title: Civil Guard (Spain)

text: The element of uniformity that characterizes the Civil Guard is the tricorn, which is the official service's headgear in full and service dress uniforms. Other pieces of headgear such as peaked caps, berets or garrison caps are currently used in addition to this one. Throughout its history, other headwear of various types, colors and shapes have been used, including the Teresiana Kepi. Officially, it is known by the Civil Guard as the "black hat".


title: Civil Guard (Spain)

text: On 8 February 1913, Our Lady of the Pillar was declared by royal decree as the guard's exalted patron saint.


title: Civil Guard (Spain)

text: A wide range of clothing is currently worn according to the nature of the duties being performed (see schematic diagrams below).


title: Civil Guard (Spain)

text: The traditional headdress of the "Guardia" is the "tricornio" hat, originally a tricorne. Its use now is reserved for ceremonial parades and duty outside public buildings, together with the army-style tunic and trousers previously worn. For other occasions a cap or a beret is worn.


title: Civil Guard (Spain)

text: The historic blue, white and red uniform of the "Guardia" is now retained only for the Civil Guard Company of the Royal Guard and the "gastadores" (parade markers) of the Civil Guard Academy.


title: Civil Guard (Spain)

text: A modernised new style of working uniform was announced for the Civil Guard in 2011, for general adoption during 2012. This comprises a green baseball cap, polo shirt and cargo pants. The kepi-like "gorra teresiana" was abolished.


title: Civil Guard (Spain)

text: The Corps has been organised into different specialties divided into operational and support specialties:


title: Civil Guard (Spain)

text: The Guardia Civil has some training and supervision responsibilities for essentially privare security services with similar names:


title: Sexual partner

text: Sexual partners are people who engage in sexual activity together. The sexual partners may be in a committed relationship, either on an exclusive basis or not, or engage in the sexual activity on a casual basis. They may be on intimate terms (in which case they are often referred to as "lovers") or anonymous, as in the case of sex with a stranger, a one-night stand, or a prostitute. A person can be another person's sexual partner even if the sexual activity is illegal, socially taboo, or otherwise in breach of a trust or commitment. A person may have more than one sexual partner at any one time, either as polyamory, polygamy or in contravention of convention.


title: Sexual partner

text: As such, the term "sexual partner" can be applied to both consenting and non-consenting sexual relationships. Some people who maintain logs of their sexual activity have adopted the practice of listing partners they both did and did not consent to sex with, but with the non-consenting partners annotated differently in some way to note the act of rape.


title: Sexual partner

text: A sexual partner may or may not have equal power during a sexual activity; such sexual "roles" (which can sometimes be determined by personality type but can also be determined by a conscious choice by the individual to "assume" a particular "role") typically fall under various dominance/submission (D/s) categories.


title: Sexual partner

text: Generally, a sexual partner is one with whom one engages in a sexual activity on a regular or ongoing basis.


title: Sexual partner

text: An ex-sexual partner is a person with whom the other partner does not intend to engage in any further sexual activity, while a prospective sexual partner is one with whom the person has not previously engaged in any sexual activity, but desires to do so.


title: Lennie Briscoe

text: Leonard W. Briscoe is a fictional character on NBC's long-running police procedural and legal drama television series "Law & Order". He was created by Walon Green and René Balcer and portrayed by Jerry Orbach. He was featured on the show for 12 seasons, from 1992 to 2004, making him one of the longest-serving main characters in the series' history, as well as the longest-serving police detective on the show. He also appeared in three "Law & Order" spin-offs and was part of the original cast of "", appearing in the first two episodes prior to his death. He appears in 282 episodes (273 episodes of "Law & Order", two episodes of "Law & Order: Trial by Jury", one episode of "", three episodes of "", and three episodes of ""), the TV movie "" and the "Law & Order" video games "", "", "" and "".


title: Lennie Briscoe

text: Orbach's performance as Briscoe on the New York-based series was so popular that it resulted in him being declared a "Living Landmark" by the New York Landmarks Conservancy, along with fellow longtime series cast member Sam Waterston (who portrays the prosecutor Jack McCoy on the show).


title: Lennie Briscoe

text: Lennie Briscoe is introduced in the ninth episode of the third season, "Point of View", as the new senior detective in the New York City Police Department's 27th Detective Squad in the 27th Police Precinct's station house. In the episode "Virus", his birthday is given as January 2, 1940. His commanding officer during his first season on the show is Capt. Donald Cragen (Dann Florek); a year later, Lt. Anita Van Buren (S. Epatha Merkerson) takes over the 27th Precinct. He was previously assigned as a detective in the 116th Squad in Queens.


title: Lennie Briscoe

text: Briscoe joins the squad after Det. Mike Logan's (Chris Noth) partner, Sgt. Phil Cerreta (Paul Sorvino), is shot by a black market arms dealer and transfers to a desk job in another precinct.


title: Lennie Briscoe

text: After Logan is transferred to Staten Island in 1995, Det. Rey Curtis (Benjamin Bratt) becomes Briscoe's partner. Four years later, Curtis goes into early retirement to take care of his multiple sclerosis–stricken wife, and he is replaced by Det. Ed Green (Jesse L. Martin) in 1999.


title: Lennie Briscoe

text: Born on January 2, 1940, Lennie Briscoe grows up in the Meatpacking District of Manhattan. He has a brother. As a child, he attends P.S. 21, as his father had before him, as well as P.S. 189. He attends college at the City College of New York. A veteran of two failed marriages, Briscoe has two daughters by his first wife, the elder Julia and the younger Cathy (Jennifer Bill), and a nephew, Det. Ken Briscoe (played by Orbach's son, Chris). Cathy is born on June 23, 1971 and is murdered on March 4, 1998. By 2002, he has at least two grandchildren.


title: Lennie Briscoe

text: Briscoe begins working in the NYPD homicide department in 1981. Like most detective characters on the early seasons of the show, Briscoe carries a Smith & Wesson Model 36 revolver as his service weapon.


title: Lennie Briscoe

text: He is a recovering alcoholic, admitting he spent "20 years in a bottle". He often makes references to being a "friend of Bill W.", which is a reference to his having attended Alcoholics Anonymous. In the 1996 episode "Aftershock", after witnessing an execution from a case that he helped investigate, Briscoe becomes a car accident victim. When he falls off the wagon with disastrous results; ADA Claire Kincaid (Jill Hennessy) is struck and killed by a drunk driver while driving him home from a bar. He feels responsible for her death, and he remains sober for the rest of his life.


title: Lennie Briscoe

text: His drinking harms his family; he is often absent from his daughters' lives, and they have distant, fractious relationships with him as adults. Briscoe blames himself, especially when Cathy, a methamphetamine addict, is murdered by a drug dealer named Danny Jones (Johnny Dapolito) after she testifies against him in court. However, he finds closure when Jones dies from a heroin overdose. It is implied that Briscoe considered having Jones killed. One of Briscoe's former snitches had offered to kill Jones if Briscoe could get his charges reduced. Briscoe is later seen talking to the arresting officer about the snitch, but it is never confirmed if Briscoe did him the favor.


title: Lennie Briscoe

text: Briscoe's father is Jewish, his mother is not Jewish and he is raised Catholic, but occasionally attends Jewish services. His father served in the United States Army during World War II and helped to liberate a Nazi concentration camp in German-occupied Poland. Briscoe's father suffers from Alzheimer's and dies by 1994. Briscoe does not get along with his father and once described him as a "schmuck". Nevertheless, he takes several days off when his father dies.


title: Lennie Briscoe

text: He mentions having voted for Al Gore in the 2000 U.S. presidential election. He supports the Iraq War. He plays golf, and he is also revealed to be a skilled pool player and is shown defeating an opponent in eight-ball after the break without giving up a turn.


title: Lennie Briscoe

text: Briscoe is one of many characters on the show to have served in the military; he was at one point a corporal in the United States Army. On several occasions he has referred to his service in the Vietnam War. After leaving the Army, Briscoe joined the NYPD in the 29th Precinct in Manhattan and walked a beat there with stops at the 31st and 33rd Precincts, also in Manhattan, and the 110th and 116th Precincts in Queens, at some point reaching the rank of detective. In the 1999 episode "Marathon", he is revealed to have spent three years in the Anti-Crime Unit. Briscoe's detective shield number is 8220.


title: Lennie Briscoe

text: Briscoe typically has a wise-crack or joke about the victim or circumstances of death at the close of the opening scene, with the joke usually exhibiting a very deadpan delivery while at the same time being highly "on target". He likes music, but mostly music that was popular in his youth; in one episode, Curtis chides his musical taste for stopping with Bobby Darin. Briscoe used to read Langston Hughes back when he was a beatnik "for about five minutes" because "it used to work pretty good on Jewish girls from Riverdale."


title: Lennie Briscoe

text: Many of Briscoe's former partners and colleagues outside the series (offscreen before Briscoe joined the 27th Precinct) have been or ended up becoming corrupt. In the 1993 episode "Jurisdiction", Detective Brian Torelli (Dan Hedaya) forces a confession from a mentally handicapped man; at the end of the episode, Briscoe is present when Internal Affairs arrests Torelli for suborning perjury and obstruction of justice.


title: Lennie Briscoe

text: In the 1994 episode "Kids", the son of police Detective Ted Parker (Robert Hogan), a former colleague of Briscoe, is arrested for shooting another teenager. Parker and Briscoe have a private conversation during which Parker, speaking hypothetically, essentially relays to Briscoe that his son killed the other boy in self defense. At the end of the episode, Parker tacitly acknowledges to Briscoe that he used his contacts in his old precinct to engineer the shooting death of a key prosecution witness in his son's case (resulting in a mistrial).


title: Lennie Briscoe

text: Another of Briscoe's former partners, Detective John Flynn (Kevin Conway), falsely implicates him in the 1996 episode "Corruption" for taking seized drugs from the 116th Precinct evidence room (given to him by Flynn) during their stint there several years before. Flynn makes this allegation partly to throw off the Hellman Commission, which had been convened to investigate police corruption, including the questionable shooting death of a suspect by Flynn himself at the start of the episode, and partly as revenge against Curtis, who refused to falsely defend Flynn. Briscoe, however, has an alibi—he was having an affair with Officer Betty Abrams (Caroline Kava), a married woman. Against Briscoe's wishes, Abrams testifies before the commission to exonerate him. Because of the affair, however, the commissioners question her credibility. Briscoe finally gets the truth out of Flynn with a hidden wire tap, but Flynn commits suicide before he can be further prosecuted. Briscoe is ultimately cleared.


title: Lennie Briscoe

text: In the 2000 episode "Amends", Briscoe has another reunion with one of his former colleagues that opens up some ugly history. While investigating a 20-year-old cold case, Briscoe learns that one of his former colleagues, Tommy Brannigan (Brad Sullivan), had been convinced by his superior to accept promotion to detective first grade in exchange for letting a murder suspect go free. The now-retired Brannigan ultimately confesses in court, which helps Executive ADA Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston) convict the suspect in the long-cold case.


title: Lennie Briscoe

text: Some decisions in Briscoe's career are controversial. In the 1998 episode "Stalker", a key piece of evidence against a stalker accused of murdering a woman is ruled inadmissible because the police concluded that the victim had earlier lied about previously being attacked by the stalker, thereby undermining her own credibility. However, after the victim is found murdered, Briscoe approaches McCoy and tells him that he now believes that the victim did not lie to the police concerning the stalker's earlier attacks. Briscoe testifies for the prosecution to this effect, resulting in the evidence being readmitted but also drawing Van Buren's ire for going behind her back. In addition, Curtis is called as a defense witness so he can state his belief that the original police report was correct; McCoy is forced to attack his credibility in order to salvage the case. The stalker is convicted, and Briscoe and Curtis reconcile afterward.


title: Lennie Briscoe

text: Shortly after Ed Green is assigned as Briscoe's partner, the two nearly come to blows during a particularly difficult investigation of a robbery-homicide in the 1999 episode "Marathon". Their primary suspect confesses as he is being arrested, but because Briscoe is the only officer within earshot, Green, Van Buren, and McCoy are placed in a difficult position with regard to the confession. Again, Briscoe is eventually vindicated, and Green and he work to rebuild their professional rapport.


title: Lennie Briscoe

text: Briscoe retires in the 2004 episode "C.O.D." after 12 years at the 27th Precinct and more than 30 years in the NYPD. His replacement at the 27th Precinct is Det. Joe Fontana (Dennis Farina).


title: Lennie Briscoe

text: Briscoe died at some point between 2004 and 2005 (Orbach himself died on December 28, 2004). Although not addressed directly on the main series until 2008, his death was implied in 2005 and confirmed in 2007 on an episode of "Law & Order: Criminal Intent". The three official mentions of his death were made by each of his three junior partners on the series: Mike Logan, Rey Curtis and Ed Green.


title: Lennie Briscoe

text: On the first season of "", Briscoe makes three guest appearances assisting his old boss, Captain Cragen (one of these reunions involves re-opening a serial murder case that Briscoe and Logan had failed to solve several years earlier in the 1994 episode "Mayhem"). Briscoe also makes a guest appearance in the "" episode "Poison" with his partner Ed Green, in which he assists the Major Case Squad on a similar case. He also appeared in three episodes of "".


title: Lennie Briscoe

text: Soon after his retirement, Briscoe joins "", having accepted an appointment as an investigator in the office of New York County District Attorney Arthur Branch (Fred Thompson), with partner Inv. Hector Salazar (Kirk Acevedo). He appears in only the first two episodes of this series - "The Abominable Showman" and "41 Shots".


title: Lennie Briscoe

text: In 2005, the Lennie Briscoe character was written out after the second episode of "Trial By Jury", coinciding with Orbach's death on December 28, 2004, from prostate cancer. The character's departure from the show was originally to be in the episode "Baby Boom" in which members of the DA's office attend a memorial service for him. This scene was in fact filmed but was not included in the aired episode. Part of the scene however is included in the behind-the-scenes footage of the show's DVD set. Briscoe's absence past the second episode is never acknowledged, and he is quickly replaced by Detective Chris Ravell (Scott Cohen).


title: Lennie Briscoe

text: His former partners each mention his death on "Law & Order" or one of its spinoffs. In the 2007 "Criminal Intent" episode "", Mike Logan mentions that Briscoe has died, but that he still sees him alive in his dreams. In the 2008 "Law & Order" episode "Burn Card", Ed Green says that he returned to gambling briefly after Briscoe died. In the 2009 "Law & Order" episode "Fed", Rey Curtis returns to New York to bury his wife Deborah, who had finally succumbed to complications related to multiple sclerosis. He reveals to Van Buren that he had spoken with Briscoe a few days before his death, and that he was his old wisecracking self right up to the end.


title: Electorate of Hanover

text: The Electorate of Hanover ( or simply "Kurhannover") was an electorate of the Holy Roman Empire, located in northwestern Germany and taking its name from the capital city of Hanover. It was formally known as the Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg (). For most of its existence, the electorate was ruled in personal union with Great Britain and Ireland following the Hanoverian Succession.


title: Electorate of Hanover

text: The Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg had been split in 1269 between different branches of the House of Welf. The Principality of Calenberg, ruled by a cadet branch of the family, emerged as the largest and most powerful of the Brunswick-Lüneburg states. In 1692, the Holy Roman Emperor elevated the Prince of Calenberg to the College of Electors, creating the new Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg. The fortunes of the Electorate were tied to those of Great Britain by the Act of Settlement 1701 and Act of Union 1707, which settled the succession to the British throne on Queen Anne's nearest Protestant relative, the Electress Sophia of Hanover, and her descendants.


title: Electorate of Hanover

text: The Prince-Elector of Hanover became King of Great Britain in 1714. As a consequence, a reluctant Britain was forced time and again to defend the King's German possessions. However, Hanover remained a separately ruled territory with its own governmental bodies, and the country had to sign a treaty with Great Britain whenever Hanoverian troops fought on the British side of a war. Merged into the Napoleonic Kingdom of Westphalia in 1807, it was re-established as the Kingdom of Hanover in 1814, and the personal union with the British crown lasted until 1837.


title: Electorate of Hanover

text: In 1692, Emperor Leopold I of the House of Habsburg elevated Duke Ernest Augustus of the Brunswick-Lüneburg line of Calenberg, to the rank of prince-elector of the Empire as a reward for aid given in the Nine Years' War. There were protests against the addition of a new elector, and the elevation did not become official until the approval of the Imperial Diet in 1708. Calenberg's capital, Hanover, became colloquially eponymous for the electorate, but it officially used the name "Chur-Braunschweig-Lüneburg" of the entire ducal dynasty.


title: Electorate of Hanover

text: The electorate comprised large parts of the modern German state of Lower Saxony in Northern Germany. Beside the Principality of Calenberg it also included the former princely lands of Göttingen and Grubenhagen as well as the territory of the former County of Hoya.


title: Electorate of Hanover

text: In 1705, Elector George I Louis inherited the Principality of Lüneburg with the Duchy of Saxe-Lauenburg upon the death of his uncle Duke George William of Brunswick-Lüneburg. In 1715, he purchased the Duchies of Bremen-Verden from King Frederick IV of Denmark (confirmed by the 1719 Treaty of Stockholm), whereby his former landlocked electorate gained access to the North Sea.


title: Electorate of Hanover

text: In 1700, the territories forming the electorate introduced, like all other Protestant territories of imperial immediacy, the Improved Calendar, as the Gregorian calendar was called by Protestants to avoid mentioning the name of Pope Gregory XIII. Sunday, 18 February (Old Style) was thus followed by Monday, 1 March (New Style).


title: Electorate of Hanover

text: In 1692, the Holy Roman Emperor, Leopold I, elevated George's son, Duke Ernest Augustus to the rank of Elector of the Empire as a reward for aid given in the War of the Grand Alliance. There were protests against the addition of a new Elector, and the elevation did not become official (with the approval of the Imperial Diet) until 1708, in the person of Ernest Augustus's son, George Louis. Though the Elector's titles were properly Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and Elector of the Holy Roman Empire, he is commonly referred to as the Elector of Hanover after his residence.


title: Electorate of Hanover

text: The Electorate was legally bound to be indivisible: it could add to its territory, but not alienate territory or be split up among several heirs; and its succession was to follow male primogeniture. The territory assigned to the Electorate included the Brunswick-Lüneburg principalities of Calenberg, Grubenhagen, and Lüneburg (even though at the time Lüneburg was ruled by Ernest Augustus's older brother) and the counties of Diepholz and Hoya.


title: Electorate of Hanover

text: In 1714, George Louis became king of Great Britain and Ireland, so that the electorate and Great Britain and Ireland were ruled in personal union. The possessions of the electors in Germany also grew, as they "de facto" purchased the formerly Swedish-held duchies of Bremen and Verden in 1719.


title: Electorate of Hanover

text: George Louis died in 1727, and was succeeded by his son George II Augustus. In 1728, Emperor Charles VI officially enfeoffed George II (i.e. gave him land in exchange for a pledge of service), with the reverted fief of Saxe-Lauenburg, which had "de facto" been ruled in personal union with Hanover and with one of its preceding Principality of Lüneburg since 1689.


title: Electorate of Hanover

text: In 1731, Hanover also gained Hadeln. In return, Hanover recognised the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 which changed Habsburg inheritance law. It took George II Augustus until 1733 to persuade Charles VI to enfeoff him also with the Duchy of Bremen and the Principality of Verden, colloquially called Duchies of Bremen-Verden. At both enfeoffments George II Augustus swore that he would respect the existing privileges and constitutions of the estates in Bremen-Verden and in Hadeln, thus confirming 400-year-old traditions of estate participation in government.


title: Electorate of Hanover

text: In Hanover, the capital of the Electorate, the Privy Council of Hanover (electoral government) installed a new ministry in charge of the Imperial Estates ruled by the Electors in personal union. It was called the Department of Bremen-Verden, Hadeln, Lauenburg and Bentheim. However, the Electors spent most of their time in England. Direct contact with the Electorate was maintained through the office of the German Chancery, situated in St James's Palace in London.


title: Electorate of Hanover

text: During the Anglo-French and Indian War (1754–1763) in the North American colonies, Britain feared a French invasion in Hanover. George II formed an alliance with his Brandenburg-Prussian cousin Frederick II, "the Great" combining the North American conflict with the Brandenburg-Prusso–Austrian Third Silesian or Seven Years' War (1756–1763).


title: Electorate of Hanover

text: In the summer of 1757, the French invaded Hanover and defeated George II's son Prince William, Duke of Cumberland, leading the Anglo-Hanoverian army, at the Battle of Hastenbeck and drove him and his army into remote Bremen-Verden, where in the former "Zeven" he capitulated on 18 September (Convention of Kloster-Zeven). But George II did not recognise the convention. In the following year the British army, supported by troops from Brandenburg-Prussia, Hesse-Kassel and the ducal Principality of Brunswick and Lunenburg (Wolfenbüttel) again expelled the occupants.


title: Electorate of Hanover

text: Hanover remained unaffected for the rest of the war. After the war ended, peace prevailed until the French Revolutionary Wars started. The War of the First Coalition against France (1792–1797) with Great Britain-Hanover and other war allies forming the coalition, did not affect Hanoverian territory, since the first French Republic was fighting on several fronts, even on its own territory. However, men were drafted to recruit the 16,000 Hanoverian soldiers fighting in the Low Countries under British command against France. In 1795, the Holy Roman Empire declared its neutrality, including Hanover; however, a peace treaty with France was under negotiation until it failed in 1799. Brandenburg-Prussia, however, ended for its part the war with France by the Treaty of Basel (1795), stipulating that Brandenburg-Prussia would ensure the Holy Roman Empire's neutrality in all the latter's territories north of the demarcation line of the river Main, including the British continental dominions of Hanover, Bremen-Verden, and Saxe-Lauenburg. To this end Hanover also had to provide troops for the so-called demarcation army maintaining the armed neutrality.


title: Electorate of Hanover

text: During the War of the Second Coalition against France (1799–1802) Napoléon Bonaparte urged Prussia to occupy the continental British dominions. In 1801, 24,000 Prussian soldiers invaded, surprising Hanover, which surrendered without a fight. In April 1801, the Prussian troops arrived in Bremen-Verden's capital, Stade, and stayed there until October that year. The British first ignored Prussia's hostility, but when the latter joined the pro-French coalition of armed neutral powers including Denmark-Norway and Russia, Britain began to capture Prussian ships. After the Battle of Copenhagen (1801) the coalition fell apart and Prussia withdrew its troops.


title: Electorate of Hanover

text: As part of the German Mediatisation of 25 February 1803, the Electorate received the Prince-Bishopric of Osnabrück in real union, whose every second ruler had been alternately members of the House of Hanover since 1662.


title: Electorate of Hanover

text: After Britain – this time without any allies – had declared war on France (18 May 1803), French troops invaded Hanover on 26 May. According to the Convention of Artlenburg (5 July 1803), confirming the military defeat of Hanover, the Hanoverian army was disarmed and its horses and ammunitions were handed over to the French. The Privy Council of Hanover, with minister Friedrich Franz Dieterich von Bremer holding up the Hanoverian stake, fled to Saxe-Lauenburg across the Elbe, ruled by Britain-Hanover in personal union. Soon afterwards the French also occupied Saxe-Lauenburg.


title: Electorate of Hanover

text: In the autumn of 1805, at the beginning of the War of the Third Coalition against France (1805), the French occupying troops left Hanover in a campaign against Austria. British, Swedish and Russian coalition forces captured Hanover. In December, the Empire of the French, since 1804 France's new government, ceded Hanover, which it did not hold any more, to Brandenburg-Prussia, which captured it early in 1806.


title: Electorate of Hanover

text: On 6 August 1806, the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved, thereby abolishing the function of prince-electors electing its emperors. Thus, the title of Elector of Brandenburg became meaningless for the Kingdom of Prussia. After it had turned against France, it was defeated in the Battle of Jena-Auerstedt (11 November 1806), and France recaptured Hanover.


title: Electorate of Hanover

text: Following the Treaty of Tilsit in 1807, the new Kingdom of Westphalia was founded, ruled by Napoléon's brother Jérôme Bonaparte, then including territories of the former Electorate of Hesse-Cassel, the ducal Brunswick-Lüneburgian principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, and formerly Prussian territories. In early 1810 Hanover proper and Bremen-Verden, but not Saxe-Lauenburg, were also annexed by Westphalia. In an attempt to assert the Continental System, the French Empire annexed in late 1810 all the continental North Sea coast (as far as Denmark) and the areas along the sections of the rivers navigable for seagoing vessels, including Bremen-Verden and Saxe-Lauenburg and some adjacent territories of Hanover proper.


title: Electorate of Hanover

text: However, the government of George III did not recognise the French annexation, being at war continuously with France through the entire period, and Hanoverian ministers continued to operate out of London. The Privy Council of Hanover maintained its own separate diplomatic service, which maintained links with countries such as Austria and Prussia. The Hanoverian army was dissolved, but many of the officers and soldiers went to England, where they formed the King's German Legion. The Legion was the only German army to fight continually all through the Napoleonic wars against the French.


title: Electorate of Hanover

text: French control lasted until October 1813, when the territory was overrun by Russian troops, and the Battle of the Nations at Leipzig later the same month spelled the definitive end to the Napoleonic client state of Westphalia, as well as the entire Confederation of the Rhine, after which the rule of the House of Hanover was restored. The former electorate became the Kingdom of Hanover, confirmed at the Congress of Vienna in 1814.


title: Electorate of Hanover

text: The Electorate was legally indivisible: it could add to its territory, but not alienate territory or be split up among several heirs – as used to be the rule before, having led at times to a multitude of Brunswick-Lüneburgian principalities. Its succession was to follow male primogeniture. Since this was against the Salic law, then valid for the ducal family, the change needed imperial confirmation, which Emperor Leopold I granted in 1692.


title: Electorate of Hanover

text: In 1692, at its upgrading to the rank of electorate, its territory comprised the Brunswick-Lüneburgian principalities of Calenberg and Grubenhagen, which the line of the former had already inherited in 1665. But before the confirmation of the electorate by the Imperial Diet in 1708, the Calenberg line further inherited the principality of Celle in 1705. Further included were the earlier acquired counties of Diepholz and Hoya.


title: Electorate of Hanover

text: Although the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved in 1806, George III's government did not consider the dissolution to be final, and he continued to be styled "Duke of Brunswick-Luneburg, Arch-treasurer and Prince-Elector of the Holy Roman Empire" until 1814.


title: Pack rat

text: A pack rat or packrat, also called a woodrat or trade rat, are any species in the North and Central American rodent genus Neotoma. Pack rats have a rat-like appearance, with long tails, large ears, and large, black eyes. Pack rats are noticeably larger than deer mice, harvest mice, and grasshopper mice, and are usually somewhat larger than cotton rats.


title: Pack rat

text: Woodrats reach their greatest diversity in the deserts of the western United States and northern Mexico. Several species are also found in the deciduous forest of the east coast, juniper woodlands in the southwest, oak woodlands along the coastal western United States and in the Sonoran Desert, and in the forest and rocky habitats of the western United States and western Canada.


title: Pack rat

text: Each species of pack rat is generally restricted to a given type of habitat within its range. Pack rats live anywhere from low, hot, dry deserts to cold, rocky slopes above timberline.


title: Pack rat

text: Pack rats build complex houses or dens made of twigs, cactus joints, and other materials. These contain several nest chambers, food caches, and debris piles. Dens are often built in small caves or rocky crevices, but when close by human habitations, woodrats will opportunistically move into the attics and walls of houses. Some "Neotoma" species, such as the white-throated woodrat ("N. albigula"), use the bases of prickly pear or cholla cactus as the sites for their homes, using the cactus' spines for protection from predators. Others, like the desert woodrat ("N. lepida") will build dens around the base of a yucca or cactus, such as jumping and teddy-bear chollas. The largest species, "Neotoma cinerea," has a bushy, almost squirrel-like tail.


title: Pack rat

text: Bushy-tailed woodrats "Neotoma cinerea" occupy a range of habitats from boreal woodlands to deserts. They are cliff-dwellers and are often found on isolated, high-elevation exposed boulder areas under a variety of temperature and moisture conditions. They require adequate shelter among the rocks, though they are occasionally found inhabiting abandoned buildings as well.


title: Pack rat

text: Pack rats are nest builders. They use plant material such as twigs, sticks, and other available debris. They are particularly fond of shiny objects. A peculiar characteristic is that if they find something they want, they will drop what they are currently carrying—for example, a piece of cactus—and "trade" it for the new item. They can also be quite vocal and boisterous. Getting into everything from attics to car engines, stealing their treasures from humans, damaging electrical wiring, and creating general noisy havoc can easily cause them to become a nuisance.


title: Pack rat

text: Bushy-tailed woodrats feed primarily on green vegetation, twigs, and shoots. Mexican woodrats eat seeds, fruits, acorns, and cactus. The pack rat microbiome has symbiotic roles in digestion, recycling endogenous nitrogen, and the detoxification of dietary toxins. The bacterial composition of the pack rat’s gut microbiome is affected by what it eats, and by association, the geography of where the animal is from. However, while the bacterial composition of the pack rat microbiome is influenced by diet and geography, it is the animals’ genetics that has the most influential role on bacterial composition.


title: Pack rat

text: Adult bushy-tailed woodrat males usually weigh , with an average of , and adult females usually weigh , with an average of . These ranges are relatively large because this species occupies a large geographic range, and its body size is closely correlated with climate. Average males range in size from , with the average being , and average females range from , with the average being .


title: Pack rat

text: Reproductive habits of rodents are variable in the wild. Offspring are born naked and helpless and must be cared for in nests called middens. Some female pack rats have been known to deliver up to five litters per year with each litter having as many as five young. The offspring may open their eyes between 10 and 12 days after being born and are usually weaned between 14 and 42 days. After around 60 days, most become sexually mature. Populations may cycle approximately every 8 years due to variation in reproduction and juvenile survival. Female annual survival rates vary by age from 0.42 for juveniles to 0.71 for 1–2 year olds, and very few females (less than 5%) live beyond 3 years of age.


title: Pack rat

text: A pack rat midden is a debris pile constructed by a woodrat. A midden may preserve the materials incorporated into it for up to 50,000 years, thus may be analyzed to reconstruct their original environment, and comparisons between middens allow a record of vegetative and climate change to be built. Examinations and comparisons of pack rat middens have largely supplanted pollen records as a method of study in the regions where they are available.


title: Pack rat

text: In the absence of rock crevices or caves, the dens are often built under trees or bushes. The pack rats will also use plant fragments, animal dung, and small rocks in building the den. The vast majority of the materials will be from a radius of several dozen yards of the nest. Woodrats often urinate on the debris piles; sugar and other substances in the urine crystallize as it dries out, creating a material known as amberat, which under some conditions can cement the midden together, and can encase plant fragments, pellets and other debris in an amber-like matrix. The resilience of the middens is aided by three factors. The crystallized urine dramatically slows the decay of the materials in the midden; the dry climate of the American Southwest further slows the decay; and middens protected from the elements under rock overhangs or in caves survive longer.


title: Pack rat

text: Zoologists examine the remains of animals in middens to get a sense of the fauna in the neighborhood of the midden, while paleobotanists can reconstruct the vegetation that grew nearby. Middens are considered reliable "time capsules" of natural life, centuries and millennia after they occurred. Woodrat middens are composed of many things, including plants, macrofossils, and fecal pellets.


title: Pack rat

text: One form of midden analysis examined the size of fecal pellets in pack rat middens. The size of woodrat pellet is proportional to the size of the woodrat. By measuring the pellets, the approximate size of the woodrat was determined based on data from a study of field-trapped woodrats. From Bergmann’s rule, differences in climate then can be determined. According to Bergmann’s rule, the body size of vertebrates is closely related to the average ambient air temperature in the region in which the vertebrate lives, so organisms in warmer regions are typically smaller than members of the same species in colder regions.


title: Loss aversion

text: Loss aversion is the tendency to prefer avoiding losses to acquiring equivalent gains. The principle is prominent in the domain of economics. What distinguishes loss aversion from risk aversion is that the utility of a monetary payoff depends on what was previously experienced or was expected to happen. Some studies have suggested that losses are twice as powerful, psychologically, as gains. Loss aversion was first identified by Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman.


title: Loss aversion

text: Loss aversion implies that one who loses $100 will lose more satisfaction than the same person will gain satisfaction from a $100 windfall. In marketing, the use of trial periods and rebates tries to take advantage of the buyer's tendency to value the good more after the buyer incorporates it in the status quo. In past behavioral economics studies, users participate up until the threat of loss equals any incurred gains. Recent methods established by Botond Kőszegi and Matthew Rabin in experimental economics illustrates the role of expectation, wherein an individual's belief about an outcome can create an instance of loss aversion, whether or not a tangible change of state has occurred.


title: Loss aversion

text: Whether a transaction is framed as a loss or as a gain is important to this calculation. The same change in price framed differently, for example as a $5 discount or as a $5 surcharge avoided, has a significant effect on consumer behavior. Although traditional economists consider this "endowment effect", and all other effects of loss aversion, to be completely irrational, it is important to the fields of marketing and behavioral finance. Users in behavioral and experimental economics studies decided to cease participation in iterative money-making games when the threat of loss was close to the expenditure of effort, even when the user stood to further their gains. Loss aversion coupled with myopia has been shown to explain macroeconomic phenomena, such as the equity premium puzzle.


title: Loss aversion

text: Daniel Kahneman and his associate Amos Tversky originally coined the term loss aversion in 1979 in a paper on subjective probability. “The response to losses is stronger than the response to corresponding gains” is Kahneman’s definition of loss aversion. “Losses loom larger than gains” meaning that people by nature are aversive to losses. Loss aversion gets stronger as the stakes of a gamble or choice grow larger. Prospect theory and utility theory follow and allow the person to feel regret and anticipated disappointment for that said gamble.


title: Loss aversion

text: A person’s adaption level is their evaluation from a neutral point where outcomes are based on personal reference points. Past associations play a contributing factor in how a person evaluates a choice. Heuristic judgments come into play when past associations influence present decisions. Evaluating is associated with the word bias because it tends to be a deciding factor in a “zero validity” situation. Bias tends to go hand in hand with seeking immediate gratification. Individuals seek patterns impulsively to gain that instant gratification of winning a gamble. Rationality is distinguished from intelligence when it comes to gratification.


title: Loss aversion

text: People are drawn by specific priming and memories to pick an option that benefits them the most. Loss aversion is an instinct that involves a person comparing, reasoning, and ultimately making a choice. Loss aversion also occurs when a person is in a situation where they have an absence of a required skill. Heuristics takes over and the person begins to problem solve and try to find a valid solution. Both systems work together to help a person avoid losses and gain what is possible.


title: Loss aversion

text: Loss aversion is part of prospect theory, a cornerstone in behavioral economics. The theory explored numerous behavioral biases leading to sub-optimal decisions making. Kahneman and Tversky found that people are biased in their real estimation of probability of events happening. They tend to over-weight both low and high probabilities and under-weight medium probabilities.


title: Loss aversion

text: Consider the following example: which option is more attractive? Option A – $1500 with a probability of 33%, $1400 with a probability of 66% and $0 with a probability of 1%; or Option B – a guaranteed $920. Prospect theory and loss aversion suggests that most people would choose option B as they prefer the guaranteed $920 since there is a probability of winning $0, even though it is only 1%. This demonstrates that people think in terms of expected utility relative to a reference point (i.e. current wealth) as opposed to absolute payoffs. When choices are framed as risky (i.e. risk losing 1 out of 10 lives vs the opportunity to save 9 out of 10 lives), individuals tend to be loss-averse as they weight losses more heavily than comparable gains.


title: Loss aversion

text: Humans are theorized to be hardwired to be loss averse due to asymmetric evolutionary pressure on losses and gains: "for an organism operating close to the edge of survival, the loss of a day's food could cause death, whereas the gain of an extra day's food would not cause an extra day of life (unless the food could be easily and effectively stored)". Loss aversion was first proposed as an explanation for the endowment effect—the fact that people place a higher value on a good that they own than on an identical good that they do not own—by Kahneman, Knetsch, and Thaler (1990). Loss aversion and the endowment effect lead to a violation of the Coase theorem—that "the allocation of resources will be independent of the assignment of property rights when costless trades are possible" (p. 1326).


title: Loss aversion

text: In several studies, the authors demonstrated that the endowment effect could be explained by loss aversion but not five alternatives:


title: Loss aversion

text: In each experiment half of the subjects were randomly assigned a good and asked for the minimum amount they would be willing to sell it for while the other half of the subjects were given nothing and asked for the maximum amount they would be willing to spend to buy the good. Since the value of the good is fixed and individual valuation of the good varies from this fixed value only due to sampling variation, the supply and demand curves should be perfect mirrors of each other and thus half the goods should be traded. The authors also ruled out the explanation that lack of experience with trading would lead to the endowment effect by conducting repeated markets.


title: Loss aversion

text: The first two alternative explanation are that under-trading was due to transaction costs or misunderstanding—were tested by comparing goods markets to induced-value markets under the same rules. If it was possible to trade to the optimal level in induced value markets, under the same rules, there should be no difference in goods markets.The results showed drastic differences between induced-value markets and goods markets. The median prices of buyers and sellers in induced-value markets matched almost every time leading to near perfect market efficiency, but goods markets sellers had much higher selling prices than buyers' buying prices. This effect was consistent over trials, indicating that this was not due to inexperience with the procedure or the market. Since the transaction cost that could have been due to the procedure was equal in the induced-value and goods markets, transaction costs were eliminated as an explanation for the endowment effect.


title: Loss aversion

text: The third alternative explanation was that people have habitual bargaining behaviors, such as overstating their minimum selling price or understating their maximum bargaining price, that may spill over from strategic interactions where these behaviors are useful to the laboratory setting where they are sub-optimal. An experiment was conducted to address this by having the clearing prices selected at random. Buyers who indicated a willingness-to-pay higher than the randomly drawn price got the good, and vice versa for those who indicated a lower WTP. Likewise, sellers who indicated a lower willingness-to-accept than the randomly drawn price sold the good and vice versa. This incentive compatible value elicitation method did not eliminate the endowment effect but did rule out habitual bargaining behavior as an alternative explanation.


title: Loss aversion

text: Income effects were ruled out by giving one third of the participants mugs, one third chocolates, and one third neither mug nor chocolate. They were then given the option of trading the mug for the chocolate or vice versa and those with neither were asked to merely choose between mug and chocolate. Thus, wealth effects were controlled for those groups who received mugs and chocolate. The results showed that 86% of those starting with mugs chose mugs, 10% of those starting with chocolates chose mugs, and 56% of those with nothing chose mugs. This ruled out income effects as an explanation for the endowment effect. Also, since all participants in the group had the same good, it could not be considered a "trophy", eliminating the final alternative explanation.


title: Loss aversion

text: Multiple studies have questioned the existence of loss aversion. In several studies examining the effect of losses in decision-making, no loss aversion was found under risk and uncertainty. There are several explanations for these findings: one, is that loss aversion does not exist in small payoff magnitudes (called magnitude dependent loss aversion by Mukherjee et al.(2017); which seems to hold true for time as well. The other is that the generality of the loss aversion pattern is lower than previously thought. David Gal (2006) argued that many of the phenomena commonly attributed to loss aversion, including the status quo bias, the endowment effect, and the preference for safe over risky options, are more parsimoniously explained by psychological inertia than by a loss/gain asymmetry. Gal and Rucker (2018) made similar arguments. Mkrva, Johnson, Gächter, and Herrmann (2019) cast doubt on these critiques, replicating loss aversion in five unique samples while also showing how the magnitude of loss aversion varies in theoretically predictable ways. A paper by John Staddon, citing Claude Bernard, pointed out that effects like loss aversion represent the average behavior of groups. There are many individual exceptions. To use these effects as something more than the results of an opinion poll means identifying the sources of variation, so that they can be demonstrated reliably in individual subjects.


title: Loss aversion

text: Loss aversion may be more salient when people compete. Gill and Prowse (2012) provide experimental evidence that people are loss averse around reference points given by their expectations in a competitive environment with real effort. Losses may also have an effect on attention but not on the weighting of outcomes; losses lead to more autonomic arousal than gains even in the absence of loss aversion. This latter effect is sometimes known as Loss Attention.


title: Loss aversion

text: Loss attention refers to the tendency of individuals to allocate more attention to a task or situation when it involve losses than when it does not involve losses. What distinguishes loss attention from loss aversion is that it does not imply that losses are given more subjective weight (or utility) than gains. Moreover, under loss aversion losses have a "biasing" effect whereas under loss attention they can have a "debiasing" effect. Loss attention was proposed as a distinct regularity from loss aversion by Eldad Yechiam and Guy Hochman.


title: Loss aversion

text: Specifically, the effect of losses is assumed to be on general attention rather than plain visual or auditory attention. The loss attention account assumes that losses in a given task mainly increase the general attentional resource pool available for that task. The increase in attention is assumed to have an inverse-U shape effect on performance (following the so called Yerkes-Dodson law).


title: Loss aversion

text: The inverse U-shaped effect implies that the effect of losses on performance is most apparent in settings where task attention is low to begin with, for example in a monotonous vigilance task or when a concurrent task is more appealing. Indeed, it was found that the positive effect of losses on performance in a given task was more pronounced in a task performed concurrently with another task which was primary in its importance.


title: Loss aversion

text: Loss attention is consistent with several empirical findings in economics , finance, marketing, and decision making. Some of these effects have been previously attributed to loss aversion, but can be explained by a mere attention asymmetry between gains and losses. An example is the performance advantage attributed to golf rounds where a player is under par (or in a disadvantage) compared to other rounds where a player is at an advantage.


title: Loss aversion

text: Recently, studies have suggested that loss aversion mostly occur for very large losses though the exact boundaries of the effect are unclear. On the other hand, loss attention was found even for small payoffs, such as $1. This suggests that loss attention may be more robust than loss aversion. Still, one might argue that loss aversion is more parsimonious than loss attention.


title: Loss aversion

text: "Increased expected value maximization with losses" – It was found that individuals are more likely to select choice options with higher expected value (namely, mean outcome) in tasks where outcomes are framed as losses than when they are framed as gains. Yechiam and Hochman found that this effect occurred even when the alternative producing higher expected value was the one that included minor losses. Namely, a highly advantageous alternative producing minor losses was more attractive compared when it did not produce losses. Therefore, paradoxically, in their study minor losses led to more selection from the alternative generating them (refuting an explanation of this phenomenon based on loss aversion).


title: Loss aversion

text: "Loss arousal" – Individuals were found to display greater Autonomic Nervous System activation following losses than following equivalent gains. For example, pupil diameter and heart rate were found to increase following both gains and losses, but the size of the increase was higher following losses. Importantly, this was found even for small losses and gains where individuals do not show loss aversion. Similarly, a positive effect of losses compared to equivalent gains was found on activation of midfrontal cortical networks 200 to 400 milliseconds after observing the outcome. This effect as well was found in the absence of loss aversion.


title: Loss aversion

text: "Increased hot stove effect for losses" – The hot stove effect is the finding that individuals avoid a risky alternative when the available information is limited to the obtained payoffs. A relevant example (proposed by Mark Twain) is of a cat which jumped of a hot stove and will never do it again, even when the stove is cold and potentially contains food. Apparently, when a given option produces losses this increases the hot stove effect, a finding which is consistent with the notion that losses increase attention.


title: Loss aversion

text: "The out of pocket phenomenon" – In financial decision making, it has been shown that people are more motivated when their incentives are to avoid losing personal resources, as opposed to gaining equivalent resources. Traditionally, this strong behavioral tendency was explained by loss aversion. However, it could also be explained simply as increased attention.


title: Loss aversion

text: "The allure of minor disadvantages" – In marketing studies it has been demonstrated that products whose minor negative features are highlighted (in addition to positive features) are perceived as more attractive. Similarly, messages discussing both the advantages and disadvantages of a product were found to be more convincing than one-sided messages. Loss attention explains this as due to attentional competition between options, and increased attention following the highlighting of small negatives, which can increase the attractiveness of a product or a candidate either due to exposure or learning.


title: Loss aversion

text: In 2005, experiments were conducted on the ability of capuchin monkeys to use money. After several months of training, the monkeys began showing behavior considered to reflect understanding of the concept of a medium of exchange. They exhibited the same propensity to avoid perceived losses demonstrated by human subjects and investors.


title: Loss aversion

text: Chen, Lakshminarayanan and Santos (2006) also conducted experiments on capuchin monkeys to determine whether behavioral biases extend across species. In one of their experiments, subjects were presented with two choices that both delivered an identical payoff of one apple piece in exchange of their coins. Experimenter 1 displayed one apple piece and gave that exact amount. Experimenter 2 displayed two applies pieces initially but always removed one piece before delivering the remaining apple piece to the subject. Therefore, identical payoffs are yielded regardless of which experimenter the subject traded with. It was found a that subjects strongly preferred the experimenter who initially displayed only one apple piece, even though both experimenters yielded the same out come of one apple piece. This study suggests that capuchins weighted losses more heavily than equivalent gains.


title: Loss aversion

text: Expectation-based loss aversion is a phenomenon in behavioral economics. When the expectations of an individual fail to match reality, they lose an amount of utility from the lack of experiencing fulfillment of these expectations. Analytical framework by Botond Kőszegi and Matthew Rabin provides a methodology through which such behavior can be classified and even predicted. An individual's most recent expectations influences loss aversion in outcomes outside the status quo; a shopper intending to buy a pair of shoes on sale experiences loss aversion when the pair they had intended to buy is no longer available.


title: Loss aversion

text: Subsequent research performed by Johannes Abeler, Armin Falk, Lorenz Goette, and David Huffman in conjunction with the Institute of Labor Economics used the framework of Kőszegi and Rabin to prove that people experience expectation-based loss aversion at multiple thresholds. The study evinced that reference points of people causes a tendency to avoid expectations going unmet. Participants were asked to participate in an iterative money-making task given the possibilities that they would receive either an accumulated sum for each round of "work", or a predetermined amount of money. With a 50% chance of receiving the "fair" compensation, participants were more likely to quit the experiment as this amount approached the fixed payment. They chose to stop when the values were equal as no matter which random result they received, their expectations would be matched. Participants were reluctant to work for more than the fixed payment as there was an equal chance their expected compensation would not be met.


title: Loss aversion

text: Loss aversion experimentation has most recently been applied within an educational setting in an effort to improve achievement within the U.S. In this latest experiment, Fryer et al. posits framing merit pay in terms of a loss in order to be most effective. This study was performed in the city of Chicago Heights within nine K-8 urban schools, which included 3,200 students. 150 out of 160 eligible teachers participated and were assigned to one of four treatment groups or a control group. Teachers in the incentive groups received rewards based on their students' end of the year performance on the ThinkLink Predictive Assessment and K-2 students took the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS). The control group followed the traditional merit pay process of receiving "bonus pay" at the end of the year based on student performance on standardized exams. However, the experimental groups received a lump sum given at beginning of the year, that would have to be paid back. The bonus was equivalent to approximately 8% of the average teacher salary in Chicago Heights, approximately $8,000. According to the authors, 'this suggests that there may be significant potential for exploiting loss aversion in the pursuit of both optimal public policy and the pursuit of profits'.


title: Loss aversion

text: Thomas Amadio, superintendent of Chicago Heights Elementary School District 170, where the experiment was conducted, stated that "the study shows the value of merit pay as an encouragement for better teacher performance".


title: Loss aversion

text: In earlier studies, both bidirectional mesolimbic responses of activation for gains and deactivation for losses (or vica versa) and gain or loss-specific responses have been seen. While reward anticipation is associated with ventral striatum activation, negative outcome anticipation engages the amygdala. However, only some studies have shown involvement of amygdala during negative outcome anticipation but not others which has led to some inconsistencies. It has later been proven that inconsistencies may only have been due to methodological issues including the utilisation of different tasks and stimuli, coupled with ranges of potential gains or losses sampled from either payoff matrices rather than parametric designs, and most of the data are reported in groups, therefore ignoring the variability amongst individuals. Thus later studies rather than focusing on subjects in groups, focus more on individual differences in the neural bases by jointly looking at behavioural analyses and neuroimaging.


title: Loss aversion

text: Neuroimaging studies on loss aversion involves measuring brain activity with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate whether individual variability in loss aversion were reflected in differences in brain activity through bidirectional or gain or loss specific responses, as well as multivariate source-based morphometry (SBM) to investigate a structural network of loss aversion and univariate voxel-based morphometry (VBM) to identify specific functional regions within this network.


title: Loss aversion

text: Brain activity in a right ventral striatum cluster increases particularly when anticipating gains. This involves the ventral caudate nucleus, pallidum, putamen, bilateral orbitofrontal cortex, superior frontal and middle gyri, posterior cingulate cortex, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, and parts of the dorsomedial thalamus connecting to temporal and prefrontal cortex. There is a significant correlation between degree of loss aversion and strength of activity in both the frontomedial cortex and the ventral striatum. This is shown by the slope of brain activity deactivation for increasing losses being significantly greater than the slope of activation for increasing gains in the appetitive system involving the ventral striatum in the network of reward-based behavioural learning. On the other hand, when anticipating loss, the central and basal nuclei of amygdala, right posterior insula extending into the supramarginal gyrus mediate the output to other structures involved in the expression of fear and anxiety, such as the right parietal operculum and supramarginal gyrus. Consistent with gain anticipation, the slope of the activation for increasing losses was significantly greater than the slope of the deactivation for increasing gains.


title: Loss aversion

text: Multiple neural mechanisms are recruited while making choices, showing functional and structural individual variability. Biased anticipation of negative outcomes leading to loss aversion involves specific somatosensory and limbic structures. fMRI test measuring neural responses in striatal, limbic and somatosensory brain regions help track individual differences in loss aversion. Its limbic component involved the amygdala (associated with negative emotion and plays a role in the expression of fear) and putamen in the right hemisphere. The somatosensory component included the middle cingulate cortex, as well as the posterior insula and rolandic operculum bilaterally. The latter cluster partially overlaps with the right hemispheric one displaying the loss-oriented bidirectional response previously described, but, unlike that region, it mostly involved the posterior insula bilaterally. All these structures play a critical role in detecting threats and prepare the organism for appropriate action, with the connections between amygdala nuclei and the striatum controlling the avoidance of aversive events. There are functional differences between the right and left amygdala. Overall, the role of amygdala in loss anticipation suggested that loss aversion may reflect a Pavlovian conditioned approach-avoidance response. Hence, there is a direct link between individual differences in the structural properties of this network and the actual consequences of its associated behavioral defense responses.


title: Loss aversion

text: The neural activity involved in the processing of aversive experience and stimuli is not just a result of a temporary fearful overreaction prompted by choice-related information, but rather a stable component of one's own preference function, reflecting a specific pattern of neural activity encoded in the functional and structural construction of a limbic-somatosensory neural system anticipating heightened aversive state of the brain. Even when no choice is required, individual differences in the intrinsic responsiveness of this interoceptive system reflect the impact of anticipated negative effects on evaluative processes, leading preference for avoiding losses rather than acquiring greater but riskier gains.


title: Loss aversion

text: Individual differences in loss aversion are related to variables such as age, gender, and genetic factors affecting thalamic norepinephrine transmission, as well as neural structure and activities. Outcome anticipation and ensuing loss aversion involve multiple neural systems, showing functional and structural individual variability directly related to the actual outcomes of choices.


title: Loss aversion

text: In a study, adolescents and adults are found to be similarly loss-averse on behavioural level but they demonstrated different underlying neural responses to the process of rejecting gambles. Although adolescents rejected the same proportion of trials as adults, adolescents displayed greater caudate and frontal pole activation than adults to achieve this. These findings suggest a difference in neural development during the avoidance of risk. It is possible that adding affectively arousing factors (e.g. peer influences) may overwhelm the reward-sensitive regions of the adolescent decision making system leading to risk-seeking behaviour. On the other hand, although men and women did not differ on their behavioural task performance, men showed greater neural activation than women in various areas during the task. Loss of striatal dopamine neurons is associated with reduced risk-taking behaviour.  Acute administration of D2 dopamine agonists may cause an increase in risky choices in humans. This suggests dopamine acting on stratum and possibly other mesolimbic structures can modulate loss aversion by reducing loss prediction signalling.


title: Pilot Flying J

text: Pilot Travel Centers LLC, doing business as Pilot Flying J, is a North American chain of truck stops in the United States and Canada. The company is based in Knoxville, Tennessee, where Pilot Corporation, the majority owner, is based. The company is owned by Pilot, FJ Management, and Berkshire Hathaway. The company operates truck stops under the Pilot Travel Centers, Flying J Travel Plaza, and Mr. Fuel brands.


title: Pilot Flying J

text: Pilot Corporation opened its first truck stop in 1981. On November 15, 1993, Pilot entered a joint venture with Marathon Petroleum Company, and all Pilot Truck Stops were renamed Pilot Travel Centers. At its inception, the number of stops was around 60; however, that was to be short-lived.


title: Pilot Flying J

text: In the next few years, Pilot Travel Centers experienced significant growth. Marathon converted many Speedway truck stops, wholly owned by Marathon, over to the Pilot Travel Center moniker starting in mid-2002. Midway through 2003, another major expansion occurred with the purchase of the Williams Truck Stop chain. The Marathon-Pilot joint venture successfully increased the Pilot Travel Center name recognition throughout the United States, as the number of stops more than quadrupled.


title: Pilot Flying J

text: In 2008, Pilot bought out Marathon's interest in the business and entered into a new partnership arrangement with CVC Capital Partners, an international private equity firm. Pilot also has partnerships with Road Ranger and Town Pump, and purchased a controlling stake in Mr. Fuel in 2014. In October 2014, Pilot Flying J announced they would borrow funds to provide a $750 million dividend to shareholders and facilitate a buyout of its private-equity partner CVC Capital Partner. In 2015, the Haslam family completed the buyout of CVC Capital Partner's stake.


title: Pilot Flying J

text: In July 2009, Pilot agreed to purchase Flying J's travel centers, as a part of Flying J's efforts to remove itself from Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The deal was finalized July 1, 2010, and the combined company took the d.b.a. name Pilot Flying J, while Pilot Travel Centers LLC remained the company's legal name.


title: Pilot Flying J

text: As part of the deal, both the Pilot and Flying J chains will keep their identities intact, while both chains started accepting the Comdata and Flying J's in-house TCH fuel cards. In addition, Flying J received cash and equity in the new combined chain. Flying J's oil & refining operations as well as its banking & insurance division will remain separate from the new company, and was subsequently renamed FJ Management Inc.


title: Pilot Flying J

text: To settle antitrust concerns with the Federal Trade Commission, Pilot sold 20 Pilot Travel Centers locations and six Flying J locations to Love's Travel Stops & Country Stores on June 30, 2010. The merger left the combined company with over 550 locations in 44 U.S. states and six Canadian provinces. In 2011, Pilot Flying J began a partnership with Truckers Against Trafficking.


title: Pilot Flying J

text: On June 23, 2016, Pilot Flying J and Speedway announced a new joint venture between the two companies that will see 41 Speedway locations (all former Wilco Hess locations) and 79 Pilot Flying J locations primarily in the Southeastern United States form PFJ Southeast LLC. The locations will be operated by Pilot Flying J and the Speedway locations will be rebranded as either Pilot or Flying J.


title: Pilot Flying J

text: On October 3, 2017, it was announced that Warren Buffett-controlled Berkshire Hathaway will acquire 38.6% of Pilot Flying J, with plans to increase its stake to 80% in 2023. The Haslam family and FJ Management will retain ownership stakes until then, upon which the Haslam family will retain the remaining 20% and FJ Management will withdraw altogether. The Haslam family will retain control of day-to-day operations of the company.


title: Pilot Flying J

text: Currently, Pilot Flying J is the largest purveyor of over-the-road diesel fuel in the United States. Pilot Flying J also is known as the largest Travel Center chain in the country with over 750 locations under the Pilot, Flying J, & Mr. Fuel brands. Pilot Flying J is also the third largest franchiser of quick service restaurants in the nation, offering one to three different concepts at each location, making it the largest franchisee of Subway in the world with over 200 locations. Unlike many travel centers and truck stops, the majority of locations with the Pilot Travel Centers brand do not utilize full-service dining. However, the Flying J brand does utilize full-service dining with Denny's, as do a small handful of Pilot-branded locations.


title: Pilot Flying J

text: Pilot Flying J's main restaurants include Arby's, Chester's Chicken, Dairy Queen, Denny's, Hardee's, McDonald's, Pizza Hut, Subway, Taco Bell, Wendy's, and Cinnabon. Recently they have also added Huddle House (full-service restaurants), Moe's Southwest Grill, and Dunkin Donuts.


title: Pilot Flying J

text: Pilot Flying J's main competitors include Love's Travel Stops, Travel Centers of America, Stuckey's, Roady's Truck Stops, and T/A-owned Petro Stopping Centers.


title: Pilot Flying J

text: In 2012, the company signed country music singer Trace Adkins to become its new spokesperson for its relaunched loyalty program. In addition to Adkins, the company has a NASCAR sponsorship with JR Motorsports driver Michael Annett as the primary sponsor for Annett's number 1 Chevrolet Camaro in NASCAR's Xfinity Series. In 2015 and 2016, the company sponsored Annett in the number 46 Chevrolet SS for HScott Motorsports in NASCAR's Sprint Cup Series and in 2014 the company sponsored Annett in the number 7 Chevrolet SS for Tommy Baldwin Racing. In 2013, the company sponsored Annett in the Richard Petty Motorsports number 43 Ford Mustang in NASCAR's Nationwide Series. In 2016, the company was the title sponsor for the "Battle at Bristol" at Bristol Motor Speedway.


title: Pilot Flying J

text: At some locations, Pilot Flying J offers truck maintenance through garages operated by third-party companies. Wingfoot Truck Care Centers, operated by the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, provide 24-hour road service, preventative maintenance, tire service, part replacement, oil changes, and light mechanical work.


title: Pilot Flying J

text: In addition to Wingfoot, Pilot Flying J also has Bosselman Boss Shop garages operated by Bosselman that provide similar services as Wingfoot. The Boss Shop partnership expanded as part of an agreement for Pilot Flying J to acquire most of Bosselman's truck stops in November 2011 in order to boost Pilot Flying J's presence in the Northern Great Plains region. Before the deal, Bosselman bought diesel fuel from Pilot and continues to do so for its remaining travel center location in Grand Island, Nebraska.


title: Pilot Flying J

text: In 2005, Pilot Flying J joined forces with Victory 500 marketing to publish "Challenge" magazine, a magazine aimed at professional truckers and sold exclusively at Pilot Flying J travel centers as well as by subscription. The magazine ceased publication after 110 issues in December 2014.


title: Pilot Flying J

text: On April 15, 2013, the headquarters of Pilot Flying J, located in Knoxville, Tennessee, was raided by FBI and IRS agents as part of an "ongoing investigation". On April 16, CEO Jimmy Haslam reported the investigation involved claims of failure to pay rebates to trucking customers.


title: Pilot Flying J

text: On April 18, 2013, an affidavit used to secure various search warrants was made public. The documents alleged that several members of the Pilot Flying J sales force, as well as company president Mark Hazelwood, were either involved or aware of the alleged scheme. Three sales employees' private homes were also raided as part of the investigation.


title: Pilot Flying J

text: On Tuesday, July 16, 2013, a federal judge in Arkansas granted preliminary approval to a proposed settlement agreement between Pilot Flying J and several trucking companies that had sued over allegations of fuel rebate fraud. Pilot Flying J paid restitution to customers and agreed to pay a $92 million penalty pursuant to a Criminal Enforcement Agreement.


title: Pilot Flying J

text: At the Flying J truck stop along Interstate 5 in the Grapevine in Lebec, California, in the early hours of July 11, 2022 one of the armed guards left their Brink’s big rig while the other guard was asleep, giving a gang of thieves a 27-minute window to make a huge snatch of jewels that were being transported from San Mateo to the Los Angeles area for the International Gem and Jewelry Show. Estimated value of the stolen goods range from $10 million to $100 million, making the jewelry theft one of the biggest in modern history.


title: Demographics of Lebanon

text: This is a demography of the population of Lebanon including population density, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.


title: Demographics of Lebanon

text: About 95% of the population of Lebanon is either Muslim or Christian, split across various sects and denominations. Because the matter of religious balance is a sensitive political issue, a national census has not been conducted since 1932, before the founding of the modern Lebanese state. Consequently, there is an absence of accurate data on the relative percentages of the population of the major religions and groups.


title: Demographics of Lebanon

text: The absence of data and comprehensive statistics also concerns all other demographic studies unrelated to religious balance, due to the all but total inactivity of the concerned public agencies. The only recent (post-war) statistics available are estimates based on studies made by private organizations.


title: Demographics of Lebanon

text: The biggest study made after the independence on the Lebanese Population was made by the Central Administration of Statistics (in French: "Administration Centrale de la Statistique") under the direction of Robert Kasparian and Grégoire Haddad's Social Movement: "L'enquête par sondage sur la population active au Liban en 1970" (in English: "The survey on the active population in Lebanon in 1970"). It was conducted on a sample of 130,000 individuals.


title: Demographics of Lebanon

text: There are over 4 million Lebanese and descendants of Lebanese worldwide, mostly Christians, compared with the internal population of Lebanon of around 4.6 million citizens, in 2020.


title: Demographics of Lebanon

text: Ethnic background is an important factor in Lebanon. The country encompasses a great mix of Indigenous and non indigenous cultural, religious, and ethnic groups such as Arabs & Armenians, Kurds, Turks, amongst others. Muslims from the Arabian Peninsula invaded and occupied Lebanon in the 7th century AD. In the time since then, Arabic has become the lingua franca of the area and much of the population of Lebanon (especially Muslims) have come to identify as Arab. Ethnic identity has come to revolve increasingly around aspects of cultural self-identification more than descent. To an extent, religious affiliation has also become a substitute in some respects for ethnic affiliation.


title: Demographics of Lebanon

text: Generally, the cultural and linguistic heritage of the People of Lebanon is a blend of both indigenous elements and the foreign cultures that have come to rule the land and its people over the course of thousands of years. Moreover, in a 2013 interview, the lead investigator, Pierre Zalloua, pointed out that genetic variation preceded religious variation and divisions: "Lebanon already had well-differentiated communities with their own genetic peculiarities, but not significant differences, and religions came as layers of paint on top. There is no distinct pattern that shows that one community carries significantly more Phoenician than another".


title: Demographics of Lebanon

text: The Lebanese Christians are some of the oldest Christians in the world, preceded only by the oriental Orthodox of Armenia, Ethiopia, the Copts of Egypt, and the Saint Thomas Christians of India. The Maronite Christians belong to the West Syriac Rite. Their Liturgical language is the Syriac-Aramaic language. The Melkite Greek Catholics and the Eastern Orthodox, tend to focus more on the Greco-Hellenistic heritage of the region from the days of the Byzantine Empire, and the fact that Greek was maintained as a liturgical language until very recently. Some Lebanese even claim partial descent from Crusader knights who ruled Lebanon for a couple of centuries during the Middle Ages, also backed by recent genetic studies which confirmed this among Lebanese people, especially in the north of the country that was under the Crusader County of Tripoli. This identification with non-Arab civilizations also exists in other religious communities, albeit not to the same extent.


title: Demographics of Lebanon

text: Lebanon's religious divisions are extremely complicated, and the country is made up by a multitude of religious groupings. The ecclesiastical and demographic patterns of the sects and denominations are complex. Divisions and rivalries between groups date back as far as 15 centuries, and still are a factor today. The pattern of settlement has changed little since the 7th century, but instances of civil strife and ethnic cleansing, most recently during the Lebanese Civil War, has brought some important changes to the religious map of the country. (See also History of Lebanon.)


title: Demographics of Lebanon

text: Lebanon has by far the largest proportion of Christians of any Middle Eastern country, but both Christians and Muslims are sub-divided into many splinter sects and denominations. Population statistics are highly controversial. The various denominations and sects each have vested interests in inflating their own numbers. Shias, Sunnis, Maronites and Eastern Orthodox (the four largest denominations) all often claim that their particular religious affiliation holds a majority in the country, adding up to over 150% of the total population, even before counting the other denominations. One of the rare things that most Lebanese religious leaders will agree on is to avoid a new general census, for fear that it could trigger a new round of denominational conflict. The last official census was performed in 1932.


title: Demographics of Lebanon

text: Religion has traditionally been of overriding importance in defining the Lebanese population. Dividing state power between the religious denominations and sects, and granting religious authorities judicial power, dates back to Ottoman times (the millet system). The practice was reinforced during French mandate, when Christian groups were granted privileges. This system of government, while partly intended as a compromise between sectarian demands, has caused tensions that still dominate Lebanese politics to this day.


title: Demographics of Lebanon

text: The Christian population majority is believed to have ended in the early 1970s, but government leaders would agree to no change in the political power balance. This led to Muslim demands of increased representation, and the constant sectarian tension slid into violent conflict in 1958 (prompting U.S. intervention) and again in the grueling Lebanese Civil War, in 1975–90.


title: Demographics of Lebanon

text: The balance of power has been slightly adjusted in the 1943 National Pact, an informal agreement struck at independence, in which positions of power were divided according to the 1932 census. The Sunni elite was then accorded more power, but Maronites continued to dominate the system. The sectarian balance was again adjusted towards the Muslim side but simultaneously further reinforced and legitimized. Shia Muslims (by now the second largest sect) then gained additional representation in the state apparatus, and the obligatory Christian-Muslim representation in Parliament was downgraded from a 6:5 to a 1:1 ratio. Christians of various denominations were then generally thought to constitute about 40% of the population, although often Muslim leaders would cite lower numbers, and some Christians would claim that they still held a majority of the population.


title: Demographics of Lebanon

text: The present Lebanese Constitution officially acknowledges 18 religious groups (see below). These have the right to handle family law according to their own courts and traditions, and they are the basic players in Lebanon's complex sectarian politics.


title: Demographics of Lebanon

text: The 1932 census stated that Christians made up 50% of the resident population. Maronites, largest among the Christian denomination and then largely in control of the state apparatus, accounted for 29% of the total resident population.


title: Demographics of Lebanon

text: Total population of Lebanon was reported to be 1,411,000 in 1956. The largest communities were Maronites (424,000), Sunni Muslims (286,000), Shiite Muslims(250,000), Greek Orthodox (149,000), Greek Catholics (91,000), Druzes (88,000), Armenian Orthodox (64,000), Armenian Catholics (15,000), Protestants (14,000), Jews (7,000), Syriac Catholics (6,000), Syriac Orthodox (5,000), Latins (4,000) and Nestorian Chaldeans (1,000).


title: Demographics of Lebanon

text: A 2010 study conducted by Statistics Lebanon, a Beirut-based research firm, cited by the United States Department of State found that of Lebanon's population of approximately 4.3 million was estimated to be:


title: Demographics of Lebanon

text: There is also a very small number of other religious minorities such as, Baháʼís, Buddhists, Hindus and Mormons.


title: Demographics of Lebanon

text: In 2022, the CIA World Factbook specified that of the citizen population (data do not include Lebanon's sizable Syrian and Palestinian refugee populations), 67.8% are Muslims (31.9% Sunni, 31.2% Shia, with smaller percentages of Alawites and Ismailis), 32.4% are Christians (mostly Maronites, Eastern Orthodox, Melkite Catholics, Protestant, Armenian Apostolic, Assyrian Church of the East, Syriac Orthodox, Chaldean Catholic, Syrian Catholic), 4.5% are Druze, and there are "very small numbers of Jews, Baha'is, Buddhists, and Hindus".


title: Demographics of Lebanon

text: According to the CIA World Factbook, in 2021 the Muslim population was estimated at 60% within Lebanese territory and 20% of the over 4 million Lebanese diaspora population. In 2012 a more detailed breakdown of the size of each Muslim sect in Lebanon was made:


title: Demographics of Lebanon

text: According to the CIA World Factbook, in 2021, the Christian population in Lebanon was estimated at 35%. In 2012 a more detailed breakdown of the size of each Christian sect in Lebanon was made:


title: Demographics of Lebanon

text: The Druze constitute 5% of the population and can be found primarily in the rural, mountainous areas of Mount Lebanon and the Chouf District.


title: Demographics of Lebanon

text: Traditionally, the Druze tended to prefer Syria over the West, but after the civil war and the emergence of Hezbollah, the Druze hold a powerful negativity towards Syria, Iran, and Hezbollah, and now the Druze strongly prefer to ally with the West. Even though the faith originally developed out of Ismaili Islam, most Druze do not identify as Muslims, and they do not accept the five pillars of Islam.


title: Demographics of Lebanon

text: Other religions account for only an estimated 0.3% of the population mainly foreign temporary workers, according to the CIA World Factbook. There remains a very small Jewish population, traditionally centered in Beirut. It has been larger: most Jews left the country after the Lebanese Civil War (1975–1990) as thousands of Lebanese did at that time.


title: Demographics of Lebanon

text: Apart from the four and a half million citizens of Lebanon proper, there is a sizeable Lebanese diaspora. There are more Lebanese people living outside of Lebanon (over 4 million), than within (4.6 million citizens plus 1.5 million refugees). The majority of the diaspora population consists of Lebanese Christians; however, there are some who are Muslim. They trace their origin to several waves of Christian emigration, starting with the exodus that followed the 1860 Lebanon conflict in Ottoman Syria.


title: Demographics of Lebanon

text: Under the current Lebanese nationality law, diaspora Lebanese do not have an automatic right of return to Lebanon. Due to varying degrees of assimilation and high degree of interethnic marriages, most diaspora Lebanese have not passed on the Arabic language to their children, while still maintaining a Lebanese ethnic identity.


title: Demographics of Lebanon

text: Many Lebanese families are economically and politically prominent in several Latin American countries (in 2007 Mexican Carlos Slim Helú, son of Lebanese immigrants, was determined to be the wealthiest man in the World by Fortune Magazine), and make up a substantial portion of the Lebanese American community in the United States. The largest Lebanese diaspora is located in Brazil, where about 6–7 million people have Lebanese descent (see Lebanese Brazilian). In Argentina, there is also a large Lebanese diaspora of approximately 1.5 million people having Lebanese descent. (see Lebanese Argentine). In Canada, there is also a large Lebanese diaspora of approximately 250,000-500,000 people having Lebanese descent. (see Lebanese Canadians).


title: Demographics of Lebanon

text: There are also sizable populations in West Africa, particularly Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone and Senegal.


title: Demographics of Lebanon

text: The large size of Lebanon's diaspora may be partly explained by the historical and cultural tradition of seafaring and traveling, which stretches back to Lebanon's ancient Phoenician origins and its role as a "gateway" of relations between Europe and the Middle East. It has been commonplace for Lebanese citizens to emigrate in search of economic prosperity. Furthermore, on several occasions in the last two centuries the Lebanese population has endured periods of ethnic cleansing and displacement (for example, 1840–60 and 1975–90). These factors have contributed to the geographical mobility of the Lebanese people.


title: Demographics of Lebanon

text: While under Syrian occupation, Beirut passed legislation which prevented second-generation Lebanese of the diaspora from automatically obtaining Lebanese citizenship. This has reinforced the émigré status of many diaspora Lebanese. There is currently a campaign by those Lebanese of the diaspora who already have Lebanese citizenship to attain the vote from abroad, which has been successfully passed in the Lebanese parliament and will be effective as of 2013 which is the next parliamentary elections. If suffrage was to be extended to these 1.2 million Lebanese émigré citizens, it would have a significant political effect, since as many as 80% of them are believed to be Christian.


title: Demographics of Lebanon

text: With no official figures available, it is estimated that 600,000–900,000 persons fled the country during the Lebanese Civil War (1975–90). Although some have since returned, this permanently disturbed Lebanese population growth and greatly complicated demographic statistics.


title: Demographics of Lebanon

text: Another result of the war was a large number of internally displaced persons. This especially affected the southern Shia community, as Israeli invasion of southern Lebanon in 1978, 1982, and 1996 prompted waves of mass emigration, in addition to the continual strain of occupation and fighting between Israel and Hezbollah (mainly 1982 to 2000).


title: Demographics of Lebanon

text: Many Shias from Southern Lebanon resettled in the suburbs south of Beirut. After the war, the pace of Christian emigration accelerated, as many Christians felt discriminated against in a Lebanon under increasingly oppressive Syrian occupation.


title: Demographics of Lebanon

text: According to a UNDP study, as much as 10% of the Lebanese had a disability in 1990. Other studies have pointed to the fact that this portion of society is highly marginalized due to the lack of educational and governmental support of their advancement.


title: Demographics of Lebanon

text: Arabic is the official language of the country. Lebanese Arabic is mostly spoken in non-official contexts. French and English are taught in many schools from a young age. Among the Armenian ethnic minority in Lebanon, the Armenian language is taught and spoken within the Armenian community.


title: Demographics of Lebanon

text: The website Our World in Data prepared the following estimates based on statistics from the Population Department of the United Nations.


title: Demographics of Lebanon

text: There are substantial numbers of immigrants from other Arab countries (mainly Palestine, Syria, Iraq and Egypt) and non-Arab-speaking Muslim countries. Also, recent years have seen an influx of people from Ethiopia and South East Asian countries such as Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, as well as smaller numbers of other immigrant minorities, Colombians and Brazilians (of Lebanese descent themselves). Most of these are employed as guest workers in the same fashion as Syrians and Palestinians, and entered the country to search for employment in the post-war reconstruction of Lebanon. Apart from the Palestinians, there are approximately 180,000 stateless persons in Lebanon.


title: Demographics of Lebanon

text: Lebanese Armenians, Jews and Iranians form more distinct ethnic minorities, all of them in possession of a separate languages (Armenian, Hebrew, Persian) and a national home area (Armenia, Israel, Iran) outside of Lebanon. However, they combined total 5% of the population.


title: Demographics of Lebanon

text: During the French Mandate of Lebanon, there was a fairly large French minority and a tiny Italian minority. Most of the French and Italian settlers left after Lebanese independence in 1943 and only 22,000 French Lebanese and 4,300 Italian Lebanese continue to live in Lebanon. The most important legacy of the French Mandate is the frequent use and knowledge of the French language by most of the educated Lebanese people, and Beirut is still known as the "Paris of the Middle East".


title: Demographics of Lebanon

text: Around 175,555 Palestinian refugees were registered in Lebanon with the UNRWA in 2014, who are refugees or descendants of refugees from the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. Some 53% live in 12 Palestine refugee camps, who "suffer from serious problems" such as poverty and overcrowding. Some of these may have emigrated during the civil war, but there are no reliable figures available. There are also a number of Palestinians who are not registered as UNRWA refugees, because they left earlier than 1948 or were not in need of material assistance. The exact number of Palestinians remain a subject of great dispute and the Lebanese government will not provide an estimate. A figure of 400,000 Palestinian refugees would mean that Palestinians constitute less than 7% of the resident population of Lebanon.


title: Demographics of Lebanon

text: Palestinians living in Lebanon are considered foreigners and are under the same restrictions on employment applied to other foreigners. Prior to 2010, they were under even more restrictive employment rules which permitted, other than work for the U.N., only the most menial employment. They are not allowed to attend public schools, own property, or make an enforceable will. Palestinian refugees, who constitute nearly 6.6% of the country's population, have long been denied basic rights in Lebanon. They are not allowed to attend public schools, own property or pass on inheritances, measures Lebanon says it has adopted to preserve their right to return to their property in what constitutes Israel now.


title: Demographics of Lebanon

text: Their presence is controversial, and resisted by large segments of the Christian population, who argue that the primarily Sunni Muslim Palestinians dilute Christian numbers. Many Shia Muslims also look unfavorably upon the Palestinian presence since the refugee camps have tended to be concentrated in their home areas. The Lebanese Sunnis, however, would be happy to see these Palestinians given the Lebanese nationality, thus increasing the Lebanese Sunni population by well over 10% and tipping the fragile electoral balance much in favor of the Sunnis. Late prime minister Rafiq Hariri —himself a Sunni— had hinted on more than one occasion on the inevitability of granting these refugees Lebanese citizenship. Thus far the refugees lack Lebanese citizenship as well as many rights enjoyed by the rest of the population, and are confined to severely overcrowded refugee camps, in which construction rights are severely constricted.


title: Demographics of Lebanon

text: Palestinians may not work in a large number of professions, such as lawyers and doctors. However, after negotiations between Lebanese authorities and ministers from the Palestinian National Authority some professions for Palestinians were allowed (such as taxi driver and construction worker). The material situation of the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon is difficult, and they are believed to constitute the poorest community in Lebanon, as well as the poorest Palestinian community with the possible exception of Gaza Strip refugees. Their primary sources of income are UNRWA aid and menial labor sought in competition with Syrian guest workers.


title: Demographics of Lebanon

text: The Palestinians are almost totally Sunni Muslim, though at some point Christians counted as high as 40% with Muslims at 60%. The numbers of Palestinian Christians has diminished in later years, as many have managed to leave Lebanon. During the Lebanese Civil War, Palestinian Christians sided with the rest of the Palestinian community, instead of allying with Lebanese Eastern Orthodox or other Christian communities.


title: Demographics of Lebanon

text: In 1976, the then Syrian president Hafez al-Assad sent troops into Lebanon to fight PLO forces on behalf of Christian militias. This led to escalated fighting until a cease-fire agreement later that year that allowed for the stationing of Syrian troops within Lebanon. The Syrian presence in Lebanon quickly changed sides; soon after they entered Lebanon they had flip-flopped and began to fight the Christian nationalists in Lebanon they allegedly entered the country to protect. The Kateab Party and the Lebanese Forces under Bachir Gemayel strongly resisted the Syrians in Lebanon. In 1989, 40,000 Syrian troops remained in central and eastern Lebanon under the supervision of the Syrian government. Although, the Taif Accord, established in the same year, called for the removal of Syrian troops and transfer of arms to the Lebanese army, the Syrian Army remained in Lebanon until the Lebanese Cedar Revolution in 2005 ended the Syrian occupation of Lebanon.


title: Demographics of Lebanon

text: In 1994, the Lebanese government under the pressure of the Syrian government, gave Lebanese passports to thousands of Syrians.


title: Demographics of Lebanon

text: There are nearly 1.08 million registered Syrian refugees in Lebanon but is estimated that Lebanon hosts 1.5 million.


title: Demographics of Lebanon

text: There are an estimated 40,000 to 80,000 Iraqi Assyrian refugees in Lebanon. The vast majority of them are undocumented, with a large number having been deported or put in prison. They belong to various denominations, including the Assyrian Church of the East, Chaldean Catholic Church, and Syriac Catholic Church.


title: Demographics of Lebanon

text: Due to the US-led invasion of Iraq, Lebanon received a mass influx of Iraqi refugees numbering at around 100,000. The vast majority of them are undocumented, with a large number having been deported or put in prison.


title: Demographics of Lebanon

text: There are an estimated 60,000 to 100,000 Kurdish refugees from Turkey and Syria within Lebanese territory. Many of them are undocumented. As of 2012, around 40% of all Kurds in Lebanon do not have Lebanese citizenship.


title: Demographics of Lebanon

text: The Turkish people began to migrate to Lebanon once the Ottoman sultan Selim I conquered the region in 1516. Turks were encouraged to stay in Lebanon by being rewarded with land and money. Today the Turkish minority numbers approximately 80,000. Moreover, since the Syrian Civil War, approximately 125,000 to 150,000 Syrian Turkmen refugees arrived in Lebanon, and hence they now outnumber the long established Turkish minority who settled since the Ottoman era.


title: Demographics of Lebanon

text: The Circassians migrated to the Ottoman Empire including Lebanon and neighboring countries in the 18th and 19th century. However, they are mostly located in Akkar Governorate, in which they have come to Berkail since 1754. Today the Circassian minority numbers approximately 100,000.


title: Glossary of baseball terms

text: This is an alphabetical list of selected unofficial and specialized terms, phrases, and other jargon used in baseball, along with their definitions, including illustrative examples for many entries.