:: wikimiki.org ::

Tabor Academy

Tabor Academy

Headmaster	Jay S. Stroud
Established	1876
School type	Private
Religious affiliation	None
Location	Marion, MA, USA
Enrollment	490
Faculty	80
Campus	Suburban
Mascot	Seawolf
School colors	Cardinal, Black

Tabor Academy is a four-year independent preparatory school located in Marion, Massachusetts.

History

Tabor was founded in 1876 as a school for children from Marion by a bequest in the will of Elizabeth Taber, a wealthy widow from the town. Tabor was reorganized in 1916 as an independent secondary school by Headmaster Walter H. Lillard. Two other headmasters followed Lillard, James E. Wickenden and Peter M. Webster. The current headmaster is Jay S. Stroud. He has served in that capacity since 1989.

Academics

1989 The Tabor campus in the small town of Marion stretches along a half mile of Sippican Harbor on Buzzards Bay leading to the Atlantic. Tabor offers a rigorous academic program that provides a solid foundation for study at competitive colleges. For a school of its size, the curriculum contains an especially broad spectrum of courses, from introductory levels to honors and 21 AP courses to highly sophisticated opportunities for independent work. Tabor offers classes in the traditional liberal arts fields such as the humanities, math and the sciences but also unusual offerings for a secondary school such as Greek, archeology, lighting design and numerous nautical and marine science courses in the school's new one-of-a-kind waterfront Marine Science building. Tabor utilizes its waterfront location in a variety of ways. It is one of the few secondary schools in the United States to offer extensive programs in nautical science and oceanology. The school also owns Tabor Boy, a 92 foot Dutch Pilot Schooner, which is a certified school sailing vessel. Tabor Boy has logged tens of thousands of miles with her crews of Tabor students, from nearby Buzzards Bay to the Caribbean.

Athletics

Caribbean Tabor fields 55 different teams in 23 interscholastic sports and another 15 instructional programs. The school has a large Athletic Center, which includes an indoor hockey rink and a fitness center. Tabor also has extensive waterfront facilities. The Tabor sailing team is consistently strong, having won the New England Schools Sailing Associaton (NESSA) Team Racing championship several times in the early 2000s. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the boy's and girl's basketball teams were consistently the champions or runners-up in Class B of the New England Preparatory School Athletic Conference.

Student Life

Tabor is primarily a boarding school that enrolls approximately 490 students. About 70 percent of those students live in dormitories on campus while the remaining 30 percent are day students who live at home and commute to the school.

External links

- [http://www.taboracademy.org Tabor Academy]
- [http://www.schoolfair.tv/ma_tabor_academy Tabor Academy Admissions Video on SchoolFair.tv]

Private school

Private schools, or independent schools, are schools not administered by local or national government, which retain the right to select their student body and are funded in whole or in part by charging their students tuition rather than with public (state) funds. In the United Kingdom and some other Commonwealth countries the use of the term is generally restricted to primary and secondary educational levels: it is almost never used of universities or other tertiary institutions.

Types of private school in North America

Private education covers the whole gamut of educational activity. Private schools range from pre-school to tertiary level institutions. The secondary level includes schools offering grades 7 through 12 and post-graduate or grade 13. This category includes preparatory schools or "prep schools", boarding schools and day schools. Tuition at private secondary schools varies from school to school and depends on many factors, including the location of the school, the willingness of parents to pay, peer tuitions, and the endowment. High tuition, schools claim, is used to pay higher salaries for the best teachers, and also used to provide enriched learning environments including a low student to teacher ratio, small class sizes and services such as libraries, science laboratories, and computers. Many private schools are boarding schools. Some military schools are privately owned or operated as well. Trade or vocational schools are also usually private schools where students can learn skills in a trade which they intend to make their future occupation. Trade schools exist in a variety of occupations from cosmetology schools to schools for the performing arts. Religiously affiliated schools (also called parochial schools, though this term is often used to denote Catholic-affiliated schools from Protestant-affiliated ones) form a distinct category of private school. Such schools teach religious lessons, often alongside a secular education, to instill religious knowledge and a strong religious identity in the students who attend. Many alternative schools, such as independent schools, are also privately financed. Private schools can often avoid some state regulations which might make alternative methods of schooling more difficult, and they are often easier for a small group of committed parents or teachers to create and maintain than state-funded schools. Finally, special assistance schools aim to improve the lives of their students by providing services tailored to very specific needs of individual students. Such schools include tutoring schools and schools to assist the learning of handicapped children.

Types of private school in England and Wales

Generally called independent schools because of their freedom to operate outside of government regulation, private schools are favoured by a significant minority of parents because of their frequent achievement of academic standards higher than those of the state sector. Independent primary schools are called preparatory schools, preparing pupils not for admission to a university as in the United States, but to an independent secondary school. Such independent secondary schools are often - somewhat confusingly - called public schools, though this term is primarily used of the older and more prestigious schools, like Eton and Harrow. Many of these schools are boarding schools. Due to their ancient foundation, many public schools have a religious character, although this does not generally aim at pupils' religious indoctrination and does not preclude pupils of other faiths attending if they wish. Religion is not as important an aspect in the majority of parents' decision to send their child to an independent school as it is in the United States, due to the requirement of state schools to timetable periods of Christian worship. Although the majority of independent schools in England and Wales aim at high academic standards, a small number provide support for those experiencing difficulties in mainstream education.

External links

- [http://www.nais.org National Association of Independent Schools]
- [http://www.schools.com The Association of Boarding Schools]
- [http://www.eschoolsearch.com eSchoolSearch Directory] ja:私立学校

Marion, Massachusetts

Marion is a town located in Plymouth County, Massachusetts. As of the 2000 census, the town had a total population of 5,123. For geographic and demographic information on the village of Marion Center, please see the article Marion Center, Massachusetts.

History

Marion was first settled in 1679 and was officially incorporated in 1852. It was the home of Benjamin Briggs, captain of the Mary Celeste.

Education

Marion is part of the Old Rochester Regional school district, which also serves neighboring Mattapoisett and Rochester. The public elementary school in Marion is Sippican Elementary school, which serves grades preK-6. The public junior high and high schools are located in Mattapoisett and serve students from Marion, Mattapoisett, and Rochester. There are also several private preschools and kindergartens in Marion, as well as the boarding/prep school Tabor Academy, serving grades 9-12.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 69.1 km² (26.7 mi²). 37.9 km² (14.6 mi²) of it is land and 31.2 km² (12.1 mi²) of it is water. The total area is 45.19% water. Located near Cape Cod, Marion has a large waterfront, with a public beach, town pier, and many large waterfront homes. Many homes in Marion are summer homes only, with residents arriving from Boston and New York.

Demographics

As of the census ² of 2000, there are 5,123 people, 1,996 households, and 1,441 families residing in the town. The population density is 135.2/km² (350.2/mi²). There are 2,439 housing units at an average density of 64.4/km² (166.7/mi²). The racial makeup of the town is 92.17% White, 1.58% African American, 0.10% Native American, 0.35% Asian, 0.08% Pacific Islander, 3.46% from other races, and 2.26% from two or more races. 0.55% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race. There are 1,996 households out of which 31.7% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 61.4% are married couples living together, 8.4% have a female householder with no husband present, and 27.8% are non-families. 24.1% of all households are made up of individuals and 11.9% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 2.51 and the average family size is 3.00. In the town the population is spread out with 25.1% under the age of 18, 4.2% from 18 to 24, 24.7% from 25 to 44, 28.3% from 45 to 64, and 17.7% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 42 years. For every 100 females there are 92.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 87.8 males. The median income for a household in the town is $61,250, and the median income for a family is $74,265. Males have a median income of $46,711 versus $35,911 for females. The per capita income for the town is $37,265. 4.6% of the population and 3.5% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 7.0% of those under the age of 18 and 2.0% of those 65 and older are living below the poverty line. Category:Coastal towns of Massachusetts Category:Plymouth County, Massachusetts Category:Towns in Massachusetts

Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the United States of America.

Name

Mass-adchu-et

The Massachusetts Bay Colony was named after the indigenous population, the Massachusett, whose name can be segmented :mass-adchu-et where mass is "great", adchu is "hill" and et is a locative suffix. It has been translated as :at the great hill, or at the place of large hills, or at the range of hills with reference to the Blue Hills, or in particular, Big Blue Hill, located on the boundary of Milton and Canton, to the southwest of Boston.

Commonwealth

Massachusetts officially designates itself a "commonwealth", although "state" is commonly used.

History

Early settlement

Various Algonquin tribes inhabited the area prior to European settlement. In the Massachusetts Bay area resided the Massachusett. Near the Vermont and New Hampshire borders and the Merrimack River valley was the traditional home of the Pennacook tribe. Cape Cod, Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, and southeast Massachusetts were the home of the Wampanoag, whom the Pilgrims met. The extreme end of the Cape was inhabited by the closely related Nauset tribe. Much of the central portion and the Connecticut River valley was home to the loosely organized Nipmuc peoples. The Berkshires were the home of both the Pocomtuc and the Mahican tribes. Spillovers of Narragansett and Mohegan from Rhode Island and Connecticut, respectively, were also present. The Massachusett, as were all the native Americans on the coast of New England, were heavily decimated by waves of smallpox both before and after the arrival of Captain John Smith in 1614. They had developed no immunity to the disease, a common story when Europeans visited parts of the world remote from Europe. If the tribe had survivors, there is no record of them after this point. The Pilgrims from the Humber region of England established their settlement at Plymouth in 1620, arriving on the Mayflower. One of their first tasks was to form a government, the Mayflower compact. They also suffered grievously from the native smallpox, but they were assisted in their time of trouble by the Wampanoags under chief Massasoit. In 1621 they celebrated their first Thanksgiving Day together to thank God for their survival. About half survived the first year. From that time on the English settlers spread rapidly into clearings and fields depopulated by smallpox, their numbers swelled by the harsh treatment of puritans by Charles I at home. The natives called them the Yengeeze, their pronunciation of English, which became yankee. A shared culture prevailed for a time.

Massachusetts Bay Colony period (1629-1686)

The Pilgrims were soon followed by the Puritans from the River Thames region of England, who established the Massachusetts Bay Colony. It eclipsed Plymouth in numbers and economy, the chief factor being the good harbor at Boston. The English Revolution began and Massachusetts Bay Colony became a Puritan stonghold. Relations with the natives were still good at this time. In 1646 the Long Parliament gave John Eliot a commission and funds to preach to the Wampanoags. He succeeded in converting a large number. The colonial government placed them in a ring of villages around Boston as a defensive strategy. They were called praying indians. The oldest, Natick, was built in 1651. Although the Puritans came to Massachusetts for religious freedom, they were not tolerant of any religion other than theirs. Pilgrims, as well as Anglicans, Quakers, and a handful of other denominations were grudgingly accepted in the Puritan communities for a time. Then Quakers were banned, and in 1660 four were hanged on Boston Common (see Mary Dyer). People such as Anne Hutchinson, Roger Williams, and Thomas Hooker left Massachusetts and went South because of the Puritans' lack of religious tolerance. Williams ended up founding the colony of Rhode Island and Hooker founded Connecticut. The colonists' policy toward natives fared no better than their religious tolerance. They treated natives as simpletons, leading at last to a sanguinary attempt to drive the English into the sea under Massasoit's son, Philip. King Philip's War (1675-1676), the bloodiest Indian war of the early colonial period, included major campaigns in the Pioneer Valley and Plymouth Colony. It took many years for the colonies of southern New England to recover from the effects of the war. The praying indians had attempted to give warning, but they were scorned and ignored. When the blow fell in 1675 the praying indians were caught in the middle. Most left Massachusetts. The colonists took those who stayed into internment on Deer and Long Islands in Boston Harbor, partly for their own protection. The government succeeded in preventing the colonists from massacring them there, but they died of deprivation and disease. Only 400 emerged in 1677, to reoccupy Wampanoag lands in southeastern Massachusetts. Until they merged in 1691, Massachusetts Bay Colony and Plymouth Colony were separate colonies.

Dominion of New England (1686-1692)

In May of 1686, the Massachusetts Bay Colony came to an end, as Joseph Dudley became President of New England under a commission of King James II. He established his authority later in New Hampshire and the King's Province (part of today's Rhode Island), maintaining this position until Sir Edmund Andros arrived to become the Royal Governor of the Dominion of New England. Dudley continued on as a member of Governor Andros' council. At the news of the accession of William and Mary, the Boston colonials rebelled. Andros and his officials were held on Castle Island and then sent back to England as prisoners. Andros was exonerated and went on to become Governor of Virginia (1692–98).

Royal Colony of Massachusetts (1692-1774)

Notable governors during this period were Thomas Hutchinson, Sir Francis Bernard, and Thomas Gage. Gage was the last British governor of Massachusetts.

Revolutionary Massachusetts (1760s-1780s)

Massachusetts was the first colony to revolt against the Crown, and thus the instigator of the American Revolution. On February 9, 1775, the British Parliament declared Massachusetts to be in rebellion, and sent additional troops to restore order to the colony. In Boston on March 5, 1770, an African-American named Crispus Attucks, from Framingham, was killed (along with four other American colonists) at an event that became known as the Boston Massacre; Attucks is often considered the first casualty of the American Revolution. Several early Revolutionary battles took place in Massachusetts, including the Battles of Lexington and Concord (where the famous shot heard 'round the world was fired), the Battle of Bunker Hill, and the Siege of Boston.

Commonwealth of Massachusetts (1780-present)

A Constitutional Convention drew up a Constitution drafted mainly by John Adams, and the people ratified it on June 15, 1780. At that time, Adams along with Samuel Adams, and James Bowdoin wrote in the Preamble to the Constitution of the Commonwealth, 1780: "We, therefore, the people of Massachusetts, acknowledging, with grateful hearts, the goodness of the Great Legislator of the Universe, in affording us, in the course of His Providence, an opportunity, deliberately and peaceably, without fraud, violence or surprize, on entering into an Original, explicit, and Solemn Compact with each other; and of forming a new Constitution of Civil Government, for Ourselves and Posterity, and devoutly imploring His direction in so interesting a design, Do agree upon, ordain and establish, the following Declaration of Rights, and Frame of Government, as the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts."

Other notable history

- Battles of the American Revolution - Battles of Lexington and Concord, Siege of Boston, Battle of Bunker Hill.
- Shays' Rebellion - Western Massachusetts uprising after the Revolution.
- First Governor of the Commonwealth - John Hancock was the first governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
- U.S. Constitution - On February 6, 1788, Massachusetts became the sixth state to ratify the United States Constitution.
- Slavery - According to a 1790 census, Massachusetts had a zero population of slaves.
- District of Maine - On March 15, 1820, Maine was separated from Massachusetts, of which it had been a non-contiguous part, and entered the Union as the 23rd State. (See Missouri Compromise)
- Massachusetts contains many historic houses.
- Invention of sports: :
- Basketball was invented in Springfield, Massachusetts. :
- Volleyball was invented in Holyoke, Massachusetts. :
- The earliest reference to Baseball was also in Massachusetts, in Pittsfield.

Geography

Pittsfield, much more rural than Springfield, in the southern part of the valley, or Boston, which is on the coast.]] Massachusetts is bordered on the north by New Hampshire and Vermont, on the west by New York, on the south by Connecticut and Rhode Island, and on the east by the Atlantic Ocean. At the southeastern corner of the state is a large, sandy, arm-shaped peninsula called Cape Cod. The islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket lie to the south of Cape Cod. Massachusetts is known as the Bay State because of the several large bays that give its coastline its distinctive shape: Massachusetts Bay and Cape Cod Bay on the state's east coast, and Buzzards Bay to the south. A few cities and towns on the Massachusetts–Rhode Island border are also adjacent to Narragansett Bay. Boston is the largest city, located at the inmost point of Massachusetts Bay, at the mouth of the Charles River, the longest river entirely within Massachusetts. Most of the population of the Boston metropolitan area (approximately 5,800,000) does not live in the city; eastern Massachusetts on the whole is fairly densely populated and largely suburban. Western Massachusetts is more rural and sparsely populated, especially in the Berkshires, the branch of the Appalachian Mountains which forms the western border of the state. The most populated part of western Massachusetts is the "Pioneer Valley," alongside the Connecticut River, which flows across Western Massachusetts from north to south.

Economy

Connecticut River produces the paper for Federal Reserve notes]] [http://www.bea.gov/ The Bureau of Economic Analysis] estimates that Massachusetts's total state product in 2003 was $297 billion. Per capita personal income in 2003 was $39,504, 4^th in the nation. Its agricultural outputs are seafood, nursery stock, dairy products, cranberries, and vegetables. Its industrial outputs are machinery, electric equipment, scientific instruments, printing, and publishing. Thanks largely to the Ocean Spray cooperative, Massachusetts is the second largest cranberry producing state in the union (after Wisconsin). Other sectors vital to the Massachusetts economy include higher education, health care, financial services and tourism.

Demographics

Population

The population of Massachusetts in 2004 was 6,416,505 according to the US Census Bureau. There were 881,400 foreign-born residents living in the state in 2004. Since 1990 the population has increased 400,000, a growth of 6.7% The bulk of the state's population surrounds Greater Boston, with approximately 5,800,000 people, and the North and South Shores. Historically, the coast has been much more urban than Western Massachusetts, which is very rural, save for the cities of Springfield and Worcester.

Race and Ancestry

The racial makeup of Massachusetts:
- 81.9% White
- 6.8% Hispanic
- 5.4% Black
- 3.8% Asian
- 0.2% Native American
- 2.3% Mixed race The five largest reported ancestries in Massachusetts are: Irish (22.5%), Italian (13.5%), English (11.4%), French (8%), German (5.9%). Massachusetts is the most Irish state in the nation and the only state in which people of Irish ancestry (especially in the Boston suburbs) are a plurality. Massachusetts Yankees of English ancestry still have strong presence in the state, including in Cape Cod, Nantucket, and Martha's Vineyard. Franco-Bay Staters are the largest group in much of western and central Massachusetts. Boston has a large African-American population and its largest immigrant group is Haitians. Fall River and New Bedford on the south coast have large populations of people with Portuguese and Brazilian heritages, with a growing Brazilian population in the Boston area. Census figures become less reliable due to the large, partly undocumented Brazilian population, estimated by some studies to approach 250,000 in Massachusetts. Census data does not account for this significant segment of the community because of confusing terminology, as Brazilians speak Portuguese and often do not consider themselves specifically Hispanic, Latino, White or African American. Lowell, in the northeast of the state, is home to the second largest Cambodian (Khmer) community in the country, outside of Long Beach, California. Although most of the Native Americans were decimated by disease and warfare, the Wampanoag tribe maintains a reservation at Aquinnah, on Martha's Vineyard and a non-recognized reservation at Mashpee. The Nipmuc maintain two state-recognized reservations in the central part of the state.

Religion

Although Massachusetts was initially founded and settled by staunch Protestants (Puritan separatists) in the 17th Century and remained a majority-White Anglo Saxon Protestant state for most of its history, it has since become the second most Catholic state in the Union (second only to next-door Rhode Island in its percentage of Catholic population) due to massive Catholic immigration (especially from Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Quebec, Puerto Rico) over the years. Christian Science began in Massachusetts. Today nearly half of the residents of Massachusetts are Roman Catholics and Protestants make up less than one-third of the state's population. The descendants of the Puritans are the Congregational/United Church of Christ members, who remain prominent in the state. Massachusetts also has one of the nation's largest Unitarian Universalist populations. Both of these denominations are noted for their strong support of social justice, civil rights, and moral issues, including strong and early advocacy of abolition of slavery, women's liberation, and legal recognition of gay marriage, though this may differ from their historical practices. The religious affiliations of the people of Massachusetts (as of 2001) are shown in the table below:
- Christian – 79%
- Catholic – 47%
- Protestant – 31%
- Congregational/United Church of Christ – 4%
- Baptist – 4%
- Episcopal – 3%
- Methodist – 2%
- Pentecostal – 2%
- Other Protestant or general Protestant – 16%
- Other Christian – 1%
- Jewish – 2%
- Unitarian – 1%
- Other Religions – 1%
- Non-Religious – 17%

Government

Unitarian The capital of Massachusetts is Boston and the current governor is His Excellency Mitt Romney (Republican). All governors of Massachusetts are given the title His Excellency, a carry-over from the Commonwealth's British past, despite titles being uncommon in American political traditions. The state does not maintain an official governor's residence. Massachusetts's two U.S. senators are Edward Kennedy (Democrat) and John Kerry (Democrat); as of the 2001 redistricting, Massachusetts has ten seats in the United States House of Representatives (all Democratic), giving Massachusetts the largest one-party delegation in Congress (i.e. twelve Democrats). The state legislature is formally styled the "Great and General Court" and is manned mostly by Democrats; the highest court is the "Supreme Judicial Court."

Legal holidays observed

Whenever a holiday falls on a Sunday it is observed on the following Monday.
- Celebrated only in Suffolk County (Boston, Chelsea, Revere, Winthrop) and the city of Somerville.

Politics

Liberal reputation

Massachusetts has a reputation as being a politically liberal state, and is often used as an archetype of liberalism in the U.S. It is the home of the Kennedy family of political fame, and routinely votes for the Democratic Party in federal elections. As of 2005, it is by far the largest U.S. state represented by only one party in the U.S. Congress. Although Republicans have held the governor's office continuously from 1991 to the present, many of these (especially William Weld, the first of the recent lineage of Republican governors) are considered among the most progressive Republicans in the nation. Two of these governors, Paul Cellucci and Jane Swift took office when their predecessors resigned to take other positions. The liberal tendencies of Massachusetts extend throughout American history: in the 19th century, Massachusetts was a center of abolitionism, having been the first state to abolish slavery by law. During the Colonial period, Massachusetts was one of the leading states in the fight for independence. Recently, Massachusetts has adopted electronic document formats for the government that have the specifications available, so the people will not have to lock themselves to a proprietary office suite to view government documents. The OASIS OpenDocument XML format and PDF formats have been approved. In presidential elections, Massachusetts supported Republicans until 1912, from 1916 through 1924, in the 1950s, and in 1980 and 1984. From 1988 through 2004, Massachusetts has supported Democratic presidential candidates, giving native son John Kerry his largest margin of victory among states with a 25 percentage point margin and 61.9% of the vote. Every county in the Commonwealth supported the Democratic candidate. On the other hand, during the first half of the 1900s Boston was quite socially conservative, and strongly under the influence of Methodist minister J. Frank Chase and his New England Watch and Ward Society, founded in 1878. In 1903, the Old Corner Bookstore was raided and fined for selling Boccaccio's Decameron. Howard Johnson's got its start when Eugene O'Neill's Strange Interlude was banned in Boston, and the production had to be moved to Quincy. In 1927, works by Sinclair Lewis, Ernest Hemingway, John Dos Passos, and Sherwood Anderson were removed from bookstore shelves. "Banned in Boston" on a book's cover could actually boost sales. Burlesque artists such as Sally Rand needed to modify their act when performing at Boston's Old Howard. The clean version of a performance used to be known as the "Boston version." By 1929, the Watch and Ward society was perceived to be in decline when it failed in its attempt to ban Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy, but as late as 1935 it succeeded in banning Lillian Hellman's play The Children's Hour. Censorship was enforced by city officials, notably the "city censor" within the Boston Licensing Division. That position was held by Richard J. Sinnott from 1959 until the office was abolished on March 2, 1982. In modern times, few of such puritanical social mores persist.

Defamation of the Commonwealth

In 2002, Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania partially blamed the Roman Catholic Church sex abuse scandal on Boston saying "...it is no surprise that Boston, a seat of academic, political and cultural liberalism in America, lies at the center of the storm." These remarks resurfaced in July of 2005 when an editorial in the Boston Globe republished Santorum's comments. Although he was heavily criticized for his remarks, Santorum not only refused to apologize, but, on August 1 2005 he complained that Senators Edward M. Kennedy and John F. Kerry of Massachusetts "did nothing" about sexual abuse in the Catholic Church in 2002. "They spoke nothing. They sat by and let this happen," Santorum said. During the 2004 Presidential Election, Massachusetts was the target of many GOP regionalist attacks along the campaign trail. When informed that the Democratic National Convention would be in Boston, House Majority Leader Dick Armey remarked, "If I were a Democrat, I suspect I'd feel a heck of a lot more comfortable in Boston than, say, America." While campaigning in the western part of the country, President Bush would often jab, "My opponent says he's in touch with the West, but sometimes I think he means Western Massachusetts." The stump speech that he used at many of his campaign stops included many such remarks directed at Massachusetts and New England in general.

Contemporary political issues

Following a November 2003 decision of the state's Supreme Court, Massachusetts became the first (and heretofore only) state to issue same-sex marriage licenses on May 17, 2004. See the articles on same-sex marriage in the United States and same-sex marriage in Massachusetts.

Famous politicians and public figures

- John Adams, 1st Vice President of the U.S., 2nd President of the U.S., 1800 Federalist presidential nominee
- John Quincy Adams, Congressman, Senator, 6th President of the U.S.
- Samuel Adams, Patriot in the American Revolutionary War
- George H. W. Bush, 43rd Vice President of the U.S., 41st President of the U.S.
- Calvin Coolidge, 29th Vice President of the U.S., 30th President of the U.S.
- Michael Dukakis, Governor, 1988 Democratic presidential nominee
- Benjamin Franklin, Patriot in the American Revolutionary War
- Elbridge Gerry, Congressman, Governor, 5th Vice President of the U.S., namesake of gerrymandering
- John Hancock, Governor, President of the Continental Congress
- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., Supreme Court Justice
- James Michael Curley, Governor, Congressman, Mayor of Boston
- Edward M. Kennedy, incumbent U.S. Senator, 1980 Democratic presidential candidate
- John F. Kennedy, U.S. Senator, 35th President of the U.S.
- Robert F. Kennedy, U.S. Senator (representing New York), 1968 Democratic presidential candidate
- John F. Kerry, Lt. Governor, incumbent U.S. Senator, 2004 Democratic presidential nominee
- Tip O'Neill, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives
- Theodore Sedgwick, President pro tempore of the Senate, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives
- Paul Tsongas, U.S. Senator, 1992 Democratic presidential candidate
- Henry Wilson, U.S. Senator, 18th Vice President of the U.S.

Massachusetts cities, towns and counties

18th Vice President of the U.S. Massachusetts shares with the five other New England states, plus New York and New Jersey, a governmental structure known as the "New England town."

Prominent cities and towns

There are 50 cities and 301 towns in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, grouped into 14 counties. Municipalities of historical or cultural prominence include:

Education and research

New Jersey

The central role of education

Massachusetts contains only 2.5% of the U.S. population, but is home to many of its most renowned preparatory schools, colleges, and universities[http://www.utexas.edu/world/univ/state/] (see full list of colleges and universities in Massachusetts). Eight Boston-area institutions (Boston College, Boston University, Brandeis, Harvard, MIT, Northeastern, Tufts, and UMass/Boston) are recognized research universities; in the eyes of many they became engines of economic growth following World War II, and currently contribute $7 billion annually to the local economy [http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/nr/2003/econimpact.html]. The population of metropolitan Boston surges noticeably during the school year due to the concentration of colleges and universities in the area (see list of colleges and universities in metropolitan Boston).

Prominent colleges and universities

According to U.S. News & World Report, five of the nation's top-50 national universities are located in Massachusetts: Boston College, Brandeis University, Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Tufts University. Massachusetts is also home to six of the nation's top-50 liberal arts colleges : Amherst College, College of the Holy Cross, Mount Holyoke College, Smith College, Wellesley College and Williams College.

Public schools

Massachusetts is known for having one of the best public school systems in the nation. It has one of the lowest high-school dropout rates in the nation and is tied with New Jersey for having the 2nd highest percentage of students who go on to college after high-school. It is also one of the highest scoring states on advanced placement tests.

Professional sports

- Baseball
- Boston Red Sox
- Cape Cod Baseball League
- Lowell Spinners
- North Shore Spirit
- Brockton Rox
- Worcester Tornadoes
- Basketball
- Boston Celtics
- Basketball Hall of Fame (Springfield)
- Football
- New England Patriots
- Hockey
- Boston Bruins
- Lowell Lock Monsters
- Springfield Falcons
- Lacrosse
- Boston Cannons
- Soccer
- New England Revolution
- Western Mass Pioneers
- Volleyball
- Volleyball Hall of Fame (Holyoke)

Trivia

The Commonwealth's nickname is the Bay State. Other nicknames are the Old Colony State, and less commonly the Puritan state and the Baked Bean state. On December 18, 1990, the Legislature decided that the people of the Commonwealth would be designated as Bay Staters. The United States Postal Service abbreviation for Massachusetts is MA and its traditional abbreviation is Mass. Seven ships of the United States Navy have been named USS Massachusetts in honor of this state. When the Governor dies, resigns, or is removed from office, the office of Governor remains vacant (for the rest of the 4 year term), the Lieutenant Governor doesn't succeed, only decharges powers & duties as Acting Governor (for rest of the 4 year term).

References

- Bond, C. Lawrence, Native Names of New England Towns and Villages Translating 145 Names Derived from Native American Words, privately published by Bond, Topsfield, Massachusetts, 1991

External links

- [http://www.state.ma.us State web site]
- [http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/massachusetts.html Maps of Massachusetts]
- [http://obit.obitlinkspage.com/ma.htm Massachusetts Obituary Links Page]
- [http://www.genealogybuff.com/ma GenealogyBuff.com - Massachusetts Library of Files]
- [http://newenglandtowns.org/massachusetts Historic descriptions of Massachusetts cities, towns, mountains, lakes, and rivers]
- Category:States of the United States ko:매사추세츠 주 ja:マサチューセッツ州 th:มลรัฐแมสซาชูเซตส์

Suburban

:"Suburban" redirects here. For the sport utility vehicle (SUV), see Chevrolet Suburban. Chevrolet Suburban Suburbs are inhabited districts located either on the outer rim of a city or outside the official limits of a city (the term varies from country to country), or the outer elements of a conurbation. The presence of certain elements (whose definition varies amongst urbanists, but usually refers to some basic services and to the territorial continuity) identifies a suburb as a peripheral populated area with a certain autonomy, where the density of habitation is usually lower than in an inner city area, though state or municipal house building will often cause departures from that organic gradation. Suburbs have typically grown in areas with an abundance of flat land near a large urban zone, usually with minimal traditions of citizens clustering together for defence behind fortified city walls, and with transport systems which allow commuting into more densely populated areas with higher levels of commerce.

Semantics

The word "suburb" is derived from the Old French "sub(b)urbe" and ultimately from the Latin "suburbium," formed from "sub," meaning "under," and "urbs," meaning "city." (Note that urbs was pronounced oorps.) The first recorded usage according to the Oxford English Dictionary comes from Wyclife, in 1380, where the form "subarbis" is used. In American English, the word "suburb" usually refers to a separate municipality or an unincorporated area outside of a central city. This definition is evident, for example, in the title of David Rusk's book Cities Without Suburbs, which promotes metropolitan government. Colloquial usage sometimes shortens the term to "'burb" (with or without the apostrophe), and "The Burbs" first appeared as a term for the suburbs of Chicagoland. In Britain, Australia and New Zealand, "suburbs" are merely residential neighbourhoods outside of the city centre. For example, Clifton is considered a suburb of Bristol, England. Many characteristics of suburbia were found in Australia as early as the 19th century. With huge expanses of land needing to be populated, lack of need for defense as well as the popularity of railroads (which grew at at a swift rate) contributed to sprawling urbanism somewhat resembling suburbia. However, the key commercial element - commuting to work - was not really there, although it would appear during the 20th century. The term suburb as used in Australia reflects this, and thus has a slightly ambiguous meaning to non-Australians. Suburbs there are official postal and addressing subdivisions of a city. Inner suburbs are subdivisions within the denser urban areas of the cities, and correspond to what would be called neigbourhoods in North American cities. For instance, Ultimo, postcode 2007, is an inner suburb of Sydney, even though it lies within the boundaries of the City of Sydney. Locals will refer to Ultimo as a suburb even though it is a densely urban neighbourhood. Outer suburbs are the postal divisions found in the outer rings of the metropolitan areas, and usually lie within the boundaries of a separate municipality, such as the City of Parramatta.

History

Many sociologists see suburbs as a post-urban area which develops in response to worsening conditions within a city with a communication and transport system which allows citizens to live outside the city while doing business inside. The suburbs and more distinct settlements around a town or city may look towards the urban area for goods, services and employment opportunities. That wider area may be called the hinterland of the town or a "city region". In the era before motorised travel, the radius of the hinterland roughly coincided with the distance that livestock could be herded to and from a market during daylight hours. In lowland areas, without severe geographic barriers to movement, a spacing of towns between 15 and 20 miles is therefore quite common. Suburbs with a healthier environment are often found upwind of those parts of a town or city where heavy industry was first established. Naturally, the suburbs suffering air pollution tended to be cheaper and hence tend to be occupied by those with lower incomes. The growth of suburbs was initially facilitated by the development of zoning laws and more effective and accessible means of transport. In the older cities of the northeast U.S., suburbs originally developed along train or trolley lines that could shuttle workers into and out of city centers where the jobs were located. This practice gave rise to the term bedroom community or dormitory, meaning that most daytime business activity took place in the city, with the working population leaving the city at night for the purpose of going home to sleep. The growth in the use of trains, and later automobiles and highways, increased the ease with which workers could have a job in the city while commuting in from the suburbs. In the United Kingdom, railways stimulated the first mass exodus to the suburbs, which were described as "Metroland" around London, and were mostly characterised by semi-detached houses. As car ownership rose and wider roads were built, the commuting trend accelerated as in North America. This trend towards living away from towns and cities has been termed the urban exodus. Zoning laws also contributed to the location of residential areas outside of the city center by creating wide areas or "zones" where only residential buildings were permitted. These suburban residences are built on larger lots of land than in the urban city. For example, the lot size for a residence in Chicago, Illinois is usually 125 feet deep, while the width can vary from 14 feet wide for a row house to 45 feet wide for a large standalone house. In the suburbs, where standalone houses are the rule, lots may be 85 feet wide by 115 feet deep, as in the Chicago suburb of Naperville, Illinois. Manufacturing and commercial buildings were segregated in other areas of the city. Increasingly, due to the congestion and pollution experienced in many city centers (accentuated by the commuters' vehicles), more people moved out to the suburbs. Moving along with the population, many companies also located their offices and other facilities in the outer areas of the cities. This has resulted in increased density in older suburbs and, often, the growth of lower density suburbs even further from city centers. An alternative strategy is the deliberate design of "new towns" and the protection of green belts around cities. Some social reformers attempted to combine the best of both concepts in the Garden City movement. While suburbs had originated far earlier, the suburban population in North America exploded after World War II. Returning veterans wishing to start a settled life moved en masse to the suburbs. Between 1950 and 1956 the resident population of all US suburbs increased by 46%. During the same period of time, African-Americans were rapidly moving north for better jobs and educational opportunities than they could get in the segregated South, and their arrival in Northern cities en masse further stimulated white suburban migration. Many people equate suburbs with early planned cities such as Levittown, New York and Rohnert Park, California. Rohnert Park, a suburb of Santa Rosa, California and San Francisco, California was originally marketed in the late 50's as "A Country Club for the middle class." In the US, 1970 was the first year that more people lived in suburbs than elsewhere. (1) The development of the skyscraper and the sharp inflation of downtown real estate prices also led to downtowns being more fully dedicated to businesses, thus pushing residents outside the city centre. By 1980 this was often perceived as undesirable, extending travel times and adding to people's sense of isolation and fear in central areas outside trading hours. 1

Suburbs today

In North America, suburbs traditionally were residential areas with single-family homes located near shopping areas and schools, with good access to trains, freeways or other transport systems. Now, partly due to increased populations in many greater metropolitan areas, suburbs can be densely populated and contain apartment buildings and townhouses, as well as office complexes, light manufacturing facilities, and shopping centers or malls. It is not unusual for suburbs to house several hundred thousand people. In fact, many American and Canadian suburbs are now larger than other urban population centers. For example, Mesa, Arizona (a suburb of Phoenix, Arizona), is larger than St. Louis, Missouri; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and Salt Lake City, Utah, and grew at a much faster rate than even Phoenix between 1990 and 2000. Another example is Mississauga, Ontario (a suburb of Toronto, Ontario). Mississauga is the largest suburban municipality in all of North America, with a population of 636,801 and a population density of 2125.1/km². Mississauga is larger than the U.S. cities of Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Boston, Massachusetts; Washington DC; Nashville, Tennessee; Seattle, Washington; Portland, Oregon; New Orleans, Louisiana; Las Vegas, Nevada; Cleveland, Ohio; Atlanta, Georgia; Sacramento, California; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Miami, Florida etc. Mississauga also has a higher population than the city of Vancouver, British Columbia. The five largest suburbs in North America, in order, are Mississauga, Ontario; Mesa, Arizona; Virginia Beach, Virginia; Surrey, British Columbia; and Laval, Quebec. In one metropolitan area, the Hampton Roads area of Virginia, the largest city is actually a suburb, namely Virginia Beach. Although the United States Census Bureau officially calls the area the Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News Metropolitan Statistical Area, in keeping with its normal practice of putting the most populous city in a metropolitan area in the lead position of its name, the naming does not reflect the actual character of the area. Despite recent efforts by city leaders in Virginia Beach to create a more urban environment, the urban core of the area lies in Norfolk, which will soon become the third-largest city in the region. Chesapeake, which is not part of the area name but has already surpassed Newport News in population, is growing at a rate that will probably see it also surpass Norfolk in population well before the 2010 Census. A socio-political movement called "New Urbanism" or "Smart Growth" is currently in vogue in the U.S.A., Canada and northern Europe, in response to the perceived threat of "urban sprawl". This movement among city planners, builders, and architects holds that denser, more city-like communities with less rigid zoning laws and mixed-use buildings are desirable. Such communities ease traffic, since people do not need to commute as far, and may foster a better sense of community among residents. Some of these communities seek to reduce car-dependency (and thus the use of personal automobiles) wherever possible. This movement has resulted in both the construction of new developments that embody these principles, and renovation of areas in existing city centers for new residential and commercial activities. In the UK, the government is (2003) seeking to impose minimum densities on newly approved housing schemes in parts of southeast England. Whether any society succeeds in reducing the average distance travelled by each citizen by means of such planning strategies remains to be seen. The new catchphrase is 'building sustainable communities' rather than housing estates. In England this is displacing the now discredited notion of 'urban villages', but the credibility of both ideas is challenged by the increasing involvement of commercial interests in developing new hospitals, secondary schools and public transport services. Commercial concerns tend to retard the opening of services until a large number of residents have occupied the new neighbourhood. In many parts of the globe, however, suburbs are economically poor areas, inhabited by people sometimes in real misery, that keep at the limit of the city borders for economic or social reasons like the impossibility of affording the (usually higher) costs of life in the town. An example in the developed world would be the banlieues of France, which are comparable to the inner cities of the UK and US. In the Third World, such slum areas are often irregularly built or managed, with individualistic, unregulated building and other forms of social or legal disorder. It has been said that this would be sometimes a case of spontaneous or psychological apartheid. In some cases inhabitants just live off the waste materials produced by the city (like, increasingly, around new African towns) and usually in such situations suburbs and houses are roughly built, often not even in the traditional building materials, as seen for example in the bidonvilles. Often nomads settle their camps in suburbs. The occupiers of more industrialised or longer-lasting homes may refer to such suburbs as "shanty towns". The favelas of Rio de Janeiro may also be considered an example of this type of suburb. In the illustrative case of Rome, Italy, in the 1920s and 1930s, suburbs were intentionally created ex novo in order to give lower classes a destination, in consideration of the actual and foreseen massive arrival of poor people from other areas of the country. Many critics have seen in this development pattern (that was circularly distributed in every direction) also a quick solution to a problem of public order (keeping the unwelcome poorest classes - together with criminals, in this way better controlled - comfortably remote from the elegant "official" town). On the other hand, the expected huge expansion of the town soon effectively covered the distance from the central town, and now those suburbs are completely engulfed by the main territory of the town, and other newer suburbs were created at a further distance from them.

Suburbs in pop culture

Suburbs on TV

Hot Choice Channel's Original Movie, Suburbian Sex Addict, 2004. Neighbours has been on television in Australia since 1985 and the United Kingdom from the following year. It is set in Ramsay Street in suburban Erinsborough. Knots Landing was a long-running show depicting suburban life. It was set in the fictional town of Knots Landing, California, and followed the lives of several families who lived on the suburban cul-de-sac Seaview Circle. The Australian show Kath & Kim pillories the nouveau white trash of subdivisions with exaggerated provincial accents and below-average intelligence. Suburban life through the eyes of stay-at-home wives and mothers is portrayed in the ABC television series Desperate Housewives. Many U.S. sit-coms are set in the suburbs, including the animated Family Guy and The Simpsons.

Suburbs in pop songs

- "Suburbia" by the Pet Shop Boys
- "Subdivisions" by Rush
- "Pleasant Valley Sunday" by The Monkees
- "Jesus of Suburbia" by Green Day
- "Rocking The Suburbs" by Ben Folds
- "Little Boxes" by Malvina Reynolds
- "Buddha of Suburbia" by David Bowie
- "Greater Omaha" by Desaparacidos
- "Suburban Home" by The Descendents
- "Sound of the Suburbs" by The Members
- "Hey Suburbia" by Screeching Weasel

References

- Rybczynski, Witold (Nov. 7, 2005). [http://www.slate.com/id/2129636/?nav=tap3 "Suburban Despair"]. Slate.
- Smith, Albert C. & Schank, Kendra (1999). "A Grotesque Measure for Marietta". Journal of Urban Design 4 (3). "Suburbia" Matthew Good Band

External links and references

- Managing Urban America by Robert E. England and David R. Morgan 1979
- http://www.ideal-homes.org.uk/why-suburbs-happen-01.htm on the suburban growth of London, England.
- http://www.hgs.org.uk/mystreet/index.html provides images of a mature north London suburb illustrating a wide range of domestic architecture.
- [http://www.endofsuburbia.com/ The End of Suburbia], documentary film (see also, Peak oil)
- http://fass.kingston.ac.uk/research/centres/suburban_studies/ for Europe's first interdisciplinary research centre for the study of suburbs, based at Kingston University.
- [http://www.fanniemaefoundation.org/programs/census_notes_6.shtml "Boomburbs":] The Emergence of Large, Fast-Growing Suburban Cities in the United States, from Fannie Mae. Category:Human geography Category:Cities Category:Urban studies and planning ja:郊外

Orca

The Orca (Orcinus orca), also known as the Killer Whale or Grampus, is the largest member of the oceanic dolphin family. It is the second-most widely distributed mammal on Earth (after humans) and is found in all the world's oceans. It is also a versatile predator, eating fish, turtles, birds, seals, sharks and even other juvenile and small cetaceans. This puts the Orca at the pinnacle of the marine food chain. The orca also attacks other whales, in particular Gray Whales. The name "killer whale" reflects the animal's reputation as a magnificent and fearsome sea mammal that goes as far back as Pliny the Elder's description of the species. Today it is recognized that the Orca is neither a whale (except in the broad sense that all cetaceans are whales) nor a danger to humans. No attack on a human by an Orca in the wild has ever been recorded. There have, however, been isolated reports of captive Orcas attacking their handlers at marine theme parks.
Naming
The name "Orca" (plural "Orcas") was originally given to these animals by the ancient Romans, possibly borrowed from the Greek word which (among other things) referred to a species of whale. The name "killer whale" is widely used in common English. However since the 1960s "orca" has steadily grown in popularity as the common name to identify the species and is now more popular than the traditional name amongst those in the field. There are several reasons for the change. First, having the word whale in the name of a species that is really a dolphin causes confusion. Second, the species is called orca in most other European languages and, as there has been a steady increase in the amount of international research on the species, there has been a convergence in naming. Furthermore, the killer in "killer whale" is often wrongly assumed to imply that the creature is a killer of humans, an attitude amplified by an unfortunate movie seeking to capitalize from the buzz from Jaws (1975). Orca: The Killer Whale (1977) starred Richard Harris and Bo Derek. It is thought this long standing and often fearful reputation can be put to rest by using the more neutral name of orca. A pod of Orcas is capable of taking down a large whale. It is commonly thought that 18th-century Spanish sailors dubbed these creatures asesina ballenas, or "whale killer" for this reason. However, this title was improperly translated into English as "killer whale". The term became so prevalent that Spanish speakers commonly used its retranslation of ballena asesina. This practice has further strengthened the case for using orca. There are still many who prefer the original name, believing it to be an appropriate description of a species that does indeed kill many animals, including other cetaceans. These supporters of the original name point out that the naming heritage is not limited to Spanish sailors. Indeed the genus name "Orcinus" means "from Hell" (see Orcus) and although the name "orca" (in use since antiquity) is probably not etymologically related, the assonance might have given some people the idea that it means "whale that brings death," or "demon from hell." It is noteworthy that the name of this species is similarly intimidating in many non-European languages. To the Haida people native to the islands of Haida Gwaii off the coast of British Columbia, the animal was known as skana or "killing demon". The Japanese call them shachi (鯱), whose kanji character combines the radicals for fish (魚) and tiger (虎).
Taxonomy and evolution
The Orca is the sole species in the genus Orcinus. It is one of thirty-five species in the dolphin family. Like the Sperm Whale genus Physeter, Orcinus is a genus with a single, abundant species with no immediate relatives from a cladistic point of view, thus palaeontologists believe that the Orca is a prime candidate to have an anagenetic evolutionary history — that is the evolution of ancestral to descendant species without splitting of the lineage. If true, this would make the Orca one of the oldest dolphin species, although it is unlikely to be as old as the family itself, which is known to date back at least five million years.
Physical characteristics
The animals are distinctively marked, with a black back, white chest and sides and a white patch above and behind the eye. They have a heavy and stocky body and a large dorsal fin with a dark gray "saddle patch" behind it. Males can be up to 9.5 m long (31 ft) and weigh in excess of 6 tons; females are smaller, reaching up to 8.5 m (28 ft) and a weight of about 5 tons. Calves at birth weigh about 180 kg and are about 2.4 m long (8 ft). Unlike most dolphins, the caudal fin of an Orca is large and rounded — more of a paddle than other dolphin species. At about 1.8 m (6 ft), the dorsal fin of the male is taller than the female's, and is more of a triangle shape — a tall, elongated isosceles triangle, whereas the dorsal fin of the female is shorter and shaped like a scythe. Nicks, cuts and scrapes on these fins, as well as distinctive features of each fin, help scientists identify individuals. Large male Orcas are very distinctive and are unlikely to be confused with any other sea creature. When seen from a distance in temperate waters, females and juveniles can be confused with various other species, such as the False Killer Whale or Risso's Dolphin. Most life history data about orcas has been obtained from long-term surveys of the population off the coasts of British Columbia and Washington and by monitoring captive whales. Due to the completeness of the study and highly structured nature of the pods in this population, the information is detailed and accurate; however, transient groups and groups in other oceans may have slightly different characteristics. Females become mature at around 15 years of age. From then they have periods of polyestrous cycling with non-cycling periods of between three and sixteen months. The gestation period varies from fifteen to eighteen months. Mothers calve, with a single offspring, about once every five years. In analysed resident pods, birth occurs at any time of year, with the most popular months being those in winter. New-born mortality is very high — one survey suggested that nearly half of all calves fail to reach the age of six months. Calves nurse for up to two years, but will start to take solid food at about twelve months. Cows breed until the age of 40, meaning that on average they raise five offspring. Typically females live to the age of fifty, but may survive well into their eighties or nineties in exceptional cases. Males become sexually active at the age of 15, and live to about 30 on average, and to 50 in exceptional cases.
Range
The orca is the second-most widely distributed mammal in the world, after the human. They are found in all oceans and most seas including (unusually for cetaceans) the Mediterranean and Arabian Seas. Cooler temperate and polar regions are preferred, however. Although sometimes spotted in deep water, coastal areas are generally preferred to pelagic environments. The Orca is particularly highly concentrated in the northeast Pacific Basin, where Canada curves into Alaska, off the coast of Iceland and off the coast of northern Norway. They are regularly sighted in Antarctic waters right up to the ice-pack and indeed are believed to venture under the pack and survive breathing in air pockets like the beluga does. In the Arctic, however, the species is rarely seen in winter, as it does not approach the ice pack. It does visit these waters during summer. Information for off-shore regions and tropical waters is more scarce but widespread, if not frequent; sightings indicate that the orca can survive in most water temperatures. No estimate for the total worldwide population exists. Local estimates include 70-80,000 in the Antarctic, 8,000 in the tropical Pacific (although tropical waters are not the orca's preferred environment, the sheer size of this area — 19 million square kilometres — means there are thousands of whales), up to 2,000 off Japan, 1,500 off the cooler northeast Pacific and 1,500 off Norway. Adding very rough estimates for unsurveyed areas, the total population could be around 100,000.
Social interaction
beluga Orcas have a complex system of social grouping. The basic unit is the matriline, which consists of a single female Orca (the matriarch) and her descendants. The sons and daughters of the matriarch form part of the line as do the sons and daughters of those daughters (the sons and daughters of the sons join the matriline of their mates) and so on down the family tree. Because females can live for up to ninety years, it is not uncommon for four or even five generations of Orcas living in the same line. These matrilineal groups are highly stable over many years. Individuals will only split off from their matrilineal group for up to a few hours at a time in order to mate or forage. No permanent casting out of an individual from a matriline has ever been recorded. The average matriline size as recorded in northeast Pacific waters is nine animals. Matrilines tend to congregate with a small number of other matrilines to form a pod, consisting on average of about 18 animals. Members of a pod all have the same dialect (see the song section below) and consist of closely related matriline fragments. Unlike matrilines, pods will split apart for days or weeks at a time in order to carry out foraging before joining back together. The largest recorded pod is 49 animals. The next level of grouping is the clan. A clan consists of those pods which have a similar dialect. Again the relationship between pods appears to be genealogical, consisting of fragments of families with a common heritage on the maternal side. Different clans can occupy the same geographical area; pods from different clans are often recorded traveling together. When resident pods come together to travel as a clan, they greet each other by forming two parallel lines akin to a face-off before mingling with each other. The final layer of association, perhaps more arbitrary and devised by humans rather than the other very natural divisions, is called the community and is loosely defined as the set of clans that are regularly seen mixing with each other. Communities do not follow discernible familial or vocal patterns. In the northeast Pacific there have been three communities identified: :
- The southern community (1 clan, 3 pods, 92 orcas as of 2005, counting Luna (L98)) :
- The northern community (3 clans, 16 pods, 214 orcas as of 2000) :
- The south Alaskan community (2 clans, 11 pods, 211 orcas as of 2000) It should be emphasized that these hierarchies are valid for resident groups only. Transient, mammal-eating groups are generally smaller because, although they too are based on matrilines, males are much more likely to split off to live a solitary life. However, transient groups still have a loose connection defined by their dialect. The day-to-day behaviour of Orcas is generally divided into four activities: foraging, traveling, resting and socializing. Orcas are generally enthusiastic in their socializing, exhibiting a wide range of breaching, spyhopping, tail-slapping and head-stands. All-male groups often interact with erect penises. Whether this interaction is part of play or a display of dominance is not known.
Diet
dominance]] There are 3 "types" of orcas studied off the North West American coast, residents, transients and offshores. Residents orcas only eat fish, transients eat seals, and other whales (other than orcas), and not enough is known about offshores to confirm their diet. The array of species on which Orcas prey is extremely diverse. Specific populations tend to specialize on particular prey species, even at the expense of ignoring other potential prey. For example, some populations in the Norwegian and Greenland sea specialise on herring and follow that fish's migratory path to the Norwegian coast each autumn. Other populations in the area prey on seals. Orcas are the only mammals with this diversification of feeding among overlapping species. The Orca is the only cetacean species to regularly prey on other cetaceans. Twenty-two species have been recorded as preyed on, either through an examination of stomach contents, examining scarring on the other cetacean's body, or by simply observing the feeding activity. Pods of Orcas will even prey upon larger whales such as Fin Whales, Minke Whales, Grey Whales, or even young Blue Whales. A group of Orcas take a young Blue Whale by chasing it and its mother through the sea, wearing them out. Eventually the orcas manage to separate the pair and then surround the younger whale, thereby preventing it from returning to the sea's surface in order to breathe. Once the whale has drowned, the orcas are free to feed on it. There has also been one recorded case of probable Orca cannibalism. A study carried out by V. I. Shevchenko in the temperate areas of the South Pacific in 1975 recorded two male Orca whose stomachs contained the remains of other Orcas. Of the 30 Orcas captured and examined in this survey, 11 had empty stomachs — an unusually high percentage that indicates the Orca were forced to cannibalism through a lack of food. More commonly, Orcas prey on 30 species of fish, particularly salmon (including chinook and coho), herring, and tuna. Basking sharks, oceanic whitetip sharks, and very occasionally even great white sharks are taken for their nutrient-rich livers. There is also believed to be an element of competition elimination in taking these sharks. Other marine mammals, including most species of seal and sea lion, are also taken by polar populations. Walrus and sea otters are taken less frequently. Seven species of bird are also taken, including all penguin species as well as sea birds such as cormorants. Cephalopods, such as octopuses and a wide range of squids, are also targets. Orcas are very inventive and playful in their killing. They sometimes will throw seals to one another through the air in order to stun and kill the animal. While salmon are usually hunted by a single orca or a small group of individuals, herring are often caught using carousel feeding: the orcas force the herring into a tight ball by releasing bursts of bubbles or flashing their white underside. The orcas then slap the ball with their tail flukes, either stunning or killing up to 10-15 herring with a successful slap. The herring are then eaten one at a time. Carousel feeding has only been documented in the Norwegian orca population and with some oceanic dolphin species. Sea lions are killed by head-butting or by being slapped and stunned by a tail fluke. An orca in Friendship Cove discovered that it could regurgitate fish onto the surface, attract sea gulls, and eat them. Other orcas then learned the behavior by example.[http://www.roanoke.com/theedge/wb/xp-32407] More specialized feeding techniques are used by various populations around the world. In Patagonia, orcas feed on southern sea lion and elephant seal pups by forcing them on to beaches, even to the extent of stranding themselves, albeit temporarily. Orcas will spy-hop to locate seals resting on ice floes, and then create a wave to wash over the floe, causing the seal to be thrown into the water where a second orca waits to kill it. On average, the orca eats 60 kg of food each day. With this huge variety of prey, and no predators other than man, the orca is very much at the top of the food chain.
Song
food chain As with other dolphins, orcas are very vocal animals. They produce a variety of clicks and whistles that are used for communication and echolocation. The vocalization types vary with activity. While resting, perhaps unsurprisingly, they are much quieter, merely emitting an occasional call that is distinct from those heard when engaging in more active behaviour. Resident pods of orcas tend to be much more vocal than transient groups. Scientists surmise that there are two main reasons for this. Firstly, resident orcas stay within the same social groups for much longer, thus developing more complicated social relationships resulting in greater vocalizations. Transient groups tend to stay together for much more fleeting amounts of time (usually just a period of hours or days) and thus communicate less. Secondly, transient orcas are much more likely to feed on marine mammals than fish-loving resident pods. Orcas hunting for mammals to eat naturally must be quieter to avoid the possibility of detection. For this reason, orcas that are hunting tend to use just a single click (called a cryptic click) for echolocation rather than the long train of clicks observed in other species. Resident pods have regional dialects. Each pod has its own songs or sets of particular whistles and clicks that it will repeat over and over. Every member of the pod seems to know all the songs of the pod, so it is not possible to identify a single animal using voice alone, only a dialectal group. A particular song might be known by only one group or shared among several. The degree to which two groups have their songs in common appears to be a function of their genealogical closeness rather than their geographical closeness. Two groups that share a common set of ancestors but have grown apart in distance are likely to have a similar set of songs. This suggests that songs are passed from mother to child during the nursing period. See also: Whale song
Orcas in history
Although only scientifically identified as species in 1758, the orca has been known to man since prehistoric times. The desert culture of Nazca created a Nazca line representing an orca sometime between 200 BC and AD 600. The first description of an orca is given in Pliny the Elder's Natural History (written circa 50 BC). The aura of invincibility around the all-consuming orca was well-established by this time. Having watched the public slaughtering of a whale stranded at a harbor near Rome, Pliny writes, "Orcas, (the appearance of which no image can express, other than an enormous mass of savage flesh with teeth), are the enemy of [other whales]... they charge and pierce them like warships ramming." Indigenous tribes in the Pacific Northwest of North America such as the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian featured the orca prominently in their religion and artwork.
Orcas and modern man
religionn coast.]]
Hunting
Orcas were targeted in commercial whaling for the middle part of the twentieth century once stocks of larger species had been depleted. Commercial hunting of orcas came to an abrupt halt in 1981 with the introduction of the moratorium on all whaling. (Although from a taxonomic point of view an orca is a dolphin rather than a whale, it is sufficiently large to come under the purview of the International Whaling Commission.) The greatest hunter of orcas was Norway which took an average of 56 animals per year from 1938 to 1981. Japan took an average of 43 animals from 1946 to 1981. (War year figures are not available but are likely to be fewer). The Soviet Union took a few animals each year in the Antarctic, with the extraordinary exception of the 1980 season when it took 916. Today, no country carries out a substantial hunt. Japan usually takes a few individuals each year as part of its controversial program of "scientific research." A similarly small level of subsistence whaling is carried out by Indonesia and Greenland. As well as hunting for their meat, orcas have also been killed because of their competition with fishermen. In the 1950s the United States Air Force, at the request of the Government of Iceland, used bombers and riflemen to slaughter orcas in Icelandic waters because they competed with humans for fish. The operation was considered a great success at the time by fishermen and the Icelandic government. However, many were unconvinced that orcas were responsible for the drop in fish stocks, blaming overfishing by humans instead. This debate has led to repeated studies of North Atlantic fish stocks, with neither side in the whaling debate giving ground since that time. The orca is also occasionally killed out of fear of its reputation. No human has ever been attacked by an orca in the wild, but sailors in Alaska shoot the animal occasionally with concern for their own lives. This fear has generally dissipated in recent years due to better education about the species, including the appearance of orcas in aquariums and other aquatic attractions.
Captivity
The orca's intelligence, trainability, striking appearance, playfulness in captivity, and its sheer size have made it a popular exhibit at aquariums and other aquatic attractions such as aquatic theme parks. The first orca capture and display took place in Vancouver in 1964. Over the next 15 years around sixty or seventy orcas were taken from Pacific waters for this purpose. In the late 1970s and the first half of the 1980s, orcas were generally taken from Icelandic waters (fifty in the five years to 1985). Since that time, orcas have been successfully bred in captivity and wild specimens are considerably rarer. Orcas in captivity may develop pathologies such as dorsal fin collapse, seen in 60-90% of captive males. There have been incidents with orcas in captivity attacking humans. In 1991, a group of orcas killed a trainer named Keltie Byrne at Sealand in Victoria, British Columbia (where employees were not allowed in the water with orcas), apparently not knowing she could not survive underwater. In 1999, at the SeaWorld park in Orlando, Florida, one of the same orcas allegedly killed a tourist who had sneaked into the orca's pool at night[http://www.cnn.com/US/9907/06/killer.whale/]. (The dead tourist, who was otherwise physically unharmed, was also thought to be a victim of hypothermia.) In late July 2004<