Port-au-Prince is the capital and most populous city of Haiti. The city's population was estimated at 987,310 in 2015 with the metropolitan area estimated at a population of 2,618,894; the metropolitan area is defined by the IHSI as including the communes of Port-au-Prince, Cite Soleil, Carrefour, Pétion-Ville. The city of Port-au-Prince is on the Gulf of Gonâve: the bay on which the city lies, which acts as a natural harbor, has sustained economic activity since the civilizations of the Arawaks, it was first incorporated under French colonial rule in 1749. The city's layout is similar to that of an amphitheatre, its population is difficult to ascertain due to the rapid growth of slums in the hillsides above the city. The city was catastrophically affected by a devastating earthquake in 2010, with large numbers of structures damaged or destroyed. Haiti's government estimated the death toll to be 230,000, it is said that a captain named de Saint-André named the area in 1706, after he sailed into the bay in a ship named Le Prince, hence Port-au-Prince to mean, "Port of the Prince".
However, the port and the surrounding region continued to be known as Hôpital, but the islets in the bay had been known as Les îlets du Prince as early as 1680. French colonial commissioner Étienne Polverel named the city Port-Républicain on 23 September 1793 "in order that the inhabitants be kept continually in mind of the obligations which the French Revolution imposed on them." It was renamed back to Port-au-Prince by Jacques I, Emperor of Haiti. When Haiti was divided between a kingdom in the north and a republic in the south, Port-au-Prince was the capital of the republic, under the leadership of Alexandre Pétion. Henri Christophe renamed the city Port-aux-Crimes after the assassination of Jacques I at Pont Larnage. Prior to the arrival of Christopher Columbus, the island of Hispaniola was inhabited by people known as the Taíno, who arrived in 2600 BC in large dugout canoes, they are believed to come from what is now eastern Venezuela. By the time Columbus arrived in 1492 AD, the region was under the control of Bohechio, Taíno cacique Xaragua.
He, like his predecessors, feared settling too close to the coast. Instead, the region served as a hunting ground; the population of the region was 400,000 at the time, but the Taínos were gone within 30 years of the arrival of the Spaniards. With the arrival of the Spaniards, the Amerindians were forced to accept a protectorate, Bohechio, childless at death, was succeeded by his sister, wife of the cacique Caonabo; the Spanish insisted on larger tributes. The Spanish colonial administration decided to rule directly, in 1503, Nicolas Ovando governor, set about to put an end to the régime headed by Anacaona, he invited her and other tribal leaders to a feast, when the Amerindians had drunk a good deal of wine, he ordered most of the guests killed. Anacaona was spared. Through violence and murders, the Spanish settlers decimated the native population. Direct Spanish rule over the area having been established, Ovando founded a settlement not far from the coast named Santa Maria de la Paz Verdadera, which would be abandoned several years later.
Not long thereafter, Ovando founded Santa Maria del Puerto. The latter was first burned by French explorers in 1535 again in 1592 by the English; these assaults proved to be too much for the Spanish colonial administration, in 1606, it decided to abandon the region. For more than 50 years, the area, today Port-au-Prince saw its population drop off drastically, when some buccaneers began to use it as a base, Dutch merchants began to frequent it in search of leather, as game was abundant there. Around 1650, French flibustiers, running out of room on the Île de la Tortue began to arrive on the coast, established a colony at Trou-Borded; as the colony grew, they set up a hospital not far from the coast, on the Turgeau heights. This led to the region being known as Hôpital. Although there had been no real Spanish presence in Hôpital for well over 50 years, Spain retained its formal claim to the territory, the growing presence of the French flibustiers on ostensibly Spanish lands provoked the Spanish crown to dispatch Castilian soldiers to Hôpital to retake it.
The mission proved to be a disaster for the Spanish, as they were outnumbered and outgunned, in 1697, the Spanish government signed the Treaty of Ryswick, renouncing any claims to Hôpital. Around this time, the French established bases at Ester and Gonaïves. Ester was a rich village, inhabited by merchants, equipped with straight streets. On the other hand, the surrounding region, Petite-Rivière, was quite poor. Following a great fire in 1711, Ester was abandoned, yet the French presence in the region continued to grow, soon afterward, a new city was founded to the south, Léogâne. While the first French presence in Hôpital, the region to contain Port-au-Prince was that of the flibustiers. While useful in repelling Englishmen int
Robert Dafford is an American muralist. Robert Dafford is a current resident of Louisiana, he has painted over 400 works of public art across the United States, France and England. He has been painting murals and fine art paintings for 35 years. In the past fifteen years, Dafford has concentrated on working along the Ohio River, painting over two hundred large historical images of cities on their floodwalls, using trompe l'œil, advanced perspective, realist technique. Many riverboat tours make stops along the Ohio River to see his murals. Dafford is best known for his murals in Kentucky, his giant Clarinet in New Orleans, his depictions of the History of the Acadians are among his notable works. The more than sixty consecutive Portsmouth murals stretch over 2,000 feet. Dafford's murals have been commissioned as public art projects that help to boost downtown development and pride in small communities. In 2009 he collaborated with former longtime employee Herb Roe on a poster project for the Zydeco Cajun Prairie Scenic Byway.
The year-long project highlights many spots of interest in the three-parish region. Official website Vicksburg Riverfront Murals Biography on Dafford, Mural City website
Basin Head Provincial Park is a provincial park located in Basin Head, Prince Edward Island, Canada. It is best known by its nickname "Singing Sands", in reference to the pure white sand that "sings" when stepped on, due to a high silica content; this sand is geologically unique to the area. Basin Head Provincial Park features a fisheries museum, souvenir shops, interpretive center; the beach itself is split into two sections, divided by a channel. A bridge spans the'run', is a popular attraction for jumping and diving, it is open as a tourist attraction, operated by Tourism PEI, during the summer months. Basin Head, located 13 kilometres east of Souris, received its name from its wide, hollow bowl shaped form, like a basin. For many years it was a productive fishing area, with many local fisherman making their living fishing off shore. In 1937, it was decided to maintain a wharf at Basin Head. Much dredging was done, the result was the large sand dunes on the beach which still remain today; the harbour was opened in 1938, dredged again in 1959.
In the peak time of fishing at the Basin there were about 25-30 boats fishing out of Basin Head. As many as twenty shacks owned by many of the fishermen were located on the cape, along with a bunkhouse that housed at least twenty or more people; this was Basin Head's most productive era. In 1973, the Basin Head Fisheries Museum was built under the direction of the Prince Edward Island Museum and Heritage Foundation and was open to the public. In 1995-96 huge renovations took place on the site by the Eastern Kings Development Association; this included a board walk which features access to the magnificent "Singing Sands" white sandy beach, gift shops and beach services and a children's play village. The Basin Head area is rich in natural attractions; as mentioned above, one of the most unusual aspects of the beach is the sands high silica content. This silica, when heated by the sun and rubbed together, produces a high-pitched squeaking sound. Dragging one's feet through the sand is enough to elicit this effect.
The tidal lagoon behind the dunes is the only natural habitat for a variety of giant Irish moss called Chondrus crispus. To protect the unique strain, the Basin Head watershed is designated a Marine Protected Area; the moss is distinctive because it has a unique life cycle, does not attach to the bottom and is larger than the varieties found elsewhere. It has a higher concentration of carrageen, a stabilizing and thickening agent used in many household products. Images and Videos of park Official website Things to do
Lauenen is a municipality in the Obersimmental-Saanen administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. Lauenen is first mentioned in 1296 as an der Lowinon. Lauenen is known as an area with substantial danger of landslides and avalanches, the origin of its name; the oldest trace of a settlement in the area is a single Bronze Age artifact found at Feissenalp. Roman coins were found near the village church. During much of the Middle Ages, Lauenen was part of the parish of Saanen. After years of negotiations, Lauenen became an independent parish in 1522 and finished building the parish church in 1524; when Bern accepted the new faith of the Protestant Reformation in 1528, Lauenen remained by the old faith. In 1556, the Reformation was introduced to this mountain village and they converted. Traditionally the villagers supported themselves by raising crops on the valley floor and raising cattle in seasonal alpine camps. In the 1800s the nearby community of Gstaad became an internationally known spa town.
As tourists flocked to Gstaad, Lauenen grew wealthy. Many of the richly decorated houses in the village were built with profits from the tourist industry. In the 1970s the tourist industry in Lauenen changed as visitors bought vacation villas. Lauenen has an area of 58.49 km2. As of 2012, a total of 22.38 km2 or 38.1% is used for agricultural purposes, while 14.69 km2 or 25.0% is forested. The rest of the municipality is 0.76 km2 or 1.3% is settled, 0.61 km2 or 1.0% is either rivers or lakes and 20.3 km2 or 34.6% is unproductive land. During the same year and buildings made up 0.7% and transportation infrastructure made up 0.5%. A total of 20.1% of the total land area is forested and 3.7% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 8.8% is pasturage and 29.3% is used for alpine pastures. Of the water in the municipality, 0.3 % is in lakes and 0.8 % streams. Of the unproductive areas, 5.4% is unproductive vegetation, 24.3% is too rocky for vegetation and 4.9% of the land is covered by glaciers.
Lauenen lies in the Bernese Oberland in the Lauenen Valley. The mountains in the south of the municipality, for instance Wildhorn form the border with the canton of Valais; the municipality has a number of notable glaciers and lakes, including the Tungel Glacier, the Gelten Glacier, Lake Lauenen. It consists of the village of several scattered small communities. On 31 December 2009 the municipality's former district, was dissolved. On the following day, 1 January 2010, it joined the newly created Verwaltungskreis Obersimmental-Saanen; the blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Gules a Crane rising Argent beaked and membered Or on a Mount of 3 Coupeaux of the second all dimidiated impaled with Azure a Key Or. Lauenen has a population of 827; as of 2011, 11.8% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last year the population has changed at a rate of 0.5%. Migration accounted for -0.6%, while births and deaths accounted for 1.0%. Most of the population speaks German as their first language, Albanian is the second most common and French is the third.
As of 2008, the population was 50.4 % female. The population was made up of 47 non-Swiss men. There were 40 non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality, 500 or about 63.0% were born in Lauenen and lived there in 2000. There were 170 or 21.4% who were born in the same canton, while 49 or 6.2% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, 70 or 8.8% were born outside of Switzerland. As of 2011, children and teenagers make up 22.5% of the population, while adults make up 59.8% and seniors make up 17.7%. As of 2000, there were 351 people who never married in the municipality. There were 23 individuals who are divorced; as of 2010, there were 90 households that consist of only one person and 37 households with five or more people. In 2000, a total of 277 apartments were permanently occupied, while 197 apartments were seasonally occupied and 47 apartments were empty; as of 2010, the construction rate of new housing units was 23.7 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, in 2010, was 0.15%.
In 2011, single family homes made up 33.9% of the total housing in the municipality. The historical population is given in the following chart: The former farm house and mill at Dorf 247 is listed as a Swiss heritage site of national significance. In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the Swiss People's Party which received 65.8% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the Conservative Democratic Party, the Social Democratic Party and the Federal Democratic Union of Switzerland. In the federal election, a total of 350 votes were cast, the voter turnout was 57.1%. As of 2011, Lauenen had an unemployment rate of 1.37%. As of 2008, there were a total of 346 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 179 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 59 businesses involved in this sector. 69 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 13 businesses in this sector. 98 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 18 busine
Nothosauridae are an extinct family of carnivorous aquatic sauropterygian reptiles from the Triassic time period of China, Germany, Italy, Russia and northern Africa. The cladogram shown below follows Rieppel's phylogenetic analysis of nothosaurids. Most of these relations are still considered correct today, but despite Rieppel's referral of Ceresiosaurus and Silvestrosaurus to Lariosaurus, some authors still consider them separate and many additional species have been named since this analysis. A species level phylogenetic analysis of Nothosauridae was performed by Liu et al. and included all known valid species of the family apart from Lariosaurus stensioi, Nothosaurus cymatosauroides, Ceresiosaurus lanzi. The resultant topology is similar to the one obtained in Rieppel if the new additions are ignored, however this analysis found both Lariosaurus and Nothosaurus to be polyphyletic in regard to each-other and all other genera of the family, making a systematic revision of these two genera necessary.
Below, their results are shown with type species of named nothosaurid genera noted. Nothosauria Pachypleurosaur
Kornicker Glacier is a glacier draining northeastwards from the cirque bounded by Mount Liptak, Mount Southwick, Mount Milton and Mount Mullen in the southern Sentinel Range of the Ellsworth Mountains in Antarctica. The glacier flows along the northwestern side of Petvar Heights and merges with the terminus of the southeast-flowing Thomas Glacier as both glaciers emerge from the range. Kornicker Glacier was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names after Louis S. Kornicker, a research zoologist at the Department of Invertebrate Zoology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, 1964-2006, a member of the Board of Associated Editors, Antarctic Research Series, American Geophysical Union, 1978–90. List of glaciers in the Antarctic Glaciology Vinson Massif. Scale 1:250 000 topographic map. Reston, Virginia: US Geological Survey, 1988. Antarctic Digital Database. Scale 1:250000 topographic map of Antarctica. Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research. Since 1993 updated.
This article incorporates public domain material from the United States Geological Survey document "Kornicker Glacier". SCAR Composite Gazetteer of Antarctica