Split (1)

train · 3.15k rows

text stringlengths 24 5.93k
2004 NFL draft. The 2004 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held from April 24–25, 2004, at the Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York City.[1][2][3] No teams chose to claim any players in the supplemental draft that year. The draft was shown on ESPN both days and eventually moved to ESPN2 both days. The draft began with the San Diego Chargers selecting Mississippi quarterback Eli Manning with the first overall selection. Due to his refusal to play for the Chargers, Manning was later traded to the New York Giants for the fourth overall pick Philip Rivers of NC State. There were 32 compensatory selections distributed among 16 teams, with the Eagles, Rams, and Jets each receiving 4 compensatory picks.[4] Seven wide receivers were selected in the first round, a draft record later tied in 2024.[5] Another record set by the draft was the most trades in the first round, with twenty-eight trades. The University of Miami set an NFL record for the most first rounders drafted with six, which would be tied by Alabama in 2021. Ohio State set an NFL draft record having 14 total players selected through all rounds. It was the first draft to have produced two quarterbacks who each won multiple Super Bowls, with Ben Roethlisberger winning his second in 2008 and Eli Manning his second in 2011. The 255 players chosen in the draft were composed of: In the explanations below, (D) denotes trades that took place during the 2004 Draft, while (PD) indicates trades completed pre-draft.
Neritic zone. The neritic zone (or sublittoral zone) is the relatively shallow part of the ocean above the drop-off of the continental shelf, approximately 200 meters (660 ft) in depth.[1][2] From the point of view of marine biology it forms a relatively stable and well-illuminated environment for marine life, from plankton up to large fish and corals, while physical oceanography sees it as where the oceanic system interacts with the coast. In marine biology, the neritic zone, also called coastal waters, the coastal ocean or the sublittoral zone,[3] refers to the zone of the ocean where sunlight reaches the ocean floor, that is where the water is never so deep as to take it out of the photic zone. It extends from the low tide mark to the edge of the continental shelf, with a relatively shallow depth extending to about 200 meters (660 feet). Above the neritic zone lie the intertidal (or eulittoral) and supralittoral zones; below it the continental slope begins, descending from the continental shelf to the abyssal plain and the pelagic zone. Within the neritic, marine biologists also identify:[citation needed]
Oklahoma Sooners football. The Oklahoma Sooners football team represents the University of Oklahoma (OU) in college football at the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision level in the Southeastern Conference (SEC). The program began in 1895 and is one of the most successful in history, having won 950 games[4] and possessing a .723 winning percentage,[5] both sixth all-time. Oklahoma has appeared in the AP poll 905 times,[6] including 101 No. 1 rankings,[7] both third all-time. The program claims seven national championships,[8] 50 conference championships,[1] 167 first-team All-Americans (82 consensus, 35 unanimous),[2] and seven Heisman Trophy winners. The school has had 29 former players and coaches inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame and holds the record for the longest winning streak in Division I history with 47 straight victories. Oklahoma is also the only program with which four coaches have won more than 100 games each.[9] The Sooners play their home games at Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in Norman, Oklahoma. Brent Venables is the head coach and has served since 2022. The first football game in the universitys history was played on December 14, 1895, 12 years before Oklahoma became a state.[10] The team was organized by John A. Harts, a student from Winfield, Kansas.[11] Oklahoma was shut out 34–0 by a more experienced team from Oklahoma City in what was the Sooners only game that season.[10][12] Oklahoma failed to record a first down throughout the entire game,[12] which was played on a field of low prairie grass just northwest of the current site of Holmberg Hall.[13] Several members of the Oklahoma team were injured, including Harts. By the end of the game, Oklahoma had borrowed members from the opposing squad so they would have a full lineup.[12] After that year, Harts left Oklahoma to become a gold prospector.[12] After playing two games without a coach in 1896, a professor named Vernon Louis Parrington became head coach in 1897.[14] Parrington had played football at Harvard.[14] In his four years as head coach, Parringtons teams compiled a 9–2–1 record.[14][15] After the 1900 season, football began interfering with Parringtons teaching, and he stepped down as head coach.[14] He would go on to win the Pulitzer Prize for History in 1928 at the University of Washington.[14]
Continental shelf. A continental shelf is a portion of a continent that is submerged under an area of relatively shallow water, known as a shelf sea. Much of these shelves were exposed by drops in sea level during glacial periods. The shelf surrounding an island is known as an insular shelf. The continental margin, between the continental shelf and the abyssal plain, comprises a steep continental slope, surrounded by the flatter continental rise, in which sediment from the continent above cascades down the slope and accumulates as a pile of sediment at the base of the slope. Extending as far as 500 km (310 mi) from the slope, it consists of thick sediments deposited by turbidity currents from the shelf and slope.[1][2] The continental rises gradient is intermediate between the gradients of the slope and the shelf. Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the name continental shelf was given a legal definition as the stretch of the seabed adjacent to the shores of a particular country to which it belongs. The shelf usually ends at a point of increasing slope[3] (called the shelf break). The sea floor below the break is the continental slope.[4] Below the slope is the continental rise, which finally merges into the deep ocean floor, the abyssal plain.[5] The continental shelf and the slope are part of the continental margin.[6]
Classical Chinese. Classical Chinese[a] is the language in which the classics of Chinese literature were written, from c. the 5th century BCE.[2] For millennia thereafter, the written Chinese used in these works was imitated and iterated upon by scholars in a form now called Literary Chinese, which was used for almost all formal writing in China until the early 20th century. Each written character corresponds to a single spoken syllable, and almost always to a single independent word. As a result, the characteristic style of the language is comparatively terse. Starting in the 2nd century CE, use of Literary Chinese spread to the countries surrounding China, including Vietnam, Korea, Japan, and the Ryukyu Islands, where it represented the only known form of writing. Literary Chinese was adopted as the language of civil administration in these countries, creating what is known as the Sinosphere. Each additionally developed systems of readings and annotations that enabled non-Chinese speakers to interpret Literary Chinese texts in terms of the local vernacular. While not static throughout its history, its evolution has traditionally been guided by a conservative impulse: many later changes in the varieties of Chinese are not reflected in the literary form. Due to millennia of this evolution, Literary Chinese is only partially intelligible when read or spoken aloud for someone only familiar with modern vernacular forms. Literary Chinese has largely been replaced by written vernacular Chinese among Chinese speakers; speakers of non-Chinese languages have similarly abandoned Literary Chinese in favour of their own local vernaculars. Although varieties of Chinese have diverged in various directions from the Old Chinese words in the Classical lexicon, many cognates can still be found. There is no universal agreement on the definition of Classical Chinese. At its core, the term refers to the language used by the classics of Chinese literature roughly from the 5th century BCE to the end of the Han dynasty (202 BCE – 220 CE). The form of Chinese used in works written before the 4th century BCE, like the Five Classics, is distinct from that found in later works. The term pre-Classical Chinese is used to distinguish this earlier form from Classical Chinese proper, as it did not inspire later imitation to a comparable degree despite the works equal importance in the canon.[3]
Kelp forest. Kelp forests are underwater areas with a high density of kelp, which covers a large part of the worlds coastlines. Smaller areas of anchored kelp are called kelp beds. They are recognized as one of the most productive and dynamic ecosystems on Earth.[1][2] Although algal kelp forest combined with coral reefs only cover 0.1% of Earths total surface, they account for 0.9% of global primary productivity.[3] Kelp forests occur worldwide throughout temperate and polar coastal oceans.[1] In 2007, kelp forests were also discovered in tropical waters near Ecuador.[4] I can only compare these great aquatic forests ... with the terrestrial ones in the intertropical regions. Yet if in any country a forest was destroyed, I do not believe so nearly so many species of animals would perish as would here, from the destruction of kelp. Amidst the leaves of this plant numerous species of fish live, which nowhere else could find food or shelter; with their destruction the many cormorants and other fishing birds, the otters, seals and porpoise, would soon perish also; and lastly, the Fuegian[s] ... would ... decrease in numbers and perhaps cease to exist. Physically formed by brown macroalgae, kelp forests provide a unique habitat for marine organisms[6] and are a source for understanding many ecological processes. Over the last century, they have been the focus of extensive research, particularly in trophic ecology, and continue to provoke important ideas that are relevant beyond this unique ecosystem. For example, kelp forests can influence coastal oceanographic patterns[7] and provide many ecosystem services.[8] However, the influence of humans has often contributed to kelp forest degradation. Of particular concern are the effects of overfishing nearshore ecosystems, which can release herbivores from their normal population regulation and result in the overgrazing of kelp and other algae.[9] This can rapidly result in transitions to barren landscapes where relatively few species persist.[10][11] Already due to the combined effects of overfishing and climate change,[12] kelp forests have all but disappeared in many especially vulnerable places, such as Tasmanias east coast and the coast of Northern California.[13][14] The implementation of marine protected areas is one management strategy useful for addressing such issues, since it may limit the impacts of fishing and buffer the ecosystem from additive effects of other environmental stressors. The term kelp refers to marine algae belonging to the order Laminariales (phylum: Ochrophyta). Though not considered a taxonomically diverse order, kelps are highly diverse structurally and functionally.[8] The most widely recognized species are the giant kelps (Macrocystis spp.), although numerous other genera such as Laminaria, Ecklonia, Lessonia, Nereocystis, Alaria, and Eisenia are described.
Peter Andrikidis. Peter Andrikidis is an Australian film and television director, and producer. Andrikidis went to the Sydney high school Drummoyne Boys High School in the mid-1970s, where he made a small film called Nemesis. He graduated from the Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS) in Film Direction in 1981. Immediately after graduation from AFTRS, Andrikidis was recruited to Crawford Productions, where he worked on The Flying Doctors.
Kristen Dunphy. Kristen Dunphy is an Australian television screenwriter and producer. She is best known as creator, co-writer and co-executive producer of Wakefield, which screened on ABC TV in 2021. Dunphys career in film and television began when producer Sandra Levy employed her to work as assistant to Gillian Armstrong, who was directing the 1987 film, High Tide.[1] When Levy became head of drama at ABC TV she employed Dunphy as a screenwriter on G.P. (1992–1996), The Ferals (1995) and Heartbreak High (1995–1997).[1] Dunphy, as creator, co-writer and joint executive producer, began developing the eight-part serial, Wakefield in 2012.[2] During its production in 2020 she worked as joint showrunner.[3] Wakefield screened on ABC TV in 2021[4] and received five AACTA Award nominations.[5] Dunphy won her first AWGIE in 2003 for Best Television Series Episode for episode 14 of White Collar Blue (Network 10/Knapman Wyld).[6] She won the 2008 AWGIE for Best Television Series Drama for Eastwest 101 (SBS/Knapman Wyld) and the 2012 AWGIE for Best Mini-Series Television Drama for The Straits (ABC/Matchbox) 2012.[7] She was awarded the Foxtel Fellowship in 2012 for her significant contribution to the Australian cultural landscape made by television writing.[1]
Rachel Ward. Rachel Claire Ward AM (born 12 September 1957) is an English-Australian actress, theatre director and filmmaker.[1] Ward was born in Oxfordshire near Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, England, the daughter of Claire Leonora (née Baring) and the Hon. Peter Alistair Ward. Her grandfathers were William Ward, 3rd Earl of Dudley and the cricketer Giles Baring.[citation needed] Ward is also the great-granddaughter of William Ward, 2nd Earl of Dudley, Governor-General of Australia 1908–11, and sister of environmental campaigner and former actress Tracy Louise Ward, Duchess of Beaufort. She attended Hatherop Castle School, Hatherop, Gloucestershire,[2] then the Byam Shaw School of Art in Kensington, West London. She left school at age 16 to become a fashion and photography model.[3] She briefly dated David Kennedy, son of Robert F. Kennedy.[4] During her modelling career, she was featured on the covers of Vogue, Harpers & Queen, and Cosmopolitan magazines. After moving to the United States in 1977, she appeared in television advertisements such as the Lincoln Mercury Cougar Girl[5] and Revlons Scoundrel Girl.[6] In 1981, she received a Golden Globe Award nomination for New Star of the Year for her role in the crime drama film Sharkys Machine starring with Burt Reynolds. The following year, she starred in the comedy Dead Men Dont Wear Plaid with Steve Martin. Her big break came in 1983, when she starred opposite Richard Chamberlain as the lead role portraying Meggie Cleary in the television miniseries The Thorn Birds, for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film. Ward assigns much of the credit for this breakthrough performance to acting coach Sandra Seacat, first for simply helping her get the job (after her disastrous first reading)[7] and then for the quality of the finished performance, assembled over the course of a gruelling five-month shooting schedule, while undergoing a simultaneous and no less gruelling makeover programme at the hands of Seacat.[8] Also in 1983, U.S. audiences voted Ward one of the worlds 10 most beautiful women.[4] In 1984, she played Jess in the film noir remake Against All Odds, with Jeff Bridges and James Woods. After filming Fortress in 1985, Ward then disappeared from film for a few years to study acting. She reappeared in 1987 playing opposite her husband, Bryan Brown (whom she met on the set of The Thorn Birds), in The Umbrella Woman. In 2001, she was again nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film for her role in On the Beach (2000). Also in 2001, Ward won the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Short Fiction Film for The Big House,[9] and Best Australian Film at Flickerfest. The film also won the Film Critics Circle of Australia award, as did her 2003 film Marthas New Coat. That film also won the 2003 ATOM Award.
Prominence (disambiguation). Prominence in topography is a measure of the independence of a summit. Prominence or Prominent may also refer to:
Künten. Künten is a municipality in the district of Baden in the canton of Aargau in Switzerland. It lies on the Reuss River and includes the previously independent community of Sulz, which merged with Künten in 1973. Various finds point to an early settlement. Coins, shards, bronze and iron tools from a Roman settlement from the early 2nd century were discovered near Künten, while archaeologists discovered a burial mound near Sulz. Chünten and Sulzo were first mentioned in documents around 1160 in the Acta Murensia, which identified the villages as the property of Muri Abbey. The place name Künten comes from the late Latin (praedium) Quintinacum and means estate belonging to Quintinus. The current form of the name came about through a sound shift via the Old High German Chüntinacha. In the Middle Ages, the municipality was under the rule of the Habsburgs, who also exercised blood jurisdiction. Most of the lower jurisdiction was in the hands of the Hermetschwil Abbey. From 1392, a farm in Künten belonged to the Chapel of St. Nicholas [de] in Baden. In 1415, the Confederates conquered Aargau. Both villages were now part of the Amt Rohrdorf in the county of Baden, a common lordship. After the Reformation was introduced in 1529, the inhabitants had to return to the Catholic denomination after the Second Kappel War of 1531. In March 1798, the French invaded Switzerland and proclaimed the Helvetic Republic. Künten and Sulz initially belonged to the short-lived Canton of Baden, and from 1803 to the Canton of Aargau. Both villages formed a joint municipality, but were also two separate local communities with a certain degree of autonomy. This structure remained in place until 1973, when the Ortsbürgergemeinden were dissolved and merged with the Einwohnergemeinde. On June 10, 1866, a major fire in Künten destroyed 14 thatched houses. Künten remained dominated by agriculture until well into the 20th century. With the opening of the nearby highway, the population began to increase significantly and has more than doubled since then.
Writing system. A writing system comprises a set of symbols, called a script, as well as the rules by which the script represents a particular language. The earliest writing appeared during the late 4th millennium BC. Throughout history, each independently invented writing system gradually emerged from a system of proto-writing, where a small number of ideographs were used in a manner incapable of fully encoding language, and thus lacking the ability to express a broad range of ideas. Writing systems are generally classified according to how their symbols, called graphemes, relate to units of language. Phonetic writing systems – which include alphabets and syllabaries – use graphemes that correspond to sounds in the corresponding spoken language. Alphabets use graphemes called letters that generally correspond to spoken phonemes. They are typically divided into three sub-types: Pure alphabets use letters to represent both consonant and vowel sounds, abjads generally only use letters representing consonant sounds, and abugidas use letters representing consonant–vowel pairs. Syllabaries use graphemes called syllabograms that represent entire syllables or moras. By contrast, logographic (or morphographic) writing systems use graphemes that represent the units of meaning in a language, such as its words or morphemes. Alphabets typically use fewer than 100 distinct symbols, while syllabaries and logographies may use hundreds or thousands respectively. According to most contemporary definitions, writing is a visual and tactile notation representing language. As such, the use of writing by a community presupposes an analysis of the structure of language at some level.[2] The symbols used in writing correspond systematically to functional units of either a spoken or signed language. This definition excludes a broader class of symbolic markings, such as drawings and maps.[a][4] A text is any instance of written material, including transcriptions of spoken material.[5] The act of composing and recording a text is referred to as writing,[6] and the act of viewing and interpreting the text as reading.[7] The relationship between writing and language more broadly has been the subject of philosophical analysis as early as Aristotle (384–322 BC).[8] While the use of language is universal across human societies, writing is not; writing emerged much more recently, and was independently invented in only a handful of locations throughout history. While most spoken languages have not been written, all written languages have been predicated on an existing spoken language.[9] When those with signed languages as their first language read writing associated with a spoken language, this functions as literacy in a second, acquired language.[b][10] A single language (e.g. Hindustani) can be written using multiple writing systems, and a writing system can also represent multiple languages. For example, Chinese characters have been used to write multiple languages throughout the Sinosphere – including the Vietnamese language from at least the 13th century, until their replacement with the Latin-based Vietnamese alphabet in the 20th century.[11] In the first several decades of modern linguistics as a scientific discipline, linguists often characterized writing as merely the technology used to record speech – which was treated as being of paramount importance, for what was seen as the unique potential for its study to further the understanding of human cognition.[12]
Aaron Faaoso. Aaron Faaoso is an Australian actor, screenwriter and producer, known for his roles in East West 101, The Straits (which he also wrote and produced) and Black Comedy. He established Lonestar Productions in 2013, which brings stories of the people of the Torres Strait Islands and north Queensland to the screen. Faaoso was born into the Kheodal (Crocodile) and Samu (Emu) clans of Torres Strait Islanders people, his family having moved from Saibai Island to the mainland of Australia in 1947.[1] He is also of Samoan and Tongan descent.[2][3] He grew up in a big Torres Strait Islander community[4] in Bamaga on the Cape York Peninsula, Queensland.[1] He graduated high school,[4] and worked as a sexual health worker in Bamaga, and played rugby league football in the Australian Rugby League and Super League competitions.[2] He moved from Cairns to Sydney to pursue a rugby career, joining the Canterbury Bulldogs rugby league club.[4] Faaoso began his acting television career in 2006, where he played Eddie Gaibui on RAN, a six-part drama which aired on SBS One. In late 2007 to early 2008 he appeared in the first series of another SBS drama series, East West 101, playing Detective Sonny Koa. Later that year he had a guest role in Sea Patrol, which aired on Network Nine.[5][6]
Seagrass meadow. A seagrass meadow or seagrass bed is an underwater ecosystem formed by seagrasses. Seagrasses are marine (saltwater) plants found in shallow coastal waters and in the brackish waters of estuaries. Seagrasses are flowering plants with stems and long green, grass-like leaves. They produce seeds and pollen and have roots and rhizomes which anchor them in seafloor sand. Seagrasses form dense underwater meadows which are among the most productive ecosystems in the world. They provide habitats and food for a diversity of marine life comparable to that of coral reefs. This includes invertebrates like shrimp and crabs, cod and flatfish, marine mammals and birds. They provide refuges for endangered species such as seahorses, turtles, and dugongs. They function as nursery habitats for shrimps, scallops and many commercial fish species. Seagrass meadows provide coastal storm protection by the way their leaves absorb energy from waves as they hit the coast. They keep coastal waters healthy by absorbing bacteria and nutrients, and slow the speed of climate change by sequestering carbon dioxide into the sediment of the ocean floor. Seagrasses evolved from marine algae which colonized land and became land plants, and then returned to the ocean about 100 million years ago. However, today seagrass meadows are being damaged by human activities such as pollution from land runoff, fishing boats that drag dredges or trawls across the meadows uprooting the grass, and overfishing which unbalances the ecosystem. Seagrass meadows are currently[when?] being destroyed at a rate of about 3 square metres per second (1,900 sq ft/min). Seagrasses are flowering plants (angiosperms) which grow in marine environments. They evolved from terrestrial plants which migrated back into the ocean about 75 to 100 million years ago.[1][2] In the present day they occupy the sea bottom in shallow and sheltered coastal waters anchored in sand or mud bottoms.[3]
Topographic isolation. The topographic isolation of a summit is the minimum horizontal distance to a point of equal elevation, representing a radius of dominance in which the peak is the highest point. It can be calculated for small hills and islands as well as for major mountain peaks and can even be calculated for submarine summits. Mount Everest, the highest point on Earth, has an undefined isolation, since there are no higher points to reference.[1] Because topographic isolation can be difficult to determine, a common approximation is the distance to a peak called the nearest higher neighbour (NHN).[2] The following sortable table lists Earths 40 most topographically isolated summits.
Los Angeles. Los Angeles,[a] often referred to by its initials L.A., is the most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Southern California. With an estimated 3.88 million residents within the city limits as of 2024[update],[8] it is the second-most populous city in the United States, behind New York City. Los Angeles has an ethnically and culturally diverse population, and is the principal city of a metropolitan area of 12.9 million people (2024). Greater Los Angeles, a combined statistical area that includes the Los Angeles and Riverside–San Bernardino metropolitan areas, is a sprawling metropolis of over 18.5 million residents. The majority of the city proper lies in a basin in Southern California, adjacent to the Pacific Ocean in the west and extending partly through the Santa Monica Mountains and north into the San Fernando Valley, with the city bordering the San Gabriel Valley to its east. It covers about 469 square miles (1,210 km2),[6] and is the county seat and most populated city of Los Angeles County, which is the most populous county in the United States with an estimated 9.86 million residents as of 2022[update].[17] It is the third-most visited city in the U.S. with over 2.7 million visitors as of 2023.[18] The area that became Los Angeles was originally inhabited by the indigenous Tongva people and later claimed by Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo for Spain in 1542. The city was founded on September 4, 1781, under Spanish governor Felipe de Neve, on the village of Yaanga.[19] It became a part of the First Mexican Empire in 1821 following the Mexican War of Independence. In 1848, at the end of the Mexican–American War, Los Angeles and the rest of California were purchased as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and became part of the United States. Los Angeles was incorporated as a municipality on April 4, 1850, five months before California achieved statehood. The discovery of oil in the 1890s brought rapid growth to the city.[20] The city was further expanded with the completion of the Los Angeles Aqueduct in 1913, which delivers water from Eastern California. Los Angeles has a diverse economy with a broad range of industries. Despite a steep exodus of film and television production since the COVID-19 pandemic,[21] Los Angeles is still one of the largest hubs of American film production,[22][23] the worlds largest by revenue; the city is an important site in the history of film. It also has one of the busiest container ports in the Americas,[24][25][26] and despite a business exodus from downtown Los Angeles, the citys urban core is evolving as a cultural center with the worlds largest showcase of architecture designed by Frank Gehry.[27] In 2018, the Los Angeles metropolitan area had a gross metropolitan product of over $1.0 trillion,[28] making it the city with the third-largest GDP in the world, after New York and Tokyo. Los Angeles hosted the Summer Olympics in 1932 and 1984, and will also host in 2028.
Rowan Woods. Rowan Woods is an Australian AACTA Award-winning film and television director, best known for the 1998 film The Boys and the 2016 television drama series The Kettering Incident. Woods directed The Boys in 1998[1] and won an ACCTA Award for Best Direction.[2] The film was also entered into the 48th Berlin International Film Festival.[3] His next film, Little Fish, starring Cate Blanchett, was released in September 2005.[4] His 2009 film, Fragments received mixed, but mostly negative reviews from critics.[5] Woods has directed episodes of several television series, including Farscape, Fireflies, Police Rescue, and Spartacus: Blood and Sand.[citation needed]
Contour line. A contour line (also isoline, isopleth, isoquant or isarithm) of a function of two variables is a curve along which the function has a constant value, so that the curve joins points of equal value.[1][2] It is a plane section of the three-dimensional graph of the function f ( x , y ) {\displaystyle f(x,y)} parallel to the ( x , y ) {\displaystyle (x,y)} -plane. More generally, a contour line for a function of two variables is a curve connecting points where the function has the same particular value.[2] In cartography, a contour line (often just called a contour) joins points of equal elevation (height) above a given level, such as mean sea level.[3] A contour map is a map illustrated with contour lines, for example a topographic map, which thus shows valleys and hills, and the steepness or gentleness of slopes.[4] The contour interval of a contour map is the difference in elevation between successive contour lines.[5] The gradient of the function is always perpendicular to the contour lines. When the lines are close together the magnitude of the gradient is large: the variation is steep. A level set is a generalization of a contour line for functions of any number of variables. Contour lines are curved, straight or a mixture of both lines on a map describing the intersection of a real or hypothetical surface with one or more horizontal planes. The configuration of these contours allows map readers to infer the relative gradient of a parameter and estimate that parameter at specific places. Contour lines may be either traced on a visible three-dimensional model of the surface, as when a photogrammetrist viewing a stereo-model plots elevation contours, or interpolated from the estimated surface elevations, as when a computer program threads contours through a network of observation points of area centroids. In the latter case, the method of interpolation affects the reliability of individual isolines and their portrayal of slope, pits and peaks.[6] The idea of lines that join points of equal value was rediscovered several times. The oldest known isobath (contour line of constant depth) is found on a map dated 1584 of the river Spaarne, near Haarlem, by Dutchman Pieter Bruinsz.[7] In 1701, Edmond Halley used such lines (isogons) on a chart of magnetic variation.[8] The Dutch engineer Nicholas Cruquius drew the bed of the river Merwede with lines of equal depth (isobaths) at intervals of 1 fathom in 1727, and Philippe Buache used them at 10-fathom intervals on a chart of the English Channel that was prepared in 1737 and published in 1752. Such lines were used to describe a land surface (contour lines) in a map of the Duchy of Modena and Reggio by Domenico Vandelli in 1746, and they were studied theoretically by Ducarla in 1771, and Charles Hutton used them in the Schiehallion experiment. In 1791, a map of France by J. L. Dupain-Triel used contour lines at 20-metre intervals, hachures, spot-heights and a vertical section. In 1801, the chief of the French Corps of Engineers, Haxo, used contour lines at the larger scale of 1:500 on a plan of his projects for Rocca dAnfo, now in northern Italy, under Napoleon.[9][10][11]
Massachusetts. Masshole (colloquial)[8][9][10][11][12][13] Massachusettsan (recommended by the U.S. GPO)[14] Massachusetts (/ˌmæsəˈtʃuːsɪts/ ⓘ /-zɪts/ MASS-ə-CHOO-sits, -⁠zits; Massachusett: Muhsachuweesut [məhswatʃəwiːsət]), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts,[b] is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode Island to its south, New Hampshire and Vermont to its north, and New York to its west. Massachusetts is the sixth-smallest state by land area. With a 2024 U.S. Census Bureau-estimated population of 7,136,171,[5] its highest estimated count ever, Massachusetts is the most populous state in New England, the 16th-most-populous in the United States, and the third-most densely populated U.S. state, after New Jersey and Rhode Island.
Topography. Topography is the study of the forms and features of land surfaces. The topography of an area may refer to the landforms and features themselves, or a description or depiction in maps. Topography is a field of geoscience and planetary science and is concerned with local detail in general, including not only relief, but also natural, artificial, and cultural features such as roads, land boundaries, and buildings.[1] In the United States, topography often means specifically relief, even though the USGS topographic maps record not just elevation contours, but also roads, populated places, structures, land boundaries, and so on.[2] Topography in a narrow sense involves the recording of relief or terrain, the three-dimensional quality of the surface, and the identification of specific landforms; this is also known as geomorphometry. In modern usage, this involves generation of elevation data in digital form (DEM). It is often considered to include the graphic representation of the landform on a map by a variety of cartographic relief depiction techniques, including contour lines, hypsometric tints, and relief shading. The term topography originated in ancient Greece and continued in ancient Rome, as the detailed description of a place. The word comes from the Greek τόπος (topos, place) and -γραφία (-graphia, writing).[3] In classical literature this refers to writing about a place or places, what is now largely called local history. In Britain and in Europe in general, the word topography is still sometimes used in its original sense.[4] Detailed military surveys in Britain (beginning in the late eighteenth century) were called Ordnance Surveys, and this term was used into the 20th century as generic for topographic surveys and maps.[5] The earliest scientific surveys in France were the Cassini maps after the family who produced them over four generations.[6] The term topographic surveys appears to be American in origin. The earliest detailed surveys in the United States were made by the Topographical Bureau of the Army, formed during the War of 1812,[7] which became the Corps of Topographical Engineers in 1838.[8] After the work of national mapping was assumed by the United States Geological Survey in 1878, the term topographical remained as a general term for detailed surveys and mapping programs, and has been adopted by most other nations as standard.
Fujiyama (surname). Fujiyama (written: 藤山) is a Japanese surname. Notable people with the surname include:
Austin, Texas. Austin (/ˈɔːstɪn/ ⓘ AW-stin)[8] is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. With a population of 961,855 at the 2020 census,[9] it is the 13th-most populous city in the U.S., fifth-most populous city in Texas, and second-most populous U.S. state capital (after Phoenix, Arizona), while the Austin metro area with an estimated 2.55 million residents is the 25th-largest metropolitan area in the nation. Austin is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839,[10] it has been one of the fastest-growing large cities in the United States since 2010.[11][12][13] Located in Central Texas within the greater Texas Hill Country, it is home to numerous lakes, rivers, and waterways, including Lady Bird Lake and Lake Travis on the Colorado River, Barton Springs, McKinney Falls, and Lake Walter E. Long. Austins history dates back to at least 9200 BC, with early habitation by Clovis peoples and later by Indigenous groups such as the Tonkawa. Austin and San Antonio are approximately 80 miles (129 km) apart, and both fall along the I-35 corridor. This combined metropolitan region of San Antonio–Austin has approximately 5 million people.[14] Austin is the southernmost state capital in the contiguous United States and is considered a Gamma + level global city as categorized by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network.[15] Residents of Austin are known as Austinites.[16] They include a diverse mix of government employees, college students, musicians, high-tech workers, and blue-collar workers. The citys official slogan promotes Austin as The Live Music Capital of the World, a reference to the citys many musicians and live music venues, as well as the long-running PBS TV concert series Austin City Limits.[17][18] Austin is the site of South by Southwest (SXSW), an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals. The city also adopted Silicon Hills as a nickname in the 1990s due to a rapid influx of technology and development companies. In recent years, some Austinites have adopted the unofficial slogan Keep Austin Weird,[19] which refers to the desire to protect small, unique, and local businesses from being overrun by large corporations.[20] Ongoing rapid development and gentrification challenge its bohemian roots and fuel nostalgia for “Old Austin.” Since the late 19th century, Austin has also been known as the City of the Violet Crown, because of the colorful glow of light across the hills just after sunset.[21] Emerging from a strong economic focus on government and education, since the 1990s, Austin has become a center for technology and business.[22][23] The technology roots in Austin can be traced back to the 1960s, when defense electronics contractor Tracor (now BAE Systems) began operations in the city in 1962. IBM followed in 1967, opening a facility to produce its Selectric typewriters. Texas Instruments was set up in Austin two years later, and Motorola (now NXP Semiconductors) started semiconductor chip manufacturing in 1974. A number of Fortune 500 companies have headquarters or regional offices in Austin, including 3M, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Agilent Technologies, Amazon, Apple, Dell, Expedia, Facebook (Meta), General Motors, Google, IBM, Intel, NXP Semiconductors, Oracle, Tesla, and Texas Instruments.[citation needed] With regard to education, Austin is the home of the University of Texas at Austin, one of the largest universities in the U.S., with over 50,000 students.[24] In 2021, Austin became home to Austin FC, the first (and currently only) major professional sports team in the city.
Japanese warship Fujiyama. Fujiyama (富士山) was a Japanese steam frigate acquired by the Tokugawa shogunate during the Bakumatsu period immediately prior to the Meiji Restoration. She was built in New York City, United States, in 1864. Ordered in 1862 as part of an arms package consisting of two steam frigates and one gunboat to the United States government, work on Fujiyama was delayed by issues with American neutrality during the Battles for Shimonoseki. The Tokugawa shogunate cancelled the contract for the remaining vessels, but Fujiyama was already under construction. She was received by the Shogunate on 7 December 1866 at Yokohama. Fujiyama was one of the four ships remitted by Enomoto Takeaki to the Imperial forces during the Boshin War, before Enomoto fled to Hokkaidō, suggesting that her performance was not so impressive. After the Meiji restoration, Fujiyama was incorporated in the newly formed Imperial Japanese Navy in July 1869. She was rated as a 4th class warship (四等艦) on November 15, 1871, and a third-class warship on November 20, 1874. She was thereafter only used as a training ship, until her decommission on May 10, 1889. She was subsequently used as a floating barracks at Kure Naval District for a few months in 1889. She was sold for scrap in 1896.
Blues rock. Blues rock is a fusion genre and form of rock and blues music that relies on the chords/scales and instrumental improvisation of blues.[3] It is mostly an electric ensemble-style music with instrumentation similar to electric blues and rock (electric guitar, electric bass guitar, drums, and sometimes with keyboards and harmonica). From its beginnings in the early to mid-1960s, blues rock has gone through several stylistic shifts and along the way it inspired and influenced hard rock, Southern rock, and early heavy metal. Blues rock started with rock musicians in the United Kingdom and the United States performing American blues songs. They typically recreated electric Chicago blues songs, such as those by Willie Dixon, Muddy Waters, and Jimmy Reed, at faster tempos and with a more aggressive sound common to rock. In the UK, the style was popularized by groups such as the Rolling Stones, the Yardbirds, and the Animals, who put several blues songs into the pop charts. In the US, Lonnie Mack, the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, and Canned Heat were among the earliest exponents. Some of these bands also played long, involved improvisations as were then commonplace on jazz records.[4] In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the style became more hard rock-oriented. In the US, Johnny Winter, the early Allman Brothers Band, and ZZ Top represented a hard rock trend, along with Led Zeppelin, Ten Years After, Chicken Shack, and Foghat in the UK. Along with hard rock, blues rock songs became the core of the music played on album-oriented rock radio in the United States, and later the classic rock format established there during the 1980s.[5] The blues gave rock a mother’s unconditional love, nurturing it through its difficult stages and always providing a welcome return no matter how far it strayed from home. Blues rock can be characterized by bluesy improvisation, extended boogie jams typically focused on electric guitar solos, and often a heavier, riff-oriented sound and feel to the songs than found in typical Chicago-style blues. Blues rock bands borrow[ed] the idea of an instrumental combo and loud amplification from rock & roll.[4] It is also often played at a fast tempo, again distinguishing it from the blues.[4]
Fujiyama Station. Fujiyama Station (藤山駅, Fujiyama-eki) was a train station in Rumoi, Hokkaidō, Japan. The station closed on 1 April 2023 owing to poor patronage.[1][2] This Hokkaido rail station-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
Dire Straits (disambiguation). Dire Straits were a British rock band. Dire Straits may also refer to:
Fujiyama (roller coaster). Fujiyama (フジヤマ) is a steel roller coaster at Fuji-Q Highland, Fujiyoshida, Japan.[1] When Fujiyama opened in July 1996, it was the worlds tallest roller coaster at 259 feet (79 m),[2] and had the largest drop in the world at 230 feet (70 m).[3] Fujiyama was also the worlds fastest roller coaster for a year of its operation, being succeeded by Tower of Terror at Dreamworld theme park in Queensland, Australia in 1997.[4] Despite being the worlds fastest roller coaster for a year, Fujiyama set no official world records for roller coaster speed. The Steel Phantom coaster at Kennywood in Pennsylvania, U.S., set the world record for speed instead.[5][6] Fujiyama is named after the iconic Mount Fuji, which stands to the west of Tokyo. The term Fujiyama comes from fuji, and yama which means mountain.[1] Mount Fuji is seldom referred to as Fujiyama in the Japanese language, but is instead more commonly referred to as Fujisan, using the onyomi pronunciation of the mountain character. The roller coaster Fujiyama is named as a play on the common foreign mistransliteration.[7] As with many Japanese roller coasters, Fujiyama has a maximum rider age of 64 years old, as well as the height restrictions typical of any roller coaster. If an unlimited ride ticket has not been purchased, it also has a separate entrance fee (2,000 yen). The layout of Fujiyama is that of a typical out-and-back roller coaster.[1] It incorporates many of the elements that are typical of this coaster design, including a large first drop, headchopper elements, and a series of small bunny hills near the end of the coasters course.[5] Given its record-breaking status, Fujiyama attracted considerable attention when it opened. The ride has been rated positively by many reviewers, garnering 5 stars in Steven Urbanowiczs The Roller Coaster Lovers Companion.[8] Fujiyama did not, however, achieve a listing amongst the top 50 steel roller coasters in Amusement Todays 2009 Golden Ticket Awards.[9] Fujiyama inadvertently attracted attention in 2000 after an article was published in the journal Neurology.[10][11] The article discussed the possible relationship between riding roller coasters and the occurrence of subdural hematomas. The primary case study cited by the authors was a woman who had reported severe headaches after riding several roller coasters at Fuji-Q Highland, including Fujiyama. Upon investigation, it was discovered that this woman did in fact have a subdural hematoma.[12] Subsequent research, however, has maintained that this risk remains low and is not unique to this particular coaster.[13]
Mount Fuji. Mount Fuji[a] (富士山・富士の山, Fujisan, Fuji no Yama[b]) is an active stratovolcano located on the Japanese island of Honshu, with a summit elevation of 3,776.24 m (12,389 ft 3 in). It is the highest mountain in Japan, the second-highest volcano on any Asian island (after Mount Kerinci on the Indonesian island of Sumatra), and seventh-highest peak of an island on Earth.[1] Mount Fuji last erupted from 1707 to 1708.[7][8] It is located about 100 km (62 mi) southwest of Tokyo, from where it is visible on clear days. Its exceptionally symmetrical cone, which is covered in snow for about five months of the year, is a Japanese cultural icon and is frequently depicted in art and photography, as well as visited by sightseers, hikers, and mountain climbers.[9] Mount Fuji is one of Japans Three Holy Mountains (三霊山, Sanreizan) along with Mount Tate and Mount Haku. It is a Special Place of Scenic Beauty and one of Japans Historic Sites.[10] It was added to the World Heritage List as a Cultural Site on June 22, 2013.[10] According to UNESCO, Mount Fuji has inspired artists and poets and been the object of pilgrimage for centuries. UNESCO recognizes 25 sites of cultural interest within the Mount Fuji locality. These 25 locations include Mount Fuji and the Shinto shrine, Fujisan Hongū Sengen Taisha.[11] The current kanji for Mount Fuji, 富 and 士, mean wealth or abundant and man of status respectively. The origins of this spelling and the name Fuji continue to be debated. In Japanese, kanji characters are often applied by sound, and the meaning of the kanji may have nothing to do with the name of the mountain. Mt. Fuji was called Fuji before the kanji was applied to it.[12]
Roots rock. Roots rock is a genre of rock music that looks back to rocks origins in folk, blues, and country music.[1] First emerging in the late 1960s, it is seen as a response to the perceived excesses of the then dominant psychedelic and the developing progressive rock.[2] Because roots music (Americana) is often used to mean folk and world musical forms, roots rock is sometimes used in a broad sense to describe any rock music that incorporates elements of this music.[3] After a further decline, the 2000s saw a new interest in roots music. One proof of that is the specific Grammy Award given since 2015, notably to Jon Batiste in 2022. According to their website, that trophy is defined as: This category recognizes excellence in Americana, bluegrass, blues or folk recordings in modern and/or traditional vocal and instrumental styles, as well as original material by artists who use traditional and/or modern roots elements, sounds and instrumental techniques as the basis for their recordings.[4] In 1966, as many rock artists moved towards expansive and experimental psychedelia, Bob Dylan spearheaded the back-to-basics roots revival when he went to Nashville to record the album Blonde on Blonde, using notable local musicians like Charlie McCoy.[5] This, and the subsequent more clearly country-influenced albums, John Wesley Harding (1967) and Nashville Skyline (1969), have been seen as creating the genre of country folk, a route pursued by a number of, largely acoustic, folk musicians.[5] Other acts that followed the back to basics trend in different ways were the Canadian/American group The Band and the California-based Creedence Clearwater Revival, both of which mixed basic rock and roll with folk, country, and blues, to be among the most successful and influential bands of the late 1960s.[6] At the same time the Grateful Dead, a band previously associated with the San Francisco sound and known for ferocious psychedelic improvisation, followed in the footsteps of Crosby, Stills & Nash to focus on Americana-styled songwriting for their 1970 albums Workingmans Dead and American Beauty. The same movement saw the beginning of the recording careers of Californian solo artists like Ry Cooder, Bonnie Raitt, and Lowell George.[7] The blues boom overlapped, both chronologically and in terms of personnel, with the earlier, wider rhythm and blues phase, which had begun to peter out in the mid-1960s leaving a nucleus of instrumentalists with a wide knowledge of blues forms and techniques, which they would carry into the pursuit of more purist blues interests.[8][9] Blues Incorporated and John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers were well known in the London Jazz and emerging R&B circuits, but the Bluesbreakers began to gain some national and international attention, particularly after the release of Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton album (1966), considered one of the seminal British blues recordings.[10] From 1966 to 1968, young Englishmen formed blues rock bands such as Cream, Fleetwood Mac, Keef Hartley Band, Ten Years After, and Free. In America, Paul Butterfield Blues Band,[11] Canned Heat, and Johnny Winter performed at Woodstock Festival 1969. Dylans lead was also followed by the Byrds, who were joined by Gram Parsons in 1968. Earlier in the year Parsons had already recorded Safe at Home with the International Submarine Band, which made extensive use of pedal steel guitar and is seen by some as the first true country-rock album.[2] The result of Parsons tenure in the Byrds was Sweetheart of the Rodeo (1968), generally considered one of the finest and most influential recordings in the genre.[2] The Byrds continued for a brief period in the same vein, but Parsons left soon after the album was released to be joined by another ex-Byrds member Chris Hillman in forming the Flying Burrito Brothers. Over the next two years they recorded the albums The Gilded Palace of Sin (1969) and Burrito Deluxe (1970), which helped establish the respectability and parameters of the genre, before Parsons departed to pursue a solo career.[2]
Pub rock (United Kingdom). Pub rock is a subgenre of rock music that emerged in the early to mid-1970s in the United Kingdom. A back-to-basics movement, which incorporated roots rock, pub rock was a reaction against the expensively-recorded and produced progressive rock and flashy glam rock scenes at the time. Although short-lived, pub rock was played live in small traditional venues like pubs and clubs.[1] Since major labels showed no interest in pub rock groups, pub bands sought out independent record labels such as Stiff Records. Indie labels used relatively inexpensive recording processes, so they had a much lower break-even point for a record than a major label. With pub rocks emphasis on small venues, simple, fairly inexpensive recordings and indie record labels, it was the catalyst for the development of the British punk rock scene. Despite these shared elements, though, there was a difference between the genres: while pub rock harked back to early rock and roll and R&B, punk was iconoclastic, and sought to break with the past musical traditions. Pub rock was deliberately nasty, dirty and post-glam.[2] Dress style was based around denim and checked shirts, tatty jeans and droopy hair.[3] The figureheads of the movement, Dr. Feelgood, were noted for their frontmans filthy white suit.[4] Bands looked menacing and threatening, like villains on The Sweeney.[5] According to David Hepworth, Dr. Feelgood looked as if they had come together in some unsavoury section of the army. Pub rock groups disdained any form of flashy presentation. Scene leaders like Dr. Feelgood, Kilburn and the High Roads and Ducks Deluxe played simple, back to mono rhythm and blues in the tradition of white British groups like the Rolling Stones and the Yardbirds, with fuzzy overdriven guitars and whiny vocals.[5] Lesser known acts played funky soul (Kokomo, Clancy, Cado Belle) or country rock (the Kursaal Flyers, Chilli Willi and the Red Hot Peppers).[6] While pub rockers did not have expensive stage shows, they took inspiration from early R&B and increased the dynamism and intensity of their live shows.[7] Pub rock allowed a variety of singers and musicians to perform, even if they did not adhere to a clearly defined musical genre.[7] Major labels scouted pub rock acts, thinking they might find the next Beatles at a local pub; however A&R representatives decided that pub rock did not have potential for mass market hits.[7] With no interest from major labels, pub rockers put out their records through small independent record labels such as Stiff Records and Chiswick Records.[7]
Opposition (astronomy). In positional astronomy, two astronomical objects are said to be in opposition when they are on opposite sides of the celestial sphere, as observed from a given body (usually Earth). A planet (or asteroid or comet) is said to be in opposition or at opposition when it is in opposition to the Sun. Because most orbits in the Solar System are nearly coplanar to the ecliptic, this occurs when the Sun, Earth, and the body are configured in an approximately straight line, or syzygy; that is, Earth and the body are in the same direction as seen from the Sun. Opposition occurs only for superior planets (see the diagram). The instant of opposition is defined as that when the apparent geocentric celestial longitude of the body differs by 180° from the apparent geocentric longitude of the Sun.[1] At that time, a body is: The Moon, which orbits Earth rather than the Sun, is in approximate opposition to the Sun at full moon.[7] A more exact opposition occasionally occurs with mathematical regularity if the Moon is at its usual sun and Earth-aligning point so that it appears full and happens to be aligning with the ecliptic (Earths orbital plane) during the descending or ascending phase of its 5° inclined (tilted) orbit, which is more concisely termed at a node of its orbit, in which case, a lunar eclipse occurs. A more exact, shaded form is when a central area of the earth aligns more precisely: a central lunar eclipse, of which there were 14 in the 50 years to 2000, others being penumbral. The astronomical symbol for opposition is ☍ (U+260D). ()
Insular Japonic languages. The Insular Japonic languages or Japonic-Ryukyu languages are a subdivision of the Japonic languages, as opposed to the hypothetical Peninsular Japonic languages formerly spoken in central and southern Korea. This grouping, originally proposed by Vovin, has been taken up several times subsequently.[1] Currently, most scholars agree that the Japonic languages were brought to the Japanese archipelago between the 7th and 3rd centuries BC by wet rice farmers of the Yayoi culture from northern Kyushu, replacing the indigenous Jōmon people.[2] Toponyms indicate that the Ainu language were formerly spoken in eastern Japan.[3][4][5] Later, Japonic speakers settled on the Ryukyu Islands.[2] Linguistically, there is disagreement over the location and date of separation from the continental branch. Martine Robbeets argues that the two branches of the Japonic (Japonic) family split when their speakers moved from Shandong around 1500 BC to central and southern Korea. According to her, the Insular Japonic languages entered the archipelago around 700 BC, with some remaining in the southern Mahan and Byeonhan confederations.[6] This theory has little support. Vovin and Whitman instead argue that the Insular Japonic languages split from the Peninsular Japonic languages upon arriving in Kyūshū between 1000 and 800 BC.[7] There is also disagreement regarding the separation of Old Japanese and the Ryukyu languages. One theory suggests that when taking into account innovations in Old Japanese not shared with the Ryukyu languages, the two branches must have separated before the 7th century,[8] with the Ryukyus migrating from southern Kyushu to the Ryukyus with the expansion of the Gusuku culture around the 10th–11th century.[9] Old Japanese is thought to have emerged during the Nara period.[10] Robbeets proposes a similar theory, but places the separation date in the 1st century BC.[11] Boer proposes that the Ryukyu languages are descended from the Kyushuan dialect of Old Japanese.[12] One theory also suggests that Ryukyus remained in Kyushu until the 12th century.[13] The relationship between Japanese and the Ryukyu languages was established in the 19th century by Basil Hall Chamberlain[14] in his comparison of Okinawan and Japanese.[15]
Small Solar System body. A small Solar System body (SSSB) is an object in the Solar System that is neither a planet, a dwarf planet, nor a natural satellite. The term was first defined in 2006 by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) as follows: All other objects, except satellites, orbiting the Sun shall be referred to collectively as Small Solar System Bodies.[1] This encompasses all comets and all minor planets other than those that are dwarf planets. Thus SSSBs are: the comets; the classical asteroids, with the exception of the dwarf planet Ceres; the trojans; and the centaurs and trans-Neptunian objects, with the exception of the dwarf planets Pluto, Haumea, Makemake, Quaoar, Orcus, Sedna, Gonggong and Eris and others that may turn out to be dwarf planets. The current definition was included in the 2006 IAU resolution that defined the term planet, demoting the status of Pluto to that of dwarf planet. In the context, it should be interpreted as, All objects other than planets and dwarf planets orbiting the Sun shall be referred to collectively as Small Solar System Bodies. The definition excludes interstellar objects traveling through the Solar System, such as the interstellar interlopers 1I/ʻOumuamua and 2I/Borisov. It is not presently clear whether a lower size bound will be established as part of the definition of small Solar System bodies in the future, or if it will encompass all material down to the level of meteoroids, the smallest macroscopic bodies in orbit around the Sun. (On a microscopic level there are even smaller objects such as interplanetary dust, particles of solar wind and free particles of hydrogen.) Except for the largest, which are in hydrostatic equilibrium, natural satellites (moons) differ from small Solar System bodies not in size, but in their orbits. The orbits of natural satellites are not centered on the Sun, but around other Solar System objects such as planets, dwarf planets, and small Solar System bodies.
Hakone. Hakone (箱根町, Hakone-machi) is a town in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. As of 1 October 2023[update], the town had a population of 10,965,[1][2] and total area of 92.82 km2 (35.84 sq mi). Hakone is a notable spa town and a popular tourist destination due to its many hot springs being within view of nearby Mount Fuji, the most visited mountain in Japan. Hakone is located in the mountains in the far west of the prefecture, on the eastern side of Hakone Pass. Most of the town is within the borders of the volcanically active Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park, centered on Lake Ashi. Kanagawa Prefecture Shizuoka Prefecture
Bussokuseki-kahi. Cultural and Modern Thinkers The Bussokuseki-kahi (仏足石歌碑) is a well-known monument in the Yakushi Temple in Nara, consisting of a traditional Buddha footprint inscribed with twenty-one poems, known as bussokusekika (also known as Bussokuseki no Uta). Numbering twenty one poems in total, they are divided into two sections: Part of the stone monument has worn away making the eleventh poem of the first section and the fourth poem of the second section partially unreadable. The Buddha Foot monument at Yakushi Temple was constructed in 753 and the poems are viewed as being composed around that time. The author is unknown.
Hakone Ropeway. The Hakone Ropeway (箱根ロープウェイ, Hakone Rōpuwei) is the name of an aerial lift, as well as its operator. The funitel line links between Sōunzan and Tōgendai via Ōwakudani, all within Hakone, Kanagawa, Japan. The line became funitel in 2002, the second of its kind in the nation, after Hashikurasan Ropeway. It makes a part of the sightseeing route between Odawara and Lake Ashi. The company belongs to the Odakyū Group. Hakone Ropeway was a single line until 2001. From 2002, it became a system consisted of two distinct sections, although they are still treated as the same line. All stations at Hakone, Kanagawa. 35°14′39.7″N 139°1′8.8″E / 35.244361°N 139.019111°E / 35.244361; 139.019111
Mokena, Illinois. Mokena (/moʊˈkinə/ moh-KEE-nuh) is a village in Will County, Illinois, United States. It is a southwest suburb of Chicago. The population was 19,887 at the 2020 census. The Census Bureaus 2019 estimate found that the population had increased to 20,159.[3] Mokena is a name apparently derived from a Native American language meaning mud turtle.[4] While the particular language from which the name originates is not documented, likely candidates are Anishinaabemowin, whose word for snapping turtle is mikinaak,[5] and its close sister language Potawatomi, in which the same animal is called mkenak.[6] Both languages were once spoken in the area now occupied by the town. Mokena is located at 41°32′4″N 87°52′37″W / 41.53444°N 87.87694°W / 41.53444; -87.87694.[7] According to the 2010 census, Mokena has an area of 8.893 square miles (23.03 km2), of which 8.89 square miles (23.02 km2) (or 99.97%) is land and 0.003 square miles (0.01 km2) (or 0.03%) is water.[8] It is bordered by Tinley Park to the northeast, Orland Park to the north, Homer Glen to the northwest, Frankfort to the south, and New Lenox to the west. Elementary school services are provided by one of four school districts: Mokena School District 159, New Lenox School District 122, Frankfort School District 157C, and Summit Hill School District 161. Schools within District 159 include MES (Mokena Elementary School), MIS (Mokena Intermediate School), and MJHS (Mokena Junior High School). Mokena is served by Lincoln-Way Community High School District 210; students living in districts 159 or 122 attend Lincoln-Way Central High School, and students living in districts 157C or 161 attend Lincoln-Way East High School. Higher education is provided at Joliet Junior College, the nations first public community college, and at Rasmussen College.
Hot spring. A hot spring, hydrothermal spring, or geothermal spring is a spring produced by the emergence of geothermally heated groundwater onto the surface of the Earth. The groundwater is heated either by shallow bodies of magma (molten rock) or by circulation through faults to hot rock deep in the Earths crust. Hot spring water often contains large amounts of dissolved minerals. The chemistry of hot springs ranges from acid sulfate springs with a pH as low as 0.8, to alkaline chloride springs saturated with silica, to bicarbonate springs saturated with carbon dioxide and carbonate minerals. Some springs also contain abundant dissolved iron. The minerals brought to the surface in hot springs often feed communities of extremophiles, microorganisms adapted to extreme conditions, and it is possible that life on Earth had its origin in hot springs.[1][2] Humans have made use of hot springs for bathing, relaxation, or medical therapy for thousands of years. However, some are hot enough that immersion can be harmful, leading to scalding and, potentially, death.[3] There is no universally accepted definition of a hot spring. For example, one can find the phrase hot spring defined as The related term warm spring is defined as a spring with water temperature less than a hot spring by many sources, although Pentecost et al. (2003) suggest that the phrase warm spring is not useful and should be avoided. In 1923, Menzier proposed that a warm spring be defined as a thermal spring where the water is below that of the human body, but above that of the mean air temperature around the spring, though this definition is contested.[18][9]
Volcano. A volcano is commonly defined as a vent or fissure in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface.[1] On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates are diverging or converging, and because most of Earths plate boundaries are underwater, most volcanoes are found underwater. For example, a mid-ocean ridge, such as the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, has volcanoes caused by divergent tectonic plates whereas the Pacific Ring of Fire has volcanoes caused by convergent tectonic plates. Volcanoes resulting from divergent tectonic activity are usually non-explosive whereas those resulting from convergent tectonic activity cause violent eruptions.[2][3] Volcanoes can also form where there is stretching and thinning of the crusts plates, such as in the East African Rift, the Wells Gray-Clearwater volcanic field, and the Rio Grande rift in North America. Volcanism away from plate boundaries most likely arises from upwelling diapirs from the core–mantle boundary called mantle plumes, 3,000 kilometres (1,900 mi) deep within Earth. This results in hotspot volcanism or intraplate volcanism, in which the plume may cause thinning of the crust and result in a volcanic island chain due to the continuous movement of the tectonic plate, of which the Hawaiian hotspot is an example.[4] Volcanoes are usually not created at transform tectonic boundaries where two tectonic plates slide past one another. Volcanoes, based on their frequency of eruption or volcanism, are referred to as either active or extinct.[5] Active volcanoes have a history of volcanism and are likely to erupt again while extinct ones are not capable of eruption at all as they have no magma source. Dormant volcanoes have not erupted in a long time – generally accepted as since the start of the Holocene, about 12000 years ago – but may erupt again.[5] These categories arent entirely uniform; they may overlap for certain examples.[2][6][7] Large eruptions can affect atmospheric temperature as ash and droplets of sulfuric acid obscure the Sun and cool Earths troposphere. Historically, large volcanic eruptions have been followed by volcanic winters which have caused catastrophic famines.[8]
Sulfur. Sulfur (American spelling and the preferred IUPAC name) or sulphur (Commonwealth spelling)[9] is a chemical element; it has symbol S and atomic number 16. It is abundant, multivalent and nonmetallic. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms form cyclic octatomic molecules with the chemical formula S8. Elemental sulfur is a bright yellow, crystalline solid at room temperature. Sulfur is the tenth most abundant element by mass in the universe and the fifth most common on Earth. Though sometimes found in pure, native form, sulfur on Earth usually occurs as sulfide and sulfate minerals. Being abundant in native form, sulfur was known in ancient times, being mentioned for its uses in ancient India, ancient Greece, China, and ancient Egypt. Historically and in literature sulfur is also called brimstone,[10] which means burning stone.[11] Almost all elemental sulfur is produced as a byproduct of removing sulfur-containing contaminants from natural gas and petroleum.[12][13] The greatest commercial use of the element is the production of sulfuric acid for sulfate and phosphate fertilizers, and other chemical processes. Sulfur is used in matches, insecticides, and fungicides. Many sulfur compounds are odoriferous, and the smells of odorized natural gas, skunk scent, bad breath, grapefruit, and garlic are due to organosulfur compounds. Hydrogen sulfide gives the characteristic odor to rotting eggs and other biological processes. Sulfur is an essential element for all life, almost always in the form of organosulfur compounds or metal sulfides. Amino acids (two proteinogenic: cysteine and methionine, and many other non-coded: cystine, taurine, etc.) and two vitamins (biotin and thiamine) are organosulfur compounds crucial for life. Many cofactors also contain sulfur, including glutathione, and iron–sulfur proteins. Disulfides, S–S bonds, confer mechanical strength and insolubility of the (among others) protein keratin, found in outer skin, hair, and feathers. Sulfur is one of the core chemical elements needed for biochemical functioning and is an elemental macronutrient for all living organisms. Sulfur forms several polyatomic molecules. The best-known allotrope is octasulfur, cyclo-S8. The point group of cyclo-S8 is D4d and its dipole moment is 0 D.[14] Octasulfur is a soft, bright-yellow solid that is odorless.[a] It melts at 115.21 °C (239.38 °F),[b] and boils at 444.6 °C (832.3 °F).[10] At 95.2 °C (203.4 °F), below its melting temperature, cyclo-octasulfur begins slowly changing from α-octasulfur to the β-polymorph.[16] The structure of the S8 ring is virtually unchanged by this phase transition, which affects the intermolecular interactions. Cooling molten sulfur freezes at 119.6 °C (247.3 °F),[17] as it predominantly consists of the β-S8 molecules.[c] Between its melting and boiling temperatures, octasulfur changes its allotrope again, turning from β-octasulfur to γ-sulfur, again accompanied by a lower density but increased viscosity due to the formation of polymers.[16] At higher temperatures, the viscosity decreases as depolymerization occurs. Molten sulfur assumes a dark red color above 200 °C (392 °F). The density of sulfur is about 2 g/cm3, depending on the allotrope; all of the stable allotropes are excellent electrical insulators.
ARCA Menards Series. The ARCA Menards Series is an American stock car series, the premier division of the Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA). It is considered a minor, semi-professional league of stock car racing, used as a feeder series into the three national touring series of NASCAR,[1][2] and hosts events at a variety of track types including superspeedways, road courses, and dirt tracks.[3] It also provides hobby drivers a chance to experience racing at large tracks used in the three national touring series in NASCAR. The series has had a longstanding relationship with NASCAR, including using former NASCAR Cup Series cars, hosting events in the same race weekend such as Daytona Speedweeks, and naming an award after NASCAR founder Bill France, Sr.[3][4][5] However, the series was not officially affiliated with NASCAR until its buyout on April 27, 2018.[6] 2020 was the first season that the series was sanctioned by NASCAR.[7] The series was known as the ARCA Permatex SuperCar Series from 1986 until 1991, the ARCA Hooters SuperCar Series from 1993 until 1995, and the ARCA Bondo/Mar-Hyde Series from 1996 to 2000.[8][9] The series was sponsored by real estate company RE/MAX as the ARCA RE/MAX Series from 2001 until 2009.[10] Midwest-based home improvement company Menards began sponsoring the series in 2010 jointly with RE/MAX, and became the lone presenting sponsor in 2011,[10] and from then until February 2019 the series was known as the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards. The series was founded in Toledo, Ohio in 1953 as the Midwest Association for Race Cars (MARC), a local touring group in the Midwestern United States.[4] The series was founded by John Marcum, a friend and former competitor of Bill France, Sr. and former NASCAR employee, who created MARC as a northern counterpart to the southern-based NASCAR. Early drivers included Iggy Katona and Nelson Stacy.[5] The series became a part of Daytona Speedweeks in 1964 at the request of Bill France, allowing the series to open its season alongside the Daytona 500.[4][11] That same year, the series name was changed from MARC (Midwest Association for Race Cars) to the current ARCA (Automobile Racing Club of America) as a suggestion from France to give the series more national exposure.[5] The series races on a variety of tracks from small ovals to superspeedways such as Daytona International Speedway. In 2008 the series returned to racing on a road course.[12] The series is currently headed by Marcums grandson, Ron Drager.[5]
Comet. A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that warms and begins to release gases when passing close to the Sun, a process called outgassing. This produces an extended, gravitationally unbound atmosphere or coma surrounding the nucleus, and sometimes a tail of gas and dust gas blown out from the coma. These phenomena are due to the effects of solar radiation and the outstreaming solar wind plasma acting upon the nucleus of the comet. Comet nuclei range from a few hundred meters to tens of kilometers across and are composed of loose collections of ice, dust, and small rocky particles. The coma may be up to 15 times Earths diameter, while the tail may stretch beyond one astronomical unit. If sufficiently close and bright, a comet may be seen from Earth without the aid of a telescope and can subtend an arc of up to 30° (60 Moons) across the sky. Comets have been observed and recorded since ancient times by many cultures and religions. Comets usually have highly eccentric elliptical orbits, and they have a wide range of orbital periods, ranging from several years to potentially several millions of years. Short-period comets originate in the Kuiper belt or its associated scattered disc, which lie beyond the orbit of Neptune. Long-period comets are thought to originate in the Oort cloud, a spherical cloud of icy bodies extending from outside the Kuiper belt to halfway to the nearest star.[2] Long-period comets are set in motion towards the Sun by gravitational perturbations from passing stars and the galactic tide. Hyperbolic comets may pass once through the inner Solar System before being flung to interstellar space. The appearance of a comet is called an apparition. Extinct comets that have passed close to the Sun many times have lost nearly all of their volatile ices and dust and may come to resemble small asteroids.[3] Asteroids are thought to have a different origin from comets, having formed inside the orbit of Jupiter rather than in the outer Solar System.[4][5] However, the discovery of main-belt comets and active centaur minor planets has blurred the distinction between asteroids and comets. In the early 21st century, the discovery of some minor bodies with long-period comet orbits, but characteristics of inner solar system asteroids, were called Manx comets. They are still classified as comets, such as C/2014 S3 (PANSTARRS).[6] Twenty-seven Manx comets were found from 2013 to 2017.[7] As of November 2021[update], there are 4,584 known comets.[8] However, this represents a very small fraction of the total potential comet population, as the reservoir of comet-like bodies in the outer Solar System (in the Oort cloud) is about one trillion.[9][10] Roughly one comet per year is visible to the naked eye, though many of those are faint and unspectacular.[11] Particularly bright examples are called great comets. Comets have been visited by uncrewed probes such as NASAs Deep Impact, which blasted a crater on Comet Tempel 1 to study its interior, and the European Space Agencys Rosetta, which became the first to land a robotic spacecraft on a comet.[12]
List of minor planets. The following is a list of minor planets in ascending numerical order. Minor planets are small bodies in the Solar System: asteroids, distant objects, and dwarf planets, but not comets. As of 2022, the vast majority (97.3%) are asteroids from the asteroid belt. Their discoveries are certified by the Minor Planet Center, which assigns them numbers on behalf of the International Astronomical Union. Every year, the Center publishes thousands of newly numbered minor planets in its Minor Planet Circulars (see index).[1][2] As of August 2025[update], the 847,427 numbered minor planets made up more than half of the 1,460,349 observed small Solar System bodies, of which the rest were unnumbered minor planets and comets.[3] The catalogs first object is 1 Ceres, discovered by Giuseppe Piazzi in 1801, while its best-known entry is Pluto, listed as 134340 Pluto. Both are among the 3.1% of numbered minor planets with names, mostly of people, places, and figures from mythology and fiction.[4] (4596) 1981 QB and 826631 Frascati are currently the lowest-numbered unnamed and highest-numbered named minor planets, respectively.[1][4] There are more than a thousand minor-planet discoverers observing from a growing list of registered observatories. The most prolific discoverers are Spacewatch, LINEAR, MLS, NEAT and CSS. It is expected that the upcoming survey by the Vera C. Rubin Observatory will discover another 5 million minor planets during the next ten years—almost a tenfold increase from current numbers.[5] While all main-belt asteroids with a diameter above 10 km (6.2 mi) have been discovered, there might be as many as 10 trillion 1 m (3.3 ft)-sized asteroids or larger out to the orbit of Jupiter; and more than a trillion minor planets in the Kuiper belt.[5][6] For minor planets grouped by a particular aspect or property, see § Specific lists. The list of minor planets consists of more than 700 partial lists, each containing 1000 minor planets grouped into 10 tables. The data is sourced from the Minor Planet Center (MPC) and expanded with data from the JPL SBDB (mean-diameter), Johnstons archive (sub-classification) and others (see detailed field descriptions below). For an overview of all existing partial lists, see § Main index.
Col. A col in geomorphology is the lowest point on a mountain ridge between two peaks.[1] It may also be called a gap or pass.[1] Particularly rugged and forbidding cols in the terrain are usually referred to as notches. They are generally unsuitable as mountain passes, but are occasionally crossed by mule tracks or climbers routes. Derived from the French col (collar, neck) from Latin collum, neck,[2] the term tends to be associated more with mountain than hill ranges.[3] The distinction with other names for breaks in mountain ridges such as saddle, wind gap or notch is not sharply defined and may vary from place to place. Many double summits are separated by prominent cols. The height of a summit above its highest col (called the key col) is effectively a measure of a mountains topographic prominence. Cols lie on the line of the watershed between two mountains, often on a prominent ridge or arête. For example, the highest col in Austria, the Obere Glocknerscharte (Upper Glockner Col, 3,766 m (AA)) lies between the Kleinglockner (3,783 m above sea level (AA)) and Grossglockner (3,798 m above sea level (AA)) mountains, giving the Kleinglockner a minimum prominence of 17 metres.[4]
Robert Strait. Robert Strait (born November 14, 1969) is a former American football running back. Strait is considered one of the best high-school football players in Texas history. While playing at Cuero High School from 1985 to 1988, Strait rushed for 8,411 yards on a state-record 1,131 carries, and scored 841 points. He had 41 games with more than 100 yards rushing for his career, which was then second to Emmitt Smiths national record of 45 games and was the Texas state record until Wes Danaher broke the record in 1995 with 43 100-yard games. In 1987, Strait scored 372 points, which is second in Texas football history only to Ken Hall (395 points in 1953),[1] while Cuero High won the 3A state championship. In 1985 and 1986, Cuero had lost the title game. Considered the states top recruit in 1989 alongside Jessie Armstead, Strait accepted a scholarship offer by Grant Teaff to play for Baylor University. At the time, he was considered “the most heralded recruit in Baylor school history.”[2] In the 1994 NFL draft he was picked by the Cleveland Browns in the sixth round with the 171st pick overall.[3] He never played in the NFL, though.
Highest unclimbed mountain. An unclimbed mountain is a mountain peak that has not been climbed to the top. Determining which unclimbed peak is highest is often a matter of controversy. In some parts of the world, surveying and mapping are still unreliable. There are no comprehensive records of the routes of explorers, mountaineers, and local inhabitants. In some cases, even modern ascents by larger parties have been poorly documented and, with no universally recognized listing, the best that can be achieved in determining the worlds highest unclimbed peaks is somewhat speculative. Most sources indicate that Gangkhar Puensum (7,570 metres, 24,840 ft) on the Bhutan–Tibet border is the tallest mountain in the world that has not been fully summited. Gangkhar Puensum has been off limits to climbers since 1994 when Bhutan prohibited all mountaineering above 6,000 m (20,000 ft) due to spiritual/religious beliefs.[1] Unclimbed mountains are sometimes referred to as virgin peaks. Many virgin peaks exist because no one has had access to that mountain due to its geographic isolation or political instability. Some are off limits due to religious beliefs in that country or region which hold that a certain mountain is sacred and should remain inviolate. Of those, Mount Kailash, a mountain in the Ngari Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region of China, with an altitude of 6,638 m (21,778 ft), is one of the most prominent. It lies in the Kailash Range (Gangdisê Mountains) of the Transhimalaya, in the western part of the Tibetan Plateau. Mount Kailash is considered sacred in four religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Bon. Because of its status as a sacred mountain there are annual pilgrimages to see it, but any climbing activities on it are forbidden. Additionally, since climbing tall mountains is usually a major undertaking and climbers are attracted to climbing the tallest ones, lower peaks (even if they are very formidable) simply get less attention, and instead the taller peaks are summited again, by parties following a new route, or perhaps during the winter when conditions are generally more treacherous.[1] Many mountains, in addition to their highest point or peak, also have subpeaks. There is no universally accepted way of deciding when a subpeak is distinct enough to be classified as a mountain in its own right; therefore, any list of the worlds mountains is subject to dispute. The topographic prominence of each apex and the general topography of the area both come into consideration when determining their status. Although objective criteria have been proposed, there is no widely agreed standard. In 1994, the International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation classified 82 mountain peaks in the Alps whose summits were at least 4,000 m (13,000 ft) above sea level and with at least 30 m (98 ft) of topographic prominence over any adjacent mountain pass or col, as a distinct peak.[2]
List of past presumed highest mountains. The following is a list of mountains that have been presumed, at one time, to be the highest mountain in the world. How general the following presumptions were is unclear. Before the Age of Discovery, no geographer could make any plausible assumption.
Littoral (disambiguation). Littoral zone is an area near the coastline of a body of water. Littoral or Litoral may also refer to:
Mountain. A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earths crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually higher than a hill, typically rising at least 600 metres (2,000 ft) above the surrounding land. A few mountains are isolated summits, but most occur in mountain ranges.[1] Mountains are formed through tectonic forces, erosion, or volcanism,[1] which act on time scales of up to tens of millions of years.[2] Once mountain building ceases, mountains are slowly leveled through the action of weathering, through slumping and other forms of mass wasting, as well as through erosion by rivers and glaciers.[3] High elevations on mountains produce colder climates than at sea level at similar latitude. These colder climates strongly affect the ecosystems of mountains: different elevations have different plants and animals. Because of the less hospitable terrain and climate, mountains tend to be used less for agriculture and more for resource extraction, such as mining and logging, along with recreation, such as mountain climbing and skiing. The highest mountain on Earth is Mount Everest in the Himalayas of Asia, whose summit is 8,850 m (29,035 ft) above mean sea level. The highest known mountain on any planet in the Solar System is Olympus Mons on Mars at 21,171 m (69,459 ft). The tallest mountain including submarine terrain is Mauna Kea in Hawaii from its underwater base at 9,330 m (30,610 ft); some scientists consider it to be the tallest on earth.[3]
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series is a pickup truck racing series owned and operated by the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR), and is the only series in NASCAR to race production pickup truck-based stock cars. The series is one of three national divisions of NASCAR, ranking as the third tier behind the second-tier NASCAR Xfinity Series and the top level NASCAR Cup Series and is also the youngest NASCAR-sanctioned national racing competition to date. The 2023 season was the first with Stanley Black & Decker holding the series naming rights. Previously, Sears, Roebuck & Co held title sponsorship from 1995 through 2008 with the Craftsman brand, during which the series was known as the NASCAR SuperTruck Series in 1995 and the Craftsman Truck Series from 1996 through 2008. Camping World took over the sponsorship to dub the Camping World Truck Series from 2009 through 2018, followed by the Gander Outdoors Truck Series in 2019, the Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series in 2020, and a return to the Camping World name in 2021 and 2022. Stanley Black & Decker, which acquired the Craftsman brand in 2017, took over starting in 2023. The idea for the Truck Series dates back to 1991.[1] A group of SCORE off-road racers (Dick Landfield, Jimmy Smith, Jim Venable, and Frank Scoop Vessels)[2] had concerns about desert racings future, and decided to create a pavement truck racing series. They visited NASCAR Western Operations Vice President Ken Clapp to promote the idea, who consulted Bill France Jr. with it, but the plans fell apart. Afterwards, Clapp told the four to build a truck before NASCAR considered it. Bakersfield fabricator Gary Collins built a prototype truck, which was first shown off during Speedweeks for the 1994 Daytona 500[1] and tested by truck owner Jim Smith around Daytona International Speedway.[3] The truck proved to be popular among fans, and NASCAR arranged a meeting in a Burbank, California hotel on April 11, 1994; the meeting ultimately led to the creation of the SuperTruck Series.[1] Four demonstration races were held at Mesa Marin Raceway, Portland Speedway, Saugus Speedway and Tucson Raceway Park.[2] Tucson held four events that winter, which were nationally televised during the Winter Heat Series coverage.[2] Sears, Roebuck, & Co., through the Craftsman brand, served as the sponsor of the series on a three-year deal, and the series was renamed to the Craftsman Truck Series in 1996. In addition, the series $580,000 purse is larger than the Busch Grand National Series fund.[4] While a new series, it garnered immediate support from many prominent Winston Cup Series team owners and drivers. Prominent Cup owners Richard Childress, Rick Hendrick, and Jack Roush owned truck teams, and top drivers such as Dale Earnhardt and Ernie Irvan also fielded SuperTrucks for others.[4] The series also attracted the attention of drivers like sprint car racing star Sammy Swindell, Walker Evans of off-road racing fame, open-wheel veteran and later long-time NASCAR driver Mike Bliss, and Atlanta Falcons head coach Jerry Glanville.[1] The inaugural race, the Skoal Bandit Copper World Classic at Phoenix International Raceway, was held on February 5; the race, featuring an event-record crowd of 38,000 spectators,[1] concluded with eventual series champion Mike Skinner holding off Cup veteran Terry Labonte to win.[5] Only one team from the first season of the series, FDNY Racing, is still racing in the series today. At the end of the 2008 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series schedule, Craftsman ended its sponsorship of the series.[6] Subsequently, Camping World signed a seven-year contract with NASCAR, rebranding the series as the Camping World Truck Series.[7]
NASCAR. The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing.[1] It is considered to be one of the top-ranked motorsports organizations in the world and is one of the largest spectator sports leagues in America. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948,[2] and his son, Jim France, has been the CEO since August 2018.[3] The company is headquartered in Daytona Beach, Florida.[4] Each year, NASCAR sanctions over 1,500 races at over 100 tracks in 48 US states, as well as in Canada, Mexico, Brazil, and Europe. NASCAR, and stock car racing as a whole, traces its roots back to moonshine runners during Prohibition, who grew to compete against each other in a show of pride. This happened notably in North Carolina. In 1935, Bill France Sr. established races in Daytona Beach, with the hope that people would come to watch races and that racers would race for him, as other organizers tended to fleece the winners of their payouts. This was a success, and the series was founded in 1948. Races were held in several divisions, which eventually morphed into what is the ladder: the Cup Series at the top, the Xfinity Series second, and the Truck Series third, with smaller series spread out below. Chevrolet, Ford, and Toyota compete in each series. The vast majority of NASCAR drivers are American, but drivers from Canada, Mexico, Europe, Australasia, and other places have competed. All Cup Series races are held in the United States and Mexico. There are 36 points-paying races in a season, along with the pre-season Clash and mid-season All-Star race. NASCAR runs races primarily on ovals, including superspeedways, short tracks, and previously dirt tracks, but also road courses and street circuits.
Mountain pass. A mountain pass is a navigable route through a mountain range or over a ridge. Since mountain ranges can present formidable barriers to travel, passes have played a key role in trade, war, and both human and animal migration throughout history. At lower elevations it may be called a hill pass. A mountain pass is typically formed between two volcanic peaks or created by erosion from water or wind. Mountain passes make use of a gap, saddle, col or notch. A topographic saddle is analogous to the mathematical concept of a saddle surface, with a saddle point marking the minimum high point between two valleys and the lowest point along a ridge.[2][3] On a topographic map, passes can be identified by contour lines with an hourglass shape, which indicates a low spot between two higher points.[4] In the high mountains, a difference of 2,000 meters (6,600 ft) between the summit and the mountain[clarification needed] is defined as a mountain pass.[5] Passes are often found just above the source of a river, constituting a drainage divide. A pass may be very short, consisting of steep slopes to the top of the pass, or a valley many kilometers long, whose highest point might only be identifiable by surveying. Roads and railways have long been built through passes. Some high and rugged passes may have tunnels bored underneath a nearby mountainside, as with the Eisenhower Tunnel bypassing Loveland Pass in the Rockies, to allow faster traffic flow throughout the year. The top of a pass is frequently the only flat ground in the area, and may be a high vantage point. In some cases this makes it a preferred site for buildings. If a national border follows the ridge of a mountain range, a pass over the mountains is typically on the border, and there may be a border control or customs station, and possibly a military post. For instance, Argentina and Chile share the worlds third-longest international border, 5,300 kilometres (3,300 mi) long, which runs north–south along the Andes mountains and includes 42 mountain passes.[6][7]
List of highest mountains on Earth. There are at least 108 mountains on Earth with elevations of 7,200 m (23,622 ft; 4 mi) or greater above sea level. Of these, 14 are more than 8,000 m (26,247 ft; 5 mi).[1] The vast majority of these mountains are part of either the Himalayas or the Karakoram mountain ranges located on the edge of the Indian Plate and Eurasian Plate in China, India, Nepal, and Pakistan.[a] The dividing line between a mountain with multiple peaks and separate mountains is not always clear (see also Highest unclimbed mountain). A popular and intuitive way to distinguish mountains from subsidiary peaks is by their height above the highest saddle connecting it to a higher summit, a measure called topographic prominence or re-ascent (the higher summit is called the parent peak). A common definition of a mountain is a summit with 300 m (984 ft) prominence. Alternatively, a relative prominence (prominence/height) is used (usually 7–8%) to reflect that in higher mountain ranges everything is on a larger scale. The table below lists the highest 100 summits with at least 500 m (1,640 ft) prominence, approximating a 7% relative prominence. A drawback of a prominence-based list is that it may exclude well-known or spectacular mountains that are connected via a high ridge to a taller summit, such as Eiger, Nuptse or Annapurna IV. A few such peaks and mountains with nearly sufficient prominence are included in this list, and given a rank of S. It is very unlikely that all given heights are correct to the nearest metre; indeed, the sea level is often problematic to define when a mountain is remote from the sea. Different sources often differ by many metres, and the heights given below may well differ from those elsewhere in this encyclopedia. As an extreme example, Ulugh Muztagh on the north Tibetan Plateau is often listed as 7,723 m (25,338 ft) to 7,754 m (25,440 ft), but appears to be only 6,973 m (22,877 ft) to 6,987 m (22,923 ft). Some mountains differ by more than 100 m (330 ft) on different maps, while even very thorough current measurements of Mount Everest range from 8,840 m (29,003 ft) to 8,849 m (29,032 ft). These discrepancies serve to emphasize the uncertainties in the listed heights. Though some parts of the world, especially the most mountainous parts, have never been thoroughly mapped, it is unlikely that any mountains this high have been overlooked, because synthetic aperture radar can and has been used to measure elevations of most otherwise inaccessible places. Still, heights or prominences may be revised, so that the order of the list may change and even new mountains could enter the list over time. To be safe, the list has been extended to include all 7,200 m (23,622 ft) peaks.
List of highest mountains on Earth. There are at least 108 mountains on Earth with elevations of 7,200 m (23,622 ft; 4 mi) or greater above sea level. Of these, 14 are more than 8,000 m (26,247 ft; 5 mi).[1] The vast majority of these mountains are part of either the Himalayas or the Karakoram mountain ranges located on the edge of the Indian Plate and Eurasian Plate in China, India, Nepal, and Pakistan.[a] The dividing line between a mountain with multiple peaks and separate mountains is not always clear (see also Highest unclimbed mountain). A popular and intuitive way to distinguish mountains from subsidiary peaks is by their height above the highest saddle connecting it to a higher summit, a measure called topographic prominence or re-ascent (the higher summit is called the parent peak). A common definition of a mountain is a summit with 300 m (984 ft) prominence. Alternatively, a relative prominence (prominence/height) is used (usually 7–8%) to reflect that in higher mountain ranges everything is on a larger scale. The table below lists the highest 100 summits with at least 500 m (1,640 ft) prominence, approximating a 7% relative prominence. A drawback of a prominence-based list is that it may exclude well-known or spectacular mountains that are connected via a high ridge to a taller summit, such as Eiger, Nuptse or Annapurna IV. A few such peaks and mountains with nearly sufficient prominence are included in this list, and given a rank of S. It is very unlikely that all given heights are correct to the nearest metre; indeed, the sea level is often problematic to define when a mountain is remote from the sea. Different sources often differ by many metres, and the heights given below may well differ from those elsewhere in this encyclopedia. As an extreme example, Ulugh Muztagh on the north Tibetan Plateau is often listed as 7,723 m (25,338 ft) to 7,754 m (25,440 ft), but appears to be only 6,973 m (22,877 ft) to 6,987 m (22,923 ft). Some mountains differ by more than 100 m (330 ft) on different maps, while even very thorough current measurements of Mount Everest range from 8,840 m (29,003 ft) to 8,849 m (29,032 ft). These discrepancies serve to emphasize the uncertainties in the listed heights. Though some parts of the world, especially the most mountainous parts, have never been thoroughly mapped, it is unlikely that any mountains this high have been overlooked, because synthetic aperture radar can and has been used to measure elevations of most otherwise inaccessible places. Still, heights or prominences may be revised, so that the order of the list may change and even new mountains could enter the list over time. To be safe, the list has been extended to include all 7,200 m (23,622 ft) peaks.
List of mountains by elevation. This is an incomplete list of notable mountains on Earth, sorted by elevation in metres above sea level. For a complete list of mountains over 7200 m high, with at least 500 m of prominence, see List of highest mountains. See also a list of mountains ranked by prominence. There are 14 mountains over 8,000 metres (26,247 ft), which are often referred to as the eight-thousanders. (There are six more 8,000m peaks in Nepal, waiting for official recognition, making for a total of 20.[1]) All are in the two highest mountain ranges in the world, the Himalayas and the Karakoram. There are 132 mountains between 7,000 and 8,000 metres (22,966 ft and 26,247 ft) Mountains between 6,000 and 7,000 metres (19,685 ft and 21,966 ft) Mountains between 5,000 and 6,000 metres (16,404 ft and 19,685 ft)
Saline water. Saline water (more commonly known as salt water) is water that contains a high concentration of dissolved salts (mainly sodium chloride). On the United States Geological Survey (USGS) salinity scale, saline water is saltier than brackish water, but less salty than brine. The salt concentration is usually expressed in parts per thousand (permille, ‰) and parts per million (ppm). The USGS salinity scale defines three levels of saline water. The salt concentration in slightly saline water is 1,000 to 3,000 ppm (0.1–0.3%); in moderately saline water is 3,000 to 10,000 ppm (0.3–1%); and in highly saline water is 10,000 to 35,000 ppm (1–3.5%). Seawater has a salinity of roughly 35,000 ppm, equivalent to 35 grams of salt per one liter (or kilogram) of water. The saturation level is only nominally dependent on the temperature of the water.[1] At 20 °C (68 °F) one liter of water can dissolve about 357 grams of salt, a concentration of 26.3 percent by weight (% w/w). At 100 °C (212 °F) (the boiling temperature of pure water), the amount of salt that can be dissolved in one liter of water increases to about 391 grams, a concentration of 28.1% w/w. At 100 °C (212 °F; 373 K), saturated sodium chloride brine is about 28% salt by weight. At 0 °C (32 °F; 273 K), brine can only hold about 26% salt.[3] At 20 °C one liter of water can dissolve about 357 grams of salt, a concentration of 26.3%.[4] The thermal conductivity of seawater (3.5% dissolved salt by weight) is 0.6 W/mK at 25 °C (77 °F).[5] The thermal conductivity decreases with increasing salinity and increases with increasing temperature. [6] [7] The salt content can be determined with a salinometer. Density ρ of brine at various concentrations and temperatures from 200 to 575 °C (392 to 1,067 °F) can be approximated with a linear equation:[8] ρ [ l b / f t 3 ] = a 3 − ( a 2 ⋅ T [ F ] ) {\displaystyle \rho [lb/ft^{3}]=a_{3}-(a_{2}\cdot T[F])}
Denali. Denali (/dəˈnɑːli/),[5] federally designated as Mount McKinley,[6][7] is the highest mountain peak in North America, with a summit elevation of 20,310 feet (6,190 m) above sea level. It is the tallest mountain in the world from base to peak on land, measuring 18,000 ft (5,500 m).[8] With a topographic prominence of 20,156 feet (6,144 m)[3] and a topographic isolation of 4,621.1 miles (7,436.9 km),[3] Denali is the third most prominent and third-most isolated peak on Earth, after Mount Everest and Aconcagua. Located in the Alaska Range in the interior of the U.S. state of Alaska, Denali is the centerpiece of Denali National Park and Preserve. The Koyukon people who inhabit the area around the mountain have referred to the peak as Denali for centuries. In 1896, a gold prospector named it Mount McKinley in support of then-presidential candidate William McKinley, who later became the 25th president; McKinleys name was the official name recognized by the federal government of the United States from 1917 until 2015. In August 2015, 40 years after Alaska had officially named the mountain Denali, the United States Department of the Interior under the Obama administration changed the official federal name of the mountain also to Denali.[9][10][11] In January 2025, the Department of the Interior under the Trump administration reverted the mountains official federal name to Mount McKinley.[12][13] In 1903, James Wickersham recorded the first attempt at climbing Denali, which was unsuccessful. In 1906, Frederick Cook claimed the first ascent, but this ascent is unverified and its legitimacy questioned. The first verifiable ascent to Denalis summit was achieved on June 7, 1913, by climbers Hudson Stuck, Harry Karstens, Walter Harper, and Robert Tatum, who went by the South Summit. In 1951, Bradford Washburn pioneered the West Buttress route, considered to be the safest and easiest route, and therefore the most popular currently in use.[14]
Foreshore, Cape Town. The Foreshore is an area in Cape Town, South Africa, situated in the citys central business district (CBD), between the historic city centre and the Port of Cape Town.[2] It is built on land reclaimed from Table Bay in the 1930s and 1940s, in connection with the construction of the Duncan Dock, to replace the old harbor. Because of its development later on, many buildings in the Foreshore have more modern architecture than those situated in older parts of Cape Town CBD, closer towards District Six, Table Mountain, and De Waterkant. Much of the Foreshore area is occupied by transport infrastructure for the port and Cape Town Railway Station. Other notable buildings in the area are the Cape Town Civic Centre, the Artscape Theatre Centre, and the Cape Town International Convention Centre. The area is also home to the regional office of Standard Bank, located in The Towers. When the area was reclaimed, the Government undertook a detailed study (the Szlumper Commission) to decide how to use the land not needed by South African Railways. This resulted in the issuance of a detailed proposal - The Cape Town Foreshore Plan.[3]
Aquatic ecosystem. An aquatic ecosystem is an ecosystem found in and around a body of water, in contrast to land-based terrestrial ecosystems. Aquatic ecosystems contain communities of organisms—aquatic life—that are dependent on each other and on their environment. The two main types of aquatic ecosystems are marine ecosystems and freshwater ecosystems.[1] Freshwater ecosystems may be lentic (slow moving water, including pools, ponds, and lakes); lotic (faster moving water, for example streams and rivers); and wetlands (areas where the soil is saturated or inundated for at least part of the time).[2] A lake ecosystem or lacustrine ecosystem includes biotic (living) plants, animals and micro-organisms, as well as abiotic (non-living) physical and chemical interactions.[9] Lake ecosystems are a prime example of lentic ecosystems (lentic refers to stationary or relatively still freshwater, from the Latin lentus, which means sluggish), which include ponds, lakes and wetlands, and much of this article applies to lentic ecosystems in general. Lentic ecosystems can be compared with lotic ecosystems, which involve flowing terrestrial waters such as rivers and streams. Together, these two ecosystems are examples of freshwater ecosystems. Lentic systems are diverse, ranging from a small, temporary rainwater pool a few inches deep to Lake Baikal, which has a maximum depth of 1642 m.[10] The general distinction between pools/ponds and lakes is vague, but Brown[9] states that ponds and pools have their entire bottom surfaces exposed to light, while lakes do not. In addition, some lakes become seasonally stratified. Ponds and pools have two regions: the pelagic open water zone, and the benthic zone, which comprises the bottom and shore regions. Since lakes have deep bottom regions not exposed to light, these systems have an additional zone, the profundal.[11] These three areas can have very different abiotic conditions and, hence, host species that are specifically adapted to live there.[9] River ecosystems are flowing waters that drain the landscape, and include the biotic (living) interactions amongst plants, animals and micro-organisms, as well as abiotic (nonliving) physical and chemical interactions of its many parts.[13][14] River ecosystems are part of larger watershed networks or catchments, where smaller headwater streams drain into mid-size streams, which progressively drain into larger river networks. The major zones in river ecosystems are determined by the river beds gradient or by the velocity of the current. Faster moving turbulent water typically contains greater concentrations of dissolved oxygen, which supports greater biodiversity than the slow-moving water of pools. These distinctions form the basis for the division of rivers into upland and lowland rivers. Aquatic ecosystems perform many important environmental functions. For example, they recycle nutrients, purify water, attenuate floods, recharge ground water and provide habitats for wildlife.[19] The biota of an aquatic ecosystem contribute to its self-purification, most notably microorganisms, phytoplankton, higher plants, invertebrates, fish, bacteria, protists, aquatic fungi, and more. These organisms are actively involved in multiple self-purification processes, including organic matter destruction and water filtration. It is crucial that aquatic ecosystems are reliably self-maintained, as they also provide habitats for species that reside in them.[20] In addition to environmental functions, aquatic ecosystems are also used for human recreation, and are very important to the tourism industry, especially in coastal regions.[21] They are also used for religious purposes, such as the worshipping of the Jordan River by Christians, and educational purposes, such as the usage of lakes for ecological study.[22]
Outsourcing. Outsourcing is a business practice in which companies use external providers to carry out business processes that would otherwise be handled internally.[1][2][3] Outsourcing sometimes involves transferring employees and assets from one firm to another. The term outsourcing, which came from the phrase outside resourcing, originated no later than 1981 at a time when industrial jobs in the United States were being moved overseas, contributing to the economic and cultural collapse of small, industrial towns.[4][5][6] In some contexts, the term smartsourcing is also used.[7] The concept, which The Economist says has made its presence felt since the time of the Second World War,[8] often involves the contracting out of a business process (e.g., payroll processing, claims processing), operational, and/or non-core functions, such as manufacturing, facility management, call center/call center support. The practice of handing over control of public services to private enterprises (privatization), even if conducted on a limited, short-term basis,[9] may also be described as outsourcing.[10]
Freshwater ecosystem. Freshwater ecosystems are a subset of Earths aquatic ecosystems that include the biological communities inhabiting freshwater waterbodies such as lakes, ponds, rivers, streams, springs, bogs, and wetlands.[1] They can be contrasted with marine ecosystems, which have a much higher salinity. Freshwater habitats can be classified by different factors, including temperature, light penetration, nutrients, and vegetation. There are three basic types of freshwater ecosystems: lentic (slow moving water, including pools, ponds, and lakes), lotic (faster moving streams, for example creeks and rivers) and wetlands (semi-aquatic areas where the soil is saturated or inundated for at least part of the time).[2][1] Freshwater ecosystems contain 41% of the worlds known fish species.[3] Freshwater ecosystems have undergone substantial transformations over time, which has impacted various characteristics of the ecosystems.[4] Original attempts to understand and monitor freshwater ecosystems were spurred on by threats to human health (for example cholera outbreaks due to sewage contamination).[5] Early monitoring focused on chemical indicators, then bacteria, and finally algae, fungi and protozoa. A new type of monitoring involves quantifying differing groups of organisms (macroinvertebrates, macrophytes and fish) and measuring the stream conditions associated with them.[6] Threats to freshwater biodiversity include overexploitation, water pollution, flow modification, destruction or degradation of habitat, and invasion by exotic species.[7] Climate change is putting further pressure on these ecosystems because water temperatures have already increased by about 1 °C, and there have been significant declines in ice coverage which have caused subsequent ecosystem stresses.[8] There are three basic types of freshwater ecosystems: Lentic (slow moving water, including pools, ponds, and lakes), lotic (faster moving water, for example streams and rivers) and wetlands (areas where the soil is saturated or inundated for at least part of the time). Limnology (and its branch freshwater biology) is the study of freshwater ecosystems.[1]
Hydropunctaria maura. Hydropunctaria maura, still often called by the older name Verrucaria maura and commonly known as tar lichen,[3] is a species of saxicolous (rock-dwelling), crustose lichen belonging to the family Verrucariaceae.[4] A perennial species that does not experience seasonal variations, it is the type species of the genus Hydropunctaria.[5] The medulla is a black basal layer that forms columns (Latin: punctae) to the upper surface and isolates the algae into pockets near the upper surface. The black band formed by H. maura can often be seen at a distance as a marker of the high water point. Hydropunctaria maura is commonly found on hard rocks in the intertidal zone. Compared to terrestrial lichens, the species is typically located in areas of direct sunlight, suggests that it may have specific adaptations against damage from the sun.[6] It is considered an upper littoral (supralittoral) lichen, compared to other, lower littoral lichens such as Wahlenbergiella mucosa, distinguished by environmental factors such as water availability, UV exposure, and temperature.[7] Because of the relatively extreme conditions of the supralittoral zone, crustose lichens are the only organisms capable of colonizing these areas. H. maura effectively serves as the primary biological indicator of the extent of the zone where it is found.[5] Both H. maura and Hydropunctaria amphibia synthesize sucrose in response to high salt concentrations.[8][9] It forms thin, matte-black crusts with the algae genus Dilabifilum as a photobiont. A study of four lichen species from southwestern Norway showed that H. maura had a greater diversity of microorganisms, greater bacterial diversity in the thalli, and a higher number of different bacterial sequences. The diversity of microorganisms is likely related to its strong marine influence. It is commonly associated with Thermoproteota (formerly Crenarchaeota).[10] Other studies have identified Jannaschia pohangensis and Bacillus aerius, among others, as associated with Hydropunctaria maura.[11] The growth rate of H. maura colonies is estimated to be less than 1 mm per year. After elimination, it is estimated to take three years for the species to recolonize a substrate.[12] Germination of the spores of this species is stimulated by seawater salinity concentrations that typically inhibit germination of spores of other lichens.[13]
Estuary (disambiguation). An estuary is a semi-enclosed body of water flowing into the sea. Estuary may also refer to:
Saint-Malo. Saint-Malo (UK: /sæ̃ ˈmɑːloʊ/,[3] US: /ˌsæ̃ məˈloʊ/,[4][5] French: [sɛ̃ malo] ⓘ; Gallo: Saent-Malô; Breton: Sant-Maloù) is a historic French port commune in Ille-et-Vilaine, Brittany. The walled city on the English Channel coast has a long history of piracy, earning much wealth from local extortion and overseas adventures. In 1944, during World War II, the Allies heavily bombed Saint-Malo. The city became a popular tourist centre, with a ferry terminal serving the Channel Islands of Jersey and Guernsey, as well as the Southern English settlements of Portsmouth, Hampshire and Poole, Dorset. The transatlantic single-handed yacht race Route du Rhum, which takes place every four years in November, is between Saint Malo and Pointe-à-Pitre in Guadeloupe. The population in 2017 was 46,097[6] – though this can increase to up to 300,000 in the summer tourist season. With the suburbs included, the metropolitan areas population is approximately 133,000 (2017).[7]
Río de la Plata. 27,225 m3/s (961,400 cu ft/s)[5] 22,000 m3/s (780,000 cu ft/s)[3] The Río de la Plata (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈri.o ðe la ˈplata] ⓘ; lit. River of Silver), also called the River Plate or La Plata River in English, is the estuary formed by the confluence of the Uruguay River and the Paraná River at Punta Gorda. It empties into the Atlantic Ocean and forms a funnel-shaped indentation on the southeastern coastline of South America. Depending on the geographer, the Río de la Plata may be considered a river, an estuary, a gulf, or a marginal sea.[3][7][better source needed] If considered a river, it is the widest in the world, with a maximum width of 220 kilometres (140 mi). The river is about 290 kilometres (180 mi) long and widens from about 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) at its source to about 220 kilometres (140 mi) at its mouth.[8] It forms part of the border between Argentina and Uruguay. The name Río de la Plata is also used to refer to the populations along the estuary, especially the main port cities of Buenos Aires and Montevideo, where Rioplatense Spanish is spoken and tango culture developed. The coasts of the river are the most densely populated areas of Uruguay and Argentina.[3] The Río de la Plata begins at the confluence of the Uruguay and Paraná rivers at Punta Gorda and flows eastward into the South Atlantic Ocean. No clear physical boundary marks the rivers eastern end; the International Hydrographic Organization defines the eastern boundary of the Río de la Plata as a line joining Punta del Este, Uruguay and Cabo San Antonio, Argentina.[2] Though it is generally spoken of as a river, the Río de la Plata is considered by some geographers to be a large bay or marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean.[3][8] For those who regard it as a river, it is the widest in the world, with a maximum width of about 220 kilometres (140 mi) and a total surface area of about 35,000 square kilometres (14,000 sq mi).[3]
Observations of small Solar System bodies. Observations of minor planets as well as comets and natural satellites of the Solar System are made by astronomical observatories all over the world and reported to the Minor Planet Center (MPC), a service of the International Astronomical Union. The MPC maintains a data base that stores all observations submitted by these registered observatories. An astrometric record consists of the position, brightness and timestamp of an observed object, besides additional information. The database contains more than 200 million records gathered over the past two centuries.[2] The MPC assigns a 3 digit observatory code for each observatory, also known as MPC- or IAU codes. The code is in the range 000 to Z99 and serves as a unique identifier for the reported observations. The MPC periodically published a revised List Of Observatory Codes with newly registered observatories in their Minor Planet Circulars. Over time, the number of astronomical observatories worldwide has been growing constantly and contains 2468 observatory codes as of November 2023[update].[3] On numbering, often years later, the MPC determines the discovery among all the reported observations for an object. This does not need to be the earliest dated observation, also see precovery. The date of the selected observation will become the objects discovery date, and the corresponding observing astronomer or facility will become its discoverer.[4] The discovery circumstances are given in the catalog of numbered minor planets. An astrometric observational record includes the position, timestamp, and absolute brightness of an observed object. Typically, an observatory observes an objects at least three times within a short timespan during the same night. The records are then reported together with the individual code of the observatory to the Minor Planet Center. These are then compared to MPCs internal database and a new provisional designation is assigned if no match is found. The observational records are published by the MPC on a weekly basis. Summaries are published in the Minor Planet Circulars several times a year.[5] The example shows the first observational record for the Jupiter trojan (21271) 1996 RF33 as found in the lower section of the MPCs corresponding object page.[6] The observation was taken on 21 March 1980 at 14 hours 18 minutes and 43 seconds (1980 03 21.59633). The position of the object is given in the celestial coordinate system as declination (DEC) and right ascension (RA). The observation was taken by the Siding Spring Observatory in Australia and later released by the Digitized Sky Survey (DSS) using the observatorys archived photographic plates with a dedicated IAU code (260). The observation was published in the Minor Planets and Comets Supplement (MPS) on the continual page number 15065 on 21 June 2000.[5][6]
Biodiversity. Biodiversity is the variability of life on Earth. It can be measured on various levels. There is for example genetic variability, species diversity, ecosystem diversity and phylogenetic diversity.[1] Diversity is not distributed evenly on Earth. It is greater in the tropics as a result of the warm climate and high primary productivity in the region near the equator. Tropical forest ecosystems cover less than one-fifth of Earths terrestrial area and contain about 50% of the worlds species.[2] There are latitudinal gradients in species diversity for both marine and terrestrial taxa.[3] Since life began on Earth, six major mass extinctions and several minor events have led to large and sudden drops in biodiversity. The Phanerozoic aeon (the last 540 million years) marked a rapid growth in biodiversity via the Cambrian explosion. In this period, the majority of multicellular phyla first appeared. The next 400 million years included repeated, massive biodiversity losses. Those events have been classified as mass extinction events. In the Carboniferous, rainforest collapse may have led to a great loss of plant and animal life. The Permian–Triassic extinction event, 251 million years ago, was the worst; vertebrate recovery took 30 million years. Human activities have led to an ongoing biodiversity loss and an accompanying loss of genetic diversity. This process is often referred to as Holocene extinction, or sixth mass extinction. For example, it was estimated in 2007 that up to 30% of all species will be extinct by 2050.[4] Destroying habitats for farming is a key reason why biodiversity is decreasing today. Climate change also plays a role.[5][6] This can be seen for example in the effects of climate change on biomes. This anthropogenic extinction may have started toward the end of the Pleistocene, as some studies suggest that the megafaunal extinction event that took place around the end of the last ice age partly resulted from overhunting.[7] Biologists most often define biodiversity as the totality of genes, species and ecosystems of a region.[8][9] An advantage of this definition is that it presents a unified view of the traditional types of biological variety previously identified:
Mattole River. The Mattole River is a river on the north coast of California, that flows northerly, then westerly into the Pacific Ocean. The vast majority of its 62 miles (100 km) course is through southern Humboldt County, though a short section of the river flows through northern Mendocino County. Communities, from north to south, closely associated with the Mattole River include: Petrolia, Honeydew, Ettersburg, Thorn Junction, and Whitethorn. The river enters the ocean at the Mattole Estuary about 4 miles (6.4 km) west-southwest of Petrolia and 10 miles (16 km) south of Cape Mendocino. Mattole refers to an Athabaskan Indian people, the Mattole. They historically called themselves Mattóal or bedool, but were referred to by neighboring Wyott Indians as Medol or metuul.[2][3] The local tradition is that Mattole means clear water.[2] The Mattole lived principally on the Mattole and Bear rivers.[4] During the Bald Hills War, this tribe mustered its warriors but it was outgunned and practically exterminated because of its resistance to white settlers.[2] The river and its 74 tributaries drain about 304 square miles (790 km2), including the eastern side of the King Range, and flows through Mattole Valley before emptying into the Pacific Ocean.[5] Although the Mattole Rivers source is at about 1,780 feet (540 m) elevation, its tributaries originate as high as 4,000 feet (1,200 m) above sea level.[6] The North Fork of the Mattole River enters the river main stem just west of Petrolia. For most of its length, the river is only a 4.2 miles (6.8 km) east of the King Range National Conservation Area. About halfway to the ocean, near Honeydew, California, the river passes by Humboldt Redwoods State Park. There are numerous tributaries and creeks that feed the drainage area. Some of the largest are the Upper North Fork at Honeydew (as opposed to the North Fork at Petrolia), Honeydew, Bear, Rattlesnake, and Oil Creeks.
Toulouse Observatory. The Toulouse Observatory (French: Observatoire de Toulouse) is located in Toulouse, France and was established in 1733.[1] It was founded by lAcadémie des Sciences, Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres de Toulouse (Academy of Science, Inscriptions and the Humanities of Toulouse). It was moved 1841 and again in 1981.[citation needed] In 1987, Genevieve Soucail of the Toulouse Observatory and her collaborators presented data of a blue ring-like structure in Abell 370 and proposed a gravitational lensing interpretation[2] In the 1990s the observatory worked on MEGACAM with several other institutions.[3] The observatory was started by Garipuy in the 1730s with support from the Academy of Sciences.[4]
Isaac Roberts Observatory. Isaac Roberts Observatory was an observatory, installed in the private home of the British astronomer Isaac Roberts. It was in Crowborough, Sussex, and was active from 1890, when Roberts installed it, until his death in 1904. The observatory appears in the List of observatory codes of the Minor Planet Center with the code 001.[1] Roberts began his astronomical observations in 1878, and early on saw the need to have the best observation conditions to make photographic records.[2] This factor, coupled with his chronic bronchitis, which meant he needed a better climate for his health, motivated him to look for a new location suitable for his observations. In 1885 he acquired copy of Observations upon the Topography and Climate of Crowborough Hill, Sussex by Charles L. Prince, describing and extolling the conditions of the area, precisely those he needed. The local landowner[who?] sold to Roberts part of his property, four acres (1.6 hectares), where he built his house including a domed observatory to accommodate his telescopes. In 1890 Roberts, who called the house Starfield, moved in. In his new house and observatory he continued his work—which earned him, among others awards, the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society of London—until his death in 1904.[3] After his death the house changed hands several times until, in 1928, it was bought by local government and turned into offices. In 1935 the offices were extended resulting in the disappearance of the dome of the observatory. Finally in the 1980s, due to needs of local government outstripping the property, the house was sold and demolished to build new houses. The new neighbourhood is called Starfield.[3] The observatory was situated in the summit of Crowborough Hill, a hill of roughly 250 m above sea level, the highest point of the surrounding region. The buildings were designed to allow that the telescopes could go down until the 20° above the horizon when they focused above the roofs of the house. Joined to the observatory there were some buildings devoted to a photographic laboratory, with darkroom and facilities for the enhancement of photography. The observatory was connected with the house by a corridor that opened into the library.
Composer. A composer is a person who writes music.[1] The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music,[2] or those who are composers by occupation.[3] Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. The term is descended from Latin, compōnō; literally one who puts together.[4] The earliest use of the term in a musical context given by the Oxford English Dictionary is from Thomas Morleys 1597 A Plain and Easy Introduction to Practical Music, where he says Some wil [sic] be good descanters [...] and yet wil be but bad composers.[1] Composer is a loose term that generally refers to any person who writes music.[1] More specifically, it is often used to denote people who are composers by occupation,[3] or those who work in the tradition of Western classical music.[2] Writers of exclusively or primarily songs may be called composers, but since the 20th century the terms songwriter or singer-songwriter are more often used, particularly in popular music genres.[5] In other contexts, the term composer can refer to a literary writer,[6] or more rarely and generally, someone who combines pieces into a whole.[7] Across cultures and traditions composers may write and transmit music in a variety of ways. In much popular music, the composer writes a composition, and it is then transmitted via oral tradition. Conversely, in some Western classical traditions music may be composed aurally—i.e. in the mind of the musician—and subsequently written and passed through written documents.[8]
Royal Observatory, Greenwich. The Royal Observatory, Greenwich (ROG;[1] known as the Old Royal Observatory from 1957 to 1998, when the working Royal Greenwich Observatory, RGO, temporarily moved south from Greenwich to Herstmonceux) is an observatory situated on a hill in Greenwich Park in south east London, overlooking the River Thames to the north. It played a major role in the history of astronomy and navigation, and because the Prime Meridian passed through it, it gave its name to Greenwich Mean Time, the precursor to todays Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). The ROG has the IAU observatory code of 000, the first in the list.[2] ROG, the National Maritime Museum, the Queens House and the clipper ship Cutty Sark are collectively designated Royal Museums Greenwich.[1] The observatory was commissioned in 1675 by King Charles II, with the foundation stone being laid on 10 August. The old hilltop site of Greenwich Castle was chosen by Sir Christopher Wren, a former Savilian Professor of Astronomy; as Greenwich Park was a royal estate, no new land needed to be bought.[3] At that time the king also created the position of Astronomer Royal, to serve as the director of the observatory and to apply himself with the most exact care and diligence to the rectifying of the tables of the motions of the heavens, and the places of the fixed stars, so as to find out the so much desired longitude of places for the perfecting of the art of navigation. He appointed John Flamsteed as the first Astronomer Royal. The building was completed in the summer of 1676.[4] The building was often called Flamsteed House, in reference to its first occupant. The scientific work of the observatory was relocated elsewhere in stages in the first half of the 20th century, and the Greenwich site is now maintained almost exclusively as a museum, although the AMAT telescope became operational for astronomical research in 2018. There had been significant buildings on this land since the reign of William I.[8][page needed] Greenwich Palace, on the site of the present-day National Maritime Museum, was the birthplace of both Henry VIII and his daughters Mary I and Elizabeth I; the Tudors used Greenwich Castle, which stood on the hilltop that the Observatory presently occupies, as a hunting lodge. Greenwich Castle was reportedly a favourite place for Henry VIII to house his mistresses, so that he could easily travel from the Palace to see them.[9][page needed]
Emeritus. An emeritus (/ə.ˈmɛ.rɪ.təs/) or emerita (/ə.ˈmɛ.rɪ.tə/)[Note 1] is an honorary title granted to someone who retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in professor emeritus.[1] In some cases, the term is conferred automatically upon all persons who retire at a given rank, but in others, it remains a mark of distinguished performance (usually in the area of research) awarded selectively on retirement. It is also used when a person of distinction in a profession retires or hands over the position, enabling their former rank to be retained in their title. The term emeritus does not necessarily signify that a person has relinquished all the duties of their former position, and they may continue to exercise some of them.[citation needed] In descriptions of deceased professors emeriti listed at U.S. universities, the title emeritus is replaced by an indication of the years of their appointments,[2] except in obituaries, where it may be used to indicate their status at the time of death.[2] Emeritus (past participle of Latin emerere, meaning complete ones service) is a compound of the Latin prefix e- (variant of ex-) meaning out of, from and merere (source of merit) meaning to serve, earn. The word is attested since the early 17th century with the meaning having served out ones time, having done sufficient service. The Latin feminine equivalent, emerita (/ə.ˈmɛ.rɪ.tə/), is also sometimes used, although in English the word emeritus is often unmarked for gender.[3]
Walter Slaughter. Walter Alfred Slaughter (17 February 1860 – 2 March 1908) was an English conductor and composer of musical comedy, comic opera and childrens shows. He was engaged in the West End as a composer and musical director from 1883 to 1904. Slaughter was born in Fitzroy Square, London.[1] He attended the City of London School, and sang in the choir of St. Andrews Church, Wells Street under Joseph Barnby.[2] After leaving school, he worked in a wine merchants office and then for the music publishers Metzler.[3] While there, he studied music under Alfred Cellier, Berthold Tours, and Georges Jacobi, the musical director of the Alhambra Theatre.[2] He was also brought into frequent contact with Arthur Sullivan, who gave him much encouragement and friendly advice.[2] Slaughter once asked Sullivan the best way to study composition; Sullivan replied, Take off your gloves, go into the orchestra and study it there, as an engineer studies his business in the engine room.[1] Slaughter married Luna Lauri (Mlle. Luna), one of the two famous dancing daughters of John Lauri, ballet-master at the Alhambra Theatre. Their daughter, Marjorie Slaughter, also became a composer.[4] Slaughter served as the organist at St. Andrews and as a cellist and pianist in music halls prior to becoming a musical director in West End theatre productions. Before he was 20, he had composed three ballets for the South London Palace. His early works also included some individual songs, one of which was the popular The Dear Homeland. He composed the music for the successful all-women one-act opera di camera An Adamless Eden (1882 at the Opera Comique),[5] which was produced in Britain and in America (1884) by Lila Clays ladies company. He also provided additional music in 1883, for the English adaptation of Edmond Audrans Gillette de Narbonne.[6] After several one-act works, including Sly and Shy (1883), The Casting Vote (1885)[7] and Maries Honeymoon (1885), he wrote the score for what became the most successful musical version of Alice in Wonderland, in 1886, to a book and lyrics by Henry Savile Clarke. He also wrote a work called Sappho that year for the Opera Comique, which was not as well received because of a weak libretto.[8] Slaughter later wrote the score to the medieval comic opera Marjorie produced by the Carl Rosa Opera Company in 1890 (Prince of Waless Theatre, 193 performances), and contributed to the Gaiety Theatres Cinderella burlesque, Cinder-Ellen Up-too-Late in 1891 and King Kodak in 1894. In 1893 he composed the score for a musical farce, Peggys Plot, for the German Reeds.[9] At the same time, Slaughter composed incidental music for plays, including those produced at the St. Jamess Theatre, while he was employed as the musical director there, including, in 1890, Walter Friths Molierè and Quinton and Hamiltons Lord Anerley; in 1891, Haddon Chamberss The Idler; and in 1892, Oscar Wildes Lady Windermeres Fan and Donna Luiza (with Basil Hood as librettist).
Earth. Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all of Earths water is contained in its global ocean, covering 70.8% of Earths crust. The remaining 29.2% of Earths crust is land, most of which is located in the form of continental landmasses within Earths land hemisphere. Most of Earths land is at least somewhat humid and covered by vegetation, while large ice sheets at Earths polar deserts retain more water than Earths groundwater, lakes, rivers, and atmospheric water combined. Earths crust consists of slowly moving tectonic plates, which interact to produce mountain ranges, volcanoes, and earthquakes. Earth has a liquid outer core that generates a magnetosphere capable of deflecting most of the destructive solar winds and cosmic radiation. Earth has a dynamic atmosphere, which sustains Earths surface conditions and protects it from most meteoroids and UV-light at entry. It has a composition of primarily nitrogen and oxygen. Water vapor is widely present in the atmosphere, forming clouds that cover most of the planet. The water vapor acts as a greenhouse gas and, together with other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, particularly carbon dioxide (CO2), creates the conditions for both liquid surface water and water vapor to persist via the capturing of energy from the Suns light. This process maintains the current average surface temperature of 14.76 °C (58.57 °F), at which water is liquid under normal atmospheric pressure. Differences in the amount of captured energy between geographic regions (as with the equatorial region receiving more sunlight than the polar regions) drive atmospheric and ocean currents, producing a global climate system with different climate regions, and a range of weather phenomena such as precipitation, allowing components such as carbon and nitrogen to cycle. Earth is rounded into an ellipsoid with a circumference of about 40,000 kilometres (24,900 miles). It is the densest planet in the Solar System. Of the four rocky planets, it is the largest and most massive. Earth is about eight light-minutes (1 AU) away from the Sun and orbits it, taking a year (about 365.25 days) to complete one revolution. Earth rotates around its own axis in slightly less than a day (in about 23 hours and 56 minutes). Earths axis of rotation is tilted with respect to the perpendicular to its orbital plane around the Sun, producing seasons. Earth is orbited by one permanent natural satellite, the Moon, which orbits Earth at 384,400 km (238,855 mi)—1.28 light seconds—and is roughly a quarter as wide as Earth. The Moons gravity helps stabilize Earths axis, causes tides and gradually slows Earths rotation. Likewise Earths gravitational pull has already made the Moons rotation tidally locked, keeping the same near side facing Earth. Earth, like most other bodies in the Solar System, formed about 4.5 billion years ago from gas and dust in the early Solar System. During the first billion years of Earths history, the ocean formed and then life developed within it. Life spread globally and has been altering Earths atmosphere and surface, leading to the Great Oxidation Event two billion years ago. Humans emerged 300,000 years ago in Africa and have spread across every continent on Earth. Humans depend on Earths biosphere and natural resources for their survival, but have increasingly impacted the planets environment. Humanitys current impact on Earths climate and biosphere is unsustainable, threatening the livelihood of humans and many other forms of life, and causing widespread extinctions.
Through the Looking-Glass. Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There is a novel published in December 1871 by Lewis Carroll, the pen name of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, a mathematics lecturer at Christ Church, Oxford. It was the sequel to his Alices Adventures in Wonderland (1865), in which many of the characters were anthropomorphic playing-cards. In this second novel the theme is chess. As in the earlier book, the central figure, Alice, enters a fantastical world, this time by climbing through a large looking-glass (a mirror)[n 1] into a world that she can see beyond it. There she finds that, just as in a reflection, things are reversed, including logic (for example, running helps one remain stationary, walking away from something brings one towards it, chessmen are alive and nursery-rhyme characters are real). Among the characters Alice meets are the severe Red Queen,[n 2] the gentle and flustered White Queen, the quarrelsome twins Tweedledum and Tweedledee, the rude and opinionated Humpty Dumpty, and the kindly but impractical White Knight. Eventually, as in the earlier book, after a succession of strange adventures, Alice wakes and realises she has been dreaming. As in Alices Adventures in Wonderland, the original illustrations are by John Tenniel. The book contains several verse passages, including Jabberwocky, The Walrus and the Carpenter and the White Knights ballad, A-sitting On a Gate. Like Alices Adventures in Wonderland, the book introduces phrases that have become common currency, including jam to-morrow and jam yesterday – but never jam to-day, sometimes Ive believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast, un-birthday presents, portmanteau words and as large as life and twice as natural. Through the Looking Glass has been adapted for the stage and the screen and translated into many languages. Critical opinion of the book has generally been favourable and either ranked it on a par with its predecessor or else only just short of it.
Libretto. A libretto (From the Italian word libretto, lit. booklet) is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or musical. The term libretto is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as the Mass, requiem and sacred cantata, or the story line of a ballet. The Italian word libretto (pronounced [liˈbretto], plural libretti [liˈbretti]) is the diminutive of the word libro (book). Sometimes other-language equivalents are used for libretti in that language, livret for French works, Textbuch for German and libreto for Spanish. A libretto is distinct from a synopsis or scenario of the plot, in that the libretto contains all the words and stage directions, while a synopsis summarizes the plot. Some ballet historians also use the word libretto to refer to the 15- to 40-page books which were on sale to 19th century ballet audiences in Paris and contained a very detailed description of the ballets story, scene by scene.[1] The relationship of the librettist (that is, the writer of a libretto) to the composer in the creation of a musical work has varied over the centuries, as have the sources and the writing techniques employed. In the context of a modern English-language musical theatre piece, the libretto is considered to encompass both the book of the work (i.e., the spoken dialogue) and the sung lyrics.
West End theatre. West End theatre is mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres in and near the West End of London.[1] Along with New York Citys Broadway theatre, West End theatre represents the highest level of commercial theatre in the English-speaking world.[2] Seeing a West End show is a common tourist activity in London.[1] Prominent screen actors, British and international alike, frequently appear on the London stage.[3][4][5][6][7] There are approximately 40 theatres in the West End, with the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, opened in May 1663, the oldest theatre in London.[8] The Savoy Theatre—built as a showcase for the popular series of comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan—was entirely lit by electricity in 1881.[9] The Society of London Theatre (SOLT) announced that 2018 was a record year for the capitals theatre industry with attendances topping 15.5 million for the first time since the organisation began collecting audience data in 1986. Box office revenues exceeded £765 million.[10] While attendance in 2019 was down 1.4% compared to the previous year, box office revenues reached a record £799 million.[11] In 2023, audiences reached a record 17.1 million.[12] The majority of West End theatres are owned by the ATG Entertainment, Delfont Mackintosh Theatres, Nimax Theatres, LW Theatres, and the Nederlander Organization.
Henry Savile Clarke. Henry Savile Clarke (14 February 1841 – 5 October 1893) was an English dramatist, journalist and critic. He produced and wrote the lyrics and book for the first professional dramatisation of Alices Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass (1886) which remained a popular childrens Christmas entertainment for half a century.[1][2][3] Clarke was the oldest of six children born to the Rev. Henry Clarke, Vicar of Guisborough (1814–1861), and his wife Catherine Frances née Dawson (1818–1852). Clarke went to Edinburgh to study medicine, but there became increasingly interested in journalism. He became one of the circle of enthusiastic young men around the writer James Hannay and consequently left medicine for literature. On 27 April 1865 Clarke married the artist Helen Weatherill (1840–1898) in Guisborough.[4] In 1866 the couple moved to London, where they had three daughters: the writer Clara Savile Clarke (1869–1898), Margaret Helen Maggie Clarke (1870–1894) and Catherine Dawson Kitty Clarke (1872–1901).[5] Clarke took up writing in London and within a year or two was listed in advertising for Cassells Magazine, where he was described as one of its well-known contributors. He gradually became known as a journalist on various subjects, while writing light literature and the books and lyrics for musicals.[2] This career was to last for about 25 years.[5] In 1878 he wrote the words for Songs of Israel to the music of Abraham Saqui (c. 1824–1893), the first choirmaster of the Princes Road Synagogue in Liverpool. Other works by Clarke include lyrics for the operetta An Adamless Eden! (1882) and for Lila Clay and her all-female troupe.[6] He also wrote the English adaptation of Gillette de Narbonne, which opened at Londons Royalty Theatre on 19 November 1883, with additional music by Walter Slaughter and Hamilton Clarke.[7] The production was not a success and closed within a month.[8] In August 1886 Clarke wrote to Lewis Carroll for permission to adapt Alices Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking-Glass (1871) into a Christmas musical stage show. There had been some amateur productions of Alice, and for the first and only time Carroll agreed to his work being performed on the professional stage. Carroll soon accepted Clarkes proposal, but with several stipulations: There are one or two wishes on the subject, which I will name for your consideration: but the only essential consideration is that I should have your written guarantee that, neither in the libretto nor in any of the stage business, should any coarseness, or anything suggestive of coarseness, be admitted.... This piece ought to be an Operetta (like The Mikado) and not a Pantomime.[9]
Playwright. A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between characters and is intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. Ben Jonson coined the term playwright and is the first person in English literature to refer to playwrights as separate from poets. The earliest playwrights in Western literature with surviving works are the Ancient Greeks. William Shakespeare is amongst the most famous playwrights in literature, both in England and across the world. The word play is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa (play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause).[1] The word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsperson or builder (as in a wheelwright or cartwright).[2] The words combine to indicate a person who has wrought words, themes, and other elements into a dramatic form — a play. (The homophone with write is coincidental.) The first recorded use of the term playwright is from 1605,[3] 73 years before the first written record of the term dramatist.[4] It appears to have been first used in a pejorative sense by Ben Jonson[5] to suggest a mere tradesman fashioning works for the theatre. Jonson uses the word in his Epigram 49, which is thought to refer to John Marston[6] or Thomas Dekker:[7]
David Henry Hwang. David Henry Hwang (born August 11, 1957) is an American playwright, librettist, screenwriter, and theater professor at Columbia University in New York City. He has won three Obie Awards for his plays FOB, Golden Child, and Yellow Face. He has one Tony Award (M. Butterfly) and two other nominations (Golden Child and Flower Drum Song). Three of his works (M. Butterfly, Yellow Face, and Soft Power) have been finalists for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. He was born in 1957 in Los Angeles, California, to Henry Yuan Hwang, the founder of Far East National Bank,[1] and Dorothy Hwang, a piano teacher. The oldest of three children, he has two younger sisters. He received a bachelors degree in English from Stanford University in 1979 and attended the Yale School of Drama between 1980 and 1981, taking literature classes.[2] He left once workshopping of new plays began, since he already had a play being produced in New York. His first play was produced at the Okada House dormitory (named Junipero House at the time) at Stanford University after he briefly studied playwriting with Sam Shepard and María Irene Fornés.[3] In summer 1978, he studied playwriting with Sam Shepard and attended Padua Hills Playwrights Festival, both of which led him to write his first plays such as FOB.[4] Hwangs early plays concerned the role of the Chinese American and Asian American in the contemporary world. His first play, FOB,[5] explores the contrasts and conflicts between established Asian Americans and Fresh Off the Boat new immigrants. The play was developed by the National Playwrights Conference at the Eugene ONeill Theater Center and premiered in 1980 Off-Broadway at the Joseph Papp Public Theater. In 1981 it won an Obie Award for Best New American Play.[6] Papp produced four more of Hwangs plays, including two in 1981: The Dance and the Railroad, which tells the story of a former Chinese opera star working as a coolie laborer in the 19th-century American West,[7] and Family Devotions,[8] a darkly comic take on the effects of Western religion on a Chinese-American family. This was nominated for the Drama Desk Award. Those three plays added up to what the author described as a Trilogy of Chinese America.[9] After this, Papp also produced the show Sound and Beauty, the omnibus title to two Hwang one-act plays set in Japan. At this time, Hwang started to work on projects for the small screen. A television movie, Blind Alleys, written by Hwang and Frederic Kimball and starring Pat Morita and Cloris Leachman, was produced in 1985 and followed a television version of The Dance and the Railroad.[7]
Unsuk Chin. Unsuk Chin (Korean: 진은숙 [tɕin ɯn.suk]; born July 14, 1961) is a South Korean composer of contemporary classical music, who is based in Berlin, Germany. Chin was a self-taught pianist from a young age and studied composition at Seoul National University as well as with György Ligeti at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg.[1] The recipient of numerous awards, she won the 2004 Grawemeyer Award for her Violin Concerto No. 1, the 2010 Music Composition Prize of the Prince Pierre Foundation for the ensemble piece Gougalōn and the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize in 2024. In 2019, writers of The Guardian ranked her Cello Concerto (2009) the 11th greatest work of art music since 2000, with Andrew Clements describing it as perhaps the most original and entertainingly disconcerting of all of [her concertos], cast in four brilliant movements that never quite conform to type.[2] Unsuk Chin was born in Seoul, South Korea. She studied composition with Sukhi Kang at Seoul National University and won several international prizes in her early 20s. In 1985, Chin won the Gaudeamus Foundation located in Amsterdam, with her piece Spektra for three celli, which was composed for her graduation project. She also received an academic grant to study in Germany, where she moved that same year.[1] There she studied with György Ligeti at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg from 1985 to 1988.[1] In 1988, Chin worked as a freelance composer at the electronic music studio of Technische Universität Berlin, releasing seven works. Her first electronic piece was Gradus ad Infinitum, which was composed in 1989.[3] Her first large orchestral piece, Die Troerinnen (1986, rev.1990), for womens voices, was premiered by the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra in 1990.[4] In 1991, her breakthrough work Acrostic Wordplay was premiered by the Nieuw Ensemble. Since then, it has been performed in more than 20 countries in Europe, Asia and North America. Chins collaboration with the Ensemble Intercontemporain, which has led to several commissions from them, started in 1994 with Fantaisie mecanique. Since 1995, Chin has been published exclusively by Boosey & Hawkes.[1] In 1999, Chin began an artistic collaboration with Kent Nagano, who has since premiered six of her works.
Business. Business is the practice of making ones living or making money by producing or buying and selling products (such as goods and services).[1][2][3][4] It is also any activity or enterprise entered into for profit.[5] A business entity is not necessarily separate from the owner and the creditors can hold the owner liable for debts the business has acquired except for limited liability company.[6] The taxation system for businesses is different from that of the corporates. A business structure does not allow for corporate tax rates. The proprietor is personally taxed on all income from the business. A distinction is made in law and public offices between the term business and a company (such as a corporation or cooperative). Colloquially, the terms are used interchangeably. Corporations are distinct from sole proprietors and partnerships. Corporations are separate and unique legal entities from their shareholders; as such they provide limited liability for their owners and members. Corporations are subject to corporate tax rates. Corporations are also more complicated, expensive to set up, along with the mandatory reporting of quarterly or annual financial information to the national (or state) securities commissions or company registers, but offer more protection and benefits for the owners and shareholders.[6]
Music. Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise expressive content.[1][2][3] Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all human societies.[4] Definitions of music vary widely in substance and approach.[5] While scholars agree that music is defined by a small number of specific elements, there is no consensus as to what these necessary elements are.[6] Music is often characterized as a highly versatile medium for expressing human creativity.[7] Diverse activities are involved in the creation of music, and are often divided into categories of composition, improvisation, and performance.[8] Music may be performed using a wide variety of musical instruments, including the human voice. It can also be composed, sequenced, or otherwise produced to be indirectly played mechanically or electronically, such as via a music box, barrel organ, or digital audio workstation software on a computer. Music often plays a key role in social events and religious ceremonies. The techniques of making music are often transmitted as part of a cultural tradition. Music is played in public and private contexts, highlighted at events such as festivals and concerts for various different types of ensembles. Music is used in the production of other media, such as in soundtracks to films, TV shows, operas, and video games. Listening to music is a common means of entertainment. The culture surrounding music extends into areas of academic study, journalism, philosophy, psychology, and therapy. The music industry includes songwriters, performers, sound engineers, producers, tour organizers, distributors of instruments, accessories, and publishers of sheet music and recordings. Technology facilitating the recording and reproduction of music has historically included sheet music, microphones, phonographs, and tape machines, with playback of digital music being a common use for MP3 players, CD players, and smartphones. The modern English word music came into use in the 1630s.[9] It is derived from a long line of successive precursors: the Old English musike of the mid-13th century; the Old French musique of the 12th century; and the Latin mūsica.[10][7][n 1] The Latin word itself derives from the Ancient Greek mousiké (technē)—μουσική (τέχνη)—literally meaning (art) of the Muses.[10][n 2] The Muses were nine deities in Ancient Greek mythology who presided over the arts and sciences.[13][14] They were included in tales by the earliest Western authors, Homer and Hesiod,[15] and eventually came to be associated with music specifically.[14] Over time, Polyhymnia would reside over music more prominently than the other muses.[11] The Latin word musica was also the originator for both the Spanish música and French musique via spelling and linguistic adjustment, though other European terms were probably loanwords, including the Italian musica, German Musik, Dutch muziek, Norwegian musikk, Polish muzyka and Russian muzïka.[14]
Maghreb. The Maghreb (/ˈmɑːɡrəb/;[2] Arabic: ْاَلْمَغْرِب, romanized: al-Maghrib, lit. The place where the sun sets [ælˈmaɣrɪb] ⓘ), also known as the Arab Maghreb (Arabic: اَلْمَغْرِبُ الْعَرَبِيُّ, romanized: al-Maghrib al-ʿArabi, lit. the Arab west) or the Greater Maghreb (Arabic: المغرب الكبير al-Maghrib al-Kabīr), and Northwest Africa,[3] is the western part of the Arab world. The region comprises western and central North Africa, including Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia. The Maghreb also includes the disputed territory of Western Sahara. As of 2018, the region had a population of over 100 million people. The Maghreb is usually defined as encompassing much of the northern part of Africa, including a large portion of the Sahara Desert, but excluding Egypt and the Sudan, which are considered to be located in the Mashriq—the eastern part of the Arab world. The traditional definition of the Maghreb—which restricted its scope to the Atlas Mountains and the coastal plains of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya—was expanded in modern times to include Mauritania and the disputed territory of Western Sahara. During the era of al-Andalus on the Iberian Peninsula (711–1492), the Maghrebs inhabitants—the Muslim Maghrebis—were known by Europeans as the Moors.[4] The Greeks referred to the region as the Land of the Atlas, referring to its Atlas Mountains.[5] Before the establishment of modern nation states in the region during the 20th century, the Maghreb most commonly referred to a smaller area, between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlas Mountains in the south. It often also included the territory of eastern Libya, but not modern Mauritania. As recently as the late 19th century, the term Maghreb was used to refer to the western Mediterranean region of coastal North Africa in general, and to Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia in particular.[6] The region comprising the Maghreb was somewhat unified as an independent political entity under the kingdom of Numidia. This period was followed by one of the Roman Empires rule or influence. The Germanic Vandals invaded after that, followed by the equally brief re-establishment of a weak Roman rule by the Byzantine Empire. The Islamic caliphates came to power under the Umayyad Caliphate, the Abbasid Caliphate and the Fatimid Caliphate. The most enduring rule was that of the local Arab empires of the Aghlabids, Idrisids, Salihids, Sulaymanids, Umayyads of Cordoba, Hammudids, Nasrids, Saadians, Alawites and the Sennusids, as well as the Berber empires of the Ifranids, Almoravids, Almohads, Hammadids, Zirids, Marinids, Zayyanids, Hafsids and Wattasids, extending from the 8th to 13th centuries. The Ottoman Empire also controlled parts of the region for a period.
East West Bancorp. East West Bancorp is the parent company of East West Bank. It is a publicly owned company with over $70 billion in assets as of 2024.[1][2] The companys wholly owned subsidiary, East West Bank, is the largest state-chartered bank in California as of 2023.[3] East West earned the top spot in S&P Global Market Intelligences 2022 Ranking of U.S. Public Banks by Financial Performance.[4] As of 2024, East West Bank has more than 100 locations in the United States and Asia.[5][6] The East West Federal Bank (now East West Bank) was founded in 1973.[7] Dominic Ng is chairman and CEO of East West Bank.[8][9]
Music theory. Music theory is the study of theoretical frameworks for understanding the practices and possibilities of music. The Oxford Companion to Music describes three interrelated uses of the term music theory: The first is the rudiments, that are needed to understand music notation (key signatures, time signatures, and rhythmic notation); the second is learning scholars views on music from antiquity to the present; the third is a sub-topic of musicology that seeks to define processes and general principles in music. The musicological approach to theory differs from music analysis in that it takes as its starting-point not the individual work or performance but the fundamental materials from which it is built.[1] Music theory is frequently concerned with describing how musicians and composers make music, including tuning systems and composition methods among other topics. Because of the ever-expanding conception of what constitutes music, a more inclusive definition could be the consideration of any sonic phenomena, including silence. This is not an absolute guideline, however; for example, the study of music in the Quadrivium liberal arts university curriculum, that was common in medieval Europe, was an abstract system of proportions that was carefully studied at a distance from actual musical practice.[n 1] But this medieval discipline became the basis for tuning systems in later centuries and is generally included in modern scholarship on the history of music theory.[n 2] Music theory as a practical discipline encompasses the methods and concepts that composers and other musicians use in creating and performing music. The development, preservation, and transmission of music theory in this sense may be found in oral and written music-making traditions, musical instruments, and other artifacts. For example, ancient instruments from prehistoric sites around the world reveal details about the music they produced and potentially something of the musical theory that might have been used by their makers. In ancient and living cultures around the world, the deep and long roots of music theory are visible in instruments, oral traditions, and current music-making. Many cultures have also considered music theory in more formal ways such as written treatises and music notation. Practical and scholarly traditions overlap, as many practical treatises about music place themselves within a tradition of other treatises, which are cited regularly just as scholarly writing cites earlier research. In modern academia, music theory is a subfield of musicology, the wider study of musical cultures and history. Guido Adler, however, in one of the texts that founded musicology in the late 19th century, wrote that the science of music originated at the same time as the art of sounds,[3] where the science of music (Musikwissenschaft) obviously meant music theory. Adler added that music only could exist when one began measuring pitches and comparing them to each other. He concluded that all people for which one can speak of an art of sounds also have a science of sounds.[4] One must deduce that music theory exists in all musical cultures of the world.
France. France,[h] officially the French Republic,[i] is a country primarily located in Western Europe. Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the North Atlantic, the French West Indies, and many islands in Oceania and the Indian Ocean, giving it the largest discontiguous exclusive economic zone in the world. Metropolitan France shares borders with Belgium and Luxembourg to the north; Germany to the northeast; Switzerland to the east; Italy and Monaco to the southeast; Andorra and Spain to the south; and a maritime border with the United Kingdom to the northwest. Its metropolitan area extends from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean and from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea. Its eighteen integral regions—five of which are overseas—span a combined area of 632,702 km2 (244,288 sq mi) and have an estimated total population of over 68.6 million as of January 2025[update]. France is a semi-presidential republic. Its capital, largest city and main cultural and economic centre is Paris. Metropolitan France was settled during the Iron Age by Celtic tribes known as Gauls before Rome annexed the area in 51 BC, leading to a distinct Gallo-Roman culture. In the Early Middle Ages, the Franks formed the kingdom of Francia, which became the heartland of the Carolingian Empire. The Treaty of Verdun of 843 partitioned the empire, with West Francia evolving into the Kingdom of France. In the High Middle Ages, France was a powerful but decentralised feudal kingdom, but from the mid-14th to the mid-15th centuries, France was plunged into a dynastic conflict with England known as the Hundred Years War. In the 16th century, French culture flourished during the French Renaissance and a French colonial empire emerged. Internally, France was dominated by the conflict with the House of Habsburg and the French Wars of Religion between Catholics and Huguenots. France was successful in the Thirty Years War and further increased its influence during the reign of Louis XIV. The French Revolution of 1789 overthrew the Ancien Régime and produced the Declaration of the Rights of Man, which expresses the nations ideals to this day. France reached its political and military zenith in the early 19th century under Napoleon Bonaparte, subjugating part of continental Europe and establishing the First French Empire. The collapse of the empire initiated a period of relative decline, in which France endured the Bourbon Restoration until the founding of the French Second Republic which was succeeded by the Second French Empire upon Napoleon IIIs takeover. His empire collapsed during the Franco-Prussian War in 1870. This led to the establishment of the Third French Republic, and subsequent decades saw a period of economic prosperity and cultural and scientific flourishing known as the Belle Époque. France was one of the major participants of World War I, from which it emerged victorious at great human and economic cost. It was among the Allies of World War II, but it surrendered and was occupied in 1940. Following its liberation in 1944, the short-lived Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the defeat in the Algerian War. The current Fifth Republic was formed in 1958 by Charles de Gaulle. Algeria and most French colonies became independent in the 1960s, with the majority retaining close economic and military ties with France. France retains its centuries-long status as a global centre of art, science, and philosophy. It hosts the fourth-largest number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites and is the worlds leading tourist destination, having received 100 million foreign visitors in 2023. A developed country, France has a high nominal per capita income globally, and its economy ranks among the largest in the world by both nominal GDP and PPP-adjusted GDP. It is a great power, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and an official nuclear-weapon state. The country is part of multiple international organisations and forums.
Figurine. A figurine (a diminutive form of the word figure) or statuette is a small, three-dimensional sculpture that represents a human, deity or animal, or, in practice, a pair or small group of them. Figurines have been made in many media, with clay, metal, wood, glass, and today plastic or resin the most significant. Ceramic figurines not made of porcelain are called terracottas in historical contexts. Figures with movable parts, allowing limbs to be posed, are more likely to be called dolls, mannequins, or action figures; or robots or automata, if they can move on their own. Figurines and miniatures are sometimes used in board games, such as chess, and tabletop role playing games. The main difference between a figurine and a statue is size. There is no agreed limit, but typically objects are called figurines up to a height of perhaps two feet (60 cm), though most types are less than one foot (30 cm) high. In China, there are extant Neolithic figurines.[1] European prehistoric figurines of women, some appearing pregnant, are called Venus figurines, because of their presumed connection to fertility. The two oldest known examples are made of stone, were found in Africa and Asia,[citation needed] and are several hundred thousand years old. Many made of fired clay have been found in Europe that date to 25–30,000 BC, and are the oldest ceramics known.
Company. A company, abbreviated as co., is a legal entity representing an association of legal people, whether natural, juridical or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common purpose and unite to achieve specific, declared goals. Over time, companies have evolved to have the following features: separate legal personality, limited liability, transferable shares, investor ownership, and a managerial hierarchy.[1] The company, as an entity, was created by the state which granted the privilege of incorporation.[1] Companies take various forms, such as: A company can be created as a legal person so that the company itself has limited liability as members perform or fail to discharge their duties according to the publicly declared incorporation published policy. When a company closes, it may need to be liquidated to avoid further legal obligations. Companies may associate and collectively register themselves as new companies; the resulting entities are often known as corporate groups, collections of parent and subsidiary corporations.
East West Bank. East West Bank is an American bank that is the primary subsidiary of East West Bancorp. It is the largest publicly traded bank headquartered in Southern California.[6] The company has been ranked the #1 performing U.S. bank with more than $10 billion in assets by S&P Global Market Intelligence, and the top performing bank in its asset size (in excess of $50 billion) by Bank Director.[7][8][9] East West was founded in 1973 in Los Angeles to serve the Chinese American community. As of 2024, the company is involved in commercial banking, residential lending, private equity, media, entertainment, infrastructure, healthcare, clean energy, technology, manufacturing, commercial real estate, and other sectors.[10][11] In 1973, East West Federal Bank was founded as a federal savings and loan association, focused on serving the Chinese American community in Southern California.[12] In 1991, during the savings and loan crisis, the company acquired Pacific Coast Savings,[13][14][15] which increased the banks assets from $600 million to $1 billion and expanded operations to San Francisco, California. In 1992, Dominic Ng was named CEO of the company. East West became a state-chartered commercial bank on July 31, 1995.[16] In 1999, the company acquired First Central Bank for $13.5 million in cash.[17]
The Japan Times. The Japan Times is Japans largest and oldest English-language daily newspaper.[1][2] It is published by The Japan Times, Ltd. (株式会社ジャパンタイムズ, Kabushiki gaisha Japan Taimuzu), a subsidiary of News2u Holdings, Inc. It is headquartered in the Kioicho Building (紀尾井町ビル, Kioicho Biru) in Kioicho, Chiyoda, Tokyo.[3][4] The Japan Times was launched by Motosada Zumoto [ja] on 22 March 1897, with the goal of giving Japanese people an opportunity to read and discuss news and current events in English to help Japan participate in the international community.[5] In 1906, Zumoto was asked by Japanese Resident-General of Korea Itō Hirobumi to lead the English-language newspaper The Seoul Press. Zumoto closely tied the operations of the two newspapers, with subscriptions of The Seoul Press being sold in Japan by The Japan Times, and vice versa for Korea.[6][7] Both papers wrote critically of Korean culture and civilization, and advocated for Japans colonial control over the peninsula in order to civilize the Koreans.[6][8] The newspaper was independent of government control, but from 1931 onward, the papers editors experienced mounting pressure from the Japanese government to submit to its policies. In 1933, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs appointed Hitoshi Ashida, former ministry official, as chief editor.[9]
Tajiri, Miyagi. Tajiri (田尻町, Tajiri-chō) was a town located in Tōda District, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. In 2003, the town had an estimated population of 13,023 and a population density of 198.55 persons per km². The total area was 65.59 km². The primary industry was rice farming. There was also a chemical plant. On March 31, 2006, Tajiri, along with the city of Furukawa, the towns of Iwadeyama and Naruko (both from Tamatsukuri District), and the towns of Kashimadai, Matsuyama and Sanbongi (all from Shida District), was merged to create the city of Ōsaki.[1] Tamatsukuri District and Shida District were dissolved as a result of this merger.
Organization. An organization or organisation (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences) is an entity—such as a company, or corporation or an institution (formal organization), or an association—comprising one or more people and having a particular purpose. Organizations may also operate secretly or illegally in the case of secret societies, criminal organizations, and resistance movements. And in some cases may have obstacles from other organizations (e.g.: MLKs organization).[1] What makes an organization recognized by the government is either filling out incorporation or recognition in the form of either societal pressure (e.g.: Advocacy group), causing concerns (e.g.: Resistance movement) or being considered the spokesperson of a group of people subject to negotiation (e.g.: the Polisario Front being recognized as the sole representative of the Sahrawi people and forming a partially recognized state.) Compare the concept of social groups, which may include non-organizations.[2]
Princeton University. Princeton University is a private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution.[9][10][a] The institution moved to Newark in 1747 and then to its Mercer County campus in Princeton nine years later. It officially became a university in 1896 and was subsequently renamed Princeton University. The university is governed by the Trustees of Princeton University and has an endowment of $37.7 billion, the largest endowment per student in the United States. Princeton provides undergraduate and graduate instruction in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and engineering to approximately 8,500 students on its main campus spanning 600 acres (2.4 km2) within the borough of Princeton. It offers postgraduate degrees through the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, the School of Engineering and Applied Science, the School of Architecture and the Bendheim Center for Finance. The university also manages the Department of Energys Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and is home to the NOAAs Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory. It is classified among R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity and has one of the largest university libraries in the world.[15] Princeton uses a residential college system and is known for its eating clubs for juniors and seniors. The university has over 500 student organizations. Princeton students embrace a wide variety of traditions from both the past and present. The university is an NCAA Division I school and competes in the Ivy League. The schools athletic team, the Princeton Tigers, has won the most titles in its conference and has sent many students and alumni to the Olympics. As of July 2025, 79 Nobel laureates, 16 Fields Medalists and 17 Turing Award laureates have been affiliated with Princeton University as alumni, faculty members, or researchers. In addition, Princeton has been associated with 21 National Medal of Science awardees, 5 Abel Prize awardees, 11 National Humanities Medal recipients, 217 Rhodes Scholars, 137 Marshall Scholars, and 62 Gates Cambridge Scholars. Two U.S. presidents, twelve U.S. Supreme Court justices (three of whom serve on the court as of 2010[update]) and numerous living industry and media tycoons and foreign heads of state are all counted among Princetons alumni body. Princeton has graduated many members of the U.S. Congress and the U.S. Cabinet, including eight secretaries of state, three secretaries of defense and two chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
National Museum of Japanese History. The National Museum of Japanese History (国立歴史民俗博物館, Kokuritsu Rekishi Minzoku Hakubutsukan), commonly known in Japanese as Rekihaku, is a history museum in Sakura, Chiba, Japan. The museum was founded in 1981 as an inter-university research consortium, and opened in 1983. The collections of the museum focus on the history, archaeology, and folk culture of Japan.[1] This article related to a museum in Japan is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
Alice in Wonderland: A Dance Fantasy. Alice in Wonderland is a 1993 ballet film with the Prague Chamber Ballet performing to a score by Viktor Kalabis performed by the Czech Philharmonic, based on Lewis Carrolls Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass and the 1951 Disney film. Eva Zamazalová [Wikidata] portrays Alice. Adam Rezek directs. This ballet-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
Mauritania. Mauritania,[a] officially the Islamic Republic of Mauritania,[b] is a country in Northwest Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Western Sahara to the north and northwest, Algeria to the northeast, Mali to the east and southeast, and Senegal to the southwest. By land area Mauritania is the 11th-largest country in Africa and the 28th-largest in the world; 90% of its territory is in the Sahara. Most of its population of some 4.3 million live in the temperate south of the country; roughly a third of the population is concentrated in the capital and largest city, Nouakchott, on the Atlantic coast. The countrys name derives from Mauretania, the Latin name for a region in the ancient Maghreb. It extended from central present-day Algeria to the Atlantic. Berbers occupied what is now Mauritania by the beginning of the 3rd century AD. Groups of Arab tribes migrated to this area in the late 7th century, bringing with them Islam, Arab culture, and the Arabic language. In the early 20th century, Mauritania was colonized by France as part of French West Africa. It achieved independence in 1960. However, the country has since experienced recurrent coups and periods of military dictatorship. The 2008 Mauritanian coup détat was led by General Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, who won subsequent presidential elections in 2009 and 2014.[11] He was succeeded by General Mohamed Ould Ghazouani following the 2019 elections,[12] head of an autocratic government with a very poor human rights record, particularly because of its perpetuation of slavery; the 2018 Global Slavery Index estimates there are about 90,000 slaves in the country (or 2.1% of the population).[13][14][15] Despite an abundance of natural resources, Mauritania remains poor; its economy is based primarily on agriculture and fishing. Mauritania is culturally and politically part of the Arab world. It is a member of the Arab League and Arabic is the official language. The official religion is Islam, and almost all inhabitants are Sunni Muslims. Despite its prevailing Arab identity, Mauritanian society is multiethnic. The Bidhan, or so-called white moors, make up 30% of the population,[16] while the Haratin, or so-called black moors, comprise 40%.[16] Both groups reflect a fusion of Arab-Berber ethnicity, language, and culture. The remaining 30% of the population comprises various sub-Saharan ethnic groups. Mauritania takes its name from the ancient Berber kingdom that flourished beginning in the third century BC and later became the Roman province of Mauretania, which flourished into the seventh century AD. The two territories do not overlap, though; historical Mauretania was considerably farther north than modern Mauritania, as it was spread out along the entire western half of the Mediterranean coast of Africa. The term Mauretania, in turn, derives from the Greek and Roman exonym for the Berber peoples of the kingdom, the Mauri people. The word Mauri is also the root of the name for the Moors.[17]
Christopher Wheeldon. Christopher Peter Wheeldon OBE (born 22 March 1973) is an English international choreographer of contemporary ballet. Born in Yeovil, Somerset, to an engineer and a physical therapist, Wheeldon began training to be a ballet dancer at the age of eight. He attended the Royal Ballet School between the ages of 11 and 18. In 1991, Wheeldon joined the Royal Ballet, London; and in that same year, he won the gold medal at the Prix de Lausanne competition. In 1993, at the age of 19, Wheeldon moved to New York City to join the New York City Ballet. He was named Soloist in 1998.[1] Wheeldon began choreographing for the New York City Ballet in 1997, while continuing his career as a dancer. He retired as a dancer in 2000 in order to focus on his choreography.
Algeria. Algeria,[e] officially the Peoples Democratic Republic of Algeria,[f] is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to the northeast by Tunisia; to the east by Libya; to the southeast by Niger; to the southwest by Mali, Mauritania, and Western Sahara; to the west by Morocco; and to the north by the Mediterranean Sea. The capital and largest city is Algiers, located in the far north on the Mediterranean coast. Inhabited since prehistory, Algeria has been at the crossroads of numerous cultures and civilisations for millennia, including the Phoenicians, Numidians, Romans, Vandals, and Byzantine Greeks. Its modern identity is rooted in centuries of Arab Muslim migration since the seventh century and the subsequent Arabisation of indigenous Berber populations. Following a succession of Islamic Arab and Berber dynasties between the eighth and 15th centuries, the Regency of Algiers was established in 1516 as a largely independent tributary state of the Ottoman Empire. After nearly three centuries as a major power in the Mediterranean, the country was invaded by France in 1830 and formally annexed in 1848, though it was not fully conquered and pacified until 1903. French rule brought mass European settlement that displaced the local population, which was reduced by up to one-third due to warfare, disease, and starvation.[12] The Sétif and Guelma massacre in 1945 catalysed local resistance that culminated in the outbreak of the Algerian War in 1954. Algeria gained independence in 1962. It descended into a bloody civil war from 1992 to 2002, remaining in an official state of emergency until the 2010–2012 Algerian protests during the Arab Spring. Spanning 2,381,741 square kilometres (919,595 sq mi), Algeria is the worlds tenth-largest country by area and the largest in Africa.[13] It has a semi-arid climate, with the Sahara desert dominating most of the territory except for its fertile and mountainous north, where most of the population is concentrated. With a population of 44 million, Algeria is the tenth-most populous country in Africa, and the 33rd-most populous in the world. Algerias official languages are Arabic and Tamazight; the vast majority of the population speak the Algerian dialect of Arabic. French is used in media, education, and certain administrative matters, but has no official status. Most Algerians are Arabs, with Berbers forming a sizeable minority. Sunni Islam is the official religion and practised by 99 percent of the population.[14] Algeria is a semi-presidential republic composed of 58 provinces (wilayas) and 1,541 communes. It is a regional power in North Africa and a middle power in global affairs. As of 2025, the country has the highest Human Development Index in continental Africa, and the third largest economy in Africa, due mostly to its large petroleum and natural gas reserves, which are the sixteenth and ninth largest in the world, respectively. Sonatrach, the national oil company, is the largest company in Africa and a major supplier of natural gas to Europe. The Algerian military is one of the largest in Africa, with the highest defence budget on the continent and the 22nd highest in the world.[15] Algeria is a member of the African Union, the Arab League, the OIC, OPEC, the United Nations, and the Arab Maghreb Union, of which it is a founding member.

Subsets and Splits

No community queries yet

The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.