title: History of robots

text: In the late-1960s the Vietnam War became the testing ground for automated command technology and sensor networks. In 1966 the McNamara Line was proposed with the aim of requiring virtually no ground forces. This sensor network of seismic and acoustic sensors, photoreconnaissance and sensor-triggered land mines was only partially implemented due to high cost. The first mobile robot capable of reasoning about its surroundings, Shakey, was built in 1970 by the Stanford Research Institute (now SRI International). Shakey combined multiple sensor inputs, including TV cameras, laser rangefinders, and "bump sensors" to navigate.


title: History of robots

text: In the early 1970s precision munitions and smart weapons were developed. Weapons became robotic by implementing terminal guidance. At the end of the Vietnam War the first laser-guided bombs were deployed, which could find their target by following a laser beam that was pointed at the target. During the 1972 Operation Linebacker laser-guided bombs proved effective, but still depended heavily on human operators. Fire-and-forget weapons were also first deployed in the closing Vietnam War, once launched no further attention or action was required from the operator.


title: History of robots

text: The development of humanoid robots was advanced considerably by Japanese robotics scientists in the 1970s. Waseda University initiated the WABOT project in 1967, and in 1972 completed the WABOT-1, the world's first full-scale humanoid intelligent robot. Its limb control system allowed it to walk with the lower limbs, and to grip and transport objects with hands, using tactile sensors. Its vision system allowed it to measure distances and directions to objects using external receptors, artificial eyes and ears. And its conversation system allowed it to communicate with a person in Japanese, with an artificial mouth. This made it the first android.


title: History of robots

text: Freddy and Freddy II were robots built at the University of Edinburgh School of Informatics by Pat Ambler, Robin Popplestone, Austin Tate, and Donald Mitchie, and were capable of assembling wooden blocks in a period of several hours. German based company KUKA built the world's first industrial robot with six electromechanically driven axes, known as FAMULUS.


title: History of robots

text: In 1974, Michael J. Freeman created Leachim, a robot teacher who was programmed with the class curricular, as well as certain biographical information on the 40 students whom Leachim was programmed to teach. Leachim had the ability to synthesize human speech. Leachim was tested in a fourth grade classroom in the Bronx borough of New York City.


title: History of robots

text: In 1974, David Silver designed The Silver Arm, which was capable of fine movements replicating human hands. Feedback was provided by touch and pressure sensors and analyzed by a computer. The SCARA, Selective Compliance Assembly Robot Arm, was created in 1978 as an efficient, 4-axis robotic arm. Best used for picking up parts and placing them in another location, the SCARA was introduced to assembly lines in 1981.


title: History of robots

text: The Stanford Cart successfully crossed a room full of chairs in 1979. It relied primarily on stereo vision to navigate and determine distances. The Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University was founded in 1979 by Raj Reddy.


title: History of robots

text: Takeo Kanade created the first "direct-drive arm" in 1981. The first of its kind, the arm's motors were contained within the robot itself, eliminating long transmissions.


title: History of robots

text: In 1984 Wabot-2 was revealed; capable of playing the organ, Wabot-2 had 10 fingers and two feet. Wabot-2 was able to read a score of music and accompany a person.


title: History of robots

text: In 1986, Honda began its humanoid research and development program to create robots capable of interacting successfully with humans. A hexapodal robot named Genghis was revealed by MIT in 1989. Genghis was famous for being made quickly and cheaply due to construction methods; Genghis used 4 microprocessors, 22 sensors, and 12 servo motors. Rodney Brooks and Anita M. Flynn published "Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control: A Robot Invasion of The Solar System". The paper advocated creating smaller cheaper robots in greater numbers to increase production time and decrease the difficulty of launching robots into space.


title: History of robots

text: In 1994 one of the most successful robot-assisted surgery appliances was cleared by the FDA. The Cyberknife had been invented by John R. Adler and the first system was installed at Stanford University in 1991. This radiosurgery system integrated image-guided surgery with robotic positioning. The Cyberknife is now deployed to treat patients with brain or spine tumors. An x-ray camera tracks displacement and compensates for motion caused by breathing.


title: History of robots

text: The biomimetic robot RoboTuna was built by doctoral student David Barrett at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1996 to study how fish swim in water. RoboTuna is designed to swim and to resemble a bluefin tuna.


title: History of robots

text: Honda's P2 humanoid robot was first shown in 1996. Standing for "Prototype Model 2", P2 was an integral part of Honda's humanoid development project; over tall, P2 was smaller than its predecessors and appeared to be more human-like in its motions.


title: History of robots

text: Expected to operate for only seven days, the Sojourner rover finally shuts down after 83 days of operation in 1997. This small robot (only 23 lbs or 10.5 kg) performed semi-autonomous operations on the surface of Mars as part of the Mars Pathfinder mission; equipped with an obstacle avoidance program, Sojourner was capable of planning and navigating routes to study the surface of the planet. Sojourner's ability to navigate with little data about its environment and nearby surroundings allowed it to react to unplanned events and objects.


title: History of robots

text: The P3 humanoid robot was revealed by Honda in 1998 as a part of the company's continuing humanoid project. In 1999, Sony introduced the AIBO, a robotic dog capable of interacting with humans; the first models released in Japan sold out in 20 minutes. Honda revealed the most advanced result of their humanoid project in 2000, named ASIMO. ASIMO can run, walk, communicate with humans, recognise faces, environment, voices and posture, and interact with its environment. Sony also revealed its Sony Dream Robots, small humanoid robots in development for entertainment. In October 2000, the United Nations estimated that there were 742,500 industrial robots in the world, with more than half of them being used in Japan.


title: History of robots

text: In April 2001, the Canadarm2 was launched into orbit and attached to the International Space Station. The Canadarm2 is a larger, more capable version of the arm used by the Space Shuttle, and is hailed as "smarter". Also in April, the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Global Hawk made the first autonomous non-stop flight over the Pacific Ocean from Edwards Air Force Base in California to RAAF Base Edinburgh in Southern Australia. The flight was made in 22 hours.


title: History of robots

text: In 2005, Cornell University revealed a robotic system of block-modules capable of attaching and detaching, described as the first robot capable of self-replication, because it was capable of assembling copies of itself if it was placed near more of the blocks which composed it. Launched in 2003, on 3 and 24 January, the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity landed on the surface of Mars. Both robots drove many times the distance originally expected, and Opportunity was still operating as late as mid-2018, before communications were lost due to a major dust storm.


title: History of robots

text: Self-driving cars had made their appearance by around 2005, but there was room for improvement. None of the 15 devices competing in the DARPA Grand Challenge (2004) successfully completed the course; in fact no robot successfully navigated more than 5% of the off-road course, leaving the $1 million prize unclaimed. In 2005, Honda revealed a new version of its ASIMO robot, updated with new behaviors and capabilities. In 2006, Cornell University revealed its "Starfish" robot, a four-legged robot capable of self modeling and learning to walk after having been damaged. In 2007, TOMY launched the entertainment robot, i-sobot, a humanoid bipedal robot that can walk like a human and performs kicks and punches and also some entertaining tricks and special actions under "Special Action Mode".


title: History of robots

text: The 2010s were defined by large-scale improvements in the availability, power and versatility of commonly available robotic components, as well as the mass proliferation of robots into everyday life, which caused both optimistic speculation and new societal concerns.


title: History of robots

text: Development of humanoid robots continued to advance; Robonaut 2 was launched to the International Space Station aboard Space Shuttle Discovery on the STS-133 mission in 2011 as the first humanoid robot in space. While its initial purpose was to teach engineers how dextrous robots behave in space, the hope is that through upgrades and advancements, it could one day venture outside the station to help spacewalkers make repairs or additions to the station or perform scientific work. By the end of the decade, humanoid and animal-like robots were capable of clearing difficult obstacle courses, maintaining balance, and even performing gymnastic feats. However, the vast majority of robotic developments in the 2010s instead saw smaller, more specialized non-humanoid robots become cheaper, more capable, and more ubiquitous.


title: History of robots

text: Moore's Law and the increasing integration of digital electronic components into lightweight and powerful systems on a chip allowed for the heavy computation necessary for the operation of a robotic system to be performed by smaller and smaller devices. Many of these advances in chip and sensor technology were driven by the growth and spread of smartphones, which demanded these new components to meet the increasing demands of everyday use.


title: History of robots

text: The cost and weight reductions of these components have resulted in a proliferation of new kinds of special-purpose robots. Quadcopters, a novelty at the beginning of the decade, became a ubiquitous platform for robotic systems, featuring autonomous navigation and stabilization and carrying increasingly powerful sensors, including stabilized high definition cameras, radar, and surveying equipment. By the end of the decade, the cost of a robotic quadcopter with 4K cameras and autonomous navigation had dropped to within range of hobbyist budgets, and companies like Amazon were exploring the use of quadcopters to autonomously deliver freight, though deployment of this systems did not happen on a large scale in the decade.


title: History of robots

text: The decade also saw a boom in the capabilities of artificial intelligence. Over the course of the 2010s, the capacity of onboard computers used within robots increased to the point that robots could perform increasingly complex actions without human guidance, as well as independently process data in more complex ways. The growth of mobile data networks and increasing power of graphics cards for artificial intelligence applications also allowed robots to communicate with distant clusters in real time, effectively boosting the capability of even very simple robots to include cutting-edge artificial intelligence techniques.


title: History of robots

text: The 2010s also saw the growth of new software paradigms, which allowed robots and their AI systems to take advantage of this increased computing power. Neural networks became increasingly well developed in the 2010s, with companies like Google offering free and open access to products like TensorFlow, which allowed robot manufacturers to quickly integrate neural nets that allowed for abilities like facial recognition and object identification in even the smallest, cheapest robots.


title: History of robots

text: The growth of robots in the 2010s also coincided with the increasing power of the open source software movement, with many companies offering free access to their artificial intelligence software. Open source hardware, such as the Raspberry Pi line of compact single board computers and the Arduino line of microcontrollers, as well as a growing array of electronic components like sensors and motors dramatically increased in power and decreased in price over the 2010s. Combined with the drop in cost of manufacturing techniques like 3D printing, these components allowed hobbyists, researchers and manufacturers alike to quickly and cheaply build special-purpose robots that exhibited high degrees of artificial intelligence, as well as to share their designs with others around the world.


title: History of robots

text: Self-driving cars transitioned from speculative to emergent during the decade. By the end of the decade, most new cars were manufactured with robotic subsystems capable of warning the car's human driver about dangers such as nearby vehicles or potential lane departures. In 2014, new Tesla vehicles were fitted with the computer hardware necessary to eventually support a full autopilot software system, with increasingly autonomous software systems arriving as updates over later years. By the end of the decade, autonomous driving was possible on large highways, but still required human supervision.


title: History of robots

text: The growth of robotic capabilities during the decade happened in tandem with the centralization of economic power into the hands of large multinational tech companies, which has prompted concerns that the capabilities of these robots could be abused by the companies that make them available to consumers. The acquisition of Roomba by Amazon led to concerns from data privacy advocates that data about the interiors of users' homes collected by the robots' sensors and cameras could be stored, shared and analyzed without those users' informed consent. Likewise, the ubiquity of small flying quadcopters, home automation, and facial recognition capabilities by robots has caused serious concerns regarding human rights abuses, including allegations of repression of ethnic minorities in China and concerns about violations of privacy rights by law enforcement in the United States. As robotic systems showed the ability to perform more and more tasks once limited to human operators, many ethicists raised concerns that robots operating complex systems may not have the moral or ethical safeguards necessary to ensure public safety.


title: History of robots

text: Throughout the 2010s, humans continued to examine the nature of their relationships with robots, with trends indicating a general belief that robots were or would become conscious beings deserving of rights, and potential allies or rivals to humans. On 25 October 2017 at the Future Investment Summit in Riyadh, a robot called Sophia and referred to with female pronouns was granted Saudi Arabian citizenship, becoming the first robot ever to have a nationality. This has attracted controversy, as it is not obvious whether this implies that Sophia can vote or marry, or whether a deliberate system shutdown can be considered murder; as well, it is controversial considering how few rights are given to Saudi human women. Popular works of art in the 2010s, such as HBO's revival of "Westworld", encouraged empathy for robots, and explored questions of humanity and consciousness.


title: History of robots

text: By the end of the decade, commercial and industrial robots were in widespread use, performing jobs more cheaply or with greater accuracy and reliability than humans, and were widely used in manufacturing, assembly and packing, transport, Earth and space exploration, surgery, weaponry, laboratory research, and mass production of consumer and industrial goods. The growth of the use robots across industry, as well as in the service sector and in creative or highly skilled jobs formerly limited to humans, led to fears in the latter part of the decade of mass technological unemployment.


title: History of robots

text: By the very end of the decade, robotics had started to make advancements on the nanotechnology scale. In 2019, engineers at the University of Pennsylvania created millions of nanobots in just a few weeks using technology borrowed from the mature semiconductor industry. These microscopic robots, small enough to be injected into the human body and controlled wirelessly, could one day deliver medications and perform surgeries, revolutionizing medicine and health.


title: Women in the military

text: Women have served in the military in many different roles in various jurisdictions throughout history. Women in many countries are no longer excluded from some types of combat missions such as piloting, mechanics, and infantry officer. Since 1914, in western militaries, women have served in greater numbers and more diverse roles than before. In the 1970s, most Western armies began allowing women to serve in active duty in all military branches. In 2006, eight countries (China, Eritrea, Israel, Libya, Malaysia, North Korea, Peru, and Taiwan) conscripted women into military service. In 2013, Norway became the first NATO country to draft women, as well as the first country in the world to conscript women on the same formal terms as men. In 2017, neighboring Sweden followed suit and in 2018, the Netherlands joined this line-up (although in the Netherlands there is no active peacetime conscription).


title: Women in the military

text: As of 2022, only three countries conscripted women and men on the same formal conditions: Norway, Sweden, and The Netherlands. A few other countries have laws allowing for the conscription of women into their armed forces, however with some differences such as service exemptions, length of service, and more.


title: Women in the military

text: Although still under debate, there is some historic, as well as archaeologic evidence for female warriors (Shield-maidens) in the Viking Age, Scandinavia. One of the most prominent Viking archaeological sites is the Birka burial containing remains of a female skeleton accompanied with the accoutrements of an elite professional Viking warrior in a 10th century chamber-grave. Shield-maidens are also mentioned in ancient Norse sagas.


title: Women in the military

text: During the First World War, the United States was in total warfare efforts. Every person had to contribute to the war effort, however, this did not necessarily mean that everyone had to fight. The country needed to continue to fund its troops and support the war financially while soldiers were fighting. To this end, the United States relied on organizations for support. Women joined organizations such as the Committee on Public Information in order to educate people about the war. This committee additionally promoted nationalism. In addition to working for committees having to do with education, women worked in all sorts of positions. Many women became YWCA members and went overseas to help soldiers. This was the first time in history that women of all classes were working together to help the war efforts. Upper-class women founded many voluntary war organizations while middle and lower-class women worked in these organizations by working as nurses or by filling in the jobs of men.


title: Women in the military

text: The only nation to deploy female combat troops in substantial numbers was Russia. From the onset, female recruits either joined the military in disguise or were tacitly accepted by their units. Perhaps the most prominent was a contingent of front-line light cavalry in a Cossack regiment commanded by a female colonel, Alexandra Kudasheva.


title: Women in the military

text: Others included Maria Bochkareva, who was decorated three times and promoted to senior NCO rank, while "The New York Times" reported that a group of twelve schoolgirls from Moscow had enlisted together disguised as young men. In 1917, the Provisional Government raised a number of "Women's Battalions", with Maria Bochkareva given an officer's commission in command. They were disbanded before the end of the year. In the later Russian Civil War, they fought both for the Bolsheviks (infantry) and the White Guard.


title: Women in the military

text: In Serbia, a few individual women played key military roles. Scottish doctor Elsie Ingles coordinated a retreat of approximately 8,000 Serbian troops through Romania and revolutionary Russia, up to Scandinavia and finally onto transport ships back to England. Another woman, Milunka Savić, enlisted in the Serbian army in place of her brother. She fought throughout the war, becoming possibly the most decorated woman in military history.


title: Women in the military

text: In 1918 Loretta Walsh became the first woman to enlist as a woman. A 1948 law made women a permanent part of the military services. In 1976, the first group of women were admitted into a U.S. military academy. Approximately 16% of the 2013 West Point class consisted of women. In the 1918 Finnish Civil War, more than 2,000 women fought in the Women's Red Guards.


title: Women in the military

text: During the Spanish Civil War, thousands of women fought in mixed-gender combat and rearguard units, or as part of militias.


title: Women in the military

text: Several women's battalions were established in China during the Second Sino-Japanese War. These included the Guangxi Women's Battalion, the Yunnan Women's Battlefield Service Unit, Zhejiang Women's Guerrilla Band, Hunan War Service Corps, and others.


title: Women in the military

text: All the major participating nations in World War II enlisted women. The majority served in nursing and clerical or support roles. Over 500,000 women had combat roles in anti-aircraft units in Britain and Germany, as well as front-line units in the Soviet Union.


title: Women in the military

text: In 1942, the Indian National Army (Azaad Hind Fauj) established Rani of Jhansi Regiment, India's first all-women regiment to fight for Indian independence under the leadership of Subash Chandra Bose, with Japanese assistance. It is estimated that over 1,000 women served in the regiment.


title: Women in the military

text: In 1938, the British established uniformed services for women (small units of nurses had long been in service). In late 1941, Britain began conscripting women, sending most into factories and some into the military, especially the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) attached to the army. The ATS began as a women's auxiliary in 1938. In 1941, the ATS was granted military status, although women received only two thirds of male pay. Women had a well-publicized role in handling anti-aircraft guns against German planes and V-1 missiles. The daughter of Prime Minister Winston Churchill was there, and he said that any general who saved him 40,000 fighting men had gained the equivalent of a victory. By August 1941, women were operating fire-control instruments; although they were never allowed to pull the trigger, since killing the enemy was considered to be too masculine. By 1943, 56,000 women were in Anti-Aircraft Command, mostly in units close to London where they faced a risk of death, but not of capture. The first death of a woman in Anti-Aircraft Command occurred in April 1942.


title: Women in the military

text: The Third Reich had similar roles for women. The SS-Helferinnen were regarded as part of the SS if they had undergone training at a Reichsschule SS. All other female workers were contracted to the SS and chosen largely from concentration camps. Women served in auxiliary units in the navy (Kriegshelferinnen), air force (Luftnachrichtenhelferinnen) and army (Nachrichtenhelferin).


title: Women in the military

text: In 1944-45 roughly 500,000 women were volunteer uniformed auxiliaries in the German armed forces (Wehrmacht). About the same number served in civil aerial defense, 400,000 volunteered as nurses and many more replaced drafted men in the wartime economy. In the Luftwaffe they served in combat roles helping to operate anti-aircraft systems to shoot down Allied bombers. By 1945, German women held 85% of the billets as clerics, accountants, interpreters, laboratory workers and administrative workers, together with half of the clerical and junior administrative posts in high-level field headquarters.


title: Women in the military

text: The German nursing service consisted of four main organizations: one for Catholics, one for Protestants, the secular DRK (Red Cross), and the "Brown Nurses" for committed Nazi women. Military nursing was primarily handled by the DRK, which came under partial Nazi control. Frontline medical services were provided by male medics and doctors. Red Cross nurses served widely within the military medical services, staffing the hospitals close to the front lines and at risk of attack. Two dozen nurses were awarded the Iron Cross for heroism under fire. Brown Nurses were forced to look away while their incapacitated patients were murdered by war criminals.


title: Women in the military

text: Hundreds of women auxiliaries (Aufseherin) served in the SS in the camps, the majority of which were at Ravensbrück.


title: Women in the military

text: In Germany, women worked and were told by Hitler to produce more pure Aryan children to fight in future wars.


title: Women in the military

text: During the second world war, many Japanese American women lost their jobs or pay because they were sent to relocation camps. Japanese immigrants and Japanese Americans were faced with discrimination. Many Americans called it the "yellow peril" and called Japanese people "japs". In 1913, California passed the Alien Land Law which prohibited "aliens ineligible for citizenship" from owning land to grow crops on. Despite the discrimination, many Japanese American women volunteered to serve in the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps. Sexism along with racism was something that these women faced when they joined WAAC. Even while dealing with discrimination, Japanese American women were able to greatly help the United States. Many women were hired as interpreters, translators, and interrogators in the Military Intelligence Service. In 1948, the Women's Army Corps was permanently established and remained until 1978 when women were allowed into the army.


title: Women in the military

text: In Italy, during the second world war, the Female Auxiliary Service (Italian: "Servizio Ausiliario Femminile", SAF) was a women's corps of the armed forces of the Italian Social Republic, whose components, all voluntary, were commonly referred to as auxiliaries. The commander was the Brig. Gen. Piera Gatteschi Fondelli.


title: Women in the military

text: The Yugoslav National Liberation Movement had 6,000,000 civilian supporters; its two million women formed the Antifascist Front of Women (AFŽ), in which the revolutionary coexisted with the traditional. The AFŽ managed schools, hospitals and local governments. About 100,000 women served with 600,000 men in Tito's Yugoslav National Liberation Army. It stressed its dedication to women's rights and gender equality and used the imagery of folklore heroines to attract and legitimize the fighters. After the war, although women were relegated to traditional gender roles, Yugoslavia's historians emphasized women's roles in the resistance. After Yugoslavia broke up in the 1990s, women's contributions to the resistance were forgotten.


title: Women in the military

text: Though relatively little official data exists about female Vietnam War veterans, the Vietnam Women's Memorial Foundation estimates that approximately 11,000 military women were stationed in Vietnam during the conflict. Nearly all of them were volunteers, and 90 percent served as military nurses, though women also worked as physicians, air traffic controllers, intelligence officers, clerks and other positions in the U.S. Women's Army Corps, U.S. Navy, Air Force and Marines and the Army Medical Specialist Corps. In addition to women in the armed forces, an unknown number of civilian women served in Vietnam on behalf of the Red Cross, United Service Organizations (USO), Catholic Relief Services and other humanitarian organizations, or as foreign correspondents for various news organizations.


title: Women in the military

text: In addition to the U.S. military women who served in Vietnam, an unknown number of female civilians willingly gave their services on Vietnamese soil during the conflict. Many of them worked on behalf of the American Red Cross, Army Special Services, United Service Organizations (USO), Peace Corps, and various religious groups such as Catholic Relief Services.


title: Women in the military

text: Other American women traveled to Vietnam as foreign correspondents for news organizations, including Georgette "Dickey" Chappelle, a writer for the National Observer who was killed by a mine while on patrol with U.S. Marines outside Chu Lai in November 1965. According to the Vietnam Women's Memorial Foundation, 59 female civilians died during the conflict.


title: Women in the military

text: The Democratic Republic of the Congo began training an initial 150 women as para-commandos for the Armée Nationale Congolaise in 1967. Many more were trained subsequently, over a period of years. The women received parachute and weapons training, although it is unclear to what extent they were actually integrated into the combat units of the Congo.


title: Women in the military

text: In 1999, the BBC reported that about a quarter of the Eritrean soldiers in the Eritrean–Ethiopian War were women.


title: Women in the military

text: Initially, women conscripts served in the Women's Army Corps, serving as clerks, drivers, welfare workers, nurses, radio operators, flight controllers, ordnance personnel and instructors. Roles for women beyond technical and secretarial support began opening up in the late 1970s and early 1980s.


title: Women in the military

text: In 2000, the Equality amendment to the Military Service law granted equal opportunities in the military to women found physically and personally suitable for a job. Women started to enter combat support and light combat roles in a few areas, including the Artillery Corps, infantry units and armored divisions. A few platoons named Carakal were formed for men and women to serve together in light infantry. Many women joined the Border Police.


title: Women in the military

text: Despite these changes, fewer than 4 percent of women service members are in combat positions such as infantry, crew of tanks or other armored vehicles, artillery guns service, fighter pilots, etc. Rather, they are concentrated in "combat-support".


title: Women in the military

text: In 1990 and 1991, some 40,000 American military women were deployed during the Gulf War operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm; however, no women served in combat. A policy enacted in 1994 prohibited women from assignment to ground combat units below the brigade level.


title: Women in the military

text: The proportion of female military personnel varies internationally; for example, it is approximately 3% in India, 10% in the UK, 15% in France, 13% in Sweden, 16% in the US, 15.3% in Canada, and 27% in South Africa. While a marginal percentage of women are reported in military service globally, estimates following the increasing trend of military women capped predictions at about 10% for 1980.


title: Women in the military

text: Some nations allow female soldiers to serve in certain combat arms positions. Others exclude them for various reasons including physical demands and privacy policies. Among the NATO nations, and as of the mid-1970s, women were able to attain military status in the following countries: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, the Federal Republic of Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States.


title: Women in the military

text: Non-conscription countries, notably the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada are where the highest levels of female military presences were achieved. Canada is marked as particularly progressive in its early implementation of gender equality practices. A rise in the call for equal opportunity coupled with the decline of able-bodied men willing to enter military service coaxed countries to reform policies toward female inclusion. With the opening of submarine service in 2000, women now had free rein to enlist in any kind of military service.


title: Women in the military

text: The United States military opens all positions to women. Units such as Special Operations require members to meet extraordinary requirements, and very few women have met them. As of 2022, it is reported that three women have completed the Army’s elite Special Forces course, one has completed Navy Special Warfare Training to become a Naval Special Warfare combatant-craft crewman, and one has completed the Air Force special tactics courses necessary to become a Combat Controller.


title: Women in the military

text: Women have not historically been required to register for Selective Services; however, federal judge Gray Miller of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas, ruled on February 2, 2019 that an all-male draft is unconstitutional. The issue was brought when Marc Angelucci sued the Selective Service on behalf of the National Coalition for Men. Subsequently, the Fifth Circuit overturned Miller’s ruling, sending the case to the Supreme Court who would refuse to hear it. June 2021, Supreme Court Justices Sotomayor, Breyer, and Kavanaugh authored an opinion stating the draft to be likely unconstitutional, and under review since 2016, by Congress and the National Commission on Military, National, and Public Service.


title: Women in the military

text: Women have been involved in the U.S. military since 1775, originally in the civilian fields of nursing, laundering, mending clothing and cooking.


title: Women in the military

text: Deborah Sampson was one of the first women to enlist while disguised as a man. She was unhappy with her limited role in the American Revolution. She served in a light infantry unit, fighting in many battles. Injuries put her in a hospital where her secret was discovered. Her commanding officer, General John Paterson, honorably discharged her and thanked her for her service.


title: Women in the military

text: Many women contributed to the American Civil War, whether it was through nursing, spying or physically fighting on the battlefield. An example of this is seen through Belle Royd. She began her career as a spy and messenger at the young age of 17. By the time she had become 20, she became quite famous in the United States in which people called her the Cleopatra of the Confederacy. As a spy, she provided confederate leaders with valuable information. She was arrested multiple times and put into prison. Eventually, she was banished from federal soil and was told she would receive a death sentence if she were caught on federal soil again.


title: Women in the military

text: Those who fought in the war, disguised themselves as males, and went by men's aliases. It wasn't extremely difficult for women to conceal their true identities because soldiers showered separately and were fully clothed the majority of the time. In addition, both men and women would join the army with no previous military experience, so their training was very similar and the women would not stand out.


title: Women in the military

text: Sophronia Smith Hunt lost her soldier husband and served at the Battle of Jenkins' Ferry herself as a disguised soldier.


title: Women in the military

text: The most common way for women to be discovered was through injury. For instance, in 1861, Mary Owens enlisted into the Union Army disguised as the "brother" of William Evans, who was actually the love of her life. They could not stand to be separated. Her job was to deliver handwritten messages to commanders on the battlefield so that she would avoid combat. After her lover was killed in battle, Mary decided to avenge his death by fighting on the battlefield. She received a massive gash on her forehead for which she was sent to the hospital for treatment. It was during this moment that her female identity was revealed and she was discharged from the military. Those who were discovered would either be sent home or faced with punishment. However, Mary was warmly welcomed back into her town.


title: Women in the military

text: Other's that were disguised were often uncovered by chance. Sarah Collins was a strong woman who believed she could do the job of a male soldier. Her brother, who was also a soldier, assisted her in disguising as a man by cutting her hair short and dressing her up in men's apparel. Unfortunately, her disguise was not perfect as her true identity was uncovered in the way she properly placed her shoes that was unlike a male's method of placing shoes. Sarah was then sent home while her brother remained fighting.


title: Women in the military

text: It is difficult for historians to accurately estimate the true number of women who fought in the war because of their disguise and aliases, as well as their desire of discretion. Women joined the fray of the Civil War for similar reasons as men: the promise of a steady wage, innate sense of patriotism, or for the thrill of an adventure. Some women would even follow their loved ones into battle.


title: Women in the military

text: In 1917 Loretta Walsh became the first woman to enlist as a woman when she join the Navy. A 1948 law made women a permanent part of the military services. In 1976, the first group of women was admitted into a U.S. military academy. Approximately 16% of the 2013 West Point class consisted of women.


title: Women in the military

text: In 2013, 15.6 percent of the Army's 1.1 million soldiers, including National Guard And Reserve, were female, serving in 95 percent of occupations. As of 2017, 78 percent of the positions in the Army are open to women. In the U.S. Air Force, in 2015, 99% of career fields are open to women, with the only exceptions Special Tactics Officer, Combat Control, Special Operations Weather Technician, Combat Rescue Officer, Pararescue and Tactical Air Control Party.


title: Women in the military

text: In 2013 female US Army soldiers enrolled in a training course designed by Combined Joint Task Force Paladin, specifically designed for Female Engagement Team members. The course was intended to train female soldiers for tasks such as unexploded ordnance awareness, biometrics, forensics, evidence collection, tactical questioning, vehicle and personnel searches and homemade explosive devices.


title: Women in the military

text: By May 2015, none of the nineteen women vying to become the first female Army Rangers had passed Ranger School. Eleven of the nineteen dropped out in the first four days. Of the remaining eight who failed in the next step, three were given the option to restart from the beginning. Two graduated in August 2015. A third graduated in October 2015.


title: Women in the military

text: In April 2015 after two-and-a-half-year period in which the Marine Corps' Infantry Officer Course became gender-integrated for research, ended without a single female graduate. The final two participants failed the initial Combat Endurance Test.


title: Women in the military

text: In 2016, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter opened all military occupations to women, without exception. This opened up the roughly 10% of all military jobs that had previously been closed to women, including positions in infantry, armor, reconnaissance, and some special operations units.


title: Women in the military

text: Women have been injured, killed, and awarded high honors. Two women received the Silver Star: Sergeant Leigh Ann Hester in 2005 and Army Specialist Monica Lin Brown in 2007 for their actions in combat. Over 10,000 combat action badges were awarded to women who served in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.


title: Women in the military

text: A 2015 Marine Corps study found that women in a unit created to assess female combat performance were significantly injured twice as often as men, less accurate with infantry weapons and not as good at removing wounded troops from the battlefield.


title: Women in the military

text: The study assessed a nine-month experiment at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, and Twentynine Palms, California. About 400 Marines, including 100 women, volunteered to participate.


title: Women in the military

text: Male squads, teams, and crews demonstrated better performance on 93 of 134 tasks evaluated (69 percent) than units with women in them. Male units were faster while completing tactical movements in combat situations, especially in units with large "crew-served" weapons such as heavy machine guns and mortars. Male infantry squads had better accuracy than squads with women in them, with "a notable difference between genders for every individual weapons system" used by infantry rifleman units. The M4 carbine, M27 infantry automatic rifle and M203 single-shot grenade launcher were assessed.


title: Women in the military

text: Male Marines who had not received infantry training were more accurate than women who had. In removing wounded troops from the battlefield, "notable differences in execution times were found between all-male and gender-integrated groups".


title: Women in the military

text: Unit cohesion was lower in mixed-gender units. Many female soldiers reported that the way that they are viewed by male soldiers is often detrimental to their participation. For instance, female soldiers are often labelled as "either standoffish or a slut". In order to avoid such labels, female soldiers have to spend time with fellow soldiers strategically, without spending too much time with any one of them. This approach often has an isolating effect. In several instances, women were considered less skilled than male soldiers, so were not given opportunities to complete tasks for which they were qualified.


title: Women in the military

text: According to Lieutenant colonel Dave Grossman, author of "On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society", Israeli soldiers reacted with uncontrollable protectiveness and aggression after seeing a woman wounded. Further, Islamic militants rarely, if ever, surrender to female soldiers, lessening the IDF's ability to take prisoners. Iraqi and Afghan civilians are often not intimidated by female soldiers. However, in socially conservative environments, female combat soldiers can search female civilians, while children and women are more likely to talk to female soldiers than to male soldiers.


title: Women in the military

text: One 2009 report concluded that military women were three times more likely to be raped than civilians; and that women soldiers in Iraq were more likely to be attacked by another soldier than by an insurgent. In 1988, the first military-wide sexual harassment survey found that 64% of military women had been subjected to some form of sexual harassment. The most affected were Native-Americans, followed by Hispanics and African-Americans.


title: Women in the military

text: U.S. Senator Martha McSally, an Arizona Republican, said during a Senate meeting on sexual assault in the military that she was raped by a superior officer in the U.S. Air Force. McSally was the first female combat pilot in the U.S. Air Force. She said that she never reported it because so many people did not trust the system, blamed herself, was ashamed and confused, thought she was strong but felt powerless.


title: Women in the military

text: Sexual assault is more likely to occur in the military than in the civilian population. One in four active-duty female military personnel will be sexually assaulted. The military has a Code Of Justice which defines sexual assault: rape, aggravated assault, abusive sexual assault, nonconsensual sodomy (forced oral or anal sex), or attempts to commit these acts.


title: Women in the military

text: All of these acts are punishable by military law which begins by the victim going forward to their commander. It is then their job to make an inquiry on the perpetrator, however they also have the right to dismiss the claims. They can also the right to take non-judicial punishment or take it to high authority. If the perpetrator's punishment can go from dismissal, to dishonorable discharge to confinement in military prison. If found with the crime of rape the perpetrator can carry a lifetime of imprisonment to in extreme cases even execution. When women went to report their sexual assault 83% of the victims stated that their experiences with military legal personnel made them reluctant to seek further help.


title: Women in the military

text: Many victims in the military describe the response to and aftermath of sexual assault as more painful than the assault itself because of the unspoken "code of silence", which implies that women should keep quiet about their assault and not come forward to take action. Women expect that little will be done, so most cases go unreported. When they are reported and taken to court only ten percent of cases have the perpetrator charged for their crimes, which is a reason women won't come forward as they know little will come from it.


title: Women in the military

text: Female soldiers have developed several techniques for avoiding sexual assault "including: (1) relying on support networks [buddy systems], (2) capitalizing on their status (associated with rank, age, time spent in military, or prior deployment experience, and (3) masking femininity through clothing to minimize violence exposure and to keep themselves and others safe during military service". Such strategies leave the burden of addressing the problem on potential victims. Conversely, in many units, soldiers pair off as "buddies" who watch out for each other. In mostly male units, females buddy with males who then often become excessively protective, reducing the female's agency.


title: Women in the military

text: A lawsuit seeks redress for military plaintiffs who claim to have been subjected to sexual assault. "The Invisible War" addresses this lawsuit and topic.


title: Women in the military

text: Sexual assault leads to many health problems for women in the military such as anxiety disorders, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, substance abuse, binge eating, dissociation and memory impairment, suicidal and parasuicidal behavior, sexual dysfunction and dissatisfaction, poor self-esteem, and personality disorders, such as borderline personality disorder. It also takes a toll on their physical health and have reported having menstrual complications, headaches, back pain, gastrointestinal pain.


title: Women in the military

text: All of these factors make it hard for women to stay in the military, in women it is the leading cause for early leave of the armed forces. Once leaving the military though women have a hard time reintegrating back into society and can end up homeless. It is so debilitating for women in the military because most of their perpetrates are people they work and live with, from peers to a supervisor and higher above. This close relationship creates a new type of trauma as the victim is forced to see them every day and creates an overall lack of trust in people.


title: Women in the military

text: They more often fail to complete college, and generally earn incomes less than $25,000. Their work can involve frequent interactions with their attacker, and damages trust in the institution. Perpetrators are typically in a higher position have the job to protect the woman, increasing trauma.


title: Women in the military

text: Updated military training focuses on bystander interventions and the role of consent in sexual activity, emphasizing the responsibility of male soldiers. Some female soldiers assume the classically male role of "protector". This works to change women's "responsibility for preventing rape" and requires that male soldiers acknowledge their responsibility to engage with female soldiers in all activities.


title: Women in the military

text: In 1985 the Royal Norwegian Navy became the first navy in the world to permit female personnel to serve in submarines. The first female submarine commander was Captain Solveig Krey aboard the first Kobben class submarine on 11 September 1995. The Danish Navy allowed women on submarines in 1988, the Swedish Navy in 1989, followed by the Royal Australian Navy in 1998, Canada in 2000 and Spain.


title: Women in the military

text: On April 29, 2010, the United States Navy authorized women to serve aboard submarines. Previously, objections such as the need for separate accommodation and facilities (estimates that modifying submarines to accommodate women would cost $300,000 per bunk versus $4,000 per bunk on aircraft carriers) had prevented the change. The Navy stated that larger SSGN and SSBN submarines had more available space and could accommodate female officers with little/no modification. Qualified female candidates with the desire to serve were available. (Women then represented 15 percent of active duty sailors and were earning about half of all science and engineering bachelor's degrees.)


title: Women in the military

text: In May 2014, it was announced that three women had become the UK Royal Navy's first female submariners.


title: Women in the military

text: On November 15, 2017, the first Argentinian female submarine officer, Eliana Krawczyk, disappeared in the Atlantic Ocean after the Argentinean Navy lost contact with the submarine ARA "San Juan" after a reported failure in the electric system. As one of the 44 crew members lost at sea, Krawczyk was honoured by the country's Jewish community as "La Reina De Los Mares" on International Women's Day in 2018.


title: Women in the military

text: On 4 July 2017, after two years of training, four female officers boarded a French SSBN for France's first seventy-day mixed gender patrol. The next generation of French submarines is designed to welcome women.


title: Women in the military

text: Women are expected to join submarine crews in the Royal Netherlands Navy in 2019, with the addition of shower doors and changing-room curtains.


title: Women in the military

text: In 2020, Risa Takenouchi became the first female student to enroll in Japan's MSDF Submarine Training Center, following the overturning of restrictions on women submariners.


title: Women in the military

text: A 2021 study which randomly assigned some men in Norwegian bootcamp to mixed-gender squads and others to male squads found that men in the integrated squads did not perform worse or become less satisfied with their service than the other men, either during boot camp or their subsequent military assignment. Furthermore, the men in the integrated squads developed more egalitarian attitudes.


title: Women in the military

text: A 2008 study found that female cadets saw military training as an "opportunity to be strong, assertive and skillful" and saw such training "as an escape from some of the negative aspects of traditional femininity". The female cadets also believed that the ROTC program was "gender-blind" and "gender-neutral". The study claims that female cadets "were hyper-vigilant about their status as women performing tasks traditionally seen as men's work and often felt that they had to constantly prove they were capable."


title: Women in the military

text: The study quoted one female cadet: "in the Navy the joke is that a woman in the Navy is either a bitch, a slut or a lesbian, and "none of them are good categories to fall into", and if you are stern with your people then you are a bitch, but if you're a guy and stern people are like, wow, I respect him for being a good leader."


title: Women in the military

text: 84 percent of cadets said they did not want a military career as it would interfere with marriage and raising children.


title: Women in the military

text: A 2009 study examined the attitudes of West Point cadets, Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) cadets, and non-military-affiliated students from civilian colleges toward a variety of military roles. Cadets were less approving of assigning women to certain military jobs than others.


title: Women in the military

text: As of 2018, only two women have completed the United States Marine's Infantry Officer Course, while in 2016 86% of women failed the Marines' combat jobs test.


title: World's littlest skyscraper

text: The Newby–McMahon Building, commonly referred to as the world's littlest skyscraper, is located at 511 7th Street (on the corner of Seventh and La Salle streets) in downtown Wichita Falls, Texas. It is a late Neoclassical style red brick and cast stone structure. It stands tall, and its exterior dimensions are deep and wide. Its interior dimensions are approximately by , or approximately . Steep, narrow, internal stairways leading to the upper floors occupy roughly 25 percent of the interior area.


title: World's littlest skyscraper

text: Reportedly the result of a fraudulent investment scheme by a confidence man, the Newby–McMahon Building was a source of great embarrassment to the city and its residents after its completion in 1919. During the 1920s, the Newby–McMahon Building was featured in Robert Ripley's "Ripley's Believe It or Not!" syndicated column as "the world's littlest skyscraper," a nickname that has stuck with it ever since. The Newby–McMahon Building is now part of the Depot Square Historic District of Wichita Falls, a Texas Historic Landmark.


title: World's littlest skyscraper

text: A large petroleum reservoir was discovered just west of the city of Burkburnett, a small town in Wichita County, Texas in 1912. Burkburnett and its surrounding communities became boomtowns, experiencing explosive growth of their populations and economies. By 1918, an estimated 20,000 new settlers had taken up residence around the lucrative oil field and many Wichita County residents became wealthy virtually overnight. As people streamed into the local communities in search of high-paying jobs, the nearby city of Wichita Falls began to grow in importance.


title: World's littlest skyscraper

text: Though it initially lacked the infrastructure needed for this sudden increase in economic and industrial activity, Wichita Falls was a natural choice to serve as the local logistical hub, being the seat of Wichita County. Because office space was lacking, major stock transactions and mineral rights deals were conducted on street corners and in tents that served as makeshift headquarters for the new oil companies. Sensing an opportunity, J.D. McMahon proposed the construction of a skyscraper. With a proposed height of , the new building would be among the tallest in the world at that time.


title: World's littlest skyscraper

text: The Newby–McMahon Building is a four-story brick building located near the railroad depot in downtown Wichita Falls, constructed in 1906 by Augustus Newby (1855–1909), a director of the Wichita Falls and Oklahoma City Railway Company. The oil-rig construction firm of J.D. McMahon, a petroleum landman and structural engineer from Philadelphia, was one of seven tenants whose offices were based in the original Newby Building.


title: World's littlest skyscraper

text: According to local legend, when McMahon announced in 1919 that he would build a high-rise annex to the Newby Building as a solution to the newly wealthy city's urgent need for office space, investors were eager to invest in the project. McMahon collected in investment capital from this group of naïve investors, promising to construct a high-rise office building across the street from the St. James Hotel.


title: World's littlest skyscraper

text: Supposedly, the key to McMahon's swindle, and his successful defense in the ensuing lawsuit, was that legal documents listed the height as 480" (inches) as opposed to 480' (feet). Investors did not seem to notice, and McMahon apparently never verbally stated that the actual height of the building would be .


title: World's littlest skyscraper

text: McMahon used his own construction crews to build the McMahon Building on the small, unused piece of property next to the Newby Building, without obtaining prior consent from the owner of the property, who lived in Oklahoma.


title: World's littlest skyscraper

text: According to legend, investors brought a lawsuit against McMahon over the size of the building, but to their dismay, the real estate and construction deal was declared legally binding by a local judge. They did recover a small portion of their investment from the elevator company, which refused to honor the contract after learning how small the building was. No stairway was installed in the building upon its initial completion, as none was included in the original blueprints. Rather, a ladder was employed to gain access to the upper three floors. By the time construction was complete, McMahon had left Wichita Falls and perhaps even Texas, taking with him the balance of the investors' money.


title: World's littlest skyscraper

text: Upon its completion and opening in 1919, the Newby–McMahon Building was an immediate source of great embarrassment to the city and its residents. The ground floor had six desks representing the six different companies that occupied the building as its original tenants. Throughout most of the 1920s, the building housed only two firms. During the 1920s, the Newby–McMahon Building was featured in Robert Ripley's "Ripley's Believe It or Not!" syndicated column as "the world's littlest skyscraper", which is a name that has stuck with it ever since.


title: World's littlest skyscraper

text: The oil industry would ultimately prove to be a resource curse to Wichita Falls, and the Texas oil boom ended only a few years later. The building was vacated, boarded up, and virtually forgotten in 1929 as the Great Depression struck North Texas and office space became relatively inexpensive to lease or purchase. A fire gutted the building in 1931, rendering it unusable for a number of years.


title: World's littlest skyscraper

text: After the Great Depression, the building housed a succession of tenants, including barber shops and cafés. The building changed hands many times and was scheduled for demolition on several occasions, but escaped this fate apparently because a sufficient number of local residents came to its defense. It was eventually deeded to the city of Wichita Falls. As the building continued to deteriorate, in 1986 the city gave the building to the Wichita County Heritage Society (WCHS), with the hope that it would eventually be restored, making it a viable part of the Depot Square Historic District.


title: World's littlest skyscraper

text: By 1999, the Newby–McMahon Building had proved to be an excessive burden on the limited capital reserves of the WCHS. The following year, the city council hired the local architectural firm of Bundy, Young, Sims & Potter to stabilize the crumbling structure, amid steadily growing talk of demolishing the building. Dick Bundy and his partners became fascinated with the history and legacy of the building; they arranged a partnership with Marvin Groves Electric, another local business, to purchase the building. In December 2000, the city council voted to allow the WCHS to sell the building to Marvin Groves for .


title: World's littlest skyscraper

text: On June 11, 2003, a storm swept through Wichita Falls, bringing gusts of wind as strong as . A section of brick wall from the McMahon Building complex was knocked down. The damage from this storm was repaired, but full restoration of the building and the adjacent Newby Building was delayed until late 2005. In June of that year, the City Council granted in funds from the city's tax increment financing fund, to be invested in the restoration of the McMahon Building. Restoration of the building is estimated to have cost more than , the remainder of which was paid by the owners (Bundy, Young, Sims & Potter, Inc., and Marvin Groves Electric).


title: World's littlest skyscraper

text: After its renovation, the building was home to an antiques dealership, the Antique Wood, which opened in 2006 on the ground floor. Since 2013, a furniture and home décor consignment boutique by the name of "Hello Again" has occupied the building.


title: World's littlest skyscraper

text: The Newby–McMahon Building has never met the criteria for the definition of a skyscraper, nor even that of a "high-rise" building. Having survived tornadoes, a fire, and decades of neglect, the building is currently part of the Depot Square Historic District of Wichita Falls. It has been declared a Texas Historic Landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.


title: World's littlest skyscraper

text: The Newby–McMahon Building is among several historic buildings featured in the documentary film "Wichita Falls: The Future of Our Past", a retrospective analysis of the city's architectural past produced in 2006 by Barry Levy, a public information officer with the city of Wichita Falls.


title: Jordan Calloway

text: Jordan Calloway is an American actor. He is known for his role as Zach Carter-Schwartz on the Nickelodeon series "Unfabulous" (2004–2007). Calloway has also had recurring roles on NBC's "ER" (2005–2006), as well as The CW series "Riverdale" (2017–2018) and "Black Lightning" (2018–2021).


title: Jordan Calloway

text: He is the son of cinematographer Joseph Calloway. Calloway's parents are divorced. He is the youngest of several children. As a child, Calloway had aspirations of becoming a Navy SEAL, while his brother was actually interested in acting. Calloway attended Maranatha High School and graduated in 2009. He played varsity baseball for all four years. He would later attend Azusa Pacific University. He graduated with a degree in TV and film production.


title: Nagesh Kukunoor

text: Nagesh Kukunoor (born 30 March 1967) is an Indian film director, producer, screenwriter and actor known for his works predominantly in Hindi cinema, and few Telugu language films. He is known for his works in parallel cinema, such as "Hyderabad Blues" (1998), "Rockford" (1999), "Iqbal" (2005), "Dor" (2006), "Aashayein" (2010), "Lakshmi" (2014), and "Dhanak" (2016). Kukunoor has received seven International Awards, and two National Film Awards for his works.


title: Nagesh Kukunoor

text: In 2003, he directed "3 Deewarein", which was showcased among the Indian panorama section, at the 2003 International Film Festival of India. The film was also premiered at the Kolkata Film Festival. After having been screened at the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles, where it was well received, the film was screened at the Commonwealth Festival at Manchester, it was nominated as one of the top five films, at the gala presentation. Nagesh Kukunoor has also received the Filmfare Award for Best Story.


title: Nagesh Kukunoor

text: In 2006, he garnered the National Film Award for Best Film on Other Social Issues, for directing "Iqbal". In 2014, he received the Mercedes Benz Audience Award, for Best Narrative at the Palm Springs International Film Festival for "Lakshmi". In 2015 he directed the road movie, "Dhanak", which won the Crystal Bear Grand Prix for Best Children's Film, and Special Mention for the Best Feature Film by The Children's Jury for Generation Kplus at the 65th Berlin International Film Festival. The film has also garnered the Best Film Award in the main category-Children's Feature Film Competition-Cinema in Sneakers (film festival), and the Best Film Award – at the Montreal International Children's Film Festival (FIFEM). The film has garnered the National Film Award for Best Children's Film for 2016.


title: Nagesh Kukunoor

text: Nagesh Kukunoor was born in Hyderabad to Kusuma and Sudarshan. Kukunoor's mother tongue is Telugu, and as a child he loved watching Telugu, Hindi, and English films in the theatres of his neighbourhood, Narayanguda. He studied at Montfort School, Yercaud. Nagesh Kukunoor attended Osmania University in Hyderabad, India and received his bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering. He moved to Atlanta, Georgia in the United States in 1988, and completed his master's degree in Environmental Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology. After graduating from Georgia Tech, he went to work as an Environmental Consultant at Trinity Consultants in Texas, then in Atlanta, during which he attended workshops in film. He studied Acting & direction at the Warehouse Actor's Theater in Atlanta.


title: Nagesh Kukunoor

text: He invested the money he made from his engineering career in USA in producing the 1998 movie "Hyderabad Blues". It is based on a script that he wrote in Atlanta dealing with Indians returning home from the United States of America. He directed and acted in the movie. It had a budget of Rs. 1.7 million (roughly equivalent to US$40,000) and was shot in 17 days. It was perceived by Sanjay Arora, an independent film maker, to be realistic and one of the first movies to use Hyderabadi Urdu correctly. It became the most successful independent film in India. The film was featured at Peachtree International Film Festival in Atlanta and Rhode Island International Film Festival.


title: Nagesh Kukunoor

text: "3 Deewarein" (2003) was premiered at the Kolkata Film Festival. In contrast to his earlier work, it had a budget of and featured established actors including Naseeruddin Shah, Juhi Chawla and Jackie Shroff.


title: Nagesh Kukunoor

text: In 2006, Nagesh Kukunoor wrote and directed "Dor", a drama film featuring Ayesha Takia, Gul Panag and Shreyas Talpade as the lead actors. Nagesh also acted in the film, playing businessman Chopra. The film is about two women who come from different backgrounds and how fate brings them together. Meera (Ayesha Takia), a young woman who becomes a widow shortly after marriage, is trapped by tradition. Zeenat (Gul Panag), on the other hand, faces the daunting task of saving the life of her husband, who is on trial for murder. A bahuroopiya (Shreyas Talpade) helps her reach Meera, who holds the "string" to Zeenat's hope. The companionship that develops between Meera and Zeenat results in redemption for both. The film was well received by both the critics and film buffs.


title: Nagesh Kukunoor

text: It was, however, his film "Iqbal" featuring Shreyas Talpade and Naseeruddin Shah, which won him a lot of critical acclaim and recognition for the simple yet heart rending script by Nagesh and the acting by all actors.


title: Nagesh Kukunoor

text: His next film "8 x 10 Tasveer", an action-thriller featuring Akshay Kumar in the lead role fared poorly at the box office but was considered to be Nagesh's most self-reflective work to date. "I like to cast characters who are close to me. And this one gets as close to me as possible. I was once an environmental consultant. Akshay plays the part of an environment protection officer," Kukunoor said in an April 2009 interview.


title: Nagesh Kukunoor

text: In 2015, at the 65th Berlin International Film Festival, his feature "Dhanak" won The Grand Prix of the Generation Kplus International Jury for the best feature-length film, and received a Special Mention by Children's Jury in Generation Kplus Section.


title: Love Island (American season 2)

text: The second season of "Love Island" premiered August 24, 2020 on CBS. This season was originally scheduled to premiere on May 21, 2020 and was to be taking place in Fiji for second consecutive season; however, when the COVID-19 pandemic in Fiji forced production to postpone indefinitely. CBS later announced that "Love Island" would be relocated to film in Las Vegas, Nevada at The Cromwell — a casino hotel on the Las Vegas Strip.


title: Love Island (American season 2)

text: "Love Island" is a reality television program in which a group of contestants, who are referred to as "Islanders", are living in a villa in Las Vegas. The Islanders are cut off from the outside world and are under constant video surveillance. To survive in the villa, the Islanders must be in a relationship with another Islander. The Islanders couple up for the first time on first impressions but they are later forced to "re-couple" at special ceremonies in which they can choose to remain with their current partners or to switch partners. At the villa, the couples must share a bed for sleeping and are permitted to talk with other Islanders at any time, allowing them to get to know everyone. While in the villa, each Islander has his or her own telephone, with which they can contact other Islanders via text and can receive text messages informing them of the latest challenges, dumpings, and re-couplings. The Islanders are presented with many games and challenges that are designed to test their physical and mental abilities, after which the winners are sometimes presented with special prizes, such as a night at the Hideaway or a special date.


title: Love Island (American season 2)

text: Islanders can be eliminated, or "dumped", for several reasons; these include remaining single after a re-coupling and by public vote through the "Love Island" mobile app. During the show's final week, members of the public vote to decide which couple should win the series; the couple who receive the most votes win.


title: Love Island (American season 2)

text: At the envelope ceremony on finale night, the couple who received the highest number of votes from the public receive two envelopes, one for each partner. One envelope contains and the other contains nothing. The partner with the envelope may choose whether to share the money with his or her partner as a test of trust and commitment.


title: Love Island (American season 2)

text: Jeremiah White and Lauren Coogan competed on the of "The Challenge". Lauren also appeared in episode 6 of HBO Max series "FBOY Island". Sher Suarez appeared on the fifth season of MTV's "Ex on the Beach".


title: Love Island (American season 2)

text: Johnny Middlebrooks competed on Paramount+ original "All Star Shore" and will appear on of "The Challenge". Cely Vazquez and Justine Ndiba competed on "".


title: Love Island (American season 2)

text: Mackenzie Dipman appeared in the sixth season of "Summer House (2017 TV series)". She later returned for the fourth season of "Love Island USA".


title: Love Island (American season 2)

text: CBS originally announced on February 14, 2020 the second season would premiere on May 21, 2020, scheduled to take place in Fiji, and was initially to end at the end of June before the Fourth of July holiday to avoid scheduling conflicts with the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan. The second season was subsequently placed on hold with a new season premiere date to be determined after the network announced on April 7 they would launch "CBS Sunday Movie" for a five-week run starting on May 3 after television productions were shut down due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. An article from "The Hollywood Reporter" on April 7, 2020 noted that CBS would be without new seasons of "Big Brother" and "Love Island" during the summer. Unnamed sources to the publication said the network would rely on repeats of their scripted shows that "have historically repeated well." Kelly Kahl, President of CBS Entertainment, said the network was "optimistic" about airing both shows during the summer "a little later than usual" in an interview with "Deadline Hollywood" on May 19, 2020.


title: Love Island (American season 2)

text: CBS revealed on July 23, 2020 that the next season of "Big Brother" would premiere on August 5 with new protocols to protect the cast and crew from COVID-19. The day prior, "Vulture" reported that pre-production has started on the second season of "Love Island". Filming for the second season took place at The Cromwell in Las Vegas on a bio-secure bubble zone instead of an international destination like with season one due to international travel restrictions related to COVID-19. The network and ITV required everyone involved with the show to undergo quarantine prior to the beginning of production.


title: Waif

text: A waif (from the Old French "guaif", "stray beast") is a person removed, by hardship, loss or other helpless circumstance, from their original surroundings. The most common usage of the word is to designate a homeless, forsaken or orphaned child, or someone whose appearance is evocative of the same.


title: Waif

text: As such, the term is similar to a ragamuffin or street urchin, although the main distinction is volitional: a runaway youth might live on the streets, but would not properly be called a waif as the departure from one's home was an exercise of free will. Likewise, a person fleeing their home for purposes of safety (as in response to political oppression or natural disaster), is typically considered not a waif but a refugee.


title: Waif

text: Orphaned children, left to fend for themselves, are common as literary protagonists, especially in children's and fantasy literature. The characters Catherine in Emily Brontë's 1847 novel "Wuthering Heights" and Jo, the crossing sweeper in Charles Dickens' 1852 novel "Bleak House" are waifs. Dickens, it may be noted, has been called "the Master of Waif Literature." Bret Harte's 1890 novel "A Waif of the Plains", set against the backdrop of the Oregon Trail in the 1850s, is another example. The children in "A Series of Unfortunate Events" are usually waifs, in between their unsuccessful stints in the care of various relatives. In modern adult fantasy writing, it could be argued that Kvothe of Patrick Rothfuss's "The Kingkiller Chronicle" ("The Name of the Wind" and "The Wise Man's Fear") "was" a waif, and the stories include many flashback elements – as they are of Kvothe's life told by Kvothe – to the time when he indeed was a waif.


title: Waif

text: Literary waifs are frequently depicted with a frail appearance, although such physical aspects are not inherent in the term. Such evocations may reflect the endemic malnutrition of the street urchin.


title: Waif

text: Chicago's Mercy Home for Boys and Girls, a long-term residential home for troubled young men and women from the streets and abusive homes, has published "The Waif's Messenger" for more than 100 years.


title: Waif

text: In nautical terms, a waif is any survivor of a shipwreck compelled to make land upon a foreign shore. In this sense "waif" is roughly synonymous with "castaway", although the latter term is generally associated with isolation; a waif (in the nautical sense) usually indicates a survivor of a marine disaster who has fallen into the care or custody of others.


title: Waif

text: "Some seven years ago...there appeared the remarkable saga of Manjiro, the shipwrecked Japanese waif who was rescued and brought to the United States by a Yankee whaling captain."


title: Waif

text: Dating from the Middle Ages, when a woman was proscribed and subjected to penalties of outlawry, she was said to be “waived” and called a "waif". This waiving of the law was tantamount to outlawry since it removed all protection of the law. Women in this status were outside of the "law", and as with male outlaws, others could kill them on sight as if they were wild animals.


title: Waif

text: Under British common law, items stolen by a thief and discarded during the thief's flight are "waifs." The monarch owns such waifs by royal prerogative.


title: Waif

text: References to waifs in music are sometimes self-deprecating, as in the name of the Australian folk rock band name The Waifs, or Tracy Bonham's 1995 rock song "I'm Not a Waif".


title: Waif

text: Many other songs use the word "waif" to romanticize street children and runaways, as in the Marc Almond 1990 song "Waifs and Strays", or the Steely Dan jazz rock 2000 song "Janie Runaway", which describes the title character as being the "wonderwaif of Gramercy Park".


title: Waif

text: The psychedelic rock song "Black and White Sunshine" by Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds, from the 2017 album "Who Built the Moon?", contains the lyrics "these are the glory days for the waifs and the strays".


title: Waif

text: Moreover in 2017, the Canadian band Alvvays recorded the indie pop song "Saved By A Waif", together with the whole album "Antisocialites".


title: Waif

text: Frank Turner's 2019 folk song "Jinny Bingham's Ghost" contains the lyrics "Be sure to raise a toast. To the patron saint of the waifs and strays. To Jinny Bingham's ghost".


title: Waif

text: In botany, a "waif" is an unusual species found in the wild that is alien and either a) is unsuccessful at reproduction without human intervention, or b) only persists a few generations and disappears. Such a plant never gets "naturalized" in the wild. "Waif flora" also refers to plant species which occur on oceanic islands due to chance long-distance dispersion of seeds.


title: Waif

text: In fashion and related popular culture, the term "waif" is commonly used to describe a very thin person, usually a woman.


title: Waif

text: "The waif look" was used in the 1960s to describe thin, large-eyed models such as Twiggy, and Edie Sedgwick. The "gamine" look of the 1950s, associated with actresses such as Audrey Hepburn, Leslie Caron and Jean Seberg, was, to some extent, a precursor.


title: Waif

text: The term "waif" was seemingly ubiquitous in the 1990s, with heroin chic fashion and models such as Kate Moss and Jaime King on the runways and in advertisements. Actresses such as "Ally McBeal" star Calista Flockhart, Winona Ryder, recently the British actress Keira Knightley and singer Celine Dion have all been pinned with the term.


title: Waif

text: Although the heroin chic look has gone out of fashion, it still holds some popularity in Hollywood. For example, Wonderbra model Eva Herzigová was criticized over her waif-like figure. "Daily Mirror" columnist Sue Carroll wrote:


title: Three Prisoners problem

text: The Three Prisoners problem appeared in Martin Gardner's "Mathematical Games" column in "Scientific American" in 1959. It is mathematically equivalent to the Monty Hall problem with car and goat replaced respectively with freedom and execution.


title: Three Prisoners problem

text: Three prisoners, A, B, and C, are in separate cells and sentenced to death. The governor has selected one of them at random to be pardoned. The warden knows which one is pardoned, but is not allowed to tell. Prisoner A begs the warden to let him know the identity of one of the two who are going to be executed. "If B is to be pardoned, give me C's name. If C is to be pardoned, give me B's name. And if I'm to be pardoned, secretly flip a coin to decide whether to name B or C."


title: Three Prisoners problem

text: The warden tells A that B is to be executed. Prisoner A is pleased because he believes that his probability of surviving has gone up from 1/3 to 1/2, as it is now between him and C. Prisoner A secretly tells C the news, who reasons that A's chance of being pardoned is unchanged at 1/3, but he is pleased because his own chance has gone up to 2/3. Which prisoner is correct?


title: Three Prisoners problem

text: The answer is that prisoner A did not gain any information about his own fate, since he already knew that the warden would give him the name of someone else. Prisoner A, prior to hearing from the warden, estimates his chances of being pardoned as , the same as both B and C. As the warden says B will be executed, it is either because C will be pardoned ( chance), or A will be pardoned ( chance) "and" the coin to decide whether to name B or C the warden flipped came up B ( chance; for an overall × = chance B was named because A will be pardoned). Hence, after hearing that B will be executed, the estimate of A's chance of being pardoned is half that of C. This means his chances of being pardoned, now knowing B is not, again are , but C has a chance of being pardoned.


title: Three Prisoners problem

text: The explanation above may be summarised in the following table. As the warden is asked by A, he can only answer B or C to be executed (or "not pardoned").


title: Three Prisoners problem

text: As the warden has answered that B will not be pardoned, the solution comes from the second column "not B". It appears that the odds for A vs. C to be pardoned are 1:2.


title: Three Prisoners problem

text: Call formula_1, formula_2 and formula_3 the events that the corresponding prisoner will be pardoned, and formula_4 the event that the warden tells A that prisoner B is to be executed, then, using Bayes' theorem, the posterior probability of A being pardoned, is:


title: Three Prisoners problem

text: The crucial difference making A and C unequal is that formula_7 but formula_8. If A will be pardoned, the warden can tell A that either B or C is to be executed, and hence formula_7; whereas if C will be pardoned, the warden can only tell A that B is executed, so formula_8.


title: Three Prisoners problem

text: Prisoner A only has a chance of pardon. Knowing whether B or C will be executed does not change his chance. After he hears B will be executed, Prisoner A realizes that if he will not get the pardon himself it must only be going to C. That means there is a 2/3 chance for C to get a pardon. This is comparable to the Monty Hall problem.


title: Three Prisoners problem

text: With the stipulation that the warden will choose randomly, in the of the time that A is to be pardoned, there is a chance he will say B and chance he will say C. This means that taken overall, of the time ( [that A is pardoned] × [that warden says B]), the warden will say B because A will be pardoned, and of the time ( [that A is pardoned] × [that warden says C]) he will say C because A is being pardoned. This adds up to the total of of the time ( + ) A is being pardoned, which is accurate.


title: Three Prisoners problem

text: It is now clear that if the warden answers B to A ( of all cases), then of the time C is pardoned and A will still be executed (case 4), and only of the time A is pardoned (case 1). Hence C's chances are ()/() = and A's are ()/() = .


title: Three Prisoners problem

text: The key to this problem is that the warden "may not" reveal the name of a prisoner who "will" be pardoned. If we eliminate this requirement, it can demonstrate the original problem in another way. The only change in this example is that prisoner A asks the warden to "reveal the fate" of one of the other prisoners (not specifying one that will be executed). In this case, the warden flips a coin and chooses one of B and C to reveal the fate of. The cases are as follows:


title: Three Prisoners problem

text: Each scenario has a probability. The original Three Prisoners problem can be seen in this light: The warden in that problem still has these six cases, each with a probability of occurring. However, the warden in the original case cannot reveal the fate of a pardoned prisoner. Therefore, in case 3 for example, since saying "B is pardoned" is not an option, the warden says "C is executed" instead (making it the same as case 4). That leaves cases 4 and 5 each with a probability of occurring and leaves us with the same probability as before.


title: Three Prisoners problem

text: The tendency of people to provide the answer 1/2 is likely due to a tendency to ignore context that may seem unimpactful. For example, how the question is posed to the warden can affect the answer. This can be shown by considering a modified case, where formula_11 and everything else about the problem remains the same. Using Bayes' Theorem once again:


title: Three Prisoners problem

text: However, if A simply asks if B will be executed, and the warden responds with "yes", the probability that A is pardoned becomes:


title: Three Prisoners problem

text: A similar assumption is that A plans beforehand to ask the warden for this information. A similar case to the above arises if A does "not" plan to ask the warden anything and the warden simply informs him that he will be executing B.


title: Three Prisoners problem

text: Another likely overlooked assumption is that the warden has a probabilistic choice. Let us define formula_14 as the conditional probability that the warden will name B given that C will be executed. The conditional probability formula_15 can be then expressed as:


title: Three Prisoners problem

text: If we assume that formula_17, that is, that we do not take into account that the warden is making a probabilistic choice, then formula_18. However, the reality of the problem is that the warden is flipping a coin (formula_19), so formula_20.


title: Three Prisoners problem

text: Judea Pearl (1988) used a variant of this example to demonstrate that belief updates must depend not merely on the facts observed but also on the experiment (i.e., query) that led to those facts.


title: Overpopulation

text: Overpopulation or overabundance is a phenomenon in which a species' population becomes larger than the carrying capacity of its environment. This may be caused by increased birth rates, lowered mortality rates, reduced predation or large scale migration, leading to an overabundant species and other animals in the ecosystem competing for food, space, and resources. The animals in an overpopulated area may then be forced to migrate to areas not typically inhabited, or die off without access to necessary resources.


title: Overpopulation

text: Judgements regarding overpopulation always involve both facts and values. Animals often are judged overpopulated when their numbers cause impacts that people find dangerous, damaging, expensive, or otherwise harmful. Societies may be judged overpopulated when their human numbers cause impacts that degrade ecosystem services, decrease human health and well-being, or crowed other species out of existence.


title: Overpopulation

text: In ecology, overpopulation is a concept used primarily in wildlife management. Typically, an overpopulation causes the entire population of the species in question to become weaker, as no single individual is able to find enough food or shelter. As such, overpopulation is thus characterized by an increase in the diseases and parasite-load which live upon the species in question, as the entire population is weaker. Other characteristics of overpopulation are lower fecundity, adverse effects on the environment (soil, vegetation or fauna) and lower average body weights. Especially the worldwide increase of deer populations, which usually show irruptive growth, is proving to be of ecological concern. Ironically, where ecologists were preoccupied with conserving or augmenting deer populations only a century ago, the focus has now shifted in the direct opposite, and ecologists are now more concerned with limiting the populations of such animals.


title: Overpopulation

text: Supplemental feeding of charismatic species or interesting game species is a major problem in causing overpopulation, as is too little hunting or trapping of such species. Management solutions are increasing hunting by making it easier or cheaper for (foreign) hunters to hunt, banning supplemental feeding, awarding bounties, forcing landowners to hunt or contract professional hunters, using immunocontraception, promoting the harvest of venison or other wild meats, introducing large predators (rewilding), poisonings or introducing diseases.


title: Overpopulation

text: A useful tool in wildlife culling is the use of mobile freezer trailers in which to store carcasses. The harvest of meat from wild animals is a sustainable method of creating a circular economy.


title: Overpopulation

text: Immunocontraception is a non-lethal method of regulating wild-animal population growth. Immunocontraception has been successfully used or tested in a variety of wild-animal populations including those of bison, deer, elephants, gray squirrels, pigeons, rats and wild horses. Among the limitations of injectable immunocontraceptives are a relatively long time between vaccine administration and a reduction in population size (although stabilization of population size occurs faster) and the need to be in close proximity with animals for injection. Oral vaccines do not have the latter limitation, but they are still not as well developed as injectable vaccines.


title: Overpopulation

text: Judgements about overpopulation of wildlife or domestic animals typically are made in terms of human purposes and interests; since these vary, such judgements may vary, too. Judgements about human overpopulation are even more contentious, since the purposes and interests involved may be very important, even rising to the level of existence itself. Nevertheless, all people and every society have an interest in preserving a habitable biosphere, which may be compromised or degraded by too may people. In the context of rapid climate change, mass species extinction and other global environmental problems, discussions regarding human overpopulation are inevitable.


title: Overpopulation

text: Recent scientific evidence from many sources suggests Earth may be overpopulated currently. Evidence of rapidly declining ecosystem services was presented in detail in the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment of 2005, a collaborative effort involving more than 1,360 experts worldwide. More recent scientific accounts are provided by ecological footprint accounting and interdisciplinary research on planetary boundaries for safe human use of biosphere. The Sixth Assessment Report on Climate Change from the IPCC and the First Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services by the IPBES, large international summaries of the state of scientific knowledge regarding climate disruption and biodiversity loss, also support the view that unprecedented human numbers are contributing to global ecological decline. Recent estimates of a sustainable global human population run between two to four billion people.


title: Overpopulation

text: Judgements about human or animal overpopulation hinge partly on whether people feel a moral obligation to leave sufficient habitat and resources to preserve viable populations of other species. Recent biodiversity losses show that humanity's success in supporting larger human populations over the past century has depended on reducing the populations of many of Earth's other species. This is a special example of the competitive exclusion principle in ecology, which states that two species which compete for the same limited resource cannot coexist at constant population values. Today humanity essentially competes with other species everywhere on Earth. We thus face choices regarding whether to preserve populations of other species and limit our own, or not. These essentially ethical choices  will make a difference in future judgements about overpopulation.


title: Overpopulation

text: In Scotland the program of having landowners privately cull the overpopulation of red deer in the highlands has proved an abject failure. Scotland's deer are stunted, emaciated, and frequently starve in the Spring. As of 2016 the population is now so high, that 100,000 deer would need to be culled each year only to maintain the current population. A number of landowners have proven unwilling to accede to the law, requiring government intervention anyway. It has been necessary to contract professional hunters in order to satisfy landowner legislation regarding the annual cull. Millions of pounds of taxpayers' cash is spent on the annual cull. As of 2020, 100,000 deer are shot each year. Compounding the problem, some landowners have used supplemental feeding at certain shooting blinds in order to ease sport hunting.


title: Overpopulation

text: Overpopulation can have effects on forage plants, eventually causing a species to thus alter the greater environment. Natural ecosystems are extremely complex. The overpopulation of deer in Britain has been caused by legislation making hunting more difficult, but another reason may be the proliferation of forests, used by different deer species to breed and shelter. Forests and parks have caused Britain to be much more forested than it was in recent history, and may thus perversely be causing biodiversity loss, conversion of heath habitat to grassland, extirpation of grassland and woodland plants due to overgrazing and the changing of the habitat structure. Examples are bluebells and primroses. Deer open up the forest and reduce the amount of brambles, which then has knock-on effects on dormice and certain birds which nest near the ground, such as the capercaillie, dunnock, nightingale, song thrush, willow warbler, marsh tit, willow tit and bullfinch. Populations of the nightingale and the European turtle dove are believed to be primarily impacted by muntjac. Grouse populations suffer due to smashing into the fencing needed to protect against deer.


title: Overpopulation

text: A significant amount of the environmental destruction in Britain is caused by an overabundance of deer. Besides ecological effects, overpopulation of deer causes economic effects due to browsing on crops, expensive fencing needed to combat this and protect new afforestation planting and coppice growth, and increasing numbers of road traffic incidents. Deer are in fact the most lethal animals of Britain, killing approximately 20 people a year from road accidents. In Scotland, the cost of road accidents due to these animals is estimated to be £7 million, and such collisions cause injuries to 50 to 100 people a year. High populations cause stripping of the bark of trees, eventually destroying forests. Protecting forests from deer costs on average three times as much as planting the forest in the first place. The NGO Trees for Life spent weeks planting native trees in Scotland, aiming to rebuild the ancient Caledonian Forest. After winter snowdrifts in 2014/2015 flattened the deer fences, more than a decade's growth was lost in a matter of weeks. In 2009 – 2010 the cost of forest protection in Scotland ran to £10.5m.


title: Overpopulation

text: Some animals, such as muntjac, are too small and boring for most hunters to shoot, which poses additional management problems.


title: Overpopulation

text: In the United States the exact same problem is seen with white-tailed deer, where populations have exploded and become invasive species in some areas. The state of Wisconsin has an estimated population of 1.9 million White tail deer, measured in 2020. In continental Europe roe deer pose a similar problem, although the populations were formerly much less, they have swelled in the 20th century so that although two and a half million are shot each year by hunters in Western Europe alone, as of 1998, the population still appears to be increasing, causing problems for forestry and traffic. In an experiment where roe deer on a Norwegian island was freed from human harvest and predators, the deer showed a doubling of the population each year or two. In the Netherlands and southern England roe deer were extirpated from the entirety of the country except for a few small areas around 1875. In the 1970s the species was still completely absent from Wales, but as of 2013, it has colonized the entire country. As new forests were planted in the Netherlands in the 20th century, the population began to expand rapidly. As of 2016 there are some 110,000 deer in the country.


title: Overpopulation

text: Aquaculture operations, recreation angling and populations of endangered fish such as the schelly are impacted by cormorant populations. Open aquaculture ponds provide winter or year-round homes and food for cormorants. Cormorants' effect on the aquaculture industry is significant, with a dense flock capable of consuming an entire harvest. Cormorants are estimated to cost the catfish industry in Mississippi alone between $10 million and $25 million annually. Cormorant culling is commonly achieved by sharp-shooting, nest destruction, roost dispersal and oiling the eggs.


title: Overpopulation

text: Geese numbers have also been called overpopulated. In the Canadian Arctic region, snow geese, Ross's geese, greater white-fronted geese and some populations of Canada geese have been increasing significantly over the past decades. Lesser snow geese populations have increased to over three million, and continue to increase by some 5% per year. Giant Canada geese have grown from near extinction to nuisance levels. Average body sizes have decreased and parasite loads are higher. Before the 1980s, Arctic geese populations had boom and bust cycles (see above) thought to be based on food availability, although there are still some bust years, this no longer seems the case.


title: Overpopulation

text: It is difficult to know what the numbers of geese were before the 20th century, before human impact presumably altered them. There are a few anecdotal claims from that time of two or three million, but these are likely exaggerations, as that would imply a massive die-off or vast amounts harvested, for which there is no evidence. More likely estimates from the period of 1500 to 1900 are a few hundred thousand animals, which implies that with the exception of Ross's geese, modern populations of geese are many millions more than in pre-industrial levels.