. Since January 2010, they have had the option of depositing their personal firearm at a government arsenal. Until September 2007, soldiers received 50 rounds of government-issued ammunition in a sealed box for storage at home; after 2007 only about 2,000 specialist troops are allowed to keep the ammunition at home.


title: Right to keep and bear arms

text: In a referendum in February 2011, voters rejected a citizens' initiative that would have obliged members of the armed services to store their rifles and pistols on military compounds and required that privately owned firearms be registered.


title: Right to keep and bear arms

text: In the United Kingdom, there is no automatic right to bear arms, although citizens may possess certain firearms on obtaining an appropriate licence. Ordinary members of the public may own sporting rifles and shotguns, subject to licensing, while handguns, automatic, and centerfire semi-automatic weapons are illegal to possess without special additional conditions.


title: Right to keep and bear arms

text: When not attended, all licensed firearms must be stored securely (locked) and separate from their ammunition. Regulations for airguns are less stringent and air pistols with a muzzle energy not exceeding 6 foot-pounds force (8.1 joules) and other airguns with a muzzle energy not exceeding 12 ft⋅lbf (16 J) do not require any certificates or licensing, although the same storage requirement applies.


title: Right to keep and bear arms

text: The first serious control on firearms was established with the passing of the Firearms Act 1920, handgun restrictions being added in response to the 1996 Dunblane Massacre in which 18 people died.


title: Right to keep and bear arms

text: Since 1953, it has been a criminal offence in the United Kingdom to carry a knife (with the exception of non-locking folding knives with a cutting edge of 3 inches (7.62 centimetres) or less) or any "offensive weapon" in a public place without lawful authority (e.g. police or security forces) or reasonable excuse (e.g. tools that are needed for work). The cutting edge of a knife is separate to the blade length. The only manner in which an individual may carry arms is on private property or any property to which the public does not have a lawful right of access, as the law only creates the offence when it occurs in public, e.g., a person's own home, private land, the area in a shop where the public have no access, etc. Furthermore, Criminal Justice Act 1988 Section 141 specifically lists all offensive weapons that cannot technically be owned, even on private property, by way of making it illegal to sell, trade, hire, etc. an offensive weapon to another person.