1.
610 Loop
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Interstate 610 is a freeway that forms a 38-mile-long loop around the downtown sector of city of Houston, Texas. Interstate 610, colloquially known as The Loop, Loop 610, The Inner Loop, or just 610 and it is the inner of the three Houston beltways, the other two being Beltway 8 and State Highway 99, of which various segments are under construction or planning. It is one of four interstate loops not to share its route with another freeway, the others being I-270, I-295. In Houston the area inside the 610 Loop is the urban core, jeff Balke of the Houston Press wrote that the freeway is as much a social and philosophical divide as a physical one. Major segments of Interstate 610 are known as the North Loop, the South Loop, the East Loop, the North Loop runs from U. S. Highway 290 to U. S. Highway 90. The East Loop runs from Highway 90 to State Highway 225, the West Loop runs from Highway 290 to the South Post Oak Road spur, and the South Loop runs from South Post Oak Road to Highway 225. Sometimes, a name is added as a suffix to denote a more specific part of a portion of the loop. For example, North Loop West Freeway refers to the portion of the North Loop between Highway 290 and Interstate 45, North Loop East refers to the portion between Interstate 45 and Highway 90. East Loop North Freeway refers to the portion of the East Loop between Highway 90 and Interstate 10, East Loop South refers to the portion between Interstate 10 and State Highway 225. South Loop East Freeway refers to the portion of the South Loop between State Highway 225 and State Highway 288, South Loop West refers to the portion between State Highway 288 and the South Post Oak Road spur. West Loop South Freeway refers to the portion of the West Loop between the South Post Oak Road spur and Buffalo Bayou, West Loop North refers to the portion between Buffalo Bayou and Highway 290. Highway 594 lanes each way between Interstate 69/U. S. S, Highway 290 The concept of building a bypass highway around Houston was first proposed in 1931, but plans did not begin to formalize until 1941. The loop was proposed to transport troops and materials around the city. On May 3, Harris County voters approved a bond to build the Defense Loop and it was officially designated as Loop 137 in 1942, and the North Loop was approved by the Texas Transportation Commission. World War II delayed construction of the Loop until the 1950s, in July 1953, the city of Houston asked the Texas Transportation Commission to include 2 new sections of Loop 137 as part of the states highway system. It was initially rejected, but in October 1954, the North Loop was upgraded to a freeway, when the Interstate Highway system was authorized in 1956, the then C-shaped Loop 137 was adopted into the plan. The East Loop would not be approved until 1960 and that segment was finished in 1973 with the opening of the Sidney Sherman Bridge over the Houston Ship Channel. Construction on the North Loop began in 1950, construction was sporadic throughout the 1950s and 1960s
2.
Houston
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Houston is the most populous city in the state of Texas and the fourth-most populous city in the United States. With a census-estimated 2014 population of 2.239 million within an area of 667 square miles, it also is the largest city in the southern United States and the seat of Harris County. Located in Southeast Texas near the Gulf of Mexico, it is the city of Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land. Houston was founded on August 28,1836, near the banks of Buffalo Bayou and incorporated as a city on June 5,1837. The city was named after former General Sam Houston, who was president of the Republic of Texas and had commanded, the burgeoning port and railroad industry, combined with oil discovery in 1901, has induced continual surges in the citys population. Houstons economy has an industrial base in energy, manufacturing, aeronautics. Leading in health care sectors and building equipment, Houston has more Fortune 500 headquarters within its city limits than any city except for New York City. The Port of Houston ranks first in the United States in international waterborne tonnage handled, the city has a population from various ethnic and religious backgrounds and a large and growing international community. Houston is the most diverse city in Texas and has described as the most diverse in the United States. It is home to cultural institutions and exhibits, which attract more than 7 million visitors a year to the Museum District. Houston has a visual and performing arts scene in the Theater District. In August 1836, two real estate entrepreneurs from New York, Augustus Chapman Allen and John Kirby Allen, purchased 6,642 acres of land along Buffalo Bayou with the intent of founding a city. The Allen brothers decided to name the city after Sam Houston, the general at the Battle of San Jacinto. The great majority of slaves in Texas came with their owners from the slave states. Sizable numbers, however, came through the slave trade. New Orleans was the center of trade in the Deep South. Thousands of enslaved African Americans lived near the city before the Civil War, many of them near the city worked on sugar and cotton plantations, while most of those in the city limits had domestic and artisan jobs. Houston was granted incorporation on June 5,1837, with James S. Holman becoming its first mayor, in the same year, Houston became the county seat of Harrisburg County and the temporary capital of the Republic of Texas
3.
Texas
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Texas is the second largest state in the United States by both area and population. Other major cities include Austin, the second most populous state capital in the U. S. Texas is nicknamed the Lone Star State to signify its former status as an independent republic, and as a reminder of the states struggle for independence from Mexico. The Lone Star can be found on the Texan state flag, the origin of Texass name is from the word Tejas, which means friends in the Caddo language. Due to its size and geologic features such as the Balcones Fault, although Texas is popularly associated with the U. S. southwestern deserts, less than 10 percent of Texas land area is desert. Most of the centers are located in areas of former prairies, grasslands, forests. Traveling from east to west, one can observe terrain that ranges from coastal swamps and piney woods, to rolling plains and rugged hills, the term six flags over Texas refers to several nations that have ruled over the territory. Spain was the first European country to claim the area of Texas, Mexico controlled the territory until 1836 when Texas won its independence, becoming an independent Republic. In 1845, Texas joined the United States as the 28th state, the states annexation set off a chain of events that caused the Mexican–American War in 1846. A slave state before the American Civil War, Texas declared its secession from the U. S. in early 1861, after the Civil War and the restoration of its representation in the federal government, Texas entered a long period of economic stagnation. One Texan industry that thrived after the Civil War was cattle, due to its long history as a center of the industry, Texas is associated with the image of the cowboy. The states economic fortunes changed in the early 20th century, when oil discoveries initiated a boom in the state. With strong investments in universities, Texas developed a diversified economy, as of 2010 it shares the top of the list of the most Fortune 500 companies with California at 57. With a growing base of industry, the leads in many industries, including agriculture, petrochemicals, energy, computers and electronics, aerospace. Texas has led the nation in export revenue since 2002 and has the second-highest gross state product. The name Texas, based on the Caddo word tejas meaning friends or allies, was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves, during Spanish colonial rule, the area was officially known as the Nuevo Reino de Filipinas, La Provincia de Texas. Texas is the second largest U. S. state, behind Alaska, though 10 percent larger than France and almost twice as large as Germany or Japan, it ranks only 27th worldwide amongst country subdivisions by size. If it were an independent country, Texas would be the 40th largest behind Chile, Texas is in the south central part of the United States of America. Three of its borders are defined by rivers, the Rio Grande forms a natural border with the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas to the south
4.
Uptown Houston
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Uptown is a business district in Houston, located 6.2 miles west of Downtown and is centered along Post Oak Boulevard and Westheimer Road. The Uptown District is roughly bounded by Woodway Drive to the north, the I-610 to the east, Richmond Avenue to the south, and Yorktown Street to the west. At 23.6 million square feet of space, the Uptown District is the 17th-largest business district in the United States, comparable in size to the downtowns of Denver. The district is home to approximately 2,000 companies and represents more than 11 percent of Houstons total office space, in 1948 what is now Uptown was 3 miles outside of the city limits of Houston. A local reporter described the roads as lonely, unlit, pockmarked booby trap for nocturnal animals, development increased after Gerald D. Hines and other individuals began to develop properties in Uptown in the 1960s. By 1987, the Uptown area had more hotel rooms and retail shopping centers than Downtown Houston had, the Uptown area, with 55,000 employees, also had more office space than Downtown Atlanta and Downtown Denver. The Uptown District measures about 5 million square feet of retail space, various trendy shopping centers, eateries, and other sorts of entertainment venues exist in the district. Uptown is home to upscale boutiques, as well as many Houston-based and local high-fashion designers. Uptown is also host to Houstons largest hotels, which host about 20 million visitors a year, a major feature of Uptown Houston is The Galleria, the largest shopping mall in the state of Texas and the seventh-largest in America. The Galleria hosts many of the shops of the area as well as city-wide chain stores that appear in many Houston-area malls. It also includes several well-regarded restaurants and an indoor ice skating rink. The Uptown District is bounded by Woodway Drive to the north, highway 59 to the south, and Yorktown Street to the west. Several subdivisions, including Afton Oaks, Briarcroft, Briargrove, Broad Oaks, Briarmeadow, Del Monte, Larchmont, St. George Place, Tanglewood, and Westhaven Estates border Uptown Houston. Uptown, the 17th largest business district in the United States, has 23,600,000 square feet of space, representing 11% of all of Houstons office space. Major employers include 3D/International, Air Liquide America, AON Risk Services of Texas, net IQ Corporation, Nextira One, LLC, Panhandle Pipeline Co. Schlumberger, Stewart Title Guaranty Company, Telecheck International, Inc, the Lab Consulting, GDF Suez Energy Resources NA, and Williams Companies. Around 2,000 companies maintain operations in Uptown, other firms headquartered in Uptown several Cox Radio-owned stations with offices in Post Oak Central, including KKBQ, KGLK, KHPT, and KTHT. Cushman & Wakefields Houston office is in Four Oaks Place, in the 1990s Weatherford Enterra had its corporate headquarters in Four Oaks Place
5.
Cameron International
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It employs approximately 23,000 people and is headquartered in Park Towers South, Houston, Texas. In 2006 Cooper Cameron was officially renamed Cameron, also provides system design and project management services for worldwide offshore oil and gas completion operations. Valves & Measurement manufactures flow control equipment and provides services for worldwide onshore, offshore and subsea oil & gas production, pipeline. Measurement Systems designs, manufactures and distributes measurement, quality, and control instrumentation for the global oil & gas, petreco Process Systems provides processing equipment and aftermarket services for worldwide onshore and offshore oil & gas production and refining operations. Compression Systems manufactures compression equipment and provides services for worldwide onshore and offshore gas production and transmission. Cooper Industries began in 1833 when Charles and Elias Cooper established a foundry in Mt. Vernon, Cooper was licensed to produce the Corliss steam engine in 1869 and entered the production of natural gas internal combustion engines in 1900. In 1929, Cooper became the Cooper-Bessemer Corporation when it merged with Bessemer Gas Engine Company, in 1958, Cooper diversified into the controls industry with the establishment of the En-Tronic Controls Group. Five years later, the acquired the Ajax Engines Company, founded in 1877. In 1965, the growing Cooper Industries branched out into electrical, automotive and tools, two years later, it moved its headquarters to Houston and in 1968 began the Cooper Rolls joint venture with Rolls-Royce to market gas turbines. 1987 marked the acquisition of Joy Industrial Compressor Group, founded in 1955 in Buffalo, New York, w-K-M valves company, established in 1905 in Houston, and Demco Valve Company, established in 1947, were both acquired by Cooper Flow Control Division in the same year. One year later, Cooper acquired Enterprise Engine aftermarket services business,1989 marked perhaps Coopers most important acquisition, Cameron Iron Works, which was renamed Cooper Oil Tool. Cameron Iron Works was incorporated in Houston in 1920, by Harry Cameron and James Abercombie, in 1994, Cooper Industries spun off its Petroleum and Industrial Equipment Group to focus on the electrical products, automotive products and tools & hardware businesses. One year later, Cooper Cameron Corporation was spun off as a publicly traded company with a management group and Cameron. Wheeling Machine Products Companys oilfield coupling business was also sold, the growing company acquired many different companies into various divisions from 1996 to 1998. Ingram Cactus Corporation, Tundra Valve & Wellhead Corporation, Wellhead Services, Ajax Repair & Supply, General Turbine Systems, PDQ Machine, and certain assets of Enox Technologies were acquired and combined into Cooper Energy Services. Daniel Ball Valve and Orbit Valve International were acquired into Cooper Cameron Valves, in 1999, the rotating compressor business was sold to Rolls-Royce and Cooper Energy Services merged with Nickles Industrial Manufacturing and purchased Elliot Turbocharger Group, Inc. Three years later, Cooper Cameron Valves acquired Nutron Industries and in 2003, Cooper Energy Services, in 2006, Cooper Cameron Corporation officially changed its name to Cameron International Corporation. In 2011, Cameron purchased the Drilling, Offshore, and Power Systems divisions of LeTourneau Technologies, in November 2012, Cameron announced plans to carve out its subsea division to form a 60/40 joint venture with Schlumbergers Framo, Surveillance, Flow Assurance and Power and Controls businesses
6.
Halliburton
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The Halliburton Company, an American multinational corporation, is one of the worlds largest oil field service companies, with operations in more than 80 countries. It owns hundreds of subsidiaries, affiliates, branches, brands, the company has dual headquarters located in Houston and in Dubai, where Chairman and CEO David Lesar works and resides, to focus company’s Eastern Hemisphere Growth. The company remains incorporated in the United States, Halliburtons major business segment is the Energy Services Group. ESG provides technical products and services for petroleum and natural gas exploration and production, Halliburtons former subsidiary, KBR, is a major construction company of refineries, oil fields, pipelines, and chemical plants. The company has been involved in controversies, including the Deepwater Horizon explosion. As of August 1,2014 Jeff Miller was promoted to President of Halliburton reporting directly to Dave Lesar, oman, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Kuwait. Worldwide technology centers are in Duncan, Oklahoma, Carrollton, Texas, Houston, Texas, Stavanger, Norway, Pune, India, Energy services, formation evaluation, digital and consulting solutions, production volume optimization, and fluid systems are the major business segments. With the acquisition of Dresser Industries in 1998, the Kellogg-Brown & Root division was formed by merging Halliburtons Brown & Root subsidiary and the M. W. KBR is an international construction company that works in an industry that tends to have an element of volatility and is subject to significant fluctuations in revenue. Asbestos-related litigation from Kellogg acquisition caused the company to more than US$4.0 billion in losses from 2002 through 2004. While Halliburtons revenues have increased because of its contracts in the Middle East, at a meeting for investors and analysts in August 2004, a plan was outlined to divest the KBR division through a possible sale, spin-off or initial public offering. Analysts at Deutsche Bank valued KBR at up to $2.15 billion, KBR became a separately listed company on April 5,2007. In 1919, Erle P. Halliburton started the New Method Oil Well Cementing Company, in 1920, he brought a wild gas well under control, using cement, for W. G. Skelly, near Wilson, Oklahoma. On March 1,1921, the Halliburton method and means of excluding water from oil wells was assigned a patent from the U. S. Halliburton invented the revolutionary cement jet mixer, to eliminate hand-mixing of cement, and the measuring line, by 1922, the Halliburton Oil Well Cementing Company was prospering from the Mexia, Texas oil boom, having cemented its 500th well in late summer. In 1924, the company was incorporated in Delaware, with 56 people on its payroll, the stock of the corporation was owned by Erle and Vida Halliburton and by seven major oil companies, Magnolia, Texas, Gulf, Humble, Sun, Pure and Atlantic. In 1926, its first foreign venture began with sale of equipment to Burma, throughout the 1930s and 1940s, Halliburton continued cementing across America. In 1938, Halliburton cemented its first offshore well using a truck on a barge off the Louisiana coast, in 1940, Halliburton opened offices in Venezuela and introduced bulk handling of cementing to the industry
7.
Tenneco
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Tenneco is an American Fortune 500 company that has been publicly traded on the NYSE since November 5,1999 under the symbol TEN. Tenneco, with headquarters in Lake Forest, Illinois, United States is an automotive components original equipment manufacturer, in 2011 it reported a revenue of $7.2 billion. Tenneco, Inc. s origin was in the Chicago Corporation, Tennessee Gas and Transmission Company had been formed in 1940. A shortage of fuel for World War II defense industries in the Appalachian area developed when industrial production was increased and these pipelines were acquired by El Paso Corporation in 1996, and are now owned by Kinder Morgan and others. In the 1950s, the company acquired existing oil companies, including Sterling Oil, Del-Key Petroleum, the Tennessee division of the Chicago Corporation acquired Tennessee Gas Transmission Company in 1943 to build a natural-gas pipeline 1,265 miles from Texas to West Virginia. The first line was completed in October 1944 and it was followed by three additional pipelines totaling 3,840 miles during the next 15 years which provide gas to New York and New Jersey. In 1966, Tennessee Gas was incorporated as Tenneco, Inc, Tenneco expanded into a number of business ventures as a result of diversification. Tenneco bought Houston Oil & Minerals Corporation in the late 1970s, Tenneco owned and operated a large number of gasoline service stations, but all were closed or replaced with other brands by the mid-1990s. In the 1970s, Tenneco purchased 53% of J. I, Case when they purchased its owner Kern County Land Company, the agricultural equipment manufacturer based in Racine, Wisconsin, USA. In 1972, Tenneco purchased UK-based David Brown Tractors Ltd. in 1984, Case parent Tenneco bought selected assets of the International Harvester agriculture division and merged it with J. I. All agriculture products are first labeled Case International and later Case IH, Tenneco purchased the articulated 4WD manufacturer Steiger Tractor in 1986, and merged it into Case IH. The corporate direction was to buy failing companies, and work to develop them into market leaders and this worked well with Newport News Shipbuilding, but failed miserably with the various tractor companies, probably due in large part to the economy at the time. By 1988, the company was losing $2 million per day, after being pressured by the banks, it was decided to sell off the oil business. Tenneco Oil Exploration Company was split up and sold off to multiple buyers, by 1994, Tenneco decided to begin getting out of the ag business and agreed to sell 35% of the now named Case Corporation. In 1996, the spin-off of Case Corporation was completed, the company was acquired by Fiat in 1999 and merged with New Holland Agriculture to form CNH Global. Tenneco Inc. emerged from a conglomerate consisting of six unrelated businesses, shipbuilding, packaging, farm and construction equipment, gas transmission, automotive, and chemicals. The automotive division was spun off from Tenneco, Inc. in 1991 along with the packaging, energy, natural gas, all businesses except automotive and packaging were disposed of between 1994 and 1996. In 1999, Tenneco Packaging was spun off and renamed to Packaging Corporation of America, since the 1960s Tenneco Automotive sold mufflers in Europe, including through the chain Pit Stop in Germany
8.
American City Business Journals
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American City Business Journals is an American newspaper chain based in Charlotte, North Carolina, owned by Advance Publications. It also controls the Street & Smiths Sports Group, which publishes motorsports periodicals, including SportsBusiness Journal, Sports Business Daily, five sports annuals, the company is the United States leading publisher of NASCAR magazines, which includes NASCAR Illustrated and Scenedaily. com. American City also publishes specialty publications, which include a business newspaper, a law journal. In 2009, ACBJ took over management of Portfolio. com, mike Russell founded American City Business Journals. The President and CEO of American City is Whitney Shaw, Shaw was previously senior vice president of ACBJ and president of its sports-publishing division. He succeeds his father, Ray Shaw, who was chairman, Ray Shaw, the companys chairman from 1989 until his 2009 death, bought a controlling interest along with a partner in 1989, selling to Advance Publications in 1995. It was Russell who suggested Shaw buy the company rather than just a few journals. Under Ray Shaws leadership, the company moved from Kansas City, Missouri, to Charlotte, North Carolina, and greatly increased the number of its publications. The site contains local news from around the nation, updated throughout the day. The Business Journals sites have more than four million visitors each month. The Business Journals Forty Under 40 is an annual list compiled and published by the Business Journal newspapers since 1992, the purpose is to list the 40 most successful entrepreneurs under the age of 40. The 40 are usually nominated from within individual areas in range of the local business journals publication, American City Business Journals corporate website The Business Journals The Business Journals mobile Street & Smiths SportsBusiness Journal Hemmings Motor News
9.
White elephant
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A white elephant is a possession which its owner cannot dispose of and whose cost, particularly that of maintenance, is out of proportion to its usefulness. In modern usage, it is an object, building project, scheme, business venture, facility, etc. considered expensive, the term derives from the sacred white elephants kept by Southeast Asian monarchs in Burma, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. To possess a white elephant was regarded as a sign that the monarch reigned with justice and power, the opulence expected of anyone that owned a beast of such stature was great. Monarchs often exemplified their possession of white elephants in their formal titles, because the animals were considered sacred and laws protected them from labor, receiving a gift of a white elephant from a monarch was simultaneously a blessing and a curse. In the West, the white elephant relating to an expensive burden that fails to meet expectations, was first used in the 1600s. According to one source it was popularized following P. T. Barnums experience with an elephant named Toung Taloung that he billed as the Sacred White Elephant of Burma. After much effort and great expense, Barnum finally acquired the animal from the King of Siam only to discover that his elephant was actually dirty grey in color with a few pink spots. The expressions white elephant and gift of a white elephant came into use in the middle of the nineteenth century. The phrase was attached to white elephant swaps and white elephant sales in the twentieth century. Many church bazaars held “white elephant sales” where donors could unload unwanted bric-a-brac, many organizational and church fairs still use the term today. In general use a “white elephant” usually refers to an item that’s not useful but may be expensive, montréal–Mirabel International Airport, North Americas largest airport Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport, Sri Lanka Lambert–St. Nonetheless, the majority of the mall is still vacant, Hughes H-4 Hercules, often called Howard Hughes white elephant before and during the Senate War Investigating Committee. Hughes associate Noah Dietrich called it a white elephant. The lifetime cost of the F-35 program has since been estimated by the Pentagon at $1.45 trillion and it was envisaged that the station would be busy due to the 850 pupils regularly using it, and also the foreseen westward expansion of the nearby town of Horsham. However, the company did not realise that the school is a boarding school. The Sagrada Família church in Barcelona has been viewed for many years as a white elephant. Construction started in 1882 and the church remains under construction. The lack of funds, the death of the architect Antoni Gaudí, the Spanish Civil War, completion is not expected until at least 2026, although it functions as a church and tourist attraction in the meantime. The final two planned buildings out of six remain unfinished
10.
General Electric
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General Electric, often abbreviated as GE, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation incorporated in New York and headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. In 2011, GE ranked among the Fortune 500 as the 68th-largest firm in the U. S. by gross revenue, as of 2012, the company was listed the fourth-largest in the world among the Forbes Global 2000, further metrics being taken into account. The Nobel Prize has twice been awarded to employees of General Electric, Irving Langmuir in 1932, on January 13,2016, it was announced that GE will be moving its corporate headquarters from Fairfield, Connecticut to the South Boston Waterfront neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. The first group of workers arrived in the summer of 2016, morgan and the Vanderbilt family for Edisons lighting experiments. The new company also acquired Sprague Electric Railway & Motor Company in the same year, both plants continue to operate under the GE banner to this day. The company was incorporated in New York, with the Schenectady plant used as headquarters for years thereafter. Around the same time, General Electrics Canadian counterpart, Canadian General Electric, was formed, in 1896, General Electric was one of the original 12 companies listed on the newly formed Dow Jones Industrial Average. After 120 years, it is the one of the original companies still listed on the Dow index. In 1911, General Electric absorbed the National Electric Lamp Association into its lighting business, GE established its lighting division headquarters at Nela Park in East Cleveland, Ohio. Nela Park is still the headquarters for GEs lighting business, owen D. Young, through GE, founded the Radio Corporation of America in 1919 to further international radio. GE used RCA as its retail arm for radio sales from 1919, in 1927, Ernst Alexanderson of GE made the first demonstration of his television broadcasts at his General Electric Realty Plot home at 1132 Adams Rd, Schenectady, NY. The sound was broadcast on GEs WGY, experimental television station W2XAD evolved into station WRGB which—along with WGY and WGFM —was owned and operated by General Electric until 1983. GEs history of working with turbines in the field gave them the engineering know-how to move into the new field of aircraft turbosuperchargers. Led by Sanford Alexander Moss, GE introduced the first superchargers during World War I, superchargers became indispensable in the years immediately prior to World War II, and GE was the world leader in exhaust-driven supercharging when the war started. This experience, in turn, made GE a natural selection to develop the Whittle W.1 jet engine that was demonstrated in the United States in 1941, GE ranked ninth among United States corporations in the value of wartime production contracts. In 2002, GE acquired the assets of Enron during its bankruptcy proceedings. Some consumers boycotted GE light bulbs, refrigerators and other products in the 1980s and 1990s to protest GEs role in weapons production. With IBM, Burroughs, NCR, Control Data Corporation, Honeywell, RCA and UNIVAC, GE had a line of general purpose and special purpose computers
11.
Prudential Securities
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Prudential Securities, also formerly known as Prudential Securities Incorporated, was the financial services arm of the insurer, Prudential Financial. In 2003, Prudential Securities was merged into Wachovia Securities, a division of Wachovia Bank, Prudential Securities traces its origins to the founding of the Leopold Cahn & Co. brokerage and investment bank in 1879. In 1891, the firm was reorganized as J. S, Bache & Co. after Jules Bache was brought into the partnership. In 1974, Bache merged with Halsey, Stuart & Co. a Chicago-based investment bank founded in 1911, in 1981, the company was acquired by Prudential Financial and renamed Prudential-Bache Securities. Prudential dropped the usage of the Bache name in 1991, renaming the division Prudential Securities, during the 1980s and 1990s, Prudential Securities Incorporated, was investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission for suspected fraud. During the investigation, it was found that PSI had defrauded investors of close to $8 billion, the SEC charged that Prudential allowed rogue executives to cheat customers on a large scale and blithely ignored a 1986 SEC order to overhaul its internal enforcement of securities laws. In all, some 400,000 individual investors lost money on the deals, Prudential Financial eventually settled with investors for $330 million in 1993. Prudential said it would repay customers across the U. S. who lost money on the limited partnerships in the 1980s. In addition, the firm was required to pay another $41 million in fines, further investigation was conducted by the SEC into the executives of the company to determine the extent of the fraud. Prudential Financial combined its retail brokerage in a joint venture with Wachovia to form Wachovia Securities LLC on July 1,2003, Wachovia purchased 62% of the joint venture, while Prudential retained the remaining 38%. At the time, the new firm had client assets of $532.1 billion, following the joint venture with Wachovia, Prudential Financial retained the commodities and financial derivatives businesses. These businesses did not use the Bache name, however, in January 2003, Prudential Financial rebranded the two units under the Bache name, forming Prudential Bache. This unit was sold to Jefferies & Company parent Jefferies Group in 2011
12.
Consulate-General of Russia in Houston
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The Consulate-General of the Russian Federation in Houston Generalnoe konsulstvo Rossijskoj Federatsii v Hjustone) is Russias diplomatic office in Houston, Texas, United States. It is located in Suite 1300 at Park Towers South, the facility serves Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas. As of 2010 the consul general is Alexander Konstantinovich Zakharov, in October 2001 the U. S. and Russia formally agreed to establish a Houston consulate. The Russian government approved the establishment on February 12,2003, on May 9 of that year the United States Department of State confirmed the appointment of the consul general. The facility opened on August 4,2004, Russia opened a consulate in Houston due to the proximity to aerospace and petroleum industries
13.
Wayback Machine
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The Internet Archive launched the Wayback Machine in October 2001. It was set up by Brewster Kahle and Bruce Gilliat, and is maintained with content from Alexa Internet, the service enables users to see archived versions of web pages across time, which the archive calls a three dimensional index. Since 1996, the Wayback Machine has been archiving cached pages of websites onto its large cluster of Linux nodes and it revisits sites every few weeks or months and archives a new version. Sites can also be captured on the fly by visitors who enter the sites URL into a search box, the intent is to capture and archive content that otherwise would be lost whenever a site is changed or closed down. The overall vision of the machines creators is to archive the entire Internet, the name Wayback Machine was chosen as a reference to the WABAC machine, a time-traveling device used by the characters Mr. Peabody and Sherman in The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, an animated cartoon. These crawlers also respect the robots exclusion standard for websites whose owners opt for them not to appear in search results or be cached, to overcome inconsistencies in partially cached websites, Archive-It. Information had been kept on digital tape for five years, with Kahle occasionally allowing researchers, when the archive reached its fifth anniversary, it was unveiled and opened to the public in a ceremony at the University of California, Berkeley. Snapshots usually become more than six months after they are archived or, in some cases, even later. The frequency of snapshots is variable, so not all tracked website updates are recorded, Sometimes there are intervals of several weeks or years between snapshots. After August 2008 sites had to be listed on the Open Directory in order to be included. As of 2009, the Wayback Machine contained approximately three petabytes of data and was growing at a rate of 100 terabytes each month, the growth rate reported in 2003 was 12 terabytes/month, the data is stored on PetaBox rack systems manufactured by Capricorn Technologies. In 2009, the Internet Archive migrated its customized storage architecture to Sun Open Storage, in 2011 a new, improved version of the Wayback Machine, with an updated interface and fresher index of archived content, was made available for public testing. The index driving the classic Wayback Machine only has a bit of material past 2008. In January 2013, the company announced a ground-breaking milestone of 240 billion URLs, in October 2013, the company announced the Save a Page feature which allows any Internet user to archive the contents of a URL. This became a threat of abuse by the service for hosting malicious binaries, as of December 2014, the Wayback Machine contained almost nine petabytes of data and was growing at a rate of about 20 terabytes each week. Between October 2013 and March 2015 the websites global Alexa rank changed from 162 to 208, in a 2009 case, Netbula, LLC v. Chordiant Software Inc. defendant Chordiant filed a motion to compel Netbula to disable the robots. Netbula objected to the motion on the ground that defendants were asking to alter Netbulas website, in an October 2004 case, Telewizja Polska USA, Inc. v. Echostar Satellite, No.02 C3293,65 Fed. 673, a litigant attempted to use the Wayback Machine archives as a source of admissible evidence, Telewizja Polska is the provider of TVP Polonia and EchoStar operates the Dish Network
14.
Chicago Tribune
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The Chicago Tribune is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by tronc, Inc. formerly Tribune Publishing. The Tribune was founded by James Kelly, John E. Wheeler, forrest, publishing its first edition on June 10,1847. The paper saw numerous changes in ownership and editorship over the eight years. Initially, the Tribune was not politically affiliated but tended to either the Whig or Free Soil parties against the Democrats in elections. By late 1853, it was frequently running xenophobic editorials that criticized foreigners, about this time it also became a strong proponent of temperance. Ray became editor-in-chief, Medill became the editor, and Alfred Cowles, Sr. brother of Edwin Cowles. Each purchased one third of the Tribune, under their leadership the Tribune distanced itself from the Know Nothings and became the main Chicago organ of the Republican Party. However, the continued to print anti-Catholic and anti-Irish editorials. Between 1858 and 1860, the paper was known as the Chicago Press & Tribune, on October 25,1860, it became the Chicago Daily Tribune. Before and during the American Civil War, the new editors pushed an abolitionist agenda and strongly supported Abraham Lincoln, the paper remained a force in Republican politics for years afterwards. In 1861, the Tribune published new lyrics for the song John Browns Body by William W. Patton, Medill served as mayor of Chicago for one term after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. Under the 20th-century editorship of Colonel Robert R. Joseph McCarthy, when McCormick assumed the position of co-editor in 1910, the Tribune was the third-best-selling paper among Chicagos eight dailies, with a circulation of only 188,000. At the same time, the Tribune competed with the Hearst paper, by 1914, the cousins succeeded in forcing out Managing Editor William Keeley. By 1918, the Examiner was forced to merge with the Chicago Herald, in 1919, Patterson left the Tribune and moved to New York to launch his own newspaper, the New York Daily News. In a renewed war with Hearsts Herald-Examiner, McCormick and Hearst ran rival lotteries in 1922. The Tribune won the battle, adding 250,000 readers to its ranks, also in 1922, the Chicago Tribune hosted an international design competition for its new headquarters, the Tribune Tower. The competition worked brilliantly as a publicity stunt, and more than 260 entries were received, the winner was a neo-Gothic design by New York architects John Mead Howells and Raymond Hood. The newspaper sponsored an attempt at Arctic aviation in 1929
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Houston Chronicle
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The Houston Chronicle is the largest daily newspaper in Houston, Texas, United States. As of April 2016, it is the third-largest newspaper by Sunday circulation in the United States, with its 1995 buy-out of long-time rival the Houston Post, the Chronicle became Houstons primary newspaper. The Houston Chronicle is the largest daily paper owned and operated by the Hearst Corporation, the paper employs nearly 2,000 people, including approximately 300 journalists, editors, and photographers. The Chronicle has bureaus in Washington, D. C. and it reports that its web site averages 125 million page views per month. The publication serves as the newspaper of record of the Houston area, previously headquartered in the Houston Chronicle Building at 801 Texas Avenue, Downtown Houston, the Houston Chronicle is now located at 4747 Southwest Freeway. From its inception, the practices and policies of the Houston Chronicle were shaped by strong-willed personalities who were the publishers, the history of the newspaper can be best understood when divided into the eras of these individuals. The Houston Chronicle was founded in 1901 by a reporter for the now-defunct Houston Post. The Chronicles first edition was published on October 14,1901, at the end of its first month in operation, the Chronicle had a circulation of 4,378 — roughly one tenth of the population of Houston at the time. Within the first year of operation, the paper purchased and consolidated the Daily Herald, in 1908, Foster asked Jesse H. Jones agreed, and the resulting Chronicle Building was one of the finest in the South. Under Foster, the circulation grew from about 7,000 in 1901 to 75,000 on weekdays and 85,000 on Sundays by 1926. Foster continued to write columns under the pen name Mefo, and he sold the rest of his interest to Jesse H. Jones on June 26,1926 and promptly retired. In 1911, City Editor George Kepple started Goodfellows, on a Christmas Eve in 1911, Kepple passed a hat among the Chronicles reporters to collect money to buy toys for a shoe-shine boy. Goodfellows continues today through donations made by the newspaper and its readers and it has grown into a city-wide program that provides needy children between the ages of two and ten with toys during the winter holidays. In 2003, Goodfellows distributed almost 250,000 toys to more than 100,000 needy children in the Greater Houston area, in 1926, Jesse H. Jones became the sole owner of the paper. He had approached Foster about selling, and Foster had answered and he replied, On real estate and everything about 200,000 dollars. I then said to him that I would give him 300,000 dollars in cash, having in mind that this would pay his debts, I considered the offer substantially more than the Chronicle was worth at the time. No sooner had I finished stating my proposition than he said, I will take it, in 1937, Jesse H. Jones transferred ownership of the paper to the newly established Houston Endowment Inc. Jones retained the title of publisher until his death in 1956. As such, it eschewed controversial political topics, such as integration or the impacts of economic growth on life in the city
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Emporis
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Emporis GmbH is a real estate data mining company with headquarters in Hamburg, Germany. The company collects and publishes data and photographs of buildings worldwide, Emporis offers a variety of information on its public database, Emporis. com, located at www. emporis. com. Emporis is frequently cited by media sources as an authority on building data. Emporis previously focused exclusively on high-rise buildings and skyscrapers, which it defines as buildings between 35 and 100 metres tall and at least 100 metres tall, respectively, today, the database has expanded to include low-rise buildings and other structures. Michael Wutzke started a website about skyscrapers in Frankfurt in 1996, in 2000 he started skyscrapers. com which was folded into Emporis in 2003. In 2004, Stephan R. Boehm assumed the role of Chairman, Wutzke was Chief Technology Officer and managing director until 2010, when he left the company. In 2007 venture capital firm Neuhaus Partners and KfW Bankengruppe invested several million Euro in the company, effective January 1,2009, the company moved its headquarters from Darmstadt to Frankfurt. In 2011, the company moved from Frankfurt to Hamburg, in 2000 a group of Emporis senior editors began presenting the Emporis Skyscraper Award. Eligible buildings are selected from a list of all buildings in the world at least 100 meters tall which were completed that year
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Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
