1.
United States Minor Outlying Islands
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Among them, Palmyra Atoll is the only incorporated territory. As of 2017, none of the islands have any permanent residents, the only human population consists of temporarily stationed scientific and military personnel. The 2000 census counted 315 people on Johnston Atoll and 94 people on Wake Island, there has been no modern indigenous population, except at the 1940 census. In 1936 a colonization program began to settle Americans on Baker, Howland, and Jarvis, the islands are grouped together as a statistical convenience. They are not administered collectively, nor do they share a cultural or political history beyond being uninhabited islands under the sovereignty of the United States. They are collectively represented by the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code UM, the individual islands have ISO 3166-2 numerical codes, see ISO 3166-2, UM. The Internet country code top-level domain. um has historically been assigned to the islands, however, ISO introduced the term United States Minor Outlying Islands in 1986. From 1974 until 1986, five of the islands were grouped under the term United States Miscellaneous Pacific Islands, the code of Midway Atoll was MI, the code of Johnston Atoll was JT, and the code of Wake Island was WK. The Pacific islands are surrounded by large Exclusive Economic Zones, see also Organized incorporated territories, Unincorporated territories and List of territorial disputes in North America. The following is a list of airports with ICAO codes, PJON, Johnston Atoll Airport, Johnston Atoll PMDY, Henderson Field, Sand Island. Kingman Reef and Navassa Island have offshore anchorage only. S, Pacific Island Wildlife Refuges CIA World Factbook, United States Pacific Island Wildlife Refuges
2.
The Star-Spangled Banner
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The Star-Spangled Banner is the national anthem of the United States of America. Key was inspired by the large American flag, the Star-Spangled Banner, the poem was set to the tune of a popular British song written by John Stafford Smith for the Anacreontic Society, a mens social club in London. To Anacreon in Heaven, with lyrics, was already popular in the United States. Set to Keys poem and renamed The Star-Spangled Banner, it became a well-known American patriotic song. With a range of one octave and one fifth, it is known for being difficult to sing, although the poem has four stanzas, only the first is commonly sung today. Before 1931, other songs served as the hymns of American officialdom, hail, Columbia served this purpose at official functions for most of the 19th century. My Country, Tis of Thee, whose melody is identical to God Save the Queen, following the War of 1812 and subsequent American wars, other songs emerged to compete for popularity at public events, among them The Star-Spangled Banner, as well as America the Beautiful. Beanes was accused of aiding the arrest of British soldiers, because Key and Skinner had heard details of the plans for the attack on Baltimore, they were held captive until after the battle, first aboard HMS Surprise and later back on HMS Minden. On the morning of September 14, the flag had been lowered. During the bombardment, HMS Terror and HMS Meteor provided some of the bombs bursting in air, Key was inspired by the American victory and the sight of the large American flag flying triumphantly above the fort. This flag, with fifteen stars and fifteen stripes, had made by Mary Young Pickersgill together with other workers in her home on Baltimores Pratt Street. The flag later came to be known as the Star-Spangled Banner and is today on display in the National Museum of American History and it was restored in 1914 by Amelia Fowler, and again in 1998 as part of an ongoing conservation program. Aboard the ship the day, Key wrote a poem on the back of a letter he had kept in his pocket. At twilight on September 16, he and Skinner were released in Baltimore and he completed the poem at the Indian Queen Hotel, where he was staying, and titled it Defence of Fort MHenry. Much of the idea of the poem, including the flag imagery and some of the wording, is derived from a song by Key. The song, known as When the Warrior Returns, was written in honor of Stephen Decatur, absent elaboration by Francis Scott Key prior to his death in 1843, some have speculated in modern times about the meaning of phrases or verses. Professor Mark Clague has stated that the two verses of Keys lyric vilify the British enemy in the War of 1812 and in no way glorifies or celebrates slavery. Clague asserts that the used to refer to British professional soldiers but also the Corps of Colonial Marines which Key viewed as scoundrels
3.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
4.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
5.
Territories of the United States
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Territories of the United States are sub-national administrative divisions directly overseen by the United States federal government. These territories are classified by whether they are incorporated and whether they have a government through an Organic Act passed by the U. S. Congress. Currently, the United States has sixteen territories, five of which are inhabited, Puerto Rico, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, the U. S. Virgin Islands. They are classified as unincorporated territories and they are organized, self-governing territories with locally elected governors and territorial legislatures. Each also elects a member to the U. S. House of Representatives. Eleven territories are small islands, atolls and reefs, spread across the Caribbean and Pacific, the status of some are disputed by Colombia, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Nicaragua, and the Marshall Islands. The Palmyra Atoll is the territory currently incorporated. Historically, territories were created to govern newly acquired land while the borders of the United States were still evolving, other territories administered by the United States went on to become independent countries, such as the Philippines, Micronesia, Marshall Islands and Palau. Many organized incorporated territories of the United States existed from 1789 to 1959, currently, the United States has sixteen territories, five of which are permanently inhabited, Puerto Rico, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, United States Virgin Islands and American Samoa. The 11 uninhabited territories administered by the Interior Department are Palmyra Atoll, Baker Island, Howland Island, Jarvis Island, Johnston Atoll, Kingman Reef, while claimed by the US, Navassa Island, Wake Island, Serranilla Bank and Bajo Nuevo Bank are disputed. Territories have always been a part of the United States, by Act of Congress, the term United States, when used in a geographical sense, means the continental United States, Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Virgin Islands of the United States. Since political union with the Northern Mariana Islands in 1986, they too are treated as a part of the U. S, an Executive Order in 2007 includes American Samoa as U. S. geographical extent duly reflected in U. S. State Department documents. Approximately 4 million islanders are U. S. citizens, about 32,000 U. S. non-citizen nationals live in American Samoa, under current law among the territories, only persons born in American Samoa and Swains Island are non-citizen U. S. nationals. American Samoans are under the protection of the U. S. with freedom of U. S. travel without visas. The five inhabited U. S. territories have local voting rights and protections under U. S. courts, pay some U. S. taxes, depending on the congress, they may also vote on the floor in the House Committee of the Whole. S. Every four years, the Democratic and Republican political parties nominate their candidates at conventions which include delegates from the five major territories. The citizens there, however, do not vote in the election for U. S. President. S. Incorporated territories are considered a part of the United States
6.
National Wildlife Refuge
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National Wildlife Refuge System is a designation for certain protected areas of the United States managed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. The National Wildlife Refuge System is the system of lands and waters set aside to conserve Americas fish, wildlife. National Wildlife Refuges manage a range of habitat types, including wetlands, prairies, coastal and marine areas. Among these hundreds of national refuges are home to some 700 species of birds,220 species of mammals,250 reptile and amphibian species and more than 1000 species of fish. Endangered species are a priority of National Wildlife Refuges in that nearly 60 refuges have been established with the purpose of conserving 280 threatened or endangered species. National Wildlife Refuges are also places where visitors can participate in a variety of outdoor recreational activities. The National Wildlife Refuge System welcomes nearly 50 million visitors each year, hunters visit more than 350 hunting programs on refuges and on about 36,000 Waterfowl Production Areas. Opportunities for fresh or saltwater fishing are available at more than 340 refuges, there is at least one wildlife refuge in each of the fifty states. The agency has created Comprehensive Conservation Plans for each refuge, developed through consultation with private and these began a review process by stakeholders beginning in 2013. The CCCPs must be consistent with the Fish and Wildlife Service goals for conservation, the CCPs outline conservation goals for each refuge for fifteen years into the future, with the intent that they will be revised every fifteen years thereafter. Additionally, NEPA requires FWS planners and refuge staff to engage the public in planning process to assist them with identifying the most appropriate alternative. Completed CCPs are available to the public and can be found on the FWS website, equally important is an intimate understanding of the social and economic drivers that impact and are impacted by management decisions and can facilitate or impede implementation success. Consideration of these contributes to the success of the Service’s mission to protect wildlife. The Refuge System works collaboratively internally and externally to leverage resources, according to the Services 2013 Banking on Nature Report, visitors to refuges positively impact the local economies. Prevention and control of fires is also a very active part of refuge management. Completion of controlled burns to reduce fuel loading, and participation in the wildland fire suppression efforts, are vital for management of refuge lands. A considerable infrastructure of physical structures is also essential to management of refuge lands. As of September 30,2015 there were 13,030 roads, bridges and trails,5,284 buildings,8,007 water management structures, the overall facility infrastructure is valued at nearly $30 billion
7.
United States Fish and Wildlife Service
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The United States Fish and Wildlife Service is an agency of the federal government within the U. S. Department of the Interior dedicated to the management of fish, wildlife, and natural habitats. The mission of the agency is working with others to conserve, protect, and enhance fish, wildlife, plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. The leader of the FWS is the director of the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service Daniel M. Ashe, of Maryland, bavin National Fish and Wildlife Forensic Laboratory Landscape Conservation Cooperatives The vast majority of fish and wildlife habitat is on non-federal lands. The FWS employs approximately 9,000 people and is organized into an administrative office, eight regional offices. Spencer Fullerton Baird was appointed its first commissioner, in 1903, the Fish Commission was reorganized as the United States Bureau of Fisheries. In 1885–1886, the Division of Economic Ornithology and Mammalogy was established within the United States Department of Agriculture, in 1896 it became the Division of Biological Survey. Its early work focused on the effect of birds in controlling pests and mapping the geographical distribution of plants. Clinton Hart Merriam headed the Bureau for 25 years and became a figure for improving the scientific understanding of birds. Under Darlings guidance, the Bureau began a legacy of protecting vital natural habitat throughout the country. The USFWS was finally created in 1940, when the Bureaus of Fisheries, however, these exceptions often only apply to Native Americans that are registered with the federal government and are enrolled with a federally recognized tribe. Therefore, many people that wish to practice their religion continue to face persecution. This has become a source of conflict between many tribes and the US Fish and Wildlife Service. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the USFWS began to incorporate the research of scientists into conservation decisions. Additionally, other natural resource agencies within the United States government, such as the USDA, have taken steps to be inclusive of tribes, native people. This has marked a transition to a relationship of more cooperation rather than the tension between tribes and government agencies seen historically, today, these agencies work closely with tribal governments to ensure the best conservation decisions are made and that tribes retain their sovereignty
8.
Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument
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These remote refuges are the most widespread collection of marine- and terrestrial-life protected areas on the planet under a single countrys jurisdiction. They protect many species including corals, fish, shellfish, marine mammals, seabirds, water birds, land birds, insects. It was expanded on September 25,2014 by U. S. President Barack Obama. At Howland Island, Baker Island, Jarvis Island, Palmyra Atoll, and Kingman Reef the terrestrial areas, reefs, and waters out to 12 nautical miles are part of the National Wildlife Refuge System. The land areas at Wake and Johnston Atolls remain under the jurisdiction of the U. S. Air Force, the entire monument is closed to commercial fishing and other resource extraction activities, such as deep sea mining. U. S. federal law prohibits resource destruction or extraction, waste dumping, research, free passage, and recreation are allowed. On June 17,2014, U. S. President Barack Obama proposed using his powers to expand the marine protected area to 782,000 square miles. Sport fishing is exempt and public comments were solicited and he then signed a proclamation on September 25,2014, designating the largest marine reserve in the world. The atoll has an area of 129 km², of which 2.1 km² is land and 127 km² is water. Howland Island, an island in the North Pacific Ocean 1,815 nmi southwest of Honolulu, coordinates 0°48′N 176°38′W, the island has a total area of 139 km², of which 2.6 km² is land and 136 km² is water. Jarvis Island, an island in the South Pacific Ocean 1,305 nmi south of Honolulu, coordinates 0°23′S 160°01′W, the island has a total area of 152 km², of which 5 km² is land and 147 km² is water. Johnston Atoll, an atoll in the North Pacific Ocean 717 nmi southwest of Honolulu, coordinates 16°45′N 169°31′W, the atoll has a total area of 276.6 km², of which 2.6 km² is land and 274 km² is water. Kingman Reef, a reef in the North Pacific Ocean 930 nmi south of Honolulu, coordinates 6°23′N 162°25′W, the reef has a total area of 1,958.01 km², of which 0.01 km² is land and 1,958 km² is water. Palmyra Atoll, an atoll in the North Pacific Ocean 960 nmi south of Honolulu, coordinates 5°53′N 162°05′W, the atoll has a total area of 1,949 km², of which 3.9 km² is land and 1,946 km² is water. Wake Island Because the islands are scattered throughout the ocean, the climate is different on each island, Baker, Howland, and Jarvis Islands have an equatorial climate, with scant rainfall, constant wind, and burning sun. Johnston Atoll and Kingman Reef have a climate, but are generally dry. Palmyra Atoll has a hot, equatorial climate, the islands have no indigenous inhabitants. Wake has a population of ca.125 military personnel and contractors, Johnston Atoll had a peak population of 1,100 military and civilian contractor personnel in 2000, but it was evacuated by 2007
9.
Exclusive economic zone
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It stretches from the baseline out to 200 nautical miles from its coast. In colloquial usage, the term may include the continental shelf, the term does not include either the territorial sea or the continental shelf beyond the 200 nmi limit. The surface waters, as can be seen in the map, are international waters, generally, a states exclusive economic zone is an area beyond and adjacent to the territorial sea, extending seaward to a distance of no more than 200 nautical miles out from its coastal baseline. The exception to this occurs when exclusive economic zones would overlap. When an overlap occurs, it is up to the states to delineate the actual maritime boundary, generally, any point within an overlapping area defaults to the nearest state. A states exclusive economic zone starts at the edge of its territorial sea. The exclusive economic zone stretches much further into sea than the territorial waters, thus, the exclusive economic zones includes the contiguous zone. The idea of allotting nations EEZs to give more control of maritime affairs outside territorial limits gained acceptance in the late 20th century. Initially, a countrys sovereign territorial waters extended 3 nautical miles or 6 km beyond the shore, in modern times, a countrys sovereign territorial waters extend to 12 nautical miles beyond the shore. One of the first assertions of exclusive jurisdiction beyond the territorial seas was made by the United States in the Truman Proclamation of September 28,1945. The exact extent of economic zones is a common source of conflicts between states over marine waters. One well-known example of such dispute was the Cod Wars between the United Kingdom and Iceland, Norway and Russia dispute both territorial sea and EEZ with regard to the Svalbard archipelago as it affects Russias EEZ due to its unique treaty status. A treaty was agreed in principle in April 2010 between the two states and subsequently ratified, resolving this demarcation dispute, the agreement was signed in Murmansk on September 15,2010. The South China Sea is the site of a dispute between several neighboring nations. Croatias ZERP in the Adriatic Sea caused friction with Italy and Slovenia, a wedge-shaped section of the Beaufort Sea is disputed between Canada and the United States, as the area reportedly contains substantial oil reserves. France claims a portion of Canadas EEZ for Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon based on a new definition of the continental shelf, Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon is entirely surrounded by Canadas EEZ. Mauritius claims EEZ for Tromelin from France and EEZ for British Indian Ocean Territory from the UK, Northern Cyprus claims a portion of Cyprus EEZ overlaps with that of Northern Cyprus in the south/southeastern part of the Cyprus island. Turkey claims a portion of Cypruss EEZ overlaps with its own EEZ, Lebanon claims that the agreement between Cyprus and Israel overlapped its own EEZ
10.
United States dollar
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The United States dollar is the official currency of the United States and its insular territories per the United States Constitution. It is divided into 100 smaller cent units, the circulating paper money consists of Federal Reserve Notes that are denominated in United States dollars. The U. S. dollar was originally commodity money of silver as enacted by the Coinage Act of 1792 which determined the dollar to be 371 4/16 grain pure or 416 grain standard silver, the currency most used in international transactions, it is the worlds primary reserve currency. Several countries use it as their currency, and in many others it is the de facto currency. Besides the United States, it is used as the sole currency in two British Overseas Territories in the Caribbean, the British Virgin Islands and Turks and Caicos Islands. A few countries use the Federal Reserve Notes for paper money, while the country mints its own coins, or also accepts U. S. coins that can be used as payment in U. S. dollars. After Nixon shock of 1971, USD became fiat currency, Article I, Section 8 of the U. S. Constitution provides that the Congress has the power To coin money, laws implementing this power are currently codified at 31 U. S. C. Section 5112 prescribes the forms in which the United States dollars should be issued and these coins are both designated in Section 5112 as legal tender in payment of debts. The Sacagawea dollar is one example of the copper alloy dollar, the pure silver dollar is known as the American Silver Eagle. Section 5112 also provides for the minting and issuance of other coins and these other coins are more fully described in Coins of the United States dollar. The Constitution provides that a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and that provision of the Constitution is made specific by Section 331 of Title 31 of the United States Code. The sums of money reported in the Statements are currently being expressed in U. S. dollars, the U. S. dollar may therefore be described as the unit of account of the United States. The word dollar is one of the words in the first paragraph of Section 9 of Article I of the Constitution, there, dollars is a reference to the Spanish milled dollar, a coin that had a monetary value of 8 Spanish units of currency, or reales. In 1792 the U. S. Congress passed a Coinage Act, Section 20 of the act provided, That the money of account of the United States shall be expressed in dollars, or units. And that all accounts in the offices and all proceedings in the courts of the United States shall be kept and had in conformity to this regulation. In other words, this act designated the United States dollar as the unit of currency of the United States, unlike the Spanish milled dollar the U. S. dollar is based upon a decimal system of values. Both one-dollar coins and notes are produced today, although the form is significantly more common
11.
International Union for Conservation of Nature
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The International Union for Conservation of Nature is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. It is involved in gathering and analysis, research, field projects, advocacy, lobbying. IUCNs mission is to influence, encourage and assist societies throughout the world to conserve nature and to ensure that any use of resources is equitable. Over the past decades, IUCN has widened its focus beyond conservation ecology and now incorporates issues related to equality, poverty alleviation. Unlike other international NGOs, IUCN does not itself aim to mobilize the public in support of nature conservation and it tries to influence the actions of governments, business and other stakeholders by providing information and advice, and through lobbying and partnerships. The organization is best known to the public for compiling and publishing the IUCN Red List. IUCN has a membership of over 1200 governmental and non-governmental organizations, some 11,000 scientists and experts participate in the work of IUCN commissions on a voluntary basis. It employs approximately 1000 full-time staff in more than 60 countries and its headquarters are in Gland, Switzerland. IUCN has observer and consultative status at the United Nations, and plays a role in the implementation of several conventions on nature conservation. It was involved in establishing the World Wide Fund for Nature, in the past, IUCN has been criticized for placing the interests of nature over those of indigenous peoples. In recent years, its relations with the business sector have caused controversy. It was previously called the International Union for Protection of Nature, establishment In 1947, the Swiss League for the Protection of Nature organised an international conference on the protection of nature in Brunnen. It is considered to be the first government-organized non-governmental organization, the initiative to set up the new organisation came from UNESCO and especially from its first Director General, the British biologist Julian Huxley. At the time of its founding IUPN was the international organisation focusing on the entire spectrum of nature conservation Early years. Its secretariat was located in Brussels and its first work program focused on saving species and habitats, increasing and applying knowledge, advancing education, promoting international agreements and promoting conservation. Providing a solid base for conservation action was the heart of all activities. IUPN and UNESCO were closely associated and they jointly organized the 1949 Conference on Protection of Nature. In preparation for this conference a list of endangered species was drawn up for the first time
12.
Nature reserve
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Nature reserves may be designated by government institutions in some countries, or by private landowners, such as charities and research institutions, regardless of nationality. Nature reserves fall into different IUCN categories depending on the level of protection afforded by local laws, early reservations often had a religious underpinning, such as the evil forest areas of West Africa which were forbidden to humans, who were threatened with spiritual attack if they went there. Sacred areas taboo from human entry to fishing and hunting are known by ancient cultures worldwide. The worlds first modern nature reserve was established in 1821 by the naturalist and explorer Charles Waterton around his estate in Walton Hall and he spent £9000 on the construction of a 3 mile long,9 ft tall wall to enclose his park from poachers. He tried to encourage birdlife by planting trees and hollowing out trunks for owls to nest in and he also invented artificial nest boxes to house starlings, jackdaws and sand martins and unsuccessfully attempted to introduce little owls from Italy. Drachenfels was protected as the first state-designated nature reserve in modern-day Germany, in Australia, a nature reserve is the title of a type of protected area used in the jurisdictions of the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Tasmania and Western Australia. The term “nature reserve” is defined in the relevant statutes used in those states and territories rather than by a national statute. As of 2014,1767 out of a total of 10339 protected areas listed within the Australian National Reserve System used the term “nature reserve in their names, in Brazil, nature reserves are classified as ecological stations or biological reserves by the National System of Conservation Units. Their main objectives are preserving fauna and flora and other natural attributes, visits are allowed only with permission, and only for educational or scientific purposes. Changes to the ecosystems in both types of reserve are allowed to restore and preserve the balance, biological diversity. Ecological stations are allowed to change the environment within strictly defined limits for the purpose of scientific research. A wildlife reserve in Brazil is also protected, and hunting is not allowed, there are 30 nature reserves in Egypt which cover 12% of Egyptian land. Those nature reserves were built according to the laws no, 102/1983 and 4/1994 for protection of the Egyptian nature reserve. Egypt announced a plan from to build 40 nature reserves from 1997 to 2017, to protect the natural resources. The largest nature reserve in Egypt is Gebel Elba in the southeast, denmark has three national parks and several nature reserves, some of them inside the national park areas. The largest single reserve is Hanstholm Nature Reserve, which covers 40 km2 and is part of Thy National Park, in Sweden there are 29 national parks. The first of them were established in 1909, in fact, Sweden was the first European country that established 9 national parks. There are almost 4,000 nature reserves in Sweden and they comprise about 85% of the surface that is protected by the Swedish Enironmental Code
13.
Ramsar Convention
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The Ramsar Convention is an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of wetlands. It is also known as the Convention on Wetlands and it is named after the city of Ramsar in Iran, where the Convention was signed in 1971. The most recent COP12 was held in Punta del Este, Uruguay, cOP13 will take place in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in 2018. The List of Wetlands of International Importance included 2,231 Ramsar Sites in March 2016 covering over 2.1 million square kilometres. The country with the highest number of Sites is the United Kingdom with 170, the Ramsar Sites Information Service is a searchable database which provides information on each Ramsar Site. As of 2016 there are 18 Transboundary Ramsar Sites, as of 2016 there are 15 Ramsar Regional Initiatives covering regions of the Mediterranean, Asia, Africa and South America. The Ramsar Convention works closely with six other known as International Organization Partners. The IOPs also participate regularly as observers in all meetings of the Conference of the Parties and as members of the Scientific. Conference of the Parties Conference of the Parties is the Conventions governing body consisting of all governments that have ratified the treaty and this ultimate authority reviews progress under the Convention, identifies new priorities, and sets work plans for members. The COP can also make amendments to the Convention, create expert advisory bodies, review progress reports by member nations, and collaborate with other international organizations and agreements. The Standing Committee The Standing Committee is the executive body which represents the COP between its triennial meetings, within the framework of the decisions made by the COP. The Contracting Parties that are members of the Standing Committee are elected by each meeting of the COP to serve for the three years until the next one, the Secretariat The Secretariat carries out the day-to-day coordination of the Convention’s activities. It is based at the headquarters of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature in Gland, Switzerland, the 2nd of February each year is World Wetlands Day, marking the date of the adoption of the Convention on Wetlands on 2 February 1971. Established to raise awareness about the value of wetlands for humanity, in 2015 World Wetlands Day was celebrated in 59 countries
14.
Kingman Reef
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It is the northernmost of the Northern Line Islands and lies 36 nautical miles northwest of the next closest island, and 930 nautical miles south of Honolulu. The reef encloses a lagoon up to 270 feet deep in its western part, the total area within the outer rim of the reef is 29 sq mi. There are two strips of dry land composed of coral rubble and giant clamshells on the eastern rim with areas of 2 and 1 acre having a coastline of 2 miles. The highest point on the reef is less than 5 feet above sea level and it has no natural resources and supports no economic activity. Kingman Reef has the status of a territory of the United States, administered from Washington. The atoll is closed to the public, for statistical purposes, Kingman Reef is grouped as part of the United States Minor Outlying Islands. In January 2009, Kingman Reef was designated a national monument. The Island also has a flag, the pre-20th century names Danger Reef, Caldew Reef, Maria Shoal and Crane Shoal refer to this atoll, which by then was entirely submerged at high tide. Thomas Hale Streets described its state in the 1870s, when it had, hardly, as yet, assumed the distinctive features of an island. It is entirely under water at high tide, and but a few coral heads project here and there above the surface at low water, in the course of time, however, it will undoubtedly be added to the. Kingman Reef was discovered by the American Captain Edmund Fanning of the ship Betsey on June 14,1798, Captain W. E. Kingman described it on November 29,1853. Kingman Reef was claimed in 1860 by the United States Guano Company and this claim was made under by the Guano Islands Act of 1856 although there is no evidence that guano existed or was ever mined on Kingman Reef. On December 29,1934, the US Navy assumed jurisdiction over Kingman Reef, the lagoon was used in 1937 and 1938 as a halfway station between Hawaii and American Samoa by Pan American Airways flying boats. Pan Am wanted to expand flights into the Pacific and include Australia, in 1935 it was decided that the lagoon at Kingman Reef was suitable for overnight stops en route from the U. S. to New Zealand via Samoa. Kingman Reef became the stopover to and from Pago Pago, American Samoa, a supply ship, the North Wind, was stationed at Kingman Reef to provide fuel, lodging, and meals. The S42B Pan American Clipper II, piloted by Captain Edwin Musick, several successful flights followed, but the flight on January 11,1938 ended in tragedy. Shortly after the early morning take off from Pago Pago, bound for New Zealand, the right outboard engine had developed an oil leak and the plane burst into flames while dumping fuel, there were no survivors. As a result of the tragedy, Pan Am ended flights to New Zealand via Kingman Reef, a new route was established in July 1940 by way of Canton Island and New Caledonia
15.
Kiribati
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Kiribati, officially the Republic of Kiribati, is an island nation in the central Pacific Ocean. The permanent population is just over 100,000, more than half of live on Tarawa Atoll. The nation comprises 33 atolls and reef islands and one raised coral island and they have a total land area of 800 square kilometres and are dispersed over 3.5 million square kilometers. Their spread straddles the equator and the 180th meridian, although the International Date Line is indented to bring the Line Islands in the day as the Kiribati Islands. The International Date Line circumscribes Kiribati by swinging far to the east, almost reaching the 150°W meridian, Kiribatis easternmost islands, the southern Line Islands south of Hawaii, have the most advanced time on Earth, UTC+14 hours. Kiribati became independent from the United Kingdom in 1979, the capital and now most populated area, South Tarawa, consists of a number of islets, connected by a series of causeways. These comprise about half the area of Tarawa Atoll, Kiribati is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, the IMF and the World Bank, and became a full member of the United Nations in 1999. The name Kiribati was adopted at independence and it is local enunciation of Gilberts. This name derives from the archipelago that forms the nation. It was named the Gilbert Islands after the British explorer Thomas Gilbert and he sighted many of the islands in 1788 while mapping out the Outer Passage route from Port Jackson to Canton. The Kiribati archipelago was named Îles Gilbert, in about 1820, by Russian admiral Adam von Krusenstern, both their maps, published in 1820, were written in French. The archipelagos name was incorporated in the entire Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony from 1916, the spelling of Gilberts in the Gilbertese language as Kiribati may be found in books in Gilbertese prepared by missionaries and others. It is often suggested that the name for the Gilbert Islands proper is Tungaru. The pronunciation differs, Kiribas is the pronunciation as ti in Kiribatese makes an s sound. The area now called Kiribati has been inhabited by Micronesians speaking the same Oceanic language since sometime between 3000 BC and AD1300, the area was not isolated, invaders from Samoa, Tonga, and Fiji, later introduced Polynesian and Melanesian cultural aspects, respectively. Intermarriage tended to blur cultural differences and resulted in a significant degree of cultural homogenisation, chance visits by European ships occurred in the 17th and 18th centuries, as these ships attempted circumnavigations of the world or sought sailing routes from the south to north Pacific Ocean. The passing trade gave rise to European, Chinese, Samoan and other residents from the 1830s, they included beachcombers, castaways, traders and missionaries. In 1892 local authorities on each of the Gilbert Islands agreed to Captain Davis RN declaring them part of a British protectorate with the nearby Ellice Islands
16.
Hawaiian Islands
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Formerly the group was known to Europeans and Americans as the Sandwich Islands, a name chosen by James Cook in honor of the then First Lord of the Admiralty John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich. The contemporary name is derived from the name of the largest island, the Hawaiian monarchy was overthrown in 1893 and the United States annexed the islands in 1898. The Hawaiian Islands are the peaks of a great undersea mountain range known as the Hawaiian–Emperor seamount chain. The islands are about 1,860 miles from the nearest continent and this name was in use until the 1840s, when the local name Hawaii gradually began to take precedence. The Hawaiian Islands have a land area of 6,423.4 square miles. Except for Midway, which is a territory of the United States. The eight main islands of Hawaii are listed here and this number includes all minor islands and islets, or very small island, offshore of the main islands and individual islets in each atoll. Thus, the southeast island is volcanically active, whereas the islands on the northwest end of the archipelago are older and typically smaller, the age of the archipelago has been estimated using potassium-argon dating methods.4 Ma. The only active volcanism in the last 200 years has been on the island, Hawaiʻi. The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory of the USGS documents recent volcanic activity and provides images, almost all of the magma of the hotspot has the composition of basalt, and so the Hawaiian volcanoes are composed almost entirely of this igneous rock. There is very little coarser-grained gabbro and diabase, nephelinite is exposed on the islands but is extremely rare. Hawaiʻi island is the biggest and youngest island in the chain, mauna Loa, taking up over half of the Big Island, is the largest shield volcano on the Earth. The measurement from sea level to summit is more than 2.5 miles, the Hawaiian Islands have many earthquakes, generally caused by volcanic activity. Most of the earthquake monitoring took place in Hilo, by missionaries Titus Coan, Sarah J. Lyman. From 1833 to 1896, approximately 4 or 5 earthquakes were reported per year, Hawaii accounted for 7. 3% of the United States reported earthquakes with a magnitude 3.5 or greater from 1974 to 2003, with a total 1533 earthquakes. Hawaii ranked as the state with the third most earthquakes over this period, after Alaska. On October 15,2006, there was an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.7 off the northwest coast of the island of Hawaii, the initial earthquake was followed approximately five minutes later by a magnitude 5.7 aftershock. Minor-to-moderate damage was reported on most of the Big Island, several major roadways became impassable from rock slides, and effects were felt as far away as Honolulu, Oahu, nearly 150 miles from the epicenter
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Hawaii
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Hawaii is the 50th and most recent state to have joined the United States of America, having received statehood on August 21,1959. Hawaii is the only U. S. state located in Oceania and it is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean. Hawaii is the only U. S. state not located in the Americas, the state encompasses nearly the entire volcanic Hawaiian archipelago, which comprises hundreds of islands spread over 1,500 miles. At the southeastern end of the archipelago, the eight main islands are—in order from northwest to southeast, Niʻihau, Kauaʻi, Oʻahu, Molokaʻi, Lānaʻi, Kahoʻolawe, Maui, and the Island of Hawaiʻi. The last is the largest island in the group, it is called the Big Island or Hawaiʻi Island to avoid confusion with the state or archipelago. The archipelago is physiographically and ethnologically part of the Polynesian subregion of Oceania, Hawaii has over a million permanent residents, along with many visitors and U. S. military personnel. Its capital is Honolulu on the island of Oʻahu, Hawaii is the 8th-smallest and the 11th-least populous, but the 13th-most densely populated of the fifty U. S. states. It is the state with an Asian plurality. The states coastline is about 750 miles long, the fourth longest in the U. S. after the coastlines of Alaska, Florida, the state of Hawaii derives its name from the name of its largest island, Hawaiʻi. A common Hawaiian explanation of the name of Hawaiʻi is that was named for Hawaiʻiloa and he is said to have discovered the islands when they were first settled. The Hawaiian language word Hawaiʻi is very similar to Proto-Polynesian *Sawaiki, cognates of Hawaiʻi are found in other Polynesian languages, including Māori, Rarotongan and Samoan. According to linguists Pukui and Elbert, lsewhere in Polynesia, Hawaiʻi or a cognate is the name of the underworld or of the home, but in Hawaii. A somewhat divisive political issue arose in 1978 when the Constitution of the State of Hawaii added Hawaiian as an official state language. The title of the constitution is The Constitution of the State of Hawaii. Article XV, Section 1 of the Constitution uses The State of Hawaii, diacritics were not used because the document, drafted in 1949, predates the use of the okina and the kahakō in modern Hawaiian orthography. The exact spelling of the name in the Hawaiian language is Hawaiʻi. In the Hawaii Admission Act that granted Hawaiian statehood, the government recognized Hawaii as the official state name. Official government publications, department and office titles, and the Seal of Hawaii use the spelling with no symbols for glottal stops or vowel length
18.
American Samoa
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American Samoa is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the South Pacific Ocean, southeast of Samoa. American Samoa consists of five islands and two coral atolls. The largest and most populous island is Tutuila, with the Manuʻa Islands, Rose Atoll, All islands except for Swains Island are part of the Samoan Islands, located west of the Cook Islands, north of Tonga, and some 300 miles south of Tokelau. To the west are the islands of the Wallis and Futuna group, the 2010 census showed a total population of 55,519 people. The total land area is 199 square kilometers, slightly more than Washington, American Samoa is the southernmost territory of the U. S. and one of two U. S. territories south of the Equator, along with the uninhabited Jarvis Island. Tuna products are the exports, and the main trading partner is the United States. American Samoa is noted for having the highest rate of enlistment of any U. S. state or territory. Most American Samoans are bilingual and can speak English and Samoan fluently, Samoan is the same language spoken in neighboring independent Samoa. Contact with Europeans began in the early 18th century, dutchman Jacob Roggeveen was the first known European to sight the Samoan Islands in 1722. This visit was followed by French explorer Louis-Antoine de Bougainville who named them the Navigator Islands in 1768, contact was limited before the 1830s, when English missionaries and traders began arriving. The site of battle is called Massacre Bay. Mission work in the Samoas had begun in late 1830 when John Williams of the London Missionary Society arrived from the Cook Islands, by that time, the Samoans had gained a reputation for being savage and warlike, as violent altercations had occurred between natives and European visitors. In March 1889, an Imperial German naval force entered a village on Samoa, three American warships then entered the Apia harbor and prepared to engage the three German warships found there. Before any shots were fired, a typhoon wrecked both the American and German ships, a compulsory armistice was then called because of the lack of any warships. Forerunners to the Tripartite Convention of 1899 were the Washington Conference of 1887, the Treaty of Berlin of 1889, the following year, the USA formally occupied its portion, a smaller group of eastern islands, one of which contains the noted harbor of Pago Pago. The Navy secured a Deed of Cession of Tutuila in 1900, the territory became known as the US Naval Station Tutuila. On July 17,1911, the US Naval Station Tutuila, in 1918 during the final stages of World War I, the flu pandemic had taken its toll, spreading rapidly from country to country. The result of Poyers quick actions earned him the Navy Cross from the US Navy, with this distinction, American Samoans regarded Poyer as their hero for what he had done to prevent the deadly disease
19.
Mile
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The mile is an English unit of length of linear measure equal to 5,280 feet, or 1,760 yards, and standardised as exactly 1,609.344 metres by international agreement in 1959. The Romans divided their mile into 5,000 feet but the importance of furlongs in pre-modern England meant that the statute mile was made equivalent to 8 furlongs or 5,280 feet in 1593. This form of the mile then spread to the British-colonized nations who continue to employ the mile, the US Geological Survey now employs the metre for official purposes but legacy data from its 1927 geodetic datum has meant that a separate US survey mile continues to see some use. Derived units such as miles per hour and miles per gallon, however, continue to be abbreviated as mph, mpg. The modern English word mile derives from Middle English myl and Old English mīl, the present international mile is usually what is understood by the unqualified term mile. When this distance needs to be distinguished from the nautical mile, in British English, the statute mile may refer to the present international miles or to any other form of English mile since the 1593 Act of Parliament which set it as a distance of 1,760 yards. Under American law, however, the statute mile refers to the US survey mile, the mile has been variously abbreviated—with and without a trailing period—as m, M, ml, and mi. The American National Institute of Standards and Technology now uses and recommends mi in order to avoid confusion with the SI metre and millilitre. Derived units such as miles per hour and miles per gallon, however, continue to be abbreviated in the United States, United Kingdom, the BBC style holds that There is no acceptable abbreviation for ‘miles’ and so it should be spelt out when used in describing areas. The Roman mile consisted of a thousand paces as measured by every other step—as in the distance of the left foot hitting the ground 1,000 times. The ancient Romans, marching their armies through uncharted territory, would push a carved stick in the ground after each 1000 paces. Well-fed and harshly driven Roman legionaries in good weather thus created longer miles, the distance was indirectly standardised by Agrippas establishment of a standard Roman foot in 29 BC, and the definition of a pace as 5 feet. An Imperial Roman mile thus denoted 5,000 Roman feet, surveyors and specialized equipment such as the decempeda and dioptra then spread its use. In modern times, Agrippas Imperial Roman mile was empirically estimated to have been about 1,481 metres in length, in Hellenic areas of the Empire, the Roman mile was used beside the native Greek units as equivalent to 8 stadia of 600 Greek feet. The mílion continued to be used as a Byzantine unit and was used as the name of the zero mile marker for the Byzantine Empire. The Roman mile also spread throughout Europe, with its local variations giving rise to the different units below, also arising from the Roman mile is the milestone. All roads radiated out from the Roman Forum throughout the Empire –50,000 miles of stone-paved roads, at every mile was placed a shaped stone, on which was carved a Roman numeral, indicating the number of miles from the center of Rome – the Forum. Hence, one knew how far one was from Rome
20.
Atoll
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An atoll, sometimes called a coral atoll, is a ring-shaped coral reef including a coral rim that encircles a lagoon partially or completely. There may be coral islands/cays on the rim, the coral of the atoll often sits atop the rim of an extinct seamount or volcano which has eroded or subsided partially beneath the water. The lagoon forms over the crater or caldera while the higher rim remains above water or at shallow depths that permit the coral to grow. For the atoll to persist, continued erosion or subsidence must be at a slow enough to permit reef growth upwards and outwards to replace the lost height. The word atoll comes from the Dhivehi word atholhu, meaning an administrative subdivision, the distribution of atolls around the globe is instructive, most of the worlds atolls are in the Pacific Ocean and Indian Ocean. The Atlantic Ocean has no large groups of atolls, other than eight atolls east of Nicaragua that belong to the Colombian department of San Andres and Providencia in the Caribbean. Reef-building corals will thrive only in tropical and subtropical waters of oceans and seas. The northernmost atoll of the world is Kure Atoll at 28°24 N, the southernmost atolls of the world are Elizabeth Reef at 29°58 S, and nearby Middleton Reef at 29°29 S, in the Tasman Sea, both of which are part of the Coral Sea Islands Territory. The next southerly atoll is Ducie Island in the Pitcairn Islands Group, at this latitude coral reefs would not develop without the warming waters of the Gulf Stream. However, Bermuda is termed a pseudo-atoll because its general form, while there is no atoll directly on the equator, the closest atoll to the Equator is Aranuka of Kiribati, with its southern tip just 12 km north of the equator. In most cases, the area of an atoll is very small in comparison to the total area. Atoll islands are low lying, with their elevations less than 5 meters, measured by total area, Lifou is the largest raised coral atoll of the world, followed by Rennell Island. More sources however list as the largest atoll in the world in terms of land area Kiritimati, the remains of an ancient atoll as a hill in a limestone area is called a reef knoll. The second largest atoll by dry land area is Aldabra with 155 km², the largest atoll in terms of island numbers is Huvadhu Atoll in the south of the Maldives with 255 islands. In 1842, Charles Darwin explained the creation of coral atolls in the southern Pacific Ocean based upon observations made during a voyage aboard the HMS Beagle from 1831 to 1836. In time, subsidence carries the old volcano below the ocean surface, at this point, the island has become an atoll. Atolls are the product of the growth of marine organisms. Volcanic islands located beyond the water temperature requirements of hermatypic organisms become seamounts as they subside and are eroded away at the surface
21.
Pacific Ocean
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The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of the Earths oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south and is bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, the Mariana Trench in the western North Pacific is the deepest point in the world, reaching a depth of 10,911 metres. Both the center of the Water Hemisphere and the Western Hemisphere are in the Pacific Ocean, the oceans current name was coined by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan during the Spanish circumnavigation of the world in 1521, as he encountered favourable winds on reaching the ocean. He called it Mar Pacífico, which in both Portuguese and Spanish means peaceful sea, important human migrations occurred in the Pacific in prehistoric times. Long-distance trade developed all along the coast from Mozambique to Japan, trade, and therefore knowledge, extended to the Indonesian islands but apparently not Australia. By at least 878 when there was a significant Islamic settlement in Canton much of trade was controlled by Arabs or Muslims. In 219 BC Xu Fu sailed out into the Pacific searching for the elixir of immortality, from 1404 to 1433 Zheng He led expeditions into the Indian Ocean. The east side of the ocean was discovered by Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa in 1513 after his expedition crossed the Isthmus of Panama and he named it Mar del Sur because the ocean was to the south of the coast of the isthmus where he first observed the Pacific. Later, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan sailed the Pacific East to West on a Castilian expedition of world circumnavigation starting in 1519, Magellan called the ocean Pacífico because, after sailing through the stormy seas off Cape Horn, the expedition found calm waters. The ocean was often called the Sea of Magellan in his honor until the eighteenth century, sailing around and east of the Moluccas, between 1525 and 1527, Portuguese expeditions discovered the Caroline Islands, the Aru Islands, and Papua New Guinea. In 1542–43 the Portuguese also reached Japan, in 1564, five Spanish ships consisting of 379 explorers crossed the ocean from Mexico led by Miguel López de Legazpi and sailed to the Philippines and Mariana Islands. The Manila galleons operated for two and a half centuries linking Manila and Acapulco, in one of the longest trade routes in history, Spanish expeditions also discovered Tuvalu, the Marquesas, the Cook Islands, the Solomon Islands, and the Admiralty Islands in the South Pacific. In the 16th and 17th century Spain considered the Pacific Ocean a Mare clausum—a sea closed to other naval powers, as the only known entrance from the Atlantic the Strait of Magellan was at times patrolled by fleets sent to prevent entrance of non-Spanish ships. On the western end of the Pacific Ocean the Dutch threatened the Spanish Philippines, Spain also sent expeditions to the Pacific Northwest reaching Vancouver Island in southern Canada, and Alaska. The French explored and settled Polynesia, and the British made three voyages with James Cook to the South Pacific and Australia, Hawaii, and the North American Pacific Northwest, one of the earliest voyages of scientific exploration was organized by Spain in the Malaspina Expedition of 1789–1794. It sailed vast areas of the Pacific, from Cape Horn to Alaska, Guam and the Philippines, New Zealand, Australia, and the South Pacific. Growing imperialism during the 19th century resulted in the occupation of much of Oceania by other European powers, and later, Japan, in Oceania, France got a leading position as imperial power after making Tahiti and New Caledonia protectorates in 1842 and 1853 respectively. After navy visits to Easter Island in 1875 and 1887, Chilean navy officer Policarpo Toro managed to negotiate an incorporation of the island into Chile with native Rapanui in 1888, by occupying Easter Island, Chile joined the imperial nations
22.
Unorganized territory
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In the United States, an unorganized territory is a region of land without a normally constituted system of government. This does not mean that the territory has no government at all or that it is unclaimed territory, in practice, such territories are always sparsely populated. In modern usage it indicates an area in local government does not exist. However the area is still, at least in theory, governed by the nation of which it forms part and these lightly governed regions were common in the 19th century during the growth of United States. Large tracts such as the Louisiana Territory, Missouri Territory and the Oregon Country were established by Congress, later, a portion of a territory would organize and achieve the requirements for statehood, leaving the remainder unorganized. The U. S. Census Bureau recognizes such separate pieces of territory as one or more separate county subdivisions for statistical purposes and it assigns each unorganized territory a descriptive name, followed by the designation unorganized territory. Unorganized territories were first used for purposes in conjunction with the 1960 census. At the 2000 census there were 305 of these territories within the United States and their total land area was 85,392 square miles and they had a total population of 247,331. South Dakota had the most unorganized territories,102, as well as the largest amount of land under that status,39,785 square miles, North Dakota followed with 86 territories,20,358 square miles, or 29. 5% of its land area. Maine was next with 36 territories,14,052 square miles, Minnesota had 71 territories,10,552 square miles, or 13% of its land area. Several other states had small amounts of unorganized territory, the unorganized territory with the largest population was Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, a United States Marine Corps base with a census population of 34,452 inhabitants. In the 2010 census, unorganized territory areas were identified in nine U. S. states, Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, and South Dakota. An unorganized territory can also be a United States territory for which the United States Congress has not enacted an organic act, currently, all federal unorganized territories are insular areas, administered by the Office of Insular Affairs, U. S. Department of the Interior. American Samoa is technically unorganized, in that Congress has not passed an organic act, as of 2006, Palmyra Atoll is the only unorganized incorporated U. S. territory. The other unorganized and all organized territories are unincorporated, incorporated territories are permanently part of the United States whereas unincorporated territories may be sold, leased or granted independence by the United States. At various times during the 19th century, large parts of the Great Plains were unorganized territory, after the Louisiana Purchase from France in 1803, the entire region was part of the Louisiana Territory until 1812 and the Missouri Territory until 1821. In 1821 the Missouri Compromise created the State of Missouri from the territory, the Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854 created the Kansas and Nebraska Territories, bringing organized government to the region once again. The creation of Kansas and Nebraska left the Indian Territory as the unorganized territory in the Great Plains
23.
Federal government of the United States
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The Federal Government of the United States is the national government of the United States, a republic in North America, composed of 50 states, one district, Washington, D. C. and several territories. The federal government is composed of three branches, legislative, executive, and judicial, whose powers are vested by the U. S. Constitution in the Congress, the President, and the courts, including the Supreme Court. The powers and duties of these branches are defined by acts of Congress. The full name of the republic is United States of America, no other name appears in the Constitution, and this is the name that appears on money, in treaties, and in legal cases to which it is a party. The terms Government of the United States of America or United States Government are often used in documents to represent the federal government as distinct from the states collectively. In casual conversation or writing, the term Federal Government is often used, the terms Federal and National in government agency or program names generally indicate affiliation with the federal government. Because the seat of government is in Washington, D. C, Washington is commonly used as a metonym for the federal government. The outline of the government of the United States is laid out in the Constitution, the government was formed in 1789, making the United States one of the worlds first, if not the first, modern national constitutional republics. The United States government is based on the principles of federalism and republicanism, some make the case for expansive federal powers while others argue for a more limited role for the central government in relation to individuals, the states or other recognized entities. For example, while the legislative has the power to create law, the President nominates judges to the nations highest judiciary authority, but those nominees must be approved by Congress. The Supreme Court, in its turn, has the power to invalidate as unconstitutional any law passed by the Congress and these and other examples are examined in more detail in the text below. The United States Congress is the branch of the federal government. It is bicameral, comprising the House of Representatives and the Senate, the House currently consists of 435 voting members, each of whom represents a congressional district. The number of each state has in the House is based on each states population as determined in the most recent United States Census. All 435 representatives serve a two-year term, each state receives a minimum of one representative in the House. There is no limit on the number of terms a representative may serve, in addition to the 435 voting members, there are six non-voting members, consisting of five delegates and one resident commissioner. In contrast, the Senate is made up of two senators from each state, regardless of population, there are currently 100 senators, who each serve six-year terms
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Employment
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Employees in some fields or sectors may receive gratuities, bonus payment or stock options. In some types of employment, employees may receive benefits in addition to payment, benefits can include health insurance, housing, disability insurance or use of a gym. Employment is typically governed by employment laws or regulations or legal contracts, employers must balance interests such as decreasing wage constraints with a maximization of labor productivity in order to achieve a profitable and productive employment relationship. The main ways for employers to workers and for people to find employers are via jobs listings in newspapers and online. Employers and job seekers also find each other via professional recruitment consultants which receive a commission from the employer to find, screen. However, a study has shown that such consultants may not be reliable when they fail to use established principles in selecting employees, a more traditional approach is with a Help Wanted sign in the establishment. Evaluating different employees can be quite laborious but setting up different techniques to analyze their skill to measure their talents within the field can be best through assessments, employer and potential employee commonly take the additional step of getting to know each other through the process of job interview. Training and development refers to the effort to equip a newly hired employee with necessary skills to perform at the job. An appropriate level of training and development helps to improve job satisfaction. There are many ways that employees are paid, including by hourly wages, by piecework, by yearly salary, in sales jobs and real estate positions, the employee may be paid a commission, a percentage of the value of the goods or services that they have sold. In some fields and professions, employees may be eligible for a bonus if they meet certain targets, employee benefits are various non-wage compensation provided to employee in addition to their wages or salaries. In some cases, such as with workers employed in remote or isolated regions, employee benefits can improve the relationship between employee and employer and lowers staff turnover. Organizational justice is a perception and judgement of employers treatment in the context of fairness or justice. The resulting actions to influence the relationship is also a part of organizational justice. Employees can organize into trade or labor unions, which represent the force to collectively bargain with the management of organizations about working. Usually, either an employee or employer may end the relationship at any time and this is referred to as at-will employment. The contract between the two parties specifies the responsibilities of each when ending the relationship and may include such as notice periods, severance pay. In some professions, notably teaching, civil servants, university professors, and some jobs, some employees may have tenure
25.
The Nature Conservancy
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The Nature Conservancy is a charitable environmental organization, headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, United States. Its mission is to conserve the lands and waters on all life depends. The Conservancys work focuses on the priorities of Lands, Water, Climate, Oceans. Founded in Arlington, Virginia, in 1951, The Nature Conservancy now impacts conservation in 69 countries, the Conservancy has over one million members, and has protected more than 119,000,000 acres of land and thousands of miles of rivers worldwide. The Nature Conservancy also operates more than 100 marine conservation projects globally, the organizations assets total $6.71 billion as of 2015. The Nature Conservancy is the largest environmental nonprofit by assets and by revenue in the Americas, the Nature Conservancy rates as one of the most trusted national organizations in Harris Interactive polls every year since 2005. Forbes magazine rated The Nature Conservancys fundraising efficiency at 88 percent in its 2005 survey of the largest U. S. charities, the Nature Conservancy is led by President and CEO Mark Tercek, a former managing director at Goldman Sachs. He is the author of the Washington Post and Publisher’s Weekly bestselling book Nature’s Fortune, How Business, the Nature Conservancys Chief Scientist is Australian Hugh Possingham, who was named to this position in 2016. The current board chairman is Craig McCaw, the Chairman & CEO of Eagle River Inc, other current members include former U. S. Senator Bill Frist, chairman of the Alibaba Group Jack Ma, the Nature Conservancy developed out of an older organization known as the Ecological Society of America. The latter society was founded in 1915 and two later formed a Committee on Preservation of Natural Areas for Ecological Study, headed by Victor Shelford. The divide in viewpoints led the society to dissolve the committee, the latter group eventually took the name The Nature Conservancy, in emulation of the British agency of that name, which pursued a mission of conserving open space and wildlife preserves. The Nature Conservancy was incorporated in the United States as an organization on October 22,1951. The Nature Conservancy takes an approach to conservation, setting goals that describe the results it wants to achieve for biodiversity. The Nature Conservancy sets both long-term and near-term goals for conserving the abundance and geographic distribution of species and ecological systems. The organizations overall goal is to ensure the survival of all biodiversity on Earth. The Nature Conservancy works with all sectors of society including businesses, individuals, communities, partner organizations, the Nature Conservancy has pioneered new land preservation techniques such as the conservation easement and debt for nature swaps. A conservation easement is a way for owners to ensure that their land remains in its natural state while capitalizing on some of the lands potential development value
26.
Reef
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A reef is a bar of rock, sand, coral or similar material, lying beneath the surface of water. Reefs may be up to 261 feet below the surface, artificial reefs such as shipwrecks are sometimes created to enhance physical complexity on generally featureless sand bottoms in order to attract a diverse assemblage of organisms, especially fish. There is a variety of reef types, including oyster reefs. These biotic reef types take on additional names depending upon how the reef lies in relation to the land, Reef types include fringing reef, barrier reefs, as well as atolls. A fringing reef is a reef that is attached to an island, a barrier reef forms a calcareous barrier around an island resulting in a lagoon between the shore and the reef. An atoll is a reef with no land present. The reef front is a high energy locale whereas the internal lagoon will be at an energy with fine grained sediments. One useful definition distinguishes reefs from mounds as follows, reefs are held up by a macroscopic skeletal framework. Coral reefs are an excellent example of this kind, corals and calcareous algae grow on top of one another and form a three-dimensional framework that is modified in various ways by other organisms and inorganic processes. By contrast, mounds lack a macroscopic skeletal framework, mounds are built by microorganisms or by organisms that dont grow a skeletal framework. A microbial mound might be built exclusively or primarily by cyanobacteria, excellent examples of biostromes formed by cyanobacteria occur in the Great Salt Lake of Utah, and in Shark Bay, Western Australia. Cyanobacteria do not have skeletons and individuals are microscopic, cyanobacteria encourage the precipitation or accumulation of calcium carbonate and can produce distinct sediment bodies in composition that have relief on the seafloor. Cyanobacterial mounds were most abundant before the evolution of shelly macroscopic organisms, bryozoans and crinoids, common contributors to marine sediments during the Mississippian, produced a very different kind of mound. Bryozoans are small and the skeletons of crinoids disintegrate, however, bryozoan and crinoid meadows can persist over time and produce compositionally distinct bodies of sediment with depositional relief. The Proterozoic Belt Supergroup contains evidence of microbial mat and dome structures similar to stromatolite reef complexes. Ancient reefs buried within stratigraphic sections are of considerable interest to geologists because they provide information about the location in Earths history. Corals, including some major extinct groups Rugosa and Tabulata, have been important reef builders through much of the Phanerozoic since the Ordovician Period. However, other groups, such as calcifying algae, especially members of the red algae Rhodophyta
27.
Lagoon
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A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by barrier islands or reefs. Lagoons are commonly divided into coastal lagoons and atoll lagoons and they have also been identified as occurring on mixed-sand and gravel coastlines. There is an overlap between bodies of water classified as coastal lagoons and bodies of water classified as estuaries, lagoons are common coastal features around many parts of the world. Lagoons can also be man-made and used for treatment, as is the case for e. g. aerated lagoons. Lagoons are shallow, often elongated bodies of water separated from a body of water by a shallow or exposed shoal, coral reef. Some authorities include fresh water bodies in the definition of lagoon, the distinction between lagoon and estuary also varies between authorities. Richard A. Davis Jr. restricts lagoon to bodies of water with little or no fresh water inflow, and little or no tidal flow, Davis does state that the terms lagoon and estuary are often loosely applied, even in scientific literature. Timothy M. Kusky characterizes lagoons as normally being elongated parallel to the coast, while estuaries are usually drowned river valleys, coastal lagoons are classified as inland bodies of water. Many lagoons do not include lagoon in their common names, in England, The Fleet at Chesil Beach has also been described as a lagoon. In Latin America, the term laguna in Spanish, which translates to. However, sometimes it is used to describe a full-sized lake, such as Laguna Catemaco in Mexico. The brackish water lagoon may be explicitly identified as a coastal lagoon. In Portuguese the same usage is found, lagoa may be a body of sea water. Lagoon is derived from the Italian laguna, which refers to the waters around Venice, Laguna is attested in English by at least 1612, and had been Anglicized to lagune by 1673. In 1697 William Dampier referred to a Lagune or Lake of Salt water on the coast of Mexico, captain James Cook described an island of Oval form with a Lagoon in the middle in 1769. Atoll lagoons form as coral reefs grow upwards while the islands that the reefs surround subside, unlike the lagoons that form shoreward of fringing reefs, atoll lagoons often contain some deep portions. Coastal lagoons form along gently sloping coasts where barrier islands or reefs can develop off-shore, coastal lagoons do not form along steep or rocky coasts, or if the range of tides is more than 4 metres. Due to the slope of the coast, coastal lagoons are shallow
28.
Islet
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An islet is a very small island. As suggested by its origin as islette, an Old French diminutive of isle, use of the term implies small size, but little attention is given to drawing an upper limit on its applicability. Cay or Key – an islet formed by the accumulation of sand deposits atop a reef Motu – A reef islet formed by broken coral and sand. River island – A small islet within the current of a river, rock – A rock, in the sense of a type of islet, is an uninhabited landform composed of rock, lying offshore, and having at most minimal vegetation. Sandbar – An exposed sandbar is another type of islet, Sea stack – A thin, vertical landform jutting out of a body of water. Skerry – A small rocky island, usually defined to be too small for habitation, subsidiary islets – A more technical application is to small land features, isolated by water, lying off the shore of a larger island. Likewise, any emergent land in an atoll is called an islet. Tidal island – Often small islands lie off the mainland of an area, being connected to it in low tide. In the Caribbean and West Atlantic, islets are often called cays or keys, rum Cay in the Bahamas and the Florida Keys off Florida are examples of islets. In the Channel Islands, they are identified by the suffix -hou from the Norse -holm. In Scotland and Ireland, they are often called inches, from the Gaelic innis, which originally meant island, in Ireland they are often termed skerries. In and around Polynesia, islets are widely known by the term motu, in and around the River Thames in England, small islands are known as aits or eyots. One long-term dispute over the status of such an islet was that of Snake Island, there are thousands of islets on Earth, approximately 24,000 islands and islets in the Stockholm archipelago alone. The following is a list of example islets from around the world, Islands or Rocks, Is that the Real Question. The Treatment of Islands in the Delimitation of Maritime Boundaries, in Myron H. Nordquist, John Norton Moore, Alfred H. A. The Law of the Sea Convention, US Accession and Globalization
29.
Coconut
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The coconut tree is a member of the family Arecaceae and the only species of the genus Cocos. The term coconut can refer to the coconut palm or the seed, or the fruit. The spelling cocoanut is a form of the word. The term is derived from the 16th-century Portuguese and Spanish word coco meaning head or skull, coconuts are known for their great versatility, as evidenced by many traditional uses, ranging from food to cosmetics. They form a part of the diets of many people in the tropics and subtropics. Coconuts are distinct from other fruits for their quantity of water. When mature, they can be used as seed nuts or processed to give oil from the kernel, charcoal from the hard shell, the endosperm is initially in its nuclear phase suspended within the coconut water. As development continues, cellular layers of endosperm deposit along the walls of the coconut, when dried, the coconut flesh is called copra. The oil and milk derived from it are used in cooking and frying, as well as in soaps. The husks and leaves can be used as material to make a variety of products for furnishing and decorating, the coconut also has cultural and religious significance in certain societies, particularly in India, where it is used in Hindu rituals. Cocos nucifera is a palm, growing up to 30 m tall, with pinnate leaves 4–6 m long. Coconuts are generally classified into two types, tall and dwarf. On fertile soil, a coconut palm tree can yield up to 75 fruits per year. Given proper care and growing conditions, coconut palms produce their first fruit in six to ten years, botanically, the coconut fruit is a drupe, not a true nut. Like other fruits, it has three layers, the exocarp, mesocarp, and endocarp, the exocarp and mesocarp make up the husk of the coconuts. Coconuts sold in the shops of nontropical countries often have had the exocarp removed, the mesocarp is composed of a fiber, called coir, which has many traditional and commercial uses. The shell has three germination pores or eyes that are visible on its outside surface once the husk is removed. A full-sized coconut weighs about 1.44 kg and it takes around 6,000 full-grown coconuts to produce a tonne of copra
30.
Scaevola (plant)
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Scaevola is a genus of flowering plants in the Goodenia family, Goodeniaceae. It consists of more than 130 tropical species, with the center of diversity being Australia and Polynesia, Common names for Scaevola species include scaevolas, fan-flowers, half-flowers, and naupaka, the plants Hawaiian name. The flowers are shaped as if they have been cut in half, consequently, the generic name means left-handed in Latin. Many legends have been told to explain the formation of the naupakas unique half flowers, in one version a woman tears the flower in half after a quarrel with her lover. The gods, angered, turn all naupaka flowers into half flowers, Scaevola is the only Goodeniaceae genus that is widespread outside of Australia. In at least six separate dispersals, about 40 species have spread throughout the Pacific Basin, with a few reaching the coasts of the Atlantic. The Hawaiian Islands are home to ten Scaevola species, nine of which are endemic, eight of the indigenous species are the result of a single colonization event. Scaevola glabra and Scaevola taccada arrived separately to produce a total of three colonizations of Hawaii by Scaevola, some of the endemic species are of hybrid origin. Beach Naupaka occurs throughout the Pacific and Indian Oceans and is considered a species in Florida, USA, and in some islands of the Caribbean including the Cayman Islands. Beachberry or Inkberry is widespread along the Atlantic coast of the tropical Americas and Africa, however, most Australian Scaevola have dry fruits and sprawling, herbaceous to shrubby habits. By contrast, nearly all species outside Australia have shrub habits with fleshy fruit making dispersal by frugivores easy, the plant pathogenic sac fungus Mycosphaerella scaevolae was discovered on a Scaevola fan-flower. – Fairy Fan-flower or Common Fan-flower Scaevola albida R. Br, – White Fan-flower Scaevola amblyanthera F. Muell. Naupaka kuahiwi Scaevola chanii K. M. Wong Scaevola collaris F. Muell, – Dwarf Naupaka Scaevola crassifolia Labill. – Thick-leaved Fan-flower Scaevola enantophylla F. Muell, Scaevola floribunda A. Gray Scaevola gaudichaudiana Cham. – Mountain Naupaka, Naupaka kuahiwi Scaevola gaudichaudii Hook, – Ridgetop Naupaka Scaevola glabra Hook. Ohe naupaka Scaevola gracilis Scaevola hookeri F. Muell, – Creeping Fan-flower or Alpine Fan-flower Scaevola kilaueae O. Deg. – Huahekili uka Scaevola muluensis K. M. Wong Scaevola macrophylla Scaevola oldfieldii F. Muell, – Broad-leaved Fanflower Scaevola plumieri Vahl – Beachberry, Waxy Bush, inkberry Scaevola porocarya F. Muell. – Forest Naupaka, Naupaka kuahiwi Scaevola ramosissima K. Krause Scaevola socotraensis H. St. John Scaevola spinescens R. Br, – Murrin murrin, poontoo, maroon bush, spiky fanflower Scaevola taccada Roxb
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Pisonia
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Pisonia is a genus of flowering plants in the four oclock flower family, Nyctaginaceae. It was named for Dutch physician and naturalist Willem Piso, certain species in this genus are known as catchbirdtrees, birdcatcher trees or birdlime trees because their sticky seeds reportedly trap small birds. These sticky seeds are postulated to be an adaptation of some species to ensure the dispersal of seeds between islands by attaching them to birds. These island species include P. brunoniana of Australasia and Polynesia and P. umbellifera, Pisonia aculeata L. – Pullback Pisonia alba Span. – Corcho Bobo Pisonia brunoniana Endl, – Australasian Catchbirdtree Pisonia capitata Standl. – Mexican Devils-Claws Pisonia donnell-smithii Heimerl ex Standl, Pisonia ekmani Heimerl Pisonia excelsa Blume Pisonia floridana Britt. Ex Small – Rock Key Devils-Claws Pisonia graciliscens Stenmerik Pisonia grandis R. Br, – Grand Devils-Claws Pisonia notundata Griseb. – Smooth Devils-Claws Pisonia sandwicensis Hillebr, – Āulu Pisonia sechellarum F. Friedmann Pisonia siphonocarpa Stenmerik Pisonia subcordata Sw. – Water Mampoo Pisonia umbellifera Seem, – Umbrella Catchbirdtree Pisonia wagneriana Fosberg – Kauaʻi Catchbirdtree, Pāpala kēpau Pisonia zapallo Griseb
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Midway Atoll
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Midway Atoll is a 2. 4-square-mile atoll in the North Pacific Ocean at 28°12′N 177°21′W. As its name suggests, Midway is roughly equidistant between North America and Asia, Midway Atoll is an unorganized, unincorporated territory of the United States. Midway continues to be the island in the Hawaiian archipelago that is not part of the state of Hawaii. Unlike the other Hawaiian islands, Midway observes Samoa Time, which is one hour behind the time in the state of Hawaii, for statistical purposes, Midway is grouped as one of the United States Minor Outlying Islands. The Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, encompassing 590,991.50 acres of land and water in the area, is administered by the United States Fish. The refuge and most of its area are part of the larger Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument. Until 1993, the atoll was the home of the Naval Air Facility Midway, the Battle of Midway, which was fought between June 4 and 6,1942, was one of the most important battles of the Pacific campaign of World War II. The United States Navy defeated a Japanese battle group marking a point in the war in the Pacific Theater. USAAF aircraft based at the original Henderson Field on Eastern Island joined the attack against the Japanese fleet, approximately 40 to 60 people live on the atoll, which includes staff of the US Fish and Wildlife Service and contract workers. At present, visitation to the atoll is only for business reasons as the tourism program has been suspended due to budget cutbacks. In 2012, the last year that the program was in operation,332 people made the trip to Midway. Tours focused on both the ecology of Midway as well as its military history. The economy is derived solely from governmental sources and tourist fees, nearly all supplies must be brought to the island by ship or plane, though a hydroponic greenhouse and garden supply some fresh fruits and vegetables. As its name suggests, Midway is roughly equidistant between North America and Asia, and lies almost halfway around the world longitudinally from Greenwich and it is near the northwestern end of the Hawaiian archipelago, about one-third of the way from Honolulu, Hawaii, to Tokyo, Japan. Midway Atoll is less than 140 nautical miles east of the International Date Line, about 2,800 nautical miles west of San Francisco, and 2,200 nautical miles east of Tokyo. Midway Atoll is part of a chain of islands, atolls. It consists of a barrier reef and several sand islets. The two significant pieces of land, Sand Island and Eastern Island, provide a habitat for millions of seabirds
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Jarvis Island
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Jarvis Island is an uninhabited 1 3⁄4-square-mile coral island located in the South Pacific Ocean at 0°22′S 160°01′W, about halfway between Hawaii and the Cook Islands. Unlike most coral atolls, the lagoon on Jarvis is wholly dry, Jarvis is one of the Line Islands and for statistical purposes is also grouped as one of the United States Minor Outlying Islands. While a few offshore anchorage spots are marked on maps, Jarvis island has no ports or harbors, there is a boat landing area in the middle of the western shoreline near a crumbling day beacon, and another near the southwest corner of the island. The center of Jarvis island is a lagoon where deep guano deposits accumulated. The island has a desert climate, with high daytime temperatures, constant wind. The ground is mostly sandy and reaches 23 feet at its highest point, because of the islands distance from other large landmasses, the Jarvis Island high point is the 36th most isolated peak in the world. The low-lying coral island has long noted as hard to sight from small ships and is surrounded by a narrow fringing reef. Located only 25 miles south of the equator, Jarvis has no natural freshwater lens. This creates a bleak, flat landscape without any plants larger than shrubs. There is no evidence that the island has supported a self-sustaining human population. Its sparse bunch grass, prostrate vines and low-growing shrubs are primarily a nesting, roosting, and foraging habitat for seabirds, shorebirds, and marine wildlife. The islands first known sighting by Europeans was on August 21,1821 by the British ship Eliza Francis owned by Edward, Thomas and William Jarvis and commanded by Captain Brown. In March 1857 the island was claimed for the United States under the Guano Islands Act and formally annexed on February 27,1858. The American Guano Company, which was incorporated in 1857, established claims in respect of Baker Island, beginning in 1858, several support structures were built on Jarvis Island, along with a two-story, eight-room superintendents house featuring an observation cupola and wide verandahs. Tram tracks were laid down for bringing mined guano to the western shore, one of the first loads was taken by Samuel Gardner Wilder. Squire Flockton was left alone on the island as caretaker for several months and committed suicide there in 1883 and his wooden grave marker was a carved plank which could be seen in the islands tiny four-grave cemetery for decades. John T. Arundel & Co. resumed mining guano from 1886 to 1899, the United Kingdom annexed the island on June 3,1889. Phosphate and copra entrepreneur John T. Arundel visited the island in 1909 on maiden voyage of the S. S
34.
Supreme Court of the United States
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The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest federal court of the United States. In the legal system of the United States, the Supreme Court is the interpreter of federal constitutional law. The Court normally consists of the Chief Justice of the United States and eight justices who are nominated by the President. Once appointed, justices have life tenure unless they resign, retire, in modern discourse, the justices are often categorized as having conservative, moderate, or liberal philosophies of law and of judicial interpretation. Each justice has one vote, and while many cases are decided unanimously, the Court meets in the United States Supreme Court Building in Washington, D. C. The Supreme Court is sometimes referred to as SCOTUS, in analogy to other acronyms such as POTUS. The ratification of the United States Constitution established the Supreme Court in 1789 and its powers are detailed in Article Three of the Constitution. The Supreme Court is the court specifically established by the Constitution. The Court first convened on February 2,1790, by which five of its six initial positions had been filled. According to historian Fergus Bordewich, in its first session, he Supreme Court convened for the first time at the Royal Exchange Building on Broad Street and they had no cases to consider. After a week of inactivity, they adjourned until September, the sixth member was not confirmed until May 12,1790. Because the full Court had only six members, every decision that it made by a majority was made by two-thirds. However, Congress has always allowed less than the Courts full membership to make decisions, under Chief Justices Jay, Rutledge, and Ellsworth, the Court heard few cases, its first decision was West v. Barnes, a case involving a procedural issue. The Courts power and prestige grew substantially during the Marshall Court, the Marshall Court also ended the practice of each justice issuing his opinion seriatim, a remnant of British tradition, and instead issuing a single majority opinion. Also during Marshalls tenure, although beyond the Courts control, the impeachment, the Taney Court made several important rulings, such as Sheldon v. Nevertheless, it is primarily remembered for its ruling in Dred Scott v. Sandford, which helped precipitate the Civil War. In the Reconstruction era, the Chase, Waite, and Fuller Courts interpreted the new Civil War amendments to the Constitution, during World War II, the Court continued to favor government power, upholding the internment of Japanese citizens and the mandatory pledge of allegiance. Nevertheless, Gobitis was soon repudiated, and the Steel Seizure Case restricted the pro-government trend, the Warren Court dramatically expanded the force of Constitutional civil liberties. It held that segregation in public schools violates equal protection and that traditional legislative district boundaries violated the right to vote
35.
Latitude
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In geography, latitude is a geographic coordinate that specifies the north–south position of a point on the Earths surface. Latitude is an angle which ranges from 0° at the Equator to 90° at the poles, lines of constant latitude, or parallels, run east–west as circles parallel to the equator. Latitude is used together with longitude to specify the location of features on the surface of the Earth. Without qualification the term latitude should be taken to be the latitude as defined in the following sections. Also defined are six auxiliary latitudes which are used in special applications, there is a separate article on the History of latitude measurements. Two levels of abstraction are employed in the definition of latitude and longitude, in the first step the physical surface is modelled by the geoid, a surface which approximates the mean sea level over the oceans and its continuation under the land masses. The second step is to approximate the geoid by a mathematically simpler reference surface, the simplest choice for the reference surface is a sphere, but the geoid is more accurately modelled by an ellipsoid. The definitions of latitude and longitude on such surfaces are detailed in the following sections. Lines of constant latitude and longitude together constitute a graticule on the reference surface, latitude and longitude together with some specification of height constitute a geographic coordinate system as defined in the specification of the ISO19111 standard. This is of importance in accurate applications, such as a Global Positioning System, but in common usage, where high accuracy is not required. In English texts the latitude angle, defined below, is denoted by the Greek lower-case letter phi. It is measured in degrees, minutes and seconds or decimal degrees, the precise measurement of latitude requires an understanding of the gravitational field of the Earth, either to set up theodolites or to determine GPS satellite orbits. The study of the figure of the Earth together with its field is the science of geodesy. These topics are not discussed in this article and this article relates to coordinate systems for the Earth, it may be extended to cover the Moon, planets and other celestial objects by a simple change of nomenclature. The primary reference points are the poles where the axis of rotation of the Earth intersects the reference surface, the plane through the centre of the Earth and perpendicular to the rotation axis intersects the surface at a great circle called the Equator. Planes parallel to the plane intersect the surface in circles of constant latitude. The Equator has a latitude of 0°, the North Pole has a latitude of 90° North, the latitude of an arbitrary point is the angle between the equatorial plane and the radius to that point. The latitude, as defined in this way for the sphere, is termed the spherical latitude
36.
Rose Atoll
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Rose Atoll, sometimes called Rose Island or Motu O Manu by people of the nearby Manua Islands, is an oceanic atoll within the U. S. territory of American Samoa. It is a wildlife refuge. It is the southernmost point belonging to the United States, the land area is 0.214 km2. The total area of the atoll, including lagoon and reef flat amounts to 5 km2, just west of the northernmost point is a channel into the lagoon, about 40 m wide. There are two islets on the rim of the reef, larger Rose Island in the east. The first documented sighting by a Westerner was by Louis de Freycinet in 1819 and he named it after his wife Rose. While the second woman to circumnavigate the globe, Rose de Freycinet was the first to tell her tale, in his official report Louis de Freycinet records that I named Rose Island, from the name of someone who is extremely dear to me. Soon afterwards, in 1824, it was seen by the expedition under Otto von Kotzebue, who named it Kordinkov after his First Lieutenant. The Rose Atoll Marine National Monument that lies on the two outstanding islands of the Atoll is managed cooperatively between the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the government of American Samoa. Rose Atoll contains the largest populations of giant clams, nesting seabirds, the fish population is different from the rest of the region due to a high concentration of carnivorous fish and low concentration of herbivorous fish. Almost 270 different species of fish have been recorded in the last 15 years, tuna, mahi-mahi, billfish, barracuda and sharks reside outside the lagoon. In deeper waters, tunicate and stalked crinoid have been spotted by scuba expeditions, sea mammals such as the endangered humpback whale and the Stenella genus of dolphin also use the waters. The atoll is a nesting habitat for the threatened green turtle. The turtles migrate between American Samoa and other Pacific Island nations and their nesting season is between the months of August and February. Approximately 97% of American Samoas seabird population resides on Rose Atoll, each of the 12 bird species is federally protected. Red-footed boobies and greater and lesser frigate birds nest in the buka trees, black noddies and white terns nest in the middle and lower branches. The root system is used by reef herons and red-tailed tropic birds, other birds can be found in the Pisonia forest, the only one left in Samoa. Rose Island Concrete Monument American Samoa, its districts and unorganized islands, United States Census Bureau A Summary of Information on Rose Atoll
37.
United States Congress
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The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States consisting of two chambers, the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the Capitol in Washington, D. C, both senators and representatives are chosen through direct election, though vacancies in the Senate may be filled by a gubernatorial appointment. Members are usually affiliated to the Republican Party or to the Democratic Party, Congress has 535 voting members,435 Representatives and 100 Senators. The House of Representatives has six non-voting members in addition to its 435 voting members and these members can, however, sit on congressional committees and introduce legislation. Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, the members of the House of Representatives serve two-year terms representing the people of a single constituency, known as a district. Congressional districts are apportioned to states by using the United States Census results. Each state, regardless of population or size, has two senators, currently, there are 100 senators representing the 50 states. Each senator is elected at-large in their state for a term, with terms staggered. The House and Senate are equal partners in the legislative process—legislation cannot be enacted without the consent of both chambers, however, the Constitution grants each chamber some unique powers. The Senate ratifies treaties and approves presidential appointments while the House initiates revenue-raising bills, the House initiates impeachment cases, while the Senate decides impeachment cases. A two-thirds vote of the Senate is required before a person can be forcibly removed from office. The term Congress can also refer to a meeting of the legislature. A Congress covers two years, the current one, the 115th Congress, began on January 3,2017, the Congress starts and ends on the third day of January of every odd-numbered year. Members of the Senate are referred to as senators, members of the House of Representatives are referred to as representatives, congressmen, or congresswomen. One analyst argues that it is not a solely reactive institution but has played a role in shaping government policy and is extraordinarily sensitive to public pressure. Several academics described Congress, Congress reflects us in all our strengths, Congress is the governments most representative body. Congress is essentially charged with reconciling our many points of view on the public policy issues of the day. —Smith, Roberts, and Wielen Congress is constantly changing and is constantly in flux, most incumbents seek re-election, and their historical likelihood of winning subsequent elections exceeds 90 percent
38.
United States Constitution
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The United States Constitution is the supreme law of the United States of America. The Constitution, originally comprising seven articles, delineates the national frame of government, Articles Four, Five and Six entrench concepts of federalism, describing the rights and responsibilities of state governments and of the states in relationship to the federal government. Article Seven establishes the procedure used by the thirteen States to ratify it. In general, the first ten amendments, known collectively as the Bill of Rights, offer specific protections of individual liberty, the majority of the seventeen later amendments expand individual civil rights protections. Others address issues related to federal authority or modify government processes and procedures, Amendments to the United States Constitution, unlike ones made to many constitutions worldwide, are appended to the document. All four pages of the original U. S, according to the United States Senate, The Constitutions first three words—We the People—affirm that the government of the United States exists to serve its citizens. From September 5,1774 to March 1,1781, the Continental Congress functioned as the government of the United States. The process of selecting the delegates for the First and Second Continental Congresses underscores the revolutionary role of the people of the colonies in establishing a governing body. The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union was the first constitution of the United States and it was drafted by the Second Continental Congress from mid-1776 through late-1777, and ratification by all 13 states was completed by early 1781. Under the Articles of Confederation, the governments power was quite limited. The Confederation Congress could make decisions, but lacked enforcement powers, implementation of most decisions, including modifications to the Articles, required unanimous approval of all thirteen state legislatures. The Continental Congress could print money but the currency was worthless, Congress could borrow money, but couldnt pay it back. No state paid all their U. S. taxes, some paid nothing, some few paid an amount equal to interest on the national debt owed to their citizens, but no more. No interest was paid on debt owed foreign governments, by 1786, the United States would default on outstanding debts as their dates came due. Internationally, the Articles of Confederation did little to enhance the United States ability to defend its sovereignty, most of the troops in the 625-man United States Army were deployed facing – but not threatening – British forts on American soil. They had not been paid, some were deserting and others threatening mutiny, spain closed New Orleans to American commerce, U. S. officials protested, but to no effect. Barbary pirates began seizing American ships of commerce, the Treasury had no funds to pay their ransom, if any military crisis required action, the Congress had no credit or taxing power to finance a response. Domestically, the Articles of Confederation was failing to bring unity to the sentiments and interests of the various states
39.
Sovereignty
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Sovereignty is understood in jurisprudence as the full right and power of a governing body to govern itself without any interference from outside sources or bodies. In political theory, sovereignty is a term designating supreme authority over some polity. It is a basic principle underlying the dominant Westphalian model of state foundation, derived from Latin through French souveraineté, its attainment and retention, in both Chinese and Western culture, has traditionally been associated with certain moral imperatives upon any claimant. The concept of sovereignty has been discussed throughout history, and is still actively debated and it has changed in its definition, concept, and application throughout, especially during the Age of Enlightenment. The current notion of state sovereignty contains four aspects consisting of territory, population, authority, Sovereignty is a hypothetical trade, in which two potentially conflicting sides, respecting de facto realities of power, exchange such recognitions as their least costly strategy. The Roman jurist Ulpian observed that, The imperium of the people is transferred to the Emperor, the Emperor is not bound by the law. Emperor is the law making and abiding force, Ulpian was expressing the idea that the Emperor exercised a rather absolute form of sovereignty, although he did not use the term expressly. Classical Ulpians statements were known in medieval Europe, but sovereignty was an important concept in medieval times, Medieval monarchs were not sovereign, at least not strongly so, because they were constrained by, and shared power with, their feudal aristocracy. Furthermore, both were strongly constrained by custom, Sovereignty existed during the Medieval Period as the de jure rights of nobility and royalty, and in the de facto capability of individuals to make their own choices in life. 1380–1400, the issue of sovereignty was addressed in Geoffrey Chaucers Middle English collection of Canterbury Tales. The story revolves around the knight Sir Gawain granting to Dame Ragnell, his new bride, what is purported to be wanted most by women and we desire most from men, From men both lund and poor, To have sovereignty without lies. For where we have sovereignty, all is ours, Though a knight be ever so fierce and it is our desire to have master Over such a sir. Jean Bodin, partly in reaction to the chaos of the French wars of religion, in his 1576 treatise Les Six Livres de la République Bodin argued that it is inherent in the nature of the state that the sovereign must have both great and perpetual authority. Bodin rejected the notion of transference of sovereignty from people to the ruler, however, although he is often connected with absolutism, Bodin held some moderate opinions on how government should in practice be carried out. Thus, Bodin’s sovereign was restricted by the law of the state. Bodin believed that “the most divine, most excellent, and the form most proper to royalty is governed partly aristocratically and partly democratically”. With his doctrine that sovereignty is conferred by law, Bodin predefined the scope of the divine right of kings. During the Age of Enlightenment, the idea of sovereignty gained both legal and moral force as the main Western description of the meaning and power of a State
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