1.
Rio Carnival
–
The Carnival in Rio de Janeiro is a festival Lent every year and considered the biggest carnival in the world with 2 million people per day on the streets. The first festivals of Rio date back to 1723, the typical Rio carnival parade is filled with revelers, floats, and adornments from numerous samba schools which are located in Rio. A samba school is composed of a collaboration of local neighbours that want to attend carnival together, there is a special order that every school has to follow with their parade entries. Each school begins with the comissão de frente, that is the group of people from the school that appear first, made of ten to fifteen people, the comissão de frente introduces the school and sets the mood and style of their presentation. These people have choreographed dances in costumes that usually tell a short story. Following the comissão de frente is the first float of the samba school, as the parade is taking place in the Sambadrome and the balls are being held in the Copacabana Palace and beach, many carnival participants are at other locations. Street festivals are common during carnival and are highly populated by the locals. Elegance and extravagance are usually left behind, but music and dancing are still extremely common, anyone is allowed to participate in the street festivals. Bandas and blocos are very familiar with the street carnival especially because it nothing to join in on the fun except to jump in. One of the most well known bandas of Rio is Banda de Ipanema, Banda de Ipanema was first created in 1965 and is known as Rio’s most irreverent street band. Incorporated into every aspect of the Rio carnival are dancing and music, the most famous dance is carnival samba, a Brazilian dance with African influences. The samba remains a popular dance not only in carnival but in the ghettos outside of the main cities and these villages keep alive the historical aspect of the dance without the influence of the western cultures. Music is another aspect of all parts of carnival. The samba that is found in Rio is batucada, referring to the dance and it is born of a rhythmic necessity that it allows you to sing, to dance, and to parade at the same time. This is why the style is found in most all of Rio’s street carnivals. Street parades, blocos, and bandas take place throughout the city of Rio during Carnival, there can be more than 300 bandas taking place at any given point in time. While the biggest street party takes place right outside the Sambadrome, in 2012, more than 2 million revelers took to the streets of Rio de Janeiro to participate in the Cordão da Bola Preta bloco. According to police estimates, more than 5 million people attended a bloco during Rio Carnival 2012, when the Sambadrome was built in 1984, it had the side-effect of taking street parades from the downtown area to a specific, ticketed performance area
2.
Vehicle
–
A vehicle is a mobile machine that transports people or cargo. Typical vehicles include wagons, bicycles, motor vehicles, railed vehicles, Land vehicles are classified broadly by what is used to apply steering and drive forces against the ground, wheeled, tracked, railed or skied. ISO 3833-1977 is the standard, also used in legislation, for road vehicles types, terms. Boats were used between 4000 BC-3000 BC in Sumer, ancient Egypt and in the Indian Ocean, there is evidence of camel pulled wheeled vehicles about 3000–4000 BC. Wheeled vehicles pulled by men and animals ran in grooves in limestone, in 200 CE, Ma Jun built a south-pointing chariot, a vehicle with an early form of guidance system. Railways began reappearing in Europe after the Dark Ages, the earliest known record of a railway in Europe from this period is a stained-glass window in the Minster of Freiburg im Breisgau dating from around 1350. In 1515, Cardinal Matthäus Lang wrote a description of the Reisszug, the line originally used wooden rails and a hemp haulage rope and was operated by human or animal power, through a treadwheel. 1769 Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot is often credited with building the first self-propelled mechanical vehicle or automobile in 1769. In Russia, in the 1780s, Ivan Kulibin developed a human-pedalled, three-wheeled carriage with modern features such as a flywheel, brake, gear box and bearings, however and it was introduced by Drais to the public in Mannheim in summer 1817. 1903 Wright brothers flew the first controlled, powered aircraft 1907 First helicopters Gyroplane no.1, there are over 1 billion bicycles in use worldwide. In 2002 there were an estimated 590 million cars and 205 million motorcycles in service in the world, at least 500 million Chinese Flying Pigeon bicycles have been made, more than an other single model of vehicle. The most-produced model of vehicle is the Honda Super Cub motorcycle. The most-produced car model is the Toyota Corolla, with at least 35 million made by 2010, by far, most vehicles use wheels which employ the principle of rolling to enable displacement with very little rolling friction. It is essential that a vehicle have a source of energy to drive it, energy can be extracted from the surrounding environment, as in the case of a sailboat, a solar-powered car or a streetcar. Energy can also be stored, in any form, provided it can be converted on demand, the most common type of energy source is fuel. Batteries also facilitate the use of motors, which have their own advantages. On the other hand, batteries have low densities, short service life, poor performance at extreme temperatures. Like fuel, batteries store energy and can cause burns
3.
Truck
–
A truck is a motor vehicle designed to transport cargo. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, smaller varieties may be similar to some automobiles. Commercial trucks can be large and powerful, and may be configured to mount specialized equipment, such as in the case of fire trucks and concrete mixers. Modern trucks are powered by diesel engines, although small to medium size trucks with gasoline engines exist in the US. In the European Union, vehicles with a gross mass of up to 3.5 t are known as light commercial vehicles. Trucks and cars have an ancestor, the steam-powered fardier Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot built in 1769. However, steam wagons were not common until the mid-1800s, the roads of the time, built for horse and carriages, limited these vehicles to very short hauls, usually from a factory to the nearest railway station. The first semi-trailer appeared in 1881, towed by a tractor manufactured by De Dion-Bouton. In 1895 Karl Benz designed and built the first truck in history using the internal combustion engine, later that year some of Benzs trucks were modified to become the first bus by the Netphener, the first motorbus company in history. A year later, in 1896, another internal combustion engine truck was built by Gottlieb Daimler, other companies, such as Peugeot, Renault and Büssing, also built their own versions. The first truck in the United States was built by Autocar in 1899 and was available with optional 5 or 8 horsepower motors, trucks of the era mostly used two-cylinder engines and had a carrying capacity of 3,300 to 4,400 lb. In 1904,700 heavy trucks were built in the United States,1000 in 1907,6000 in 1910, after World War I, several advances were made, pneumatic tires replaced the previously common full rubber versions. Electric starters, power brakes,4,6, and 8 cylinder engines, closed cabs, the first modern semi-trailer trucks also appeared. Touring car builders such as Ford and Renault entered the heavy truck market, although it had been invented in 1890, the diesel engine was not common in trucks in Europe until the 1930s. In the United States, it took longer for diesel engines to be accepted. The word truck might come from a back-formation of truckle, meaning small wheel or pulley, from Middle English trokell, another possible source is the Latin trochus, meaning iron hoop. In turn, both sources emanate from the Greek trokhos, meaning wheel, from trekhein, the first known usage of truck was in 1611, when it referred to the small strong wheels on ships cannon carriages. In its extended usage it came to refer to carts for carrying heavy loads and its expanded application to motor-powered load carrier has been in usage since 1930, shortened from motor truck, which dates back to 1901
4.
Mardi Gras in New Orleans
–
The holiday of Mardi Gras is celebrated in Southern Louisiana. Celebrations are concentrated for about two weeks before and through Shrove Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday, usually there is one major parade each day, many days have several large parades. The largest and most elaborate parades take place the last five days of the Mardi Gras season, in the final week, many events occur throughout New Orleans and surrounding communities, including parades and balls. The parades in New Orleans are organized by social clubs known as krewes, most follow the parade schedule. The earliest-established krewes were the Mistick Krewe of Comus, the earliest, Rex, the Knights of Momus and the Krewe of Proteus. Float riders traditionally toss throws into the crowds, the most common throws are strings of plastic beads, doubloons, decorated plastic throw cups, Moon Pies. Major krewes follow the parade schedule and route each year. Mardi Gras day traditionally concludes with the Meeting of the Courts between Rex and Comus, the first record of Mardi Gras being celebrated in Louisiana was at the mouth of the Mississippi River in what is now lower Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, on March 2,1699. Iberville, Bienville, and their men celebrated it as part of an observance of Catholic practice, the date of the first celebration of the festivities in New Orleans is unknown. A1730 account by Marc-Antione Caillot celebrating with music and dance, an account from 1743 that the custom of Carnival balls was already established. Processions and wearing of masks in the streets on Mardi Gras took place and they were sometimes prohibited by law, and were quickly renewed whenever such restrictions were lifted or enforcement waned. In 1833 Bernard Xavier de Marigny de Mandeville, a plantation owner of French descent. All of the mischief of the city is alive and wide awake in active operation. Men and boys, women and girls, bond and free, white and black, yellow and brown, exert themselves to invent and appear in grotesque, quizzical, diabolic, horrible, strange masks, and disguises. In rich confusion, up and down the streets, wildly shouting, singing, laughing, drumming, fiddling, fifeing, in 1856 six businessmen gathered at a club room in New Orleanss French Quarter to organize a secret society to observe Mardi Gras with a formal parade. They founded New Orleans first and oldest krewe, the Mystick Krewe of Comus, according to one historian, Comus was aggressively English in its celebration of what New Orleans had always considered a French festival. To a certain extent, New Orleans creolized the Americans, thus the wonder of Anglo-Americans boasting of how their business prowess helped them construct a more elaborate version than was traditional. The lead in organized Carnival passed from Creole to American just as political, in 1875 Louisiana declared Mardi Gras a legal state holiday
5.
Maltese Carnival
–
Carnival has had an important place on the Maltese cultural calendar for just under five centuries, having been introduced to the Islands by Grand Master Piero de Ponte in 1535. Carnival has been celebrated in Malta since 1535, five years after the arrival of the Order of St John and it started taking place officially in Birgu. where a number of knights played games and displayed their skills in various pageants and tournaments. Grand Master Piero de Ponte complained that some knights had exaggerated in their banquets and masquerades, and there were numerous abuses and brawls. At the general assembly of knights a week later, De Ponte made it clear that he would no longer tolerate any wild excesses and he limited himself to approving tournaments and other military exercises necessary to Christian knights to train themselves for battle against the Turks. In 1560, Grand Master Jean Parisot de La Valette, felt he had to reprimand his knights for going overboard with their festivities and he had allowed the wearing of masks in public. The knights decorated the ships of the Orders fleet in the harbour and there was music, dance and rivalry as never seen in Malta before. La Valette was not amused at the number of wearing masks. In 1639, Grand Master Giovanni Paolo Lascaris issued a bando prohibiting women from wearing masks or participating in balls organised by the knights auberges, another bando was that nobody could wear a costume to represent the devil. Neither the knights nor the women took kindly to the prohibitions, some of the most spirited decided to make fun of the Jesuits. While one of the dressed as a Jesuit with offensive writings on his back and this was reported to the Grand Master, who had the knight Girolamo Selvatico from Padua arrested, as he was believed to have organised the satire. It caused considerable unrest, the Jesuits college was attacked and ransacked by young knights and they demanded that Lascaris expel the Jesuits from Malta and close their church, which he did till things calmed down. Till date a Maltese idiom says Wiċċ Laskri which is used to describe a nervous, during the Carnival of 1823, about 110 children inside the Convent of the Minori Osservanti were trampled to death following some argument. In 1678, Inquisitor Ercole Visconti mentioned the scandals involving some knights during Carnival days, the Maltese were scandalised by what they saw, leading the ailing Grand Master Nicolas Cotoner to take steps after listening to Viscontis complaints. And we are told that Cotoner wasnt easily scandalised in his years as Grand Master. On the second day of Carnival the following year two knights, named Gori and Saraceni, wearing masks, insulted Paolo Testaferrata, a depositary of the Inquisition, for no reason whatsoever. Inquisitor Giacomo Cantelmo complained to the Grand Master, who explained that it would be better to accept an apology rather than create any fuss, Saraceni went with two other knights to look for Testaferrata and excused himself saying that he had not recognised him. Than he called on Cantelmo to pay his respects, the most recently appointed Knight Grand Cross would obtain the necessary permission and a proclamation giving the go-ahead to Carnival was immediately read from the Palace balcony. This was the sign for the general merriment to start, then a girl representing Malta was carried shoulderhigh and taken around the streets of Valletta
6.
Key West
–
Key West is an island city in Florida and the county seat of Monroe County. The city boundaries include the island of Key West and several islands, as well as the section of Stock Island north of U. S. Route 1. Sigsbee Park—originally known as Dredgers Key—and Fleming Key, both located to the north, and Sunset Key located to the west are all included in the city boundaries, both Fleming Key and Sigsbee Park are part of Naval Air Station Key West and are inaccessible to the general public. Key West is the southernmost city in the contiguous United States and the terminus of U. S. Route 1, State Road A1A, the East Coast Greenway and, before 1935. Key West is 129 miles southwest of Miami by air, about 160 miles by car, Cuba, at its closest point, is 94 miles south. Key West is a destination for many passenger cruise ships. The Key West International Airport provides airline service, the central business district is located along Duval Street and includes much of the northwestern corner of the island. The official city motto is One Human Family, in Pre-Colonial times Key West was inhabited by the Calusa people. The first European to visit was Juan Ponce de León in 1521, as Florida became a Spanish territory, a fishing and salvage village with a small garrison was established here. Cayo Hueso is the original Spanish name for the island of Key West, spanish-speaking people today also use the term when referring to Key West. It is said that the island was littered with the remains of native inhabitants. This island was the westernmost Key with a supply of water. In 1763, when Great Britain took control of Florida, the community of Spaniards, Florida returned to Spanish control 20 years later, but there was no official resettlement of the island. Informally the island was used by fishermen from Cuba and from the British, while claimed by Spain, no nation exercised de facto control over the community there for some time. In 1815, the Spanish governor of Cuba in Havana deeded the island of Key West to Juan Pablo Salas, businessman John W. Simonton, during a meeting in a Havana café on January 19,1822, for the equivalent of $2,000 in pesos in 1821. Geddes tried in vain to secure his rights to the property before Simonton who, Simonton had wide-ranging business interests in Mobile, Alabama. He bought the island because a friend, John Whitehead, had drawn his attention to the opportunities presented by the strategic location. John Whitehead had been stranded in Key West after a shipwreck in 1819, on March 25,1822, Lt. Commander, Matthew C
7.
Indianapolis 500 traditions
–
Due to the longevity of the Indianapolis 500, numerous traditions surrounding the race have developed over the years. Traditions include procedures for the running of the race, scheduling, for many fans, these traditions are an important aspect of the race, and they have often reacted quite negatively when the traditions are changed or broken. As part of the Memorial Day holiday weekend, the ceremonies of the Indianapolis 500 feature several patriotic songs. The most noteworthy and most popular traditions are the singing of Back Home Again in Indiana. The race has always been scheduled in conjunction with Memorial Day, through 1970, the race was held on Memorial Day proper, regardless of the day of the week, unless it fell on Sunday. In those cases it was scheduled for Monday May 31, after the Uniform Monday Holiday Act took effect in 1971, the race was scheduled as part of the three-day Memorial Day weekend instead, either the Saturday, the Sunday, or the Monday. Since 1974, the race has been scheduled for the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, Sundays were avoided for scheduling race activity dating all the way back to pre-500 races in 1909 and 1910. In early decades, Sundays were occasionally used for practice and/or qualifying, in some early years, practice may have been permitted on Sundays, but the gates might not be open to the public. When Tony Hulman bought the Speedway after World War II, Speedway management continued to refuse to schedule the race on a Sunday, qualifying and practice, however, were regularly held on Sundays during those years, with no days closed to spectators. From 1971-1972, the race was scheduled for the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, in 1973, the race was scheduled for Memorial Day Monday. However, rain delayed it until Wednesday, since 1974, the race has been scheduled for the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend. The 1986 race was held the weekend after the federal holiday because of two rainouts. The race was held the following Saturday, May 31, the date of the race if May 30 was a Sunday. The 1997 race was similar to 1973 in having two rain delays, nearly as unique as 1986 and it was scheduled for Sunday, May 25, but heavy rain washed out the day. The race began the day, on Memorial Day. The race was halted after 15 laps, and could not be restarted, short of the 101 laps needed for an official race, track officials elected to resume the race on the following day. The race was run to completion, as laps 16-200 were completed on Tuesday, armed Forces Day also falls during the month of May, and usually coincides with one of the weekends of time trials. Since 1978 at the Speedway, that weekend is filled with activities honoring the U. S. military
8.
Rose Parade
–
The Rose Parade, also known as the Tournament of Roses Parade and the Rose Parade presented by Honda, is part of Americas New Year Celebration held in Pasadena, California each year on New Years Day. The parade includes flower-covered floats, marching bands, and equestrian units and is followed by the Rose Bowl college football game and it is produced by the nonprofit Pasadena Tournament of Roses Association. It is seen by millions more on television worldwide in more than 100 international territories and countries, the Rose Bowl is a college football game that was added in 1902 to help fund the cost of staging the parade. Since 2011, the parade has been sponsored by Honda, accordingly, the company has the parades first float, which like all floats, follows the parades theme. The 2017 parade featured 44 floats,19 equestrian units with approximately 400 horses, the Grand Marshals of the parade were Greg Louganis, Janet Evans and Allyson Felix. Members of Pasadenas Valley Hunt Club first staged the parade in 1890, since then the parade has been held in Pasadena every New Years Day, except when January 1 falls on a Sunday. In that case, it is held on the subsequent Monday and this exception was instituted in 1893, as organizers did not wish to disturb horses hitched outside Sunday church services. Many of the members of the Valley Hunt Club were former residents of the American East and Midwest and they wished to showcase their new California homes mild winter weather. At a club meeting, Professor Charles F, holder announced, In New York, people are buried in the snow. Here our flowers are blooming and our oranges are about to bear, lets hold a festival to tell the world about our paradise. So the club organized horse-drawn carriages covered in flowers, followed by foot races, polo matches, upon seeing the scores of flowers on display, the professor decided to suggest the name Tournament of Roses. Over the next few founding years, marching bands and motorized floats were added, by 1895, the event was too large for the Valley Hunt Club to handle, hence the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Association was formed. Activities soon included ostrich races, bronco busting demonstrations, and an odd novelty race between a camel and an elephant, soon reviewing stands were built along the parade route and newspapers in Eastern Seaboard cities started to take notice of the event. Tournament House is the given the former home where the organization is headquartered. The first associated football game was played on January 1,1902, originally titled the Tournament East-West football game, it is considered to be the first Rose Bowl. The next game was not played until New Years Day 1916, the game derives its modern name from Rose Bowl Stadium, which was built for the 1923 game. In 2002 and 2006, the Granddaddy of em all was not held the day as the parade. Not all fans were pleased with the change, some thought the atmosphere, once the BCS title game was separated from the host bowl, it no longer affected the date of the Rose Bowl Game
9.
Flower
–
A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in plants that are floral. The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs, Flowers may facilitate outcrossing or allow selfing. Some flowers produce diaspores without fertilization, Flowers contain sporangia and are the site where gametophytes develop. Many flowers have evolved to be attractive to animals, so as to them to be vectors for the transfer of pollen. After fertilization, the ovary of the flower develops into fruit containing seeds, the essential parts of a flower can be considered in two parts, the vegetative part, consisting of petals and associated structures in the perianth, and the reproductive or sexual parts. A stereotypical flower consists of four kinds of structures attached to the tip of a short stalk, each of these kinds of parts is arranged in a whorl on the receptacle. The four main whorls are as follows, Collectively the calyx, corolla, the next whorl toward the apex, composed of units called petals, which are typically thin, soft and colored to attract animals that help the process of pollination. Androecium, the whorl, consisting of units called stamens. Stamens consist of two parts, a called a filament, topped by an anther where pollen is produced by meiosis. Gynoecium, the innermost whorl of a flower, consisting of one or more units called carpels, the carpel or multiple fused carpels form a hollow structure called an ovary, which produces ovules internally. Ovules are megasporangia and they in turn produce megaspores by meiosis which develop into female gametophytes and these give rise to egg cells. The gynoecium of a flower is described using an alternative terminology wherein the structure one sees in the innermost whorl is called a pistil. A pistil may consist of a carpel or a number of carpels fused together. The sticky tip of the pistil, the stigma, is the receptor of pollen, the supportive stalk, the style, becomes the pathway for pollen tubes to grow from pollen grains adhering to the stigma. The relationship to the gynoecium on the receptacle is described as hypogynous, perigynous, although the arrangement described above is considered typical, plant species show a wide variation in floral structure. These modifications have significance in the evolution of flowering plants and are used extensively by botanists to establish relationships among plant species, the four main parts of a flower are generally defined by their positions on the receptacle and not by their function. Many flowers lack some parts or parts may be modified into other functions and/or look like what is typically another part, in some families, like Ranunculaceae, the petals are greatly reduced and in many species the sepals are colorful and petal-like. Other flowers have modified stamens that are petal-like, the flowers of Peonies and Roses are mostly petaloid stamens
10.
Middle Ages
–
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or Medieval Period lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and merged into the Renaissance, the Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history, classical antiquity, the medieval period, and the modern period. The medieval period is subdivided into the Early, High. Population decline, counterurbanisation, invasion, and movement of peoples, the large-scale movements of the Migration Period, including various Germanic peoples, formed new kingdoms in what remained of the Western Roman Empire. In the seventh century, North Africa and the Middle East—once part of the Byzantine Empire—came under the rule of the Umayyad Caliphate, although there were substantial changes in society and political structures, the break with classical antiquity was not complete. The still-sizeable Byzantine Empire survived in the east and remained a major power, the empires law code, the Corpus Juris Civilis or Code of Justinian, was rediscovered in Northern Italy in 1070 and became widely admired later in the Middle Ages. In the West, most kingdoms incorporated the few extant Roman institutions, monasteries were founded as campaigns to Christianise pagan Europe continued. The Franks, under the Carolingian dynasty, briefly established the Carolingian Empire during the later 8th, the Crusades, first preached in 1095, were military attempts by Western European Christians to regain control of the Holy Land from Muslims. Kings became the heads of centralised nation states, reducing crime and violence, intellectual life was marked by scholasticism, a philosophy that emphasised joining faith to reason, and by the founding of universities. Controversy, heresy, and the Western Schism within the Catholic Church paralleled the conflict, civil strife. Cultural and technological developments transformed European society, concluding the Late Middle Ages, the Middle Ages is one of the three major periods in the most enduring scheme for analysing European history, classical civilisation, or Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Modern Period. Medieval writers divided history into periods such as the Six Ages or the Four Empires, when referring to their own times, they spoke of them as being modern. In the 1330s, the humanist and poet Petrarch referred to pre-Christian times as antiqua, leonardo Bruni was the first historian to use tripartite periodisation in his History of the Florentine People. Bruni and later argued that Italy had recovered since Petrarchs time. The Middle Ages first appears in Latin in 1469 as media tempestas or middle season, in early usage, there were many variants, including medium aevum, or middle age, first recorded in 1604, and media saecula, or middle ages, first recorded in 1625. The alternative term medieval derives from medium aevum, tripartite periodisation became standard after the German 17th-century historian Christoph Cellarius divided history into three periods, Ancient, Medieval, and Modern. The most commonly given starting point for the Middle Ages is 476, for Europe as a whole,1500 is often considered to be the end of the Middle Ages, but there is no universally agreed upon end date. English historians often use the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 to mark the end of the period
11.
Barge
–
A barge is a flat-bottomed boat, built mainly for river and canal transport of heavy goods. Some barges are not self-propelled and must be towed or pushed by towboats, Barge is attested from 1300, from Old French barge, from Vulgar Latin barga. The word originally could refer to any small boat, the modern meaning arose around 1480, bark small ship is attested from 1420, from Old French barque, from Vulgar Latin barca. The more precise meaning three-masted ship arose in the 17th century, both are probably derived from the Latin barica, from Greek, βάρις, translit. Egyptian boat, from Coptic, ⲃⲁⲁⲣⲉ bāri small boat, hieroglyphic Egyptian, by extension, the term embark literally means to board the kind of boat called a barque. The long pole used to maneuver or propel a barge has given rise to the saying I wouldnt touch that with a barge pole. On the British canal system, the barge is used to describe a boat wider than a narrowboat. In the United States, deckhands perform the labor and are supervised by a leadman or the mate, the captain and pilot steer the towboat, which pushes one or more barges held together with rigging, collectively called the tow. The crew live aboard the towboat as it travels along the river system or the intracoastal waterways. These towboats travel between ports and are also called line-haul boats, poles are used on barges to fend off the barge as it nears other vessels or a wharf. These are often called pike poles, barges are used today for low-value bulk items, as the cost of hauling goods by barge is very low. Barges are also used for heavy or bulky items, a typical American barge measures 195 by 35 feet. The most common European barge measures 76.5 by 11.4 metres, as an example, on June 26,2006, a 565-short-ton catalytic cracking unit reactor was shipped by barge from the Tulsa Port of Catoosa in Oklahoma to a refinery in Pascagoula, Mississippi. Extremely large objects are normally shipped in sections and assembled onsite, of the reactors 700-mile journey, only about 40 miles were traveled overland, from the final port to the refinery. Canal barges are made for the particular canal in which they will operate. Many barges, primarily Dutch barges, which were designed for carrying cargo along the canals of Europe, are no longer large enough to compete in this industry with larger newer vessels. Many of these barges have been renovated and are now used as hotel barges carrying holidaymakers along the same canals on which they once carried grain or coal. This holds true today, for areas of the world
12.
River Thames
–
The River Thames is a river that flows through southern England, most notably through London. At 215 miles, it is the longest river entirely in England and it also flows through Oxford, Reading, Henley-on-Thames and Windsor. The lower reaches of the river are called the Tideway, derived from its tidal reach up to Teddington Lock. It rises at Thames Head in Gloucestershire, and flows into the North Sea via the Thames Estuary, the Thames drains the whole of Greater London. Its tidal section, reaching up to Teddington Lock, includes most of its London stretch and has a rise, in Scotland, the Tay achieves more than double the average discharge from a drainage basin that is 60% smaller. Along its course are 45 navigation locks with accompanying weirs and its catchment area covers a large part of South Eastern and a small part of Western England and the river is fed by 38 named tributaries. The river contains over 80 islands, in 2010, the Thames won the largest environmental award in the world – the $350,000 International Riverprize. The Thames, from Middle English Temese, is derived from the Brittonic Celtic name for the river, Tamesas, recorded in Latin as Tamesis and yielding modern Welsh Tafwys Thames. It has also suggested that it is not of Celtic origin. A place by the river, rather than the river itself, indirect evidence for the antiquity of the name Thames is provided by a Roman potsherd found at Oxford, bearing the inscription Tamesubugus fecit. It is believed that Tamesubugus name was derived from that of the river, tamese was referred to as a place, not a river in the Ravenna Cosmography. The rivers name has always pronounced with a simple t /t/, the Middle English spelling was typically Temese. A similar spelling from 1210, Tamisiam, is found in the Magna Carta, the Thames through Oxford is sometimes called the Isis. Ordnance Survey maps still label the Thames as River Thames or Isis down to Dorchester, richard Coates suggests that while the river was as a whole called the Thames, part of it, where it was too wide to ford, was called *lowonida. An alternative, and simpler proposal, is that London may also be a Germanic word, for merchant seamen, the Thames has long been just the London River. Londoners often refer to it simply as the river in such as south of the river. Thames Valley Police is a body that takes its name from the river. The marks of human activity, in cases dating back to Pre-Roman Britain, are visible at various points along the river
.jpg)
