1.
Brisbane
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Brisbane is the capital of and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland, and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbanes metropolitan area has a population of 2.35 million, the Brisbane central business district stands on the original European settlement and is situated inside a bend of the Brisbane River, about 15 kilometres from its mouth at Moreton Bay. The demonym of Brisbane is Brisbanite, one of the oldest cities in Australia, Brisbane was founded upon the ancient homelands of the indigenous Turrbal and Jagera peoples. A penal settlement was founded in 1824 at Redcliffe,28 kilometres north of the business district. The city was marred by the Australian frontier wars between 1843 and 1855, and development was set back by the Great Fire of Brisbane. Brisbane was chosen as the capital when Queensland was proclaimed a colony from New South Wales in 1859. During World War II, Brisbane played a role in the Allied campaign. Today, Brisbane is well known for its distinct Queenslander architecture which forms much of the built heritage. It also receives attention for its damaging flood events, most notably in 1974 and 2011. Several large cultural, international and sporting events have held at Brisbane, including the 1982 Commonwealth Games, World Expo 88, the final Goodwill Games in 2001. Prior to white settlement, the Brisbane area was inhabited by the Turrbal and they knew the area that is now the central business district as Mian-jin, meaning place shaped as a spike. The Moreton Bay area was explored by Matthew Flinders. On 17 July 1799, Flinders landed at what is now known as Woody Point, in 1823 Governor of New South Wales Sir Thomas Brisbane instructed that a new northern penal settlement be developed, and an exploration party led by John Oxley further explored Moreton Bay. Oxley discovered, named, and explored the Brisbane River as far as Goodna,20 kilometres upstream from the Brisbane central business district, Oxley recommended Red Cliff Point for the new colony, reporting that ships could land at any tide and easily get close to the shore. The party settled in Redcliffe on 13 September 1824, under the command of Lieutenant Henry Miller with 14 soldiers and 29 convicts. However, this settlement was abandoned after a year and the colony was moved to a site on the Brisbane River now known as North Quay,28 km south, chief Justice Forbes gave the new settlement the name of Edenglassie before it was named Brisbane. Non-convict European settlement of the Brisbane region commenced in 1838, German missionaries settled at Zions Hill, Nundah as early as 1837, five years before Brisbane was officially declared a free settlement. The band consisted of ministers Christopher Eipper and Carl Wilhelm Schmidt and lay missionaries Haussmann, Johann Gottried Wagner, Niquet, Hartenstein, Zillman, Franz, Rode, Doege and they were allocated 260 hectares and set about establishing the mission, which became known as the German Station
2.
Queensland
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Queensland is the second-largest and third-most-populous state in the Commonwealth of Australia. Situated in the north-east of the country, it is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west, to the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean. Queensland has a population of 4,750,500, concentrated along the coast, the state is the worlds sixth largest sub-national entity, with an area of 1,852,642 km2. The capital and largest city in the state is Brisbane, Australias third largest city, often referred to as the Sunshine State, Queensland is home to 10 of Australias 30 largest cities and is the nations third largest economy. Tourism in the state, fuelled largely by its tropical climate, is a major industry. Queensland was first inhabited by Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders, the first European to land in Queensland was Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon in 1606, who explored the west coast of the Cape York Peninsula near present-day Weipa. In 1770, Lieutenant James Cook claimed the east coast of Australia for the Kingdom of Great Britain. The colony of New South Wales was founded in 1788 by Governor Arthur Phillip at Sydney, New South Wales at that time included all of what is now Queensland, Queensland was explored in subsequent decades until the establishment of a penal colony at Brisbane in 1824 by John Oxley. Penal transportation ceased in 1839 and free settlement was allowed from 1842, the state was named in honour of Queen Victoria, who on 6 June 1859 signed Letters Patent separating the colony from New South Wales. The 6th of June is now celebrated statewide as Queensland Day. Queensland achieved statehood with the Federation of Australia on 1 January 1901, the history of Queensland spans thousands of years, encompassing both a lengthy indigenous presence, as well as the eventful times of post-European settlement. The north-eastern Australian region was explored by Dutch, Spanish and French navigators before being encountered by Lieutenant James Cook in 1770, the Australian Labor Party has its origin as a formal organisation in Queensland and the town of Barcaldine is the symbolic birthplace of the party. June 2009 marked the 150th anniversary of its creation as a colony from New South Wales. The Aboriginal occupation of Queensland is thought to predate 50,000 BC, likely via boat or land bridge across Torres Strait, during the last ice age Queenslands landscape became more arid and largely desolate, making food and other supplies scarce. This led to the worlds first seed-grinding technology, warming again made the land hospitable, which brought high rainfall along the eastern coast, stimulating the growth of the states tropical rainforests. In February 1606, Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon landed near the site of what is now Weipa and this was the first recorded landing of a European in Australia, and it also marked the first reported contact between European and Aboriginal Australian people. The region was explored by French and Spanish explorers prior to the arrival of Lieutenant James Cook in 1770. Cook claimed the east coast under instruction from King George III of the United Kingdom on 22 August 1770 at Possession Island, naming Eastern Australia, including Queensland, the Aboriginal population declined significantly after a smallpox epidemic during the late 18th century
3.
Australia
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Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands. It is the worlds sixth-largest country by total area, the neighbouring countries are Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and East Timor to the north, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu to the north-east, and New Zealand to the south-east. Australias capital is Canberra, and its largest urban area is Sydney, for about 50,000 years before the first British settlement in the late 18th century, Australia was inhabited by indigenous Australians, who spoke languages classifiable into roughly 250 groups. The population grew steadily in subsequent decades, and by the 1850s most of the continent had been explored, on 1 January 1901, the six colonies federated, forming the Commonwealth of Australia. Australia has since maintained a liberal democratic political system that functions as a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy comprising six states. The population of 24 million is highly urbanised and heavily concentrated on the eastern seaboard, Australia has the worlds 13th-largest economy and ninth-highest per capita income. With the second-highest human development index globally, the country highly in quality of life, health, education, economic freedom. The name Australia is derived from the Latin Terra Australis a name used for putative lands in the southern hemisphere since ancient times, the Dutch adjectival form Australische was used in a Dutch book in Batavia in 1638, to refer to the newly discovered lands to the south. On 12 December 1817, Macquarie recommended to the Colonial Office that it be formally adopted, in 1824, the Admiralty agreed that the continent should be known officially as Australia. The first official published use of the term Australia came with the 1830 publication of The Australia Directory and these first inhabitants may have been ancestors of modern Indigenous Australians. The Torres Strait Islanders, ethnically Melanesian, were originally horticulturists, the northern coasts and waters of Australia were visited sporadically by fishermen from Maritime Southeast Asia. The first recorded European sighting of the Australian mainland, and the first recorded European landfall on the Australian continent, are attributed to the Dutch. The first ship and crew to chart the Australian coast and meet with Aboriginal people was the Duyfken captained by Dutch navigator, Willem Janszoon. He sighted the coast of Cape York Peninsula in early 1606, the Dutch charted the whole of the western and northern coastlines and named the island continent New Holland during the 17th century, but made no attempt at settlement. William Dampier, an English explorer and privateer, landed on the north-west coast of New Holland in 1688, in 1770, James Cook sailed along and mapped the east coast, which he named New South Wales and claimed for Great Britain. The first settlement led to the foundation of Sydney, and the exploration, a British settlement was established in Van Diemens Land, now known as Tasmania, in 1803, and it became a separate colony in 1825. The United Kingdom formally claimed the part of Western Australia in 1828. Separate colonies were carved from parts of New South Wales, South Australia in 1836, Victoria in 1851, the Northern Territory was founded in 1911 when it was excised from South Australia
4.
Wedding reception
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Hosts provide their choice of food and drink, although a wedding cake is popular. Entertaining guests after a ceremony is traditional in most societies. In some cultures, separate wedding celebrations are held for the brides, until after World War II, wedding celebrations were most commonly held in the brides home, in whatever style of entertainment was within the means of the family. This might be a ball for a wealthy family, a luncheon for middle-class families, or an afternoon tea, featuring cake and lemonade. The choice depended primarily on the economic situation, and in some cases. At the beginning of the 20th century, dance halls became common, there are also many small businesses that specialize in providing places for wedding ceremonies and celebrations. Technically, to be a reception, instead of other form of entertainment. In a receiving line, newly wedded couple, the hosts, each guest greets the first person in the line and, if necessary, introduces him/herself. The first person then introduces the guest to the person in the line. As each guest properly speaks little more than name and conventional greetings or congratulations to each person in turn. Are not required to stand in the receiving line and it is increasingly common to feature only the couple, since more modern couples host and pay for their own weddings rather than their parents. Another option, especially popular on the East and West Coast of the United States, is having a grand entrance instead of a receiving line, the grand entrance might involve presenting some or all of the wedding party, the parents, and/or the bride and groom. The wedding party is introduced by a master of ceremonies, disc jockey. It may be done in the manner as they walked down the aisle during the wedding ceremony. This is generally faster than a receiving line and guests may be seated before the arrival of the wedding party. In addition, it can be an event in itself and be as entertaining as wished, introductions may be accompanied by music and information about each person to introduce them to the guests. However, unlike a reception line, it does not give the guests an opportunity to speak to any of the people being presented, the food served at a wedding reception is determined by the time of the wedding and local customs. Food may range from a single non-alcoholic drink with wedding cake to elaborate, the type of food is chosen entirely at the discretion of the hosts
5.
Concert
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A concert is a live music performance in front of an audience. A recital is a concert by a soloist or small group which follows a program, a recitalist is a musician who gives frequent recitals. The invention of the piano recital has been attributed to Franz Liszt. The performance may be by a musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, choir. Indoor concerts held in the largest venues are sometimes called arena concerts or amphitheatre concerts, informal names for a concert include show and gig. Regardless of the venue, musicians perform on a stage. Concerts often require live event support with professional audio equipment, before recorded music, concerts provided the main opportunity to hear musicians play. The nature of a concert varies by musical genre, individual performers, concerts by a small jazz combo or small bluegrass band may have the same order of program, mood, and volume—but vary in music and dress. In a similar way, a musician, band, or genre of music might attract concert attendees with similar dress, hairstyle. For example, concert goers in the 1960s often had hair, sandals. Regular attendees to a concert venue might also have a style that comprises that venues scene. Other Types of concerts, To plan or arrange by mutual agreement, some performers or groups put on very elaborate and expensive shows. To create a memorable and exciting atmosphere and increase the spectacle, some singers, especially popular music, augment concert sound with pre-recorded accompaniment, back-up dancers, and even broadcast vocal tracks of the singers own voice. Activities during these concerts can include dancing, sing-alongs, and moshing, concerts involving a greater number of artists, especially those that last for multiple days, are known as festivals. Unlike other concerts, which remain in a single genre of music or work of a particular artist, festivals often cover a broad scope of music. Due to their size, festivals are almost exclusively held outdoors, new platforms for festivals are becoming increasingly popular such as Jam Cruise, which is a festival held on a cruise ship, as well as Mayan Holidaze, which is a destination festival held in Tulum. Often concert tours are named, to differentiate different tours by the same artist, different segments of longer concert tours are known as legs. In the largest concert tours it is becoming common for different legs to employ separate touring production crews and equipment
6.
Musical theatre
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Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through the words, music, movement, since the early 20th century, musical theatre stage works have generally been called, simply, musicals. These were followed by the numerous Edwardian musical comedies and the theatre works of American creators like George M. Cohan. Musicals are performed around the world and they may be presented in large venues, such as big-budget Broadway or West End productions in New York City or London. Alternatively, musicals may be staged in smaller fringe theatre, Off-Broadway or regional theatre productions, musicals are often presented by amateur and school groups in churches, schools and other performance spaces. In addition to the United States and Britain, there are vibrant musical theatre scenes in continental Europe, Asia, Australasia, Canada, the three main components of a book musical are its music, lyrics and book. The interpretation of a musical is the responsibility of its team, which includes a director. A musicals production is also characterized by technical aspects, such as set design, costumes, stage properties, lighting. The creative team, designs and interpretations generally change from the production to succeeding productions. Some production elements, however, may be retained from the production, for example. There is no fixed length for a musical, while it can range from a short one-act entertainment to several acts and several hours in length, most musicals range from one and a half to three hours. Musicals are usually presented in two acts, with one intermission, and the first act is frequently longer than the second. A book musical is usually built four to six main theme tunes that are reprised later in the show. Several shorter musicals on Broadway and in the West End have been presented in one act in recent decades, moments of greatest dramatic intensity in a book musical are often performed in song. Proverbially, when the emotion becomes too strong for speech, you sing, typically, many fewer words are sung in a five-minute song than are spoken in a five-minute block of dialogue. Therefore, there is time to develop drama in a musical than in a straight play of equivalent length. Within the compressed nature of a musical, the writers must develop the characters, the material presented in a musical may be original, or it may be adapted from novels, plays, classic legends, historical events or films. On the other hand, many musical theatre works have been adapted for musical films, such as West Side Story, My Fair Lady, The Sound of Music, Oliver
7.
Whitney Houston
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Whitney Elizabeth Houston was an American singer, actress, producer, and model. In 2009, Guinness World Records cited her as the most awarded female act of all time, Houston is one of pop musics best-selling music artists of all-time, with an estimated 170–200 million records sold worldwide. She released seven albums and two soundtrack albums, all of which have diamond, multi-platinum, platinum or gold certification. Houston is the only artist to chart seven consecutive No.1 Billboard Hot 100 hits and she is the second artist behind Elton John and the only woman to have two number-one Billboard 200 Album awards on the Billboard magazine year-end charts. Houstons debut album, Whitney Houston, became the debut album by a woman in history. Rolling Stone named it the best album of 1986, and ranked it at number 254 on the magazines list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Her second studio album, Whitney, became the first album by a woman to debut at number one on the Billboard 200 albums chart, Houstons first acting role was as the star of the feature film The Bodyguard. The films original soundtrack won the 1994 Grammy Award for Album of the Year and its lead single, I Will Always Love You, won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year and became the best-selling single by a woman in music history. With the album, Houston became the first act to sell more than a million copies of an album within a week period under Nielsen SoundScan system. The album makes her the top female act in the top 10 list of the albums of all time. Houston continued to star in movies and contribute to their soundtracks, including the films Waiting to Exhale, the Preachers Wife soundtrack became the best-selling gospel album in history. On February 11,2012, Houston was found dead in her guest room at the Beverly Hilton, in Beverly Hills, the official coroners report showed that she had accidentally drowned in the bathtub, with heart disease and cocaine use listed as contributing factors. News of her death coincided with the 2012 Grammy Awards and featured prominently in American, Whitney Houston was born on August 9,1963 in what was then a middle-income neighborhood in Newark, New Jersey. She was the daughter of Army serviceman and entertainment executive John Russell Houston, Jr. and her elder brother Michael is a singer, and her elder half-brother is former basketball player Gary Garland. Her parents were both African American, through her mother, Houston was a first cousin of singers Dionne Warwick and Dee Dee Warwick. Her godmother was Darlene Love and her aunt was Aretha Franklin. Houston was raised a Baptist, but was exposed to the Pentecostal church. After the 1967 Newark riots, the moved to a middle-class area in East Orange, New Jersey
8.
One Direction
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The group signed with Simon Cowells record label Syco Records after forming and finishing third in the seventh series of the British televised singing competition The X Factor in 2010. Their awards include six Brit Awards, four MTV Video Music Awards, eleven MTV Europe Music Awards, seven American Music Awards, according to Nick Gatfield, the chairman and chief executive of Sony Music Entertainment UK, One Direction represented a $50 million business empire by June 2012. They were proclaimed 2012s Top New Artist by Billboard, according to the Sunday Times Rich List, by April 2013, they had an estimated personal combined wealth of £25 million making them the second-wealthiest musicians in the UK under 30 years of age. In 2014, Forbes listed them the second-highest earning celebrities under 30, in June 2015, Forbes listed their earnings at $130 million for the previous twelve months, and ranked them the fourth highest earning celebrities in the world. In 2016 Forbes ranked them the second highest earning celebrities. After the release of Four, One Direction became the first band in the US Billboard 200 history to have their first four albums debut at number one and their third album, Midnight Memories, was the biggest-selling album worldwide of 2013 despite being released in late November. The bands Where We Are Tour in support of Midnight Memories and Four, was the concert tour in 2014. In 2014, Billboard named One Direction Artist of the Year, the band is temporarily on a hiatus that began in January 2016, which is expected to last around 18 months. In 2010, Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Harry Styles, nicole Scherzinger, a guest judge, and Simon Cowell have both claimed to have come up with the idea of forming the band. In 2013, Cowell said that it took him 10 minutes to put together as a group. Subsequently, the group got together for two weeks to get to each other and to practice. Styles came up with the name One Direction, for their qualifying song at judges houses, and their first song as a group, One Direction sang an acoustic version of Torn. Cowell later commented that their performance convinced him that they were confident, fun, like a gang of friends, within the first four weeks of the live shows, they were his last act in the competition. The group quickly gained popularity in the UK, shortly afterwards it was confirmed that One Direction had been signed by Cowell to a reported £2 million Syco Records record contract. Recording for their debut album began in January 2011, as they flew to Los Angeles to work with RedOne, a book licensed by One Direction, One Direction, Forever Young, was published by HarperCollins in February 2011, subsequently topping The Sunday Times Best Seller list. The same month, the boy band and other contestants from the series participated in the X Factor Live Tour, during the tour, the group performed for 500,000 people throughout the UK. After the tour concluded in April 2011, the group continued working on their debut album, recording took place in Stockholm, London and Los Angeles, as One Direction worked with producers Carl Falk, Savan Kotecha, Steve Mac, and Rami Yacoub, among others. Subsequent singles, Gotta Be You and One Thing, peaked in the UK Singles Chart top ten, in November 2011, they signed a record deal with Columbia Records in North America
9.
Taylor Swift
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Taylor Alison Swift is an American singer-songwriter. One of the most popular contemporary female recording artists, she is known for songs about her personal life. Born and raised in Pennsylvania, Swift moved to Nashville, Tennessee at age 14 to pursue a career in country music and she signed with the independent label Big Machine Records and became the youngest artist ever signed by the Sony/ATV Music publishing house. Her eponymous debut album in 2006 peaked at five on Billboard 200. The albums third single, Our Song, made her the youngest person to single-handedly write, Swifts second album, Fearless, was released in 2008. Buoyed by the pop success of the singles Love Story and You Belong with Me. The album won four Grammy Awards, with Swift becoming the youngest Album of the Year winner, Swift was the sole writer of her 2010 album, Speak Now. It debuted at one in the United States and the single Mean won two Grammy Awards. Her fourth album, Red, yielded the successful singles We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together, with her fifth album, the pop-focused 1989, she became the first act to have three albums sell a million copies within one week in the United States. Its singles Shake It Off, Blank Space and Bad Blood reached number one in the US, Australia, the album received three Grammy Awards, and Swift became the first woman and fifth act overall to win Album of the Year twice. The 2015 eponymous concert tour for 1989 became one of highest-grossing of the decade, as a songwriter, Swift has received awards from the Nashville Songwriters Association and the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Swift is one of the artists of all time, having sold more than 40 million albums—including 27.1 million in the US—and 130 million single downloads. She has appeared in Times 100 most influential people in the world, Forbes top-earning women in music, Forbes 100 most powerful women and she was the youngest woman to be included in the third of these and ranked first in Celebrity 100. Taylor Alison Swift was born on December 13,1989, in Reading and her father, Scott Kingsley Swift, was a financial advisor, and her mother, Andrea Gardner Swift, was a homemaker who worked previously as a mutual fund marketing executive. She has a brother named Austin. Swift spent the years of her life on a Christmas tree farm in Cumru Township. She attended preschool and kindergarten at the Alvernia Montessori School, run by Franciscan nuns, the family then moved to a rented house in the suburban town of Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, where she attended Wyomissing Area Junior/Senior High School. At the age of nine, Swift became interested in musical theater and she also traveled regularly to New York City for vocal and acting lessons
10.
Beauty and the Beast (musical)
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Beauty and the Beast is a musical with music by Alan Menken, lyrics by Howard Ashman and Tim Rice, and book by Linda Woolverton. To revert back into his human form, the Beast must first earn the love of a bright. All eight songs from the film were reused in the musical. Original songwriter Menken composed six new songs for the production alongside lyricist Rice, Woolverton, who had written the films screenplay, adapted her own work into the musicals libretto, and specifically expanded upon the characterization of the Beast. Woolverton also expanded the storylines of the staff from servants who had already been transformed into household objects into humans who were gradually turning into inanimate objects. After completing tryouts in Houston, Beauty and the Beast premiered on Broadway on April 18,1994, starring Susan Egan and Terrence Mann as the eponymous Belle and Beast, respectively. The musical opened to mixed reviews from critics, but was a massive commercial success. Beauty ran on Broadway for 5,461 performances between 1994 and 2007, becoming Broadways tenth longest-running production in history, the musical has grossed more than $1.4 billion worldwide and played in thirteen countries and 115 cities. It has also become a choice for high school productions. The Walt Disney Company CEO Michael Eisner was hired to ensure the performance of the next animated projects. Eisner himself had been a major in college. Eager to redeem himself, Ashman agreed to work on Disneys animated film The Little Mermaid, upon release, The Little Mermaid was a massive critical and commercial success, garnering two Academy Awards, both of them for Ashman and Menkens original music. Disney established a successful period, during which Ashman and Menken became responsible for teaching the art of transforming traditional animated films into animated musicals. Before the film had even completed, executive vice president Ron Logan suggested to Eisner that he consider adapting Beauty and the Beast for Broadway. Beauty and the Beast became the last project on which Menken worked with Ashman, once again, Academy Awards were won for Ashman and Menkens music. Several critics noticed the films live musical potential, among them prolific New York Times theatre critic Frank Rich. Lamenting the Broadway selection at the time, Rich famously praised the duo for having written The best Broadway musical score of 1991. Than anything he had seen on Broadway in 1991, richs review would ultimately provide Eisner and Katzenberg with the confidence needed to seriously consider the film as a potential Broadway project
11.
Ice skating
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Ice skating is the act of moving on ice by using ice skates. It can be done for a variety of reasons, including exercise, leisure, traveling, ice skating occurs both on specially prepared ice surfaces, both indoors and outdoors, as well as on naturally occurring bodies of frozen water, such as ponds, lakes and rivers. A study by Federico Formenti of the University of Oxford suggests that the earliest ice skating happened in southern Finland more than 3,000 years ago, originally, skates were merely sharpened, flattened bone strapped to the bottom of the foot. Skaters did not actually skate on the ice, but rather glided on top of it, true skating emerged when a steel blade with sharpened edges was used. Skates now cut into the ice instead of gliding on top of it, adding edges to ice skates was invented by the Dutch in the 13th or 14th century. These ice skates were made of steel, with sharpened edges on the bottom to aid movement, the construction of modern ice skates has stayed largely the same since then. In the Netherlands, ice skating was considered proper for all classes of people, ice skating was also practised in China during the Song dynasty, and became popular among the ruling family of the Qing dynasty. Ice skating was brought to Britain from the Netherlands, where James II was briefly exiled in the 17th century, when he returned to England, this new sport was introduced to the British aristocracy, and was soon enjoyed by people from all walks of life. The first organised skating club was the Edinburgh Skating Club, formed in the 1740s, from this description and others, it is apparent that the form of skating practiced by club members was indeed an early form of figure skating rather than speed skating. On the Continent, participation in ice skating was limited to members of the upper classes, emperor Rudolf II of the Holy Roman Empire enjoyed ice skating so much, he had a large ice carnival constructed in his court in order to popularise the sport. King Louis XVI of France brought ice skating to Paris during his reign, madame de Pompadour, Napoleon I, Napoleon III and the House of Stuart were, among others, royal and upper class fans of ice skating. The next skating club to be established was in London and was not founded until 1830, as the technology for the maintenance of natural ice did not exist, these early rinks used a substitute consisting of a mixture of hogs lard and various salts. The area of ice is extremely convenient for such as may be desirous of engaging in the graceful. Skating became popular as a recreation, a means of transport, racing was the preserve of workers, most of them agricultural labourers. It is not known when the first skating matches were held, but by the nineteenth century racing was well established. Skating as a sport developed on the lakes of Scotland and the canals of the Netherlands, in the 13th and 14th centuries wood was substituted for bone in skate blades, and in 1572 the first iron skates were manufactured. When the waters froze, skating matches were held in towns, in these local matches men would compete for prizes of money, clothing or food. The winners of matches were invited to take part in the grand or championship matches in which skaters from across the Fens would compete for cash prizes in front of crowds of thousands
12.
Queensland Rail City network
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The Queensland Rail City network provides urban, suburban and inter-urban electric passenger railway services in South East Queensland, Australia. The first railway in Queensland did not actually run to Brisbane, opened in July 1865, the line into Brisbane was not completed until the opening of the Albert Bridge in July 1875. A start on electrification of the network was approved in 1950. It was not until the 1970s that electrification was again brought up, the first part of the new electric system from Darra to Ferny Grove opened on 17 November 1979. The network was completed by 1988, with a number of extensions made since, services were initially operated under the Queensland Rail brand, with the Citytrain name established in 1995. In June 2009 as part the split of Queensland Rails commuter rail, since then almost all traces of the Citytrain brand have been removed from rolling stock and station signage. The Queensland Rail City network is made up of ten suburban lines, centering in the Brisbane City, it extends as far as Gympie in the north, Varsity Lakes in the south, Rosewood in the west, and Cleveland in the east to Moreton Bay. In 2015/16,52.44 million passenger journeys were made, services that connect Metropolitan Brisbane to the Brisbane CBD. These are all-stop services with the Caboolture, Cleveland & Ipswich/Rosewood lines having express services during on-peak times, express services which stop only at major stations linking the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and Gympie with Brisbane. The trains used on these lines typically are designed for long distance travel with more comfortable seating, luggage racks. These units also have only 3 powered bogies compared to the 4 powered bogie arrangement for the remaining EMUs, all EMU, SMU and IMU units consist of 3 cars, giving a fleet total of 621 cars, plus the 20 ICE cars. The ICE sets are usually configured as four, five or six car trains, due to increasing patronage, suburban trains may be scheduled on interurban lines. The Sunshine Coast line occasionally requires the use of rolling stock on some services. The Gold Coast line, predominately serviced by IMU trains, is likely to have services operated by suburban sets. While using suburban trains on interurban lines increases operational flexibility, the trains are not provided with the facilities of the IMU or ICE sets, as of 28 October 2012,64 trains in the South East Queensland fleet have free Wi-Fi installed. It is planned for Wi-Fi internet access to be installed in older units as they are upgraded, the Wi-Fi usage is limited to 20MB. 75 new six-car New Generation Rollingstock trains were ordered in January 2014 for delivery between late 2015 and late 2018, a new maintenance facility for these trains was built at Wulkuraka. Commuter rail in Australia TransLink Official website TransLink
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