Luminaria
A luminaria or farolito is a small paper lantern, of significance in the U. S. state of New Mexico in southwest United States at Christmas time on Christmas Eve. These paper lanterns have to some extent replaced the older tradition of the vigil fire luminaria with which they became confused, yet another form of luminaria, a small torch or large candle, is carried by the leader of the procession of Las Posadas, a nine-day holiday running December 16–24. Electrically-lit luminarias are used, consisting of a string of standard incandescent "Christmas lights" with the bulbs covered with a tan plastic sleeve, made to about the size and shape of a small paper bag; the early versions were small bonfires of crisscrossed piñon branches which were built in three-foot high squares. Today, luminarias are made from brown paper bags weighted down with sand and illuminated from within by a lit candle; these are arranged in rows to create large and elaborate displays. The hope among Roman Catholics is that the lights will guide the spirit of the Christ child to one's home.
In recent times they are seen more as akin to Christmas lights. Strings of artificial luminarias, with plastic bags illuminated by small light bulbs and connected by an electrical cord, are available, are common in the American Southwest, where they are displayed throughout the year-end holiday season; these are beginning to gain popularity in other parts of the United States. Santa Fe and Old Town Albuquerque, New Mexico, are well known for their impressive Christmas Eve farolito displays. Farolito displays are common throughout New Mexico, most communities in New Mexico have farolitos in prominent areas such as major streets or parks. Residents line their yards, fences and roofs with farolitos. Similar traditions can now be found in many other parts of the nation. In West Valley City, luminarias are used to light the path during the Walk with Santa held the first Monday of December every year; the display features over 300 luminarias. The American Cancer Society's Relay for Life fundraising events which are held all over the U.
S. feature luminaria ceremonies. Luminarias are placed around the track and some relay events spell out "HOPE" in stadium stands with luminarias. After the 2008 city hall shooting in Kirkwood, residents lined the streets with luminarias to honor the victims of the shooting; the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention's Out of the Darkness Overnight uses luminarias at the end of the overnight walk to memorialize those lost to suicide for survivors. San Juan College in Farmington, New Mexico, organizes a large annual farolito display, most consisting of around 30,000 farolitos displayed on campus. Luminarias have become popular in California in some cities; the Boy Scout Troops and Albuquerque Youth Symphony sell them around Christmas time as another form of fundraising. In Galena, luminarias line the streets of the town one night in December for their annual "Night of Luminaria."Each year for the past 22 years community members have placed luminarias along the path beside Lake Washington north of Seward Park.
They place as many as 1800 along a three-mile stretch of the path. The placement of the luminaria are timed to coincide with the annual Christmas Ships festival organized by Argosy Cruises. In Midlothian, luminaria sets are sold to raise money for the local food pantries. About 75 % of the food pantries annual budget comes from these luminaria donations. In Champaign, luminarias line South Willis Ave. between Springfield Ave. and John St. for one night each holiday season. On Evensham Street in the Glenshire Devonshire area of Truckee, CA local residents line the streets with Luminaries. See Glenshire Devonshire's web page for aerial photos; the Mantey Heights neighborhood of Grand Junction, Colorado has celebrated the luminaria tradition for several decades. Over 3,500 luminaries are placed along the roads and walkways every Christmas Eve. Many are positioned atop the parapets of the old adobe homes. In some Southwestern states, such as Arizona and Texas as well as New Mexico, luminarias are occasionally used as Halloween decorations, sometimes featuring jack o' lantern faces drawn on the paper bags.
Artificial luminarias are available with holiday themed decorative patterns and in colors other than brown. The name of the decoration is the subject of a long-running item of contention among some New Mexicans. In general, farolito is the preferred term in northern New Mexico, while the decorations are referred to as luminarias in the southern part of the state. In Spanish, the word farolito translates as "little lantern", while luminaria means "festival light". Luminaria referred not to a paper lantern but to a small festival or vigil bonfire. New Mexico traditionalists insist. Farolitos may be referred to as "luminarias" by some, but on Christmas Eve, when the farolitos are lit in Santa Fe, luminarias are burning in the small mountain villages of Northern New Mexico. Luminaria bonfires made of square, stacked piñon and juniper wood can can be seen in towns and pueblos across northern New Mexico. In the mountain villages and by the roadways they are built by local residents to welcome visitors and to commemorate holiday activities.
Festival of Lights Kobe Luminarie, a December electric-light festival in Japan Christmas lights Luminarias festival observe
Hanshin Electric Railway
Hanshin Electric Railway Co. Ltd. is a Japanese private railway company of Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group that links Osaka and Kobe. It owns the Hanshin Tigers baseball team; the second character for Osaka and the first character for Kobe combine to form the company name, 阪神, which can be read Han-shin. IC cards are accepted. Main Line Hanshin Namba Line The section between Nishikujō and Ōsaka-Namba is the newest line of Hanshin that opened on March 20, 2009. Prior to this extension the line was called the Nishi-Ōsaka Line. Mukogawa Line Kobe Kosoku Line The tracks of the line are owned by Kobe Rapid Transit Railway Co. Ltd. as the Tozai Line. Kita-Osaka Line Kokudo Line Koshien Line Amagasaki Kaigan Line Mukogawa Line: the line between Muko-ohashi and Nishinomiya was used only for freight trains operated by JNR. Imazu Deyashiki Line: Takasu - Suzaki - Hamakoshien - Imazu Amagasaki Takarazuka Line: Amagasaki - Takarazuka: planned by Takarazuka Amagasaki Railway Company Daini Hanshin Line: Umeda - Chidoribashi - Amagasaki - Sannomiya - Minatogawa June 12, 1899: Settsu Electric Railway Co. Ltd. was established.
July 7, 1899: The company was renamed "Hanshin Electric Railway Co. Ltd." April 7, 1968: Kobe Rapid Railway was opened and joint operation with Sanyo Electric Railway was started. February 15, 1998: Joint operation with Sanyo Electric Railway for limited express service between Umeda and Himeji was started. June 20, 2006: Hankyu Holdings, Inc. completed its purchase of a controlling interest in Hanshin in a transaction valued at about $2.2 billion. March 20, 2009: Joint operation with Kintetsu Railway for Rapid Express service between Sannomiya and Kintetsu Nara was started. 1000 series - through services onto the Kintetsu Nara Line 8000 series 9000 series - through services onto the Kintetsu Nara Line 9300 series 5001 5131/5331 5500 series 5550 series 5700 series 7861 7890/7990 Hanshin Electric Railway owns the Hanshin Tigers baseball team, whose home ground is Hanshin Koshien Stadium in front of Kōshien Station of the railway's Main Line. One of the company's subsidiaries is the Osaka-based company Hanshin Contents Link, that operates the Billboard Japan brand under licence from Billboard's publisher.
Hankyu Hanshin Holdings Group Website in English Hanshin Electric Railway Website in English
Nestlé
Nestlé S. A. is a Swiss transnational food and drink company headquartered in Vevey, Switzerland. It is the largest food company in the world, measured by revenues and other metrics, since 2014, it ranked No. 64 on the Fortune Global 500 in 2017 and No. 33 on the 2016 edition of the Forbes Global 2000 list of largest public companies. Nestlé's products include baby food, medical food, bottled water, breakfast cereals and tea, dairy products, ice cream, frozen food, pet foods, snacks. Twenty-nine of Nestlé's brands have annual sales of over CHF1 billion, including Nespresso, Nescafé, Kit Kat, Nesquik, Stouffer's, Maggi. Nestlé has 447 factories, operates in 189 countries, employs around 339,000 people, it is one of the main shareholders of the world's largest cosmetics company. Nestlé was formed in 1905 by the merger of the Anglo-Swiss Milk Company, established in 1866 by brothers George and Charles Page, Farine Lactée Henri Nestlé, founded in 1866 by Henri Nestlé; the company grew during the First World War and again following the Second World War, expanding its offerings beyond its early condensed milk and infant formula products.
The company has made a number of corporate acquisitions, including Crosse & Blackwell in 1950, Findus in 1963, Libby's in 1971, Rowntree Mackintosh in 1988, Klim in 1998, Gerber in 2007. Nestlé has a primary listing on the SIX Swiss Exchange and is a constituent of the Swiss Market Index, it has a secondary listing on Euronext. Nestlé's origins date back to the 1860s, when two separate Swiss enterprises were founded that would form the core of Nestlé. In the succeeding decades, the two competing enterprises aggressively expanded their businesses throughout Europe and the United States. In 1866, Charles Page and George Page, brothers from Lee County, Illinois, USA, established the Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk Company in Cham, Switzerland, their first British operation was opened at Chippenham, Wiltshire, in 1873. In 1867, in Vevey, Henri Nestlé soon began marketing it; the following year saw Daniel Peter begin seven years of work perfecting his invention, the milk chocolate manufacturing process.
Nestlé was the crucial co-operation that Peter needed to solve the problem of removing all the water from the milk added to his chocolate and thus preventing the product from developing mildew. Henri Nestlé retired in 1875 but the company, under new ownership, retained his name as Société Farine Lactée Henri Nestlé. In 1877, Anglo-Swiss added milk-based baby foods to their products. In 1879, Nestlé merged with milk chocolate inventor Daniel Peter. In 1904, François-Louis Cailler, Charles Amédée Kohler, Daniel Peter, Henri Nestlé participated in the creation and development of Swiss chocolate, marketing the first chocolate – milk Nestlé. In 1905, the companies merged to become the Nestlé and Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk Company, retaining that name until 1947 when the name'Nestlé Alimentana SA' was taken as a result of the acquisition of Fabrique de Produits Maggi SA and its holding company, Alimentana SA, of Kempttal, Switzerland. Maggi was a major manufacturer of related foodstuffs; the company's current name was adopted in 1977.
By the early 1900s, the company was operating factories in the United States, the United Kingdom and Spain. The First World War created demand for dairy products in the form of government contracts, and, by the end of the war, Nestlé's production had more than doubled. In January 1919, Nestlé bought two condensed milk plants in Oregon from the company Geibisch and Joplin for $250,000. One was in Bandon, they expanded them processing 250,000 pounds of condensed milk daily in the Bandon plant. Nestlé felt the effects of the Second World War immediately. Profits dropped from US$20 million in 1938 to US$6 million in 1939. Factories were established in developing countries in Latin America; the war helped with the introduction of the company's newest product, Nescafé, which became a staple drink of the US military. Nestlé's production and sales rose in the wartime economy. After the war, government contracts dried up, consumers switched back to fresh milk. However, Nestlé's management responded streamlining operations and reducing debt.
The 1920s saw Nestlé's first expansion into new products, with chocolate-manufacture becoming the company's second most important activity. Louis Dapples was CEO till 1937 when succeeded by Édouard Muller till his death in 1948; the end of World War II was the beginning of a dynamic phase for Nestlé. Growth accelerated and numerous companies were acquired. In 1947 Nestlé merged with a manufacturer of seasonings and soups. Crosse & Blackwell followed in 1950, as did Findus, Libby's, Stouffer's. Diversification came with a shareholding in L'Oreal in 1974. In 1977, Nestlé made its second venture outside the food industry, by acquiring Alcon Laboratories Inc. In the 1980s, Nestlé's improved bottom line allowed the company to launch a new round of acquisitions. Carnation was acquired for $3 billion in 1984 and brought the evaporated milk brand, as well as Coffee-Mate and Friskies to Nestlé. In 1986 Nestlé Nespresso S. A. was founded. The confectionery company Rowntree Mackintosh was acquired in 1988 for $4.5 billion, which brought brands such as Kit Kat and Aero.
The first half of the 1990s proved to be favourable for Nestlé. Trade barriers crumbled, world markets developed into more or less integrat
2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
The 2011 earthquake off the Pacific coast of Tōhoku was a magnitude 9.0–9.1 undersea megathrust earthquake off the coast of Japan that occurred at 14:46 JST on Friday 11 March 2011, with the epicentre 70 kilometres east of the Oshika Peninsula of Tōhoku and the hypocenter at an underwater depth of 29 km. The earthquake is referred to in Japan as the Great East Japan Earthquake and is known as the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake, the Great Sendai Earthquake, the Great Tōhoku Earthquake, the 3.11 earthquake. It was the most powerful earthquake recorded in Japan, the fourth most powerful earthquake in the world since modern record-keeping began in 1900; the earthquake triggered powerful tsunami waves that may have reached heights of up to 40.5 metres in Miyako in Tōhoku's Iwate Prefecture, which, in the Sendai area, traveled up to 10 km inland. The earthquake moved Honshu 2.4 m east, shifted the Earth on its axis by estimates of between 10 cm and 25 cm, increased earth's rotational speed by 1.8 µs per day, generated infrasound waves detected in perturbations of the low-orbiting GOCE satellite.
The earthquake caused sinking of part of Honshu's Pacific coast by up to a metre, but after about three years, the coast rose back and kept on rising to exceed its original height. The tsunami swept the Japanese mainland and killed over ten thousand people through drowning, though blunt trauma caused many deaths; the latest report from the Japanese National Police Agency report confirms 15,897 deaths, 6,157 injured, 2,533 people missing across twenty prefectures, a report from 2015 indicated 228,863 people were still living away from their home in either temporary housing or due to permanent relocation. A report by the National Police Agency of Japan on 10 September 2018 listed 121,778 buildings as "total collapsed", with a further 280,926 buildings "half collapsed", another 699,180 buildings "partially damaged"; the earthquake and tsunami caused extensive and severe structural damage in north-eastern Japan, including heavy damage to roads and railways as well as fires in many areas, a dam collapse.
Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan said, "In the 65 years after the end of World War II, this is the toughest and the most difficult crisis for Japan." Around 4.4 million households in northeastern Japan were left without electricity and 1.5 million without water. The tsunami caused nuclear accidents the level 7 meltdowns at three reactors in the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant complex, the associated evacuation zones affecting hundreds of thousands of residents. Many electrical generators were taken down, at least three nuclear reactors suffered explosions due to hydrogen gas that had built up within their outer containment buildings after cooling system failure resulting from the loss of electrical power. Residents within a 20 km radius of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant and a 10 km radius of the Fukushima Daini Nuclear Power Plant were evacuated. Early estimates placed insured losses from the earthquake alone at US$14.5 to $34.6 billion. The Bank of Japan offered ¥15 trillion to the banking system on 14 March in an effort to normalize market conditions.
The World Bank's estimated economic cost was US$235 billion, making it the costliest natural disaster in history. The 9.1-magnitude undersea megathrust earthquake occurred on 11 March 2011 at 14:46 JST in the north-western Pacific Ocean at a shallow depth of 32 km, with its epicenter 72 km east of the Oshika Peninsula of Tōhoku, lasting six minutes. The earthquake was reported as 7.9 Mw by the USGS before it was upgraded to 8.8 Mw to 8.9 Mw, finally to 9.0 Mw. On 11 July 2016, the USGS further upgraded the earthquake to 9.1. Sendai was the nearest major city to the earthquake, 130 km from the epicenter; the main earthquake was preceded by a number of large foreshocks, with hundreds of aftershocks reported. One of the first major foreshocks was a 7.2 Mw event on 9 March 40 km from the epicenter of 11 March earthquake, with another three on the same day in excess of 6.0 Mw. Following the main earthquake on 11 March, a 7.4 Mw aftershock was reported at 15:08 JST, succeeded by a 7.9 Mw at 15:15 JST and a 7.7 Mw at 15:26 JST.
Over eight hundred aftershocks of magnitude 4.5 Mw or greater have occurred since the initial quake, including one on 26 October 2013 of magnitude 7.1 Mw. Aftershocks follow Omori's law, which states that the rate of aftershocks declines with the reciprocal of the time since the main quake; the aftershocks could continue for years. This megathrust earthquake was a recurrence of the mechanism of the earlier 869 Sanriku earthquake, estimated as having a magnitude of at least 8.4 Mw, which created a large tsunami that inundated the Sendai plain. Three tsunami deposits have been identified within the Holocene sequence of the plain, all formed within the last 3,000 years, suggesting an 800 to 1,100 year recurrence interval for large tsunamigenic earthquakes. In 2001 it was reckoned that there was a high likelihood of a large tsunami hitting the Sendai plain as more than 1,100 years had elapsed. In 2007, the probability of an earthquake with a magnitude of Mw 8.1–8.3 was estimated as 99% within the following 30 years.
This earthquake occurred where the Pacific Plate is subducting under the plate beneath northe
Japan
Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies off the eastern coast of the Asian continent and stretches from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and the Philippine Sea in the south; the kanji that make up Japan's name mean "sun origin", it is called the "Land of the Rising Sun". Japan is a stratovolcanic archipelago consisting of about 6,852 islands; the four largest are Honshu, Hokkaido and Shikoku, which make up about ninety-seven percent of Japan's land area and are referred to as home islands. The country is divided into 47 prefectures in eight regions, with Hokkaido being the northernmost prefecture and Okinawa being the southernmost one; the population of 127 million is the world's tenth largest. 90.7 % of people live in cities. About 13.8 million people live in the capital of Japan. The Greater Tokyo Area is the most populous metropolitan area in the world with over 38 million people. Archaeological research indicates; the first written mention of Japan is in Chinese history texts from the 1st century AD.
Influence from other regions China, followed by periods of isolation from Western Europe, has characterized Japan's history. From the 12th century until 1868, Japan was ruled by successive feudal military shōguns who ruled in the name of the Emperor. Japan entered into a long period of isolation in the early 17th century, ended in 1853 when a United States fleet pressured Japan to open to the West. After nearly two decades of internal conflict and insurrection, the Imperial Court regained its political power in 1868 through the help of several clans from Chōshū and Satsuma – and the Empire of Japan was established. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, victories in the First Sino-Japanese War, the Russo-Japanese War and World War I allowed Japan to expand its empire during a period of increasing militarism; the Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937 expanded into part of World War II in 1941, which came to an end in 1945 following the Japanese surrender. Since adopting its revised constitution on May 3, 1947, during the occupation led by SCAP, the sovereign state of Japan has maintained a unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy with an Emperor and an elected legislature called the National Diet.
Japan is a member of the ASEAN Plus mechanism, UN, the OECD, the G7, the G8, the G20, is considered a great power. Its economy is the world's third-largest by nominal GDP and the fourth-largest by purchasing power parity, it is the world's fourth-largest exporter and fourth-largest importer. Japan benefits from a skilled and educated workforce. Although it has renounced its right to declare war, Japan maintains a modern military with the world's eighth-largest military budget, used for self-defense and peacekeeping roles. Japan is a developed country with a high standard of living and Human Development Index, its population enjoys the highest life expectancy and third lowest infant mortality rate in the world, but is experiencing issues due to an aging population and low birthrate. Japan is renowned for its historical and extensive cinema, influential music industry, video gaming, rich cuisine and its major contributions to science and modern technology; the Japanese word for Japan is 日本, pronounced Nihon or Nippon and means "the origin of the sun".
The character nichi means "sun" or "day". The compound therefore means "origin of the sun" and is the source of the popular Western epithet "Land of the Rising Sun"; the earliest record of the name Nihon appears in the Chinese historical records of the Tang dynasty, the Old Book of Tang. At the end of the seventh century, a delegation from Japan requested that Nihon be used as the name of their country; this name may have its origin in a letter sent in 607 and recorded in the official history of the Sui dynasty. Prince Shōtoku, the Regent of Japan, sent a mission to China with a letter in which he called himself "the Emperor of the Land where the Sun rises"; the message said: "Here, I, the emperor of the country where the sun rises, send a letter to the emperor of the country where the sun sets. How are you". Prior to the adoption of Nihon, other terms such as Yamato and Wakoku were used; the term Wa is a homophone of Wo 倭, used by the Chinese as a designation for the Japanese as early as the third century Three Kingdoms period.
Another form of Wa, Wei in Chinese) was used for an early state in Japan called Nakoku during the Han dynasty. However, the Japanese disliked some connotation of Wa 倭, it was therefore replaced with the substitute character Wa, meaning "togetherness, harmony"; the English word Japan derives from the historical Chinese pronunciation of 日本. The Old Mandarin or early Wu Chinese pronunciation of Japan was recorded by Marco Polo as Cipangu. In modern Shanghainese, a Wu dialect, the pronunciation of characters 日本; the old Malay word for Japan, Japun or Japang, was borrowed from a southern coastal Chinese dialect Fukienese or Ningpo – and this Malay word was encountered by Portuguese traders in Southeast Asia in the 16th century. These Early Portuguese traders brought the word
