title: Fuel cell vehicle

text: In a 2005 well-to-wheels analysis, the DOE estimated that fuel cell electric vehicles using hydrogen produced from natural gas would result in emissions of approximately 55% of the CO per mile of internal combustion engine vehicles and have approximately 25% less emissions than hybrid vehicles. In 2006, Ulf Bossel stated that the large amount of energy required to isolate hydrogen from natural compounds (water, natural gas, biomass), package the light gas by compression or liquefaction, transfer the energy carrier to the user, plus the energy lost when it is converted to useful electricity with fuel cells, leaves around 25% for practical use." Richard Gilbert, co-author of "Transport Revolutions: Moving People and Freight without Oil" (2010), comments similarly, that producing hydrogen gas ends up using some of the energy it creates. Then, energy is taken up by converting the hydrogen back into electricity within fuel cells. This means that only a quarter of the initially available energy reaches the electric motor' ... Such losses in conversion don't stack up well against, for instance, recharging an electric vehicle (EV) like the Nissan Leaf or Chevy Volt from a wall socket". A 2010 well-to-wheels analysis of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles report from Argonne National Laboratory states that renewable H2 pathways offer much larger green house gas benefits. This result has recently been confirmed. In 2010, a US DOE well-to-wheels publication assumed that the efficiency of the single step of compressing hydrogen to at the refueling station is 94%. A 2016 study in the November issue of the journal "Energy" by scientists at Stanford University and the Technical University of Munich concluded that, even assuming local hydrogen production, "investing in all-electric battery vehicles is a more economical choice for reducing carbon dioxide emissions, primarily due to their lower cost and significantly higher energy efficiency."


title: Fuel cell vehicle

text: In 2008, professor Jeremy P. Meyers, in the Electrochemical Society journal "Interface" wrote that fuel cells "are not as efficient as batteries, due primarily to the inefficiency of the oxygen reduction reaction. ... [T]hey make the most sense for operation disconnected from the grid, or when fuel can be provided continuously. For applications that require frequent and relatively rapid start-ups ... where zero emissions are a requirement, as in enclosed spaces such as warehouses." Also in 2008, "Wired News" reported that "experts say it will be 40 years or more before hydrogen has any meaningful impact on gasoline consumption or global warming, and we can't afford to wait that long. In the meantime, fuel cells are diverting resources from more immediate solutions." In 2008, Robert Zubrin, the author of "Energy Victory", said: "Hydrogen is 'just about the worst possible vehicle fuel. If hydrogen could be produced using renewable energy, "it would surely be easier simply to use this energy to charge the batteries of all-electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles." The "Los Angeles Times" wrote in 2009, "Any way you look at it, hydrogen is a lousy way to move cars." "The Washington Post" asked in November 2009, "[W]hy would you want to store energy in the form of hydrogen and then use that hydrogen to produce electricity for a motor, when electrical energy is already waiting to be sucked out of sockets all over America and stored in auto batteries...?"


title: Fuel cell vehicle

text: "The Motley Fool" stated in 2013 that "there are still cost-prohibitive obstacles [for hydrogen cars] relating to transportation, storage, and, most importantly, production." Volkswagen's Rudolf Krebs said in 2013 that "no matter how excellent you make the cars themselves, the laws of physics hinder their overall efficiency. The most efficient way to convert energy to mobility is electricity." He elaborated: "Hydrogen mobility only makes sense if you use green energy", but ... you need to convert it first into hydrogen "with low efficiencies" where "you lose about 40 percent of the initial energy". You then must compress the hydrogen and store it under high pressure in tanks, which uses more energy. "And then you have to convert the hydrogen back to electricity in a fuel cell with another efficiency loss". Krebs continued: "in the end, from your original 100 percent of electric energy, you end up with 30 to 40 percent."


title: Fuel cell vehicle

text: In 2014, electric automotive and energy futurist Julian Cox wrote that producing hydrogen from methane "is significantly more carbon intensive per unit of energy than coal. Mistaking fossil hydrogen from the hydraulic fracturing of shales for an environmentally sustainable energy pathway threatens to encourage energy policies that will dilute and potentially derail global efforts to head-off climate change due to the risk of diverting investment and focus from vehicle technologies that are economically compatible with renewable energy." In 2014, former Dept. of Energy official Joseph Romm concluded that renewable energy cannot economically be used to make hydrogen for an FCV fleet "either now or in the future." GreenTech Media's analyst reached similar conclusions in 2014. In 2015, "Clean Technica" listed some of the disadvantages of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.


title: Fuel cell vehicle

text: A 2017 analysis published in "Green Car Reports" found that the best hydrogen fuel cell vehicles consume "more than three times more electricity per mile than an electric vehicle ... generate more greenhouse-gas emissions than other powertrain technologies ... [and have] very high fuel costs. ... Considering all the obstacles and requirements for new infrastructure (estimated to cost as much as $400 billion), fuel-cell vehicles seem likely to be a niche technology at best, with little impact on U.S. oil consumption. In 2017, Michael Barnard, writing in "Forbes", listed the continuing disadvantages of hydrogen fuel cell cars and concluded that "by about 2008, it was very clear that hydrogen was and would be inferior to battery technology as a storage of energy for vehicles. [B]y 2025 the last hold outs should likely be retiring their fuel cell dreams.” A 2019 video by "Real Engineering" noted that using hydrogen as a fuel for cars does not help to reduce carbon emissions from transportation. The 95% of hydrogen still produced from fossil fuels releases carbon dioxide, and producing hydrogen from water is an energy-consuming process. Storing hydrogen requires more energy either to cool it down to the liquid state or to put it into tanks under high pressure, and delivering the hydrogen to fueling stations requires more energy and may release more carbon. The hydrogen needed to move a FCV a kilometer costs approximately eight times as much as the electricity needed to move a BEV the same distance. Also in 2019, Katsushi Inoue, the president of Honda Europe, stated, "Our focus is on hybrid and electric vehicles now. Maybe hydrogen fuel cell cars will come, but that's a technology for the next era."


title: Fuel cell vehicle

text: Assessments since 2020 have concluded that hydrogen vehicles are still only 38% efficient, while battery EVs from 80% to 95% efficient. A 2021 assessment by CleanTechnica concluded that while hydrogen cars are far less efficient than electric cars, the vast majority of hydrogen being produced is polluting grey hydrogen, and delivering hydrogen would require building a vast and expensive new infrastructure, the remaining two "advantages of fuel cell vehicles – longer range and fast fueling times – are rapidly being eroded by improving battery and charging technology." A 2022 study in "Nature Electronics" agreed.


title: Fuel cell vehicle

text: Fuel cell patent fillings in the area of hydrogen fuel cells increased in the 1960s, partly due to NASAs space program; another increase in the 80s was driven by research for automobiles. This was followed by a surge in filings from 2000 to 2005 by inventors in Japan, US and South Korea. Since then, China has dominated patent fillings in the field, with a smaller number in Japan, Germany, South Korea and the US. Between 2016 and 2020, annual filings, particularly for transportation applications, increased by a further 23%.


title: Fuel cell vehicle

text: Almost 80% of the patents in the area of fuel cells for transportation were filed by car companies. Academia is collaborating actively with the industry. Although filings related to road vehicles such as cars and trucks dominate, inventions in other areas like shipping, aviation, rail and other special vehicles is increasing. Airbus, a major aircraft manufacturer, has increased its patenting activity in the area since 2019. The number of fuel cell patents for shipping applications is comparable in size to the one for aviation and similarly slow in growth.


title: Fuel cell vehicle

text: A World Intellectual Property Organization report argues that because heavy-duty vehicles, such as construction vehicles, forklifts, and airport tugs require a higher payload, the high energy density of hydrogen can make fuel cells a more advantageous solution than battery applications.


title: Sachsen-class frigate

text: The F124 "Sachsen" class is the German Navy's latest class of highly advanced air-defense frigates. The design of the "Sachsen"-class frigate is based on that of the F123 but with enhanced stealth features designed to deceive an opponent's radar and acoustic sensors. The class incorporates an advanced multifunction radar APAR and a SMART-L long-range radar which is purported to be capable of detecting stealth aircraft and stealth missiles.


title: Sachsen-class frigate

text: Although designated as frigates, they are comparable to destroyers in capability and were intended to replace the Navy's . They are similar to the Dutch , in that both are based on the use of a common primary anti-air warfare system built around the APAR and SMART-L radars as well as the area-defence SM-2 Block IIIA and point-defence Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile (ESSM) surface-to-air missiles.


title: Sachsen-class frigate

text: The German government contracted for three ships in June 1996 with an option on a fourth that was provisionally to have been named "Thüringen", but the option for this fourth ship was not taken up. At €2.1 billion for the three ships, the class was one of the most expensive ship building programs of the German Navy.


title: Sachsen-class frigate

text: Following the reunification of Germany in 1990 at the end of the Cold War, the German Navy continued the construction program of the former "Bundesmarine" (Federal Navy), which projected a fleet centered on destroyers and frigates. The "Sachsen" class was the second group of frigates to be built in the post-unification era, following the s laid down in the early 1990s. The three "Sachsen"s were ordered to replace the old s that were then over thirty years old.


title: Sachsen-class frigate

text: The ships of the "Sachsen" class are long at the waterline and long overall. They have a beam of and a draft of , though the draft increases to at the sonar array in the bulbous bow. They displace at full load. Steering is controlled by a single roll-stabilized rudder; the ships have a turning radius of . The frigates have a crew of 38 officers, 64 petty officers, and 140 enlisted sailors. They have accommodations for an additional thirteen officers and sailors as part of a squadron commander's staff, and they have crew provisions for female sailors. The ships can remain at sea for 21 days at a time.


title: Sachsen-class frigate

text: The ships' hulls were designed on the pattern of the previous "Brandenburg" class to allow for great commonality of parts to reduce maintenance costs; they were built using MEKO modular construction and incorporate seven watertight compartments. The primary improvement over the earlier vessels is the significantly reduced radar signature. The ships were designed with a capacity for an extra of weight, to allow for future additions of new weapons and sensors without compromising the ships' efficiency.


title: Sachsen-class frigate

text: The ships of the "Sachsen" class are equipped with a combined diesel and gas (CODAG) propulsion system. The two operating shafts work independently. The diesel engines are installed in a non-walkable sound-proof capsule. The shafts drive two five-bladed variable-pitch propellers. The General Electric LM2500 PF/MLG gas turbine is rated at and the MTU 20V 1163 TB93 diesels provide a combined . The total propulsion system provides a top speed of ; while operating the diesels only, the ships can cruise for at a speed of . The ships are equipped with four 1,000 kilowatt diesel generators that operate at 400 Volts (V) and 115 V.


title: Sachsen-class frigate

text: Steering is controlled via the Rudder Roll System, which communicates information about the ship's position and rudder dampening signals, allowing the ships to maintain "almost unprecedented stability" in as high as sea state 5.


title: Sachsen-class frigate

text: These ships were optimized for the anti-air warfare role. The primary anti-air weapons are the 32-cell Mk 41 Mod 10 vertical launching system, equipped with twenty-four SM-2 Block IIIA missiles and thirty-two Evolved Sea Sparrow missiles. Point-defense against cruise missiles is provided by a pair of 21-round Rolling Airframe Missile launchers. The ships are also equipped with two four-cell RGM-84 Harpoon anti-ship missile launchers. In 2013, the German Navy considered modifying the ships' long-range search radar to allow the SM-2 missiles to be used in an anti-ballistic missile capacity.


title: Sachsen-class frigate

text: For defense against submarines, the frigates carry two triple-launchers for the MU90 Impact torpedoes. The ships also carry a variety of guns, including one dual-purpose 62-caliber gun manufactured by OTO Melara. They are also armed with two Rheinmetall MLG 27 remote-controlled autocannons in single mounts.


title: Sachsen-class frigate

text: In January 2003, "Hamburg" had a modified Panzerhaubitze 2000 turret with a gun fitted experimentally for the Modular Naval Artillery Concept. The experiment was a feasibility study for the projected F125-class frigate. The gun had a range of and a rate of fire of 10 rounds per minute.


title: Sachsen-class frigate

text: "Sachsen" and her sister ships are equipped with a flight deck and hangar that can accommodate two Super Lynx or NH90 helicopters. The flight deck is rated to accommodate a helicopter in conditions up to sea state 6. The helicopter handling system from MBB-Förder und Hebesysteme uses laser guided and computer controlled manipulator arms to secure the helicopter after landing.


title: Sachsen-class frigate

text: For this role the ships are equipped with an advanced sensor and weapons suite. The primary sensors for this role are the long range surveillance radar SMART-L and the multi-function radar APAR. The SMART-L and APAR sets are highly complementary, in the sense that SMART-L is an L band radar providing very long range surveillance while APAR is an X band radar providing precise target tracking, a highly capable horizon search capability, and missile guidance using the Interrupted Continuous Wave Illumination (ICWI) technique, thus allowing guidance of 32 semi-active radar homing missiles in flight simultaneously, including 16 in the terminal guidance phase. The ships are also equipped with two STN Atlas 9600-M ARPA navigation radars.


title: Sachsen-class frigate

text: In 2013, Atlas Elektronik and Thales Deutschland were awarded a contract to modernize the frigates command system, with the project to be completed by 2017.


title: Sachsen-class frigate

text: In August 2021, the German armed forces' procurement agency (BAAINBw) awarded a contract to German and Israeli companies Hensoldt and IAI, under which the "Sachsen"-class frigates will have their obsolete SMART-L long-range radar replaced by a new AESA radar system designated as TRS-4D/LR ROT. It will be capable of tracking "very small and maneuverable" targets at distances of more than 400 km for air targets and up to 2,000 km for targets in earth orbit. This includes long-range ballistic missiles, allowing Germany to participate in NATOs BMD (ballistic missile defence) efforts. It is not planned to fit an anti-ballistic missile such as the SM-3 to the ships. The ships IFF systems will also be modernised.


title: Sachsen-class frigate

text: Before installation of the three shipborne radars commences, an additional first unit will in 2023 be installed at a coastal facility near the Naval School of Technology at Parow in the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania for purposes of training and evaluation. The first ship is planned to have its radar installed in 2024 and all three ships are to have been fitted with the new system by 2028.


title: Sachsen-class frigate

text: The same Hensoldt/IAI system has also been selected by the German Air Force in order to replace its stationary HR-3000 - or HADR ("Hughes Air Defense Radar") - early warning radars.


title: Sachsen-class frigate

text: In August 2004, "Sachsen" completed a series of live missile firings at the Point Mugu missile launch range off the coast of California that included a total of 11 ESSM and 10 SM-2 Block IIIA missiles. The tests included firings against target drones such as the BQM-74E Chukar III and BQM-34S Firebee I, as well as against missile targets such as the AQM-37C Jayhawk and air-launched Kormoran 1 anti-ship missiles. While serving in NATO Standing Maritime Force 1 in 2004, "Sachsen" took part in training operations with the United States' aircraft carrier . Since 2006, the three "Sachsen"-class ships have been assigned to and based in Wilhelmshaven, along with the four "Brandenburg"-class frigates. The seven frigates together form the 2nd (Frigate Squadron).


title: Sachsen-class frigate

text: Operations with American carrier groups continued through the 2000s and 2010s, including inter-operability exercises with "Hessen" and the carrier in 2010. "Hessen" thereafter departed for a cruise in the Mediterranean Sea. In addition, "Hamburg" became the first German ship to fully integrate into an American carrier strike group in March 2013.


title: Sachsen-class frigate

text: "Hessen" served as the flagship of the NATO Standing Maritime Force 1 in January 2013. In March 2015, "Hessen" and the frigates and took part in Operation Good Hope, a training exercise conducted with the South African Navy.


title: Sachsen-class frigate

text: Rumors emerged in July 2013 that the Israeli Navy had agreed to procure two destroyers from Germany for €1 billion. These had been rumored to be "Sachsen"-class vessels. Eventually, Israel purchased four s—significantly smaller vessels—from German shipyards in 2015.


title: George Canning

text: George Canning (11 April 17708 August 1827) was a British Tory statesman. He held various senior cabinet positions under numerous prime ministers, including two important terms as Foreign Secretary, finally becoming Prime Minister of the United Kingdom for the last 119 days of his life, from April to August 1827.


title: George Canning

text: The son of an actress and a failed businessman and lawyer, Canning was supported financially by his uncle, Stratford Canning, which allowed him to attend Eton College and Christ Church, Oxford. Canning entered politics in 1793 and rose rapidly. He was Paymaster of the Forces (1800–1801) and Treasurer of the Navy (1804–1806) under William Pitt the Younger. Canning was Foreign Secretary (1807–1809) under the Duke of Portland. Canning was the dominant figure in the cabinet and directed the seizure of the Danish fleet in 1807 to assure Britain's naval supremacy over Napoleon. In 1809, he was wounded in a duel with his rival Lord Castlereagh and was shortly thereafter passed over as a successor to the Duke of Portland in favour of Spencer Perceval. He rejected overtures to serve as Foreign Secretary again because of Castlereagh's presence in Perceval's Cabinet, and he remained out of high office until after Perceval was assassinated in 1812.


title: George Canning

text: Canning subsequently served under the new Prime Minister the Earl of Liverpool as British Ambassador to Portugal (1814–1816), President of the Board of Control (1816–1821) and Foreign Secretary and Leader of the House of Commons (1822–1827). King George IV disliked Canning, and there were efforts to frustrate his foreign policies. Canning, however, successfully built wide public support for his policies. The historian Paul Hayes argues that he scored major achievements in diplomatic relations regarding Spain and Portugal, by helping to guarantee the independence of the American colonies of Portugal and Spain. His policies ensured a major trading advantage for British merchants and supported the Americans' Monroe Doctrine. The historian G. M. Trevelyan stated:


title: George Canning

text: When Lord Liverpool resigned in April 1827, Canning was chosen to succeed him as Prime Minister, ahead of the Duke of Wellington and Sir Robert Peel. Both of them declined to serve under Canning, and the Tories split between Peel and Wellington's Ultra-Tories and the Canningites. Canning then invited several Whigs to join his cabinet. However, his health collapsed, and he died in office in August 1827. His tenure of only 119 days in office made him the shortest-serving prime minister in history until Liz Truss's 2022 premiership.


title: George Canning

text: Canning was born into an Anglo-Irish family at his parents' home in Queen Anne Street, Marylebone, London. Canning described himself as "an Irishman born in London". His father, George Canning of Garvagh, County Londonderry, in Ulster, the northern province in Ireland, was a gentleman of limited means, a failed wine merchant and lawyer, who renounced his right to inherit the family estate in exchange for payment of his substantial debts. George Sr. eventually abandoned the family and died in poverty on 11 April 1771, his son's first birthday, in London. Canning's mother, Mary Ann Costello, who was also Irish, took work as a stage actress, a profession not considered respectable at the time. Indeed, when in 1827 it looked as if Canning would become Prime Minister, Lord Grey remarked that "the son of an actress is, "ipso facto", disqualified from becoming Prime Minister".


title: George Canning

text: Because Canning showed unusual intelligence and promise at an early age, family friends persuaded his uncle, London merchant Stratford Canning (father of the diplomat Stratford Canning), to become his nephew's guardian. George Canning grew up with his cousins at the home of his uncle, who provided him with an income and an education. Stratford Canning's financial support allowed the young Canning to study at Hyde Abbey School, Eton College and Christ Church, Oxford. Canning came out top of the school at Eton and left at the age of seventeen. His time at Eton has been described as "a triumph almost without parallel. He proved a brilliant classicist, came top of the school, and excelled at public orations".


title: George Canning

text: Canning struck up friendships with the future Lord Liverpool as well as with Granville Leveson-Gower and John Hookham Frere. In 1789 he won a prize for his Latin poem "The Pilgrimage to Mecca" which he recited in Oxford Theatre. Canning began practising law after receiving his BA from Oxford in the summer of 1791, but he wished to enter politics.


title: George Canning

text: Stratford Canning was a Whig and would introduce his nephew in the 1780s to prominent Whigs such as Charles James Fox, Edmund Burke, and Richard Brinsley Sheridan. George Canning's friendship with Sheridan would last for the remainder of Sheridan's life.


title: George Canning

text: George Canning's impoverished background and limited financial resources, however, made unlikely a bright political future in a Whig party whose political ranks were led mostly by members of the wealthy landed aristocracy in league with the newly rich industrialist classes. Regardless, along with Whigs such as Burke, Canning himself would become considerably more conservative in the early 1790s after witnessing the excessive radicalism of the French Revolution. "The political reaction which then followed swept the young man to the opposite extreme; and his vehemence for monarchy and the Tories gave point to a Whig sarcasm,—that men had often turned their coats, but this was the first time a boy had turned his jacket."


title: George Canning

text: So when Canning decided to enter politics he sought and received the patronage of the leader of the "Tory" group, William Pitt the Younger. In 1793, thanks to the help of Pitt, Canning became a member of parliament for Newtown on the Isle of Wight, a rotten borough. In 1796, he changed seats to a different rotten borough, Wendover in Buckinghamshire. He was elected to represent several constituencies during his parliamentary career.


title: George Canning

text: Canning rose quickly in British politics as an effective orator and writer. His speeches in Parliament as well as his essays gave the followers of Pitt a rhetorical power they had previously lacked. Canning's skills saw him gain leverage within the Pittite faction that allowed him influence over its policies along with repeated promotions in the Cabinet. Over time, Canning became a prominent public speaker as well, and was one of the first politicians to campaign heavily in the country.


title: George Canning

text: As a result of his charisma and promise, Canning early on drew to himself a circle of supporters who would become known as the Canningites. Conversely though, Canning had a reputation as a divisive man who alienated many.


title: George Canning

text: He was a dominant personality and often risked losing political allies for personal reasons. He once reduced Lord Liverpool to tears with a long satirical poem mocking Liverpool's attachment to his time as a colonel in the militia.


title: George Canning

text: On 2 November 1795, Canning received his first ministerial post: Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. In this post he proved a strong supporter of Pitt, often taking his side in disputes with the Foreign Secretary, Lord Grenville. At the end of 1798 Canning responded to a resolution by George Tierney MP for peace negotiations with France:


title: George Canning

text: I for my part still conceive it to be the paramount duty of a British member of parliament to consider what is good for Great Britain ... I do not envy that man's feelings, who can behold the sufferings of Switzerland, and who derives from that sight no idea of what is meant by the deliverance of Europe. I do not envy the feelings of that man, who can look without emotion at Italy – plundered, insulted, trampled upon, exhausted, covered with ridicule, and horror, and devastation – who can look at all this, and be at a loss to guess what is meant by the deliverance of Europe? As little do I envy the feelings of that man, who can view the peoples of the Netherlands driven into insurrection, and struggling for their freedom against the heavy hand of a merciless tyranny, without entertaining any suspicion of what may be the sense of the word deliverance. Does such a man contemplate Holland groaning under arbitrary oppressions and exactions? Does he turn his eyes to Spain trembling at the nod of a foreign master? And does the word deliverance still sound unintelligibly in his ear? Has he heard of the rescue and salvation of Naples, by the appearance and the triumphs of the British fleet? Does he know that the monarchy of Naples maintains its existence at the sword's point? And is his understanding, and his heart, still impenetrable to the sense and meaning of the deliverance of Europe?


title: George Canning

text: Canning was involved in the founding of the "Anti-Jacobin", a newspaper which was published every Monday from 20 November 1797 to 9 July 1798. Its purpose was to support the government and condemn revolutionary doctrines through news and poetry, much of it written by Canning. Canning's poetry satirised and ridiculed Jacobin poetry. Before the appearance of the "Anti-Jacobin" all the eloquence (except for Burke's) and all the wit and ridicule had been on the side of Fox and Sheridan. Canning and his friends changed this. A young Whig, William Lamb (the future Lord Melbourne, Prime Minister) wrote an 'Epistle to the Editors of the "Anti-Jacobin"', which attacked Canning:


title: George Canning

text: In 1799 Canning became a Commissioner of the Board of Control for India. Canning wrote on 16 April: "Here I am immersed in papers, of which I do not yet comprehend three words in succession; but I shall get at their meaning by degrees and at my leisure. No such hard work here as at my former office. No attendance but when I like it, when there are interesting letters received from India (as is now the case) or to be sent out there".


title: George Canning

text: Canning was appointed Paymaster of the Forces (and therefore to the Privy Council as well) in 1800. In February 1801 Pitt resigned as Prime Minister due to the King's opposition to Catholic Emancipation. Canning, despite Pitt's advice to stay in office, loyally followed him into opposition. The following day, Canning wrote to Lady Malmesbury: "I resign "because Pitt" resigns. And that is all".


title: George Canning

text: Canning disliked being out of office, and wrote on to John Hookham Frere in summer 1801: "But the thought will obtrude itself now and then that I am not where I should be – "non-hoc pollicitus"." He also claimed that Pitt had done "scrupulously and magnanimously "right" by everyone "but" me". At the end of September 1801 Canning wrote to Frere, saying of Pitt: "I do love him, and reverence him as I should a Father – but a Father should not sacrifice me, with my good will. Most heartily I forgive him, But he has to answer to himself, and to the country for much mischief that he has done and much that is still to do." Pitt wished for Canning to enter Henry Addington's government, a move which Canning looked on as a horrible dilemma but in the end, he turned the offer down.


title: George Canning

text: Canning opposed the preliminaries of the Peace of Amiens signed on 1 October. He did not vote against it due to his personal devotion to Pitt. He wrote on 22 November: "I would risk my life to be assured of being able to act always "with P" in a manner satisfactory to my own feelings and sense of what is right, rather than have to seek that object in separation from him." On 27 May 1802 in the Commons Canning requested that all grants of land in Trinidad (captured by Britain from Spain) should be rejected until Parliament had decided what to do with the island. The threat that it could be populated by slaves like other West Indian islands was real. Canning instead wanted it to have a military post and that it should be settled with ex-soldiers, free blacks and creoles, with the Native American population protected and helped. He also asserted that the island should be used to test the theory that better methods of cultivation in land would lessen the need for slaves. Addington acceded to Canning's demands and the Reverend William Leigh believed Canning had saved 750,000 lives.


title: George Canning

text: At a dinner to celebrate Pitt's birthday in 1802, Canning wrote the song "The Pilot that Weathered the Storm", performed by a tenor from Drury Lane, Charles Dignum:


title: George Canning

text: In November Canning spoke out openly in support of Pitt in the Commons. One observer thought that Canning made incomparably the best speech and that his defence of Pitt's administration "one of the best things, either argumentatively as to matter, or critically and to manner and style" that he could ever remember. On 8 December Sheridan spoke out in defence of Addington and denied that Pitt was the only man who could save the country. Canning replied by criticising the Addington government's foreign policy and claimed that the House should recognise the greatness of the country and Pitt, who ought to be its leader. He argued against those, such as William Wilberforce, who held that Britain could safely maintain a policy of isolation: "Let us consider the state of the world as it is, not as we fancy it ought to be. Let us not seek to hide from our own eyes ... the real, imminent and awful danger which threatens us." Also, he objected to the notion that Britain could choose between greatness and happiness: "The choice is not in our power. We have ... no refuge in littleness. We must maintain ourselves what we are, or cease to have a political existence worth preserving." Furthermore, he openly declared for Pitt and said: "Away with the cant of 'measures, not men., the idle supposition that it is the harness and not the horses that draw the chariot along." Kingdoms rise and fall due to what degree they are upheld "not by well-meaning endeavours ... but by commanding, over-awing talents ... retreat and withdraw as much as he will, he must not hope to efface the memory of his past services from the gratitude of his country; he cannot withdraw himself from the following of a nation; he must endure the attachment of a people whom he has saved." In private Canning was fearful that if Pitt did not return to power, Fox would: "Sooner or later he "must" act or the country is gone."


title: George Canning

text: Canning approved of the declaration of war against France on 18 May 1803. Canning was angered by Pitt's desire not to proactively work to turn out the ministry but support the ministry when it adopted sound policies. However, in 1804, to Canning's delight, Pitt began to work against the Addington government. After Pitt delivered a stinging attack on the government's defence measures on 25 April, Canning launched his own attack on Addington, which made Addington furious. On 30 April Lord Eldon, the Lord Chancellor, asked Pitt to submit a new administration to the King.


title: George Canning

text: Canning returned to office in 1804 with Pitt, becoming Treasurer of the Navy. In 1805 he offered Pitt his resignation after Addington was given a seat in the Cabinet. He wrote to Lady Hester to say he felt humiliated that Addington was a minister "and I am – nothing. I cannot help it, I cannot face the House of Commons or walk the streets in this state of things, as I am". After reading this letter Pitt summoned Canning to London for a meeting, where he told him that if he resigned it would open a permanent breach between the two of them as it would cast a slur on his conduct. He offered Canning the office of Chief Secretary for Ireland but he refused on the grounds that this would look like he was being got out of the way. Canning eventually decided not to resign and wrote that "I am resolved to 'sink or swim' with Pitt, though he has tied himself to such sinking company. God forgive him". Canning left office with the death of Pitt; he was not offered a place in Lord Grenville's administration.


title: George Canning

text: Canning was appointed Foreign Secretary in the new government of the Duke of Portland in 1807. Given key responsibilities for the country's diplomacy in the Napoleonic Wars, he was responsible for planning the attack on Copenhagen in September 1807, much of which he undertook at his country estate, South Hill Park at Easthampstead in Berkshire.


title: George Canning

text: After the defeat of Prussia by the French, the neutrality of Denmark looked increasingly fragile. Canning was worried that Denmark might, under French pressure, become hostile to Britain. On the night of 21/22 July 1807 Canning received intelligence directly from Tilsit (where Napoleon and Tsar Alexander I of Russia were negotiating a treaty) which appeared "to rest on good authority" that Napoleon had proposed to the Tsar a great naval combination against Britain, of which Denmark and Portugal would be members.


title: George Canning

text: On 30 July a military force 25,000 strong set sail for Denmark, with Francis Jackson travelling the day after. Canning instructed Jackson that his overriding aim was to secure the possession of the Danish navy by offering the Danes a treaty of alliance and mutual defence whereby they would be given back their fleet at the end of the war. On 31 July Canning wrote to his wife: "The anxious interval between this day and the hearing the result of his [Jackson's] expedition will be long and painful indeed. Long, I mean, in "feeling". In fact, it will be about a fortnight or three weeks ... I think we have made success almost certain. But the measure is a bold one and if it fails – why we must be impeached I suppose – and dearest dear will have a box at the trial". The day after he wrote that he had received a letter the previous night which provided an "account of the French being "actually" about to do that act of hostility, the possibility of which formed the groundwork of my Baltic plan. My fear was that the French might "not" be the aggressors – and then ours would have appeared a strong measure, fully justifiable I think and absolutely necessary, but without apparent necessity or justification. Now the aggression will justify us fully ... I am therefore quite easy as to the morality and political wisdom of our plan". Napoleon had on 31 July instructed his Foreign Minister, Talleyrand, to inform the Danes that if they did not wish for Holstein to be invaded and occupied by Jean Bernadotte they must prepare for war against Britain. Canning wrote to his wife on 1 August: "Now for the execution and I confess to my own love, I wake an hour or two earlier than I ought to, thinking of this execution. I could not sleep after asses' milk today, thought I was not in bed till 1/2 p.2". On 25 August he wrote to Granville Leveson-Gower: "The suspense is, as you may well imagine, agitating and painful in the extreme; but I have an undiminished confidence as to the result, either by force or by treaty. The latter however is so infinitely preferable to the former that the doubt whether it has been successful is of itself almost as anxious as if the whole depended on it alone".


title: George Canning

text: On 2 September, after Jackson's negotiations proved unsuccessful, the British fleet began bombarding Copenhagen until when at 7 pm on 5 September the Danes requested a truce. On 7 September the Danes agreed to hand over their navy (18 ships of the line, 15 frigates and 31 smaller ships) and naval stores and the British agreed to evacuate Zealand within six weeks. On 16 September Canning received the news with relief and excitement: "Did I not tell you we would save Plumstead from bombardment?" he wrote to Revered William Leigh. On 24 September he wrote to George Rose: "Nothing was ever more brilliant, more salutary or more effectual than the success [at Copenhagen]". On 30 September he wrote Lord Boringdon that he hoped Copenhagen would ""stun" Russia into her sense again". Canning wrote to Gower on 2 October 1807: "We "are" hated throughout Europe and that hate must be cured by fear". After the news of Russia's declaration of war against Britain reached London on 2 December, Canning wrote to Lord Boringdon two days later: "The Peace of Tilsit you see is come out. We did not want any more "case" for Copenhagen; but if we had, this gives it us".


title: George Canning

text: On 3 February 1808, the opposition leader George Ponsonby requested the publication of all information on the strength and battle-worthiness of the Danish fleet sent by the British envoy at Copenhagen. Canning replied with a speech nearly three hours long, described by Lord Palmerston as "so powerful that it gave a decisive turn to the debate". Lord Grey said his speech was "eloquent and powerful" but that he had never heard such "audacious misrepresentation" and "positive falsehood". On 2 March the opposition moved a vote of censure over Copenhagen, defeated by 224 votes to 64 after Canning gave a speech, in the words of Lord Glenbervie, so "very witty, very eloquent and very able".


title: George Canning

text: In 1809 Canning entered into a series of disputes within the government that were to become famous. He argued with the Secretary of State for War and the Colonies, Lord Castlereagh, over the deployment of troops that Canning had promised would be sent to Portugal but which Castlereagh sent to the Netherlands. The government became increasingly paralysed in disputes between the two men. Portland was in deteriorating health and gave no lead, until Canning threatened resignation unless Castlereagh was removed and replaced by Lord Wellesley. Portland secretly agreed to make this change when it would be possible.


title: George Canning

text: Castlereagh discovered the deal in September 1809 and challenged Canning to a duel. Canning accepted the challenge and it was fought on 21 September 1809 on Putney Heath. Canning, who had never before fired a pistol, widely missed his mark. Castlereagh, who was regarded as one of the best shots of his day, wounded his opponent in the thigh. There was much outrage that two cabinet ministers had resorted to such a method. Shortly afterwards the ailing Portland resigned as Prime Minister, and Canning offered himself to George III as a potential successor. The King appointed Spencer Perceval instead, and Canning left office once more. He took consolation in the fact that Castlereagh also stood down.


title: George Canning

text: Upon Perceval's assassination in 1812, the new Prime Minister, Lord Liverpool, offered Canning the position of Foreign Secretary once more. Canning refused, as he also wished to be Leader of the House of Commons and was reluctant to serve in any government with Castlereagh. Castlereagh was appointed Foreign Secretary by Liverpool, replacing Wellesley who had resigned. Castlereagh remained in the post until his suicide in 1822, overseeing British participation in the final years of the Napoleonic Wars and the Congress of Vienna which redrew the map of Europe.


title: George Canning

text: In 1814 Canning became the British Ambassador to Portugal, recently liberated from the French by Wellington's forces. He returned to Britain the following year. He received several further offers of office from Liverpool.


title: George Canning

text: Canning resigned from office once more in 1820, in opposition to the treatment of Queen Caroline, estranged wife of the new King George IV. Public opinion strongly supported the Queen and thereby Canning was strengthened.


title: George Canning

text: On 16 March 1821 Canning spoke in favour of William Plunket's Catholic Emancipation Bill. Liverpool wished to have Canning back in the Cabinet but the King was strongly hostile to him due to his actions over the Caroline affair. The King would only allow Canning back into the Cabinet if he did not have to deal personally with him. This required the office of Governor-General of India. After deliberating on whether to accept, Canning initially declined the offer but then accepted it. On 25 April he spoke in the Commons against Lord John Russell's motion for parliamentary reform and a few days later Canning moved for leave to introduce a measure of Catholic Emancipation (for lifting the exclusion of Catholics from the House of Lords). This passed the Commons but was rejected by the Lords.


title: George Canning

text: In August 1822, Castlereagh committed suicide. Instead of going to India, Canning succeeded him as both Foreign Secretary and Leader of the House of Commons. He gave support to the growing campaign for the abolition of slavery. Canning continued many of Castlereagh's foreign policies, such as the view that the powers of Europe (Russia, France, etc.) should not be allowed to meddle in the affairs of other states. This policy enhanced public opinion of Canning as a liberal. He also prevented the United States from opening trade with the British West Indies.


title: George Canning

text: Canning signed the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824 which resolved outstanding matters from the previous treaty intended to redistribute colonies formerly administered by the Dutch East India Company in the East Indies, which had been seized during the Napoleonic Wars by the British East India Company owing to Britain's position in the wake of the Napoleonic conquest of the Netherlands of recognising its holdings as hostile territory; the most violent conquest resulting from this policy was the 1811 invasion of Java led by Stamford Raffles. After the war, Raffles' extra-legal establishment of a trading post in Singapore, a vassal of the Dutch-backed Johor Sultanate, formed the flashpoint for the 1824 renegotiation.


title: George Canning

text: In April 1811, George moved the family from Castle Hill House in Hinckley to the nearby village of Burbage, where he took up residence in a house along Church Street, which in later years the house would become ‘Burbage Constitutional Club’.


title: George Canning

text: This treaty's impact has lasted until the present day, with the established borders essentially being those between the modern nation-states of Malaysia and Indonesia; Singapore also was ruled directly by the EIC from that point on, with the former arrangement of equal control between Sultan Hussein Shah, Temenggong Abdul Rahman and Resident of Singapore William Farquhar declared null and void in its aftermath.


title: George Canning

text: During his first period in the Foreign Office (1807–1809), Canning became deeply involved in the affairs of Spain, Portugal and Latin America. In his second term of office, he sought to prevent South America from coming into the French sphere of influence, and in this he was successful. He helped guarantee the independence of Brazil and the Spanish colonies, thereby acting in support of the Monroe Doctrine and aiding British merchants to open new markets across South and Central America.


title: George Canning

text: Britain had a strong interest in ensuring the demise of Spanish colonialism, and opening the newly independent Latin American colonies to its trade. The Latin Americans received a certain amount of unofficial aid – arms and volunteers – from outside, but no outside official help at any stage from Britain or any other power. Britain refused to aid Spain and opposed any outside intervention on behalf of Spain by other powers. Royal Navy veterans were a decisive factor in the struggle for independence of certain Latin American countries.


title: George Canning

text: In 1825 Mexico, Argentina and Colombia were recognised by means of the ratification of commercial treaties with Britain. In November 1825 the first minister from a Latin American state, Colombia, was officially received in London. "Spanish America is free," Canning declared, "and if we do not mismanage our affairs she is English ... the New World established and if we do not throw it away, ours." Also in 1825, Portugal recognised Brazil (thanks to Canning's efforts, and in return for a preferential commercial treaty), less than three years after Brazil's declaration of independence.


title: George Canning

text: On 12 December 1826, in the House of Commons, Canning was given an opportunity to defend the policies he had adopted towards France, Spain and Spanish America, and declared: "I resolved that if France had Spain it should not be Spain with the Indies. I called the New World into existence to redress the balance of the Old."


title: George Canning

text: By granting recognition to Argentina, Colombia, Mexico and Brazil he brought these new states into the European system of trade and diplomacy, while blocking further colonization. Recognition was greeted with enthusiasm throughout Latin America. Canning was the first British Foreign Secretary to devote a large proportion of his time and energies to the affairs of Latin America (as well as to those of Spain and Portugal) and to foresee the important political and economic role the Latin American states would one day play in the world.


title: George Canning

text: At the Pan-American Centennial Conference of 1926 which took place in Panama City and celebrated the centenary of the South American movement to Independence, it was declared that:


title: George Canning

text: In 1827 Liverpool was forced to stand down as Prime Minister after suffering a severe stroke (and was to die the following year). Canning, as Liverpool's right-hand man, was then chosen by George IV to succeed him, in preference to both the Duke of Wellington and Sir Robert Peel. Neither man agreed to serve under Canning, and they were followed by five other members of Liverpool's Cabinet as well as 40 junior members of the government. The Tory party was now heavily split between the "High Tories" (or "Ultras", nicknamed after the contemporary party in France) and the moderates supporting Canning, often called "Canningites". As a result, Canning found it difficult to form a government and chose to invite a number of Whigs to join his Cabinet, including Lord Lansdowne. The government agreed not to discuss the difficult question of parliamentary reform, which Canning opposed but the Whigs supported.


title: George Canning

text: However, Canning's health by this time was in steep decline: at the funeral of Frederick, Duke of York, which was held during a January night at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, he became so ill that it was thought he might not recover. He died from tuberculosis later that year, on 8 August 1827, in the very same room where Charles James Fox met his own end, 21 years earlier. Canning's total period in office was a mere 119 days, the second-shortest of any Prime Minister of the United Kingdom who has formed a government. His last words were "Spain and Portugal." Canning is buried in Westminster Abbey.


title: George Canning

text: Canning has come to be regarded as a "lost leader", with much speculation about what his legacy could have been had he lived. His government of Tories and Whigs continued for a few months under Lord Goderich but fell apart in early 1828. It was succeeded by a government under the Duke of Wellington, which initially included some Canningites but soon became mostly "High Tory" when many of the Canningites drifted over to the Whigs. Wellington's administration would soon go down in defeat as well. Some historians have seen the revival of the Tories from the 1830s onwards, in the form of the Conservative Party, as the overcoming of the divisions of 1827. What would have been the course of events had Canning lived is highly speculative.


title: George Canning

text: Rory Muir has described Canning as "the most brilliant and colourful minister, and certainly the greatest orator in the government at a time when oratory was still politically important. He was a man of biting wit and invective, with immense confidence in his own ability, who often inspired either great friendship or deep dislike and distrust ... he was a passionate, active, committed man who poured his energy into whatever he undertook. This was his strength and also his weakness ... the government's ablest minister". Greville recorded of Canning on the day after his death:


title: George Canning

text: He wrote very fast, but not fast enough for his mind, composing much quicker than he could commit his ideas to paper. He could not bear to dictate, because nobody could write fast enough for him; but on one occasion, when he had gout in his hand and could not write, he stood by the fire and dictated at the same time a despatch on Greek affairs to George Bentinck and one on South American politics to Howard de Walden, each writing as fast as he could, while he turned from one to the other without hesitation or embarrassment.


title: George Canning

text: Canning was the arch-enemy of the Concert of Europe system set up by the conservative powers at the Congress of Vienna in 1815. Hayes says that in terms of foreign affairs:


title: George Canning

text: Canning married Joan Scott (later 1st Viscountess Canning) (1776–1837) on 8 July 1800, with John Hookham Frere and William Pitt the Younger as witnesses.


title: Psilocybe cyanescens

text: Psilocybe cyanescens (sometimes referred to as wavy caps or as the potent Psilocybe) is a species of potent psychedelic mushroom. The main compounds responsible for its psychedelic effects are psilocybin and psilocin. It belongs to the family Hymenogastraceae. A formal description of the species was published by Elsie Wakefield in 1946 in the Transactions of the British Mycological Society, based on a specimen she had recently collected at Kew Gardens. She had begun collecting the species as early as 1910. The mushroom is not generally regarded as being physically dangerous to adults. Since all the psychoactive compounds in "P. cyanescens" are water-soluble, the fruiting bodies can be rendered non-psychoactive through parboiling, allowing their culinary use. However, since most people find them overly bitter and they are too small to have great nutritive value, this is not frequently done.


title: Psilocybe cyanescens

text: "Psilocybe cyanescens" can sometimes fruit in colossal quantity; more than 100,000 mushrooms were found growing in a single patch at a racetrack in England.


title: Psilocybe cyanescens

text: "Psilocybe cyanescens" has a hygrophanous pileus (cap) that is caramel to chestnut-brown when moist, fading to pale buff or slightly yellowish when dried. Caps generally measure from 1.5–5 cm (½" to 2") across, and are normally distinctly wavy in maturity. The color of the pileus is rarely seen in mushrooms outside of the "P. cyanescens" species complex. Most parts of the mushroom, including the cap and Lamellae (gills, underneath the cap) can stain blue when touched or otherwise disturbed, probably due to the oxidation of psilocin. The lamellae are adnate, and light brown to dark purple brown in maturity, with lighter gill edges. There is no distinct annulus, but immature "P. cyanescens" specimens do have a cobwebby veil which may leave an annular zone in maturity. Both the odor and taste are farinaceous.


title: Psilocybe cyanescens

text: "P. cyanescens" has elliptical spores which measure 9–12 x 5–8 µm. According to some authors, the holotype collection of the species from Kew Gardens featured no pleurocystidia, but North American collections are characterized by common clavate-mucronate pleurocystidia. However, pleurocystidia are present in the holotype collection (but not easily to observe since hymenium is collapsed). In European collections of "P. cyanescens", pleurocystidia are common and their shape is identical to those known from the United States. In 2012, an epitype from Hamburg, Germany was designated.


title: Psilocybe cyanescens

text: Fresh sporocarps and mycelia of "P. cyanescens" generally bruise blueish or blue-green where damaged, and the staining remains visible after drying. This staining is most noticeable on the stem (which is white when undisturbed) but can also occur on other parts of the mushroom, including the gills, cap, and mycelium. This staining is due primarily to the oxidation of psilocin. (Psilocybin cannot be oxidized directly, but is quickly converted via enzymatic action to psilocin at injury sites which can then be oxidized, so even specimens with little psilocin still generally blue.)


title: Psilocybe cyanescens

text: Other related species may include "P. weraroa", and these relatives are collectively referred to as the ""Psilocybe cyanescens" complex" or as the "caramel-capped psilocybe complex," due to their extremely similar appearance and habit. There is phylogenetic evidence that there are two distinct clades in the complex, one consisting of "P. cyanescens" and "P. azurescens" and allies, and the other consisting of "P. serbica" and allies (European taxa). It has also been shown that "Psilocybe weraroa" (previously known as "Weraroa novae-zelandiae") is very closely related to "P. cyanescens" despite its vastly dissimilar appearance.


title: Psilocybe cyanescens

text: A very close relative of "P. cyanescens" is "Psilocybe allenii" (described in 2012), formerly known as "Psilocybe cyanofriscosa", a mushroom found in California and Washington It can be distinguished by macromorphological features and/or sequencing of rDNA ITS molecular marker.


title: Psilocybe cyanescens

text: It is often difficult or impossible to distinguish between members of the "P. cyanescens" complex except by range without resorting to microscopic or molecular characters.


title: Psilocybe cyanescens

text: Although not closely related, "Psilocybe cyanescens" has been at least occasionally confused with "Galerina marginata" with fatal results. The two mushrooms have generally similar habits and appearances, and bear a superficial resemblance to each other such that inexperienced mushroom-seekers may confuse the two. The two species can grow side-by-side, which may add to the chance of confusion. The two mushrooms have different colored spores, making a spore print essential to proper identification.


title: Psilocybe cyanescens

text: "Psilocybe cyanescens" grows today primarily on wood chips, especially in and along the perimeter of mulched plant beds in urban areas, but can also grow on other lignin-rich substrates. "P. cyanescens" does not grow on substrate that is not lignin-rich. Fruitings have been reported in natural settings previously (although most appear to be migrations from mulched plant beds.) The species does not typically grow on mulch that is made from bark.


title: Psilocybe cyanescens

text: In the United States, "P. cyanescens" occurs mainly in the Pacific Northwest, stretching south to the San Francisco Bay Area. It can also be found in areas such as New Zealand, Western Europe, Central Europe, and parts of west Asia (Iran). The range in which "P. cyanescens" occurs is rapidly expanding, especially in areas where it is not native as the use of mulch to control weeds has been popularized. This rapid expansion of range may be due in part to the simple expedient of "P. cyanescens" mycelium having colonized the distribution network of woodchip suppliers and thus being distributed on a large scale with commercial mulch. It has been documented to fruit in Spring on the East Coast of the United States.


title: Psilocybe cyanescens

text: Although it has been speculated that "P. cyanescens"' native habitat is the coniferous woodlands of the north-western United States or coastal dunes in the PNW, the type specimen was described from mulch beds in Kew Gardens, and there is no widely accepted explanation of "P. cyanescens" original habitat.


title: Psilocybe cyanescens

text: Fruiting is dependent on a drop in temperature. In the San Francisco Bay Area, this means that fruiting typically occurs between late October and February, and fruiting in other areas generally occurs in fall, when temperatures are between 10-18 °C (50-65 °F).


title: Psilocybe cyanescens

text: "Psilocybe cyanescens" often fruits gregariously or in cespitose clusters, sometimes in great numbers. 100,000 "P. cyanescens" fruits were once found growing on a racetrack in the south of England. Solitary fruits are sometimes also found.


title: Psilocybe cyanescens

text: The fruits of "P. cyanescens" have been shown to contain many different indole alkaloids including psilocybin, psilocin, and baeocystin. It has also been shown that "P. cyanescens" mycelium will contain detectable levels of psilocin and psilocybin, but only after the formation of primordia.


title: Psilocybe cyanescens

text: Indole content has been shown to be higher in North American specimens of "P. cyanescens" than in European ones. This was, however, caused by the fact that Gartz did not analyze the genuine "P. cyanescens" but "P. serbica".


title: Psilocybe cyanescens

text: North American fruiting bodies of "P. cyanescens" have been shown to contain between 0.66% and 1.96% total indole content by dry weight. European fruiting bodies have been shown to have between 0.39% and 0.75% total indole content by dry weight.


title: Psilocybe cyanescens

text: North American specimens of "P. cyanescens" are among the most potent of psychedelic mushrooms. Its potency means that it is widely sought after by users of recreational drugs in those areas where it grows naturally.


title: Psilocybe cyanescens

text: Due to the fruiting requirements of the species, it is challenging but possible to get "P. cyanescens" to produce fruits indoors. Outdoor cultivation in an appropriate climate is relatively easy. Yield per pound of substrate is low when compared to other psilocybin containing mushrooms for both indoor and outdoor cultivation. The combination of poor yield and difficulty may explain why "P. cyanescens" is grown less frequently than some other psilocybin containing mushrooms.


title: Psilocybe cyanescens

text: "Psilocybe cyanescens" mycelium is much easier to grow than actual fruits are, can be grown indoors, and is robust enough that it can be transplanted in order to start new patches. Mycelium can also be propagated via stem butt transplantation.


title: Psilocybe cyanescens

text: Many of the cultivation techniques used with other members of the genus "Psilocybe" can be used to grow "P. cyanescens" as well.


title: Psilocybe cyanescens

text: Cultivated "P. cyanescens" contain approximately the same concentration of psilocin and psilocybin as natural examples do.


title: Psilocybe cyanescens

text: "Psilocybe cyanescens" specimens do not fall under the Convention on Psychotropic Substances because the convention does not cover naturally occurring plants that incidentally contain a scheduled drug. However, many countries choose to prohibit possession of psilocybin containing mushrooms, including "P. cyanescens", under their domestic laws.


title: Psilocybe cyanescens

text: Countries that have banned or severely regulated the possession of "P. cyanescens" include the United States, Germany, New Zealand, and many others. Although this is difficult to enforce since no species of Psilocybe mushroom has spores containing psilocybin or psilocin. Because of this, "Psilocybe cyanescens" spores are not illegal to possess in many US states. (It is illegal to possess spores in Georgia and Idaho, and illegal to possess them with the intent to produce mushrooms in California.)


title: Roberto Escobar

text: Roberto de Jesús Escobar Gaviria (born January 13, 1947), nicknamed El Osito (Little Teddy bear), is the brother of deceased drug kingpin, Pablo Escobar, and the former accountant and co-founder of the Medellín Cartel, which was responsible for up to 80 percent of the cocaine smuggled into the United States.


title: Roberto Escobar

text: He was the oldest son of Abel de Jesús de Escobar and Hermilda Gaviria. Passionate about cycling since his youth, he obtained third place in the team event of the National Cycling Championship of Colombia, and obtained 37 victories in cycling in a single year, second place as athlete of the year of the department of Antioquia, ironically surpassed by Martin Emilio "Cochise" Rodriguez. Also he was also coach of the Colombian cycling team in international competitions.


title: Roberto Escobar

text: While working in the manufacture of medicines at "Droguerías Aliadas" (a company that also sponsored him in cycling), he began his studies in chemistry. Later he received sponsorship from the company "Mora Hermanos" where they supported him to study electronics at the Academy of Electronic Sciences of Antioquia, where he stood out and won first place with a project in which he manufactured his first transistor radio. As his graduation thesis he built a 32” television. He received sports medicine and nursing courses sponsored by Coldeportes, in both courses he received distinctions as the best student. He is the founder of "El Osito" Bicycles and "El Potrerillo" hatchery. Exhibitor of horses, he reaped triumphs between 1978 and 1993, in 1986 he initiates research with his veterinarian to cure equine infectious anemia.


title: Roberto Escobar

text: His nickname "El Osito" (Little Teddy Bear) is due to the fact that during an arrival of the caravan in Medellín, with him leading the competition, a downpour fell on the uncovered highway that had already been transformed into a river of mud. The tires of his bicycle sent the mud to his face until it was completely covered, exposing only his eyes. When he reached the finish line, the radio journalist who was broadcasting the stage said: "Here comes Roberto Escobar Gaviria, who looks more like a teddy bear."


title: Roberto Escobar

text: For his part in the operations of the Medellín Cartel, Roberto Escobar succeeded his cousin Gustavo Gaviria, after he was imprisoned in 1991. He escaped with his brother in July 1992 but surrendered to authorities a year later. On December 18, 1993, while still in prison, he was blinded in one eye by a letter bomb which was sent by Los Pepes. After more than 10 years, he was released in 2006. In the 2009 book, "The Accountant's Story", Roberto Escobar relates his story as head accountant of the cartel. The book contains numerous unusual facts, like that the cartel lost billions of dollars that was eaten by rats or damaged by water in storage, and that the cartel spent up to $2,500 per month purchasing rubber bands to hold stacks of money together.


title: Roberto Escobar

text: In 2014, he reincorporated Escobar Inc with Olof K. Gustafsson and registered Successor-In-Interest rights for his brother in California, United States. On July 1, 2016, he sent a letter to Netflix regarding the "Narcos" TV series demanding $1 billion in payment for unauthorized usage of content. In January 2019, he launched a GoFundMe fundraiser in an effort to impeach President Donald Trump.


title: Roberto Escobar

text: In July 2019, Escobar started selling a propane torch made to look like a flamethrower and accused CEO of The Boring Company Elon Musk of intellectual property theft, alleging that The Boring Company's promotional "Not-a-Flamethrower" is based on a design that Escobar discussed in 2017 with an engineer associated with Musk. Via media Escobar publicly offered Musk to settle the dispute for $100 million, in cash or shares of Tesla, or alternatively to use the legal system to become the new CEO of Tesla, Inc.


title: Roberto Escobar

text: In December 2019, Escobar announced a folding phone, the Escobar Fold 1. The phone was priced at $349. Escobar said "I have told many people that I will defeat Apple — and I will". He claimed that it can only be destroyed by fire. Two months later, on February 10, 2020, the Escobar Fold 2 was released, which is reportedly a Galaxy Fold with poorly-added Escobar branding. Many customers, when ordering the phones, said that they never received them, with only tech influencers actually receiving products. It has also been alleged that Escobar Inc sent bogus product orders consisting of a book, allowing Escobar Inc to claim the phone had been delivered. In May 2020, the company released a refurbished version of the iPhone 11 Pro and allegedly sued Apple for $2.6 billion.


title: Samsung Galaxy M series

text: The Samsung Galaxy M series is a line of online-exclusive budget smartphones manufactured by Samsung Electronics. The first models in the series, the Samsung Galaxy M10 and M20, were released on February 5, 2019; they were followed by the Samsung Galaxy M30 on March 7 and the Samsung Galaxy M40 on June 18. The Galaxy M10s and M30s were announced on September 18, and both were released on September 29. The Galaxy M01 and M11 were released on June 2 2020 and were available for sale on both online and offline platforms. On September 10, Samsung announced the Galaxy M51, the first upper mid-range model in the lineup.


title: Samsung Galaxy M series

text: The primary selling point of the lineup is the high-capacity battery and multi-lens camera setup, following the common trend within budget smartphones in 2019. It is positioned below the more streamlined, mid-range Galaxy A series, although the newer, higher-end models were derived from the A series with several alterations.


title: Samsung Galaxy M series

text: Being positioned at the mid-range and low-end segments, all models in the series have the all essential features of an entry-level smartphone, besides some other advanced features, thus differentiating them from other series and also differ in size and design. Samsung targets Asian developing markets or the European entry-level market with the lineup as a response to the growing popularity of budget smartphones offered by Chinese manufacturers such as Xiaomi, Huawei and BBK Electronics.


title: Flushing Meadows–Corona Park

text: Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, often referred to as Flushing Meadows Park, or simply Flushing Meadows, is a public park in the northern part of Queens, New York City. It is bounded by I-678 (Van Wyck Expressway) on the east, Grand Central Parkway on the west, Flushing Bay on the north, and Union Turnpike on the south. Flushing Meadows–Corona Park is the fourth-largest public park in New York City, with a total area of .


title: Flushing Meadows–Corona Park

text: Until the 19th century, the site consisted of wetlands straddling the Flushing River, which traverses the region from north to south. Starting in the first decade of the 20th century, it was used as a dumping ground for ashes, since at the time, the land was so far away from the developed parts of New York City as to be considered almost worthless. New York City Parks Commissioner Robert Moses first conceived the idea of developing a large park in Flushing Meadow in the 1920s as part of a system of parks across eastern Queens. Flushing Meadows–Corona Park was created as the site of the 1939 New York World's Fair and also hosted the 1964 New York World's Fair. Following the 1964 fair, the park fell into disrepair, although some improvements have taken place since the 1990s and 2000s.


title: Flushing Meadows–Corona Park

text: Flushing Meadows–Corona Park retains much of the layout from the 1939 World's Fair. Its attractions include the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, the current venue for the US Open tennis tournament; Citi Field, the home of the New York Mets baseball team; the New York Hall of Science; the Queens Museum; the Queens Theatre in the Park; the Queens Zoo; the Unisphere; and the New York State Pavilion. It formerly contained Shea Stadium, demolished in 2009. The Flushing River continues to run through the park, and two large lakes called Meadow and Willow Lakes take up much of the park's area south of the Long Island Expressway.


title: Flushing Meadows–Corona Park

text: Flushing Meadows–Corona Park is owned and maintained by New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, also known as NYC Parks. Private, non-profit groups such as the Flushing Meadows–Corona Park Conservancy and the Alliance for Flushing Meadows–Corona Park provide additional funds, services, and support. The park is at the eastern edge of the area encompassed by Queens Community Board 4.


title: Flushing Meadows–Corona Park

text: The park is named after the nearby neighborhoods of Flushing and Corona, which are separated by the park. The name "Flushing" is a corruption of the port town of Vlissingen in the Netherlands. By the 19th century, the word "flushing" had become associated with "a cleansing by rushing water". "Corona" was added to the name during the 1964 New York World's Fair.


title: Flushing Meadows–Corona Park

text: During at least three glacial periods, including the Wisconsin glaciation around 20,000 years ago, ice sheets advanced south across North America carving moraines, valleys, and hills. In particular, bays and estuaries were formed along the north shore of Long Island. During glaciation, what is now Flushing Meadows Park was formed just north of the terminal moraine that runs across Long Island, which consisted of sand, gravel, clay and boulders. The moraine created a drainage divide, with rivers north of the moraine such as the future Flushing River emptying into the north shore. The Flushing Meadows site became a glacial lake, and then a salt marsh after the ice melted. Prior to glaciation, the Flushing River valley was used by the Hudson River to drain southward into the Atlantic Ocean. Through the 19th century, the site continued to consist of wetlands straddling Flushing River. Species inhabiting the site included waterfowl and fiddler crab, with fish using water pools for spawning.


title: Flushing Meadows–Corona Park

text: The area was first settled by Algonquian Native Americans of Long Island (referred to erroneously as "Mantinecocks"). They consisted of the "Canarsee" and "Rockaway" Lenape groups, which inhabited coastal wetlands across Queens and Brooklyn. Beginning in 1640, Dutch settlers moved into the area, establishing the town of Newtown to the west of the site (which would become Elmhurst, Corona, and other areas in western Queens), and the town of Flushing to the east. The meadows became known as the Corona Meadows. By 1666, the Native American population had been displaced from the Flushing Meadows site by European settlers, although a deed reserved the right to hunt on the land for the Native Americans. Several wealthy landowners began building farmhouses on the site in the mid-to-late 17th century. The meadows provided numerous natural resources for settlers, including timber, water, fertile soil, and grass and hay for grazing domestic animals. During the American Revolution, a farmhouse on the site of the modern World's Fair Marina was used as a headquarters for British forces.


title: Flushing Meadows–Corona Park

text: By the 1800s, primitive roads were established crossing the meadows, running along what are now Northern Boulevard and the Long Island Expressway. Several railroads were also laid through the site, including lines of the Flushing and North Side Railroad (today's LIRR Port Washington Branch and the defunct Whitestone Branch). Shortly after the American Civil War, the meadows became a waterfront resort due to its natural beauty, and affluent New Yorkers constructed homes in the area. British saloon-keeper Harry Hill built the Flushing Bay Hotel and Pavilion on the future marina site.


title: Flushing Meadows–Corona Park

text: Around 1907, contractor Michael Degnon, whose firm constructed the Williamsburg Bridge, the Cape Cod Canal, and the Steinway subway tunnel (used by today's ), purchased large tracts of marsh near Flushing Creek. At the time, the land was considered "all but worthless". Degnon envisioned using the site to create a large industrial port around Flushing Bay, similar to a terminal he developed in Long Island City. By 1911, Degnon had created a plan along with the United States Department of War and the Queens Topographical Bureau. The plan envisioned widening Flushing River and creating docks for ships, with numerous factories and freight facilities. Meanwhile, the residential areas of Corona were expected to become the primary residence for factory workers.


title: Flushing Meadows–Corona Park

text: To create the port, beginning in 1910 Degnon proceeded to fill the land using household coal ash and street sweepings from Brooklyn. Degnon set up two companies of his own, one of which was contracted with the New York City Department of Sanitation. He also contracted the Brooklyn Ash Removal Company, owned by Fishhooks McCarthy, a member of the corrupt Tammany Hall political machine. Residential ash was collected via trolleys of the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company, and loaded onto freight trains which traveled via the Long Island Rail Road branches, or other trolleys, which hauled the refuse to Corona. The operation was referred to as a citywide refuse "conveyor belt," while the trains were nicknamed the "Talcum Powder Express" because they often ran uncovered and deposited soot onto the surroundings. The northern end of the site was filled via now-conventional means, using dirt pumped from Flushing Bay which was being dredged to a lower depth. Material from the bay was extracted by an offshore hydraulic machine, and funneled through a pipe across Northern Boulevard, before being deposited onto the wetlands. The filling for the north meadow was complete in 1916.


title: Flushing Meadows–Corona Park

text: The prospect of creating a port was halted in 1917 by material restrictions caused by World War I, and a lack of federal support for the project. Industrial activities in the borough were fulfilled by existing terminals in Long Island City, Maspeth, Flushing, and College Point. Dumping of ash into the meadows continued, however, fueled by the increased use of garbage incinerators in the city. The area became known as the Corona Dump or Corona Ash Dumps. During nearly 30 years of filling, around 50 million cubic yards of ash and waste were dumped onto the meadows site. One particular mound of ash rose high and was called "Mount Corona". Other mounds rose high. The average thickness of the ash was .


title: Flushing Meadows–Corona Park

text: The dumps drew the ire of local residents, due to strong odors and being deemed unsightly, along with increasing rat infestations in the local neighborhoods. Much of the "street sweepings" collected consisted of horse manure from horse-drawn carriages. In addition, many residents simply threw out normal garbage along with the coal ashes. The meadows were also considered one of the worst breeding grounds for mosquitoes in the city. The dump was famously characterized as "a valley of ashes" in F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby". Fitzgerald meanwhile described the Flushing River, now polluted from the dumps, as "a small foul river". The dumps and garbage trains were accused of facilitating a polio outbreak in Corona in 1916. The Brooklyn Ash Removal Company was brought to court by local residents in 1923 for "violation of the sanitary code" due to the smoke emitted from the dumps. As a minor concession, the company opened the Corona Park Golf and Country Club in 1931, on a tract near Nassau Boulevard (today's Long Island Expressway).


title: Flushing Meadows–Corona Park

text: New York City Parks Commissioner Robert Moses first conceived the idea of developing a large park in Flushing Meadow in the 1920s. At the time, he envisioned the site to become a "true 'Central Park'", especially with much of city population moving to Queens and Long Island due to urban sprawl. Moses also planned Flushing Meadows to be the westernmost of a chain of parks running across Queens, which would include Kissena Park, Cunningham Park, Alley Pond Park, and Douglaston Park. In 1929, representatives from surrounding communities created a plan to turn the ash dump into a recreational complex, and presented them to Queens Borough President George U. Harvey.


title: Flushing Meadows–Corona Park

text: In 1930, Moses released plans for numerous parks and highways in the city. This included the Grand Central Parkway, the construction of which would require taking land from the ash dumps. One of the provisional projects listed was a "Flushing River Park", along with a "Flushing River Parkway". The Brooklyn Ash Removal Company's contract with the city expired in 1933, and the city took over the company's assets and operations on May 25, 1934. The Brooklyn Ash property occupied around of the site, north of what is now the Long Island Expressway. The remainder of the meadows still contained natural wildlife. It was frequented by fur trappers, local residents collecting firewood and growing vegetables, and later, squatters during the Great Depression. Areas of the dumps were also used for growing vegetables, with the soil fertilized by the garbage and manure.


title: Flushing Meadows–Corona Park

text: In 1935, the site, now planned as "Flushing Meadow Park", was selected for what would become the 1939 World's Fair. In addition to the ash dumps and undeveloped meadows, houses in Corona east of 111th Street, adjacent to the dumps, were condemned and added to the site, displacing residents. The plans were drafted by Parks Department landscape architect Gilmore David Clarke and his partner Michael Rapuano, designed in Beaux-Arts style. Work on the World's Fair site began on June 16, 1936. The project primarily involved leveling the ash mounds, with the leftover material used to fill other areas of the meadow. Two sites were excavated to create Meadow and Willow Lake, while much of the Flushing River was diverted into underground culverts. A floodgate was built to prevent tidal flow from flooding the lakes. In addition to recreation, the lakes would serve as repositories for excess storm runoff. The dirt from the lake sites was used as additional topsoil for the park. The project was an around-the-clock job, with 450 workers operating on three daily shifts. Workers had to combat the effects of high tide, and dust storms created by the ash. The work significantly changed the topography of the meadows, differing from that created by glaciation. Thousands of trees were transplanted to the fair site in order to create a natural landscape. Meanwhile, thousands of Douglas fir timbers were driven into the ground to act as pilings for the foundations of the fair structures. The pedestrian plan called for numerous wide tree-lined pathways, including a central "Cascade Mall" leading to the Trylon and Perisphere, many of which would be retained for the park.


title: Flushing Meadows–Corona Park

text: Faced with having to dispose of the mountains of ashes, Moses incorporated a significant portion of the refuse into the bases of several roadways that bordered or bisected the park. This included the Van Wyck Expressway (Interstate 678) running along the eastern side of the park, the nearby Interboro Parkway (now Jackie Robinson Parkway), and the Long Island Expressway (Interstate 495) that divides the park into north and south halves. The Grand Central Parkway separates a western lobe from the main part of the northern half, while the east-west Jewel Avenue bisects the southern half. The success of the Flushing Meadows site as a garbage dump-turned-park led Moses and the city to develop other wetlands in the city into parks via short-term refuse landfilling. This process was used to create Marine Park and Spring Creek Park in Brooklyn, and Ferry Point Park in the Bronx. This was also the original plan for the Fresh Kills and Edgemere landfills, which remained open past their expected tenure and became large and long-term municipal waste sites. The Fresh Kills site is currently being developed into Freshkills Park.


title: Flushing Meadows–Corona Park

text: In November 1939, a water main running through Flushing Meadows Park to supply water to Flushing failed. Unlike the fair buildings, the pipeline was not built on piling foundations and eventually sank into the marsh and landfill. In January 1940, Borough President Harvey demanded an investigation into the main's construction take place, while the Board of Estimate allocated $50,200 for repairs. Following the closure of the Fair in 1940, the site was supposed to be cleared in order to develop and open Flushing Meadows as a city park. The onset of World War II, however, delayed the project. The profits from the World's Fair were supposed to pay for the development of the park, but in spite of its success the fair turned a financial loss. Only two permanent attractions were opened in 1941: an ice skating rink and roller rink in the New York City Building, and a public pool located in the New York State Marine Amphitheatre (now demolished). The latter utilized the pool used for "Billy Rose's Aquacade" during the fair.


title: Flushing Meadows–Corona Park

text: In the meantime, some of the buildings from the 1939 Fair were used for the first temporary headquarters of the United Nations beginning in 1946. The former New York City Building was used for the UN General Assembly during this time. Moses attempted to sell Flushing Meadows as a permanent headquarters for the UN, which would have required new structures and a complete redesign of the fair ground layout. The proposal was rejected however, due to concerns over the strength of the former marshland for building construction, the lack of "scenic beauty" in the meadows, and the distance from Manhattan. The UN moved to their now-permanent headquarters in 1951. The New York City building was later refurbished for the 1964/1965 Fair as the New York City Pavilion, featuring the Panorama of the City of New York, an enormous scale model of the entire city. It is one of two buildings that survive from the 1939/40 Fair, and the only one that remains in its original location. (The other is the Belgium exhibition building, disassembled and moved to the campus of Virginia Union University in 1941.) It is now the home of the Queens Museum of Art, which still houses, and occasionally updates, the Panorama. The remainder of the park, meanwhile, had fallen into disrepair, with wild animals moving back into the area. Only minor upgrades to the park occurred during this time.


title: Flushing Meadows–Corona Park

text: The Flushing Meadows site was selected in 1959 for the 1964 World's Fair. Gilmore D. Clarke and Michael Rapuano were retained to tailor the original 1939 park layout for the new fair. Three structures were retained from the 1939 Fair. Meanwhile, several new structures and attractions were created including the Unisphere, Shea Stadium, the New York Hall of Science, and Queens Botanical Garden; the latter three were intended as permanent attractions for the future park. The Unisphere, built as the theme symbol for the 1964/1965 World's Fair, has since become the main sculptural feature of the park. It stands on the site occupied by the Perisphere during the earlier Fair. The Van Wyck Expressway was extended north through the park site along the right-of-way of the former World's Fair Railroad. Moses and the Parks Department also prepared post-fair plans to finish Flushing Meadows Park, as well as Kissena Corridor Park and Kissena Park, projected to be complete by 1967.


title: Flushing Meadows–Corona Park

text: In early 1964, the New York City Council added "Corona" to the park's name; the park was now named "Flushing Meadows–Corona Park", in preparation for that year's World's Fair. Councilman Edward Sadowsky explained that this was intended to correct an injustice: "The people of Corona have long lived in the aroma of a junkyard or a dump named for their community. Now, when there is something beautiful to be seen, there is no mention of the name Corona." Following the fair, most of the remaining $11.6 million from the fair funds, as well as money from Moses' Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority, were used to rehabilitate the site into a true park. Flushing Meadows–Corona Park was transferred from the World's Fair Corporation back to the Parks Department, and opened on June 3, 1967.


title: Flushing Meadows–Corona Park

text: Although the park was opened, it had yet to become the grand park Moses had originally envisioned. In August 1967, new parks commissioner August Heckscher II sought to begin improvements on the park in order to turn it into the "Central Park of the 20th century." A new plan for the park had been designed by architects Marcel Breuer and Kenzō Tange, but the project did not receive funds due to communication issues with the New York City Comptroller's office. By 1972, little development had taken place to improve the park, while many World's Fair structures remained in disrepair. The disrepair was systematic within the park system, a product of lack of funding during that decade's fiscal crisis. This state of disrepair continued into the 1980s.


title: Flushing Meadows–Corona Park

text: In 1975, a group of traditionalist Catholics started to assemble at the old Vatican Pavilion exedra monument of the 1964 New York World's Fair to have evening rosary prayer vigils, having been obligated to relocate from Bayside, Queens. This was led by a woman named Veronica Lueken who claimed she was experiencing visions there of the Virgin Mary, and giving out supposed messages from heaven, frequently apocalyptic in nature. At its height in the late 20th century, thousands of people attended the nightly events, held on different feast days. One event in June 1983 attracted fifteen thousand pilgrims. Despite the events' popularity, Bishop Francis Mugavero, then Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn, stated in a 1986 "Declaration Concerning the Bayside Movement" that the events lacked credibility. After Lueken's death in 1995, and her husband's death in 2002, their followers divided into two small camps that continued to visit the park for vigils.


title: Flushing Meadows–Corona Park

text: Additionally, in 1978, the US Open tennis tournament was moved from the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills to Flushing Meadows Corona Park. The tournament was originally held in the Singer Bowl stadium (renamed the Louis Armstrong Stadium), a 1964 World's Fair structure which was renovated and expanded for the tournament. Other parts of the park were also repaired or expanded for the tournament, including the fountains of the Unisphere.


title: Flushing Meadows–Corona Park

text: Arne Abramowitz became administrator of Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in 1986 and soon began planning a renovation of the park. The following year, NYC Parks announced an $80 million rehabilitation of the park. The renovation had been planned since the early 1980s but had been deferred due to a lack of funding. The grounds of the park's northern section were landscaped in 1992, and the restoration of the Unisphere was completed in May 1994. Since the early 1990s, the New York State Pavilion's ledges, steps, and fountain grates have been utilized by skateboarders and featured in famous east coast skateboarding videos.


title: Flushing Meadows–Corona Park

text: By the early 2000s, the park had become the residence of a number of homeless people. This fact received attention after five possibly homeless individuals abducted, raped, and threatened to kill a woman who had been sitting with her partner at the nearby Mets–Willets Point subway station.


title: Flushing Meadows–Corona Park

text: Several improvements were made to Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in the 2000s and 2010s. The Flushing Meadows–Corona Park Conservancy was formed in 2002 to advocate for parkland in the area. The $66.3 million Flushing Meadows Natatorium, encompassing an Olympic-sized public indoor pool and an NHL regulation-sized skating rink, opened in 2008. The facility is the largest recreation complex in any New York City park, at . This was followed by the opening of Citi Field, a new baseball field to replace Shea Stadium, in 2009.


title: Flushing Meadows–Corona Park

text: Another public-private partnership, the Alliance for Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, was created in 2015. It commenced construction on, or announced plans for, several improvement projects at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park. These included a plan to restore the New York State Pavilion, as well as the construction of a "mist garden" in the park's Fountains of the Fairs. Other projects included the construction of a promenade around Meadow Lake and the rehabilitation of the World's Fair Playground and the marina. In 2015, Flushing Meadows–Corona Park also started hosting the Queens Night Market, a summertime food market that features cuisine from dozens of countries. The market became popular due to its affordability, since all food cost a maximum of $5–6. Another food festival, the World's Fare, started in 2017 and is hosted in Citi Field's parking lot on about the third weekend of May. Restoration of the New York State Pavilion began in 2019, as did work on the Fountains of the Fairs. The Fountains of the Fairs were dedicated in October 2020.


title: Flushing Meadows–Corona Park

text: In early 2022, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) gave a local group, the Waterfront Alliance, a $530,000 grant to study the effects of climate change at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park after U.S. representative Grace Meng had requested the grant the previous year. The park was extremely vulnerable to flooding because of its topography and because of sea level rise caused by global warming. Climate scientists had predicted that parts of the park would be flooded regularly by the 2050s and that the entire park could be underwater by the 2080s. At the time, the city government was spending $350 million on various upgrades at the park.


title: Flushing Meadows–Corona Park

text: The layout of Flushing Meadows–Corona Park retains much of Gilmore D. Clarke and Michael Rapuano's Beaux-Arts planning from the 1939 and 1964 World's Fairs. The northern section of the park, the former fair grounds, revolves around large paved pathways which during the fairs led to focal points such as pavilions, fountains and sculptures. The Trylon and Perisphere, and later Unisphere, were placed at the main axial point. The Unisphere and Queens Museum currently sit at the west end of the main promenade. Near the center of the promenade (called Herbert Hoover Promenade on the north side, and Dwight D. Eisenhower Promenade on the south side) are the Fountains of the Fairs, which sit in the median of the paths. At the far east end is the Fountain of the Planets, originally called the Pool of Industry. This layout was used to guide fair goers to exhibits. The layout was based on Gian Lorenzo Bernini's plan for St. Peter's Square in Vatican City. The main promenade, measuring , was provisionally called the "Cascade Mall" during its construction, and later named the "Constitution Mall" during the first fair. Many former exhibit and pavilion sites have since been replaced with soccer fields (artificial turf or dirt and grass), while others have been left as open grass fields.


title: Flushing Meadows–Corona Park

text: The southern portion of the park is largely occupied by Meadow and Willow Lake. The two lakes, along with the Pool of Industry/Fountain of the Planets in the former fair grounds, are fed by the Flushing River, which flows north through both lakes and underneath the fountain as a subterranean river towards Flushing Bay. The two lakes are connected by a narrow channel, forming a peninsula in between the lakes. During the 1939 Fair, Meadow Lake was temporarily named "Fountain Lake" and "Liberty Lake". The land around Meadow Lake contains much of the park's true "parkland", with open grass, picnic and grilling areas, and baseball and cricket fields. During the fairs, the land on the north shore and part of the eastern shore of the lake was used as an amusement area, with large parking lots added on the east and west shores for the 1964 Fair. The lots were removed and converted to parkland after the 1964 Fair. The Willow Lake area of the park is a nature reserve. The area around Willow Lake originally also contained sports fields and park trails, until it was fenced off and turned into a preserve in 1976.


title: Flushing Meadows–Corona Park

text: The park is entirely circumscribed by highways constructed by Robert Moses. Its eastern boundary is formed by the Van Wyck Expressway (I-678). The south and west ends of the park are bound by the Grand Central Parkway, with the Kew Gardens Interchange situated at the southernmost point. The northern edge of the park is bound by the expressway portion of Northern Boulevard (New York State Route 25A) which connects the Grand Central and the Whitestone Expressway. The park is bisected by the Long Island Expressway, at the approximate south end of the former Corona Ash Dumps, which separate the northern and southern halves of the park. Jewel Avenue and its interchange with the Grand Central further separate the southern section into two halves, with Meadow Lake to the north of Jewel Avenue and Willow Lake to the south. Access to the park is limited due to a lack of public transportation reaching many areas of the site, and presence of the highways at the perimeters of the park separating the site from local neighborhoods. The park also has very few formal entrances from local neighborhoods; this is a vestige of the World's Fairs, where access was controlled.


title: Flushing Meadows–Corona Park

text: Studies by various groups have separated the park into a different number of sections. A study by the Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation divides the park into three areas: the "historic core" (former World's Fair grounds), Meadow Lake, and Willow Lake. The Flushing Meadows Corona Park Strategic Framework Plan divides the park into a total of seven "zones": the Marina along Flushing Bay (containing the World's Fair Marina), the "Sport Center" (containing Citi Field and the USTA), "West Park" (a small section extending west of the Grand Central Parkway and the fair grounds, housing the New York Hall of Science and the Queens Zoo), the "Recreation & Garden Botanical Area" (extending east of the fair grounds along the Kissena Creek corridor, housing the Queens Botanical Garden), the "Historic World's Fair Core Area", Meadow Lake, and Willow Lake.


title: Flushing Meadows–Corona Park

text: Flushing Meadows–Corona Park is the fourth-largest public park in New York City. It was long believed to be in size, but a survey concluded in 2013 found its actual size to be when accounting for major roads and other exclusions within the park's perimeter. This does not take into account a disputed claim that the neighborhood of Willets Point, along the north edge of the park, is itself part of the park.


title: Flushing Meadows–Corona Park

text: The two lakes and the remainder of Flushing Creek are separated by a flood gate or dam called the "Porpoise Bridge" or "Tide Gate Bridge", located just south of the Long Island Rail Road's Port Washington Branch trestle, at the north end of the Flushing Meadows Golf Center. The dam only permits northward flows towards Flushing Bay to pass, while blocking south-flowing waters. As its name implies, the dam also acts as a bridge, carrying pedestrian and vehicular traffic over the creek. It measures wide and long. The lakes are fed by groundwater.


title: Flushing Meadows–Corona Park

text: Prior to human development, Flushing Meadows was originally a tidal marsh, with Flushing Creek receiving south-flowing waters from the tides of Flushing Bay. Although the lakes were built as freshwater lakes and dammed to mitigate tidal effects, flooding continues to affect the park. The lakes are also highly eutrophic, due to nutrients such as phosphorus from the former marshland seeping into the water, leading to the death of fish in the lakes. The regular tidal action that would filter the lakes is prevented by the dam. In addition, the lakes are subject to pollution and storm runoff from the nearby highways, via pipes which feed into the lakes.