1.
NASA
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President Dwight D. Eisenhower established NASA in 1958 with a distinctly civilian orientation encouraging peaceful applications in space science. The National Aeronautics and Space Act was passed on July 29,1958, disestablishing NASAs predecessor, the new agency became operational on October 1,1958. Since that time, most US space exploration efforts have led by NASA, including the Apollo Moon landing missions, the Skylab space station. Currently, NASA is supporting the International Space Station and is overseeing the development of the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, the agency is also responsible for the Launch Services Program which provides oversight of launch operations and countdown management for unmanned NASA launches. NASA shares data with various national and international such as from the Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite. Since 2011, NASA has been criticized for low cost efficiency, from 1946, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics had been experimenting with rocket planes such as the supersonic Bell X-1. In the early 1950s, there was challenge to launch a satellite for the International Geophysical Year. An effort for this was the American Project Vanguard, after the Soviet launch of the worlds first artificial satellite on October 4,1957, the attention of the United States turned toward its own fledgling space efforts. This led to an agreement that a new federal agency based on NACA was needed to conduct all non-military activity in space. The Advanced Research Projects Agency was created in February 1958 to develop technology for military application. On July 29,1958, Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act, a NASA seal was approved by President Eisenhower in 1959. Elements of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency and the United States Naval Research Laboratory were incorporated into NASA, earlier research efforts within the US Air Force and many of ARPAs early space programs were also transferred to NASA. In December 1958, NASA gained control of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA has conducted many manned and unmanned spaceflight programs throughout its history. Some missions include both manned and unmanned aspects, such as the Galileo probe, which was deployed by astronauts in Earth orbit before being sent unmanned to Jupiter, the experimental rocket-powered aircraft programs started by NACA were extended by NASA as support for manned spaceflight. This was followed by a space capsule program, and in turn by a two-man capsule program. This goal was met in 1969 by the Apollo program, however, reduction of the perceived threat and changing political priorities almost immediately caused the termination of most of these plans. NASA turned its attention to an Apollo-derived temporary space laboratory, to date, NASA has launched a total of 166 manned space missions on rockets, and thirteen X-15 rocket flights above the USAF definition of spaceflight altitude,260,000 feet. The X-15 was an NACA experimental rocket-powered hypersonic research aircraft, developed in conjunction with the US Air Force, the design featured a slender fuselage with fairings along the side containing fuel and early computerized control systems
2.
Pacific Ocean
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The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of the Earths oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south and is bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, the Mariana Trench in the western North Pacific is the deepest point in the world, reaching a depth of 10,911 metres. Both the center of the Water Hemisphere and the Western Hemisphere are in the Pacific Ocean, the oceans current name was coined by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan during the Spanish circumnavigation of the world in 1521, as he encountered favourable winds on reaching the ocean. He called it Mar Pacífico, which in both Portuguese and Spanish means peaceful sea, important human migrations occurred in the Pacific in prehistoric times. Long-distance trade developed all along the coast from Mozambique to Japan, trade, and therefore knowledge, extended to the Indonesian islands but apparently not Australia. By at least 878 when there was a significant Islamic settlement in Canton much of trade was controlled by Arabs or Muslims. In 219 BC Xu Fu sailed out into the Pacific searching for the elixir of immortality, from 1404 to 1433 Zheng He led expeditions into the Indian Ocean. The east side of the ocean was discovered by Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa in 1513 after his expedition crossed the Isthmus of Panama and he named it Mar del Sur because the ocean was to the south of the coast of the isthmus where he first observed the Pacific. Later, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan sailed the Pacific East to West on a Castilian expedition of world circumnavigation starting in 1519, Magellan called the ocean Pacífico because, after sailing through the stormy seas off Cape Horn, the expedition found calm waters. The ocean was often called the Sea of Magellan in his honor until the eighteenth century, sailing around and east of the Moluccas, between 1525 and 1527, Portuguese expeditions discovered the Caroline Islands, the Aru Islands, and Papua New Guinea. In 1542–43 the Portuguese also reached Japan, in 1564, five Spanish ships consisting of 379 explorers crossed the ocean from Mexico led by Miguel López de Legazpi and sailed to the Philippines and Mariana Islands. The Manila galleons operated for two and a half centuries linking Manila and Acapulco, in one of the longest trade routes in history, Spanish expeditions also discovered Tuvalu, the Marquesas, the Cook Islands, the Solomon Islands, and the Admiralty Islands in the South Pacific. In the 16th and 17th century Spain considered the Pacific Ocean a Mare clausum—a sea closed to other naval powers, as the only known entrance from the Atlantic the Strait of Magellan was at times patrolled by fleets sent to prevent entrance of non-Spanish ships. On the western end of the Pacific Ocean the Dutch threatened the Spanish Philippines, Spain also sent expeditions to the Pacific Northwest reaching Vancouver Island in southern Canada, and Alaska. The French explored and settled Polynesia, and the British made three voyages with James Cook to the South Pacific and Australia, Hawaii, and the North American Pacific Northwest, one of the earliest voyages of scientific exploration was organized by Spain in the Malaspina Expedition of 1789–1794. It sailed vast areas of the Pacific, from Cape Horn to Alaska, Guam and the Philippines, New Zealand, Australia, and the South Pacific. Growing imperialism during the 19th century resulted in the occupation of much of Oceania by other European powers, and later, Japan, in Oceania, France got a leading position as imperial power after making Tahiti and New Caledonia protectorates in 1842 and 1853 respectively. After navy visits to Easter Island in 1875 and 1887, Chilean navy officer Policarpo Toro managed to negotiate an incorporation of the island into Chile with native Rapanui in 1888, by occupying Easter Island, Chile joined the imperial nations
3.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
4.
Tuamotus
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Its major islands are Anaa, Fakarava, Hao and Makemo. The Tuamotu islands were settled by Polynesians, so Tuamotuans share a common culture. French Polynesia is an island group designated as an overseas country of France. The Tuamotus combine with the Gambier Islands to form the Îles Tuamotu-Gambier which is one of the five divisions of French Polynesia. The Tuamotus are grouped into sixteen communes, Anaa, Arutua, Fakarava, Fangatau, Hao, Hikueru, Makemo, Manihi, Napuka, Nukutavake, Puka Puka, Rangiroa, Reao, Takaroa, Tatakoto, and Tureia. The communes on Tuamotu are part of two different electoral districts represented in the Assembly of French Polynesia, the other five communes in western Tuamotu – Arutua, Fakarava, Manihi, Rangiroa, and Takaroa – form the Îles Tuamotu Ouest electoral district. At the 2007 census, the Tuamotus had a population of 18,317 inhabitants, of these,769 inhabitants live in a 215-nautical-mile radius around Mururoa and Fangataufa, the sites of former French nuclear tests. The common language spoken in the Tuamotus is Tuamotuan, except in Puka-Puka which uses the Marquesan language, the islands economy is predominantly composed of subsistence agriculture. The most important sources of income are the cultivation of black pearls. Tourism-related income remains meager, especially by comparison to the industry of the neighboring Society Islands. A modest tourism infrastructure is found on the atolls of Rangiroa, despite the vast spread of the archipelago, it covers a total land area of only about 885 km2. The climate is tropical, without pronounced seasons. The annual average temperature is a relatively continuous 26 °C, water sources such as lakes or rivers are absent, leaving catchments of rain as the only source of fresh water. The annual average rainfall is 1400 mm, rainfall is not markedly different throughout the year, although it is lowest during the months of September and November. Geological stability of the archipelago is high, as it was created by the weakly active Easter Fracture Zone, no volcanic eruptions have been recorded historically. The sparse soil of the coral islands does not permit a diverse vegetation, the coconut palm, which forms the basis for copra production, is of special economic importance. On a few islands, vanilla is also cultivated, agriculture is generally otherwise limited to simple subsistence. Fruit and vegetable staples include yams, taro, and breadfruit, pandanus leaves are traditionally woven together as roof thatch, as well as for other items, such as mats and hats
5.
French Polynesia
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It is composed of 118 geographically dispersed islands and atolls stretching over an expanse of more than 2,000 kilometres in the South Pacific Ocean. Its total land area is 4,167 square kilometres, among its 118 islands and atolls,67 are inhabited. Tahiti, which is located within the Society Islands, is the most populous island and it has more than 68% of the population of the islands in 2012. Although not a part of its territory, Clipperton Island was administered from French Polynesia until 2007. Following the Great Polynesian Migration, European explorers visited the islands of French Polynesia on several occasions, traders and whaling ships also visited. In 1842, the French took over the islands and established a French protectorate they called Etablissements des français en Océanie, in 1946, the EFOs became an overseas territory under the constitution of the French Fourth Republic, and Polynesians were granted the right to vote through citizenship. In 1957, the EFOs were renamed French Polynesia, French Polynesia as we know it today was one of the last places on Earth to be settled by humans. Scientists believe the Great Polynesian Migration happened around 1500 BC as Austronesian people went on a journey using celestial navigation to find islands in the South Pacific Ocean, the first islands of French Polynesia to be settled were the Marquesas Islands in about 200 BC. The Polynesians later ventured southwest and discovered the Society Islands around AD300, European encounters began in 1521 when Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, sailing at the service of the Spanish Crown, sighted Puka-Puka in the Tuāmotu-Gambier Archipelago. Over a century later, British explorer Samuel Wallis visited Tahiti in 1767, French explorer Louis Antoine de Bougainville also visited Tahiti in 1768, while British explorer James Cook arrived in 1769. A short-lived Spanish settlement was created in 1774, and for a time some maps bore the name Isla de Amat after Viceroy Amat, in 1772, Dutchman Jakob Roggeveen came across Bora Bora in the Society Islands. Christian missions began with Spanish priests who stayed in Tahiti for a year, protestants from the London Missionary Society settled permanently in Polynesia in 1797. King Pōmare II of Tahiti was forced to flee to Moorea in 1803, he, French Catholic missionaries arrived on Tahiti in 1834, their expulsion in 1836 caused France to send a gunboat in 1838. In 1842, Tahiti and Tahuata were declared a French protectorate, the capital of Papeetē was founded in 1843. In 1880, France annexed Tahiti, changing the status from that of a protectorate to that of a colony, the island groups were not officially united until the establishment of the French protectorate in 1889. In the 1880s, France claimed the Tuamotu Archipelago, which belonged to the Pōmare Dynasty. Having declared a protectorate over Tahuata in 1842, the French regarded the entire Marquesas Islands as French, in 1885, France appointed a governor and established a general council, thus giving it the proper administration for a colony. The islands of Rimatara and Rūrutu unsuccessfully lobbied for British protection in 1888, postage stamps were first issued in the colony in 1892
6.
Communes of France
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The commune is a level of administrative division in the French Republic. French communes are roughly equivalent to civil townships incorporated municipalities in the United States or Gemeinden in Germany, the United Kingdom has no exact equivalent, as communes resemble districts in urban areas, but are closer to parishes in rural areas where districts are much larger. Communes are based on historical geographic communities or villages and have received significant powers of governance to manage the populations, the communes are the fourth-level administrative divisions of France. A French commune may be a city of 2.2 million inhabitants like Paris, communes typically are based on pre-existing villages and facilitate local governance. All communes have names, but not all named geographic areas or groups of people residing together are communes, a commune is a town, city, or municipality. Use of commune in English is a habit, and one that might be corrected. There is nothing in commune in French that is different from town in English. The French word commune appeared in the 12th century, from Medieval Latin communia, as of January 2015, there were 36,681 communes in France,36,552 of them in metropolitan France and 129 of them overseas. This is a higher total than that of any other European country. The whole territory of the French Republic is divided into communes and this is unlike some other countries, such as the United States, where unincorporated areas directly governed by a county or a higher authority can be found. There are only a few exceptions, COM of Saint-Martin and it was previously a commune inside the Guadeloupe région. The commune structure was abolished when Saint-Martin became an overseas collectivity on 22 February 2007, COM of Wallis and Futuna, which still is divided according to the three traditional chiefdoms. It was previously a commune inside the Guadeloupe region, the commune structure was abolished when Saint-Barthélemy became an overseas collectivity on 22 February 2007.88 square kilometres. The median area of metropolitan Frances communes at the 1999 census was even smaller, the median area is a better measure of the area of a typical French commune. This median area is smaller than that of most European countries. In Italy, the area of communes is 22 km2, in Belgium it is 40 km2, in Spain it is 35 km2, and in Germany. Switzerland and the Länder of Rhineland-Palatinate, Schleswig-Holstein, and Thuringia in Germany were the places in Europe where the communes had a smaller median area than in France. The communes of Frances overseas départements such as Réunion and French Guiana are large by French standards and they usually group into the same commune several villages or towns, often with sizeable distances among them
7.
Coral
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Corals are marine invertebrates in the class Anthozoa of phylum Cnidaria. They typically live in colonies of many identical individual polyps. The group includes the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans, a coral group is a colony of myriad genetically identical polyps. Each polyp is an animal typically only a few millimeters in diameter. A set of tentacles surround a central mouth opening, an exoskeleton is excreted near the base. Over many generations, the colony creates a large skeleton that is characteristic of the species. Individual heads grow by reproduction of polyps. Corals also breed sexually by spawning, polyps of the same species release gametes simultaneously over a period of one to several nights around a full moon and these are commonly known as zooxanthellae and the corals that contain them are zooxanthellate corals. Such corals require sunlight and grow in clear, shallow water, other corals do not rely on zooxanthellae and can live in much deeper water, with the cold-water genus Lophelia surviving as deep as 3,000 metres. Some have been found on the Darwin Mounds, north-west of Cape Wrath, Corals have also been found as far north as off the coast of Washington State and the Aleutian Islands. In his Scala Naturae, Aristotle classified corals as zoophyta, animals that had characteristics of plants and were therefore hypothetically in between animals and plants, the Persian polymath Al-Biruni classified sponges and corals as animals, arguing that they respond to touch. The phylogeny of Anthozoans is not clearly understood and a number of different models have been proposed, within the Hexacorallia, the sea anemones, coral anemones and stony corals may constitute a monophyletic grouping united by their eight-fold symmetry and cnidocyte trait. The Octocorallia appears to be monophyletic, and primitive members of this group may have been stolonate, the cladogram presented here comes from a 2014 study by Stampar et al. which was based on the divergence of mitochondrial DNA within the group and on nuclear markers. Corals are classified in the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria and they are divided into three subclasses, Hexacorallia, Octocorallia, and Ceriantharia. The Hexacorallia include the stony corals, the sea anemones and the zoanthids and these groups have polyps that generally have 6-fold symmetry. The Octocorallia include blue coral, soft corals, sea pens and these groups have polyps with 8-fold symmetry, each polyp having eight tentacles and eight mesenteries. Fire corals are not true corals, being in the order Anthomedusa of the class Hydrozoa, Corals are sessile animals in the class Anthozoa and differ from most other cnidarians in not having a medusa stage in their life cycle. The body unit of the animal is a polyp, most corals are colonial, the initial polyp budding to produce another and the colony gradually developing from this small start
8.
Atoll
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An atoll, sometimes called a coral atoll, is a ring-shaped coral reef including a coral rim that encircles a lagoon partially or completely. There may be coral islands/cays on the rim, the coral of the atoll often sits atop the rim of an extinct seamount or volcano which has eroded or subsided partially beneath the water. The lagoon forms over the crater or caldera while the higher rim remains above water or at shallow depths that permit the coral to grow. For the atoll to persist, continued erosion or subsidence must be at a slow enough to permit reef growth upwards and outwards to replace the lost height. The word atoll comes from the Dhivehi word atholhu, meaning an administrative subdivision, the distribution of atolls around the globe is instructive, most of the worlds atolls are in the Pacific Ocean and Indian Ocean. The Atlantic Ocean has no large groups of atolls, other than eight atolls east of Nicaragua that belong to the Colombian department of San Andres and Providencia in the Caribbean. Reef-building corals will thrive only in tropical and subtropical waters of oceans and seas. The northernmost atoll of the world is Kure Atoll at 28°24 N, the southernmost atolls of the world are Elizabeth Reef at 29°58 S, and nearby Middleton Reef at 29°29 S, in the Tasman Sea, both of which are part of the Coral Sea Islands Territory. The next southerly atoll is Ducie Island in the Pitcairn Islands Group, at this latitude coral reefs would not develop without the warming waters of the Gulf Stream. However, Bermuda is termed a pseudo-atoll because its general form, while there is no atoll directly on the equator, the closest atoll to the Equator is Aranuka of Kiribati, with its southern tip just 12 km north of the equator. In most cases, the area of an atoll is very small in comparison to the total area. Atoll islands are low lying, with their elevations less than 5 meters, measured by total area, Lifou is the largest raised coral atoll of the world, followed by Rennell Island. More sources however list as the largest atoll in the world in terms of land area Kiritimati, the remains of an ancient atoll as a hill in a limestone area is called a reef knoll. The second largest atoll by dry land area is Aldabra with 155 km², the largest atoll in terms of island numbers is Huvadhu Atoll in the south of the Maldives with 255 islands. In 1842, Charles Darwin explained the creation of coral atolls in the southern Pacific Ocean based upon observations made during a voyage aboard the HMS Beagle from 1831 to 1836. In time, subsidence carries the old volcano below the ocean surface, at this point, the island has become an atoll. Atolls are the product of the growth of marine organisms. Volcanic islands located beyond the water temperature requirements of hermatypic organisms become seamounts as they subside and are eroded away at the surface
9.
Tikehau
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Tikehau or Porutu-kai is a coral atoll in the Palliser Islands group, part of the Tuamotu Archipelago in French Polynesia. It is included in the commune of Rangiroa, Tikehau is located 340 kilometres northeast of Tahiti in the Tuamotu Islands. The nearest atoll, Rangiroa, lies only 12 kilometres to the east, mataiva, the westernmost atoll of the same group, is located 35 kilometres to the west. The atolls oval-shaped lagoon is 27 kilometres long and 19 kilometres wide with an area of about 461 square kilometres. The atoll is made up of two islands and numerous islets. The northeastern quarter of the atoll is a single, mostly uninhabited island, the whole atoll is surrounded by an almost continuous coral reef. There is a pass deep and wide enough for navigation in and out of the lagoon. The islands and islets are covered with coconut palms, the main village is called Tuherahera. The first recorded European to arrive to Tikehau was the Russian mariner Otto von Kotzebue and he called this atoll Krusenstern Island, after Russian explorer Adam Johann von Krusenstern. The Wilkes Expedition passed by this atoll on 9 September 1839, on a visit in 1987, Jacques Cousteaus research group made a study of Tikehaus lagoon and discovered that it contains a greater variety of fish species than any other place in French Polynesia. Today, Tikehau is a tourist destination, popular for its sand beaches. Tikehau Airport, located on the tip of the atoll, was inaugurated in 1977. There are daily flights to and from Tahiti and other atolls of the Tuamotus
10.
Rangiroa
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Rangiroa or Te Kokōta, is the largest atoll in the Tuamotus, and one of the largest in the world. It is part of the Palliser group, the nearest atoll is Tikehau, located only 12 km to the west. It is about 355 km northeast of Tahiti, Rangiroa houses about 2500 people on almost 80 km2. The chief town is Avatoru, located in the part of the atoll. The atoll consists of about 415 motus, islets and sandbars comprising a total area of about 170 km². There are approximately one hundred passages, called hoa, in the fringing reef. The atoll has a flattened shape, with 80 km in length. The width of land reaches 300 to 500 meters wide and its circumference totals up to 200 km, the lagoon has a maximum depth of 35 m and its surface is 1446 km². It is so large that it has its own horizon, on account of its shallow depth, the currents that come in and out through the passes and with the winds can sometimes create interior storms. Only two islands, located on the end of the atoll, are permanently inhabited. As of 2007, the population on the atoll of Rangiroa was 2,473 inhabitants. The main villages are Avatoru, Tiputa, Ohutu, Taeoo, Fenuaroa, Otepipi, both Avatoru and Tiputa were built on neighboring islands,12.5 and 4 km in length respectively. They are separated by the major Tiputa Pass, the other major pass of the atoll is Avatoru Pass, immediately to the West of the island of Avatoru. Rangiroa is an underwater diving destination because of its lagoons clear blue water. The most popular diving sites are the Blue Lagoon, Avatoru pass, Tiputa pass and it is believed the first settlers arrived on Rangiroa around the 10th century AD. The first recorded Europeans to arrive to Rangiroa were Dutch explorers Jacob le Maire and they called this atoll Vlieghen Island. Rangiroa appears in maps as Nairsa or as Dean’s island. John Byron passing the atoll during his circumnavigation in 1765 named it for the Prince of Wales and this atoll was visited by the Charles Wilkes expedition on 7 September 1839
11.
Tahiti
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Tahiti is the largest island in the Windward group of French Polynesia, this overseas collectivity of the French Republic is sometimes referred to as a French overseas country. The island was formed from volcanic activity and is high and mountainous with surrounding coral reefs, the population is 183,645 inhabitants, making it the most populous island of French Polynesia and accounting for 68.5 percent of its total population. Tahiti is the economic, cultural and political centre of French Polynesia, the capital, Papeete, is located on the northwest coast with the only international airport in the region, Faaā International Airport, situated 5 km from the town centre. Tahiti was originally settled by Polynesians between 300 and 800 CE and they represent about 70 percent of the islands population with the rest made up of Europeans, Chinese and those of mixed heritage. The island was part of the Kingdom of Tahiti until its annexation by France in 1880, when it was proclaimed a colony of France, French is the only official language although the Tahitian language is widely spoken. Tahiti is the highest and largest island in French Polynesia lying close to Moorea island and it is located 4,400 kilometres south of Hawaii,7,900 km from Chile and 5,700 km from Australia. The island is 45 km across at its widest point and covers an area of 1,045 km2, the highest peak is Mont Orohena. Mount Roonui, or Mount Ronui in the southeast rises to 1,332 m, the island consists of two roughly round portions centred on volcanic mountains and connected by a short isthmus named after the small town of Taravao, situated there. The northwestern portion is known as Tahiti Nui, while the much smaller portion is known as Tahiti Iti or Taiarapū. Tahiti Nui is heavily populated along the coast, especially around the capital, the interior of Tahiti Nui is almost entirely uninhabited. Tahiti Iti has remained isolated, as its half is accessible only to those travelling by boat or on foot. The rest of the island is encircled by a road which cuts between the mountains and the sea. A scenic and winding road climbs past dairy farms and citrus groves with panoramic views. Tahitis landscape features lush rainforests and many rivers and waterfalls, including the Papenoo River on the side. November to April is the wet season, the wettest month of which is January with 13.2 in of rain in Papeetē, August is the driest with 1.9 inches. The average temperature ranges between 21 and 31 °C with little seasonal variation, the lowest and highest temperatures recorded in Papeete are 16 and 34 °C, respectively. The first Tahitians arrived from Southeast Asia in about 200 BCE and this hypothesis of an emigration from Southeast Asia is supported by a number of linguistic, biological and archaeological proofs. For example, the languages of Fiji and Polynesia all belong to the same Oceanic sub-group, Fijian-Polynesian, in 1769, for instance, James Cook mentions a great traditional ship in Tahiti that was 33 m long, and could be propelled by sail or paddles
12.
Lagoon
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A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by barrier islands or reefs. Lagoons are commonly divided into coastal lagoons and atoll lagoons and they have also been identified as occurring on mixed-sand and gravel coastlines. There is an overlap between bodies of water classified as coastal lagoons and bodies of water classified as estuaries, lagoons are common coastal features around many parts of the world. Lagoons can also be man-made and used for treatment, as is the case for e. g. aerated lagoons. Lagoons are shallow, often elongated bodies of water separated from a body of water by a shallow or exposed shoal, coral reef. Some authorities include fresh water bodies in the definition of lagoon, the distinction between lagoon and estuary also varies between authorities. Richard A. Davis Jr. restricts lagoon to bodies of water with little or no fresh water inflow, and little or no tidal flow, Davis does state that the terms lagoon and estuary are often loosely applied, even in scientific literature. Timothy M. Kusky characterizes lagoons as normally being elongated parallel to the coast, while estuaries are usually drowned river valleys, coastal lagoons are classified as inland bodies of water. Many lagoons do not include lagoon in their common names, in England, The Fleet at Chesil Beach has also been described as a lagoon. In Latin America, the term laguna in Spanish, which translates to. However, sometimes it is used to describe a full-sized lake, such as Laguna Catemaco in Mexico. The brackish water lagoon may be explicitly identified as a coastal lagoon. In Portuguese the same usage is found, lagoa may be a body of sea water. Lagoon is derived from the Italian laguna, which refers to the waters around Venice, Laguna is attested in English by at least 1612, and had been Anglicized to lagune by 1673. In 1697 William Dampier referred to a Lagune or Lake of Salt water on the coast of Mexico, captain James Cook described an island of Oval form with a Lagoon in the middle in 1769. Atoll lagoons form as coral reefs grow upwards while the islands that the reefs surround subside, unlike the lagoons that form shoreward of fringing reefs, atoll lagoons often contain some deep portions. Coastal lagoons form along gently sloping coasts where barrier islands or reefs can develop off-shore, coastal lagoons do not form along steep or rocky coasts, or if the range of tides is more than 4 metres. Due to the slope of the coast, coastal lagoons are shallow
13.
Tessellation
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A tessellation of a flat surface is the tiling of a plane using one or more geometric shapes, called tiles, with no overlaps and no gaps. In mathematics, tessellations can be generalized to higher dimensions and a variety of geometries, a periodic tiling has a repeating pattern. The patterns formed by periodic tilings can be categorized into 17 wallpaper groups, a tiling that lacks a repeating pattern is called non-periodic. An aperiodic tiling uses a set of tile shapes that cannot form a repeating pattern. In the geometry of higher dimensions, a space-filling or honeycomb is called a tessellation of space. A real physical tessellation is a made of materials such as cemented ceramic squares or hexagons. Such tilings may be decorative patterns, or may have such as providing durable and water-resistant pavement. Historically, tessellations were used in Ancient Rome and in Islamic art such as in the decorative geometric tiling of the Alhambra palace, in the twentieth century, the work of M. C. Escher often made use of tessellations, both in ordinary Euclidean geometry and in geometry, for artistic effect. Tessellations are sometimes employed for decorative effect in quilting, Tessellations form a class of patterns in nature, for example in the arrays of hexagonal cells found in honeycombs. Tessellations were used by the Sumerians in building wall decorations formed by patterns of clay tiles, decorative mosaic tilings made of small squared blocks called tesserae were widely employed in classical antiquity, sometimes displaying geometric patterns. In 1619 Johannes Kepler made a documented study of tessellations. He wrote about regular and semiregular tessellations in his Harmonices Mundi, he was possibly the first to explore and to explain the structures of honeycomb. Some two hundred years later in 1891, the Russian crystallographer Yevgraf Fyodorov proved that every periodic tiling of the features one of seventeen different groups of isometries. Fyodorovs work marked the beginning of the mathematical study of tessellations. Other prominent contributors include Shubnikov and Belov, and Heinrich Heesch, in Latin, tessella is a small cubical piece of clay, stone or glass used to make mosaics. The word tessella means small square and it corresponds to the everyday term tiling, which refers to applications of tessellations, often made of glazed clay. Tessellation or tiling in two dimensions is a topic in geometry that studies how shapes, known as tiles, can be arranged to fill a plane without any gaps, according to a given set of rules
14.
Tonnes
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The SI symbol for the tonne is t, adopted at the same time as the unit itself in 1879. Its use is also official, for the metric ton, within the United States, having been adopted by the US National Institute of Standards and it is a symbol, not an abbreviation, and should not be followed by a period. Informal and non-approved symbols or abbreviations include T, mT, MT, in French and all English-speaking countries that are predominantly metric, tonne is the correct spelling. Before metrication in the UK the unit used for most purposes was the Imperial ton of 2,240 pounds avoirdupois, equivalent to 1,016 kg, differing by just 1. 6% from the tonne. Ton and tonne are both derived from a Germanic word in use in the North Sea area since the Middle Ages to designate a large cask. A full tun, standing about a high, could easily weigh a tonne. An English tun of wine weighs roughly a tonne,954 kg if full of water, in the United States, the unit was originally referred to using the French words millier or tonneau, but these terms are now obsolete. The Imperial and US customary units comparable to the tonne are both spelled ton in English, though they differ in mass, one tonne is equivalent to, Metric/SI,1 megagram. Equal to 1000000 grams or 1000 kilograms, megagram, Mg, is the official SI unit. Mg is distinct from mg, milligram, pounds, Exactly 1000/0. 453 592 37 lb, or approximately 2204.622622 lb. US/Short tons, Exactly 1/0. 907 184 74 short tons, or approximately 1.102311311 ST. One short ton is exactly 0.90718474 t, imperial/Long tons, Exactly 1/1. 016 046 9088 long tons, or approximately 0.9842065276 LT. One long ton is exactly 1.0160469088 t, for multiples of the tonne, it is more usual to speak of thousands or millions of tonnes. Kilotonne, megatonne, and gigatonne are more used for the energy of nuclear explosions and other events. When used in context, there is little need to distinguish between metric and other tons, and the unit is spelt either as ton or tonne with the relevant prefix attached. *The equivalent units columns use the short scale large-number naming system used in most English-language countries. †Values in the equivalent short and long tons columns are rounded to five significant figures, ǂThough non-standard, the symbol kt is also sometimes used for knot, a unit of speed for sea-going vessels, and should not be confused with kilotonne. A metric ton unit can mean 10 kilograms within metal trading and it traditionally referred to a metric ton of ore containing 1% of metal. In the case of uranium, the acronym MTU is sometimes considered to be metric ton of uranium, in the petroleum industry the tonne of oil equivalent is a unit of energy, the amount of energy released by burning one tonne of crude oil, approximately 42 GJ
15.
Makatea
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Makatea, or Mangaia-te-vai-tamae, is a raised coral atoll in the northwestern part of the Tuamotus, which is a part of the French overseas collectivity of French Polynesia. It is located 79 km southwest from Rangiroa to the west of the Palliser group, Makatea is surrounded by spectacular cliffs, rising to a plateau 80 m above sea level. This island is 7.5 km long, with a width of 7 km in the south. Makatea is one of the four islands of the Tuamotu Archipelago that do not take the form of a typical atoll. Mākatea is almost the only Paumotuan island with potable water and its native name derived from the drinking water being brought out of its dark caves by the local people. Mā, pure, clear, used here to mean water, Atea, light of day, the other name of the Island was Mangaia-te-vai-tamāe, meaning Mangaia of the purified water. The island was called Sagitario in 1606 by Pedro Fernandes de Queirós who led a Spanish expedition to Terra Australis from Peru, over a century later it was named Aurora by Dutch mariner Jakob Roggeveen in 1722. Later, the Polynesians called it Papa Tea, there is a ghost town, Vaitepaua, and an adjacent abandoned port, Temao, on the northwest coast of Makatea. These are from the times of phosphate mining, Makatea is one of three important Pacific raised coral islands that had large phosphate deposits, the other two being Nauru and Banaba. Ocean Queen, a ship owned by the PPC, was wrecked on the reef at Makatea, a bent connecting rod caused the engines to stop and the current carried the ship onto the reef. Also, the island of Makatea was featured in the 1998 movie Six Days Seven Nights starring Harrison Ford, Anne Heche, to quote Quinn Harris, Its an island, babe. If you didnt bring it here, you wont find it here, although the name Makatea was used in the film, the movie was not filmed in Makatea and nothing about the film depicted the rugged landscape and real dangers of the island. Phosphate mining drew hundreds of people to Makatea in the years before the French Centre dExperimentation du Pacifique started nuclear experiments, after the end of the phosphate exploitation, Makatea was almost totally left on its own with only a few families left to guard the island. The mining produced hundreds if not thousands of holes across the upper plateau of Makatea. Each cylindrical hole is about 2. 4m in diameter and 15 to 23m in depth, an unsuspecting visitor could easily fall into a hole and die while walking in the thick undergrowth that hides these holes. The once active village where the miners lived had a school, bakery, first-aid medical centre, all that remains today has been destroyed by time and nature. The school and other places have been levelled to the ground and grown over by vines, the vessel had nine persons and six pigs on board. Unable to repair the engine, USS Caiman towed the Nasarada to Pearl Harbor, permission was denied by the French
16.
Nauru
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Nauru, officially the Republic of Nauru and formerly known as Pleasant Island, is an island country in Micronesia in the Central Pacific. Its nearest neighbour is Banaba Island in Kiribati,300 kilometres to the east and it further lies northwest of Tuvalu, north of the Solomon Islands, east-northeast of Papua New Guinea, southeast of the Federated States of Micronesia and south of the Marshall Islands. With 10,084 residents in a 21-square-kilometre area, Nauru is the smallest state in the South Pacific and third smallest state by area in the world, behind only Vatican City and Monaco. Settled by native peoples from Micronesia and Polynesia, Nauru was annexed and claimed as a colony by the German Empire in the late 19th century, after World War I, Nauru became a League of Nations mandate administered by Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. During World War II, Nauru was occupied by Japanese troops, after the war ended, the country entered into UN trusteeship. Nauru gained its independence in 1968, Nauru is a phosphate rock island with rich deposits near the surface, which allowed easy strip mining operations. It has some remaining phosphate resources which, as of 2011, are not economically viable for extraction, Nauru boasted the highest per-capita income enjoyed by any sovereign state in the world during the late 1960s and early 1970s. When the phosphate reserves were exhausted, and the environment had been seriously harmed by mining. To earn income, Nauru briefly became a tax haven and illegal money laundering centre, from 2001 to 2008, and again from 2012, it accepted aid from the Australian Government in exchange for hosting the Nauru detention centre. As a result of dependence on Australia, many sources have identified Nauru as a client state of Australia. Nauru was first inhabited by Micronesians and Polynesians at least 3,000 years ago, there were traditionally 12 clans or tribes on Nauru, which are represented in the 12-pointed star on the countrys flag. Traditionally, Nauruans traced their descent matrilineally, inhabitants practised aquaculture, they caught juvenile ibija fish, acclimatised them to fresh water, and raised them in the Buada Lagoon, providing a reliable source of food. The other locally grown components of their diet included coconuts and pandanus fruit, the name Nauru may derive from the Nauruan word Anáoero, which means I go to the beach. The British sea captain John Fearn, a hunter, became the first Westerner to visit Nauru in 1798. From around 1830, Nauruans had contact with Europeans from whaling ships, around this time, deserters from European ships began to live on the island. The islanders traded food for alcoholic palm wine and firearms, the firearms were used during the 10-year Nauruan Tribal War that began in 1878. After an agreement with Great Britain, Nauru was annexed by Germany in 1888, the arrival of the Germans ended the civil war, and kings were established as rulers of the island. The most widely known of these was King Auweyida, christian missionaries from the Gilbert Islands arrived in 1888
17.
Concrete
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Concrete is a composite material composed of coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement that hardens over time. Most concretes used are lime-based concretes such as Portland cement concrete or concretes made with other hydraulic cements, when aggregate is mixed together with dry Portland cement and water, the mixture forms a fluid slurry that is easily poured and molded into shape. The cement reacts chemically with the water and other ingredients to form a matrix that binds the materials together into a durable stone-like material that has many uses. Often, additives are included in the mixture to improve the properties of the wet mix or the finished material. Most concrete is poured with reinforcing materials embedded to provide tensile strength, famous concrete structures include the Hoover Dam, the Panama Canal, and the Roman Pantheon. The earliest large-scale users of technology were the ancient Romans. The Colosseum in Rome was built largely of concrete, and the dome of the Pantheon is the worlds largest unreinforced concrete dome. Today, large concrete structures are made with reinforced concrete. After the Roman Empire collapsed, use of concrete became rare until the technology was redeveloped in the mid-18th century, today, concrete is the most widely used man-made material. The word concrete comes from the Latin word concretus, the passive participle of concrescere, from con-. Perhaps the earliest known occurrence of cement was twelve years ago. A deposit of cement was formed after an occurrence of oil shale located adjacent to a bed of limestone burned due to natural causes and these ancient deposits were investigated in the 1960s and 1970s. On a human timescale, small usages of concrete go back for thousands of years and they discovered the advantages of hydraulic lime, with some self-cementing properties, by 700 BC. They built kilns to supply mortar for the construction of houses, concrete floors. The cisterns were kept secret and were one of the reasons the Nabataea were able to thrive in the desert, some of these structures survive to this day. In the Ancient Egyptian and later Roman eras, it was re-discovered that adding volcanic ash to the mix allowed it to set underwater, similarly, the Romans knew that adding horse hair made concrete less liable to crack while it hardened, and adding blood made it more frost-resistant. Crystallization of strätlingite and the introduction of pyroclastic clays creates further fracture resistance, german archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann found concrete floors, which were made of lime and pebbles, in the royal palace of Tiryns, Greece, which dates roughly to 1400–1200 BC. Lime mortars were used in Greece, Crete, and Cyprus in 800 BC, the Assyrian Jerwan Aqueduct made use of waterproof concrete
18.
Levee
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A levee, dike, dyke, embankment, floodbank or stopbank is an elongated naturally occurring ridge or artificially constructed fill or wall, which regulates water levels. It is usually earthen and often parallel to the course of a river in its floodplain or along low-lying coastlines, the word levee, from the French word levée, is used in American English. It originated in New Orleans a few years after the founding in 1718 and was later adopted by English speakers. The name derives from the trait of the ridges being raised higher than both the channel and the surrounding floodplains. The modern word dike or dyke most likely derives from the Dutch word dijk, the 126 kilometres long Westfriese Omringdijk was completed by 1250, and was formed by connecting existing older dikes. The Roman chronicler Tacitus even mentions that the rebellious Batavi pierced dikes to flood their land, the word dijk originally indicated both the trench and the bank. It is closely related to the English verb to dig, in Anglo-Saxon, the word dic already existed and was pronounced as dick in northern England and as ditch in the south. Similar to Dutch, the English origins of the lie in digging a trench. This practice has meant that the name may be given to either the excavation or the bank, thus Offas Dyke is a combined structure and Car Dyke is a trench though it once had raised banks as well. In the midlands and north of England, and in the United States, a dike is what a ditch is in the south, a property boundary marker or small drainage channel. Where it carries a stream, it may be called a dike as in Rippingale Running Dike. The Weir Dike is a dike in Bourne North Fen, near Twenty and alongside the River Glen. In the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads, a dyke may be a ditch or a narrow artificial channel off a river or broad for access or mooring, some longer dykes being named. In parts of Britain, particularly Scotland, a dyke may be a field wall, Levees can be mainly found along the sea, where dunes are not strong enough, along rivers for protection against high-floods, along lakes or along polders. Furthermore, levees have been built for the purpose of empoldering, the latter can be a controlled inundation by the military or a measure to prevent inundation of a larger area surrounded by levees. Levees have also built as field boundaries and as military defences. More on this type of levee can be found in the article on dry-stone walls, Levees can be permanent earthworks or emergency constructions built hastily in a flood emergency. When such a bank is added on top of an existing levee it is known as a cradge
19.
Reef
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A reef is a bar of rock, sand, coral or similar material, lying beneath the surface of water. Reefs may be up to 261 feet below the surface, artificial reefs such as shipwrecks are sometimes created to enhance physical complexity on generally featureless sand bottoms in order to attract a diverse assemblage of organisms, especially fish. There is a variety of reef types, including oyster reefs. These biotic reef types take on additional names depending upon how the reef lies in relation to the land, Reef types include fringing reef, barrier reefs, as well as atolls. A fringing reef is a reef that is attached to an island, a barrier reef forms a calcareous barrier around an island resulting in a lagoon between the shore and the reef. An atoll is a reef with no land present. The reef front is a high energy locale whereas the internal lagoon will be at an energy with fine grained sediments. One useful definition distinguishes reefs from mounds as follows, reefs are held up by a macroscopic skeletal framework. Coral reefs are an excellent example of this kind, corals and calcareous algae grow on top of one another and form a three-dimensional framework that is modified in various ways by other organisms and inorganic processes. By contrast, mounds lack a macroscopic skeletal framework, mounds are built by microorganisms or by organisms that dont grow a skeletal framework. A microbial mound might be built exclusively or primarily by cyanobacteria, excellent examples of biostromes formed by cyanobacteria occur in the Great Salt Lake of Utah, and in Shark Bay, Western Australia. Cyanobacteria do not have skeletons and individuals are microscopic, cyanobacteria encourage the precipitation or accumulation of calcium carbonate and can produce distinct sediment bodies in composition that have relief on the seafloor. Cyanobacterial mounds were most abundant before the evolution of shelly macroscopic organisms, bryozoans and crinoids, common contributors to marine sediments during the Mississippian, produced a very different kind of mound. Bryozoans are small and the skeletons of crinoids disintegrate, however, bryozoan and crinoid meadows can persist over time and produce compositionally distinct bodies of sediment with depositional relief. The Proterozoic Belt Supergroup contains evidence of microbial mat and dome structures similar to stromatolite reef complexes. Ancient reefs buried within stratigraphic sections are of considerable interest to geologists because they provide information about the location in Earths history. Corals, including some major extinct groups Rugosa and Tabulata, have been important reef builders through much of the Phanerozoic since the Ordovician Period. However, other groups, such as calcifying algae, especially members of the red algae Rhodophyta
20.
Europe
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Europe is a continent that comprises the westernmost part of Eurasia. Europe is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, yet the non-oceanic borders of Europe—a concept dating back to classical antiquity—are arbitrary. Europe covers about 10,180,000 square kilometres, or 2% of the Earths surface, politically, Europe is divided into about fifty sovereign states of which the Russian Federation is the largest and most populous, spanning 39% of the continent and comprising 15% of its population. Europe had a population of about 740 million as of 2015. Further from the sea, seasonal differences are more noticeable than close to the coast, Europe, in particular ancient Greece, was the birthplace of Western civilization. The fall of the Western Roman Empire, during the period, marked the end of ancient history. Renaissance humanism, exploration, art, and science led to the modern era, from the Age of Discovery onwards, Europe played a predominant role in global affairs. Between the 16th and 20th centuries, European powers controlled at times the Americas, most of Africa, Oceania. The Industrial Revolution, which began in Great Britain at the end of the 18th century, gave rise to economic, cultural, and social change in Western Europe. During the Cold War, Europe was divided along the Iron Curtain between NATO in the west and the Warsaw Pact in the east, until the revolutions of 1989 and fall of the Berlin Wall. In 1955, the Council of Europe was formed following a speech by Sir Winston Churchill and it includes all states except for Belarus, Kazakhstan and Vatican City. Further European integration by some states led to the formation of the European Union, the EU originated in Western Europe but has been expanding eastward since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. The European Anthem is Ode to Joy and states celebrate peace, in classical Greek mythology, Europa is the name of either a Phoenician princess or of a queen of Crete. The name contains the elements εὐρύς, wide, broad and ὤψ eye, broad has been an epithet of Earth herself in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion and the poetry devoted to it. For the second part also the divine attributes of grey-eyed Athena or ox-eyed Hera. The same naming motive according to cartographic convention appears in Greek Ανατολή, Martin Litchfield West stated that phonologically, the match between Europas name and any form of the Semitic word is very poor. Next to these there is also a Proto-Indo-European root *h1regʷos, meaning darkness. Most major world languages use words derived from Eurṓpē or Europa to refer to the continent, in some Turkic languages the originally Persian name Frangistan is used casually in referring to much of Europe, besides official names such as Avrupa or Evropa
21.
Russia
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Russia, also officially the Russian Federation, is a country in Eurasia. The European western part of the country is more populated and urbanised than the eastern. Russias capital Moscow is one of the largest cities in the world, other urban centers include Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod. Extending across the entirety of Northern Asia and much of Eastern Europe, Russia spans eleven time zones and incorporates a range of environments. It shares maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk, the East Slavs emerged as a recognizable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD. Founded and ruled by a Varangian warrior elite and their descendants, in 988 it adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire, beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian culture for the next millennium. Rus ultimately disintegrated into a number of states, most of the Rus lands were overrun by the Mongol invasion. The Soviet Union played a role in the Allied victory in World War II. The Soviet era saw some of the most significant technological achievements of the 20th century, including the worlds first human-made satellite and the launching of the first humans in space. By the end of 1990, the Soviet Union had the second largest economy, largest standing military in the world. It is governed as a federal semi-presidential republic, the Russian economy ranks as the twelfth largest by nominal GDP and sixth largest by purchasing power parity in 2015. Russias extensive mineral and energy resources are the largest such reserves in the world, making it one of the producers of oil. The country is one of the five recognized nuclear weapons states and possesses the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction, Russia is a great power as well as a regional power and has been characterised as a potential superpower. The name Russia is derived from Rus, a state populated mostly by the East Slavs. However, this name became more prominent in the later history, and the country typically was called by its inhabitants Русская Земля. In order to distinguish this state from other states derived from it, it is denoted as Kievan Rus by modern historiography, an old Latin version of the name Rus was Ruthenia, mostly applied to the western and southern regions of Rus that were adjacent to Catholic Europe. The current name of the country, Россия, comes from the Byzantine Greek designation of the Kievan Rus, the standard way to refer to citizens of Russia is Russians in English and rossiyane in Russian. There are two Russian words which are translated into English as Russians
22.
Admiral
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Admiral is the rank, or part of the name of the ranks, of the highest naval officers. It is usually abbreviated to Adm or ADM, in the Commonwealth and the U. S. a full admiral is equivalent to a full general in the army, and is above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet. In NATO, admirals have a code of OF-9 as a four-star rank. The word admiral in Middle English comes from Anglo-French amiral, commander, from Medieval Latin admiralis and these themselves come from Arabic amīr, or amīr al-, commander of, as in amīr al-baḥr, commander of the sea. The term was in use for the Greco-Arab naval leaders of Norman Sicily, the Norman Roger II of Sicily, employed a Greek Christian known as George of Antioch, who previously had served as a naval commander for several North African Muslim rulers. Roger styled George in Abbasid fashion as Amir of Amirs, i. e. Commander of Commanders, the Sicilians and later Genoese took the first two parts of the term and used them as one word, amiral, from their Aragon opponents. The French and Spanish gave their sea commanders similar titles while in Portuguese the word changed to almirante, the word admiral has today come to be almost exclusively associated with the highest naval rank in most of the worlds navies, equivalent to the army rank of general. However, this wasnt always the case, for example, in some European countries prior to the end of World War II, admiral was the third highest naval rank after general admiral and grand admiral. The rank of admiral has also been subdivided into various grades, the Royal Navy used colours to indicate seniority of its admirals until 1864, for example, Horatio Nelsons highest rank was vice admiral of the white. The generic term for these naval equivalents of army generals is flag officer, some navies have also used army-type titles for them, such as the Cromwellian general at sea. Admiral is a German Navy OF-9 four-star flag officer rank, equivalent to the German Army, see also Post-WWII rank is Bakurocho or Chief of Staff, Joint Staff 幕僚長 with limited function as an advisory staff to Minister of Defense, compared to Gensui during 1872–1873 and 1898–1945. Admiral of Castile was a post with a long and important history in Spain
23.
Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen
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Fabian Gottlieb Thaddeus von Bellingshausen, a Russian officer of Baltic German descent in the Imperial Russian Navy, cartographer and explorer, ultimately rose to the rank of Admiral. He participated in the first Russian circumnavigation of the globe and subsequently became a leader of another circumnavigation expedition, after the journey he published a collection of maps of the newly explored areas and islands of the Pacific Ocean. Subsequently, he commanded ships of the Baltic and Black Sea Fleets. The expedition was prepared by Mikhail Lazarev, who was made Bellingshausens second-in-command, during this expedition Bellingshausen and Lazarev became the first explorers to see the land of Antarctica on 28 January 1820. They managed to circumnavigate the continent and never lost each other from view. Thus they disproved Captain Cooks assertion that it was impossible to land in the southern ice-fields. Made Counter-Admiral on his return, Bellingshausen participated in the Russo-Turkish War of 1828–1829, promoted to Vice-Admiral, he again served in the Baltic Fleet in 1830s, and from 1839 he was the military governor of Kronstadt, where he died. In 1831 he published the book on his Antarctic travel, called Double Investigation of the Southern Polar Ocean, russians remember him as one of their greatest admirals and explorers. Multiple geographical features and locations in the Antarctic, named in honor of Bellingshausen, Bellingshausen was born to a noble Baltic German family in the Lahhentagge manor, Saaremaa, Governorate of Livonia, now in Salme Parish, Saare County, Estonia — then part of the Russian Empire. He enlisted as a cadet in the Imperial Russian Navy at the age of ten, after graduating from the Kronstadt naval academy at age eighteen, Bellingshausen rapidly rose to the rank of captain. A great admirer of Cooks voyages, Bellingshausen served from 1803 in the first Russian circumnavigation of the Earth and he was one of the officers of the vessel Nadezhda, commanded by Adam Johann von Krusenstern. The mission was completed in 1806, after the journey Bellingshausen published a collection of maps of the newly explored areas and islands of the Pacific Ocean. Bellingshausens career continued with the command of ships in the Baltic. From 1812 to 1816 he commanded frigate Minerva and from 1817 to 1819 frigate Flora, the expedition was intended to explore the Southern Ocean and to find land in the proximity of the South Pole. Bellingshausen became the captain of Vostok, and Lazarev captained Mirny, the journey started from Kronstadt on 4 June 1819. Leaving Portsmouth on 5 September 1819 the expedition crossed the Antarctic Circle on 26 January 1820, on 28 January 1820 the expedition discovered the Antarctic mainland approaching the Antarctic coast at a point with coordinates 69º2128S 2º1450W and seeing ice-fields there. The point in question lies within twenty miles of the Antarctic mainland, G. E. Jones in his 1982 study Antarctica Observed. Bellingshausen and Lazarev managed to circumnavigate the continent and never lost each other from view
24.
Vostok (sloop-of-war)
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Vostok was launched in 1818 at Okhta shipyards, Saint Petersburg. After repair in Sydney in Australia, the expedition explored the parts of the Pacific. On 22 January 1821 the sloops reached the southernmost point of their voyage at 69°53 S, on 5 August 1821 they returned to Kronshtadt. In 751 days they covered 49,723 miles, apart from the discovery of the worlds sixth continent, Antarctica,29 islands were mapped and complex oceanographic works carried out. A medal was issued by the Russian Admiralty to commemorate the expedition, in 1828 sloop Vostok was excluded from navy lists and scrapped. Vostok Island in the Line Islands group, discovered by Bellingshausen during the First Russian Antarctic Expedition in 1820, cape Vostok, the western extremity of the Havre Mountains and the northwestern extremity of Alexander Island in Antarctic, discovered by Bellingshausen in 1821. Vostok Rupes, a chain on planet Mercury. Vostok Station, a Russian Antarctic research station located on the Pole of Cold amid the East Antarctic Ice Sheet, Vostok Subglacial Highlands, an east extension of Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains in Antarctica. Vostok Lake, the largest subglacial lake in the world is named after Vostok Station, the existence of a subglacial lake in the Vostok region was first suggested by Russian geographer Andrey Kapitsa based on seismic soundings made during the Soviet Antarctic Expeditions. Vostok 1, the Soviet spacecraft which carried the first man into space, Yuri Gagarin, ISBN 5-7355-0280-8 Vostok, with model scheme at hobbyport. ru
25.
Mirny (sloop-of-war)
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Mirny was under construction in 1818 at Olonetskaya Shipyards, Lodeynoye Pole. It was initially named Ladoga, but when a new ship became needed for an Antarctic expedition, the decision was not to build a completely new one. It was reconstructed under surveillance of its future commander Mikhail Lazarev, after repair in Sydney in Australia, the expedition explored the tropical parts of the Pacific, and on 12 November 1820 again turned to Antarctica. On 22 January 1821 the sloops reached the southernmost point of their voyage at 69°53 S, on 5 August 1821 they returned to Kronshtadt. In 751 days they covered 49723 miles, apart from the discovery of the worlds sixth continent, Antarctica,29 islands were mapped and complex oceanographic works carried out. A medal was issued by the Russian Admiralty to commemorate the expedition, Mirny Rupes, a mountain chain on planet Mercury. Mirny Station, a Russian Antarctic research station on the coast of the Davis Sea, Mirny Peninsula, on which Mirny Station is located. ISBN 5-7355-0280-8 Mirny, with model scheme at hobbyport. ru
26.
Mikhail Lazarev
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Admiral Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev was a Russian fleet commander and an explorer. Lazarev was born in Vladimir, a scion of the old Russian nobility from the Vladimir province, in 1800, he enrolled in Russias Naval College. Three years later he was sent to the British fleet, where he would stay for a continuous five-year navigation, from 1808 to 1813, Lazarev served in the Baltic Fleet. He took part in the Russo-Swedish War of 1808–1809 and Patriotic War of 1812, Lazarev first circumnavigated the globe in 1813–1816, aboard the vessel Suvorov, the expedition began at Kronstadt and reached Alaska. During this voyage, Lazarev discovered the Suvorov Atoll, as a commander of the ship Mirny and Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausens deputy on his world cruise in 1819–1821, Lazarev took part in the discovery of Antarctica and numerous islands. On 28 January 1820 the expedition discovered the Antarctic mainland, approaching the Antarctic coast at the coordinates 69°21′28″S 2°14′50″W, in 1822–1825, Lazarev circumnavigated the globe for the third time on his frigate Kreyser, conducting broad research in the fields of meteorology and ethnography. Lazarev received the rank of Rear Admiral for his excellence during the battle, in 1828–1829, he was in charge of the Dardanelles blockade. In 1830, Lazarev returned to Kronstadt and became a commander of units of the Baltic Fleet. Two years later, he was made Chief of Staff of the Black Sea Fleet, in February–June 1833, Lazarev led a Russian squadron to the Bosporus and signed the Treaty of Hunkar-Iskelesi with the Ottoman Empire. In 1833, Lazarev was appointed Commander of the Black Sea Fleet, the Black Sea ports, Admiral Lazarev was influential both in technical matters and as a mentor to younger officers. He advocated the creation of a fleet, but Russias technical and economical backwardness was a major hindrance to this. He also tutored a number of the Russian fleet commanders, including Pavel Nakhimov, Vladimir Alexeyevich Kornilov, Vladimir Istomin, several ships were named after the Admiral, A light cruiser ordered for the Imperial Russian Navy in 1914, completed and renamed Krasnyi Kavkaz after the Russian Revolution. Admiral Lazarev was a Sverdlov-class cruiser built in the early 1950s, the Kirov-class battlecruiser Frunze was renamed Admiral Lazarev after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Lazarev is buried with his disciples Nakhimov, Kornilov and Istomin in the Admirals Burial Vault in Sevastopol, a minor planet 3660 Lazarev, discovered by Soviet astronomer Nikolai Stepanovich Chernykh in 1978, is named after him
27.
Canoe
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A canoe is a lightweight narrow boat, typically pointed at both ends and open on top, propelled by one or more seated or kneeling paddlers facing the direction of travel using a single-bladed paddle. In International Canoe Federation nomenclature used in some European countries such as the United Kingdom the term refers to kayaks. Canoes are used for racing, whitewater canoeing, touring and camping, freestyle, the intended use of the canoe dictates its hull shape and length and construction material. Historically, canoes were dugouts or made of bark on a wood frame, most modern canoes are made of molded plastic or composites such as fiberglass. Until the mid-1800s the canoe was an important means of transport for exploration and trade, canoeing has been part of the Olympics since 1936. In places where the played a key role in history, such as the northern United States, Canada, and New Zealand. Canoes can be adapted to many purposes, for example with the addition of sails, outboard motors, the word canoe comes from the Carib kenu, via the Spanish canoa. Constructed between 8200 and 7600 BC, and found in the Netherlands, the Pesse canoe may be the oldest known canoe, excavations in Denmark reveal the use of dugouts and paddles during the Ertebølle period. Australian Aboriginal people made canoes using a variety of materials, including bark, the indigenous people of the Amazon commonly used Hymenaea trees. Many indigenous peoples of the Americas built bark canoes and they were usually skinned with birch bark over a light wooden frame, but other types could be used if birch was scarce. At a typical length of 4.3 m and weight of 23 kg, although susceptible to damage from rocks, they are easily repaired. When you reach them you load canoe and baggage upon your shoulders and go overland until the navigation is good, and then you put your canoe back into the water, and embark again. American painter, author and traveler George Catlin wrote that the canoe was the most beautiful. Native American groups of the north Pacific coast made dugout canoes in a number of styles for different purposes, from western red-cedar or yellow-cedar, different styles were required for ocean-going vessels versus river boats, and for whale-hunting versus seal-hunting versus salmon-fishing. The Quinault of Washington State built shovel-nose canoes, with double bows, the Kootenai of British Columbia province made sturgeon-nosed canoes from pine bark, designed to be stable in windy conditions on Kootenay Lake. The first explorer to cross the North American continent, Alexander Mackenzie, used extensively, as did David Thompson. Its dimensions were, length approximately 11 m, beam 1.2 to 1.8 m and it could carry 60 packs weighing 41 kg, and 910 kg of provisions. With a crew of eight or ten, they could make three knots over calm waters, four to six men could portage it, bottom up
28.
Hawaii
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Hawaii is the 50th and most recent state to have joined the United States of America, having received statehood on August 21,1959. Hawaii is the only U. S. state located in Oceania and it is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean. Hawaii is the only U. S. state not located in the Americas, the state encompasses nearly the entire volcanic Hawaiian archipelago, which comprises hundreds of islands spread over 1,500 miles. At the southeastern end of the archipelago, the eight main islands are—in order from northwest to southeast, Niʻihau, Kauaʻi, Oʻahu, Molokaʻi, Lānaʻi, Kahoʻolawe, Maui, and the Island of Hawaiʻi. The last is the largest island in the group, it is called the Big Island or Hawaiʻi Island to avoid confusion with the state or archipelago. The archipelago is physiographically and ethnologically part of the Polynesian subregion of Oceania, Hawaii has over a million permanent residents, along with many visitors and U. S. military personnel. Its capital is Honolulu on the island of Oʻahu, Hawaii is the 8th-smallest and the 11th-least populous, but the 13th-most densely populated of the fifty U. S. states. It is the state with an Asian plurality. The states coastline is about 750 miles long, the fourth longest in the U. S. after the coastlines of Alaska, Florida, the state of Hawaii derives its name from the name of its largest island, Hawaiʻi. A common Hawaiian explanation of the name of Hawaiʻi is that was named for Hawaiʻiloa and he is said to have discovered the islands when they were first settled. The Hawaiian language word Hawaiʻi is very similar to Proto-Polynesian *Sawaiki, cognates of Hawaiʻi are found in other Polynesian languages, including Māori, Rarotongan and Samoan. According to linguists Pukui and Elbert, lsewhere in Polynesia, Hawaiʻi or a cognate is the name of the underworld or of the home, but in Hawaii. A somewhat divisive political issue arose in 1978 when the Constitution of the State of Hawaii added Hawaiian as an official state language. The title of the constitution is The Constitution of the State of Hawaii. Article XV, Section 1 of the Constitution uses The State of Hawaii, diacritics were not used because the document, drafted in 1949, predates the use of the okina and the kahakō in modern Hawaiian orthography. The exact spelling of the name in the Hawaiian language is Hawaiʻi. In the Hawaii Admission Act that granted Hawaiian statehood, the government recognized Hawaii as the official state name. Official government publications, department and office titles, and the Seal of Hawaii use the spelling with no symbols for glottal stops or vowel length
29.
Nainoa Thompson
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Charles Nainoa Thompson is a Native Hawaiian navigator and the president of the Polynesian Voyaging Society. Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Thompson is a descendant of Alexander Adams and James Harbottle, foreign advisors and he graduated from Punahou School in 1972 and earned a BA in Ocean Science in 1986 from the University of Hawaii. Thompson was trained by master navigator Mau Piailug from the island of Satawal and his first solo voyage was from Hawaiʻi to Tahiti in 1980. Since then, Thompson has been the navigator on the subsequent voyages of Hokule‘a. On March 18,2007, Thompson and four other native Hawaiian navigators were inducted into Pwo as master navigators, the ceremony was conducted by Piailug on Satawal. Thompson currently serves as the Chair of the Board of Trustees for Kamehameha Schools, Thompson is married to KHON-TV2 television anchor Kathy Muneno. Biography from the UH Institute for Astronomy Biography from Kamehameha Schools
30.
Air Tahiti
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Air Tahiti is a French airline company which operates in French Polynesia, France. Despite its private company status, it has a service mission. Its principal base is Faaa International Airport, the primary purpose of Air Tahiti is scheduled air transportation between the islands of French Polynesia. However, the company provides other related activities in the field of aviation, from Tahiti, Air Tahiti operates 46 islands of French Polynesia, connecting more than 90 percent of the population. The company provides administrative, school and medical exchanges between Tahiti and her islands, contributing to the development of the Territory, to meet specific and selective requests, Air Tahiti charters its aircraft for the transport of clients and/or goods. For the latter, some ATRs can be converted into freighters, the cabin is reconfigured and the seats removed to allow the loading of freight. Thus, Air Tahiti is regularly chartered to transport oysters or agricultural products, Air Tahiti aircraft maintenance is performed at the Technical Center of the company. The maintenance schedule is based on a cycle of 400 hours for ATR. Air Tahiti Technical Center expertise is recognized by the manufacturer and by companies of the region. Its expertise is recognised by the manufacturer and the other airlines. Air Tahiti provides indeed occasionally major maintenance work on ATRs for other companies in the Pacific, Air Tahiti share capital is 2.76 billion francs XPF. The nearest island from Tahiti, Moorea, is 15 km away and is connected by plane in seven minutes, the furthest one, Mangareva in the Gambier archipelago, is 1600 km distant from Tahiti and is connected in about 3hr 30min. The Polynesian network is unique and atypical and its 47 airstrips have varying characteristics which affect the choice of aircraft and the permitted payload. Air Tahiti is assisted by one of it subsidiaries Air Archipels to allow connections with the most remote islands. Air Tahiti is operating flights between Tahiti and Rarotonga since April 2007. The uncommon network operated by Air Tahiti has allowed the company to obtain the ETOPS certification, Air Tahiti was the 1st company to obtain this certification for the ATR72. As a safety measure, aircraft flying over water must never be more than a distance away from an alternate aerodrome. In view of this constraint, some flights cannot follow a linear route, without this certification, the ATR72 could not operate between Tahiti and Nuku Hiva
31.
Papeete
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Papeete is the capital of French Polynesia, an overseas country of France in the Pacific Ocean. The commune of Papeete is located on the island of Tahiti, in the subdivision of the Windward Islands. The French High Commissioner also resides in Papeete, the Windward Islands are themselves part of the Society Islands. The name Papeete means water from a basket, the urban area of Papeete had a total population of 133,627 inhabitants at the August 2012 census,25,769 of whom lived in the commune of Papeete proper. In 1983, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints built the Papeete Tahiti Temple here because of the number of members in the region. On 5 September 1995 the government of Jacques Chirac conducted the first of the last series of nuclear test detonations off the shores of Moruroa. A resulting riot in Papeete lasted for two days and damaged the airport, injured 40 people, and scared away tourism for some time. There are very busy streets in the center, and sometimes traffic can be a problem since the streets are very small. There is a freeway that starts close to the town starting with Pomare Boulevard. By air, the people would use the Faaa International Airport, from there they could either take Air Tahiti to go to another island of the territory or take a plane like Air Tahiti Nui to go international. By sea, they would either take Moorea ferries to go to Moorea or the Bora Bora cruiseline to go to Bora Bora. The urban area of Papeete has a population of 133,627 inhabitants at the August 2012 census,25,769 of whom lived in the commune of Papeete proper. 96. 5% reported that they could read and write it. Only 1. 2% of the population age was 15 years. At the same census,79. 7% of the population in the area of Papeete whose age was 15 years. 16. 5% reported that Tahitian was the language they spoke the most at home,1. 7% reported another Polynesian language,1. 6% reported a Chinese dialect, and 0. 5% reported another language. Traveling tourists arrive and depart Papeete via cruise ship at Papeete Harbor or domestic airline at Faaa International Airport, Papeete features a tropical monsoon climate with a wet season and dry season. However, precipitation is observed even during the dry season
32.
Christian
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A Christian is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Christian derives from the Koine Greek word Christós, a translation of the Biblical Hebrew term mashiach, while there are diverse interpretations of Christianity which sometimes conflict, they are united in believing that Jesus has a unique significance. The term Christian is also used as an adjective to describe anything associated with Christianity, or in a sense all that is noble, and good. According to a 2011 Pew Research Center survey, there were 2.2 billion Christians around the world in 2010, by 2050, the Christian population is expected to exceed 3 billion. According to a 2012 Pew Research Center survey Christianity will remain the worlds largest religion in 2050, about half of all Christians worldwide are Catholic, while more than a third are Protestant. Orthodox communions comprise 12% of the worlds Christians, other Christian groups make up the remainder. Christians make up the majority of the population in 158 countries and territories,280 million Christian live as a minority. In the Greek Septuagint, christos was used to translate the Hebrew מָשִׁיחַ, in other European languages, equivalent words to Christian are likewise derived from the Greek, such as Chrétien in French and Cristiano in Spanish. The second mention of the term follows in Acts 26,28, where Herod Agrippa II replied to Paul the Apostle, Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian. The third and final New Testament reference to the term is in 1 Peter 4,16, which believers, Yet if as a Christian, let him not be ashamed. The city of Antioch, where someone gave them the name Christians, had a reputation for coming up with such nicknames, in the Annals he relates that by vulgar appellation commonly called Christians and identifies Christians as Neros scapegoats for the Great Fire of Rome. Another term for Christians which appears in the New Testament is Nazarenes which is used by the Jewish lawyer Tertullus in Acts 24, the Hebrew equivalent of Nazarenes, Notzrim, occurs in the Babylonian Talmud, and is still the modern Israeli Hebrew term for Christian. A wide range of beliefs and practices is found across the world among those who call themselves Christian, denominations and sects disagree on a common definition of Christianity. Most Baptists and fundamentalists, for example, would not acknowledge Mormonism or Christian Science as Christian, in fact, the nearly 77 percent of Americans who self-identify as Christian are a diverse pluribus of Christianities that are far from any collective unity. The identification of Jesus as the Messiah is not accepted by Judaism, the term for a Christian in Hebrew is נוּצְרי, a Talmudic term originally derived from the fact that Jesus came from the Galilean village of Nazareth, today in northern Israel. Adherents of Messianic Judaism are referred to in modern Hebrew as יְהוּדִים מָשִׁיחַיים, the term Nasara rose to prominence in July 2014, after the Fall of Mosul to the terrorist organization Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. The nun or ن— the first letter of Nasara—was spray-painted on the property of Christians ejected from the city, where there is a distinction, Nasrani refers to people from a Christian culture and Masihi is used by Christians themselves for those with a religious faith in Jesus. In some countries Nasrani tends to be used generically for non-Muslim Western foreigners, another Arabic word sometimes used for Christians, particularly in a political context, is Ṣalībī from ṣalīb which refers to Crusaders and has negative connotations
33.
Turtle
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Turtles are reptiles of the order Testudines characterised by a special bony or cartilaginous shell developed from their ribs and acting as a shield. Turtle may refer to the order as a whole or to fresh-water, the order Testudines includes both extant and extinct species. The earliest known members of this date from 157 million years ago, making turtles one of the oldest reptile groups. Of the 327 known species alive today, some are highly endangered, turtles are ectotherms—animals commonly called cold-blooded—meaning that their internal temperature varies according to the ambient environment. However, because of their metabolic rate, leatherback sea turtles have a body temperature that is noticeably higher than that of the surrounding water. Turtles are classified as amniotes, along with reptiles, birds. Like other amniotes, turtles breathe air and do not lay eggs underwater, Chelonia is based on the Greek word χελώνη chelone tortoise, turtle, also denoting armor or interlocking shields, testudines, on the other hand, is based on the Latin word testudo tortoise. Turtle may either refer to the order as a whole, or to particular turtles that make up a form taxon that is not monophyletic, the meaning of the word turtle differs from region to region. In North America, all chelonians are commonly called turtles, including terrapins, in Great Britain, the word turtle is used for sea-dwelling species, but not for tortoises. The term tortoise usually refers to any land-dwelling, non-swimming chelonian, most land-dwelling chelonians are in the Testudinidae family, only one of the 14 extant turtle families. Terrapin is used to describe several species of small, edible, hard-shell turtles, typically found in brackish waters. Some languages do not have this distinction, as all of these are referred to by the same name, for example, in Spanish, the word tortuga is used for turtles, tortoises, and terrapins. A sea-dwelling turtle is tortuga marina, a freshwater species tortuga de río, the largest living chelonian is the leatherback sea turtle, which reaches a shell length of 200 cm and can reach a weight of over 900 kg. Freshwater turtles are generally smaller, but with the largest species, the Asian softshell turtle Pelochelys cantorii, a few individuals have been reported up to 200 cm. This dwarfs even the better-known alligator snapping turtle, the largest chelonian in North America and they became extinct at the same time as the appearance of man, and it is assumed humans hunted them for food. The only surviving giant tortoises are on the Seychelles and Galápagos Islands and can grow to over 130 cm in length, the largest ever chelonian was Archelon ischyros, a Late Cretaceous sea turtle known to have been up to 4.6 m long. The smallest turtle is the speckled padloper tortoise of South Africa and it measures no more than 8 cm in length and weighs about 140 g. Two other species of turtles are the American mud turtles
34.
Archaeological site
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Sites may range from those with few or no remains visible above ground, to buildings and other structures still in use. Beyond this, the definition and geographical extent of a site can vary widely, depending on the period studied and it is almost invariably difficult to delimit a site. It is sometimes taken to indicate a settlement of some sort although the archaeologist must also define the limits of human activity around the settlement, any episode of deposition such as a hoard or burial can form a site as well. Development-led archaeology undertaken as cultural resources management has the disadvantage of having its sites defined by the limits of the intended development, even in this case however, in describing and interpreting the site, the archaeologist will have to look outside the boundaries of the building site. According to Jess Beck in “How Do Archaeologists find sites. ”The areas with a number of artifacts are good targets for future excavation. The most common person to have found artifacts are farmers who are plowing their fields or just cleaning them up often find archaeological artifacts, many people who are out hiking and even pilots find artifacts they usually end up reporting them to archaeologist to do further investigation. When they find sites, they have to first record the area and if they have the money, there are many ways to find sites, one example can be through surveys. Surveys involve walking around analyzing the land looking for artifacts. ”This helps archaeologists in the future. In case there was no time, or money during the finding of the site, archaeologists can come back, archaeologist can also sample randomly within a given area of land as another form of conducting surveys. Surveys are very useful, according to Jess Beck, “it can tell you where people were living at different points in the past. ”Geophysics is a branch of survey becoming more and more popular in archaeology, because it uses different types of instruments to investigate features below the ground surface. It is not as reliable, because although they can see what is under the surface of the ground it does not produce the best picture, Archaeologists have to still dig up the area in order to uncover the truth. There are also two most common types of survey, which is, magnetometer and ground penetrating radar. Magnetometry is the technique of measuring and mapping patterns of magnetism in the soil and it uses an instrument called a magnetometer which is required to measure and map traces of soil magnetism. The ground penetrating radar is a method that uses radar pulses to image the subsurface and it uses electro magnetic radiation in the microwave band of the radio spectrum, and detects the reflected signals from subsurface structures. There are many tools that can be used to find artifacts. This tool is helpful to archaeologists who want to explore in a different area. They can use this tool to see what has already been discovered, with this information available, archaeologists can expand their research and add more to what has already been found. Traditionally, sites are distinguished by the presence of artifacts and features
35.
Vanilla
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Vanilla is a flavoring derived from orchids of the genus Vanilla, primarily from the Mexican species, flat-leaved vanilla. The word vanilla, derived from the diminutive of the Spanish word vaina, is translated simply as little pod, pre-Columbian Mesoamerican people cultivated the vine of the vanilla orchid, called tlilxochitl by the Aztecs. Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés is credited with introducing both vanilla and chocolate to Europe in the 1520s, pollination is required to set the fruit from which the flavoring is derived. In 1837, Belgian botanist Charles François Antoine Morren discovered this fact, the method proved financially unworkable and was not deployed commercially. In 1841, Edmond Albius, a slave who lived on the French island of Réunion in the Indian Ocean, hand-pollination allowed global cultivation of the plant. Three major species of vanilla currently are grown globally, all of which derive from a species found in Mesoamerica. Vanilla is the second-most expensive spice after saffron, because growing the vanilla seed pods is labor-intensive, despite the expense, vanilla is highly valued for its flavor. As a result, vanilla is used in both commercial and domestic baking, perfume manufacture, and aromatherapy. According to popular belief, the Totonac people, who inhabit the east coast of Mexico in the state of Veracruz, were the first to cultivate vanilla. According to Totonac mythology, the tropical orchid was born when Princess Xanat, forbidden by her father from marrying a mortal, the lovers were captured and beheaded. Where their blood touched the ground, the vine of the tropical orchid grew, in the 15th century, Aztecs invading from the central highlands of Mexico conquered the Totonacs, and soon developed a taste for the vanilla pods. They named the fruit tlilxochitl, or black flower, after the matured fruit, subjugated by the Aztecs, the Totonacs paid tribute by sending vanilla fruit to the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan. Until the mid-19th century, Mexico was the producer of vanilla. In 1819, French entrepreneurs shipped vanilla fruits to the islands of Réunion, after Edmond Albius discovered how to pollinate the flowers quickly by hand, the pods began to thrive. Soon, the orchids were sent from Réunion to the Comoros Islands, Seychelles. By 1898, Madagascar, Réunion, and the Comoros Islands produced 200 metric tons of vanilla beans, the market price of vanilla rose dramatically in the late 1970s after a tropical cyclone ravaged key croplands. Prices remained high through the early 1980s despite the introduction of Indonesian vanilla, in the mid-1980s, the cartel that had controlled vanilla prices and distribution since its creation in 1930 disbanded. Prices dropped 70% over the few years, to nearly US$20 per kilogram
36.
Plantation
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A plantation is an area of land or water where one crop is specifically planted for widespread commercial sale. The crops grown include cotton, coffee, tea, cocoa, sugar cane, sisal, oil seeds, oil palms, rubber trees, protectionist policies and natural comparative advantage have sometimes contributed to determining where plantations were located. Among the earliest examples of plantations were the latifundia of the Roman Empire, Plantation agriculture grew rapidly with the increase in international trade and the development of a worldwide economy that followed the expansion of European colonial empires. Like every economic activity, it has changed over time, Industrial plantations are established to produce a high volume of wood in a short period of time. Plantations are grown by state forestry authorities and/or the paper and wood industries, christmas trees are often grown on plantations as well. In southern and southeastern Asia, teak plantations have replaced the natural forest. Industrial plantations are managed for the commercial production of forest products. Individual blocks are usually even-aged and often consist of just one or two species and these species can be exotic or indigenous. Forest genetic resources are the basis for genetic alteration, selected individuals grown in seed orchards are a good source for seeds to develop adequate planting material. Wood production on a plantation is generally higher than that of natural forests. In 2000, while plantations accounted for 5% of global forest, in the first year, the ground is prepared usually by the combination of burning, herbicide spraying, and/or cultivation and then saplings are planted by human crew or by machine. The saplings are usually obtained in bulk from industrial nurseries, which may specialize in breeding in order to produce fast growing disease-. In the first few years until the canopy closes, the saplings are looked after, after the canopy closes, with the tree crowns touching each other, the plantation is becoming dense and crowded, and tree growth is slowing due to competition. This stage is termed pole stage, when competition becomes too intense, it is time to thin out the section. There are several methods for thinning, but where topography permits, the most popular is row-thinning, many trees are removed, leaving regular clear lanes through the section so that the remaining trees have room to expand again. The removed trees are delimbed, forwarded to the forest road, loaded onto trucks, a typical pole stage plantation tree is 7–30 cm in diameter at breast height. Such trees are not suitable for timber, but are used as pulp for paper and particleboard. As the trees grow and become dense and crowded again, the process is repeated
37.
Coconut
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The coconut tree is a member of the family Arecaceae and the only species of the genus Cocos. The term coconut can refer to the coconut palm or the seed, or the fruit. The spelling cocoanut is a form of the word. The term is derived from the 16th-century Portuguese and Spanish word coco meaning head or skull, coconuts are known for their great versatility, as evidenced by many traditional uses, ranging from food to cosmetics. They form a part of the diets of many people in the tropics and subtropics. Coconuts are distinct from other fruits for their quantity of water. When mature, they can be used as seed nuts or processed to give oil from the kernel, charcoal from the hard shell, the endosperm is initially in its nuclear phase suspended within the coconut water. As development continues, cellular layers of endosperm deposit along the walls of the coconut, when dried, the coconut flesh is called copra. The oil and milk derived from it are used in cooking and frying, as well as in soaps. The husks and leaves can be used as material to make a variety of products for furnishing and decorating, the coconut also has cultural and religious significance in certain societies, particularly in India, where it is used in Hindu rituals. Cocos nucifera is a palm, growing up to 30 m tall, with pinnate leaves 4–6 m long. Coconuts are generally classified into two types, tall and dwarf. On fertile soil, a coconut palm tree can yield up to 75 fruits per year. Given proper care and growing conditions, coconut palms produce their first fruit in six to ten years, botanically, the coconut fruit is a drupe, not a true nut. Like other fruits, it has three layers, the exocarp, mesocarp, and endocarp, the exocarp and mesocarp make up the husk of the coconuts. Coconuts sold in the shops of nontropical countries often have had the exocarp removed, the mesocarp is composed of a fiber, called coir, which has many traditional and commercial uses. The shell has three germination pores or eyes that are visible on its outside surface once the husk is removed. A full-sized coconut weighs about 1.44 kg and it takes around 6,000 full-grown coconuts to produce a tonne of copra
38.
Copra
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Copra is the dried meat, or dried kernel, of the coconut used to extract coconut oil. The earliest evidence of the extracting and use of oil from copra is in early Tamil literature from the 1st century AD. The word originated from the Malayalam word koppra, Coconut oil is extracted from it and this has made copra an important agricultural commodity for many coconut-producing countries. It also yields coconut cake, which is used as feed for livestock. Copra has traditionally been grated and ground then boiled in water to extract coconut oil and it was used by Pacific island cultures and became a valuable commercial product for merchants in the South Seas and South Asia in the 1860s. This 19th-century copra trading inspired Robert Louis Stevensons 1893 novella The Beach of Falesá, nowadays, the process of coconut oil extraction is performed by crushing copra to produce coconut oil, the by-product is known as copra cake or copra meal. Once the oil is extracted, the remaining cake is 18–25% protein. Instead it is fed to ruminants. The production of copra – removing the shell, breaking it up, Copra can be made by smoke drying, sun drying, or kiln drying. Sun drying requires little more than racks and sufficient sunlight, halved nuts are drained of water, and left with the meat facing the sky, they can be washed to remove mold-creating contaminants. After two days the meat can be removed from the shell with ease, and the process is complete after three to five more days. This process can also be reversed, partially drying the copra in the kiln, in India, small but whole coconuts can be dried over the course of eight months to a year, and the meat inside removed and sold as a whole ball. Meat prepared in this fashion is sweet, soft, oily and is cream-coloured instead of being white, Coconut meat can be dried using direct heat and smoke from a fire, using simple racks to suspend the coconut over the fire. The smoke residue can help preserve the meat but the process overall suffers from unpredictable results. While there are large plantations with integrated operations, copra remains primarily a smallholder crop. The major producing country is the Philippines and it is also a major exporter. Copra production begins on coconut plantations, Coconut trees are generally spaced 9 m apart, allowing a density of 100–160 coconut trees per hectare. A standard tree bears around 50–80 nuts a year, and average earnings in Vanuatu were US$0.20 per kg —so a farmer could earn approximately US$120 to US$320 yearly for each planted hectare
39.
Tourism
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Tourism is travel for pleasure or business, also the theory and practice of touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tours. Tourism may be international, or within the travellers country, Tourism can be domestic or international, and international tourism has both incoming and outgoing implications on a countrys balance of payments. Today, tourism is a source of income for many countries. International tourism receipts grew to US$1.03 trillion in 2011, the ITB Berlin is the worlds leading tourism trade fair. The word tourist was used by 1772 and tourism by 1811. It is formed from the tour, which is derived from Old English turian, from Old French torner, from Latin tornare, to turn on a lathe. Tourism is an important, even vital, source of income for many regions and it also creates opportunities for employment in the service sector of the economy associated with tourism. This is in addition to goods bought by tourists, including souvenirs, in 1936, the League of Nations defined a foreign tourist as someone traveling abroad for at least twenty-four hours. Its successor, the United Nations, amended this definition in 1945 and it includes movements for all purposes. In 1981, the International Association of Scientific Experts in Tourism defined tourism in terms of particular activities chosen and undertaken outside the home, in this context, travel has a similar definition to tourism, but implies a more purposeful journey. The terms tourism and tourist are sometimes used pejoratively, to imply a shallow interest in the cultures or locations visited, by contrast, traveler is often used as a sign of distinction. The sociology of tourism has studied the values underpinning these distinctions. International tourist arrivals reached 1.035 billion in 2012, up from over 996 million in 2011, the World Tourism Organization reports the following ten destinations as the most visited in terms of the number of international travellers in 2016. International tourism receipts grew to US$1.2 trillion in 2014, based upon air traffic, the MasterCard Global Destination Cities Index reports the following cities as the top ten most popular destinations of international tourism worldwide. MasterCard reports the following cities as the top ten biggest earners on international tourism worldwide in 2015, as early as Shulgi, however, kings praised themselves for protecting roads and building waystations for travelers. During the Roman Republic, spas and coastal resorts such as Baiae were popular among the rich, pausanias wrote his Description of Greece in the 2nd century AD. In ancient China, nobles sometimes made a point of visiting Mount Tai and, on occasion, the Islamic hajj is still central to its faith and Chaucers Canterbury Tales and Wu Chengens Journey to the West remain classics of English and Chinese literature. The 10th- to 13th-century Song dynasty also saw secular travel writers such as Su Shi, under the Ming, Xu Xiake continued the practice
40.
Communes of French Polynesia
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There are two levels of administrative divisions of French Polynesia and five administrative subdivisions. Each of these is divided into a total of 48 communes. Many of the communes are further subdivided into communes associées, the breakdown into administrative subdivisions was as a result of decree #72-408 of May 17,1972, and the communes were thereafter established as a result of law #71-1028, dated December 24,1971. ג Below are several lists of the divisions, according to different sorting schemes, on February 21,2007, Clipperton Island was transferred from the High Commissioner of the republic in French Polynesia to the Minister of Overseas France. Sources, INSEE - Code officiel géographique 2012 INSEE - Code officiel géographique 2005 http, //www. polynesie-francaise. gouv. fr Schmiff, administrative divisions of France Lists of communes of France French Polynesia Gov ^ Journal officiel de la République française, May 20,1972. ^ Journal officiel de la République française, December 25,1971, according to decree #72-407 of May 17,1972
41.
Wayback Machine
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The Internet Archive launched the Wayback Machine in October 2001. It was set up by Brewster Kahle and Bruce Gilliat, and is maintained with content from Alexa Internet, the service enables users to see archived versions of web pages across time, which the archive calls a three dimensional index. Since 1996, the Wayback Machine has been archiving cached pages of websites onto its large cluster of Linux nodes and it revisits sites every few weeks or months and archives a new version. Sites can also be captured on the fly by visitors who enter the sites URL into a search box, the intent is to capture and archive content that otherwise would be lost whenever a site is changed or closed down. The overall vision of the machines creators is to archive the entire Internet, the name Wayback Machine was chosen as a reference to the WABAC machine, a time-traveling device used by the characters Mr. Peabody and Sherman in The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, an animated cartoon. These crawlers also respect the robots exclusion standard for websites whose owners opt for them not to appear in search results or be cached, to overcome inconsistencies in partially cached websites, Archive-It. Information had been kept on digital tape for five years, with Kahle occasionally allowing researchers, when the archive reached its fifth anniversary, it was unveiled and opened to the public in a ceremony at the University of California, Berkeley. Snapshots usually become more than six months after they are archived or, in some cases, even later. The frequency of snapshots is variable, so not all tracked website updates are recorded, Sometimes there are intervals of several weeks or years between snapshots. After August 2008 sites had to be listed on the Open Directory in order to be included. As of 2009, the Wayback Machine contained approximately three petabytes of data and was growing at a rate of 100 terabytes each month, the growth rate reported in 2003 was 12 terabytes/month, the data is stored on PetaBox rack systems manufactured by Capricorn Technologies. In 2009, the Internet Archive migrated its customized storage architecture to Sun Open Storage, in 2011 a new, improved version of the Wayback Machine, with an updated interface and fresher index of archived content, was made available for public testing. The index driving the classic Wayback Machine only has a bit of material past 2008. In January 2013, the company announced a ground-breaking milestone of 240 billion URLs, in October 2013, the company announced the Save a Page feature which allows any Internet user to archive the contents of a URL. This became a threat of abuse by the service for hosting malicious binaries, as of December 2014, the Wayback Machine contained almost nine petabytes of data and was growing at a rate of about 20 terabytes each week. Between October 2013 and March 2015 the websites global Alexa rank changed from 162 to 208, in a 2009 case, Netbula, LLC v. Chordiant Software Inc. defendant Chordiant filed a motion to compel Netbula to disable the robots. Netbula objected to the motion on the ground that defendants were asking to alter Netbulas website, in an October 2004 case, Telewizja Polska USA, Inc. v. Echostar Satellite, No.02 C3293,65 Fed. 673, a litigant attempted to use the Wayback Machine archives as a source of admissible evidence, Telewizja Polska is the provider of TVP Polonia and EchoStar operates the Dish Network
