title: David Sirota

text: Sirota's book "The Uprising" was released in June 2008. It was ranked 20th on "The New York Times" bestseller list on June 15, 2008. The book was also listed on "The New York Times" Political Bestseller list for the month of July 2008. Sirota made speeches about his book at venues such as Hofstra University.


title: David Sirota

text: A mostly positive review of "The Uprising" from "Publishers Weekly" described the book as chronicling "how ordinary citizens on the right and the left are marshaling their frustrations with the government into uprisings across the country." The reviewer cited "entertaining case studies" with a "conversational" tone and a fast-paced narrative with "numerous high notes." Sirota gave a "fine elucidation of continuing Democratic support for the Iraq War" and examined the ""echo chamber" qualities of beltway television shows like Hardball." The book presents "a rousing account of the local uprisings already in effect."


title: David Sirota

text: A "Newark Star-Ledger" political critic reviewing the book described Sirota as an "enterprising" reporter who used "resourceful" tactics to get entry into such venues as Capitol Hill, the Microsoft campus, an ExxonMobil stockholders meeting, and the Mexican border. In the book, Sirota attacks CNN star Lou Dobbs less for his "endless broadcasts on illegal immigration" but more for the way he "browbeats his staff and runs roughshod over the CNN management." The critic felt the book's "search for a national uprising is somewhat out of focus" but was a "lively read."


title: David Sirota

text: Sirota is a critic of neoliberal economic policies, and has leveled criticism at the Clinton, George W. Bush, and Obama administrations. Sirota supported John Edwards in the 2008 Democratic party primaries. He has criticized the Democratic Leadership Council and other Democrats, who he claims have "sold out" to corporate interests, and has argued that the term "centrist" is a misnomer in that these politicians are out of touch with public opinion. Sirota's article "The Democrats' Da Vinci Code" argues that leftist politicians are more successful in so-called "red states" than the mainstream media have previously reported. He is an opponent of free trade policies, a supporter of fair trade, and an advocate of workers' rights and organized labor. His May 2007 speech at the Montana AFL–CIO Convention in Butte articulated many of his views. Sirota supported Sherrod Brown over Paul Hackett for the 2006 Senate election in Ohio and criticized Hackett's claims that he was "forced out" of the race by party elders as disingenuous. In 2008, Sirota stated on radio program "Democracy Now!" that he had cast an early vote for Democratic Party presidential candidate Barack Obama.


title: David Sirota

text: Sirota has been a strong supporter of the economic stimulus efforts of the Obama administration. However, he has criticized such efforts as insufficient and has strongly supported further stimulus efforts.


title: David Sirota

text: Sirota was criticized by Fox News hosts and commentators Mark Steyn, Bill O'Reilly, Greg Gutfeld, and Robert Spencer in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombing for an article he wrote for "Salon" entitled "Let's Hope the Boston Marathon Bomber Is a White American."


title: David Sirota

text: Some other journalists and political analysts have criticized Sirota. In his article comparing two approaches to progressive politics, statistician Nate Silver disparaged Sirota's approach as "playing fast and loose with the truth and using some of the same demagogic precepts that the right wing does." Regarding Sirota's political analysis and projections, including his predictions during the 2008 presidential election, Al Giordano derided him as "an inverted compass: when Sirota says 'heads,' you can make a lot of money betting on 'tails.'"


title: David Sirota

text: In 2016, right-wing commentators at the conservative "National Review" and libertarian "Reason" upbraided Sirota for his 2013 "Salon" article entitled "Hugo Chavez's economic miracle". Sirota wrote in 2013 that Chavez was "no saint", but also that his socialist and redistributionist policies had led to Venezuela's GDP more than doubling and reduced poverty to the third-lowest level in South America. His detractors charge that Sirota overlooked that Venezuela's economic gains were based almost entirely on petroleum exports, and with the worldwide drop in oil prices Venezuela's economy has been in shambles, with shortages and rationing of food, electricity, and toilet paper.


title: David Sirota

text: In 2018, Sirota argued immediate action must be taken against the influence and power of oil and gas corporations to fight climate change, and Democrats must choose a side. "Will our political class behold the fossil fuel industry's sociopathy and realize that we face an existential choice between profits and ecological survival?" asked Sirota.


title: David Sirota

text: In January 2018, Sirota's wife, Emily, announced candidacy for a seat in the Colorado House of Representatives, promising a "bold, progressive agenda." In June, she won the Democratic primary in District 9, based in southeastern Denver. In November, she won the general election, with 72 percent of the vote to Republican Bob Lane's 28.


title: David Sirota

text: Sirota was a schoolmate of television producer and writer Adam F. Goldberg. Sirota is a recurring minor character in the ABC television comedy "The Goldbergs", which is based on Goldberg's childhood, portrayed by Sam Kindseth. The episode "Van People" was dedicated to Sirota and uses archive footage of Sirota during his time at William Penn Charter School. The episode also briefly featured his appearance on "The Colbert Report".


title: Fergus Suter

text: Fergus Suter (21 November 1857 – 31 July 1916) was a Scottish stonemason and footballer in the early days of the game. Arguably the first recognised professional footballer, Suter was a native of Glasgow and played for Partick before moving to England to play for Darwen and Blackburn Rovers.


title: Fergus Suter

text: Suter initially played for Partick (not the same club as the modern Partick Thistle). His first moves below the Scottish border into English football were with Partick. On 1 January 1878, he played for them against Darwen at Barley Bank, and against Blackburn Rovers at Alexandra Meadows the following day. Towards the end of that year he began to play for the Lancashire club Darwen, following shortly after the arrival of fellow Partick player Jimmy Love.


title: Fergus Suter

text: Although the game was officially amateur at the time, Suter's move to England to play for Darwen in 1878 was shortly followed by him giving up his job as a stonemason, allegedly claiming that English stone was too difficult to work and fuelling criticism that he was being paid to play.


title: Fergus Suter

text: During the summer of 1880, he caused still more controversy by moving to Blackburn Rovers, a local rival of Darwen. The move again stirred up accusations of professionalism amid claims that Blackburn had offered him improved terms. Suter's move inflamed an already testy local rivalry, and bitter games and crowd trouble dogged future Darwen–Blackburn matches for years.


title: Fergus Suter

text: Suter's career was all but over by the time the Football League formed in 1888. He made only one appearance for Blackburn Rovers in that competition, on 22 December 1888 against West Bromwich Albion as a replacement for the goalkeeper Herbie Arthur. He appeared in four FA Cup finals and after Blackburn were runners-up to Old Etonians in 1882, he collected three winner's medals in 1884, 1885 and 1886.


title: Fergus Suter

text: Suter was born in Glasgow on 21 November 1857, the son of David Suter and his wife Catherine ( Cook). He married Martha Almond in Blackburn on 22 November 1883. He died of cancer at Branksome, 8 Seafield Road, Blackpool on 31 July 1916. He was survived by his wife, a son Fergus Alexander and a daughter Jessie who later married a Frank Cumberbirch.


title: Fergus Suter

text: Suter is one of the main characters in the Netflix mini-series "The English Game" (2020), played by Kevin Guthrie. The series depicts him leaving Darwen to join a Blackburn-based club and winning the FA Cup in the same season with victory over the Old Etonians.


title: Fergus Suter

text: Blackburn Olympic did defeat the Etonians to become the first working-class team to lift the cup, but this was not the club which Suter joined and the win did not come until 1883, three years after Suter left Darwen.


title: Fergus Suter

text: Suter later joined Olympic's local rivals Blackburn Rovers in 1880 and was in the team which lost in the 1882 Cup Final against the Old Etonians. He would later go on to star in their consecutive Cup Final victories in 1884, 1885, and 1886.


title: Fergus Suter

text: Having watched the Netflix series, viewer Jacqueline McAleese noticed that Suter's grave in Blackburn Old Cemetery had become dilapidated with the gravestone fallen and the plot just a mound of grass. After she contacted Blackburn Rovers they funded a restoration of his grave which was completed in 2021.


title: Yamaha YZF-R3

text: The Yamaha YZF-R3, commonly R3, is a inline-twin sport bike made by Yamaha since 2015. The R3 and the R25 are the first Yamaha twins with an offset cylinder design.


title: Yamaha YZF-R3

text: The Yamaha R3 is an entry level sport motorcycle in the same range as other 250–400 cc motorcycles like the Kawasaki Ninja 300, Honda CBR300R, and KTM 390 series. It has some design similarity to the R25, such as the engine. The engine uses a downdraft induction fuel injection system, and the 10-spoke cast aluminum wheels reduce unsprung weight. The cylinders are all-aluminum. For 2017, the YZF-R3 offers optional ABS. The 2018 Model has dual channel ABS and is EURO IV compliant.


title: Yamaha YZF-R3

text: The 2015 R3 has a braking distance of 40 meters from 100-0 kph. According to some reviewers, the braking system is not powerful enough to match the engine power, and is also prone to fishtailing under hard braking (non ABS).


title: Ready-to-assemble furniture

text: Ready-to-assemble furniture (RTA), also known as knock-down furniture (KD), flat pack furniture, or kit furniture, is a form of furniture that requires customer assembly. The separate components are packed for sale in cartons which also contain assembly instructions and sometimes hardware. The furniture is generally simple to assemble with basic tools such as screwdrivers, which are also sometimes included. Ready-to-assemble furniture is popular with consumers who wish to save money by assembling the product themselves.


title: Ready-to-assemble furniture

text: Producers and merchants benefit from selling ready-to-assemble furniture because furniture is bulky once assembled, and thus more expensive to store and to deliver. Since the assembly work is done by the consumer instead of by the manufacturer, its price can be lower. A furniture assembly service industry has developed, making it easy for consumers to employ someone knowledgeable to assemble their furniture for them.


title: Ready-to-assemble furniture

text: Produced mainly from chipboard or medium density fibreboard (MDF), the cost of producing this type of furniture is cheaper than using solid wood. The low grade timber is coated with a polymer laminate to replicate various types of wood, allowing a high quality looking finished product.


title: Ready-to-assemble furniture

text: Ready-to-assemble furniture has roots that extend back a long way, as cabinetmakers have been making furniture that is easy to disassemble for transport for centuries. The "New American Cyclopaedia of 1859" listed the assembly of furniture as an "American invention" that emphasized ease of transport, but this claim is rather vague. A better claim to the earliest RTA furniture is the Thonet No. 14 bentwood chair, which was specifically made to be easily disassembled to save space during transportation. It was first produced in 1859. Slightly later there is an American patent of 1878 that defines some prefabricated furniture as follows: "The invention refers to a class of furniture in kit to be packaged and transported in pieces and assembled by specialized and unqualified people."


title: Ready-to-assemble furniture

text: An early attempt at a business selling RTA furniture was set up by designer Louise Brigham and two partners during World War I. By 1915, Home Art Masters was offering RTA furniture kits at moderate prices through a mail-order catalog. The buyer received a set of parts that the company stated could be “quickly put together and finished. Everything including instructions, furnished. A boy or girl can set it up.” Home Art Masters was short-lived and it is uncertain how many of their RTA furniture kits were ever sold.


title: Ready-to-assemble furniture

text: The next experiments in running an RTA business stem from the 1940s and 1950s. In the late 1940s, the Australian designer Frederick Charles Ward founded a mail-order RTA furniture business because he was disturbed by how little affordable furniture there was for people of modest means. In 1953, the Ohio cabinetmaker Erie J. Sauder received the first U.S. patent for RTA furniture for a table that could be assembled without either hardware or glue; he called it "snap-together" furniture.


title: Ready-to-assemble furniture

text: In the Scandinavian countries, the furniture kit may have been independently invented by Swedish technician Gillis Lundgren, who had the idea when trying to transport a table in his car. According to reports, he had to saw off the table's legs so he could put it inside the car and bring it home. He talked about the idea with his boss at IKEA, and IKEA started selling flat-pack furniture in 1956.


title: Crime in Baltimore

text: The American city of Baltimore, Maryland, is notorious for its crime rate, which ranks well above the national average. Violent crime spiked in 2015 after the death of Freddie Gray on April 19, 2015, which touched off riots and an increase in murders. The city recorded 348 homicides in 2019, a number second only to the number recorded in 1993 when the population was nearly 125,000 higher.


title: Crime in Baltimore

text: In 2011, Baltimore Police Department reported 196 homicides, the city's first time having fewer than 200 homicides since having 199 in 1978. That number is far lower than the peak homicide count of 353 in 1993. The drop in 2011 was significant, when measured by the number of homicides, but the homicide rate was in the same range as the late 1980s when the city population was 130,000 higher. City leaders credited their sustained focus on repeat violent offenders and an increased community engagement for the continued drop, reflecting a nationwide decline in crime. However, Baltimore's decline was short-lived, as a reported 219 and 235 homicides were committed in 2012 and 2013, respectively. Baltimore's jump in homicides in 2013 defied regional and national trends.


title: Crime in Baltimore

text: Violent crime spiked in 2015 after the death of Freddie Gray on April 19, 2015, which touched off riots and a crime wave that has resulted in an increase in murders. The city recorded a total of 344 homicides in 2015, a number second only to the number recorded in 1993 when the population was 100,000 higher. This was the highest murder rate on a per capita basis ever recorded. Baltimore had seen 211 murders as of August 19, 2015, which equaled the total number of murders that occurred in Baltimore in all of 2014. On July 10, 2015, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake fired Police Commissioner Anthony Batts, saying his presence had become a distraction in a city that needs to focus on ending a dramatic spike in homicides. The city has taken steps to quell the increased violence by seeking assistance from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other federal agencies, including embedding FBI agents in the city's police homicide unit. On November 13, 2015, the number of murders for the year reached (and the next day surpassed) 300 for the first time since 1999.


title: Crime in Baltimore

text: In an interview in "The Guardian", on November 2, 2017, David Simon, himself a former "The Baltimore Sun" police reporter, ascribed the most recent surge in murders to the high-profile decision by Baltimore state's attorney, Marilyn Mosby, to charge six city police officers following the death of Freddie Gray after he fell into a coma while in police custody in April 2015. "What Mosby basically did was send a message to the Baltimore police department: 'I'm going to put you in jail for making a bad arrest.' So officers figured it out: 'I can go to jail for making the wrong arrest, so I'm not getting out of my car to clear a corner,' and that's exactly what happened post-Freddie Gray." In Baltimore, arrest numbers have plummeted from more than 40,000 in 2014, the year before Freddie Gray's death and the subsequent charges against the officers, to about 18,000 as of November 1, 2017. This happened even as homicides soared from 211 in 2014 to 344 in 2015 – an increase of 63%.


title: Crime in Baltimore

text: Baltimore's level of violent crime is much higher than the national average. In 2009, a total of 1,318,398 violent crimes were reported nationwide across the United States, equivalent to a rate of 0.4 incidents per 100 people.


title: Crime in Baltimore

text: Homicides in Baltimore are heavily concentrated within a small number of high-poverty neighborhoods. According to a "Baltimore Sun" investigation, around 80% of the city's gun homicides are committed in 25% of the city's neighborhoods. For the past few years, the rate of lethal shootings has been increasing in Baltimore and at least 10 other cities, such as Washington, D.C.; Chicago; and Milwaukee. , the Coldstream Homestead Montebello neighborhood in Northeast Baltimore was the city's most lethal neighborhood, with an average of one out of every two shootings being fatal; the citywide average is one in three.


title: Crime in Baltimore

text: Gang-related crimes are usually clustered in drug territories and mostly affect people involved in drug dealing, particularly narcotics and rival gangs.


title: Crime in Baltimore

text: Sandtown-Winchester, Baltimore, is one of West Baltimore's most blighted and problematic communities. In the second half of the 20th century, Sandtown experienced economic depression, housing abandonment, crime, and the effects of the Baltimore riot of 1968. Sandtown-Winchester was also the home of Freddie Gray and the scene of his arrest. Following his death, the area was hard hit by riots, including the looting and burning of a CVS drug store off the north-east corner of Sandtown-Winchester at the intersection of Pennsylvania and W. North Avenue.


title: Crime in Baltimore

text: Though the area was once considered middle-class, Berea has in the last century experienced economic depression, housing abandonment, crime, and the effects of the Baltimore riot of 1968. Its residents are largely lower-income African Americans. The neighborhood served as a filming location for the Baltimore-based HBO television drama, "The Wire".


title: Crime in Baltimore

text: The Baltimore Police Department is staffed by nearly 4,000 civilian and sworn personnel. These include dispatchers, crime lab technicians, chaplains and unarmed auxiliary police officers. During Martin O'Malley's administration as mayor, the department had become 43% African American.


title: Crime in Baltimore

text: In 2003, the FBI identified irregularities in the number of rapes reported, which was confirmed by then-Mayor Martin O'Malley. The number of homicides in 2005 appeared to exhibit discrepancies as well. Former police commissioner Kevin P. Clark said in an interview that the administration suppressed corrections to its crime reports; however, many of the charges made by the police commissioner now appear to have been politically motivated. The veracity of crime statistics reported by the Baltimore Police Department once again came under scrutiny in 2006, this time from Maryland legislators.


title: History of Antarctica

text: The history of Antarctica emerges from early Western theories of a vast continent, known as Terra Australis, believed to exist in the far south of the globe. The term "Antarctic", referring to the opposite of the Arctic Circle, was coined by Marinus of Tyre in the 2nd century AD.


title: History of Antarctica

text: The rounding of the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Horn in the 15th and 16th centuries proved that "Terra Australis Incognita" ("Unknown Southern Land"), if it existed, was a continent in its own right. In 1773, James Cook and his crew crossed the Antarctic Circle for the first time; however, although they discovered nearby islands, they did not catch sight of Antarctica itself. It is believed he was as close as from the mainland.


title: History of Antarctica

text: On 27 January 1820, a Russian expedition led by Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev discovered an ice shelf at Princess Martha Coast that later became known as the Fimbul Ice Shelf. Bellingshausen and Lazarev became the first explorers to see and officially discover the land of the continent of Antarctica. Three days later, on 30 January 1820, a British expedition captained by Irishman Edward Bransfield sighted Trinity Peninsula, and ten months later an American sealer Nathaniel Palmer sighted Antarctica on 17 November 1820. The first landing was most likely just over a year later when American Captain John Davis, a sealer, set foot on the ice.


title: History of Antarctica

text: Several expeditions attempted to reach the South Pole in the early 20th century, during the "Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration". Many resulted in injury and death. Norwegian Roald Amundsen finally reached the Pole on 14 December 1911, following a dramatic race with the Briton Robert Falcon Scott.


title: History of Antarctica

text: Aristotle speculated, "Now since there must be a region bearing the same relation to the southern pole as the place we live in bears to our pole...".


title: History of Antarctica

text: According to Māori oral history in New Zealand, Hui Te Rangiora (also known as 'Ui Te Rangiora) and his crew explored Antarctic waters in the early seventh century on the vessel "Te Ivi o Atea". Accounts name the area Te tai-uka-a-pia, which describes a 'frozen ocean' and 'arrowroot', which resembles fresh snow when scraped. However, this interpretation of the original account is disputed by Te Rangi Hīroa (Sir Peter Henry Buck) who lists evidence for his belief that ‘later historians embellished the tales by adding details learned from European whalers and teachers’. This interpretation of oral history and the probability of such a voyage have likewise been dismissed more recently by Ngāi Tahu scholars, who agree that 'it is very unlikely that Māori or other Polynesian voyaging reached the Antarctic'.


title: History of Antarctica

text: It was not until Prince Henry the Navigator began in 1418 to encourage the penetration of the torrid zone in the effort to reach India by circumnavigating Africa that European exploration of the southern hemisphere began. In 1473, Portuguese navigator Lopes Gonçalves proved that the equator could be crossed, and cartographers and sailors began to assume the existence of another, temperate continent to the south of the known world.


title: History of Antarctica

text: The doubling of the Cape of Good Hope in 1487 by Bartolomeu Dias first brought explorers within touch of the Antarctic cold, and proved that there was an ocean separating Africa from any Antarctic land that might exist.


title: History of Antarctica

text: Ferdinand Magellan, who passed through the Straits of Magellan in 1520, assumed that the islands of Tierra del Fuego to the south were an extension of this unknown southern land, and it appeared as such on a map by Ortelius: "Terra australis recenter inventa sed nondum plene cognita" ("Southern land recently discovered but not yet fully known").


title: History of Antarctica

text: In 1539, the King of Spain, Charles V, created the Governorate of Terra Australis granted to Pedro Sancho de la Hoz, who in 1540 transferred the title to the conqueror Pedro de Valdivia and later was incorporated to Chile.


title: History of Antarctica

text: European geographers connected the coast of Tierra del Fuego with the coast of New Guinea on their globes, and allowing their imaginations to run riot in the vast unknown spaces of the south Atlantic, south Indian and Pacific oceans they sketched the outlines of the "Terra Australis Incognita" ("Unknown Southern Land"), a vast continent stretching in parts into the tropics. The search for this great south land or Third World was a leading motive of explorers in the 16th and the early part of the 17th centuries.


title: History of Antarctica

text: In 1599, according to the account of Jacob le Maire, the Dutch Dirck Gerritsz Pomp observed mountainous land at latitude (64°). If so, these were the South Shetland Islands, and possibly the first European sighting of Antarctica (or offshore-lying islands belonging to it). Other accounts, however, do not note this observation, casting doubt on their accuracy. It has been argued that the Spaniard Gabriel de Castilla claimed to have sighted "snow-covered mountains" beyond the 64° S in 1603, but this claim is not generally recognized.


title: History of Antarctica

text: Quirós, in 1606, took possession for the king of Spain all of the lands he had discovered in Australia del Espiritu Santo (the New Hebrides) and those he would discover "even to the Pole".


title: History of Antarctica

text: Francis Drake like Spanish explorers before him had speculated that there might be an open channel south of Tierra del Fuego. Indeed, when Schouten and Le Maire discovered the southern extremity of Tierra del Fuego and named it Cape Horn in 1615, they proved that the Tierra del Fuego archipelago was of small extent and not connected to the southern land.


title: History of Antarctica

text: Finally, in 1642, Tasman showed that even New Holland (Australia) was separated by sea from any continuous southern continent. Voyagers round the Horn frequently met with contrary winds and were driven southward into snowy skies and ice-encumbered seas; but, so far as can be ascertained, none of them before 1770 reached the Antarctic Circle, or knew it, if they did.


title: History of Antarctica

text: The Dutch expedition to Valdivia of 1643 intended to round Cape Horn sailing through Le Maire Strait but strong winds made it instead drift south and east. Northerly winds pushed the expedition as far south as 61°59 S where icebergs were abundant before a southerly wind that begun on April 7 allowed the fleet to advance west. The small fleet led by Hendrik Brouwer managed to enter the Pacific Ocean sailing south of Isla de los Estados disproving earlier beliefs that it was part of Terra Australis.


title: History of Antarctica

text: The visit to South Georgia by the English merchant Anthony de la Roché in 1675 was the first ever discovery of land south of the Antarctic Convergence. Soon after the voyage cartographers started to depict ‘Roché Island’, honouring the discoverer.


title: History of Antarctica

text: Edmond Halley's voyage in HMS "Paramour" for magnetic investigations in the South Atlantic met the pack ice in 52° S in January 1700, but that latitude (he reached 140 mi off the north coast of South Georgia) was his farthest south. A determined effort on the part of the French naval officer Jean-Baptiste Charles Bouvet de Lozier to discover the "South Land" – described by a half legendary "sieur de Gonneyville" – resulted in the discovery of Bouvet Island in 54°10′ S, and in the navigation of 48° of longitude of ice-cumbered sea nearly in 55° S in 1739.


title: History of Antarctica

text: In 1771, Yves Joseph Kerguelen sailed from France with instructions to proceed south from Mauritius in search of "a very large continent." He lighted upon a land in 50° S which he called South France, and believed to be the central mass of the southern continent. He was sent out again to complete the exploration of the new land, and found it to be only an inhospitable island which he renamed the Isle of Desolation, but which was ultimately named after him.


title: History of Antarctica

text: The obsession of the undiscovered continent culminated in the brain of Alexander Dalrymple, the brilliant and erratic hydrographer who was nominated by the Royal Society to command the Transit of Venus expedition to Tahiti in 1769. The command of the expedition was given by the admiralty to Captain James Cook. Sailing in 1772 with the "Resolution", a vessel of 462 tons under his own command and the "Adventure" of 336 tons under Captain Tobias Furneaux, Cook first searched in vain for Bouvet Island, then sailed for 20 degrees of longitude to the westward in latitude 58° S, and then 30° eastward for the most part south of 60° S, a higher southern latitude than had ever been voluntarily entered before by any vessel. On 17 January 1773 the Antarctic Circle was crossed for the first time in history and the two ships reached by , where their course was stopped by ice.


title: History of Antarctica

text: Cook then turned northward to look for French Southern and Antarctic Lands, of the discovery of which he had received news at Cape Town, but from the rough determination of his longitude by Kerguelen, Cook reached the assigned latitude 10° too far east and did not see it. He turned south again and was stopped by ice in by 95° E and continued eastward nearly on the parallel of 60° S to 147° E. On 16 March, the approaching winter drove him northward for rest to New Zealand and the tropical islands of the Pacific. In November 1773, Cook left New Zealand, having parted company with the "Adventure", and reached 60° S by 177° W, whence he sailed eastward keeping as far south as the floating ice allowed. The Antarctic Circle was crossed on 20 December and Cook remained south of it for three days, being compelled after reaching to stand north again in 135° W.


title: History of Antarctica

text: A long detour to served to show that there was no land connection between New Zealand and Tierra del Fuego. Turning south again, Cook crossed the Antarctic Circle for the third time at before his progress was once again blocked by ice four days later at by . This point, reached on 30 January 1774, was the farthest south attained in the 18th century. With a great detour to the east, almost to the coast of South America, the expedition regained Tahiti for refreshment. In November 1774, Cook started from New Zealand and crossed the South Pacific without sighting land between 53° and 57° S to Tierra del Fuego; then, passing Cape Horn on 29 December, he rediscovered Roché Island renaming it Isle of Georgia, and discovered the South Sandwich Islands (named "Sandwich Land" by him), the only ice-clad land he had seen, before crossing the South Atlantic to the Cape of Good Hope between 55° and 60°. He thereby laid open the way for future Antarctic exploration by exploding the myth of a habitable southern continent. Cook's most southerly discovery of land lay on the temperate side of the 60th parallel, and he convinced himself that if land lay farther south it was practically inaccessible and of no economic value.


title: History of Antarctica

text: The first land south of the parallel 60° south latitude was discovered by the Englishman William Smith, who sighted Livingston Island on 19 February 1819. He found some remnants and signs of the wreckage of the Spanish ship San Telmo, but to the date it is unknown if any surviving crew members of the San Telmo was landed there. A few months later Smith returned to explore the other islands of the South Shetlands archipelago, landed on King George Island, and claimed the new territories for Britain.


title: History of Antarctica

text: The first confirmed sighting of mainland Antarctica, on 27 January 1820, is attributed to the Russian expedition led by Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev, discovering an ice shelf at Princess Martha Coast that later became known as the Fimbul Ice Shelf. Bellingshausen and Lazarev became the first explorers to see and officially discover the land of the continent of Antarctica.


title: History of Antarctica

text: It is certain that the expedition, led by von Bellingshausen and Lazarev on the ships "Vostok" and "Mirny", reached on 28 January 1820 a point within from Princess Martha Coast and recorded the sight of an ice shelf at that became known as the Fimbul ice shelf. On 30 January 1820, Edward Bransfield sighted Trinity Peninsula, the northernmost point of the Antarctic mainland. Von Bellingshausen's expedition also discovered Peter I Island and Alexander I Island, the first islands to be discovered south of the circle.


title: History of Antarctica

text: The first landing on the Antarctic mainland is thought to have been made by the American Captain John Davis, a sealer, who claimed to have set foot there on 7 February 1821, though this is not accepted by all historians.


title: History of Antarctica

text: In November 1820, Nathaniel Palmer, an American sealer looking for seal breeding grounds, using maps made by the Loper whaling family, sighted what is now known as the Antarctic Peninsula, located between 55 and 80 degrees west. In 1823, James Weddell, a British sealer, sailed into what is now known as the Weddell Sea. Until the twentieth century, most expeditions were for commercial purpose, to look for the prospects of seal and whale hunting. A piece of wood, from the South Shetland Islands, was the first fossil ever recorded from Antarctica, obtained during a private United States expedition during 1829–31, commanded by Captain Benjamin Pendleton.


title: History of Antarctica

text: Charles Wilkes, as commander of a United States Navy expedition in 1840, discovered what is now known as Wilkes Land, a section of the continent around 120 degrees East.


title: History of Antarctica

text: After the North Magnetic Pole was located in 1831, explorers and scientists began looking for the South Magnetic Pole. One of the explorers, James Clark Ross, a British naval officer, identified its approximate location, but was unable to reach it on his 4 year-expedition from 1839 to 1843. Commanding the British ships "Erebus" and "Terror", he braved the pack ice and approached what is now known as the Ross Ice Shelf, a massive floating ice shelf over high. His expedition sailed eastward along the southern Antarctic coast discovering mountains which were since named after his ships: Mount Erebus, the most active volcano on Antarctica, and Mount Terror.


title: History of Antarctica

text: The first documented landing on the mainland of East Antarctica was at Victoria Land by the American sealer Mercator Cooper on 26 January 1853.


title: History of Antarctica

text: These explorers, despite their impressive contributions to South Polar exploration, were unable to penetrate the interior of the continent and, rather, formed a broken line of discovered lands along the coastline of Antarctica. Following the expedition South by the ships "Erebus" and "Terror" under James Clark Ross (January, 1841), he suggested that there were no scientific discoveries, or 'problems', worth exploration in the far South. What followed is what historian H.R. Mill called 'the age of averted interest' and in the following twenty years after Ross' return, there was a general lull internationally in Antarctic exploration.


title: History of Antarctica

text: The Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration began at the end of the 19th century and closed with Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition in 1917.


title: History of Antarctica

text: During this period the Antarctic continent became the focus of an international effort that resulted in intensive scientific and geographical exploration and in which 17 major Antarctic expeditions were launched from ten countries.


title: History of Antarctica

text: An important precursor to the Heroic Age of Antarctic exploration was the Dundee Antarctic Expedition of 1892-93 in which four Dundee whaling ships travelled south to the Antarctic in search of whales instead of their usual Arctic route. The expedition was accompanied by several naturalists (including Williams Speirs Bruce) and an artist, William Gordon Burn Murdoch. The publications (both scientific and popular) and exhibitions that resulted did much to reignite public interest in the Antarctic. The performance of the whaling ships was also crucial in the decision to build the RRS "Discovery" in Dundee.


title: History of Antarctica

text: Following on from that expedition, the specific impetus for the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration was a lecture given by Dr John Murray entitled "The Renewal of Antarctic Exploration", given to the Royal Geographical Society in London, 27 November 1893. Murray advocated that research into the Antarctic should be organised to "resolve the outstanding geographical questions still posed in the south". Furthermore, the Royal Geographical Society instated an Antarctic Committee shortly prior to this, in 1887, which successfully encouraged many whalers to explore the Southern regions of the world and laid the groundwork for the lecture given by Murray.


title: History of Antarctica

text: In August 1895 the Sixth International Geographical Congress in London passed a general resolution calling on scientific societies throughout the world to promote the cause of Antarctic exploration "in whatever ways seem to them most effective". Such work would "bring additions to almost every branch of science". The Congress had been addressed by the Norwegian Carsten Borchgrevink, who had just returned from a whaling expedition during which he had become one of the first to set foot on the Antarctic mainland. During his address, Borchgrevink outlined plans for a full-scale pioneering Antarctic expedition, to be based at Cape Adare.


title: History of Antarctica

text: The Heroic Age was inaugurated by an expedition launched by the Belgian Geographical Society in 1897; Borchgrevink followed a year later with a privately sponsored British expedition. (Some histories consider the "Discovery" expedition, which departed in 1901, as the first proper expedition of the Heroic Age.)


title: History of Antarctica

text: The Belgian Antarctic Expedition was led by Belgian Adrian de Gerlache. In 1898, they became the first men to spend winter on Antarctica, when their ship "Belgica" became trapped in the ice. They became stuck on 28 February 1898, and only managed to get out of the ice on 14 March 1899.


title: History of Antarctica

text: During their forced stay, several men lost their sanity, not only because of the Antarctic winter night and the endured hardship, but also because of the language problems between the different nationalities. This was the first expedition to overwinter within the Antarctic Circle, and they visited the South Shetland Islands.


title: History of Antarctica

text: The Southern Cross Expedition began in 1898 and lasted for two years. This was the first expedition to overwinter on the Antarctic mainland (Cape Adare) and was the first to make use of dogs and sledges. It made the first ascent of The Great Ice Barrier, (The Great Ice Barrier later became formally known as the Ross Ice Shelf). The expedition set a Farthest South record at 78°30'S. It also calculated the location of the South Magnetic Pole.


title: History of Antarctica

text: The "Discovery" Expedition was then launched, from 1901 to 1904 and was led by Robert Falcon Scott. It made the first ascent of the Western Mountains in Victoria Land, and discovered the polar plateau. Its southern journey set a new Farthest South record, 82°17'S. Many other geographical features were discovered, mapped and named. This was the first of several expeditions based in McMurdo Sound.


title: History of Antarctica

text: A year later, the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition was launched, headed by William Speirs Bruce. 'Ormond House' was established as a meteorological observatory on Laurie Island in the South Orkneys and was the first permanent base in Antarctica. The Weddell Sea was penetrated to 74°01'S, and the coastline of Coats Land was discovered, defining the sea's eastern limits.


title: History of Antarctica

text: Ernest Shackleton, who had been a member of Scott's expedition, organized and led the "Nimrod" Expedition from 1907 to 1909. The expedition's primary objective was of reaching the South Pole. Based in McMurdo Sound, the expedition pioneered the Beardmore Glacier route to the South Pole, and the (limited) use of motorised transport. Its southern march reached 88°23'S, a new Farthest South record 97 geographical miles from the Pole before having to turn back. During the expedition, Shackleton was the first to reach the polar plateau. Parties led by T. W. Edgeworth David also became the first to climb Mount Erebus and to reach the South Magnetic Pole.


title: History of Antarctica

text: The First German Antarctic Expedition was sent to investigate eastern Antarctica in 1901. It discovered the coast of Kaiser Wilhelm II Land, and Mount Gauss. The expedition's ship became trapped in ice, however, which prevented more extensive exploration.


title: History of Antarctica

text: The Swedish Antarctic Expedition, operating at the same time worked in the east coastal area of Graham Land, and was marooned on Snow Hill Island and Paulet Island in the Weddell Sea, after the sinking of its expedition ship. It was rescued by the Argentinian naval vessel "Uruguay".


title: History of Antarctica

text: The French organized their first expedition in 1903 under the leadership of Jean-Baptiste Charcot. Originally intended as a relief expedition for the stranded Nordenskiöld party, the main work of this expedition was the mapping and charting of islands and the western coasts of Graham Land, on the Antarctic peninsula. A section of the coast was explored, and named Loubet Land after the President of France.


title: History of Antarctica

text: A follow up trip was organized from 1908 to 1910 which continued the earlier work of the French expedition with a general exploration of the Bellingshausen Sea, and the discovery of islands and other features, including Marguerite Bay, Charcot Island, Renaud Island, Mikkelsen Bay, Rothschild Island.


title: History of Antarctica

text: The prize of the Heroic Age was to find and reach the South Pole. Two expeditions set off in 1910 to attain this goal; a party led by Norwegian Polar explorer Roald Amundsen from the ship "Fram" and Robert Falcon Scott's British group from the "Terra Nova".


title: History of Antarctica

text: Amundsen succeeded in reaching the Pole on 14 December 1911 using a route from the Bay of Whales to the polar plateau via the Axel Heiberg Glacier.


title: History of Antarctica

text: Scott and his four companions reached the South Pole via the Beardmore route on 17 January 1912, 33 days after Amundsen. All five died on the return journey from the Pole, through a combination of starvation and cold. The Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station was later named after these two men.


title: History of Antarctica

text: The Australasian Antarctic Expedition took place between 1911–1914 and was led by Sir Douglas Mawson. It concentrated on the stretch of Antarctic coastline between Cape Adare and Mount Gauss, carrying out mapping and survey work on coastal and inland territories.


title: History of Antarctica

text: Discoveries included Commonwealth Bay, Ninnis Glacier, Mertz Glacier, and Queen Mary Land. Major accomplishments were made in geology, glaciology and terrestrial biology.


title: History of Antarctica

text: The Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914–1917 was led by Ernest Shackleton and set out to cross the continent via the South pole. However, their ship, the "Endurance", was trapped and crushed by pack ice in the Weddell Sea before they were able to land. The expedition members survived after a journey on sledges over pack ice, a prolonged drift on an ice-floe, and a voyage in three small boats to Elephant Island. Then Shackleton and five others crossed the Southern Ocean in an open boat called "James Caird" and made the first crossing of South Georgia to raise the alarm at the whaling station Grytviken.


title: History of Antarctica

text: A related component of the Trans-Antarctic Expedition was the Ross Sea party, led by Aeneas Mackintosh. Its objective was to lay depots across the Great Ice Barrier, in order to supply Shackleton's party crossing from the Weddell Sea. All the required depots were laid, but in the process three men, including the leader Mackintosh, died.


title: History of Antarctica

text: Shackleton's last expedition and the one that brought the 'Heroic Age' to a close, was the Shackleton–Rowett Expedition from 1921 to 1922 on board the ship "Quest". Its vaguely defined objectives included coastal mapping, a possible continental circumnavigation, the investigation of sub-Antarctic islands, and oceanographic work. After Shackleton's death on 5 January 1922, "Quest" completed a shortened programme before returning home.


title: History of Antarctica

text: After Shackleton's last expedition, there was a hiatus in Antarctic exploration for about seven years. From 1929, aircraft and mechanized transportation were increasingly used, earning this period the sobriquet of the 'Mechanical Age'. Hubert Wilkins first visited Antarctica in 1921–1922 as an ornithologist attached to the Shackleton-Rowett Expedition. From 1927, Wilkins and pilot Carl Ben Eielson began exploring the Arctic by aircraft.


title: History of Antarctica

text: On 15 April 1928, only a year after Charles Lindbergh's flight across the Atlantic, Wilkins and Eielson made a trans-Arctic crossing from Point Barrow, Alaska, to Spitsbergen, arriving about 20 hours later on 16 April, touching along the way at Grant Land on Ellesmere Island. For this feat and his prior work, Wilkins was knighted.


title: History of Antarctica

text: With financial backing from William Randolph Hearst, Wilkins returned to the South Pole and flew over Antarctica in the "San Francisco". He named the island of Hearst Land after his sponsor.


title: History of Antarctica

text: US Navy Rear Admiral Richard Evelyn Byrd led five expeditions to Antarctica during the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. He overflew the South Pole with pilot Bernt Balchen on 28 and 29 November 1929, to match his overflight of the North Pole in 1926. Byrd's explorations had science as a major objective and extensively used the aircraft to explore the continent.


title: History of Antarctica

text: Captain Finn Ronne, Byrd's executive officer, returned to Antarctica with his own expedition in 1947–1948, with Navy support, three planes, and dogs. Ronne disproved the notion that the continent was divided in two and established that East and West Antarctica was one single continent, i.e. that the Weddell Sea and the Ross Sea are not connected. The expedition explored and mapped large parts of Palmer Land and the Weddell Sea coastline, and identified the Ronne Ice Shelf, named by Ronne after his wife Edith Ronne. Ronne covered by ski and dog sled—more than any other explorer in history.


title: History of Antarctica

text: The 1955–58 Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition successfully completed the first overland crossing of Antarctica, via the South Pole. Although supported by the British and other Commonwealth governments, most of the funding came from corporate and individual donations.


title: History of Antarctica

text: It was headed by British explorer Dr Vivian Fuchs, with New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary leading the New Zealand Ross Sea Support team. After spending the winter of 1957 at Shackleton Base, Fuchs finally set out on the transcontinental journey in November 1957, with a twelve-man team travelling in six vehicles; three Sno-Cats, two Weasels and one specially adapted "Muskeg" tractor. En route, the team were also tasked with carrying out scientific research including seismic soundings and gravimetric readings.


title: History of Antarctica

text: In parallel Hillary's team had set up Scott Basewhich was to be Fuchs' final destinationon the opposite side of the continent at McMurdo Sound on the Ross Sea. Using three converted Massey Ferguson TE20 tractors and one Weasel (abandoned part-way), Hillary and his three men (Ron Balham, Peter Mulgrew and Murray Ellis), were responsible for route-finding and laying a line of supply depots up the Skelton Glacier and across the Polar Plateau on towards the South Pole, for the use of Fuchs on the final leg of his journey. Other members of Hillary's team carried out geological surveys around the Ross Sea and Victoria Land areas.


title: History of Antarctica

text: Hillary's party reached the South Pole on 3 January 1958, and was just the third (preceded by Amundsen in 1911 and Scott in 1912) to reach the Pole overland. Fuchs' team reached the Pole from the opposite direction on 19 January 1958, where they met up with Hillary. Fuchs then continued overland, following the route that Hillary had laid and on 2 March succeeded in reaching Scott Base, completing the first overland crossing of the continent by land via the South Pole.


title: History of Antarctica

text: According to Argentina and Chile, the Spanish Empire had claims on Antarctica. The "capitulación" (governorship) granted to the conquistador Pedro Sánchez de la Hoz in 1539 by the King of Spain, Charles V, explicitly included all lands south of the Straits of Magellan, (Terra Australis, and Tierra del Fuego and by extension potentially the entire continent of Antarctica) and to the East and West the borders were the ones specified in the Treaty of Tordesillas and Zaragoza respectively, thus creating the Governorate of Terra Australis.


title: History of Antarctica

text: De la Hoz transferred the title to the conqueror Pedro de Valdivia in 1540. In 1555 the claim was incorporated to Chile.


title: History of Antarctica

text: This grant established, according to Argentina and Chile, that an "animus occupandi" existed on the part of Spain in Antarctica. Spain's sovereignty claim over parts of Antarctica was, according to Chile and Argentina, internationally recognized with the "Inter caetera" bull of 1493 and the Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494. Argentina and Chile treat these treaties as legal international treaties mediated by the Catholic Church that was at that time a recognized arbiter in such matters. Each country currently has claimed a sector of the Antarctic continent that is more or less directly south of its national antarctic-facing lands.


title: History of Antarctica

text: Modern Spain has not claimed any Antarctic territory. It operates two summer research stations (Gabriel de Castilla Base and Juan Carlos I Base) in the South Shetland Islands.


title: History of Antarctica

text: The United Kingdom reasserted sovereignty over the Falkland Islands in the far South Atlantic in 1833 and maintained a continuous presence there. In 1908, the British government extended its territorial claim by declaring sovereignty over "South Georgia, the South Orkneys, the South Shetlands, and the Sandwich Islands, and Graham's Land, situated in the South Atlantic Ocean and on the Antarctic continent to the south of the 50th parallel of south latitude, and lying between the 20th and the 80th degrees of west longitude". All these territories were administered as Falkland Islands Dependencies from Stanley by the Governor of the Falkland Islands. The motivation for this declaration lay in the need for regulating and taxing the whaling industry effectively. Commercial operators would hunt whales in areas outside of the official boundaries of the Falkland Islands and its dependencies and there was a need to close this loophole.


title: History of Antarctica

text: In 1917, the wording of the claim was modified, so as to, among other things, unambiguously include all the territory in the sector stretching to the South Pole (thus encompassing all of the present-day British Antarctic Territory). The new claim covered "all islands and territories whatsoever between the 20th degree of west longitude and the 50th degree of west longitude which are situated south of the 50th parallel of south latitude; and all islands and territories whatsoever between the 50th degree of west longitude and the 80th degree of west longitude which are situated south of the 58th parallel of south latitude".


title: History of Antarctica

text: Under the ambition of Leopold Amery, the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies, Britain attempted to incorporate the entire continent into the Empire. In a memorandum to the governor-generals for Australia and New Zealand, he wrote that 'with the exception of Chile and Argentina and some barren islands belonging to France... it is desirable that the whole of the Antarctic should ultimately be included in the British Empire.'


title: History of Antarctica

text: The first step was taken on 30 July 1923, when the British government passed an Order in Council under the British Settlements Act 1887, defining the new borders for the Ross Dependency - "that part of His Majesty's Dominions in the Antarctic Seas, which comprises all the islands and territories between the 160th degree of East Longitude and the 150th degree of West Longitude which are situated south of the 60th degree of South Latitude shall be named the Ross Dependency."


title: History of Antarctica

text: The Order in Council then went on to appoint the Governor-General and Commander-in Chief of New Zealand as the Governor of the territory.


title: History of Antarctica

text: In 1930, the United Kingdom claimed Enderby Land. In 1933, a British imperial order transferred territory south of 60° S and between meridians 160° E and 45° E to Australia as the Australian Antarctic Territory.


title: History of Antarctica

text: Following the passing of the Statute of Westminster in 1931, the government of the United Kingdom relinquished all control over the government of New Zealand and Australia. This however had no bearing on the obligations of the Governor-General of both countries in their capacity as Governor of the Antarctic territories.


title: History of Antarctica

text: Meanwhile, alarmed by these unilateral declarations, the French government laid claim to a strip of the continent in 1924. The basis for their claim to Adélie Land lay on the discovery of the coastline in 1840 by the French explorer Jules Dumont d'Urville, who named it after his wife, Adèle. The British eventually decided to recognize this claim and the border between Adélie Land and Australian Antarctic Territory was fixed definitively in 1938.


title: History of Antarctica

text: These developments also concerned Norwegian whaling interests, who wished to avoid the British taxation of whaling stations in the Antarctic and were concerned that they would be commercially excluded from the continent. The whale-ship owner Lars Christensen financed several expeditions to the Antarctic with the view to claim land for Norway and establish stations on Norwegian territory to gain better privileges. The first expedition, led by Nils Larsen and Ola Olstad, landed on Peter I Island in 1929 and claimed the island for Norway. On 6 March 1931, a Norwegian royal proclamation declared the island under Norwegian sovereignty and on 23 March 1933 the island was declared a dependency.


title: History of Antarctica

text: The 1929 expedition led by Hjalmar Riiser-Larsen and Finn Lützow-Holm named the continental land mass near the island as Queen Maud Land, named after the Norwegian queen Maud of Wales. The territory was explored further during the "Norvegia" expedition of 1930–31. Negotiations with the British government in 1938 resulted in the western border of Queen Maud Land being set at 20°W.


title: History of Antarctica

text: Norway's claim was disputed by Nazi Germany, which in 1938 dispatched the German Antarctic Expedition, led by Alfred Ritscher, to fly over as much of it as possible. The ship "Schwabenland" reached the pack ice off Antarctica on 19 January 1939. During the expedition, an area of about was photographed from the air by Ritscher, who dropped darts inscribed with swastikas every . Germany eventually attempted to claim the territory surveyed by Ritscher under the name New Swabia, but lost any claim to the land following its defeat in the Second World War.


title: History of Antarctica

text: On 14 January 1939, five days prior to the German arrival, Queen Maud Land was annexed by Norway, after a royal decree announced that the land bordering the Falkland Islands Dependencies in the west and the Australian Antarctic Dependency in the east was to be brought under Norwegian sovereignty. The primary basis for the annexation was to secure the Norwegian whaling industry's access to the region. In 1948, Norway and the United Kingdom agreed to limit Queen Maud Land to from 20°W to 45°E, and that the Bruce Coast and Coats Land were to be incorporated into Norwegian territory.


title: History of Antarctica

text: This encroachment of foreign powers was a matter of immense disquiet to the nearby South American countries, Argentina and Chile. Taking advantage of a European continent plunged into turmoil with the onset of the Second World War, Chile's president, Pedro Aguirre Cerda declared the establishment of a Chilean Antarctic Territory in areas already claimed by Britain.


title: History of Antarctica

text: Argentina had an even longer history of involvement in the Continent. Already in 1904 the Argentine government began a permanent occupation in the area with the purchase of a meteorological station on Laurie Island established in 1903 by Dr William S. Bruce's Scottish National Antarctic Expedition. Bruce offered to transfer the station and instruments for the sum of 5.000 pesos, on the condition that the government committed itself to the continuation of the scientific mission. British officer William Haggard also sent a note to the Argentine Foreign Minister, Jose Terry, ratifying the terms of Bruce proposition.


title: History of Antarctica

text: In 1906, Argentina communicated to the international community the establishment of a permanent base on South Orkney Islands. However, Haggard responded by reminding Argentina that the South Orkneys were British. The British position was that Argentine personnel was granted permission only for the period of one year. The Argentine government entered into negotiations with the British in 1913 over the possible transfer of the island. Although these talks were unsuccessful, Argentina attempted to unilaterally establish their sovereignty with the erection of markers, national flags and other symbols.


title: History of Antarctica

text: In response to this and earlier German explorations, the British Admiralty and Colonial Office launched Operation Tabarin in 1943 to reassert British territorial claims against Argentine and Chilean incursion and establish a permanent British presence in the Antarctic. The move was also motivated by concerns within the Foreign Office about the direction of United States post-war activity in the region.


title: History of Antarctica

text: A suitable cover story was the need to deny use of the area to the enemy. The "Kriegsmarine" was known to use remote islands as rendezvous points and as shelters for commerce raiders, U-boats and supply ships. Also, in 1941, there existed a fear that Japan might attempt to seize the Falkland Islands, either as a base or to hand them over to Argentina, thus gaining political advantage for the Axis and denying their use to Britain.


title: History of Antarctica

text: In 1943, British personnel from HMS "Carnarvon Castle" removed Argentine flags from Deception Island. The expedition was led by Lieutenant James Marr and left the Falkland Islands in two ships, HMS "William Scoresby" (a minesweeping trawler) and "Fitzroy", on Saturday 29 January 1944.


title: History of Antarctica

text: Bases were established during February near the abandoned Norwegian whaling station on Deception Island, where the Union Flag was hoisted in place of Argentine flags, and at Port Lockroy (on February 11) on the coast of Graham Land. A further base was founded at Hope Bay on 13 February 1945, after a failed attempt to unload stores on 7 February 1944. Symbols of British sovereignty, including post offices, signposts and plaques were also constructed and postage stamps were issued.


title: History of Antarctica

text: Operation Tabarin provoked Chile to organize its First Chilean Antarctic Expedition in 1947–48, where the Chilean president Gabriel González Videla personally inaugurated one of its bases.


title: History of Antarctica

text: Following the end of the war in 1945, the British bases were handed over to civilian members of the newly created Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey (subsequently the British Antarctic Survey) the first such national scientific body to be established in Antarctica.


title: History of Antarctica

text: Friction between Britain and the Latin American states continued into the post war period. Royal Navy warships were despatched in 1948 to prevent naval incursions and in 1952, an Argentine shore party at Hope Bay (the British Base "D", established there in 1945, came up against the Argentine Esperanza Base, est. 1952) fired a machine gun over the heads of a British Antarctic Survey team unloading supplies from the "John Biscoe". The Argentines later extended a diplomatic apology, saying that there had been a misunderstanding and that the Argentine military commander on the ground had exceeded his authority.


title: History of Antarctica

text: The United States became politically interested in the Antarctic continent before and during WWII. The United States Antarctic Service Expedition, from 1939 to 1941, was sponsored by the government with additional support came from donations and gifts by private citizens, corporations and institutions. The objectives of the Expedition, outlined by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, was to establish two bases: East Base, in the vicinity of Charcot Island, and West Base, in the vicinity of King Edward VII Land. After operating successfully for two years, but with international tensions on the rise, it was considered wise to evacuate the two bases.


title: History of Antarctica

text: However, immediately after the war, American interest was rekindled with an explicitly geopolitical motive. Operation Highjump, from 1946 to 1947 was organized by Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd Jr. and included 4,700 men, 13 ships, and multiple aircraft. The primary mission of Operation Highjump was to establish the Antarctic research base Little America IV, for the purpose of training personnel and testing equipment in frigid conditions and amplifying existing stores of knowledge of hydrographic, geographic, geological, meteorological and electromagnetic propagation conditions in the area. The mission was also aimed at consolidating and extending United States sovereignty over the largest practicable area of the Antarctic continent, although this was publicly denied as a goal even before the expedition ended.


title: History of Antarctica

text: Meanwhile, in an attempt at ending the impasse, Britain submitted an application to the International Court of Justice in 1955 to adjudicate between the territorial claims of Britain, Argentina and Chile. This proposal failed, as both Latin American countries rejected submitting to an international arbitration procedure.


title: History of Antarctica

text: Negotiations towards the establishment of an international condominium over the continent first began in 1948, involving the 7 claimant powers (Britain, Australia, New Zealand, France, Norway, Chile and Argentina) and the US. This attempt was aimed at excluding the Soviet Union from the affairs of the continent and rapidly fell apart when the USSR declared an interest in the region, refused to recognize any claims of sovereignty and reserved the right to make its own claims in 1950.


title: History of Antarctica

text: An important impetus toward the formation of the Antarctic Treaty System in 1959, was the International Geophysical Year, 1957–1958. This year of international scientific cooperation triggered an 18-month period of intense Antarctic science. More than 70 existing national scientific organizations then formed IGY committees, and participated in the cooperative effort. The British established Halley Research Station in 1956 by an expedition from the Royal Society. Sir Vivian Fuchs headed the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition, which completed the first overland crossing of Antarctica in 1958. In Japan, the Japan Maritime Safety Agency offered ice breaker Sōya as the South Pole observation ship and Showa Station was built as the first Japanese observation base on Antarctica.


title: History of Antarctica

text: France contributed with Dumont d'Urville Station and Charcot Station in Adélie Land. The ship "Commandant Charcot" of the French Navy spent nine months of 1949/50 at the coast of Adelie Land, performing ionospheric soundings. The US erected the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station as the first permanent structure directly over the South Pole in January 1957.


title: History of Antarctica

text: Finally, to prevent the possibility of military conflict in the region, the United States, United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and 9 other countries with significant interests negotiated and signed the Antarctic Treaty in 1959. The treaty entered into force in 1961 and sets aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve, established freedom of scientific investigation and banned military activity on that continent. The treaty was the first arms control agreement established during the Cold War.


title: History of Antarctica

text: In May 1965, the American physicist Carl R. Disch went missing during the course of his routine research near Byrd Station, Antarctica. His body was never found.


title: History of Antarctica

text: A baby, named Emilio Marcos de Palma, was born near Hope Bay on 7 January 1978, becoming the first baby born on the continent. He also was born farther south than anyone in history.


title: History of Antarctica

text: On 28 November 1979, an Air New Zealand DC-10 on a sightseeing trip crashed into Mount Erebus on Ross Island, killing all 257 people on board.


title: History of Antarctica

text: In 1991 a convention among member nations of the Antarctic Treaty on how to regulate mining and drilling was proposed. Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke and French Prime Minister Michel Rocard led a response to this convention that resulted in the adoption of the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty, now known as the Madrid Protocol. All mineral extraction was banned for 50 years and the Antarctic was set aside as a "natural reserve, devoted to peace and science".


title: History of Antarctica

text: Børge Ousland, a Norwegian explorer, finished the first unassisted Antarctic solo crossing on 18 January 1997.


title: History of Antarctica

text: On 23 November 2007, the MV "Explorer" struck an iceberg and sank, but all on board were rescued by nearby ships, including a passing Norwegian cruise ship, the MS "Nordnorge".


title: History of Antarctica

text: In 2010, the IceCube Neutrino Observatory was completed. In 2013, it was reported that the observatory had detected 28 neutrinos that originated outside the Solar system,


title: History of Antarctica

text: Women were originally kept from exploring Antarctica until well into the 1950s. A few pioneering women visited the Antarctic land and waters prior to the 1950s and many women requested to go on early expeditions, but were turned away. Early pioneers such as Louise Séguin and Ingrid Christensen were some of the first women to see Antarctic waters. Christensen was the first woman to set foot on the mainland of Antarctica. The first women to have any fanfare about their Antarctic journeys were Caroline Mikkelsen who set foot on an island of Antarctica in 1935, and Jackie Ronne and Jennie Darlington who were the first women to over-winter in Antarctica in 1947. The first woman scientist to work in Antarctica was Maria Klenova in 1956. Silvia Morella de Palma was the first woman to give birth in Antarctica, delivering 3.4 kg (7 lb 8 oz) Emilio Palma at the Argentine Esperanza base 7 January 1978.


title: History of Antarctica

text: Women faced legal barriers and sexism that prevented most from visiting Antarctica and doing research until the late 1960s. The United States Congress banned American women from traveling to Antarctica until 1969. Women were often excluded because it was thought that they could not handle the extreme temperatures or crisis situations. The first woman from the British Antarctic Survey to go to Antarctica was Janet Thomson in 1983 who described the ban on women as a "rather improper segregation."


title: History of Antarctica

text: Once women were allowed in Antarctica, they still had to fight against sexism and sexual harassment. However, a tipping point was reached in the mid-1990s when it became the new normal that women were part of Antarctic life. Women began to see a change as more and more women began working and researching in Antarctica.


title: Mir (payment system)

text: Mir (, ; ) is a Russian card payment system for electronic fund transfers established by the Central Bank of Russia under a law adopted on 1 May 2017. The system was developed by Belgian digital payments company OpenWay and is operated by the "", a wholly owned subsidiary of the Central Bank of Russia. Mir does not itself issue cards, extend credit or set rates and fees for consumers; rather, Mir provides financial institutions with Mir-branded payment products that they then use to offer credit, debit, or other programs to their customers. The development and implementation of Mir was spurred by the imposition of international sanctions against Russia in 2014 to circumnavigate the reliance on the likes of Visa and Mastercard, which were blocked in Russia at the time.


title: Mir (payment system)

text: Mir, as an idea, was born out of a series of joint initiatives between the Central Bank of Russia and the World Bank in the mid-2000s that aimed to create a framework of an autonomous payment processing system inside the Russian Federation. While development was nearing completion, the Global Financial Crisis put further activity on indefinite hold.


title: Mir (payment system)

text: Mir cards were initially accepted mostly by Russia-based companies, such as Aeroflot and Russian Railways, but it gradually became popular among foreign companies with operations in Russia. In April 2016, AliExpress became the first foreign company to accept Mir as a form of payment within the Russian Federation, and McDonald's was the first U.S. company to accept it three months later.


title: Mir (payment system)

text: The system was developed by Belgian digital payments company OpenWay, which created a subsidiary in Russia called OpenWay Solutions, to meet Russian government requirements.


title: Mir (payment system)

text: On the basis of the initial groundwork, Mir as a system was formalized in 2014 as a way to overcome potential blocks of electronic payments, after several Russian banks were denied services by US-based Visa and MasterCard because of the sanctions regime against them.


title: Mir (payment system)

text: The first cards working on the Mir system were launched in December 2015. Sberbank, Russia's leading bank, started issuing them in October 2016. Six months later, in July 2016, McDonald's became the first U.S. company to accept Mir for payment in the Russian Federation. By the end of 2016, 1.76 million Mir cards had been issued by 64 banks; five years later, by the end of December 2021, over 113.6 million cards were in circulation. In 2020, 3.5 billion payments were issued using Mir, an increase of 75% over the previous year. In March 2021, the payment system announced a ban on the replenishment of foreign electronic wallets, as it considered such operations as high-risk.


title: Mir (payment system)

text: In March 2022, as a result of international sanctions during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Apple digital wallet services Apple Pay stopped supporting Mir cards.


title: Mir (payment system)

text: The 2022 exit of Visa and MasterCard from the Russian market resulted in increased use of the Russian Mir payment system in the Russian Federation and beyond at a time when their combined penetration accounted for 70% of the Russian consumer credit card market. Their cease of operations in Russia represented a 1.5 billion USD annual revenue loss to the two financial services giants. The result was a sharp increase in the number of Mir cards issued. As of April 1, 2022, the number of Mir-compliant cards in circulation exceeded 125 million, an increase of 10.3% from the previous quarter. That sudden and sharp increase in demand created shortage of chips for MIR cards. It is estimated that banks' demand for card chips is six times higher than production capacity of their only domestic manufacturer Mikron Group.


title: Mir (payment system)

text: In September 2022, the US Treasury Department threatened foreign banks with secondary sanctions for servicing Mir cards. The department said in a statement: “non-U.S. financial institutions that enter into new or expanded agreements with NSPK risk supporting Russia’s efforts to evade U.S. sanctions through the expanded use of the MIR National Payment System outside the territory of the Russian Federation”. In the following weeks, large banks in a number of countries began to refuse to service Russian cards. Among them were Turkish DenizBank and İşbank, Vietnamese BIDV, Kazakh Halyk Bank, Tajik Dushanbe City. In Uzbekistan, the acceptance of Mir cards was stopped "for technical reasons".


title: Mir (payment system)

text: The most serious problem for Russian citizens was the restrictions on servicing the Mir card in Turkey. This is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Russia. The governments of both countries are looking for a replacement for Mir. The Turkish authorities propose to use the Troy national payment system as an alternative.


title: Mir (payment system)

text: Mir is a state-subsidised payment system, which came into force on 1 May 2017 mandating that all welfare and pension payments be processed by January 2018. Banks were reluctant to issue them, as they feared that their cost might be higher compared to cards belonging to more established payments systems. After the 2022 Russian invasion of the Ukraine, the payment system gained in popularity worldwide for countries seeking to evade sanctions against Russia.


title: Mir (payment system)

text: Since October 2022, monetary allowances for servicemen mobilized for the war with Ukraine have been credited to Mir cards.


title: Mir (payment system)

text: Countries where Mir was formerly used, but where use has been suspended since 20 September 2022 or earlier:


title: Mir (payment system)

text: Before the Russian-Ukrainian War, Bulgaria and Thailand were expected to adapt MIR, according to Central Bank of Russia. Mir was also being tested in the United Kingdom and in South Korea. In March 2022, Iran was considering recognizing Mir to allow it to continue trading with Russia as due to sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine, Russian banks were banned from the SWIFT system used globally.


title: Mir (payment system)

text: According to the TASS news agency, in the summer of 2022, four African countries and one Middle Eastern country considered launching Mir cards: Ethiopia, Nigeria, Tanzania, South Africa and Syria.


title: Mir (payment system)

text: In 2021, India and Russia expressed interest in continuing dialogue on accepting RuPay Cards and Mir Cards within national payment infrastructures.


title: Mir (payment system)

text: In April 2022, Cuba made the decision to allow Mir cards. Juan Carlos Escalona, tourism advisor to Cuba's embassy in Moscow, indicated that visitors from Russia will be able to pay for services in Cuba with Mir cards once flights resume between both countries.


title: Mir (payment system)

text: On 26 July 2022, ATMs in Cuba began to accept Russia's Mir payment cards, Juan Carlos Escalona, adviser to the embassy of the republic on tourism, told the Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR).


title: Mir (payment system)

text: In May 2022, Sri Lankan ambassador to Russia Janita Abeivikrema Liyanage said that Sri Lankan authorities are working to ensure that the Mir cards are among the cards that can be used upon arrival in their country. “This issue has been resolved. This year it will work". However in October, the Central bank of Sri Lanka noted that approving Mir in Sri Lanka was impossible due to US sanctions. Instead Sri Lankan and Russian banks signed an agreement which allows Russian tourists to remit money to Sri Lankan banks before arrival by direct transfers between Russian and Sri Lankan banks.


title: Mir (payment system)

text: On 27 July 2022, Iran will soon start accepting payments made with Russia's Mir bank cards, a top official was quoted by Russia's RIA news agency as saying.


title: Jerusalem's Lot

text: "Jerusalem's Lot" is a short story by Stephen King, first published in King's 1978 collection "Night Shift". The story was also printed in the illustrated 2005 edition of King's 1975 novel "'Salem's Lot".


title: Jerusalem's Lot

text: "Jerusalem's Lot" is an epistolary short story set in the fictional town of Preacher's Corners, Cumberland County, Maine, in 1850. It is told through a series of letters and diary entries, mainly those of its main character, aristocrat Charles Boone, although his manservant, Calvin McCann, also occasionally assumes the role of narrator.


title: Jerusalem's Lot

text: Charles Boone, in letters addressed to "Bones", describes the arrival of himself and his manservant, Calvin McCann, at Chapelwaite, the neglected ancestral home of Charles's estranged late cousin Stephen. Calvin learns that many people in the nearby Maine town of Preacher's Corners think Charles and Calvin are mad for living in the mansion. The house is said to be "a bad house" with a history of sad events, disappearances, and mysterious noises which Charles attributes to "rats in the walls". Calvin finds a hidden compartment in the library containing an old map of a deserted village called Jerusalem's Lot, a mysterious area the townsfolk avoid. Their curiosity piqued, Charles and Calvin set out to explore the village.


title: Jerusalem's Lot

text: The two men find a decayed Puritan settlement. Nothing has set foot in the town since its abandonment, including animals. As the two explore a church, they discover an obscene parody of the Madonna and Child and an inverted cross. At the pulpit, they find a book filled with Latin and Druidic runes entitled "De Vermis Mysteriis", or "The Mysteries of the Worm". When Charles touches the book, the church shakes and the two feel something gigantic moving in the ground beneath them. The evil of the place overcomes both men, and they flee the village.


title: Jerusalem's Lot

text: The Preacher's Corners' inhabitants begin fearing Charles. They chase him from one house with rocks and guns. Charles asks Mrs. Cloris, Chapelwaite's former maid, for information about Jerusalem's Lot. She reveals a rift in Charles' family caused by his grandfather, Robert Boone, trying to steal "De Vermis Mysteriis" from his brother, Philip (presumably to destroy it). Philip was a minister involved in the occult who, on October 31, 1789, vanished along with the population of Jerusalem's Lot. Charles dismisses it as superstition but cannot forget what he saw in the church.


title: Jerusalem's Lot

text: Calvin discovers a diary in the library, encrypted with a rail fence cipher. Before he can decipher it, Charles takes him into the cellar to check for rats. Hidden behind the walls they find the undead corpses of two of his relatives, Marcella and Randolph Boone. Charles recognizes them as "nosferatu". The two flee the cellar, and Calvin seals the trapdoor to prevent pursuit.


title: Jerusalem's Lot

text: As Charles recovers from the encounter, Calvin cracks the cipher. The diary, written by Robert Boone, details the history of Jerusalem's Lot and the events leading to the mass disappearance. The village was founded by one of Charles' distant ancestors, James Boon, who was the leader of an inbred witchcraft cult. Philip and Robert took up residence in Chapelwaite, Philip was taken in by Boon's cult, and acquired "De Vermis Mysteriis" at Boon's behest. Philip and Boon used the book to call forth a supernatural entity referred to as "The Worm". In his final entry, Robert curses the whip-poor-will birds that have descended upon Chapelwaite.


title: Jerusalem's Lot

text: Charles feels compelled to return to Jerusalem's Lot. Calvin tries to prevent it but finally relents, accompanying his master. They discover a butchered lamb on the church altar, lying on top of "De Vermis Mysteriis". Charles moves the lamb and takes the book to destroy it, but a congregation of undead appears, including Philip and Boon. Charles becomes possessed and begins chanting, summoning forth the Worm. Calvin knocks down Charles, freeing him from possession. Charles sets fire to the book. The Worm lashes out from below, killing Calvin before disappearing. Before Charles can recover Calvin's body, Boon forces Charles to flee. In his final letter to "Bones", Charles announces his intention to commit suicide, ending the Boone family line.


title: Jerusalem's Lot

text: An "editor's note" attributes Charles's letters and the death of Calvin to insanity rather than supernatural occurrences in Jerusalem's Lot. The editor notes that Charles was not the last of his line: a bastard relative still exists—the editor himself, James Robert Boone, who has moved to Chapelwaite to restore the family name. James notes that Charles was right about one thing: "This place badly needs the services of an exterminator. There are some huge rats in the walls, by the sound." The note is dated October 2, the same date as Charles' first letter.


title: Jerusalem's Lot

text: Artist Glenn Chadbourne adapted "Jerusalem's Lot" for "The Secretary of Dreams", a collection of comics based on King's short fiction released by Cemetery Dance in December 2006.


title: Jerusalem's Lot

text: In December 2019, Epix announced it had commissioned a straight-to-series order of 10 episodes for a television adaptation starring Adrien Brody as Captain Charles Boone. In March 2020, Emily Hampshire joined the cast in the role of Rebecca Morgan. The show is titled "Chapelwaite."


title: Jerusalem's Lot

text: Filming of "Chapelwaite" was set to begin in March 2020, but had to be postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On July 5, 2020, filming began in Nova Scotia, and was set to wrap up on December 18, 2020. The show premiered on August 22, 2021.


title: Sheela

text: Sheela Ravichandran (Born 22 March 1945) is an Indian actress and director who appears predominantly in Malayalam cinema. Paired with Prem Nazir, they hold the Guinness World Record for acting in the largest number of films (130) together as heroine and hero. Sheela is a four-time winner of Kerala State Film Award. She came back to acting in 2003 through "Manassinakkare" after a long period of 22 years. In 2005, she won the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in the Malayalam film "Akale". In 2019, Sheela was honoured with the J C Daniel Award, the Kerala government's highest honour for outstanding contribution to Malayalam cinema. She was also one of the highest paid actresses, reportedly paid more than her male counterparts, of her time.


title: Sheela

text: Sheela was born in a Syrian Christian family to Railway officer Kanimangalam Antony and Gracy at Thrissur, Kingdom of Cochin (now Kerala). She was brought up in Ooty. Her early name was Celine. Since her father was working with the railways, she was brought up in different places before finally settling down at Chennai. As a result, she had her primary education at various places, including Trivandrum, Thrissur, Ooty, Tiruchirappalli, Salem, Edappally and St. Francis Anglo-Indian Girls School, Coimbatore.


title: Sheela

text: Sheela was introduced to theatre at the age of 13 by Tamil actor S. S. Rajendran, he offered her a job in S.S.R Nataka Mandram. She was introduced into the film industry at the age of 17 by MGR in the Tamil film "Paasam" (1962). M. G. Ramachandran, the hero of the film, added the suffix "Devi" to her name, thus he renamed her "Sheela Devi". She would continue to act in Tamil films with that name. Later, she reverted her name to "Sheela", her original name. The same year, she made her Malayalam debut through "Bhagyajathakam". The next two decades saw her act in more than 475 films in various languages such as Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Hindi, and Urdu. Her popular films are "Chemmeen", "Kallichellamma", "Velutha Kathreena" "Akale", "Oru Penninte Kadha", "Sarsaiya", "Yakshaganam", "Kutti Kuppayam", "Sthanarthy Saramma", "Kadathunattu Makkan", "Kannapan Unni", "Jwala", "Vazhve Mayam", etc. In "Kannapanunni", she plays the role of a powerful yet humane princess forced to marry a poor woodcutter. In "Kadathanattu Makkam", she plays the role of a princess who is cheated by her sisters-in-law and false allegations of being in love with a boatman are leveled against her. She and the boatman are both given the death sentence.


title: Sheela

text: In the 1970s and 1980s, she directed two films "Yakshaganom" and "Shikarangal". She wrote the story and screenplay for "Shikharangal"and "Yakshagaanam", which was also remade in Tamil. Sheela wrote the story and screenplay for Mammooty starrer Onnu Chiriku. Besides films, she has directed a tele-film titled "Ninaivukale Neengividu", co-starring Jayabharathi. Her other films include "Vishnu Vijayam" and "Eeta". She retired from the film industry in the 1983 and settled at Ootacamund, Tamil Nadu. After a long sabbatical, she returned to acting, playing a role in Sathyan Anthikkad's "Manassinakkare" (2003). The same year, she acted in the Tamil film "Chandramukhi".


title: Sheela

text: Sheela, along with Prem Nazir, holds the Guinness World Record for acting in the largest number of films (130) together. In 2005, she won the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actress and Kerala State Film Award for Second Best Actress for her role in the Malayalam film "Akale". She received the Kerala State Film Award for Best Actress thrice in her film career in 1969, 1971, and 1976. She has won awards such as Kerala State Film Awards, the Lux award, and the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement award. Sheela made an exhibition of her paintings at hotel Le- Meridian in Ernakulam and 93 paintings were sold, most of which were bought by Snehatheeram Baby Mathew and Ravi Pillai. The amount collected from these paintings was donated as a flood relief fund for the people in Chennai.


title: Hyperlexia

text: Hyperlexia is a syndrome characterized by a child's precocious ability to read. It was initially identified by Norman E. Silberberg and Margaret C. Silberberg (1967), who defined it as the precocious ability to read words without prior training in learning to read, typically before the age of five. They indicated that children with hyperlexia have a significantly higher word-decoding ability than their reading comprehension levels. Children with hyperlexia also present with an intense fascination for written material at a very early age.


title: Hyperlexia

text: Hyperlexic children are characterized by word-reading ability well above what would be expected given their age. First named and scientifically described in 1967 (Silverberg and Silverberg), it can be viewed as a superability in which word recognition ability goes far above expected levels of skill. Some hyperlexics, however, have trouble understanding speech. Some experts believe that most children with hyperlexia, or perhaps even all of them, lie on the autism spectrum. However, one expert, Darold Treffert, proposes that hyperlexia has subtypes, only some of which overlap with autism. Between five and twenty percent of autistic children have been estimated to be hyperlexic.


title: Hyperlexia

text: Hyperlexic children are often fascinated by letters or numbers. They are extremely good at decoding language and thus often become very early readers. Some English-speaking hyperlexic children learn to spell long words (such as "elephant") before they are two years old and learn to read whole sentences before they turn three.


title: Hyperlexia

text: Typical special interests of hyperlexic children often include letters, numbers, fonts, foreign alphabets, languages, the solar system, periodic table, logos, anatomy and geography (flags, countries, capitals).


title: Hyperlexia

text: The word hyperlexia is derived from the Greek terms 'over, beyond, overmuch, above measure' and 'word'.


title: Hyperlexia

text: Although hyperlexic children usually learn to read in a non-communicative way, several studies have shown that they can acquire reading comprehension and communicative language after the onset of hyperlexia. They follow a different developmental trajectory relative to neurotypical individuals, with milestones being acquired in a different order. Despite hyperlexic children's precocious reading ability, they may struggle to communicate. Often, hyperlexic children will have a precocious ability to read but will learn to speak only by rote and heavy repetition, and may also have difficulty learning the rules of language from examples or from trial and error, which may result in social problems. Their language may develop using echolalia, often repeating words and sentences. Often, the child has a large vocabulary and can identify many objects and pictures, but cannot put their language skills to good use. Spontaneous language is lacking and their pragmatic speech is delayed. Hyperlexic children often struggle with Who? What? Where? Why? and How? questions. Between the ages of four and five years old, many children make great strides in communicating.


title: Hyperlexia

text: The social skills of a child with hyperlexia often lag tremendously. Hyperlexic children often have far less interest in playing with other children than do their peers.


title: Hyperlexia

text: In studies in Cantonese and Korean, subjects were able to read non-words in their native orthography without a delay relative to the speed with which they read real words in their native orthography. There is a delay noted with exception words in English, including the examples "chaos", "unique", and "enough". These studies also illustrate difficulties in understanding what it is that they are reading. The findings suggest that non-hyperlexic readers rely more heavily on word semantics in order to make inferences about word meaning.


title: Hyperlexia

text: The Cantonese study distinguish homographs and determine the readings for rarely used characters. In this study, the subject also made errors of phonetic analogy and regularization of sound. The authors of the study suggest that the two-routes model for reading Chinese characters may be in effect for hyperlexics. The two-routes model describes understanding of Chinese characters in a purely phonetic sense and the understanding of Chinese characters in a semantic sense.


title: Hyperlexia

text: The semantics deficit is also illustrated in the study of Korean hyperlexics through a priming experiment. Non-hyperlexic children read words primed with a related image faster than non-primed words while hyperlexics read them at the same pace. Lee Sunghee and Hwang Mina, the authors of the Korean study, also found that hyperlexics have fewer errors in non-word reading than non-hyperlexics. They suggest that this may be because of an imbalance in the phonological, orthographical, and semantic understandings of the subjects’ native language and writing system, in this case, Hangul. This combination of the parts of linguistics is known as connectionist theory, in which non-words are distinguished from words by differences in interaction between phonology, orthography, and semantics.


title: Hyperlexia

text: In the Lee and Hwang study, the subjects scored lower on general language test and vocabulary tests than the average for their age groups. Literacy education in South Korea involves teaching students entire words, rather than starting with the relationship between phonemes and letters in Hangul, despite evidence that letter name knowledge is useful for learning to read words that have not been taught. The results suggest that hyperlexics are able to obtain the relations between letters (or the smallest unit of the writing system) and their phonemes without knowing the names.


title: Hyperlexia

text: Comprehension difficulties can also be a result of hyperlexia. Semantics and comprehension both have ties to meaning. Semantics relates to the meaning of a certain word while comprehension is the understanding of a longer text. In both studies, interpretation-based and meaning-based tests proved difficult for the hyperlexic subjects. In the Weeks study, the subject was unable to identify characters based on the logographic aspect of the writing system, and in the Lee and Hwang study, priming was ineffective in decreasing reading times for hyperlexics.


title: Hyperlexia

text: Although it is generally associated with autism, a 69-year-old woman appears to have been made hyperlexic because of a "cerebral infarction in the left anterior cingulate cortex and corpus callosum".


title: Oscar (fish)

text: The oscar (Astronotus ocellatus) is a species of fish from the cichlid family known under a variety of common names, including tiger oscar, velvet cichlid, and marble cichlid. In tropical South America, where the species naturally resides, "A. ocellatus" specimens are often found for sale as a food fish in the local markets. The fish has been introduced to other areas, including India, China, Australia, and the United States. It is considered a popular aquarium fish in Europe and the U.S.


title: Oscar (fish)

text: The species was originally described by Louis Agassiz in 1831 as "Lobotes ocellatus", as he mistakenly believed the species was marine; later work assigned the species to the genus "Astronotus". The species also has a number of junior synonyms: "Acara compressus", "Acara hyposticta", "Astronotus ocellatus zebra", and "Astronotus orbiculatus".


title: Oscar (fish)

text: "A. ocellatus" examples have been reported to grow to about in length and in weight. The wild-caught forms of the species are typically darkly coloured with yellow-ringed spots or ocelli on the caudal peduncle and on the dorsal fin. These ocelli have been suggested to function to limit fin-nipping by piranha ("Serrasalmus" spp.), which co-occur with "A. ocellatus" in its natural environment. The species is also able to rapidly alter its colouration, a trait which facilitates ritualised territorial and combat behaviours amongst conspecifics. Juvenile oscars have a different colouration from adults, and are striped with white and orange wavy bands and have spotted heads.


title: Oscar (fish)

text: "A. ocellatus" is native to Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, French Guiana, Suriname, Peru, and Venezuela, and occurs in the Amazon River basin, along the Amazon, Içá, Negro, Solimões, and Ucayali River systems, and also in the Approuague and Oyapock River drainages. In its natural environment, the species typically occurs in slow-moving white-water habitats, and has been observed sheltering under submerged branches. Feral populations also occur in China, northern Australia, and Florida, USA as a byproduct of the ornamental fish trade. The species is limited in its distribution by its intolerance of cooler water temperatures, the lower lethal limit for the species is 12.9 °C (55.22 °F).


title: Oscar (fish)

text: Although the species is widely regarded as sexually monomorphic, males have been suggested to grow more quickly, and in some naturally occurring strains, males are noted to possess dark blotches on the base of their dorsal fins. The species reaches sexual maturity around one year of age, and continues to reproduce for 9–10 years. Frequency and timing of spawning may be related to the occurrence of rain. "A. ocellatus" fish are biparental substrate spawners, though detailed information regarding their reproduction in the wild is scarce.


title: Oscar (fish)

text: In captivity, pairs are known to select and clean generally flattened horizontal or vertical surfaces on which to lay their eggs.. Smaller females lay around 300-500 eggs, while larger female oscars can lay about 2,500-3,000 eggs. Like most cichlids, "A. ocellatus" practices brood care, although the duration of brood care in the wild remains unknown.


title: Oscar (fish)

text: Most fish eaten by "A. ocellatus" in the wild are relatively sedentary catfish, including "Bunocephalus", "Rineloricaria", and "Ochmacanthus" species. The species uses a suction mechanism to capture prey, and has been reported to exhibit "laying-on-side" death mimicry in a similar fashion to "Parachromis friedrichsthalii" and "Nimbochromis livingstonii". Wild oscars also consume shrimp, snails, insects and insect larvae, as well as fruits and nuts on a seasonal basis. The species also has an absolute requirement for vitamin C, and develops health problems in its absence. Captive oscars generally eat fish food designed for large carnivorous fish: crayfish, worms, and insects (such as flies, crickets and grasshoppers).


title: Oscar (fish)

text: Oscars will often lay claim to an area of the aquarium and will be very aggressive towards other fish encroaching on their newly established territory inside the aquarium or lake. The size of the territory varies depending on the size and aggressiveness of the fish, and its surroundings. Once the oscar establishes a territory, it will vigorously defend it by chasing away other fish.