The polar bear is a hypercarnivorous bear whose native range lies within the Arctic Circle, encompassing the Arctic Ocean, its surrounding seas and surrounding land masses. It is a large bear the same size as the omnivorous Kodiak bear. A boar weighs around 350 -- 700 kg. Polar bears are the largest land carnivores in existence, rivaled only by the Kodiak bear. Although it is the sister species of the brown bear, it has evolved to occupy a narrower ecological niche, with many body characteristics adapted for cold temperatures, for moving across snow and open water, for hunting seals, which make up most of its diet. Although most polar bears are born on land, they spend most of their time on the sea ice, their scientific name derives from this fact. Polar bears hunt their preferred food of seals from the edge of sea ice living off fat reserves when no sea ice is present; because of their dependence on the sea ice, polar bears are classified as marine mammals. Because of expected habitat loss caused by climate change, the polar bear is classified as a vulnerable species.

For decades, large-scale hunting raised international concern for the future of the species, but populations rebounded after controls and quotas began to take effect. For thousands of years, the polar bear has been a key figure in the material and cultural life of circumpolar peoples, polar bears remain important in their cultures; the polar bear has been known as the "white bear". It is sometimes referred to based on the Inuit term nanuq. Constantine John Phipps was the first to describe the polar bear as a distinct species in 1774, he chose the scientific name Ursus maritimus, the Latin for'maritime bear', due to the animal's native habitat. The Inuit refer to the animal as nanook; the Yupik refer to the bear as nanuuk in Siberian Yupik. The bear is umka in the Chukchi language. In Russian, it is called бе́лый медве́дь, though an older word still in use is ошку́й. In Quebec, the polar bear is referred to as ours polaire. In the Norwegian-administered Svalbard archipelago, the polar bear is referred to as Isbjørn.

The polar bear was considered to be in its own genus, Thalarctos. However, evidence of hybrids between polar bears and brown bears, of the recent evolutionary divergence of the two species, does not support the establishment of this separate genus, the accepted scientific name is now therefore Ursus maritimus, as Phipps proposed; the bear family, Ursidae, is thought to have split from other carnivorans about 38 million years ago. The subfamily Ursinae originated 4.2 million years ago. The oldest known polar bear fossil is a 130,000 to 110,000-year-old jaw bone, found on Prince Charles Foreland in 2004. Fossils show that between 10,000 and 20,000 years ago, the polar bear's molar teeth changed from those of the brown bear. Polar bears are thought to have diverged from a population of brown bears that became isolated during a period of glaciation in the Pleistocene from the eastern part of Siberia; the evidence from DNA analysis is more complex. The mitochondrial DNA of the polar bear diverged from the brown bear, Ursus arctos 150,000 years ago.

Further, some clades of brown bear, as assessed by their mtDNA, were thought to be more related to polar bears than to other brown bears, meaning that the brown bear might not be considered a species under some species concepts, but paraphyletic. The mtDNA of extinct Irish brown bears is close to polar bears. A comparison of the nuclear genome of polar bears with that of brown bears revealed a different pattern, the two forming genetically distinct clades that diverged 603,000 years ago, although the latest research is based on analysis of the complete genomes of polar and brown bears, establishes the divergence of polar and brown bears at 400,000 years ago. However, the two species have mated intermittently for all that time, most coming into contact with each other during warming periods, when polar bears were driven onto land and brown bears migrated northward. Most brown bears have about 2 percent genetic material from polar bears, but one population, the ABC Islands bears, has between 5 percent and 10 percent polar bear genes, indicating more frequent and recent mating.

Polar bears can breed with brown bears to produce fertile grizzly–polar bear hybrids. However, because neither species can survive long in the other's ecological niche, because they have different morphology, metabolism and feeding behaviours, other phenotypic characteristics, the two bears are classified as separate species; when the polar bear was documented, two subspecies were identified: the American polar bear by Constantine J. Phipps in 1774, the Siberian polar bear by Peter Simon Pallas in 1776; this distinction has since been invalidated. One alleged fossil subspecies has been identified: Ursus maritimus tyrannus, which became extinct during the Pleistocene. U.m. tyrannus was larger than the living subspecies. However, recent

The 41st Airlift Squadron is part of the 19th Airlift Wing at Little Rock Air Force Base, Arkansas. It operates Lockheed C-130J Super Hercules aircraft; the 41st participated in airborne drops on Nadzab, Tagaytay and Aparri, as well as aerial transportation in South and Western Pacific, during World War II. While stationed at the Hollandia Airfield Complex, the squadron rebuilt a captured Nakajima Ki-43 Oscar fighter; the squadron participated in the Berlin Airlift in 1948. Transported United Nations troops to the Congo in 1960, airlifted personnel and equipment to Southeast Asia from Ryukyu Islands from, 1965–1971, supported airlift operations in Korea during Pueblo crisis in January 1968, it has supported U. S. Army training and performed rotational duty throughout Europe, since 1971; the 41st airlifted personnel, special forces and supplies during operations in Grenada in 1983, Panama from December 1989 – January 1990, in Southwest Asia from, 11 August 1990 – 21 March 1991. Constituted as the 41st Transport Squadron on 2 February 1942Activated on 18 February 1942 Redesignated 41st Troop Carrier Squadron on 4 July 1942 Redesignated 41st Troop Carrier Squadron, Heavy on 30 June 1948 Inactivated on 14 September 1949Redesignated 41st Troop Carrier Squadron, Medium on 3 July 1952Activated on 14 July 1952 Redesignated 41st Troop Carrier Squadron on 8 December 1965 Redesignated 41st Tactical Airlift Squadron on 1 August 1967 Inactivated on 28 February 1971Activated on 31 August 1971Redesignated 41st Airlift Squadron on 1 January 1992 Douglas C-47 Skytrain Curtiss C-46 Commando Douglas C-54 Skymaster Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcar Lockheed C-130 Hercules Lockheed C-130J Super Hercules This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency website http://www.afhra.af.mil/.

Maurer, Maurer, ed.. Air Force Combat Units of World War II. Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History. ISBN 0-912799-02-1. LCCN 61060979. Retrieved 17 December 2016. Maurer, Maurer, ed.. Combat Squadrons of the Air Force, World War II. Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History. ISBN 0-405-12194-6. LCCN 70605402. OCLC 72556. Retrieved 17 December 2016. Ravenstein, Charles A.. Air Force Combat Wings, Lineage & Honors Histories 1947–1977. Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History. ISBN 0-912799-12-9. Retrieved 17 December 2016

Herbert Miller Woodcock was an Australian rules footballer who played for St Kilda in the Victorian Football League. Woodcock, recruited to St Kilda locally, used his powerful build to good effect as a ruck shepherd. A butcher by profession, Woodcock participated in the 1913 Grand Final which they lost to Fitzroy, he joined former St Kilda teammates Ernie Sellars and George Morrissey at East Perth in 1915 and played there for three seasons. In 1918 he returned to St Kilda and remained with the club until 1921. Holmesby and Main, Jim; the Encyclopedia of AFL Footballers. 7th ed. Melbourne: Bas Publishing. Bill Woodcock's playing statistics from AFL Tables Bill Woodcock at AustralianFootball.com