title: Lettuce

text: Lettuce also suffers from several viral diseases, including big vein, which causes yellow, distorted leaves, and mosaic virus, which is spread by aphids and causes stunted plant growth and deformed leaves. Aster yellows are a disease-causing bacteria carried by leafhoppers, which causes deformed leaves. Fungal diseases include powdery mildew and downy mildew, which cause leaves to mold and die and bottom rot, lettuce drop and gray mold, which cause entire plants to rot and collapse. Bacterial diseases include "Botrytis cinerea", for which UV-C treatments may be used: Vàsquez et al. 2017 find that phenylalanine ammonia-lyase activity, phenolic production, and "B. cinerea" resistance are increased by UV-C. Crowding lettuce tends to attract pests and diseases. Weeds can also be an issue, as cultivated lettuce is generally not competitive with them, especially when directly seeded into the ground. Transplanted lettuce (started in flats and later moved to growing beds) is generally more competitive initially, but can still be crowded later in the season, causing misshapen lettuce and lower yields. Weeds also act as homes for insects and disease and can make harvesting more difficult. Herbicides are often used to control weeds in commercial production. However, this has led to the development of herbicide-resistant weeds in lettuce cultivation.


title: Lettuce

text: In 2020, world production of lettuce (report combined with chicory) was 28 million tonnes, with China alone producing 14.3 million tonnes or 52% of the world total (see table).


title: Lettuce

text: Lettuce is the only member of the genus "Lactuca" to be grown commercially. Although China is the top world producer of lettuce, the majority of the crop is consumed domestically. Spain is the world's largest exporter of lettuce, with the US ranking second.


title: Lettuce

text: Western Europe and North America were the original major markets for large-scale lettuce production. By the late 1900s, Asia, South America, Australia and Africa became more substantial markets. Different locations tended to prefer different types of lettuce, with butterhead prevailing in northern Europe and Great Britain, romaine in the Mediterranean and stem lettuce in China and Egypt. By the late 20th century, the preferred types began to change, with crisphead, especially iceberg, lettuce becoming the dominant type in northern Europe and Great Britain and more popular in western Europe. In the US, no one type predominated until the early 20th century, when crisphead lettuces began gaining popularity. After the 1940s, with the development of iceberg lettuce, 95 percent of the lettuce grown and consumed in the US was crisphead lettuce. By the end of the century, other types began to regain popularity and eventually made up over 30 percent of production. Stem lettuce was first developed in China, where it remains primarily cultivated.


title: Lettuce

text: In the early 21st century, bagged salad products increased in the lettuce market, especially in the US where innovative packaging and shipping methods prolonged freshness.


title: Lettuce

text: In the United States in 2013, California (71%) and Arizona (29%) produced nearly all of the country's fresh head and leaf lettuce, with head lettuce yielding $9,400 of value per acre and leaf lettuce yielding $8,000 per acre.


title: Lettuce

text: As described around 50 AD, lettuce leaves were often cooked and served by the Romans with an oil-and-vinegar dressing; however, smaller leaves were sometimes eaten raw. During the 81–96 AD reign of Domitian, the tradition of serving a lettuce salad before a meal began. Post-Roman Europe continued the tradition of poaching lettuce, mainly with large romaine types, as well as the method of pouring a hot oil and vinegar mixture over the leaves.


title: Lettuce

text: Today, the majority of lettuce is grown for its leaves, although one type is grown for its stem and one for its seeds, which are made into an oil. Most lettuce is used in salads, either alone or with other greens, vegetables, meats and cheeses. Romaine lettuce is often used for Caesar salads. Lettuce leaves can also be found in soups, sandwiches and wraps, while the stems are eaten both raw and cooked.


title: Lettuce

text: The consumption of lettuce in China developed differently from in Western countries, due to health risks and cultural aversion to eating raw leaves; Chinese "salads" are composed of cooked vegetables and are served hot or cold. Lettuce is also used in a larger variety of dishes than in Western countries, contributing to a range of dishes including bean curd and meat dishes, soups and stir-frys plain or with other vegetables. Stem lettuce, widely consumed in China, is eaten either raw or cooked, the latter primarily in soups and stir-frys. Lettuce is also used as a primary ingredient in the preparation of lettuce soup.


title: Lettuce

text: Depending on the variety, lettuce is an excellent source (20% of the Daily Value, DV, or higher) of vitamin K (97% DV) and vitamin A (21% DV) (table), with higher concentrations of the provitamin A compound, beta-carotene, found in darker green lettuces, such as romaine. With the exception of the iceberg variety, lettuce is also a good source (10–19% DV) of folate and iron (table).


title: Lettuce

text: Food-borne pathogens that can survive on lettuce include "Listeria monocytogenes", the causative agent of listeriosis, which multiplies in storage. However, despite high levels of bacteria being found on ready-to-eat lettuce products, a 2008 study found no incidents of food-borne illness related to listeriosis, possibly due to the product's short shelf life, indigenous microflora competing with the "Listeria" bacteria or inhibition of bacteria to cause listeriosis.


title: Lettuce

text: Other bacteria found on lettuce include "Aeromonas" species, which have not been linked to any outbreaks; "Campylobacter" species, which cause campylobacteriosis; and "Yersinia intermedia" and "Yersinia kristensenii" (species of "Yersinia"), which have been found mainly in lettuce. Lettuce has been linked to numerous outbreaks of the bacteria "" and "Shigella"; the plants were most likely contaminated through contact with animal feces. A 2007 study determined that the vacuum cooling method, especially prevalent in the California lettuce industry, increased the uptake and survival rates of "E. coli O157:H7". "Salmonella" bacteria, including the uncommon "Salmonella braenderup" type, have also caused outbreaks traced to contaminated lettuce. Viruses, including hepatitis A, calicivirus and a Norwalk-like strain, have been found in lettuce. The vegetable has also been linked to outbreaks of parasitic infestations, including "Giardia lamblia".


title: Lettuce

text: In addition to its usual purpose as an edible leafy vegetable, lettuce has had a number of uses in ancient (and even some more modern) folk medicine and religious symbolism. For example, ancient Egyptians thought lettuce to be a symbol of sexual prowess and a promoter of love and childbearing in women. The Romans likewise claimed that it increased sexual potency. In contrast, the ancient Greeks connected the plant with male impotency, and served it during funerals (probably due to its role in the myth of Adonis' death), and British women in the 19th century believed it would cause infertility and sterility.


title: Lettuce

text: Lettuce has mild narcotic properties; it was called "sleepwort" by the Anglo-Saxons because of this attribute, although the cultivated "L. sativa" has lower levels of the narcotic than its wild cousins. This narcotic effect is a property of two sesquiterpene lactones (lactucin and lactucopicrin) which are found in the white liquid (latex) in the stems of lettuce, called lactucarium or "lettuce opium". Although the standard definition of lactucarium requires its production from "Lactuca virosa" or "wild lettuce", it was recognized that smaller quantities of lactucarium could be produced in a similar way from "Lactuca sativa" and "Lactuca canadensis" var. "elongata", and that lettuce-opium obtained from "Lactuca serriola" or "Lactuca quercina" was of superior quality.


title: Lettuce

text: Romaine lettuce is one of the symbolic items on the Jewish Passover Seder plate as a bitter herb (maror).


title: Lettuce

text: Some American settlers claimed that smallpox could be prevented through the ingestion of lettuce, and an Iranian belief suggested consumption of the seeds when afflicted with typhoid. Scientific evidence of these benefits in humans has not been found. The religious ties of lettuce continue into the present day among the Yazidi people of northern Iraq, who have a religious prohibition against eating the plant.


title: Lake Victoria

text: Lake Victoria is one of the African Great Lakes. With a surface area of approximately , Lake Victoria is Africa's largest lake by area, the world's largest tropical lake, and the world's second-largest fresh water lake by surface area after Lake Superior in North America. In terms of volume, Lake Victoria is the world's ninth-largest continental lake, containing about of water. Lake Victoria occupies a shallow depression in Africa. The lake has an average depth of and a maximum depth of . Its catchment area covers . The lake has a shoreline of when digitized at the 1:25,000 level, with islands constituting 3.7% of this length.


title: Lake Victoria

text: The lake's area is divided among three countries: Kenya occupies 6% (), Uganda 45% (), and Tanzania 49% ().


title: Lake Victoria

text: Though having multiple local language names (; ; ; also "Ukerewe"), the lake was renamed after Queen Victoria by the explorer John Hanning Speke, the first Briton to document it in 1858, while on an expedition with Richard Francis Burton.


title: Lake Victoria

text: The lake is home to many species of fish which live nowhere else, especially cichlids. Invasive fish, such as the Nile perch, have driven many endemic species to extinction.


title: Lake Victoria

text: Geologically, Lake Victoria is relatively young at about 400,000 years old. It formed when westward-flowing rivers were dammed by an upthrown crustal block. During the Miocene era, what is now the catchment area of the lake was on the western side of an uplifted area that functioned as a continental divide, with streams on the western side flowing into the Congo River basin and streams on the eastern side flowing to the Indian Ocean. As the East African Rift System formed, the eastern wall of the Albertine Rift (or Western Rift) rose, gradually reversing the drainage towards what is now Lake Victoria. The opening of the main East African Rift and the Albertine Rift downwarped the area between them as the rift walls rose, creating the current Lake Victoria basin.


title: Lake Victoria

text: During its geological history, Lake Victoria went through changes ranging from its present shallow depression, through to what may have been a series of much smaller lakes. Geological cores taken from its bottom show Lake Victoria has dried up completely at least three times since it formed. These drying cycles are probably related to past ice ages, which were times when precipitation declined globally. Lake Victoria last dried out about 17,300 years ago, and it refilled 14,700 years ago as the African humid period began.


title: Lake Victoria

text: Lake Victoria receives 80 percent of its water from direct rainfall. Average evaporation on the lake is between per year, almost double the precipitation of riparian areas. Lake Victoria receives its water additionally from rivers, and thousands of small streams. The Kagera River is the largest river flowing into this lake, with its mouth on the lake's western shore. Lake Victoria is drained solely by the Nile River near Jinja, Uganda, on the lake's northern shore. In the Kenya sector, the main influent rivers are the Sio, Nzoia, Yala, Nyando, Sondu Miriu, Mogusi, and Migori.


title: Lake Victoria

text: The only outflow from Lake Victoria is the Nile River, which exits the lake near Jinja, Uganda. In terms of contributed water, this makes Lake Victoria the principal source of the longest branch of the Nile. However, the most distal source of the Nile Basin, and therefore the ultimate source of the Nile, is more often considered to be one of the tributary rivers of the Kagera River (the exact tributary remains undetermined), and which originates in either Rwanda or Burundi. The uppermost section of the Nile is generally known as the Victoria Nile until it reaches Lake Albert. Although it is a part of the same river system known as the White Nile and is occasionally referred to as such, strictly speaking this name does not apply until after the river crosses the Uganda border into South Sudan to the north.


title: Lake Victoria

text: The lake exhibits eutrophic conditions. In 1990–1991, oxygen concentrations in the mixed layer were higher than in 1960–1961, with nearly continuous oxygen supersaturation in surface waters. Oxygen concentrations in hypolimnetic waters (i.e. the layer of water that lies below the thermocline, is noncirculating, and remains perpetually cold) were lower in 1990–1991 for a longer period than in 1960–1961, with values of less than 1 mg per litre (< 0.4 gr/cu ft) occurring in water as shallow as compared with a shallowest occurrence of greater than in 1961. The changes in oxygenation are considered consistent with measurements of higher algal biomass and productivity. These changes have arisen for multiple reasons: successive burning within its basin, soot and ash from which has been deposited over the lake's wide area; from increased nutrient inflows via rivers, and from increased pollution associated with settlement along its shores.


title: Lake Victoria

text: Between 2010 and 2022 the surface area of Lake Victoria increased by 15% flooding lakeside communities.


title: Lake Victoria

text: The lake is considered a shallow lake considering its large geographic area with a maximum depth of approximately and an average depth of . A 2016 project digitized ten-thousand points and created the first true bathymetric map of the lake. The deepest part of the lake is offset to the east of the lake near Kenya and the lake is generally shallower in the west along the Ugandan shoreline and the south along the Tanzanian shoreline.


title: Lake Victoria

text: Many mammal species live in the region of Lake Victoria, and some of these are closely associated with the lake itself and the nearby wetlands. Among these are the hippopotamus, African clawless otter, spotted-necked otter, marsh mongoose, sitatunga, bohor reedbuck, defassa waterbuck, cane rats, and giant otter shrew.


title: Lake Victoria

text: Lake Victoria and its wetlands has a large population of Nile crocodiles, as well as African helmeted turtles, variable mud turtles, and Williams' mud turtle. The Williams' mud turtle is restricted to Lake Victoria and other lakes, rivers, and swamps in the upper Nile basin.


title: Lake Victoria

text: Lake Victoria formerly was very rich in fish, including many endemics, but a high percentage of these became extinct since the 1940s. The main group in Lake Victoria is the haplochromine cichlids ("Haplochromis" "sensu lato") with more than 500 species, almost all endemic, and including an estimated 300 that still are undescribed. This is far more species of fish than any other lake in the world, except Lake Malawi. These are the result of a rapid adaptive radiation in the last circa 15,000 years. Their extraordinary diversity and speed of evolution have been the subjects for many scientists studying the forces that drive the richness of life everywhere. The Victoria haplochromines are part of an older group of more than 700 closely related species, also including those of several smaller lakes in the region, notably Kyoga, Edward–George, Albert, and Kivu.


title: Lake Victoria

text: Most of these lakes are relatively shallow (like Victoria) and part of the present-day upper Nile basin. The exception is Lake Kivu, which is part of the present-day Congo River basin, but is believed to have been connected to Lakes Edward and Victoria by rivers until the uplifting of parts of the East African Rift. This deep lake may have functioned as an "evolutionary reservoir" for this haplochromine group in periods where other shallower lakes in the region dried out, as happened to Lake Victoria about 15,000 years ago. In recent history only Lake Kyoga was easily accessible to Victoria cichlids, as further downstream movement by the Victoria Nile (to Lake Albert) is prevented by a series of waterfalls, notably Murchison. In contrast, the Owen Falls (now flooded by a dam) between Victoria and Kyoga were essentially a series of rapids that did not effectively block fish movements between the two lakes.


title: Lake Victoria

text: The Victoria haplochromines are distinctly sexually dimorphic (males relatively brightly colored; females dull), and their ecology is extremely diverse, falling into at least 16 groups, including detritivores, zooplanktivores, insectivores, prawn-eaters, molluscivores and piscivores. As a result of predation by the introduced Nile perch, eutrophication and other changes to the ecosystem, it is estimated that at least 200 species (about 40 percent) of Lake Victoria haplochromines have become extinct, including more than 100 undescribed species. Initially it was feared that this number was even higher, by some estimates 65 percent of the total species, but several species that were feared extinct have been rediscovered after the Nile perch started to decline in the 1990s. Several of the remaining species are seriously threatened and additional extinctions are possible. Some species have survived in nearby small satellite lakes, have survived in refugias among rocks or papyrus sedges (protecting them from the Nile perch), or have adapted to the human-induced changes in the lake itself. Such adaptions include a larger gill area (adaption for oxygen-poor water), changes in the feeding apparatus, changes to the eyes (giving them a better sight in turbid water) and smaller head/larger caudal peduncle (allowing faster swimming). The piscivorous (affected by both predation and competition from Nile perch), molluscivorous and insectivorous haplochromines were particularly hard hit with many extinctions. Others have become extinct in their pure form, but survive as hybrids between close relatives (especially among the detritivores). The zooplanktivores have been least affected and in the late 1990s had reached densities similar to, or above, the densities before the drastic declines, although consisting of fewer species and often switching their diet towards macroinvertebrates. Some of the threatened Lake Victoria cichlid species have captive "insurance" populations in zoos, public aquaria and among private aquarists, and a few species are extinct in the wild (only survive in captivity).


title: Lake Victoria

text: Before the mass extinction that has occurred among the lake's cichlids in the last 50 years, about 90 percent of the native fish species in the lake were haplochromines. Disregarding the haplochromines, the only native Victoria cichlids are two critically endangered tilapia, the Singida tilapia or "ngege" ("Oreochromis esculentus") and Victoria tilapia ("O. variabilis").


title: Lake Victoria

text: In 1927–1928 Michael Graham conducted the first ever systematic Fisheries Survey of Lake Victoria. In his official report of the expedition, Graham wrote that "The ngege or satu "Tilapia esculenta", is the most important food fish of the lake, whether for native or non-native consumption. No other fish equals it in the quality of the flesh. It is convenient size for trade, travels well and is found in much greater numbers than other important fish, such as semutundu (Luganda), "Bagrus sp."". Furthermore, Graham noted that the introduction of the European flax gill net of 5 inch mesh had undoubtedly caused a diminution in the number of ngege in those parts of the Kavirondo Gulf, the northern shore of the lake, the Sesse Islands and Smith's Sound which are conveniently situated close to markets. Survey catches in 1927–28 included several Haplochromis species that are now thought to be extinct, including: "Haplochromis flavipinnis", "Haplochromis gowersii", "Haplochromis longirostris", "Haplochromis macrognathus", "Haplochromis michaeli", "Haplochromis nigrescens", "Haplochromis prognathus".


title: Lake Victoria

text: As well as being due to the introduction of Nile Perch, the extinction of cichlids in the genus "Haplochromis" has also been blamed on the lake's eutrophication. The fertility of tropical waters depends on the rate at which nutrients can be brought into solution. The influent rivers of Lake Victoria provide few nutrients to the lake in relation to its size. Because of this, most of Lake Victoria's nutrients are thought to be locked up in lake-bottom deposits. By itself, this vegetative matter decays slowly. Animal flesh decays considerably faster, however, so the fertility of the lake is dependent on the rate at which these nutrients can be taken up by fish and other organisms. There is little doubt that "Haplochromis" played an important role in returning detritus and plankton back into solution. With some 80 percent of "Haplochromis" species feeding off detritus, and equally capable of feeding off one another, they represented a tight, internal recycling system, moving nutrients and biomass both vertically and horizontally through the water column, and even out of the lake via predation by humans and terrestrial animals. The removal of "Haplochromis", however, may have contributed to the increasing frequency of algal blooms, which may in turn be responsible for mass fish kills.


title: Lake Victoria

text: The non-cichlid native fish include African tetras ("Brycinus"), cyprinids ("Enteromius", "Garra", "Labeo", "Labeobarbus", "Rastrineobola" and "Xenobarbus"), airbreathing catfish ("Clariallabes", "Clarias" and "Xenoclarias"), bagrid catfish ("Bagrus"), loach catfish ("Amphilius" and "Zaireichthys"), silver butter catfish ("Schilbe intermedius"), "Synodontis" squeaker catfish, "Nothobranchius" killifish, poeciliids ("Aplocheilichthys" and "Micropanchax"), the spiny eel "Mastacembelus frenatus", elephantfish ("Gnathonemus", "Hippopotamyrus", "Marcusenius", "Mormyrus", "Petrocephalus", and "Pollimyrus"), the climbing gourami "Ctenopoma muriei" and marbled lungfish ("Protopterus aethiopicus").


title: Lake Victoria

text: At a genus level, most of these are widespread in Africa, but the very rare "Xenobarbus" and "Xenoclarias" are endemic to the lake, and the common "Rastrineobola" is near-endemic.


title: Lake Victoria

text: Four species of freshwater crabs are known from Lake Victoria: "Potamonautes niloticus" is widespread in the lake and "P. emini" has been recorded from the vicinity of Bukoba in Tanzania, but both are also found elsewhere in Africa. The last were first scientifically described in 2017 and very little is known about them: "P. entebbe" is only known from near Entebbe (the only known specimen was collected in 1955 and it is unknown if it was in or near the lake) and "P. busungwe" only at Busungwe Island in the northwestern part of the lake. The latter likely is the smallest African freshwater crab with a carapace width up to about , although "P. kantsyore" of Kagera River, and "Platythelphusa maculata" and "P. polita" of Lake Tanganyika are almost as small.


title: Lake Victoria

text: Lake Victoria is home to 28 species of freshwater snails (e.g., "Bellamya", "Biomphalaria", "Bulinus", "Cleopatra", "Gabbiella", and "Melanoides"), including 12 endemic species/subspecies. There are 17 species of bivalves ("Corbicula", "Coelatura", "Sphaerium", and "Byssanodonta"), including 6 endemic species/subspecies. It is likely that undescribed species of snails remain. Conversely, genetic studies indicate that some morphologically distinctive populations, traditionally regarded as separate species, may only be variants of single species. Two of the snail genera, "Biomphalaria" and "Bulinus", are intermediate hosts of the parasite that causes bilharzia (schistosomiasis). Human infections by this parasite are common at Lake Victoria. This may increase as a result of the spread of the invasive water hyacinth (an optimum snail habitat), and the loss of many snail-eating cichlids in the lake.


title: Lake Victoria

text: "Evarcha culicivora" is a species of jumping spider (family Salticidae) found only around Lake Victoria in Kenya and Uganda. It feeds primarily on female mosquitos.


title: Lake Victoria

text: Lake Victoria supports Africa's largest inland fishery (as of 1997). Initially the fishery involved native species, especially tilapia and haplochromine cichlids, but also catfish ("Bagrus", "Clarias", "Synodontis" and silver butter catfish), elephantfish, ningu ("Labeo victorianus") and marbled lungfish ("Protopterus aethiopicus"). Some of these, including tilapia and ningu ("Labeo victorianus"), had already declined in the first half of the 20th century due to overfishing. To boost fishing, several species of non-native tilapia and Nile perch were introduced to the lake in the 1950s. Nevertheless, the natives continued to dominate fisheries until the 1970s where their decline meant that there was a strong shift towards the non-native Nile tilapia (now 7 percent of catches), non-native Nile perch (60 percent) and the native Lake Victoria sardine (30 percent). Because of its small size, the abundant open-water Lake Victoria sardine only supported minor fisheries until the decline of other natives. At the peak in the early 1990s, of Nile perch were landed annually in Lake Victoria, but this has declined significantly in later years.


title: Lake Victoria

text: A number of environmental issues are associated with Lake Victoria and the complete disappearance of many endemic cichlid species has been called the "most dramatic example of human-caused extinctions within an ecosystem".


title: Lake Victoria

text: Starting in the 1950s, many species have been introduced to Lake Victoria where they have become invasive and a prime reason for the extinction of many endemic haplochromine cichlids. Among the introductions are several tilapias: redbreast ("Coptodon rendalli"), redbelly ("C. zillii"), Nile ("Oreochromis niloticus") and blue-spotted tilapias ("O. leucostictus"). Although these have contributed to the extinction of native fish by causing significant changes to the ecosystem, outcompeted natives and (in the case of the Nile tilapia) possibly hybridized with the highly threatened native tilapias, the most infamous introduction was the large and highly predatory Nile perch ("Lates niloticus").


title: Lake Victoria

text: As early as the 1920s, it was proposed to introduce a large pelagic predator such as the Nile perch to improve the fisheries in the lake. At the same time it was warned that this could present a serious danger to the native fish species and required extensive research into possible ecological effects before done. These warnings primarily concerned the native tilapia "O. esculentus", as the smaller haplochromine cichlids (despite playing an important role in local fisheries) were regarded as "trash fish" by the colonial government. In the following decades, the pressure to introduce the Nile perch continued, as did warnings about the possible effects of doing it. The first introduction of Nile perch to the region, done by the Uganda Game and Fisheries Department (then part of the colonial government) and local African fish guards, happened upstream of Murchison Falls directly after the completion of the Owen Falls Dam in 1954. This allowed it to spread to Lake Kyoga where additional Nile perch were released in 1955, but not Victoria itself. Scientists argued that further introduction should wait until research showed the effect of the introduction in Kyoga, but by the late 1950s, Nile perch began being caught in Lake Victoria. As the species was already present, there were few objections when more Nile perch were transferred to Victoria to further bolster the stock in 1962–63.


title: Lake Victoria

text: The origin of the first Victoria introductions in the 1950s is not entirely clear and indisputable evidence is lacking. Uganda Game and Fisheries Department (UGFD) officials denied that they were involved, but circumstantial evidence suggests otherwise and local Africans employed by UGFD have said that they introduced the species in 1954–55 under the directive of senior officials. UGFD officials argued that Nile perch must have spread to Lake Victoria by themselves by passing through the Owen Falls Dam when shut down for maintenance, but this is considered highly unlikely by many scientists. The Nile perch had spread throughout the lake by 1970. Initially the population of the Nile perch was relatively low, but a drastic increase happened, peaking in the 1980s, followed by a decline starting in the 1990s.


title: Lake Victoria

text: Due to the presence of the Nile perch, the natural balance of the lake's ecosystem has been disrupted. The food chain is being altered and in some cases, broken by the indiscriminate eating habits of the Nile perch.


title: Lake Victoria

text: The subsequent decrease in the number of algae-eating fish allows the algae to grow at an alarming rate, thereby choking the lake. The increasing amounts of algae, in turn, increase the amount of detritus (dead plant material) that falls to the deeper portions of the lake before decomposing. As a by-product of this the oxygen levels in the deeper layer of water are being depleted. Without oxygen, any aerobic life (such as fish) cannot exist in the deeper parts of the lake, forcing all life to exist within a narrow range of depth. In this way, the Nile perch has degraded the diverse and thriving ecosystem that was once Lake Victoria. The abundance of aquatic life is not the only dependent of the lake: more than thirty million people in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda rely on the lake for its natural resources.


title: Lake Victoria

text: Hundreds of endemic species that evolved under the special conditions offered by the protection of Lake Victoria have been lost due to extinction, and several more are still threatened. Their loss is devastating for the lake, the fields of ecology, genetics and evolution biology, and more evidently, for the local fisheries. Local fisheries once depended on catching the lungfish, tilapia, carp and catfish that comprise the local diet.


title: Lake Victoria

text: Today, the composition and yields of such fish catches are virtually negligible. Extensive fish kills, Nile perch, loss of habitat and overfishing have caused many fisheries to collapse and many protein sources to be unavailable at the market for local consumption. Few fisheries, though, have been able to make the switch to catching the Nile perch, since that requires a significant amount of capital resources.


title: Lake Victoria

text: The release of large amounts of untreated wastewater (sewage) and agricultural and industrial runoff directly into Lake Victoria over the past 30 years has greatly increased the nutrient levels of nitrogen and phosphorus in the lake "triggering massive growth of exotic water hyacinth, which colonised the lake in the late 1990s". This invasive weed creates anoxic (total depletion of oxygen levels) conditions in the lake inhibiting decomposing plant material, raising toxicity and disease levels to both fish and people. At the same time, the plant's mat or "web" creates a barrier for boats and ferries to maneuver, impedes access to the shoreline, interferes with hydroelectric power generation, and blocks the intake of water for industries. On the other hand, water hyacinth mats can potentially have a positive effect on fish life in that they create a barrier to overfishing and allow for fish growth, there has even been the reappearance of some fish species thought to have been extinct in recent years. The overall effects of the water hyacinth, however, are still unknown.


title: Lake Victoria

text: Growth of the water hyacinth in Lake Victoria has been tracked since 1993, reaching its maxima biomass in 1997 and then declining again by the end of 2001. Greater growth was observed in the northern part of the lake, in relatively protected areas, which may be linked to current and weather patterns and could also be due to the climate and water conditions, which are more suitable to the plants growth (as there are large urban areas to the north end of the lake, in Uganda). The invasive weed was first attempted to be controlled by hand, removed manually from the lake; however, re-growth occurred quickly. Public awareness exercises were also conducted. More recently, measures have been used such as the introduction of natural insect predators, including two different water hyacinth weevils and large harvesting and chopping boats, which seem to be much more effective in eliminating the water hyacinth. A green power plant that uses harvested water hyacinth (but also can use other degradable waste) was constructed in Kisumu County in 2013. In addition to the biogas it produces, its by-product can be used as fertilizer.


title: Lake Victoria

text: Other factors which may have contributed to the decline of the water hyacinth in Lake Victoria include varying weather patterns, such as El Niño during the last few months of 1997 and first six months of 1998 bringing with it higher levels of water in the lake and thus dislodging the plants. Heavy winds and rains along with their subsequent waves may have also damaged the plants during this same time frame. The plants may not have been destroyed, instead merely moved to another location. Additionally, the water quality, nutrient supply, temperature, and other environmental factors could have played a role. Overall, the timing of the decline could be linked to all of these factors and perhaps together, in combination, they were more effective than any one deterrent would have been by itself. The water hyacinth is in remission and this trend could be permanent if control efforts are continued.


title: Lake Victoria

text: Pollution of Lake Victoria is mainly due to discharge of raw sewage into the lake, dumping of domestic and industrial waste, and fertiliser and chemicals from farms.


title: Lake Victoria

text: The Lake Victoria basin, while generally rural, has many major centres of population. Its shores are dotted with key cities and towns, including Kisumu, Kisii, and Homa Bay in Kenya; Kampala, Jinja and Entebbe in Uganda; and Bukoba, Mwanza, and Musoma in Tanzania. These cities and towns are also home to many factories that discharge some chemicals directly into the lake or its influent rivers. The set up of small beaches and local authorities around the lake lack proper sewage treatment facilities allowing pollutants to find their way into the water. Large parts of these urban areas also discharge untreated (raw) sewage into the river, increasing its eutrophication that in turn is helping to increase the invasive water hyacinth. Increased logging and act of deforestation has led to environmental degradation around the region reducing the absorption of polluting chemicals and deteriorating the water quality.


title: Lake Victoria

text: As of 2016, an environmental data repository exists for Lake Victoria. The repository contains shoreline, bathymetry, pollution, temperature, wind vector, and other important data for both the lake and the wider Basin.


title: Lake Victoria

text: The first recorded information about Lake Victoria comes from Arab traders plying the inland routes in search of gold, ivory, other precious commodities, and slaves.


title: Lake Victoria

text: The lake existed and was known to many Africans in the catchment area long before it was sighted by a European in 1858 when the British explorer John Hanning Speke reached its southern shore while on his journey with Richard Francis Burton to explore central Africa and locate the Great Lakes. Believing he had found the source of the Nile on seeing this "vast expanse of open water" for the first time, Speke named the lake after Queen Victoria. Burton, who had been recovering from illness at the time and resting further south on the shores of Lake Tanganyika, was outraged that Speke claimed to have proved his discovery to have been the true source of the Nile River, which Burton regarded as still unsettled. A very public quarrel ensued, which not only sparked a great deal of intense debate within the scientific community of the day, but also much interest by other explorers keen to either confirm or refute Speke's discovery.


title: Lake Victoria

text: In the late 1860s, the famous Scottish explorer and missionary David Livingstone failed in his attempt to verify Speke's discovery, instead pushing too far west and entering the River Congo system instead. Ultimately, the Welsh-American explorer Henry Morton Stanley, on an expedition funded by the "New York Herald" newspaper, confirmed the truth of Speke's discovery, circumnavigating the lake and reporting the great outflow at Ripon Falls on the lake's northern shore.


title: Lake Victoria

text: The only outflow for Lake Victoria is at Jinja, Uganda, where it forms the Victoria Nile. The water for at least 12,000 years has drained across a natural rock weir. In 1952, engineers acting for the government of Colonial Uganda blasted out the weir and reservoir to replace it with an artificial barrage to control the level of the lake and reduce the gradual erosion of the rock weir. A standard for mimicking the old rate of outflow called the "agreed curve" was established, setting the maximum flow rate at 300 to 1,700 cubic metres per second (392–2,224 cu yd/sec) depending on the lake's water level.


title: Lake Victoria

text: In 2002, Uganda completed a second hydroelectric complex in the area, the Kiira Hydroelectric Power Station, with World Bank assistance. By 2006, the water levels in Lake Victoria had reached an 80-year low, and Daniel Kull, an independent hydrologist living in Nairobi, Kenya, calculated that Uganda was releasing about twice as much water as is allowed under the agreement, and was primarily responsible for recent drops in the lake's level.


title: Lake Victoria

text: The Lamadi water scheme is a water and sanitation project that serves Mwanza and the satellite towns of Lamadi, Misungwi, Magu, Bukoba, and Musoma on the bank of Lake Victoria.  European Investment Bank started the project in 2013 with the aim of protecting the environmental health of the lake, through improved water and sanitation to the towns whose pollution is part of the degradation of the lake. The project aims to provide safe drinking water for an estimated one million people and improved sanitation for 100 000 people. Sediment and suspended solids are filtered out using sand, which acts like a sieve. The water is then ready to be chlorinated or treated in another way. The sand filtration helps reduce water-borne diseases and is based on the use of the local environment.


title: Lake Victoria

text: Since the 1900s, Lake Victoria ferries have been an important means of transport between Uganda, Tanzania, and Kenya. The main ports on the lake are Kisumu, Mwanza, Bukoba, Entebbe, Port Bell, and Jinja. Until 1963, the fastest and newest ferry, MV "Victoria", was designated a Royal Mail Ship. In 1966, train ferry services between Kenya and Tanzania were established with the introduction of and . The ferry MV "Bukoba" sank in the lake on 21 May 1996 with a loss of between 800 and 1,000 lives, making it one of Africa's worst maritime disasters. Another tragedy occurred recently on 20 September 2018 that involved the passagers ferry MV Nyerere from Tanzania that caused the deaths of over 200 people.


title: Lake Victoria

text: On 6 November 2022, Lake Victoria was the site of a commercial passenger aircraft crash. Precision Air Flight 494 an ATR 42–500 carrying 39 passengers and four crew, crashed while approaching Bukoba Airport, resulting in 19 fatalities.


title: Men in Black II

text: Men in Black II (stylized as MIIB) is a 2002 American science fiction action comedy film directed by Barry Sonnenfeld from a screenplay by Robert Gordon and Barry Fanaro. It is the second film in the original trilogy and a sequel to "Men in Black", which in turn is loosely based on the Marvel Comics series "The Men in Black" by Lowell Cunningham. The film stars Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith reprising their roles from the first film, with Lara Flynn Boyle, Johnny Knoxville, Rosario Dawson, Tony Shalhoub, and Rip Torn in supporting roles; the film also includes a cameo appearance by Michael Jackson. The film centers on Agent J trying to find and recruit Agent K back into the organization because only K knows how to deal with the latest threat to Earth's security, but restoring that knowledge requires restoring the memories J wiped from K's mind at the end of the previous film.


title: Men in Black II

text: "Men in Black II" was released worldwide on July 3, 2002, by Columbia Pictures, receiving mixed reviews from critics and grossing $441.8 million against a budget of $140 million. The film was followed by "Men in Black 3" in 2012, and a standalone sequel "" in 2019.


title: Men in Black II

text: In July 2002, Agent J has become a top agent but has developed a habit of neuralyzing partners he feels are emotionally unfit to cope with the work. When he is called to investigate the murder of an alien, Ben, at his pizzeria, waitress Laura Vasquez tells him that the murderers are Serleena, a shapeshifting, worm-like Kylothian who has taken the form of a Victoria's Secret lingerie model, and her two-headed servant Scrad and Charlie. Laura says they were looking for something called the Light of Zartha. J is strongly attracted to Laura, and in violation of MiB rules, does not neuralyze her to erase her memories.


title: Men in Black II

text: J finds that little is known about the Light of Zartha, except that it is immensely powerful. As he investigates the crime, every lead points to his former partner and mentor, Agent K, who was neuralyzed upon retirement five years previously and remembers nothing of his MIB service. In Truro, Massachusetts, where K is now the town's postmaster, J convinces him of his past by proving that all of his fellow postal workers are aliens.


title: Men in Black II

text: Back in New York City, Serleena, along with Scrad and Charlie, launches an attack on MIB headquarters before K's neuralyzation can be reversed, but Jack Jeebs has an illegal deneuralyzer in his basement. K eventually regains his memories but remembers that years before, he neuralyzed himself specifically to erase what he knew of the Light of Zartha and those memories have not returned. As a precaution, he left himself a series of clues.


title: Men in Black II

text: At the pizzeria, they find a locker key. J and K fear for Laura's safety and hide her with the worms. The key opens a locker in Grand Central Station where a society of tiny aliens, who worship K as their deity, guard their most sacred relics: K's wristwatch and video store membership card.


title: Men in Black II

text: At the store, as J and K watch a fictionalized story of the Light of Zartha, K remembers the Zarthan Queen Lauranna long ago entrusted Men in Black with safeguarding the Light from her nemesis, Serleena, who followed Lauranna to Earth and killed her. After hiding the Light, a grief-stricken K neuralyzed himself, both to bury his sadness and to ensure that he would never reveal its hiding place. K still cannot remember where he hid it nor what the Light looks like. Thinking it might be Laura's bracelet, he only remembers that it must return to Zartha soon or both Earth and Zartha will be destroyed.


title: Men in Black II

text: At the worms' apartment, they find that Laura has been captured by Serleena. With the worms, they counterattack MIB headquarters, freeing Laura and the other agents. Serleena attempts to retaliate by chasing them with a spaceship through New York but is eaten by Jeff, a gigantic worm alien living in the New York City Subway.


title: Men in Black II

text: Laura's bracelet leads J and K to the roof of a skyscraper where a ship stands ready to transport the Light back to Zartha. K reveals that Laura is the daughter of Lauranna (and, it is implied, his daughter) and that she's also the Light. K convinces J and Laura that she must go to Zartha to save both her planet and Earth from destruction. Serleena, who has absorbed Jeff and taken his form, attempts to snatch the ship carrying Laura as it lifts off, but J and K blast her out of the sky. Since all of New York City has just witnessed this battle in the skies over the metropolis, K activates a giant neuralyzer in the torch of the Statue of Liberty.


title: Men in Black II

text: Back at MIB headquarters, J finds the tiny locker-dwelling aliens now in his locker, moved there by K and Chief Zed in an attempt to give him some perspective. When J suggests showing the miniature creatures that their universe is bigger than a locker, K kicks open a door and reveals that the human universe is itself a locker within an immense alien train station.


title: Men in Black II

text: Despite some initial involvement from David Koepp (who left to work on" Panic Room" and "Spider-Man"), the script was written by Robert Gordon and later revised by Barry Fanaro, who added pop culture references, something which Gordon had deliberately avoided. Sonnenfeld took issue with the producers' focus on the love story between Will Smith's and Rosario Dawson's characters, saying that "I learned on "Wild Wild West" that audiences didn't want to see Will as the straight man. And until Tommy comes back into the movie, by definition Will's the straight man." Fanaro condensed the first part of the film and brought Agent K in earlier.


title: Men in Black II

text: Principal photography began on June 11, 2001 and ended on September 23, 2001. The climax of the story was originally filmed against a backdrop of the twin towers of the original World Trade Center; but after the September 11 attacks, the climactic scene was reworked. Other scenes incorporating views of the twin towers likewise were edited, or reshot. Filming for "Men in Black II" was also suspended due to the attacks.


title: Men in Black II

text: Supervising sound editor Skip Lievsay used a Synclavier to recreate and improve the original recording of the neuralyzer sound effect from the first film (which was the sound of a strobe flash as it recycles) by removing some distortion. For some of the scenes with the Serleena creature, the sound crew "took tree branches, put them inside a rubber membrane and pushed that around and added some water." For the special effects scene where the subway train is attacked by Jeff the Worm, a specially designed vise was used to crush a subway car and make it look as if it had been bitten in half.


title: Men in Black II

text: The motion picture soundtrack to "Men In Black II" was released on June 25, 2002 by Columbia Records.


title: Men in Black II

text: In October 2001, the first photos for "Men in Black II" were revealed. A teaser trailer premiered in December 2001, which was attached to the screenings of "" and "Ali". Just four months later in April 2002, a new trailer was released online. It made its theatrical debut on May 3 with the opening of "Spider-Man".


title: Men in Black II

text: Burger King began selling a variety of kids meal toys themed to the film at their restaurants. Several action figures were also released by Hasbro at the North American International Toy Fair event.


title: Men in Black II

text: "Men In Black II" was released on DVD and VHS on November 26, 2002, and on Blu-ray on May 1, 2012. It came with an alternate ending where J is sent to the homeworld of the aliens from Grand Central Station.


title: Men in Black II

text: In the United Kingdom, the film was watched by 710,000 viewers on subscription television channel Sky Movies 1 in 2004, making it the year's eighth most-watched film on subscription television.


title: Men in Black II

text: Released theatrically on July 3, 2002, "Men in Black II" earned $18.5 million on its opening day, making it the third-highest Wednesday opening, behind "" and "Jurassic Park III". The film would go on to make $52,148,751 during its opening weekend, becoming the highest Fourth of July three-day opening weekend, surpassing its predecessor "Men in Black". Within five days, it grossed $87.1 million, breaking "Independence Day"s record for having the biggest five-day Fourth of July Wednesday opening. "Men in Black II" would hold the record for having the largest Fourth of July opening weekend until it was surpassed by "Spider-Man 2" in 2004. The film was ranked number one at the box office upon opening, beating out "The Powerpuff Girls Movie". It would go on to compete against other summer films like "Lilo & Stitch", "Mr. Deeds" and "Minority Report". The film held the number one position in its second weekend with revenue of $24,410,311, a 53.2% decrease from the previous weekend. The third weekend saw a 40.4% decrease, with box office of $14,552,335, coming in at number three.


title: Men in Black II

text: In its fourth weekend, the film was at fourth place, with revenue of $8,477,202. "Men in Black II" fell out of the top ten after five weekends. After sixty-two days of release in North America, "Men in Black II" had grossed $190,418,803. 43.1% of the film's worldwide revenue of $441,818,803 came from North America.


title: Men in Black II

text: On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 38% based on 198 reviews, with an average score of 5.30/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Lacking the freshness of the first movie, MIB 2 recycles elements from its predecessor with mixed results." On Metacritic, the film received a score of 49 based on 37 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Men in Black II

text: A. O. Scott of "The New York Times" said, "Within the trivial, ingratiating scope of its ambition... the sequel is pleasant enough" and, noting the vast array of aliens designed by Rick Baker, said that the film "really belongs to Mr. Baker." A review in "The Hindu" called the film "worth viewing once." A review from Digital Media FX magazine praised the spaceships as looking realistic, but criticized many of the simpler visual effects, such as the moving backgrounds composited behind the car windows using blue-screen (which it called a throwback to the special effects of earlier decades). In August 2002, "Entertainment Weekly" placed the Worm Guys among their list of the best CG characters, and said that enlarging the roles of Frank the Pug and the Worm Guys in "Men in Black II" was beneficial for the "tiring franchise."


title: Men in Black II

text: The film was nominated for a Visual Effects Society Award for "Best Visual Effects in a Visual Effects Driven Motion Picture" but lost to "". The film also earned a Razzie Award nomination for Lara Flynn Boyle as Worst Supporting Actress.


title: NPR

text: National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other non-profit membership media organizations such as Associated Press, in that it was established by an act of Congress. Most of its member stations are owned by non-profit organizations, including public school districts, colleges, and universities. It serves as a national syndicator to a network of over 1,000 public radio stations in the United States. , NPR employed 840 people.


title: NPR

text: NPR produces and distributes news and cultural programming. The organization's flagship shows are two drive-time news broadcasts: "Morning Edition" and the afternoon "All Things Considered", both carried by most NPR member stations, and among the most popular radio programs in the country. , the drive-time programs attract an audience of 14.9 million and 14.7 million per week, respectively.


title: NPR

text: NPR manages the Public Radio Satellite System, which distributes its programs and other programming from independent producers and networks such as American Public Media and Public Radio Exchange, and which also acts as a primary entry point for the Emergency Alert System. Its content is also available on-demand online, on mobile networks, and in many cases, as podcasts. Several NPR stations also carry programs from British public broadcaster BBC World Service.


title: NPR

text: The organization's legal name is "National Public Radio" and its trademarked brand is "NPR"; it is known by both names. In June 2010, the organization announced that it was "making a conscious effort to consistently refer to ourselves as NPR on-air and online" because NPR is the common name for the organization and the tag line "This ... is NPR" has been used by its radio hosts for many years. However, "National Public Radio" remains the legal name of the group, as it has been since 1970.


title: NPR

text: National Public Radio replaced the National Educational Radio Network on February 26, 1970, following Congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967. This act was signed into law by 36th President Lyndon B. Johnson, and established the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which also created the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) for television in addition to NPR. A CPB organizing committee under John Witherspoon first created a board of directors chaired by Bernard Mayes.


title: NPR

text: The board then hired Donald Quayle to be the first president of NPR with 30 employees and 90 charter member local stations, and studios in Washington, D.C.


title: NPR

text: NPR aired its first broadcast on April 20, 1971, covering United States Senate hearings on the ongoing Vietnam War in Southeast Asia. The afternoon drive-time newscast "All Things Considered" premiered on May 3, 1971, first hosted by Robert Conley. NPR was primarily a production and distribution organization until 1977, when it merged with the Association of Public Radio Stations. "Morning Edition" premiered on November 5, 1979, first hosted by Bob Edwards.


title: NPR

text: NPR suffered an almost-fatal setback in 1983 when efforts to expand services created a deficit of nearly $7 million (equivalent to $19 million in 2022 dollars). After a Congressional investigation and the resignation of NPR's then-president Frank Mankiewicz, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting agreed to lend the network money in order to stave off bankruptcy. In exchange, NPR agreed to a new arrangement whereby the annual CPB stipend that it had previously received directly would be divided among local stations instead; in turn, those stations would support NPR productions on a subscription basis. NPR also agreed to turn its satellite service into a cooperative venture (the Public Radio Satellite System), making it possible for non-NPR shows to get national distribution. It took NPR approximately three years to pay off the debt.


title: NPR

text: Delano Lewis, the president of C&P Telephone, left that position to become NPR's CEO and president in January 1994. Lewis resigned in August 1998. In November 1998, NPR's board of directors hired Kevin Klose, the director of the International Broadcasting Bureau, as its president and chief executive officer.


title: NPR

text: NPR spent nearly $13 million to acquire and equip a West Coast production facility, NPR West, which opened in Culver City, Los Angeles County, California, in November 2002. With room for up to 90 employees, it was established to expand its production capabilities, improve its coverage of the western United States, and create a backup production facility capable of keeping NPR on the air in the event of a catastrophe in Washington, D.C.


title: NPR

text: In November 2003, NPR received $235 million from the estate of the late Joan B. Kroc, the widow of Ray Kroc, founder of McDonald's Corporation. This was the largest monetary gift ever to a cultural institution.


title: NPR

text: In 2004 NPR's budget increased by over 50% to $153 million due to the Kroc gift. Of the money, $34 million was deposited in its endowment. The endowment fund before the gift totaled $35 million. NPR will use the interest from the bequest to expand its news staff and reduce some member stations' fees. The 2005 budget was about $120 million.


title: NPR

text: In August 2005, NPR entered podcasting with a directory of over 170 programs created by NPR and member stations. By November of that year, users downloaded NPR and other public radio podcasts 5 million times. Ten years later, by March 2015, users downloaded podcasts produced only by NPR 94 million times, and NPR podcasts like "Fresh Air" and the "TED Radio Hour" routinely made the iTunes Top Podcasts list.


title: NPR

text: Ken Stern became chief executive in September 2006, reportedly as the "hand-picked successor" of CEO Kevin Klose, who gave up the job but remained as NPR's president; Stern had worked with Klose at Radio Free Europe.


title: NPR

text: On December 10, 2008, NPR announced that it would reduce its workforce by 7% and cancel the news programs "Day to Day" and "News & Notes". The organization indicated this was in response to a rapid drop in corporate underwriting in the wake of the economic crisis of 2008.


title: NPR

text: In the fall of 2008, NPR programming reached a record 27.5 million people weekly, according to Arbitron ratings figures. NPR stations reach 32.7 million listeners overall.


title: NPR

text: In March 2008, the NPR Board announced that Stern would be stepping down from his role as chief executive officer, following conflict with NPR's board of directors "over the direction of the organization," including issues NPR's member station managers had had with NPR's expansion into new media "at the expense of serving" the stations that financially support NPR.


title: NPR

text: In October 2010, NPR accepted a $1.8 million grant from the Open Society Institute. The grant is meant to begin a project called Impact of Government that was intended to add at least 100 journalists at NPR member radio stations in all 50 states by 2013. The OSI has made previous donations, but does not take on-air credit for its gifts.


title: NPR

text: In April 2013, NPR moved from its home of 19 years (635 Massachusetts Avenue NW) to new offices and production facilities at 1111 North Capitol Street NE in a building adapted from the former C&P Telephone Warehouse and Repair Facility. The new headquarters—at the corner of North Capitol Street NE and L Street NW—is in the burgeoning NoMa neighborhood of Washington. The first show scheduled to be broadcast from the new studios was "Weekend Edition Saturday". "Morning Edition" was the last show to move to the new location. In June 2013 NPR canceled the weekday call-in show "Talk of the Nation".


title: NPR

text: In September 2013, certain of NPR's 840 full- and part-time employees were offered a voluntary buyout plan to reduce staff by 10 percent and return NPR to a balanced budget by the 2015 fiscal year.


title: NPR

text: In December 2018, "The Washington Post" reported that between 20 and 22 percent of NPR staff was classified as temps, while this compares to about five percent of a typical for-profit television station. Some of the temporary staff members told the newspaper the systems were "exploitative", but NPR's president of operations said the current systems was in place because the station is a "media company that strives to be innovative and nimble."


title: NPR

text: In December 2018, NPR launched a new podcast analytics technology called Remote Audio Data (RAD), which developer Stacey Goers described as a "method for sharing listening metrics from podcast applications straight back to publishers, with extreme care and respect for user privacy."


title: NPR

text: In late November 2022, CEO Lansing told staffers in a memo that NPR needed to reduce spending by $10 million during the current fiscal year due to a drop in revenue from sponsors. The amount is approximately three percent of the organization's annual budget.


title: NPR

text: NPR is a membership organization. Member stations are required to be non-commercial or non-commercial educational radio stations; have at least five full-time professional employees; operate for at least 18 hours per day; and not be designed solely to further a religious broadcasting philosophy or be used for classroom distance learning programming. Each member station receives one vote at the annual NPR board meetings—exercised by its designated Authorized Station Representative ("A-Rep").


title: NPR

text: To oversee the day-to-day operations and prepare its budget, members elect a board of directors. The board was previously composed of ten A-Reps, five members of the general public, and the chair of the NPR Foundation. On November 2, 2015, NPR Members approved a change in the NPR Bylaws to expand the board of directors to 23 directors, consisting of 12 Member Directors who are managers of NPR Member stations and are elected to the Board by their fellow Member stations, 9 Public Directors who are prominent members of the public selected by the Board and confirmed by NPR Member stations, the NPR Foundation Chair, and the NPR President & CEO. Terms are for three years and are staggered such that some stand for election every year.


title: NPR

text: The Public Editor responds to significant listener queries, comments and criticisms. The position reports to the president and CEO John Lansing.


title: NPR

text: In 2020, NPR released a budget for FY21 anticipating revenue of $250 million, a slight decrease from the prior year due to impacts of COVID-19. The budget anticipates $240 million in operating expenses, plus additional debt service and capital costs that lead to a cash deficit of approximately $4 million. The budget includes $25 million in budget cuts.


title: NPR

text: During the 1970s and early 1980s, the majority of NPR funding came from the federal government. Steps were taken during the Reagan administration in the 1980s to completely wean NPR from government support, but the 1983 funding crisis forced the network to make immediate changes.


title: NPR

text: According to CPB, in 2009 11.3% of the aggregate revenues of all public radio broadcasting stations were funded from federal sources, principally through CPB; in 2012 10.9% of the revenues for Public Radio came from federal sources.


title: NPR

text: In 2010, NPR revenues totaled $180 million, with the bulk of revenues coming from programming fees, grants from foundations or business entities, contributions and sponsorships. According to the 2009 financial statement, about 50% of NPR revenues come from the fees it charges member stations for programming and distribution charges. Typically, NPR member stations receive funds through on-air pledge drives, corporate underwriting, state and local governments, educational institutions, and the federally funded Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). In 2009, member stations derived 6% of their revenue from federal, state and local government funding, 10% of their revenue from CPB grants, and 14% of their revenue from universities. While NPR does not receive any direct federal funding, it does receive a small number of competitive grants from CPB and federal agencies like the Department of Education and the Department of Commerce. This funding amounts to approximately 2% of NPR's overall revenues.


title: NPR

text: In 2011, NPR announced the roll-out of their own online advertising network, which allows member stations to run geographically targeted advertisement spots from national sponsors that may otherwise be unavailable to their local area, opening additional revenue streams to the broadcaster.


title: NPR

text: "Center Stage", a mix of native advertising and banner ad featured prominently on the NPR homepage, above-the-fold, was launched in 2013. The launch partner for "Center Stage" was Squarespace.


title: NPR

text: In 2014, NPR CEO Jarl Mohn said the network would begin to increase revenue by having brands NPR views as more relevant to the audience underwrite NPR programs and requesting higher rates from them.


title: NPR

text: For the year ended September 30, 2018, total operating revenues were $235 million, increasing to almost $259 million by September 2019.


title: NPR

text: In contrast with commercial broadcasting, NPR's radio broadcasts do not carry traditional commercials, but has advertising in the form of brief statements from major sponsors which may include corporate slogans, descriptions of products and services, and contact information such as website addresses and telephone numbers. These statements are called underwriting spots and, unlike commercials, are governed by specific FCC restrictions in addition to truth in advertising laws; they cannot advocate a product or "promote the goods and services" of for-profit entities. These restrictions apply only to radio broadcasts and not NPR's other digital platforms. When questioned on the subject of how corporate underwriting revenues and foundation grants were holding up during the recession, in a speech broadcast on C-SPAN before the National Press Club on March 2, 2009, then president and CEO Vivian Schiller stated: "underwriting is down, it's down for everybody; this is the area that is most down for us, in sponsorship, underwriting, advertising, call it whatever you want; just like it is for all of media." Hosts of the NPR program "Planet Money" stated the audience is indeed a product being sold to advertisers in the same way as commercial stations, saying: "they are not advertisers exactly but, they have a lot of the same characteristics; let's just say that."


title: NPR

text: In 2014, the Pew Research Center reported that NPR had a similar level of listener trust as CNN, NBC and ABC. A Harris telephone survey conducted in 2005 found that NPR was the most trusted news source in the United States.


title: NPR

text: According to 2009, NPR statistics, about 20.9 million listeners tune into NPR each week. By 2017, NPR's weekly on-air audience had reached 30.2 million. According to 2015 figures, 87% of the NPR terrestrial public radio audience and 67% of the NPR podcast audience is white. According to the 2012 Pew Research Center 2012 News Consumption Survey, NPR listeners tend to be highly educated, with 54% of regular listeners being college graduates and 21% having some college. NPR's audience is almost exactly average in terms of the sex of listeners (49% male, 51% female). NPR listeners have higher incomes than average (the 2012 Pew study showed that 43% earn over $75,000, 27% earn between $30,000 and $75,000). The Pew survey found that the NPR audience tends Democratic (17% Republican, 37% independent, 43% Democratic) and politically moderate (21% conservative, 39% moderate, 36% liberal).


title: NPR

text: NPR stations generally subscribe to the Nielsen rating service, but are not included in published ratings and rankings such as "Radio & Records". NPR station listenership is measured by Nielsen in both Diary and PPM (people meter) markets. NPR stations are frequently not included in "summary level" diary data used by most advertising agencies for media planning. Data on NPR listening can be accessed using "respondent level" diary data. Additionally, all radio stations (public and commercial) are treated equally within the PPM data sets making NPR station listenership data much more widely available to the media planning community. NPR's signature morning news program, "Morning Edition", is the network's most popular program, drawing 14.63 million listeners a week, with its afternoon newsmagazine, "All Things Considered", a close second, with 14.6 million listeners a week according to 2017 Nielsen ratings data. Arbitron data is also provided by Radio Research Consortium, a non-profit corporation which subscribes to the Arbitron service and distributes the data to NPR and other non-commercial stations and on its website.


title: NPR

text: NPR's history in digital media includes the work of an independent, for-profit company called Public Interactive, which was founded in 1999 and acquired by PRI in June 2004, when it became a non-profit company. By July 2008, Public Interactive had "170 subscribers who collectively operate 325 public radio and television stations" and clients such as "Car Talk", "The World", and "The Tavis Smiley Show"; by the end of that month, NPR acquired Public Interactive from PRI In March 2011, NPR revealed a restructuring proposal in which Boston-based Public Interactive would become NPR Digital Services, separate from the Washington D.C.-based NPR Digital Media, which focuses on NPR-branded services. NPR Digital Services would continue offering its services to public TV stations.


title: NPR

text: The technical backbone of its digital news publishing system is Core Publisher, which was built on Drupal, an open-source content management system.


title: NPR

text: NPR has been dubbed as "leveraging the Twitter generation" because of its adaptation of the popular microblogging service as one of its primary vehicles of information. Of NPR's Twitter followers, the majority (67%) also listen to NPR on the radio. In a survey of more than 10,000 respondents, NPR found that its Twitter followers are younger, more connected to the social web, and more likely to access content through digital platforms such as its Peabody Award-winning website npr.org, as well as podcasts, mobile apps and more. NPR has more than one Twitter account including @NPR; its survey found that most respondents followed between two and five NPR accounts, including topical account, show-specific accounts and on-air staff accounts. In addition, NPR's Facebook page has been at the forefront of the company foray into social media. Started by college student and fan Geoff Campbell in 2008, the page was quickly taken over by the organization, and over the last two years has grown to nearly 4 million fans and is a popular example of the company's new focus on a younger audience. NPR also has a YouTube channel featuring regularly posted videos covering news and informational subjects.


title: NPR

text: In May 2018, a group led by NPR acquired the podcasting app Pocket Casts. On July 16, 2021, Automattic acquired Pocket Casts from NPR.


title: NPR

text: In July 2014, NPR launched NPR One, an app for iOS and Android smartphones and other mobile devices, which aimed to make it easier for listeners to stream local NPR stations live, and listen to NPR podcasts by autoplaying content and permitting easy navigation. Since launch NPR has made the service available on additional channels: Windows mobile devices, web browsers, Chromecast, Apple Car Play, Apple Watch, Android Auto, Android Wear, Samsung Gear S2 and S3, Amazon Fire TV, and Amazon Alexa–enabled devices. "The New York Times" listed NPR One as one of 2016's "best apps".


title: NPR

text: NPR produces a morning and an evening news program, both of which also have weekend editions with different hosts. It also produces hourly newscasts around the clock.


title: NPR

text: Many programs broadcast on U.S. public radio stations are not affiliated with NPR. If these programs are distributed by another distributor, a public radio station must also affiliate with that network to take that network's programming.


title: NPR

text: American Public Media (APM) and Public Radio Exchange (PRX; which also merged with Public Radio International in 2018) are other major public radio production and distribution organizations with distinct missions, and each competes with the other and NPR for programming slots on public radio stations.


title: NPR

text: Most public radio stations are NPR member stations and many are affiliate stations of APM and PRX at the same time. The organizations have different governance structures and missions and relationships with stations.


title: NPR

text: This list includes programs that were distributed by Public Radio International (PRI) prior to the merger with PDX


title: NPR

text: NPR has been accused of displaying both liberal bias, as alleged in work such as a UCLA and University of Missouri study of "Morning Edition;" and conservative bias, including criticism of alleged reliance on conservative think-tanks. Public radio host Lisa Simeone, who worked for NPR from 1998 to 2002, accused NPR's Pentagon reporting of being "little more than Pentagon press releases." The NPR ombudsman has described how NPR's coverage of the Israel-Palestinian conflict has been simultaneously criticized as biased by both sides. University of Texas journalism professor and author Robert Jensen has criticized NPR as taking a pro-war stance during coverage of Iraq war protests. During the 2020 election, NPR declined to cover the controversy surrounding a "New York Post" article on Hunter Biden, saying "We don't want to waste our time on stories that are not really stories, and we don't want to waste the listeners' and readers' time on stories that are just pure distractions, ..."


title: NPR

text: In 1994, NPR arranged to air, on "All Things Considered", a series of three-minute commentaries by Mumia Abu-Jamal, a journalist convicted in a controversial trial of murdering Philadelphia Police officer Daniel Faulkner. They cancelled airing them after the Fraternal Order of Police and members of the U.S. Congress objected.


title: NPR

text: In a controversial act, NPR banned in 2009 the use of the word "torture" in the context of the Bush administration's use of torture. NPR's Ombudswoman Alicia Shepard's defense of the policy was that "calling waterboarding torture is tantamount to taking sides." Berkeley Professor of Linguistics Geoffrey Nunberg pointed out that virtually all media around the world, other than what he called the "spineless U.S. media", call these techniques torture. In an article which criticized NPR and other U.S. media for their use of euphemisms for torture, Glenn Greenwald discussed what he called the enabling "corruption of American journalism":


title: NPR

text: This active media complicity in concealing that our Government created a systematic torture regime, by refusing ever to say so, is one of the principal reasons it was allowed to happen for so long. The steadfast, ongoing refusal of our leading media institutions to refer to what the Bush administration did as "torture" – even in the face of more than 100 detainee deaths; the use of that term by a leading Bush official to describe what was done at Guantanamo; and the fact that media outlets frequently use the word "torture" to describe exactly the same methods when used by other countries – reveals much about how the modern journalist thinks.


title: NPR

text: On October 20, 2010, NPR terminated Senior News Analyst Juan Williams's independent contract over a series of incidents culminating in remarks he made on the Fox News Channel regarding Muslim head coverings and not feeling comfortable around women wearing them. Williams' firing, which was made abruptly without Williams being given a face-to-face meeting beforehand, was reported by The Washington Post as being a key part of Ellen Weiss, NPR's top news executive at the time, being given an ultimatum on January 4, 2011, to either resign or be fired. On January 6, 2011, NPR announced that Weiss had quit.


title: NPR

text: In March 2011, conservative political activist and provocateur James O'Keefe sent partners Simon Templar (a pen name) and Shaughn Adeleye to secretly record their discussion with Ronald Schiller, NPR's outgoing senior vice president for fundraising, and an associate, in which Schiller made remarks viewed as disparaging of "the current Republican party, especially the Tea Party", and controversial comments regarding Palestine and funding for NPR. NPR disavowed Schiller's comments. CEO Vivian Schiller, who is not related to Ronald, later resigned over the fallout from the comments and the previous firing of Juan Williams.


title: NPR

text: From 1988 to 2021, NPR broadcast an annual reading of the 1776 United States Declaration of Independence over the radio. In 2017, it began using Twitter as a medium for reading the document as well. On July 4, 2017, the 100+ tweets were met with considerable opposition, some online supporters of Donald Trump mistakenly believing the words of the Declaration referring to George III of the United Kingdom to be directed towards the president. The tweets were called "trash" and were accused of being "propaganda", condoning violence and calling for revolution. As of July 4, 2022, the annual tradition has been discontinued.


title: NPR

text: In October 2017, sexual harassment charges were leveled against Michael Oreskes, senior vice president of news and editorial director since 2015. Some of the accusations dated back to when he was Washington, D.C. bureau chief for "The New York Times" during the 1990s, while others involved his conduct at NPR. After a report on the "Times" accusations was published in "The Washington Post", NPR put Oreskes on administrative leave, and the following day his resignation was requested. CNN's Brian Stelter reported that NPR staffers were dissatisfied with the handling of Oreskes, were demanding an external investigation, and that Oreskes poisoned the newsroom atmosphere by abusing his position to meet young women.


title: Long jump

text: The long jump is a track and field event in which athletes combine speed, strength and agility in an attempt to leap as far as possible from a takeoff point. Along with the triple jump, the two events that measure jumping for distance as a group are referred to as the "horizontal jumps". This event has a history in the ancient Olympic Games and has been a modern Olympic event for men since the first Olympics in 1896 and for women since 1948.


title: Long jump

text: At the elite level, competitors run down a runway (usually coated with the same rubberized surface as running tracks, crumb rubber or vulcanized rubber, known generally as an all-weather track) and jump as far as they can from a wooden or synthetic board, 20 centimetres or 8 inches wide, that is built flush with the runway, into a pit filled with soft damp sand. If the competitor starts the leap with any part of the foot past the foul line, the jump is declared a foul and no distance is recorded. A layer of plasticine is placed immediately after the board to detect this occurrence. An official (similar to a referee) will also watch the jump and make the determination. The competitor can initiate the jump from any point behind the foul line; however, the distance measured will always be perpendicular to the foul line to the nearest break in the sand caused by any part of the body or uniform. Therefore, it is in the best interest of the competitor to get as close to the foul line as possible. Competitors are allowed to place two marks along the side of the runway in order to assist them to jump accurately. At a lesser meet and facilities, the plasticine will likely not exist, the runway might be a different surface or jumpers may initiate their jump from a painted or taped mark on the runway. At a smaller meet, the number of attempts might also be limited to four or three.


title: Long jump

text: Each competitor has a set number of attempts. That would normally be three trials, with three additional jumps being awarded to the best eight or nine (depending on the number of lanes on the track at that facility, so the event is equatable to track events) competitors. All valid attempts will be recorded but only the best mark counts towards the results. The competitor with the longest valid jump (from either the trial or final rounds) is declared the winner at the end of competition. In the event of an exact tie, then comparing the next best jumps of the tied competitors will be used to determine place. In a large, multi-day elite competition (like the Olympics or World Championships), a qualification is held in order to select at least 12 finalists. Ties and automatic qualifying distances are potential factors. In the final, a set of trial round jumps will be held, with the best eight performers advancing to the final rounds. (For specific rules and regulations in United States Track & Field see Rule 185)


title: Long jump

text: The long jump is the only known jumping event of ancient Greece's original Olympics' pentathlon events. All events that occurred at the Olympic Games were initially supposed to act as a form of training for warfare. The long jump emerged probably because it mirrored the crossing of obstacles such as streams and ravines. After investigating the surviving depictions of the ancient event it is believed that unlike the modern event, athletes were only allowed a short running start. The athletes carried a weight in each hand, which were called halteres (between 1 and 4.5 kg). These weights were swung forward as the athlete jumped in order to increase momentum. It was commonly believed that the jumper would throw the weights behind him in midair to increase his forward momentum; however, halteres were held throughout the duration of the jump. Swinging them down and back at the end of the jump would change the athlete's center of gravity and allow the athlete to stretch his legs outward, increasing his distance. The jump itself was made from the "bater" ("that which is trod upon"). It was most likely a simple board placed on the stadium track which was removed after the event. The jumpers would land in what was called a "skamma" ("dug-up" area). The idea that this was a pit full of sand is wrong. Sand in the jumping pit is a modern invention. The "skamma" was simply a temporary area dug up for that occasion and not something that remained over time.


title: Long jump

text: The long jump was considered one of the most difficult of the events held at the Games since a great deal of skill was required. Music was often played during the jump and Philostratus says that pipes at times would accompany the jump so as to provide a rhythm for the complex movements of the halteres by the athlete. Philostratus is quoted as saying, "The rules regard jumping as the most difficult of the competitions, and they allow the jumper to be given advantages in rhythm by the use of the flute, and in weight by the use of the halter." Most notable in the ancient sport was a man called Chionis, who in the 656 BC Olympics staged a jump of .


title: Long jump

text: There has been some argument by modern scholars over the long jump. Some have attempted to recreate it as a triple jump. The images provide the only evidence for the action so it is more well received that it was much like today's long jump. The main reason some want to call it a triple jump is the presence of a source that claims there once was a fifty-five ancient foot jump done by a man named Phayllos.


title: Long jump

text: The long jump has been part of modern Olympic competition since the inception of the Games in 1896. In 1914, Dr. Harry Eaton Stewart recommended the "running broad jump" as a standardized track and field event for women. However, it was not until 1948 that the women's long jump was added to the Olympic athletics programme.


title: Long jump

text: There are five main components of the long jump: the approach run, the last two strides, takeoff, action in the air, and landing. Speed in the run-up, or approach, and a high leap off the board are the fundamentals of success. Because speed is such an important factor of the approach, it is not surprising that many long jumpers also compete successfully in sprints. A classic example of this long jump / sprint doubling are performances by Carl Lewis.


title: Long jump

text: The objective of the approach is to gradually accelerate to a maximum controlled speed at takeoff. The most important factor for the distance travelled by an object is its velocity at takeoff – both the speed and angle. Elite jumpers usually leave the ground at an angle of twenty degrees or less; therefore, it is more beneficial for a jumper to focus on the speed component of the jump. The greater the speed at takeoff, the longer the trajectory of the center of mass will be. The importance of a takeoff speed is a factor in the success of sprinters in this event.


title: Long jump

text: The length of the approach is usually consistent distance for an athlete. Approaches can vary between 12 and 19 steps on the novice and intermediate levels, while at the elite level they are closer to between 20 and 22 steps. The exact distance and number of steps in an approach depends on the jumper's experience, sprinting technique, and conditioning level. Consistency in the approach is important as it is the competitor's objective to get as close to the front of the takeoff board as possible without crossing the line with any part of the foot.


title: Long jump

text: The objective of the last two steps is to prepare the body for takeoff while conserving as much speed as possible.


title: Long jump

text: The penultimate step is longer than the previous ones and than the final one before takeoff. The competitor begins to lower his or her center of gravity to prepare the body for the vertical impulse. The last step is shorter because the body is beginning to raise the center of gravity in preparation for takeoff.


title: Long jump

text: The last two steps are extremely important because they determine the velocity with which the competitor will enter the jump.


title: Long jump

text: The objective of the takeoff is to create a vertical impulse through the athlete's center of gravity while maintaining balance and control.


title: Long jump

text: This phase is one of the most technical parts of the long jump. Jumpers must be conscious to place the foot flat on the ground, because jumping off either the heels or the toes negatively affects the jump. Taking off from the board heel-first has a braking effect, which decreases velocity and strains the joints. Jumping off the toes decreases stability, putting the leg at risk of buckling or collapsing from underneath the jumper. While concentrating on foot placement, the athlete must also work to maintain proper body position, keeping the torso upright and moving the hips forward and up to achieve the maximum distance from board contact to foot release.


title: Long jump

text: There are four main styles of takeoff: the kick style, double-arm style, sprint takeoff, and the power sprint or bounding takeoff.


title: Long jump

text: The kick style takeoff is where the athlete actively cycles the leg before a full impulse has been directed into the board then landing into the pit. This requires great strength in the hamstrings. This causes the jumper to jump to large distances.


title: Long jump

text: The double-arm style of takeoff works by moving both arms in a vertical direction as the competitor takes off. This produces a high hip height and a large vertical impulse.


title: Long jump

text: The sprint takeoff is the style most widely instructed by coaching staff. This is a classic single-arm action that resembles a jumper in full stride. It is an efficient takeoff style for maintaining velocity through takeoff.


title: Long jump

text: The power sprint takeoff, or bounding takeoff, is one of the more common elite styles. Very similar to the sprint style, the body resembles a sprinter in full stride. However, there is one major difference. The arm that pushes back on takeoff (the arm on the side of the takeoff leg) fully extends backward, rather than remaining at a bent position. This additional extension increases the impulse at takeoff.


title: Long jump

text: There are three major flight techniques for the long jump: the hang, the sail, and the hitch-kick. Each technique is to combat the forward rotation experienced from take-off but is basically down to preference from the athlete. It is important to note that once the body is airborne, there is nothing that the athlete can do to change the direction they are traveling and consequently where they are going to land in the pit. However, it can be argued that certain techniques influence an athlete's landing, which can affect the distance measured. For example, if an athlete lands feet first but falls back because they are not correctly balanced, a lower distance will be measured.


title: Long jump

text: In the 1970s, some jumpers used a forward somersault, including Tuariki Delamere who used it at the 1974 NCAA Championships, and who matched the jump of the then Olympic champion Randy Williams. The somersault jump has potential to produce longer jumps than other techniques because in the flip, no power is lost countering forward momentum, and it reduces wind resistance in the air. The front flip jump was subsequently banned for fear that it was unsafe.


title: Long jump

text: The men's long jump world record has been held by just four individuals for the majority of time since the IAAF started to ratify records. The first mark recognized by the IAAF in 1912, the performance by Peter O'Connor, stood just short of 20 years (nine years as an IAAF record). After it was broken in 1921, the record changed hands five times until Jesse Owens set the mark of at the 1935 Big Ten track meet in Ann Arbor, Michigan, a record that was not broken for over 25 years, until 1960 by Ralph Boston. Boston improved upon it and exchanged records with Igor Ter-Ovanesyan three times over the next seven years. At the 1968 Summer Olympics, Bob Beamon jumped at an altitude of , a record jump not exceeded for almost 23 years, and which remains the second longest wind legal jump of all time; it has now stood as the Olympic record for over years. On 30 August 1991, Mike Powell of the United States set the current men's world record at the World Championships in Tokyo. It was in a dramatic showdown against Carl Lewis who also surpassed Beamon's record that day, but his jump was wind-assisted (and thus not legal for record purposes). Powell's record of has now stood for over years.


title: Long jump

text: Some jumps over have been officially recorded. Wind-assisted were recorded by Powell at high altitude in Sestriere in 1992. A potential world record of was recorded by Iván Pedroso also in Sestriere. Despite a "legal" wind reading, the jump was not validated because videotape revealed a person standing in front of the wind gauge, invalidating the reading (and costing Pedroso a Ferrari valued at $130,000—the prize for breaking the record at that meet). As mentioned above, Lewis jumped moments before Powell's record-breaking jump with the wind exceeding the maximum allowed. This jump remains the longest ever not to win an Olympic or World Championship gold medal, or any competition in general.


title: Long jump

text: The women's world record has seen more consistent improvement, though the current record has stood longer than any other long jump world record by men or women. The longest to hold the record prior was by Fanny Blankers-Koen during World War II. who held it for over 10 years. There have been four occasions when the record was tied and three when it was improved upon twice in the same competition. The current women's world record is held by Galina Chistyakova of the former Soviet Union who leapt in Leningrad on 11 June 1988, a mark that has now stood for over years.


title: K9 Thunder

text: The K9 Thunder is a South Korean 155 mm self-propelled howitzer designed and developed by the Agency for Defense Development and civil contractors including Dongmyeong Heavy Industries, Kia Heavy Industry, Poongsan Corporation, and Samsung Aerospace Industries for the Republic of Korea Armed Forces, and is now manufactured by Hanwha Defense. K9 howitzers operate in groups with the K10 automatic ammunition resupply vehicle variant.


title: K9 Thunder

text: The entire K9 fleet operated by the ROK Armed Forces is now undergoing upgrades to K9A1, and a further upgrade variant K9A2 is being tested for production. As of 2022, the K9 series has had a 52% share of the global self-propelled howitzer market, including wheeled vehicles, since the year 2000.


title: K9 Thunder

text: In the 1980s, the ROK Armed Forces came in need of a new artillery system to contest North Korean equipment. The armed forces operated M107 self-propelled guns and K55 self-propelled howitzers; however, they had shorter firing ranges compared to M-1978 Koksan and were outnumbered by various North Korean artillery. With the success in designing and manufacturing the KH178 105 mm and KH179 155 mm Towed Howitzers, and experience gained by license producing the K55 (KM109A2), the Ministry of Defense ordered the development of a new system that would have a longer firing range, faster firing rate, and high mobility. The development started in 1989 and was led by the Agency for Defense Development (ADD) and Samsung Aerospace Industries (now Hanwha Defense).


title: K9 Thunder

text: Since 1983, the ADD researchers have been collecting and analyzing data for future artillery. They saw that burst fire and quick relocation would become the dominant factor in artillery battles and built an automatic loading system for testing in 1984. In 1987, the ADD offered an upgrade plan to the existing K55 inspired by the United States' M109 Howitzer Improvement Program (HIP), but was rejected by the Republic of Korea Army in 1988. As a result, and at the beginning of K9 development, the ADD was determined to create a new weapon system and worked on a conceptual model until 1991. Early concepts requested by the military included river crossing capability and the installation of M61 Vulcan as an anti-air weapon, which were later removed due to being unnecessary for such a long-range weapon.


title: K9 Thunder

text: In 1989, the only design data the researchers could obtain at that time were the provisions of the four-nation ballistic agreements, namely the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Italy, to secure the homogeneity of the ammunitions—the new 52 caliber gun fires a NATO standard ammunition (L15A1) at a speed of 945 m per second from chamber volume of 3,556 cm. The first domestic design was prepared by extending and modifying the 155 mm 39 caliber gun used for the KH179. The first firing test was held in January 1992 but experienced many problems due to design errors.


title: K9 Thunder

text: In September 1990, a Korean developer visited the United Kingdom in search of turret design technology which was known to have been developed by British Vickers for AS-90. Vickers refused the technology transfer. Instead, the company offered the AS-90 for sale. The developer also visited Marconi, but the negotiations ended with an unsatisfactory result due to a high requested price. Therefore, developers pursued a domestic electrohydraulic driving system, using the experience in turret design and turret driving devices of the K1 MBT. The simulator was built in 1991.


title: K9 Thunder

text: The next year, researchers found that the disproportionate moment of the 52-caliber was twice of the K55. The balancing machine, which increased the capacity of the existing hydraulic balancing machine, did not sufficiently compensate for the imbalance moment value due to the change in the position of the armament. The driving force was very different depending on the driving angle. The same problem appeared in Germany's Panzerhaubitze 2000, which was under development. A joint research team from the ADD and Seoul National University of Science and Technology calculated an accurate theoretical model, and concluded that adjustment to system configuration was possible without major design changes.


title: K9 Thunder

text: Meanwhile, loud noise from hydraulic generators, which can cause hearing loss under long exposure, was also a problem. The engineers of the ADD and Dongmyeong Heavy Industries (now Mottrol) found that the noise was due to excessive shaking of hydraulic pressure, thus creating an experimental device using the principle of Helmholtz attenuators used in car mufflers. The noisy equipment became quieter and the hydraulic pulsation was significantly reduced. Overall, the domestic design showed driving precision of less than 1 mil in the standard error range.


title: K9 Thunder

text: In the winter of 1991, the ADD held talks with engineers from Samsung Aerospace Industries' special research institute. The ADD originally demanded that Samsung be in charge of system assembly only, as the company had no experience in developing its own tracked vehicle design despite having the experience in manufacturing K55 under license. However, the decision was overturned and the manufacture of the MTR (Mobility Test Rig) was decided. Samsung also worked with KAIST on suspension and Seoul National University & Pohang University of Science and Technology on mobility systems. The engine was co-developed with American AAI Corporation. The test of the MTR was finished in November 1992.


title: K9 Thunder

text: In April 1992, BMY Combat Systems (now BAE Systems Land and Armaments) invited members of the ADD for its first M109A6 Paladin release ceremony and expressed interest in participating in Korea's self-propelled howitzer program by upgrading K55 to Paladin standard. In May, members of BMY Combat Systems and Taledyne Brown visited the ADD, and suggested co-development of a new howitzer based on P-52, a 52-caliber Paladin variant, but this proposal was rejected by Korean developers. Later, during Data Exchange Agreement meeting, South Korea and the United States confirmed that the U.S. has no claim to any intellectual property rights of the howitzer to avoid possible disputes in the future.