1.
Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary
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The main prison building was built in 1910–1912 during its time as a United States Army military prison, Alcatraz had been the site of a citadel since the 1860s. Alcatraz was designed to hold prisoners who continuously caused trouble at other federal prisons, Doc Barker, and Alvin Creepy Karpis. It also provided housing for the Bureau of Prisons staff and their families, faced with high maintenance costs and a poor reputation, Alcatraz closed on March 21,1963. The three-story cellhouse included the four blocks of the jail, A-block, B-block, C-block, and D-block, the wardens office, visitation room, the library. The prison cells typically measured 9 feet by 5 feet and 7 feet high, the cells were primitive and lacked privacy, with a bed, a desk and a washbasin and toilet on the back wall, with few furnishings except a blanket. African-Americans were segregated from the rest in cell designation due to racial abuse being prevalent, D-Block housed the worst inmates and five cells at the end of it were designated as The Hole, where badly behaving prisoners would be sent for periods of punishment, often brutally so. The dining hall and kitchen lay off the building in an extended part where both prisoners and staff would eat three meals a day together. The Alcatraz Hospital was above the dining hall, corridors of the prison were named after major American streets such as Broadway and Michigan Avenue. Today the penitentiary is a museum and one of San Franciscos major tourist attractions. The main cellhouse was originally the location of the cellhouse for the military citadel, a new cellhouse was built in 1910–1912 on a budget of $250,000 and upon completion, the 500 feet long concrete building was reputedly the longest concrete building in the world at the time. In 1933–34 this building remained, but was modernized and became the main cellhouse of the federal penitentiary until it was closed in 1963, when the new concrete prison was built, many materials were reused in its construction. After the U. S. Armys use of the island for over 80 years, the purpose of this transfer was to punish those involved in the rampant crime which prevailed in the country in the 1920s and 1930s. The $260,000 conversion to the prison took place from January 1934. George Hess of the United States Public Health Service was appointed the medical officer of the prison. The hospital facilities were checked by three officials from the Marine Hospital of San Francisco, the Bureau of Prisons personnel arrived on Alcatraz in early February, among them was Loring O. Mills, acting chief clerk. In April 1934, the old material was removed from the prison, holes were cut in the concrete and 269 cell fronts were installed, two of four new stairways were built, as were 12 doors to the utility corridors and gratings at the top of the cells. On April 26, a small fire broke out on the roof. Fencing around Alcatraz was added by the Anchor Post Fence Company and emergency lighting in the morgue, final checks and assessments were made on the first two days of August
2.
International Union for Conservation of Nature
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The International Union for Conservation of Nature is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. It is involved in gathering and analysis, research, field projects, advocacy, lobbying. IUCNs mission is to influence, encourage and assist societies throughout the world to conserve nature and to ensure that any use of resources is equitable. Over the past decades, IUCN has widened its focus beyond conservation ecology and now incorporates issues related to equality, poverty alleviation. Unlike other international NGOs, IUCN does not itself aim to mobilize the public in support of nature conservation and it tries to influence the actions of governments, business and other stakeholders by providing information and advice, and through lobbying and partnerships. The organization is best known to the public for compiling and publishing the IUCN Red List. IUCN has a membership of over 1200 governmental and non-governmental organizations, some 11,000 scientists and experts participate in the work of IUCN commissions on a voluntary basis. It employs approximately 1000 full-time staff in more than 60 countries and its headquarters are in Gland, Switzerland. IUCN has observer and consultative status at the United Nations, and plays a role in the implementation of several conventions on nature conservation. It was involved in establishing the World Wide Fund for Nature, in the past, IUCN has been criticized for placing the interests of nature over those of indigenous peoples. In recent years, its relations with the business sector have caused controversy. It was previously called the International Union for Protection of Nature, establishment In 1947, the Swiss League for the Protection of Nature organised an international conference on the protection of nature in Brunnen. It is considered to be the first government-organized non-governmental organization, the initiative to set up the new organisation came from UNESCO and especially from its first Director General, the British biologist Julian Huxley. At the time of its founding IUPN was the international organisation focusing on the entire spectrum of nature conservation Early years. Its secretariat was located in Brussels and its first work program focused on saving species and habitats, increasing and applying knowledge, advancing education, promoting international agreements and promoting conservation. Providing a solid base for conservation action was the heart of all activities. IUPN and UNESCO were closely associated and they jointly organized the 1949 Conference on Protection of Nature. In preparation for this conference a list of endangered species was drawn up for the first time
3.
San Francisco Bay
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San Francisco Bay is a shallow estuary in the U. S. state of California. It is surrounded by a region known as the San Francisco Bay Area, dominated by the large cities San Francisco, Oakland. San Francisco Bay drains water from approximately 40 percent of California and it then connects to the Pacific Ocean via the Golden Gate strait. However, this group of interconnected bays is often called the San Francisco Bay. The bay was designated a Ramsar Wetland of International Importance on February 2,2013, the bay covers somewhere between 400 and 1,600 square miles, depending on which sub-bays, estuaries, wetlands, and so on are included in the measurement. The main part of the bay measures 3 to 12 miles wide east-to-west and it is the largest Pacific estuary in the Americas. Later, wetlands and inlets were filled in, reducing the Bays size since the mid-19th century by as much as one third. Recently, large areas of wetlands have been restored, further confusing the issue of the Bays size, despite its value as a waterway and harbor, many thousands of acres of marshy wetlands at the edges of the bay were, for many years, considered wasted space. As a result, soil excavated for building projects or dredged from channels was often dumped onto the wetlands, from the mid-19th century through the late 20th century, more than a third of the original bay was filled and often built on. The idea was, and remains, controversial, there are five large islands in San Francisco Bay. Alameda, the largest island, was created when a shipping lane was cut in 1901 and it is now predominantly a bedroom community. Angel Island was known as Ellis Island West because it served as the point for immigrants from East Asia. It is now a park accessible by ferry. Mountainous Yerba Buena Island is pierced by a tunnel linking the east and west spans of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge, attached to the north is the artificial and flat Treasure Island, site of the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition. From the Second World War until the 1990s, both served as military bases and are now being redeveloped. Isolated in the center of the Bay is Alcatraz, the site of the federal penitentiary. The federal prison on Alcatraz Island no longer functions, but the complex is a popular tourist site, despite its name, Mare Island in the northern part of the bay is a peninsula rather than an island. During the last ice age, the now filled by the bay was a large linear valley with small hills
4.
California
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California is the most populous state in the United States and the third most extensive by area. Located on the western coast of the U. S, California is bordered by the other U. S. states of Oregon, Nevada, and Arizona and shares an international border with the Mexican state of Baja California. Los Angeles is Californias most populous city, and the second largest after New York City. The Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nations second- and fifth-most populous urban regions, California also has the nations most populous county, Los Angeles County, and its largest county by area, San Bernardino County. The Central Valley, an agricultural area, dominates the states center. What is now California was first settled by various Native American tribes before being explored by a number of European expeditions during the 16th and 17th centuries, the Spanish Empire then claimed it as part of Alta California in their New Spain colony. The area became a part of Mexico in 1821 following its war for independence. The western portion of Alta California then was organized as the State of California, the California Gold Rush starting in 1848 led to dramatic social and demographic changes, with large-scale emigration from the east and abroad with an accompanying economic boom. If it were a country, California would be the 6th largest economy in the world, fifty-eight percent of the states economy is centered on finance, government, real estate services, technology, and professional, scientific and technical business services. Although it accounts for only 1.5 percent of the states economy, the story of Calafia is recorded in a 1510 work The Adventures of Esplandián, written as a sequel to Amadis de Gaula by Spanish adventure writer Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo. The kingdom of Queen Calafia, according to Montalvo, was said to be a land inhabited by griffins and other strange beasts. This conventional wisdom that California was an island, with maps drawn to reflect this belief, shortened forms of the states name include CA, Cal. Calif. and US-CA. Settled by successive waves of arrivals during the last 10,000 years, various estimates of the native population range from 100,000 to 300,000. The Indigenous peoples of California included more than 70 distinct groups of Native Americans, ranging from large, settled populations living on the coast to groups in the interior. California groups also were diverse in their organization with bands, tribes, villages. Trade, intermarriage and military alliances fostered many social and economic relationships among the diverse groups, the first European effort to explore the coast as far north as the Russian River was a Spanish sailing expedition, led by Portuguese captain Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, in 1542. Some 37 years later English explorer Francis Drake also explored and claimed a portion of the California coast in 1579. Spanish traders made unintended visits with the Manila galleons on their trips from the Philippines beginning in 1565
5.
San Francisco
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San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the cultural, commercial, and financial center of Northern California. It is the birthplace of the United Nations, the California Gold Rush of 1849 brought rapid growth, making it the largest city on the West Coast at the time. San Francisco became a consolidated city-county in 1856, after three-quarters of the city was destroyed by the 1906 earthquake and fire, San Francisco was quickly rebuilt, hosting the Panama-Pacific International Exposition nine years later. In World War II, San Francisco was a port of embarkation for service members shipping out to the Pacific Theater. Politically, the city votes strongly along liberal Democratic Party lines, San Francisco is also the headquarters of five major banking institutions and various other companies such as Levi Strauss & Co. Dolby, Airbnb, Weebly, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Yelp, Pinterest, Twitter, Uber, Lyft, Mozilla, Wikimedia Foundation, as of 2016, San Francisco is ranked high on world liveability rankings. The earliest archaeological evidence of habitation of the territory of the city of San Francisco dates to 3000 BC. Upon independence from Spain in 1821, the became part of Mexico. Under Mexican rule, the system gradually ended, and its lands became privatized. In 1835, Englishman William Richardson erected the first independent homestead, together with Alcalde Francisco de Haro, he laid out a street plan for the expanded settlement, and the town, named Yerba Buena, began to attract American settlers. Commodore John D. Sloat claimed California for the United States on July 7,1846, during the Mexican–American War, montgomery arrived to claim Yerba Buena two days later. Yerba Buena was renamed San Francisco on January 30 of the next year, despite its attractive location as a port and naval base, San Francisco was still a small settlement with inhospitable geography. The California Gold Rush brought a flood of treasure seekers, with their sourdough bread in tow, prospectors accumulated in San Francisco over rival Benicia, raising the population from 1,000 in 1848 to 25,000 by December 1849. The promise of fabulous riches was so strong that crews on arriving vessels deserted and rushed off to the gold fields, leaving behind a forest of masts in San Francisco harbor. Some of these approximately 500 abandoned ships were used at times as storeships, saloons and hotels, many were left to rot, by 1851 the harbor was extended out into the bay by wharves while buildings were erected on piles among the ships. By 1870 Yerba Buena Cove had been filled to create new land, buried ships are occasionally exposed when foundations are dug for new buildings. California was quickly granted statehood in 1850 and the U. S. military built Fort Point at the Golden Gate, silver discoveries, including the Comstock Lode in Nevada in 1859, further drove rapid population growth. With hordes of fortune seekers streaming through the city, lawlessness was common, and the Barbary Coast section of town gained notoriety as a haven for criminals, prostitution, entrepreneurs sought to capitalize on the wealth generated by the Gold Rush
6.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
7.
National Park Service
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It was created on August 25,1916, by Congress through the National Park Service Organic Act and is an agency of the United States Department of the Interior. As of 2014, the NPS employs 21,651 employees who oversee 417 units, the National Park Service celebrated its centennial in 2016. National parks and national monuments in the United States were originally individually managed under the auspices of the Department of the Interior, the movement for an independent agency to oversee these federal lands was spearheaded by business magnate and conservationist Stephen Mather, as well as J. Horace McFarland. With the help of journalist Robert Sterling Yard, Mather ran a publicity campaign for the Department of the Interior and they wrote numerous articles that praised the scenic and historic qualities of the parks and their possibilities for educational, inspirational, and recreational benefits. This campaign resulted in the creation of a National Park Service, Mather became the first director of the newly formed NPS. On March 3,1933, President Herbert Hoover signed the Reorganization Act of 1933, the act would allow the President to reorganize the executive branch of the United States government. It wasnt until later that summer when the new President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, President Roosevelt agreed and issued two Executive orders to make it happen. In 1951, Conrad Wirth became director of the National Park Service, the demand for parks after the end of the World War II had left the parks overburdened with demands that could not be met. In 1952, with the support of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, he began Mission 66, New parks were added to preserve unique resources and existing park facilities were upgraded and expanded. In 1966, as the Park Service turned 50 years old, emphasis began to turn from just saving great and wonderful scenery, Director George Hartzog began the process with the creation of the National Lakeshores and then National Recreation Areas. Since its inception in 1916, the National Park Service has managed each of the United States national parks, Yellowstone National Park was the first national park in the United States. In 1872, there was no government to manage it. Yosemite National Park began as a park, the land for the park was donated by the federal government to the state of California in 1864 for perpetual conservation. Yosemite was later returned to federal ownership, at first, each national park was managed independently, with varying degrees of success. In Yellowstone, the staff was replaced by the U. S. Army in 1886. Due to the irregularities in managing these national treasures, Stephen Mather petitioned the government to improve the situation. In response, Secretary of the Interior Franklin K. Lane challenged him to lobby for creating a new agency, Mather was successful with the ratification of the National Park Service Organic Act in 1916. Later, the agency was given authority over other protected areas, the National Park System includes all properties managed by the National Park Service
8.
National Register of Historic Places
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The National Register of Historic Places is the United States federal governments official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation. The passage of the National Historic Preservation Act in 1966 established the National Register, of the more than one million properties on the National Register,80,000 are listed individually. The remainder are contributing resources within historic districts, each year approximately 30,000 properties are added to the National Register as part of districts or by individual listings. For most of its history the National Register has been administered by the National Park Service and its goals are to help property owners and interest groups, such as the National Trust for Historic Preservation, coordinate, identify, and protect historic sites in the United States. While National Register listings are mostly symbolic, their recognition of significance provides some financial incentive to owners of listed properties, protection of the property is not guaranteed. During the nomination process, the property is evaluated in terms of the four criteria for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places, the application of those criteria has been the subject of criticism by academics of history and preservation, as well as the public and politicians. Occasionally, historic sites outside the proper, but associated with the United States are also listed. Properties can be nominated in a variety of forms, including individual properties, historic districts, the Register categorizes general listings into one of five types of properties, district, site, structure, building, or object. National Register Historic Districts are defined geographical areas consisting of contributing and non-contributing properties, some properties are added automatically to the National Register when they become administered by the National Park Service. These include National Historic Landmarks, National Historic Sites, National Historical Parks, National Military Parks/Battlefields, National Memorials, on October 15,1966, the Historic Preservation Act created the National Register of Historic Places and the corresponding State Historic Preservation Offices. Initially, the National Register consisted of the National Historic Landmarks designated before the Registers creation, approval of the act, which was amended in 1980 and 1992, represented the first time the United States had a broad-based historic preservation policy. To administer the newly created National Register of Historic Places, the National Park Service of the U. S. Department of the Interior, hartzog, Jr. established an administrative division named the Office of Archeology and Historic Preservation. Hartzog charged OAHP with creating the National Register program mandated by the 1966 law, ernest Connally was the Offices first director. Within OAHP new divisions were created to deal with the National Register, the first official Keeper of the Register was William J. Murtagh, an architectural historian. During the Registers earliest years in the late 1960s and early 1970s, organization was lax and SHPOs were small, understaffed, and underfunded. A few years later in 1979, the NPS history programs affiliated with both the U. S. National Parks system and the National Register were categorized formally into two Assistant Directorates. Established were the Assistant Directorate for Archeology and Historic Preservation and the Assistant Directorate for Park Historic Preservation, from 1978 until 1981, the main agency for the National Register was the Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service of the United States Department of the Interior. In February 1983, the two assistant directorates were merged to promote efficiency and recognize the interdependency of their programs, jerry L. Rogers was selected to direct this newly merged associate directorate
9.
National Historic Landmark
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A National Historic Landmark is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Of over 85,000 places listed on the countrys National Register of Historic Places, a National Historic Landmark District may include contributing properties that are buildings, structures, sites or objects, and it may include non-contributing properties. Contributing properties may or may not also be separately listed, prior to 1935, efforts to preserve cultural heritage of national importance were made by piecemeal efforts of the United States Congress. The first National Historic Site designation was made for the Salem Maritime National Historic Site on March 17,1938. In 1960, the National Park Service took on the administration of the data gathered under this legislation. Because listings often triggered local preservation laws, legislation in 1980 amended the procedures to require owner agreement to the designations. On October 9,1960,92 properties were announced as designated NHLs by Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton, more than 2,500 NHLs have been designated. Most, but not all, are in the United States, there are NHLs in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Three states account for nearly 25 percent of the nations NHLs, three cities within these states all separately have more NHLs than 40 of the 50 states. In fact, New York City alone has more NHLs than all but five states, Virginia, California, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, there are 74 NHLs in the District of Columbia. Some NHLs are in U. S. commonwealths and territories, associated states, and foreign states. There are 15 in Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and other U. S. commonwealths and territories,5 in U. S. -associated states such as Micronesia, over 100 ships or shipwrecks have been designated as NHLs. About half of the National Historic Landmarks are privately owned, the National Historic Landmarks Program relies on suggestions for new designations from the National Park Service, which also assists in maintaining the landmarks. A friends group of owners and managers, the National Historic Landmark Stewards Association, works to preserve, protect, if not already listed on the National Register of Historic Places, an NHL is automatically added to the Register upon designation. About three percent of Register listings are NHLs, american Water Landmark List of U. S
10.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
11.
Alcatraz Island Light
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Alcatraz Island Lighthouse is a lighthouse – the first one built on the U. S. West Coast – located on Alcatraz Island in Californias San Francisco Bay and it is located at the southern end of the island near the entrance to the prison. The first light house on the island was completed in 1854 and it was replaced by a taller 95 feet above mean sea level) concrete tower built in 1909 to the south of the original one which was demolished after it was damaged due to earthquake in 1906. The automation of the lighthouse with a modern beacon took place in 1963 and it is the oldest light station on the island with a modern beacon and is part of the museum on the island. Although when viewed from afar it looks the tallest structure on Alcatraz, it is actually shorter than the Alcatraz Water Tower. Since he observed pelicans in large numbers on the island he named the island as Isla de los Alcatraces” meaning the “Island of Pelicans”, the island is separated from the main land by more than 1 mile. The gold rush and the inherent risk of the waters of the west coast prompted the urgent need for establishing lighthouses. Congress recognized the need and passed suitable acts in the years 1851 and 1852 to build seven lighthouses on the West Coast to guide navigation, equipment were shipped on Oriole, reached San Francisco on January 29,1853. The Alcatraz Lighthouse was the first to be completed in July 1853, however, the foundation for building the light house had begun much before the equipment reached San Francisco. The Baltimore firm was informed of this change before the equipment was shipped, the shipping involved a long sea voyage of 12,000 miles from the East Coast going round the cape of South America. It was lit on June 1,1854 from a fixed, in 1902, it was transferred to the Cape St. Elias Lighthouse in Alaska and replaced by a revolving fourth-order Fresnel lens, producing a white flash every five seconds. In 1909-12, the present cell house of Alcatraz was built, since the new structure would interfere with the operation of the lighthouse, a taller 25.6 metres, concrete tower was built south of the original lighthouse. The original lighthouse had been damaged during the great San Francisco earthquake of 1906 and was torn down. In 1963, the Alcatraz Lighthouse was automated by the United States Coast Guard, in 1970 a fire destroyed the wardens house, the keepers quarters and other buildings on the island. The only remaining building is the tall cement tower equipped with a modern beacon, the lighthouse has been a museum since 2000 and can be visited. In over 50 years, the lighthouse has not been seriously damaged despite many prison escapes, construction of the foundation started in 1852, and the one-and-a-half-storied keepers house and light were completed in 1853. The lens arrived in October 1853 and Michael Cassin lit it on June 1,1854, thus setting a milestone of sorts for this lighthouse, the old lighthouse was damaged in the earthquake which occurred on Wednesday the April 18,1906. A new lighthouse was built to the south east of the old one, the old lighthouse existed alongside the new structure for a while and used as a storehouse, but was eventually demolished between 1912 and 1913
12.
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
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The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian peoples of the Americas and their descendants. The term Amerindian is used in Quebec, the Guianas, Indigenous peoples of the United States are commonly known as Native Americans or American Indians, and Alaska Natives. Application of the term Indian originated with Christopher Columbus, who, in his search for Asia, eventually, the Americas came to be known as the West Indies, a name still used to refer to the islands of the Caribbean Sea. This led to the blanket term Indies and Indians for the indigenous inhabitants, although some indigenous peoples of the Americas were traditionally hunter-gatherers—and many, especially in the Amazon basin, still are—many groups practiced aquaculture and agriculture. The impact of their agricultural endowment to the world is a testament to their time, although some societies depended heavily on agriculture, others practiced a mix of farming, hunting, and gathering. In some regions the indigenous peoples created monumental architecture, large-scale organized cities, chiefdoms, states, and empires. Many parts of the Americas are still populated by peoples, some countries have sizable populations, especially Belize, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Greenland, Guatemala, Mexico. At least a different indigenous languages are spoken in the Americas. Some, such as the Quechuan languages, Aymara, Guaraní, Mayan languages, many also maintain aspects of indigenous cultural practices to varying degrees, including religion, social organization, and subsistence practices. Like most cultures, over time, cultures specific to many indigenous peoples have evolved to incorporate traditional aspects, some indigenous peoples still live in relative isolation from Western culture and a few are still counted as uncontacted peoples. The specifics of Paleo-Indian migration to and throughout the Americas, including the dates and routes traveled, are the subject of ongoing research. According to archaeological and genetic evidence, North and South America were the last continents in the world with human habitation. During the Wisconsin glaciation, 50–17,000 years ago, falling sea levels allowed people to move across the bridge of Beringia that joined Siberia to northwest North America. Alaska was a glacial refugium because it had low snowfall, allowing a small population to exist, the Laurentide Ice Sheet covered most of North America, blocking nomadic inhabitants and confining them to Alaska for thousands of years. Indigenous genetic studies suggest that the first inhabitants of the Americas share a single population, one that developed in isolation. The isolation of these peoples in Beringia might have lasted 10–20,000 years, around 16,500 years ago, the glaciers began melting, allowing people to move south and east into Canada and beyond. These people are believed to have followed herds of now-extinct Pleistocene megafauna along ice-free corridors that stretched between the Laurentide and Cordilleran Ice Sheets. Another route proposed involves migration - either on foot or using primitive boats - along the Pacific Northwest coast to the south, archeological evidence of the latter would have been covered by the sea level rise of more than 120 meters since the last ice age
13.
Activism
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Activism consists of efforts to promote, impede, or direct social, political, economic, and/or environmental reform or stasis with the desire to make improvements in society. One can also express activism through different forms of art, daily acts of protest such as not buying clothes from a certain clothing company because they exploit workers is another form of activism. One view holds that acknowledging privileges and oppressions on a daily basis ranks as a form of activism, research has begun to explore how activist groups use social media to facilitate civic engagement and collective action. The Online Etymology Dictionary records the English words activism and activist from 1920, Activists can function in roles as public officials, as in judicial activism. Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. introduced the term judicial activism in a January 1946 Fortune magazine article titled The Supreme Court,1947, some activists try to persuade people to change their behavior directly, rather than to persuade governments to change or not to change laws. Other activists try to persuade people to remain the same, in an effort to counter change, the cooperative movement seeks to build new institutions which conform to cooperative principles, and generally does not lobby or protest politically. Activism is not always an action by Activists, every year more than 100 environmental activists are killed, in 2014116 environmental activists were assassinated, in 2015185 activists were killed around this planet. Since the 1990s, the Internet has been a tool used by activists for mobilization and communication of causes, specific platforms like MoveOn. org, founded in 1998, allow individuals to establish petitions and movements for social change. Protesters in Seattle in 1999 used email to organize protests against the WTO Ministerial Conference, throughout the 2000s, protesters continued to use social media platforms to generate interest. The power of Internet Activism came into a lens with the Arab Spring protests. They use different means to political persecution, such as Tor Browser. The activism industry consists of organizations and individuals engaged in activism, Activism is often done full-time, as part of an organizations core business. Many organizations in the industry are either non profit organizations or non-governmental organizations. Most activist organizations do not manufacture goods, the term activism industry has often been used to refer to outsourced fundraising operations. However, activist organizations engage in activities as well. Lobbying, or the influencing of decisions made by government, is another activist tactic, many groups, including law firms, have designated staff assigned specifically for lobbying purposes. In the United States, lobbying is regulated by the federal government, many government systems encourage public support of non-profit organizations by granting various forms of tax relief for donations to charitable organizations. Governments may attempt to deny these benefits to activists by restricting the political activity of tax-exempt organizations, randy Shaw, The Activists Handbook, A Primer for the 1990s and Beyond
14.
Golden Gate National Recreation Area
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The Golden Gate National Recreation Area is a U. S. National Recreation Area protecting 80,002 acres of ecologically and historically significant landscapes surrounding the San Francisco Bay Area. Much of the park is land used by the United States Army. GGNRA is managed by the National Park Service and is one of the most visited units of the National Park system in the United States, with more than 15 million visitors a year. It is also one of the largest urban parks in the world, the park is not one continuous locale, but rather a collection of areas that stretch from southern San Mateo County to northern Marin County, and includes several areas of San Francisco. The park is as diverse as it is expansive, it contains famous tourist attractions such as Muir Woods National Monument, Alcatraz, the park was created thanks to the cooperative legislative efforts of cosponsors Congressman William S. Mailliard and Congressman Phillip Burton. In 1972, President Richard Nixon signed into law An Act to Establish the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, the bill allocated $120 million for land acquisition and development. The National Park Service first purchased Alcatraz and Fort Mason from the U. S. Army, the Nature Conservancy then transferred the land to the GGNRA. These properties formed the basis for the park. Throughout the next 30 years, the National Park service acquired land and historic sites from the U. S. Army, private landowners and corporations, incorporating them into the GGNRA. Many decommissioned Army bases and fortifications were incorporated into the park, including Fort Funston, four Nike missile sites, The Presidio, the latest acquisition by the National Park Service is Mori Point, a small parcel of land on the Pacifica coast. In 1988, UNESCO designated the GGNRA and 12 adjacent protected areas the Golden Gate Biosphere Reserve, the property, located south of Pacifica and surrounding the communities of Moss Beach and Montara, is home to many diverse plant and animal species. The bill passed in the Senate, but did not pass the House of Representatives, Fort Baker - former Army post located on the northern side of the Golden Gate Headlands Center for the Arts - an artist residency program set in renovated military buildings in the Marin Headlands. Nike Missile Site SF-88 - a decommissioned Army surface-to-air missile site located near Fort Barry, located at the southwestern corner of the Presidio Battery Chamberlin - one of the last remaining coastal defense disappearing guns on the U. S. Trails lead across the ridge and to Sharp Park beach, the site includes recently restored wetlands and a pond, protecting endangered San Francisco garter snake and red-legged frog habitat. Rancho Corral de Tierra - the GGNRAs newest park, Golden Gate National Recreation Area Scenery Video, a video showing the scenery observed from the GGNRA, including footage from Lands End
15.
Ferry
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A ferry is a merchant vessel used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo as well, across a body of water. Most ferries operate regular return services, a passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water taxi. Ferries form a part of the transport systems of many waterside cities and islands. However, ship connections of much larger distances may also be called ferry services, the profession of the ferryman is embodied in Greek mythology in Charon, the boatman who transported souls across the River Styx to the Underworld. Speculation that a pair of oxen propelled a ship having a wheel can be found in 4th century Roman literature Anonymus De Rebus Bellicis. Though impractical, there is no reason why it could not work and such a ferry, see When Horses Walked on Water, Horse-Powered Ferries in Nineteenth-Century America. The Marine Services Company of Tanzania offers passenger and cargo services in three of the African Great Lakes viz, Lake Victoria, Lake Tanganyika and Lake Nyasa. It also operates one of the oldest ferries in the region, Ferries from Great Britain also sail to Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain and Ireland. Some ferries carry mainly tourist traffic, but most also carry freight, in Britain, car-carrying ferries are sometimes referred to as RORO for the ease by which vehicles can board and leave. The busiest single ferry route is across the part of Øresund. Before the Øresund bridge was opened in July 2000, car and car & train ferries departed up to seven times every hour, in 2013, this has been reduced, but a car ferry still departs from each harbor every 15 minutes during daytime. The route is around 2.2 nautical miles and the crossing takes 22 minutes, today, all ferries on this route are constructed so that they do not need to turn around in the harbors. This also means that the ferries lack natural stems and sterns, due to the same circumstances, starboard and port-side are dynamic and depending of in what direction the ferry sails. Despite the short crossing, the ferries are equipped with restaurants, cafeteria, kiosks, large cruiseferries sail in the Baltic Sea between Finland, Åland, Sweden, Estonia, Latvia and Saint Petersburg, Russia and from Italy to Sardinia, Corsica, Spain and Greece. In many ways, these ferries are like cruise ships, also many smaller ferries operate on domestic routes in Finland, Sweden and Estonia. The south-west and southern parts of the Baltic Sea has several routes mainly for heavy traffic, on the longer of these routes, simple cabins are available. In Istanbul, ferries connect the European and Asian shores of Bosphorus, as well as Princes Islands, in 2014 İDO transported 47 million passengers, the largest ferry system in the world. Due to the numbers of freshwater lakes and length of shoreline in Canada
16.
San Francisco Ferry Building
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The San Francisco Ferry Building is a terminal for ferries that travel across the San Francisco Bay, a food hall and an office building. It is located on The Embarcadero in San Francisco, California, on top of the building is a 245-foot tall clock tower with four clock dials, each 22 feet in diameter, which can be seen from Market Street, a main thoroughfare of the city. Designed in 1892 by American architect A, Page Brown in the Beaux Arts style, the ferry building was completed in 1898. At its opening, it was the largest project undertaken in the city up to that time, Brown designed the clock tower after the 12th-century Giralda bell tower in Seville, Spain, and the entire length of the building on both frontages is based on an arched arcade. With decreased use since the 1950s, after bridges were constructed across the bay to carry passenger traffic, in 2002, a restoration and renovation were undertaken to redevelop the entire complex. The 660-foot long Great Nave was restored, together with its height, a marketplace was created on the ground floor, the former baggage handling area. The second and third floors were adapted for office and Port Commission use, during daylight, on every full and half-hour, the clock bell chimes portions of the Westminster Quarters. The ferry terminal is a designated San Francisco landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the present structure was designed in 1892 by A. Page Brown, a New York architect who had started with McKim, Mead & White, influenced by studies at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, he designed the clock tower after the 12th-century Giralda bell tower in Seville, Spain. Brown designed it to satisfy needs of a society in high style associated with traditional buildings. The highest quality materials were used, such as marble and mosaics for the state seal, the 660-foot-long Great Nave on the second floor was the major public space for arriving and departing ferry passengers. Opened in 1898, the building replaced a wooden predecessor, the well-built reinforced building with its arched arcades survived both the 1906 and the 1989 earthquakes with little damage. It served as the destination for commuters to San Francisco from the East Bay, who rode the ferry fleets of the Southern Pacific, in the afternoon, they caught ferries returning across the bay. A loop track in front of the building enabled convenient transfers to streetcars, a large pedestrian bridge spanned the Embarcadero in front of the Ferry building to facilitate safe crossing of the busy plaza and transit hub. In the 1940s, this bridge was deconstructed to supply scrap metal for the Second World War. Until the completion of the Bay Bridge and Golden Gate Bridge in the 1930s, after the bridges opened, and the new Key System trains began running to the East Bay from the Transbay Terminal in 1939, passenger ferry use fell sharply. The formerly grand public space was reduced to a narrow and dark corridor, passengers were made to wait for ferries on outdoor benches, and the ticketing booths were moved to the pier. With the construction in the late 1950s of the Embarcadero Freeway, pedestrian access was treated as an afterthought, and the public was cut off from the waterfront
17.
Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco
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Fishermans Wharf is a neighborhood and popular tourist attraction in San Francisco, California. It roughly encompasses the northern waterfront area of San Francisco from Ghirardelli Square or Van Ness Avenue east to Pier 35 or Kearny Street. The F Market streetcar runs through the area, the Powell-Hyde cable car runs to Aquatic Park, at the edge of Fishermans Wharf. One, Achille Paladini, found success wholesaling local fish as owner of the Paladini Fish Company, most of the Italian immigrant fishermen settled in the North Beach area close to the wharf and fished for the local delicacies and the now famed Dungeness crab. From then until the present day it remained the base of San Franciscos fishing fleet. Despite its redevelopment into a tourist attraction during the 1970s and 1980s, seafood restaurants are aplenty in the area. Some include the floating Forbes Island restaurant at Pier 39 to stands that serve fresh seafood, most notably Dungeness crab, some of the restaurants, including Fishermens Grotto, Pompeis Grotto and Aliotos, go back for three generations of the same family ownership. Other restaurants include chains like Joes Crab Shack and Bubba Gump Shrimp Co, other attractions in Fishermans Wharf area are the Hyde Street Pier, the USS Pampanito, a decommissioned World War II era submarine, and the Balclutha, a 19th-century cargo ship. Nearby Pier 45 has a chapel in memory of the Lost Fishermen of San Francisco, there is a sea lion colony next to Pier 39. They took-up residence months before the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989, the sea lions lie on wooden docks that were originally used for docking boats. He has been a permanent entertainer in the Fishermans Wharf area for the past 30 years and has gained an amount of notoriety among the locals. In 1985, the wharf was used as a location in the James Bond film A View to a Kill. Fishermans Wharf Merchants Association For visitor information including lodging, dining, attractions, sightseeing, arcadia Publishing Fishermans Wharf Merchants Association Fishermans Wharf Community Benefit District JB Monaco Fishermans Wharf Photo Gallery
18.
Hornblower Cruises
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Hornblower Cruises & Events is a San Francisco-based charter yacht, dining cruise and ferry service company. The company began in 1974 in Berkeley, CA with two ships, in 1980 the original owner, Ward Proescher, sold the business to Terry MacRae and P. Michael Watson. Proescher later went on to start a charter yacht company in the Bay Area. By acquiring existing charter yacht companies, Hornblower was able to expand into San Diego in 1984, shortly thereafter the company acquired the Marina del Rey-based Marina Cruise Lines. By 1989 the company operated in Berkeley, San Francisco, San Diego, Newport Beach, the corporate headquarters were located on the historic ferry Santa Rosa, which is moored at Pier 3 in San Francisco. In 1992 Terry MacRae became the owner of Hornblower Yachts, Inc. In 1996 Hornblower Marine Services was created to fill a need as a consultant to the riverboat casino. By 2003, HMS grew to 80 employees, with offices in San Francisco, New London, Boston, three year later, HMS had become the leading worldwide provider of high-speed ferry services. Today, Hornblower operates out of eight different ports, including, San Francisco, Berkeley, Sacramento, Marina Del Rey, Long Beach, Newport Beach, San Diego, the companys entire fleet now includes more than 30 ships. Hornblower Canada Co. was selected following a bid process. Maid of the Mist continues to operate out of Niagara Falls. Between 1997 and 2002 Hornblower operated in Lake Tahoe, beginning with the acquisition of Lake Tahoe Cruises Inc. business expanded to include ferry service across Lake Tahoe and land shuttle services between South Lake Tahoe and Squaw Valley Ski Resort. Lake Link ferry service was launched across Lake Tahoe, and was the fastest passenger boat on the lake, in 2002 the Lake Tahoe port was sold to Aramark - the owner and operator of the MS Dixie - the primary long-standing competition for the Tahoe Queen. In 2006 Hornblower won the National Park Service concession for ferry service to Alcatraz Island when the contract with the Blue, under the name Alcatraz Cruises, the company provides ticketing service and transportation to the one and a half million visitors to the island every year. In 2008, Alcatraz Cruises introduced the Hornblower Hybrid to the fleet—the first hybrid ferry in the United States, the Hybrid runs off of solar power, wind power, and low-emission diesel fuel. Under the name Statue Cruises, the company provides ticketing service and transportation for visitors to the Statue of Liberty National Monument, boats depart from either Communipaw Terminal, Liberty State Park in Jersey City or Castle Clinton, Battery Park in Lower Manhattan. The affiliated Liberty Water Taxi operates between Liberty State Park and the Battery Park City Ferry Terminal, in 2015, Hornblower Cruises was selected to operate New York Citys Citywide Ferry Service, which is set to start operations in 2017. It will be the companys first commuter ferry operation, the M/V Zumbrota, built for circus magnate Charles Ringling and named for the then-largest elephant in captivity, was acquired to serve guests in San Diego
19.
Lighthouse
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Lighthouses mark dangerous coastlines, hazardous shoals, reefs, and safe entries to harbors, and can assist in aerial navigation. Once widely used, the number of operational lighthouses has declined due to the expense of maintenance, before the development of clearly defined ports, mariners were guided by fires built on hilltops. Since raising the fire would improve the visibility, placing the fire on a platform became a practice that led to the development of the lighthouse. In antiquity, the lighthouse functioned more as a marker to ports than as a warning signal for reefs and promontories. The most famous lighthouse structure from antiquity was the Pharos of Alexandria, coins from Alexandria, Ostia, and Laodicea in Syria also exist. The modern era of lighthouses began at the turn of the 18th century, advances in structural engineering and new and efficient lighting equipment allowed for the creation of larger and more powerful lighthouses, including ones exposed to the sea. The function of lighthouses shifted toward the provision of a warning against shipping hazards. The Eddystone Rocks were a major hazard for mariners sailing through the English Channel. The first lighthouse built there was a wooden structure, anchored by 12 iron stanchions secured in the rock. His lighthouse was the first tower in the world to have been exposed to the open sea. The civil engineer, John Smeaton, rebuilt the lighthouse from 1756–59, his tower marked a step forward in the design of lighthouses. He modelled the shape of his lighthouse on that of an oak tree and he pioneered the use of hydraulic lime, a form of concrete that will set under water, and developed a technique of securing the granite blocks together using dovetail joints and marble dowels. This profile had the advantage of allowing some of the energy of the waves to dissipate on impact with the walls. His lighthouse was the prototype for the lighthouse and influenced all subsequent engineers. One such influence was Robert Stevenson, himself a figure in the development of lighthouse design. His greatest achievement was the construction of the Bell Rock Lighthouse in 1810 and this structure was based upon Smeatons design, but with several improved features, such as the incorporation of rotating lights, alternating between red and white. Stevenson worked for the Northern Lighthouse Board for nearly fifty years during which time he designed and oversaw the construction and he also invented the movable jib and the balance crane as a necessary part for lighthouse construction. Alexander Mitchell designed the first screw-pile lighthouse – his lighthouse was built on piles that were screwed into the sandy or muddy seabed, construction of his design began in 1838 at the mouth of the Thames and was known as the Maplin Sands lighthouse, and first lit in 1841
20.
West Coast of the United States
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The West Coast or Pacific Coast is the coastline along which the contiguous Western United States meets the North Pacific Ocean. As a region, this term most often refers to the states of California. More specifically, it refers to an area defined on the east by the Cascade Range, Sierra Nevada and Mojave Desert, the U. S. Census groups the five states of California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, and Hawaii together as the Pacific States division. As of the 2010 Census, the population of the Census Bureaus Pacific Region was approximately 47.8 million – about 15. 3% of US population. The largest city on the west coast of the United States is Los Angeles, small isolated groups of hunter-gatherers migrated alongside herds of large herbivores far into Alaska. Between 16,500 BCE and 13,500 BCE, ice-free corridors developed along the Pacific coast and valleys of North America, Alaska Natives, indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast, and California indigenous peoples eventually descended from the Paleo-Indians. They developed various languages and established trade routes, later, Spanish, British, French, Russian, and American explorers and settlers began colonizing the area. The West Coast of the United States has a climate in its Northern edge towards the Canada–US border. The coastline sees significantly mild temperatures when compared to the areas during summer. In far Northern California there is a difference of 17 °C between Eurekas and Willow Creek in spite of only 25 miles separating the locations and Willow Creek being located at a 500 metres elevation, coastal fog is also prevalent in keeping shoreline temperatures cool. Since the West Coast has been populated by more recently than the East Coast. Additionally, its demographic composition underlies its cultural difference from the rest of the United States. Californias history first as a major Spanish colony, and later Mexican territory, has given the lower West Coast a distinctive Hispanic tone, which it also shares with the rest of the Southwest. Similarly, two of the three cities in which Asian Americans have concentrated, San Francisco and Los Angeles, are located on the West Coast, San Franciscos Chinatown, the oldest in North America, is a vibrant cultural center. The West Coast also has a large share of green cities within the United States. Other writers, like Jean Baudrillard, Mike Davis, and Umberto Eco, have made related statements on Californian culture, in the Northwest, Portland and Seattle are both considered among the coffee capitals of the world. While Starbucks originated in Seattle, both towns are known for coffee roasters and independent coffeeshops. In the Pacific Northwest at large, which includes the Canadian west coast, the culture has significantly shaped by the environment, especially by its forests, mountains
21.
Fortification
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Fortifications are military constructions or buildings designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and also used to solidify rule in a region during peace time. Humans have constructed defensive works for many thousands of years, in a variety of increasingly complex designs, the term is derived from the Latin fortis and facere. From very early history to modern times, walls have been a necessity for cities to survive in a changing world of invasion. Some settlements in the Indus Valley Civilization were the first small cities to be fortified, in ancient Greece, large stone walls had been built in Mycenaean Greece, such as the ancient site of Mycenae. A Greek Phrourion was a collection of buildings used as a military garrison. These construction mainly served the purpose of a tower, to guard certain roads, passes. Though smaller than a fortress, they acted as a border guard rather than a real strongpoint to watch. The art of setting out a camp or constructing a fortification traditionally has been called castramentation since the time of the Roman legions. Fortification is usually divided into two branches, permanent fortification and field fortification, there is also an intermediate branch known as semi-permanent fortification. Castles are fortifications which are regarded as being distinct from the fort or fortress in that they are a residence of a monarch or noble. Roman forts and hill forts were the antecedents of castles in Europe. The Early Middle Ages saw the creation of towns built around castles. Medieval-style fortifications were made obsolete by the arrival of cannons in the 14th century. Fortifications in the age of black powder evolved into much lower structures with greater use of ditches and earth ramparts that would absorb, Walls exposed to direct cannon fire were very vulnerable, so were sunk into ditches fronted by earth slopes. The arrival of explosive shells in the 19th century led to yet another stage in the evolution of fortification, steel-and-concrete fortifications were common during the 19th and early 20th centuries. However the advances in warfare since World War I have made large-scale fortifications obsolete in most situations. Demilitarized zones along borders are arguably another type of fortification, although a passive kind, many military installations are known as forts, although they are not always fortified. Larger forts may be called fortresses, smaller ones were known as fortalices
22.
Tide pool
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Tide pools, or rock pools, are rocky pools on the sea shore which are filled with seawater. Many of these pools exist as separate pools only at low tide, Tidal pools exist in the intertidal zones. These zones are submerged by the sea at high tides and during storms, at other times the rocks may undergo other extreme conditions, baking in the sun or exposed to cold winds. Few organisms can survive harsh conditions. Lichens and barnacles live in this region, in this zone, different barnacle species live at very tightly constrained elevations. Tidal conditions precisely determine the height of an assemblage relative to sea level. The intertidal zone is exposed to sun and wind, which desiccate barnacles. Their calcite shells are impermeable, and they possess two plates which they slide across their mouth opening when not feeding and these plates also protect against predation. The high tide zone is flooded during high tide. Organisms must survive wave action, currents, and exposure to the sun and this zone is predominantly inhabited by seaweed and invertebrates, such as sea anemones, starfish, chitons, crabs, green algae, and mussels. Marine algae provide shelter for nudibranches and hermit crabs, the same waves and currents that make life in the high tide zone difficult bring food to filter feeders and other intertidal organisms. Also called the Lower Littoral Zone and this area is usually under water - it is only exposed when the tide is unusually low. This sub region is mostly submerged, but it is exposed only during low tide, often it teems with life and has much more marine vegetation, especially seaweeds. Organisms in this zone do not have to be as well adapted to drying out, low tide zone organisms include abalone, anemones, brown seaweed, chitons, crabs, green algae, hydroids, isopods, limpets, mussels, and sometimes even small vertebrates such as fish. This area is relatively protected from large predators because of the wave action. Tide pools provide a home for hardy organisms such as starfish, mussels, inhabitants must be able to deal with a frequently changing environment — fluctuations in water temperature, salinity, and oxygen content. Hazards include waves, strong currents, exposure to midday sun, waves can dislodge mussels and draw them out to sea. Gulls pick up and drop sea urchins to break them open, starfish prey on mussels and are eaten by gulls themselves
23.
Seabird
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Seabirds are birds that are adapted to life within the marine environment. The first seabirds evolved in the Cretaceous period, and modern seabird families emerged in the Paleogene, in general, seabirds live longer, breed later and have fewer young than other birds do, but they invest a great deal of time in their young. Most species nest in colonies, which can vary in size from a few birds to millions. Many species are famous for undertaking long annual migrations, crossing the equator or circumnavigating the Earth in some cases and they feed both at the oceans surface and below it, and even feed on each other. Seabirds can be highly pelagic, coastal, or in some cases spend a part of the year away from the sea entirely, Seabirds and humans have a long history together, they have provided food to hunters, guided fishermen to fishing stocks and led sailors to land. Many species are threatened by human activities, and conservation efforts are under way. There exists no single definition of which groups, families and species are seabirds, and most definitions are in some way arbitrary. In the words of two scientists, The one common characteristic that all seabirds share is that they feed in saltwater. However, by all of the Sphenisciformes and Procellariiformes, all of the Pelecaniformes except the darters. The phalaropes are usually included as well, since although they are waders, loons and grebes, which nest on lakes but winter at sea, are usually categorized as water birds, not seabirds. Although there are a number of sea ducks in the family Anatidae that are truly marine in the winter, many waders and herons are also highly marine, living on the seas edge, but are also not treated as seabirds. Seabirds, by virtue of living in a depositional environment, are well represented in the fossil record. In the Paleogene the seas were dominated by early Procellariidae, giant penguins, modern genera began their wide radiation in the Miocene, although the genus Puffinus might date back to the Oligocene. The highest diversity of seabirds apparently existed during the Late Miocene, Seabirds have made numerous adaptations to living on and feeding in the sea. Wing morphology has been shaped by the niche an individual species or family has evolved, so that looking at a wings shape, longer wings and low wing loading are typical of more pelagic species, while diving species have shorter wings. Seabirds also almost always have webbed feet, to aid movement on the surface as well as assisting diving in some species. The Procellariiformes are unusual among birds in having a sense of smell, which is used to find widely distributed food in a vast ocean. Salt glands are used by seabirds to deal with the salt they ingest by drinking and feeding, the excretions from these glands are almost pure sodium chloride
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Western gull
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The western gull is a large white-headed gull that lives on the west coast of North America. It was previously considered conspecific with the yellow-footed gull of the Gulf of California, the western gull ranges from British Columbia, Canada to Baja California, Mexico, and, because of its convenient colonies on the coast of California, it is well studied. Despite being a bird species on the West Coast of the US. The western gull is a large gull that can measure 55 to 68 cm in length, spans 130 to 144 cm across the wings. The average mass among a survey of 48 gulls of the species was 1,011 g. Among standard measurements, the chord is 38 to 44.8 cm, the bill is 4.7 to 6.2 cm. The western gull has a head and body, and gray wings. It has a bill with a red subterminal spot. It closely resembles the slaty-backed gull, in the north of its range it forms a hybrid zone with its close relative the glaucous-winged gull. Western gulls take approximately four years to reach their full plumage, their layer of feathers, the western gull typically lives about 15 years, but can live up to 25 years. The largest western gull colony is on the Farallon Islands, located about 26 mi west of San Francisco, California, the western gull is rarely encountered inland or away from the ocean and is almost an exclusively marine gull. It nests on islands and rocks along the coast. A colony also exists on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay, in the colonies, long term pairs aggressively defend territories whose borders may shift slightly from year to year, but are maintained for the life of the male. Western gulls feed in pelagic environments and in intertidal environments, at sea, they take fish and invertebrates like krill, squid and jellyfish. They cannot dive and feed exclusively on the surface, on land they feed on seal and sea lion carcasses, as well as cockles, starfish, limpets and snails in the intertidal zone. They also feed on human food refuse, in human-altered habitats including landfills, at times some western gulls can be predatory, preying on the young of other birds and even adults of some species. One western gull at Oaklands Lake Merritt was known for killing and eating pigeons on a daily basis, Western gulls will also snatch a fish from a cormorants or pelicans mouth before it is swallowed. A nest of vegetation is constructed inside the territory and 3 eggs are laid
25.
Cormorant
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Phalacrocoracidae is a family of some 40 species of aquatic birds commonly known as cormorants and shags. Several different classifications of the family have been proposed recently, there is no consistent distinction between cormorants and shags as these appellations have been assigned to different species randomly. Cormorants and shags are medium-to-large birds, with weight in the range of 0. 35–5 kilograms. The majority of species have dark feathers, the bill is long, thin and hooked. Their feet have webbing between all four toes, all species are fish-eaters, catching the prey by diving from the surface. They are excellent divers, and under water they propel themselves with their feet with help from their wings and they have relatively short wings due to their need for economical movement underwater, and consequently have the highest flight costs of any bird. Cormorants nest in colonies around the shore, on trees, islets or cliffs and they are coastal rather than oceanic birds, and some have colonised inland waters – indeed, the original ancestor of cormorants seems to have been a fresh-water bird. They range around the world, except for the central Pacific islands, no consistent distinction exists between cormorants and shags. The names cormorant and shag were originally the names of the two species of the family found in Great Britain, Phalacrocorax carbo and P. aristotelis. Shag refers to the birds crest, which the British forms of the great cormorant lack, as other species were discovered by English-speaking sailors and explorers elsewhere in the world, some were called cormorants and some shags, depending on whether they had crests or not. Sometimes the same species is called a cormorant in one part of the world and a shag in another, e. g. the great cormorant is called the black shag in New Zealand. Van Tets proposed to divide the family into two genera and attach the name cormorant to one and shag to the other, but this flies in the face of common usage and has not been widely adopted. The scientific genus name is Latinised Ancient Greek, from φαλακρός, Cormorant is a contraction derived either directly from Latin corvus marinus, sea raven or through Brythonic Celtic. Cormoran is the Cornish name of the sea giant in the tale of Jack the Giant Killer, indeed, sea raven or analogous terms were the usual terms for cormorants in Germanic languages until after the Middle Ages. Cormorants and shags are medium-to-large seabirds and they range in size from the pygmy cormorant, at as little as 45 cm and 340 g, to the flightless cormorant, at a maximum size 100 cm and 5 kg. The recently extinct spectacled cormorant was rather larger, at a size of 6.3 kg. The majority, including nearly all Northern Hemisphere species, have dark plumage, but some Southern Hemisphere species are black and white. Many species have areas of coloured skin on the face which can be blue, orange, red or yellow
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Egret
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An egret /ˈiːɡrət/ is a bird that is any of several herons, most of which are white or buff, and several of which develop fine plumes during the breeding season. Many egrets are members of the genera Egretta or Ardea which also contain other species named as herons rather than egrets, the distinction between a heron and an egret is rather vague, and depends more on appearance than biology. Several of the egrets have been reclassified from one genus to another in recent years, several Egretta species, including the eastern reef egret, the reddish egret, and the western reef egret have two distinct colours, one of which is entirely white. The little blue heron has all-white juvenile plumage, media related to Ardeidae at Wikimedia Commons Data related to Ardeidae at Wikispecies Great egret Ardea alba—USGS
27.
Alcatraz Cellhouse
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The main prison building was built in 1910–1912 during its time as a United States Army military prison, Alcatraz had been the site of a citadel since the 1860s. Alcatraz was designed to hold prisoners who continuously caused trouble at other federal prisons, Doc Barker, and Alvin Creepy Karpis. It also provided housing for the Bureau of Prisons staff and their families, faced with high maintenance costs and a poor reputation, Alcatraz closed on March 21,1963. The three-story cellhouse included the four blocks of the jail, A-block, B-block, C-block, and D-block, the wardens office, visitation room, the library. The prison cells typically measured 9 feet by 5 feet and 7 feet high, the cells were primitive and lacked privacy, with a bed, a desk and a washbasin and toilet on the back wall, with few furnishings except a blanket. African-Americans were segregated from the rest in cell designation due to racial abuse being prevalent, D-Block housed the worst inmates and five cells at the end of it were designated as The Hole, where badly behaving prisoners would be sent for periods of punishment, often brutally so. The dining hall and kitchen lay off the building in an extended part where both prisoners and staff would eat three meals a day together. The Alcatraz Hospital was above the dining hall, corridors of the prison were named after major American streets such as Broadway and Michigan Avenue. Today the penitentiary is a museum and one of San Franciscos major tourist attractions. The main cellhouse was originally the location of the cellhouse for the military citadel, a new cellhouse was built in 1910–1912 on a budget of $250,000 and upon completion, the 500 feet long concrete building was reputedly the longest concrete building in the world at the time. In 1933–34 this building remained, but was modernized and became the main cellhouse of the federal penitentiary until it was closed in 1963, when the new concrete prison was built, many materials were reused in its construction. After the U. S. Armys use of the island for over 80 years, the purpose of this transfer was to punish those involved in the rampant crime which prevailed in the country in the 1920s and 1930s. The $260,000 conversion to the prison took place from January 1934. George Hess of the United States Public Health Service was appointed the medical officer of the prison. The hospital facilities were checked by three officials from the Marine Hospital of San Francisco, the Bureau of Prisons personnel arrived on Alcatraz in early February, among them was Loring O. Mills, acting chief clerk. In April 1934, the old material was removed from the prison, holes were cut in the concrete and 269 cell fronts were installed, two of four new stairways were built, as were 12 doors to the utility corridors and gratings at the top of the cells. On April 26, a small fire broke out on the roof. Fencing around Alcatraz was added by the Anchor Post Fence Company and emergency lighting in the morgue, final checks and assessments were made on the first two days of August
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Alcatraz Dining Hall
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Alcatraz Dining Hall, often referred to as the Mess Hall, is the dining hall of Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary where the prisoners and staff ate their meals. It is a wing on the west end of the Main Cellhouse of Alcatraz. It is connected to the block by a known as “Times Square”. This wing includes the hall and the kitchen beyond it. Prisoners would be awakened at 6,30, and sent to breakfast at 6,55, the original daily menu, established in 1934, included oatmeal, milk, fried bologna sausage, cottage fried potatoes, toast, oleomargarine, and coffee for breakfast. Dinner contained bean soup, roast beef, gravy, string-less beans, mashed potatoes, supper was a meal that had pork and beans, cornbread, potato salad, apricots, bread, oleomargarine, and coffee. A breakfast menu is still preserved on the board, dated 21 March 1963. The breakfast menu included assorted dry cereals, steamed whole wheat, an egg, milk, stewed fruit, toast, bread. Lunch was served in the hall at 11,20, followed by a 30-minute rest in the cell. Dinner was served at 16,25 and the prisoners would then retire to their cells at 16,50 to be locked in for the night. At the end of each 20 minute meal, the forks, spoons and knives were out on the table. Prisoners were forbidden from talking while eating, although many would do so discreetly, each dining table had benches which held up to six men, although smaller tables and chairs later replaced these which seated four. All of the population, including the guards and officials would dine together. The food served at Alcatraz was reportedly the best in the United States prison system, on the second floor was an auditorium, which was where movies were screened to the inmates at weekends. The gun gallery was situated in the Recreation Yard and mounted on one of the halls exterior walls. There was a metal detector outside of the hall for security purposes, the dining hall had tear-gas canisters attached to the rafters of the ceiling which could be activated by remote control, should prisoners riot or attempt to escape. The first warden, James A. Johnston, always entered the dining hall alone and unarmed, several riots did break out in the dining hall during Alcatrazs history. Those prisoners who were not involved in the fighting hid under the dining tables to escape possible retribution
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Alcatraz Library
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Alcatraz Library was the library used by inmates of the Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary. It was located at the end of D-Block, the library, which utilized a closed-stack paging system, had a collection of 10,000 to 15,000 books, mainly left over from the army days. Inmates were permitted a maximum of three books in addition to up to 12 text books, a Bible, and a dictionary and they were permitted to subscribe to magazines but crime-related pages were torn out and newspapers were not prohibited. Failure to return books by the date given made the inmate liable to removal of privileges. A sign in the library today has an extract from the Federal Bureau of Prisons booklet in 1960 which says, philosophers such as Kant, Schopenhauer, Hegel, etc. are especially popular. A law library was added to A-Block. A library scene in Alcatraz appeared in the 1979 Clint Eastwood film Escape from Alcatraz in which Eastwoods character of Frank Morris converses with another inmate
30.
Alcatraz Lighthouse
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Alcatraz Island Lighthouse is a lighthouse – the first one built on the U. S. West Coast – located on Alcatraz Island in Californias San Francisco Bay and it is located at the southern end of the island near the entrance to the prison. The first light house on the island was completed in 1854 and it was replaced by a taller 95 feet above mean sea level) concrete tower built in 1909 to the south of the original one which was demolished after it was damaged due to earthquake in 1906. The automation of the lighthouse with a modern beacon took place in 1963 and it is the oldest light station on the island with a modern beacon and is part of the museum on the island. Although when viewed from afar it looks the tallest structure on Alcatraz, it is actually shorter than the Alcatraz Water Tower. Since he observed pelicans in large numbers on the island he named the island as Isla de los Alcatraces” meaning the “Island of Pelicans”, the island is separated from the main land by more than 1 mile. The gold rush and the inherent risk of the waters of the west coast prompted the urgent need for establishing lighthouses. Congress recognized the need and passed suitable acts in the years 1851 and 1852 to build seven lighthouses on the West Coast to guide navigation, equipment were shipped on Oriole, reached San Francisco on January 29,1853. The Alcatraz Lighthouse was the first to be completed in July 1853, however, the foundation for building the light house had begun much before the equipment reached San Francisco. The Baltimore firm was informed of this change before the equipment was shipped, the shipping involved a long sea voyage of 12,000 miles from the East Coast going round the cape of South America. It was lit on June 1,1854 from a fixed, in 1902, it was transferred to the Cape St. Elias Lighthouse in Alaska and replaced by a revolving fourth-order Fresnel lens, producing a white flash every five seconds. In 1909-12, the present cell house of Alcatraz was built, since the new structure would interfere with the operation of the lighthouse, a taller 25.6 metres, concrete tower was built south of the original lighthouse. The original lighthouse had been damaged during the great San Francisco earthquake of 1906 and was torn down. In 1963, the Alcatraz Lighthouse was automated by the United States Coast Guard, in 1970 a fire destroyed the wardens house, the keepers quarters and other buildings on the island. The only remaining building is the tall cement tower equipped with a modern beacon, the lighthouse has been a museum since 2000 and can be visited. In over 50 years, the lighthouse has not been seriously damaged despite many prison escapes, construction of the foundation started in 1852, and the one-and-a-half-storied keepers house and light were completed in 1853. The lens arrived in October 1853 and Michael Cassin lit it on June 1,1854, thus setting a milestone of sorts for this lighthouse, the old lighthouse was damaged in the earthquake which occurred on Wednesday the April 18,1906. A new lighthouse was built to the south east of the old one, the old lighthouse existed alongside the new structure for a while and used as a storehouse, but was eventually demolished between 1912 and 1913
31.
Warden's House (Alcatraz Island)
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The Hoe House was the home of the wardens of the state penitentiary on Alcatraz Island, off San Francisco. It is located at the end of the Main Cellblock. The 3-floor 15-room mansion was built in 1921 according to the Golden Gate National Recreational Area signpost, between 1934 and 1963 the four wardens of Alcatraz resided here including the first warden, James A. Johnston. The mansion had tall windows, providing views of San Francisco Bay. Today the house is a ruin, burned down during the AIM Occupation of Alcatraz on June 1,1970, like many sites on the island, the house is reputed to be haunted
32.
Parade Grounds
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The Parade Grounds is a large concrete open area on the south end of Alcatraz Island, off the coast of San Francisco, USA. They were originally built in the 1860s on a site by the U. S. military who used the site for military drills. As the nearby Building 64 aged and fell into disrepair, the operators of the prison funded several new residential blocks on the square, gardens were developed around them, and handball and weightlifing facilities developed for the employees and their families
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Building 64
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It functioned as the Military Guard Barracks from 1906 until 1933. One of its largest apartments in the southwest corner was known as the Cow Palace, most of the other residential quarters have since been demolished, but Building 64 remains and has since been renovated. During the Occupation of Alcatraz, in 1970 the Native Americans drew graffiti in red around the United States Penitentiary sign saying Indians welcome, there is a book store on the ground floor on the left side of the building
34.
Alcatraz water tower
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Alcatraz water tower is on Alcatraz Island in the San Francisco Bay, off the coast of San Francisco, California. It is located on the side of the island, near Tower No. 3, beyond the Morgue and Recreation Yard, the water tank is situated on six cross-braced steel legs submerged in concrete foundations. As Alcatraz had no water supply of its own, it had to import it from the mainland, brought by tug, during the islands military years, it was stored in ground tanks and cisterns situated on the roof of the citadel. The water tower was built in 1940–41 by the Federal Bureau of Prisons and it is the tallest building on the island, at a height of 94 feet with a volume of 250,000 U. S. gallons of fresh water. It was used to store water for drinking, water for firefighting. During the Occupation of Alcatraz, the tower was subject to heavy graffiti by the Native Americans and has since become a cultural landmark. Graffiti included free Indian land -- Indians welcome, the tower has been empty since 1963 and has deteriorated, eroded by the salt air and wind. From November 2011 through April 2012, the tower was given a US$1.1 million restoration to prevent irreparable damage, steel components were replaced and the tower was seismically upgraded. The lead paint was sanded and the tower repainted with marine paint
35.
New Industries Building
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The New Industries Building is a building on the western end of Alcatraz Island off the coast of San Francisco, USA. It was constructed in 1939 for $186,000 as part of a $1.1 million modernization scheme which included the water tower, power house, officers quarters. They made items such as gloves, furniture mats, and army uniforms, the laundry room occupied the entire upper floor, the largest in San Francisco at the time. Each window has 9 panes and there are 17 bays on each floor on either side, the Guard Tower on the top of the building was also renovated and remounted. Smoller says that she picked up on the sound of buzzing of sewing machines and energy of the workplace. Nothing happened for several minutes until the magnetometer reportedly jumped, montz said that unless there was an electromagnetic device in the building which would cause it to have taken place, then there was definitely paranormal activity taking place. Apparently unknown to the investigators, the incident had occurred in the area that Henri Young had murdered Rufus McCain, stabbing him in neck
36.
Model Industries Building
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The Model Industries building or Industries Building is a three/four-storey building on the northwest corner of Alcatraz Island off the coast of San Francisco, USA. As part of the Alcatraz jail, it held workshops for inmates to work in, on January 10,1935, the building shifted to within 2.5 feet from the edge of the cliff following a landslide caused by a severe storm. A smaller, cheaper riprap was completed by the end of 1935 and it ceased use as a laundry in 1939 when it was moved to the upper floor of the New Industries Building. Today the building is heavily rusted after decades of exposure to the salt air, today neither the guard tower on top of the building or the Hill Tower exist
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Recreation Yard (Alcatraz)
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The Recreation Yard was the yard used by inmates of Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary between 1934 and 1963. It is located opposite the Dining Hall south of the end of D-Block on a raised level surrounded by a high wall, guard Tower #3 lay just to the west of the yard. The gun gallery was situated in the yard, mounted on one of the halls exterior walls. The recreation yard faced the mainland, in 1936, the previously dirt-covered yard was paved. During the Occupation of Alcatraz in 1970, between 400 and 700 Native Indians assembled in the yard and demonstrated. Inmates were permitted out into the yard on Saturdays and Sundays, inmates who worked seven days a week in the kitchen were rewarded with short yard breaks during the weekdays. Badly behaved prisoners were liable to having their access rights taken away from them on weekends. The prisoners of Alcatraz were permitted to play such as baseball, softball and other sports at these times. Basketball also appears to have played on the yard judging by the markings which are still visible on the yard today. Baseball and softball were the most popular, because of the small size of the yard and the diamond at the end of it, a section of the wall behind the first base had to be padded to cushion the impact of inmates overrunning it. Inmates were provided gloves, bats, and balls, but no sport uniforms, bank robber and kidnapper Volney Davis was a pitching ace for the Oilers, while Lorenzo Murrietta, doing 40 years for assault and robbery, was the best batter in Alcatraz league play. He had a.402 batting average, with 9 home runs and 45 RBIs for the Cardinals, although many of the inmates relished the opportunity to exercise on weekends, violence occasionally occurred, often race related. A notable riot occurred on May 20,1956 over racial taunts on the diamond between a white and black prisoner during a softball match. Many of the inmates used weekends in the yards to converse with other and discuss crime. Machine Gun Kelly and Basil The Owl Banghart were said to be inseparable in the yard, al Capone, on the other hand, avoided the yard in his later years in the penitentiary as his mind deteriorated. Every one of us is doing life, the Alcatraz recreation yard has been a setting for scenes in numerous films and novels. Scenes have featured prison inmates hatching schemes or being involved in bloody conflicts, the yard featured several times in the 1979 Clint Eastwood film Escape from Alcatraz including a violent fight, it was parodied in the 1994 Leslie Nielsen film, Naked Gun 33⅓, The Final Insult
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Spaniards
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Within Spain there are a number of nationalisms and regionalisms, reflecting the countrys complex history and diverse culture. There are several commonly spoken languages, most notably Basque. There are many populations outside Spain with ancestors who emigrated from Spain, the Roman Republic conquered Iberia during the 2nd and 1st centuries BC. As a result of Roman colonization, the majority of languages, with the exception of Basque. The Germanic Vandals and Suebi, with part of the Iranian Alans under King Respendial conquered the peninsula in 409 AD. The Iberian Peninsula was conquered and brought under the rule of the Arab Umayyads in 711 and by the Berber North African dynasties the Almohads, in the early 16th century the Kingdom of Navarre was also conquered. In parallel, a wave of emigration began to the Americas began with over 16 million people emigrating to the Americas during the colonial period. In the post-colonial period, a further 3.5 million Spanish left for the Americas, particularly Argentina, Uruguay, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, as a result, Spanish-descendants in Latin America number in the hundreds of millions. Spain is home to one of the largest communities of Romani people, the Spanish Roma, which belong to the Iberian Kale subgroup, are a formerly-nomadic community, which spread across Western Asia, North Africa, and Europe, first reaching Spain in the 15th century. The population of Spain is became increasingly diverse due to recent immigration, the earliest modern humans inhabiting Spain are believed to have been Neolithic peoples who may have arrived in the Iberian Peninsula as early as 35, 000–40,000 years ago. In more recent times the Iberians are believed to have arrived or developed in the region between the 4th millennium BC and the 3rd millennium BC, initially settling along the Mediterranean coast, celts settled in Spain during the Iron Age. Some of those tribes in North-central Spain, which had contact with the Iberians, are called Celtiberians. In addition, a known as the Tartessians and later Turdetanians inhabited southwestern Spain. The seafaring Phoenicians, Greeks, and Carthaginians successively founded trading colonies along the Mediterranean coast over a period of several centuries, the Second Punic War between the Carthaginians and Romans was fought mainly in what is now Spain and Portugal. The Roman Republic conquered Iberia during the 2nd and 1st centuries BC transformed most of the region into a series of Latin-speaking provinces, hispania emerged as an important part of the Roman Empire and produced notable historical figures such as Trajan, Hadrian, Seneca and Quintilian. The Germanic Vandals and Suebi, with part of the Iranian Alans under King Respendial, the Suebi became the first Germanic kingdom to convert officially to Roman Catholicism in 447 AD. under king Rechiar. After two centuries of domination by the Visigothic Kingdom, the Iberian Peninsula was invaded by a Muslim force under Tariq Bin Ziyad in 711 and this army consisted mainly ethnic Berbers from the Ghomara tribe, which were reinforced by Arabs from Syria once the conquest was complete. Muslim Iberia became part of the Umayyad Caliphate and would be known as Al-Andalus, the Berbers of Al Andalus revolted as early as 740 AD, halting Arab expansion across the Pyrenees into France
39.
Pelican
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Pelicans are a genus of large water birds that makes up the family Pelecanidae. They are characterised by a beak and a large throat pouch used for catching prey. They have predominantly pale plumage, the exceptions being the brown, the bills, pouches and bare facial skin of all species become brightly coloured before the breeding season. Ibises, spoonbills, herons and the desolate bitterns have been classified in the same order, fossil evidence of pelicans dates back to at least 30 million years to the remains of a beak very similar to that of modern species recovered from Oligocene strata in France. Pelicans frequent inland and coastal waters where they feed principally on fish and they are gregarious birds, travelling in flocks, hunting cooperatively and breeding colonially. Four white-plumaged species tend to nest on the ground, and four brown or grey-plumaged species nest mainly in trees, the relationship between pelicans and people has often been contentious. The birds have been persecuted because of their competition with commercial and recreational fishing. Their populations have fallen through habitat destruction, disturbance and environmental pollution and they also have a long history of cultural significance in mythology, and in Christian and heraldic iconography. The genus Pelecanus was first formally described by Linnaeus in 1758 in the edition of his Systema Naturae. He described the characteristics as a straight bill hooked at the tip, linear nostrils, a bare face. This early definition included frigatebirds, cormorants, and sulids as well as pelicans, the name comes from the Ancient Greek word pelekan, which is itself derived from the word pelekys meaning axe. In classical times, the word was applied to both the pelican and the woodpecker, the family Pelecanidae was introduced by the French polymath Constantine Samuel Rafinesque in 1815. Pelicans give their name to the Pelecaniformes, an order which has a varied taxonomic history, in their place, herons, ibises, spoonbills, the hamerkop and the shoebill have now been transferred into Pelecaniformes. Molecular evidence suggests that the shoebill and the form a sister group to the pelicans. Its beak is almost complete and is identical to that of present-day pelicans. The Late Eocene Protopelicanus may be a pelecaniform or suliform – or an aquatic bird such as a pseudotooth. The supposed Miocene pelican Liptornis from Patagonia is a nomen dubium, fossil finds from North America have been meagre compared with Europe, which has a richer fossil record. The Dalmatian, pink-backed and spot-billed were all related to one another
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Brown pelican
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The brown pelican is a small pelican found in the Americas. It is one of the best known and most prominent birds found in the areas of the southern and western United States. It is one of only three species found in the Western Hemisphere and one of the only two that feeds by diving into the water. The brown pelican is the smallest of the eight species of pelican and it is 106–137 cm in length, weighs from 2.75 to 5.5 kg and has a wingspan from 1.83 to 2.5 m. Through most of its range, the pelican is an unmistakable bird. Like all pelicans, this species has a large bill,28 to 34.8 cm long in this case. The head is white but often gets a yellowish wash in adult birds, the bill is grayish overall in most birds, though breeding birds become reddish on the underside of the throat. The back, rump, and tail are streaked with gray and dark brown, in adult pelicans, the breast and belly are a blackish-brown and the legs and feet are black. The juvenile is similar but has a neck and white underparts. The Peruvian pelican, previously considered a subspecies of brown pelican, is now considered to be a separate species and it has very similar plumage to the brown, but it is noticeably larger. The brown and Peruvian pelicans may overlap in areas along the Pacific coast of South America. The brown pelican lives on both coasts in the Americas, on the Atlantic Coast and Gulf Coast they distribute from Nova Scotia to Venezuela, and to the mouth of the Amazon River. Along the Atlantic, they are less common north of the Carolinas. On the Pacific Ocean they are found from British Columbia to northern Peru, in the Pacific, they are fairly common along the coast of California, Mexico and Central America. Some immature birds may stray to inland freshwater lakes, after nesting, North American birds move in flocks further north along the coasts, returning to warmer waters for winter. They are also common in Mangrove swamps, Pelicans are very gregarious birds, they live in flocks of both sexes throughout the year. They are exceptionally buoyant due to the air sacks beneath their skin and in their bones. In level flight, pelicans fly in groups, with their heads back on their shoulders
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Mexico
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Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a federal republic in the southern half of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States, to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean, to the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea, and to the east by the Gulf of Mexico. Covering almost two million square kilometers, Mexico is the sixth largest country in the Americas by total area, Mexico is a federation comprising 31 states and a federal district that is also its capital and most populous city. Other metropolises include Guadalajara, Monterrey, Puebla, Toluca, Tijuana, pre-Columbian Mexico was home to many advanced Mesoamerican civilizations, such as the Olmec, Toltec, Teotihuacan, Zapotec, Maya and Aztec before first contact with Europeans. In 1521, the Spanish Empire conquered and colonized the territory from its base in Mexico-Tenochtitlan, Three centuries later, this territory became Mexico following recognition in 1821 after the colonys Mexican War of Independence. The tumultuous post-independence period was characterized by instability and many political changes. The Mexican–American War led to the cession of the extensive northern borderlands, one-third of its territory. The Pastry War, the Franco-Mexican War, a civil war, the dictatorship was overthrown in the Mexican Revolution of 1910, which culminated with the promulgation of the 1917 Constitution and the emergence of the countrys current political system. Mexico has the fifteenth largest nominal GDP and the eleventh largest by purchasing power parity, the Mexican economy is strongly linked to those of its North American Free Trade Agreement partners, especially the United States. Mexico was the first Latin American member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and it is classified as an upper-middle income country by the World Bank and a newly industrialized country by several analysts. By 2050, Mexico could become the fifth or seventh largest economy. The country is considered both a power and middle power, and is often identified as an emerging global power. Due to its culture and history, Mexico ranks first in the Americas. Mexico is a country, ranking fourth in the world by biodiversity. In 2015 it was the 9th most visited country in the world, Mexico is a member of the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the G8+5, the G20, the Uniting for Consensus and the Pacific Alliance. Mēxihco is the Nahuatl term for the heartland of the Aztec Empire, namely, the Valley of Mexico, and its people, the Mexica and this became the future State of Mexico as a division of New Spain prior to independence. It is generally considered to be a toponym for the valley became the primary ethnonym for the Aztec Triple Alliance as a result. After New Spain won independence from Spain, representatives decided to name the new country after its capital and this was founded in 1524 on top of the ancient Mexica capital of Mexico-Tenochtitlan
42.
Workman-Temple family
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William Workman was born in Temple Sowerby, Westmorland, now Cumbria, England, to Thomas Workman and Nancy Hook. When William was eleven years old, his father inherited a home and property in nearby Clifton from a childless aunt and uncle. In 1814, the Workmans issued cash bequests upon their three sons, with the eldest, David Workman, using half his money to migrate to America in 1817. In the process, David convinced William to join him and the two brothers sailed from Liverpool and landed at Philadelphia in September 1822. He then settled in Taos where he did some fur trapping, opened a store, after a counter-revolt squashed the Taoseño rebellion, Workman and his partner Rowland were arrested for smuggling. A few years later, when the independent Republic of Texas and its president, lamar, sought to extend its boundary to the Rio Grande, thereby annexing the principal towns of New Mexico, Workman and Rowland were named agents of the Texans in New Mexico. Although it is whether they sought the position and were soon replaced. In September of that year, a group of up to sixty-five or so members, including Americans, Europeans and New Mexicans left New Mexico and took the Old Spanish Trail to the Los Angeles pueblo. Workman commemorated his arrival in Southern California with a plaque that dated his landfall as November 5,1841. Rowland obtained a Mexican land grant to the Rancho La Puente, at that time 18,000 acres, William Workman was not officially an owner at that time, though he received an official document allowing him the privileges of an owner in settling on the rancho. Workman occupied the western portions of the rancho and built a home on the property in 1842 that was subsequently expanded by 1856. Notably, Pío Pico had been ordered by the legislature of Alta California to go to Mexico, when Pico returned to Los Angeles in 1848, he spent some time at Workmans residence. Suspicion by the US military was also cast toward the motives of Hugo Reid, nine days before the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was ratified by the Mexican Congress, James W. Marshall discovered gold at Sutters Mill on 24 January 1848. The resulting California Gold Rush brought an economic windfall to Workman. The wealth generated allowed Workman to expand his enterprises, enlarge his house, build a cemetery and chapel on his grounds. Workman later had interests in todays Beverly Hills and Glendale and also had a claim to the Lytle Canyon area near Rancho Cucamonga, by 1861 Workman was engaged predominantly in livestock raising with 3,000 head of cattle and 600 horses. He had about ten acre vineyard and fruit trees and a garden of about 90 square feet at the back of the house with tropical fruit. The chapel that was being built was with brick made on site, Workman provided horses to the US government during the Civil War
43.
Manifest destiny
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In the 19th century, manifest destiny was a widely held belief in the United States that its settlers were destined to expand across North America. Generated by the potentialities of a new earth for building a new heaven, historians have emphasized that manifest destiny was a contested concept—pre-civil war Democrats endorsed the idea but many prominent Americans rejected it. Historian Daniel Walker Howe writes, American imperialism did not represent an American consensus, Whigs saw Americas moral mission as one of democratic example rather than one of conquest. The term was used by Democrats in the 1840s to justify the war with Mexico, but manifest destiny always limped along because of its internal limitations and the issue of slavery, says Merk. It never became a national priority, Merk concluded, From the outset Manifest Destiny—vast in program, in its sense of continentalism—was slight in support. It lacked national, sectional, or party following commensurate with its magnitude, the reason was it did not reflect the national spirit. The thesis that it embodied nationalism, found in historical writing, is backed by little real supporting evidence. There was never a set of principles defining manifest destiny, therefore it was always a general rather than a specific policy made with a motto. Andrew Jackson, who spoke of extending the area of freedom, typified the conflation of Americas potential greatness, the nations budding sense of Romantic self-identity, yet Jackson would not be the only president to elaborate on the principles underlying manifest destiny. Owing in part to the lack of a definitive narrative outlining its rationale, while many writers focused primarily upon American expansionism, be it into Mexico or across the Pacific, others saw the term as a call to example. Without an agreed upon interpretation, much less a political philosophy. This variety of possible meanings was summed up by Ernest Lee Tuveson, A vast complex of ideas, policies and they are not, as we should expect, all compatible, nor do they come from any one source. This destiny was not explicitly territorial, but OSullivan predicted that the United States would be one of a Union of many Republics sharing those values. Six years later, in 1845, OSullivan wrote another essay titled Annexation in the Democratic Review, in this article he urged the U. S. Overcoming Whig opposition, Democrats annexed Texas in 1845, OSullivans first usage of the phrase manifest destiny attracted little attention. OSullivans second use of the phrase became extremely influential, on December 27,1845, in his newspaper the New York Morning News, OSullivan addressed the ongoing boundary dispute with Britain. That is, OSullivan believed that Providence had given the United States a mission to spread republican democracy, because Britain would not spread democracy, thought OSullivan, British claims to the territory should be overruled. OSullivan believed that manifest destiny was an ideal that superseded other considerations
44.
Bear Flag Republic
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In June 1846, a number of American immigrants in Alta California rebelled against the Mexican departments government. The immigrants had not been allowed to buy or rent land and had threatened with expulsion from California because they had entered without official permission. Mexican officials were concerned about a war with the United States coupled with the growing influx of Americans into California. The rebellion was soon overtaken by the beginning of the Mexican–American War, the name California Republic appeared only on the flag the insurgents raised in Sonoma. It indicated their aspiration of forming a government for California. The insurgents elected military officers but no structure was ever established. The flag featured an image of a California grizzly bear and became known as the Bear Flag and the revolt as the Bear Flag Revolt. Three weeks later, on July 5,1846, the Republics military of 100 to 200 men was subsumed into the California Battalion commanded by U. S. Army Brevet Captain John C. By 1845–46, Alta California had been neglected by Mexico for the twenty-five years since Mexican independence. The 1845 removal of Manuel Micheltorena, the latest governor to be sent by Mexico and forcefully ejected by the Californians, resulted in a divided government. The region south of San Luis Obispo was ruled by Governor Pio Pico with his capital in The Town of Our Lady the Queen of Angels of the Porciúncula River, Pico and Castro disliked each other personally and soon began escalating disputes over control of the Customhouse income. Decrees issued by the government in Mexico City were often acknowledged and supported with proclamations. By the end of 1845, when rumors of a force being sent from Mexico proved to be false. The relationship between the United States and Mexico had been deteriorating for some time, texas, which Mexico still considered to be its territory, had been admitted to statehood in 1845. Mexico had earlier threatened war if this happened, james K. Polk was elected President of the United States in 1844, and considered his election a mandate for his expansionist policies. Mexican law had long allowed grants of land to naturalized Mexican citizens, obtaining Mexican citizenship was not difficult and many earlier American immigrants had gone through the process and obtained free grants of land. The orders also required Californias officials not to land grants. All non-citizen immigrants, who had arrived without permission, were threatened with being forced out of California, Alta Californias Sub-Prefect Francisco Guerrero had written to U. S
45.
Federal government of the United States
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The Federal Government of the United States is the national government of the United States, a republic in North America, composed of 50 states, one district, Washington, D. C. and several territories. The federal government is composed of three branches, legislative, executive, and judicial, whose powers are vested by the U. S. Constitution in the Congress, the President, and the courts, including the Supreme Court. The powers and duties of these branches are defined by acts of Congress. The full name of the republic is United States of America, no other name appears in the Constitution, and this is the name that appears on money, in treaties, and in legal cases to which it is a party. The terms Government of the United States of America or United States Government are often used in documents to represent the federal government as distinct from the states collectively. In casual conversation or writing, the term Federal Government is often used, the terms Federal and National in government agency or program names generally indicate affiliation with the federal government. Because the seat of government is in Washington, D. C, Washington is commonly used as a metonym for the federal government. The outline of the government of the United States is laid out in the Constitution, the government was formed in 1789, making the United States one of the worlds first, if not the first, modern national constitutional republics. The United States government is based on the principles of federalism and republicanism, some make the case for expansive federal powers while others argue for a more limited role for the central government in relation to individuals, the states or other recognized entities. For example, while the legislative has the power to create law, the President nominates judges to the nations highest judiciary authority, but those nominees must be approved by Congress. The Supreme Court, in its turn, has the power to invalidate as unconstitutional any law passed by the Congress and these and other examples are examined in more detail in the text below. The United States Congress is the branch of the federal government. It is bicameral, comprising the House of Representatives and the Senate, the House currently consists of 435 voting members, each of whom represents a congressional district. The number of each state has in the House is based on each states population as determined in the most recent United States Census. All 435 representatives serve a two-year term, each state receives a minimum of one representative in the House. There is no limit on the number of terms a representative may serve, in addition to the 435 voting members, there are six non-voting members, consisting of five delegates and one resident commissioner. In contrast, the Senate is made up of two senators from each state, regardless of population, there are currently 100 senators, who each serve six-year terms
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