Alumnus
An alumnus or an alumna of a college, university, or other school is a former student who has either attended or graduated in some fashion from the institution. The word is Latin and means student; the plural is alumni for mixed groups and alumnae for women. The term is not synonymous with "graduate". An alumnus can be and is more expanded to include a former employee of an organization and it may apply to a former member, contributor, or inmate; the Latin noun alumnus means "foster son" or "pupil" and is derived from the verb alere "to nourish". The word alumnus appears in Roman law to describe a child placed in fosterage. According to John Boswell, the word "is nowhere defined in relation to status, privilege, or obligation." Citing the research of John Boswell, who studied the many inscriptions about alumni, Boswell concluded that it referred to exposed children who were taken into a household where they were "regarded as somewhere between an heir and a slave, partaking in different ways of both categories."
Despite the warmth of feelings between the parent and child, "an alumnus might be treated both as a beloved child and as a household servant." An alumnus or alumna is a former student and most a graduate of an educational institution. According to the United States Department of Education, the term alumnae is used in conjunction with either women's colleges or a female group of students; the term alumni is used in conjunction with either men's colleges, a male group of students, or a mixed group of students: In accordance with the rules of grammar governing the inflexion of nouns in the Romance languages, the masculine plural alumni is used for groups composed of both sexes: the alumni of Princeton University. The term is sometimes informally shortened to "alum". Alumni reunions are popular events at many institutions, they are organized by alumni associations and are social occasions for fundraising. The term is used exclusively in the USA. Category:Alumni by educational institution Boswell, John.
The Kindness of Strangers:The Abandonment of Children in Western Europe from Late Antiquity to the Renaissance. New York: Pantheon. ISBN 9780226067124; the dictionary definition of alumnus at Wiktionary
Podcast
A podcast or generically netcast, is an episodic series of digital audio or video files which a user can download in order to listen to. It is available for subscription, so that new episodes are automatically downloaded via web syndication to the user's own local computer, mobile application, or portable media player; the word was suggested by Ben Hammersley as a portmanteau of "iPod" and "broadcast". The files distributed are in audio format, but may sometimes include other file formats such as PDF or EPUB. Videos which are shared following a podcast model are sometimes called video vodcasts; the generator of a podcast maintains a central list of the files on a server as a web feed that can be accessed through the Internet. The listener or viewer uses special client application software on a computer or media player, known as a podcatcher, which accesses this web feed, checks it for updates, downloads any new files in the series; this process can be automated to download new files automatically, which may seem to users as though new episodes are broadcast or "pushed" to them.
Files are stored locally on the user's device, ready for offline use. There are many different mobile applications available for people to use to subscribe and to listen to podcasts. Many of these applications allow users to download podcasts or to stream them on demand as an alternative to downloading. Many podcast players allow listeners to control the playback speed; some have labeled podcasting as a converged medium bringing together audio, the web, portable media players, as well as a disruptive technology that has caused some individuals in the radio business to reconsider established practices and preconceptions about audiences, consumption and distribution. Podcasts are free of charge to listeners and can be created for little to no cost, which sets them apart from the traditional model of "gate-kept" media and production tools. Podcast creators can monetize their podcasts by allowing companies to purchase ad time, as well as via sites such as Patreon, which provides special extras and content to listeners for a fee.
Podcasting is much a horizontal media form – producers are consumers, consumers may become producers, both can engage in conversations with each other. "Podcast" is a portmanteau word, formed by combining "iPod" and "broadcast". The term "podcasting" as a name for the nascent technology was first suggested by The Guardian columnist and BBC journalist Ben Hammersley, who invented it in early February 2004 while "padding out" an article for The Guardian newspaper. Despite the etymology, the content can be accessed using any computer or similar device that can play media files. Use of the term "podcast" predated Apple's addition of formal support for podcasting to the iPod, or its iTunes software. Other names for podcasting include "net cast", intended as a vendor-neutral term without the loose reference to the Apple iPod; this name is used by shows from the TWiT.tv network. Some sources have suggested the backronym "portable on demand" or "POD", for similar reasons. In 2004, former MTV video jockey Adam Curry, in collaboration with Dave Winer – co-author of the RSS specification – is credited with coming up with the idea to automate the delivery and syncing of textual content to portable audio players.
Podcasting, once an obscure method of spreading audio information, has become a recognized medium for distributing audio content, whether for corporate or personal use. Podcasts are similar to radio programs in form, but they exist as audio files that can be played at a listener's convenience, anytime or anywhere; the first application to make this process feasible was iPodderX, developed by August Trometer and Ray Slakinski. By 2007, audio podcasts were doing what was accomplished via radio broadcasts, the source of radio talk shows and news programs since the 1930s; this shift occurred as a result of the evolution of internet capabilities along with increased consumer access to cheaper hardware and software for audio recording and editing. In October 2003, Matt Schichter launched. B. B. King, Third Eye Blind, Gavin DeGraw, The Beach Boys, Jason Mraz were notable guests the first season; the hour long radio show was recorded live, transcoded to 16kbit/s audio for dial-up online streaming. Despite a lack of a accepted identifying name for the medium at the time of its creation, The Backstage Pass which became known as Matt Schichter Interviews is believed to be the first podcast to be published online.
In August 2004, Adam Curry launched his show Daily Source Code. It was a show focused on chronicling his everyday life, delivering news, discussions about the development of podcasting, as well as promoting new and emerging podcasts. Curry published it in an attempt to gain traction in the development of what would come to be known as podcasting and as a means of testing the software outside of a lab setting; the name Daily Source Code was chosen in the hope that it would attract an audience with an interest in technology. Daily Source Code started at a grassroots level of production and was directed at podcast developers; as its audience became interested in the format, these developers were inspired to create and produce their own projects and, as a result, they improved the code used to create podcasts. As more people learned how easy it was to produce podcasts, a community of pioneer podcasters appeared. In June 2005, Apple released iTunes 4.9 which added formal support for podcasts, thus negating the need to use a separate program in order to download and transfer them to a mobile device.
While this made access to podcasts more
LinuxWorld Conference and Expo
LinuxWorld Conference and Expo was a conference and trade show that focused on open source and Linux solutions in the information technology sector. It ran from 1998 in venues around the world; the show was managed by IDG World Expo, a business unit of International Data Group. Keynote speakers included Linux creator Linus Torvalds, One Laptop Per Child founder Nicholas Negroponte, Creative Commons founder Lawrence Lessig. Another IDG business unit, Network World, operated the LinuxWorld.com web site, which carried audio and presentation materials from the show, as well as interviews with the show's speakers. This event should not be confused with the "Open Source World Conference", an annual Spanish-language event that ran from 2004 to 2012; the first LinuxWorld Conference and Expo occurred in 1998 at the San Jose Convention Center. The keynote speaker was Linus Torvalds; the event featured a debate with Richard Stallman and Larry Wall. At the conference an agreement was made by Patrick Op de Beeck and Mark Shuttleworth concerning cooperation between KDE and Gnome for improving each other's work.
The 2001 documentary film Revolution OS includes footage from the 1999 LinuxWorld event in New York City. Writer and free software advocate Don Marti ran LinuxWorld from 2005 until its end in 2009. LinuxWorld Open Solutions Summits took place in Italy, Spain and New York City. LinuxWorld Conference and Expo took place in the following locations, among others: Belgium Brazil Canada Beijing, China Guangzhou, China Shanghai, China Germany Japan Korea Malaysia Mexico Netherlands Singapore South Africa United Kingdom San Francisco, United States Boston, United StatesIn 2009, the conference was renamed to "OpenSource World", it was held at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. This was the last known OpenSource World event. List of free-software events http://www.linuxworldexpo.co.uk
Slashdot
Slashdot is a social news website that billed itself as "News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters", it features news stories on science and politics that are submitted and evaluated by site users and editors. Each story has a comments section attached to it; the website was founded in 1997 by Hope College students Rob Malda known as "CmdrTaco", classmate Jeff Bates known as "Hemos". In 2012, they sold it to DHI Group, Inc.. In January 2016, BizX acquired Slashdot Media, including SourceForge. Summaries of stories and links to news articles are submitted by Slashdot's own users, each story becomes the topic of a threaded discussion among users. Discussion is moderated by a user-based moderation system. Randomly selected moderators are assigned points. Moderation applies either −1 or +1 to the current rating, based on whether the comment is perceived as either "normal", "offtopic", "insightful", "redundant", "interesting", or "troll"; the site's comment and moderation system is administered by its own open source content management system, available under the GNU General Public License.
In 2012, Slashdot had around 3.7 million unique visitors per month and received over 5300 comments per day. The site has won more than 20 awards, including People's Voice Awards in 2000 for "Best Community Site" and "Best News Site". At its peak use, a news story posted to the site with a link could overwhelm some smaller or independent sites; this phenomenon was known as the "Slashdot effect". Slashdot was preceded by Rob Malda's personal website "Chips & Dips", launched in October 1997, featured a single "rant" each day about something that interested its author – something to do with Linux or open source software. At the time, Malda was a student at Hope College in Holland, majoring in computer science; the site became "Slashdot" in September 1997 under the slogan "News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters," and became a hotspot on the Internet for news and information of interest to computer geeks; the name "Slashdot" came from a somewhat "obnoxious parody of a URL" – when Malda registered the domain, he desired to make a name, "silly and unpronounceable" – try pronouncing out, "h-t-t-p-colon-slash-slash-slashdot-dot-org".
By June 1998, the site was seeing as many as 100,000 page views per day and advertisers began to take notice. Slashdot was co-founded by Jeff Bates. By December 1998, Slashdot had net revenues of $18,000, yet its Internet profile was higher, revenues were expected to increase. On June 29, 1999, the site was sold to Linux megasite Andover.net for $1.5 million in cash and $7 million in Andover stock at the Initial public offering price. Part of the deal was contingent upon the continued employment of Malda and Bates and on the achievement of certain "milestones". With the acquisition of Slashdot, Andover.net could now advertise itself as "the leading Linux/Open Source destination on the Internet". Andover.net merged with VA Linux on February 3, 2000, which changed its name to SourceForge, Inc. on May 24, 2007, became Geeknet, Inc. on November 4, 2009. Slashdot's 10,000th article was posted after two and a half years on February 24, 2000, the 100,000th article was posted on December 11, 2009 after 12 years online.
During the first 12 years, the most active story with the most responses posted was the post-2004 US Presidential Election article "Kerry Concedes Election To Bush" with 5,687 posts. This followed the creation of a new article section, politics.slashdot.org, created at the start of the 2004 election on September 7, 2004. Many of the most popular stories are political, with "Strike on Iraq" the second-most-active article and "Barack Obama Wins US Presidency" the third-most-active; the rest of the 10 most active articles are an article announcing the 2005 London bombings, several articles about Evolution vs. Intelligent Design, Saddam Hussein's capture, Fahrenheit 9/11. Articles about Microsoft and its Windows Operating System are popular. A thread posted in 2002 titled "What's Keeping You On Windows?" was the 10th-most-active story, an article about Windows 2000/NT4 source-code leaks the most visited article with more than 680,000 hits. Some controversy erupted on March 9, 2001 after an anonymous user posted the full text of Scientology's "Operating Thetan Level Three" document in a comment attached to a Slashdot article.
The Church of Scientology demanded that Slashdot remove the document under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. A week in a long article, Slashdot editors explained their decision to remove the page while providing links and information on how to get the document from other sources. Slashdot Japan is an official offshoot of the US-based Web site; as of January 2010 the site was owned by OSDN-Japan, Inc. and carried some of the US-based Slashdot articles as well as localized stories. An external site, New Media Services, has reported the importance of Online Moderation last December 1, 2011. On Valentine's Day 2002, founder Rob Malda proposed to longtime girlfriend Kathleen Fent using the front page of Slashdot, they were married on December 2002, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Slashdot implemented a paid subscription service on March 1, 2002. Slashdot's subscription model works by allowing users to pay a small fee to be able to view pages without banner ads, starting at a rate of $5 per 1,000 page views – non-subscribers may still view articles and respo
Las Vegas
Las Vegas the City of Las Vegas and known as Vegas, is the 28th-most populated city in the United States, the most populated city in the state of Nevada, the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area and is the largest city within the greater Mojave Desert. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city, known for its gambling, fine dining and nightlife; the Las Vegas Valley as a whole serves as the leading financial and cultural center for Nevada. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, is famous for its mega casino–hotels and associated activities, it is a top three destination in the United States for business conventions and a global leader in the hospitality industry, claiming more AAA Five Diamond hotels than any other city in the world. Today, Las Vegas annually ranks as one of the world's most visited tourist destinations; the city's tolerance for numerous forms of adult entertainment earned it the title of Sin City, has made Las Vegas a popular setting for literature, television programs, music videos.
Las Vegas was settled in 1905 and incorporated in 1911. At the close of the 20th century, it was the most populated American city founded within that century. Population growth has accelerated since the 1960s, between 1990 and 2000 the population nearly doubled, increasing by 85.2%. Rapid growth has continued into the 21st century, according to a 2018 estimate, the population is 648,224 with a regional population of 2,227,053; as with most major metropolitan areas, the name of the primary city is used to describe areas beyond official city limits. In the case of Las Vegas, this applies to the areas on and near the Las Vegas Strip, located within the unincorporated communities of Paradise and Winchester; the earliest visitors to the Las Vegas area were nomadic Paleo-Indians, who traveled there 10,000 years ago, leaving behind petroglyphs. Anasazi and Paiute tribes followed at least 2,000 years ago. A young Mexican scout named Rafael Rivera is credited as the first non-Native American to encounter the valley, in 1829.
Trader Antonio Armijo led a 60-man party along the Spanish Trail to Los Angeles, California in 1829. The area was named Las Vegas, Spanish for "the meadows," as it featured abundant wild grasses, as well as the desert spring waters needed by westward travelers; the year 1844 marked the arrival of John C. Frémont, whose writings helped lure pioneers to the area. Downtown Las Vegas's Fremont Street is named after him. Eleven years members of the LDS Church chose Las Vegas as the site to build a fort halfway between Salt Lake City and Los Angeles, where they would travel to gather supplies; the fort was abandoned several years afterward. The remainder of this Old Mormon Fort can still be seen at the intersection of Las Vegas Boulevard and Washington Avenue. Las Vegas was founded as a city in 1905, when 110 acres of land adjacent to the Union Pacific Railroad tracks were auctioned in what would become the downtown area. In 1911, Las Vegas was incorporated as a city. 1931 was a pivotal year for Las Vegas.
At that time, Nevada legalized casino gambling and reduced residency requirements for divorce to six weeks. This year witnessed the beginning of construction on nearby Hoover Dam; the influx of construction workers and their families helped Las Vegas avoid economic calamity during the Great Depression. The construction work was completed in 1935. In 1941, the Las Vegas Army Air Corps Gunnery School was established. Known as Nellis Air Force Base, it is home to the aerobatic team called the Thunderbirds. Following World War II, lavishly decorated hotels, gambling casinos, big-name entertainment became synonymous with Las Vegas. In the 1950s the Moulin Rouge opened and became the first racially integrated casino-hotel in Las Vegas. In 1951, nuclear weapons testing began at the Nevada Test Site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas. During this time the city was nicknamed the "Atomic City". Residents and visitors were able to witness the mushroom clouds until 1963, when the limited Test Ban Treaty required that nuclear tests be moved underground.
The iconic "Welcome to Las Vegas" sign, never located within municipal limits, was created in 1959 by Betty Willis. During the 1960s, corporations and business powerhouses such as Howard Hughes were building and buying hotel-casino properties. Gambling was referred to as "gaming"; the year 1995 marked the opening of the Fremont Street Experience in Las Vegas's downtown area. This canopied five-block area features 12.5 million LED lights and 550,000 watts of sound from dusk until midnight during shows held on the top of each hour. Due to the realization of many revitalization efforts, 2012 was dubbed "The Year of Downtown." Hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of projects made their debut at this time. They included The Smith Center for the Performing Arts and DISCOVERY Children's Museum, Mob Museum, Neon Museum, a new City Hall complex and renovations for a new Zappos.com corporate headquarters in the old City Hall building. Las Vegas is situated within Clark County in a basin on the floor of the Mojave Desert and is surrounded by mountain ranges on all sides.
Much of the landscape is arid with desert vegetation and wildlife. It can be subjected to torrential flash floods, although much has been done to mitigate the effects of flash floods through improved drainage systems; the peaks surrounding Las Vegas reach elevations of o
Dexter, Michigan
Dexter is a city in Washtenaw County in the U. S. state of Michigan. A village, Dexter residents voted to adopt a city charter in November 2014; the population was 4,067 at the 2010 census. Between 2000 and 2010, Dexter's population grew 73.9%, making it one of the fastest growing communities in the state. While there is no formal political connection between the City of Dexter and the adjacent Township of Dexter, both share the 48130 zip code and Dexter, Michigan mailing address, as well as some basic services; the township was named for village founder and Washtenaw County's first circuit judge Samuel William Dexter. The area was first settled in 1824, 13 years before Michigan became a state, when land speculator Samuel W. Dexter purchased a large tract of land and originated the village, it was known as "Mill Creek Settlement" until the village was platted in 1830, when its name was changed to Dexter. Mill Creek and the Huron River, which form much of the western and northeastern boundaries of the city have long been valuable resources to Dexter.
A sawmill was built in 1827, a woolen mill in 1838, a grist mill in 1844, a cider mill in 1886. After being appointed County Court Justice in 1826, Judge Dexter established a post office in his home, shuttling mail between there and Ann Arbor on horseback; the founder of the original village, Samuel W. Dexter served as the chief justice of the Washtenaw County Court as well as being elected a University of Michigan regent, his home just northwest of the city overlooking Mill Creek was built in the early 1840s in Greek Revival architecture and is a recognizable landmark in the area. Samuel Dexter called it Gordon Hall to honor his mother's family. Samuel Dexter was a staunch abolitionist, it is nearly certain that Gordon Hall was a stop on the Underground Railroad. Gordon Hall and 70 acres of surrounding property was gifted to the University of Michigan in 1950 by Katharine Dexter McCormick.. On March 20, 1966, the Dexter area experienced "one of the most infamous of all UFO sightings in history" when local truck driver Frank Mannor spotted a glowing object near his home.
Astronomer J. Allen Hynek visited Dexter and declared the object was caused by "swamp gas," a term which has since become affiliated with UFO sightings. Hynek's swamp gas theory prompted then-Michigan Congressman Gerald R. Ford to call for a thorough Congressional investigation of "the rash of reported sightings of unidentified flying objects in southern Michigan". On Thursday, March 15, 2012, Dexter was struck by a large EF3 tornado causing substantial damage to local houses and businesses, yet no injuries were reported. On November 4, 2014, Dexter residents voted to adopt a new charter turning the former village into a city. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 1.93 square miles, of which 1.87 square miles is land and 0.06 square miles is water. The WAVE Community Connector Bus stops on weekends, its regular route travels between Chelsea and Ann Arbor, where it transfers to AATA bus #30. Washtenaw County's Border-to-Border Trail links downtown Dexter to Hudson Mills Metropark.
A connecting trail to Dexter-Huron Metropark is planned. Dexter has a depot built around 1840. Today, no trains stop here, but it is the home of the Ann Arbor Model Railroad Club, is completely surrounded by old railroad memorabilia, such as old level crossing signals and baggage carts. Downtown Dexter's main thoroughfares were known as A, B, C, D, E Streets. Today, these are known as Alpine, Central and Edison Streets; as of the census of 2010, there were 4,067 people, 1,590 households, 1,067 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,174.9 inhabitants per square mile. There were 1,704 housing units at an average density of 911.2 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 92.7% White, 1.1% African American, 0.4% Native American, 2.8% Asian, 0.8% from other races, 2.2% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino people of any race were 2.8% of the population. Since the 2000 census, Dexter's population grew 62.9%, the largest population growth in the state during that time period.
There were 1,590 households of which 42.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 51.8% were married couples living together, 12.3% had a female householder with no husband present, 3.1% had a male householder with no wife present, 32.9% were non-families. 28.2% of all households were made up of individuals and 8.7% had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.56 and the average family size was 3.20. The median age in the city was 36.2 years. 31% of residents were under the age of 18. The gender makeup of the city was 47.1% male and 52.9% female. At the 2000 census, there were 2,338 people, 1,013 households and 641 families residing in the city; the population density was 1,236.7 per square mile. There were 1,106 housing units at an average density of 585.0 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 96.58% White, 0.43% African American, 0.30% Native American, 1.03% Asian, 0.26% from other races, 1.41% from two or
Nevada
Nevada is a state in the Western United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast and Utah to the east. Nevada is the 7th most extensive, the 32nd most populous, but the 9th least densely populated of the U. S. states. Nearly three-quarters of Nevada's people live in Clark County, which contains the Las Vegas–Paradise metropolitan area where three of the state's four largest incorporated cities are located. Nevada's capital, however, is Carson City. Nevada is known as the "Silver State" because of the importance of silver to its history and economy, it is known as the "Battle Born State", because it achieved statehood during the Civil War. Nevada is desert and semi-arid, much of it within the Great Basin. Areas south of the Great Basin are within the Mojave Desert, while Lake Tahoe and the Sierra Nevada lie on the western edge. About 86% of the state's land is managed by various jurisdictions of the U. S. federal government, both civilian and military.
Before European contact, Native Americans of the Paiute and Washoe tribes inhabited the land, now Nevada. The first Europeans to explore the region were Spanish, they called the region Nevada because of the snow. The area formed part of the Viceroyalty of New Spain, became part of Mexico when it gained independence in 1821; the United States annexed the area in 1848 after its victory in the Mexican–American War, it was incorporated as part of Utah Territory in 1850. The discovery of silver at the Comstock Lode in 1859 led to a population boom that became an impetus to the creation of Nevada Territory out of western Utah Territory in 1861. Nevada became the 36th state on October 31, 1864, as the second of two states added to the Union during the Civil War. Nevada has a reputation for its libertarian laws. In 1940, with a population of just over 110,000 people, Nevada was by far the least-populated state, with less than half the population of the next least-populated state. However, legalized gambling and lenient marriage and divorce laws transformed Nevada into a major tourist destination in the 20th century.
Nevada is the only U. S. state where prostitution is legal, though it is illegal in Clark County, Washoe County and Carson City. The tourism industry remains Nevada's largest employer, with mining continuing as a substantial sector of the economy: Nevada is the fourth-largest producer of gold in the world; the name "Nevada" comes from meaning "snow-covered", after the Sierra Nevada. Most Nevadans pronounce the second syllable of their state name using the TRAP vowel. Many from outside the Western United States pronounce it with the PALM vowel. Although the latter pronunciation is closer to the Spanish pronunciation, it is not the pronunciation preferred by most Nevadans. State Assemblyman Harry Mortenson proposed a bill to recognize the alternate pronunciation of Nevada, though the bill was not supported by most legislators and never received a vote; the Nevadan pronunciation is the de facto official one, since it is the one used by the state legislature. At one time, the state's official tourism organization, TravelNevada, stylized the name of the state as "Nevăda", with a breve mark over the a indicating the locally preferred pronunciation, available as a license plate design.
Nevada is entirely within the Basin and Range Province, is broken up by many north-south mountain ranges. Most of these ranges have endorheic valleys between them, which belies the image portrayed by the term Great Basin. Much of the northern part of the state is within the Great Basin, a mild desert that experiences hot temperatures in the summer and cold temperatures in the winter. Moisture from the Arizona Monsoon will cause summer thunderstorms; the state's highest recorded temperature was 125 °F in Laughlin on June 29, 1994. The coldest recorded temperature was −52 °F set in San Jacinto in 1972, in the northeastern portion of the state; the Humboldt River crosses the state from east to west across the northern part of the state, draining into the Humboldt Sink near Lovelock. Several rivers drain from the Sierra Nevada eastward, including the Walker and Carson rivers. All of these rivers are endorheic basins, ending in Walker Lake, Pyramid Lake, the Carson Sink, respectively. However, not all of Nevada is within the Great Basin.
Tributaries of the Snake River drain the far north, while the Colorado River, which forms much of the boundary with Arizona, drains much of southern Nevada. The mountain ranges, some of which have peaks above 13,000 feet, harbor lush forests high above desert plains, creating sky islands for endemic species; the valleys are no lower in elevation than 3,000 feet, while some in central Nevada are above 6,000 feet. The southern third of the state, where the Las Vegas area is situated, is within the Mojave Desert; the area is closer to the Arizona Monsoon in the summer. The terrain is lower below 4,000 feet, creating conditions for hot summer days and cool to chilly winter nights. Nevada and California have by far the longest diagonal line as a state boundary at just over 400 miles; this line begins in Lake Tahoe nearly
