title: Harmful algal bloom

text: Humans are affected by the HAB species by ingesting improperly harvested shellfish, breathing in aerosolized brevetoxins (i.e. PbTx or "Ptychodiscus" toxins) and in some cases skin contact. The brevetoxins bind to voltage-gated sodium channels, important structures of cell membranes. Binding results in persistent activation of nerve cells, which interferes with neural transmission leading to health problems. These toxins are created within the unicellular organism, or as a metabolic product. The two major types of brevetoxin compounds have similar but distinct backbone structures. PbTx-2 is the primary intracellular brevetoxin produced by "K. brevis" blooms. However, over time, the PbTx-2 brevetoxin can be converted to PbTx-3 through metabolic changes. Researchers found that PbTx-2 has been the primary intracellular brevetoxin that converts over time into PbTx-3.


title: Harmful algal bloom

text: In the U.S., the seafood consumed by humans is tested regularly for toxins by the USDA to ensure safe consumption. Such testing is common in other nations. However, improper harvesting of shellfish can cause paralytic shellfish poisoning and neurotoxic shellfish poisoning in humans. Some symptoms include drowsiness, diarrhea, nausea, loss of motor control, tingling, numbing or aching of extremities, incoherence, and respiratory paralysis. Reports of skin irritation after swimming in the ocean during a HAB are common.


title: Harmful algal bloom

text: When the HAB cells rupture, they release extracellular brevetoxins into the environment. Some of those stay in the ocean, while other particles get aerosolized. During onshore winds, brevetoxins can become aerosolized by bubble-mediated transport, causing respiratory irritation, bronchoconstriction, coughing, and wheezing, among other symptoms.


title: Harmful algal bloom

text: It is recommended to avoid contact with wind-blown aerosolized toxin. Some individuals report a decrease in respiratory function after only 1 hour of exposure to a "K. brevis" red-tide beach and these symptoms may last for days. People with severe or persistent respiratory conditions (such as chronic lung disease or asthma) may experience stronger adverse reactions.


title: Harmful algal bloom

text: There is no known treatment for conditions caused by exposure to a HAB. In most cases patients just wait for the toxin to flush itself out of their system, but in severe cases life support systems may be needed.


title: Harmful algal bloom

text: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Ocean Service provides a public conditions report identifying possible respiratory irritation impacts in areas affected by HABs.


title: Harmful algal bloom

text: The hazards which accompany harmful algal blooms have hindered visitors' enjoyment of beaches and lakes in places in the U.S. such as Florida, California, Vermont, and Utah. Persons hoping to enjoy their vacations or days off have been kept away to the detriment of local economies. Lakes and rivers in North Dakota, Minnesota, Utah, California and Ohio have had signs posted warning about the potential of health risk.


title: Harmful algal bloom

text: Similar blooms have become more common in Europe, with France among the countries reporting them. In the summer of 2009, beaches in northern Brittany became covered by tonnes of potentially lethal rotting green algae. A horse being ridden along the beach collapsed and died from fumes given off by the rotting algae.


title: Harmful algal bloom

text: The economic damage resulting from lost business has become a serious concern. According to one report in 2016, the four main economic impacts from harmful algal blooms come from damage to human health, fisheries, tourism and recreation, and the cost of monitoring and management of area where blooms appear. EPA estimates that algal blooms impact 65 percent of the country's major estuaries, with an annual cost of $2.2 billion. In the U.S. there are an estimated 166 coastal dead zones. Because data collection has been more difficult and limited from sources outside the U.S., most of the estimates as of 2016 have been primarily for the U.S.


title: Harmful algal bloom

text: In port cities in the Shandong Province of eastern China, residents are no longer surprised when massive algal blooms arrive each year and inundate beaches. Prior to the Beijing Olympics in 2008, over 10,000 people worked to clear 20,000 tons of dead algae from beaches. In 2013 another bloom in China, thought to be its largest ever, covered an area of 7,500 square miles, and was followed by another in 2015 which blanketed an even greater 13,500 square miles. The blooms in China are thought to be caused by pollution from untreated agricultural and industrial discharges into rivers leading to the ocean.


title: Harmful algal bloom

text: As early as 1976 a short-term, relatively small, dead zone off the coasts of New York and New Jersey cost commercial and recreational fisheries over $500 million. In 1998 a HAB in Hong Kong killed over $10 million in high-value fish.


title: Harmful algal bloom

text: In 2009, the economic impact for the state of Washington's coastal counties dependent on its fishing industry was estimated to be $22 million. In 2016, the U.S. seafood industry expected future lost revenue could amount to $900 million annually.


title: Harmful algal bloom

text: NOAA has provided a few cost estimates for various blooms over the past few years: $10.3 million in 2011 due to a HAB at Texas oyster landings; $2.4 million lost income by tribal commerce from 2015 fishery closures in the pacific northwest; $40 million from Washington state's loss of tourism from the same fishery closure.


title: Harmful algal bloom

text: Along with damage to businesses, the toll from human sickness results in lost wages and damaged health. The costs of medical treatment, investigation by health agencies through water sampling and testing, and the posting of warning signs at effected locations is also costly.


title: Harmful algal bloom

text: The closures applied to areas where this algae bloom occurs has a big negative impact of the fishing industries, add to that the high fish mortality that follows, the increase in price due to the shortage of fish available and decrease in the demand for seafood due to the fear of contamination by toxins. This causes a big economic loss for the industry.


title: Harmful algal bloom

text: Economic costs are estimated to rise. In June 2015, for instance, the largest known toxic HAB forced the shutdown of the west coast shellfish industry, the first time that has ever happened. One Seattle NOAA expert commented, "This is unprecedented in terms of the extent and magnitude of this harmful algal bloom and the warm water conditions we're seeing offshore..." The bloom covered a range from Santa Barbara, California northward to Alaska.


title: Harmful algal bloom

text: The negative impact on fish can be even more severe when they are confined to pens, as they are in fish farms. In 2007 a fish farm in British Columbia lost 260 tons of salmon as a result of blooms, and in 2016 a farm in Chile lost 23 million salmon after an algal bloom.


title: Harmful algal bloom

text: The presence of harmful algae bloom’s can lead to hypoxia or anoxia in a body of water. The depletion of oxygen within a body of water can lead to the creation of a dead zone. Dead zones occur when a body of water has become unsuitable for organism survival in that location. HAB’s cause dead zones by consuming oxygen in these bodies of water - leaving minimal oxygen available to other marine organisms. When the HAB’s die, their bodies will sink to the bottom of the body of water - as the decaying of their bodies (through bacteria) is what causes the consumption of oxygen. Once oxygen levels get so low, the HAB’s have placed the body of water in hypoxia - and these low oxygen levels will cause marine organisms to seek out better suited locations for their survival.


title: Harmful algal bloom

text: Blooms can harm the environment even without producing toxins by depleting oxygen from the water when growing and while decaying after they die. Blooms can also block sunlight to organisms living beneath it. A record-breaking number and size of blooms have formed in the Pacific coast, in Lake Erie, in the Chesapeake Bay and in the Gulf of Mexico, where a number of dead zones were created as a result. In the 1960s the number of dead zones worldwide was 49; the number rose to over 400 by 2008.


title: Harmful algal bloom

text: Among the largest dead zones were those in northern Europe’s Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Mexico, which affects a $2.8 billion U.S. fish industry. Unfortunately, dead zones rarely recover and usually grow in size. One of the few dead zones to ever recover was in the Black Sea, which returned to normal fairly quickly after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s due to a resulting reduction in fertilizer use.


title: Harmful algal bloom

text: Massive fish die-offs have been caused by HABs. In 2016, 23 million salmon which were being farmed in Chile died from a toxic algae bloom. To get rid of the dead fish, the ones fit for consumption were made into fishmeal and the rest were dumped 60 miles offshore to avoid risks to human health. The economic cost of that die-off is estimated to have been $800 million. Environmental expert Lester Brown has written that the farming of salmon and shrimp in offshore ponds concentrates waste, which contributes to eutrophication and the creation of dead zones.


title: Harmful algal bloom

text: Other countries have reported similar impacts, with cities such as Rio de Janeiro, Brazil seeing major fish die-offs from blooms becoming a common occurrence. In early 2015, Rio collected an estimated 50 tons of dead fish from the lagoon where water events in the 2016 Olympics were planned to take place.


title: Harmful algal bloom

text: The Monterey Bay has suffered from harmful algal blooms, most recently in 2015: "Periodic blooms of toxin-producing "Pseudo-nitzschia" diatoms have been documented for over 25 years in Monterey Bay and elsewhere along the U.S. west coast. During large blooms, the toxin accumulates in shellfish and small fish such as anchovies and sardines that feed on algae, forcing the closure of some fisheries and poisoning marine mammals and birds that feed on contaminated fish." Similar fish die-offs from toxic algae or lack of oxygen have been seen in Russia, Colombia, Vietnam, China, Canada, Turkey, Indonesia, and France.


title: Harmful algal bloom

text: Land animals, including livestock and pets have been affected. Dogs have died from the toxins after swimming in algal blooms. Warnings have come from government agencies in the state of Ohio, which noted that many dogs and livestock deaths resulted from HAB exposure in the U.S. and other countries. They also noted in a 2003 report that during the previous 30 years, they have seen more frequent and longer-lasting harmful algal blooms." In 50 countries and 27 states that year there were reports of human and animal illnesses linked to algal toxins. In Australia, the department of agriculture warned farmers that the toxins from a HAB had the "potential to kill large numbers of livestock very quickly."


title: Harmful algal bloom

text: Marine mammals have also been seriously harmed, as over 50 percent of unusual marine mammal deaths are caused by harmful algal blooms. In 1999, over 65 bottlenose dolphins died during a coastal HAB in Florida. In 2013 a HAB in southwest Florida killed a record number of Manatee. Whales have also died in large numbers. During the period from 2005 to 2014, Argentina reported an average 65 baby whales dying which experts have linked to algal blooms. A whale expert there expects the whale population to be reduced significantly. In 2003 off Cape Cod in the North Atlantic, at least 12 humpback whales died from toxic algae from a HAB. In 2015 Alaska and British Columbia reported many humpback whales had likely died from HAB toxins, with 30 having washed ashore in Alaska. "Our leading theory at this point is that the harmful algal bloom has contributed to the deaths," said a NOAA spokesperson.


title: Harmful algal bloom

text: Birds have died after eating dead fish contaminated with toxic algae. Rotting and decaying fish are eaten by birds such as pelicans, seagulls, cormorants, and possibly marine or land mammals, which then become poisoned. The nervous systems of dead birds were examined and had failed from the toxin's effect. On the Oregon and Washington coast, a thousand scoters, or sea ducks, were also killed in 2009. "This is huge," said a University professor. As dying or dead birds washed up on the shore, wildlife agencies went into "an emergency crisis mode."


title: Harmful algal bloom

text: It has even been suggested that harmful algal blooms are responsible for the deaths of animals found in fossil troves.


title: Harmful algal bloom

text: Harmful algal blooms in marine ecosystems have been observed to cause adverse effects to a wide variety of aquatic organisms, most notably marine mammals, sea turtles, seabirds and finfish. The impacts of HAB toxins on these groups can include harmful changes to their developmental, immunological, neurological, or reproductive capacities. The most conspicuous effects of HABs on marine wildlife are large-scale mortality events associated with toxin-producing blooms. For example, a mass mortality event of 107 bottlenose dolphins occurred along the Florida panhandle in the spring of 2004 due to ingestion of contaminated menhaden with high levels of brevetoxin. Manatee mortalities have also been attributed to brevetoxin but unlike dolphins, the main toxin vector was endemic seagrass species ("Thalassia testudinum") in which high concentrations of brevetoxins were detected and subsequently found as a main component of the stomach contents of manatees.


title: Harmful algal bloom

text: Additional marine mammal species, like the highly endangered North Atlantic right whale, have been exposed to neurotoxins by preying on highly contaminated zooplankton. With the summertime habitat of this species overlapping with seasonal blooms of the toxic dinoflagellate "Alexandrium fundyense", and subsequent copepod grazing, foraging right whales will ingest large concentrations of these contaminated copepods. Ingestion of such contaminated prey can affect respiratory capabilities, feeding behavior, and ultimately the reproductive condition of the population.


title: Harmful algal bloom

text: Immune system responses have been affected by brevetoxin exposure in another critically endangered species, the loggerhead sea turtle. Brevetoxin exposure, from inhalation of aerosolized toxins and ingestion of contaminated prey, can have clinical signs of increased lethargy and muscle weakness in loggerhead sea turtles causing these animals to wash ashore in a decreased metabolic state with increases of immune system responses upon blood analysis.


title: Harmful algal bloom

text: HABs occur naturally off coasts all over the world. Marine dinoflagellates produce ichthyotoxins. Where HABs occur, dead fish wash up on shore for up to two weeks after a HAB has been through the area. In addition to killing fish, the toxic algae contaminate shellfish. Some mollusks are not susceptible to the toxin, and store it in their fatty tissues. By consuming the organisms responsible for HABs, shellfish can accumulate and retain saxitoxin produced by these organisms. Saxitoxin blocks sodium channels and ingestion can cause paralysis within 30 minutes.


title: Harmful algal bloom

text: In addition to directly harming marine animals and vegetation loss, harmful algal blooms can also lead to ocean acidification, which occurs when the amount of carbon dioxide in the water is increased to unnatural levels. Ocean acidification slows the growth of certain species of fish and shellfish, and even prevents shell formation in certain species of mollusks. These subtle, small changes can add up over time to cause chain reactions and devastating effects on whole marine ecosystems.


title: Harmful algal bloom

text: Other animals that eat exposed shellfish are susceptible to the neurotoxin, which may lead to neurotoxic shellfish poisoning and sometimes even death. Most mollusks and clams filter feed, which results in higher concentrations of the toxin than just drinking the water. Scaup, for example, are diving ducks whose diet mainly consists of mollusks. When scaup eat the filter-feeding shellfish that have accumulated high levels of the HAB toxin, their population becomes a prime target for poisoning. However, even birds that do not eat mollusks can be affected by simply eating dead fish on the beach or drinking the water.


title: Harmful algal bloom

text: The toxins released by the blooms can kill marine animals including dolphins, sea turtles, birds, and manatees. The Florida Manatee, a subspecies of the West Indian Manatee, is a species often impacted by red tide blooms. Florida manatees are often exposed to the poisonous red-tide toxins either by consumption or inhalation. There are many small barnacles, crustaceans, and other epiphytes that grow on the blades of seagrass. These tiny creatures filter particles from the water around them and use these particles as their main food source. During red tide blooms, they also filter the toxic red tide cells from the water, which then becomes concentrated inside them. Although these toxins do not harm epiphytes, they are extremely poisonous to marine creatures who consume (or accidentally consume) the exposed epiphytes, such as manatees. When manatees unknowingly consume exposed epiphytes while grazing on sea grass, the toxins are subsequently released from the epiphytes and ingested by the manatees. In addition to consumption, manatees may also become exposed to air-borne Brevetoxins released from harmful red-tide cells when passing through algal blooms.


title: Harmful algal bloom

text: Manatees also have an immunoresponse to HABs and their toxins that can make them even more susceptible to other stressors. Due to this susceptibility, manatees can die from either the immediate, or the after effects of the HAB. In addition to causing manatee mortalities, red-tide exposure also causes severe sublethal health problems among Florida manatee populations. Studies have shown that red-tide exposure among free-ranging Florida manatees has been shown to negatively impact immune functioning by causing increased inflammation, a reduction in lymphocyte proliferation responses, and oxidative stress.


title: Harmful algal bloom

text: Fish such as Atlantic herring, American pollock, winter flounder, Atlantic salmon, and cod were dosed orally with these toxins in an experiment, and within minutes the subjects started to exhibit a loss of equilibrium and began to swim in an irregular, jerking pattern, followed by paralysis and shallow, arrhythmic breathing and eventually death, after about an hour. HABs have been shown to have a negative effect also in the memory functions of sea lions.


title: Harmful algal bloom

text: Since many algal blooms are caused by a major influx of nutrient-rich runoff into a water body, programs to treat wastewater, reduce the overuse of fertilizers in agriculture and reducing the bulk flow of runoff can be effective for reducing severe algal blooms at river mouths, estuaries, and the ocean directly in front of the river's mouth.


title: Harmful algal bloom

text: The nitrates and phosphorus in fertilizers cause algal blooms when they run off into lakes and rivers after heavy rains. Modifications in farming methods have been suggested, such as only using fertilizer in a targeted way at the appropriate time exactly where it can do the most good for crops to reduce potential runoff. A method used successfully is drip irrigation, which instead of widely dispersing fertilizers on fields, drip-irrigates plant roots through a network of tubes and emitters, leaving no traces of fertilizer to be washed away. Drip irrigation also prevents the formation of algal blooms in reservoirs for drinking water while saving up to 50% of water typically used by agriculture.


title: Harmful algal bloom

text: There have also been proposals to create buffer zones of foliage and wetlands to help filter out the phosphorus before it reaches water. Other experts have suggested using conservation tillage, changing crop rotations, and restoring wetlands. It is possible for some dead zones to shrink within a year under proper management.


title: Harmful algal bloom

text: There have been a few success stories in controlling chemicals. After Norway's lobster fishery collapsed in 1986 due to low oxygen levels, for instance, the government in neighboring Denmark took action and reduced phosphorus output by 80 percent which brought oxygen levels closer to normal. Similarly, dead zones in the Black Sea and along the Danube River recovered after phosphorus applications by farmers were reduced by 60%.


title: Harmful algal bloom

text: Nutrients can be permanently removed from wetlands harvesting wetland plants, reducing nutrient influx into surrounding bodies of water. Research is ongoing to determine the efficacy of floating mats of cattails in removing nutrients from surface waters too deep to sustain the growth of wetland plants.


title: Harmful algal bloom

text: In the U.S., surface runoff is the largest source of nutrients added to rivers and lakes, but is mostly unregulated under the federal Clean Water Act. Locally developed initiatives to reduce nutrient pollution are underway in various areas of the country, such as the Great Lakes region and the Chesapeake Bay. To help reduce algal blooms in Lake Erie, the State of Ohio presented a plan in 2016 to reduce phosphorus runoff.


title: Harmful algal bloom

text: Although a number of algaecides have been effective in killing algae, they have been used mostly in small bodies of water. For large algal blooms, however, adding algaecides such as silver nitrate or copper sulfate can have worse effects, such as killing fish outright and harming other wildlife. Cyanobacteria can also develop resistance to copper-containing algaecides, requiring a larger quantity of the chemical to be effective for HAB management, but introducing a greater risk to other species in the region. The negative effects can therefore be worse than letting the algae die off naturally.


title: Harmful algal bloom

text: In 2019, Chippewa Lake in Northeast Ohio became the first lake in the U.S. to successfully test a new chemical treatment. The chemical formula killed all of the toxic algae in the lake within a single day. The formula has already been used in China, South Africa and Israel.


title: Harmful algal bloom

text: In February 2020, Roodeplaat Dam in Gauteng Province, South Africa was treated with a new algicide formulation against a severe bloom of "Microcystis" sp. This formulation allows the granular product to float and slow-release its active ingredient, sodium percarbonate, that releases hydrogen peroxide (HO), on the water surface. Consequently, the effective concentrations are limited, vertically, to the surface of the water; and spatially to areas where cyanobacteria are abundant. This provide the aquatic organisms a “safe haven” in untreated areas and avoids the adverse effects associated with the use of standard algicides.


title: Harmful algal bloom

text: Bioactive compounds isolated from terrestrial and aquatic plants, particularly seaweeds, have seen results as a more environmentally friendly control for HABs. Molecules found in seaweeds such as Corallina, Sargassum, and Saccharina japonica have shown to inhibit some bloom-forming microalgae. In addition to their anti-microalgal effects, the bioactive molecules found in these seaweeds also have antibacterial, antifungal, and antioxidant properties.


title: Harmful algal bloom

text: Other chemicals are being tested for their efficacy for removing cyanobacteria during blooms. Modified clays, such as aluminum chloride modified clay (AC-MC), aluminum sulfide modified clay (AS-MC) and polyaluminum chloride modified clay (PAC-MC) have shown positive results "in vitro" for the removal of Aureococcus by trapping the microalgae in the sediment of clay, removing it from the top layer of water where harmful blooms can occur.


title: Harmful algal bloom

text: Many efforts have been made in an attempt to control HAB’s so that the harm that they cause can be kept at a minimum. Studies into the use of clay to control HAB’s have proven that this method may be an effective way to reduce the negative effects caused by HAB’s. The addition of aluminum chloride, aluminum sulfate, or polyaluminum chloride to clay can modify the clay surface and increase its efficiency in the removal of HAB’s from a body of water. The addition of aluminum-containing compounds causes the clay particles to achieve a positive charge, with these particles then undergoing flocculation with the harmful algae cells. The algae cells then group together: becoming a sediment instead of a suspension. The process of flocculation will limit the bloom growth and reduce the impact in which the bloom can have on an area.


title: Harmful algal bloom

text: Other experts have proposed building reservoirs to prevent the movement of algae downstream. However, that can lead to the growth of algae within the reservoir, which become sediment traps with a resultant buildup of nutrients. Some researchers found that intensive blooms in reservoirs were the primary source of toxic algae observed downstream, but the movement of algae has so far been less studied, although it is considered a likely cause of algae transport.


title: Harmful algal bloom

text: The decline of filter-feeding shellfish populations, such as oysters, likely contribute to HAB occurrence. As such, numerous research projects are assessing the potential of restored shellfish populations to reduce HAB occurrence.


title: Harmful algal bloom

text: Other remedies include using improved monitoring methods, trying to improve predictability, and testing new potential methods of controlling HABs. Some countries surrounding the Baltic Sea, which has the world's largest dead zone, have considered using massive geoengineering options, such as forcing air into bottom layers to aerate them.


title: Harmful algal bloom

text: A growing number of scientists agree that there is an urgent need to protect the public by being able to forecast harmful algal blooms. One way they hope to do that is with sophisticated sensors which can help warn about potential blooms. The same types of sensors can also be used by water treatment facilities to help them prepare for higher toxic levels.


title: Harmful algal bloom

text: The only sensors now in use are located in the Gulf of Mexico. In 2008 similar sensors in the Gulf forewarned of an increased level of toxins that led to a shutdown of shellfish harvesting in Texas along with a recall of mussels, clams, and oysters, possibly saving many lives. With an increase in the size and frequency of HABs, experts state the need for significantly more sensors located around the country. The same kinds of sensors can also be used to detect threats to drinking water from intentional contamination.


title: Harmful algal bloom

text: Satellite and remote sensing technologies are growing in importance for monitoring, tracking, and detecting HABs. Four U.S. federal agencies—EPA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), NOAA, and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)—are working on ways to detect and measure cyanobacteria blooms using satellite data. The data may help develop early-warning indicators of cyanobacteria blooms by monitoring both local and national coverage. In 2016 automated early-warning monitoring systems were successfully tested, and for the first time proven to identify the rapid growth of algae and the subsequent depletion of oxygen in the water.


title: Harmful algal bloom

text: In July 2016 Florida declared a state of emergency for four counties as a result of blooms. They were said to be "destroying" a number of businesses and affecting local economies, with many needing to shut down entirely. Some beaches were closed, and hotels and restaurants suffered a drop in business. Tourist sporting activities such as fishing and boating were also affected.


title: Harmful algal bloom

text: In 2019, the biggest Sargassum bloom ever seen created a crisis in the Tourism industry in North America. This event was likely caused by climate change and nutrient pollution from fertilizers. Several Caribbean countries considered declaring a state of emergency due to the impact on tourism as a result of environmental damage and potentially toxic and harmful health effects.


title: Harmful algal bloom

text: The Gulf of Maine frequently experiences blooms of the dinoflagellate "Alexandrium fundyense", an organism that produces saxitoxin, the neurotoxin responsible for paralytic shellfish poisoning. The well-known "Florida red tide" that occurs in the Gulf of Mexico is a HAB caused by "Karenia brevis", another dinoflagellate which produces brevetoxin, the neurotoxin responsible for neurotoxic shellfish poisoning. California coastal waters also experience seasonal blooms of "Pseudo-nitzschia", a diatom known to produce domoic acid, the neurotoxin responsible for amnesic shellfish poisoning.


title: Harmful algal bloom

text: The term red tide is most often used in the US to refer to "Karenia brevis" blooms in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, also called the Florida red tide. "K. brevis" is one of many different species of the genus "Karenia" found in the world's oceans.


title: Harmful algal bloom

text: Major advances have occurred in the study of dinoflagellates and their genomics. Some include identification of the toxin-producing genes ("PKS" genes), exploration of environmental changes (temperature, light/dark, etc.) have on gene expression, as well as an appreciation of the complexity of the "Karenia" genome. These blooms have been documented since the 1800s, and occur almost annually along Florida's coasts.


title: Harmful algal bloom

text: There was increased research activity of harmful algae blooms (HABs) in the 1980s and 1990s. This was primarily driven by media attention from the discovery of new HAB organisms and the potential adverse health effects of their exposure to animals and humans. The Florida red tides have been observed to have spread as far as the eastern coast of Mexico. The density of these organisms during a bloom can exceed tens of millions of cells per litre of seawater, and often discolor the water a deep reddish-brown hue.


title: Harmful algal bloom

text: Red tide is also sometimes used to describe harmful algal blooms on the northeast coast of the United States, particularly in the Gulf of Maine. This type of bloom is caused by another species of dinoflagellate known as "Alexandrium fundyense". These blooms of organisms cause severe disruptions in fisheries of these waters, as the toxins in these organism cause filter-feeding shellfish in affected waters to become poisonous for human consumption due to saxitoxin.


title: Harmful algal bloom

text: The related "Alexandrium monilatum" is found in subtropical or tropical shallow seas and estuaries in the western Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, and the eastern Pacific Ocean.


title: Harmful algal bloom

text: Natural water reservoirs in Texas have been threatened by anthropogenic activities due to large petroleum refineries and oil wells (i.e. emission and wastewater discharge), massive agricultural activities (i.e. pesticide release) and mining extractions (i.e. toxic wastewater) as well as natural phenomena involving frequent HAB events. For the first time in 1985, the state of Texas documented the presence of the "P. parvum" (golden alga) bloom along the Pecos River. This phenomenon has affected 33 reservoirs in Texas along major river systems, including the Brazos, Canadian, Rio Grande, Colorado, and Red River, and has resulted in the death of more than 27 million fish and caused tens of millions of dollars in damage.


title: Harmful algal bloom

text: The Chesapeake Bay, the largest estuary in the U.S., has suffered from repeated large algal blooms for decades due to chemical runoff from multiple sources, including 9 large rivers and 141 smaller streams and creeks in parts of six states. In addition, the water is quite shallow and only 1% of the waste entering it gets flushed into the ocean.


title: Harmful algal bloom

text: By weight, 60% of the phosphates entering the bay in 2003 were from sewage treatment plants, while 60% of its nitrates came from fertilizer runoff, farm animal waste, and the atmosphere. About 300 million pounds (140 Gg) of nitrates are added to the bay each year. The population increase in the bay watershed, from 3.7 million people in 1940 to 18 million in 2015 is also a major factor, as economic growth leads to the increased use of fertilizers and rising emissions of industrial waste.


title: Harmful algal bloom

text: As of 2015, the six states and the local governments in the Chesapeake watershed have upgraded their sewage treatment plants to control nutrient discharges. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that sewage treatment plant improvements in the Chesapeake region between 1985 and 2015 have prevented the discharge of 900 million pounds (410 Gg) of nutrients, with nitrogen discharges reduced by 57% and phosphorus by 75%. Agricultural and urban runoff pollution continue to be major sources of nutrients in the bay, and efforts to manage those problems are continuing throughout the watershed.


title: Harmful algal bloom

text: Recent algae blooms in Lake Erie have been fed primarily by agricultural runoff and have led to warnings for some people in Canada and Ohio not to drink their water. The International Joint Commission has called on United States and Canada to drastically reduce phosphorus loads into Lake Erie to address the threat.


title: Harmful algal bloom

text: Lake Okeechobee is an ideal habitat for cyanobacteria because its shallow, sunny, and laden with nutrients from Florida's agriculture. The Okeechobee Waterway connects the lake to the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico through the St. Lucie River and the Caloosahatchee respectively. This means that harmful algal blooms are carried down the estuaries as water is released during the wet summer months. In July 2018 up to 90% of Lake Okeechobee was covered in algae. Water draining from the lake filled the region with a noxious odor and caused respiratory problems in some humans during the following month. To make matters worse, harmful red tide blooms are historically common on Florida's coasts during these same summer months. Cyanobacteria in the rivers die as they reach saltwater but their nitrogen fixation feeds the red tide on the coast. Areas at the mouth of the estuaries such as Cape Coral and Port St. Lucie therefore experience the compounded effects of both types of harmful algal bloom. Cleanup crews hired by authorities in Lee County - where the Caloosahatchee meets the Gulf of Mexico - removed more than 1700 tons of dead marine life in August 2018.


title: Harmful algal bloom

text: In 2020, a large harmful algal bloom closed beaches in Poland and Finland, brought on by a combination of fertilizer runoff and extreme heat, posing a risk to flounder and mussel beds. This is seen by the Baltic Sea Action Group as a threat to biodiversity and regional fishing stocks.


title: Harmful algal bloom

text: Open defecation is common in south Asia, but human waste is an often overlooked source of nutrient pollution in marine pollution modeling. When nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) contributed by human waste was included in models for Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan, the estimated N and P inputs to bodies of water increased one to two orders of magnitude compared to previous models. River export of nutrients to coastal seas increases coastal eutrophication potential (ICEP). The ICEP of the Godavari River is three times higher when N and P inputs from human waste are included.


title: Index (economics)

text: In Statistics, Economics and Finance, an index is a statistical measure of change in a representative group of individual data points. These data may be derived from any number of sources, including company performance, prices, productivity, and employment. Economic indices track economic health from different perspectives.


title: Index (economics)

text: Influential global financial indices such as the Global Dow, and the NASDAQ Composite track the performance of selected large and powerful companies in order to evaluate and predict economic trends.


title: Index (economics)

text: The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 primarily track U.S. markets, though some legacy international companies are included. The consumer price index tracks the variation in prices for different consumer goods and services over time in a constant geographical location and is integral to calculations used to adjust salaries, bond interest rates, and tax thresholds for inflation.


title: Index (economics)

text: The GDP Deflator Index, or real GDP, measures the level of prices of all-new, domestically produced, final goods and services in an economy. Market performance indices include the labour market index/job index and proprietary stock market index investment instruments offered by brokerage houses.


title: Index (economics)

text: Some indices display market variations. For example, the Economist provides a Big Mac Index that expresses the adjusted cost of a globally ubiquitous Big Mac as a percentage over or under the cost of a Big Mac in the U.S. in USD (estimated: $3.57). The least relatively expensive Big Mac price occurs in Hong Kong, at a 52% reduction from U.S. prices, or $1.71 U.S. Such indices can be used to help forecast currency values.


title: Index (economics)

text: An index number is an economic data figure reflecting price or quantity compared with a standard or base value. The base usually equals 100 and the index number is usually expressed as 100 times the ratio to the base value. For example, if a commodity costs twice as much in 1970 as it did in 1960, its index number would be 200 relative to 1960. Index numbers are used especially to compare business activity, the cost of living, and employment. They enable economists to reduce unwieldy business data into easily understood terms.


title: Index (economics)

text: In economics, Index numbers generally are time series summarizing movements in a group of related variables. The best-known index number is the consumer price index, which measures changes in retail prices paid by consumers. In addition, a cost-of-living index (COLI) is a price index number that measures the relative cost of living over time. In contrast to a COLI based on the true but unknown utility function, a superlative index number is an index number that can be calculated. Thus, superlative index numbers are used to provide a fairly close approximation to the underlying cost-of-living index number in a wide range of circumstances.


title: Index (economics)

text: Some indexes are not time series. Spatial indexes summarize real estate prices, or toxins in the environment, or availability of services, across geographic locations. Indexes may also be used to summarize comparisons between distributions of data within categories. For example, purchasing power parity comparisons of currencies are often constructed with indexes.


title: Index (economics)

text: There is a substantial body of economic analysis concerning the construction of index numbers, desirable properties of index numbers and the relationship between index numbers and economic theory. A number indicating a change in magnitude, as of price, wage, employment, or production shifts, relative to the magnitude at a specified point usually taken as 100.


title: Index (economics)

text: The index number problem is the term used by economists to describe the limitation of statistical indexing, when used as a measurement for cost-of-living increases.


title: Index (economics)

text: For example, in the Consumer Price Index, a reference year's "market basket" is assigned an index number of 100. In 2019 if a market basket price is 55 and the basket were to double the following year, in 2020, then the index would rise to 200. This is done by performing a simple calculation: Dividing the new year market basket price by the reference year's (otherwise known as the base year) price, and subsequently multiplying the quotient by 100.


title: Index (economics)

text: While the CPI is a conventional method to measure inflation, it doesn't express how price changes directly affect all consumer purchases of goods and services. It either understates or overstates cost-of-living increases. This is the limitation of the CPI that is described as the index number problem.


title: Index (economics)

text: There is no theoretically ideal solution to this problem. In practice for retail price indices, the "basket of goods" is updated incrementally every few years to reflect changes. Nevertheless, the fact remains that many economic indices taken over the long term are not really like-for-like comparisons and this is an issue taken into account by researchers in economic history.


title: It's Gonna Be Me

text: "It's Gonna Be Me" is a song by American boy band NSYNC. It was released through Jive Records, as the second single from their second studio album "No Strings Attached" (2000) in the United States, and as the third single from the international edition of "No Strings Attached". The song was written by Max Martin, Andreas Carlsson, and Rami Yacoub, and produced by the latter. The pop track was inspired by Joe Jackson's "Steppin' Out" (1982) and Rupert Holmes' "Him" (1980), while the lyrics are about a man attempting to persuade a woman to start a new relationship together as she recovers from a previous breakup.


title: It's Gonna Be Me

text: "It's Gonna Be Me" debuted on the US "Billboard" Hot 100 at number 42, where it eventually peaked at number one for two consecutive weeks. It was the only NSYNC song to peak at the number one position on the Hot 100. The song was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) one month after its retail release. "It's Gonna Be Me" also peaked at number one in Canada, and charted in the top 10 on the UK Singles Chart, New Zealand, and Sweden.


title: It's Gonna Be Me

text: An accompanying music video was directed by Wayne Isham, and depicts each NSYNC member as a doll inside a toy store attempting to be bought by a female customer. NSYNC performed the song at the 2000 MTV Movie Awards and 2000 MTV Video Music Awards, and in three headlining concerts. "It's Gonna Be Me" was popularized as an Internet meme titled "It's Gonna Be May", after a Tumblr image of NSYNC member Justin Timberlake was posted in 2012 with the respective caption, which gained the attention of Barack Obama and Timberlake himself.


title: It's Gonna Be Me

text: In 1999, Max Martin, Andreas Carlsson, and Rami Yacoub resided in Key West, Florida, to write another single after NSYNC finished recording "Bye Bye Bye" (2000). Carlsson whistled the eventual melody of "It's Gonna Be Me", which caught Martin's attention and subsequently told him to include it in the track. On the weekend of July 17 to 18, 1999, the band recorded vocals for the song in Battery Studios during their break from performing on the NSYNC in Concert tour in New York. They also traveled to Stockholm, Sweden, where they recorded additional vocals in Cheiron Studios.


title: It's Gonna Be Me

text: While "It's Gonna Be Me" was written, Carlsson was inspired by Joe Jackson's "Steppin' Out" (1982) and Rupert Holmes' "Him" (1980). "Steppin' Out" influenced the bassline of the lyric, "You don't want to lose it again, but I'm not like them", while "Him" inspired the song's love triangle theme as well as the title lyric being influenced by the chorus. During recording, Martin consciously wanted the lyrics to be sung in a specific way, which was described by NSYNC member JC Chasez in an interview with "Billboard" as saying "ET'S GONNA BAY MAY!" instead of "It's gonna be ME". According to Rami, Zomba Group founder Clive Calder additionally told Justin Timberlake to over pronounce the lyric.


title: It's Gonna Be Me

text: "It's Gonna Be Me" is a pop song, with a funk and R&B influence. According to the sheet music published at Musicnotes.com by Universal Music Publishing Group, it is based on common time, with a tempo of 82 beats per minute, while composed in the key of C minor. NSYNC's vocal range spans from the low note of F to the high note of G, while the song is constructed in verse–chorus form. Timberlake performs the lead vocals on the song, elongating the word "me" with a "funkadelicized vibrato". Carlsson compared the way Timberlake sung the note to the Backstreet Boys song "It's Gotta Be You" from their 1999 album "Millennium", which the opening line "baby" was pronounced as "Bay-bay" instead of "Bay-bee". He opined that Martin's vocal style originated from his time in the Swedish band It's Alive. NSYNC altered the way each consonant and vowel was pronounced in the song in order to provide it with energy. The letter "l" was specifically emphasized on the word "lose" so that the lyric would be sung as "You don't wanna NLUUSE" instead of "You don't wanna lose".


title: It's Gonna Be Me

text: Instrumentation consisted of a whirring electronic drum, funk-sounding bass guitar, bright halting string instruments, and staccato piano notes. The crashing piano stabs were incorporated in order for the beat to sound harder, while synthesizers were used throughout the electronic-based song. Each tense verse consists of beatbox-sounding vocals, which is followed by a slow escalation into an explosive chorus containing several layered vocals. It then shifts to a five-part harmonized bridge, transitioning into the post-chorus, "all that I do, is not enough for you", before concluding with a confetti-falling climax, which follows the song's quiet-loud-quieter-louder structure. The lyrics of "It's Gonna Be Me" describes the scenario of a man attempting to persuade a woman to start a new relationship together so that she could recover from a previous breakup.


title: It's Gonna Be Me

text: Writing for "Billboard", Chuck Taylor insisted that "It's Gonna Be Me" was "a finely crafted example of why pop music continues to excel on the top 40 airwaves", stating that the members were able to utilize constructive layers of harmonization on top of an "avalanche of meaty beats". Sputnikmusic emeritus Morrissey described the song as "captivating in its menacing bent". David Browne of "Entertainment Weekly" was more critical, stating that "they stretch out words like 'babe' into 'bayyyyb', resulting in unintentional parodies of R&B singing". Anna Rahmanan of "Consequence of Sound" opined that "It's Gonna Be Me" was catchy, but contained "meaningless yet understandable lyrics" in a formulaic song. However, Jim Farber wrote in "Entertainment Weekly" that it was a "screamybop anthem" that represented the "creative bankruptcy of modern pop".


title: It's Gonna Be Me

text: In 2015, "Rolling Stone" staff ranked it as the 15th greatest boy band song of all time. They noted how "the lyric juxtaposes the hesitancy of the song's love interest with the determination of an eager-to-please beau represented by both JC Chasez and Justin Timberlake". In a retrospective side-by-side comparison between the then 15th anniversary boy band albums "No Strings Attached" and "Black & Blue", Ariana Bacle of "Entertainment Weekly" ranked "It's Gonna Be Me" as the second best song behind "The Call" (2000). She stated that it was the "NSYNC discography's real star", claiming that the "relatively simple melody and Justin’s slightly menacing vocals" resulted in "an irresistible three minutes that climaxes with a bridge highlighting the kind of overlapping harmonies that define boy bands". "It's Gonna Be Me" was ranked at number 18 on "Billboard"s The 100 Greatest Songs of 2000 list, stating that it is "the epitome of a song that endures".


title: It's Gonna Be Me

text: "It's Gonna Be Me" first appeared on the US Top 40 Tracks chart on the May 6, 2000, issue of "Billboard" at number 33, after it was distributed as a promotional record. It was then released in continental Europe on June 12, 2000. The song was eventually sent to retail stores in the US on July 11, 2000, after it debuted on the "Billboard" Hot 100 at number 42 the previous week due to early street-date violations. Consequently, this caused "It's Gonna Be Me" to reach number one on the July 29, 2000, issue, scanning 91,000 units. It was the second song released by Jive Records to reach number one since Britney Spears' "...Baby One More Time" in 1999, as they were one of the only singles to be released on CD and cassette formats.


title: It's Gonna Be Me

text: The song remained at number one on the Hot 100 for two consecutive weeks, charting from the July 29–August 5, 2000, dated issues of "Billboard". It was the only number one single released by NSYNC, despite six of their singles appearing in the top 10 of the chart. The song also reached number one on the Mainstream Top 40 after spending eight weeks on the chart, dethroning Spears' "Oops!... I Did It Again" (2000). "It's Gonna Be Me" was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on August 11, 2000, for selling 500,000 copies in the US in just a month of its retail release. In Canada, it debuted at number 18 on the "RPM" Top 100 Singles chart dated June 5, 2000. The song peaked at number one on the July 10, 2000, issue, replacing "Oops!... I Did It Again" which had then spent 11 weeks on the chart.


title: It's Gonna Be Me

text: "It's Gonna Be Me" bowed on the UK Singles Chart at number nine after charting for 12 weeks. It was certified silver by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) on September 4, 2020, for selling 200,000 equivalent sales units. On the Swedish Sverigetopplistan chart, the song peaked at number six on August 31, 2000, and remained for 10 weeks before receiving a gold certification for sales of 15,000 equivalent units. It reached the top 20 in Italy, Norway, and Scotland. In Australia, "It's Gonna Be Me" debuted at number 15 on the ARIA Singles Chart on June 25, 2000. It peaked at number 11 and charted for 12 weeks, before receiving a platinum certification by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) for shipping over 70,000 equivalent units. The song peaked at number seven on the New Zealand Singles Chart after charting for 19 weeks, where it was certified gold by Recorded Music NZ (RMNZ) for track-equivalent sales of 5,000 units in the country.


title: It's Gonna Be Me

text: The music video for "It's Gonna Be Me" was directed by Wayne Isham, and filmed from April 26 to 28, 2000, in Los Angeles Center Studios, with additional footage shot at Play Co. Toys on Soledad Canyon Road in Canyon Country, Santa Clarita, California. NSYNC decided to retain the puppet-motif used in their album "No Strings Attached" by being portrayed as dolls that fight other toys in a toy store. Isham visited Play Co. Toys, which he duplicated by creating multiple shelves on the set that formed a regular shelf. The store was chosen by a production company scouting for stores, as it provided the film crew with more freedom to rearrange and dismantle objects. He decided to bring back model Kim Smith from the "Bye Bye Bye" music video in order for both videos to flow seamlessly with each another.


title: It's Gonna Be Me

text: The music video used limited computer-generated imagery (CGI) as Isham wanted it to appear authentic. Life-sized dominoes were used, which were shot falling across the floor. Initially, Isham pitched the idea for San Francisco-based effects house company Radium to create the dolls by using CGI. However, the company declined, as they would not be able to finish by the requested deadline. Makeup artist Screaming Mad George was hired for the video, which he used prosthetic makeup to transform NSYNC into dolls in six hours. The band kept the makeup on for a 24-hour period, where 22 hours was allocated in shooting the music video. Estee Stanley was also involved with costuming as the video's stylist.


title: It's Gonna Be Me

text: NSYNC were then placed against a green screen at the suggestion of Isham, after he saw a Slim Jim advertisement. The band were filmed at 12 frames per second, on a base of 24, to ensure that they resembled dolls. Consequently, both the song and dancing members needed to perform at half speed due to mathematical problems, which was also attributed to the set scaled 7.2 times larger than the real world. During the scene when the dolls are scanned at the checkout counter and reverted to human size, several shots of each member were superimposed in front of a green screen, which was animated by Radium through the use of Inferno steadily growing each doll back up to human height. The company also assisted in creating digital effects using Inferno, such as the constant "morph zooms" used to transition between scenes. The music video debuted on MTV's "Making the Video" on May 21, 2000, and also made its first appearance on "Total Request Live" on May 23, 2000.


title: It's Gonna Be Me

text: The music video begins in a toy store, with the "Bye Bye Bye" introduction faintly playing in the background. Each NSYNC member portrays an animated plastic doll version of themselves, as they are trapped inside of a display box. They punch through the plastic sleeve on their boxes and attempt to gain the attention of a woman in the store so that they can be bought. Army men abseil down from a taller shelf, where they destroy their boxes and goad them into physically fighting. The army men remain standing and laugh at the dolls when they are purchased, giving them a mocking salute at their expense.


title: It's Gonna Be Me

text: The NSYNC dolls notice a group of female dolls and attempt to converse with them, but are rejected and trapped underneath a net thrown onto them in retaliation. The dolls are again teased when the female dolls are scanned. Joey Fatone accidentally knocks down a stack of dominoes forming the band's logo, before the NSYNC dolls frantically run atop the shelf when they notice the same woman walking past their section earlier. They quickly abseil inside the shelf and perform the song's dance choreography for her, quickly gaining her affection for them. She purchases the dolls, and upon being scanned, revert into the life-sized version of each member. The Justin Timberlake doll knocks down the remaining NSYNC dolls behind him on the shelf, as the life-sized members walk out of the toy store alongside the woman. While transitioning throughout the music video, the real-life NSYNC members perform a choreographed dance routine in a domed arena, which contains multi-colored strobe lighting effects constantly alternating the background colors.


title: It's Gonna Be Me

text: The music video for "It's Gonna Be Me" reached the top position on "Total Request Live" several times from May to September 2000, which also included the "End of Summer" special and the countdown for the 500th episode. It won Best Makeup in a Music Video at the 10th Annual Music Video Production Association (MVPA) Music Video Awards on May 16, 2001, which was attributed to makeup artists Screaming Mad George and Elan Bonglorno. In addition, it received the awards for Choice Music Video and Choice Summer Song at the 2000 Teen Choice Awards. In 2017, viewership on YouTube garnered five times as many daily views on April 30 as they did in mid-April, seven times as many searches, and 23% more views across all NSYNC music videos, in reference to how Timberlake's lyrics sound like "It's gonna be May". The music video has also consistently received the most traffic on April 30 each year. As of June 2020, it has over 118 million views on YouTube.


title: It's Gonna Be Me

text: NSYNC debuted the live performance of "It's Gonna Be Me" at the 2000 MTV Movie Awards, which was described by MTV.com as "mega-explodo". "Billboard" editor Carla Hay stated that "the tightly choreographed performance" elicited "the most enthusiastic response from the audience". They also performed an uptempo remix of the song at the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards as a medley with "This I Promise You" and "Bye Bye Bye"; the latter included a video-head breakdown with their bodies dancing in time with their heads displayed on the five big screens. Each member performed a quick costume change from the previous song "Bye Bye Bye", wearing leather outfits with few sleeves and a parachute vest. "It's Gonna Be Me" was remixed and re-choreographed with a rap introduction, and included a planned momentary pause from Joey Fatone after pausing halfway through the performance to regain his breath.


title: It's Gonna Be Me

text: NSYNC appeared on several television programs to perform "It's Gonna Be Me", such as "Good Morning America", "The Rosie O'Donnell Show", and "Top of the Pops". While the band were on a Japanese music show, Ultraman appeared onstage with them to strike a pose before they performed the song. During the Super Bowl XXXV halftime show on January 28, 2001, NSYNC performed "It's Gonna Be Me" as part of a back-and-forth medley with Aerosmith. The members wore outfits containing pyrotechnics sparking out from their hands, as Aerosmith lead singer Steven Tyler screamed the last line of the chorus. Adam Graham of "The Detroit News" wrote that the halftime performance "made a lasting impression" with its blend of teen pop, classic rock, comedy and celebrity cameos in comparison to other performances.


title: It's Gonna Be Me

text: NSYNC performed "It's Gonna Be Me" on the No Strings Attached Tour, which was praised for its production. The song was also included on PopOdyssey, where each band member rode go-karts, shot Nerf guns, and played with several over-sized toys. Five female dancers appeared on the stage littered with giant crayons, blue bouncing balls, scooters and red wagons, while Lance Bass appeared with a stuffed bear attached to him. On the Celebrity Tour, "It's Gonna Be Me" was performed with the song's full dance choreography near the beginning of each concert after "Do Your Thing" and "Bye Bye Bye".


title: It's Gonna Be Me

text: Following the release of the music video, marionettes for each member were created as a reference to their inclusion in the music videos for "Bye Bye Bye" and "It's Gonna Be Me". Each marionette was two feet high and weighs four pounds, and included a certificate signed by the corresponding member.


title: It's Gonna Be Me

text: Throughout "It's Gonna Be Me", Justin Timberlake pronounces the word "me" such that it sounds more like "May," particularly at the conclusion of the song. A Tumblr user first posted an image of Timberlake with the words "It's Gonna Be May" captioned underneath on January 29, 2012. The meme eventually caught on across the internet, which became an annually recurring joke throughout the month of April. It was acknowledged by former United States president Barack Obama, morning television show "Good Morning America", and Timberlake himself. The latter explained in an interview that Martin had him pronounce the word to sound like he was from Tennessee. To mark the song's twentieth anniversary in 2020, it was temporarily renamed "It's Gonna Be Me (It's Gonna Be May)" on digital platforms such as Spotify and Apple Music.


title: It's Gonna Be Me

text: American rock band Fall Out Boy released a third music video for their song "Irresistible" on January 5, 2016, which featured American singer Demi Lovato, and was also directed by Isham. It contained cameos from NSYNC members Chris Kirkpatrick as an assembly line worker and Fatone as a toy store employee. On the March 1, 2018, episode of "Lip Sync Battle", Puerto Rican singer Luis Fonsi performed a lip sync of "It's Gonna Be Me" while competing against Joan Smalls. He impersonated Timberlake by wearing a blonde curly wig, and performed the song's dance choreography. NSYNC's official Twitter page retweeted the performance among other memes of the song on April 30, 2019, with Christian Allaire of "Vogue" acknowledging that the band fully embraced the meme.


title: It's Gonna Be Me

text: American television series "Supergirl" played "It's Gonna Be Me" in the tenth episode of its fifth season, where critics questioned the song's appropriateness in its accompanying "bar fight" scene. American rock band All Time Low interpolated the chorus of "It's Gonna Be Me" in the song "Clumsy", which is included in their eighth studio album "Wake Up, Sunshine" (2020). Lead vocalist Alex Gaskarth acknowledged that he accidentally added the "oscillating melody" into the pre-chorus, although he intended to include a pop reference. "It's Gonna Be Me" is used in the first trailer for the computer-animated direct-to-streaming film "Turning Red" (2022), which "Gizmodo" writer Charles Pulliam-Moore opined that the song's inclusion piqued his interest in the film.


title: Rad (film)

text: Rad (international title: Hell Track) is a 1986 American sports film directed by Hal Needham from a screenplay by Sam Bernard and Geoffrey Edwards (son of "Pink Panther" creator Blake Edwards). The film stars Bill Allen, Lori Loughlin, Talia Shire, Jack Weston and Ray Walston, along with 1984 Olympic gymnastics champion Bart Conner.


title: Rad (film)

text: The film was a box office bomb, grossing $2 million against a budget of $3 million, and received mixed reviews from critics.


title: Rad (film)

text: Cru Jones is a teenage BMX racer who lives in a small town with his younger sister Wesley and their mother. Cru is faced with a tough decision: qualify for Helltrack, or take the SAT in order to attend college. Winning Helltrack means $100,000, a new Chevrolet Corvette, and fame. Cru chooses the former option, against his mother's wishes.


title: Rad (film)

text: The Helltrack race is endorsed by the city and by Duke Best, the duplicitous president of FAB (the Federation of American Bicyclists), who's also the owner of Mongoose Racing. Duke keeps adjusting the rules, in order to keep Cru out of the race, and also to ensure BMX star Bart Taylor has an easy road to victory thus providing a financial windfall for Mongoose Racing, Bart's sponsor.


title: Rad (film)

text: Numerous BMX racers show up for Helltrack. Cru meets Christian Hollings, who becomes his romantic interest. At Cru's senior prom, he and Christian perform freestyle bike stunts on the dance floor to the awe of his classmates. After being blocked from the race due to a last-minute rule-change on participant sponsorship, Cru is ready to give up Helltrack until Wesley customizes a shirt for him to wear at the event. It reads "Cru is RAD." Inspired by this, Cru and his friends use the money he won from qualifying ($10,000) to found a small T-shirt business: "Rad Racing." However, a few days before the race, Duke changes the rules yet again claiming any company sponsoring a racer must be worth at least $50,000. When the townspeople hear about this, they rally around Cru; their contributions, particularly a generous donation from wealthy Mr. Timmer, provide Rad Racing with enough money for Cru to enter Helltrack.


title: Rad (film)

text: During Helltrack, Duke bribes the Reynolds twins to take out Cru, but they fail. In the final stretch of the race, Taylor and Cru face each other; Cru ultimately wins Helltrack, while Taylor is dropped from Mongoose Racing. Now aware of Duke's true nature, the entire Mongoose team quits on him. Cru offers Taylor a spot in Rad Racing, while Duke is asked to resign from FAB.


title: Rad (film)

text: The film was partially shot in Cochrane, Alberta, Canada, as well as at Colonel Macleod Jr. High School and Bowness Park, both in Calgary, Alberta.


title: Rad (film)

text: The film received mixed reviews and under-performed commercially during its release. "The New York Times" stated "Teen-age ears may not split from the music or ache from the dialogue, but anybody over 20, beware: 'You're willing to sacrifice building a solid future for a bicycle race,' says the hero's mother. 'It's very self-destructive.' If only he had listened to mom – but who can blame him for preferring his bicycle?" On the website Rotten Tomatoes, "Rad" was given an approval rating of 42%, based on reviews from 12 critics. In 2013, "The Guardian" writer Nick Evershed found it had the largest discrepancy between critical and audience response (which at that time was 0% based on 5 reviews, versus 91%, based on 7,165 user ratings) in the Rotten Tomatoes database, from a pool of 10,000 movies analyzed.


title: Rad (film)

text: Film historian Leonard Maltin gave the movie a "BOMB" citation—the lowest possible rating in his annual "Movie Guide"—explaining, "Title is supposed to be short for "Radical"...as in, 'Radical, man!' Yeah, right...and we didn't see this same plotline used to death by 1950's hot-rod films, and also by 1970's roller-disco epics!"


title: Rad (film)

text: The film was released on VHS and LaserDisc in 1986, where the film quickly found a following and became a top-ten video rental for two years after the film's release.


title: Rad (film)

text: A 4K restoration of the film was released in a limited edition 4K UHD/Blu-ray combo pack by Utopia Distribution through the Vinegar Syndrome label in May 2020.


title: Rad (film)

text: The soundtrack was released on 12" vinyl and cassette, by Curb Records in late 1986, and featured various artists including John Farnham in his pre-"Whispering Jack" days, 3 Speed, Sparks, Hubert Kah and Real Life. On February 9, 2014, it was released for digital download at the iTunes Store. It is also available to stream on Spotify. Farnham's "Break the Ice" was featured on a special list of the best songs from '80s action film montages that appeared on music website, "No Echo".


title: Chestnut (horse anatomy)

text: The chestnut, also known as a night eye, is a callosity on the body of a horse or other equine, found on the inner side of the leg above the knee on the foreleg and, if present, below the hock on the hind leg. It is believed to be a vestigial toe, and along with the ergot form the three toes of some other extinct Equidae. Darren Naish dissents from this belief, noting that the chestnut is "not associated with the metacarpus or metatarsus, the only places where digits occur."


title: Chestnut (horse anatomy)

text: Chestnuts vary in size and shape and are sometimes compared to the fingerprints in humans. For purposes of identification some breed registries require photographs of them among other individual characteristics. However, because chestnuts grow over time and horse groomers often peel or trim off the outer layers for neatness, their appearance is subject to change.


title: Chestnut (horse anatomy)

text: The evolution of the horse involved a reduction in the number of toes to one, along with other changes to the ancestral equid foot. The chestnut is thought to correspond to the "wrist pad" of dogs and cats, or to be a vestigial scent gland similar to those found in some deer and other animals.


title: Chestnut (horse anatomy)

text: The domestic horse is almost alone among extant equines in having chestnuts on the hind legs. Chestnuts are absent from the hind legs of asses and zebras. The majority of domestic horses have chestnuts on all four legs, as does the Przewalski's horse, but a few horse breeds are reported to lack chestnuts on the hind legs. These include:


title: Chestnut (horse anatomy)

text: Chestnuts grow over time, protruding from the surface of the leg. Grooming for horse showing may include peeling or trimming the outer layers to give a neater appearance to the leg; they may peel more easily if softened first with baby oil or moisturizer. If left alone, eventually the chestnut peels naturally.


title: Seth Jones (ice hockey)

text: Jared Seth Jones (born October 3, 1994) is an American professional ice hockey defenseman and an alternate captain for the Chicago Blackhawks of the National Hockey League (NHL). He was selected fourth overall by the Nashville Predators in the 2013 NHL Entry Draft. After two seasons playing for the United States National Team Development Program, Jones joined the Western Hockey League's (WHL) Portland Winterhawks.


title: Seth Jones (ice hockey)

text: Jones has represented the United States several times internationally. He won back-to-back gold medals at the 2011 and 2012 IIHF World U18 Championships. He was a member of the 2013 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships team that won a gold medal.


title: Seth Jones (ice hockey)

text: Jones was born in Arlington, Texas, to Amy and Ronald "Popeye" Jones, when his father was a member of the National Basketball Association's (NBA) Dallas Mavericks. He is the middle of the couple's three children, all sons, with Justin being older and Caleb younger. Jones began playing hockey at the age of five when the family was living in Denver, Colorado, while his father was playing for the Nuggets. Justin wanted to play inline hockey with friends. Justin and Seth were given inline skates and in the winter received ice hockey skates. Not knowing much about ice hockey, Popeye asked Hockey Hall of Famer Joe Sakic, then playing in Denver with the Colorado Avalanche, for advice to help his sons become better players after running into him at the Pepsi Center, where both of their respective teams played. Sakic told Popeye to have his sons work on their skating, knowing they would likely have size and natural athleticism. As a result, Seth took skating classes for a year before he began playing organized hockey at age six. He was in attendance for Game 7 when the Avalanche won the Stanley Cup in 2001.


title: Seth Jones (ice hockey)

text: Jones began playing organized ice hockey with local teams in Denver and playing with travel teams when he was eight years old. He played in the 2005, 2006 and 2007 Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournaments with three different minor ice hockey teams from Colorado. He and his family moved back to Texas when Jones was 12. At the same time he decided he wanted to play for the United States National Team Development Program (NTDP). He played for the Dallas Stars Bantam Major team, scoring 33 points in 31 games. In the 2009 Bantam draft the Everett Silvertips selected Jones eleventh overall. He was projected to be a higher pick in the draft, but concerns that he would choose to play college hockey over the Western Hockey League (WHL) caused him to be selected lower. After being drafted Jones played another season in Dallas, with the Stars U-18 team before joining the NTDP.


title: Seth Jones (ice hockey)

text: In his first season with the NTDP Jones spent time with both the under 17 and under 18 teams. He served as co-captain of the U-17 team. Jones registered 21 points in 37 games of the NTDP season, which included league play in the United States Hockey League (USHL), plus international play and games against division II and III National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) teams. His 21 points led the team in defense scoring. He continued to serve as co-captain the following season, but slipped to second on the team in defense scoring registering 31 points in 52 total games. After his second season Jones needed to choose whether to play his draft year in the NCAA or with the Silvertips in the WHL. Jones decided that Everett was not a good fit for him and was expected to attend the University of North Dakota. After being informed that Jones would not play for them the Silvertips traded the rights to talk to Jones to the Portland Winterhawks for a conditional bantam draft pick, but retained his rights. Two weeks later, Portland signed Jones and traded two signed players and the rights for two more players to officially complete the trade for acquiring his rights. While playing for Portland, Jones was projected to be a top selection in the 2013 National Hockey League (NHL) Entry Draft. At the season's mid-way point the NHL Central Scouting ranked Jones as the number one prospect among North American Skaters and the International Scouting Services listed him first overall.


title: Seth Jones (ice hockey)

text: Jones finished the season with 14 goals and 56 points in 61 games. In the playoffs Portland won the Ed Chynoweth Cup as champions of the WHL. In the Memorial Cup tournament the Winterhawks advanced to the final, where they faced the Halifax Mooseheads. In the final Jones scored a goal in a 6–4 loss, draft rivals Nathan MacKinnon and Jonathan Drouin each recorded 5 points for Halifax. Jones finished the playoffs with 5 goals and 15 points in 21 games. He was named to the First All-Star Team of the Western Conference and won the Jim Piggott Memorial Trophy as WHL rookie of the year.


title: Seth Jones (ice hockey)

text: Heading into the draft Jones was again named the number one overall prospect. Despite the ranking, the Avalanche, who held the top pick, announced that they would not select Jones and used it to draft Halifax Mooseheads forward Nathan MacKinnon. At the draft Jones slid to the fourth overall pick where he was selected by the Nashville Predators. A month later the Predators of the NHL signed Jones to a three-year entry-level contract.


title: Seth Jones (ice hockey)

text: Jones made his National Hockey League debut with the Nashville Predators on October 3, 2013, against the St. Louis Blues. Jones scored his first NHL goal on October 12, 2013 against Evgeni Nabokov of the New York Islanders.


title: Seth Jones (ice hockey)

text: During the last year of his entry-level contract in the 2015–16 season, on January 6, 2016, Jones was traded by the Predators to the Columbus Blue Jackets in exchange for center Ryan Johansen. At the time of the trade, he had scored 63 points in 199 NHL games.


title: Seth Jones (ice hockey)

text: On June 29, 2016, as an impending restricted free agent, Jones agreed to a long-term extension, signing a six-year, $32.4 million contract to remain with the Blue Jackets.


title: Seth Jones (ice hockey)

text: During the 2016–17 season, Jones was placed on injured reserve due to a hairline fracture in his right foot. Prior to the injury, he led the Blue Jackets in ice time. Jones was activated off injured reserve after missing six games, and ended the season with career highs in assists, goals, and points.


title: Seth Jones (ice hockey)

text: During the 2017–18 season, Jones developed into one of the Blue Jackets top defenseman, playing an average of 24:36 minutes per game. As a result of his hard work, Jones was selected to represent the Metropolitan Division at the 2018 NHL All-Star Game. However, he could not make it due to illness and fellow Blue Jackets defenseman Zach Werenski replaced him. At the conclusion of the season, Jones tied with Werenski for most goals in franchise history by a defenseman in a season, with 16. Prior to the 2018–19 season, Jones suffered a second-degree MCL sprain during a preseason game against the Buffalo Sabres, causing him to miss the first 7 games.


title: Seth Jones (ice hockey)

text: In February 2020, Jones was placed on long-term injured reserve after undergoing ankle surgery. However, he was able to return when the season resumed for the postseason, being activated off injured reserve on June 18, 2020 and deemed eligible to play in the Stanley Cup playoffs. During Game 1 of the team's first-round match-up against the Tampa Bay Lightning, Jones skated an NHL-record 65:06 during a 3-2 quintuple overtime loss.


title: Seth Jones (ice hockey)

text: On July 23, 2021, Jones, along with Tampa Bay's first-round pick in the 2021 NHL Entry Draft and a sixth-round pick, was traded to the Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for Adam Boqvist, Chicago's first-round pick in 2021, Chicago's second-round pick in the 2021 Draft, and the Blackhawks' first-round pick in either 2022 or 2023.


title: Seth Jones (ice hockey)

text: Jones first represented the United States at the 2010 Under-17 (U-17) Four Nations Cup. In the tournament Jones scored a goal and registered four points, helping Team USA to a first-place finish. He next represented USA in the 2011 World U-17 Hockey Challenge. Team USA finished the preliminary round undefeated winning all four of their games. In their semi-final game Team USA defeated Canada's Pacific team 6–5 in overtime to advance to the gold medal game. In the Championship game Team USA was defeated 5–3, finishing the tournament as the silver medal winners. In the loss Jones was named the player of the game for the United States. Jones finished the tournament scoring a goal and two points. He was named to the tournament all-star team. Later in the year Jones joined Team USA for the 2011 IIHF World U18 Championships. The United States went undefeated in the preliminary round and the semi-final advancing the gold medal game. In the championship game Team USA faced a two-goal deficit in the third period. The Americans came back eventually tying the game with 1:29 remaining to force overtime. USA scored four minutes into overtime to win the gold medal. Jones finished the tournament with three assists in six games.


title: Seth Jones (ice hockey)

text: As a 17-year-old Jones was selected to play on the United States 2012 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships team, but was unable to play due to an injury. He returned to international competition at the 2012 IIHF World U18 Championships, where he captained Team USA. The American team was again undefeated in the tournament allowing only four total goals in their six games of the completion. It was the United States fourth straight gold medal at the Under 18 tournament. Jones finished with 3 goals and 8 points in the 6 games, he was twice named player of the game for Team USA, and was selected by the coaches as one of the team's top three players.


title: Seth Jones (ice hockey)

text: For the 2013 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships Jones was named one of Team USA's alternate captains. In a pre-tournament interview Jones stated that he felt the Americans were the best team, despite Canada being heavily favored. Team USA started the tournament with a win, but lost consecutive games to Russia and Canada. With a 1–2 record Team USA needed a win against Slovakia to avoid being send to the relegation round. The Americans won the game 9–3 and advanced to the medal round. In the playoff round USA defeated the Czech Republic and the Canadians to earn a spot in the gold medal game. In the championship game Jones had a bouncing puck go through his legs which helped Sweden take a 1–0 lead in the second period. Team USA rallied to win the game 3–1. Offensively Jones registered seven points in seven games and finished seventeenth in tournament scoring. He finished third overall in plus-minus with a +8 rating.


title: Seth Jones (ice hockey)

text: Jones' father is former National Basketball Association (NBA) power forward and current Denver Nuggets assistant coach Ronald "Popeye" Jones. He has two brothers. His younger brother, Caleb, also plays for the Chicago Blackhawks.


title: Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle

text: The Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle (EFV) (formerly known as the Advanced Amphibious Assault Vehicle (AAAV)) was an amphibious assault vehicle developed by General Dynamics during the 1990s and 2000s for use by the U.S. Marine Corps. It would have been launched at sea, from an amphibious assault ship beyond the horizon, able to transport a full Marine rifle squad to shore. It would maneuver cross country with an agility and mobility equal to or greater than the M1 Abrams.


title: Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle

text: The EFV was designed to replace the aging AAV-7A1 Assault Amphibious Vehicle (AAV), which entered service in 1972, and was the Marine Corps' number one priority ground weapon system acquisition. It was to have had three times the speed in water and about twice the armor of the AAV, as well as superior firepower. The vehicle was to be deployed in 2015; however, on 6 January 2011, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates recommended the EFV program be canceled. The program, which was projected to cost $15 billion, had already cost $3 billion.


title: Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle

text: The Marines asked for the EFV to be canceled in favor of the Assault Amphibian Vehicle Service Life Extension Program and the Marine Personnel Carrier, which itself became phase one of the Amphibious Combat Vehicle.


title: Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle

text: In the 1980s, the US Marine Corps developed an "over the horizon" strategy for ocean-based assaults. The intention was to protect naval ships from enemy mines and shore defenses. It included the MV-22 Osprey, the Landing Craft Air Cushion (LCAC), and the EFV.


title: Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle

text: Development for the AAAV began in August 1974 with Landing Vehicle Assault (LVA) prototypes that continued in the early 1980s at the command at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton. The AAAV's predecessor, the LVTP-7, had its life expectancy extended in 1983–84 by use of a service life extension program, which modified and upgraded many of the key systems, creating the LVTP7A1 and re-designated it the AAVP7A1. At the time these vehicles were released, the USMC had anticipated and communicated delivery of the AAAV by 1993. As a result of delays, the AAVP7A1 received another service life extension-type upgrade in the mid 1990s while the USMC still awaited final development and delivery of the AAAV, 14 years behind original projected time frames.


title: Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle

text: In 1988, defense officials authorized the concept exploration and definition phase. In 1995, the program entered into the definition and risk reduction phase, where it won two Department of Defense awards for successful cost and technology management. In June 1996, a contract was awarded to General Dynamics Land Systems to begin full-scale engineering development of their design. Based on the early success of the program, the Marine Corps awarded a cost-plus contract to General Dynamics in July 2001 for the systems development and demonstration phase of the program, expected to be completed by October 2003. The AAAV was renamed to EFV in September 2003. The Government Accountability Office would later state that the development phase of three years was insufficient, causing delays and prototype failures, particularly in reliability. After the 2006 Operational Assessment was plagued by reliability issues and maintenance burdens, the Corps began a redesign of the EFV, requiring a new contract for an additional in February 2007. That June, a reset of the development phase delayed completion by an additional four years. Instead of initiating production as planned, the corps asked for seven new prototypes, to address the current deficiencies, which have caused an average of one failure for every four and a half hours of operation.


title: Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle

text: On 7 April 2009, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that the EFV program will "continue as-is", pending an amphibious review in the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review. The vehicle was called "exquisite", which Gates usually reserved for programs he intended to cancel. He later questioned the EFV as the proper ship-to-shore platform on 3 May 2010, the day before the initial prototype was rolled out at a ceremony at Marine Corps Base Quantico.


title: Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle

text: The USMC had reduced the number to be purchased from 1,013 to 573 AAAVs by 2015 due to escalation in unit cost estimated at $22.3 million in 2007. The EFV might be a baseline vehicle for the US Army's BCT Ground Combat Vehicle Program, however it is more likely that the army will start a new program.


title: Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle

text: Low rate initial production (LRIP) was projected to begin in January 2012. Projected total program development cost of the type until first quarter of 2010 was estimated at 15.9 billion dollars.


title: Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle

text: Robert O. Work, while Undersecretary of the Navy sketched out a future for amphibious warfare in which either the Marines will land unopposed or it will take a major effort using all the long range weapons of the United States armed forces to clear out ship-killing missiles, so that amphibious ships can safely approach the hostile beach and neither scenario sees much use for the EFV. New families of guided anti-ship weapons have extended target ranges of well past making the EFV's capabilities less of a game-changer than for which originally hoped.


title: Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle

text: In a joint report, the U.S. Public Interest Research Group and the National Taxpayers Union called the EFV program wasteful spending and asked for its cancellation along with the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and the V-22 Osprey aircraft. The co-chairs of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform have also supported the cancellation of the EFV. During a Pentagon briefing, on 6 January 2011, revealing budget efficiencies and reinvestment possibilities, Secretary of Defense Gates announced his intention to cancel the EFV program. In a statement released after Gates' press conference, Commandant of the Marine Corps General Amos said that he supported the cancellation of the EFV:


title: Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle

text: Loren B. Thompson, of the Lexington Institute, said that Amos had been ordered to give this statement, which did not reflect his actual feelings on the issue.


title: Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle

text: In an interview on 5 January 2011 with Bloomberg Businessweek, Duncan D. Hunter, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, anticipated the cancellation announcement by Gates. However, Hunter has predicted that his committee will reject the cancellation.


title: Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle

text: According to Lieutenant General George J. Flynn of the Marine Corps Combat Development Command, the USMC will use funding from the cancelled EFV for other tactical ground vehicles over the next five years. The EFV program was cut from a 2012 proposed budget by the White House.


title: Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle

text: General Dynamics is offering a cut down version of the EFV without the hydroplaning or weapons. Ray Mabus has said that new defensive systems will allow navy ships to close to within off hostile shores so a amphibious tracked vehicle is no longer needed.


title: Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle

text: Deputy Commandant George Flynn has said that the analysis of alternatives to replace the EFV will be accelerated to complete in six to nine months. In the 2012 appropriations bill, Congress ordered that the EFV be one of the alternatives considered in the study.


title: Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle

text: The EFV, designed by General Dynamics Land Systems, was an amphibious armored tracked vehicle with an aluminum hull. The engine is a custom MTU Friedrichshafen diesel (MT883) with two modes of operation; a high power mode for planing over the sea, and a low power mode for land travel. It has a crew of three and can transport 17 marines and their equipment. The EFV would have been the first heavy tactical vehicle with a space frame structure.


title: Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle

text: The hull had a hydraulically actuated bow flap to aid planing with a maximum waterborne speed of . Shrouded Honeywell waterjet propulsors are integrated into each side of the hull, which create over of thrust. It was also outfitted with hydraulically actuated chines to cover the tracks while in seafaring mode.


title: Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle

text: The vehicle uses an Ethernet network connected by the Tactical Switch Router, based on the COTS DuraMAR Mobile IP router for its internal and external communications.


title: Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle

text: The electrically powered two-man MK46 turret on the personnel variant accommodated the commander on the right and gunner on the left, a fire control system, and the main and coaxial weapons.


title: Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle

text: The standard version was to have had a Mk44 Bushmaster II 30 mm cannon, which fired up to 250 rounds per minute with single, burst, and fully automatic capabilities up to in all weather conditions. A general purpose M240 7.62 mm machine gun with 600 rounds of ready-to-use ammunition was to be mounted coaxially with the main gun.


title: Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle

text: The EFV was fitted with composite armor, mine-blast protection, and a nuclear, biological and chemical defense system. Although aluminum hulls have been used for decades in military ground vehicles and watercraft, they have caused some concern due to protection issues.


title: Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle

text: In June 2007 members of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Seapower and Expeditionary Forces sent a letter to the Commandant of the Marine Corps urging that the EFV be redesigned to give troops better protection against roadside bombs. The Marines suggested that underbelly armor appliqué could be applied after the EFVs come ashore and before they encounter IEDs. The limited protection the EFV offers is an improvement on that offered by the AAV so the replacement is an advantage, given the current doctrine of using landing craft for land patrols.


title: Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle

text: However, tests in January and February 2010 at Aberdeen Test Center demonstrated that the EFV offers blast protection equal to a category-2 Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle, including two simulated improvised explosive devices under its belly and tracks. Tests also show that it has superior protection from direct and indirect fire. The flat hull, which has endured persistent criticism for not being the more blast-resistant V-shape, was necessary for the EFV to plane across the surface of the water and reach its high speed, while dealing with sea states of Category 4.


title: Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle

text: On 13 October 2010 the navy awarded M Cubed Technologies a contract to develop new armor for the EFV to offer better protection and lighter weight.


title: Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle

text: Given the increasing ranges of shore launched anti-ship missiles, the EFV's range for amphibious landing may no longer provide the anticipated protection predicted for an over the horizon launch. The U.S. Navy began reconsidering the over the horizon approach, and is considering appropriate for amphibious launches. This shift in doctrine has made the EFV's high water speeds unnecessary. The EFV's need for high water speed has resulted in an engine that is more powerful than the M1 Abrams, even though the EFV weighs far less.


title: Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle

text: The EFVP1 with a three-man crew would have conducted the signature mission of the United States Marine Corps, expeditionary maneuver warfare from seabases by initiating amphibious operations from over-the-horizon and transporting 17 combat-equipped Marines to inland objectives. The fully armored, tracked combat vehicle would have provided firepower to disembarked or mechanized infantry with its own fully stabilized MK46 weapon station with the 30 mm cannon and 7.62mm machine-gun.


title: Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle

text: The EFVC1 was to have provided the same survival and mobility capabilities found in the EFVP1. The EFVC1 would have been employed as a tactical command post for maneuver unit commanders at the battalion and regimental level. The EFVC1 would have provided the supported commander and selected staff with the ability to communicate, via on-board communications, with senior, adjacent, and subordinate maneuver units. The EFVC1 was to be armed with only a 7.62mm machine gun.


title: Fast draw

text: Fast draw, also known as quick draw, is the ability to quickly draw a handgun and accurately fire it upon a target in the process. This skill was made popular by romanticized depictions of gunslingers in the Western genre, which in turn were inspired by famous historical gunfights in the American Old West.


title: Fast draw

text: In modern times, fast draw can be seen both in sports and in military practices. The World Fast Draw Association (WFDA) is the international sanctioning body of the sport of fast draw. Unlike cowboy action shooting, fast draw is shot with special blanks or wax bullets. While some competitions are strictly against the clock, with the fastest time winning, many are set up as head-to-head single- or double-elimination matches.


title: Fast draw

text: The object of fast draw as a combative sport is to quickly draw one's pistol and fire with the most accuracy. The sport has been inspired by accounts of duels and gunfights which incorporated it during the Wild West, such as the Hickok–Tutt shootout, Short–Courtright duel, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, Long Branch Saloon gunfight and others, which in turn inspired the gunfights seen in Hollywood western movies. Gunfighters Jim Leavy and Tom Carberry became infamous for participating in at least two quick draw duels in their lifetimes. In the case of Jonathan R. Davis, the quick draw is also necessary for a gunman to fight back if he is ambushed. Though many gunfighters were remembered to be dangerous with a pistol during the American frontier, only a few known historical individuals have been noted by historians as "fast", such as Wild Bill Hickok, Doc Holliday, John Wesley Hardin, Luke Short, Tom Horn and Billy the Kid.


title: Fast draw

text: Although unlike the depiction seen in westerns, fast draw duels at that time were performed with the traditional dueling stance. Typically, historical Western duels were a crude form of the "Southern code duello," a highly formalized means of solving disputes between gentlemen with swords or guns that had its origins in European chivalry. During the Old West, the term "fast on the draw" or "quick on the draw" did not necessarily mean a person is swift on drawing a pistol, it actually meant that a person is aggressive and would draw his weapon at even the slightest provocation.


title: Fast draw

text: While the ability to draw a firearm quickly was a popular skill during the American frontier, modern fast draw is inspired more by gun duels in western films than historical gunfights. Most gunfights that occurred in the Old West were more spontaneous due to either alcohol consumption or heated squabbles. Duels, while also fought to uphold honor, were usually not formalized and sometimes were due to the heat of the moment. In these circumstances, the one who can draw, fire and hit his opponent first was usually the winner, but accuracy and calmness were also, and sometimes more, favored by actual gunmen in the era.


title: Fast draw

text: In western movies, the characters' gun belts are often worn low on the hip and outer thigh, with the holster cut away around the pistol's trigger and grip for a smooth, fast draw. This type of holster is a Hollywood anachronism. Fast-draw artists can be distinguished from other movie cowboys because their guns will often be tied to their thigh. Long before holsters were steel-lined, they were soft and supple for comfortable all-day wear. A gunfighter would use tie-downs to keep his pistol from catching on the holster while drawing. Most of the time, gunfighters would just hide their pistols in their pockets, which was faster and more practical. Other gunfighters would use Bridgeport rigs that gave a faster and easier draw.


title: Fast draw

text: Fast draw is one of the fastest sports in the world. Every time is measured under one second, from the signal to draw to when the timer is stopped. The current World Fast Draw Association (WFDA) record for Open Class Fast Draw in an event called Standing Balloons is .208 seconds - and that includes the time it takes to react, draw, fire and pop a balloon target at eight feet away. A world class competitor can draw and fire a shot in under half a second. Given that the average human reaction time is around 0.2 to 0.25 seconds, the round is over before most people can react. The reaction times of the best fast draw shooters is 0.145 seconds, which means that the gun is cocked, drawn, aimed (from the hip), and fired in just over 0.06 seconds. To establish a World Fast Draw Association record, a second shot must be fired in the same competition that is no more than 0.30 seconds slower than the first; this is intended to prevent a shot that anticipates the start signal from setting a record. In competitions where two rounds must be fired, at separate targets, less than 0.10 seconds separate the shots.


title: Fast draw

text: In Open Class, or "traditional" fast draw competition, shooters must start with the gun holstered, and their hands not touching the gun, as opposed to the newer sport of Cowboy Fast Draw, where the competitors start with their hand on the gun. A signal, usually both audible and visible, signals the shooter to fire. A timer is started when the signal is given. The shooter fires at either a metal plate (for wax bullets) or a balloon (for blanks). The timer is rigged to stop on the sound of the wax bullet hitting the plate, or the balloon popping. Different types of matches use one or more targets, and the shooter can fire from a standing position, or while walking towards or backing away from the target(s).


title: Fast draw

text: The exhibition shooter Bob Munden (1942-2012), proclaimed by the Guinness Book of World Records as “the fastest man with a gun who ever lived", could draw, fire, break a balloon target with a blank using a standard weight single-action revolver and return his gun to his holster faster than the blink of an eye. On his DVD "Outrageous Shooting," Munden was filmed shooting .16 of a second in an event called Walk and Draw Level.


title: Fast draw

text: Fast draw and quick draw can also be seen in real-life combat situations. It is an important skill that is still being taught and crafted in the military and the police. Draw speed is essential in a deadly force situation and soldiers are trained to be able to draw their sidearm and fire with speed and accuracy.


title: Fast draw

text: In June 2011, a soldier named Sgt. Brent McBride played a game of quick draw with his fellow soldier and roommate, Sgt. Matthew Gallagher. The incident happened in their small trailer-like room in Al Kut, Iraq. During the game, McBride drew his pistol and shot Gallagher in the head at close range. Sgt. Brent McBride pleaded guilty at a Fort Hood, Texas, court martial in March 2012 to involuntary manslaughter.