Gorillas are ground-dwelling, predominantly herbivorous apes that inhabit the forests of central Sub-Saharan Africa. The genus Gorilla is divided into two species: the eastern gorillas and the western gorillas, either four or five subspecies, they are the largest living primates. The DNA of gorillas is similar to that of humans, from 95 to 99% depending on what is included, they are the next closest living relatives to humans after the chimpanzees and bonobos. Gorillas' natural habitats cover subtropical forests in Sub-Saharan Africa. Although their range covers a small percentage of Sub-Saharan Africa, gorillas cover a wide range of elevations; the mountain gorilla inhabits the Albertine Rift montane cloud forests of the Virunga Volcanoes, ranging in altitude from 2,200 to 4,300 metres. Lowland gorillas live in dense forests and lowland swamps and marshes as low as sea level, with western lowland gorillas living in Central West African countries and eastern lowland gorillas living in the Democratic Republic of the Congo near its border with Rwanda.

The word "gorilla" comes from the history of Hanno the Navigator, a Carthaginian explorer on an expedition on the west African coast to the area that became Sierra Leone. Members of the expedition encountered "savage people, the greater part of whom were women, whose bodies were hairy, whom our interpreters called Gorillae", it is unknown whether what the explorers encountered were what we now call gorillas, another species of ape or monkeys, or humans. Skins of gorillai women, brought back by Hanno, are reputed to have been kept at Carthage until Rome destroyed the city 350 years at the end of the Punic Wars, 146 BC; the American physician and missionary Thomas Staughton Savage and naturalist Jeffries Wyman first described the western gorilla in 1847 from specimens obtained in Liberia. The name was derived from Ancient Greek Γόριλλαι, described by Hanno; the closest relatives of gorillas are the other two Homininae genera and humans, all of them having diverged from a common ancestor about 7 million years ago.

Human gene sequences differ only 1.6% on average from the sequences of corresponding gorilla genes, but there is further difference in how many copies each gene has. Until gorillas were considered to be a single species, with three subspecies: the western lowland gorilla, the eastern lowland gorilla and the mountain gorilla. There is now agreement that there are each with two subspecies. More a third subspecies has been claimed to exist in one of the species; the separate species and subspecies developed from a single type of gorilla during the Ice Age, when their forest habitats shrank and became isolated from each other. Primatologists continue to explore the relationships between various gorilla populations; the species and subspecies listed here are the ones upon. The proposed third subspecies of Gorilla beringei, which has not yet received a trinomen, is the Bwindi population of the mountain gorilla, sometimes called the Bwindi gorilla; some variations that distinguish the classifications of gorilla include varying density, hair colour, length and facial widths.

Population genetics of the lowland gorillas suggest that the western and eastern lowland populations diverged ~261 thousand years ago. Gorillas move around by knuckle-walking, although they sometimes walk bipedally for short distances while carrying food or in defensive situations, some mountain gorillas use other parts of their hand to aid locomotion. Wild male gorillas weigh 136 to 195 kg, while adult females weigh about half as much as adult males at 68–113 kg. Adult males are 1.4 to 1.8 m tall, with an arm span that stretches from 2.3 to 2.6 m. Female gorillas are shorter at 1.25 to 1.5 m, with smaller arm spans. Groves calculates that average weight of the 47 wild adult male gorillas is 143 kg, while Smith and Jungers found that the average weight of the 19 wild adult male gorillas is 169 kg. Adult male gorillas are known as silverbacks due to the characteristic silver hair on their backs reaching to the hips; the tallest gorilla recorded was a 1.95 m silverback with an arm span of 2.7 m, a chest of 1.98 m, a weight of 219 kg, shot in Alimbongo, northern Kivu in May 1938.

The heaviest gorilla recorded was a 1.83 m silverback shot in Ambam, which weighed 267 kg. Males in captivity are noted to be capable of reaching weights up to 310 kg. Gorilla facial structure is described as mandibular prognathism, that is, the mandible protrudes farther out than the maxilla. Adult males have a prominent sagittal crest; the eastern gorilla is more darkly coloured than the western gorilla, with the mountain gorilla being the darkest of all. The mountain gorilla has the thickest hair; the western lowland gorilla can grayish with a reddish forehead. In addition, gorillas that live in lowland forests are more slender and agile than the more bulky mountain gorillas; the eastern gorilla has a longer face and broader chest than the western gorilla. Studies have shown gorilla blood is not reactive to anti-A and anti-B monoclonal antibodies, which would, in humans, indicate type O blood. Due to novel sequences, though

Love and Other Impossible Pursuits is a novel by Israeli-American author Ayelet Waldman and released in 2006. Emilia Greenleaf is an attorney living in New York city with Jack Woolf. Emilia is the stepmother to William Woolf. William lives with his mother, the medical doctor Carolyn Soule, it is Emilia's job, however. When she picks him up, Emilia is subjected to snide glances and whispers from the other mothers because, it transpires, her relationship with her husband began when he was still with his wife, they had an office affair, the marriage dissolved. The reader discovers that Emilia and Jack have lost their daughter, Isabel, they kept the little girl for 3 days she died during the night of SIDS in her mother's arms after being fed. The bulk of the story deals with the results of Isabel's death, including the strain this puts on Emilia and Jack's marriage, as well as Emilia's feelings towards William. Emilia does not like William, but tries to be a good parent to him; this is hindered by the fact that William serves as his mother's mouthpiece, sometimes speaks in a matter-of-fact way about Isabel's death.

A film adaptation of the novel has been made with Natalie Portman starring in the lead role. The film was directed by Don Roos and starred Scott Cohen and Charlie Tahan. Jennifer Lopez was signed to play the lead role, but Portman replaced her after she abruptly dropped out of the project. Production began in November 2008. Love and Other Impossible Pursuits at author's website

The Kansas Air National Guard is the aerial militia of the State of Kansas, United States of America. It is, along with the Kansas Army National Guard, an element of the Kansas National Guard; as state militia units, the units in the Kansas Air National Guard are not in the normal United States Air Force chain of command. They are under the jurisdiction of the Governor of Kansas though the office of the Adjutant General of Kansas unless they are federalized by order of the President of the United States; the Kansas Air National Guard is headquartered in Topeka, its commander is Brigadier General Bradley S. Link. Under the "Total Force" concept, Kansas Air National Guard units are considered to be Air Reserve Components of the United States Air Force. Kansas ANG units are trained and equipped by the Air Force and are operationally gained by a Major Command of the USAF if federalized. In addition, the Kansas Air National Guard forces are assigned to Air Expeditionary Forces and are subject to deployment tasking orders along with their active duty and Air Force Reserve counterparts in their assigned cycle deployment window.

Along with their federal reserve obligations, as state militia units the elements of the Kansas ANG are subject to being activated by order of the Governor to provide protection of life and property, preserve peace and public safety. State missions include disaster relief in times of earthquakes, hurricanes and forest fires and rescue, protection of vital public services, support to civil defense; the Kansas Air National Guard consists of the following major units: 190th Air Refueling WingEstablished 23 February 1957. S. military forces and the military forces of allied nations flying the KC-135 Stratotanker.184th Intelligence WingEstablished 4 Aug 1941 Stationed at: McConnell Air Force Base, Wichita Gained by: Air Force Intelligence and Reconnaissance Agency The 184th IW provides wartime support in the form of collecting and analyzing intelligence. Some unit members deploy overseas to augment active duty forces; the Militia Act of 1903 established the present National Guard system, units raised by the states but paid for by the Federal Government, liable for immediate state service.

If federalized by Presidential order, they fall under the regular military chain of command. On 1 June 1920, the Militia Bureau issued Circular No.1 on organization of National Guard air units. The Kansas Air National Guard origins date to 4 August 1941 with the establishment of the 127th Observation Squadron, it is oldest unit of the Kansas Air National Guard. It is one of the 29 original National Guard Observation Squadrons of the United States Army National Guard formed before World War II; the squadron had 115 men in its ranks. It was, still short of officers since it only had nine officers but was authorized a total of thirty-one. Moved to Sherman Field at Fort Leavenworth, by November 1941 the squadron had one BE-1, one O-47A, one O-38E and several L-1's. All of the aircraft were single engine observation/liaison planes; the 127th Observation Squadron was ordered into active service on 6 October 1941 as part of the buildup of the Army Air Corps. In 1946, the United States Army Air Forces, in response to dramatic postwar military budget cuts, imposed by President Harry S. Truman, allocated inactive unit designations to the National Guard Bureau for the formation of an Air Force National Guard.

These unit designations were allotted and transferred to various State Air National Guard bureaus to provide them unit designations to re-establish them as Air National Guard units. The modern Kansas Air National Guard received federal recognition on 7 September 1946 as the 127th Fighter Squadron at Wichita Municipal Airport, Wichita, it was equipped with F-51D Mustangs and its mission was the air defense of the state. 18 September 1947, however, is considered the Kansas Air National Guard's official birth concurrent with the establishment of the United States Air Force as a separate branch of the United States military under the National Security Act On 23 February 1957, the 117th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, was federally recognized at Hutchinson Air National Guard Base, equipped with F-80C Shooting Star jet interceptors. On 1 October 1962 the 127th Tactical Fighter Squadron was authorized to expand to a group level, the 184th Tactical Fighter Group was allotted by the National Guard Bureau, extended federal recognition and activated.

That same year, the 117th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron was expanded on 15 October and the 190th Tactical Reconnaissance Group was federally recognized. Today the 184th Intelligence Wing at McConnell Air Force Base provide wartime support in the form of collecting and analyzing intelligence; the 190th Air Refueling Wing at Forbes Field AGB, provides global reach for the United States Air Force through the in-flight refueling of fighters and other aircraft using the KC-135 Stratotankers. After the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, elements of every Air National Guard unit in Kansas has been activated in support of the Global War on Terrorism. Flight crews, aircraft maintenance personnel, communications technicians, air controllers and air security personnel were engaged in Operation Noble Eagle air defense overflights of major United States cities. Kansas ANG units have been deployed overseas as part of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and Operation Ir