title: Japanese giant salamander

text: The Japanese giant salamander remains in bodies of water its entire life. During the mating season, typically in late August and early September, sexually mature males start actively finding suitable nesting sites and often migrate upstream into smaller sections of the river or its tributaries. Because of the limited availability of suitable nesting sites, only large and competitive males are able to occupy nesting sites and become den masters. A den master diligently cleans his den guards his den against intruders including other males who try to steal the den while allowing a sexually active female enter the den. Mating begins as the female starts laying eggs and the den master starts releasing sperm, which often stimulate other subordinate males hiding around the den to enter the den and join the mating. As a result, a single female often mates with multiple males. The den master stays in the den with the fertilized eggs while the other males and the female leave the den. He provides parental care for the embryos by guarding the eggs and fanning water over them with his tail to increase oxygen flow. The den-master continues providing parental care for the hatchlings until the following spring when the larvae start dispersing from the nest. Researchers also observed that den masters consumed eggs and larvae that showed the sign of failed fertilization, death, or water mold infection. The researchers termed the behavior of selectively eating his own eggs or larvae "hygienic filial cannibalism" and hypothesize that this behavior importantly increases the survivorship of the remaining offspring by preventing water mold infection on the dead offspring from spreading over the healthy offspring.


title: Japanese giant salamander

text: The Japanese giant salamander is threatened by pollution, habitat loss (among other changes, by the silting up of the rivers where it lives), dams and concrete banks, and invasive species. In particular, it is important to note that the construction of concrete streambanks and agricultural dams throughout the distribution range has imposed a significant negative impact on giant salamanders. Concrete banks have deprived of habitats suited for nesting sites, and dams block migration paths and have caused habitat fragmentation. With the ongoing climate change, it is predicted that frequency and intensity of rainstorms in Japan will increase. These rainstorms will likely destroy stream banks more frequently, which could result in the construction of more flood-control dams and concrete banks.


title: Japanese giant salamander

text: Introgressive hybridization between the native Japanese giant salamander and the introduced Chinese (or South China) giant salamander is one of the major conservation challenges. It has been suggested that although the details are not known, the Chinese giant salamanders imported for food to Japan in 1972 were the sources of the ongoing introgressive hybridization. In Kamo River in Kyoto Prefecture, the study conducted from 2011 to 2013 found that 95% of the captured giant salamanders were hybrids. The introgressive hybridization appears to be spreading across several watersheds.


title: Japanese giant salamander

text: In some regions, giant salamanders used to be hunted as a source of food, but hunting has ceased because of the protection acts established after World War II.


title: Japanese giant salamander

text: As of 2022 the Japanese giant salamander is considered Vulnerable by IUCN, and is included on CITES Appendix I. It is considered Vulnerable by the Japanese Ministry of the Environment. Additionally, it has been given the highest protection as a “Special Natural Monument” by the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs since 1952 due to its cultural and educational significance.


title: Japanese giant salamander

text: Despite the national protection and conservation status, there have been no conservation programs or actions initiated by the government agencies. Instead, nonprofit organizations such as the Japanese Giant Salamander Society and the Hanzaki Research Institute of Japan have organized volunteers to conduct population assessments in some areas. The Japanese Giant Salamander Society also organizes annual meetings to promote the conservation education and information sharing about the species. There is no range-wide conservation or recovery program, which is essential to the conservation of the species whose populations have been declining throughout its range.


title: Japanese giant salamander

text: The Hiroshima City Asa Zoological Park of Japan was the first domestic organization to successfully breed Japanese giant salamanders in captivity. Several of their offspring were given to the National Zoo of the United States to establish a breeding program. Although Asa Zoological Park has not released any offspring to streams, it has a capacity to carry out a headstarting program if needed.


title: Japanese giant salamander

text: The Japanese giant salamander has been the subject of legend and artwork in Japan, for example, in the "ukiyo-e" work by Utagawa Kuniyoshi.


title: Japanese giant salamander

text: The well-known Japanese mythological creature known as the "kappa" may be inspired by the Japanese giant salamander.


title: Japanese giant salamander

text: There is a giant salamander festival every year on August 8 in Yubara, Maniwa City, Okayama prefecture to honour the animal and celebrate its life. The giant salamanders are called "Hanzaki" in Yubara, due to the belief that even if they are ripped in half (han) they continue to survive. There are two giant salamander floats: a dark male and a red female.


title: Japanese giant salamander

text: As of 2017, a picture book entitled "Zakihan" was also published in both Japanese and English wherein the main character is a "hanzaki" called "Zakihan".


title: Pauline Moran

text: Pauline Moran (born 26 August 1947) is an English actress, presenter, and astrologer, best known for her role as Miss Felicity Lemon in the British television series "Agatha Christie's Poirot".


title: Pauline Moran

text: She trained at several schools, including the National Youth Theatre and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. She has also been a professional astrologer since 1987. Although primarily a stage actress, Moran has appeared in films such as "The Good Soldier" (1981), "The Woman in Black" (1989), "Byron" (2003) and "A Little Chaos" (2014), as well as the 1983 television series "The Cleopatras". From 1965 to about 1970, she played bass guitar in the all-female band The She Trinity.


title: Deep Blue Sea 2

text: Deep Blue Sea 2 is a 2018 American science fiction horror film directed by Darin Scott. It is a stand-alone sequel to the 1999 film "Deep Blue Sea", and stars Danielle Savre, Michael Beach, and Rob Mayes. In the film, a shark conservationist is hired to consult on a top-secret project involving genetically enhanced bull sharks funded by a pharmaceutical billionaire. However, the highly intelligent super-sharks turn on their masters and begin to pick them off one by one. The film was released direct-to-video on April 17, 2018. It was followed by "Deep Blue Sea 3".


title: Deep Blue Sea 2

text: Shark conservationist Misty Calhoun is invited to visit the sea-based facility Akhelios by pharmaceutical billionaire Carl Durant. She and neurobiology students Leslie and Daniel Kim are taken to the facility by Durant's associate Craig Burns on a motorboat. When they arrive, they meet Durant, as well as the facility's crew, which include shark trainers Trent Slater, Mike Shutello, and Josh Hooper, and computer technician Aaron Ellroy. As a demonstration, Durant throws Aaron into the water, letting the sharks chase him: at the last possible second, he uses a special device to drive them away in formation. Durant explains that he has been genetically altering the brains of five bull sharks to make them smarter, which renders Misty concerned.


title: Deep Blue Sea 2

text: The group subsequently convenes in the wet lab, where Durant explains to Misty that the reason he invited her is that the alpha shark, Bella, has been acting strangely, to which Misty concludes is because she is pregnant. Durant is puzzled by this because her pregnancy did not come up on any tests they ran on her, and Misty theorizes that their genetic alterations hid this. Durant then brings Bella into the wet lab, and has Josh take samples of her saliva, although Bella attempts to bite his arm; he narrowly avoids this. Meanwhile, on the surface, a second shark pushes the motorboat into an electric control box, causing it to explode, and creating significant damage. This also shuts down some systems within the facility. The sharks then begin flooding the facility and Craig is killed while the others are inside the wet lab. Misty then realizes that Bella went into labor after being dropped back into the pool, and has given birth to a series of shark pups, which previously attacked Craig.


title: Deep Blue Sea 2

text: Mike attempts to swim to the surface, but one of the sharks knocks him unconscious; Trent rescues him and Misty manages to revive him. As he leans over the pool to pick up his mask from the water, one of the sharks beheads him. As a result of a lack of pressure stabilization in the room, the water from the pool pours in, and the group becomes separated, with Leslie knocked unconscious in the flooding; Durant and Daniel both end up alone. Misty and Trent become stranded together, as do Aaron and Josh. Trent reveals to Misty that Durant has been doing the same experiments on himself using a genetics-altering liquid to make himself more intelligent, due to his phobia that technology will one day rule the world. Durant reunites with Misty and Trent soon after, and they make their way to an air ventilation shaft that will lead to the surface.


title: Deep Blue Sea 2

text: Aaron and Josh arrive in one of the sleeping quarters, but the shark pups find them and kill Josh while Aaron escapes on an air mattress. Misty, Trent, and Durant arrive at the shaft, but Durant locks her out of the room after she attempts to find other survivors, which enrages Trent. The two manage to reach the surface. Meanwhile, Daniel finds Leslie behind a door, and the shark pups kill her in front of him. He is soon found by Aaron, who was attacked by the pups and lost the mattress, and they attempt to find a way to the surface. Misty, meanwhile, uses a blow torch to get inside the room with the ventilation shaft and is met by Aaron and Daniel. The shark pups then find them, and Misty distracts them while Aaron and Daniel begin climbing to the surface. The water rises as they climb to the surface, which allows the pups to reach Daniel and bisect him while Aaron reaches the surface. Meanwhile, Misty, using scuba gear she found in Trent's quarters, manages to swim to the surface and reunite with the others.


title: Deep Blue Sea 2

text: Realizing that the facility is sinking, and they cannot stay any longer, the group makes a break for the motorboat. Aaron is dragged underwater by one of the sharks while Durant is confronted by Bella, and seemingly scares her away. However, moments later, Bella jumps up and kills him, while Misty and Trent reach the motorboat and use two flare guns to kill one of the sharks. Aaron then jumps onto the boat, explaining that he escaped one of the sharks. Misty tells Trent that they cannot let the sharks roam in the open ocean, and Trent, explaining that Durant planned for this precise event, blows up the facility with a self-destruct mechanism, killing many sharks offscreen. Misty, Trent, and Aaron then escape on the motorboat. However, it is soon revealed that Bella and many of her pups somehow survived the explosion and are now free in the open ocean.


title: Deep Blue Sea 2

text: In 2008, Warner Premiere was planning a direct-to-video sequel to Renny Harlin's "Deep Blue Sea", which would be directed by Jack Perez and released sometime in 2009. The project, though, did not materialize. Even so, in June 2017, it was announced that the sequel directed by Darin Scott had begun filming in Cape Town, South Africa. In January 2018, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment released a trailer for "Deep Blue Sea 2".


title: Deep Blue Sea 2

text: On April 17, 2018, "Deep Blue Sea 2" was released on Blu-ray combo pack, DVD and Digital HD, the first two of which contain two featurettes—"Returning to the Deep – The Making of "Deep Blue Sea 2"" and ""Deep Blue Sea 2": Death by Shark"—gag reel, and deleted scenes.


title: Deep Blue Sea 2

text: The direct-to-video release "Deep Blue Sea 2" debuted at #8 on the Top 20 Sellers for the week ended April 21, 2018, alongside two theatrical new releases; Tom Hanks starrer "The Post" (#4 debut) and Liam Neeson starrer "The Commuter" (#3 debut.) "Deep Blue Sea 2" achieved an Index of 12.56 versus 28.71 for "The Post" and 36.83 for "The Commuter". Blu-ray disc accounted for 35% of the sales for "Deep Blue Sea 2" versus 48% for "The Post" and 50% for "The Commuter". The "Deep Blue Sea 2" home video debut Ranking and Index was approximately on-par with the home video debut of theatrical release "Insidious: The Last Key" two weeks earlier. While it remained in the top 20 Sellers in its second week of release (the week ended 04-28-18,) "Deep Blue Sea 2" dropped ten places in its second week, a drop approximately in line with "The Post" which dropped seven places in its second week.


title: Deep Blue Sea 2

text: "Deep Blue Sea 2" also released the same week on VOD. It debuted at #10 on the Microsoft Store VOD chart for the week ended 04-23-18 just behind theatrical release "Insidious: The Last Key" and maintained its position at #10 the following week (for the week ended 04-30-18) just behind theatrical release, Matt Damon starrer "Downsizing". The "Deep Blue Sea 2" VOD debut ranking was approximately on-par with the VOD debut of theatrical release "Winchester" the following week. "Deep Blue Sea 2" was the only non-theatrical release to appear in the top 10 of any VOD chart for the months of April and May 2018.


title: Deep Blue Sea 2

text: A soundtrack was released on April 16, 2018, with one song titled as "Into The Blue" which was the film's title theme performed by Sean Murray who was also the composer of the film's soundtrack. The soundtrack was released under Dragon's Domain Records and on the back on the CD case it can be read that "A Limited Edition of 500 Units". However, those other copies can still be found on Amazon.


title: Deep Blue Sea 2

text: A third film, titled "Deep Blue Sea 3," was released on VOD on July 28, 2020, and on Blu-ray and DVD on August 25, 2020.


title: Maximilian von Weichs

text: Maximilian Maria Joseph Karl Gabriel Lamoral Reichsfreiherr von und zu Weichs an der Glon (12 November 1881 – 27 September 1954) was a field marshal in the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany during World War II.


title: Maximilian von Weichs

text: Born into an aristocratic family, Weichs joined the Bavarian cavalry in 1900 and fought in the First World War. At the outbreak of the Second World War he commanded the XIII Corps in the invasion of Poland. He later commanded the 2nd Army during the invasions of France, Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union.


title: Maximilian von Weichs

text: In August 1942 during Case Blue, the German offensive in southern Russia, he was appointed commander of Army Group B. In 1944, Weichs commanded Army Group F in the Balkans overseeing the German retreat from Greece and most of Yugoslavia. During the Nuremberg Trials, Weichs was implicated in war crimes committed in the Balkans and was scheduled to take part in the US Army's Hostages Trial. He was removed from the proceeding for "medical reasons" without having been judged or sentenced.


title: Maximilian von Weichs

text: Born in 1881 into an aristocratic family, Maximilian von Weichs entered the Bavarian Cavalry in 1900 and participated in World War I as a staff officer. After the war he remained in the newly created Reichswehr where he worked at a number of General Staff positions.


title: Maximilian von Weichs

text: Transferred from the 3rd Cavalry Division to command Germany's 1st Panzer Division upon its formation in October 1935, he led the unit in maneuvers that impressed Army Commander in Chief Werner von Fritsch. Weichs' aristocratic and cavalry credentials demonstrated the continuing influence of these military elites in Germany's modernizing force. In October 1937 he became the commander of the XIII Army Corps, that later served in the 1938 German annexation of the Sudetenland.


title: Maximilian von Weichs

text: To prepare for the German invasion of Poland beginning World War II in 1939, Weichs was appointed head of his own Army Corps "Weichs".


title: Maximilian von Weichs

text: After the Polish surrender, he was made Commander-in-Chief of the 2nd Army, a part of Rundstedt's Army Group A in the West. After the Battle of France, he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross and promoted to colonel-general. Leading his army, Weichs later took part in the Balkans Campaign, and in preparation for Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union, he was assigned to lead the 2nd Army as a part of Fedor von Bock’s Army Group Centre. He led the 2nd Army in 1941 through the Battle of Kiev, the Battle of Smolensk, and then on to Vyazma and Bryansk.


title: Maximilian von Weichs

text: In 1942, for Fall Blau, Weichs was assigned to lead the newly created Army Group B. Army Group B was composed of Salmuth's 2nd Army, Hoth’s 4th Panzer Army, and Paulus's 6th Army. In addition to the German armies, Army Group B included the 2nd Hungarian Army, 8th Italian Army, the Third and the Fourth Romanian Armies. The 6th Army was assigned to take the city of Stalingrad and cover approximately 800 km of front.


title: Maximilian von Weichs

text: The Soviet Operation Uranus broke through the Romanian armies on his flanks, cutting off the 6th Army inside Stalingrad. Suggesting retreat, Weichs fell out of Hitler’s favor. Consequently, parts of Army Group B were taken away from the command of Weichs and incorporated into a new "Army Group Don", led by Manstein. Later in February, the remaining part merged with the Don Group into a newly reinstated Army Group South, also led by Manstein. Weichs was relieved of command.


title: Maximilian von Weichs

text: Weichs was promoted to Field Marshal on 1 February 1943. In August 1943 Weichs was appointed Commander of Army Group F in the Balkans directing operations against local partisan groups. Since August 1943 Weichs was also OB Südost, commander-in-chief of the German occupied Greece and the Balkans (Yugoslavia, Albania and Thrace) whose headquarters were first in Belgrade and since 5 October 1944 in Vukovar. In April 1944 Weichs was appointed to the position of commander of all German troops stationed in Hungary. In late 1944, he oversaw the German retreat from Greece and most of Yugoslavia.


title: Maximilian von Weichs

text: Weichs was retired on 25 March 1945 and was arrested by American troops in May. During the Nuremberg Trials, Weichs was said to be implicated in war crimes committed while suppressing the partisans. He was removed from the US Army's Hostages Trial for medical reasons without having been judged or sentenced.


title: Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration

text: The Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration was an era in the exploration of the continent of Antarctica which began at the end of the 19th century, and ended after the First World War; the Shackleton–Rowett Expedition of 1921–1922 is often cited by historians as the dividing line between the "Heroic" and "Mechanical" ages.


title: Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration

text: During the Heroic Age, the Antarctic region became the focus of international efforts that resulted in intensive scientific and geographical exploration by 17 major Antarctic expeditions launched from ten countries. The common factor in these expeditions was the limited nature of the resources available to them before advances in transport and communication technologies revolutionized the work of exploration. Each of these expeditions therefore became a feat of endurance that tested, and sometimes exceeded, the physical and mental limits of its personnel. The "heroic" label, bestowed later, recognized the adversities which had to be overcome by these pioneers, some of whom did not survive the experience: a total of 19 expedition members died during this period.


title: Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration

text: Both the geographic and magnetic South Poles were reached for the first time during the Heroic Age. The achievement of being first to the geographical pole was the primary object in many expeditions, as well as the sole rationale for Roald Amundsen's venture, which became the first to reach it in 1911. Other expeditions aimed for different objectives in different areas of the continent. As a result of all this activity, much of the continent's coastline was discovered and mapped, and significant areas of its interior were explored. The expeditions also generated large quantities of scientific data across a wide range of disciplines, the examination and analysis of which would keep the world's scientific communities busy for decades.


title: Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration

text: Exploration of the southernmost part of the globe had been an off-and-on area of interest for centuries prior to the Heroic Age, yet the sheer isolation of the region as well as its inhospitable climate and treacherous seas presented enormous practical difficulties for early maritime technology. About a century after the Age of Exploration, British explorer James Cook became one of the first explorers known to have traveled to the region. The discoveries of his second voyage (1772–1775) changed the world map forever. Prior to this expedition it was believed that a large continent known as "Terra Australis" occupied the majority of the Southern Hemisphere. Cook discovered that no such landmass existed, though massive ice floes prevented his reaching Antarctica proper. In the process his expedition became the first recorded voyage to cross the Antarctic Circle. He did hypothesize that, based upon the amount of ice, there must be a landmass from which the ice originated, but was convinced that if it existed this land was too far south to be either habitable or of any economic value. Subsequently, exploration of the southern regions of the world came to a halt.


title: Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration

text: Interest was renewed again between 1819 and 1843. As Europe settled after a period of war and unrest, explorers Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen, John Biscoe, John Balleny, Charles Wilkes, Jules Dumont d'Urville, and James Clark Ross sought greater knowledge of the Antarctic regions. The primary goal of these explorers was to penetrate the vast barriers of sea ice that hid Antarctica proper, beginning with Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev's circumnavigation of the region in 1819–1821, during which they became the first to sight and therefore officially discover mainland Antarctica, and culminating in Wilkes' discovery of Victoria Land and naming of the volcanoes now known as Mount Terror and Mount Erebus in 1840. Much early knowledge of the lands south of the Antarctic Circle was also derived from economic pursuits by sealers and whalers, including the probable first landing on mainland Antarctica by an American sealer in 1821, though whether this landing was truly the first is disputed by historians. These explorers, despite their impressive contributions to South Polar exploration, were nonetheless unable to penetrate the interior of the continent, and their discoveries instead formed a broken line of newly discovered lands along the coastline of Antarctica.


title: Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration

text: What followed this early period of exploration is what historian H. R. Mill called "the age of averted interest". Following James Clark Ross' expedition aboard the ships HMS "Erebus" and HMS "Terror" in January 1841, Ross suggested that there were no scientific discoveries worth exploration in the far South. It has been suggested that Ross' influence, as well as the widely publicized loss of the Franklin expedition in the Arctic in 1848, led to a period of disinterest, or at least an unwillingness to invest significant resources, in polar inquiry, particularly by the Royal Society. In the twenty years following Ross' return, there was a general lull internationally in Antarctic exploration.


title: Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration

text: The initial impetus for the renewed exploration of the Antarctic that became known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration is somewhat contested, as it was a vague and multifarious international movement. George von Neumayer of Hamburg, also an Antarctic explorer, worked to renew Antarctic exploration from 1861 onward as he worked in an observatory in Melbourne. His particular interests were the importance of meteorology and how more information about the South Pole could lead to more accurate weather predictions. This helps explain German involvement in Antarctic research. Another important precursor to the Heroic Age of Antarctic exploration was the Dundee Antarctic Expedition of 1892–93 in which four Dundee whaling ships travelled south to the Antarctic in search of whales instead of their usual Arctic route. The expedition was accompanied by several naturalists (including Williams Speirs Bruce) and an artist, William Gordon Burn Murdoch. The publications (both scientific and popular) and exhibitions that resulted did much to reignite public interest in the Antarctic. The performance of the whaling ships was also crucial in the decision to build RRS "Discovery" in Dundee.


title: Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration

text: Another, particularly British, impetus more closely tied to the period is a lecture given by John Murray titled "The Renewal of Antarctic Exploration", given to the Royal Geographical Society in London, on 27 November 1893. Murray advocated that research into the Antarctic should be organised to "resolve the outstanding geographical questions still posed in the south". Shortly prior to this, in 1887, the Royal Geographic Society had instated an Antarctic Committee which successfully incited many whalers to explore the southern regions of the world and foregrounded the lecture given by Murray. In August 1895, the Sixth International Geographical Congress in London passed a general resolution calling on scientific societies throughout the world to promote the cause of Antarctic exploration "in whatever ways seem to them most effective". Such work, the resolution argued, would "bring additions to almost every branch of science". The Congress was addressed by the Norwegian Carsten Borchgrevink, who had just returned from a whaling expedition during which he had become one of the first people to set foot on the Antarctic mainland. During his address, Borchgrevink outlined plans for a full-scale pioneering Antarctic expedition, to be based at Cape Adare.


title: Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration

text: However, the inauguration of the Heroic Age is now generally considered to be an expedition launched by the Belgian Geographical Society in 1897; Borchgrevink followed a year later with a privately sponsored expedition. The designation "Heroic Age" only came much later; the term is not used in any of the early expedition accounts or memoirs, nor in biographies of polar figures involved in the Heroic Age which appeared in the 1920s and 1930s. It is not clear when the term was first coined or adopted generally. It was used in March 1956 by the British explorer Duncan Carse, writing in "The Times". Describing the first crossing of South Georgia by Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition in 1916, Carse wrote of "three men from the heroic age of Antarctic exploration, with 50 feet of rope between them, and a carpenter's adze".


title: Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration

text: Twenty-two men died on Antarctic expeditions during the Heroic Age. Of these, four died of illnesses unrelated to their Antarctic experiences, and two died from accidents in New Zealand, and one in France. The remaining 15 perished during service on or near the Antarctic continent.


title: Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration

text: Another five men died shortly after returning from the Antarctic (this does not include the significant number who died on active service in the First World War):


title: Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration

text: There are different views about when the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration came to an end. Shackleton's "Endurance" expedition is sometimes referred to as the last Antarctic expedition of the Heroic Age. Other chroniclers extend the era to the date of Shackleton's death, 5 January 1922, treating the Shackleton–Rowett, or "Quest" expedition, during which Shackleton died, as the final chapter of the Age. According to Margery and James Fisher, Shackleton's biographers: "If it were possible to draw a distinct dividing line between what has been called the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration and the Mechanical Age, the Shackleton–Rowett expedition might make as good a point as any at which to draw such a line". A journalist inspecting the ship before she sailed reported "Gadgets! Gadgets! Gadgets everywhere!". These included wireless, an electrically heated crow's nest and an "odograph" that could trace and record the ship's route and speed.


title: Basket Case (song)

text: "Basket Case" is a song by the American rock band Green Day. It is the seventh track and third single from their third studio album, "Dookie" (1994). The song spent five weeks at the top of "Billboard"s Alternative Songs chart.


title: Basket Case (song)

text: In 2001, the song appeared as the fifth track on their greatest hits album, "International Superhits!". In 2021, it was ranked no. 150 in Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.


title: Basket Case (song)

text: Green Day vocalist/guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong said "Basket Case" is about his struggle with anxiety; before he was diagnosed with a panic disorder years afterward, he thought he was going crazy. Armstrong commented that at the time, "The only way I could know what the hell was going on was to write a song about it."


title: Basket Case (song)

text: "Basket Case" was one of the songs producer Rob Cavallo heard when he received Green Day's demo tape. He ended up signing the band to Reprise Records in mid-1993. Green Day and Cavallo recorded the version of "Basket Case" released on the trio's major label debut "Dookie" between September and October 1993 at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, California.


title: Basket Case (song)

text: Armstrong revealed in his audible, Welcome to My Panic, in April 2021 that he wrote the song whilst on speed.


title: Basket Case (song)

text: "Basket Case", is a punk rock, pop-punk, and alternative rock song, performed in the key of E-flat. The introductory verse features only Armstrong and his guitar. During the middle of the first chorus the rest of the band joins in, with Tré Cool adding fast tom fills and explosive transitions and Mike Dirnt adding a bass line that is reminiscent of the vocal melody. In the second verse, "Basket Case" references soliciting a male prostitute; Armstrong noted that "I wanted to challenge myself and whoever the listener might be. It's also looking at the world and saying, 'It's not as black and white as you think. This isn't your grandfather's prostitute – or maybe it was.'" The song's chord progression closely mirrors that of Pachelbel's Canon.


title: Basket Case (song)

text: "Basket Case" was the second single released from "Dookie", following "Longview". "Basket Case" peaked at number one on the "Billboard" Modern Rock Tracks chart, a position it maintained for five weeks. In 1995, "Basket Case" garnered a Grammy Award nomination in the Best Rock Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group category.


title: Basket Case (song)

text: Music writer James Masterton wrote in his weekly UK chart commentary, "Something of an instant classic (...) it is certainly one of the most alternative Top 10 smash since Radiohead's Creep. As to where it goes next it is hard to tell but it could potentially open the door for a flood of the post-Nirvana young American rock bands who are currently making waves on the other side of the Atlantic." British magazine "Music Week" rated it three out of five, describing it as "the Generation X-flag-wavers' splenetic slice of Bay Area punk". Troy J. Augusto from "Variety" called it "psycho-rave".


title: Basket Case (song)

text: In 2006, on Mike Davies and Zane Lowe's Lock Up Special on BBC Radio 1, the listeners voted "Basket Case" the Greatest Punk Song of All Time. In 2009, it was named the 33rd best hard rock song of all time by VH1. In 2021, "Kerrang" ranked the song number three on their list of the 20 greatest Green Day songs, and in 2022, "American Songwriter" ranked the song number two on their list of the 10 greatest Green Day songs.


title: Basket Case (song)

text: The "Basket Case" video was directed by Mark Kohr. The video was filmed in an actual mental institution called Agnews Developmental Center in Santa Clara County, California, at the request of the band members. The mental institution had been abandoned, but most of the structure remained in a broken-down state. The band members found old patient files, deep scratches in the walls and dental molds scattered around. The video frequently references the films "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and "Brazil". The music video was originally filmed in black and white and the color was added in later, however the patients of the mental institution remain black and white in the video.


title: Basket Case (song)

text: The video was nominated for nine MTV Video Music Awards in 1995: Video of the Year, Best Group Video, Best Metal/Hard Rock Video, Best Alternative Video, Breakthrough Video, Best Direction, Best Editing, Best Cinematography, and Viewer's Choice Award. The video did not win in any of the categories it was nominated for.


title: Basket Case (song)

text: The video for "Basket Case" was later published on Green Day's official YouTube channel in October 2009. It has amassed more than 276 million views as of February 2022.


title: Glass wool

text: Glass wool is an insulating material made from glass fiber arranged using a binder into a texture similar to wool. The process traps many small pockets of air between the glass, and these small air pockets result in high thermal insulation properties. Glass wool is produced in rolls or in slabs, with different thermal and mechanical properties. It may also be produced as a material that can be sprayed or applied in place, on the surface to be insulated. The modern method for producing glass wool was invented by Games Slayter while he was working at the Owens-Illinois Glass Co. (Toledo, Ohio). He first applied for a patent for a new process to make glass wool in 1933.


title: Glass wool

text: Gases possess poor thermal conduction properties compared to liquids and solids and thus make good insulation material if they can be trapped in materials so that much of the heat that flows through the material is forced to flow through the gas. In order to further augment the effectiveness of a gas (such as air) it may be disrupted into small cells which cannot effectively transfer heat by natural convection. Natural convection involves a larger bulk flow of gas driven by buoyancy and temperature differences, and it does not work well in small gas cells where there is little density difference to drive it, and the high surface area to volume ratios of the small cells retards bulk gas flow inside them by means of viscous drag.


title: Glass wool

text: In order to accomplish the formation of small gas cells in man-made thermal insulation, glass and polymer materials can be used to trap air in a foam-like structure. The same principle used in glass wool is used in other man-made insulators such as rock wool, Styrofoam, wet suit neoprene foam fabrics, and fabrics such as Gore-Tex and polar fleece. The air-trapping property is also the insulation principle used in nature in down feathers and insulating hair such as natural wool.


title: Glass wool

text: Natural sand and recycled glass are mixed and heated to 1,450 °C, to produce glass. The fiberglass is usually produced by a method similar to making cotton candy, by forcing it through a fine mesh by centrifugal force, cooling on contact with the air. Cohesion and mechanical strength are obtained by the presence of a binder that “cements” the fibers together. A drop of binder is placed at each fiber intersection. The fiber mat is then heated to around 200 °C to polymerize the resin and is calendered to give it strength and stability. Finally, the wool mat is cut and packed in rolls or panels, palletized, and stored for use.


title: Glass wool

text: Glass wool is a thermal insulation material consisting of intertwined and flexible glass fibers, which causes it to "package" air, resulting in a low density that can be varied through compression and binder content (as noted above, these air cells are the actual insulator). Glass wool can be a loose-fill material, blown into attics, or together with an active binder, sprayed on the underside of structures, sheets, and panels that can be used to insulate flat surfaces such as cavity wall insulation, ceiling tiles, curtain walls, and ducting. It is also used to insulate piping and for soundproofing.


title: Glass wool

text: Batts are precut, whereas blankets are available in continuous rolls. Compressing the material reduces its effectiveness. Cutting it to accommodate electrical boxes and other obstructions allows air a free path to cross through the wall cavity. One can install batts in two layers across an unfinished attic floor, perpendicular to each other, for increased effectiveness at preventing heat bridging. Blankets can cover joists and studs as well as the space between them. Batts can be challenging and unpleasant to hang under floors between joists; straps, or staple cloth or wire mesh across joists, can hold it up.


title: Glass wool

text: Gaps between batts (bypasses) can become sites of air infiltration or condensation (both of which reduce the effectiveness of the insulation) and require strict attention during the installation. By the same token careful weatherization and installation of vapour barriers is required to ensure that the batts perform optimally. Air infiltration can be also reduced by adding a layer of cellulose loose-fill on top of the material.


title: Glass wool

text: Fiberglass will irritate the eyes, skin, and the respiratory system. Potential symptoms include irritation of eyes, skin, nose, and throat, dyspnea (breathing difficulty), sore throat, hoarseness and cough. Fiberglass used for insulating appliances appears to produce human disease that is similar to asbestosis. Scientific evidence demonstrates that fiberglass is safe to manufacture, install and use when recommended work practices are followed to reduce temporary mechanical irritation. Unfortunately these work practices are not always followed, and fiberglass is often left exposed in basements that later become occupied. Fiberglass insulation should never be left exposed in an occupied area, according to the American Lung Association.


title: Glass wool

text: In June 2011, the United States' National Toxicology Program (NTP) removed from its Report on Carcinogens all biosoluble glass wool used in home and building insulation and for non-insulation products. Similarly, California's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment ("OEHHA"), in November 2011, published a modification to its Proposition 65 listing to include only "Glass wool fibers (inhalable and biopersistent)." The United States' NTP and California's OEHHA action means that a cancer warning label for biosoluble fiber glass home and building insulation is no longer required under Federal or California law. All fiberglass wools commonly used for thermal and acoustical insulation were reclassified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in October 2001 as Not Classifiable as to carcinogenicity to humans (Group 3).


title: Glass wool

text: Fiberglass itself is resistant to mold. If mold is found in or on fiberglass it is more likely that the binder is the source of the mold, since binders are often organic and more hygroscopic than the glass wool. In tests, glass wool was found to be highly resistant to the growth of mold. Only exceptional circumstances resulted in mold growth: very high relative humidity, 96% and above, or saturated glass wool, although saturated wool glass will only have moderate growth.


title: Prehistoric warfare

text: The existence — and even the definition — of war in humanity's hypothetical state of nature has been a controversial topic in the history of ideas at least since Thomas Hobbes in "Leviathan" (1651) argued a "war of all against all", a view directly challenged by Jean-Jacques Rousseau in a "Discourse on Inequality" (1755) and "The Social Contract" (1762). The debate over human nature continues, spanning contemporary anthropology, archaeology, ethnography, history, political science, psychology, primatology, and philosophy in such divergent books as Azar Gat's "War in Human Civilization" and Raymond C. Kelly's "Warless Societies and the Origin of War". For the purposes of this article, "prehistoric war" will be broadly defined as a state of organized lethal aggression between autonomous preliterate communities.


title: Prehistoric warfare

text: According to cultural anthropologist and ethnographer Raymond C. Kelly, population density among the earliest hunter-gatherer societies of "Homo erectus" was probably low enough to avoid armed conflict. The development of the throwing-spear and ambush hunting techniques required cooperation, which made potential violence between hunting parties very costly. The need to prevent competition for resources by maintenance of low population densities may have accelerated the migration out of Africa of "H. erectus" some 1.8 million years ago as a natural consequence of conflict avoidance.


title: Prehistoric warfare

text: Kelly believes that this period of "Paleolithic warlessness" persisted until well after the appearance of "Homo sapiens" some 315,000 years ago, ending only at the occurrence of economic and social shifts associated with sedentism, when new conditions incentivized organized raiding of settlements.


title: Prehistoric warfare

text: None of the many cave paintings of the Upper Paleolithic depicts people attacking other people explicitly,


title: Prehistoric warfare

text: both of the Aurignacian-Périgordian (roughly 30,000 years old) and the early Magdalenian (c. 17,000 years old), possibly representing "spontaneous confrontations over game resources" in which hostile trespassers were killed; however, other interpretations, including capital punishment, human sacrifice, assassination or systemic warfare cannot be ruled out.


title: Prehistoric warfare

text: Skeletal and artifactual evidence of intergroup violence between Paleolithic nomadic foragers is absent as well.


title: Prehistoric warfare

text: The most ancient archaeological record of what could have been a prehistoric massacre is at the site of Jebel Sahaba, committed by the Natufians against a population associated with the Qadan culture of far northern Sudan.


title: Prehistoric warfare

text: The cemetery contains a large number of skeletons that are approximately 13,000 to 14,000 years old, almost half of them with arrowheads embedded in their skeletons, which indicates that they may have been the casualties of warfare. It has been noted that the violence, if dated correctly, likely occurred in the wake of a local ecological crisis.


title: Prehistoric warfare

text: At the site of Nataruk in Turkana, Kenya, numerous 10,000-year-old human remains were found with possible evidence of major traumatic injuries, including obsidian bladelets embedded in the skeletons, that should have been lethal. According to the original study, published in January 2016, the region was a "fertile lakeshore landscape sustaining a substantial population of hunter-gatherers" where pottery had been found, suggesting storage of food and sedentism. The initial report concluded that the bodies at Nataruk were not interred, but were preserved in the positions the individuals had died at the edge of a lagoon. However, evidence of blunt-force cranial trauma and lack of interment have been called into question, casting doubt upon the assertion that the site represents early intragroup violence.


title: Prehistoric warfare

text: The oldest rock art depicting acts of violence between hunter-gatherers in Northern Australia has been tentatively dated to 10,000 years ago.


title: Prehistoric warfare

text: The earliest, limited evidence for war in Mesolithic Europe likewise dates to ca. 10,000 years ago, and episodes of warfare appear to remain "localized and temporarily restricted" during the Late Mesolithic to Early Neolithic period in Europe. Iberian cave art of the Mesolithic shows explicit scenes of battle between groups of archers. A group of three archers encircled by a group of four is found in Cova del Roure, Morella la Vella, Castellón, Valencia. A depiction of a larger battle (which may, however, date to the early Neolithic), in which eleven archers are attacked by seventeen running archers, is found in Les Dogue, Ares del Maestrat, Castellón, Valencia. At Val del Charco del Agua Amarga, Alcañiz, Aragon, seven archers with plumes on their heads are fleeing a group of eight archers running in pursuit.


title: Prehistoric warfare

text: Early war was influenced by the development of bows, maces, and slings. The bow seems to have been the most important weapon in early warfare, in that it enabled attacks to be launched with far less risk to the attacker when compared to the risk involved in mêlée combat. While there are no cave paintings of battles between men armed with clubs, the development of the bow is concurrent with the first known depictions of organized warfare consisting of clear illustrations of two or more groups of men attacking each other. These figures are arrayed in lines and columns with a distinctly garbed leader at the front. Some paintings even portray still-recognizable tactics like flankings and envelopments.


title: Prehistoric warfare

text: Systemic warfare appears to have been a direct consequence of the sedentism as it developed in the wake of the Neolithic Revolution.


title: Prehistoric warfare

text: An important example is the massacre of Talheim Death Pit (near Heilbronn, Germany), dated right on the cusp of the beginning European Neolithic, at 5500 BC. Investigation of the Neolithic skeletons found in the Talheim Death pit in Germany suggests that prehistoric men from neighboring tribes were prepared to brutally fight and kill each other in order to capture and secure women. Researchers discovered that there were women among the immigrant skeletons, but within the local group of skeletons there were only men and children. They concluded that the absence of women among the local skeletons meant that they were regarded as somehow special, thus they were spared execution and captured instead. The capture of women may have indeed been the primary motive for the fierce conflict between the men.


title: Prehistoric warfare

text: Other speculations about the reasons for violence among Linear Pottery Culture settlements in Neolithic Europe include vengeance, conflicts over land and resources, and kidnapping of slaves. Some of these theories related to the lack of resources are supported by the discovery that various fortifications bordering indigenously inhabited areas appear to have not been in use for very long. Mass burial site at Schletz was also fortified, which serves as evidence of violent conflict among tribes and means that these fortifications were built as a form of defense against aggressor. The massacre of Schletz occurred at the same time as the massacre at Talheim and several other massacres.


title: Prehistoric warfare

text: More recently, a similar site was discovered at Schöneck-Kilianstädten, with the remains of the victims showing "a pattern of intentional mutilation".


title: Prehistoric warfare

text: While the presence of such massacre sites in the context of Early Neolithic Europe is undisputed, diverging definitions of "warfare proper" (i.e. planned campaigns sanctioned by society as opposed to spontaneous massacres) has led to scholarly debate on the existence of warfare in the narrow sense prior to the development of city states in 20th-century archaeology. In the summary of Heath (2017), accumulating archaeology has made it "increasingly harder" to argue for the absence of organised warfare in Neolithic Europe.


title: Prehistoric warfare

text: During the period of expansion of hunter-gatherer groups associated with the Pitted Ware culture in southern Scandinavia, the Funnelbeaker farmers constructed a number of defensive palisades, which may mean that the two peoples were in conflict with each other. There is archaeological evidence of high levels of violence among the people of the Pitted Ware culture.


title: Prehistoric warfare

text: Warfare in pre-Columbian North America has served as an important comparandum in the archaeological study of the indirect evidence for warfare in the Neolithic. A notable example is the massacre at the Crow Creek Site in South Dakota (14th century).


title: Prehistoric warfare

text: The onset of the Chalcolithic (Copper Age) saw the introduction of copper weapons. Organised warfare between early city states was in existence by the mid-5th millennium BC. Excavations at Mersin, Anatolia show the presence of fortifications and soldiers' quarters by 4300 BC.


title: Prehistoric warfare

text: Excavation work undertaken in 2005 and 2006 has shown that Hamoukar was destroyed by warfare by around 3500 BC-—probably the earliest urban warfare attested so far in the archaeological record of the Near East. Continued excavations in 2008 and 2010 expand on that.


title: Prehistoric warfare

text: Archaeological evidence suggests that Proto-Indo-Iranian-speaking Abashevo society was intensely warlike. Mass graves reveal that inter-tribal battles involved hundreds of warriors of both sides. Warfare appears to have been more frequent in the late Abashevo period, and it was in this turbulent environment in which the Sintashta culture emerged. The spread of spoke-wheeled chariots has been closely associated with early Indo-Iranian migrations. The earliest known chariots have been found in Sintashta culture burial sites, and the culture is considered a strong candidate for the origin of the technology, which spread throughout the Old World and played an important role in ancient warfare.


title: Prehistoric warfare

text: Military conquests expanded city states under Egyptian control. Babylonia and later Assyria built empires in Mesopotamia while the Hittite Empire ruled much of Anatolia.


title: Prehistoric warfare

text: Chariots appear in the 20th century BC, and become central to warfare in the Ancient Near East from the 17th century BC. The Hyksos and Kassite invasions mark the transition to the Late Bronze Age. Ahmose I defeated the Hyksos and re-established Egyptian control of Nubia and Canaan, territories again defended by Ramesses II at the Battle of Kadesh, the greatest chariot battle in history. The raids of the Sea Peoples and the renewed disintegration of Egypt in the Third Intermediate Period marks the end of the Bronze Age.


title: Prehistoric warfare

text: The Tollense valley battlefield is the oldest evidence of a large scale battle in Europe. More than 4,000 warriors from Central Europe fought in a battle on the site in the 13th century BC.


title: Prehistoric warfare

text: Mycenaean Greeks (c. 1600-1100 BC) invested in the development of military infrastructure, while military production and logistics were supervised directly from the palatial centers. The most identifiable piece of Mycenaean armor was the boar's tusk helmet. In general, most features of the later hoplite panoply of classical Greek antiquity, were already known to Mycenaean Greece.


title: Prehistoric warfare

text: The Late Bronze Age collapse was a time of widespread societal collapse during the 12th century BC, between c.1200 and 1150. It was sudden, violent, and culturally disruptive for many Bronze Age civilizations, and it brought a sharp economic decline to regional powers, notably ushering in the Greek Dark Ages. Historian Robert Drews argues for the appearance of massed infantry, using newly developed weapons and armour, such as cast rather than forged spearheads and long swords, a revolutionizing cut-and-thrust weapon, and javelins. Such new weaponry, in the hands of large numbers of "running skirmishers", who could swarm and cut down a chariot army, would destabilize states that were based upon the use of chariots by the ruling class. That would precipitate an abrupt social collapse as raiders began to conquer, loot and burn cities.


title: Prehistoric warfare

text: The Bronze Age in China traverses the protohistoric and historic periods. Battles utilizing foot and chariot infantry took place regularly between powers in the North China Plain.


title: Prehistoric warfare

text: Early Iron Age events like the Dorian invasion, Greek colonialism and their interaction with Phoenician and Etruscan forces lie within the prehistoric period. Germanic warrior societies of the Migration period engaged in endemic warfare (see also Thorsberg moor). Anglo-Saxon warfare lies on the edge of historicity, its study relying primarily on archaeology with the help of only fragmentary written accounts.


title: Prehistoric warfare

text: There are around 3,300 structures that can be classed as hillforts or similar "defended enclosures" within Britain. Hillforts in Britain are known from the Bronze Age, but the great period of hillfort construction was during the British Iron Age, between 700 BC and the Roman conquest of Britain in 43 AD. The reason for the emergence of hillforts in Britain, and their purpose, has been a subject of debate. It has been argued that they could have been military sites constructed in response to invasion from continental Europe, sites built by invaders, or a military reaction to social tensions caused by an increasing population and consequent pressure on agriculture.


title: Prehistoric warfare

text: In warlike cultures, war is often ritualized with a number of taboos and practices that limit the number of casualties and the duration of the conflict. This type of situation is known as endemic warfare. Among tribal societies engaging in endemic warfare, conflict may escalate to actual warfare occasionally for reasons such as conflict over resources or for no readily understandable reason.


title: Prehistoric warfare

text: Warfare is known to every tribal society, but some societies developed a particular emphasis of warrior culture (such as the Nuer of South Sudan, the Māori of New Zealand, the Dugum Dani of Papua, the Yanomami (dubbed "the Fierce People") of the Amazon. The culture of inter-tribal warfare has long been present in New Guinea.


title: Korean People's Navy

text: The Korean People's Army Naval Force (KPANF; Korean: 조선인민군 해군; Hanja: 朝鮮人民軍 海軍; "Chosŏn-inmingun Haegun"; ) or the Korean People's Navy (KPN), is the naval service branch of the Korean People's Army, which contains each branch of the North Korean armed forces.


title: Korean People's Navy

text: There are some 780 vessels including 70 midget submarines (including the Yono-class submarine and Sang-O-class submarine), 20 Romeo-class submarines, and about 140 air cushioned landing craft.


title: Korean People's Navy

text: The North Korean navy is considered a brown-water (or riverine) navy and operates mainly within the 50 kilometer exclusion zone. The fleet consists of east and west coast squadrons, which cannot support each other in the event of war with South Korea. The limited range of its vessels means that, even in peacetime, it is virtually impossible for a ship on one coast to visit the other coast.


title: Korean People's Navy

text: On 13 October 2013, submarine chaser number 233 departed on a regular patrol, but failed to return on time. The boat was later discovered to be sunk, and the entire crew had died, who were named as martyrs. A seaside grave was constructed for these sailors, which Kim Jong-un visited, in a move described by the New York Times as bolstering his image of caring for the soldiers. Families of the victims were given portraits of their children and a collage of the grave.


title: Korean People's Navy

text: On 11 March 2016, CNN and the U.S. Naval Institute News reported that unnamed US officials believed a North Korean submarine had been lost at sea in the Sea of Japan. According to reports, the U.S. military had been observing the submarine when it "stopped" before the North Korean navy was observed by American satellites, aircraft and ships to be searching the area.


title: Korean People's Navy

text: According to the Defense Intelligence Agency, the 146,000-man Korean Peoples' Army Navy (KPAN) is primarily a coastal navy. The KPAN is organized into two fleets: the East Coast Fleet, with eight operational commands, and the West Coast Fleet, with five operational commands. The East Coast Fleet is headquartered at Toejo Dong, with major bases at Najin and Wonsan.


title: Korean People's Navy

text: The West Coast Fleet is headquartered at Nampo, with major bases at Pipagot and Sagon Ni. Numerous smaller naval bases are located along both coasts. The fleets do not exchange vessels because geographical limitations make mutual support almost impossible. The KPAN does not have a Marine Corps or naval aviation capabilities. Amphibious operations are conducted by SOF units in addition to naval personnel.


title: Korean People's Navy

text: The annual report of North Korea's military capabilities by the U.S. Department of Defense, released in early 2014, identified the North Korean Navy's strength at 60,000 personnel, 70 submarines, 420 gun boats, 260 amphibious landing craft, 30 mine warfare vessels, and 30 support ships.


title: Korean People's Navy

text: Most KPAN vessels are small patrol-size craft unable to operate over 50 nautical miles (NM) from the coast but capable of policing the DPRK's territorial waters. The navy's numerous amphibious craft and midget submarines are intended to clandestinely insert SOF units into the ROK. The DPRK also maintains coastal defense artillery and missile sites. Coastal defense artillery includes 122 mm, 130 mm, and 152 mm systems. Land-based coastal defense missiles include the KS-1 Komet, Silkworm (HY-1 and HY-2) .


title: Korean People's Navy

text: The KPAN's most capable weapons systems are their approximately 43 guided-missile patrol boats equipped with the P-15 Termit antiship missile (or its Chinese version, the Silkworm (SY-1)). Though their small size limits operations to coastal waters and calm seas, they have a capability to quickly respond to Combined Forces Command (CFC) shipping approaching the coast. The KPAN has 12 Osa-class missile boat, 10 DPRK versions of the Osa-1 called the Soju,


title: Korean People's Navy

text: and 19 other fast-attack missile craft; the Osa and Osa are all equipped with four Silkworm (SY-1) missile launchers. The missiles have a maximum range of 25 Nm and carry radar or infrared homing seekers.


title: Korean People's Navy

text: The largest part of the KPAN consists of small combatants, including torpedo boats, patrol boats, patrol craft, fast attack craft, and small amphibious landing craft. Of the approximately 200 torpedo boats, nearly half are DPRK-built. Most are equipped with 25 mm to 37 mm guns. The DPRK built at least 62 Chaho fire-support patrol units. This unique vessel has a multiple rocket launcher in the center of its deck to provide fire support to ground troops or attack surface ships.


title: Korean People's Navy

text: The DPRK's attack submarine inventory is estimated to include 4 former Soviet Whiskey class submarine, 22 Chinese Romeo Class submarines, and DPRK-built Romeo Class submarines. The Whiskeys, acquired in the 1960s, can carry 12 torpedoes or 24 mines. Shortly after delivering four Romeos in the early 1970s, China helped the DPRK start its own Romeo construction program. The Romeos are well equipped, have an improved sonar, and can carry 14 torpedoes or 28 mines.


title: Korean People's Navy

text: To date, the DPRK has indigenously produced over 200 personnel landing craft. This includes approximately 100 Nampo personnel landing craft based on a former Soviet P-6 torpedo boat hull. The Nampo has a maximum speed of and a radius of at . The Nampos provide a limited amphibious capability, each carrying up to 30 troops with a basic combat load. Amphibious assaults against CFC probably would be small, clandestine landings involving two to six Nampo craft; Chaho or other naval craft could provide fire support. Other amphibious craft include 8 Hantae medium landing ships, which can carry 3 to 4 light tanks, and approximately 125 Kongbang amphibious hovercraft.


title: Korean People's Navy

text: The DPRK has a credible mine warfare capability. There are numerous small surface ships that are capable of delivering mines within both the navy and civilian sectors. Mines will be used to defend against amphibious assaults, defend strategic ports, and provide seaward flank protection for land forces. Defensive mine fields will be monitored by coastal observation teams and radar, and they will be supported by well emplaced artillery and missile batteries. This will make close approach and mine clearing operations extremely hazardous. DPRK has a large inventory of older technology mines, significant historical experience with their effectiveness, and, most importantly, the willingness to use them.


title: Korean People's Navy

text: The latest bi-annual report of North Korea's military capabilities by the ROK's Ministry of National Defense, released in 2018, KPN inventory is estimated at 430 combat ships, 250 landing crafts, 20 mine layers, 40 support ships, 70 submarines.


title: Korean People's Navy

text: For years, the Korean People's Army Naval Force stagnated with a number of ships becoming old and weapons turning obsolete, this peaked with an accident during drills, when the "Chosun Ilbo" reported that in mid-October 2013, one of the DPRK's Hainan Class submarine chasers and one of its smaller patrol boats sank during maneuvers in the Sea of Japan with an unknown loss of life.


title: Korean People's Navy

text: After 2013 surfaced on western analysis, a number of upgrades and new classes in service with the Navy appeared: most of this modernization's program is left to speculation and analysis of satellite images, due to the absence of details released by North Korea.


title: Korean People's Navy

text: South Korea reported that North Korea has built a new high-speed, wave piercing craft to deploy troops as part of efforts to enhance infiltration capabilities by sea. Called a Very Slender Vessel (VSV), it is cylindrical with a small cross section to pierce through waves at high speed. It is long and can carry a small number of special forces at over , compared to air-cushion vehicles than can travel at . VSVs are considered one of the most threatening craft in the Korean People's Army Naval Force for their commando infiltration capabilities onto border islands.


title: Korean People's Navy

text: North Korea has built two helicopter frigates to enhance its anti-submarine warfare capabilities. Construction began in 2006-07 and launched in 2011–12, but it is unknown if they have been commissioned and are in service. The frigates are estimated to be long and wide, with a flight deck and a displacement of . Armament is believed to include 4 RBU 1200 ASW rocket launchers, a 30 mm CIWS, and possibly the C-802 missile. Its main weapon is either a Mil Mi-4 or Mil Mi-14 helicopter.


title: Korean People's Navy

text: In June 2014, propaganda pictures from the North Korean state TV briefly showed one of the newly built patrol SES vessels, firing a Kh-35 anti-ship cruise missile. Despite some initial doubts over the nature of the missile, they appear to be built in North Korea and have been exported to Myanmar (earlier speculations believed they were imported from Myanmar). The missile gives the KPN the potential to considerably improve its anti-surface missiles. In addition to the missiles, the SES vessels show a reversed-engined gun of .


title: Korean People's Navy

text: Kh-35 missiles were also installed during 2014 on one of the two old Najin-class frigates (replacing the previous obsolete KN-01 missiles): the ship also received upgrades in gunnery.


title: Korean People's Navy

text: In autumn 2014, satellite images identified a newly built submarine of a new class: with a length of 67metres, it's the largest-ever submarine built so far by North Korea, it's believed to be related to older Yugoslavian projects, but if mass-built could potentially replace the aging fleet of Romeo submarines.


title: Korean People's Navy

text: In spring 2015, the new submarine was observed at sea during trials, paired with a test of the KN-11 missile.


title: Korean People's Navy

text: The KPN has 20 bases split between the two coasts (Sea of Japan and Yellow Sea) with major and minor bases:


title: Korean People's Navy

text: The western fleet has approximately 300 watercraft (administrative, operational and logistic support), berthing facility for Yellow Sea Fleet; home to shipyard and sub base


title: Korean People's Navy

text: Some ships are domestically built at Wonsan and Nampho shipyards. Southern bases on each coasts are used to organize infiltrations into South Korea and Japan.


title: Korean People's Navy

text: The Korean People's Army Navy has five categories of ranks; flag officers, senior officers, junior officers, petty officers, and seamen.


title: Korean People's Navy

text: Occasionally KPA Navy officers are promoted above Fleet Admiral. In that case, they wear army-style uniform, since ranks from Vice-Marshal and above are not divided into army, navy and air force.


title: Korean People's Navy

text: The naval officers wear black jackets and pants with blue shirt and dark tie underneath. Their peaked caps are from the Soviet era. In summer jackets are white in the full dress uniform.


title: Korean People's Navy

text: Junior ratings and seamen wear white shirts (in the summer) or navy blue shirts (in the winter) with black/white jackets and slacks (skirts for women) and wear sailor caps.


title: Korean People's Navy

text: All ranks wear shoulder and collar insignia while all officers, flag officers included, wear sleeve insignia as well in their service blue uniforms.


title: Korean People's Navy

text: At first, an ordinance issued by the Supreme People's Assembly on June 3, 1972, designated August 28 as the Navy Day, claiming that the first leader Kim Il-sung organized the Torpedo Unit on that date of 1949. In 1993 the North Korean authorities changed it to June 5, as its "Maritime Security Corps" were organized on June 5, 1946.


title: Nativity scene

text: In the Christian tradition, a nativity scene (also known as a manger scene, crib, crèche ( or ), or in Italian presepio or presepe, or Bethlehem) is the special exhibition, particularly during the Christmas season, of art objects representing the birth of Jesus. While the term "nativity scene" may be used of any representation of the very common subject of the Nativity of Jesus in art, it has a more specialized sense referring to seasonal displays, either using model figures in a setting or reenactments called "living nativity scenes" ("tableau vivant") in which real humans and animals participate. Nativity scenes exhibit figures representing the infant Jesus, his mother, Mary, and her husband, Joseph.


title: Nativity scene

text: Other characters from the nativity story, such as shepherds, sheep, and angels may be displayed near the manger in a barn (or cave) intended to accommodate farm animals, as described in the Gospel of Luke. A donkey and an ox are typically depicted in the scene, and the Magi and their camels, described in the Gospel of Matthew, are also included. Many also include a representation of the Star of Bethlehem. Several cultures add other characters and objects that may or may not be Biblical.


title: Nativity scene

text: is credited with creating the first live nativity scene in 1223 in order to cultivate the worship of Christ. He himself had recently been inspired by his visit to the Holy Land, where he'd been shown Jesus's traditional birthplace. The scene's popularity inspired communities throughout Christian countries to stage similar exhibitions.


title: Nativity scene

text: Distinctive nativity scenes and traditions have been created around the world, and are displayed during the Christmas season in churches, homes, shopping malls, and other venues, and occasionally on public lands and in public buildings. Nativity scenes have not escaped controversy, and in the United States of America their inclusion on public lands or in public buildings has provoked court challenges.


title: Nativity scene

text: A nativity scene takes its inspiration from the accounts of the birth of Jesus in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. Luke's narrative describes an angel announcing the birth of Jesus to shepherds who then visit the humble site where Jesus is found lying in a manger, a trough for cattle feed.() Matthew's narrative tells of "wise men" ( ) who follow a star to the "house" where Jesus dwelt, and indicates that the "Magi" found Jesus some time later, less than two years after his birth, rather than on the exact day (-). Matthew's account does not mention the angels and shepherds, while Luke's narrative is silent on the "Magi" and the star. The Magi and the angels are often displayed in a nativity scene with the Holy Family and the shepherds ().


title: Nativity scene

text: The earliest nativity scene has been found in the early Christian catacomb of Saint Valentine. It traces to A.D. 380.


title: Nativity scene

text: Saint Francis of Assisi, who is now commemorated on the calendars of the Catholic, Lutheran and Anglican liturgical calendars, is credited with creating the first live nativity scene in 1223 at Greccio, central Italy, in an attempt to place the emphasis of Christmas upon the worship of Christ rather than upon "material things". The nativity scene created by Saint Francis, is described by Saint Bonaventure in his "Life of Saint Francis of Assisi" written around 1260. Staged in a cave near Greccio, Saint Francis' nativity scene was a living one with humans and animals cast in the Biblical roles. Pope Honorius III gave his blessing to the exhibit.


title: Nativity scene

text: Such reenactment exhibitions became hugely popular and spread throughout Christendom. Within a hundred years every Catholic church in Italy was expected to have a nativity scene at Christmastime. Eventually, statues replaced human and animal participants, and static scenes grew to elaborate affairs with richly robed figurines placed in intricate landscape settings. Charles III, King of the Two Sicilies, collected such elaborate scenes, and his enthusiasm encouraged others to do the same.


title: Nativity scene

text: The scene's popularity inspired much imitation throughout Christian countries, and in the early modern period sculpted cribs, often exported from Italy, were set up in many Christian churches and homes. These elaborate scenes reached their artistic apogee in the Papal State, in Emilia, in the Kingdom of Naples and in Genoa. By the end of the 19th century nativity scenes became widely popular in many Christian denominations, and many versions in various sizes and made of various materials, such as terracotta, paper, wood, wax, and ivory, were marketed, often with a backdrop setting of a stable.


title: Nativity scene

text: Different traditions of nativity scenes emerged in different countries. Hand-painted "santons" are popular in Provence. In southern Germany, Austria and Trentino-Alto Adige, the wooden figurines are handcut. Colorful "szopki" are typical in Poland.


title: Nativity scene

text: A tradition in England involved baking a mince pie in the shape of a manger which would hold the Christ child until dinnertime, when the pie was eaten. When the Puritans banned Christmas celebrations in the 17th century, they also passed specific legislation to outlaw such pies, calling them "idolaterie in crust".


title: Nativity scene

text: Distinctive nativity scenes and traditions have been created around the world and are displayed during the Christmas season in churches, homes, shopping malls, and other venues, and occasionally on public lands and in public buildings. The Vatican has displayed a scene in St. Peter's Square near its Christmas tree since 1982 and the Pope has for many years blessed the mangers of children assembled in St. Peter's Square for a special ceremony. In the United States, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City annually displays a Neapolitan Baroque nativity scene before a blue spruce.


title: Nativity scene

text: Nativity scenes have not escaped controversy. A life-sized scene in the United Kingdom featuring waxwork celebrities provoked outrage in 2004, and, in Spain, a city council forbade the exhibition of a traditional toilet humor character in a public nativity scene. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) claimed in 2014 that animals in living displays lacked proper care and suffered abuse. In the United States, nativity scenes on public lands and in public buildings have provoked court challenges, and the prankish theft of ceramic or plastic nativity figurines from outdoor displays has become commonplace.


title: Nativity scene

text: Static nativity scenes may be erected indoors or outdoors during the Christmas season, and are composed of figurines depicting the infant Jesus resting in a manger, Mary, and Joseph. Other figures in the scene may include angels, shepherds, and various animals. The figures may be made of any material, and arranged in a stable or grotto. The Magi may also appear, and are sometimes not placed in the scene until the week following Christmas to account for their travel time to Bethlehem. While most home nativity scenes are packed away at Christmas or shortly thereafter, nativity scenes in churches usually remain on display until the feast of the Baptism of the Lord.


title: Nativity scene

text: The nativity scene may not accurately reflect gospel events. With no basis in the gospels, for example, the shepherds, the Magi, and the ox and ass may be displayed together at the manger. The art form can be traced back to eighteenth-century Naples, Italy. Neapolitan nativity scenes do not represent Palestine at the time of Jesus but the life of the Naples of 1700, during the Bourbon period. Families competed with each other to produce the most elegant and elaborate scenes and so, next to the Child Jesus, to the Holy Family and the shepherds, were placed ladies and gentlemen of the nobility, representatives of the bourgeoisie of the time, vendors with their banks and miniatures of cheese, bread, sheep, pigs, ducks or geese, and typical figures of the time like gypsy predicting the future, people playing cards, housewives doing shopping, dogs, cats and chickens.


title: Nativity scene

text: Regional variants on the standard nativity scene are many. The "putz" of Pennsylvania Dutch Americans evolved into elaborate decorative Christmas villages in the twentieth century. In Colombia, the "pesebre" may feature a town and its surrounding countryside with shepherds and animals. Mary and Joseph are often depicted as rural Boyacá people with Mary clad in a countrywoman's shawl and fedora hat, and Joseph garbed in a poncho. The infant Jesus is depicted as European with Italianate features. Visitors bringing gifts to the Christ child are depicted as Colombian natives. After World War I, large, lighted manger scenes in churches and public buildings grew in popularity, and, by the 1950s, many companies were selling lawn ornaments of non-fading, long-lasting, weather resistant materials telling the nativity story.


title: Nativity scene

text: Exhibitions similar to the scene staged by St. Francis at Greccio became an annual event throughout Christendom. Abuses and exaggerations in the presentation of mystery plays during the Middle Ages, however, forced the church to prohibit performances during the 15th century. The plays survived outside church walls, and 300 years after the prohibition, German immigrants brought simple forms of the nativity play to America. Some features of the dramas became part of both Catholic and Protestant Christmas services with children often taking the parts of characters in the nativity story. Nativity plays and pageants, culminating in living nativity scenes, eventually entered public schools. Such exhibitions have been challenged on the grounds of separation of church and state.


title: Nativity scene

text: In some countries, the nativity scene took to the streets with human performers costumed as Joseph and Mary traveling from house to house seeking shelter and being told by the houses' occupants to move on. The couple's journey culminated in an outdoor "tableau vivant" at a designated place with the shepherds and the Magi then traveling the streets in parade fashion looking for the Christ child.


title: Nativity scene

text: Living nativity scenes are not without their problems. In the United States in 2008, for example, vandals destroyed all eight scenes and backdrops at a drive-through living nativity scene in Georgia. About 120 of the church's 500 members were involved in the construction of the scenes or playing roles in the production. The damage was estimated at more than US$2,000.


title: Nativity scene

text: In southern Italy, living nativity scenes ("presepe vivente") are extremely popular. They may be elaborate affairs, featuring not only the classic nativity scene but also a mock rural 19th-century village, complete with artisans in traditional costumes working at their trades. These attract many visitors and have been televised on RAI. In 2010, the old city of Matera in Basilicata hosted the world's largest living nativity scene of the time, which was performed in the historic center, Sassi.


title: Nativity scene

text: A donkey (or ass) and an ox typically appear in nativity scenes. Besides the necessity of animals for a manger, this is an allusion to the Book of Isaiah: "the ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib; but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider" (). The Gospels do not mention an ox and donkey Another source for the tradition may be the extracanonical text, the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew of the 7th century. (The translation in this text of is not taken from the Septuagint.):"And on the third day after the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, Mary went out of the cave, and, entering a stable, placed the child in a manger, and an ox and an ass adored him. Then was fulfilled that which was said by the prophet Isaiah, "The ox knows his owner, and the ass his master's crib." Therefore, the animals, the ox and the ass, with him in their midst incessantly adored him. Then was fulfilled that which was said by Habakkuk the prophet, saying, "Between two animals you are made manifest."


title: Nativity scene

text: The ox traditionally represents patience, the nation of Israel, and Old Testament sacrificial worship while the ass represents humility, readiness to serve, and the Gentiles.


title: Nativity scene

text: The ox and the ass, as well as other animals, became a part of nativity scene tradition. In a 1415, Corpus Christi celebration, the "Ordo paginarum" notes that Jesus was lying between an ox and an ass. Other animals introduced to nativity scenes include elephants and camels.


title: Nativity scene

text: By the 1970s, churches and community organizations increasingly included animals in nativity pageants. Since then, automobile-accessible "drive-through" scenes with sheep and donkeys have become popular.


title: Nativity scene

text: Christmas is celebrated by Australians in a number of ways. In Australia, it's summer season and is very hot during Christmas time.


title: Nativity scene

text: During the Christmas time, locals and visitors visit places around their towns and suburbs to view the outdoor and indoor displays. All over the towns, the places are lit with colorful and modern spectacular lighting displays. The displays of nativity scenes with Aussie featured native animals like kangaroos and koalas are also evident.


title: Nativity scene

text: In Melbourne, a traditional and authentic nativity Scene is on display at St. Elizabeth's Parish, Dandenong North. This annual Australian Nativity Scene creator and artist Wilson Fernandez has been building and creating the traditional nativity scenes since 2004 at St. Elizabeth's Parish.


title: Nativity scene

text: To mark this special event, Most Reverend Denis Hart Archbishop of Melbourne celebrated the Vigil Mass and blessed the nativity scene on Saturday, 14 December 2013.


title: Nativity scene

text: Bethlehem Live is an all-volunteer living nativity produced by Gateway Christian Community Church in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The production includes a reconstruction of the ancient town of Bethlehem and seven individual vignettes. There is also an annual, highly publicized nativity scene at the St. Patrick's Basilica, Ottawa in Ottawa, Ontario.


title: Nativity scene

text: The Czech Republic, and the cultures represented in its predecessors i.e. Czechoslovakia and the lands of former Bohemia, have a long tradition regarding "betlémy" (literally "Bethlehems"), crèches. The tradition of home nativity scenes is often traced to the 1782 ban of church and institutional crèches by emperor Joseph II, officially responding to public disturbances and the resulting "loss of dignity" of such displays. As this followed the Edict of Toleration proclaimed the previous year, it reduced State support of the Catholic church in this multi-confessional land.


title: Nativity scene

text: The Museum of Nativity Scenes in Třebechovice pod Orebem has over 400 examples dated from the 18th until early 20th century, including the Probošt's mechanical Christmas crib, so called "Třebechovice's Bethlehem".


title: Nativity scene

text: The issue of cost arose, and paper-cut crèches, "the crèche of the poor", became one major expression, as well as wood-carved ones, some of them complex and detailed. Many major Czech artists, sculptors and illustrators have as a significant part of their legacy the crèches that they created.


title: Nativity scene

text: Tomáš Krýza (1838–1918) built in a period of over 60 years a nativity scene covering 60 m (length 17 m, size and height 2 m) which contains 1,398 figures of humans and animals, of which 133 are moveable. It is on display in southern Bohemian town Jindřichův Hradec. It figures as the largest mechanical nativity scene in the world in the "Guinness Book of World Records".


title: Nativity scene

text: Gingerbread nativity scenes and cribs in the church of St. Matthew in Šárka (Prague 6 Dejvice) have around 200 figures and houses, the tradition dates from since 1972; every year new ones are baked and after holidays eaten.


title: Nativity scene

text: A "santon" (Provençal: "little saint") is a small hand-painted, terracotta nativity scene figurine produced in the Provence region of southeastern France. In a traditional Provençal crèche, the "santons" represent various characters from Provençal village life such as the scissors grinder, the fishwife, and the chestnut seller. The figurines were first created during the French Revolution when churches were forcibly closed and large nativity scenes prohibited. Today, their production is a family affair passed from parents to children. During the Christmas season, santon makers gather in Marseille and other locales in southeastern France to display and sell their wares.


title: Nativity scene

text: In 1982, Pope John Paul II inaugurated the annual tradition of placing a nativity scene on display in the Vatican City in the Piazza San Pietro before the Christmas Tree.


title: Nativity scene

text: In 2006, the nativity scene featured seventeen new figures of spruce on loan to the Vatican from sculptors and wood sawyers of the town of Tesero, Italy in the Italian Alps. The figures included peasants, a flutist, a bagpipe player and a shepherd named Titaoca. Twelve nativity scenes created before 1800 from Tesero were put on display in the Vatican audience hall.


title: Nativity scene

text: The Vatican nativity scene for 2007 placed the birth of Jesus in Joseph's house, based upon an interpretation of the Gospel of Matthew. Mary was shown with the newborn infant Jesus in a room in Joseph's house. To the left of the room was Joseph's workshop while to the right was a busy inn—a comment on materialism versus spirituality. The Vatican's written description of the diorama said, "The scene for this year's Nativity recalls the painting style of the Flemish School of the 1500s." The scene was unveiled on December 24 and remained in place until February 2, 2008, for The Feast of the Presentation of the Lord. Ten new figures were exhibited with seven on loan from the town of Tesero and three—a baker, a woman, and a child—donated to the Vatican. The decision for the atypical setting was believed to be part of a crackdown on fanciful scenes erected in various cities around Italy. In Naples, Italy, for example, Elvis Presley and Prime Minister of Italy Silvio Berlusconi, were depicted among the shepherds and angels worshipping at the manger.


title: Nativity scene

text: In 2008, the Province of Trento, Italy, provided sculpted wooden figures and animals as well as utensils to create depictions of daily life. The scene featured seventeen figures with nine depicting the Holy Family, the Magi, and the shepherds. The nine figures were originally donated by Saint Vincent Pallotti for the nativity at Rome's Church of Sant'Andrea della Valle in 1842 and eventually found their way to the Vatican. They are dressed anew each year for the scene. The 2008 scene was set in Bethlehem with a fountain and a hearth representing regeneration and light. The same year, the Paul VI Audience Hall exhibited a nativity designed by Mexican artists.


title: Nativity scene

text: Since 1968, the Pope has officiated at a special ceremony in St. Peter's Square on Gaudete Sunday that involves blessing hundreds of mangers and Babies Jesus for the children of Rome. In 1978, 50,000 schoolchildren attended the ceremony.


title: Nativity scene

text: In the majority-Catholic Philippines, miniature, full-scale, or giant dioramas or tableaus of the nativity scene are known as "Belén" (from the Spanish name for Bethlehem). They were introduced by the Spanish since the 16th century. They are an ubiquitous and iconic Christmas symbol in the Philippines, on par with the parol (Christmas lanterns depicting the Star of Bethlehem) which are often incorporated into the scene as the source of illumination. Both the "Belén" and the "parol" were the traditional Christmas decorations in Filipino homes before Americans introduced the Christmas tree. Most churches in the Philippines also transform their altars into a "Belén" at Christmas. They are also found in schools (which also hold nativity plays), government buildings, commercial establishments, and in public spaces.


title: Nativity scene

text: The city of Tarlac holds an annual competition of giant "Belén" in a festival known as "Belenismo sa Tarlac".


title: Nativity scene

text: "Szopka" are traditional Polish nativity scenes dating to 19th century Kraków, Poland. Its cultural significance has landed it on the UNESCO cultural heritage list. Their modern construction incorporates elements of Kraków's historic architecture including Gothic spires, Renaissance facades, and Baroque domes, and utilizes everyday materials such as colored tinfoils, cardboard, and wood. Some are mechanized. Prizes are awarded for the most elaborately designed and decorated pieces in an annual competition held in Kraków's main square beside the statue of Adam Mickiewicz. Some of the best are then displayed in Kraków's Museum of History. "Szopka" were traditionally carried from door-to-door in the nativity plays ("Jasełka") by performing groups.


title: Nativity scene

text: A similar tradition, called "betlehemezés" and involving schoolchildren carrying portable folk-art nativity scenes door-to-door, chanting traditional texts, is part of Hungarian folk culture, and has enjoyed a renaissance in recent years. An example of such a portable wooden nativity scene is on display at the Nativity Museum in Bethlehem.


title: Nativity scene

text: Perhaps the best known nativity scene in America is the Neapolitan Baroque Crèche displayed annually in the Medieval Sculpture Hall of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Its backdrop is a 1763 choir screen from the Cathedral of Valladolid and a twenty-foot blue spruce decorated with a host of 18th-century angels. The nativity figures are placed at the tree's base. The crèche was the gift of Loretta Hines Howard in 1964, and the choir screen was the gift of The William Randolph Hearst Foundation in 1956. Both this presepio and the one displayed in Pittsburgh originated from the collection of Eugenio Catello.


title: Nativity scene

text: A life-size nativity scene has been displayed annually at Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah for several decades as part of the large outdoor Christmas displays sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.


title: Nativity scene

text: Each holiday season, from Light Up Night in November through Epiphany in January, the Pittsburgh Crèche is on display in downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Pittsburgh Creche is the world's only authorized replica of the Vatican's Christmas crèche, on display in St. Peter's Square in Rome. Pittsburgh's Carnegie Museum of Art also displays a Neapolitan presepio. The presepio was handcrafted between 1700 and 1830, and re-creates the nativity within a panorama of 18th-century Italian village life. More than 100 human and angelic figures, along with animals, accessories, and architectural elements, cover 250 square feet and create a depiction of the nativity as seen through the eyes of Neapolitan artisans and collectors.


title: Nativity scene

text: The Radio City Christmas Spectacular, an annual musical holiday stage show presented at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, features a Living Nativity segment with live animals.


title: Nativity scene

text: In 2005, President of the United States of America, George W. Bush and his wife, First Lady of the United States, Laura Bush displayed an 18th-century Italian "presepio". The "presepio" was donated to the White House in the last decades of the 20th century.


title: Nativity scene

text: The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh annually display Neapolitan Baroque nativity scenes which both originated from the collection of Eugenio Catello.


title: Nativity scene

text: On her Christmas Day 2007 television show, Martha Stewart exhibited the nativity scene she made in pottery classes at the Alderson Federal Prison Camp in Alderson, West Virginia while serving a 2005 sentence. She remarked, "Even though every inmate was only allowed to do one a month, and I was only there for five months, I begged because I said I was an expert potter—ceramicist actually—and could I please make the entire nativity scene." She supplemented her nativity figurines on the show with tiny artificial palm trees imported from Germany.


title: Nativity scene

text: The Universalis Foederatio Praesepistica, World association of Friends of Cribs was founded in 1952, counting today 20 national associations dedicated to this subject. The Central office is in Austria.


title: Nativity scene

text: In the United States and Canada Friends of the Creche has over 200 members, with a major conference every two years. FotC maintains a list of permanent exhibits of nativity scenes in the United States and a list of permanent exhibits of nativity scenes in other parts of the world.


title: Nativity scene

text: The Bavarian National Museum displays a notable collection of nativity scenes from the fifteenth through nineteenth centuries.


title: Nativity scene

text: Every year in Lanciano, Abruzzo (Italy), a nativity scene exhibition (called in Italian "Riscopriamo il presepe") takes place at Auditorium Diocleziano, usually until the 6th of January. An average of one hundred nativity scenes are shown, coming from every region of Italy. There are also many nativity scenes made by local kindergarten, primary, secondary and high school. The event is organised by Associazione Amici di Lancianovecchia


title: Nativity scene

text: Nativity scenes have been involved in controversies and lawsuits surrounding the principle of accommodationism.


title: Nativity scene

text: In 1969, the American Civil Liberties Union (representing three clergymen, an atheist, and a leader of the American Ethical Society), tried to block the construction of a nativity scene on The Ellipse in Washington, D.C. When the ACLU claimed the government sponsorship of a distinctly Christian symbol violated separation of church and state, the sponsors of the fifty-year-old Christmas celebration, Pageant of Peace, who had an exclusive permit from the Interior Department for all events on the Ellipse, responded that the nativity scene was a reminder of America's spiritual heritage. The United States Court of Appeals ruled on December 12, 1969, that the crèche be allowed that year. The case continued until September 26, 1973, when the court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs and found the involvement of the Interior Department and the National Park Service in the Pageant of Peace amounted to government support for religion. The court opined that the nativity scene should be dropped from the pageant or the government end its participation in the event in order to avoid "excessive entanglements" between government and religion. In 1973, the nativity scene was not displayed.


title: Nativity scene

text: In 1985, the United States Supreme Court ruled in "ACLU v. Scarsdale, New York" that nativity scenes on public lands violate separation of church and state statutes unless they comply with "The Reindeer Rule"—a regulation calling for equal opportunity for non-religious symbols, such as reindeer. This principle was further clarified in 1989, when Pittsburgh attorney Roslyn Litman argued, and the Supreme Court in "County of Allegheny v. ACLU" ruled, that a crèche placed on the grand staircase of the Allegheny County Courthouse in Pittsburgh, PA violated the Establishment Clause, because the "principal or primary effect" of the display was to advance religion.


title: Nativity scene

text: In 1994, at Christmas, the Park Board of San Jose, California, removed a statue of the infant Jesus from Plaza de Cesar Chavez Park and replaced it with a statue of the plumed Aztec god, Quetzalcoatl, commissioned with US$500,000 of public funds. In response, protestors staged a living nativity scene in the park.


title: Nativity scene

text: In 2006, a lawsuit by the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian legal organization in the United States, was brought against the state of Washington when it permitted a public display of a holiday tree and a menorah but not a nativity scene. Because of the lawsuit, the decision was made to permit a nativity scene to be displayed in the rotunda of the state Capitol, in Olympia, as long as other symbols of the season were included.


title: Nativity scene

text: In 2013, Gov. Rick Perry signed into Texas law the Merry Christmas bill which would allow school districts in Texas to display nativity scenes.


title: Nativity scene

text: In the United States, nativity figurines are sometimes stolen from outdoor public and private displays during the Christmas season in an act that is generally called Baby Jesus theft. The thefts are usually pranks with figurines recovered within a few hours or days of their disappearances. Some have been damaged beyond repair or defaced with profanity, antisemitic epithets, or Satanic symbols. It is unclear if Baby Jesus theft is on the rise as United States federal law enforcement officials do not track such theft. Some communities protect outdoor nativity scenes with surveillance cameras or GPS devices concealed within the figurines.


title: Nativity scene

text: In December 2004, Madame Tussaud's London, England, United Kingdom nativity scene featured waxwork models of soccer star David Beckham and his wife Victoria Beckham as Joseph and Mary, and Kylie Minogue as the Angel. Tony Blair, George W. Bush, and the Duke of Edinburgh were cast as the Magi while actors Hugh Grant, Samuel L. Jackson, and comedian Graham Norton were cast as shepherds. The celebrities were chosen for the roles by 300 people who visited the Madame Tussaud's in October 2004 and voted on the display. The Archbishop of Canterbury (Rowan Williams) was not impressed, and a Vatican spokesperson said the display was in very poor taste. Other officials reacted angrily, with one noting it was "a nativity stunt too far". "We're sorry if we have offended people," said Diane Moon, a spokesperson for the museum. She said the display was intended in the spirit of fun.


title: Nativity scene

text: The scene was damaged in protest by James Anstice, a member of the Jesus Fellowship Church, who pushed over one of the figures and knocked the head off another. He was later ordered to pay £100 in compensation.


title: Nativity scene

text: There is a regional tradition in the Catalonia region where an additional figure is added to the nativity scene: the . It depicts a person defecating. In 2005, the Barcelona city council provoked a public outcry by commissioning a nativity scene which did not include a .


title: Nativity scene

text: Since 1972 an electronic nativity scene in Begonte (Lugo, Spain), is visited by around 40,000 Galicians every year. The scene represents the day and night, the rain and snow, the culture and the works of the countryside way of life that has kept changing in recent decades. The scene reproduces the houses of the region and the almost unknown environment of the rural Galicia from mid twentieth century.