The English Channel called the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France and links to the southern part of the North Sea by the Strait of Dover at its northeastern end. It is the busiest shipping area in the world, it is about 560 km long and varies in width from 240 km at its widest to 34 km in the Strait of Dover. It is the smallest of the shallow seas around the continental shelf of Europe, covering an area of some 75,000 km2. Known colloquially to the English as the ‘Narrow Sea’, until the 18th century, the English Channel had no fixed name either in English or in French, it was never defined as a political border, the names were more or less descriptive. It was not considered as the property of a nation. Before the development of the modern nations, British scholars often referred to it as "Gaulish" and French scholars as "British" or "English"; the name "English Channel" has been used since the early 18th century originating from the designation Engelse Kanaal in Dutch sea maps from the 16th century onwards.

In modern Dutch, however, it is known as Het Kanaal. It has been known as the "British Channel" or the "British Sea", it was called Oceanus Britannicus by the 2nd-century geographer Ptolemy. The same name is used on an Italian map of about 1450, which gives the alternative name of canalites Anglie—possibly the first recorded use of the "Channel" designation; the Anglo-Saxon texts call it Sūð-sǣ as opposed to Norð-sǣ. The common word channel was first recorded in Middle English in the 13th century and was borrowed from Old French chanel, variant form of chenel "canal"; the French name la Manche has been used since at least the 17th century. The name is said to refer to the Channel's sleeve shape. Folk etymology has derived it from a Celtic word meaning channel, the source of the name for the Minch in Scotland, but this name is not attested before the 17th century, French and British sources of that time are clear about its etymology; the name in French has been directly adapted in other Romance languages.

The name in Breton means "Breton Sea", its Cornish name means "British Sea". The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the English Channel as follows: The IHO defines the southwestern limit of the North Sea as "a line joining the Walde Lighthouse and Leathercoat Point"; the Walde Lighthouse is 6 km east of Calais, Leathercoat Point is at the north end of St Margaret's Bay, Kent. The Strait of Dover, at the Channel's eastern end, is its narrowest point, while its widest point lies between Lyme Bay and the Gulf of Saint Malo, near its midpoint, it is shallow, with an average depth of about 120 m at its widest part, reducing to a depth of about 45 m between Dover and Calais. Eastwards from there the adjoining North Sea reduces to about 26 m in the Broad Fourteens where it lies over the watershed of the former land bridge between East Anglia and the Low Countries, it reaches a maximum depth of 180 m in the submerged valley of Hurd's Deep, 48 km west-northwest of Guernsey.

The eastern region along the French coast between Cherbourg and the mouth of the Seine river at Le Havre is referred to as the Bay of the Seine. There are several major islands in the Channel, the most notable being the Isle of Wight off the English coast, the Channel Islands, British Crown dependencies off the coast of France; the coastline on the French shore, is indented. The Cotentin Peninsula in France juts out into the Channel, whilst on the English side there is a small parallel strait known as the Solent between the Isle of Wight and the mainland; the Celtic Sea is to the west of the Channel. The Channel acts as a funnel that amplifies the tidal range from less than a metre as observed at sea to more than 6 metres as observed in the Channel Islands, the west coast of the Cotentin Peninsula and the north coast of Brittany; the time difference of about six hours between high water at the eastern and western limits of the Channel is indicative of the tidal range being amplified further by resonance.

In the UK Shipping Forecast the Channel is divided into the following areas, from the east: Dover Wight Portland Plymouth The Channel is of geologically recent origin, having been dry land for most of the Pleistocene period. Before the Devensian glaciation and Ireland were part of continental Europe, linked by an unbroken Weald–Artois anticline, a ridge that acted as a natural dam holding back a large freshwater pro-glacial lake in the Doggerland region, now submerged under the North Sea. During this period the North Sea and all of the British Isles were covered by ice; the lake was fed by meltwater from the Baltic and from the Caledonian and Scandinavian ice sheets that joined to the north, blocking its exit. The sea level was about 120 m lower. Between 450,000 and 180,000 years ago, at least two catastrophic glacial lake outburst floods breached the Weald–Artois anticline; the first flood would have lasted for several months, releasing as much as one million cubic metres of water per second.

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The National Professional Agricultural Student Organization referred to as PAS, is a national organization associated with postsecondary institutions offering baccalaureate degrees, associate degrees, diplomas and/or certificates in agriculture/agribusiness and natural resources. PAS is one of the ten career and technical student organizations, approved by the United States Department of Education as an integral part of career and technical education referred to as vocational education. PAS is a member of the Consortium of Collegiate Agricultural Organizations. PAS was organized for postsecondary programs awarding associate degrees or certificates and has since expanded to include baccalaureate degree programs; the Illinois PAS has all four of that state's agricultural universities involved in PAS and Iowa PAS has their state land grant of Iowa State University in PAS. This shift allows students who transfer to a 4-year university to continue their direct involvement in PAS, provides the opportunities of PAS to university students and further deepens connections between 2 and 4 year agricultural institutions.

The national organization was organized in March 1979 under Draft Bylaws. PAS was founded in March 1980 in Kansas City, Missouri; the history of PAS begins with the expansion of vocational-technical education at the postsecondary level. With state and federal legislation in the 60’s and 70’s, the agricultural education movement expanded with more and more postsecondary agricultural programs; this movement started the creation of many local college student agricultural organizations at the two-year institutions. On the national level, the formation of PAS began with a National Seminar in 1966 at SUNY Cobleskill, New York. A Committee on “Youth Organizations and Activities for Two-Year Post High School Students in Agriculture" was created, it was decided. It recommended that the organizations begin first with the local state, proceed to a national organization; some states had developed equivalent organizations that proceeded the formation of the National PAS Organization. In Illinois, some 12 community college agriculture students, their advisors, guests gathered on February 28, 1974, at the Illinois State Fairgrounds in Springfield for the purpose of forming a statewide organization.

Copies of the Students With Agriculture Purposes Constitution and Bylaws were revised and developed into a state constitution and bylaws. Seeing the need for a different name for the organization, the Illinois Association of Community College Agriculturists was passed unanimously to replace SWAP; the IACCA Constitution and Bylaws were adopted on April 19, 1974. On February 25, 1989, at the 15th Annual Conference when the 16 delegates assembled voted to change the name from “IACCA” to “PAS” so that Illinois would be aligned with the National PAS Organization; the idea of a National Organization was again reviewed at the National Agricultural Education Seminar held in Muscatine, Iowa in 1969. However, there was not enough interest in forming a national organization at that time. In 1973 a National Standards conference hosted by the state of Minnesota recognized the potential need for a student organization. A NPASO Development Committee was formed and was to meet each year at the American Vocational Association convention.

In 1976 the committee held a brainstorming conference in the Quad Cities. Some of the major decisions included the terminology of “Agriculture and Related Occupations for students enrolled in two-year institutions. In 1977 with a grant from White Farm Equipment Company, an ad hoc committee met at the National FFA Center to develop the strategies for a national postsecondary student organization; the purpose was to verify feasibility of organizing an organization. In 1978, as a continuation of the White Farm Equipment Company grant, a National Seminar for Educators in Postsecondary Institutions was held in Kansas City, Missouri; the seminar concluded with acceptance of six reports including the acceptance and endorsement of the need for a National Postsecondary Student Organization for Agriculture/Agribusiness and Natural Resources students and the need to proceed to finalize the organization. The first national conference for the National Postsecondary Agricultural Student Organization was held in April 1979.

National PAS membership now totals some 1,115 members from 56 chapters located in 18 states. Membership is available to students in agriculture and natural resources postsecondary programs in 550 institutions in all 50 states. PAS Associates is an organization of former members of the National Postsecondary Agriculture Students Organization. Advisors, industry representatives and other PAS supporters are welcomed to become members. Despite a open membership the PAS Associates has had minimal activity and has been faced with financial issues. PAS Associates was organized at the 10th reunion National Conference in Kansas City, Mo. in March 1988. Uniting Education & Industry in Agriculture Official website

The Diocese of Sufar, is an ancient episcopal seat of the Roman province of Mauretania Caesariensis. The location of the seat of the bishopric is now lost to history, but it was somewhere in today's Algeria. Christianity seems to have come to Mauretania Caesariensis than other parts of Roman North Africa, thereby avoiding many of the earlier controversies. Like most bishopric in the west of the province Sufar appears to have flourished only from in late antiquity some time after the Council of Nicaea. There are only Two bishops of Sufar mentioned by the ancient sources, both in the year 484; this leads Mesnage to hypothesize the existence of two towns called Sufar, An alternative interpretation is that the term Sufaritanus is the contraction of Sufasaritanus, in this case one of the two bishops of 484 would belong to the diocese of Sufasar. Sufar seems to have ceased to function only with the Muslim conquest of the Maghreb. Today Sufar survives as a titular bishopric and the current bishop is Robert P. Reed, who replaced Robert Francis Prevost in 2016.

Vittore Romano Patrick Joseph Casey Carlos Schmitt Ernst Gutting Robert Francis Prevost Robert P. Reed Mauretania Caesariensis Sufasar