1.
Panama City, Florida
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Panama City is a city and the county seat of Bay County, Florida, United States. Located along U. S. Route 98, it is the largest city between Tallahassee and Pensacola and it is the more populated of two principal cities of the Panama City-Lynn Haven, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 36,484, when Panama City was incorporated in 1909, its original city limits were 15th Street on the north, Balboa Avenue on the west and Bay Avenue on the east. The development in part of Northwest Florida had previous names such as Floriopolis, Park Resort. In 1906, the development was titled Panama City and incorporated as Panama City in 1909, as of the fourth quarter in 2016, there is a commercial rebranding campaign set out to rebrand the downtown area of Panama City, Florida to Harrison or Harrison Historic Downtown Panama City. There is currently ongoing backlash to this rebranding attempt from the areas merchants, Harrison is the road that runs through downtown Panama City, Florida. As of the census of 2010, there were 36,484 people,14,792 households, the population density was 1,245.2 people per square mile. There were 17,438 housing units at a density of 595.2 per square mile. 34. 1% of all households were made up of individuals, the average household size was 2.28, and the average family size was 2.91. In the city, the population was 20. 7% under the age of 18,10. 2% from 18 to 24,25. 9% from 25 to 44,26. 9% from 45 to 64, the median age was 39.7 years. For every 100 females there were 96.3 males, for every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 95.2 males. Panama City is located at 30°10′28″N 85°39′52″W within the Florida Panhandle and along the Emerald Coast. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city limits encompass an area of 35.4 square miles, of which 29.3 square miles is land and 6.2 square miles, or 17. 39%, is water. Panama City has a subtropical climate, with short, mild winters and long, hot. In January, the low is 42 °F, and in July the average high is 90 °F. The city is susceptible to hurricanes, such as Hurricane Earl, as of the 2000 census, the citys median household income was $31,572, and the median income for a family was $40,890. Males had an income of $30,401 versus $21,431 for females. The citys per capita income was $17,830, about 12. 1% of families and 17. 2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 24. 5% of those under age 18 and 14. 9% of those age 65 or over
2.
Panama Canal
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The Panama Canal is an artificial 48-mile waterway in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean. The canal cuts across the Isthmus of Panama and is a key conduit for maritime trade. The original locks are 33.5 metres wide, a third, wider lane of locks was constructed between September 2007 and May 2016. The expanded canal began operation on June 26,2016. The new locks allow transit of larger, Post-Panamax ships, capable of handling more cargo, France began work on the canal in 1881 but stopped due to engineering problems and a high worker mortality rate. The United States took over the project in 1904 and opened the canal on August 15,1914, Colombia, France, and later the United States controlled the territory surrounding the canal during construction. The U. S. continued to control the canal and surrounding Panama Canal Zone until the 1977 Torrijos–Carter Treaties provided for handover to Panama. After a period of joint American–Panamanian control, in 1999 the canal was taken over by the Panamanian government and is now managed and operated by the government-owned Panama Canal Authority. Annual traffic has risen from about 1,000 ships in 1914, by 2012, more than 815,000 vessels had passed through the canal. It takes six to eight hours to pass through the Panama Canal, the American Society of Civil Engineers has called the Panama Canal one of the seven wonders of the modern world. Such a route would have given the Spanish a military advantage over the Portuguese, during an expedition from 1788 to 1793, Alessandro Malaspina outlined plans for its construction. Given the strategic location of Panama and the potential offered by its narrow isthmus separating two great oceans, other links in the area were attempted over the years. The ill-fated Darien scheme was launched by the Kingdom of Scotland in 1698 to set up a trade route. Generally inhospitable conditions thwarted the effort, and it was abandoned in April 1700, another effort was made in 1843. They referred to it as the Atlantic and Pacific Canal and it was a wholly British endeavor and it was expected to be completed in five years, but the plan was never carried out. At nearly the same time, other ideas were floated, including a canal across Mexicos Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Nothing came of that plan either. )In 1846 the Mallarino–Bidlack Treaty, negotiated between the U. S. and New Granada, granted the United States transit rights and the right to intervene militarily in the isthmus. In 1849, the discovery of gold in California created great interest in a crossing between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, the Panama Railway was built by the United States to cross the isthmus and opened in 1855
3.
Bridge of the Americas
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The Bridge of the Americas is a road bridge in Panama, which spans the Pacific entrance to the Panama Canal. Completed in 1962, at a cost of US$20 million, it was the only non-swinging bridge connecting the north and south American land masses until the opening of the Centennial Bridge in 2004, the bridge was designed by Sverdrup & Parcel. The Bridge of the Americas crosses the Pacific approach to the Panama Canal at Balboa and it was built between 1959 and 1962 by the United States at a cost of 20 million U. S. dollars. From its completion in 1962 until the opening of the parallel Centennial Bridge in 2004, the Bridge of the Americas greatly increased road traffic capacity across the canal. There are two bridges which cross the canal, but they use moveable designs and have limited traffic capacity. These earlier spans include a swinging road bridge and a swinging road/rail bridge. The Centennial Bridge was constructed to eliminate the bottleneck of and reduce congestion on the Bridge of the Americas. The bridge is a design where the suspended span is a tied arch. The bridge has a length of 1,654 m in 14 spans. The main span measures 344 m and the arch is 259 m. The highest point of the bridge is 117 m above sea level. Ships must cross under this bridge when traversing the Panama Canal, the bridge is an impressive sight, and a good view can be obtained from the Balboa Yacht Club, where many small boats tie up before or after transiting the canal. Throughout the day and night numerous vessels pass under the bridge, there are wide access ramps at each end, and pedestrian walkways on each side. From the beginning of the French project to construct a canal, it was recognised that the cities of Colón and this was an issue even during construction, when barges were used to ferry construction workers across the canal. After the canal opened, the number of cars. The Panama Canal Mechanical Division addressed this in August 1931, with the commissioning of two new ferries, the Presidente Amador and President Washington and this service was expanded in August 1940, with additional barges mainly serving the military. On June 3,1942, a swing bridge was inaugurated at the Miraflores locks, although only usable when no ships were passing. Still, it was clear that a substantial solution would be required
4.
Casco Viejo, Panama
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Casco Viejo, also known as Casco Antiguo or San Felipe, is the historic district of Panama City. Completed and settled in 1673, it was following the near-total destruction of the original Panamá city, Panamá Viejo in 1671. It was designated a World Heritage Site in 1997, Panama city was founded on August 15,1519 and it lasted one hundred and fifty-two years. In January 1671, the Governor Juan Perez de Guzman had it set on fire, before the attack, in 1672, Antonio Fernández de Córdoba initiated the construction of a new city, which was then founded on January 21,1673. This city was built on a completely isolated by the sea. Today this place preserves the first institutions and buildings of the city of Panama. It is known as Casco Viejo, La Catedral Metropolitana is the main Catholic temple in Panama city. El Palacio de las Garzas, is the office and residence of the President of Panama. Church and Convent of Saint Francis of Assisi, Church of San José Church of La Merced Church and Convent of Santo Domingo, The Flat Arch Church and convent of the Society of Jesus. Palacio Municipal, which dates from the beginning of the 20th century, Palacio Nacional National Theatre of Panama Panama Canal Museum Palacio Bolívar Góngora House Plaza Bolívar Plaza Herrera Plaza de Francia Plaza de la Independencia Official website
5.
Urban area
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An urban area is a human settlement with high population density and infrastructure of built environment. Urban areas are created through urbanization and are categorized by urban morphology as cities, in urbanism, the term contrasts to rural areas such as villages and hamlets and in urban sociology or urban anthropology it contrasts with natural environment. The worlds urban population in 1950 of just 746 million has increased to 3.9 billion in the decades since, in 2009, the number of people living in urban areas surpassed the number living in rural areas and since then the world has become more urban than rural. This was the first time that the majority of the population lived in a city. In 2014 there were 7.25 billion people living on the planet, Urban areas are created and further developed by the process of urbanization. Urban areas are measured for various purposes, including analyzing population density, historian John Gurda writes, I have tried to uncover Milwaukees civic bedrock - the shifting foundation on which individuals have built their lives and the community has constructed its identity. There is no doubt that the deepest layer of bedrock is economic. In every age, people have chosen to live in areas not because of their climates or landmarks or cultural attractions. It was economic opportunity that brought people to Milwaukee, and it is economic opportunity that keeps them there, I define cities as concentrations of people animated by concentrations of capital. More simply put, money is the root of all cities, official definitions vary somewhat between nations. The ten largest metropolitan areas account for half of the population, about 3 million people live in Buenos Aires City and the Greater Buenos Aires metropolitan area totals around 13 million, making it one of the largest urban areas in the world. The metropolitan areas of Córdoba, Rosario, Mendoza and Tucumán have around 1.3 million inhabitants each and La Plata, seven other provinces have over one million people each, Mendoza, Tucumán, Entre Ríos, Salta, Chaco, Corrientes and Misiones. According to IBGE urban areas already concentrate 84. 35% of the population, while the Southeast region remains the most populated one, with over 80 million inhabitants. The largest metropolitan areas in Brazil are São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Belo Horizonte — all in the Southeastern Region — with 20,12, and 5 million inhabitants respectively. The majority of state capitals are the largest cities in their states, except for Vitória, the capital of Espírito Santo, and Florianópolis, there are also non-capital metropolitan areas in the states of São Paulo, Minas Gerais, Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina. According to Statistics Canada, an area in Canada is an area with a population of at least 1,000 people where the density is no fewer than 400 persons per square kilometre. If two or more areas are within 2 km of each other by road, they are merged into a single urban area. Accordingly, the new definition set out three types of population centres, small, medium and large
6.
Human Development Index
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The Human Development Index is a composite statistic of life expectancy, education, and per capita income indicators, which are used to rank countries into four tiers of human development. A country scores higher HDI when the lifespan is higher, the level is higher. The 2010 Human Development Report introduced an Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index, while the simple HDI remains useful, it stated that the IHDI is the actual level of human development, and the HDI can be viewed as an index of potential human development. The origins of the HDI are found in the annual Human Development Reports produced by the Human Development Reports Office of the United Nations Development Programme, nobel laureate Amartya Sen, utilized Haqs work in his own work on human capabilities. The following three indices are used,1, Life Expectancy Index = LE −2085 −20 LEI is 1 when Life expectancy at birth is 85 and 0 when Life expectancy at birth is 20. Education Index = MYSI + EYSI22.1 Mean Years of Schooling Index = MYS15 Fifteen is the maximum of this indicator for 2025. 2.2 Expected Years of Schooling Index = EYS18 Eighteen is equivalent to achieving a degree in most countries. Income Index = ln − ln ln − ln II is 1 when GNI per capita is $75,000 and 0 when GNI per capita is $100. Finally, the HDI is the mean of the previous three normalized indices, HDI = LEI ⋅ EI ⋅ II3. Standard of living, as indicated by the logarithm of gross domestic product per capita at purchasing power parity. This methodology was used by the UNDP until their 2011 report, the formula defining the HDI is promulgated by the United Nations Development Programme. The 2016 Human Development Report by the United Nations Development Programme was released on March 21,2017, below is the list of the very high human development countries, = increase. The number in brackets represents the number of ranks the country has climbed relative to the ranking in the 2015 report, the Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index is a measure of the average level of human development of people in a society once inequality is taken into account. The rankings are not relative to the HDI list above due to the exclusion of countries which are missing IHDI data. Countries in the top quartile of HDI with a missing IHDI, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Liechtenstein, Brunei, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Andorra, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Kuwait. The 2015 Human Development Report by the United Nations Development Programme was released on December 14,2015, below is the list of the very high human development countries, = increase. The number in brackets represents the number of ranks the country has climbed relative to the ranking in the 2014 report, the Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index is a measure of the average level of human development of people in a society once inequality is taken into account. Note, The green arrows, red arrows, and blue dashes represent changes in rank, the rankings are not relative to the HDI list above due to the exclusion of countries which are missing IHDI data
7.
Capital (political)
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A capital city is the municipality exercising primary status in a country, state, province, or other region, usually as its seat of government. A capital is typically a city that encompasses the offices and meeting places of its respective government. In some jurisdictions, including countries, the different branches of government are located in different settlements. In some cases, a distinction is made between the capital and the seat of government, which is in another place. The word capital derives from the Latin caput, meaning head, in several English-speaking states, the terms county town, county seat, and borough seat are also used in lower subdivisions. In unitary states, subnational capitals are known as administrative centres. The capital is often, but not necessarily, the largest city of its constituent, historically, the major economic centre of a state or region often becomes the focal point of political power, and becomes a capital through conquest or federation. Examples are Ancient Babylon, Abbasid Baghdad, Ancient Athens, Rome, Constantinople, Changan, Ancient Cusco, Madrid, Paris, London, Moscow, Beijing, Tokyo, Vienna, and Berlin. Some of these cities are or were also religious centres, e. g. Constantinople, Rome, Jerusalem, Ancient Babylon, Moscow, Belgrade, Paris, and Peking. A capital city that is also the economic, cultural. The convergence of political and economic or cultural power is by no means universal, traditional capitals may be economically eclipsed by provincial rivals, e. g. Nanking by Shanghai, Quebec City by Montreal, and numerous US state capitals. The decline of a dynasty or culture could also mean the extinction of its city, as occurred at Babylon. Although many capitals are defined by constitution or legislation, many long-time capitals have no legal designation as such, for example Bern, Edinburgh, Lisbon, London, Paris, are located in or near them. In Canada, there is a capital, while the ten provinces. The states of such countries as Mexico, Brazil, and Australia all have capital cities, for example, the six state capitals of Australia are Adelaide, Brisbane, Hobart, Melbourne, Perth, and Sydney. In Australia, the capital cities is regularly used, to refer to the aforementioned state capitals plus the federal capital Canberra and Darwin. Abu Dhabi is the city of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. In unitary states which consist of multiple constituent countries, such as the United Kingdom or the Kingdom of Denmark, the national capitals of Germany and Russia, the Stadtstaat of Berlin and the Federal City of Moscow, are also constituent states of both countries in their own right
8.
Panama
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Panama, officially called the Republic of Panama, is a country usually considered to be entirely in North America or Central America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, the capital and largest city is Panama City, whose metropolitan area is home to nearly half of the countrys 4.1 million people. Panama was inhabited by indigenous tribes prior to settlement by the Spanish in the 16th century. Panama broke away from Spain in 1821 and joined a union of Nueva Granada, Ecuador, when Gran Colombia dissolved in 1831, Panama and Nueva Granada remained joined, eventually becoming the Republic of Colombia. With the backing of the United States, Panama seceded from Colombia in 1903, in 1977 an agreement was signed for the total transfer of the Canal from the United States to Panama by the end of the 20th century, which culminated on 31 December 1999. Revenue from canal tolls continues to represent a significant portion of Panamas GDP, although commerce, banking, in 2015 Panama ranked 60th in the world in terms of the Human Development Index. Since 2010, Panama remains the second most competitive economy in Latin America, covering around 40 percent of its land area, Panamas jungles are home to an abundance of tropical plants and animals – some of them to be found nowhere else on the planet. There are several theories about the origin of the name Panama, some believe that the country was named after a commonly found species of tree. Others believe that the first settlers arrived in Panama in August, when butterflies abound, the best-known version is that a fishing village and its nearby beach bore the name Panamá, which meant an abundance of fish. Captain Antonio Tello de Guzmán, while exploring the Pacific side in 1515, in 1517 Don Gaspar De Espinosa, a Spanish lieutenant, decided to settle a post there. In 1519 Pedrarias Dávila decided to establish the Empires Pacific city in this site, the new settlement replaced Santa María La Antigua del Darién, which had lost its function within the Crowns global plan after the beginning of the Spanish exploitation of the riches in the Pacific. Blending all of the above together, Panamanians believe in general that the word Panama means abundance of fish and this is the official definition given in social studies textbooks approved by the Ministry of Education in Panama. However, others believe the word Panama comes from the Kuna word bannaba which means distant or far away, at the time of the arrival of the Spanish in the 16th century, the known inhabitants of Panama included the Cuevas and the Coclé tribes. These people have disappeared, as they had no immunity from European infectious diseases. The earliest discovered artifacts of indigenous peoples in Panama include Paleo-Indian projectile points, later central Panama was home to some of the first pottery-making in the Americas, for example the cultures at Monagrillo, which date back to 2500–1700 BC. These evolved into significant populations best known through their spectacular burials at the Monagrillo archaeological site, the monumental monolithic sculptures at the Barriles site are also important traces of these ancient isthmian cultures. Before Europeans arrived Panama was widely settled by Chibchan, Chocoan, the largest group were the Cueva. The size of the population of the isthmus at the time of European colonization is uncertain
9.
Global city
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A global city, also called world city or sometimes alpha city or world center, is a city generally considered to be an important node in the global economic system. The most complex of these entities is the city, whereby the linkages binding a city have a direct. Patrick Geddes also used the world city later in 1915. More recently, the term has been described as being synonymous with an influence and financial capital. Global city status is considered to be beneficial and desired, and because of this, many groups have tried to classify, although there is a consensus upon leading world cities, the criteria upon which a classification is made can affect which other cities are included. Smith and Peter J. Taylor established the Globalization and World Cities Research Network, the GaWC inventory identifies three levels of global cities and several sub-ranks. The 2004 rankings acknowledged several new indicators while continuing to rank city economics more heavily than political or cultural factors. The following is a list of the cities in the rankings, as they appear on the GaWC website, Alpha ++ cities are cities most integrated with the economy, London. Alpha + cities are advanced service niches for the economy, Hong Kong, Paris, Singapore, Shanghai, Tokyo, Beijing, Sydney. The Institute for Urban Strategies at The Mori Memorial Foundation in Tokyo issued a study of global cities in 2016. The ranking is based on six categories, Economy, Research & Development, Cultural Interaction, Livability, Environment. This Japanese ranking also breaks down top ten world cities ranked in subjective categories such as manager, researcher, artist, visitor, Global Power City top 10,1. Vienna In 2008, the American journal Foreign Policy, in conjunction with the Chicago-based consulting firm A. T, kearney and the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, published a ranking of global cities, based on consultation with Saskia Sassen, Witold Rybczynski, and others. Foreign Policy noted that the world’s biggest, most interconnected cities help set global agendas, weather transnational dangers and they are the engines of growth for their countries and the gateways to the resources of their regions. The Wealth Report is made by the London-based estate agent Knight Frank LLP together with the Citi Private Bank, the report includes a Global Cities Survey, evaluating which cities are considered the most important to the world’s HNWIs. In 2012, the Economist Intelligence Unit, ranked the competitiveness of cities according to their demonstrated ability to attract capital, businesses, talent. The State of the World’s Cities
10.
Tocumen International Airport
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Tocumen International Airport is the international airport of Panama City, the capital of Panama. The airport serves as the homebase for Copa Airlines and is a hub to and from The Caribbean, South, North and Central America. During World War II, Panamanian airports were leased exclusively by the U. S. military, the nearest airport to Tocumen was the Paitilla Point Airfield. Several airports were built to protect the Panama Canal from foreign aggression, Tocumen International Airport was inaugurated on June 1,1947 by President Enrique A. Jiménez, and airport operations began before the construction works were completed. The administrative building/passenger terminal was inaugurated seven years later, during the administration of Colonel Jose Antonio Remon Cantera, the old airport building, which currently is being used as a cargo terminal, was built on an area of 720 ha and was 126 ft above sea level. As time passed, and due to Panamas role as a country of transit and this compelled the aeronautical authorities at the time to consider expanding the airport. Work on the new buildings began in 1971, in order to build the structure that currently houses the current passenger terminal, a lot of land had to be moved and the bed of the Tocumen river had to be diverted from its original site. The current passenger terminal was inaugurated on August 15,1978, the Tocumen International Airport is one of the few airports in the region that has two landing runways able to serve the largest commercial aircraft operating today. After nine years, the name was reestablished after the fall of the dictatorship of Panama by the U. S. invasion of 1989. The original runway is used for cargo and private flights. The main runway is 3,050 m ×45 m and is used primarily for commercial flights, until May 31,2003 Tocumen International Airport was managed by the Civil Aeronautics Directorate. This law allowed the creation of Aeropuerto Internacional de Tocumen, S. A. also referred to as Tocumen and this law is one of a number of laws that restructured the aeronautical sector in Panama to further its improvement and modernization. In January 2016, the route was delayed due to a lack of opportunities for the flight. It has not yet been announced when the flight will begin regularly scheduled operations and it was planned to make the route between Tocumen International Airport and Dubai the longest flight in the world, until Emirates started flying between Dubai and Auckland. During 2016 to 2017, Tocumen International Airport will undergo the completion of the airports new South Terminal, in 2006, Tocumen S. A. started a major expansion and renovation program. The main passenger terminal was expanded 20,830 m2 at a cost of approximately US$21 million, new boarding gates were built to allow more flights to and from Panama, and to facilitate the growth of commercial and internal circulation areas. Tocumen airport administration acquired 22 new boarding bridges and replaced the oldest 14 and this included the addition of 6 remote positions, hence allowing Tocumen Airport to have a total of 28 boarding gates. The new installations were opened in 2006, the airport also has a VIP lounge, Copa Club, operated by the partnership between United Airlines and Copa Airlines that caters to Copas partner airlines and Star Alliance members
11.
List of the busiest airports in Central America
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This is a list of the busiest airports in Central America by passenger traffic, a statistic available for almost all the airstrips taken into account. Because each country has a different body to control these statistics, the information here presented represents the best available data in different Internet sources. The ranking is ordered according to passenger traffic. Information on aircraft movements or cargo movements is not available for all the airports, ordered by total passenger traffic, international and domestic, with final data for 2009. According to Airports Council Internationals World Airport Traffic Report 2009, and ordered by total passenger traffic, total aircraft movements, Information for Guatemala and Belize airports are excluded in this report, as well as some other airports in Costa Rica Rica and Panama. According to Airports Council Internationals World Airport Traffic Report 2006, and ordered by total passenger traffic, total aircraft movements, Information for Guatemala and Belize airports are excluded in this report, as well as some other airports in Costa Rica Rica and Panama. According to Airports Council Internationals World Airport Traffic Report 2006, and ordered by total passenger traffic, total aircraft movements, Information for Guatemala and Belize airports are excluded in this report, as well as some other airports in Costa Rica Rica and Panama. ^ Total passenger Traffic according to the airports website report, Estadísticas Aeropuerto Internacional de Tocumen, ^ Total passenger Traffic for 2015, as presented by Costa Ricas Civil Aviation Authority website, Anuario Estadístico del Transporte Aéreo 2015. ^ Data according to the Autonomous Port Executive Commission Statistics Department, ^ Total Passenger Traffic according to the Air Transport Statistics Unit, Directorate General of Civil Aviation. Sum up of Total Arrivals and Total Departures, ^ Information available on the airport website. The number represents the sum of total International Incoming, International Departure, Domestic Incoming and Domestic Departure passengers, Aeropuerto internacional Daniel Oduber supera los 4 millones de pasajeros en los últimos cinco años, January 12,2017. Honduras, En 14% aumenta el flujo de viajeros por aeropuertos, ^ Estimated data, according to the Philip S. W. Goldson International Airport Authority Graphical statistics, ^ Important,2015 Total Passenger Traffic only, as presented on the airport website. ^ Important,2015 Traffic Data for January-October only, Total Traffic according to the Institutional Yearbook,2015 of Panamas Civil Aviation Authority. ^ Important,2014 Domestic Passenger Traffic only, according to Panamas Civil Aviation Authority website, ^ Total traffic, according to the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure. ^ Total traffic, according to the Civil Aviation authority of Guatemala, ^ Data according to the Autonomous Port Executive Commission Statistics Department
12.
Curitiba
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Curitiba is the capital and largest city of the Brazilian state of Paraná. The citys population numbered approximately 1,879,355 people as of 2015, making it the eighth most populous city in the country, and the largest in Brazils South Region. The Curitiba Metropolitan area comprises 26 municipalities with a population of over 3.2 million. Curitiba is an important cultural, political, and economic centre in Latin America, the city sits on a plateau at 932 metres above sea level. It is located 105 kilometres west of the seaport of Paranaguá and is served by the Afonso Pena International, the city hosts the Federal University of Paraná, established in 1912. In the 1700s Curitiba possessed a favorable location between cattle-breeding country and marketplaces, leading to a successful trade and the citys first major expansion. Later, between 1850 and 1950, it grew due to logging and agricultural expansion in the Paraná State, in the 1850s waves of European immigrants arrived in Curitiba, mainly Germans, Italians, Poles and Ukrainians, contributing to the citys economic and cultural development. Nowadays, only numbers of foreign immigrants arrive, primarily from Middle Eastern. The biggest expansion occurred after the 1960s, with urban planning that changed the population size from some hundreds of thousands to more than a million people. Curitibas economy is based on industry and services and is the fourth largest in Brazil, economic growth occurred in parallel to a substantial inward flow of Brazilians from other cities of the country, as approximately half of the citys population was not born in Curitiba. According to US magazine Readers Digest, Curitiba is the best Brazilian Big City in which to live. One theory is that the name Curitiba comes from the Tupi words kurí tyba, another version, also using words from the Tupi language, is that it originates in the combination of kurit and yba. The Portuguese who founded a settlement on the site in 1693 named it Vila da Nossa Senhora da Luz dos Pinhais, the name was changed to Curitiba in 1721. Curitiba officially became a town in 1812, spelling its name as Curityba and this was used in press and state documents. A state decree in 1919 settled the dispute by adopting Curitiba, as of 2013 the mayor was Gustavo Fruet, who replaced Luciano Ducci. The City Council of Curitiba has 38 councillors elected since 2004, Curitiba is divided into nine regional governments, who manage the municipalitys 75 districts. The Rua da Cidadania is the symbol of administrative decentralization, it is a reference point, several units are annexed to public transport terminals. Their nuclei offer services in the local, state and federal areas, Jaime Lerner is perhaps Curitibas best-known mayor
13.
Brazil
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Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. As the worlds fifth-largest country by area and population, it is the largest country to have Portuguese as an official language. Its Amazon River basin includes a vast tropical forest, home to wildlife, a variety of ecological systems. This unique environmental heritage makes Brazil one of 17 megadiverse countries, Brazil was inhabited by numerous tribal nations prior to the landing in 1500 of explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral, who claimed the area for the Portuguese Empire. Brazil remained a Portuguese colony until 1808, when the capital of the empire was transferred from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro, in 1815, the colony was elevated to the rank of kingdom upon the formation of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves. Independence was achieved in 1822 with the creation of the Empire of Brazil, a state governed under a constitutional monarchy. The ratification of the first constitution in 1824 led to the formation of a bicameral legislature, the country became a presidential republic in 1889 following a military coup détat. An authoritarian military junta came to power in 1964 and ruled until 1985, Brazils current constitution, formulated in 1988, defines it as a democratic federal republic. The federation is composed of the union of the Federal District, the 26 states, Brazils economy is the worlds ninth-largest by nominal GDP and seventh-largest by GDP as of 2015. A member of the BRICS group, Brazil until 2010 had one of the worlds fastest growing economies, with its economic reforms giving the country new international recognition. Brazils national development bank plays an important role for the economic growth. Brazil is a member of the United Nations, the G20, BRICS, Unasul, Mercosul, Organization of American States, Organization of Ibero-American States, CPLP. Brazil is a power in Latin America and a middle power in international affairs. One of the worlds major breadbaskets, Brazil has been the largest producer of coffee for the last 150 years and it is likely that the word Brazil comes from the Portuguese word for brazilwood, a tree that once grew plentifully along the Brazilian coast. In Portuguese, brazilwood is called pau-brasil, with the word brasil commonly given the etymology red like an ember, formed from Latin brasa and the suffix -il. As brazilwood produces a red dye, it was highly valued by the European cloth industry and was the earliest commercially exploited product from Brazil. The popular appellation eclipsed and eventually supplanted the official Portuguese name, early sailors sometimes also called it the Land of Parrots. In the Guarani language, a language of Paraguay, Brazil is called Pindorama
14.
Henry Morgan
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Sir Henry Morgan was a Welsh privateer, landowner and, later, Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica. From his base in Port Royal, Jamaica, he raided settlements and shipping on the Spanish Main, with the prize money from the raids he purchased three large sugar plantations on the island. Much of Morgans early life is unknown and he was born in south Wales, but it is not known how he made his way to the West Indies, or how he began his career as a privateer. He was probably a member of a group of raiders led by Sir Christopher Myngs in the early 1660s, Morgan became a close friend of Sir Thomas Modyford, the Governor of Jamaica. When diplomatic relations between the Kingdom of England and Spain worsened in 1667, Modyford gave Morgan a letter of marque, Morgan subsequently conducted successful and highly lucrative raids on Puerto Principe and Porto Bello. In 1668 he sailed for Maracaibo and Gibraltar, both on Lake Maracaibo in modern-day Venezuela and he raided both cities and stripped them of their wealth before destroying a large Spanish squadron as he escaped. In 1671 Morgan attacked Panama City, landing on the Caribbean coast and traversing the isthmus before he attacked the city, the battle was a rout, although the privateers profited less than in other raids. Morgan was appointed a Knight Bachelor in November 1674 and returned to Jamaica shortly afterward to serve as the territorys Lieutenant Governor and he served on the Assembly of Jamaica until 1683 and on three occasions he acted as Governor of Jamaica in the absence of the post-holder. He died in Jamaica on 25 August 1688 and his life was romanticised after his death and he became the inspiration for pirate-themed works of fiction across a range of genres. Henry Morgan was born around 1635 in Wales, either in Llanrumney, Glamorgan or Pencarn, several sources state Morgans father was Robert Morgan, a farmer. It is unknown how Morgan made his way to the Caribbean, in the 17th century the Caribbean offered an opportunity for young men to become rich quickly, although significant investment was needed to obtain high returns from the sugar export economy. Other opportunities for gain were through trade or plunder of the Spanish Empire. Much of the plunder was from privateering, whereby individuals and ships were commissioned by government to attack the countrys enemies. It is probable that in the early 1660s Morgan was active with a group of privateers led by Sir Christopher Myngs attacking Spanish cities and settlements in the Caribbean and Central America. In 1663 it is likely that Morgan captained one of the ships in Myngs fleet, and took part in the attack on Santiago de Cuba, about 1,500 privateers used Jamaica as a base for their activity and brought significant revenue to the island. As the planting community of 5,000 was still new and developing, a privateer was granted a letter of marque which gave him a licence to attack and seize vessels, normally of a specific country, or with conditions attached. A portion of all obtained by the privateers was given to the sovereign or the issuing ambassador. In August 1665 Morgan, along with fellow captains John Morris and Jacob Fackman, Modyford was impressed enough with the spoils to report back to the government that Central America was the properest place for an attack on the Spanish Indies
15.
Timeline of Panama City
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The following is a timeline of the history of Panama City, Republic of Panama. 1519 - Nuestra Senora de la Asuncion de Panama founded by Spaniards,1539 - Royal Audiencia of Panama established. 1671 - Panamá Viejo sacked by privateer Henry Morgan,1673 New settlement established 5 miles southwest of Panamá Viejo. City wall, Palacio de las Garzas, and Saint Dominic Convent built,1821 - City becomes part of Gran Colombia. 1826 - June, City hosts Panama Congress,1830 - City becomes part of Republic of New Granada. 1849 - Panama Star English-language newspaper begins publication,1853 - La Estrella de Panamá newspaper in publication. 1855 - Panama Railway begins operating,1856 - April 15, Watermelon War. 1881 - Panama Canal construction begins,1882 - LHospital Notre Dame de Canal established. 1887 - City fire department established,1903 - City becomes part of independent Republic of Panama. 1908 - National Theatre of Panama opens,1914 - Panama Canal begins operating. 1916 - National Exposition of Panama held,1925 - Protest strike against urban conditions. 1935 - University of Panama established,1955 - Club Deportivo Plaza Amador formed. 1962 - Bridge of the Americas opens,1970 - Gimnasio Nuevo Panama opens. 1981 - La Prensa newspaper begins publication,1985 - Parque Municipal Summit established. 1986 - Mossack Fonseca law firm in business,1988 - Metropolitan Natural Park opens. 1989 December 20, United States invasion of Panama begins, guillermo Endara becomes president Mayin Correa becomes mayor of Panamá District. 1990 - Dictator Manuel Noriega surrenders to United States military forces on January 3,1994 - Ernesto Perez Balladares wins May 1994 elections and becomes president. 1995 - Club Deportivo Policía Nacional formed,1996 Marine Exhibition Center of Punta Culebra established
16.
California Gold Rush
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The California Gold Rush began on January 24,1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutters Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought some 300,000 people to California from the rest of the United States, the Gold Rush initiated the California Genocide, with 100,000 Native Californians dying between 1848 and 1868. By the time it ended, California had gone from a thinly populated ex-Mexican territory to the state of the first nominee for the Republican Party. The effects of the Gold Rush were substantial, whole indigenous societies were attacked and pushed off their lands by the gold-seekers, called forty-niners. The first to hear confirmed information of the rush were the people in Oregon, the Sandwich Islands, and Latin America. While most of the newly arrived were Americans, the Gold Rush attracted tens of thousands from Latin America, Europe, Australia, agriculture and ranching expanded throughout the state to meet the needs of the settlers. San Francisco grew from a settlement of about 200 residents in 1846 to a boomtown of about 36,000 by 1852. Roads, churches, schools and other towns were built throughout California, in 1849 a state constitution was written. The new constitution was adopted by vote, and the future states interim first governor. In September,1850, California became a state, at the beginning of the Gold Rush, there was no law regarding property rights in the goldfields and a system of staking claims was developed. Prospectors retrieved the gold from streams and riverbeds using simple techniques, although the mining caused environmental harm, more sophisticated methods of gold recovery were developed and later adopted around the world. New methods of transportation developed as steamships came into regular service, by 1869 railroads were built across the country from California to the eastern United States. At its peak, technological advances reached a point where significant financing was required, Gold worth tens of billions of todays dollars was recovered, which led to great wealth for a few. However, many returned home with more than they had started with. The Mexican–American War ended on February 3,1848, although California was firmly in American hands before that, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo provided for, among other things, the formal transfer of Upper California to the United States. The California Gold Rush began at Sutters Mill, near Coloma, on January 24,1848, James W. Marshall, a foreman working for Sacramento pioneer John Sutter, found shiny metal in the tailrace of a lumber mill Marshall was building for Sutter on the American River. Marshall brought what he found to John Sutter, and the two tested the metal. However, rumors started to spread and were confirmed in March 1848 by San Francisco newspaper publisher
17.
George H. W. Bush
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George Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who was the 41st President of the United States from 1989 to 1993 and the 43rd Vice President of the United States from 1981 to 1989. Republican Party, he was previously a congressman, ambassador, and he is the oldest living former President and Vice President. Prior to his sons presidency, he was referred to as George Bush or President Bush. Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to Prescott Bush and Dorothy Walker Bush. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, Bush postponed his university studies, enlisted in the U. S. Navy on his 18th birthday and he served until the end of the war, then attended Yale University. Graduating in 1948, he moved his family to West Texas and entered the oil business, Bush became involved in politics soon after founding his own oil company, serving as a member of the House of Representatives and Director of Central Intelligence, among other positions. He failed to win the Republican nomination for President in 1980, but was chosen as a mate by party nominee Ronald Reagan. During his tenure, Bush headed administration task forces on deregulation, in 1988, Bush ran a successful campaign to succeed Reagan as President, defeating Democratic opponent Michael Dukakis. Foreign policy drove the Bush presidency, military operations were conducted in Panama and the Persian Gulf, the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, and the Soviet Union dissolved two years later. Domestically, Bush reneged on a 1988 campaign promise and, after a struggle with Congress and his presidential library was dedicated in 1997, and he has been active—often alongside Bill Clinton—in various humanitarian activities. Besides being the 43rd president, his son George also served as the 46th Governor of Texas and is one of only two other being John Quincy Adams—to be the son of a former president. His second son, Jeb Bush, served as the 43rd Governor of Florida, George Herbert Walker Bush was born at 173 Adams Street in Milton, Massachusetts, on June 12,1924, to Prescott Sheldon Bush and Dorothy Bush. The Bush family moved from Milton to Greenwich, Connecticut, shortly after his birth, growing up, his nickname was Poppy. Bush began his education at the Greenwich Country Day School in Greenwich. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Bush decided to join the US, Navy, so after graduating from Phillips Academy in 1942, he became a naval aviator at the age of 18. He was assigned to Torpedo Squadron as the officer in September 1943. The following year, his squadron was based on USS San Jacinto as a member of Air Group 51, during this time, the task force was victorious in one of the largest air battles of World War II, the Battle of the Philippine Sea. After Bushs promotion to Lieutenant on August 1,1944, San Jacinto commenced operations against the Japanese in the Bonin Islands, Bush piloted one of four Grumman TBM Avenger aircraft from VT-51 that attacked the Japanese installations on Chichijima
18.
Manuel Noriega
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Manuel Antonio Noriega Moreno is a former Panamanian politician and military officer. He was military dictator of Panama from 1983 to 1989, when he was removed from power by the United States during the invasion of Panama, from the 1950s until shortly before the U. S. invasion, Noriega worked closely with the U. S. In 1988, Noriega was indicted by the United States on drug trafficking charges in Miami, during the 1989 U. S. invasion of Panama, he was removed from power, captured, detained as a prisoner of war, and flown to the United States. Noriega was tried on eight counts of trafficking, racketeering. On September 16,1992, he was sentenced to 40 years in prison, France was granted its extradition request in April 2010. He arrived in Paris on April 27,2010, and after the re-trial that is a rule in France after any in absentia sentence, he was found guilty and sentenced to seven years in jail in July 2010. A conditional release was granted on September 23,2011, for Noriega to be extradited to serve 20 years in Panama and he returned to Panama on December 11,2011. Noriega was born in Panama City and he was a career soldier who received much of his education at the Military School of Chorrillos in Lima, Peru. He was commissioned in the Panama National Guard in 1967 and promoted to lieutenant in 1968, in a power struggle that followed, including a failed coup attempt in 1969, Noriega supported Omar Torrijos. He received a promotion to lieutenant colonel and was appointed chief of intelligence by Torrijos. Noriega claims that, following Torrijos instructions, he negotiated an amnesty for about 400 defeated guerrilla fighters, enabling them to return from exile in Honduras, Torrijos died in a plane accident on July 31,1981. Colonel Roberto Díaz Herrera, an associate of Noriega, claimed that the actual cause for the accident was a bomb. He was succeeded as Commander of the Panamanian National Guard by Colonel Florencio Flores Aguilar, one year later, Flores was succeeded by Rubén Darío Paredes, and Noriega became chief of staff. The guard was renamed the Panamanian Defense Forces, Paredes resigned as commander to run for the presidency, ceding his post as commander of the forces to Noriega. Although the relationship did not become contractual until 1967, Noriega worked with the U. S, Central Intelligence Agency from the late 1950s until the 1980s. In 1988, grand juries in Tampa and Miami indicted him on U. S. federal drug charges, throughout the 1970s and the 1980s, Noriega was able to manipulate U. S. policy toward his country, while skillfully accumulating near-absolute power in Panama. Noriega was allowed to establish the hemispheres first narcokleptocracy, one of the large financial institutions that he was able to use to launder money was the Bank of Credit and Commerce International. From the mid-1970s, Daisaku Ikeda fostered a relationship with Noriega
19.
El Chorrillo
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El Chorrillo is a corregimiento within Panama City, in Panamá District, Panamá Province, Panama with a population of 18,302 as of 2010. It was founded April 29,1915, and was populated by immigrants working on the construction of the Panama Canal. The impoverished area is the hometown of Manuel Noriega and was damaged during the United States invasion of Panama in 1989. Other former residents of note include boxer Roberto Durán and poet Hector Miguel Collado and its population as of 1990 was 20,488, its population as of 2000 was 22,632. El Chorillo is the district in Panama with two first-division clubs - Chorrillo F. C. and Plaza Amador - in the Liga Panameña de Fútbol
20.
Tapir
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A tapir is a large, herbivorous mammal, similar in shape to a pig, with a short, prehensile snout. Tapirs inhabit jungle and forest regions of South America, Central America, the five extant species of tapirs are the Brazilian tapir, the Malayan tapir, the Bairds tapir, the kabomani tapir, and the mountain tapir. The four species that have been evaluated are all classified as endangered or vulnerable and their closest relatives are the other odd-toed ungulates, which include horses, donkeys, zebras and rhinoceroses. Five extinct species within one extant genus are widely recognized, four are in Central and South America whilst the fifth is in Asia. Bairds tapir, Tapirus bairdii Brazilian tapir, Tapirus terrestris Kabomani tapir, size varies between types, but most tapirs are about 2 m long, stand about 1 m high at the shoulder, and weigh between 150 and 300 kg. Baby tapirs of all types have striped-and-spotted coats for camouflage, females have a single pair of mammary glands, and males have long penises relative to their body size. The proboscis of the tapir is a highly flexible organ, able to move in all directions, tapirs often exhibit the flehmen response, a posture in which they raise their snouts and show their teeth to detect scents. This response is frequently exhibited by bulls sniffing for signs of other males or females in oestrus in the area, the length of the proboscis varies among species, Malayan tapirs have the longest snouts and Brazilian tapirs have the shortest. Tapirs have brachyodont, or low-crowned teeth, that lack cementum and their dental formula is, Totaling 42 to 44 teeth, this dentition is closer to that of equids, which may differ by one less canine, than their other perissodactyl relatives, rhinoceroses. Their incisors are chisel-shaped, with the large, conical upper incisor separated by a short gap from the considerably smaller canine. A much longer gap is found between the canines and premolars, the first of which may be absent, tapirs are lophodonts, and their cheek teeth have distinct lophs between protocones, paracones, metacones and hypocones. Tapirs have brown eyes, often with a bluish cast to them, which has identified as corneal cloudiness. The exact etiology is unknown, but the cloudiness may be caused by exposure to light or by trauma. However, the tapirs sensitive ears and strong sense of smell help to compensate for deficiencies in vision, tapirs have simple stomachs and are hindgut fermenters that ferment digested food in a large cecum. Young tapirs reach sexual maturity between three and five years of age, with females maturing earlier than males, under good conditions, a healthy female tapir can reproduce every two years, a single young, called a calf, is born after a gestation of about 13 months. The natural lifespan of a tapir is about 25 to 30 years, apart from mothers and their young offspring, tapirs lead almost exclusively solitary lives. Along with freshwater lounging, tapirs often wallow in mud pits, in the wild, the tapirs diet consists of fruit, berries, and leaves, particularly young, tender growth. Tapirs will spend many of their waking hours foraging along well-worn trails, Bairds tapirs have been observed to eat around 40 kg of vegetation in one day
21.
Cougar
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The cougar, also commonly known as the mountain lion, puma, panther, or catamount, is a large felid of the subfamily Felinae native to the Americas. Its range, from the Canadian Yukon to the southern Andes of South America, is the greatest of any large wild terrestrial mammal in the Western Hemisphere, an adaptable, generalist species, the cougar is found in most American habitat types. It is the second-heaviest cat in the New World, after the jaguar, secretive and largely solitary by nature, the cougar is properly considered both nocturnal and crepuscular, although there are daytime sightings. The cougar is more related to smaller felines, including the domestic cat, than to any species of subfamily Pantherinae. The cougar is a predator and pursues a wide variety of prey. Primary food sources are ungulates, particularly deer, but also livestock and it also hunts species as small as insects and rodents. This cat prefers habitats with dense underbrush and rocky areas for stalking, the cougar is territorial and survives at low population densities. Individual territory sizes depend on terrain, vegetation, and abundance of prey, while large, it is not always the apex predator in its range, yielding to the jaguar, gray wolf, American black bear, and grizzly bear. It is reclusive and mostly avoids people, fatal attacks on humans are rare, but have recently been increasing in North America as more people enter their territories. Intensive hunting following European colonization of the Americas and the human development of cougar habitat has caused populations to drop in most parts of its historical range. In particular, the cougar was extirpated in eastern North America in the beginning of the 20th century, reports of eastern cougars still surface, although it was declared extirpated in 2011. With its vast range across the length of the Americas, P. concolor has dozens of names and various references in the mythology of the indigenous Americans and in contemporary culture. Currently, it is referred to as puma by most scientists, Mountain lion was a term first used in writing in 1858 from the diary of George A. Jackson of Colorado. Other names include catamount, mountain screamer, and painter, lexicographers regard painter as a primarily upper-Southern US regional variant on panther. The word panther is used to specifically designate the black panther, a melanistic jaguar or leopard, and the Florida panther. P. concolor holds the Guinness record for the animal with the greatest number of names, Cougar may be borrowed from the archaic Portuguese çuçuarana, the term was originally derived from the Tupi language susuarana, meaning similar to deer. A current form in Brazil is suçuarana and it may also be borrowed from the Guaraní language term guaçu ara or guazu ara. Less common Portuguese terms are onça-parda or leão-baio, or unusually non-native puma or leão-da-montanha, people in rural regions often refer to both the cougar and the jaguar as simply gata, and outside of the Amazon, both are colloquially referred to as simply onça by many people
22.
Caimans
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A caiman is an alligatorid crocodilian belonging to the subfamily Caimaninae, one of two primary lineages within Alligatoridae, the other being alligators. Caimans inhabit Central and South America from marshes and swamps to mangrove rivers, as with other reptiles, caimans have scaly skin and live a fairly nocturnal existence. The black caiman is the largest caiman species in the world and is found in the slow-moving rivers, the smallest species is the Cuviers dwarf caiman, which grows to 1.2 to 1.5 m long. There are six different species of caiman found throughout the watery, jungle habitats of Central, the average length for most of the other caiman species is about 2 meters to 2.5 meters long. The calcium rivets on its scales make their hide stiffer than alligators and crocodiles, resulting in a less valuable hide, both of which having a similar appearance but are more pliable. Several extinct forms are known, including Purussaurus, a giant Miocene genus that grew to 12 m and the equally large Mourasuchus, which had a wide duck-like snout. The caiman is a predator and, like the alligator and the crocodile. The caiman also hunts insects, birds and small mammals and reptiles, due to the large size and ferocious nature of the caiman, it has few natural predators within its environment. Humans are the predators of the caiman as they have been hunted for their meat. Jaguars are the only other predator of the caiman, female caimans build a large nest in which to lay their eggs, which can be more than 1.5 meters wide. Female caimans lay between 10 and 50 eggs which hatch within about 6 weeks, once they have hatched, the mother caiman takes her young to a shallow pool of water where they can learn how to hunt and swim. Below is a cladogram modified from Hastings et al
23.
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
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The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute is the only bureau of the Smithsonian Institution based outside of the United States, in Panama. It is dedicated to understanding biological diversity, what began in 1923 as a small field station on Barro Colorado Island in the Panama Canal Zone has developed into one of the worlds leading tropical research institutions. The work of resident scientists has allowed STRI to better understand tropical habitats and has trained hundreds of tropical biologists, the history of STRI began with the construction of the Panama Canal from 1904 to 1914. Thanks largely to their efforts, the Governor of the Canal Zone declared Barro Colorado Island a biological reserve in 1923, during the 1920s and 1930s BCI, in Gatun Lake, became an outdoor laboratory for scientists from US universities and the Smithsonian Institution. At this time it was referred as the Canal Zone Biological Area, by 1940, more than 300 scientific publications described the biota of BCI, and in the Government Reorganization Act of 1946, BCI became a bureau of the Smithsonian Institution. BCI was renamed the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in 1966, after the name change, permanent staff scientists were hired and fellowship programs were initiated to support aspiring tropical biologists. The first director after the change was Martin Humphrey Moynihan. A strong relationship with the Republic of Panama, STRIs host nation, was formalized in the Panama Canal Treaties of 1977, STRIs relationship with the Republic of Panama continues to be of central importance. A large collection of papers done by STRI researchers at Barro Colorado Island was published as an anthology in 1982, STRI aims to offer research facilities that allow staff scientists, fellows, and visiting scientists to achieve their research objectives. The 38 staff scientists reside in the tropics and are encouraged to pursue their own research priorities without geographic limitations, the continuity of their long-term programs enables in-depth investigations that attract an elite group of fellows and visitors. Active support for fellows and visitors leverages resources further and attracts more than 600 scientists to STRI each year, the first director after the 1966 name change was Martin Humphrey Moynihan. In 1966, Bennett became an honorary Research Associate of STRI, a range of programs supports fellows and visiting scientists. In 2002, STRI hosted eight university field courses, there were 406 research fellows at STRI between 1995 and 2001. Junior fellows often work closely with a senior scientist, while advanced fellows pursue their own research, visiting investigators bring their own funding from sources other than STRI to pursue their research interests at STRI facilities. Staff and fellows are drawn from all nations in an open, global competition, Barro Colorado is open for public day visits, but advance reservations must be made. The Barro Colorado Nature Monument includes the 16 km² Barro Colorado Island and it also includes 40 km² of surrounding mainland peninsulas covered by forests in various stages of succession, serving as a site for manipulative field experiments. The monument adjoins Panamas 220 km² Soberania National Park, although STRI is based in Panama, research is conducted throughout the tropics. STRIs Center for Tropical Forest Science uses large, fully enumerated forest plots to monitor tree demography in 23 countries located in Africa, Asia Europe, more than 4.5 million individual trees representing 8,500 species are being studied
24.
Tropical savanna climate
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Tropical savanna climate or tropical wet and dry climate is a type of climate that corresponds to the Köppen climate classification categories Aw and As. This latter fact is in direct contrast to a monsoon climate. In essence, a savanna climate tends to either see less rainfall than a tropical monsoon climate or have more pronounced dry seasons. There are generally four types of tropical climate,1. Distinct wet and dry seasons of relatively equal duration, most of the regions annual rainfall is experienced during the wet season and very little precipitation falls during the dry season. A lengthy dry season and a short wet season. This version features seven or more dry season months and five or less wet season months, there are variations within this version, On one extreme, the region receives just enough precipitation during the short wet season to preclude it from a semi-arid climate classification. This drier variation of the savanna climate is typically found adjacent to regions with semi-arid climates. On the other extreme, the features a lengthy dry season followed by a short. However, regions with this variation of the climate do not experience enough rainfall during the wet season to qualify as a monsoon climate. A lengthy wet season and a short dry season. This version features seven or more wet season months and five or less dry season months, a dry season with a noticeable amount of rainfall followed by a rainy wet season. Tropical savanna climates are most commonly found in Africa, Asia, the climate is also prevalent in sections of Central America, northern Australia and southern North America, specifically in sections of Mexico and the state of Florida in the United States. Most places that have this climate are found at the margins of the tropical zone. Similarly, the Caribbean coast, eastward from the Gulf of Urabá on the Colombia – Panamá border to the Orinoco river delta and this condition extends to the Lesser Antilles and Greater Antilles forming the Circumcaribbean dry belt. The length and severity of the dry season diminishes inland, at the latitude of the Amazon river—which flows eastward, East from the Andes, between the arid Caribbean and the ever-wet Amazon are the Orinoco river llanos or savannas, from where this climate takes its name. Sometimes As is used in place of Aw if the dry season occurs during the time of higher sun and this is the case in parts of Hawaii, East Africa, Sri Lanka and coastal regions of Northeastern Brazil, for instance. The difference between summer and winter in such locations is usually so slight that a distinction between an As and Aw climate is a quibble
25.
Tropical monsoon climate
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Tropical monsoon climates have monthly mean temperatures above 18 °C in every month of the year and feature wet and dry seasons, as Tropical savanna climates do. Tropical monsoon climates however features its driest month seeing on average less than 60 mm and this latter fact is in direct contrast to a tropical savanna climate, whose driest month sees less than 60 mm of precipitation and also less than 100 – of precipitation. In essence, a monsoon climate tends to either see more rainfall than a tropical savanna climate or have less pronounced dry seasons. Additionally, a monsoon climate tends to see less variance in temperatures during the course of the year than a tropical savanna climate. This climate has a driest month which nearly always occurs at or soon after the winter solstice for that side of the equator, there are generally two versions of a tropical monsoon climate, Less pronounced dry seasons. Regions with this variation of the monsoon climate typically see copious amounts of rain during the wet season. However, unlike most tropical climates, a sizeable amount of precipitation also falls during the dry season. In essence, this version of the monsoon climate generally has less pronounced dry seasons than tropical savanna climates. Extraordinarily rainy wet seasons and pronounced dry seasons and this variation features pronounced dry seasons similar in length and character to dry seasons observed in tropical savanna climates. However, this is followed by a period of extraordinary rainfall. In some instances, up to 1,000 mm of precipitation is observed per month for two or more consecutive months, Tropical savanna climates generally do not see this level of sustained rainfall. Tropical monsoon climates are most commonly found in South and Central America, however, there are sections of South Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, the Caribbean and North America that also feature this climate. The major controlling factor over a tropical climate is its relationship to the monsoon circulation. The monsoon is a change in wind direction. In Asia, during the summer there is a flow of air. In the “winter” an offshore air flow is prevalent, the change in direction is due to the difference in the way water and land heat. October is the hottest month no matter whether is it in the southern or northern hemisphere and this is because October is the shoulder season of the year as if it is the end of the wet season and no winter winds blowing. Changing pressure patterns that affect the seasonality of precipitation occur in Africa though it generally differs from the way it operates in Asia
26.
Wet season
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The rainy season, or monsoon season, is the time of year when most of a regions average annual rainfall occurs. It usually lasts one or more months, the term green season is also sometimes used as a euphemism by tourist authorities. Areas with wet seasons are dispersed across portions of the tropics and subtropics, under the Köppen climate classification, for tropical climates, a wet season month is defined as a month where average precipitation is 60 millimetres or more. In contrast to areas with savanna climates and monsoon regimes, Mediterranean climates have wet winters, some areas with pronounced rainy seasons will see a break in rainfall mid-season, when the intertropical convergence zone or monsoon trough moves to higher latitudes in the middle of the warm season. When the wet season occurs during a season, or summer, precipitation falls mainly during the late afternoon. In the wet season, air quality improves, fresh water quality improves, rivers overflow their banks, and some animals retreat to higher ground. Soil nutrients diminish and erosion increases, the incidence of malaria increases in areas where the rainy season coincides with high temperatures, particularly in tropical areas. Some animals have adaptation and survival strategies for the wet season, often, the previous dry season leads to food shortages in the wet season, as the crops have yet to mature. In areas where the rainfall is associated with a wind shift. Further, much of the total each day occurs in the first minutes of the downpour. However, since rain forests have rainfall spread evenly through the year and it is different for places with a Mediterranean climate. This shift in the jet stream brings much of the precipitation to the region. The peninsula of Italy has weather very similar to the western United States in this regard, areas with a savanna climate in Sub-Saharan Africa, such as Ghana, Burkina Faso, Darfur, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Botswana have a distinct rainy season. Also within the climate regime, Florida and South Texas have a rainy season. Northern Guyana has two wet seasons, one in spring and the other in early winter. In western Africa, there are two rainy seasons across southern sections, but only one across the north. Within the Mediterranean climate regime, the west coast of the United States and the Mediterranean coastline of Italy, Greece, similarly, the wet season in the Negev desert of Israel extends from October through May. At the boundary between the Mediterranean and monsoon climates lies the Sonoran desert, which receives the two rainy seasons associated with each climate regime, the wet season is known by many different local names throughout the world
27.
Intertropical Convergence Zone
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The Intertropical Convergence Zone, known by sailors as the doldrums, is the area encircling the earth near the equator where the northeast and southeast trade winds converge. When it lies near the equator, it is called the near-equatorial trough, where the ITCZ is drawn into and merges with a monsoonal circulation, it is sometimes referred to as a monsoon trough, a usage more common in Australia and parts of Asia. In the seamens speech the zone is referred to as the doldrums because of its weather patterns with stagnant calms. The ITCZ appears as a band of clouds, usually thunderstorms, in the Northern Hemisphere, the trade winds move in a southwestern direction from the northeast, while in the Southern Hemisphere, they move northwestward from the southeast. When the ITCZ is positioned north or south of the equator, for instance, when the ITCZ is situated north of the equator, the southeast trade wind changes to a southwest wind as it crosses the equator. The ITCZ is formed by vertical motion largely appearing as convective activity of thunderstorms driven by heating, which effectively draw air in. The ITCZ is effectively a tracer of the branch of the Hadley cell. The dry descending branch is the horse latitudes, the location of the intertropical convergence zone varies over time with the seasons. Over land, it moves back and forth across the following the suns zenith point. Over the oceans, where the convergence zone is better defined, sometimes, a double ITCZ forms, with one located north and another south of the equator, one of which is usually stronger than the other. When this occurs, a ridge of high pressure forms between the two convergence zones. The South Pacific convergence zone is a reverse-oriented, or west-northwest to east-southeast aligned and it lies just south of the equator during the Southern Hemisphere warm season, but can be more extratropical in nature, especially east of the International Date Line. It is considered the largest and most important piece of the ITCZ, longer term changes in the intertropical convergence zone can result in severe droughts or flooding in nearby areas. In some cases, the ITCZ may become narrow, especially when it moves away from the equator, there appears to be a 15- to 25-day cycle in thunderstorm activity along the ITCZ, which is roughly half the wavelength of the Madden–Julian oscillation. Within the ITCZ the average winds are slight, unlike the north and south of the equator where the trade winds feed. Early sailors named this belt of calm the doldrums because of the inactivity, to find oneself becalmed in this region in a hot and muggy climate could mean death in an era when wind was the only effective way to propel ships across the ocean. Even today leisure and competitive sailors attempt to cross the zone as quickly as possible as the erratic weather and wind patterns may cause unexpected delays. Tropical cyclogenesis depends upon low-level vorticity as one of its six requirements, surges of higher pressure from high latitudes can enhance tropical disturbances along its axis
28.
Sunshine duration
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It is a general indicator of cloudiness of a location, and thus differs from insolation, which measures the total energy delivered by sunlight over a given period. Sunshine duration is usually expressed in hours per year, or in hours per day, the first measure indicates the general sunniness of a location compared with other places, while the latter allows for comparison of sunshine in various seasons in the same location. Another often-used measure is percentage ratio of recorded bright sunshine duration, an important use of sunshine duration data is to characterize the climate of sites, especially of health resorts. This also takes account the psychological effect of strong solar light on human well-being. It is often used to promote tourist destinations, if the Sun were to be above the horizon 50% of the time for a standard year consisting of 8,760 hours, apparent maximal daytime duration would be 4,380 hours for any point on Earth. However, there are physical and astronomical effects that change that picture, namely, atmospheric refraction allows the Sun to be still visible even when it physically sets below the horizon. For that reason, average daytime is longest in polar areas, places on the Arctic Circle have the longest total annual daytime,4,647 hours, while the North Pole receives 4,575. Because of elliptic nature of the Earths orbit, the Southern Hemisphere is not symmetrical, the Equator has a total daytime of 4,422 hours per year. Given the theoretical maximum of daytime duration for a given location, bright sunshine hours represent the total hours when the sunlight is stronger than a specified threshold, as opposed to just visible hours. Visible sunshine, for example, occurs around sunrise and sunset, measurement is performed by instruments called sunshine recorders. For the specific purpose of sunshine duration recording, Campbell–Stokes recorders are used, when the intensity exceeds a pre-determined threshold, the tape burns. The total length of the trace is proportional to the number of bright hours. Another type of recorder is the Jordan sunshine recorder, newer, electronic recorders have more stable sensitivity than that of the paper tape. In 2003, the duration was finally defined as the period during which direct solar irradiance exceeds a threshold value of 120 W/m². The sky is clear in these regions, and fair weather is virtually perpetual, the descending branch of the Hadley cell and the long-term lack of atmospheric disturbances helps to explain the seemingly endless supply of sunny, cloud-free days in the deserts. Low clouding conditions are associated with rainfall shortage, as seen in these dry regions. In the belt encompassing northern Chad and the Tibesti Mountains, northern Sudan, southern Libya, some places in the interior of the Arabian Peninsula receive 3, 600–3,800 hours of bright sunshine annually. The largest sun-baked region in the world is North Africa, the sunniest month in the world is December in Eastern Antarctica, with almost 23 hours of bright sun daily
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World Meteorological Organization
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The World Meteorological Organization is an intergovernmental organization with a membership of 191 Member States and Territories. It originated from the International Meteorological Organization, which was founded in 1873 and its current Secretary-General is Petteri Taalas and the President of the World Meteorological Congresss, its supreme body, is David Grimes. The Organization is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, the World Meteorological Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations. WMO has a membership of 191 Member States and Territories as of February 2014, the Convention of the World Meteorological Organization was signed 11 October 1947 and established upon ratification on 23 March 1950. WMO became the agency of the United Nations in 1951 for meteorology, operational hydrology. It originated from the International Meteorological Organization, which was founded in 1873, the WMO hierarchy, The World Meteorological Congress, the supreme body of the Organization, determines policy. Each member state and territory is represented by a Permanent Representative with WMO when Congress meets every four years, Congress elects the President and Vice-Presidents of the Organization and members of the Executive Council, and appoints the Secretary-General. The Executive Council implements Congress decisions, the Executive Council normally hold a session at least once a year. Six Regional Associations are responsible for the coordination of meteorological, hydrological and they meet once every four years, and elect a president and vice-president. The president of regional association is an ex officio member of the Executive Council. Eight Technical Commissions are responsible for studying meteorological and hydrological operational systems, applications and they establish methodology and procedures and make recommendations to Executive Council and the World Meteorological Congress. The Secretariat is headed by the Secretary-General, who is appointed by the World Meteorological Congress for a term with a maximum tenure of 8 years. The Secretary-General appoints all staff, including the Deputy Secretary-General and the Assistant Secretary-General, the Secretariat currently has around 300 staff. Weather, climate and the water cycle shape almost every aspect of our lives and these powerful natural forces do not recognize national borders, thus global and regional cooperation is essential. Even the accuracy of a weather forecast relies on observations from far beyond national borders. These warnings help to save lives and to protect property. They contribute to economic planning and decision-making, and help minimize the harm that weather, climate, the first step in producing weather forecasts is to gather non-stop observations of the environment from around the world. WMO develops the standards for designing these and other observing instruments and for ensuring that the collected data are quality controlled
30.
List of tallest buildings in Panama City
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This list of tallest buildings in Panama City ranks skyscrapers in Panama City, by height. The tallest completed building in Panama City is Trump Ocean Club International Hotel and Tower, for several years, Panama Citys skyline remained largely unchanged, with only four buildings exceeding 150 m. Beginning in the early 2000s, the city experienced a construction boom. The boom continues today, with over 150 highrises under construction, in addition to growing out, Panama City grew up, with two new tallest buildings since 2005. All supertall projects were cancelled or are on hold and this lists ranks Panama City skyscrapers that stand at least 150 meters tall, based on standard height measurement. This includes spires and architectural details but does not include antenna masts, existing structures are included for ranking purposes based on present height. This list includes buildings that have already been topped out. This lists buildings that are approved for construction in Panama City and are planned to rise at least 150 m, * Table entries without text indicate that information regarding building heights, floor counts, and/or dates of completion has not yet been released. This lists buildings that are proposed for construction in Panama City and are planned to rise at least 150 m, * Table entries without text indicate that information regarding building heights, floor counts, and/or dates of completion has not yet been released. General Emporis. com - Panama City Specific Diagram of Panama City skyscrapers on SkyscraperPage New Real Estate Developments in Panama
31.
Spanish architecture
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Spanish architecture refers to architecture carried out in any area in what is now Spain, and by Spanish architects worldwide. The term includes buildings within the current geographical limits of Spain before this name was given to those territories, due to its historical and geographical diversity, Spanish architecture has drawn from a host of influences. Iberian architecture started to shape in parallel with other architectures around the Mediterranean. A real development came with the arrival of the Romans, who left some of their most outstanding monuments in Hispania. The arrival of the Visigoths brought about a decline in building techniques which was paralleled in the rest of the former Empire. The Moorish conquest in 711 CE lead to a change and for the following eight centuries there were great advances in culture. For example, Córdoba was established as the capital of its time under the Muslim Umayyad dynasty. The Mudéjar style, from the 12th to 17th centuries, was characterised by the blending of cultural European, Spanish Baroque was distinguished by its exuberant Churrigueresque decoration and the most sober Herrerian style, both developing separately from later international influences. The Colonial style, which has lasted for centuries, still has an influence in Latin America. Neoclassicism reached its peak in the work of Juan de Villanueva, the arrival of Modernism in the academic arena produced figures such as Gaudí and much of the architecture of the 20th century. The International style was led by groups like GATEPAC, because of their artistic relevance, many architectural sites in Spain, and even portions of cities, have been designated World Heritage sites by UNESCO. Spain has the second highest number of World Heritage Sites in the world and these are listed at List of World Heritage Sites in Europe, Spain. In the Stone Age, the most expanded megalith in the Iberian Peninsula was the dolmen, the plans of these funerary chambers used to be pseudocircles or trapezoids, formed by huge stones stuck on the ground, and others over them, forming the roof. As the typology evolved, an entrance corridor appeared, and gradually took prominence, roofed corridors and false domes were common in the most advanced stage. The complex of Antequera contains the largest dolmens in Europe, the best preserved, the Cueva de Menga, is twenty-five metres deep and four metres high, and was built with thirty-two megaliths. The best preserved examples of architecture from the Bronze Age are located in the Balearic Islands, the talayots were troncoconical or troncopiramidal defensive towers. They used to have a central pillar, the navetas, were constructions made of great stones and their shape was similar to a ship hull. The most characteristic constructions of the Celts were the Castros, walled villages usually on the top of hills or mountains and they were developed at the areas occupied by the Celts in the Duero valley and in Galicia
32.
French architecture
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French architecture ranks high among Frances many accomplishments. A crucial factor in development, coined the Roman Architectural Revolution, was the invention of concrete. Social elements such as wealth and high densities in cities forced the ancient Romans to discover new solutions of their own. Notable examples in France during the period are Alyscamps in Arles, the Alyscamps is a large Roman necropolis, which is a short distance outside the walls of the old town of Arles. It was one of the most famous necropolises of the ancient world, the name is a corruption of the Latin Elisii Campi. They were famous in the Middle Ages and are referred to by Ariosto in Orlando Furioso, the Alyscamps continued to be used well into medieval times, although the removal of Saint Trophimus relics to the cathedral in 1152 reduced its prestige. Plans often continued the Roman basilica tradition, but also influences from as far away as Syria and Armenia. In the East, most structures were in timber, but stone was more common for significant buildings in the West, most major churches have been rebuilt, usually more than once, but many Merovingian plans have been reconstructed from archaeology. There are no Roman precedents for this Frankish innovation, a number of other buildings, now lost, including the Merovingian foundations of Saint-Denis, St. Gereon in Cologne, and the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés in Paris, are described as similarly ornate. Architecture of a Romanesque style developed simultaneously in parts of France in the 10th century, the style, sometimes called First Romanesque or Lombard Romanesque, is characterised by thick walls, lack of sculpture and the presence of rhythmic ornamental arches known as a Lombard band. The Angoulême Cathedral is one of several instances in which the Byzantine churches of Constantinople seem to have been influential in the design in which the spaces are roofed by domes. This structure has necessitated the use of thick walls. There are radiating chapels around the apse, which is a typically French feature and was to evolve into the chevette, notre-Dame in Domfront, Normandy is a cruciform church with a short apsidal east end. The nave has lost its aisle, and has some of its length. The crossing has a tower rises in two differentiated stages and is surmounted by a pyramidical spire of a type seen widely in France and Germany. The Abbey of Fongombault in France shows the influence of the Abbey of Cluny, the cruciform plan is clearly visible. There is a chevette of chapels surrounding the chance apse, the crossing is surmounted by a tower. Begun in the 1060s, it was a prototype for Gothic facades, the spires and the pinnacles, which appear to rise inevitably from the towers, are of the early 13th century
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Antillean
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See also West Indies, Caribbean The Antilles are an archipelago bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the south and west, the Gulf of Mexico to the northwest, and the Atlantic Ocean to the north and east. The Lucayan Archipelago, though part of the West Indies, are not included among the Antillean islands. Geographically, the Antillean islands are considered a subregion of North America. In terms of geology, the Greater Antilles are made up of rock, as distinct from the Lesser Antilles. The Antilles were called multiple names before their current name became the norm, early Spanish visitors called them the Windward Islands. They were also called the Forward Islands by 18th-century British, thereafter, the term Antilles was commonly assigned to the formation, and Sea of the Antilles became a common alternative name for the Caribbean Sea in various European languages. The Antilles were described in 1778 by Thomas Kitchin as once being called the Caribbee Isles in homage to the Carib people who were the islands first inhabitants. S
34.
High-rise
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A tower block, high-rise, apartment tower, residential tower, apartment block, block of flats, or office tower is a tall building or structure used as a residential and/or office building. In some areas it may be referred to as an MDU, in the United States, such a structure is referred to as an apartment building or office building, while a group of such buildings is called an apartment complex or office complex. High-rise buildings became possible with the invention of the elevator and cheaper, the materials used for the structural system of high-rise buildings are reinforced concrete and steel. Most North American style skyscrapers have a frame, while residential blocks are usually constructed of concrete. There is no difference between a tower block and a skyscraper, although a building with fifty or more stories is generally considered a skyscraper. They also pose challenges to firefighters during emergencies in high-rise structures. Studies are often required to ensure that pedestrian wind comfort and wind danger concerns are addressed, in order to allow less wind exposure, to transmit more daylight to the ground and to appear more slender, many high-rises have a design with setbacks. In contrast with low-rise and single-family houses, apartment blocks accommodate more inhabitants per unit of area of land, various bodies have defined high-rise, Emporis Standards defines a high-rise as A multi-story structure between 35–100 meters tall, or a building of unknown height from 12–39 floors. According to the code of Hyderabad, India, a high-rise building is one with four floors or more. The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary defines a high-rise as a building having many storeys, most building engineers, inspectors, architects and similar professionals define a high-rise as a building that is at least 75 feet tall. The lower floors were occupied by either shops or wealthy families. Surviving Oxyrhynchus Papyri indicate that seven-story buildings even existed in provincial towns, in Arab Egypt, the initial capital city of Fustat housed many high-rise residential buildings, some seven stories tall that could reportedly accommodate hundreds of people. By the 16th century, Cairo also had high-rise apartment buildings where the two floors were for commercial and storage purposes and the multiple stories above them were rented out to tenants. The skyline of many important medieval cities was dominated by large numbers of high-rising urban towers, the residential Towers of Bologna numbered between 80 and 100 at a time, the largest of which still rise to 97.2 m. In Florence, a law of 1251 decreed that all buildings should be reduced to a height of less than 26 m. Even medium-sized towns such as San Gimignano are known to have featured 72 towers up to 51 m in height, the oldest still standing tulou dates back from the 14th century. Tower blocks were built in the Yemeni city of Shibam in the 16th century. The houses of Shibam are all out of mud bricks, but about five hundred of them are tower houses
35.
Skyline
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A skyline is the horizon created by a citys overall structure, or by human intervention in a non-urban setting or in nature. City skylines serve as a kind of fingerprint as no two skylines are alike, for this reason, news and sports programs, television shows, and movies often display the skyline of a city to set a location. The term The Sky Line of New York City was first introduced in 1896, paul D. Spreiregen, FAIA, has called a skyline a physical representation facts of life. Some natural skylines have been modified for commercial reasons. Tall buildings, including skyscrapers, are the feature of urban skylines. Towers from different eras make for contrasting skylines, san Gimignano, in Tuscany, Italy, has been described as having an unforgettable skyline with its competitively built towers. The Colosseum and 2008 Beijing Olympic Stadium give varied sport stadium skylines, some remote locations have striking skylines, created either by nature or by sparse human settlement in an environment not conducive to housing significant populations. Norman Foster served as architect for the Gherkin in London and the Hearst Tower in Midtown Manhattan, albert Speer made a notable night time skyline with searchlights at Nuremberg. Skylines are sometimes used as backgrounds for movies, television shows, news websites, several services rank skylines based on their own subjective criteria. Emporis is one service, which uses height and other data to give point values to buildings. Cityscape List of cities with the most skyscrapers Emporis ranking of cities by the impact of their skylines Attoe. Skylines, understanding and molding urban silhouettes, what is skyline, a quantitative approach. Architectural science, past, present and future, Proceedings of the Conference of the Australian, the urban skyline as a city classification system
36.
Centennial Bridge, Panama
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Panamas Centennial Bridge is a major bridge crossing the Panama Canal. It was built to supplement the overcrowded Bridge of the Americas, upon its opening in 2004, it became the second permanent crossing of the canal. The Centennial Bridge is the major road crossing of the Panama Canal. The Centennial Bridge is located 15 km north of the Bridge of the Americas, new freeway sections, connecting Arraijan in the west to Cerro Patacon in the east via the bridge, significantly alleviate congestion on the Bridge of the Americas. The Bridge of the Americas, which opened in 1962, was the major road crossing of the Panama Canal. The traffic over this bridge was originally around 9,500 vehicles per day, however, this expanded over time, since the bridge represented a major bottleneck in the Pan-American Highway, Panamas Ministry of Public Works requested tenders for a second canal crossing in October 2000. The contract to build a replacement bridge was awarded in March 2002, the bridge was named for Panamas centennial, which occurred on 3 November 2003. The new bridge was designed by a joint venture between T. Y, lin International and the Louis Berger Group Inc, and constructed by German-based Bilfinger Berger using resources from its Australian subsidiary Baulderstone Hornibrook. Boston-based transportation architect Miguel Rosales from Rosales + Partners created the concept, structural engineering contracts were awarded to Leonhardt, Andrä and Partner. The bridge was inaugurated on schedule on 15 August 2004, although it was opened for traffic on 2 September 2005, part of the access to the Centennial Bridge collapsed in December 2010, following heavy rain and flooding. In November 2011 full traffic was restored, the bridge is a cable-stayed design with a total span of 1,052 m. The main span is 420 m and clears the canal by 80 m, the bridge is supported by two towers, each 184 m high. The deck carries six lanes of traffic across the canal, the Centennial Bridge is designed to withstand the earthquakes which are frequently recorded in the canal area. The West Tower was built about 50 m inland to allow space for the widening of the Panama Canal. A shot of the bridge was shown in a GMC commercial that aired in the United States in 2006, the commercial was about GMC taking inspiration from great engineering achievements. Panama Canal Authority - Photos of the Centennial Bridge Panama Canal Authority - Live webcam at Centennial Bridge Puente Centenario at Structurae
37.
Urban center
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An urban area is a human settlement with high population density and infrastructure of built environment. Urban areas are created through urbanization and are categorized by urban morphology as cities, in urbanism, the term contrasts to rural areas such as villages and hamlets and in urban sociology or urban anthropology it contrasts with natural environment. The worlds urban population in 1950 of just 746 million has increased to 3.9 billion in the decades since, in 2009, the number of people living in urban areas surpassed the number living in rural areas and since then the world has become more urban than rural. This was the first time that the majority of the population lived in a city. In 2014 there were 7.25 billion people living on the planet, Urban areas are created and further developed by the process of urbanization. Urban areas are measured for various purposes, including analyzing population density, historian John Gurda writes, I have tried to uncover Milwaukees civic bedrock - the shifting foundation on which individuals have built their lives and the community has constructed its identity. There is no doubt that the deepest layer of bedrock is economic. In every age, people have chosen to live in areas not because of their climates or landmarks or cultural attractions. It was economic opportunity that brought people to Milwaukee, and it is economic opportunity that keeps them there, I define cities as concentrations of people animated by concentrations of capital. More simply put, money is the root of all cities, official definitions vary somewhat between nations. The ten largest metropolitan areas account for half of the population, about 3 million people live in Buenos Aires City and the Greater Buenos Aires metropolitan area totals around 13 million, making it one of the largest urban areas in the world. The metropolitan areas of Córdoba, Rosario, Mendoza and Tucumán have around 1.3 million inhabitants each and La Plata, seven other provinces have over one million people each, Mendoza, Tucumán, Entre Ríos, Salta, Chaco, Corrientes and Misiones. According to IBGE urban areas already concentrate 84. 35% of the population, while the Southeast region remains the most populated one, with over 80 million inhabitants. The largest metropolitan areas in Brazil are São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Belo Horizonte — all in the Southeastern Region — with 20,12, and 5 million inhabitants respectively. The majority of state capitals are the largest cities in their states, except for Vitória, the capital of Espírito Santo, and Florianópolis, there are also non-capital metropolitan areas in the states of São Paulo, Minas Gerais, Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina. According to Statistics Canada, an area in Canada is an area with a population of at least 1,000 people where the density is no fewer than 400 persons per square kilometre. If two or more areas are within 2 km of each other by road, they are merged into a single urban area. Accordingly, the new definition set out three types of population centres, small, medium and large
38.
Service economy
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Service economy can refer to one or both of two recent economic developments, The increased importance of the service sector in industrialized economies. The current list of Fortune 500 companies contains more service companies, the relative importance of service in a product offering. The service economy in developing countries is concentrated in financial services, hospitality, retail, health, human services, information technology. Products today have a service component than in previous decades. In the management literature this is referred to as the servitization of products or a product-service system, virtually every product today has a service component to it. The old dichotomy between product and service has replaced by a service-product continuum. Many products are being transformed into services, for example, IBM treats its business as a service business. Although it still manufactures computers, it sees the physical goods as a part of the business solutions industry. They have found that the elasticity of demand for business solutions is much less than for hardware. There has been a shift to a subscription pricing model. Rather than receiving a payment for a piece of manufactured equipment. Full cost accounting and most accounting reform and monetary reform measures are thought to be impossible to achieve without a good model of the service economy. g. Meat inspection is a service that is assumed within a product price, products are purchased for their assumed reliability in some known process. That is, paying for the safe and proper disposal when you pay for the product and those who advocate it are concerned with the later phases of product lifecycle and the comprehensive outcome of the whole production process. It is considered a pre-requisite to a service economy interpretation of commodity. It is often applied to paint, tires, and other goods that become toxic waste if not disposed of properly and it is most familiar as the container deposit charged for a deposit bottle. One pays a fee to buy the bottle, separately from the fee to buy what it contains, if one returns the bottle, the fee is returned, and the supplier must return the bottle for re-use or recycling. If not, one has paid the fee, and presumably this can pay for landfill or litter control measures that dispose of diapers or a broken bottle
39.
Port
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A port is a location on a coast or shore containing one or more harbors where ships can dock and transfer people or cargo to or from land. Port locations are selected to optimize access to land and navigable water, for commercial demand, Ports with deeper water are rarer, but can handle larger ships. Since ports throughout history handled every kind of traffic, support and storage facilities vary widely, may extend for miles, some ports have an important military role. One of the worlds oldest known artificial harbors is at Wadi al-Jarf on the Red Sea, along with the finding of harbor structures, ancient anchors have also been found. Guangzhou was an important port during the ancient times as far back as the Qin Dynasty, canopus was the principal port in Egypt for Greek trade before the foundation of Alexandria. Athens port of Piraeus was the base for the Athenian fleet, lothal is one of the most prominent cities of the ancient Indus valley civilisation, located in the Bhāl region of the modern state of Gujarāt and dating from 3700 BCE. Ostia Antica was the port of ancient Rome with Portus established by Claudius, Ports often have cargo-handling equipment, such as cranes and forklifts for use in loading ships, which may be provided by private interests or public bodies. Often, canneries or other processing facilities will be located nearby, some ports feature canals, which allow ships further movement inland. Access to intermodal transportation, such as railroads and highways, is critical to a port, so that passengers, Ports with international traffic have customs facilities. Harbor pilots and tugboats may maneuver large ships in tight quarters when near docks, the terms port and seaport are used for different types of port facilities that handle ocean-going vessels, and river port is used for river traffic, such as barges and other shallow-draft vessels. An inland port is a port on a lake, river, or canal with access to a sea or ocean. An example of this is the St. Lawrence Seaway which allows ships to travel from the Atlantic Ocean several thousand kilometers inland to Great Lakes ports like Duluth-Superior, a fishing port is a port or harbor for landing and distributing fish. It may be a facility, but it is usually commercial. A fishing port is the port that depends on an ocean product. In recent decades, regulations to save fishing stock may limit the use of a fishing port, a dry port is an inland intermodal terminal directly connected by road or rail to a seaport and operating as a centre for the transshipment of sea cargo to inland destinations. A warm-water port is one where the water does not freeze in wintertime, because they are available year-round, warm-water ports can be of great geopolitical or economic interest. A seaport is further categorized as a port or a cargo port. Additionally, cruise ports are known as a home port or a port of call
40.
Balboa, Panama
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Balboa is a district of Panama City, located at the Pacific entrance to the Panama Canal. The name was suggested to the Canal Zone authorities by the Peruvian ambassador to Panama. Prior to being drained, filled and leveled by the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, there were several schools in the area, including Balboa Elementary School, Balboa High School, and the private St. Marys School. The building has large murals painted by William B, van Ingen depicting the construction of the canal. There was a VLF-transmitting station of the US Navy near Balboa for transmitting orders to submarines, Balboa is the Pacific-side port of the Panama Canal. The port has a dry dock in Panamax size, in 2012, Balboa was ranked the busiest container port in Latin America. Balboa has a terminal, called the Pacific Terminal, connected to Colón by the Panama Canal Railway. This allows transportation of containers by train across the isthmus, the railway also runs a passenger service between Panama City and Colón, once a day, each way. Formerly a part of the Canal Zone, Balboa is now part of Panama Citys township of Ancón, the population as of the 1990 census was 1,214. For historical perspective see, Mellander, Gustavo A. Nelly Maldonado Mellander, charles Edward Magoon, The Panama Years. Río Piedras, Puerto Rico, Editorial Plaza Mayor, the United States in Panamanian Politics, The Intriguing Formative Years
41.
Perth, Western Australia
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Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth-most populous city in Australia, with a population of 2.06 million living in Greater Perth. The first areas settled were on the Swan River, with the central business district. Perth was founded by Captain James Stirling in 1829 as the centre of the Swan River Colony. It gained city status in 1856, and was promoted to the status of a Lord Mayorality in 1929. The city is named after Perth, Scotland, due to the influence of Sir George Murray, Member of Parliament for Perthshire and Secretary of State for War and the Colonies. The citys population increased substantially as a result of the Western Australian gold rushes in the late 19th century, largely as a result of emigration from the eastern colonies of Australia. During Australias involvement in World War II, Fremantle served as a base for operating in the Pacific Theatre. An influx of immigrants after the war, predominantly from Britain, Greece, Italy and Yugoslavia, Aboriginal people have inhabited the Perth area for 38,000 years, as evidenced by archaeological remains at Upper Swan. The Noongar people occupied the southwest corner of Western Australia and lived as hunter-gatherers, the wetlands on the Swan Coastal Plain were particularly important to them, both spiritually and as a source of food. The Noongar people know the area where Perth now stands as Boorloo, Boorloo formed part of Mooro, the tribal lands of Yellagongas group, one of several based around the Swan River and known collectively as the Whadjuk. The Whadjuk were part of a group of fourteen tribes that formed the south-west socio-linguistic block known as the Noongar. The judgment was overturned on appeal, the first documented sighting of the region was made by the Dutch Captain Willem de Vlamingh and his crew on 10 January 1697. The British colony would be officially designated Western Australia in 1832, Captain James Stirling, aboard Parmelia, said that Perth was as beautiful as anything of this kind I had ever witnessed. On 12 August that year, Helen Dance, wife of the captain of the ship, Sulphur. The only contemporary information on the source of the name comes from Fremantles diary entry for 12 August, Murray was born in Perth, Scotland, and was in 1829 Secretary of State for the Colonies and Member for Perthshire in the British House of Commons. The town was named after the Scottish Perth, in Murrays honour, the racial relations between the Noongar people and the Europeans were strained due to these happenings. Because of the amount of building in and around Boorloo
42.
Dubai
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Dubai is the largest and most populous city in the United Arab Emirates. It is located on the southeast coast of the Persian Gulf and is the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Dubai are the only two emirates to have veto power over critical matters of national importance in the countrys legislature. The city of Dubai is located on the northern coastline. Dubai will host World Expo 2020, Dubai has emerged as a global city and business hub of the Middle East. It is also a transport hub for passengers and cargo. By the 1960s, Dubais economy was based on revenues from trade and, to an extent, oil exploration concessions. Oil revenue first started to flow in 1969, Dubais oil revenue helped accelerate the early development of the city, but its reserves are limited and production levels are low, today, less than 5% of the emirates revenue comes from oil. The emirates Western-style model of business drives its economy with the main revenues now coming from tourism, aviation, real estate, Dubai was recently named the best destination for Muslim travellers by Salam Standard. Dubai has recently attracted attention through many innovative large construction projects and sports events. The city has become iconic for its skyscrapers and high-rise buildings, in particular the worlds tallest building, Dubai has been criticised for human rights violations concerning the citys largely South Asian and Filipino workforce. As of 2012, Dubai was the 22nd most expensive city in the world, in 2014, Dubais hotel rooms were rated as the second most expensive in the world, after Geneva. Dubai was rated as one of the best places to live in the Middle East by U. S. global consulting firm Mercer, Many theories have been proposed as to the origin of the word Dubai. One theory suggests the word was used to describe the souq, another theory states that the name came from a word meaning money, as people from Dubai were commonly believed to be rich due to the thriving trading centre of the location. An Arabic proverb says Daba Dubai, meaning They came with a lot of money, according to Fedel Handhal, a scholar on the UAEs history and culture, the word Dubai may have come from the word daba, referring to the slow flow of Dubai Creek inland. The poet and scholar Ahmad Mohammad Obaid traces it to the same word, an inhabitant or native of the city is a Dubaian. Although stone tools have been found at archaeological sites, little is known about the UAEs early inhabitants as only a few settlements have been found. Many ancient towns in the area were trading centres between the Eastern and Western worlds, the remnants of an ancient mangrove swamp, dated at 7000 BC, were discovered during the construction of sewer lines near Dubai Internet City. The area was covered with sand about 5,000 years ago as the coast retreated inland, pre-Islamic ceramics have been found from the 3rd and 4th centuries
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Andorra la Vella, Andorra
Asunción, Paraguay
Bogotá, Colombia
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Caracas, Venezuela
Davao City, Philippines
Guatemala City, Guatemala
Havana, Cuba
Quito, Ecuador
La Paz, Bolivia
Lima, Peru
Lisbon, Portugal
Madrid, Spain
Managua, Nicaragua
Mexico City, Mexico
Montevideo, Uruguay
Panama City, Panama
Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
San Jose, Costa Rica
San Juan, Puerto Rico
San Salvador, El Salvador
Santiago, Chile
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Tegucigalpa, Honduras
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