Houston
Houston is the most populous city in the U. S. state of Texas and the fourth most populous city in the United States, with a census-estimated population of 2.312 million in 2017. It is the most populous city in the Southern United States and on the Gulf Coast of the United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the seat of Harris County and the principal city of the Greater Houston metropolitan area, the fifth most populous metropolitan statistical area in the United States and the second most populous in Texas after the Dallas-Fort Worth MSA. With a total area of 627 square miles, Houston is the eighth most expansive city in the United States, it is the largest city in the United States by total area, whose government is not consolidated with that of a county or borough. Though in Harris County, small portions of the city extend into Fort Bend and Montgomery counties. Houston was founded by land speculators on August 30, 1836, at the confluence of Buffalo Bayou and White Oak Bayou and incorporated as a city on June 5, 1837.
The city is named after former General Sam Houston, president of the Republic of Texas and had won Texas' independence from Mexico at the Battle of San Jacinto 25 miles east of Allen's Landing. After serving as the capital of the Texas Republic in the late 1830s, Houston grew into a regional trading center for the remainder of the 19th century; the arrival of the 20th century saw a convergence of economic factors which fueled rapid growth in Houston, including a burgeoning port and railroad industry, the decline of Galveston as Texas' primary port following a devastating 1900 hurricane, the subsequent construction of the Houston Ship Channel, the Texas oil boom. In the mid-20th century, Houston's economy diversified as it became home to the Texas Medical Center—the world's largest concentration of healthcare and research institutions—and NASA's Johnson Space Center, where the Mission Control Center is located. Houston's economy has a broad industrial base in energy, manufacturing and transportation.
Leading in healthcare sectors and building oilfield equipment, Houston has the second most Fortune 500 headquarters of any U. S. municipality within its city limits. The Port of Houston ranks first in the United States in international waterborne tonnage handled and second in total cargo tonnage handled. Nicknamed the "Space City", Houston is a global city, with strengths in culture and research; the city has a population from various ethnic and religious backgrounds and a large and growing international community. Houston is the most diverse metropolitan area in Texas and has been described as the most racially and ethnically diverse major metropolis in the U. S, it is home to many cultural institutions and exhibits, which attract more than 7 million visitors a year to the Museum District. Houston has an active visual and performing arts scene in the Theater District and offers year-round resident companies in all major performing arts; the Allen brothers—Augustus Chapman and John Kirby—explored town sites on Buffalo Bayou and Galveston Bay.
According to historian David McComb, "he brothers, on August 26, 1836, bought from Elizabeth E. Parrott, wife of T. F. L. Parrott and widow of John Austin, the south half of the lower league granted to her by her late husband, they paid $5,000 total, but only $1,000 of this in cash. They lobbied the Republic of Texas Congress to designate Houston as the temporary capital, agreeing to provide the new government with a capital building. About a dozen persons resided in the town at the beginning of 1837, but that number grew to about 1,500 by the time the Texas Congress convened in Houston for the first time that May. Houston was granted incorporation with James S. Holman becoming its first mayor. In the same year, Houston became the county seat of Harrisburg County. In 1839, the Republic of Texas relocated its capital to Austin; the town suffered another setback that year when a yellow fever epidemic claimed about one life out of every eight residents. Yet it persisted as a commercial center, forming a symbiosis with Galveston.
Landlocked farmers brought their produce to Houston, using Buffalo Bayou to gain access to Galveston and the Gulf of Mexico. Houston merchants profited from selling staples to farmers and shipping the farmers' produce to Galveston; the great majority of slaves in Texas came with their owners from the older slave states. Sizable numbers, came through the domestic slave trade. New Orleans was the center of this trade in the Deep South. Thousands of enslaved blacks lived near the city before the American Civil War. Many of them near the city worked on sugar and cotton plantations, while most of those in the city limits had domestic and artisan jobs. In 1840, the community established a chamber of commerce in part to promote shipping and navigation at the newly created port on Buffalo Bayou. By 1860, Houston had emerged as a commercial and railroad hub for the export of cotton. Railroad spurs from the Texas inland converged in Houston, where they met rail lines to the ports of Galveston and Beaumont.
During the American Civil War, Houston served as a headquarters for General John Magruder, who used the city as an organization point for the Battle of Galveston. After the Civil War, Houston businessmen initia
Texas
Texas is the second largest state in the United States by both area and population. Geographically located in the South Central region of the country, Texas shares borders with the U. S. states of Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the west, the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Nuevo León, Tamaulipas to the southwest, while the Gulf of Mexico is to the southeast. Houston is the most populous city in Texas and the fourth largest in the U. S. while San Antonio is the second-most populous in the state and seventh largest in the U. S. Dallas–Fort Worth and Greater Houston are the fourth and fifth largest metropolitan statistical areas in the country, respectively. Other major cities include Austin, the second-most populous state capital in the U. S. and El Paso. Texas is nicknamed "The Lone Star State" to signify its former status as an independent republic, as a reminder of the state's struggle for independence from Mexico; the "Lone Star" can be found on the Texan state seal.
The origin of Texas's name is from the word taysha. Due to its size and geologic features such as the Balcones Fault, Texas contains diverse landscapes common to both the U. S. Southern and Southwestern regions. Although Texas is popularly associated with the U. S. southwestern deserts, less than 10% of Texas's land area is desert. Most of the population centers are in areas of former prairies, grasslands and the coastline. Traveling from east to west, one can observe terrain that ranges from coastal swamps and piney woods, to rolling plains and rugged hills, the desert and mountains of the Big Bend; the term "six flags over Texas" refers to several nations. Spain was the first European country to claim the area of Texas. France held a short-lived colony. Mexico controlled the territory until 1836 when Texas won its independence, becoming an independent Republic. In 1845, Texas joined the union as the 28th state; the state's annexation set off a chain of events that led to the Mexican–American War in 1846.
A slave state before the American Civil War, Texas declared its secession from the U. S. in early 1861, joined the Confederate States of America on March 2nd of the same year. After the Civil War and the restoration of its representation in the federal government, Texas entered a long period of economic stagnation. Four major industries shaped the Texas economy prior to World War II: cattle and bison, cotton and oil. Before and after the U. S. Civil War the cattle industry, which Texas came to dominate, was a major economic driver for the state, thus creating the traditional image of the Texas cowboy. In the 19th century cotton and lumber grew to be major industries as the cattle industry became less lucrative, it was though, the discovery of major petroleum deposits that initiated an economic boom which became the driving force behind the economy for much of the 20th century. With strong investments in universities, Texas developed a diversified economy and high tech industry in the mid-20th century.
As of 2015, it is second on the list of the most Fortune 500 companies with 54. With a growing base of industry, the state leads in many industries, including agriculture, energy and electronics, biomedical sciences. Texas has led the U. S. in state export revenue since 2002, has the second-highest gross state product. If Texas were a sovereign state, it would be the 10th largest economy in the world; the name Texas, based on the Caddo word táyshaʼ "friend", was applied, in the spelling Tejas or Texas, by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves the Hasinai Confederacy, the final -s representing the Spanish plural. The Mission San Francisco de los Tejas was completed near the Hasinai village of Nabedaches in May 1690, in what is now Houston County, East Texas. During Spanish colonial rule, in the 18th century, the area was known as Nuevo Reino de Filipinas "New Kingdom of the Philippines", or as provincia de los Tejas "province of the Tejas" also provincia de Texas, "province of Texas", it was incorporated as provincia de Texas into the Mexican Empire in 1821, declared a republic in 1836.
The Royal Spanish Academy recognizes both spellings and Texas, as Spanish-language forms of the name of the U. S. State of Texas; the English pronunciation with /ks/ is unetymological, based in the value of the letter x in historical Spanish orthography. Alternative etymologies of the name advanced in the late 19th century connected the Spanish teja "rooftile", the plural tejas being used to designate indigenous Pueblo settlements. A 1760s map by Jacques-Nicolas Bellin shows a village named Teijas on Trinity River, close to the site of modern Crockett. Texas is the second-largest U. S. state, with an area of 268,820 square miles. Though 10% larger than France and twice as large as Germany or Japan, it ranks only 27th worldwide amongst country subdivisions by size. If it were an independent country, Texas would be the 40th largest behind Zambia. Texas is in the south central part of the United States of America. Three of its borders are defined by rivers; the Rio Grande forms a natural border with the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Nuevo León, Tamaulipas to the south.
The Red River forms a natural border with Arkansas to the north. The Sabine River forms a natural border with Louisiana to the east; the Texas Panhandle has an eastern border with Oklahoma at 100° W, a northern border with Oklahoma at 36°30' N and a western
Organ (anatomy)
Organs are groups of tissues with similar functions. Plant and animal life relies on many organs. Organs are composed of main tissue, "sporadic" tissues, stroma; the main tissue is that, unique for the specific organ, such as the myocardium, the main tissue of the heart, while sporadic tissues include the nerves, blood vessels, connective tissues. The main tissues that make up an organ tend to have common embryologic origins, such as arising from the same germ layer. Functionally-related organs cooperate to form whole organ systems. Organs exist in most multicellular organisms. In single-celled organisms such as bacteria, the functional analogue of an organ is known as an organelle. In plants there are three main organs. A hollow organ is an internal organ that forms a hollow tube, or pouch such as the stomach, intestine, or bladder. In the study of anatomy, the term viscus is used to refer to an internal organ, viscera is the plural form. 79 organs have been identified in the human body. In biology, tissue is a cellular organizational level between complete organs.
A tissue is an ensemble of similar cells and their extracellular matrix from the same origin that together carry out a specific function. Organs are formed by the functional grouping together of multiple tissues; the study of human and animal tissues is known as histology or, in connection with disease, histopathology. For plants, the discipline is called plant morphology. Classical tools for studying tissues include the paraffin block in which tissue is embedded and sectioned, the histological stain, the optical microscope. In the last couple of decades, developments in electron microscopy, immunofluorescence, the use of frozen tissue sections have enhanced the detail that can be observed in tissues. With these tools, the classical appearances of tissues can be examined in health and disease, enabling considerable refinement of medical diagnosis and prognosis. Two or more organs working together in the execution of a specific body function form an organ system called a biological system or body system.
The functions of organ systems share significant overlap. For instance, the nervous and endocrine system both operate via the hypothalamus. For this reason, the two systems are studied as the neuroendocrine system; the same is true for the musculoskeletal system because of the relationship between the muscular and skeletal systems. Common organ system designations in plants includes the differentiation of root. All parts of the plant above ground, including the functionally distinct leaf and flower organs, may be classified together as the shoot organ system. Animals such as humans have a variety of organ systems; these specific systems are widely studied in human anatomy. Cardiovascular system: pumping and channeling blood to and from the body and lungs with heart and blood vessels. Digestive system: digestion and processing food with salivary glands, stomach, gallbladder, intestines, colon and anus. Endocrine system: communication within the body using hormones made by endocrine glands such as the hypothalamus, pituitary gland, pineal body or pineal gland, thyroid and adrenals, i.e. adrenal glands.
Excretory system: kidneys, ureters and urethra involved in fluid balance, electrolyte balance and excretion of urine. Lymphatic system: structures involved in the transfer of lymph between tissues and the blood stream, the lymph and the nodes and vessels that transport it including the Immune system: defending against disease-causing agents with leukocytes, adenoids and spleen. Integumentary system: skin and nails of mammals. Scales of fish and birds, feathers of birds. Muscular system: movement with muscles. Nervous system: collecting and processing information with brain, spinal cord and nerves. Reproductive system: the sex organs, such as ovaries, fallopian tubes, vulva, testes, vas deferens, seminal vesicles and penis. Respiratory system: the organs used for breathing, the pharynx, trachea, bronchi and diaphragm. Skeletal system: structural support and protection with bones, cartilage and tendons; the study of plant organs is referred to as plant morphology, rather than anatomy – as in animal systems.
Organs of plants can be divided into reproductive. Vegetative plant organs include roots and leaves; the reproductive organs are variable. In flowering plants, they are represented by the flower and fruit. In conifers, the organ that bears the reproductive structures is called a cone. In other divisions of plants, the reproductive organs are called strobili, in Lycopodiophyta, or gametophores in mosses; the vegetative organs are essential for maintaining the life of a plant. While there can be 11 organ systems in animals, there are far fewer in plants, where some perform the vital functions, such as photosynthesis, while the reproductive organs are essential in reproduction. However, if there is asexual vegetative reproduction, the vegetative organs are those that create the new generation of plants. Many societies have a system for organ donation, in which a living or deceased donor's organ is transplanted into a person with a failing organ; the transplantation of larger solid organs requires immunosuppression to prevent organ rejection or graft-versus-host disease.
There is considerable interest throughout the world in creating laboratory-grown or artificial organs. The English word "organ" dates back in reference to any musical instrument. By the late 14th
Crematory
A crematory is a machine in which bodies are burned down to the bones, eliminating all soft tissue. Crematories are found in funeral homes, cemeteries, veterinary hospitals, or in stand-alone facilities. Prior to the Industrial Revolution, any cremation which took place was on an outdoor, open pyre. With firewood, to a lesser extent, coal being the only available fuel options and the low energy efficiency inherent in such a configuration, it is no surprise that cremation enjoyed minimal popularity in densely populated areas up until furnace technology developed during the Industrial Revolution could be applied to cremation to make it more practical in an urbanizing world; the organized movement to instate cremation as a viable method for body disposal began in the 1870s. In 1869 the idea was presented to the Medical International Congress of Florence by Professors Coletti and Castiglioni "in the name of public health and civilization". In 1873, Professor Paolo Gorini of Lodi and Professor Lodovico Brunetti of Padua published reports or practical work they had conducted.
A model of Brunetti's cremating apparatus, together with the resulting ashes, was exhibited at the Vienna Exposition in 1873 and attracted great attention, including that of Sir Henry Thompson, 1st Baronet, a surgeon and Physician to the Queen Victoria, who returned home to become the first and chief promoter of cremation in England. Meanwhile, Sir Charles William Siemens had developed his regenerative furnace in the 1850s, his furnace operated at a high temperature by using regenerative preheating of fuel and air for combustion. In regenerative preheating, the exhaust gases from the furnace are pumped into a chamber containing bricks, where heat is transferred from the gases to the bricks; the flow of the furnace is reversed so that fuel and air pass through the chamber and are heated by the bricks. Through this method, an open-hearth furnace can reach temperatures high enough to melt steel, this process made cremation an efficient and practical proposal. Charles's nephew, Carl Friedrich von Siemens perfected the use of this furnace for the incineration of organic material at his factory in Dresden.
The radical politician, Sir Charles Wentworth Dilke, took the corpse of his dead wife there to be cremated in 1874. The efficient and cheap process brought about the quick and complete incineration of the body and was a fundamental technical breakthrough that made industrial cremation a practical possibility. Sir Henry Thompson's main reason for supporting cremation was that "it was becoming a necessary sanitary precaution against the propagation of disease among a population daily growing larger in relation to the area it occupied". In addition, he believed, cremation would prevent premature burial, reduce the expense of funerals, spare mourners the necessity of standing exposed to the weather during interment, urns would be safe from vandalism. On 13 January 1874, some advocates of cremation, including Anthony Trollope, John Everett Millais, George du Maurier, Thomas Spencer Wells, John Tenniel and Shirley Brooks, held a meeting at Thompson's house in London and formally founded the Cremation Society of Great Britain, "organised expressly for the purpose of obtaining and disseminating information on the subject and for adopting the best method of performing the process, as soon as this could be determined, provided that the act was not contrary to Law".
The first duty of the Cremation Society was to ascertain whether cremation could be performed in the country, to construct a first crematorium. In 1878, a piece of land in Woking on which the crematorium was to be established was bought by Sir Henry Thompson. Professor Gorini was invited to visit Woking and supervise the erection of his cremation apparatus there. In 1885, the first official cremation in the UK took place in Woking; the deceased was Mrs Jeannette C. Pickersgill, a well-known figure in literary and scientific circles. By the end of the year, the Cremation Society of Great Britain had overseen two more cremations, a total of 3 out of 597,357 deaths in the UK that year. In 1886 ten bodies were cremated at Woking Crematorium. During 1888, in which 28 cremations took place, the Cremation Society planned to provide a chapel, waiting rooms and other amenities there. In 1892 a crematorium opened in Manchester, followed by one in Glasgow in 1895, Liverpool in 1896 and Birmingham Crematorium in 1903.
Crematoria in Europe were built in 1878 in the town of Gotha in Germany and in Heidelberg in 1891. The first modern crematory in the U. S. was built in 1876 by Francis Julius LeMoyne after hearing about its use in Europe. During that time it was thought that people were getting sick by attending funerals of those deceased and that decomposing bodies were leaking into the water systems. LeMoyne built the crematory to cremate bodies in a controlled environment for sanitary reasons. Cremation was used to destroy any organic matter that could cause illness and give families a better way to preserve ashes. Before LeMoyne's crematory closed in 1901, it had performed 42 cremations; some of the various Protestant churches came to accept cremation, with the rationale being, "God can resurrect a bowl of ashes just as conveniently as he can resurrect a bowl of dust." The 1908 Catholic Encyclopedia was critical about these efforts, referring to them as a "sinister movement" and associating them with Freemasonry, although it said that "there is nothing directly opposed to any dogma of the Church in the practice of cremation."
In 1963, Pope Paul VI lifted the ban on cremation, in 1966 allowed Catholic priests to officiate at cremation ceremonies. In the U. S. only about one crematory per year was built in the late 19th century. As embalming became
Funeral Home (1980 film)
Funeral Home is a 1980 Canadian horror film directed by William Fruet and starring Lesleh Donaldson, Kay Hawtrey, Jack Van Evera, Alf Humphreys, Harvey Atkin. The plot follows a teenager spending the summer at her grandmother's inn—formerly a funeral home—where guests begin to disappear. Released in Canada in 1980 under the title Cries in the Night, the film was re-titled for its 1982 U. S. theatrical and home video releases as Funeral Home. At the beginning of the summer, Heather arrives in a small unnamed town to stay with her grandmother, Maude Chalmers, whose house—a former funeral home—has been converted into an inn. Maude's husband, James, an undertaker, has been missing for several years, she has been forced to make a living selling artificial flower arrangements in town. Billy Hibbs, a mentally-challenged man, lives with Maude as the property handyman. Nearby, a farmer named Sam reports an abandoned vehicle discovered on his property, traced to a missing real estate developer, surveying the area.
At the inn on the evening of Heather's arrival, guests Harry Browning and his mistress Florie check in. When Maude realizes the couple are unmarried, she asks them to leave; that evening after having drinks, they drive to a local quarry recommended by Heather. The same night, Heather goes on a date with Rick, a local teenager, returns home to hear her Maude speaking to an unseen man in the basement; when she inquires, Maude denies it. The next day, while Maude is in town, Rick stops by the house, he tells Heather that her grandfather, was a known alcoholic, recounts a story from his childhood in which Mr. Chalmers had locked he and a friend in the funeral home's basement to scare them; the two explore the property. D." engraved on it. That evening, Heather again hears Maude speaking to someone in the basement, this time arguing with a male voice about a woman named "Helena Davis." Heather discovers Helena has been missing for some time, was rumored to be have eloped with her grandfather. Mr. Davis, Helena's husband, arrives at the house to ask Maude about the alleged affair, which she denies occurred.
That evening, Mr. Davis is murdered with a pickaxe; the following day while Heather and Rick are swimming in the quarry and Harry's bodies are discovered. Heather confides in Rick; that evening, they return to the house. Upon finding that Maude is not home, the two decide to explore the basement. There they discover Billy's corpse, are attacked by Maude, imitating her husband's voice, scolds Heather for coming into the basement. Maude attempts to kill Heather with an axe and she flees through the basement, discovering a hidden room where James's corpse rests in a bed of Maude's artificial flowers. Just as Maude is about to strike Heather with the axe, she lapses out of her dissociative identity; the police arrive at the scene in the basement, Joe, a local police officer, asks Maude if they can talk about what has occurred. She agrees, so long. Joe explains to a news reporter that Maude had murdered James and Helena, his mistress, after discovering their affair. After, she preserved James's corpse, buried both Helena and Mr. Davis in the local graveyard.
Kay Hawtrey as Maude Chalmers Lesleh Donaldson as Heather Barry Morse as Mr. Davis Dean Garbett as Rick Yates Stephen E. Miller as Billy Hibbs Alf Humphreys as Joe Yates Peggy Mahon as Florie Harvey Atkin as Harry Browning Robert Warner as Sheriff Jack Van Evera as James Chalmers Les Rubie as Sam Doris Petrie as Ruby Bill Lake as Frank Brett Matthew Davidson as Young Rick Christopher Crabb as Teddy Robert Craig as Barry Oaks Linda Dalby as Linda Gerard Jordan as Pete Eleanor Beecroft as Shirley The budget for the film was CAD$1,431,780 and was filmed from July 23, 1979 to September 12, 1979, it as shot on location in several cities in Ontario, including Elora, Guelph and Toronto. According to actress Lesleh Donaldson, actress Kay Hawtrey and director William Fruet did not get along well, stating that "She couldn’t stand him, she hated him. Just hated him." She recalled Hawtrey "...being a nervous wreck nearly every morning. And she claimed Bill was making her do stuff at the end, too much for her.
In the scene where she's down in the cellar, there were a lot of crew guys doubling for her, with the axe and swinging stuff around. It wasn’t her doing that."On director Fruet, Donaldson stated that she "knew that he would do things off-the-cuff at the last minute, like changing a scene. Might not have been called in that day and I’d get a call telling me "Get to the set now!", I’d have to do a scene I hadn’t memorized yet. It was tense that way." The film was released in Canada in 1980 by Frontier Amusements under its original title, Cries in the Night. Two years it received a theatrical release in the United States through Motion Picture Marketing under the alternate title Funeral Home; the film has received mixed to positive reception in recent years, with AllMovie, in their summary of the film, stating that "... Funeral Home serves up a generous supply of shudders for non-fans of the horror genre." In a retrospective analysis and film historian John Kenneth Muir said the film is "slow as molasses and lacking in both surprises and punch," and negatively compared it to imitatin
North American Free Trade Agreement
The North American Free Trade Agreement is an agreement signed by Canada and the United States, creating a trilateral trade bloc in North America. The agreement came into force on January 1, 1994, it superseded the 1988 Canada–United States Free Trade Agreement between the United States and Canada, is expected to be replaced by the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement once it is ratified. NAFTA has two supplements: the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation and the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation. Most economic analyses indicate that NAFTA has been beneficial to the North American economies and the average citizen, but harmed a small minority of workers in industries exposed to trade competition. Economists hold that withdrawing from NAFTA or renegotiating NAFTA in a way that reestablishes trade barriers will adversely affect the U. S. economy and cost jobs. However, Mexico would be much more affected by job loss and reduction of economic growth in both the short term and long term.
On September 30, 2018, it was announced that the United States and Canada had come to an agreement to replace NAFTA with the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement. The USMCA is the result of the renegotiation of NAFTA that the member states undertook from 2017 to 2018, though NAFTA will remain in force until the USMCA is ratified by its members; the impetus for a North American free trade zone began with U. S. President Ronald Reagan, who made the idea part of his campaign when he announced his candidacy for the presidency in November 1979. Canada and the United States signed the Canada–United States Free Trade Agreement in 1988, shortly afterward Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari decided to approach US president George H. W. Bush to propose a similar agreement in an effort to bring in foreign investment following the Latin American debt crisis; as the two leaders began negotiating, the Canadian government under Prime Minister Brian Mulroney feared that the advantages Canada had gained through the Canada–US FTA would be undermined by a US–Mexican bilateral agreement, asked to become a party to the US–Mexican talks.
Following diplomatic negotiations dating back to 1990, the leaders of the three nations signed the agreement in their respective capitals on December 17, 1992. The signed agreement needed to be ratified by each nation's legislative or parliamentary branch; the earlier Canada–United States Free Trade Agreement had been controversial and divisive in Canada, featured as an issue in the 1988 Canadian election. In that election, more Canadians voted for anti-free trade parties, but the split of the votes between the two parties meant that the pro-free trade Progressive Conservatives came out of the election with the most seats and so took power. Mulroney and the PCs had a parliamentary majority and passed the 1987 Canada–US FTA and NAFTA bills. However, Mulroney was replaced as prime minister by Kim Campbell. Campbell led the PC party into the 1993 election where they were decimated by the Liberal Party under Jean Chrétien, who campaigned on a promise to renegotiate or abrogate NAFTA. Chrétien subsequently negotiated two supplemental agreements with Bush, who had subverted the LAC advisory process and worked to "fast track" the signing prior to the end of his term, ran out of time and had to pass the required ratification and signing of the implementation law to incoming president Bill Clinton.
Before sending it to the United States Senate Clinton added two side agreements, the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation and the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation, to protect workers and the environment, to allay the concerns of many House members. The U. S. required its partners to adhere to environmental regulations similar to its own. After much consideration and emotional discussion, the U. S. House of Representatives passed the North American Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act on November 17, 1993, 234–200; the agreement's supporters included 102 Democrats. The bill passed the Senate on November 20, 1993, 61–38. Senate supporters were 27 Democrats. Clinton signed it into law on December 8, 1993. Clinton, while signing the NAFTA bill, stated. American jobs, good-paying American jobs. If I didn't believe that, I wouldn't support this agreement." NAFTA replaced the previous Canada-US FTA. The goal of NAFTA was to eliminate barriers to trade and investment between the U.
S. Canada and Mexico; the implementation of NAFTA on January 1, 1994, brought the immediate elimination of tariffs on more than one-half of Mexico's exports to the U. S. and more than one-third of U. S. exports to Mexico. Within 10 years of the implementation of the agreement, all U. S.–Mexico tariffs were to be eliminated except for some U. S. agricultural exports to Mexico. Most U. S.–Canada trade was duty-free. NAFTA sought to eliminate non-tariff trade barriers and to protect the intellectual property rights on traded products. Chapter 20 provides a procedure for the international resolution of disputes over the application and interpretation of NAFTA, it was modeled after Chapter 69 of the Canada–United States Free Trade Agreement. The roster of NAFTA adjudicators includes many retired judges, such as Alice Desjardins, John Maxwell Evans, Constance Hunt, John Richard, Arlin M. Adams, Susan Getzendanner, George C. Pratt, Charles B. Renfrew and Sandra Day O'Connor. NAFTA is, in part, implemented by
Wake (ceremony)
A wake is a social gathering associated with death held before a funeral. Traditionally, a wake takes place in the house of the deceased with the body present. In the United States and Canada it is synonymous with a viewing, it is a social rite that highlights the idea that the loss is one of a social group and affects that group as a whole. The term referred to a late-night prayer vigil but is now used for the social interactions accompanying a funeral. While the modern usage of the verb wake is "become or stay alert", a wake for the dead harks back to the vigil, "watch" or "guard" of earlier times, it is a misconception that people at a wake are waiting in case the deceased should "wake up". The term wake was used to denote a prayer vigil an annual event held on the feast day of the saint to whom a parish church was dedicated. Over time the association with prayer has become less important, although not lost and in many countries a wake is now associated with the social interactions accompanying a funeral.
It used to be the custom in most Celtic countries in Europe for mourners to keep watch or vigil over their dead until they were buried — this was called a "wake". This is still common in North-western Scotland. With the change to the more recent practice of holding the wake at a funeral home rather than the home, the custom of providing refreshment to the mourners is held directly after the funeral at the house or another convenient location; the wake or the viewing of the body is a prominent part of death rituals in many cultures. This ceremony allows one last interaction with the corpse, providing a time for the living to express their emotions and beliefs about death with the deceased. Shemira, the custom of "guarding" the body of the deceased in Judaism Funeral Nine nights Jazz funeral Month's Mind Lying in state Memorial service Viewing A first hand account of a modern Irish Wake Ripley, George. "Wake — In Ireland". The American Cyclopædia. Chisholm, Hugh, ed.. "Wake". Encyclopædia Britannica.
Cambridge University Press
