title: The Reluctant Fundamentalist

text: In 2007, Davidson College assigned this book to all incoming freshmen as a topic for later discussion during Freshman Orientation. This book kicked off the theme of the school's 2007-08 year, which focused on diversity. The following year, Tulane University gave the novel to all new undergraduates as part of the Tulane University Reading Project. In 2009, the University of St Andrews announced that they would be sending a free copy of "The Reluctant Fundamentalist" to all of 1,500 new undergraduates as part of a new incentive to "offer students a common topic for discussion and focus energies on reading and intellectual debate". In 2010, Washington University in St. Louis gave the book to each of its incoming freshmen, as a part of the "Freshmen Reading Program." Georgetown University chose this book for incoming freshmen's summer reading. Ursinus College has incorporated the novel into their unique Common Intellectual Experience for freshmen students. Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas uses the book in all honors rhetoric classes for first-year students. Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa and Siena College in Loudonville, New York use the novel as an introduction to their First Year Seminar programs. Lehigh University assigned all incoming freshman this novel in 2012. Rollins College has assigned this novel to their incoming freshmen as part of their summer reading program. The University of Evansville in Indiana uses the novel as a tool in the freshman First Year Seminar program. This program has the purpose of engaging incoming first-year students to topics of leadership and citizenship. Bucknell University chose it for the first year common reading for the Class of 2018. The University of Pretoria has this novel as part of the set work and reading list for English 220. New York City's CUNY Hunter College, department of English, assigns this book in an Asian American literature course for public discourse and a level of understanding of a post-9/11 age in America.


title: The Reluctant Fundamentalist

text: In his critique entitled "Mohsin Hamid Engages the World in "The Reluctant Fundamentalist"," M. S. E. Madiou goes against mainstream criticism, analyzing the historical and artistic contingencies Mohsin Hamid has faced while writing his novel focusing on 9/11 as one of Hamid's "Eureka" moments that has significantly contributed to the production of his novel.


title: The Reluctant Fundamentalist

text: "The Reluctant Fundamentalist" became a million-copy international best-seller. It reached No. 4 on the New York Times Best Seller list.


title: The Reluctant Fundamentalist

text: On November 5, 2019, the "BBC News" listed "The Reluctant Fundamentalist" on its list of the 100 most influential novels.


title: The Reluctant Fundamentalist

text: BBC Radio 4 began broadcasting an abridged version on 22 August 2011, read by British actor Riz Ahmed.


title: Technical sergeant

text: Technical sergeant is the name of two current and two former enlisted ranks in the United States Armed Forces, as well as in the U.S. Civil Air Patrol. Outside the United States, it is used only by the Philippine Army, Philippine Air Force and the Philippine Marine Corps.


title: Technical sergeant

text: The rank of technical sergeant is used by the Armed Forces of the Philippines. It is a non-commissioned officer rank used by Philippine Army, Philippine Air Force and Philippine Marine Corps (under the Philippine Navy). The rank stands above the rank of Staff sergeant and below Master sergeant.


title: Technical sergeant

text: Technical sergeant is a rank in the United States Air Force, United States Space Force, and Civil Air Patrol. It is a former rank in the United States Army and United States Marine Corps.


title: Technical sergeant

text: The rank of technical sergeant existed from after World War I until 1948 when the rank was renamed sergeant first class. In 1920 the army combined several battalion/squadron level "staff" NCO ranks, including battalion quartermaster sergeant, battalion supply sergeant, ordnance sergeant, hospital sergeant, three grades of master sergeant (junior grade), and six additional senior-level technical and specialist ranks into the new technical sergeant rank. In 1944 when rifle squad leaders became staff sergeants, platoon sergeants were promoted to technical sergeants. In 1948 the army renamed technical sergeant as sergeant first class.


title: Technical sergeant

text: Technical sergeant was a rank in the United States Marine Corps until 1958. From 1941 until 1946, the rank was equivalent to grade 2, ranking with gunnery sergeant and other technical ranks. From 1947 until 1958, the rank was reclassified as E-6 and became the sole rank in this grade. The rank was renamed gunnery sergeant and elevated to E-7 after the reorganization of grades in 1959.


title: Technical sergeant

text: Technical sergeant, "tech sgt" or "TSgt" in informal parlance, is the sixth enlisted rank (pay grade E-6) in the U.S. Air Force, just above staff sergeant and below master sergeant. A technical sergeant is a noncommissioned officer and abbreviated as TSgt (with no period in official USAF and other military correspondence). Official terms of address are "technical sergeant" or "sergeant", although many use "tech sergeant" in informal situations.


title: Technical sergeant

text: The Civil Air Patrol (CAP), a non-profit corporation Congressionally chartered to operate as the civilian auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force, has a quasi-military structure which includes the rank of technical sergeant. The grade of technical sergeant is above staff sergeant and beneath master sergeant. Former military enlisted personnel who held the rank of technical sergeant in the United States Armed Forces may retain that rank as members of the CAP.


title: Technical sergeant

text: On February 1, 2021, the United States Space Force announced its permanent rank structure, establishing the grade of technical sergeant as its permanent E-6 grade. This continued its usage from the Air Force. The grade of technical sergeant is above sergeant and beneath master sergeant.


title: Tysons, Virginia

text: Tysons, also known as Tysons Corner, is a census-designated place (CDP) in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States, developed from the corner of Chain Bridge Road (SR 123) and the Leesburg Pike (SR 7). Located in Northern Virginia between the community of McLean and the town of Vienna along the Capital Beltway (I-495), it lies within the Washington metropolitan area. Tysons is home to two super-regional shopping malls—Tysons Corner Center and Tysons Galleria—and the corporate and administrative headquarters of numerous companies such as Intelsat, Alarm.com, Booz Allen Hamilton, Capital One, DXC Technology, Freddie Mac, Gannett, Hilton Worldwide, ID.me and Tegna. As an unincorporated community, Tysons is Fairfax County's central business district and a regional commercial center. It has been characterized as a quintessential example of an edge city. The population was 26,374 as of the 2020 census.


title: Tysons, Virginia

text: Known originally as Peach Grove, the area received the designation Tysons Crossroads after the Civil War. William Tyson, a Maryland native from Cecil County, purchased a tract of land from A. Lawrence Foster. Tyson served as postmaster of the now discontinued Peach Grove Post Office from 1854 to 1866. The Peach Grove Post Office was established on April 22, 1851.


title: Tysons, Virginia

text: As recently as the 1950s, Tysons was a quiet rural intersection flanked by a few small stores, and a fruit stand operated by the Tyson ancestors, who sold apples and apple cider from the corner of their property. Big changes came in 1963 when the Tysons area moved from a country crossroads to a giant commercial urban area with the awarding of contracts at the interchange of Route 7 and Route 123.


title: Tysons, Virginia

text: In 1962, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors approved the Tysons Corner Shopping Center (now Tysons Corner Center), which was planned to be within a triangle bordered by Chain Bridge Road, Leesburg Pike, and the Capital Beltway. Developers proclaimed it as the largest enclosed mall in the world when it opened July 25, 1968.


title: Tysons, Virginia

text: In recent years, the influx of technology companies into Northern Virginia has brought many new office buildings and hotels to the landscape. The rapid growth of Tysons (in comparison to other locations near the Capital Beltway) has been the topic of numerous studies. One factor was the aggressive promotion of Tysons by Earle Williams, for many years the CEO of the defense contracting firm Braddock Dunn & McDonald. Tysons serves as a "downtown" of Fairfax County, with one quarter of all office space and one eighth of all retail in the county, despite occupying just 1% of the county. It is an auto-oriented edge city with severe traffic congestion, and it faces competition from the urban areas of Arlington and newer suburban edge cities such as Dulles.


title: Tysons, Virginia

text: In 2008, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to begin a 40-year plan to urbanize Tysons around the coming four stops of Washington Metro's Silver Line in the vein of neighboring Arlington County's Rosslyn-Ballston corridor. A preliminary estimate from the Fairfax County Department of Transportation suggested that $7.83 billion in transportation infrastructure projects will be necessary to transform Tysons Corner into a high-density urban center from 2010 to 2050, most of which will be allocated to both construction phases of the Silver Line. Existing plans call for construction of a grid layout for streets around the rail stations, projected to cost $742 million. An additional $1 billion will be spent on further transit and street grid projects from 2030 to 2050.


title: Tysons, Virginia

text: In November 2012, the county approved Arbor Row, a mixed-used development containing office and residential highrises, ground-floor retail, and underground parking near the Tysons Corner Station. In April 2013, the county approved Scotts Run Station South, a development containing 17 buildings, including six office and residential buildings, one hotel, and ground-floor retail near the McLean Station. This development alone will be larger than Reston Town Center.


title: Tysons, Virginia

text: Ahead of the Washington Metro Silver Line opening in mid-2014, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors and the Tysons Partnership, a nonprofit association that represents the area's stakeholders, began rebranding the area as simply "Tysons", dropping "Corner" from the name. The change started as a matter of convenience, but later took hold to market the change in the area's character, according to members of the board. The change was unofficial at the time, and either "Tysons" or "Tysons Corner" could be used in addresses. However, in November 2015, the U.S. Census Bureau announced the CDP's name would officially be changed to Tysons effective the following summer.


title: Tysons, Virginia

text: Tysons is seen as a modern prototype of an edge city. Tysons in its brief 40-year history has been given substantial redevelopment offers for the next 20 to 30 years. This particular area has seen a growing amount of interest as plans to make it an urban center were already begun in 2010. Private-sector development within the United States in combination with political groups have begun the planning process behind the redevelopment of Tysons. There are two forces at work in the creation of an edge city as it can be beneficial to both parties. With the redevelopment process taking place there has been an aggressive push to bring in businesses to Tysons. Edge cities such as Tysons have specific regional accessibility that has been enhanced by major projects funded by federal and state governments. One of the bigger enhancements to transportation specifically to Tysons was the construction “…of the Washington Dulles International Airport and an associated access road and the Capital Beltway but also expansions to state roads”. Location and transportation is important to the creation of edge cities, this city is an example of investments placed on the surrounding area.


title: Tysons, Virginia

text: As for the future of Tysons, the plan remains to see the city become the downtown core of Fairfax County. There is a clear purpose to the investments and the future when investing into edge cities. To this point “…eight districts have been delimited, with four centered on new metro stations being transit-oriented development districts”. Future plans to transportation around the area continue to be made, the accessibility of the area is on the rise with many forms of transportation being formed. “The aims of the plan are for 75% of development to be within half a mile of metro stations, an urban center of 200,000 jobs and 100,000 residents, a jobs balance of 4.0 per household”. Many of these plans have been created in order to create a fully metropolitan city from a small town. The small edge cities progressively become larger with the creation of distinct plans. For many individuals the interest with edge cities lies in what they can show about new trends across city regions. Tysons is a prime example of the future of edge cities and what other small towns all around the world could become.


title: Tysons, Virginia

text: Tysons is located at (38.918485, −77.229833) at an elevation of 486 feet (148 m). Located in Northern Virginia at the intersection of Virginia State Route 123 and State Route 7, Tysons is west of downtown Washington, D.C. and northeast of Fairfax, the county seat.


title: Tysons, Virginia

text: The community lies in the Piedmont upland approximately south-southwest of the Potomac River. The highest natural point in Fairfax County, at above sea level, is located in Tysons. Wolftrap Creek, a tributary of nearby Difficult Run, forms the northwestern border of the community. Two of the creek's tributaries, Moomac Creek and the Old Courthouse Spring Branch, flow north through northwest Tysons. Scott Run, a tributary of the Potomac, flows north through eastern Tysons.


title: Tysons, Virginia

text: According to the United States Census Bureau, the community has a total area of of which is land and is water.


title: Tysons, Virginia

text: As a suburb of Washington, D.C., Tysons is a part of both the Washington Metropolitan Area and the larger Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area. It is bordered on all sides by other Washington suburbs, including: McLean to the north, Pimmit Hills to the east, Idylwood to the southeast, Dunn Loring to the south, Vienna to the southwest, and Wolf Trap to the west.


title: Tysons, Virginia

text: The climate in this area is characterized by hot, humid summers and generally mild to cool winters. According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Tysons has a humid subtropical climate, abbreviated "Cfa" on climate maps.


title: Tysons, Virginia

text: Tysons was one of the inspirations for, and figures prominently in, Joel Garreau's pioneering study of the edge city phenomenon. Among the reasons for calling Tysons an edge city is that, in contrast to typical "bedroom" suburbs, people commute into it in the morning and away from it at night, with a daytime population greater than 100,000 and a nighttime population of fewer than 20,000. Planners envision up to 200,000 jobs and 100,000 residents in coming decades.


title: Tysons, Virginia

text: As of the 2010 census, there were 19,627 people, 9,481 households, and 4,754 families residing in the community. The population density was 4,607.3 people per square mile (1,784.3/km). There were 10,637 housing units at an average density of 2,496.9/sq mi (967.0/km). The racial makeup of the community was 60.9% White, 27.5% Asian, 4.9% African American, 0.2% American Indian, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 1.9% from other races, and 4.5% from two or more races. Hispanics and Latinos of any race were 8.1% of the population.


title: Tysons, Virginia

text: There were 9,481 households, out of which 23.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 39.8% were married couples living together, 2.9% had a male householder with no wife present, 7.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 49.9% were non-families. 40.7% of all households were made up of individuals, and 18.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.07, and the average family size was 2.87.


title: Tysons, Virginia

text: The age distribution of the community was 18.4% under the age of 18, 6.6% from 18 to 24, 40.4% from 25 to 44, 23.5% from 45 to 64, and 11.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35.8 years. The gender makeup of the community was 47.7% male and 52.3% female.


title: Tysons, Virginia

text: The median income for a household in the community was $94,083, and the median income for a family was $131,717. Males had a median income of $85,645 versus $66,019 for females. The community's per capita income was $64,294. About 2.8% of families and 4.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 1.3% of those under age 18 and 14.3% of those age 65 or over.


title: Tysons, Virginia

text: Tysons is Fairfax County's central business district with the largest concentration of office space in Northern Virginia. Tysons had 46 million sq ft (4.3 million m) of office and retail space as of 2008, making it the classic example of an edge city. As of 2013, Tysons had 14 million sq ft (1.3 million m) of office and retail space approved or under construction, approximately one-third of a 45 million sq ft backlog of projected urban development in close proximity to the area's four Metro Silver Line stations.


title: Tysons, Virginia

text: The corporate headquarters of Alarm.com Appian Corporation, Booz Allen Hamilton, MITRE Corporation, M.C. Dean, Inc., Capital One, Cvent, Freddie Mac, Gannett Company, Hilton Worldwide, Exelis, MicroStrategy, Logistics Management Institute, Primus Telecom, SAIC, Space Adventures, Spacenet, Sunrise Senior Living, and "USA Today" are located in Tysons, though most use a McLean or Vienna address. The Fairfax County Economic Development Authority is also headquartered in the CDP. Until 1996, AOL was headquartered in the Tysons CDP, near the town of Vienna. Qatar Airways operated its North American headquarters office in Tysons, although it later moved to Washington, D.C. Other firms with offices in Tysons include Adobe Systems, BAE Systems, Compuware, DXC Technology, Palantir Technologies, Deloitte, Ernst & Young, Northrop Grumman, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Xerox, and Vie de France.


title: Tysons, Virginia

text: The area is home to Tysons Corner Center – the largest shopping mall in the state and in the Baltimore-Washington area – and two upscale shopping centers, Tysons Galleria (also one of the largest malls in the region) and Fairfax Square, which neighbor it to the north and south respectively. The average household income within a 5-mile (8 km) radius of Tysons Corner Center is $174,809. Every weekday, Tysons draws 55,000 shoppers from around the region.


title: Tysons, Virginia

text: The CDP includes a technology industry base and network infrastructure. In 2007, roughly 1,200 technology companies were operating in Tysons. 31.6% of the jobs in the Tysons submarket and 20.2% of the companies in the submarket were in the technology sector.


title: Tysons, Virginia

text: With 115,000 office and retail workers, Tysons is the 12th largest employment center in the United States. As of 2012, 75.6% of the population over the age of 16 was in the labor force. 0.6% was in the armed forces, and 75.0% was in the civilian labor force with 70.4% employed and 4.5% unemployed. The occupational composition of the employed civilian labor force was: 66.4% in management, business, science, and arts; 20.3% in sales and office occupations; 10.5% in service occupations; 2.1% in natural resources, construction, and maintenance; 0.7% in production, transportation, and material moving. The three industries employing the largest percentages of the working civilian labor force were: professional, scientific, and management, and administrative and waste management services (28.8%); educational services, health care, and social assistance (13.3%); and public administration (12.8%).


title: Tysons, Virginia

text: The cost of living in Tysons is very high; compared to a U.S. average of 100, the cost of living index for the community is 140.4. As of 2012, the median home value in the community was $464,000, the median selected monthly owner cost was $2,649 for housing units with a mortgage and $906 for those without, and the median gross rent was $1,734.


title: Tysons, Virginia

text: As it is unincorporated, Tysons has no municipal government. The Fairfax County Government provides local government services directly. For the purposes of representation on the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, Tysons is located in the Board's Hunter Mill and Providence Districts.


title: Tysons, Virginia

text: Companies in Tysons typically use McLean or Vienna addresses; however, in April 2011, the United States Postal Service approved the use of Tysons Corner as a postal address for the 22102 and 22182 ZIP codes of McLean and Vienna, respectively.


title: Tysons, Virginia

text: Tysons lies within Virginia's 8th and 11th U.S. Congressional Districts. For the purposes of representation in the Virginia General Assembly, the community is located in the 32nd district of the Virginia Senate and the 34th and 35th districts of the Virginia House of Delegates.


title: Tysons, Virginia

text: Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) provides public primary and secondary education to Tysons residents. Five FCPS schools are located in Tysons: Freedom Hill Elementary School, Joyce Kilmer Middle School, Westbriar Elementary School, Spring Hill Elementary School, and Westgate Elementary School. Resident high school students attend nearby George C. Marshall High School, James Madison High School, Langley High School, or McLean High School.


title: Tysons, Virginia

text: Interstate 495, the Capital Beltway, runs generally north–south through eastern Tysons. Virginia State Route 267, the east-west Dulles Toll Road, runs along the community's northern border. The I-495/VA 267 interchange is located in the northeastern part of the community. Virginia State Route 7 runs southeast–northwest through Tysons, intersecting Virginia State Route 123, which runs northeast–southwest, in the community's center.


title: Tysons, Virginia

text: Due to its large daytime population, Tysons experiences a high level of traffic congestion. This has led to plans for denser development, including additional rail infrastructure. On July 26, 2014, the Washington Metro started offering rapid transit rail service in Tysons via its Silver Line. Metro operates four stations on the line in Tysons; from east to west, these are: McLean, Tysons, Greensboro, and Spring Hill. The Silver Line connects Tysons by rail with Reston, Washington Dulles International Airport, and Ashburn to the west and Arlington, Washington, D.C., and Maryland to the east.


title: Tysons, Virginia

text: In February 2017, VDOT began construction on the Jones Branch Connector, a half-mile roadway that crosses Interstate 495 and connects Central and Tysons East, and is projected to carry more than 32,000 vehicles per day by 2040. The bridge opened to traffic in 2018, and work was completed in early 2020. The connection improved the operations along the adjacent road systems. This connection extended and widened existing lanes eastward along Scotts Crossing Road, ending at Route 123 adjacent to the McLean Metro Station.


title: Kanuri people

text: The Kanuri people (Kanouri, Kanowri, also Yerwa, Baribari and several subgroup names) are an African ethnic group living largely in the lands of the former Kanem and Bornu Empires in Niger, Nigeria, Sudan, Libya and Cameroon. Those generally termed Kanuri include several subgroups and dialect groups, some of whom identify as distinct from the Kanuri. Most trace their origins to ruling lineages of the medieval Kanem-Bornu Empire, and its client states or provinces. In contrast to the neighboring Toubou or Zaghawa pastoralists, Kanuri groups have traditionally been sedentary, engaging in farming, fishing the Chad Basin, and engaged in trade and salt processing.


title: Kanuri people

text: Kanuri peoples include several subgroups, and identify by different names in some regions. The Kanuri language was the major language of the Bornu Empire and remains a major language in southeastern Niger, northeastern Nigeria and northern Cameroon, but in Chad it is limited to a handful of speakers in urban centers.


title: Kanuri people

text: The largest population of Kanuri reside in the northeast corner of Nigeria, where the ceremonial Emirate of Bornu traces direct descent from the Kanem-Bornu empire, founded sometime before 1000 CE. Some 3 million Kanuri speakers live in Nigeria, not including some 200,000 speakers of the Manga dialect. The Nga people in Bauchi State trace their origins to a Kanuri diaspora.


title: Kanuri people

text: In southeastern Niger, where they form the majority of the sedentary population, the Kanuri are commonly called Baribari (a Hausa name). The 400,000 Kanuri population in Niger includes the Manga subgroup, numbering some 100,000 (1997) in the area east of Zinder, who regard themselves as distinct from the Baribari.


title: Kanuri people

text: Around 40,000 (1998) members of the Tumari subgroup, sometimes called Kanembu, are a distinct Kanuri subgroup living in the N'guigmi area, and are distinct from the Chadian Kanembu people. In the Kaour escarpment oasis of eastern Niger, the Kanuri are further divided into the Bilma subgroup, numbering some 20,000 (2003), and are the dominant ethnic group in the salt evaporation and trade industry of Bilma.


title: Kanuri people

text: Kanuri speak varieties of Kanuri, one of the Nilo-Saharan languages. Divisions include the Manga, Tumari, and Bilma dialects of Kanuri and the more distinct Kanembu language.


title: Kanuri people

text: Inheriting the religious and cultural traditions of the Kanem-Bornu state, Kanuri peoples are predominantly Sunni Muslim.


title: Kanuri people

text: In Chad, Kanembu speakers differentiate themselves from the larg Kanuri ethnicity. The Kanembu are centered in Lac Prefecture and southern Kanem Prefecture. Although Kanuri was the major language of the Bornu Empire, in Chad, Kanuri speakers are limited to handfuls of speakers in urban centers. Kanuri remains a major language in southeastern Niger, northeastern Nigeria and northern Cameroon.


title: Kanuri people

text: In the early 1980s, the Kanembu constituted the greatest part of the population of Lac Prefecture, but some Kanembu also lived in the Chari-Baguirmi Prefecture. Once the core ethnic group of the Kanem-Borno Empire, whose territories at one time included northeastern Nigeria and southern Libya, the Kanembu retain ties beyond the borders of Chad. For example, close family and commercial ties bind them with the Kanuri of northeastern Nigeria. Within Chad, many Kanembu of Lac and Kanem prefectures identify with the Alifa of Mao, the governor of the region in precolonial times.


title: Kanuri people

text: Originally a pastoral people, the Kanuri were one of many Nilo-Saharan groups indigenous to the Central South Sahara, beginning their expansion in the area of Lake Chad in the late 7th century, and absorbing both indigenous Nilo-Saharan and Chadic (Afro-Asiatic) speakers. According to Kanuri tradition, Sef, son of Dhu Ifazan of Yemen, arrived in Kanem in the ninth century and united the population into the Sayfawa dynasty. This tradition however, is likely a product of later Islamic influence, reflecting the association with their Arabian origins in the Islamic era. Evidence of indigenous state formation in the Lake Chad area dates back to circa 800 BCE at Zilum.


title: Kanuri people

text: The use of proverbs is very apparent in the Kanuri religion of Islam where they are used to help with comprehension of social happenings and to teach the meanings of things. These proverbs are created by the wise old men with a point of view based on the situation and what lesson is trying to be taught. Proverbs will usually reference objects found in everyday life. However, the objects used in the proverbs are used in such a way that they teach social attitudes, beliefs or experiences. Often proverbs are built around necessary acts that are carried out in daily life, but made to be easily visualized and applied to other, more intense situations. Kanuri proverbs can be used as a way to scare or warn the people of foolish or dangerous acts, but can also be more light hearted and encouraging.


title: Kanuri people

text: The Kanuri became Muslims in the 11th century. Kanem became a centre of Muslim learning and the Kanuri soon controlled all the area surrounding Lake Chad and a powerful empire called Kanem Empire, which reached its height in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries when they ruled much of Middle Africa.


title: Kanuri people

text: Following the downfall of the Bornu Empire and the Scramble for Africa in the 19th century, the Kanuri were divided under the rule of the British, French and German Empires.


title: Kanuri people

text: Despite the loss of the Kanuri-led state, the Shehu of Bornu continues as the head of the Bornu Emirate. This traditional Kanuri/Kanembu state maintains a ceremonial rule of the Kanuri people based in Maiduguri, Borno State, Nigeria but acknowledged by the 4 million Kanuri in neighboring countries. The Shehu ("Sheikh") of Bornu draws his authority from a state founded before 1000 CE, the Kanem-Bornu Empire.


title: Kanuri people

text: The current ruling line, the al-Kanemi dynasty, dates to the accession of Muhammad al-Amin al-Kanemi in the early 19th century, displacing the Sayfawa dynasty which had ruled from around 1300 CE. The 19th Shehu, Mustafa Ibn Umar El-Kanemi, died in February 2009, and was succeeded by Abubakar Ibn Umar Garbai El-Kanemi.


title: Kanuri people

text: In Nigeria, famous post-independence Kanuri leaders include the politicians Kashim Ibrahim, Ibrahim Imam, Zannah Bukar Dipcharima, Shettima Ali Monguno, Abba Habib, Muhammad Ngileruma, Baba Gana Kingibe, former GNPP leader Waziri Ibrahim,the former military ruler, Sani Abacha, and the former Presidential Candidate Bashir Tofa. In Niger, Kanuri political leaders include the former Prime Minister of Niger Mamane Oumarou, and the former President of Niger, Mamadou Tandja.


title: Kanuri people

text: A Nigeria specific small Kanuri nationalist movement emerged in 1950s, centred on Bornu. Some "Pan-Kanuri" nationalists claimed an area of for the territory of what they called "Greater Kanowra", including the modern-day Lac and Kanem Prefectures in Chad, Far North Region in Cameroon, the Yobe and Borno states in Nigeria and Diffa and Zinder Regions in Niger and darfur in Sudan.


title: Kanuri people

text: In 1954, the Borno Youth Movement (BYM) was founded and played a role as a mass regionalist political party up through the end of colonialism, though it petered out at independence.


title: Northern gannet

text: The northern gannet (Morus bassanus) is a seabird, the largest species of the gannet family, Sulidae. It is native to the coasts of the Atlantic Ocean, breeding in Western Europe and Northeastern North America. It is the largest seabird in the northern Atlantic. The sexes are similar in appearance. The adult northern gannet has a mainly white streamlined body with a long neck, and long and slender wings. It is long with a wingspan. The head and nape have a buff tinge that is more prominent in breeding season, and the wings are edged with dark brown-black feathers. The long, pointed bill is blue-grey, contrasting with black, bare skin around the mouth and eyes. Juveniles are mostly grey-brown, becoming increasingly white in the five years it takes them to reach maturity.


title: Northern gannet

text: Nesting takes place in colonies on both sides of the North Atlantic, the largest of which are at Bass Rock (75,000 pairs as of 2014), St. Kilda (60,000 pairs as of 2013) and Ailsa Craig (33,000 pairs as of 2014) in Scotland, Grassholm in Wales, and Bonaventure Island (60,000 pairs in 2009) off the coast of Quebec. Its breeding range has extended northward and eastward, with colonies being established on Russia's Kola Peninsula in 1995 and Bear Island (the southernmost island of Svalbard), in 2011. Colonies are mostly located on offshore islands with cliffs, from which the birds can more easily launch into the air. The northern gannet undertakes seasonal migrations and catches fish (which are the mainstay of its diet) by making high-speed dives into the sea.


title: Northern gannet

text: The northern gannet was previously hunted for food in certain parts of its range, and although that practice still continues in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland and the Faroe Islands, the bird faces few other natural or man-made threats. Since its population is growing, the International Union for Conservation of Nature considers it a least-concern species. Because it is both a conspicuous and a common bird, it is referred to in several ancient myths and legends.


title: Northern gannet

text: The Swiss naturalist Conrad Gessner gave the northern gannet the name "Anser bassanus" or "scoticus" in the 16th century, and noted that the Scots called it a "solendguse". The former name was also used by the English naturalist Francis Willughby in the 17th century; the species was known to him from a colony in the Firth of Forth and from a stray bird that was found near Coleshill, Warwickshire. It was one of the many species originally described by the Swedish zoologist Carl Linnaeus in the landmark 1758 10th edition of his "Systema Naturae", where it was given the binomial name "Pelecanus bassanus". The French biologist Brisson placed it in the genus "Sula" in 1760, and his compatriot Louis Vieillot moved the species to his new genus "Morus" in 1816. "Morus" is derived from Ancient Greek "moros", meaning "foolish", and refers to the lack of fear shown by breeding gannets and boobies, which enables them to be easily killed. The specific name "bassanus" is from the Bass Rock in the Firth of Forth. The ornithologist Bryan Nelson in 1978 supported the species' inclusion in "Sula" as he felt the differences in anatomy, behaviour, ecology and morphology between gannets and boobies were not sufficient to warrant separate genera.


title: Northern gannet

text: Charles Lucian Bonaparte described the American populations as "Sula americana" in 1838, though the basis for distinguishing them from the European species was unclear and the name is now considered to be a synonym.


title: Northern gannet

text: "Northern gannet" has been designated as the official common name for the species by the International Ornithologists' Union (IOC). It is also known as the North Atlantic gannet. "Gannet" is derived from Old English "ganot", meaning "strong or masculine", which is ultimately from the same Old Germanic root as "gander". "Soland goose" and similar old names for the northern gannet such as "solan" or "solan goose" derive from a hypothetical Scottish Gaelic "sulan", itself borrowed from the Old Norse "sula". The literal meaning is "cleft stick", referring to the appearance of the conspicuous crossed black wing tips on a perched northern gannet. Old regional names such as Norfolk's "herring gant" or Yorkshire's "mackerel gant" refer to typical fish prey. Lincolnshire's "gaunt", although derived from the same Germanic root, usually applies to the great crested grebe, but the English writer Richard Hakluyt used the term in 1600 to refer to the gannet, "a great White foule". Young birds have been called "spotted booby" or "parliament goose", the former term referring to their plumage. The feeding habits of the gannet have led to its name being used as slang for a gluttonous person, a usage first recorded in 1929.


title: Northern gannet

text: The Sulidae, the gannets and boobies, appeared about 30 million years ago. Early Sulidae fossils resembled the boobies, although they were more aquatic, the gannets splitting off later, about 16 million years ago. The gannets evolved in the northern hemisphere, later colonising the southern oceans. The most ancient extant species may be the Abbott's booby, possibly the sole survivor of an otherwise extinct separate lineage. A 2011 genetic study of nuclear and mitochondrial DNA suggests that the ancestor of the gannets arose around 2.5 million years ago before splitting into northern and southern lineages. The latter then split into the Cape and Australasian gannets around 0.5 million years ago. The three gannets are generally considered to be separate species forming a superspecies, though they have also formerly been classified as subspecies of "Sula bassanus".


title: Northern gannet

text: An adult northern gannet has a wingspan, and is long and weighs , making it the largest gannet and the largest seabird native to the western Palearctic. The two sexes are generally of a similar size and appearance. The plumage is white with dark brown to black wing tips; the primary flight feathers, primary coverts and alulae are dark. The head and neck are tinged buff-yellow, becoming much more prominent in the breeding season. Males are more deeply coloured than females. The eyes are surrounded by black bare skin and have a cobalt blue orbital ring, the iris is light blue-grey with a fine dark outer ring. The beak is long, strong and conical with a slight downcurve at the end and a sharp cutting edge. In adults, the beak is blue-grey with dark grey or black edges. There is a black groove running the length of the mandible that merges into the skin around the eyes. A black band of bare skin also separates the pale feathers of the forehead and throat from the bill, which gives the gannet its distinctive face markings. The four-toed feet are joined by a membrane that can vary in colour from dark grey to dark brown. There are coloured lines running along the toes that continue along up the legs. These are typically greenish-yellow in males and bluish in females and probably have a role in mating.


title: Northern gannet

text: Fledglings are dark grey to slate-grey with upperparts and wings finely speckled with white. There is a prominent V-shaped white area under the rump. The wing tips and tail are dark brown-black, partly tipped with white. The bill and iris are dark brown. They can weigh more than by the time they leave the nest at about 10 weeks of age. In the second year, the bird's appearance changes depending on the different phases of moulting: they can have adult plumage at the front and continue to be brown at the rear. Gannets gradually acquire more white in subsequent seasons until they reach maturity after five years.


title: Northern gannet

text: Northern gannets are slightly larger and thicker-billed than Cape or Australian gannets. The northern gannet has more white in the wings and an all-white tail, the other species having black tips to their tail feathers. Individuals on the west coast of Africa could be confused with vagrant masked boobies, though the latter is smaller overall, lacks the buff tinge to the head, and has a black tail. From a distance, or in poor visibility, albatrosses can be confused with northern gannets, particularly those with immature plumage that have more black on the wings.


title: Northern gannet

text: Northern gannets have streamlined bodies adapted for plunge-diving at high speed, including powerful neck muscles, and a spongy bone plate at the base of the bill. The nostrils are inside the bill and can be closed to prevent water entry; the eyes are protected by strong nictitating membranes. There are subcutaneous air sacs in the lower body and along the sides. Other air sacs are located between the sternum and the pectoral muscles and between the ribs and the intercostal muscles. These sacs are connected to the lungs and are filled with air when the bird breathes in. The air can be returned to the lungs by muscle contractions.


title: Northern gannet

text: The feathers are waterproof, which allows the birds to spend long periods in water. A water-impermeable secretion produced by a sebaceous gland covers the feathers and the birds spread it across their body using their beak or head. Individuals have a subcutaneous fat layer, dense down feathers and tightly overlapping feathers that help them withstand low temperatures. A reduced blood flow in the webbing on their feet outside of the breeding season also helps to maintain body temperature when the birds swim.


title: Northern gannet

text: The northern gannet is a loud and vocal bird, particularly in the colony. Its typical call is a harsh "arrah-arrah" or "urrah-urrah", which is emitted upon arriving or when challenging other gannets at the colony. The call is shortened to a "rah" "rah" when fishing or collecting nesting material, and lengthened to a "ooo-ah" when taking off. The calls of the sexes are similar. According to Nelson northern gannets can recognize the call of their breeding partner, their chicks and birds in neighbouring nests. Individuals from outside this sphere are treated with more aggression.


title: Northern gannet

text: The northern gannet's breeding range is on both sides of the North Atlantic on coasts influenced by the Gulf Stream, There are colonies in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and on the islands off the east coast of Canada. They normally nest in large colonies, on cliffs overlooking the ocean or on small rocky islands. The water needs to be cool enough for Atlantic mackerel and herring, which are the main food source for the northern gannet. These areas also overlie the continental shelf. Northern gannet colonies can be found in the far north in regions that are very cold and stormy, and Nelson has suggested that they can survive in these regions for several reasons, including the combination of body weight and a powerful beak that allows them to capture strong muscular fish, and the ability to dive to great depths and capture prey far from the cliffs. Their fat reserves act as weight when diving and as reserves during extended periods without food.


title: Northern gannet

text: The northern limit of their breeding area depends on the presence of waters that are free of sea ice during the breeding season. Therefore, while Greenland and Svalbard offer suitable breeding sites, the Arctic regions have summers that are too short to allow the northern gannets to lay their eggs and raise a brood, which requires between 26 and 30 weeks. The southern limit of their distribution mainly depends on the presence of sufficient prey. There is fossil evidence of northern gannets breeding on Crete in the Pleistocene.


title: Northern gannet

text: Some northern gannet breeding colonies have been recorded as being located in the same place for hundreds of years. The cliffs containing the colonies appear white when seen from a distance, due to the number of nesting birds present on them. There is a written record of a colony on the island of Lundy from 1274. There were only 70 nests by 1871, and the colony finally disappeared by 1909 at the latest. More than two-thirds of the world population breeds around the coasts of the British Isles. Colonies include:


title: Northern gannet

text: After the breeding season, adult northern gannets disperse over a wide area although they travel no more than from the breeding colony. It is not known if all birds from one colony migrate to the same over-wintering area. Many adults migrate to the west of the Mediterranean, passing over the Strait of Gibraltar and flying over land as little as possible. Other birds follow Africa's Atlantic coastline to arrive in the Gulf of Guinea. Immature northern gannets from colonies in Canada fly to the Gulf of Mexico, much further south than the adults.


title: Northern gannet

text: The immature gannets migrate southwards for great distances and have been recorded as far south as Ecuador. In their second year some birds return to the colony they were born in, where they arrive later than the mature birds. They then migrate south again at the end of the breeding season, but travel shorter distances in this second migration. Gannets from Alderney have been tracked since 2015 to gain better knowledge of their movements. One individual was found to have travelled from its colony in Alderney to Scandinavian waters, a round trip of around .


title: Northern gannet

text: The species has been recorded as a vagrant in many central and eastern European countries as far south and west as the Black Sea, and also in Bermuda, Cuba, Cyprus, Egypt, Kazakhstan, Jan Mayen and Syria. In February 2016, one was recorded from Ceará in northeastern Brazil—the first sighting in the Southern Hemisphere.


title: Northern gannet

text: The wings of the northern gannet are long and narrow and are positioned towards the front of the body, allowing efficient use of air currents when flying. Even in calm weather they can attain velocities of between although their flying muscles are relatively small: in other birds flying muscles make up around 20% of total weight, while in northern gannets the flying muscles are less than 13%. Despite their speed, they cannot manoeuvre in flight as well as other seabirds. Northern gannets need to warm up before flying. They also walk with difficulty and this means that they have problems getting airborne from a flat area. They take off from water by facing into the wind and strongly beating their wings. In light winds and high waves they are sometimes unable to take off and they can become beached.


title: Northern gannet

text: Northern gannets alight on land using angled wings, fanned tail and raised feet to control their speed, not always successfully, since damaged or broken wings were recorded as a frequent cause of death in adults at one colony.


title: Northern gannet

text: Northern gannets forage for food during the day, generally by diving at high speed into the sea. They search for food both near to their nesting sites but also further out to sea. Birds that are feeding young have been recorded searching for food up to from their nest. It has been found that 2% of birds nesting in the colony on Bass Rock search for fish at Dogger Bank, between away. It is likely that they fly further than this while foraging, possibly up to double the distance; normally they fly less than . Some studies have found that the duration and direction of flights made while foraging for food are similar for both sexes, although there are significant differences in the search behaviour of males and females. Female northern gannets are not only more selective than males in choosing a search area: they also make longer and deeper dives and spend more time floating on the surface than males.


title: Northern gannet

text: They forage from heights of up to with no clear preference, and typically dive between . They dive with their bodies straight and rigid, wings tucked close to the body but angled back, extending beyond the tail, before piercing the water like an arrow. They control the direction of the dive using their wings and tail, and fold their wings against the body just before impact. Birds can hit the water at speeds of up to . This allows them to penetrate up to below the surface, and they will swim down to an average , sometimes deeper than . The bird's subcutaneous air sacs may have a role in controlling their buoyancy.


title: Northern gannet

text: Gannets usually push their prey deeper into the water and capture it as they return to the surface. When a dive is successful, they swallow the fish underwater before surfacing, and never fly with the fish in their bill. Larger fish are swallowed headfirst, smaller fish are swallowed sideways or tail-first. The fish is stored in a branched bag in the throat and does not cause drag when in flight.


title: Northern gannet

text: Their white colour helps other gannets to identify one of their kind and they can deduce the presence of a shoal of fish by this diving behaviour; this in turn facilitates group foraging, which makes capturing their prey easier. The colour also makes the gannet less visible to the fish underneath. Northern gannets also forage for fish while swimming with their head under water.


title: Northern gannet

text: They eat mainly fish in length that shoal near the surface. Virtually any small fish (roughly 80–90% of their diet) or other small pelagic species (largely squid) will be taken opportunistically. Sardines, anchovies, haddock, smelt, Atlantic cod and other shoal-forming species are also eaten. "M. bassanus" takes huge quantities from the waters around Newfoundland for the energy requirements of their growing chicks. Given the economic importance of the prey taken, whether they are in competition with human fishing industry in the area is an important question which remains unassessed. (But given the small amount taken, NL's cod take is probably unaffected.) On the other hand, they profit off of discarded bycatch and processed parts and the reduction in competition if humans are taking predatory fish.


title: Northern gannet

text: "M. bassanus" inflicts significant wasteage on the northwest Atlantic "Salmo salar" fishery, but does not actually eat much of them. This makes it difficult to resolve this conflict with the fishing industry in the area, as the only option would be to exterminate the birds, which is ecologically unacceptable.


title: Northern gannet

text: The oldest birds are the first to return to the northern gannet's breeding colonies. Birds not of breeding age arrive a few weeks later. In general, birds first return to a colony (not uncommonly the one in which they were hatched) when they are two or three years old. Once an individual has successfully bred in a colony it will not normally change to another. Nesting starts in March or April.


title: Northern gannet

text: Immature birds stay on the edges of the colony. They may even make a nest but they do not breed until they are 4 or 5 years old. Some birds of this age occupy empty nests that they will aggressively defend if they have sat on them for two or three days. If an apparently empty nest has an owner, the immature bird will leave without a struggle when the owner arrives to take possession.


title: Northern gannet

text: The preferred nesting sites are on coastal hillsides or cliffs. If these are not available northern gannets will nest in groups on islands or flat surfaces. As they find it more difficult to take off from such locations they will often cross the area occupied by an adjacent nest causing an aggressive reaction from the sitting pair; this means that the stress levels are higher in this type of colony than in those on steeper surfaces. Notwithstanding this, nests are always built close together and otherwise ideal nesting sites will not be used if they are some distance from a colony. On average there are 2.3 nests per square metre (1.9 per square yard). Both sexes fiercely defend the area around their nest. Where space allows, the distance between nests is double the reach of an individual.


title: Northern gannet

text: Nests are made from seaweed, plants, earth and debris from the sea. The males usually collect the materials. Nests are compact cups typically in height. The area which a nest occupies grows throughout the breeding season as the breeding pairs throw their excrement outside the nest. Over years, nests can reach in height.


title: Northern gannet

text: Northern gannets lay one egg that on average weighs , which is light for such a large seabird. The egg is around long by wide and the shell is pale blue and translucent initially before fading to a chalky white surface that is easily stained. "M. bassanus" was among those birds most affected by the shell-thinning effect of DDT, which contributed in large degree to its ban. Where two eggs are found in a nest this is the result of two females laying an egg in the same nest or one egg being stolen from another nest. Northern gannets will lay a replacement egg if the first is lost. Incubation takes 42 to 46 days, during which time the egg is surrounded by the brooding bird's warm, webbed feet. Just before hatching begins, the brooding bird releases the egg from its feet to prevent the egg from breaking under the adult's weight as the chick breaks it open. This is a frequent cause of death for chicks of birds that are breeding for the first time. The process of breaking the eggshell can take up to 36 hours. The webbed feet are also used to cover the chicks, which are only rarely left alone by their parents. Chicks that are left unattended are often attacked and killed by other northern gannets.


title: Northern gannet

text: Newly hatched chicks are featherless and are dark blue or black in colour. In the second week of life they are covered in white down, replaced over the next five weeks by dark brown feathers flecked with white. Young chicks are fed regurgitated semi-digested fish by their parents, who open their mouths wide for their young to fetch the food from the back of their throats. Older chicks receive whole fish. Unlike the chicks of other species, northern gannet chicks do not move about the nest or flap their wings to ask for food: this reduces the likelihood that they will fall from the nest.


title: Northern gannet

text: The adults feed their offspring for around 13 weeks, right up until the time they leave. The young birds fledge between 84 and 97 days old, departing by launching themselves off a cliff and flying—a procedure for which it is impossible to practice beforehand. If they leave the nest in bad weather they can be mortally wounded as they can be blown against the rocks. The young birds are attacked by adults if unattended. Once they leave the nest they stay at sea learning to fish and fly, their flight skills being too poor for them to return to the breeding ledges.


title: Northern gannet

text: Northern gannets have only one brood a year. The survival rate for young birds for their first four years is 30% and the annual survival rate for adults is 91.9%. The typical lifespan after becoming adult is 17 years, and the maximum known age is 37 years 4 months 16 days. Gannet pairs are monogamous and may remain together over several seasons, if not for all of their lives. The pairs separate when their chicks leave the nest but they bond again the following year. Should one of the pair die, the other bird will find another mate.


title: Northern gannet

text: Northern gannets exhibit many types of aggressive behaviour while they are nesting. Confrontations normally only take place between birds of the same sex. Females will lower their heads before an aggressive male that is defending its nest: this will expose the back of the female's neck and the male will take it in its beak and expel the female from the nest. A female will not react if a male approaches a nest but it will react fiercely if another female approaches. The fights between males occupying nests for the first time are particularly intense. Such fights can last for up to two hours and lead to serious injuries. Birds lunge at each other and lock bills, wrestling for extended periods while neighbours peck at them. The fights are preceded by threatening gestures, which are also seen outside the breeding season. Males demonstrate ownership of a nest by gesturing towards their neighbours in a "bowing display"; their heads and beaks point down, and their wings are held up and away from the body, yet folded backwards. The male moves his head from side to side before bowing forwards.


title: Northern gannet

text: Males try to attract an available female after establishing a territory. The females will fly over the colony several times before landing. Their posture, with the neck stretched out, tells the male that they are available for courtship. The male will then shake their heads in a similar way to when they are guarding their nest, but with their wings closed. Mated pairs engage in a "fencing display" when the male arrives back at the nest. The two birds stand breast to breast with wings spread and bills extended vertically. They fence and scissor with their bills rapidly, calling loudly at the same time. Fencing is interspersed with bill bowing.


title: Northern gannet

text: The northern gannet is not heavily predated. The only known habitual natural predators of adults are bald eagles and white-tailed eagles. Predators of eggs and nestlings include the great black-backed gull and American herring gull, common ravens, ermine, and red fox. Attacks at sea are insignificant, though large sharks and seals may rarely snatch a gannet out at sea.


title: Northern gannet

text: Kleptoparasitism by skuas, particularly the great skua, occurs at breeding sites. The skua chases its victim until it disgorges its stomach contents, providing a meal for the attacker. Skuas may catch the tip of the gannet's wing, causing it to fall into the sea, or seize the tail to tip its victim into the water. The gannet is only released when it has regurgitated its catch.


title: Northern gannet

text: External parasites include feather lice, although there are relatively few species and none are found on the head. As with grebes and divers, it may be that the short head feathers provide insufficient cover for the parasite. In one species, "Michaelichus bassani", immature lice are found in the membranes lining the subcutaneous air-cells. "Ixodes" mites include the widespread "I. uriae".


title: Northern gannet

text: The spiny-headed worm "Corynosoma tunitae" appears to occur only in gannets and closely related seabird families such as the cormorants. The tapeworm "Tetrabothrius bassani" absorbs toxic heavy metals at a higher concentration than the gannet's own tissues, with an average 12 times as much cadmium as the gannet's pectoral muscles and 7–10 times the lead level of the bird's kidney and liver. Since levels of these toxic metals are detectable in the parasite earlier than in the host, the tapeworm might be used as an early indicator of marine pollution.


title: Northern gannet

text: A 2004 survey counted 45 gannet breeding colonies and some 361,000 nests. The population is apparently growing between 3% and 5% a year, although this growth is concentrated in just a few colonies. Although northern gannet populations are now stable, their numbers were once greatly reduced due to loss of habitat, removal of eggs and killing of adults for their meat and feathers. In 1939, there were 22 colonies and some 83,000 nests, which means that the populations have increased fourfold since that time.


title: Northern gannet

text: In 1992, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) estimated the bird's population to be some 526,000. After taking into account an estimate produced for BirdLife International in 2004 of the European population, the IUCN revised its global population to between 950,000 and 1,200,000 individuals.


title: Northern gannet

text: The IUCN lists northern gannets as a species of least concern, as they are widely distributed and as there is a large population that appears to be growing due to high breeding success, with 75% of eggs producing fledged young.


title: Northern gannet

text: In Homer's "Odyssey", the sea goddess Leucothea ( "white goddess"), appears "in the likeness of a Gannet" and tells the shipwrecked Odysseus to discard his cloak and raft, instead offering him her veil to wind round himself which will save his life and enable him to reach land.


title: Northern gannet

text: An old myth from Mykines in the Faroe Islands tells of the giant Tórur seeking mercy following defeat at the hands of Óli, the islanders' head man and magician. In return, he gave them whales, driftwood logs and a bird unique to the archipelago, on condition that the inhabitants did not laugh at his gifts. Over time, the islanders forgot their promise, and lost the whales and logs, but fearful of losing a valuable food source, they never mocked the gannets that Tórur had given them.


title: Northern gannet

text: Northern gannets have long been eaten for food. Birds, mainly the young, were taken from Bass Rock for at least 350 years until 1885, when the annual cull of about 1,500 individuals finally ceased, and Shetland gannets were sold as "Highland goose" in London restaurants during World War II. Views of the palatability of this bird are mixed, but as well as being a food for the poor it also regularly featured in Scottish royal banquets. In Scotland gannets were traditionally salted to preserve them until they got to market, this technique being replaced by partially cooking or smoking in the era of modern transport. They are normally served roasted, although sometimes raw when pickled or dried.


title: Northern gannet

text: The best-known site was the remote island of St. Kilda, where adults and eggs were taken in the spring. The fat chicks, known locally as "gugas", were harvested from the precipitous cliffs in August, just before they could fly, and thrown to waiting boats far below. Much of the meat was salted in barrels for storage, but the rest of the bird was also used. Islanders paid their rent in feathers for stuffing pillows and furniture, the gannet stomachs were used to hold oil derived from the carcasses, and the breastbones served as lamp wicks.


title: Northern gannet

text: Hunting on St. Kilda ceased in 1910, but the gannetry on Sula Sgeir is still exploited under a licence that permits 2,200 chicks to be taken each year. During the hunt, 10 men live on the island, and the cleaned birds are singed on a fire fuelled by their own oil-rich offal. The filleted birds are then taken to Stornoway, where each hunter receives 200 skins to give away or sell. The continuing existence of the practice of hunting and eating gannets attracts criticism in some quarters. The island's name "Sula Sgeir" itself derives from "sula", meaning "gannet", and the Old Norse "skerr", a skerry. Other sites that continued hunting into the 20th century were Eldey in Iceland, where the activity ceased in 1939, and Mykines, where small-scale culling still persists. About 500 young are culled for consumption each year in Mykines, using techniques similar to those of the Sula Sgeir hunts.


title: Northern gannet

text: Although the Bass Rock population fell to fewer than 4,000 pairs in the early 19th century, the population soon recovered once hunting ceased, and St. Kilda was harvested sustainably for hundreds of years. Elsewhere, the recovery was less complete. The Bird Rocks colony in the Gulf of St Lawrence may once have held 250,000 birds, but unchecked hunting, including for fish bait, meant that the population was only 1,000 birds by 1932, despite government protection since 1904.


title: Resistance 3

text: Resistance 3 is a 2011 science fiction post-apocalyptic first-person shooter developed by Insomniac Games and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 3. "Resistance 3" is the final installment in the "Resistance" trilogy. "Resistance 3" is the first in the series to support 3D and PlayStation Move and was the first to introduce the PSN Pass program. The game shifts away from the military aspect of "" and "Resistance 2" and takes on a post-apocalyptic survival-horror feel.


title: Resistance 3

text: "Resistance 3" received generally positive reviews from critics, some of whom deemed it the best in the series, but the game sold poorly and was deemed a commercial failure. On April 8, 2014, the "Resistance 3" online servers, along with those for "" and "Resistance 2", were shut down by Sony.


title: Resistance 3

text: The game retains mostly the same gameplay mechanics as its predecessor albeit with several changes. The weapon wheel and health bar from the first "" game return. There are also new environmental objects such as chimeran plants which explode when shot. The game sees a mixture of new and old weapons; returning weapons include the Bullseye, Magnum, Rossmore, Auger, Marksman and Carbine. New weapons include the Mutator, which shoots biological mist that causes enemies to eventually explode causing splash damage, the Deadeye sniper rifle, and a new food-can based explosive, the shrapnel grenade, which releases a shower of nails when it explodes. Weapons are upgradeable, and become more powerful the more they are used. Humans are forced to assemble their weapons from whatever scrap they can gather. The game features PlayStation Move support and Stereoscopic 3D. Additionally, players can utilize the PlayStation Sharp Shooter peripheral attachment.


title: Resistance 3

text: "Resistance 3" featured an online 16-player competitive multiplayer component. It offered five modes: Team Deathmatch, Chain Reaction, Deathmatch, Breach, and Capture the Flag. It also included a customizable progression system where players spend points earned by playing online to unlock customized loadouts that include various attributes. There was also a co-operative mode where players could team up to play through the story mode either online or split-screen. "Game Informer"s podcast revealed that there would be no eight-player co-op as in "Resistance 2". The multiplayer maps were set in locations around the world, such as the Fort Lamy prison in Chad; the Seaside of Glamorgan, Wales, UK; Alice Springs in Australia; New York City in the United States; the Trainyard in Bogota, Colombia. Some of the locations these maps took place in are not included in the story mode.


title: Resistance 3

text: In 1953, shortly after Lt. Nathan Hale's death, Corporal Joseph Capelli, the only remaining member of the Sentinels, is dishonorably discharged for executing the former, despite having done it due to Hale having turned into a Chimera. Four years later, Capelli marries Susan Farley, the adoptive-sister of Nathan Hale, and now lives with a community of survivors in Haven, Oklahoma. Despite their best efforts, they are discovered by Chimeran forces, who have launched a full-scale genocide against the human race, now that their virus can be cured. Capelli and his militia company fight off the attackers, but not before they summon a massive terraforming platform to destroy the town.


title: Resistance 3

text: While prepping for evacuation, Capelli runs into Dr. Fyoder Malikov, who explains that the Chimera have opened a wormhole in the middle of New York as part of their plan to permanently freeze the planet and render it uninhabitable for humanity. Capelli refuses to help him, but his wife begs him to reconsider, as their son is too weak to survive such a harsh environment. Stealing an old trawler, the two make their way up the Mississippi River, fighting off hordes of feral Chimera until the boat is destroyed by a Goliath. Upon awakening, they find that the currents have brought them to St. Louis, Missouri.


title: Resistance 3

text: With Malikov too injured to continue, Capelli enters the city and links up with a survivalist group known as the Remnants. In exchange for his help in fixing their transport, their leader, Charlie, agrees to take them to New York. A squad of Chimeran fighters ambush them near Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania, forcing Capelli and Malikov to ditch the Remnants. After working together to evade enemy search parties, the two reach an abandoned coal town occupied by another group of survivors. They learn that the town priest, Jonathan Rose, vanished several days ago while hunting for "Satan", an oversized Chimera who lives in the nearby mines. Capelli tracks down Jonathan, and they manage to kill Satan. Out of gratitude, the townsfolk fix up an old coal train so they can resume their journey.


title: Resistance 3

text: While en route, a pack of bandits, the Wardens, assault the train. Capelli defeats them, but the train is subsequently overturned by a feral Widowmaker. Trapped under the wreckage, Capelli is forced to watch as Malikov is beheaded by the Warden leader, Mick. Taken to their hideout in Graterford Prison, he is forced to fight as a gladiator for the gang's amusement. Mick's lackey Herbert, a talented engineer, frees Capelli from confinement and tasks him with disabling the prison's defenses so he can stage a breakout. Despite Mick's interference, the plan succeeds and the Chimera lay waste to the prison and wipe out the Wardens. In the chaos, Capelli finds Mick and kills him.


title: Resistance 3

text: Now on his own, Capelli finally reaches New York City. After sending a farewell message to his family via radio, he fights his way through the Chimera until they overwhelm him with a mortar barrage. At the last second, the Remnants arrive and extract him. Charlie offers to take him home, but Capelli persuades him to help stage an attack on a nearby terraformer.


title: Resistance 3

text: By disabling the platform's controls and sabotaging its power core, the two are able to maneuver it into a collision course with the central tower, sealing the wormhole and returning Earth's temperatures back to normal. With the Chimera's chief advantage gone, human resistance groups around the world move to exterminate the Chimera and begin rebuilding all their nations. Capelli, meanwhile, is reunited with his wife and son, finally at peace with himself.


title: Resistance 3

text: In 2009, a promotional billboard for "Resistance 3" was spotted on a location set for "", a film by Columbia Pictures (a subsidiary of Sony) released in early 2011.(as the film is set in nearly one month prior to the game's release), Though neither Sony nor Insomniac Games commented on the appearance, Insomniac announced on May 25, 2010, that, in addition to creating a new multiplatform franchise, they would be developing multiple games exclusively for the PlayStation 3. The game was officially announced at Sony's Gamescom 2010 press conference in Cologne, Germany on August 17, 2010, alongside a live-action trailer for the game. On September 28, 2010, leaked concept art and screenshots were released onto a Flickr account which depict a number of different Chimera and two unidentified human characters (later confirmed in Game Informer's November 2010 cover story as Joseph Capelli and Susan Farley). When asked about the authenticity of the images, Insomniac replied with "no comment". The first gameplay was revealed at the Spike Video Game Awards, showing new weapons and enemies. Insomniac worked with Olly Moss to create the logo and box art.


title: Resistance 3

text: The game was released on September 6, 2011 in North America, September 7 in Europe, September 8 in Australia and New Zealand, and September 9 in the United Kingdom and Ireland.


title: Resistance 3

text: The downloadable content for "Resistance 3" includes the "Survival" game pack along with the "Brutality" game pack. The Survival pack includes: a Haven static theme, four new character skins for use in multiplayer, and a new multiplayer mode known as "Invasion". The Invasion mode forces Human and Chimeran teams to divide their resources with the goal of holding multiple control nodes on the map simultaneously. The more nodes a team holds, the faster they score points to achieve victory. The Brutality game pack is a survival-based wave mode which consists of the player roaming around a version of the Seaside multiplayer map, searching for new weapons along with ammunition and health to defend against the hordes of enemies. All weapons from the campaign can be found around the map and upgrade the more they are used. The game pack also includes seven tracks from the acclaimed heavy metal band Mastodon along with a prison theme and Mick Cutler skin for use in multiplayer.


title: Resistance 3

text: Both packs were removed in March 2014 from PlayStation Store, although only in Europe, around the same time of the multiplayer servers closure. However, the Brutality pack returned shortly after, possibly due to being also playable in singleplayer.


title: Resistance 3

text: Owners of specially marked copies of "SOCOM 4" were able to download and play the beta on August 4 using the codes provided with that game, while PlayStation Plus subscribers in Region 2 territories gained access on August 10. On August 23, the beta opened to worldwide subscribers of PlayStation Plus. Insomniac announced that they would give away codes via Facebook and Twitter to join the beta. The public beta began on August 30. The beta offered two multiplayer modes: Team Deathmatch and Chain Reaction. These modes were playable on two maps. People that played the beta between August 30 and September 4 received a SRPA Nathan Hale skin for "Resistance 3". The beta ended on September 4. "Resistance 3" has two demos, one for purchasing "" on Blu-ray and the other is downloadable from the PlayStation Store.


title: Resistance 3

text: Global Resistance was a social media strategy game designed to promote the release of "Resistance 3", where players could choose to play as Human or Chimera. Global Resistance had exclusive unlockable content for Resistance 3, like skins, artworks and videos. The game was disabled when the multiplayer servers for the Resistance trilogy closed on April 8, 2014.


title: Resistance 3

text: "Resistance 3" came in two special editions. The Doomsday edition of "Resistance 3" includes a copy of the game and a Move Controller bundle which includes the PlayStation Move controller, the PlayStation Move Sharp Shooter Attachment, the PlayStation Move navigation controller and the PlayStation Eye camera. The bundle was available in North America and Latin America.


title: Resistance 3

text: In Europe, the Survivor edition is available which includes Joseph Capelli's journal, Chimera firing range target, SRPA playing cards, a canvas satchel, SRPA hip flask and Fight for Freedom toy soldiers. Also released in Europe is the special edition which includes steelbook packaging, vinyl effect Blu-ray disc, SRPA Black Ops skin, infected Nathan Hale skin, air fuel grenade, special multiplayer title "Sentinel" and a multiplayer booster.


title: Resistance 3

text: "Resistance 3" received "favorable" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. IGN said, "In terms of tone, Insomniac has really amped up the gut-wrenching terror for Resistance 3. This is the darkest and most violent game in the series, and almost the entire second act of the game will have you on the edge of your seat." Thierry Nguyen of "1UP.com" said that "While Resistance 3 clearly steps forward as a improvement to the series, it's still not quite a great game overall."


title: Resistance 3

text: GameSpot praised the game for its exciting, deep campaign and fun multiplayer and said, "No matter what your gaming setup, you're in for a treat. Resistance 3 offers a brand of excitement you won't find in any other shooter franchise." "Game Informer" criticized the "bland environments", "predictable" level design, and "numerous glitches" that "halt the flow of the game entirely." In Japan, "Famitsu" gave it a score of one nine, two eights, and one nine for a total of 34 out of 40.


title: Resistance 3

text: "The A.V. Club" gave it a B+, saying that the game "delivers the goods, make no mistake. They just happen to be the goods that gamers already had, dolled up in a shiny new package." Common Sense Media gave it four stars out of five, saying, "It's not a perfect sci-fi shooter, but this new sequel from Insomniac Games is the best yet in the "Resistance" franchise." "The Daily Telegraph" similarly gave it four stars out of five and said, "Connection issues aside, "Resistance 3" really is one of the most enjoyable, memorable action games in years, on any platform. It has giant arachnids, constant action, and an awesome shotgun. It's visually stunning, artistically evocative. And most importantly, it's definitely got soul. And soldiers too, which is nice." "Digital Spy" likewise gave it four stars out of five and said that the game "doesn't exactly rewrite the book on first-person shooters, but it offers thoroughly enjoyable gameplay, with a low learning curve, set against a strong narrative. Fans of the previous games will find much to love here, and even newcomers will find it a good jumping on point thanks to the intuitive controls." "The Guardian" likewise gave it four stars out of five and said it was "fast, furious and entertaining throughout but lacks the uniqueness that would boost it to the very top of the FPS ladder." However, "Metro UK" gave it a score of seven out of ten and said, "Although this is a considerably more interesting and accomplished game than any of its predecessors it's still nowhere near the cutting edge of the first person shooter genre. And we say that not just because of its abandonment of all that "Halo" introduced to the concept a decade ago."


title: Resistance 3

text: "Resistance 3" sold 180,000 copies in September and was seventh best selling game in the United States. In the UK it entered the PS3 software chart in fourth position in the first week of launch.


title: 2000 in video games

text: The year 2000 saw the release of numerous video games as well as the launch of the PlayStation 2. Critically acclaimed games originally released in 2000 include sequels such as "Chrono Cross", "Baldur's Gate II", "Diablo II", "Dragon Quest VII", "Final Fantasy IX", "", "NFL 2K1", "", "", and "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2", along with new intellectual properties such as "Deus Ex", "Jet Set Radio", "Perfect Dark", "Skies of Arcadia", "The Sims" and "Vagrant Story". The year's best-selling home video games worldwide were "Pokémon" games for the third year in a row (since 1998), while the highest-grossing arcade game in Japan was "Virtua Striker 2".


title: 2000 in video games

text: The following video game releases in 2000 entered "Famitsu" magazine's "Platinum Hall of Fame" for receiving Famitsu scores of at least 35 out of 40.


title: 2000 in video games

text: The following titles were the top ten best-selling home video games of 2000 in Japan, the United States, United Kingdom, and Germany.


title: 2000 in video games

text: The following titles were the top ten highest-grossing home video games of 2000 in the United States and Europe.


title: 2000 in video games

text: The following titles were the year's top six highest-grossing home video game franchises in the United States, in terms of video game software sales revenue.


title: 2000 in video games

text: In the United Kingdom and France, the following titles were the best-selling home video games of 2000.


title: 2000 in video games

text: Series with new installments include "Age of Empires", "Banjo-Kazooie", "Command & Conquer", "Diablo", "Excite", "Final Fantasy", "Grandia", "The Legend of Zelda", "Madden NFL", "Marvel vs. Capcom", "Mega Man Legends", "Monkey Island", "Mortal Kombat", "Need for Speed", "Persona", "Pokémon", "Resident Evil", "Ridge Racer", "Sonic the Hedgehog", "Spyro", "Tekken", "Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six", "Tony Hawk's", and "Wario".


title: 2000 in video games

text: In addition, 2000 saw the introduction of several new properties, including "Counter-Strike", "Deus Ex", "Hitman", "Jet Set Radio", "Kessen", "Mario Tennis", "Midnight Club", "Paper Mario", "Perfect Dark", "The Sims", "SSX", "TimeSplitters", and "Total War".


title: Small Business Administration

text: The United States Small Business Administration (SBA) is an independent agency of the United States government that provides support to entrepreneurs and small businesses. The mission of the Small Business Administration is "to maintain and strengthen the nation's economy by enabling the establishment and viability of small businesses and by assisting in the economic recovery of communities after disasters". The agency's activities have been summarized as the "3 Cs" of capital, contracts and counseling.


title: Small Business Administration

text: SBA loans are made through banks, credit unions and other lenders who partner with the SBA. The SBA provides a government-backed guarantee on part of the loan. Under the Recovery Act and the Small Business Jobs Act, SBA loans were enhanced to provide up to a 90 percent guarantee in order to strengthen access to capital for small businesses after credit froze in 2008. The agency had record lending volumes in late 2010.


title: Small Business Administration

text: SBA helps lead the federal government's efforts to deliver 23 percent of prime federal contracts to small businesses. Small business contracting programs include efforts to ensure that certain federal contracts reach woman-owned and service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses as well as businesses participating in programs such as the 8(a) Business Development Program and HUBZone. In March 2018 the SBA launched the "SBA Franchise Directory", aiming to connect entrepreneurs to lines of credit and capital in order to grow their businesses.


title: Small Business Administration

text: SBA has at least one office in each U.S. state. In addition, the agency provides grants to support counseling partners, including approximately 900 Small Business Development Centers (often located at colleges and universities), 110 Women's Business Centers, and SCORE, a volunteer mentor corps of retired and experienced business leaders with approximately 350 chapters. These counseling services provide services to over 1 million entrepreneurs and small business owners annually. President Obama announced in January 2012 that he would elevate the SBA into the Cabinet, a position it last held during the Clinton administration, thus making the Administrator of the Small Business Administration a cabinet-level position.


title: Small Business Administration

text: The SBA was created on July 30, 1953, by Republican President Eisenhower with the signing of the Small Business Act, currently codified at . The Small Business Act was originally enacted as the "Small Business Act of 1953" in Title II () of (ch. 282, , July 30, 1953); The "Reconstruction Finance Corporation Liquidation Act" was Title I, which abolished the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC). The Small Business Act Amendments of 1958 () withdrew Title II as part of that act and made it a separate act to be known as the "Small Business Act". Its function was and is to "aid, counsel, assist and protect, insofar as is possible, the interests of small business concerns".


title: Small Business Administration

text: The SBA has survived a number of threats to its existence. In 1996, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives planned to eliminate the agency. It survived and went on to receive a record high budget in 2000. Renewed efforts by the Bush Administration to end the SBA loan program met congressional resistance, although the SBA's budget was repeatedly cut, and in 2004 certain expenditures were frozen. The Obama administration supported SBA budgets and strengthened it through The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. SBA budgets were further strengthened by the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010, and in 2011, President Obama announced that the SBA would double its support of rural small businesses to $350 million in the next 5 years.


title: Small Business Administration

text: The Trump Administration supported the SBA budget through an increase in entrepreneurship centers geared towards women entrepreneurs and other programs. The Trump Administration oversaw significant supplemental appropriations for the agency strengthened SBA lending through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010, and the CARES Act of 2020. Within the first 14 days of the Paycheck Protection Program the SBA had processed more than 14 years worth of loans to small businesses. In June of 2020 it was announced that the Trump Administration through the Paycheck Protection Program saved over 50 million small business jobs in America.


title: Small Business Administration

text: The SBA has an Administrator and a Deputy Administrator. It has an associate administrator or director for the following offices:


title: Small Business Administration

text: Senate-confirmed appointees include: Administrator, Deputy Administrator, Chief Counsel for Advocacy, and Inspector General.


title: Small Business Administration

text: The 7(a) Loan Guarantee Program is designed to help entrepreneurs start or expand their small businesses. It is the most common loan program offered by the SBA. The program makes capital available to small businesses through bank and non-bank lending institutions. The Small Business Jobs Act of 2010 increased the maximum size of these loans, indefinitely, from $2 million to $5 million. According to the SBA website, it can be used for working capital, both short and long term, refinancing debt, and purchasing furniture, fixtures, and supplies. There are some businesses that are ineligible for this program, such as real estate investment firms (where property is held for investment purposes), dealers of rare coins and stamps, and lending institutions like banks.


title: Small Business Administration

text: Homeowners and renters are eligible for long-term, low-interest loans to rebuild or repair a damaged property to pre-disaster condition.


title: Small Business Administration

text: Businesses are also eligible for long-term, low-interest loans to recover from declared disasters. Disaster Relief Loans are often approved within 21 days. This is an improved approval time then after Hurricane Katrina, over 15 years ago, when the SBA processed applications, on average, in about 74 days.


title: Small Business Administration

text: If a business with a Disaster Relief Loan defaults on the loan, and the business is closed, the SBA will pursue the business owner to liquidate all personal assets, to satisfy an outstanding balance. The IRS will withhold any tax refund expected by the former business owner and apply the amount toward the loan balance.


title: Small Business Administration

text: The Microloan program provides direct loans to qualified nonprofit intermediary lenders who, in turn, provide “microloans” of up to $50,000 to


title: Small Business Administration

text: small businesses and nonprofit child care centers. It also provides marketing, management, and technical assistance to microloan borrowers and potential borrowers.


title: Small Business Administration

text: Approximately 900 Small Business Development Center sites are funded through a combination of state and SBA support in the form of matching grants. Typically, SBDCs are co-located at community colleges, state universities, and/or other entrepreneurial hubs. Cole Browne leads the SBA in purchasing of new Development Center sites.


title: Small Business Administration

text: The Office of Women-Owned Businesses (OWBO) was established in 1979 by Executive Order 12138. The mission of the program is "to enable and empower women entrepreneurs through advocacy, outreach, education and support."


title: Small Business Administration

text: Programs managed by the OWBO provide services to disadvantaged woman entrepreneurs to assist in increasing their competitiveness in the modern business world. These programs assist women through training and counseling, providing opportunities to obtain credit, capital and marketing assistance, and establishing a Federal set-aside for women-owned businesses.


title: Small Business Administration

text: The Women's Business Center Program was established under Title II of the Women's Business Ownership Act of 1988. It was first named the Demonstration Training Program when it was created by Congress to provide a long-term solution for training and counseling potential and current women business owners, including those who are Socially and Economically Disadvantaged as defined in 13 CFR 124.103. The intent of the program was, and still is, to stimulate the economy through assisting and encouraging growth of women-owned businesses.


title: Small Business Administration

text: The current rule on the Women's Business Center Program is outlined under Title 15 of the US Code, 2019 Edition, Chapter 14A. New rules were applied to the code by the US Small Business Administration, effective January 1, 2020, as outlined in the Federal Register document, Volume 84, No. 227, Monday, November 25, 2019, Rules and Regulations. This rule document was put in place in order to make the Women's Business Center Program more transparent in reporting on progress and financial allotments, as well as providing improved standardization overall.


title: Small Business Administration

text: Women's Business Centers (WBCs) represent a national network of over 100 non-profit educational centers throughout the United States and its territories, funded in part through SBA support. The maximum SBA grant for a WBC is $150,000 per year, although most centers receive less.


title: Small Business Administration

text: WBCs are designed to assist women in starting and growing small businesses, though their services are available to all. WBCs help women succeed in business by providing training, mentoring, business development, and financing opportunities to over 100,000 women entrepreneurs annually across the nation. Women’s Business Centers are mandated to serve a significant number of socially and economically disadvantaged individuals.


title: Small Business Administration

text: Research conducted by the Association of Women’s Business Centers indicates that 64% of WBC clients in 2012 were low-income, 39% were persons of color, and 70% were nascent businesses. WBC services are provided in more than 35 languages, with 64% of WBCs providing services in two or more languages. In addition to business training services, 68% of WBCs provide mentoring services, and 45% provide microloans.


title: Small Business Administration

text: SCORE, the nation's largest network of volunteer, expert business mentors, was founded in 1964 as a resource partner of the U.S. Small Business Administration. SCORE has since educated more than 10 million current and aspiring U.S. small business owners through its free mentoring and free and low-cost workshops. In 2016, SCORE’s more than 10,000 volunteer mentors helped their 125,000 clients create 54,072 small businesses, adding 78,691 non-owner jobs to the U.S. economy.


title: Small Business Administration

text: SCORE’s core service offering is its mentoring program, through which volunteer mentors (all experienced in entrepreneurship and related areas of expertise) provide free counsel to small business clients. Mentors, operating out of 300 chapters nationwide, work with their clients to address issues related to starting and growing a business, including writing business plans, developing products, conceiving marketing strategies, hiring staff, and more. Clients access their mentors via free, ongoing face-to-face mentoring sessions or through email or video mentoring services.


title: Small Business Administration

text: In addition to mentoring, SCORE also offers free and low-cost educational workshops each year, both online and in-person. In 2016, clients attended 119,957 online workshop sessions, while 237,712 local workshop attendees benefited from SCORE’s in-person educational programming.


title: Small Business Administration

text: SBA's Office of Veteran Business Development operates twenty-two Veteran Business Outreach Centers through grants and cooperative agreements with organizations which provide technical assistance to businesses owned by veterans and family members. VBOCs also provide instructors for the SBA's program Boots to Business.


title: Small Business Administration

text: The 8(a) Business Development Program assists in the development of small businesses owned and operated by individuals who are socially and economically disadvantaged, such as women and minorities. Applicants must provide evidence of economic disadvantage (net worth under $250,000K), and must write a statement of personal experiences in combination with evidence to sufficiently demonstrate social disadvantage. The following groups are presumed socially disadvantaged through SBA policy and do not have to submit a social disadvantage narrative when applying for the program: Black Americans; Hispanic Americans; Native Americans (American Indians, Eskimos, Aleuts, or Native Hawaiians); Asian Pacific Americans (persons with origins from Burma, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei, Japan, China (including Hong Kong), Taiwan, Laos, Cambodia (Kampuchea), Vietnam, Korea, The Philippines, U.S. Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (Republic of Palau), Republic of the Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, Samoa, Macao, Fiji, Tonga, Kiribati, Tuvalu, or Nauru); Subcontinent Asian Americans (persons with origins from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, the Maldives Islands or Nepal).


title: Small Business Administration

text: The 8(a) Program opens the doors for disadvantaged firms to grow and develop for a period of 9-years. It has increased jobs for thousands of people across the Nation, and many of the successful firms had impacted their communities with internships, college funding, and more. Annually, of the government's $99B in small business contracts, 8(a) firms are awarded 5% of contracts.


title: Small Business Administration

text: In 2011, the SBA, along with the FBI and the IRS, uncovered a massive scheme to defraud this program. Civilian employees of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, working in concert with an employee of Alaska Native Corporation "Eyak Technology LLC" allegedly submitted fraudulent bills to the program, totaling over 20 million dollars, and kept the money for their own use.


title: Small Business Administration

text: The Office of Hearings and Appeals (OHA) is an independent office within the SBA established in 1983 to provide an independent, quasi-judicial appeal against certain SBA program decisions.


title: Small Business Administration

text: The Cato Institute has challenged the justification of the federal government in intervening in credit markets. Among other criticisms, Cato argues that "the SBA benefits a relatively tiny number of small businesses at the expense of the vast majority of small business that do not receive government assistance. SBA subsidies also represent a form of corporate welfare for the banking industry." Cato notes that the failure rate of all SBA loans from 2001 to 2010 is 19.4%, contributing to a cost to taxpayers of $6.2 billion in 2011.


title: Small Business Administration

text: In 2005, SBA Inspector General "Report 5-15" stated, "One of the most important challenges facing the Small Business Administration and the entire Federal government today is that large businesses are receiving small business procurement awards and agencies are receiving credit for these awards."


title: Small Business Administration

text: In October 2009, the Government Accountability Office released "Report 10-108" which stated, "By failing to hold firms accountable, SBA and contracting agencies have sent a message to the contracting community that there is no punishment or consequences for committing fraud."


title: Small Business Administration

text: Between 2009 and 2011, 7a Program guaranteed loans to Black-owned businesses declined by 47%. Black loans are 3% of 7a loans for fiscal years 2014-2019. The SBA report to Congress has minority loans at 23%.


title: Small Business Administration

text: On April 17, 2020, the SBA approved $20 million in forgivable loans to Ruth's Hospitality Group, a publicly traded company, as part of the Paycheck Protection Program. While accommodation and franchise businesses were allowed by legislation to participate in the Paycheck Protection Program per its qualification requirements, the loan made to Ruth's Hospitality Group represents a departure from the SBA's mission to serve small businesses.


title: Small Business Administration

text: On May 21st, 2020 it was reported that Planned Parenthood improperly received Paycheck Protection Program fundings. In response, the SBA sent a demand letter to Planned Parenthood requesting that they return the improperly received funding.


title: Small Business Administration

text: In December, 2020, according to data released after a federal lawsuit filed by several news organizations under the Freedom of Information Act challenging the SBA’s refusal to release records on borrowers and loan amounts relating to the government's Paycheck Protection Program, it was revealed that more than half of the money from the Treasury Department’s coronavirus emergency fund for small businesses actually went to bigger small businesses representing just 5 percent of the recipients. The CARES Act of 2020 generally classified a small business as a business with 500 employees or fewer.


title: Tuber melanosporum

text: Tuber melanosporum, called the black truffle, Périgord truffle or French black truffle, is a species of truffle native to Southern Europe. It is one of the most expensive edible mushrooms in the world.


title: Tuber melanosporum

text: The round, dark brown fruiting bodies (ascocarps) have a black-brown skin with small pyramidal cusps. They have a strong, aromatic smell and normally reach a size of up to . Some may be significantly larger, such as a black truffle found in 2012 in Dordogne with a mass of .


title: Tuber melanosporum

text: Their flesh is initially white, then dark. It is permeated by white veins which turn brown with age. The spores are elliptical and measure about 22–55 µm by 20–35 µm. They are dark brown and covered with large spikes.


title: Tuber melanosporum

text: The fruiting bodies of the black truffle exude a scent reminiscent of undergrowth, strawberries, wet earth or dried fruit with a hint of cocoa. Their taste, which fully develops after the truffles are heated, is slightly peppery and bitter. If stored at room temperature, the aromatic compounds dissipate, while storage around the freezing point (0°C) leads to an increased synthesis of these compounds.


title: Tuber melanosporum

text: The volatile compounds that contribute to the aroma and are developed by the fruiting bodies include 2-methyl-1-butanol, isoamyl alcohol, 2-methylbutyraldehyde and 3-methylbutyraldehyde, as well as traces of sulfur compounds. One of these, dimethyl sulfide, is what attracts truffle dogs, truffle hogs and truffle flies to the fruiting bodies. Several species of yeast, which produce part of the aromatic compounds, have been isolated from "Tuber melanosporum" and "Tuber magnatum".