document_title: Earth

question_text: form from material that has accumulated on the earths surface

question_tokens: form from material that has accumulated on the earths surface

text: Earth

text: Name and etymology

text: The modern English word  Earth developed from a wide variety of Middle English forms,[n 6] which derived from an Old English noun most often spelled eorðe.[39] It has cognates in every Germanic language, and their proto-Germanic root has been reconstructed as *erþō. In its earliest appearances, eorðe was already being used to translate the many senses of Latin terra and Greek γῆ (gē): the ground,[n 7] its soil,[n 8] dry land,[n 9] the human world,[n 10] the surface of the world (including the sea),[n 11] and the globe itself.[n 12] As with Terra and Gaia, Earth was a personified goddess in Germanic paganism: the Angles were listed by Tacitus as among the devotees of Nerthus,[48] and later Norse mythology included Jörð, a giantess often given as the mother of Thor.[49]

text: Originally, earth was written in lowercase, and from early Middle English, its definite sense as "the globe" was expressed as the earth. By Early Modern English, many nouns were capitalized, and the earth became (and often remained) the Earth, particularly when referenced along with other heavenly bodies. More recently, the name is sometimes simply given as Earth, by analogy with the names of the other planets.[39] House styles now vary: Oxford spelling recognizes the lowercase form as the most common, with the capitalized form an acceptable variant. Another convention capitalizes "Earth" when appearing as a name (e.g. "Earth's atmosphere") but writes it in lowercase when preceded by the (e.g. "the atmosphere of the earth"). It almost always appears in lowercase in colloquial expressions such as "what on earth are you doing?"[50]

text: Chronology

text: Formation

text: The oldest material found in the Solar System is dated to 7000456720000000000♠4.5672±0.0006 billion years ago (Bya).[51] By 7000454000000000000♠4.54±0.04 Bya[52] the primordial Earth had formed. The formation and evolution of Solar System bodies occurred along with the Sun. In theory, a solar nebula partitions a volume out of a molecular cloud by gravitational collapse, which begins to spin and flatten into a circumstellar disk, and then the planets grow out of that disk along with the Sun. A nebula contains gas, ice grains, and dust (including primordial nuclides). According to nebular theory, planetesimals formed by accretion, with the primordial Earth taking 10–7001200000000000000♠20 million years (Mys) to form.[53]

text: A subject of on-going research is the formation of the Moon, some 4.53 Bya.[54] A working hypothesis is that it was formed by accretion from material loosed from Earth after a Mars-sized object, named Theia, impacted Earth.[55] In this scenario, the mass of Theia was approximately 10% of that of Earth,[56] it impacted Earth with a glancing blow,[57] and some of its mass merged with Earth. Between approximately 4.1 and 7000380000000000000♠3.8 Bya, numerous asteroid impacts during the Late Heavy Bombardment caused significant changes to the greater surface environment of the Moon, and by inference, to that of Earth.

text: Geological history

text: Earth's atmosphere and oceans were formed by volcanic activity and outgassing that included water vapor. The origin of the world's oceans was condensation augmented by water and ice delivered by asteroids, protoplanets, and comets.[58] In this model, atmospheric "greenhouse gases" kept the oceans from freezing when the newly forming Sun had only 70% of its current luminosity.[59] By 7000350000000000000♠3.5 Bya, Earth's magnetic field was established, which helped prevent the atmosphere from being stripped away by the solar wind.[60]

text: A crust formed when the molten outer layer of Earth cooled to form a solid. The two models[61] that explain land mass propose either a steady growth to the present-day forms[62] or, more likely, a rapid growth[63] early in Earth history[64] followed by a long-term steady continental area.[65][66][67] Continents formed by plate tectonics, a process ultimately driven by the continuous loss of heat from Earth's interior. On time scales lasting hundreds of millions of years, the supercontinents have assembled and broken apart. Roughly 7002750000000000000♠750 million years ago (Mya), one of the earliest known supercontinents, Rodinia, began to break apart. The continents later recombined to form Pannotia, 600–7002540000000000000♠540 Mya, then finally Pangaea, which also broke apart 7002180000000000000♠180 Mya.[68]

text: The present pattern of ice ages began about 7001400000000000000♠40 Mya and then intensified during the Pleistocene about 7000300000000000000♠3 Mya. High-latitude regions have since undergone repeated cycles of glaciation and thaw, repeating about every 40,000–7012315576000000000♠100000 years. The last continental glaciation ended 10,000 years ago.[69]

text: Origin of life and evolution

text: Chemical reactions led to the first self-replicating molecules about four billion years ago. A half billion years later, the last common ancestor of all life arose.[70] The evolution of photosynthesis allowed the Sun's energy to be harvested directly by life forms. The resultant molecular oxygen (O2) accumulated in the atmosphere and due to interaction with ultraviolet solar radiation, formed a protective ozone layer (O3) in the upper atmosphere.[71] The incorporation of smaller cells within larger ones resulted in the development of complex cells called eukaryotes.[72] True multicellular organisms formed as cells within colonies became increasingly specialized. Aided by the absorption of harmful ultraviolet radiation by the ozone layer, life colonized Earth's surface.[73] Among the earliest fossil evidence for life is microbial mat fossils found in 3.48 billion-year-old sandstone in Western Australia,[74] biogenic graphite found in 3.7 billion-year-old metasedimentary rocks in Western Greenland,[75] remains of biotic material found in 4.1 billion-year-old rocks in Western Australia.[30][31] 3.45 billion-year-old Australian rocks once contained microorganisms, the earliest direct evidence of life on Earth.[76][77]

text: During the Neoproterozoic, 7002750000000000000♠750 to 580 Mya, much of Earth might have been covered in ice. This hypothesis has been termed "Snowball Earth", and it is of particular interest because it preceded the Cambrian explosion, when multicellular life forms significantly increased in complexity.[78] Following the Cambrian explosion, 7002535000000000000♠535 Mya, there have been five major mass extinctions.[79] The most recent such event was 7001660000000000000♠66 Mya, when an asteroid impact triggered the extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs and other large reptiles, but spared some small animals such as mammals, which then resembled shrews. Over the past 7001660000000000000♠66 Mys, mammalian life has diversified, and several million years ago an African ape-like animal such as Orrorin tugenensis gained the ability to stand upright.[80] This facilitated tool use and encouraged communication that provided the nutrition and stimulation needed for a larger brain, which allowed the evolution of humans. The development of agriculture, and then civilization, led to humans having an influence on Earth and the nature and quantity of other life forms that continues today.[81]

text: Future

text: Earth's expected long-term future is closely tied to that of the Sun. Over the next 7000110000000000000♠1.1 Bys, solar luminosity will increase by 10%, and over the next 7000350000000000000♠3.5 Bys by 40%.[82] The Earth's increasing surface temperature will accelerate the inorganic CO2 cycle, reducing its concentration to levels lethally low for plants (6995099999999999999♠10 ppm for C4 photosynthesis) in approximately 500–7002900000000000000♠900 Mys.[83] The lack of vegetation will result in the loss of oxygen in the atmosphere, and animal life will become extinct.[84] After another billion years all surface water will have disappeared[85] and the mean global temperature will reach 7002343150000000000♠70 °C[84] (7002343150000000000♠158 °F). From that point, the Earth is expected to be habitable for another 7016157788000000000♠500 Ma,[83] possibly up to 7016725824800000000♠2.3 Ga if nitrogen is removed from the atmosphere.[86] Even if the Sun were eternal and stable, 27% of the water in the modern oceans will descend to the mantle in one billion years, due to reduced steam venting from mid-ocean ridges.[87]

text: The Sun will evolve to become a red giant in about 7000500000000000000♠5 Bys. Models predict that the Sun will expand to roughly 1 AU (150 million km; 93 million mi), which is about 250 times its present radius.[82][88] Earth's fate is less clear. As a red giant, the Sun will lose roughly 30% of its mass, so, without tidal effects, Earth will move to an orbit 1.7 AU (250 million km; 160 million mi) from the Sun when the star reaches its maximum radius. Most, if not all, remaining life will be destroyed by the Sun's increased luminosity (peaking at about 5,000 times its present level).[82] A 2008 simulation indicates that Earth's orbit will eventually decay due to tidal effects and drag, causing it to enter the Sun's atmosphere and be vaporized.[88]

text: Physical characteristics

text: Shape

text: The shape of Earth is approximately oblate spheroidal. Due to rotation, the Earth is flattened along the geographic axis and bulging around the equator.[90] The diameter of the Earth at the equator is 43 kilometres (27 mi) larger than the pole-to-pole diameter.[91] Thus the point on the surface farthest from Earth's center of mass is the summit of the equatorial Chimborazo volcano in Ecuador.[92][93][94][95] The average diameter of the reference spheroid is 12,742 kilometres (7,918 mi). Local topography deviates from this idealized spheroid, although on a global scale these deviations are small compared to Earth's radius: The maximum deviation of only 0.17% is at the Mariana Trench (10,911 metres (35,797 ft) below local sea level), whereas Mount Everest (8,848 metres (29,029 ft) above local sea level) represents a deviation of 0.14%.[n 13]

text: In geodesy, the exact shape that Earth's oceans would adopt in the absence of land and perturbations such as tides and winds is called the geoid. More precisely, the geoid is the surface of gravitational equipotential at mean sea level.

text: Chemical composition

text:
Chemical composition of the crust[97]

Compound
Formula
Composition

Continental
Oceanic

silica
SiO2
60.2%
48.6%

alumina
Al2O3
15.2%
16.5%

lime
CaO
5.5%
12.3%

magnesia
MgO
3.1%
6.8%

iron(II) oxide
FeO
3.8%
6.2%

sodium oxide
Na2O
3.0%
2.6%

potassium oxide
K2O
2.8%
0.4%

iron(III) oxide
Fe2O3
2.5%
2.3%

water
H2O
1.4%
1.1%

carbon dioxide
CO2
1.2%
1.4%

titanium dioxide
TiO2
0.7%
1.4%

phosphorus pentoxide
P2O5
0.2%
0.3%

Total
99.6%
99.9%

text: Earth's mass is approximately 7024597000000000000♠5.97×1024 kg (5,970 Yg). It is composed mostly of iron (32.1%), oxygen (30.1%), silicon (15.1%), magnesium (13.9%), sulfur (2.9%), nickel (1.8%), calcium (1.5%), and aluminium (1.4%), with the remaining 1.2% consisting of trace amounts of other elements. Due to mass segregation, the core region is estimated to be primarily composed of iron (88.8%), with smaller amounts of nickel (5.8%), sulfur (4.5%), and less than 1% trace elements.[98]

text: The most common rock constituents of the crust are nearly all oxides: chlorine, sulfur, and fluorine are the important exceptions to this and their total amount in any rock is usually much less than 1%. Over 99% of the crust is composed of 11 oxides, principally silica, alumina, iron oxides, lime, magnesia, potash, and soda.[97][98][99]

text: Internal structure

text: Earth's interior, like that of the other terrestrial planets, is divided into layers by their chemical or physical (rheological) properties. The outer layer is a chemically distinct silicate solid crust, which is underlain by a highly viscous solid mantle. The crust is separated from the mantle by the Mohorovičić discontinuity. The thickness of the crust varies from about 7003600000000000000♠6 km (kilometers) under the oceans to 30–50 km for the continents. The crust and the cold, rigid, top of the upper mantle are collectively known as the lithosphere, and it is of the lithosphere that the tectonic plates are composed. Beneath the lithosphere is the asthenosphere, a relatively low-viscosity layer on which the lithosphere rides. Important changes in crystal structure within the mantle occur at 410 and 7005660000000000000♠660 km below the surface, spanning a transition zone that separates the upper and lower mantle. Beneath the mantle, an extremely low viscosity liquid outer core lies above a solid inner core.[100] The Earth's inner core might rotate at a slightly higher angular velocity than the remainder of the planet, advancing by 0.1–0.5° per year.[101] The radius of the inner core is about one fifth of that of Earth.

text:
Geologic layers of Earth[102]

Earth cutaway from core to exosphere. Not to scale.
Depth[103]
km
Component layer
Density
g/cm3

0–60
Lithosphere[n 14]
—

0–35
Crust[n 15]
2.2–2.9

35–60
Upper mantle
3.4–4.4

  35–2890
Mantle
3.4–5.6

100–700
Asthenosphere
—

2890–5100
Outer core
9.9–12.2

5100–6378
Inner core
12.8–13.1

text: Heat

text: Earth's internal heat comes from a combination of residual heat from planetary accretion (about 20%) and heat produced through radioactive decay (80%).[104] The major heat-producing isotopes within Earth are potassium-40, uranium-238, and thorium-232.[105] At the center, the temperature may be up to 6,000 °C (10,830 °F),[106] and the pressure could reach 360 GPa.[107] Because much of the heat is provided by radioactive decay, scientists postulate that early in Earth's history, before isotopes with short half-lives were depleted, Earth's heat production was much higher. At approximately 7016946728000000000♠3 Ga, twice the present-day heat would have been produced, increasing the rates of mantle convection and plate tectonics, and allowing the production of uncommon igneous rocks such as komatiites that are rarely formed today.[104][108]

text:
Present-day major heat-producing isotopes[109]

Isotope
Heat release
W/kg isotope
Half-life
years
Mean mantle concentration
kg isotope/kg mantle
Heat release
W/kg mantle

238U
94.6 × 10−6
4.47 × 109
30.8 × 10−9
2.91 × 10−12

235U
569 × 10−6
0.704 × 109
0.22 × 10−9
0.125 × 10−12

232Th
26.4 × 10−6
14.0 × 109
124 × 10−9
3.27 × 10−12

40K
29.2 × 10−6
1.25 × 109
36.9 × 10−9
1.08 × 10−12

text: The mean heat loss from Earth is 87 mW m−2, for a global heat loss of 4.42 × 1013 W.[110] A portion of the core's thermal energy is transported toward the crust by mantle plumes, a form of convection consisting of upwellings of higher-temperature rock. These plumes can produce hotspots and flood basalts.[111] More of the heat in Earth is lost through plate tectonics, by mantle upwelling associated with mid-ocean ridges. The final major mode of heat loss is through conduction through the lithosphere, the majority of which occurs under the oceans because the crust there is much thinner than that of the continents.[112]

text: Tectonic plates

text:
Earth's major plates[113]

Plate name
Area
106 km2

  Pacific Plate

103.3

  African Plate[n 16]

78.0

  North American Plate

75.9

  Eurasian Plate

67.8

  Antarctic Plate

60.9

  Indo-Australian Plate

47.2

  South American Plate

43.6

text: The mechanically rigid outer layer of Earth, the lithosphere, is divided into pieces called tectonic plates. These plates are rigid segments that move in relation to one another at one of three types of plate boundaries: convergent boundaries, at which two plates come together, divergent boundaries, at which two plates are pulled apart, and transform boundaries, in which two plates slide past one another laterally. Earthquakes, volcanic activity, mountain-building, and oceanic trench formation can occur along these plate boundaries.[114] The tectonic plates ride on top of the asthenosphere, the solid but less-viscous part of the upper mantle that can flow and move along with the plates.[115]

text: As the tectonic plates migrate, oceanic crust is subducted under the leading edges of the plates at convergent boundaries. At the same time, the upwelling of mantle material at divergent boundaries creates mid-ocean ridges. The combination of these processes recycles the oceanic crust back into the mantle. Due to this recycling, most of the ocean floor is less than 7015315576000000000♠100 Ma old in age. The oldest oceanic crust is located in the Western Pacific and has an estimated age of 7015631152000000000♠200 Ma.[116][117] By comparison, the oldest dated continental crust is 7017127177128000000♠4030 Ma.[118]

text: The seven major plates are the Pacific, North American, Eurasian, African, Antarctic, Indo-Australian, and South American. Other notable plates include the Arabian Plate, the Caribbean Plate, the Nazca Plate off the west coast of South America and the Scotia Plate in the southern Atlantic Ocean. The Australian Plate fused with the Indian Plate between 50 and 7001550000000000000♠55 Mya. The fastest-moving plates are the oceanic plates, with the Cocos Plate advancing at a rate of 75 mm/year[119] and the Pacific Plate moving 52–69 mm/year. At the other extreme, the slowest-moving plate is the Eurasian Plate, progressing at a typical rate of 21 mm/year.[120]

text: Surface

text: The total surface area of the Earth is about 510 million km2 (197 million sq mi).[13] Of this, 70.8%,[13] or 361.13 million km2 (139.43 million sq mi), is below sea level and covered by ocean water.[121] Below the ocean's surface are much of the continental shelf, mountains, volcanoes,[91] oceanic trenches, submarine canyons, oceanic plateaus, abyssal plains, and a globe-spanning mid-ocean ridge system. The remaining 29.2%, or 148.94 million km2 (57.51 million sq mi), not covered by water has terrain that varies greatly from place to place and consists of mountains, deserts, plains, plateaus, and other landforms. Tectonics and erosion, volcanic eruptions, flooding, weathering, glaciation, the growth of coral reefs, and meteorite impacts are among the processes that constantly reshape the Earth's surface over geological time.[122][123]

text: The continental crust consists of lower density material such as the igneous rocks granite and andesite. Less common is basalt, a denser volcanic rock that is the primary constituent of the ocean floors.[124] Sedimentary rock is formed from the accumulation of sediment that becomes buried and compacted together. Nearly 75% of the continental surfaces are covered by sedimentary rocks, although they form about 5% of the crust.[125] The third form of rock material found on Earth is metamorphic rock, which is created from the transformation of pre-existing rock types through high pressures, high temperatures, or both. The most abundant silicate minerals on Earth's surface include quartz, feldspars, amphibole, mica, pyroxene and olivine.[126] Common carbonate minerals include calcite (found in limestone) and dolomite.[127]

text: The elevation of the land surface varies from the low point of −418 m (−1,371 ft) at the Dead Sea, to a maximum altitude of 8,848 m (29,029 ft) at the top of Mount Everest. The mean height of land above sea level is about 797 m (2,615 ft).[128]

text: The pedosphere is the outermost layer of Earth's continental surface and is composed of soil and subject to soil formation processes. The total arable land is 10.9% of the land surface, with 1.3% being permanent cropland.[129][130] Close to 40% of Earth's land surface is used for agriculture, or an estimated 16.7 million km2 (6.4 million sq mi) of cropland and 33.5 million km2 (12.9 million sq mi) of pastureland.[131]

text: Hydrosphere

text: The abundance of water on Earth's surface is a unique feature that distinguishes the "Blue Planet" from other planets in the Solar System. Earth's hydrosphere consists chiefly of the oceans, but technically includes all water surfaces in the world, including inland seas, lakes, rivers, and underground waters down to a depth of 2,000 m (6,600 ft). The deepest underwater location is Challenger Deep of the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean with a depth of 10,911.4 m (35,799 ft).[n 17][132]

text: The mass of the oceans is approximately 1.35×1018 metric tons or about 1/4400 of Earth's total mass. The oceans cover an area of 7014361800000000000♠3.618×108 km2 with a mean depth of 7003368200000000000♠3682 m, resulting in an estimated volume of 7018133200000000000♠1.332×109 km3.[133] If all of Earth's crustal surface were at the same elevation as a smooth sphere, the depth of the resulting world ocean would be 2.7 to 2.8 km.[134][135]

text: About 97.5% of the water is saline; the remaining 2.5% is fresh water. Most fresh water, about 68.7%, is present as ice in ice caps and glaciers.[136]

text: The average salinity of Earth's oceans is about 35 grams of salt per kilogram of sea water (3.5% salt).[137] Most of this salt was released from volcanic activity or extracted from cool igneous rocks.[138] The oceans are also a reservoir of dissolved atmospheric gases, which are essential for the survival of many aquatic life forms.[139] Sea water has an important influence on the world's climate, with the oceans acting as a large heat reservoir.[140] Shifts in the oceanic temperature distribution can cause significant weather shifts, such as the El Niño-Southern Oscillation.[141]

text: Atmosphere

text: The atmospheric pressure on Earth's surface averages 101.325 kPa, with a scale height of about 8.5 km.[3] It has a composition of 78% nitrogen and 21% oxygen, with trace amounts of water vapor, carbon dioxide, and other gaseous molecules. The height of the troposphere varies with latitude, ranging between 8 km at the poles to 17 km at the equator, with some variation resulting from weather and seasonal factors.[142]

text: Earth's biosphere has significantly altered its atmosphere. Oxygenic photosynthesis evolved 7000270000000000000♠2.7 Gya, forming the primarily nitrogen–oxygen atmosphere of today.[71] This change enabled the proliferation of aerobic organisms and, indirectly, the formation of the ozone layer due to the subsequent conversion of atmospheric O2 into O3. The ozone layer blocks ultraviolet solar radiation, permitting life on land.[143] Other atmospheric functions important to life include transporting water vapor, providing useful gases, causing small meteors to burn up before they strike the surface, and moderating temperature.[144] This last phenomenon is known as the greenhouse effect: trace molecules within the atmosphere serve to capture thermal energy emitted from the ground, thereby raising the average temperature. Water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone are the primary greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Without this heat-retention effect, the average surface temperature would be −18 °C, in contrast to the current +15 °C,[145] and life on Earth probably would not exist in its current form.[146] In May 2017, glints of light, seen as twinkling from an orbiting satellite a million miles away, were found to be reflected light from ice crystals in the atmosphere.[147][148]

text: Weather and climate

text: Earth's atmosphere has no definite boundary, slowly becoming thinner and fading into outer space. Three-quarters of the atmosphere's mass is contained within the first 11 km (6.8 mi) of the surface. This lowest layer is called the troposphere. Energy from the Sun heats this layer, and the surface below, causing expansion of the air. This lower-density air then rises and is replaced by cooler, higher-density air. The result is atmospheric circulation that drives the weather and climate through redistribution of thermal energy.[149]

text: The primary atmospheric circulation bands consist of the trade winds in the equatorial region below 30° latitude and the westerlies in the mid-latitudes between 30° and 60°.[150] Ocean currents are also important factors in determining climate, particularly the thermohaline circulation that distributes thermal energy from the equatorial oceans to the polar regions.[151]

text: Water vapor generated through surface evaporation is transported by circulatory patterns in the atmosphere. When atmospheric conditions permit an uplift of warm, humid air, this water condenses and falls to the surface as precipitation.[149] Most of the water is then transported to lower elevations by river systems and usually returned to the oceans or deposited into lakes. This water cycle is a vital mechanism for supporting life on land and is a primary factor in the erosion of surface features over geological periods. Precipitation patterns vary widely, ranging from several meters of water per year to less than a millimeter. Atmospheric circulation, topographic features, and temperature differences determine the average precipitation that falls in each region.[152]

text: The amount of solar energy reaching Earth's surface decreases with increasing latitude. At higher latitudes, the sunlight reaches the surface at lower angles, and it must pass through thicker columns of the atmosphere. As a result, the mean annual air temperature at sea level decreases by about 0.4 °C (0.7 °F) per degree of latitude from the equator.[153] Earth's surface can be subdivided into specific latitudinal belts of approximately homogeneous climate. Ranging from the equator to the polar regions, these are the tropical (or equatorial), subtropical, temperate and polar climates.[154]

text: This latitudinal rule has several anomalies:

text:
Proximity to oceans moderates the climate. For example, the Scandinavian Peninsula has more moderate climate than similarly northern latitudes of northern Canada.
The wind enables this moderating effect. The windward side of a land mass experiences more moderation than the leeward side. In the Northern Hemisphere, the prevailing wind is west-to-east, and western coasts tend to be milder than eastern coasts. This is seen in Eastern North America and Western Europe, where rough continental climates appear on the east coast on parallels with mild climates on the other side of the ocean.[155] In the Southern Hemisphere, the prevailing wind is east-to-west, and the eastern coasts are milder.
The distance from the Earth to the Sun varies. The Earth is closest to the Sun (at perihelion) in January, which is summer in the Southern Hemisphere. It is furthest away (at aphelion) in July, which is summer in the Northern Hemisphere, and only 93.55% of the solar radiation from the Sun falls on a given square area of land than at perihelion. Despite this, there are larger land masses in the Northern Hemisphere, which are easier to heat than the seas. Consequently, summers are 2.3 °C (4 °F) warmer in the Northern Hemisphere than in the Southern Hemisphere under similar conditions.[156]
The climate is colder at high altitudes than at sea level because of the decreased air density.

text: The commonly used Köppen climate classification system has five broad groups (humid tropics, arid, humid middle latitudes, continental and cold polar), which are further divided into more specific subtypes.[150] The Köppen system rates regions of terrain based on observed temperature and precipitation.

text: The highest air temperature ever measured on Earth was 56.7 °C (134.1 °F) in Furnace Creek, California, in Death Valley, in 1913.[157] The lowest air temperature ever directly measured on Earth was −89.2 °C (−128.6 °F) at Vostok Station in 1983,[158] but satellites have used remote sensing to measure temperatures as low as −94.7 °C (−138.5 °F) in East Antarctica.[159] These temperature records are only measurements made with modern instruments from the 20th century onwards and likely do not reflect the full range of temperature on Earth.

text: Upper atmosphere

text: Above the troposphere, the atmosphere is usually divided into the stratosphere, mesosphere, and thermosphere.[144] Each layer has a different lapse rate, defining the rate of change in temperature with height. Beyond these, the exosphere thins out into the magnetosphere, where the geomagnetic fields interact with the solar wind.[160] Within the stratosphere is the ozone layer, a component that partially shields the surface from ultraviolet light and thus is important for life on Earth. The Kármán line, defined as 100 km above Earth's surface, is a working definition for the boundary between the atmosphere and outer space.[161]

text: Thermal energy causes some of the molecules at the outer edge of the atmosphere to increase their velocity to the point where they can escape from Earth's gravity. This causes a slow but steady loss of the atmosphere into space. Because unfixed hydrogen has a low molecular mass, it can achieve escape velocity more readily, and it leaks into outer space at a greater rate than other gases.[162] The leakage of hydrogen into space contributes to the shifting of Earth's atmosphere and surface from an initially reducing state to its current oxidizing one. Photosynthesis provided a source of free oxygen, but the loss of reducing agents such as hydrogen is thought to have been a necessary precondition for the widespread accumulation of oxygen in the atmosphere.[163] Hence the ability of hydrogen to escape from the atmosphere may have influenced the nature of life that developed on Earth.[164] In the current, oxygen-rich atmosphere most hydrogen is converted into water before it has an opportunity to escape. Instead, most of the hydrogen loss comes from the destruction of methane in the upper atmosphere.[165]

text: Gravitational field

text: The gravity of Earth is the acceleration that is imparted to objects due to the distribution of mass within the Earth. Near the Earth's surface, gravitational acceleration is approximately 9.8 m/s2 (32 ft/s2). Local differences in topography, geology, and deeper tectonic structure cause local and broad, regional differences in the Earth's gravitational field, known as gravitational anomalies.[166]

text: Magnetic field

text: The main part of Earth's magnetic field is generated in the core, the site of a dynamo process that converts the kinetic energy of thermally and compositionally driven convection into electrical and magnetic field energy. The field extends outwards from the core, through the mantle, and up to Earth's surface, where it is, approximately, a dipole. The poles of the dipole are located close to Earth's geographic poles. At the equator of the magnetic field, the magnetic-field strength at the surface is 3.05 × 10−5 T, with global magnetic dipole moment of 7.91 × 1015 T m3.[167] The convection movements in the core are chaotic; the magnetic poles drift and periodically change alignment. This causes secular variation of the main field and field reversals at irregular intervals averaging a few times every million years. The most recent reversal occurred approximately 700,000 years ago.[168][169]

text: Magnetosphere

text: The extent of Earth's magnetic field in space defines the magnetosphere. Ions and electrons of the solar wind are deflected by the magnetosphere; solar wind pressure compresses the dayside of the magnetosphere, to about 10 Earth radii, and extends the nightside magnetosphere into a long tail.[170] Because the velocity of the solar wind is greater than the speed at which waves propagate through the solar wind, a supersonic bowshock precedes the dayside magnetosphere within the solar wind.[171] Charged particles are contained within the magnetosphere; the plasmasphere is defined by low-energy particles that essentially follow magnetic field lines as Earth rotates;[172][173] the ring current is defined by medium-energy particles that drift relative to the geomagnetic field, but with paths that are still dominated by the magnetic field,[174] and the Van Allen radiation belt are formed by high-energy particles whose motion is essentially random, but otherwise contained by the magnetosphere.[170][175]

text: During magnetic storms and substorms, charged particles can be deflected from the outer magnetosphere and especially the magnetotail, directed along field lines into Earth's ionosphere, where atmospheric atoms can be excited and ionized, causing the aurora.[176]

text: Orbit and rotation

text: Rotation

text: Earth's rotation period relative to the Sun—its mean solar day—is 86,400 seconds of mean solar time (86,400.0025 SI seconds).[177] Because Earth's solar day is now slightly longer than it was during the 19th century due to tidal deceleration, each day varies between 0 and 2 SI ms longer.[178][179]

text: Earth's rotation period relative to the fixed stars, called its stellar day by the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS), is 86,164.0989 seconds of mean solar time (UT1), or 23h 56m 4.0989s.[2][n 18] Earth's rotation period relative to the precessing or moving mean vernal equinox, misnamed its sidereal day, is 86,164.0905 seconds of mean solar time (UT1) (23h 56m 4.0905s).[2] Thus the sidereal day is shorter than the stellar day by about 8.4 ms.[180] The length of the mean solar day in SI seconds is available from the IERS for the periods 1623–2005[181] and 1962–2005.[182]

text: Apart from meteors within the atmosphere and low-orbiting satellites, the main apparent motion of celestial bodies in Earth's sky is to the west at a rate of 15°/h = 15'/min. For bodies near the celestial equator, this is equivalent to an apparent diameter of the Sun or the Moon every two minutes; from Earth's surface, the apparent sizes of the Sun and the Moon are approximately the same.[183][184]

text: Orbit

text: Earth orbits the Sun at an average distance of about 150 million km (93 million mi) every 365.2564 mean solar days, or one sidereal year. This gives an apparent movement of the Sun eastward with respect to the stars at a rate of about 1°/day, which is one apparent Sun or Moon diameter every 12 hours. Due to this motion, on average it takes 24 hours—a solar day—for Earth to complete a full rotation about its axis so that the Sun returns to the meridian. The orbital speed of Earth averages about 29.78 km/s (107,200 km/h; 66,600 mph), which is fast enough to travel a distance equal to Earth's diameter, about 12,742 km (7,918 mi), in seven minutes, and the distance to the Moon, 384,000 km (239,000 mi), in about 3.5 hours.[3]

text: The Moon and Earth orbit a common barycenter every 27.32 days relative to the background stars. When combined with the Earth–Moon system's common orbit around the Sun, the period of the synodic month, from new moon to new moon, is 29.53 days. Viewed from the celestial north pole, the motion of Earth, the Moon, and their axial rotations are all counterclockwise. Viewed from a vantage point above the north poles of both the Sun and Earth, Earth orbits in a counterclockwise direction about the Sun. The orbital and axial planes are not precisely aligned: Earth's axis is tilted some 23.44 degrees from the perpendicular to the Earth–Sun plane (the ecliptic), and the Earth–Moon plane is tilted up to ±5.1 degrees against the Earth–Sun plane. Without this tilt, there would be an eclipse every two weeks, alternating between lunar eclipses and solar eclipses.[3][185]

text: The Hill sphere, or the sphere of gravitational influence, of the Earth is about 1.5×10^6 km (930,000 mi) in radius.[186][n 19] This is the maximum distance at which the Earth's gravitational influence is stronger than the more distant Sun and planets. Objects must orbit the Earth within this radius, or they can become unbound by the gravitational perturbation of the Sun.

text: Earth, along with the Solar System, is situated in the Milky Way and orbits about 28,000 light-years from its center. It is about 20 light-years above the galactic plane in the Orion Arm.[187]

text: Axial tilt and seasons

text: The axial tilt of the Earth is approximately 23.439281°[2] with the axis of its orbit plane, always pointing towards the Celestial Poles. Due to Earth's axial tilt, the amount of sunlight reaching any given point on the surface varies over the course of the year. This causes the seasonal change in climate, with summer in the Northern Hemisphere occurring when the Tropic of Cancer is facing the Sun, and winter taking place when the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere faces the Sun. During the summer, the day lasts longer, and the Sun climbs higher in the sky. In winter, the climate becomes cooler and the days shorter. In northern temperate latitudes, the Sun rises north of true east during the summer solstice, and sets north of true west, reversing in the winter. The Sun rises south of true east in the summer for the southern temperate zone and sets south of true west.

text: Above the Arctic Circle, an extreme case is reached where there is no daylight at all for part of the year, up to six months at the North Pole itself, a polar night. In the Southern Hemisphere, the situation is exactly reversed, with the South Pole oriented opposite the direction of the North Pole. Six months later, this pole will experience a midnight sun, a day of 24 hours, again reversing with the South Pole.

text: By astronomical convention, the four seasons can be determined by the solstices—the points in the orbit of maximum axial tilt toward or away from the Sun—and the equinoxes, when the direction of the tilt and the direction to the Sun are perpendicular. In the Northern Hemisphere, winter solstice currently occurs around 21 December; summer solstice is near 21 June, spring equinox is around 20 March and autumnal equinox is about 22 or 23 September. In the Southern Hemisphere, the situation is reversed, with the summer and winter solstices exchanged and the spring and autumnal equinox dates swapped.[188]

text: The angle of Earth's axial tilt is relatively stable over long periods of time. Its axial tilt does undergo nutation; a slight, irregular motion with a main period of 18.6 years.[189] The orientation (rather than the angle) of Earth's axis also changes over time, precessing around in a complete circle over each 25,800 year cycle; this precession is the reason for the difference between a sidereal year and a tropical year. Both of these motions are caused by the varying attraction of the Sun and the Moon on Earth's equatorial bulge. The poles also migrate a few meters across Earth's surface. This polar motion has multiple, cyclical components, which collectively are termed quasiperiodic motion. In addition to an annual component to this motion, there is a 14-month cycle called the Chandler wobble. Earth's rotational velocity also varies in a phenomenon known as length-of-day variation.[190]

text: In modern times, Earth's perihelion occurs around 3 January, and its aphelion around 4 July. These dates change over time due to precession and other orbital factors, which follow cyclical patterns known as Milankovitch cycles. The changing Earth–Sun distance causes an increase of about 6.9%[n 20] in solar energy reaching Earth at perihelion relative to aphelion. Because the Southern Hemisphere is tilted toward the Sun at about the same time that Earth reaches the closest approach to the Sun, the Southern Hemisphere receives slightly more energy from the Sun than does the northern over the course of a year. This effect is much less significant than the total energy change due to the axial tilt, and most of the excess energy is absorbed by the higher proportion of water in the Southern Hemisphere.[191]

text: A study from 2016 suggested that Planet Nine tilted all Solar System planets, including Earth's, by about six degrees.[192]

text: Habitability

text: A planet that can sustain life is termed habitable, even if life did not originate there. Earth provides liquid water—an environment where complex organic molecules can assemble and interact, and sufficient energy to sustain metabolism.[193] The distance of Earth from the Sun, as well as its orbital eccentricity, rate of rotation, axial tilt, geological history, sustaining atmosphere, and magnetic field all contribute to the current climatic conditions at the surface.[194]

text: Biosphere

text: A planet's life forms inhabit ecosystems, whose total is sometimes said to form a "biosphere". Earth's biosphere is thought to have begun evolving about 7000350000000000000♠3.5 Gya.[71] The biosphere is divided into a number of biomes, inhabited by broadly similar plants and animals. On land, biomes are separated primarily by differences in latitude, height above sea level and humidity. Terrestrial biomes lying within the Arctic or Antarctic Circles, at high altitudes or in extremely arid areas are relatively barren of plant and animal life; species diversity reaches a peak in humid lowlands at equatorial latitudes.[195]

text: In July 2016, scientists reported identifying a set of 355 genes from the last universal common ancestor (LUCA) of all organisms living on Earth.[196]

text: Natural resources and land use

text:
Estimated human land use, 2000[197]

Land use
Mha

Cropland
1,510–1,611

Pastures
2,500–3,410

Natural forests
3,143–3,871

Planted forests
126–215

Urban areas
66–351

Unused, productive land
356–445

text: Earth has resources that have been exploited by humans. Those termed non-renewable resources, such as fossil fuels, only renew over geological timescales.

text: Large deposits of fossil fuels are obtained from Earth's crust, consisting of coal, petroleum, and natural gas. These deposits are used by humans both for energy production and as feedstock for chemical production. Mineral ore bodies have also been formed within the crust through a process of ore genesis, resulting from actions of magmatism, erosion, and plate tectonics.[198] These bodies form concentrated sources for many metals and other useful elements.

text: Earth's biosphere produces many useful biological products for humans, including food, wood, pharmaceuticals, oxygen, and the recycling of many organic wastes. The land-based ecosystem depends upon topsoil and fresh water, and the oceanic ecosystem depends upon dissolved nutrients washed down from the land.[199] In 1980, 50.53 million km2 (19.51 million sq mi) of Earth's land surface consisted of forest and woodlands, 67.88 million km2 (26.21 million sq mi) was grasslands and pasture, and 15.01 million km2 (5.80 million sq mi) was cultivated as croplands.[200] The estimated amount of irrigated land in 1993 was 2,481,250 km2 (958,020 sq mi).[14] Humans also live on the land by using building materials to construct shelters.

text: Natural and environmental hazards

text: Large areas of Earth's surface are subject to extreme weather such as tropical cyclones, hurricanes, or typhoons that dominate life in those areas. From 1980 to 2000, these events caused an average of 11,800 human deaths per year.[201] Many places are subject to earthquakes, landslides, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, tornadoes, sinkholes, blizzards, floods, droughts, wildfires, and other calamities and disasters.

text: Many localized areas are subject to human-made pollution of the air and water, acid rain and toxic substances, loss of vegetation (overgrazing, deforestation, desertification), loss of wildlife, species extinction, soil degradation, soil depletion and erosion.

text: There is a scientific consensus linking human activities to global warming due to industrial carbon dioxide emissions. This is predicted to produce changes such as the melting of glaciers and ice sheets, more extreme temperature ranges, significant changes in weather and a global rise in average sea levels.[202]

text: Human geography

text:
North America
  South America
  Antarctica

  Europe
  Africa

  Asia
  Australia

v
t
e

text: Cartography, the study and practice of map-making, and geography, the study of the lands, features, inhabitants and phenomena on Earth, have historically been the disciplines devoted to depicting Earth. Surveying, the determination of locations and distances, and to a lesser extent navigation, the determination of position and direction, have developed alongside cartography and geography, providing and suitably quantifying the requisite information.

text: Earth's human population reached approximately seven billion on 31 October 2011.[204] Projections indicate that the world's human population will reach 9.2 billion in 2050.[205] Most of the growth is expected to take place in developing nations. Human population density varies widely around the world, but a majority live in Asia. By 2020, 60% of the world's population is expected to be living in urban, rather than rural, areas.[206]

text: It is estimated that one-eighth of Earth's surface is suitable for humans to live on – three-quarters of Earth's surface is covered by oceans, leaving one-quarter as land. Half of that land area is desert (14%),[207] high mountains (27%),[208] or other unsuitable terrains. The northernmost permanent settlement in the world is Alert, on Ellesmere Island in Nunavut, Canada.[209] (82°28′N) The southernmost is the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station, in Antarctica, almost exactly at the South Pole. (90°S)

text: Independent sovereign nations claim the planet's entire land surface, except for some parts of Antarctica, a few land parcels along the Danube river's western bank, and the unclaimed area of Bir Tawil between Egypt and Sudan. As of 2015[update], there are 193 sovereign states that are member states of the United Nations, plus two observer states and 72 dependent territories and states with limited recognition.[14] Earth has never had a sovereign government with authority over the entire globe, although some nation-states have striven for world domination and failed.[210]

text: The United Nations is a worldwide intergovernmental organization that was created with the goal of intervening in the disputes between nations, thereby avoiding armed conflict.[211] The U.N. serves primarily as a forum for international diplomacy and international law. When the consensus of the membership permits, it provides a mechanism for armed intervention.[212]

text: The first human to orbit Earth was Yuri Gagarin on 12 April 1961.[213] In total, about 487 people have visited outer space and reached orbit as of 30 July 2010[update], and, of these, twelve have walked on the Moon.[214][215][216] Normally, the only humans in space are those on the International Space Station. The station's crew, made up of six people, is usually replaced every six months.[217] The farthest that humans have traveled from Earth is 400,171 km, achieved during the Apollo 13 mission in 1970.[218]

text: Moon

text:
Characteristics

Diameter
3,474.8 km

Mass
7.349×1022 kg

Semi-major axis
384,400 km

Orbital period
27 d 7 h 43.7 m

text: The Moon is a relatively large, terrestrial, planet-like natural satellite, with a diameter about one-quarter of Earth's. It is the largest moon in the Solar System relative to the size of its planet, although Charon is larger relative to the dwarf planet Pluto. The natural satellites of other planets are also referred to as "moons", after Earth's.

text: The gravitational attraction between Earth and the Moon causes tides on Earth. The same effect on the Moon has led to its tidal locking: its rotation period is the same as the time it takes to orbit Earth. As a result, it always presents the same face to the planet. As the Moon orbits Earth, different parts of its face are illuminated by the Sun, leading to the lunar phases; the dark part of the face is separated from the light part by the solar terminator.

text: Due to their tidal interaction, the Moon recedes from Earth at the rate of approximately 38 mm/yr. Over millions of years, these tiny modifications—and the lengthening of Earth's day by about 23 µs/yr—add up to significant changes.[219] During the Devonian period, for example, (approximately 7002410000000000000♠410 Mya) there were 400 days in a year, with each day lasting 21.8 hours.[220]

text: The Moon may have dramatically affected the development of life by moderating the planet's climate. Paleontological evidence and computer simulations show that Earth's axial tilt is stabilized by tidal interactions with the Moon.[28] Some theorists think that without this stabilization against the torques applied by the Sun and planets to Earth's equatorial bulge, the rotational axis might be chaotically unstable, exhibiting chaotic changes over millions of years, as appears to be the case for Mars.[221]

text: Viewed from Earth, the Moon is just far enough away to have almost the same apparent-sized disk as the Sun. The angular size (or solid angle) of these two bodies match because, although the Sun's diameter is about 400 times as large as the Moon's, it is also 400 times more distant.[184] This allows total and annular solar eclipses to occur on Earth.

text: The most widely accepted theory of the Moon's origin, the giant-impact hypothesis, states that it formed from the collision of a Mars-size protoplanet called Theia with the early Earth. This hypothesis explains (among other things) the Moon's relative lack of iron and volatile elements and the fact that its composition is nearly identical to that of Earth's crust.[222]

text: Asteroids and artificial satellites

text: Earth has at least five co-orbital asteroids, including 3753 Cruithne and 2002 AA29.[223][224] A trojan asteroid companion, 2010 TK7, is librating around the leading Lagrange triangular point, L4, in the Earth's orbit around the Sun.[225][226]

text: The tiny near-Earth asteroid 2006 RH120 makes close approaches to the Earth–Moon system roughly every twenty years. During these approaches, it can orbit Earth for brief periods of time.[227]

text: As of June 2016[update], there were 1,419 operational, human-made satellites orbiting Earth.[5] There are also inoperative satellites, including Vanguard 1, the oldest satellite currently in orbit, and over 16,000 pieces of tracked space debris.[n 3] Earth's largest artificial satellite is the International Space Station.

text: Cultural and historical viewpoint

text: The standard astronomical symbol of Earth consists of a cross circumscribed by a circle, ,[228] representing the four corners of the world.

text: Human cultures have developed many views of the planet. Earth is sometimes personified as a deity. In many cultures it is a mother goddess that is also the primary fertility deity,[229] and by the mid-20th century, the Gaia Principle compared Earth's environments and life as a single self-regulating organism leading to broad stabilization of the conditions of habitability.[230][231][232] Creation myths in many religions involve the creation of Earth by a supernatural deity or deities.[229]

text: Scientific investigation has resulted in several culturally transformative shifts in people's view of the planet. In the West, belief in a flat Earth[233] was displaced by the idea of spherical Earth, credited to Pythagoras in the 6th century BC.[234] Earth was further believed to be the center of the universe until the 16th century when scientists first theorized that it was a moving object, comparable to the other planets in the Solar System.[235] Due to the efforts of influential Christian scholars and clerics such as James Ussher, who sought to determine the age of Earth through analysis of genealogies in Scripture, Westerners before the 19th century generally believed Earth to be a few thousand years old at most. It was only during the 19th century that geologists realized Earth's age was at least many millions of years.[236]

text: Lord Kelvin used thermodynamics to estimate the age of Earth to be between 20 million and 400 million years in 1864, sparking a vigorous debate on the subject; it was only when radioactivity and radioactive dating were discovered in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that a reliable mechanism for determining Earth's age was established, proving the planet to be billions of years old.[237][238] The perception of Earth shifted again in the 20th century when humans first viewed it from orbit, and especially with photographs of Earth returned by the Apollo program.[239]


document_title: Olivia (Twelfth Night)

question_text: how does olivia secure the love of the man she believes to be cesario

root

text: Olivia (Twelfth Night)

text: Background[edit]

text: Olivia is a beautiful lady of noble birth who lives in Illyria. Before the play begins, she has recently lost her brother who was her guardian after her father died. This loss has made her grief-stricken and she has refused to see anyone who does not reside in her household, and declared that she will be in mourning for seven years (The element itself, till seven years' heat, Shall not behold her face at ample view).

tag: p

text: Because of her wealth and beauty Olivia attracts various men who wish to marry her. The play begins with the Duke of Illyria, Orsino, pining away over his love for Olivia while she refuses to accept him as a suitor. Sir Andrew has been invited to her household by Sir Toby, and Andrew hopes to use his stay to make Olivia his bride. Malvolio uses his position as steward to gain her affections.

text: Despite all of the rumpus going on at her home, Olivia refuses all visitors until Orsino sends his new page, the protagonist of the play, Viola, to call on her.

text: Viola has been recently shipwrecked and she has taken on the disguise of a boy so that she may work for Orsino with no one knowing her true identity. During the shipwreck, Viola lost her brother, Sebastian, and she believes that he has died.

text: Olivia quickly descends in love with the witty Cesario (Viola's name when she is in disguise) because Cesario is unafraid of saying what he/she is thinking, even though Cesario never says anything nice to Olivia (except, of course, when speaking Orsino's messages). Cesario also compliments Olivia on her beauty, something that helps heal Olivia's heart from the losses she has recently incurred.

text: Olivia attempts to woo the young Cesario/Viola and repeatedly asks/lures him to come back to her estate by using various tricks and problems. Olivia eventually comes to the conclusion that she must marry him. However, in a case of mistaken identity, she marries Viola's twin brother, Sebastian. All ends well however, because Sebastian and his sister are extremely similar.

text: The climax of the play takes place at Olivia's estate. It is here that Olivia and Sebastian are hastily married, Viola and Sebastian rediscover each other, Malvolio is rescued, and Orsino proposes to Viola.[1]

text: Character interpretation[edit]

text: Olivia is involved in all three of the main plots of the play: Orsino's love for her brings Cesario to her estate, Olivia's love for Cesario pleads her into marriage with Sebastian, and the entire plot with Sir Toby, Sir Andrew, and Malvolio revolves around Andrew and Malvolio's supposed love for her.

text: Olivia falls in love with Cesario very quickly and decides that, despite her previous declaration of mourning, she will marry him. This brings to question Olivia's sexuality, as Duke Orsino notes Cesario is "semblative a woman's part", despite her male attire.[2]

text: Depictions in film and on stage[edit]

text: One of Shakespeare's most popular plays, Twelfth Night has been produced for both the stage and film multiple times.

text: Stage[edit]

text: In 2009, Shakespeare in the Park put on a production starring Anne Hathaway as Viola and Audra McDonald as Olivia.

text: In 2014, Mark Rylance played the role in an all-male production that ran in repertory with Richard III (in which Rylance played the title role). He won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his performance as Olivia.

text: In 2017/18, Kara Tointon played the role at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon.

text: Film[edit]

text: In the first film version of the play, made in 1910, Julia Swayne Gordon depicted Lady Olivia.

text: Helena Bonham Carter played Olivia in Trevor Nunn's film, Twelfth Night.

text: In 2006 the play was adapted into a modern retelling titled She's the Man, starring Amanda Bynes as Viola and Laura Ramsey as Olivia.[3]

text: Radio[edit]

text: Helen Menken played the role of Olivia in a 1937 radio adaptation.[4]


document_title: Daddy's Home 2

question_text: who plays dylan in daddy's home 2

question_tokens: who plays dylan in daddy 's home 2

text: Daddy's Home 2

text: Plot[edit]

text: After finally becoming friends at the end of the first film, Brad Whittaker and Dusty Mayron have a co-dad system where their two children, Megan and Dylan, take turns at each father's house. Dusty has also remarried, this time to Karen, a writer, and is stepdad to Adrianna, Karen's daughter.

text: Brad and his wife, Sara, along with Dusty and Karen, attend a school play for Megan, where she announces to the whole audience that she doesn't like the fact that she has to go back and forth to different houses all the time. Back at the house, after the play, Brad and Dusty decide to do away with having two separate Christmases and instead do one "together Christmas". Dusty, however, finds out his tough fighter pilot/astronaut father Kurt (Mel Gibson) is coming for Christmas.

text: At the airport the next day, Dusty tells Brad that his father is going to make fun of them since he won't understand their co-dad arrangement. When Kurt arrives, he mistakes Brad for a chauffeur. When Dusty explains that Brad is the stepdad to his children, Kurt doesn't like it. Brad's overbearing and over-cheerful dad, Don, arrives next, unnerving Kurt. Don tells Brad that his mother didn't come along, because she is taking care of Brad's Uncle who isn't feeling well.

text: Back at the house, Megan and Dylan warmly embrace Don, since he is very present in their lives, while Kurt hasn't seen the children since they were toddlers. Kurt rents a large cabin through Airbnb, to house all of them through the holiday week. As Brad and Dusty pack the bags into the car, Dusty tells Brad that Kurt thinks the two men are harboring bad feelings for each other, but are just hiding it from everyone by pretending to be friends. When Kurt comes up, they change the subject.

text: Throughout the week, Brad and Dusty's co-dad relationship is put to the test by Kurt's meddling. Meanwhile, Dusty tries to get close to his stepdaughter, Adrianna, but she doesn't like him and repeatedly tells him that he isn't her father. Sara also tries to bond with Karen but is taken aback by some of Karen's actions, like shoplifting clothes from a store. Dylan develops a crush on a little girl staying in the cabin next door. He gets made fun of it by Megan and Adrianna.

text: The next day, the family goes out to take the kids to see Santa. While there, Kurt convinces Dylan to ask Santa for a shotgun, which he does ask for. Brad and Sara tell Dylan that a shotgun for hunting means that a poor innocent animal will lose its life. This convinces Dylan to change his mind, but Megan instead decides she wants to go hunting. While out hunting the next day, Megan accidentally shoots Kurt in the shoulder, sending him to the hospital.

text: At the hospital, Dusty and Kurt begin to bond after they almost begin fighting when Kurt tries to leave the hospital. That night, Brad, Dusty, Don & Kurt go to an improv comedy club where the four men are relaxing and having a good time watching the show. Kurt gets up to go get another drink at the bar. Dusty sees Kurt picking up a woman at the bar and leaves with her. Brad enters Don into the improv show, and Dusty chooses a topic of a husband confronting his cheating wife as the subject of an improv skit. As the skit progresses, it is revealed that Don has separated from his wife in real life. The audience believes that this is all part of the show, even when Brad tries to tell the audience that it is not.

text: The next day, Brad confronts Dusty. After Dusty reveals that he chose the infidelity subject for the improv game because he wanted to get back at Brad, because of how Brad has a good relationship with Don. Brad says he knows that is why Dusty chose that particular topic and to get back at Dusty; Brad has invited Adrianna's real dad, Roger, to the cabin for Christmas.

text: That evening, the entire family takes part in a Christmas manger representation. Brad gets into a fight with Dusty after Brad wants to play Joseph, which Dusty is currently playing. This breaks out in front of a crowd that is watching. Instead of Dusty fighting Brad, he almost comes to blows with Roger.

text: The next morning, Christmas Day, the families all pack up to leave. On their way out of town, the families are forced back to town on account of a blizzard. They are forced to take shelter at a movie theater. With every other movie being sold out, due to the huge influx of business from other families seeking shelter at the theater, both families go to see the last movie available: Missile Tow, a fictitious Liam Neeson holiday action film.

text: When the power cuts off during the movie, the families go to the lobby where each man confronts their father about the secrets, lies, and attitudes. Don confronts Brad about not telling him the truth about his divorce, while Dusty tries to talk to Kurt. When Dylan sees the girl he has a crush on, is also there at the theater, he is teased again by Megan and Adrianna. After remembering some advice given to him by Kurt, Dylan walks toward her to kiss her. All of a sudden, he doesn't kiss her, but instead kisses Adrianna, his stepsister. Roger gets freaked out and attempts to leave with Adrianna, but is confronted by Dusty. He deduces that the reason why Adrianna hasn't warmed up to him is that he has never told her that he loves her, which he does. He also tells Roger that loving Adrianna means loving her real father as well since he is also part of the family. Roger almost leaves without Adrianna, but has a change of heart after everyone breaks out into a song of Do They Know It's Christmas? and decides to stay. Don and Brad also reconcile.

text: Sometime later, at the airport, Don and Kurt are preparing to leave to head back to their respective homes. Kurt heads with Don up the terminal escalators, where he reveals to Don that he switched out the tickets and they're going to spend New Years in Las Vegas.

text: As Brad's mom's flight arrives, Dusty and Brad discover that Brad's new stepdad is Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, the pilot of the "Miracle on the Hudson" flight. Brad and Dusty remember that they watched the film "Sully" together not too long ago and Brad appears to be welcoming towards him. Brad runs down the terminal and says that Sully will never replace his father, because Sully has only one great personal story, whereas his father has thousands of stories.

text: Cast[edit]

text:
Will Ferrell as Brad Whitaker
Mark Wahlberg as Dusty Mayron
Mel Gibson as Kurt Mayron
John Lithgow as Don Whitaker
Linda Cardellini as Sara Whitaker
John Cena as Roger
Scarlett Estevez as Megan Mayron
Owen Vaccaro as Dylan Mayron
Alessandra Ambrosio as Karen Mayron
Didi Costine as Adrianna
Chesley Sullenberger as himself
Liam Neeson as himself
Bill Burr as Jerry

tag: ul

text: Production[edit]

text: In April 2016, the sequel was announced, with Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg reprising their roles, Sean Anders and John Morris writing the script, and Anders directing.[3] In January 2017, it was reported that Mel Gibson and John Lithgow were being sought to play the main characters' fathers in the film.[4] The two were later confirmed to star, along with Linda Cardellini, John Cena, Owen Vaccaro and Scarlett Estevez, reprising their roles.[5][6]

text: Filming[edit]

text: Principal photography began on March 20, 2017.[7] Scenes were filmed in Concord, Massachusetts, Framingham, Massachusetts, and Great Barrington, Massachusetts.

text: Release[edit]

text: The film was released in the United States on November 10, 2017.[8]

text: Home media[edit]

text: Daddy's Home 2 was released on Digital HD on February 6, 2018, and was released on Blu-ray and DVD on February 20, 2018.[9][10]

text: Reception[edit]

text: Box office[edit]

text: Daddy's Home 2 grossed $103.8 million in the United States and Canada, and $76.6 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $180.4 million, against a production budget of $69 million.[2]

text: In the United States and Canada, Daddy's Home 2 opened alongside Murder on the Orient Express, and was projected to gross around $20 million from 3,575 theaters in its opening weekend.[11] The film made $10.7 million on its first day, including $1.5 million from Thursday night previews at 2,500 theaters, up from the $1.2 million made by the first film. It went on to debut to $29.7 million, finishing second at the box office, behind holdover Thor: Ragnarok ($57 million).[12] In its second weekend the film made $14.4 million (a drop of 51.3%), finishing 4th behind Justice League, Wonder and Thor: Ragnarok.[13]

text: Critical response[edit]

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 19% based on 111 reviews, and an average rating of 3.8/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "A formulaic comedy that's unlikely to spread much yuletide merriment, Daddy's Home 2 can only muster a few stray yuks from its talented cast."[14] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 30 out of 100 based on 26 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[15] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.[12]

text: Alonso Duralde of TheWrap was critical of what he described as the film's sloppiness and laziness, saying, "Director Sean Anders and his co-writer John Morris execute what are supposed to be the laughs with blunt force. The jokes announce themselves with heavy footsteps, and almost none of them land, stranding a talented cast with terrible material that they’re straining to sell."[16] Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 1 out of 4 stars, saying: "After enduring last week’s lousy and lazy A Bad Moms Christmas, I would have bet it would be many a year before we’d see another holiday comedy more sour and cynical and profoundly unfunny. I sit corrected."[17]

text: Glenn Kenny of RogerEbert.com gave the film 2.5 out of 4 stars, writing, "I found the sequel better than the original—the writing sharper, the jokes fresher and smarter, the comic interaction between the lead characters consistently engaging. I mentioned this to my incredulous wife, who said, 'So you’re saying it's the Godfather, Part 2 of the Daddy’s Home series'."[18]

text: Accolades[edit]

text:
Year
Award
Category
Subject
Result

2018
Golden Raspberry Awards
Worst Actor
Mark Wahlberg
Nominated

Worst Supporting Actor
Mel Gibson
Won

tag: table


document_title: Chinatown bus lines

question_text: where does the chinatown bus stop in nyc

text: Chinatown bus lines

text: History[edit]

text: Early history[edit]

text: By the late 20th century, intercity bus service in the United States had fallen from 140 million annual passengers in 1960 to 40 million in 1990.[1][2] The decline was such that by 1997, the year Chinatown buses started operating, intercity bus transportation accounted for only 3.6% of travel in the United States.[3]

text: Chinese-operated intercity bus service originated that year when the Chinese working class found a necessity to travel from New York City, Boston, and Atlantic City. The first companies to offer such intercity bus services offered minimal features, including unmarked curbside bus stops as well as no advertisements and no customer service,[4] which drastically reduced overhead for Chinatown bus lines.[5] In 1998, two intercity bus companies commenced routes: the Fung Wah Bus, between New York City and Boston, and the Eastern Shuttle and New Century Travel and Tours (now Focus Travel), between New York City and Philadelphia.[6] The bus services originally transported workers in Chinese restaurants to and from jobs in Boston, Atlantic City, Cherry Hill Mall, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C., among other cities.[7][8] Very few non-Chinese rode on the lines at first.[2][9]

text: As word of these services spread, they became more popular with non-Chinese travelers.[2][7][10] By 2003, the demographics of Chinatown bus riders and of larger-corporation bus riders were about the same.[11] Reasons cited for the increase in ridership included lower fares and more authentic Chinatown experiences.[2] Between 1997 and 2007, Chinatown buses took 60% of Greyhound Lines' market share in the Northeast United States;[12] Riders of Chinatown buses made up over half of the riders of Northeast intercity buses during that time, bringing total ridership of intercity buses in the area to more than 7 million annual riders.[2]

text: Competition from newly enriched companies, as well as the commencement of online ticket sales,[7] caused a severe reduction in fares by 2002.[8][13] In these "fare wars", fares were reduced fourfold in some cases,[8][9] and many bus operators advertised their $10 bus fares.[14] This led to gang violence in which rival bus operators would kill or injure each other.[8] In addition, because of the low bus fares, Chinatown bus lines often made very small profits, and some, like YO! Bus, went bankrupt and ceased all operations.[9] Still, the Chinatown bus sector made up an increasing number of trips within the Northeast United States.[5]

text: Since the late 2000s, competition has come from larger corporations, such as Megabus, BoltBus, Washington Deluxe, and Vamoose Bus.[2][15] Two of the operations—Eastern Shuttle and Today's Bus—were brought under Megabus operation.[4] Another one, BoltBus, was formed by Greyhound in order to compete with the less expensive Chinatown buses.[11]

text: Increasing scope[edit]

text: Some bus lines are used to transport large groups of mainly Chinese and Vietnamese immigrants to and from casinos such as Foxwoods Resort Casino and Mohegan Sun, which are located in Connecticut. These gambling buses built upon the popularity of older bus routes to Atlantic City that also targeted Asian American customers. Similarly in Canada, several bus lines such as Safeway Tours operate between Toronto and the casinos of Niagara Falls, Ontario.[16]

text: Increasing popularity has also led to increasing regulatory interest. For example, in September 2004, the city of Boston required all regularly scheduled intercity bus services to operate exclusively to and from the South Station transportation terminal.[7][17][18] Steven Bailey of The Boston Globe suggested that the move was motivated by Peter Pan's and Greyhound's interest in maintaining their monopoly on the New York-Boston bus route, and Timothy Shevlin, executive director of the state Department of Telecommunications and Energy, said, "The big dog out there, Peter Pan, is dead set against Chinatown bus lines. They don't want that kind of competition." A complication with this arrangement was that the South Station bus terminal has only 25 gates (along with two departure gates), all of which were used at the time until other companies left.[17]

text: Organized crime ties[edit]

text: The bus lines have drawn scrutiny from law enforcement authorities for possible connections to Chinese organized crime gangs. In 2003 and 2004, a number of bus arsons, driver assaults, murders, and other gang violence in New York City were linked to the possible infiltration of Asian organized crime gangs into the industry.[19][20]

text: Among the crimes believed to have been associated with gang activity was a deadly shooting in May 2003, on a busy street, which may have been in retaliation for a driver having backed his bus into a rival;[14] as revenge, two buses were set on fire in 2004.[10] There was a fatal stabbing in October 2003,[8][10] as well as another, unrelated stabbing in 2004.[10] In January 2004, the boyfriend of a bus worker was lethally shot in what appeared to be a bus feud,[8][14] and in March 2004, a Chinatown bus operator was killed in another fatal shooting.[14] In a June 2004 incident tied to criminal gangs, two people—a Chinatown bus driver and a bystander—were murdered in a bar in Flushing, Queens, and another was shot in the leg. The accused shooter was arrested in Toronto in 2011 and extradited to the United States.[10] After the 2004 shootings, the New York City Police Department started enforcing Chinatown bus rules more strictly.[14]

text: In 2008, the New York Post linked the "Banya Organization" gang with Chinatown buses. The gang allegedly inflicted brutal beatings to coerce private bus and van companies, who were not identified.[21] In 2013, police confiscated 254 guns and arrested 19 people in the largest gun-smuggling ring in New York City's history; the suspects were accused of shipping guns from North Carolina and South Carolina to the Northern United States via Chinatown buses.[22] On the most part, however, crime between bus operators and employees has mostly subsided.[23]

text: Vehicles[edit]

text: The fleet used by various Chinabus companies can vary greatly from new coaches to older, pre-owned coaches, and with a few notable exceptions such as Eastern Shuttle and routes to Boston, not all units are branded with the operator name other than required USDOT markings.

text: With the exception of Eastern Shuttle and services to Boston (all of which use clearly marked buses), many Chinatown bus companies use wet leases to provide overflow capacity during the weekend. Some smaller companies use wet leases to provide their core capacity.[24] Typically, a bus (and a driver) would be chartered from a tour bus operator, a practice also used by mainstream companies such as Greyhound Lines during peak service.

text: Service[edit]

text: Chinatown buses typically run nonstop express service between the departure and destination points. This typically results in shorter travel times. For instance, the trip from State College, Pennsylvania, to New York City takes about four hours on the Chinatown bus, compared to more than seven hours on Greyhound.[citation needed] However, although the Chinatown buses are often cheaper than alternative modes of transport like Amtrak and airplanes, they are also slower; for example, Amtrak and airplanes take about 2.75 to 3.5 hours to travel from New York City to Washington, D.C., while Chinatown buses take 4 to 5 hours.[2] These intercity buses run at least 2,500 weekly trips.[5]

text: Many competitors offer discount prices that undercut the major bus lines. Typical fares between East Coast cities range from $10 to $20, compared to major curbside bus lines (which typically cost between $1 and $25), terminal-operated bus lines (which cost between $14 and $35), and Amtrak (which costs about $100.)[2][25] The industry has become highly competitive with companies offering hourly service between major cities.[4][26] The Appalachian extensions of these lines tend to offer less of a price advantage; for example, in August 2006, one-way fares from New York to Pittsburgh on the Chinese-owned All State were $35 compared with $45 advance through Greyhound Lines, while tickets from State College, Pennsylvania, to New York were $35, compared to $46 for Greyhound.[6] Chinatown buses also charge flat fees, while other intercity buses may vary pricing based on demand.[11] Low prices led to high demand for many Chinatown bus routes, and although a single round trip can incur hundreds of dollars in expenses, a fully booked bus can net at least $340 in profits per round trip after these expenses are paid.[9][23]

text: Often, ticket booths are walk-up windows on the street, or are located inside restaurants and bakeries throughout a given Chinatown community, although it is not uncommon for tickets to be sold on the street directly.[4][23] Some lines even simply collect cash payment after passengers have boarded the bus. However, tickets are often sold online, either by the bus companies themselves or by portals and print-outs of confirmation emails are used as tickets.[citation needed] Except in Boston, the lines rarely use stations of their own. Passengers are usually directed to wait along a given curbside for the arrival of the bus, although many companies offer waiting areas at or near the pickup points. Several bus stops are also near major hotels and in the parking areas of major Chinese supermarkets.[citation needed] In New York, several bus lines pick up passengers on a stretch of Forsyth Street at the foot of the Manhattan Bridge in the Little Fuzhou neighborhood within Manhattan's Chinatown.[7] Since 1998, when the New York City Department of Transportation marked the strip a bus layover area, the sidewalk between Division Street and East Broadway has served as a de facto terminal for the Chinatown buses.[7][27]

text: Most operators of Chinatown bus lines have traditionally been Fujianese.[14] Often, buses do not follow their scheduled timetables,[7] and many buses are often unreliable, sometimes skipping scheduled stops altogether.[23] In addition, since there are no advertisements and often no websites for these bus lines, knowledge of such bus lines is often spread verbally.[4][23]

text: Destinations and routes[edit]

text: In addition to in Boston and in the various Chinatowns in the New York metropolitan area within New York City and Long Island, several bus line companies also link to the Chinatowns of Edison, New Jersey; Cherry Hill Mall; Philadelphia; Washington, D.C.; Baltimore; Atlanta; and to the casinos of Atlantic City.[4][23] Buses also go to Ohio, Michigan, Rhode Island, Virginia, and Florida.[23] However, Chinatown buses also stop at smaller, predominately non-Chinese areas such as in North Carolina and South Carolina.[4] On the West Coast, buses link the Chinatowns of the San Francisco Bay Area; Los Angeles Chinatown and the San Gabriel Valley; and Las Vegas' Chinatown and casinos. In the I-5 corridor in California, similar services are found in the Hispanic community and provide transportation to/from Baja California in Mexico.[citation needed] Often, the Chinatown bus lines enable Chinese immigrants, mainly restaurant workers, to be transported cheaply along the coasts.[28] In total, the buses travel within 24 U.S. states and Canada.[4]

text: Many Chinatown buses have their base of operation in New York City, and it has been proposed to build a Chinatown bus hub there.[7] New York-to-Boston Chinatown buses generally use the Massachusetts Turnpike from Boston to I-84, and then follow I-84 to I-91 to I-95.[citation needed] As I-95 approaches New York, several routings are possible depending on the traffic situation. Some drivers use the Throgs Neck Bridge to reach the Long Island Expressway, then to the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, and then Manhattan Bridge to Canal Street. Other drivers use the Whitestone Bridge.[citation needed] Most drivers use the Triborough Bridge when traffic is not congested, and reach the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway via Astoria Boulevard.[citation needed]

text: In Philadelphia, the Independence Transportation Center was built in part due on a 2007 survey by the Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation, which concluded that many tourists arrived by bus and that some Chinatown buses disruptively parked on the street. People living closer to Chinatown bus stops in Philadelphia's Chinatown were more likely to complain about the buses.[7][29] Similarly, in Washington, D.C., interim bus loading regulations were enacted in 2008 due to complaints about disruptive bus layovers.[7][30] In Boston in 2004, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority required Chinatown buses to make stops inside South Station and to have permits. Although Fung Wah Bus Transportation was often ticketed for curbside parking offenses in Boston, they eventually became one of two Chinatown buses headquartered in South Station (besides Lucky Star Bus) because the fines for curbside parking were becoming higher than the South Station terminal fees.[7][18]

text: Besides the routes within the major North Eastern cities, several Chinatown buses have daily routes that run from New York City to Miami. The majority of the trip uses I-95, and the buses stop near major destinations in the Southern United States.[31] A couple of routes also go to Ohio.[32] In order to save time, the buses never go into the city, but instead stop at gas stations and rest stops along I-95.

text: Chinatown buses often go from major cities to casinos.[33] Some 'Casino Buses' use I-395 to make an intermediate stop at Foxwoods Resort Casino between the Massachusetts Turnpike and I-95.[citation needed] An example of this can also be found in the Southern United States where tour companies offer bus services from Houston's Chinatown to Lake Charles area casinos. In Canada, 'Casino Buses' are offered between Toronto and Niagara Falls, Ontario.

text: Safety[edit]

text: Chinatown buses have been involved in numerous accidents over the years, and there have been 34 intercity bus accidents across the United States in 2001–2011.[13] On a 2006 safety scale of 0 to 100, where 0 was the safest and 100 the most dangerous, Chinatown bus lines were ranked as between 71 and 99, while Greyhound Lines got a very safe rating of 0.[8] Often, "calculations of safety and risk are inverted," according to a 2013 City University of New York study.[2] Statistically, the curbside Chinatown buses are often more dangerous than buses that originate from terminals.[34] Still, many travelers were not discouraged.[35] However, intercity bus accidents are quite rare.[23]

text: After the murders in 2003–4, officials had begun randomly checking buses for operational problems.[25] In March 2011, two fatal crashes—the World Wide Tours bus crash on Interstate 95 in New York, and a New Jersey Turnpike crash—led officials to confiscate six buses for inadequate brake air pressure, steering violations, and lacking driver paperwork.[36]

text: In 2013, New York City started to give fines to bus operators without permits. This law was tightened in August 2014.[32]

text: Notable accidents[edit]

text:
On March 18, 2005, a Boston-bound Chinatown bus operated by Lucky Star/Travel Pack stopped and evacuated its passengers on the Massachusetts Turnpike shortly before bursting into flames. No one was injured.[37]
On August 16, 2005, a New York-bound Fung Wah bus caught fire on Interstate 91 near Meriden, Connecticut. Though the passengers later criticized the driver for being unhelpful and untrained in evacuating the bus, all passengers were eventually evacuated and no injuries were reported.[38]
On January 20, 2006, a surprise inspection on Forsyth Street in Manhattan's Chinatown resulted in two Washington-bound buses being pulled temporarily out of service and a driver running away from authorities.[39]
On August 15, 2006, a Shun Fa bus travelling from New York to Pittsburgh crashed; 10 passengers were injured, with 5 requiring hospitalization. One person was in critical condition.[8][40][41]
On September 6, 2006, a Fung Wah bus rolled over in Auburn, Massachusetts, and caused minor injuries to 34 passengers.[8][42] Excessive speed was cited as a factor and the bus company was fined.[43]
On January 3, 2007, a Fung Wah bus lost its back two wheels in Framingham, Massachusetts, early on a trip to New York. No injuries were reported.[44]
On February 14, 2007, a Fung Wah bus en route to New York lost control and hit a guardrail on the Massachusetts Turnpike (I-90) in Allston, Massachusetts. No injuries were reported. State officials had advised Fung Wah to suspend operations because of the winter storms that day.[45] Fung Wah reached an agreement with regulators under which its buses will be subject to scheduled and unscheduled inspections and driver checks for 30 days. The company also agreed to improve safety, including ceasing to use buses that have not been maintained in a safe and sanitary condition.[46]
On February 18, 2007, a bus, owned by Tremblay Motorcoach and operated by Sunshine Travel, caught fire on the Massachusetts Turnpike near interchange 10A in Millbury, Massachusetts. All 50 passengers were evacuated and no injuries were reported. The cause of the fire is unknown. The bus was returning to the Chinatown in Boston from Mohegan Sun casino in Uncasville, Connecticut.[47]
On March 23, 2007, a New York-bound Fung Wah bus from Boston got stuck on a concrete barrier in front of a tollbooth on the Massachusetts Turnpike at Route 128 in Weston, Massachusetts, when the bus drove up on a cement lane divider. The driver had entered an automobile-only lane and tried to change lanes. No one was injured in the incident, but the bus was taken out of service and passengers boarded another Fung Wah bus that arrived later.[48]
On May 20, 2007, a New York-bound bus crashed in Pennsylvania, killing 2 riders and injuring 32 more.[8][49]

The Fung Wah Bus crash of June 23, 2008

On June 23, 2008, a bus loading passengers was struck by an out-of-control dump truck at the corner of Bowery and Canal Street in New York’s Chinatown. The force of the impact pushed the bus onto the sidewalk and into a bank. As the result of the accident, a sign attached to a light pole fell, injuring a 57-year-old woman; the woman later died as the result of a heart attack. Several people, including two police officers, were treated for minor injuries.[50][51][52] State Department of Transportation inspectors found that the dump truck, owned by CPQ Freight Systems, had eight mechanical issues including faulty brakes which led to the accident.[53]
On March 12, 2011, a bus operated by World Wide Tours crashed on the New England Thruway, killing 15 people.[54]
Also in March 2011, on the New Jersey Turnpike, a crash occurred in which the driver was killed and 40 injured, two critically.[55]
On September 21, 2014, a bus, operated by Manhattan-based bus company AM USA Express, rolled over in Delaware. Two people died and 48 were hurt.[56]

text: After the August 2005 incident, the Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications and Energy instituted a policy of holding three surprise inspections per month on all bus companies that leave South Station in Boston. Chuck Schumer, a New York state senator, proposed a four-point federal plan that includes surprise inspections and creating a national safety standard for bus operators. The city of New York may institute a similar policy; however, inspections would be difficult in New York City because the buses do not all leave the city from the same location.[57]

text: Shutdowns[edit]

text: In 2012, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration began a crackdown on Chinatown bus lines.[12] In April 2013, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration started a "Operation Quick Strike" squad that helped pinpoint wayward Chinatown bus drivers.[13]

text: One columnist for The Daily Beast criticized the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's practices as overly harsh, stating that the it "targets" Chinatown bus companies because owners rarely speak much English. The columnist also alleged that the inspectors were also very strict in deciding which parts of the buses were defective, describing the inspectors as having confiscated several buses for minor issues.[13]


document_title: Right to Buy

question_text: when did the right to buy scheme start

question_tokens: when did the right to buy scheme start

text: Right to Buy

text: History[edit]

text: Individual local authorities have always had the ability to sell council houses to their tenants, but until the early 1970s such sales were extremely rare.

text: The Labour Party initially proposed the idea of the right of tenants to own the house they live in, in their manifesto for the 1959 general election which they subsequently lost.[2] Later, the Conservative-controlled Greater London Council (GLC) of the late 1960s was persuaded by Horace Cutler, its Chairman of Housing, to create a general sales scheme. Cutler disagreed with the concept of local authorities as providers of housing, and supported a free-market approach. GLC housing sales were not allowed during the Labour administration of the mid-1970s, but picked up again once Cutler became Leader in 1977. They proved extremely popular. Cutler was close to Margaret Thatcher (MP for Finchley) who made the right to buy council housing a Conservative Party policy nationally. The policy was largely in place for the 1974 Conservative manifesto, but did not prove an asset in the two general elections that year because of high interest and mortgage repayment rates, as well as the growth of negative equity as house prices fell.[3]

text: In the meantime, council house sales to tenants began to increase. Some 7,000 were sold to their tenants during 1970; this soared to more than 45,000 in 1972.[4]

text: Thatcher policies[edit]

text: After Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister in May 1979, the legislation to implement the Right to Buy was passed in the Housing Act 1980. Michael Heseltine, in his role as Secretary of State for the Environment, was in charge of implementing the legislation. Some 6,000,000 people were affected; about one in three actually purchased their housing unit. Heseltine noted that "no single piece of legislation has enabled the transfer of so much capital wealth from the state to the people". He said the right to buy had two main objectives: to give people what they wanted, and to reverse the trend of ever-increasing dominance of the state over the life of the individual.

text: He said: "There is in this country a deeply ingrained desire for home ownership. The Government believe that this spirit should be fostered. It reflects the wishes of the people, ensures the wide spread of wealth through society, encourages a personal desire to improve and modernise one's own home, enables parents to accrue wealth for their children and stimulates the attitudes of independence and self-reliance that are the bedrock of a free society."[5]

text: The sale price of a council house was based on its market valuation but also included a discount of between 33% and 50%, to reflect the rents paid by tenants and also to encourage take-up. According to a government survey in 1988, the average discount that had been offered was 44%.[6] Mortgages involved no down payments. The legislation gave council tenants the right to buy their council house at a discounted value, depending on how long they had been living in the house, with the proviso that if they sold their house before a minimum period had expired they would have to pay back a proportion of the discount. The sales were an attractive deal for tenants; hundreds of thousands of homes were sold. The policy became one of the major points of Thatcherism.[7]

text: The policy proved immediately popular. Some local Labour-controlled councils were opposed, but the legislation prevented them from blocking purchases, and gave them half the proceeds.[8] Sales were much higher in the south and east of England than in inner London and northern England.[9]

text: Half the proceeds of the sales were paid to the local authorities, but the government restricted authorities' use of most of the money to reducing their debt until it was cleared, rather than spending it on building more homes. The effect was to reduce the council housing stock, especially in areas where property prices were high, such as London and the south-east of England.[10]

text: 200,000 council houses were sold to their tenants in 1982. By 1987, more than 1,000,000 council houses in the UK had been sold to their tenants, although the number of council houses purchased by tenants declined during the 1990s.[11]

text: The Labour Party was initially against the sales, and pledged to oppose them at the 1983 general election, but then dropped its official opposition to the scheme in 1985.[12] However, at the 1987 general election, the Conservative government warned voters that a Labour government would still abolish the scheme.[13]

text: When Labour returned to power at the 1997 general election, it reduced the discount available to tenants in local authorities which had severe pressure on their housing stock; this included almost the whole of London.[14]

text: Right to Buy rules after 2005[edit]

text: The Right to Buy rules were changed in 2005. Five years' tenancy was now required for new tenants to qualify, and properties purchased after January 2005 could no longer immediately be placed on the open market should the owner decide to sell. Such owners now had to approach their previous landlord (council or housing association) and offer them "first right of refusal". If the previous landlord was no longer in existence, for example in cases where the former landlord was a registered social landlord that has ceased business, then the property had to first be offered to the local housing authority.

text: The time in which a Right to Buy conveyance should take place was reduced from 12 months to 3 months. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) now governed and regulated most types of mortgage-selling.

text: The FCA's governance of Right to Buy purchases was partly to solve the widespread problem of Right to Buy mis-selling from brokers and solicitors alike. Each had their own agenda and many were actively charging excessive fees which were then taken out of their client's discount. Fortunately, the above actions that have been taken coupled with the end of the boom period seem to have brought this problem under control.

text: In 2009, the Localis think tank suggested, as part of a review of principles for social housing reform, that the right to buy should be extended into equity slivers, which could be part-earned through being a good tenant.[15]

text: The qualifying period changed from 5 years to 3 years (edited rbcdd3117 in 2018)

text: Recent changes[edit]

text: At the 2011 Conservative Party Conference, David Cameron proposed to increase Right to Buy discounts in order to revitalise the housing market and generate receipts which could be spent on new housing. Social housing professionals expressed concerns over the proposal.[16]

text: As of 2 April 2012, the Right to Buy discount was increased to a maximum of £75,000 or 60% of the house value (70% for a flat) depending on which is lower. In March 2013, the maximum discount in London was increased to £100,000.[17]

text: The maximum amount of discount changes annually wef April 2017 it changed to £78,600.00 (edited 2018 rbc dd3117)

text: The maximum right to buy discount increases each financial year in line with CPI as at the previous September (see separate document from the Right to Buy Team, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.

text: As the CPI in September 2017 was 3% the new maximum discounts for Redditch in respect of the financial year 2018/19 will be £80,900 and applies to all applications made by the tenant on or after 6 April 2018. Any applications made before then are processed using the current discounts (£78,600). In summary discount is a maximum of £80,900.00 from April 2018 (rbcdd3117)

text: The aim of the scheme is, for every additional home sold, a new home will be built for 'affordable rent'[18] at up to 80% of market rent, aimed at maintaining the level of affordable housing while also increasing the number of properties available for those on the waiting list. The five year tenancy criterion will remain, and should the property be sold within the first five years of the original sale, part or all of the discount will be required to be paid back.

text: The Housing and Planning Bill 2016 will if enacted extend right-to-buy to housing association tenants.[19]

text: In July 2013, the Scottish Government confirmed that Right to Buy would be abolished in Scotland from 2017.[20] It was in the end abolished as a part of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2014 from 1 August 2016.[21][22]

text: In the summer of 2017, the Welsh Government proposed a law to abolish Right to Buy in Wales. This law was passed by the Welsh Assembly in December 2017.

text: Criticisms[edit]

text: The Right to Buy scheme has been criticised for the following reasons:

text:
Speculating investors were able to buy up council properties through deferred transaction agreements, hastening the rise in property costs;[23][not in citation given]
Commercially and socially valuable council assets being sold at below their market value or replacement cost;
The remaining stock of council housing was concentrated in undesirable areas with little employment opportunity, further isolating and stigmatising the tenants.[24]

text: A report published in January 2013 by London Assembly member Tom Copley, From Right to Buy to Buy to Let,[25] showed that 36% of homes sold under Right to Buy in London (52,000 homes) were being rented by councils from private landlords, leading to criticisms that the scheme "represents incredibly poor value for money to taxpayers" since it "helped to fuel the increase in the housing benefit bill, heaped more pressure on local authority waiting lists and led to more Londoners being forced into the under-regulated private rented sector".[26] A survey in 2013 showed around one third of Right to Buy houses were now owned by private landlords, while the son of the late Ian Gow (Thatcher's sometime housing minister) owned some 40 houses.[27]

text: As of recent changes in 2015, Alan Murie concluded that "the proposed extension of right-to-buy could not easily be reconciled with the independence and charitable status of housing associations", and that "extending the right-to-buy to housing association tenants revived a previous Parliamentary debate and raised questions about the legal position of charities and the risks faced by housing associations and their funders".[28]

text: A 2017 BBC survey of council areas where waiting lists were rising showed the councils had bought back houses they had been forced to sell, sometimes at many times the original price. Housing charities criticised the lack of investment in affordable housing.[29]