PCBaller World/Montana

This page will be dedicated to mostly statistics and projects by Montana, also known as the Republic of Montana, Greater Montana, Animal Cruelty Capital, and Greater Illinois, Mild Flavor.

"Montana's system does not represent my exact personal beliefs due to numerous compromises and treaties made with other nations. - Afun "

Advanced CRISPR/Gene Editing
Genetic modification within Montana is extremely common. Over 99% of foods are grown GMOs, but pesticides are used less frequently than in modern America. GMOs are used to make plants insect resistant, vitamin-rich, larger during harvest season, and to perform many functions stated here (some plants are made simply to create toxic chemicals en masse, e.g. resiniferatoxin).

The most genetically modified organisms in Montana are farm animals. Cows, pigs, and chickens are mostly (if not all) genetically modified organisms. They may result in an increase in flavorants in meat, naturally produced vitamins, or even larger size (plus all the hormones). These genomes are top-secret within Montana, and only select countries or states (looking at you, Greater Illinois) possess copies of them.

Asteroid Spectroscopy
The Republic of Montana has special telescopes placed into orbit around the Earth in order to scan distant asteroids in the inner asteroid belt using laser spectroscopy. With this, the spacecraft can determine the composition of the asteroids, and sell the information to asteroid miners (specifically to Greater Illinois) and collect large commissions from them (usually anywhere from 5% to 10%), earning Montana hundreds of billions if not trillions of dollars.

Montana has been a leading producer of platinum and palladium, until the genesis of asteroid mining and spectroscopy.

Nuclear Fusion Research Project
Most of Montana is powered using hydrogen-helium nuclear fusion. There are research projects aiming to generate power using the triple-alpha process (helium-carbon) and quark fusion.

Space Program
Montana has its own space program, albeit it not being overly advanced. SpaceX, one of the most prevalent private organizations, Asteroid spectroscopy and propagation lasers have been deployed into space to help with other high-level tasks, such as determining asteroid-mining candidates, studying faraway stars (using giant telescopes that even outclass the James Webb), and sending microcrafts to nearby stars (planned: P. Centauri). A more recent use of the space program was to drop the "Rods from God" (large tungsten rods weighing thousands of kilograms each, developed from asteroid-mining tungsten-rich asteroids with the help of LFA and GI ) on Indonesia, damaging their infrastructure and army.

As of 2050, Montana and the GI superstate union have a small presence on the moon, Mars, and Europa moon of Jupiter, as well as within some planetoids within the Kuiper Belt. The superstate is already making effort to colonize P. Centauri b, as it is the forefront of colonization beyond solar system constructs.

Capsaicin/Resiniferatoxin
Montana is the leading producer of concentrated capsaicin and resiniferatoxin in North America, using heavily genetically modified plants and chemical processes to produce ever-larger amounts of these chemicals in use for pepperspray and weaponry (and trading) than before at an ever-lower cost. Montana's gene-modification and weaponry production departments have genetically modified Euphorbia resinifera plants to increase per-plant resiniferatoxin production hundredfold. Manufacturing at most hundreds of tons of these chemicals per year, these chemicals are regularly traded in with partners such as Quebec and central Greater Illinois (who in turn trades it in with partners).

The Aesthetics Problem
The "Aesthetics Problem" is a nickname given to the governmental softban on the lack of a specified aesthetical design (with the exception of prisons) due to the passage of a specific bill from the House of Representatives; it was passed on 21 February, 2039. In other words, buildings are required to be aesthetically pleasing (to some extent). Most factories and industrial buildings are built with a brutalist aesthetic in order to keep the costs low. Most other buildings are built with aesthetics in mind (not completely, but are more aesthetically pleasing than let's say buildings in Chicago, IL). The "Aesthetics Problem" has slightly increased the cost of building and the cost of living, but innovators have managed to create aesthetically pleasing buildings that are mostly functional.

The Industrial Channel
The "Industrial Channel" is a portion of Interstates 90 and 65. The portion in I-90 starts in Bozeman, MT and goes to the junction with I-65 at Gary, IN. From there, the Industrial Channel will continue down to the interstate's junction with I-70 in Indianapolis, IN. The Channel has an extra lane on either side of the roadway (either that or the people are planning to build an extra lane on either side of the roadway, as it may not be finished). The Channel is notable for having many industrial centers, factory farms, airports, cheap aesthetically unpleasing homes, and abattoirs near it—shipment costs to Greater Illinois and the LFA are slightly lower. The northernmost 50 kilometers of Interstate 25 are surrounded by the robust Montanan industry sector.

The Vegan Problem
The "Vegan Problem" is a perceived problem in industrial areas near the Industrial Channel, where numerous factory farms and slaughterhouses are located. Many exits on industrial I-90 lead to slaughterhouses or factory farms, and these roads often face the issue of overcrowding by disruptive activists. Hostile architecture and surveillance have been implemented en masse to discourage the movement of these activists who intend on blocking the flow of traffic. Many factory farms and slaughterhouses are located near sheriff/police stations (or even military bases if they happen to be close to I-90) for this reason. In extreme cases, caravans of trucks and buses carrying animals for slaughter can be followed by teams of police cars.

Language
English is the primary language of Montana, with 85% of residents having it as their first language. The Russian language is in running second, with 13% of the population having it as an L1 and 70% of those with a second language having it as an L2. Spanish, French, German, and Ukrainian are uncommon as L1's in Montana, with up to 20% having one of those four as second languages. English is the second language of 5% of those who have one. All official documents are written in English, even though both English and Russian are spoken in big meetings (the former is significantly more common for obvious reasons).

Over 98% of the population knows the Latin script (as used in English), with anywhere from 70% to 90% knowing the Russian Cyrillic script.

The Montanan accent is known for the ability to pronounce /ɨ/ and the ability to articulate /tʲ/, /dʲ/, and /sʲ/ mostly (but not completely) like a native Russian would; the average Montanan accent may struggle with /w/. The Montanan accent in the West may have a decreased ability to pronounce /w/ and an increased ability to make the /vʲ/, /bʲ/, and /pʲ/ sounds. On the other hand, the Montanan accent in the East may have a decreased ability to make the /ɨ/, /sʲ/, and /dʲ/ sounds, usually having little to no problem with /w/.

West vs East
There is a cultural divide between the western side of Montana and the eastern side of Montana. The West has a rather high concentration of Russian speakers while Russian is spoken less than average in the Eastern portion. Cost of living is approximately 30% higher in western Montana, as houses take longer to build and are costlier to build/repair.

The amount of effort put into aesthetically pleasing building within the Western Montana is often high, driving up costs and building times, even if the functionality of said building is impaired. Buildings built in Eastern Montana tend to be rather aesthetically unpleasing (most of them usually meet the bare minimum, except houses, which are more aesthetically pleasing than most buildings there), even though they usually have increased functionality. Buildings built in a strictly geometrical or even honeycomb-like manner are somewhat more common for non-residential buildings than in the West.

The rural lifestyle is a major factor here in the West, with urban/industrial cities being uncommon. Ruralism and ranch life are virtually nonexistent in the east, with over 99% of the meat produced by the East being raised in factory farms. The attempted violent crime rate is nearly 60% higher here than in the West, even though police and military being very common.

60% of damage costs from extreme weather events are in Western Montana, while factory-related diseases and deaths are nearly three times as prevalent in the east.

Suburbs, upper-class neighborhoods, lower-class neighborhoods, and industrial centers are found in both halves of Montana. Suburbs are equally common in both halves, as are upper- and lower-class neighborhoods.

Ethical veganism, vegan activism, and violent animal rights protests are all more common in the East than in the West. Nonviolent animal rights protesters, seventh-day Adventists, and dietary vegans are more common in the West.

Energy Production
Numbers are in billions of kilowatt-hours per year.
 * Total: 5,595
 * H-He nuclear fusion: 3,850
 * Fossil fuel: 1,145
 * Nuclear fission: 450
 * Wind: 87
 * Solar: 55
 * Hydro: 8

Science Education

 * Percentage of schools teaching biological evolution: 98%
 * Percentage of schools teaching creation: 5%
 * Percentage of schools teaching round earth: ~100%
 * Percentage of schools teaching recent creation; 0.5%
 * Views on the origins of humanity:
 * Humans arose due to natural processes: 76%
 * Humans arose due to natural processes, with divine help: 12%
 * Humans were created no more than 10k years ago: 2%
 * Uncertain: 10%
 * Views on age of the earth:
 * Conventional age of 4.5 billion years: 88%
 * Under 10,000 years: 2%
 * Uncertain: 10%
 * View on shape of the earth:
 * Roughly spherical: 95%
 * Flat: 0.5%
 * Uncertain: 4.5%
 * View on the earth's interior:
 * Filled/Not Hollow: 96.5%
 * Hollow: 0.5%
 * Uncertain: 3%