1.
City
–
A city is a large and permanent human settlement. Cities generally have complex systems for sanitation, utilities, land usage, housing, a big city or metropolis usually has associated suburbs and exurbs. Such cities are associated with metropolitan areas and urban areas. Once a city expands far enough to another city, this region can be deemed a conurbation or megalopolis. Damascus is arguably the oldest city in the world, in terms of population, the largest city proper is Shanghai, while the fastest-growing is Dubai. There is not enough evidence to assert what conditions gave rise to the first cities, some theorists have speculated on what they consider suitable pre-conditions and basic mechanisms that might have been important driving forces. The conventional view holds that cities first formed after the Neolithic revolution, the Neolithic revolution brought agriculture, which made denser human populations possible, thereby supporting city development. The advent of farming encouraged hunter-gatherers to abandon nomadic lifestyles and to settle near others who lived by agricultural production, the increased population density encouraged by farming and the increased output of food per unit of land created conditions that seem more suitable for city-like activities. In his book, Cities and Economic Development, Paul Bairoch takes up position in his argument that agricultural activity appears necessary before true cities can form. According to Vere Gordon Childe, for a settlement to qualify as a city, it must have enough surplus of raw materials to support trade and a relatively large population. To illustrate this point, Bairoch offers an example, Western Europe during the pre-Neolithic, when the cost of transport is taken into account, the figure rises to 200,000 square kilometres. Bairoch noted that this is roughly the size of Great Britain, the urban theorist Jane Jacobs suggests that city formation preceded the birth of agriculture, but this view is not widely accepted. In his book City Economics, Brendan OFlaherty asserts Cities could persist—as they have for thousands of years—only if their advantages offset the disadvantages, OFlaherty illustrates two similar attracting advantages known as increasing returns to scale and economies of scale, which are concepts usually associated with businesses. Their applications are seen in more basic economic systems as well, increasing returns to scale occurs when doubling all inputs more than doubles the output an activity has economies of scale if doubling output less than doubles cost. To offer an example of these concepts, OFlaherty makes use of one of the oldest reasons why cities were built, in this example, the inputs are anything that would be used for protection and the output is the area protected and everything of value contained in it. OFlaherty then asks that we suppose the protected area is square, the advantage is expressed as, O = s 2, where O is the output and s stands for the length of a side. This equation shows that output is proportional to the square of the length of a side, the inputs depend on the length of the perimeter, I =4 s, where I stands for the quantity of inputs. So there are increasing returns to scale, O = I2 /16 and this equation shows that with twice the inputs, you produce quadruple the output
2.
Geographic coordinate system
–
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
3.
U.S. state
–
A U. S. state is a constituent political entity of the United States of America. There are 50 states, which are together in a union with each other. Each state holds administrative jurisdiction over a geographic territory. Due to the shared sovereignty between each state and the government, Americans are citizens of both the federal republic and of the state in which they reside. State citizenship and residency are flexible, and no government approval is required to move between states, except for persons covered by certain types of court orders. States range in population from just under 600,000 to over 39 million, four states use the term commonwealth rather than state in their full official names. States are divided into counties or county-equivalents, which may be assigned some local authority but are not sovereign. County or county-equivalent structure varies widely by state, State governments are allocated power by the people through their individual constitutions. All are grounded in principles, and each provides for a government. States possess a number of powers and rights under the United States Constitution, Constitution has been amended, and the interpretation and application of its provisions have changed. The general tendency has been toward centralization and incorporation, with the government playing a much larger role than it once did. There is a debate over states rights, which concerns the extent and nature of the states powers and sovereignty in relation to the federal government. States and their residents are represented in the federal Congress, a legislature consisting of the Senate. Each state is represented in the Senate by two senators, and is guaranteed at least one Representative in the House, members of the House are elected from single-member districts. Representatives are distributed among the states in proportion to the most recent constitutionally mandated decennial census, the Constitution grants to Congress the authority to admit new states into the Union. Since the establishment of the United States in 1776, the number of states has expanded from the original 13 to 50, alaska and Hawaii are the most recent states admitted, both in 1959. The Constitution is silent on the question of states have the power to secede from the Union. Shortly after the Civil War, the U. S. Supreme Court, in Texas v. White, as a result, while the governments of the various states share many similar features, they often vary greatly with regard to form and substance
4.
Texas
–
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
5.
Austin County, Texas
–
Austin County is a county in the U. S. state of Texas. As of the 2010 census, the population was 28,417, the county is named for Stephen F. Austin, who facilitated the Anglo American colonization of Texas and is known as the Father of Texas. Austin County is included in the Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, TX Metropolitan Statistical Area, Austin County is not to be confused with the city of Austin, the state capital city that lies in Travis County approximately 110 miles to the northwest. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, the county has an area of 656 square miles. The population density was 36 people per square mile, there were 10,205 housing units at an average density of 16 per square mile. The racial makeup of the county was 80. 22% White,10. 64% Black or African American,0. 28% Native American,0. 29% Asian,6. 99% from other races,16. 13% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. 26. 9% were of German,8. 8% American,8. 0% Czech,6. 4% English and 5. 0% Irish ancestry according to Census 2000. 22. 80% of all households were made up of individuals and 11. 50% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older, the average household size was 2.67 and the average family size was 3.14. In the county, the population was out with 27. 00% under the age of 18,8. 10% from 18 to 24,26. 40% from 25 to 44,23. 70% from 45 to 64. The median age was 38 years, for every 100 females there were 96.50 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 92.90 males, the median income for a household in the county was $38,615, and the median income for a family was $46,342. Males had an income of $32,455 versus $22,142 for females. The per capita income for the county was $18,140, about 8. 80% of families and 12. 10% of the population were below the poverty line, including 13. 70% of those under age 18 and 14. 40% of those age 65 or over. District 18, Lois Kolkhorst – first elected in 2006, district 13, Lois Kolkhorst – first elected in 2000. County Judge, Tim Lapham Tax Assessor-Collector, Marcus A. Peña – first elected in 2012. S, Highway 90 State Highway 36 State Highway 159 The TTC-69 component of the once-planned Trans-Texas Corridor went through Austin County
6.
Texas House of Representatives
–
The Texas House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Texas Legislature. It consists of 150 members who are elected from districts for a term of 2 years. As of the 2010 Census, each represents a average of 167,637 people. There are no limits, with the most senior member, Tom Craddick. The House meets at the State Capitol in Austin, the Speaker of the House is the presiding officer and highest-ranking member of the House. The Speaker pro tempore is primarily a position, but does, by long-standing tradition, preside over the House during its consideration of local. Unlike other state legislatures, the House rules do not formally recognize majority or minority leaders, the unofficial leaders are the Republican Caucus Chairman and the Democratic House Leader, both of whom are elected by their respective caucuses. †Representative was first elected in a special election, eligio De La Garza, II, first Mexican-American to represent his region in the US House and the second Mexican-American from Texas to be elected to Congress. Ray Barnhart, Federal Highway Administrator Anita Lee Blair, first blind woman elected to a state legislature Jack Brooks, Representative and House Majority Leader John Nance Garner, U. S. Representative, Speaker of the House, and Vice President of the United States O. H. Ike Harris, Dallas County representative from 1963–1965, state senator Sarah T, charles Henry Nimitz Born in Bremen. In 1852, built the Nimitz Hotel in Fredericksburg, which now houses the National Museum of the Pacific War, grandfather of United States Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz. Elected to the Texas Legislature 1890, rick Perry, longest serving Governor of Texas, Colonel Alfred P. C. Petsch Lawyer, legislator, civic leader, and philanthropist, veteran of both World War I and World War II. Representative and longest served Speaker of the House Coke R. Stevenson, Governor of Texas Sarah Weddington, weinert, coauthored bill to establish the Pasteur Institute of Texas, authored resolution for humane treatment of state convicts, coauthored the indeterminate sentence and parole law. The Chief Clerk is the custodian of all legal documents within House. When there is an update of the electronic source website. The report noted how representatives register votes for absent members on the Houses automated voting machines, each representative would vote for the nearest absent members. This practice was in violation of a Rule of the House, however
7.
Leighton Schubert
–
On February 17,2015, he won a special election to succeed fellow Republican Lois Kolkhorst, who was instead elected to the Texas State Senate. Schubert, like Kolkhorst, was born in Brenham in Washington County and he graduated from Snook High School in Snook in Burleson County. He graduated from Texas A&M University and he obtained his legal credentials from the South Texas College of Law in Houston. He was a law clerk for then Attorney General Greg Abbott, in his campaign literature, he calls himself a conservative Republican. Schubert won the runoff contest for the House seat by defeating fellow Republican Carolyn Cerny Bilski of Sealy in Austin County,6,352 to 4,763 and he sits on the House Corrections and County Affairs committees. He is affiliated with Rotary International, Lions International, and the Chamber of Commerce, schuberts parents, Bobby Gene and Patsy Marie Becker Schubert, reside in Snook, as do his twin sister, Leigha, and her husband, Phillip Anelli. Campaign website State legislative page Leighton Schubert at the Texas Tribune
8.
Texas Senate
–
The Texas Senate is the upper house of the Texas State Legislature. There are 31 members of the Senate, representing single-member districts across the U. S. state of Texas, with populations of approximately 806,000 per constituency, there are no term limits, and each term is four years long. Elections are held in even numbered years on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, in elections ending in years ending in 2, all seats are up for election. Half of the senators serve a two-year term, based on a drawing. As such, in elections, about half of the Texas Senate is on the ballot. The Senate meets at the Texas State Capitol in Austin, the Republicans currently control the chamber, which is made up of 20 Republicans and 11 Democrats, as of January 10,2017. The Lieutenant Governor of Texas serves as the President of the Senate, the Lieutenant Governor may also cast a vote should a Senate floor vote end in a tie. Unlike other state legislatures, the Texas Senate does not include majority or minority leaders, instead, the President Pro Tempore is considered the second most powerful position, and can be reserved to any political party in the chamber regardless if the party is a majority or not. Presidents Pro Tempore are usually the most senior members of the Senate, the President Pro Tempore presides when the Lieutenant Governor is not present or when the legislature is not in regular session. For the 82nd Legislative Session, which began in 2011, there were two new, or freshman, senators, Brian Birdwell, a Republican from Granbury, and José R. Rodríguez. For the 83rd Legislative Session, which began in 2013, there were six new senators, including Sylvia Garcia, for this term of the Legislature the President of the Senate is Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick. The President Pro Tempore is Republican Craig Estes of District 30, Senator John Whitmire, a Democrat from Houston, is the Dean of the Senate, meaning he is the most senior member, having served since 1987. Senator Chris Harris, a Republican from Arlington, is the most senior member of his party, new senators elected in 2014 are Bob Hall, Paul Bettencourt, Van Taylor, Don Huffines, and Konni Burton, all Republicans. There have been at least three cases of quorum-busting in Texas Senate history. The first case was in 1870, with the Rump Senate, followed by the 1979 killer bees and finally the Texas Eleven in the summer of 2003, the following represents the Senate committee structure for the 85th Legislature. †Elected in a special election Edward Clark, Lieutenant Governor of Texas, wayne Connally, Senator from Wilson County, brother of Governor John Connally. Lloyd Doggett, Texas Supreme Court Justice, U. S. House of Representatives, robert L. Duncan, State Senator from Lubbock, 1996-2014, Chancellor of the Texas Tech University System since 2014 Chet Edwards, U. S. House of Representatives. Glenn Hegar, current Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, John Ireland, Texas Supreme Court Justice, Governor of Texas
9.
Lois Kolkhorst
–
Lois Winkelmann Kolkhorst is a businesswoman in her native Brenham, Texas, who is a Republican member of the Texas State Senate. She was elected to the state Senate from the 18th District in an election held on December 6,2014. Kolkhorst is a 1988 graduate of Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas, at which she studied advertising and public relations, senator Kolkhorst is a fifth-generation Texan, with ancestral roots to the Texas War of Independence. She also served as assistant director of TCU athletics media relations after her undergraduate golf career ended, in December 2014, Kolkhorst was elected to the Texas Senate in a special election, after previously serving fourteen years in the Texas House. She is a member of the Senate Finance Committee and she also serves as Vice-Chair of the Senate Committee on Health and Human Services. Kolkhorst is a member of the Senate Committee on Education, representing all or part of twenty-one Texas counties, she serves on the Senate Transportation Committee as well as the Senate Select Committee on Texas Ports. Kolkhorst serves on the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Water and Rural Affairs, in 2013, she worked closely with Texas Governor Rick Perry and U. S. Senator Ted Cruz to reject a push by members of the Texas Legislature to expand Medicaid in Texas and she has been named among the Ten Best Legislators by Texas Monthly magazine. In her race for Senate District 18 in 2014, she received the endorsement of outgoing Governor Rick Perry, incoming Governor Greg Abbott, the bill would require transgender persons to use the rest rooms corresponding with their documented sex at birth. Strongly opposed by business and athletic interests, the measure is now pending before the full Senate and my staff even withheld yesterday until the end of the day a threat on my life. Kolkhorst and her husband, James Darren Jim Kolkhorst, have two children, Lois Kate and Jake Kolkhorst, though they reside in Brenham, the couple owns and operates Kolkhorst Petroleum in Navasota in Grimes County. The company was founded by Jim Kolkhorsts father, James Henry Bubba Kolkhorst and she is a member of the St. Pauls Evangelical Lutheran Church in Brenham
10.
Republican Party (United States)
–
The Republican Party, commonly referred to as the GOP, is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, the other being its historic rival, the Democratic Party. The party is named after republicanism, the dominant value during the American Revolution and it was founded by anti-slavery activists, modernists, ex-Whigs, and ex-Free Soilers in 1854. The Republicans dominated politics nationally and in the majority of northern States for most of the period between 1860 and 1932, there have been 19 Republican presidents, the most from any one party. The Republican Partys current ideology is American conservatism, which contrasts with the Democrats more progressive platform, further, its platform involves support for free market capitalism, free enterprise, fiscal conservatism, a strong national defense, deregulation, and restrictions on labor unions. In addition to advocating for economic policies, the Republican Party is socially conservative. As of 2017, the GOP is documented as being at its strongest position politically since 1928, in addition to holding the Presidency, the Republicans control the 115th United States Congress, having majorities in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. The party also holds a majority of governorships and state legislatures, the main cause was opposition to the Kansas–Nebraska Act, which repealed the Missouri Compromise by which slavery was kept out of Kansas. The Northern Republicans saw the expansion of slavery as a great evil, the first public meeting of the general anti-Nebraska movement where the name Republican was suggested for a new anti-slavery party was held on March 20,1854, in a schoolhouse in Ripon, Wisconsin. The name was chosen to pay homage to Thomas Jeffersons Republican Party. The first official party convention was held on July 6,1854, in Jackson and it oversaw the preserving of the union, the end of slavery, and the provision of equal rights to all men in the American Civil War and Reconstruction, 1861–1877. The Republicans initial base was in the Northeast and the upper Midwest, with the realignment of parties and voters in the Third Party System, the strong run of John C. Fremont in the 1856 United States presidential election demonstrated it dominated most northern states, early Republican ideology was reflected in the 1856 slogan free labor, free land, free men, which had been coined by Salmon P. Chase, a Senator from Ohio. Free labor referred to the Republican opposition to labor and belief in independent artisans. Free land referred to Republican opposition to the system whereby slaveowners could buy up all the good farm land. The Party strove to contain the expansion of slavery, which would cause the collapse of the slave power, Lincoln, representing the fast-growing western states, won the Republican nomination in 1860 and subsequently won the presidency. The party took on the mission of preserving the Union, and destroying slavery during the American Civil War, in the election of 1864, it united with War Democrats to nominate Lincoln on the National Union Party ticket. The partys success created factionalism within the party in the 1870s and those who felt that Reconstruction had been accomplished and was continued mostly to promote the large-scale corruption tolerated by President Ulysses S. Grant ran Horace Greeley for the presidency. The Stalwarts defended Grant and the system, the Half-Breeds led by Chester A. Arthur pushed for reform of the civil service in 1883
11.
United States House of Representatives
–
The United States House of Representatives is the lower chamber of the United States Congress which, along with the Senate, composes the legislature of the United States. The composition and powers of the House are established by Article One of the United States Constitution, since its inception in 1789, all representatives are elected popularly. The total number of voting representatives is fixed by law at 435, the House is charged with the passage of federal legislation, known as bills, which, after concurrence by the Senate, are sent to the President for consideration. The presiding officer is the Speaker of the House, who is elected by the members thereof and is traditionally the leader of the controlling party. He or she and other leaders are chosen by the Democratic Caucus or the Republican Conferences. The House meets in the wing of the United States Capitol. Under the Articles of Confederation, the Congress of the Confederation was a body in which each state was equally represented. All states except Rhode Island agreed to send delegates, the issue of how to structure Congress was one of the most divisive among the founders during the Convention. The House is referred to as the house, with the Senate being the upper house. Both houses approval is necessary for the passage of legislation, the Virginia Plan drew the support of delegates from large states such as Virginia, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania, as it called for representation based on population. The smaller states, however, favored the New Jersey Plan, the Constitution was ratified by the requisite number of states in 1788, but its implementation was set for March 4,1789. The House began work on April 1,1789, when it achieved a quorum for the first time, during the first half of the 19th century, the House was frequently in conflict with the Senate over regionally divisive issues, including slavery. The North was much more populous than the South, and therefore dominated the House of Representatives, However, the North held no such advantage in the Senate, where the equal representation of states prevailed. Regional conflict was most pronounced over the issue of slavery, One example of a provision repeatedly supported by the House but blocked by the Senate was the Wilmot Proviso, which sought to ban slavery in the land gained during the Mexican–American War. Conflict over slavery and other issues persisted until the Civil War, the war culminated in the Souths defeat and in the abolition of slavery. Because all southern senators except Andrew Johnson resigned their seats at the beginning of the war, the years of Reconstruction that followed witnessed large majorities for the Republican Party, which many Americans associated with the Unions victory in the Civil War and the ending of slavery. The Reconstruction period ended in about 1877, the ensuing era, the Democratic and the Republican Party held majorities in the House at various times. The late 19th and early 20th centuries also saw an increase in the power of the Speaker of the House
12.
Michael McCaul
–
Michael Thomas Mike McCaul Sr. is the U. S. Representative for Texass 10th congressional district, serving since 2005, since the beginning of the 113th Congress, he has been the Chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security. He is a member of the Republican Party, the district stretches from Austin to Houston. As of 2015 he is the second wealthiest member of Congress, McCaul was born in Dallas, Texas, the son of Frances Jane and James Addington McCaul, Jr. He has English, Irish, and German ancestry and he graduated from Jesuit College Preparatory School of Dallas. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in history from San Antonios Trinity University in 1984, McCaul also attended Harvard University, taking courses in the Kennedy School of Government. McCaul worked as an attorney and a prosecutor before entering politics. He was the Chief of Counterterrorism and National Security for Texass branch of the US Attorneys office, after he left the USDOJ, McCaul took a position as a Deputy Attorney General in 1998 with the Texas Attorney Generals Office and served in this capacity until 2002. He ran for the U. S. House of Representatives in 2004 and he won a crowded Republican primary in the newly created 10th District. The district was thought to be so heavily Republican that no Democratic candidate even filed, in 2006 he defeated Democratic candidate Ted Ankrum and former Libertarian presidential candidate Michael Badnarik with 55% of the vote. McCaul won re-election once again in 2008, against Democratic candidate Larry Joe Doherty, in 2010, he was re-elected to a fourth term with 76% of the vote against Democratic candidate Ted Ankrum and Libertarian candidate Jeremiah JP Perkins. McCaul won a term in the House in the general election held on November 8,2016. With 179,221 votes, he defeated the Democrat Tawana W. Cadien, the Libertarian Bill Kelsey held another 13,209 votes. In September 2013, McCaul said that he would trust Russia rather than the United States to account for Syrias chemical weapons stockpile. On November 30,2016 McCaul appeared on Fox News with Bret Baier to discuss his nomination to head the Department of Homeland Security by president-elect Donald Trump. That would be disappointing to all of us that believed his campaign promises to secure our borders. McCaul said that the bill was an important step toward addressing the cyber threat, in December 2016, the House Republican Conference voted to appoint McCaul for a third term as the chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security Committee. The selection follows McCaul’s recent publication of A National Strategy to Win the War Against Islamist Terror and she is the daughter of Clear Channel Communications chairman Lowry Mays and sister of its CEO Mark Mays
13.
2010 United States Census
–
The 2010 United States Census, is the twenty-third and currently most recent United States national census. National Census Day, the day used for the census, was April 1,2010. As part of a drive to increase the accuracy,635,000 temporary enumerators were hired. The population of the United States was counted as 308,745,538, as required by the United States Constitution, the U. S. census has been conducted every 10 years since 1790. The 2000 U. S. Census was the previous census completed, participation in the U. S. Census is required by law in Title 13 of the United States Code. On January 25,2010, Census Bureau Director Robert Groves personally inaugurated the 2010 Census enumeration by counting World War II veteran Clifton Jackson, more than 120 million census forms were delivered by the U. S. Post Office beginning March 15,2010, the number of forms mailed out or hand-delivered by the Census Bureau was approximately 134 million on April 1,2010. The 2010 Census national mail participation rate was 74%, from April through July 2010, census takers visited households that did not return a form, an operation called non-response follow-up. In December 2010, the Census Bureau delivered population information to the president for apportionment, personally identifiable information will be available in 2082. The Census Bureau did not use a form for the 2010 Census. In several previous censuses, one in six households received this long form, the 2010 Census used only a short form asking ten basic questions, How many people were living or staying in this house, apartment, or mobile home on April 1,2010. Were there any additional people staying here on April 1,2010 that you did not include in Question 1, mark all that apply, Is this house, apartment, or mobile home – What is your telephone number. What is Person 1s age and Person 1s date of birth, is Person 1 of Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin. Does Person 1 sometimes live or stay somewhere else, the form included space to repeat some or all of these questions for up to twelve residents total. In contrast to the 2000 census, an Internet response option was not offered, detailed socioeconomic information collected during past censuses will continue to be collected through the American Community Survey. The survey provides data about communities in the United States on a 1-year or 3-year cycle, depending on the size of the community, rather than once every 10 years. A small percentage of the population on a basis will receive the survey each year. In June 2009, the U. S. Census Bureau announced that it would count same-sex married couples, however, the final form did not contain a separate same-sex married couple option
14.
Central Time Zone
–
The North American Central Time Zone is a time zone in parts of Canada, the United States, Mexico, Central America, some Caribbean Islands, and part of the Eastern Pacific Ocean. Central Standard Time is six hours behind Coordinated Universal Time, during summer most of the zone uses daylight saving time, and changes to Central Daylight Time which is five hours behind UTC. The province of Manitoba is the province or territory in Canada that observes Central Time in all areas. Also, most of the province of Saskatchewan is on Central Standard Time year-round, major exceptions include Lloydminster, a city situated on the boundary between Alberta and Saskatchewan. The city charter stipulates that it shall observe Mountain Time and DST, putting the community on the time as all of Alberta, including the major cities of Calgary. As a result, during the summer, clocks in the province match those in Alberta. The Central Time Zone is the second most populous in the US after the Eastern Time Zone, lanett and Valley observe Eastern Time historically because they were textile mill towns and the original home office of their mills was in West Point, Georgia. Some eastern counties observe Central Time because they are close to the border of the Middle Tennessee counties surrounding the Nashville metropolitan area. Louisiana Michigan, All of Michigan observes Eastern Time except the four Upper Peninsula counties that border Wisconsin, other westernmost counties from this area such as Ontonagon observe Eastern Time. South Dakota, Eastern half as divided by the Missouri river adjacent to the state capital, note, the metropolitan area of Pierre is Central, including Fort Pierre. Wisconsin Most of Mexico—roughly the eastern three-fourths—lies in the Central Time Zone, except for six northwestern states, the federal entities of Mexico that observe Central Time, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua all use Central Standard Time year-round. The Galápagos Islands in Ecuador uses Central Standard Time all year-round, Daylight saving time is in effect in much of the Central time zone between mid-March and early November. The modified time is called Central Daylight Time and is UTC−5, in Canada, Saskatchewan does not observe a time change. One reason that Saskatchewan does not take part in a change is that, geographically. The province elected to move onto permanent daylight saving by being part of the Central Time Zone, Mexico decided not to go along with this change and observes their horario de verano from the first Sunday in April to the last Sunday in October. In December 2009, the Mexican Congress allowed ten border cities, eight of which are in states that observe Central Time, to adopt the U. S. daylight time schedule effective in 2010
15.
Daylight saving time
–
Daylight saving time is the practice of advancing clocks during summer months by one hour so that evening daylight lasts an hour longer, while sacrificing normal sunrise times. Typically, regions that use Daylight Savings Time adjust clocks forward one hour close to the start of spring, American inventor and politician Benjamin Franklin proposed a form of daylight time in 1784. New Zealander George Hudson proposed the idea of saving in 1895. The German Empire and Austria-Hungary organized the first nationwide implementation, starting on April 30,1916, many countries have used it at various times since then, particularly since the energy crisis of the 1970s. The practice has both advocates and critics, DST clock shifts sometimes complicate timekeeping and can disrupt travel, billing, record keeping, medical devices, heavy equipment, and sleep patterns. Computer software often adjusts clocks automatically, but policy changes by various jurisdictions of DST dates, industrialized societies generally follow a clock-based schedule for daily activities that do not change throughout the course of the year. The time of day that individuals begin and end work or school, North and south of the tropics daylight lasts longer in summer and shorter in winter, with the effect becoming greater as one moves away from the tropics. However, they will have one hour of daylight at the start of each day. Supporters have also argued that DST decreases energy consumption by reducing the need for lighting and heating, DST is also of little use for locations near the equator, because these regions see only a small variation in daylight in the course of the year. After ancient times, equal-length civil hours eventually supplanted unequal, so civil time no longer varies by season, unequal hours are still used in a few traditional settings, such as some monasteries of Mount Athos and all Jewish ceremonies. This 1784 satire proposed taxing window shutters, rationing candles, and waking the public by ringing church bells, despite common misconception, Franklin did not actually propose DST, 18th-century Europe did not even keep precise schedules. However, this changed as rail transport and communication networks came to require a standardization of time unknown in Franklins day. Modern DST was first proposed by the New Zealand entomologist George Hudson, whose shift work job gave him time to collect insects. An avid golfer, he also disliked cutting short his round at dusk and his solution was to advance the clock during the summer months, a proposal he published two years later. The proposal was taken up by the Liberal Member of Parliament Robert Pearce, a select committee was set up to examine the issue, but Pearces bill did not become law, and several other bills failed in the following years. Willett lobbied for the proposal in the UK until his death in 1915, william Sword Frost, mayor of Orillia, Ontario, introduced daylight saving time in the municipality during his tenure from 1911 to 1912. Starting on April 30,1916, the German Empire and its World War I ally Austria-Hungary were the first to use DST as a way to conserve coal during wartime, Britain, most of its allies, and many European neutrals soon followed suit. Russia and a few other countries waited until the year
16.
ZIP Code
–
ZIP Codes are a system of postal codes used by the United States Postal Service since 1963. The term ZIP, an acronym for Zone Improvement Plan, was chosen to suggest that the travels more efficiently, and therefore more quickly. The basic format consists of five numerical digits, an extended ZIP+4 code, introduced in 1983, includes the five digits of the ZIP Code, a hyphen, and four additional digits that determine a more specific location within a given ZIP Code. The term ZIP Code was originally registered as a servicemark by the U. S. Postal Service, USPS style for ZIP is all caps and the c in code is also capitalized, although style sheets for some publications use sentence case or lowercase. The early history and context of postal codes began with postal district/zone numbers, the United States Post Office Department implemented postal zones for numerous large cities in 1943. For example, Mr. John Smith 3256 Epiphenomenal Avenue Minneapolis 16, by the early 1960s a more organized system was needed, and on July 1,1963, non-mandatory five-digit ZIP Codes were introduced nationwide. Three months later, on October 1,1963, the U. S, an earlier list in June had proposed capitalized abbreviations ranging from two to five letters. The abbreviations have remained unchanged, with one exception, according to the historian of the U. S. Robert Moon, an employee of the post office, is considered the father of the ZIP Code, he submitted his proposal in 1944 while working as a postal inspector. The post office gives credit to Moon only for the first three digits of the ZIP Code, which describe the sectional center facility or sec center, an SCF is a central mail processing facility with those three digits. The SCF sorts mail to all post offices with those first three digits in their ZIP Codes, the mail is sorted according to the final two digits of the ZIP Code and sent to the corresponding post offices in the early morning. Sectional centers do not deliver mail and are not open to the public, Mail picked up at post offices is sent to their own SCF in the afternoon, where the mail is sorted overnight. The United States Post Office used a character, which it called Mr. ZIP. He was often depicted with a such as USE ZIP CODE in the selvage of panes of stamps or on labels contained in, or the covers of. In 1983, the U. S. Postal Service introduced an expanded ZIP Code system that it called ZIP+4, often called plus-four codes, add-on codes, or add ons. But initial attempts to promote use of the new format met with public resistance. For Post Office Boxes, the rule is that each box has its own ZIP+4 code. However, there is no rule, so the ZIP+4 Code must be looked up individually for each box. It is common to use add-on code 9998 for mail addressed to the postmaster,9999 for general delivery, for a unique ZIP Code, the add-on code is typically 0001
17.
Geographic Names Information System
–
It is a type of gazetteer. GNIS was developed by the United States Geological Survey in cooperation with the United States Board on Geographic Names to promote the standardization of feature names, the database is part of a system that includes topographic map names and bibliographic references. The names of books and historic maps that confirm the feature or place name are cited, variant names, alternatives to official federal names for a feature, are also recorded. Each feature receives a permanent, unique feature record identifier, sometimes called the GNIS identifier, the database never removes an entry, except in cases of obvious duplication. The GNIS accepts proposals for new or changed names for U. S. geographical features, the general public can make proposals at the GNIS web site and can review the justifications and supporters of the proposals. The Bureau of the Census defines Census Designated Places as a subset of locations in the National Geographic Names Database, U. S. Postal Service Publication 28 gives standards for addressing mail. In this publication, the postal service defines two-letter state abbreviations, street identifiers such as boulevard and street, department of the Interior, U. S. Geological Survey, National Mapping Division, Digital Gazeteer, Users Manual. Least Heat Moon, William, Blue Highways, A Journey Into America, standard was withdrawn in September 2008, See Federal Register Notice, Vol.73, No. 170, page 51276 Report, Principles, Policies, and Procedures, Domestic Geographic Names, U. S. Postal Service Publication 28, November 2000. Board on Geographic Names website Geographic Names Information System Proposals from the general public Meeting minutes
18.
Greater Houston
–
Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land is a nine-county metropolitan area defined by the Office of Management and Budget. It is located along the Gulf Coast region in the U. S. state of Texas, the metropolitan area is colloquially referred to as Greater Houston and is situated in Southeast Texas. The population of the area is centered in the city of Houston—the largest economic. Houston is among the metropolitan areas in the United States. From 2000 to 2007, the area grew by 912,994 people, from 2000 to 2030, the metropolitan area is projected by Woods & Poole Economics to rank fifth in the nation in population growth—adding 2.66 million people. It is a part of the Texas Triangle megapolitan area, the OMB lumps the Houston-The Woodlands-Sugarland MSA with four micropolitan statistical areas to form the Houston-The Woodlands, TX Combined Statistical Area. Bay City, Brenham, El Campo, and Huntsville, the metropolitan area is located in the Gulf Coastal Plains biome, and its vegetation is classified as temperate grassland. Much of the area was built on forested land, marshes, swamp. The Houston area land mass is very diverse, there is forested land and hills to the north, beaches and grasslands to the south, swamps and marshlands to the east, rice fields and praires to the west. Much of the Houston metropolitan area is flat, making flooding a recurring problem for some areas. Underpinning Houstons land surface are unconsolidated clays, clay shales, the regions geology developed from stream deposits formed from the erosion of the Rocky Mountains. These sediments consist of a series of sands and clays deposited on decaying organic matter that, over time, transformed into oil, beneath these tiers is a water-deposited layer of halite, a rock salt. The porous layers were compressed over time and forced upward, as it pushed upward, the salt dragged surrounding sediments into dome shapes, often trapping oil and gas that seeped from the surrounding porous sands. This thick, rich soil provides a good environment for rice farming in suburban outskirts into which the city continues to grow near Katy. Evidence of past rice farming is still evident in developed areas as an abundance of rich, dark. The Houston region is generally earthquake-free and these faults generally move at a smooth rate in what is termed fault creep. As defined by the Office of Management and Budget, the area of Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land encompasses nine counties in Texas. They are listed below with figures as of the 2010 U. S. Census
19.
Houston
–
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
20.
United States Census Bureau
–
The United States Census Bureau is a principal agency of the U. S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureaus primary mission is conducting the U. S. Census every ten years, in addition to the decennial census, the Census Bureau continually conducts dozens of other censuses and surveys, including the American Community Survey, the U. S. Economic Census, and the Current Population Survey, furthermore, economic and foreign trade indicators released by the federal government typically contain data produced by the Census Bureau. The Bureaus various censuses and surveys help allocate over $400 billion in federal funds every year and help states, local communities, the Census Bureau is part of the U. S. Department of Commerce and its director is appointed by the President of the United States. The Census Bureau now conducts a population count every 10 years in years ending with a 0. Between censuses, the Census Bureau makes population estimates and projections, the Census Bureau is mandated with fulfilling these obligations, the collecting of statistics about the nation, its people, and economy. The Census Bureaus legal authority is codified in Title 13 of the United States Code, the Census Bureau also conducts surveys on behalf of various federal government and local government agencies on topics such as employment, crime, health, consumer expenditures, and housing. Within the bureau, these are known as surveys and are conducted perpetually between and during decennial population counts. The Census Bureau also conducts surveys of manufacturing, retail, service. Between 1790 and 1840, the census was taken by marshals of the judicial districts, the Census Act of 1840 established a central office which became known as the Census Office. Several acts followed that revised and authorized new censuses, typically at the 10-year intervals, in 1902, the temporary Census Office was moved under the Department of Interior, and in 1903 it was renamed the Census Bureau under the new Department of Commerce and Labor. The department was intended to consolidate overlapping statistical agencies, but Census Bureau officials were hindered by their role in the department. An act in 1920 changed the date and authorized manufacturing censuses every 2 years, in 1929, a bill was passed mandating the House of Representatives be reapportioned based on the results of the 1930 Census. In 1954, various acts were codified into Title 13 of the US Code, by law, the Census Bureau must count everyone and submit state population totals to the U. S. President by December 31 of any year ending in a zero. States within the Union receive the results in the spring of the following year, the United States Census Bureau defines four statistical regions, with nine divisions. The Census Bureau regions are widely used. for data collection, the Census Bureau definition is pervasive. Title 13 of the U. S. Code establishes penalties for the disclosure of this information, all Census employees must sign an affidavit of non-disclosure prior to employment. The Bureau cannot share responses, addresses or personal information with anyone including United States or foreign government, only after 72 years does the information collected become available to other agencies or the general public
21.
Downtown Houston
–
Downtown Houston is Houstons central business district, containing the headquarters of many prominent companies. There is a network of pedestrian tunnels and skywalks connecting the buildings of the district. The tunnel system is home to restaurants, shops and services. What is now Downtown made up almost all of the City of Houston until expansions of the city limits in the early 20th century, Downtown Houston was the original founding point of the city. After the Texas Revolution, two New York real estate promoters, John Kirby Allen and Augustus Chapman Allen, purchased 6,642 acres of land from Thomas F. L, parrot and his wife, Elizabeth, for $9,428. The Allen brothers first landed in the area where the White Oak Bayou and Buffalo Bayou meet, gail Borden, Jr. a city planner, laid out wide streets for the town. The city was granted incorporation by the Texas legislature on June 5,1837, Houston was the temporary capital of Texas. In 1840, the town was divided into four wards, each with different functions in the community, by 1906 what is now Downtown was divided among six wards. The wards are no longer political divisions, but their names are used to refer to certain areas. Houston became a choice, as only the most powerful storms were able to reach the city. The second came a year later with the 1901 discovery of oil at spindletop, shipping and oil industries began flocking to east Texas, many settling in Houston. From that point forward the area grew substantially, as many skyscrapers were constructed, in the 1980s, however, economic recession canceled some projects and caused others to be scaled back, such as the Bank of the Southwest Tower. Ralph Bivins of the Houston Chronicle wrote that Fox said that area was a neighborhood of Victorian-era homes. Bivins said that the construction of Union Station, which occurred around 1910, hotels opened in the area to service travelers. Afterwards, according to Bivins, the area began a downward slide toward the skid row of the 1990s. Passenger trains stopped going to Union Station in 1974, the construction of Interstate 45 in the 1950s separated portions of the historic Third Ward from the rest of the Third Ward and brought those portions into Downtown. Beginning in the 1960s the development of the 610 Loop caused the focus of the Houston area to move away from Downtown Houston, in the mid-1980s, the bank savings and loan crisis forced many tenants in Downtown Houston buildings to retrench, and some tenants went out of business. Barna said that this development further caused Downtown Houston to decline, the Gulf Hotel fire occurred in 1943
22.
San Felipe, Texas
–
San Felipe, also known as San Felipe de Austin, is a town in Austin County, Texas, United States. The town was the social, economic, and political center of the early Stephen F. Austin colony, the population was 747 at the 2010 census. San Felipe is located in eastern Austin County at 29°47′40″N 96°6′17″W, the town limits extend south below Interstate 10, with access at Exit 723. Sealy is 3 miles to the west, and downtown Houston is 46 miles to the east, Stephen F. Austin State Park is located in the northern part of the town. According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has an area of 8.7 square miles. The climate in this area is characterized by hot, humid summers, according to the Köppen Climate Classification system, San Felipe has a humid subtropical climate, abbreviated Cfa on climate maps. San Felipe is served by the Sealy Independent School District, in 1823 John McFarland operated a ferry on the Brazos River near this location. In the fall of same year, the site was chosen by Stephen F. Austin with the help of Baron de Bastrop to be the site in Texas for colonization. Founded in 1824 as San Felipe de Austin, the served as the capital of Stephen F. Austins first colony. It was first governed by James Cummins who was appointed the first alcalde, in 1828, the population numbered about 200. The town had three stores, two taverns, a hotel, a blacksmith shop, and forty to fifty log cabins. By 1835, its population had increased to around 600 and it was home to the first post office and one of the earliest newspapers and land offices in Texas. San Felipe was second only to San Antonio as the center of Texas. The Texas conventions of 1832,1833 and the Consultation of November 3,1835, were held here, San Felipe would act as the capital for the provisional government of Texas until the Convention of 1836. The town was burned in 1836 to prevent the Mexican army from capturing it, and rebuilt a few years later, the oldest post office in Texas is located here. The population was 747 at the 2010 census, as of the census of 2000, there were 868 people,312 households, and 234 families residing in the town. The population density was 103.7 people per square mile, there were 347 housing units at an average density of 41. 5/sq mi. The racial makeup of the town was 60. 83% White,34. 56% African American,0. 35% Native American,3. 00% from other races, hispanic or Latino of any race were 9. 45% of the population
23.
Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway
–
The Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway was a subsidiary of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway in eastern Texas and to Purcell, Oklahoma. In 1873, there was competition between the cities of Houston and Galveston, and the Galveston, Houston & Henderson Railroad was the only rail link between the two cities. The competition between Houston and Galveston was fed by the quarantines, which were imposed on Galveston traffic by Houston. These quarantines occurred almost annually and were based on yellow fever outbreaks, so, the citizens of Galveston decided to build their own railroad line that would reach across Texas, into the Panhandle, and across the state line to Santa Fe, New Mexico. The idea was to bypass Houston, the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railroad was chartered, and the state agreed to grant 16 sections of land per mile of track laid. While the charter passed in 1873, the construction of the line did not begin until two years later. The plans to construction were formulated by the railroads first engineer, General Braxton Bragg. At other meetings in 1875, the board of directors asked for proposals for contracting the building of the bridge across Galveston Bay and for the laying of track to Arcola, the depot grounds were located between 37th and 38th Streets and Mechanic and Strand. The railroad line was to follow Mechanic Street to 60th, where it would be routed to the bridge, construction began on May 1,1875. By May 28, the line reached Arcola, with surveys made as far as the Brazos River, in September 1876, the Galveston, Houston, & Henderson Railroad completed a new passenger depot, located on the corner of Avenue A and Tremont Street. The GC&SF would share this depot for their passenger line once the trains running continuously. By March 1877, track from Galveston to Arcola was complete, the company planned to cross the Brazos River and proceed to Richmond, where it would connect with the San Antonio line. This would make one continuous route to Galveston eleven miles shorter than any other road, by the next year, the company also completed an iron bridge 480 feet long over the Brazos River, and by October a regular train was being run over the road. In December 1878, the company began to experience financial difficulties, directors voted to advertise for a loan of $250,000 for 90 days, which would enable them to pay off the debts and finish the road to Richmond. The only offer for the loan was made by a group of Galveston citizens headed by Galveston businessman George Sealy, the loan was secured by a deed of trust on the entire properties of the railway company. When the 90-day note matured, the company did not have the funds to pay for it, therefore, on April 15,1879, the entire properties of the line were sold at a public sale in front of the courthouse. The highest bid was for $200,000 made by George Sealy, the new company was organized, and directors were elected. By May, the new directors had organized a corps of engineers to locate the line to Brenham, chief engineer, Bernard Moore Temple, sent surveyors into the interior of Texas, and as the line was located, Temple followed with construction crews
24.
Cotton gin
–
A cotton gin is a machine that quickly and easily separates cotton fibers from their seeds, allowing for much greater productivity than manual cotton separation. The fibers are then processed into various goods such as linens. Seeds may be used to grow cotton or to produce cottonseed oil. Handheld roller gins had been used in India and then other countries since at earliest 500 CE, the Indian worm-gear roller gin, invented some time around the sixteenth century, has, according to Lakwete, remained virtually unchanged up to the present time. The modern mechanical cotton gin was created by American inventor Eli Whitney in 1793, whitneys gin used a combination of a wire screen and balls to pull the cotton through, while brushes continuously removed the loose cotton lint to prevent jams. It revolutionized the industry in the United States, but also led to the growth of slavery in the American South as the demand for cotton workers rapidly increased. The invention has thus been identified as an inadvertent contributing factor to the outbreak of the American Civil War, modern automated cotton gins use multiple powered cleaning cylinders and saws, and offer far higher productivity than their hand-powered forebears. The original cotton gin was invented by Eli Whitney in 1793, Whitney began to work on this project after moving to Georgia in search of work. Given that farmers were desperately searching for a way to cotton farming profitable. Whitney created two cotton gins, a one that could be hand cranked and a large one that could be driven by a horse or water power. Thanks to the gin, the amount of raw cotton yielded doubled each decade after 1800. The creation of the cotton gin also led to the creation of machines designed to spin and weave the fabric, single roller cotton gin, The Ajanta caves of India yield evidence of a single roller cotton gin in use by the 5th century. This cotton gin was used in India until innovations were made in form of foot powered gins, the cotton gin was invented in India as a mechanical device known as charkhi, more technically the wooden-worm-worked roller. This mechanical device was, in parts of India, driven by water power. Cotton fibers are produced in the pods of the cotton plant where the fibers in the bolls are tightly interwoven with seeds. To make the fibers usable, the seeds and fibers must first be separated, many simple seed-removing devices had been invented, but until the innovation of the cotton gin, most required significant operator attention and worked only on a small scale. The earliest versions of the cotton gin consisted of a single roller made of iron or wood, evidence for this type of gin has been found in Africa, Asia, and North America. These early gins were difficult to use and required a deal of skill
25.
Sealy Corporation
–
Sealy is a brand of mattresses marketed and sold by Tempur Sealy International. Sealy draws its name from the city where the Sealy Corporation originally started, Sealy, in 1881, cotton gin builder Daniel Haynes lived in Sealy, Texas, located west of Houston. Haynes began making cotton-filled mattresses for his friends and neighbors, in 1889, he patented an invention that compressed cotton for use in his mattresses. Eventually the mattresses became so popular he was able to sell the patents to manufacturers in other markets, the term Mattress from Sealy was coined to describe what was produced. During 1906, after success as an advertising executive, Earl Edwards purchased the patents. Edwards took the name Sealy for his new company and expanded it to a national market, due to lack of funding for manufacturing, Sealy expanded using a licensing-expansion similar to Coca-Cola. By 1920, Sealy had 28 licensed plants and became the first mattress company to using a licensing program. During the Great Depression the mattress industry was hit hard, Sealy lost most of its licensees and narrowly escaped bankruptcy itself. During this time Sealy consolidated with the licensees and created what is now known as Sealy. The largest licensee, Cleveland-based Ohio Mattress Company, defied these restrictions, the conflict resulted in Ohio Mattress filing an antitrust suit against Sealy in 1971. The issue was decided fifteen years later with a victory for Ohio Mattress. Merchant banking firm Gibbons Green Van Amerongen took Sealy private in an April 1989 leveraged buyout, First Boston made a bridge loan to the buy-out firm just as Drexel Burnham Lambert was running into trouble and the junk bond market was drying up, and was stuck with the loan. The failed deal, known as burning bed, led to a dramatic slow-down in leveraged buy-outs, Gibbons Green dissolved and First Boston was forced into the arms of Credit Suisse. In 1990 Ohio Mattress assumed the Sealy name that it had acquired when it purchased Sealy Inc, in 1998 Sealy announced that it was moving from Cleveland to the High Point, NC, area. Bain Capital and a team of Sealys senior executives acquired the company in 1997, in 2004, the company was acquired by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and a team of Sealy management. The deal was valued at $1.5 billion but included significant debt, the company operated as a privately held corporation until 2005. On June 30 of that year, it announced a public offering of common stock. ”In September,2012. Sealys corporate headquarters are located in Trinity, NC, although Sealys website claims that they are the largest manufacturer of mattresses in the world, Tempur-Pedic had greater revenue than Sealy in 2011
26.
Patent
–
A patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for detailed public disclosure of an invention. An invention is a solution to a technological problem and is a product or a process. Patents are a form of intellectual property, the procedure for granting patents, requirements placed on the patentee, and the extent of the exclusive rights vary widely between countries according to national laws and international agreements. Typically, however, a patent application must include one or more claims that define the invention. A patent may include many claims, each of which defines a specific property right and these claims must meet relevant patentability requirements, such as novelty, usefulness, and non-obviousness. Nevertheless, there are variations on what is patentable subject matter from country to country, the word patent originates from the Latin patere, which means to lay open. More directly, it is a version of the term letters patent. Similar grants included land patents, which were land grants by early state governments in the USA, and printing patents, a precursor of modern copyright. In modern usage, the term patent usually refers to the granted to anyone who invents any new, useful. The additional qualification utility patent is used to distinguish the primary meaning from these other types of patents. Particular species of patents for inventions include biological patents, business method patents, chemical patents, the period of protection was 10 years. These were mostly in the field of glass making, as Venetians emigrated, they sought similar patent protection in their new homes. This led to the diffusion of patent systems to other countries, by the 16th century, the English Crown would habitually abuse the granting of letters patent for monopolies. After public outcry, King James I of England was forced to revoke all existing monopolies, the Statute became the foundation for later developments in patent law in England and elsewhere. Important developments in patent law emerged during the 18th century through a process of judicial interpretation of the law. During the reign of Queen Anne, patent applications were required to supply a complete specification of the principles of operation of the invention for public access. Influenced by the philosophy of John Locke, the granting of patents began to be viewed as a form of property right. The English legal system became the foundation for patent law in countries with a common law heritage, including the United States, New Zealand, in the Thirteen Colonies, inventors could obtain patents through petition to a given colonys legislature
27.
Cotton
–
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus Gossypium in the family of Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, under natural conditions, the cotton bolls will tend to increase the dispersal of the seeds. The plant is a native to tropical and subtropical regions around the world, including the Americas, Africa. The greatest diversity of wild species is found in Mexico, followed by Australia. Cotton was independently domesticated in the Old and New Worlds, the fiber is most often spun into yarn or thread and used to make a soft, breathable textile. Current estimates for world production are about 25 million tonnes or 110 million bales annually, China is the worlds largest producer of cotton, but most of this is used domestically. The United States has been the largest exporter for many years, in the United States, cotton is usually measured in bales, which measure approximately 0.48 cubic meters and weigh 226.8 kilograms. Cotton cultivation in the region is dated to the Indus Valley Civilization, the Indus cotton industry was well-developed and some methods used in cotton spinning and fabrication continued to be used until the industrialization of India. Between 2000 and 1000 BC cotton became widespread across much of India, for example, it has been found at the site of Hallus in Karnataka dating from around 1000 BC. Cotton fabrics discovered in a cave near Tehuacán, Mexico have been dated to around 5800 BC, the domestication of Gossypium hirsutum in Mexico is dated between 3400 and 2300 BC. Cotton was grown upriver, made into nets, and traded with fishing villages along the coast for supplies of fish. The Spanish who came to Mexico and Peru in the early 16th century found the people growing cotton and this may be a reference to tree cotton, Gossypium arboreum, which is a native of the Indian subcontinent. According to the Columbia Encyclopedia, Cotton has been spun, woven and it clothed the people of ancient India, Egypt, and China. Hundreds of years before the Christian era, cotton textiles were woven in India with matchless skill, in Iran, the history of cotton dates back to the Achaemenid era, however, there are few sources about the planting of cotton in pre-Islamic Iran. The planting of cotton was common in Merv, Ray and Pars of Iran, in Persian poets poems, especially Ferdowsis Shahname, there are references to cotton. Marco Polo refers to the products of Persia, including cotton. John Chardin, a French traveler of the 17th century who visited the Safavid Persia, during the Han dynasty, cotton was grown by Chinese peoples in the southern Chinese province of Yunnan. Mohamed Ali Pasha accepted the proposition and granted himself the monopoly on the sale and export of cotton in Egypt, and later dictated cotton should be grown in preference to other crops
28.
Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway
–
The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, often abbreviated as Santa Fe or AT&SF, was one of the larger railroads in the United States. Chartered in February 1859, the reached the Kansas-Colorado border in 1873 and Pueblo, Colorado. To create a demand for its services, the set up real estate offices. Despite the name, its main line never served Santa Fe, New Mexico, as the terrain was too difficult, the Santa Fe was a pioneer in intermodal freight transport, an enterprise that included a tugboat fleet and an airline. Its bus line extended passenger transportation to areas not accessible by rail, the AT&SF was the subject of a popular song, Harry Warren & Johnny Mercers On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe, written for the film, The Harvey Girls. The railroad officially ceased operations on December 31,1996, when it merged with the Burlington Northern Railroad to form the Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railway. The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway was chartered on February 11,1859, to join Atchison and Topeka, Kansas, with Santa Fe, in its early years, the railroad opened Kansas to settlement. Much of its revenue came from wheat grown there and from cattle driven north from Texas to Wichita, rather than turn its survey southward at Dodge City, AT&SF headed southwest over Raton Pass because of coal deposits near Trinidad, Colorado and Raton, New Mexico. D&RG paid an estimated $1.4 million to Santa Fe for its work within the Gorge and agreed not to extend its line to Santa Fe, while Santa Fe agreed to forego its planned routes to Denver and Leadville. Building across Kansas and eastern Colorado was simple, with few natural obstacles and it set up real estate offices in the area and promoted settlement across Kansas on the land that was granted to it by Congress in 1863. It offered discounted fares to anyone who traveled west to land, if the land was purchased. AT&SF reached Albuquerque in 1880, Santa Fe, the destination of the railroad, found itself on a short branch from Lamy. In March 1881 AT&SF connected with the Southern Pacific at Deming, New Mexico, the railroad then built southwest from Benson, Arizona, to Nogales on the Mexican border where it connected with the Sonora Railway, which the AT&SF had built north from the Mexican port of Guaymas. The Atlantic & Pacific Railroad was chartered in 1866 to build west from Springfield, Missouri, the infant A&P had no rail connections. The line that was to become the St. Louis–San Francisco Railway would not reach Springfield for another four years, A&P started construction in 1868, built southwest into what would become Oklahoma, and promptly entered receivership. In 1879 A&P struck a deal with the Santa Fe and Frisco railroads to construct a line for each. The railroads would jointly build and own the A&P railroad west of Albuquerque, in 1883 A&P reached Needles, California, where it connected with an SP line. A&P also built a line between Tulsa, Oklahoma and St. Louis, Missouri for the Frisco, but the Tulsa-Albuquerque portion remained unbuilt, by January 1890, the entire system consisted of some 7,500 miles of track
29.
1890 United States Census
–
The Eleventh United States Census was taken beginning June 2,1890. The data was tabulated by machine for the first time, the data reported that the distribution of the population had resulted in the disappearance of the American frontier. Data was entered on a machine readable medium, punched cards, the total population of 62,947,714, the family, or rough, count, was announced after only six weeks of processing. The public reaction to this tabulation was disbelief, as it was believed that the right answer was at least 75,000,000. The United States census of 1890 showed a total of 248,253 Native Americans living in America, down from 400,764 Native Americans identified in the census of 1850. The 1890 census announced that the region of the United States no longer existed. Up to and including the 1880 census, the country had a frontier of settlement, by 1890, isolated bodies of settlement had broken into the unsettled area to the extent that there was hardly a frontier line. This prompted Frederick Jackson Turner to develop his Frontier Thesis, the original data for the 1890 Census is no longer available. Almost all the schedules were damaged in a fire in the basement of the Commerce Building in Washington. Some 25% of the materials were presumed destroyed and another 50% damaged by smoke, the damage to the records led to an outcry for a permanent National Archives. The Librarian was asked by the Bureau to identify any records which should be retained for historical purposes, congress authorized destruction of that list of records on February 21,1933, and the surviving original 1890 census records were destroyed by government order by 1934 or 1935. The other censuses for which information has been lost are the 1800 and 1810 enumerations. Mayo-Smith, Richmond, The Eleventh Census of the United States
30.
1950 United States Census
–
Full documentation on the 1950 census, including census forms and a procedural history, is available from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series. Microdata from the 1950 census are available through the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series. Aggregate data for small areas, together with electronic boundary files, personally identifiable information will be available in 2022. Historic US Census data 1951 U. S Census Report Contains 1950 Census results
31.
1970 United States Census
–
Microdata from the 1970 census are freely available through the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series. Aggregate data for small areas, together with electronic boundary files and these data were originally created and disseminated by DUALabs. Personally identifiable information will be available in 2042, california took over as the most populous state, New York had previously been ranked number one. While the entire country increased to more than 204 million persons, four states lost population with West Virginia leading the list, down 8, historic US Census data 1971 U. S Census Report, with estimated 1970 Census results 1970 Census of Population
32.
1980 United States Census
–
Approximately 16 percent of households received a long form of the 1980 census, which contained over 100 questions. Full documentation on the 1980 census, including forms and a procedural history, is available from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series. Microdata from the 1980 census are available through the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series. Aggregate data for small areas, together with electronic boundary files, personally identifiable information will be available in 2052. Between the 1980 census and the 1990 census, the United States population increased by approximately 22,164,837 or 9. 8%, historic US Census data 1981 U. S Census Report Contains 1980 Census results
33.
1990 United States Census
–
Approximately 16 percent of households received a long form of the 1990 census, which contained over 100 questions. Full documentation on the 1990 census, including forms and a procedural history, is available from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series. It was the first census to designate Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander as a group separate from Asians. To increase black participation in the 1990 United States Census, the bureau recruited Bill Cosby, Magic Johnson, Alfre Woodard, the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series. Aggregate data for small areas, together with electronic boundary files, personally identifiable information will be available in 2062. The results of the 1990 census determined the number of seats that each state receives in the United States House of Representatives starting with the 1992 elections, consequently, this affected the number of votes each state has in the Electoral College for the 1992 presidential election. Because of population changes, twenty-one states had changes in their number of seats, eight states gained at least one seat, and thirteen states lost at least one seat. The final result involved 19 seats being switched
34.
2000 United States Census
–
This was the twenty-second federal census and was at the time the largest civilly administered peacetime effort in the United States. Approximately 16 percent of households received a form of the 2000 census. Full documentation on the 2000 census, including forms and a procedural history, is available from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series. Microdata from the 2000 census is available through the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series. Aggregate data for small areas, together with electronic boundary files, personally identifiable information will be available in 2072. The U. S. resident population includes the number of people in the 50 states. The Bureau also enumerated the residents of the U. S. territory of Puerto Rico, its population was 3,808,610, the 2000 Census was the first time survey options for multiracial Americans were provided. S. Households had access to computers, 42% have Internet access, regionally, the South and West experienced the bulk of the nations population increase,14,790,890 and 10,411,850, respectively. This meant that the center of U. S. population moved to Phelps County. The Northeast grew by 2,785,149, the Midwest by 4,724,144, the results of the census are used to determine how many congressional districts each state is apportioned. Congress defines the formula, in accordance with Title 2 of the U. S. Code, each member of the House represents a population of about 647,000. The populations of the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico are excluded from the apportionment population because they do not have voting seats in the U. S, since the first census in 1790, the decennial count has been the basis for the United States representative form of government. Article I, Section II specifies that The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand, in 1790, each member of the House represented about 34,000 residents. Since then, the House more than quadrupled in size, today, each member represents about 20 times as many constituents. This recommendation was followed by the Secretary of Commerce, after the census was tabulated, Utah challenged the results in two different ways. Utah was extremely close to gaining a fourth seat, falling 857 people short. The margin was later shortened to 80 people, after the government discovered that it overcounted the population of North Carolina by 2,673 residents. Utah claimed that individuals traveling abroad as religious missionaries should be counted as residents, almost half of all Mormon missionaries, more than 11,000 individuals, were from Utah, only 102 came from North Carolina
35.
Census
–
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population, the term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses, other common censuses include agriculture, business, and traffic censuses. United Nations recommendations also cover census topics to be collected, official definitions, classifications, the word is of Latin origin, during the Roman Republic, the census was a list that kept track of all adult males fit for military service. Current administrative data systems allow for other approaches to enumeration with the level of detail but raise concerns about privacy. A census can be contrasted with sampling in which information is obtained only from a subset of a population, typically main population estimates are updated by such intercensal estimates. Modern census data are used for research, business marketing, and planning. Census counts are necessary to adjust samples to be representative of a population by weighting them as is common in opinion polling, similarly, stratification requires knowledge of the relative sizes of different population strata which can be derived from census enumerations. In some countries, the census provides the official used to apportion the number of elected representatives to regions. In many cases, a carefully chosen random sample can provide accurate information than attempts to get a population census. A census is often construed as the opposite of a sample as its intent is to count everyone in a rather than a fraction. However, population censuses rely on a frame to count the population. This is the way to be sure that everyone has been included as otherwise those not responding would not be followed up on. The fundamental premise of a census is that the population is not known, the use of a sampling frame is counterintuitive as it suggests that the population size is already known. However, a census is also used to collect data on the individuals in the nation. This process of sampling marks the difference between historical census, which was a house to house process or the product of a decree. The sampling frame used by census is almost always an address register, thus it is not known if there is anyone resident or how many people there are in each household. Depending on the mode of enumeration, a form is sent to the householder, as a preliminary to the dispatch of forms, census workers will check any address problems on the ground. While it may seem straightforward to use the postal service file for this purpose, a particular problem is what are termed communal establishments which category includes student residences, religious orders, homes for the elderly, people in prisons etc
36.
Population density
–
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume, it is a quantity of type number density. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and most of the time to humans and it is a key geographical term. Population density is population divided by land area or water volume. Low densities may cause a vortex and lead to further reduced fertility. This is called the Allee effect after the scientist who identified it, commonly this may be calculated for a county, city, country, another territory, or the entire world. The worlds population is around 7,000,000,000, therefore, the worldwide human population density is around 7,000,000,000 ÷510,000,000 =13.7 per km2. If only the Earths land area of 150,000,000 km2 is taken into account and this includes all continental and island land area, including Antarctica. If Antarctica is also excluded, then population density rises to over 50 people per km2, thus, this number by itself does not give any helpful measurement of human population density. Several of the most densely populated territories in the world are city-states, microstates, cities with high population densities are, by some, considered to be overpopulated, though this will depend on factors like quality of housing and infrastructure and access to resources. Most of the most densely populated cities are in Southeast Asia, though Cairo, for instance, Milwaukee has a greater population density when just the inner city is measured, and the surrounding suburbs excluded. Arithmetic density, The total number of people / area of land, physiological density, The total population / area of arable land. Agricultural density, The total rural population / area of arable land, residential density, The number of people living in an urban area / area of residential land. Urban density, The number of people inhabiting an urban area / total area of urban land, ecological optimum, The density of population that can be supported by the natural resources. S. States by population density Selected Current and Historic City, Ward & Neighborhood Density
