title: Heterotroph

text: On early Earth, oceans and shallow waters were rich with organic molecules that could have been used by primitive heterotrophs. This method of obtaining energy was energetically favorable until organic carbon became more scarce than inorganic carbon, providing a potential evolutionary pressure to become autotrophic. Following the evolution of autotrophs, heterotrophs were able to utilize them as a food source instead of relying on the limited nutrients found in their environment. Eventually, autotrophic and heterotrophic cells were engulfed by these early heterotrophs and formed a symbiotic relationship. The endosymbiosis of autotrophic cells is suggested to have evolved into the chloroplasts while the endosymbiosis of smaller heterotrophs developed into the mitochondria, allowing the differentiation of tissues and development into multicellularity. This advancement allowed the further diversification of heterotrophs. Today, many heterotrophs and autotrophs also utilize mutualistic relationships that provide needed resources to both organisms. One example of this is the mutualism between corals and algae, where the former provides protection and necessary compounds for photosynthesis while the latter provides oxygen.


title: Heterotroph

text: However this hypothesis is controversial as CO was the main carbon source at the early Earth, suggesting that early cellular life were autotrophs that relied upon inorganic substrates as an energy source and lived at alkaline hydrothermal vents or acidic geothermal ponds. Simple biomolecules transported from space was considered to have been either too reduced to have been fermented or too heterogeneous to support microbial growth. Heterotrophic microbes likely originated at low H partial pressures. Bases, amino acids, and ribose are considered to be the first fermentation substrates.


title: Heterotroph

text: Heterotrophs are currently found in each domain of life: Bacteria, Archaea, and Eukarya. Domain Bacteria includes a variety of metabolic activity including photoheterotrophs, chemoheterotrophs, organotrophs, and heterolithotrophs. Within Domain Eukarya, kingdoms Fungi and Animalia are entirely heterotrophic, though most fungi absorb nutrients through their environment. Most organisms within Kingdom Protista are heterotrophic while Kingdom Plantae is almost entirely autotrophic, except for myco-heterotrophic plants. Lastly, Domain Archaea varies immensely in metabolic functions and contains many methods of heterotrophy.


title: Heterotroph

text: Many heterotrophs are chemoorganoheterotrophs that use organic carbon (e.g. glucose) as their carbon source, and organic chemicals (e.g. carbohydrates, lipids, proteins) as their electron sources. Heterotrophs function as consumers in food chain: they obtain these nutrients from saprotrophic, parasitic, or holozoic nutrients. They break down complex organic compounds (e.g., carbohydrates, fats, and proteins) produced by autotrophs into simpler compounds (e.g., carbohydrates into glucose, fats into fatty acids and glycerol, and proteins into amino acids). They release the chemical energy of nutrient molecules by oxidizing carbon and hydrogen atoms from carbohydrates, lipids, and proteins to carbon dioxide and water, respectively.


title: Heterotroph

text: They can catabolize organic compounds by respiration, fermentation, or both. Fermenting heterotrophs are either facultative or obligate anaerobes that carry out fermentation in low oxygen environments, in which the production of ATP is commonly coupled with substrate-level phosphorylation and the production of end products (e.g. alcohol, , sulfide). These products can then serve as the substrates for other bacteria in the anaerobic digest, and be converted into CO and CH, which is an important step for the carbon cycle for removing organic fermentation products from anaerobic environments. Heterotrophs can undergo respiration, in which ATP production is coupled with oxidative phosphorylation. This leads to the release of oxidized carbon wastes such as CO and reduced wastes like HO, HS, or NO into the atmosphere. Heterotrophic microbes’ respiration and fermentation account for a large portion of the release of CO into the atmosphere, making it available for autotrophs as a source of nutrient and plants as a cellulose synthesis substrate.


title: Heterotroph

text: Respiration in heterotrophs is often accompanied by mineralization, the process of converting organic compounds to inorganic forms. When the organic nutrient source taken in by the heterotroph contains essential elements such as N, S, P in addition to C, H, and O, they are often removed first to proceed with the oxidation of organic nutrient and production of ATP via respiration. S and N in organic carbon source are transformed into HS and NH through desulfurylation and deamination, respectively. Heterotrophs also allow for dephosphorylation as part of decomposition. The conversion of N and S from organic form to inorganic form is a critical part of the nitrogen and sulfur cycle. HS formed from desulfurylation is further oxidized by lithotrophs and phototrophs while NH formed from deamination is further oxidized by lithotrophs to the forms available to plants. Heterotrophs’ ability to mineralize essential elements is critical to plant survival.


title: Heterotroph

text: Most opisthokonts and prokaryotes are heterotrophic; in particular, all animals and fungi are heterotrophs. Some animals, such as corals, form symbiotic relationships with autotrophs and obtain organic carbon in this way. Furthermore, some parasitic plants have also turned fully or partially heterotrophic, while carnivorous plants consume animals to augment their nitrogen supply while remaining autotrophic.


title: Heterotroph

text: Animals are classified as heterotrophs by ingestion, fungi are classified as heterotrophs by absorption.


title: Pandoran biosphere

text: The Pandoran biosphere is a fictional habitat introduced in James Cameron's 2009 science fiction film "Avatar". The ecology of the lush moon Pandora, which teems with a biodiversity of bioluminescent species ranging from hexapodal animals to other types of exotic fauna and flora, forms a vast neural network spanning the entire lunar surface into which the Na'vi and other creatures can connect. The strength of this collective consciousness is illustrated when the human invaders are defeated in battle by the Pandoran ecology, after the Na'vi are nearly defeated. Cameron utilized a team of expert advisors to make the various examples of fauna and flora as scientifically feasible as possible.


title: Pandoran biosphere

text: In "Avatar", the Na'vi are an indigenous species that live on Pandora. They are humanoid in appearance and are tall, having pairs of eyes, ears, arms, legs and feet like humans, as well as a nose, a mouth, and expressions recognizable to humans. The Na'vi differ from humans in having blue striped skin, pointed and mobile ears, large eyes, catlike noses and tails, and hands each with three fingers and a thumb (hybrid avatars, on the other hand, retain the five-fingered hands of their human DNA). While taller than humans, they have narrower proportions in body frame. Their bones are reinforced with naturally occurring carbon fiber. The Na'vi also have a distinctive tendril feature protruding from the back of their heads, surrounded by hair (resembling a long plait or queue), feeding directly into the brain. This organ allows them to connect with other organisms around them, transferring electrochemical signals such as thoughts and memories to the trees, plants, and other creatures. In the original script, Cameron refers to these as "Jubilees", although the word is not used in the film and may be changed by the time the novel is published. The Na'vi were initially conceived to be more alien in appearance. Cameron recalled that when one of the main characters, Neytiri, was originally drawn, she had gills and other protuberances. In addition to feline features, the species was redesigned to seem more human so that audiences could better relate to it.


title: Pandoran biosphere

text: According to Cameron, the appearance of the Na'vi character Neytiri had some specific inspirations and requirements: she was inspired by Raquel Welch's character in "Fantastic Voyage" and by Vampirella, noting in the latter's case, "the fact [Vampirella] didn't exist didn't bother me because we have these quintessential female images in our mind, and in the case of the male mind, they're grossly distorted. When you see something that reflects your id, it works for you... Right from the beginning I said, 'She's got to have tits,' even though that makes no sense because her race, the Na'vi, aren't placental mammals. I designed her costumes based on a "taparrabo", a loincloth worn by Mayan Indians." This is somewhat of a non-sequitor because both marsupials (kangaroos, etc.) and monotremes (platypuses, etc.) are non-placental and yet both lactate. This objective of making the Na'vi as humanlike as possible can also be seen as an explanation as to why they are quadrupedal despite having evolved from common ancestors of the hexapodal lemurs seen in the film.


title: Pandoran biosphere

text: Cameron has described "Avatar" as more "science fantasy" than true science fiction and has said that he would explain in the novel for the film why in the fictional universe the Na'vi look like humans.


title: Pandoran biosphere

text: According to "Entertainment Weekly", "The Na'vi can commune with animals on their planet by literally plugging their braid into the creatures' nerve systems. To become a warrior, a Na'vi must tame and ride a flying creature known as Ikran." The Na'vi also use this neural bonding system, called "tsaheylu", to mate with a "life partner", a bond that, when made, cannot be broken in the Na'vi's lifetime. This is akin to human marriage.


title: Pandoran biosphere

text: The Na'vi way of life revolves around their religion, and the Home Tree. The Na'vi sleep in hammocks in large groups for comfort and as a warning system.


title: Pandoran biosphere

text: Conceived for the film was the Na'vi language, a constructed language often spoken by the actors when they played Na'vi characters. The Na'vi language was created by communications professor emeritus and linguistics consultant Paul Frommer of the University of Southern California. He designed the language so as to be speakable by human actors, combining syntactic and grammatical rules from other existing languages. Frommer created over a thousand words for the Na'vi language and coached the actors who narrated Na'vi characters. When communicating to humans in the film, Na'vi characters – especially Neytiri – speak in accented and broken English.


title: Pandoran biosphere

text: Human visitors see the Na'vi as possessing a religion, whose chief and possibly sole deity is a benevolent goddess known as Eywa. The Na'vi are able to physically connect to Eywa when they use their braids to connect to the Tree of Souls and other similar flora which function as the global brain's interfaces. Eywa is said to have a connection to all things Pandoran.


title: Pandoran biosphere

text: Political power is exceedingly diffused, with each clan being a sovereign entity under either the diarchical rule of both a temporal chieftain (known as an "Olo'eyktan") and a spiritual chieftain (known as a "Tsahik"), or the monarchical rule of a single individual who holds the two separate offices simultaneously. The numerous clans are seemingly only ever brought together as a tribe by "Toruk Makto", a messianic war chief whose office is both non-permanent and apparently the only one with an authority that covers the entire race of Na'vi. By the time of the film, there had only been five Toruk Maktos in the history of the tribe, and the last one had ruled no fewer than four generations before the present day. This may be due to the fact that the Toruk Maktos seem to draw their power from a situation of explicitly external danger, and therefore are not really necessary for the day to day internal running of the tribal clans. Succession to the various offices is smooth, however, based more on popular recognition and customary worthiness than on anything else, and respect for hierarchical superiors appears to be high.


title: Pandoran biosphere

text: James Cameron's core idea for the "Avatar"s fictional creatures was for them to be "superslick and aerodynamic, and be like a race car with racing stripes". Neville Page worked on "Avatar" as the lead creature designer. He, Wayne Barlowe (author, artist, and initial lead creature designer), and Yuri Bartoli (concept designer and supervising virtual art director) adapted Cameron's conceptions of the fauna into a design that served three purposes: to appear expressive, to function with animation technology, and to seem realistic. He and creature designer Wayne Barlowe sought to base the design of Pandora's creatures on race cars, but they struggled to adapt the concept. Page drew on his education in automotive design, recognizing the irony that race cars were based on real-life animals in having "bone lines". Existing automotive designs drew from seashells, turtle shells, and insects, so the designers returned the design to the fictional creatures. They found that the prime challenge in designing most creatures was to give them organic appearances, including skin texture. Some creatures were also designed to have special breathing holes located in the trachea, copying how cars have intakes. Challenges that the creatures posed for visual effects technicians were to form "walk and run" cycles for six-legged creatures and to impart credible flying for creatures that had four wings. Many of the animals also have four eyes, with an apparent major and minor eye on either side of their head.


title: Pandoran biosphere

text: The fictional creatures are not connected telepathically according to Cameron and the designers. However, even though they discussed the idea of the creatures being part of Pandora's "Worldmind", they preferred to interpret the creatures as having heightened instincts. Page explained, "Animals are hooked up to this planet. We're the ones who are detached... The way I dealt with it was, We have so much rich [material] here to reference, that we don't have to dream up a whole new process of animal awareness."


title: Pandoran biosphere

text: The fictional moon has less gravity than Earth, so the creatures' larger sizes match their environment. Most Pandoran wildlife is hexapodal, or six-legged. Much of the fauna and flora is bioluminescent, which is seen in creatures on Earth such as fireflies, many deep sea animals, and some microscopic algae. The aforementioned breathing holes, located on multiple parts of a creature's body other than the mouth, are similar to spiracles in some of Earth's animals. The flying reptile-like creatures in the film can be compared to extinct flying reptiles such as pterosaurs and to the modern gliding lizard "Draco sumatranus".


title: Pandoran biosphere

text: The direhorse ("Pa'li" in Na'vi ) is a bioluminescent, hexapodal, superficially equine animal. It is scientifically known as "Equidirus hoplites". The Na'vi use the direhorse to hunt. The direhorse was conceived and designed by Cameron and Stan Winston Studios. The direhorse is grey with blue stripes and stands tall, long. The Na'vi "break" a direhorse by connecting the fleshy tip of their hair to the animal's antennae. Xenobiologists call this a neural whip. Once intertwined, the Na'vi rider can communicate motor commands instantly through the neural interface; however, this connection does not lead to a lifelong, exclusive bond, as it does with the mountain banshee. Cameron described the creature as a "six-legged alien Clydesdale with moth-like antennae". The direhorse uses its long tongue to eat the sap out of pitcher plants.


title: Pandoran biosphere

text: The mountain banshee ("Ikran" in Na'vi) is an airborne predator which lives in mountainous territory on Pandora. Na'vi warriors attempt to bond with a banshee, a dangerous and required rite of passage. They are cousins to the great leonopteryx and they are scientifically known by xenobiologists as "Pterodactylus giganteus". A banshee bonds to a Na'vi warrior for life. They are four-winged creatures that, like the leonopteryx and direhorse, have a biologically produced carbon fiber flexing on the skin. Neytiri had a banshee named Seze (translated from the language of the Na'vi roughly as "blue flower"). Page spent the most time designing the banshee for the film so it would be convincing when it flew or perched. The designer said, "The hardest thing of all was having a Na'vi on top of it and flying it. You had to backwards engineer it. It was like designing and engineering an aircraft." Barlowe, who contributed to the banshee's design, was influenced by manta rays and skates as well as relatively little-known pterosaurs and plesiosaurs that had "many, unique aerodynamic and hydrodynamic" characteristics. Like the color scheme for the great leonopteryx, color schemes based on Earth animals were used for various banshees, though Page was inspired by Art Nouveau prints to warp the schemes so they would not look familiar to film audiences.


title: Pandoran biosphere

text: The great leonopteryx ("Toruk" in Na'vi, meaning "last shadow") is the apex airborne predator native to Pandora. It is scientifically known as "Leonopteryx rex", meaning "king lion-wing". The fierce beauty and nobility of the leonopteryx gave the species a place central to Na'vi lore and culture. The leonopteryx is scarlet with black stripes and a midnight blue crest on top of the head and on the lower jaw. It is celebrated in dance and song; elaborate totems symbolize both the fear and respect accorded to the creature. The leonopteryx is considered crucial to the Na'vi sense of destiny and interconnectedness. Prior to the events of the film, it had only been tamed five times, and Neytiri tells Jake that the riders ("Toruk Makto") brought peace among the Pandoran tribes. This makes Jake the sixth Toruk Makto. He manages to capture one by jumping on it from above from his banshee but releases it after the battle with the humans has ended. The great leonopteryx and the banshee were designed with bright colors. Page based the colors on Earth's birds, poison dart frogs, and monarch butterflies, though he altered the patterns so that their inspirations would not be so conspicuous to moviegoers. The skull and crest shapes appear to be derived from pterosaurs from the genus "Tapejara".


title: Pandoran biosphere

text: The hammerhead titanothere ("'Angtsìk" in Na'vi) is a large hexapodal herbivore whose massive, low-slung head features bony projections on either side of the skull, similar to those of hammerhead sharks. These protrusions are often used to push and destroy objects: a single sideways thrust of the neck being sufficient to down a significantly sized tree. The titanothere has exceedingly thick, gray skin. There is a small "fan" feather structure on the head that it flares up as a warning symbol seen in the film and in the video game. The creature, which resembles a cross between a rhinoceros and a hammerhead shark, is easily aroused. Its hide is impervious to small arms fire, though firing on it is known to anger it. This massive, grazing creature travels in moderately large herds or packs of 10–20 animals. Avatar creature designer Yuri Bartoli explained about the creature's colorful threat display: "Originally, the hammerhead just had to be a huge creature, big enough that even a thanator would think twice about attacking one. A threat display is meant to be seen, so it required bright colors that would stand out against its more muted body". It is moderately social, but also extremely territorial and hierarchical. A soft ungulate mouth is protected by a rigid, beak-like jaw structure. The species is scientifically known as "Titanotheris hammercephalis". In the climax of the film, a bunch of hammerhead titanothere assist the Na'vi in their battle against Colonel Miles Quaritch's army.


title: Pandoran biosphere

text: The hexapede ("Yerik" in Na'vi) are hexapodal deer-like creatures. They are dark blue herbivores with white and yellow stripes. Twin horn structures sheathe a thin, patterned membrane structure. Their small, sloped skull is topped by this light-colored fan structure. This fan has an eye pattern on it similar to those found in actual insects. A skin membrane hangs under the jaw and runs the length of the neck. Twin lines of dark hairlike bristles run down the hexapede's back. The antennae are at the back at the head. As a threat display, the hexapede flares up its twin membrane structure like a satellite dish and retracts both lips. It is scientifically known as "Sexcruscervus caeruleus".


title: Pandoran biosphere

text: The prolemuris ("Syaksyuk" in Na'vi) are blue, hexapodal creatures based on Earth's lemurs. They have two eyes, small nostrils, and their two upper arms on each side are partially fused. Like most Pandoran creatures, they have a queue on the back of their heads. They have lateral skin membranes on each side of the body. They have large eyes and grow 1.5 meters tall.


title: Pandoran biosphere

text: The thanator ("Palulukan" in Na'vi) is a large hexapodal land predator that is believed, by the RDA, to be the apex land predator. It is scientifically known as "Bestiapanthera ferox". Cameron personally designed the creature. The thanator is first seen when Jake wanders off into the jungle and touches multiple helicoradian leaves, at which they retract to reveal a family of hammerhead titanotheres behind. The thanator frightens the titanotheres and pursues Jake. Jake later escapes the thanator by jumping off a cliff into pool below. It later appears during the climax where it assists Neytiri and later battles Quaritch's AMP Suit Beyond Glory, but is killed by the AMP suit's knife. The thanator is black with white fleshy skin under each hand. Its appearance is similar to a panther; Cameron describes the thanator as "the panther from hell". The thanator has ten sensory quills connected to six pads at the rear of the skull that flare up before it attacks the prey. The director explained how the thanator is the most fearsome creature on Pandora, "The thanator could eat a T-Rex and have the Alien for dessert."


title: Pandoran biosphere

text: The viperwolf ("Nantang" in Na'vi) is a hexapodal nocturnal carnivore. The species is scientifically known as "Caniferratus costatus". It has bioluminescence for pack identification. Cameron described the viperwolves: "[They are] hairless with shiny skin that looks like overlapped armor. Most disturbing are its paws, which are like leathery hands." They are vicious in combat but treat their babies in a loving, nurturing way. They are seen in the daytime caring for their babies and have green eyes. They have a laugh which sounds like Earth's hyenas. Like most Pandoran creatures, they have antennae. They have opposable thumbs allowing them to climb trees as well as stalk from the ground, thereby are able to create a three-dimensional hunting field.


title: Pandoran biosphere

text: The woodsprite ("Atokirina" in Na'vi) is an animal, also called seed, of the "holy tree", appearing similar to airborne jellyfish. Neytiri describes them as very pure spirits, and slaps Jake for shooing two of them away. The Omaticaya Clan plants one of these seeds on the body of a deceased Na'vi, so the Na'vi's consciousness will become part of Eywa.


title: Pandoran biosphere

text: The austrapede is a Pandoran creature that resembles a cross between an ostrich, a pink flamingo and the herbivorous dinosaur "Parasaurolophus". The Austrapede has yellow-orange skin with faint purple striping, a long, flat beak, and a flat tail reaching down to its feet. Unlike other Pandoran birds and its relative, the great austrapede, the austrapede's wings have shrunken down to small, vestigial appendages, and much of its height is made up by its legs and neck. Austrapedes flap their wings when frightened. The austrapedes are impulsive, fidgety creatures whose emotions spread quickly from one individual to the other by a form of mimicry. Relatively small by Pandoran standards, Austrapedes generally pose little threat to other creatures, and are sometimes affectionate to Na'vi. They first appear in the musical, "Toruk – The First Flight".


title: Pandoran biosphere

text: The great austrapede is a bipedal, flightless, bird-like creature resembling the emu, ostrich, or the extinct "Phorusrhacids" that live in Pandoran savannah, and can be tamed and ridden as a mount by certain Na'vi clans. It has dark grey skin with blue-grey striping on its body and yellow markings on its wings, which it uses for threat displays and the long-clawed fingers at the ends for hunting and battling rivals. Great austrapedes stand slightly taller than their genetic cousin, the austrapede, and is a far more imposing creature overall. They first appear in the musical "Toruk – The First Flight".


title: Pandoran biosphere

text: The turtapede is a Pandoran creature that resembles a cross between a turtle, a platypus and a starfish. With its large dorsal fin and long tail, the turtapede is agile underwater. When emerging from the water, mesmerizing colors start to shimmer in the translucent area on its shell. They first appear in the musical "Toruk – The First Flight".


title: Pandoran biosphere

text: Flora on Pandora are of a tropical type several times taller than that existing on Earth. Many, if not all, plant and animal species have bioluminescent properties. The flora specimens seen in the film were all designed by Jodie Holt, a professor of botany at the University of California, Riverside. According to Holt, Pandoran flora are able to communicate with each other through signal transduction and are larger in size than Earth flora due to greater atmospheric thickness, weaker gravity, and stronger magnetism on Pandora.


title: Pandoran biosphere

text: The helicoradian ("Loreyu" in Na'vi) is a carnivorous plant that has red spiral-leaves. The plants are up to tall and, when touched, instantly curl and collapse into themselves. They are "zooplantae", part animal, part plant. They are first seen when Jake wanders off into a forest of helicoradia and touches multiple leaves, at which they retract and coil up to reveal a hammerhead titanothere behind. According to "Avatar" designer Craig Shoji, the behavior and design of the "helicoradian" was based on the Christmas tree worms, tube worms that reside on coral reefs. In the video games, the species has the ability to heal the player.


title: Pandoran biosphere

text: The Hometrees ("Kelutral" in Na'vi) are great enough to house hundreds of clan members. The trees are honeycombed with natural hollows and alcoves in which the Na'vi sleep, eat, weave, dance, and celebrate their connection to Eywa. Adult Hometrees are more than tall, and roughly in diameter. The Omaticaya inhabit a Giant Hometree, standing roughly tall. A distinguishable feature of the movie landscape, the tree itself is central to the movie story arc. Like many sacred sites on Pandora, the Giant Hometree sits above a large deposit of unobtanium. It is destroyed by the humans using rockets and missiles, which leads to the Na'vi clans' alliance against the humans.


title: Pandoran biosphere

text: The Tree of Souls ("Ayvitrayä Ramunong" in Na'vi [Cameron: "Vitraya Ramunong"]) is a tree where the Na'vi are able to communicate with the biological network that exists throughout Pandora. Cameron described the Tree of Souls as "a big input-output station", having been inspired by the bioluminescence that he encountered during night diving. In the film, the tree is seen to be capable of transferring a specific consciousness from one body to another.


title: Pandoran biosphere

text: The Tree of Voices ("Utral Aymokriyä" in Na'vi [Cameron: "Utraya Mokri"]) are the most important trees to the Na'vi after the Tree of Souls. They are smaller the Tree of Souls, but their appearance is quite similar and they too are illuminated. Neytiri reveals to Jake the tree allows the Na'vi to hear the voices of their ancestors. They are destroyed in the bulldozer attack by the humans. This was where Jake and Neytiri chose each other as mates and mated before Eywa.


title: Pandoran biosphere

text: They are other unnamed plants and trees on Pandora that resemble those on Earth; ferns, palm trees, mosses, grasses, bamboo, and succulents. Several forest plants of Pandora also resemble the Earth's zoanthid soft corals, which can be bioluminescent, as in the movie.


title: Pandoran biosphere

text: Text was copied from Austrapede at Avatar Wiki, which is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 (Unported) (CC-BY-SA 3.0) license.


title: Information overload

text: Information overload (also known as infobesity, infoxication, information anxiety, and information explosion) is the difficulty in understanding an issue and effectively making decisions when one has too much information (TMI) about that issue, and is generally associated with the excessive quantity of daily information. The term "information overload" was first used as early as 1962 by scholars in management and information studies, including in Bertram Gross' 1964 book, "The Managing of Organizations," and was further popularized by Alvin Toffler in his bestselling 1970 book "Future Shock." Speier et al. (1999) said that if input exceeds the processing capacity, information overload occurs, which is likely to reduce the quality of the decisions.


title: Information overload

text: In a newer definition, Roetzel (2019) focuses on time and resources aspects. He states that when a decision-maker is given many sets of information, such as complexity, amount, and contradiction, the quality of its decision is decreased because of the individual’s limitation of scarce resources to process all the information and optimally make the best decision.


title: Information overload

text: The advent of modern information technology has been a primary driver of information overload on multiple fronts: in quantity produced, ease of dissemination, and breadth of the audience reached. Longstanding technological factors have been further intensified by the rise of social media and the attention economy, which facilitates attention theft. In the age of connective digital technologies, informatics, the Internet culture (or the digital culture), information overload is associated with over-exposure, excessive viewing of information, and input abundance of information and data.


title: Information overload

text: Even though information overload is linked to digital cultures and technologies, Ann Blair notes that the term itself predates modern technologies, as indications of information overload were apparent when humans began collecting manuscripts, collecting, recording, and preserving information. One of the first social scientists to notice the negative effects of information overload was the sociologist Georg Simmel (1858–1918), who hypothesized that the overload of sensations in the modern urban world caused city dwellers to become jaded and interfered with their ability to react to new situations. The social psychologist Stanley Milgram (1933–1984) later used the concept of information overload to explain bystander behavior.


title: Information overload

text: Psychologists have recognized for many years that humans have a limited capacity to store current information in memory. Psychologist George Armitage Miller was very influential in this regard, proposing that people can process about seven chunks of information at a time. Miller says that under overload conditions, people become confused and are likely to make poorer decisions based on the information they have received as opposed to making informed ones.


title: Information overload

text: A quite early example of the term "information overload" can be found in an article by Jacob Jacoby, Donald Speller and Carol Kohn Berning, who conducted an experiment on 192 housewives which was said to confirm the hypothesis that more information about brands would lead to poorer decision making.


title: Information overload

text: Long before that, the concept was introduced by Diderot, although it was not by the term "information overload":


title: Information overload

text: In the internet age, the term "information overload" has evolved into phrases such as "information glut", "data smog", and "data glut" ("Data Smog", Shenk, 1997). In his abstract, Kazi Mostak Gausul Hoq commented that people often experience an "information glut" whenever they struggle with locating information from print, online, or digital sources. What was once a term grounded in cognitive psychology has evolved into a rich metaphor used outside the world of academia.


title: Information overload

text: Information overload has been documented throughout periods where advances in technology have increased a production of information. As early as the 3rd or 4th century BC, people regarded information overload with disapproval. Around this time, in Ecclesiastes 12:12, the passage revealed the writer's comment "of making books there is no end" and in the 1st century AD, Seneca the Elder commented, that "the abundance of books is distraction". In 1255, the Dominican Vincent of Beauvais, also commented on the flood of information: "the multitude of books, the shortness of time and the slipperiness of memory." Similar complaints around the growth of books were also mentioned in China. There were also information enthusiasts. The Library of Alexandria was established around the 3rd century BCE or 1st century Rome, which introduced acts of preserving historical artifacts. Museums and libraries established universal grounds of preserving the past for the future, but much like books, libraries were only granted with limited access.


title: Information overload

text: Renaissance humanists always had a desire to preserve their writings and observations, but were only able to record ancient texts by hand because books were expensive and only the privileged and educated could afford them. Humans experience an overload in information by excessively copying ancient manuscripts and replicating artifacts, creating libraries and museums that have remained in the present. Around 1453 AD, Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press and this marked another period of information proliferation. As a result of lowering production costs, generation of printed materials ranging from pamphlets, manuscripts to books were made available to the average person.


title: Information overload

text: Following Gutenberg's invention, the introduction of mass printing began in Western Europe. Information overload was often experienced by the affluent, but the circulation of books were becoming rapidly printed and available at a lower cost, allowing the educated to purchase books. Information became recordable, by hand, and could be easily memorized for future storage and accessibility. This era marked a time where inventive methods were established to practice information accumulation. Aside from printing books and passage recording, encyclopedias and alphabetical indexes were introduced, enabling people to save and bookmark information for retrieval. These practices marked both present and future acts of information processing.


title: Information overload

text: Swiss scientist Conrad Gessner commented on the increasing number of libraries and printed books, and was most likely the first academic who discussed the consequences of information overload as he observed how "unmanageable" information came to be after the creation of the printing press.


title: Information overload

text: Blair notes that while scholars were elated with the number of books available to them, they also later experienced fatigue with the amount of excessive information that was readily available and overpopulated them. Scholars complained about the abundance of information for a variety of reasons, such as the diminishing quality of text as printers rushed to print manuscripts and the supply of new information being distracting and difficult to manage. Erasmus, one of the many recognized humanists of the 16th century asked, "Is there anywhere on earth exempt from these swarms of new books?".


title: Information overload

text: Many grew concerned with the rise of books in Europe, especially in England, France, and Germany. From 1750 to 1800, there was a 150% increase in the production of books. In 1795, German bookseller and publisher Johann Georg Heinzmann said "no nation printed as much as the Germans" and expressed concern about Germans reading ideas and no longer creating original thoughts and ideas.


title: Information overload

text: To combat information overload, scholars developed their own information records for easier and simply archival access and retrieval. Modern Europe compilers used paper and glue to cut specific notes and passages from a book and pasted them to a new sheet for storage. Carl Linnaeus developed paper slips, often called his botanical paper slips, from 1767 to 1773, to record his observations. Blair argues that these botanical paper slips gave birth to the "taxonomical system" that has endured to the present, influencing both the mass inventions of the index card and the library card catalog.


title: Information overload

text: In his book, "The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood," published in 2011, author James Gleick notes that engineers began taking note of the concept of information, quickly associated it in a technical sense: information was both quantifiable and measurable. He discusses how information theory was created to first bridge mathematics, engineering, and computing together, creating an information code between the fields. English speakers from Europe often equated "computer science" to ""informatique", "informatica", and "Informatik"". This leads to the idea that all information can be saved and stored on computers, even if information experiences entropy. But at the same time, the term information, and its many definitions have changed.


title: Information overload

text: In the second half of the 20th century, advances in computer and information technology led to the creation of the Internet.


title: Information overload

text: In the modern Information Age, information overload is experienced as distracting and unmanageable information such as email spam, email notifications, instant messages, Tweets and Facebook(Meta) updates in the context of the work environment. Social media has resulted in "social information overload", which can occur on sites like Meta (previously Facebook), and technology is changing to serve our social culture.


title: Information overload

text: In today's society, day-to-day activities increasingly involve the technological world where information technology exacerbates the number of interruptions that occur in the work environment. Management may be even more disrupted in their decision making, and may result in more poor decisions. Thus, the "PIECES" framework mentions information overload as a potential problem in existing information systems.


title: Information overload

text: As the world moves into a new era of globalization, an increasing number of people are connecting to the Internet to conduct their own research and are given the ability to contribute as well as view data on an increasing number of websites. Users are now classified as active users because more people in society are participating in the Digital and Information Age. This flow has created a new life where humanity is now in danger of becoming dependent on this method of access to information where risks of the perpetuation of misinformation are greatly increased.


title: Information overload

text: In a 2018 literature review, Roetzel indicates that information overload can be seen as a virus—spreading through (social) media and news networks.


title: Information overload

text: In a piece published by "Slate", Vaughan Bell argues that "Worries about information overload are as old as information itself" because each generation and century will inevitably experience a significant impact with technology. In the 21st century, Frank Furedi describes how an overload in information is metaphorically expressed as a flood, which is an indication that humanity is being "drowned" by the waves of data coming at it. This includes how the human brain continues to process information whether digitally or not. Information overload can lead to "information anxiety", which is the gap between the information that is understood and the information that it is perceived must be understood. The phenomenon of information overload is connected to the field of information technology (IT). IT corporate management implements training to "improve the productivity of knowledge workers". Ali F. Farhoomand and Don H. Drury note that employees often experience an overload in information whenever they have difficulty absorbing and assimilating the information they receive to efficiently complete a task because they feel burdened, stressed, and overwhelmed.


title: Information overload

text: At New York's Web 2.0 Expo in 2008, Clay Shirky's speech indicated that information overload in the modern age is a consequence of a deeper problem, which he calls "filter failure", where humans continue to overshare information with each other. This is due to the rapid rise of apps and unlimited wireless access. In the modern information age, information overload is experienced as distracting and unmanageable information such as email spam, email notifications, instant messages, Tweets, and Facebook updates in the context of the work environment. Social media has resulted in "social information overload", which can occur on sites like Facebook, and technology is changing to serve our social culture. As people view increasing amounts of information in the form of news stories, e-mails, blog posts, Facebook statuses, Tweets, Tumblr posts and other new sources of information, they become their own editors, gatekeepers, and aggregators of information. Social media platforms create a distraction as users attention spans are challenged once they enter an online platform. One concern in this field is that massive amounts of information can be distracting and negatively impact productivity and decision-making and cognitive control. Another concern is the "contamination" of useful information with information that might not be entirely accurate (information pollution).


title: Information overload

text: E-mail remains a major source of information overload, as people struggle to keep up with the rate of incoming messages. As well as filtering out unsolicited commercial messages (spam), users also have to contend with the growing use of email attachments in the form of lengthy reports, presentations, and media files.


title: Information overload

text: A December 2007 New York Times blog post described E-mail as "a $650 billion drag on the economy", and the New York Times reported in April 2008 that "e-mail has become the bane of some people's professional lives" due to information overload, yet "none of [the current wave of high-profile Internet startups focused on email] really eliminates the problem of e-mail overload because none helps us prepare replies".


title: Information overload

text: In January 2011, Eve Tahmincioglu, a writer for NBC News, wrote an article titled "It's Time to Deal With That Overflowing Inbox". Compiling statistics with commentary, she reported that there were 294 billion emails sent each day in 2010, up from 50 billion in 2009. Quoted in the article, workplace productivity expert Marsha Egan stated that people need to differentiate between working on e-mail and sorting through it. This meant that rather than responding to every email right away, users should delete unnecessary emails and sort the others into action or reference folders first. Egan then went on to say "We are more wired than ever before, and as a result need to be more mindful of managing email or it will end up managing us."


title: Information overload

text: "The Daily Telegraph" quoted Nicholas Carr, former executive editor of the Harvard Business Review and the author of "The Shallows: What The Internet Is Doing To Our Brains", as saying that email exploits a basic human instinct to search for new information, causing people to become addicted to "mindlessly pressing levers in the hope of receiving a pellet of social or intellectual nourishment". His concern is shared by Eric Schmidt, chief executive of Google, who stated that "instantaneous devices" and the abundance of information people are exposed to through e-mail and other technology-based sources could be having an impact on the thought process, obstructing deep thinking, understanding, impeding the formation of memories and making learning more difficult. This condition of "cognitive overload" results in diminished information retaining ability and failing to connect remembrances to experiences stored in the long-term memory, leaving thoughts "thin and scattered". This is also manifest in the education process.


title: Information overload

text: In addition to e-mail, the World Wide Web has provided access to billions of pages of information. In many offices, workers are given unrestricted access to the Web, allowing them to manage their own research. The use of search engines helps users to find information quickly. However, information published online may not always be reliable, due to the lack of authority-approval or a compulsory accuracy check before publication. Internet information lacks credibility as the Web's search engines do not have the abilities to filter and manage information and misinformation. This results in people having to cross-check what they read before using it for decision-making, which takes up more time.


title: Information overload

text: Viktor Mayer-Schönberger, author of "Delete: The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age," argues that everyone can be a "participant" on the Internet, where they are all senders and receivers of information. On the Internet, trails of information are left behind, allowing other Internet participants to share and exchange information. Information becomes difficult to control on the Internet.


title: Information overload

text: The BBC reports that "every day, the information we send and receive onlinewhether that's checking emails or searching the internetamount to over 2.5 quintillion bytes of data."


title: Information overload

text: Social media are applications and websites with an online community where users create and share content with each other, and it adds to the problem of information overload because so many people have access to it. It presents many different views and outlooks on subject matters so that one may have difficulty taking it all in and drawing a clear conclusion. Information overload may not be the core reason for people's anxieties about the amount of information they receive in their daily lives. Instead, information overload can be considered situational. Social media users tend to feel less overloaded by information when using their personal profiles, rather than when their work institutions expect individuals to gather a mass of information. Most people see information through social media in their lives as an aid to help manage their day-to-day activities and not an overload. Depending on what social media platform is being used, it may be easier or harder to stay up to date on posts from people. Facebook users who post and read more than others tend to be able to keep up. On the other hand, Twitter users who post and read a lot of tweets still feel like it is too much information (or none of it is interesting enough). Another problem with social media is that many people create a living by creating content for either their own or someone else's platform, which can create for creators to publish an overload of content.


title: Information overload

text: In the context of searching for information, researchers have identified two forms of information overload: "outcome overload" where there are too many sources of information and "textual overload" where the individual sources are too long. This form of information overload may cause searchers to be less systematic. Disillusionment when a search is more challenging than expected may result in an individual being less able to search effectively. Information overload when searching can result in a satisficing strategy.


title: Information overload

text: Savolainen identifies "filtering" and "withdrawal" as common responses to information. Filtering involves quickly working out whether a particular piece of information, such as an email, can be ignored based on certain criteria. Withdrawal refers to limiting the number of sources of information with which one interacts. They distinguish between "pull" and "push" sources of information, a "pull" source being one where one seeks out relevant information, a "push" source one where others decide what information might be interesting. They note that "pull" sources can avoid information overload but by only "pulling" information one risks missing important information.


title: Information overload

text: There have been many solutions proposed for how to mitigate information overload. Based on the definition of information overload, there are two general approaches to deal with it:


title: Information overload

text: Johnson advises discipline which helps mitigate interruptions and for the elimination of push or notifications. He explains that notifications pull people's attentions away from their work and into social networks and e-mails. He also advises that people stop using their iPhones as alarm clocks which means that the phone is the first thing that people will see when they wake up leading to people checking their e-mail right away.


title: Information overload

text: The use of Internet applications and add-ons such as the "Inbox Pause" add-on for Gmail. This add-on does not reduce the number of e-mails that people get but it pauses the inbox. Burkeman in his article talks about the feeling of being in control is the way to deal with information overload which might involve self-deception. He advises to fight irrationality with irrationality by using add-ons that allow you to pause your inbox or produce other results. Reducing large amounts of information is key.


title: Information overload

text: Dealing with IO from a social network site such as Facebook, a study done by Humboldt University showed some strategies that students take to try and alleviate IO while using Facebook. Some of these strategies included: Prioritizing updates from friends who were physically farther away in other countries, hiding updates from less-prioritized friends, deleting people from their friends list, narrowing the amount of personal information shared, and deactivating the Facebook account.


title: Information overload

text: Decision makers performing complex tasks have little if any excess cognitive capacity. Narrowing one's attention as a result of the interruption is likely to result in the loss of information cues, some of which may be relevant to completing the task. Under these circumstances, performance is likely to deteriorate. As the number or intensity of the distractions/interruptions increases, the decision maker's cognitive capacity is exceeded, and performance deteriorates more severely. In addition to reducing the number of possible cues attended to, more severe distractions/interruptions may encourage decision-makers to use heuristics, take shortcuts, or opt for a satisficing decision, resulting in lower decision accuracy.


title: Information overload

text: Some cognitive scientists and graphic designers have emphasized the distinction between raw information and information in a form that can be used in thinking. In this view, information overload may be better viewed as organization underload. That is, they suggest that the problem is not so much the volume of information but the fact that it cannot be discerned how to use it well in the raw or biased form it is presented. Authors who have taken this view include graphic artist and architect Richard Saul Wurman and statistician and cognitive scientist Edward Tufte. Wurman uses the term "information anxiety" to describe humanity's attitude toward the volume of information in general and their limitations in processing it. Tufte primarily focuses on quantitative information and explores ways to organize large complex datasets visually to facilitate clear thinking. Tufte's writing is important in such fields as information design and visual literacy, which deal with the visual communication of information. Tufte coined the term "chartjunk" to refer to useless, non-informative, or information-obscuring elements of quantitative information displays, such as the use of graphics to overemphasize the importance of certain pieces of data or information.


title: Information overload

text: In a study conducted by Soucek and Moser (2010), they investigated what impact a training intervention on how to cope with information overload would have on employees. They found that the training intervention did have a positive impact on IO, especially on those who struggled with work impairment and media usage, and employees who had a higher amount of incoming emails.


title: Information overload

text: Recent research suggests that an "attention economy" of sorts will naturally emerge from information overload, allowing Internet users greater control over their online experience with particular regard to communication mediums such as e-mail and instant messaging. This could involve some sort of cost being attached to e-mail messages. For example, managers charging a small fee for every e-mail receivede.g. $1.00which the sender must pay from their budget. The aim of such charging is to force the sender to consider the necessity of the interruption. However, such a suggestion undermines the entire basis of the popularity of e-mail, namely that e-mails are free of charge to send.


title: Information overload

text: Economics often assumes that people are rational in that they have the knowledge of their preferences and an ability to look for the best possible ways to maximize their preferences. People are seen as selfish and focus on what pleases them. Looking at various parts on their own results in the negligence of the other parts that work alongside it that create the effect of IO. Lincoln suggests possible ways to look at IO in a more holistic approach by recognizing the many possible factors that play a role in IO and how they work together to achieve IO.


title: Information overload

text: It would be impossible for an individual to read all the academic papers published in a narrow speciality, even if they spent all their time reading. A response to this is the publishing of systematic reviews such as the Cochrane Reviews. Richard Smith argues that it would be impossible for a general practictioner to read all the literature relevant to every individual patient they consult with and suggests one solution would be an expert system for use of doctors while consulting.


title: 14th century

text: The 14th century lasted from January 1, 1301 (MCCCI) to 31 December 1400 (MCD). It is estimated that the century witnessed the death of more than 45 million lives from political and natural disasters in both Europe and the Mongol Empire. West Africa experienced economic growth and prosperity.


title: 14th century

text: In Europe, the Black Death claimed 25 million lives wiping out one third of the European population while the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of France fought in the protracted Hundred Years' War after the death of Charles IV, King of France led to a claim to the French throne by Edward III, King of England. This period is considered the height of chivalry and marks the beginning of strong separate identities for both England and France as well as the foundation of the Italian Renaissance and Ottoman Empire.


title: 14th century

text: In Asia, Tamerlane (Timur), established the Timurid Empire, history's third largest empire to have been ever established by a single conqueror. Scholars estimate that Timur's military campaigns caused the deaths of 17 million people, amounting to about 5% of the world population at the time. Synchronously, the Timurid Renaissance emerged. In the Arab world, historian and political scientist Ibn Khaldun and explorer Ibn Battuta made significant contributions.


title: 14th century

text: In "India", the Bengal Sultanate got divided from the Delhi Sultanate, a major trading nation in the world. The sultanate was described by the Europeans as the richest country to trade with. The Mongol court was driven out of China and retreated to Mongolia, the Ilkhanate collapsed, the Chaghatayid dissolved and broke into two parts, and the Golden Horde lost its position as a great power in Eastern Europe.


title: 14th century

text: In Africa, the wealthy Mali Empire, a huge producer of gold, reached its territorial and economic height under the reign of Mansa Musa I of Mali, the wealthiest individual of medieval times, and perhaps the wealthiest ever.


title: Abroad in Japan

text: Christopher "Chris" Broad (born 21 April 1990), also known online as Abroad in Japan, is an English YouTuber, filmmaker, podcast host, and former Assistant Language Teacher. He focuses on the creation of videos about Japanese culture, Japanese food and travel in Japan, primarily in the Tōhoku region.


title: Abroad in Japan

text: Broad's interest in filmmaking began at the age of eight when his grandfather had him record his aunt's wedding in Vancouver since his grandfather could not travel from England to attend the wedding. Broad briefly appeared on the TV series "Robot Wars" in the UK, where his father and team were regular contestants, with their robot Killertron.


title: Abroad in Japan

text: Broad studied English and business at the University of Kent from 2009 to 2012. While attending the university, he developed interests in film making and Japanese culture. After graduating, Broad worked a number of jobs, including a porter role at Leeds Castle and an office job at an energy company. After learning of and applying to the JET Programme, Broad moved to the city of Sakata in Yamagata Prefecture in 2012 while creating videos about his life and experiences in Japan. He has since left the programme and moved to Sendai.


title: Abroad in Japan

text: Upon moving to Sakata, Yamagata to teach as an Assistant Language Teacher with the JET Programme in 2012, Broad decided to vlog about some of his experiences as a foreigner living in the rural Tōhoku region. One of Broad's first videos to gain widespread attention was his review of the Japan-only McDonald's McChoco Potatoes. Other subjects of his early videos included topics like what it's like to drive in Japan, KFC as a mainstay of every Japanese Christmas, and love hotels. He later moved to Sendai to remain in the region, but to be somewhere better connected to the rest of the country to expand his business opportunities as a full time youtuber. As the channel grew in notability, Broad began to make more travel-themed videos, such as a video describing a trip to Aomori where he visited the city's Nebuta museum and another where he visited Hokkaido with his close friend Natsuki Aso, who often appears in Chris' videos.


title: Abroad in Japan

text: On 29 August 2017, Broad was visiting a town in Aomori Prefecture near Shirakami-Sanchi wilderness area when he was woken up by the J-Alert being triggered by the North Korean August 2017 missile launch over Japan. He posted a video about how rude it was that they would carry out their test so early in the morning and proceeded to criticize the regime of Kim Jong-un, as well as foreigners who visit North Korea. The video was featured as "Trending" the day it was posted. It then went on to attract national attention in Japan, with Broad being selected to represent the word "J-Alert" in Japan's annual Words of the Year event.


title: Abroad in Japan

text: On 31 May 2018, Broad released the documentary film "Natsuki: The Movie" telling the story of Broad and his friend Natsuki's journey to Europe.


title: Abroad in Japan

text: In 2018, Broad started his "Journey Across Japan" series featuring various YouTubers, such as The Anime Man, and his friends as he travels across Japan by bike, documenting local customs and daily life along the way. A sequel to the series was made in 2020, featuring The Anime Man and Natsuki in a road trip adventure originating in Tokyo, but taking place primarily around the Chūbu region called "Journey Across Japan: Escape to Fuji". In early 2021, Broad began filming a third entry in the series, titled "Journey Across Japan: The Lost Islands" with The Anime Man and Natsuki, which takes place in the region of Kyushu. In June 2021, the single "Too Much Volcano!" by Abroad in Japan and featuring The Anime Man and Natsuki Aso was released on the iTunes Store and Spotify; the song and the accompanying music video was recorded during the production of "The Lost Islands" and is about Mount Aso. The song peaked at number 14 on the UK iTunes downloads charts on 22 June 2021.


title: Abroad in Japan

text: In December 2021, Broad unveiled a new studio that was built by set design company Jiyuro. It is inspired by the 1982 film "Blade Runner" and 1960s Japanese shopping arcades. On 16 March 2022, the studio was damaged by the 2022 Fukushima earthquake.


title: Abroad in Japan

text: The channel also has featured some documentary-style videos. In addition to the Natsuki movie mentioned above, one focused on the effects of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami on the citizens of Kesennuma and how they and external powers are working to rebuild their city's image and livelihood. Broad noted that the aversion to the area because of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster bothered him and that caused him to work on documentaries about the area, including one that is in development that will focus on the positive aspects of life in Fukushima. In December 2019, he released a documentary interview of the rock artist Hyde, during the artist's performances at Zepp Tokyo. Broad revisited the disaster area in a second documentary uploaded in 2020 about the region's recovery. YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki praised Broad's documentary work in reference to this second documentary about the 2011 disaster in a tweet she posted on 1 December 2020. A publication by the Cabinet of Japan praised Broad's work on the documentaries for his ability to capture "the heartbreaking sorrow of the disaster victims and the hopeful steps being taken towards recovery".


title: Abroad in Japan

text: Together with Pete Donaldson, Broad presents a twice weekly Abroad in Japan series of podcasts on Radio Stakhanov about Japanese culture, current events, and cuisine. Some recurring topics of the series are the Lotte soft serve, Coolish and a pizza vending machine that was once functioning in Hiroshima. The pair also talk about Japan-related stories and questions submitted by their audience by email in a segment they call the "Fax Machine" as a jest towards the obsolete method of communication that is still commonly used in many Japanese workplaces.


title: Abroad in Japan

text: Broad spoke at a TEDx conference at Tohoku University where he presented about the power of YouTube and encouraged the audience to share their experiences with the world through the platform.


title: Abroad in Japan

text: In 2017, Broad was the host of a documentary about cats in Japanese culture called "Cat Nation" where he (despite being allergic to cats) travelled throughout Japan to document the cat-centered activities or places, such as visiting the Wakayama Electric Railway where a cat named Tama became a tourist attraction after it became the station master of Kishi Station. Broad hosted an episode of "Explore Regional Flavors – Visiting the Hidden Village", a documentary about Japan's local cuisine broadcast on NHK World in August 2017.


title: Abroad in Japan

text: In 2022, Broad appeared in an interview with the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan, and received an honorary membership for a duration of one year. On 11 December 2022, Broad participated in a chessboxing match with PJ Brittain at the Mogul Chessboxing Championship, held at the Galen Center in Los Angeles, United States.


title: Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: The Estonian SSR, officially the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic, was an ethnically based administrative subdivision of the former Soviet Union (USSR) covering the occupied and annexed territory of Estonia in 1940–1941 and 1944–1991. The Estonian SSR was nominally established to replace the until then independent Republic of Estonia on 21 July 1940, a month after the 16–17 June 1940 Soviet military invasion and occupation of the country during World War II. After the installation of a Stalinist government which, backed by the occupying Soviet Red Army, declared Estonia a Soviet constituency, the Estonian SSR was subsequently incorporated into the Soviet Union as a "union republic" on 6 August 1940. Estonia was occupied by Nazi Germany in 1941, and administered as a part of "Reichskommissariat Ostland" until it was reconquered by the USSR in 1944.


title: Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: The majority of the world's countries did not recognize the incorporation of Estonia into the Soviet Union "de jure" and only recognized its Soviet administration "de facto" or not at all. A number of countries continued to recognize Estonian diplomats and consuls who still functioned in the name of their former government. This policy of non-recognition gave rise to the principle of legal continuity, which held that "de jure", Estonia remained an independent state under occupation throughout the period 1940–1991.


title: Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: On 16 November 1988, Estonia became the first of the then Soviet-controlled countries to declare state sovereignty from the central government in Moscow. On 30 March 1990, the newly elected parliament declared that the Republic of Estonia had been illegally occupied since 1940, and formally announced a transitional period for the restoration of the country's full independence. Subsequently, on 8 May 1990, the use of all Soviet symbols in Estonia was officially abolished and from the "Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic" two words, "Soviet" and "Socialist", were dropped, effectively returning to the name "Republic of Estonia". The parliament of Estonia declared the re-establishment of full independence on 20 August 1991. The Soviet Union formally recognized the independence of Estonia on 6 September 1991.


title: Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: The Nazi-Soviet Pact which was signed on 23 August 1939, a week before the outbreak of World War II, assigned Estonia to the Soviet "sphere of influence". On 24 September 1939, warships of the Soviet Navy blocked the major ports of Estonia, a neutral country, and Soviet bombers began patrolling over and around its capital city Tallinn. Moscow demanded that Estonia allow the USSR to establish Soviet military bases on its territory and station 25,000 troops in these bases "for the duration of the European war". The government of Estonia yielded to the ultimatum, signing the corresponding mutual assistance agreement on 28 September 1939.


title: Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: On 12 June 1940, the order for total military blockade of Estonia was given to the Soviet Soviet Baltic fleet. On 14 June, the Soviet military blockade of Estonia went into effect while the world's attention was focused on the fall of Paris to Nazi Germany. Two Soviet bombers shot down a Finnish passenger airplane "Kaleva" flying from Tallinn to Helsinki carrying three diplomatic pouches from the U.S. legations in Tallinn, Riga and Helsinki. On 16 June, Soviet NKVD troops raided border posts in Estonia (along with Lithuania and Latvia). Soviet leader Joseph Stalin claimed that the 1939 mutual assistance treaties had been violated, and gave six-hour ultimatums for new governments to be formed in each country, including lists of persons for cabinet posts provided by the Kremlin. The Estonian government decided, in accordance with the Kellogg–Briand Pact, to not respond to the ultimatums by military means. Given the overwhelming Soviet force both on the borders and inside the country, the order was given not to resist in order to avoid bloodshed and open war.


title: Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: On 16–17 June 1940, the Red Army emerged from its military bases in Estonia and, aided by an additional 90,000 Soviet troops, took over the country, occupying the entire territory of the Republic of Estonia. Most of the Estonian Defence Forces and the Estonian Defence League surrendered according to the orders, and were disarmed by the Red Army. Only the Estonian Independent Signal Battalion stationed at Raua Street in Tallinn began armed resistance. As the Soviet troops brought in additional reinforcements supported by six armoured fighting vehicles, the battle at Raua Street lasted for several hours until sundown. There was one dead, several wounded on the Estonian side and about 10 killed and more wounded on the Soviet side. Finally the military resistance was ended with negotiations and the Independent Signal Battalion surrendered and was disarmed.


title: Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: By 18 June 1940, large-scale military operations for the occupation of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were complete. In the following days, the Soviet troops organised and supported Stalinist "demonstrations" in Tallinn and other larger cities.


title: Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: Thereafter, state administrations were liquidated and replaced by Soviet cadres, followed by mass repression.


title: Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: "Time" magazine reported on 24 June, that "Half a million men and countless tanks" of the Soviet Red Army "moved to safeguard [Russia's] frontier against conquest-drunk Germany," one week before the Fall of France.


title: Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: On 21 June 1940, the Soviet military occupation of the Republic of Estonia was complete. That day, the President Konstantin Päts (deported to Ufa, Russian SFSR on 30 July 1940 and arrested a few weeks later) was pressured into affirming the Andrei Zhdanov-appointed puppet government of Johannes Vares, following the arrival of demonstrators accompanied by Red Army troops with armored vehicles to the residence of the Estonian president. The flag of Estonia was replaced with a Red flag on Tallinn's Pikk Hermann tower.


title: Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: On 14–15 July 1940, rigged extraordinary parliamentary elections were held by the occupation authorities, in which voters were presented with a single list of pro-Stalinist candidates. In order to maximise voter turnout to legitimise the new system, the voters' documents were stamped in voting facilities for future identification of voting, along with a threat running in the main Communist newspaper, "Rahva Hääl", that "It would be extremely unwise to shirk elections. ... Only people's enemies stay at home on election day." Each ballot carried only the Soviet-assigned candidate's name, with the only way to register opposition being to strike out that name on the ballot. According to official election results, the Communist "Union of the Estonian Working People" bloc won 92.8% of the votes with 84.1% of the population attending the elections. "Time" magazine reported that, following the elections, tribunals were set up to judge and punish "traitors to the people", which included opponents of Sovietization and those who did not vote for incorporation in the Soviet Union. This election is considered illegal, since the amended electoral law—along with hundreds of other laws passed by the Vares government—had not been approved by the upper house of parliament, as required by the Estonian constitution. The upper house had been dissolved soon after the Soviet occupation and was never reconvened.


title: Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: Once the elections were concluded, authorities which had previously denied any intention of setting up a Soviet regime began openly speaking of Sovietisation and incorporation into the Soviet Union. The newly "elected" "People's Parliament" met on 21 July 1940. Its sole piece of agenda was a petition to join the Soviet Union, which passed unanimously. The Estonian SSR was formally annexed into the Soviet Union on 9 August 1940, becoming nominally the 16th constituent part (or "union republic") of the USSR. After another "union republic", the Karelo-Finnish SSR was demoted to an "ASSR", or to an "autonomous union republic" in 1956, until 1991 the Soviet authorities referred to the Estonian SSR as the 15th (i.e., "the last on the list") constituent "republic".


title: Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: On July 23, 1940, the Estonian SSR nationalised all land, banks and major industrial enterprises in Estonia. Farmers were allotted small plots of land during the land reforms. Small businesses were also later nationalised. The occupation brought colonisation with it. According to some Western scholars, relations between the Soviet Union and Estonian SSR were those of internal colonialism.


title: Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: All banks and accounts were essentially nationalised; a lot of industrial machinery was disassembled and relocated to other Soviet territories. Before retreating in 1941, Red Army, following the scorched earth policies, burnt most industrial constructions, destroying power plants, vehicles and cattle. Millions of dollars worth of goods were allegedly moved from Estonia to Russia during the evacuation of 1941.


title: Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: Immediately following the June 1940 Estonian occupation by the Soviet Union and incorporation as a result of a Soviet-supported Communist "coup d'état", the only foreign powers to recognize the Soviet annexation were Nazi Germany and Sweden.


title: Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: Shipping was nationalized. Ships were ordered to fly the hammer and sickle and head for a Soviet port. August Torma, the envoy appointed by previous Estonian government, sought protection and reassurance for the 20 Estonian ships in British ports. He failed to obtain reassurance, so the majority went to the Soviet Union.


title: Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: The Irish experience was different. There was a fight between Peter Kolts, who hoisted the hammer and sickle, and Captain Joseph Juriska who wanted to remove it. The Garda Síochána were called. The next day Justice Michael Lennon sentenced Kolts to a week in jail.Following this verdict and sentence the ships in Irish ports choose to remain. The soviets, unsuccessfully perused the issue of ownership through the Irish Courts. The Soviet Union made a 'most emphatic' protest.


title: Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: The United States, United Kingdom and several other countries considered the annexation of Estonia by the USSR illegal following the Stimson Doctrine—a stance that made the doctrine an established precedent of international law. Although the US, the UK, the other Allies of World War II recognized the occupation of the Baltic states by USSR at Yalta Conference in 1945 "de facto", they retained diplomatic relations with the exiled representatives of the independent Republic of Estonia, and never formally recognized the annexation of Estonia de jure.


title: Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: Pre-Perestroika Soviet sources reflecting Soviet historiography described the events in 1939 and 1940 as follows: in a former province of the Russian Empire, the Province of Estonia (), Soviet power was established in the end of October 1917. The Estonian Soviet Republic was proclaimed in Narva on 29 November 1918 but fell to counter-revolutionaries and the White Armies in 1919. In June 1940 Soviet power was restored in Estonia as workers overthrew the fascist dictatorship in the country.


title: Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: According to Soviet sources, pressure from the working people of Estonia forced its government to accept the 1939 proposal for a mutual assistance treaty by the Soviet Union. On 28 September 1939 the Pact of Mutual Assistance was signed which allowed the USSR to station a limited number of Soviet Army units in Estonia. Economic difficulties, dissatisfaction with the Estonian government's policies "sabotaging fulfillment of the Pact and the Estonian government", and political orientation towards Nazi Germany lead to a revolutionary situation in June 1940. A note from the Soviet government to the Estonian Government suggested that they stuck strictly to the Pact of Mutual Assistance. To guarantee the fulfillment of the Pact, additional military units entered Estonia, welcomed by the Estonian workers who demanded the resignation of the Estonian government. On 21 June under the leadership of the Estonian Communist Party political demonstrations by workers were held in Tallinn, Tartu, Narva and other cities. On the same day the fascist government was overthrown, and the People's government led by Johannes Vares was formed. On 14–15 July 1940 elections for the Estonian Parliament, the State Assembly (Riigikogu) were held. The "Working People’s Union", created by an initiative of the Estonian Communist Party received with 84.1% turnout 92.8% of the votes. On 21 July 1940 the State Assembly adopted the declaration of the restoration of Soviet power in Estonia and proclaimed the 'Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic'. On 22 July the declaration of Estonia's wish to join the USSR was ratified and the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union was petitioned accordingly. The request was approved by the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on 6 August 1940. On 23 July the State Assembly proclaimed all land to be people's property while banks and heavy industry were nationalised. On 25 August the State Assembly adopted the Constitution of the Estonian SSR, renamed itself the Supreme Soviet of the Estonian SSR and approved the Council of People's Commissars of the Estonian SSR.


title: Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: After Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941, the Wehrmacht reached Estonia in July 1941. The Germans were perceived by many Estonians as liberators from the USSR and Communism in general. Thousands of Estonian men fought directly alongside the German army throughout the war. An anti-communist guerrilla group called the Forest Brothers also assisted the Wehrmacht. Estonia was incorporated into the German province of Ostland.


title: Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: The Soviet Union retook Estonia in 1944, thereafter occupying it for nearly another half century. This began when the Red Army re-occupied Estonian Ingria, Narva, and eastern Vaivara Parish in the Battle of Narva, Southeast Estonia in the Tartu Offensive and the rest of the country in the Baltic Offensive. Faced with the country being re-occupied by the Soviet Army, 80,000 people fled from Estonia by sea to Finland and Sweden in 1944. 25,000 Estonians reached Sweden and a further 42,000 Germany. During the war about 8,000 Estonian Swedes and their family members had emigrated to Sweden. After the retreat of the Germans, about 30,000 partisans remained in hiding in the Estonian forests, waging a guerrilla war until the early 1950s.


title: Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: After re-occupation, the Soviet nationalization policy of 1940 was reimposed, as well as the collectivization of farms. Over 900,000 hectares were expropriated in the few years following reoccupation, while much of that land was given to new settlers from Russia or other locations in the Soviet Union. Rapid collectivization began in 1946, followed in 1947 by a crackdown against kulak farmers. The kulak repression started as oppressive taxation, but eventually led to mass deportations. Those who resisted collectivization were killed or deported. More than 95% of farms were collectivised by 1951.


title: Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: The 1949 mass deportation of about 21,000 people broke the back of the partisan movement. 6,600 partisans gave themselves up in November 1949. Later on, the failure of the Hungarian uprising broke the morale of 700 men still remaining under cover. According to Soviet data, up until 1953 20,351 partisans were defeated. Of these, 1,510 perished in the battles. During that period, 1,728 members of the Red Army, NKVD and the Estonian Police were killed by the "forest brothers". August Sabbe, the last surviving "brother" in Estonia, committed suicide when the KGB tracked him down and attempted to arrest him in 1978. He drowned in a lake, when the KGB agent, disguised as a fisherman, was after him.


title: Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: During the first post-war decade of Soviet rule, Estonia was governed by Moscow via Russian-born ethnic Estonian functionaries. Born into the families of native Estonians in Russia, the latter had obtained their education in the Soviet Union during the Stalin era. Many of them had fought in the Red Army (in the Estonian Rifle Corps), few of them had mastered the Estonian language. For the latter reason they were known under a derogatory term "Yestonians", alluding to their Russian accent.


title: Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: Although the United States and the United Kingdom, the major allies of the USSR against Nazi Germany during the later stages of World War II, both implicity acknowledged (de facto) the occupation of Estonia by USSR at the Yalta Conference in 1945, both governments, and most of the other western democracies did not recognize it de jure according to the Sumner Welles' declaration of July 23, 1940 Some of these countries recognized Estonian diplomats who still functioned in many countries in the name of their former governments. These consuls persisted in this anomalous situation until the ultimate restoration of Estonia's independence in 1991.


title: Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: A special care was taken to change the ethnic structure of population, especially in Ida-Viru County. For example, a policy of prioritising immigrants before returning war refugees in assigning dwelling quarters was adopted.


title: Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: Estonian graveyards and monuments from the period of 1918–1944 were dismantled. Among others, in the Tallinn Military Cemetery the majority of gravestones from 1918 to 1944 were destroyed by the Soviet authorities. This graveyard was then re-used by the Red Army after World War II.


title: Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: Other cemeteries destroyed by the authorities during the Soviet era in Estonia include Baltic German cemeteries, Kopli cemetery (established in 1774), Mõigu cemetery and the oldest cemetery in Tallinn, the Kalamaja cemetery (from the 16th century). After the re-occupation of Estonia in 1944, the dismantling of monuments from the Republic of Estonia, which had survived or had been restored during the German occupation, continued. On April 15, 1945, in Pärnu, a monument by Amandus Adamson, erected to 87 persons who had fallen in the Estonian War of Independence, was demolished. The dismantling of war memorials continued for several years and occurred across all districts of the country. A comprehensive file concerning the monuments of the Estonian War of Independence, compiled by the Military Department of the EC(b)P Central Committee in April 1945, has been preserved in the Estonian State Archives. Monuments are listed by counties in this file and it specifies the amount of explosive and an evaluation concerning the transportation that were needed. An extract regarding Võrumaa reads:


title: Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: "In order to carry out demolition works, 15 Party activists and 275 persons from the Destruction Battalion must be mobilised. 15 workers are needed for the execution of each demolition and 10 people are needed for protection... In order to carry out demolition works, 225 kg of TNT, 150 metres of rope/fuse and 100 primers are needed, since there is no demolition material on the spot. 11 lorries, which are available but which lack petrol, are needed for carrying the ruins away."


title: Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: After Joseph Stalin's death, the Party membership vastly expanded its social base to include more ethnic Estonians. By the mid-1960s, the percentage of ethnic Estonian membership stabilised near 50%.


title: Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: One positive aspect of the post-Stalin era in Estonia was the regranting of permission in the late 1950s for citizens to make contact with foreign countries. Ties were reactivated with Finland, and in 1965, a ferry service was opened between Tallinn and Helsinki. President of Finland Urho Kekkonen had visited Tallinn in the previous year and the ferry line is widely credited to Kekkonen.


title: Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: Some Estonians began watching Finnish television as the Helsinki television tower broadcast from just and the signal was strong enough in Tallinn and elsewhere on the north Estonian coast. This electronic "window on the West" afforded Estonians more information on current affairs and more access to Western culture and thought than any other group in the Soviet Union. This somewhat more open media environment was important in preparing Estonians for their vanguard role in extending "perestroika" during the Gorbachev era.


title: Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: In the late 1970s, Estonian society grew increasingly concerned about the threat of cultural Russification to the Estonian language and national identity. In 1980, Tallinn hosted the sailing events of the 1980 Summer Olympics. By 1981, Russian was taught already in the second grade of Estonian-language primary schools and in some urban areas was also being introduced into Estonian pre-school teaching.


title: Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: Soviet authorities began to lure in Finnish tourists and the much needed foreign exchange they could bring. The Soviet travel agency Inturist contracted Finnish construction company Repo to build "Hotel Viru" in downtown Tallinn. Estonians saw very different construction equipment, methods and work morale. An improved ferry "MS Georg Ots" between Tallinn and Helsinki came into operation. Estonia gained Western currency, but on the other hand Western thoughts and customs began to infiltrate Soviet Estonia.


title: Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: By the beginning of the Gorbachev era, concern over the cultural survival of the Estonian people had reached a critical point. The ECP remained stable in the early perestroika years but waned in the late 1980s. Other political movements, groupings and parties moved to fill the power vacuum. The first and most important was the Estonian Popular Front, established in April 1988 with its own platform, leadership and broad constituency. The Greens and the dissident-led Estonian National Independence Party soon followed. By 1989 the political spectrum had widened, and new parties were formed and re-formed almost every week.


title: Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: Estonia's "Supreme Soviet" transformed from a powerless rubber stamp institution into an authentic regional lawmaking body. This relatively conservative legislature passed an early declaration of sovereignty (November 16, 1988); a law on economic independence (May 1989) confirmed by the USSR Supreme Soviet that November; a language law making Estonian the official language (January 1989); and local and republic election laws stipulating residency requirements for voting and candidacy (August, November 1989).


title: Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: Although the majority of Estonia's numerous Soviet-era immigrants did not support full independence, the mostly ethnic Russian immigrant community was divided in terms of opinions on the "sovereign republic". In March 1990, some 18% of Russian-speakers supported the idea of a fully independent Estonia, up from 7% the previous autumn. By early 1990 only a small minority of ethnic Estonians were opposed to full independence.


title: Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: On November 16, 1988, the first freely elected parliament during the Soviet era in Estonia had passed the Estonian Sovereignty Declaration. On May 8, 1990, the Parliament reinstated the 1938 constitution, and the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic was renamed the Republic of Estonia. On August 20, 1991, the Estonian Parliament adopted a resolution confirming its independence from the Soviet Union. First to recognise Estonia as an independent country was Iceland, on August 22, 1991. On September 6, 1991, the State Council of the USSR recognized the independence of Estonia, immediately followed by recognitions from other countries.


title: Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: On February 23, 1989, the flag of the Estonian SSR was lowered on Pikk Hermann, and replaced with the blue-black-white flag of Estonia on February 24, 1989. In 1992, Heinrich Mark, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Estonia in Exile, presented his credentials to the newly elected President of Estonia Lennart Meri. The last Russian troops withdrew from Estonia in August 1994. The Russian Federation officially ended its military presence in Estonia after it relinquished control of the nuclear reactor facilities in Paldiski in September 1995. Estonia joined the European Union and NATO in 2004.


title: Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: In the aftermath of the Estonian War of Independence, Estonia established control also over Ivangorod, in January 1919, a move which was recognized by Soviet Russia in the 1920 Treaty of Tartu. In January 1945, the Narva River was defined as the border between the Estonian SSR and Russian SFSR, and as a result administration of Ivangorod was transferred from Narva to the Leningrad Oblast which having grown in population received the official status of town in 1954.


title: Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: In 1945 the Petseri County was annexed and ceded to the Russian SFSR where it became one of the districts of Pskov Oblast. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Estonia raised the question of a return to the borders under the Treaty of Tartu. Estonia dropped this claim in November 1995. Estonia and Russia signed and ratified the Estonian-Russian Border Treaty, and it went into effect May 18, 2005: the preamble noted that the international border had partly changed, in accordance with Article 122 of the Estonian Constitution.


title: Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: After the restoration of Estonian independence in 1991, there have been some disputes about the Estonian-Russian border in the Narva area, as the new constitution of Estonia (adopted in 1992) recognizes the 1920 Treaty of Tartu border to be currently legal. The Russian Federation, however, considers Estonia to be a successor of the Estonian SSR and recognizes the 1945 border between two former national republics. Officially, Estonia has no territorial claims in the area, which is also reflected in the new Estonian-Russian border treaty, according to which Ivangorod remains part of Russia. Although the treaty was signed in 2005 by the foreign ministers of Estonia and Russia, Russia took its signature back, after Estonian parliament added a reference to Tartu Peace Treaty in the preamble of the law ratifying the border treaty. A new treaty was signed by the foreign ministers in 2014.


title: Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: The legislative body of the Estonian SSR was the Supreme Soviet that represented the highest body of state power accordance with the Constitution.


title: Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet was the permanent body of the Supreme Council. It consisted of a Chairman of the Presidium, two vice-chairmen, Secretary and 9 members. Was elected to the Presidium of the 25th for the first time August 1940th The Presidium of the law and the decisions adopted. Between sessions of the Supreme Council met in some of its functions: changes to the legislation of the Estonian SSR, Soviet ministries and state committees and to the abolition of the SSR Council of Ministers and the persons appointment and removal of the Supreme Council for approval by relevant laws.


title: Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: The Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic did not have armed forces of its own. Because of the strategic geographical location, Estonia was considered as a strategic zone for the Soviet Armed Forces. The territory was therefore heavily militarised and added to the Soviet Baltic Military District which included a strong presence of the Soviet Air Defence, Navy and also the Strategic Rocket Forces. The Baltic Military District included the following units:


title: Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: In the Soviet system, all local proceeds were initially appropriated into the federal budget at Moscow, and some of them were then invested back in the local economies. The figures for those investments were made available to the public, thus promoting a positive impression of the Soviet Federal Centre's contributions to the periphery, the Baltic states included. Investment figures alone, however, do not represent actual income; rather, they resemble the spending side of the national budget. In Estonian SSR by 1947, the private sector had entirely disappeared, accompanied by a rapid industrialization that occurred soon after Soviet reoccupation. Soviet planners expanded oil shale mining and processing in the late 1940s, taking over that industry in northeast section of Estonia. In the 1970s, the Soviet economy experienced stagnation, exacerbated by the growth of a shadow economy.


title: Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: National income per capita was higher in Estonia than elsewhere in the USSR (44% above the Soviet average in 1968), however, the income levels exceeded those of the USSR in independent Estonia as well. Official Estonian sources maintain that Soviet rule had significantly slowed Estonia's economic growth, resulting in a wide "wealth gap" in comparison with its neighboring countries (e.g., Finland, Sweden). For example, Estonian economy and standard of living were similar to that in Finland prior to World War II. Despite Soviet and Russian claims of improvements in standards, even three decades after World War II Estonia was rife with housing and food shortages and fell far behind Finland not only in levels of income, but in average life span. Eastern Bloc economies experienced an inefficiency of systems without competition or market-clearing prices that became costly and unsustainable and they lagged significantly behind their Western European counterparts in terms of per capita Gross Domestic Product. Estonia's 1990 per capita GDP was $10,733 compared to $26,100 for Finland. Estonian sources estimate the economic damage directly attributable to the second Soviet occupation (from 1945 to 1991) to lie in the range of hundreds of billions of dollars. Similarly, the damage to Estonian ecology were estimated at around US$4 billion.


title: Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: On May 21, 1947, the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (bolsheviks) authorised collectivization of Estonian agriculture. Initially it was implemented with great difficulties in the Baltic republics but it was facilitated by mass deportations of dissident farmers, termed 'kulaks'. As a result, by the end of April 1949, half of the remaining individual farmers in Estonia had joined kolkhozes. 99.3% of farms had been collectivised by 1957.


title: Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: A number of large-volume capital investments were undertaken by the Soviet central power to exploit resources on Estonian territory of Oil shale, lumber and, later, uranium ore, as part of the postwar reconstruction program. The first Five Year Plan, called the fourth Five Year Plan, prescribed a total of 3.5 billion roubles of investments for enterprises in Estonia.


title: Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: One of the important goals in this reformation of Estonia's economy was providing economic support to Leningrad. To this end, 40% of the total capital investments of the fourth Five Year Plan to be spent in Estonia were intended for investments in oil shale mining infrastructure. Gas-rich oil shale was delivered to Leningrad via a specially built pipeline starting from 1948; gas from this very same source did not reach Tallinn until 1953. In 1961, 62.5% of the gas produced was still delivered to Leningrad.


title: Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: By the end of 1954, 227,000 apartments in Leningrad were supplied with gas using the output of Kohtla-Järve; only about three percent of that, or 6,041 apartments, had been supplied in Tallinn.


title: Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: Mass deportations of ethnic Estonians during the Soviet era together with migration into Estonia from other parts of the Soviet Union resulted in the proportion of ethnic Estonians in the country decreasing from 88% in 1934 to 62% in 1989. While the Baltic republics had the highest living standard in the Soviet Union and high rates of industrialisation, the ethnic Estonians in Estonian SSR (similarly to Latvians in Latvian SSR, but unlike Lithuanians in Lithuanian SSR) suffered a sharp decline of their proportion in the total population due to the large-scale immigration, mostly of Russians. While in 1934 the Estonians comprised 88 percent of the total population of Estonia, by 1959 and 1970 their number had decreased to 75 and 68 percent, respectively (and to 61.5% by 1989).