1.
Tuvalu
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It comprises three reef islands and six true atolls spread out between the latitude of 5° to 10° south and longitude of 176° to 180°, west of the International Date Line. Tuvalu has a population of 10,640, the total land area of the islands of Tuvalu is 26 square kilometres. The first inhabitants of Tuvalu were Polynesians, in 1568, Spanish navigator Álvaro de Mendaña was the first European to sail through the archipelago, sighting the island of Nui during his expedition in search of Terra Australis. In 1819 the island of Funafuti was named Ellices Island, the name Ellice was applied to all nine islands after the work of English hydrographer Alexander George Findlay. A referendum was held in December 1974 to determine whether the Gilbert Islands, as a consequence of the referendum, the Gilbert and Ellice Islands colony ceased to exist on 1 January 1976 and the separate British colonies of Kiribati and Tuvalu came into existence. Tuvalu became fully independent within the Commonwealth on 1 October 1978, on 5 September 2000 Tuvalu became the 189th member of the United Nations. The origins of the people of Tuvalu are addressed in the theories regarding migration into the Pacific that began about 3000 years ago, during pre-European-contact times there was frequent canoe voyaging between the nearer islands including Samoa and Tonga. Eight of the nine islands of Tuvalu were inhabited, thus the name, Tuvalu, possible evidence of fire in the Caves of Nanumanga may indicate human occupation for thousands of years. The stories as to the ancestors of the Tuvaluans vary from island to island, on Niutao, Funafuti and Vaitupu the founding ancestor is described as being from Samoa, whereas on Nanumea the founding ancestor is described as being from Tonga. Mendaña made contact with the islanders but was unable to land, during Mendañas second voyage across the Pacific he passed Niulakita on 29 August 1595, which he named La Solitaria. Captain John Byron passed through the islands of Tuvalu in 1764 during his circumnavigation of the globe as captain of the Dolphin, Byron charted the atolls as Lagoon Islands. Chambers and Doug Munro identified Niutao as the island that Francisco Mourelle de la Rúa sailed past on 5 May 1781, mourelles map and journal named the island El Gran Cocal, however, the latitude and longitude was uncertain. Longitude could only be reckoned crudely as accurate chronometers were unavailable until the late 18th century, the name Ellice was applied to all nine islands after the work of English hydrographer Alexander George Findlay. In 1820 the Russian explorer Mikhail Lazarev visited Nukufetau as commander of the Mirny, Louis Isidore Duperrey, captain of La Coquille, sailed past Nanumanga in May 1824 during a circumnavigation of the earth. A Dutch expedition found Nui on the morning of 14 June 1825, whalers began roving the Pacific, although visiting Tuvalu only infrequently because of the difficulties of landing on the atolls. Captain George Barrett of the Nantucket whaler Independence II has been identified as the first whaler to hunt the waters around Tuvalu, in November 1821 he bartered coconuts from the people of Nukulaelae and also visited Niulakita. A shore camp was established on Sakalua islet of Nukufetau, where coal was used to melt down the whale blubber, the Rev. A. W. Elekana began proselytising Christianity. He was trained at Malua Theological College, a London Missionary Society school in Samoa, in 1865 the Rev. A. W. Murray of the LMS – a Protestant congregationalist missionary society – arrived as the first European missionary where he too proselytised among the inhabitants of Tuvalu
2.
Climate change in Tuvalu
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Global warming is a concern in Tuvalu since the average height of the islands is less than 2 metres above sea level, with the highest point of Niulakita being about 4.6 metres above sea level. Tuvalu could be one of the first nations to experience the effects of sea level rise, not only could parts of the island be flooded but the rising saltwater table could also destroy deep rooted food crops such as coconut, pulaka, and taro. Tuvalu participates in the operations of the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme, the climate of the Pacific region at the equator is influenced by a number of factors, the science of which is the subject of continuing research. The SPREP described the climate of Tuvalu as being, The sea level in Tuvalu varies as a consequence of a range of atmospheric and oceanographic influences. The trade winds that push surface water westward create this zonal tilting of sea level on the equator, below the equator a higher sea level can also be found about 20° to 40° south. This has an effect on sea levels, the Perigean spring tide can result in seawater flooding low-lying areas of the islands of Tuvalu. In 1978 a tide gauge was installed at Funafuti by the University of Hawaii. It has measured a sea rise of 1.2 mm per year over 23 years—a figure consistent with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change global mean estimate of 1 to 2 mm per year over the 20th century. The 40 cm rise in sea level predicted by the IPCC by the end of the 21st century could have significant effects for Tuvalu, the highest elevation is 4.6 metres above sea level on Niulakita, which gives Tuvalu the second-lowest maximum elevation of any country. However, the highest elevations are typically in narrow storm dunes on the side of the islands which are prone to over topping in tropical cyclones. In March 2015 the storm created by Cyclone Pam resulted in waves of 3 metres to 5 metres breaking over the reef of the outer islands caused damage to houses, crops. On Nui the sources of water were destroyed or contaminated. Tuvalu is also affected by spring tide events, which raise the sea level higher than a normal high tide. The highest peak tide recorded by the Tuvalu Meteorological Service was 3.4 metres on 24 February 2006 and again on 19 February 2015. In the future, sea level rise may threaten to submerge the nation entirely as it is estimated that a sea rise of 20–40 centimetres in the next 100 years could make Tuvalu uninhabitable. There remains the risk that the response of atolls and reef islands does not result in stable islands as tropical cyclones can strip the low-lying islands of their vegetation. Tepuka Vili Vili islet of Funafuti atoll was devastated by Cyclone Meli in 1979, with all its vegetation, vasafua islet, part of the Funafuti Conservation Area, was severely damaged by Cyclone Pam in 2015. The coconut palms were washed away, leaving the islet as a sand bar, gradual sea-level rise also allows for coral polyp activity to raise the atolls with the sea level
3.
Drought
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A drought is a period of below-average precipitation in a given region, resulting in prolonged shortages in its water supply, whether atmospheric, surface water or ground water. A drought can last for months or years, or may be declared after as few as 15 days and it can have a substantial impact on the ecosystem and agriculture of the affected region and harm to the local economy. Annual dry seasons in the tropics significantly increase the chances of a drought developing, periods of heat can significantly worsen drought conditions by hastening evaporation of water vapour. Many plant species, such as those in the family Cactaceae, have drought tolerance adaptations like reduced leaf area, some others survive dry periods as buried seeds. Semi-permanent drought produces arid biomes such as deserts and grasslands, prolonged droughts have caused mass migrations and humanitarian crises. Most arid ecosystems have inherently low productivity, the most prolonged drought ever in the world in recorded history occurred in the Atacama Desert in Chile. Mechanisms of producing precipitation include convective, stratiform, and orographic rainfall, precipitation can be divided into three categories, based on whether it falls as liquid water, liquid water that freezes on contact with the surface, or ice. Drought are mainly course by in low rain areas, if these factors do not support precipitation volumes sufficient to reach the surface over a sufficient time, the result is a drought. Once a region is within drought, feedback mechanisms such as local arid air, hot conditions which can promote warm core ridging, within the tropics, distinct, wet and dry seasons emerge due to the movement of the Intertropical Convergence Zone or Monsoon trough. The dry season greatly increases drought occurrence, and is characterized by its low humidity, with watering holes, because of the lack of these watering holes, many grazing animals are forced to migrate due to the lack of water and feed to more fertile spots. Examples of such animals are zebras, elephants, and wildebeest, because of the lack of water in the plants, bushfires are common. Since water vapor becomes more energetic with increasing temperature, more water vapor is required to increase relative humidity values to 100% at higher temperatures, periods of warmth quicken the pace of fruit and vegetable production, increase evaporation and transpiration from plants, and worsen drought conditions. Drier and hotter weather occurs in parts of the Amazon River Basin, Colombia, winters during the El Niño are warmer and drier than average conditions in the Northwest, northern Midwest, and northern Mideast United States, so those regions experience reduced snowfalls. Conditions are also drier than normal from December to February in south-central Africa, mainly in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and Botswana. Direct effects of El Niño resulting in drier conditions occur in parts of Southeast Asia and Northern Australia, increasing bush fires, worsening haze, drier-than-normal conditions are also in general observed in Queensland, inland Victoria, inland New South Wales, and eastern Tasmania from June to August. As warm water spreads from the west Pacific and the Indian Ocean to the east Pacific, it causes extensive drought in the western Pacific. Singapore experienced the driest February in 2014 since records began in 1869, with only 6.3 mm of rain falling in the month, the years 1968 and 2005 had the next driest Februaries, when 8.4 mm of rain fell. Human activity can directly trigger exacerbating factors such as farming, excessive irrigation, deforestation
4.
Oceania
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Oceania, also known as Oceanica, is a region centred on the islands of the tropical Pacific Ocean. The term is used more specifically to denote a continent comprising Australia. The term was coined as Océanie circa 1812 by geographer Conrad Malte-Brun, the word Océanie is a French word derived from the Latin word oceanus, and this from the Greek word ὠκεανός, ocean. Natives and inhabitants of this region are called Oceanians or Oceanicans, as an ecozone, Oceania includes all of Micronesia, Fiji, and all of Polynesia except New Zealand. New Zealand, along with New Guinea and nearby islands, part of the Philippine islands, Australia, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, in geopolitical terms, however, New Zealand, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and New Caledonia are almost always considered part of Oceania. Australia and Papua New Guinea are usually considered part of Oceania along with the Maluku Islands, puncak Jaya in Papua is often considered the highest peak in Oceania. Oceania was originally conceived as the lands of the Pacific Ocean and it comprised four regions, Polynesia, Micronesia, Malaysia, and Melanesia. The area extends to Sumatra in the west, the Bonin Islands in the northwest, the Hawaiian Islands in the northeast, Rapa Nui and Sala y Gómez Island in the east, and Macquarie Island in the south. Not included are the Pacific islands of Taiwan, the Ryukyu Islands and the Japanese archipelago, all on the margins of Asia, and the Aleutian Islands of North America. The islands at the extremes of Oceania are Bonin, a politically integral part of Japan, Hawaii, a state of the United States. There is also a geographic definition that excludes land on the Sunda Plate. Biogeographically, Oceania is used as a synonym for either the Australasian ecozone or the Pacific ecozone, Oceania is one of eight terrestrial ecozones, which constitute the major ecological regions of the planet. The Oceania ecozone includes all of Micronesia, Fiji, and all of Polynesia except New Zealand, New Zealand, New Guinea, Melanesia apart from Fiji, and Australia constitute the separate Australasian ecozone. The Malay Archipelago is part of the Indomalaya ecozone, related to these concepts are Near Oceania, that part of western Island Melanesia which has been inhabited for tens of millennia, and Remote Oceania which is more recently settled. The term is used to denote a continent comprising Australia. New Zealand forms the corner of the Polynesian Triangle. Its indigenous Māori constitute one of the cultures of Polynesia. It is also, however, considered part of Australasia, the history of Oceania in the medieval period was synonymous with the history of the indigenous peoples of Australasia, Micronesia, Melanesia, Polynesia
5.
State of emergency
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A government or division of government may declare that their area is in a state of emergency. This means that the government can suspend and/or change some functions of the executive and it alerts citizens to change their normal behavior and orders government agencies to implement emergency plans. Justitium is its equivalent in Roman law, where Senate could put forward senatus consultum ultimum and it can also be used as a rationale for suspending rights and freedoms guaranteed under a countrys constitution or basic law. The procedure for and legality of doing so varies by country, under international law, rights and freedoms may be suspended during a state of emergency, for example, a government can detain persons and hold them without trial. All rights that can be derogated from are listed in the International Covenant for Civil, non-derogable rights are listed in Article 4 of the ICCPR, they include the rights to freedom from arbitrary deprivation of liberty and to freedom from torture and/or ill-treatment. Constitutions are contracts between the government and the individuals of that country. The International Covenant for Civil and Political Rights is an international law document signed by states, therefore, the Covenant only applies to persons acting in an official capacity, not private individuals. However, signatories to the Covenant are expected to integrate it into national legislation, although this is common protocol stipulated by the ICCPR often this is not strictly followed, enforcement is better regulated by European Convention of human rights. In some situations, martial law is declared, allowing the military greater authority to act. In other situations, emergency is not declared and de facto measures taken or decree-law adopted by the government. Ms. Nicole Questiaux and Mr. Article 4 to the International Covenant on Civil, the European Convention on Human Rights and American Convention on Human Rights have similar derogatory provisions. No derogation is permitted to the International Labour Conventions, some political theorists, such as Carl Schmitt, have argued that the power to decide the initiation of the state of emergency defines sovereignty itself. The state of emergency can, and often has been, abused by being invoked, an example would be to allow a state to suppress internal opposition without having to respect human rights. An example was the August 1991 attempted coup in the Soviet Union where the coup leaders invoked a state of emergency and this provision was much abused during dictatorships, with long-lasting states of siege giving the government a free hand to suppress opposition. State-of-emergency legislation differs in each state of Australia, in Victoria, the premier can declare a state of emergency if there is a threat to employment, safety or public order. The declaration expires after 30 days, and a resolution of either the upper or lower House of Parliament may revoke it earlier, under the Public Safety Preservation Act, a declared state of emergency allows the premier to immediately make any desired regulations to secure public order and safety. However, these regulations expire if Parliament does not agree to them within 7 days. Also, under the Essential Services Act, the premier may operate or prohibit operation of, as desired, a State of Emergency does not apply to the whole state, but rather districts or shires, where essential services may have been disrupted
6.
Tropical cyclone
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Depending on its location and strength, a tropical cyclone is referred to by names such as hurricane, typhoon /taɪˈfuːn/, tropical storm, cyclonic storm, tropical depression, and simply cyclone. A hurricane is a storm that occurs in the Atlantic Ocean and northeastern Pacific Ocean, a typhoon occurs in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, Tropical cyclones typically form over large bodies of relatively warm water. They derive their energy through the evaporation of water from the ocean surface and this energy source differs from that of mid-latitude cyclonic storms, such as noreasters and European windstorms, which are fueled primarily by horizontal temperature contrasts. The strong rotating winds of a tropical cyclone are a result of the conservation of momentum imparted by the Earths rotation as air flows inwards toward the axis of rotation. As a result, they form within 5° of the equator. Tropical cyclones are typically between 100 and 2,000 km in diameter, Tropical refers to the geographical origin of these systems, which form almost exclusively over tropical seas. Cyclone refers to their nature, with wind blowing counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere. The opposite direction of circulation is due to the Coriolis effect, in addition to strong winds and rain, tropical cyclones are capable of generating high waves, damaging storm surge, and tornadoes. They typically weaken rapidly over land where they are cut off from their energy source. For this reason, coastal regions are vulnerable to damage from a tropical cyclone as compared to inland regions. Heavy rains, however, can cause significant flooding inland, though their effects on human populations are often devastating, tropical cyclones can relieve drought conditions. They also carry heat away from the tropics and transport it toward temperate latitudes. Tropical cyclones are areas of low pressure in the troposphere. On Earth, the pressures recorded at the centers of tropical cyclones are among the lowest ever observed at sea level, the environment near the center of tropical cyclones is warmer than the surroundings at all altitudes, thus they are characterized as warm core systems. The near-surface wind field of a cyclone is characterized by air rotating rapidly around a center of circulation while also flowing radially inwards. At the outer edge of the storm, air may be nearly calm, however, due to the Earths rotation, as air flows radially inward, it begins to rotate cyclonically in order to conserve angular momentum. At an inner radius, air begins to ascend to the top of the troposphere and this radius is typically coincident with the inner radius of the eyewall, and has the strongest near-surface winds of the storm, consequently, it is known as the radius of maximum winds. Once aloft, air flows away from the center, producing a shield of cirrus clouds
7.
Rain
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Rain is liquid water in the form of droplets that have condensed from atmospheric water vapor and then precipitated—that is, become heavy enough to fall under gravity. Rain is a component of the water cycle and is responsible for depositing most of the fresh water on the Earth. It provides suitable conditions for many types of ecosystems, as well as water for power plants. The major cause of production is moisture moving along three-dimensional zones of temperature and moisture contrasts known as weather fronts. If enough moisture and upward motion is present, precipitation falls from convective clouds such as cumulonimbus which can organize into narrow rainbands. On the leeward side of mountains, desert climates can exist due to the dry air caused by downslope flow which causes heating and drying of the air mass, the movement of the monsoon trough, or intertropical convergence zone, brings rainy seasons to savannah climes. The urban heat island effect leads to increased rainfall, both in amounts and intensity, downwind of cities, global warming is also causing changes in the precipitation pattern globally, including wetter conditions across eastern North America and drier conditions in the tropics. The globally averaged annual precipitation over land is 715 mm, climate classification systems such as the Köppen climate classification system use average annual rainfall to help differentiate between differing climate regimes. Rainfall is measured using rain gauges, rainfall amounts can be estimated by weather radar. Rain is also known or suspected on other planets, where it may be composed of methane, neon, sulfuric acid, or even iron rather than water. Air contains water vapor, and the amount of water in a mass of dry air. The amount of moisture in air is commonly reported as relative humidity. How much water vapor a parcel of air can contain before it becomes saturated, warmer air can contain more water vapor than cooler air before becoming saturated. Therefore, one way to saturate a parcel of air is to cool it, the dew point is the temperature to which a parcel must be cooled in order to become saturated. There are four mechanisms for cooling the air to its dew point, adiabatic cooling, conductive cooling, radiational cooling. Adiabatic cooling occurs when air rises and expands, the air can rise due to convection, large-scale atmospheric motions, or a physical barrier such as a mountain. Conductive cooling occurs when the air comes into contact with a surface, usually by being blown from one surface to another. Radiational cooling occurs due to the emission of infrared radiation, either by the air or by the surface underneath, evaporative cooling occurs when moisture is added to the air through evaporation, which forces the air temperature to cool to its wet-bulb temperature, or until it reaches saturation
8.
Drinking water
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Drinking water, also known as potable water or improved drinking water, is water that is safe to drink or to use for food preparation, without risk of health problems. Globally, in 2015, 91% of people had access to suitable for drinking. Nearly 4.2 billion had access to tap water while another 2.4 billion had access to wells or public taps,1.8 billion people still use an unsafe drinking water source which may be contaminated by feces. This can result in infectious diarrhea such as cholera and typhoid among others, the amount of drinking water required is variable. It depends on activity, age, health issues. It is estimated that the average American drinks about one litre of water a day with 95% drinking less than three litres per day, for those working in a hot climate, up to 16 liters a day may be required. Water makes up about 60% of weight in men and 55% of weight in women, infants are about 70% to 80% water while the elderly are around 45%. Typically in developed countries, tap water meets drinking water quality standards, other typical uses include washing, toilets, and irrigation. Greywater may also be used for toilets or irrigation and its use for irrigation however may be associated with risks. Water may also be due to levels of toxins or suspended solids. Reduction of waterborne diseases and development of water resources is a major public health goal in developing countries. Bottled water is sold for consumption in most parts of the world. The word potable came into English from the Late Latin potabilis, the amount of drinking water required is variable. It depends on activity, age, health, and environmental conditions. It is estimated that the average American drinks about one litre of water a day with 95% drinking less than three litres per day, for those working in a hot climate, up to 16 litres per day may be required. Some health authorities have suggested that at least eight glasses of eight fl oz each are required by an adult per day, the British Dietetic Association recommends 1.8 litres. However, various reviews of the evidence performed in 2002 and 2008 could not find any scientific evidence recommending eight glasses of water per day. An individuals thirst provides a guide for how much water they require rather than a specific
9.
Tuvalu Meteorological Service
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The Tuvalu Meteorological Service is the principal meteorological observatory of Tuvalu and is responsible for providing weather services to the islands of Tuvalu. A meteorological office was established on Funafuti at the time the islands of Tuvalu were administered as parts of the Gilbert, the meteorological office is now an agency of the government of Tuvalu. The main observational office is on Funafuti, TMS operates outstations on Nanumea, Nui and Niulakita. The meteorological office on Funafuti was established in 1951 under the auspices of the South Pacific Air Transport Council, an upper air observation programme was established in 1960. Ms Hilai Vavae retired as Director of the Tuvalu Met Service in 2014, Tuvalu participates in the operations of the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme. The climate of the Pacific region at the equator is influenced by a number of factors, the SPREP described the climate of Tuvalu as being, The sea level in Tuvalu varies as a consequence of a wide range of atmospheric and oceanographic influences. The trade winds that push surface water westward create this zonal tilting of sea level on the equator, below the equator a higher sea level can also be found about 20° to 40° south. This has an effect on sea levels, the Perigean spring tide can result in seawater flooding low-lying areas of the islands of Tuvalu. Tuvalu lies across a known development region for tropical cyclones and ENSO activity and it provides crucial data to global weather, climate modelling and forecasting centres. It also provides the key used for tropical cyclone and ENSO forecasting. ”The TMS operates 2 meteorological programmes. The TMS carries out ground level observations of weather elements. This data is shared with collaborating partners in the World Meteorological Organization - World Weather Watch, the Global Climate Observing System, the upper air observation programme in Funafuti makes radiosonde observations to collect upper air weather for weather forecasting and research. The radiosonde observations use a small, expendable instrument package is suspended below a 2 metres wide balloon filled with hydrogen or helium, as the radiosonde rises at about 300 meters/minute, sensors on the radiosonde measure profiles of pressure, temperature, and relative humidity. These sensors are linked to a radio transmitter that sends the sensor measurements to a ground receiver. By tracking the position of the radiosonde in flight, information on wind speed, the data is shared with Regional Specialized Meteorological Centers in Nadi, Wellington, Brisbane, Melbourne and Honolulu. The weather modelling carried out by the RSMCs enables more accurate forecasts to be prepared for Tuvalu, the Fiji Meteorological Service, while collaborating with NIWA and partners, also publishes its own seasonal forecast for the South Pacific basin between 160°E and 120°W. The data collected by the meteorological agencies is provided to the World Meteorological Organisation. The TMS also hosts other scientific and research programmes, which involves the TMS monitoring, The tide gauge and this project is conducted in conjunction with Geoscience Australia, which installed a Continuous Global Positioning System station at the TMS office
10.
Fongafale
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Fongafale is the largest of Funafutis islets in Tuvalu. It is a narrow sliver of land,12 kilometres long and between 10 and 400 metres wide, with the South Pacific Ocean and reef on the east. In 1972 Funafuti was in the path of Cyclone Bebe, Cyclone Bebe knocked down 90% of the houses and trees on Fongafale. The storm surge created a wall of coral rubble along the side of Fongafale and Funafala that was about 10 miles long. The villages has an area of more than 0.65 square kilometres and have about 4,000 inhabitants. The Parliament of Tuvalu or Palamene o Tuvalu and the house of the Governor General of Tuvalu are located on Fongafale, the Tuvalu Media Department, which operates radio services as Radio Tuvalu, is also locate on Fongafale. The police service has its headquarters on Fongafale, the High Court of Tuvalu is also located on Fongafale, as well as the jail. The Princess Margaret Hospital, which is the hospital in Tuvalu, is located on Fongafale. Other significant buildings located on Fongafale are the shop, Tausoa Maneapa. Tuvalus only airport, Funafuti International Airport, is located here, all connections are to Suva, Fiji via Fiji Airways. There are four taxis, and motorbikes are available for hire, access to the Funafuti Conservation Area is by boat, the Conservation Area is 15 kilometres across the lagoon from the main island of Fongafale. There are port facilities on Fongafale, the investigation of groundwater dynamics of Fongafale Islet, Funafuti, show that tidal forcing results in salt water contamination of the surficial aquifer during spring tides. The degree of aquifer salinization depends on the specific topographic characteristics, about half of Fongafale islet is reclaimed swamp that contains porous, highly permeable coral blocks that allow the tidal forcing of salt water. There was extensive swamp reclamation during World War II to create the air field that is now the Funafuti International Airport, as a consequence of the specific topographic characteristics of Fongafale, unlike other atoll islands of a similar size, Fongafale does not have a thick freshwater lens. Water pollution is also a problem, with domestic wastewater identified as the primary pollution source. Approximately 92% of households on Fongafale islet have access to septic tanks, in November 2013 the World Bank announced US$6 million in funding to improve the operational safety of the Funafuti International Airport and associated infrastructure. An 800,000 litre water cistern will be constructed to improve storage of drinking water, when the airfield, which is now Funafuti International Airport, was constructed during World War II. The coral base of the atoll was used as fill to create the runway, the resulting borrow pits impacted the fresh-water aquifer
11.
Funafuti
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Funafuti is an atoll on which the capital of the island nation of Tuvalu is located. It has a population of 6,025 people, making it the most populated atoll with 56.6 percent of Tuvalus population and it is a narrow sweep of land between 20 and 400 metres wide, encircling a large lagoon 18 km long and 14 km wide. The average depth in the Funafuti lagoon is about 20 fathoms, with a surface of 275 square kilometres, it is by far the largest lagoon in Tuvalu. The land area of the 33 islets aggregates to 2.4 square kilometres, the capital of Tuvalu is sometimes given as Fongafale or Vaiaku, but the entire atoll of Funafuti is officially the capital. Cargo ships can enter Funafutis lagoon and dock at the facilities on Fongafale. The island houses four villages and community meeting places, the Funafuti Falekaupule is the local council, with the Kaupule as the executive of the Falekaupule. Tausoa Lima Falekaupule is the meeting house on Funafuti – Tausoalima means hand of friendship. There is the Vaiaku Langi Hotel, and other guesthouses as well as homes, the most prominent building on Funafuti atoll is the Fetu Ao Lima of the Church of Tuvalu. Other sites of interest are the remains of Japanese aircraft that crashed on Funafuti during World War II, a major sporting event is the Independence Day Sports Festival held annually at Fongafale on 1 October. The most important sports event within the country is arguably the Tuvalu Games, football in Tuvalu is played at club and national team level. The Tuvalu national football team trains at the Tuvalu Sports Ground on Funafuti and competes in the Pacific Games, the police service has its headquarters on Fongafale. The High Court of Tuvalu is also located on Fongafale, as well as the jail, the Princess Margaret Hospital, which is the only hospital in Tuvalu, is located on Fongafale. It has an area of 33 km², containing 20 percent of the area of Funafuti. The land area of the six islets in the area is 8 ha. There are at least 29 islets in the atoll, the biggest is Fongafale, followed by Funafala. At least three islands are inhabited, which are Fongafale, the island in the east, Funafala in the south. The atoll has several passages with varying degrees of navigability that lead into the lagoon, the passes are listed clockwise, starting south of Fongafale islet. The first two clearly separate the part of Funafuti Atoll from the rest
12.
Atoll
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An atoll, sometimes called a coral atoll, is a ring-shaped coral reef including a coral rim that encircles a lagoon partially or completely. There may be coral islands/cays on the rim, the coral of the atoll often sits atop the rim of an extinct seamount or volcano which has eroded or subsided partially beneath the water. The lagoon forms over the crater or caldera while the higher rim remains above water or at shallow depths that permit the coral to grow. For the atoll to persist, continued erosion or subsidence must be at a slow enough to permit reef growth upwards and outwards to replace the lost height. The word atoll comes from the Dhivehi word atholhu, meaning an administrative subdivision, the distribution of atolls around the globe is instructive, most of the worlds atolls are in the Pacific Ocean and Indian Ocean. The Atlantic Ocean has no large groups of atolls, other than eight atolls east of Nicaragua that belong to the Colombian department of San Andres and Providencia in the Caribbean. Reef-building corals will thrive only in tropical and subtropical waters of oceans and seas. The northernmost atoll of the world is Kure Atoll at 28°24 N, the southernmost atolls of the world are Elizabeth Reef at 29°58 S, and nearby Middleton Reef at 29°29 S, in the Tasman Sea, both of which are part of the Coral Sea Islands Territory. The next southerly atoll is Ducie Island in the Pitcairn Islands Group, at this latitude coral reefs would not develop without the warming waters of the Gulf Stream. However, Bermuda is termed a pseudo-atoll because its general form, while there is no atoll directly on the equator, the closest atoll to the Equator is Aranuka of Kiribati, with its southern tip just 12 km north of the equator. In most cases, the area of an atoll is very small in comparison to the total area. Atoll islands are low lying, with their elevations less than 5 meters, measured by total area, Lifou is the largest raised coral atoll of the world, followed by Rennell Island. More sources however list as the largest atoll in the world in terms of land area Kiritimati, the remains of an ancient atoll as a hill in a limestone area is called a reef knoll. The second largest atoll by dry land area is Aldabra with 155 km², the largest atoll in terms of island numbers is Huvadhu Atoll in the south of the Maldives with 255 islands. In 1842, Charles Darwin explained the creation of coral atolls in the southern Pacific Ocean based upon observations made during a voyage aboard the HMS Beagle from 1831 to 1836. In time, subsidence carries the old volcano below the ocean surface, at this point, the island has become an atoll. Atolls are the product of the growth of marine organisms. Volcanic islands located beyond the water temperature requirements of hermatypic organisms become seamounts as they subside and are eroded away at the surface
13.
Nukulaelae
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Nukulaelae is an atoll that is part of the nation of Tuvalu, and has a population of 324 the largest settlement is Pepesala on Fangaua islet with a population of 247 people. It has the form of an oval and consists of at least 15 islets, the inhabited islet is Fangaua, which is 1.5 kilometres long and 50 to 200 metres wide. The easternmost point of Tuvalu is Niuoko islet, the Nukulaelae Conservation Area covers the eastern end of the lagoon. A baseline survey of life in the conservation zone was conducted in 2010. The junior school is Faikimua Primary School, the traditional history of Nukulaelae is that a white-skinned man was the first person to sight the island, but he did not settle as there were no trees. Nukulaelae means the land of sands, later, according to tradition, Valoa from Vaitupu discovered Nukulaelae while on a fishing expedition. He returned to Nukulaelae and planted trees and eventually settled on Nukulaelae with his family. On the islet of Tumuiloto was a malae named Fagafale where religious rights honouring ancestral spirits were practiced, on the islet of Niuoka is a large stone at a place called Te Faleatua - the house of the gods. In 1821 Nukulaelae was visited by Captain George Barrett of the Nantucket whaler Independence II He named the atoll ‘Mitchell’s Group’, the population of Nukulaelae in 1860 is estimated to be 300 people. While some islander were voluntary recruits the blackbirders were notorious for enticing islanders on to ships with tricks, about 200 were taken from Nukulaelae as immediately after 1863 there were fewer than 100 of the 300 recorded in 1861 as living on Nukulaelae. In 1865 a trading captain acting on behalf of the German firm of J. C. Godeffroy & Sohn obtained a 25-year lease to the islet of Niuoko. For many years the islanders and the Germans argued over the lease, including its terms, in 1896, HMS Penguin spent two days at Nukulaelae carrying out a scientific survey of the atoll. Nukulaelae Post Office opened around 1923, the atoll was claimed by the United States under the Guano Islands Act from the 19th century until 1983, when claims to the atoll were ceded to Tuvalu. Nukulaelae is one of the eight constituencies in Tuvalu, unlike the other seven, it elects just one Member of Parliament, rather than two. Following the 2015 general election, its current representative is Namoliki Sualiki who was elected unopposed and he was first elected in 2006, defeating the then incumbent Bikenibeu Paeniu. The Tuvaluan general election,2015 was held on 31 March, Bikenibeu Paeniu, who served two terms as Prime Minister of Tuvalu &, represented Nukulaelae in the Parliament of Tuvalu from 1989 to 2006. List of Guano Island claims Suamalie N. T, iosefa, Doug Munro, Niko Besnier Tala O Niuoku, Te, the German Plantation on Nukulaelae Atoll 1865-1890 Published by the Institute of Pacific Studies
14.
Nanumanga
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Nanumanga or Nanumaga is a reef island and a district of the Oceanian island nation of Tuvalu. It has an area of about 3 km² with a population of 481. On 9 May 1824 a French government expedition under Captain Louis Isidore Duperrey of the ship La Coquille sighted Nanumaga, becke later wrote The Rangers of the Tia Kau that describes a shark attack at the Tia Kau reef between Nanumea and Nanumaga. The population of Nanumaga from 1860–1900 is estimated to be between 300 to 335 people, Nanumaga Post Office opened around 1925. In 1986 it became a centre of debate when Pacific archaeologists discovered the submerged Caves of Nanumanga, there are three lagoons, the largest, Vaiatoa, having four islands. There are mangrove trees, native broadleaf forest and coconut palms, the island has an oval outline, with the longer axis oriented north-south. A fringing reef surrounds the island, which makes local fishing and transport into. In March 2015 Nanumaga suffered damage to houses, crops and infrastructure as the result of storm surges caused by Cyclone Pam, 60-100 houses were flooded and the health facility suffered damage. Cape on the north, Te Kaupapa Cape on the south, Te Papa At the 2012 census the population of the villages was, Tokelau with 245 people, Toga, the junior school is Lotohoni Primary School. Nanumanga is one of the eight constituencies in Tuvalu, and elects two Members of Parliament, following the 2015 general election, Monise Lafai and Otinielu Tausi were returned to parliament. In the previous parliament Tausi had been elected as the speaker of the parliament on 3 March 2014 and he had returned to parliament as a result of the Nanumaga by-election,2014. The Tuvaluan general election,2015 was held on 31 March, Otinielu Tausi served as the speaker of the Parliament of Tuvalu from 2003 until 2006, then again from March 2014 onward, and been the deputy prime minister of Tuvalu. Tuau Lapua Lapua is an Tuvaluan Olympic weightlifter, at the 2013 Pacific Mini Games, Tuau Lapua Lapua won Tuvalus first ever gold medal in major sporting competition in the mens 62 kilogram snatch
15.
Vaitupu
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Vaitupu is the largest atoll of the nation of Tuvalu. It is located at 7.48 degrees south and 178.83 degrees west, there are 1,555 people living on 5.6 square kilometres with the main village being Asau. The exact date of Vaitupus first settlement is unknown, according to oral history, the founder of the Vaitupuan community was a Samoan by the name of Telematua, who arrived in the 16th or 17th century. However, it is possible that Tongans may have first reached the atoll during the mid-13th century, Vaitupu has maintained contacts with Tonga throughout its history, both peaceful and hostile. Vaitupu was also visited by I-Kiribati, and was far from isolated. Vaitupu means the fountain of water, obed Starbuck, a whaling captain, visited Vaitupu on the Loper in 1825, naming it Tracy Island. The United States Exploring Expedition under Charles Wilkes visited Vaitupu in 1841, Samoan pastors from the London Missionary Society successfully introduced Christianity in the 1860s. The pastors implemented religious regulations, outlawing many cultural practices and they also introduced the Samoan language, as their Bibles were written in Samoan. Vaitupuans became literate in Samoan rather than in their own language, Vaitupuans celebrate Te Aso Fiafia on 25 November of each year. Vaitupu history is that Thomas William Williams, the Ruge agent, in 1883 the debt of the Vaitupuans was $13,000 and H. M. Ruge and Company had threatened to seize the entire island unless the debt was repaid. The Vaitupuans, with the help of their friends from Funafuti, seven thousand dollars was repaid by 1886 and the balance was paid on 25 November 1887. Vaitupuan tradition is that chance favoured their efforts, a ship sent to collect the last payment sank, by the time a third ship arrived most of the money had been collected. However, the trading schooner Vaitupulemele appears to have a different role in the history of Vaitupu, the creation of the debt that was repaid to Ruge & Co extended beyond the purchase of goods on credit to include the purchase price of the Vaitupulemele by the Vaitupu Company. Williams had been the Ruge agent, he formed the Vaitupu Company with the Vaitupuan community. However the schooner was lost during a voyage from Samoan and soon after Williams died, in any event the Vaitupuans paid the full amount claimed by Ruge & Co, although that company soon after went into liquidation. Vaitupu Post Office opened around 1916, the population of Vaitupu from 1860–1900 is estimated to be 400 people. Vaitupu is home to the second-largest population in Tuvalu, numbering 1,576 and 1,555, despite its relatively large size, Vaitupu became so overcrowded during the 1940s that a number of families migrated to Fiji to live on Kioa Island. Neli Lifuka was the magistrate on Vaitupu from 1945 to 1951 and he was instrumental in collecting the funds to purchase Kioa Island in Fiji
16.
Water scarcity
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Water scarcity is the lack of sufficient available water resources to meet water needs within a region. It affects every continent and around 2.8 billion people around the world at least one out of every year. More than 1.2 billion people access to clean drinking water. Water scarcity involves water shortage, water stress or deficits, Water shortages may be caused by climate change, such as altered weather-patterns, increased pollution, and increased human demand and overuse of water. The term water crisis labels a situation where the available potable, two converging phenomena drive water scarcity, growing freshwater use and depletion of usable freshwater resources. Many countries and governments aim to reduce water scarcity, the UN recognizes the importance of reducing the number of people without sustainable access to clean water and sanitation. The Millennium Development Goals within the United Nations Millennium Declaration aimed by 2015 to halve the proportion of people who are unable to reach or to afford safe drinking water. The United Nations estimates that, of 1.4 billion cubic kilometers of water on Earth, more than one in every six people in the world is water stressed, meaning that they do not have sufficient access to potable water. Those that are water stressed make up 1.1 billion people in the world and are living in developing countries. According to the Falkenmark Water Stress Indicator, a country or region is said to experience water stress when annual water supplies drop below 1,700 cubic metres per person per year. At levels between 1,700 and 1,000 cubic meters per person per year, periodic or limited water shortages can be expected, when a country is below 1,000 cubic meters per person per year, the country then faces water scarcity. In 2006, about 700 million people in 43 countries were living below the 1,700 cubic metres per person threshold, the worlds most water stressed region is the Middle East with averages of 1,200 cubic metres of water per person. In China, more than 538 million people are living in a water-stressed region, much of the water stressed population currently live in river basins where the usage of water resources greatly exceed the renewal of the water source. Another popular opinion is that the amount of freshwater is decreasing because of climate change. Climate change has caused receding glaciers, reduced stream and river flow, many aquifers have been over-pumped and are not recharging quickly. Although the total water supply is not used up, much has become polluted, salted, unsuitable or otherwise unavailable for drinking, industry. To avoid a water crisis, farmers will have to strive to increase productivity to meet growing demands for food, while industry. The findings published in the Journal of Climate say that the water shortages resulted from population size more than rainfall, census figures show that Georgia’s population rose from 6.48 to 9.54 million between 1990 and 2007
17.
Princess Margaret Hospital (Funafuti)
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Princess Margaret Hospital on Funafuti atoll in Tuvalu is the only hospital in the country, and the primary provider of medical services for all the islands of Tuvalu. The hospital is located about 1.3 kilometres north from the centre of Funafuti on Fongafale islet, for 2010, the total health budget was AUD $4,696,042. The hospital has 50 beds with separate wards for men, women and it offers basic routine medical, surgical, obstetric and gynaecologic services. There is also an Intensive Care Unit, a surgery room, PMH also provides accident and emergency services. Services to the islands of the country is provided by satellite clinics, staffed generally with a nurse. The first hospital was established at Funafuti in 1913 at the direction of G. B. W, smith-Rewse, during his tenure as the District Officer at Funafuti from 1909 to 1915. At this time Tuvalu was known as the Ellice Islands and was administered as a British protectorate as part of the British Western Pacific Territories, in 1916 the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony was established. From 1916 to 1919 the hospital was under the supervision of Dr J. G. McNaughton, when he resigned the position remained vacant until 1930, macpherson was appointed physician at the hospital. He remained in the position until 1933, when he was appointed to a position in Suva, training was provided to Tuvaluans who graduated with the title Native Medical Practitioners, nurses or dressers, the male equivalent of nurses. During World War II the hospital on Fongafale atoll was dismantled as the American forces built an airfield on this atoll. The Tuvaluans benefited from the food supplied by the American forces, although the change in diet continued after the war. Tuvaluans adopted a diet that includes high levels of corned beef, rice and sugar, consumed even when fish, the change of diet to include more processed foods is believed to contribute to increasing levels of diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular diseases among Tualuans. After the war the hospital returned to Fogafale and used the American hospital until 1947 when a new hospital was built, however the hospital built in 1947 was incomplete because of problems in the supply of building materials. Cyclone Bebe struck Funafuti in late October 1972 and caused damage to the hospital. In 1974 Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony was dissolved and the Colony of Tuvalu regained independence on 1 October 1978, a new 38-bed central hospital was built at Fakaifou on Fogafale atoll, with a New Zealand aid grant. It was completed in 1975 and officially opened on the 29 September 1978 by Princess Margaret after whom the hospital was named, the building now occupied by the Princess Margaret Hospital was completed in 2003 with construction of the building being funded by the Japanese Government. The Tuvaluan medical staff at PMH has been assisted by doctors from Philippines, China, Germany, Russia. The last UNV expatriate doctor worked in Tuvalu from 1997 to 2002, in 2008, at the Cuba-Pacific ministerial meeting, Cuba agreed to provide qualified medical doctors to work in Tuvalu and to provide medical education to Tuvalu students
18.
Groundwater
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Groundwater is the water present beneath Earths surface in soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. A unit of rock or a deposit is called an aquifer when it can yield a usable quantity of water. The depth at which pore spaces or fractures and voids in rock become completely saturated with water is called the water table. Groundwater is recharged from, and eventually flows to, the naturally, natural discharge often occurs at springs and seeps. Groundwater is also withdrawn for agricultural, municipal, and industrial use by constructing and operating extraction wells. The study of the distribution and movement of groundwater is hydrogeology, Groundwater is hypothesized to provide lubrication that can possibly influence the movement of faults. It is likely that much of Earths subsurface contains some water, Groundwater may not be confined only to Earth. The formation of some of the landforms observed on Mars may have influenced by groundwater. There is also evidence that water may also exist in the subsurface of Jupiters moon Europa. Groundwater is often cheaper, more convenient and less vulnerable to pollution than surface water, therefore, it is commonly used for public water supplies. For example, groundwater provides the largest source of water storage in the United States. Underground reservoirs contain far more water than the capacity of all surface reservoirs and lakes in the US, many municipal water supplies are derived solely from groundwater. Polluted groundwater is less visible, but more difficult to clean up, than pollution in rivers, Groundwater pollution most often results from improper disposal of wastes on land. An aquifer is a layer of substrate that contains and transmits groundwater. When water can flow directly between the surface and the zone of an aquifer, the aquifer is unconfined. The deeper parts of unconfined aquifers are more saturated since gravity causes water to flow downward. The upper level of this layer of an unconfined aquifer is called the water table or phreatic surface. Below the water table, where in general all pore spaces are saturated with water, is the phreatic zone, substrate with low porosity that permits limited transmission of groundwater is known as an aquitard
19.
American Samoa
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American Samoa is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the South Pacific Ocean, southeast of Samoa. American Samoa consists of five islands and two coral atolls. The largest and most populous island is Tutuila, with the Manuʻa Islands, Rose Atoll, All islands except for Swains Island are part of the Samoan Islands, located west of the Cook Islands, north of Tonga, and some 300 miles south of Tokelau. To the west are the islands of the Wallis and Futuna group, the 2010 census showed a total population of 55,519 people. The total land area is 199 square kilometers, slightly more than Washington, American Samoa is the southernmost territory of the U. S. and one of two U. S. territories south of the Equator, along with the uninhabited Jarvis Island. Tuna products are the exports, and the main trading partner is the United States. American Samoa is noted for having the highest rate of enlistment of any U. S. state or territory. Most American Samoans are bilingual and can speak English and Samoan fluently, Samoan is the same language spoken in neighboring independent Samoa. Contact with Europeans began in the early 18th century, dutchman Jacob Roggeveen was the first known European to sight the Samoan Islands in 1722. This visit was followed by French explorer Louis-Antoine de Bougainville who named them the Navigator Islands in 1768, contact was limited before the 1830s, when English missionaries and traders began arriving. The site of battle is called Massacre Bay. Mission work in the Samoas had begun in late 1830 when John Williams of the London Missionary Society arrived from the Cook Islands, by that time, the Samoans had gained a reputation for being savage and warlike, as violent altercations had occurred between natives and European visitors. In March 1889, an Imperial German naval force entered a village on Samoa, three American warships then entered the Apia harbor and prepared to engage the three German warships found there. Before any shots were fired, a typhoon wrecked both the American and German ships, a compulsory armistice was then called because of the lack of any warships. Forerunners to the Tripartite Convention of 1899 were the Washington Conference of 1887, the Treaty of Berlin of 1889, the following year, the USA formally occupied its portion, a smaller group of eastern islands, one of which contains the noted harbor of Pago Pago. The Navy secured a Deed of Cession of Tutuila in 1900, the territory became known as the US Naval Station Tutuila. On July 17,1911, the US Naval Station Tutuila, in 1918 during the final stages of World War I, the flu pandemic had taken its toll, spreading rapidly from country to country. The result of Poyers quick actions earned him the Navy Cross from the US Navy, with this distinction, American Samoans regarded Poyer as their hero for what he had done to prevent the deadly disease
20.
Samoa
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The Independent State of Samoa, commonly known as Samoa and, until 1997, known as Western Samoa, is a unitary parliamentary democracy with eleven administrative divisions. The two main islands are Savaii and Upolu with four smaller islands surrounding the landmasses, the Lapita people discovered and settled the Samoan islands around 3,500 years ago. They developed a language and cultural identity. Samoa is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, Western Samoa was admitted to the United Nations on 15 December 1976. The entire island group, which includes American Samoa, was called Navigator Islands by European explorers before the 20th century because of the Samoans seafaring skills. The oldest date so far for remains in Samoa has been calculated by New Zealand scientists to a true age of circa 3,000 years ago from a Lapita site at Mulifanua during the 1970s. The origins of the Samoans are closely studied in research about Polynesia in various scientific disciplines such as genetics, linguistics. Contact with Europeans began in the early 18th century, jacob Roggeveen, a Dutchman, was the first known European to sight the Samoan islands in 1722. This visit was followed by French explorer Louis-Antoine de Bougainville, who named them the Navigator Islands in 1768, contact was limited before the 1830s, which is when English missionaries and traders began arriving. Christian missionary work in Samoa began in 1830 by John Williams, of the London Missionary Society arriving in Sapapalii from The Cook Islands and Tahiti. However, Robert Louis Stevenson, who lived in Samoa from 1889 until his death in 1894, wrote in A Footnote to History, Eight Years of Trouble in Samoa, … the Samoans are gentle people. The Germans in particular began to show great commercial interest in the Samoan Islands, especially on the island of Upolu, the United States laid its own claim and formed alliances with local native chieftains, most conspicuously on the islands of Tutuila and Manua. Britain also sent troops to protect British business enterprise, harbour rights and this was followed by an eight-year civil war, during which each of the three powers supplied arms, training and in some cases combat troops to the warring Samoan parties. The Samoan crisis came to a critical juncture in March 1889 when all three colonial contenders sent warships into Apia harbour, and a larger-scale war seemed imminent, a massive storm on 15 March 1889 damaged or destroyed the warships, ending the military conflict. The Second Samoan Civil War reached a head in 1898 when Germany, the United Kingdom, the Siege of Apia occurred in March 1899. Samoan forces loyal to Prince Tanu were besieged by a force of Samoan rebels loyal to Mataafa Iosefo. Supporting Prince Tanu were landing parties from four British and American warships, after several days of fighting, the Samoan rebels were finally defeated. American and British warships shelled Apia on 15 March 1899, including the USS Philadelphia, the eastern island-group became a territory of the United States and was known as American Samoa
21.
Tokelau
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Tokelau is an island country in the southern Pacific Ocean that consists of three tropical coral atolls with a combined land area of 10 km2 and a population of approximately 1,400. Its capital rotates yearly between the three atolls, Tokelau lies north of the Samoan Islands, Swains Island being the nearest, east of Tuvalu, south of the Phoenix Islands, southwest of the more distant Line Islands, and northwest of the Cook Islands. Until 1976, the name was Tokelau Islands. Tokelau is a leader in energy, being the first 100% solar powered nation in the world. Tokelau is a free and democratic nation with elections every three years, all run as independents, there are no political parties in Tokelau. The most spoken language in Tokelau is Tokelauan, at 93. 5%, a dependent territory of New Zealand, it is sometimes referred to by its older colonial name, the Union Islands. In 2007, the United Nations General Assembly designated Tokelau a non-self-governing territory, however, Tokelau is officially referred to as a nation by both the New Zealand government and the Tokelauan government. The basis of Tokelaus legislative, administrative and judicial systems is the Tokelau Islands Act 1948, in 1992, the head of government was established, who is elected every 3 years. The national anthem is God Save the Queen, nonetheless, Tokelau continues to decrease in population. The largest settlement in Tokelau is Fale, Tokelau has the smallest economy in the world and has a life expectancy of 69, comparable with other Oceanian island nations. The name Tokelau is a Polynesian word meaning north wind, the islands were named the Union Islands and Union Group by European explorers at an unknown time. Tokelau Islands was adopted as the name in 1946, and was contracted to Tokelau on 9 December 1976, Tokelau includes three atolls in the South Pacific Ocean between longitudes 171° and 173° W and between latitudes 8° and 10° S, about midway between Hawaii and New Zealand. They lie about 500 kilometres north of Samoa, the atolls are Atafu, Nukunonu, both in a group of islands once called the Duke of Clarence Group, and Fakaofo, once Bowditch Island. Their combined land area is 10.8 km2, the atolls each have a number of coral islands, where the villages are situated. The highest point of Tokelau is just 5 metres above sea level, there are no ports or harbours for large vessels, however, all three atolls have a jetty to and from which supplies and passengers are shipped. Tokelau lies in the Pacific tropical cyclone belt, Swains Island was claimed by the United States pursuant to the Guano Islands Act, as were the other three islands of Tokelau, which claims were ceded to Tokelau by treaty in 1979. This established a defined boundary between American Samoa and Tokelau. Tokelauans have proved reluctant to push their national identity in the political realm
22.
Tonga
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Tonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga, is a Polynesian sovereign state and archipelago comprising 169 islands of which 36 are inhabited. The total surface area is about 750 square kilometres scattered over 700,000 square kilometres of the southern Pacific Ocean and it has a population of 103,000 people of whom 70% reside on the main island of Tongatapu. Tonga stretches across approximately 800 kilometres in a north-south line and it is surrounded by Fiji and Wallis and Futuna to the northwest, Samoa to the northeast, Niue to the east, Kermadec to the southwest, and New Caledonia and Vanuatu to the farther west. Tonga became known in the West as the Friendly Islands because of the reception accorded to Captain James Cook on his first visit in 1773. He arrived at the time of the festival, the yearly donation of the First Fruits to the Tuʻi Tonga. According to the writer William Mariner, the wanted to kill Cook during the gathering. From 1900 to 1970, Tonga had British protected state status, the country never relinquished its sovereignty to any foreign power. In many Polynesian languages including Tongan, the word tonga means south, the name of Tonga is cognate to the Hawaiian region of Kona. In Malay, the name of Tonga is also cognate to the word Tenggara, an Austronesian-speaking group linked to the archaeological construct known as the Lapita cultural complex reached and inhabited Tonga around 1500–1000 BCE. Scholars have much debated the exact dates of the settlement of Tonga. Not much is known before European contact because of the lack of a writing system, in the 15th century and again in the 17th, civil war erupted. The Tongan people first encountered Europeans in 1616 when the Dutch vessel Eendracht, captained by Willem Schouten, later came other Dutch explorers, including Jacob Le Maire, and in 1643 Abel Tasman. In 1845, the young warrior, strategist, and orator Tāufaʻāhau united Tonga into a kingdom. He held the title of Tuʻi Kanokupolu, but had been baptised by Methodist missionaries with the name Siaosi in 1831. Tonga became a state under a Treaty of Friendship with Britain on 18 May 1900. The treaty posted no higher permanent representative on Tonga than a British Consul, under the protection of Britain, Tonga maintained its sovereignty, and remained the only Pacific nation to retain its monarchical government. The Tongan monarchy follows a succession of hereditary rulers from one family. The 1918 flu pandemic, brought to Tonga by a ship from New Zealand, killed 1,800 Tongans, the Treaty of Friendship and Tongas protection status ended in 1970 under arrangements established by Queen Salote Tupou III prior to her death in 1965
23.
New Zealand
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New Zealand /njuːˈziːlənd/ is an island nation in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. The country geographically comprises two main landmasses—the North Island, or Te Ika-a-Māui, and the South Island, or Te Waipounamu—and around 600 smaller islands. New Zealand is situated some 1,500 kilometres east of Australia across the Tasman Sea and roughly 1,000 kilometres south of the Pacific island areas of New Caledonia, Fiji, because of its remoteness, it was one of the last lands to be settled by humans. During its long period of isolation, New Zealand developed a distinct biodiversity of animal, fungal, the countrys varied topography and its sharp mountain peaks, such as the Southern Alps, owe much to the tectonic uplift of land and volcanic eruptions. New Zealands capital city is Wellington, while its most populous city is Auckland, sometime between 1250 and 1300 CE, Polynesians settled in the islands that later were named New Zealand and developed a distinctive Māori culture. In 1642, Dutch explorer Abel Tasman became the first European to sight New Zealand, in 1840, representatives of Britain and Māori chiefs signed the Treaty of Waitangi, which declared British sovereignty over the islands. In 1841, New Zealand became a colony within the British Empire, today, the majority of New Zealands population of 4.7 million is of European descent, the indigenous Māori are the largest minority, followed by Asians and Pacific Islanders. Reflecting this, New Zealands culture is derived from Māori and early British settlers. The official languages are English, Māori and New Zealand Sign Language, New Zealand is a developed country and ranks highly in international comparisons of national performance, such as health, education, economic freedom and quality of life. Since the 1980s, New Zealand has transformed from an agrarian, Queen Elizabeth II is the countrys head of state and is represented by a governor-general. In addition, New Zealand is organised into 11 regional councils and 67 territorial authorities for local government purposes, the Realm of New Zealand also includes Tokelau, the Cook Islands and Niue, and the Ross Dependency, which is New Zealands territorial claim in Antarctica. New Zealand is a member of the United Nations, Commonwealth of Nations, ANZUS, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Pacific Islands Forum, and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation. Dutch explorer Abel Tasman sighted New Zealand in 1642 and called it Staten Landt, in 1645, Dutch cartographers renamed the land Nova Zeelandia after the Dutch province of Zeeland. British explorer James Cook subsequently anglicised the name to New Zealand, Aotearoa is the current Māori name for New Zealand. It is unknown whether Māori had a name for the country before the arrival of Europeans. Māori had several names for the two main islands, including Te Ika-a-Māui for the North Island and Te Waipounamu or Te Waka o Aoraki for the South Island. Early European maps labelled the islands North, Middle and South, in 1830, maps began to use North and South to distinguish the two largest islands and by 1907, this was the accepted norm. The New Zealand Geographic Board discovered in 2009 that the names of the North Island and South Island had never been formalised and this set the names as North Island or Te Ika-a-Māui, and South Island or Te Waipounamu
24.
Fresh water
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Fresh water is generally characterized by having low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. The term specifically excludes seawater and brackish water although it does include mineral-rich waters such as chalybeate springs, the term sweet water has been used to describe fresh water in contrast to salt water. The term fresh water does not have the meaning as potable water. Much of the fresh water and ground water is unsuitable for drinking without some form of purification because of the presence of chemical or biological contaminants. It may also be in contact with the underlying underground water. The majority of water on Earth is in ice caps. The source of almost all water is precipitation from the atmosphere, in the form of mist, rain. Fresh water falling as mist, rain or snow contains materials dissolved from the atmosphere and material from the sea, in some cases this acid rain results in pollution of lakes and rivers. In coastal areas fresh water may contain significant concentrations of salts derived from the sea if windy conditions have lifted drops of seawater into the rain-bearing clouds. This can give rise to elevated concentrations of sodium, chloride, magnesium, significant quantities of iron may be transported in this way including the well-documented transfer of iron-rich rainfall falling in Brazil derived from sand-storms in the Sahara in north Africa. Water is an issue for the survival of all living organisms. Some can use water but many organisms including the great majority of higher plants. Out of all the water on Earth, saline water in oceans, seas and saline groundwater make up about 97% of it. Freshwater lakes contain about 87% of this surface water, including 29% in the African Great Lakes, 20% in Lake Baikal in Russia, 21% in the North American Great Lakes. Swamps have most of the balance only a small amount in rivers. In areas with no water on the ground surface, fresh water derived from precipitation may, because of its lower density. Most of the fresh water is frozen in ice sheets. Many areas suffer from lack of distribution of water, such as deserts
25.
Murray McCully
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Murray Stuart McCully CNZM is a New Zealand politician. He is a member of the National Party, and Minister of Foreign Affairs, McCully was educated at Arapohue Primary School, Dargaville High School, the University of Auckland, and Victoria University of Wellington. He has a LLB degree and is a qualified Barrister and Solicitor and his former partner, Jane Clifton, works as a columnist for The New Zealand Listener and as a political journalist. McCully first stood for Parliament in 1975 in Auckland Central, reducing Richard Prebbles majority to 289 and he next stood for East Coast Bays in 1984, coming second to Gary Knapp. But in 1987, McCully defeated Knapp, and entered Parliament as MP for East Coast Bays on Aucklands North Shore and he became MP for the new seat of Albany in the 1999 elections. In the 2002 elections he returned as MP for the reconstituted East Coast Bays seat and he has a reputation as one of the National Partys chief strategists. Murray McCully resigned from his Tourism portfolio in April 1999 after questions were raised regarding his handling of the resignation, in 2004, McCully voted against a bill to establish civil unions. In 2005, he voted for the Marriage Amendment Bill 2005, after National winning the 2008 election, McCully was sworn in as a Cabinet Minister on 19 November 2008. McCully was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister for Sport and Recreation, in 2013, McCully voted against the Marriage Amendment Bill, a bill allowing same-sex couples to marry in New Zealand. McCully was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to foreign policy in the 2015 New Year Honours, in November 2015 McCully was off work after surgery for removal of a growth that was found to be benign. On 15 December 2016, Murray McCully announced that he would not stand for parliament in 2017, in December 2016, McCully played a critical role in the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334. List of foreign ministers in 2017 List of current foreign ministers Murray McCully MP official site Profile at National party Profile at New Zealand Parliament Releases and speeches at Beehive. govt. nz
26.
Royal New Zealand Air Force
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The Royal New Zealand Air Force is the air force component of the New Zealand Defence Force. The RNZAF fought in World War II, Malaysia, Korean War, Vietnam, the RNZAFs air combat capability ended in 2001 with the disbanding of the A-4 Skyhawk squadrons. The Air Force is led by an air vice-marshal who holds the appointment of Chief of Air Force, the RNZAF motto is the same as that of the Royal Air Force, Per ardua ad astra, meaning Through adversity to the stars. New Zealands military aviation began in 1913 when the New Zealand Army was presented with two Blériot monoplanes by the United Kingdom and these machines were grounded after a young woman was given a joyride. Both aircraft were handed back after war broke out. In the Great War, New Zealand aircrew flew as part of the British Royal Flying Corps, New Zealand pilots serving with British forces saw service in all theatres. Fifteen became aces, the top scorer being Keith Caldwell with, depending on how counted, the government assisted two private schools to train pilots for the conflict. The Walsh brothers flying school at Auckland was founded by Leo, from 1915 pilots trained on the Walsh Brothers Flying Boats including Curtiss machines, aircraft of their own design and, later in the war, the first two aircraft made by Boeing. In 1916 Sir Henry Wigram established the Canterbury Aviation Company at Sockburn, Christchurch and he gave the aerodrome, later Wigram Aerodrome, to the government for defence purposes. At the end of the war many New Zealand pilots stayed with the new Royal Air Force, others returned to New Zealand and, serving part-time, provided the nucleus of the New Zealand Permanent Air Force. At the close of hostilities Great Britain offered an Imperial Gift to each of the Dominions of a hundred war-surplus combat aircraft, New Zealand was the last to respond and least enthusiastic. Several of the aircraft were heavily modified—a 504 becoming a 3-seat floatplane. The importance of aviation in war was recognised, largely thanks to the efforts of visionary parliamentarian Sir Henry Wigram. It was initially equipped with the surviving Avro 504K, the DH. 4s, DH. 9s and these operated from an airfield outside Christchurch at Sockburn. In 1926 Wigram donated £2,500 for the purchase of modern fighters, Sockburn was later renamed RNZAF Station Wigram, a name adopted by the suburb which grew up around the airfield. It is the site of the present Royal New Zealand Air Force Museum, a trickle of new-build Bristol Fighters and other new types joined the NZPAF in the late 1920s and early 1930s. A Lewis gun-equipped De Havilland Gipsy Moth floatplane took part in operations against rebels in Samoa. The NZPAFs first action came in 1930 when the Moth dropped a bomb made out of a treacle tin on to a ship suspected of gun-running
27.
Lockheed C-130 Hercules
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The Lockheed C-130 Hercules is a four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft designed and built originally by Lockheed. Capable of using unprepared runways for takeoffs and landings, the C-130 was originally designed as a troop, medevac and it is now the main tactical airlifter for many military forces worldwide. Over forty variants and versions of the Hercules, including a civilian one marketed as the Lockheed L-100, the C-130 entered service with the U. S. in the 1950s, followed by Australia and others. During its years of service, the Hercules family has participated in numerous military, the C-130 Hercules is the longest continuously produced military aircraft at over 60 years, with the updated Lockheed Martin C-130J Super Hercules currently being produced. The new transport would have a capacity of 92 passengers,72 combat troops or 64 paratroopers in a compartment that was approximately 41 feet long,9 feet high. Unlike transports derived from passenger airliners, it was to be designed from the ground-up as a transport with loading from a hinged loading ramp at the rear of the fuselage. A key feature was the introduction of the Allison T56 turboprop powerplant, as was the case on helicopters of that era, such as the UH-1 Huey, turboshafts produced much more power for their weight than piston engines. Lockheed would subsequently use the engines and technology in the Lockheed L-188 Electra. The Boeing C-97 Stratofreighter also had a ramp, which made it possible to drive vehicles onto the plane. The ramp on the Hercules was also used to airdrop cargo, the new Lockheed cargo plane design possessed a range of 1,100 nmi, takeoff capability from short and unprepared strips, and the ability to fly with one engine shut down. Fairchild, North American, Martin, and Northrop declined to participate, the remaining five companies tendered a total of ten designs, Lockheed two, Boeing one, Chase three, Douglas three, and Airlifts Inc. one. The contest was an affair between the lighter of the two Lockheed proposals and a four-turboprop Douglas design. The Lockheed design team was led by Willis Hawkins, starting with a 130-page proposal for the Lockheed L-206, both Hibbard and Johnson signed the proposal and the company won the contract for the now-designated Model 82 on 2 July 1951. The first flight of the YC-130 prototype was made on 23 August 1954 from the Lockheed plant in Burbank, the aircraft, serial number 53-3397, was the second prototype, but the first of the two to fly. The YC-130 was piloted by Stanley Beltz and Roy Wimmer on its 61-minute flight to Edwards Air Force Base, Jack Real, kelly Johnson flew chase in a Lockheed P2V Neptune. After the two prototypes were completed, production began in Marietta, Georgia, where over 2,300 C-130s have been built through 2009. The initial production model, the C-130A, was powered by Allison T56-A-9 turboprops with three-blade propellers, deliveries began in December 1956, continuing until the introduction of the C-130B model in 1959. Some A-models were equipped with skis and re-designated C-130D, four-bladed Hamilton Standard propellers replaced the Aeroproducts three-blade propellers that distinguished the earlier A-models
28.
Transport plane
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A cargo aircraft is a fixed-wing aircraft that is designed or converted for the carriage of cargo rather than passengers. Such aircraft usually do not incorporate passenger amenities and generally one or more large doors for loading cargo. Freighters may be operated by passenger or cargo airlines, by private individuals or by the armed forces of individual countries. Cargo aircraft represent a small proportion of the air freight market. The majority is carried in special ULD containers in the holds of normal passenger aircraft. Aircraft were put to use carrying cargo in the form of air mail as early as 1911, although the earliest aircraft were not designed primarily as cargo carriers, by the mid-1920s aircraft manufacturers were designing and building dedicated cargo aircraft. The Vickers Vernon, a development of the Vickers Vimy Commercial, in February 1923 this was put to use by the RAFs Iraq Command who flew nearly 500 Sikh troops from Kingarban to Kirkuk in the first ever strategic airlift of troops. The Victorians also helped to pioneer air routes for Imperial Airways Handley Page HP.42 airliners, the World War II German design, the Arado Ar 232 was the first purpose built cargo aircraft. The Ar 232 was intended to supplant the earlier Junkers Ju 52 freighter conversions, most other forces used freighter versions of airliners in the cargo role as well, most notably the C-47 Skytrain version of the Douglas DC-3, which served with practically every Allied nation. This aircraft, like most of its era, used tail-dragger landing gear caused the aircraft to have a decided rearward tilt when landed. A similar rear loading ramp even appeared in a different form on the nosewheel gear-equipped. Postwar Europe also served to play a role in the development of the modern air cargo. To rapidly supply the numbers of aircraft, many older types. In operation it was found that it took as long or longer to unload these older designs as the much larger tricycle landing gear Douglas C-54 Skymaster which was easier to move about in when landed. The C-47s were quickly removed from service, and from then on flat-decks were a requirement of all new cargo designs, in the years following the war era a number of new custom-built cargo aircraft were introduced, often including some experimental features. For instance, the USs C-82 Packet featured a cargo area. Although larger, smaller and faster designs have been proposed for many years and these designs offer the ability to carry the heaviest loads, even main battle tanks, at global ranges. The Boeing 747 was originally designed to the specification as the C-5
29.
Desalination
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Desalination is a process that extracts minerals from saline water. More generally, desalination refers to the removal of salts and minerals from a substance, as in soil desalination. Saltwater is desalinated to produce water suitable for consumption or irrigation. One by-product of desalination is salt, Desalination is used on many seagoing ships and submarines. Most of the modern interest in desalination is focused on cost-effective provision of water for human use. Along with recycled wastewater, it is one of the few rainfall-independent water sources, due to its energy consumption, desalinating sea water is generally more costly than fresh water from rivers or groundwater, water recycling and water conservation. However, these alternatives are not always available and depletion of reserves is a problem worldwide. Currently, approximately 1% of the population is dependent on desalinated water to meet daily needs. Desalination is particularly relevant in dry countries such as Australia, which traditionally have relied on collecting rainfall behind dams for water and this number increased from 78.4 million cubic meters in 2013, a 10. 71% increase in 2 years. Kuwait produces a higher proportion of its water than any other country, the traditional process used in these operations is vacuum distillation—essentially boiling it to leave impurities behind. In desalination, atmospheric pressure is reduced, thus lowering the temperature needed. Liquids boil when the pressure equals the ambient pressure and vapor pressure increases with temperature. Thus, because of the temperature, low-temperature waste heat from electrical power generation or industrial processes can be employed. Water is evaporated and separated from sea water through multi-stage flash distillation, each subsequent flash process utilizes energy released from the condensation of the water vapor from the previous step. Multiple effect distillation works through a series of steps called “effects”, incoming water is sprayed onto vertically or, more commonly, horizontally oriented pipes which are then heated to generate steam. The steam is used to heat the next batch of incoming sea water. To increase efficiency, the used to heat the sea water can be taken from nearby power plants. Although this method is the most thermodynamically efficient, a few limitations exist such as a max temperature, vapor compression distillation involves using either a mechanical compressor or a jet stream to compress the vapor present above the liquid
30.
South Korea
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South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea, is a sovereign state in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula. The earliest Korean pottery dates to 8000 BC, with three kingdoms flourishing in the 1st century BC and its rich and vibrant culture left 19 UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritages of Humanity, the third largest in the world, along with 12 World Heritage Sites. Annexed into Imperial Japan in 1910, Korea was divided after its surrender in 1945, peace has since mostly continued with the two agreeing to work peacefully for reunification and the South solidifying peace as a regional power with the worlds 10th largest defence budget. South Koreas tiger economy soared at an average of 10% for over 30 years in a period of rapid transformation called the Miracle on the Han River. A long legacy of openness and focus on innovation made it successful, today, it is the worlds fifth largest exporter with the G20s largest budget surplus and highest credit rating of any country in East Asia. It has free trade agreements with 75% of the economy and is the only G20 nation trading freely with China, the US. Since 1988, its constitution guarantees a liberal democracy with high government transparency, high personal freedoms led to the rise of a globally influential pop culture such as K-pop and K-drama, a phenomenon called the Korean Wave, known for its distinctive fashionable and trendy style. Home of the UN Green Climate Fund and GGGI, South Korea is a leader in low carbon growth, committed to helping developing countries as a major DAC. It is the third least ignorant country in the Index of Ignorance, ranking eighth highest for peaceful tolerance. It is the worlds largest spender on R&D per GDP, leading the OECD in graduates in science, the name Korea derives from the name Goryeo. The name Goryeo itself was first used by the ancient kingdom of Goguryeo in the 5th century as a form of its name. The 10th-century kingdom of Goryeo succeeded Goguryeo, and thus inherited its name, the modern spelling of Korea first appeared in the late 17th century in the travel writings of the Dutch East India Companys Hendrick Hamel. After Goryeo was replaced by Joseon in 1392, Joseon became the name for the entire territory. The new official name has its origin in the ancient country of Gojoseon, in 1897, the Joseon dynasty changed the official name of the country from Joseon to Daehan Jeguk. The name Daehan, which means great Han literally, derives from Samhan, however, the name Joseon was still widely used by Koreans to refer to their country, though it was no longer the official name. Under Japanese rule, the two names Han and Joseon coexisted, there were several groups who fought for independence, the most notable being the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea. Following the surrender of Japan, in 1945, the Republic of Korea was adopted as the name for the new country. Since the government only controlled the part of the Korean Peninsula
31.
Australia
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Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands. It is the worlds sixth-largest country by total area, the neighbouring countries are Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and East Timor to the north, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu to the north-east, and New Zealand to the south-east. Australias capital is Canberra, and its largest urban area is Sydney, for about 50,000 years before the first British settlement in the late 18th century, Australia was inhabited by indigenous Australians, who spoke languages classifiable into roughly 250 groups. The population grew steadily in subsequent decades, and by the 1850s most of the continent had been explored, on 1 January 1901, the six colonies federated, forming the Commonwealth of Australia. Australia has since maintained a liberal democratic political system that functions as a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy comprising six states. The population of 24 million is highly urbanised and heavily concentrated on the eastern seaboard, Australia has the worlds 13th-largest economy and ninth-highest per capita income. With the second-highest human development index globally, the country highly in quality of life, health, education, economic freedom. The name Australia is derived from the Latin Terra Australis a name used for putative lands in the southern hemisphere since ancient times, the Dutch adjectival form Australische was used in a Dutch book in Batavia in 1638, to refer to the newly discovered lands to the south. On 12 December 1817, Macquarie recommended to the Colonial Office that it be formally adopted, in 1824, the Admiralty agreed that the continent should be known officially as Australia. The first official published use of the term Australia came with the 1830 publication of The Australia Directory and these first inhabitants may have been ancestors of modern Indigenous Australians. The Torres Strait Islanders, ethnically Melanesian, were originally horticulturists, the northern coasts and waters of Australia were visited sporadically by fishermen from Maritime Southeast Asia. The first recorded European sighting of the Australian mainland, and the first recorded European landfall on the Australian continent, are attributed to the Dutch. The first ship and crew to chart the Australian coast and meet with Aboriginal people was the Duyfken captained by Dutch navigator, Willem Janszoon. He sighted the coast of Cape York Peninsula in early 1606, the Dutch charted the whole of the western and northern coastlines and named the island continent New Holland during the 17th century, but made no attempt at settlement. William Dampier, an English explorer and privateer, landed on the north-west coast of New Holland in 1688, in 1770, James Cook sailed along and mapped the east coast, which he named New South Wales and claimed for Great Britain. The first settlement led to the foundation of Sydney, and the exploration, a British settlement was established in Van Diemens Land, now known as Tasmania, in 1803, and it became a separate colony in 1825. The United Kingdom formally claimed the part of Western Australia in 1828. Separate colonies were carved from parts of New South Wales, South Australia in 1836, Victoria in 1851, the Northern Territory was founded in 1911 when it was excised from South Australia
32.
Japan
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Japan is a sovereign island nation in Eastern Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies off the eastern coast of the Asia Mainland and stretches from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea, the kanji that make up Japans name mean sun origin. 日 can be read as ni and means sun while 本 can be read as hon, or pon, Japan is often referred to by the famous epithet Land of the Rising Sun in reference to its Japanese name. Japan is an archipelago consisting of about 6,852 islands. The four largest are Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu and Shikoku, the country is divided into 47 prefectures in eight regions. Hokkaido being the northernmost prefecture and Okinawa being the southernmost one, the population of 127 million is the worlds tenth largest. Japanese people make up 98. 5% of Japans total population, approximately 9.1 million people live in the city of Tokyo, the capital of Japan. Archaeological research indicates that Japan was inhabited as early as the Upper Paleolithic period, the first written mention of Japan is in Chinese history texts from the 1st century AD. Influence from other regions, mainly China, followed by periods of isolation, from the 12th century until 1868, Japan was ruled by successive feudal military shoguns who ruled in the name of the Emperor. Japan entered into a period of isolation in the early 17th century. The Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937 expanded into part of World War II in 1941, which came to an end in 1945 following the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan is a member of the UN, the OECD, the G7, the G8, the country has the worlds third-largest economy by nominal GDP and the worlds fourth-largest economy by purchasing power parity. It is also the worlds fourth-largest exporter and fourth-largest importer, although Japan has officially renounced its right to declare war, it maintains a modern military with the worlds eighth-largest military budget, used for self-defense and peacekeeping roles. Japan is a country with a very high standard of living. Its population enjoys the highest life expectancy and the third lowest infant mortality rate in the world, in ancient China, Japan was called Wo 倭. It was mentioned in the third century Chinese historical text Records of the Three Kingdoms in the section for the Wei kingdom, Wa became disliked because it has the connotation of the character 矮, meaning dwarf. The 倭 kanji has been replaced with the homophone Wa, meaning harmony, the Japanese word for Japan is 日本, which is pronounced Nippon or Nihon and literally means the origin of the sun. The earliest record of the name Nihon appears in the Chinese historical records of the Tang dynasty, at the start of the seventh century, a delegation from Japan introduced their country as Nihon
33.
The Daily Telegraph
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It was founded by Arthur B. Sleigh in 1855 as The Daily Telegraph and Courier, the papers motto, Was, is, and will be, appears in the editorial pages and has featured in every edition of the newspaper since April 19,1858. The paper had a circulation of 460,054 in December 2016 and its sister paper, The Sunday Telegraph, which started in 1961, had a circulation of 359,287 as of December 2016. The Daily Telegraph has the largest circulation for a newspaper in the UK. The two sister newspapers are run separately, with different editorial staff, but there is cross-usage of stories, articles published in either may be published on the Telegraph Media Groups www. telegraph. co. uk website, under the title of The Telegraph. However, critics, including an editor, accuse it of being unduly influenced by advertisers. The Daily Telegraph and Courier was founded by Colonel Arthur B, Sleigh in June 1855 to air a personal grievance against the future commander-in-chief of the British Army, Prince George, Duke of Cambridge. Joseph Moses Levy, the owner of The Sunday Times, agreed to print the newspaper, the paper cost 2d and was four pages long. Nevertheless, the first edition stressed the quality and independence of its articles and journalists, however, the paper was not a success, and Sleigh was unable to pay Levy the printing bill. Levy took over the newspaper, his aim being to produce a newspaper than his main competitors in London. The same principle should apply to all other events—to fashion, to new inventions, in 1876, Jules Verne published his novel Michael Strogoff, whose plot takes place during a fictional uprising and war in Siberia. In 1937, the newspaper absorbed The Morning Post, which espoused a conservative position. Originally William Ewart Berry, 1st Viscount Camrose, bought The Morning Post with the intention of publishing it alongside The Daily Telegraph, for some years the paper was retitled The Daily Telegraph and Morning Post before it reverted to just The Daily Telegraph. As an result, Gordon Lennox was monitored by MI5, in 1939, The Telegraph published Clare Hollingworths scoop that Germany was to invade Poland. In November 1940, with Fleet Street subjected to almost daily bombing raids by the Luftwaffe, The Telegraph started printing in Manchester at Kemsley House, Manchester quite often printed the entire run of The Telegraph when its Fleet Street offices were under threat. The name Kemsley House was changed to Thomson House in 1959, in 1986 printing of Northern editions of the Daily and Sunday Telegraph moved to Trafford Park and in 2008 to Newsprinters at Knowsley, Liverpool. During the Second World War, The Daily Telegraph covertly helped in the recruitment of code-breakers for Bletchley Park, the ability to solve The Telegraphs crossword in under 12 minutes was considered to be a recruitment test. The competition itself was won by F. H. W. Hawes of Dagenham who finished the crossword in less than eight minutes, both the Camrose and Burnham families remained involved in management until Conrad Black took control in 1986
34.
Fiji Times
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The Fiji Times is a daily English-language newspaper published in Suva, Fiji. Established in Levuka on 4 September 1869 by George Littleton Griffiths, the newspaper claims to be The First Newspaper Published In The World Every Day. The Fiji Times is owned by Mahendra Motibhai Patel, who purchased it from Rupert Murdochs News Corp in 2010, the Company Secretary is Umesh Prasad. The former publisher Evan Hannah was forcibly removed from Fiji in 2008 as he was accused by the government of meddling in Fijian politics. An online edition is published, featuring news, sport. The Rabuka administration censored the Fiji Times for a following the first military coup of 14 May 1987. In protest, the published an edition with large blank spaces. The Fiji Times announced on 5 December 2006, in the wake of the overthrow of the government by the military. Military officers had visited the premises that evening to prohibit the publication of any propaganda in support of the government of Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase. The online edition would be continuing publication as normal, however, just before midday on 6 December, the military granted permission for the Times to resume publication without censorship. Nonetheless, from December 2006 to April 2009, the Times was able to publish articles critical of the interim government. The latter voiced its displeasure, but did not impose censorship, following the 2009 Fijian constitutional crisis, however, all Fijis media were censored, including the Fiji Times. Censors are present in the papers newsrooms, and he says they challenge the censors by putting every possible news item before them. The website of the Fiji Times has also been censored since April 2009, the Fiji Labour Party was once highly critical of the Fiji Times, accusing it of political bias. In July 2008, the party published a report alleging that the Fiji Times had collaborated with others in an effort to unseat the 1999/2000 Labour-led government. Usher, Brief History of The Fiji Times, Paper read to the Fiji Society on October 15,1962
35.
Wayback Machine
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The Internet Archive launched the Wayback Machine in October 2001. It was set up by Brewster Kahle and Bruce Gilliat, and is maintained with content from Alexa Internet, the service enables users to see archived versions of web pages across time, which the archive calls a three dimensional index. Since 1996, the Wayback Machine has been archiving cached pages of websites onto its large cluster of Linux nodes and it revisits sites every few weeks or months and archives a new version. Sites can also be captured on the fly by visitors who enter the sites URL into a search box, the intent is to capture and archive content that otherwise would be lost whenever a site is changed or closed down. The overall vision of the machines creators is to archive the entire Internet, the name Wayback Machine was chosen as a reference to the WABAC machine, a time-traveling device used by the characters Mr. Peabody and Sherman in The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, an animated cartoon. These crawlers also respect the robots exclusion standard for websites whose owners opt for them not to appear in search results or be cached, to overcome inconsistencies in partially cached websites, Archive-It. Information had been kept on digital tape for five years, with Kahle occasionally allowing researchers, when the archive reached its fifth anniversary, it was unveiled and opened to the public in a ceremony at the University of California, Berkeley. Snapshots usually become more than six months after they are archived or, in some cases, even later. The frequency of snapshots is variable, so not all tracked website updates are recorded, Sometimes there are intervals of several weeks or years between snapshots. After August 2008 sites had to be listed on the Open Directory in order to be included. As of 2009, the Wayback Machine contained approximately three petabytes of data and was growing at a rate of 100 terabytes each month, the growth rate reported in 2003 was 12 terabytes/month, the data is stored on PetaBox rack systems manufactured by Capricorn Technologies. In 2009, the Internet Archive migrated its customized storage architecture to Sun Open Storage, in 2011 a new, improved version of the Wayback Machine, with an updated interface and fresher index of archived content, was made available for public testing. The index driving the classic Wayback Machine only has a bit of material past 2008. In January 2013, the company announced a ground-breaking milestone of 240 billion URLs, in October 2013, the company announced the Save a Page feature which allows any Internet user to archive the contents of a URL. This became a threat of abuse by the service for hosting malicious binaries, as of December 2014, the Wayback Machine contained almost nine petabytes of data and was growing at a rate of about 20 terabytes each week. Between October 2013 and March 2015 the websites global Alexa rank changed from 162 to 208, in a 2009 case, Netbula, LLC v. Chordiant Software Inc. defendant Chordiant filed a motion to compel Netbula to disable the robots. Netbula objected to the motion on the ground that defendants were asking to alter Netbulas website, in an October 2004 case, Telewizja Polska USA, Inc. v. Echostar Satellite, No.02 C3293,65 Fed. 673, a litigant attempted to use the Wayback Machine archives as a source of admissible evidence, Telewizja Polska is the provider of TVP Polonia and EchoStar operates the Dish Network
36.
Radio New Zealand
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Radio New Zealand is a New Zealand public service radio broadcaster and Crown entity formed by the Radio New Zealand Act 1995. It operates the news, current affairs, and arts network Radio New Zealand National and classical music, since 2014, the organisation focuses increasingly on its production of digital content in audio, video and written forms. The organisation plays a role in New Zealand public broadcasting. Under law, it is responsible for the Radio New Zealand International Pacific shortwave service and it has a statutory role under the Civil Defence Emergency Management Act 2002 to act as a lifeline utility in emergency situations. The New Zealand Parliament also fully funds its AM Network, for the broadcast of Parliamentary proceedings, the organisation placed a strong emphasis on training its staff in Received Pronunciation, until it began promoting local and indigenous accents in the 1990s. The broadcaster is bound by the Charter and Operating Principles included in the Radio New Zealand Act and it must operate a news service, an international shortwave service and an archiving programme. It must also produce and commission high quality programming based on research of public needs, in achieving these objectives, it must be socially and financially responsible. Radio New Zealand National, formerly National Radio, is Radio New Zealands general public service broadcaster, flagship news and current affairs programmes Morning Report, Midday Report and Checkpoint total thirty hours every week and news updates are broadcast every hour. Its news service has specialist correspondents, reporters and a network of regional correspondents, magazine programmes include a broad range of contributors, interviews, music pieces and dramas, with reports and regular features in English and Māori. The network provides coverage of science, politics, philosophy, religion, rural affairs, sports, Radio New Zealand National broadcasts in AM and FM via mono terrestrial transmitters based around New Zealand and the Optus satellite. It is also available on Sky Digital TV channel 421, Freeview satellite channel 50, Radio New Zealand National claims a cumulative audience of 522,000 people, which would make it the most popular station in New Zealand. Its station share of 11% also makes it one in terms of station share among people 15. The network was known as Concert FM but the name was changed as part of a wider name change within Radio New Zealand to associate Concert FM with the Radio New Zealand brand. The station broadcasts in FM stereo via terrestrial transmitters located around New Zealand and it is also available on Sky Digital TV channel 502, and on Freeviews satellite and terrestrial services on channel 51. Concert features four full-time continuity presenters and several part-time and specialist presenters, the playlist is among the most diverse and eclectic of the worlds state run classical music networks. The AM Network is a network of radio transmitters operated by Radio New Zealand which broadcast all sittings of the New Zealand Parliament through a contract with the Parliament. Sitting hours are seasonal, and may be extended due to certain circumstances, AM Network Parliamentary coverage is also streamed online, with podcasts and transcripts available. The transmitters were used by The Concert Programme before it moved to FM broadcasting
37.
RNZ International
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This article is about the international version. For the domestic version, see Radio New Zealand National, RNZ International or Radio New Zealand International, sometimes abbreviated to RNZI, is a division of Radio New Zealand and the official international broadcasting station of New Zealand. It broadcasts a variety of news, current affairs and sports programmes in English, the stations mission statement requires it to promote and reflect New Zealand in the Pacific, and better relations between New Zealand and Pacific countries. As the only radio station in New Zealand, RNZ International broadcasts to several island nations. It has studios in Radio New Zealand House, Wellington and a transmitter at Rangitaiki in the middle of the North Island and its broadcasts cover from East Timor in the west across to French Polynesia in the east, covering all South Pacific countries in between. The station targets Micronesia, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Samoa, the signal can also be heard in Europe and North America. RNZ International was launched in 1948 as Radio New Zealand, a subsidiary of what was then the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation and it utilised two 7.5 kW transmitters at Titahi Bay which had been left behind by the US military during World War II. It briefly closed before reopening in 1976, under the policy of the third Labour government. From 1987, the Government faced growing pressure to have an active foreign policy towards the Pacific region. It upgraded the station, installed a new 100 kW transmitter, the station adopted new digital technology and launched a website in 2000. SIBC general manager Patterson Mae was accused of undermining the principles of press freedom, in 1998 and again in 2000 RNZI won a Commonwealth Broadcasting Associations Rolls-Royce Award for Excellence. At a function of the Association for International Broadcasting in London, November 2007, the association praised the station for what it said was an ability and clarity of vision - and for the delivery of something it said was valued by audiences throughout the region. RNZI also won the award for Most Innovative Partnership, as of 2015, RNZI has 13 staff. These include manager Linden Clark, technical manager Adrian Sainsbury, news editor Walter Zweifel, myra Oh, Colette Jansen, Damon Taylor, Dominic Godfrey and Jeremy Veal serve as technical producers and continuity announcers. Aside from Radio Australia, RNZI is the only international state-owned public broadcaster covering the Pacific region and its news service focuses on South Pacific countries, and includes news bulletins in eight languages. Vinnie Wylie heads the stations coverage, and freelancers are often used for on-the-ground reporting. The stations news service focuses on news that relates to New Zealand and it predominantly cites Government and opposition leaders and the spokespeople of non-government organisations and government departments. RNZI regularly covers the Papua conflict and interviews exiled Koteka tribal leader Benny Wenda on his visits to New Zealand and it has reported on Vanuatus Parliamentary debate on the conflict, Indonesian estimates of the death toll and West Papua National Liberation Army claims of militant arrests
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