title: Laudato si'

text: On behalf of the Diocese of Limburg, Peter Reulein wrote the music for the oratorio "Laudato si' – a Franciscan Magnificat" to the libretto by Helmut Schlegel. This work is based on the Latin version of the Magnificat, corresponds to the "Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy," and includes texts from the apostolic exhortation "Evangelii gaudium" and the encyclical "Laudato si"'. The premiere of the oratorio took place in the Limburg Cathedral on 6 November 2016.


title: Laudato si'

text: With the encyclical's publication in 2015, the Laudato Si Movement was founded to bring together Catholics interested in promoting its message. In 2022, the Laudato Si' Movement consists of 967 member organizations, 11539 Laudato Si' Animators, 204 Laudato Si' Circles and 58 National Chapters around the globe.


title: Laudato si'

text: On Oct. 4, 2021, the Vatican Dicastery for Integral Development launched the Laudato Si Action Platform, in collaboration with the Laudato Si' Movement and many other Catholic institutions.


title: Laudato si'

text: On Oct. 4. 2022 was the premiere of the film by award-winning documentary filmmaker Nicolas Brown and the production team "Off The Fence" (Oscar winners for "My Octopus Teacher"), in collaboration with Laudato Si' Movement and the Vatican.


title: Amber Mark

text: Amber Mark (born December 29, 1993) is an American singer, songwriter, and producer. She released her first mini-album, "3:33am", in May 2017. Her multifaceted style implements sounds from hip hop, R&B, soul, and bossa nova. She was nominated as a featured artist for "Best Engineered Album" at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards. Her debut album, "Three Dimensions Deep", was released in January 2022.


title: Amber Mark

text: Mark was born on December 29, 1993 on a farm in Summertown, Tennessee to a Jamaican father and a German mother whose name was Mia Mark, from Kaiserslautern. Mark's mother was a painter, while her father was a musician. Mark has an older half-brother and an older sister. Mark and her mother lived in Miami, New York, Munich and eventually moved to a Darjeeling monastery in India so that her mother could learn Tibetan Buddhist thangka painting. After spending a few years there, they moved back to her mother's home country, in the Pankow borough of Berlin. It was Mia who gave Mark her first guitar, which is when she started to teach herself how to play music. Before high school, Mark and her mother moved back to New York City, where her godparents legally adopted her so that she could go to Talent Unlimited High School in the city. Mark and her mother later moved back to Miami, where her brother lived. There, Mark attended Miami Beach Senior High. In high school, Mark joined the school choir and an after school rock ensemble. She stated in an interview that this was when she realized that being an artist was what she wanted to do. Mark later moved back to New York City, where she interned at Roc Nation. Mia died in 2013, at the age of 60.


title: Amber Mark

text: Mark released her debut single "S P A C E" to her Soundcloud in 2016. In 2017 she released her first album, "3:33am". As Mark explained, "[t]hree has been a really common number in my life. My mother was born in 1953, my brother was born in 1983 and I was born in 1993. Then my mum passed away on June 3, at 10:23pm in 2013. Since then, I'd see threes everywhere. When I was writing the EP in New York ... and out of the zone, I would check the clock and I always remember it being 3:33am." The album art features a photo taken by her sister, in which Mark is wearing a watch that reads 3:33.


title: Amber Mark

text: Each song on the record represents one of the six stages of grief. The song "Monsoon" includes samples of her mother's voice, which she explained in an interview with Sound of Boston as "a video recording of me flying back to New York for the summer while we were living in Berlin. I wanted to make a video for my godmother from my mother. Hence why I’m telling her that they don’t speak German and that she needs to speak English. When she says she loves me that is from a more recent recording she made for me while she was in hospice." Her mother, Mia, also influenced her fashion greatly and Mark elaborates on this influence in her 2017 interview with Vogue as the "3:33am" album was just released.


title: Amber Mark

text: Following the release of five singles in 2021 from her full-length debut, "Three Dimensions Deep", the album itself was released on January 28, 2022.


title: Baikonur

text: Baikonur (, ; ), formerly known as Leninsk, is a city of republic significance in Kazakhstan on the northern bank of the Syr Darya river. It is currently leased and administered by the Russian Federation as an enclave until 2050. It was constructed to service the Baikonur Cosmodrome and was officially renamed Baikonur by Russian president Boris Yeltsin on December 20, 1995. During the Soviet period, it was sometimes referred to as Zvezdograd (), Russian for "Star City".


title: Baikonur

text: The rented area is an ellipse measuring east to west by north to south, with the cosmodrome situated at the area's centre.


title: Baikonur

text: Foreign visitors need pre-approval from the Russian authorities to visit both the town of Baikonur itself and the Cosmodrome. Foreign visitors need to obtain a written approval which is completely separate from having a regular Russian visa.


title: Baikonur

text: The original Baikonur (Kazakh for "wealthy brown", i.e. "fertile land with many herbs") is a mining town 320 kilometres northeast of the present location, near Dzhezkazgan in Kazakhstan's Karagandy Region. Starting with Vostok 1 in April 1961, the launch site was given this name to cause confusion and keep the location secret. (The original Baikonur's residents took advantage of the confusion by ordering and receiving many scarce materials before government officials discovered the deception.) Baikonur's railway station predates the base and retains the old name of Tyuratam. This was the original Soviet railway station (railhead) on the Moscow to Tashkent Railway that the Cosmodrome was initially named after.


title: Baikonur

text: The fortunes of the city have varied according to those of the Soviet or Russian space program and its Baikonur Cosmodrome.


title: Baikonur

text: Due to the city's military and scientific significance, it was closed off by Soviet authorities. It did not appear on maps available to the general public during the Soviet period prior to perestroika.


title: Baikonur

text: The Soviet government established the Nauchno-Issledovatel'skii Ispytatel'nyi Poligon N.5 (NIIIP-5), or Scientific-Research Test Range N.5 by its decree of 12 February 1955. The U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance plane found and photographed the Tyuratam missile test range (cosmodrome Baikonur) for the first time on 5 August 1957.


title: Baikonur

text: The town has unique ties with space, and hence the history of the rocket building and space binds all the sights in the area and the cosmodrome. However, there are only a few exceptions: old locomotive, an Orthodox Church and a new mosque.


title: Baikonur

text: Baikonur features a cold desert climate ("BWk"). Summers are hot with July highs averaging slightly over , while winters are cold, with longer periods of sustained below-freezing temperatures.


title: Baikonur

text: South of city center, near the Syr Darya River there is a large park with several sports and amusement facilities. Among these is a ferris wheel, which is no longer in use. The park is located at coordinates .


title: Vantaa

text: Vantaa (; , ) is a city and municipality in Finland. It is part of the inner core of the Finnish Capital Region along with Helsinki, Espoo, and Kauniainen. With a population of (), Vantaa is the fourth most populated city in Finland after Helsinki, Espoo and Tampere. Its administrative center is the Tikkurila district. Vantaa is bordered by Helsinki, the Finnish capital, to the south; Espoo to the southwest; Nurmijärvi to the northwest; Kerava and Tuusula to the north; and Sipoo to the east. The city encompasses , of which is water.


title: Vantaa

text: Vantaa's significant attractions include the Vantaa River ("Vantaanjoki"), which flows through the city and flows into the Gulf of Finland. The largest airport in Finland, and the main airport and airline hub of Greater Helsinki, the Helsinki Airport, is located in Vantaa. Companies with headquarters in Vantaa include Finnair, Finavia, R-kioski, Tikkurila Oyj, Veikkaus Oy, and Metsähallitus. The city also hosts a science center, Heureka.


title: Vantaa

text: The city of Vantaa is bilingual, both Finnish and Swedish being official languages. 78.7% of the population are Finnish speakers, while 2.4% speak Swedish as their first language. 18.9% of the population speak a native language other than Finnish or Swedish.


title: Vantaa

text: Vantaa has a rich history that dates back to the Stone Age. The area was inhabited by Tavastians and Finns proper until the so-called second crusade to Finland and Swedish colonisation of the area.


title: Vantaa

text: Remains of an ancient rectangular dwelling dating to 6700 to 6500 BCE have been discovered in Brunaberg in Vantaa. At the time, the dwelling was located at the seashore near the mouth of the Keravanjoki river. The dwelling had been used for decades, apparently mostly in wintertime. A graveyard-like dwelling dating to the Mesolithic has been discovered in Jönsas, which was located at the mouth of a seaside bay at the time. In the Stone Age, people in Vantaa sought their food mostly from the sea. Seals were an important quarry, but remains of harbour porpoises have also been found at the numerous Neolithic dwelling sites at Jokiniemi. Remains of permanent dwellings found from Stenkulla in Hakkila date from the same period.


title: Vantaa

text: There are considerably many findings from the Comb Ceramic culture in Vantaa. Many ancient clay figures representing humans have been found in Jokiniemi in Vantaa. They have been estimated to be of various ages from 5300 to 5500 years old. During the typical Comb Ceramic time, large amounts of flint were brought to Finland from the south and southeast, which was made into blades and points, as well as amber. The Comb Ceramic era humans also knew how to use bows and arrows as weapons.


title: Vantaa

text: Iron Age history in Vantaa is not very well known, but the entire Uusimaa area was still a sparsely-populated backland of Tavastia at the end of the Iron Age. The most researched Iron Age dwelling in Vantaa is located at the same site as the earlier Stone Age dwellings of Jönsas and Palmu. Remains of Morby ceramics have been discovered at these sites, and iron slag has also been discovered in Jönsas. Remains of fireplaces dating to the Iron Age have also been researched in Jönsas. Remains of dwellings dating to the 10th century have been discovered in Gubbacka in Länsisalmi as well as remains of smithies from the 12th and 13th centuries.


title: Vantaa

text: Information about ancient villages located in the Vantaa area can be found from concentration of soil visible in palynological analysis as well as retroactive reasoning based on nomenclature and historical documents. According to historian Saulo Kepsu, Finnish population has spread from Tavastia to the Helsinki and Vantaa area in the 11th to 14th centuries, possibly even earlier. The Tavastians had fishing places and other pleasure grounds in the area.


title: Vantaa

text: Prior to the name "Vantaa" being taken into use in 1974, the area was known as "Helsingin pitäjä" (; "Socken of Helsinki"). The rapids of river Vantaa were known as "Helsingfors", from which the current Swedish name of Helsinki derives. Early settlement in Vantaa was centered around the river, in Helsingin pitäjän kirkonkylä ("Helsinki Parish Village"), and from it the city's current coat of arms derived its imagery.


title: Vantaa

text: The Swedish colonisation in Vantaa started in connection with the colonisation in the rest of Uusimaa in the late 13th century after the Second Swedish Crusade. The Swedes called the area "Ny land" ("new land"). There was permanent settlement in the area of the branching point of the rivers in the 14th century.


title: Vantaa

text: The history of "Helsingin pitäjä" stretches at least to the 14th century. For a long time it was thought that the earliest record of the area was as "Helsinge" in 1351 when king Magnus IV of Sweden granted salmon fishing rights on the river "Helsingaa" (now known as the river Vantaa) to the Estonian Padise Abbey. However, according to current knowledge, the first mention of Vantaa was in a document given by king Magnus IV in Västerås on 14 September 1331, describing episcopal tithes, requiring a pound of butter for the bishop from every citizen of age 7 years or older.


title: Vantaa

text: Since the 14th century, the road between Turku and Vyborg, King's Road, has run through Vantaa. The road brought significant attention to the city, and its location on the salmon rich river led to a permanent population.


title: Vantaa

text: The river "Helsingaa" soon gave its name to the entire area, and also inspired the coat of arms of Vantaa. The Helsinki socken was born from the 1370s to the 1390s, and the Church of St. Lawrence was built there in 1460. The church was located in a transport hub near the rivers of Vantaa and Kerava. Many roads also ran through the clerical centre: the King's Road from Turku to Vyborg and the Häme road to the Häme Castle and to the coast in the south. The first vicar in "Helsingin pitäjä" was mentioned in 1395. "Helsingin pitäjä" is seen as have established itself as a clerical and administrative parish in the 15th century, and the first mention of a church dedicated to Saint Lawrence in the area is from 1401. A local "frälse" family donated a land worth one "skattmark" from Rekola to the church of St. Lawrence. The name "Helsinge" was first mentioned in 1428. In the same year, fishing rights in the area were moved over to the Archdiocese of Turku, which helped the construction of a stone church to replace the old wooden one.


title: Vantaa

text: Justice in "Helsingin pitäjä" was the responsibility of its own district court. It is known that the parish had its own district court in the 16th century. The court could be held by deputies hired by high-ranking judges, so-called lawreaders. The use of lawreaders was common from the late 16th century to the 1680s.


title: Vantaa

text: Because of its poor location, Porvoo could not compete with the Hanseatic merchants in Tallinn, so in 1550 king Gustav Vasa decided to found the city of Helsinki at the site of "Helsingin pitäjä" at the mouth of the Helsingaa river. "Helsingin pitäjä" had already developed into a significant centre of marine trade in Uusimaa in the 1530s. However, the Vanhakaupunki area in Helsinki never became the city centre Gustav Vasa wanted during his lifetime.


title: Vantaa

text: In 1570, the 25-year Russian war also affected life in "Helsingin pitäjä". Increased stress, additional military tax and enemy attacks had their toll on the population and often led to farmsteads being deserted. In 1577 there were 51 farmsteads burned and raided by the enemy. Serving food to and accommodating the military departments was the responsibility of police chief Olof Mårtensson, who lived at the Malmi horsestead. The largest department served by the police chief consisted of 40 horsemen from the Uppland unit in January 1576. As well as the Malmi horsestead, "Helsingin pitäjä" was also home to the horsesteads of Pukinmäki, Herttoniemi, Haltiala, Kirkonkylä, Meilby, Kulosaari and Heickby.


title: Vantaa

text: After the Treaty of Stolbovo, the Diet of Helsinki granted the rights of a staple town to Helsinki for foreign trade in 1617. The wars against Poland and Germany in the 1620s led to many large manors for the nobility being built in "Helsingin pitäjä" to support the cavalry, including Westerkulla and Hakunila. In autumn 1640, it was decided to move Helsinki from the Vanhakaupunki area to its current location at Vironniemi. The village of Töölö was annexed from "Helsingin pitäjä" to Helsinki proper in 1644, and in 1652 the parish congregation lost its independent status, and in order to support the economy of the Helsinki congregation, the entire church parish of Helsinki was annexed to the city congregation of Helsinki.


title: Vantaa

text: The Great Famine of 1695–1697 also had its toll on "Helsingin pitäjä". Successive years of crop loss caused famine and mortality was high. As well as the peasants, the famine also affected servants of the crown, both the noble and the common estates, and the bourgeoisie.


title: Vantaa

text: During the Great Wrath Russian troops invaded "Helsingin pitäjä" in 1713. Some of the inhabitants fled to the mother country of Sweden or into nearby forests, some fought back against the invaders. As the invasion grew long, circumstances slowly settled and the Treaty of Nystad was made in autumn 1721. A second, shorter invasion, known as the Lesser Wrath, happened from 1742 to 1743.


title: Vantaa

text: Circumstances in "Helsingin pitäjä" started improving in the 1720s, as it became one of the most important centres of early industry in Finland. Water-powered sawmills were built in the area, forming a significant concentration of export industry at the time. This export was directed both to central Europe and also far way to the Mediterranean Sea in the late 18th century. A significant export target for "Helsingin pitäjä" was located just near its coast: the construction of the Sveaborg fortress, started in 1748, required large amounts of workforce and agricultural and industrial products such as foodstuffs, wood, brick and lime.


title: Vantaa

text: "Helsingin pitäjä" was a Swedish-speaking area. From the middle 18th century to the early 19th century, only about a tenth of the population of the parish spoke Finnish.


title: Vantaa

text: Ore deposits in "Helsingin pitäjä" had been discovered in the 1700s, but weren't utilized until Finland transferred to Russian control in the early 1800s. Ore extraction and processing lead to rapid industrialization in the area, with communities forming around locations like Tikkurila and Kerava. The industrial community in Tikkurila included an expeller pressing plant, which currently operates in the area as the paint manufacturer Tikkurila Oyj.


title: Vantaa

text: The capital of autonomous Finland was moved from Turku to Helsinki in the early 1800s and "Helsingin pitäjä" fell behind the growing population development of Helsinki proper. "Helsingin pitäjä" gained municipality rights in 1865 because of the first municipal law enacted in Finland, after which it was named "Helsingin maalaiskunta/Helsinge kommun" ("Rural Municipality of Helsinki"). In 1805 "Helsingin pitäjä" had 4840 inhabitants, Sveaborg had 4606 and Helsinki had 4337. After six decades "Helsingin pitäjä" had about 7000 inhabitants while Helsinki already had 23,000.


title: Vantaa

text: The parish assembly meeting in 1823 established the general order, which specified crimes and punishments they resulted in. One of the reasons the general order was made was the increase of rootless vagabonds in the society. The parish assembly meeting and participation of citizens in keeping up the order was needed, because the state officials failed to keep the poor-mannered part of the people under control. Crimes not resulting in a court session were handled in the parish assembly meeting by announcement from the fief holder.


title: Vantaa

text: Interest towards a people's education increased in the early 19th century, when basic education still mostly depended on home tuition. By a suggestion from vicar Erik Crohns, a school was founded in Kirkonkylä in 1825 and a school master was hired.


title: Vantaa

text: The year 1865 is considered a significant year in the history of Vantaa, as municipal rule in Finland was established in that year and "Helsingin pitäjä" became "Helsingin maalaiskunta", the rural municipality of Helsinki. This also led to the congregation regaining its position as an independent vicar area. The railway centre of Malmi became the administrative centre of the rural municipality.


title: Vantaa

text: In 1862, the railway between Helsinki and Hämeenlinna was constructed, and one of its seven stations was built in Tikkurila, on its intersection with King's Road. The Swedish architect Carl Albert Edelfelt designed a Renaissance Revival styled station building, which is the oldest extant station building in Finland and (as of 1978) has been adapted into the Vantaa City Museum. The old station building in Tikkurila is the only brick station building in Finland preserved in its original state. The building was designed by the provincial architect of the Häme Province, Carl Albert Edelfelt (1818-1869). The railway brought industry and induced population growth.


title: Vantaa

text: The Finnish famine of 1866–1868 decreased the population of Vantaa by 1300 people, and population growth was very slow for a whole decade. Only in the late 1870s Vantaa regained its population from 1865. The elementary school in Kirkonkylä was founded on 15 September 1869, four years later than originally planned. There were two teachers, one for boys and one for girls.


title: Vantaa

text: Four important roads passed through "Helsingin pitäjä" in the late 19th century: Hämeentie, the King's Road, Nurmijärventie and Porvoontie. To the north of Kirkonkylä, Hämeentie leading north crossed the King's Road. The King's Road connected Turku with Vyborg and Saint Petersburg. The King's Road, leading northwest, started from Helsinki as an extension of Läntinen Viertotie (now known as Mannerheimintie). Porvoontie conneted Hämeentie and the King's Road separating from Hämeentie between Viikki and Malminkylä and connecting to the King's Road in eastern Hakkila.


title: Vantaa

text: The largest industrial facility in "Helsingin maalaiskunta" in the late 19th century was the Arabia porcelain factory. Its production value was greater than that of all the other factories in the municipality put together. The factory was active in the village of Koskela, to the north of Helsinki, and was named after the villa Arabia previously located at the site of the factory.


title: Vantaa

text: The growing city of Helsinki needed large amounts of building materials, brought from Uusimaa and Tavastia. Brick factories in "Helsingin maalaiskunta" were located in Tikkurila, Lauttasaari and Kulosaari.


title: Vantaa

text: A brewery founded by J. K. Kröckell was active in Pitäjänmäki, producing several styles of beer, sparkling wine, lemon-flavoured mead and a type of alcohol-free juice called Sorbus. The brewery horses carried malt products both to Helsinki and to the nearby railway station, continuing all the way to Tampere. The Pitäjänmäki brewery remained in action until 1914.


title: Vantaa

text: In 1899, an edict about tightly populated communities came into force in Finland. During the next couple of decades, almost twenty tightly populated communities were founded in the area of "Helsingin maalaiskunta". Of these, Huopalahti separated into its own municipality in 1920, Oulunkylä in 1921 and Kulosaari in 1922. With the exception of Tikkurila, all these communities were discontinued in early 1946 as they were annexed to the city of Helsinki. The tightly populated community of Tikkurila was discontinued together with the rest of the tightly populated communities in Finland in early 1956.


title: Vantaa

text: Electricity started replacing steam as an industrial power source in "Helsingin maalaiskunta" before World War I. The power station "Oy Malmin Sähkölaitos Ab" was founded in 1910, and another power station was founded in Oulunkylä in the following year. Malmin sähkölaitos, which had reached a central position, bought a lot from Tapanila for its new power plant. Construction of the power plant and distribution grid, led by Gottfried Strömberg, was finished by the end of the year 1910.


title: Vantaa

text: The Helsinki-Malmi Airport was built at Tattarinsuo in the Malmi area of "Helsingin maalaiskunta" in 1936. The soil in the area was very watery and converting it to an airfield was difficult. The airport was taken into use in December 1936. Before this, air traffic in Helsinki had been served by the Santahamina Airport in Santahamina, which was also part of "Helsingin maalaiskunta" at the time.


title: Vantaa

text: During the great annexation of 1946 the municipalities of Huopalahti, Oulunkylä and Kulosaari as well as about a third of the area of "Helsingin maalaiskunta" were annexed to the city of Hesinki. The rural municipality losft two thirds of its population, including Malmi and Pitäjänmäki. In 1954 some of the areas of Korso in Tuusula and Kerava were annexed to the rural municipality of Helsinki, as well as a small part of Tuusula in 1959. Vuosaari was annexed to Helsinki in 1966.


title: Vantaa

text: The population development of "Helsingin maalaiskunta" grew rapidly after World War II. Tikkurila became the new municipal centre in the 1950s. New residential areas consisting mainly of detached houses developed among the main roads and new suburban centres developed along the railways running through the area, such as Rekola, Korso and Koivukylä.


title: Vantaa

text: In 1952, the new international airport of Helsinki opened in "Helsingin maalaiskunta" for the 1952 Summer Olympics, leading to the rural municipality becoming an important transport hub. The new airport split the municipality in half and brought large amounts of traffic and industry to its surroundings. The airport has become a significant part of the cityscape of Vantaa, and even today Vantaa is known abroad as an aviation city.


title: Vantaa

text: Because of World War II, many new urban areas had been born in Vantaa already in the 1940s, populated mainly by evacuees from Finnish Karelia and frontline soldiers, as well as Helsinkians seeking a less densely populated area to live in. The first apartment building groups were built in Tikkurila, Satomäki and Vaarala in the 1950s, after which rural flight sped up construction of apartment buildings. In the record year 1970, the population of Vantaa grew by ten thousand people.


title: Vantaa

text: The Keimola Motor Stadium was built in 1966 along Finnish National Road 3, opposite the residential area of Kivistö, and remained in operation until 1978. Construction of the new Keimolanmäki residential area in place of the former race track started in the 2010s.


title: Vantaa

text: In the early 20th century, the majority of the population of "Helsingin maalaiskunta" was Swedish-speaking. Afterwards, the rapid increase in the population has brought much more primarily Finnish-speaking population to the city, and today only 3.1 percent of the population in Vantaa are Swedish-speaking.


title: Vantaa

text: The roads in Finland were widened in the 1960s and 1970s, and the Ring III beltway was built to connect five national roads with each other. Myyrmäki became a second centre in the area after the construction of the Martinlaakso railway, which also sped up development in southwestern Vantaa. New residential suburbs were born along the main railway in the 1960s to 1980s, sped up by rural flight. Areas left outside the main traffic connections, such as Seutula in the west and Sotunki in the east, were left mainly unbuilt and rural-oriented.


title: Vantaa

text: In 1972, the municipality was renamed "Vantaa" () and promoted to a köping (market town) (i.e. "Vantaan kauppala/Vanda köping"). In 1974, the town got full city rights as "Vantaan kaupunki/Vanda stad" or "City of Vantaa". The name "Vantaa" comes from the river Vantaa running through the city, along which settlement in the Vantaa area was originally centred. The 650th anniversary of Vantaa was celebrated in 2001.


title: Vantaa

text: The city grew rapidly starting from 1960s and a railway line was built to the western side of the city in 1970s.


title: Vantaa

text: Since the days of the rural municipality, Vantaa has rapidly developed to its current form because of rural flight and good traffic connections. Like the neighbouring city of Espoo, Vantaa has many suburban commuter towns and lacks a specific city centre. The Helsinki Airport, the busiest airport in Finland by far, is located in central Vantaa.


title: Vantaa

text: In 2015, an extension to the existing railway line, the Ring Rail Line opened, providing service to the airport and new residential and working districts. Along the ring road, new residential were constructed. The largest of these developments is the Kivistö suburb followed by the residential districts of Leinelä and Aviapolis. The Ring Rail Line connects the Vantaankoski railway to the Finnish Main Line via the Helsinki Airport at Hiekkaharju.


title: Vantaa

text: The annual Beer floating summer event started in Vantaa in 1997. On 11 October 2002, an explosion took place in the Myyrmanni shopping centre in Myyrmäki. Negotiations to resolve the Aceh conflict, led by former President of Finland Martti Ahtisaari, were held in the Köningstedt Manor in Vantaa in early 2005.


title: Vantaa

text: To connect the municipality on the west–east, a new tramway is planned to open in 2030. This tramway will run from the Helsinki-Vantaa airport through districts of Pakkala, Aviapolis and Koivuhaka to the administrative centre of Tikkurila and further onward to Hakkila and Länsimäki in the east. The tram will also provide a link to the Helsinki metro at Mellunmäki station. This tramline will be the first tram in Vantaa.


title: Vantaa

text: Colonists arriving from Sweden in the 14th century settled in the area what is now Vantaa and named the river in the area as "Helsingå" or "Helsingaa". The etymology of this name is not known for sure, but according to an old tradition it probably comes from colonists who originally arrived at the Hälsingland area in Sweden.


title: Vantaa

text: The same river has also been known as the river Vantaa ("Vanda å" in Swedish). Unlike the name "Helsingaa", the name Vantaa comes from the Finnish-speaking Tavastian inhabitants upstream of the river. There is a village named Vantaa near the source of the river, at the area which now belongs to the city of Riihimäki. According to a theory, the name comes from the Finnish words "vanan taka", where "vana" means a riverbed and so Vantaa (possibly originally spelled "Vanantaa") means a place behind a riverbed. Only later did the name also came to use also downstream and replace the old name "Helsingaa".


title: Vantaa

text: The Vanhankaupunginkoski rapids at the mouth of the river Vantaa were originally known as "Helsinge fors" ("Helsinki rapids"), which also gave the name "Helsingfors" to the city founded along the rapids.


title: Vantaa

text: The Vantaa blast furnace founded at the shore of the Vantaankoski rapids in 1837 gave the name "Vantaa" to its entire environment.


title: Vantaa

text: By the new municipal law in 1865 the Finnish name of the municipality became "Helsingin maalaiskunta" ("the rural municipality of Helsinki"), when the concept of sockens in Finland was discontinued. The Swedish name remained as "Helsinge", in contrast to "Helsingfors", the Swedish name for Helsinki proper. When "Helsingin maalaiskunta" became a market town in 1972, proposed new names included "Helsingin kauppala", "Helsinginjoen kauppala" and "Vantaanjoen kauppala". The accepted name was "Vantaan kauppala" after the river Vantaa. Two years later Vantaa received city rights.


title: Vantaa

text: Vantaa is located in southern Finland, in the region of Uusimaa and the Helsinki sub-region. It is separated from the Gulf of Finland by Helsinki. Prior to the abolition of Finnish provinces in 2009, Vantaa was a part of the Southern Finland Province.


title: Vantaa

text: The city borders Helsinki, the Finnish capital, which is to the south and southwest. Other neighbouring municipalities are Espoo to the west; Nurmijärvi, Kerava, and Tuusula to the north; and Sipoo to the east. Vantaa is a part of the Finnish Capital Region, which is the inner core of the Greater Helsinki metropolitan area.


title: Vantaa

text: Vantaa is divided into seven major regions (, ): Tikkurila "(Dickursby)", Hakunila "(Håkansböle)", Koivukylä "(Björkby)", Korso, Aviapolis, Myyrmäki "(Myrbacka)", and Kivistö. These major regions are then divided into a total of 60 city districts, the most populated of which are Myyrmäki, Martinlaakso, Hakunila, and Pakkala.


title: Vantaa

text: Vantaa consists mostly of lowlands cut up by rivers. According to a survey done by the National Land Survey of Finland on 1 January 2022, Vantaa encompasses , of which is water. The city is mostly suburban and urban area with some rural landscape, notably in the districts of Sotunki and Seutula. Average population density is , which rises above in concentrated urban districts like Myyrmäki and Tikkurila.


title: Vantaa

text: The river Vantaa runs through western Vantaa, and its tributary Keravanjoki runs through eastern Vantaa. In 1966, the rural municipality of Helsinki (now known as Vantaa) lost the district of Vuosaari to Helsinki proper, cutting it almost completely off from the sea. Up to 2008, Vantaa still reached the seashore at its southeastern corner at the Porvarinlahti bay, until the "Västerkulla wedge" with its seashore was annexed into Helsinki together with part of Sipoo in 2009. Thus Vantaa formally became the second largest inland city in the Nordic countries after Tampere.


title: Vantaa

text: For its area, Vantaa has relatively few lakes. The city encompasses two natural lakes: "Kuusijärvi" in Kuninkaanmäki and "Lammaslampi" Pähkinärinne, Hämeenkylä. In addition to these, there is an artificial lake, "Silvolan tekojärvi". Vantaa shares two lakes with Espoo: "Odilampi" and "Pitkäjärvi". Of the lakes in the Sipoonkorpi National Park, Bisajärvi and most of Gumböle träsk are located in Vantaa. Ponds formed in sand pits include Vetokannas, renovated into a swimming beach and the Vaaralanlammet ponds in Vaarala.


title: Vantaa

text: The easternmost districts of Vantaa, Rajakylä and Länsimäki, are located right next to the border to Helsinki and are connected to the Helsinki districts of Vesala and Mellunmäki. Part of the turnstile of the Mellunmäki metro station is located in Vantaa.


title: Vantaa

text: Vantaa exhibits frequent exposed granite bedrock ground, which is common in Finland. Resulting from erosion in the last glacial period (about 10,000 years ago), elevated surfaces often lack soil (superficial deposits), revealing bare stone unsuitable for most plant life. Other geological impacts of the last Ice Age include a series of eskers running through central Vantaa, which is one of the best sources of groundwater in the city. After the glacial period, most of the area of the current city of Vantaa was underwater except for the highest hills. As the land rose, bays stretching far inland were left behind, along with the river Vantaa, which changed its discharge from Mätäoja to Keravanjoki about two millennia ago. The bays flushed against the hills leaving shore formations still visibile today. They also formed flat deposits of clay at the bottom, which now form valleys especially along the rivers.


title: Vantaa

text: Vantaa belongs to the taiga zone and its flora represents the southern parts of the zone. Vantaa is located at the border between the southern boreal zone characteristic of inland southern Finland and the hemiboreal subzone characteristic of southwestern Finland.


title: Vantaa

text: The hemiboreal subzone is a transition subzone between coniferous and deciduous forests, and deciduous trees growing naturally in the subzone include oaks and elms. The river valleys running through Vantaa have previously been full of lush groves, but today most of them are farmed land. However, at some places they are connected to lush mixed forests, transitioning into shadowy spruce forests at some places.


title: Vantaa

text: There are prominent alder meadows along the river Mätäoja, which are home to various rare insect and plant species. The most common type of forest in Vantaa is a blueberry conifer forest with spruce and birch trees, whereas dry forests are only located at bare cliff areas.


title: Vantaa

text: The second most common forest type in Vantaa is the more lush grove-like forest. Its undergrowth includes blueberry, wood sorrel, herb Paris and lady fern, as well as wood anemone at some places.


title: Vantaa

text: There are lush groves growing mosaically among the forests, containing common southern grove plants such as the liverwort. The groves in Vantaa vary greatly, ranging from moist and shady spruce groves growing ostrich fern to dry groves growing liverwort and common hazel and hardwood groves. In springtime during the first weeks of May the wood anemone flowers very noticeably in almost all groves and grove-like forests, which is characteristic to the forest growth in southwestern and southern Finland.


title: Vantaa

text: There is a centuries-old oak forest in the district of Tammisto, which is considered to be the only natural oak forest in the Finnish capital area. The forest has been protected under the nature preservation law in 1946.


title: Vantaa

text: Although Vantaa is a very urbanised area, a great deal of its surface area still remains as rural fields or forest. The city of Vantaa contains 12.41 square kilometres of nature preserved area (about 5% of the surface area of the city). The first nature preserve area in Vantaa was founded in 1946 in Tammisto. There are two especially protected species in the nature preserve areas in Vantaa, the beetle species "Hylochares cruentatus" and the orchid species "Malaxis monophyllos".


title: Vantaa

text: Vantaa has a humid continental climate (Köppen: Dfb), slightly above the threshold for subarctic classification. Although the city no longer (since 2009) has a coastline along the Baltic Sea, it is close enough to experience the mitigating influence of the sea and the Gulf Stream. The record low temperature in Vantaa is and the record high is .


title: Vantaa

text: The coldest month of the year is in February, when the average temperature based on measurements from 1981 to 2010 was -5.8 degrees Celsius. After this, the temperatures rise rapidly. The average temperature in April for the same period is +4.0 degrees and the one in May is +10.5 degrees. The warmest month of the year is in July, when the average temperature is +17.7 degrees. The second warmest month is in August with an average temperature of +15.7 degrees and the third warmest is June with an average temperature of +14.7 degrees. The average number of hot weather days in Vantaa is 17, of which over half occur in July on average. In sporadic years hot weather can extend to September. The summer thunderstorm period in Vantaa is very short and varying: it typically starts around Midsummer and ends in middle August, peaking at the end of July.


title: Vantaa

text: The temperatures lower in autumn slower than they rise in spring. The average day temperature in November is +0.3 degrees and the one in December is -3.3 degrees. In autumn and early winter low pressure storm fronts move eastwards from the Atlantic Ocean passing over Vantaa. Vantaa's location in Fennoscandia warmed by the Gulf Stream near the coast of the Gulf of Finland makes Vantaa a clearly more temperate area than the average based on its latitude. For example the southern tip of Greenland is located south of Vantaa, as are the tundra areas of the Labrador Peninsula. The period when Vantaa is normally covered in snow is typically from late December to early April, after which the snow rapidly melts away.


title: Vantaa

text: Spring in Vantaa experiences significantly less rain than autumn. The average monthly rainfall in February through May is only about 30 to 40 millimetres. In summer the weather becomes rainier, and the average monthly rainfall in July through November is 60 to 80 millimetres. The rainfall varies greatly throughout the year: in the late months of the year there are monthly rainfalls of less than 20 millimetres, as well as over 200 millimetres. Respectively, the weather becomes drier in the early months of the year. The total average rainfall in Vantaa in a year is 682.9 millimetres.


title: Vantaa

text: The city is bilingual, both Finnish and Swedish being official languages. A majority (78.7%) of the population are Finnish speakers while 2.4% speak Swedish as their first language. Vantaa's residents that speak a native language other than Finnish or Swedish stand at 18.9% of the population. Vantaa is home to a significant Estonian population.


title: Vantaa

text: In 2011, 199,236 of the municipality's 203,001 residents lived in officially recognized urban areas (; ). The remaining population lives in the few rural sections of Vantaa, such as those in Sotunki and Seutula.


title: Vantaa

text: Of the population in Vantaa, about half were born in the Helsinki capital region. In 2000, 26.4% of the population in Vantaa were born in Vantaa, whereas the proportion in 2015 was 27.5%. The proportion of people born in Helsinki had fallen to 19.6% and the proportion of people born in Espoo was only a few percent. The proportion of people born outside Finland has tripled in the 21st century from 4.2% (in 2000) to 12.8% (in 2015). The proportion of foreign language speakers in Vantaa is higher than in any other municipality in Finland. In late 2021, 23% of the people in Vantaa spoke a different language than Finnish, Swedish or Sámi.


title: Vantaa

text: In 2021, there were 56,027 people with a foreign background residing in Vantaa. Most immigrants come from Russia.


title: Vantaa

text: The number of foreign speakers is projected to grow to 95,556 by 2035, which would be 34.3% of Vantaa's population in 2035.


title: Vantaa

text: In 2017, 69% of the people aged 15 or older in Vantaa had completed further education. Thus 31% of the population had completed primary education at the most. 38% had completed secondary education. Of the population who had completed tertiary education (31%), 9% had the lowest degree, 12% had a lower degree and 9% had a higher degree.


title: Vantaa

text: The average income in Vantaa is lower than elsewhere in the Helsinki capital region, but still higher than in the rest of Finland. On the other hand, apartments in Vantaa are cheaper in average than in Helsinki and Espoo.


title: Vantaa

text: Income levels in Vantaa vary greatly because of the differences between suburbs and detached house areas. Women in Vantaa earn about 71% in average of the income of men, which is slightly higher than the average in Finland (69%).


title: Vantaa

text: Many families with children live in Vantaa, amounting to about 55% of all households. 50.2% of the population in Vantaa are women.


title: Vantaa

text: Vantaa has been a primarily Finnish-speaking municipality since the early 20th century. The number of Swedish speakers has mostly remained the same throughout the decades, but because of the immigration to the municipality, the proportion of Swedish speakers has constantly decreased. In 1960 about ten percent of the population in Vantaa spoke Swedish, while the proportion in 1980 was about five percent. In 2018 the proportion of Swedish speakers in Vantaa was 2.4%. In comparison, the proportion of Swedish speakers in Helsinki was 5.6% and the one in Espoo was 7.1%. Vantaa still remains officially bilingual, as the Finnish language law states that a municipality must be declared as bilingual if the amount of minority language speakers (Finnish or Swedish) is at least 8% of the population or 3000 people. In regard to the total population, the proportion of Swedish speakers in Vantaa is the lowest in all bilingual municipalities in Finland. In 2019, of the districts in Vantaa, the proportion of Swedish speakers was the highest in Helsingin pitäjän kirkonkylä (19.0%), Sotunki (16.6%) and Luhtaanmäki (11.5%).


title: Vantaa

text: In early 2015 there were 112 languages spoken in Vantaa in addition to Finnish, Swedish and Sámi. In the 2000s, the most common languages spoken in Vantaa after Finnish and Swedish were Russian, Estonian and Somali. According to the language statistics from 2014 to 2015, the proportions of Russian and Estonian speakers have surpassed that of Swedish speakers, making Swedish the fourth most spoken language in Vantaa. In 2020 there were 51,160 people living in Vantaa not speaking any of the three official languages in Finland. The total proportion of foreign language speakers in Vantaa (21.6%) was the highest in Finland, even though the proportion of foreign language speakers was also high in Helsinki (16.6%) and Espoo (19.0%).


title: Vantaa

text: In late 2019 54.5% of the people in Vantaa belonged to the Lutheran church, 1.2% to the Eastern Orthodox Church of Finland and 2.9% to other religious communities. 41.4% of the people did not belong to any religious community. The proportion of members of the Lutheran church has steadily decreased in the 21st century while the proportion of people not belonging to religious communities has steadily increased. In late 2015, 70.5% of the Finnish-speaking people in Vantaa belonged to the Lutheran church.


title: Vantaa

text: According to the 2018 division of Vantaa, the following congregations of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland are located in Vantaa:


title: Vantaa

text: Together these congregations form the Union of congregations in Vantaa (Finnish: "Vantaan seurakuntayhtymä", Swedish: "Vanda kyrkliga samfällighet").


title: Vantaa

text: Since 2016 Vantaa has been home to the Lutheran congregation of the Holy Trinity belonging to the Evangelical Lutheran Mission Diocese of Finland.


title: Vantaa

text: Of the congregations of the Orthodox Church of Finland, the Orthodox congregation of Helsinki is active in Vantaa. The Tikkurila Orthodox Church is located near the Tikkurila sports park in Viertola


title: Vantaa

text: Of the member congregations of the Pentecostal Church of Finland, the Myyrmäki Pentecostal congregation, Vantaan Kotikirkko and Vantaan Minttukirkko are active in Vantaa. Independent Pentecostal congregations in Vantaa include the Credo church, the Korso Pentecostal congregation and Seutulan Betania.


title: Vantaa

text: The Vantaa free congregation, belonging to the Free Church of Finland, is located in Hiekkaharju, and the congregation has also founded the Free congregation of western Vantaa in Askisto in western Vantaa.


title: Vantaa

text: The Finnish branch office of the Jehovah's Witnesses, which is the highest level of the organisation in Finland, is located in Koivuhaka. There are two Kingdom Halls in Vantaa, in Koivuhaka and in Martinlaakso.


title: Vantaa

text: In late 2020 the population of Vantaa was 237,231, of which 232,481 lived in urban areas, 551 in areas of dispersed settlements and 4,199 in unknown locations. The proportion of urban areas in Vantaa is 99.8%. The population of Vantaa living in urban areas is divided into three areas:


title: Vantaa

text: The administrative centre of the city is in bold. Urban areas marked with an asterisk (*) are only partly located in the city. The central area of Tikkurila and other municipal centres do not constitute urban areas of their own but instead belong to the Helsinki urban area, which spreads over to Vantaa as well as other local municipalities. The total population of the Helsinki urban area is 1,249,820 and its surface area is 676.46 square kilometres. The Klaukkala urban area spreads mostly to the municipality of Nurmijärvi. The Söderkulla urban area spreads mostly to the municipality of Sipoo, partly also spreading to the city of Helsinki.


title: Vantaa

text: In the latest years, Vantaa has stabilised its economy via an economy and debt program accepted in 2012. The growth of the loan stock was stopped by the end of the council term from 2013 to 2017. In 2016 the city managed to decrease its loan stock a little, which had grown to over one billion euro.


title: Vantaa

text: Vantaa has been in increasing debt since the early 2000s, due to a decrease in state funding and an increase in investments. A contributing factor to its situation is the high concentration of families with children, leading to comparatively larger social expenditure. According to the former mayor Juhani Paajanen, the worst expenditures have ended, and the city's gains are increasing.


title: Vantaa

text: On a nation-wide perspective, Vantaa has a high level of tax income, but in perspective of the capital region, the tax income of Vantaa is lower than those of Espoo and Helsinki. The state subsidy system and its stabilisation of tax income based on a nation-wide comparison have been seen as problematic because of special challenges of the cities in the capital region and because of constant rapid growth.


title: Vantaa

text: The municipal tax in Vantaa is 19.00%, which is clearly below the average in Finland and one of the lowest in the large cities. The last time Vantaa raised its municipal tax was in 2010. The state of Finland has raised the lower limit of the property tax because of new legislation.


title: Vantaa

text: In a comparison of characteristic figures of large cities Vantaa has developed positively in the latest years. In regard to municipal concerns and financing various investments, the differences in loan amounts in the cities have balanced out. In the early 2000s over half of the city's debt consisted of rental apartments owned by the city (managed by the company VAV Asunnot Oy). On the other hand, the city ended up in a crisis mainly because it had made large investments in its own balance with borrowed money. The city has hardly sold any of its property in the early 2000s.


title: Vantaa

text: Because of good traffic connections, Vantaa has a large amount of food, HVAC and machinery industry as well as businesses. There are industrial areas along the Ring III beltway, particularly near the airport and in the neighbouring districts of Viinikkala, Veromies, Pakkala and Koivuhaka as well as in Hakkila, connected to the main railway line by a branch terminal line. The Aviapolis area has developed around the airport, containing many businesses in logistics and high technology. In 2000 74.6% of the jobs in the city were in services, 23.8% in refinery and only 0.5% in agriculture. In 2001 the rate of self-sufficiency in jobs in Vantaa had risen to 97.1%. In the 2000s the number of jobs in Vantaa had grown by about 15%.


title: Vantaa

text: Of those employed, two thirds are in the private sector. The most common industries in Vantaa include the food, architectural engineering, and machine industries. In 2007, the unemployment rate was 6.3%.


title: Vantaa

text: Companies that have their headquarters in Vantaa (at the Helsinki Airport, in Aviapolis) include Finnair, Finavia and Nordic Regional Airlines. Companies with headquarters in Vantaa outside of Aviapolis include R-kioski, Tikkurila Oyj, Veikkaus Oy, and Metsähallitus. Fujifilm Finland has its headquarters in Vantaa.


title: Vantaa

text: An interesting future possibility for Vantaa and for the entire capital region comes from the Ring Rail Line, which allows for significant increase in the number of apartments and jobs and provides a direct rail connection from the main railway line to the Helsinki Airport. The Ring Rail Line required an investment of over one hundred million euro from Vantaa. The city of Helsinki had been proposing the idea of joining the municipalities in the capital region, in order to better develop the area, for decades. The cities of Vantaa, Espoo and Kauniainen have rejected this idea each time, although Vantaa has done so a bit more slowly than the others. The municipal and city managers of Vantaa have repeatedly rejected Helsinki's proposal fearing Vantaa would become a "backyard" of Helsinki. Helsinki has been expanding towards Vantaa throughout the 20th century, including the great annexation in 1946 and the annexation of Vuosaari in 1966. Through the annexation of Östersundom in Sipoo and the Västerkulla wedge to Helsinki in 2009, Vantaa lost its only connection to the sea, becoming the second-largest inland city in the Nordic countries, after Tampere.


title: Vantaa

text: The Vantaa culture award is awarded each year as a recognition of significant contributions to the arts and the artistic life in the city, to a person living in Vantaa or to a community active in the city. The award was first awarded in 1976.


title: Vantaa

text: The decision to award the Vantaa culture award is made by the city council. In 2015, the award was worth 10 thousand euro. Award winners include jazz musician Juhani Aaltonen, musicians Maarit and Sami Hurmerinta, sculptor Heikki Häiväoja, director Matti Kassila, architect Alpo Halme, writer Virpi Hämeen-Anttila together with here husband professor Jaakko Hämeen-Anttila, actor Lasse Pöysti, the Raatikko dance theatre, entertainer Virve Rosti, writer Alpo Ruuth, opera signer Esa Runttunen and the Vantaa children's ballet.


title: Vantaa

text: The signature animal of Vantaa is the salmon, also featured in the coat of arms of the city, the traditional dish is salmon soup and the signature plant is the common dog-violet.


title: Vantaa

text: There are about 20 choirs in Vantaa, like Vantaan Laulu and Vantaa Chamber Choir. Three actively performing concert bands Tikkurilan Soittokunta, Lumon Puhaltajat and Puhallinorkesteri Louhi exist at the east, north and west corners of the city respectively. Vantaa Pops (Vantaan Viihdeorkesteri in Finnish), conducted by a Welshman Nick Davies, is the only professional full symphonic pops orchestra in Finland.


title: Vantaa

text: Louhela Jam is the oldest continuously organised rock music festival in Vantaa. The festival lasts one day and is free of charge. It is held in the Jokiuomanpuisto park between Louhela and Martinlaakso on the first Sunday in June after the end of the spring semester in school.


title: Vantaa

text: The Tikkurila Festival, held on a weekend in late July at the Hiekkaharju sports field represents newer summer festival tradition in Vantaa.


title: Vantaa

text: The "Vantaan barokki" festival was held in summertime for sixteen years until its discontinuation in 2008. The "Vantaan musiikkijuhlat" festival was founded in 2010, continuing the previous festival's tradition in concentrating on older music. The newer festival covers a longer time period, and according to the artistic director Markku Luolajan-Mikkola the festival concentrates more on periodical instruments than any specific time period.


title: Vantaa

text: Tikkurila is home of the major science centre in Finland, Heureka, opened in April 1989. The purpose of the science centre is to develop the understanding of scientific information and to develop methods of scientific education. The name Heureka refers to the famous statement "I have found it!" by Archimedes.


title: Vantaa

text: The city museum of Vantaa is located in the old station building of the railway station in Tikkurila which has exhibitions with various themes on local history. The museum is housed in the oldest station building in Finland, designed by Carl Albert Edelfelt and completed in 1861. The museum moved to the building after it was renovated in autumn 1990. The first two floors of the red brick museum building host exhibits and the third floor hosts the offices of the museum staff.


title: Vantaa

text: The concert house Martinus in Martinlaakso, built in 1987, offers premises for various events ranging from meetings and seminars to cultural events.


title: Vantaa

text: Because of its good acoustics, the concert hall has been used for many musical recordings. The hall has also been used for many television recordings. There are 444 guest seats in the hall, of which six are seats for disabled people. The foyer of the concert hall can host small-scale concerts and other events. Martinus is the home hall of the Vantaa entertainment orchestra run by Nick Davies.


title: Vantaa

text: The Myyrmäkitalo all-activity house in western Vantaa hosts the Myyrmäki library offering services at a main library scale (another such library in Vantaa is the Tikkurila library), the Vantaa art museum Artsi and a rising auditorium with 188 seats. The auditorium hosts the film theatre Kino Myyri. Main users of the educational facilities of the house include the Vantaa school of arts, the Vantaa adult education institute and many hobby clubs. The house, built in autumn 1993, is located near the Myyrmäki railway station and the Myyrmanni shopping centre.


title: Vantaa

text: In the 1980s, salmon casserole, salmon soup and "vol-au-vent" filled with salmon were chosen as the traditional dishes in Vantaa.


title: Vantaa

text: Vantaa's city council has 67 seats. Following the 2017 municipal election the council seats are allocated in the following way: Social Democrats 18 seats, National Coalition Party 17, Greens 12, True Finns 8, Left Alliance 5, Centre Party 3, Christian Democrats 2, Swedish People's Party 2.


title: Vantaa

text: There are seven healthcare stations in Vantaa. Most of the major districts have their own healthcare stations, although the Aviapolis and Kivistö major districts are served by healthcare stations from neighbouring major districts. Vantaa has two hospitals, Peijas Hospital in Asola and Katriina Hospital in Seutula. Peijas is responsible for emergency and short-term health services, while Katriina specializes in long-term care and elderly care.


title: Vantaa

text: The Vantaa branch of the HelMet library network has 12 libraries in Vantaa, with a total of 441,736 books in 2011. The main library is in Tikkurila.


title: Vantaa

text: For sports, Vantaa has five swimming halls, four sports halls, several gyms, 25 tennis courts, indoor ice rinks in Tikkurila and Myyrmäki, 69 hockey and skating rinks, 16 lit-up running tracks, and 14 skateparks.


title: Vantaa

text: Additionally, Vantaa has three golf courses. There are two 18-hole golf courses in Keimola, a 9-hole golf course in the Hiekkaharju sports park (in the districts of Jokiniemi and Havukoski), and a golf course in Petikko which was expanded from 9 to 18 holes in 2018.


title: Vantaa

text: Vantaa infrastructurally serves as the transportational hub of the Helsinki metropolitan area. Several key freeways and highways, such as Ring III, Tuusulanväylä and Porvoonväylä, originate in or pass through the municipality. Other widely used connections in the direction of Helsinki include Hämeenlinnanväylä, Lahdenväylä and Vihdintie.


title: Vantaa

text: Public transport in Vantaa consists of a bus network and commuter rail, provided by HSL/HRT and VR. Since the introduction of the Ring Rail Line in 2015, Vantaa has had a total of 14 stations. Key railway stations also act as central bus stations.


title: Vantaa

text: Bus transport in Vantaa is extensive: there are over one hundred bus lines in Vantaa, of which the majority are internal lines in Vantaa and the rest are regional lines travelling to Helsinki, Espoo and Kerava.


title: Vantaa

text: Of the express bus stops in Vantaa, the stops at Kaivoksela, Martinlaakso and Keimolanportti are located along Hämeenlinnanväylä, while the stop at Tammisto is located along Tuusulanväylä and the stops at Vantaanportti and Ilmakehä are located between Tuusulanväylä and the Helsinki Airport. The stop at Tuupakka serves the express buses between the Helsinki Airport and Tampere. There are no express bus stops along Lahdenväylä in Vantaa. However, the express buses between Lahti and the Helsinki Airport stop at Korso. The express buses from the Helsinki Airport to Porvoo and Kotka stop at the Tikkurila intersection on the Ring III beltway.


title: Vantaa

text: Two of the three railway lines exiting Helsinki pass through Vantaa, connecting the city's 14 stations. The Helsinki–Riihimäki railway passes through eastern Vantaa while the Ring Rail Line forms a loop throughout Vantaa, going from Helsinki via Myyrmäki railway station in western Vantaa to the Helsinki Airport station and then continuing via Tikkurila railway station in eastern Vantaa back to Helsinki. All long-distance trains exiting Helsinki via the Helsinki–Riihimäki railway stop at Tikkurila railway station in Vantaa, including trains going to Russia.


title: Vantaa

text: The stations on the Vantaankoski railway are Myyrmäki, Louhela, Martinlaakso and Vantaankoski. The stations on the Ring Rail Line are Vehkala, Kivistö, Aviapolis, Helsinki Airport and Leinelä. The stations on the main railway are Tikkurila railway station, Hiekkaharju, Koivukylä, Rekola and Korso. There are also direct local bus connections to the Helsinki Airport from the Martinlaakso and Vantaankoski stations as well as the Korso and Koivukylä stops. There are preliminary plans for a new station at Vallinoja between Korso and Savio with the working name "Urpia". In 2004 a fourth track to Kerava was added to the main railway, so local trains and long-distance trains now run on separate tracks. The Ring Rail Line was completed in 2015, connecting the main railway with the Vantaankoski railway, also travelling via the Helsinki Airport. The completion of the Ring Rail Line has sped up development of new residential and office areas. For example the number of jobs in the Vantaankoski area has doubled. An idea contest was held for new design ideas in the area.


title: Vantaa

text: The largest airport in Finland, and the primary airport of Greater Helsinki, Helsinki Airport, is located in Vantaa. It attracted a total of 17.1 million passengers in 2016 and a total of 18.9 million passengers in 2017. The airport has done well in international comparisons. The airport splits Vantaa roughly into an eastern and a western part: the administrative centre and the main concentration of population are mostly located in eastern Vantaa.


title: Vantaa

text: On 16 December 2019 the city council of Vantaa approved the investment of 400 million euro to the planning of the Vantaa light rail with votes 45 to 22. The planned route leads from Mellunmäki via Hakunila, Tikkurila and Aviapolis to the Helsinki Airport.


title: Vantaa

text: As a major transport hub, Vantaa suffers from extensive noise and pollution caused by airplanes, railways and motorways. According to noise research, over 77,000 citizens of Vantaa live in an area experiencing over 55 dB of noise. Road noise in Vantaa is caused by the Ring III beltway, Hämeenlinnanväylä, Tuusulanväylä, Lahdenväylä and Porvoonväylä. About 7000 citizens of Vantaa live in an area experiencing noise from airplane traffic and about 9000 live in an area experiencing noise from railway traffic.


title: Vantaa

text: Vantaa offers diverse opportunities in primary education. The city has a total of 50 Finnish-speaking, five Swedish-speaking, and one English-speaking primary and junior high schools. The schools come in varous sizes, of which the smallest is the Swedish-speaking Kyrkoby skola, which has been located in the same school building since 1837. In contrast, the largest primary schools in Vantaa are Finnish-speaking schools of over 800 students such as the Mikkola and Lehtikuusi schools.


title: Vantaa

text: Vantaa has five Finnish-speaking upper secondary schools, including Tikkurila Upper Secondary, the largest upper secondary school in the Nordic Countries, as well as one Swedish-speaking upper secondary school. In addition, Vantaa has a Steiner school including primary and secondary education, online education at the Sotunki Upper Secondary and adult education at the Tikkurila Upper Secondary.


title: Vantaa

text: For vocational education, Vantaa has several vocational schools, such as the Varia vocational school, the Mercuria school of business economics, the Vocational school for probation, Työtehoseura and Edupoli, of which the latter two offer vocational training for youths and adults and hold vocational screening. Vocational education for special groups is offered by the Vantaa offices of the Vocational school Live and the Kiipula vocational school. It is also possible to take the Finnish matriculation examination in connection with vocational education (a double examination for example in the Varia vocational school).


title: Vantaa

text: Vantaa has two universities of applied sciences: Metropolia and Laurea. Metropolia has offices in Myyrmäki (technical education and Metropolia Business School) and Tikkurila (institution for design). Laurea offers education in communications and social and healthcare in Tikkurila.


title: Vantaa

text: The Vantaa institution for adult education is one of the largest educational institutions in Finland. Education is also provided by the Vantaa institution for arts, the Vantaa institution for music, the Vantaa institution for creative writing and a couple of private educational institutions.


title: Vantaa

text: It is possible to study the Finnish language at various places all over Vantaa. Some courses can be taken for free and some require payment.


title: Ohio State Buckeyes men's basketball

text: The Ohio State Buckeyes men's basketball team represents The Ohio State University in NCAA Division I college basketball competition. The Buckeyes are a member of the Big Ten Conference.


title: Ohio State Buckeyes men's basketball

text: The Buckeyes play their home games at Value City Arena in the Jerome Schottenstein Center in Columbus, Ohio, which opened in 1998. The official capacity of the center is 19,200. Ohio State ranked 28th in the nation in average home attendance as of the 2016 season.


title: Ohio State Buckeyes men's basketball

text: The Buckeyes have won one national championship (1960), been the national runner-up four times, appeared in 10 Final Fours (one additional appearance has been vacated by the NCAA), and appeared in 27 NCAA Tournaments (four other appearances have been vacated).


title: Ohio State Buckeyes men's basketball

text: Thad Matta was named the head coach of Ohio State in 2004 to replace coach Jim O'Brien, who was fired due to NCAA violations which cost Ohio State over 113 wins between 1998 and 2002. On June 5, 2017, after consecutive years of missing the NCAA Tournament, the school announced Matta would not return as head coach after 13 years and 337 wins at Ohio State. On June 9, 2017, the school hired Butler head coach Chris Holtmann as head coach.


title: Ohio State Buckeyes men's basketball

text: The first basketball team at Ohio State University was formed in 1898, playing its first game against East High. Sparing success followed the Buckeyes throughout their time as an independent school. In 1912, some 13 years after forming their first basketball team, the Buckeyes joined the Big Nine Conference, which would eventually be known as the Big Ten. At first, the Buckeyes were not able to mount a sustained run, never finishing higher than second in the conference standings. In 1923, Harold Olsen became head coach, launching the longest basketball coaching dynasty for OSU (24 seasons). Olsen began to see success with the Buckeyes' first conference championship during the 1922–1923 season. The Olsen era is also highlighted by appearing in the final game for the first NCAA Championship tournament in 1939, where the Buckeyes lost to Oregon 33–46. The Buckeyes would make three more Final Four appearances under Olsen, along with winning five Big Ten championships. Following Olsen as head coach, Tippy Dye and Floyd Stahl led the Buckeyes. Not seeing the same amount of success as Olsen did, Dye and Stahl had one NCAA Tournament appearance between them. With the closing of the 1950s, the Ohio State basketball team was not considered a national powerhouse. But it continued to develop and led to the hiring of a man who would change basketball at Ohio State and bring it national fame.


title: Ohio State Buckeyes men's basketball

text: Of all Buckeye coaches, it was Fred Taylor who would put Ohio State basketball on the map. With the hiring of Taylor in 1958, not much was expected following an 11–11 record during the 1958–1959 season. However, in 1960, the second-year coach, Taylor, and future Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame players Jerry Lucas and John Havlicek led the Buckeyes to their first NCAA Championship Title, defeating California 75–55 in the final game. The 1960 season is the only NCAA Tournament championship that the Buckeyes have claimed. Taylor's team continued its dominance by being the runner-up the following two seasons, and making a total of five tournament appearances during Taylor's 18 seasons tenure. With the departure of his championship team, Taylor began to see teams accustomed to Ohio State basketball of the past. Taylor's last season at Ohio State in 1976 had the Buckeyes going 6–20, their worst record, only to be eclipsed by the team in 1995. Taylor achieved seven conference titles and an impressive overall winning percentage of over 65%. Past the Taylor era, Ohio State saw Eldon Miller, Gary Williams, and Randy Ayers take the reins as head coach. Between 1976 and 1997, the Buckeyes made the NCAA bracket only eight times, while being crowned conference champions only twice.


title: Ohio State Buckeyes men's basketball

text: In 1997, Jim O'Brien was hired to replace head coach Randy Ayers. During his seven years as head coach, O'Brien drove the team to four 20+ win seasons, two Big Ten regular season co-championships, the 2002 Big Ten tournament championship, and a school record four-consecutive NCAA tournament appearances. Controversy erupted when Ohio State athletic director Andy Geiger fired O'Brien over alleged NCAA rules violations. A two-year NCAA investigation found that player Boban Savovic might have received improper benefits while he played for Ohio State. On March 10, 2006, the NCAA gave Ohio State three years' probation and ordered it to pay back all tournament money earned from 1999–2002 when Boban Savovic was on the Buckeyes' roster. In addition, Ohio State was forced to remove all references to team accomplishments by the NCAA directorate from those years including a 1999 visit to the Final Four.


title: Ohio State Buckeyes men's basketball

text: During Matta's first season at Ohio State, the Buckeyes compiled a 20–12 record, highlighted by a win in the final game of the season over top-ranked Illinois, which was undefeated up until that game. Ohio State was defeated by Wisconsin in the Big Ten tournament quarterfinals, and the team was ineligible for further postseason due to self-imposed sanctions related to Jim O'Brien's time at the school. The 2005–06 season opened with the Buckeyes 11–0 heading into Big Ten play. Ohio State ended the season with a 26–6 record and 12–4 record in conference, the Buckeyes' first outright Big Ten championship since the 1991–92 season. Ohio State lost to Iowa in the Big Ten tournament championship game, but received a No. 2 seed in the NCAA tournament. After a first round win, the Buckeyes lost to No. 7 seed Georgetown 70–52 in the second round.


title: Ohio State Buckeyes men's basketball

text: Matta's 2006–07 Ohio State team entered the season with the second-rated recruiting class in the nation, headed by Greg Oden and Mike Conley, Jr., and ranked No. 4 in the preseason polls. Ohio State entered conference play with an 11–2 record, with the only defeats coming at No. 6 North Carolina and at No. 4 Florida. Ohio State's loss against No. 4 Wisconsin on January 9, 2007 was the last loss of the regular season as the Buckeyes won 14 straight games to end the season with a 27–3 record. Ohio State defeated No. 20 Tennessee and No. 2 Wisconsin during this winning streak and ended the season as the top-ranked team in the nation. Ohio State won the Big Ten tournament, defeating Wisconsin 66–49 in the championship game, and entered the NCAA tournament as the overall No. 1 seed. Ohio State advanced to the Sweet Sixteen for the first time under Matta after an overtime victory against Xavier, which Matta had previously coached. A one-point victory over Tennessee and a 92–76 victory over No. 2 Memphis advanced the Buckeyes to the Final Four. Ohio State defeated Georgetown 67–60 in the semifinal game, but lost to Florida 84–75 in the National Championship game. Oden and Conley both would enter the NBA draft following the season, with Oden being drafted number one overall and Conley going fourth.


title: Ohio State Buckeyes men's basketball

text: The 2007–08 season was a rebuilding one. Ohio State ended the season with a 19–12 record, finishing fifth in the Big Ten. It lost to Michigan State in the Big Ten tournament quarterfinals and missed out on the NCAA tournament. The Buckeyes did receive a No. 1 seed in the National Invitation Tournament, where Ohio State would defeat Massachusetts 92–85 in the championship to take the NIT title.


title: Ohio State Buckeyes men's basketball

text: Ohio State began the 2008–09 season with a 9–0 record and would finish 20–9. Ohio State defeated Wisconsin and No. 7 Michigan State to advance to the Big Ten tournament championship, where the Buckeyes lost to No. 24 Purdue. They received a bid to the NCAA tournament as a No. 8 seed, where they lost to No. 9 Siena in the first round.


title: Ohio State Buckeyes men's basketball

text: The 2009–10 season marked Matta's sixth at Ohio State, with the team entering the season ranked No. 17 in the nation. The Buckeyes had compiled a 7–1 record before Evan Turner, who was averaging 20.6 points and 12.9 rebounds per game, was injured. Turner returned later in the season and help finish the season with a 24–7 record and a share of the Big Ten regular season championship. A victory over Minnesota in the Big Ten tournament gave Matta his second Big Ten tournament title and the Buckeyes a No. 2 seed in the NCAA tournament. Ohio State advanced to the Sweet Sixteen before losing to No. 6-seeded Tennessee 76–73. Turner was named the National Player of the Year and entered the NBA draft, where he was selected second overall.


title: Ohio State Buckeyes men's basketball

text: Matta's recruiting class heading into the 2010–11 season was highly regard and the Buckeyes returned some key seniors such as David Lighty and Jon Diebler. Ohio State was ranked No. 4 in the preseason polls and entered Big Ten conference play undefeated at 13–0, defeating No. 9 Florida and moving up to No. 2 in the nation. Ohio State continued to dominate the opposition during the regular season, pushing its record to 24–0 and 11–0 in conference play before losing the first game at No. 13 Wisconsin. Another loss at No. 11 Purdue marked their last loss in the regular season. Ohio State ended the season with a 29–2 record and 16–2 record in the Big Ten, winning the outright Big Ten regular season championship. OSU defeated Penn State for the Big Ten tournament championship, giving the Buckeyes their second tournament championship in a row and Matta's third tournament championship as head coach. Ohio State entered the NCAA tournament as the No. 1 overall seed for the second time under Matta. However, for the second year in a row, the Buckeyes failed to advance past the Sweet Sixteen, losing to Kentucky 62–60.


title: Ohio State Buckeyes men's basketball

text: The Buckeyes, led by returning starters Jared Sullinger, Deshaun Thomas and Aaron Craft, entered the 2011–12 season ranked No. 3 in the nation. Ohio State entered Big Ten play with a 12–1 record, losing at No. 13 Kansas without Sullinger, who was injured. Ohio State finished the season winning a share of the Big Ten regular season championship and lost to Michigan State in the Big Ten tournament championship. Ohio State received a No. 2 seed in the NCAA tournament and advanced to the Final Four for the second time under Matta after a 77–70 victory over No. 1-seeded Syracuse. The Buckeye season would end with another loss to Kansas, 64–62. Following the season, Sullinger entered the NBA draft and was taken 21st overall.


title: Ohio State Buckeyes men's basketball

text: The 2012–13 Buckeyes entered the season ranked No. 4 in the country. Led by Deshaun Thomas and Aaron Craft, they entered Big Ten play with only two losses, at No. 2 Duke and at home against No. 9 Kansas. They finished the season 13–5 in Big Ten play to finish in a tie for second place, but would beat No. 8 Michigan State and No. 22 Wisconsin to win the Big Ten tournament. As a No. 2 seed in the NCAA tournament, they advanced to the Elite Eight before losing to Wichita State. Following the season, Thomas declared for the NBA draft.


title: Ohio State Buckeyes men's basketball

text: With the early departure of Thomas, the Buckeyes struggled in 2013–14, finishing the season 25–10, 10–8 in fifth place in Big Ten play. They advanced to the semifinals of the Big Ten tournament before losing to Michigan. As a No. 6 seed in the NCAA tournament, they lost to Dayton in the second round (formerly known as the first round).


title: Ohio State Buckeyes men's basketball

text: The 2015 Buckeyes were led by freshman D'Angelo Russell, but still finished in sixth place in Big Ten play with an 11–7 record. Despite losing to Michigan State in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten tournament, OSU received a No. 10 seed in the NCAA tournament. They upset No. 7-seeded VCU in the second round, before losing to No. 5 Arizona in the third round. Following the season, Russell declared for the NBA draft and was selected second overall.


title: Ohio State Buckeyes men's basketball

text: Without Russell, the 2016 Buckeyes finished 21–14, 11–7 in Big Ten play to finish in seventh place. They lost in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten tournament to Michigan State and failed to receive an invite to the NCAA tournament. They did receive a bid to the NIT, where they lost in the second round to Florida.


title: Ohio State Buckeyes men's basketball

text: In 2016–17, OSU finished the season 17–15, 7–11 in Big Ten play to finish in a tie for 10th place. As the No. 11 seed in the Big Ten tournament, the Buckeyes lost in the first round to Rutgers. They did not receive an invite to a postseason tournament.


title: Ohio State Buckeyes men's basketball

text: In a surprise move more than two months after the season ended, the school announced that, after failing to make the NCAA Tournament in 2016 and 2017, Matta would not return as head coach for the 2017–18 season. Ohio State won 20 or more games in 12 of Matta's 13 seasons, received a berth in the NCAA Tournament eight times, made it to the Sweet Sixteen four times, and to the Final Four twice. Ohio State won the Big Ten regular-season championship five times and Big Ten tournament championship three times, appearing in the championship game six times under Matta.


title: Ohio State Buckeyes men's basketball

text: The Ohio State Buckeyes presently play their home games in 19,200-seat Jerome Schottenstein Center. The first official home court for the Buckeyes was the Ohio Expo Center Coliseum. Constructed in 1918, the Buckeyes called this arena home between the years 1920 to 1955. The facility had a capacity of 7,000 people.


title: Ohio State Buckeyes men's basketball

text: In 1955, a new facility was built on the campus of Ohio State named the St. John Arena named after Lynn St. John, an Ohio State basketball coach and athletic director. This building, while hosting the men's basketball team, also hosted (and still to this day hosts) volleyball, gymnastics, and wrestling. The capacity of St. John Arena is 13,276. This building is the only Buckeye arena to serve as home for an Ohio State men's basketball championship team in 1960.


title: Ohio State Buckeyes men's basketball

text: With the aging St. John Arena over 40 years old, the Ohio State University decided to build the Schottenstein Center to hold men's and women's basketball as well as hockey. The 770,000 sq foot arena was completed in 1998 and seats 19,500 for basketball games.


title: Ohio State Buckeyes men's basketball

text: Ohio State completed a $19 million renovation to the Schottenstein Center in 2013 that includes updated locker rooms for the Men's and Women's Basketball teams, a new training room with hydrotherapy pools, a new weight room, and a new practice gym to complement the existing gym. A $34 million renovation completed in 2018 improved the concourse as well as added new space for the coaches, team shop, ticket office, and building administration.


title: Ohio State Buckeyes men's basketball

text: During the team's formative years the Buckeyes played their home games at the Armory. Built in 1897 at a cost of $115,000, the massive brick medieval style building was demolished in 1958 after damage caused by a fire. From 1897 to 1917 the Buckeyes used the building known as "Drill Hall" or "The Gymnasium" as their home court, only being asked to leave due to the outbreak of World War I. The teams overall record at the Armory was 178-104. In 1919, without a definite home, the team played some of their games at Indianola Park as well as the Coliseum and the Armory. Finally, in 1920, the team officially moved to the Ohio State Fairgrounds and played in their home games at the Ohio Expo Center Coliseum. During their time at the Coliseum, the Buckeyes played in five national title games.


title: Ohio State Buckeyes men's basketball

text: The Buckeyes have had 14 coaches in their 110-year history. Thad Matta, who was hired in 2004, and led the Buckeyes to five NCAA Tournament appearances and two Final Four appearances during the 2006–07 and 2011–12 seasons. The only Ohio State coach to win a national championship was Fred Taylor in 1960.


title: Ohio State Buckeyes men's basketball

text: Ohio State has won 4 Big Ten tournament championships since its inception during the 1997–98 season. Ohio State won their first title in 2002 under Jim O'Brien (later vacated), while winning 4 under head coach Thad Matta. Under Matta, the Buckeyes appeared in the Big Ten tournament championship five consecutive seasons from 2009 to 2013.


title: Ohio State Buckeyes men's basketball

text: The Ohio State Buckeyes lead the all-time series vs. seven Big Ten opponents. Two of the all-time series are within three games. These records DO NOT include vacated games (e.g. Purdue does count all their games played against Ohio State and trail the series 91-92 according to their records. Iowa counts all games played against OSU and lead the series 82-83 according to their records).


title: Parade All-America Boys Basketball Team

text: The "Parade" All-America Boys Basketball Team was an annual selection by "Parade" that nationally honored the top high school boys' basketball players in the United States. It was part of the "Parade" All-American series that originated with boys basketball before branching to other sports. Started by the Sunday magazine in 1957, it had been the longest ongoing selection of high school basketball All-Americans in the country at the time of its final selections in 2015. Many of the honorees went on to star as college and professional basketball players. As of March 2011, there were 162 "Parade" All-Americans that were playing in the National Basketball Association (NBA).


title: Parade All-America Boys Basketball Team

text: At its onset, the selections were handled by a New York-based public relations firm, Publicity Enterprises, which was led by Haskell Cohen, who was a former sportswriter as well as the publicity director for the NBA at the time (1950–1969). The first All-America team in 1957 consisted of three five-player teams, and the first-team selections appeared on television on "The Steve Allen Show". The following year, 20 players were selected and participated in the first annual "Parade" All-American high school game. The list later expanded to 40 of the nation's top players, divided into four teams of 10 each. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, known then as Lew Alcindor, became the first sophomore in 1963 to be named a "Parade" All-American. Fifteen years later, Earl Jones became the next sophomore to earn first-team honors, and subsequently joined Abdul-Jabbar as the first two players to be named to the first team on three occasions. "It was a real thrill for me to make it on the "Parade" list early, when I was just a sophomore. The recognition is a great thing for kids to shoot for," said Abdul-Jabbar as part of the announcement for the 2000 team.


title: Parade All-America Boys Basketball Team

text: Starting in 2011, the selections were compiled in conjunction with "Sporting News" and their writer, Brian McLaughlin. Candidates also began to be limited to players in their senior year. The selections went to a single-team format in 2012, and the size was reduced from 40- to a 20-player first team in 2014. McLaughlin described the selections as mostly Division I college-bound players that had a stellar senior year in high school. Additionally, "Parade" differentiated itself from most other All-American teams by not focusing solely on a player's standing among college recruiters. For example, some selectors might choose top recruits that had been injured much of their senior year. "Parade" discontinued its boys' basketball All-America selections after 2015.


title: Simulink

text: Simulink is a MATLAB-based graphical programming environment for modeling, simulating and analyzing multidomain dynamical systems. Its primary interface is a graphical block diagramming tool and a customizable set of block libraries. It offers tight integration with the rest of the MATLAB environment and can either drive MATLAB or be scripted from it. Simulink is widely used in automatic control and digital signal processing for multidomain simulation and model-based design.


title: Simulink

text: MathWorks and other third-party hardware and software products can be used with Simulink. For example, Stateflow extends Simulink with a design environment for developing state machines and flow charts.


title: Simulink

text: MathWorks claims that, coupled with another of their products, Simulink can automatically generate C source code for real-time implementation of systems. As the efficiency and flexibility of the code improves, this is becoming more widely adopted for production systems, in addition to being a tool for embedded system design work because of its flexibility and capacity for quick iteration. Embedded Coder creates code efficient enough for use in embedded systems.


title: Simulink

text: Simulink Real-Time (formerly known as xPC Target), together with x86-based real-time systems, is an environment for simulating and testing Simulink and Stateflow models in real-time on the physical system. Another MathWorks product also supports specific embedded targets. When used with other generic products, Simulink and Stateflow can automatically generate synthesizable VHDL and Verilog.


title: Simulink

text: Simulink Verification and Validation enables systematic verification and validation of models through modeling style checking, requirements traceability and model coverage analysis. Simulink Design Verifier uses formal methods to identify design errors like integer overflow, division by zero and dead logic, and generates test case scenarios for model checking within the Simulink environment.


title: Simulink

text: SimEvents is used to add a library of graphical building blocks for modeling queuing systems to the Simulink environment, and to add an event-based simulation engine to the time-based simulation engine in Simulink.


title: Thorns, spines, and prickles

text: In plant morphology, thorns, spines, and prickles, and in general spinose structures (sometimes called "spinose teeth" or "spinose apical processes"), are hard, rigid extensions or modifications of leaves, roots, stems or buds with sharp, stiff ends, and generally serve the same function: physically deterring animals from eating the plant material.


title: Thorns, spines, and prickles

text: In common language the terms are used more or less interchangeably, but in botanical terms, thorns are derived shoots (so that they may or may not be branched, they may or may not have leaves, and they may or may not arise from a bud), spines are derived from leaves (either the entire leaf or some part of the leaf that has vascular bundles inside, like the petiole or a stipule), and prickles are derived from epidermis tissue (so that they can be found anywhere on the plant and do not have vascular bundles inside).


title: Thorns, spines, and prickles

text: Leaf margins may also have teeth, and if those teeth are sharp, they are called spinose teeth on a spinose leaf margin (some authors consider them a kind of spine). On a leaf apex, if there is an apical process (generally an extension of the midvein), and if it is especially sharp, stiff, and spine-like, it may be referred to as spinose or as a "pungent apical process" (again, some authors call them a kind of spine). When the leaf epidermis is covered with very long, stiff trichomes (more correctly called bristles in this case; for some authors a kind of prickle), it may be referred to as a "hispid vestiture"; if the trichomes are stinging trichomes, it may be called a "urent vestiture".


title: Thorns, spines, and prickles

text: The predominant function of thorns, spines, and prickles is deterring herbivory in a mechanical form. For this reason, they are classified as physical or mechanical defenses, as opposed to chemical defenses.


title: Thorns, spines, and prickles

text: Not all functions of spines or glochids are limited to defense from physical attacks by herbivores and other animals. In some cases, spines have been shown to shade or insulate the plants that grow them, thereby protecting them from extreme temperatures. For example, saguaro cactus spines shade the apical meristem in summer, and in members of the Opuntioideae, glochids insulate the apical meristem in winter.


title: Thorns, spines, and prickles

text: Agrawal "et al." (2000) found that spines seem to have little effect on specialist pollinators, on which many plants rely in order to reproduce.


title: Thorns, spines, and prickles

text: Pointing or spinose processes can broadly be divided by the presence of vascular tissue: thorns and spines are derived from shoots and leaves respectively, and have vascular bundles inside, whereas prickles (like rose prickles) do not have vascular bundles inside, so that they can be removed more easily and cleanly than thorns and spines.


title: Thorns, spines, and prickles

text: Spines are modified leaves, stipules, or parts of leaves, such as extensions of leaf veins. Some authors prefer not to distinguish spines from thorns because, like thorns, and unlike prickles, they commonly contain vascular tissue.


title: Thorns, spines, and prickles

text: Spines are variously described as petiolar spines (as in "Fouquieria"), leaflet spines (as in "Phoenix"), or stipular spines (as in "Euphorbia"), all of which are examples of spines developing from a part of a leaf containing the petiole, midrib, or a secondary vein. The plants of the cactus family are particularly well known for their dense covering of spines. Some cacti have also glochids (or glochidia, singular glochidium) – a particular kind of spine of different origin, which are smaller and deciduous with numerous retrose barbs along its length (as found in areoles of "Opuntia").


title: Thorns, spines, and prickles

text: Prickles are comparable to hairs but can be quite coarse (for example, rose prickles). They are extensions of the cortex and epidermis. Technically speaking, many plants commonly thought of as having thorns or spines actually have prickles. Roses, for instance, have prickles.


title: Thorns, spines, and prickles

text: Other similar structures are spinose teeth, spinose apical processes, and trichomes. Trichomes, in particular, are distinct from thorns, spines, and prickles in that they are much smaller (often microscopic) outgrowths of epidermal tissue, and they are less rigid and more hair-like in appearance; they typically consist of just a few cells of the outermost layer of epidermis, whereas prickles may include cortex tissue. Trichomes are often effective defenses against small insect herbivores; thorns, spines, and prickles are usually only effective against larger herbivores like birds and mammals.


title: Thorns, spines, and prickles

text: "Spinescent" is a term describing plants that bear any sharp structures that deter herbivory. It also can refer to the state of tending to be or become spiny in some sense or degree, as in: "... the division of the African acacias on the basis of spinescent stipules versus non-spinescent stipules..."


title: Thorns, spines, and prickles

text: There are also spines derived from roots, like the ones on the trunk of the "Root Spine Palms" ("Cryosophila" spp.). The trunk roots of "Cryosophila guagara" grow downwards to a length of 6–12 cm, then stop growing and transform into a spine. The anatomy of crown roots on this species (roots among the bases of the living fronds) also alters during their life. They initially grow upwards and then turn down and finally they, too, become spinous. Lateral roots on these two types of roots, as well as those on the stilt roots on this species, also become spinous. Some authors believe that some of these short spiny laterals have a ventilating function so they are 'pneumorhizae'. Short spiny laterals that may have a ventilating function may also be found on roots of "Iriartea exorrhiza".


title: Thorns, spines, and prickles

text: There are also spines that function as pneumorhizae on the palm "Euterpe oleracea". In "Cryosophila nana" (formerly "Acanthorhiza aculeata") there are spine roots or root spines, some authors may prefer "root spines" if the length of the root is less than 10x the thickness, and "spine roots" if the length is more than 10x the thickness. Adventitious spiny roots have also been described on the trunks of dicotyledonous trees from tropical Africa (e.g. Euphorbiaceae, as in "Macaranga barteri", "Bridelia micrantha" and "B. pubescens"; Ixonanthaceae, Sterculiaceae), and may also be found protecting perennating organs such as tubers and corms (e.g. "Dioscorea prehensilis" -Dioscoreaceae- and "Moraea" spp. -Iridaceae- respectively). Short root spines cover the tuberous base of the epiphytic ant-plant "Myrmecodia tuberosa" (Rubiaceae), these probably give protection to ants which inhabit chambers within the tuber as they wander over the plant's surface. (Jackson 1986 and references therein). In many respects, the pattern of spine formation is similar to that which occurs in the development of thorns from lateral shoots. (Jackson 1986 and references therein).


title: Thorns, spines, and prickles

text: It has been proposed that thorny structures may have first evolved as a defense mechanism in plants growing in sandy environments that provided inadequate resources for fast regeneration of damage.


title: Thorns, spines, and prickles

text: Spinose structures occur in a wide variety of ecologies, and their morphology also varies greatly. They occur as:


title: Thorns, spines, and prickles

text: Some thorns are hollow and act as myrmecodomatia; others (e.g. in "Crataegus monogyna") bear leaves. The thorns of many species are branched (e.g. in "Crataegus crus-galli" and "Carissa macrocarpa").


title: Thorns, spines, and prickles

text: Plants bearing thorns, spines, or prickles are often used as a defense against burglary, being strategically planted below windows or around the entire perimeter of a property. They also have been used to protect crops and livestock against marauding animals. Examples include hawthorn hedges in Europe, agaves in the Americas and in other countries where they have been introduced, Osage orange in the prairie states of the US, and "Sansevieria" in Africa.


title: Richard Glossip

text: Richard Eugene Glossip (born February 9, 1963) is an American prisoner currently on death row at Oklahoma State Penitentiary after being convicted of commissioning the 1997 murder of Barry Van Treese. The man who murdered Van Treese, Justin Sneed (aged 19 when he committed the crime), had a "meth habit" and agreed to plead guilty in exchange for testifying against Glossip. Sneed received a life sentence without parole. Glossip's case has attracted international attention due to the unusual nature of his conviction, namely that there was little or no corroborating evidence, with the first case against him described as "extremely weak" by the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals.


title: Richard Glossip

text: Glossip is notable for his role as named plaintiff in the 2015 Supreme Court case "Glossip v. Gross", which ruled that executions carried out by a three-drug protocol of midazolam, pancuronium bromide, and potassium chloride did not constitute cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution.


title: Richard Glossip

text: In September and October 2015, Glossip was granted three successive stays of execution due to questions about Oklahoma's lethal injection drugs after Oklahoma Department of Corrections officials used potassium acetate instead of potassium chloride to execute Charles Frederick Warner on January 15, 2015, contrary to protocol. Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt ordered a multicounty grand jury investigation of the execution drug mix-up.


title: Richard Glossip

text: On January 7, 1997, Justin Sneed beat Barry Van Treese to death with a baseball bat. The killing occurred at the Best Budget Inn in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, where Van Treese was the owner, Sneed was the maintenance man, and Glossip was the manager. In exchange for avoiding the death penalty, Sneed confessed and told police that Glossip had instructed him to commit the murder.


title: Richard Glossip

text: Glossip insisted on his actual innocence and refused to accept a plea bargain. In July 1998, an Oklahoma jury convicted Glossip of the murder and sentenced him to death. In 2001, the unanimous Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals threw out that conviction, calling the case "extremely weak" and finding Glossip had received unconstitutionally ineffective assistance of counsel.


title: Richard Glossip

text: In August 2004, a second Oklahoma jury convicted Glossip of the murder and sentenced him to death. Glossip complained that prosecutors had intimidated his defense attorney into resigning. However, in April 2007, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the death sentence, with two judges in the majority, one judge specially concurring, and two judges dissenting. Glossip attracted the advocacy of Sister Helen Prejean, but failed to get the clemency board to consider letters from Sneed’s family, who believe Sneed is lying.