How large is the Caspian Sea?

The wide and endorheic Caspian Sea has a north–south orientation and its main freshwater inflow, the Volga River, enters at the shallow north end. Two deep basins occupy its central and southern areas. These facts lead to horizontal differences in temperature, salinity, and ecology. The Caspian Sea spreads out over nearly 750 miles (1,200 km) from north to south, with an average width of 200 miles (320 km). It covers a region of around 149,200 square miles (386,400 square km)—bigger than the region of Japan—and its surface is about 90 feet (27 meters) below sea level. The sea bed in the southern part reaches as low as 1,023 m (3,356 ft) below sea level, which is the second lowest natural depression on earth after Lake Baikal (−1,180 m, −3,871 ft). The ancient inhabitants of its coast perceived the Caspian Sea as an ocean, probably because of its saltiness and large size.

Caspian Sea

The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, variously classed as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. It is an endorheic basin (a basin without outflows) located between Europe and Asia, to the east of the Caucasus Mountains and to the west of the broad steppe of Central Asia. It is bounded by Kazakhstan to the northeast, Russia to the northwest, Azerbaijan to the west, Iran to the south, and Turkmenistan to the southeast. The Caspian Sea is home to a wide range of species and may be best known for its caviar and oil industries. Pollution from the oil industry and dams on rivers draining into the Caspian Sea have had negative effects on the organisms living in the sea.

The sea has a surface area of 371,000 km (143,200 sq mi) (not including the detached lagoon of Garabogazköl) and a volume of 78,200 km(18,800 cu mi). It has a salinity of approximately 1.2% (12 g/l), about a third of the salinity of most seawater.

The word Caspian is derived from the name of the Caspi, an ancient people who lived to the southwest of the sea in Transcaucasia. Strabo wrote that "to the country of the Albanians belongs also the territory called Caspiane, which was named after the Caspian tribe, as was also the sea; but the tribe has now disappeared". Moreover, the Caspian Gates, which is the name of a region in Iran's Tehran province, possibly indicates that they migrated to the south of the sea. The Iranian city of Qazvin shares the root of its name with that of the sea. In fact, the traditional Arabic name for the sea itself is Baḥr al-Qazwin (Sea of Qazvin).

In classical antiquity among Greeks and Persians it was called the "Hyrcanian Ocean". In Persian antiquity, as well as in modern Iran, it is known as, "Daryā-e Khazar"; it is also sometimes referred to as "Mazandaran Sea" () in Iran. Ancient Arabic sources refer to it as "Baḥr Gīlān" (بحر گیلان) meaning "the Gilan Sea".

Turkic languages refer to the lake as "Khazar Sea". In Turkmen, the name is, in Azeri, it is, and in modern Turkish, it is. In all these cases, the second word simply means "sea", and the first word refers to the historical Khazars who had a large empire based to the north of the Caspian Sea between the 7th and 10th centuries. An exception is Kazakh, where it is called, "Kaspiy teñizi" (Caspian Sea).

Renaissance European maps labelled it as "Abbacuch Sea" (Oronce Fine's 1531 world map), "Mar de Bachu" (Ortellius' 1570 map), or "Mar de Sala" (Mercator's 1569 map).

Old Russian sources call it the "Khvalyn" or "Khvalis" Sea (Хвалынское море / Хвалисское море) after the name of Khwarezmia. In modern Russian, it is called, "Kaspiyskoye more".

The Caspian Sea, like the Black Sea, Namak Lake, and Lake Urmia, is a remnant of the ancient Paratethys Sea. It became landlocked about 5.5 million years ago due to tectonic uplift and a fall in sea level. During warm and dry climatic periods, the landlocked sea almost dried up, depositing evaporitic sediments like halite that were covered by wind-blown deposits and were sealed off as an evaporite sink when cool, wet climates refilled the basin. (Comparable evaporite beds underlie the Mediterranean.) Due to the current inflow of fresh water, the Caspian Sea is a freshwater lake in its northern portions, and is most saline on the Iranian shore, where the catchment basin contributes little flow. Currently, the mean salinity of the Caspian is one third that of Earth's oceans. The Garabogazköl embayment, which dried up when water flow from the main body of the Caspian was blocked in the 1980s but has since been restored, routinely exceeds oceanic salinity by a factor of 10.

The Caspian Sea is the largest inland body of water in the world and accounts for 40 to 44% of the total lacustrine waters of the world. The coastlines of the Caspian are shared by Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Turkmenistan. The Caspian is divided into three distinct physical regions: the Northern, Middle, and Southern Caspian. The Northern–Middle boundary is the Mangyshlak Threshold, which runs through Chechen Island and Cape Tiub-Karagan. The Middle–Southern boundary is the Apsheron Threshold, a sill of tectonic origin between the Eurasian continent and an oceanic remnant, that runs through Zhiloi Island and Cape Kuuli. The Garabogazköl Bay is the saline eastern inlet of the Caspian, which is part of Turkmenistan and at times has been a lake in its own right due to the isthmus that cuts it off from the Caspian.

Differences between the three regions are dramatic. The Northern Caspian only includes the Caspian shelf, and is very shallow; it accounts for less than 1% of the total water volume with an average depth of only. The sea noticeably drops off towards the Middle Caspian, where the average depth is. The Southern Caspian is the deepest, with oceanic depths of over, greatly exceeding the depth of other regional seas, such as the Persian Gulf. The Middle and Southern Caspian account for 33% and 66% of the total water volume, respectively. The northern portion of the Caspian Sea typically freezes in the winter, and in the coldest winters ice forms in the south as well.

Over 130 rivers provide inflow to the Caspian, with the Volga River being the largest. A second affluent, the Ural River, flows in from the north, and the Kura River flows into the sea from the west. In the past, the Amu Darya (Oxus) of Central Asia in the east often changed course to empty into the Caspian through a now-desiccated riverbed called the Uzboy River, as did the Syr Darya farther north. The Caspian also has several small islands; they are primarily located in the north and have a collective land area of roughly. Adjacent to the North Caspian is the Caspian Depression, a low-lying region below sea level. The Central Asian steppes stretch across the northeast coast, while the Caucasus mountains hug the western shore. The biomes to both the north and east are characterized by cold, continental deserts. Conversely, the climate to the southwest and south are generally warm with uneven elevation due to a mix of highlands and mountain ranges; the drastic changes in climate alongside the Caspian have led to a great deal of biodiversity in the region.

The Caspian Sea has numerous islands throughout, all of them near the coasts; none in the deeper parts of the sea. Ogurja Ada is the largest island. The island is long, with gazelles roaming freely on it. In the North Caspian, the majority of the islands are small and uninhabited, like the Tyuleniy Archipelago, an Important Bird Area (IBA), although some of them have human settlements.

The Caspian has characteristics common to both seas and lakes. It is often listed as the world's largest lake, although it is not a freshwater lake. It contains about 3.5 times more water, by volume, than all five of North America's Great Lakes combined. The Caspian was once part of the Tethys Ocean, but became landlocked about 5.5 million years ago due to plate tectonics. The Volga River (about 80% of the inflow) and the Ural River discharge into the Caspian Sea, but it has no natural outflow other than by evaporation. Thus the Caspian ecosystem is a closed basin, with its own sea level history that is independent of the eustatic level of the world's oceans.

The level of the Caspian has fallen and risen, often rapidly, many times over the centuries. Some Russian historians claim that a medieval rising of the Caspian, perhaps caused by the Amu Darya changing its inflow to the Caspian from the 13th century to the 16th century, caused the coastal towns of Khazaria, such as Atil, to flood. In 2004, the water level was below sea level.

Over the centuries, Caspian Sea levels have changed in synchrony with the estimated discharge of the Volga, which in turn depends on rainfall levels in its vast catchment basin. Precipitation is related to variations in the amount of North Atlantic depressions that reach the interior, and they in turn are affected by cycles of the North Atlantic oscillation. Thus levels in the Caspian Sea relate to atmospheric conditions in the North Atlantic, thousands of miles to the northwest.

The last short-term sea-level cycle started with a sea-level fall of from 1929 to 1977, followed by a rise of from 1977 until 1995. Since then smaller oscillations have taken place.

The Volga River, the largest in Europe, drains 20% of the European land area and is the source of 80% of the Caspian's inflow. Its lower reaches are heavily developed with numerous unregulated releases of chemical and biological pollutants. Although existing data is sparse and of questionable quality, there is ample evidence to suggest that the Volga is one of the principal sources of transboundary contaminants into the Caspian.

The magnitude of fossil fuel extraction and transport activity in the Caspian also poses a risk to the environment. The island of Vulf off Baku, for example, has suffered ecological damage as a result of the petrochemical industry; this has significantly decreased the number of species of marine birds in the area. Existing and planned oil and gas pipelines under the sea further increase the potential threat to the environment.

The Vladimir Filanovsky field in the Russian section of the body of water was discovered for its wealth of oil in 2005. It is reportedly the largest discovery of oil in 25 years. It was announced in October 2016 that Lukoil would start production in this region.

The rising level of the Caspian Sea between 1994 and 1996 reduced the number of habitats for rare species of aquatic vegetation. This has been attributed to a general lack of seeding material in newly formed coastal lagoons and water bodies.

The Caspian turtle ("Mauremys caspica"), although found in neighboring areas, is a wholly freshwater species. The zebra mussel is native to the Caspian and Black Sea basins, but has become an invasive species elsewhere, when introduced. The area has given its name to several species, including the Caspian gull and the Caspian tern. The Caspian seal ("Pusa caspica") is the only aquatic mammal and is endemic to the Caspian Sea, being one of very few seal species that live in inland waters, but it is different from the those inhabiting freshwaters due to the hydrological environment of the sea.

Archeological studies of Gobustan petroglyphs indicate that there once had been dolphins and porpoises, or a certain species of beaked whales and a whaling scene indicates large baleen whales likely being present in Caspian Sea at least until when the Caspian Sea ceased being a part of the ocean system or until the Quaternary or much more recent periods such as until the last glacial period or antiquity. Although the rock art on Kichikdash Mountain is assumed to be of a dolphin or of a beaked whale, it might instead represent the famous beluga sturgeon due to its size (430 cm in length), but fossil records suggest certain ancestors of modern dolphins and whales, such as "Macrokentriodon morani" (bottlenose dolphins) and "Balaenoptera sibbaldina" (blue whales) were presumably larger than their present descendants. From the same artworks, auks, like Brunnich's Guillemot could also have been in the sea as well, and these petroglyphs suggest marine inflow between the current Caspian Sea and the Arctic Ocean or North Sea, or the Black Sea. This is supported by the existences of current endemic, oceanic species such as lagoon cockles which was genetically identified to originate in Caspian/Black Seas regions.

The sea's basin (including associated waters such as rivers) has 160 native species and subspecies of fish in more than 60 genera. About 62% of the species and subspecies are endemic, as are 4–6 genera (depending on taxonomic treatment). The lake proper has 115 natives, including 73 endemics (63.5%). Among the more than 50 genera in the lake proper, 3–4 are endemic: "Anatirostrum", "Caspiomyzon", "Chasar" (often included in "Ponticola") and "Hyrcanogobius". By far the most numerous families in the lake proper are gobies (35 species and subspecies), cyprinids (32) and clupeids (22). Two particularly rich genera are "Alosa" with 18 endemic species/subspecies and "Benthophilus" with 16 endemic species. Other examples of endemics are four species of "Clupeonella", "Gobio volgensis", two "Rutilus", three "Sabanejewia", "Stenodus leucichthys", two "Salmo", two "Mesogobius" and three "Neogobius". Most non-endemic natives are either shared with the Black Sea basin or widespread Palearctic species such as crucian carp, Prussian carp, common carp, common bream, common bleak, asp, white bream, sunbleak, common dace, common roach, common rudd, European chub, sichel, tench, European weatherfish, wels catfish, northern pike, burbot, European perch and zander. Almost 30 non-indigenous, introduced fish species have been reported from the Caspian Sea, but only a few have become established.

Six sturgeon species, the Russian, bastard, Persian, sterlet, starry and beluga, are native to the Caspian Sea. The last of these is arguably the largest freshwater fish in the world. The sturgeon yield roe (eggs) that are processed into caviar. Overfishing has depleted a number of the historic fisheries. In recent years, overfishing has threatened the sturgeon population to the point that environmentalists advocate banning sturgeon fishing completely until the population recovers. The high price of sturgeon caviar, however, allows fishermen to afford bribes to ensure the authorities look the other way, making regulations in many locations ineffective. Caviar harvesting further endangers the fish stocks, since it targets reproductive females.

Many rare and endemic plant species of Russia are associated with the tidal areas of the Volga delta and riparian forests of the Samur River delta. The shoreline is also a unique refuge for plants adapted to the loose sands of the Central Asian Deserts. The principal limiting factors to successful establishment of plant species are hydrological imbalances within the surrounding deltas, water pollution, and various land reclamation activities. The water level change within the Caspian Sea is an indirect reason for which plants may not get established.

These affect aquatic plants of the Volga Delta, such as "Aldrovanda vesiculosa" and the native "Nelumbo caspica". About 11 plant species are found in the Samur River Delta, including the unique liana forests that date back to the Tertiary period.

Reptiles native to the region include spur-thighed tortoise ("Testudo graeca buxtoni") and Horsfield's tortoise.

The history of the Caspian sea is divided into two parts: a Miocene stage, determined by tectonic events that correlate with the closing of the Tethys Sea, and a Pleistocene stage, that includes glaciation cycles and the creation of the present Volga River. During the first stage, the Tethys Sea had evolved into the Sarmatian Lake, that was created from the modern Black Sea and south Caspian, when the collision of the Arabian peninsula with Western Asia pushed up the Kopet Dag and Caucasus Mountains, setting definitive south and west boundaries to the Caspian basin. This orogeneic movement was continuous throughout the years, while Caspian was regularly disconnecting from the Black Sea. In the late Pontian, a mountain arch rose across the south basin and divided it in the Khachmaz and Lankaran Lakes (or early Balaxani). The period of restriction to the south basin was reversed during the Akchagyglian, when the lake expanded to more than three times its present area and established the first of a series of contacts with the Black Sea and with Lake Aral. A recession of the lake Akchagyl completed stage one.

The earliest hominid remains found around the Caspian Sea are from Dmanisi dating back to around 1.8 Ma and yielded a number of skeletal remains of Homo erectus or Homo ergaster. More later evidence for human occupation of the region came from a number of caves in Georgia and Azerbaijan such as Kudaro and Azykh Caves. There is evidence for Lower Palaeolithic human occupation south of the Caspian from western Alburz. These are Ganj Par and Darband Cave sites.

Neanderthal remains also have been discovered at a cave site in Georgia. Discoveries in the Huto cave and the adjacent Kamarband cave, near the town of Behshahr, Mazandaran south of the Caspian in Iran, suggest human habitation of the area as early as 11,000 years ago.

The Caspian area is rich in energy resources. Oil wells were being dug in the region as early as the 10th century to reach oil "for use in everyday life, both for medicinal purposes and for heating and lighting in homes". By the 16th century, Europeans were aware of the rich oil and gas deposits around the area. English traders Thomas Bannister and Jeffrey Duckett described the area around Baku as "a strange thing to behold, for there issueth out of the ground a marvelous quantity of oil, which serveth all the country to burn in their houses. This oil is black and is called nefte. There is also by the town of Baku, another kind of oil which is white and very precious [i.e., petroleum]."

In the 18th century, during the rule of Peter I the Great, Fedor I. Soimonov, hydrographer and pioneering explorer of the Caspian Sea charted the until then little known body of water. Soimonov drew a set of four maps and wrote "Pilot of the Caspian Sea", the first report and modern maps of the Caspian, that were published in 1720 by the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Today, oil and gas platforms abound along the edges of the sea.Countries on the Caspian region, such as Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, illustrate the examples of natural-resource-based economies. A resource-based economy is defined as one where the natural resources, gas and oil, compose more that 10 percent of the particular country's GDP and 40 percent of exports' All the Caspian region economies are highly dependent on the mineral wealth. The world energy markets got influenced by Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, as they became strategically crucial in this sphere, thus attracting the largest share of FDI (foreign direct investment).

Iran has an enormous energy potential based on several specific factors: 137.5 billion bbl of crude oil reserves, the second largest in the world, Producing around 4 million bbl/day. Additionally, Iran has an estimated 988.4 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, around 16 percent of total world reserves, which makes it to play a key role in the global energy security equation.

Russia's economy ranks as the twelfth largest by nominal GDP and sixth largest by purchasing power parity in 2015. Russia's extensive mineral and energy resources are the largest such reserves in the world, making it the second leading producer of oil and natural gas globally.

The Caspian Sea region presently is a significant, but not major, supplier of crude oil to world markets, based upon estimates by BP Amoco and the U.S. Energy Information Administration, U.S. Department of Energy. The Caspian region produced an estimated 1.4–1.5 million barrels per day (bbls/day) including natural gas liquids in 2001, or 1.9% of total world output (table 1).3 More than a dozen non-Caspian countries each produce more than 1.5 million bbls/day. Caspian region production has been higher, but suffered during the collapse of the Soviet Union and the years following. Kazakhstan accounts for 55% and Azerbaijan for about 20% of current regional oil output.

The world's first offshore wells and machine-drilled wells were made in Bibi-Heybat Bay, near Baku, Azerbaijan. In 1873, exploration and development of oil began in some of the largest fields known to exist in the world at that time on the Absheron Peninsula near the villages of Balakhanli, Sabunchi, Ramana, and Bibi Heybat. Total recoverable reserves were more than 500 million tons. By 1900, Baku had more than 3,000 oil wells, 2,000 of which were producing at industrial levels. By the end of the 19th century, Baku became known as the "black gold capital", and many skilled workers and specialists flocked to the city.

By the beginning of the 20th century, Baku was the centre of international oil industry. In 1920, when the Bolsheviks captured Azerbaijan, all private property – including oil wells and factories – was confiscated. Afterwards, the republic's entire oil industry came under the control of the Soviet Union. By 1941, Azerbaijan was producing a record 23.5 million tons of oil per year, and the Baku region supplied nearly 72 percent of all oil extracted in the entire Soviet Union.

In 1994, the "Contract of the Century" was signed, signalling the start of major international development of the Baku oil fields. The Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan pipeline, a major pipeline allowing Azerbaijan oil to flow straight to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, opened in 2006.

Baku, which is the starting point of all sea routes of Azerbaijan, is the largest port of the Caspian Sea. Azerbaijan has access to the oceans along the Caspian Sea-Volga-Volga-Don Canal, and the Don-Sea of Azov. Along with the Volga-Don Canal, the Azerbaijani vessels have the opportunity to enter the world ocean through the Volga-Baltic and White Sea-Baltic canals. Moreover, oil tankers are being transported through the Caspian Sea. Baku Sea Trade Port and Caspian Shipping Company CJSC, have a big role in the sea transportation of Azerbaijan. The Caspian Sea Shipping Company CJSC, along with the transport fleet, also includes a specialized fleet and shipyards. The transport fleet consists of 51 vessels, including 20 tankers, 13 ferries, 15 universal dry cargo vessels, 2 Ro-Ro vessels, as well as 1 technical vessel and 1 floating workshop. The specialized fleet includes 210 vessels, including 20 cranes, 25 towing and supplying vehicles, 26 passenger, two pipe-laying, six fire-fighting, seven engineering-geological, two diving and 88 auxiliary vessels.

The Caspian Sea Shipping Company of Azerbaijan, which acts as a liaison in the Transport Corridor Europe-Caucasus-Asia (TRACECA), simultaneously with the transportation of cargo and passengers in the Trans-Caspian direction, also performs work to fully ensure the processes of oil and gas production at sea. This activity has a rich history. The development of the shipping industry in Azerbaijan is closely connected with the formation and progress of the oil industry. In the 19th century, the sharp increase in oil production in Baku gave a huge impetus to the development of shipping in the Caspian Sea, and as a result, there was a need to create fundamentally new floating facilities for the transportation of oil and oil products.

Many of the islands along the Azerbaijani coast continue to hold significant geopolitical and economic importance because of the potential oil reserves found nearby. Bulla Island, Pirallahı Island, and Nargin, which is still used as a former Soviet base and is the largest island in the Baku bay, all hold oil reserves.

The collapse of the Soviet Union and subsequent opening of the region has led to an intense investment and development scramble by international oil companies. In 1998, Dick Cheney commented that "I can't think of a time when we've had a region emerge as suddenly to become as strategically significant as the Caspian."

A key problem to further development in the region is the status of the Caspian Sea and the establishment of the water boundaries among the five littoral states. The current disputes along Azerbaijan's maritime borders with Turkmenistan and Iran could potentially affect future development plans.

Much controversy currently exists over the proposed Trans-Caspian oil and gas pipelines. These projects would allow Western markets easier access to Kazakh oil and, potentially, Uzbek and Turkmen gas as well. Russia officially opposes the project on environmental grounds. However, analysts note that the pipelines would bypass Russia completely, thereby denying the country valuable transit fees, as well as destroying its current monopoly on westward-bound hydrocarbon exports from the region. Recently, both Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan have expressed their support for the Trans-Caspian Pipeline.

U.S. diplomatic cables disclosed by WikiLeaks revealed that BP covered up a gas leak and blowout incident in September 2008 at an operating gas field in the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshi area of the Azerbaijan Caspian Sea.

, negotiations related to the demarcation of the Caspian Sea had been going on for nearly a decade among the states bordering the Caspian – Azerbaijan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Iran. The status of the Caspian Sea is the key problem. Access to mineral resources (oil and natural gas), access for fishing, and access to international waters (through Russia's Volga river and the canals connecting it to the Black Sea and Baltic Sea) all depend upon the outcomes of negotiations. Access to the Volga River is particularly important for the landlocked states of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan. This concerns Russia, because the potential traffic would use its inland waterways. If a body of water is labelled as a sea, then there would be some precedents and international treaties obliging the granting of access permits to foreign vessels. If a body of water is labelled merely as a lake, then there are no such obligations. Environmental issues are also somewhat connected to the status and borders issue.

All five Caspian littoral states maintain naval forces on the sea.

According to a treaty signed between Iran and the Soviet Union, the Caspian Sea is technically a lake and was divided into two sectors (Iranian and Soviet), but the resources (then mainly fish) were commonly shared. The line between the two sectors was considered an international border in a common lake, like Lake Albert. The Soviet sector was sub-divided into the four littoral republics' administrative sectors.

Russia, Kazakhstan, and Azerbaijan have bilateral agreements with each other based on median lines. Because of their use by the three nations, median lines seem to be the most likely method of delineating territory in future agreements. However, Iran insists on a single, multilateral agreement between the five nations (as this is the only way for it to achieve a one-fifth share of the sea). Azerbaijan is at odds with Iran over some oil fields that both states claim. Occasionally, Iranian patrol boats have fired at vessels sent by Azerbaijan for exploration into the disputed region. There are similar tensions between Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan (the latter claims that the former has pumped more oil than agreed from a field, recognized by both parties as shared).

The Caspian littoral states' meeting in 2007 signed an agreement that bars any ship not flying the national flag of a littoral state from entering the sea.

Negotiations among the five littoral states have been ongoing, amidst ebbs and flows, for the past 20 years, with some degree of progress being made at the fourth Caspian Summit held in Astrakhan in 2014.

The Caspian Summit is a head of state-level meeting of the five littoral states. The fifth Caspian Summit took place on August 12, 2018 in the Kazakh port city of Aktau. The five leaders signed the ‘Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea’.

The five littoral states build consensus on legally binding governance of the Caspian Sea through Special Working Groups of a Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea. In advance of a Caspian Summit, 51st Special Working Group took place in Astana in May 2018 and found consensus on multiple agreements: Agreements on cooperation in the field of transport; trade and economic cooperation; prevention of incidents on the sea; combating terrorism; fighting against organized crime; and border security cooperation.

The Convention grants jurisdiction over 15 miles of territorial waters to each neighboring country, plus additional 10 miles of exclusive fishing rights on the surface, while the rest is international waters. The seabed, on the other hand, remains undefined, subject to bilateral agreements between countries. Thus, the Caspian Sea is legally neither fully a sea nor a lake.

UNECE recognizes several rivers that cross international borders which flow into the Caspian Sea.
These are:
Although the Caspian Sea is endorheic, its main tributary, the Volga, is connected by important shipping canals with the Don River (and thus the Black Sea) and with the Baltic Sea, with branch canals to Northern Dvina and to the White Sea.

Another Caspian tributary, the Kuma River, is connected by an irrigation canal with the Don basin as well.

Several scheduled ferry services (including train ferries) operate on the Caspian Sea, including:

The ferries are mostly used for cargo; only the Baku–Aktau and Baku–Türkmenbaşy routes accept passengers.

As an endorheic basin, the Caspian Sea basin has no natural connection with the ocean. Since the medieval period, traders reached the Caspian via a number of portages that connected the Volga and its tributaries with the Don River (which flows into the Sea of Azov) and various rivers that flow into the Baltic Sea. Primitive canals connecting the Volga Basin with the Baltic have been constructed as early as the early 18th century. Since then, a number of canal projects have been completed.

The two modern canal systems that connect the Volga Basin, and hence the Caspian Sea, with the ocean are the Volga–Baltic Waterway and the Volga–Don Canal.

The proposed Pechora–Kama Canal was a project that was widely discussed between the 1930s and 1980s. Shipping was a secondary consideration. Its main goal was to redirect some of the water of the Pechora River (which flows into the Arctic Ocean) via the Kama River into the Volga. The goals were both irrigation and the stabilization of the water level in the Caspian, which was thought to be falling dangerously fast at the time. During 1971, some peaceful nuclear construction experiments were carried out in the region by the U.S.S.R.

In June 2007, in order to boost his oil-rich country's access to markets, Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev proposed a link between the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea. It is hoped that the "Eurasia Canal" (Manych Ship Canal) would transform landlocked Kazakhstan and other Central Asian countries into maritime states, enabling them to significantly increase trade volume. Although the canal would traverse Russian territory, it would benefit Kazakhstan through its Caspian Sea ports. The most likely route for the canal, the officials at the Committee on Water Resources at Kazakhstan's Agriculture Ministry say, would follow the Kuma–Manych Depression, where currently a chain of rivers and lakes is already connected by an irrigation canal (Kuma–Manych Canal). Upgrading the Volga–Don Canal would be another option.

Caspian Sea

The sea has a surface area of 371,000 km (143,200 sq mi) (not including the detached lagoon of Garabogazköl) and a volume of 78,200 km(18,800 cu mi). It has a salinity of approximately 1.2% (12 g/l), about a third of the salinity of most seawater.

In classical antiquity among Greeks and Persians it was called the "Hyrcanian Ocean". In Persian antiquity, as well as in modern Iran, it is known as, "Daryā-e Khazar"; it is also sometimes referred to as "Mazandaran Sea" () in Iran. Ancient Arabic sources refer to it as "Baḥr Gīlān" (بحر گیلان) meaning "the Gilan Sea".

Turkic languages refer to the lake as "Khazar Sea". In Turkmen, the name is, in Azeri, it is, and in modern Turkish, it is. In all these cases, the second word simply means "sea", and the first word refers to the historical Khazars who had a large empire based to the north of the Caspian Sea between the 7th and 10th centuries. An exception is Kazakh, where it is called, "Kaspiy teñizi" (Caspian Sea).

Renaissance European maps labelled it as "Abbacuch Sea" (Oronce Fine's 1531 world map), "Mar de Bachu" (Ortellius' 1570 map), or "Mar de Sala" (Mercator's 1569 map).

Old Russian sources call it the "Khvalyn" or "Khvalis" Sea (Хвалынское море / Хвалисское море) after the name of Khwarezmia. In modern Russian, it is called, "Kaspiyskoye more".

The Caspian Sea has numerous islands throughout, all of them near the coasts; none in the deeper parts of the sea. Ogurja Ada is the largest island. The island is long, with gazelles roaming freely on it. In the North Caspian, the majority of the islands are small and uninhabited, like the Tyuleniy Archipelago, an Important Bird Area (IBA), although some of them have human settlements.

The level of the Caspian has fallen and risen, often rapidly, many times over the centuries. Some Russian historians claim that a medieval rising of the Caspian, perhaps caused by the Amu Darya changing its inflow to the Caspian from the 13th century to the 16th century, caused the coastal towns of Khazaria, such as Atil, to flood. In 2004, the water level was below sea level.

The last short-term sea-level cycle started with a sea-level fall of from 1929 to 1977, followed by a rise of from 1977 until 1995. Since then smaller oscillations have taken place.

The Vladimir Filanovsky field in the Russian section of the body of water was discovered for its wealth of oil in 2005. It is reportedly the largest discovery of oil in 25 years. It was announced in October 2016 that Lukoil would start production in this region.

The rising level of the Caspian Sea between 1994 and 1996 reduced the number of habitats for rare species of aquatic vegetation. This has been attributed to a general lack of seeding material in newly formed coastal lagoons and water bodies.

These affect aquatic plants of the Volga Delta, such as "Aldrovanda vesiculosa" and the native "Nelumbo caspica". About 11 plant species are found in the Samur River Delta, including the unique liana forests that date back to the Tertiary period.

Reptiles native to the region include spur-thighed tortoise ("Testudo graeca buxtoni") and Horsfield's tortoise.

Neanderthal remains also have been discovered at a cave site in Georgia. Discoveries in the Huto cave and the adjacent Kamarband cave, near the town of Behshahr, Mazandaran south of the Caspian in Iran, suggest human habitation of the area as early as 11,000 years ago.

In the 18th century, during the rule of Peter I the Great, Fedor I. Soimonov, hydrographer and pioneering explorer of the Caspian Sea charted the until then little known body of water. Soimonov drew a set of four maps and wrote "Pilot of the Caspian Sea", the first report and modern maps of the Caspian, that were published in 1720 by the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Iran has an enormous energy potential based on several specific factors: 137.5 billion bbl of crude oil reserves, the second largest in the world, Producing around 4 million bbl/day. Additionally, Iran has an estimated 988.4 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, around 16 percent of total world reserves, which makes it to play a key role in the global energy security equation.

Russia's economy ranks as the twelfth largest by nominal GDP and sixth largest by purchasing power parity in 2015. Russia's extensive mineral and energy resources are the largest such reserves in the world, making it the second leading producer of oil and natural gas globally.

In 1994, the "Contract of the Century" was signed, signalling the start of major international development of the Baku oil fields. The Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan pipeline, a major pipeline allowing Azerbaijan oil to flow straight to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, opened in 2006.

Many of the islands along the Azerbaijani coast continue to hold significant geopolitical and economic importance because of the potential oil reserves found nearby. Bulla Island, Pirallahı Island, and Nargin, which is still used as a former Soviet base and is the largest island in the Baku bay, all hold oil reserves.

The collapse of the Soviet Union and subsequent opening of the region has led to an intense investment and development scramble by international oil companies. In 1998, Dick Cheney commented that "I can't think of a time when we've had a region emerge as suddenly to become as strategically significant as the Caspian."

A key problem to further development in the region is the status of the Caspian Sea and the establishment of the water boundaries among the five littoral states. The current disputes along Azerbaijan's maritime borders with Turkmenistan and Iran could potentially affect future development plans.

U.S. diplomatic cables disclosed by WikiLeaks revealed that BP covered up a gas leak and blowout incident in September 2008 at an operating gas field in the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshi area of the Azerbaijan Caspian Sea.

All five Caspian littoral states maintain naval forces on the sea.

According to a treaty signed between Iran and the Soviet Union, the Caspian Sea is technically a lake and was divided into two sectors (Iranian and Soviet), but the resources (then mainly fish) were commonly shared. The line between the two sectors was considered an international border in a common lake, like Lake Albert. The Soviet sector was sub-divided into the four littoral republics' administrative sectors.

The Caspian littoral states' meeting in 2007 signed an agreement that bars any ship not flying the national flag of a littoral state from entering the sea.

Negotiations among the five littoral states have been ongoing, amidst ebbs and flows, for the past 20 years, with some degree of progress being made at the fourth Caspian Summit held in Astrakhan in 2014.

The Caspian Summit is a head of state-level meeting of the five littoral states. The fifth Caspian Summit took place on August 12, 2018 in the Kazakh port city of Aktau. The five leaders signed the ‘Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea’.

The Convention grants jurisdiction over 15 miles of territorial waters to each neighboring country, plus additional 10 miles of exclusive fishing rights on the surface, while the rest is international waters. The seabed, on the other hand, remains undefined, subject to bilateral agreements between countries. Thus, the Caspian Sea is legally neither fully a sea nor a lake.

UNECE recognizes several rivers that cross international borders which flow into the Caspian Sea.
These are:
Although the Caspian Sea is endorheic, its main tributary, the Volga, is connected by important shipping canals with the Don River (and thus the Black Sea) and with the Baltic Sea, with branch canals to Northern Dvina and to the White Sea.

Another Caspian tributary, the Kuma River, is connected by an irrigation canal with the Don basin as well.

Several scheduled ferry services (including train ferries) operate on the Caspian Sea, including:

The ferries are mostly used for cargo; only the Baku–Aktau and Baku–Türkmenbaşy routes accept passengers.

The two modern canal systems that connect the Volga Basin, and hence the Caspian Sea, with the ocean are the Volga–Baltic Waterway and the Volga–Don Canal.


When were the Acts of the Apostles written?

All other books with similar titles or narratives have not been included into the Bible, and belong to the New Testament apocrypha. These acts narratives tend to be later, legendary accounts about the early apostles written in the 2nd and 3rd century CE. The books normally do not claim to be written by apostles, but are anonymous, and thus they are not considered pseudepigrapha and forgeries. Unlike the canonical Book of Acts, they tend to focus on the exploits of individual apostles.

Acts of the Apostles (genre)

The Acts of the Apostles is a genre of Early Christian literature, recounting the lives and works of the apostles of Jesus. The "Acts" (Latin: "Acta", Greek: Πράξεις "Práxeis") are important for many reasons, one of them being the concept of apostolic succession. They also provide insight into the valuation of "missionary activities among the exotic races," since some of them feature missionary work done among, for instance, the Cynocephaly.

Only one work in this genre is included in the New Testament canon, entitled the "Acts of the Apostles", sometimes called the "Book of Acts" or simply "Acts", and primarily concerns the activities of Saint Peter, John the Apostle, and Paul the Apostle, who converts to Christianity in chapter 9 and becomes the main character. It is presumably the second part of a two-part work, the Canonical Gospel of Luke being the first part, with both works being addressed to Theophilus, and sharing a similar style. Almost all scholars believe that they were written by the same person.

The book narrates how the resurrected Jesus makes the apostles his witnesses, and instructs them to convert all peoples to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8). Through the Holy Spirit, God then empowers the apostles in their missionary work, with the ability to perform miracles such as healing the sick, casting out demons and raising the dead, while spreading Jesus' gospel. Problems such as anti-Christian persecutions, and conflicts about whether converts should first become Jewish before they can become Christians, are overcome.

The "Book of Acts" was probably written around the year 80 or 85 CE. It is not so much concerned with historical accuracy as it is with furthering a particular theology from a certain religious point of view.

As a genre, the apocryphal acts tend to feature "travels, dangers, controversies, deliverances, thwarted sexual trysts, miraculous demonstrations of the power of God" within an episodic narrative. They bear a resemblance to the five surviving ancient Greek novels and the two surviving ancient Roman novels in Latin ("The Golden Ass" and the "Satyricon"). The overarching theme in these popular pagan "romances" is that heterosexual marital love is the basis for social peace and prosperity. The general plot is that a man and a woman from the upper classes fall in love, but become tragically separated before they can consummate their sexual love until the very end of the story, overcoming various hardships before being reunited. The Christian apocryphal acts turn these characteristics on their heads, however: the wealth and beauty of this world are to be despised, and any sexual activity is condemned as 'impure', in favour of love for God and preparation for the coming heavenly afterlife.

Five of the non-canonical acts have survived almost completely, namely the Acts of John, Peter, Paul, Andrew, and Thomas. A large number of other narratives only exist in fragmentary form.

The following list is not exhaustive.


How many people attended the Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams lecture given by Randy Pausch?

"Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams" was delivered on September 18, 2007, at Carnegie Mellon University's McConomy Auditorium. Over 450 Carnegie Mellon students, staff members, and friends of Pausch attended the lecture, leaving only standing room as this was more than the auditorium could hold. Pausch later commented about this in an interview, saying "A couple of hundred people in a room, looking and listening and laughing and applauding – hopefully at the appropriate times – that gives a lot of validation to my kids that a lot of people believe in this, and a lot of people who knew me believe that I did my best to try to live this way." The first introduction of the speech as well as the series of lectures was given by Indira Nair, the Vice Provost for Education at Carnegie Mellon. Nair first explained the university's aforementioned lecture series called "Journeys", in which eight more professors from Carnegie Mellon would share their insights on their professional and personal experiences over the years.

Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

"Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams" (also referred to as "The Last Lecture") was a lecture given by Carnegie Mellon University computer science professor Randy Pausch on September 18, 2007, that received a large amount of media coverage, and was the basis for "The Last Lecture", a "New York Times" best-selling book co-authored with "Wall Street Journal" reporter Jeffrey Zaslow. Pausch had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in September 2006. On September 19, 2006, Pausch underwent a pancreaticoduodenectomy to remove the malignant tumor from his pancreas. In August 2007, after doctors discovered that the cancer had recurred, Pausch was given a terminal diagnosis and was told to expect a remaining three to six months of good health.

During the lecture, Pausch was upbeat and humorous, alternating between wisecracks, insights on computer science and engineering education, advice on building multi-disciplinary collaborations, working in groups and interacting with other people, offering inspirational life lessons, and performing push-ups on stage. He also commented on the irony that the "Last Lecture" series had recently been renamed as "Journeys": "I thought, damn, I finally nailed the venue and they renamed it." After Pausch finished his lecture, Steve Seabolt, on behalf of Electronic Arts, which is now collaborating with CMU in the development of Alice 3.0, pledged to honor Pausch by creating a memorial scholarship for women in computer science, in recognition of Pausch's support and mentoring of women in CS and engineering.

Professor Pausch's "Last Lecture" has received attention and recognition both from the American media and from news sources around the world. The video of the speech became an Internet sensation, being viewed over a million times in the first month after its delivery on social networking sites such as YouTube, Google video, MySpace, and Facebook. Randy Pausch gave an abridged version of his speech on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" in October 2007. On April 9, 2008, the ABC network aired an hour-long Diane Sawyer feature on Pausch entitled "The Last Lecture: A Love Story For Your Life". Four days after his death from pancreatic cancer on July 25, 2008, ABC aired a tribute to Pausch, remembering his life and his famous lecture.

Pausch was known for some lectures in his previous jobs. In his previous career, Pausch was associate professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Virginia's School of Engineering and Applied Science in 1997 and 1998, and also worked for The Walt Disney Company as an imagineer and for Electronic Arts. At the University of Virginia, he was known for a lecture on the importance of making technology more friendly to users in which he demonstrated his point by presenting a VCR (otherwise known as a video cassette recorder) that was hard to program and then smashing it with a sledgehammer. He was also known for his lecture on time management which he delivered in 1998 at the University of Virginia, and again in 2007 at the same venue. "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams" was the first lecture of the nine part "Journeys" lecture series conducted by Carnegie Mellon, which also included speakers such as Raj Reddy, Jay Apt, and Jared Cohon, the university president. The series of lectures was focused on university staff members discussing their professional journeys and the decisions and challenges they faced.

At the time that Pausch gave the lecture, he was a pancreatic cancer patient. In an interview, Pausch stated that he had felt bloated, and learned that he had a cancerous tumor when doctors performed a CT Scan to check for gallstones. He then underwent pancreaticoduodenectomy surgery (or the "Whipple procedure") to try to stop the growth of the cancerous tumor in his body, which later proved to be unsuccessful. The doctors removed his gall bladder, parts of his small intestine, a third of his pancreas, and parts of his stomach, and proceeded to begin an experimental radiation treatment that could possibly increase his chances of survival for another 5 years to 45 percent. Pausch began the radiation treatments in November 2006 and stopped in May 2007, and felt that he was in good health after finishing. In July and August, tests conducted at Johns Hopkins University showed that Pausch was free of cancer. However, in late August of that year, Pausch informed readers of his website that his cancer had returned, saying: "A recent CT scan showed that there are 10 tumors in my liver, and my spleen is also peppered with small tumors. The doctors say that it is one of the most aggressive recurrences they have ever seen." The doctors estimated Pausch had three to six months of good health left to live.

Pausch based the lecture on the generic "Last Lecture" given by some professors, and on the idea of imagining what one would say and what one would want their legacy to be if they could only have one last chance to share their knowledge with the world. Carnegie Mellon had previously had a lecture series titled the "Last Lecture", but had renamed the series to "Journeys", and had staff talk about their professional experiences. Pausch was offered the lecture around the time when he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and had just received the news that he only had a few months left to live after his unsuccessful treatment for the tumors. Pausch nearly cancelled the lecture due to the terminal cancer, but discussed the issue with his wife and decided to take the one final chance to share his thoughts with the world. Pausch compared it to the final scene of "The Natural", in which Roy Hobbs (the main character) overcomes injury and old age to hit one final home run.

Before Pausch was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, he was originally going to have his lecture based on the generic academic-style "Last Lecture," and was not expecting his cancer to play a part in the decision. Pausch could not think of a subject for the speech, and was constantly being e-mailed by speech organizers and event organizers from Carnegie Mellon. Pausch was told in August, a month before the lecture, that a poster must be printed and he needed to decide on a subject immediately. The same week, he was told that the prognosis for his pancreatic cancer was to be terminal. Pausch nearly canceled the lecture after hearing the news. He was deciding whether to make the speech, or to stay at home to get his family in order so that they would be set to live a normal life following Pausch's death. Pausch discussed the matter with his wife Jai, who requested that Pausch stay at home. Jai suggested that Pausch should be spending some of his time left with their three children, not giving a speech at his workplace. Pausch decided against this, after explaining that his children would remember him through seeing his lecture.

Pausch was then introduced by Steve Sea-bolt, who was the Vice President of Worldwide Publishing and Marketing at Electronic Arts, in addition to being Pausch's close friend and former co-worker. Sea-bolt began with a joke referring to Electronic Arts, and another joke about a bet he and Pausch had made about how many people would attend the lecture, saying that "...depending upon whose version of the story you hear, he either owes me 20 dollars or his new Volkswagen." Seabolt began the next part of the introduction by talking about Pausch's academic achievements and previous career with the University of Virginia and Electronic Arts. Seabolt concluded his introduction by describing the qualities of Pausch, saying that "Randy's dedication to making the world a better place is self evident to anyone who has crossed paths with him." He described how his accomplishments had affected others, as well as his wife and three children. Seabolt then turned the speech over to Pausch, who was greeted with a standing ovation.

As Pausch walked into the standing ovation, he tried to stop the applause, get the audience to sit down, and begin the speech by commenting "make me earn it", to which one member of the audience responded "you did". He then commented on the irony of his "last lecture" in a series that used to be the "Last Lecture" series, but was renamed "Journeys": "It's wonderful to be here. What Indira didn’t tell you is that this lecture series used to be called the 'Last Lecture'. If you had one last lecture to give before you died, what would it be? I thought, damn, I finally nailed the venue and they renamed it."

Before beginning part I of the lecture, Pausch explained his story of having pancreatic cancer and only having 3 to 6 months to live, but still made a joke of it by saying that he was still in the best shape of his life (and "better than most of you ["the audience"]"), proceeding to do a series of push-ups on stage while still speaking. Pausch also talked about what he would not cover in the lecture, which included his family and children, religion, spirituality, and his terminal cancer or any other cancer.

Pausch then went to the first part of his speech, explaining his childhood dreams and how he accomplished (or tried to accomplish) them. Pausch first explained his childhood, as well as his family life in the 1960s. Pausch stated that he had a "really good childhood", and, when going back through his family archive of photographs, had never found a picture of him not smiling. Some of these pictures were shown on the projection as slides, including one of him dreaming. He explained how he was inspired by the Apollo 11 lunar landing in 1969. Pausch then transitioned to a slide which contained a list of his childhood dreams, and explained them. His dreams were being in zero gravity, playing in the National Football League, being the author of a "World Book Encyclopedia" article, being Captain Kirk, being "one of the guys who won the big stuffed animals in the amusement park", and becoming a Disney Imagineer.

First off, Pausch explained his dream of being in zero gravity. As a child, this had been a dream inspired by Apollo 11, and had stayed with him as an adult. When he was the computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon, he learned of a program that NASA has that allows college students to go up into the air in NASA's Vomit Comet, which uses parabolic arcs to simulate the feeling of weightlessness. Faculty members were not allowed to go (Pausch called this a "brick wall" he faced), so he had to present himself as a web journalist, because local media was allowed on. Pausch proceeded to begin talking about his second childhood dream, playing in the National Football League. Although Pausch was never a player in the National Football League, he spoke about his childhood experiences with Pop Warner Football and how they had affected his life and taught him lessons. Pausch then moved on to his dream of publishing an article in the "World Book Encyclopedia". As a child, Pausch always kept and read a "World Book Encyclopedia" in his home. As he progressed into a career, he became one of the leading professors in the field of virtual reality. "World Book" then called Pausch, interested in him writing for the encyclopedia. Currently, the article "virtual reality" in the "World Book Encyclopedia" is the one authored by Pausch.

Next, Pausch explained his dream of being like Captain Kirk from the "Star Trek" series, with the slide showing ""Being like Meeting Captain Kirk"". Pausch explained that he realized that there were some things he just could not do, and that was one of them. He eventually changed the goal into meeting William Shatner, the actor who played Captain Kirk. Shatner had written a book on the science of "Star Trek", and had gone to Pausch for help with the virtual reality section of the book. Pausch met and worked with Shatner for this purpose. Pausch concluded the section with the story of his becoming an Imagineer at Disney, as well as his achieving the goal of "being one of those guys who wins stuffed animals", which was at a carnival with his wife and children.

After explaining his childhood dreams, Pausch then began the second part of his speech, which was about how he enabled the dreams of others. He decided to become a professor, and reflected in the speech that there was no better job to enable the childhood dreams of other people. He also mentioned that working for Electronic Arts was "probably a close second". Pausch told the audience about how he realized he could enable the dreams of others, due to Tommy Burnett, one of his students at the University of Virginia. Burnett was interested in joining Pausch's research group. Pausch asked Burnett what his childhood dream was while talking about joining the team, and he responded that his dream was to work on the next "Star Wars" film. Burnett worked on Pausch's virtual reality team while at the University of Virginia, and Pausch helped Burnett to try achieve this dream. When Pausch moved to Carnegie Mellon, his entire team moved with him except Burnett, who had been offered a job by Lucasfilm (the creator of "Star Wars"). He eventually worked with Lucasfilm on three "Star Wars" films: "", "", and "".

This led Pausch to conduct a virtual reality class at Carnegie Mellon, to teach others and to help them realize their childhood dreams. In the course, 50 students from the university were separated into random teams of four and were each assigned a project relating to building a virtual world. Each group had two weeks to work on the project, and then presented the project to the group. The teams were then randomized again and a new project began. The project then evolved into something that people came to watch, and helped his students realize their potential. Finally, Pausch gave a few words of advice on how others could achieve their childhood dreams, and who his role models were when he was trying to do so.

After Pausch finished his lecture, Steve Seabolt, on behalf of Electronic Arts, which is now collaborating with Carnegie Mellon in the development of Alice 3.0, pledged to honor Pausch by creating a memorial scholarship for women in computer science in recognition of Pausch's support and mentoring of women in CS and engineering. Then, university president Jared Cohon called his contributions to the university and to education "remarkable and stunning". He then announced that Carnegie Mellon would build a raised pedestrian bridge named for Pausch in honor of his contributions to the university and to the world. This connected Carnegie Mellon's new Computer Science building and the Center for the Arts, a symbol of the way Pausch linked those two areas. Finally, Brown University professor Andries van Dam followed Pausch's last lecture with a tearful and impassioned speech praising him for his courage and leadership, calling him a role model.

Pausch was named "Person of the Week" on ABC's World News with Charles Gibson on September 21. His "Last Lecture" attracted wide attention from the international media, became an Internet hit, and was viewed over a million times in the first month after its delivery. On October 22, 2007, Pausch appeared on "The Oprah Winfrey Show", where he discussed his situation and recapped his "Last Lecture" for millions of TV viewers.

On October 6, 2007, Pausch joined the Pittsburgh Steelers for the day during their regular practice, after the organization learned that one of his childhood dreams mentioned in his "Last Lecture" was to play in the National Football League. A devoted "Star Trek" fan, Pausch was invited by film director J. J. Abrams to film a role in the latest "Star Trek" movie. Abrams heard of Pausch's condition and sent a personal e-mail inviting Pausch to the set. Pausch happily accepted and traveled to Los Angeles, California to shoot his scene. In addition to appearing in the film, he also has a line of dialogue and donated the $217.06 paycheck to charity. On April 9, 2008, the ABC network aired an hour-long Diane Sawyer feature on Pausch entitled "The Last Lecture: A Love Story For Your Life". On July 29, 2008, ABC aired a follow up to the Last Lecture special, remembering Pausch.

The Disney-owned publisher Hyperion paid $6.7 million for the rights to publish a book about Pausch called "The Last Lecture",
co-authored by Pausch and "Wall Street Journal" reporter Jeffrey Zaslow. "The Last Lecture" explained Pausch's speech, and the events that led up to it. According to Robert Miller, a publisher for Hyperion Books, the book would "flesh out his speech" and show others "how to deal with mortality" and how to live well while death is imminent. The book was well-received, eventually earning the number one spot on the New York Times bestseller list in the "Advice" category during the week of June 22, 2008. The book remained on the New York Times bestseller list for 80 straight weeks.

Pausch delivered his "Last Lecture", titled "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams", at CMU on September 18, 2007. He gave an abridged version of his speech on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" in October 2007. The talk was modeled after an ongoing series of lectures where top academics are asked to think deeply about what matters to them, and then give a hypothetical "final talk", with a topic such as "what wisdom would you try to impart to the world if you knew it was your last chance?" Before speaking, Pausch received a long standing ovation from a large crowd of over 400 colleagues and students. When he motioned them to sit down, saying, "Make me earn it", someone in the audience shouted back, "You did!"

Randy Pausch

Randolph Frederick Pausch (October 23, 1960 – July 25, 2008) was an American professor of computer science, human–computer interaction, and design at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Pausch learned that he had pancreatic cancer in September 2006, and in August 2007, he was given a terminal diagnosis: "3 to 6 months of good health left". He gave an upbeat lecture titled "The Last Lecture: Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams" on September 18, 2007, at Carnegie Mellon, which became a popular YouTube video and led to other media appearances. He then co-authored a book called "The Last Lecture" on the same theme, which became a "New York Times" best-seller.

Pausch died of complications from pancreatic cancer on July 25, 2008.

Pausch was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and grew up in Columbia, Maryland. After graduating from Oakland Mills High School in Columbia, Pausch received his bachelor's degree in computer science from Brown University in May 1982 and his Ph.D. in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University in August 1988. While completing his doctoral studies, Pausch was briefly employed at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center and Adobe Systems.

Pausch was an assistant and associate professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Virginia's School of Engineering and Applied Science from 1988 until 1997. While there, he completed sabbaticals at Walt Disney Imagineering and Electronic Arts (EA). In 1997, Pausch became Associate Professor of Computer Science, Human-Computer Interaction, and Design at Carnegie Mellon University. In 1998, he was a co-founder, along with Don Marinelli, of CMU's Entertainment Technology Center (ETC), and he started the Building Virtual Worlds course at CMU, which he taught for 10 years. He consulted with Google on user interface design and also consulted with PARC, Imagineering, and Media Metrix. Pausch is also the founder of the Alice software project. He received the National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award and was a Lilly Foundation Teaching Fellow. Pausch was the author or co-author of five books and over 70 articles.

Pausch received two awards from ACM in 2007 for his achievements in computing education: the Karl V. Karlstrom Outstanding Educator Award and the ACM Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education Award for Outstanding Contributions to Computer Science Education. He was also inducted as a Fellow of the ACM in 2007.

Pausch was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and underwent a Whipple procedure (pancreaticoduodenectomy) on September 19, 2006, in an unsuccessful attempt to halt the disease. He was told in August 2007 to expect a remaining three to six months of good health. He soon moved his family to Chesapeake, Virginia, to be close to his wife's family. On March 13, 2008, Pausch advocated for greater federal funding for pancreatic cancer before the United States Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies. In the week prior to this, he had been hospitalized in order to have needle aspiration of pleural effusion in his right lung.

On May 2, 2008, a positron emission tomography (PET) scan showed that he had very tiny ( or less) metastases in his lungs and in some of the lymph nodes in his chest. He also had metastases in his peritoneal and retroperitoneal cavities. On June 26, 2008, Pausch indicated that he was considering stopping further chemotherapy because of the potential adverse side effects. He was, however, considering some immuno-therapy-based approaches. On July 24, on behalf of Pausch, a friend anonymously posted a message on Pausch's webpage stating that a biopsy had indicated that the cancer had progressed farther than had been indicated by recent PET scans and that Pausch had "taken a step down" and was "much sicker than he had been". The friend also stated that Pausch had then enrolled in a hospice program designed to provide palliative care to those at the end of life.

Pausch died from pancreatic cancer at his family's home in Chesapeake, Virginia, on July 25, 2008, at the age of 47. He is survived by his wife, Jai, and their three children, Dylan, Logan, and Chloe.

During the lecture, Pausch offered inspirational life lessons, and performed push-ups on stage. He also commented on the irony that the "Last Lecture" series had recently been renamed as "Journeys", saying, "I thought, damn, I finally nailed the venue and they renamed it." After Pausch finished his lecture, Steve Seabolt, on behalf of Electronic Arts—which is now collaborating with CMU in the development of Alice 3.0—pledged to honor Pausch by creating a memorial scholarship for women in computer science, in recognition of Pausch's support and mentoring of women in CS and engineering.

CMU president Jared Cohon spoke emotionally of Pausch's humanity and called his contributions to the university and to education "remarkable and stunning". He then announced that CMU will celebrate Pausch's impact on the world by building and naming after Pausch a raised pedestrian bridge to connect CMU's new Computer Science building and the Center for the Arts, symbolizing the way Pausch linked those two disciplines. Brown University professor Andries van Dam followed Pausch's last lecture with a tearful and impassioned speech praising him for his courage and leadership, calling him a role model.

The Randy Pausch Memorial Footbridge was dedicated on October 30, 2009, with Jai, Dylan, Logan, and Chloe Pausch cutting the ribbon.

The Disney-owned publisher Hyperion paid $6.7 million for the rights to publish a book about Pausch called "The Last Lecture", co-authored by Pausch and "Wall Street Journal" reporter Jeffrey Zaslow. The book became a "New York Times" best-seller on April 28, 2008. "The Last Lecture" expands on Pausch's speech. The book's first printing had 400,000 copies, and it has been translated into 46 languages. It has spent more than 85 weeks on the "New York Times" bestseller list, and there are now more than 4.5 million copies in print in the U.S. alone. Despite speculation that the book would be made into a movie, Pausch had denied these rumors, stating that "there's a reason to do the book, but if it's telling the story of the lecture in the medium of film, we already have that."

Pausch was named "Person of the Week" on ABC's World News with Charles Gibson on September 21, 2007. His "Last Lecture" attracted wide attention from the international media, became an Internet hit, and was viewed over a million times in the first month after its delivery. On October 22, 2007, Pausch appeared on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" where he discussed his situation and summarized his "Last Lecture". On October 6, 2007, Pausch joined the Pittsburgh Steelers for the day during their regular practice, after the organization learned that one of his childhood dreams mentioned in his "Last Lecture" was to play in the NFL.
On April 9, 2008, the ABC network aired an hour-long Diane Sawyer feature on Pausch titled "The Last Lecture: A Love Story For Your Life". On July 29, 2008, ABC aired a follow-up to the Last Lecture special, remembering Pausch and his famous lecture.

Pausch gave a lecture about time management on November 27, 2007 at the University of Virginia, to an audience of over 850 people. In March 2008, Pausch appeared in a public service announcement video and testified before Congress in support of cancer research. On May 18, 2008, Pausch made a surprise return appearance at Carnegie Mellon, giving a speech at the commencement ceremony, as well as attending the School of Computer Science's diploma ceremony, and on May 19 Pausch appeared on the show "Good Morning America". His lecture, "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams", was nominated at the 2007 YouTube Video Awards.

A devoted "Star Trek" fan, Pausch was invited by film director J. J. Abrams to film a role in "Star Trek". Abrams heard of Pausch's condition and sent a personal e-mail inviting Pausch to the set. Pausch accepted and traveled to Los Angeles, California, to shoot his scene. In addition to appearing in the film, he also has a line of dialogue at the beginning of the film ("Captain, we have visual.") and donated the $217.06 paycheck to charity.


How fast are the trains in the Zürich Underground Railway?

Trains on the S6 provide a half-hourly connection to Zürich Hauptbahnhof station, taking 12 minutes for the journey via the southern connector and Oerlikon station. In the opposite direction, S6 trains continue to Baden station, taking 28 minutes for the journey. The station also sees significant through freight traffic, most of which takes the Furttal line in order to avoid passing through central Zürich, using the northern connector onto or off the Zürich–Winterthur line.

Zürich Seebach railway station

Zürich Seebach () is a railway station in the Seebach quarter of the Swiss city of Zürich. It is located on the Furttal railway line and is served by line S6 of the Zürich S-Bahn.

The station is aligned on a west to east axis, and has two through platform tracks serving a single island platform, together with a number of non-platform through tracks and sidings. The platform is accessed at its eastern end by a subway, and at its western end by an access to the centre of the adjacent level crossing. To the west the Furttal line continues as a dual track railway towards Zürich Affoltern station. To the east the line splits into two single track lines, one curving south to join the Zürich–Winterthur line towards Zürich Oerlikon station whilst the other joins the same line heading northbound.

Winterthur is Switzerland's fifth busiest station, and is a major node between Switzerland's largest railway nucleus in Zürich and places in Eastern Switzerland (such as St. Gallen and Schaffhausen), as well as Germany (Munich), and Austria (Vorarlberg). The station is served by trains on Zürich's suburban S-Bahn network, as well as by regional and intercity trains, with most through passenger trains making a stop. It is also connected with Zürich's airport railway station Zürich Flughafen, which can be reached in about 15 minutes about every 8 minutes. Zürich Hauptbahnhof can be reached with up to 16 direct connections per hour and the fastest connection takes only 22 minutes (S12). The station has 9 standard gauge platforms (numbered 1-9).

Winterthur railway station

Winterthur railway station ( or ) is the principal railway station of the town of Winterthur, in the Swiss canton of Zürich.

The term "Hauptbahnhof" or "HB" (for main railway station) is no longer used by Swiss Federal Railways (SBB CFF FFS), the station's owner and operator, but is still sometimes used colloquially. Thus the station's name appears simply as "Winterthur" on the station signs and on schedule information, but the name "Hauptbahnhof" is still used for the bus stop in front of the station.

All public transport in Winterthur is part of the canton of Zurich's integrated fare network ZVV. It is very well connected to the city's local public transport, the STADTBUS Winterthur bus network, and regional bus services (e.g. PostBus Switzerland).

The station is inscribed on the Swiss Inventory of Cultural Property of National Significance.

"Bahnhof Winterthur" is centrally located, at the northwestern edge of the city centre.

In 1855, the first temporary station building was built in Winterthur as a timber framed structure. The design of the building was by A. Beck, who also managed the construction. The building was sold in 1860 to the City of Zurich, which wanted to move and rebuild it in the vicinity of the Kornhaus. Most likely, it was used for the construction of the Kornhauswirtschaft, as these two buildings bear a very great resemblance.
Five years after the opening of the provisional building, the first real station was built, under the direction of the architect Jakob Friedrich Wanner, who, together with A. Beck, was responsible for the design. The builder, Meier, came from Winterthur, and the train shed was built by the firm Benkiser of Pforzheim. In 1875, its first expansion was completed, to coincide with the commencement of the Winterthur operations of the Tösstalbahn and the Nationalbahn. This expansion consisted of an extension to each side of the station building equal to the width of four window bays, in order to create space for new waiting rooms.

Further renovations in 1894−96 left the station building in its present form. These renovations, proposed by the architect Ernst Jung and Otto Bridler, produced a station building in Renaissance style; the Federal Palace of Switzerland served as a template.

In 1944, the present day tracks 8 and 9 were added. In 1980, the station was again extended by two tracks (the current platforms 1 and 2), which were used for the Tösstal line and for postal trains. Today, S-Bahn trains to Wil depart from the Postal train track.

In 1988, the two-storey parking deck was built over the station yard. In 2000 followed the construction of the Stadttor Winterthur between the station building and the EPA department store, which is now a Coop City department store.
Winterthur is a through station with nine tracks, of which only tracks 1 and 2 are bay platforms. From those two platforms, S-Bahn trains depart for the Tösstal and to Wil. Long distance trains stop at tracks 3, 4 and 5, which are the ones closest to the station concourse.

In front of the station, on the line towards Zurich, is the former goods station. It was closed in 1995/1996, and serves today only for the storage of trains. As a replacement for the closed structure, a maintenance facility was built at the Oberwinterthur railway station.

The following regularly scheduled long distance trains stop at Winterthur:The following S-Bahn lines, all of which belong to the Zürcher Verkehrsverbund, serve Winterthur. While the lines with the lower numbers are operated by the SBB CFF FFS, the trains with the higher numbers (from S26) are operated by THURBO.

Winterthur is a terminus of five night trains, two of which are part of the Zürich S-Bahn network. The other three belong to the "THURBO-Nightliner" system. Line SN4 of the Zürich S-Bahn is also operated by THURBO and belongs simultaneously to the THURBO-Nightliners."Winterthur Hauptbahnhof" or "HB" is the central bus station of the local STADTBUS Winterthur bus operator and therefore also the most important hub of the Winterthur trolleybus system. All but two of the city bus lines stop at the Hauptbahnhof. Additionally, the regional Stadtbus lines, along with PostAuto lines, all stop there. Only the lines that serve Wiesendangen and a few villages northeast of Winterthur depart from Oberwinterthur station instead. The Winterthur bus station is the largest in the canton of Zurich.

Lines 1–3 are trolleybus lines. The remaining lines are operated exclusively by low-floor buses. Normally, articulated buses run on lines 5, 7 and 14. On the remaining lines, conventional (rigid chassis) buses provide the services.

The yellow numbers are PostAuto lines, and the blue numbers are city bus lines. However, lines 665/670 are served by both PostAuto buses and city buses.

Night buses operate hourly on Friday to Saturday and Saturday to Sunday from 01:30 to 04:30. As the last regular buses usually depart from HB at 0.50 and the first such buses start running again from 05:30, one can therefore speak of a continuously operating network when the night buses are running.

The night buses operate on the following lines, but only outwards; there are no return services.

Zürich Airport railway station is located underneath the "Airport Centre". The station has frequent Zürich S-Bahn services, plus direct InterRegio, InterCity, and Eurocity services, to many places including Basel, Bern, Biel/Bienne, Brig, Geneva, Konstanz, Lausanne, Lucerne, Munich, Romanshorn, St. Gallen, and Winterthur. There are some 13 trains per hour to Zürich Hauptbahnhof, Zürich's main city centre station, with a journey time of between 10 and 15 minutes. By changing trains at Hauptbahnhof, most other places in Switzerland can be reached in a few hours.

Zurich Airport

Zurich Airport (, ), also known as "Kloten Airport", is the largest international airport of Switzerland and the principal hub of Swiss International Air Lines. It serves Zürich, Switzerland's largest city, and, with its surface transport links, much of the rest of the country. The airport is located north of central Zürich, in the municipalities of Kloten, Rümlang, Oberglatt, Winkel, and Opfikon, all of which are within the canton of Zürich.

The first flight abroad from Switzerland landed on July 21, 1921. In the early years of aviation, the Dübendorf Air Base, located some to the south-east of Zurich Airport, also served as the city's commercial airfield. The need for a dedicated commercial facility led to the search for a location at which to build a replacement airport. Switzerland's federal parliament decided in 1945 that Zürich was to be the site of a major airport, and sold of the "Kloten-Bülach Artillery Garrison" () to the Canton of Zürich, giving the canton control of the new airfield. Construction of the airport began the following year.

Initial plans for the airport, as laid out in the Federal government's scheme of 1945, were centered on facilities capable of handling international airline traffic. Aircraft of up to 80 tons were envisaged. The primary runway was to be designed for use in all weathers and at night, with a -wide hard surface running to in length. Additional areas were to be provided on the shoulders for lateral protection in case of runway excursions. Additional domestic runways, between in length, were also to be built.

The first flights from the west runway were not until 1948. The new terminal opened in 1953 with a large air show that ran three days. In 1947, the airport handled 133,638 passengers on 12,766 airline flights; in 1952, 372,832 passengers on 24,728 airline flights. The first expansion of the airport was submitted in 1956; the Swiss government approved the budget for the expansion in 1958, and the expansion was completed in 1961.

The airport was again submitted and approved for renovation in 1970, and Terminal B was completed in 1971. The first signs of noise mitigation for the airport were in 1972, when a night-time curfew was enacted, as well as in 1974 when new approach routes were introduced. Runway 14/32 was opened in 1976, and 16/34 began renovation.

The noise of aircraft became an issue at Zurich Airport; a noise charge was instituted in 1980, and in 1984 airport officials made an agreement regarding arrivals and departures to the airport via German airspace. The next major event for the airport was in 1999, when the Parliament of the Canton of Zürich approved privatization of Zurich Airport. The following year, Flughafen Zürich AG, trading under the brand "Unique", became the new airport operator. The company dropped the brand "Unique" in favour of "Zurich Airport" and "Flughafen Zürich" in 2010.

On 2 October 2001 a major cash-flow crisis at Swissair, exacerbated by the global downturn in air travel caused by the September 11 attacks, caused the airline to ground all its flights. Although a government rescue plan permitted some flights to restart a few days later, and the airline's assets were subsequently sold to become Swiss International Air Lines, the airport lost a large volume of traffic. After Lufthansa took control of Swiss International Air Lines in 2005, traffic began to grow again.

On 18 October 2001, Germany and Switzerland signed a treaty regarding the limitation of flights over Germany. Under the terms of this treaty, any incoming aircraft after 22:00 had to approach Zürich from the east to land on runway 28, which, unlike the airport's other runways, was not equipped with an instrument landing system. A month later, at 22:06 on 24 November, an inbound Crossair Avro RJ100 using this approach in conditions of poor visibility crashed into a range of hills near Bassersdorf and exploded, killing 24 of the 33 people on board. The flight had originally been scheduled to land on runway 14 before 22:00, but it was subject to delay and was therefore diverted to runway 28.

Zurich Airport completed a major expansion project in 2003, in which it built a new parking garage, a new midfield terminal, and an automated underground people mover to link the midfield terminal to the main terminal. In November 2008 a complete renovation and rebuild of the old terminal B structure was announced. The new terminal B opened in November 2011, and provides segregated access to and from aircraft for Schengen and non-Schengen passengers. Zurich Airport handled 25.5 million passengers in 2014, up 2.5 percent from 2013.

Etihad Regional ceased on 18 February 2015 to fly two-thirds of its scheduled routes without further notice, amongst them all its services from Zürich except the domestic service to Geneva. Etihad Regional blamed the failure of its expansion on the behavior of competitors, especially Swiss International Air Lines, as well as the Swiss aviation authorities.

As a consequence of the bombings in Brussels on 22 March 2016, which caused the temporary closure of Brussels Airport, Brussels Airlines stationed three Airbus A330s at Zurich Airport to offer flights to several African countries for the duration of the closure.

The airport is owned by Flughafen Zürich AG, a company quoted on the SIX Swiss Exchange. Major shareholders include the canton of Zürich, with 33.33% plus one of the shares, and the city of Zürich, with 5% of the shares. No other shareholder has a holding exceeding 3%. Flughafen Zürich AG used the brand name "Unique" from 2000 until 2010.

In March 2017, Flughafen Zürich AG announced it had acquired 100% of Brazil's Hercílio Luz International Airport, and will operate it under a concession until 2047. The company also has stakes in the operation of airports in Belo Horizonte, Bogotá, Curaçao, Antofagasta, Iquique, and Bangalore.

The airport has three airside piers, which are known as terminals "A, B", and "E" (also signposted as "Gates A, B/D", and "E"). These are linked to a central air-side building called "Airside Center", built in 2003. Alongside the "Airside Center", the ground-side terminal complex named "Airport Center" comprises several buildings, and includes airline check-in areas, a shopping mall, a railway station, car parks, and a bus and tram terminal. All departing passengers access the same departure level of the "Airside Center", which includes duty-free shopping and various bars and restaurants, via airport security. They are then segregated between passengers for Schengen and non-Schengen destinations on the way to the gate lounges, with the latter first passing through emigration controls. Arriving Schengen and non-Schengen passengers are handled in separate areas of the "Airside Center" and reach the "Airport Center" by different routes, with non-Schengen passengers first passing through immigration controls. The three airside terminals are:

Terminal A contains gates prefixed A. It opened in 1971, and it is used exclusively by flights to and from destinations inside the Schengen Area, including domestic flights within Switzerland. Since its expansion in 1982-1985, it takes the form of a finger pier, directly connected at one end to the "Airside Centre". Terminal A will be torn down and replaced by an entirely new facility from 2021.

Terminal B contains gates prefixed B and D. It opened in 1975 and reopened in November 2011 after an extensive three-year reconstruction. Like terminal A, it takes the form of a finger pier directly connected at one end to the "Airside Centre". Since reconstruction, it can accommodate both Schengen and non-Schengen flights at the same gates. Each gate has two numbers, one prefixed B and the other D, but with different passenger routes to and from the gates to separate the flows of Schengen and non-Schengen passengers.

Terminal E contains gates prefixed E, and is also known as the midfield terminal or Dock E. It is a stand-alone satellite terminal located on the opposite side of runway 10/28 from the "Airside Center", and is situated between runways 16/34 and 14/32. It is entirely used by non-Schengen international flights and became operational and was opened on September 1, 2003. It is connected to the "Airside Center" by the Skymetro, an automated underground people mover.

Zurich Airport has three runways: 16/34 of in length, 14/32 of in length, and 10/28 of in length. For most of the day and in most conditions, runway 14 is used for landings and runways 16 and 28 are used for takeoffs, although different patterns are used early morning and in the evenings.
Zurich Airport offers scheduled and charter flights to 203 destinations in 67 countries around the world.

Notes

In front of the "Airport Centre" is the airport stop of the Stadtbahn Glattal, a light rail system that interworks with the Zürich tram system, together with a regional bus station. Both the bus station and light rail stop provide service to destinations throughout the Glattal region that surrounds the airport, with the light rail stop being served by tram routes 10 and 12. Tram route 10 also provides a link to Zurich Hauptbahnhof, albeit with a rather longer journey time than that of the railway.

The airport is served by the A51 motorway and other main roads, which link to the airports own road network. Drop-off areas are available by the "Airport Centre" whilst a total of over 14000 spaces are available in six car parks for short and long term parking. A car hire centre is located in the terminal complex. The airport is served by a fleet of dedicated airport taxis, which operate from taxi ranks in front of the arrival areas. Alternative chauffeur driven airport limousines can be arranged.

The Circle, a complex intended to include a medical center, a conference center, shops, restaurants, offices, and hotels, is under construction opposite the "Airport Centre". The complex was designed by Japanese architect Riken Yamamoto and is planned for completion in 2019.

Several companies have their headquarters on or about the airport. These include Swiss International Air Lines, Swiss World Cargo, Swiss AviationTraining, Edelweiss Air, gategroup, Helvetic Airways, Swissôtel, and Rega. Other companies that were formerly based on the airport include Swissair and Crossair.


Is spotting on mixed hormone birth control normal?

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration rejected pleconaril in 2002 due to the side effects. The most commonly reported side effects were mild to moderate headache, diarrhea, and nausea. Some women were having symptoms of spotting in between periods. Menstrual irregularities were reported by 3.5% of the 320 pleconaril treated women using oral contraceptives and by none of the 291 placebo treated women. In the clinical trial two women became pregnant due to the drug interfering with hormonal birth control. Other patients have described painful nasal inflammation. Another side effect of the Pleconaril drug trials was activation of cytochrome P-450 3A enzymes.

Pleconaril

Pleconaril (Picovir) is an antiviral drug that was being developed by Schering-Plough for prevention of asthma exacerbations and common cold symptoms in patients exposed to picornavirus respiratory infections. Pleconaril, administered either orally or intranasally, is active against viruses in the "Picornaviridae" family, including "Enterovirus" and "Rhinovirus". It has shown useful activity against the dangerous strain enterovirus D68.

Pleconaril was originally developed by Sanofi-Aventis, and licensed to ViroPharma in 1997. ViroPharma developed it further, and submitted a New Drug Application to the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2001. The application was rejected, citing safety concerns; and ViroPharma re-licensed it to Schering-Plough in 2003. The Phase II clinical trial was completed in 2007. A pleconaril intranasal spray had reached phase II clinical trial for the treatment of the common cold symptoms and asthma complications. However, the results have yet to be reported.

In enteroviruses, Pleconaril prevents the virus from exposing its RNA, and in rhinoviruses Pleconaril prevents the virus from attaching itself to the host cell.
Human rhinoviruses (HRVs) contain four structural proteins labeled VP1-VP4. Proteins VP1, VP2 and VP3 are eight stranded anti-parallel β-barrels. VP4 is an extended polypeptide chain on the viral capsid inner surface. Pleconaril binds to a hydrophobic pocket in the VP1 protein. Pleconaril has been shown in viral assembly to associate with viral particles. Through noncovalent, hydrophobic interactions compounds can bind to the hydrophobic pocket. Amino acids in positions Tyr152 and Val191 are a part of the VP1 drug binding pocket.
In Coxsackievirus, Pleconaril efficiency correlates to the susceptibility of CVB3 with the amino acid at position 1092 in the hydrophobic pocket. Amino acid 1092 is in close proximity to the central ring of capsid binders. The binding of pleconaril in the hydrophobic pocket creates conformational changes, which increases the rigidity of the virion and decreases the virions' ability to interact with its receptor. Drugs bind with the methylisoxazole ring close to the entrance pocket in VP1, the 3-fluromethyl oxadiazole ring at the end of the pocket and the phenyl ring in the center of the pocket.

The results of two randomized, double blind, placebo studies found Pleconaril treatment could benefit patients suffering from colds due to picornaviruses. Participants in the studies were healthy adults from Canada and the United States, with self-diagnosed colds that had occurred within 24 hours of trial enrollment. Participants were randomly given a placebo or two 200 mg tablets to take three times daily for five days. To increase absorption it was recommended to be taken after a meal. To monitor the effectiveness of Pleconaril, participants recorded the severity of their symptoms and nasal mucosal samples were obtained at enrollment, day 3, day 6 and day 18. The two studies had a total of 2096 participants and more than 90% (1945) completed the trial. The most common reason for a participant not finishing the trial was an adverse event. Pleconaril treatment showed a reduction in nose blowing, sleep disturbance, and less cold medication used.

Another study showed over 87% of virus isolates in cell culture were inhibited by pleconaril. Virus variants were detected in 0.7% of the placebo group and 10.7% of the pleconaril group. Of the two isolates a subject from the placebo group had a resistant virus in cell culture to pleconaril. The other strain was susceptible to the drug. The pleconaril group had 21 virus strains, which remained susceptible. Resistance strains were found in 7 pleconaril patients.

A Phase II study that used an intranasal formulation of pleconaril failed to show a statistically significant result for either of its two primary efficacy endpoints, percentage of participants with rhinovirus PCR-positive colds and percentage of participants with asthma exacerbations together with rhinovirus-positive PCR.

In human rhinoviruses mutations in amino acids at positions 152 and 191 decrease the efficiency of pleconaril. The resistant HRV have phenylalanine at position 152 and leucine at position 191. In vitro studies have shown resistance to pleconaril may emerge. The wild type resistance frequency to pleconaril was about 5X10^-5. Coxsackievirus B3(CVB3) strain Nancy and other mutants carry amino acid substitutions at position 1092 of Ile1092->Leu1092 or Ile1092->Met in VP1. The Ile->Leu mutation causes complete resistance to pleconaril. The study found resistance of CVB3 to pleconaril can be overcome by substitution of the central phenyl group. Methyl and bromine substitutions created an increase of pleconaril activity towards sensitive and resistant strains. Amino acid substitutions in the hydrophobic pocket and receptor binding region of viral capsid proteins were shown to have an effect against the sensitivity of capsid binding antivirals.

In some women, menstrual spotting between periods occurs as a normal and harmless part of ovulation. Some women experience acute mid-cycle abdominal pain around the time of ovulation (sometimes referred to by the German term for this phenomenon, "mittelschmerz"). This may also occur at the same time as menstrual spotting. The term breakthrough bleeding or breakthrough spotting is usually used for women using hormonal contraceptives, such as IUDs or oral contraceptives, in which it refers to bleeding or spotting between any expected withdrawal bleedings, or bleeding or spotting at any time if none is expected. If spotting continues beyond the first three cycles of oral contraceptive use, a woman should have her prescription changed to a pill containing either more estrogen or more progesterone.

Intermenstrual bleeding

Intermenstrual bleeding, previously known as metrorrhagia, is uterine bleeding at irregular intervals, particularly between the expected menstrual periods. It is a cause of vaginal bleeding.

Besides the aforementioned physiologic forms, metrorrhagia may also represent abnormal uterine bleeding and be a sign of an underlying disorder, such as hormone imbalance, endometriosis, uterine fibroids, uterine cancer, or vaginal cancer.

If the bleeding is repeated and heavy, it can cause significant iron-deficiency anemia.

Intermittent spotting between periods can result from any of numerous reproductive system disorders.

Neoplasia:

Inflammation:

Endometrial abnormalities:

Endocrinological causes:

Bleeding disorders:

Drug induced:

Traumatic causes:

Related to pregnancy:

Other causes:

Metrorrhagia is from metro = measure, -rrhagia = abnormal flow. The term is no longer recommended.


What is the trunk circumference of the Angel Oak in South Carolina?

Angel Oak is a Southern live oak ("Quercus virginiana") located in Angel Oak Park on Johns Island near Charleston, South Carolina. The tree is estimated to be 400-500 years old. It stands 66.5 ft (20 m) tall, measures 28 ft (8.5 m) in circumference, and produces shade that covers 17,200 square feet (1,600 m). Its longest branch distance is 187 ft in length. Angel Oak was the 210th tree to be registered with the Live Oak Society.
The oak derives its name from the estate of Justus Angel and his wife, Martha Waight Tucker Angel. Local folklore tells stories of ghosts of former slaves appearing as angels around the tree.

Angel Oak

Despite the claims that the Angel Oak is the oldest tree east of the Mississippi River, bald cypress trees throughout North and South Carolina are significantly older. One example in North Carolina is over 1,600 years old.

Angel Oak was damaged severely during Hurricane Hugo in 1989 but has since recovered. The City of Charleston has owned the tree and surrounding park since 1991.

Development is beginning to encroach on the site of Angel Oak. In 2012, plans to build a 500-unit apartment complex that would be from Angel Oak were challenged in court by a group called Save the Angel Oak and the Coastal Conservation League; their concerns included the construction's effect on available groundwater and nutrients. By December, 2013, the Lowcountry Land Trust, celebrated "the preservation of 17 acres adjacent to the majestic tree." The 17 acres adjacent to the Angel Oak were purchased by Lowcountry Land Trust, protecting the area from development.

The Angel Oak features prominently in the book "The Heart of A Child" by Emily Nelson.

The Angel Oak was the focal point of an Allstate television ad in September 2018 saluting the strength of the Carolinas following the devastation of Hurricane Florence.