title: "Western Wall" content: in Christmas ceremonies in Bethlehem. Some sources claim Jews could only visit the wall if they traveled through Jordan (which was not an option for Israelis) and did not have an Israeli visa stamped in their passports. Only Jordanian soldiers and tourists were to be found there. A vantage point on Mount Zion, from which the Wall could be viewed, became the place where Jews gathered to pray. For thousands of pilgrims, the mount, being the closest location to the Wall under Israeli control, became a substitute site for the traditional priestly blessing ceremony which takes place on the Three


title: "Western Wall" content: Pilgrimage Festivals. During the Jordanian rule of the Old City, a ceramic street sign in Arabic and English was affixed to the stones of the ancient wall. Attached up, it was made up of eight separate ceramic tiles and said "Al Buraq Road" in Arabic at the top with the English "Al-Buraq (Wailing Wall) Rd" below. When Israeli soldiers arrived at the wall in June 1967, one attempted to scrawl Hebrew lettering on it. The "Jerusalem Post" reported that on June 8, Ben-Gurion went to the wall and "looked with distaste" at the road sign; "this is not right, it


title: "Western Wall" content: should come down" and he proceeded to dismantle it. This act signaled the climax of the capture of the Old City and the ability of Jews to once again access their holiest sites. Emotional recollections of this event are related by David ben Gurion and Shimon Peres. Following Israel's victory during the 1967 Six-Day War, the Western Wall came under Israeli control. Brigadier Rabbi Shlomo Goren proclaimed after its capture that "Israel would never again relinquish the Wall", a stance supported by Israeli Minister for Defence Moshe Dayan and Chief of Staff General Yitzhak Rabin. Rabin described the moment Israeli


title: "Western Wall" content: soldiers reached the Wall: "There was one moment in the Six-Day War which symbolized the great victory: that was the moment in which the first paratroopers – under Gur's command – reached the stones of the Western Wall, feeling the emotion of the place; there never was, and never will be, another moment like it. Nobody staged that moment. Nobody planned it in advance. Nobody prepared it and nobody was prepared for it; it was as if Providence had directed the whole thing: the paratroopers weeping — loudly and in pain — over their comrades who had fallen along the


title: "Western Wall" content: way, the words of the Kaddish prayer heard by Western Wall's stones after 19 years of silence, tears of mourning, shouts of joy, and the singing of "Hatikvah"". Forty-eight hours after capturing the wall, the military, without explicit government order, hastily proceeded to demolish the entire Moroccan Quarter, which stood from the Wall. The Sheikh Eid Mosque, which was built over one of Jerusalem's oldest Islamic schools, the Afdiliyeh, named after one of Saladin's sons, was pulled down to make way for the plaza. It was one of three or four that survived from Saladin's time. 650 people consisting of


title: "Western Wall" content: 106 Arab families were ordered to leave their homes at night. When they refused, bulldozers began to demolish the buildings with people still inside, killing one person and injuring a number of others. According to Eyal Weizman, Chaim Herzog, who later became Israel's sixth president, took much of the credit for the destruction of the neighbourhood: When we visited the Wailing Wall we found a toilet attached to it ... we decided to remove it and from this we came to the conclusion that we could evacuate the entire area in front of the Wailing Wall ... a historical opportunity


title: "Western Wall" content: that will never return ... We knew that the following Saturday [sic Wednesday], June 14, would be the Jewish festival of Shavuot and that many will want to come to pray ... it all had to be completed by then. The narrow pavement, which could accommodate a maximum of 12,000 per day, was transformed into an enormous plaza that could hold in excess of 400,000. Several months later, the pavement close to the wall was excavated to a depth of two and half metres, exposing an additional two courses of large stones. A complex of buildings against the wall at


title: "Western Wall" content: the southern end of the plaza, that included Madrasa Fakhriya and the house that the Abu al-Sa'ud family had occupied since the 16th century, were spared in the 1967 destruction, but demolished in 1969. The section of the wall dedicated to prayers was thus extended southwards to double its original length, from , while the space facing the wall grew to . The narrow, approximately pre-1948 alley along the wall, used for Jewish prayer, was enlarged to , with the entire Western Wall Plaza covering , stretching from the wall to the Jewish Quarter. The new plaza created in 1967


title: "Western Wall" content: is used for worship and public gatherings, including Bar mitzvah celebrations and the swearing-in ceremonies of newly full-fledged soldiers in the Israel Defense Forces. Tens of thousands of Jews flock to the wall on the Jewish holidays, and particularly on the fast of Tisha B'Av, which marks the destruction of the Temple and on Jerusalem Day, which commemorates the reunification of Jerusalem in 1967 and the delivery of the Wall into Jewish hands. Conflicts over prayer at the national monument began a little more than a year after Israel’s victory in the Six-Day War, which again made the site accessible


title: "Western Wall" content: to Jews. In July 1968 the World Union for Progressive Judaism, which had planned the group's international convention in Jerusalem, appealed to the Knesset after the Ministry of Religious Affairs prohibited the organization from hosting mixed-gender services at the Wall. The Knesset committee on internal affairs backed the Ministry of Religious Affairs in disallowing the Jewish convention attendees, who had come from over 24 countries, from worshiping in their fashion. The Orthodox held that services at the Wall should follow traditional Jewish law for segregated seating followed in synagogues, while the non-Orthodox perspective was that "the Wall is a shrine


title: "Western Wall" content: of all Jews, not one particular branch of Judaism." At the southern end of the Western Wall, Robinson's Arch along with a row of vaults once supported stairs ascending from the street to the Temple Mount. Because it does not come under the direct control of the Rabbi of the Wall or the Ministry of Religious Affairs, the site has been opened to religious groups that hold worship services that would not be approved by the Rabbi or the Ministry in the major men's and women's prayer areas against the Wall. The need for such an area became apparent when


title: "Western Wall" content: in 1989, after repeated attacks by haredim, activists belonging to a group called Women of the Wall petitioned to secure the right of women to pray at the wall without restrictions. In a 2003 directive, Israel's Supreme Court disallowed any women from reading publicly from the Torah or wearing traditional prayer shawls at the plaza itself, but instructed the Israeli government to prepare the site of Robinson's Arch to host such events. The site was inaugurated in August 2004 and has since hosted services by Reform and Conservative groups, as well as services by the Women of the Wall. In


title: "Western Wall" content: May 2013 a judge ruled that the 2003 Israeli Supreme Court ruling prohibiting women from carrying a Torah or wearing prayer shawls had been misinterpreted and that Women of the Wall prayer gatherings at the wall should not be deemed as disturbing the public order. In November 2010, the government approved a NIS 85m ($23m) scheme to improve access and infrastructure at the site. The Isaiah Stone, located under Robinson's Arch, has a carved inscription in Hebrew from Isaiah 66:14: וראיתם ושש לבכם ועצמותיכם כדשא תפרחנה ("And when ye see this your heart shall rejoice and your bones shall flourish


title: "Western Wall" content: like an herb"). In April 2013, Jewish Agency for Israel leader Natan Sharansky spearheaded a concept that would expand and renovate the Robinson's Arch area into an area where people may "perform worship rituals not based on the Orthodox interpretation of Jewish tradition." On August 25, 2013, a new 4,480 square foot prayer platform named "Azarat Yisrael Plaza" was completed as part of this plan, with access to the platform at all hours, even when the rest of the area's archeological park is closed to visitors. After some controversy regarding the question of authority over this prayer area, the announcement


title: "Western Wall" content: was made that it would come under the authority of a future government-appointed "pluralist council" that would include non-Orthodox representatives. In January 2016, the Israeli Cabinet approved a plan to designate a new space at the Kotel that would be available for egalitarian prayer and that would not be controlled by the Rabbinate. Women of the Wall welcomed the decision, although Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar of Jerusalem said creating a mixed-gender prayer section was paramount to destroying it. The Chief rabbinate said it would create an alternate plan. In June 2017, it was announced that the plan approved in


title: "Western Wall" content: January 2016 had been suspended. In 2005, the Western Wall Heritage Foundation initiated a major renovation effort under Rabbi-of-the-Wall Shmuel Rabinovitch. Its goal was to renovate and restore the area within Wilson's Arch, the covered area to the left of worshipers facing the Wall in the open prayer plaza, in order to increase access for visitors and for prayer. The restoration to the men's section included a Torah ark that can house over 100 Torah scrolls, in addition to new bookshelves, a library, heating for the winter, and air conditioning for the summer. A new room was also built for


title: "Western Wall" content: the scribes who maintain and preserve the Torah scrolls used at the Wall. New construction also included a women's section, overlooking the men's prayer area, so that women could use this separate area to "take part in the services held inside under the Arch" for the first time. On July 25, 2010, a Ner Tamid, an oil-burning "eternal light," was installed within the prayer hall within Wilson's Arch, the first eternal light installed in the area of the Western Wall. According to the Western Wall Heritage Foundation, requests had been made for many years that "an olive oil lamp be


title: "Western Wall" content: placed in the prayer hall of the Western Wall Plaza, as is the custom in Jewish synagogues, to represent the menorah of the Temple in Jerusalem as well as the continuously burning fire on the altar of burnt offerings in front of the Temple," especially in the closest place to those ancient flames. A number of special worship events have been held since the renovation. They have taken advantage of the cover, temperature control, and enhanced security. However, in addition to the more recent programs, one early event occurred in September 1983, even before the modern renovation. At that time


title: "Western Wall" content: U.S. Sixth Fleet Chaplain Rabbi Arnold Resnicoff was allowed to hold an unusual interfaith service—the first interfaith service ever conducted at the Wall during the time it was under Israeli control—that included men and women sitting together. The ten-minute service included the Priestly Blessing, recited by Resnicoff, who is a Kohen. A Ministry of Religions representative was present, responding to press queries that the service was authorized as part of a special welcome for the U.S. Sixth Fleet. After the 1967 Arab–Israeli war, Rabbi Yehuda Meir Getz was named the overseer of proceedings at the wall. After Rabbi Getz's death


title: "Western Wall" content: in 1995, Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz was given the position. Rabbinic tradition teaches that the western wall was built upon foundations laid by the biblical King Solomon from the time of the First Temple. A Midrash compiled in Late Antiquity refers to a western wall of the Temple which "would never be destroyed", and Lamentations Rabbah mentions how Rome was unable to topple the western wall due to the Divine oath promising its eternal survival. Another Midrash quotes a 4th-century scholar: "Rav Acha said that the Divine Presence has never departed from the Western Wall", and the Zohar similarly writes that


title: "Western Wall" content: "the Divine Presence rests upon the Western Wall". Some medieval rabbis claimed that today's Western Wall is a surviving wall of the Temple itself and cautioned Jews from approaching it, lest they enter the Temple precincts in a state of impurity. Many contemporary rabbis believe that the rabbinic traditions were made in reference to the Temple Mount's Western Wall, which accordingly endows the Wall with inherent holiness. Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Kaindenover discusses the mystical aspect of the Hebrew word "kotel" when discussing the significance of praying against a wall. He cites the Zohar which writes that the word "kotel", meaning


title: "Western Wall" content: wall, is made up of two parts: "Ko", which has the numerical value of God’s name, and "Tel", meaning mount, which refers to the Temple and its Western Wall. Eighteenth-century scholar Jonathan Eybeschutz writes that "after the destruction of the Temple, God removed His Presence from His sanctuary and placed it upon the Western Wall where it remains in its holiness and honour". It is told that great Jewish sages, including Isaac Luria and the Radvaz, experienced a revelation of the Divine Presence at the wall. Many contemporary Orthodox scholars rule that the area in front of the Wall has


title: "Western Wall" content: the status of a synagogue and must be treated with due respect. This is the view upheld by the authority in charge of the wall. As such, men and married women are expected to cover their heads upon approaching the Wall, and to dress appropriately. When departing, the custom is to walk backwards away from the Wall. On Saturdays, it is forbidden to enter the area with electronic devices, including cameras, which infringe on the sanctity of the Sabbath. Some Orthodox Jewish codifiers warn against inserting fingers into the cracks of the Wall as they believe that the breadth of


title: "Western Wall" content: the Wall constitutes part of the Temple Mount itself and retains holiness, while others who permit doing so claim that the Wall is located outside the Temple area. In the past, some visitors would write their names on the Wall, or based upon various scriptural verses, would drive nails into the crevices. These practices stopped after rabbis determined that such actions compromised the sanctity of the Wall. Another practice also existed whereby pilgrims or those intending to travel abroad would hack off a chip from the Wall or take some of the sand from between its cracks as a good


title: "Western Wall" content: luck charm or memento. In the late 19th century the question was raised as to whether this was permitted and a long responsa appeared in the Jerusalem newspaper "Havatzelet" in 1898. It concluded that even if according to Jewish Law it was permitted, the practices should be stopped as it constituted a desecration. More recently the "Yalkut Yosef" rules that it is forbidden to remove small chips of stone or dust from the Wall, although it is permissible to take twigs from the vegetation which grows in the Wall for an amulet, as they contain no holiness. Cleaning the stones


title: "Western Wall" content: is also problematic from a halachic point of view. Blasphemous graffiti once sprayed by a tourist was left visible for months until it began to peel away. There was once an old custom of removing one's shoes upon approaching the Wall. A 17th-century collection of special prayers to be said at holy places mentions that "upon coming to the Western Wall one should remove his shoes, bow and recite...". Rabbi Moses Reicher wrote that "it is a good and praiseworthy custom to approach the Western Wall in white garments after ablution, kneel and prostrate oneself in submission and recite "This


title: "Western Wall" content: is nothing other than the House of God and here is the gate of Heaven." When within four cubits of the Wall, one should remove their footwear." Over the years the custom of standing barefoot at the Wall has ceased, as there is no need to remove one's shoes when standing by the Wall, because the plaza area is outside the sanctified precinct of the Temple Mount. In Judaism, the Western Wall is venerated as the sole remnant of the Holy Temple. It has become a place of pilgrimage for Jews, as it is the closest permitted accessible site to


title: "Western Wall" content: the holiest spot in Judaism, namely the "Even ha-shetiya" or Foundation Stone, which lies on the Temple Mount. According to one rabbinic opinion, Jews may not set foot upon the Temple Mount and doing so is a sin punishable by Kareth. While almost all historians and archaeologists and some rabbinical authorities believe that the rocky outcrop in the Dome of the Rock is the Foundation Stone, some rabbis say it is located directly opposite the exposed section of the Western Wall, near the El-kas fountain. This spot was the site of the Holy of Holies when the Temple stood. According


title: "Western Wall" content: to Jewish Law, one is obliged to grieve and rend one's garment upon visiting the Western Wall and seeing the desolate site of the Temple. Bach (17th century) instructs that "when one sees the Gates of Mercy which are situated in the Western Wall, which is the wall King David built, he should recite: Her gates are sunk into the ground; he hath destroyed and broken her bars: her king and her princes are among the nations: the law is no more; her prophets also find no vision from the Lord". Some scholars write that rending one's garments is not


title: "Western Wall" content: applicable nowadays as Jerusalem is under Jewish control. Others disagree, pointing to the fact that the Temple Mount is controlled by the Muslim "waqf" and that the mosques which sit upon the Temple site should increase feelings of distress. If one hasn't seen the Wall for over 30 days, the prevailing custom is to rend one's garments, but this can be avoided if one visits on the Sabbath or on festivals. According to Donneal Epstein, a person who has not seen the Wall within the last 30 days should recite: "Our Holy Temple, which was our glory, in which our


title: "Western Wall" content: forefathers praised You, was burned and all of our delights were destroyed". The Sages of the Talmud stated that anyone who prays at the Temple in Jerusalem, "it is as if he has prayed before the throne of glory because the gate of heaven is situated there and it is open to hear prayer." Jewish Law stipulates that the Silent Prayer should be recited facing towards Jerusalem, the Temple and ultimately the Holy of Holies, as God's bounty and blessing emanates from that spot. It is generally believed that prayer by the Western Wall is particularly beneficial since it was


title: "Western Wall" content: that wall which was situated closest to the Holy of Holies. Rabbi Jacob Ettlinger writes "since the gate of heaven is near the Western Wall, it is understandable that all Israel's prayers ascend on high there... as one of the great ancient kabbalists Rabbi Joseph Gikatilla said, when the Jews send their prayers from the Diaspora in the direction of Jerusalem, from there they ascend by way of the Western Wall." A well-known "segula" (efficacious remedy) for finding one's soulmate is to pray for 40 consecutive days at the Western Wall, a practice apparently conceived by Rabbi Yisroel Yaakov Fisher.


title: "Western Wall" content: The Scroll of Ahimaaz, a historical document written in 1050 CE, distinctly describes the Western Wall as a place of prayer for the Jews. In around 1167 CE during the late Crusader Period, Benjamin of Tudela wrote that "In front of this place is the western wall, which is one of the walls of the Holy of Holies. This is called the Gate of Mercy, and hither come all the Jews to pray before the Wall in the open court". In 1625 "arranged prayers" at the Wall are mentioned for the first time by a scholar whose name has not


title: "Western Wall" content: been preserved. Scrolls of the Law were brought to the Wall on occasions of public distress and calamity, as testified to in a narrative written by Rabbi Gedaliah of Semitizi who went to Jerusalem in 1699. While during the late 19th century, no formal segregation of men and women was to be found at the Wall, conflict erupted in July 1968 when members of the World Union for Progressive Judaism were denied the right to host a mixed-gender service at the site after the Ministry of Religious Affairs insisted on maintaining the gender segregation customary at Orthodox places of worship.


title: "Western Wall" content: The progressives responded by claiming that "the Wall is a shrine of all Jews, not one particular branch of Judaism." In 1988, the small but vocal Women of the Wall launched a campaign for recognition of non-Orthodox prayer at the Wall. Their form and manner of prayer elicited a violent response from some Orthodox worshippers and they were subsequently banned from holding services at the site. In response to the repeated arrest of women, including Anat Hoffman found flouting the law, the Jewish Agency observed 'the urgent need to reach a permanent solution and make the Western Wall once again


title: "Western Wall" content: a symbol of unity among the Jewish people, and not one of discord and strife." Some commentators called for the closure of the site unless an acceptable solution to the controversy was found. In 2003 Israel's Supreme Court upheld the ban on non-Orthodox worship at the Wall and the government responded by allocating Robinson's Arch for such purposes. But in 2012, critics still complained about the restrictions at the Western Wall, saying Israel had "turned a national monument into an ultra-Orthodox synagogue," and in April 2013 the Jerusalem District Court ruled that as long as there was no other appropriate


title: "Western Wall" content: area for pluralistic prayer, prayer according to non-Orthodox custom should be allowed at the Wall. This led to the expansion and renovation of the Robinson's Arch prayer area which would be placed under the authority of a Pluralist Council. In August 2013, a platform named "Azarat Yisrael Plaza" was completed to facilitate non-Orthodox worship. There is a much publicised practice of placing slips of paper containing written prayers into the crevices of the Wall. The earliest account of this practice is attributed to Rabbi Chaim ibn Attar, (d. 1743). More than a million notes are placed each year and the


title: "Western Wall" content: opportunity to e-mail notes is offered by a number of organisations. It has become customary for visiting dignitaries to place notes too. Shortly after the Western Wall came under Israeli control in 1967, a tefillin stand was erected with permission from Rabbi Yehuda Meir Getz, the first rabbi of the Kotel. The stand offers visitors the chance to put on Tefillin, a daily Jewish ritual. In the months following the Six-Day War an estimated 400,000 Jews observed this ritual at the stand. The stand is staffed by multilingual volunteers and an estimated 100,000 visitors put on tefillin there annually. Islamic


title: "Western Wall" content: reverence for the site is derived from the belief that the Prophet Muhammad tied his steed Buraq nearby during his night journey to Jerusalem. Various places have been suggested for the exact spot where Buraq was tethered, but for several centuries the preferred location has been the al-Buraq mosque, which is just inside the wall at the south end of the present Western Wall plaza. The mosque is located above an ancient passageway, which once came out through the long-sealed Barclay's Gate whose huge lintel is still visible directly below the Maghrebi gate. When a British Jew asked the Egyptian


title: "Western Wall" content: authorities in 1840 for permission to re-pave the ground in front of the Western Wall, the governor of Syria wrote: Carl Sandreczki, who was charged with compiling a list of place names for Charles Wilson's Ordnance Survey of Jerusalem in 1865, reported that the street leading to the Western Wall, including the part alongside the wall, belonged to the "Hosh" (court/enclosure) of "al Burâk", "not "Obrâk", nor "Obrat"". In 1866, the Prussian Consul and Orientalist Georg Rosen wrote that "The Arabs call Obrâk the entire length of the wall at the wailing place of the Jews, southwards down to the


title: "Western Wall" content: house of Abu Su'ud and northwards up to the substructure of the Mechkemeh [Shariah court]. Obrâk is not, as was formerly claimed, a corruption of the word Ibri (Hebrews), but simply the neo-Arabic pronunciation of Bōrâk, ... which, whilst (Muhammad) was at prayer at the holy rock, is said to have been tethered by him inside the wall location mentioned above." The name Hosh al Buraq appeared on the maps of Wilson's 1865 survey, its revised editions of 1876 and 1900, and other maps in the early 20th century. In 1922, it was the street name specified by the official


title: "Western Wall" content: Pro-Jerusalem Council. Some scholars believe that when Jerusalem came under Christian rule in the 4th century, there was a purposeful "transference" of respect for the Temple Mount and the Western Wall in terms of sanctity to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, while the sites around the Temple Mount became a refuse dump for Christians. However, the actions of many modern Christian leaders, including Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI, who visited the Wall and left prayer messages in its crevices, have symbolized for many Christians a restoration of respect and even veneration for this ancient religious site.


title: "Western Wall" content: Most Jews, religious and secular, consider the wall to be important to the Jewish people since it was originally built to hold the Second Temple. They consider the capture of the wall by Israel in 1967 as a historic event since it restored Jewish access to the site after a 19-year gap. There are, however, some haredi Jews who hold different views. Most notable are the adherents of the Satmar hasidic dynasty who retain the views espoused by their Grand Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum, who would not approach the Wall after the 1967 conquest because of his opposition to Zionism, although


title: "Western Wall" content: he did visit the site during his visits to the Holy Land in the 1920s. In 1994, Shlomo Goren wrote that the tradition of the wall as a Jewish prayer site was only 300 years old, the Jews being compelled to pray there after being forbidden to assemble on the mount itself. A poll carried out in 2007 by the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies indicated that 96% of Israeli Jews were against Israel relinquishing the Western Wall. During a speech at Israel's Mercaz HaRav yeshivah on Jerusalem Day in 2009, Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu declared: "The flag that


title: "Western Wall" content: flies over the Kotel is the Israeli flag... Our holy places, the Temple Mount – will remain under Israeli sovereignty forever." In December 1973, King Faisal of Saudi Arabia stated that "Only Muslims and Christians have holy places and rights in Jerusalem". The Jews, he maintained, had no rights there at all. As for the Western Wall, he said, "Another wall can be built for them. They can pray against that". Raed Salah, leader of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel wrote that: "The Western Wall – all its various parts, structures and gates – are an


title: "Western Wall" content: inseparable part of the al-Aqsa compound...The Western Wall is part of Al-Aqsa's western tower, which the Israeli establishment fallaciously and sneakily calls the 'Wailing Wall'. The wall is part of the holy al-Aqsa Mosque". According to the Palestinian National Authority, the Jews did not consider the Wall as a place for worship until after the Balfour Declaration was issued in 1917. The PA-appointed Mufti of Jerusalem, Sheikh Ekrima Sa'id Sabri, believes that the Wall belongs to the Muslims alone. In 2000 he related that A year later he stated: In 2006, Dr. Hassan Khader, founder of the Al Quds Encyclopedia,


title: "Western Wall" content: told PA television that the first connection of the Jews to the Wall is "a recent one, which began in the 16th century...not ancient...like the roots of the Islamic connection". In November 2010, an official paper published by the PA Ministry of Information denied Jewish rights to the Wall. It stated that "Al-Buraq Wall is in fact the western wall of Al-Aksa Mosque" and that Jews had only started using the site for worship after the 1917 Balfour Declaration. Yitzhak Reiter writes that "the Islamization and de-Judaization of the Western Wall are a recurrent motif in publications and public statements


title: "Western Wall" content: by the heads of the Islamic Movement in Israel." While recognizing the difficulties inherent in any ultimate peace agreement that involves the status of Jerusalem, the official position of the United States includes a recognition of the importance of the Wall to the Jewish people, and has condemned statements that seek to "delegitimize" the relationship between Jews and the area in general, and the Western Wall in particular. For example, in November 2010, the Obama administration "strongly condemned a Palestinian official's claim that the Western Wall in the Old City has no religious significance for Jews and is actually Muslim


title: "Western Wall" content: property." The U.S. State Department noted that the United States rejects such a claim as "factually incorrect, insensitive and highly provocative." Western Wall The Western Wall, Wailing Wall, or Kotel, known in Islam as the Buraq Wall, is an ancient limestone wall in the Old City of Jerusalem. It is a relatively small segment of a far longer ancient retaining wall, known also in its entirety as the "Western Wall". The wall was originally erected as part of the expansion of the Second Jewish Temple begun by Herod the Great, which resulted in the encasement of the natural, steep hill


title: "Pedro de Alvarado" content: to Spain, in 1537, Alvarado had the governorship of Honduras reconfirmed in addition to that of Guatemala for the next seven years. His governorship of Honduras was not uncontested. Francisco de Montejo had a rival claim, and was installed by the Spanish king as Governor of Honduras in 1540. Ten years after being widowed, Alvarado married one of his first wife's sisters, Beatriz de la Cueva, who outlived him. After the death of Alvarado, de la Cueva maneuvered her own election and succeeded him as governor of Guatemala, becoming the only woman to govern a major political division of the


title: "The Life and Death of 9413: a Hollywood Extra" content: wrote the script in precise detail, describing each shot in proportion to the length of film it would take to shoot it, which was necessary due to the high cost of film stock. Florey owned no camera at the time, and his efforts to obtain one were unsuccessful until he met Vorkapić. Florey said of their discussion: "I say to Slav, 'Slav, I have an idea but not much money. You have a camera and are a clever painter. Let's make the picture in collaboration and we split the benefit.'" Vorkapić himself claimed to have said: "Florey, you get me


title: Palenque content: the last 15 or 20 years, a great deal more of the site has been excavated, but currently, archaeologists estimate that only 5% of the total city has been uncovered Palenque remains much visited, and perhaps evokes more affection in visitors than any other Mesoamerican ruin. In 2010, Pennsylvania State University researchers, Christopher Duffy and Kirk French, identified the Piedras Bolas Aqueduct as a pressurised aqueduct, the earliest known in the New World. It is a spring-fed conduit located on steep terrain that has a restricted opening that would cause the water to exit forcefully, under pressure, to a height


title: "Quercus marilandica" content: Quercus marilandica Quercus marilandica, the blackjack oak, is a small oak, one of the red oak group "Quercus" sect. "Lobatae". It is native to the eastern and central United States, from Long Island to Florida, west as far as Texas, Oklahoma, and Nebraska. There are reports of a few isolated populations in southern Michigan, but these appear to represent introductions. "Quercus marilandica" is a small deciduous tree growing to tall, with bark cracked into rectangular black plates with narrow orange fissures. The leaves are long and broad, and typically flare from a tapered base to a broad three-lobed bell shape


title: "Quercus marilandica" content: with only shallow indentations. They are dark green and glossy above, pubescent underneath, and often remain attached to the twigs through the winter after turning colors from red to brown in the fall. The acorn is small, long and broad; like other red oaks, it takes 18 months to mature. The blackjack oak grows in poor, thin, dry, rocky or sandy soils where few other woody plants can thrive, usually on low ground, from sea level up to approximately in altitude. Some say that it does not have the beautiful form of many oaks, but is nonetheless a valuable tree


title: "Quercus marilandica" content: for growing in problem sites. Some say that the tree is "tough but ugly," but also underappreciated. At times the tree has even been actively eradicated to provide more room for trees deemed to be more commercially valuable. It is sometimes an understory tree in pine stands on sandy knolls in the southeastern USA. Along the coastal plain of New Jersey the probability of finding this species is increased in relatively sunny, open areas such as those near coastal salt marshes. It often occurs near scarlet and post oaks as well as pitch pine; understory companions include winged sumac, bracken,


title: "Quercus marilandica" content: sweetfern, and bayberry, and can be found as far north as parts of Ohio and New York. A variety, "Quercus marilandica" Münchhausen var. "ashei" Sudworth, grows in the western portions of its range – northern Texas, Oklahoma, and into southern Kansas. In this area, blackjack and post oak form a semi-savanna area composed of forested strips intermixed with prairie grass glades along the eastern edge of the southern Great Plains. This semi-savanna is known as the Cross Timbers. Scrub forms of "Q. marilandica" dominate on many chert glades along with "Q.stellata" in Arkansas's Ozark plateau. Blackjack oak sometimes hybridizes with


title: "Quercus marilandica" content: bear oak ("Quercus ilicifolia"), forming a hybrid known as "Q." × "brittonii". Blackjacks in the Cross Timbers can grow from high with a trunk diameter of , but seldom reach more than . The leaves are from in length and about the same width. Blackjack acorns provide food for both whitetail deer and wild turkey. Blackjacks may, however, cause tannic acid poisoning in cattle. The wood is very dense and produces a hot flame when burned, which functions as an excellent source of heat for barbecues and wood-burning stoves. However, the wood is not desirable for wood fireplaces because the


title: "Quercus marilandica" content: heat causes popping, thereby increasing the risk of house fires. Traditionally blackjack wood is used as both a fuel and smoke wood for barbecue in Oklahoma. Quercus marilandica Quercus marilandica, the blackjack oak, is a small oak, one of the red oak group "Quercus" sect. "Lobatae". It is native to the eastern and central United States, from Long Island to Florida, west as far as Texas, Oklahoma, and Nebraska. There are reports of a few isolated populations in southern Michigan, but these appear to represent introductions. "Quercus marilandica" is a small deciduous tree growing to tall, with bark cracked into


title: "The Night of the Hunter (film)" content: Winters was cast as Willa Harper, the woman who is killed by Powell. Winters said that this was "the most thoughtful and reserved performance I ever gave". Laughton envisioned his wife Elsa Lanchester to play the role of Rachel Cooper. Jane Darwell, Helen Hayes, Agnes Moorehead, and Louise Fazenda were also considered. Lanchester, for reasons unknown to Laughton, turned down the role, suggesting silent movie star Lillian Gish for the role instead. A doubtful Laughton went to New York for the purpose of watching films that Gish starred in. These included the shorts and feature films she made with pioneer


title: "The Beatles (album)" content: of the four Kelly photographs. These two-tape releases were both contained in black outer cardboard slipcase covers embossed with the words "The Beatles" and the outline of an apple in gold print. The songs on the cassette version of "The Beatles" are sequenced differently from the album, in order to equalize the lengths of the tape sides. Two reel-to-reel tape releases of the album were issued, both using the monochrome Kelly artwork. The first, issued by Apple/EMI in early 1969, packaged the entire double-LP on a single tape, with the songs in the same running order as on the LPs.


title: "Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia" content: Tatiana Sitnikova (and her son Fyodor Sitnikov), Ivan Kuklin and Matrina Kuklina, Vassily Ryabov, Ustinya Varankina, and Dr Pavel Utkin, a physician who treated the girl after the incident. Some of the witnesses identified the girl as Anastasia when they were shown photographs of the grand duchess by White Russian Army investigators. Utkin also told the White Russian Army investigators that the injured girl, whom he treated at Cheka headquarters in Perm, told him, "I am the daughter of the ruler, Anastasia." Utkin obtained a prescription from a pharmacy for a patient named "N" at the orders of the secret


title: "Eleanor cross" content: many years in front of the fifteenth-century Clock Tower in the High Street (opposite the Waxhouse Gateway entrance to the Abbey), and was demolished in the early eighteenth century due to neglect, and replaced by the town pump. A fountain was erected in its stead in 1874, which was subsequently relocated to Victoria Place. The Waltham Cross monument in Hertfordshire was constructed in co-operation between an architect and a sculptor: Roger of Crundale, who was the senior royal mason, and Master Alexander of Abingdon, respectively. It is still standing, although it has been restored on several occasions, and the original


title: "Jean Chrétien" content: Canada, whose beauty moved him, and he vacationed in the north every summer during his time while holding the Indian Affairs portfolio. During the October Crisis of 1970, Chrétien told Trudeau to "act now, explain later", when Trudeau was hesitant to invoke the War Measures Act. 85% of Canadians agreed with the move. In the 1972 election, Chrétien, who was frightened by a near-defeat in 1968, had a friend Antonio Genest win the Progressive Conservative nomination, and then run a deliberately inept campaign in order to ensure his re-election. Robert Bourassa, the Liberal Premier of Quebec was a nationalist who


title: "Jean Chrétien" content: Ontario. Chrétien was involved in a controversy again in November 1997, when the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit was held on the University of British Columbia campus in Vancouver. The APEC summit was a meeting of many Asian and Pacific countries, and students on UBC's campus protested the meeting of some of these leaders because of their poor human rights practices. One of the leaders most criticized was then Indonesian President Suharto for killing at least 500,000 people when he came to power in a coup on September 30, 1965 and for waging a near-genocidal campaign in East Timor. Demonstrators tore


title: "Jean Chrétien" content: Canadians believed that the Chrétien government was corrupt. May 2002 also saw the revelation that the new public works minister, Don Boudria, had spent the weekend of March 16–17, 2002 at an estate owned by Claude Boulay, the president of Groupe Everest advertising firm that head received $55 million in contracts from the public works ministry, apparently for free. Only after the story of Boudria's stay at the Boulay estate broke in May did Boulay cash an $800 cheque from Boudria that was dated March 16, 2002; many found this to be too convenient, and opposition critics suggested that the


title: Dipper content: Dipper Dippers are members of the genus Cinclus in the bird family Cinclidae, named for their bobbing or dipping movements. They are unique among passerines for their ability to dive and swim underwater. Dippers are small, chunky, stout, short-tailed, short-winged, strong-legged birds. The different species are generally dark brown (sometimes nearly black), or brown and white in colour, apart from the rufous-throated dipper, which is brown with a reddish-brown throat patch. Sizes range from 14–22 cm in length and 40–90 g in weight, with males larger than females. Their short wings give them a distinctive whirring flight. They have a


title: Dipper content: characteristic bobbing motion when perched beside the water, giving them their name. While under water, they are covered by a thin, silvery film of air, due to small bubbles being trapped on the surface of the plumage. Dippers are found in suitable freshwater habitats in the highlands of the Americas, Europe and Asia. In Africa they are only found in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco. They inhabit the banks of fast-moving upland rivers with cold, clear waters, though, outside the breeding season, they may visit lake shores and sea coasts. Unlike many water birds, dippers are generally similar in form


title: Dipper content: to many terrestrial birds (for example they do not have webbed feet), but they do have some morphological and physiological adaptations to their aquatic habits. Their wings are relatively short but strongly muscled, enabling them to be used as flippers underwater. Their bones are solid instead of hollow which reduces their buoyancy. They have dense plumage with a large preen gland for waterproofing their feathers. Relatively long legs and sharp claws enable them to hold on to rocks in swift water. Their eyes have well-developed focus muscles that can change the curvature of the lens to enhance underwater vision. They


title: Dipper content: have nasal flaps to prevent water entering their nostrils. The high haemoglobin concentration in their blood gives them a capacity to store oxygen greater than that of other birds, allowing them to remain underwater for thirty seconds or more, whilst their basal metabolic rate is approximately one-third slower than typical terrestrial passerines of similar mass. One small population wintering at a hot spring in Suntar-Khayata Mountains of Siberia feeds underwater when air temperatures drop below .<ref name="sh/">Dinets, V. (2001) Brown Dipper "Cinclus pallasi" wintering in Suntar-Hayata Mountains of Yakutia. "Ornitologia" 29: 326 (in Russian with English summary).</ref> Dippers forage for


title: Dipper content: small animal prey in and along the margins of fast-flowing freshwater streams and rivers. They perch on rocks and feed at the edge of the water, but they often also grip the rocks firmly and walk down them beneath the water until partly or wholly submerged. They then search underwater for prey between and beneath stones and debris; they can also swim with their wings. The two South American species swim and dive less often than the three northern ones. Their prey consists primarily of invertebrates such as the nymphs or larvae of mayflies, blackflies, stoneflies and caddisflies, as well


title: Dipper content: as small fish and fish eggs. Molluscs and crustaceans are also consumed, especially in winter when insect larvae are less available. Linear breeding territories are established by pairs of dippers along suitable rivers, and maintained against incursion by other dippers. Within their territory the pair must have a good nest site and roost sites, but the main factor affecting the length of the territory is the availability of sufficient food to feed themselves and their broods. Consequently, the length of a territory may vary from about to over . Dipper nests are usually large, round, domed structures made of moss,


title: Dipper content: with an internal cup of grass and rootlets, and a side entrance hole. They are often built in confined spaces over, or close to, running water. The site may be on a ledge or bank, in a crevice or drainpipe, or beneath a bridge. Tree sites are rare. The usual clutch-size of the three northern dipper species is four or five; those of the South American species is not well known, though some evidence suggests that of the rufous-throated dipper is two. The incubation period of sixteen or seventeen days is followed by the hatching of altricial young which are


title: Dipper content: brooded by the female alone for the next twelve to thirteen days. The nestlings are fed by both parents and the whole fledging period is about 20–24 days. Young dippers usually become independent of their parents within a couple of weeks of leaving the nest. Dippers may raise second broods if conditions allow. Owing to the fact that bands inhibit their underwater movement, dippers are essentially unsuitable for ringing, so relatively little is known about maximum longevity or other aspects of their demographics, although records of a white-throated dipper living ten years and seven months do exist. Dippers’ calls are


title: Dipper content: loud and high-pitched, being similar to calls made by other birds on fast rivers; the call frequencies lying within a narrow range of 4.0–6.5 kHz, well above the torrent noise frequency of <2 kHz. Dippers also communicate visually by their characteristic dipping or bobbing movements, as well as by blinking rapidly to expose their pale upper eyelids as a series of white flashes in courtship and threat displays. Dippers are completely dependent on fast-flowing rivers with clear water, accessible food and secure nest-sites. They may be threatened by anything that affects these needs such as water pollution, acidification and turbidity


title: Dipper content: caused by erosion. River regulation through the creation of dams and reservoirs, as well as channelization, can degrade and destroy dipper habitat. Dippers are also sometimes hunted or otherwise persecuted by humans for various reasons. The Cyprus race of the white-throated dipper is extinct. In the Atlas Mountains dippers are claimed to have aphrodisiacal properties. In parts of Scotland and Germany, until the beginning of the 20th century, bounties were paid for killing dippers because of a misguided perception that they were detrimental to fish stocks through predation on the eggs and fry of salmonids. Despite threats to local populations,


title: Dipper content: the conservation status of most dipper species is considered to be of least concern. The one exception, the rufous-throated dipper, is classified as vulnerable because of its small, fragmented and declining population which is threatened, especially in Argentina, by changes in river management. "Cinclus" is the only genus in the family Cinclidae. The white-throated dipper and American dipper are also known in Britain and America, respectively, as the "water ouzel" (sometimes spelt "ousel") – ouzel originally meant the unrelated but superficially similar Eurasian blackbird (Old English "osle"). Ouzel also survives as the name of a relative of the blackbird, the


title: Dipper content: ring ouzel. The genus name "cinclus" derives from the Greek word "kinklos" used to describe a small tail-wagging bird that lived near water. Dipper Dippers are members of the genus Cinclus in the bird family Cinclidae, named for their bobbing or dipping movements. They are unique among passerines for their ability to dive and swim underwater. Dippers are small, chunky, stout, short-tailed, short-winged, strong-legged birds. The different species are generally dark brown (sometimes nearly black), or brown and white in colour, apart from the rufous-throated dipper, which is brown with a reddish-brown throat patch. Sizes range from 14–22 cm in


title: "Periodic function" content: a least positive constant with this property, it is called the fundamental period (also primitive period, basic period, or prime period.) Often, "the" period of a function is used to mean its fundamental period. A function with period will repeat on intervals of length , and these intervals are sometimes also referred to as periods of the function. Geometrically, a periodic function can be defined as a function whose graph exhibits translational symmetry. Specifically, a function is periodic with period if the graph of is invariant under translation in the -direction by a distance of . This definition of periodic


title: Emu content: Emu The emu ("Dromaius novaehollandiae") is the second-largest living bird by height, after its ratite relative, the ostrich. It is endemic to Australia where it is the largest native bird and the only extant member of the genus "Dromaius". The emu's range covers most of mainland Australia, but the Tasmanian emu and King Island emu subspecies became extinct after the European settlement of Australia in 1788. The bird is sufficiently common for it to be rated as a least-concern species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Emus are soft-feathered, brown, flightless birds with long necks and legs, and


title: Emu content: can reach up to in height. Emus can travel great distances, and when necessary can sprint at ; they forage for a variety of plants and insects, but have been known to go for weeks without eating. They drink infrequently, but take in copious amounts of water when the opportunity arises. Breeding takes place in May and June, and fighting among females for a mate is common. Females can mate several times and lay several clutches of eggs in one season. The male does the incubation; during this process he hardly eats or drinks and loses a significant amount of


title: Emu content: weight. The eggs hatch after around eight weeks, and the young are nurtured by their fathers. They reach full size after around six months, but can remain as a family unit until the next breeding season. The emu is an important cultural icon of Australia, appearing on the coat of arms and various coins. The bird features prominently in Indigenous Australian mythology. Emus were first reported as having been seen by Europeans when explorers visited the western coast of Australia in 1696; this was an expedition led by Dutch captain Willem de Vlamingh who was searching for survivors of a


title: Emu content: ship that had gone missing two years earlier. The birds were known on the eastern coast before 1788, when the first Europeans settled there. The birds were first mentioned under the name of the "New Holland cassowary" in Arthur Phillip's "Voyage to Botany Bay", published in 1789 with the following description: The species was named by ornithologist John Latham in 1790 based on a specimen from the Sydney area of Australia, a country which was known as New Holland at the time. He collaborated on Phillip's book and provided the first descriptions of, and names for, many Australian bird species;


title: Emu content: "Dromaius" comes from a Greek word meaning "racer" and "novaehollandiae" is the Latin term for New Holland, so the name can be rendered as "fast-footed New Hollander". In his original 1816 description of the emu, the French ornithologist Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot used two generic names, first "Dromiceius" and later "Dromaius". It has been a point of contention ever since as to which name should be used; the latter is more correctly formed, but the convention in taxonomy is that the first name given to an organism stands, unless it is clearly a typographical error. Most modern publications, including those


title: Emu content: of the Australian government, use "Dromaius", with "Dromiceius" mentioned as an alternative spelling. The etymology of the common name "emu" is uncertain, but is thought to have come from an Arabic word for large bird that was later used by Portuguese explorers to describe the related cassowary in Australia and New Guinea. Another theory is that it comes from the word "ema", which is used in Portuguese to denote a large bird akin to an ostrich or crane. In Victoria, some terms for the emu were "Barrimal" in the Dja Dja Wurrung language, "myoure" in Gunai, and "courn" in Jardwadjali.


title: Emu content: The birds were known as "murawung" or "birabayin" to the local Eora and Darug inhabitants of the Sydney basin. The emu was long classified, with its closest relatives the cassowaries, in the family Casuariidae, part of the ratite order Struthioniformes. However, an alternate classification was proposed in 2014 by Mitchell et al., based on analysis of mitochondrial DNA. This splits off the Casuariidae into their own order, the Casuariformes, and includes only the cassowaries in the family Casuariidae, placing the emus in their own family, Dromaiidae. The cladogram shown below is from their study. Two different "Dromaius" species were present


title: Emu content: in Australia at the time of European settlement, and one additional species is known from fossil remains. The insular dwarf emus, "D. baudinianus" and "D. n. minor", originally present on Kangaroo Island and King Island respectively, both became extinct shortly after the arrival of Europeans. "D. n. diemenensis", a subspecies known as the Tasmanian emu, became extinct around 1865. However, the mainland sub-species, "D. n. novaehollandiae", remains common. The population of these birds varies from decade to decade, largely being dependent on rainfall; in 2009, it was estimated that there were between 630,000 and 725,000 birds. Emus were introduced to


title: Emu content: Maria Island off Tasmania, and Kangaroo Island off the coast of South Australia, during the 20th century. The Maria Island population died out in the mid-1990s. The Kangaroo Island birds have successfully established a breeding population. In 1912, the Australian ornithologist Gregory M. Mathews recognised three living subspecies of emu, "D. n. novaehollandiae" (Latham, 1790), "D. n. woodwardi" Mathews, 1912 and "D. n. rothschildi" Mathews, 1912. However, the Handbook of the Birds of the World argues that the last two of these subspecies are invalid; natural variations in plumage colour and the nomadic nature of the species make it likely


title: Emu content: that there is a single race in mainland Australia. Examination of the DNA of the King Island emu shows this bird to be closely related to the mainland emu and hence best treated as a subspecies. The emu is the second tallest bird in the world, only being exceeded in height by the ostrich; the largest individuals can reach up to in height. Measured from the bill to the tail, emus range in length from , with males averaging and females averaging . Emus weigh between , with an average of in males and females, respectively. Females are usually slightly


title: Emu content: larger than males and are substantially wider across the rump. Although flightless, emus have vestigial wings, the wing chord measuring around , and each wing having a small claw at the tip. Emus flap their wings when running, perhaps as a means of stabilising themselves when moving fast. They have long necks and legs, and can run at speeds of due to their highly specialised pelvic limb musculature. Their feet have only three toes and a similarly reduced number of bones and associated foot muscles; emus are the only birds with gastrocnemius muscles in the back of the lower legs.


title: Emu content: The pelvic limb muscles of emus contribute a similar proportion of the total body mass as do the flight muscles of flying birds. When walking, the emu takes strides of about , but at full gallop, a stride can be as long as . Its legs are devoid of feathers and underneath its feet are thick, cushioned pads. Like the cassowary, the emu has sharp claws on its toes which are its major defensive attribute, and are used in combat to inflict wounds on opponents by kicking. The toe and claw total in length. The bill is quite small, measuring


title: Emu content: , and is soft, being adapted for grazing. Emus have good eyesight and hearing, which allows them to detect threats at some distance. The neck of the emu is pale blue and shows through its sparse feathers. They have grey-brown plumage of shaggy appearance; the shafts and the tips of the feathers are black. Solar radiation is absorbed by the tips, and the inner plumage insulates the skin. This prevents the birds from overheating, allowing them to be active during the heat of the day. A unique feature of the emu feather is the double rachis emerging from a single


title: Emu content: shaft. Both of the rachis have the same length, and the texture is variable; the area near the skin is rather furry, but the more distant ends resemble grass. The sexes are similar in appearance, although the male's penis can become visible when he urinates and defecates. The plumage varies in colour due to environmental factors, giving the bird a natural camouflage. Feathers of emus in more arid areas with red soils have a rufous tint while birds residing in damp conditions are generally darker in hue. The juvenile plumage develops at about three months and is blackish finely barred


title: Emu content: with brown, with the head and neck being especially dark. The facial feathers gradually thin to expose the bluish skin. The adult plumage has developed by about fifteen months. The eyes of an emu are protected by nictitating membranes. These are translucent, secondary eyelids that move horizontally from the inside edge of the eye to the outside edge. They function as visors to protect the eyes from the dust that is prevalent in windy arid regions. Emus have a tracheal pouch, which becomes more prominent during the mating season. At more than in length, it is quite spacious; it has


title: Emu content: a thin wall, and an opening long. Once common on the east coast of Australia, emus are now uncommon there; by contrast, the development of agriculture and the provision of water for stock in the interior of the continent have increased the range of the emu in arid regions. Emus live in various habitats across Australia both inland and near the coast. They are most common in areas of savannah woodland and sclerophyll forest, and least common in heavily populated districts and arid areas with annual precipitation of less than . Emus predominately travel in pairs, and while they can


title: Emu content: form large flocks, this is an atypical social behaviour that arises from the common need to move towards a new food source. Emus have been shown to travel long distances to reach abundant feeding areas. In Western Australia, emu movements follow a distinct seasonal pattern – north in summer and south in winter. On the east coast their wanderings seem to be more random and do not appear to follow a set pattern. Emus are diurnal birds and spend their day foraging, preening their plumage with their beak, dust bathing and resting. They are generally gregarious birds apart from the


title: Emu content: breeding season, and while some forage, others remain vigilant to their mutual benefit. They are able to swim when necessary, although they rarely do so unless the area is flooded or they need to cross a river. Emus begin to settle down at sunset and sleep during the night. They do not sleep continuously but rouse themselves several times during the night. When falling asleep, emus first squat on their tarsi and enter a drowsy state during which they are alert enough to react to stimuli and quickly return to a fully awakened state if disturbed. As they fall into


title: Emu content: deeper sleep, their neck droops closer to the body and the eyelids begin to close. If there are no disturbances, they fall into a deeper sleep after about twenty minutes. During this phase, the body is gradually lowered until it is touching the ground with the legs folded underneath. The beak is turned down so that the whole neck becomes S-shaped and folded onto itself. The feathers direct any rain downwards onto the ground. It has been suggested that the sleeping position is a type of camouflage, mimicking a small mound. Emus typically awake from deep sleep once every ninety


title: Emu content: minutes or so and stand upright to feed briefly or defecate. This period of wakefulness lasts for ten to twenty minutes, after which they return to slumber. Overall, an emu sleeps for around seven hours in each twenty-four-hour period. Young emus usually sleep with their neck flat and stretched forward along the ground surface. The vocalisations of emus mostly consist of various booming and grunting sounds. The booming is created by the inflatable throat pouch; the pitch can be regulated by the bird and depends on the size of the aperture. Most of the booming is done by females; it


title: Emu content: is part of the courtship ritual, is used to announce the holding of territory and is issued as a threat to rivals. A high-intensity boom is audible away, while a low, more resonant call, produced during the breeding season, may at first attract mates and peaks while the male is incubating the eggs. Most of the grunting is done by males. It is used principally during the breeding season in territorial defence, as a threat to other males, during courtship and while the female is laying. Both sexes sometimes boom or grunt during threat displays or on encountering strange objects.


title: Emu content: On very hot days, emus pant to maintain their body temperature, their lungs work as evaporative coolers and, unlike some other species, the resulting low levels of carbon dioxide in the blood do not appear to cause alkalosis. For normal breathing in cooler weather, they have large, multifolded nasal passages. Cool air warms as it passes through into the lungs, extracting heat from the nasal region. On exhalation, the emu's cold nasal turbinates condense moisture back out of the air and absorb it for reuse. As with other ratites, the emu has great homeothermic ability, and can maintain this status


title: Emu content: from . The thermoneutral zone of emus lies between . As with other ratites, emus have a relatively low basal metabolic rate compared to other types of birds. At , the metabolic rate of an emu sitting down is about 60% of that when standing, partly because the lack of feathers under the stomach leads to a higher rate of heat loss when standing from the exposed underbelly. Emus forage in a diurnal pattern and eat a variety of native and introduced plant species. The diet depends on seasonal availability with such plants as "Acacia", "Casuarina" and grasses being favoured.


title: Emu content: They also eat insects and other arthropods, including grasshoppers and crickets, beetles, cockroaches, ladybirds, bogong and cotton-boll moth larvae, ants, spiders and millipedes. This provides a large part of their protein requirements. In Western Australia, food preferences have been observed in travelling emus; they eat seeds from "Acacia aneura" until the rains arrive, after which they move on to fresh grass shoots and caterpillars; in winter they feed on the leaves and pods of "Cassia" and in spring, they consume grasshoppers and the fruit of "Santalum acuminatum", a sort of quandong. They are also known to feed on wheat, and


title: Emu content: any fruit or other crops that they can access, easily climbing over high fences if necessary. Emus serve as an important agent for the dispersal of large viable seeds, which contributes to floral biodiversity. One undesirable effect of this occurred in Queensland in the early twentieth century when emus fed on the fruit of prickly pears in the outback. They defecated the seeds in various places as they moved around, and this led to a series of campaigns to hunt emus and prevent the seeds of the invasive cactus being spread. The cacti were eventually controlled by an introduced moth


title: Emu content: ("Cactoblastis cactorum ") whose larvae fed on the plant, one of the earliest examples of biological control. Small stones are swallowed to assist in the grinding up and digestion of the plant material. Individual stones may weigh and the birds may have as much as in their gizzards at one time. They also eat charcoal, although the reason for this is unclear. Captive emus have been known to eat shards of glass, marbles, car keys, jewellery, and nuts and bolts. Emus drink infrequently, but ingest large amounts when the opportunity arises. They typically drink once a day, first inspecting the


title: Emu content: water body and surrounding area in groups before kneeling down at the edge to drink. They prefer being on firm ground while drinking, rather than on rocks or mud, but if they sense danger, they often stand rather than kneel. If not disturbed, they may drink continuously for ten minutes. Due to the scarcity of water sources, emus are sometimes forced to go without water for several days. In the wild, they often share water holes with kangaroos, other birds and animals; they are wary and tend to wait for the other animals to leave before they quench their thirst.


title: Emu content: Emus form breeding pairs during the summer months of December and January, and may remain together for about five months. During this time, they stay in an area a few kilometres in diameter and it is believed they find and defend territory within this area. Both males and females put on weight during the breeding season, with the female becoming slightly heavier at between . Mating usually takes place between April and June; the exact timing is determined by the climate as the birds nest during the coolest part of the year. During the breeding season, males experience hormonal changes,


title: Emu content: including an increase in luteinizing hormone and testosterone levels, and their testicles double in size. Males construct a rough nest in a semi-sheltered hollow on the ground, using bark, grass, sticks and leaves to line it. The nest is almost always a flat surface rather than a segment of a sphere, although in cold conditions the nest is taller, up to tall, and more spherical to provide some extra heat retention. When other material is lacking, the bird sometimes uses a spinifex tussock a metre or so across, despite the prickly nature of the foliage. The nest can be placed


title: Emu content: on open ground or near a shrub or rock. The nest is usually placed in an area where the emu has a clear view of its surroundings and can detect approaching predators. Female emus court the males; the female's plumage darkens slightly and the small patches of bare, featherless skin just below the eyes and near the beak turn turquoise-blue. The colour of the male's plumage remains unchanged, although the bare patches of skin also turn light blue. When courting, females stride around, pulling their neck back while puffing out their feathers and emitting low, monosyllabic calls that have been


title: Emu content: compared to drum beats. This calling can occur when males are out of sight or more than away. Once the male's attention has been gained, the female circles her prospective mate at a distance of . As she does this, she looks at him by turning her neck, while at the same time keeping her rump facing towards him. If the male shows interest in the parading female, he will move closer; the female continues the courtship by shuffling further away but continuing to circle him. If a male is interested, he will stretch his neck and erect his feathers,


title: Emu content: then bend over and peck at the ground. He will circle around and sidle up to the female, swaying his body and neck from side to side, and rubbing his breast against his partner's rump. Often the female will reject his advances with aggression, but if amenable, she signals acceptance by squatting down and raising her rump. Females are more aggressive than males during the courtship period, often fighting for access to mates, with fights among females accounting for more than half the aggressive interactions during this period. If females court a male that already has a partner, the incumbent


title: Emu content: female will try to repel the competitor, usually by chasing and kicking. These interactions can be prolonged, lasting up to five hours, especially when the male being fought over is single and neither female has the advantage of incumbency. In these cases, the females typically intensify their calls and displays. The sperm from a mating is stored by the female and can suffice to fertilise about six eggs. The pair mate every day or two, and every second or third day the female lays one of a clutch of five to fifteen very large, thick-shelled, green eggs. The shell is


title: Emu content: around thick, but rather thinner in northern regions according to indigenous Australians. The eggs are on average and weigh between . The maternal investment in the egg is considerable, and the proportion of yolk to albumen, at about 50%, is greater than would be predicted for a precocial egg of this size. This probably relates to the long incubation period which means the developing chick must consume greater resources before hatching. The first verified occurrence of genetically identical avian twins was demonstrated in the emu. The egg surface is granulated and pale green. During the incubation period, the egg turns


title: Emu content: dark green, although if the egg never hatches, it will turn white from the bleaching effect of the sun. The male becomes broody after his mate starts laying, and may begin to incubate the eggs before the clutch is complete. From this time on, he does not eat, drink, or defecate, and stands only to turn the eggs, which he does about ten times a day. He develops a brood patch, a bare area of wrinkled skin which is in intimate contact with the eggs. Over the course of the eight-week incubation period, he will lose a third of his


title: Emu content: weight and will survive on stored body fat and on any morning dew that he can reach from the nest. As with many other Australian birds, such as the superb fairywren, infidelity is the norm for emus, despite the initial pair bond: once the male starts brooding, the female usually wanders off, and may mate with other males and lay in multiple nests; thus, as many as half the chicks in a brood may not be fathered by the incubating male, or even by either parent, as emus also exhibit brood parasitism. Some females stay and defend the nest until


title: Emu content: the chicks start hatching, but most leave the nesting area completely to nest again; in a good season, a female emu may nest three times. If the parents stay together during the incubation period, they will take turns standing guard over the eggs while the other drinks and feeds within earshot. If it perceives a threat during this period, it will lie down on top of the nest and try to blend in with the similar-looking surrounds, and suddenly stand up to confront and scare the other party if it comes close. Incubation takes 56 days, and the male stops


title: Emu content: incubating the eggs shortly before they hatch. The temperature of the nest rises slightly during the eight-week period. Although the eggs are laid sequentially, they tend to hatch within two days of one another, as the eggs that were laid later experienced higher temperatures and developed more rapidly. During the process, the precocial emu chicks need to develop a capacity for thermoregulation. During incubation, the embryos are kept at a constant temperature but the chicks will need to be able to cope with varying external temperatures by the time they hatch. Newly hatched chicks are active and can leave the


title: Emu content: nest within a few days of hatching. They stand about tall at first, weigh , and have distinctive brown and cream stripes for camouflage, which fade after three months or so. The male guards the growing chicks for up to seven months, teaching them how to find food. Chicks grow very quickly and are fully grown in five to six months; they may remain with their family group for another six months or so before they split up to breed in their second season. During their early life, the young emus are defended by their father, who adopts a belligerent


title: Emu content: stance towards other emus, including the mother. He does this by ruffling his feathers, emitting sharp grunts, and kicking his legs to drive off other animals. He can also bend his knees to crouch over smaller chicks to protect them. At night, he envelops his young with his feathers. As the young emus cannot travel far, the parents must choose an area with plentiful food in which to breed. In captivity, emus can live for upwards of ten years. There are few native natural predators of emus still alive. Early in its species history it may have faced numerous terrestrial


title: Emu content: predators now extinct, including the giant lizard "Megalania", the thylacine, and possibly other carnivorous marsupials, which may explain their seemingly well-developed ability to defend themselves from terrestrial predators. The main predator of emus today is the dingo, which was originally introduced by Aboriginals thousands of years ago from a stock of semi-domesticated wolves. Dingoes try to kill the emu by attacking the head. The emu typically tries to repel the dingo by jumping into the air and kicking or stamping the dingo on its way down. The emu jumps as the dingo barely has the capacity to jump high enough


title: Emu content: to threaten its neck, so a correctly timed leap to coincide with the dingo's lunge can keep its head and neck out of danger. Despite the potential prey-predator relationship, the presence of predaceous dingoes does not appear to heavily influence emu numbers, with other natural conditions just as likely to cause mortality. Wedge-tailed eagles are the only avian predator capable of attacking fully-grown emus, though are perhaps most likely to take small or young specimens. The eagles attack emus by swooping downwards rapidly and at high speed and aiming for the head and neck. In this case, the emu's jumping


title: Emu content: technique as employed against the dingo is not useful. The birds try to target the emu in open ground so that it cannot hide behind obstacles. Under such circumstances, the emu can only run in a chaotic manner and change directions frequently to try and evade its attacker. Other raptors, monitor lizards, introduced red foxes, feral and domestic dogs, and feral pigs occasionally feed on emu eggs or kill small chicks. Emus can suffer from both external and internal parasites, but under farmed conditions are more parasite-free than ostriches or rheas. External parasites include the louse "Dahlemhornia asymmetrica" and various


title: Emu content: other lice, ticks, mites and flies. Chicks sometimes suffer from intestinal tract infections caused by coccidian protozoa, and the nematode "Trichostrongylus tenuis" infects the emu as well as a wide range of other birds, causing haemorrhagic diarrhoea. Other nematodes are found in the trachea and bronchi; "Syngamus trachea" causing haemorrhagic tracheitis and "Cyathostoma variegatum" causing serious respiratory problems in juveniles. Emus were used as a source of food by indigenous Australians and early European settlers. Emus are inquisitive birds and have been known to approach humans if they see unexpected movement of a limb or piece of clothing. In the


title: Emu content: wild, they may follow and observe people. Aboriginal Australians used a variety of techniques to catch the birds, including spearing them while they drank at waterholes, catching them in nets, and attracting them by imitating their calls or by arousing their curiosity with a ball of feathers and rags dangled from a tree. The pitchuri thornapple ("Duboisia hopwoodii"), or some similar poisonous plant, could be used to contaminate a waterhole, after which the disoriented emus were easy to catch. Another stratagem was for the hunter to use a skin as a disguise, and the birds could be lured into a


title: Emu content: camouflaged pit trap using rags or imitation calls. Aboriginal Australians only killed emus out of necessity, and frowned on anyone who hunted them for any other reason. Every part of the carcass had some use; the fat was harvested for its valuable, multiple-use oil, the bones were shaped into knives and tools, the feathers were used for body adornment and the tendons substituted for string. The early European settlers killed emus to provide food and used their fat for fuelling lamps. They also tried to prevent them from interfering with farming or invading settlements in search of water during drought.


title: Emu content: An extreme example of this was the Emu War in Western Australia in 1932. Emus flocked to the Chandler and Walgoolan area during a dry spell, damaging rabbit fencing and devastating crops. An attempt to drive them off was mounted, with the army called in to dispatch them with machine guns; the emus largely avoided the hunters and won the battle. Emus are large, powerful birds, and their legs are among the strongest of any animal and powerful enough to tear down metal fencing. The birds are very defensive of their young, and there have been two documented cases of


title: Emu content: humans being attacked by emus. In the areas in which it was endemic, the emu was an important source of meat to Aboriginal Australians. They used the fat as bush medicine and rubbed it into their skin. It served as a valuable lubricant, was used to oil wooden tools and utensils such as the coolamon, and was mixed with ochre to make the traditional paint for ceremonial body adornment. An example of how the emu was cooked comes from the Arrernte of Central Australia who called it "Kere ankerre": The birds were a food and fuel source for early European


title: Emu content: settlers, and are now farmed, in Australia and elsewhere, for their meat, oil and leather. Commercial emu farming started in Western Australia around 1970. The commercial industry in the country is based on stock bred in captivity, and all states except Tasmania have licensing requirements to protect wild emus. Outside Australia, emus are farmed on a large scale in North America, with about 1 million birds in the US, Peru, and China, and to a lesser extent in some other countries. Emus breed well in captivity, and are kept in large open pens to avoid the leg and digestive problems


title: Emu content: that arise from inactivity. They are typically fed on grain supplemented by grazing, and are slaughtered at 15 to 18 months. The Salem district administration in India advised farmers in 2012 not to invest in the emu business which was being heavily promoted at the time; further investigation was needed to assess the profitability of farming the birds in India. In the United States, it was reported in 2013 that many ranchers had left the emu business; it was estimated that the number of growers had dropped from over five thousand in 1998 to one or two thousand in 2013.


title: Emu content: The remaining growers increasingly rely on sales of oil for their profit, although, leather, eggs, and meat are also sold. Emus are farmed primarily for their meat, leather, feathers and oil, and 95% of the carcass can be used. Emu meat is a low-fat product (less than 1.5% fat), and is comparable to other lean meats. Most of the usable portions (the best cuts come from the thigh and the larger muscles of the drum or lower leg) are, like other poultry, dark meat; emu meat is considered for cooking purposes by the US Food and Drug Administration to be


title: Emu content: a red meat because its red colour and pH value approximate that of beef, but for inspection purposes it is considered to be poultry. Emu fat is rendered to produce oil for cosmetics, dietary supplements, and therapeutic products. The oil is obtained from the subcutaneous and retroperitoneal fat; the macerated adipose tissue is heated and the liquefied fat is filtered to get a clear oil. This consists mainly of fatty acids of which oleic acid (42%), linoleic and palmitic acids (21% each) are the most prominent components. It also contains various anti-oxidants, notably carotenoids and flavones. There is some evidence


title: Emu content: that the oil has anti-inflammatory properties; however, there have not yet been extensive tests, and the USDA regards pure emu oil as an unapproved drug and highlighted it in a 2009 article entitled "How to Spot Health Fraud". Nevertheless, the oil has been linked to the easing of gastrointestinal inflammation, and tests on rats have shown that it has a significant effect in treating arthritis and joint pain, more so than olive or fish oils. It has been scientifically shown to improve the rate of wound healing, but the mechanism responsible for this effect is not understood. A 2008 study


title: Emu content: has claimed that emu oil has a better anti-oxidative and anti-inflammatory potential than ostrich oil, and linked this to emu oil's higher proportion of unsaturated to saturated fatty acids. While there are no scientific studies showing that emu oil is effective in humans, it is marketed and promoted as a dietary supplement with a wide variety of claimed health benefits. Commercially marketed emu oil supplements are poorly standardised. Emu leather has a distinctive patterned surface, due to a raised area around the feather follicles in the skin; the leather is used in such items as wallets, handbags, shoes and clothes,


title: Emu content: often in combination with other leathers. The feathers and eggs are used in decorative arts and crafts. In particular, emptied emu eggs have been engraved with portraits, similar to cameos, and scenes of Australian native animals. The emu has a prominent place in Australian Aboriginal mythology, including a creation myth of the Yuwaalaraay and other groups in New South Wales who say that the sun was made by throwing an emu's egg into the sky; the bird features in numerous aetiological stories told across a number of Aboriginal groups. One story from Western Australia holds that a man once annoyed


title: Emu content: a small bird, who responded by throwing a boomerang, severing the arms of the man and transforming him into a flightless emu. The Kurdaitcha man of Central Australia is said to wear sandals made of emu feathers to mask his footprints. Many Aboriginal language groups throughout Australia have a tradition that the dark dust lanes in the Milky Way represent a giant emu in the sky. Several of the Sydney rock engravings depict emus, and the birds are mimicked in indigenous dances. The emu is popularly but unofficially considered as a faunal emblem – the national bird of Australia. It


title: Emu content: appears as a shield bearer on the Coat of arms of Australia with the red kangaroo, and as a part of the Arms also appears on the Australian 50 cent coin. It has featured on numerous Australian postage stamps, including a pre-federation New South Wales 100th Anniversary issue from 1888, which featured a 2 pence blue emu stamp, a 36 cent stamp released in 1986, and a $1.35 stamp released in 1994. The hats of the Australian Light Horse are decorated with emu feather plumes. There are around six hundred gazetted places in Australia with "emu" in their title, including


title: Emu content: mountains, lakes, hills, plains, creeks and waterholes. During the 19th and 20th centuries, many Australian companies and household products were named after the bird. In Western Australia, Emu beer has been produced since the early 20th century and the Swan Brewery continues to produce a range of beers branded as "Emu". The quarterly peer-reviewed journal of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union, also known as Birds Australia, is entitled "Emu: Austral Ornithology". The comedian Rod Hull featured a wayward emu puppet in his act for many years and the bird returned to the small screen in the hands of his son


title: Emu content: after the puppeteer's untimely death. In John Gould's "Handbook to the Birds of Australia", first published in 1865, he lamented the loss of the emu from Tasmania, where it had become rare and has since become extinct; he noted that emus were no longer common in the vicinity of Sydney and proposed that the species be given protected status. In the 1930s, emu killings in Western Australia peaked at 57,000, and culls were also mounted in Queensland during this period due to rampant crop damage. In the 1960s, bounties were still being paid in Western Australia for killing emus, but


title: Emu content: since then, wild emus have been granted formal protection under the "Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999". Their occurrence range is between , and a 1992 census suggested that their total population was between 630,000 and 725,000. , the International Union for Conservation of Nature considers their population trend to be stable and assesses their conservation status as being of least concern. The isolated emu population of the New South Wales North Coast Bioregion and Port Stephens is listed as endangered by the New South Wales Government. Although the population of emus on mainland Australia is thought to be


title: Emu content: higher now than it was before European settlement, some local populations are at risk of extinction. The threats faced by emus include the clearance and fragmentation of areas of suitable habitat, deliberate slaughter, collisions with vehicles and predation of the eggs and young. Emu The emu ("Dromaius novaehollandiae") is the second-largest living bird by height, after its ratite relative, the ostrich. It is endemic to Australia where it is the largest native bird and the only extant member of the genus "Dromaius". The emu's range covers most of mainland Australia, but the Tasmanian emu and King Island emu subspecies became


title: "Thames Barrier" content: Thames Barrier The Thames Barrier prevents the floodplain of most of Greater London from being flooded by exceptionally high tides and storm surges moving up from the North Sea. It has been operational since 1984. When needed, it is closed (raised) during high tide; at low tide it can be opened to restore the river's flow towards the sea. Built approximately due east of the Isle of Dogs, its northern bank is in Silvertown in the London Borough of Newham and its southern bank is in the New Charlton area of the Royal Borough of Greenwich. The report of Sir


title: "Thames Barrier" content: Hermann Bondi on the North Sea flood of 1953 affecting parts of the Thames Estuary and parts of London was a big factor in the planning of the barrier. The concept of the rotating gates was devised by (Reginald) Charles Draper. In 1969, from his parents' house in Pellatt Grove, Wood Green, London, he constructed a working model. The novel rotating cylinders were based on the design of the taps on his gas cooker. The barrier was designed by Rendel, Palmer and Tritton for the Greater London Council and tested at the Hydraulics Research Station, Wallingford. The site at New


title: "Thames Barrier" content: Charlton was chosen because of the relative straightness of the banks, and because the underlying river chalk was strong enough to support the barrier. Work began at the barrier site in 1974 and construction, which had been undertaken by a Costain/Hollandsche Beton Maatschappij/Tarmac Construction consortium, was largely complete by 1982. The gates of the barrier were made by Cleveland Bridge UK Ltd at Dent's Wharf on the River Tees. In addition to the barrier, the flood defences for 11 miles down river were raised and strengthened. The barrier was officially opened on 8 May 1984 by Queen Elizabeth II. Total


title: "Thames Barrier" content: construction cost was around £534 million (£1.6 billion at 2016 prices) with an additional £100 million for river defences. Built across a wide stretch of the river, the barrier divides the river into four and two, approximately 30 metre (100 ft) navigable spans. There are also four smaller non-navigable channels between nine concrete piers and two abutments. The flood gates across the openings are circular segments in cross section, and they operate by rotating, raised to allow "underspill" to allow operators to control upstream levels and a complete 180 degree rotation for maintenance. All the gates are hollow and made


title: "Thames Barrier" content: of steel up to thick. The gates are filled with water when submerged and empty as they emerge from the river. The four large central gates are high and weigh 3,700 tonnes each. Four radial gates by the riverbanks, also about 30 metres (100 ft) wide, can be lowered. These gate openings, unlike the main six, are non-navigable. A Thames Barrier flood defence closure is triggered when a combination of high tides forecast in the North Sea and high river flows at the tidal limit at Teddington weir indicate that water levels would exceed in central London. Though Teddington marks


title: "Thames Barrier" content: the Normal Tidal Limit, in periods of very high fluvial flow the tidal influence can be seen as far upstream as East Molesey on the Thames. During the barrier's entire history up to October 2017, there have been 183 flood defence closures. The barrier was closed twice on 9 November 2007 after a storm surge in the North Sea which was compared to the one in 1953. The main danger of flooding from the surge was on the coast above the Thames Barrier, where evacuations took place, but the winds abated a little and, at the Thames Barrier, the 9


title: "Thames Barrier" content: November 2007 storm surge did not completely coincide with high tide. On 20 August 1989, hours after the "Marchioness" disaster, the barrier was closed against a spring tide for 16 hours "to assist the diving and salvage operations". The barrier has survived 15 boat collisions without serious damage. On 27 October 1997, the barrier was damaged when the dredger MV "Sand Kite", operating in thick fog, hit one of the Thames Barrier's piers. As the ship started to sink she dumped her 3,300 tonne load of aggregate, finally sinking by the bow on top of one of the barrier's gates


title: "Thames Barrier" content: where she lay for several days. Initially the gate could not be closed as it was covered in a thick layer of gravel. A longer term problem was the premature loss of paint on the flat side of the gate caused by abrasion. The vessel was refloated in mid-November 1997. The annual full test closure in 2012 was scheduled for 3 June to coincide with the Thames pageant celebrating Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee. Flood risk manager Andy Batchelor said the pageant gave the Environment Agency "a unique opportunity to test its design for a longer period than we would


title: "Thames Barrier" content: normally be able to", and that the more stable tidal conditions in central London that resulted would help the vessels taking part. The barrier was originally commissioned by the Greater London Council under the guidance of Ray Horner. After the 1986 abolition of the GLC it was operated successively by Thames Water Authority and then the National Rivers Authority until April 1996 when it passed to the Environment Agency. The barrier was originally designed to protect London against a very high flood level (with an estimated return period of one hundred years) up to the year 2030, after which the


title: "Thames Barrier" content: protection would decrease, while remaining within acceptable limits. At the time of its construction, the barrier was expected to be used 2–3 times per year. It is now being used 6–7 times per year. This defence level included long-term changes in sea and land levels as understood at that time (c. 1970). Despite global warming and a consequently greater predicted rate of sea level rise, recent analysis extended the working life of the barrier until around 2060–2070. From 1982 until 19 March 2007, the barrier was raised one hundred times to prevent flooding. It is also raised monthly for testing,


title: "Thames Barrier" content: with a full test closure over high tide once a year. Released in 2005, a study by four academics contained a proposal to supersede the Thames Barrier with a more ambitious 16 km (10 mi) long barrier across the Thames Estuary from Sheerness in Kent to Southend in Essex. In November 2011, a new Thames Barrier, further downstream at Lower Hope between East Tilbury in Essex and Cliffe in Kent, was proposed as part of the Thames Hub integrated infrastructure vision. The barrier would incorporate hydropower turbines to generate renewable energy and include road and rail tunnels, providing connections from


title: "Thames Barrier" content: Essex to a major new hub airport on the Isle of Grain. In January 2013, in a letter to "The Times", a former member of the Thames Barrier Project Management Team, Dr Richard Bloore, stated that the flood barrier was not designed with increased storminess and sea level rises in mind, and called for a new barrier to be looked into immediately. The Environment Agency responded that it does not plan to replace the Thames Barrier before 2070, as the barrier was designed with an allowance for sea level rise of 8 mm per year until 2030, which has not


title: "Thames Barrier" content: been realised in the intervening years. The barrier is around halfway through its designed lifespan. The standard of protection it provides will gradually decline over time after 2030, from a 1 in 1000 year event. The Environment Agency are examining the Thames Barrier for its potential design life under climate change, with early indications being that subject to appropriate modification, the Thames Barrier will be capable of providing continued protection to London against rising sea levels until at least 2070. Thames Barrier The Thames Barrier prevents the floodplain of most of Greater London from being flooded by exceptionally high tides


title: "Quercus palustris" content: Quercus palustris Quercus palustris, the pin oak or swamp Spanish oak, is an oak in the red oak section ("Quercus" sect. "Lobatae"). Pin oak is one of the most commonly used landscaping oaks in its native range due to its ease of transplant, relatively fast growth, and pollution tolerance. Its distinctive shape is considered unique among hardwoods. "Q. palustris" is mainly distributed in the eastern and central United States from Connecticut west to eastern Kansas, and south to Georgia, west to eastern Oklahoma and Kansas. It is also native in the extreme south of Ontario, Canada. The pin oak is


title: "Quercus palustris" content: also well adapted to life in Australia (where it has been introduced), and is quite widespread across the Australian continent, especially in the cooler southern States such as Victoria and New South Wales. It is also well adapted to life in South Africa and Argentina, especially in the Río de la Plata region. Pin oaks grow primarily on level or nearly level, poorly drained, alluvial floodplain and river-bottom soils with high clay content. They are usually found on sites that flood intermittently during the dormant season, but do not ordinarily flood during the growing season. They do not grow on


title: "Quercus palustris" content: the lowest, most poorly drained sites that may be covered with standing water through much of the growing season. However, they do grow extensively on poorly drained upland "pin oak flats" on the glacial till plains of southwestern Ohio, southern Illinois and Indiana, and northern Missouri. The level topography and presence of a claypan in the soil of these areas cause these sites to be excessively wet in winter and spring. Pin oak is a medium-sized deciduous tree growing to tall, with a trunk up to diameter. It has an spread. A 10-year-old tree grown in full sun will be


title: "Quercus palustris" content: about tall. Young trees have a straight, columnar trunk with smooth bark and a pyramidal canopy. By the time the tree is 40 years old, it develops more rough bark with a loose, spreading canopy. This canopy is considered one of the most distinctive features of the pin oak: the upper branches point upwards, the middle branches are at right angles to the trunk, and the lower branches droop downwards. The leaves are long and broad, lobed, with five or seven lobes. Each lobe has five to seven bristle-tipped teeth. The sinuses are typically u-shaped and extremely deep cut. In


title: "Quercus palustris" content: fact, roughly the same amount of sinus area exists as actual leaf area. The leaf is mostly hairless, except for a very characteristic tuft of pale orange-brown down on the lower surface where each lobe vein joins the central vein. Overall autumn leaf coloration is generally bronze, though individual leaves may be red for a time, and is not considered particularly distinctive. The acorns, borne in a shallow, thin cap, are hemispherical, long and broad, green maturing pale brown about 18 months after pollination. The acorn is unpalatable because the kernel is very bitter. A fast-growing pioneer or riparian species,


title: "Quercus palustris" content: pin oak is relatively short-lived, with a maximum lifespan of 120 years against many oaks which can live several centuries. It is naturally a wetland tree, and develops a shallow, fibrous root system, unlike many oaks, which have a strong, deep taproot when young. It is confined to acidic soils, and does not tolerate limestone or sandy Florida soil, and grows at low altitudes from sea level up to . The Latin specific epithet "palustris" means "of swamps". A characteristic shared by a few other oak species, and also some beeches and hornbeams, is the retention of leaves through the


title: "Quercus palustris" content: winter on juvenile trees, a natural phenomenon referred to as marcescence. Young trees under are often covered with leaves year-round, though the leaves die in the fall, remaining attached to the shoots until the new leaves appear in the spring. As with many other oak species, dead pin oak branches stay on the tree for many years. Like all oaks, flowering and leaf-out occur in late spring when all frost danger has passed. The flowers are monoecious catkins which, being self-incompatible, require the presence of another oak for pollination. Any species in the red oak group can serve as a