Kiribati the Republic of Kiribati, is a country in the central Pacific Ocean. The permanent population is just over 110,000, more than half of; the state comprises 32 atolls and one raised coral island, Banaba. They have a total land area of 800 square kilometres and are dispersed over 3.5 million square kilometres. In terms with its Exclusive Economic Zone in the Pacific, it straddles all three primary geographic regions, their spread straddles the equator and the 180th meridian, although the International Date Line goes round Kiribati and swings far to the east reaching the 150°W meridian. This brings the Line Islands into the same day as the Kiribati Islands. Kiribati's easternmost islands, the southern Line Islands, south of Hawaii, have the most advanced time on Earth: UTC+14 hours. Kiribati is the only country in the world to be situated in all four hemispheres. Kiribati gained its independence from the United Kingdom, becoming a sovereign state in 1979; the capital, South Tarawa, now the most populated area, consists of a number of islets, connected by a series of causeways.

These comprise about half the area of Tarawa Atoll. Kiribati is a member of the Pacific Community, Commonwealth of Nations, the IMF, the World Bank, became a full member of the United Nations in 1999; the name Kiribati was adopted in 1979 at independence. It is the Gilbertese rendition of Gilberts; this name derives from the English pronunciation of the name of the main archipelago that forms the nation. It was named in 1820 by Adam Johann von Krusenstern as « îles Gilbert », in English the Gilbert Islands, after the British captain Thomas Gilbert, he and captain John Marshall sighted some of the islands in 1788, while crossing the Outer Passage route from Port Jackson to Canton. The main archipelago was named îles Gilbert in about 1820 by Russian admiral Adam von Krusenstern and French captain Louis Duperrey. Both of their maps, published in 1820, were written in French. In English, the archipelago, the Southern part notably, was referred to as the Kingsmills in the 19th century, although the name Gilbert Islands was used including in the Western Pacific Order in Council of 1877 and in the Pacific Order of 1893.

The name Gilbert was incorporated into the name of the entire Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony from 1916 and was retained after the Ellice Islands became the separate nation of Tuvalu in 1976. The spelling of Gilberts in the Gilbertese language as Kiribati may be found in books in Gilbertese prepared by missionaries and others, it is suggested that the indigenous name for the Gilbert Islands proper is Tungaru. However, the name Kiribati was chosen as the name of the new independent nation by local consensus, on such grounds that it was modern, to acknowledge the inclusion of islands, which were never considered part of the Tungaru chain; the pronunciation differs: Kiribas is the official pronunciation as ti in the Gilbertese language makes an s sound. The area now called Kiribati has been inhabited by Austronesian peoples speaking the same Oceanic language since sometime between 3000 BC and AD 1300; the area was not isolated. Intermarriage tended to blur cultural differences and resulted in a significant degree of cultural homogenisation.

Local oral historians in the form of chiefly lore keepers suggest that the area was first inhabited by a group of seafaring people from Melanesia, who were described as being dark skinned, frizzy haired and short in stature. These indigenous peoples were visited by early Austronesian seafarers from the west, orally described as being tall and fair skinned. Both groups intermittently clashed and intermingled until they became a uniform population. Around 1300 A. D, there was a mass exodus from Samoa at the same time that Cannibalism was forcefully abolished there, leading to the addition of Polynesian ancestry into the mix of most I-Kiribati people; these Samoans would bring strong features of Polynesian languages and culture, creating clans based on their own Samoan traditions and intertwining with the indigenous clans and powers dominant in Kiribati. Around the 15th century, with the stark contrasting systems of governance between the Northern Islands under chiefly rule, the Central and Southern Islands under the rule of their council of elders –with the exception of Tabiteuea, the sole island that maintained a traditional egalitarian society –civil war soon became a factor, with acquisition of land being the main form of conquest.

Clans and chiefs began fighting over resources, fuelled by hatred and reignited blood feuds, which may have happened months or decades before. The turmoil would last well into the European visitation and colonial era, which led to certain islands decimating their foes with the help of guns and cannon-equipped ships that some Europeans were coerced into using by the more cunning and persuasive among the I-Kiribati leaders; the typical military arms of the I-Kiribati at this time were shark-tooth-embedded wooden spears and swords, garbs of armour fashioned from dense coconut fibre. They chiefly used these instead of the gunpowder and weapons of steel available at the time, because of the strong senti

Jack Linkletter was an American game show and television host and entertainer. He was the son of Art Linkletter. Linkletter was born as Arthur Jack Linkletter in San Francisco, he was the oldest of Art Linkletter's five children. He was said to have been inspired to enter show business by his father's show House Party; as a boy, Mr. Linkletter inspired one of his father's most famous "House Party" routines: interviewing young children. Linkletter was an English major at the University of Southern California in 1958 when he began hosting the NBC-TV prime-time summer replacement quiz show Haggis Baggis. At 15, Linkletter began doing an interview show for CBS Radio, soon followed by an hourlong program featuring records and stunts called "Teen Time." Linkletter hosted seven television shows throughout his career, including Haggis Baggis, Hootenanny, On the Go and Here's Hollywood. He hosted a number of events and pageants, including the Miss Universe pageant, events for the World's Fair and many parades.

On February 23, 1961, Linkletter and his father, appeared together in "The Bible Man," one of the final episodes of Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre, which aired for five seasons on CBS. In the story line, the father, the Reverend Albert Pierce, is a traveling evangelist, estranged from his grown son, because he had tried to avoid telling Jimmy of the real circumstances of his mother's death; the son accused his father of causing the mother's death by burning down her house. However, she was dead before the fire because a paramour had beaten her to death; the episode ends in a reconciliation of son. "The Bible Man" was Jack Linkletter's only regular acting appearance. When on television, he otherwise played himself. Linkletter was president of Linkletter Enterprises and operator of commercial and industrial real estate and manager of diversified family investments, he operated the Link Fund, a private fund investing in equity and debt instruments. Linkletter served as the International President of Young Presidents' Organization and national director of the 4-H Clubs.

Linkletter died of lymphoma on December 2007, at his home in Cloverdale, California. Jack Linkletter on IMDb

Grantville is a fictional town in Marion County, West Virginia that appears in Eric Flint's 1632 series. The American town – including land, people and all – was transported back in time from the year 2000 to the middle of 17th-century Europe in central Germany by irresponsible aliens. Grantville was modeled after the real town of West Virginia, their high school is based on the North Marion High School, moved from its position 4 miles outside Farmington to place it inside the Ring Of Fire. Both are in W. Va.. In the spring of 2000, a space-time anomaly caused by the Assiti, an alien race of "artists", transports the small mining town of Grantville to central Germany in the middle of the Thirty Years' War. Stranded in the past, the town's citizens decide to live in this new universe and to "Start the American Revolution 150 years early", in the words of President of the'New United States' Mike Stearns in 1631 Europe. In 1632, the "Grantvillers" first allied with neighboring free towns and cities such as Jena and Badenburg to "expand" the'New United States' systematically as 1631 dragged into 1632, including several early battles to defend allied territory which were pivotal in the rapid growth of the new "United States".

Loosely allied with Swedish King Gustavus II Adolphus against the Catholic League led by the day's super powers, Kingdom of Spain and Holy Roman Empire over the winter of 1631–32, following summer, the up-timers had early on organized a mixed army of down-timer Germans and up-timer and leadership under Michael Stearns to protect the region. While arrangements with Gustav were cordial, they were not close until the up-timers used their influence to arrange favorable financial terms for Gustav to borrow funds for his war aims. Among other things, the New United States had expropriated the Thuringian territories of Gustav's only reliable German princes, the Duke of Saxe-Weimar and his brothers. With the rumor of this arrangement, the mere possibility of the alliance of an economically strong NUS with Gustavus caused Cardinal Richelieu to switch his support of the Swedish king in the spring of 1632 and generated a direct battle in Grantville in the fall of 1632 with Croatian cavalry forces sent by Catholic General Albrecht von Wallenstein towards the end of the first book to destroy Grantville and its knowledge base.

Gustavus himself, leading a small cavalry scouting group, deduced the pending attack and enemy's plan and led his small force of 400 Laplanders and Finnish light cavalry in a "hell ride" pursuing the enemy cavalry arriving in time annihilating the remaining enemy forces at the town's high school. With the rescue, Stearns recognized the inevitable, the NUS needed a strong protector, he and Gustav began negotiating an accommodation in the high school library with Rebecca Abrabanel as translator as wounded were being triaged and the bodies were being cleared from the hallways and grounds; the Confederated Principalities of Europe lasted a year, ending on the founding of the United States of Europe with Stearns as Emperor Gustav's new Prime Minister. Under the new regime, Grantville became the provincial capital of the State of Thuringia-Franconia and the Grantvillers found themselves administering the conquered territory of Franconia as well as their parts of Thuringia—most of which belonged to the Dukes of Saxe-Weimar, including nearby free cities and towns.

The web forum 1632 Tech Manual spent nearly two years outlining and debating what the resources might have been in the 3 miles sphere that came along with the town of Grantville when it experienced the "Ring of Fire" transitioning it to 1631 Thuringia. A power plant, coal mine, various trucks, railway rolling stock, tracks and two libraries were detailed and cataloged by the 1632 Tech Manual process and at 1632.org. U. S. Route 250 - main road through town