title: Argentine Air Force

text: However, the deal appeared to have been canceled in early 2020 leaving the Air Force without a fighter replacement. Some sources suggested that the cancellation was due to the financial pressures resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, while others reported that British intervention played a part by preventing the export of an aircraft incorporating various British components. In October 2020, Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) confirmed that since major components of the aircraft were supplied by the U.K., the aircraft could not be exported to Argentina. Britain similarly blocked the potential sale of Brazilian license-built Saab Gripen aircraft to Argentina, given that some avionics were of British origin. Argentina was now said to be exploring the potential acquisition of aircraft from Russia, China, India or Pakistan. However, even sales of Chinese aircraft reportedly encountered potential problems since the ejector seats of the aircraft were the MK6, manufactured by Martin Baker in the UK.


title: Argentine Air Force

text: Early in 2021, Russia made several proposals related to the acquisition of aircraft by Argentina including the apparent offer of MiG-35 fighters. These built on earlier offers of the MiG-29 as well as on measures being undertaken to extend the life of Mi-171E helicopters acquired by Argentina in 2010 to support operations in Antarctica.


title: Argentine Air Force

text: In 2021, one analysis found that the numbers of operational aircraft with offensive combat capability were practically at a level of zero. In addition to only around six A-4 "Fightinghawk" aircraft being operational, the availability of C-130 transport aircraft was only assessed as being at 6 of originally 14 aircraft. However, 23 light IA-63 "Pampa", 12 T-6C+ "Texan II" and 12 EMB-312 "Tucano" trainer aircraft were reported operational as of 2021. In September 2021 the Government officially included funding of $664 million in a draft budget for Congress involving the purchase of new combat aircraft. However, in December 2022, Argentine President Alberto Fernandez appeared to reject the notion of buying new fighter aircraft for air force, stating: “There are other priorities before buying weapons, definitely”. Referring to the strategic and political situation in South America he further commented that: “There are no war problems, peace is the common denominator between us.” It was simultaneously confirmed that the fighter aircraft replacement program had been stopped.


title: Argentine Air Force

text: To improve transport capabilities, two Fokker F-28 aircraft which had been decommissioned in 2019 have been refurbished and put into service, the last one (TC-53) in early August 2021.


title: Argentine Air Force

text: The FAA is one of the three branches of the Argentine military, having equal status with the Army and the Navy. The President of Argentina is Commander-in-Chief of all the three services.


title: Argentine Air Force

text: The FAA is headed by the Chief of the General Staff ("), directly appointed by the President. The Chief of Staff usually holds the rank of Brigadier General, the highest rank of the Air Force, being seconded by the Deputy Chief of the General Staff and three senior officers in charge of the FAA's three Commands: the Air Operations, the Personnel, and the Materiel Command.


title: Argentine Air Force

text: The Air Operations Command (') is the branch of the Air Force responsible for aerospace defense, air operations, planning, training, and technical and logistical support of the air units. Subordinate to the Air Operations Command are the Air Brigades ('), the Air Force's major operative units, as well as the airspace surveillance and control group (Grupo VYCEA, Argentine Air Force). There is currently estimated to be a total of eight air brigades operational. Brigades are headquartered at Military Air Bases (" (BAMs).


title: Argentine Air Force

text: Each Air Brigade is made up of three Groups, each bearing the same number as their mother Brigade. These groups include:


title: Argentine Air Force

text: The Personnel Command (") is responsible for the training, education, assignment, and welfare of Air Force personnel. Under the control of the Personnel Command are the Military Aviation School (which educates the future officers of the Air Force), the Air Force Non-Commissioned Officer (NCO) School, and other educational and training units.


title: Argentine Air Force

text: The Materiel Command ("") deals with planning and executing the Air Force's logistics regarding flying and ground materiel. Materiel Command includes "Quilmes" and "Río Cuarto" Material Areas (repairing and maintenance units) and "El Palomar" Logistical Area.


title: Sethu (film)

text: Sethu is a 1999 Indian Tamil-language romantic drama film, written and directed by Bala. The film stars Vikram and Abitha in lead roles. The score and soundtrack was composed by Ilaiyaraaja.


title: Sethu (film)

text: The film was initially released in a single suburban theatre in October 1999, but was released later on 10 December 1999 in theatres across Tamil Nadu. It became Vikram's first major breakthrough film. "Sethu" won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Tamil, and the Best Film category at the Filmfare Awards and the Cinema Express Awards. Bala and Vikram also won several awards for their contributions to the film. The film was remade in Kannada as "Huchcha", in Telugu as "Seshu", Both in Hindi as "Tere Naam and" in Odia as "Rakate Lekhichi Na" (2003) and in Bangladesh as "Tor Karone Beche Achi".


title: Sethu (film)

text: Sethu, aka Chiyaan, is a rough and macho college student, and the Chairman of the college's Student Union. He deals with people violently and has a bad temper. He lives with his older brother Vasudevan, a court magistrate, and has a troubled relationship with him. His sister-in-law seems to be the only person who understands him.


title: Sethu (film)

text: The movie begins with Sethu winning the Chair of the Students' Union election, followed by celebrations and an on-campus fight between the rival candidates. Sethu is shown to be aggressive and temperamental. He also has an entourage of loyal friends and a strange vagabond lunatic girl who follows around their group. The next day, Sethu and Vasudevan argue over his apparent rowdyism at college, and Sethu storms out of the house. While catching up with his friends at the college entrance, he spots a timid Brahmin girl, Abitha, making her way into the college. He calls her out and mercilessly rags her for fun by asking trivial questions. However, Abitha's innocent nature and soft-spoken responses win his tough exterior and he begins to like her. Unknowingly after the ragging, Abitha drops a peacock feather from her book, which Sethu keeps. He also bumps into her at the temple during his birthday prayers which leads to some lighthearted interaction between the two. Slowly but gradually, Sethu finds himself falling in love with Abitha. His sister-in-law and friends also notice some subtle good changes in him as well. He also begins to admire the peacock feather to remember Abitha. Sethu also helps her by using his college chairman powers to let her sit for an exam entrance for which she was earlier denied.


title: Sethu (film)

text: Concurrently, Abitha's sister returns home in a pitiful state citing dowry-related torture by her husband. She is determined to annul her marriage and stay at home with her child. She unsuccessfully asks a few people for a loan to repay her dowry. Meanwhile, Sethu awkwardly expresses his love to Abitha. However, Abitha is surprised by the proposal as she never had any feelings for him. In a fit of disbelief, she is unable to react properly when Sethu asks if she loves him and Sethu assumes that she reciprocates his love. He also learns of Abitha's would-be fiancé. Displaying a possessive nature, he threatens the fiancé, who is a passive mannered priest, to back off from Abitha. Frightful, the priest complies.


title: Sethu (film)

text: Subsequently, Abitha openly rejects Sethu when he attempts to present her a gift while catching up with her in a college science lab. She also explains to him that she never had any romantic interest in him. Unable to digest the truth, Sethu aggressively and angrily questions Abitha, causing her to scold him off. Feeling dejected, Sethu spends the night drinking with his friends, who advise him to shed his rowdy image and instead be more timid in front of her to earn his chances back. The next morning, one of Sethu's friends gets thrashed by his rival in college, and Sethu attacks the rival up in retaliation. He continues to throw punches, until he catches the sight of Abitha, who has witnessed the ordeal at the corner. He immediately stops and walks away, feeling a sense of powerlessness to her. His friends, noticing the profound change in him, question him about his loyalties to friendship over his love. They argue in the midst, and one of his friend passes a crude remark about Abitha, causing Sethu to fight him in anger. Realizing that his love is causing him to act rashly, Sethu apologizes to his friends and they patch up. However, he still feels heartbroken over Abitha and continues his days thinking about her.


title: Sethu (film)

text: At this point, Sethu is informed by his friend of a brothel racket whose patron had misbehaved with the former's sister outside the brothel. He wastes no time and busts their operations, while beating out the brothel owners and also informing the police. While searching the brothel rooms, he coincidentally bumps into a woman, unaware that she is Abitha's sister. Initially mistaking her for a prostitute, Sethu is scornful towards her. Feeling confused and angered by his remarks, Abitha's sister argues back, explaining to him on her arrangement to collect her dowry loan at the premise. Sethu then soon realizes that she is an innocent woman who has been conned into prostitution without her knowledge and learns of her dowry-related torture. While the police arrests the brothel owners and prostitutes, Sethu rescues her discretely from the place by covering her with his jacket and brings her to his bike. Ironically, he also catches sight of Abitha who is amongst the crowd, outside witnessing the police arrest. Abitha also sees him with the covered woman thinking that its a brothel worker, completely unaware that its her sister. Though awkward, Sethu takes off with his bike with the woman seated behind him. Dropping her to safety, Sethu enquires Abitha's sister about her husband's whereabouts. Breaking down, Abitha's sister thanks him for the merciful help and informs Sethu, who then goes off into the night. Meanwhile, Abitha's fiance has witnessed the entire incident, realizing the grave help Sethu had just done in rescuing her.


title: Sethu (film)

text: The next day, Sethu travels to the Sub-registrar office and thrashes Abitha's sister's husband. He threatens him to accept his wife back. Learning his lesson, the husband reunites with Abitha's sister. The family feels blissful over the dispute resolution and a joyous Abitha prays at the temple for the good turn of events. However, her fiancé recaps to Abitha and explains Sethu's role on that fateful night her sister was rescued from the brothel. He also explains that Sethu, though rough, is altruistic with a moral compass. He also reminds Abitha that his own profession as a priest would not sustain her married life with him. Acknowledging that he has a heart of gold, Abitha realizes Sethu's feelings. However, Sethu acts rashfully and kidnaps Abitha to an abandoned building. In there, he painfully expresses his love and feelings while also berating her for not understanding him. Its a marked change from the usual Sethu that Abitha has seen. Realizing the extent of his love, Abitha finally succumbs to his love. His love finally succeeded, Sethu is ecstatic and daydreams lying on his motorbike until he is suddenly punched in his face..


title: Sethu (film)

text: Just when things seem to have worked well for him, Sethu is viciously attacked by the brothel goons who seek revenge for busting their prostitute racket. Several goons join in and take turns to violently assault him. Sethu is completely overpowered in the fight and is crippled. While he is knocked out to the ground, they drag his body and brutally hit his head into a rock, bloodying it. The severe impact lacerates a part of his brain and it gets torn with critical damage and internal wounds, making him go traumatic and lose his sanity. They then throw his body on a cliff, leaving him in a gory and a disturbing condition.


title: Sethu (film)

text: Sethu is admitted in a mental hospital, where his case is considered hopeless for recovery. The doctors recommend his worried family and friends for Sethu to be sent to a mental asylum at a temple in Yerwadi ashram, where the ayurvedic therapeutic treatment might prove a chance to cure him.


title: Sethu (film)

text: Sethu's life is completely flipped upside down as his condition has made him a mental patient, unable to comprehend anything. He is sent to the Yerwadi ashram, where conditions are rather inhumane. He becomes thin and is shaved bald, wearing a tattered shirt and shorts in the ashram. He is also chained to the walls like other mentally ill patients. He undergoes intense treatment at the temple. Meanwhile, Abitha is worried for him as she had yet to hear from him since his injury. Eventually, Sethu's brain heals from its wounds and he recovers back to normal. He tries to persuade the ashram authorities and Swamiji that he is fully recovered and can be released. However, his cries fall on deaf ears and the wardens beat him up. A desperate Sethu attempts to escape from the ashram by climbing over the gates, but he falls unto the sharp points of the gate and obtains serious injuries. At the same time, Abitha is being pressured to marry her fiancé. She is also unable to sacrifice her love for Sethu.


title: Sethu (film)

text: Whilst Sethu is sleeping, Abitha pays him a surprise visit and is distraught to see him in such a condition. As she is about to leave the institution, he wakes up and realizes she had come to see him. He calls out, but she leaves unable to hear him as his shouts are drowned by the noises. Determined to meet her, he makes another attempt to escape the institution and this time is successful. His legs still chained and his shirt dirty, he limps his way to Abi's house. When he arrives at her house, he finds marriage decorations at her place. Confused, he limps inside to the house and notices a crowd gathered at the center. Glancing over, he finally sees Abitha lying on the ground with garlands on her neck with people mourning her: she has killed herself.


title: Sethu (film)

text: Heartbroken, Sethu realizes that his efforts have amounted to nothing. Distraught, he steps outs of the house and limps away. His friends and family run over to see him full of tears, but Sethu does not respond nor see them and keeps limping until the ashram wardens come with their van. He has one final last look and walks in to the van. The film ends with Sethu leaving with them as he has nothing left to live for after his true love's death.


title: Sethu (film)

text: Bala, an assistant of Balu Mahendra, wrote the script of the film in the mid-1990s, which was then titled "Akilan". Based on the film on a real-life incident of one of his friends named Mohammed Honest, a classmate of Bala in American college of Madhurai, who had fallen in love, lost his mind and ended up at a mental asylum. Certain portions of the film were actual incidents that occurred in his friend's life such as the brothel rescue. Bala also shared that the film is a tribute to his friend. The film also has been censored on the violent sequence of Sethu getting brain damaged with the theatrical version showing blood splattering onto the rock when his head is hit onto it,while the home-media versions and DVD releases do not show this. On close observation, the blood on the rock has been digitally removed. In some TV broadcasts, this sequence was omitted due to the violence. In some behind-the-scenes interview, the original film had Sethu being banged on the head multiple times before being thrown on top of the rock. Also this film had a similarities of Malayalam Novel "Iruttinte Athmavu" (1967), written by M. T. Vasudevan Nair


title: Sethu (film)

text: He first offered the film's lead role to his housemate Vignesh, who did not accept. He then offered the lead role to J. D. Chakravarthy who liked the script but was unable to sign the film as he was busy with another project. Murali was then also considered for the lead role in the project, but did not sign up. Finally in 1997, Bala gave the role of Sethu to his friend, then struggling actor Vikram. Keerthi Reddy was initially signed on to play the lead female role, but was later replaced by Rajshri and then subsequently Abitha.


title: Sethu (film)

text: To prepare for the character, Vikram shaved his head, thinned down to half his size by losing 21 kilograms and grew out his nails and even exposed himself under the sun for hours for skin darkening as the script demanded it. Vikram lived off fruit juice for six months, and once he lost the desired weight, he maintained the look by subsisting on a scanty diet: an egg white, one glass of beetroot or carrot juice and a single dry chapatti through the day.


title: Sethu (film)

text: Bala did not want Vikram to accept any other offers during this period to maintain the continuity of his looks and asked him to cease working as a dubbing artist. The film's launch was held in April 1997, and production lasted close to two years as the film languished in development hell. The FEFSI strike of 1997 halted filming across the Tamil film industry from June to December 1997, and as a small budget film, "Sethu" was unable to progress during the period.


title: Sethu (film)

text: When the strike was called off, the producer left the project and Vikram and Bala's assistant, Ameer, pled with the producer to return, with filming resuming in January 1998.


title: Sethu (film)

text: After further slow progression, the film was finally completed in June 1999. M. S. Bhaskar lent his voice for S. S. Raman who appeared as a temple priest in this film. Rathnavelu, who worked as a cameraman, said he gave the asylum scenes a predominantly green tone for the intense psychological impact. Vikram has described the period of production as "the worst phase of his career", as he was weak economically, and "his fire was in danger of dying down".


title: Sethu (film)

text: The film struggled to find a distributor and only after sixty-seven screenings did the film manage to find a buyer, with most refusing the film due to its tragic climax. At that time, Bala and Vikram used money from Vikram's wife, Shailaja, to organize press previews. Despite garnering good reviews, no one was interested in purchasing the film and it remained finished but unreleased. Made on a shoestring budget, "Sethu" was a sleeper hit grossing almost 4 crore ($560,000) at the box office. The film was released on 10 December 1999, and initially began running at a single noon show in a suburban theatre, but gradually built up audiences through word-of-mouth publicity. The film ran over 100 days at several cinema halls across Chennai, with Vikram being mobbed by people on the streets as a result of the film's success. Critics lapped up Vikram's performance with the reviewer Easwaran Haricharan of Indolink stating, "Vikram is a revelation". Similarly, a critic from the "New Straits Times" described the film as an "unforgettable experience" and described Vikram's performance as "praise-worthy".


title: Sethu (film)

text: The following year, "Sethu" won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Tamil, while also securing wins in the Best Film category at the Filmfare Awards and the Cinema Express Awards. Bala won the Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Director and the Filmfare Award for Best Director – Tamil for his directorial debut. The performance also drew accolades for Vikram who won the Filmfare Special Award – South and the Tamil Nadu State Film Award Special Prize for his portrayal of the title character, he was nominated for the National Film Award for Best Actor but lost to Mohanlal. Post-success, Vikram has said the film would have been close to him regardless of the commercial success, and it put him on the "right path", with Vikram choosing to adopt the prefix of Chiyaan to his screen name. Owing to its success, the film was remade in Kannada as "Huchcha", in Telugu as "Seshu" and in Hindi as "Tere Naam".


title: Sethu (film)

text: The film was a milestone in the career of Vikram. The success of the film made Bala one of the most sought after directors in the industry. The film continued the trend of films with themes that focused on realism and nativity. K. Jeshi, a journalist for The Hindu, placed it in the category of films which propagates social issues, like "Kaadhal" (2004), "Veyil" (2006), "Mozhi" (2007) and "Paruthiveeran" (2007).


title: Sethu (film)

text: "Sethu" was parodied in various films. In a comedy scene from "Alli Thandha Vaanam" (2001), Vivek, who acted as a Tamil teacher, would lie in a similar way as Vikram while the song "Enge Sellum Indha Paadhai" played in the background. The scene where Vikram kidnaps and threatens Abitha to accept his love was imitated by Vadivelu in "Style" (2002). In "Ragasiyamai" (2003), Karunas who appears as a barber, shows a customer (who asked for the same hairstyle of Kuruthipunal Kamal) another of his customers is lying in a position similar to Vikram from Sethu. In the late 2003 released Thirumalai, Vijay sings the song "Enge Sellum Indha Paadhai" while visiting Jyothika at a yoga ashram.


title: Sethu (film)

text: The soundtrack album and background score were composed by Ilaiyaraaja. The lyrics were written by Mu. Metha, Ponnadiyan, Arivumathi, Palani Bharathi, and Ilaiyaraaja.


title: Mahé, Seychelles

text: Mahé is the largest island of Seychelles, with an area of , lying in the northeast of the Seychellean nation in the Somali Sea part of the Indian Ocean. The population of Mahé was 77,000, as of the 2010 census. It contains the capital city of Victoria and accommodates 86% of the country's total population. The island was named after Bertrand-François Mahé de La Bourdonnais, a French governor of Isle de France (modern-day Mauritius).


title: Mahé, Seychelles

text: Mahé was first visited by the British in 1609 and not visited by Europeans again until Lazare Picault's expedition of 1742. The French navy frégate "Le Cerf" (English: The Deer) arrived at Port Victoria on 1 November 1756. On board was Corneille Nicholas Morphey, leader of the French expedition, which claimed the island for the King of France by laying a Stone of Possession on Mahé, Seychelles’ oldest monument, now on display in the National Museum, Victoria.


title: Mahé, Seychelles

text: In August 1801 a Royal Navy frigate HMS "Sibylle" captured the French frigate "Chiffonne" on the island. Mahé remained a French possession until 1812 when it became a British colony. It remained a colony until 1976 when Seychelles became an independent nation.


title: Mahé, Seychelles

text: Mahé had a huge land reclamation project due to a housing shortage in the areas of Bel Ombre and the Port of Victoria.


title: Mahé, Seychelles

text: Mahé was largely a plantation owned by the Frichot family. In 1977 France-Albert René staged a coup d’état and forced all the Frichots out of Seychelles or into prison. Some, such as Robert Frichot, were held in René’s jails for several months in 1978 and told to leave Seychelles for their own safety upon release.


title: Mahé, Seychelles

text: Mahé's tallest peak is Morne Seychellois at , which lies in the Morne Seychellois National Park. The northern and eastern parts of the island are home to much of the population and the Seychelles International Airport which opened in 1971. The southern and western parts have Baie Ternay Marine National Park, Port Launay Marine National Park, and University of Seychelles. The Sainte Anne Marine National Park lies offshore, as do Conception Island, Thérèse Island, Anonyme Island, and several smaller islands.


title: Mahé, Seychelles

text: Mahé's forests have rare endemic plants found only in Seychelles, such as the critically endangered "Medusagyne oppositifolia" (the jellyfish tree), the carnivorous "Nepenthes pervillei" (Seychelles pitcher plant), and many unique species of orchid.


title: Mahé, Seychelles

text: Air Seychelles has its head office on the property of Seychelles International Airport on the island. The Port of Victoria is home to a tuna fishing and canning industry. From 1963 to 1996, the United States Air Force maintained a satellite control network at the Indian Ocean Station, where it had a significant impact on the local economy.


title: Anti-gravity

text: Anti-gravity (also known as non-gravitational field) is a hypothetical phenomenon of creating a place or object that is free from the force of gravity. It does not refer to the lack of weight under gravity experienced in free fall or orbit, or to balancing the force of gravity with some other force, such as electromagnetism or aerodynamic lift. Anti-gravity is a recurring concept in science fiction. Examples are the gravity blocking substance "Cavorite" in H. G. Wells's "The First Men in the Moon" and the Spindizzy machines in James Blish's "Cities in Flight".


title: Anti-gravity

text: "Anti-gravity" is often used to refer to devices that look as if they reverse gravity even though they operate through other means, such as lifters, which fly in the air by moving air with electromagnetic fields.


title: Anti-gravity

text: The possibility of creating anti-gravity depends upon a complete understanding and description of gravity and its interactions with other physical theories, such as general relativity and quantum mechanics; as of 2022 physicists have yet to discover a quantum theory of gravity.


title: Anti-gravity

text: During the summer of 1666, Isaac Newton observed an apple (variety "Flower of Kent") falling from the tree in his garden, thus realizing the principle of universal gravitation. Albert Einstein in 1915 considered the physical interaction between matter and space, where gravity occurs as a consequence of matter causing a geometric deformation of space which is otherwise flat. Einstein, both independently and with Walther Mayer, attempted to unify his theory of gravity with electromagnetism using the work of Theodor Kaluza and James Clerk Maxwell to link gravity and quantum field theory.


title: Anti-gravity

text: Theoretical quantum physicists have postulated the existence of a quantum gravity particle, the graviton. Various theoretical explanations of quantum gravity have been created, these include superstring theory, loop quantum gravity, E8 theory and asymptotic safety theory amongst many others.


title: Anti-gravity

text: In Newton's law of universal gravitation, gravity was an external force transmitted by unknown means. In the 20th century, Newton's model was replaced by general relativity where gravity is not a force but the result of the geometry of spacetime. Under general relativity, anti-gravity is impossible except under contrived circumstances.


title: Anti-gravity

text: In 1948 businessman Roger Babson (founder of Babson College) formed the Gravity Research Foundation to study ways to reduce the effects of gravity. Their efforts were initially somewhat "crankish", but they held occasional conferences that drew such people as Clarence Birdseye, known for his frozen-food products, and helicopter pioneer Igor Sikorsky. Over time the Foundation turned its attention away from trying to control gravity, to simply better understanding it. The Foundation nearly disappeared after Babson's death in 1967. However, it continues to run an essay award, offering prizes of up to $4,000. As of 2017, it is still administered out of Wellesley, Massachusetts, by George Rideout Jr., son of the foundation's original director. Winners include California astrophysicist George F. Smoot (1993), who later won the 2006 Nobel Prize in physics, and Gerard 't Hooft (2015) who previously won the 1999 Nobel Prize in physics.


title: Anti-gravity

text: General relativity was introduced in the 1910s, but development of the theory was greatly slowed by a lack of suitable mathematical tools. It appeared that anti-gravity was outlawed under general relativity.


title: Anti-gravity

text: It is claimed the US Air Force also ran a study effort throughout the 1950s and into the 1960s. Former Lieutenant Colonel Ansel Talbert wrote two series of newspaper articles claiming that most of the major aviation firms had started gravity control propulsion research in the 1950s. However, there is little outside confirmation of these stories, and since they take place in the midst of the policy by press release era, it is not clear how much weight these stories should be given.


title: Anti-gravity

text: It is known that there were serious efforts underway at the Glenn L. Martin Company, who formed the Research Institute for Advanced Study. Major newspapers announced the contract that had been made between theoretical physicist Burkhard Heim and the Glenn L. Martin Company. Another effort in the private sector to master understanding of gravitation was the creation of the Institute for Field Physics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1956, by Gravity Research Foundation trustee Agnew H. Bahnson.


title: Anti-gravity

text: Military support for anti-gravity projects was terminated by the Mansfield Amendment of 1973, which restricted Department of Defense spending to only the areas of scientific research with explicit military applications. The Mansfield Amendment was passed specifically to end long-running projects that had little to show for their efforts.


title: Anti-gravity

text: Under general relativity, gravity is the result of following spatial geometry (change in the normal shape of space) caused by local mass-energy. This theory holds that it is the altered shape of space, deformed by massive objects, that causes gravity, which is actually a property of deformed space rather than being a true force. Although the equations cannot normally produce a "negative geometry", it is possible to do so by using "negative mass". The same equations do not, of themselves, rule out the existence of negative mass.


title: Anti-gravity

text: Both general relativity and Newtonian gravity appear to predict that negative mass would produce a repulsive gravitational field. In particular, Sir Hermann Bondi proposed in 1957 that negative gravitational mass, combined with negative inertial mass, would comply with the strong equivalence principle of general relativity theory and the Newtonian laws of conservation of linear momentum and energy. Bondi's proof yielded singularity-free solutions for the relativity equations. In July 1988, Robert L. Forward presented a paper at the AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE 24th Joint Propulsion Conference that proposed a Bondi negative gravitational mass propulsion system.


title: Anti-gravity

text: Bondi pointed out that a negative mass will fall toward (and not away from) "normal" matter, since although the gravitational force is repulsive, the negative mass (according to Newton's law, F=ma) responds by accelerating in the opposite of the direction of the force. Normal mass, on the other hand, will fall away from the negative matter. He noted that two identical masses, one positive and one negative, placed near each other will therefore self-accelerate in the direction of the line between them, with the negative mass chasing after the positive mass. Notice that because the negative mass acquires negative kinetic energy, the total energy of the accelerating masses remains at zero. Forward pointed out that the self-acceleration effect is due to the negative inertial mass, and could be seen induced without the gravitational forces between the particles.


title: Anti-gravity

text: The Standard Model of particle physics, which describes all currently known forms of matter, does not include negative mass. Although cosmological dark matter may consist of particles outside the Standard Model whose nature is unknown, their mass is ostensibly known – since they were postulated from their gravitational effects on surrounding objects, which implies their mass is positive. The proposed cosmological dark energy, on the other hand, is more complicated, since according to general relativity the effects of both its energy density and its negative pressure contribute to its gravitational effect.


title: Anti-gravity

text: Under general relativity any form of energy couples with spacetime to create the geometries that cause gravity. A longstanding question was whether or not these same equations applied to antimatter. The issue was considered solved in 1960 with the development of CPT symmetry, which demonstrated that antimatter follows the same laws of physics as "normal" matter, and therefore has positive energy content and also causes (and reacts to) gravity like normal matter (see gravitational interaction of antimatter).


title: Anti-gravity

text: For much of the last quarter of the 20th century, the physics community was involved in attempts to produce a unified field theory, a single physical theory that explains the four fundamental forces: gravity, electromagnetism, and the strong and weak nuclear forces. Scientists have made progress in unifying the three quantum forces, but gravity has remained "the problem" in every attempt. This has not stopped any number of such attempts from being made, however.


title: Anti-gravity

text: Generally these attempts tried to "quantize gravity" by positing a particle, the graviton, that carried gravity in the same way that photons (light) carry electromagnetism. Simple attempts along this direction all failed, however, leading to more complex examples that attempted to account for these problems. Two of these, supersymmetry and the relativity related supergravity, both required the existence of an extremely weak "fifth force" carried by a graviphoton, which coupled together several "loose ends" in quantum field theory, in an organized manner. As a side effect, both theories also all but required that antimatter be affected by this fifth force in a way similar to anti-gravity, dictating repulsion away from mass. Several experiments were carried out in the 1990s to measure this effect, but none yielded positive results.


title: Anti-gravity

text: In 2013 CERN looked for an antigravity effect in an experiment designed to study the energy levels within antihydrogen. The antigravity measurement was just an "interesting sideshow" and was inconclusive.


title: Anti-gravity

text: During the close of the twentieth century NASA provided funding for the Breakthrough Propulsion Physics Program (BPP) from 1996 through 2002. This program studied a number of "far out" designs for space propulsion that were not receiving funding through normal university or commercial channels. Anti-gravity-like concepts were investigated under the name "diametric drive". The work of the BPP program continues in the independent, non-NASA affiliated Tau Zero Foundation.


title: Anti-gravity

text: There have been a number of attempts to build anti-gravity devices, and a small number of reports of anti-gravity-like effects in the scientific literature. None of the examples that follow are accepted as reproducible examples of anti-gravity.


title: Anti-gravity

text: Gyroscopes produce a force when twisted that operates "out of plane" and can appear to lift themselves against gravity. Although this force is well understood to be illusory, even under Newtonian models, it has nevertheless generated numerous claims of anti-gravity devices and any number of patented devices. None of these devices have ever been demonstrated to work under controlled conditions, and have often become the subject of conspiracy theories as a result.


title: Anti-gravity

text: Another "rotating device" example is shown in a series of patents granted to Henry Wallace between 1968 and 1974. His devices consist of rapidly spinning disks of brass, a material made up largely of elements with a total half-integer nuclear spin. He claimed that by rapidly rotating a disk of such material, the nuclear spin became aligned, and as a result created a "gravitomagnetic" field in a fashion similar to the magnetic field created by the Barnett effect. No independent testing or public demonstration of these devices is known.


title: Anti-gravity

text: In 1989, it was reported that a weight decreases along the axis of a right spinning gyroscope. A test of this claim a year later yielded null results. A recommendation was made to conduct further tests at a 1999 AIP conference.


title: Anti-gravity

text: In 1921, while still in high school, Thomas Townsend Brown found that a high-voltage Coolidge tube seemed to change mass depending on its orientation on a balance scale. Through the 1920s Brown developed this into devices that combined high voltages with materials with high dielectric constants (essentially large capacitors); he called such a device a "gravitator". Brown made the claim to observers and in the media that his experiments were showing anti-gravity effects. Brown would continue his work and produced a series of high-voltage devices in the following years in attempts to sell his ideas to aircraft companies and the military. He coined the names Biefeld–Brown effect and electrogravitics in conjunction with his devices. Brown tested his asymmetrical capacitor devices in a vacuum, supposedly showing it was not a more down-to-earth electrohydrodynamic effect generated by high voltage ion flow in air.


title: Anti-gravity

text: Electrogravitics is a popular topic in ufology, anti-gravity, free energy, with government conspiracy theorists and related websites, in books and publications with claims that the technology became highly classified in the early 1960s and that it is used to power UFOs and the B-2 bomber. There is also research and videos on the internet purported to show lifter-style capacitor devices working in a vacuum, therefore not receiving propulsion from ion drift or ion wind being generated in air.


title: Anti-gravity

text: Follow-up studies on Brown's work and other claims have been conducted by R. L. Talley in a 1990 US Air Force study, NASA scientist Jonathan Campbell in a 2003 experiment, and Martin Tajmar in a 2004 paper. They have found that no thrust could be observed in a vacuum and that Brown's and other ion lifter devices produce thrust along their axis regardless of the direction of gravity consistent with electrohydrodynamic effects.


title: Anti-gravity

text: In 1992, the Russian researcher Eugene Podkletnov claimed to have discovered, whilst experimenting with superconductors, that a fast rotating superconductor reduces the gravitational effect. Many studies have attempted to reproduce Podkletnov's experiment, always to negative results.


title: Anti-gravity

text: Ning Li and Douglas Torr, of the University of Alabama in Huntsville proposed how a time dependent magnetic field could cause the spins of the lattice ions in a superconductor to generate detectable gravitomagnetic and gravitoelectric fields in a series of papers published between 1991 and 1993. In 1999, Li and her team appeared in "Popular Mechanics", claiming to have constructed a working prototype to generate what she described as "AC Gravity." No further evidence of this prototype has been offered.


title: Anti-gravity

text: Douglas Torr and Timir Datta were involved in the development of a "gravity generator" at the University of South Carolina. According to a leaked document from the Office of Technology Transfer at the University of South Carolina and confirmed to "Wired" reporter Charles Platt in 1998, the device would create a "force beam" in any desired direction and that the university planned to patent and license this device. No further information about this university research project or the "Gravity Generator" device was ever made public.


title: Anti-gravity

text: The Institute for Gravity Research of the Göde Scientific Foundation has tried to reproduce many of the different experiments which claim any "anti-gravity" effects. All attempts by this group to observe an anti-gravity effect by reproducing past experiments have been unsuccessful thus far. The foundation has offered a reward of one million euros for a reproducible anti-gravity experiment.


title: Anti-gravity

text: Apergy is a fictitious form of anti-gravitational energy first described by Percy Greg in his 1880 sword and planet novel "Across the Zodiac".


title: Anti-gravity

text: It is also used by John Jacob Astor IV in his 1894 science fiction novel, "A Journey in Other Worlds".


title: Anti-gravity

text: Apergy can also be found in an 1896 article by Clara Jessup Bloomfield-Moore, called "Some Truths About Keely". In it, apergy is used to describe the latent force John Keely harnessed, by using frequency to release the latent force found within all atomic matter.


title: Anti-gravity

text: In an 1897, ostensibly non-fictitious, article in "The San Francisco Call" titled "The Secret of Aerial Flight Revealed", science correspondent Frank M. Close, D. Sc., visits an unnamed Hindu man masquerading as a viticulturist somewhere on the Pacific coast who claims to have invented a flying boat that uses an "apergent"—a rare metal called "radlum"—to produce controlled apergic force, allowing the vessel to ascend and descend. The inventor describes apergy as "a force obtained by blending positive and negative electricity with ultheic, the third element or state of electric energy" and calls apergy a "second phase of gravity", hinting at a third phase as well.


title: Anti-gravity

text: In S. P. Meek's short story "Cold Light", which appeared in "Astounding Stories of Super-Science", March 1930, apergy is mentioned as the opposite force of gravity.


title: Anti-gravity

text: In Chris Roberson's short story "Annus Mirabilis" from the 2006 second volume of "Tales of the Shadowmen", Doctor Omega and Albert Einstein investigate apergy. Apergy is also mentioned in the Warren Ellis comic "Aetheric Mechanics", as being generated by Cavorite technology from "The First Men in the Moon".


title: Anti-gravity

text: H. G. Wells's 1901 novel "The First Men in the Moon" has space travel based on the gravity-blocking properties of "Cavorite."


title: Anti-gravity

text: Philip Francis Nowlan's 1928 story "Armageddon 2419 A.D." describes "inertron," a substance that falls up. The story was the basis for the Buck Rogers comic strip and adaptations.


title: Behance

text: Behance (stylized as Bēhance) is a social media platform owned by Adobe whose main focus is to showcase and discover creative work.


title: Behance

text: Behance was founded by Matias Corea and Scott Belsky in November 2005. It was acquired by Adobe in December 2012. As of October 2020, Behance had over 24 million members.


title: Behance

text: Behance was founded by Matias Corea and Scott Belsky in November 2005. The company initially relied on revenue, generating income by selling banner ads, job postings and later, 99U conference tickets. In May 2012, their first round of outside funding received $6.5 million from investors including Dave McClure and Jeff Bezos's personal investment firm, Bezos Expeditions.


title: Behance

text: The company was acquired by Adobe Systems for $150 million in December 2012. In 2021, Behance added a subscription feature for users to sell their tutorials and other services. It also added crypto wallet integration.


title: Behance

text: Users can sign up to Behance and build profiles consisting of projects. Both registered and unregistered users can view any particular project, as well as comment on them. Members of Behance can follow other users' profiles. Co-founder Belsky compared the first version of Behance's online porfolios with "project" structures as providing an organised art showcase, in comparison to DeviantArt and Saatchi's digital community.


title: Behance

text: Adobe Portfolio (formerly ProSite) is Behance's DIY web design application, similar to popular tools such as Weebly and Joomla. It is a personal portfolio side creation tool on the web and it syncs with a users Behance project. Adobe Portfolio can only be accessed by buying an Adobe Creative Cloud subscription


title: Behance

text: Content from the Behance Network gets fed into a network of sites called the Served sites, which display work in specific categories such as fashion, industrial design, and typography. In September 2010, more were added, including branding, digital art and toy design. In April 2012, advertising, art, architecture and more were added as categories.


title: Behance

text: Action Method is a productivity methodology targeting creative professionals. It includes a line of paper products (since 2014 sold by The Ghostly Store rather than Behance itself) and an online application called Action Method Online (although this was discontinued 1 June 2014). Its purpose is to connect every event with a set of specific tasks which the user can perform, called "action steps".


title: Behance

text: 99U is a consulting service and annual conference in New York City that focuses on marketing. The name 99U comes from the Thomas Edison quote that "Genius is 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration." In 2011, 99U won a Webby Award for "Best Cultural Blog."


title: Behance

text: Adobe's acquisition of Behance in 2012 prompted concerns that the company would start monitoring the activity of its users.


title: Differential (mechanical device)

text: A differential is a gear train with three drive shafts that has the property that the rotational speed of one shaft is the average of the speeds of the others, or a fixed multiple of that average.


title: Differential (mechanical device)

text: The following description of a differential applies to a traditional rear-wheel-drive car or truck with an open or limited slip differential combined with a reduction gearset using bevel gears (these are not strictly necessary; see spur-gear differential):


title: Differential (mechanical device)

text: Thus, for example, if the car is making a turn to the right, the main ring gear may make 10 full rotations. During that time, the left wheel will make more rotations because it has farther to travel, and the right wheel will make fewer rotations as it has less distance to travel. The sun gears (which drive the axle half-shafts) will rotate at different speeds relative to the ring gear (one faster, one slower) by, say, 2 full turns each (4 full turns relative to each other), resulting in the left wheel making 12 rotations, and the right wheel making 8 rotations.


title: Differential (mechanical device)

text: The rotation of the ring gear is always the average of the rotations of the side sun gears. This is why if the driven roadwheels are lifted clear of the ground with the engine off, and the drive shaft is held (say, leaving the transmission in gear preventing the ring gear from turning inside the differential), manually rotating one driven roadwheel causes the opposite roadwheel to rotate in the opposite direction by the same amount.


title: Differential (mechanical device)

text: With automobiles and other wheeled vehicles, the differential allows the outer drive wheel to rotate faster than the inner drive wheel during a turn. This is necessary when the vehicle turns, making the wheel that is traveling around the outside of the turning curve roll farther and faster than the other. The average of the rotational speed of the two driving wheels equals the input rotational speed of the drive shaft. An increase in the speed of one wheel is balanced by a decrease in the speed of the other.


title: Differential (mechanical device)

text: When used in this way, a differential couples the longitudinal input propeller shaft to the pinion, which in turn drives the transverse ring gear of the differential. This also usually works as reduction gearing. On rear wheel drive vehicles the differential may connect to half-shafts inside an axle housing, or drive shafts that connect to the rear driving wheels. Front wheel drive vehicles tend to have the engine crankshaft and the gearbox shafts transverse, and with the pinion on the end of the counter-shaft of the gearbox and the differential enclosed in the same housing as the gearbox. There are individual drive-shafts to each wheel. A differential consists of one input (the drive shaft) and two outputs, which are connected to the two drive wheels; however the rotations of the drive wheels are coupled to each other by their connection to the roadway. Under normal conditions, with small tyre slip, the ratio of the speeds of the two driving wheels is defined by the ratio of the radii of the paths around which the two wheels are rolling, which in turn is determined by the track-width of the vehicle (the distance between the driving wheels) and the radius of the turn.


title: Differential (mechanical device)

text: Non-automotive uses of differentials include performing analog arithmetic. Two of the differential's three shafts are made to rotate through angles that represent (are proportional to) two numbers, and the angle of the third shaft's rotation represents the sum or difference of the two input numbers. The earliest known use of a differential gear is in the Antikythera mechanism, circa 80 BCE, which used a differential gear to control a small sphere representing the moon from the difference between the sun and moon position pointers. The ball was painted black and white in hemispheres, and graphically showed the phase of the moon at a particular point in time. An equation clock that used a differential for addition was made in 1720. In the 20th Century, large assemblies of many differentials were used as analog computers, calculating, for example, the direction in which a gun should be aimed.


title: Differential (mechanical device)

text: There are many claims to the invention of the differential gear, but it is possible that it was known, at least in some places, in ancient times. "Confirmed" historical milestones of the differential include:


title: Differential (mechanical device)

text: An epicyclic differential can use epicyclic gearing to split and apportion torque asymmetrically between the front and rear axles. An epicyclic differential is at the heart of the Toyota Prius automotive drive train, where it interconnects the engine, motor-generators, and the drive wheels (which have a second differential for splitting torque as usual). It has the advantage of being relatively compact along the length of its axis (that is, the sun gear shaft).


title: Differential (mechanical device)

text: Epicyclic gears are also called planetary gears because the axes of the planet gears revolve around the common axis of the sun and ring gears that they mesh with and roll between. In the image, the yellow shaft carries the sun gear which is almost hidden. The blue gears are called planet gears and the pink gear is the ring gear or annulus.


title: Differential (mechanical device)

text: A spur-gear differential has two equal-sized spur gears, one for each half-shaft, with a space between them. Instead of the Bevel gear, also known as a miter gear, assembly (the "spider") at the centre of the differential, there is a rotating carrier on the same axis as the two shafts. Torque from a prime mover or transmission, such as the drive shaft of a car, rotates this carrier.


title: Differential (mechanical device)

text: Mounted in this carrier are one or more pairs of identical gears, generally longer than their diameters, and typically smaller than the spur gears on the individual half-shafts. Each pinion pair rotates freely on pins supported by the carrier. Furthermore, the pinion pairs are displaced axially, such that they mesh only for the part of their length between the two spur gears, and rotate in opposite directions. The remaining length of a given pinion meshes with the nearer spur gear on its axle. Therefore, each pinion couples that spur gear to the other pinion, and in turn, the other spur gear, so that when the drive shaft rotates the carrier, its relationship to the gears for the individual wheel axles is the same as that in a bevel-gear differential.


title: Differential (mechanical device)

text: A spur gear differential is constructed from two identical coaxial epicyclic gear trains assembled with a single carrier such that their planet gears are engaged. This forms a planetary gear train with a fixed carrier train ratio "R = -1".


title: Differential (mechanical device)

text: Thus, the angular velocity of the carrier of a spur gear differential is the average of the angular velocities of the sun and "annular gears".


title: Differential (mechanical device)

text: A vehicle with two drive wheels has the problem that when it turns a corner the drive wheels must rotate at different speeds to maintain traction. The automotive differential is designed to drive a pair of wheels while allowing them to rotate at different speeds. In vehicles without a differential, such as karts, both driving wheels are forced to rotate at the same speed, usually on a common axle driven by a simple chain-drive mechanism.


title: Differential (mechanical device)

text: When cornering, the inner wheel travels a shorter distance than the outer wheel, so without a differential either the inner wheel rotates too quickly or the outer wheel rotates too slowly, which results in difficult and unpredictable handling, damage to tires and roads, and strain on (or possible failure of) the drivetrain.


title: Differential (mechanical device)

text: In rear-wheel drive automobiles the central drive shaft (or prop shaft) engages the differential through a hypoid gear (ring and pinion). The ring gear is mounted on the carrier of the planetary chain that forms the differential. This hypoid gear is a bevel gear that changes the direction of the drive rotation.


title: Differential (mechanical device)

text: One undesirable side effect of an open differential is that it can limit traction under less than ideal conditions. The amount of traction required to propel the vehicle at any given moment depends on the load at that instant—how heavy the vehicle is, how much drag and friction there is, the gradient of the road, the vehicle's momentum, and so on.


title: Differential (mechanical device)

text: The torque applied to each driving wheel is the result of the engine, transmission and drive axle applying a twisting force against the resistance of the traction at that roadwheel. In lower gears, and thus at lower speeds, and unless the load is exceptionally high, the drivetrain can supply as much torque as necessary, so the limiting factor becomes the traction under each wheel. It is therefore convenient to define traction as the amount of force that can be transmitted between the tire and the road surface before the wheel starts to slip. If the torque applied to one of the drive wheels exceeds the threshold of traction, then that wheel will spin, and thus provide torque only at the other driven wheel equal to the sliding friction at the slipping wheel. The reduced net traction may still be enough to propel the vehicle slowly.


title: Differential (mechanical device)

text: An open (non-locking or otherwise traction-aided) differential always supplies close to equal torque to each side. To illustrate how this can limit torque applied to the driving wheels, imagine a simple rear-wheel drive vehicle, with one rear roadwheel on asphalt with good grip, and the other on a patch of slippery ice. It takes very little torque to spin the side on slippery ice, and because a differential splits torque equally to each side, the torque that is applied to the side that is on asphalt is limited to this amount.


title: Differential (mechanical device)

text: Based on the load, gradient, etc., the vehicle requires a certain amount of torque applied to the drive wheels to move forward. Since an open differential limits total torque applied to both drive wheels to the amount used by the lower traction wheel multiplied by two, when one wheel is on a slippery surface, the total torque applied to the driving wheels may be lower than the minimum torque required for vehicle propulsion.


title: Differential (mechanical device)

text: The Volkswagen Golf GTI Mk7 in Performance trim has an electronically controlled front-axle transverse differential lock, also known as VAQ. The 2016 Ford Focus RS has a different type of differential setup. This essentially gives each wheel its own differential. This allows torque vectoring and can send power to any wheel that needs it.


title: Differential (mechanical device)

text: Drifting is a popular motorsport style that has its origins in the mountains of Japan. This style of driving is known for sliding a car through a corner without leaving the road surface. To easily get the car into a slide the driver can use a limited-slip differential or a locked differential. A limited-slip differential limits the difference in rotational speed of the output shafts, preventing wheelspin on one side from causing the other wheel to lose all torque. Since the inside wheel of the car is going a shorter distance than the outside wheel, this causes slippage in a tight turn. This slippage is what makes it easier to slide the car around a turn.


title: Differential (mechanical device)

text: Chinese south-pointing chariots may also have been very early applications of differentials. The chariot had a pointer which constantly pointed to the south, no matter how the chariot turned as it travelled. It could therefore be used as a type of compass. It is widely thought that a differential mechanism responded to any difference between the speeds of rotation of the two wheels of the chariot, and turned the pointer appropriately. However, the mechanism was not precise enough, and, after a few miles of travel, the dial could have very well been pointing in the completely opposite direction.


title: Differential (mechanical device)

text: The earliest definitely verified use of a differential was in a clock made by Joseph Williamson in 1720. It employed a differential to add the equation of time to local mean time, as determined by the clock mechanism, to produce solar time, which would have been the same as the reading of a sundial. During the 18th Century, sundials were considered to show the "correct" time, so an ordinary clock would frequently have to be readjusted, even if it worked perfectly, because of seasonal variations in the equation of time. Williamson's and other equation clocks showed sundial time without needing readjustment. Nowadays, we consider clocks to be "correct" and sundials usually incorrect, so many sundials carry instructions about how to use their readings to obtain clock time.


title: Differential (mechanical device)

text: In the first half of the twentieth century, mechanical analog computers, called differential analyzers, were constructed that used differential gear trains to perform addition and subtraction. The U.S. Navy Mk.1 gun fire control computer used about 160 differentials of the bevel-gear type.


title: Differential (mechanical device)

text: A differential gear train can be used to allow a difference between two input axles. Mills often used such gears to apply torque in the required axis. Differentials are also used in this way in watchmaking to link two separate regulating systems with the aim of averaging out errors. Greubel Forsey use a differential to link two double tourbillon systems in their Quadruple Differential Tourbillon.


title: Vietnamese cuisine

text: Vietnamese cuisine encompasses the foods and beverages of Vietnam. Meals feature a combination of five fundamental tastes (): sweet, salty, bitter, sour, and spicy. The distinctive nature of each dish reflects one or more elements (nutrients, colors, et cetera), which are also based around a five-pronged philosophy. Vietnamese recipes use ingredients like lemongrass, ginger, mint, Vietnamese mint, long coriander, Saigon cinnamon, bird's eye chili, lime, and Thai basil leaves. Traditional Vietnamese cooking has often been characterised as using fresh ingredients, not using much dairy nor oil, having interesting textures, and making use of herbs and vegetables. The cuisine is also low in sugar and is almost always naturally gluten-free, as many of the dishes are rice-based instead of wheat-based, made with rice noodles, papers and flour. Vietnamese cuisine is strongly influenced not only by the cuisines of neighboring China, Cambodia and Laos, but also by French cuisine due to French colonial rule over the region from 1887 to 1954.


title: Vietnamese cuisine

text: Kikkoman, a leading soy sauce manufacturer, did market research confirming that fish sauce () is the predominant table sauce in Vietnamese homes, where it captures over 70% of the market, while the share for soy sauce is under 20%.


title: Vietnamese cuisine

text: Besides indigenous Vietnamese influences, which are the major core of Vietnamese food, owing to historical contact with China and centuries of sinicization, some Vietnamese dishes share similarities with Chinese cuisine. In culinary traditions, the Chinese introduced to Vietnam several dishes, including "vằn thắn"/"hoành thánh" (wonton), "xá xíu" ("char siu"), "há cảo" ("har gow"), "hủ tiếu" ("shahe fen"), "mì" (wheat noodles), "bò bía" ("popiah"), "bánh quẩy" ("youtiao"), mooncake and "bánh pía" (Suzhou style mooncake), "bánh tổ" ("nian gao"), "sủi dìn" ("tang yuan"), "bánh bò", "bánh bao" ("baozi"), "cơm chiên Dương Châu" (Yangzhou fried rice), and "mì xào" (chow mein). The Vietnamese adopted these foods and added their own styles and flavors to the foods. Ethnic minorities in the mountainous region near the China–Vietnam border also adopted some foods from China. Ethnic Tày and Nùng in Lạng Sơn Province adopted "thịt lợn quay" (roasted pork) and "khâu nhục" (braised pork belly) from China. Some New World vegetables, such as chili peppers and corn (maize), also made their way to Vietnam from the Ming dynasty.


title: Vietnamese cuisine

text: The French introduced baguettes to Vietnam, which were combined with Vietnamese stuffing to become a popular fast food in Vietnam called "bánh mì thịt," known overseas as "Vietnamese baguettes". "Bánh mì" is just the bread, whereas "thịt" implies meat or stuffing. The French also introduced Vietnam to onions, cauliflower, lettuce, potatoes, tarragon, carrot, artichoke, asparagus, and coffee.


title: Vietnamese cuisine

text: The western introduced ingredients often have a name derived from a similar native Vietnamese ingredient, then adding the word "tây" (meaning "western"). Onions are called "hành tây" (literally "western shallots"), asparagus as "măng tây" (western bamboo shoots) and potatoes are called "khoai tây" (western yam) in Vietnamese, which reflects their origin before arriving in Vietnam. French-influenced dishes are numerous and not limited to: "sa lát" (salad), "pâté", "patê sô" (a Brittany pasty called "pâté chaud"), "bánh sừng trâu" (croissant), "bánh flan", y"a ua" (yogurt), "rôti" (rotisserie), "bơ" (butter), "vịt nấu cam" (duck à l'orange), "ốp lết" (omelette), "ốp la" ("œufs au plat"), "phá xí" (farcies), "bít tết" (beefsteak), "sốt vang" (cooking with wine), "dăm bông" ("jambon"), and "xúc xích" ("saucisse"). Owing to influences from French colonial rule, the French Indochinese countries of Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia have several shared dishes and beverages, including baguettes and coffee. The French also introduced the use of dairy products in Vietnamese-French fusion dishes.


title: Vietnamese cuisine

text: Vietnamese cuisine also has influences from Champa, Malaysia and Cambodia. The use of coconut milk and various central dishes such as "bánh khọt" were influenced by Cham cuisine. Spices including curries were also introduced to Vietnam by Malay and Indian traders. Though not common in the north, "cà ri" is a quite popular dish in central and southern Vietnam. The most common form is chicken curry, and to a lesser extent, goat curry. Chicken curry is an indispensable dish in many social gathering events, such as weddings, funerals, graduations, and the yearly death anniversary of a loved one. Similar to Cambodia, curry in Vietnam is eaten either with bread, steamed rice, or round rice noodles (rice vermicelli). "Mắm bồ hóc" or prahok, adopted from ethnic Khmer in Southern Vietnam, is used as a central ingredient of a Vietnamese rice noodle soup called "bún nước lèo" which originated with ethnic Khmers in Vietnam and is not found in Cambodia.


title: Vietnamese cuisine

text: Owing to contact with previous communist countries from Eastern Europe, the Vietnamese adopted dishes such as stuffed cabbage soup, "sa lát Nga" (Russian salad) and "bia Tiệp" (Czech beer).


title: Vietnamese cuisine

text: In northern Vietnam, a colder climate limits the production and availability of spices. As a result, the foods there are often less spicy than those in other regions. Black pepper is used in place of chilies as the most popular ingredient to produce spicy flavors. In general, northern Vietnamese cuisine is not bold in any particular taste—sweet, salty, spicy, bitter, or sour. Most northern Vietnamese foods feature light and balanced flavors that result from subtle combinations of many different flavoring ingredients. The use of meats such as pork, beef, and chicken were relatively limited in the past. Freshwater fish, crustaceans, and mollusks, such as prawns, squids, shrimps, crabs, clams, and mussels, are widely used. Many notable dishes of northern Vietnam are crab-centered (e.g., "bún riêu"). Fish sauce, soy sauce, prawn sauce, and limes are among the main flavoring ingredients. Being the cradle of Vietnamese civilization, northern Vietnam produces many signature dishes of Vietnam, such as "bún riêu" and "bánh cuốn", which were carried to central and southern Vietnam through Vietnamese migration. Other famous Vietnamese dishes that originated from the north, particularly from Hanoi include ""bún chả"" (rice noodle with grilled marinated pork), "phở gà" (chicken soup with rice noodles), "chả cá Lã Vọng" (rice noodle with grilled fish).


title: Vietnamese cuisine

text: The abundance of spices produced by Central Vietnam's mountainous terrain makes this region's cuisine notable for its spicy food, which sets it apart from the two other regions of Vietnam, where foods are mostly not spicy. Once the capital of the last dynasty of Vietnam, "Huế"'s culinary tradition features highly decorative and colorful food, reflecting the influence of ancient Vietnamese royal cuisine. The region's cuisine is also notable for its sophisticated meals consisting of many complex dishes served in small portions. Chili peppers and shrimp sauces are among the frequently used ingredients. Some Vietnamese signature dishes produced in central Vietnam are "bún bò Huế" and bánh khoái.


title: Vietnamese cuisine

text: The warm weather and fertile soil of southern Vietnam create an ideal condition for growing a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, and livestock. As a result, foods in southern Vietnam are often vibrant and flavorful, with liberal uses of garlic, shallots, and fresh herbs. Sugar is added to food more than in the other regions. The preference for sweetness in southern Vietnam can also be seen through the widespread use of coconut milk in southern Vietnamese cuisine. Vast shorelines make seafood a natural staple for people in this region. Some signature seafood dishes from southern Vietnam include "bánh khọt" and "bún mắm".


title: Vietnamese cuisine

text: The Mekong Delta cuisine relies heavily on fresh products which is abundant in the new land with heavy use of palm sugar, fermented fishes, seafoods and wild herbs and flowers. The history of the region being a newly settled area reflects on its cuisine, with "Ẩm thực khẩn hoang" or Settlers cuisine means dishes are prepared fresh from wild and newly-caught ingredients. The cuisine is also influenced by Khmer, Cham and Chinese settlers.


title: Vietnamese cuisine

text: The cuisine of the Northern and Central Highlands regions is influenced by tribal traditions, with items such as thắng cố (Hmong horse stew), dried meats, "cơm lam" and "rượu cần".


title: Vietnamese cuisine

text: Vietnamese cuisine always has five elements which are known for its balance in each of these features.


title: Vietnamese cuisine

text: The principle of yin and yang () is applied in composing a meal in a way that provides a balance that is beneficial for the body. While contrasting texture and flavors are important, the principle primarily concerns the "heating" and "cooling" properties of ingredients. Certain dishes are served in their respective seasons to provide contrasts in temperature and spiciness of the food and environment. Some examples are:


title: Vietnamese cuisine

text: Vietnamese cuisine is reflective of the Vietnamese lifestyle, from the preparation to how the food is served. Going through long phases of war and political conflict, as well as cultural shifts, the vast majority of the Vietnamese people have been living in poverty. Therefore, the ingredients for Vietnamese food are often very inexpensive but nonetheless, the way they are cooked together to create a yin–yang balance makes the food simple in appearance but rich in flavor.


title: Vietnamese cuisine

text: Because of economic conditions, maximizing the use of ingredients to save money has become a tradition in Vietnamese cooking. In earlier decades and even nowadays in rural areas, every part of a cow is used, from the muscle meat to the intestines; nothing is wasted. The higher quality cuts from farmed animals (cows, pigs) would be cooked in stirfry, soup or other dishes, while the secondary cuts would be used in blood sausages or soup. The same goes for vegetables like scallions: the leafy part is diced into small bits which are used to add flavor to the food while the crunchy stalk and roots are replanted.


title: Vietnamese cuisine

text: Despite being a small country in Southeast Asia, the foods from each region in Vietnam carry their distinctive and unique characteristics that reflect the geographical and living conditions of the people there. The traditional southern Vietnamese meal is made up of fresh ingredients that only the fertile Mekong Delta could provide, such as , and a wide range of tropical fruit like mangosteen, mango, and dragon fruit. The southern-style diet is very 'green', with vegetables, fish and tropical fruits as the main ingredients.


title: Vietnamese cuisine

text: Central Vietnam is the region in which food is prepared with the strongest, boldest flavors. This region is constantly under harsh weather conditions throughout the year, so people there do not have as many green ingredients as others do in the north and south of Vietnam. Instead, the coastline around the central Vietnam area is known for its salt and fish sauce industries; these two condiments are central to their daily diets.


title: Vietnamese cuisine

text: Northern Vietnamese cuisine has a strong Chinese influence, and its iconic dish is . While rice is a staple in the southern Vietnamese diet, the north has a preference for noodles. Owing to the drastic differences in climate and lifestyles throughout the three main regions of Vietnam, the foods vary. Northern Vietnamese cooking is the least bold and spicy in flavor compared to the foods from central and southern Vietnam.


title: Vietnamese cuisine

text: Daily meals of Vietnamese people quite differ from Vietnamese foods served in restaurants or stalls. A typical meal for the average Vietnamese family would include:


title: Vietnamese cuisine

text: Except individual bowls of rice, all dishes are communal and are to be shared in the middle of the table. It is also customary for younger people to ask/wait for the elders to eat first and the woman who sits right next to the rice pot serve rice for other people. People should "invite" the others to enjoy the meal (somehow similar to saying "Enjoy your meal"), in order from the elders to younger people. They also pick up food for each other as an action of care.


title: Vietnamese cuisine

text: A feast (, ) is a significant event for families or villages, usually up to 12 people for each table. A feast is prepared for weddings, funerals, and festivals, including the longevity wishing ceremony. In a feast, ordinary foods are not served, but boiled rice is still used.


title: Vietnamese cuisine

text: A Vietnamese feast has two courses: the main course ( – salty dish) and dessert ( – sweet dish). All dishes, except for individual bowls of rice, are enjoyed collectively. All main course dishes are served simultaneously rather than one after another. The major dish of the main course is placed in the center of the tables, usually big pots of soup or a hot pot.


title: Vietnamese cuisine

text: A basic feast () consists of 10 dishes: five in bowls (): (fried fish belly), (cellophane noodles), (bamboo shoot), (meatball), or (bird or chicken stew dishes) and five on plates (): (Vietnamese sausage), , or (boiled chicken or duck), (Vietnamese salad) and (stir-fried dishes). This kind of feast is traditional and is organized only in northern Vietnam. Other variations are found in central and southern Vietnam.


title: Vietnamese cuisine

text: Four dishes essential in the feast of Tết are (spring rolls), (in northern Vietnam, refers to a spring roll called or ; in southern Vietnam, mainly refer to , fermented pork rolls), (stew dishes) and (noodle soup). At this time, the feast for offering ancestors includes sticky rice, boiled chicken, Vietnamese rice wine, and other preferred foods by ancestors in the past. Gifts are given before guests leave the feast.


title: Vietnamese cuisine

text: In the Nguyễn dynasty, the 50 best chefs from all over the kingdom were selected for the board to serve the king. There were three meals per day—12 dishes at breakfast and 66 dishes for lunch and dinner (including 50 main dishes and 16 sweets). An essential dish was bird's nest soup (). Other dishes included shark fin (), abalone (), deer's tendon (), bears' hands (), and rhinoceros' skin (). Water had to come from the well, the pagoda, the well (near the base of "" mountain), or from the source of the River. Rice was the variety from the imperial rice field. clay pots for cooking rice were used only a single time before disposal. No one was allowed to have any contact with the cooked dishes except for the cooks and board members. The dishes were first served to eunuchs, then the king's wives, after which they were offered to the king. The king enjoyed meals () alone in a comfortable, music-filled space.


title: Vietnamese cuisine

text: Salt is used as the connection between the worlds of the living and the dead. "Bánh phu thê" is used to remind new couples of perfection and harmony at their weddings. Food is often placed at the ancestral altar as an offering to the dead on special occasions (such as Lunar New Year). Cooking and eating play an extremely important role in Vietnamese culture.


title: Vietnamese cuisine

text: The word "ăn" (to eat) is included in a great number of proverbs and has a large range of semantic extensions.


title: Vietnamese cuisine

text: Outside of Vietnam, Vietnamese cuisine is widely available in countries with strong Vietnamese immigrant communities, such as Australia, the United States, Canada, and France. Vietnamese cuisine is also popular in Japan, Korea, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany, United Kingdom, Poland, Philippines and Russia, and in areas with dense Asian populations.


title: Vietnamese cuisine

text: Television shows featuring Vietnamese food have increased in popularity. Luke Nguyen from Australia currently features a television show, "Luke Nguyen's Vietnam", dedicated on showcasing and instructing how to cook Vietnamese dishes.


title: Vietnamese cuisine

text: On "The Great Food Truck Race", a Vietnamese sandwich truck called Nom Nom Truck received the most money in the first five episodes.


title: Vietnamese cuisine

text: Anthony Bourdain wrote: You don't have to go looking for great food in Vietnam. Great food finds you. It's everywhere. In restaurants, cafes, little storefronts, in the streets; carried in makeshift portable kitchens on yokes borne by women vendors. Your cyclo-driver will invite you to his home; your guide will want to bring you to his favorite place. Strangers will rush up and offer you a taste of something they're proud of and think you should know about. It's a country filled with proud cooks—and passionate eaters.


title: Vietnamese cuisine

text: Gordon Ramsay visited Vietnam in his reality show "Gordon's Great Escape" - S02E02 (2011) and fell in love with the taste of the culinary here. Especially the dish called Hủ tiếu Mì by Mrs. Dì Hai, prepped and served on a small boat in Cái Răng floating market, Cần Thơ. He even praised it as "The greatest dish I have ever eaten" when he brought it up as one of the dishes for the elimination challenge for the top 5 finalists of American MasterChef season 4 episode 21.


title: Vietnamese cuisine

text: Vietnamese usually use raw vegetables, "rau sống", or "rau ghém" (sliced vegetable) as condiments for their dishes to combine properly with each main dish in flavour. Dishes in which "rau sống" is indispensable are "bánh xèo" and hot pot. The vegetables principally are herbs and wild edible vegetables gathered from forests and family gardens. Leaves and buds are the most common parts of vegetables used. Most of the vegetables have medicinal value.


title: Vietnamese cuisine

text: "Rau sống" includes lettuce, raw bean sprout, herbs, shredded banana flower, green banana, water spinach, mango bud and guava leaves.


title: Vietnamese cuisine

text: Traditionally, the colouring of Vietnamese food comes from natural ingredients, however today there's an increase in the use of artificial food dye agents for food colouring, in Vietnam.


title: Vietnamese cuisine

text: Colourings can be absorbed by mixing ground colourings or colouring liquid or wrapping before boiling to get the extracts. When colouring dishes, the tastes and smells of colourings must also be considered.


title: Vietnamese cuisine

text: When Vietnamese dishes are referred to in English, it is generally by the Vietnamese name without the diacritics. Some dishes have gained descriptive English names, as well.


title: Vietnamese cuisine

text: Vietnamese cuisine boasts a huge variety of noodle soups, each with distinct influences, origins and flavours. A common characteristic of many of these soups is a rich broth.


title: Vietnamese cuisine

text: The Vietnamese name for pastries is "bánh". Many of the pastries are wrapped in various leaves (bamboo, banana, "dong", "gai") and boiled or steamed. One of the historic dishes, dating to the mythical founding of the Vietnamese state is "bánh chưng". As it is a savory dish and thus not a true pastry, "bánh chưng" and the accompanying "bánh dày" are laden with heaven and earth symbolism. These dishes are associated with offerings around the Vietnamese New Year ("Tết"). Additionally, as a legacy of French colonial rule and influence, bûche de Noël is a popular dessert served during the Christmas season.


title: Vietnamese cuisine

text: "Nộm" (Northern dialects) or "Gỏi" (Southern dialects) is Vietnamese salad; of the many varieties, the most popular include:


title: Vietnamese cuisine

text: "Muối" (literally means "salting") and "chua" (literally means "sour" or "fermenting") are Vietnamese term for preserved dishes. Monsoon tropical climate with abundant rainfall gives the Vietnamese a generous year-round supply of vegetables. Animal husbandry never occurred in large scale in Vietnamese history, therefore, preserved dishes are mainly plant-based pickled dishes. Seafood is often made into a fermented form called "mắm" like fish sauce.


title: Vietnamese cuisine

text: "Mắm" is a Vietnamese term for fermented fish, shrimp or other aquatic ingredients. It is used as main course, as an ingredient or as condiment. The types of fish most commonly used to make "mắm" are anchovies, catfish, snakeheads, and mackerels. The fish flesh remains intact (this is how it is different from "nước mắm"), and can be eaten cooked or uncooked, with or without vegetables and condiments. Fish sauce is literally called "mắm water" in Vietnamese and is the distilled liquid from the process of fermentation of mắm.


title: Vietnamese cuisine

text: "Nem chua", a Vietnamese fermented meat served as is or fried, is made from pork meat, coated by fried rice ("thính gạo"), mixed with pork skin and then wrapped in country gooseberry leaves ("lá chùm ruột") or "Erythrina orientalis" leaves ("lá vông nem"). The preservation process takes about three to five days.


title: Vietnamese cuisine

text: Vietnamese sausage, "giò", is usually made from fresh ground pork and beef. Sausage makers may use the meat, skin or ear. Fish sauce is added before banana leaves are used to wrap the mixture. The last step is boiling. For common sausage, 1 kg of meat is boiled for an hour. For "chả quế", the boiled meat mixture will then be roasted with cinnamon.


title: Vietnamese cuisine

text: Vegetarian dishes in Vietnam often have the same names as their meat equivalents, e.g. "phở bò," but with "chay" (vegetarian) sign in front, those dishes are served with tofu instead of meat. Nearly every soup, sandwich and street food has its vegetarian correspondent. Sometimes you can also see notations like ""phở chay"", ""bánh mì chay"" (vegetarian sandwich) or ""cơm chay"" (vegetarian rice). Vegetarian food in comparison the normal dishes are almost always cheaper, often half of the normal price. Vegetarian restaurants are mostly frequented by religious Vietnamese people and are rarely found in touristic areas. Vegetarian food is also eaten to earn luck during special holiday and festival, especially during Lunar New Year where Vietnamese culture serve vegetarian food regardless of their religion.


title: Vietnamese cuisine

text: Vietnamese use fruits in season. When the season is passing, they make candied fruit, called "ô mai", and fruit preserves, called "mứt". The original taste of "ô mai" is sour, sweet, salty, and spicy. The most famous kind of "ô mai" is "ô mai mơ", made from apricots harvested from the forest around Perfume Pagoda ("Chùa Hương"), Hà Tây Province. This "ô mai" consists of apricot covered by ginger, sugar, and liquorice root slivers.


title: Vietnamese cuisine

text: Tofu ("đậu phụ") is widely used in Vietnamese cuisine. It is boiled, fried (sprinkled with ground shrimp or oil-dipped minced spring onion) or used as an ingredient in a variety of dishes.


title: Vietnamese cuisine

text: Other soybean products range from soy sauce ("nước tương"; usually light soy sauce), fermented bean paste ("tương"), and fermented bean curd ("đậu phụ nhự" or "chao") to douhua (soft tofu sweet soup; "tàu hũ nước đường" or "tào phớ").


title: Vietnamese cuisine

text: The use of ingredients typically uncommon or taboo in most countries is one of the quintessential attributes that make Vietnamese cuisine unique. While unusual ingredients can only be found in exotic restaurants in many countries, Vietnamese cuisine is deemed atypical in that the usage of these ingredients can play a customary role in daily family dishes regardless of social class.


title: Vietnamese cuisine

text: A common and inexpensive breakfast dish that can be found in any wet market, balut ("hột vịt lộn") is a fertilized duck egg with a nearly developed embryo inside, which is boiled and eaten in the shell. It is typically served with fresh herbs: "rau răm", salt, and black pepper; lime juice is another popular additive, when available. A more unusual version of balut dish—fetus quail ("trứng cút lộn") is a snack favored by many Vietnamese students. Paddy crab and paddy snail are the main ingredients in "bún riêu ốc"—a popular noodle dish—and in some everyday soup dishes ("canh") and braised food ("món bung"). Family meals with silkworms ("nhộng"), banana flowers ("hoa chuối"), sparrows, doves, fermented fish and shrimp ("mắm cá", "mắm tôm", "mắm tép") are not rare sights. Seasonal favorites include ragworms ("rươi"), which are made into many dishes such as fried "rươi" omelet ("chả rươi"), fermented "rươi" sauce ("mắm rươi)," steamed "rươi (rươi hấp)," stir-fried "rươi" with radish or bamboo shoot "("rươi xào củ niễng măng tươi hay củ cải")." Three striped crab "" is popular in several southern provinces, including ""Cà Mau", "Sóc Trăng"" and ""Bạc Liêu""; it is eaten fermented, stir-fried or steamed"."


title: Vietnamese cuisine

text: Northern Vietnamese cuisine is also notable for its wide range of meat choices. Exotic meats such as dog meat, cat meat, rat meat, snake, soft-shell turtle, deer, and domestic goat are sold in street-side restaurants and generally paired with alcoholic beverages. A taboo in many Western countries and in southern Vietnam, consumption of dog meat and cat meat is common throughout the northern part of the country and is believed to raise the libido in men. Television chef Andrew Zimmern visited northern Vietnam in the 12th episode of his popular show "Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern". Cobra beating heart and dried bones, silkworms, and bull penis are some of the dishes he sampled. He also tried porcupine.


title: Vietnamese cuisine

text: Paddy mouse meat—barbecued, braised, stir- or deep-fried—is a delicacy dish that can be found in Southern Vietnamese rural areas or even high-end city restaurants.


title: Vietnamese cuisine

text: Anthony Bourdain, the host chef of Travel Channel's "", wrote in April 2005: "...everything is used—and nothing wasted in Vietnam." Animal parts that are often disposed of in many Western countries are used fully in Vietnamese cooking. Organs, including lungs, livers, hearts, intestines and bladders of pigs, cattle, and chickens are sold at even higher prices than their meat. Chicken testicles and undeveloped eggs are stir-fried with vegetables and served as an everyday dish.


title: Vietnamese cuisine

text: Many of the traditional northern Lunar New Year dishes such as "thịt đông", "giò thủ," and "canh măng móng giò" involve the use of pig heads, tongues, throats and feet. Pig and beef tails, as well as chicken heads, necks and feet, are Vietnamese favorite beer dishes. "Bóng bì", used as an ingredient in "canh bóng"—a kind of soup, is pig skin baked until popped. Steamed pig brains can be found almost everywhere. Also in the northern part of Vietnam, different kinds of animal blood can be made into a dish called "tiết canh" by whisking the blood with fish sauce and cold water in a shallow dish along with finely chopped, cooked duck innards (such as gizzards), sprinkled with crushed peanuts and chopped herbs such as Vietnamese coriander, mint, etc. It is then cooled until the blood coagulates into a soft, jelly-like mixture and served raw.


title: Vietnamese cuisine

text: Coconut worms, or "đuông dừa", is a delicacy found widely in the "Trà Vinh" Province of Vietnam. They are the larvae form of the palm weevil and are eaten live within a salty fish sauce with chili peppers.


title: Sika deer

text: The sika deer (Cervus nippon), also known as the Northern spotted deer or the Japanese deer, is a species of deer native to much of East Asia and introduced to other parts of the world. Previously found from northern Vietnam in the south to the Russian Far East in the north, it is now uncommon except in Japan, where the species is overabundant.


title: Sika deer

text: Its name comes from , the Japanese word for "deer". In Japan, the species is known as the . In Chinese, it is known as .


title: Sika deer

text: The sika deer is a member of the genus "Cervus", a group of deer also known as the "true deer". Formerly, sika were grouped together in this genus with nine other species. Now, only the sika and red deer remain, the latter being divided into three separate species: European red deer, central Asian red deer, and American elk (though this remains controversial).


title: Sika deer

text: Recent DNA evidence indicates these deer are not as closely related as previously thought, resulting in the creation of new species and genera. The genera "Rucervus", "Rusa", and "Przewalskium" are where most of the former "Cervus" species now belong. The ancestor of all "Cervus" species probably originated in central Asia and resembled sika deer. All "Cervus" species can crossbreed and produce hybrids in areas where they coexist (for example, introduced sika hybridize with native red deer in the Scottish Highlands, where this is a serious threat to the gene pool of the red deer population).


title: Sika deer

text: Serious genetic pollution has occurred in many populations, especially in China, so the status of many subspecies remains unclear. The status of "C. n. hortulorum" is particularly uncertain and might in fact be of mixed origin, hence it is not listed here.


title: Sika deer

text: The sika deer is one of the few deer species that does not lose its spots upon reaching maturity. Spot patterns vary with region. The mainland subspecies have larger and more obvious spots, in contrast to the Taiwanese and Japanese subspecies, whose spots are nearly invisible. Many introduced populations are from Japan, so they also lack significant spots.


title: Sika deer

text: The color of the pelage ranges from mahogany to black, and white individuals are also known. During winter, the coat becomes darker and shaggier and the spots less prominent, and a mane forms on the back of the males' necks. They are medium-sized herbivores, though they show notable size variation across their several subspecies and considerable sexual dimorphism, with males invariably much larger than females. They can vary from tall at the shoulder and from in head-and-body length. The tail measures about long.


title: Sika deer

text: The largest subspecies is the Manchurian sika deer ("C. n. mantchuricus"), in which males commonly weigh about and females weigh , with large stags scaling up to , although there had been records of Yezo sika deer bulls weighing up to . On the other end of the size spectrum, in the Japanese sika deer ("C. n. nippon"), males weigh and females weigh . All sikas are compact and dainty-legged, with short, trim, wedge-shaped heads and a boisterous disposition. When alarmed, they often display a distinctive flared rump, much like the American elk.


title: Sika deer

text: Sika stags have stout, upright antlers with an extra buttress up from the brow tine and a very thick wall. A forward-facing intermediate tine breaks the line to the top, which is usually forked. Occasionally, sika antlers develop some palmation (flat areas). Females carry a pair of distinctive black bumps on the forehead. Antlers can range from to more than , depending on the subspecies. Stags also have distinctive manes during their mating period (rut).


title: Sika deer

text: Sika deer can be active throughout the day, though in areas with heavy human disturbance, they tend to be nocturnal. Seasonal migration is known to occur in mountainous areas, such as Japan, with winter ranges being up to lower in elevation than summer ranges.


title: Sika deer

text: Lifestyles vary between individuals, with some occurring alone while others are found in single-sex groups. Large herds gather in autumn and winter. Males spend most years alone occasionally forming herds together. Females with fawns only form herds during birthing season. The sika deer is a highly vocal species, with over 10 individual sounds, ranging from soft whistles to loud screams.


title: Sika deer

text: Sika males are territorial and keep harems of females during their rut, which peaks from early September through November, but may last well into the winter. Territory size varies with habitat type and size of the buck; strong, prime bucks may hold up to . Territories are marked by a series of shallow pits or "scrapes", which is digging holes (up to 1.6 m in wide and 0.3 m in deep) with forefeet or antlers, into which the males urinate and from which emanates a strong, musky odor. Fights between rival males for territorial disputes, which occur by using hooves and antlers, are sometimes fierce and long and may even be fatal.


title: Sika deer

text: The gestation period lasts for seven months. Hinds (does) give birth to a single fawn, weighing , which is nursed for up to ten months. The mother hides her fawn in thick undergrowth immediately after giving birth, and the fawn stays very quiet and still while it waits until the mother returns to nurse it. The fawn becomes independent 10 to 12 months after birth, and attains sexual maturity at 16 to 18 months in both sexes. The average lifespan is 15 to 18 years in captivity, although one case is recorded as living 25 years and 5 months.


title: Sika deer

text: The sika deer may interbreed with the red deer, the closest relative; hybrid descendants may have adaptive advantages over purebred relatives.


title: Sika deer

text: In Nara Prefecture, Japan, the deer are also known as "bowing deer", as they bow their heads before being fed special . However, deer bow heads to signal that they are about to headbutt. Therefore, when a human "bows" to a deer, the deer may take it as a challenge, and will assume the same stance before charging and attempting to headbutt the person. Deer headbutt both for play and to assert dominance, as do goats. Sika deer are found throughout the city of Nara and its many parks and temples like Tōdai-ji, as they are considered to be the messengers of the Shinto gods.


title: Sika deer

text: Sika deer are found in the temperate and subtropical forests of eastern Asia, preferring areas with dense understory, and where snowfall does not exceed . They tend to forage in patchy clearings of forests. Introduced populations are found in areas with similar habitats to their native ranges, including Western and Central Europe, Eastern United States, and New Zealand.


title: Sika deer

text: Sika deer inhabit temperate and subtropical woodlands, often in areas suitable for farming and other human exploitation. Their range encompasses some of the most densely populated areas in the world, where forests were cleared hundreds of years ago. Their population status varies significantly in different countries. Although the species as a whole is thriving, it is endangered and extinct in many areas.


title: Sika deer

text: Japan has by far the largest native sika population in the world. Though the exact population is uncertain, it is likely to be in the hundred thousand range and is still increasing, mainly due to recent conservation efforts and the extinction of its main predator, the Japanese wolf ("Canis lupus hodophilax"), over a century ago. Without its main predator, the population of sika exploded and it is now overpopulated in many areas, posing a threat to both forests and farmlands. Efforts are now being made to control its population instead of conserving it. None of its subspecies is endangered except the Kerama deer ("C. n. keramae") on the tiny Kerama Islands.


title: Sika deer

text: In 2015, Japanese Ministry of the Environment estimated the population at 3,080,000 in Japan, including Hokkaido.


title: Sika deer

text: China used to have the largest population of sika, but thousands of years of hunting and habitat loss have reduced the population to less than 1,000. Of the five subspecies in China, the North China sika deer ("C. n. mandarinus") is believed to be extinct in the wild since the 1930s; the Shanxi sika deer ("C. n. grassianus") has not been seen in the wild since the 1980s and is also believed to be extinct in the wild. The status of Manchurian sika deer in China is unclear, though it is also believed to be extinct, and the sightings there are actually feral populations.


title: Sika deer

text: The South China sika deer ("C. n. kopschi") and Sichuan sika deer ("C. n. sichuanicus") are the only subspecies known to remain in the wild in China. The former exists in fragmented populations of around 300 in southeast China, while the latter is found in a single population of over 400. The feral population is likely to be much higher than the wild, though most of them are descended from domesticated sikas of mixed subspecies. All of the subspecies are present in captivity, but a lack of suitable habitats and government efforts prevent their reintroduction.


title: Sika deer

text: The Formosan sika deer ("C. n. taioanus") has been extinct in the wild for almost two decades before individuals from zoos were introduced to Kenting National Park; the population now numbers 200. Reintroduction programs are also under way in Vietnam, where the Vietnamese sika deer ("C. n. pseudaxis") is extinct or nearly so.


title: Sika deer

text: Russia has a relatively large and stable population of 8,500–9,000 individuals of the Manchurian subspecies, but this is limited to a small area in Primorsky Krai. Small populations might exist in North Korea, but the political situation makes investigation impossible. The species is extinct in South Korea, with no plans for reintroduction.


title: Sika deer

text: Sika deer have been introduced into a number of other countries, including Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, Russia, Romania, New Zealand, Australia, the Philippines (Jolo Island), Poland, Sweden, Finland, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States (Delaware, Kansas, Maryland, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Virginia, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Maine, Texas, Wyoming, Washington). In many cases, they were originally introduced as ornamental animals in parklands, but have established themselves in the wild. On Spieden Island in the San Juan Islands of Washington, they were introduced as a game animal.


title: Sika deer

text: In the UK and Ireland, several distinct feral populations now exist. Some of these are in isolated areas, for example on the island of Lundy, but others are contiguous with populations of the native red deer. Since the two species sometimes hybridize, a serious conservation concern exists. In research which rated the negative impact of introduced mammals in Europe, the sika deer was found to be among the most damaging to the environment and economy, along with the brown rat and muskrat.