query: How fast to bullet trains travel?

title: Shinkansen

text: Starting with the Tōkaidō Shinkansen (515.4km, 320.3mi) in 1964,[3] the network has expanded to currently consist of 2,764.6km (1,717.8mi) of lines with maximum speeds of 240–320km/h (150–200mph), 283.5km (176.2mi) of Mini-Shinkansen lines with a maximum speed of 130km/h (80mph), and 10.3km (6.4mi) of spur lines with Shinkansen services.[4] The network presently links most major cities on the islands of Honshu and Kyushu, and Hakodate on northern island of Hokkaido, with an extension to Sapporo under construction and scheduled to commence in March 2031.[5] The maximum operating speed is 320km/h (200mph) (on a 387.5km section of the Tōhoku Shinkansen).[6] Test runs have reached 443km/h (275mph) for conventional rail in 1996, and up to a world record 603km/h (375mph) for SCMaglev trains in April 2015.[7]

title: Jaguar!

text: The train is propelled by drive tires because of the short distance of the two lifts. These tires vary in tread pattern. The main tread pattern is recycled rubber diamond cut. Some tires appear to not be spinning, but rather are speed monitors, which track how fast the train is being propelled, and depending on how fast the train is going, tells the other motors how fast to spin. If the train is going too fast, a fault will occur and the train will stop at the next possible stopping point. Each lift is 65 feet high; the first lift is a 20 degree incline, while the second lift is a 25 degree incline.

title: Albula Railway

text: Between Chur and St Moritz, there are fast trains every day at regular hourly intervals. These trains have been officially known as services since December 2004. For the section Thusis - St Moritz, the fast trains require 1 hour 34 minutes, and therefore travel at an average speed of . Only the so-called fast train stations are served by these trains. At the other stations, trains have no longer stopped since the 1990s. In Surava and Alvaneu, only some trains still stop, and only then in off peak times. In the high summer season, there are also special tourist oriented express trains with , for which reservations and supplements are required. These trains are the Glacier Express from Zermatt to St Moritz, and the Bernina Express from Chur via Samedan and Pontresina to Tirano.

title: TGV

text: The TGV opened to the public between Paris and Lyon on 27 September 1981. Contrary to its earlier fast services, SNCF intended TGV service for all types of passengers, with the same initial ticket price as trains on the parallel conventional line. To counteract the popular misconception that the TGV would be a premium service for business travellers, SNCF started a major publicity campaign focusing on the speed, frequency, reservation policy, normal price, and broad accessibility of the service. This commitment to a democratised TGV service was enhanced in the Mitterrand era with the promotional slogan "Progress means nothing unless it is shared by all". The TGV was considerably faster (in terms of door to door travel time) than normal trains, cars, or aeroplanes. The trains became widely popular, the public welcoming fast and practical travel.

title: Ninoy Aquino International Airport bullet planting scandal

text: A Japanese TV show satirically re-enacted the scandal, showing the theory of how the NAIA personnel may have supposedly planted bullets in travelers' bags. The host explained that the personnel would plant the bullets in the travelers' bags at airport security. Upon finding the bullets through the baggage x-ray machine, the personnel would open the bag to retrieve the bullets and offer the victim a fine to skip questioning and detention. It then showed footage of bags being wrapped in plastic.

title: Fast Bullets

text: Fast Bullets is a 1936 American western film directed by Harry S. Webb and starring  Tom Tyler, Rex Lease and Margaret Nearing.

title: Darwin 4078

text: There are two broad categories that define how enemies attack. The first type only shoots in the forward direction at a constant speed, but the second type shoots bullets that travel at different speeds depending on its distance with the player's ship (the bullets travel quicker if the player is farther away, and slower if the player is close by). This made it so that staying away from enemies would not necessarily make it easier to avoid attacks. The game's difficulty also does not change over time, and enemies do not become stronger as the player's ship evolves. This style was continued in the game's sequel.

title: Highsider

text: If the wheels are not aligned in the direction of travel when traction is suddenly restored and the rear tire stops slipping, then a highside is likely, depending on how much the bike is turned across the direction of travel and how fast the bike is traveling when the rear tire stops slipping. If the angle is high enough, the bike is moving fast enough, and the rear tire slips and regains traction suddenly enough, the rider has no chance of preventing a highside.

title: Blank (cartridge)

text: Some forms of fast draw competitions use special blanks that are loaded with a layer of slow burning rifle powder on top of a thin layer of faster-burning pistol powder. The pistol powder ignites the slower burning rifle powder, and fires it out the barrel much like a shotgun shell. The burning powder only travels a few yards before it completely combusts, but that is far enough to burst the balloon used as a target for those competitions. Wax bullets are also commonly used for competitions and training where a non-lethal projectile is required.

title: Time Pilot

text: In 2001, the action shifts to outer space, where the enemies are flying saucers. These saucers fire fast-travelling circular bullets that blend in with the background. The asteroids on screen will not hurt the player but will serve to camouflage the enemies and their missiles. The saucers' bullets and missiles can all be shot and destroyed.

title: Signaling of the New York City Subway

text: Another addition to the system's transit signals are "Wheel Detectors". These are sensors that can determine how fast a train is moving based on how quickly the axles of a given car are moving. First introduced in 1996 at interlockings, they further enforce the speed at which a train is traveling through an interlocking, and they are only active when a switch is set to the divergent route. Wheel detectors prevent train operators from running slowly at the beginning of a grade timing segment and then increasing the speed beyond the allowable limit without being tripped. When the indication is flashing, the train is too fast and is about to be tripped.

title: TGV track construction

text: The LGV opened to the public between Paris and Lyon on 27 September 1981. Contrary to its earlier fast services, SNCF intended TGV service for all types of passengers, with the same initial ticket price as trains on the parallel conventional line. To counteract the popular misconception that the TGV would be a premium service for business travellers, SNCF started a major publicity campaign focusing on the speed, frequency, reservation policy, normal price, and broad accessibility of the service. This commitment to a democratised TGV service was enhanced in the Mitterrand era with the promotional slogan "Progress means nothing unless it is shared by all". The TGV was considerably faster (in terms of door to door travel time) than normal trains, cars, or aeroplanes. The trains became widely popular, the public welcoming fast and practical travel.

title: The Art of the Rifle

text: A bullet in flight is in projectile motion, meaning no other forces are acting on it except the acceleration due to gravity (and sometimes wind). When a bullet leaves the muzzle, it not only travels forward, but also begins to fall due to the influence of gravity. The downward acceleration is constant and does not depend on how fast the bullet leaves the muzzle. Therefore, in order for a shooter to aim at a distant target and then hit it, the actual trajectory, or path that the bullet follows is a curve, not a straight line. That is, the bullet is shot at a slightly upward angle, and the goal of sighting in the rifle is to match the vertical position of the bullet on the downward part of its trajectory with the target.

title: Bullet (interurban)

text: The Bullet was a forerunner of today's high-speed trains, of which the first were inaugurated later in the 1930s. Among other trains, the Japanese Odakyū 3000 series SE Romancecar was inspired by the sleek and streamlined Bullets. In 1957, the Romancecar set a speed record for narrow-gauge trains of 145 km/h (90,1 mph). The Bullets are called "ancestors of the TGV, Eurostar, AVE, ICE, Shinkansen, and the Acela Express" (in English, the first Shinkansens were named Bullet Trains) and they are also strikingly similar to Germany's Fliegender Hamburger.. The Bullets' maximum speed was , though one reached 100 mph (160 km/h) while testing extended-wheelbase trucks.

title: Meplat

text: Meplat (from the French word ""méplat"" meaning "flat") is the technical term for the flat or open tip on the nose of a bullet. The shape of the meplat is important in determining how the bullet moves through the air. In particular the size and shape of the meplat has a significant effect on the ballistic coefficient of a bullet. If the meplats on a group of bullets are uneven, the trajectory of the bullets will vary which will cause the bullets to strike the target at different vertical locations. Bullets of the same weight which have similar-shaped meplats will travel through the air in nearly identical fashion, making it easier to group shots together or hit a target multiple times. For this reason, competitive shooters and snipers often trim or point their meplats to uniform shape.

title: Three wise monkeys

text: It is not clear how or when the saying travelled; in Ethiopia the Ge'ez language has the saying "Let the eye fast, let the mouth fast, let the ears fast."

title: 2018 Japan floods

text: By 7 July no bullet trains were running west of Shin-Osaka Station and the West Japan Railway Company officials were uncertain when the trains would be running again. The widespread cancellation of trains stranded numerous travelers; some bullet trains were utilized as temporary hotels. Some automakers (Mitsubishi Motors & Mazda Motor) halted production as the rain and flooding disrupted the companies' supply chains and risked the safety of workers. Other companies such as Daihatsu and Panasonic suspended operations at plants until debris was cleared and the water receded from the factories. The Asahi Aluminium Industrial Company plant in Okayama exploded on July 6, after workers had evacuated during the flooding.

title: Passenger rail transport in China

text:
After April 18, 2004, N-series trains, which represent fast trains travelling exclusively within one railway bureau, were derived from K-series. Then all K-series trains travel on lines operated by more than one railway bureau. After April 1, 2009, N-series was re-merged to K-series after April 1, 2009.
"General fast trains" (, which can be shortened to , "") are slower passenger trains that stop at around half of the stations along the way, resulting in a longer travel time than the fast trains. The top speed is 120 km/h. Route numbers are always four numeric digits—a numeric prefix from 1-5 followed by a 3-digit route number. Numbers 1001–1998 for the trains running through three or more railway bureaus, 2001–3998 for the trains running through two railway bureaus, and 4001–5998 for the trains that run in only one railway bureau.

title: Velocity

text: Speed describes only how fast an object is moving, whereas velocity gives both how fast it is and in which direction the object is moving.[1] If a car is said to travel at 60km/h, its speed has been specified. However, if the car is said to move at 60km/h to the north, its velocity has now been specified.

title: Bullet Train for Australia

text: Bullet Train for Australia was an Australian political party, registered from 2013 to 2017. It was a single-issue party campaigning for a fast implementation of high-speed rail. It advocates that the first stage of the bullet train should run from Melbourne to Newcastle via Canberra and Sydney, and be built within 5 years.

title: Rail transport in India

text: For long-distance travel, reservation of a berth can be made up to 120 days before departure. Details such as the name, age and concession (if eligible) are required and are recorded on the ticket. The ticket price usually includes the base fare, which depends on the classification of the train (example: super-fast surcharge if the train is classified as a super-fast), the class in which one wishes to travel and the reservation charge for overnight journeys.

title: Caltrain

text: In June 2004, Caltrain finished its two-year CTX (Caltrain Express) project for a new express service called the Baby Bullet. The project entailed new bypass tracks in Brisbane and Sunnyvale as well as a new centralized traffic control system. The Baby Bullet trains reduced travel time by stopping at only four or five stations between San Francisco and San Jose Diridon Station; the express trains could overtake local trains at the two locations (near Bayshore and Lawrence stations) where bypass tracks were added. Travel time for about 46.75 miles between San Francisco and San Jose is 57 minutes (four stops), 59 minutes (five stops) or 61 minutes (six stops), compared to 1 hour 30 minutes for local trains. The Baby Bullets have the same top speed of as other trains, but fewer stops save time. The CTX project included the purchase of new Bombardier BiLevel Coaches along with MPI MP36PH-3C locomotives. The Baby Bullets have proved popular, but many riders now have longer commute on non-bullet trains, some of which wait for Baby Bullet trains to pass.

title: Powerhead (firearm)

text: Bullets are generally designed to work in air, which has a very low density. The density of water is roughly 800 times higher than that of air at sea level, and that reduces the penetration of a bullet proportionally. A bullet might travel a mile (1.6 km) in air, but travel no more than a few feet (about a meter) in water. Expanding hunting or defensive ammunition, such as that using hollow point bullets, will penetrate even less, as the water is dense enough to cause the bullet to expand. By firing while in contact with the target, a powerhead does not waste energy on traveling through the water, but rather expends all its energy directly on the target.

title: Dangun Feveron

text: "Dangun Feveron" offers a wide degree of customization in gameplay. Player is prompted to select how fast they want the ship to move, choose one of three rapid-fire weapons, and one of three sustained-fire weapons. This allows the player to tailor the ship to individual needs, be it a fast-flying speeder with a widespread shot to quickly handle enemy squadrons, or a ship with lower speed to dodge bullets carefully, and concentrated firepower to destroy single foes faster.

title: Anzio 20mm rifle

text: The Anzio 20/50 has approximately of kinetic energy with an bullet. It does this by effectively taking the .50 BMG projectile, which already is relatively large and travels extremely fast, and effectively increases the already supersonic bullet to over 1.3 times its normal flight velocity, creating more kinetic energy without the need for a larger and heavier projectile. Though its kinetic energy is significantly lower than the 20mm round, it is almost as effective due to its smaller surface area, meaning that it has less material to punch through, making it easier to penetrate, but the lighter bullet makes transferring energy over longer distances and into targets less efficient.

title: Hollow-point bullet

text: Terminal ballistics testing of hollow point bullets is generally performed in ballistic gelatin, or some other medium intended to simulate tissue and cause a hollow point bullet to expand. Test results are generally given in terms of expanded diameter, penetration depth, and weight retention. Expanded diameter is an indication of the size of the wound cavity, penetration depth shows if vital organs could be reached by the bullet, and weight retention indicates how much of the bullet mass fragmented and separated from the main body of the bullet. How these factors are interpreted depends on the intended use of the bullet, and there are no universally agreed-upon ideal metrics.

title: Mulund railway station

text: Mulund has four Railway platforms, platform numbers 1 and 2 are reserved for slow trains and platform numbers 3 and 4 for fast trains. Platforms 1 and 3 are for trains travelling towards Thane and beyond, whereas platforms 2 and 4 are for trains travelling towards Dadar, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus.

title: Bullet Galaxy

text: The Bullet Galaxy (RXC J2359.3-6042 CC) is a galaxy in the galaxy cluster RXC J2359.3-6042 (Abell 4067 or ACO 4067). The Bullet Galaxy is the sole component of one half of a cluster merger between the bulk of the cluster and this galaxy, which is plowing through the cluster, similar to how merging clusters Bullet Cluster and Bullet Group have merged. Unlike the previously mentioned mergers, the Bullet Galaxy's isn't even because it's between one galaxy and a galaxy cluster. The cluster merger is happening at lower speed than the Bullet Cluster, thus allowing the core of the Bullet Galaxy to retain cool gas and remain relatively undisturbed by its passage through the larger cluster. This cluster merger is the first one observed between a single galaxy and a cluster. The galaxy and cluster lies at redshift z=0.0992, some away. The galaxy is traveling through the cluster at a speed of .

title: Drag freight

text: A drag freight is a slow, high-tonnage railroad train, often carrying commodities such as coal or ore. Compared to "fast freight" trains, drag freight trains have a very low power-to-weight ratio, making them somewhat unpredictable on steep grades or hilly routes. This causes many dispatchers to be extremely conservative with how they handle drag freights, especially when they share lines with higher priority fast freights and passenger trains.

title: Wax bullet

text: Fast draw and trick shooters often use wax bullets for safety reasons, so that if they shoot themselves in the foot or leg when drawing from their holsters, they are not seriously injured. The World Fast Draw Association uses wax bullets in many of their competitions, along with special "balloon popping" blanks that fire coarsely ground gunpowder. Bullets used in World Fast Draw Association and other similar competitions must be commercially manufactured, and there are a number of manufacturers who produce wax bullets for this purpose.

title: Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3

text: In addition, the player can travel to the "safe house" where they can collect supplies and resources like first-aid kits and ammunition for weapons. These safe houses also act as fast travel points for the player for easy navigation of the world. In addition, the player can craft and modify their weapons and bullets. These upgrades can improve the weapons' efficiency and accuracy. When not playing missions, the player can interact with a neutral faction, which may or may not help the player in completing missions. Safe house is a safe place where the player can choose equipment, sleep to a designated hour, craft, buy items in the shop and start missions. There are several safe houses on each map, and player needs to discover them to be able to use them. There will be loot waiting or new weapons to equip in newly discovered safe houses. The player can fast travel to a safe houses from any place in the world (fast travel is disabled after entering a mission area).


query: Who was the first European to discover Madagascar?

title: History of Madagascar

text: Europe knew of Madagascar through Arab sources; based on them The Travels of Marco Polo claimed that "the inhabitants are Saracens, or followers of the law of Mohammed", without mentioning other inhabitants. Other than its size and location, everything about the island in the book describes southeastern Africa, not Madagascar. European contact began on 10 August 1500, when the Portuguese sea captain Diogo Dias sighted the island after his ship separated from a fleet going to India.[49][4] The Portuguese continued trading with the islanders and named the island São Lourenço (Saint Lawrence). In 1666, François Caron, the director general of the newly formed French East India Company, sailed to Madagascar.[50] The company failed to establish a colony on Madagascar but established ports on the nearby islands of Bourbon (now Réunion) and Isle de France (now Mauritius). In the late 17th century, the French established trading posts along the east coast. On Île Sainte-Marie, a small island off the northeastern coast of Madagascar, Captain Misson and his pirate crew allegedly founded the famous pirate utopia of Libertatia in the late 17th century. From about 1774 to 1824, Madagascar was a favorite haunt for pirates. Many European sailors were shipwrecked on the coasts of the island, among them Robert Drury, whose journal is one of the few written depictions of life in southern Madagascar during the 18th century.[51] Sailors sometimes called Madagascar "Island of the Moon".[52]

title: European exploration of Africa

text: France also set her eyes on Madagascar, the island that had been used since 1527 as a stop in travels to India. In 1642, the French East India Company founded a settlement in southern Madagascar called Fort Dauphin. The commercial results of this settlement were scarce and, again, most of the settlers died. One of the survivors, Etienne de Flacourt, published a "History of the Great Island of Madagascar and Relations", which was for a long time the main European source of information about the island. Further settlement attempts had no more success but, in 1667, François Martin led the first expedition to the Malgasy heartland, reaching Lake Alaotra. In 1665, France officially claimed Madagascar, under the name of Île Dauphine. However, little colonial activity would take place in Madagascar until the 19th century.

title: Madagascar

text: In the Malagasy language, the island of Madagascar is called "Madagasikara" and its people are referred to as "Malagasy". The island's appellation "Madagascar" is not of local origin but rather was popularized in the Middle Ages by Europeans. The name "Madageiscar" was first recorded in the memoirs of 13th-century Venetian explorer Marco Polo as a corrupted transliteration of the name Mogadishu, the Somali port with which Polo had confused the island.

title: History of Madagascar

text: Today, the people of Madagascar can be considered as the product of mixing between the first occupants, the vahoaka ntaolo Austronesians (Vazimba</i>and Vezo) and those arrived later (Hova neo-Austronesians, Persians, Arabs, Africans and Europeans).

title: History of Madagascar

text: Andrianampoinimerina's son Radama I (Radama the Great) assumed the throne during a turning-point in European history that had repercussions for Madagascar. With the defeat of Napoléon in 1814/1815, the balance of power in Europe and in the European colonies shifted in Britain's favor. The British, eager to exert control over the trade routes of the Indian Ocean, had captured the islands of Réunion and Mauritius from the French in 1810. Although they returned Réunion to France, they kept Mauritius as a base for expanding the British Empire. Mauritius’s governor, to woo Madagascar from French control, recognized Radama I as King of Madagascar, a diplomatic maneuver meant to underscore the idea of the sovereignty of the island and thus to preclude claims by any European powers.

title: John Cleese

text: The Bemaraha woolly lemur ("Avahi cleesei"), also known as Cleese's woolly lemur, is native to western Madagascar. The scientist who discovered the species named it after Cleese, mainly because of Cleese's fondness for lemurs and his efforts at protecting and preserving them. The species was first discovered in 1990 by a team of scientists from Zurich University led by Urs Thalmann, but was not formally described as a species until 11 November 2005.

title: White Africans of European ancestry

text:
A sizeable number of French people reside in Madagascar, many of whom trace their ties to Madagascar back to the colonial period.
An estimated 20,000 French citizens live and work in Madagascar in 2011. Currently, approximately 120,000 people, or 0.6% of the total population, are of French heritage. This community is descended from French settlers who arrived in Madagascar during the 19th century.
A further 80,000 people are classified as Réunionese Creole, therefore bringing the total number of people with French ancestry to approximately 1%. The numbers make Madagascar the home of the largest ethnic French population in terms of absolute numbers in sub-Saharan Africa, other than the French "département" Réunion.

title: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Madagascar

text: The first branch of the LDS Church in Madagascar was organized in 1990 with Razanapanala Ramianadrisoa as president. Ramiandrisoa had joined the LDS Church in France while studying there in 1986. The first LDS missionaries to enter Madagascar were Fred L. Forsgren and his wife Eileen who arrived in March 1991. The Church was legally recognized by the government of Madagascar in 1993.

title: Franco-Hova Wars

text: European colonial powers, primarily Britain and France, had ambitions to control Madagascar, a rich island with strategic importance in regard to the sea passage to India. The Merina Kingdom of Madagascar had successfully repelled multiple attempts by both European powers to seize control of the territory throughout the 19th century. Defense of the island was aided by its size and diversity of terrain, the nation's organized military and government structures, and the prevalence of tropical diseases. The first significant European influence in Imerina was the arrival of a handful of British missionaries in the capital of Antananarivo in 1820 during the reign of Radama I, who invited them to establish schools and teach the Merina free populace to read. Several years into the reign of Queen Ranavalona I, which began in 1828, the monarchy became increasingly disapproving of the growing popularity of the Christianity that the missionaries had introduced, and encouraged them to cease teaching religion while continuing to provide technical and vocational training to create a cadre of skilled craftsmen. She successfully repelled French attacks on Foulepointe and other coastal cities. During several periods, Ranavalona's restrictions on the practice of Christianity minimized European presence on the island.

title: Portuguese Navy

text: In 1500, when leading a second Portuguese Armada of 13 ships to India, Pedro Álvares Cabral discovers and explores Brazil, claiming it for Portugal. In the same year, Diogo Dias, as one of the Captains of the fleet to India of Pedro Álvares Cabral, is separated from the main fleet by a storm while crossing the Cape of Good Hope, and becomes the first European to reach Madagascar.

title: Exploration

text: Explorers of routes from Europe towards Asia, the Indian Ocean, and the Pacific Ocean, include Vasco da Gama (1460–1524), a navigator who made the first trip from Europe to India and back by the Cape of Good Hope, discovering the ocean route to the East; Pedro Alvares Cabral (c. 1467/68–c.1520) who, following the path of Gama, claimed Brazil and led the first expedition that linked Europe, Africa, America, and Asia; Diogo Dias, who discovered the eastern coast of Madagascar and rounded the corner of Africa; explorers such as Diogo Fernandes Pereira and Pedro Mascarenhas (1470–1555), among others, who discovered and mapped the Mascarene Islands and other archipelagos.

title: First Lady of Madagascar

text: The First Lady of Madagascar (French: "Première Dame du Madagascar") is the title attributed to the wife of the President of Madagascar. The country's current first lady is Voahangy Rajaonarimampianina, wife of President Hery Rajaonarimampianina, who had held the position since January 25, 2014. There has been no First Gentlemen of Madagascar to date.

title: Grandidierite

text: Grandidierite is an extremely rare mineral and gem that was first discovered in 1902 in southern Madagascar. The mineral was named in honor of French explorer Alfred Grandidier (1836–1912) who studied the natural history of Madagascar.

title: Subfossil lemur

text: Local tales of a "song'aomby" (Malagasy for "cow that is not a cow"), or pygmy hippopotamus, led French naturalist Alfred Grandidier to follow a village headman to a marsh in southwestern Madagascar, a site called Ambolisatra, which became the first known subfossil site in Madagascar. In 1868, Grandidier uncovered the first subfossil remains of lemurs—a humerus from "Palaeopropithecus" and a tibia of a sifaka. The "Palaeopropithecus" remains were not described for several decades, and it took decades more for the remains to be correctly paired with other sloth lemur remains. It was not until 1893 that giant lemur species were formally described, when Charles Immanuel Forsyth Major discovered and described a long, narrow skull of "Megaladapis madagascariensis" in a marsh. His discoveries in various marshes of central and southwestern Madagascar sparked paleontological interest, resulting in an overabundance of taxonomic names and confused assemblages of bones from numerous species, including non-primates. Specimens were distributed between European museums and Madagascar, often resulting in the loss of field data that went with the specimens, if the data had been recorded at all.

title: Búðardalur

text: At a short distance from the village is Eiríksstaðir, the homestead of Erik the Red, who was the first European to discover Greenland and whose son Leif Erikson, born at Eiríksstaðir, was the first European to discover America ahead of Columbus.

title: Brian Fisher (biologist)

text: Brian L. Fisher (born 1964/65) is a field biologist who works on the systematics of arthropods, with a particular focus on ants. He has discovered over 1000 species, including 900 species of ants in Madagascar. He mainly conducts field work in Madagascar and Africa.

title: Exploration

text: Explorers of Australia included Willem Janszoon (1570–1630), who made the first recorded European landing in Australia; Yñigo Ortiz de Retez, who discovered and reached eastern and northern New Guinea; Luis Váez de Torres (1565–1613), who discovered the Torres Strait between Australia and New Guinea; Abel Tasman (1603–1659), who explored North Australia, discovered Tasmania and New Zealand.

title: Flora of Madagascar

text: Madagascar was colonised rather recently compared to other landmasses, with first evidence for humans—arrived from either Africa or Asia—dating to 2,300 or perhaps 4,000 years before present. It is assumed that humans first stayed near the coast and penetrated into the interior only several centuries later. The settlers had a profound impact on the long-isolated environment of Madagascar through land clearing and fire, introduction of zebu cattle, and probably hunting to extinction the native megafauna including, among others, elephant birds, giant lemurs and giant tortoises. The first Europeans arrived in the 16th century, starting an age of overseas exchange. Population growth and transformation of the landscape was particularly rapid since the mid-20th century.

title: Madagascar

text: Madagascar's natural resources include a variety of unprocessed agricultural and mineral resources. Agriculture (including the growing of raffia), fishing and forestry are mainstays of the economy. Madagascar is the world's principal supplier of vanilla, cloves and ylang-ylang. Madagascar supplies 80% of the world's natural vanilla. Other key agricultural resources include coffee, lychees and shrimp. Key mineral resources include various types of precious and semi-precious stones, and Madagascar currently provides half of the world's supply of sapphires, which were discovered near Ilakaka in the late 1990s.

title: Vanilla

text:
Pollination is required to set the vanilla fruit from which the flavoring is derived. In 1837, Belgian botanist Charles François Antoine Morren discovered this fact and pioneered a method of artificially pollinating the plant. The method proved financially unworkable and was not deployed commercially. In 1841, Edmond Albius, a slave who lived on the French island of Réunion in the Indian Ocean, discovered at the age of 12 that the plant could be hand-pollinated. Hand-pollination allowed global cultivation of the plant.
Three major species of vanilla currently are grown globally, all of which derive from a species originally found in Mesoamerica, including parts of modern-day Mexico. They are "V. planifolia" (syn. "V. fragrans"), grown on Madagascar, Réunion, and other tropical areas along the Indian Ocean; "V. tahitensis", grown in the South Pacific; and "V. pompona", found in the West Indies, Central America, and South America. The majority of the world's vanilla is the "V. planifolia" species, more commonly known as Bourbon vanilla (after the former name of Réunion, Île Bourbon) or Madagascar vanilla, which is produced in Madagascar and neighboring islands in the southwestern Indian Ocean, and in Indonesia. Combined, Madagascar and Indonesia produce two-thirds of the world's supply of vanilla.

title: Cafres

text: The ancestors of the cafres were slaves brought from Africa and Madagascar to work the sugar plantations; these were the first slaves to be introduced to the Mascarene Islands. The slaves came from Mozambique, Guinea, Senegal and Madagascar. Most trace their roots to Madagascar and East Africa (Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia) although some descended from runaways from European pirate ships.

title: St. Lawrence Anglican Cathedral Ambohimanoro

text: During the reign of Ranavalona I Christians in Madagascar were persecuted and church building suppressed. However, in the succeeding monarchs' reigns, European influence grew and the suppression of Christians was relaxed, with many missionaries, most notably those belonging to the London Missionary Society being invited back in. A turning point in the history of Christianity in Madagascar happened when queen Ranavalona II who had been in part raised by European tutors converted to Christianity.

title: History of Madagascar

text: The island's West clan chiefs began to extend their power through trade with their Indian Ocean neighbors, first with Arab, Persian and Somali traders who connected Madagascar with East Africa, the Middle East and India, and later with European slave traders.[55] The wealth created in Madagascar through trade created a state system ruled by powerful regional monarchs known as the Maroserana. These monarchs adopted the cultural traditions of subjects in their territories and expanded their kingdoms. They took on divine status, and new nobility and artisan classes were created.[56] Madagascar functioned as a contact port for the other Swahili seaport city-states such as Sofala, Kilwa, Mombasa and Zanzibar. By the Middle Ages, large chiefdoms began to dominate considerable areas of the island. Among these were the Betsimisaraka alliance of the eastern coast and the Sakalava chiefdoms of the Menabe (centered in what is now the town of Morondava) and of Boina (centered in what is now the provincial capital of Mahajanga). The influence of the Sakalava extended across what are now the provinces of Antsiranana, Mahajanga and Toliara.

title: Christianity in Madagascar

text: The first formal European-style school was established in 1818 on the east coast of Madagascar at Toamasina by members of the London Missionary Society (LMS). King Radama I, the first sovereign to bring about half the island of Madagascar under his rule, was interested in strengthening ties with European powers; to this end, he invited LMS missionaries to open a school in his capital at Antananarivo within the Rova palace compound to instruct the royal family in literacy, numeracy and basic education. This first school, known as the Palace School, was established by LMS missionary David Jones on 8 December 1820 within Besakana, a Rova building of great historic and cultural significance. Within months, classes were transferred to a larger, purpose-built structure on the Rova grounds.

title: Ranavalona I

text: Ranavalona's 33-year reign was characterized by her effort to strengthen the domestic authority of the Kingdom of Imerina over subjugated provinces and preserve the political and cultural sovereignty of Madagascar. These policies were enacted in a context of increasing European influence within her kingdom and competing French and English bids for domination over the island. Early in her reign, the queen took incremental steps to distance Madagascar from the purview of European powers, first putting an end to a friendship treaty with Britain, then placing increasing restrictions on the activities of the missionaries of the London Missionary Society, who operated schools where basic education and trade skills were taught in addition to the Christian religion. In 1835 she forbade the practice of Christianity among the Malagasy population, and within a year nearly all foreigners had left her territory.

title: Ratsirakia legendrei

text: Ratsirakia legendrei is a species of fish in the family Eleotridae endemic to fresh waters of Madagascar. This species can reach a length of . It is the only known member of its genus. It is the only species in the monotypic genus "Ratsirakia", the name of which honours Didier Ratsiraka (b. 1933) who was President of Madagascar from 1975-1993 and from 1997-2002 while the specific name refers to the French physician Jean Legendre who discovered the species while serving with French colonial troops in Madagascar.

title: Gisèle Rabesahala

text: Marie Gisèle Aimée Rabesahala was borne May 7,1929 and died June 27, 2011. She was a Malagasy politician and activist who was the first woman to hold a ministerial position in the government of Madagascar. She entered politics at the age of 17, campaigning on behalf of political prisoners, and becoming Madagascar's first woman municipal councilor, before becoming the first Malagasy woman to establish and lead a political party. She was a committed Marxist and co-founded the communist Congress Party for the Independence of Madagascar, which took power in 1975. In 1977 she became Madagascar's first female minister, responsible for promoting revolutionary art and culture, but lost her job in 1991 when her ministry was abolished in the course of Madagascar's return to multi-party democracy. She remained an active political campaigner and journalist until her death in 2011.

title: Madagascar Plan

text: In the late 1800s and early 1900s there were a number of resettlement plans for European Jews that were precursors to the Madagascar Plan. Paul de Lagarde, an Orientalist scholar, first suggested evacuating the European Jews to Madagascar in his 1878 work "Deutsche Schriften" ("German Writings"). Members of the Zionist movement in 1904–1905 seriously debated the British Uganda Programme, by which Russian Jews, who were in immediate danger from ongoing pogroms, would be settled in what today is Kenya. The plan was later rejected as unworkable by the Zionist Congress. Adherents of territorialism split off from the main Zionist movement and continued to search for a location where Jews might settle and create a state, or at least an autonomous area. The idea of Jewish resettlement in Madagascar was promoted by British antisemites Henry Hamilton Beamish, Arnold Leese, and others. With the cooperation of the French, the Polish government commissioned a task force in 1937 to examine the possibility of settling Polish Jews in the island. The head of the commission, , felt the island could accommodate 5,000 to 7,000 families, but Jewish members of the group estimated that, because of the climate and poor infrastructure, only 500 or even fewer families could safely be accommodated.

title: Bahá'í Faith in Madagascar

text: The Bahá'í Faith in Madagascar begins with the mention by `Abdu'l-Bahá, then head of the religion, who asked the followers of the Bahá'í Faith to travel to Madagascar. The first Bahá'í to pioneer to Madagascar arrived in 1953 and following native converts the first Bahá'í Local Spiritual Assembly was elected in 1955. By 1963 in addition to the one assembly there were groups of Bahá'ís living in four other locations. In late July 1967 Rúhíyyih Khanum became the first Hand of the Cause to visit the country. In 1972 the Malagasy Bahá'ís gathered to elect the first National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Madagascar. By 2003 there were 33 local assemblies and the Association of Religion Data Archives in 2005 estimated there were about 17,900 Bahá'ís in the country.

title: Dzama

text: When France lost its colony of St. Domingue in 1803, then the richest European colony in the world, it looked for a substitute suitable for the kind of sugar cane and aromatic plant cultivation it had practiced in the Caribbean. The opportunity came in 1861 when Queen Ranavalona I of Madagascar, who had expelled most Europeans from that island, died. It eventually became a French colony in 1896, and remained under their political control or influence until 1960, when Madagascar became fully independent. But the French cultural influence remains to this day. Under French rule, Madagascar became one of the world’s main producers of sugar cane and vanilla (originally from Mexico). The agricultural landscape of this spice island reflects the French endeavor, with serendipitous consequences to the complexity and uniqueness of its rums.

title: History of Madagascar

text: By the 15th century, Europeans had wrested control of the spice trade from the Muslims. They did this by bypassing the Middle East and sending their cargo-ships around the Cape of Good Hope to India. The Portuguese mariner Diogo Dias became the first European to set foot on Madagascar when his ship, bound for India, blew off course in 1500. In the ensuing two-hundred years, the English and French tried (and failed) to establish settlements on the island.


query: How large is the adult male Kodiak bear?

title: Kodiak bear

text: An average adult male measures 244cm (8ft 0in) in length, and stands 133cm (4ft 4in) tall at the shoulder. The largest recorded wild male weighed 751kg (1,656lb), and had a hind foot measurement of 46cm (18in).[7] A large male Kodiak bear stands up to 1.5m (4.9ft) tall at the shoulder, when it is standing on all four legs. When standing fully upright on its hind legs, a large male could reach a height of 3m (9.8ft).[2] The largest verified size for a captive Kodiak bear was for a specimen that lived at the Dakota Zoo in Bismarck, North Dakota. Nicknamed "Clyde," he weighed 966kg (2,130lb) when he died in June 1987 at the age of 22. According to zoo director Terry Lincoln, Clyde probably weighed close to 1,090kg (2,400lb) a year earlier. He still had a fat layer of 9in (23cm) when he died.[8][lower-alpha 1]

title: Kodiak bear

text: Kodiak bears that have recently left their mothers, at ages 3–5 years, have high mortality rates[2] with only 56% of males and 89% of females surviving.[14] Most young female bears stay within or near their mother’s home range, while most males move farther away. Most adult sows die of natural causes (56%), while most adult male bears are killed by hunters (91%).[14] The oldest known boar in the wild was 27 years old, and the oldest sow was 35.[17]

title: Kodiak bear

text: Usually, Kodiak bears attempt to avoid encounters with people. The most notable exceptions to this behavior pattern occur when bears are surprised, threatened, or attracted by human food, garbage, or hunter-killed game. However, there has been an increase in Kodiak encounters due to increases in local population as well as increased hunting of Kodiak bears. Bear safety precautions aim at avoiding such situations, understanding bear needs and behavior, and learning how to recognize the warning signs bears give when stressed.[20][21]

title: Kodiak bear

text: Professional interest in guided Kodiak bear hunts and a concern for unregulated resource use in frontier lands such as Alaska prompted the territorial government’s newly established Alaska Game Commission to abolish commercial bear hunting (selling the hides) on the archipelago in 1925. The impacts of the new regulations seemed to restore bear populations on the Kodiak islands. By the 1930s, ranchers on northeast Kodiak reported an increase in bear problems and demanded action. Bears were also seen as a threat to the expanding commercial salmon-fishing industry. To address the dilemma of conserving bears while protecting cattle, salmon, and people, President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge by executive order in 1941.[25] The 7,700km2 (1,900,000 acres) refuge roughly encompasses the southwestern two-thirds of Kodiak Island, Uganik Island, the Red Peaks area on northwestern Afognak Island, and all of Ban Island.

title: Brown bear

text:
Head-and-body length in grizzly bears averages from while in Eurasian brown bears it similarly averages from . Adult shoulder height averaged in Yellowstone (for any bear measured five or more years old) and a median of (for adults only 10 or more years old) in Slovakia. Standing on its hindlegs, a posture only assumed occasionally, typically-sized brown bears can reportedly range from in standing height. Exceptionally large inland specimens have been reported in several parts of North America, Europe, Russia and even Hokkaido. The largest recorded grizzlies from Yellowstone and Washington State both weighed approximately and eastern European bears have been weighed in Slovakia and Bulgaria of up to , about double the average weight for male bears in these regions. Among the grizzly and Eurasian brown bear subspecies, the largest reportedly shot from each being and , respectively. The latter bear, from western Russia, reportedly measured just under in head-and-body length.
In Eurasia, the size of bears roughly increases from the west to the east, with the largest bears there native to eastern Russia. Even in the nominate subspecies size increases in the eastern limits, with mature male bears in Arkhangelsk Oblast and Bashkortostan commonly exceeding . Other bears of intermediate size may occur in inland populations of Russia. Much like the grizzly and Eurasian brown bear, populations of the Ussuri brown bear ("U. a. lasiotus") and the East Siberian brown bear ("U. a. collaris") may vary widely in size. In some cases, the big adult males of these populations may have matched the Kodiak bear in size. East Siberian brown bears from outside the sub-Arctic and mainland Ussuri brown bears average about the same size as the largest-bodied populations of grizzly bear, i.e. those of similar latitude in Alaska, and have been credited with weights ranging from throughout the seasons. On the other hand, the Ussuri brown bears found in the insular population of Hokkaido are usually quite small, usually weighing less than , exactly half the weight reported for male Ussuri brown bears from Khabarovsk Krai. This is due presumably to the enclosed mixed forest habitat of Hokkaido. A similarly diminished size has been reported in East Siberian brown bears from Yakutia, as even adult males average around , thus about 40% less than the average weight of male bears of this subtype from central Siberia and the Chukchi Peninsula.

title: Kodiak bear

text: Since statehood, the reported number of Kodiak bears killed by hunters has ranged from 77 (1968–1969) to 206 (1965–1966). From 2000 to 2006, an average of 173 Kodiak bears were killed by hunters each year (118 during the fall season and 55 in the spring season). Over 75% of those were males. An additional nine bears were reported killed annually in defense of life or property during the same time. The number of large, trophy-sized bears (total skull size at least 70cm [28 inches]) killed by hunters in recent years has been increasing. In the 1970s, only 2.5% of the bears killed on Kodiak were trophy-sized; in the 1990s and 2000s, the proportion increased to almost 9%.[13]

title: Brown bear

text: The normal range of physical dimensions for a brown bear is a head-and-body length of and a shoulder height of . The tail is relatively short, as in all bears, ranging from in length. The smallest brown bears, females during spring among barren-ground populations, can weigh so little as to roughly match the body mass of males of the smallest living bear species, the sun bear ("Helarctos malayanus"), while the largest coastal populations attain sizes broadly similar to those of the largest living bear species, the polar bear. Interior brown bears are generally smaller than is often perceived, being around the same weight as an average lion, at an estimate average of in males and in females, whereas adults of the coastal populations weigh about twice as much. The average weight of adult male bears from 19 populations, from around the world and various subspecies (including both large- and small-bodied subspecies), was found to while adult females from 24 populations were found to average .

title: Brown bear

text: Brown bears have very large and curved claws, those present on the forelimbs being longer than those on the hind limbs. They may reach and may measure along the curve. They are generally dark with a light tip, with some forms having completely light claws. Brown bear claws are longer and straighter than those of American black bears ("Ursus americanus"). The claws are blunt, while those of a black bear are sharp. Due to their claw structure, in addition to their excessive weight, adult brown bears cannot typically climb trees as can both species of black bear, although in rare cases adult female brown bears have been seen in trees. The claws of a polar bear are also quite different, being notably shorter but broader with a strong curve and sharper point, presumably both as an aid to traveling over ice (sometimes nearly vertically) and procuring active prey. The paws of the brown bear are quite large. The rear feet of adult bears have been found to typically measure long, while the forefeet tend to measure about 40% less in length. All four feet in average sized brown bears tend to be about in width. In large coastal or Kodiak bear males, the hindfoot may measure up to in length, in width, while outsized Kodiak bears having had confirmed measurements of up to along their rear foot. Brown bears are the only extant bears with a hump at the top of their shoulder, which is made entirely of muscle, this feature having developed presumably for imparting more force in digging, which is habitual during foraging for most bears of the species and also used heavily in den construction prior to hibernation.

title: Kodiak bear

text: In 1975, construction of a logging road began on Afognak Island, and timber harvesting began in 1977. In 1979, work began on an environmental impact statement for the Terror Lake hydroelectric project on Kodiak Island. That project included an earthen dam on Terror Lake with Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge and a 10km (6mi) tunnel through a mountain ridge to a penstock and powerhouse in the Kizhuyak River drainage. The hydro project was the first significant invasion of inland bear habitat on Kodiak Island. To address the opposition encountered from the public and agencies, a mitigation settlement was negotiated in 1981 which included brown bear research and establishment of the Kodiak Brown Bear Trust.[27] The hydroelectric project was completed in 1985. Human alteration of bear habitat on Kodiak and Afognak Islands spurred renewed interest and funding for bear research on the archipelago, resulting in a surge of baseline and applied bear research on Kodiak through the 1980s and 1990s.

title: Brown bear

text: The largest variety of brown bear from Eurasia is the Kamchatka brown bear ("U. a. beringianus"). In the Kamchatka brown bears from past decades, old males have been known to reach body mass of by fall, putting the subtypes well within Kodiak bear sizes and leading it to be considered the largest of the extant Russian subtypes. However, a diminishment in body size of "U. a. berigianus" has been noted, mostly likely in correlation with overhunting. In the 1960s and 1970s, most adult Kamchatka brown bears weighed merely between , however, mean weights of mature male bears have been reported as averaging in 2005.

title: American black bear

text: In the state of California, studies have indicated that the average mass is in adult males and in adult females. Adult American black bears in Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge in east-central Alaska were found to average in males and in females, whereas on Kuiu Island in southeast Alaska (where nutritious salmon are readily available) adult American black bears averaged an estimated . In Great Smoky Mountains National Park, adult males averaged and adult females averaged per one study. In one of the largest studies on regional body mass, bears in British Columbia averaged in 89 females and in 243 males. In Yellowstone National Park, a population study found that adult males averaged and adult females averaged . Black bears in north-central Minnesota averaged in 163 females and in 77 males. In New York, the two sexes reportedly average and , respectively. It was found in Nevada and Lake Tahoe region that black bears closer to urban regions were significantly heavier than their arid-country dwelling counterparts, with males near urban areas averaging against wild-land males which averaged whereas peri-urban females averaged against the average of in wild-land ones. In Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta adults reportedly averaged . Adults typically range from in head-and-body length, and in shoulder height. The typically small tail is long. Although they are the smallest bear species in North America, large males exceed the size of other bear species, except the brown bear and the polar bear.

title: Polar bear

text: The only other bear similar in size to the polar bear is the Kodiak bear, which is a subspecies of brown bear. Adult male polar bears weigh and measure in total length. Around the Beaufort Sea, however, mature males reportedly average . Adult females are roughly half the size of males and normally weigh , measuring in length. Elsewhere, a slightly larger estimated average weight of was claimed for adult females. When pregnant, however, females can weigh as much as . The polar bear is among the most sexually dimorphic of mammals, surpassed only by the pinnipeds such as elephant seals. The largest polar bear on record, reportedly weighing , was a male shot at Kotzebue Sound in northwestern Alaska in 1960. This specimen, when mounted, stood tall on its hindlegs. The shoulder height of an adult polar bear is . While all bears are short-tailed, the polar bear's tail is relatively the shortest amongst living bears, ranging from in length.

title: Kodiak bear

text: The underlying themes of the recommendations were continued conservation of the bear population at its current level, increased education programs to teach people how to live with bears on Kodiak, and protection of bear habitat with allowances for continued human use of the archipelago. Although the group's role is merely advisory, government management agencies expressed a commitment to implement all of the regulations that were feasible and within their legal jurisdictions.

title: Kodiak bear

text: Alaska achieved statehood in 1959 and assumed responsibility for managing the state’s wildlife. The Alaska Board of Game reduced bear-hunting seasons on Afognak and Raspberry Islands and on the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge, but liberalized bear seasons on nonrefuge lands on Kodiak. During the 1960s, state biologists worked with ranchers along the Kodiak road system to examine and reduce the predation problem. Biologists reported that cattle and bears were not compatible on the same ranges and potential solutions included poisons, fences to isolate cattle ranges, and aerial shooting of bears. Again, sport hunters voiced their support for Kodiak bears. In spite of public pressure, the state continued actively pursuing and dispatching problem bears until 1970.[26]

title: Brown bear

text: The largest subspecies are the Kodiak bear ("U. a. middendorffi") and the questionably-distinct peninsular or coastal brown bear ("U. a. gyas"). Also the extinct California grizzly bear ("U. a. californicus") was rather large. Once mature, the typical female Kodiak bear can range in body mass from and from sexual maturity onward males range from . According to the "Guinness Book of World Records" the average male Kodiak bear is in total length (head-to-tail) and has a shoulder height of . When averaged between their spring low and fall high weights from both localities, males from Kodiak island and coastal Alaska weighed from with a mean body mass of while the same figures in females were with a mean body mass of . By the time they reach or exceed eight to nine years of age, male Kodiak bears tend to be much larger than newly mature six-year-old males, potentially tripling their average weight within three years' time, and can expect to average between . The reported mean adult body masses for both sexes of the polar bear are very similar to the peninsular giant and Kodiak bears. Due to their roughly corresponding body sizes, the two subtypes and the species can both legitimately be considered the largest living member of the bear family Ursidae and largest extant terrestrial carnivores. The largest widely-accepted size for a wild Kodiak bear, as well as for a brown bear, was for a bear killed in English Bay on Kodiak Island in fall 1894 as several measurements were made of this bear, including a body mass of , and a hind foot and a voucher skull were examined and verified by the "Guinness Book of World Records". Claims have been made of larger brown bears, but these appear to be poorly documented and unverified and some, even if recited by reputable authors, may be dubious hunters' claims.

title: Kodiak bear

text: Kodiak bears begin entering their dens in late October. Pregnant sows are usually the first to go to dens; males are the last. Males begin emerging from their dens in early April, while sows with new cubs may stay in dens until late June. Bears living on the north end of Kodiak Island tend to have longer denning periods than bears in the southern areas. Most Kodiak bears dig their dens in hill or mountain sides and they use a wide variety of denning habitats depending on which part of the archipelago they live. Almost a quarter of the adult bears forgo denning, staying somewhat active throughout the winter.[2][14]

title: Kamchatka brown bear

text: It is a very large bear, the largest in Eurasia, with a body length of 2.4 meters, to 3 meters tall on hind legs and a weight up to 650 kg (1433 lbs). It is nearly the size of the Kodiak bear; however, the skull is broader than that of the Ussuri brown bear, and compared to that of the Kodiak bear, the breadth of the skull is much greater in proportion to its length, the anterior narial opening is much shorter, and the molars differ in relative size and form. The greatest skull length for males is 40.3–43.6 cm and 25.8–27.7 cm wide, while the skulls of females measure 37.2–38.6 cm in length and 21.6–24.2 cm in width. Fur colour is predominantly dark brown with a violet tint. Light coloured individuals are rarely encountered.

title: Ussuri brown bear

text: It is very similar to the Kamchatka brown bear, though it has a more elongated skull, a less elevated forehead, somewhat longer nasal bones and less separated zygomatic arches, and is somewhat darker in color, with some individuals being completely black, a fact which once led to the now refuted speculation that black individuals were hybrids of brown bears and Asian black bears. Adult males have skulls measuring long and wide. They can occasionally reach greater sizes than their Kamchatka counterparts: the largest skull measured by Sergej Ognew (1931) was only slightly smaller than that of the largest Kodiak bear (the largest subspecies of brown bears) on record at the time.

title: Kodiak bear

text: Kodiak bears are generally solitary in nature; however, when food is concentrated in small areas, such as along salmon spawning streams, grass/sedge flats, berry patches, a dead whale, or even an open garbage dump, they often occur in large groups. Along a few streams on Kodiak, up to 60 bears can be seen simultaneously in a 2.6km2 (1.0sqmi) area. To maximize food intake at these ecologically important areas, bears have learned to minimize fighting and fatal interactions by developing a complex communication (both verbal and body posturing) and social structure.

title: Kodiak bear

text: The size range for females (sows) is from 181 to 318kg (399 to 701lb), and for males (boars), it is 272 to 635kg (600 to 1,400lb).[2][6] Mature males average 477–534kg (1,052–1,177lb) over the course of the year,[7] and can weigh up to 680kg (1,500lb) at peak times. Females are typically about 20% smaller and 30% lighter than males,[2] and adult sizes are attained when they are 6 years old. Bears weigh the least when they emerge from their dens in the spring, and can increase their weight by 20–30%[6] during late summer and fall. Captive bears can sometimes attain weights that are considerably greater than those of their counterparts in the wilderness.

title: Kodiak bear

text: The Kodiak bear is much like other brown bears in intelligence, although its tendency to feed in large dense groups leads to more complex social behaviors.

title: Southern elephant seal

text: The southern elephant seal ("Mirounga leonina") is one of the two species of elephant seals. It is the largest member of the clade Pinnipedia and the order Carnivora, as well as the largest extant marine mammal that is not a cetacean. It gets its name from its massive size and the large proboscis of the adult male, which is used to produce very loud roars, especially during the breeding season. A bull southern elephant seal is about 40% heavier than a male northern elephant seal ("Mirounga angustirostris"), more than twice as heavy as a male walrus ("Odobenus rosmarus"), and six to seven times heavier than the largest living terrestrial carnivorans, the polar bear ("Ursus maritimus") and the Kodiak bear ("Ursus arctos middendorffi").

title: Kodiak bear

text: The Kodiak bear (Ursus arctos middendorffi), also known as the Kodiak brown bear, sometimes the Alaskan brown bear, inhabits the islands of the Kodiak Archipelago in southwest Alaska.[2] It is the largest recognized subspecies of brown bear, and one of the two largest bears alive today, the other being the polar bear.[3]

title: Kodiak bear

text: This brown bear population only occurs on the islands of the Kodiak Archipelago (Kodiak, Afognak, Shuyak, Raspberry, Uganik, Sitkalidak, and adjacent islands). The Kodiak bear population was estimated to include 3,526 bears in 2005, yielding an estimated archipelago-wide population density of 270 bears per 1000km2 (700 per 1000 sq.mi). During the past decade the population has been slowly increasing.[14]

title: Kodiak bear

text: Kodiak bears reach sexual maturity at age five, but most sows are over nine years old when they successfully wean their first litter. The average time between litters is four years. Sows continue to produce cubs throughout their lives, but their productivity diminishes after they are 20 years old.[15] Mating season for Kodiak bears is during May and June. They are serially monogamous (having one partner at a time), staying together from two days to two weeks. As soon as the egg is fertilized and divides a few times, it enters a state of suspended animation until autumn when it finally implants on the uterine wall and begins to grow again. Cubs are born in the den during January or February.[2] Weighing less than 450g (1lb) at birth with little hair and closed eyes, they suckle for several months, emerging from the den in May or June, weighing 6.8–9.1 kilograms (15–20 pounds).[2] Typical litter sizes on Kodiak are two or three cubs,[2] with a long-term average of 2.4 cubs per litter.[15] However, Kodiak bears have six functional nipples and litters up to six cubs have been reported.[16] Sows are sometimes seen with five or six cubs in tow, probably due to adopting cubs from other litters.[2] Most cubs stay with their mothers for three years. Almost half of the cubs die before they leave,[15] with cannibalism by adult males being one of the major causes of death.

title: Kodiak bear

text: Bears on Kodiak are naturally active during the day, but when faced with competition for food or space, they adopt a more nocturnal (active at night) lifestyle. This behavior is especially evident in the bears that live near and within Kodiak City. Kodiak bears do not defend territories, but they do have traditional areas that they use each year (home ranges). Because of the rich variety of foods available on Kodiak, the bears on the archipelago have some of the smallest home ranges of any brown bear populations in North America[18] and a great deal of overlap occurs among the ranges of individual bears. Home ranges of adult sows on Kodiak Island average 130km2 (50sqmi), while boar home ranges average 250km2 (97sqmi).[14]

title: Polar bear

text: The polar bear ("Ursus maritimus") is a hypercarnivorous bear whose native range lies largely within the Arctic Circle, encompassing the Arctic Ocean, its surrounding seas and surrounding land masses. It is a large bear, approximately the same size as the omnivorous Kodiak bear ("Ursus arctos middendorffi"). A boar (adult male) weighs around , while a sow (adult female) is about half that size. Although it is the sister species of the brown bear, it has evolved to occupy a narrower ecological niche, with many body characteristics adapted for cold temperatures, for moving across snow, ice and open water, and for hunting seals, which make up most of its diet. Although most polar bears are born on land, they spend most of their time on the sea ice. Their scientific name means "maritime bear" and derives from this fact. Polar bears hunt their preferred food of seals from the edge of sea ice, often living off fat reserves when no sea ice is present. Because of their dependence on the sea ice, polar bears are classified as marine mammals.

title: Kodiak bear

text: Physiologically, the Kodiak bear is very similar to the other brown bear subspecies, such as the mainland grizzly bear (Ursus arctos horribilis) and the now-extinct California grizzly bear (U. a. californicus†), with the main difference being in size. While there is generally much variation in size between brown bears in different areas, most usually weigh between 115 and 360kg (254 and 794lb).[4] The Kodiak bear, on the other hand, commonly reaches sizes of 300 to 600kg (660 to 1,320lb), and has even been known to exceed weights of 680kg (1,500lb).[2] Despite this large variation in size, the diet and lifestyle of the Kodiak bear does not differ greatly from that of other brown bears.

title: Kodiak bear

text: Kodiak bears are the largest brown bear, comparable in size to polar bears. This makes Kodiak bears and polar bears both the two largest members of the bear family and Kodiak bears the largest extant terrestrial[lower-alpha 2] carnivorans.[3]

title: Brody the Bear

text: Brody the bear (born January 14, 1995) is a male Kodiak bear who is trained to be an animal actor. His adult size and weight also compare him to the late Bart the Bear.


query: Does Lily Bart die in The House of Mirth?

title: The House of Mirth

text: Eventually, Lily Bart receives a ten-thousand-dollar inheritance from her Aunt Peniston, which she arranges to use to repay Gus Trenor. Distraught by her misfortunes, Lily has by this time begun regularly using a sleeping draught of chloral hydrate to escape the pain of poverty and social ostracism. Once she has repaid all her debts, Lily takes an overdose of the sleeping draught and dies; perhaps it is suicide, perhaps an accident. That very morning, Lawrence Selden arrives to her quarters, to finally propose marriage, but finds Lily Bart dead. Among her belongings are receipts for her payments toward the debt she owed to Gus Trenor, proving that her financial dealings with Trenor were honorable and not evidence of an improper relationship. His realization allows him to feel sympathy and closeness for her, and he is clearly distraught by her death.

title: The House of Mirth

text: To escape the rumors arising from the gossip caused by her financial dealings with Gus Trenor, and also disappointed by what she interprets as Selden's emotional withdrawal, Lily accepts Bertha Dorset's spur-of-the- moment invitation to join her and George on a Mediterranean cruise aboard their yacht, the Sabrina. Bertha intends for Lily to keep George distracted while Bertha carries on an affair with young Ned Silverton. Lily's decision to join the Dorsets on this cruise proves to be her social undoing.

title: The House of Mirth

text: The Play of the novel The House of Mirth (1906), by Edith Wharton and Clyde Fitch.[21][22] La Maison du Brouillard (1918), directed by Albert Capellani, featured Katherine Harris Barrymore as Lily Bart; a French silent film. The House of Mirth was presented on radio's Theatre Guild on the Air December 14, 1952. The one-hour adaptation starred Joan Fontaine and Franchot Tone.[23] The House of Mirth (1956), directed by John Drew Barrymore. Matinee Theatre: Season 2, Episode 56. (4 December 1956) The House of Mirth (1981), directed by Adrian Hall. A television film for the Public Broadcasting System in the U.S. Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth(1995) adapted for the stage by Dawn Keeler. The play was performed by the Cambridge Theatre Company at the Theatre Royal in Winchester, England. After the initial production, the play toured England for nine weeks. This modern adaptation offers a late-twentieth-century interpretation of Lily Bart's story that emphasizes freedom, relationships, and tragedy.[18] The House of Mirth (2000), directed by Terence Davies, featured Gillian Anderson as Lily Bart.[24]

title: The House of Mirth (2000 film)

text: Lily Bart is a beautiful socialite accustomed to comfort and luxury. Along with her younger cousin, Grace Stepney, she lives with her wealthy aunt, Julia Peniston. Through a series of unfortunate misunderstandings, she learns of the bitter consequences for a single woman without wealth, living in an uncaring society.

title: The House of Mirth (1918 film)

text: Socialite but penniless orphan Lily Bart is living with her wealthy aunt who insists that she takes upon herself a rich husband. Balking at this idea and remaining faithful to her impecunious sweetheart Lawrence Selden (Henry Kolker), Lily is desirous of maintaining her luxurious lifestyle: she accepts the financial "favors" of some married millionaires but refuses to surrender her virtue in return – until she discovers that her sainted Selden has been fooling around with another man's wife.Like many American films of the time, "The House of Mirth" was subject to restrictions and cuts by city and state film censorship boards. For example, the Chicago Board of Censors required cuts, in Reel 1, of the woman in silhouette behind veil, Reel 3, the intertitle "You know how you can repay me", Reel 4, the two intertitles "You're willing enough to take favors" etc. and "Now I want value received", and, Reel 6, the two intertitles "Now that society has accepted me, of course, I cannot marry you" and "If you only will be sensible".

title: The House of Mirth

text: Lily attempts to neutralize the deleterious effects of the gossip surrounding her by renewing her association with her nemesis, Bertha Dorset, attending an unsuccessful house party at Bellomont, and cooperating with Carry Fisher's mission to bring the newcomers, the Wellington Brys, into high society. Following Mrs. Fisher's advice, the Wellington Brys throw a large "general entertainment"[16] featuring a series of tableaux vivants portrayed by a dozen fashionable women in their set, including Miss Bart.

title: The House of Mirth

text: On her last day at Bellomont, threats to Lily's social standing begin when she agrees to have Gus Trenor make investments for her with the small amount of money she has. Lacking financial knowledge Lily truly believes Gus is making investments on her behalf and accepts several large checks from him. On several occasions, however, Gus makes it clear that he expects romantic attention from Lily in exchange for his financial expertise. She begins playing cat and mouse with him resulting in her public appearances at opera and late afternoon walks in Central Park with him. In retribution for a social snub, Lily's cousin Grace Stepney informs their aunt Julia about rumors that Lily has gambling debts which she may be trying to cover through an inappropriate relationship with Gus Trenor. This sows seeds of doubt and discomfort in Aunt Julia who though shocked, does not discuss the situation with her niece so as to avoid a scene.

title: The House of Mirth (1918 film)

text: The House of Mirth is a 1918 American silent melodrama film directed by French film director Albert Capellani, starring Katherine Harris Barrymore as Lily Bart. It is a cinema adaptation of Edith Wharton's 1905 novel "The House of Mirth" and the first ever cinema adaptation of any of her work. It is not known whether the film currently survives.

title: The House of Mirth (1981 film)

text: The House of Mirth is a 1981 American television film directed by Adrian Hall. It is based on Edith Wharton's novel of the same name. It stars Geraldine Chaplin as the protagonist, Lily Bart. The film was part-funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. It was broadcast on WNET on 2 November 1981.

title: The House of Mirth (2000 film)

text: While Lily is hoping to hear from Lawrence Selden, Simon Rosedale visits, proposing to her as if suggesting a corporate merger. His wealth could free Lily, yet she politely rejects his flattering but cold blooded proposal. Bertha Dorset invites Lily to the Dorsets' yacht for a European cruise. Lily accepts, desperate to escape the debts, whispers and criticism in New York.

title: The House of Mirth

text: The pièce de résistance of this highly successful event turned out to be the portrayal of Mrs. Lloyd in Sir Joshua Reynolds' famous 18th-century painting (1775–1776). The portrait shows an attractive woman suggestively clad.[lower-alpha 9] As the curtain opens on this last scene, the gasp of approval heard from the audience was not so much for Reynold's brilliant interpretation of Mrs. Lloyd as it was for the loveliness of Lily Bart herself—marking the pinnacle of her social success.

title: The House of Mirth

text: The central theme of The House of Mirth is essentially the struggle between who we are and what society tells us we should be. Thus, it is considered by many to be as relevant today as it was in 1905.[14] If its sole subject had been the excesses and lives of the rich and famous, by themselves, it is doubtful it would have remained popular for as long as it has. The House of Mirth continues to attract readers over a century after its first publication, possibly due to its timeless theme. That the life and death of Lily Bart matters to modern readers suggests that Wharton succeeded in her purpose: to critique "a society so relentlessly materialistic and self-serving that it casually destroys what is most beautiful and blameless within it." [4]

title: The House of Mirth

text: As Selden observes her in this elegantly simple tableau, he sees the real Lily Bart as if for the first time[lower-alpha 10] and feels the desire to be with her. He finds her alone in the ballroom toward the end of the musical interlude, as the collective praise from her admirers is subsiding. He leads her to a garden where he tells her he loves her and they kiss. Lily sighs, " 'Ah, love me, love me—but don't tell me so!' " [1] and takes her leave.[lower-alpha 11] As Selden gathers his coat to leave, he is disturbed by Ned Van Alstyne's remarks, ". . . .Gad, what a show of good-looking women; but not one of 'em could touch that little cousin of mine. . . . I never knew till tonight what an outline Lily has." [1]

title: The House of Mirth

text: Carry Fisher (Mrs. Fisher)—A small, fiery and dramatic divorcée. She is perceived as carrying "a general air of embodying a 'spicy paragraph';"(70)[1] and according to Mrs. Trenor, ". . .most of her alimony is paid by other people's husbands." (91)[1] She sponges money from Gus Trenor to cover her bills much to his wife's chagrin. Although Gus accepts romantic favors from Mrs. Fisher in exchange for paying her bills and investing her money in the stock market, he considers her a "battered wire-puller"(94)[1] in comparison to the fresh and unsullied Miss Bart. Carry is also known for bringing newcomers into high society such as Rosedale and the Welly Brys who had managed the miracle of making money in a falling market. After Lily has been expelled from the upper class by Bertha, Carry is one of the few people who still shows compassion toward her, offering Lily support and money.

title: The House of Mirth (2000 film)

text: In Monte Carlo, Mrs. Carry Fisher meets with Selden, who has arrived from London. They are both worried about Lily, travelling on the Dorsets’ yacht. Lily and George Dorset converse on deck while a young man reads French poetry to Bertha. While ashore that evening, Lily and George look for them in vain before returning to the yacht. Next morning, George enters Lily's cabin, accusing her of knowing about Bertha's indiscretions with the young poet. Lily pleads ignorance of Bertha’s behavior. But when Bertha returns and Lily confronts her, saying she can no longer divert George’s attention from Bertha’s affair, Bertha turns the tables by accusing Lily of adultery with George, since Lily was alone aboard the yacht with him all night.

title: Gillian Anderson

text: Gillian Leigh Anderson, (born August 9, 1968) is an American–British film, television and theatre actress, activist and writer. Her credits include the roles of FBI Special Agent Dana Scully in the long-running series "The X-Files", ill-fated socialite Lily Bart in Terence Davies' film "The House of Mirth" (2000), and DSU Stella Gibson on the BBC crime drama television series "The Fall". Among other honours, Anderson has won a Primetime Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. She has resided in London since 2002, after earlier years divided between the United Kingdom and the United States.

title: The House of Mirth

text: &Mirth The House of Mirth is a 1905 novel by the American author Edith Wharton. It tells the story of Lily Bart, a well-born but impoverished woman belonging to New York City's high society around the turn of the last century.[lower-alpha 1] Wharton creates a portrait of a stunning beauty who, though raised and educated to marry well both socially and economically, is reaching her 29th year, an age when her youthful blush is drawing to a close and her marital prospects are becoming ever more limited. The House of Mirth traces Lily's slow two-year social descent from privilege to a tragically lonely existence on the margins of society. In the words of one scholar, Wharton uses Lily as an attack on "an irresponsible, grasping and morally corrupt upper class."[2]

title: The House of Mirth

text: Mrs. Peniston (Julia)—Lily's wealthy, widowed Aunt –sister to Lily's father. Mrs. Peniston embodies "old school" morality and has a family pedigree that goes back to the industrious and successful Dutch families of early New York. Although she maintains an opulent residence on fashionable Fifth Avenue, in Lily's eyes it lacks a certain chic, and thus is but one step away from dinginess. Mrs. Peniston's "Old New York" lifestyle requires keeping her drawing room neat, eating well and dressing expensively. She harbors a passive attitude and does not actively engage in life. Mrs. Peniston took pleasure in the public display of her generosity by agreeing to take Lilly on for a year after her mother died—much to the relief of the extended family. Lily stayed on for years because she was able to adapt to her aunt's passive ways and because Mrs. Peniston was indulgent for the volatility of youth. Lily is dissatisfied with her existence in her aunt's house to the point of engaging in "fits of angry rebellion against fate"(56).[1] She desires to make an independent life for herself, but that is economically and socially impossible. The peaceful co-existence she has constructed with her aunt comes to an end when Mrs. Peniston hears the rumors that Lily has had an affair, learns that Lily gambles on Sundays, and then disinherits her leaving Lily without a fashionable place to live and without a substantial inheritance.

title: The House of Mirth

text: Wharton considered several titles for the novel about Lily Bart; [lower-alpha 2] two were germane to her purpose:

title: The House of Mirth

text: Auchincloss, Louis (1961). Edith Wharton and her New Yorks, Reflections of a Jacobite. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Barnett, Louise K.(1989). Language, gender and society in The House of Mirth. Connecticut Review 11.2 (Summer), 54-63. Commander, Katherine Lucille (2008). "Tragedy in The House of Mirth: The decline of Lily Bart" University of Tennessee Honors Thesis Projects. in in Rattray, L.(ed.).(2012). Edith Wharton in Context. New York: Cambridge University Press. 400pp. Showalter, Elaine, The death of the lady (novelist): Wharton's House of Mirth in Carol J. Singley, ed. (2003). Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth, A Case Book, pp.39–61. New York: Oxford University Press. p.337. ISBN0-19-515603-X. Singley, Carol J., Introduction in Carol J. Singley, ed. (2003). Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth, A Case Book,pp.3–24. New York: Oxford University Press. p.337. ISBN0-19-515603-X. in in in Wolff, Cynthia Griffin, Lily Bart and the drama of femininity in Carol J. Singley, ed. (2003). Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth, A Case Book,pp.209–228. New York: Oxford University Press. p.337. ISBN0-19-515603-X.

title: The House of Mirth

text: "A moment's ornament"[lower-alpha 3] represents the way Wharton describes Lily's relationship to her reference group as a beautiful and well-bred socialite. Her value lasts only as long as her beauty and good-standing with the group is maintained. By centering the story around a portrait of Lily, Wharton was able to address directly the social limitations imposed upon her. These included the mores of the upper crust social class to which Lily belonged by birth, education, and breeding.[10]

title: Slut-shaming

text: One example of a character in literature has been described as being a recipient of 'slut-shaming' is the character Lily Bart in Edith Wharton's "House of Mirth".

title: Chloral hydrate

text:
In the conclusion of Edith Wharton's 1905 novel "The House of Mirth", Lily Bart, the novel's heroine, becomes addicted to chloral hydrate and overdoses on the substance:
She put out her hand and measured the soothing drops into a glass; but as she did so, she knew they would be powerless against the supernatural lucidity of her brain. She had long since raised the dose to its highest limit, but to-night she felt she must increase it. She knew she took a slight risk in doing so; she remembered the chemist's warning. If sleep came at all, it might be a sleep without waking.

title: The House of Mirth (2000 film)

text: Lily starts working for the social-climbing Mrs. Hatch as her social secretary. Selden tells Lily this hurts her social standing, but she needs the money. They argue and part on bad terms. Lily goes to the pharmacy for Mrs. Hatch's laudanum sleeping medication, and begins taking it herself. After Mrs. Hatch gets into society, she discovers that Lily's reputation is a liability, so she fires her. Lily gets a job sewing for a milliner, but her growing addiction leads to her being fired for poor work. Lily visits her cousin Grace for a loan but is rejected.

title: The House of Mirth

text: Undeterred by such misfortunes, Lily fights to regain her place in high society by befriending Mr. and Mrs. Gormer and becoming their social secretary, so as to introduce the Gormers to high society and groom them to take a better social position. However, her enemy, the malicious Bertha Dorset, gradually communicates to them the "scandalous" personal background of Lily Bart, and thus undermines the friendship which Lily had hoped would socially rehabilitate her. Only two friends remain for Lily: Gerty Farish (a cousin of Lawrence Selden) and Carry Fisher, who help her cope with the social ignominy of a degraded social status while continually advising Lily to marry as soon as reasonably possible.

title: The House of Mirth

text: Meanwhile, Simon Rosedale, the Jewish suitor who previously had proposed marriage to Lily when she was higher on the social scale, reappears in her life and tries to rescue her, but Lily is unwilling to meet his terms. Simon wants Lily to use the love letters that she bought from Selden's servant to expose the love affair between Lawrence Selden and Bertha Dorset. For the sake of Selden's reputation, Lily does not act upon Rosedale's request and secretly burns the love letters when she visits Selden one last time.

title: The House of Mirth

text: Grace Stepney—Lily's competitive middle-aged cousin who lives in a boarding house and who attracts and remembers all manner of gossip related to high society in general and to Lily in particular. Unbeknownst to Lily, Grace dislikes her because she felt "mortally offended" at being excluded from her Aunt Peniston's dinner party for Jack and Gwen on their return from their honeymoon. She surmised, not unjustly, that it was Lily's counsel to her Aunt Peniston that kept her from being included. To get even Grace relays to Aunt Julia the talk about Lily's attention to Gus Trenor in exchange for money that Lily used to pay gambling debts. Grace refuses to give Lily financial assistance when she is down and out.

title: Katherine Corri Harris

text: As Katherine Harris Barrymore, she appeared in two of Barrymore's now lost silent films: "Nearly a King" (1916) and "The Lost Bridegroom" (1916). In 1918, she starred as Lily Bart in the silent film version of Edith Wharton's 1905 novel, "The House of Mirth", directed by Albert Capellani.

title: List of awards and nominations received by Gillian Anderson

text: Anderson was nominated for the BAFTA TV Award twice: in 2006, as Best Actress on Television for "Bleak House" and in 2011, for Best Supporting Actress on Television for her portrayal of Wallis Simpson in "Any Human Heart". For her portrayal of Lily Bart in "The House of Mirth" (2000) Anderson won the British Independent Film Award for Best Actress.

title: The House of Mirth

text: Lily Bart, a beautiful but impoverished socialite, is on her way to a house party at Bellomont, the country home of her best friend, Judy Trenor. Her pressing task is to find a husband with the requisite wealth and status to maintain her place in New York society. Judy has arranged for her to meet the wealthy though boring Percy Gryce, a potential suitor. Lily grew up surrounded by elegance and luxury—an atmosphere she believes she cannot live without, as she has learned to abhor "dinginess." The loss of her father's wealth and the death of her parents left her an orphan without inheritance or a caring protector. She adapts to life as ward of her straight-laced aunt Julia Peniston from whom she receives an erratic allowance, a fashionable address, and good food, but little succor.