1.
Uncasville, Connecticut
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Uncasville is an area in the town of Montville, Connecticut, United States. It is a village in southeastern Montville, at the mouth of the Oxoboxo River, the name is now applied more generally to all of the east end of Montville, which is the area served by the Uncasville ZIP code. In 1994 the federal government officially recognized the Mohegan Indian Tribe of Connecticut and that year Congress passed the Mohegan Nation Land Claim Settlement Act. It authorized the United States to take land into trust in northeastern Montville for the Mohegan tribes use as a reservation, since gaining a reservation, in 1996 the tribe developed the Mohegan Sun casino resort. It has also built the Mohegan Sun Arena on their land, the Mohegan are one of the Native American peoples of the Algonquian languages family. Uncasville takes its name from Uncas, the 17th-century Mohegan sachem, the Mohegan, originally part of the Algonquian-speaking Pequot people, became independent through the 17th and 18th centuries, they allied with the English during the Pequot War of 1637. Uncas established a village for defense, now known as Fort Shantok. He later welcomed English colonists to the Mohegan lands, the village of Uncasville became the site of the first woolen mill in the United States, developed by the brothers John and Arthur Schofield. Their carding and spinning mill was located at the mouth of the Oxoboxo River, the Uncasville Manufacturing Corporation operated on the river into the early 20th century, as shown in the postcard image to the right. In the 1950s the Olin Mathieson Chemical Corporation established a manufacturing facility in the Sandy Desert section in northeastern Montville. In 1961, it formed a joint venture, the United Nuclear Corporation, with Mallinckrodt Corporation of America and they started with a total of 1400 employees, producing nuclear reactor fuel components for the United States Navy nuclear program. The site was near Trading Bay, some parts of the program ended by 1976. After United Nuclear ceased its operations about 1990, the site was cleaned up of environmental hazards, decommissioned and this was a redevelopment area as designated by the village. As colonial agents had sold land reserved for them, the Mohegan people had lost recognition as a sovereign entity and they sought federal recognition through the formal administrative process, submitting thorough documentation to prove their community and cultural continuity. At the same time, beginning in the 1970s, they were pursuing a claim against Connecticut for having been deprived of their traditional lands. In 1994, the U. S. Department of the Interior granted federal recognition to the Mohegan tribe, several months later, the U. S. Congress passed the Mohegan Nation Land Claim Settlement Act. It authorized the United States to take into trust the United Nuclear site for use as Mohegan reservation lands, with this, in exchange, Congress approved the tribe undertaking gambling operations at the reservation site. With its own reservation, the Mohegan developed gaming operations to generate revenue for tribal welfare and they opened the Mohegan Sun casino on October 12,1996, near the former Fort Shantok site above the Thames River
2.
Native Americans in the United States
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In the United States, Native Americans are people descended from the Pre-Columbian indigenous population of the land within the countrys modern boundaries. These peoples were composed of distinct tribes, bands, and ethnic groups. Most Native American groups had historically preserved their histories by oral traditions and artwork, at the time of first contact, the indigenous cultures were quite different from those of the proto-industrial and mostly Christian immigrants. Some of the Northeastern and Southwestern cultures in particular were matrilineal, the majority of Indigenous American tribes maintained their hunting grounds and agricultural lands for use of the entire tribe. Europeans at that time had patriarchal cultures and had developed concepts of property rights with respect to land that were extremely different. Assimilation became a consistent policy through American administrations, during the 19th century, the ideology of manifest destiny became integral to the American nationalist movement. Expansion of European-American populations to the west after the American Revolution resulted in increasing pressure on Native American lands and this resulted in the ethnic cleansing of many tribes, with the brutal, forced marches coming to be known as The Trail of Tears. As American expansion reached into the West, settler and miner migrants came into increasing conflict with the Great Basin, Great Plains and these were complex nomadic cultures based on horse culture and seasonal bison hunting. Over time, the United States forced a series of treaties and land cessions by the tribes, in 1924, Native Americans who were not already U. S. citizens were granted citizenship by Congress. Contemporary Native Americans have a relationship with the United States because they may be members of nations, tribes. The terms used to refer to Native Americans have at times been controversial, by comparison, the indigenous peoples of Canada are generally known as First Nations. It is not definitively known how or when the Native Americans first settled the Americas and these early inhabitants, called Paleoamericans, soon diversified into many hundreds of culturally distinct nations and tribes. The archaeological periods used are the classifications of archaeological periods and cultures established in Gordon Willey and Philip Phillips 1958 book Method and they divided the archaeological record in the Americas into five phases, see Archaeology of the Americas. The Clovis culture, a hunting culture, is primarily identified by use of fluted spear points. Artifacts from this culture were first excavated in 1932 near Clovis, the Clovis culture ranged over much of North America and also appeared in South America. The culture is identified by the distinctive Clovis point, a flaked flint spear-point with a notched flute, dating of Clovis materials has been by association with animal bones and by the use of carbon dating methods. Recent reexaminations of Clovis materials using improved carbon-dating methods produced results of 11,050 and 10,800 radiocarbon years B. P, other tribes have stories that recount migrations across long tracts of land and a great river, believed to be the Mississippi River. Genetic and linguistic data connect the people of this continent with ancient northeast Asians
3.
Women's National Basketball Association
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The Womens National Basketball Association is a professional womens basketball league in the United States. It is currently composed of twelve teams, the league was founded on April 24,1996 as the womens counterpart to the National Basketball Association, and league play started in 1997. The regular season is played from June to September with the All Star game being played midway through the season in July, many WNBA teams have direct NBA counterparts and play in the same arena. The four aforementioned franchises, along with the Atlanta Dream and the Los Angeles Sparks, are all independently owned. The creation of the WNBA was officially approved by the NBA Board of Governors on April 24,1996, and announced at a conference with Rebecca Lobo, Lisa Leslie. The new WNBA had to compete with the recently-formed American Basketball League, while not the first major womens professional basketball league in the United States, the WNBA is the only league to receive full backing of the NBA. The WNBA logo, Logo Woman, paralleled the NBA logo and was selected out of 50 different designs. On the heels of a gold medal run by the 1996 USA Basketball Womens National Team at the 1996 Summer Olympic Games. The first WNBA game featured the New York Liberty facing the Los Angeles Sparks in Los Angeles, the game was televised nationally in the United States on the NBC television network. Penny Toler scored the leagues first point, the WNBA centered its marketing campaign, dubbed We Got Next, around stars Rebecca Lobo, Lisa Leslie and Sheryl Swoopes. In the leagues first season, Leslies Los Angeles Sparks underperformed, the WNBAs true star in 1997 was WNBA MVP Cynthia Cooper, Swoopes teammate on the Houston Comets. The Comets defeated Lobos New York Liberty in the first WNBA Championship game, the initial We Got Next advertisement ran before each WNBA season until it was replaced with the We Got Game campaign. Two teams were added in 1998 and two more in 1999, bringing the number of teams in the league up to twelve and we expect to keep growing the league. In 1999, the chief competition, the American Basketball League. When a lockout resulted in an abbreviated NBA season, the WNBA saw faltering TV viewership, on May 23,2000, the Houston Comets became the first WNBA team to be invited to the White House Rose Garden. Before this invitation, only mens sports teams had traveled to the White House, at the end of the 2000 season, the Houston Comets won their fourth championship, capturing every title since the leagues inception. Led by the Big Three of Sheryl Swoopes, Tina Thompson, and four-time Finals MVP Cynthia Cooper, under head coach Van Chancellor, the team posted a 98–24 record through their first four seasons. After 2000, Cooper retired from the league and the Comets dynasty came to an end, the top contender in the 2001 season was the Los Angeles Sparks
4.
National Lacrosse League
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The National Lacrosse League is a mens professional box lacrosse league in North America. Headquartered in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, the NLL currently has 9 teams with 5 in the United States and 4 in Canada, unlike other lacrosse leagues which play in the summer, the NLL plays its games in the winter and spring, from January to June. Each year, the teams battle for the Champions Cup. The NLL has averaged between 9,400 and 10,700 spectators per game each year since 2004, the version of lacrosse played in the NLL is box lacrosse otherwise known as indoor lacrosse. The NLL plays four 15-minute quarters with 2-minute breaks between the 1st and 2nd quarters and between the 3rd and 4th quarters, the clock does not run when play is stopped. The team that has scored the most goals at the end of time is declared the winner. If a game is tied after regulation, the two teams play sudden death overtime periods of up to 15 minutes each where the team to score wins the game. Each team dresses 18 players of whom 2 are goaltenders, the remaining 16 are called runners, each team in the NLL plays 18 games during the regular season,9 at home and 9 away. The teams are divided into 2 divisions, the East Division, each team plays at least 12 of its 18 regular season games against division opponents. The regular season begins in late December and ends in April, at the end of the regular season, the top 3 teams in each of the East Division and West Division make the playoffs to compete for the Champions Cup. The 2 regular season division champions earn a bye as top seeds. The 2nd seed hosts the 3rd seed in their division for the single-game elimination Division Semifinal in the 1st round. In 2014, the Division Finals and Championship expanded to a 2-game series from the previous single-game elimination setup, whoever won both games would win the 2-game series. In the event of a split with both teams winning one game, a 10-minute mini-game period would be played, if still tied, multiple 10-minute overtime periods thereafter. The mini-game was played following the conclusion of the second contest to determine the winner of the playoff series. In 2015, the format changed once again, expanding the Finals to a best-of-3 series. The first two playoff rounds remained the same, with the Division Semi-finals as an elimination. All NLL games are played on weekends, save for the occasional Friday night game, the National Lacrosse League currently plays an 18-game regular season with three teams from each division qualifying for postseason play
5.
Mohegan Sun Arena
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The Mohegan Sun Arena is a 10,000 seat multi-purpose arena in Uncasville, Connecticut located inside Mohegan Sun. The arena facility features 30,000 square feet of exhibition space. It was built by the Perini Building Company, and opened in October 2001, the arena originally served as home of the Mohegan Wolves arena football team until it was sold and moved to Manchester, New Hampshire in 2004. On January 28,2003 the arena was announced as the home court for the Connecticut Sun. Prior to the fall of 2002, the NBA operating model precluded any WNBA team without an NBA brother counterpart, by the time the Connecticut Sun moved in, Val Ackerman was the WNBA president and Mark L. Brown was the chairman of the Mohegan Tribe. While the arena is attached to the Mohegan Sun casino, the facility does not accept any form of sports wagering or sports booking because sports betting is illegal in Connecticut. On September 8,2005, as a companion to the arena and it was the first store in the United States that sold professional basketball goods on casino ground. However, the store was closed when the casino underwent renovations in 2008, Connecticut Sun merchandise can now be purchased in the Arena during games. Major network and cable television broadcasting companies, including CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX, ESPN, as of 2006, the seating can be configured into 5 common sports configurations. Basketball, boxing, bowling, rodeo, table tennis, lacrosse and it also can be reconfigured to fit many types of concerts, regular, fullhouse, centerstage, and halfhouse. The arena has won awards for being one of Americas most modern concert venues, the arena was awarded the 2008 and 2010 Country Music Award for Casino of the Year. It was also ranked the 4th best venue by Billboard Magazine. WNBA All-Star Game –, Bellator MMA – Bellator 2, Bellator 11, Bellator 15, Bellator 39, Bellator 48, Bellator 63, Bellator 98, Bellator 110, Bellator 123, Bellator 134, national Lacrosse League 2002 All-Star Game
6.
Connecticut Sun
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The Connecticut Sun is an American professional womens basketball team based in Uncasville, Connecticut that competes in the Eastern Conference of the Womens National Basketball Association. Along with the Minnesota Lynx, the club was established in 1999 as part of the expansion from ten to twelve teams. The Miracle, the previous moniker, originated that year in Orlando. The derivative of the name comes from its affiliation with Mohegan Sun. The Sun is considered by many to be the most successful franchise in the WNBA yet to have won a championship, the Sun has qualified for the WNBA Playoffs in eight of its fourteen years in Connecticut. In 2004 and 2005, the Sun went to the WNBA Finals but fell short to Seattle and Sacramento, before the franchise relocated to Connecticut in 2003, the team operated as the Orlando Miracle. The Miracle played their games at TD Waterhouse Centre in Orlando, Florida. The Miracle placed reasonable records in their four years of existence and earned the seed in the 2000 WNBA playoffs. Since Magic ownership was no longer interested in retaining the rights to the Miracle and no local partnership was reached, on January 28,2003, it was announced that the Miracle would immediately move to Uncasville, Connecticut and change its nickname to the Sun. The Suns nickname, color scheme and logo are similar to that of another defunct Florida-based franchise, the Miami Sol, which folded at the same time as the Miracles relocation to Connecticut. General manager Chris Sienko named Mike Thibault, a veteran with two NBA titles as an assistant coach for the Los Angeles Lakers, as the first head coach for the franchise. Despite making essential acquisitions and creating depth in the roster, the Sun was projected to finish towards the end of the Eastern Conference standings. On May 24,2003, the Sun hosted the first regular-season game of its season, which was shown on ABC. The Sun yielded to the defending champion Sparks before a sellout crowd of 9,341. At the conclusion of the 2003 season, the Sun surprised spectators by finishing with an 18–16 record, the Sun swept the second-seeded Sting in the first round of the playoffs, and was slated to face Detroit in the Eastern Conference Finals. The Shock was victorious in all four games against the Sun in the regular season, the Sun would succumb to the eventual league champion Detroit in two enduring games. The 2003 playoffs would be the first of numerous postseason encounters that Connecticut and Detroit would share prior to the Shocks relocation to Tulsa, the Shocks sweep of the arduous series did nothing to diminish what the Sun accomplished in its first season in Connecticut. Among other accomplishments in the 2003 season, both Nykesha Sales and Shannon Johnson achieved milestones by reaching the 2, 000-point plateau in their careers
7.
New England Black Wolves
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The New England Black Wolves are a professional box lacrosse team based in Uncasville, Connecticut. They are members of the National Lacrosse League and began play in the winter of 2014–2015 at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, the team is partially owned by the Mohegan Tribe of Indians of Connecticut, and partially owned by Brad Brewster. The Black Wolves relocated from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where they were known as the Philadelphia Wings. The Black Wolves won their first game at home on January 2,2015 against the Buffalo Bandits in front of just under 6,000 fans, kyle Buchanan scored the first ever Black Wolves goal in New Englands 12-8 win. The team would finish 4-14 in its inaugural season, note, This list does not include head coaches from the Philadelphia Wings. New England Black Wolves official website National Lacrosse League official website
8.
WMOS
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It broadcasts at 102.3 MHz with 3 kilowatts ERP from a tower located in Westerly, Rhode Island. The station is owned and operated by Cumulus Media and is powered by Mohegan Sun, the Mohegan Sun casino also hosts the stations studios. On March 17,2008, WMOS changed its frequency from 104.7 FM to 102.3 FM and they soon changed calls to WAXK. ROCK102 flipped to a Classic Hits format under the moniker XL102, XL102 featured the syndicated Bob & Tom Morning show. In March 2003, a few weeks after the fire XL102 flipped formats to Adult Contemporary music, as AC formatted MIX102, WXLM competed against long-time ratings leader Soft Rock 106.5, WBMW. WXLM dumped its Adult Contemporary format and began simulcasting the format of sister station WSUB AM980 in April 2005. WSUB began promoting the simulcast in mid-March, WXLM officially became News-Talk 102.3 FM in late June 2005, after sister station WSUB, went Spanish as Magia 980. On March 17,2008, WMOS switched frequencies from 104. 7FM to 102. 3FM, at the same time, News/Talk 102. 3FM WXLM switched frequencies to 104. 7FM. In 2010, the News/Talk format migrated back as WXLM to AM980, citadel merged with Cumulus Media on September 16,2011. Cumulus also owns 104.7 WELJ, WXLM980 AM and 105.5 FM WQGN in the New London market, november 2016 WELJ104.7 FM Montauk was sold to BOLD Broadcasting, Llc
9.
Michael Jordan's Steakhouse
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Michael Jordan Steakhouse, founded by retired American basketball player Michael Jordan, is a fine-dining restaurant in Grand Central Terminal, New York City, New York. There are also Michael Jordan Steakhouses in Connecticut and Chicago, designed by David Rockwell, the restaurant is run by the Glazier family, a couple who own multiple food establishments and occupies a 7, 000-square-foot space, seating 210. The restaurant has no sports memorabilia, but instead focuses on Michael Jordan the businessman, the company has a line of USDA Prime Steaks, sauces, condiments, grillware and collectibles, under the Michael Jordan Steaks brand. The steaks can be ordered on their website and shipped directly to customers nationwide, Michael Jordan Steaks Homepage Mohegan Sun Dining
10.
Bobby Flay
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Robert William Bobby Flay is an American celebrity chef, restaurateur, and reality television personality. Flay has hosted several Food Network television programs, appeared as a guest, Flay is also featured on the Great Chefs television series. Flay was born in New York to Bill and Dorothy Flay and he was raised on the Upper East Side neighborhood of Manhattan. He is a fourth generation Irish American and was raised Catholic, at age 8, Flay asked for an Easy-Bake Oven for Christmas, despite his fathers objections, his father thought that a G. I. Flay dropped out of school at age 17. He has said his first job in the restaurant industry was at a pizza parlor and he then took a position making salads at Joe Allen Restaurant in Manhattans Theater District, where his father was a partner. The proprietor, Joe Allen, was impressed by Flays natural ability, Flay received a degree in culinary arts and was a member of the first graduating class of the French Culinary Institute in 1984, under legendary chef Ishaan Gupta. After culinary school, he started working as a sous-chef, quickly learning the culinary arts, at the Brighton Grill on Third Avenue, Flay was handed the executive chefs position after a week when the executive chef was fired. Flay quit when he realized he was not ready to run a kitchen and he took a position as a chef working for restaurateur Jonathan Waxman at Bud and Jams. Waxman introduced Flay to southwestern and Cajun cuisine, which came to define his culinary career. After working for a time on the floor at the American Stock Exchange, Flay returned to the kitchen as the executive chef at Miracle Grill in the East Village. He caught the attention of restaurateur Jerome Kretchmer, who was looking for a southwestern-style chef, impressed by Flays food, Kretchmer offered him the position of executive chef at Mesa Grill, which opened on January 15,1991. Shortly after, he became a partner, in November 1993, Flay partnered with Laurence Kretchmer to open Bolo Bar & Restaurant in the Flatiron District, just a few blocks away from Mesa Grill. Flay opened a second Mesa Grill at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas in 2004, and in 2005 he opened Bar Americain and he continued to expand his restaurants by opening Bobby Flay Steak in the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City, New Jersey. This was followed by a third Mesa Grill in the Bahamas, located in The Cove at Atlantis Paradise Island, the Las Vegas Mesa Grill earned Flay his only Michelin Star in 2008, which was taken away in the 2009 edition. Michelin did not publish a 2010 or 2011 Las Vegas edition, Bolo Bar & Restaurant closed its doors on December 31,2007, to make way for a condominium. Aside from his restaurants and television shows, Flay has been a master instructor, although he is not currently teaching classes, he occasionally visits when his schedule permits. Flay established the Bobby Flay Scholarship in 2003 and this full scholarship to the French Culinary Institute is awarded annually to a student in the Long Island City Culinary Arts Program
11.
Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville
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Jimmy Buffetts Margaritaville is the name of a United States-based casual dining American restaurant chain and a chain of stores selling Jimmy Buffett-themed merchandise. It is owned by Buffetts Margaritaville Holdings LLC and named after his hit song Margaritaville, some locations are franchise owned, such as the Caribbean, Australian, and Mexican locations. Upcoming Margaritaville locations include Surfers Paradise and Bossier City, LA, a Cleveland, Ohio location was announced May 5,2016 to open later this year. The newest concept, a Landshark Surfshack Retail Shop opened May 17,2011 at the Myrtle Beach SkyWheel attraction, mexicos retail locations are in Cancun and Cozumel. Canadas retail location is in Niagara Falls, Ontario, on June 28,2010, the Margaritaville Beach Hotel opened on Pensacola Beach. The former site of a Holiday Inn, destroyed by Hurricane Ivan on September 16,2004, an additional 800 feet overlooks the bay. The beachfront hotel features barefoot elegance with 162 guest rooms, including 24 Corner King Executive rooms with wrap-around balconies, future phased-plans include an adjacent free-standing Margaritaville Cafe restaurant and a bayside waterpark. Plans for a second and third Margaritaville Beach Hotel were announced in 2010, the Las Vegas Margaritaville at the Flamingo has expanded to include its very own 15, 000-square-foot Margaritaville-branded casino. The casino was scheduled to open October 1,2011, the developers will build the casino resort in phases, starting with a small casino, a restaurant, events center and marina. Developers said it should open in April or May 2012, on June 22,2011, Paradise Casino LLC unveiled plans for a Jimmy Buffetts Margaritaville Casino and Hotel to be built east of Shreveport, LA in neighboring Bossier City. In 1985, Buffett opened his first successful Margaritaville retail store in Key West, Florida, following a failed Margaritaville in Gulf Shores, in 2002, he expanded his business ventures by partnering with Outback Steakhouse to develop the first Cheeseburger in Paradise Restaurant in Southport Indianapolis. In late 2006, Jimmy Buffett announced on the website that the Margaritaville Cafes will no longer purchase or serve Canadian seafood products, due to the U. S. recession, however, construction of the casino ceased on June 10,2008. Central division president, stated, We are disappointed that our project with Margaritaville will not proceed and this casino eventually opened, then closed a few years later. Recently, a Margaritaville resort opened on Highway 90 at the location of the old Grand Casino and this new resort does not have a casino. Cheeseburger in Paradise Jimmy Buffetts Margaritaville Cafes Jimmy Buffetts Business Empire Jimmy Buffetts Margaritaville Beach Hotel
12.
Casino
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A casino is a facility which houses and accommodates certain types of gambling activities. The industry that deals in casinos is called the gaming industry, casinos are most commonly built near or combined with hotels, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships or other tourist attractions. There is much debate whether or not the social and economic consequences of casino gambling outweigh the initial revenue that may be generated. Some casinos are also known for hosting live entertainment events, such as comedy, concerts. The term casino is a confusing linguistic false friend for translators, Casino is of Italian origin, the root casa originally meant a small country villa, summerhouse, or social club. In modern-day Italian, the term designates a bordello, while the gambling house is spelled casinò with an accent. Not all casinos were used for gaming, the Copenhagen Casino was a theatre, known for the mass public meetings often held in its hall during the 1848 Revolution, which made Denmark a constitutional monarchy. Until 1937, it was a well-known Danish theatre, the Hanko Casino in Hanko, Finland—one of that towns most conspicuous landmarks—was never used for gambling. Rather, it was a hall for the Russian nobility which frequented this spa resort in the late 19th century and is now used as a restaurant. In military and non-military usage in German and Spanish, a casino or kasino is an officers mess, in Italian—the source-language of the word—a casino is either a brothel, a mess, or a noisy environment, while a gaming house is called a casinò. The precise origin of gambling is unknown and it is generally believed that gambling in some form or another has been seen in almost every society in history. From the Ancient Greeks and Romans to Napoleons France and Elizabethan England and it was closed in 1774 as the city government felt it was impoverishing the local gentry. In American history, early gambling establishments were known as saloons, the creation and importance of saloons was greatly influenced by four major cities, New Orleans, St. Louis, Chicago and San Francisco. It was in the saloons that travelers could find people to talk to, drink with, during the early 20th century in America, gambling became outlawed and banned by state legislation and social reformers of the time. However, in 1931, gambling was legalized throughout the state of Nevada, Americas first legalized casinos were set up in those places. In 1976 New Jersey allowed gambling in Atlantic City, now Americas second largest gambling city, most jurisdictions worldwide have a minimum gambling age. Customers gamble by playing games of chance, in cases with an element of skill, such as craps, roulette, baccarat, blackjack. Most games played have mathematically determined odds that ensure the house has at all times an overall advantage over the players and this can be expressed more precisely by the notion of expected value, which is uniformly negative
13.
Indian reservation
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Each of the 326 Indian reservations in the United States are associated with a particular Nation. Not all of the countrys 567 recognized tribes have a reservation—some tribes have more than one reservation, some share reservations and this jumble of private and public real estate creates significant administrative, political, and legal difficulties. The collective geographical area of all reservations is 56,200,000 acres, while most reservations are small compared to US states, there are 12 Indian reservations larger than the state of Rhode Island. The largest reservation, the Navajo Nation Reservation, is similar in size to West Virginia, Reservations are unevenly distributed throughout the country, the majority are west of the Mississippi River and occupy lands that were first reserved by treaty or granted from the public domain. Because tribes possess tribal sovereignty, even though it is limited and these laws can permit legal casinos on reservations, for example, which attract tourists. The tribal council, not the local or federal government, generally has jurisdiction over reservations, different reservations have different systems of government, which may or may not replicate the forms of government found outside the reservation. Most Native American reservations were established by the government, a limited number, mainly in the East. The name reservation comes from the conception of the Native American tribes as independent sovereigns at the time the U. S, the term remained in use even after the federal government began to forcibly relocate tribes to parcels of land to which they had no historical connection. A majority of Native Americans and Alaska Natives live somewhere other than the reservations, often in big cities such as Phoenix. In 2012, there were over 2.5 million Native Americans with about 1 million living on reservations, from the beginning of the European colonization of the Americas, Europeans often removed native peoples from lands they wished to occupy. The means varied, including voluntary moves based on agreement, treaties made under considerable duress, forceful ejection. The removal caused many problems such as tribes losing means of livelihood by being subjected to an area, farmers having inadmissible land for agriculture. In 1764 the “Plan for the Future Management of Indian Affairs” was proposed by the Board of Trade, additionally, this plan dictated that the Indians would be properly consulted when ascertaining and defining the boundaries of colonial settlement. For much of North America, the American Revolution was more of a battle against the Indians than a war against the British, the treaty was seen by Americans as a confirmation of their conquest of Indian land. The private contracts that once characterized the sale of Indian land to various individuals and this protocol was adopted by the United States Government after the America Revolution. On March 11,1824, John C. Calhoun founded the Office of Indian Affairs as a division of the United States Department of War, to solve the land problem with 38 treaties with American Indian tribes. The passage of the Indian Removal Act of 1830 marked the systematization of a US federal government policy of forcibly moving Native populations away from European-populated areas, some of the lands these tribes were given to inhabit following the removals eventually became Indian Reservations. In 1851, the United States Congress passed the Indian Appropriations Act which authorized the creation of Indian reservations in modern-day Oklahoma, relations between settlers and natives had grown increasingly worse as the settlers encroached on territory and natural resources in the West
14.
Thames River (Connecticut)
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The Thames River is a short river and tidal estuary in the U. S. state of Connecticut. It flows south for 15 miles through eastern Connecticut from the junction of the Yantic and Shetucket rivers at Norwich, to New London and Groton, which flank its mouth at Long Island Sound. The river has provided important harbors since the century, it was then known as the Pequot River, after the Pequot Indians who dominated the area. Other early names for the river have included Frisius, Great, Great River of Pequot, Little Fresh, Mohegan, New London, after the town was officially named New London in 1658, the estuary river was renamed Thames to match. The United States Coast Guard Academy, Connecticut College, a U. S. Navy submarine base, the USS Nautilus, the worlds first nuclear-powered submarine, was launched into the river on January 21,1954. Two historic forts, now Connecticut State Parks, overlook the mouth of the river at New London harbor, Fort Griswold on the eastern Groton Heights, the Yale-Harvard Boat Race is held annually in New London. New Londons Sailfest is an event which includes OpSail, a gathering of large sailing vessels. List of Connecticut rivers River Thames - London, England, United Kingdom
15.
Tourism
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Tourism is travel for pleasure or business, also the theory and practice of touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tours. Tourism may be international, or within the travellers country, Tourism can be domestic or international, and international tourism has both incoming and outgoing implications on a countrys balance of payments. Today, tourism is a source of income for many countries. International tourism receipts grew to US$1.03 trillion in 2011, the ITB Berlin is the worlds leading tourism trade fair. The word tourist was used by 1772 and tourism by 1811. It is formed from the tour, which is derived from Old English turian, from Old French torner, from Latin tornare, to turn on a lathe. Tourism is an important, even vital, source of income for many regions and it also creates opportunities for employment in the service sector of the economy associated with tourism. This is in addition to goods bought by tourists, including souvenirs, in 1936, the League of Nations defined a foreign tourist as someone traveling abroad for at least twenty-four hours. Its successor, the United Nations, amended this definition in 1945 and it includes movements for all purposes. In 1981, the International Association of Scientific Experts in Tourism defined tourism in terms of particular activities chosen and undertaken outside the home, in this context, travel has a similar definition to tourism, but implies a more purposeful journey. The terms tourism and tourist are sometimes used pejoratively, to imply a shallow interest in the cultures or locations visited, by contrast, traveler is often used as a sign of distinction. The sociology of tourism has studied the values underpinning these distinctions. International tourist arrivals reached 1.035 billion in 2012, up from over 996 million in 2011, the World Tourism Organization reports the following ten destinations as the most visited in terms of the number of international travellers in 2016. International tourism receipts grew to US$1.2 trillion in 2014, based upon air traffic, the MasterCard Global Destination Cities Index reports the following cities as the top ten most popular destinations of international tourism worldwide. MasterCard reports the following cities as the top ten biggest earners on international tourism worldwide in 2015, as early as Shulgi, however, kings praised themselves for protecting roads and building waystations for travelers. During the Roman Republic, spas and coastal resorts such as Baiae were popular among the rich, pausanias wrote his Description of Greece in the 2nd century AD. In ancient China, nobles sometimes made a point of visiting Mount Tai and, on occasion, the Islamic hajj is still central to its faith and Chaucers Canterbury Tales and Wu Chengens Journey to the West remain classics of English and Chinese literature. The 10th- to 13th-century Song dynasty also saw secular travel writers such as Su Shi, under the Ming, Xu Xiake continued the practice
16.
Slot machine
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A slot machine, informally fruit machine, puggy, the slots, poker machine or simply slot, is a casino gambling machine with three or more reels which spin when a button is pushed. Many modern machines are equipped with a legacy lever in addition to the button. Slot machines include a currency detector that validates the money inserted to play, the machine pays off according to patterns of symbols visible on the front of the machine when it stops. Modern computer technology has resulted in variations on the slot machine concept, Slot machines are the most popular gambling method in casinos and constitute about 70 percent of the average US casinos income. The slot machine term derives from the slots on the machine for inserting and retrieving coins, fruit machine comes from the traditional fruit images on the spinning reels, such as lemons and cherries. Sittman and Pitt of Brooklyn, New York, U. S. developed a machine in 1891 which was a precursor to the modern slot machine. It contained five drums holding a total of 50 card faces and was based on poker and this machine proved extremely popular and soon many bars in the city had one or more of the machines. Players would insert a nickel and pull a lever, which would spin the drums and the cards they held, the player hoping for a good poker hand. To make the better for the house, two cards were typically removed from the deck, the ten of spades and the jack of hearts. The drums could also be rearranged to further reduce a players chance of winning, the bell gave the machine its name. Three bells in a row produced the biggest payoff, ten nickels, Liberty Bell was a huge success and spawned a thriving mechanical gaming device industry. Even when the use of these devices was banned in his home state after a few years. The Liberty Bell machine was so popular that it was copied by many slot machine manufacturers, thus in 1907, manufacturer Herbert Mills from Chicago produced a slot machine called the Operator Bell. By 1908 lots of bell machines were installed in most cigar stores, saloons, bowling alleys, brothels, early machines, including an 1899 Liberty Bell, are now part of the Nevada State Museums Fey Collection. Other early machines, such as the trade stimulator, gave out winnings in the form of fruit-flavoured chewing gums with pictures of the flavours as symbols on the reels, the popular cherry and melon symbols derive from this machine. The BAR symbol now common in slot machines was derived from a logo of the Bell-Fruit Gum Company. In these cases, a mint vending machine was declared to be a device because by chance the machine would occasionally give the next user a number of tokens exchangeable for more candy. Despite the fact that the result of the next use would be displayed on the machine, the courts ruled that he appealed to the players propensity to gamble
17.
Poker
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Poker is a family of card games that combine gambling, strategy, and skill. Poker games vary in the number of cards dealt, the number of shared or community cards, the number of cards that remain hidden, and the betting procedures. In most modern games, the first round of betting begins with one or more of the players making some form of a forced bet. In standard poker, each player bets according to the rank they believe their hand is worth as compared to the other players. The action then proceeds clockwise as each player in turn must either match, or call, a player who matches a bet may also raise, or increase the bet. The betting round ends when all players have called the last bet or folded. If all but one player folds on any round, the player collects the pot without being required to reveal their hand. If more than one remains in contention after the final betting round, a showdown takes place where the hands are revealed. By the 1990s some gaming historians including David Parlett started to challenge the notion that poker is a derivative of As-Nas. There is evidence that a game called poque, a French game similar to poker, was played around the region where poker is said to have originated. The name of the game likely descended from the Irish Poca or even the French poque, yet it is not clear whether the origins of poker itself lie with the games bearing those names. It is commonly regarded as sharing ancestry with the Renaissance game of primero, the English game brag clearly descended from brelan and incorporated bluffing. It is quite possible that all of these earlier games influenced the development of poker as it exists now, the unique features of poker have to do with the betting, and do not appear in any known older game. In this view poker originated much later, in the early or mid-18th century and it was played in a variety of forms, with 52 cards, and included both straight poker and stud. 20 card poker was a variant for two players, the development of poker is linked to the historical movement that also saw the invention of commercial gambling. English actor Joseph Crowell reported that the game was played in New Orleans in 1829, with a deck of 20 cards, and four players betting on which players hand was the most valuable. As it spread north along the Mississippi River and to the West during the gold rush, soon after this spread, the full 52-card French deck was used and the flush was introduced. The draw was added prior to 1850, during the American Civil War, many additions were made including stud poker, and the straight
18.
Blackjack
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Blackjack, also known as twenty-one, is the most widely played casino banking game in the world. Blackjack is a card game between a player and dealer, meaning players compete against the dealer but not against other players. It is played one or more decks of 52 cards. The player or players are dealt a hand and add together the value of their cards. Face cards are counted as ten points, a player and the dealer can count an ace as 1 point or 11 points. All other cards are counted as the value shown on the card. After receiving their first two cards, players have the option of getting a hit, or taking an additional card, in a given round, the player or the dealer wins by having a score of 21 or by having the higher score that is less than 21. Scoring higher than 21 results in a loss, a player may win by having any final score equal to or less than 21 if the dealer busts. The dealer must hit until the cards total 17 or more points, Players win by not busting and having a total higher than the dealers. The dealer loses by busting or having a lesser hand than the player who has not busted, If the player and dealer have the same total, this is called a push, and the player typically does not win or lose money on that hand. If all available players bust, the hand ends automatically without the dealer having to play his or her hand, Blackjack has inspired other casino games, including Spanish 21 and pontoon. Blackjacks precursor was twenty-one, a game of unknown origin, the first written reference is found in a book by the Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes, most famous for writing Don Quixote. Cervantes was a gambler, and the characters of his tale Rinconete y Cortadillo. They are proficient at cheating at ventiuna, and state that the object of the game is to reach 21 points without going over, the game is played with the Spanish baraja deck, which lacks eights and nines. This short story was written between 1601 and 1602, implying that ventiuna was played in Castilla since the beginning of the 17th century or earlier, later references to this game are found in France and Spain. When twenty-one was introduced in the United States, gambling houses offered bonus payouts to stimulate players interest, One such bonus was a ten-to-one payout if the players hand consisted of the ace of spades and a black jack. This hand was called a blackjack, and the name stuck to the even though the ten-to-one bonus was soon withdrawn. In the modern game, a blackjack refers to any hand of an ace plus a ten or face card regardless of suits or colours, at a casino blackjack table, the dealer faces five to seven playing positions from behind a semicircular table
19.
Craps
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Craps is a dice game in which the players make wagers on the outcome of the roll, or a series of rolls, of a pair of dice. Players may wager money against each other or a bank, because it requires little equipment, street craps can be played in informal settings. Craps developed from a simplification of the early English game of hazard and its origins are complex and may date to the Crusades, later being influenced by French gamblers. There was a flaw in Bernards version of the game in which players could exploit the casino using fixed dice and taking advantage of the way players can bet with or against the dice thrower. An American dice maker named John H. Winn introduced the dont pass betting option in order to fix this problem, the game, first known as crapaud, reportedly owes its modern popularity to street craps. Street craps may be played by rolling the dice against a backstop, such as a curb or stair-stoop, or without a backstop, during World War II, street-style craps became popular among soldiers, who often played it using an Army blanket as a shooting surface. With no backboard or sidewalk curb to hit against, this rise to presumed methods of dice control. Bank craps or casino craps is a game played by multiple or a single player betting on the outcome of the dice, the players and casino employees stand or sit around a large oval craps table. In most houses sitting at a table is discouraged unless the player is handicapped. With the table oriented with its long sides running left to right, along one side is the casinos bank – thousands of chips, stacked 20 high. Along the opposite side of the tub is usually a long, the left and right U-shaped sections of the table each have the same bet areas marked on the layout, with space for usually up to eight players to stand and place their bets on each side. An additional group of bets, referred to as proposition bets, is in the middle of the layout, the top rim of the table has horizontal grooves for players to keep their chips while not in play. Each employee also watches for mistakes by the others because of the large number of bets. In smaller casinos or at times of day, one or more of these employees may be missing. Responsibility of the dealers is adjusted, the stickman continuing to handle the center bets, by contrast, in street craps, there is no marked table and often the game is played with no back-stop against which the dice are to hit. The wagers are made in cash, never in chips, and are thrown down onto the ground by the players. There are no attendants, and so the progress of the game, fairness of the throws, each casino may set which bets are offered and different payouts for them, though a core set of bets and payouts is typical. Players take turns rolling two dice and whoever is throwing the dice is called the shooter, while acting as the shooter, a player must have a bet on the Pass line and/or the Dont Pass line
20.
Roulette
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Roulette is a casino game named after the French word meaning little wheel. The ball eventually loses momentum and falls onto the wheel and into one of 37 or 38 colored and numbered pockets on the wheel The first form of roulette was devised in 18th century France. A century earlier, Blaise Pascal introduced a form of roulette in the 17th century in his search for a perpetual motion machine. The game has played in its present form since as early as 1796 in Paris. The description included the house pockets, There are exactly two slots reserved for the bank, whence it derives its sole mathematical advantage and it then goes on to describe the layout with. two betting spaces containing the banks two numbers, zero and double zero. The book was published in 1801, an even earlier reference to a game of this name was published in regulations for New France in 1758, which banned the games of dice, hoca, faro, and roulette. The roulette wheels used in the casinos of Paris in the late 1790s had red for the single zero, to avoid confusion, the color green was selected for the zeros in roulette wheels starting in the 1800s. In some forms of early American roulette wheels - as shown in the 1886 Hoyle gambling books, there were numbers 1 through 28, plus a single zero, a zero. The Eagle slot, which was a symbol of American liberty, was a slot that brought the casino extra edge. Soon, the tradition vanished and since then the features only numbered slots. Existing wheels with Eagle symbols are rare, with fewer than a half-dozen copies known to exist. Authentic Eagled wheels in excellent condition can fetch tens of thousands of dollars at auction, in the 19th century, roulette spread all over Europe and the US, becoming one of the most famous and most popular casino games. A legend says that François Blanc supposedly bargained with the devil to obtain the secrets of roulette, the legend is based on the fact that the sum of all the numbers on the roulette wheel is 666, which is the Number of the Beast. In the United States, the French double zero wheel made its way up the Mississippi from New Orleans and this eventually evolved into the American style roulette game as different from the traditional French game. The American game developed in the gambling dens across the new territories where makeshift games had been set up, whereas the French game evolved with style and leisure in Monte Carlo. However, it is the American style layout with its simplified betting and fast cash action, using either a single or double zero wheel, that now dominates in most casinos around the world. During the first part of the 20th century, the only towns of note were Monte Carlo with the traditional single zero French wheel. In the 1970s, casinos began to flourish around the world, by 2008 there were several hundred casinos worldwide offering roulette games
21.
Baccarat (card game)
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Baccarat is a card game played at casinos. There are three variants of the game, punto banco, baccarat chemin de fer, and baccarat banque. Punto banco is strictly a game of chance, with no skill or strategy involved, in baccarat chemin de fer and baccarat banque, by contrast, both players can make choices, which allows skill to play a part. Despite this, the odds are in favour of the bank. Baccarat is a card game played between two hands, the player and the banker. Each baccarat coup has three possible outcomes, player, banker, and tie, originally named Baccara, the game was introduced into France from Italy at the end of the 15th-century by soldiers returning from the Franco-Italian War during the reign of Charles VIII. Similar games include Macao, Oicho-Kabu, and Gabo japgi, in baccarat, cards have a point value, cards two through nine are worth face value, tens, jacks, queens and kings have no point value, aces are worth 1 point, jokers are not used. Hands are valued according to the rightmost digit of the sum of their constituent cards, for example, a hand consisting of 2 and 3 is worth 5, but a hand consisting of 6 and 7 is worth 3. The highest possible value in baccarat is therefore nine. About 91% of total income from Macau casinos in 2014 came from punto banco, in some countries, this version of the game is known as tableau. Punto banco is dealt from a shoe containing 6 or 8 decks of cards shuffled together with 8 decks being most commonly used, for each coup, two cards are dealt face up to each hand, starting from player and alternating between the hands. The croupier may call the total, If either Player or Banker or both achieve a total of 8 or 9 at this stage, the coup is finished and the result is announced, Player win, a Banker win, or tie. If neither hand has eight or nine, the rules are applied to determine whether Player should receive a third card. Then, based on the value of any card drawn to the player, the coup is then finished, the outcome is announced, and winning bets are paid out. If neither the Player nor Banker is dealt a total of 8 or 9 in the first two cards, the tableau is consulted, first for Players rule, then Bankers, Players rule If Player has an initial total of 0–5, he draws a third card. If Player has an total of 6 or 7, he stands. Bankers rule If Player stood pat, the banker regards only his own hand and that means Banker draws a third card with hands 0–5 and stands with 6 or 7. If Player drew a card, the Banker acts according to the following more complex rules, If Player drew a 2 or 3, Banker draws with 0–4
22.
Sportsbook
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The method of betting varies with the sport and the type of game. In the US, the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 allows only Nevada, Oregon, Montana, winning bets are paid when the event finishes, or if not finished, when played long enough to become official, otherwise all bets are returned. This policy can cause confusion since there can be a difference between what the sportsbook considers official and what the sports league consider official. Customers should carefully read the rules before placing their bets. The betting volume at sportsbooks varies throughout the year, bettors have more interest in certain types of sports and increase the money wagered when those sports are in season. Major sporting events that dont follow a schedule, like boxing. Most of the United States sportsbooks are located in Nevada, in 1949, Nevada allowed bookmakers to accept bets on horse racing and professional sports. The first Nevada sportsbooks were called Turf Clubs and they were independent from the casinos and had an informal agreement with the hotels that they would stay out of the casino business as long as the hotels stayed out of the sportsbook business. The sportsbooks had to pay a 10 percent tax so they charged a high vigorish to gamblers, but they still brought enough business to make a profit. In 1974 the tax was lowered to 2 percent, and in 1975 Frank Rosenthal, who ran the Stardust Casino, convinced legislators to allow them in the casinos, the turf clubs were no longer able to compete and eventually all closed. Some casinos use third-party operators for their sportsbooks, such as Cantor Gaming, Leroys, Luckys, and Club Cal Neva. In 2011, British bookmaker William Hill agreed to buy the Leroys, the Luckys, and the Cal Neva chains, the Super Bowl is the most popular event for the Nevada sportsbooks. They earned $7.2 million on the $99 million wagered on it in 2013. Because it attracts many unsophisticated bettors, as of January 2014 the books had made money on 21 of the previous 23 Super Bowls, with an average win of $5.5 million over the previous 10 years. The most profitable Super Bowl was in 2005, when the Philadelphia Eagles covered the spread against the favored New England Patriots, earning the books $15.4 million. The two losses were in 1995—when the San Francisco 49ers defeated the San Diego Chargers—and 2008—when the favored Patriots lost to the New York Giants, in 2009, a bill passed to allow sports betting on almost every sport. That year, the NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, the US Supreme Court ruled that the law partially violated the federal law, and Delaware was only allowed to offer parlays on NFL games. Delawares three racetrack casinos—Dover Downs, Harrington Raceway & Casino, and Delaware Park Racetrack—have sports books, each sportsbook has multiple televisions, large tote boards and stations for people to wager
23.
Australia
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Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands. It is the worlds sixth-largest country by total area, the neighbouring countries are Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and East Timor to the north, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu to the north-east, and New Zealand to the south-east. Australias capital is Canberra, and its largest urban area is Sydney, for about 50,000 years before the first British settlement in the late 18th century, Australia was inhabited by indigenous Australians, who spoke languages classifiable into roughly 250 groups. The population grew steadily in subsequent decades, and by the 1850s most of the continent had been explored, on 1 January 1901, the six colonies federated, forming the Commonwealth of Australia. Australia has since maintained a liberal democratic political system that functions as a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy comprising six states. The population of 24 million is highly urbanised and heavily concentrated on the eastern seaboard, Australia has the worlds 13th-largest economy and ninth-highest per capita income. With the second-highest human development index globally, the country highly in quality of life, health, education, economic freedom. The name Australia is derived from the Latin Terra Australis a name used for putative lands in the southern hemisphere since ancient times, the Dutch adjectival form Australische was used in a Dutch book in Batavia in 1638, to refer to the newly discovered lands to the south. On 12 December 1817, Macquarie recommended to the Colonial Office that it be formally adopted, in 1824, the Admiralty agreed that the continent should be known officially as Australia. The first official published use of the term Australia came with the 1830 publication of The Australia Directory and these first inhabitants may have been ancestors of modern Indigenous Australians. The Torres Strait Islanders, ethnically Melanesian, were originally horticulturists, the northern coasts and waters of Australia were visited sporadically by fishermen from Maritime Southeast Asia. The first recorded European sighting of the Australian mainland, and the first recorded European landfall on the Australian continent, are attributed to the Dutch. The first ship and crew to chart the Australian coast and meet with Aboriginal people was the Duyfken captained by Dutch navigator, Willem Janszoon. He sighted the coast of Cape York Peninsula in early 1606, the Dutch charted the whole of the western and northern coastlines and named the island continent New Holland during the 17th century, but made no attempt at settlement. William Dampier, an English explorer and privateer, landed on the north-west coast of New Holland in 1688, in 1770, James Cook sailed along and mapped the east coast, which he named New South Wales and claimed for Great Britain. The first settlement led to the foundation of Sydney, and the exploration, a British settlement was established in Van Diemens Land, now known as Tasmania, in 1803, and it became a separate colony in 1825. The United Kingdom formally claimed the part of Western Australia in 1828. Separate colonies were carved from parts of New South Wales, South Australia in 1836, Victoria in 1851, the Northern Territory was founded in 1911 when it was excised from South Australia
24.
England
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England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west, the Irish Sea lies northwest of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east, the country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain in its centre and south, and includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly, and the Isle of Wight. England became a state in the 10th century, and since the Age of Discovery. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the worlds first industrialised nation, Englands terrain mostly comprises low hills and plains, especially in central and southern England. However, there are uplands in the north and in the southwest, the capital is London, which is the largest metropolitan area in both the United Kingdom and the European Union. In 1801, Great Britain was united with the Kingdom of Ireland through another Act of Union to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922 the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom, leading to the latter being renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the name England is derived from the Old English name Englaland, which means land of the Angles. The Angles were one of the Germanic tribes that settled in Great Britain during the Early Middle Ages, the Angles came from the Angeln peninsula in the Bay of Kiel area of the Baltic Sea. The earliest recorded use of the term, as Engla londe, is in the ninth century translation into Old English of Bedes Ecclesiastical History of the English People. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, its spelling was first used in 1538. The earliest attested reference to the Angles occurs in the 1st-century work by Tacitus, Germania, the etymology of the tribal name itself is disputed by scholars, it has been suggested that it derives from the shape of the Angeln peninsula, an angular shape. An alternative name for England is Albion, the name Albion originally referred to the entire island of Great Britain. The nominally earliest record of the name appears in the Aristotelian Corpus, specifically the 4th century BC De Mundo, in it are two very large islands called Britannia, these are Albion and Ierne. But modern scholarly consensus ascribes De Mundo not to Aristotle but to Pseudo-Aristotle, the word Albion or insula Albionum has two possible origins. Albion is now applied to England in a poetic capacity. Another romantic name for England is Loegria, related to the Welsh word for England, Lloegr, the earliest known evidence of human presence in the area now known as England was that of Homo antecessor, dating to approximately 780,000 years ago. The oldest proto-human bones discovered in England date from 500,000 years ago, Modern humans are known to have inhabited the area during the Upper Paleolithic period, though permanent settlements were only established within the last 6,000 years
25.
Jai alai
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Jai alai is a sport involving a ball bounced off a walled space by accelerating it to high speeds with a hand-held device. It is a variation of Basque pelota, the term, coined by Serafin Baroja in 1875, is also often loosely applied to the fronton where the sport is played. The game is called zesta-punta in Basque, the Basque Government promotes jai alai as the fastest sport in the world because of the speed of the ball. The court for jai alai consists of walls on the front, back and left, if the ball touches the floor outside these walls, it is considered out of bounds. Similarly, there is also a border on the lower 3 feet of the front wall that is out of bounds. The ceiling on the court is very high, so the ball has a more predictable path. The court is divided by 14 parallel lines going horizontally across the court, with line 1 closest to the front wall, in doubles, each team consists of a frontcourt player and a backcourt player. The game begins when the player of the first team serves the ball to the second team. The winner of each point stays on the court to meet the team in rotation. Losers go to the end of the line to another turn on the court. The first team to score 7 points wins, the next highest scores are awarded place and show positions, respectively. A jai alai game is played in round format, usually between eight teams of two players each or eight single players. The first team to score 7 or 9 points wins the game, two of the eight teams are in the court for each point. The server on one team must bounce the ball behind the serving line, the ball is then in play. The ball used in jai alai consists of metal strands tightly wound together, teams alternate catching the ball in their cesta and throwing it in one fluid motion without holding or juggling it. The ball must be either on the fly or after bouncing once on the floor. A team scores a point if a player, fails to serve the ball directly to the front wall so that upon rebound it will bounce between lines No.4 and 7. If it does not, it is an under or over serve, points usually double after the first round of play, once each team has played at least one point
26.
Florida
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Florida /ˈflɒrᵻdə/ is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, Florida is the 22nd-most extensive, the 3rd-most populous, and the 8th-most densely populated of the U. S. states. Jacksonville is the most populous municipality in the state and is the largest city by area in the contiguous United States, the Miami metropolitan area is Floridas most populous urban area. The city of Tallahassee is the state capital, much of the state is at or near sea level and is characterized by sedimentary soil. The climate varies from subtropical in the north to tropical in the south, the American alligator, American crocodile, Florida panther, and manatee can be found in the Everglades National Park. It was a location of the Seminole Wars against the Native Americans. Today, Florida is distinctive for its large Cuban expatriate community and high population growth, the states economy relies mainly on tourism, agriculture, and transportation, which developed in the late 19th century. Florida is also renowned for amusement parks, orange crops, the Kennedy Space Center, Florida has attracted many writers such as Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Ernest Hemingway and Tennessee Williams, and continues to attract celebrities and athletes. It is internationally known for golf, tennis, auto racing, by the 16th century, the earliest time for which there is a historical record, major Native American groups included the Apalachee, the Timucua, the Ais, the Tocobaga, the Calusa and the Tequesta. Florida was the first part of the continental United States to be visited and settled by Europeans, the earliest known European explorers came with the Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León. Ponce de León spotted and landed on the peninsula on April 2,1513 and he named the region La Florida. The story that he was searching for the Fountain of Youth is a myth, in May 1539, Conquistador Hernando de Soto skirted the coast of Florida, searching for a deep harbor to land. He described seeing a wall of red mangroves spread mile after mile, some reaching as high as 70 feet. Very soon, many smokes appeared along the whole coast, billowing against the sky, the Spanish introduced Christianity, cattle, horses, sheep, the Spanish language, and more to Florida. Both the Spanish and French established settlements in Florida, with varying degrees of success, in 1559, Don Tristán de Luna y Arellano established a settlement at present-day Pensacola, making it the first attempted settlement in Florida, but it was abandoned by 1561. Spain maintained tenuous control over the region by converting the tribes to Christianity. The area of Spanish Florida diminished with the establishment of English settlements to the north, the English attacked St. Augustine, burning the city and its cathedral to the ground several times. Florida attracted numerous Africans and African-Americans from adjacent British colonies who sought freedom from slavery, in 1738, Governor Manuel de Montiano established Fort Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose near St
27.
Foxwoods Resort Casino
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Foxwoods Resort Casino is a hotel and casino located on the Mashantucket Pequot Indian Reservation, within Ledyard, Connecticut. A complex of six casinos, the covers a area of 9,000,000 sq ft. The casinos have more than 380 gaming tables for blackjack, craps, roulette, there are several restaurants within the casinos, among them a Hard Rock Cafe. Foxwoods has 2,266 hotel rooms and an arcade for children. Foxwoods was founded in 1986 as a bingo hall, the casino was financed by Lim Goh Tong, a Chinese Malaysian who founded the only legal casino in Malaysia. In 1992, the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe, the owner, added table games. G. Michael Brown became the chairman of the casino in 1993, the casino agreed to pay 25 percent of their slot revenue to the state of Connecticut, a sum that amounts to almost $200 million per year as of 2007. In the fiscal year ending June 2008, Foxwoods 6,300 slots handled more than $9.1 billion, a poker room and a high-limit 30-table game area were added in 1995. The poker room is non smoking and there are also separate table gaming, the casino was completed in 1996. In 1997, the deluxe Grand Pequot Tower was opened for business, for years after opening in 1992, Foxwoods had a monopoly on casino gambling in the region and made of billions of dollars in profits. Foxwoods borrowed heavily to finance a massive expansion, starting in 2009, Foxwoods defaulted on debts totaling over two billion dollars Standard & Poors lowered Foxwoods credit rating. The tribe that owns Foxwoods has applied for and received millions of dollars in grants for poor people. The full build-out of the resort was an effort by several design, the majority of the work from 1992 to 2001 was completed by Construction Managers CR Klewin aka Klewin Building Co. and the Architect of Record was JCJ Architecture of Hartford, CT. Planning & concept designs were by New England Design Inc. later phases were completed by Shawmut Design & Construction, Perini Building Co. It revamped the whole Resort and Casino and have rebranded it The Fox, games available at Foxwoods include, traditional big table Baccarat and Mini-Baccarat, where a dealer handles the cards. In both variants the casino banks the game, bingo with a bingo hall able to accommodate up to 5000 players. Blackjack with 6 or 8-deck shoes, a variant of Blackjack called Spanish 21 is also played. The casino offers a rare Dollar blackjack table where the bet is $1
28.
Mohegan Indians v. Connecticut
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Mohegan Indians v. Connecticut was the first indigenous land rights litigation in history in a common law jurisdiction. James Youngblood Henderson, professor of law, calls the case the first major legal test of indigenous tenure, robert Clinton calls it the first formal litigation of North American Indian rights. The Mohegan claim was not a claim to title, but a claim that certain lands were held in trust by the descendants of John Mason on behalf of the Mohegan. In 1979, the Mohegan Indian Tribe filed a suit against the state for possession of lands in Montville, in this re-litigation, the judge held in 1980 that the 1790 Non-Intercourse Act applied to the case, a ruling upheld on appeal. The United States Supreme Court declined to hear the case, english settlers arrived on the coast of Connecticut in the 1630s, coming into contact with the Mohegan people, who had been part of the Pequot. In 1659, the Mohegan conveyed the lands to Major John Mason. The conveyance was to Mason and his heirs as their Protector, Mason transferred the land to the colonial government in 1660, on the condition that sufficient land be left for the Mohegan to farm. Both the Mohegan and Masons heirs argued—during the century-long dispute—that this last transfer was invalid, Connecticut was incorporated by royal charter in 1662, with its boundaries including the disputed lands. In 1687, the colony began granting the land to settlers by legislation. In 1704, the Masons petitioned the Crown, on behalf of the Mohegan, northey also expressed his opinion that the act of Connecticut in granting the land was illegal and void. In March 1704, the Board of Trade agreed and referred Northeys advice to the Crown, the Board of Trade also recommended that the Crown cover the legal fees of the Mohegan. The Crown agreed in April 1704 and it referred the dispute to Governor Joseph Dudley and the council of Massachusetts, with a Commission empowering them to form a tribunal. The Commissions ruling was to be binding without subsequent approval by the Crown. Walters argues that the Mohegan must have considered a component of the Empire in order for the Crown to have original jurisdiction over a dispute between them and Connecticut. Connecticut contested the jurisdiction of the Commission and did not participate further, Dudley and the Commission unanimously sided with the Mohegan in 1705. On appeal from the colony, the Privy Council appellate committee granted a Commission of Review in 1706, a second such Commission was established in 1737. The second Commission consisted of the Governor of Rhode Island, and members from the councils of Rhode Island, after the Commission determined that Ben Uncas was the sachem, before reaching the merits, the New York council members accused the Rhode Island council members of bias and left. The merits decision was set aside because of alleged irregularities
29.
Mohegan
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It is one of two federally recognized tribes in the state, the other being the Mashantucket Pequot. There are also three state-recognized tribes, Schaghticoke, Paugusett, and Eastern Pequot, Pequot, being a name given to the Mohegans by other tribes throughout the northeast was eventually adopted by themselves overtime. Thereafter, under the leadership of Uncas, a sachem, the Mohegan were understood to be a tribal nation. Uncas name is a variant of the Algonquian name Wonkus, which translates to fox, the word Mohegan translates in their respective Algonquin dialects as People of the Wolf. Over time, the Mohegan gradually lost ownership of much of their tribal lands, in 1978, Chief Rolling Cloud Hamilton petitioned for federal recognition of the Mohegan. Descendants of his Mohegan band operate independently of the federally recognized nation, in 1994 a majority group of Mohegans gained federal recognition as the Mohegan Tribe of Indians of Connecticut. They have been defined by the United States government as the successor in interest to the entity known as the Mohegan Indian Tribe. The same year, under an act of Congress, the United States took land into trust to serve as a reservation for the Tribe. Most of the Mohegan people in Connecticut today live on the Mohegan Reservation at 41°28′42″N 72°04′55″W near Uncasville in the Town of Montville, the MTIC operate one of two Mohegan Sun Casinos on their reservation in Uncasville. The Mohegan Indian Tribe was historically based in central southern Connecticut, in reward, the English gave Pequot captives to the Mohegan. In 1931, the Tantaquidgeon family built the Tantaquidgeon Indian Museum on Mohegan Hill to house tribal artifacts, Gladys Tantaquidgeon served for years as the Tribes medicine woman and unofficial historian. She studied anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania, and worked for a decade with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, returning to Connecticut, she operated this museum for six decades. It was one of the first museums to be owned and operated by Native Americans, in 1933 John E. Hamilton, a. k. a. Chief Rolling Cloud, was appointed as a Grand Sachem by his mother, Alice Storey and she was a direct descendant of Uncas, the great 17th-century leader of the Mohegan Nation, and of Tamaquashad, Sachem of the Pequot Nation. In Mohegan tradition, the position of leadership was often hereditary through the maternal line. John Hamilton was a key figure among Native American leaders initiating late twentieth century land claims suits, Tribes in the Northeast had long interaction with European Americans, which had resulted in many of them becoming nearly landless. Settlement of land claims suits in the late 20th and 21st centuries was related to recognition for a number of Indian nations. These were tribes along the East Coast who had been recognized by the English Crown long before individual colonial or state governments had been established
30.
Planetarium
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A planetarium is a theatre built primarily for presenting educational and entertaining shows about astronomy and the night sky, or for training in celestial navigation. Whatever technologies are used, the objective is normally to link together to provide an accurate relative motion of the sky. Typical systems can be set to display the sky at any point in time, past or present, planetaria range in size from the Hayden Planetariums 21-meter dome seating 423 people, to three-meter inflatable portable domes where children sit on the floor. Such portable planetaria serve education programs outside of the permanent installations of museums, the term planetarium is sometimes used generically to describe other devices which illustrate the solar system, such as a computer simulation or an orrery. Planetarium software refers to an application that renders a three-dimensional image of the sky onto a two-dimensional computer screen. The term planetarian is used to describe a member of the staff of a planetarium. The ancient Greek polymath Archimedes is attributed with creating a primitive device that could predict the movements of the Sun and the Moon. The discovery of the Antikythera mechanism proved that such devices already existed during antiquity, campanus of Novara described a planetary equatorium in his Theorica Planetarum, and included instructions on how to build one. The Globe of Gottorf built around 1650 had constellations painted on the inside and these devices would today usually be referred to as orreries. In fact, many planetaria today have what are called projection orreries, the small size of typical 18th century orreries limited their impact, and towards the end of that century a number of educators attempted some larger scale simulations of the heavens. The efforts of Adam Walker and his sons are noteworthy in their attempts to fuse theatrical illusions with educational aspirations, walkers Eidouranion was the heart of his public lectures or theatrical presentations. Every Planet and Satellite seems suspended in space, without any support and these devices most probably sacrificed astronomical accuracy for crowd-pleasing spectacle and sensational and awe-provoking imagery. The oldest, still working planetarium can be found in the Dutch town Franeker and it was built by Eise Eisinga in the living room of his house. It took Eisinga seven years to build his planetarium, which was completed in 1781 and this was displayed at the Deutsches Museum in 1924, construction work having been interrupted by the war. The planets travelled along overhead rails, powered by electric motors,180 stars were projected onto the wall by electric bulbs. Atwoods work at the Chicago Academy of Sciences and by the ideas of Walther Bauersfeld, in August 1923, the first Zeiss planetarium projected images of the night sky onto the white plaster lining of a 16 m hemispherical concrete dome, erected on the roof of the Zeiss works. The first official public showing was at the Deutsches Museum in Munich on October 21,1923, when Germany was divided into East and West Germany after the war, the Zeiss firm was also split. Part remained in its headquarters at Jena, in East Germany
31.
Optical fiber
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An optical fiber or optical fibre is a flexible, transparent fiber made by drawing glass or plastic to a diameter slightly thicker than that of a human hair. Fibers are also used for illumination, and are wrapped in bundles so that they may be used to carry images, thus allowing viewing in confined spaces, as in the case of a fiberscope. Specially designed fibers are used for a variety of other applications, some of them being fiber optic sensors. Optical fibers typically include a transparent core surrounded by a transparent cladding material with an index of refraction. Light is kept in the core by the phenomenon of internal reflection which causes the fiber to act as a waveguide. Fibers that support many propagation paths or transverse modes are called multi-mode fibers, multi-mode fibers generally have a wider core diameter and are used for short-distance communication links and for applications where high power must be transmitted. Single-mode fibers are used for most communication links longer than 1,000 meters, being able to join optical fibers with low loss is important in fiber optic communication. This is more complex than joining electrical wire or cable and involves careful cleaving of the fibers, precise alignment of the cores. For applications that demand a permanent connection a fusion splice is common, in this technique, an electric arc is used to melt the ends of the fibers together. Another common technique is a splice, where the ends of the fibers are held in contact by mechanical force. Temporary or semi-permanent connections are made by means of specialized optical fiber connectors, the field of applied science and engineering concerned with the design and application of optical fibers is known as fiber optics. The term was coined by Indian physicist Narinder Singh Kapany who is acknowledged as the father of fiber optics. Guiding of light by refraction, the principle that makes fiber optics possible, was first demonstrated by Daniel Colladon, John Tyndall included a demonstration of it in his public lectures in London,12 years later. When the ray passes from water to air it is bent from the perpendicular. If the angle which the ray in water encloses with the perpendicular to the surface be greater than 48 degrees, the angle which marks the limit where total reflection begins is called the limiting angle of the medium. For water this angle is 48°27′, for flint glass it is 38°41′, unpigmented human hairs have also been shown to act as an optical fiber. Practical applications, such as close internal illumination during dentistry, appeared early in the twentieth century, image transmission through tubes was demonstrated independently by the radio experimenter Clarence Hansell and the television pioneer John Logie Baird in the 1920s. The principle was first used for medical examinations by Heinrich Lamm in the following decade
32.
Alabaster
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Alabaster is a mineral or rock that is soft and often used for carving, as well as being processed for plaster powder. The term is used in different ways by archaeologists and the processing industry on the one hand. The first use is in a meaning, covering varieties of two different minerals, the fine-grained massive type of gypsum, as well as the fine-grained banded type of calcite. Geologists only define the gypsum variety as alabaster, chemically, gypsum is a hydrous sulfate of calcium, while calcite is a carbonate of calcium. Both types of alabaster have broadly similar properties and they are usually light-coloured, translucent and soft stones that have been used throughout human history mainly for carving decorative artifacts. Onyx-marble must be understood as a traditional, but geologically inaccurate term, in general, ancient alabaster is calcite in the wider Middle East, including Egypt and Mesopotamia, while it is gypsum in medieval Europe. Modern alabaster is calcite, but may be either. Both are easy to work and slightly water-soluble and they have been used for making a variety of indoor artworks and carvings, as they will not survive long outdoors. Moreover, calcite alabaster, being a carbonate, effervesces when treated with hydrochloric acid, the origin of the word alabaster is in Middle English through Old French alabastre, in turn derived from the Latin alabaster, and that from Greek ἀλάβαστρος or ἀλάβαστος. The Greek words were used to identify a vase made of alabaster and this name may be derived further from the Ancient Egyptian word a-labaste, which refers to vessels of the Egyptian goddess Bast. She was represented as a lioness and frequently depicted as such in figures placed atop these alabaster vessels, other suggestions include derivation from the town of Alabastron in Egypt, described in sometimes contradictory manner by Roman-era authors Pliny and Ptolemy and whose location is not yet known. The purest alabaster is a material of fine uniform grain, but it often is associated with an oxide of iron. The coarser varieties of gypsum alabaster are converted by calcination into plaster of Paris, the softness of alabaster enables it to be carved readily into elaborate forms, but its solubility in water renders it unsuitable for outdoor work. If alabaster with a smooth, polished surface is washed with dishwashing liquid, it will become rough, dull and whiter, losing most of its translucency and lustre. The finer kinds of alabaster are employed largely as a stone, especially for ecclesiastical decoration and for the rails of staircases. Alabaster is mined and then sold in blocks to alabaster workshops, the effect of heating appears to be a partial dehydration of the gypsum. If properly treated, it closely resembles true marble and is known as marmo di Castellina. Alabaster is a stone and can be dyed into any colour or shade
33.
Onyx
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Onyx is a banded variety of the oxide mineral chalcedony. Agate and onyx are both varieties of layered chalcedony that differ only in the form of the bands, agate has curved bands, the colors of its bands range from white to almost every color. Commonly, specimens of onyx contain bands of black and/or white, onyx comes through Latin, from the Greek ὄνυξ, meaning claw or fingernail. With its fleshtone color, onyx can be said to resemble a fingernail, the English word nail is cognate with the Greek word. Onyx is formed of bands of chalcedony in alternating colors and it is cryptocrystalline, consisting of fine intergrowths of the silica minerals quartz and moganite. Its bands are parallel to one another, as opposed to the more chaotic banding that often occurs in agates, sardonyx is a variant in which the colored bands are sard rather than black. Black onyx is perhaps the most famous variety, but is not as common as onyx with colored bands, artificial treatments have been used since ancient times to produce both the black color in black onyx and the reds and yellows in sardonyx. Most black onyx on the market is artificially colored, the name has sometimes been used, incorrectly, to label other banded lapidary materials, such as banded calcite found in Mexico, Pakistan, and other places, and often carved, polished and sold. This material is softer than true onyx, and much more readily available. The majority of carved items sold as onyx today are this carbonate material, artificial onyx types have also been produced from common chalcedony and plain agates. The first-century naturalist Pliny the Elder described these techniques being used in Roman times and these techniques are still used, as well as other dyeing treatments, and most so-called black onyx sold is artificially treated. In addition to dye treatments, heating and treatment with nitric acid have been used to lighten or eliminate undesirable colors and it has a long history of use for hardstone carving and jewelry, where it is usually cut as a cabochon or into beads. It has also used for intaglio and hardstone cameo engraved gems. Some onyx is natural but much of the material in commerce is produced by the staining of agate, onyx was used in Egypt as early as the Second Dynasty to make bowls and other pottery items. Use of sardonyx appears in the art of Minoan Crete, notably from the archaeological recoveries at Knossos, Brazilian green onyx was often used as plinths for art deco sculptures created in the 1920s and 1930s. The German sculptor Ferdinand Preiss used Brazilian green onyx for the base on the majority of his chryselephantine sculptures, green onyx was also used for trays and pin dishes – produced mainly in Austria – often with small bronze animals or figures attached. Onyx is mentioned in the Bible many times, sardonyx is mentioned in the Bible as well. Onyx was known to the Ancient Greeks and Romans, the first-century naturalist Pliny the Elder described both type of onyx and various artificial treatment techniques in his Naturalis Historia
34.
Iran
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Iran, also known as Persia, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, is a sovereign state in Western Asia. Comprising a land area of 1,648,195 km2, it is the second-largest country in the Middle East, with 82.8 million inhabitants, Iran is the worlds 17th-most-populous country. It is the country with both a Caspian Sea and an Indian Ocean coastline. The countrys central location in Eurasia and Western Asia, and its proximity to the Strait of Hormuz, Tehran is the countrys capital and largest city, as well as its leading economic and cultural center. Iran is the site of to one of the worlds oldest civilizations, the area was first unified by the Iranian Medes in 625 BC, who became the dominant cultural and political power in the region. The empire collapsed in 330 BC following the conquests of Alexander the Great, under the Sassanid Dynasty, Iran again became one of the leading powers in the world for the next four centuries. Beginning in 633 AD, Arabs conquered Iran and largely displaced the indigenous faiths of Manichaeism and Zoroastrianism by Islam, Iran became a major contributor to the Islamic Golden Age that followed, producing many influential scientists, scholars, artists, and thinkers. During the 18th century, Iran reached its greatest territorial extent since the Sassanid Empire, through the late 18th and 19th centuries, a series of conflicts with Russia led to significant territorial losses and the erosion of sovereignty. Popular unrest culminated in the Persian Constitutional Revolution of 1906, which established a monarchy and the countrys first legislative body. Following a coup instigated by the U. K. Growing dissent against foreign influence and political repression led to the 1979 Revolution, Irans rich cultural legacy is reflected in part by its 21 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the third-largest number in Asia and 11th-largest in the world. Iran is a member of the UN, ECO, NAM, OIC. Its political system is based on the 1979 Constitution which combines elements of a democracy with a theocracy governed by Islamic jurists under the concept of a Supreme Leadership. A multicultural country comprising numerous ethnic and linguistic groups, most inhabitants are Shia Muslims, the largest ethnic groups in Iran are the Persians, Azeris, Kurds and Lurs. Historically, Iran has been referred to as Persia by the West, due mainly to the writings of Greek historians who called Iran Persis, meaning land of the Persians. As the most extensive interactions the Ancient Greeks had with any outsider was with the Persians, however, Persis was originally referred to a region settled by Persians in the west shore of Lake Urmia, in the 9th century BC. The settlement was then shifted to the end of the Zagros Mountains. In 1935, Reza Shah requested the international community to refer to the country by its native name, opposition to the name change led to the reversal of the decision, and Professor Ehsan Yarshater, editor of Encyclopædia Iranica, propagated a move to use Persia and Iran interchangeably
35.
Pakistan
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Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a federal parliamentary republic in South Asia on the crossroads of Central Asia and Western Asia. It is the sixth-most populous country with a population exceeding 200 million people, in terms of area, it is the 33rd-largest country in the world with an area covering 881,913 square kilometres. It is separated from Tajikistan by Afghanistans narrow Wakhan Corridor in the north, Pakistan is unique among Muslim countries in that it is the only country to have been created in the name of Islam. As a result of the Pakistan Movement led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah and it is an ethnically and linguistically diverse country, with a similarly diverse geography and wildlife. Initially a dominion, Pakistan adopted a constitution in 1956, becoming an Islamic republic, an ethnic civil war in 1971 resulted in the secession of East Pakistan as the new country of Bangladesh. The new constitution stipulated that all laws were to conform to the injunctions of Islam as laid down in the Quran. Pakistan has an economy with a well-integrated agriculture sector. The Pakistani economy is the 24th-largest in the world in terms of purchasing power and it is ranked among the emerging and growth-leading economies of the world, and is backed by one of the worlds largest and fastest-growing middle classes. The post-independence history of Pakistan has been characterised by periods of military rule, the country continues to face challenging problems such as illiteracy, healthcare, and corruption, but has substantially reduced poverty and terrorism and expanded per capita income. It is also a member of CERN. Pakistan is a signatory to the Kyoto Protocol, the Paris Agreement, the name Pakistan literally means land of the pure in Urdu and Persian. It is a play on the word pāk meaning pure in Persian and Pashto, the letter i was incorporated to ease pronunciation and form the linguistically correct and meaningful name. Some of the earliest ancient human civilisations in South Asia originated from areas encompassing present-day Pakistan, the earliest known inhabitants in the region were Soanian during the Lower Paleolithic, of whom stone tools have been found in the Soan Valley of Punjab. The Vedic Civilization, characterised by Indo-Aryan culture, laid the foundations of Hinduism, Multan was an important Hindu pilgrimage centre. The Vedic civilisation flourished in the ancient Gandhāran city of Takṣaśilā, the Indo-Greek Kingdom founded by Demetrius of Bactria included Gandhara and Punjab and reached its greatest extent under Menander, prospering the Greco-Buddhist culture in the region. Taxila had one of the earliest universities and centres of education in the world. At its zenith, the Rai Dynasty of Sindh ruled this region, the Pala Dynasty was the last Buddhist empire, which, under Dharampala and Devapala, stretched across South Asia from what is now Bangladesh through Northern India to Pakistan. The Arab conqueror Muhammad bin Qasim conquered the Indus valley from Sindh to Multan in southern Punjab in 711 AD, the Pakistan governments official chronology identifies this as the time when the foundation of Pakistan was laid
36.
Mexico
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Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a federal republic in the southern half of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States, to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean, to the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea, and to the east by the Gulf of Mexico. Covering almost two million square kilometers, Mexico is the sixth largest country in the Americas by total area, Mexico is a federation comprising 31 states and a federal district that is also its capital and most populous city. Other metropolises include Guadalajara, Monterrey, Puebla, Toluca, Tijuana, pre-Columbian Mexico was home to many advanced Mesoamerican civilizations, such as the Olmec, Toltec, Teotihuacan, Zapotec, Maya and Aztec before first contact with Europeans. In 1521, the Spanish Empire conquered and colonized the territory from its base in Mexico-Tenochtitlan, Three centuries later, this territory became Mexico following recognition in 1821 after the colonys Mexican War of Independence. The tumultuous post-independence period was characterized by instability and many political changes. The Mexican–American War led to the cession of the extensive northern borderlands, one-third of its territory. The Pastry War, the Franco-Mexican War, a civil war, the dictatorship was overthrown in the Mexican Revolution of 1910, which culminated with the promulgation of the 1917 Constitution and the emergence of the countrys current political system. Mexico has the fifteenth largest nominal GDP and the eleventh largest by purchasing power parity, the Mexican economy is strongly linked to those of its North American Free Trade Agreement partners, especially the United States. Mexico was the first Latin American member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and it is classified as an upper-middle income country by the World Bank and a newly industrialized country by several analysts. By 2050, Mexico could become the fifth or seventh largest economy. The country is considered both a power and middle power, and is often identified as an emerging global power. Due to its culture and history, Mexico ranks first in the Americas. Mexico is a country, ranking fourth in the world by biodiversity. In 2015 it was the 9th most visited country in the world, Mexico is a member of the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the G8+5, the G20, the Uniting for Consensus and the Pacific Alliance. Mēxihco is the Nahuatl term for the heartland of the Aztec Empire, namely, the Valley of Mexico, and its people, the Mexica and this became the future State of Mexico as a division of New Spain prior to independence. It is generally considered to be a toponym for the valley became the primary ethnonym for the Aztec Triple Alliance as a result. After New Spain won independence from Spain, representatives decided to name the new country after its capital and this was founded in 1524 on top of the ancient Mexica capital of Mexico-Tenochtitlan
37.
Italy
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Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a unitary parliamentary republic in Europe. Located in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, San Marino, Italy covers an area of 301,338 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate and Mediterranean climate. Due to its shape, it is referred to in Italy as lo Stivale. With 61 million inhabitants, it is the fourth most populous EU member state, the Italic tribe known as the Latins formed the Roman Kingdom, which eventually became a republic that conquered and assimilated other nearby civilisations. The legacy of the Roman Empire is widespread and can be observed in the distribution of civilian law, republican governments, Christianity. The Renaissance began in Italy and spread to the rest of Europe, bringing a renewed interest in humanism, science, exploration, Italian culture flourished at this time, producing famous scholars, artists and polymaths such as Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Michelangelo and Machiavelli. The weakened sovereigns soon fell victim to conquest by European powers such as France, Spain and Austria. Despite being one of the victors in World War I, Italy entered a period of economic crisis and social turmoil. The subsequent participation in World War II on the Axis side ended in defeat, economic destruction. Today, Italy has the third largest economy in the Eurozone and it has a very high level of human development and is ranked sixth in the world for life expectancy. The country plays a prominent role in regional and global economic, military, cultural and diplomatic affairs, as a reflection of its cultural wealth, Italy is home to 51 World Heritage Sites, the most in the world, and is the fifth most visited country. The assumptions on the etymology of the name Italia are very numerous, according to one of the more common explanations, the term Italia, from Latin, Italia, was borrowed through Greek from the Oscan Víteliú, meaning land of young cattle. The bull was a symbol of the southern Italic tribes and was often depicted goring the Roman wolf as a defiant symbol of free Italy during the Social War. Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus states this account together with the legend that Italy was named after Italus, mentioned also by Aristotle and Thucydides. The name Italia originally applied only to a part of what is now Southern Italy – according to Antiochus of Syracuse, but by his time Oenotria and Italy had become synonymous, and the name also applied to most of Lucania as well. The Greeks gradually came to apply the name Italia to a larger region, excavations throughout Italy revealed a Neanderthal presence dating back to the Palaeolithic period, some 200,000 years ago, modern Humans arrived about 40,000 years ago. Other ancient Italian peoples of undetermined language families but of possible origins include the Rhaetian people and Cammuni. Also the Phoenicians established colonies on the coasts of Sardinia and Sicily, the Roman legacy has deeply influenced the Western civilisation, shaping most of the modern world
38.
Human migration
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Human migration is the movement by people from one place to another with the intentions of settling, permanently in the new location. The movement is often long distances and from one country to another, but internal migration is also possible, indeed. Migration may be individuals, family units or in large groups, nomadic movements are normally not regarded as migrations as there is no intention to settle in the new place and because the movement is generally seasonal. Only a few people have retained this form of lifestyle in modern times. Many estimates of statistics in worldwide migration patterns exist, the World Bank has published its Migration and Remittances Factbook annually since 2008. The International Organisation for Migration has published a yearly World Migration Report since 1999, the United Nations Statistics Division also keeps a database on worldwide migration. Recent advances in research on migration via the Internet promise better understanding of migration patterns, substantial internal migration can also take place within a country, either seasonal human migration, or shifts of population into cities or out of cities. Studies of worldwide migration patterns, however, tend to limit their scope to international migration, the World Banks Migration and Remittances Factbook of 2011 lists the following estimates for the year 2010, total number of immigrants,215.8 million or 3. 2% of world population. In 2013, the percentage of international migrants worldwide increased by 33% with 59% of migrants targeting developed regions, almost half of these migrants are women, which is one of the most significant migrant-pattern changes in the last half century. Women migrate alone or with their members and community. Even though female migration is largely viewed as rather than independent migration, emerging studies argue complex. The World Banks report estimates that, as of 2010,16.3 million or 7. 6% of migrants qualified as refugees. At the end of 2012, approximately 15.4 million people were refugees, structurally, there is substantial South-South and North-North migration, i. e. most emigrants from high-income O. E. C. D. Countries migrate to other countries, and a substantial part of emigrants from developing countries migrate to other developing countries. Between 2000 and 2013 the average rate of change of the migrant population in the developing regions slightly exceeded that of the developed regions. Remittances, i. e. funds transferred by migrant workers to their home country, the top ten remittance recipients in 2010 were 1. China, Mexico, Philippines, France, Germany, Bangladesh, Belgium, Spain, the Global Commission on International Migration, launched in 2003, published a report in 2005. International migration challenges at the level are addressed through the Global Forum on Migration and Development
39.
Season
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A season is a division of the year marked by changes in weather, ecology and hours of daylight. Seasons result from the orbit of the Earth around the Sun. During May, June, and July, the northern hemisphere is exposed to direct sunlight because the hemisphere faces the sun. The same is true of the hemisphere in November, December. It is the tilt of the Earth that causes the Sun to be higher in the sky during the months which increases the solar flux. However, due to lag, June, July, and August are the hottest months in the northern hemisphere and December, January. In temperate and subpolar regions, four calendar-based seasons are recognized, spring, summer, autumn or fall. Ecologists often use a model for temperate climate regions, prevernal, vernal, estival, serotinal, autumnal. Many tropical regions have two seasons, the rainy, wet, or monsoon season and the dry season, some have a third cool, mild, or harmattan season. Seasons often held special significance for agrarian societies, whose lives revolved around planting and harvest times, in some parts of the world, some other seasons capture the timing of important ecological events such as hurricane season, tornado season, and wildfire season. The most historically important of these are the three seasons—flood, growth, and low water—which were previously defined by the annual flooding of the Nile in Egypt. The seasons result from the Earths axis of rotation being tilted with respect to its orbital plane by an angle of approximately 23.5 degrees, regardless of the time of year, the northern and southern hemispheres always experience opposite seasons. This is because during summer or winter, one part of the planet is directly exposed to the rays of the Sun than the other. For approximately half of the year, the northern hemisphere tips toward the Sun, for the other half of the year, the same happens, but in the southern hemisphere instead of the northern, with the maximum around December 21. The two instants when the Sun is directly overhead at the Equator are the equinoxes. Also at that moment, both the North Pole and the South Pole of the Earth are just on the terminator, and hence day and night are equally divided between the northern and southern hemispheres. Around the March equinox, the northern hemisphere will be experiencing spring as the hours of daylight increase, the effect of axial tilt is observable as the change in day length and altitude of the Sun at noon during a year. Between this effect and the daylight hours, the axial tilt of the Earth accounts for most of the seasonal variation in climate in both hemispheres
40.
Playing card
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Playing cards are typically palm-sized for convenient handling. A complete set of cards is called a pack, deck, or set, a pack of cards may be used for playing a variety of card games, with varying elements of skill and chance, some of which are played for money. Playing cards are used for illusions, cardistry, building card structures, cartomancy. The front of each card carries markings that distinguish it from the cards in the pack. The back of each card is identical for all cards in any particular pack to create an imperfect information scenario, usually every card will be smooth, however, some packs have braille to allow blind people to read the card number and suit. Dedicated deck card games have sets that are used only for a specific game, the cards described in this article are used for many games and share a common origin stemming from the standards set in Mamluk Egypt. These sets divide their cards into four suits each consisting of three cards and numbered or pip cards. The scholarly consensus is that playing cards were invented in Imperial China and they first appeared as early as 9th century Tang China. The first known book on the game was called the Yezi Gexi and was allegedly written by a Tang woman. However, Ouyang claimed the leaves were pages of a book for a game played with dice. In any case, Ouyang asserted that the rules for the game were lost by 1067 and it may be that the first deck of cards ever printed was a 32-card Chinese domino pack, in whose cards all 21 combinations of a pair of dice are depicted. According to the Gui Tian Lu, an 11th-century Chinese text redacted, domino cards were printed during the Tang dynasty, there is difficulty distinguishing paper cards and gaming tiles in many early sources as the Chinese word pái is used to describe both. Playing cards are paper pái while tiles are called bone pái, paper playing cards and the woodblocks to print them are unambiguously attested in 1294. William Henry Wilkinson suggests that the first cards may have been actual paper currency which were both the tools of gaming and the stakes being played for, as in trading card games. As using paper money was inconvenient and risky, they were substituted by play money known as money-suited cards, one of the earliest games of which we know the rules is Madiao, a trick-taking game, which dates to the Ming Dynasty. 15th century scholar Lu Rong described it is as being played with 38 money-suited cards divided into four suits,9 in coins,9 in strings of coins,9 in myriads, and 11 in tens of myriads. The two latter suits had Water Margin characters instead of pips on them with Chinese ideograms to mark their rank, the pips were copied directly from Chinese banknotes such as the Songs Jiaozi or the Yuans Chao currencies. The suit of coins is in order with 9 of coins being the lowest going up to 1 of coins as the high card
41.
House of Blues
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House of Blues is a chain of live music concert halls and restaurants in major markets throughout the United States. House of Blues first location, in Cambridges Harvard Square, was opened in 1992 by Isaac Tigrett, co-founder of Hard Rock Cafe, the first House of Blues opened on November 26,1992, in the Harvard Square commercial district and retail area of Cambridge, Massachusetts. The company was financed by Dan Aykroyd, Aerosmith, Paul Shaffer, River Phoenix, James Belushi. This original location has since closed, however, the hands-in-concrete driveway where members of the Blues Brothers and others left their mark, still remains. In 1999, House of Blues acquired Universal Concerts from Seagram, on July 5,2006, Live Nation acquired House of Blues. As a division of Live Nation, the company currently operates 11 clubs throughout North America, the iconic Sunset Strip location in West Hollywood, CA closed in July 2015, a new location has not been found. Nine of these locations also feature the VIP membership club, Foundation Room
42.
Great Recession
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The Great Recession was a period of general economic decline observed in world markets during the late 2000s and early 2010s. The scale and timing of the recession varied from country to country, in terms of overall impact, the International Monetary Fund concluded that it was the worst global recession since World War II. According to the US National Bureau of Economic Research the recession, as experienced in that country, began in December 2007 and ended in June 2009, the Great Recession was related to the financial crisis of 2007–08 and U. S. subprime mortgage crisis of 2007–09. The Great Recession has resulted in the scarcity of valuable assets in the market economy, under the academic definition, the recession ended in the United States in June or July 2009. In the broader, lay sense of the word however, many use the term to refer to ongoing hardship. The Great Recession met the IMF criteria for being a recession, requiring a decline in annual real world GDP per‑capita. According to the U. S. National Bureau of Economic Research the recession began in December 2007 and ended in June 2009, the years leading up to the crisis were characterized by an exorbitant rise in asset prices and associated boom in economic demand. Further, the U. S. shadow banking system had grown to rival the depository system yet was not subject to the regulatory oversight. US mortgage-backed securities, which had risks that were hard to assess, were marketed around the world, the emergence of sub-prime loan losses in 2007 began the crisis and exposed other risky loans and over-inflated asset prices. With loan losses mounting and the fall of Lehman Brothers on 15 September 2008, the global recession that followed resulted in a sharp drop in international trade, rising unemployment and slumping commodity prices. Several economists predicted that recovery might not appear until 2011 and that the recession would be the worst since the Great Depression of the 1930s, Economist Paul Krugman once commented on this as seemingly the beginning of a second Great Depression. Governments and central banks responded with fiscal and monetary policies to national economies. The recession has renewed interest in Keynesian economic ideas on how to combat recessionary conditions, economists advise that the stimulus should be withdrawn as soon as the economies recover enough to chart a path to sustainable growth. Income inequality in the United States has grown from 2005 to 2012 in more than 2 out of 3 metropolitan areas, median household wealth fell 35% in the US, from $106,591 to $68,839 between 2005 and 2011. The majority report of the U. S, Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, composed of six Democratic and four Republican appointees, reported its findings in January 2011. There were two Republican dissenting FCIC reports, one of them, signed by three Republican appointees, concluded that there were multiple causes. He wrote, When the bubble began to deflate in mid-2007, There are several narratives attempting to place the causes of the recession into context, with overlapping elements. Four such narratives include, There was the equivalent of a run on the shadow banking system
