1.
Michelin Guide
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Michelin Guides are a series of guide books published by the French company Michelin for more than a century. The acquisition or loss of a star can have effects on the success of a restaurant. Michelin also publishes a series of guides to countries. In 1900, fewer than 3,000 cars graced the roads of France, four years later, in 1904, the brothers published a guide to Belgium similar to the Michelin Guide. The brothers subsequently introduced guides for Algeria and Tunisia, the Alps and the Rhine, Germany, Spain, and Portugal, the British Isles, in 1909, the Michelin Guide for France saw its first English-language version published. During the First World War, publication of the guide was suspended, after the war, revised editions of the guide continued to be given away until 1920. The companys website recounts the story that André Michelin, visiting a tire merchant, based on the principle that man only truly respects what he pays for, the brothers decided to charge a price for the guide, which was about 750 francs or $2.15 in 1954. They also made changes, notably, listing restaurants by specific categories, the debut of hotel listings. In 1926, the guide began to award stars for fine dining establishments, initially, there was only a single star awarded. Then, in 1931, the hierarchy of zero, one, finally, In 1936, the criteria for the starred rankings were published, A very good restaurant in its category, Excellent cooking, worth a detour, Exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey. In 1931 the cover of the guide was changed from blue to red, publication of the annual guide resumed on 16 May 1945, a week after VE Day. The first Michelin Guide to Italy was published in 1956 and it awarded no stars in the first edition. In 1974, the first guide to Britain since 1931 was published, in November 2005 Michelin produced its first American guide, concentrating on New York, covering 500 restaurants in the citys five boroughs and 50 hotels. In 2007 a Tokyo Michelin Guide was launched, in the same year the guide introduced a magazine, Étoile. In 2008 a Hong Kong and Macau volume was added to the list of Michelin Guides, the Michelin website in 2013 notes that the guide is published in 14 editions covering 23 countries and sold in nearly 90 countries. In 2008 the German restaurateur Juliane Caspar was appointed editor-in-chief of the French edition of the guide and she had previously been responsible for the Michelin guides to Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. She became the first woman and first non-French national to occupy the French position, Red Guides have historically listed many more restaurants than rival guides have done, relying on an extensive system of symbols to describe each establishment in as little as two lines. Reviews of starred restaurants also include two to three culinary specialities, recently, short summaries have been added to enhance descriptions of many establishments
2.
Ticker symbol
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A ticker symbol or stock symbol is an abbreviation used to uniquely identify publicly traded shares of a particular stock on a particular stock market. A stock symbol may consist of letters, numbers or a combination of both, ticker symbol refers to the symbols that were printed on the ticker tape of a ticker tape machine. Stock symbols are unique identifiers assigned to each security traded on a particular market, for example, AAPL is for Apple Inc. OODH is for Orion DHC, Inc. and HD is for Home Depot, a stock symbol can consist of letters, numbers, or a combination of both, and is a way to uniquely identify that stock. The symbols were kept as short as possible to reduce the number of characters that had to be printed on the ticker tape, the allocation of symbols and formatting convention is specific to each stock exchange. In the US, for example, stock tickers are typically between 1 and 4 letters and represent the name where possible. In Europe, most exchanges use three-letter codes, for example Dutch consumer goods company Unilever traded on the Amsterdam Euronext exchange has the symbol UNA, while in Asia, numbers are often used as stock tickers to avoid issues for international investors when using non-Latin scripts. For example, the bank HSBCs stock traded on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange has the ticker symbol 0005, symbols sometimes change to reflect mergers. Prior to the 1999 merger with Mobil Oil, Exxon used a spelling of the company XON as its ticker symbol. The symbol of the firm after the merger was XOM, symbols are sometimes reused, in the US the single-letter symbols are particularly sought after as vanity symbols. For example, since Mar 2008 Visa Inc. has used the symbol V that had previously used by Vivendi which had delisted. To fully qualify a stock, both the ticker and the exchange or country of listing needs to be known, on many systems both must be specified to uniquely identify the security. This is often done by appending the location or exchange code to the ticker, although stock tickers identify a security, they are exchange dependent, generally limited to stocks and can change. These limitations have led to the development of other codes in financial markets to identify securities for settlement purposes, the most prevalent of these is the International Securities Identifying Number. An ISIN uniquely identifies a security and its structure is defined in ISO6166, Securities for which ISINs are issued include bonds, commercial paper, stocks, and warrants. The ISIN identifies the security, not the exchange on which it trades, for instance, Daimler AG stock trades on twenty-two different stock exchanges worldwide, and is priced in five different currencies, it has the same ISIN on each, though not the same ticker symbol. ISIN cannot specify a particular trade in this case, and another identifier, following the introduction of the Sequence trading platform in 1996, EPICs were renamed Tradable Instrument Display Mnemonics, but they are still widely referred to as EPICs. Stocks can also be identified using their SEDOL number or their ISIN, in the United States, modern letter-only ticker symbols were developed by Standard & Poors to bring a national standard to investing
3.
Euronext
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Euronext NV is a European stock exchange seated in Amsterdam, Brussels, London, Lisbon and Paris. In addition to cash and derivatives markets, the Euronext group provides listing market data, market solutions, custody and its total product offering includes equities, exchange-traded funds, warrants and certificates, bonds, derivatives, commodities and indices. As of 2017, Euronext was the largest in continental Europe with 1,300 issuers representing a €3 trillion market capitalization, Euronext merged with NYSE Group, Inc. on April 4,2007 to form NYSE Euronext. On November 13,2013 Intercontinental Exchange, completed acquisition of NYSE Euronext, in June 2014 Euronext completed an initial public offering making it a standalone company again. In December 2001, Euronext acquired the shares of the London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange, in 2002 the group merged with the Portuguese stock exchange Bolsa de Valores de Lisboa e Porto, renamed Euronext Lisbon. In 2001, Euronext became a company itself after completing its Initial Public Offering. Despite this, NYSE Group and Euronext penned an agreement, subject to shareholder vote. The initial regulatory response by SEC chief Christopher Cox was positive, the new firm, tentatively dubbed NYSE Euronext, would be headquartered in New York City, with European operations and its trading platform run out of Paris. In addition, the two hoped to add Borsa Italiana into the grouping. Deutsche Börse dropped out of the bidding for Euronext on 15 November 2006, a run-up of NYSE Groups stock price in late 2006 made the offering far more attractive to Euronexts shareholders. On 19 December 2006, Euronext shareholders approved the transaction with 98. 2% of the vote, only 1. 8% voted in favour of the Deutsche Börse offer. Jean-François Théodore, the Chief Executive Officer of Euronext, stated that expected the transaction to close within three or four months. Some of the agencies with jurisdiction over the merger had already given approval. NYSE Group shareholders gave their approval on 20 December 2006, the merger was completed on 4 April 2007, forming NYSE Euronext. In 2008 and 2009 Deutsche Börse made two attempts to merge with NYSE Euronext. Both attempts did not enter into advanced steps of merger, in 2011, Deutsche Börse and NYSE Euronext confirmed that they were in advanced merger talks. Such a merger would create the largest exchange in history, the deal was approved by shareholders of NYSE Euronext on July 7,2011, and Deutsche Börse on July 15,2011 and won the antitrust approved by the US regulators on December 22,2011. Deutsche Börse unsuccessfully appealed this decision, in 2012, Euronext announced the creation of Euronext London to offer listing facilities in the UK
4.
CAC 40
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The CAC40 is a benchmark French stock market index. The index represents a measure of the 40 most significant values among the 100 highest market caps on the Euronext Paris. It is one of the national indices of the pan-European stock exchange group Euronext alongside Brussels BEL20, Lisbons PSI-20. The CAC40 takes its name from the Paris Bourses early automation system Cotation Assistée en Continu and its base value of 1,000 was set on 31 December 1987, equivalent to a market capitalisation of 370,437,433,957.70 French francs. In common with many major world markets, its all-time high to date was reached at the peak of the dot-com bubble in September 2000. On 1 December 2003, the weighting system switched from being dependent on total market capitalisation to free float market cap only. The CAC40 index composition is reviewed quarterly by an independent Index Steering Committee, if any changes are made, they are effected a minimum of two weeks after the review meeting. At each review date, the companies listed on Euronext Paris are ranked according to free float market capitalisation, if a company has more than one class of shares traded on the exchange, only the most actively traded of these will be accepted into the index. The CAC40 is a capitalization-weighted index, the number of shares issued of a company is reviewed quarterly, on the third Friday of March, June, September and December. Since December 2003, the weightings of companies in the index have been capped at 15% at each quarterly index review. A capping factor is used to limit the weights to 15%, although the CAC40 is almost exclusively composed of French-domiciled companies, about 45% of its listed shares are owned by foreign investors, more than any other main European index. German, Japanese, American and British investors are amongst the most significant holders of CAC40 shares and this large percentage is due to the fact that CAC40 companies are more international, or multinational, than any other European market. CAC40 companies conduct over two-thirds of their business and employ over two-thirds of their workforce outside France, the index consists of the following companies as of the quarterly update effective 1st December 2016. The most recent composition can be found on euronext website, category, CAC40 CAC Next 20 List of French companies Official Euronext page for CAC40 Index FCHI, Summary for CAC40 INDEX - Yahoo. Finance Thomson Reuters page for. FCHI Bloomberg page for CAC, IND CAC40 on Investing. com Contains real time overview, components, historical data, live charts, technichal analysis and related news
5.
Car
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A car is a wheeled, self-powered motor vehicle used for transportation and a product of the automotive industry. The year 1886 is regarded as the year of the modern car. In that year, German inventor Karl Benz built the Benz Patent-Motorwagen, cars did not become widely available until the early 20th century. One of the first cars that was accessible to the masses was the 1908 Model T, an American car manufactured by the Ford Motor Company. Cars were rapidly adopted in the United States of America, where they replaced animal-drawn carriages and carts, cars are equipped with controls used for driving, parking, passenger comfort and safety, and controlling a variety of lights. Over the decades, additional features and controls have been added to vehicles, examples include rear reversing cameras, air conditioning, navigation systems, and in car entertainment. Most cars in use in the 2010s are propelled by a combustion engine. Both fuels cause air pollution and are blamed for contributing to climate change. Vehicles using alternative fuels such as ethanol flexible-fuel vehicles and natural gas vehicles are also gaining popularity in some countries, electric cars, which were invented early in the history of the car, began to become commercially available in 2008. There are costs and benefits to car use, the costs of car usage include the cost of, acquiring the vehicle, interest payments, repairs and auto maintenance, fuel, depreciation, driving time, parking fees, taxes, and insurance. The costs to society of car use include, maintaining roads, land use, road congestion, air pollution, public health, health care, road traffic accidents are the largest cause of injury-related deaths worldwide. The benefits may include transportation, mobility, independence. The ability for humans to move flexibly from place to place has far-reaching implications for the nature of societies and it was estimated in 2010 that the number of cars had risen to over 1 billion vehicles, up from the 500 million of 1986. The numbers are increasing rapidly, especially in China, India, the word car is believed to originate from the Latin word carrus or carrum, or the Middle English word carre. In turn, these originated from the Gaulish word karros, the Gaulish language was a branch of the Brythoic language which also used the word Karr, the Brythonig language evolved into Welsh where Car llusg and car rhyfel still survive. It originally referred to any wheeled vehicle, such as a cart, carriage. Motor car is attested from 1895, and is the formal name for cars in British English. Autocar is a variant that is attested from 1895
6.
Clermont-Ferrand
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Clermont-Ferrand is a city and commune of France, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, with a population of 141,569. Its metropolitan area had 467,178 inhabitants at the 2011 census and it is the prefecture of the Puy-de-Dôme department. Olivier Bianchi is its current mayor, Clermont-Ferrand sits on the plain of Limagne in the Massif Central and is surrounded by a major industrial area. The city is famous for the chain of volcanoes, the Chaîne des Puys surrounding it, the famous dormant volcano Puy de Dôme is one of the highest of these and well known for the telecommunication antennas that sit on its top and are visible from far away. Clermont-Ferrands most famous square is Place de Jaude, on which stands a grand statue of Vercingetorix sitting imperiously on a horse. The inscription reads, Jai pris les armes pour la liberté de tous and this statue was sculpted by Frédéric Bartholdi, who also created the Statue of Liberty. Clermont-Ferrands first name was Augusta Nemetum and it was born on the central knoll where the cathedral is situated today, known then as Nemossos. It overlooked the capital of Gaulish Avernie, the fortified castle of Clarus Mons gave its name to the whole town in 848, to which the small episcopal town of Montferrand was attached in 1731, together taking the name of Clermont-Ferrand. The old part of Clermont is delimited by the route of the ramparts, the town of Clermont-Ferrand came about with the joining together of two separate towns, Clermont and Montferrand, which was decreed by Louis XIII and confirmed by Louis XV. Clermont ranks among the oldest cities of France, the first known mention was by the Greek geographer Strabo, who called it the metropolis of the Arverni. The city was at that time called Nemessos – a Gaulish word for a sacred forest and it was somewhere in the area around Nemossos that the Arverni chieftain Vercingetorix was born in around 72 BC. Also, Nemossos was situated not far from the plateau of Gergovia, after the Roman conquest, the city became known as Augustonemetum sometime in the 1st century, a name which combined its original Gallic name with that of the Emperor Augustus. Its population was estimated at 15, 000–30,000 in the 2nd century and it then became Arvernis in the 3rd century, and expanded until the mid 3rd century. The city became the seat of a bishop in the 5th century, at the time of the bishop Namatius or Saint Namace, who built a cathedral here described by Gregory of Tours. Clermont went through a period after the disappearance of the Roman Empire and during the whole High Middle Ages. Between 471 and 475, Auvergne was often the target of Visigothic expansion, a generation later, it became part of the Kingdom of the Franks. On 8 November 535 the first Council of Clermont opened at Arvernis, with fifteen bishops participating, including Caesarius of Arles, Nizier of Lyons and Saint Hilarius, bishop of Mende. Sixteen decrees were made there, notably the second canon that recalls that the granting of episcopal dignity must be according to the merits, in 570, Bishop Avitus offered the Jews of his town the alternatives of baptism or expulsion
7.
General partnership
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In most countries, a general partnership is an association of persons or an unincorporated company with the following major features, Created by agreement, proof of existence and estoppel. Formed by two or more persons The owners are all personally liable for any actions and debts the company may face. It is a partnership in which partners share equally in both responsibility and liability, partnerships have certain default characteristics relating to both the relationship between the individual partners and the relationship between the partnership and the outside world. The former can generally be overridden by agreement between the partners, whereas the latter generally cannot be overridden this way. The assets of the business are owned on behalf of the other partners, for example, if a partnership defaults on a payment to a creditor, the partners personal assets are subject to attachment and liquidation to pay the creditor. By default, profits are shared equally amongst the partners, however, a partnership agreement will almost invariably expressly provide for the manner in which profits and losses are to be shared. Each general partner is deemed the agent of the partnership, therefore, if that partner is apparently carrying on partnership business, all general partners can be held liable for his dealings with third persons. By default a partnership will terminate upon the death, disability, however, most partnership agreements provide for these types of events, with the share of the departed partner usually being purchased by the remaining partners in the partnership. By default, each partner has an equal right to participate in the management. However, in a partnership of any size the partnership agreement will provide for certain electees to manage the partnership along the lines of a company board, a partners judgment creditor may obtain an order charging the partners transferable interest to satisfy a judgment. There has been debate in most states as to whether a partnership should remain aggregate or be allowed to become a business entity with a separate continuing legal personality. In the United States, section 201 of the Revised Uniform Partnership Act of 1997 provides that A partnership is an entity distinct from its partners, in England and Wales, a partnership does not have separate legal personality. In Scotland partnerships do have some degree of legal personality, in Bangladesh, the relevant law for regulating partnership is the Partnership Act 1932. A partnership is defined as the relation between persons who have agreed to share the profits of a business carried on by all or any of them acting for all, the law does not require written partnership agreement between the partners to form a partnership. A partnership does not also required to be registered, however an unregistered partnership has a number of limitation regarding enforcing its rights in any court, a partnership is considered as a separate legal identity in Bangladesh only if the partnership is registered. There must be a minimum of 2 partners and maximum of 20 partners, articles of partnership Investment clubs Types of business entity DeMott, Deborah A. “Transatlantic Perspectives on Partnership Law, Risk and Instability”, journal of Corporation Law,26, 879–895
8.
Tire
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A tire or tyre is a ring-shaped vehicle component that covers the wheels rim to protect it and enable better vehicle performance. Most tires, such as those for automobiles and bicycles, provide traction between the vehicle and the road providing a flexible cushion that absorbs shock. The materials of modern tires are synthetic rubber, natural rubber, fabric and wire, along with carbon black. They consist of a tread and a body, the tread provides traction while the body provides containment for a quantity of compressed air. Before rubber was developed, the first versions of tires were bands of metal fitted around wooden wheels to prevent wear and tear. Pneumatic tires are used on many types of vehicles, including cars, bicycles, motorcycles, buses, trucks, heavy equipment, and aircraft. Metal tires are used on locomotives and railcars, and solid rubber tires are still used in various non-automotive applications, such as some casters, carts, lawnmowers. The etymology of tire is that the word is a form of attire. The spelling tyre does not appear until the 1840s when the English began shrink fitting railway car wheels with malleable iron, nevertheless, traditional publishers continued using tire. The Times newspaper in Britain was still using tire as late as 1905, the spelling tyre began to be commonly used in the 19th century for pneumatic tires in the UK. However, over the course of the 20th century, tyre became established as the standard British spelling, the earliest tires were bands of leather, then iron, placed on wooden wheels, used on carts and wagons. The tire would be heated in a fire, placed over the wheel and quenched, causing the metal to contract. A skilled worker, known as a wheelwright, carried out this work, the outer ring served to tie the wheel segments together for use, providing also a wear-resistant surface to the perimeter of the wheel. The word tire thus emerged as a variant spelling to refer to the bands used to tie wheels. The first patent for what appears to be a standard pneumatic tire appeared in 1847 lodged by the Scottish inventor Robert William Thomson, however, this never went into production. The first practical pneumatic tire was made in 1888 on May Street, Belfast, by Scots-born John Boyd Dunlop and it was an effort to prevent the headaches of his 10-year-old son Johnnie, while riding his tricycle on rough pavements. His doctor, John, later Sir John Fagan, had prescribed cycling as an exercise for the boy, Fagan participated in designing the first pneumatic tires. In Dunlops tire patent specification dated 31 October 1888, his interest is only in its use in cycles, in September 1890, he was made aware of an earlier development but the company kept the information to itself
9.
Euro sign
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The euro sign is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the Eurozone in the European Union. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996, the international three-letter code for the euro is EUR. In Unicode it is encoded at U+20AC € euro sign, in English, the sign precedes the value. In some styleguides, but not others, the sign is unspaced. The euro currency sign was designed to be similar in structure to the old sign for the European Currency Unit, there were originally thirty-two proposals, these were reduced to ten candidates. These ten were put to a public survey, after the survey had narrowed the original ten proposals down to two, it was up to the European Commission to choose the final design. The other designs that were considered are not available for the public to view, the European Commission considers the process of designing to have been internal and keeps these records secret. The eventual winner was a created by a team of four experts whose identities have not been revealed. It is assumed that the Belgian graphic designer Alain Billiet was the winner, the European Commission specified a euro logo with exact proportions and colours, for use in public-relations material related to the euro introduction. While the Commission intended the logo to be a prescribed glyph shape, generating the euro sign using a computer depends on the operating system and national conventions. Some mobile phone companies issued a software update for their special SMS character set. Later mobile phones have both currency signs, the euro is represented in the Unicode character set with the character name EURO SIGN and the code position U+20AC as well as in updated versions of the traditional Latin character set encodings. In HTML, the &euro, entity can also be used, while displaying the euro sign is no problem as long as only one system is used, mixed setups often produced errors. One example is a content management system where articles are stored in a database using a different character set than the editors computer, another is legacy software which could only handle older encodings such as ISO 8859-1 that contained no euro sign at all. In such situations, character set conversions had to be made, care has been taken to avoid replacing an existing obsolete currency sign with the euro sign. That could create different currency signs for sender and receiver in e-mails or web sites, placement of the sign also varies. Partly since there are no standards on placement, countries have generated varying conventions or sustained those of their former currencies. For example, in Ireland and the Netherlands, where previous currency signs were placed before the figure, the euro sign is universally placed in the same position
10.
Earnings before interest and taxes
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In accounting and finance, earnings before interest and taxes, is a measure of a firms profit that includes all expenses except interest and income tax expenses. It is the difference between operating revenues and operating expenses, when a firm does not have non-operating income, then operating income is sometimes used as a synonym for EBIT and operating profit. To calculate EBIT, expenses are subtracted from revenues, net income is later obtained by subtracting interest and taxes from the result
11.
Net income
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In business, net income is an entitys income minus cost of goods sold, expenses and taxes for an accounting period. In the context of the presentation of financial statements, the IFRS Foundation defines net income as synonymous with profit, net income is a distinct accounting concept from profit but the same as net profit. Net income can also be calculated by adding a companys operating income to non-operating income, net income can be distributed among holders of common stock as a dividend or held by the firm as an addition to retained earnings. As profit and earnings are used synonymously for income, net earnings, often, the term income is substituted for net income, yet this is not preferred due to the possible ambiguity. Net income is called the bottom line because it is typically found on the last line of a companys income statement. The items deducted will typically include tax expense, financing expense, likewise, preferred stock dividends will be subtracted too, though they are not an expense. For a merchandising company, subtracted costs may be the cost of goods sold, sales discounts, for a product company advertising, manufacturing, and design and development costs are included
12.
Asset
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In financial accounting, an asset is an economic resource. Anything tangible or intangible that can be owned or controlled to produce value, simply stated, assets represent value of ownership that can be converted into cash. The balance sheet of a firm records the value of the assets owned by that firm. It covers money and other valuables belonging to an individual or to a business, one can classify assets into two major asset classes, tangible assets and intangible assets. Tangible assets contain various subclasses, including current assets and fixed assets, current assets include inventory, while fixed assets include such items as buildings and equipment. Intangible assets are resources and rights that have a value to the firm because they give the firm some kind of advantage in the marketplace. Examples of intangible assets include goodwill, copyrights, trademarks, patents and computer programs, an asset is a resource controlled by the entity as a result of past events and from which future economic benefits are expected to flow to the entity. One of the most widely accepted accounting definitions of asset is the one used by the International Accounting Standards Board, employees are not considered assets like machinery is, even though they can generate future economic benefits. This is because an entity does not have sufficient control over its employees to satisfy the Frameworks definition of an asset, similarly, in economics an asset is any form in which wealth can be held. The accounting equation is the structure of the balance sheet. It relates assets, liabilities, and owners equity, Assets = Liabilities + Capital Liabilities = Assets − Capital Equity = Assets − Liabilities Assets are listed on the balance sheet. On a companys balance sheet certain divisions are required by generally accepted accounting principles, Assets can be divided into e. g. current assets and fixed assets, often with further subdivisions such as cash, receivables and inventory. Assets are formally controlled and managed within larger organizations via the use of asset tracking tools and these monitor the purchasing, upgrading, servicing, licensing, disposal etc. of both physical and non-physical assets. Current assets are cash and other assets expected to be converted to cash or consumed either in a year or in the operating cycle and these assets are continually turned over in the course of a business during normal business activity. There are 5 major items included into current assets, Cash and cash equivalents – it is the most liquid asset, which includes currency, deposit accounts, short-term investments – include securities bought and held for sale in the near future to generate income on short-term price differences. Receivables – usually reported as net of allowance for non-collectable accounts, inventory – trading these assets is a normal business of a company. The inventory value reported on the sheet is usually the historical cost or fair market value. This is known as the lower of cost or market rule, prepaid expenses – these are expenses paid in cash and recorded as assets before they are used or consumed
13.
Equity (finance)
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In accounting, equity is the difference between the value of the assets and the value of the liabilities of something owed. Equity can be negative if liabilities exceeds assets, shareholders equity represents the equity of a company as divided among shareholders of common or preferred stock. Negative shareholders equity is often referred to as a shareholders deficit, alternatively, equity can also refer to the capital stock of a corporation. The value of the stock depends on the future economic prospects. For a company in liquidation proceedings, the equity is that which remains after all liabilities have been paid, when starting a business, the owners fund the business to finance various operations. Throughout the businesss existence, the equity of the business will be the difference between its assets and debt liabilities, this is the accounting equation, when a business liquidates during bankruptcy, the proceeds from the assets are used to reimburse creditors. The creditors are ranked by priority, with secured creditors being paid first, other creditors being paid next, owners equity is this remaining or residual claim against assets, which is paid only after all other creditors are paid. In such cases where even creditors could not get money to pay their bills. In financial accounting, owners equity consists of the net assets of an entity, net assets is the difference between the total assets and total liabilities. Equity appears on the sheet, one of the four primary financial statements. The assets of an entity can be tangible and intangible items. Intangible assets include such as brand names, copyrights or goodwill. Tangible assets include land, equipment, and cash, issue of new equity in which the firm obtains new capital increases the total shareholders equity. Share repurchases, in which a firm returns money to investors, reducing on the side its financial assets. For practical purposes, share repurchasing is similar to a dividend payment, rather than giving money to all shareholders immediately in the form of a dividend payment, a share repurchase reduces the number of shares outstanding. Dividends paid out to preferred stock owners are considered an expense to be subtracted from net income, sometimes assets bought and held in other countries get translated back into the reporting currency at different exchange rates, resulting in a changed value. When the owners are shareholders, the interest can be called shareholders equity, the remains the same. If all shareholders are in one and the class, they share equally in ownership equity from all perspectives
14.
Auvergne
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Auvergne is a former administrative region of France. Since 1 January 2016, it is part of the new region Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and it comprises four departments, Allier, Puy-de-Dôme, Cantal and Haute-Loire. The administrative region of Auvergne is larger than the province of Auvergne. The Auvergne region is composed of the old provinces, Auvergne, departments of Puy-de-Dôme, Cantal, northwest of Haute-Loire. The province of Auvergne is entirely contained inside the Auvergne region Bourbonnais, a small part of Bourbonnais is also contained inside the Centre-Val de Loire region. Velay, centre and southeast of department of Haute-Loire, velay is entirely contained inside the Auvergne region. A small part of Gévaudan, extreme southwest of Haute-Loire, Gévaudan is essentially inside the Languedoc-Roussillon region. A small part of Vivarais, extreme southeast of Haute-Loire, Vivarais is essentially inside the Rhône-Alpes region. A small part of Forez, extreme northeast of Haute-Loire, Forez is essentially inside the Rhône-Alpes region. Velay, Gévaudan, and Vivarais are often considered to be sub-provinces of the old province of Languedoc, Forez is also often considered to be a sub-province of Lyonnais. Therefore, the region of Auvergne is composed of the provinces of Auvergne, major part of Bourbonnais. The region is home to a chain of volcanoes known collectively as the chaîne des Puys, the last confirmed eruption was around 4040 BCE. The volcanoes began forming some 70,000 years ago, and most have eroded, Auvergne has a surface area of 26,013 square kilometres equivalent to 4. 8% of Frances total surface area. Auvergne is one of the smallest regions in France, Auvergne is known for its mountain ranges and dormant volcanoes. Together the Monts Dore and the Chaîne des Puys include 80 volcanoes, the Puy de Dôme is the tallest volcano in the region, with an altitude of 1,465 metres. The Sancy Massif in the Monts Dore is the highest point in Auvergne, the northern region is covered in hills while the southern portion is mountainous and dotted with pastures. The Forest of Tronçais covers nearly 11,000 hectares and is the largest oak forest in Europe, the Loire runs through the southeast and borders the northeast, and the Allier runs from north to south down the center of Auvergne, with branches going east and west. Over many years the Allier river has created what are known as the Allier gorges, Auvergne has about 50 freshwater ponds and lakes
15.
Regions of France
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France is divided into 18 administrative regions, including 13 metropolitan regions and 5 overseas regions. The current legal concept of region was adopted in 1982, the term région was officially created by the Law of Decentralisation, which also gave regions their legal status. The first direct elections for representatives took place on 16 March 1986. In 2016, the number of regions was reduced from 27 to 18 through amalgamation, in 2014, the French parliament passed a law reducing the number of metropolitan regions from 22 to 13 with effect from 1 January 2016. However, the region of Upper and Lower Normandy is simply called Normandy. Permanent names were to be proposed by the new regional councils by 1 July 2016, the legislation defining the new regions also allowed the Centre region to officially change its name to Centre-Val de Loire with effect from January 2015. Two regions, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, opted to retain their interim names, between 1982 and 2015, there were 22 regions in Metropolitan France. Before 2011, there were four regions, in 2011 Mayotte became the fifth. Regions lack separate legislative authority and therefore cannot write their own statutory law and they levy their own taxes and, in return, receive a decreasing part of their budget from the central government, which gives them a portion of the taxes it levies. They also have considerable budgets managed by a council made up of representatives voted into office in regional elections. A regions primary responsibility is to build and furnish high schools, in March 2004, the French central government unveiled a controversial plan to transfer regulation of certain categories of non-teaching school staff to the regional authorities. Critics of this plan contended that tax revenue was insufficient to pay for the costs. In addition, regions have considerable power over infrastructural spending, e. g. education, public transit, universities and research. This has meant that the heads of regions such as Île-de-France or Rhône-Alpes can be high-profile positions. Number of regions controlled by each coalition since 1986, Overseas region is a recent designation, given to the overseas departments that have similar powers to those of the regions of metropolitan France. Radio France Internationale in English Overseas regions Ministère de lOutre-Mer some explanations about the past and current developments of DOMs and TOMs
16.
Bridgestone
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Bridgestone Corporation is a multinational auto and truck parts manufacturer founded in 1931 by Shojiro Ishibashi in the city of Kurume, Fukuoka, Japan. The name Bridgestone comes from a translation and transposition of ishibashi. As of 2015, the company is the largest manufacturer of tires in the world, Bridgestone Group had 141 production facilities in 24 countries as of 2005. The very first Bridgestone tire was produced on 9 April 1930, One year later on 1 March 1931, the founder, Shojiro Ishibashi, made the Tabi Socks Tyre Division independent and established the Bridgestone Tire Co. Ltd. in the city of Kurume, Fukuoka Prefecture. Bridgestone was named after the name of the founder, Shojiro Ishibashi, foregoing dependence on European and North American technology, the Bridgestone Tire Co. Ltd. set its eyes on manufacturing tires based largely on Japanese technology. The fledgling company experienced many difficulties in the areas of technology, production, eventually, improvements were achieved in quality and manufacturing processes which led to the business rapidly expanding in domestic and overseas markets. Wartime regulations were in effect throughout Japan, and tires also came under the jurisdiction of these regulations and this resulted in nearly all of the companys output being used to satisfy military demand. 1945 saw the end of armed conflict, but the company was devastated by the war, the Tokyo headquarters was destroyed during an aerial bombing raid, and all overseas assets were lost. Fortunately, the plants in Kurume and Yokohama escaped unscathed, brushing aside the problems caused by a labour union strike that lasted for forty-six days, the foundations of the company were further reinforced after this. In 1951, Bridgestone was the first company in Japan to begin selling rayon cord tires, and this year also saw another Bridgestone building opened in Kyōbashi, Tokyo, which contained the Bridgestone Museum. The company issued shares and was listed on the stock exchange in 1961. A new system of administration was ushered in by Shojiro Ishibashi as the chairman, also, additions were built onto the Tokyo plant in 1962 to house the new Technical Centre, and a progressive system of research and development was established. On the product front,1967 saw the sale of the companys first ever radial tire, Bridgestones first overseas plant since the end of the war was opened in Singapore in 1965, and production was also commenced in Thailand in 1969. Its Super Filler Radial was placed on the market in 1978, the company was actively engaged in overseas expansion activities at this time. The founder, Shojiro Ishibashi, died on 11 September 1976, on 1 March 1981, the company celebrated its 50th anniversary. New production facilities were established in Thailand, India, Poland, China. The company changed the name from Bridgestone Tyre Co. Ltd. to Bridgestone Corporation in 1984, in 1988, Bridgestone purchased the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company of Akron, Ohio. Placing considerable financial and personnel resources into rebuilding Firestone after the purchase, Bridgestone achieved surplus annual profits for the year 1992 with BFE, the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company and Bridgestone Tire Company Ltd USA were amalgamated in 1990 and became Bridgestone Firestone North American Holdings Ltd
17.
Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company
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The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company is an American multinational tire manufacturing company founded in 1898 by Frank Seiberling and based in Akron, Ohio. Goodyear manufactures tires for automobiles, commercial trucks, light trucks, motorcycles, SUVs, race cars, airplanes, farm equipment, the company was named after American Charles Goodyear, inventor of vulcanized rubber. The first Goodyear tires became popular because they were easily detachable, Goodyear is also known for the Goodyear Blimp. Though Goodyear had been manufacturing airships and balloons since the early 1900s, today it is one of the most recognizable advertising icons in America. The company is the most successful tire supplier in Formula One history, with starts, wins. They pulled out of the sport after the 1998 season and it is the sole tire supplier for NASCAR series. Goodyear is a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The company opened a new headquarters building in Akron in 2013. The first Goodyear factory opened in Akron, Ohio, in 1898, the thirteen original employees manufactured bicycle and carriage tires, rubber horseshoe pads, and poker chips. The company grew with the advent of the automobile, in 1901 Frank Seiberling provided Henry Ford with racing tires. In 1903, Paul Weeks Litchfield was granted a patent for the first tubeless automobile tire, by 1908 Ford was outfitting his Model T with Goodyear tires. In 1909 Goodyear manufactured its first aircraft tire, in 1911 Goodyear started experimenting with airship design. It later manufactured airships and observation balloons for the United States Army Air Service during World War I, the transport and reconnaissance capabilities that Goodyear provided contributed significantly to the Allied victory. In 1916, Litchfield found land in the Phoenix area suitable for growing long-staple cotton, the 36,000 acres purchased were controlled by the Southwest Cotton Company, formed with Litchfield as president. In 1924, Litchfield, as Goodyear Vice President, forged a joint venture with the German Luftschiffbau Zeppelin Company to form the Goodyear-Zeppelin Corporation, by 1926 Goodyear was the largest rubber company in the world. Only four years earlier it was forced to halt production of racing tires due to heavy competition. Nevertheless, the popularity of the Goodyear tire on the circuit led to a popular demand for the return of the brand. On August 5,1927, Goodyear had its public offering and was listed on the New York Stock Exchange
18.
Continental AG
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Continental is based in Hanover, Lower Saxony, Germany. Continental is the worlds fourth-largest tyre manufacturer, Continental was founded in 1871 as a rubber manufacturer, Continental-Caoutchouc und Gutta-Percha Compagnie. After acquiring Siemens AGs VDO automotive unit in 2007 Continental was ranked third in global OEM automotive parts sales in 2012 according to a study sponsored by PricewaterhouseCoopers, by 2009, Schaeffler successfully installed the head of its motor division at the helm of Continental. On 6 September 2012, Continental returned to the benchmark DAX index of 30 selected German blue chip stocks after a 45-month absence, Schaeffler AG is the controlling shareholder and currently owns 46% of Continental shares. Continental sells tyres for automobiles, motorcycles, and bicycles worldwide under the Continental brand and it also produces and commercialises other brands on a regional level, such as General, Gislaved, Semperit, Euzkadi and Barum to serve EU & Russia. In 2001, Continental acquired a controlling interest in Temic, DaimlerChryslers automotive-electronics business, the company also purchased German automotive rubber and plastics company Phoenix AG in 2004, and the automotive electronics unit of Motorola in 2006. Continental acquired Siemens VDO from Siemens AG in 2007, in Argentina, teamed up with FATE in 1999 for the production of tyres for cars, trucks, and buses and exports the production of the San Fernando plant to the rest of South America. In 2007, the company began to construct a plant in Costa Rica to produce components for North America. The plant was to open in two phases and ultimately employ 550 workers, ten years later, Geissinger returned to Continental with mother and son owners Maria-Elisabeth and Georg Schaeffler and a consortium of banks, to buy control of the company. Continental appeared to have overextended itself with the acquisition of Siemens’ VDO automotive unit in 2007 for €11.4 billion and had lost almost half of its market capitalisation since. In August 2008 and after a standoff, Continental agreed to be taken over by the Schaeffler Group in a deal that valued the company at approximately €12 billion. Schaeffler in return agreed to limit its position to less than 50% for a period of four years, Continentals CEO Elmar Degenhart commented, Notice of termination of the investment agreement is understandable from the vantage point of Schaeffler, our anchor shareholder. We are confident that the two companies continue their very good and goal-oriented cooperation on into the future. Continentals CEO Manfred Wennemer, who had opposed Schaefflers offer, resigned and was succeeded by Karl-Thomas Neumann on 1 September 2008, Continental Tire entered the North American tire industry with its 1987 purchase of General Tire, forming Continental Tire of North America. At the time, Continental was following other tire manufacturers, such as Bridgestone and Michelin, the North American headquarters of the tire divisions are located in Lancaster County, South Carolina. The North American headquarters of the CAS division are located in Auburn Hills, Michigan, the company announced that effective 1 January 2006, it would implement massive cuts on health care for retirees across the country. After a class-action lawsuit, the company and United Steelworkers union, representing the retirees, later that year, it announced it would cease tire production in Charlotte, North Carolina. And would close its tire plant in Mayfield, Kentucky
19.
BFGoodrich
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BFGoodrich is a former American manufacturer of tires. Originally part of the industrial conglomerate Goodrich Corporation, it was acquired in 1990 by the French tire maker Michelin, prior to the sale, BFGoodrich was the first American tire manufacturer to make radial tires. It made tires for the then new Winton car, BFGoodrich tires have been fitted to several noteworthy historical vehicles, In 1903 The first car to cross the United States was fitted with BFGoodrich tires. In 1927 Charles Lindberghs airplane, the Spirit of St. Louis, in 1977 The Columbia space shuttle was fitted with BFGoodrich tires during construction. BFGoodrich have been involved several competitions and enjoyed success with 17 victories at the Baja California Competitions and 5 times winner of the Paris–Dakar Rally. It was also the supplier for the 2006 and 2007 seasons of the World Rally Championship. In the previous year, Goodrich had purchased the Hudson River Rubber Company, based in Akron, Ohio, the BFGoodrich Company began as a manufacturer of rubberized hoses, which were sold mostly as firehoses. The company also produced rubberized belts, similar to those used on vehicles as serpentine belts. BFGoodrich was not the only manufacturer in the United States at the turn of the 20th Century. Among its competitors were Goodyear, Firestone, General and Uniroyal, due to extensive research and scientific methods, such as tire wear evaluation and longevity testing, BFGoodrich was at the leading edge of the industry. Ford Motor Company, then owned by Henry Ford, chose BFGoodrich tires to be fitted in the new Model A Ford in 1903 and that same year, the Model A, equipped with the tires, became the first car to cross the United States from east to west. This event made BFGoodrich a household name, the Goodrich Corporation, formerly called B. F. Goodrich Company, stopped making tires in 1988 and sold the business and the B. F. Goodrich name to Michelin. Although significant, these innovations are not as known as the company’s contributions to the tire industry. In 1947, BFGoodrich developed the first tubeless tire in the United States, the tubeless tire eliminate the need for an inner tube, which improves performance and safety, as well as enhanced confort for the cars occupants. BFGoodrich produced the first radial tires in the United States in 1965 and this innovation made tires even safer as the radial type tire have longer tread life and permit better absorption of road bumps. The company patented an early sort of run-flat tire two years later, in 1967 and this technology enables the vehicle to continue to be driven in emergencies by avoiding that the tire becomes flat instantly. In 1909, BFGoodrich tires were fitted on a Curtiss Aeroplane Corporation plane, in this particular event, the plane, fitted with BFGoodrich tires, set a speed record of 75 kilometers per hour in Reims at the first international air race. BFGoodrich tires were fitted to Charles Lindbergh’s plane, Spirit of St. Louis
20.
Tigar Tyres
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Tigar Tyres is a Serbian tire manufacturing company based in Pirot, eastern Serbia. Tigar Tyres was founded in 1935 in Pirot as a workshop for the manufacture of rubber products and it was longtime part of joint venture company Tigar a. d. from Pirot. In 2007, the French company Michelin became a shareholder of the company. In February 2008, Michelin bought the shares of Tigar Tyres for $47 million. With this acquisition, Michelin would become 100 percent owner of the company by 2010, as of 2012, Michelin plans to invest 170 million euros in production capacity and employ 700 more workers over 5 years. In October 2014, a new plant of the factory, worth 215 million euros, was opened and it should provide a job for additional 500 employees. For this investment, Tigar Tyres received Aurea award, given by the business portal eKapija for the best investment in Serbia for 2014 calendar year, Tigar Tyres was the fourth biggest Serbian exporter with the total value of exported goods worth 231.4 million euros. On April 23,2015, six employees were injured by electric shock in the factory plant, all three had burns that were covering between 50 and 80 percent of the body. In the next 10 days after the accident, all three workers who were seriously injured died of injuries sustained due to the electric shock
21.
United States Rubber Company
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It was founded in Naugatuck, Connecticut, in 1892. It was one of the original 12 stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, in 1990, Uniroyal was acquired by French tire maker Michelin and ceased to exist as a separate business. Today around 1,000 workers in the U. S. remain employed by Michelin to make its Uniroyal brand products, Companys long-lived advertisement slogan was United States Tires are Good Tires. Today, Uniroyal still uses the Tiger Paw brand name in its tire line, by 1892, there were many rubber manufacturing companies in Naugatuck, Connecticut, as well as elsewhere in Connecticut. Nine companies consolidated their operations in Naugatuck to become the United States Rubber Company, from 1892 to 1913, the rubber footwear divisions of U. S. Rubber manufactured their products under 30 different brand names, including the Wales-Goodyear Shoe Co. The company consolidated these footwear brands under one name, Keds, in 1916, on May 26,1896, Charles Dow created the Dow Industrial average of twelve industrial manufacturing stocks, which included among them U. S. Rubber Company. When the average expanded to a list of 20 stocks in 1916, U. S. Rubber remained, however the listing expanded to 30 stocks in 1928 and U. S. Rubber was dropped. In an effort to increase its share of the tire market in 1931. The company was founded in 1916 by Raymond B, Gillette and its primary manufacturing plant was located in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. The Gillette plant held large contracts with the General Motors Corporation and with the addition of U. S. Rubber products, U. S. Rubber produced tires under the Gillete, Ward, Atlas, U. S. Rubber and U. S. In 1940, U. S. Rubber purchased the remainder of the Gillette Safety Tire Company, U. S. Rubber ranked 37th among United States corporations in the value of wartime production contracts. In 1942, the United States government restricted the sale of rubber products for civilian use. The company sold the Eau Claire plant to the government, which converted it for the manufacture of small caliber ammunition. By December 31,1943, the need for tires outweighed the need for ammunition, U. S. Rubber repurchased the plant from the government for more than US$1 million, and converted it back to synthetic rubber tire production. The company began an expansion and modernization program at the plant that lasted through 1951, when it ended, the Eau Claire plant was the fifth largest tire facility in the United States. In late 1943, U. S. Rubber engineer Dr. Louis Marick developed a propeller de-icing system in which a rubber boot was fitted onto the edge of a propeller. The boot contained wires that conducted electricity to heat the edge, in 1958, Uniroyal entered into a partnership with the Englebert tire company of Liège, Belgium, which became known as Uniroyal Englebert Deutschland AG. In 1963, the name was shortened to Uniroyal-Englebert, and in 1967 it became Uniroyal along with all company divisions, Uniroyal sold this division with its four factories in Belgium, Germany, France and Scotland to Continental AG in 1979
22.
Michelin Man
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Bibendum, commonly referred to in English as the Michelin Man, is the symbol of the Michelin tire company. Introduced at the Lyon Exhibition of 1894 where the Michelin brothers had a stand, the slogan Nunc est bibendum is taken from Horaces Odes. He is also referred to as Bib or Bibelobis, Michelin dominated the French tire industry and was one of the leading advertisers, to this day its famous guidebooks are widely used by travellers. Bibendum was depicted visually as a lord of industry, a master of all he surveyed, in the 1920s, Bibendum urged Frenchmen to adopt Americas superior factory system, but to patriotically avoid using the inferior products of those factories. As automobiles diffused to the classes, Michelin advertising likewise shifted downscale. While attending the Universal and Colonial Exposition in Lyon in 1894, Édouard, André immediately suggested replacing the man with a figure made from tires. Thus OGalop transformed the image into Michelins symbol. Today, Bibendum is one of the worlds most recognised trademarks, the 1898 poster showed him offering the toast Nunc est bibendum to his scrawny competitors with a glass full of road hazards, with the title and the tag Cest à dire, À votre santé. The implication is that Michelin tires will easily take on road hazards, the company used this basic poster format for fifteen years, adding its latest products to the table in front of the figure. It is unclear when the word Bibendum came to be the name of the character himself, at the latest, it was in 1908, when Michelin commissioned Curnonsky to write a newspaper column signed Bibendum. From 1912 onwards, tires became black in colour because carbon was added as a preservative, before then, they were a gray-white or light and translucent-beige colour. Though briefly featured in print ads, Michelin quickly changed back his appearance, citing printing and aesthetic issues for the change. The name of the plump tire-man has entered the language to describe someone obese or wearing comically bulky clothing, bibendums shape has changed over the years. OGalops logo was based on bicycle tires, wore pince-nez glasses with lanyard, by the 1980s, Bibendum was being shown running, and in 1998, his 100th anniversary, a slimmed-down version became the companys new logo. He had long given up the cigar and pince-nez. The slimming of the logo reflected lower-profile, smaller tires of modern cars, Bib even had a similar-looking puppy as a companion when the duo were CGI animated for recent American television advertisements. A history of the emblem was written by Olivier Darmon and published in 1997, Le Grand Siècle de Bibendum, Paris, the Bibendum chair was designed by Eileen Gray in 1925. Cayce Pollard, the character of William Gibsons novel Pattern Recognition, has a strong aversion to corporate brands
23.
Radial tire
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A radial tire is a particular design of vehicular tire. In this design, the cord plies are arranged at 90 degrees to the direction of travel, Radial tire construction climbed to 100% market share in North America, following Consumer Reports finding the superiority of the radial design in 1968. The first radial tire designs were patented in 1915 by Arthur W. Savage, a tire manufacturer, Michelin in France designed, developed, patented, and commercialized the radial tire. There is no evidence that Michelin had knowledge of Arthur Savages earlier work, the first Michelin X radial tire for cars was developed in 1946 by Michelin researcher Marius Mignol. Michelin owned the leading automaker Citroën, so it was able to introduce its new design. In 1952, Michelin developed a truck tire. Because of its significant advantages in durability and fuel economy, this spread quickly in Europe. In 1970, Ford Motor Company produced the first American-made vehicle with radial tires as standard equipment, Michelin tires fitted to the Lincoln Continental Mark III. In 1974, Charles J. Pilliod, Jr. the new CEO of Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, faced a major investment decision regarding retooling for the radial tire, following the 1973 oil crisis. Despite heavy criticism at the time, Pilliod invested heavily in new factories, today, only Goodyear, Cooper, Titan and Specialty Tires of America remain independent among US tire manufacturers, and the radial has a market share of 100%. Sam Gibara, who headed Goodyear from 1996 to 2003, has noted that without the action of Pilliod, Goodyear wouldnt be around today. At that time, racing tires were either slick tires made with the cross ply technique, or radial tires, both were unusable for the Lancia Stratos, as the radials were destroyed within 10 km, and the slicks too stiff. Lancia asked Pirelli for a solution, and in the succeeding year Pirelli also made a wide tire with a reduced sidewall height like a slick, Radial technology is now the standard design for essentially all automotive tires. Bias tires are used on trailers due to their weight carrying ability. For aircraft, the transition is happening more slowly - tires are certified along with the airframe, a radial has less material in the sidewall, so it weighs less, runs cooler and lasts longer. For smaller planes, bias tires afford more stability at speeds and have stronger sidewalls. A series of plies of cord reinforces a tire, without this, a tire would be flexible and weak. The network of cords that gives the strength and shape is called the carcass
24.
Space Shuttle
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The Space Shuttle was a partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated by the U. S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program name was Space Transportation System, taken from a 1969 plan for a system of reusable spacecraft of which it was the only item funded for development, the first of four orbital test flights occurred in 1981, leading to operational flights beginning in 1982. Five complete Shuttle systems were built and used on a total of 135 missions from 1981 to 2011, the Shuttle fleets total mission time was 1322 days,19 hours,21 minutes and 23 seconds. Shuttle components included the Orbiter Vehicle, a pair of solid rocket boosters. The Shuttle was launched vertically, like a rocket, with the two SRBs operating in parallel with the OVs three main engines, which were fueled from the ET. The SRBs were jettisoned before the vehicle reached orbit, and the ET was jettisoned just before orbit insertion, at the conclusion of the mission, the orbiter fired its OMS to de-orbit and re-enter the atmosphere. The orbiter then glided as a spaceplane to a landing, usually at the Shuttle Landing Facility of KSC or Rogers Dry Lake in Edwards Air Force Base. After landing at Edwards, the orbiter was back to the KSC on the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft. The first orbiter, Enterprise, was built in 1976 for use in Approach, four fully operational orbiters were initially built, Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, and Atlantis. Of these, two were lost in accidents, Challenger in 1986 and Columbia in 2003, with a total of fourteen astronauts killed. A fifth operational orbiter, Endeavour, was built in 1991 to replace Challenger, the Space Shuttle was retired from service upon the conclusion of Atlantiss final flight on July 21,2011. Nixons post-Apollo NASA budgeting withdrew support of all components except the Shuttle. The vehicle consisted of a spaceplane for orbit and re-entry, fueled by liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen tanks. The first of four orbital test flights occurred in 1981, leading to operational flights beginning in 1982, all launched from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida. The system was retired from service in 2011 after 135 missions, the program ended after Atlantis landed at the Kennedy Space Center on July 21,2011. Major missions included launching numerous satellites and interplanetary probes, conducting space science experiments, the first orbiter vehicle, named Enterprise, was built for the initial Approach and Landing Tests phase and lacked engines, heat shielding, and other equipment necessary for orbital flight. A total of five operational orbiters were built, and of these and it was used for orbital space missions by NASA, the US Department of Defense, the European Space Agency, Japan, and Germany. The United States funded Shuttle development and operations except for the Spacelab modules used on D1, sL-J was partially funded by Japan
25.
Motorcycle tire
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Pneumatic tyres were invented by John Boyd Dunlop in 1888, and were in widespread use on bicycles and some early motorcycle prototypes by 1895. They were used on the first production motorcycle, the 1894–1897 Hildebrand & Wolfmüller, during this period tyre sizes were usually 22 to 28 inches diameter and 1 1⁄2 to 2 in wide. The early wheels were spoked, made of all metal, or wood and metal, flats were a constant problem, largely the fault of poor roads and not necessarily tyres. For easier repair, butt-ended or open ended inner tubes were used on some models, spoked wheels with tubes remained standard until the 1970s, when solid, usually alloy, wheels began to appear and eventually dominate street motorcycles, making lighter tubeless tyres practical. Indian tyres reached 3.0 in ×28 in, giving even greater rider comfort, banded-edge tyre were obsolete and replaced entirely by the wired-on type by 1930. In the period 1956–1964, typical tyre grip increased by 40%, resulting in better cornering, shorter stopping distance and overall improved safety. This was the result of a range of tyre sizes appearing on the market. A variety of compounds and tread patterns further expanded the options, specialized for wet roads, smooth dry roads, racing, off-road use. Both natural and synthetic rubber were used, and tyres included fibres of cotton, nylon, to compensate, riders leaned out, moving their bodys centre of gravity away from the motorcycle, eventually leaning out so far that their knee would skid along the pavement. Ablative knee pucks or knee sliders were then added to the riders racing leathers to allow their knees to scrape smoothly along the tarmac through turns, the first radial tyres for cars appeared in 1943, but motorcyclists waited forty more years for this technology to come to motorcycles. The new radial tyres had to provide race-replica handling for the very heavy 238 kg dry weight chassis, up to a top speed of 150 mph, the MP7 radials came to the US market in 1985. Motorcycle tyres are available for different applications, including, Sport, Sport Touring, Touring, Cruiser, Scooter, On/Off Road, Dual-Sport, Enduro, Motocross. There are tyres designed for dirtbikes, touring, sport and cruiser bikes, sport/performance tyres provide excellent grip but may last 1,000 miles or less. Cruiser and sport touring tyres try to find the best compromise between grip and durability, there is also a type of tyre developed specifically for racing. These tyres offer the highest of levels of grip for cornering, in racing situations, racing tyres would normally be brought up to temperature in advance by the use of tyre warmers. Sport Touring tyres are not used for high cornering loads. Sport Street tyres are for aggressive street riders that spend most of their time carving corners on public roadways and these tyres do not have a long life, but in turn have better traction in high speed cornering. Street and sport street tyres have good traction even when cold, track or Slick tyres are for track days or races
26.
Bicycle tire
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A bicycle tire is a tire that fits on the wheel of a bicycle, unicycle, tricycle, quadracycle, bicycle trailer, or trailer bike. They may also be used on wheelchairs and handcycles, especially for racing, Bicycle tires provide an important source of suspension, generate the lateral forces necessary for balancing and turning, and generate the longitudinal forces necessary for propulsion and braking. They are the second largest source, after air drag, of consumption on a level road. The modern detachable pneumatic bicycle tire contributed to the popularity and eventual dominance of the safety bicycle, the first bicycle tires were iron bands on the wooden wheels of velocipedes. These were followed by rubber tires on penny-farthings. The first patent for rubberized wheels was granted to Clément Ader in 1868, in an attempt to soften the ride, rubber tires with a hollow core were also tried. The first practical pneumatic tire was made by John Boyd Dunlop in 1887 for his sons bicycle, Dunlop is credited with realizing rubber could withstand the wear and tear of being a tire while retaining its resilience. This led to the founding of Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Co, by 1890, it began adding a tough canvas layer to the rubber to reduce punctures. Racers quickly adopted the pneumatic tire for the increase in speed it enabled, finally, the detachable tire was introduced in 1891 by Édouard Michelin. It was held on the rim with clamps, instead of glue, three main techniques for attaching a bicycle tire to a rim have been developed, clincher, wired and tubular. Clinchers originally did not have wire in the beads and the shape of the bead interlocked with a flange on the rim, however, this type of tire is no longer in general use and the term clincher has transferred to the modern wired-on tire. For the remainder of this article, the use of the word clincher will be assumed. In an attempt to provide the best attributes of both wired and tubular methods, tubular clinchers have also been offered, most bicycle tires are clincher for use with clincher rims. These tires have a wire or Kevlar fiber bead that interlocks with flanges in the rim. A separate airtight inner tube enclosed by the rim supports the tire carcass, an advantage of this system is that the inner tube can be easily accessed in the case of a leak to be patched or replaced. The ISO 5775-2 standard defines designations for bicycle rims and it distinguishes between Straight-side rims Crochet-type rims Hooked-bead rims Traditional wired-on rims were straight-sided. Various hook designs re-emerged in the 1970s to hold the bead of the tire in place and this allows higher air pressures than older wired-on tires. In these designs, it is the interlocking of the bead with the rim, not the tight fit or resistance to stretching of the bead, some tires are torus-shaped and attached to tubular rims with adhesive
27.
O'Galop
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OGalop, pseudonym of Marius Rossillon was a French artist and cartoonist, best known for creating Bibendum, the Michelin Man. OGalop began his career around 1893, drawing cartoons for magazines and he is also a pioneer in animation and created about 40 animated films between 1910 and 1927. OGalop was born in Lyon in 1867 and died in Carsac-Aillac in 1946, Marius OGalop at the Internet Movie Database Public Health Designed by OGalop at Europa Film Treasures You Have to Say It at Europa Film Treasures
28.
Charles Rolls
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Charles Stewart Rolls was an English born Welshman who was a motoring and aviation pioneer. Together with Henry Royce he co-founded the Rolls-Royce car manufacturing firm, Rolls was born in Berkeley Square, London, third son of the 1st Baron Llangattock and Lady Llangattock. Despite his London birth, he retained a family connection with his ancestral home of The Hendre, near Monmouth. After attending Mortimer Vicarage Preparatory School in Berkshire, he was educated at Eton College where his developing interest in engines earned him the nickname dirty Rolls. In 1894 he attended a private crammer in Cambridge which helped him gain entry to Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1896, at the age of 18, he travelled to Paris to buy his first car, a Peugeot Phaeton, and joined the Automobile Club of France. His Peugeot is believed to have been the first car based in Cambridge, Rolls was a keen cyclist and spent time at Cambridge bicycle racing. In 1896, he won a Half Blue and the year became captain of the Cambridge University Bicycle Club. Rolls was a man, standing at about 1.95 m. Rolls was introduced to Henry Royce by a friend at the Royal Automobile Club, Henry Edmunds, Edmunds showed him Royces car and arranged the historic meeting between Rolls and Royce at the Midland Hotel, Manchester, on 4 May 1904. These would be of two, three, four and six cylinders and would be badged as Rolls-Royces. The first Rolls-Royce car, the Rolls-Royce 10 hp, was unveiled at the Paris Salon in December 1904, Rolls provided the financial backing and business acumen to complement Royces technical expertise. In 1907 Rolls-Royce Limited bought out C. S, Rolls put much effort into publicising the quietness and smoothness of the Rolls-Royce, and at the end of 1906 travelled to the USA to promote the new cars. The company was winning awards for the quality and reliability of its cars by 1907, but by 1909 Rolls interest in the business was waning, and at the end of the year he resigned as Technical managing director and became a non-executive director. Rolls was also an aviator and initially, balloonist, making over 170 balloon ascents. He was a member of the Royal Aero Club in 1903 and was the second person in Britain to be licensed to fly by it. In 1903 he also won the Gordon Bennett Gold Medal for the longest single flight time, by 1907 Rolls interest turned increasingly to flying, and he tried unsuccessfully to persuade Royce to design an aero engine. In 1909 he bought one of six Wright Flyer aircraft built by Short Brothers under licence from the Wright Brothers, on 2 June 1910, he became the first man to make a non-stop double crossing of the English Channel by plane, taking 95 minutes. For this feat, which included the first East-bound aerial crossing of the English Channel, there is a statue to commemorate the flight in Monmouth and another in Dover
29.
Monmouth
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Monmouth is a traditional county town in Monmouthshire, Wales. It is situated where the River Monnow meets the River Wye, the town is 30 miles northeast of Cardiff, and 113 miles west of London. It is within the Monmouthshire local authority, and the constituency of Monmouth. According to the 2001 census, its population was 8,877, the town was the site of a small Roman fort, Blestium, and became established after the Normans built a castle here after 1067. Its mediaeval stone gated bridge is the one of its type remaining in Britain. The castle later came into the possession of the House of Lancaster, in 1536, it became the county town of Monmouthshire. Monmouth later became a tourist centre at the heart of the Wye Valley and it now acts as a shopping and service centre, and as a focus of educational and cultural activities for its surrounding rural area. The name Monmouth is an English contraction of Monnow-mouth, the Welsh name for the river, Mynwy, which may originally have meant fast-flowing, was anglicised as Monnow. The town was known in Welsh as Abermynwy, replaced by Trefynwy by the 1600s. Excavations undertaken by the Monmouth Archaeological Society on sites along Monnow Street have uncovered a wealth of information about the history of the town. Indeed, the Council for British Archaeology have designated Monmouth as one of the top ten towns in Britain for archaeology, the excavations later revealed the remains of a Neolithic crannog. The dwelling was constructed on stilts on an island away from the lake shore in water up to 10 feet deep. Timbers from the structure were dated to 4867 years before present. The first recorded settlement at Monmouth was the small Roman fort of Blestium and this was connected by road to the larger Roman towns at Glevum and Isca Augusta. Archaeologists have found Roman pottery and coins within the town centre. After the end of Roman rule in Britain, the area was at the edge of the Welsh kingdom of Ergyng. The only evidence of continuing settlement at Monmouth is a record of a 7th-century church, at a location within the town. Initially it would have been a motte and bailey castle, later rebuilt in stone, and refortified and developed over time
30.
Road bicycle
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The term road bicycle is used to describe bicycles built for traveling at speed on paved roads. Some sources use the term to mean racing bicycle, certain of these bicycles have been referred to as sportive bicycles to distinguish them from racing bicycles. Compared to other styles of bicycle, road bicycles share common features, The tires are narrow, high-pressure, the handlebars are bent to allow the rider position to be leaned forward and downward, which reduces the forward vertical cross sectional area and thus highly reduces the air resistance. They usually use derailleur gears, however, single-speed and fixed-gear varieties exist, the bicycle is of a lightweight construction. The term road bicycle can also describe any type of bike used primarily on paved roads, in contrast to bikes primarily intended for off-road use, such as mountain bikes. Several variations of road include, Touring bicycles are designed for bicycle touring, they are robust, comfortable. Hybrid bicycles are designed for a variety of recreational and utility purposes, while primarily intended for use on pavement, they may also be used on relatively smooth unpaved paths or trails. Utility bicycles are designed for utility cycling, are a traditional bicycle for commuting, shopping and running errands in towns, roadster a specific form of the utility bicycle developed in the UK. Recumbent bicycles are designed for variety of recreational and utility purposes, vintage road bicycles, also known as classic lightweight bicycles, are generally older bicycles with frames which are manufactured using steel tubing and lugs. Certain examples of this type have become collectors items, with potential values of several thousand dollars. A flat bar road bike, also called a bike is a relatively new style of bicycle. It is simply a road bike fitted with MTB-style shifters, brake levers and this combination provides a light, fast bike with a more upright and neutral riding position thats less intimidating for most riders. A flat bar road bike is most commonly used for commuting, urban and fitness riding
31.
Charles Terront
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Charles Terront was the first major French cycling star. He won sprint, middle distance and endurance events in Europe, in September 1891 he won the first Paris–Brest–Paris cycle race, which at 1,196 kilometres was more than double the length of any previous event. He rode a Humber bicycle fitted with prototype removable pneumatic tyres made by Michelin and he won 54 major events over his 15-year career, was Champion of France twice and Champion of Great Britain twice. Terront was born in Saint-Ouen, Seine-Saint-Denis and he took up cycle racing in 1876 along with his brother Jules. Charles excelled at both endurance and speed events, and also won many events on a tandem with his brother Jules and he won 54 major solo events over his 15-year career, including being Champion of France twice and Champion of Great Britain twice. In 1879 he covered 546.327 kilometres in 24 hours, on 27 September 1893 he left Saint Petersburg in Russia to cycle 3,000 kilometres across Poland and Germany, arriving at the Vélodrome Buffalo in Paris after 14 days and 7 hours. In 1894 he completed a ride from Rome, Italy, to Paris, Pierre Giffard of Le Petit Journal created the Paris-Brest et retour cycle race in September 1891, describing it as an épreuve, a test of the bicycles reliability and the riders endurance. Riders were fully self-sufficient, carrying their own food and clothing and riding the bicycle for the duration. The response was so phenomenal that they had to charge 5 francs entrance as 300 riders signed up, each bicycle was given an official seal at a 2-day ceremony, the 280 sealed machines included 10 tricycles,2 Tandem bicycles, and 1 Penny-farthing. Participation was restricted to French men and 99 of the 207 participants finished and he passed his main rival Jiel-Laval from Adolphe Cléments Dunlop Clément team as he slept during the third night. Both had suffered punctures in their tyres, but still enjoyed an advantage over riders on solid tires. Terronts arrival in Paris was watched by a crowd of 10,000 people, terronts fame meant that he was the first athlete to have his memoires published during his lifetime. In 1893 he explained his life, races and training methods to French journalist Louis Baudry de Saunier, also in 1893 En suivant Terront by Herbert Duncan and Pierre Lafitte used 100 drawings to follow his ride to Paris from Saint Petersburg. A plaque in Brest commemorates his 1891 victory in the Paris–Brest–Paris, the Rue Charles Terront in Nantes is named in his honour. Palmarès of Charles Terront at Mémoire du cyclisme Charles Terront at Cyclologie. com
32.
Phu Rieng Do
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Phú Riềng Đỏ or the Red Phú Riềng was a communist-instigated strike that took place in Michelins Thuân-Loï rubber plantation near Phú Riềng in the Biên Hòa Province of Cochinchina on 4 February 1930. Most of the labourers were peasants from Tonkin and Annam driven by poverty to seek livelihood in southern Vietnam. Working and living conditions on the plantations, however, were harsh, hence, while the communists may not seem to have achieved much from Phú Riềng Đỏ, it actually offered them some valuable first lessons in their anti-colonial struggle. Rubber production began in Cochinchina after 1907 when the French wanted a share of the profits that rubber brought to British Malaya, the colonial government encouraged investment from metropolitan France by granting large tracts of land to cultivate rubber on an industrial scale. Soon, both labour and infrastructure were harnessed in earnest as the rainforests in eastern Cochinchina, the highly fertile red lands, were cleared for rubber plantations. In fact by 1921, about 29,000 hectares of Cochinchinese land had turned into plantations, and Biên Hòa. Consequently, in the whole of Indochina,90,225 hectares of land had already cleared for rubber plantations by 1929. Rubber cultivation was practiced by both French and native Vietnamese planters, even so, the working conditions on these large French plantations were not conducive. In other words, while the French were profit-driven, the Vietnamese put nationalism before production, Rubber was very profitable to both colonial government and large French metropolitan companies given that the latters combined output was nearly equivalent to the total latex output in Indochina. As a result, the government was involved in economic activity rom the control of goods prices. To the policing of worker dissent to safeguard this very profitable export industry, by the time Phu Rieng Do broke up in 1930, the largest rubber plantations had formed the Section autonome de lUnion des planteurs de Caoutchouc de lIndochine to further their interests. Given their close relationship, one area of cooperation between government and planter was in labour procurement and this expansion depleted local labour supplies and resulted in a severe labour shortage by mid-1920s. One such northern worker was Trần Tử Bình, and he was to play a significant role in the strike, moreover, it did not help that many of these recruited northerners were driven to destitution in the first place by a money-based capitalist economy. This was an effect of colonialism where cash economy had penetrated the rural economy, hence, these peasants had to resort to borrowing at inflated rates which resulted in many of them being trapped in unending indebtedness. The new agrarian capitalism also divided society into the haves and the have-nots of land ownership, for those peasants who thought they could continue to live off subsistence farming, the aforementioned tax system was actually pulling them deeper into the cash economy. As a result, many smallholders were expropriated while tenants, sharecroppers and wage-labourers were trapped in debts and this, however, made up no more than 2 per cent of the population. In other words, the pool of potential followers of the communist movement was small, moreover, the communists were also fragmented in their various parties. In early 1930, party leaders therefore opposed the use of violence until the Communist movement could be unified
33.
French Indochina
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French Indochina, officially known as the Indochinese Union after 1887 and the Indochinese Federation after 1947, was a grouping of French colonial territories in Southeast Asia. A grouping of the three Vietnamese regions of Tonkin, Annam, and Cochinchina with Cambodia was formed in 1887, Laos was added in 1893 and the leased Chinese territory of Guangzhouwan in 1898. The capital was moved from Saigon to Hanoi in 1902 and again to Da Lat in 1939, in 1945 it was moved back to Hanoi. After the Fall of France during World War II, the colony was administered by the Vichy government and was under Japanese occupation until March 1945, beginning in May 1941, the Viet Minh, a communist army led by Hồ Chí Minh, began a revolt against the Japanese. In August 1945 they declared Vietnamese independence and extended the war, known as the First Indochina War, in Saigon, the anti-Communist State of Vietnam, led by former Emperor Bảo Đại, was granted independence in 1949. On 9 November 1953, the Kingdom of Laos and the Kingdom of Cambodia became independent, following the Geneva Accord of 1954, the French evacuated Vietnam and French Indochina came to an end. France–Vietnam relations started as early as the 17th century with the mission of the Jesuit missionary Alexandre de Rhodes, at this time, Vietnam was only just beginning to occupy the Mekong Delta, former territory of the Indianised kingdom of Champa which they had defeated in 1471. European involvement in Vietnam was confined to trade during the 18th century, pigneau died in Vietnam but his troops fought on until 1802 in the French assistance to Nguyễn Ánh. France was heavily involved in Vietnam in the 19th century, protecting the work of the Paris Foreign Missions Society in the country was presented as a justification. In 1858, the period of unification under the Nguyễn dynasty ended with a successful attack on Da Nang by French Admiral Charles Rigault de Genouilly under the orders of Napoleon III. Diplomat Charles de Montignys mission having failed, Genouillys mission was to stop attempts to expel Catholic missionaries and his orders were to stop the persecution of missionaries and assure the unimpeded propagation of the faith. In September 1858, fourteen French gunships,3,000 men and 300 Filipino troops provided by the Spanish attacked the port of Tourane, causing significant damage, after a few months, Rigault had to leave the city due to supply issues and illnesses. Sailing south, de Genouilly then captured the poorly defended city of Saigon on 18 February 1859, on 13 April 1862, the Vietnamese government was forced to cede the three provinces of Biên Hòa, Gia Định and Định Tường to France. French policy four years saw a reversal, with the French continuing to accumulate territory. In 1862, France obtained concessions from Emperor Tự Đức, ceding three treaty ports in Annam and Tonkin, and all of Cochinchina, the latter being formally declared a French territory in 1864. In 1867 the provinces of Châu Đốc, Hà Tiên and Vĩnh Long were added to French-controlled territory, in 1863, the Cambodian king Norodom had requested the establishment of a French protectorate over his country. France obtained control over northern Vietnam following its victory over China in the Sino-French War, French Indochina was formed on 17 October 1887 from Annam, Tonkin, Cochinchina and the Kingdom of Cambodia, Laos was added after the Franco-Siamese War in 1893. The federation lasted until 21 July 1954, French troops landed in Vietnam in 1858 and by the mid-1880s they had established a firm grip over the northern region
34.
Run-flat tire
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There are three basic technologies currently available, described below. The origins of the commercial self-supporting run-flat tire started in 1935 with a tire that had an inner tire. The tire was advertised as a protection against blow outs, a common, in 1934, Michelin introduced a tire that was based on technology developed for local commuter trains and trolleys. It had a safety rim inside the tire which if punctured would run on a special foam lining, the tire was sold for military use and for specialized vehicles like bank armoured cars. It was advertised as semi-bullet proof, while the tire performed as advertised it was far too expensive to be a feasible option for most private automobile users. In 1958, Chrysler teamed with Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company to offer Captive Air run-flat tires using an interlining to carry the weight, most recently, Bridgestone and Pirelli run-flat tires are supplied on some new model BMW cars. The automaker promoted these as a safety feature and as an alternative to carrying a spare tire, self-supporting run-flat tires are now common on light trucks and passenger cars and typically provide for the vehicle to drive for 50 miles at around 50 miles per hour. These tires carry a 20 to 40 percent weight penalty over similar standard tires, the thicker sidewall also means higher rolling resistance, which reduces the vehicles fuel economy. These tires contain an extra lining within the tire that self-seals in the event of a hole due to a nail or screw. In this way, the loss of air is prevented from the outset such that the tire is either permanently self-repairing or at least loses air very slowly, there are also a number of retrofitted tire sealants which act in a similar way to self-sealing tires. These compounds are normally injected through the tire valve, the rotating force then distributes the compound onto the inner surface of the tire to act as a self-sealing lining within the tire. In this system, there is a support ring or insert attached to the wheel that can support the weight of the vehicle in the event of a loss of pressure. Performance criteria are therefore in terms of distance and speed at which the vehicle can escape without becoming immobile, the usual standard of performance, especially for military or security vehicles, are the Finabel standards. Run-flat tires accounted for less than 1% of replacement tire sales in the U. S. in 2005, a Michelin study released in 2008 found that 3 percent of drivers worldwide want run-flat tires. U. S. market share is well below 1 percent, american Honda Motor Co. announced that the 2009 Honda Odyssey Touring and Acura RL were its last models available with run-flat tires and with Honda no longer using run-flats. This leaves only a handful of manufacturers offering them as standard fittings. An exception is BMW, who are the largest fitter of run-flats as original equipment, former US President Barack Obamas presidential limo, the Beast, had Goodyear Kevlar lined run flat tires. Besides the cost, which can be more than other tires of comparable size, run-flat tires can not be run flat if the flat is due to sidewall damage
35.
Consumer Reports
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Consumer Reports publishes reviews and comparisons of consumer products and services based on reporting and results from its in-house testing laboratory and survey research center. The magazine accepts no advertising, pays for all the products it tests and it also publishes general and targeted product/service buying guides. As of April 2016 it had approximately 7 million subscribers and an annual testing budget of approximately US$25 million, Consumer Reports is well known for its policies on editorial independence, which it says are to maintain our independence and impartiality. CU has no other than the interests of consumers. CR has unusually strict requirements and sometimes has taken extraordinary steps, Consumer Reports does not allow outside advertising in the magazine but its website has retailers advertisements. Consumer Reports states that PriceGrabber places the ads and pays a percentage of fees to CR. Consumer Reports publishes reviews of its business partner and recommends it in at least one case, CR had a similar relationship with BizRate at one time and has had relationships with other companies including Amazon. com, Yahoo. The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, BillShrink, CR also accepts grants from other organizations, and at least one high-ranking Consumer Reports employee has gone on to work for a company he evaluated. CR also forbids the use of its reviews for selling products, for example, CR has gone to court to enforce that rule. However, in order to review some products before they are publicly available CR does accept press samples from manufacturers, for most of CRs history it minimized contact with government and industry experts to avoid compromising the independence of its judgment. In 2007, in response to errors in infant car seat testing, it began accepting advice from a range of experts on designing tests. Also, at times CR allows manufacturers to review and respond to criticism before publication, some objective and comparative tests published by Consumer Reports are carried out under the umbrella of the international consumer organization International Consumer Research & Testing. Consumer Reports also uses outside labs for testing, including for 11 percent of tests in 2006, consumerReports. org, the related website is largely available only to paid subscribers. ConsumerReports. org provides updates on product availability, and adds new products to previously-published test results, in 1990, Consumers Union launched Consumer Reports Television. By March 2005 it was hosted by over 100 stations, on August 1,2006 Consumers Union launched ShopSmart, a magazine aimed at young women. In 2008, Consumers Union acquired The Consumerist blog from Gawker Media, WebWatch worked with the Stanford Web Credibility Project, Harvard Universitys Berkman Center, The Annenberg School of Communications at the University of Pennsylvania, and others. WebWatch is a member of ICANN, the W3C and the Internet Society, as of July 31,2009, WebWatch has been shut down, though the site is still available. Consumer Reports Best Buy Drugs is available free on Consumer Reports Health. org, also in 2005 Consumers Union launched the service Greener Choices, which is meant to inform, engage, and empower consumers about environmentally-friendly products and practices
36.
Lincoln Continental Mark III
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The Lincoln Continental Mark III is a personal luxury car of the Lincoln Mark series, that was produced by Lincoln and sold in North America in the 1969 through 1971 model years. The Mark III was based on the fourth generation Lincoln Continental, with the Thunderbird dying in the marketplace Iacocca wanted to put the companys development investment to better use by expanding its platform over several models. The Mark III was intended to compete head-to-head with the top of the personal luxury car market. This placed it above the second tier premium personal luxury cars such as the Ford Thunderbird, Buick Riviera, as the Eldorado was built upon the Toronado frame, the Mark IIIs was based off the Thunderbirds. While the side-rail frame was identical to the Thunderbirds, the Mark III bore almost 300 lb more bodywork, power was adequate from Lincolns Ford 385 engine-based 460 cu in 365 bhp V8. Iacocca said, We brought out the Mark III in April 1968, and in its very first year it outsold the Cadillac Eldorado, for the next five years we had a field day, in part because the car had been developed on the cheap. We did the thing for $30 million, a bargain-basement price, because we were able to use existing parts. Iacocca explained of the Mark series, The Mark is Fords biggest moneymaker and it seems that in the United States the one thing you can count on is that even during a depression, the rich get richer. So you always have to have some goodies for them, the new Mark III was actually not the first model to use the designation, which had been used on a 1958-1960 Continental Mark III. Large and extremely extravagant even for its time, it did not sell as well as the iconic tail-fin Cadillacs it competed against, the new Mark III was built at the enlarged facility at the Wixom, Michigan assembly plant, home to subsequent generations of the model. Standard equipment included power steering, brakes, windows, vacuum activated concealed headlamps, the instrument panel and trim panels on the doors featured simulated wood appliques in either English Oak or East-Indian Rosewood. After a few months, a Cartier-branded clock became standard equipment, the upholstery was either the standard vinyl with cloth inserts, or the optional leather. The 1970 model was the first American-made vehicle with radial tires as standard equipment, a vinyl roof in cavalry twill pattern was optional, but examples without the vinyl roof were rare. A limited slip differential could be ordered, as could anti-lock brakes, cruise control was also an option. Finally, an automatic headlamp dimmer that dimmed the headlights for oncoming cars without driver intervention was available and this was the start of a long, successful run for the Lincoln Continental Mark Series. Because of its introduction and extended production year, the 1969 model had several running changes made. Cars produced prior to July 1968 had a steering wheel pad with a larger wood applique. Cars produced prior to July 1968 featured a decorative stitching pattern on the face of the seat above the center arm rest
37.
Goodrich Corporation
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The Goodrich Corporation, formerly the B. F. Goodrich Company, was an American aerospace manufacturing company based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Founded in Akron, Ohio in 1870 as Goodrich, Tew & Co. by Dr. Benjamin Franklin Goodrich, the company name was changed to the B. F. Goodrich Company in 1880, to BFGoodrich in the 1980s, and to Goodrich Corporation in 2001. In 1869 Benjamin Franklin Goodrich purchased the Hudson River Rubber Company, the following year Goodrich accepted an offer of $13,600 from the citizens of Akron, Ohio, to relocate his business there. Goodrich ranked 67th among United States corporations in the value of World War II military production contracts, the company grew to be one of the largest tire and rubber manufacturers in the world, helped in part by the 1986 merger with Uniroyal. This product line was sold to Michelin in 1988, and the merged with Rohr, Coltec Industries. The sale of the specialty chemicals division and subsequent change to the current name completed the transformation. In 2006, company sales were $5.8 billion, of which 18%, 16% and 12% of total revenues were accounted for by the U. S. government, Airbus and Boeing, respectively. Though BFGoodrich is a brand name of tires, the Goodrich Corporation exited the tire business in 1988. The tire business and use of the name was sold to Michelin, before the sale to Michelin, Goodrich ran television and print ads showing an empty blue sky, to distinguish themselves from the similar-sounding Goodyear tire company. The tag line was, See that blimp up in the sky, the company was also sometimes confused with Mr. Goodwrench as the two last names were similar, especially when B. F. Goodrich tires were featured on many General Motors cars and trucks. B. F. Goodrich sold radios from the 1930s to the 1950s and these radios were actually made by a variety of manufacturers for B. F. Goodrich. In 1936 the company entered the Mexican market in a joint venture with Euzkadi, the Troy, Ohio plant was purchased in 1946 from Waco. Since then, Goodrich has manufactured wheels and brakes for a variety of aircraft, among these are commercial, military, regional, and business programs. This successful operation lies at the core of Goodrichs business, competitors include the aerostructures divisions of companies such as Honeywell, Messier-Bugatti, Aircraft Braking Systems, and SNECMA. The Hood Rubber Company was sold before the Great Depression as a division of the B. F. Goodrich Company, by 1986 B. F. Goodrich had become an S&P 500-listed company in diverse business, including tire and rubber fabrication. B. F. Goodrich made high-performance replacement tires, B. F. Goodrich Company held a 50% stake in the new tire company. In 1987, its first full year of operation, the new Uniroyal Goodrich Tire Company generated almost $2 billion in sales revenue, the merger soon proved to be difficult. In June 1988 B. F. Goodrich sold its 50% stake for $225 million, the buyers were a group of investors led by Clayton & Dubilier, Inc. a private New York investment firm
38.
Norwood, North Carolina
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Norwood is a town in Stanly County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 2,379 at the 2010 census, Norwood is located at 35°13′32″N 80°7′12″W. According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has an area of 2.4 square miles. U. S. Highway 52 passes through the town between Wadesboro and Albemarle, as of the census of 2000, there were 2,216 people,893 households, and 624 families residing in the town. The population density was 925.1 people per square mile, there were 1,036 housing units at an average density of 432.5 per square mile. The racial makeup of the town was 67. 69% White,25. 45% African American,0. 05% Native American,1. 04% Asian,4. 87% from other races, hispanic or Latino of any race were 6. 72% of the population. 26. 4% of all households were made up of individuals and 13. 4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older, the average household size was 2.48 and the average family size was 2.95. In the town, the population was out with 25. 2% under the age of 18,6. 8% from 18 to 24,26. 6% from 25 to 44,26. 0% from 45 to 64. The median age was 38 years, for every 100 females there were 90.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 86.8 males, the median income for a household in the town was $31,563, and the median income for a family was $37,460. Males had an income of $29,922 versus $20,288 for females. The per capita income for the town was $15,117, about 14. 7% of families and 16. 8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 21. 6% of those under age 18 and 18. 3% of those age 65 or over. Norwood is currently served by two roads and one US Highway and one NC Route. Water and sewer service is provided by the town with their own water and sewer plant, a County branch library and museum provides education opportunities to the town. Bordered by Lake Tillery and the Rocky River, recreation is abundant, Golf is available at Piney Point Golf Club. Fork Stables is located about 2 miles south of town and the Michelin tire plant which makes the aircraft tires for the shuttle is located in town. Police and Fire protection is provided by the town by full-time officers, Norwood is nestled in a beautiful area between two rivers next to the Uwharrie Mountains. Besides the multitude of recreation and entertainment opportunities nearby there are also places for visitors
39.
Space Shuttle program
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When its mission was complete, the orbiter would re-enter the Earths atmosphere and land like a glider at either the Kennedy Space Center or Edwards Air Force Base. The Shuttle is the only winged manned spacecraft to have achieved orbit and landing, and its missions involved carrying large payloads to various orbits, providing crew rotation for the space station, and performing service missions. The orbiter also recovered satellites and other payloads from orbit and returned them to Earth, the stalled plans for a U. S. space station evolved into the International Space Station and were formally initiated in 1983 by U. S. The first experimental orbiter Enterprise was a glider, launched from the back of a specially modified Boeing 747. The Space Shuttle program finished with its last mission, STS-135 flown by Atlantis, in July 2011, the Space Shuttle program formally ended on August 31,2011. Since the Shuttles retirement, many of its duties are performed by an assortment of government. The European ATV Automated Transfer Vehicle supplied the ISS between 2008 and 2015, classified military missions are being flown by the US Air Forces unmanned space plane, the X-37B. Crew service to the ISS is currently provided by the Russian Soyuz while work on the Commercial Crew Development program proceeds, for missions beyond low Earth orbit, NASA is building the Space Launch System and the Orion spacecraft. Before the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969, NASA began early studies of space shuttle designs, in 1969, President Richard Nixon formed the Space Task Group, chaired by Vice President Spiro T. Agnew. Smaller goals included a variety of vehicles for moving spacecraft around in orbit. Presenting the plans to Nixon, Agnew was told that the administration would not commit to a Mars mission and he was then told to select one of the two remaining proposals. During early shuttle development there was debate about the optimal shuttle design that best balanced capability, development cost. Ultimately the current design was chosen, using a reusable winged orbiter, reusable solid rocket boosters, the shuttle program was formally launched on January 5,1972, when President Nixon announced that NASA would proceed with the development of a reusable space shuttle system. The prime contractor for the program was North American Rockwell, the company responsible for building the Apollo Command/Service Module. The contractor for the Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Boosters was Morton Thiokol, for the tank, Martin Marietta. All Space Shuttle missions were launched from the Kennedy Space Center, the weather criteria used for launch included, but were not limited to, precipitation, temperatures, cloud cover, lightning forecast, wind, and humidity. The Shuttle was not launched under conditions where it could have been struck by lightning, the first fully functional orbiter was Columbia, built in Palmdale, California. It was delivered to Kennedy Space Center on March 25,1979, Challenger was delivered to KSC in July 1982, Discovery in November 1983, Atlantis in April 1985 and Endeavour in May 1991
€ 20.907 billion (2016)[1]
€ 2.692 billion (2016)[1]
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