title: Endocrinology

text: In the original 1902 definition by Bayliss and Starling (see below), they specified that, to be classified as a hormone, a chemical must be produced by an organ, be released (in small amounts) into the blood, and be transported by the blood to a distant organ to exert its specific function. This definition holds for most "classical" hormones, but there are also paracrine mechanisms (chemical communication between cells within a tissue or organ), autocrine signals (a chemical that acts on the same cell), and intracrine signals (a chemical that acts within the same cell). A neuroendocrine signal is a "classical" hormone that is released into the blood by a neurosecretory neuron (see article on neuroendocrinology).


title: Endocrinology

text: Amines, such as norepinephrine, epinephrine, and dopamine (catecholamines), are derived from single amino acids, in this case tyrosine. Thyroid hormones such as 3,5,3’-triiodothyronine (T3) and 3,5,3’,5’-tetraiodothyronine (thyroxine, T4) make up a subset of this class because they derive from the combination of two iodinated tyrosine amino acid residues.


title: Endocrinology

text: Peptide hormones and protein hormones consist of three (in the case of thyrotropin-releasing hormone) to more than 200 (in the case of follicle-stimulating hormone) amino acid residues and can have a molecular mass as large as 31,000 grams per mole. All hormones secreted by the pituitary gland are peptide hormones, as are leptin from adipocytes, ghrelin from the stomach, and insulin from the pancreas.


title: Endocrinology

text: Steroid hormones are converted from their parent compound, cholesterol. Mammalian steroid hormones can be grouped into five groups by the receptors to which they bind: glucocorticoids, mineralocorticoids, androgens, estrogens, and progestogens. Some forms of vitamin D, such as calcitriol, are steroid-like and bind to homologous receptors, but lack the characteristic fused ring structure of true steroids.


title: Endocrinology

text: Although every organ system secretes and responds to hormones (including the brain, lungs, heart, intestine, skin, and the kidneys), the clinical specialty of endocrinology focuses primarily on the "endocrine organs", meaning the organs whose primary function is hormone secretion. These organs include the pituitary, thyroid, adrenals, ovaries, testes, and pancreas.


title: Endocrinology

text: An "endocrinologist" is a physician who specializes in treating disorders of the endocrine system, such as diabetes, hyperthyroidism, and many others (see list of diseases).


title: Endocrinology

text: The medical specialty of endocrinology involves the diagnostic evaluation of a wide variety of symptoms and variations and the long-term management of disorders of deficiency or excess of one or more hormones.


title: Endocrinology

text: The diagnosis and treatment of endocrine diseases are guided by laboratory tests to a greater extent than for most specialties. Many diseases are investigated through "excitation/stimulation" or "inhibition/suppression" testing. This might involve injection with a stimulating agent to test the function of an endocrine organ. Blood is then sampled to assess the changes of the relevant hormones or metabolites. An endocrinologist needs extensive knowledge of clinical chemistry and biochemistry to understand the uses and limitations of the investigations.


title: Endocrinology

text: A second important aspect of the practice of endocrinology is distinguishing human variation from disease. Atypical patterns of physical development and abnormal test results must be assessed as indicative of disease or not. Diagnostic imaging of endocrine organs may reveal incidental findings called incidentalomas, which may or may not represent disease.


title: Endocrinology

text: Endocrinology involves caring for the person as well as the disease. Most endocrine disorders are chronic diseases that need lifelong care. Some of the most common endocrine diseases include diabetes mellitus, hypothyroidism and the metabolic syndrome. Care of diabetes, obesity and other chronic diseases necessitates understanding the patient at the personal and social level as well as the molecular, and the physician–patient relationship can be an important therapeutic process.


title: Endocrinology

text: Apart from treating patients, many endocrinologists are involved in clinical science and medical research, teaching, and hospital management.


title: Endocrinology

text: Endocrinologists are specialists of internal medicine or pediatrics. Reproductive endocrinologists deal primarily with problems of fertility and menstrual function—often training first in obstetrics. Most qualify as an internist, pediatrician, or gynecologist for a few years before specializing, depending on the local training system. In the U.S. and Canada, training for board certification in internal medicine, pediatrics, or gynecology after medical school is called residency. Further formal training to subspecialize in adult, pediatric, or reproductive endocrinology is called a fellowship. Typical training for a North American endocrinologist involves 4 years of college, 4 years of medical school, 3 years of residency, and 2 years of fellowship. In the US, adult endocrinologists are board certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) or the American Osteopathic Board of Internal Medicine (AOBIM) in Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism.


title: Endocrinology

text: Endocrinology also involves the study of the diseases of the endocrine system. These diseases may relate to too little or too much secretion of a hormone, too little or too much action of a hormone, or problems with receiving the hormone.


title: Endocrinology

text: Because endocrinology encompasses so many conditions and diseases, there are many organizations that provide education to patients and the public. The Hormone Foundation is the public education affiliate of The Endocrine Society and provides information on all endocrine-related conditions. Other educational organizations that focus on one or more endocrine-related conditions include the American Diabetes Association, Human Growth Foundation, American Menopause Foundation, Inc., and Thyroid Foundation of America.


title: Endocrinology

text: In North America the principal professional organizations of endocrinologists include The Endocrine Society, the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists, the American Diabetes Association, the Lawson Wilkins Pediatric Endocrine Society, and the American Thyroid Association.


title: Endocrinology

text: In Europe, the European Society of Endocrinology (ESE) and the European Society for Paediatric Endocrinology (ESPE) are the main organisations representing professionals in the fields of adult and paediatric endocrinology, respectively.


title: Endocrinology

text: In the United Kingdom, the Society for Endocrinology and the British Society for Paediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes are the main professional organisations.


title: Endocrinology

text: The European Society for Paediatric Endocrinology is the largest international professional association dedicated solely to paediatric endocrinology. There are numerous similar associations around the world.


title: Endocrinology

text: The earliest study of endocrinology began in China. The Chinese were isolating sex and pituitary hormones from human urine and using them for medicinal purposes by 200 BC. They used many complex methods, such as sublimation of steroid hormones. Another method specified by Chinese texts—the earliest dating to 1110—specified the use of saponin (from the beans of "Gleditsia sinensis") to extract hormones, but gypsum (containing calcium sulfate) was also known to have been used.


title: Endocrinology

text: Although most of the relevant tissues and endocrine glands had been identified by early anatomists, a more humoral approach to understanding biological function and disease was favoured by the ancient Greek and Roman thinkers such as Aristotle, Hippocrates, Lucretius, Celsus, and Galen, according to Freeman et al., and these theories held sway until the advent of germ theory, physiology, and organ basis of pathology in the 19th century.


title: Endocrinology

text: In 1849, Arnold Berthold noted that castrated cockerels did not develop combs and wattles or exhibit overtly male behaviour. He found that replacement of testes back into the abdominal cavity of the same bird or another castrated bird resulted in normal behavioural and morphological development, and he concluded (erroneously) that the testes secreted a substance that "conditioned" the blood that, in turn, acted on the body of the cockerel. In fact, one of two other things could have been true: that the testes modified or activated a constituent of the blood or that the testes removed an inhibitory factor from the blood. It was not proven that the testes released a substance that engenders male characteristics until it was shown that the extract of testes could replace their function in castrated animals. Pure, crystalline testosterone was isolated in 1935.


title: Endocrinology

text: Graves' disease was named after Irish doctor Robert James Graves, who described a case of goiter with exophthalmos in 1835. The German Karl Adolph von Basedow also independently reported the same constellation of symptoms in 1840, while earlier reports of the disease were also published by the Italians Giuseppe Flajani and Antonio Giuseppe Testa, in 1802 and 1810 respectively, and by the English physician Caleb Hillier Parry (a friend of Edward Jenner) in the late 18th century. Thomas Addison was first to describe Addison's disease in 1849.


title: Endocrinology

text: In 1902 William Bayliss and Ernest Starling performed an experiment in which they observed that acid instilled into the duodenum caused the pancreas to begin secretion, even after they had removed all nervous connections between the two. The same response could be produced by injecting extract of jejunum mucosa into the jugular vein, showing that some factor in the mucosa was responsible. They named this substance "secretin" and coined the term "hormone" for chemicals that act in this way.


title: Endocrinology

text: Joseph von Mering and Oskar Minkowski made the observation in 1889 that removing the pancreas surgically led to an increase in blood sugar, followed by a coma and eventual death—symptoms of diabetes mellitus. In 1922, Banting and Best realized that homogenizing the pancreas and injecting the derived extract reversed this condition.


title: Endocrinology

text: Neurohormones were first identified by Otto Loewi in 1921. He incubated a frog's heart (innervated with its vagus nerve attached) in a saline bath, and left in the solution for some time. The solution was then used to bathe a non-innervated second heart. If the vagus nerve on the first heart was stimulated, negative inotropic (beat amplitude) and chronotropic (beat rate) activity were seen in both hearts. This did not occur in either heart if the vagus nerve was not stimulated. The vagus nerve was adding something to the saline solution. The effect could be blocked using atropine, a known inhibitor to heart vagal nerve stimulation. Clearly, something was being secreted by the vagus nerve and affecting the heart. The "vagusstuff" (as Loewi called it) causing the myotropic (muscle enhancing) effects was later identified to be acetylcholine and norepinephrine. Loewi won the Nobel Prize for his discovery.


title: Endocrinology

text: Recent work in endocrinology focuses on the molecular mechanisms responsible for triggering the effects of hormones. The first example of such work being done was in 1962 by Earl Sutherland. Sutherland investigated whether hormones enter cells to evoke action, or stayed outside of cells. He studied norepinephrine, which acts on the liver to convert glycogen into glucose via the activation of the phosphorylase enzyme. He homogenized the liver into a membrane fraction and soluble fraction (phosphorylase is soluble), added norepinephrine to the membrane fraction, extracted its soluble products, and added them to the first soluble fraction. Phosphorylase activated, indicating that norepinephrine's target receptor was on the cell membrane, not located intracellularly. He later identified the compound as cyclic AMP (cAMP) and with his discovery created the concept of second-messenger-mediated pathways. He, like Loewi, won the Nobel Prize for his groundbreaking work in endocrinology.


title: President pro tempore of the United States Senate

text: The president pro tempore of the United States Senate (often shortened to president pro tem) is the second-highest-ranking official of the United States Senate, after the vice president. According to Article One, Section Three of the United States Constitution, the vice president of the United States is the president of the Senate (despite not being a senator), and the Senate must choose a president "pro tempore" to act in the vice president's absence.


text: The president pro tempore is elected by the Senate as a whole, usually by a resolution which is adopted by unanimous consent without a formal vote. The Constitution does not specify who can serve in this position, but the Senate has always elected one of its current members. Unlike the vice president, the president pro tempore cannot cast a tie-breaking vote when the Senate is equally divided. The president pro tempore has enjoyed many privileges and some limited powers.


text: During the vice president's absence, the president pro tempore is empowered to preside over Senate sessions. Except when necessary or to highlight important votes, the vice president and the president pro tempore rarely preside; instead, the duty of presiding officer is rotated among junior U.S. senators of the majority party to give them experience in parliamentary procedure.


text: Since 1890, the most senior U.S. senator in the majority party has generally been chosen to be president pro tempore and holds the office continuously until the election of another. Since the enactment of the current Presidential Succession Act in 1947, the president pro tempore is third in the line of succession to the presidency, after the vice president and the speaker of the House of Representatives and ahead of the secretary of state.


text: The current president pro tempore of the Senate is Patrick Leahy of Vermont. He was sworn in on January 20, 2021, during the 117th Congress, when the Democratic Party gained control of the Senate. He previously held the position from 2012 to 2015.


text: In December, 2022, Senate Democrats nominated Patty Murray as the next president pro tempore, as Leahy did not run for reelection to the Senate in 2022. Murray is the second-longest serving Democrat in the senate: longest-serving Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein declined to run for the position. Murray will likely be elected to the office upon the convening of the 118th Congress.


text: Although the position is in some ways analogous to the speaker of the House of Representatives, the powers of the president pro tempore are far more limited. In the Senate, most power rests with the majority leader and other individual senators, but as the chamber's presiding officer, the president pro tempore is authorized to perform certain duties in the absence of the vice president, including ruling on points of order. Additionally, under the 25th Amendment to the Constitution, the president pro tempore and the speaker are the two authorities to whom declarations must be transmitted that the president is unable to perform the duties of the office, or is able to resume doing so. The president pro tempore is third in the line of presidential succession, following the vice president and the speaker, and consequently is one of the few members of Congress entitled to a full-time security detail. Additional duties include appointment of various congressional officers, certain commissions, advisory boards, and committees. The president pro tempore is the designated legal recipient of various reports to the Senate, including War Powers Act reports under which they, jointly with the speaker, may require the president to call Congress back into session. The officeholder is an "ex officio" member of various boards and commissions. With the secretary and sergeant at arms, the president pro tempore maintains order in Senate portions of the Capitol and Senate buildings.


text: The office of president pro tempore was established by the Constitution of the United States in 1789. Between 1792 and 1886, the president pro tempore was second in the line of presidential succession, following the vice president and preceding the speaker. Through 1891, the president pro tempore was appointed on an intermittent basis only, when the vice president was not present to preside over the Senate, or at the adjournment of a session of Congress.


text: The first president pro tempore, John Langdon, was elected on April 6, 1789, serving four separate terms between 1789 and 1793. "More than twelve senators held the office during the Senate's first decade," presiding over sessions, signing legislation, and performing routine administrative tasks.


text: Whenever the office of the vice presidency was vacant, as it was on ten occasions between 1812 and 1889, the office garnered heightened importance, for although he did not assume the vice presidency, the president pro tempore stood next in line for the presidency. Before the ratification of the Twenty-fifth Amendment in 1967, a vacancy in the vice presidency could be filled only by a regular election; several individuals who served during these vacancies were referred to informally as "acting vice president."


text: On three occasions during the 19th century, the Senate was without both a president and a president pro tempore:


text: When President Andrew Johnson, who had no vice president, was impeached and tried in 1868, Senate President pro tempore Benjamin Franklin Wade was next in line to the presidency. Wade's radicalism is thought by many historians to be a major reason why the Senate, which did not want to see Wade in the White House, acquitted Johnson.


text: Vice President Henry Wilson died on November 22, 1875. Senator Thomas W. Ferry, being President pro tempore of the Senate, was next in the line of presidential succession, and remained so until March 4, 1877. As acting president of the senate, he presided over the 1876 impeachment trial of U.S. Secretary of War William Belknap and the meetings of the Electoral Commission created by Congress to resolve the disputed 1876 presidential election. Still president pro tempore at that time, he would have temporally become the acting president had the Electoral College vote not been certified by March 4, 1877; Congress certified Rutherford B. Hayes as the winner of the Electoral College vote on March 2.


text: The president pro tempore and the speaker of the House were removed from the presidential line of succession in 1886. Both were restored to it in 1947, though this time with the president pro tempore following the speaker.


text: William P. Frye served as president pro tempore from 1896 to 1911 (the 54th through the 62nd Congresses), a tenure longer than anyone else. He resigned from the position due to ill health shortly before his death. Electing his successor proved difficult, as Senate Republicans, then in the majority, were split between progressive and conservative factions, each promoting its own candidate. Likewise, the Democrats proposed their own candidate. As a result of this three-way split, no individual received a majority vote. It took four months for a compromise solution to emerge: Democrat Augustus Bacon served for a single day, August 14, 1911, during the vice president's absence. Thereafter, Bacon and four Republicans—Charles Curtis, Jacob Gallinger, Henry Cabot Lodge, and Frank Brandegee—alternated as president pro tempore for the remainder of that Congress' session.


text: In January 1945, the 79th Congress elected Kenneth McKellar, who at the time was the senator with the longest continuous service, to be president pro tempore. Since then, it has become customary for the majority party's senior member to hold this position. Arthur Vandenberg (from 1947 to 1949) was the last president pro tempore not to be the senior member of the majority party, aside from the single day in December 1980 accorded Milton Young, who was the retiring senior member of the Republican Party, which would hold the majority in the incoming 97th Congress.


text: Three presidents pro tempore have gone on to be elected to the office of vice president—John Tyler, William R. King, and Charles Curtis—of whom Tyler is the only one to become president, assuming the office in April 1841 upon the death of William Henry Harrison.


text: While the president pro tempore does have other official duties, the holders of the office have, like the vice president, over time ceased presiding over the Senate on a daily basis, owing to the mundane and ceremonial nature of the position. Furthermore, as the president pro tempore is usually the most senior senator of the majority party, they most likely also chair a major Senate committee and have other significant demands on their time. Therefore, the president pro tempore has less time now than in the past to preside daily over the Senate. Instead, junior senators from the majority party are designated acting president pro tempore to preside over the Senate. This allows junior senators to learn proper parliamentary procedure. The acting president pro tempore is usually reappointed daily by the president pro tempore.


text: In June 1963, because of the illness of president pro tempore Carl Hayden, Lee Metcalf was designated permanent acting president pro tempore. No term was imposed on this designation, so Metcalf retained it until he died in office in 1978.


text: The ceremonial post of deputy president pro tempore was created for Hubert Humphrey, a former vice president, in 1977 following his losing bid to become the Senate majority leader. The Senate resolution creating the position stated that any former president or former vice president serving in the Senate would be entitled to this position. However, since Humphrey, none has served.


text: George J. Mitchell was elected deputy president pro tempore in 1987, because of the illness of president pro tempore John C. Stennis, similar to Metcalf's earlier designation as permanent acting president pro tempore. The office has remained vacant since 1989 and no senator other than Humphrey and Mitchell has held it since its creation. Mitchell is the only person to have served as deputy president pro tempore who was neither a former president nor former vice president of the United States.


text: Since 2001, the honorary title of president pro tempore emeritus has been given to a senator of the minority party who has previously served as president pro tempore. The position has been held by Strom Thurmond (R-South Carolina) (2001–2003), Robert Byrd (D-West Virginia) (2003–2007), Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) (2007–2009), Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) (2015–2021), and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) (2021–present). From 2009 to 2015, no senator met the requirements for the position.


text: The position was created for Thurmond when the Democratic Party regained a majority in the Senate in June 2001. With the change in party control, Democrat Robert Byrd of West Virginia replaced Thurmond as president pro tempore, reclaiming a position he had previously held from 1989 to 1995 and briefly in January 2001. Thurmond's retirement from the Senate on January 3, 2003, coincided with a change from Democratic to Republican control, making Stevens president pro tempore and Byrd the second president pro tempore emeritus. In 2007, Byrd returned as president pro tempore, and Stevens became the third president pro tempore emeritus, when the Democrats gained control of the Senate. Although a president pro tempore emeritus has no official duties, they are entitled to an increase in staff, and advise party leaders on the functions of the Senate.


text: The office's accompanying budget increase was removed toward the end of the 113th Congress, shortly before Patrick Leahy was to become the first holder of the office in six years.


text: The salary of the president pro tempore for 2012 was $193,400, equal to that of the majority leaders and minority leaders of both houses of Congress. If there is a vacancy in the office of vice president, then the salary would be the same as that of the vice president.


title: Tom Stoltman

text: Tom Stoltman (born 30 May 1994) is a British professional strongman competitor, reigning two time World's Strongest Man and Britain's Strongest Man from Invergordon, Scotland. Nicknamed "The Albatross" due to his sizeable arm span, Stoltman is known for his prowess with the Atlas Stones, the premier strongman event. In 2020, Stoltman broke the world record for lifting five of the giant concrete balls in just 16.01 seconds; he also holds the world record for the heaviest Atlas stone ever lifted over a bar .


title: Tom Stoltman

text: On 20 June 2021, Stoltman won the 2021 World's Strongest Man competition, becoming the first man from Scotland to win the World's Strongest Man and the fifth British person to do so, he has also said that he will win every uear until Riley (man) Cooper will be his successor. On 29 May 2022, Stoltman won the 2022 World's Strongest Man, becoming only the second Briton to win two titles, 37 years after Geoff Capes and the first to win back to back titles; he is also the 2021 and 2022 Britain's Strongest Man. Stoltman is the younger brother of the 2021 Europe's Strongest Man and five-time Scotland's Strongest Man, Luke Stoltman, with whom he runs their YouTube channel The Stoltman Brothers.


title: Tom Stoltman

text: Tom Stoltman was born in Invergordon, Ross and Cromarty to parents Ben and Sheila, ten years after oldest brother and fellow strongman competitor Luke. He was diagnosed with autism at the age of 5. Tom attended Newmore Primary School and Invergordon Academy in the Scottish Highlands where he developed his passion for playing football. As a result of his performances in the school football team, Stoltman was invited to Ross County and Rangers youth set up for trials. Inspired by Luke's success as Scotland's Strongest Man, Stoltman switched his attention to weight training in the local gym at the age of 16. Within a year, he was showing such potential that Luke decided to take him under his wing and guide him through training for strongman.


title: Tom Stoltman

text: Aged 18, Stoltman entered and won his first competition, Highlands Strongest Man. This was followed by success at the Scotland's Strongest Man (SSM) qualifier and subsequently placed 5th in the main event. In 2015 Stoltman reached the podium of SSM, finishing second only to his elder brother Luke the next three years in a row. 2017 was seen as Stoltman's breakout year, he finished second in the UK's Strongest Man competition behind reigning Europe's Strongest Man, Laurence Shahlaei and placed well in Britain's Strongest Man (BSM). These exploits gained him an invitation to his first World's Strongest Man finals where he competed in the heats against former champion Brian Shaw and four-time finalist JF Caron. This was followed up by taking his first SSM win ahead of Luke in 2018, and an 8th-place finish at the World's Ultimate Strongman (WUS) in Dubai the same year.


title: Tom Stoltman

text: Stoltman ranked 5th at the 2019 WSM and 3rd at WUS, as well as an SSM trophy and a podium finish at BSM. In 2020 Stoltman returned to the World's Strongest Man finals in Florida, finishing in second place after a low scoring finish in the Hercules Hold. At BSM in the same year, Stoltmman took 2nd place and in doing so broke the world record for the Giants Live's light set of Castle Stones in 16.01 seconds.


title: Tom Stoltman

text: In 2021 Stoltman won the 2021 World's Strongest Man title in Sacramento, California. Wins for Stoltman in two of the first five events in the competition had edged him into the lead ahead of four-time winner Brian Shaw. The win was sealed with Stoltman completing the Atlas Stone () run in 20.21 seconds, taking the event win and overall title back to Scotland for the first time in the competition's history. Stoltman also won Britain's Strongest Man in 2021, the same year in which his brother Luke won Europe's Strongest Man.


title: Tom Stoltman

text: In 2022, Stoltman successfully defended his BSM title at the Utilita Arena in Sheffield, England. The World's Strongest Man competition, again held in Sacramento, saw Stoltman qualify first in his heat winning each of the first three events. The final saw Stoltman pitted against three former winners, four-time winner Shaw, and 2019 and 2020 winners Martins Licis and Oleksiy Novikov. Stoltman won with and overall score of 10.5 points, becoming only the second Briton to win two titles, 37 years after Geoff Capes and the first ever to win back to back titles.


title: Tom Stoltman

text: Stoltman is one of five siblings, all of whom live in and around their hometown of Invergordon close to their father, Ben. Stoltman's youngest brother Harry works for the Stoltman Brothers' business and is currently training to compete in strongman competition. Stoltman married wife Sinead in 2015 and is a supporter of Rangers FC.


title: Tom Stoltman

text: Stoltman's mother Sheila died aged 56 in 2016. Stoltman and his brother Luke regularly cite their mother's influence as key to inspiring them to succeed in their careers.


title: Tom Stoltman

text: In 2021 a permanent tribute to Stoltman and brother Luke was installed by Invergordon Community Council in their hometown, where the signs at the entrances to Invergordon were updated to include their names and achievements.  The sign reads "Welcome to Invergordon. Hometown of the Stoltman Brothers. World, European and UK Strongest Men".


title: Tom Stoltman

text: In 2018, alongside brother Luke, Stoltman opened a commercial gym, The Stoltman Strength Centre, in Invergordon. This was originally a joint venture with another party though is now fully owned by the Stoltman Brothers Ltd. The brothers use the facility for the majority of their training, having originally trained in Luke’s home gym in his garage.


title: Tom Stoltman

text: As the popularity of the brothers has risen through their achievements and media presence, they began to sell Stoltman Brothers branded merchandise via an online shop. Original offerings were primarily focused around images of the brothers; however this has now been built up to include more everyday lifestyle clothing with Stoltman branding, 'motivational' apparel featuring some of the company/brothers' values and quotes, and more recently a collaboration with other strongmen where t-shirts with the athletes images are produced. All clothing is sold via the Stoltman Brothers website, with preparations also currently underway to open a shop in Invergordon.


title: Tom Stoltman

text: Together with brother Luke, Stoltman has a YouTube channel through which they show training and competition footage, partake in various challenges, and provide an insight to everyday life for professional strongmen athletes. The brothers regularly collaborate on the channel with other well-known health and fitness personalities and YouTubers, with Eddie Hall, Matt Does Fitness, Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson and Larry Wheels all having featured.


title: Tom Stoltman

text: The brothers are also the subject of a documentary which is currently in production. Footage for which has been shot by Mulligan Brothers Studio and documents the brothers rise to prominence as elite level strongmen athletes and inspirational figures.


title: Tom Stoltman

text: Luke and Tom both feature and narrate in Coach Mike Chadwick's The Red On Revolution book, published in 2022.


title: Game Boy Color

text: The (commonly abbreviated as GBC) is a handheld game console, manufactured by Nintendo, which was released in Japan on October 21, 1998 and to international markets that November. It is the successor to the Game Boy and is part of the Game Boy product line.


title: Game Boy Color

text: The GBC features a color screen rather than monochrome, but it is not backlit. It is slightly thicker and taller and features a slightly smaller screen than the Game Boy Pocket, its immediate predecessor in the Game Boy line. As with the original Game Boy, it has a custom 8-bit processor made by Sharp that is considered a hybrid between the Intel 8080 and the Zilog Z80. The American English spelling of the system's name, "Game Boy Color", remains consistent throughout the world.


title: Game Boy Color

text: The Game Boy Color is part of the fifth generation of video game consoles. The GBC's primary competitors in Japan were the grayscale 16-bit handhelds, SNK's Neo Geo Pocket and Bandai's WonderSwan, though the Game Boy Color outsold them by a wide margin. SNK and Bandai countered with the Neo Geo Pocket Color and the WonderSwan Color, respectively, but this did little to change Nintendo's sales dominance. With Sega discontinuing the Game Gear in 1997, the Game Boy Color's only competitor in the United States was its predecessor, the Game Boy, until the short-lived Neo Geo Pocket Color was released in North America in August 1999. The Game Boy and the Game Boy Color combined have sold 118.69 million units worldwide making them the third-best-selling system of all time.


title: Game Boy Color

text: On March 23, 2003, the Game Boy Color was discontinued, shortly after the release of the Game Boy Advance SP. Its best-selling game is "Pokémon Gold" and "Silver", which shipped 23 million units worldwide.


title: Game Boy Color

text: Development for the Game Boy Color began in 1996, when Nintendo received requests from game developers for a more sophisticated handheld platform, who said that even the latest iteration of the original system, the Game Boy Pocket, had insufficient hardware. Nintendo developed the console concurrently with its successor, the Game Boy Advance (which was codenamed “Atlantis” at the time). The resultant product was backward compatible with all existing Game Boy software, a first for a handheld system, allowing each new Game Boy product launch to begin with a significantly larger game library than any of its competitors.


title: Game Boy Color

text: The processor, which is a hybrid Intel 8080 and Zilog Z80 workalike made by Sharp with a few extra (bit manipulation) instructions, has a clock speed of approximately 8 MHz, twice as fast as that of the original Game Boy. The Game Boy Color has three times as much memory as the original (32 KB system RAM, 16 KB video RAM). The screen resolution is the same as the original Game Boy at 160×144 pixels.


title: Game Boy Color

text: The Game Boy Color features an infrared communications port for wireless linking. The feature is only supported in a small number of games, so the infrared port was dropped from the Game Boy Advance line, to be later reintroduced with the Nintendo 3DS, though wireless linking would return in the Nintendo DS line using Wi-Fi. The console is capable of displaying up to 56 different colors simultaneously on screen from its palette of 32,768 (8×4 color background palettes, 8x3+transparent sprite palettes), and can add basic four-, seven- or ten-color shading to games that had been developed for the original 4-shades-of-grey Game Boy. In the 7-color modes, the sprites and backgrounds are given separate color schemes, and in the 10-color modes the sprites are further split into two differently-colored groups; however, as flat black (or white) was a shared fourth color in all but one (7-color) palette, the overall effect is that of 4, 6, or 8 colors. This method of upgrading the color count results in graphic artifacts in certain games; for example, a sprite that is supposed to meld into the background is sometimes colored separately, making it easily noticeable. Manipulation of palette registers during display allows for a rarely used high color mode, capable of displaying more than 2,000 colors on the screen simultaneously.


title: Game Boy Color

text: For dozens of select Game Boy games, the Game Boy Color has an enhanced palette built-in featuring up to 16 colors—four colors for each of the Game Boy's four layers. If the system does not have a palette stored for a game, it defaults to the "Dark green" palette. However, at power-up, one of 12 built-in color palettes is selectable by pressing a directional button and optionally A or B while the Game Boy logo is present on the screen.


title: Game Boy Color

text: These palettes each contain up to ten colors. In most games, the four shades displayed on the original Game Boy translate to different subsets of this 10-color palette, such as by displaying movable sprites in one subset and backgrounds in another. The grayscale (Left + B) palette produces an appearance similar to that experienced on the original Game Boy, Game Boy Pocket, or Game Boy Light.


title: Game Boy Color

text: A few games used a scan-line color switch technique to increase the number of colors available on-screen to more than 2,000. This "Hi-Color mode" was used by licensed developers including 7th Sense. Some examples of games using this technique are "The Fish Files", "The New Addams Family Series", and "Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare". "Cannon Fodder" uses this technique to render full motion video segments in the introduction sequence, ending, and main menu screen.


title: Game Boy Color

text: Game Boy Color exclusive games are housed in clear-colored Game Pak cartridges. They are shaped differently than original Game Boy Game Paks. Notably, these cartridges lack a notch that prevented the original Game Paks from being removed while the original Game Boy was powered on due to a plastic piece attached to the power switch, which would slide over the notch, locking a cartridge inside the system during gameplay (although some special cartridges like "Kirby Tilt 'n' Tumble" do include this notch). The lack of this notch keeps original Game Boy systems loaded with Game Boy Color cartridges from powering on. Similarly, Game Boy Pocket, Super Game Boy, Super Game Boy 2, and Game Boy Light will power on when loaded with a Game Boy Color cartridge but will refuse to load the game and will display a warning message stating that a Game Boy Color system is required. This same warning message can be viewed on an original Game Boy as well if the piece that slides into the notch is cut out of the Game Boy. Some Game Boy cartridges such as "Chee-Chai Alien" and "Pocket Music" cannot be played on Game Boy Advance and Game Boy Advance SP systems. When inserted and powered on, these systems will exhibit a similar error message and will not load the game. Black cartridges are backwards compatible, playable on the original Game Boy.


title: Game Boy Color

text: The logo for Game Boy Color spells out the word "COLOR" in the five original colors in which the unit was manufactured: Berry (C), Grape (O), Kiwi (L), Dandelion (O), and Teal (R).


title: Game Boy Color

text: Another color released at the same time was "Atomic Purple", made of a translucent purple plastic similar to the color available for the Nintendo 64 controller. Other colors were sold as limited editions or in specific countries.


title: Game Boy Color

text: Due to its backward compatibility with Game Boy games, the Game Boy Color's launch period had a large playable library. The system amassed a library of 576 Game Boy Color games over a four-year period. While the majority of the games are Game Boy Color exclusive, approximately 30% of the games released are compatible with the original Game Boy.


title: Game Boy Color

text: "Tetris" for the original Game Boy is the best-selling game compatible with Game Boy Color, and "Pokémon Gold" and "Silver" are the best-selling games developed primarily for it. The best-selling Game Boy Color exclusive game is "Pokémon Crystal".


title: Game Boy Color

text: The last Game Boy Color game ever released is the Japanese exclusive "Doraemon no Study Boy: Kanji Yomikaki Master", on July 18, 2003. The last game released in North America is "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets", released on November 15, 2002. In Europe the last game released for the system is "", on January 10, 2003.


title: Game Boy Color

text: The Game Boy and Game Boy Color were both commercially successful, selling a combined 32.47 million units in Japan, 44.06 million in the Americas, and 42.16 million in other regions. At the time of its discontinuation in 2003, the combined sales of the Game Boy were the best-selling game console of all time. Surpassed in sales by the Nintendo DS and PlayStation 2, the pair are now the third-best-selling console and the second-best-selling handheld of all time. Sales of the console were in part driven by the success of "Pokemon Gold and Silver" and "Pokémon Crystal", with combined sales of 29.5 million units, making them one of the best selling-video games of all time.


title: Game Boy Color

text: Sales of the Game Boy Color were strong at launch. Nintendo of America reported a sale of one million units from launch to December 1998, and two million by July 1999. Retail chains in the United States reported unexpectedly high demand for the console, with executives of FuncoLand reporting "very pleasant and unpredicted" sales and Electronics Boutique stating "the entire Game Boy Color line just exploded, including accessories" upon release. Faced with high worldwide demand and competitive retail pricing, retailers such as CompUSA sold out of Game Boy Color stock in the weeks before the 1998 Christmas season.


title: Game Boy Color

text: Reception of the Game Boy Color was positive, with critics praising the addition of color and improved clarity of the display. Affiliated publications such as "Total Game Boy" praised the handheld for its "bright, colorful picture that can be viewed in direct light", backward compatibility features preserving the "vast catalogue of original Game Boy games", and improved technical performance. "Computer and Video Games" praised the Game Boy Color for making the Game Boy library of games "look better than ever - everything is crystal clear, bright and in colour". Writing for "GameSpot", Chris Johnston stated that the display was "crystal clear" and free of motion blur, stating that "Tetris DX" was the "killer app" of the launch titles on the platform. Milder reviews included those by "Arcade", who conceded that the colors were "not as eyeball-popping as you might have hoped for...it's mostly seaweed greens, rusty browns, timid yellows and the like", and that "nothing about it is very radical".


title: Game Boy Color

text: Commentary on the legacy of the Game Boy Color has been shaped by the perception that the handheld was as a incremental and transitional upgrade of the Game Boy rather than a completely new handheld release. In a history of Nintendo, author Jeff Ryan noted the Game Boy Color had a reputation as a "legacy machine" that found success mostly due to its backward compatibility, as "few wanted to lose all the "Dr. Mario" and "Pokemon" cartridges they had amassed over the years." Quoted in "Retro Gamer", Blitz Games Studios developer Bob Pape acknowledged that although "backwards compatibility more or less defined (the) Game Boy Color", the handheld "ticked all the right boxes with regards to size, battery life, reliability and most importantly backwards compatibility".


title: Game Boy Color

text: Positive assessment on the legacy of the Game Boy Color has also focused upon the merits of its game library, particularly for its third-party and import titles. Travis Fahs for "IGN" noted whilst "the Game Boy Color's life was relatively brief", it "built up a small library of excellent games", including "Wario Land 3" and "Pokemon Gold and Silver", and a "unique" and "previously unheard of" line of successful third-party games, including "Dragon Warrior Monsters", "Metal Gear Solid" and "Yu-Gi-Oh! Dark Duel Stories". Ashley Day of "Retro Gamer" noted that the handheld had an "overlooked" status, stating "the Game Boy Color (has) an unfair reputation as the one Nintendo handheld with few worthwhile titles, but this simply isn't the case...returning to the Game Boy Color now reveals a wealth of great games that you never knew existed, especially those available on import."


title: Oaxaca

text: Oaxaca ( , , , from ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Oaxaca (), is one of the 32 states that compose the Federative Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 570 municipalities, of which 418 (almost three quarters) are governed by the system of (customs and traditions) with recognized local forms of self-governance. Its capital city is Oaxaca de Juárez.


title: Oaxaca

text: Oaxaca is in southwestern Mexico. It is bordered by the states of Guerrero to the west, Puebla to the northwest, Veracruz to the north, and Chiapas to the east. To the south, Oaxaca has a significant coastline on the Pacific Ocean.


title: Oaxaca

text: The state is best known for its indigenous peoples and cultures. The most numerous and best known are the Zapotecs and the Mixtecs, but there are sixteen that are officially recognized. These cultures have survived better than most others in México due to the state's rugged and isolating terrain. Most live in the Central Valleys region, which is also an economically important area for tourism, with people attracted for its archeological sites such as Monte Albán, and Mitla, and its various native cultures and crafts. Another important tourist area is the coast, which has the major resort of Huatulco and sandy beaches of Puerto Escondido, Puerto Ángel, Zipolite, Bahia de Tembo, and Mazunte. Oaxaca is also one of the most biologically diverse states in Mexico, ranking in the top three, along with Chiapas and Veracruz, for numbers of reptiles, amphibians, mammals and plants.


title: Oaxaca

text: The name of the state comes from the name of its capital city, Oaxaca. This name comes from the Nahuatl word "Huaxyacac", which refers to a tree called a "guaje" ("Leucaena leucocephala") found around the capital city. The name was originally applied to the Valley of Oaxaca by Nahuatl-speaking Aztecs and passed on to the Spanish during the conquest of the Oaxaca region. The modern state was created in 1824, and the state seal was designed by Alfredo Canseco Feraud and approved by the government of Eduardo Vasconcelos. Nahuatl word "Huaxyacac" was transliterated as "Oaxaca" using Medieval Spanish orthography, in which the "x" represented the voiceless postalveolar fricative (, the equivalent of English "sh" in "shop"), making "Oaxaca" pronounced as . However, during the sixteenth century the voiceless fricative sound evolved into a voiceless velar fricative (, like the "ch" in Scottish "loch"), and "Oaxaca" began to be pronounced . In present-day Spanish, "Oaxaca" is pronounced or , the latter pronunciation used mostly in dialects of southern Mexico, the Caribbean, much of Central America, some places in South America, and the Canary Islands and western Andalusia in Spain where has become a voiceless glottal fricative ().


title: Oaxaca

text: Most of what is known about prehistoric Oaxaca comes from work in the Central Valleys region. Evidence of human habitation dating back to about 11,000 years BC has been found in the Guilá Naquitz cave near the town of Mitla. This area was recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2010 in recognition for the "earliest known evidence of domesticated plants in the continent, while corn cob fragments from the same cave are said to be the earliest documented evidence for the domestication of maize." More finds of nomadic peoples date back to about 5000 BC, with some evidence of the beginning of agriculture. By 2000 BC, agriculture had been established in the Central Valleys region of the state, with sedentary villages. The diet developed around this time would remain until the Spanish Conquest, consisting primarily of harvested corn, beans, chocolate, tomatoes, chili peppers, squash and gourds. Meat was generally hunted and included tepescuintle, turkey, deer, peccary, armadillo and iguana.


title: Oaxaca

text: The oldest known major settlements, such as Yanhuitlán and Laguna Zope are located in this area as well. The latter settlement is known for its small figures called "pretty women" or "baby face." Between 1200 and 900 BC, pottery was being produced in the area as well. This pottery has been linked with similar work done in La Victoria, Guatemala. Other important settlements from the same time period include Tierras Largas, San José Mogote and Guadalupe, whose ceramics show Olmec influence. The major native language family, Oto-Manguean, is thought to have been spoken in northern Oaxaca around 4400 BC and to have evolved into nine distinct branches by 1500 BC.


title: Oaxaca

text: Historic events in Oaxaca as far back as the 12th century are described in pictographic codices painted by Zapotecs and Mixtecs in the beginning of the colonial period, but outside of the information that can be obtained through their study, little historical information from pre-colonial Oaxaca exist, and our knowledge of this period relies largely on archaeological remains. By 500 BC, the central valleys of Oaxaca were mostly inhabited by the Zapotecs, with the Mixtecs on the western side. These two groups were often in conflict throughout the pre-Hispanic period. Archeological evidence indicates that between 750 and 1521, there may have been population peaks of as high as 2.5 million.


title: Oaxaca

text: The Zapotecs were the earliest to gain dominance over the Central Valleys region. The first major dominion was centered in Monte Albán, which flourished from 500 BC until AD 750. At its height, Monte Albán was home to some 25,000 people and was the capital city of the Zapotec nation. It remained a secondary center of power for the Zapotecs until the Mixtecs overran it in 1325. The site contains a number of notable features including the Danzantes, a set of stone reliefs and the finding of fine quality ceramics.


title: Oaxaca

text: Starting from AD 750 previous large urban centers such as Monte Alban fell across the Oaxaca area and smaller dominions grew and evolved until the Spanish Conquest in 1521. Between 700 and 1300, the Mixtec were scattered among various dominions, including those of Achiutla, Tequixtepec-Chazumba, Apoala and Coixtlahuaca. The Zapotecs occupied a large region from Central Valleys region to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. However, no major city state like Monte Albán arose again, with villages and city-states remaining small, between 1,000 and 3,000 people with a palace, temple, market and residences. In a number of cases, there were Mesoamerican ball courts as well. These and larger centers also functioned as military fortresses in time of invasion. Important Zapotec and Mixtec sites include Yagul, Zaachila, Inguiteria, Yanhuitlan, Tamazulapan, Tejupan, and Teposcolula. During nearly all of this time, these various entities were at war with one another, and faced the threat of Aztec expansion.


title: Oaxaca

text: While the Zapotec remained dominant in many parts of the Central Valleys and into the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, the Mixtec were pushing into Zapotec territory, taking Monte Alban. In areas they conquered, they became prolific builders, leaving behind numerous and still unexplored sites. However, the conquest of the Central Valleys was never completed with pressure coming from the Aztecs in Tenochtitlan in the 14th and 15th centuries. The Zapotecs and Mixtecs both allied themselves and fought among themselves as they tried to maintain their lands and valuable trade routes between the high central plains of Mexico and Central America.


title: Oaxaca

text: The first Aztecs arrived in the Oaxaca area in 1250, but true expansion into the region began in the 15th century. In 1457, Moctezuma I invaded the Tlaxiaco and Coixtlahuaca areas, gaining control, demanding tribute and establishing military outposts. These were Mixtec lands at first, pushing these people even further into Zapotec territory. Under Axayacatl and Tizoc, the Aztec began to take control of trade routes in the area and part of the Pacific Coast. By this time, the Zapotec were led by Cosijoeza with the government in Zaachila in the latter 15th century. Under Ahuitzotl, the Aztecs temporarily pushed the Zapotecs into Tehuantepec and established a permanent military base at Huaxyacac (Oaxaca city). The Aztecs were stopped only by the Spanish Conquest These conquests would change most of the place names in parts of Oaxaca to those from the Nahuatl language. In 1486 the Aztecs established a fort on the hill of Huaxyácac (now called El Fortín), overlooking the present city of Oaxaca. This was the major Aztec military base charged with the enforcement of tribute collection and control of trade routes.


title: Oaxaca

text: Very soon after the fall of Tenochtitlan (Mexico City), Spaniards arrived in Oaxaca. Moctezuma II had informed Hernando Cortes that the area had gold. In addition, when Zapotec leaders heard about the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, they sent an offer of an alliance. Several captains and representatives were sent to the area to explore, looking for gold and routes to the Pacific to establish trade routes to Asian spice markets. The most prominent of Cortés' captains to arrive here were Gonzalo de Sandoval, Francisco de Orozco and Pedro de Alvarado. They overcame the main Aztec military stronghold only four months after the fall of Tenochtitlan. Their reports about the area prompted Cortés to seek the title of the Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca from the Spanish Crown.


title: Oaxaca

text: The valley Zapotecs, the Mixtecs of the Upper Mixteca, the Mazatecas and the Cuicatecas, for the most part, chose not to fight the newcomers, instead negotiating to keep most of the old hierarchy but with ultimate authority to the Spanish. Resistance to the new order was sporadic and confined to the Pacific coastal plain, the Zapotec Sierra, the Mixea region and the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. The Mixe put up the most resistance to intrusions on their lands. They not only resisted during the first decade or so of Spanish occupation, like other groups, but through the rest of the 16th century. The last major Mixe rebellion came in 1570, when they burned and looted Zapotec communities and threatened to destroy the Spanish presidio of Villa Alta. However, this rebellion was put down by the Spanish, in alliance with about 2,000 Mixtecs and Aztecs. From this point, the Mixe retreated far into the mountains to isolate themselves, where they are found today.


title: Oaxaca

text: The first priest in the territory was Juan Diaz, who accompanied Francisco de Orozco and built the first church in what is now the city of Oaxaca. He was followed by Bartolome de Olmade and others who began the superficial conversion of a number of indigenous people, including the baptism of Zapotec leader Cosijoeza. In 1528, the Dominicans settled in the city of Oaxaca, forming the Bishopric of Oaxaca in 1535, and began to spread out from there, eventually reaching Tehuantepec and the coast. Other orders followed such as the Jesuits in 1596, the Mercedarians in 1601, and others in the 17th and 18th centuries.


title: Oaxaca

text: Spanish conquest and subsequent colonization had a devastating effect on the native population, due to European diseases and forced labor. In some areas the native population nearly or completely disappeared. It has been estimated that the native population of the region declined from 1.5 million in 1520 to 150,000 in 1650. Eventually, this would prompt the Spanish to import African slaves to some regions of the state, mostly in the Costa Chica. This poor treatment of indigenous and African populations would continue through the colonial period. Initially, the Spanish did not change native power structures and allowed nobles to keep their privileges as long as they were loyal to the Spanish crown. However, all indigenous people were eventually lumped into one category as the Spanish halted warfare among the city-states and created the official category of "indio" (Indian).


title: Oaxaca

text: Settlers arriving from Spain brought with them domestic animals that had never been seen in Oaxaca: horses, cows, goats, sheep, chickens, mules and oxen. New crops such as sugar cane, vanilla and tobacco were introduced. However, landholding still remained mostly in indigenous hands, in spite of the fact that only 9% of Oaxaca's terrain is arable. Spanish officials and merchants tried to take indigenous privileges due to their social status, but this was resisted. While some of this was violent, the dominant response was to resort to the administrative-judicial system or yield. Violence was reserved for the worst of situations. One native product to reach economic importance during the colonial period was the cochineal insect, used for the making of dyes for textiles. This product was exported to Europe, especially in the 17th and 18th centuries. The use of this insect faded in the 19th century with the discovery of cheaper dyes.


title: Oaxaca

text: For much of the colonial period, the state (then an "intendencia" or province) was relatively isolated with few roads and other forms of communication. Most politics and social issues were strictly on the local level. Despite Spanish domination, the indigenous peoples of Oaxaca have maintained much of their culture and identity, more so than most other places in Mexico. Part of this is due to the geography of the land, making many communities isolated.


title: Oaxaca

text: By 1810, the city of Oaxaca had 18,000 inhabitants, most of whom were mestizos or mixed indigenous/European. During the Mexican War of Independence the government of this area remained loyal to the Spanish Crown. When representatives of Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla came to meet with them, they were hanged and their heads left out in view. Some early rebel groups emerged in the state, such as those led by Felipe Tinoco and Catarino Palacios, but they were also eventually executed. After 1812, insurgents began to have some success in the state, especially in the areas around Huajuapan de León, where Valerio Trujano defended the city against royalist forces until José María Morelos y Pavón was able to come in with support to keep the area in rebel hands. After that point, insurgents had greater success in various parts of the state, but the capital remained in royalist hands until the end of the war.


title: Oaxaca

text: The state was initially a department after the war ended in 1821, but after the fall of emperor Agustín de Iturbide, it became a state in 1824 with Jose Maria Murguia named as its first governor.


title: Oaxaca

text: During the 19th century, Oaxaca and the rest of Mexico was split between liberal (federalist) and conservative (centralist) factions. The political and military struggles between the factions resulted in wars and intrigues. Vicente Guerrero, a liberal, was executed by firing squad in Cuilapam in 1831. Liberal Manuel Gomez Pedraza became governor in 1832 but was opposed by General Estaban Moctezuma. He and commandant Luis Quintanar persecuted liberals in the state, including Benito Juárez. The constant warfare had a negative effect on the state's economy and those in the Tehuantepec area supported a separatist movement which was partially successful in the 1850s.


title: Oaxaca

text: Two Oaxacans, Benito Juarez and Porfirio Díaz were prominent players in the Reform War. It is difficult to overstate Juárez's meaning to the state. He was born on March 21, 1806, in the village of San Pablo Guelatao and was full blooded Zapotec. He began his career studying to be a priest then a lawyer. In 1847, Juarez became governor of Oaxaca, but still faced stern opposition from conservatives such as Lope San Germán. With the success of the Plan de Ayutla, Juarez became governor again, and worked to remove privileges and properties from the Church and landed classes. The Constitution of 1857, was ratified in Oaxaca city, and Juarez left the governor's position to become President of Mexico. He was president during one of Mexico's most turbulent times, fighting invading French forces and conservatives. As a liberal, he imposed many of the reforms which remain today including those in education and separation of church and state. He is also considered to be a legend and a symbol for the indigenous population of the state.


title: Oaxaca

text: Porfirio Díaz was Juárez's ally through the French Intervention. French imperial forces took Oaxaca city, which was defended by Porfirio Díaz, landing the latter in prison. The capital was later recaptured by the liberals under Carlos Oronoz. However, soon after Juarez took back the presidency, Porfirio Díaz declared rebellion against him from Oaxaca in 1872 under the Plan de Tuxtepec. Juárez died in office. Diaz would succeed in obtaining the presidency and did not relinquish it until the Mexican Revolution.


title: Oaxaca

text: During Diaz's rule, called the Porfiriato, a number of modernization efforts were undertaken in the state such as public lighting, first with gas then with electricity, railroad lines, new agriculture techniques and the revitalization of commerce. However, most of the benefits of these advances went to national and international corporations and workers and indigenous farmers organized against the regime.


title: Oaxaca

text: After the Mexican Revolution broke out, Diaz was soon ousted and the rest of the war was among the various factions that had power in different parts of the country. Various leaders such as Francisco I. Madero, Victoriano Huerta and Venustiano Carranza came to the state during this time. However; the most important force in the area was the Liberation Army of the South under Emiliano Zapata. This army would ally and fight against the previous leaders, especially Venustiano Carranza, and hold various portions of the state until 1920. At the end of the Revolution, a new state constitution was written and accepted in 1922.


title: Oaxaca

text: A series of major disasters occurred in the state from the 1920s to the 1940s. In 1928, a series of earthquakes destroyed many of the buildings in the capital. A much larger earthquake in 1931, was the largest in the state's history, devastating a number of cities along the coast. The 1930s brought the Great Depression, which along with the disasters, prompted wide scale migration to Mexico City. In 1944, torrential rains caused extensive flooding in the Tuxtepec region, resulting in hundreds of deaths.


title: Oaxaca

text: In the 1940s and 1950s, new infrastructure projects were begun. These included the Izúcar-Tehuantepec section of the Panamerican Highway and the construction of the Miguel Alemán Dam. From the 1980s to the present, there has been much development of the tourism industry in the state. This tourism, as well as the population growth of the capital, prompted the construction of the Oaxaca-Mexico City highway in 1994. Development of tourism has been strongest in the Central Valleys area surrounding the capital, with secondary developments in Huatulco and other locations along the coast. This development was threatened by violence associated with the 2006 uprising, which severely curtailed the number of incoming tourists for several years.


title: Oaxaca

text: From the Mexican Revolution until the 2000s, the ruling PRI party held control of almost all of Oaxacan politics from the local to the state level. Challenges to the rule were sporadic and included the student movements of the 1970s, which did bring down the state government. Teachers' strikes had been frequent since then, culminating in the 2006 uprising in Oaxaca city, which brought in groups protesting the heavy marginalization of the poor. The PRI lost its 80-year hold on the state government in 2010 with the election of the PAN gubernatorial candidate Gabino Cué Monteagudo. This has led to speculation of major changes for the state.


title: Oaxaca

text: In 2017, a series of earthquakes brought death and destruction to parts of Mexico, including Oaxaca. According to the US Geological Survey, early on September 23, 2017, a magnitude 6.1 earthquake shook Matías Romero, about 275 miles southeast of Mexico City. The epicenter was about 12 miles from Matías Romero and centered approximately between the two even more violent earthquakes felt by Mexico earlier in the month, of which it is considered an aftershock. On September 8, an 8.1 magnitude quake struck off of the southern Pacific coast, near Chiapas state. Mexico City, on September 19, then endured a 7.1 magnitude quake, which also marked the 32nd anniversary of the devastating 1985 earthquake, in which more than 10,000 people had been killed.


title: Oaxaca

text: On June 23, 2020, a preliminary 7.4 magnitude earthquake struck the region, triggering tsunami warnings for parts of the area. At least 10 people were killed.


title: Oaxaca

text: The state is located in the south of Mexico, bordered by the states of Puebla, Veracruz, Chiapas and Guerrero with the Pacific Ocean to the south. It has a territory of , accounting for less than 5% of Mexico's territory. Here several mountain chains come together, with the elevation varying from sea level to asl, averaging at asl. Oaxaca has one of the most rugged terrains in Mexico, with mountain ranges that abruptly fall into the sea. Between these mountains are mostly narrow valleys, canyons and ravines. Major elevations in the state include Zempoaltepetl ( asl), El Espinazo del Diablo, Nindú Naxinda Yucunino and Cerro Encantado. Oaxaca has of coastline with nine major bays.


title: Oaxaca

text: The mountains are mostly formed by the convergence of the Sierra Madre del Sur, the Sierra Madre de Oaxaca and the Sierra Atravesada into what is called the Oaxaca Complex (Complejo Oaxaqueño). The Sierra Madre del Sur runs along the coast with an average width of and a minimum height of asl with peaks over asl. In various regions the chain is locally known by other names, such as the Sierra de Miahuatlán and the Sierra de la Garza. The Sierra Madre de Oaxaca enters the state from the Puebla and Veracruz borders in the Tuxtepec region, running northwest to southeast towards the Central Valleys region, then onto the Tehuantepec area. Local names for parts of this range include Sierra de Tamazulapan, Sierra de Nochixtlan, Sierra de Huautla, Sierra de Juárez, Sierra de Ixtlan and others. Average altitude is asl with peaks over asl and width averages at about . The Sierra Atravesada is a prolongation of the Sierra Madre de Chiapas. This range is not as high as the other two with an average elevation of just over . Most of it is located in the Juchitán district running east–west.


title: Oaxaca

text: The only valleys of any real size are the Central Valleys between Etla and Miahuatlán, which contains the city of Oaxaca. Smaller populated valleys include Nochixtlan, Nejapa, Cuicatlan and Tuxtepec. Small mesas contain population centers such as Putla, Juxtlahuaca, Tamazulapan, Zacatepec, Tlaxiaco and Huajuapan. The largest canyons in the state are those in the Cuicatlán area and include the Cortés, Galicia and María in the municipality of Tlaxiaco. There are a very large number of small canyons as well as ravines and arroyos of all sizes.


title: Oaxaca

text: The mountainous terrain allows for no navigable rivers; instead, there are a large number of smaller ones, which often change name from area to area. The continental divide passes through the state, meaning that there is drainage towards both the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean. Most of the drainage towards the Gulf is represented by the Papaloapan and Coatzacoalcos Rivers and their tributaries such as the Grande and Salado Rivers. Three rivers account for most of the water headed for the Pacific: the Mixteco, Atoyac and Tehuantepec Rivers with their tributaries. Other important rivers and streams include the Tequisistlán, Santo Domingo, Putla, Minas, Puxmetacán-Trinidad, La Arena, Cajonos, Tenango, Tonto, Huamelula, San Antonio, Ayutla, Joquila, Copalita, Calapa, Colotepec, Aguacatenango-Jaltepec, Los Perros, El Corte, Espíritu Santo, Sarabia, Ostuta, Petapa and Petlapa.


title: Oaxaca

text: (Oaxaca de Juárez), Puerto Escondido, Salina Cruz, San Pedro Pochutla, San Juan Bautista Cuicatlán, San Juan Bautista Tuxtepec, Santa Cruz Xoxocotlán, Santa Lucía del Camino, Santa María Asunción Tlaxiaco, Santiago Pinotepa Nacional and Tehuantepec (Santo Domingo Tehuantepec).


title: Oaxaca

text: While the state is within the tropical latitudes, its climate varies with altitude. There are three principal climate regions in the state. The first is the hot and subtropical lands. This accounts for about 30% of the state. The next is the semi hot and semi humid regions which account for about 18%, and temperate and semi humid at about 16%. All of these climates experience a rainy season in the summer and early fall. As most of the state is over above sea level, average temperature is about , except near the coast. The coastline along with the regions of Yautepec, Putla, parts of Huahuapan and Silacayoapan are hot and relatively dry. Hot and humid climates predominate in Villa Alta, and the Central Valleys area and all others over above sea level have a temperate climate. A few of the highest peaks, such as those in Tehuantepec and Putla have a cold climate. Precipitation varies from between per year. The Sierra Mazteca, Textepec and other areas near the Veracruz border have rains year round. The rest of the state receives the majority of its rain during the summer and early fall. The higher elevations can experience freezing temperatures in December and January. The Chivela mountain pass in Isthmus of Tehuantepec provides a gap for the wind to pass between mountain ranges, creating the best conditions for wind power in Mexico.


title: Oaxaca

text: Although it is the fifth-largest state in Mexico, it has the most biodiversity. There are more than 8,400 registered plant species, 738 bird species and 1,431 terrestrial vertebrate species, accounting for 50% of all species in Mexico. It is also among the five highest-ranking areas in the world for endangered species. The state has important ecological zones such as the Selva Zoque in the northeast. Vegetation varies from those adapted to hot and arid conditions such as cacti, to evergreen tropical forest on the coasts. Forests in the higher elevations consist of conifers, broadleafed trees and a mixture of the two. In the lower elevations by the coast there are evergreen and deciduous rainforest, with those dropping leaves doing so in the dry season. In the driest areas mesquite, some cactus and grasslands can be found. There are also 58 species of aquatic plants.


title: Oaxaca

text: Wildlife includes a wide variety of birds, small to medium-sized mammals and some larger ones such as deer and wildcats, reptiles and amphibians. Off the coast there are fish and shellfish, as well as dolphins and whales which pass by during their migrations. The state is a prolific place for reptiles such as turtles, lizards, snakes and crocodiles. Of the 808 registered reptile species nationwide, 245 are found in the state. The state has the most amphibian species at 133, with one-third of all Mexican species of frogs and salamanders. It is home to 120 species of freshwater fish, 738 species of birds (70% of Mexico's total) and 190 species of mammals. Some insect forms such as grasshoppers, larvae and cochineal have economic importance for the state and there are several species of 'giant' stick insects indigenous to the region (such as Bacteria horni which has a body length of up to 22 cm). The most important ocean creatures commercially are shrimp, tuna, bonito, huachinango and mojarra. Sea turtles used to be exploited for both their meat and eggs but this was stopped by the federal government in the 1990s. The coast of Oaxaca is an important breeding area for sea turtles such as the leatherback (Dermochelys coriacea), which is classified as endangered throughout its global range. Despite conservation efforts starting in the 1970s, the number of nesting sites and nesting turtles has dramatically decreased.


title: Oaxaca

text: Conservation efforts in the state are hampered by high marginalization, lack of economic alternatives, agricultural conflicts, change of land use (agricultural activities, fires), over-exploitation and pollution of natural water sources, inadequate forest management and illegal tree felling, unsustainable coastal tourist developments, climate change, limited local capacity, and limited local knowledge and valuation of natural resources. However, there are seven officially protected natural areas in the state: Benito Juárez National Park at , Huatulco National Park at , Lagunas de Chacahua National Park at , Playa de Escobilla Sanctuary at , Playa de la Bahía de Chacahua Sanctuary at , Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Biosphere Reserve at and Yagul Natural Monument at .


title: Oaxaca

text: Lagunas de Chacahua National Park, created in 1937, lies about west of Puerto Escondido, near a village called Zapotalito. It can be reached via Federal Highway 200 or by boat from Puerto Escondido. The park encompasses , about of which is taken by various lagoons such as the "Laguna de Chacahua," "Laguna de La Pastoria," and "Laguna Las Salinas". There are various smaller lagoons that are connected by narrow channels. The rest of the park consists of dry land.


title: Oaxaca

text: The park has 10 different types of vegetation: "selva espinosa", swampland, deciduous, sub-tropical broadleaf, mangrove, savannah, "bosque de galleria", "tular", palm trees, and coastal dunes. 246 species of flowers and 189 species of animals have been documented so far in the park. Birds such as storks, herons, wild ducks, blue-winged teals, pelicans, and spoonbills can be found here. Three species of turtles also visit the park to lay their eggs.


title: Oaxaca

text: Benito Juárez National Park is located to the north of Oaxaca within the municipal limits of San Felipe del Agua and Donaji, Oaxaca, and San Andres Huayapan of the central district. It was designated as a national park under a presidential decree, in 1937. The topography of the park has an elevation range varying from above sea level. The climate is Coastal sub-humid and Temperate sub-humid. The main rivers that flow through the park are the Huayapan and San Felipe rivers. Most of their flows used to be utilized to meet drinking water needs of Oaxaca through an aqueduct in the early part of the 18th century, during the colonial period. However, it is now tapped for water supply through piped system to the city. The park covers , including the high "Cerro de San Felipe" (San Felipe Mountain), part of the Sierra Madre de Oaxaca which has metamorphic rock formations. It has a rich biodiversity of flora and fauna. There are pine and oak forests in the upper reaches of the mountain, while the lower reaches have scrub oaks, and tropical deciduous forest in the canyons. Most of the forest is secondary growth, having been previously forested.


title: Oaxaca

text: Huatulco National Park, also known as Bahias de Huatulco National Park – Huatulco, was initially declared a protected area and later decreed as a National Park on July 24, 1998. Located in the Santa Maria Huatulco town, to the west of Cruz Huatulco, it extends to an area of . In the low lands of the park, there 9,000 species of plant (about 50% of the species are reported throughout the country) in the forest and mangroves in the coastal belt. Fauna species have been identified as 264, which includes armadillos and white-tailed deer. Bird species are counted at 701, which include hummingbirds, pelicans and hawks. The amphibian and reptile species are counted to be 470, which include Black Iguana, salamanders and snakes. Dolphins, whales and turtles are sighted species off the coast line, out of the identified 100 marine species. Vegetation is dominated by the low forest growth of caducifolia in 80% area with the unusual feature of high trees.


title: Oaxaca

text: Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Biosphere Reserve, which encompasses the states of Puebla and Oaxaca in Mexico, was established as reserve in 1998 covering an area of , with an altitudinal range of . It is in the valley of the Tehuacán-Cuicatlán-Quiotepec. The six rivers which flow through the reserve are the Tomellín, Chiquito, Las Vueltas, Salado, Zapotitán and Río Grande of the Papaloapan watershed, which finally flow into the Gulf of Mexico. On account of wide variation in topography and annual rainfall, the micro-climatic conditions in the reserve has created a biosphere reserve, which is very rich in flora and fauna. The rich biodiversity of the preserve consists of 910 plant genus, 2,700 vascular species, 102 species of mammals, 356 species of birds which includes the endangered Green Macaw ("Ara militaris"), and 53 species of reptiles. However, the reserve is faced with threats from poaching, deforestation, overgrazing, and trash scattered on the highways and secondary roads that pass close and through the reserve. Inadequate patrolling staff is an issue which needs to be addressed to remove the threats to the biosphere reserve.


title: Oaxaca

text: The state has a total population of about 3.5 million, with women outnumbering men by 150,000 and about 60% of the population under the age of 30. It is ranked tenth in population in the country. Fifty three percent of the population lives in rural areas. Most of the state's population growth took place between 1980 and 1990. Life expectancy is 71.7 for men and 77.4 for women, just under the national average. Births far outpace deaths. In 2007, there were 122,579 births and 19,439 deaths. Approximately 85% profess the Catholic faith.


title: Oaxaca

text: Demographically, Oaxaca stands out due to the high percentage of indigenous peoples. It is estimated that at least a third are speakers of indigenous languages (with 50% not able to speak Spanish), accounting for 53% of Mexico's total indigenous language speaking population. The state straddles two Mesoamerican cultural areas. The first extends into the state from the Mayan lands of Chiapas, Yucatán, and Guatemala. The central and northwest of the state is part of the cultures of the Valley of Mexico, with historical influence seen from ancient cities such as Teotihuacan, Tula, and Tenochtitlan.


title: Oaxaca

text: The main reason that indigenous languages and cultures have been able to survive here is the rugged terrain, which isolate communities. This also has the effect of dividing the state into small secluded communities, which have developed independently over time. There are 16 ethno linguistic groups recognized by the Instituto Nacional Indigenista who maintain their individual languages, customs and traditions well into the colonial period and to some extent to the present day. However, some studies put the number of cultures in the state as high as 4,000. This makes Oaxaca the most ethnically complex of Mexico's 31 states.


title: Oaxaca

text: The most populous indigenous groups in Oaxaca are the Zapotec or Mixtec. Several other languages of the Oto-Manguean languages are spoken in Oaxaca: The Triques, Amuzgos, and Cuicatecs are linguistically most closely related to the Mixtecs, The languages of the Chocho, Popoloca and Ixcatec peoples are most closely related to that of the Mazatecs. The Chatino languages are grouped with the Zapotecan branch of Oto-Manguean. The languages of the Zoque and Mixe peoples belong to the Mixe–Zoquean languages. Other ethnic groups include the Chontalees, Chinantecs, the Huaves, and Nahuas. As of 2005, a total of 1,091,502 people were counted as speaking an indigenous language.


title: Oaxaca

text: The largest indigenous group in the state are the Zapotecs at about 350,000 people or about 31% of the total indigenous population. The Zapotec have an extremely long history in the Central Valleys region and unlike other indigenous groups, do not have a migration story. For them, they have always been here. Zapotecs have always called themselves Be'ena'a, which means The Cloud People. Zapotec territory extends in and around the Central Valleys region of the state, around the capital city of Oaxaca. The Zapotec language has historically been and is still the most widely spoken in the state, with four dialects that correspond to the four subdivisions of these people: Central Valleys and Isthmus, the Sierra de Ixtlan, Villa Alta and Coapan. Zapotec communities can be found in 67 municipalities. The various Zapotec dialects account for 64 of the total 173 still surviving forms of Oto-Manguean.


title: Oaxaca

text: The second largest group are the Mixtecs at just over 240,000 people or 27% of the indigenous population. These people established themselves in the northwest of Oaxaca and far southern Puebla over 3,000 years ago, making them one of the oldest communities in the region. These same people put pressure on the Zapotec kingdoms until the Spanish conquered both peoples in the 16th century. Mixtec territory is divided into three sub regions. The Mixteca Alta (Upper Mexteca) covers 38 municipalities and is the most populated region. The Mixteca Baja (Lower Mixteca) includes 31 municipalities. The Coastal Mixtecs are a small group. Today, the Mixtecs call themselves Ñuu Savi, the people of the rain. The Mixtecan language family, as one of the largest and most diverse families in the Oto-Manguean group, includes three groups of languages: Mixtec, Cuicatec, and Trique.


title: Oaxaca

text: The Mazatecos number at about 165,000 or 15% of Oaxaca's indigenous population. (perfil soc) These people occupy the northernmost area of the state, in the upper Sierra Madre Oriental mountains and the Papaloapan Basin. The Mazatecos call themselves Ha shuta enima, which means People of Custom. Some historians believe that the Mazatecos descend from the Nonoalca-Chichimecas, who migrated south from Tula early in the 12th century. While most live in Oaxaca, a significant number of Mazatecos also occupy Veracruz and Puebla.


title: Oaxaca

text: The Chinantecos account for about 10% of Oaxaca's indigenous people, numbering at about 104,000. They inhabit the Chinantla region of north central Oaxaca near the border of Veracruz. The Chinanteco language has as many as 14 different dialects and is part of the Oto-Manguean linguistic group. Historians believe that those living in this region struggled to maintain their independence against sudden and numerous attacks by the Zapotecs, Mixtecs, Mixes and Aztecs. The latter, led by Moctezuma I, finally conquered the Chinantla region during the 15th century.


title: Oaxaca

text: The Mixe people account for another 10% of the indigenous population at just over 103,000 people. The Mixe are an isolated group in the northeastern part of the state, close to the border of Veracruz. Their region includes 19 municipalities and 108 communities. The Mixes call themselves Ayuuk, which means The People. It is unknown where the Mixe migrated from, with some speculating from as far as Peru, but they arrived in waves from 1300 to 1533. They came into conflict with the Mixtecs and Zapotecs, but allied themselves with the Zapotecs against the Aztecs, then resisted the Spanish. The Mixe language has seven dialects and this group has the highest rate of monolingualism (36% of speakers in the year 2000) of any Indigenous group in Mexico.


title: Oaxaca

text: Minorities include the Chatino (42,477), the Trique (18,292), the Huave people (15,324), the Cuicatecos (12,128), the Zoque, also called the Aiyuuk (roughly 10,000), the Amuzgos (4,819), the Chontales of Oaxaca (4,610), the Tacuates (1,725), the Chocho or Chocholtec (524), the Ixcatecos (207), the Popolocas (61) and a small population of Nahuatl speaking peoples in the border area with Puebla.


title: Oaxaca

text: According to the 2020 Census, 4.71% of Oaxaca's population identified as Black, Afro-Mexican, or of African descent, which is the second highest percentage of any Mexican state.


title: Oaxaca

text: Ritualistitic and shamanic religious practices were prevalent in Oaxaca valley, until the Spanish invaded the valley in 1521. Proselytism was also started in 1521, Christianity was ushered into the valley and eventually took firm roots.


title: Oaxaca

text: The ancient religious practices have been dated by archaeological findings (over a 15 years period of excavations by two Archaeologists of the University of Michigan) to be more than 7000 years old. Initially, 7000 years ago, the people were "hunters and gatherers with no fixed abode". With development of agricultural practices, with maize as the main crop and settled villages getting established over several centuries, a warrior type of societal culture evolved by 500 BC, with the Zapotec state getting into shape. Concurrently, ceremonious religious practices with ritualistic and shamanistic dancing around stone marked floors came to be observed (a pre-Zapotec dance floor dated to 6650 BC testifies this). Even cannibalistic practices were noted. The ritualistic practices were formalized, as permanent settlements were established, and temples were built to perform the rituals as per a set of calendar annual events. There were two interconnected calendars prevalent at the time- one of 260 days and another of 365 days, which synchronized every 52 years. In subsequent years, as upper strata of society (an "elite class") came into existence, the religious practices and the temple got more formalized with priests controlling the community's religion. Religion started to evolve around the ritualistic practices but with more defined role of religion under the monarchic rule which came into effect along with "the religious systems that were the previous source of social authority". Monte Alban was founded around 500 BCE. It is inferred that from 1500 BC, Zapotec society evolved as an organized "autonomous ascribed-status peasant societies". The ritual buildings in the valley dated to this period testify this observation. Dr. Richard Sosis, an anthropologist at the University of Connecticut has summarised the archaeological findings with the observation:


title: Oaxaca

text: the Michigan archaeologists' study delineated the process of religion adapting to different environments as Oaxacan society changed. Among foragers, ritual serves to cement solidarity, he said, and the "powerful moralistic gods that we associate with contemporary religions" are a later development, introduced at the stage when priests have acquired control of a religion and "are effectively controlling the masses through ritual activities that instill the fear of supernatural punishment.


title: Oaxaca

text: When Christianity made inroads into the Valley in 1521, the valley was part of the Aztec tribute empire with Tenochtitlan as the capital (present day Mexico City) and Spanish settlements came into existence to exploit the rich land and mineral resources of the valley. The first record of Baptism in the valley was that of the King of Teozapotlan, the most important Valley ruler, in 1521. He was baptized as Don Juan Cortes. Nobles, who converted to Christianity, were permitted to keep their traditional rights under a 1557 order by Philip II of Spain. Spaniards pursued proselytisation activity with dedicated single-minded devotion throughout the 18th century with the "goal of saving the souls of their subjects".


title: Oaxaca

text: Now, in Mexico, Roman Catholics are 89% of the total population. Only 47% of Oaxacan Catholics attend church services weekly, one of the lowest rates of the developing world. In absolute terms, Mexico has the world's second largest number of Catholics after Brazil. While most indigenous Mexicans are at least nominally Catholic, some combine or syncretize Catholic practices with native traditions.


title: Oaxaca

text: The National Presbyterian Church in Mexico has a relatively high percentage of followers in Oaxaca, one of its stronger states.


title: Oaxaca

text: The state was created by a federal decree in 1824, and is the fifth largest state in Mexico. The state government consists of an executive branch, headed by the governor, a unicameral legislature and a judiciary branch headed by a state supreme court presided over by seven judges.


title: Oaxaca

text: The area of Oaxaca has been divided into small entities since far back into the pre-Hispanic period. Much of the reason for this is the highly mountainous geography, although the occupation of the area by numerous ethnicities is a factor as well. The area resisted large scale Spanish domination through the colonial era, and maintained local traditions and customs better than other areas of Mexico. Even today, the state has far more municipalities and semi autonomous local authorities than any other state in the nation. Oaxaca is divided into 570 municipalities, about one-quarter of the total of the country. Many of the municipalities of the state had been ill-defined from colonial times until the 1990 INEGI survey which delineated them with exact coordinates. The most populated municipality is the capital, followed by San Juan Bautista Tuxtepec and Juchitán de Zaragoza. There is also a system of thirty districts to group municipalities.


title: Oaxaca

text: The state has traditionally been divided into seven regions, which took into account variables such as ethnic makeup, economics and geography. Today, the state is divided into eight regions called Valles Centrales, La Cañada, La Mixteca, Sierra Madre del Sur, Sierra Norte, El Istmo, La Costa and El Golfo. These still take into account the traditional variables, but geography plays a larger role. La Cañada Region comprises the fourth and fifth districts with a total of 45 municipalities. The Coast Region consists of the 21st, 22nd and 30th districts with a total of 50 municipalities; the Isthmus Region consists of the 28th and 29th districts with a total of 41 municipalities; the Mixteca Region consists of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 8th, 9th, 10th and 16th districts with a total of 155 municipalities; the Papaloapam Region consists of the 6th and 7th districts with a total of 20 municipalities; the Sierra Sur Region consists of the 15th, 23rd, 26th and 27th districts with 70 municipalities; the Sierra North Region consists of the 12th, 13th and 14th districts with 69 municipalities; the Central Valleys Regions consists of the 11th, 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th, 24th and 25th districts with 121 municipalities.


title: Oaxaca

text: According to the Mexican government agency Conapo (National Population Council), Oaxaca is the third most economically marginalized state in Mexico. The state has 3.3% of the population but produces only 1.5% of the GNP. The main reason for this is the lack of infrastructure and education, especially in the interior of the state outside of the capital. Eighty percent of the state's municipalities do not meet federal minimums for housing and education. Most development projects are planned for the capital and the surrounding area. Little has been planned for the very rural areas and the state lacks the resources to implement them. The largest sector of Oaxaca's economy is agriculture, mostly done communally in ejidos or similar arrangements. About 31% of the population is employed in agriculture, about 50% in commerce and services and 22% in industry. The commerce sector dominates the gross domestic product at 65.4%, followed by industry/mining at 18.9% and agriculture at 15.7%.


title: Oaxaca

text: In 45.5% of Oaxaca's municipalities, the population has declined due to migration. Poverty and migration are caused mostly by the lack of economic development in the state, which leaves most of the population working in the least productive sector. This has led to wide scale migration, mostly from the rural areas, to find employment. Within Oaxaca, many people leave rural villages to work in the city of Oaxaca, the Papaloapan area and the coast. Within Mexico, many leave for Mexico City, Mexico State, Sinaloa, Baja California and Baja California Sur. Most of those leaving the state are agricultural workers. As of 2005, over 80,000 people from Oaxaca state live in some other part of Mexico. Most of those leaving Oaxaca and Mexico go to the United States. Much of the current wave of emigration began in the late 1970s, and by the 1980s Oaxaca ranked 8th in the number of people leaving for the US from Mexico. Today, that percentage has fallen to 20th. Most of those migrate to the United States, concentrated in California and Illinois. In 2007, estimates of the number of Oaxacans residing in Los Angeles, California ranged from 50,000 to 250,000.


title: Oaxaca

text: The economy of Oaxaca is based on agriculture, especially in the interior of the state. Only 9% of the territory is suitable for agriculture due to the mountainous terrain, so there are limits to this sector. The production of food staples, such as corn and beans, is mostly for internal consumption but this production cannot meet demand. The total agricultural production of the state was estimated at 13.4 million tons with a value of 10,528 million pesos in 2007. As of 2000, 1,207,738 hectares are used for the raising of crops, most of which occurs during the annual rainy season, with only 487,963 having crops growing year round. Only 81,197 hectares have irrigation. The variation of climate allows for a wider range of agricultural crops than would otherwise grow in a geographical region of this size. Oaxaca is the nation's second highest producer of grains and agave. It is third in the production of peanuts, mango and sugar cane. It is the second largest producer of goat meat, providing about 10% of the national total. In the more temperate areas crops such as corn, beans, sorghum, peanuts, alfalfa and wheat are grown. In more tropical areas, crops also include coffee, sesame seed, rice, sugar cane and pineapple.


title: Oaxaca

text: Livestock is raised on 3,050,106 hectares or 32% of the state's land. Cattle dominate in the Tuxtepec, Isthmus and Coast regions, with pigs dominating in higher elevations such as the Central Valleys Region. Other animals include sheep, goats, domestic fowl and bees. The value of this production was estimated at 2,726.4 million pesos with cattle comprising over half of this. Coffee is grown in mountain areas near the Pacific Ocean in municipalities such as Santa María Huatulco, Pluma Hidalgo, Candelaria Loxicha, San Miguel del Puerto and San Mateo Piñas. The growing of coffee here dates back to the 17th and 18th centuries when English pirates introduced the plant. Coastal fishing is also a major source of income and in 2007 the total fishing catch was estimated at 9,300 tons with a value of over 174 million pesos.


title: Oaxaca

text: Mining has traditionally been important to the economy and history. Hernán Cortés sought and received the title of the Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca in order to claim mineral and other rights. Currently coal, salt, chalk, petroleum, marble, lime, graphite, titanium, silver, gold and lead are still extracted. Most mines today are located in Etla, Ixtlán, San Pedro Taviche, Pápalo and Salina Cruz. There is an oil and natural gas refinery in Salina Cruz, which provides products to the state and other areas on Mexico's Pacific coast.


title: Oaxaca

text: Tourism is important to the state as it is the only sector that is growing and brings substantial income from outside the state, although most tourism is concentrated in the capital and along the coast. In 2007, there were 1,927 small grocery stores, 70 tianguis and 167 municipal markets. Tourism accounts for about 30% of the commerce sector of Oaxaca's economy. The state attracts visitors from Mexico and abroad. The state government has been pushing this sector heavily as a means of growing the economy, with major infrastructure projects such as the Oaxaca-Puerto Escondido-Huatulco highway (scheduled to finish in 2018) and the Iberdrola hydroelectric dam.


title: Oaxaca

text: In 2000, there were 612 hotels with 15,368 rooms. Thirteen of these were classed as five stars. The state received 1,564,936 visitors that year, over 80% of whom were from Mexico. The Central Valleys region receives the most visitors (60%), followed by the La Mixteca and Papaloapan regions (29%) and the coast (11%), in spite of the fact that only 7% of the state's attractions are in the Oaxaca city area. One reason for this is that the city of Oaxaca is only four and a half hours away from Mexico City via the federal highway.


title: Oaxaca

text: The state has a total of of roadways. Most of these roadways are in the Papaloapam, Mixteca, Isthmus and Coast Regions. The primary highways in the state include Oaxaca (city)-Cuacnopalan toll road and the Pan-American highway, which crosses the state completely from Puebla to Chiapas. Federal highway 200 hugs the coast connecting communities such as Puerto Escondido, Salinas Cruz and Huatulco with Acapulco and Chiapas. Federal highway 185, also called "Transístmica", crosses the state from the Veracruz border to the coast at Salina Cruz. Federal highway 125 runs from the Puebla state line along the western part of the state. Federal highway 135 leads from Puebla to Oaxaca City then down to Pochutla. Federal highway 175 runs from the Veracruz border to the city of Oaxaca. Other highways include Federal highway 147 and Federal highway 182.


title: Oaxaca

text: There is a railroad line connecting the city of Oaxaca with Mexico City for cargo. The state's major port is Salina Cruz which primarily services ships belonging to PEMEX, bringing crude oil and refined petroleum products along the Mexican coast as well as the United States and Japan. There is also a railroad from Salina Cruz to Veracruz and to Tapachula.


title: Oaxaca

text: Oaxaca-Xoxocotlan Airport (IATA code OAX) is approximately south of Oaxaca city centre. This airport has a runway that measures and a total extension of with two hangars. According to figures published by Grupo Aeroportuario del Sureste (ASUR), the airport received 523,104 passengers in 2009. Airlines that fly to the state include Aeroméxico, Volaris, Interjet, and VivaAerobus arriving from Mexico City, Cancun, Guadalajara, Monterrey, and Tijuana. In addition the airport also has nonstop flights to the US thru United Airlines and American Airlines to Houston and Dallas.