title: Funeral and burial of Abraham Lincoln

text: Springfield wanted a prominent burial location, a location that would draw visitors into downtown Springfield. A block, owned by the family of Col. Thomas Mather, was selected, a plot that could be seen from the major railroad line (Chicago and Alton Railroad), a plot in the center of Springfield on a hill. Fifty thousand dollars were donated for the purchase and the work of constructing a temporary vault started immediately. The vault was designed to be a resting place for the remains until a grand monument could be erected. By men working night and day, through sunshine and rain, it was ready for use on May 24 (the day of the burial), although the work was not quite completed on the outside.


title: Funeral and burial of Abraham Lincoln

text: Mary Lincoln however recalled that Lincoln once had said that he wanted a quiet place for his burial at Oak Ridge (said to her on May 24, 1860, when Lincoln, then running for president, and Mary attended the dedication of Oak Ridge, a rural quiet cemetery, from the heart of Springfield). On April 28 Mary sent a message to Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, in which she stated that her decision was final and that Lincoln's remains must be placed in the Oak Ridge Cemetery. On April 29 another message followed: "arrangements for using the Mather vault must be changed." And on May 1 the message was: "the remains of the president should be placed in the vault of Oak Ridge and nowhere else." The Oak Ridge vault was readied, but work on the Mather vault continued as a "contingency."


title: Funeral and burial of Abraham Lincoln

text: Even after the burial, the debate was not over. The National Lincoln Monument Association began again to stoke the fires of creating the grand tomb for Lincoln at the Mather Block. Mary Lincoln threatened to have her husband's remains taken to Chicago or Washington for permanent burial. "My determination is unalterable," she wrote on June 10 and demanded a formal promise that "the immortal Savior and Martyr for Freedom" would be at Oak Ridge, and imposed a deadline of June 15 before she would make good on her threat. The association voted, on the evening before the deadline, by the narrowest of margins, 8–7, to accept her demands. Oak Ridge Cemetery became the site of the Lincoln Tomb.


title: Funeral and burial of Abraham Lincoln

text: When the tomb was completed in 1874, Lincoln's coffin was placed in a white marble sarcophagus in a burial room behind a steel gate locked with a padlock. In November 1876, Chicago counterfeiter James "Big Jim" Kennally planned to steal Lincoln's body and hold it in exchange for a pardon for his engraver (who was serving a ten-year sentence at Illinois State Penitentiary) and $200,000 (approximately $ today).


title: Funeral and burial of Abraham Lincoln

text: The plot failed when two men recruited to assist turned out to be paid government informants, and the men sent to get the body did not plan for how to remove the quarter-ton cedar-and-lead coffin from the grounds.


title: Funeral and burial of Abraham Lincoln

text: On November 13, 1876, tomb custodian John Carroll Power and a group of trusted confidants moved the coffin from its room to a secret location in the basement of the tomb. Finding the ground waterlogged, they temporarily set the coffin on the ground and disguised it under a wood pile. Moving the coffin proved difficult; it weighed some and Power and the members of the Monument Association were mostly in their 60s (the youngest was 56). They were relieved to find that the seals on the coffin were intact and that Lincoln's remains had not been disturbed.


title: Funeral and burial of Abraham Lincoln

text: The following July, Kennally or some other member of the conspiracy asked Power to bury the coffin. He said that the unventilated basement was almost impossible to enter in the summer weather and also moving the heavy coffin had been brutally hard on himself and the other aging Monument Association members. Power, who had recently celebrated his 70th birthday, said that he suffered from crippling pain for months afterward and had no desire to do it again. The coffin therefore sat in the basement for another year.


title: Funeral and burial of Abraham Lincoln

text: Finally, a group of men in their 30s were hired to move the coffin and on November 18, 1878, the coffin was moved and reburied in a shallow grave on the far end of the labyrinth. After receiving anonymous threats in the mail, the coffin was dug up two days later to make sure it was still there.


title: Funeral and burial of Abraham Lincoln

text: In 1880, Power and his associates formed the "Lincoln Guard of Honor" to serve as the custodians of Lincoln's remains. Other than its members, only Robert Todd Lincoln knew of this organization. In 1882, after Mary Todd Lincoln died, Robert instructed the Guard of Honor to bury his mother's coffin wherever they kept his father's. Both coffins remained in the basement until 1887, when they were encased in a brick vault, at which time Lincoln's coffin was opened to verify his remains were still there.


title: Funeral and burial of Abraham Lincoln

text: The original tomb, built on unsuitable soil, was in constant need of repair. In 1900, a complete reconstruction was undertaken, Lincoln's remains were exhumed, and the coffin was placed back in the white marble sarcophagus. On April 25, 1901, upon completion of the reconstruction, Robert Todd Lincoln visited the tomb. He was unhappy with the disposition of his father's remains and decided that it was necessary to build a permanent crypt for his father. Lincoln's coffin would be placed in a steel cage deep and encased in concrete in the floor of the tomb. On September 26, 1901, Lincoln's body was exhumed so that it could be re-interred in the newly built crypt. However, several of the 23 people present feared that his body might have been stolen in the intervening years, so they decided to open the coffin and check.


title: Funeral and burial of Abraham Lincoln

text: A harsh choking smell arose when the casket was opened. Lincoln was perfectly recognizable, more than thirty years after his death. His face was a gold color from unhealed bruises, a result of contrecoup (injury on the opposite side of the head from point of impact) caused by the gunshot wound, which shattered the bones in his face and damaged the tissue. His hair, beard and mole were all perfectly preserved although his eyebrows were gone. His suit was covered with a yellow mold and his gloves had rotted on his hands. On his chest, they could see some bits of red fabricremnants of the American flag with which he was buried, which had by then disintegrated.


title: Funeral and burial of Abraham Lincoln

text: A second, major reconstruction of the tomb was undertaken in 1930–31. Much deterioration had occurred due to poor construction during the 1900–1901 reconstruction. During the second reconstruction, the entrance to the tomb was reconfigured to better accommodate visitors and the original, white marble sarcophagus was replaced with the red granite marker in front of the place where Lincoln is interred. Souvenir hunters destroyed the original sarcophagus, which was placed outside the tomb during reconstruction. The tomb was rededicated with President Herbert Hoover as the main speaker on June 17, 1931.


title: Funeral and burial of Abraham Lincoln

text: Lincoln's coffin has been moved 17 times and the coffin opened 5 times. The semi-circular Catacomb (or Burial Chamber) is at the north side of the base of the Lincoln Monument; on the south side (entrance) is Memorial Hall (or the Rotunda). Since the second reconstruction (1930–31) connecting corridors lead into the Burial Chamber.


title: Funeral and burial of Abraham Lincoln

text: On May 4, 1865, (Lincoln's arrival at Oak Ridge Cemetery, nineteen days after his death) another coffin, containing the body of Lincoln's son Willie (18501862) was placed with Lincoln's in the Receiving Vault. Willie had been initially interred in the Carroll family tomb at the Oak Hill Cemetery in Georgetown. His remains accompanied those of his father on the funeral train to Springfield.


title: Funeral and burial of Abraham Lincoln

text: On December 21, 1865, the two caskets were moved to the temporary vault, halfway up the hillside, where the Lincoln Tomb was in construction at the top of the hill. The body of Lincoln's son Edward "Eddie" Baker Lincoln (three years, ten months) was already placed there on December 13, 1865. Eddie, born March 10, 1846, died February 1, 1850, and was first buried at the Hutchinson Cemetery in Springfield. The three bodies rested in the temporary vault while the Lincoln tomb was being built. The three bodies were moved to the catacomb of the tomb on September 19, 1871. They were not the first. Two months earlier (on July 17, 1871) it was Lincoln's son Thomas ("Tad") Lincoln, born April 4, 1853, who was the first Lincoln placed into a crypt in the Lincoln Tomb. Tad died on July 15, 1871, in Chicago, Illinois, aged eighteen.


title: Funeral and burial of Abraham Lincoln

text: Lincoln's wife, Mary Todd Lincoln (December 13, 1818 – July 16, 1882). She was buried July 19, 1882, in one of the family crypts in the Lincoln Tomb. In the night of July 21, 1882, Mary Todd's casket was secretly taken from the crypt and at Robert Todd Lincoln's (her eldest son) request, buried alongside the President. On April 14, 1887, both caskets were moved to Memorial Hall.


title: Funeral and burial of Abraham Lincoln

text: Lincoln's teenage grandson and namesake, Abraham Lincoln II ("Jack"), born August 14, 1873, died March 5, 1890, in London and was temporarily buried in Kensal Green Cemetery, London, until his father returned to the U.S. with his body and on November 8, 1890, was placed in one of the crypts in the Lincoln Tomb. His body remained in the tomb until May 27, 1930, when he was re-interred at the family plot of his father, Robert Todd Lincoln (August 1, 1843, to July 25, 1926), at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.


title: Funeral and burial of Abraham Lincoln

text: During the first Lincoln Tomb reconstruction (1900–1901), the Lincoln family was disinterred and moved to the temporary vault northeast of the tomb. On April 24, 1901, the Lincoln family was removed from the temporary vault and placed back into the Lincoln Tomb.


title: Funeral and burial of Abraham Lincoln

text: While President Lincoln was finally at rest, the remainder of the Lincoln family was moved two more times. The coffins containing the bodies of Mary, Eddie, Willie, and Tad Lincoln were removed during the second tomb reconstruction (1930–1931) from their crypts and transported to the Oak Ridge mausoleum, located near the south gate of the cemetery. After the second reconstruction was completed, the bodies were returned to their crypts in June 1931.


title: Rubber band

text: A rubber band (also known as an elastic band, gum band or lacky band) is a loop of rubber, usually ring or oval shaped, and commonly used to hold multiple objects together. The rubber band was patented in England on March 17, 1845 by Stephen Perry. Most rubber bands are manufactured out of natural rubber or, especially at larger sizes, an elastomer, and are sold in a variety of sizes.


title: Rubber band

text: Notable developments in the evolution of rubber bands began in 1923 when William H. Spencer obtained a few Goodyear inner tubes and cut the bands by hand in his basement, where he founded Alliance Rubber Company. Spencer persuaded the "Akron Beacon Journal" as well as the "Tulsa World" to try wrapping their newspapers with one of his rubber bands to prevent them from blowing across lawns. He went on to pioneer other new markets for rubber bands such as: agricultural and industrial applications and a myriad of other uses. Spencer obtained a patent on February 19, 1957 for a new "Method for Making Elastic Bands" which produced rubber bands in an Open Ring design.


title: Rubber band

text: Most probably, rubber, whether it is natural or synthetic, arrives at the manufacturing facility in large bales. Rubber bands are made by extruding the rubber into a long tube to provide its general shape. There are a number of different methods that can be applied at this point in the manufacturing process. Originally, and in some instances still today, the rubber tubes will then be placed on mandrels, curing the rubber with heat, and then slicing them across the width of the tube into little bands. This causes the tube to split into multiple sections, creating rubber bands. This is most commonly known as an "off-line" rubber extrusion process.


title: Rubber band

text: However, in 1969 the world's first continuous cure extrusion line for rubber bands was installed at the Alliance Rubber Company rubber band manufacturing facility in Alliance, OH, U.S.A. Rubber bands produced using this high speed continuous production equipment feature an improved modulus (stretch), a smoother, more consistent quality, and yield a higher count per pound. There is no need to use mandrels in this process. With the continuous cure process, the rubber is forced through the aperture or die, traveling in a continuous stream directly into and through a "curing tunnel" which uniformly raises the extrudite to the vulcanizing temperature and maintains it there for the entire curing or vulcanizing period. This is most commonly referred to as an "on-line" rubber extrusion process.


title: Rubber band

text: While other rubber products may use synthetic rubber, most rubber bands are primarily manufactured using natural rubber because of its superior elasticity.


title: Rubber band

text: Natural rubber originates from the latex of the rubber tree, which is acquired by tapping into the bark layers of the rubber tree. Rubber trees belong to the spurge family (Euphorbiaceae) and only survive in hot, humid tropical climates near the equator, so the majority of latex is produced in the Southeast Asian countries of Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia. Once the latex has been tapped and is exposed to the air, it begins to harden and become elastic, or rubbery.


title: Rubber band

text: A rubber band is usually measured in three basic dimensions: length, width, and thickness. Its length is defined as half its circumference. Its thickness is the distance from the inner surface to the outer surface, and its width is the distance from one cut edge to the other.


title: Rubber band

text: If one imagines a rubber band during manufacture, that is, a long tube of rubber on a mandrel, before it is sliced into rubber bands, the band's width is decided by how far apart the slices are cut, and its length by the circumference of the tube.


title: Rubber band

text: For even longer bands, the numbering starts over for numbers above 100, again starting at width  inch.


title: Rubber band

text: The origin of these size numbers is not clear. For the most part, the most widely accepted size numbers can be found on rubberband.com using their Standard Line Specifications Chart.


title: Rubber band

text: Temperature affects the elasticity of a rubber band in an unusual way. Heating causes the rubber band to contract and cooling causes expansion.


title: Rubber band

text: Stretching a rubber band will cause it to release heat, while releasing it after it has been stretched will make it absorb heat, causing its surroundings to become a little cooler. This effect is due to the higher entropy of the unstressed state, which is more entangled and therefore has more states available. In other words, the ability to convert thermal energy into work while the rubber relaxes is allowed by the higher entropy of the relaxed state.


title: Rubber band

text: The result is that a rubber band behaves somewhat like an ideal monatomic gas inasmuch as (to good approximation) that elastic polymers do not store any potential energy in stretched chemical bonds. No elastic work is done to "stretch" molecules when work is done upon these bulk polymers. Instead, all work done to the rubber is "released" (not stored) and appears immediately in the polymer as thermal energy. Conversely, when the polymer does work on the surroundings (such as contracting to lift an object) it converts thermal energy to work in the process and cools in the same manner as an ideal gas, expanding while doing work.


title: Rubber band

text: In the UK during 2004, following complaints from the public about postal carriers creating litter by discarding the rubber bands which they used to keep their mail together, the Royal Mail introduced red bands for their workers to use: it was hoped that, as the bands were easier to spot than the traditional brown ones and since only the Royal Mail used them, employees would see (and feel compelled to pick up) any red bands which they had inadvertently dropped. Currently, some 342 million red bands are used every year.


title: Rubber band

text: The Royal Mail no longer uses red rubber bands as of about 2010. The exact date is uncertain, presumably as different areas used up old stock at different rates.


title: Rubber band

text: Special rubber bands of medical-grade latex can be used (worn) for orthodontic correction of teeth position together with metal braces or clear aligners to apply additional pressure on the teeth being straightened. They are termed orthodontic elastics.


title: Rubber band

text: This type of rubber band was popularized by use in the military. Ranger bands are essentially sections of tire inner tubing cut into various sizes. They have the advantage of being versatile, durable, and resistant to weather and abrasion. They are commonly used for lashings, and can also be used for makeshift handle grips, providing a strong high-friction surface with excellent shock absorption.


title: Rubber band

text: Identical loops of inner tube are used by cavers and cave divers, and in that context are called snoopy loops by the British caving and cave diving community. When they get lost they are recognizable as a common form of litter.


title: Rubber band

text: Snoopy loops are easily cut from discarded car and motorcycle inner tubes using a pair of scissors. A knife cut may leave a notched edge which can lead to tearing. Varying sizes of inner tube are used for different tasks. Uses in caving include sealing cuffs of oversuits and collars of boots against the ingress of water, holding kneepads and elbow pads in place or securing dive lines to small rocks. and have been used for first aid for strapping injured joints tightly in place.


title: Rubber band

text: Technical divers use small snoopy loops made from bicycle inner tubes to prevent backup lights clipped to a dive harness from dangling, and larger loops cut from car tubes are used to stow hoses against sling or sidemount cylinders.


title: Rubber band

text: The exact origin is unknown and has been subject to much speculation. The practice of using snoopy Loops has been claimed to have originated in Greece and spotted by Cave Diving Group members in the late 1970s. The practice was then propagated in Yorkshire Dales. Another claim is that snoopy loops were named by Dave Morris, a Cave Diving Group caver who noticed how they 'snooped' around boulders. It was considered a ridiculous name at the time. None of these claims are particularly plausible as the use is obvious and is likely to have originated independently in several places at earlier dates.


title: Rubber band

text: In animal husbandry, rubber bands are used for docking and castration of livestock. The procedure involves banding the body part with a tight latex (rubber) band to restrict blood flow. As the blood flow diminishes, the cells within the gonads die and dehydrate. The part eventually drops off.


title: Rubber band

text: Rubber bands have long been one of the methods of powering small free-flight model aircraft, the rubber band being anchored at the rear of the fuselage and connected to the propeller at the front. To 'wind up' the 'engine', the propeller is repeatedly turned, twisting the rubber band. When the propeller has had enough turns, the propeller is released and the model launched, the rubber band then turning the propeller rapidly until it has unwound.


title: Rubber band

text: One of the first to use this method was pioneer aerodynamicist George Cayley, who used rubber band-driven motors for powering his small experimental models. These 'rubber motors' have also been used for powering small model boats.


title: Rubber band

text: A rubber band ball is a sphere of rubber bands made by using a knotted single band as a starting point and then wrapping rubber bands around the center until the desired size is achieved. The ball is usually made from 100% rubber bands, but some instructions call for using a marble, a crumpled piece of paper, or a ping-pong ball as a starting point.


title: Rubber band

text: The world's largest rubber band ball as of November 19, 2008 was created by Joel Waul of Lauderhill, Florida. He is currently the World Record Holder according to the Guinness World Records. The ball, which previously sat under a tarp in Waul's driveway, weighs 9,032 pounds (4,097 kg), is more than tall (which implies about a circumference), and consists of more than 700,000 rubber bands. It set the world record on November 13, 2008, in Lauderhill, Florida. The ball is now owned by Ripley's Believe it or Not!.


title: Rubber band

text: Steve Milton of Eugene, Oregon previously held the record for the biggest rubber band ball beginning in 2006. During the construction of his rubber band ball, he was sponsored by OfficeMax, who sent him rubber bands to use for his ball. His ball was approximately 175,000 rubber bands, tall (circumference: ), and weighed . He began building the ball, with help from his family, in November, 2005 and would store the ball in their garage.


title: Rubber band

text: Before Steve Milton, the record was held by John Bain of Wilmington, Delaware beginning in 1998. In 2003, his ball weighed around , consisting of over 850,000 rubber bands and is tall (circumference: ). He put the ball up for auction in 2005, but he and his ball participated in Guinness World Records Day 2006. The bands were donated by two companies: Alliance Rubber and Textrip Ltd./Stretchwell Inc.


title: Languages of Sweden

text: Swedish is the official language of Sweden and is spoken by the vast majority of the 10.23 million inhabitants of the country. It is a North Germanic language and quite similar to its sister Scandinavian languages, Danish and Norwegian, with which it maintains partial mutual intelligibility and forms a dialect continuum. A number of regional Swedish dialects are spoken across the county. In total, more than 200 languages are estimated to be spoken across the county, including regional languages, indigenous Sámi languages, and immigrant languages.


title: Languages of Sweden

text: In 2009, the Riksdag passed a national language law recognizing Swedish as the "main" and "common" language of society, as well as the official language for "international contexts". The law also confirmed the official status of the five "national minority languages" — Finnish, Meänkieli, Romani, Sámi languages and Yiddish — and Swedish Sign Language.


title: Languages of Sweden

text: For most of its history, Sweden was a larger country than today. At its height in 1658, the Swedish Empire spread across what is currently Finland and Estonia and into parts of Poland, Russia, Latvia, Germany, Denmark, and Norway. Hence, Sweden's linguistic landscape has historically been very different from its current context.


title: Languages of Sweden

text: Swedish evolved from Old Norse around the 14th and 15th century. Swedish dialects were generally much more diverse in the past than they are today. Since the 20th century, Standard Swedish has prevailed throughout the country. The Scandinavian languages constitute a dialectal continuum and some of the traditional Swedish dialects could equally be described as Danish (Scanian) or Norwegian dialects (Jämtlandic).


title: Languages of Sweden

text: Finnish was the majority language of Sweden's eastern parts, though it was almost exclusively a spoken language. Parts of Finland are also home to a significant Swedish-speaking minority, including Åland, many of whom speak the Finland Swedish dialect. Finnish became a minority language in western Sweden as many Finnish speakers migrated there for economic reasons.


title: Languages of Sweden

text: Estonian was the language of the majority in Swedish Estonia but the province, like Finland, hosted a Swedish-speaking minority and a more significant minority of Germans.


title: Languages of Sweden

text: In medieval Sweden, the Low German language played an important role as a commercial language, serving as the lingua franca of the Hanseatic league. As such, Low German influenced Swedish and other languages in the region considerably. In medieval Stockholm, half the population were Low German speakers. Low German was also spoken in the 17th-century Swedish territories along the southern Baltic Coast in Swedish Pomerania, Bremen-Verden, Wismar and Wildeshausen, as well as by the Baltic Germans in Estonia and Swedish Livonia. Livonia was also inhabited by Latvians, Estonians and Livonians.


title: Languages of Sweden

text: Latin, as the language of the Catholic Church, was introduced to Sweden with the Christianization of Sweden, around AD 1000. As in most of Europe, Latin remained the lingua franca and scholarly language of the educated communities for centuries in Sweden. For instance, Carl Linnaeus's most famous work, , published in 1735, was written in Latin.


title: Languages of Sweden

text: During the 18th century, French was the second language of Europe's upper classes and Sweden was no exception. The Swedish aristocracy often spoke French among themselves and code-switching between French and Swedish was common. The Swedish King Gustav III was a true Francophile and French was the common language at his court. In 1786, Gustav III founded the Swedish Academy to promote and advance the Swedish language and literature.


title: Languages of Sweden

text: Aside from what is currently Norway, Sweden largely obtained its current borders in 1809, when it lost its eastern part (Finland) to the Russian Empire. Sweden largely lost its overseas possessions over time, with Swedish Pomerania being ceded to Denmark in exchange for Norway and Guadeloupe was returned to France in 1814. As a consequence, Sweden became a rather homogeneous country with the exceptions of the indigenous Sámi people and the Finnish-speaking Tornedalians in the northernmost parts of the country.


title: Languages of Sweden

text: During the 19th century, Sweden became more industrialised, resulting in important demographic changes. The population doubled and people moved from the countryside to towns and cities. As a consequence of this and factors such as generalised education and mass media, traditional dialects began to make room for the standard language (Standard Swedish). During the same period and until the 1970s, Sweden applied a Swedification policy that limited schooling to Swedish-language instruction and actively discouraged the use of other languages.


title: Languages of Sweden

text: As in the rest of Europe and much of the world, the English has grown as an important foreign language in Sweden, especially since the Allied victory in World War II. During the second half of the 20th century and the first decade of the 21st century, Sweden has received great numbers of immigrants who speak languages other than Swedish (see: "Immigrant languages" below). It is unclear to what degree these communities will hold on to their languages and to what degree they will assimilate.


title: Languages of Sweden

text: In 2009, the Riksdag passed the Language Law ( SFS 2009:600), which contains provisions concerning the Swedish language, the five national minority languages and Swedish Sign Language. Among its provisions is a general mandate to safeguard the Swedish language, linguistic diversity in Sweden, and individuals' access to language.


title: Languages of Sweden

text: The Kingdom of Sweden is a nation-state for the Swedish people and as such the national language is held in high regard. Of Sweden's roughly 10 million people, almost all speak Swedish as at least a second language and the majority as a first language (7,825,000, according to SIL's Ethnologue). Swedish is also an official language in Finland where it is spoken by a large number of Swedish-speaking Finns. The language is also spoken to some degree by ethnic Swedes living outside Sweden, for example, just over half a million people of Swedish descent in the United States speak the language, according to Ethnologue.


title: Languages of Sweden

text: The Language Law of 2009 recognizes Swedish as the "main" and "common" language of society, as well as being the official language in "international contexts".


title: Languages of Sweden

text: A number of Swedish dialects exist and are generally classified into six groups, called "sockenmål" in Swedish: South Swedish, Götamål, Svealand Swedish, Norrland, Finland Swedish, and Gutnish. As North Germanic languages these dialects all grew out of Old Norse, but under differing influences as the language split along East and West Scandinavian branches. In western Sweden, many local dialects, such as Jämtlandic and Dalecarlian, show greater influence from the West Scandinavian branch of Old Norse and Norwegian. Some dialects are divergent enough from standard Swedish to be considered separate languages.


title: Languages of Sweden

text: The "Dalecarlian" dialect group of Dalarna County varies significantly, ranging from the variations in the northwest of the county similar to the neighboring East Norwegian dialect to versions more similar to Swedish. The Älvdalen Municipality has a population of about 1,500 speakers of the Elfdalian Dalecarlian dialect.


title: Languages of Sweden

text: Modern "Gutnish" or "Gotlandic" exists as a spoken language in Gotland and Fårö. While influenced by Swedish, Gutnish is descended from Old Gutnish, which evolved as a separate branch of Old Norse.


title: Languages of Sweden

text: Spoken mainly in Jämtland, but with a scattered speaker population throughout the rest of Sweden, "Jämtlandic" or "Jämska" is a West Scandinavian language and part of the Norrland "sockenmål" with 95% lexical similarity to Norwegian and Swedish, but is generally more archaic. It has a native speaker population of 30,000.


title: Languages of Sweden

text: Spoken in the Swedish province of Scania, "Scanian" is considered by some a dialect of Danish, and the related Bornholmsk dialect spoken on the Baltic island of Bornholm, is considered an East Danish dialect. Historically, Bornholmsk and Scanian split after Denmark ceded Scania to Sweden in 1658.


title: Languages of Sweden

text: In 1999, the Minority Language Committee of Sweden formally declared five languages as official minority languages of Sweden: Finnish, Meänkieli (also known as Tornedal, Tornionlaaksonsuomi or Tornedalian), Romani, Sámi languages (in particular Lule, Northern, and Southern Sámi), and Yiddish. The Language Law of 2009 confirms the recognition of these five languages as "national minority languages". This status enshrines the right of speakers of these languages to receive schooling and other services in their language.


title: Languages of Sweden

text: , there were about 470,000 Finnish-speakers in Sweden. Finnish, a Uralic language, has long been spoken in Sweden (the same holds true for Swedish in Finland, "see Finland-Swedes, Åland"), as Finland was part of the Swedish kingdom for centuries. Ethnic Finns (mainly first- and second-generation immigrants) constitute up to 5% of the population of Sweden. A high concentration of Finnish-speakers (some 16,000) resides in Norrbotten.


title: Languages of Sweden

text: Meänkieli is a Finnic language related to Finnish and Kven. Spoken by the Tornedalian people, it is mutually intelligible with Finnish, but has a higher number of Swedish loan words; it is sometimes considered a dialect of Finnish. Meänkieli is mainly used in the municipalities of Gällivare, Haparanda, Kiruna, Pajala and Övertorneå, all of which lie in the Torne Valley. Between 40,000 and 70,000 people speak Meänkieli as their first language.


title: Languages of Sweden

text: The Sámi people (formerly known as Lapps) are a people indigenous to Scandinavia and the Kola peninsula (see Sápmi) who speak a related group of languages, three of which — Lule, Northern, and Southern Sámi — are spoken in Sweden. Like Finnish and Meänkieli, Sámi languages are Uralic languages; however, prolonged exposure to Germanic-language-speaking neighbors in Sweden and Norway causes them to have a large number of Germanic loanwords not found in other Uralic languages. Between 15,000 and 20,000 Sámi people live in Sweden of whom 9,000 speak a Sámi language. In Sweden, the largest concentrations of Sámi-language speakers are found in the municipalities of Arjeplog, Gällivare, Jokkmokk, Kiruna, and other parts of Norrbotten.


title: Languages of Sweden

text: Romani (also known as Rromani Ćhib) is a family of Indo-Aryan languages spoken by the Romani people, a nomadic ethnic group originating in northern India. Several dialects of Romani are spoken and Swedish, including the Scandoromani Para-Romani admixture of Scandinavian languages and Romani. Around 90% of Sweden's Romani people speak a form of Romani, meaning that there are approximately 9,500 ćhib speakers. In Sweden, there is no major geographic center for Romani, as there is for Finnish, Sámi, or Meänkieli, but it is considered to be of historical importance by the Swedish government and as such the government is seen as having an obligation to preserve them, a distinction also held by Yiddish. Because of this, the Swedish government has helped develop and publish a significant number of books and educational materials in Romani.


title: Languages of Sweden

text: Yiddish is a Germanic language with significant Hebrew and Slavic influence, written with a variant of the Hebrew alphabet (see Yiddish orthography) and, formerly, spoken by most Ashkenazic Jews (although most now speak the language of the country in which they live). Although the Jewish population of Sweden was traditionally Sephardic, after the 18th century, Ashkenazic immigration increased bringing with them the Yiddish language (See History of the Jews in Sweden). Like Romani, it is seen by the government as a language of historical importance. The organisation "Sällskapet för Jiddisch och Jiddischkultur i Sverige" (Society for Yiddish and Yiddish Culture in Sweden) has more than 200 members, many of whom are mother-tongue Yiddish speakers, and arranges regular activities for the speech community and in external advocacy for the Yiddish language.


title: Languages of Sweden

text: , the Jewish population in Sweden was estimated at around 20,000 about 2,000–6,000 of whom claim to have at least some knowledge of Yiddish. The number of native speakers among these has been estimated by linguist Mikael Parkvall to be 750–1,500. It is believed that virtually all native speakers of Yiddish in Sweden today are adults, and most of them elderly.


title: Languages of Sweden

text: Swedish Sign Language (SSL) is an officially recognized language and is used by the Deaf community in Sweden. SSL was developed in the early 1800s, possibly with some influence from British Sign Language. It had gone on to influence the development of sign languages in Finland, Portugal, and Eritrea ("see Swedish Sign Language family").


title: Languages of Sweden

text: Since the Middle Ages until the end of World War II, Germany was usually the country outside Scandinavia with the closest cultural, commercial and political relations with Sweden. Thus, study of the German language had always been promoted by the Swedish state as the primary foreign language. Many of Sweden's administrative and social institutions, including the education system, were organised along the German and Prussian model, as many Swedish pioneering intellectuals of the 17th century were educated in German universities. This changed after the end of the Second World War, when it was no longer acceptable to emphasise a closer link with defeated Germany.


title: Languages of Sweden

text: A majority of Swedes, especially those born after World War II, are able to understand and speak English thanks to trade links, the popularity of overseas travel, a strong American influence, especially in regards to arts and culture, and the tradition of subtitling rather than dubbing foreign television shows and films. English, whether in American, Commonwealth (Australian, Canadian, and Kiwi) or British dialects, has been a compulsory subject for secondary school students studying natural sciences as early as 1849 and has been a compulsory subject for all Swedish students since 1952, when it replaced German.


title: Languages of Sweden

text: Depending on local school authorities, English is currently a compulsory subject from third until ninth grade, and all students continue to study English in secondary school for at least another year. Most students also learn one and sometimes two additional languages; the most popular being German, French and Spanish. From the autumn semester 2014, Mandarin Chinese is proposed as a fourth additional language. Some Danish and Norwegian are also taught as part of Swedish language learning to emphasize differences and similarities between the languages.


title: Languages of Sweden

text: There is currently an ongoing debate among linguists whether English should be considered a foreign language, second language or transcultural language in Sweden (and other Scandinavian countries) due to its widespread use in education and society in general. This has also triggered opposition: in 2002 the Swedish government proposed an action plan to strengthen the status of Swedish and in 2009 Swedish was announced the official language of the country for the first time in its history. Since 2011, Swedes have consistently been ranked among the best non-native English speakers in the world by EF Education First's English Proficiency Index, placing first on the Index in 2012, 2013, 2015 and 2018.


title: Languages of Sweden

text: Like many developed European countries from the late 1940s to the 1970s, Sweden has received tens of thousands of guest workers from countries in Southern Europe and the Middle East. Second- and third-generation Swedes of Southern European or Middle Eastern descent have adopted Swedish as their main tongue or in addition to their immigrant languages, such as Arabic, Bulgarian, Greek, Italian, Bosnian/Serbian/Croatian, and Turkish.


title: Languages of Sweden

text: In 2016, language-learning service Duolingo shared first-party statistics which showed that most of the people using the service to study Swedish were actually located in Sweden, and that Sweden-based users were taking the Swedish course for English speakers more than any other course available on the service; the staff determined that both of these facts were a result of Sweden's large immigrant population.


title: GeoJSON

text: GeoJSON is an open standard format designed for representing simple geographical features, along with their non-spatial attributes. It is based on the JSON format.


title: GeoJSON

text: The features include points (therefore addresses and locations), line strings (therefore streets, highways and boundaries), polygons (countries, provinces, tracts of land), and multi-part collections of these types. GeoJSON features need not represent entities of the physical world only; mobile routing and navigation apps, for example, might describe their service coverage using GeoJSON.


title: GeoJSON

text: The GeoJSON format differs from other GIS standards in that it was written and is maintained not by a formal standards organization, but by an Internet working group of developers.


title: GeoJSON

text: A notable offspring of GeoJSON is TopoJSON, an extension of GeoJSON that encodes geospatial topology and that typically provides smaller file sizes.


title: GeoJSON

text: The GeoJSON format working group and discussion were begun in March 2007 and the format specification was finalized in June 2008.


title: GeoJSON

text: In April 2015 the Internet Engineering Task Force has founded the "Geographic JSON working group" which released GeoJSON as RFC 7946 in August 2016.


title: GeoJSON

text: Points are [x, y] or [x, y, z]. They may be [longitude, latitude] or [eastings, northings]. Elevation is an optional third number. They are decimal numbers.


title: GeoJSON

text: TopoJSON is an extension of GeoJSON that encodes topology. Rather than representing geometries discretely, geometries in TopoJSON files are stitched together from shared line segments called "arcs". "Arcs" are sequences of points, while line strings and polygons are defined as sequences of arcs. Each arc is defined only once, but can be referenced several times by different shapes, thus reducing redundancy and decreasing the file size. In addition, TopoJSON facilitates applications that use topology, such as topology-preserving shape simplification, automatic map coloring, and cartograms.


title: GeoJSON

text: A reference implementation of the TopoJSON specification is available as a command-line tool to encode TopoJSON from GeoJSON (or ESRI Shapefiles) and a client side JavaScript library to decode TopoJSON back to GeoJSON again. TopoJSON is also supported by the popular OGR tool as of version 1.11 and PostGIS as of version 2.1.0.


title: GeoJSON

text: Given a GIS shape near coordinates latitude 0° and longitude 0°, a simple but valid and complete topojson file containing all metadata, "Polygon", "LineString", "Point" elements, "arcs" and "properties" is defined as follows:


title: Robert Brown (British actor)

text: Robert James Brown (23 July 192111 November 2003) was an English actor, best known for his portrayal of M in the James Bond films from 1983 to 1989, succeeding Bernard Lee, who died in 1981.


title: Robert Brown (British actor)

text: Brown was born in Swanage, Dorset and later died there on November 11, 2003, aged 82. Before appearing in the Bond films, he had a long career as a bit-part actor in films and television. He had a starring role in the 1950s television series "Ivanhoe" where he played Gurth, the faithful companion of Ivanhoe, played by Roger Moore. He had previously made an uncredited appearance as a castle guard in the unrelated 1952 film "Ivanhoe". He had an uncredited appearance as the galley-master in "Ben-Hur" (1959) and as factory worker Bert Harker in the BBC's 1960s soap opera "The Newcomers". In "One Million Years B.C." (1966), he played grunting caveman Akhoba, brutal head of the barbaric "Rock tribe".


title: Robert Brown (British actor)

text: Brown first started in the James Bond franchise in the film "The Spy Who Loved Me" as Admiral Hargreaves, appearing alongside Lee. After Lee's death in January 1981, Broccoli and the other producers, decided to leave M out of "For Your Eyes Only" out of respect for Lee and assigned his lines to M's Chief of Staff Bill Tanner. In 1983, Brown was hired to portray M on the recommendation of Bond actor Roger Moore, his "Ivanhoe" co-star and the father of Brown's goddaughter Deborah. It was never clearly established if Brown was the same M as Lee's character, or a different M, perhaps a promoted Hargreaves. In 1995, Brown was succeeded as M by Judi Dench in "GoldenEye".


title: 3D printed firearm

text: A 3D printed firearm is a firearm that is primarily produced with a 3D printer. They can be classified by the type of 3D printers used: plastic (desktop fused filament fabrication), metal (industrial selective laser melting), or both. While plastic ones are usually used as improvised firearms that evade gun control, 3D-printed metal guns are more commonly thought as a way for legitimate gun manufacturers to exceed traditional design limitations.


title: 3D printed firearm

text: Although it is possible to create fully-plastic guns, such firearms tend to be extremely short-lived. Instead, it is more practical to print a plastic frame and use metal in the action and the barrel. The metal parts can be self-made or bought in the form of a parts kit.


title: 3D printed firearm

text: A related issue is the production of 3D-printed parts for conventional firearms. Printed high-capacity magazines circumvent limits on assault weapons, sears weaken the control on fully automatic firearms, and pistol braces challenge the limit on short-barreled rifles.


title: 3D printed firearm

text: In 2012, the U.S.-based team Defense Distributed disclosed plans to design a working plastic gun that could be downloaded and reproduced by anybody with a 3D printer. Defense Distributed has also designed a 3D printable AR-15 type rifle lower receiver (capable of lasting more than 650 rounds) and a variety of magazines. In May 2013, Defense Distributed completed design of the first working blueprint to produce a plastic gun with a 3D printer. The United States Department of State demanded removal of the instructions from the Defense Distributed (DEFCAD) website, deeming them a violation of the Arms Export Control Act. In 2015, Defense Distributed founder Cody Wilson sued the United States government on free speech grounds and in 2018 the Department of Justice settled, acknowledging Wilson's right to publish instructions for the production of 3D printed firearms.


title: 3D printed firearm

text: The legal actions against Defense Distributed has inspired the creation of more decentralized 3D-printed firearm communities, including Deterrence Dispensed and FOSSCAD, in 2019. Participants of these internet-based communities remain anonymous, and are sometimes based in jurisdictions that ban custom gun production.


title: 3D printed firearm

text: In 2013 a Texas company, Solid Concepts, demonstrated a 3D printed version of an M1911 pistol made of metal, using an industrial 3D printer. In 2014, a New Zealand company, Oceania Defence, demonstrated 3D printed titanium suppressors that are 50% lighter than conventional ones.


title: 3D printed firearm

text: The Grizzly is a 3D printed .22-caliber rifle created around August 2013. It was created using a Stratasys Dimension 1200es printer. It was created by a Canadian only known by the pseudonym "Matthew" who told The Verge that he was in his late 20s, and his main job was making tools for the construction industry. The original Grizzly fired a single shot before breaking. Grizzly 2.0 fired fourteen bullets before getting damaged due to the strain.


title: 3D printed firearm

text: In October 2020, another 3D-printed 9mm rifle known as the "FGC-9" was created. It is reported that it can be made in 2 weeks with $500 of tools. A second model was later made in April 2021.


title: 3D printed firearm

text: After Defense Distributed released their plans, questions were raised regarding the effects that 3D printing and widespread consumer-level CNC machining may have on gun control effectiveness.


title: 3D printed firearm

text: The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Joint Regional Intelligence Center released a memo stating "Significant advances in three-dimensional (3D) printing capabilities, availability of free digital 3D printer files for firearms components, and difficulty regulating file sharing may present public safety risks from unqualified gun seekers who obtain or manufacture 3D printed guns," and that "proposed legislation to ban 3D printing of weapons may deter, but cannot completely prevent their production. Even if the practice is prohibited by new legislation, online distribution of these digital files will be as difficult to control as any other illegally traded music, movie or software files."


title: 3D printed firearm

text: Internationally, where gun controls are generally tighter than in the United States, some commentators have said the impact may be more strongly felt, as alternative firearms are not as easily obtainable. European officials have noted that producing a 3D printed gun would be illegal under their gun control laws, and that criminals have access to other sources of weapons, but noted that as the technology improved the risks of an effect would increase. Downloads of the plans from the UK, Germany, Spain, and Brazil were heavy.


title: 3D printed firearm

text: Attempting to restrict the distribution over the Internet of gun plans has been likened to the futility of preventing the widespread distribution of DeCSS which enabled DVD ripping. After the US government had Defense Distributed take down the plans, they were still widely available via The Pirate Bay and other file sharing sites. Some US legislators have proposed regulations on 3D printers to prevent their use for printing guns. 3D printing advocates have suggested that such regulations would be futile, could cripple the 3D printing industry, and could infringe on free speech rights.


title: 3D printed firearm

text: Chelsea Parsons at the Center for American Progress advocated technical countermeasures designed to prevent owners from printing guns. The EURion constellation is used in a similar way to prevent color photocopiers from producing counterfeit currency, and the Counterfeit Deterrence System is used in image editing software.


title: 3D printed firearm

text: In Australia, the state law of New South Wales criminalizes the possession of the digital plans and files to 3D print firearms under Section 51F of the Firearms Act 1996. In one case in 2015, a loaded 3D printed firearm was found during a police raid on a meth lab.


title: 3D printed firearm

text: In another case in February 2017, Sicen Sun was arrested on charges related to 3D printable guns. During trial in December 2017 he pleaded guilty to charges including possessing a digital blueprint for the manufacture of firearms, manufacturing a pistol without a licence permit, and possessing an unauthorised pistol. In a sentence hearing on August 6, 2018, he told the court he initially wanted to replicate a gun from the videogame Halo and when he started searching blueprints online he downloaded plans for other guns which looked "cool." Sun had previously posted an advertisement to the internet to sell one of his imitation weapons for "$1 million negotiable" on a Facebook buy, swap and sell group, which set off the investigation.


title: 3D printed firearm

text: The Canadian "Criminal Code" makes it a crime for a person to manufacture (or offer to manufacture) any firearm or ammunition knowing that the person is not authorized to do so under Canadian laws or regulations. Authorizations to manufacture can be obtained, for example, as a capability attached to a firearms business license. The Canadian government moreover has stated that "regardless of manufacturing method, a business licence is required to produce a firearm". At least two separate cases during 2020 have led to charges for 3D printing of firearms.


title: 3D printed firearm

text: The Halle synagogue shooting gained particular notoriety for the use of improvised firearms by the perpetrator. One of the firearms he brought along (though did not use) was a hybrid design where the lower receiver was 3D printed, and he also had 3D printed magazines. He also had manufactured several more 3D printed guns that were not brought along. This sparked questions over the legal status of such firearms, though the consensus in most parties represented in the Bundestag was that no additional legislation would be necessary, as the current German gun law explicitly prohibits the unlicensed manufacture of firearms regardless of method.


title: 3D printed firearm

text: 3D-printed firearms are subjected to the same laws as typical gunsmithed firearms, only requiring a license, as long as the firearms stay within legal limits. In November 2021, it was reported that in Naples and other areas of Campania, the local Camorra has begun using 3D-printed firearms and ammunition due to ease of access and for selling on to other gangs. This was found out via the discovery of videos and images on a seized IPhone of said firearms.


title: 3D printed firearm

text: In Japan, in May 2014, Yoshitomo Imura was the first person to be arrested for possessing printed guns. Imura had five guns, two of which were capable of being fired, but had no ammunition. Imura had previously posted blueprints and video of his Zig zag revolvers to the Internet, which set off the investigation.


title: 3D printed firearm

text: The Singaporean government passed a law in January 2021 that made it an offence for anyone in Singapore to possess a digital blueprint of a gun or gun part without a license under the Guns, Explosives and Weapons Control Act.


title: 3D printed firearm

text: In the United Kingdom, the Firearms Act 1968 bans the manufacturing of guns and gun parts without government approval. Hence, 3D printed weapons are "de facto" banned because the law bans all manufacturing, regardless of method. However, the Home Office updated its Guide on Firearms Licensing Law to specifically mention the ban on 3D printed weapons.


title: 3D printed firearm

text: In June 2019, Tendai Muswere, aged 26, became the first person in the United Kingdom charged with making a gun with a 3D printer. The firearm in question, which he claims was merely a movie-prop for a dystopian film he was working on, was found during a raid following claims he was growing and selling cannabis. Originally in October 2017, he claimed he was only printing gun-like models, however in February 2018, following another raid, it was found his intentions were to make a working firearm based on his browser history and some working gun components found in his house along with homemade gunpowder.


title: 3D printed firearm

text: Under the Undetectable Firearms Act any firearm that cannot be detected by a metal detector is illegal to manufacture, so legal designs for firearms such as the Liberator require a metal plate to be inserted into the printed body. The Act was renewed for five years in 1998, and ten years in 2003 and 2013. The subject of 3D printed guns gained such attention that in 2014, Netflix included it in its documentary "Print the Legend", a film about the significance of 3D printing technology.


title: 3D printed firearm

text: The company Defense Distributed, founded by Cody Wilson, started posting 3D-printed gun blueprints on the Internet in 2013. The Obama Administration decided to amend International Traffic in Arms Regulations to include 3D-printed firearms in 2015. With these changes in place, the United States Department of State Directorate of Defense Trade Controls ordered Defense Distributed to remove the plans since it was not licensed to export them. Various federal courts ruled in "Defense Distributed v. United States Department of State" which claimed the regulations violated the First and Second Amendments to the United States Constitution. The State Department settled the case by giving an export license to Defense Distributed, prevailing despite lawsuits from several states to prevent it.


title: 3D printed firearm

text: In January 2020, the Trump Administration published a rule change to remove 3D-printed gun blueprints from the munitions list and transfer administrative authority over them to the Commerce Department. A U.S. District judge blocked the rule change on procedural grounds in March 2020, but the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned that ruling in April 2021. As a result, online posting of plans for 3D-printed firearms now requires a license under the Export Administration Regulations issued by the Bureau of Industry and Security.


title: 3D printed firearm

text: Laws related to the manufacture, sale, and possession of firearms generally apply to 3D-printed firearms. Some state and local laws apply more specifically to 3D-printed guns:


title: 3D printed firearm

text: Currently, it is not prohibited by law to manufacture firearms for personal use in the United States, as long as the firearm is not produced with the intent to be sold or transferred, and meets a few basic requirements. A license is required to manufacture firearms for sale or distribution. The law prohibits a person from assembling a non–sporting semiautomatic rifle or shotgun from 10 or more imported parts, as well as firearms that cannot be detected by metal detectors or x–ray machines. In addition, the making of an NFA firearm requires a tax payment and advance approval by ATF.


title: Estádio José Alvalade

text: Estádio José Alvalade is a football stadium in Lisbon, Portugal, home of Sporting Clube de Portugal. It was built adjacent to the site of the older stadium. The stadium is named after José Alvalade (1885–1918), the founder and first club member of Sporting CP in the early twentieth century.


title: Estádio José Alvalade

text: The previous José Alvalade Stadium was opened on 10 June 1956. Plans by Sporting CP to modernize the club in the late 1990s coincided with the decision to award Portugal the right to host UEFA Euro 2004, and the decision was made to build a new stadium, with construction beginning on 15 January 2001. The club's statutes dictated that the stadium would be called Estádio José Alvalade. It would be the club's seventh stadium.


title: Estádio José Alvalade

text: The stadium is the center of a complex called Alvalade XXI, designed by Portuguese architect Gil Dias, which includes a mall called Alvaláxia with a 12-screen movie theater, a health club, the club's museum, a sports pavilion, a clinic, and an office building. The complex cost a total of €162 million, with the stadium accounting with almost €120 million. On the exterior, the stadium features multi-coloured tiles. Originally the seats were arranged in a random-looking mosaic of mixed colours, however during its second decade of use these were all gradually changed to dark green, with the roof support towers and access stairways, initially bright yellow, also repainted green.


title: Estádio José Alvalade

text: It was classified by UEFA as a 4-star stadium, enabling it to host finals of major UEFA events. The stadium – originally projected to hold only 40,000 spectators at any given time – has a capacity of 50,095 and was acoustically engineered as a venue for major concerts. The stadium has also a total of 1,315 underground parking spaces, including 30 for disabled spectators.


title: Estádio José Alvalade

text: The new stadium official opening was on 6 August 2003 when Sporting played and beat Manchester United 3–1. The stadium hosted five matches of UEFA Euro 2004, one of them being the semi-final between Portugal and the Netherlands, which Portugal won 2–1. In May 2005, the stadium was upgraded to 5-star stadium status by UEFA, the same month it hosted the 2005 UEFA Cup Final between Sporting and CSKA Moscow, which CSKA Moscow won 3–1.


title: Estádio José Alvalade

text: After years of coping with a poor playing surface, the Sporting board initially decided to install synthetic turf for the 2011–12 season, but this decision was later abandoned for the use of artificial lighting.


title: Estádio José Alvalade

text: The Stadium is served by the Campo Grande station of the Lisbon Metro and a bus terminal served by several companies. The "Segunda Circular", a major ring road of Lisbon, runs close by and the stadium can be reached via the exit Estádio de Alvalade. There are several car parks around the stadium.


title: Estádio José Alvalade

text: It is a relatively short distance (3 km) from Lisbon's biggest stadium, the Estádio da Luz, homeground of rivals S.L. Benfica.


title: Aroostook County, Maine

text: Aroostook County ( ; ) is a county in the U.S. state of Maine along the Canada–U.S. border. As of the 2020 census, the population was 67,105. Its county seat is Houlton, with offices in Caribou and Fort Kent.


title: Aroostook County, Maine

text: Known locally in Maine as "The County", it is the largest county in Maine by total area, and the second largest in the United States by total area east of the Mississippi River, behind St. Louis County, Minnesota. With over of land it is larger than three U.S. states. It is Maine's northernmost county. Its northernmost village, Estcourt Station, is also the northernmost community in New England and in the contiguous United States east of the Great Lakes.


title: Aroostook County, Maine

text: Aroostook County is known for its potato crops. The county is also an emerging hub for wind power. Its Acadian culture is also well-known. In the Saint John Valley in the northern part of the county, which borders Madawaska County, New Brunswick, many of the residents are bilingual in English and Acadian French, whereas elsewhere in Maine, New England French is the predominant form of French spoken.


title: Aroostook County, Maine

text: The sparsely populated Maine North Woods, roughly defined as the headwaters of the Saint John, Penobscot and Kennebec Rivers, was populated through the colonial era by refugees fleeing unfriendly governments. Native Americans retreating from hostile European colonists, and smugglers trading with these Native Americans and between English Massachusetts and French Acadia lived in small communities along the Atlantic coast on the disputed border between those colonies. As England dominated the Gulf of Maine following the French and Indian Wars, these occupants of the border region retreated up the large rivers into the interior joined by Acadians escaping the Acadian Expulsion. Although the survivors might have preferred to remain independent, surrounding governments dividing their refuge perceived Aroostook County as the west bank of the Saint John River drainage upstream of Canada. Under United States control, the area was initially dominated by lumber manufacturing interests, although agriculture became important as population increased. Transportation along the Saint John River and early rail connections into New Brunswick caused strong business links with Canada until the county was connected to the United States rail network by the Bangor and Aroostook Railroad in 1894. Aroostook County residents retain an independent cultural identity established during their history of isolation on the border frontier.


title: Aroostook County, Maine

text: Aroostook County was formed in 1839 from parts of Penobscot and Washington counties. In 1843, Aroostook gained land from Penobscot County; in 1844, Aroostook again gained land from Penobscot, plus it exchanged land with Piscataquis County. In 1889, Aroostook gained slightly from Penobscot, but gave back the land in 1903 when Aroostook County gained its final form.


title: Aroostook County, Maine

text: Some of the territory in this county was part of the land dispute that led to the "Aroostook War" that would be settled by the Webster–Ashburton Treaty.


title: Aroostook County, Maine

text: The county was also part of a route on the Underground Railroad, and was one of the last stops before entering Canada. Slaves would meet and hide just outside Aroostook or in deserted areas. Friends Quaker Church near Fort Fairfield was often a final stop.


title: Aroostook County, Maine

text: Much of Aroostook County's economy was dominated by military spending through the Cold War. Limestone Army Air Field was built in Limestone, Maine in 1947. It was renamed Loring Air Force Base (AFB) in 1953 as the home of the Strategic Air Command (SAC) 42d Bombardment Wing operating Convair B-36 Peacemaker bombers. Aroostook County was chosen due to its strategic location as the closest point in the Continental United States to the Middle East and Europe including the Soviet Union west of the Ural Mountains. Loring AFB could accommodate one hundred of these large bombers; and had both the largest fuel storage capacity, at , and the largest weapons storage capacity, at 4700 tonnes NEW, of any SAC base. The 42d Bombardment Wing at Loring operated Boeing B-52 Stratofortress bombers until the 1991 Base Realignment and Closure Commission recommended closure and the base closed in 1994.


title: Aroostook County, Maine

text: The 2014 Acadian World Congress was held along the Canada–United States border, co-hosted by Aroostook County and a number of neighboring counties in Canada (Témiscouata in Quebec, and Victoria, Madawaska and Restigouche in New Brunswick). Organizers planned a Tintamarre that was held in the town of Madawaska, Maine, as well as a giant tug of war across the Saint John River.


title: Aroostook County, Maine

text: According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (2.3%) is water. Aroostook County is Maine's largest county by area, about the size of Connecticut and Rhode Island combined. The county high point is Peaked Mountain, elevation , whose western slopes are in the north east corner of Piscataquis County.


title: Aroostook County, Maine

text: Although the county is more socially conservative than Maine's southern and coastal counties, it was won by the Democratic Presidential candidate in the six elections from 1992 – 2012 before going for the Republican candidate in 2016. In the Maine Legislature, the county's delegation in 2013 included three Democrats and seven Republicans. In 2009 it voted 73% in favor of a referendum rejecting same-sex marriage and 54% against the Maine Medical Marijuana Act. In 2012, it voted 67% against a measure to legalize same-sex marriage in Maine, the highest opposition percentage of any county in the state. From 2016 to 2020, the margin increased from 55-38% to 59-39%, respectively. This makes Aroostook County the only county in New England to have a more major Republican shift.


title: Aroostook County, Maine

text: Due to the remoteness from the rest of Maine and a perceived lack of connection with the Maine government, as well as a strong connection with neighboring Canada, politicians of Aroostook County, Maine, have proposed making Aroostook part of New Brunswick or spinning off the county as its own state, probably named "Aroostook", since the 1990s. As recently as 2005 the question has been brought up before the state legislature.


title: Aroostook County, Maine

text: As of the census of 2000, there were 73,938 people, 30,356 households, and 20,429 families residing in the county. The population density was 11 people per square mile (4/km). There were 38,719 housing units at an average density of 6 per square mile (2/km). The racial makeup of the county was 96.80% White, 0.38% Black or African American, 1.36% Native American, 0.47% Asian, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 0.17% from other races, and 0.80% from two or more races. 0.60% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. 22.6% were of French, 15.4% United States or American, 14.6% English, 14.3% French Canadian and 10.2% Irish ancestry. As of 2010, 18.0% of the population reported speaking French at home; other than speakers of English, there were no other significant linguistic groups.


title: Aroostook County, Maine

text: There were 30,356 households, out of which 28.40% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 55.60% were married couples living together, 8.10% had a female householder with no husband present, and 32.70% were non-families. 27.60% of all households were made up of individuals, and 13.10% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.36 and the average family size was 2.86.


title: Aroostook County, Maine

text: In the county, the population was spread out, with 22.60% under the age of 18, 7.90% from 18 to 24, 26.30% from 25 to 44, 26.20% from 45 to 64, and 17.00% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 41 years. For every 100 females there were 95.40 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 92.70 males.


title: Aroostook County, Maine

text: The median income for a household in the county was $28,837, and the median income for a family was $36,044. Males had a median income of $29,747 versus $20,300 for females. The per capita income for the county was $15,033. About 9.80% of families and 14.30% of the population were below the poverty line, including 16.20% of those under age 18 and 16.00% of those age 65 or over.


title: Aroostook County, Maine

text: As of the 2010 United States Census, there were 71,870 people, 30,961 households, and 19,578 families residing in the county. The population density was . There were 39,529 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the county was 95.7% white, 1.7% Native American, 0.6% black or African American, 0.4% Asian, 0.2% from other races, and 1.4% from two or more races. Those of Hispanic or Latino origin made up 0.9% of the population. In terms of ancestry, 27.2% were French, 18.1% were English, 17.4% were Irish, 8.2% were French Canadian, 8.1% were American, and 5.2% were German.


title: Aroostook County, Maine

text: Of the 30,961 households, 25.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 49.6% were married couples living together, 9.4% had a female householder with no husband present, 36.8% were non-families, and 30.8% of all households were made up of individuals. The average household size was 2.26 and the average family size was 2.79. The median age was 45.3 years.


title: Aroostook County, Maine

text: The median income for a household in the county was $36,574 and the median income for a family was $47,114. Males had a median income of $37,222 versus $28,244 for females. The per capita income for the county was $20,251. About 10.6% of families and 15.4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 20.4% of those under age 18 and 11.7% of those age 65 or over.


title: United States Fleet Forces Command

text: The United States Fleet Forces Command (USFF) is a service component command of the United States Navy that provides naval forces to a wide variety of U.S. forces. The naval resources may be allocated to Combatant Commanders such as United States Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) under the authority of the Secretary of Defense. Originally formed as United States Atlantic Fleet (USLANTFLT) in 1906, it has been an integral part of the defense of the United States of America since the early 20th century. In 2002, the Fleet comprised over 118,000 Navy and Marine Corps personnel serving on 186 ships and in 1,300 aircraft, with an area of responsibility ranging over most of the Atlantic Ocean from the North Pole to the South Pole, the Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, and the waters of the Pacific Ocean along the coasts of Central and South America (as far west as the Galapagos Islands).


title: United States Fleet Forces Command

text: The command is based at Naval Support Activity Hampton Roads in Norfolk, Virginia and is the Navy's service component to U.S. Northern Command and is the Joint Functional Maritime Component Command under the U.S. Strategic Command.


title: United States Fleet Forces Command

text: The command's mission is to organize, man, train, and equip naval forces for assignment to Unified Command Combatant commanders; to deter, detect, and defend against homeland maritime threats; and to articulate Fleet warfighting and readiness requirements to the Chief of Naval Operations.


title: United States Fleet Forces Command

text: The Atlantic Fleet was established by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1906, at the same time as the Pacific Fleet, as protection for new bases in the Caribbean acquired as a result of the Spanish–American War. The Fleet was a combination of the North Atlantic Fleet and the South Atlantic Squadron.


title: United States Fleet Forces Command

text: The first commander of the fleet was Rear Admiral Robley D. Evans, who hoisted his flag in the battleship on 1 January 1906. The following year, he took his 16 battleships, now dubbed the Great White Fleet, on a round-the-world cruise that lasted until 1909, a goodwill tour that also served the purpose of advertising the United States' naval strength and reach to all other nations of the globe.


title: United States Fleet Forces Command

text: In January 1913 the fleet consisted of six first-line divisions, a torpedo flotilla, submarines, and fleet auxiliaries. The fleet was under the command of Rear Admiral Hugo Osterhaus.


title: United States Fleet Forces Command

text: The Cruiser and Transport Force, under Rear Admiral Albert Gleaves served in Atlantic waters during World War I moving the American Expeditionary Forces to Europe. United States Battleship Division Nine joined the Grand Fleet in the UK.


title: United States Fleet Forces Command

text: The Atlantic Fleet was reorganized into the Scouting Force in 1923, which was under the United States Fleet along with the Pacific Fleet. In January 1939 the Atlantic Squadron, United States Fleet, was formed, with Vice Admiral Alfred Wilkinson Johnson commanded. The aircraft carrier was transferred to the Atlantic Ocean, to join three battleships.


title: United States Fleet Forces Command

text: On 1 November 1940 the Atlantic Squadron was renamed the Patrol Force. The Patrol Force was organized into type commands: Battleships, Patrol Force; Cruisers, Patrol Force; Destroyers, Patrol Force; and, Train, Patrol Force (the logistics arms).


title: United States Fleet Forces Command

text: On 1 February 1941, the Atlantic Fleet was resurrected and organized from the Patrol Force. Along with the Pacific Fleet and Asiatic Fleet, the fleet was to be under the command of a full admiral, which jumped the fleet's commander Ernest J. King from a two-star to a four-star. King's flagship was .


title: United States Fleet Forces Command

text: Subsequently, the headquarters was in a rather odd assortment of ships; the , then the old wooden ship , , and then . In 1948, the HQ moved into the former naval hospital at Norfolk, Virginia, and has remained there ever since.


title: United States Fleet Forces Command

text: In July 1942, eight months after the United States entered the war, the Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Navy's America and West Indies Station based at Admiralty House, Bermuda had his title changed to "Senior British Naval Officer, Western Atlantic." visited Bermuda in September, 1941.


title: United States Fleet Forces Command

text: Of these, Battleship Division 5 was a training unit consisting of the oldest remaining battleships in service, while Division 6 was responsible for working up the two most recently commissioned battleships, "North Carolina" and "Washington".


title: United States Fleet Forces Command

text: The aircraft carriers "Yorktown" and "Long Island" were directly attached to Aircraft, Atlantic Fleet, as was the newly commissioned "Hornet", which was in the process of working up.


title: United States Fleet Forces Command

text: During World War II "Transports, Amphibious Force, Atlantic Fleet" was part of this command (ComTransPhibLant). Smaller units included the Antisubmarine Development Detachment, Atlantic Fleet (ASDEVLANT) located at Quonset Point, Rhode Island. The detachment was responsible for the study and development of antisubmarine gear during World War II. The Commander of the detachment was known as COMASDEVLANT.


title: United States Fleet Forces Command

text: Admiral King was appointed Commander-in-Chief, United States Fleet, on 20 December 1941. Rear Admiral Royal E. Ingersoll was designated, with the rank of vice admiral, to relieve him as Commander-in-Chief, Atlantic Fleet. He took command on 1 January 1942, and was advanced to the rank of admiral on 1 July 1942. To carry out this mission and other tasks CinCLant had in the meantime been reorganized, as of 1 March 1941, into ten task forces (commanded by flag officers) numbered from one to ten and named according to their intended employment. Task Force One was the Ocean Escort Force, TF2—Striking Force, TF3—Scouting Force, TF4—Support Force, TF5—Submarine Force, TF6—Naval Coastal Frontier Forces, TF7—Bermuda Force, TF8—Patrol Wings, TF9—Service Force, and Task Force 10, 1st Marine Division (commanded by a Brigadier General).


title: United States Fleet Forces Command

text: Of many significant engagements, Captain Daniel Gallery's capture of the German submarine U-505 stands out. The capture was so top secret (because of the enigma code books captured) that the ship's flag was kept by the Commander-in-Chief, Atlantic Fleet, and not handed over to Navy authorities until after the war.


title: United States Fleet Forces Command

text: On 1 January 1946, Commander Minesweeping Forces, Atlantic Fleet (ComMinLant) was activated to command minesweepers assigned to the Atlantic Fleet. The Commander, Mine Forces, Atlantic was responsible for all Fleet minecraft operations. Units under his command were divided into Minesweeping Squadrons (MineRon)s.


title: United States Fleet Forces Command

text: Between 1947 and 1985, the fleet command was a concurrent appointment with the United States Atlantic Command. The Commander-in-Chief Atlantic Fleet (CINCLANTFLT) was traditionally a navy four-star admiral who also then held the positions of Commander-in-Chief United States Atlantic Command (CINCLANT) and NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic (SACLANT). But after a major reorganization of the U.S. armed forces structure following the Goldwater-Nichols Act of 1986, CINCLANFLT was separated from the two other billets. The admiral commanding the Atlantic Fleet was designated as the Deputy Commander in Chief of the Atlantic Command until 1986.


title: United States Fleet Forces Command

text: Major crises the Atlantic Fleet was involved in during the Cold War included the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis and the 1965 United States occupation of the Dominican Republic.


title: United States Fleet Forces Command

text: The general purpose forces of the Army, Navy, and Air Force began to be reorganized in response to the Cuban Missile Crisis on 16 October 1962. The command organization, as finally developed, called for the Commander in Chief, Atlantic (CINCLANT), Admiral Robert Dennison, to provide the unified command. He also retained control of all naval components involved in tactical operations, as the Commander-in-Chief, Atlantic Fleet. The responsibility for Army and Air Force components was assigned to the Continental Army Command (CONARC) and the Tactical Air Command under the designation of Army Forces, Atlantic (ARLANT), and Air Forces, Atlantic (AFLANT). The commander of the Army XVIII Airborne Corps was designated Joint Task Force Commander to plan for any joint operations that might become necessary. Over-all direction was exercised by the President and the Secretary of Defense through the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who named the Chief of Naval Operations as their representative for the quarantine.


title: United States Fleet Forces Command

text: Major elements of the Strategic Army Corps were designated for use by ARLANT and placed in advanced alert status. Logistic support for the more than 100,000 men involved was directed by a newly established Peninsula Base Command. Preparatory steps were taken to make possible the immediate callup of high priority Army National Guard and Army Reserve units. Tactical Air Command moved hundreds of tactical fighter, reconnaissance, and troop carrier aircraft to the southeast. To make room for all these units, the bombers, tankers, and other aircraft not required for the current operations were ordered to other bases in the United States.


title: United States Fleet Forces Command

text: From the late 1960s, nuclear ballistic missile submarines of the fleet began to make thousands of deterrent patrols. The first patrol in the Atlantic Fleet area of operations was made by .


title: United States Fleet Forces Command

text: In 1972, Commander, Anti-Submarine Warfare Force, Atlantic Fleet (Task Force 81) was headquartered at Quonset Point Naval Air Station. Under ASWFORLANTFLT was Hunter-Killer Force, Atlantic Fleet (Task Force 83), with Carrier Divisions 14 and 16 (Wasp and Intrepid, respectively), as well as the Quonset ASW Group (TG 81.2) with Fleet Air Wing 3 and surface units. More information on Anti-Submarine Warfare Force, Atlantic Fleet's, activities during the Cuban crisis can be found at the National Security Archive's document collections.


title: United States Fleet Forces Command

text: Commander, Naval Surface Forces Atlantic was formed on 1 July 1975, incorporating a number of previously separate smaller commands – mine warfare vessels/units, service vessels, and frigates, destroyers and cruisers, along with associated destroyer squadrons and cruiser/destroyer groups.


title: United States Fleet Forces Command

text: As part of a reorganization announced in July 1995 of the Atlantic Fleet's surface combatant ships into six core battle groups, nine destroyer squadrons, and a new Western Hemisphere Group, was reassigned to Destroyer Squadron 24. The re-organization was to be phased in over the summer and take effect 31 August 1995, with homeport shifts occurring through 1998. In September 1995 the following ship assignments were intended to apply at the end of the transitional period:


title: United States Fleet Forces Command

text: In February 2000, U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command was established in Puerto Rico, and the Western Hemisphere Group became Naval Surface Group 2.


title: United States Fleet Forces Command

text: On 1 October 2001, the Chief of Naval Operations designated Commander-in-Chief, Atlantic Fleet (CINCLANTFLT) as concurrent Commander, Fleet Forces Command (CFFC). In October–November 2002, the title of Commander in Chief, Atlantic Fleet was amended to Commander, U.S. Atlantic Fleet (COMLANTFLT).


title: United States Fleet Forces Command

text: In the CNO Guidance for 2003, Admiral Vernon Clark stipulated that the terms Carrier Battle Group and Amphibious Readiness Group would be replaced by Carrier Strike Groups (CSG) and Expeditionary Strike Groups (ESGs), respectively, by March 2003. Cruiser-Destroyer (CRUDESGRU) and Carrier Groups (CARGRU) were also redesignated, as Carrier Strike Groups (CSG), and aligned directly under the numbered fleet commanders. CARGRU and CRUDESGRU staffs were formerly under the administrative authority of their respective air and surface U.S. Navy type commands. This realignment allowed key operational leaders authority and direct access to the personnel required to more effectively accomplish the navy's mission.


title: United States Fleet Forces Command

text: The numbered fleet commanders are now responsible for the training and certification of the entire Strike Group. The organizational structure to support the carrier strike groups focuses more on placing Strike Group commanders under the authority of the certifying officer, or the numbered fleet commander. Under this new division of responsibility, the air-side type commander gains authority over the air wing, and the surface-side type commander gains authority over the carrier itself and the rest of the ships of the battle group.


title: United States Fleet Forces Command

text: On 23 May 2006, the Chief of Naval Operations renamed COMLANTFLT to Commander, U.S. Fleet Forces Command (COMUSFLTFORCOM or CUSFFC), ordered to carry out the missions currently performed by COMFLTFORCOM (CFFC) and serve as primary advocate for fleet personnel, training, requirements, maintenance, and operational issues, reporting administratively directly to the CNO as an Echelon 2 command. The previous title CFFC was disestablished at the same time. CUSFFC previously served as the Naval component of US Joint Forces Command (USJFCOM) until the disestablishment of USJFCOM in August 2011. CFFC is also assigned as the supporting service component commander to Commander, United States Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) as well as to Commander, United States Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM).


title: United States Fleet Forces Command

text: "Enterprise" entered an ESRA in 2008, but the refit took longer than expected. Thus on 11 September 2009, it was announced that the carrier strike group deployment schedule would be changed to accommodate the delay in the return of the "Enterprise" from its current overhaul. This resulted in extending both Carrier Strike Group Eleven's 2009–2010 deployment and Carrier Strike Group Ten's 2010 deployment to eight months. "Enterprise" returned to Naval Station Norfolk on 19 April 2010 after completing its post-overhaul sea trials, signifying the beginning of its pre-deployment training cycle.


title: United States Fleet Forces Command

text: News reports in July 2011 said that in connection with the disestablishment of the United States Second Fleet, Fleet Forces Command would take over Second Fleet's duties on 30 September 2011. Effectively this meant Task Force 20 (TF 20), under a deputy commander of the fleet, took over that mission. Task Force 20 was succeeded by Task Force 80 effective 1 October 2012, with TF-80 being under the command of the director of the Maritime Headquarters, Fleet Forces Command.


title: United States Fleet Forces Command

text: Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center (FNMOC), United States Naval Observatory (USNO), Naval Oceanographic Office (NAVOCEANO), Naval Oceanography Operations Command, Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Professional Development Center, were all realigned under U.S. Navy Information Dominance Forces on 1 October 2014.


title: United States Fleet Forces Command

text: Beginning in Fiscal Year 2015, the Optimized Fleet Response Plan will align carrier strike groups to a 36-month training and deployment cycle. All required maintenance, training, evaluations, plus a single eight-month overseas deployment, are scheduled throughout this 36-month cycle in order to reduce costs while increasing overall fleet readiness. This new plan streamlined the inspection and evaluation process while maintaining a surge capacity for emergency deployments. The ultimate objective is to reduce time at sea while increasing in-port time from 49% to 68%. While initially to be used by U.S. Navy carrier strike groups, the Optimized Fleet Response Plan will be adopted for all fleet operations.


title: United States Fleet Forces Command

text: Accordingly, the carrier will be the first carrier to deploy under this new O-FRP cycle, replacing the previously-scheduled "Eisenhower" in the deployment lineup. Additionally, the Carrier Strike Group Eight command staff will deploy with the "Truman" while the "Eisenhower" will serve as the new flagship for Carrier Strike Group Ten.


title: United States Fleet Forces Command

text: On 2 December 2020, Secretary Kenneth Braithwaite announced that U.S. Fleet Forces Command will be renamed back to United States Atlantic Fleet to focus more on the growing maritime threats coming from the Atlantic. The renaming of the command has been placed on hold, pending further review of the U.S. military footprint, resources, strategy and missions, from the global force posture review.


title: United States Fleet Forces Command

text: In accordance with the "Navigation Plan 2013–2017" guidance from the Chief of Naval Operations, U.S. Fleet Forces Command was to be based upon the three tenets of war-fighting, forward operations, and readiness. To achieve these objectives, Fleet Forces Command was realigned to a Maritime Operations Center (MOC) and Maritime Headquarters (MHQ) command structure. Additionally, the Commander, U.S. Fleet Forces Command (COMUSFLTFORCOM) is designated as the Joint Forces Maritime Component Commander North (JFMCC-N) to the U.S. Northern Command. Joint Forces Maritime Component Commander North consists of two Maritime Command Elements (MCE), with Maritime Command Element-East (MCE-E) being Task Force 180 and Maritime Command Element-West (MCE-W) provided from units assigned to the U.S. Pacific Fleet.


title: United States Fleet Forces Command

text: Effective 17 May 2013, Commander, U.S. Fleet Forces Command was officially designated as the naval component commander for the U.S. Northern Command.<ref name="DNS-33/13U102246"></ref> In this new capacity, the Commander, U.S. Fleet Forces Command is to contribute to the defense of North America through the coordination, collaboration, and communication with allied, coalition, and joint forces within the U.S. Northern Command's area of responsibility. Under this reorganization, the Commander, Navy Installations Command is responsible for area coordination for U.S. Naval Forces Northern Command. Additionally, Commander, Navy Region Mid-Atlantic is responsible for regional coordination for U.S. Naval Forces Northern Command.


title: United States Fleet Forces Command

text: The Maritime Operations directorate leads all phases of the pre-deployment fleet response training plan (FRTP) cycle involving those naval units assigned to the Fleet Forces Command. The directorate transitions all naval units from their operational phase to their tactical phase prior to their overseas deployment.


title: United States Fleet Forces Command

text: The Director of Maritime Operations (DMO) is an active-duty two-star rear admiral in the U.S. Navy while the Deputy Director of Maritime Operations is a one-star rear admiral from the United States Naval Reserve. As of 2013, the DMO was Rear Admiral Dan Cloyd. Maritime Operations is organized into the following directorates:


title: United States Fleet Forces Command

text: The Maritime Headquarters (MHQ) leads all phases prior to the pre-deployment training cycle, including resourcing, policy development, assessment, procurement, and pre-introduction of naval units assigned to the Fleet Forces Command. The MHQ transitions all naval units from their strategical phase to their operational phase prior to their pre-deployment training cycle, and in the capacity, it supports the Maritime Operations Center. The Director of Maritime Headquarters (DMHQ) is an active-duty two-star rear admiral in the U.S. Navy while the Deputy Director of Maritime Headquarters is a one-star rear admiral from the United States Naval Reserve. As of July 2013, the DMHQ was Rear Admiral Bradley R. Gehrke. The Maritime Headquarters is organized into the following directorates:


title: United States Fleet Forces Command

text: All ships are organized into categories by type. Aircraft carriers, aircraft squadrons, and air stations are under the administrative control of the appropriate Commander Naval Air Force. Submarines come under the Commander Submarine Force. All other ships fall under Commander Naval Surface Force. Type commands for Fleet Forces Command include:


title: United States Fleet Forces Command

text: Functional mission task forces execute force-wide Fleet logistic functions as well as providing capabilities for Joint contingency operations. These functional mission task forces include:


title: United States Fleet Forces Command

text: When constituted as a joint-service task force for Joint warfare operations, functional mission task forces for the U.S. Fleet Forces Command are given a 18X designation as shown below.


title: Rita Levi-Montalcini

text: Rita Levi-Montalcini (, ; 22 April 1909 – 30 December 2012) was an Italian Nobel laureate, honored for her work in neurobiology. She was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly with colleague Stanley Cohen for the discovery of nerve growth factor (NGF).


title: Rita Levi-Montalcini

text: From 2001 until her death, she also served in the Italian Senate as a Senator for Life. This honor was given due to her significant scientific contributions. On 22 April 2009, she became the first Nobel laureate to reach the age of 100, and the event was feted with a party at Rome's City Hall.


title: Rita Levi-Montalcini

text: to Italian Jewish parents with roots dating back to the Roman Empire. She and her twin sister Paola were the youngest of four children. Her parents were Adele Montalcini, a painter, and Adamo Levi, an electrical engineer and mathematician, whose families had moved from Asti and Casale Monferrato, respectively, to Turin at the turn of the twentieth century.


title: Rita Levi-Montalcini

text: In her teenage years, she considered becoming a writer and admired Swedish writer Selma Lagerlöf, but after seeing a close family friend die of stomach cancer she decided to attend the University of Turin Medical School. Her father discouraged his daughters from attending college, as he feared it would disrupt their potential lives as wives and mothers, but eventually he supported Levi-Montalcini's aspirations to become a doctor. While she was at the University of Turin, the neurohistologist Giuseppe Levi sparked her interest in the developing nervous system. After graduating summa cum laude M.D. in 1936, Montalcini remained at the university as Levi's assistant, but her academic career was cut short by Benito Mussolini's 1938 Manifesto of Race and the subsequent introduction of laws barring Jews from academic and professional careers.


title: Rita Levi-Montalcini

text: Levi-Montalcini lost her assistant position in the anatomy department after a 1938 law barring Jews from university positions was passed. During World War II she set up a laboratory in her bedroom in Turin and studied the growth of nerve fibers in chicken embryos, discovering that nerve cells die when they lack targets, and laying the groundwork for much of her later research. She described this experience decades later in the science documentary film "Death by Design/The Life and Times of Life and Times" (1997). The film also features her fraternal twin sister Paola, who became a respected artist best known for her aluminum sculptures designed to bring light to the rooms due to the reflective white surface.


title: Rita Levi-Montalcini

text: When the Germans invaded Italy in September 1943, her family fled south to Florence, where they survived the Holocaust, under false identities, protected by some non-Jewish friends. During the Nazi occupation, Levi-Montalcini was in contact with the partisans of the Action Party. After the liberation of Florence in August 1944, she volunteered her medical expertise for the Allied health service. Her family returned to Turin in 1945.


title: Rita Levi-Montalcini

text: In September 1946, Levi-Montalcini was granted a one-semester research fellowship in the laboratory of Professor Viktor Hamburger at Washington University in St. Louis; he was interested in two of the articles Levi-Montalcini had published in foreign scientific journals. After she duplicated the results of her home laboratory experiments, Hamburger offered her a research associate position, which she held for 30 years. It was there that, in 1952, she did her most important work: isolating nerve growth factor (NGF) from observations of certain cancerous tissues that cause extremely rapid growth of nerve cells. By transferring pieces of tumors to chick embryos, Montalcini established a mass of cells that was full of nerve fibers. The discovery of nerves growing everywhere like a halo around the tumor cells was surprising. When describing it, Montalcini said it is: "like rivulets of water flowing steadily over a bed of stones." The nerve growth produced by the tumor was unlike anything she had seen before – the nerves took over areas that would become other tissues and even entered veins in the embryo. But nerves did not grow into the arteries, which would flow from the embryo back to the tumor. This suggested to Montalcini that the tumor itself was releasing a substance that was stimulating the growth of nerves.


title: Rita Levi-Montalcini

text: She was made a full professor in 1958. In 1962, she established a second laboratory in Rome and divided her time between there and St. Louis. In 1963, she became the first woman to receive the Max Weinstein Award (given by the United Cerebral Palsy Association) due to her significant contributions into neurological research.


title: Rita Levi-Montalcini

text: From 1961 to 1969, she directed the Research Center of Neurobiology of the CNR (Rome), and from 1969 to 1978, the Laboratory of Cellular Biology. After she retired in 1977, she was appointed as director of the Institute of Cell Biology of the Italian National Council of Research in Rome. She later retired from that position in 1979, however continued to be involved as a guest professor.


title: Rita Levi-Montalcini

text: Levi-Montalcini founded the European Brain Research Institute in 2002, and then served as its president. Her role in this institute was at the center of some criticism from some parts of the scientific community in 2010.


title: Rita Levi-Montalcini

text: Controversies were raised about the cooperation of Levi-Montalcini with the Italian pharmaceutical concern Fidia. While working for Fidia, she improved the understanding of gangliosides. Beginning in 1975, she supported the drug Cronassial (a particular mixture of gangliosides) produced by Fidia from bovine brain tissue. Independent studies showed that the drug actually could be successful in treatment of intended diseases (peripheral neuropathies). Years later, some patients under treatment with Cronassial reported a severe neurological syndrome (Guillain–Barré syndrome). As per the normal cautionary routine, Germany banned Cronassial in 1983, followed by other countries. Italy prohibited the drug only in 1993; at the same time, an investigation revealed that Fidia paid the Italian Ministry of Health for a quick approval of Cronassial and later paid for pushing use of the drug in treatment of diseases where it had not been tested. Levi-Montalcini's relationship with the company was revealed during the investigation, and she was criticized publicly.


title: Rita Levi-Montalcini

text: In the 1990s, she was one of the first scientists pointing out the importance of the mast cell in human pathology. In the same period (1993), she identified the endogenous compound palmitoylethanolamide as an important modulator of this cell. Understanding this mechanism initiated a new era of research into this compound which has resulted in more discoveries regarding its mechanisms and benefits, a far better understanding of the endocannabinoid system and new liposomal palmitoylethanolamide product formulations designed specifically for improved absorption and bioavailability.


title: Rita Levi-Montalcini

text: Levi-Montalcini earned a Nobel Prize along with Stanley Cohen in 1986 in the physiology or medicine category. The two earned their Nobel Prizes for their research in to the nerve growth factor (NGF), the protein that causes cell growth due to stimulated nerve tissue.


title: Rita Levi-Montalcini

text: On 1 August 2001, she was appointed as Senator for Life by the President of Italy, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi.