1.
Pacific Ocean
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The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of the Earths oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south and is bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, the Mariana Trench in the western North Pacific is the deepest point in the world, reaching a depth of 10,911 metres. Both the center of the Water Hemisphere and the Western Hemisphere are in the Pacific Ocean, the oceans current name was coined by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan during the Spanish circumnavigation of the world in 1521, as he encountered favourable winds on reaching the ocean. He called it Mar Pacífico, which in both Portuguese and Spanish means peaceful sea, important human migrations occurred in the Pacific in prehistoric times. Long-distance trade developed all along the coast from Mozambique to Japan, trade, and therefore knowledge, extended to the Indonesian islands but apparently not Australia. By at least 878 when there was a significant Islamic settlement in Canton much of trade was controlled by Arabs or Muslims. In 219 BC Xu Fu sailed out into the Pacific searching for the elixir of immortality, from 1404 to 1433 Zheng He led expeditions into the Indian Ocean. The east side of the ocean was discovered by Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa in 1513 after his expedition crossed the Isthmus of Panama and he named it Mar del Sur because the ocean was to the south of the coast of the isthmus where he first observed the Pacific. Later, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan sailed the Pacific East to West on a Castilian expedition of world circumnavigation starting in 1519, Magellan called the ocean Pacífico because, after sailing through the stormy seas off Cape Horn, the expedition found calm waters. The ocean was often called the Sea of Magellan in his honor until the eighteenth century, sailing around and east of the Moluccas, between 1525 and 1527, Portuguese expeditions discovered the Caroline Islands, the Aru Islands, and Papua New Guinea. In 1542–43 the Portuguese also reached Japan, in 1564, five Spanish ships consisting of 379 explorers crossed the ocean from Mexico led by Miguel López de Legazpi and sailed to the Philippines and Mariana Islands. The Manila galleons operated for two and a half centuries linking Manila and Acapulco, in one of the longest trade routes in history, Spanish expeditions also discovered Tuvalu, the Marquesas, the Cook Islands, the Solomon Islands, and the Admiralty Islands in the South Pacific. In the 16th and 17th century Spain considered the Pacific Ocean a Mare clausum—a sea closed to other naval powers, as the only known entrance from the Atlantic the Strait of Magellan was at times patrolled by fleets sent to prevent entrance of non-Spanish ships. On the western end of the Pacific Ocean the Dutch threatened the Spanish Philippines, Spain also sent expeditions to the Pacific Northwest reaching Vancouver Island in southern Canada, and Alaska. The French explored and settled Polynesia, and the British made three voyages with James Cook to the South Pacific and Australia, Hawaii, and the North American Pacific Northwest, one of the earliest voyages of scientific exploration was organized by Spain in the Malaspina Expedition of 1789–1794. It sailed vast areas of the Pacific, from Cape Horn to Alaska, Guam and the Philippines, New Zealand, Australia, and the South Pacific. Growing imperialism during the 19th century resulted in the occupation of much of Oceania by other European powers, and later, Japan, in Oceania, France got a leading position as imperial power after making Tahiti and New Caledonia protectorates in 1842 and 1853 respectively. After navy visits to Easter Island in 1875 and 1887, Chilean navy officer Policarpo Toro managed to negotiate an incorporation of the island into Chile with native Rapanui in 1888, by occupying Easter Island, Chile joined the imperial nations
2.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
3.
Tokelau
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Tokelau is an island country in the southern Pacific Ocean that consists of three tropical coral atolls with a combined land area of 10 km2 and a population of approximately 1,400. Its capital rotates yearly between the three atolls, Tokelau lies north of the Samoan Islands, Swains Island being the nearest, east of Tuvalu, south of the Phoenix Islands, southwest of the more distant Line Islands, and northwest of the Cook Islands. Until 1976, the name was Tokelau Islands. Tokelau is a leader in energy, being the first 100% solar powered nation in the world. Tokelau is a free and democratic nation with elections every three years, all run as independents, there are no political parties in Tokelau. The most spoken language in Tokelau is Tokelauan, at 93. 5%, a dependent territory of New Zealand, it is sometimes referred to by its older colonial name, the Union Islands. In 2007, the United Nations General Assembly designated Tokelau a non-self-governing territory, however, Tokelau is officially referred to as a nation by both the New Zealand government and the Tokelauan government. The basis of Tokelaus legislative, administrative and judicial systems is the Tokelau Islands Act 1948, in 1992, the head of government was established, who is elected every 3 years. The national anthem is God Save the Queen, nonetheless, Tokelau continues to decrease in population. The largest settlement in Tokelau is Fale, Tokelau has the smallest economy in the world and has a life expectancy of 69, comparable with other Oceanian island nations. The name Tokelau is a Polynesian word meaning north wind, the islands were named the Union Islands and Union Group by European explorers at an unknown time. Tokelau Islands was adopted as the name in 1946, and was contracted to Tokelau on 9 December 1976, Tokelau includes three atolls in the South Pacific Ocean between longitudes 171° and 173° W and between latitudes 8° and 10° S, about midway between Hawaii and New Zealand. They lie about 500 kilometres north of Samoa, the atolls are Atafu, Nukunonu, both in a group of islands once called the Duke of Clarence Group, and Fakaofo, once Bowditch Island. Their combined land area is 10.8 km2, the atolls each have a number of coral islands, where the villages are situated. The highest point of Tokelau is just 5 metres above sea level, there are no ports or harbours for large vessels, however, all three atolls have a jetty to and from which supplies and passengers are shipped. Tokelau lies in the Pacific tropical cyclone belt, Swains Island was claimed by the United States pursuant to the Guano Islands Act, as were the other three islands of Tokelau, which claims were ceded to Tokelau by treaty in 1979. This established a defined boundary between American Samoa and Tokelau. Tokelauans have proved reluctant to push their national identity in the political realm
4.
American Samoa
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American Samoa is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the South Pacific Ocean, southeast of Samoa. American Samoa consists of five islands and two coral atolls. The largest and most populous island is Tutuila, with the Manuʻa Islands, Rose Atoll, All islands except for Swains Island are part of the Samoan Islands, located west of the Cook Islands, north of Tonga, and some 300 miles south of Tokelau. To the west are the islands of the Wallis and Futuna group, the 2010 census showed a total population of 55,519 people. The total land area is 199 square kilometers, slightly more than Washington, American Samoa is the southernmost territory of the U. S. and one of two U. S. territories south of the Equator, along with the uninhabited Jarvis Island. Tuna products are the exports, and the main trading partner is the United States. American Samoa is noted for having the highest rate of enlistment of any U. S. state or territory. Most American Samoans are bilingual and can speak English and Samoan fluently, Samoan is the same language spoken in neighboring independent Samoa. Contact with Europeans began in the early 18th century, dutchman Jacob Roggeveen was the first known European to sight the Samoan Islands in 1722. This visit was followed by French explorer Louis-Antoine de Bougainville who named them the Navigator Islands in 1768, contact was limited before the 1830s, when English missionaries and traders began arriving. The site of battle is called Massacre Bay. Mission work in the Samoas had begun in late 1830 when John Williams of the London Missionary Society arrived from the Cook Islands, by that time, the Samoans had gained a reputation for being savage and warlike, as violent altercations had occurred between natives and European visitors. In March 1889, an Imperial German naval force entered a village on Samoa, three American warships then entered the Apia harbor and prepared to engage the three German warships found there. Before any shots were fired, a typhoon wrecked both the American and German ships, a compulsory armistice was then called because of the lack of any warships. Forerunners to the Tripartite Convention of 1899 were the Washington Conference of 1887, the Treaty of Berlin of 1889, the following year, the USA formally occupied its portion, a smaller group of eastern islands, one of which contains the noted harbor of Pago Pago. The Navy secured a Deed of Cession of Tutuila in 1900, the territory became known as the US Naval Station Tutuila. On July 17,1911, the US Naval Station Tutuila, in 1918 during the final stages of World War I, the flu pandemic had taken its toll, spreading rapidly from country to country. The result of Poyers quick actions earned him the Navy Cross from the US Navy, with this distinction, American Samoans regarded Poyer as their hero for what he had done to prevent the deadly disease
5.
Atoll
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An atoll, sometimes called a coral atoll, is a ring-shaped coral reef including a coral rim that encircles a lagoon partially or completely. There may be coral islands/cays on the rim, the coral of the atoll often sits atop the rim of an extinct seamount or volcano which has eroded or subsided partially beneath the water. The lagoon forms over the crater or caldera while the higher rim remains above water or at shallow depths that permit the coral to grow. For the atoll to persist, continued erosion or subsidence must be at a slow enough to permit reef growth upwards and outwards to replace the lost height. The word atoll comes from the Dhivehi word atholhu, meaning an administrative subdivision, the distribution of atolls around the globe is instructive, most of the worlds atolls are in the Pacific Ocean and Indian Ocean. The Atlantic Ocean has no large groups of atolls, other than eight atolls east of Nicaragua that belong to the Colombian department of San Andres and Providencia in the Caribbean. Reef-building corals will thrive only in tropical and subtropical waters of oceans and seas. The northernmost atoll of the world is Kure Atoll at 28°24 N, the southernmost atolls of the world are Elizabeth Reef at 29°58 S, and nearby Middleton Reef at 29°29 S, in the Tasman Sea, both of which are part of the Coral Sea Islands Territory. The next southerly atoll is Ducie Island in the Pitcairn Islands Group, at this latitude coral reefs would not develop without the warming waters of the Gulf Stream. However, Bermuda is termed a pseudo-atoll because its general form, while there is no atoll directly on the equator, the closest atoll to the Equator is Aranuka of Kiribati, with its southern tip just 12 km north of the equator. In most cases, the area of an atoll is very small in comparison to the total area. Atoll islands are low lying, with their elevations less than 5 meters, measured by total area, Lifou is the largest raised coral atoll of the world, followed by Rennell Island. More sources however list as the largest atoll in the world in terms of land area Kiritimati, the remains of an ancient atoll as a hill in a limestone area is called a reef knoll. The second largest atoll by dry land area is Aldabra with 155 km², the largest atoll in terms of island numbers is Huvadhu Atoll in the south of the Maldives with 255 islands. In 1842, Charles Darwin explained the creation of coral atolls in the southern Pacific Ocean based upon observations made during a voyage aboard the HMS Beagle from 1831 to 1836. In time, subsidence carries the old volcano below the ocean surface, at this point, the island has become an atoll. Atolls are the product of the growth of marine organisms. Volcanic islands located beyond the water temperature requirements of hermatypic organisms become seamounts as they subside and are eroded away at the surface
6.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
7.
Copra
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Copra is the dried meat, or dried kernel, of the coconut used to extract coconut oil. The earliest evidence of the extracting and use of oil from copra is in early Tamil literature from the 1st century AD. The word originated from the Malayalam word koppra, Coconut oil is extracted from it and this has made copra an important agricultural commodity for many coconut-producing countries. It also yields coconut cake, which is used as feed for livestock. Copra has traditionally been grated and ground then boiled in water to extract coconut oil and it was used by Pacific island cultures and became a valuable commercial product for merchants in the South Seas and South Asia in the 1860s. This 19th-century copra trading inspired Robert Louis Stevensons 1893 novella The Beach of Falesá, nowadays, the process of coconut oil extraction is performed by crushing copra to produce coconut oil, the by-product is known as copra cake or copra meal. Once the oil is extracted, the remaining cake is 18–25% protein. Instead it is fed to ruminants. The production of copra – removing the shell, breaking it up, Copra can be made by smoke drying, sun drying, or kiln drying. Sun drying requires little more than racks and sufficient sunlight, halved nuts are drained of water, and left with the meat facing the sky, they can be washed to remove mold-creating contaminants. After two days the meat can be removed from the shell with ease, and the process is complete after three to five more days. This process can also be reversed, partially drying the copra in the kiln, in India, small but whole coconuts can be dried over the course of eight months to a year, and the meat inside removed and sold as a whole ball. Meat prepared in this fashion is sweet, soft, oily and is cream-coloured instead of being white, Coconut meat can be dried using direct heat and smoke from a fire, using simple racks to suspend the coconut over the fire. The smoke residue can help preserve the meat but the process overall suffers from unpredictable results. While there are large plantations with integrated operations, copra remains primarily a smallholder crop. The major producing country is the Philippines and it is also a major exporter. Copra production begins on coconut plantations, Coconut trees are generally spaced 9 m apart, allowing a density of 100–160 coconut trees per hectare. A standard tree bears around 50–80 nuts a year, and average earnings in Vanuatu were US$0.20 per kg —so a farmer could earn approximately US$120 to US$320 yearly for each planted hectare
8.
Plantation
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A plantation is an area of land or water where one crop is specifically planted for widespread commercial sale. The crops grown include cotton, coffee, tea, cocoa, sugar cane, sisal, oil seeds, oil palms, rubber trees, protectionist policies and natural comparative advantage have sometimes contributed to determining where plantations were located. Among the earliest examples of plantations were the latifundia of the Roman Empire, Plantation agriculture grew rapidly with the increase in international trade and the development of a worldwide economy that followed the expansion of European colonial empires. Like every economic activity, it has changed over time, Industrial plantations are established to produce a high volume of wood in a short period of time. Plantations are grown by state forestry authorities and/or the paper and wood industries, christmas trees are often grown on plantations as well. In southern and southeastern Asia, teak plantations have replaced the natural forest. Industrial plantations are managed for the commercial production of forest products. Individual blocks are usually even-aged and often consist of just one or two species and these species can be exotic or indigenous. Forest genetic resources are the basis for genetic alteration, selected individuals grown in seed orchards are a good source for seeds to develop adequate planting material. Wood production on a plantation is generally higher than that of natural forests. In 2000, while plantations accounted for 5% of global forest, in the first year, the ground is prepared usually by the combination of burning, herbicide spraying, and/or cultivation and then saplings are planted by human crew or by machine. The saplings are usually obtained in bulk from industrial nurseries, which may specialize in breeding in order to produce fast growing disease-. In the first few years until the canopy closes, the saplings are looked after, after the canopy closes, with the tree crowns touching each other, the plantation is becoming dense and crowded, and tree growth is slowing due to competition. This stage is termed pole stage, when competition becomes too intense, it is time to thin out the section. There are several methods for thinning, but where topography permits, the most popular is row-thinning, many trees are removed, leaving regular clear lanes through the section so that the remaining trees have room to expand again. The removed trees are delimbed, forwarded to the forest road, loaded onto trucks, a typical pole stage plantation tree is 7–30 cm in diameter at breast height. Such trees are not suitable for timber, but are used as pulp for paper and particleboard. As the trees grow and become dense and crowded again, the process is repeated
9.
Population
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A population is the number of all the organisms of the same group or species, which live in a particular geographical area, and have the capability of interbreeding. In sociology, population refers to a collection of humans, Demography is a social science which entails the statistical study of human populations. This article refers mainly to human population, in population genetics a sexual population is a set of organisms in which any pair of members can breed together. This means that they can regularly exchange gametes to produce normally-fertile offspring and this also implies that all members belong to the same species. If the gamodeme is very large, and all gene alleles are uniformly distributed by the gametes within it, however, there may be low frequencies of exchange with these neighbours. This may be viewed as the breaking up of a sexual population into smaller overlapping sexual populations. The overall rise in homozygosity is quantified by the inbreeding coefficient, note that all homozygotes are increased in frequency – both the deleterious and the desirable. The mean phenotype of the collection is lower than that of the panmictic original – which is known as inbreeding depression. It is most important to note, however, that some lines will be superior to the panmictic original, while some will be about the same. The probabilities of each can be estimated from those binomial equations, in plant and animal breeding, procedures have been developed which deliberately utilise the effects of dispersion. It can be shown that dispersion-assisted selection leads to the greatest genetic advance and this is so for both allogamous and autogamous gamodemes. In ecology, the population of a species in a certain area can be estimated using the Lincoln Index. As of todays date, the population is estimated by the United States Census Bureau to be 7.496 billion. The US Census Bureau estimates the 7 billion number was surpassed on 12 March 2012, according to papers published by the United States Census Bureau, the world population hit 6.5 billion on 24 February 2006. The United Nations Population Fund designated 12 October 1999 as the day on which world population reached 6 billion. This was about 12 years after world population reached 5 billion in 1987, the population of countries such as Nigeria, is not even known to the nearest million, so there is a considerable margin of error in such estimates. Researcher Carl Haub calculated that a total of over 100 billion people have probably been born in the last 2000 years, Population growth increased significantly as the Industrial Revolution gathered pace from 1700 onwards. In 2007 the United Nations Population Division projected that the population will likely surpass 10 billion in 2055
10.
Coconut
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The coconut tree is a member of the family Arecaceae and the only species of the genus Cocos. The term coconut can refer to the coconut palm or the seed, or the fruit. The spelling cocoanut is a form of the word. The term is derived from the 16th-century Portuguese and Spanish word coco meaning head or skull, coconuts are known for their great versatility, as evidenced by many traditional uses, ranging from food to cosmetics. They form a part of the diets of many people in the tropics and subtropics. Coconuts are distinct from other fruits for their quantity of water. When mature, they can be used as seed nuts or processed to give oil from the kernel, charcoal from the hard shell, the endosperm is initially in its nuclear phase suspended within the coconut water. As development continues, cellular layers of endosperm deposit along the walls of the coconut, when dried, the coconut flesh is called copra. The oil and milk derived from it are used in cooking and frying, as well as in soaps. The husks and leaves can be used as material to make a variety of products for furnishing and decorating, the coconut also has cultural and religious significance in certain societies, particularly in India, where it is used in Hindu rituals. Cocos nucifera is a palm, growing up to 30 m tall, with pinnate leaves 4–6 m long. Coconuts are generally classified into two types, tall and dwarf. On fertile soil, a coconut palm tree can yield up to 75 fruits per year. Given proper care and growing conditions, coconut palms produce their first fruit in six to ten years, botanically, the coconut fruit is a drupe, not a true nut. Like other fruits, it has three layers, the exocarp, mesocarp, and endocarp, the exocarp and mesocarp make up the husk of the coconuts. Coconuts sold in the shops of nontropical countries often have had the exocarp removed, the mesocarp is composed of a fiber, called coir, which has many traditional and commercial uses. The shell has three germination pores or eyes that are visible on its outside surface once the husk is removed. A full-sized coconut weighs about 1.44 kg and it takes around 6,000 full-grown coconuts to produce a tonne of copra
11.
Lagoon
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A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by barrier islands or reefs. Lagoons are commonly divided into coastal lagoons and atoll lagoons and they have also been identified as occurring on mixed-sand and gravel coastlines. There is an overlap between bodies of water classified as coastal lagoons and bodies of water classified as estuaries, lagoons are common coastal features around many parts of the world. Lagoons can also be man-made and used for treatment, as is the case for e. g. aerated lagoons. Lagoons are shallow, often elongated bodies of water separated from a body of water by a shallow or exposed shoal, coral reef. Some authorities include fresh water bodies in the definition of lagoon, the distinction between lagoon and estuary also varies between authorities. Richard A. Davis Jr. restricts lagoon to bodies of water with little or no fresh water inflow, and little or no tidal flow, Davis does state that the terms lagoon and estuary are often loosely applied, even in scientific literature. Timothy M. Kusky characterizes lagoons as normally being elongated parallel to the coast, while estuaries are usually drowned river valleys, coastal lagoons are classified as inland bodies of water. Many lagoons do not include lagoon in their common names, in England, The Fleet at Chesil Beach has also been described as a lagoon. In Latin America, the term laguna in Spanish, which translates to. However, sometimes it is used to describe a full-sized lake, such as Laguna Catemaco in Mexico. The brackish water lagoon may be explicitly identified as a coastal lagoon. In Portuguese the same usage is found, lagoa may be a body of sea water. Lagoon is derived from the Italian laguna, which refers to the waters around Venice, Laguna is attested in English by at least 1612, and had been Anglicized to lagune by 1673. In 1697 William Dampier referred to a Lagune or Lake of Salt water on the coast of Mexico, captain James Cook described an island of Oval form with a Lagoon in the middle in 1769. Atoll lagoons form as coral reefs grow upwards while the islands that the reefs surround subside, unlike the lagoons that form shoreward of fringing reefs, atoll lagoons often contain some deep portions. Coastal lagoons form along gently sloping coasts where barrier islands or reefs can develop off-shore, coastal lagoons do not form along steep or rocky coasts, or if the range of tides is more than 4 metres. Due to the slope of the coast, coastal lagoons are shallow
12.
United States Coast Guard
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The United States Coast Guard is a branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the countrys seven uniformed services. This has happened twice, in 1917, during World War I, created by Congress on 4 August 1790 at the request of Alexander Hamilton as the Revenue Marine, it is the oldest continuous seagoing service of the United States. As Secretary of the Treasury, Hamilton headed the Revenue Marine, by the 1860s, the service was known as the U. S. Revenue Cutter Service and the term Revenue Marine gradually fell into disuse, the modern Coast Guard was formed by a merger of the Revenue Cutter Service and the U. S. Life-Saving Service on 28 January 1915, under the U. S. Department of the Treasury. As one of the five armed services, the Coast Guard has been involved in every U. S. war from 1790 to the Iraq War. As of 2014 the Coast Guard had over 36,000 men and women on duty,7,350 reservists,29,620 auxiliarists. In terms of size, the U. S. Coast Guard by itself is the worlds 12th largest naval force. Because of its authority, the Coast Guard can conduct military operations under the U. S. Department of Defense or directly for the President in accordance with Title 14 USC 1–3. The Coast Guards enduring roles are maritime safety, security, to carry out those roles, it has 11 statutory missions as defined in 6 U. S. C. §468, which include enforcing U. S. law in the worlds largest exclusive economic zone of 3.4 million square miles, the Coast Guards motto is the Latin phrase, Semper Paratus. In a 2005 article in Time magazine following Hurricane Katrina, the author wrote, the Coast Guards most valuable contribution to may be as a model of flexibility, and most of all, spirit. Wil Milam, a swimmer from Alaska told the magazine, In the Navy. Practicing for war, training for war, in the Coast Guard, it was, take care of our people and the mission will take care of itself. The Coast Guard carries out three basic roles, which are subdivided into eleven statutory missions. Both agencies maintain rescue coordination centers to coordinate this effort, and have responsibility for military and civilian search and rescue. The two services jointly provide instructor staff for the National Search and Rescue School that trains SAR mission planners and coordinators, previously located on Governors Island, New York, the school is now located at Coast Guard Training Center Yorktown at Yorktown, Virginia. The NRC also takes Maritime Suspicious Activity and Security Breach Reports, details on the NRC organization and specific responsibilities can be found in the National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan. The Marine Information for Safety and Law Enforcement database system is managed and used by the Coast Guard for tracking pollution, the five uniformed services that make up the U. S
13.
Mosquito
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Mosquitoes are small, midge-like flies that constitute the family Culicidae. Females of most species are ectoparasites, whose tube-like mouthparts pierce the skin to consume blood. The word mosquito is Spanish for little fly, thousands of species feed on the blood of various kinds of hosts, mainly vertebrates, including mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and even some kinds of fish. Some mosquitoes also attack invertebrates, mainly other arthropods, though the loss of blood is seldom of any importance to the victim, the saliva of the mosquito often causes an irritating rash that is a serious nuisance. Much more serious though, are the roles of species of mosquitoes as vectors of diseases. The oldest known mosquito with a similar to modern species was found in 79-million-year-old Canadian amber from the Cretaceous. An older sister species with more primitive features was found in Burmese amber that is 90 to 100 million years old, two mosquito fossils have been found that show very little morphological change in modern mosquitoes against their counterpart from 46 million years ago. These fossils are also the oldest ever found to have blood preserved within their abdomens, the Old and New World Anopheles species are believed to have subsequently diverged about 95 million years ago. The mosquito Anopheles gambiae is currently undergoing speciation into the M and S molecular forms, consequently, some pesticides that work on the M form no longer work on the S form. Over 3,500 species of the Culicidae have already been described and they are generally divided into two subfamilies which in turn comprise some 43 genera. These figures are subject to change, as more species are discovered. The two main subfamilies are the Anophelinae and Culicinae, with their genera as shown in the subsection below, the distinction is of great practical importance because the two subfamilies tend to differ in their significance as vectors of different classes of diseases. Roughly speaking, arboviral diseases such as fever and dengue fever tend to be transmitted by Culicine species. Some transmit various species of malaria, but it is not clear that they ever transmit any form of human malaria. Some species do however transmit various forms of filariasis, much as many Simuliidae do, Anopheline mosquitoes, again not necessarily in the genus Anopheles, sometimes bear pathogenic arboviruses, but it is not yet clear that they ever transmit them as effective vectors. However, all the most important vectors of malaria are Anopheline. Anophelinae Culicinae Mosquitoes are members of a family of nematocerid flies, superficially, mosquitoes resemble crane flies and chironomid flies. In particular, the females of species of mosquitoes are blood-eating pests and dangerous vectors of diseases
14.
Amateur radio
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The amateur radio service is established by the International Telecommunication Union through the International Telecommunication Regulations. National governments regulate technical and operational characteristics of transmissions and issue individual stations licenses with a call sign. Prospective amateur operators are tested for their understanding of key concepts in electronics, according to an estimate made in 2011 by the American Radio Relay League, two million people throughout the world are regularly involved with amateur radio. About 830,000 amateur radio stations are located in IARU Region 2 followed by IARU Region 3 with about 750,000 stations, a significantly smaller number, about 400,000, are located in IARU Region 1. The origins of amateur radio can be traced to the late 19th century, the First Annual Official Wireless Blue Book of the Wireless Association of America, produced in 1909, contains a list of amateur radio stations. This radio callbook lists wireless telegraph stations in Canada and the United States, as with radio in general, amateur radio was associated with various amateur experimenters and hobbyists. Amateur radio enthusiasts have significantly contributed to science, engineering, industry, research by amateur operators has founded new industries, built economies, empowered nations, and saved lives in times of emergency. Ham radio can also be used in the classroom to teach English, map skills, geography, math, science, the term ham radio was first a pejorative that mocked amateur radio operators with a 19th-century term for being bad at something, like ham-fisted or ham actor. It had already used for bad wired telegraph operators. Subsequently, the community adopted it as a moniker, much like the Know-Nothing Party, or other groups. Other, more entertaining explanations have grown up throughout the years, the many facets of amateur radio attract practitioners with a wide range of interests. Many amateurs begin with a fascination of radio communication and then combine other personal interests to make pursuit of the hobby rewarding, some of the focal areas amateurs pursue include radio contesting, radio propagation study, public service communication, technical experimentation, and computer networking. Amateur radio operators use various modes of transmission to communicate, the two most common modes for voice transmissions are frequency modulation and single sideband. FM offers high quality audio signals, while SSB is better at long distance communication when bandwidth is restricted. Radiotelegraphy using Morse code, also known as CW from continuous wave, is the extension of landline telegraphy developed by Samuel Morse. Morse, using internationally agreed message encodings such as the Q code, a similar legacy mode popular with home constructors is amplitude modulation, pursued by many vintage amateur radio enthusiasts and aficionados of vacuum tube technology. Demonstrating a proficiency in Morse code was for years a requirement to obtain an amateur license to transmit on frequencies below 30 MHz. Following changes in regulations in 2003, countries are no longer required to demand proficiency
15.
United States Department of the Interior
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The United States Department of the Interior is the United States federal executive department of the U. S. About 75% of federal land is managed by the department. The Department is administered by the United States Secretary of the Interior, the current Secretary is Ryan Zinke. The Inspector General position is vacant, with Mary Kendall serving as acting Inspector General. Despite its name, the Department of the Interior has a different role from that of the ministries of other nations. In the United States, national security and immigration functions are performed by the Department of Homeland Security primarily, the Department of the Interior has often been humorously called The Department of Everything Else because of its broad range of responsibilities. A department for domestic concern was first considered by the 1st United States Congress in 1789, the idea of a separate domestic department continued to percolate for a half-century and was supported by Presidents from James Madison to James Polk. The 1846–48 Mexican–American War gave the new steam as the responsibilities of federal government grew. Polks Secretary of the Treasury, Robert J. Walker, became a champion of creating the new department. In 1849, Walker stated in his report that several federal offices were placed in departments with which they had little to do. Walker argued that these and other bureaus should be together in a new Department of the Interior. A bill authorizing its creation of the Department passed the House of Representatives on February 15,1849, the Department was established on March 3,1849, the eve of President Zachary Taylors inauguration, when the Senate voted 31 to 25 to create the Department. Its passage was delayed by Democrats in Congress who were reluctant to create more patronage posts for the incoming Whig administration to fill, the first Secretary of the Interior was Thomas Ewing. Many of the concerns the Department originally dealt with were gradually transferred to other Departments. Other agencies became separate Departments, such as the Bureau of Agriculture, however, land and natural resource management, American Indian affairs, wildlife conservation, and territorial affairs remain the responsibilities of the Department of the Interior. As of mid-2004, the Department managed 507 million acres of surface land, energy projects on federally managed lands and offshore areas supply about 28% of the nations energy production. Within the Interior Department, the Bureau of Indian Affairs handles some federal relations with Native Americans, the current acting Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs is Lawrence S. Roberts, an enrolled member of the Oneida Tribe in Wisconsin. Several cases have sought accounting of such funds from the departments of Interior, in addition, some Native American nations have sued the government over water-rights issues and their treaties with the US
16.
Rain
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Rain is liquid water in the form of droplets that have condensed from atmospheric water vapor and then precipitated—that is, become heavy enough to fall under gravity. Rain is a component of the water cycle and is responsible for depositing most of the fresh water on the Earth. It provides suitable conditions for many types of ecosystems, as well as water for power plants. The major cause of production is moisture moving along three-dimensional zones of temperature and moisture contrasts known as weather fronts. If enough moisture and upward motion is present, precipitation falls from convective clouds such as cumulonimbus which can organize into narrow rainbands. On the leeward side of mountains, desert climates can exist due to the dry air caused by downslope flow which causes heating and drying of the air mass, the movement of the monsoon trough, or intertropical convergence zone, brings rainy seasons to savannah climes. The urban heat island effect leads to increased rainfall, both in amounts and intensity, downwind of cities, global warming is also causing changes in the precipitation pattern globally, including wetter conditions across eastern North America and drier conditions in the tropics. The globally averaged annual precipitation over land is 715 mm, climate classification systems such as the Köppen climate classification system use average annual rainfall to help differentiate between differing climate regimes. Rainfall is measured using rain gauges, rainfall amounts can be estimated by weather radar. Rain is also known or suspected on other planets, where it may be composed of methane, neon, sulfuric acid, or even iron rather than water. Air contains water vapor, and the amount of water in a mass of dry air. The amount of moisture in air is commonly reported as relative humidity. How much water vapor a parcel of air can contain before it becomes saturated, warmer air can contain more water vapor than cooler air before becoming saturated. Therefore, one way to saturate a parcel of air is to cool it, the dew point is the temperature to which a parcel must be cooled in order to become saturated. There are four mechanisms for cooling the air to its dew point, adiabatic cooling, conductive cooling, radiational cooling. Adiabatic cooling occurs when air rises and expands, the air can rise due to convection, large-scale atmospheric motions, or a physical barrier such as a mountain. Conductive cooling occurs when the air comes into contact with a surface, usually by being blown from one surface to another. Radiational cooling occurs due to the emission of infrared radiation, either by the air or by the surface underneath, evaporative cooling occurs when moisture is added to the air through evaporation, which forces the air temperature to cool to its wet-bulb temperature, or until it reaches saturation
17.
Mahogany
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West Indian or Cuban mahogany, native to southern Florida and the Caribbean, formerly dominant in the mahogany trade, but not in widespread commercial use since World War II. Swietenia humilis, a small and often twisted mahogany tree limited to dry forests in Pacific Central America that is of limited commercial utility. Some botanists believe that S. humilis is a variant of S. macrophylla. While the three Swietenia species are classified officially as genuine mahogany, other Meliaceae species with timber uses are classified as true mahogany, some may or may not have the word mahogany in their trade or common name. Some members of the genus Shorea of the family Dipterocarpaceae are also sold as Philippine mahogany. Mahogany is an important lumber prized for its beauty, durability, and color. The leading importer of mahogany is the United States, followed by Britain, while the largest exporter today is Peru and it was estimated that in 2000, some 57,000 mahogany trees were harvested to supply the U. S. furniture trade alone. Mahogany is the tree of the Dominican Republic and Belize. A mahogany tree with two woodcutters bearing an axe and a paddle also appears on the Belizean national coat of arms, under the motto, Sub umbra floreo. The natural distribution of species within the Americas is geographically distinct. In the 20th century various botanists attempted to further define S. macrophylla in South America as a new species, such as S. candollei Pittier, but many authorities consider these spurious. According to Record and Hess, all of the mahogany of continental North and South America can be considered as one botanical species, the name mahogany was initially associated only with those islands in the West Indies under British control. When transported to Jamaica as slaves, they gave the name to the similar trees they saw there. Though this interpretation has been disputed, no one has suggested a more plausible origin, the indigenous Arawak name for the tree is not known. In 1671 the word appeared in print for the first time. Among botanists and naturalists, however, the tree was considered a type of cedar, the following year it was assigned to a new genus by Nicholas Joseph Jacquin, and named Swietenia mahagoni. Until the 19th century all of the mahogany was regarded as one species, although varying in quality and character according to soil and climate. In 1836 the German botanist Joseph Gerhard Zuccarini identified a species while working on specimens collected on the Pacific coast of Mexico
18.
Village green
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A village green is a common open area within a village or other settlement. Traditionally, a village green was often common grassland at the centre of an agricultural or other rural settlement, some also have a pond, often originally for watering stock such as cattle. The village green also provided, and may provide, an open-air meeting place for the local people. The term village green evokes a grassy rural environment, however the term is used more broadly to encompass woodland, moorland, sports grounds, and even—in part—buildings and roads. The green may also be positioned away from the centre of the village, especially if the village has moved, some historical village greens have been lost as a result of the agricultural revolution and urban development. Greens are now most likely to be found in the villages of mainland Europe, the United Kingdom. The Open Spaces Society is a present-day UK national campaigning body which continues this movement, the term can also apply to urban parks. In the United States, the most famous example of a town green is probably the New Haven Green in New Haven, New Haven was founded by settlers from England and was the first planned city in the United States. Originally used for grazing livestock, the Green dates from the 1630s and is preserved today despite lying at the heart of the city centre. The largest green in the U. S. is a mile in length, one of the most unusual is the Dartmouth Green in Hanover, New Hampshire, which was owned and cleared by the college in 1770. The college, not the town, still owns it and surrounded it with buildings as a sort of collegiate quadrangle in the 1930s, a fine example of a traditional American town green exists in downtown Morristown, NJ. The Morristown Green dates from 1715 and has hosted events ranging from executions to clothing drives, apart from the general use of the term, village green has a specific legal meaning in England and Wales, and also includes the less common term town green. Registered greens are now governed by the Commons Act 2006, but the fundamental test of whether land is a town, thus land can become a village green if it has been used for twenty years without force, secrecy or request. Village green legislation is used to try to frustrate development. This leads to some most curious areas being claimed as village greens, recent examples include a bandstand, two lakes and a beach. The Open Spaces Society states that in 2005 there were about 3,650 registered greens in England covering 8,150 acres and about 220 in Wales covering about 620 acres. A notable example of a village green is that in the village of Finchingfield in Essex, England, the green dominates the village, and slopes down to a duck pond, and is occasionally flooded after heavy rain. The small village of Car Colston in Nottinghamshire, England, has two greens, totaling 29 acres
19.
Architecture of Samoa
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The architecture of Samoa is characterised by openness, with the design mirroring the culture and life of the Samoan people who inhabit the Samoa Islands. Architectural concepts are incorporated into Samoan proverbs, oratory and metaphors, as well as linking to other art forms in Samoa, the spaces outside and inside of traditional Samoan architecture are part of cultural form, ceremony and ritual. Fale is the Samoan word for all types of houses, from small to large, in general, traditional Samoan architecture is characterized by an oval or circular shape, with wooden posts holding up a domed roof. The base of the architecture is a skeleton frame, before European arrival and the availability of Western materials, a Samoan fale did not use any metal in its construction. The fale is lashed and tied together with a plaited sennit rope called ʻafa, the ʻafa is woven tight in complex patterns around the wooden frame, and binds the entire construction together. ʻAfa is made from the husk of certain varieties of coconuts with long fibres, the husks are soaked in fresh water to soften the interfibrous portion. Soaking is considered to improve the quality of the fibre, when this stage is completed, the fibres are manufactured into sennit by plaiting, a task usually done by elderly men or matai, and performed at their leisure. This usually involves them seated on the rolling the dried fibre strands against their bare thigh by hand. These long, thin strands are woven together into a three-ply plait, often in long lengths. The sennit is then coiled in bundles or wound tightly in very neat cylindrical rolls, making enough lengths of afa for an entire house can take months of work. The construction of an ordinary traditional fale is estimated to use 30,000 to 50,000 feet of ʻafa, the lashing construction of the Samoan fale is one of the great architectural achievements of Polynesia. A similar lashing technique was used in traditional boat building. ʻAfa has many uses in Samoan material culture, including ceremonial items, such as the fue fly whisk. This lashing technique was used in other parts of Polynesia. The form of a fale, especially the large meeting houses, creates both physical and invisible spatial areas, which are understood in Samoan custom, and dictate areas of social interaction. The use and function of the fale is closely linked to the Samoan system of social organisation and those gathered at a formal gathering or fono are always seated cross-legged on mats on the floor, around the fale, facing each other with an open space in the middle. The space also defines the position where the ava makers in the Samoa ava ceremony are seated, the front of a Samoan house is that part that faces the main thoroughfare or road through the village. The floor is quartered, and each section is named, Tala luma is the front side section, tala tua the back section, and tala, the two end or side sections
20.
Seat of local government
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In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre, a guildhall, a Rathaus, or a municipal building, is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses the city or town council, its associated departments and it also usually functions as the base of the mayor of a city, town, borough, or county / shire. By convention, until the mid 19th-century, a large open chamber formed an integral part of the building housing the council. The hall may be used for meetings and other significant events. This large chamber, the hall, has become synonymous with the whole building. The terms council chambers, municipal building or variants may be used locally in preference to town hall if no such large hall is present within the building, the local government may endeavor to use the town hall building to promote and enhance the quality of life of the community. In many cases, town halls serve not only as buildings for government functions and these may include art shows, stage performances, exhibits and festivals. Modern town halls or civic centres are designed with a great variety and flexibility of purpose in mind. As symbols of government, city and town halls have distinctive architecture. City hall buildings may also serve as icons that symbolize their cities. The term town hall may be a one, often applied without regard to whether the building serves or served a town or a city. This is generally the case in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, english-speakers in some regions use the term city hall to designate the council offices of a municipality of city status. This is the case in North America, where a distinction is made between city halls and town halls, and is also the case with Brisbane City Hall in Australia. The great hall of the town-house or municipal building, now commonly applied to the whole building city hall. Conversely, cities that have subdivisions with their own councils may have borough halls, in Scotland, local government in larger cities operates from the City Chambers, otherwise the Town House. Elsewhere in English-speaking countries, other names are occasionally used, in London, the official headquarters of administration of the City of London retains its Anglo-Saxon name, the Guildhall, signifying a place where taxes were paid. In a small number of English cities the preferred term is Council House, this was also the case in Bristol until 2012, when the building was renamed City Hall. In Birmingham, there is a distinction between the Council House, the seat of government, and the Town Hall, a concert
21.
School
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A school is an institution designed to provide learning spaces and learning environments for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of education, which is commonly compulsory. In these systems, students progress through a series of schools, the names for these schools vary by country but generally include primary school for young children and secondary school for teenagers who have completed primary education. An institution where higher education is taught, is called a university college or university. In addition to these schools, students in a given country may also attend schools before. Kindergarten or pre-school provide some schooling to young children. University, vocational school, college or seminary may be available after secondary school, a school may also be dedicated to one particular field, such as a school of economics or a school of dance. Alternative schools may provide nontraditional curriculum and methods, there are also non-government schools, called private schools. Private schools may be required when the government does not supply adequate, Schools for adults include institutions of corporate training, military education and training and business schools. In homeschooling and online schools, teaching and learning take place outside of a school building. Schools are commonly organized in several different organizational models, including departmental, small learning communities, academies, integrated, and schools-within-a-school. The word school derives from Greek σχολή, originally meaning leisure and also that in which leisure is employed, the concept of grouping students together in a centralized location for learning has existed since Classical antiquity. Formal schools have existed at least since ancient Greece, ancient Rome ancient India, the Byzantine Empire had an established schooling system beginning at the primary level. According to Traditions and Encounters, the founding of the education system began in 425 AD. The sometimes efficient and often large government of the Empire meant that citizens were a must. Although Byzantium lost much of the grandeur of Roman culture and extravagance in the process of surviving, the Byzantine education system continued until the empires collapse in 1453 AD. Beginning in the 5th century CE monastic schools were established throughout Western Europe. Islam was another culture developed a school system in the modern sense of the word
22.
Church (building)
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A church building, often simply called a church, is a building used for Christian religious activities, particularly worship services. The term in its sense is most often used by Christians to refer to their religious buildings. In traditional Christian architecture, the church is arranged in the shape of a Christian cross. When viewed from plan view the longest part of a cross is represented by the aisle, towers or domes are often added with the intention of directing the eye of the viewer towards the heavens and inspiring church visitors. The earliest identified Christian church was a church founded between 233 and 256. During the 11th through 14th centuries, a wave of building of cathedrals, a cathedral is a church, usually Roman Catholic, Anglican, Oriental Orthodox or Eastern Orthodox, housing the seat of a bishop. In standard Greek usage, the word ecclesia was retained to signify both a specific edifice of Christian worship, and the overall community of the faithful. This usage was retained in Latin and the languages derived from Latin, as well as in the Celtic languages. In the Germanic and some Slavic languages, the word kyriak-ós/-ē/-ón was adopted instead, in Old English the sequence of derivation started as cirice, then churche, and eventually church in its current pronunciation. German Kirche, Scottish kirk, Russian церковь, etc. are all similarly derived, according to the New Testament, the earliest Christians did not build church buildings. Instead, they gathered in homes or in Jewish worship places like the Second Temple or synagogues, the earliest archeologically identified Christian church is a house church, the Dura-Europos church, founded between 233 and 256. During the 11th through 14th centuries, a wave of building of cathedrals, in addition to being a place of worship, the cathedral or parish church was used by the community in other ways. It could serve as a place for guilds or a hall for banquets. Mystery plays were performed in cathedrals, and cathedrals might also be used for fairs. The church could be used as a place to thresh and store grain, a common architecture for churches is the shape of a cross. These churches also often have a dome or other large vaulted space in the interior to represent or draw attention to the heavens. Other common shapes for churches include a circle, to represent eternity, or an octagon or similar star shape, another common feature is the spire, a tall tower on the west end of the church or over the crossing. The Latin word basilica was used to describe a Roman public building
23.
Cyclone Percy
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Cyclone Percy was the seventh named storm of the 2004–05 South Pacific cyclone season and the fourth and final severe tropical cyclone to form during the 2004–05 South Pacific cyclone season. Percy was also the most damaging of the February cyclones as it battered the Cook Islands, Percy then devastated the island of Tokelau, leaving many homeless and millions in dollars in property damages. Because of warnings in anticipation of the storm, there were no deaths, 10F was first identified as a tropical disturbance embedded in an active monsoon trough at 23/0000 UTC, approximately 380 miles to the west of Funafuti and moving eastwards about 05 to 10 knots. The system was located just south of a 250-hPa ridge axis. Shear and diurnal variations were evidently influencing development, later on the 24th, shear had decreased markedly. Outflow was favourable and developing in all quadrants, overnight, the depression underwent explosive development with the deep convection increasing spatially and in organization whilst cooling. Spiral bands were also wrapping tightly around the llcc, by 24/1800 UTC, TD10F was named Tropical Cyclone Percy, while located roughly 100 miles to the east of Funafuti and moving east-southeast at 14 knots under a deep west-northwest steering flow. A discernible area of low pressure formed east of Tonga on February 23, the area of low pressure moved eastward, where it strengthened into Tropical Depression 10F a day later. Since the depression was located in an area of low shear and warm water temperatures. At this point in time, Percy was located 120 miles east of Fongafale, Tuvalu, on February 26, Percy reached Category 1 status, while located 400 miles north of American Samoa. While Percy moved east-southeast, a trough developed southwest of the storm. The trough caused the cyclone to intensify further to a Category 3 storm as it passed between Fakaofa and Swains Island. Percy then reached Category 4 status north of Pago Pago as it reached over 135 mph. On February 27, Cyclone Percy encountered a high ridge which slowed its forward speed. Because of this, the structure became elliptical, which caused the cyclone to weaken back to Category 3 status. By February 28, Percy bypassed the Pukapuka and Nassau Islands as a Category 3 cyclone as it continued to move east-southeast, by then, the cyclone was re-organizing as the storm steered to the southeast. On March 2, Percy reached its peak intensity. Its winds reached 160 mph on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale, Cyclone Percy maintained Category 5 status for 18 hours, while located 110 mi west of Palmerston Island
24.
Rakahanga
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Rakahanga is part of the Cook Islands, situated in the central-southern Pacific Ocean. The unspoilt atoll is 1,248 kilometres from the Cook Islands capital, Rarotonga and its nearest neighbour is Manihiki which is just 44 kilometres away. Rakahangas population is 127, and its area is 4 square kilometres, there are four main islands and seven motus or islets in the Rakahanga lagoon. The northern island is divided into three, Tetukono in the north and northeast, Tetaha Kiraro in the west, and Paerangi in the southwest, while the southern island is Rakahanga. The only village, Matara, also called Rakahanga, seat of the Rakahanga Island Council, is on the northwest side of the southern islet, Rakahanga. It is believed that Ferdinand Magellan discovered the island in 1521, one of the last great Spanish voyages of exploration, under the command of Pedro Fernandes de Queirós, came upon the island on 2 March 1606. He noted in a record of the voyage, The land is divided among owners, and is planted with certain roots. All the rest is a large and thick palm grove which is the sustenance of the natives. Some 500 inhabitants were assembled on the beach. A Franciscan friar, Fray Martin de Munilla, was so struck with admiration that he called it the island of beautiful people, de Quiros described the inhabitants as the most beautiful white and elegant people that were met during the voyage. Russian oceanic explorer Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen visited Rakahanga on August 8,1820, on ships Vostok and he took its coordinates and charted its position with accuracy, he named this atoll Grand Duke Alexander Island, after Grand Duke Alexander Nikolaievich who would later become tsar Alexander II. According to Bellingshausen, The inhabitants came out in canoes and challenged us to fight by throwing stones, commander A. C. Clarke of HMS Espiegle declared Rakahanga a British protectorate on 9 August 1889. It was included in New Zealands boundaries in 1901, the island was claimed under the Guano Islands Act for the United States, a claim which was ceded in a treaty between the U. S. and the Cook Islands in 1980. Coconut crabs are abundant in the lagoon, and the reef is a good fishing spot. Large sea turtles abound there too, each January, a tuna fishing contest takes place and boats return with 200 or more fish a day. Humpback whales have been confirmed on rare occasions, large breadfruit trees line village paths and coconut palms and pandanus trees thrive. Women weave fine rito hats, mats and baskets from the pandanus leaf fibres, formerly, Rakahanga did not have a well defined population because during depletions of the coconut and puraka supplies, the inhabitants moved between Rakahanga and Manihiki atolls. In 1852, the settlements on each atoll were defined, a 1916 decrease in population was caused by migrations to Rarotonga Atoll, where employment attracted the former inhabitants
25.
William L. Hudson
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Captain William Levereth Hudson, USN was a United States Navy officer in the first half of the 19th century. Hudson was born 11 May 1794 in Brooklyn and his first service afloat was in the Mediterranean Squadron under Commodore William Bainbridge in the schooner Alert and sloop-of-war Ontario from 1815 to 1817. Hudson was appointed midshipman 1 January 1816, in 1821 –1823 he served in Dolphin on the Pacific coast of South America, and in Warren for a Mediterranean cruise 1826 –1829. In 1830 –1831 Hudson accompanied Lieutenant Ramsey on a tour to Russia, in June 1838 he was ordered to command Peacock, attached to Commander Charles Wilkess exploring expedition, second in command overall. Commander Hudson made every effort to free his ship but was forced to leave her, fortunately saving all his men, in September 1849, after shore and lighthouse duty, he was ordered to command Vincennes, cruising the Pacific until 1852. In March 1857 Hudson, appointed captain 8 October 1855, assumed command of Niagara and that August, in conjunction with British ships, he made the first attempt at laying a transatlantic cable. This try was unsuccessful, but a second attempt met with success 10 August 1858, after commanding the Boston Navy Yard 1858 –1862, Captain Hudson was made Inspector of the 3d Light House District. He died 15 October 1862 in Brooklyn, aged 68, three ships have been named USS Hudson in his honor. European and American voyages of scientific exploration This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, www. history. navy. mil, DANFS biography of William Hudson
26.
Nantucket, Massachusetts
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Nantucket /ˌnænˈtʌkᵻt/ is an island about 30 miles by ferry south from Cape Cod, in the American state of Massachusetts. Together with the islands of Tuckernuck and Muskeget, it constitutes the Town of Nantucket, and the conterminous Nantucket County. As of the 2010 census, the population was 10,172, part of the town is designated the Nantucket CDP, or census-designated place. The region of Surfside on Nantucket is the southernmost settlement in Massachusetts, the name Nantucket is adapted from similar Algonquian names for the island, perhaps meaning faraway land or island. Nantucket is a tourist destination and summer colony, due to tourists and seasonal residents, the population of the island increases to at least 50,000 during the summer months. In 2008, Forbes magazine cited Nantucket as having home values among the highest in the US, home prices per square foot are considered much higher than those in the Hamptons on Long Island. The meaning of the term is uncertain, although it may have meant in the midst of waters, wampanoag is an Eastern Algonquian language of southern New England. The Nehantucket were an Algonquin-speaking culture of the area, Nantuckets nickname, The Little Grey Lady of the Sea, refers to the island as it appears from the ocean when it is fog-bound. The earliest French settlement in the region began on the island of Marthas Vineyard. Nantucket was part of Dukes County, New York, until 1691, as Europeans began to settle Cape Cod, the island became a place of refuge for Native Americans in the region, as Nantucket was not yet settled by Europeans. The growing population welcomed seasonal groups of other Native Americans who traveled to the island to fish and later harvest whales that washed up on shore. In October 1641, William, Earl of Sterling, deeded the island to Thomas Mayhew of Watertown, anxious to add to their number and to induce tradesmen to come to the island, the total number of shares were increased to twenty-seven. By 1667, twenty-seven shares had been divided between 31 owners, and also two beaver hats, one for myself, and one for my wife. The nine original purchasers were Tristram Coffin, Peter Coffin, Thomas Macy, Christopher Hussey, Richard Swain, Thomas Barnard, Stephen Greenleaf, John Swain and these men are considered the founding fathers of Nantucket, and many islanders are related to these families. Seamen and tradesmen began to populate Nantucket, such as Richard Gardner, John Gardner, sons of Thomas Gardner. In his 1835 history of Nantucket Island, Obed Macy wrote that in the early pre-1672 colony and this event started the Nantucket whaling industry. Herman Melville commented on Nantuckets whaling dominance in Moby-Dick, Chapter 14, for the sea is his, he owns it, as Emperors own empires. The Moby-Dick characters Ahab and Starbuck are both from Nantucket, by 1850, whaling was in decline, as Nantuckets whaling industry had been surpassed by that of New Bedford
27.
Tahiti
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Tahiti is the largest island in the Windward group of French Polynesia, this overseas collectivity of the French Republic is sometimes referred to as a French overseas country. The island was formed from volcanic activity and is high and mountainous with surrounding coral reefs, the population is 183,645 inhabitants, making it the most populous island of French Polynesia and accounting for 68.5 percent of its total population. Tahiti is the economic, cultural and political centre of French Polynesia, the capital, Papeete, is located on the northwest coast with the only international airport in the region, Faaā International Airport, situated 5 km from the town centre. Tahiti was originally settled by Polynesians between 300 and 800 CE and they represent about 70 percent of the islands population with the rest made up of Europeans, Chinese and those of mixed heritage. The island was part of the Kingdom of Tahiti until its annexation by France in 1880, when it was proclaimed a colony of France, French is the only official language although the Tahitian language is widely spoken. Tahiti is the highest and largest island in French Polynesia lying close to Moorea island and it is located 4,400 kilometres south of Hawaii,7,900 km from Chile and 5,700 km from Australia. The island is 45 km across at its widest point and covers an area of 1,045 km2, the highest peak is Mont Orohena. Mount Roonui, or Mount Ronui in the southeast rises to 1,332 m, the island consists of two roughly round portions centred on volcanic mountains and connected by a short isthmus named after the small town of Taravao, situated there. The northwestern portion is known as Tahiti Nui, while the much smaller portion is known as Tahiti Iti or Taiarapū. Tahiti Nui is heavily populated along the coast, especially around the capital, the interior of Tahiti Nui is almost entirely uninhabited. Tahiti Iti has remained isolated, as its half is accessible only to those travelling by boat or on foot. The rest of the island is encircled by a road which cuts between the mountains and the sea. A scenic and winding road climbs past dairy farms and citrus groves with panoramic views. Tahitis landscape features lush rainforests and many rivers and waterfalls, including the Papenoo River on the side. November to April is the wet season, the wettest month of which is January with 13.2 in of rain in Papeetē, August is the driest with 1.9 inches. The average temperature ranges between 21 and 31 °C with little seasonal variation, the lowest and highest temperatures recorded in Papeete are 16 and 34 °C, respectively. The first Tahitians arrived from Southeast Asia in about 200 BCE and this hypothesis of an emigration from Southeast Asia is supported by a number of linguistic, biological and archaeological proofs. For example, the languages of Fiji and Polynesia all belong to the same Oceanic sub-group, Fijian-Polynesian, in 1769, for instance, James Cook mentions a great traditional ship in Tahiti that was 33 m long, and could be propelled by sail or paddles
28.
Newport, Rhode Island
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Newport is a seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island, United States. The City of Newport is located approximately 37 miles southeast of Providence,21 miles south of Fall River and it is known as a New England summer resort and famous for its mansions. It was a major 18th-century port city and also contains a number of surviving buildings from the colonial era of the United States. The city is the county seat of Newport County and it was known for being the city of some of the Summer White Houses during the administrations of Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy. The population was 24,027 as of 2013 and its eight founders and first officers were Nicholas Easton, William Coddington, John Clarke, John Coggeshall, William Brenton, Jeremy Clark, Thomas Hazard, and Henry Bull. They left Portsmouth, Rhode Island after a fallout with Anne Hutchinson. As part of the agreement, Coddington and his followers took control of the side of the island. They were soon joined by Nicholas Easton, who had recently expelled from Massachusetts Bay Colony for holding heretical beliefs. The settlement grew to be the largest of the four settlements of Rhode Island. Many of the first colonists in Newport became Baptists, and the second Baptist congregation in Rhode Island was formed in 1640 under the leadership of John Clarke, peace did not last long in Newport, as many did not like Coddingtons autocratic style. As a result, a counter-faction was formed by 1650, led by Nicholas Easton, Newport became the most important port in colonial Rhode Island, and a public school was established in 1640. In 1658, a group of Jews were allowed to settle in Newport who were fleeing the Inquisition in Spain, the Newport congregation is now referred to as Congregation Jeshuat Israel and is the second-oldest Jewish congregation in the United States. It meets in Touro Synagogue, the oldest standing synagogue in the United States, in 1663, the colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations received its Royal Charter, and Benedict Arnold was elected its first Governor at Newport. The commercial activity which raised Newport to its fame as a port was begun by a second wave of Portuguese Jews who settled there about the middle of the 18th century. They brought with them experience and connections, capital. Most prominent among those were Jacob Rodrigues Rivera who arrived in 1745, Rivera introduced into America the manufacture of sperm oil, which became one of the leading industries and made Newport rich. Newports inhabitants who were engaged in whaling developed 17 manufactories of oil and candles, Aaron Lopez fled to Newport from Lisbon in 1752 and is credited with making Newport an important center of trade. To him in a degree than to any one else was due the rapid commercial development which made Newport for a quarter of a century afterward the most formidable rival of New York
29.
United States Exploring Expedition
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The United States Exploring Expedition was an exploring and surveying expedition of the Pacific Ocean and surrounding lands conducted by the United States from 1838 to 1842. The original appointed commanding officer was Commodore Thomas ap Catesby Jones, funding for the original expedition was requested by President John Quincy Adams in 1828, however, Congress would not implement funding until eight years later. In May 1836, the oceanic exploration voyage was finally authorized by Congress, the expedition is sometimes called the U. S. Ex. Ex. for short, or the Wilkes Expedition in honor of its next appointed commanding officer, the expedition was of major importance to the growth of science in the United States, in particular the then-young field of oceanography. During the event, armed conflict between Pacific islanders and the expedition was common and dozens of natives were killed in action and it was to promote commerce and to offer protection to the heavy investment in the whaling and seal hunting industries, chiefly in the Pacific Ocean. Congress also agreed that a ship or ships should be used. At the time, the ships owned by the government capable of such a circumnavigation were those of the navy. So, in fact, Congress had decided that an expedition be authorized. The veteran US Sloop-of-war Peacock was decommissioned and broken down in 1827 to be rebuilt as USS Peacock, intended as an exploration ship. There were to be many unforeseen impediments and it was not until May 18,1836, that an act was passed, which authorized funding, and approved by President Andrew Jackson, Adams political rival. Even with the burden of finance lifted, there were two years of alteration of formation and command before six oddly assorted ships moved down from Norfolk to Hampton Roads on August 9,1838. On August 17, they were joined by the tenders Sea Gull and Flying-Fish, due to light breezes, the expedition did not discharge their pilots until 09,00 August 19, when they passed Cape Henry Light. By 11,00, the fleet was standing to open seas. Originally, the expedition was organized under Commodore Jones, however, several more senior officers had either resigned from or indicated their unwillingness to accept command of the expedition. Command was finally vested in Lieutenant Wilkes, the three duties laid down were daunting to officers trained only in fighting ships. As well, a scientific corps was to be included as an additional command responsibility. There were few officers in the American navy at that time with any surveying experience, the United States Coast Survey, where most of the surveyors were employed and learned their trade, was a civilian organization. Wilkes, who had trained himself in surveying work, cut the excessively large number of scientists down to nine
30.
USS Peacock (1813)
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USS Peacock was a sloop-of-war in the United States Navy during the War of 1812. Peacock was authorized by Act of Congress 3 March 1813, laid down 9 July 1813 by Adam and Noah Brown at the New York Navy Yard and she served in the War of 1812, capturing twenty ships. Subsequently, she served in the Mediterranean Squadron, and in the Mosquito Fleet suppressing Caribbean piracy and she patrolled the South American coast during the colonial wars of independence. She was decommissioned in 1827 and broken up in 1828 to be rebuilt as USS Peacock and she sailed as part of the United States Exploring Expedition in 1838. Peacock ran aground and broke up on the Columbia Bar without loss of life in 1841, during the War of 1812, Peacock made three cruises under the command of Master Commandant Lewis Warrington. Departing New York 12 March 1814, she sailed with supplies to the station at St. Marys. Peacock departed Savannah on 4 June on her cruise, proceeding to the Grand Banks and along the coasts of Ireland and Spain. She captured 14 enemy vessels of various sizes during this journey, on 14 August Peacock captured the William, Whiteway, master, of Bristol, and scuttled her. Peacock departed New York 23 January 1815 with Hornet and Tom Bowline and rounded the Cape of Good Hope into the Indian Ocean, Boyce informed Warrington that the war had ended. Warrington suspected a ruse and ordered Boyce to surrender, American casualties amounted to some four or five men wounded. Peacock returned to New York on 30 October, a court of inquiry in Boston a year later exonerated Warrington of all blame. In his report on the incident, Warrington reported that the British casualties had only been lascars, Peacock left New York on 13 June 1816, bound for France, with the Honorable Albert Gallatin and party aboard. After pulling into Havre de Grâce 2 July, she proceeded to join the Mediterranean Squadron, pirates were ravaging West Indian shipping in the 1820s and on 3 June 1822, Peacock became flagship of Commodore David Porter’s West India Squadron, that rooted out the pirates. Eighteen of the pirate crew members were sent to New Orleans for trial. Peacock captured the schooner Pilot 10 April 1823 and another sloop 16 April, in September, malignant fever necessitated a recess from activities, and Peacock pulled into Norfolk, Virginia 28 November. In July 1823, the sloop was involved in the Battle of Lake Maracaibo and Mr. Peter Storms decided to join the Independentist cause, who won their independence on 3 August. Later, in March 1824, the sloop proceeded to the Pacific and for some months cruised along the west coast of South America, where the colonies were struggling for independence. In September 1825, Peacock under the command of Commodore Thomas ap Catesby Jones, sailed to the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi, from 24 July 1826 until 6 January 1827, the sloop visited other Pacific islands to protect American commerce and the whaling industry
31.
Fakaofo
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Fakaofo, formerly known as Bowditch Island, is a South Pacific Ocean atoll located in the Tokelau Group. The actual land area is only about 3 km², consisting of islets on a reef surrounding a central lagoon of some 45 km². According to the 2006 census 483 people officially live on Fakaofo, of those present 70% belong to the Congregational Church and 22% to the Catholic Church. The main settlement on the island is Fale on Fale Islet, located two kilometres to the west of it is the relatively large Fenua Fala Islet, where a second settlement was established in 1960. Other islets in the group include Teafua, Nukumatau, Nukulakia, Fenua Loa, Saumatafanga, Motu Akea, Matangi, Lalo, fakaofos Council of Elders is made up of citizens over the age of 60. The island was sighted by the whale ship General Jackson in 1835, in Twenty Years Before The Mast, Charles Erskine wrote The people found on this island had no knowledge of fire, which I believe, is the only instance of the kind on record. This book should not be confused with another book with a title by Richard Henry Dana. In a village on the island is a slab monument, personifying Tui Tokelau. Between 1856 and 1979, the United States claimed that it held sovereignty over the island, in 1979, the U. S. conceded that Tokelau was under New Zealand sovereignty, and a maritime boundary between Tokelau and American Samoa was established by the Treaty of Tokehega
32.
Coconut oil
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Coconut oil, or copra oil, is an edible oil extracted from the kernel or meat of mature coconuts harvested from the coconut palm. Because of its high saturated fat content, it is slow to oxidize and, thus, resistant to rancidification, Coconut oil can be extracted through dry or wet processing. Dry processing requires that the meat be extracted from the shell and dried using fire, sunlight, the copra is pressed or dissolved with solvents, producing the coconut oil and a high-protein, high-fiber mash. The mash is of quality for human consumption and is instead fed to ruminants. The all-wet process uses raw coconut rather than dried copra, the more problematic step is breaking up the emulsion to recover the oil. This used to be done by prolonged boiling, but this produces an oil and is not economical. Modern techniques use centrifuges and pre-treatments including cold, heat, acids, salts, enzymes, electrolysis, shock waves, steam distillation, wet processes also require investment of equipment and energy, incurring high capital and operating costs. Proper harvesting of the coconut makes a significant difference in the efficacy of the oil-making process, copra made from immature nuts is more difficult to work with and produces an inferior product with lower yields. Conventional coconut oil processors use hexane as a solvent to extract up to 10% more oil than produced with just rotary mills and they then refine the oil to remove certain free fatty acids to reduce susceptibility to rancidification. Virgin coconut oil can be produced from coconut milk, meat. Producing it from the fresh meat involves either wet-milling or drying the residue, VCO can also be extracted from fresh meat by grating and drying it to a moisture content of 10–12%, then using a manual press to extract the oil. Producing it from coconut milk involves grating the coconut and mixing it with water, the milk can also be fermented for 36–48 hours, the oil removed, and the cream heated to remove any remaining oil. A third option involves using a centrifuge to separate the oil from the other liquids, Coconut oil can also be extracted from the dry residue left over from the production of coconut milk. A thousand mature coconuts weighing approximately 1,440 kilograms yield around 170 kilograms of copra from which around 70 litres of oil can be extracted. Refined, bleached, and deodorized oil is made from copra, dried coconut kernel. This yields practically all the oil present, amounting to more than 60% of the dry weight of the coconut and this crude coconut oil is not suitable for consumption because it contains contaminants and must be refined with further heating and filtering. Another method for extraction of coconut oil involves the action of alpha-amylase, polygalacturonases. Unlike virgin coconut oil, refined coconut oil has no taste or aroma
33.
Samoa
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The Independent State of Samoa, commonly known as Samoa and, until 1997, known as Western Samoa, is a unitary parliamentary democracy with eleven administrative divisions. The two main islands are Savaii and Upolu with four smaller islands surrounding the landmasses, the Lapita people discovered and settled the Samoan islands around 3,500 years ago. They developed a language and cultural identity. Samoa is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, Western Samoa was admitted to the United Nations on 15 December 1976. The entire island group, which includes American Samoa, was called Navigator Islands by European explorers before the 20th century because of the Samoans seafaring skills. The oldest date so far for remains in Samoa has been calculated by New Zealand scientists to a true age of circa 3,000 years ago from a Lapita site at Mulifanua during the 1970s. The origins of the Samoans are closely studied in research about Polynesia in various scientific disciplines such as genetics, linguistics. Contact with Europeans began in the early 18th century, jacob Roggeveen, a Dutchman, was the first known European to sight the Samoan islands in 1722. This visit was followed by French explorer Louis-Antoine de Bougainville, who named them the Navigator Islands in 1768, contact was limited before the 1830s, which is when English missionaries and traders began arriving. Christian missionary work in Samoa began in 1830 by John Williams, of the London Missionary Society arriving in Sapapalii from The Cook Islands and Tahiti. However, Robert Louis Stevenson, who lived in Samoa from 1889 until his death in 1894, wrote in A Footnote to History, Eight Years of Trouble in Samoa, … the Samoans are gentle people. The Germans in particular began to show great commercial interest in the Samoan Islands, especially on the island of Upolu, the United States laid its own claim and formed alliances with local native chieftains, most conspicuously on the islands of Tutuila and Manua. Britain also sent troops to protect British business enterprise, harbour rights and this was followed by an eight-year civil war, during which each of the three powers supplied arms, training and in some cases combat troops to the warring Samoan parties. The Samoan crisis came to a critical juncture in March 1889 when all three colonial contenders sent warships into Apia harbour, and a larger-scale war seemed imminent, a massive storm on 15 March 1889 damaged or destroyed the warships, ending the military conflict. The Second Samoan Civil War reached a head in 1898 when Germany, the United Kingdom, the Siege of Apia occurred in March 1899. Samoan forces loyal to Prince Tanu were besieged by a force of Samoan rebels loyal to Mataafa Iosefo. Supporting Prince Tanu were landing parties from four British and American warships, after several days of fighting, the Samoan rebels were finally defeated. American and British warships shelled Apia on 15 March 1899, including the USS Philadelphia, the eastern island-group became a territory of the United States and was known as American Samoa
34.
Gin
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Gin is a spirit which derives its predominant flavour from juniper berries. From its earliest origins in the Middle Ages, gin has evolved from use in medicine to an object of commerce in the spirits industry. Gin is one of the broadest categories of spirits, represented by products of various origins, styles, Gin emerged in England in varying forms as of the early 17th century, and at the time of the Restoration, enjoyed a brief resurgence. Gin drinking in England rose significantly after the Government allowed unlicensed gin production and this created a market for poor-quality grain that was unfit for brewing beer, and thousands of gin-shops sprang up throughout England, a period known as the Gin Craze. Because of the price of gin, when compared with other drinks available at the same time and in the same geographic location. Of the 15,000 drinking establishments in London, not including coffee shops and drinking chocolate shops, Beer maintained a healthy reputation as it was often safer to drink the brewed ale than unclean plain water. Gin, though, was blamed for various problems. The reputation of the two drinks was illustrated by William Hogarth in his engravings Beer Street and Gin Lane, described by the BBC as arguably the most potent anti-drug poster ever conceived. The negative reputation of gin survives today in the English language, in terms like gin mills or the American phrase gin joints to describe disreputable bars, the epithet mothers ruin is a common British name for gin, the origin of which is the subject of ongoing debate. The Gin Act 1736 imposed high taxes on retailers and led to riots in the streets, the prohibitive duty was gradually reduced and finally abolished in 1742. The Gin Act 1751 was more successful, however, it forced distillers to sell only to licensed retailers, Gin in the 18th century was produced in pot stills, and was somewhat sweeter than the London gin known today. In London in the early 18th century, much gin was distilled legally in residential houses and was often flavoured with turpentine to generate resinous woody notes in addition to the juniper. As late as 1913, Websters Dictionary states without further comment, another common variation was to distill in the presence of sulphuric acid. Although the acid itself does not distil, it imparts the aroma of diethyl ether to the resulting gin. Sulphuric acid subtracts one water molecule from two molecules to create diethyl ether, which also forms an azeotrope with ethanol. The result is a spirit, and one that may have possessed additional analgesic or even intoxicating effects – see Paracelsus. Dutch or Belgian gin, also known as jenever or genever, evolved from malt wine spirits, Schiedam, a city in the province of South Holland, is famous for its jenever-producing history. The oude style of jenever remained very popular throughout the 19th century, the 19th century gave rise to a style of gin referred to as Old Tom Gin, which is a softer, sweeter style of gin, often containing sugar
35.
Proprietary colony
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A proprietary colony was a type of British colony mostly in North America and the Caribbean in the 17th century. In the British Empire, all belonged to the ruler. Therefore, all properties were partitioned by royal charter into one of four types, proprietary, royal, joint stock. King Charles II used the solution to reward allies and focus his own attention on Britain itself. He offered his friends colonial charters which facilitated private investment and colonial self-government, the charters made the proprietor the effective ruler, albeit one ultimately responsible to English law and the king. Charles II gave New Netherland to his younger brother The Duke of York and he gave an area to William Penn who named it Pennsylvania. This type of indirect rule eventually fell out of favour as the colonies became established, in medieval times, it was customary in Continental Europe for a sovereign to grant almost regal powers of government to the feudal lords of his border districts, so as to prevent foreign invasion. These districts or manors were often called palatinates or counties palatine, because the lord dwelled in a palace and his power was regal in kind, but inferior in degree to that of the king. This type of arrangement had made in Norman times for certain English border counties. These territories were known as counties palatine and they lasted at least in part to 1830 and for reason, remoteness, poor communications. The monarch and his or her government, retained its right to separate head and body, figuratively or literally. Proprietary colonies in America were governed by a proprietor, who, holding authority by virtue of a royal charter. Eventually, these were converted to royal colonies, barbados The British America colonies before the American Revolution consisted of thirteen colonies that became states of the United States of America. The King also gave Dugua a monopoly in the fur trade for these territories and named him Lieutenant General for Acadia, in return, Dugua promised to bring 60 new colonists each year to what would be called lAcadie. In 1607 the monopoly was revoked and the failed. The Iles Glorieuses, i. e. Glorioso Islands, were on 2 March 1880 settled and named by Frenchman Hippolyte Caltaux, only on 23 August 1892 they were claimed for the French Third Republic, as part of the Indian Ocean colony of French Madagascar. However he was again their proprietor from 1901 till his death in 1907, English colonial empire Proprietary governor Proprietary House Colonial government in the Thirteen Colonies Crown colony Commonwealth Settler colonialism Donatorio Quia Emptores Martinez, Albert J. The Palatinate Clause of the Maryland Charter, 1632-1776, From Independent Jurisdiction to Independence, American Journal of Legal History, 305-325
36.
Guano Islands Act
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The Guano Islands Act is a United States federal law passed by the U. S. Congress that enables citizens of the United States to take possession of unclaimed islands containing guano deposits. The islands can be located anywhere, so long as they are not occupied and it also empowers the President of the United States to use the military to protect such interests and establishes the criminal jurisdiction of the United States in these territories. The Act continues to be part of the law of the United States, the most recent Guano Islands Act claim was made to Navassa Island, however, the claim was discarded because a court ruled the island was already under American jurisdiction. In the 1840s, guano came to be prized as a source of saltpeter for gunpowder as well as an agricultural fertilizer, the United States began importing it in 1843 through New York. By the early 1850s, the U. K. imported over 200,000 tons a year, and U. S. imports totaled about 760,000 tons. The Act enables U. S. citizens to take possession of unclaimed islands containing guano for the U. S. and this encouraged American entrepreneurs to search and exploit new deposits on tiny islands and reefs in the Caribbean and in the Pacific. This is the beginning of the concept of insular areas in U. S. territories, with insular areas, land could be held by the federal government without the prospect of its ever becoming a state in the Union. The provision was considered and ruled constitutional by the U. S. Supreme Court in Jones v. United States,137 U. S.202. More than 100 islands have been claimed for the United States under the Guano Islands Act, but most claims have been withdrawn. The Act specifically allows the islands to be considered possessions of the U. S. on the other hand, it also does not say that the U. S. cannot retain possession though the guano is exhausted. The Act does not specify what the status of the territory is after it is abandoned by private U. S. interests, the implication is that it reverts to its former status as terra nullius. In most cases, the stems from attempts by a state to expand its exclusive economic zone over the surrounding seas. To cement the U. S. claim to Navassa Island against Haiti, control of Navassa Island was transferred by the Department of the Interior to the Director of the Office of Insular Affairs under Order No.3205 on January 16,1997. Both the Department of the Interior and Insular Affairs would later grant administration responsibilities to the United States Fish, Order No 3210 also established a 12-nautical-mile territorial sea boundary for the United States around Navassa Island. Multiple countries have claimed ownership of Serranilla Bank and the Bajo Nuevo Bank, Bajo Nuevo Bank is the subject of conflicting claims made by a number of sovereign states. In 1899, a claim was made on Fox Island, Quebec, neither the US nor Jamaica recognized his claim before the raft was destroyed in a storm in 1966
37.
Peru
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Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the west by the Pacific Ocean. Peruvian territory was home to ancient cultures spanning from the Norte Chico civilization in Caral, one of the oldest in the world, to the Inca Empire, the largest state in Pre-Columbian America. The Spanish Empire conquered the region in the 16th century and established a Viceroyalty with its capital in Lima, ideas of political autonomy later spread throughout Spanish America and Peru gained its independence, which was formally proclaimed in 1821. After the battle of Ayacucho, three years after proclamation, Peru ensured its independence, subsequently, the country has undergone changes in government from oligarchic to democratic systems. Peru has gone through periods of political unrest and internal conflict as well as periods of stability, Peru is a representative democratic republic divided into 25 regions. It is a country with a high Human Development Index score. Its main economic activities include mining, manufacturing, agriculture and fishing, the Peruvian population, estimated at 31.2 million in 2015, is multiethnic, including Amerindians, Europeans, Africans and Asians. The main spoken language is Spanish, although a significant number of Peruvians speak Quechua or other native languages and this mixture of cultural traditions has resulted in a wide diversity of expressions in fields such as art, cuisine, literature, and music. The name of the country may be derived from Birú, the name of a ruler who lived near the Bay of San Miguel, Panama. When his possessions were visited by Spanish explorers in 1522, they were the southernmost part of the New World yet known to Europeans, thus, when Francisco Pizarro explored the regions farther south, they came to be designated Birú or Perú. An alternative history is provided by the contemporary writer Inca Garcilasco de la Vega, son of an Inca princess, the Spanish Crown gave the name legal status with the 1529 Capitulación de Toledo, which designated the newly encountered Inca Empire as the province of Peru. Under Spanish rule, the country adopted the denomination Viceroyalty of Peru, the earliest evidences of human presence in Peruvian territory have been dated to approximately 9,000 BC. Andean societies were based on agriculture, using such as irrigation and terracing, camelid husbandry. Organization relied on reciprocity and redistribution because these societies had no notion of market or money, the oldest known complex society in Peru, the Norte Chico civilization, flourished along the coast of the Pacific Ocean between 3,000 and 1,800 BC. These early developments were followed by archaeological cultures that developed mostly around the coastal, the Cupisnique culture which flourished from around 1000 to 200 BC along what is now Perus Pacific Coast was an example of early pre-Incan culture. The Chavín culture that developed from 1500 to 300 BC was probably more of a religious than a political phenomenon, on the coast, these included the civilizations of the Paracas, Nazca, Wari, and the more outstanding Chimu and Mochica. Their capital was at Chan Chan outside of modern-day Trujillo, in the 15th century, the Incas emerged as a powerful state which, in the span of a century, formed the largest empire in pre-Columbian America with their capital in Cusco
38.
Blackbirding
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Blackbirding is the coercion of people through trickery and kidnapping to work as labourers. From the 1860s, blackbirding ships in the Pacific sought workers to mine the deposits on the Chincha Islands in Peru. In the 1870s, the blackbirding trade focused on supplying labourers to plantations, particularly the sugar plantations of Queensland. The first documented practice of a major blackbirding industry for sugar cane labourers occurred between 1842 and 1904 and those blackbirded were recruited from the indigenous populations of nearby Pacific islands or northern Queensland. In the early days of the industry in Western Australia at Nickol Bay and Broome. Blackbirding has continued to the present day in developing countries, the term may have been formed directly as a contraction of blackbird catching, blackbird was a slang term for the local indigenous people. Byrne, an Irish speculator, persuaded countrymen to financially back a scheme to bring colonists from the New Hebrides to Peru as indentured agricultural workers, the first ship, Adelante, was fitted and on 15 June 1862 set out across the Pacific. Calling in at Tongareva in the northern Cook Islands, Byrne found the one island in the Pacific where the population was willing to leave because of a severe coconut famine. He took 253 recruits, by September, they were working in Peru as plantation workers, almost immediately speculators and ship owners fitted out ageing ships that went to Polynesia to bring willing colonists. From September 1862 to April 1863, no less than 30 ships set out, because profit was the main motive, many ship captains resorted to dishonest tactics and kidnapping to fill their ships. In June 1863 about 350 people were living on ʻAta atoll in Tonga, in a village called Kolomaile, but once almost half of the population was on board, the ships doors and rooms were locked, and the ship sailed away. The Grecian also tried to take slaves from the Lau group, from Niuafouʻou, McGrath captured only 30 people, this was the second island in Tonga to be affected. The Grecian never made it to Peru, probably near Pukapuka, it met another slaver, the General Prim, which had left Callao in March. Its captain was willing to take over the 174 Tongans to quickly return to port, meanwhile, the Peruvian government, under pressure from foreign powers and also shocked that its labour plan had turned into a slave trade, had on 28 April 1863 cancelled all licenses. The islanders on board General Prim, and other ships were not allowed to land and they were transferred to other ships chartered by the Peruvian government to return them to their homeland. By the time the Adelante finally left on 2 October 1863, captain Escurra of the Adelante, pocketed his fee of $30/head, but dumped them on uninhabited Cocos Island. He later claimed that the 426 kanakas were affected with smallpox, when the whaler Active visited the island on 21 October, its crew found some 200 Tongans still alive. A month later the Peruvian warship Tumbes went to rescue the remaining 38 survivors and took them to Paita, nowadays their descendants still live in Haʻatuʻa, of which a part has been named Kolomaile
