1.
Bahrain
–
Bahrain, officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, is a small Arab monarchy in the Persian Gulf. Bahrains population is 1,234,567, including 666,172 non-nationals and it is 780 km2 in size, making it the third smallest nation in Asia after the Maldives and Singapore. Bahrain is the site of the ancient Dilmun civilisation and it has been famed since antiquity for its pearl fisheries, which were considered the best in the world into the 19th century. Bahrain was one of the earliest areas to convert to Islam, following a period of Arab rule, Bahrain was occupied by the Portuguese in 1521, who in turn were expelled in 1602 by Shah Abbas I of the Safavid dynasty under the Persian Empire. In 1783, the Bani Utbah clan captured Bahrain from Nasr Al-Madhkur and it has since been ruled by the Al Khalifa royal family, in the late 1800s, following successive treaties with the British, Bahrain became a protectorate of the United Kingdom. Formerly a state, Bahrain was declared a Kingdom in 2002, in 2011, the country experienced protests inspired by the regional Arab Spring. Bahrain had the first post-oil economy in the Persian Gulf, since the late 20th century, Bahrain has invested in the banking and tourism sectors. Many large financial institutions have a presence in Manama, the countrys capital, Bahrain has a high Human Development Index and was recognised by the World Bank as a high income economy. In Arabic, Bahrayn is the form of bahr, so al-Bahrayn means the two seas, although which two seas were originally intended remains in dispute. The term appears five times in the Quran, but does not refer to the modern island—originally known to the Arabs as Awal— but rather to all of Eastern Arabia. Today, Bahrains two seas are generally taken to be the bay east and west of the island. In addition to wells, there are areas of the sea north of Bahrain where fresh water bubbles up in the middle of the water as noted by visitors since antiquity. An alternate theory with regard to Bahrains toponymy is offered by the al-Ahsa region, another supposition by al-Jawahari suggests that the more formal name Bahri would have been misunderstood and so was opted against. Until the late Middle Ages, Bahrain referred to the region of Eastern Arabia that included Southern Iraq, Kuwait, Al-Hasa, Qatif, the region stretched from Basra in Iraq to the Strait of Hormuz in Oman. This was Iqlīm al-Bahrayns Bahrayn Province, the exact date at which the term Bahrain began to refer solely to the Awal archipelago is unknown. The entire coastal strip of Eastern Arabia was known as Bahrain for a millennium, the island and kingdom were also commonly spelled Bahrein into the 1950s. Bahrain was home to the Dilmun civilization, an important Bronze Age trade centre linking Mesopotamia, Bahrain was later ruled by the Assyrians and Babylonians. From the 6th to 3rd century BC, Bahrain was part of the Persian Empire ruled by the Achaemenian dynasty, by about 250 BC, Parthia brought the Persian Gulf under its control and extended its influence as far as Oman
Bahrain
–
Arad Fort in
Arad; constructed before the Portuguese assumed control.
Bahrain
–
Flag
Bahrain
–
Bahrain harbor, c. 1870.
Bahrain
–
A photograph of the First Oil Well in Bahrain, with oil first being extracted in 1931
2.
Bahraini dinar
–
The dinar is the currency of Bahrain. It is divided into 1000 fils, the name dinar derives from the Roman denarius. The dinar was introduced in 1965, replacing the Gulf rupee at a rate of 10 rupees =1 dinar, the Bahraini dinar is abbreviated. د. ب or BD. It is usually represented with three decimal places denoting the fils, in 1965, coins were introduced in denominations of 1,5,10,25,50 and 100 fils. The 1,5 and 10 fils were struck in bronze, the 1 fils coin was not produced after 1966 and no longer circulates. In 1992, brass replaced bronze in the 5 and 10 fils, a bimetallic 500 fils followed in 2000. The Central Bank of Bahrain discontinued the Bimetallic 500 fils after the revolution of Bahrain on 14 Feb 2011, for a wider history surrounding currency in the region, see The History of British Currency in the Middle East. On October 16,1965, the Bahrain Currency Board introduced notes in denominations of 1⁄4, 1⁄2,1,5 and 10 dinars, a 100-fils note was introduced on September 2,1967. In 1973, the Bahrain Monetary Agency took over the issuance of paper money, on September 7,2006, the Bahrain Monetary Agency was renamed the Central Bank of Bahrain. On March 17,2008, the Central Bank of Bahrain introduced a new family of notes reflecting Bahrains heritage as well as its modern development. Saudi riyals are also acceptable in Bahrain, with the exception of the Saudi 500 riyal note which is accepted in major supermarkets, airports. In December 1980, the dinar was pegged to the IMFs special drawing rights. In practice, it is fixed at $1 USD =0.376 BD and this rate was made official in 2001. Before Maltas adoption of the euro on 1 January 2008, it was the currency unit after the Kuwaiti dinar. After Malta adopted the euro, the became the second highest-valued currency unit
Bahraini dinar
–
10 fils
3.
Fiscal year
–
A fiscal year is the period used by governments for accounting and budget purposes, which vary between countries. It is also used for reporting by business and other organizations. Taxation laws generally require accounting records to be maintained and taxes calculated on an annual basis, the calculation of tax on an annual basis is especially relevant for direct taxation, such as income tax. Many annual government fees—such as Council rates, licence fees, etc. —are also levied on a year basis. The fiscal year end is the date marks the end of the fiscal year. Some companies—such as Cisco Systems—end their fiscal year on the day of the week each year. Under such a system, some years will have 52 weeks. Many universities have a year which ends during the summer. In the northern hemisphere this is July to the next June, in the southern hemisphere this is calendar year, January to December. Some media/communication-based organizations use a broadcast calendar as the basis for their fiscal year, the American football league NFL uses the term league year, which in effect forms the leagues fiscal year. In Afghanistan, the year was recently changed from 1 Hamal –29 Hoot to 1 Jadi –30 Qaus. The fiscal year runs with the Afghan calendar, thus resulting in difference of the Gregorian dates once in a four-year span, in Australia, a fiscal year is commonly called a financial year and starts on 1 July and ends on the next 30 June. Financial years are designated by the year of the second half of the period. For example, financial year 2017 is the 12-month period ending on 30 June 2017 and it is used for official purposes, by individual taxpayers and by the overwhelming majority of business enterprises. Business enterprises may opt to use a year that ends at the end of a week. All entities within the one group must use the financial year. The Commonwealth adopted the near-ubiquitous financial year standard since its inception in 1901, the reason given for the change was for convenience, as Parliament typically sits during May and June, while it was difficult for it to meet in November and December to pass a budget. In Austria the fiscal year is the year,1 January to 31 December
Fiscal year
–
Accounting
4.
Gross domestic product
–
Gross Domestic Product is a monetary measure of the market value of all final goods and services produced in a period. Nominal GDP estimates are used to determine the economic performance of a whole country or region. The OECD defines GDP as a measure of production equal to the sum of the gross values added of all resident and institutional units engaged in production. ”An IMF publication states that GDP measures the monetary value of final goods and services - that is. Total GDP can also be broken down into the contribution of industry or sector of the economy. The ratio of GDP to the population of the region is the per capita GDP. William Petty came up with a concept of GDP to defend landlords against unfair taxation during warfare between the Dutch and the English between 1652 and 1674. Charles Davenant developed the method further in 1695, the modern concept of GDP was first developed by Simon Kuznets for a US Congress report in 1934. In this report, Kuznets warned against its use as a measure of welfare, after the Bretton Woods conference in 1944, GDP became the main tool for measuring a countrys economy. The switch from GNP to GDP in the US was in 1991, the history of the concept of GDP should be distinguished from the history of changes in ways of estimating it. The value added by firms is relatively easy to calculate from their accounts, but the value added by the sector, by financial industries. GDP can be determined in three ways, all of which should, in principle, give the same result and they are the production approach, the income approach, or the expenditure approach. The most direct of the three is the approach, which sums the outputs of every class of enterprise to arrive at the total. The income approach works on the principle that the incomes of the factors must be equal to the value of their product. This approach mirrors the OECD definition given above, deduct intermediate consumption from gross value to obtain the gross value added. Gross value added = gross value of output – value of intermediate consumption, value of output = value of the total sales of goods and services plus value of changes in the inventories. The sum of the value added in the various economic activities is known as GDP at factor cost. GDP at factor cost plus indirect taxes less subsidies on products = GDP at producer price, for measuring output of domestic product, economic activities are classified into various sectors. Subtracting each sectors intermediate consumption from gross output gives the GDP at factor cost, adding indirect tax minus subsidies in GDP at factor cost gives the GDP at producer prices
Gross domestic product
–
Selection of GDP PPP data (top 10 countries and blocks) in no particular order
5.
Inflation
–
In economics, inflation is a sustained increase in the general price level of goods and services in an economy over a period of time resulting in a loss of value of currency. When the price rises, each unit of currency buys fewer goods. Consequently, inflation reflects a reduction in the power per unit of money – a loss of real value in the medium of exchange. A chief measure of inflation is the inflation rate, the annualized percentage change in a general price index, usually the consumer price index. The opposite of inflation is deflation, Inflation affects economies in various positive and negative ways. Economists generally believe that high rates of inflation and hyperinflation are caused by a growth of the money supply. However, money supply growth does not necessarily cause inflation, some economists maintain that under the conditions of a liquidity trap, large monetary injections are like pushing on a string. Views on which factors determine low to moderate rates of inflation are more varied, low or moderate inflation may be attributed to fluctuations in real demand for goods and services, or changes in available supplies such as during scarcities. However, the view is that a long sustained period of inflation is caused by money supply growing faster than the rate of economic growth. Today, most economists favor a low and steady rate of inflation, the task of keeping the rate of inflation low and stable is usually given to monetary authorities. Rapid increases in quantity of the money or in the money supply have occurred in many different societies throughout history. By diluting the gold with other metals, the government could issue more coins without also needing to increase the amount of used to make them. When the cost of each coin is lowered in this way and this practice would increase the money supply but at the same time the relative value of each coin would be lowered. As the relative value of the coins becomes lower, consumers would need to give more coins in exchange for the same goods and these goods and services would experience a price increase as the value of each coin is reduced. Song Dynasty China introduced the practice of printing paper money in order to create fiat currency, during the Mongol Yuan Dynasty, the government spent a great deal of money fighting costly wars, and reacted by printing more money, leading to inflation. Fearing the inflation that plagued the Yuan dynasty, the Ming Dynasty initially rejected the use of paper money, historically, large infusions of gold or silver into an economy also led to inflation. This was largely caused by the influx of gold and silver from the New World into Habsburg Spain. The silver spread throughout a previously cash-starved Europe and caused widespread inflation, demographic factors also contributed to upward pressure on prices, with European population growth after depopulation caused by the Black Death pandemic
Inflation
–
Two 20 kr gold coins from the
Scandinavian Monetary Union, a historical example of an international gold standard.
Inflation
–
Annual inflation rates in the United States from 1666 to 2004.
6.
Consumer price index
–
A consumer price index measures changes in the price level of market basket of consumer goods and services purchased by households. The CPI is a statistical estimate constructed using the prices of a sample of items whose prices are collected periodically. It is one of several price indices calculated by most national statistical agencies, the annual percentage change in a CPI is used as a measure of inflation. A CPI can be used to index the real value of wages, salaries, pensions, for regulating prices, in most countries, the CPI is, along with the population census one of the most closely watched national economic statistics. Basic types of data that are needed to construct the CPI, price data, the price data are collected for a sample of goods and services from a sample of sales outlets in a sample of locations for a sample of times. The weighting data are estimates of the shares of the different types of expenditure in the total expenditure covered by the index, therefore, the sampling variance cannot be calculated. In any case, an estimate is required in most of the purposes for which the index is used. These indices compare prices each month with prices in the price-reference month and it takes time to assemble and process the information used for weighting which, in addition to household expenditure surveys, may include trade and tax data. Ideally, the weights would relate to the composition of expenditure during the time between the month and the current month. There is a large technical economics literature on index formulae which would approximate this, such an index would show how consumer expenditure would have to move to compensate for price changes so as to allow consumers to maintain a constant standard of living. Approximations can only be computed retrospectively, whereas the index has to appear monthly and, preferably, the coverage of the index may be limited. Saving and investment are always excluded, though the prices paid for services provided by financial intermediaries may be included along with insurance. The index reference period, usually called the year, often differs both from the weight-reference period and the price reference period. This is just a matter of rescaling the whole time-series to make the value for the index reference-period equal to 100. Current Item Price = Base Year Price × Current CPI Base Year CPI or CPI2 CPI1 = Price 2 Price 1 Where 1 is usually the comparison year, alternatively, the CPI can be performed as CPI = updated cost base period cost ×100. The updated cost is divided by that of the initial year, many but not all price indices are weighted averages using weights that sum to 1 or 100. Example, The prices of 85,000 items from 22,000 stores, and 35,000 rental units are added together and averaged. They are weighted this way, Housing,41. 4%, Food and Beverage,17. 4%, Transport,17. 0%, Medical Care,6. 9%, Other,6. 9%, Apparel,6. 0%, Entertainment,4. 4%
Consumer price index
–
A graph of the
US CPI from 1913 to 2014 (in blue), and its percentage annual change (in red)
7.
Poverty threshold
–
The poverty threshold, poverty limit or poverty line is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. In practice, like the definition of poverty, the official or common understanding of the poverty line is higher in developed countries than in developing countries. In 2008, the World Bank came out with a figure of $1.25 at 2005 purchasing-power parity, the new IPL replaces the $1.25 per day figure, which used 2005 data. Most scholars agree that it better reflects todays reality, particularly new price levels in developing countries, the common international poverty line has in the past been roughly $1 a day. At present the percentage of the population living under extreme poverty is likely to fall below 10% according to the World Bank projections released in 2015. Determining the poverty line is usually done by finding the total cost of all the resources that an average human adult consumes in one year. Individual factors are used to account for various circumstances, such as whether one is a parent, elderly. The poverty threshold may be adjusted annually, charles Booth, a pioneering investigator of poverty in London at the turn of the 20th century, popularised the idea of a poverty line, a concept originally conceived by the London School Board. Booth set the line at 10 to 20 shillings per week, to secure the necessaries of a healthy life, which included fuel and light, rent, food, clothing, and household and personal items. Based on data from leading nutritionists of the period, he calculated the cheapest price for the minimum calorific intake and nutritional balance necessary and he considered this amount to set his poverty line and concluded that 27. 84% of the total population of York lived below this poverty line. Rowntree distinguished between primary poverty, those lacking in income and secondary poverty, those who had enough income, Absolute poverty is the level of poverty as defined in terms of the minimal requirements necessary to afford minimal standards of food, clothing, health care and shelter. For the measure to be absolute, the line must be the same in different countries, cultures, such an absolute measure should look only at the individuals power to consume and it should be independent of any changes in income distribution. Notice that if real income in an economy increases. Measuring poverty by a threshold has the advantage of applying the same standard across different locations and time periods. For example, a living in far northern Scandinavia requires a source of heat during colder months. The term absolute poverty is sometimes used as a synonym for extreme poverty. Absolute poverty is the absence of resources to secure basic life necessities. It depends not only on income but also on access to services, safe drinking water, Water must not come solely from rivers and ponds, and must be available nearby
Poverty threshold
–
Percentage of population living on less than
$ 1.25 per day.
UN estimates 2000–2007.
8.
Oil refinery
–
Oil refineries are typically large, sprawling industrial complexes with extensive piping running throughout, carrying streams of fluids between large chemical processing units. In many ways, oil refineries use much of the technology of, the crude oil feedstock has typically been processed by an oil production plant. There is usually an oil depot at or near an oil refinery for the storage of incoming crude oil feedstock as well as bulk liquid products, an oil refinery is considered an essential part of the downstream side of the petroleum industry. The lighter elements, however, form explosive vapors in the tanks and are therefore hazardous. Petroleum fossil fuels are burned in internal combustion engines to power for ships, automobiles, aircraft engines, lawn mowers, dirt bikes. Different boiling points allow the hydrocarbons to be separated by distillation, Oil can be used in a variety of ways because it contains hydrocarbons of varying molecular masses, forms and lengths such as paraffins, aromatics, naphthenes, alkenes, dienes, and alkynes. Once separated and purified of any contaminants and impurities, the fuel or lubricant can be sold without further processing, smaller molecules such as isobutane and propylene or butylenes can be recombined to meet specific octane requirements by processes such as alkylation, or more commonly, dimerization. The octane grade of gasoline can also be improved by catalytic reforming, the final step in gasoline production is the blending of fuels with different octane ratings, vapor pressures, and other properties to meet product specifications. Another method for reprocessing and upgrading these intermediate products uses a process to separate usable oil from the waste asphaltene material. Oil refineries are large plants, processing about a hundred thousand to several hundred thousand barrels of crude oil a day. Because of the capacity, many of the units operate continuously, as opposed to processing in batches. The high capacity also makes process optimization and advanced process control very desirable, petroleum products are usually grouped into four categories, light distillates, middle distillates, heavy distillates and residuum. This classification is based on the way crude oil is distilled and separated into fractions as in the above drawing and these are not usually transported but instead are blended or processed further on-site. Chemical plants are often adjacent to oil refineries or a number of further chemical processes are integrated into it. For example, light hydrocarbons are steam-cracked in a plant. Using the Claus process, hydrogen sulfide is afterwards transformed to elementary sulfur to be sold to the chemical industry, the rather large heat energy freed by this process is directly used in the other parts of the refinery. Often an electrical plant is combined into the whole refinery process to take up the excess heat. Desalter unit washes out salt from the oil before it enters the atmospheric distillation unit
Oil refinery
–
Anacortes Refinery (
Tesoro), on the north end of March Point southeast of
Anacortes, Washington
Oil refinery
–
The oil refinery in
Haifa, Israel is capable of processing about 9 million tons (66 million barrels) of
crude oil a year. Its two
cooling towers are landmarks of the city's skyline.
Oil refinery
–
Fire-extinguishing operations after the Texas City refinery explosion.
Oil refinery
–
Refinery of
Slovnaft in
Bratislava.
9.
Aluminum
–
Aluminium or aluminum is a chemical element in the boron group with symbol Al and atomic number 13. It is a silvery-white, soft, nonmagnetic, ductile metal, Aluminium metal is so chemically reactive that native specimens are rare and limited to extreme reducing environments. Instead, it is combined in over 270 different minerals. The chief ore of aluminium is bauxite, Aluminium is remarkable for the metals low density and its ability to resist corrosion through the phenomenon of passivation. Aluminium and its alloys are vital to the industry and important in transportation and structures, such as building facades. The oxides and sulfates are the most useful compounds of aluminium, despite its prevalence in the environment, no known form of life uses aluminium salts metabolically, but aluminium is well tolerated by plants and animals. Because of these salts abundance, the potential for a role for them is of continuing interest. Aluminium is a soft, durable, lightweight, ductile. It is nonmagnetic and does not easily ignite, a fresh film of aluminium serves as a good reflector of visible light and an excellent reflector of medium and far infrared radiation. The yield strength of aluminium is 7–11 MPa, while aluminium alloys have yield strengths ranging from 200 MPa to 600 MPa. Aluminium has about one-third the density and stiffness of steel and it is easily machined, cast, drawn and extruded. Aluminium atoms are arranged in a cubic structure. Aluminium has an energy of approximately 200 mJ/m2. Aluminium is a thermal and electrical conductor, having 59% the conductivity of copper. Aluminium is capable of superconductivity, with a critical temperature of 1.2 kelvin. Aluminium is the most common material for the fabrication of superconducting qubits, the strongest aluminium alloys are less corrosion resistant due to galvanic reactions with alloyed copper. This corrosion resistance is reduced by aqueous salts, particularly in the presence of dissimilar metals. In highly acidic solutions, aluminium reacts with water to form hydrogen, primarily because it is corroded by dissolved chlorides, such as common sodium chloride, household plumbing is never made from aluminium
Aluminum
–
Aluminium, 13 Al
Aluminum
–
Spectral lines of aluminium
Aluminum
–
"
Red mud " storage facility in
Stade,
Germany. The aluminium industry generates about 70 million tons of this waste annually.
Aluminum
–
Bauxite, a major aluminium ore. The red-brown color is due to the presence of
iron minerals.
10.
Smelting
–
Smelting is a form of extractive metallurgy, its main use is to produce a base metal from its ore. This includes production of silver, iron, copper and other metals from their ores. Smelting makes use of heat and a reducing agent to decompose the ore, driving off other elements as gases or slag. The reducing agent is commonly a source of such as coke. The carbon removes oxygen from the ore, leaving behind the elemental metal, the carbon is thus oxidized in two stages, producing first carbon monoxide and then carbon dioxide. As most ores are impure, it is necessary to use flux, such as limestone. Plants for the reduction of aluminium are also generally referred to as aluminium smelters. Smelting involves more than just melting the metal out of its ore, most ores are a chemical compound of the metal with other elements, such as oxygen, sulfur or carbon and oxygen together. To produce the metal, these compounds have to undergo a chemical reaction, smelting therefore consists of using suitable reducing substances that will combine with those oxidizing elements to free the metal. In the case of carbonates and sulfides, a process called roasting drives out the carbon or sulfur, leaving an oxide. Roasting is usually carried out in an oxidizing environment, a few practical examples, Malachite, a common ore of copper, is primarily copper carbonate hydroxide Cu22. This mineral undergoes thermal decomposition to 2CuO, CO2, and H2O in several stages between 250 °C and 350 °C, the carbon dioxide and water are expelled into the atmosphere, leaving copper oxide which can be directly reduced to copper as described in the following section titled Reduction. Galena, the most common mineral of lead, is primarily lead sulfide, the sulfide is oxidized to a sulfite which thermally decomposes into lead oxide and sulfur dioxide gas. The sulfur dioxide is expelled, and the oxide is reduced as below. Reduction is the final, high-temperature step in smelting and it is here that the oxide becomes the elemental metal. A reducing environment pulls the final oxygen atoms from the raw metal, the required temperature varies over a very large range, both in absolute terms and in terms of the melting point of the base metal. Fluxes are used in smelting for several purposes, chief among them catalyzing the desired reactions, of the seven metals known in antiquity, only gold occurred regularly in native form in the natural environment. The others – copper, lead, silver, tin, iron and mercury – occur primarily as minerals and these minerals are primarily carbonates, sulfides, or oxides of the metal, mixed with other components such as silica and alumina
Smelting
–
Electric phosphate smelting furnace in a
TVA chemical plant (1942)
Smelting
–
Casting bronze ding-tripods, from the Chinese Tiangong Kaiwu encyclopedia of
Song Yingxing, published in 1637.
Smelting
–
Cowles Syndicate of
Ohio in
Stoke-upon-Trent England, late 1880s.
British Aluminium used the process of
Paul Héroult about this time.
11.
Iron
–
Iron is a chemical element with symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series and it is by mass the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earths outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earths crust, like the other group 8 elements, ruthenium and osmium, iron exists in a wide range of oxidation states, −2 to +6, although +2 and +3 are the most common. Elemental iron occurs in meteoroids and other low oxygen environments, but is reactive to oxygen, fresh iron surfaces appear lustrous silvery-gray, but oxidize in normal air to give hydrated iron oxides, commonly known as rust. Unlike the metals that form passivating oxide layers, iron oxides occupy more volume than the metal and thus flake off, Iron metal has been used since ancient times, although copper alloys, which have lower melting temperatures, were used even earlier in human history. Pure iron is soft, but is unobtainable by smelting because it is significantly hardened and strengthened by impurities, in particular carbon. A certain proportion of carbon steel, which may be up to 1000 times harder than pure iron. Crude iron metal is produced in blast furnaces, where ore is reduced by coke to pig iron, further refinement with oxygen reduces the carbon content to the correct proportion to make steel. Steels and iron alloys formed with metals are by far the most common industrial metals because they have a great range of desirable properties. Iron chemical compounds have many uses, Iron oxide mixed with aluminium powder can be ignited to create a thermite reaction, used in welding and purifying ores. Iron forms binary compounds with the halogens and the chalcogens, among its organometallic compounds is ferrocene, the first sandwich compound discovered. Iron plays an important role in biology, forming complexes with oxygen in hemoglobin and myoglobin. Iron is also the metal at the site of many important redox enzymes dealing with cellular respiration and oxidation and reduction in plants. A human male of average height has about 4 grams of iron in his body and this iron is distributed throughout the body in hemoglobin, tissues, muscles, bone marrow, blood proteins, enzymes, ferritin, hemosiderin, and transport in plasma. The mechanical properties of iron and its alloys can be evaluated using a variety of tests, including the Brinell test, Rockwell test, the data on iron is so consistent that it is often used to calibrate measurements or to compare tests. An increase in the content will cause a significant increase in the hardness. Maximum hardness of 65 Rc is achieved with a 0. 6% carbon content, because of the softness of iron, it is much easier to work with than its heavier congeners ruthenium and osmium. Because of its significance for planetary cores, the properties of iron at high pressures and temperatures have also been studied extensively
Iron
–
Iron, 26 Fe
Iron
–
Spectral lines of iron
Iron
–
Iron meteorites, similar in composition to the Earth's inner- and outer core
Iron
–
Hydrated
iron(III) chloride, also known as ferric chloride
12.
Pelletization
–
Pelletizing is the process of compressing or molding a material into the shape of a pellet. A wide range of different materials are pelletized including chemicals, iron ore, animal compound feed, Iron ore pellets are spheres of typically 6–16 mm to be used as raw material for blast furnaces. They typically contain 67%-72% Fe and various additional material adjusting the chemical composition, typically limestone, dolostone and olivine is added and Bentonite is used as binder. The process of pelletizing combines mixing of the raw material, forming the pellet, the raw material is rolled into a ball, then fired in a kiln to sinter the particles into a hard sphere. The configuration of iron ore powder in a blast furnace is more tightly-packed and this is the reason that iron ore is preferred in the form of pellets rather than in the form of finer particles. Additional materials are added to the ore to meet the requirements of the final pellets. Both mechanical force and thermal processes are used to produce the correct pellet properties, from an equipment point of view there are two alternatives for industrial production of iron ore pellets, the drum and the pelletizing disk. The duration of each stage and the temperature that the pellets are subjected to have an influence on the final product quality. Pelletizing of animal feeds can result in pellets from 1.2 mm, the pelletizing of stock feed is done with the pellet mill machinery, which is done in a feed mill. Feed ingredients are normally first hammered to reduce the size of the ingredients. Ingredients are then batched, and then combined and mixed thoroughly by a feed mixer, once the feed has been prepared to this stage the feed is ready to be pelletized. Pelletizing is done in a mill, where feed is normally conditioned. The feed is then pushed through the holes and a pellet die, after pelleting the pellets are cooled with a cooler to bring the temperature of the feed down. Other post pelleting applications include post-pelleting conditioning, sorting via a screen, blast furnace Iron ore Nurdle Pellet Pellet mill Spheronisation
Pelletization
–
Processed
Taconite pellets as used in the steelmaking industry, with a
US Quarter shown to scale.
Pelletization
–
Disc Pelletizer
Pelletization
–
animal pellets
Pelletization
13.
Fertilizers
–
A fertilizer or fertiliser is any material of natural or synthetic origin that is applied to soils or to plant tissues to supply one or more plant nutrients essential to the growth of plants. Fertilizers enhance the growth of plants and this goal is met in two ways, the traditional one being additives that provide nutrients. The second mode by which some fertilizers act is to enhance the effectiveness of the soil by modifying its water retention and aeration and this article, like many on fertilizers, emphasises the nutritional aspect. The nutrients required for plant life are classified according to the elements. Instead compounds containing these elements are the basis of fertilizers, the macronutrients are consumed in larger quantities and are present in plant tissue in quantities from 0. 15% to 6. 0% on a dry matter basis. Plants are made up of four elements, hydrogen, oxygen, carbon. Carbon, hydrogen and oxygen are widely available as water and carbon dioxide, although nitrogen makes up most of the atmosphere, it is in a form that is unavailable to plants. Nitrogen is the most important fertilizer since nitrogen is present in proteins, DNA, to be nutritious to plants, nitrogen must be made available in a fixed form. Only some bacteria and their host plants can fix atmospheric nitrogen by converting it to ammonia, phosphate is required for the production of DNA and ATP, the main energy carrier in cells, as well as certain lipids. Micronutrients are consumed in quantities and are present in plant tissue on the order of parts-per-million, ranging from 0.15 to 400 ppm DM. These elements are present at the active sites of enzymes that carry out the plants metabolism. Because these elements enable catalysts their impact far exceeds their weight percentage, Fertilizers are classified in several ways. They are classified according to whether they provide a single nutrient, multinutrient fertilizers provide two or more nutrients, for example N and P. Fertilizers are also sometimes classified as inorganic versus organic. Inorganic fertilizers exclude carbon-containing materials except ureas, organic fertilizers are usually plant- or animal-derived matter. Inorganic are sometimes called synthetic fertilizers since various chemical treatments are required for their manufacture, the main nitrogen-based straight fertilizer is ammonia or its solutions. Ammonium nitrate is widely used. Urea is another source of nitrogen, having the advantage that it is solid and non-explosive, unlike ammonia and ammonium nitrate. A few percent of the fertilizer market has been met by calcium ammonium nitrate
Fertilizers
–
A large, modern fertilizer spreader
Fertilizers
–
A
Lite-Trac Agri-Spread
lime and fertilizer spreader at an agricultural show
Fertilizers
–
Compost bin for small-scale production of organic fertilizer
Fertilizers
–
A large commercial compost operation
14.
Islamic banking
–
Islamic banking is banking or banking activity that is consistent with the principles of sharia and its practical application through the development of Islamic economics. As such, a correct term for Islamic banking is sharia-compliant finance. Sharia prohibits acceptance of specific interest or fees for loans of money, Investment in businesses that provide goods or services considered contrary to Islamic principles is also haraam. As of 2014, sharia-compliant financial institutions represented approximately 1% of total world assets, an early market economy and an early form of mercantilism, sometimes called Islamic capitalism, was developed between the eighth and twelfth centuries. The monetary economy of the period was based on the widely circulated currency the gold dinar, organizational enterprises independent from the state also existed in the medieval Islamic world, while the agency institution was also introduced during that time. Many of these early capitalist concepts were adopted and further advanced in medieval Europe from the 13th century onwards, the word riba literally means “excess or addition”, and has been translated as interest, usury, excess, increase or addition. According to Shariah terminology, it implies any excess compensation without due consideration, according to Islamic economists Choudhury and Malik by the time of Caliph Umar, the prohibition of interest was a well-established working principle integrated into the Islamic economic system. This interpretation of usury has not been accepted or applied in the Islamic world. The Investor is called Rab ul Maal and the party is termed as Mudarib. Further works specifically devoted to the subject of interest-free banking were authored by Muhammad Uzair, Abdullah al-Araby, Nejatullah Siddiqi, al-Najjar, in the middle of the 20th century some organizational entities were found to offer financial services complying with Islamic laws. The first, experimental, local Islamic bank was established in the late 1950s in a area of Pakistan which charged no interest on its lending. A remarkable effort in sharia-compliant savings banking was undertaken in 1963 in rural Egypt by economist Ahmad Elnaggar to appeal to people who lacked confidence in state-run banks, the experiment was shut down by the government in 1968, but was considered by many a success. By this time there were nine such banks in the country, in 1972, the Mit Ghamr Savings project became part of Nasr Social Bank which, currently, is still in business in Egypt. The influx of petro-dollars and a general following the Yom Kippur War and 1973 oil crisis gave great help to the development of the Islamic banking sector. And since 1975 it has spread the globe, in 1975, the Islamic Development Bank was set up with the mission to provide funding to projects in the member countries. The first modern commercial Islamic bank, Dubai Islamic Bank, was established in 1979, in 1980, government of Pakistan brought in regulatory framework under the caption Modaraba companies and Modarabas and rule made thereunder. The ensuing financial panic led to the bankruptcy of some companies, in 1990 an accounting organization for Islamic financial institutions, was established in Algiers by a group of Islamic financial institutions. By 1995,144 Islamic financial institutions had been established worldwide, including 33 government-run banks,40 private banks, by 2008 Islamic banking was growing at a rate of 10–15% per year and with signs of consistent future growth
Islamic banking
–
A Jordan Islamic Bank branch in
Amman.
Islamic banking
–
Building housing the Islamic Banking & Finance Institute Malaysia (IBFIM) in downtown
Kuala Lumpur.
Islamic banking
–
A Saba Islamic Bank branch in
Djibouti City.
Islamic banking
–
An Islamic Development Bank branch in
Dhaka.
15.
Banking
–
A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates credit. Lending activities can be performed either directly or indirectly through capital markets, due to their importance in the financial stability of a country, banks are highly regulated in most countries. Most nations have institutionalized a system known as fractional reserve banking under which banks hold liquid assets equal to only a portion of their current liabilities. In the history of banking, a number of banking dynasties — notably, the Medicis, the Fuggers, the Welsers, the Berenbergs, the oldest existing retail bank is Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, while the oldest existing merchant bank is Berenberg Bank. Banking began with the first prototype banks of merchants of the ancient world and this began around 2000 BC in Assyria and Babylonia. Later, in ancient Greece and during the Roman Empire, lenders based in temples made loans, archaeology from this period in ancient China and India also shows evidence of money lending activity. The origins of modern banking can be traced to medieval and early Renaissance Italy, to the cities in the centre and north like Florence, Lucca, Siena, Venice. The Bardi and Peruzzi families dominated banking in 14th-century Florence, establishing branches in other parts of Europe. One of the most famous Italian banks was the Medici Bank, the earliest known state deposit bank, Banco di San Giorgio, was founded in 1407 at Genoa, Italy. Modern banking practices, including fractional reserve banking and the issue of banknotes, merchants started to store their gold with the goldsmiths of London, who possessed private vaults, and charged a fee for that service. The goldsmith paid interest on these deposits, since the promissory notes were payable on demand, and the advances to the goldsmiths customers were repayable over a longer time period, this was an early form of fractional reserve banking. Thus, the goldsmiths of London became the forerunners of banking by creating new money based on credit, the Bank of England was the first to begin the permanent issue of banknotes, in 1695. The Royal Bank of Scotland established the first overdraft facility in 1728, by the beginning of the 19th century a bankers clearing house was established in London to allow multiple banks to clear transactions. The Rothschilds pioneered international finance on a scale, financing the purchase of the Suez canal for the British government. The word bank was borrowed in Middle English from Middle French banque, from Old Italian banca, meaning table, from Old High German banc, bank bench, counter. Benches were used as makeshift desks or exchange counters during the Renaissance by Jewish Florentine bankers, the definition of a bank varies from country to country. See the relevant country pages under for more information, the business of banking is in many English common law countries not defined by statute but by common law, the definition above. In other English common law there are statutory definitions of the business of banking or banking business
Banking
–
The
Bank of England, established in 1694.
Banking
–
Personal finance
Banking
–
Among many other things, the
Code of Hammurabi from 1754 BC recorded interest-bearing loans.
Banking
–
The sealing of the
Bank of England Charter (1694).
16.
Insurance
–
Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss. It is a form of risk management primarily used to hedge against the risk of a contingent, an entity which provides insurance is known as an insurer, insurance company, or insurance carrier. A person or entity who buys insurance is known as an insured or policyholder, the insured receives a contract, called the insurance policy, which details the conditions and circumstances under which the insured will be financially compensated. The amount of money charged by the insurer to the insured for the coverage set forth in the policy is called the premium. If the insured experiences a loss which is covered by the insurance policy. Methods for transferring or distributing risk were practiced by Chinese and Babylonian traders as long ago as the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC, Chinese merchants travelling treacherous river rapids would redistribute their wares across many vessels to limit the loss due to any single vessels capsizing. The Babylonians developed a system which was recorded in the famous Code of Hammurabi, c.1750 BC, and practiced by early Mediterranean sailing merchants. If a merchant received a loan to fund his shipment, he would pay the lender an additional sum in exchange for the guarantee to cancel the loan should the shipment be stolen. At some point in the 1st millennium BC, the inhabitants of Rhodes created the general average and this allowed groups of merchants to pay to insure their goods being shipped together. The collected premiums would be used to any merchant whose goods were jettisoned during transport. Separate insurance contracts were invented in Genoa in the 14th century, the first known insurance contract dates from Genoa in 1347, and in the next century maritime insurance developed widely and premiums were intuitively varied with risks. These new insurance contracts allowed insurance to be separated from investment, Insurance became far more sophisticated in Enlightenment era Europe, and specialized varieties developed. Property insurance as we know it today can be traced to the Great Fire of London, initially,5,000 homes were insured by his Insurance Office. At the same time, the first insurance schemes for the underwriting of business ventures became available, by the end of the seventeenth century, Londons growing importance as a center for trade was increasing demand for marine insurance. These informal beginnings led to the establishment of the insurance market Lloyds of London and several related shipping, the first life insurance policies were taken out in the early 18th century. The first company to offer life insurance was the Amicable Society for a Perpetual Assurance Office, founded in London in 1706 by William Talbot, edward Rowe Mores established the Society for Equitable Assurances on Lives and Survivorship in 1762. In the late 19th century, accident insurance began to become available and this operated much like modern disability insurance. The first company to offer accident insurance was the Railway Passengers Assurance Company, by the late 19th century, governments began to initiate national insurance programs against sickness and old age
Insurance
–
Financial market participants
Insurance
–
Merchants have sought methods to minimize risks since early times. Pictured, Governors of the Wine Merchant's Guild by
Ferdinand Bol, c. 1680.
Insurance
–
Lloyd's Coffee House was the first marine insurance company.
Insurance
–
Leaflet promoting the
National Insurance Act 1911.
17.
Tourism
–
Tourism is travel for pleasure or business, also the theory and practice of touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tours. Tourism may be international, or within the travellers country, Tourism can be domestic or international, and international tourism has both incoming and outgoing implications on a countrys balance of payments. Today, tourism is a source of income for many countries. International tourism receipts grew to US$1.03 trillion in 2011, the ITB Berlin is the worlds leading tourism trade fair. The word tourist was used by 1772 and tourism by 1811. It is formed from the tour, which is derived from Old English turian, from Old French torner, from Latin tornare, to turn on a lathe. Tourism is an important, even vital, source of income for many regions and it also creates opportunities for employment in the service sector of the economy associated with tourism. This is in addition to goods bought by tourists, including souvenirs, in 1936, the League of Nations defined a foreign tourist as someone traveling abroad for at least twenty-four hours. Its successor, the United Nations, amended this definition in 1945 and it includes movements for all purposes. In 1981, the International Association of Scientific Experts in Tourism defined tourism in terms of particular activities chosen and undertaken outside the home, in this context, travel has a similar definition to tourism, but implies a more purposeful journey. The terms tourism and tourist are sometimes used pejoratively, to imply a shallow interest in the cultures or locations visited, by contrast, traveler is often used as a sign of distinction. The sociology of tourism has studied the values underpinning these distinctions. International tourist arrivals reached 1.035 billion in 2012, up from over 996 million in 2011, the World Tourism Organization reports the following ten destinations as the most visited in terms of the number of international travellers in 2016. International tourism receipts grew to US$1.2 trillion in 2014, based upon air traffic, the MasterCard Global Destination Cities Index reports the following cities as the top ten most popular destinations of international tourism worldwide. MasterCard reports the following cities as the top ten biggest earners on international tourism worldwide in 2015, as early as Shulgi, however, kings praised themselves for protecting roads and building waystations for travelers. During the Roman Republic, spas and coastal resorts such as Baiae were popular among the rich, pausanias wrote his Description of Greece in the 2nd century AD. In ancient China, nobles sometimes made a point of visiting Mount Tai and, on occasion, the Islamic hajj is still central to its faith and Chaucers Canterbury Tales and Wu Chengens Journey to the West remain classics of English and Chinese literature. The 10th- to 13th-century Song dynasty also saw secular travel writers such as Su Shi, under the Ming, Xu Xiake continued the practice
Tourism
–
A tourist taking photographs and video at archaeological site
Tourism
–
Backpacking tourists in Vienna
Tourism
–
1922 postcard of tourists in the
High Tatras,
Slovakia.
Tourism
–
Strandkorb chairs on
Usedom Island, Germany. Not only the service sector grows thanks to tourism, but also local
manufacturers (like those producing the strandkorb),
retailers, the
real estate sector and the general
image of a location can benefit a lot.
18.
Petroleum
–
Petroleum is a naturally occurring, yellow-to-black liquid found in geological formations beneath the Earths surface, which is commonly refined into various types of fuels. Components of petroleum are separated using a technique called fractional distillation and it consists of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other organic compounds. The name petroleum covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crude oil and petroleum products that are made up of refined crude oil. A fossil fuel, petroleum is formed when large quantities of dead organisms, usually zooplankton and algae, are buried underneath sedimentary rock, Petroleum has mostly been recovered by oil drilling. Drilling is carried out studies of structural geology, sedimentary basin analysis. Petroleum is used in manufacturing a variety of materials. Concern over the depletion of the earths finite reserves of oil, the burning of fossil fuels plays the major role in the current episode of global warming. The word petroleum comes from Greek, πέτρα for rocks and Greek, the term was found in 10th-century Old English sources. It was used in the treatise De Natura Fossilium, published in 1546 by the German mineralogist Georg Bauer, Petroleum, in one form or another, has been used since ancient times, and is now important across society, including in economy, politics and technology. Great quantities of it were found on the banks of the river Issus, ancient Persian tablets indicate the medicinal and lighting uses of petroleum in the upper levels of their society. By 347 AD, oil was produced from bamboo-drilled wells in China, early British explorers to Myanmar documented a flourishing oil extraction industry based in Yenangyaung that, in 1795, had hundreds of hand-dug wells under production. The mythological origins of the oil fields at Yenangyaung, and its hereditary monopoly control by 24 families, Pechelbronn is said to be the first European site where petroleum has been explored and used. The still active Erdpechquelle, a spring where petroleum appears mixed with water has been used since 1498, Oil sands have been mined since the 18th century. In Wietze in lower Saxony, natural asphalt/bitumen has been explored since the 18th century, both in Pechelbronn as in Wietze, the coal industry dominated the petroleum technologies. In 1848 Young set up a small business refining the crude oil, Young eventually succeeded, by distilling cannel coal at a low heat, in creating a fluid resembling petroleum, which when treated in the same way as the seep oil gave similar products. The production of oils and solid paraffin wax from coal formed the subject of his patent dated 17 October 1850. In 1850 Young & Meldrum and Edward William Binney entered into partnership under the title of E. W. Binney & Co. at Bathgate in West Lothian, the worlds first oil refinery was built in 1856 by Ignacy Łukasiewicz. The demand for petroleum as a fuel for lighting in North America, edwin Drakes 1859 well near Titusville, Pennsylvania, is popularly considered the first modern well
Petroleum
–
Pumpjack pumping an oil well near
Lubbock, Texas
Petroleum
–
An oil refinery in Mina-Al-Ahmadi, Kuwait
Petroleum
–
Natural petroleum spring in
Korňa, Slovakia
Petroleum
–
Oil derrick in
Okemah, Oklahoma, 1922
19.
Textiles
–
A textile or cloth is a flexible material consisting of a network of natural or artificial fibres. Yarn is produced by spinning raw fibres of wool, flax, cotton, hemp, Textiles are formed by weaving, knitting, crocheting, knotting, or felting. The words fabric and cloth are used in textile assembly trades as synonyms for textile, however, there are subtle differences in these terms in specialized usage. Textile refers to any material made of interlacing fibres, a fabric is a material made through weaving, knitting, spreading, crocheting, or bonding that may be used in production of further goods. Cloth may be used synonymously with fabric but is often a piece of fabric used for a specific purpose. The word textile is from Latin, from the adjective textilis, meaning woven, from textus, the word cloth derives from the Old English clað, meaning a cloth, woven or felted material to wrap around one, from Proto-Germanic kalithaz. The discovery of dyed flax fibres in a cave in the Republic of Georgia dated to 34,000 BCE suggests textile-like materials were made even in prehistoric times. The production of textiles is a craft whose speed and scale of production has been altered almost beyond recognition by industrialization, however, for the main types of textiles, plain weave, twill, or satin weave, there is little difference between the ancient and modern methods. Textiles have an assortment of uses, the most common of which are for clothing and for such as bags. In the household they are used in carpeting, upholstered furnishings, window shades, towels, coverings for tables, beds, and other flat surfaces, in the workplace they are used in industrial and scientific processes such as filtering. Textiles are used in traditional crafts such as sewing, quilting. Textiles for industrial purposes, and chosen for other than their appearance, are commonly referred to as technical textiles. Technical textiles include textile structures for applications, medical textiles, geotextiles, agrotextiles. In all these applications stringent performance requirements must be met, woven of threads coated with zinc oxide nanowires, laboratory fabric has been shown capable of self-powering nanosystems using vibrations created by everyday actions like wind or body movements. Fashion designers commonly rely on textile designs to set their fashion collections apart from others, armani, the late Gianni Versace, and Emilio Pucci can be easily recognized by their signature print driven designs. Textiles can be made from many materials and these materials come from four main sources, animal, plant, mineral, and synthetic. In the past, all textiles were made from natural fibres, including plant, animal, in the 20th century, these were supplemented by artificial fibres made from petroleum. Textiles are made in various strengths and degrees of durability, from the finest gossamer to the sturdiest canvas, microfibre refers to fibres made of strands thinner than one denier
Textiles
–
Sunday textile market on the sidewalks of
Karachi, Pakistan
Textiles
–
Simple textile (magnified)
Textiles
–
A small fabric shop in
Al-Mukalla, Yemen
Textiles
–
Late antique textile,
Egyptian, now in the
Dumbarton Oaks collection
20.
Saudi Arabia
–
Saudi Arabia is bordered by Jordan and Iraq to the north, Kuwait to the northeast, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates to the east, Oman to the southeast and Yemen to the south. It is separated from Israel and Egypt by the Gulf of Aqaba and it is the only nation with both a Red Sea coast and a Persian Gulf coast and most of its terrain consists of arid desert and mountains. The area of modern-day Saudi Arabia formerly consisted of four regions, Hejaz, Najd and parts of Eastern Arabia. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was founded in 1932 by Ibn Saud and he united the four regions into a single state through a series of conquests beginning in 1902 with the capture of Riyadh, the ancestral home of his family, the House of Saud. Saudi Arabia has since been a monarchy, effectively a hereditary dictatorship governed along Islamic lines. The ultraconservative Wahhabi religious movement within Sunni Islam has been called the predominant feature of Saudi culture, with its global spread largely financed by the oil and gas trade. Saudi Arabia is sometimes called the Land of the Two Holy Mosques in reference to Al-Masjid al-Haram and Al-Masjid an-Nabawi, the state has a total population of 28.7 million, of which 20 million are Saudi nationals and 8 million are foreigners. The states official language is Arabic, petroleum was discovered on 3 March 1938 and followed up by several other finds in the Eastern Province. Saudi Arabia has since become the worlds largest oil producer and exporter, controlling the second largest oil reserves. The kingdom is categorized as a World Bank high-income economy with a high Human Development Index and is the only Arab country to be part of the G-20 major economies. However, the economy of Saudi Arabia is the least diversified in the Gulf Cooperation Council, the state has attracted criticism for its treatment of women and use of capital punishment. Saudi Arabia is an autocracy, has the fourth highest military expenditure in the world. Saudi Arabia is considered a regional and middle power, in addition to the GCC, it is an active member of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and OPEC. Following the unification of the Hejaz and Nejd kingdoms, the new state was named al-Mamlakah al-ʻArabīyah as-Suʻūdīyah by royal decree on 23 September 1932 by its founder, Abdulaziz Al Saud. Although this is translated as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in English it literally means the Saudi Arab kingdom. Its inclusion expresses the view that the country is the possession of the royal family. Al Saud is an Arabic name formed by adding the word Al, meaning family of or House of, in the case of the Al Saud, this is the father of the dynastys 18th century founder, Muhammad bin Saud. There is evidence that human habitation in the Arabian Peninsula dates back to about 125,000 years ago
Saudi Arabia
–
Abdul Aziz
Ibn Saud, the first king of Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia
–
Flag
Saudi Arabia
–
Saudi Arabia political map
Saudi Arabia
–
Saudi Arabian administrative regions and roadways map.
21.
United States
–
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
United States
–
Native Americans meeting with Europeans, 1764
United States
–
Flag
United States
–
The signing of the
Mayflower Compact, 1620.
United States
–
The
Declaration of Independence: the
Committee of Five presenting their draft to the
Second Continental Congress in 1776
22.
United Arab Emirates
–
In 2013, the UAEs population was 9.2 million, of which 1.4 million are Emirati citizens and 7.8 million are expatriates. The country is a federation of seven emirates, and was established on 2 December 1971, the constituent emirates are Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Ras al-Khaimah, Sharjah and Umm al-Quwain. Each emirate is governed by a monarch, together, they jointly form the Federal Supreme Council. One of the monarchs is selected as the President of the United Arab Emirates, Islam is the official religion of the UAE and Arabic is the official language. The UAEs oil reserves are the seventh-largest in the world while its natural gas reserves are the worlds seventeenth-largest, Sheikh Zayed, ruler of Abu Dhabi and the first President of the UAE, oversaw the development of the Emirates and steered oil revenues into healthcare, education and infrastructure. The UAEs economy is the most diversified in the Gulf Cooperation Council, while its most populous city of Dubai is an important global city, nevertheless, the country remains principally reliant on its export of petroleum and natural gas. The UAE is criticised for its rights record, including the specific interpretations of Sharia used in its legal system. The UAEs rising international profile has led analysts to identify it as a regional. It appears the land of the Emirates has been occupied for thousands of years, there is no proof of contact with the outside world at that stage, although in time it developed with civilisations in Mesopotamia and Iran. This contact persisted and became wide-ranging, probably motivated by trade in copper from the Hajar Mountains, in ancient times, Al Hasa was part of Al Bahreyn and adjoined Greater Oman. Sassanid groups were present on the Batinah coast, in 637, Julfar was an important port that was used as a staging post for the Islamic invasion of the Sassanian Empire. The area of the Al Ain/Buraimi Oasis was known as Tuam and was an important trading post for camel routes between the coast and the Arabian interior. The earliest Christian site in the UAE was first discovered in the 1990s, a monastic complex on what is now known as Sir Bani Yas Island. Thought to be Nestorian and built in 600 AD, the church appears to have been abandoned peacefully in 750 AD and it forms a rare physical link to a legacy of Christianity which is thought to have spread across the peninsula from 50 to 350 AD following trade routes. Certainly, by the 5th century, Oman had a bishop named John – the last bishop of Oman being Etienne, in 676 AD. This led to a group of travelling to Medina, converting to Islam and subsequently driving a successful uprising against the unpopular Sassanids. Following the death of Prophet Muhammad, the new Islamic communities south of the Persian Gulf threatened to disintegrate, with insurrections against the Muslim leaders. The Caliph Abu Bakr sent an army from the capital Medina which completed its reconquest of the territory with the battle of Dibba in which 10,000 lives are thought to have been lost
United Arab Emirates
–
Dubai in 1950; the area in this photo shows
Bur Dubai in the foreground (centered on Al-Fahidi Fort);
Deira in middle-right on the other side of the creek; and
Al Shindagha (left) and
Al Ras (right) in the background across the creek again from Deira
United Arab Emirates
–
Flag
United Arab Emirates
–
Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan was the first President of UAE.
United Arab Emirates
–
View of
Sharjah city
23.
Crude Oil
–
Petroleum is a naturally occurring, yellow-to-black liquid found in geological formations beneath the Earths surface, which is commonly refined into various types of fuels. Components of petroleum are separated using a technique called fractional distillation and it consists of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other organic compounds. The name petroleum covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crude oil and petroleum products that are made up of refined crude oil. A fossil fuel, petroleum is formed when large quantities of dead organisms, usually zooplankton and algae, are buried underneath sedimentary rock, Petroleum has mostly been recovered by oil drilling. Drilling is carried out studies of structural geology, sedimentary basin analysis. Petroleum is used in manufacturing a variety of materials. Concern over the depletion of the earths finite reserves of oil, the burning of fossil fuels plays the major role in the current episode of global warming. The word petroleum comes from Greek, πέτρα for rocks and Greek, the term was found in 10th-century Old English sources. It was used in the treatise De Natura Fossilium, published in 1546 by the German mineralogist Georg Bauer, Petroleum, in one form or another, has been used since ancient times, and is now important across society, including in economy, politics and technology. Great quantities of it were found on the banks of the river Issus, ancient Persian tablets indicate the medicinal and lighting uses of petroleum in the upper levels of their society. By 347 AD, oil was produced from bamboo-drilled wells in China, early British explorers to Myanmar documented a flourishing oil extraction industry based in Yenangyaung that, in 1795, had hundreds of hand-dug wells under production. The mythological origins of the oil fields at Yenangyaung, and its hereditary monopoly control by 24 families, Pechelbronn is said to be the first European site where petroleum has been explored and used. The still active Erdpechquelle, a spring where petroleum appears mixed with water has been used since 1498, Oil sands have been mined since the 18th century. In Wietze in lower Saxony, natural asphalt/bitumen has been explored since the 18th century, both in Pechelbronn as in Wietze, the coal industry dominated the petroleum technologies. In 1848 Young set up a small business refining the crude oil, Young eventually succeeded, by distilling cannel coal at a low heat, in creating a fluid resembling petroleum, which when treated in the same way as the seep oil gave similar products. The production of oils and solid paraffin wax from coal formed the subject of his patent dated 17 October 1850. In 1850 Young & Meldrum and Edward William Binney entered into partnership under the title of E. W. Binney & Co. at Bathgate in West Lothian, the worlds first oil refinery was built in 1856 by Ignacy Łukasiewicz. The demand for petroleum as a fuel for lighting in North America, edwin Drakes 1859 well near Titusville, Pennsylvania, is popularly considered the first modern well
Crude Oil
–
Pumpjack pumping an oil well near
Lubbock, Texas
Crude Oil
–
Proven world
oil reserves, 2013. Unconventional reservoirs such as natural heavy oil and
oil sands are included.
Crude Oil
–
An oil refinery in Mina-Al-Ahmadi, Kuwait
Crude Oil
–
Natural petroleum spring in
Korňa, Slovakia
24.
Chemicals
–
A chemical substance is a form of matter that has constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. It cannot be separated into components by physical methods, i. e. without breaking chemical bonds. Chemical substances can be chemical elements, chemical compounds, ions or alloys, Chemical substances are often called pure to set them apart from mixtures. A common example of a substance is pure water, it has the same properties. Other chemical substances commonly encountered in pure form are diamond, gold, table salt, however, in practice, no substance is entirely pure, and chemical purity is specified according to the intended use of the chemical. Chemical substances exist as solids, liquids, gases, or plasma, Chemical substances may be combined or converted to others by means of chemical reactions. Forms of energy, such as light and heat, are not matter, a chemical substance may well be defined as any material with a definite chemical composition in an introductory general chemistry textbook. According to this definition a chemical substance can either be a chemical element or a pure chemical compound. But, there are exceptions to this definition, a substance can also be defined as a form of matter that has both definite composition and distinct properties. The chemical substance index published by CAS also includes several alloys of uncertain composition, in geology, substances of uniform composition are called minerals, while physical mixtures of several minerals are defined as rocks. Many minerals, however, mutually dissolve into solid solutions, such that a rock is a uniform substance despite being a mixture in stoichiometric terms. Feldspars are an example, anorthoclase is an alkali aluminium silicate. In law, chemical substances may include both pure substances and mixtures with a composition or manufacturing process. For example, the EU regulation REACH defines monoconstituent substances, multiconstituent substances and substances of unknown or variable composition, the latter two consist of multiple chemical substances, however, their identity can be established either by direct chemical analysis or reference to a single manufacturing process. For example, charcoal is a complex, partially polymeric mixture that can be defined by its manufacturing process. Therefore, although the chemical identity is unknown, identification can be made to a sufficient accuracy. The CAS index also includes mixtures, polymers almost always appear as mixtures of molecules of multiple molar masses, each of which could be considered a separate chemical substance. However, the polymer may be defined by a precursor or reaction
Chemicals
–
Steam and liquid water are two different forms of the same chemical substance, water.
Chemicals
–
Colors of a single chemical (
Nile red) in different solvents, under visible and UV light, showing how the chemical interacts dynamically with its solvent environment.
Chemicals
–
Native sulfur crystals. Sulfur occurs naturally as elemental sulfur, in
sulfide and
sulfate minerals and in
hydrogen sulfide.
Chemicals
–
Potassium ferricyanide is a compound of potassium, iron, carbon and nitrogen; although it contains cyanide anions, it does not release them and is nontoxic.
25.
Algeria
–
Algeria, officially the Peoples Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a sovereign state in North Africa on the Mediterranean coast. Its capital and most populous city is Algiers, located in the far north. With an area of 2,381,741 square kilometres, Algeria is the tenth-largest country in the world, the country is a semi-presidential republic consisting of 48 provinces and 1,541 communes. Abdelaziz Bouteflika has been President since 1999, Berbers are the indigenous inhabitants of Algeria. Algeria is a regional and middle power, the North African country supplies large amounts of natural gas to Europe, and energy exports are the backbone of the economy. According to OPEC Algeria has the 16th largest oil reserves in the world, Sonatrach, the national oil company, is the largest company in Africa. Algeria has one of the largest militaries in Africa and the largest defence budget on the continent, most of Algerias weapons are imported from Russia, with whom they are a close ally. Algeria is a member of the African Union, the Arab League, OPEC, the countrys name derives from the city of Algiers. The citys name in turn derives from the Arabic al-Jazāir, a form of the older Jazāir Banī Mazghanna. In the region of Ain Hanech, early remnants of hominid occupation in North Africa were found, neanderthal tool makers produced hand axes in the Levalloisian and Mousterian styles similar to those in the Levant. Algeria was the site of the highest state of development of Middle Paleolithic Flake tool techniques, tools of this era, starting about 30,000 BC, are called Aterian. The earliest blade industries in North Africa are called Iberomaurusian and this industry appears to have spread throughout the coastal regions of the Maghreb between 15,000 and 10,000 BC. Neolithic civilization developed in the Saharan and Mediterranean Maghreb perhaps as early as 11,000 BC or as late as between 6000 and 2000 BC and this life, richly depicted in the Tassili nAjjer paintings, predominated in Algeria until the classical period. The amalgam of peoples of North Africa coalesced eventually into a native population that came to be called Berbers. These settlements served as market towns as well as anchorages, as Carthaginian power grew, its impact on the indigenous population increased dramatically. Berber civilization was already at a stage in which agriculture, manufacturing, trade, by the early 4th century BC, Berbers formed the single largest element of the Carthaginian army. In the Revolt of the Mercenaries, Berber soldiers rebelled from 241 to 238 BC after being unpaid following the defeat of Carthage in the First Punic War. They succeeded in obtaining control of much of Carthages North African territory, the Carthaginian state declined because of successive defeats by the Romans in the Punic Wars
Algeria
–
Ancient
Roman Empire ruins of
Timgad. Street leading to the Arch of Trajan.
Algeria
–
Flag
Algeria
–
Ancient Roman theatre in Djémila
Algeria
–
Numidia along with Egypt, Rome, and Carthage 200 BCE
26.
China
–
China, officially the Peoples Republic of China, is a unitary sovereign state in East Asia and the worlds most populous country, with a population of over 1.381 billion. The state is governed by the Communist Party of China and its capital is Beijing, the countrys major urban areas include Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Chongqing, Shenzhen, Tianjin and Hong Kong. China is a power and a major regional power within Asia. Chinas landscape is vast and diverse, ranging from forest steppes, the Himalaya, Karakoram, Pamir and Tian Shan mountain ranges separate China from much of South and Central Asia. The Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, the third and sixth longest in the world, respectively, Chinas coastline along the Pacific Ocean is 14,500 kilometers long and is bounded by the Bohai, Yellow, East China and South China seas. China emerged as one of the worlds earliest civilizations in the basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain. For millennia, Chinas political system was based on hereditary monarchies known as dynasties, in 1912, the Republic of China replaced the last dynasty and ruled the Chinese mainland until 1949, when it was defeated by the communist Peoples Liberation Army in the Chinese Civil War. The Communist Party established the Peoples Republic of China in Beijing on 1 October 1949, both the ROC and PRC continue to claim to be the legitimate government of all China, though the latter has more recognition in the world and controls more territory. China had the largest economy in the world for much of the last two years, during which it has seen cycles of prosperity and decline. Since the introduction of reforms in 1978, China has become one of the worlds fastest-growing major economies. As of 2016, it is the worlds second-largest economy by nominal GDP, China is also the worlds largest exporter and second-largest importer of goods. China is a nuclear weapons state and has the worlds largest standing army. The PRC is a member of the United Nations, as it replaced the ROC as a permanent member of the U. N. Security Council in 1971. China is also a member of numerous formal and informal multilateral organizations, including the WTO, APEC, BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the BCIM, the English name China is first attested in Richard Edens 1555 translation of the 1516 journal of the Portuguese explorer Duarte Barbosa. The demonym, that is, the name for the people, Portuguese China is thought to derive from Persian Chīn, and perhaps ultimately from Sanskrit Cīna. Cīna was first used in early Hindu scripture, including the Mahābhārata, there are, however, other suggestions for the derivation of China. The official name of the state is the Peoples Republic of China. The shorter form is China Zhōngguó, from zhōng and guó and it was then applied to the area around Luoyi during the Eastern Zhou and then to Chinas Central Plain before being used as an occasional synonym for the state under the Qing
China
–
Yinxu, ruins of an ancient
palace dating from the
Shang Dynasty (14th century BCE)
China
–
Flag
China
–
Some of the thousands of life-size
Terracotta Warriors of the
Qin Dynasty, c. 210 BCE
China
–
The
Great Wall of China was built by several dynasties over two thousand years to protect the sedentary agricultural regions of the
Chinese interior from incursions by
nomadic pastoralists of the northern
steppes.
27.
Japan
–
Japan is a sovereign island nation in Eastern Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies off the eastern coast of the Asia Mainland and stretches from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea, the kanji that make up Japans name mean sun origin. 日 can be read as ni and means sun while 本 can be read as hon, or pon, Japan is often referred to by the famous epithet Land of the Rising Sun in reference to its Japanese name. Japan is an archipelago consisting of about 6,852 islands. The four largest are Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu and Shikoku, the country is divided into 47 prefectures in eight regions. Hokkaido being the northernmost prefecture and Okinawa being the southernmost one, the population of 127 million is the worlds tenth largest. Japanese people make up 98. 5% of Japans total population, approximately 9.1 million people live in the city of Tokyo, the capital of Japan. Archaeological research indicates that Japan was inhabited as early as the Upper Paleolithic period, the first written mention of Japan is in Chinese history texts from the 1st century AD. Influence from other regions, mainly China, followed by periods of isolation, from the 12th century until 1868, Japan was ruled by successive feudal military shoguns who ruled in the name of the Emperor. Japan entered into a period of isolation in the early 17th century. The Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937 expanded into part of World War II in 1941, which came to an end in 1945 following the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan is a member of the UN, the OECD, the G7, the G8, the country has the worlds third-largest economy by nominal GDP and the worlds fourth-largest economy by purchasing power parity. It is also the worlds fourth-largest exporter and fourth-largest importer, although Japan has officially renounced its right to declare war, it maintains a modern military with the worlds eighth-largest military budget, used for self-defense and peacekeeping roles. Japan is a country with a very high standard of living. Its population enjoys the highest life expectancy and the third lowest infant mortality rate in the world, in ancient China, Japan was called Wo 倭. It was mentioned in the third century Chinese historical text Records of the Three Kingdoms in the section for the Wei kingdom, Wa became disliked because it has the connotation of the character 矮, meaning dwarf. The 倭 kanji has been replaced with the homophone Wa, meaning harmony, the Japanese word for Japan is 日本, which is pronounced Nippon or Nihon and literally means the origin of the sun. The earliest record of the name Nihon appears in the Chinese historical records of the Tang dynasty, at the start of the seventh century, a delegation from Japan introduced their country as Nihon
Japan
–
The
Golden Hall and
five-storey pagoda of
Hōryū-ji, among the oldest wooden buildings in the world,
National Treasures, and a
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Japan
Japan
–
Samurai warriors face Mongols, during the
Mongol invasions of Japan. The
Kamikaze, two storms, are said to have saved Japan from Mongol fleets.
Japan
–
Samurai could
kill a commoner for the slightest insult and were widely feared by the Japanese population.
Edo period, 1798
28.
Australia
–
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
Australia
–
Aboriginal rock art in the
Kimberley region of Western Australia
Australia
Australia
–
Portrait of Captain
James Cook, the first European to map the eastern coastline of Australia in 1770
Australia
–
Tasmania's
Port Arthur penal settlement is one of eleven UNESCO World Heritage-listed
Australian Convict Sites.
29.
List of countries by public debt
–
This is a list of countries by public debt to GDP ratio as listed by Eurostat for the EU and by CIAs World Factbook 2012 for the rest of the world. It is the total of all government borrowings less repayments that are denominated in a countrys home currency. Gross government debt is the most relevant data for discussions of government default and it is different from external debt, which includes the foreign currency liabilities of non-government entities. The figures here are represented as a percentage of gross domestic product. The public debt relative information provided by national sources is not always objective and true, note that net debt figures are included where gross debt figures are unavailable in the CIA set
List of countries by public debt
–
Total (gross) government debt as a percent of
GDP by IMF (2012)
List of countries by public debt
–
Public debt as a percent of
GDP by CIA (2012)
30.
List of countries by credit rating
–
The ratings of DBRS, China Chengxin Credit Rating Group, Dagong and JCR are also included. The list also includes all country subdivisions issuing sovereign bonds, but it excludes regions, for S&P, a bond is considered investment grade if its credit rating is BBB- or higher. Bonds rated BB+ and below are considered to be speculative grade, for Fitch, a bond is considered investment grade if its credit rating is BBB- or higher. Bonds rated BB+ and below are considered to be speculative grade, for Moodys, a bond is considered investment grade if its credit rating is Baa3 or higher. Bonds rated Ba1 and below are considered to be speculative grade, for DBRS, a bond is considered investment grade if its credit rating is BBB or higher. Bonds rated BB and below are considered to be speculative grade, Japan Credit Rating Agency is a credit rating agency based in Japan. JCR is a Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organization by the U. S. Securities, Dagong is a credit rating agency based in China. Bond credit rating United States federal government credit-rating downgrades
List of countries by credit rating
–
Financial ratings of European States by Standard & Poor's (foreign currency) on 14 July 2015
31.
United States dollar
–
The United States dollar is the official currency of the United States and its insular territories per the United States Constitution. It is divided into 100 smaller cent units, the circulating paper money consists of Federal Reserve Notes that are denominated in United States dollars. The U. S. dollar was originally commodity money of silver as enacted by the Coinage Act of 1792 which determined the dollar to be 371 4/16 grain pure or 416 grain standard silver, the currency most used in international transactions, it is the worlds primary reserve currency. Several countries use it as their currency, and in many others it is the de facto currency. Besides the United States, it is used as the sole currency in two British Overseas Territories in the Caribbean, the British Virgin Islands and Turks and Caicos Islands. A few countries use the Federal Reserve Notes for paper money, while the country mints its own coins, or also accepts U. S. coins that can be used as payment in U. S. dollars. After Nixon shock of 1971, USD became fiat currency, Article I, Section 8 of the U. S. Constitution provides that the Congress has the power To coin money, laws implementing this power are currently codified at 31 U. S. C. Section 5112 prescribes the forms in which the United States dollars should be issued and these coins are both designated in Section 5112 as legal tender in payment of debts. The Sacagawea dollar is one example of the copper alloy dollar, the pure silver dollar is known as the American Silver Eagle. Section 5112 also provides for the minting and issuance of other coins and these other coins are more fully described in Coins of the United States dollar. The Constitution provides that a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and that provision of the Constitution is made specific by Section 331 of Title 31 of the United States Code. The sums of money reported in the Statements are currently being expressed in U. S. dollars, the U. S. dollar may therefore be described as the unit of account of the United States. The word dollar is one of the words in the first paragraph of Section 9 of Article I of the Constitution, there, dollars is a reference to the Spanish milled dollar, a coin that had a monetary value of 8 Spanish units of currency, or reales. In 1792 the U. S. Congress passed a Coinage Act, Section 20 of the act provided, That the money of account of the United States shall be expressed in dollars, or units. And that all accounts in the offices and all proceedings in the courts of the United States shall be kept and had in conformity to this regulation. In other words, this act designated the United States dollar as the unit of currency of the United States, unlike the Spanish milled dollar the U. S. dollar is based upon a decimal system of values. Both one-dollar coins and notes are produced today, although the form is significantly more common
United States dollar
–
Series of 1917
$1 United States bill
United States dollar
–
Federal Reserve Notes
United States dollar
–
Spanish silver real or
peso of 1768
United States dollar
–
Obverse of rare 1934 $500 Federal Reserve Note, featuring a portrait of President
William McKinley.
32.
Bahraini Dinar
–
The dinar is the currency of Bahrain. It is divided into 1000 fils, the name dinar derives from the Roman denarius. The dinar was introduced in 1965, replacing the Gulf rupee at a rate of 10 rupees =1 dinar, the Bahraini dinar is abbreviated. د. ب or BD. It is usually represented with three decimal places denoting the fils, in 1965, coins were introduced in denominations of 1,5,10,25,50 and 100 fils. The 1,5 and 10 fils were struck in bronze, the 1 fils coin was not produced after 1966 and no longer circulates. In 1992, brass replaced bronze in the 5 and 10 fils, a bimetallic 500 fils followed in 2000. The Central Bank of Bahrain discontinued the Bimetallic 500 fils after the revolution of Bahrain on 14 Feb 2011, for a wider history surrounding currency in the region, see The History of British Currency in the Middle East. On October 16,1965, the Bahrain Currency Board introduced notes in denominations of 1⁄4, 1⁄2,1,5 and 10 dinars, a 100-fils note was introduced on September 2,1967. In 1973, the Bahrain Monetary Agency took over the issuance of paper money, on September 7,2006, the Bahrain Monetary Agency was renamed the Central Bank of Bahrain. On March 17,2008, the Central Bank of Bahrain introduced a new family of notes reflecting Bahrains heritage as well as its modern development. Saudi riyals are also acceptable in Bahrain, with the exception of the Saudi 500 riyal note which is accepted in major supermarkets, airports. In December 1980, the dinar was pegged to the IMFs special drawing rights. In practice, it is fixed at $1 USD =0.376 BD and this rate was made official in 2001. Before Maltas adoption of the euro on 1 January 2008, it was the currency unit after the Kuwaiti dinar. After Malta adopted the euro, the became the second highest-valued currency unit
Bahraini Dinar
–
10 fils
33.
Manama
–
Manama is the capital and largest city of Bahrain, with an approximate population of 157,000 people. Long an important trading center in the Persian Gulf, Manama is home to a diverse population. Manama became the capital, and was the gateway to the main Bahrain Island. Manama was designated as the capital of Arab culture for the year 2012 by the Arab League, the name is derived from the Arabic word المنامة meaning the place of rest or the place of dreams. There is evidence of settlement on the northern coastline of Bahrain dating back to the Bronze Age. The Dilmun civilisation inhabited the area in 3000 BC, serving as a key regional trading hub between Mesopotamia, Magan and the Indus Valley civilisation. Approximately 100,000 Dilmun burial mounds were found across the north and central regions of the country, despite the discovery of the mounds, there is no significant evidence to suggest heavy urbanisation took place during the Dilmun era. It is believed that the majority of the lived in rural areas. Evidence of an ancient large rural population was confirmed by one of Alexander the Greats ship captains, a vast system of aqueducts in northern Bahrain helped facilitate ancient horticulture and agriculture. The commercial network of Dilmun lasted for almost 2,000 years and this was followed by Babylonian and Achaemenid rule, which later gave way to Greek influence during the time of Alexander the Greats conquests. In the first century AD, the Roman writer Pliny the Elder wrote of Tylos, the Hellenic name of Bahrain in the classical era, the island came under the control of the Parthian and Sassanid empires respectively, by which time Nestorian Christianity started to spread in Bahrain. By 410-420 AD, a Nestorian bishopric and monastery was established in Al Dair, following the conversion of Bahrain to Islam in 628 AD, work on one of the earliest mosques in the region, the Khamis Mosque, began as early as the seventh century AD. During this time, Bahrain was engaged in long distance marine trading, in 1330, under the Jarwanid dynasty, the island became a tributary of the Kingdom of Hormuz. The town of Manama was mentioned by name for the first time in a dating to 1345 AD. Bahrain, particularly Manama and the settlement of Bilad Al Qadeem, became a centre of Shia scholarship and training for the ulema. The ulema would help fund pearling expeditions and finance grain production in the areas surrounding the city. In 1521, Bahrain fell to the expanding Portuguese Empire in the Persian Gulf, the Portuguese consolidated their hold on the island by constructing the Bahrain Fort, on the outskirts of Manama. After numerous revolts and an expanding Safavid empire in Persia, the Portuguese were expelled from Bahrain, the Safavids, sidelining Manama, designated the nearby town of Bilad Al Qadeem as the provincial capital
Manama
–
Manama skyline
Manama
–
The
Khamis Mosque.
Manama
–
Manama harbour, circa 1870.
34.
Aluminium production
–
Aluminium or aluminum is a chemical element in the boron group with symbol Al and atomic number 13. It is a silvery-white, soft, nonmagnetic, ductile metal, Aluminium metal is so chemically reactive that native specimens are rare and limited to extreme reducing environments. Instead, it is combined in over 270 different minerals. The chief ore of aluminium is bauxite, Aluminium is remarkable for the metals low density and its ability to resist corrosion through the phenomenon of passivation. Aluminium and its alloys are vital to the industry and important in transportation and structures, such as building facades. The oxides and sulfates are the most useful compounds of aluminium, despite its prevalence in the environment, no known form of life uses aluminium salts metabolically, but aluminium is well tolerated by plants and animals. Because of these salts abundance, the potential for a role for them is of continuing interest. Aluminium is a soft, durable, lightweight, ductile. It is nonmagnetic and does not easily ignite, a fresh film of aluminium serves as a good reflector of visible light and an excellent reflector of medium and far infrared radiation. The yield strength of aluminium is 7–11 MPa, while aluminium alloys have yield strengths ranging from 200 MPa to 600 MPa. Aluminium has about one-third the density and stiffness of steel and it is easily machined, cast, drawn and extruded. Aluminium atoms are arranged in a cubic structure. Aluminium has an energy of approximately 200 mJ/m2. Aluminium is a thermal and electrical conductor, having 59% the conductivity of copper. Aluminium is capable of superconductivity, with a critical temperature of 1.2 kelvin. Aluminium is the most common material for the fabrication of superconducting qubits, the strongest aluminium alloys are less corrosion resistant due to galvanic reactions with alloyed copper. This corrosion resistance is reduced by aqueous salts, particularly in the presence of dissimilar metals. In highly acidic solutions, aluminium reacts with water to form hydrogen, primarily because it is corroded by dissolved chlorides, such as common sodium chloride, household plumbing is never made from aluminium
Aluminium production
–
Aluminium, 13 Al
Aluminium production
–
Spectral lines of aluminium
Aluminium production
–
"
Red mud " storage facility in
Stade,
Germany. The aluminium industry generates about 70 million tons of this waste annually.
Aluminium production
–
Bauxite, a major aluminium ore. The red-brown color is due to the presence of
iron minerals.
35.
Index of Economic Freedom
–
The Index of Economic Freedom is an annual index and ranking created by The Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal in 1995 to measure the degree of economic freedom in the worlds nations. Key, ██ Free ██ Mostly Free ██ Moderately Free ██ Mostly Unfree ██ Repressed Key, the whole table is available in XLS format at the Heritage Foundation web site. In each factor, countries are scored 0 to 100, with 0 being the least free and 100 the most free, a score of 100 signifies an economic environment or set of policies that is most conducive to economic freedom. The methodology has shifted and changed as new data and measurements have become available, especially in the area of Labor Freedom, Freedom from Corruption, The non-prevalence of political corruption within a country, according to the Corruption Perceptions Index. Limited Government Fiscal Freedom, How free is a country from tax burden and it comprises three quantitative measures, top marginal tax rate of both individual and corporate income, and total tax burden as a percentage of GDP. Government Size/Spending, Governments expenditures as a percentage of GDP, including consumption, the higher the percentual spending, the lower the score. Labor Freedom, How free is a country from legal regulation on the market, including those relating to minimum wages, hiring and firing, hours of work. Open Markets Trade Freedom, Freedom from sizeable numbers and burdens of tariffs, investment Freedom, Freedom from restrictions on the movement and use of investment capital, regardless of activity, within and across the countrys borders. Financial Freedom, A countrys independence from government control and interference in the financial sector and it considers government ownership of financial firms, extent of financial and capital market development, government influence on the allocation of credit and openness to foreign competition. The Heritage Foundation reports that the top 20% on the index have twice the per capita income of those in the second quintile, according to Will Wilkinson of the libertarian think tank Cato Institute, studies show that higher economic freedom correlates strongly with higher self-reported happiness. According to the Cato Institute, higher economic freedom promotes participation and collaboration, since the index was created in 1995, the score for world economic freedom has increased, rising 2.6 points up to 2008. In 2011 the score had decreased from the 2008 score of 60.2 to 59.7, the Economic Freedom score improved for 117 countries, the majority of countries included in the index, which were mainly developing and emerging market economies. With the exception of Europe and North America, there were increased levels of freedom recorded in all regions, with the greatest improvement shown in Sub-Saharan Africa. The top five free economies identified by the 2011 index were Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, since the Index was created in 1995, Hong Kong has been the top performing economy. In particular, the U. S. dropped to 10th place in the ranking, according to the report, activity in the private sector is threatened by the greater government spending, which has increased public debt and led to more bureaucracy. Countries that shared the same received an tie score. The Millennium Challenge Account, a U. S. government foreign aid program, has used the Trade freedom indicator in determining which countries will receive their performance-based compacts, critics such as Jeffrey Sachs have contested the Indexs assumption that economic openness necessarily leads to better growth. They also argued that the report is unreliable, because its methodology had changed twice in the last two years, stefan Karlsson of the Ludwig von Mises Institute, challenged the usefulness of the index due to the fuzziness of many of the categories used to determine freedom
Index of Economic Freedom
–
80–100
36.
Freest economy
–
The Index of Economic Freedom is an annual index and ranking created by The Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal in 1995 to measure the degree of economic freedom in the worlds nations. Key, ██ Free ██ Mostly Free ██ Moderately Free ██ Mostly Unfree ██ Repressed Key, the whole table is available in XLS format at the Heritage Foundation web site. In each factor, countries are scored 0 to 100, with 0 being the least free and 100 the most free, a score of 100 signifies an economic environment or set of policies that is most conducive to economic freedom. The methodology has shifted and changed as new data and measurements have become available, especially in the area of Labor Freedom, Freedom from Corruption, The non-prevalence of political corruption within a country, according to the Corruption Perceptions Index. Limited Government Fiscal Freedom, How free is a country from tax burden and it comprises three quantitative measures, top marginal tax rate of both individual and corporate income, and total tax burden as a percentage of GDP. Government Size/Spending, Governments expenditures as a percentage of GDP, including consumption, the higher the percentual spending, the lower the score. Labor Freedom, How free is a country from legal regulation on the market, including those relating to minimum wages, hiring and firing, hours of work. Open Markets Trade Freedom, Freedom from sizeable numbers and burdens of tariffs, investment Freedom, Freedom from restrictions on the movement and use of investment capital, regardless of activity, within and across the countrys borders. Financial Freedom, A countrys independence from government control and interference in the financial sector and it considers government ownership of financial firms, extent of financial and capital market development, government influence on the allocation of credit and openness to foreign competition. The Heritage Foundation reports that the top 20% on the index have twice the per capita income of those in the second quintile, according to Will Wilkinson of the libertarian think tank Cato Institute, studies show that higher economic freedom correlates strongly with higher self-reported happiness. According to the Cato Institute, higher economic freedom promotes participation and collaboration, since the index was created in 1995, the score for world economic freedom has increased, rising 2.6 points up to 2008. In 2011 the score had decreased from the 2008 score of 60.2 to 59.7, the Economic Freedom score improved for 117 countries, the majority of countries included in the index, which were mainly developing and emerging market economies. With the exception of Europe and North America, there were increased levels of freedom recorded in all regions, with the greatest improvement shown in Sub-Saharan Africa. The top five free economies identified by the 2011 index were Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, since the Index was created in 1995, Hong Kong has been the top performing economy. In particular, the U. S. dropped to 10th place in the ranking, according to the report, activity in the private sector is threatened by the greater government spending, which has increased public debt and led to more bureaucracy. Countries that shared the same received an tie score. The Millennium Challenge Account, a U. S. government foreign aid program, has used the Trade freedom indicator in determining which countries will receive their performance-based compacts, critics such as Jeffrey Sachs have contested the Indexs assumption that economic openness necessarily leads to better growth. They also argued that the report is unreliable, because its methodology had changed twice in the last two years, stefan Karlsson of the Ludwig von Mises Institute, challenged the usefulness of the index due to the fuzziness of many of the categories used to determine freedom
Freest economy
–
80–100
37.
Fraser Institute
–
The Fraser Institute is a Canadian public policy think tank and registered charity. It has been described as conservative and libertarian. The Institute is headquartered in Vancouver, with offices located in Calgary, Toronto, and Montreal. The Fraser Institute was founded in 1974 by Michael Walker, an economist from the University of Western Ontario and it obtained charitable status in Canada on October 22,1974, and in the United States in 1978. Its stated mission is to measure, study, and communicate the impact of competitive markets, the Institute is named for the Fraser River. Sir Antony Fisher, previously instrumental in setting up the UKs Institute of Economic Affairs, was appointed acting director in 1975, in its first full year of operation,1975, the Institute reported revenues of $421,389. In 1988, revenues exceed $1 million, and in 2003, forbes has referred to the think tank as libertarian. The New York Times has described the Institute as libertarian and conservative, the Calgary Herald called it conservative, Langley Times classified it as right-of-center libertarian. As a registered charity with the Canada Revenue Agency, the Institute files annual registered charity information returns, in 2010, the Institute reported having $4.5 million CAD in assets and $10.8 million in annual revenue. The Institute depends on contributions from individuals, corporations, and foundations and it does not accept government grants or payments for research, however individual donors may claim tax credits for donations and corporate donors may claim tax deductions. It also received US$120,000 from ExxonMobil in the 2003 to 2004 fiscal period, the Institute has also published regional and sub-national reports ranking the economic freedom of North America, Latin America, the Arab World, and the Francophonie. These reports are distributed worldwide through the Economic Freedom Network, a network of 80 think-tanks. The index presents a broad measure of freedom, understood as the absence of coercive constraint. The Human Freedom Index was created in 2015, covering 152 countries for years 2008,2010,2011 and 2012, in January 2016 data for 2013 was added, covering 157 countries. Global Petroleum Survey, An annual survey of petroleum executives regarding barriers to investment in oil-, Canadian Provincial Investment Climate, A series of reports measuring the extent to which Canadian provinces embrace public policies that contribute to, and sustain, positive investment climates. The Fraser Institute issued a number of articles and statements opposing Canadian gun control laws, the website www. compareschoolrankings. org allows anyone to compare up to five schools at once, based on a variety of performance indicators. In 2011, Tax Freedom Day was June 6, the Institute also offers a personal Tax Freedom Day calculator. It is however important to note that averaging the tax burden of high, in March 2010, the Institute released Did Government Stimulus Fuel Economic Growth in Canada
Fraser Institute
–
The Fraser Institute
38.
World Bank
–
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to countries of the world for capital programs. It comprises two institutions, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and the International Development Association, the World Bank is a component of the World Bank Group, which is part of the United Nations system. The World Banks stated official goal is the reduction of poverty, the president of the World Bank is, traditionally, an American. The World Bank and the IMF are both based in Washington, D. C. and work closely with each other, although many countries were represented at the Bretton Woods Conference, the United States and United Kingdom were the most powerful in attendance and dominated the negotiations. Before 1974 the reconstruction and development loans provided by the World Bank were relatively small, the Banks staff were aware of the need to instill confidence in the bank. Fiscal conservatism ruled, and loan applications had to meet strict criteria, the first country to receive a World Bank loan was France. The Banks president at the time, John McCloy, chose France over two other applicants, Poland and Chile, the loan was for US$250 million, half the amount requested, and it came with strict conditions. France had to agree to produce a budget and give priority of debt repayment to the World Bank over other governments. World Bank staff closely monitored the use of the funds to ensure that the French government met the conditions. In addition, before the loan was approved, the United States State Department told the French government that its members associated with the Communist Party would first have to be removed, the French government complied with this diktat and removed the Communist coalition government - the so-called tripartisme. Within hours, the loan to France was approved, when the Marshall Plan went into effect in 1947, many European countries began receiving aid from other sources. Faced with this competition, the World Bank shifted its focus to non-European countries, in 1960, the International Development Association was formed, providing soft loans to developing countries. From 1974 to 1980 the bank concentrated on meeting the needs of people in the developing world. The size and number of loans to borrowers was greatly increased as loan targets expanded from infrastructure into social services and these changes can be attributed to Robert McNamara, who was appointed to the presidency in 1968 by Lyndon B. Johnson. McNamara implored bank treasurer Eugene Rotberg to seek out new sources of capital outside of the banks that had been the primary sources of funding. Rotberg used the bond market to increase the capital available to the bank. One consequence of the period of poverty alleviation lending was the rise of third world debt. From 1976 to 1980 developing world debt rose at an annual rate of 20%
World Bank
–
John Maynard Keynes (right) and
Harry Dexter White, the "founding fathers" of both the World Bank and the
International Monetary Fund (IMF).
World Bank
–
The Gold Room at the
Mount Washington Hotel where the IMF and World Bank were established
World Bank
–
The
World Bank Group headquarters bldg. in
Washington, D.C.
World Bank
–
Jim Yong Kim, the current President of the World Bank Group
39.
High income economy
–
A high-income economy is defined by the World Bank as a country with a gross national income per capita above US$12,475 in 2015, calculated using the Atlas method. While the term high-income is often used interchangeably with First World and developed country, the term first world commonly refers to countries that aligned themselves with the U. S. and NATO during the cold war. According to the United Nations, for example, some countries may also be developing countries. The GCC countries, for example, are classified as developing high-income countries, thus, a high-income country may be classified as either developed or developing. Although the Holy See is a state, it is not classified by the World Bank under this definition. According to the World Bank the following 79 countries are classified as high-income economies, in parenthesis the year during which they held such classification. American Samoa Argentina Equatorial Guinea Mayotte Netherlands Antilles a Russia Venezuela a Dissolved on 10 October 2010, succeeded by Curaçao and Sint Maarten. b Between 1994 and 2009, as part of the Netherlands Antilles. The high-income threshold was set in 1989 at US$6,000 in 1987 prices. Thresholds for subsequent years were adjusted taking into account the average inflation in the G-5 countries, and from 2001, that of Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, thus, the thresholds remain constant in real terms over time. To ensure no country falls right on the threshold, country data are rounded to the nearest 10, the following table shows the high-income threshold from 1987 onwards. Countries with a GNI per capita above this threshold are classified by the World Bank as high-income economies, high income OECD country Developed country Developing country Least developed country North–South divide
High income economy
–
World map of high-income economies.
40.
Expatriate
–
An expatriate is a person temporarily or permanently residing in a country other than that of their citizenship. In common usage, the term refers to professionals or skilled workers sent abroad by their companies. However, it can refer to retirees and others who have chosen to live outside their native country. Historically, it has referred to exiles. The word expatriate comes from the Latin terms ex and patria, dictionary definitions for the current meaning of the word include, Expatriate, A person who lives outside their native country, or living in a foreign land. The varying use of terms for different groups of foreigners can thus be seen as implying nuances about wealth, intended length of stay, perceived motives for moving, nationality. An older usage of the word expatriate was to refer to an exile, as far back as antiquity, people have gone to live in foreign countries, whether as diplomats, merchants or missionaries. The numbers of such travellers grew markedly after the 15th century with the dawn of the European colonial period, in the 19th century, travel became easier by way of steamship or train. People could more readily choose to live for years in a foreign country. After World War II, decolonisation accelerated, however, lifestyles which had developed among European colonials continued to some degree in expatriate communities. Remnants of the old British Empire, for example, can still be seen in the form of gated communities staffed by domestic workers, social clubs which have survived include the Hash House Harriers and the Royal Selangor. Homesick palates are catered for by specialist food shops, and drinkers can still order a gin and tonic, although pith helmets are mostly confined to military ceremonies, civilians still wear white dinner jackets or even Red Sea rig on occasion. The use of curry powder has long since spread to the metropole, from the 1950s, scheduled flights on jet airliners further increased the speed of international travel. This enabled a hypermobility which led to the jet set, and eventually to global nomads, since the 1990s, the rise of the Internet has allowed some types of worker to become digital nomads. Websites aimed at expatriates began to appear about the same time, the number of expatriates in the world is difficult to determine. In 2013, the United Nations estimated that 232 million people, or 3.2 per cent of the world population, in 2007, only 20 per cent of Dubais population were citizens. Singapore, where 40 per cent of the inhabitants were foreign-born workers, many multinational corporations send employees to foreign countries to work in branch offices or subsidiaries. Expatriate employees allow a parent company to more closely control its foreign subsidiaries and they can also improve global coordination
Expatriate
–
Expatriate French voters queue in
Lausanne, Switzerland for the first round of the
presidential election of 2007
41.
Retail
–
Retail markets and shops have a very ancient history, dating back to antiquity. Retailing involves the process of selling goods or services to customers through multiple channels of distribution to earn a profit. Retailers satisfy demand is identified through a supply chain, Once the strategic retail plan is in place, retailers devise the retail mix which includes product, price, place, promotion, personnel and presentation. In the digital age, a number of retailers are seeking to reach broader markets by selling through multiple channels. Digital technologies are changing the way that consumers pay for goods. Retailing support services may include the provision of credit, delivery services. Shopping generally refers to the act of buying products, sometimes this is done to obtain final goods, including necessities such as food and clothing, sometimes it takes place as a recreational activity. Recreational shopping often involves window shopping and browsing, it not always result in a purchase. Retail shops occur in a range of types and in many different contexts - from strip shopping centres in residential streets through to large. Shopping streets may restrict traffic to pedestrians only, forms of non-shop retailing include online retailing and mail order. Retail comes from the Old French word tailler, which means to cut off, clip, pare and it was first recorded as a noun with the meaning of a sale in small quantities in 1433. Like in French, the retail in both Dutch and German also refers to the sale of small quantities of items. Also see History of merchants, History of the market place, open air, public markets were known in ancient Babylonia and Assyria. These markets typically occupied a place in the towns centre, surrounding the market, skilled artisans, such as metal-workers and leather workers, occupied premises in alley ways that led to the open market-place. These artisans may have sold wares directly from their premises, in ancient Greece markets operated within the agora, and in ancient Rome the forum. In antiquity, exchange involved direct selling, merchants or peddlers, the Phoenicians, noted for their seafaring skills, plied their ships across the Mediterranean, becoming a major trading power by 9th century BCE. The Phoenicians imported and exported wood, textiles, glass and produce such as wine, oil, dried fruit, the Phoenicians extensive trade networks necessitated considerable book-keeping and correspondence. In around 1500 BCE, the Phoenicians developed an alphabet which was much easier to learn that the complex scripts used in ancient Egypt
Retail
–
Macy's Herald Square,
New York City.
Retail
–
Fruit shop in
Naggar,
Himachal Pradesh,
India
Retail
–
San Juan de Dios Market in
Guadalajara, Jalisco
Retail
–
Inside a supermarket in
Russia
42.
Persian Gulf
–
The Persian Gulf is a mediterranean sea in Western Asia. The body of water is an extension of the Indian Ocean through the Strait of Hormuz, the Shatt al-Arab river delta forms the northwest shoreline. The Persian Gulf was a battlefield of the 1980–1988 Iran–Iraq War and it is the namesake of the 1991 Gulf War, the largely air- and land-based conflict that followed Iraqs invasion of Kuwait. The gulf has many fishing grounds, extensive coral reefs, and abundant pearl oysters, the body of water is historically and internationally known as the Persian Gulf. Some Arab governments refer to it as the Arabian Gulf or The Gulf, the name Gulf of Iran is used by the International Hydrographic Organization. The Persian Gulf is geologically young, having been formed around 15,000 years ago. Its length is 989 kilometres, with Iran covering most of the northern coast, the Persian Gulf is about 56 km wide at its narrowest, in the Strait of Hormuz. The waters are very shallow, with a maximum depth of 90 metres. Various small islands lie within the Persian Gulf, some of which are the subject of territorial disputes between the states of the region. The International Hydrographic Organization defines the Persian Gulfs southern limit as The Northwestern limit of Gulf of Oman and this limit is defined as A line joining Ràs Limah on the coast of Arabia and Ràs al Kuh on the coast of Iran. The Persian Gulf and its areas are the worlds largest single source of crude oil. Safaniya Oil Field, the worlds largest offshore oilfield, is located in the Persian Gulf, large gas finds have also been made, with Qatar and Iran sharing a giant field across the territorial median line. Using this gas, Qatar has built up a substantial liquefied natural gas, the oil-rich countries that have a coastline on the Persian Gulf are referred to as the Persian Gulf States. In 550 BC, the Achaemenid Empire established the first ancient empire in Persis, consequently, in the Greek sources, the body of water that bordered this province came to be known as the Persian Gulf. In the travel account of Pythagoras, several chapters are related to description of his travels accompanied by the Achaemenid king Darius the Great, to Susa and Persepolis, and the area is described. This water channel separates the Iran Plateau from the Arabia Plate, has enjoyed an Iranian Identity since at least 2200 years ago. Before being given its present name, the Persian Gulf was called many different names, the classical Greek writers, like Herodotus, called it the Red Sea. In Babylonian texts, it was known as the sea above Akkad, the name of the gulf, historically and internationally known as the Persian Gulf after the land of Persia, has been disputed by some Arab countries since the 1960s
Persian Gulf
–
Persian Gulf from space
Persian Gulf
–
A historical map of the Persian Gulf in
a Dubai museum with the word Persian removed
Persian Gulf
–
Picture depicting extent of early civilizations around the Persian Gulf, including Lackhmids, and Sassanids.
Persian Gulf
–
Picture depicting the Achaemenid Persian empire in relation to the Persian Gulf.
43.
International Monetary Fund
–
The International Monetary Fund is an international organization headquartered in Washington, D. C. It now plays a role in the management of balance of payments difficulties. Countries contribute funds to a pool through a system from which countries experiencing balance of payments problems can borrow money. As of 2016, the fund had SDR477 billion, the rationale for this is that private international capital markets function imperfectly and many countries have limited access to financial markets. The IMF provides alternate sources of financing and this assistance was meant to prevent the spread of international economic crises. The IMF was also intended to help mend the pieces of the economy after the Great Depression. As well, to provide investments for economic growth and projects such as infrastructure. The IMFs role was altered by the floating exchange rates post-1971. It shifted to examining the economic policies of countries with IMF loan agreements to determine if a shortage of capital was due to economic fluctuations or economic policy, the IMF also researched what types of government policy would ensure economic recovery. Rather than maintaining a position of oversight of only exchange rates and their role became a lot more active because the IMF now manages economic policy rather than just exchange rates. In addition, the IMF negotiates conditions on lending and loans under their policy of conditionality, nonconcessional loans, which include interest rates, are provided mainly through Stand-By Arrangements, the Flexible Credit Line, the Precautionary and Liquidity Line, and the Extended Fund Facility. The IMF provides emergency assistance via the Rapid Financing Instrument to members facing urgent balance-of-payments needs, the IMF is mandated to oversee the international monetary and financial system and monitor the economic and financial policies of its member countries. This activity is known as surveillance and facilitates international cooperation, the responsibilities changed from those of guardian to those of overseer of members’ policies. In 1995 the International Monetary Fund began work on data dissemination standards with the view of guiding IMF member countries to disseminate their economic and financial data to the public. The executive board approved the SDDS and GDDS in 1996 and 1997 respectively, the system is aimed primarily at statisticians and aims to improve many aspects of statistical systems in a country. It is also part of the World Bank Millennium Development Goals, some countries initially used the GDDS, but later upgraded to SDDS. The IMF does require collateral from countries for loans but also requires the government seeking assistance to correct its macroeconomic imbalances in the form of policy reform, if the conditions are not met, the funds are withheld. The concept of conditionality was introduced in a 1952 Executive Board decision, conditionality is associated with economic theory as well as an enforcement mechanism for repayment
International Monetary Fund
–
IMF "Headquarters 1" in Washington, D.C.
International Monetary Fund
–
Coat of arms
International Monetary Fund
–
The Gold Room within the
Mount Washington Hotel where the
Bretton Woods Conference attendees signed the agreements creating the IMF and
World Bank
International Monetary Fund
–
First page of the Articles of Agreement of the International Monetary Fund, 1 March 1946. Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs archives
44.
Trade agreement
–
A trade agreement is a wide ranging tax, tariff and trade treaty that often includes investment guarantees. The most common trade agreements are of the preferential and free trade types are concluded in order to reduce tariffs, quotas and other trade restrictions on items traded between the signatories. A trade agreement is classified as bilateral when signed between two sides, where each side could be a country, a trade bloc or a group of countries. A trade agreement signed between more than two sides is classified as multilateral, there are a variety of trade agreements, with some being quite complex, while others are less intensive. All agreements concluded outside of the WTO framework are called preferential by the WTO, the trade agreements called preferential by the WTO are also known as regional, despite not necessarily concluded by countries within a certain region. There are currently 205 agreements in force as of July 2007, over 300 have been reported to the WTO. The number of FTA has increased significantly over the last decade, between 1948 and 1994, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, the predecessor to the WTO, received 124 notifications. Since 1995 over 300 trade agreements have been enacted, increasing efficiency through free trade is a common goal. For the most part, governments are supportive of trade agreements. There have been some concerns expressed by the WTO. Indianapolis, Library of Economics and Liberty
Trade agreement
Trade agreement
–
Terminology
45.
Telecommunications
–
Telecommunication is the transmission of signs, signals, messages, writings, images and sounds or intelligence of any nature by wire, radio, optical or other electromagnetic systems. Telecommunication occurs when the exchange of information between communication participants includes the use of technology and it is transmitted either electrically over physical media, such as cables, or via electromagnetic radiation. Such transmission paths are divided into communication channels which afford the advantages of multiplexing. The term is used in its plural form, telecommunications. Early means of communicating over a distance included visual signals, such as beacons, smoke signals, semaphore telegraphs, signal flags, other examples of pre-modern long-distance communication included audio messages such as coded drumbeats, lung-blown horns, and loud whistles. Zworykin, John Logie Baird and Philo Farnsworth, the word telecommunication is a compound of the Greek prefix tele, meaning distant, far off, or afar, and the Latin communicare, meaning to share. Its modern use is adapted from the French, because its use was recorded in 1904 by the French engineer. Communication was first used as an English word in the late 14th century, in the Middle Ages, chains of beacons were commonly used on hilltops as a means of relaying a signal. Beacon chains suffered the drawback that they could pass a single bit of information. One notable instance of their use was during the Spanish Armada, in 1792, Claude Chappe, a French engineer, built the first fixed visual telegraphy system between Lille and Paris. However semaphore suffered from the need for skilled operators and expensive towers at intervals of ten to thirty kilometres, as a result of competition from the electrical telegraph, the last commercial line was abandoned in 1880. Homing pigeons have occasionally used throughout history by different cultures. Pigeon post is thought to have Persians roots and was used by the Romans to aid their military, frontinus said that Julius Caesar used pigeons as messengers in his conquest of Gaul. The Greeks also conveyed the names of the victors at the Olympic Games to various cities using homing pigeons, in the early 19th century, the Dutch government used the system in Java and Sumatra. And in 1849, Paul Julius Reuter started a service to fly stock prices between Aachen and Brussels, a service that operated for a year until the gap in the telegraph link was closed. Sir Charles Wheatstone and Sir William Fothergill Cooke invented the telegraph in 1837. Also, the first commercial electrical telegraph is purported to have constructed by Wheatstone and Cooke. Both inventors viewed their device as an improvement to the electromagnetic telegraph not as a new device, samuel Morse independently developed a version of the electrical telegraph that he unsuccessfully demonstrated on 2 September 1837
Telecommunications
–
A satellite communication antenna at the biggest facility for satellite communication in Raisting, Bavaria, Germany
Telecommunications
–
Visualization from the
Opte Project of the various routes through a portion of the Internet.
Telecommunications
–
A replica of one of
Chappe's semaphore towers.
Telecommunications
–
Optical fiber provides cheaper bandwidth for long distance communication.
46.
Kuwait
–
Kuwait /kuːˈweɪt/, officially the State of Kuwait, is a country in Western Asia. Situated in the edge of Eastern Arabia at the tip of the Persian Gulf, it shares borders with Iraq. As of 2016, Kuwait has a population of 4.2 million people,1.3 million are Kuwaitis and 2.9 million are expatriates, expatriates account for 70% of the population. Oil reserves were discovered in 1938, from 1946 to 1982, the country underwent large-scale modernization. In the 1980s, Kuwait experienced a period of geopolitical instability, in 1990, Kuwait was invaded by Iraq. The Iraqi occupation came to an end in 1991 after military intervention by coalition forces, at the end of the war, there were extensive efforts to revive the economy and rebuild national infrastructure. Kuwait is a constitutional emirate with a political system. It has an income economy backed by the worlds sixth largest oil reserves. The Kuwaiti dinar is the highest valued currency in the world, according to the World Bank, the country has the fourth highest per capita income in the world. The Constitution was promulgated in 1962, making Kuwait the most democratic country in the region, in the Arab world, Kuwait is frequently dubbed the Hollywood of the Gulf due to the popularity of its soap operas and theatre. During the Ubaid period, Kuwait was the site of interaction between the peoples of Mesopotamia and Neolithic Eastern Arabia, mainly centered in As-Subiya in northern Kuwait. The earliest evidence of habitation in Kuwait dates back 8000 B. C. where Mesolithic tools were found in Burgan. As-Subiya in northern Kuwait is the earliest evidence of urbanization in the whole Persian Gulf basin area, mesopotamians first settled in the Kuwaiti island of Failaka in 2000 B. C. Traders from the Sumerian city of Ur inhabited Failaka and ran a mercantile business, the island had many Mesopotamian-style buildings typical of those found in Iraq dating from around 2000 B. C. The Neolithic inhabitants of Kuwait were among the worlds earliest maritime traders, one of the worlds earliest reed-boats was discovered in northern Kuwait dating back to the Ubaid period. In 3rd century BC, the ancient Greeks colonized the bay of Kuwait under Alexander the Great, according to Strabo and Arrian, Alexander the Great named Failaka Ikaros because it resembled the Aegean island of that name in size and shape. Remains of Greek colonization include a large Hellenistic fort and Greek temples, in 224 AD, Kuwait became part of the Sassanid Empire. At the time of the Sassanid Empire, Kuwait was known as Meshan, Akkaz was a Partho-Sassanian site, the Sassanid religions tower of silence was discovered in northern Akkaz
Kuwait
–
Oil fires in Kuwait in 1991, which were a result of the
scorched earth policy of
Iraqi military forces retreating from Kuwait.
Kuwait
–
Flag
Kuwait
–
Kuwait National Assembly Building
Kuwait
–
Satellite image of Kuwait
47.
Electricity
–
Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence of electric charge. Although initially considered a separate to magnetism, since the development of Maxwells Equations both are recognized as part of a single phenomenon, electromagnetism. Various common phenomena are related to electricity, including lightning, static electricity, electric heating, electric discharges, in addition, electricity is at the heart of many modern technologies. The presence of a charge, which can be either positive or negative. On the other hand, the movement of charges, which is known as electric current. When a charge is placed in a location with non-zero electric field, the magnitude of this force is given by Coulombs Law. Thus, if that charge were to move, the field would be doing work on the electric charge. Electrical phenomena have been studied since antiquity, though progress in theoretical understanding remained slow until the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Even then, practical applications for electricity were few, and it would not be until the nineteenth century that engineers were able to put it to industrial and residential use. The rapid expansion in electrical technology at this time transformed industry, electricitys extraordinary versatility means it can be put to an almost limitless set of applications which include transport, heating, lighting, communications, and computation. Electrical power is now the backbone of modern industrial society, long before any knowledge of electricity existed, people were aware of shocks from electric fish. Ancient Egyptian texts dating from 2750 BCE referred to these fish as the Thunderer of the Nile, Electric fish were again reported millennia later by ancient Greek, Roman and Arabic naturalists and physicians. Patients suffering from such as gout or headache were directed to touch electric fish in the hope that the powerful jolt might cure them. Ancient cultures around the Mediterranean knew that certain objects, such as rods of amber, Thales was incorrect in believing the attraction was due to a magnetic effect, but later science would prove a link between magnetism and electricity. He coined the New Latin word electricus to refer to the property of attracting small objects after being rubbed and this association gave rise to the English words electric and electricity, which made their first appearance in print in Thomas Brownes Pseudodoxia Epidemica of 1646. Further work was conducted by Otto von Guericke, Robert Boyle, Stephen Gray, in the 18th century, Benjamin Franklin conducted extensive research in electricity, selling his possessions to fund his work. In June 1752 he is reputed to have attached a key to the bottom of a dampened kite string. A succession of jumping from the key to the back of his hand showed that lightning was indeed electrical in nature
Electricity
–
Lightning is one of the most dramatic effects of electricity.
Electricity
–
Thales, the earliest known researcher into electricity
Electricity
–
Benjamin Franklin conducted extensive research on electricity in the 18th century, as documented by
Joseph Priestley (1767) History and Present Status of Electricity, with whom Franklin carried on extended correspondence.
Electricity
–
Michael Faraday 's discoveries formed the foundation of electric motor technology
48.
Bahrain Grand Prix
–
The Bahrain Grand Prix is a Formula One Championship race in Bahrain sponsored by Gulf Air. The first race took place at the Bahrain International Circuit on 4 April 2004 and it made history as the first Formula One Grand Prix to be held in the Middle East, and was given the award for the Best Organised Grand Prix by the FIA. The Bahrain Grand Prix has usually been the race of the Formula One calendar. However, in the 2006 season, Bahrain swapped places with the opener, the Australian Grand Prix. In 2010, Bahrain staged the opening race of the 2010 season, the 2011 Grand Prix, due to be held on 13 March, was cancelled on 21 February due to the 2011 Bahraini protests after drivers including Damon Hill and Mark Webber had protested. Human rights activists called for a cancellation of 2012 race due to reports of alleged human rights committed by the Bahraini authorities. Team personnel also voiced concerns about safety, but the race, in 2014, to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the first staging of the Bahrain Grand Prix, the race was held as a night event under floodlights. In so doing it became the second Formula One night race after the Singapore Grand Prix in 2008, bahrains inaugural night event was won by Lewis Hamilton. Subsequent races have also been night races, the building of the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir was started in 2002 with high domestic interest about the project as it gave a future to the next generation of Bahraini racers. The first race was in 2004, the race was won by German driver Michael Schumacher for Ferrari. In 2007 and 2008, Brazilian Felipe Massa won the race for Ferrari,2009 saw Jenson Button win for Brawn GP. After his 2010 triumph, Alonso became the first three-time winner, the 2010 race saw a new circuit configuration being used for the Grand Prix. It used the Endurance Circuit layout, extending the lap length to 6.299 km, the new track turns left shortly after Turn 4, the right-hander at the top of the hill following the first sequence of turns. There is then a sequence of five turns before the head back to the original circuit. Then comes a left-right kink before a tight hairpin returns the cars onto the main track, the track would have reverted to its original layout for the 2011 race, and did so for the 2012 race. On 21 February 2011, it was announced that the 2011 Bahrain Grand Prix scheduled for 13 March was cancelled due to the 2011 Bahraini protests, on 3 June, FIA decided to reschedule the race for 30 October. World champion racer Damon Hill called on Formula One not to saying that if the race went ahead we will forever have the blight of association with repressive methods to achieve order. And Bernie Ecclestone told the BBC in an interview, Hopefully therell be peace and quiet and we can return in the future, the schedule cannot be rescheduled without the agreement of the participants – theyre the facts
Bahrain Grand Prix
–
Bahrain Grand Prix
49.
Lufthansa
–
It operates services to 18 domestic destinations and 197 international destinations in 78 countries across Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Europe, using a fleet of more than 270 aircraft. Lufthansa is one of the five founding members of Star Alliance, the name of the company is derived from Luft, and Hansa. Combined with its subsidiaries, the group has 656 aircraft, as of February 2016, in 2014, the group carried over 106 million passengers. Lufthansas registered office and corporate headquarters are in Cologne, the main operations base, called Lufthansa Aviation Center, is at Lufthansas primary hub at Frankfurt Airport. The majority of Lufthansas pilots, ground staff, and flight attendants are based there, Lufthansas secondary hub is Munich Airport. Lufthansa was a state-owned enterprise until 1994, in 2014, 60% of Lufthansas shares were held by institutional investors. The remaining 40% were held by individual stock owners, since 1970, Lufthansa has involved its employees in profit sharing, giving them the opportunity to choose between cash and preference shares. When Lufthansa was privatised, employees received more than 3% of its shares, Lufthansa traces its history to 1926 when Deutsche Luft Hansa A. G. was formed in Berlin. DLH, as it was known, was Germanys flag carrier until 1945 when all services were suspended following the defeat of Nazi Germany, West Germany had not yet been granted sovereignty over its airspace, so it was not known when the new airline could become operational. Nevertheless, in 1953 Luftag placed orders for four Convair CV-340s and four Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellations and set up a maintenance base at Hamburg Airport. On 6 August 1954, Luftag acquired the name and logo of the liquidated Deutsche Lufthansa for DM30,000, on 1 April 1955 Lufthansa won approval to start scheduled domestic flights, linking Hamburg, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Cologne, and Munich. In August 1958 fifteen Lufthansa 1049Gs and 1649s left Germany each week to Canada, the special status of Berlin meant that Lufthansa was not allowed to fly to either part of Berlin until 1989. Originally thought to be only a matter, the Division of Germany turned out to be long. East Germany tried to establish its own airline in 1955 using the Lufthansa name, but this resulted in a dispute with West Germany. East Germany instead established Interflug as its national airline in 1963, in 1958 Lufthansa ordered four Boeing 707s and started jet flights from Frankfurt to New York City in March 1960. Boeing 720Bs were later bought to back up the 707 fleet, in February 1961 Far East routes were extended beyond Bangkok, Thailand, to Hong Kong and Tokyo. Lagos, Nigeria and Johannesburg, South Africa were added in 1962, Lufthansa introduced the Boeing 727 in 1964 and that May began the Polar route from Frankfurt to Tokyo via Anchorage. In February 1965 the company ordered twenty-one Boeing 737s that went into service in 1968, Lufthansa was the first customer for the Boeing 737 and was one of four buyers of the 737-100s
Lufthansa
–
Lufthansa's first aircraft, a
Convair 340 (type pictured), was delivered in August 1954
Lufthansa
–
Lufthansa Lockheed L-1049G Super Constellation operating a transatlantic schedule from Hamburg to Montreal and Chicago in May 1956.
Lufthansa
–
In 1960 Lufthansa joined the
jet age with the
Boeing 707. The image shows a 707 at
Hamburg Airport in 1984, shortly before the type was retired.
Lufthansa
–
A Lufthansa
Boeing 727–100 approaching
London Heathrow Airport in 1978.
50.
Bahrain International Circuit
–
The Bahrain International Circuit is a motorsport venue opened in 2004 and used for drag racing, GP2 Series and the annual Bahrain Grand Prix. The 2004 Grand Prix was the first held in the Middle East, beginning in 2006, Australian V8 Supercars raced at the BIC, with the event known as the Desert 400. However, the V8 Supercars did not return for the 2011 V8 Supercar season,24 Hour endurance races are also hosted at BIC. The circuit has a FIA Grade 1 license, the construction of the Bahrain circuit was a national objective for Bahrain, initiated by the Crown Prince, Shaikh Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa. The Crown Prince is the Honorary President of the Bahrain Motor Federation, TRL was asked to build the circuit, headed by Patrick Brogan. In the end, the circuit was not quite fully complete, after the 2004 race and ahead of the 2005 race the track was realigned at turn four, decreasing the circuits overall length by 5 metres. At the 2009 Grand Prix, BIC announced a collaboration with @bahrain to develop next to the circuit. @bahrain is part of the Mumtalakat group of companies, in 2011 the circuit was scheduled to be the first GP of the season. However, due to civil unrest in the country the race had to be cancelled in March 2011. On early June the FIA announced that the race would be scheduled for 30 October, the slot for the inaugural Indian GP. However, two later following concerns from teams and other officials, the race organizers officially cancelled the race. The 2012 Formula One calendar had the race scheduled for 22 April, the circuit was designed by German architect Hermann Tilke, the same architect who designed the Sepang circuit in Malaysia. The main contractor for the project was Cybarco-WCT, the circuit cost approximately 56.2 million Bahraini Dinars to construct. It has six tracks, including a test oval and a drag strip. The circuit posed a unique problem, positioned in the middle of a desert, there were worries that sand would blow onto the circuit and disrupt the race. However, organizers were able to keep the sand off the track by spraying an adhesive on the sand around the track, the surface of the track is made of graywacke aggregate, shipped to Bahrain from Bayston Hill quarry in Shropshire, England. The surface material is highly acclaimed by circuit bosses and Formula 1 drivers for the level of grip it offers. The same aggregate material is used at the Yas Marina Circuit for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the DRS zone is on the pit straight at the Bahrain Grand Prix, so turn 1 is the prime overtaking opportunity
Bahrain International Circuit
–
The
2010 Bahrain Grand Prix.
Bahrain International Circuit
–
Bahrain International Circuit
Saudi Arabia 3.3%
United States 2.4%
United Arab Emirates 2.2% (2014 est.)[4]
Algeria 11.9%
China 8.2%
Japan 5.7%
Australia 4.4% (2014 est.)[5]
This article incorporates public domain material from the CIA World Factbook document "2006 edition".
This article incorporates 
