title: KTLA

text: During the early 1960s, under the final years of ownership under Paramount Pictures, KTLA launched "am:LA", a one-hour morning news program anchored by Stan Chambers, and with it, it was the first extended morning newscast in Southern California. Before eventually launching a 10:00 p.m. newscast in 1965, originally titled "Newscene" (also known over the years as "The George Putnam News", "NewsWatch", "Channel 5/KTLA News at Ten" and "KTLA Prime News"), KTLA had its weeknight evening newscasts airing at 7 and 11 pm, with the latter in direct competition with the network-owned local newscasts on KNXT (now KCBS-TV), KRCA-TV (now KNBC) and KABC-TV. Traditionally, the evening news programs are often serious and no-nonsense in nature and has received many journalism awards. Putnam and fellow KTLA news anchors Hal Fishman and Larry McCormick became icons in Los Angeles television news over the years. Accompanying his news anchoring career, McCormick also hosted "Making It!", a public affairs program on the station which featured stories on the entrepreneurial successes of ethnic minorities. Its veteran field reporters have included 62-year KTLA veteran Stan Chambers and Warren Wilson. Stu Nahan, Keith Olbermann and Ed Arnold (former anchor of KOCE-TV's "Real Orange") formerly served as sports anchors.


title: KTLA

text: In March 1991, KTLA was the first station to air the infamous video of Rodney King's beating by three Los Angeles police officers, whose eventual acquittal sparked rioting within the city in 1992. In July 1991, KTLA debuted the Los Angeles market's first live, local morning two-hour newscast, the "KTLA Morning News", to compete with the network morning shows on KABC-TV (channel 7), KCBS-TV (channel 2) and KNBC (which each started at 7:00 a.m., as KTLA's program initially did). The program suffered from low ratings at first; however, the ability to cover breaking news live (as opposed to the network morning programs, which were aired on a three-hour tape delay) attracted more viewers to the program. As time went on, the "Morning News" has enjoyed great ratings success, generally ranking number one in its main 7:00–9:00 a.m. time period. The program's success spawned rival KTTV to launch its own morning newscast, "Good Day L.A.", in 1993. From 1994 to 1995, the station aired gavel to gavel coverage of the O. J. Simpson trial anchored by Marta Waller (this coverage was rebroadcast by other stations such as Portland, Oregon WB affiliate [and future Tribune sister station] KWBP (now KRCW-TV)).


title: KTLA

text: The station debuted a midday newscast at noon in 1995, which later moved to 11:00 a.m. the following year, which lasted less than two years before it was canceled in 1997. In recent years, KTLA's newscasts have become more tabloid-based in nature, perhaps to compete with KTTV (both stations have rivaled each other in the ratings for many years). With this, KTLA has placed more emphasis on entertainment news and has featured personalities such as Mindy Burbano Stearns, Zorianna Kitt, Ross King and most recently Jessica Holmes as entertainment reporters. In 2004, KTLA debuted a segment on its morning newscast titled "The Audition," in which several actors and actresses competed for a role as weathercaster on its 10:00 p.m. newscast. Ross King was the winner of the first installment, followed by Jessica Holmes as the winner of the second installment (Holmes now serves as co-anchor of the 7:00–11:00 a.m. weekday block of the "KTLA Morning News").


title: KTLA

text: On January 13, 2007, KTLA became the second television station in the Los Angeles market (after KABC-TV) to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition. On July 30, 2007, Hal Fishman anchored what would be his final newscast for KTLA. Following several days of hospitalization for a liver infection, Fishman died on August 7, 2007. KTLA's newscasts that day were dedicated to Fishman, for whom the station dedicated its news studio in 2000. After Fishman's passing, longtime "Morning Show" co-host Carlos Amezcua became the interim co-anchor on the 10:00 p.m. newscast. Local media speculated that Amezcua would be named full-time anchor of the primetime newscast; however, on September 4, Amezcua announced his departure from KTLA to replace John Beard as co-anchor of KTTV's 10:00 p.m. newscast. Morning co-anchor Emmett Miller took over as interim evening anchor and was named as Fishman's permanent replacement on December 4.


title: KTLA

text: After former KCBS/KCAL general manager Don Corsini was appointed as KTLA's president and general manager in January 2009, the station spearheaded an expansion of its news programming that year. On January 19, KTLA soft-launched a nightly half-hour 6:30 p.m. newscast (the market's first since KCAL-TV and KCBS-TV ran newscasts in that slot – KCBS's being part of an hour-long 6:00 p.m. newscast – during the mid-1990s, prior to CBS's 2002 purchase of KCAL). Then on April 1, 2009, the "KTLA Morning News" was expanded by a half-hour to start at 4:30 a.m. and an hour-long midday newscast at 1:00 p.m. debuted. On April 4, the weekend edition of the 6:30 p.m. newscast expanded to a full hour at 6:00 p.m., with the 6:30 p.m. weekday newscasts following suit that September. Shortly afterward, KTLA expanded the station's traffic reports to the afternoon and evening newscasts (the weekday edition of the "Morning News" utilizes a dedicated traffic anchor, while traffic reports for all other newscasts are done by channel 5's on-air weather staff).


title: KTLA

text: In April 2011, KTLA added weekend morning newscasts (an hour-long newscast at 6:00 a.m. on Saturdays, which expanded to two hours at 5:00 a.m. in September 2012 and a three-hour Sunday newscast at 6:00 a.m.; the Saturday morning edition aired in the earlier timeslot due to The CW's "Vortexx" animation block). In August 2011, KTLA added a two-hour primetime newscast titled the "KTLA 5 Sunday Edition" from 8:00–10:00 p.m. on Sunday evenings, leading into that night's 10:00 p.m. newscast (the 8:00 hour of the program was later dropped in September 2013, while the 9:00 hour moved to 7:00 p.m. on October 7, 2018, to accommodate the return of The CW's Sunday night two-hour prime time block). On February 2, 2012, KTLA expanded the weekday edition of the "KTLA Morning News" to begin at 4:00 a.m.


title: KTLA

text: On May 9, 2014, the Saturday morning newscast was expanded to three hours and moved to 6:00–9:00 a.m., in a uniform timeslot as the Sunday morning newscast, causing The CW's children's program block at the time, "Vortexx", to be aired to a two-hour tape delay (that broadcast expanded to four hours from 6:00–10:00 a.m. on August 6, 2016, further aligning it with the prior expansion of the Sunday morning newscast into the same four-hour slot on July 5, 2015, and pushing the successor One Magnificent Morning block back by an additional hour). The following month on June 16, KTLA quietly "soft launched" a half-hour nightly newscast at 11:00 p.m. without any promotion (becoming Tribune's first news-producing CW affiliate to carry a newscast in the traditional late news timeslot), its first regularly-scheduled 11 pm newscast since 1965.


title: KTLA

text: On December 26, 2014, KTLA added separate hour-long, weekday afternoon newscasts at 2:00 and 3:00 p.m. The creation of the three-hour mid-afternoon news block—which expanded upon the existing 1:00 p.m. newscast—was in response to CBS Television Stations' December 10 announcement that it would discontinue KCAL-TV's newscasts at 2:00 and 3:00 late that month to refocus newsgathering resources towards KCAL's 4:00 p.m. newscast and the respective evening newscasts on KCAL and sister station KCBS-TV. While the 3:00 broadcast was a permanent addition, the 2:00 p.m. newscast was intended as a temporary fill-in that ran until December 31, 2014 (it was replaced two days later on January 2, 2015, by a double-run of "Celebrity Name Game"). In July 2015, KTLA became the first television station in Los Angeles to carry live audio simulcasts of its newscasts on the iHeartRadio app.


title: KTLA

text: On October 7, 2018, KTLA moved its "Sunday Edition" up two hours earlier to 7:00 p.m. due to The CW adding prime time programming on Sundays.


title: KTLA

text: On December 27, 2018, KTLA "Weekend News" anchor and reporter, Chris Burrous, was found unconscious from a methamphetamine overdose in a Days Inn hotel room in Glendale, California. He was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.


title: KTLA

text: On January 12, 2019, KTLA began producing a weekend 30-minute edition of "KTLA 5 Sports Final" at 11:35 pm after the 11:00 p.m. newscast.


title: KTLA

text: On September 21, 2020, KTLA added a new hour-long 12 p.m. weekday newscast. The newscast had started months earlier due to the COVID-19 pandemic and became permanent on that day. Also on that day, the lifestyle show "LA Unscripted" debuted.


title: KTLA

text: KTLA, in the tradition of television pioneering successes, was an FCC volunteer "early adopter" HD station. On October 28, 1998, KTLA-DT signed on with the West Coast's first commercially broadcast high definition programming. It was on UHF channel 31 in 1080i 16:9 format. Frank Geraty was the KTLA Director of Broadcast Operations and Engineering, and Ira Goldstone was the Corporate VP of Engineering. At precisely 9 a.m., VIP Milton Berle threw the ceremonial "Transmit On" switch, as he did at the Chicago World's Fair in 1939 at the birth of analog television broadcasting. The modern day event took place during KTLA's signature morning news broadcast and KTLA HD programming began simultaneously transmitting for the first time along with its analog channel. KTLA-DT went on to do the first HD Rose Parade and the first HD Dodgers baseball game broadcasts in the several months that followed.


title: KTLA

text: KTLA shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 5, on June 12, 2009, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 31, using PSIP to display KTLA's virtual channel as 5 on digital television receivers.


title: KTLA

text: Veteran newsman Stan Chambers, who was hired by KTLA almost a year after its 1947 launch and remained with the station until his retirement in 2010, was given the honor of "throwing" a ceremonial mock switch from the analog to digital position, signaling the engineers to shut down the analog signal at its Mount Wilson transmitter site at 10:45 p.m., during KTLA's "Prime News" telecast. Covering the on-air event for KTLA was Stan's grandson, reporter Jaime Chambers. As part of the SAFER Act, KTLA temporarily restored its analog signal 15 minutes later at 11:00 p.m. to inform viewers of the digital television transition through a loop of public service announcements from the National Association of Broadcasters.


title: KTLA

text: KTLA was one of nearly 1,000 television stations that changed their digital signal allocation in the spectrum auction repack of late 2017 or early 2018. The station reallocated to UHF channel 35 in phase two of the auction. The spectrum change took place on March 18, 2019.


title: Sumeet Raghavan

text: Sumeet Raghavan is an Indian film, television, and theatre actor known for his roles in "Wagle Ki Duniya - Nayi Peedi Naye Kissey," Hudd Kar Di", "Sarabhai vs Sarabhai", "Sajan Re Jhoot Mat Bolo", "Badi Door Se Aaye Hai", and ." As a child actor, he played the role of Sudama in Mahabharat serial of B. R. Chopra.


title: Sumeet Raghavan

text: Raghavan was born to Tamil father, Mr. R. Raghavan and a Kannadiga mother, Mrs. Prema Raghavan. He married Chinmayee Surve in 1996.


title: Big Brother Canada (season 9)

text: Big Brother Canada 9 is the ninth season of the Canadian reality television series "Big Brother Canada". The series began filming on February 27, 2021 and premiered on March 3, 2021 on Global. Hosted by Arisa Cox, the show revolved around fourteen contestants (known as HouseGuests), who volunteered to reside in a house while being constantly filmed without any communication with the outside world as they compete to win a grand prize of CA$100,000.


title: Big Brother Canada (season 9)

text: The season concluded on May 6, 2021 after 69 days of competition. It was won by urban planner Tychon Carter-Newman, who defeated anthropology student Breydon White in a 6-1 jury vote. Carter-Newman is the first Black Canadian to win a season of "Big Brother Canada", and the second to win a season among North American "Big Brother" adaptations, after Tamar Braxton of the second season of the American celebrity spin-off. Kiefer Collison won an online vote to become this season's Canada's Favourite HouseGuest, being the first to receive such distinction.


title: Big Brother Canada (season 9)

text: Following the cancellation of the eighth season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the future of the show was left uncertain, however on July 13, 2020, "Big Brother Canada" was renewed for a ninth season. It was also announced that Arisa Cox would return as host and would assume the role of executive producer for the new season. Casting began on August 10, 2020, with Kassting Inc. returning to provide casting services for the show. On February 17, 2021, Global announced that the season will start airing with a two-night premiere on March 3–4, 2021. On February 17, 2021, Global announced that the season will start airing with a two-night premiere on March 3–4, 2021.


title: Big Brother Canada (season 9)

text: The free 24/7 live feeds, hosted on "Big Brother Canada"s website, started on March 4 after the first eviction episode. A tribute to "Big Brother Canada 4" HouseGuest Nikki Grahame aired on the 18th episode following her death.


title: Big Brother Canada (season 9)

text: On February 22, 2021, Global released an image of the living room wall. The theme for the season was confirmed to be post-apocalyptic. The full house design was revealed on March 1, with most of the house being similar to the season 8 superhero themed house, but with decorative fake vines and overgrowth covering large portions of the house. The bathroom, the HoH bedroom the outdoor spa area, and the Expedia-themed lounge room remained the same as last season. Of the few rooms to be completely redesigned was the main bedrooms, which were redecorated to correspond the theme of each team. The swamp themed Have-Not room was replaced by a ball-pit. Additionally, there was no nomination room, with the space normally taken by the nomination room being used as a OLG themed games room.


title: Big Brother Canada (season 9)

text: The HouseGuests competed for a grand prize of a $110,000 cash prize (consisting of the base prize of $100,000 with an additional $10,000 provided by sponsor Sunlight), $10,000 worth of grills and grilling accessories from Weber, and a vacation for two from Expedia. The runner-up wins $20,000. A new prize for "Canada's Favourite Houseguest" was also introduced this season, where the Canadian public voted for the recipient of a $10,000 prize.


title: Big Brother Canada (season 9)

text: The HouseGuests' images and profiles were released on Wednesday, February 24, 2021. Initially announced HouseGuest Ethan Quance was later removed when significant concerns were brought to the attention of production. He was replaced by Kyle Moore.


title: Big Brother Canada (season 9)

text: "Big Brother Canada" follows a group of contestants, known as HouseGuests who move into a custom-built house outfitted with cameras and microphones, recording their every move 24 hours a day. The HouseGuests are sequestered in the "Big Brother Canada House" with no contact with the outside world. During their stay, the HouseGuests share their thoughts on events and other HouseGuests inside a private room referred to as the Diary Room. At the start of each week in the house, the HouseGuests compete for the title of Head of Household, often shortened to simply HoH. The winner of the HoH competition is immune from eviction and will name two HouseGuests to be nominated for eviction. After the nominees are determined, the Power of Veto competition is played. Five players will compete in the competition: the two nominees and three random players, with the winner receiving the Power of Veto. If a HouseGuest chooses to exercise the Power of Veto, the Head of Household is obligated to name a replacement nominee. The holder of the Power of Veto is safe from being nominated as the replacement nominee. On eviction night, all HouseGuests must vote to evict one of the nominees, with the exception of the nominees and the Head of Household. The eviction vote is by secret ballot, with HouseGuests casting their votes orally in the Diary Room. In the event of a tied vote, the Head of Household will cast a tie-breaking vote publicly. The nominee with the majority of the votes is evicted from the house. Midway through the season, the evicted HouseGuests go on to become members of the "jury"; the jury is responsible for choosing who wins the series. The final Head of Household competition is split into three parts; the winners of the first two rounds compete in the third and final round. Once only two HouseGuests remain, the members of the jury cast their votes for who should win the series.


title: Big Brother Canada (season 9)

text: For the first time in "Big Brother Canada", the HouseGuests will compete in two teams (known as Team Destiny & Team Defender). The teams were selected by Team Captains determined by Canada's Vote, which opened as the cast was revealed. The Captains are also awarded immunity for the first week. For the duration of the teams phase the Head of Household would win immunity for their entire team. The draft for the teams was as follows:


title: Big Brother Canada (season 9)

text: At the start of each week, a group of HouseGuests are selected to become the Have-Nots for the week. Those selected to be the Have-Nots are restricted to a slop diet and cold showers, and are required to sleep in an uncomfortable room. Each week, a "Skip the Slop" online public vote is held. The winner of the vote (indicated by strikethrough) will receive a free meal from SkipTheDishes and have their Have-Not status nullified for the remainder of the week. The vote was held every week where Have-Nots were named, with the exception of Week 5.


title: Big Brother Canada (season 9)

text: At the beginning of the game, the HouseGuests competed in two teams. These are noted by color ( Team Defender Team Destiny). As part of the team format, the Head of Household would also win immunity for their team (indicated by ). On Day 13, the game reverted to the regular format, with the HouseGuests playing as individuals.


title: Big Brother Canada (season 9)

text: "Big Brother Canada 9" was generally well received by critics and viewers, with praise being directed at the diverse cast and the unpredictability of the course of the season. Justin Carreiro of the Young Folks wrote a positive review of the season, stating that it was a "fun and captivating season that gave fans exactly what we needed".


title: Big Brother Canada (season 9)

text: On February 24, 2021, Global announced 22-year-old Ethan Quance, a line cook from Banff, Alberta as one of the fourteen HouseGuests competing in the ninth season. However the following day, several allegations were made against him including sexual assault and the use of racist and homophobic language. As a result, Global made the decision to remove Quance from the cast and announced that he would be replaced prior to the premiere. He was replaced with Kyle Moore.


title: HIV/AIDS in Africa

text: HIV/AIDS originated in Africa in the early 20th century and is a major public health concern and cause of death in many African countries. AIDS rates vary significantly between countries, though the majority of cases are concentrated in Southern Africa. Although the continent is home to about 15.2 percent of the world's population, more than two-thirds of the total infected worldwide – some 35 million people – were Africans, of whom 15 million have already died. Sub-Saharan Africa alone accounted for an estimated 69 percent of all people living with HIV and 70 percent of all AIDS deaths in 2011. In the countries of sub-Saharan Africa most affected, AIDS has raised death rates and lowered life expectancy among adults between the ages of 20 and 49 by about twenty years. Furthermore, the life expectancy in many parts of Africa is declining, largely as a result of the HIV/AIDS epidemic with life-expectancy in some countries reaching as low as thirty-nine years.


title: HIV/AIDS in Africa

text: Countries in North Africa and the Horn of Africa have significantly lower prevalence rates, as their populations typically engage in fewer high-risk cultural patterns that promote the spread of the virus in Sub-Saharan Africa. Southern Africa is the worst affected region on the continent. As of 2011, HIV has infected at least 10 percent of the population in Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Eswatini, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.


title: HIV/AIDS in Africa

text: In response, a number of initiatives have been launched in various parts of the continent to educate the public on HIV/AIDS. Among these are combination prevention programs, considered to be the most effective initiative, such as the abstinence, be faithful, use a condom campaign or the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation's outreach programs.


title: HIV/AIDS in Africa

text: The number of HIV positive people in Africa receiving anti-retroviral treatment in 2012 was over seven times the number receiving treatment in 2005, with nearly 1 million added in the previous year. The number of AIDS-related deaths in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2011 was 33 percent less than the number in 2005. In 2011, new HIV infections in Sub-Saharan Africa decreased by 25 percent from 2001.


title: HIV/AIDS in Africa

text: "An estimated 420 000 [340 000−530 000] people died in the African Region from HIV-related causes in 2021, which indicates that mortality has dropped by almost 55% since 2010."


title: HIV/AIDS in Africa

text: In a 2019 research article titled "The Impact of HIV & AIDS in Africa", the charitable organization AVERT wrote:


title: HIV/AIDS in Africa

text: The earliest known cases of human HIV infection were in western equatorial Africa, probably in southeast Cameroon where groups of the central common chimpanzee live. "Phylogenetic analyses revealed that all HIV-1 strains known to infect humans, including HIV-1 groups M, N, and O, were closely related to just one of these SIV cpz lineages: that found in P. t. troglodytes [Pan troglodytes troglodytes i.e. the central chimpanzee]." It is suspected that the disease jumped to humans from butchering of chimpanzees for human consumption.


title: HIV/AIDS in Africa

text: Current hypotheses also include that, once the virus jumped from chimpanzees or other apes to humans, medical practices of the 20th century helped HIV become established in human populations by 1930. The virus likely moved from primates to humans when hunters came into contact with the blood of infected primates. The hunters then became infected with HIV and passed on the disease to other humans through bodily fluid contamination. This theory is known as the "Bushmeat theory".


title: HIV/AIDS in Africa

text: HIV made the leap from rural isolation to rapid urban transmission as a result of urbanization that occurred during the 20th century. There are many reasons why there is such a high prevalence of AIDS in Africa. One of the most formative explanations is the poverty that dramatically impacts the daily lives of Africans. The book, "Ethics and AIDS in Africa: A Challenge to Our Thinking", describes how "Poverty has accompanying side-effects, such as prostitution (i.e. the need to sell sex for survival), poor living conditions, education, health and health care, that are major contributing factors to the current spread of HIV/AIDS."


title: HIV/AIDS in Africa

text: Researchers believe HIV was gradually spread by river travel. All the rivers in Cameroon run into the Sangha River, which joins the Congo River running past Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Trade along the rivers could have spread the virus, which built up slowly in the human population. By the 1960s, about 2,000 people in Africa may have had HIV, including people in Kinshasa whose tissue samples from 1959 and 1960 have been preserved and studied retrospectively. The first epidemic of HIV/AIDS is believed to have occurred in Kinshasa in the 1970s, signaled by a surge in opportunistic infections such as cryptococcal meningitis, Kaposi's sarcoma, tuberculosis, and pneumonia.


title: HIV/AIDS in Africa

text: Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is a fatal disease caused by the slow-acting human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The virus multiplies in the body until it causes immune system damage, leading to diseases of the AIDS syndrome. HIV emerged in Africa in the 1960s and spread to the United States and Europe the following decade. In the 1980s it spread across the globe until it became a pandemic. Some areas of the world were already significantly impacted by AIDS, while in others the epidemic was just beginning. The virus is transmitted by bodily fluid contact including the exchange of sexual fluids, by blood, from mother to child in the womb, and during delivery or breastfeeding. AIDS first was identified in the United States and France in 1981, principally among homosexual men. Then in 1982 and 1983, heterosexual Africans also were diagnosed.


title: HIV/AIDS in Africa

text: In the late 1980s, international development agencies regarded AIDS control as a technical medical problem rather than one involving all areas of economic and social life. Because public health authorities perceived AIDS to be an urban phenomenon associated with prostitution, they believed that the majority of Africans who lived in "traditional" rural areas would be spared. They believed that the heterosexual epidemic could be contained by focusing prevention efforts on persuading the so-called core transmitters—people such as sex workers and truck drivers, known to have multiple sex partners—to use condoms. These factors retarded prevention campaigns in many countries for more than a decade.


title: HIV/AIDS in Africa

text: Although many governments in Sub-Saharan Africa denied that there was a problem for years, they have now begun to work toward solutions.


title: HIV/AIDS in Africa

text: AIDS was at first considered a disease of gay men and drug addicts, but in Africa it took off among the general population. As a result, those involved in the fight against HIV began to emphasize aspects such as preventing transmission from mother to child, or the relationship between HIV and poverty, inequality of the sexes, and so on, rather than emphasizing the need to prevent transmission by unsafe sexual practices or drug injection. This change in emphasis resulted in more funding, but was not effective in preventing a drastic rise in HIV prevalence.


title: HIV/AIDS in Africa

text: The global response to HIV and AIDS has improved considerably in recent years. Funding comes from many sources, the largest of which are the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.


title: HIV/AIDS in Africa

text: According to the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the number of HIV positive people in Africa receiving anti-retroviral treatment rose from 1 million to 7.1 million between 2005 and 2012, an 805% increase. Almost 1 million of those patients were treated in 2012. The number of HIV positive people in South Africa who received such treatment in 2011 was 75.2 percent higher than the number in 2009.


title: HIV/AIDS in Africa

text: Additionally, the number of AIDS-related deaths in 2011 in both Africa as a whole and Sub-Saharan Africa alone was 32 percent less than the number in 2005. The number of new HIV infections in Africa in 2011 was also 33 percent less than the number in 2001, with a "24% reduction in new infections among children from 2009 to 2011". In Sub-Saharan Africa, new HIV positive cases over the same period declined by 25%. According to UNAIDS, these successes have resulted from "strong leadership and shared responsibility in Africa and among the global community".


title: HIV/AIDS in Africa

text: Many activists have drawn attention to stigmatization of those testing as HIV positive. This is due to many factors such as a lack of understanding of the disease, lack of access to treatment, the media, knowing that AIDS is incurable, and prejudices brought on by a cultures beliefs. "When HIV/AIDS became a global disease, Some African leaders played ostrich and said that it was a gay disease found only in the West and Africans did not have to worry because there were no gays and lesbians in Africa". Africans were blind to the already huge epidemic that was infesting their communities. The belief that only homosexuals could contract the diseases was later debunked as the number of heterosexual couples living with HIV increased. Unfortunately there were other rumors being spread by elders in Cameroon. These "elders speculated that HIV/AIDS was a sexually transmitted disease passed on from Fulani women only to non-Fulani men who had sexual contact with them. They also claimed if a man was infected as a result of having sexual contact with a Fulani woman, only a Fulani healer could treat him". This communal belief is shared by many other African cultures who believe that HIV and AIDS originated from women. Because of this belief that men can only get HIV from women many "women are not free to speak of their HIV status to their partners for fear of violence". In general HIV carries a negative stigma in Sub-Saharan Africa. Unfortunately This stigma makes it very challenging for Sub-Saharan Africans to share that they have HIV because they are afraid of being an outcast from their friends and family. In every Sub-Saharan community HIV is seen as the bringer of death. The common belief is that once you have HIV you are destined to die. People seclude themselves based on these beliefs. They don't tell their family and live with guilt and fear because of HIV. However, there is a way to treat HIV and AIDS the problem is that many are just not aware of how HIV is spread or what effects it has on the body. "80.8% of participants would not sleep in the same room as someone who was HIV positive, while 94.5% would not talk to someone who was HIV positive".


title: HIV/AIDS in Africa

text: Social stigma plays a significant role in the state of HIV and AIDS infection in Africa. "In a normatively HIV/AIDS-stigmatizing Sub Saharan African communities, this suspicion of one's status by others is also applicable to individuals who are not HIV positive, but who may wish to utilize healthcare services for preventive purposes. This group of individuals under fear of suspicion may avoid being mistakenly identified as stigmatized by simply avoiding HARHS utilization." (151)


title: HIV/AIDS in Africa

text: "At the individual level, persons living with HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa likely want to conceal their stigmatized identities whenever possible in order to gain these rewards associated with having a 'normal' identity. The rewards of being considered normal' in the context of high-HIV-prevalence Sub-Saharan Africa are varied and great... such rewards for which there is empirical support in this context include perceived sexual freedom, avoidance of discrimination, avoidance of community or family rejection, avoidance of losing one's job or residence, and avoidance of losing one's sexual partners. Other potential rewards of being considered normal include avoidance of being associated with promiscuity or prostitution, avoidance of emotional, social and physical isolation and avoidance of being blamed for others' illness" (150).


title: HIV/AIDS in Africa

text: "It is the consensus in the HIV scientific community that abstinence, be faithful, use a condom [(ABC)] principles are vital guides for public health intervention, but are better bundled with biomedical prevention approaches; lone behavioral change approaches are not likely to stop the global pandemic." Uganda has replaced its ABC strategy with a combination prevention program because of an increase in the annual HIV infection rate. Most new infections were coming from people in long-term relationships who had multiple sexual partners.


title: HIV/AIDS in Africa

text: The abstinence, be faithful, use a condom (ABC) strategy to prevent HIV infection promotes safer sexual behavior and emphasizes the need for fidelity, fewer sexual partners, and a later age of sexual debut. The implementation of ABC differs among those who use it. For example, the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief has focused more on abstinence and fidelity than condoms while Uganda has had a more balanced approach to the three elements.


title: HIV/AIDS in Africa

text: The effectiveness of ABC is controversial. At the 16th International AIDS Conference in 2006, African countries gave the strategy mixed reviews. In Botswana,


title: HIV/AIDS in Africa

text: Eswatini in 2010 announced that it was abandoning the ABC strategy because it was a dismal failure in preventing the spread of HIV. "If you look at the increase of HIV in the country while we've been applying the ABC concept all these years, then it is evident that ABC is not the answer," said Dr. Derek von Wissell, Director of the National Emergency Response Council on HIV/AIDS.


title: HIV/AIDS in Africa

text: In 1999, the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation provided major funding for the Love Life website, an online sexual health and relationship resource for teenagers.


title: HIV/AIDS in Africa

text: In 2011, the Botswana Ministry of Education introduced new HIV/AIDS educational technology in local schools. The TeachAids prevention software, developed at Stanford University, was distributed to every primary, secondary, and tertiary educational institution in the country, reaching all learners from 6 to 24 years of age nationwide.


title: HIV/AIDS in Africa

text: During the Abuja African Union Summit on HIV/AIDS in April 2001, the heads of state and heads of government of Botswana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mali, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, and Uganda established the AIDS Watch Africa (AWA) advocacy platform. The initiative was formed to "accelerate efforts by Heads of State and Government to implement their commitments for the fight against HIV/AIDS, and to mobilize the required national and international resources." In January 2012, AWA was revitalized to include all of Africa and its objectives were broadened to include malaria and tuberculosis.


title: HIV/AIDS in Africa

text: In 2012, the African Union adopted a "Roadmap on Shared Responsibility and Global Solidarity for AIDS, TB and Malaria Response in Africa".


title: HIV/AIDS in Africa

text: This Roadmap presents a set of practical African-sourced solutions for enhancing shared responsibility and global solidarity for AIDS ... responses in Africa on a sustainable basis by 2015. The solutions are organized around three strategic pillars: diversified financing; access to medicines; and enhanced health governance. The Roadmap defines goals, results and roles and responsibilities to hold stakeholders accountable for the realization of these solutions between 2012 and 2015.


title: HIV/AIDS in Africa

text: The Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS reported that the following sixteen African nations in 2012 "ensure[d] that more than three-quarters of pregnant women living with HIV receive antiretroviral medicine to prevent transmission to their child": Botswana, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, São Tomé and Principe, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Eswatini, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.


title: HIV/AIDS in Africa

text: High-risk behavioral patterns are largely responsible for the significantly greater spread of HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa than in other parts of the world. Chief among these are the traditionally liberal attitudes espoused by many communities inhabiting the subcontinent toward multiple sexual partners and pre-marital and outside marriage sexual activity. HIV transmission is most likely in the first few weeks after infection, and is therefore increased when people have more than one sexual partner in the same time period. In most of the developed world outside Africa, this means HIV transmission is high among prostitutes and other people who may have more than one sexual partner concurrently. Within the cultures of sub-Saharan Africa, it is relatively common for both men and women to be carrying on sexual relations with more than one person, which promotes HIV transmission. This practice is known as concurrency, which Helen Epstein describes in her book, "The Invisible Cure: Africa, the West, and the Fight against AIDS", in which her research into the sexual mores of Uganda revealed the high frequency with which men and women engage in concurrent sexual relationships. In addition, in sub-Saharan Africa AIDS is the leading killer and a large reason for the high transmission rates is because of the lack of education provided to youth. When infected, most children die within one year because of the lack of treatment. All demographic populations in Sub-Saharan Africa have been infected with HIV, from men to women, and from pregnant woman to children. Rather than having more of a specific group infected, male or female, the ratio of men and women infected with HIV are quite similar. With the HIV infection, 77% of men, women, and children, develop AIDS, and die in Sub-Saharan Africa. In addition, "more than 90% of AIDS orphans and children [were] infected with HIV".


title: HIV/AIDS in Africa

text: Lack of money is an obvious challenge, although a great deal of aid is distributed throughout developing countries with high HIV/AIDS rates. For African countries with advanced medical facilities, patents on many drugs have hindered the ability to make low cost alternatives.


title: HIV/AIDS in Africa

text: Natural disasters and conflict are also major challenges, as the resulting economic problems people face can drive many young women and girls into patterns of sex work in order to ensure their livelihood or that of their family, or else to obtain safe passage, food, shelter or other resources. Emergencies can also lead to greater exposure to HIV infection through new patterns of sex work. In Mozambique, an influx of humanitarian workers and transporters, such as truck drivers, attracted sex workers from outside the area. Similarly, in the Turkana District of northern Kenya, drought led to a decrease in clients for local sex workers, prompting the sex workers to relax their condom use demands and search for new truck driver clients on main highways and in peri-urban settlements.


title: HIV/AIDS in Africa

text: Sub-Saharan "Africans have always appreciated the importance of health care because good health is seen as necessary for the continuation and growth of their lineage". Without proper health the culture will not be able to thrive and grow. Unfortunately, "health services in many countries are swamped by the need to care for increasing numbers of infected and sick people. Ameliorative drugs are too expensive for most victims, except for a very small number who are affluent". The greatest number of sick people with the fewest doctors, Sub-Saharan Africa "has 11 percent of the world's population but carries 24 percent of the global disease burden. With less than 1 percent of global health expenditure and only 3 percent of the world's health workers".


title: HIV/AIDS in Africa

text: When family members get sick with HIV or other sicknesses, family members often end up selling most of their belongings in order to provide health care for the individual. Medical facilities in many African countries are lacking. Many health care workers are also not available, in part due to lack of training by governments and in part due to the wooing of these workers by foreign medical organizations where there is a need for medical professionals. Unfortunately, many individuals who get a medical degree end up leaving Sub-Saharan Africa to work abroad "either to escape instability or to practice where they have better working conditions and a higher salary". Many low income communities are very far away from a hospital and they cannot afford to bus there or pay for medical attention once they arrive. "Healthcare in Africa differs widely, depending on the country and also the region – those living in urban areas are more likely to receive better healthcare services than those in rural or remote regions". It is very common to just wait out a sickness or seek help from a neighbor or relative. Currently antiretroviral therapy is the closest to a cure. However, many hospitals lack enough antiretroviral drugs to treat everyone. This may be because most Sub-Saharan African countries invest "as little as 1-4 dollars per capita, [so] overseas aid is a major source of funding for healthcare". Many overseas organizations are very hesitant to give antiretroviral drugs to Sub-Saharan Africa because they are expensive, which means that there is only so much they can give. Relying on other countries for help in general requires more paperwork and faith in another country very far away. Also, delivery of drugs and other aid takes many month and years to arrive in the hands of those that need help.


title: HIV/AIDS in Africa

text: According to a 2007 report, male and female circumcision were statistically associated with an increased incidence of HIV infection among the females in Kenya and the males in Kenya, Lesotho, and Tanzania who self-reported that they both underwent the procedure and were virgins. "Among adolescents, regardless of sexual experience, circumcision was just as strongly associated with prevalent HIV infection." Circumcised adults, however, were statistically less likely to be HIV positive than their uncircumcised counterparts, especially among older age groups.


title: HIV/AIDS in Africa

text: Similarly, a randomized, controlled intervention trial in South Africa from 2005 found that male circumcision "provides a degree of protection against acquiring HIV infection [by males], equivalent to what a vaccine of high efficacy would have achieved".


title: HIV/AIDS in Africa

text: There are high levels of medical suspicion throughout Africa, and there is evidence that such distrust may have a significant impact on the use of medical services. The distrust of modern medicine is sometimes linked to theories of a "Western Plot" of mass sterilization or population reduction, perhaps a consequence of several high-profile incidents involving western medical practitioners.


title: HIV/AIDS in Africa

text: African countries are also still fighting against what they perceive as unfair practices in the international pharmaceutical industry. Medical experimentation occurs in Africa on many medications, but once approved, access to the drug is difficult.


title: HIV/AIDS in Africa

text: South African scientists in a combined effort with American scientists from Gilead Sciences recently tested and found effective a tenofovir-based anti-retroviral vaginal gel that could be used as pre-exposure prophylaxis. Testing of this gel was conducted at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa. The FDA in the US is in the process of reviewing the drug for approval for US use. The AIDS/HIV epidemic has led to the rise in unethical medical experimentation in Africa.


title: HIV/AIDS in Africa

text: Since the epidemic is widespread, African governments sometimes relax their laws in order to get research conducted in their countries which they would otherwise not afford. However, global organizations such as the Clinton Foundation, are working to reduce the cost of HIV/AIDS medications in Africa and elsewhere. For example, the philanthropist Inder Singh oversaw a program which reduced the cost of pediatric HIV/AIDS drugs by between 80 and 92 percent by working with manufacturers to reduce production and distribution costs. Manufacturers often cite distribution and production difficulties in developing markets, which create a substantial barrier to entry.


title: HIV/AIDS in Africa

text: Major African political leaders have denied the link between HIV and AIDS, favoring alternate theories. The scientific community considers the evidence that HIV causes AIDS to be conclusive and rejects AIDS-denialist claims as pseudoscience based on conspiracy theories, faulty reasoning, cherry picking, and misrepresentation of mainly outdated scientific data.


title: HIV/AIDS in Africa

text: In Africa, subtype C of HIV-1 is very common, whereas it is rare in America or Europe. People with subtype C progress to AIDS faster than those with subtype A, the predominant subtype in America and Europe (see HIV disease progression rates#HIV subtype variation and effect on progression rates).


title: HIV/AIDS in Africa

text: Pressure from both Christian and Muslim religious leaders has resulted in the banning of a number of safe-sex campaigns, including condom promoting advertisements being banned in Kenya.


title: HIV/AIDS in Africa

text: While there is currently no cure or vaccine for HIV/AIDS there are emerging treatments. It has been extensively discussed that antiretroviral drugs (ART) are crucial for preventing the acquiring of AIDS. AIDS is acquired at the final stage of the HIV virus, which can be completely averted. It is overwhelmingly possible to live with the virus and never acquire AIDS. The proper obedience to ART drugs can provide an infected person with a limitless future. ART drugs are key in preventing the diseases from progressing as well as ensuring the disease is well controlled, thus forbidding the disease from becoming resistant to the treatments. In countries like Nigeria and the Central African Republic, a mere less than 25% of the population has access to the ART drugs. Funds devoted to ART drug access were measured at $19.1 billion in 2013 in low and middle-income countries among the region, however the funds were short of the UNAIDS' previous resource needs estimates of $22–24 billion by 2015.


title: HIV/AIDS in Africa

text: Prevalence measures include everyone living with HIV and AIDS, and present a delayed representation of the epidemic by aggregating the HIV infections of many years. Incidence, in contrast, measures the number of new infections, usually over the previous year. There is no practical, reliable way to assess incidence in Sub-Saharan Africa. Prevalence in 15- to 24-year-old pregnant women attending antenatal clinics is sometimes used as an approximation. The test done to measure prevalence is a sero survey in which blood is tested for the presence of HIV.


title: HIV/AIDS in Africa

text: Health units that conduct sero surveys rarely operate in remote rural communities, and the data collected also does not measure people who seek alternate healthcare. Extrapolating national data from antenatal surveys relies on assumptions which may not hold across all regions and at different stages in an epidemic.


title: HIV/AIDS in Africa

text: Thus, there may be significant disparities between official figures and actual HIV prevalence in some countries.


title: HIV/AIDS in Africa

text: A minority of scientists claim that as many as 40 percent of HIV infections in African adults may be caused by unsafe medical practices rather than by sexual activity. The World Health Organization states that about 2.5 percent of HIV infections in Sub-Saharan Africa are caused by unsafe medical injection practices and the "overwhelming majority" by unprotected sex.


title: HIV/AIDS in Africa

text: In contrast to areas in North Africa and the Horn of Africa, traditional cultures and religions in Sub-Saharan Africa have generally exhibited a more liberal attitude to female out-of-marriage sexual activity. The latter includes practices such as multiple sexual partners and unprotected sex, high-risk cultural patterns that have been implicated in the much greater spread of HIV in the subcontinent.


title: HIV/AIDS in Africa

text: As with North Africa, the HIV infection rates in the Horn of Africa are quite low. This has been attributed to the Muslim nature of many of the local communities and adherence to Islamic morals.


title: HIV/AIDS in Africa

text: Ethiopia's HIV prevalence rate has decreased from 3.6 percent in 2001 to 1.4 percent in 2011. The number of new infections per year also has decreased from 130,000 in 2001 to 24,000 in 2011.


title: HIV/AIDS in Africa

text: Kenya, according to a 2008 report from the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS, had the third largest number of individuals in Sub-Saharan Africa living with HIV. It also had the highest prevalence rate of any country outside of Southern Africa. Kenya's HIV infection rate dropped from around 14 percent in the mid-1990s to 5 percent in 2006, but rose again to 6.2 percent by 2011. The number of newly infected people per year, however, decreased by almost 30 percent, from 140,000 in 2001 to 100,000 in 2011.


title: HIV/AIDS in Africa

text: As of 2012, Nyanza Province had the highest HIV prevalence rate at 13.9 percent, with the North Eastern Province having the lowest rate at 0.9 percent.


title: HIV/AIDS in Africa

text: Christian men and women also had a higher infection rate than their Muslim counterparts. This discrepancy was especially visible among women, with Muslim women showing a rate of 2.8 percent versus 8.4 percent among Protestant women and 8 percent among Catholic women. HIV was also more common among the wealthiest than among the poorest (7.2 percent versus 4.6 percent).


title: HIV/AIDS in Africa

text: Historically, HIV had been more prevalent in urban than rural areas, although the gap is closing rapidly. Men in rural areas are now more likely to be HIV-infected (at 4.5 percent) than those in urban areas (at 3.7 percent).


title: HIV/AIDS in Africa

text: Between 2004 and 2008, the HIV incidence rate in Tanzania for ages 15–44 slowed to 3.37 per 1,000 person-years (4.42 for women and 2.36 for men). The number of newly infected people per year increased slightly, from 140,000 in 2001 to 150,000 in 2011. There were also significantly fewer HIV infections in Zanzibar, which in 2011 had a prevalence rate of 1.0 percent compared to 5.3 percent in mainland Tanzania.


title: HIV/AIDS in Africa

text: Uganda has registered a gradual decrease in its HIV rates from 10.6 percent in 1997, to a stabilized 6.5-7.2 percent since 2001. This has been attributed to changing local behavioral patterns, with more respondents reporting greater use of contraceptives and a two-year delay in first sexual activity as well as fewer people reporting casual sexual encounters and multiple partners.


title: HIV/AIDS in Africa

text: The number of newly infected people per year, however, has increased by over 50 percent, from 99,000 in 2001 to 150,000 in 2011. More than 40 percent of new infections are among married couples, indicating widespread and increasing infidelity. This increase has caused alarm. The director of the Centre for Disease Control – Uganda, Wuhib Tadesse, said in 2011 that,


title: HIV/AIDS in Africa

text: Western Africa has moderate levels of infection of both HIV-1 and HIV-2. The onset of the HIV epidemic in the region began in 1985 with reported cases in Senegal, Benin, and Nigeria. These were followed in 1986 by Côte d'Ivoire. The first identification of HIV-2 occurred in Senegal by microbiologist Souleymane Mboup and his collaborators.


title: HIV/AIDS in Africa

text: HIV prevalence in western Africa is lowest in Senegal and highest in Nigeria, which has the second largest number of people living with HIV in Africa after South Africa. Nigeria's infection rate (number of patients relative to the entire population), however, is much lower (3.7 percent) compared to South Africa's (17.3 percent).


title: HIV/AIDS in Africa

text: In Niger in 2011, the national HIV prevalence rate for ages 15–49 was 0.8 percent while for sex workers it was 36 percent.


title: HIV/AIDS in Africa

text: In the mid-1980s, HIV and AIDS were virtually unheard of in southern Africa. However, it is now the worst-affected region in the world. Currently, Eswatini and Lesotho have the highest and second highest HIV prevalence rates in the world, respectively. Of the nine southern African countries (Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Eswatini, Zambia, and Zimbabwe), four are estimated to have an infection rate of over 15 percent.


title: HIV/AIDS in Africa

text: In Botswana, the number of newly infected people per year has declined by 67 percent, from 27,000 in 2001 to 9,000 in 2011. In Malawi, the decrease has been 54 percent, from 100,000 in 2001 to 46,000 in 2011. All but two of the other countries in this region have also recorded major decreases (Namibia, 62 percent; Zambia, 54 percent; Zimbabwe, 47 percent; South Africa, 38 percent; Eswatini, 32 percent). The number has remained virtually the same in Lesotho and Mozambique.


title: HIV/AIDS in Africa

text: There are widespread practices of sexual networking that involve multiple overlapping or concurrent sexual partners. Men's sexual networks, in particular, tend to be quite extensive, a fact that is tacitly accepted or even encouraged by many communities. Along with having multiple sexual partners, unemployment and population displacements resulting from drought and conflict have contributed to the spread of HIV/AIDS. According to Susser and Stein (2000), men refuse to use condoms during intercourse with girls or women performing sex work (p. 1043-1044). Unfortunately, the girls and women are in desperate need of money and do not have a choice. This leads to multiple sex partners, which increases the likelihood of their infection with HIV/AIDS.


title: HIV/AIDS in Africa

text: A 2008 study in Botswana, Namibia, and Eswatini found that intimate partner violence, extreme poverty, education, and partner income disparity explained almost all of the differences in HIV status among adults aged 15–29 years. Among young women with any one of these factors, the HIV rate increased from 7.7 percent with no factors to 17.1 percent. Approximately 26 percent of young women with any two factors were HIV positive, with 36 percent of those with any three factors and 39.3 percent of those with all four factors being HIV-positive.


title: HIV/AIDS in Africa

text: As of 2011, the HIV prevalence rate in Eswatini was the highest in the world at 26.0 percent of persons aged 15–49. The United Nations Development Program wrote in 2005,


title: HIV/AIDS in Africa

text: The HIV epidemic in Eswatini has reduced its life expectancy at birth to 49 for men and 51 for women (based on 2009 data). Life expectancy at birth in 1990 was 59 for men and 62 for women.


title: HIV/AIDS in Africa

text: Based on 2011 data, Eswatini's crude death rate of 19.51 per 1,000 people per year was the third highest in the world, behind only Lesotho and Sierra Leone. HIV/AIDS in 2002 caused 64 percent of all deaths in the country.


title: HIV/AIDS in Africa

text: Much of the deadliness of the epidemic in Sub-Saharan Africa is caused by a deadly synergy between HIV and tuberculosis, termed a "co-epidemic". The two diseases have been "inextricably bound together" since the beginning of the HIV epidemic. "Tuberculosis and HIV co-infections are associated with special diagnostic and therapeutic challenges and constitute an immense burden on healthcare systems of heavily infected countries like Ethiopia." In many countries without adequate resources, the tuberculosis case rate has increased five to ten-fold since the identification of HIV. Without proper treatment, an estimated 90 percent of persons living with HIV die within months after contracting tuberculosis. The initiation of highly active antiretroviral therapy in persons coinfected with tuberculosis can cause an immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome with a worsening, in some cases severe worsening, of tuberculosis infection and symptoms.


title: HIV/AIDS in Africa

text: An estimated 874,000 people in Sub-Saharan Africa were living with both HIV and tuberculosis in 2011, with 330,000 in South Africa, 83,000 in Mozambique, 50,000 in Nigeria, 47,000 in Kenya, and 46,000 in Zimbabwe. In terms of cases per 100,000 population, Eswatini's rate of 1,010 was by far the highest in 2011. In the following 20 African countries, the cases-per-100,000 coinfection rate has increased at least 20 percent between 2000 and 2011: Algeria, Angola, Chad, Comoros, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, The Gambia, Lesotho, Liberia, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Eswatini, Togo, and Tunisia.


title: HIV/AIDS in Africa

text: Since 2004, however, tuberculosis-related deaths among people living with HIV have fallen by 28 percent in Sub-Saharan Africa, which is home to nearly 80 percent of the people worldwide who are living with both diseases.


title: Area codes 301 and 240

text: Area codes 301 and 240 are telephone area codes in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for the western part of the U.S. state of Maryland. The numbering plan area (NPA) comprises Maryland's portion of the Greater Washington, D.C. metro area, portions of southern Maryland, along with rural western Maryland. This includes the communities of Cumberland, Frederick, Hagerstown, Gaithersburg, Potomac, Germantown, Bethesda, Rockville, Landover, Silver Spring, and Waldorf.


title: Area codes 301 and 240

text: Area code 301 was one of the original area codes when the NANP was established in 1947. It served the entire state of Maryland.


title: Area codes 301 and 240

text: Much of the Washington metropolitan area is part of a local calling area which is centered on the District's area code 202, and also extends into the suburban area in southern Maryland with 301 and Northern Virginia with area code 703. From 1947 to 1990, it was possible to dial any other telephone number in the metro area as a local call with only seven digits, not using an area code, irrespective of the home area code. The entire metro area was also reachable via long-distance services by dialing area code 202, for which purpose AT&T had established cross-referenced operator routing codes for all affected central offices. For example, if 202-574 numbers were in use in the District or 703-574 numbers were in use in Northern Virginia, the corresponding 301-574 numbering block could only be assigned in areas considered a safe distance away from the capital, such as the Eastern Shore of Maryland.


title: Area codes 301 and 240

text: By the end of the 1980s, the Washington metropolitan area was running out of unassigned prefixes for new central offices. The only available prefixes could not be assigned without breaking seven-digit dialing in the region. With this in mind, the three local operating companies of The Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company (C&P Telephone, later part of Bell Atlantic and now Verizon) decided to mitigate this situation by ending the code protection scheme as of October 1, 1990, with the result that all local metro area calls between Maryland, the District of Columbia, and Virginia required dialing the area code for calls to another NPA. Area code 202 was no longer useable for suburban points. Local calls within Maryland did not require the area code. Permissive dialing using the old dialing procedures continued from April 1 through October 1 1990.


title: Area codes 301 and 240

text: Despite the overall growth of the Baltimore–Washington metropolitan area, 301 remained the exclusive area code for Maryland for 44 years, making Maryland one of the largest states with a single area code. By the end of the 1980s, however, it became apparent that breaking seven-digit dialing in the Washington area would not free up enough numbers north of the Potomac River to stave off the immediate need for a new area code.


title: Area codes 301 and 240

text: Baltimore and the Eastern Shore were split off as area code 410 on November 1, 1991. The split largely followed metropolitan area lines. There were a few exceptions, such as in Howard County, which is often recognized as part of the Baltimore metropolitan area, a small portion of the county remained in area 301, while the rest of the county was reassigned to area code 410.


title: Area codes 301 and 240

text: Normally, when an area code is split, the largest city in the old numbering plan area retains the existing area code—in this case, Baltimore. In this case, however, Bell Atlantic wanted to spare the large number of federal agencies on the Maryland side of metropolitan Washington from the expense and disruption of changing their numbers.


title: Area codes 301 and 240

text: This was intended as a long-term solution, but within four years 301 was close to exhaustion due to the proliferation of cell phones and pagers, especially in the Washington suburbs. In order to solve this problem, area code 240 was introduced on June 1, 1997, as the state's first overlay area code. Overlays were a new concept at the time, and met with some resistance due to the requirement for ten-digit dialing. It was decided to create an overlay rather than split the region into two new regions in order to avoid assigning a new area code to 1.2million existing phone numbers. At the time, it was predicted that it would take until 2008 to exhaust area code 240.


title: Area codes 301 and 240

text: In September 2022, it was projected that the 301 and 240 area codes would be exhausted between April and June 2023. The North American Numbering Plan Administrator has assigned area code 227 as an additional overlay for the region. Phone numbers with area code 227 only begin to be assigned on June 14, 2023. However, existing phone numbers with area codes 301 and 240 will not change, even after 227 enters service. Existing phone numbers will not change.


title: Area codes 301 and 240

text: The counties served by area codes 301 and 240 include all of Allegany, Charles, Garrett, Montgomery, Prince George's, St. Mary's and Washington counties, most of Frederick County, western Howard County, and slivers of southwestern Carroll County and western Anne Arundel County.


title: Ternary numeral system

text: A ternary numeral system (also called base 3 or trinary) has three as its base. Analogous to a bit, a ternary digit is a trit (trinary digit). One trit is equivalent to log 3 (about 1.58496) bits of information.


title: Ternary numeral system

text: Although "ternary" most often refers to a system in which the three digits are all non–negative numbers; specifically , , and , the adjective also lends its name to the balanced ternary system; comprising the digits −1, 0 and +1, used in comparison logic and ternary computers.


title: Ternary numeral system

text: Representations of integer numbers in ternary do not get uncomfortably lengthy as quickly as in binary. For example, decimal 365 or senary 1405 corresponds to binary 101101101 (nine digits) and to ternary 111112 (six digits). However, they are still far less compact than the corresponding representations in bases such as decimalsee below for a compact way to codify ternary using nonary (base 9) and septemvigesimal (base 27).


title: Ternary numeral system

text: As for rational numbers, ternary offers a convenient way to represent as same as senary (as opposed to its cumbersome representation as an infinite string of recurring digits in decimal); but a major drawback is that, in turn, ternary does not offer a finite representation for (nor for , , etc.), because 2 is not a prime factor of the base; as with base two, one-tenth (decimal, senary ) is not representable exactly (that would need e.g. decimal); nor is one-sixth (senary , decimal ).


title: Ternary numeral system

text: Similarly, for a number "N"("b", "d") with base "b" and "d" digits, all of which are the maximal digit value , we can write:


title: Ternary numeral system

text: Nonary (base 9, each digit is two ternary digits) or septemvigesimal (base 27, each digit is three ternary digits) can be used for compact representation of ternary, similar to how octal and hexadecimal systems are used in place of binary.


title: Ternary numeral system

text: In certain analog logic, the state of the circuit is often expressed ternary. This is most commonly seen in CMOS circuits, and also in transistor–transistor logic with totem-pole output. The output is said to either be low (grounded), high, or open (high-"Z"). In this configuration the output of the circuit is actually not connected to any voltage reference at all. Where the signal is usually grounded to a certain reference, or at a certain voltage level, the state is said to be high impedance because it is open and serves its own reference. Thus, the actual voltage level is sometimes unpredictable.


title: Ternary numeral system

text: A rare "ternary point" in common use is for defensive statistics in American baseball (usually just for pitchers), to denote fractional parts of an inning. Since the team on offense is allowed three outs, each out is considered one third of a defensive inning and is denoted as .1. For example, if a player pitched all of the 4th, 5th and 6th innings, plus achieving 2 outs in the 7th inning, his innings pitched column for that game would be listed as 3.2, the equivalent of (which is sometimes used as an alternative by some record keepers). In this usage, only the fractional part of the number is written in ternary form.


title: Ternary numeral system

text: Ternary numbers can be used to convey self-similar structures like the Sierpinski triangle or the Cantor set conveniently. Additionally, it turns out that the ternary representation is useful for defining the Cantor set and related point sets, because of the way the Cantor set is constructed. The Cantor set consists of the points from 0 to 1 that have a ternary expression that does not contain any instance of the digit 1. Any terminating expansion in the ternary system is equivalent to the expression that is identical up to the term preceding the last non-zero term followed by the term one less than the last non-zero term of the first expression, followed by an infinite tail of twos. For example: 0.1020 is equivalent to 0.1012222... because the expansions are the same until the "two" of the first expression, the two was decremented in the second expansion, and trailing zeros were replaced with trailing twos in the second expression.


title: Ternary numeral system

text: Ternary is the integer base with the lowest radix economy, followed closely by binary and quaternary. This is due to its proximity to the mathematical constant "e". It has been used for some computing systems because of this efficiency. It is also used to represent three-option "trees", such as phone menu systems, which allow a simple path to any branch.


title: Ternary numeral system

text: A form of redundant binary representation called a binary signed-digit number system, a form of signed-digit representation, is sometimes used in low-level software and hardware to accomplish fast addition of integers because it can eliminate carries.


title: Ternary numeral system

text: Simulation of ternary computers using binary computers, or interfacing between ternary and binary computers, can involve use of binary-coded ternary (BCT) numbers, with two bits used to encode each trit. BCT encoding is analogous to binary-coded decimal (BCD) encoding. If the trit values 0, 1 and 2 are encoded 00, 01 and 10, conversion in either direction between binary-coded ternary and binary can be done in logarithmic time. A library of C code supporting BCT arithmetic is available.


title: Ternary numeral system

text: Some ternary computers such as the Setun defined a tryte to be six trits or approximately 9.5 bits (holding more information than the "de facto" binary byte).


title: Phenols

text: In organic chemistry, phenols, sometimes called phenolics, are a class of chemical compounds consisting of one or more hydroxyl groups (—OH) bonded directly to an aromatic hydrocarbon group. The simplest is phenol, . Phenolic compounds are classified as simple phenols or polyphenols based on the number of phenol units in the molecule.


title: Phenols

text: Phenols are more acidic than typical alcohols. The acidity of the hydroxyl group in phenols is commonly intermediate between that of aliphatic alcohols and carboxylic acids (their pK is usually between 10 and 12). Deprotonation of a phenol forms a corresponding negative phenolate ion or phenoxide ion, and the corresponding salts are called phenolates or phenoxides (aryloxides according to the IUPAC Gold Book).


title: Phenols

text: Phenols are susceptible to Electrophilic aromatic substitutions. Condensation with formaldehyde gives resinous materials, famously Bakelite.


title: Phenols

text: Another industrial-scale electrophilic aromatic substitution is the production of bisphenol A, which is produced by the condensation with acetone.


title: Phenols

text: Phenol is readily alkylated at the ortho positions using alkenes in the presence of a Lewis acid such as aluminium phenoxide:


title: Phenols

text: More than 100,000 tons of tert-butyl phenols are produced annually (year: 2000) in this way, using isobutylene (CH=CMe) as the alkylating agent. Especially important is 2,6-ditert-butylphenol, a versatile antioxidant.


title: Phenols

text: Phenols undergo esterification. Phenol esters are active esters, being prone to hydrolysis. Phenols are reactive species toward oxidation. Oxidative cleavage, for instance cleavage of 1,2-dihydroxybenzene to the monomethylester of 2,4 hexadienedioic acid with oxygen, copper chloride in pyridine Oxidative de-aromatization to quinones also known as the Teuber reaction. and oxone. In reaction depicted below 3,4,5-trimethylphenol reacts with singlet oxygen generated from oxone/sodium carbonate in an acetonitrile/water mixture to a para-peroxyquinole. This hydroperoxide is reduced to the quinole with sodium thiosulfate.


title: Phenols

text: Many phenols of commercial interest are prepared by elaboration of phenol or cresols. They are typically produced by the alkylation of benzene/toluene with propylene to form cumene then is added with to form phenol (Hock process). In addition to the reactions above, many other more specialized reactions produce phenols:


title: Phenols

text: There are various classification schemes. A commonly used scheme is based on the number of carbons and was devised by Jeffrey Harborne and Simmonds in 1964 and published in 1980:


title: History of weapons

text: People have used weapons in warfare, hunting, self-defense, law enforcement, and criminal activity. Weapons also serve many other purposes in society including use in sports, collections for display, and historical displays and demonstrations. As technology has developed throughout history, weapons have changed with it.


title: History of weapons

text: Major innovations in the history of weapons have included the adoption of different materials – from stone and wood to different metals, and modern synthetic materials such as plastics – and the developments of different weapon styles either to fit the terrain or to support or counteract different battlefield tactics and defensive equipment.


title: History of weapons

text: The use of weapons is a major driver of cultural evolution and human history up to today, since weapons are a type of tool which is used to dominate and subdue autonomous agents such as animals and by that allow for an expansion of the cultural niche, while simultaneously other weapon users (i.e., agents such as humans, groups, cultures) are able to adapt to weapons of enemies by learning, triggering a continuous process of competitive technological, skill and cognitive improvement (arms race).


title: History of weapons

text: Stone tips are one of the earliest forms of weapons assumed by archaeologists, with the earliest surviving examples of stone tips with animal blood dating to around 64,000 years ago from the Natal, in what is now South Africa. These early arrows were just a stone tip, which is advantageous over organic materials because it enables weapons to cut through tougher hides and create larger wounds, killing more easily.


title: History of weapons

text: There is as yet no direct evidence for bows during the African Pleistocene, and the hypothesis that very early, stone points were used to tip darts or arrows remains unsupported by use-trace studies and contextual evidence. Some hypothesised concomitants, such as the use of bow drills, also remain elusive.<ref name="publication/256678582_Indications_of_Bow_and_Stone-Tipped_Arrow_Use_64000_Years_Ago_in_KwaZulu-Natal_South_Africa"></ref>


title: History of weapons

text: Bows and arrows had arrived in Europe by the Late Paleolithic period, around 9,000–11,000 BCE, and seem to have arrived in the Americas by at least 6,000 BCE.


title: History of weapons

text: The oldest extant bows, from the Holmegård region in Denmark, date to around 6,000 BCE. The bows were quite effective against the enemies that were far from the archer, and so archers were sought after in recruitment for armies. When people started horse riding at around 2500 BCE, composite bows were created. In 1200 BCE, the Hittites, originating from Anatolia, shot arrows using their bows on light chariots. In 1000 BCE some of these horse-riding archers from Central Asia invented the recurve bow, which was in the shape of a "W" and had an improved elasticity.


title: History of weapons

text: People from the Nile used relatively long bows for better accuracy, they also used composite bows. Civilizations all over the world produced bows according to their respective vegetation. The Chinese made bows from bamboo sticks while others who did not have the right kind of wood needed for making bows, produced composite bows. According to Chinese beliefs and mythology, a story is narrated and written in old Chinese texts which says how bow and arrow were invented.


title: History of weapons

text: As humans discovered new natural resources beneath the Earth's surface, traditional weapons were replaced as methods for metal-working developed.


title: History of weapons

text: After the discovery of pure copper in Anatolia, around 6000 BCE, copper metallurgy spread in Egypt and Mesopotamia. Around 3500 BCE the art of metallurgy spread into India, China and Europe.


title: History of weapons

text: Bronze, an alloy of copper and tin, had been used as far back as 4500 BCE, as it is much harder than pure copper. It was used extensively in Asia: the Indus Valley Civilization flourished as a result of improved metallurgy. Neolithic communities who lived primarily in the upper Yellow River in China also used bronze items extensively as a number of artifacts were recovered at the Majiayao site. Bronze was produced on a large scale in China for weapons, including spears, pole-axes, pole-based dagger-axes, composite bows, and bronze or leather helmets. From the excavations at Zhengzhou, it is evident that the Chinese during the Shang dynasty had well built walls, large buildings, bronze foundries, and bone and pottery workshops.


title: History of weapons

text: Bronze significantly contributed to the ancient world and helped cultures of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, Rome, Indus and China flourish. Bronze replaced stone in weapons. During the Bronze Age maces were in high demand. The Sumerians were the first people on record to have used bronze weapons. Native Americans mostly used flint spears and knives but used bronze for ceremonies and intricate decorations. Ancient artisans soon discovered the drawbacks of bronze for producing armaments, as while weapons made of bronze could be sharpened easily, they were not able to hold their edge. Along with maces, bows and arrows and slings were used in wars. Bows and arrows were preferred over spears because they were easy to handle, provided greater mobility, were more accurate and did not require as much raw material. Bows and arrows were a boon for hunters as they could hunt more effectively with a bow and arrow than with a spear, and so the bow enabled ancient man to become the most efficient hunter.


title: History of weapons

text: The earliest civilizations in southern Mesopotamia, modern day Iraq, were the Sumerians and Akkadians. The occupied land was open to enemy attacks from the many barbarian tribes. The Sumerian warrior was equipped with spears, maces, swords, clubs and slings. Sargon of Akkad, (2333–2279 BCE) was a great military leader and used both infantry and chariots. The chariot troops used both spears and bows and arrows which proved to be effective.


title: History of weapons

text: For a long time the Egyptians' strategically-advantageous locale allowed them to remain free from enemy attacks. Egypt was considered to be peaceful in the ancient world. They never considered training an army for the sake of invasion or defense of their own province. During the 15th Dynasty, a tribe known to be the Hyksos surprised the Egyptians when they marched into Egypt in the Second Intermediate Period with chariots. At this time, weapons superior to those possessed by the Egyptians were being developed further away in Asia. Tribes using these new and sophisticated weapons started to conquer new lands and at the same time exchange their knowledge of weapons with other civilizations. The Hyksos were among these invaders. Many historians believe that the Hyksos came from Mesopotamia, although the exact location is still a mystery. The invaders used composite bows as well as improved recurve bows and arrowheads. Unlike the Sumerians, they had horse-drawn chariots and not donkeys, and wore mailed shirts and metal helmets. They were also armed with superior daggers and swords.


title: History of weapons

text: Before the Hyksos invasion, the Egyptians did not have a cavalry because, it is believed, their small horses were not strong enough to support a rider. It was from the Hyksos charioteers that the use of horses in warfare was introduced to Egyptian culture. When, after a civil war with the Hyksos rulers, the Egyptians came to power once again, they continued to use horse-drawn chariots in their armies.


title: History of weapons

text: Fish were a major source of food in the ancient world, and the Egyptians lived on whatever the river Nile had to offer to them. Papyrus boats are reported to have been first constructed in the predynastic period for the purpose of fishing. Most of the Egyptians used boats to transport warriors. In order to intercept a foreign boat, they used large stones, which they would hurl in the direction of enemy boats, by hand or using a catapult. The Egyptians traded with the Phoenicians around 2200 BCE. For safety of their boats they would fix a bow. The Egyptian New Kingdom re-organized the standing army and also focused on making new and improved boats. During this period, Egypt's navy was extensive, and bigger ships of seventy to eighty tons suited to long voyages became quite common. Many cargo ships were converted into battle ships. Seafaring was not safe, and in order to have smooth trading relations, they built a large fleet and took control of the sea. The temple of Medinet Habu has reliefs depicting the fleet of Ramses III fighting a naval battle against the Sea Peoples. The Phoenicians are said to have developed the first war galley armed with a battering ram for attacking other ships in the ancient world.


title: History of weapons

text: Chariots, a mode of transportation, were used as a weapon by ancient peoples. The Hittites used chariots to crash into enemies, whereas the Egyptians used them to stay away from enemies and attack them by arrows and spears.


title: History of weapons

text: These vehicles were first made in Mesopotamia by the Sumerians, as four-wheeled wagons each pulled by four donkeys. Every wagon held two individuals; a driver, and a warrior armed with a spear or an ax. Some historians believe that chariots were first developed in the Eurasian steppes, somewhere near Russia and Uzbekistan. After the introduction of horses, it was discovered that they were much faster and consequently chariots became more fierce weapons with the combination of speed, strength and mobility. The Hyksos introduced chariots in Egypt, these chariots were later modified into the Egyptian style, parts were changed and decorated with Egyptian symbols and paintings. However, by the 15th century BCE, Tutmoses III made 1000 chariots for military expedition. Each chariot carried two men, one to drive and one to shoot arrows. Much later, the Egyptians changed their strategy and divided the charioteers into five squadrons, with twenty-five chariots in each and two men in each chariot: a driver and a soldier armed with bows and arrows, a shield, a sword, and a javelin. If arrows were exhausted they would always keep swords as a backup for close combat.


title: History of weapons

text: The Khopesh, also called the Canaanite "sickle-sword", was used mostly by the tribes who lived near Mesopotamia. These tribes, who used to attack the Egyptians occasionally, used the Khopesh as their main weapon. These tribes later started trading with Egyptians and the Egyptians were so impressed by the shape and make of the sword that they decided to adopt it themselves. Ramses II was the first pharaoh to have used the khopesh in warfare during the battle of Kadesh. The Khopesh was designed such that it could be used as an axe, a sword or a sickle. The Khopesh eventually became the most popular sword in all of Egypt and a symbol of royal power and strength. The Assyrian king Adad-nirari I (r. 1307–1275 BCE) used to display this sword during ritual ceremonies, and such curved swords could be seen in Mesopotamian art and paintings. Some of these Khopesh swords were black in colour and came with a full tang. The average length of the Khopesh was around 40 to 60 cm, which is likely why the Mamluk Sultanate based their sword, the Scimitar, off it. This weapon later spread all around the Muslim Empires and to Eastern Europe.


title: History of weapons

text: The classical Greek civilization had mastered the art of making spears. The trident, a three pronged spear used for fishing, was a form of spear popular with the Greeks. This weapon was used in the east by the Indians who called it "Trishul" (three spears) and by gladiators in Rome known as retarii, or 'net-fighters', in keeping with the historical use of the trident in fishing. These net fighters would cast the net onto their enemies and once their enemies were trapped and helpless in the net, would then use the trident to kill them or inflict serious injuries. The trident is also associated with various gods: Poseidon and his Roman counterpart Neptune were both associated with and often depicted with a trident, and the Hindu god Shiva also wields the trident.


title: History of weapons

text: Assyria was a Northern Mesopotamian kingdom known for its war-like culture. It was King Shamshi-Adad I at the start of the 18th century BC who conquered lands to the west as far as the Mediterranean, and established the first Assyrian empire. They had set up schools to teach military warfare involving demolition of walls and mining city walls. The Assyrians were surrounded by hostile, powerful and aggressive tribes, therefore it was important for them to train their people. The Assyrian army was the first to use iron in its weapons. Unlike the rest of the civilizations, the Assyrian charioteers had a crew of three people, rather than the usual two: an extra crew member was added to protect the rear. They were the first to introduce cavalry and the first to develop siege craft with siege towers and battering rams. Cavalry had completely replaced chariots in late 600 BCE. The King stood in the middle on a chariot flanked by bodyguards and the standing army. The archers stood in front of the king and were covered by powerful 'spearmen' and shielded carriers who fought in close combat with the enemies, then there were the heavy chariots and the horsemen who would charge into enemy lines with brutal force.


title: History of weapons

text: Ancient Greece was surrounded by hostile neighbours such as Persia, and later Rome. The Greeks had adopted a different pattern of warfare and even fashioned their weapons differently. They had adopted a very strategic style of fighting, researching the strengths and weaknesses of their enemies, and developed their weapons accordingly. After incessant threats of a Persian invasion, the Greeks came together and formed the Delian league; the Spartans were ready for a ground assault while the Athenians relied on their strong navy. Sensing the military might of the Athenians, the city-states and settlers of Asia Minor requested them to lead the league. The Athenians had a formidable navy; they produced an overwhelming number of warships and soldiers and in return demanded tribute from the league members. The Athenians had built dozens of warships known as triremes to defend Greece. The crew consisted of 200 men which included the captain, ten dignitaries who may have been commanders, several archers, a few soldiers, and 170 oarsmen.


title: History of weapons

text: When the Persians met the Greek army they outnumbered it three to one, the Persian army consisting of infantry and excellent cavalry. Their tactics were primarily defensive since their main weapon was the bow; they were also supplied with the akinakes, a dagger-like sword. The Greeks used long spears, shields, helmets and breastplates. The Greeks had no cavalry at this time. As soon as the Persian army came to the battleground, the Greeks already started to charge into the enemy lines to avoid the shower of arrows. The Greek shields were so strong that they broke the spears of the Persians, much to their surprise. The long Greek spears, with sharp iron spearhead on a wooden shaft and a bronze butt-spike, helped them break enemy ranks and rout the Persian army. If their spear was broken they used their swords for close combat. Ancient Greeks brought many changes in the technology of warfare.


title: History of weapons

text: The victories in the Greco-Persian war at Salamis and Plataea largely ended the Persian threat to the Greek mainland. With the outbreak of the Peloponnesian war, inter-Greek warfare became more significant. The year 424 saw Brasidas' expeditions across the whole of Greece, proving wrong the idea suggested by the Old Oligarch that land forces could not sustain lengthy campaigns against sea powers.


title: History of weapons

text: The Macedonians emerged as a power in Greece after the crippling of Sparta at the Battle of Leuctra, the ascent to power of King Phillip II who, through a combination of military power and diplomacy, unified the Greek city-states and formed the Corinthian League to fight the Persians. The Macedonians followed the traditional military strategy adopted by the Greek city-states, the phalanx, though unlike other Greeks the Macedonian infantry was equipped with the "sarissa", a spear as long as 15 feet with a leaf-shaped spearhead. Unlike the cities of Greece proper, the Macedonian army also had a dedicated cavalry, as the flat plains of Macedon were better suited to cavalry combat than the mountainous country to the south. The Macedonians engineers had developed heavy weapons and artillery pieces, with enough power to breach the gates and walls of a fortification. Torsion catapults were also developed a little later as well as heavy weapons such as the ballistae, and the smaller, and more portable weapons, "cheiroballistra" were improved by King Philip II and Alexander the Great.


title: History of weapons

text: After Rome was sacked by the Senones in 390 BCE, they regrouped and formed an alliance of the city states. They deployed thoroughly trained soldiers in the north western frontiers to protect Rome from further attacks. These soldiers were divided into two groups, "Legionaries" and "Auxiliaries". Legionaries were Roman citizens whereas Auxiliaries were recruited from tribes and allies of Rome. They eventually defeated the Gauls and gained total control of the Italian peninsula as well as North Western Europe. The Romans never used complex weapons, instead they chose to use the more simple and unusual weapons of warfare. The armor and weapons were used under excellent supervision, great leadership and discipline that enabled the Romans to create superior military forces, both regular and irregular armies including mercenaries and allies, that were able to conquer their opponents.


title: History of weapons

text: Originating in Spain, the "gladius" was adopted by the Romans as one of their most commonly used weapons for close combat. Typically 30 cm in length, characterizing a short sword, the term "gladius" was also applied to longer swords. Though many swords were double-edged for ease of cutting, this was not always the case. In addition, the geometry of the sword's point varied over time due to changing combat styles, but all were tapered to allow for thrusting. The gladius was also suitable for cutting and chopping. It was mainly used for thrusting, however, and thus had limited effect when wielded from horseback. These swords were made with an iron blade to which a bronze-covered wood, or ivory cross guard, pommel, and grip would be attached. The gladius varied in length and size as Roman soldiers of different ranks used gladius measuring around 34.5 and 64 centimeters. There were other short sword variations that were classified with names other than "gladius". One such example is the "sica", which was about 40 cm long and had a curved tip. To engage in close combat, Roman soldiers would lead with their shield protected from volleys of arrows or pila and thrust forward with their sword.


title: History of weapons

text: In addition to short swords, Roman infantry typically carried a spear or other type of pole weapon. The most common was known as the javelin, a heavy spear that could be either thrown or thrusted. Similar in function to the javelin was the "fuscina." Although not used by the Roman military, this fork-like trident was one of the most popular gladiator weapons. A version of the javelin that had a much longer and thinner tip was the "pilum", which could pierce armor or shields when thrown. Several "pila" could be thrown to initiate combat, disrupting the structure and defense of enemy armies and providing an opportunity for close combat, where the gladius would take over. The design of the "pilum" allowed it to become lodged in an enemy shield. Removing a "pilum" from a shield was often difficult and time-consuming during combat. In fact, most were not reusable after removal.


title: History of weapons

text: Siege warfare gave the Roman army significant offensive advantages over their enemies. Though the catapult was developed in ancient Greece, the Romans were able to replace the traditional Greek catapult made of wood making the most stressed components out of iron or bronze. This allowed for a reduction in size and also the ability to increase the stress levels to provide more power. Since a detailed understanding of mathematics and mechanics was required to design the catapult, it stands as a prime example of cooperation between ancient science and technology. Additional knowledge in topics like metallurgy and machine design helped to improve the performance of catapults. One example is the addition of machine elements like springs and copper bearings.


title: History of weapons

text: It was known that the size of the catapult's components should be proportional to the weight of its intended projectile. As a result, tables relating standard part sizes and common projectile weights were assembled, which drastically increased the efficiency and production rate of catapults. The Roman catapult could be moved and operated by a single soldier, which allowed a more efficient use of soldiers and resources. These machines were torsion-powered and most were used to launch large spherical or dart-like projectiles. However, more creative options were often used. These included poisonous snakes, jars of bees, and dead bodies that were infected with diseases like the plague. The catapult was versatile, and could effectively launch any projectile that fit in its launch bucket.


title: History of weapons

text: The Romans also developed an automatic repeating catapult called the scorpion. This was smaller than other catapults but had more moving parts. The rope coils were often made of twisted bovine sinews, horsehair or women's hair. The kinetic power delivered by a catapult was dependent on the diameter of these coils, making the coil diameter the dimensional standard for power rating. This would be similar to how the caliber system is used in modern firearms.


title: History of weapons

text: The Barbarian tribes from Germania kept penetrating deeper into the Roman territory, some of these tribes were the Osthrogoths, Visigoths, Vandals and Franks. After the death of Marcus Aurelius, Rome became vulnerable to attacks from all directions. The Huns, a tribe said to be from steppe regions of Central Asia started to push other barbarian tribes into Roman territories, the Huns not only attacked other barbarian tribes but eventually attacked Rome. By this time the Roman Empire was divided into East and West. The Huns always fought a battle on horseback as they were not used to infantry lines, their favourite weapon was the composite bow.


title: History of weapons

text: Flavius Aetius forged an alliance with the Visigoths, Alans and the Vandals and provided them with Roman arms and armour to fight against their common enemy, the Huns. His barbarian filled forces defeated the Huns in 410, the visigoths sacked Rome under the leadership of Alaric I.


title: History of weapons

text: After the defeat of Western Roman Empire, the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantine empire held on. The barbarian kingdoms had already set up their kingdoms in place, they started the process of recruiting and the advancement of soldiers. A warrior was highly respected according to the barbarian tradition, a brave warrior was often rewarded by allotting land, titles and other benefits, and these land owners later became medieval nobles.


title: History of weapons

text: Many barbarians had served in the Roman army and so used similar weapons to those in that army. However, after a brief period, the barbarian tribes including the Vandals, the Ostrogoths, Visigoths, and Franks started to develop and make their own weapons. Archers began to fire iron-tipped arrows, the cavalry and infantry both initiated the use of longer two-edged swords. Meanwhile, the Franks used a variety of weapons, they chose not to wear their armor and instead carried more weapons. In 470 Sidonius Apollinaris recalls his first meeting with Frankish soldiers and according to him, the Franks hung their swords onto their shoulders, they also carried with them barbed lances and throwing axes. Many Frankish warriors also did not wear helmets. They carried their traditional double-edged axe and never carried any missile weapons.


title: History of weapons

text: Amongst all the barbarian tribes, Merovingian kingdom of the Franks became the most powerful realm in Western Europe. Most of the power was exercised by the military lords who eventually gained total control of the Merovingian kingdom in late 600 AD. Pippin II, who had gained total control of the Merovingian kingdom passed Mayorships to his illegitimate son, Charles Martel, in 714. Charles Martel was responsible for modernization of the Frankish army and the defeat of Muslims at the Battle of Tours. During the battle, the Franks had carried with them swords and axes, the iron heads of their weapons were exceedingly sharp, and their axes were forged from a single piece of iron. However, by the end of the 7th century production of axes ceased as the number of skilled axe throwers started dwindling.


title: History of weapons

text: During the reign of Justinian, the emperor of Constantinople, the Byzantine empire became military active. He sent a huge army to re-capture the North African provinces from the Vandals, and by 534 AD, the Byzantine general Belisarius had destroyed the Vandal power and proceeded to march through Italy to conquer Rome from the Ostrogoths. By 565, the Byzantines wiped the Ostrogoths from Italy. The Byzantines were witnessing great advances in military engineering, possessing a highly disciplined military force and military technicians who contributed to the development of siege weapons that the civilized world had never seen.


title: History of weapons

text: In around 672, an incendiary substance known as Greek Fire was invented. Greek fire was sprayed from early flamethrowers on ships known as dromons. Researchers have been unable to duplicate this substance today, ships were set alight by the Greek fire and it had the capability to kill large number of warriors inside the ship with one shot.


title: History of weapons

text: Some of the early devices used by the Byzantines were torsion powered engines used to shoot arrows with greater intensity. The Byzantine military engineers were learning and developing more sophisticated siege weapons, and by the 10th century they had adopted engineering techniques used by the Muslims.


title: History of weapons

text: The Islamic world had already advanced way ahead of others in military engineering which, according to historians, was due to trade relations with China. The Islamic world had learned that the Chinese technology, was known to be superior to that of the Greeks or the Romans. Arab army generals were encouraging the use of new technology and inherited a highly sophisticated tradition of siege warfare.