Despite lacking an overseas empire , Poland maintained a slow but steady level of economic development. The cultural hubs of interwar Poland – Warsaw , Kraków , Poznań , Wilno and Lwów – became major European cities and the sites of internationally acclaimed universities and other institutions of higher education. By 1939, the Republic had become "one of Europe's major powers". [ 1 ] Nevertheless, the Polish economist Witold Gadomski has calculated that the Republic was a much poorer nation than contemporary Poland. According to his estimates, Poland's gross national product in 1929 was between 50 and 60 billion US$s, which compares starkly with an estimate in 2007 of 422 billion dollars. In 2007, Poland's share in international trade was 1.1%, while in 1937, it was 0.8%. [ 2 ] On 5 November, in Lublin , the first Soviet of Delegates was created. On 6 November the Communists announced the creation of a Republic of Tarnobrzeg . The same day, a Provisional People's Government of the Republic of Poland was created in Lublin under the Socialist, Ignacy Daszyński . On Sunday, 10 November at 7 a.m., Józef Piłsudski , newly freed from 16-month imprisonment by the German authorities at Magdeburg , returned by train to Warsaw. Piłsudski, together with Colonel Kazimierz Sosnkowski , was greeted at Warsaw's rail station by Regent Zdzisław Lubomirski and Colonel Adam Koc . Next day, due to his popularity and support from most political parties, the Regency Council appointed Piłsudski Commander in Chief of the Polish Armed Forces. On 14 November, the Council dissolved itself and transferred all its authority to Piłsudski as Chief of State ( Naczelnik Państwa ). After consultation with Piłsudski, Daszyński's government dissolved itself and a new government was created under Jędrzej Moraczewski . In 1918, Italy was the first country in Europe to recognise Poland's sovereignty. [ 4 ] The Polish government-in-exile operated in Paris and later London, between 1939 and 1990, maintaining that it was the only legal and legitimate representative of the Polish nation. In 1990, the last president in exile, Ryszard Kaczorowski handed the insignia to Lech Wałęsa , signifying continuity between the Second and Third republics. The Second Polish Republic was a parliamentary democracy from 1919 (see Small Constitution of 1919 ) to 1926, with the President having limited powers. The Parliament elected him, and he could appoint the Prime Minister as well as the government with the Sejm 's (lower house's) approval, but he could only dissolve the Sejm with the Senate 's consent. Moreover, his power to pass decrees was limited by the requirement that the Prime Minister and the appropriate other Minister had to verify his decrees with their signatures. Poland was one of the first countries in the world to recognize Women's suffrage . Women in Poland were granted the right to vote on 28 November 1918, with a decree of Józef Piłsudski. [ 7 ] Poland had a large army, with 283,000 on active duty, in 37 infantry divisions, 11 cavalry brigades, and two armored brigades, plus artillery units. Another 700,000 men served in the reserves. [ 9 ] The units were poorly equipped and poorly trained. The high command was not well regarded and planning was inadequate and haphazard. The war plans failed as soon as Germany invaded, as 10 divisions were never mobilized and others were sent to the wrong places. The limited defense budget allowed minimal mechanization; most weapons were purchased abroad, and foreign exchange was scarce. [ 10 ] PZL , the state aviation company, in 1934 developed the PZL P.11 , the most modern fighter in Europe. In the late 1930s its successor the PZL P.24 was even better armed and faster, but Poland exported its entire production to earn currency, forcing the use of obsolete PZL P.7 and P-11 fighters. The PZL.37 Łoś was an excellent twin-engine medium bomber; only a few dozen were available when the war began. After regaining her independence Poland was faced with major economic difficulties. In addition to the devastation wrought by World War I, the exploitation of the Polish economy by the German and Russian occupying powers, and the sabotage performed by retreating armies, the new republic was faced with the task of economically unifying disparate economic regions, which had previously been part of different countries. [ 14 ] Within the borders of the Republic were the remnants of three different economic systems, with five different currencies (the German mark , the Russian ruble , the Austrian crown , the Polish marka and the Ostrubel ) [ 14 ] and with little or no direct infrastructural links. The situation was so bad that neighboring industrial centers as well as major cities lacked direct railroad links, because they had been parts of different nations. For example, there was no direct railroad connection between Warsaw and Kraków until 1934. This situation was described by Melchior Wańkowicz in his book Sztafeta . On top of this was the massive destruction left after both World War I and the Polish–Soviet War . There was also a great economic disparity between the eastern (commonly called Poland B ) and western (called Poland A ) parts of the country, with the western half, especially areas that had belonged to the German Empire being much more developed and prosperous. Frequent border closures and a customs war with Germany also had negative economic impacts on Poland. In 1924 prime minister and economic minister Władysław Grabski introduced the złoty as a single common currency for Poland (it replaced the Polish marka ), which remained a stable currency. The currency helped Poland to bring under control the massive hyperinflation, the only country in Europe which was able to do this without foreign loans or aid. [ 15 ] Average annual growth rate ( GDP per capita ) was 5.24% in 1920–29 and 0.34% in 1929–38. [ 12 ] Hostile relations with neighbours were a major problem for the economy of interbellum Poland. In the year 1937, foreign trade with all neighbours amounted to only 21% of Poland's total. Trade with Lithuania (0% of total) and the Soviet Union (0,8%) was virtually nonexistent. Czechoslovakia accounted for 3,9% of Polish foreign trade, Latvia for 0,3%, Romania for 0,8%, and Germany, Poland's most important neighbour, for 14,3%. By mid-1938, after the Anschluss , Greater Germany was responsible for as much as 23% of Polish foreign trade. The basis of Poland's gradual recovery after the Great Depression were mass economic development plans (see Four Year Plan ), which oversaw the building of three key infrastructural elements. The first was the establishment of the Gdynia seaport, which allowed Poland to completely bypass Gdańsk (which was under heavy German pressure to boycott Polish coal exports). The second was construction of the 500-kilometer rail connection between Upper Silesia and Gdynia, called Polish Coal Trunk-Line , which served freight trains with coal. The third was the creation of a central industrial district, named COP – Central Industrial Region ( Centralny Okręg Przemysłowy ). Unfortunately, these developments were interrupted and largely destroyed by the German and Soviet invasion and the start of World War II. [ 16 ] Among other achievements of interbellum Poland there are Stalowa Wola (a brand new city, built in a forest around a steel mill), Mościce (now a district of Tarnów , with a large nitrate factory), and creation of a central bank . There were several trade fairs, with the most popular being Poznań International Fair , Lwów's Targi Wschodnie , and Wilno's Targi Północne . Polish Radio had ten stations (see Radio stations in interwar Poland ), with the eleventh one planned to be opened in the autumn of 1939. Furthermore, in 1935 Polish engineers began working on the TV services. By early 1939, experts of the Polish Radio built four TV sets. First movie broadcast by experimental Polish TV was Barbara Radziwiłłówna , and by 1940, regular TV service was scheduled to begin operation. [ 17 ] Industry and communications in Poland before the start of World War II According to the 1939 Statistical Yearbook of Poland, total length of railways of Poland (as for 31 December 1937) was 20 118 kilometers. Rail density was 5.2 km. per 100 km 2 . Railways were very dense in western part of the country, while in the east, especially Polesie , rail was non-existent in some counties. During the interbellum period, Polish government constructed several new lines, mainly in central part of the country (see also Polish State Railroads Summer 1939 ). Construction of extensive Warszawa Główna railway station was never finished due to the war, and Polish railroads were famous for their punctuality (see Luxtorpeda , Strzała Bałtyku , Latający Wilnianin ). In the interbellum, road network of Poland was dense, but the quality of the roads was very poor – only 7% of all roads was paved and ready for automobile use, and none of the major cities were connected with each other by a good-quality highway. In the mid-1930s, Poland had 340,000 kilometers of roads, but only 58,000 had hard surface (gravel, cobblestone or sett ), and 2,500 were modern, with asphalt or concrete surface. In different parts of the country, there were sections of paved roads, which suddenly ended, and were followed by dirt roads. [ 18 ] Poor condition of roads was the result of both long-lasting foreign dominance, and inadequate funding. On 29 January 1931, Polish Parliament created State Road Fund, whose purpose was to collect money for construction and conservation of roads. The government drafted a 10-year plan, with road priorities: a highway from Wilno, through Warsaw and Cracow, to Zakopane (called Marshall Pilsudski Highway), asphalt highways from Warsaw to Poznań and Łódź, as well as Warsaw ring road. However, the plan turned out to be too ambitious, as there was not enough money in the national budget. In January 1938, Polish Road Congress estimated that Poland should spend on roads three times more money to keep up with Western Europe. In the Second Polish Republic, the majority of inhabitants lived in the countryside (75% in 1921), and their existence depended on land. Farmers made 65% of the population, while about 1% were landowners. In 1929, agricultural production made 65% of Poland's GNP. [ 20 ] After 123 years of partitions, regions of the country were very unevenly developed. Lands of former German Empire were most advanced – in Greater Poland and Pomerelia , crops were on Western European level. [ 21 ] The situation was much worse in former Congress Poland , Kresy , and former Galicia , where agriculture was most backward and primitive, with a large number of small farms, unable to succeed on both domestic and international market. Furthermore, another problem was overpopulation of the countryside, which resulted in chronic unemployment. Living conditions were so bad that in several regions, such as counties inhabited by the Hutsuls , there was permanent starvation. [ 22 ] Farmers rebelled against the government (see: 1937 peasant strike in Poland ), and the situation began to change in the late 1930s, due to construction of several factories for the Central Industrial Region , which gave employment to thousands of countryside residents. In the 1920s there was a trade war with Germany, involving tariffs and restrictions. After 1933 the trade war ended and new agreements regulated and promoted trade. Germany was Poland's largest trading partner, followed by Britain. In October 1938 Germany granted a credit of Rm 60,000,000 (120,000,000 zloty, or £4,800,000). Germany would deliver factory equipment and machinery in return for Polish timber and agricultural produce. This new trade was to be in addition to the existing German-Polish trade agreements. [ 23 ] In 1919, the Polish government introduced compulsory education for all children aged 7 to 14, in an effort to limit illiteracy, which was widespread, especially in eastern Poland. The process was slow, but by 1939, 90% of children attended school. In 1921, one-third of citizens of Poland was illiterate (38% in the countryside), by 1931, illiteracy level dropped to 23% overall (27% in the countryside), [ 2 ] and fell to 18% in 1937. [ 24 ] In 1932, Minister of Religion and Education Janusz Jędrzejewicz carried out a reform which introduced the following levels of education: middle school ( szkoła średnia ), with two levels – 4 grades of comprehensive middle school and 2 grades of specified high school (classical, humanistic, natural and mathematical). A graduate of middle school received a small matura , while a graduate of high school received a big matura , which enabled them to seek university-level education. Historically, Poland was a nation of many nationalities. This was especially true after independence was regained in the wake of World War I. The census of 1921 allocates 30.8% of the population in the minority. [ 26 ] This was further exacerbated with the Polish victory in the Polish–Soviet War , and the large territorial gains in the east, made by Poland as a consequence. According to the 1931 Polish Census : 68.9% of the population was Polish, 13.9% were Ukrainians, around 10% Jewish, 3.1% Belarusians, 2.3% Germans and 2.8% – others, including Lithuanians , Czechs and Armenians . Also, there were smaller communities of Russians , and Gypsies . The situation of minorities was a complex subject and changed during the period. [ 27 ] Poland was also a nation of many religions. In 1921, 16,057,229 Poles (approx. 62.5%) were Roman (Latin) Catholics , 3,031,057 citizens of Poland (approx. 11.8%) were Eastern Rite Catholics (mostly Ukrainian Greek Catholics and Armenian Rite Catholics ), 2,815,817 (approx. 10.95%) were Greek Orthodox , 2,771,949 (approx. 10.8%) were Jewish, and 940,232 (approx. 3.7%) were Protestants (mostly Lutheran Evangelical ). [ 28 ] By 1931 Poland had the second largest Jewish population in the world, with one-fifth of all the world's Jews residing within its borders (approx. 3,136,000). [ 26 ] Urban population of interbellum Poland was rising steadily – in 1921, only 24% of Poles lived in the cities, in the late 1930s, the ratio grew to 30%. In more than a decade, the population of Warsaw grew by 200,000, Łódź by 150,000, and Poznań – by 100,000. This was due not only to internal migration, but also extremely high birth rate. [ 2 ] Pillar near the summit of Popadia in Gorgany . During the Second Republic, this marked the Polish-Czechoslovak border. The administrative division of the Republic was based on a three-tier system. On the lowest rung were the gminy , local town and village governments akin to districts or parishes. These were then grouped together into powiaty (akin to counties) which, in turn, were grouped as województwa ( voivodeships , akin to provinces). The Second Polish Republic was mainly flat, with average elevation of 223 m above sea level (after World War II and its border changes, the average elevation of Poland decreased to 173 m). Only 13% of territory, along the southern border, was higher than 300 m. The highest elevation was Mount Rysy , which rises 2,499 m in the Tatra Range of the Carpathians, 95 km south of Kraków . Between October 1938 and September 1939, the highest elevation was Lodowy Szczyt (known in the Slovak language as Ľadový štít ), which rises 2,627 meters above sea level. The largest lake was Lake Narach . The country's total area, after annexation of Zaolzie , was 389,720 km 2 , it extended 903 km from north to south and 894 km from east to west. On 1 January 1938, total length of boundaries was 5,529 km, including: 140 kilometers of coastline (out of which 71 kilometers were made by the Hel Peninsula ), Almost 75% of the territory of interbellum Poland was drained northward into the Baltic Sea by the Vistula (total area of drainage basin of the Vistula within boundaries of the Second Polish Republic was 180,300 km 2 ), the Niemen (51,600 km 2 ), the Odra (46,700 km 2 ) and the Daugava (10,400 km 2 ). The remaining part of the country was drained southward, into the Black Sea , by the rivers that drain into the Dnieper ( Pripyat , Horyn and Styr , all together 61,500 km 2 ) as well as Dniester (41,400 km 2 ) Moklak, Jaroslaw. The Lemko Region in the Second Polish Republic: Political and Interdenominational Issues 1918–1939 (2013); covers Old Rusyns, Moscophiles and National Movement Activists, & the political role of the Greek Catholic and Orthodox Churches


LeMay was born in Columbus , Ohio , on November 15, 1906. His father, Erving LeMay, was at times an ironworker and general handyman, but he never held a job longer than a few months. His mother, Arizona Dove (Carpenter) LeMay, [ 4 ] did her best to hold her family together. With very limited income, his family moved around the country as his father looked for work, going as far as Montana and California. Eventually they returned to his native city of Columbus. LeMay attended Columbus public schools, graduating from Columbus South High School, and studied civil engineering at Ohio State University . Working his way through college, he graduated with a bachelor's degree in civil engineering . While at Ohio State he was a member of the National Society of Pershing Rifles and the Professional Engineering Fraternity Theta Tau . He was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Air Corps Reserve in October 1929. He received a regular commission in the United States Army Air Corps in January 1930. While finishing at Ohio State, he took flight training at Norton Field in Columbus, in 1931–32. [ 5 ] On June 9, 1934, he married Helen E. Maitland (died 1992), with whom he had one child, Patricia Jane LeMay Lodge, known as Janie. LeMay became a pursuit pilot and, while stationed in Hawaii, became one of the first members of the Air Corps to receive specialized training in aerial navigation. In August 1937, as navigator under pilot and commander Caleb V. Haynes on a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress , he helped locate the battleship Utah despite being given the wrong coordinates by Navy personnel, in exercises held in misty conditions off California, after which the group of B-17s bombed it with water bombs. For Haynes again, in May 1938 he navigated three B-17s over 610 miles (980 km) of the Atlantic Ocean to intercept the Italian liner Rex to illustrate the ability of land-based airpower to defend the American coasts. In 1940 he was navigator for Haynes on the prototype Boeing XB-15 heavy bomber, flying a survey from Panama over the Galapagos islands. [ 6 ] War brought rapid promotion and increased responsibility. When his crews were not flying missions, they were subjected to relentless training, as he believed that training was the key to saving their lives. Throughout his career, LeMay was widely and fondly known among his troops as "Old Iron Pants," and the "Big Cigar". [ 1 ] [ 7 ] Robert McNamara described LeMay's character, in a discussion of a report into high abort rates in bomber missions during World War II : One of the commanders was Curtis LeMay—Colonel in command of a B-24 [ sic ] group. He was the finest combat commander of any service I came across in war. But he was extraordinarily belligerent, many thought brutal. He got the report. He issued an order. He said, 'I will be in the lead plane on every mission. Any plane that takes off will go over the target, or the crew will be court-martialed.' The abort rate dropped overnight. Now that's the kind of commander he was. [ 10 ] LeMay soon concluded that the techniques and tactics developed for use in Europe against the Luftwaffe were unsuitable against Japan. His Boeing B-29 Superfortress bombers flying from China were dropping their bombs near their targets only 5% of the time. Operational losses of aircraft and crews were unacceptably high owing to Japanese daylight air defenses and continuing mechanical problems with the B-29. In January 1945, LeMay was transferred from China to relieve Brigadier General Haywood S. Hansell as commander of the XXI Bomber Command in the Marianas . [ 8 ] [ 9 ] He became convinced that high-altitude precision bombing would be ineffective, given the usually cloudy weather over Japan. Furthermore, bombs dropped from the B-29s at high altitude (20,000+ feet) were often blown off of their trajectories by a consistently powerful jet stream over the Japanese home islands, which dramatically reduced the effectiveness of the high-altitude raids. Because Japanese air defenses made daytime bombing below jet stream-affected altitudes too perilous, LeMay finally switched to low-altitude nighttime incendiary attacks on Japanese targets, a tactic senior commanders had been advocating for some time. [ 8 ] [ 9 ] Japanese cities were largely constructed of combustible materials such as wood and paper. Precision high-altitude daylight bombing was ordered to proceed only when weather permitted or when specific critical targets were not vulnerable to area bombing . General LeMay was informed by a senior staff member, Colonel William P. Fisher, that bomber pilots were turning back from these low altitude bombing runs due to heavy anti-aircraft fire from Japanese defense forces. Fisher suggested to LeMay that crews who achieved successful strike rates should be rewarded by being released from their deployment. LeMay implemented this unorthodox plan and the strike rate went up to eighty percent. [ 11 ] LeMay commanded subsequent B-29 Superfortress combat operations against Japan, including massive incendiary attacks on 67 Japanese cities. This included the firebombing of Tokyo on the night of March 9–10, 1945, the most destructive bombing raid of the war. [ 12 ] For this first attack, LeMay ordered the defensive guns removed from 325 B-29s, loaded each plane with Model M-47 incendiary clusters , magnesium bombs, white phosphorus bombs, and napalm , and ordered the bombers to fly in streams at 5,000 to 9,000 feet (1,500 to 2,700 m) over Tokyo. [ 8 ] [ 9 ] The first pathfinder airplanes arrived over Tokyo just after midnight on March 10 and marked the target area with a flaming "X." In a three-hour period, the main bombing force dropped 1,665 tons of incendiary bombs, killing 100,000 civilians, destroying 250,000 buildings, and incinerating 16 square miles (41 km 2 ) of the city. Aircrews at the tail end of the bomber stream reported that the stench of burned human flesh permeated the aircraft over the target. [ 13 ] A "LeMay Bombing Leaflet" from the war, which warned Japanese civilians that "Unfortunately, bombs have no eyes. So, in accordance with America's humanitarian policies, the American Air Force, which does not wish to injure innocent people, now gives you warning to evacuate the cities named and save your lives." Precise figures are not available, but the firebombing campaign against Japan, directed by LeMay between March 1945 and the Japanese surrender in August 1945, may have killed more than 500,000 Japanese civilians and left five million homeless. [ 14 ] Official estimates from the United States Strategic Bombing Survey put the figures at 220,000 people killed. [ 12 ] Some 40% of the built-up areas of 66 cities were destroyed, including much of Japan's war industry. [ 12 ] The remaining Allied prisoners of war in Japan who had survived imprisonment to that time were frequently subjected to additional reprisals and torture after an air raid. The massive bombing also hit a number of prisons and directly killed a number of Allied war prisoners. [ citation needed ] LeMay was aware of the implication of his orders. The New York Times reported at the time, "Maj. Gen. Curtis E. LeMay, commander of the B-29s of the entire Marianas area, declared that if the war is shortened by a single day, the attack will have served its purpose." [ 8 ] [ 9 ] The argument was that it was his duty to carry out the attacks in order to end the war as quickly as possible, sparing further loss of life. He also remarked that had the U.S. lost the war, he fully expected to be tried for war crimes . [ 15 ] As the firebombing campaign took effect, Japanese war planners were forced to expend significant resources to relocate vital war industries to remote caves and mountain bunkers, reducing production of war materiel. As a lieutenant colonel who served under LeMay, Robert McNamara was in charge of evaluating the effectiveness of American bombing missions. Later, McNamara, as Secretary of Defense under Kennedy and Johnson , would often clash with LeMay. LeMay also oversaw Operation Starvation , an aerial mining operation against Japanese waterways and ports that disrupted Japanese shipping and food distribution. Although his superiors were unsupportive of this naval objective, LeMay gave it a high priority by assigning the entire 313th Bombardment Wing (four groups, about 160 airplanes) to the task. Aerial mining supplemented a tight Allied submarine blockade of the home islands, drastically reducing Japan's ability to supply its overseas forces to the point that postwar analysis concluded that it could have defeated Japan on its own had it begun earlier. [ 8 ] [ 9 ] LeMay piloted one of three specially modified B-29s flying from Japan to the U.S. in September 1945 , in the process breaking several aviation records at that date, including the greatest USAAF takeoff weight, the longest USAAF non-stop flight, and the first ever non-stop Japan–Chicago flight. One of the pilots was of higher rank: Lieutenant General Barney Giles . The other two aircraft used up more fuel than LeMay's in fighting headwinds, and they could not fly to Washington, DC, the original goal. [ 17 ] Their pilots decided to land in Chicago to refuel. LeMay's aircraft had sufficient fuel to reach Washington, but he was directed by the War Department to join the others by refueling at Chicago. The order was ostensibly given because of borderline weather conditions in Washington, but according to First Lieutenant Ivan J. Potts who was on board, the order came because LeMay had one fewer general's stars and should not be seen to outperform his superior. [ 18 ] After World War II, LeMay was briefly transferred to The Pentagon as deputy chief of Air Staff for Research & Development. In 1947, he returned to Europe as commander of USAF Europe, heading operations for the Berlin Airlift in 1948 in the face of a blockade by the Soviet Union and its satellite states that threatened to starve the civilian population of the Western occupation zones of Berlin. Under LeMay's direction, Douglas C-54 Skymasters that could each carry 10 tons of cargo began supplying the city on July 1. By the fall, the airlift was bringing in an average of 5,000 tons of supplies a day with 500 daily flights. The airlift continued for 11 months—213,000 flights—that brought in 1.7 million tons of food and fuel to Berlin. Faced with the failure of its blockade, the Soviet Union relented and reopened land corridors to the West. Though LeMay is sometimes publicly credited with the success of the Berlin Airlift, it was, in fact, instigated by General Lucius D. Clay when General Clay called LeMay about the problem. LeMay initially started flying supplies into Berlin, but then decided that it was a job for a logistics expert and he found that person in Lt. General William H. Tunner , [ 19 ] who took over the operational end of the Berlin Airlift . In 1948, he returned to the U.S. to head the Strategic Air Command (SAC) at Offutt Air Force Base , replacing Gen George Kenney . When LeMay took over command of SAC, it consisted of little more than a few understaffed B-29 bombardment groups left over from World War II. Less than half of the available aircraft were operational, and the crews were undertrained. Base and aircraft security standards were minimal. Upon inspecting a SAC hangar full of US nuclear strategic bombers, LeMay found a single Air Force sentry on duty, armed only with a ham sandwich. [ 20 ] After ordering a mock bombing exercise on Dayton, Ohio , LeMay was shocked to learn that most of the strategic bombers assigned to the mission missed their targets by one mile or more. "We didn't have one crew, not one crew, in the entire command who could do a professional job" [ 21 ] noted LeMay. A meeting in November, 1948 with Air Force Chief of Staff, Hoyt Vandenberg , found the two men agreeing the primary mission of SAC should be the capability of delivering 80% of the nation's atomic bombs in one mission. Towards this aim, LeMay delivered the first SAC Emergency War Plan in March, 1949 which called for dropping 133 atomic bombs on 70 cities in the USSR within 30 days. Air power strategists called this type of premptive strike, "killing a nation." [ 22 ] However, the Harmon committee, released their unanimous report two months later stating such an attack would not end a war with the Soviets and their industry would quickly recover. This committee had been specifically created by the Joint Chiefs of Staff to study the effects of a massive nuclear strike against the Soviet Union. Nevertheless, within weeks, an ad hoc Joint Chiefs committee recommended tripling America's nuclear arsenal and Chief of Staff Vandenberg called for enough bombs to attack 220 targets, up from the previous 70. [ 23 ] Upon receiving his fourth star in 1951 at age 44, LeMay became the youngest four-star general in American history since Ulysses S. Grant and was the youngest four-star general in modern history as well as the longest serving in that rank. [ 24 ] In 1956 and 1957 LeMay implemented tests of 24-hour bomber and tanker alerts, keeping some bomber forces ready at all times. LeMay headed SAC until 1957, overseeing its transformation into a modern, efficient, all-jet force. LeMay's tenure was the longest over an American military command in nearly 100 years. [ 25 ] Despite popular claims that LeMay advanced the notion of preventive nuclear war, the historical record indicates LeMay actually advocated justified preemptive nuclear war. Several documents show LeMay advocating preemptive attack of the Soviet Union, had it become clear the Soviets were preparing to attack SAC or the US. In these documents, which were often the transcripts of speeches before groups such as the National War College or events such as the 1955 Joint Secretaries Conference at the Quantico Marine Corps Base, LeMay clearly advocated using SAC as a preemptive weapon, if and when such action was necessary. [ 26 ] General LeMay was instrumental in SAC's acquisition of a large fleet of new strategic bombers , establishment of a vast aerial refueling system, the formation of many new units and bases, development of a strategic ballistic missile force, and establishment of a strict command and control system with an unprecedented readiness capability. All of this was protected by a greatly enhanced and modernized security force, the Strategic Air Command Elite Guard . LeMay insisted on rigorous training and very high standards of performance for all SAC personnel, be they officers, enlisted men, aircrews, mechanics, or administrative staff, and reportedly commented, "I have neither the time nor the inclination to differentiate between the incompetent and the merely unfortunate." A famous legend often used by SAC flight crews to illustrate LeMay's command style concerned his famous ever-present cigar. [ 27 ] In the first known published account of the story, Life Magazine reporter Ernest Havemann related that LeMay once took the co-pilot's seat of a SAC bomber to observe the mission, complete with lit cigar. [ 28 ] When asked by the pilot to put the cigar out, LeMay demanded to know why. When the pilot explained that fumes inside the fuselage could ignite the airplane, LeMay reportedly growled, "It wouldn't dare." [ 28 ] The incident in the article was later used as the basis for a fictional scene in the 1955 film Strategic Air Command . In his highly controversial and factually disputed [ 29 ] [ 30 ] memoir War's End , Major General Charles Sweeney related an alleged 1944 incident that may have been the basis for the "It wouldn't dare" comment. [ 31 ] Despite his uncompromising attitude regarding performance of duty, LeMay was also known for his concern for the physical well-being and comfort of his men. [ 32 ] LeMay found ways to encourage morale, individual performance, and the reenlistment rate through a number of means: encouraging off-duty group recreational activities, [ 33 ] [ 34 ] instituting spot promotions based on performance, and authorizing special uniforms, training, equipment, and allowances for ground personnel [ 35 ] as well as flight crews. LeMay was an active amateur radio operator and held a succession of call signs; K0GRL, K4FRA, and W6EZV. He held these calls respectively while stationed at Offutt AFB, Washington, D.C. and when he retired in California . K0GRL is still the call sign of the Strategic Air Command Memorial Amateur Radio Club. [ 36 ] He was famous for being on the air on amateur bands while flying on board SAC bombers. LeMay became aware that the new single sideband (SSB) technology offered a big advantage over amplitude modulation (AM) for SAC aircraft operating long distances from their bases. In conjunction with Art Collins (W0CXX) of Collins Radio , he established SSB as the radio standard for SAC bombers in 1957. [ 37 ] LeMay was appointed Vice Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force in July 1957, serving until 1961, when he was made the fifth Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force on the retirement of Gen Thomas White . His belief in the efficacy of strategic air campaigns over tactical strikes and ground support operations became Air Force policy during his tenure as chief of staff. As chief of staff, LeMay clashed repeatedly with Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, Air Force Secretary Eugene Zuckert , and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army General Maxwell Taylor . At the time, budget constraints and successive nuclear war fighting strategies had left the armed forces in a state of flux. Each of the armed forces had gradually jettisoned realistic appraisals of future conflicts in favor of developing its own separate nuclear and nonnuclear capabilities. At the height of this struggle, the U.S. Army had even reorganized its combat divisions to fight land wars on irradiated nuclear battlefields, developing short-range atomic cannon and mortars in order to win appropriations . The United States Navy in turn proposed delivering strategic nuclear weapons from supercarriers intended to sail into range of the Soviet air defense forces. Of all these various schemes, only LeMay's command structure of SAC survived complete reorganization in the changing reality of Cold War -era conflicts. Though LeMay lost significant appropriation battles for the Skybolt ALBM and the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress replacement, the North American XB-70 Valkyrie , he was largely successful at expanding Air Force budgets. He advocated the introduction of satellite technology and pushed for the development of the latest electronic warfare techniques. By contrast, the U.S. Army and Navy frequently suffered budgetary cutbacks and program cancellations by Congress and Secretary McNamara. During the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, LeMay clashed again with U.S. President John F. Kennedy and Defense Secretary McNamara, arguing that he should be allowed to bomb nuclear missile sites in Cuba . He opposed the naval blockade and, after the end of the crisis, suggested that Cuba be invaded anyway, even after the Russians agreed to withdraw. LeMay called the peaceful resolution of the crisis - whereby Kennedy secretly agreed to remove US missiles from Turkey and Italy - "the greatest defeat in our history". [ 38 ] Unknown to the US, the Soviet field commanders in Cuba had been given authority to launch—the only time such authority was delegated by higher command. [ 22 ] They had twenty nuclear warheads for medium-range R-12 Dvina (NATO Code SS-4 Sandal ) ballistic missiles capable of reaching US cities (including Washington) and nine tactical nuclear missiles. If Soviet officers had launched them, many millions of US citizens could have been killed. The ensuing SAC retaliatory thermonuclear strike would have killed roughly one hundred million Soviet citizens. Kennedy refused LeMay's requests, however, and the naval blockade was successful. [ 22 ] The memorandum from LeMay, Chief of Staff, USAF, to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, January 4, 1964, illustrates LeMay's reasons for keeping bomber forces alongside ballistic missiles: "It is important to recognize, however, that ballistic missile forces represent both the U.S. and Soviet potential for strategic nuclear warfare at the highest, most indiscriminate level, and at a level least susceptible to control. The employment of these weapons in lower level conflict would be likely to escalate the situation, uncontrollably, to an intensity which could be vastly disproportionate to the original aggravation. The use of ICBMs and SLBMs is not, therefore, a rational or credible response to provocations which, although serious, are still less than an immediate threat to national survival. For this reason, among others, I consider that the national security will continue to require the flexibility, responsiveness, and discrimination of manned strategic weapon systems throughout the range of cold, limited, and general war." [ 39 ] LeMay's dislike for tactical aircraft and training backfired in the low-intensity conflict of Vietnam, where existing Air Force fighter aircraft and standard attack profiles proved incapable of carrying out sustained tactical bombing campaigns in the face of hostile North Vietnamese antiaircraft defenses. LeMay said, "Flying fighters is fun. Flying bombers is important." [ 40 ] Aircraft losses on tactical attack missions soared, and Air Force commanders soon realized that their large, missile-armed jet fighters were exceedingly vulnerable not only to antiaircraft shells and missiles but also to cannon-armed, maneuverable Soviet fighters. LeMay advocated a sustained strategic bombing campaign against North Vietnamese cities, harbors, ports, shipping, and other strategic targets. His advice was ignored. Instead, an incremental policy was implemented that focused on limited interdiction bombing of fluid enemy supply corridors in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. This limited campaign failed to destroy significant quantities of enemy war supplies or diminish enemy ambitions. Bombing limitations were imposed by President Lyndon Johnson for geopolitical reasons, as he surmised that bombing Soviet and Chinese ships in port and killing Soviet advisers would bring the Soviets and Chinese more directly into the war. Evidence of LeMay's thinking is that, in his 1965 autobiography (co-written with MacKinlay Kantor ) LeMay is quoted as saying his response to North Vietnam would be to demand that "they’ve got to draw in their horns and stop their aggression, or we’re going to bomb them back into the Stone Age . And we would shove them back into the Stone Age with Air power or Naval power—not with ground forces." Some military historians have argued that LeMay's theories were eventually proven correct. Near the war's end in December 1972, President Richard Nixon ordered Operation Linebacker II , a high-intensity Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps aerial bombing campaign, which included hundreds of B-52 bombers that struck previously untouched North Vietnamese strategic targets, including heavy populated areas in Hanoi and Haiphong. Linebacker II was followed by renewed negotiations that led to the Paris Peace Agreement , appearing to support the claim. However, consideration must be given to significant differences in terms of both military obejctives and geopolitical realities between 1968 and 1972, including the impact of Nixon's recognition and exploitation of the Sino-Soviet split to gain a "free hand" in Vietnam and the shift of Communist opposition from an organic insurgency (the Viet Cong) to a conventional mechanized offensive that was by its nature more reliant on industrial output and traditional logistics. [ 41 ] In effect, Johnson and Nixon were waging two different wars. Owing to his unrelenting opposition to the Johnson administration's Vietnam policy and what was widely perceived as his hostility to Secretary McNamara, LeMay was essentially forced into retirement in February 1965 and seemed headed for a political career. [ citation needed ] Moving to California, he was approached by conservatives to challenge moderate Republican Thomas Kuchel for his seat in the United States Senate in 1968, but he declined. For the presidential race that year , LeMay originally supported Richard Nixon; he turned down two requests by George Wallace to join his American Independent Party that year on the grounds that a third-party candidacy might hurt Nixon's chances at the polls (by coincidence, Wallace had served as a sergeant in a unit commanded by LeMay during World War II). LeMay gradually became convinced that Nixon planned to pursue a conciliatory policy with the Soviets and accept nuclear parity rather than retain America's first-strike supremacy. LeMay felt that Lyndon Johnson had lied to him on several occasions and that Hubert Humphrey, if elected, would do the same. [ citation needed ] Consequently LeMay, while being fully aware of Wallace's segregationist platform, decided to throw his support to Wallace and eventually became Wallace's running mate. The general was dismayed to find himself attacked in the press as a racial segregationist because he was running with Wallace; he had never considered himself a bigot . When Wallace announced his selection in October 1968, a press conference was held that Wallace aide later referred to as a "fiasco." When LeMay was asked if nuclear weapons were necessary to win the war in Vietnam, he responded, "We can win this war without nuclear weapons." However, he then added, "But I have to say, we have a phobia about nuclear weapons. I think there may be times when it would be most efficient to use nuclear weapons." Wallace's staff began to consider Lemay to be "politically tone-deaf" and the former Air Force General did nothing to diminish the perception of extremism that some American voters had of the Wallace-LeMay ticket. [ 42 ] The "bomb them back to the stone age" comment received significant publicity but General LeMay disclaimed the comment, saying in a later interview: “I never said we should bomb them back to the Stone Age. I said we had the capability to do it." [ citation needed ] The Wallace-LeMay AIP ticket received 13.5 percent of the popular vote, higher than most third-party candidacies in the US, and carried five states for a total of 46 electoral votes . According to historian Warren Kozak, Wallace's defeat left LeMay's public reputation in tatters. LeMay was commonly assumed to share Wallace's widely unpopular racist views, even though LeMay had enthusiastically supported racial integration in the US military publicly and privately. He fought segregation in the Air Force before Executive Order 9981 systemically banned the practice. [ 43 ] The April 25, 1988, issue of The New Yorker carried an interview with former US Senator from Arizona Barry Goldwater , a retired Air Force Reserve major general, who said he repeatedly asked his friend General LeMay if he (Goldwater) might have access to the secret "Blue Room" at Wright Patterson Air Force Base , alleged by numerous Goldwater constituents to contain UFO evidence. According to Goldwater, an angry LeMay gave him "holy hell" and said, "Not only can't you get into it but don't you ever mention it to me again." [ 45 ] LeMay was also a sports car owner and enthusiast (he owned an Allard J2); as the "SAC era" began to wind down, LeMay loaned out facilities of SAC bases for use by the Sports Car Club of America , [ 46 ] as the era of early street races began to die out. He was awarded the Woolf Barnato Award, SCCA's highest award, for contributions to the Club, in 1954. [ 46 ] In November 2006, it was announced that General LeMay would be one of the inductees into the SCCA Hall of Fame in 2007. [ 46 ] LeMay’s first contact with military service occurred in September 1924 when he enrolled as a student in the Army ROTC program at Ohio State University. By his senior year, LeMay was listed on the ROTC rolls as a "cadet lieutenant colonel". On June 14, 1928, the summer before the start of his senior year, LeMay accepted a commission as a second lieutenant in the Field Artillery Reserve of the U.S. Army. In September 1928, LeMay was approached by the Ohio National Guard and asked to accept a state commission, also as a second lieutenant, which LeMay accepted. This created a unique situation in LeMay's service record since in 1928 it was unusual for a person to hold commissions in both the National Guard and the Army Reserve . [ citation needed ] On September 29, 1928, LeMay enlisted in the Army Air Corps as an aviation cadet. For the next 13 months, he was on the enlisted rolls of the Regular Army as a cadet and he held commissions in the National Guard and Army Reserve. His status changed on October 2, 1929, when LeMay’s Guard and Reserve commissions were terminated. According to his service record, these commissions were revoked "by telephone" after an Army personnel officer, realizing that LeMay was holding officer and enlisted status simultaneously, called him to discuss the matter. [ citation needed ] On October 12, 1929, LeMay finished his flight training and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Army Air Corps Reserve. This was the third time he had been appointed a second lieutenant in just under two years. He held this reserve commission until June 1930, when he was appointed as a Regular Army officer in the Army Air Corps. LeMay experienced slow advancement throughout the 1930s, as did most officers of the seniority-driven Regular Army. At the start of 1940 he was still a first lieutenant but, beginning in 1941, began to receive temporary advancements in grade in the expanding Army Air Forces. LeMay advanced from captain to brigadier general in less than four years and by 1944 was a major general in the Army Air Forces. When World War II ended, he was appointed to the permanent rank of brigadier general in the Regular Army but held his temporary rank of major general in the Army until promotion to lieutenant general in the now separate United States Air Force in 1948. He then was promoted to general in 1951 and held this rank until his retirement in 1965. According to letters in LeMay's service record, while he was in command of SAC during the 1950s several petitions were made by Air Force service members to have LeMay promoted to the rank of General of the Air Force (five stars). The Air Force leadership, however, felt that such a promotion would lessen the prestige of this rank, which was seen as a wartime rank to be held only in times of extreme national emergency. Per the Chief of the Air Force General Officers Branch, in a letter dated February 28, 1962: It is clear that a grateful nation, recognizing the tremendous contributions of the key military and naval leaders in World War II, created these supreme grades as an attempt to accord to these leaders the prestige, the clear-cut leadership, and the emolument of office befitting their service to their country in war. It is the conviction of the Department of the Air Force that this recognition was and is appropriate. Moreover, appointments to this grade during periods other than war would carry the unavoidable connotation of downgrading of those officers so honored in World War II. Thus, no serious effort was ever made to promote LeMay to the rank of General of the Air Force, and the matter was eventually dropped after his retirement from active service in 1965. 11/22/63 by Stephen King (fiction), in which LeMay is Vice-President of the United States in the dystopian alternate future created by the main character's actions in the past, which saved President John F. Kennedy's life, and resulted in the eventual election of George Wallace as President. [ 50 ] ^ Watson, George M., Secretaries and Chiefs of Staff of the United States Air Force , Washington, D.C.: Air Force History and Museums Program, USAF (2001) p. 132: LeMay recorded the incident in a memo to staff the same day, stating "this afternoon I found a man guarding a hangar with a ham sandwich. There will be no more of that." ^ Carter, Dan T. (1995). The Politics of Rage: George Wallace, the Origins of the New Conservatism, and the Transformation of American Politics . New York: Simon & Schuster. pp. 359–360. ISBN 0-8071-2597-0 .


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Though you will be getting older , you do not have to let your body and mind fall victim to aging. Learning about what causes growing older to increase your youthful mind and appearance is simple and can be used to great effect in your life. If you put these techniques to use, you can increase the number of years that you stay healthy. A healthy lifestyle can help you slow the aging process. Eat the proper amount of vegetables, dairy products, fruits, whole grains and protein to get the nutrients that your body requires. Remember to eat three moderate meals per day in combination with several nutritious snacks. Eat foods rich in fiber to help fight aging effects. Fiber can help to prevent the accumulation of toxins in the digestive system. Additionally, it helps to remove bad cholesterol, slow digestion and stabilize blood sugar. Fiber is the key to great digestion. Be proud of any gray hair you may have; just remember to adjust your makeup accordingly. Gray hair can make you look pale, and you will want to adjust your makeup to improve the look of your skin. Use a foundation makeup in a slightly darker shade than your usual. Accent lips and cheeks with shades of peach or rose. Use a brow pencil to define your eyebrows, and a yellow-based concealer to hide under eye shadows. If you put on the right kind of makeup, you will make gray hair look fantastic and even you will look younger. TIP! A good facial massage will do wonders for your facial skin and keep you from looking old. Massaging your facial features improves circulation to your face and will reduce puffy eyes. Try not to fall. Falls can cause damage to your body which sometimes cannot be repaired. They are especially dangerous when a senior is involved. You can improve your balance and become more physically fit by making an effort to take 30-minute walks, three days per week. Decrease your risk of fractures through a program of weight training, increased calcium intake, and Vitamin D supplements. Do not spend an excessive amount of time worrying about how old you are. It is all about how you feel, not what age you are. Age is just a number that doesn't determine how you feel. You can be chronologically one age but feel much younger inside. The best thing you can do is to not allow your age to get the best of you mentally. In order to age gracefully, you must remain active. Keeping active can help you look and feel younger by allowing you to have a sharper mind and a fitter body. In contrast, a stagnant existence can increase negative effects of growing older and reduce your overall quality of life. Enjoy an activity that you like everyday. A good hint to help you age is to restore your hormones. When your hormone levels start to decline, you will experience loss of libido, energy and stamina. This will happen as you start to get older. Talk to a doctor to see if it is possible to take hormone supplements if this is a problem for you. TIP! If your physician recommends further testing, you should follow his or her directions. By checking in with your body and health often, you can catch potential health issues early and have the best chance at effective treatment. Know how much sleep is required for people in your age group, and make sure to get it. You will maintain a sense of calm and relaxation, as well as a proper hormonal profile if you sleep for roughly 7-9 hours nightly. Not getting enough sleep can often result in irritability and can generally put you in a bad mood. Consult your doctor regarding the appropriate supplements that you can take that have anti-getting older properties. You need to include a balanced regimen of multivitamins, antioxidants and perhaps anti-inflammatory medicines. If you take these supplements, your energy level will increase and you will experience less complications from growing older. Include these in any daily plan you build. Frowning can increase the number of wrinkles in your skin. Beyond ruining your mood, frowning is bad for the face. Every time you sense a frown coming on, pinch yourself. The habit can be broken in time using this method. You should sleep for eight hours every night. Every time you sleep, your body is renewing itself. That is why you need a full night's sleep. Most people need at least eight hours; some may need more or less. TIP! Save early and often for retirement, but don't neglect to keep some savings for health issues. However, don't neglect to cover yourself for times when your health may degrade or emergencies arise. Pressure Checked Regularly Get your blood pressure checked regularly. "The silent killer" refers to high blood pressure because many people have no symptoms to alert them to this dangerous condition. As you age, it's more and more important to have your blood pressure checked regularly so a problem can't sneak up on you. If you know about high blood pressure early, you'll have time to solve it. Growing Older can be done gracefully. Your life can still be active and vibrant if you take special care of your body and mind. Look for ways to fit these ideas into your daily life, and find the joys that you could be missing. Reducing the amount of red meat and increasing the amount of fish in your diet can help to prevent heart disease. There are many unhealthy fats in red meat that can contribute to clogging of the arteries, and this can result in heart disease, as well as other illnesses. Fish is full of healthy fats which are believed to slow down the clogging and help you to live a long, healthy life. TIP! To keep aging skin looking smooth and less wrinkled, try using a primer product. These types of products are silicone-based and can make a significant difference in the appearance of your makeup.


Sterilising baby bottles There are several ways in which you can sterilise your baby's feeding equipment. For example, by using a cold water sterilising solution, by steam sterilising or by sterilising by boiling. The following instructions apply to all feeding equipment you use for your baby, whether you are using expressed breast milk or infant formula. Remember, before sterilising, always: Clean the feeding bottle and teat in hot, soapy water as soon as possible after a feed, using a clean bottle brush. Rinse all your equipment in clean, cold running water before sterilising. Cold water sterilising solution Follow the manufacturer's instructions. Change the sterilising solution every 24 hours. Leave feeding equipment in the sterilising solution for at least 30 minutes. Make sure that there is no air trapped in the bottles or teats when putting them in the sterilising solution. Keep all the equipment under the solution with a floating cover. Steam sterilising (electric steriliser or microwave) It is important to follow the manufacturer's instructions as there are several different types of sterilisers. Make sure the openings of the bottles and teats are facing down in the steriliser. Manufacturers will give guidelines on how long you can leave equipment that you are not using immediately (straight after sterilising) before it needs to be resterilised. Sterilising by boiling When using this method, care must be taken to ensure safety and prevent scalds or burns. Hot pans and liquids should not be left unattended, especially if children are present. Make sure that whatever you sterilise in this way is safe to boil. Boil the feeding equipment in water for at least 10 minutes, making sure that all items stay under the surface of the water. Remember that teats tend to get damaged faster with this method. Regularly check that teats and bottles are not torn, cracked or damaged. Wash your hands thoroughly. Clean and disinfect the surface where you will put together the bottle and teat. It is best to remove the bottles just before they are used. If the bottles are not being used immediately, they should be put together fully with the teat and lid in place. This is to prevent the inside of the sterilised bottle from being contaminated, along with the inside and outside of the teat.


But is there much of a performance hit when using Double instead of Long? Reading that link you provided, a Long is 4 bytes long while a Double is 8 bytes long. There is a significant performance hit when using Double (or Single), not because of the different number of bytes but because Doubles are floating point and use a different representation. Longs are just simple binary numbers and are much more straight forward to process. However it depends on what you are doing as to whether it really matters to your application. If you are doing massive, complex calculations where a large part of the processing time is spent just calculating then it will make a big difference, but if it's just displaying a simple screen or reading a few rows from a database etc you won't notice any difference at all. Will there be much of a performance hit when using a Double instead of a Long variable type? I wouldn't worry about it too much. I know the purist's will come down on me for saying this, but the reality is you can spend a lot of time writing code that will be really efficient in order to save a couple of milliseconds and maybe a meg or two of RAM. I would rather see that development time go towards better application testing and documentation. If you are writing something that is computationally arduous, you should probably use a lower level language like C++ as opposed to Visual Basic. You really don't want to store integer data as a floating point number, as this will lead to a variety of problems with inaccuracy. Of course not. I was just trying to think of a way that earlier statement could be justified, that a Variant is slower with respect to a Double than it is to a Long :-) I would really hope MS had designed the Variant type so that it could store both an integer value and a floating-point value at the same time. It's interesting to consider how other languages solve this problem. Perl variables, for instance, contain separate IV, NV, PV (integer, numeric, pointer value) slots, and there's a bunch of flags to indicate which slots contain valid values, whether the IV is actually unsigned, etc. Variants can hold almost any type of data, including objects. In VB6 you should almost never use Variants unless there are specific reasons why you need to (e.g. you are writing a COM component that needs to be called late-bound and that has by-reference parameters). Not only is the overhead excessive, unless you specifically convert the variants to a particular type in your code then you have no control over how the runtime treats them when doing calculations and comparisons etc. The decision as to which numeric data type you should be based on the business logic, not performance. If you only need to store integers that will fit in 4 bytes use Long (Int is not really any faster than Long on modern processors). If you need to store floating point numbers (i.e. decimal fractions) other than money use Double, or Single if you are sure that the accuracy and/or size required are compatible with Single. If you need to store money use Currency (aka decimal). Of course if you are storing your data in a database then obviously you need to take into account what data type is used in the database, in which case you don't really have a choice at the VB6 level. Hmm, yeah, I think you're right. It appears that in VB6 the "decimal" datatype is just an odd kind of Variant. Probably should avoid it. How about Currency? Also, doesn't VB6 come with online help? Surely you can find out these kinds of things just by looking through that? The help that came with it is now even more valuable, since Microsoft no longer have it on their website! Edit: Just dug out some old MSDN library CDs: Note At this time the Decimal data type can only be used within a Variant, that is, you cannot declare a variable to be of type Decimal. You can, however, create a Variant whose subtype is Decimal using the CDec function. Currency (scaled integer) 8 bytes -922,337,203,685,477.5808 to 922,337,203,685,477.5807 Decimal 14 bytes +/-79,228,162,514,264,337,593,543,- 950,335 with no decimal point; +/-7.9228162514264337593543950335 - with 28 places to the right of the decimal; smallest non-zero number is +/-0.0000000000000000000000000001 - User-defined (using Type) Number required by elements The range of each element is the same as the range of its data type. Note: At this time the Decimal data type can only be used within a Variant, that is, you cannot declare a variable to be of type Decimal. You can, however, create a Variant whose subtype is Decimal using the CDec function. I would just use Double if I was you if you want to use numbers longer than 2,147,483,647. Sure, if you don't care about precision. 12-digit numbers might be OK, but if you're multiplying and dividing them a lot, you're going to get inaccurate results. If you're doing integer maths, there's really no excuse not to use an integer datatype. Why would you choose Decimal over Currency, if it means you'll incur the variant overhead? Craig wants to store 12-digit integers, not 20-digit integers. 12-digit integers fit comfortably within the limits of Currency. Currency is an inbuilt data type. "Decimal" is actually a COM data type that is supported in VB6 through using variants. It's not a "native" data type, but if you need really big numbers, or really small numbers with no rounding errors, then you need to use decimals (or, preferably, a different language altogether). Since OP only needs to store large integers I would use Singles, since they are faster and smaller than Currency or Double. I doubt he's going to see too many files that are larger than 1.0E38 bytes. Since OP only needs to store large integers I would use Singles, since they are faster and smaller than Currency or Double. I doubt he's going to see too many files that are larger than 1.0E38 bytes. Hi Woodle. Looking at this page ( theopensourcery.com/vb03tut.htm ) it reads: "Double is much more accurate and even runs about 10-20% faster than Single." Is this true, is it really 10-20% faster using Double than Single? How do I determine how many numeric digits a Double can store if it's maximum is "1.79769313486232E308". I don't understand this number, why does it have an E in it? How do I determine how many numeric digits a Double can store if it's maximum is "1.79769313486232E308". I don't understand this number, why does it have an E in it? That is computerese for 1.79769313486232 x 10 308 . For the origin of this number, have a read of the IEEE 754 standard. As to "how many numeric digits" this is... well, that's an interesting question. Computers generally use "floating-point" arithmetic to represent non-integers, and floating-point numbers have a "precision". This determines how many digits are significant in the number. According to the IEEE 754 spec, double-precision numbers (the Double type in VB) have a precision of 53 bits, which is approximately 15 digits. So in that sense, a Double can only store up to 15 digits. Put simply, the double-precision numbers: 1234567890123456711111 and 1234567890123456799999 are "exactly the same", as far as the computer is concerned -- there is only enough precision to represent the left-most 15 digits accurately.


Get In Shape With These Fitness Tips TIP! If you have difficulty staying motivated to continue your fitness program, you should consider mixing things up with a variety of fitness classes. When you change things up a bit, you make it easier to stay engaged and excited about your fitness goals. There are many different things under the umbrella of fitness. Such things as exercising, going to the gym, dieting and all sorts of supplements and vitamins are just some of what the fitness world deals with. Lots of different workouts are out there that can improve your health and appearance. After reading these tips and hints, you will be able to put together something that will work for you. TIP! So that you can be truly fit, make sure your abs get sufficient exercise. It's best to exercise your abs two or three times per week, but don't overdo it; your abs do need to rest, after all. How you start the day is very important to your fitness. Eating breakfast is a requirement that will ensure your successful outcome in the short and long term. Breakfast sets your metabolism going, which sticks with you all day. TIP! For the best fitness results over time, divide each run you take into three sections. Begin with a reduced pace, and gradually increase it until you reach your normal pace. Kickboxing is phenomenal exercise. Nobody can go to try kickboxing and not come out of the work out covered in sweat and thinking, "man what a workout". Kickboxing burns massive calories while helping you gain strength. Foot Behind TIP! Have a dietitian help you with your diet. Although you may think it's easy to get rid of all the junk food in your home, are you aware of how your workout routines will impact the diet you require? A dietitian will be able to establish how many extra calories you need because you are more active, as well as help you find healthier foods. This exercise will help you improve the agility of your feet. Quickly lift your left foot and then touch it with the opposite hand before lowering it to the floor. Next, raise your right foot and touch it using your left hand before lowering it. Then touch your left foot behind you with your right hand, then your right foot behind you with your left hand. Go for 20 seconds at a time, moving as fast as you can, and repeat for a total of three to five sets. TIP! You should use shoes that fit when exercising. Shop for exercise shoes at night because your feet stretch during the day and will be at their largest when the sun goes down. To motivate yourself for proper fitness, create some personal goals. When you have goals, you concentrate on beating obstacles instead of focusing on an exercise's overall difficulty. If you think of a weight loss program as part of a larger life goal, you are less likely to drop out halfway through. TIP! Stretch the targeted muscles in between sets. Stretches should last a little less than half a minute. Work out in your house. You can do a variety of exercises such as crunches and squats that can give you the results you desire. Make use of different dumbbells or elastic bands to begin a home exercise routine on your own. A jump rope is all you need when doing cardio exercises. TIP! In the past, weight belts were routinely use. These days, they are reserved for extra-heavy duty lifting only. Think heart smart. Being overweight is taxing on the heart. You can lose weight and have a healthier heart through proper exercise and fitness. Don't forget that your diet needs to become healthy, too. Reduce your caloric intake by decreasing your consumption of foods high in saturated fats, while increasing your intake of fiber and vegetables. TIP! Prior to beginning any fitness regimen, be sure to get a physical done at your doctor's office. This will ensure that you are not compromising your health and that you will maximize the benefits. Sudden or specific joint fatigue or pain can be an indication that you should visit a doctor. If you already keep an exercise log, add a "pain" section to each workout to record any problems you might have. TIP! Do you think that you are too busy to stay fit? Split up your workout. Instead of boosting the overall time you exercise, simply split your current minutes into parts. Fitness is a large subject that is covered in a lot of different areas of your life. Learning the correct and wrong way to do exercises is vital and learning which things you can switch up to fit your needs is important, too. With any luck, the information you've just read has helped to demystify all things fitness-related.


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The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason , by Sam Harris The Islamist: Why I Joined Radical Islam in Britain, What I Saw Inside and Why I Left , by Ed Husain Sarah Boyes posted 4 March 2008 If Sam Harris and Ed Husain met you might think it would be pistols at dawn, tumbleweed flying past and plenty of this world ain't big enough for the both of us, but the American New Atheist and reformed British Islamist have more in common than their excellent taste in jackets. Whilst both believe isolating politics from religion is necessary to clear the way for a progressive politics in a climate saturated by religious identities, Husain nevertheless believes in Allah, whereas Harris is every mote the evangelical anti, calling for the total obliteration of faith. But the two 'H's have a more interesting similarity, endorsing at the end of their books a carefully-defined mysticism, and talking about the importance of meditation. Meditation is certainly making a comeback as a niche growth industry with trinkets and yoga courses to boot, and grounding its appeal is its potential as part of the good life: popular books on the subject slap up the importance of setting aside time for ourselves to cultivate inner gardens away from the hustle and bustle of modern life, while a waffly anti-capitalist mentality urges us to stop being material girls by having a dabble in the spiritual realm. Or for those who dislike touchy-feely stuff, there's stats on the scientifically-proven benefits of meditation, tales of longer life and wrinkle-avoidance, increased intelligence or emotional IQ. Stranger still is the kitsch legitimacy mysticism takes from the natural idyll, with adverts conjuring up images of untouched misty mountains set to the strain of atonal bamboo flutes. Another fetish in the current climate is renunciation of past political beliefs gone wrong, and in this vein The Islamist follows Husain through the 1980s and 1990s, from being taken under the wing of a renowned Islamic scholar during his early childhood, through his campaigning campus days with Jaamat-e-Islami, Hizb ut Tahrir and the Islamic Society of Britain and his agitation for a Caliphate in Britain. The book tells his story, it's beautifully written and it draws you in. And it spits you out, as the close sees him embrace a dignified, meditative Sufism as the true expression of the spirit of Islam, a peaceful personal religion that makes no political demands. Though this doesn't mean Husain has quit the public sphere, having been catapulted to fame by the success of his book, lauded (and later lampooned) in the liberal press: the New Statesman , the Guardian and a clutch of BBC Radio 4 programmes to name but a few, into the public eye as an authority on political Islam, landing neatly now -- and as his father was before him -- in the lap of the Labour Party. Nevertheless, he speaks not just as a public figure or party member but as a moderate Muslim and spokesperson for others who share his beliefs. Which is just what Sam Harris does for the New Atheists in The End of Faith . Harris writes widely on the central place religion has come to occupy in American life, the rise of radical Islam, the merging of private and public spheres; he also makes a strange defence of the use of torture on terrorist suspects, and discusses the reaction to 9/11. His lynchpin is that a person's beliefs and ideas -- however much in the background of their day-to-day lives - ultimately shape the world they live in - a claim with something in it, and one used to frame Harris' anti-religious polemic. He says since people 'of faith' believe irrationally in an afterlife -- virgin orgies with unlimited honey sort of stuff -- they can't be trusted to make reliable decisions, which explains why suicide bombers happily blow themselves up, and 'the religious' (mostly Muslims) are a bit knee-jerk. Better to eradicate irrational beliefs, he says, and make decisions from The Evidence. And in his proposed world without faith, mysticism gets awarded a place since it has a rational basis, in that the claims of mystics can be verified empirically by each one of us in our ongoing search for knowledge. Which is why Harris meditates. What draws the two authors together is that neither seems quite able to let go of a gentle obsession with the religious experience, and both -- though not always in name -- advocate a 'soft religion' that points to the importance of personal feelings and private journeys. Whether it's Harris' fascination with people's experience of the divine or Husain pursuing inner peace, mysticism holds a fascination for both authors that has less to do with straightforward characterisations of religion than the question of what being human is all about. That said, mysticism seems praised more for its innocuousness and lack of prescriptions about how society should be, as something to be saved from religious practice as a last ditch option, than for any robust contribution it makes to the ongoing exploration of humanity. It's seen to have an emancipatory quality in that it can free our minds, defended accordingly in terms of the 'enlightenment' found at the end of a journey of mental -- rather than societal - liberation. No wonder it's chosen as the upbeat ending to two books that have an ultimately bleak message about people's ability to get together meaningfully to shape the world we live in. There is a benefit to premising the private, personal and not overtly 'religious' parts of religion like meditation or prayer: it broadens understanding of what faith is and the role it plays in day to day life in debate where definitions are a little thin. But the New Atheist critique also serves to blur boundaries and confuse social, moral, and political issues: whilst a more thorough understanding of the way religious codes and practices influence moral attitudes and political persuasions is worthwhile, it all too often ends up smudging the boundaries between private and public realms. It ultimately undermines the idea of a shared secular social space where people are judged by what they say and do rather than what they get up to in their heads or behind closed doors. On the other side of the coin, religious institutions have begun to defend themselves in terms of 'social cohesion': they claim to offer communities a space where people can come together in mutual activity, provide comfort and support to families and get yoof off the streets. To get rid of them, the new defence goes, would unravel the very fabric of our society. And it's hardly wrong that religious institutions attempt to deal with contemporary concerns and respond to the public mood. A recent meeting at St Mary le Bow Church in London, for example, discussed the role of neuropsychology in debates about God and the psychological necessity of religious experience; religious leaders have begun both to market themselves as 'therapists' and to get annoyed by the trend. But most worrying in this new defence of religion is the way it's played out in terms of state-set agenda, as if religious institutions and practices become legitimate once they begin to deliver policy objectives. What's interesting is that this move towards premising the more innocuous parts of religion is made by those defending and attacking religion alike. It reflects a more generally fragmented world-view. Undeniably, having a community is important and religion does play a role, but this doesn't mean we can't look elsewhere for social groups or that a drop in shared worship signifies the end of civil society while its growth benefits society. That's just conservative scare-mongering. And whilst there does seem to be something to the idea that meditating or generally thinking about things deeply can be emancipatory, it comes at the cost of -- to be crass -- premising the inner at the cost of the outer. Whereas really, the whole focus on 'soft religion' is a thinly-veiled corrective about how people should think and behave in public. Faith: Harris says it has to go since you can't trust people who've got it; Husain worries it makes people do bad things. Talking about meditation makes sense as it has a double appeal: it's open to all and it's harmless. And here, meditation -- or mysticism -- is about more than the dictum 'the unexamined life is not worth living', since it has a specific method and focus of inquiry apart from getting cross-legged and analytic on your ass. There's a disturbing context at play, as Harris gives way to popular anti-Western East-fetishism when he says we're 'conceptually inequipped' to deal with staple mystic Buddhist expositions on consciousness, and this orientation toward the mystical is fast becoming trendy. The broad premise of a series recently on BBC2 for instance, Extreme Pilgrim , is that we in the West must turn to the east to reclaim our notion of spirituality and sense of meaning, since losing it is the price we pay for economic development, greater choice and perverting the divine music of the spheres. A search for meaning is certainly important and it helps to have faith, but truncating what faith is meant to be cuts off any deeper value to be had from truly believing in anything. It makes faith out to be a matter of sexless belief, valued for the personal benefits it brings rather than for what it's faith in. Not to say that mysticism doesn't have benefits: it can constitute some of the wonder of being alive. But imagining this will bring existential comfort and that's all we can ask for whilst saving us from the Sisyphean frustrations of the daily grind, shows more a lack of clear ideas about where Western liberalism will lead us and infuriation with diminishing political subjectivity. And in ejecting religious faith from the public sphere, what the brothers H really want to avoid is the idea faith might play a role in politics. Taking a position perhaps too easily diagnosed as postmodern nihilism, they seem to think any ambitious forward-looking project will end in disaster. Both have seen it -- they know -- and rather than see us make the same mistakes they warn us away from Getting Ideas: if we want to change the world we would be better off tackling problems one by one by using tried and tested methods, or else tweaking ourselves. Change should come at the mystical level of ideas where they're safely divorced from everything else, and the final word of both books is across-the-board-or-I'll-eat-my-hat against faith doing any work in public debate. For we have sinned. As if faith was the nub of all our problems so we should all take a reason steam bath and the world will come smelling up roses. But the interaction between faith and reason is boringly more complex. For example, inductive reasoning -- used in scientific methodology and the way we navigate the world -- is said by many to have no underpinning in deductive logic and doesn't conform to easy-reading models of rationality. To think beliefs can be separated like goats and sheep into irrational faith-based ones and rational evidence-based ones is a bit reckless, since what's rational depends on contextual factors. And it further seems right that just as the non-religious shouldn't have a monopoly over acting reasonably, it's wrong for the religious to monopolise having faith in things. And before you say it, the question of whether a gob of beliefs amount to a faith -- secular or otherwise -- is much less interesting than what these beliefs themselves are, and whether we should believe them. Rather than focusing on people's intentions or motivations it would be much more productive to look at what they're trying to achieve and go from there. And more to the point, the contemporary vogue of blacklisting ideas characterised in religious terms at the cost of trying to understand their potency smacks of the petty-authoritarianism of the 'new Enlightenment' wave. Why try to anaesthetise a generation already accused of nihilistic, selfish indulgence by giving us a lobotomised idea of what faith -- in things like human beings at the very least -- can really do? But leering under the surface of both these texts is a fear of ideology, of anything with a utopian tinge, and a tendency to merge having ideals with both these things. Harris refuses to recognise the rational life as an ideal itself: rather than looking at beliefs one by one and vetting them for how rational they are, he would be better settling for rationality as a bearer of value and cornerstone of a broader world-view. Rationality and the ideals of the Enlightenment should be championed, but not as something 'inherited' that put us in slavish relation to the past. The worth of a fully rational society isn't given its due once rationality is wielded like a wily weapon by the few against the many, and the fact shared agreement is key to the whole shebang is shoved under the carpet in the face of dumbed down public debate. Harris is right when he points out being rational doesn't mean not being able to fall in love or have 'experiences', but he goes too far in claiming a monopoly on rational action for us 'the worthy' in his attack on all those silly faith-heads. And the upshot of all this is a tendency to romanticise Reason itself - as if a thinly-defined reason alone can save us and set us free so long as we give ourselves over to its transformative power. Of course this is kind of right, but even then can never be the whole story: deciding to be reasonable and rational is one thing, collectively coming to conclusions and implementing decisions another. The answer to the question of why we've done something must be more than the bald 'because the evidence told me to'. Rather than the rise in mysticism being a Romantic reaction against the New Atheists, or even a straightforward response to the dissatisfactions generated by a perceived all-pervasive consumerism and capitalism, it seems to come more from the Romantic focus on the rational life pushed by those clamouring for people to take notice of their emaciated version of rationality. It's a crowd-puller that attracts anybody not looking to make too much of a commitment and it ties in with the trend: look inside rather than out, don't under any circumstances get your hands dirty, avoid contamination with vain ideals for you shalt be disappointed. And don't under any circumstances entertain faith of any kind in the hallowed halls of reason. It's a half-way house for those who want more rational thinking about the place, but also want a sense of spirituality or deeper meaning, which mysticism is seen to deliver through its links with tradition and the pseudo-ideology of self-transcendence. Not that romanticising is in itself bad, but maybe there are better things to romanticise if that's your thing, and there are better reasons to be rational than a vague feeling of attraction to the image. Faith can and does play a role in the rational life, which allows it to do more than make us feel a bit better. If it comes to it, content is more important than form. And being rational is nothing to the cause without a broader framework that says something about what we really have faith in. Ohm-ing is only the easy bit.


On this page: Twenty most common cancers There are more than 200 different types of cancer, but four of them - breast , lung , bowel (colorectal) and prostate - account for over half (54%) of all new cases. 1-4 Breast cancer is the most common cancer in the UK, despite the fact that it is rare in men. The 20 most commonly diagnosed cancers in the UK are shown in Figure 2.1 . 1-4 Invasive tumours of the brain and central nervous system (CNS) rank 13th highest in males and 15th highest in females; however, when the non-invasive brain and CNS tumours are also included in the total, the ranks are 11th and 8th highest, respectively (data not shown). Figure 2.2: The 10 Most Commonly Diagnosed Cancers in Males, UK, 2009 *Bowel cancer including anal cancer (C18-C21) **3% of all male cases are registered without specification of the primary site Prostate cancer , with an age-standardised rate of 106 per 100,000 males, accounts for one in four (25%) male cases ( Figures 2.2 and 2.3 ), with the next most common cancers being lung (14%; even though the rate of lung cancer has fallen dramatically since the mid-1980s) and colorectal (14%). Bladder , oesophageal and stomach cancers are among the top ten most common cancers in males, but not in females. *Bowel cancer including anal cancer (C18-C21) **4% of all female cases are registered without specification of the primary site Breast cancer , with an age-standardised rate of 124 per 100,000 women, is by far the most commonly diagnosed cancer in females, accounting for almost a third (31%) of all female cases. The next most common cancers in women are colorectal and lung , accounting for similar proportions of cases (12%) each. Two of the top ten female cancer sites are sex-specific ( uterus and ovary ), compared with just one site ( prostate ) in males. Trends over time The percentage change in incidence rates in the last decade in the UK for the top twenty cancers show varying trends by cancer site and sex ( Figures 2.6 and 2.7 ). 1-4 There have been large increases in the incidence of many cancers strongly linked to lifestyle choices, such as kidney , liver , malignant melanoma , oral and uterine . 5 It is worth noting that the decrease in bladder cancer incidence will have been affected by a change in coding practice that reduced the number of registrations of malignant bladder cancer from 2000 onwards. This change was recommended by the European Network of Cancer Registries and subsequently adopted and implemented by the United Kingdom Association of Cancer Registries (UKACR). 6 Malignant melanoma is the fastest increasing cancer in males and the second fastest increasing cancer in females (with age-standardised rates rising by 67% and 51%, respectively, in the last decade). Some of the increase may be due to increased surveillance and early detection as well as improved diagnosis, but most is considered to be real and linked to changes in recreational or holiday exposure to UV rays (including sunlight and sunbeds). 7,8 Liver cancer, though rare in the UK (age-standardised rates are 7 per 100,000 males and 3 per 100,000 females) is the second fastest increasing cancer in males and the fourth fastest in females (increases of 40% and 30%, respectively, in the last decade). Cirrhosis of the liver (caused by excessive drinking, viral infections or inherited diseases) is a major risk factor for this cancer. 9 Kidney cancer is the fourth fastest increasing cancer in males and third fastest in females (age-standardised rates have increased by 26% and 31%, respectively, in the last decade). Established risk factors for kidney cancer include cigarette smoking and obesity. 10-12 Prostate cancer is the third fastest increasing cancer in males, with age-standardised rates rising by around a third (32%) in the last decade. The use of PSA testing for prostate cancer will have contributed to the marked increase in new diagnoses of this disease. 13,14 While thyroid cancer is the fastest increasing cancer in females, with the age-standardised rate rising by more than two-thirds (68%) in the last decade, it has a small disease burden (5 per 100,000 females). Increased breast cancer incidence (and subsequent treatment) may explain some of the increase. 15 Another rapidly increasing cancer with a small disease burden in females is mesothelioma , which is not among the 20 most common cancers, but the age-standardised rate (1 per 100,000 females) has increased by 44% in the last decade. Most cases of mesothelioma are caused by occupational exposure to asbestos (often second-hand in females, for example, by handling contaminated work clothes). Mesothelioma has an extremely long latency period (up to 50 years), which means that past exposure to toxic chemicals contributes new cases of this disease. 16 In the last decade there have been large decreases in stomach cancer incidence in both males and females (age-standardised rates decreasing by 32% and 27%, respectively). Much of this can be attributed to better living conditions and a decline in the prevalence of Helicobacter pylori (a major cause of stomach cancer). 17 Other cancers showing large decreases in incidence in the last decade include lung and laryngeal in males (age-standardised rates decreasing by 16% and 14%, respectively), and ovarian in females (10% decrease). Non-melanoma skin cancer On these incidence pages 'cancer' includes all malignant neoplasms excluding non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC). NMSCs are often excluded from cancer statistics for several reasons: studies have shown that NMSCs are greatly under-ascertained in cancer registration data (this is because they are often treated at GP surgeries or on an outpatient basis and the lack of a discharge record means that information is generally not conveyed to cancer registries); NMSCs are very common and some cancer registries only record the basal cell carcinoma primary; NMSCs are also curable in the vast majority of cases. Cancer of unknown primary Cancer of unknown primary (CUP, also known as malignancy of unknown origin or cancer registered without specification of primary site) is a diverse group of cancers that are diagnosed from one or more secondary cancers (often in the lymph nodes, liver, lung or bone) and the primary site cannot be found, or is registered without the site being specified. Some cancers are initially registered as CUP but then changed to a specific cancer if tests reveal the primary site. CUP accounts for 3% of new cancer cases. 1-4 CUP is quite rare under the age of 40, with more than half (55%) of cases being diagnosed in persons aged 75 and over. There is no standard definition of CUP, which means that the true incidence of this disease may be underestimated. A recent NICE guideline stated that the majority can be defined by the ICD-10 codes C77-C80. 18 Variation in the UK Across the UK, the lowest age-standardised rates are seen in England for both sexes (424 and 367 per 100,000 males and females, respectively), and the highest in Scotland (452 and 407 per 100,000, respectively). 1-4 The numbers of new cases and incidence rates are summarised by cancer site and country in the UK Countries Summary Table: Numbers of Cases and Rates. England The incidence of colorectal cancer is significantly lower in males compared with the three other UK countries, with incidence rates ranging from 57 per 100,000 in England to 68 per 100,000 in Scotland; colorectal cancer incidence is also lowest in females in England, though the differences between the countries are not significant (rates ranging from 38 per 100,000 in England to 45 per 100,000 in Scotland). Other sites with the lowest incidence rates in England include lung cancer in males and cervix in situ. Very few cancers have particularly high incidence rates in England in comparison with the rest of the UK. Wales The incidence rates for nearly all cancers in Wales show no significant differences in comparison with the three other UK countries. Cancers with the highest rates include leukaemia in males (with rates ranging from 11 per 100,000 in Northern Ireland to 15 per 100,000 in Wales) and ovarian (rates ranging from 16 per 100,000 in Northern Ireland to 19 per 100,000 in Wales). Scotland The high prevalence of smoking in Scotland (25%, compared with 20% in England 19 ) means that smoking-related cancers have particularly high incidence rates. Lung cancer incidence is significantly higher in Scotland in comparison with the rest of the UK, with incidence rates in males ranging from 56 per 100,000 in England to 81 per 100,000 in Scotland, and in females from 38 per 100,000 in England to 57 per 100,000 in Scotland. Oral cancer incidence is also significantly higher in Scottish men, with incidence rates ranging from 11 per 100,000 in England to 17 per 100,000 in Scotland. The incidence of malignant melanoma is highest in males and females living in Scotland in comparison with the rest of the UK (though the incidence rates are not significantly higher). A survey of children and young people found that Scotland has the highest percentage of young sunbed users in Great Britain (almost 14%). 7 Prostate cancer has a significantly lower incidence rate in Scotland in comparison with the three other UK countries, with rates ranging from 87 per 100,000 in Scotland to 114 per 100,000 in Northern Ireland. Some of this variation may be explained by differences in the availability and uptake of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing across the UK. 13 Northern Ireland The incidence of non-Hodgkin lymphoma is significantly higher in Northern Ireland in comparison with the rest of the UK, with incidence rates in males ranging from 16 per 100,000 in Wales to 27 per 100,000 in Northern Ireland, and rates in females ranging from 12 per 100,000 in Wales to 22 per 100,000 in Northern Ireland. In situ cervical tumours also have significantly higher incidence rates in Northern Ireland in comparison with the three other UK countries. The incidence of breast cancer has been lowest in Northern Ireland compared with the three other UK countries for almost two decades, 20 with rates in 2009 ranging from 119 per 100,000 in Northern Ireland to 127 per 100,000 in Scotland. Cancer Research UK is a registered charity in England and Wales (1089464), Scotland (SC041666) and the Isle of Man (1103). A company limited by guarantee. Registered company in England and Wales (4325234) and the Isle of Man (5713F). Registered address: Angel Building, 407 St John Street, London EC1V 4AD.