Sunday, August 11, 2013

Disneyland behaviours everyone ends up doing

Advertisement

It?s now the holiday week in Japan, and that means that Disneyland and Disney Sea will no doubt be packed to the gunwales with tourists. (That reminds me, I must find some statistics on the most popular tourist attractions in Japan!) So, this survey from goo Ranking looks at what people who go to Disneyland tend to end up doing.

Demographics

Between the 31st of May and 3rd of June 2013 1,069 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.1% of the sample were female, 24.8% in their teens, 24.9% in their twenties, 25.0% in their thirties, and 25.4% in their forties; there was no-one older than 49 in this sample. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

Here?s someone doing a number 6, I suspect.

Tokyo Disneyland

Note that buying souvenirs (and other general Disney tat) features very heavily. Despite living 500 kilometers away from The Magic Kindgom, it seems, for instance, that almost every teenage schoolgirl I see has a Duffy bear doll hanging off their schoolbags.

And before you ask, no, I don?t know the difference between number 2 and number 7!

Ranking result

Q: What do you tend to end up doing when you go to Disneyland? (Sample size=1,069)

Rank ? Score
1 I wave like a madman at the characters on the parade floats 100
2 I choose souvenirs based on the cuteness of the container 97.6
3 Since I?m there, buy lots of stuff and end up overeating 94.1
4 In order to ride as many attractions as possible, I set up a precise plan 86.5
5 I make a mad dash for the Fast Pass tickets as soon as the park opens 80.3
6 I photograph even the characters I don?t recognise 69.6
7 I choose souvenirs based on the cuteness of the packaging over the contents 67.5
8 As I hate to leave, stay right until the park closes 64.4
9 Even though I think it will be crowded then, do my souvenir shopping just before the park closes 54.3
10 I ride the same attraction multiple times on the same day 52.9
11 I get all excited queueing up waiting for the park to open 49.1
12 I end up buying more souvenirs for myself than for other people 46.0
13 I yell out character names at the top of my voice during the parade to try to get them to look at me 39.8
14 I get completely engrossed in trying to find hidden Mickeys 34.6
15 My friends and I end up buying all the same kinds of souvenirs (eg Mickey, Minnie, Donald, etc headbands) 31.5
16 Although I came with a group, we split up and all do our own things separately 22.8
17 I wear my Mickey Mouse ears, etc, all the way back to home 22.1
18 As I get on rides, I wave to the people waiting 21.8
19 At the photo spot on rides, I make sure to put on a good face, pose 18.0
20 As soon as I enter the part, I make a mad dash to buy the souvenirs I definitely must have 16.6
Read more on: disneyland,goo ranking

Permalink

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WhatJapanThinks/~3/hUti54StbTQ/

iOS 7 Beta 4 National Ice Cream Day pippa middleton helen thomas Rosy Esparza Bbc News queen elizabeth

DeKalb teen stays with bikers to help tornado victims

DeKALB ? It may be the middle of August, but 17-year-old Isaac Truckenbrod isn?t preparing to go back to school.

Truckenbrod, who is home-schooled, is readying for a three-month stay with a group of motorcyclists in Oklahoma. He will pick up where he left off last month with recovery efforts after tornadoes ravaged part of that state.

?I was talking to my parents and decided that I would rather help the people down there than sit in DeKalb,? Truckenbrod said. ?My parents said that as long as I could maintain my studies, it would be fine with them.?

Boy Scout Troop 33, which is based out of the First Lutheran Church in DeKalb, returned from a week?s worth of recovery efforts near Moore, Okla., on July 7, but it left Truckenbrod behind for an additional two weeks.

When the group, which included eight boys and two adults, first reached Oklahoma, its members found they could have the most effect away from the Moore area that garnered the most headlines. A tornado the day before had deeply hit a mobile home neighborhood called Steelman Estates near Shawnee, Okla.

?Out of 94 homes, 83 were destroyed,? Scoutmaster Cliff Golden said. ?... All the agencies came to their aid, but then the very next day the Moore tornado hit, and everyone left because they needed to. ... Whatever we did, we wanted to do something that would have the most impact. That was definitely the place.?

The Scouts met up with a motorcycle group called the U.S. Defenders that had set up a relief camp.

?We drove up, and they applauded our arrival,? Golden said. ?I was surprised by that. ... They were expecting a semi very soon, and until we got there, they didn?t have a crew to unload it.?

The troop handed out gift cards to those in need, helped demolish homes using safety gear donated by 3M and assisted with cooking duties. Not long into their stay there, the bikers took Truckenbrod under their wing, and two days before the Scouts were to depart for home, the Defenders asked Truckenbrod to stay.

?In a day?s time, I managed to convince my parents that it would be safe for me to stay with a group of bikers in a disaster zone,? he said. ?It?s not usual to leave a Scout behind 800 miles from home.?

The bikers took to calling Truckenbrod by his new nickname ? Scout ? and tasked him with cooking to help feed between 50 and 200 people daily, unloading trucks and various odd jobs.

Golden said his troop has never thought twice about traveling to help others. Members of his troop have taken trips to help after Hurricanes Ike, Katrina and Sandy.

?Typically you think of Boy Scouts as out backpacking, climbing mountains or scuba diving ? those things,? Golden said. ?And we?ve traveled a thousand miles or whereever to do those things, but we thought, well, if we can travel to do those things, then we can travel to do these things.?

There are 34 hours, 44 minutes remaining to comment on this story.

Source: http://www.daily-chronicle.com/2013/08/09/dekalb-teen-stays-with-bikers-to-help-tornado-victims/afbspnh/

marbury v. madison 2013 lincoln mkz burger king mary j blige google project glass google goggles one tree hill projectglass

The man who gave us 'Dufnering' leads at the PGA

Jason Dufner lines up a putt on the eighth hole during the second round of the PGA Championship golf tournament at Oak Hill Country Club, Friday, Aug. 9, 2013, in Pittsford, N.Y. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

Jason Dufner lines up a putt on the eighth hole during the second round of the PGA Championship golf tournament at Oak Hill Country Club, Friday, Aug. 9, 2013, in Pittsford, N.Y. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

Jason Dufner celebrates after a birdie on the 11th hole during the second round of the PGA Championship golf tournament at Oak Hill Country Club, Friday, Aug. 9, 2013, in Pittsford, N.Y. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

Jason Dufner reacts after missing a birdie putt on the 17th hole during the second round of the PGA Championship golf tournament at Oak Hill Country Club, Friday, Aug. 9, 2013, in Pittsford, N.Y. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

Tiger Woods hits from the fairway on the first hole during the third round of the PGA Championship golf tournament at Oak Hill Country Club, Saturday, Aug. 10, 2013, in Pittsford, N.Y. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Tiger Woods reacts to his shot out of the rough on the second hole during the third round of the PGA Championship golf tournament at Oak Hill Country Club, Saturday, Aug. 10, 2013, in Pittsford, N.Y. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

(AP) ? Jason Dufner is that guy who was caught on camera slumped against a classroom wall, gazing straight ahead with a blank stare, arms rigidly by his side.

"Dufnering," they called it.

He became an Internet sensation.

Maybe by the time he leaves Oak Hill, Dufner will be known as something else.

Major champion.

Dufner teed off Saturday with a two-stroke lead at the PGA Championship, coming off a record-tying performance in the second round. He shot a 7-under 63, becoming just the 24th player to go that low in a major championship.

"To join history, to shoot 63 in a major, that's pretty unbelievable," Dufner said. "To be leading the tournament, even better."

Adam Scott, Jim Furyk and Matt Kuchar were the closest pursuers, while eight other players were lurking within five shots of the lead.

Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods were nowhere close on a warm, sunny day in western New York.

Lefty, who won the British Open just three weeks ago, was in a next-to-last place among the 75 players making the cut after an ugly 78. He had a triple-bogey at the seventh, then a double-bogey at the 14th when he chipped in through the green twice before finally getting one to stick.

Coming off a seven-stroke victory at the Bridgestone, Woods turned in another mediocre round (73) that ensured another year without a major title. He walked off the course a staggering 13 shots behind Dufner before the leader even teed off.

Woods will climb to 0-for-18 in the majors since his last win at the 2008 U.S. Open.

While the wind picked up and the course seemed to playing tougher than the first two days, there were still chances to go low. Dustin Johnson shot a 65. Kevin Streelman signed for a 66.

For Dufner, the weekend provided a chance to shake off the low point of his pro career, when he squandered a four-stroke lead with four holes to play at the 2011 PGA in Atlanta.

After losing to Keegan Bradley in a playoff, Dufner didn't seem too upset. He said matter-of-factly that he expected to get more chances on the major stage.

"What's happened in the past with me in majors is in the past," Dufner said. "I'm still trying to chase it, still trying to learn from the mistakes I made in prior majors."

There weren't many mistakes on Friday. Dufner holed out from the fairway for eagle, rolled in a putt across the green for par and kept making birdies ? five in all ? until he stood 12 feet away from a shot at the lowest score in the 153 years of championship golf. He didn't give it a chance, coming up 18 inches short and acknowledging a case of the nerves for the first time all day.

"You couldn't have a better putt for a chance at history on the last hole," Dufner said. "I just didn't quite hit it hard enough."

Dufner tied the 36-hole record (9-under 131) at the PGA, a mark he now shares with six other players. His 63 broke the course record at Oak Hill held by Ben Hogan, Curtis Strange and Webb Simpson, who shot 64 about five hours earlier Friday. Dufner became the 24th player to shoot 63 in a major ? Greg Norman and Vijay Singh, both in the Hall of Fame, did it twice.

Dufner's popularity has grown since April, when someone took that photo of him during a charity event as the teacher taught children how to relax and concentrate.

He embraced the craze, which seems to fit perfectly with his laid-back approach.

Scott, playing in the final group Saturday with Dufner, was in the hunt on the weekend for the fourth time in the last six majors. Furyk and Kuchar in the next-to-last group joined Scott at 133. Henrik Stenson, a runner-up at Muirfield, and U.S. Open winner Justin Rose were at 134, only three shots behind. Steve Stricker and Robert Garrigus were another shot back.

After his historic round, Dufner gave up his cap, shirt and glove to the PGA for its museum.

The prize he really wants is the Wanamaker Trophy.

"I'm looking forward to a good weekend," Dufner said, "and maybe closing one of these out."

___

Follow Paul Newberry on Twitter at www.twitter.com/pnewberry1963

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-08-10-PGA%20Championship/id-ff56f928c28f42dba89e60ac0ee38073

Boston Marathon Explosion Boston Marathon bombing new york times irs Friends Reunion Elena Delle Donne usa today

Saturday, August 10, 2013

China encourgages more moms to breastfeed, with recent safety scares related to infant formula

How many infant formula crises do we still need to convince mothers and policy makers that breast is best?

By DIDI TANG

BEIJING ? With her 1-day-old son propped against her in a hospital bed nursing, Qi Wenjuan says she has no desire to feed her child with infant formula.

"I don't trust baby formula," the first-time mother said, lying in the maternity ward of Beijing's Tiantan Hospital. "There are too many quality problems."

Qi, however, is in the minority in China, where most newborns are fed ? sometimes exclusively ? with infant formula within the first six months of their lives.

China's rates of breast-feeding are among the world's lowest. But health workers and the government are trying to revive the practice, and a drumbeat of safety scares over commercially produced milk is giving them new leverage.

Visitors to Internet forums for new parents are posting comments about the benefits of breast-feeding and the potential hazards with formula.

"The risks of formula feeding are increasingly clear to the Chinese public," Dr. Robert Scherpbier, chief of health and nutrition for UNICEF China, said in a recent email.

His comment came after China's government ordered a recall of formula imported from New Zealand because of contamination fears.

"How many infant formula crises do we still need to convince mothers and policy makers that breast is best?" Scherpbier said.

Only about 28 percent of Chinese infants younger than 6 months are breast-fed exclusively, well below the global average of about 40 percent, according to UNICEF China.

China's Cabinet has announced a goal of raising that to at least 50 percent by 2020. Official initiatives include a joint effort by UNICEF and the government's National Center for Women's and Children's Health to encourage Chinese employers to add rooms for new mothers to breast-feed in hopes of encouraging the practice.

"Breast-feeding is safe, universally available and free," Scherpbier said. "So there is no reason why mothers should use infant formula when they can breast-feed."

Health experts say breast-feeding is the best source of nutrition for newborns, increasing babies' immune systems and reducing their chances of obesity in adulthood. They also say breast-fed children have higher IQs and are less likely to have chronic diseases such as diabetes.

Breast-feeding rates in China began to drop in the 1970s with the introduction of baby formula and hit a low in the '80s, according to a study by Dr. Colin Binns of Australia's Curtin University and his Chinese colleagues published in the International Breastfeeding Journal in 2009.

"Probably because of aggressive marketing of imported baby milk powder, people thought the baby formula was more nutritious," said nurse Yang Xiaoping, a 24-year veteran of Tiantan Hospital's maternity ward.

China's exclusive breast-feeding rates might have declined in recent years, Scherpbier said. However, data that would make the trend clear are not available.

Many Chinese workplaces give new mothers no way to nurse. Urban mothers usually get no more than four months of maternity leave. Women from the countryside who move to the city to work leave babies with grandparents who have no choice but to use powdered formula.

Tiantan Hospital encourages breast-feeding by putting mothers and their newborns in the same room instead of putting infants in a nursery. The nurses' station has pamphlets promoting breast-feeding, and diagrams on the walls of patient rooms show postures for nursing. Each morning, nurses using dolls show mothers how to breast-feed in one-on-one sessions.

"No mother can get it right on their first try, so our nurses always adjust postures by hand to make sure they do it right," Yang said.

Elsewhere, many Chinese hospitals fail to encourage breast-feeding.

Dairy companies energetically promote formula. Free samples are widely available in maternity wards despite laws prohibiting the practice. Advertising encourages parents to see it as helping children become stronger and smarter.

A report this year by Save the Children, a British charity, said 40 percent of the Chinese mothers it interviewed had been contacted directly by salespeople for baby food companies.

Rising rates of obesity among Chinese children also might be linked to use of infant formula, said Binns.

"They are bombarded with baby formula ads, and the mothers want the best for their children," he said.

China's infant formula market has grown from about $1 billion in 2002 to $9 billion this year, according to UNICEF. That is forecast to rise to $13 billion by 2015.

Parents who could afford it switched to more expensive imported formula after six babies died in 2008 and thousands were sickened due to Chinese-produced milk that was tainted with the industrial chemical melamine.

But confidence in foreign supplies was shaken the week of Aug. 5 after Beijing ordered a recall of formula from Fonterra Co-operative Group after the New Zealand supplier said it might be tainted with bacteria that can cause botulism.

The recall has sent shockwaves through New Zealand. The dairy industry is a key part of the country's economy, and China is its biggest milk export market.

Use of wet nurses ? women who breast-feed other families' children ? also is on the rise. These women are sought out by young mothers who don't want to use formula but cannot produce enough milk of their own or worry about the impact of nursing on their figures.

"It's been growing at 20 percent every year," said Jia Xixian, an agent in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen who helps clients find wet nurses.

In Beijing, Qi breast-fed her baby for the first time shortly after birth.

"I let him find the nipple, and he found it instinctively," Qi recalled. "There was a little pain, but I could take it. It was an oddly nice feeling, and all of a sudden I felt like a mother and that I could not be separated from the child."

A tiny bolster propped up the newborn as Qi described what she saw as other benefits of breast-feeding: It saves money and will help her recover from childbirth, and she believes it will help the baby to grow better.

But Qi, an intensive care nurse at the same hospital, worries about what will happen when she returns to work about four months from now.

"I think it will be more troublesome to feed him after that," Qi said.

Source: http://www.masslive.com/living/index.ssf/2013/08/china_encourgages_more_moms_to_breastfeed_with_recent_safety_scares_related_to_infant_formula.html

Adam Lanza Facebook the hobbit Newton Shooting Newtown Shooting Gangnam Style Ryan Lanza Sandy Hook

Terror alert spreads to Israel

Sign in with your Google Account (YouTube, Google+, Gmail, Orkut, Picasa, or Chrome) to like ABC7DC's video.

Sign in with your Google Account (YouTube, Google+, Gmail, Orkut, Picasa, or Chrome) to dislike ABC7DC's video.

Published on Aug 8, 2013

The global alert on terrorism has now extended into Israel, which briefly closed an airport Thursday after fears terror groups in Egypt could fire rockets across the border. http://wj.la/15gjBLi

Loading icon Loading...

Loading icon Loading...

Loading icon Loading...

The interactive transcript could not be loaded.

Loading icon Loading...

Loading icon Loading...

Ratings have been disabled for this video.

Rating is available when the video has been rented.

This feature is not available right now. Please try again later.

Loading icon Loading...

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3GIVlnGLd0&feature=youtube_gdata

powerball numbers American Idol 2013 mega millions Plumber american idol memphis grizzlies aretha franklin

Friday, August 9, 2013

8 Amazing Uses For Metamaterials, the Tech Behind Invisibility Cloaks

8 Amazing Uses For Metamaterials, the Tech Behind Invisibility Cloaks

Metamaterials are a mind-bending class of matter. Broadly defined as manmade materials with unusual properties not found in nature, this category of materials is probably most famous for serving as the building blocks for a Harry Potter-style invisibility cloak. But so much more is possible.

Read more...

    


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/mP_P5RzL2iQ/8-amazing-uses-for-the-technology-behind-invisibility-c-1056730561

Star Wars Cinco De Mayo History lindsay lohan bob newhart chris kelly Mayweather Fight Mayweather

Thursday, August 8, 2013

Whitehouse Station Procurement Director - IT Transformation Job ...

Procurement Director - IT Transformation-COM000197

Description

Merck is a global health care leader with a diversified portfolio of prescription medicines, vaccines and consumer health products, as well as animal health products. Today, we are building a new kind of healthcare company ? one that is ready to help create a healthier future for all of us.

Our ability to excel depends on the integrity, knowledge, imagination, skill, diversity and teamwork of people like you. To this end, we strive to create an environment of mutual respect, encouragement and teamwork. As part of our global team, you?ll have the opportunity to collaborate with talented and dedicated colleagues while developing and expanding your career.

The Procurement Director of IT Transformation will lead major projects across IT, driving both sourcing and technology led transformation. The lead will have a strong IT background across hardware, software, outsourcing, mobility, cloud, big data and new emergent technologies. The lead will take on a business partnering role, acting as a key interface to IT partners. The lead will develop and maintain strong relationships with key leaders across the IT function and will shape the relationships with key strategic suppliers ensuring alignment between business strategy and sourcing execution. The role reports to the Executive Director of Global IT Procurement.

Primary activities include, but are not limited to:

1. Leadership - As a key leader of a category of spend, he/she will be responsible for the development and implementation of the sourcing strategy, ensuring alignment, compliance and delivery of required business performance.
2. Procurement Leadership - Provide the leadership, strategy and policy for the category, building a high performance engagement model with the business and regions.
3. Organizational Development ? Supports the building of a core team of high quality procurement professionals who have direct responsibility for sourcing and projects.
4. Process - Realize sourcing management, supplier value management, risk management and supplier diversity as core sustainable processes and enablers of delivery.
5. Performance - Deliver ongoing savings as required, as well as meeting the stakeholder business requirements.
6. Relationships - Build outstanding relationships with stakeholders which are tailored to meeting their business needs.
7. Change Management - Adopt high quality change practices with customers and stakeholders. Building and implementing an organization which is sustainable and acting as a personal champion of the Merck Leadership Standards.
8. Global - Ensure that the approach adopted is aligned with and supports the Merck global procurement strategy, Global Category Management and Ways of Working.
9. Diversity - Actively supports diversity, both within Merck and externally, growing relationships and spend with our Diverse Suppliers.
10. Supplier Value Management - Implements supplier value management with the key suppliers in this category to foster innovation, manage supplier performance, establish a Governance Model and ensure continuous improvement.

Qualifications

*LI-AS2

Educational Requirements:

? Bachelor?s Degree

? Graduate degree preferred.

Experience Required:

? 10 years procurement, business management or IT specific experience.

? Technical ? A strong background and subject matter expertise of IT (Software, Hardware, Services), outsourcing and externalization of IT.

Our employees are the key to our company?s success. We demonstrate our commitment to our employees by offering a competitive and valuable rewards program. Merck?s benefits are designed to support the wide range of goals, needs and lifestyles of our employees, and many of the people that matter the most in their lives.

Search Firm Representatives - Please read carefully:

Merck is not accepting unsolicited assistance from search firms for this employment opportunity. Please, no phone calls or emails. All resumes ted by search firms to any employee at Merck via-email, the Internet or in any form and/or method without a valid written search agreement in place for this position will be deemed the sole property of Merck. No fee will be paid in the event the candidate is hired by Merck as a result of the referral or through other means.

Merck is an equal opportunity employer, M/F/D/V ? proudly embracing diversity in all of its manifestations.
Former Military, Transitioning Service Members, National Guard & Reserves - We value your past and present service.

Job: Commodity Procurement

Job Title: Dir, Procurement

Primary Location: NA-US-NJ-Whitehouse Station

Employee Status: Regular

Travel: Yes, 15 % of the Time

Number of Openings: 1

Shift (if applicable): 1st

Hazardous Materials
: No


Nearest Major Market: New Jersey
Job Segments: Manager, Procurement, Risk Management, Cloud, Buyer, Management, Operations, Finance, Technology

Source: http://jobs.merck.com/job/Whitehouse-Station-Procurement-Director-IT-Transformation-Job-NJ-08889/2779358/?utm_source=J2WRSS&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=J2W_RSS

e news Money in the Bank 2013 Zimmerman Verdict Casey Anthony Pregnant Home Run Derby 2013 Perez Hilton Donnie Wahlberg

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

UMCS, Metering programs help military, federal agencies control utility use (The United States Army)

United States of America
Motto:?In God We Trust??(official)
E Pluribus Unum??(traditional)
(Latin: Out of Many, One)
Anthem:?"The Star-Spangled Banner"

Capital Washington, D.C.
38?53?N 77?01?W? / ?38.883?N 77.017?W? / 38.883; -77.017
Largest city New York City
Official language(s) None at federal level[a]
National language English (de facto)[b]
Demonym American
Government Federal presidential constitutional republic
?-? President Barack Obama (D)
?-? Vice President Joe Biden (D)
?-? Speaker of the House John Boehner (R)
?-? Chief Justice John Roberts
Legislature Congress
?-? Upper house Senate
?-? Lower house House of Representatives
Independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain?
?-? Declared July 4, 1776?
?-? Recognized September 3, 1783?
?-? Current constitution June 21, 1788?
Area
?-? Total 9,826,675?km2?[1][c](3rd/4th)
3,794,101?sq?mi?
?-? Water?(%) 6.76
Population
?-? 2012?estimate 313,802,000[2]?(3rd)
?-? Density 33.7/km2?
87.4/sq?mi
GDP?(PPP) 2011?estimate
?-? Total $15.094 trillion[3]?(1st)
?-? Per capita $48,386[3]?(6th)
GDP (nominal) 2011?estimate
?-? Total $15.094 trillion[3]?(1st)
?-? Per capita $48,386[3]?(15th)
Gini?(2007) 45.0[1]?(39th)
HDI?(2011) increase 0.910[4]?(very high)?(4th)
Currency United States dollar ($) (USD)
Time zone (UTC?5 to ?10)
?-? Summer?(DST) ?(UTC?4 to ?10)
Date formats m/d/yy (AD)
Drives on the right
Internet TLD .us .gov .mil .edu
Calling code +1
^ a. English is the official language of at least 28 states?some sources give a higher figure, based on differing definitions of "official".[5] English and Hawaiian are both official languages in the state of Hawaii.

^ b. English is the de facto language of American government and the sole language spoken at home by 80% of Americans age five and older. Spanish is the second most commonly spoken language.

^ c. Whether the United States or China is larger is disputed. The figure given is from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency's World Factbook. Other sources give smaller figures. All authoritative calculations of the country's size include only the 50 states and the District of Columbia, not the territories.

^ d. The population estimate includes people whose usual residence is in the fifty states and the District of Columbia, including noncitizens. It does not include either those living in the territories, amounting to more than 4?million U.S. citizens (mostly in Puerto Rico), or U.S. citizens living outside the United States.

The United States of America (commonly abbreviated to the United States, the U.S., the USA, America, and the States) is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its forty-eight contiguous states and Washington,?D.C., the capital district, lie between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico to the south. The state of Alaska is in the northwest of the continent, with Canada to the east and Russia to the west, across the Bering Strait. The state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific. The country also possesses several territories in the Pacific and Caribbean.

At 3.79?million square miles (9.83?million km2) and with over 312 million people, the United States is the third or fourth largest country by total area, and the third largest by both land area and population. It is one of the world's most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many countries.[6] The U.S.?economy is the world's largest national economy, with an estimated 2011 GDP of $15.1?trillion (22% of nominal global GDP and over 19% of global GDP at purchasing-power parity).[3][7] Per capita income is the world's sixth-highest.[3]

Indigenous peoples descended from forebears who migrated from Asia have inhabited what is now the mainland United States for many thousands of years. This Native American population was greatly reduced by disease and warfare after European contact. The United States was founded by thirteen British colonies located along the Atlantic seaboard. On July?4, 1776, they issued the Declaration of Independence, which proclaimed their right to self-determination and their establishment of a cooperative union. The rebellious states defeated the British Empire in the American Revolution, the first successful colonial war of independence.[8] The current United States Constitution was adopted on September?17, 1787; its ratification the following year made the states part of a single republic with a stronger central government. The Bill of Rights, comprising ten constitutional amendments guaranteeing many fundamental civil rights and freedoms, was ratified in 1791.

Through the 19th century, the United States displaced native tribes, acquired the Louisiana territory from France, Florida from Spain, part of the Oregon Country from the United Kingdom, Alta California and New Mexico from Mexico, and Alaska from Russia, and annexed the Republic of Texas and the Republic of Hawaii. Disputes between the agrarian South and industrial North over the expansion of the institution of slavery and states' rights provoked the Civil War of the 1860s. The North's victory prevented a permanent split of the country and led to the end of legal slavery in the United States. By the 1870s, its national economy was the world's largest.[9] The Spanish?American War and World War?I confirmed the country's status as a military power. It emerged from World War?II as the first country with nuclear weapons and a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union left the United States as the sole superpower. The country accounts for 41% of global military spending,[10] and is a leading economic, political, and cultural force in the world.[11]

In 1507, German cartographer Martin Waldseem?ller produced a world map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere "America" after Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci.[12] The former British colonies first used the country's modern name in the 1776 Declaration of Independence, the "unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America".[13] On November?15, 1777, the Second Continental Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation, which states, "The Stile of this Confederacy shall be 'The United States of America'." The Franco-American treaties of 1778 used "United States of North America", but from July?11, 1778, "United States of America" was used on the country's bills of exchange, and it has been the official name ever since.[14]

The short form "United States" is also standard. Other common forms include the "U.S.", the "USA", and "America". Colloquial names include the "U.S. of A." and, internationally, the "States". "Columbia", a once popular name for the United States, derives from Christopher Columbus; it appears in the name "District of Columbia".

The standard way to refer to a citizen of the United States is as an "American". Although "United States" is the official appositional term, "American" and "U.S." are more commonly used to refer to the country adjectivally ("American values", "U.S.?forces"). "American" is rarely used in English to refer to people not connected to the United States.[15]

The phrase "United States" was originally treated as plural?e.g., "the United States are"?including in the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified in 1865. It became common to treat it as singular?e.g., "the United States is"?after the end of the Civil War. The singular form is now standard; the plural form is retained in the idiom "these United States".[16]

The land area of the contiguous United States is approximately 1,900 million acres (7,700,000 km2). Alaska, separated from the contiguous United States by Canada, is the largest state at 365 million acres (1,480,000 km2). Hawaii, occupying an archipelago in the central Pacific, southwest of North America, has just over 4 million acres (16,000?km2).[17] The United States is the world's third or fourth largest nation by total area (land and water), ranking behind Russia and Canada and just above or below China. The ranking varies depending on how two territories disputed by China and India are counted and how the total size of the United States is measured: calculations range from 3,676,486 square miles (9,522,055 km2)[18] to 3,717,813 square miles (9,629,091 km2)[19] to 3,794,101 square miles (9,826,676 km2).[1] Including only land area, the United States is third in size behind Russia and China, just ahead of Canada.[20]

The coastal plain of the Atlantic seaboard gives way further inland to deciduous forests and the rolling hills of the Piedmont. The Appalachian Mountains divide the eastern seaboard from the Great Lakes and the grasslands of the Midwest. The Mississippi?Missouri River, the world's fourth longest river system, runs mainly north?south through the heart of the country. The flat, fertile prairie of the Great Plains stretches to the west, interrupted by a highland region in the southeast. The Rocky Mountains, at the western edge of the Great Plains, extend north to south across the country, reaching altitudes higher than 14,000?feet (4,300?m) in Colorado. Farther west are the rocky Great Basin and deserts such as the Chihuahua and Mojave. The Sierra Nevada and Cascade mountain ranges run close to the Pacific coast. At 20,320?feet (6,194?m), Alaska's Mount McKinley is the tallest peak in the country and in North America. Active volcanoes are common throughout Alaska's Alexander and Aleutian Islands, and Hawaii consists of volcanic islands. The supervolcano underlying Yellowstone National Park in the Rockies is the continent's largest volcanic feature.[21]

The United States, with its large size and geographic variety, includes most climate types. To the east of the 100th meridian, the climate ranges from humid continental in the north to humid subtropical in the south. The southern tip of Florida is tropical, as is Hawaii. The Great Plains west of the 100th meridian are semi-arid. Much of the Western mountains are alpine. The climate is arid in the Great Basin, desert in the Southwest, Mediterranean in coastal California, and oceanic in coastal Oregon and Washington and southern Alaska. Most of Alaska is subarctic or polar. Extreme weather is not uncommon?the states bordering the Gulf of Mexico are prone to hurricanes, and most of the world's tornadoes occur within the country, mainly in the Midwest's Tornado Alley.[22]

The U.S. ecology is considered "megadiverse": about 17,000 species of vascular plants occur in the contiguous United States and Alaska, and over 1,800 species of flowering plants are found in Hawaii, few of which occur on the mainland.[23] The United States is home to more than 400 mammal, 750 bird, and 500 reptile and amphibian species.[24] About 91,000 insect species have been described.[25] The Endangered Species Act of 1973 protects threatened and endangered species and their habitats, which are monitored by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. There are fifty-eight national parks and hundreds of other federally managed parks, forests, and wilderness areas.[26] Altogether, the government owns 28.8% of the country's land area.[27] Most of this is protected, though some is leased for oil and gas drilling, mining, logging, or cattle ranching; 2.4% is used for military purposes.[27]

The United States is a federal union of fifty states. The original thirteen states were the successors of the thirteen colonies that rebelled against British rule. Early in the country's history, three new states were organized on territory separated from the claims of the existing states: Kentucky from Virginia; Tennessee from North Carolina; and Maine from Massachusetts. Most of the other states have been carved from territories obtained through war or purchase by the U.S. government. One set of exceptions comprises Vermont, Texas, and Hawaii: each was an independent republic before joining the union. During the American Civil War, West Virginia broke away from Virginia. The most recent state?Hawaii?achieved statehood on August 21, 1959.[28] The states do not have the right to secede from the union.

The states compose the vast bulk of the U.S. land mass; the two other areas considered integral parts of the country are the District of Columbia, the federal district where the capital, Washington, is located; and Palmyra Atoll, an uninhabited but incorporated territory in the Pacific Ocean. The United States also possesses five major overseas territories: Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands in the Caribbean; and American Samoa, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands in the Pacific.[29] Those born in the major territories (except for American Samoa) possess U.S. citizenship.[30] American citizens residing in the territories have many of the same rights and responsibilities as citizens residing in the states; however, they are generally exempt from federal income tax, may not vote for president, and have only nonvoting representation in the U.S. Congress.[31]

Native American and European settlement[link]

The indigenous peoples of the U.S. mainland, including Alaska Natives, are believed to have migrated from Asia, beginning between 40,000 and 12,000 years ago.[32] Some, such as the pre-Columbian Mississippian culture, developed advanced agriculture, grand architecture, and state-level societies. After Europeans began settling the Americas, many millions of indigenous Americans died from epidemics of imported diseases such as smallpox.[33]

In 1492, Genoese explorer Christopher Columbus, under contract to the Spanish crown, reached several Caribbean islands, making first contact with the indigenous people. On April?2, 1513, Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de Le?n landed on what he called "La Florida"?the first documented European arrival on what would become the U.S. mainland. Spanish settlements in the region were followed by ones in the present-day southwestern United States that drew thousands through Mexico. French fur traders established outposts of New France around the Great Lakes; France eventually claimed much of the North American interior, down to the Gulf of Mexico. The first successful English settlements were the Virginia Colony in Jamestown in 1607 and the Pilgrims' Plymouth Colony in 1620. The 1628 chartering of the Massachusetts Bay Colony resulted in a wave of migration; by 1634, New England had been settled by some 10,000 Puritans. Between the late 1610s and the American Revolution, about 50,000 convicts were shipped to Britain's American colonies.[34] Beginning in 1614, the Dutch settled along the lower Hudson River, including New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island.

In 1674, the Dutch ceded their American territory to England; the province of New Netherland was renamed New York. Many new immigrants, especially to the South, were indentured servants?some two-thirds of all Virginia immigrants between 1630 and 1680.[35] By the turn of the 18th century, African slaves were becoming the primary source of bonded labor. With the 1729 division of the Carolinas and the 1732 colonization of Georgia, the thirteen British colonies that would become the United States of America were established. All had local governments with elections open to most free men, with a growing devotion to the ancient rights of Englishmen and a sense of self-government stimulating support for republicanism. All legalized the African slave trade. With high birth rates, low death rates, and steady immigration, the colonial population grew rapidly. The Christian revivalist movement of the 1730s and 1740s known as the Great Awakening fueled interest in both religion and religious liberty. In the French and Indian War, British forces seized Canada from the French, but the francophone population remained politically isolated from the southern colonies. Excluding the Native Americans (popularly known as "American Indians"), who were being displaced, those thirteen colonies had a population of 2.6?million in 1770, about one-third that of Britain; nearly one in five Americans were black slaves.[36] Though subject to British taxation, the American colonials had no representation in the Parliament of Great Britain.

Independence and expansion[link]

Tensions between American colonials and the British during the revolutionary period of the 1760s and early 1770s led to the American Revolutionary War, fought from 1775 to 1781. On June?14, 1775, the Continental Congress, convening in Philadelphia, established a Continental Army under the command of George Washington. Proclaiming that "all men are created equal" and endowed with "certain unalienable Rights", the Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, drafted largely by Thomas Jefferson, on July?4, 1776. That date is now celebrated annually as America's Independence Day. In 1777, the Articles of Confederation established a weak confederal government that operated until 1789.

After the British defeat by American forces assisted by the French and Spanish, Great Britain recognized the independence of the United States and the states' sovereignty over American territory west to the Mississippi River. Those wishing to establish a strong federal government with powers of taxation organized a constitutional convention in 1787. The United States Constitution was ratified in 1788, and the new republic's first Senate, House of Representatives, and president?George Washington?took office in 1789. The Bill of Rights, forbidding federal restriction of personal freedoms and guaranteeing a range of legal protections, was adopted in 1791.

Attitudes toward slavery were shifting; a clause in the Constitution protected the Atlantic slave trade only until 1808. The Northern states abolished slavery between 1780 and 1804, leaving the slave states of the South as defenders of the "peculiar institution". The Second Great Awakening, beginning about 1800, made evangelicalism a force behind various social reform movements, including abolitionism.

Americans' eagerness to expand westward prompted a long series of Indian Wars. The Louisiana Purchase of French-claimed territory under President Thomas Jefferson in 1803 almost doubled the nation's size.[37] The War of 1812, declared against Britain over various grievances and fought to a draw, strengthened U.S. nationalism. A series of U.S. military incursions into Florida led Spain to cede it and other Gulf Coast territory in 1819. The Trail of Tears in the 1830s exemplified the Indian removal policy that stripped the native peoples of their land. The United States annexed the Republic of Texas in 1845, amid a period when the concept of Manifest Destiny was becoming popular.[38] The 1846 Oregon Treaty with Britain led to U.S. control of the present-day American Northwest. The U.S. victory in the Mexican-American War resulted in the 1848 cession of California and much of the present-day American Southwest. The California Gold Rush of 1848?49 further spurred western migration. New railways made relocation easier for settlers and increased conflicts with Native Americans. Over a half-century, up to 40 million American bison, or buffalo, were slaughtered for skins and meat and to ease the railways' spread. The loss of the buffalo, a primary resource for the plains Indians, was an existential blow to many native cultures.

Civil War and industrialization[link]

Tensions between slave and free states mounted with arguments about the relationship between the state and federal governments, as well as violent conflicts over the spread of slavery into new states. Abraham Lincoln, candidate of the largely antislavery Republican Party, was elected president in 1860. Before he took office, seven slave states declared their secession?which the federal government maintained was illegal?and formed the Confederate States of America. With the Confederate attack upon Fort Sumter, the Civil War began and four more slave states joined the Confederacy. Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 declared slaves in the Confederacy to be free. Following the Union victory in 1865, three amendments to the U.S. Constitution ensured freedom for the nearly four million African Americans who had been slaves,[39]made them citizens, and gave them voting rights. The war and its resolution led to a substantial increase in federal power.[40] The war remains the deadliest conflict in American history, resulting in the deaths of 620,000 soldiers.[41]

After the war, the assassination of Abraham Lincoln radicalized Republican Reconstruction policies aimed at reintegrating and rebuilding the Southern states while ensuring the rights of the newly freed slaves. The resolution of the disputed 1876 presidential election by the Compromise of 1877 ended Reconstruction; Jim Crow laws soon disenfranchised many African Americans. In the North, urbanization and an unprecedented influx of immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe hastened the country's industrialization. The wave of immigration, lasting until 1929, provided labor and transformed American culture. National infrastructure development spurred economic growth. The 1867 Alaska Purchase from Russia completed the country's mainland expansion. The Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890 was the last major armed conflict of the Indian Wars. In 1893, the indigenous monarchy of the Pacific Kingdom of Hawaii was overthrown in a coup led by American residents; the United States annexed the archipelago in 1898. Victory in the Spanish?American War the same year demonstrated that the United States was a world power and led to the annexation of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines.[42] The Philippines gained independence a half-century later; Puerto Rico and Guam remain U.S. territories.

World War I, Great Depression, and World War II[link]

At the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the United States remained neutral. Most Americans sympathized with the British and French, although many opposed intervention.[43] In 1917, the United States joined the Allies, and the American Expeditionary Forces helped to turn the tide against the Central Powers. After the war, the Senate did not ratify the Treaty of Versailles, which established the League of Nations. The country pursued a policy of unilateralism, verging on isolationism.[44] In 1920, the women's rights movement won passage of a constitutional amendment granting women's suffrage. The prosperity of the Roaring Twenties ended with the Wall Street Crash of 1929 that triggered the Great Depression. After his election as president in 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt responded with the New Deal, a range of policies increasing government intervention in the economy, including the establishment of the Social Security system.[45] The Dust Bowl of the mid-1930s impoverished many farming communities and spurred a new wave of western migration.

The United States, effectively neutral during World War II's early stages after Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland in September 1939, began supplying materiel to the Allies in March 1941 through the Lend-Lease program. On December 7, 1941, the Empire of Japan launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, prompting the United States to join the Allies against the Axis powers as well as the internment of Japanese Americans by the thousands.[46] Participation in the war spurred capital investment and industrial capacity. Among the major combatants, the United States was the only nation to become richer?indeed, far richer?instead of poorer because of the war.[47] Allied conferences at Bretton Woods and Yalta outlined a new system of international organizations that placed the United States and Soviet Union at the center of world affairs. As victory was won in Europe, a 1945 international conference held in San Francisco produced the United Nations Charter, which became active after the war.[48] The United States, having developed the first nuclear weapons, used them on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August. Japan surrendered on September 2, ending the war.[49]

Cold War and protest politics[link]

The United States and the Soviet Union jockeyed for power after World War II during the Cold War, dominating the military affairs of Europe through NATO and the Warsaw Pact, respectively. While they engaged in proxy wars and developed powerful nuclear arsenals, the two countries avoided direct military conflict. Resisting leftist land and income redistribution projects around the world, the United States often supported authoritarian governments. American troops fought Communist Chinese forces in the Korean War of 1950?53. The House Un-American Activities Committee pursued a series of investigations into suspected leftist subversion, while Senator Joseph McCarthy became the figurehead of anticommunist sentiment.

The 1961 Soviet launch of the first manned spaceflight prompted President John F. Kennedy's call for the United States to be first to land "a man on the moon", achieved in 1969. Kennedy also faced a tense nuclear showdown with Soviet forces in Cuba. Meanwhile, the United States experienced sustained economic expansion. A growing civil rights movement, symbolized and led by African Americans such as Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr., used nonviolence to confront segregation and discrimination. Following Kennedy's assassination in 1963, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965 were passed under President Lyndon B. Johnson.[50][51] He also signed into law the Medicare and Medicaid programs.[52] Johnson and his successor, Richard Nixon, expanded a proxy war in Southeast Asia into the unsuccessful Vietnam War. A widespread countercultural movement grew, fueled by opposition to the war, black nationalism, and the sexual revolution. Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem, and others led a new wave of feminism that sought political, social, and economic equality for women.

As a result of the Watergate scandal, in 1974 Nixon became the first U.S. president to resign, to avoid being impeached on charges including obstruction of justice and abuse of power. The Jimmy Carter administration of the late 1970s was marked by stagflation and the Iran hostage crisis. The election of Ronald Reagan as president in 1980 heralded a rightward shift in American politics, reflected in major changes in taxation and spending priorities. His second term in office brought both the Iran-Contra scandal and significant diplomatic progress with the Soviet Union. The subsequent Soviet collapse ended the Cold War.

Contemporary era[link]

Under President George H. W. Bush, the United States took a lead role in the UN?sanctioned Gulf War. The longest economic expansion in modern U.S. history?from March 1991 to March 2001?encompassed the Bill Clinton administration and the dot-com bubble.[53] A civil lawsuit and sex scandal led to Clinton's impeachment in 1998, but he remained in office. The 2000 presidential election, one of the closest in American history, was resolved by a U.S. Supreme Court decision?George W. Bush, son of George H. W. Bush, became president.

On September 11, 2001, al-Qaeda terrorists struck the World Trade Center in New York City and The Pentagon near Washington, D.C., killing nearly three thousand people. In response, the Bush administration launched the global War on Terror, invading Afghanistan and removing the Taliban government and al-Qaeda training camps. Taliban insurgents continue to fight a guerrilla war. In 2002, the Bush administration began to press for regime change in Iraq on controversial grounds.[54]Forces led by the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003, ousting Saddam Hussein. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina caused severe destruction along much of the Gulf Coast, devastating New Orleans. In 2008, amid a global economic recession, the first African American president, Barack Obama, was elected. Major health care and financial system reforms were enacted two years later. In 2011, a raid by Navy SEALs in Pakistan killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. The Iraq War ended with the pullout of the remaining U.S. troops from the country.

The United States is the world's oldest surviving federation. It is a constitutional republic and representative democracy, "in which majority rule is tempered by minority rights protected by law".[55] The government is regulated by a system of checks and balances defined by the U.S. Constitution, which serves as the country's supreme legal document.[56] In the American federalist system, citizens are usually subject to three levels of government, federal, state, and local; the local government's duties are commonly split between county and municipal governments. In almost all cases, executive and legislative officials are elected by a plurality vote of citizens by district. There is no proportional representation at the federal level, and it is very rare at lower levels.

The federal government is composed of three branches:

  • Legislative: The bicameral Congress, made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives, makes federal law, declares war, approves treaties, has the power of the purse, and has the power of impeachment, by which it can remove sitting members of the government.
  • Executive: The president is the commander-in-chief of the military, can veto legislative bills before they become law, and appoints the members of the Cabinet (subject to Senate approval) and other officers, who administer and enforce federal laws and policies.
  • Judicial: The Supreme Court and lower federal courts, whose judges are appointed by the president with Senate approval, interpret laws and overturn those they find unconstitutional.

The House of Representatives has 435 voting members, each representing a congressional district for a two-year term. House seats are apportioned among the states by population every tenth year. As of the 2000 census, seven states have the minimum of one representative, while California, the most populous state, has fifty-three. The Senate has 100 members with each state having two senators, elected at-large to six-year terms; one third of Senate seats are up for election every other year. The president serves a four-year term and may be elected to the office no more than twice. The president is not elected by direct vote, but by an indirect electoral college system in which the determining votes are apportioned to the states and the District of Columbia. The Supreme Court, led by the Chief Justice of the United States, has nine members, who serve for life.

The state governments are structured in roughly similar fashion; Nebraska uniquely has a unicameral legislature. The governor (chief executive) of each state is directly elected. Some state judges and cabinet officers are appointed by the governors of the respective states, while others are elected by popular vote.

The original text of the Constitution establishes the structure and responsibilities of the federal government and its relationship with the individual states. Article One protects the right to the "great writ" of habeas corpus, and Article Three guarantees the right to a jury trial in all criminal cases. Amendments to the Constitution require the approval of three-fourths of the states. The Constitution has been amended twenty-seven times; the first ten amendments, which make up the Bill of Rights, and the Fourteenth Amendment form the central basis of Americans' individual rights. All laws and governmental procedures are subject to judicial review and any law ruled in violation of the Constitution is voided. The principle of judicial review, not explicitly mentioned in the Constitution, was declared by the Supreme Court in Marbury v. Madison (1803).

Parties and ideology[link]

The United States has operated under a two-party system for most of its history.[57] For elective offices at most levels, state-administered primary elections choose the major party nominees for subsequent general elections. Since the general election of 1856, the major parties have been the Democratic Party, founded in 1824, and the Republican Party, founded in 1854. Since the Civil War, only one third-party presidential candidate?former president Theodore Roosevelt, running as a Progressive in 1912?has won as much as 20% of the popular vote.

Within American political culture, the Republican Party is considered center-right or conservative and the Democratic Party is considered center-left or liberal. The states of the Northeast and West Coast and some of the Great Lakes states, known as "blue states", are relatively liberal. The "red states" of the South and parts of the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains are relatively conservative.

The winner of the 2008 presidential election, Democrat Barack Obama, is the 44th U.S. president. The 2010 midterm elections saw the Republican Party take control of the House and make gains in the Senate, where the Democrats retain the majority. In the 112th United States Congress, the Senate comprises 51 Democrats, two independents who caucus with the Democrats, and 47 Republicans; the House comprises 242 Republicans and 192 Democrats?one seat is vacant. There are 29 Republican and 20 Democratic state governors, as well as one independent.

The United States exercises global economic, political, and military influence. It is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council and New York City hosts the United Nations Headquarters. It is a member of the G8,[58]G20, and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Almost all countries have embassies in Washington, D.C., and many have consulates around the country. Likewise, nearly all nations host American diplomatic missions. However, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Bhutan, and the Republic of China (Taiwan) do not have formal diplomatic relations with the United States.

The United States has a "special relationship" with the United Kingdom[59] and strong ties with Canada,[60]Australia,[61]New Zealand,[62]the Philippines,[63]Japan,[64]South Korea,[65]Israel,[66] and several European countries. It works closely with fellow NATO members on military and security issues and with its neighbors through the Organization of American States and free trade agreements such as the trilateral North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico. In 2008, the United States spent a net $25.4 billion on official development assistance, the most in the world. As a share of America's large gross national income (GNI), however, the U.S. contribution of 0.18% ranked last among twenty-two donor states. By contrast, private overseas giving by Americans is relatively generous.[67]

The president holds the title of commander-in-chief of the nation's armed forces and appoints its leaders, the secretary of defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The United States Department of Defense administers the armed forces, including the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force. The Coast Guard is run by the Department of Homeland Security in peacetime and the Department of the Navy in time of war. In 2008, the armed forces had 1.4 million personnel on active duty. The Reserves and National Guard brought the total number of troops to 2.3 million. The Department of Defense also employed about 700,000 civilians, not including contractors.[68]

Military service is voluntary, though conscription may occur in wartime through the Selective Service System.[69] American forces can be rapidly deployed by the Air Force's large fleet of transport aircraft, the Navy's eleven active aircraft carriers, and Marine Expeditionary Units at sea with the Navy's Atlantic and Pacific fleets. The military operates 865 bases and facilities abroad,[70] and maintains deployments greater than 100 active duty personnel in 25 foreign countries.[71] The extent of this global military presence has prompted some scholars to describe the United States as maintaining an "empire of bases".[72]

Total U.S. military spending in 2010, almost $700 billion, was 43% of global military spending and greater than the next fourteen largest national military expenditures combined. At 4.8% of GDP, the rate was the second-highest among the top fifteen military spenders, after Saudi Arabia.[73] The proposed base Department of Defense budget for 2012, $553 billion, is a 4.2% increase over 2011; an additional $118 billion is proposed for the military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan.[74] The last American troops serving in Iraq departed in December 2011;[75] 4,484 servicemen were killed during the Iraq War.[76] Approximately 90,000 U.S. troops were serving in Afghanistan as of April 2012;[77] as of April 4, 1,924 had been killed during the War in Afghanistan.[78]

The United States has a capitalist mixed economy, which is fueled by abundant natural resources, a well-developed infrastructure, and high productivity.[85] According to the International Monetary Fund, the U.S. GDP of $15.1 trillion constitutes 22% of the gross world product at market exchange rates and over 19% of the gross world product at purchasing power parity (PPP).[3] Though larger than any other nation's, its national GDP is about 5% smaller than the GDP of the European Union at PPP in 2008. The country ranks ninth in the world in nominal GDP per capita and sixth in GDP per capita at PPP.[3] The U.S. dollar is the world's primary reserve currency.[86]

The United States is the largest importer of goods and third largest exporter, though exports per capita are relatively low. In 2010, the total U.S. trade deficit was $635 billion.[87] Canada, China, Mexico, Japan, and Germany are its top trading partners.[88] In 2010, oil was the largest import commodity, while transportation equipment was the country's largest export.[87] China is the largest foreign holder of U.S. public debt.[89]

In 2009, the private sector was estimated to constitute 86.4% of the economy, with federal government activity accounting for 4.3% and state and local government activity (including federal transfers) the remaining 9.3%.[91] While its economy has reached a postindustrial level of development and its service sector constitutes 67.8% of GDP, the United States remains an industrial power.[92] The leading business field by gross business receipts is wholesale and retail trade; by net income it is manufacturing.[93] Chemical products are the leading manufacturing field.[94] The United States is the third largest producer of oil in the world, as well as its largest importer.[95] It is the world's number one producer of electrical and nuclear energy, as well as liquid natural gas, sulfur, phosphates, and salt. While agriculture accounts for just under 1% of GDP,[92] the United States is the world's top producer of corn[96] and soybeans.[97]Coca-Cola and McDonald's are the two most recognized brands in the world.[98]

In August 2010, the American labor force comprised 154.1 million people. With 21.2 million people, government is the leading field of employment. The largest private employment sector is health care and social assistance, with 16.4 million people. About 12% of workers are unionized, compared to 30% in Western Europe.[99] The World Bank ranks the United States first in the ease of hiring and firing workers.[100] In 2009, the United States had the third highest labor productivity per person in the world, behind Luxembourg and Norway. It was fourth in productivity per hour, behind those two countries and the Netherlands.[101] Compared to Europe, U.S. property and corporate income tax rates are generally higher, while labor and, particularly, consumption tax rates are lower.[102]

Income and human development[link]

According to the United States Census Bureau, the pretax median household income in 2010 was $49,445. The median ranged from $64,308 among Asian American households to $32,068 among African American households.[82] Using purchasing power parity exchange rates, the overall median is similar to the most affluent cluster of developed nations. After declining sharply during the middle of the 20th century, poverty rates have plateaued since the early 1970s, with 11?15% of Americans below the poverty line every year, and 58.5% spending at least one year in poverty between the ages of 25 and 75.[103][104] In 2010, 46.2 million Americans lived in poverty, a figure that rose for the fourth year in a row.[82]

The U.S. welfare state is one of the least extensive in the developed world, reducing both relative poverty and absolute poverty by considerably less than the mean for rich nations,[105][106] though combined private and public social expenditures per capita are relatively high.[107] While the American welfare state effectively reduces poverty among the elderly,[108] it provides relatively little assistance to the young.[109] A 2007 UNICEF study of children's well-being in twenty-one industrialized nations ranked the United States next to last.[110]

Between 1947 and 1979, real median income rose by over 80% for all classes, with the incomes of poor Americans rising faster than those of the rich.[111] However, income gains since then have been slower, less widely shared, and accompanied by increased economic insecurity.[111][112] Median household income has increased for all classes since 1980,[113] largely owing to more dual-earner households, the closing of the gender pay gap, and longer work hours, but the growth has been strongly tilted toward the very top.[105][111][114] Consequently, the share of income of the top 1%?21.8% of total reported income in 2005?has more than doubled since 1980,[115] leaving the United States with the greatest income inequality among developed nations.[105][116] The United States has a progressive tax system which equates to higher income earners paying a larger percentage of their income in taxes.[117] The top 1% pays 27.6% of all federal taxes, while the top 10% pays 54.7%.[118] Wealth, like income and taxes, is highly concentrated: The richest 10% of the adult population possesses 69.8% of the country's household wealth, the second-highest share among developed nations.[119] The top 1% possesses 33.4% of net wealth.[120] In 2011 the United Nations Development Programme ranked the United States 23rd among 139 countries on its inequality-adjusted human development index (IHDI), nineteen places lower than in the standard HDI.[121]

Science and technology[link]

The United States has been a leader in scientific research and technological innovation since the late 19th century. In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell was awarded the first U.S. patent for the telephone. Thomas Edison's laboratory developed the phonograph, the first long-lasting light bulb, and the first viable movie camera. Nikola Tesla pioneered alternating current, the AC motor, and radio. In the early 20th century, the automobile companies of Ransom E. Olds and Henry Ford popularized the assembly line. The Wright brothers, in 1903, made the first sustained and controlled heavier-than-air powered flight.[122]

The rise of Nazism in the 1930s led many European scientists, including Albert Einstein, Enrico Fermi, and John von Neumann, to immigrate to the United States. During World War II, the Manhattan Project developed nuclear weapons, ushering in the Atomic Age. The Space Race produced rapid advances in rocketry, materials science, and computers. IBM, Apple Computer, and Microsoft refined and popularized the personal computer. The United States largely developed the ARPANET and its successor, the Internet. Today, 64% of research and development funding comes from the private sector.[123] The United States leads the world in scientific research papers and impact factor.[124] As of April 2010, 68% of American households had broadband Internet service.[125] The country is the primary developer and grower of genetically modified food, representing half of the world's biotech crops.[126]

Transportation[link]

Personal transportation is dominated by automobiles, which operate on a network of 13 million roads,[128] including one of the world's longest highway systems.[129] The world's second largest automobile market,[130] the United States has the highest rate of per-capita vehicle ownership in the world, with 765 vehicles per 1,000 Americans.[131] About 40% of personal vehicles are vans, SUVs, or light trucks.[132] The average American adult (accounting for all drivers and nondrivers) spends 55 minutes driving every day, traveling 29 miles (47?km).[133]

Mass transit accounts for 9% of total U.S. work trips,[134] ranking last in a survey of 17 countries.[135] While transport of goods by rail is extensive, relatively few people use rail to travel,[136] though ridership on Amtrak, the national intercity passenger rail system, grew by almost 37% between 2000 and 2010.[137]Light rail development has increased in recent years but, like high speed rail, is below European levels.[138] Bicycle usage for work commutes is minimal.[139]

The civil airline industry is entirely privately owned and has been largely deregulated since 1978, while most major airports are publicly owned. The three largest airlines in the world by passengers carried are U.S.-based; Delta Air Lines is number one.[140] Of the world's thirty busiest passenger airports, sixteen are in the United States, including the busiest, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.[141]

Energy[link]

The United States energy market is 29,000 terawatt hours per year. Energy consumption per capita is 7.8?tons of oil equivalent per year, the 10th highest rate in the world. In 2005, 40% of this energy came from petroleum, 23% from coal, and 22% from natural gas. The remainder was supplied by nuclear power and renewable energy sources.[142] The United States is the world's largest consumer of petroleum.[143] For decades, nuclear power has played a limited role relative to many other developed countries, in part due to public perception in the wake of a 1979 accident. In 2007, several applications for new nuclear plants were filed.[144] The United States has 27% of global coal reserves.[145]

Education[link]

American public education is operated by state and local governments, regulated by the United States Department of Education through restrictions on federal grants. Children are required in most states to attend school from the age of six or seven (generally, kindergarten or first grade) until they turn eighteen (generally bringing them through twelfth grade, the end of high school); some states allow students to leave school at sixteen or seventeen.[147] About 12% of children are enrolled in parochial or nonsectarian private schools. Just over 2% of children are homeschooled.[148]

The United States has many competitive private and public institutions of higher education. According to prominent international rankings, 13 or 15 American colleges and universities are ranked among the top 20 in the world.[149][150] There are also local community colleges with generally more open admission policies, shorter academic programs, and lower tuition. Of Americans twenty-five and older, 84.6% graduated from high school, 52.6% attended some college, 27.2% earned a bachelor's degree, and 9.6% earned graduate degrees.[151] The basic literacy rate is approximately 99%.[1][152] The United Nations assigns the United States an Education Index of 0.97, tying it for 12th in the world.[153]

Health[link]

The United States life expectancy of 78.4 years at birth ranks it 50th among 221 nations.[155] Increasing obesity in the United States and health improvements elsewhere have contributed to lowering the country's rank in life expectancy from 1987, when it was 11th in the world.[156] Approximately one-third of the adult population is obese and an additional third is overweight;Source: http://article.wn.com/view/2013/07/30/UMCS_Metering_programs_help_military_federal_agencies_contro/

Charlie Batch Miguel Calero Bret Bielema sons of anarchy adriana lima victoria secret fashion show SEC Championship