1.
Thach Weave
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The Thach Weave is an aerial combat tactic developed by naval aviator John S. Thach and named by James H. Flatley of the United States Navy soon after the United States entry into World War II. Thach had heard, from a report published in the 22 September 1941 Fleet Air Tactical Unit Intelligence Bulletin, of the Japanese Mitsubishi Zeros extraordinary maneuverability and climb rate. Before even experiencing it for himself, he began to devise tactics meant to give the slower-turning American Grumman F4F Wildcat fighters a chance in combat. While based in San Diego, he would spend every evening thinking of different tactics that could overcome the Zeros maneuverability, and would then test them in flight the following day. Working at night with matchsticks on the table, he came up with what he called Beam Defense Position. It was executed either by two fighter aircraft side-by-side or by two pairs of flying together. When an enemy aircraft chose one fighter as his target, the two wingmen turned in each other. After crossing paths, and once their separation was great enough, they would repeat the exercise, again turning in towards each other. A correctly executed Thach Weave left little chance of escape to even the most maneuverable opponent, Thach called on Ensign Edward Butch OHare, who led the second section in Thachs division, to test the idea. Thach took off three other Wildcats in the role of defenders, OHare meanwhile led four Wildcats in the role of attackers. The defending aircraft had their throttles wired, while the aircraft had their engine power unrestricted - this simulated an attack by superior fighter aircraft. Trying a series of attacks, OHare found that in every instance Thachs fighters. After landing, OHare excitedly congratulated Thach, Skipper, it really worked, I couldnt make any attack without seeing the nose of one of your airplanes pointed at me. Thach carried out the first test of the tactic in combat during the Battle of Midway in June 1942, when a squadron of Zeroes attacked his flight of four Wildcats. Thachs wingman, Ensign R. A. M. Dibb, was attacked by a Japanese pilot and turned towards Thach, the maneuver soon became standard among US Navy pilots and was adopted by USAAF pilots. Marines flying Wildcats from Henderson Field on Guadalcanal also adopted the Thach Weave, the tactic initially confounded the Japanese Zero pilots flying out of Rabaul. Two Wildcats jumped on the commanders plane and he had no trouble in getting on the tail of an enemy fighter, but never had a chance to fire before the Grummans team-mate roared at him from the side. Nakajima was raging when he got back to Rabaul, he had forced to dive
2.
Heanton Punchardon
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Heanton Punchardon is a village, civil parish and former manor, anciently part of Braunton Hundred. It is situated directly east-southeast of the village of Braunton, in North Devon. The parish lies on the bank of the estuary of the River Taw and it is surrounded, clockwise from the north, by the parishes of Braunton, Marwood, Ashford and across the estuary. The population was 418 in 1801 and 404 in 1901 and its largest localities are Wrafton and Chivenor. The surrounding area is also a ward with a total population at the 2011 census of 2,673. The parish is within Barnstaple Deanery for ecclesiastical purposes, the parish church is dedicated to St Augustine, who brought Christianity to England. It is a Grade I listed building and has three listed monuments in its churchyard, parts date to about the 13th century. It has a bell-tower at the west end, with embattled parapet with crocketted corner pinnacles, the nave contains Tudor arched doorways and a five-bay arcade. The sundial over the porch, dated 1795, is by John. An ornate Easter Sepulchre tomb in the chancel is to Richard Coffin, heanton Punchardon is one mile from the Chivenor and during World War II, the parish church, St. Augustines churchyard was enlarged to accommodate a war graves plot on new ground. The churchyard contains two burials of the First World War and 85 from the Second World War and it also has 38 post-war Royal Air Force burials and one Italian war grave. In total it has 126 active military personnel graves, rev. John Swete described the house in spring 1796 as the seat of Col. Basset and wrote of it that The house exhibits itself handsomely though its situation seems to be too contiguous to the water. Nearly opposite to it was a track of marsh and sand. He later made a copy of a painting by William Payne,1790, The house as painted by Swete in about 1797 is essentially as it survives today, retaining its battlements and corner towers. It is currently used as a house and hotel, known in 2015 as the Braunton Inn. 51°09′N 04°15′W Wrafton is a large hamlet narrowly separated by a field from edge of the main local town centre. It is the location of Wrafton Laboratories, the division of over-the-counter preparations and contract medications producer Perrigo UK, Perrigo bought Wrafton Laboratories in 2001. The Tarka Trail follows the course of the railway through Wrafton
3.
North Devon
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North Devon is a local government district in Devon, England. Its council is based in Barnstaple, other towns and villages in the North Devon District include Braunton, Fremington, Ilfracombe, Instow, South Molton, Lynton and Lynmouth. The district was formed on 1 April 1974 as a merger of the Barnstaple municipal borough, the Ilfracombe and Lynton urban districts, the wider geographic area of North Devon is divided between North Devon District and the district of Torridge, based in Bideford. North Devon is popular with retired people, the 2011 census showed that 18% of residents were aged 15 years and under, 60% were aged 16–64 and 23% were aged 65 and over. This compares to the 20% of the population who were aged 65, for comparison, the same age distributions across England were 19%, 64% and 17% respectively. Life expectancy for men, at 77.7, is close to the English average, female life expectancy is good at 83.1, around 1 year above the English average. There is a gap of 6 years in the life expectancy of men in the least deprived fifth of wards, the region has one of the most ethnically homogenous populations in England, with 97. 9% reporting their ethnicity as white in the 2011 census of the population. However, this is a decrease on the 99. 0% of the population who declared themselves to be White on the 2001 census, North Devon District Council is elected every four years, with currently 43 councillors being elected at each election. From the first election to the council in 1973 to 1987 the council was controlled by independents and this was followed by a period under Liberal Democrat control until the Conservative Party took control at the 2007 election. The political composition of the borough has been as follows, Along with its neighbours to the east and west, Torridge and West Somerset, the rump of the post-Beeching railway network has left a branch line to Exeter as the areas sole railway service. Despite being served only by one line, the borough is served by 5 railway stations. The region is served by three A roads, the primary link is the A361 which was constructed between 1986 and 1989. It heads north-west from the M5 motorway, past South Molton, to Barnstaple, the modern Link Road continues westwards from Barnstaple as the A39 where it is designated the Atlantic Highway, and runs via Bideford into Cornwall. The eastern section of the A39 links Barnstaple to Lynton, then traverses the coastal hills of Exmoor into Somerset. Due to the agricultural nature of the economy, many areas of North Devon are considered deprived. The average income for the district is 73% of the average for the United Kingdom as a whole, the largest employers in the area are the National Health Service, the Ministry of Defence and North Devon Council. Barnstaple is on the River Taw estuary, and functions both as the service centre and the administrative centre for North Devon Council. The parish of Barnstaple has a population of 23,710 but the population of the area of the town taking in Sticklepath, Roundswell
4.
England
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England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west, the Irish Sea lies northwest of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east, the country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain in its centre and south, and includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly, and the Isle of Wight. England became a state in the 10th century, and since the Age of Discovery. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the worlds first industrialised nation, Englands terrain mostly comprises low hills and plains, especially in central and southern England. However, there are uplands in the north and in the southwest, the capital is London, which is the largest metropolitan area in both the United Kingdom and the European Union. In 1801, Great Britain was united with the Kingdom of Ireland through another Act of Union to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922 the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom, leading to the latter being renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the name England is derived from the Old English name Englaland, which means land of the Angles. The Angles were one of the Germanic tribes that settled in Great Britain during the Early Middle Ages, the Angles came from the Angeln peninsula in the Bay of Kiel area of the Baltic Sea. The earliest recorded use of the term, as Engla londe, is in the ninth century translation into Old English of Bedes Ecclesiastical History of the English People. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, its spelling was first used in 1538. The earliest attested reference to the Angles occurs in the 1st-century work by Tacitus, Germania, the etymology of the tribal name itself is disputed by scholars, it has been suggested that it derives from the shape of the Angeln peninsula, an angular shape. An alternative name for England is Albion, the name Albion originally referred to the entire island of Great Britain. The nominally earliest record of the name appears in the Aristotelian Corpus, specifically the 4th century BC De Mundo, in it are two very large islands called Britannia, these are Albion and Ierne. But modern scholarly consensus ascribes De Mundo not to Aristotle but to Pseudo-Aristotle, the word Albion or insula Albionum has two possible origins. Albion is now applied to England in a poetic capacity. Another romantic name for England is Loegria, related to the Welsh word for England, Lloegr, the earliest known evidence of human presence in the area now known as England was that of Homo antecessor, dating to approximately 780,000 years ago. The oldest proto-human bones discovered in England date from 500,000 years ago, Modern humans are known to have inhabited the area during the Upper Paleolithic period, though permanent settlements were only established within the last 6,000 years
5.
Roof
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A roof is part of a building envelope. It is the covering on the uppermost part of a building or shelter which provides protection from animals and weather, notably rain or snow, the word also denotes the framing or structure which supports that covering. In most countries a roof protects primarily against rain, a verandah may be roofed with material that protects against sunlight but admits the other elements. The roof of a garden conservatory protects plants from cold, wind, and rain, a roof may also provide additional living space, for example a roof garden. Old English hrof roof, ceiling, top, summit, heaven, sky, also figuratively, highest point of something, there are no apparent connections outside the Germanic family. English alone has retained the word in a sense, for which the other languages use forms corresponding to OE. In many parts of the ceramic tiles have been the predominant roofing material for centuries. Other roofing materials include asphalt, coal tar pitch, EPDM rubber, Hypalon, polyurethane foam, PVC, slate, Teflon fabric, TPO, and wood shakes and shingles. The construction of a roof is determined by its method of support and how the space is bridged. The pitch is the angle at which the roof rises from its lowest to highest point, most US domestic architecture, except in very dry regions, has roofs that are sloped, or pitched. Although modern construction such as drainpipes may remove the need for pitch, roofs are pitched for reasons of tradition. So the pitch is dependent upon stylistic factors, and partially to do with practicalities. Some types of roofing, for example thatch, require a steep pitch in order to be waterproof, other types of roofing, for example pantiles, are unstable on a steeply pitched roof but provide excellent weather protection at a relatively low angle. In regions where there is rain, an almost flat roof with a slight run-off provides adequate protection against an occasional downpour. Drainpipes also remove the need for a sloping roof, a person that specializes in roof construction is called a roofer. The shape of roofs differs greatly from region to region, the main factors which influence the shape of roofs are the climate and the materials available for roof structure and the outer covering. The basic shapes of roofs are flat, mono-pitched, gabled, hipped, butterfly, there are many variations on these types. Roofs constructed of sections that are sloped are referred to as pitched roofs
6.
Straw
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Straw is an agricultural by-product, the dry stalks of cereal plants, after the grain and chaff have been removed. Straw makes up half of the yield of cereal crops such as barley, oats, rice, rye. It has many uses, including fuel, livestock bedding and fodder and it is usually gathered and stored in a straw bale, which is a bundle of straw tightly bound with twine or wire. Bales may be square, rectangular, or round, depending on the type of baler used. Current and historic uses of straw include, Animal feed Straw may be fed as part of the component of the diet to cattle or horses that are on a near maintenance level of energy requirement. It has a low energy and nutrient content. The heat generated when microorganisms in a herbivores gut digest straw can be useful in maintaining body temperature in cold climates, due to the risk of impaction and its poor nutrient profile, it should always be restricted to part of the diet. It may be fed as it is, or chopped into short lengths, basketry Bee skeps and linen baskets are made from coiled and bound together continuous lengths of straw. The technique is known as lip work, bedding, humans or livestock The straw-filled mattress, also known as a palliasse, is still used in many parts of the world. It is commonly used as bedding for ruminants and horses and it may be used as bedding and food for small animals, but this often leads to injuries to mouth, nose and eyes as straw is quite sharp. Biofuels The use of straw as an energy source is increasing rapidly, especially for biobutanol. Straw or hay briquettes are a substitute to coal. Biogas Straw, processed first as briquettes, has been fed into a plant in Aarhus University, Denmark. Biomass The use of straw in large-scale biomass power plants is becoming mainstream in the EU, the straw is either used directly in the form of bales, or densified into pellets which allows for the feedstock to be transported over longer distances. Finally, torrefaction of straw with pelletisation is gaining attention, because it increases the density of the resource. This processing step also makes storage easier, because torrefied straw pellets are hydrophobic. Torrefied straw in the form of pellets can be directly co-fired with coal or natural gas at high rates and make use of the processing infrastructures at existing coal. Because the torrefied straw pellets have superior structural, chemical and combustion properties to coal, they can replace all coal, first generation pellets are limited to a co-firing rate of 15% in modern IGCC plants
7.
Phragmites
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Phragmites is a genus of four species of large perennial grasses found in wetlands throughout temperate and tropical regions of the world. The World Checklist of Selected Plant Families, maintained by Kew Garden in London, – Japan, Korea, Ryukyu Islands, Russian Far East Phragmites karka Trin. About 130 other synonyms have been proposed, and some have been widely used, arundo phragmites L. and Phragmites vulgaris Crép. Recent studies have characterised morphological distinctions between the introduced and native stands of Phragmites australis in North America, americanus – the North American genotype has been described as a distinct subspecies, subsp. Americanus, and Phragmites australis – the Eurasian genotype is sometimes referred to as subsp, altissimus Clayton is an accepted subspecies of P. australis. Phragmites australis var. marsillyanus Kerguélen is a variety of Phragmites australis. In North America, the status of Phragmites australis was a source of confusion and it was commonly considered an exotic species and often invasive species, introduced from Europe. However, there is evidence of the existence of Phragmites as a plant in North America long before European colonization of the continent. It is now known that the North American native forms of P. a. subsp, americanus are markedly less vigorous than European forms. The recent marked expansion of Phragmites in North America may be due to the more vigorous, Phragmites outcompetes native vegetation and lowers the local plant biodiversity. Phragmites forms dense thickets of vegetation that is unsuitable habitat for native fauna, Phragmites displaces native plants species such as wild rice, cattails, and native wetland orchids. Phragmites has a high ground biomass that blocks light to other plants allowing areas to turn into Phragmites monoculture very quickly. Decomposing Phragmites increases the rate of marsh accretion more rapidly than would occur with native marsh vegetation, australis is causing serious problems for many other North American hydrophyte wetland plants, including the native Phragmites australis subsp. Gallic acid released by Phragmites is degraded by ultraviolet light to produce acid, effectively hitting susceptible plants. Phragmites are so difficult to control one of the most effective methods of eradicating the plant is to burn it over 2-3 seasons. The roots grow so deep and strong that one burn is not enough, ongoing research suggests that goats could be effectively used to control the species. Phragmites australis, common reed, commonly forms extensive stands, which may be as much as 1 square kilometre or more in extent, where conditions are suitable it can also spread at 5 metres or more per year by horizontal runners, which put down roots at regular intervals. It can grow in damp ground, in standing water up to 1 metre or so deep, the erect stems grow to 2–6 metres tall, with the tallest plants growing in areas with hot summers and fertile growing conditions
8.
Cyperaceae
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The Cyperaceae are a family of monocotyledonous graminoid flowering plants known as sedges, which superficially resemble grasses and rushes. The family is large, with some 5,500 known species described in about 90 genera and these species are widely distributed, with the centers of diversity for the group occurring in tropical Asia and tropical South America. While sedges may be growing in almost all environments, many are associated with wetlands. Ecological communities dominated by sedges are known as sedgelands, features distinguishing members of the sedge family from grasses or rushes are stems with triangular cross-sections and leaves that are spirally arranged in three ranks. Some well-known sedges include the chestnut and the papyrus sedge. This family also includes cotton-grass, spike-rush, sawgrass, nutsedge or nutgrass, and white star sedge
9.
Cladium mariscus
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Cladium mariscus is a species of flowering plant in the sedge family known by the common names swamp sawgrass, great fen-sedge, saw-sedge or sawtooth sedge. Previously it was known as elk sedge and it is native of temperate Europe and Asia where it grows in base-rich boggy areas and lakesides. It can be up to 2.5 metres tall, and has leaves with serrated edges. C. m. californicum Govaerts - California, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, Texas, Sonora, - Australia, New Caledonia C. m. jamaicense Kük
10.
Juncus
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Juncus is a genus of monocotyledonous flowering plants, commonly known as rushes. It is the largest genus in the family Juncaceae, containing around 300 species, rushes of the genus Juncus are herbaceous plants that superficially resemble grasses or sedges. They have historically received little attention from botanists, in his 1819 monograph, James Ebenezer Bicheno described the genus as obscure, the form of the flower differentiates rushes from grasses or sedges. The flowers of Juncus comprise five whorls of floral parts, three sepals, three petals, two to six stamens and a stigma with three lobes, the stems are round in cross-section, unlike those of sedges, which are typically somewhat triangular in cross-section. Juncus has a distribution, with species found throughout the world. They typically grow in cold or wet habitats, and in the tropics, are most common in montane environments, the genus Juncus was first named under the rules of the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants by Carl Linnaeus in his 1753 Species Plantarum. The type species of the genus was designated by Frederick Vernon Coville in 1913, he chose the first species in Linnaeus account, Juncus can be divided into two major groups, one group with cymose inflorescences that include bracteoles, and one with racemose inflorescences with no bracteoles. The genus is divided into the subgenera and sections, Juncus subg. Iridifolii Snogerup & Kirschner Juncus subg, forskalina Kuntze The Plant List accepts the following species in the genus Juncus, Media related to Juncus at Wikimedia Commons Data related to Juncus at Wikispecies
11.
Calluna
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Calluna vulgaris is the sole species in the genus Calluna in the flowering plant family Ericaceae. It is the dominant plant in most heathland and moorland in Europe and it is tolerant of grazing and regenerates following occasional burning, and is often managed in nature reserves and grouse moors by sheep or cattle grazing, and also by light burning. The specific epithet vulgaris is Latin for common, Calluna is differentiated from Erica by its corolla and calyx each being in four parts instead of five. Calluna has small scale-leaves borne in opposite and decussate pairs, whereas those of Erica are generally larger and in whorls of 3-4, the flowers emerge in late summer, in wild plants these are normally mauve, but white-flowered plants also occur occasionally. They are terminal in racemes with sepal-like bracts at the base with a superior ovary, unlike Erica, Calluna sometimes sports double flowers. Calluna is sometimes referred to as Summer heather to distinguish it from winter or spring flowering species of Erica, Calluna is native to Europe, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, and the Azores. It has been introduced many other places worldwide with suitable climates, including North America, Australia, New Zealand. Despised until the 19th century for its associations with the most rugged rural poverty and it is a very popular ornamental plant in gardens and for landscaping, in lime-free areas where it will thrive, but has defeated many a gardener on less acid soil. There are many named cultivars, selected for variation in colour and for different foliage colour. Different cultivars have flower colours ranging from white, through pink and a range of purples. The flowering season with different cultivars extends from late July to November in the northern hemisphere, the flowers may turn brown but still remain on the plants over winter, and this can lead to interesting decorative effects. Cultivars with ornamental foliage are usually selected for reddish and golden leaf colour, a few forms can be silvery grey. Many of the ornamental foliage forms change colour with the onset of winter weather, some forms are grown for distinctive young spring foliage. Cultivars include ‘Beoley Crimson’, ‘Boskoop’, ‘Cuprea’, Firefly, ‘Long White’, willow Grouse and Red Grouse feed on the young shoots and seeds of this plant. Both adult and larva of the Heather Beetle Lochmaea suturalis feed on it, the larvae of a number of Lepidoptera species also feed on the plant, notably the small emperor moth Saturnia pavonia. Formerly heather was used to dye wool yellow and to tan leather, with malt, heather is an ingredient in gruit, a mixture of flavourings used in the brewing of heather-beer during the Middle Ages before the use of hops. The use of heather in the brewing of modern heather beer is carefully regulated, by law, the heather must be cleaned carefully before brewing, as the undersides of the leaves may contain a dusting of an ergot-like fungus, which is a hallucinogenic intoxicant. From time immemorial heather has been used for making besoms, a practice recorded in Buy Broom Buzzems a song written by William Purvis from Newcastle-upon-Tyne
12.
Palm branch
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The palm branch is a symbol of victory, triumph, peace and eternal life originating in the ancient Near East and Mediterranean world. The palm was sacred in Mesopotamian religions, and in ancient Egypt represented immortality, in Judaism, a closed frond of the date palm is part of the festival of Sukkot. A palm branch was awarded to athletes in ancient Greece. In Christianity, the branch is associated particularly with Palm Sunday. It was adopted into Christian iconography to represent the victory of martyrs, since a victory signals an end to a conflict or competition, the palm developed into a symbol of peace, a meaning it can have in Islam, where it is often associated with Paradise. The palm appears on several flags or seals representing countries or other places, in Assyrian religion, the palm is one of the trees identified as the Sacred Tree connecting heaven, represented by the crown of the tree, and earth, the base of the trunk. Reliefs from the 9th century BC show winged genii holding palm fronds in the presence of the Sacred Tree and it is associated with the goddess Ishtar and is found on the Ishtar Gate. In ancient Mesopotamia, the palm may have represented fertility in humans. The Mesopotamian goddess Inanna, who had a part in the marriage ritual, was believed to make the dates abundant. Palm stems represented long life to the Ancient Egyptians, and the god Huh was often holding a palm stem in one or both hands. The palm was carried in Egyptian funeral processions to represent eternal life, the Kingdom of Nri used the omu, a tender palm frond, to sacralize and restrain. The palm was a symbol of Phoenicia and appeared on Punic coins, in ancient Greek, the word for palm, phoinix, was thought to be related to the ethnonym. In Archaic Greece, the tree was a sacred sign of Apollo. The palm thus became an icon of the Delian League, in recognition of the alliance, Cimon of Athens erected a bronze statue of a palm tree at Delphi as part of a victory monument commemorating the Battle of the Eurymedon. In addition to representing the victorious League, the palm was a visual pun on the defeated Phoenician fleet. From 400 BC onward, a branch was awarded to the victor in athletic contests. The palm became so associated with victory in ancient Roman culture that the Latin word palma could be used as a metonym for victory. A lawyer who won his case in the forum would decorate his front door with palm leaves, the toga palmata was a toga ornamented with a palm motif, it was worn to celebrate a military triumph only by those who had a previous triumph
13.
Tropics
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The tropics are a region of the Earth surrounding the equator. The tropics are also referred to as the zone and the torrid zone. The tropics include all the areas on the Earth where the Sun is at a point directly overhead at least once during the solar year. The tropics are distinguished from the climatic and biomatic regions of Earth, which are the middle latitudes. Tropical is sometimes used in a sense for a tropical climate to mean warm to hot and moist year-round. Many tropical areas have a dry and wet season, the wet season, rainy season or green season, is the time of year, ranging from one or more months, when most of the average annual rainfall in a region falls. Areas with wet seasons are disseminated across portions of the tropics and subtropics, under the Köppen climate classification, for tropical climates, a wet season month is defined as a month where average precipitation is 60 millimetres or more. Tropical rainforests technically do not have dry or wet seasons, since their rainfall is distributed through the year. When the wet season occurs during the season, or summer, precipitation falls mainly during the late afternoon. The wet season is a time when air quality improves, freshwater quality improves and vegetation grows significantly, floods cause rivers to overflow their banks, and some animals to retreat to higher ground. Soil nutrients diminish and erosion increases, the incidence of malaria increases in areas where the rainy season coincides with high temperatures. Animals have adaptation and survival strategies for the wetter regime, unfortunately, the previous dry season leads to food shortages into the wet season, as the crops have yet to mature. Regions within the tropics may well not have a tropical climate, there are alpine tundra and snow-capped peaks, including Mauna Kea, Mount Kilimanjaro, and the Andes as far south as the northernmost parts of Chile and Argentina. Under the Köppen climate classification, much of the area within the tropics is classed not as tropical but as dry including the Sahara Desert. Tropical plants and animals are those native to the tropics. Tropical ecosystems may consist of rainforests, dry forests, spiny forests, desert. There are often significant areas of biodiversity, and species present, particularly in rainforests. In biogeography, the tropics are divided into Paleotropics and Neotropics, together, they are sometimes referred to as the Pantropic
14.
Temperate climate
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In geography, temperate or tepid latitudes of Earth lie between the tropics and the polar regions. The temperatures in these regions are relatively moderate, rather than extremely hot or cold. The north temperate zone extends from the Tropic of Cancer to the Arctic Circle, the south temperate zone extends from the Tropic of Capricorn to the Antarctic Circle. In some climate classifications, the zone is often divided into several smaller climate zones. These include Humid subtropical climate, Mediterranean climate, oceanic, subtropical climates are located between 23. 5° and 35. 0° north or south latitude on the eastern or leeward sides of landmasses. This climate has long, generally hot, summers and short, mild winters and these climates may occur in southern Asia, the southeastern United States, parts of eastern Australia, and in eastern coastal South America. Mediterranean climates, occur between 30° and 42° north and south latitude, on the sides of landmasses. This climate has hot summers and short mild winters, however, seasonal rainfall is the opposite of that of the subtropical humid type. These climates occur near the rimlands of the Mediterranean Sea, in western Australia, in California, the oceanic climates occur in the higher middle latitudes, between 45° and 60° north and south latitude. They are created by the flow from the cool high latitude oceans to their west. This causes the climate to have cool summers and cool winters, annual rainfall is spread throughout the entire year. Regions with this climate include Western Europe, northwestern North America, the Continental climates occur in middle latitudes, between 35° or 40° to 55°. These climates are normally inland or on sides of landmasses. They feature warm to hot summers and cold winters, with a large temperature variation. Regions with this climate include northern temperate Asia, the northern United States, southern Canada, the vast majority of the worlds human population resides in temperate zones, especially in the northern hemisphere, due to its greater mass of land. The richest temperate flora in the world is found in southern Africa, geographical zone Habitat Köppen climate classification Middle latitudes Polar circle Subtropics
15.
Inca Empire
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The Inca Empire, also known as the Incan Empire and the Inka Empire, was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America, and possibly the largest empire in the world in the early 16th century. The administrative, political and military center of the empire was located in Cusco in modern-day Peru, the Inca civilization arose from the highlands of Peru sometime in the early 13th century. Its last stronghold was conquered by the Spanish in 1572, from 1438 to 1533, the Incas incorporated a large portion of western South America, centered on the Andean Mountains, using conquest and peaceful assimilation, among other methods. The Incas considered their king, the Sapa Inca, to be the son of the sun, the Inca Empire was unique in that it lacked many features associated with civilization in the Old world. In the words of one scholar, The Incas lacked the use of wheeled vehicles, the Incan economy has been described as feudal, slave, socialist. The economy functioned largely without money and without markets, instead, exchange of goods and services was based on reciprocity between individuals and among individuals, groups, and Inca rulers. Taxes consisted of an obligation of a person to the Empire. The Inca rulers reciprocated by granting access to land and goods and providing food, the Inca referred to their empire as Tawantinsuyu, the four suyu. The four suyu were, Chinchaysuyu, Antisuyu, Qullasuyu and Kuntisuyu, the name Tawantinsuyu was, therefore, a descriptive term indicating a union of provinces. The Spanish transliterated the name as Tahuatinsuyo or Tahuatinsuyu, the term Inka means ruler or lord in Quechua and was used to refer to the ruling class or the ruling family. The Incas were a small percentage of the total population of the empire, probably numbering only 15,000 to 40,000. The Spanish adopted the term as a term referring to all subjects of the empire rather than simply the ruling class. As such the name Imperio inca referred to the nation that they encountered, the Inca people were a pastoral tribe in the Cusco area around the 12th century. Incan oral history tells a story of three caves. The center cave at Tampu Tuqu was named Qhapaq Tuqu, the other caves were Maras Tuqu and Sutiq Tuqu. Four brothers and four sisters stepped out of the middle cave and they were, Ayar Manco, Ayar Cachi, Ayar Awqa and Ayar Uchu, and Mama Ocllo, Mama Raua, Mama Huaco and Mama Qura. Out of the side caves came the people who were to be the ancestors of all the Inca clans, Ayar Manco carried a magic staff made of the finest gold. Where this staff landed, the people would live and they traveled for a long time
16.
Machu Picchu
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Machu Picchu is a 15th-century Inca citadel situated on a mountain ridge 2,430 metres above sea level. It is located in the Cusco Region, Urubamba Province, Machupicchu District in Peru, above the Sacred Valley, most archaeologists believe that Machu Picchu was built as an estate for the Inca emperor Pachacuti. Often mistakenly referred to as the Lost City of the Incas, the Incas built the estate around 1450 but abandoned it a century later at the time of the Spanish Conquest. Machu Picchu was built in the classical Inca style, with polished dry-stone walls and its three primary structures are the Inti Watana, the Temple of the Sun, and the Room of the Three Windows. Most of the buildings have been reconstructed in order to give tourists a better idea of how they originally appeared. By 1976, thirty percent of Machu Picchu had been restored, Machu Picchu was declared a Peruvian Historical Sanctuary in 1981 and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983. In 2007, Machu Picchu was voted one of the New Seven Wonders of the World in a worldwide Internet poll. In the Quechua language, machu means old or old person, while picchu means peak, mountain or prominence with a base that ends in sharp peaks. Machu Picchu was built around 1450, at the height of the Inca and its construction appears to date to the period of the two great Inca rulers, Pachacutec Inca Yupanqui and Túpac Inca Yupanqui. It was abandoned just over 100 years later, in 1572 and it is possible that most of its inhabitants died from smallpox introduced by travellers before the Spanish conquistadors arrived in the area. Although it was located only about 80 kilometers from the Inca capital in Cusco, the conquistadors had notes of a place called Piccho, although no record of a Spanish visit exists. The types of sacred rocks defaced by the conquistadors in other locations are untouched at Machu Picchu, over the centuries, the surrounding jungle overgrew the site, and few outside the immediate area knew of its existence. The site may have discovered and plundered in 1867 by a German businessman. Some evidence indicates that German engineer J. M. von Hassel arrived earlier, maps show references to Machu Picchu as early as 1874. In 1911 American historian and explorer Hiram Bingham travelled the region looking for the old Inca capital and was shown to Machu Picchu by a local farmer, Bingham brought Machu Picchu to international attention and organized another expedition in 1912 to undertake major clearing and excavation. He returned in 1914 and 1915 to continue with excavation, in 1981, Peru declared an area of 325.92 square kilometres surrounding Machu Picchu a Historical Sanctuary. In addition to the ruins, the sanctuary includes a portion of the adjoining region, rich with the flora and fauna of the Peruvian Yungas. In 1983, UNESCO designated Machu Picchu a World Heritage Site, describing it as a masterpiece of architecture
17.
Europe
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Europe is a continent that comprises the westernmost part of Eurasia. Europe is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, yet the non-oceanic borders of Europe—a concept dating back to classical antiquity—are arbitrary. Europe covers about 10,180,000 square kilometres, or 2% of the Earths surface, politically, Europe is divided into about fifty sovereign states of which the Russian Federation is the largest and most populous, spanning 39% of the continent and comprising 15% of its population. Europe had a population of about 740 million as of 2015. Further from the sea, seasonal differences are more noticeable than close to the coast, Europe, in particular ancient Greece, was the birthplace of Western civilization. The fall of the Western Roman Empire, during the period, marked the end of ancient history. Renaissance humanism, exploration, art, and science led to the modern era, from the Age of Discovery onwards, Europe played a predominant role in global affairs. Between the 16th and 20th centuries, European powers controlled at times the Americas, most of Africa, Oceania. The Industrial Revolution, which began in Great Britain at the end of the 18th century, gave rise to economic, cultural, and social change in Western Europe. During the Cold War, Europe was divided along the Iron Curtain between NATO in the west and the Warsaw Pact in the east, until the revolutions of 1989 and fall of the Berlin Wall. In 1955, the Council of Europe was formed following a speech by Sir Winston Churchill and it includes all states except for Belarus, Kazakhstan and Vatican City. Further European integration by some states led to the formation of the European Union, the EU originated in Western Europe but has been expanding eastward since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. The European Anthem is Ode to Joy and states celebrate peace, in classical Greek mythology, Europa is the name of either a Phoenician princess or of a queen of Crete. The name contains the elements εὐρύς, wide, broad and ὤψ eye, broad has been an epithet of Earth herself in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion and the poetry devoted to it. For the second part also the divine attributes of grey-eyed Athena or ox-eyed Hera. The same naming motive according to cartographic convention appears in Greek Ανατολή, Martin Litchfield West stated that phonologically, the match between Europas name and any form of the Semitic word is very poor. Next to these there is also a Proto-Indo-European root *h1regʷos, meaning darkness. Most major world languages use words derived from Eurṓpē or Europa to refer to the continent, in some Turkic languages the originally Persian name Frangistan is used casually in referring to much of Europe, besides official names such as Avrupa or Evropa
18.
Wall
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A wall is a structure that defines an area, carries a load, or provides shelter or security. an earthen wall or rampart set with palisades, a row or line of stakes, a wall, a rampart, fortification. While the Latin word murus means a stone wall. English uses the word to mean an external wall and the internal sides of a room. Many languages distinguish between the two, in German, some of this distinction can be seen between Wand and Mauer, in Spanish between pared and muro. The word wall originally referred to defensive walls and ramparts, building walls purposes are to support roofs, floors and ceilings, enclose a space as part of the building envelope, along with a roof to give buildings form, and to provide shelter and security. In addition, the wall may house various types of such as electrical wiring or plumbing. Wall construction falls into two categories, framed walls or mass-walls. In framed walls the load is transferred to the foundation through posts, framed walls most often have three or more separate components, the structural elements, insulation, and finish elements or surfaces. There are three basic methods walls control water intrusion, moisture storage, drained cladding, or face-sealed cladding, moisture storage is typical of stone and brick mass-wall buildings where moisture is absorbed and released by the walls of the structure itself. Sometimes ventilation is provided in addition to the plane such as in rainscreen construction. Face-sealed also called barrier wall or perfect barrier cladding relies on maintaining a leak-free surface of the cladding, examples of face sealed cladding are the early exterior insulation finishing systems, structural glazing, metal clad panels, and corrugated metal. In architecture and civil engineering, curtain wall refers to a facade that is not load-bearing but provides decoration, finish, front, face. Mullion walls are a system that carries the load of the floor slab on prefabricated panels around the perimeter. A partition wall is a wall that separates rooms, or divides a room, partition walls are usually not load-bearing. Partition walls are constructed of materials, including steel panels, bricks, blocks of clay, terra-cotta, concrete. Some partition walls are made of sheet glass, glass partition walls are a series of individual toughened glass panels mounted in wood or metal framing. They may be suspended from or slide along a robust aluminium ceiling track, the system does not require the use of a floor guide, which allows easy operation and an uninterrupted threshold. A timber partition consists of a framework, supported on the floor or by side walls
19.
Ancient Hawaiian
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Ancient Hawaiʻi is the period of Hawaiian human history preceding the unification in 1810 of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi by Kamehameha the Great. Researchers had based their estimates of first settlement by Polynesian long-distance navigators sometime between 300 and 800, in 2010, a study was published based on radiocarbon dating of more reliable samples and it suggests that the islands were settled much later, within a short timeframe, in c. The islands in Eastern Polynesia have been characterized by the continuities among their cultures, diversified agroforestry and aquaculture provided sustenance for Native Hawaiian cuisine. Tropical materials were adopted for housing, elaborate temples were constructed from the lava rocks available. The rich natural resources supported a dense population, organized by a ruling class. Captain James Cook made the first known European contact with ancient Hawaiians in 1778 and he was followed by many other Europeans and Americans. There have been changing views about initial Polynesian discovery and settlement of Hawaii, radiocarbon Dating in Hawaii initially indicated a possible settlement as early as 124. Patrick Vinton Kirchs books on Hawaiian archeology, standard textbooks, date the first Polynesian settlements to about 300 with more recent suggestions by Kirch as late as 600, Other theories suggest dating as late as 700 to 800. In 2010 researchers announced new findings using revised, high-precision radiocarbon dating based on more reliable samples than were used in many dating studies. According to this research, settlement of the Hawaiian Islands took place ∼1219–1266CE and this rapid colonization is believed to account for the remarkable uniformity of East Polynesia culture, biology and language. Some writers believe that there were settlers in Hawaiʻi, peoples who were forced back into remote valleys by newer arrivals. They claim that stories about menehune, little people who built heiau and fishponds, the colonists brought along with them clothing, plants and livestock and established settlements along the coasts and larger valleys. Upon their arrival, the settlers grew kalo, maiʻa, niu, ulu, and raised puaʻa, moa, and ʻīlio, although these meats were eaten less often than fruits, vegetables, and seafood. Popular condiments included paakai, ground nut, limu. In addition to the foods they brought, the settlers also acquired ʻuala, a few researchers have argued that the presence of the sweet potato in the ancient Hawaiian diet is evidence of pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact with the Americas. The Pacific rat accompanied humans on their journey to Hawaiʻi, estuaries and streams were adapted into fishponds by early Polynesian settlers. Packed earth and cut stone were used to create habitat, making Hawaiians some of the earliest, if not the first, over the course of the last millennium, Hawaiians undertook large-scale canal-fed pond field irrigation projects for kalo cultivation. As soon as arrived, the new settlers built hale
20.
Cordyline fruticosa
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Formerly treated in the families Agavaceae and Laxmanniaceae, it is a woody plant growing up to 4 m tall, with leaves 30–60 cm long and 5–10-centimetre wide at the top of a woody stem. It produces 40–60-centimetre long panicles of small scented yellowish to red flowers that mature into red berries and it is native to tropical southeastern Asia, Papua New Guinea, Melanesia, northeastern Australia, the Indian Ocean, and parts of Polynesia. It is not native to either Hawaii or New Zealand but was introduced to both by Polynesian settlers, the species was spread from its native range throughout Polynesia as a cultivated plant. Its starchy rhizomes, which are sweet when the plant is mature, were eaten as food or as medicine, and its leaves were used to thatch the roofs of houses. The plant or its roots are referred to in most Polynesian languages as tī, māori ranked the sweetness of the plant above the other Cordyline species native to New Zealand. Leaves were also used to make items of clothing including skirts worn in dance performances, the Hawaiian hula skirt is a dense skirt with an opaque layer of at least 50 green leaves and the bottom shaved flat. The Tongan dance dress, the sisi, is an apron of about 20 leaves, worn over a tupenu, and decorated with some yellow or red leaves. In Vanuatu, Cordyline leaves, known locally by the Bislama name nanggaria, are tucked into a belt in traditional dances. Cordylines are often planted outside nakamals, in ancient Hawaiʻi the plant was thought to have great spiritual power, only kahuna and aliʻi were able to wear leaves around their necks during certain ritual activities. Tī leaves were used to make lei, and to outline borders between properties it was also planted at the corners of the home to keep ghosts from entering the home or property. To this day some Hawaiians plant tī near their houses to bring good luck, the leaves are also used for lava sledding. A number of leaves are lashed together and people ride down hills on them, ancient Hawaii also believe that the leaves has a medicinal use as antiseptic and diuretic. The roots of the tī plant were used as a glossy covering on surfboards in Hawaii in the early 1900s, Ti is a popular ornamental plant, with numerous cultivars available, many of them selected for green or reddish or purple foliage. In Hawaii, tī rhizomes are fermented and distilled to make okolehao, okolehao, a liquor made from Ti roots. Samoan plant names Flora of China, Cordyline fruticosa Sir Apenera Short, comparative Awareness, Modified Leaves of Cordyline fruticosa manifest at the same time with Poinsettia by Isidro A. T. Savillo
21.
Lauhala
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Lauhala, lau meaning leaf in the Hawaiian language, refers to the leaves of the hala tree. The hala tree is of cultural, health and economic importance in many Pacific Islands. The fruit of the tree is used as a source in many Pacific Islands. The fruits are consumed fresh or as a preserved food while the trunks of P. tectorius can be used as building material. Though many parts of the tree are utilized, in Hawaii the most common use of Hala is the leaves. Tectorius to create items such as baskets, mats and hats. Though it is a long and arduous process to prepare the leaves for weaving, remains of lauhala from burial caves in Hawaiʻi show almost the same patterns as more recent woven objects, therefore the tradition of this craft seems to be very old. The district of Puna on the Island of Hawaiʻi was known for the abundance of hala, during he Hawaiian Renaissance the lauhala weaving became popular again, and nowadays also non traditional items. The favored lauhala for weaving was called lauhala kilipaki, the leaves of this Pandanus sp. were exceptionally soft and durable. They were highly prized for their beauty in color and the ease with which they could be plaited, special sleeping mats were created out of the Hinano, male flower, of the hala tree. The light colored bracts were very soft and pliable and made very finely woven mats reserved for the chiefs and they were especially prized because of their scarcity. Male plants are less common in the wild than female. The bracts are also short, about 25 centimetres long and 15 centimetres wide. Adren J. Bird, Steven Goldsberry, J. Puninani Kanekoa Bird, the Craft of Hawaiian Lauhala Weaving. A woman weaving lauhala in 1980 from the World Digital Library
22.
Heteropogon contortus
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Heteropogon contortus is a tropical, perennial tussock grass with a native distribution encompassing Southern Africa, southern Asia, Northern Australia, Oceania, and southwestern North America. The species has become a naturalised weed in tropical and subtropical regions in the Americas. The plant grows to 1.5 metres in height and is favoured in most environments by frequent burning, the plants develop characteristic dark seeds with a single long awn at one end and a sharp spike at the other. The awn becomes twisted when dry and straightens when moistened, the species is known by many common names, including black speargrass, tanglehead, steekgras and pili. H. H. contortus seeds are responsible for similar injuries in dogs with thick undercoats, or becoming embedded in the socks. Native Hawaiians used pili to thatch hale, mount Huangmao, the highest point in Chinas Zhejiang province, is named for the plant Heteropogon contortus in West African plants – A Photo Guide
23.
Pura Besakih
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Pura Besakih is a temple complex in the village of Besakih on the slopes of Mount Agung in eastern Bali, Indonesia. It is the most important, the largest and holiest temple of Hindu religion in Bali, perched nearly 1000 meters up the side of Gunung Agung, it is an extensive complex of 23 separate but related temples with the largest and most important being Pura Penataran Agung. The temple is built on six levels, terraced up the slope, the entrance is marked by a candi bentar, and beyond it the Kori Agung is the gateway to the second courtyard. The precise origins of the temple are not clear but it almost certainly dates from prehistoric times, the stone bases of Pura Penataran Agung and several other temples resemble megalithic stepped pyramids, which date back at least 2000 years. It was certainly used as a Hindu place of worship from 1284 when the first Javanese conquerors settled in Bali, by the 15th century, Besakih had become a state temple of the Gelgel dynasty. It was built on the slopes of Mount Agung, the principal volcano of Bali. Pura Besakih is a made up of twenty-three temples that sit on parallel ridges. It has stepped terraces and flights of stairs ascend to a number of courtyards and brick gateways that in turn lead up to the main spire or Meru structure. All this is aligned along an axis and designed to lead the spiritual person upward. The main sanctuary of the complex is the Pura Penataran Agung, the symbolic center of the main sanctuary is the lotus throne or padmasana, which is therefore the ritual focus of the entire complex. It dates to around the seventeenth century, a series of eruptions of Mount Agung in 1963, which killed approximately 1,700 people also threatened Pura Besakih. The lava flows missed the complex by mere meters. Each year there are at least seventy festivals held at the complex and this cycle is based on the 210-day Balinese Pawukon calendar year. It had been nominated as a World Heritage Site as early as 1995, visitors to this temple should exercise caution as there is a syndicate operating in and around the premise of this temple. They target tourists by offering a tour guide at exorbitant charges. They also perform prayers and request for tips at the end of the tour, visitors who decline their services are dealt with rather aggressively. In 2013, foreign visitors count is 84,368 persons, the illegal forced donations which is actually an extortion was done by local youths from surrounding villages to visiting tourists. Usually foreign tourist are asked for additional 50 US dollar while Indonesians are asked for 200,000 rupiah and this is illegal money collection, however the local authority seems to do nothing to stop this extortion
24.
Bali
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Bali is an island and province of Indonesia. The province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller neighbouring islands, notably Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan and it is located at the westernmost end of the Lesser Sunda Islands, between Java to the west and Lombok to the east. Its capital, Denpasar, is located in the part of the island. With a population of 3,890,757 in the 2010 census, and 4,225,000 as of January 2014, the island is home to most of Indonesias Hindu minority. According to the 2010 Census,83. 5% of Balis population adhered to Balinese Hinduism, followed by 13. 4% Muslim, Christianity at 2. 5%, Bali is a popular tourist destination, which has seen a significant rise in tourists since the 1980s. Tourism-related business makes up 80% of its economy and it is renowned for its highly developed arts, including traditional and modern dance, sculpture, painting, leather, metalworking, and music. The Indonesian International Film Festival is held every year in Bali, in March 2017, Tripadvisor named the island the worlds top destination in its Travelers choice award. Bali is part of the Coral Triangle, the area with the highest biodiversity of marine species, in this area alone over 500 reef building coral species can be found. For comparison, this is about 7 times as many as in the entire Caribbean, most recently, Bali was the host of the 2011 ASEAN Summit,2013 APEC and Miss World 2013. Bali is the home of the Subak Irrigation System, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Bali was inhabited around 2000 BC by Austronesian people who migrated originally from Southeast Asia and Oceania through Maritime Southeast Asia. Culturally and linguistically, the Balinese are closely related to the people of the Indonesian archipelago, Malaysia, stone tools dating from this time have been found near the village of Cekik in the islands west. In ancient Bali, nine Hindu sects existed, namely Pasupata, Bhairawa, Siwa Shidanta, Waisnawa, Bodha, Brahma, Resi, Sora, each sect revered a specific deity as its personal Godhead. Inscriptions from 896 and 911 dont mention a king, until 914 and they also reveal an independent Bali, with a distinct dialect, where Buddhism and Sivaism were practiced simultaneously. Mpu Sindoks great-granddaughter, Mahendradatta, married the Bali king Udayana Warmadewa around 989 and this marriage also brought more Hinduism and Javanese culture to Bali. Suradhipa reigned from 1115 to 1119, and Jayasakti from 1146 until 1150, jayapangus appears on inscriptions between 1178 and 1181, while Adikuntiketana and his son Paramesvara in 1204. Balinese culture was influenced by Indian, Chinese, and particularly Hindu culture. The name Bali dwipa has been discovered from inscriptions, including the Blanjong pillar inscription written by Sri Kesari Warmadewa in 914 AD. It was during this time that the people developed their complex irrigation system subak to grow rice in wet-field cultivation, some religious and cultural traditions still practiced today can be traced to this period
25.
Arenga pinnata
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Arenga pinnata is an economically important feather palm native to tropical Asia, from eastern India east to Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines in the east. Common names include sugar palm, arenga palm, areng palm, black-fiber palm, gomuti palm, aren, enau, irok and it is a medium-sized palm, growing to 20 m tall, with the trunk remaining covered by the rough old leaf bases. The leaves are 6–12 m long and 1.5 m broad, pinnate, with the pinnae in 1–6 rows, the fruit is subglobose,7 cm diameter, green maturing black. It is not a species, though it is locally rare in some parts of its range. It serves as an important part of the diet of several endangered species, the sap is harvested for commercial use in southeast Asia, yielding a sugar known in India as gur or in Indonesia as gula aren. The sap is collected and made as lahang, a traditional cold sweet drink, edmund Roberts talks about drinking an alcoholic beverage made in the Cavite area. He described it as a fermented and intoxicating liquor and he said that it was the pith furnished with sugar – when the liquor was properly boiled down, a farina. and of the inside of its triangular-shaped fruit a sweetbread was made. The raw juice and pulp are caustic and this crop may develop into a major resource of biofuel. The immature fruits are consumed in the Philippines and Indonesia and are made into canned fruits after boiling them in sugar syrup. The dark fibrous bark is manufactured into cordage, in Indonesia the black fibres surrounding the trunk, called ijuk fibres, are used as the organic roof material common in Indonesian vernacular architecture. According to the study on bas-reliefs of Javanese ancient temples such as Borobudur and it can be found today in Balinese temple roof architecture and Minangkabau Rumah Gadang gonjong horn-like curved roof architecture, such as those found in Pagaruyung Palace. The ijuk fibres can also be made into rope, used in brooms, according to Sundanese folklore the spirit known as Wewe Gombel dwells in the Arenga pinnata palm, where she also has her nest and keeps the children she abducts. Kew Palms Checklist, Arenga pinnata Germplasm Resources Information Network, Arenga pinnata Global Compendium of Weeds, Arenga pinnata PACSOA, Arenga pinnata Sugar palm entry on Bioenergy Wiki
26.
Fiji
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Fiji, officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean about 1,100 nautical miles northeast of New Zealands North Island. Fiji is an archipelago of more than 330 islands, of which 110 are permanently inhabited, the two major islands, Viti Levu and Vanua Levu, account for 87% of the population of almost 860,000. The capital, Suva on Viti Levu, serves as Fijis principal cruise port, about three-quarters of Fijians live on Viti Levus coasts, either in Suva or in smaller urban centres like Nadi or Lautoka. Viti Levus interior is sparsely inhabited due to its terrain, Fiji has one of the most developed economies in the Pacific due to an abundance of forest, mineral, and fish resources. Today, the sources of foreign exchange are its tourist industry. The countrys currency is the Fijian dollar, Fijis local government, in the form of city and town councils, is supervised by the Ministry of Local Government and Urban Development. The majority of Fijis islands were formed through volcanic activity starting around 150 million years ago, today, some geothermal activity still occurs on the islands of Vanua Levu and Taveuni. Fiji has been inhabited since the second millennium BC, and was settled first by Austronesians and later by Melanesians, Europeans visited Fiji from the 17th century, and, after a brief period as an independent kingdom, the British established the Colony of Fiji in 1874. Fiji was a Crown colony until 1970, when it gained independence as a Commonwealth realm, a republic was declared in 1987, following a series of coups détat. In a coup in 2006, Commodore Frank Bainimarama seized power, later in 2009, Iloilo was replaced as President by Ratu Epeli Nailatikau. After years of delays, an election was held on 17 September 2014. Bainimaramas FijiFirst party won with 59. 2% of the vote, Fijis main island is known as Viti Levu and it is from this that the name Fiji is derived, though the common English pronunciation is based on that of their island neighbours in Tonga. Its emergence can be described as follows, Fijians first impressed themselves on European consciousness through the writings of the members of the expeditions of Cook who met them in Tonga. They were described as warriors and ferocious cannibals, builders of the finest vessels in the Pacific. They inspired awe amongst the Tongans, and all their Manufactures, especially bark cloth and clubs, were highly valued and much in demand. They called their home Viti, but the Tongans called it Fisi, and it was by this foreign pronunciation, Fiji, first promulgated by Captain James Cook, that these islands are now known. Feejee, the Anglicised spelling of the Tongan pronunciation, was used in accounts and other writings until the late 19th century, by missionaries and other travellers visiting Fiji. Pottery art from Fijian towns shows that Fiji was settled before or around 3500 to 1000 BC, the first settlements in Fiji were started by voyaging traders and settlers from the west about 5000 years ago
27.
Imperata cylindrica
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Imperata cylindrica, commonly known as cogon grass /koʊˈɡoʊn/, kunai grass /ˈkuːnaɪ/, or blady grass. Is a species of grass in the genus Imperata and it is placed in the subfamily Panicoideae, supertribe Andropogonodae, tribe Andropogoneae. Red cultivars of the species grown as ornamental plants are known as Japanese bloodgrass and it is a perennial rhizomatous grass native to east and southeast Asia, India, Micronesia, Melanesia, Australia, and eastern and southern Africa. It grows from 0.6 to 3 m tall, the leaves are about 2 cm wide near the base of the plant and narrow to a sharp point at the top, the margins are finely toothed and are embedded with sharp silica crystals. The main vein is a lighter colour than the rest of the leaf, the upper surface is hairy near the base of the plant while the underside is usually hairless. Roots are up to 1.2 meters deep, but 0.4 m is typical in sandy soil and it is used for thatching the roofs of traditional homes throughout south-east Asia. It is planted extensively for ground cover and soil stabilization near beach areas, other uses include paper-making, thatching and weaving into mats and bags. It is used in traditional Chinese medicine, a number of cultivars have been selected for garden use as ornamental plants, including the red-leaved Red Baron, also known as Japanese blood grass. Young inflorescences and shoots may be cooked, and the roots contain starch. It is used as an ingredient in the skincare brand Kiehls Ultra Facial Cream for its high concentrations of potassium which provides a hydrating effect and their website also states that indigenous native Australians may have used the plant as a substitute for salt due to its high saline content. The plant has naturalized in the Americas, Northern Asia, Europe. In the U. S. it survives best in the Southeast, worldwide it has been observed from 45°N to 45°S. It grows on wet lands, dry lands, areas of high salinity, organic soils, clay soils and it prefers full sun but will tolerate some shade. In Florida I. cylindrica is found in areas where the soil has been disturbed, such as roadsides, building sites, timber harvesting areas and it is able to invade both moist and dry upland pine forests. Once established it often forms dense monocultures, in addition to outcompeting species for resources, the grass also exhibits allelopathic tendencies. The chemicals it releases as well as the dense mat of vegetation that usually accompanies a cogon grass invasion gives it an advantage over indigenous plants. It spreads both through small seeds, which are carried by the wind, and rhizomes which can be transported by tilling equipment. In the Southeastern United States, state governments have various eradication efforts in place, control is typically by the use of herbicides
28.
Nypa fruticans
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Nypa fruticans, commonly known as the nipa palm or mangrove palm, is a species of palm native to the coastlines and estuarine habitats of the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the only palm considered adapted to the mangrove biome and this species is the only member of the genus Nypa and the subfamily Nypoideae, forming monotypic taxa. The nipa palms trunk grows beneath the ground and only the leaves, thus, it is an unusual palm tree, and the leaves can extend up to 9 m in height. The flowers are an inflorescence of female flowers at the tip with catkin-like red or yellow male flowers on the lower branches. The flower produces woody nuts arranged in a globular cluster up to 25 cm across on a single stalk, the ripe nuts separate from the ball and are floated away on the tide, occasionally germinating while still water-borne. Nipa palms grow in soft mud and slow-moving tidal and river waters that bring in nutrients, the palm can be found as far inland as the tide can deposit the floating nuts. It is common on coasts and rivers flowing into the Indian and Pacific Oceans, the plant will survive occasional short-term drying of its environment. It is reportedly naturalized in Nigeria, the Society Islands of French Polynesia, the Mariana Islands, Panama, japans Iriomote Island and its neighboring Uchibanari Island are the most northern limit of the distribution. The long, feathery leaves of the palm are used by local populations as roof material for thatched houses or dwellings. The leaves are used in many types of basketry and thatching. Large stems are used to train swimmers in Burma as it has buoyancy, on the islands of Roti and Savu, nipa palm sap is fed to pigs during the dry season. This is said to impart a flavour to the meat. The young leaves are used to wrap tobacco for smoking, in the Philippines and Malaysia, the flower cluster can be tapped before it blooms to yield a sweet, edible sap collected to produce a local alcoholic beverage called tuba, bahal, or tuak. Tuba can be stored in tapayan for several weeks to make a kind of known as sukang paombong in the Philippines. Tuba can also be distilled to make arrack, locally known as lambanog in Filipino, young shoots are also edible and the flower petals can be infused to make an aromatic tisane. Attap chee is a name for the immature fruits—sweet, translucent, gelatinous balls used as an ingredient in Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines. In Indonesia, especially in Java and Bali, the sap can also be used to make a variant of Jaggery called gula nipah, also in Sarawak, where it is called gula apong. The nipa palm produces a high yield of sugar-rich sap
29.
Attap dwelling
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An attap dwelling is traditional housing found in the kampongs of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. Named after the palm, which provides the wattle for the walls, and the leaves with which their roofs are thatched. Until the nineteenth century even significant public buildings such as temples were built in this manner, the attap dwelling was used as the inspiration for the natural cross ventilation system for Newtown Suites, by WOHA Architects, Singapore. Malaysian Dwellings, Proceedings of ENHR International Housing Conference 2004
30.
Indonesia
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Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a unitary sovereign state and transcontinental country located mainly in Southeast Asia with some territories in Oceania. Situated between the Indian and Pacific oceans, it is the worlds largest island country, with more than seventeen thousand islands. At 1,904,569 square kilometres, Indonesia is the worlds 14th-largest country in terms of area and worlds 7th-largest country in terms of combined sea. It has an population of over 260 million people and is the worlds fourth most populous country. The worlds most populous island, Java, contains more than half of the countrys population, Indonesias republican form of government includes an elected legislature and president. Indonesia has 34 provinces, of which five have Special Administrative status and its capital and countrys most populous city is Jakarta, which is also the most populous city in Southeast Asia and the second in Asia. The country shares land borders with Papua New Guinea, East Timor, other neighbouring countries include Singapore, Vietnam, the Philippines, Australia, Palau, and the Indian territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Despite its large population and densely populated regions, Indonesia has vast areas of wilderness that support the second highest level of biodiversity. The country has abundant natural resources like oil and natural gas, tin, copper, agriculture mainly produces rice, palm oil, tea, coffee, cacao, medicinal plants, spices and rubber. Indonesias major trading partners are Japan, United States, China, the Indonesian archipelago has been an important region for trade since at least the 7th century, when Srivijaya and then later Majapahit traded with China and India. Local rulers gradually absorbed foreign cultural, religious and political models from the early centuries CE, Indonesian history has been influenced by foreign powers drawn to its natural resources. Indonesia consists of hundreds of native ethnic and linguistic groups. The largest – and politically dominant – ethnic group are the Javanese, a shared identity has developed, defined by a national language, ethnic diversity, religious pluralism within a Muslim-majority population, and a history of colonialism and rebellion against it. Indonesias national motto, Bhinneka Tunggal Ika, articulates the diversity that shapes the country, Indonesias economy is the worlds 16th largest by nominal GDP and the 8th largest by GDP at PPP, the largest in Southeast Asia, and is considered an emerging market and newly industrialised country. Indonesia has been a member of the United Nations since 1950, Indonesia is a member of the G20 major economies and World Trade Organization. The name Indonesia derives from the Greek name of the Indós, the name dates to the 18th century, far predating the formation of independent Indonesia. In 1850, George Windsor Earl, an English ethnologist, proposed the terms Indunesians—and, his preference, in the same publication, one of his students, James Richardson Logan, used Indonesia as a synonym for Indian Archipelago. However, Dutch academics writing in East Indies publications were reluctant to use Indonesia, they preferred Malay Archipelago, the Netherlands East Indies, popularly Indië, the East, and Insulinde
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Balinese temple
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A Pura is a Balinese Hindu temple. And the place of worship for the adherents of Balinese Hinduism in Indonesia, Puras are built in accordance to rules, style, guidance and rituals found in Balinese architecture. Mother Temple of Besakih is the most important, the largest and holiest temple in Bali, a large number of puras have been built in Bali, leading it to be titled the Island of a Thousand Puras. The term pura originates from the Sanskrit word, meaning city, walled city, towered city and this walled compounds contains several shrines, meru, and bale. The design, plan and layout of the pura follows the concept of Balinese space allocation. Three mandala zones arranged according to a hierarchy, Nista mandala, the outer zone, which directly connects the pura compound with the outer realm. This zone usually takes the form of a field or a garden that can be used for religious dance performances. Madya mandala, the zone of the temple, where the activity of adherents takes place. In this zone usually several pavilions are built, such as the bale kulkul, bale gong, wantilan, bale pesandekan, and bale perantenan, Utama mandala, the holiest and the most sacred zone within the pura. However, the rules for arrangements the facilities of the two outer zones, nista mandala and madya mandala, are somewhat flexible. Several structures, such as the bale kulkul, could be built as outer corner tower, also, there are two types of gates within Balinese architecture, the split gate, known as candi bentar, and the roofed tower gate known as paduraksa or kori agung. Both types of gates have specific roles in Balinese architectural design, Candi bentar is the gate used in the nista mandala, while the kori agung is employed as the gate between the madya mandala and Utama mandala inner compounds. The rules for gate types are valid for non-religious compounds such as puri, nobles. There are several types of pura, each serving certain functions of Balinese rituals throughout the Balinese calendar, Pura kahyangan jagad, pura that are located in the mountainous region of the island, built upon mountain or volcano slopes. The mountains are considered as the realm, the abode of gods or hyang. The most important pura kahyangan in Bali is Mother Temple of Besakih complex on the slopes of Mount Agung, Pura tirta, water temples, a type of pura that other than religious function, also have water management function as part of Subak irrigation system. The priests in these temples have authority to manage the water allocation among rice paddies in the villages surrounds the temple, some tirta temples are noted for its sacred water and having petirtaan or sacred bathing pool for cleansing ritual. Other water temple are built within lakes, such as Pura Ulun Danu Bratan, the example of this type of temple are Pura Taman Ayun and Pura Tirta Empul
32.
Sugarcane
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It has stout, jointed, fibrous stalks that are rich in the sugar sucrose, which accumulates in the stalk internodes. The plant is two to six meters tall, all sugar cane species interbreed and the major commercial cultivars are complex hybrids. Sugarcane belongs to the grass family Poaceae, an important seed plant family that includes maize, wheat, rice, and sorghum. Sucrose, extracted and purified in specialized factories, is used as raw material in the food industry or is fermented to produce ethanol. Ethanol is produced on a large scale by the Brazilian sugarcane industry, sugarcane is the worlds largest crop by production quantity. In 2012, The Food and Agriculture Organization estimates it was cultivated on about 26×106 hectares, in more than 90 countries, Brazil was the largest producer of sugar cane in the world. The next five major producers, in decreasing amounts of production, were India, China, Thailand, Pakistan, the world demand for sugar is the primary driver of sugarcane agriculture. Cane accounts for 80% of sugar produced, most of the rest is made from sugar beets, sugarcane predominantly grows in the tropical and subtropical regions. Other than sugar, products derived from sugarcane include falernum, molasses, rum, cachaça, bagasse, in some regions, people use sugarcane reeds to make pens, mats, screens, and thatch. The young, unexpanded inflorescence of tebu telor is eaten raw, steamed, or toasted, the Persians, followed by the Greeks, discovered the famous reeds that produce honey without bees in India between the 6th and 4th centuries BC. They adopted and then spread sugarcane agriculture, merchants began to trade in sugar from India, which was considered a luxury and an expensive spice. Sugarcane is a tropical, perennial grass that forms lateral shoots at the base to produce multiple stems, the stems grow into cane stalk, which when mature constitutes around 75% of the entire plant. A mature stalk is composed of 11–16% fiber, 12–16% soluble sugars, 2–3% nonsugars. A sugarcane crop is sensitive to the climate, soil type, irrigation, fertilizers, insects, disease control, varieties, the average yield of cane stalk is 60–70 tonnes per hectare per year. However, this figure can vary between 30 and 180 tonnes per hectare depending on knowledge and crop management approach used in sugarcane cultivation, sugarcane is a cash crop, but it is also used as livestock fodder. Sugarcane is indigenous to tropical South and Southeast Asia, different species likely originated in different locations, with Saccharum barberi originating in India and S. edule and S. officinarum in New Guinea. It is theorized that sugarcane was first domesticated as a crop in New Guinea around 6000 BC, New Guinean farmers and other early cultivators of sugarcane chewed the plant for its sweet juice. The exact date of the first cane sugar production is unclear, the earliest evidence of sugar production comes from ancient Sanskrit and Pali texts
33.
Kenya
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Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country in Africa and a founding member of the East African Community. Its capital and largest city is Nairobi and it is bordered by Tanzania to the south and southwest, Uganda to the west, South Sudan to the north-west, Ethiopia to the north and Somalia to the north-east. Kenya covers 581,309 km2, and had a population of approximately 48 million people in January 2017, Kenya has a warm and humid tropical climate on its Indian Ocean coastline. The climate is cooler in the grasslands around the capital city, Nairobi, and especially closer to Mount Kenya. Further inland are highlands in Central and Rift Valley regions where tea, in the West are Nyanza and Western regions, there is an equatorial, hot and dry climate which becomes humid around Lake Victoria, the largest tropical fresh-water lake in the world. This gives way to temperate and forested areas in the neighbouring western region. The north-eastern regions along the border with Somalia and Ethiopia are arid and semi-arid areas with near-desert landscapes, Kenya is known for its world class athletes in track and field and rugby. The African Great Lakes region, which Kenya is a part of, has been inhabited by humans since the Lower Paleolithic period, by the first millennium AD, the Bantu expansion had reached the area from West-Central Africa. Bantu and Nilotic populations together constitute around 97% of the nations residents, European and Arab presence in coastal Mombasa dates to the Early Modern period, European exploration of the interior began in the 19th century. The British Empire established the East Africa Protectorate in 1895, which starting in 1920 gave way to the Kenya Colony, Kenya obtained independence in December 1963. Following a referendum in August 2010 and adoption of a new constitution, Kenya is now divided into 47 semi-autonomous counties, the capital, Nairobi, is a regional commercial hub. The economy of Kenya is the largest by GDP in East, agriculture is a major employer, the country traditionally exports tea and coffee and has more recently begun to export fresh flowers to Europe. The service industry is also an economic driver. Additionally, Kenya is a member of the East African Community trading bloc, the Republic of Kenya is named after Mount Kenya. The origin of the name Kenya is not clear, but perhaps linked to the Kikuyu, Embu and Kamba words Kirinyaga, Kirenyaa, if so, then the British may not so much have mispronounced it, as misspelled it. In the 19th century, the German explorer Johann Ludwig Krapf was staying with the Bantu Kamba people when he first spotted the mountain. On asking for the name of the mountain, he was told Kĩ-Nyaa or Kĩĩma- Kĩĩnyaa probably because the pattern of black rock, the Agikuyu, who inhabit the slopes of Mt. Kenya, call it Kĩrĩma Kĩrĩnyaga in Kikuyu, which is quite similar to the Kamba name. Ludwig Krapf recorded the name as both Kenia and Kegnia believed by most to be a corruption of the Kamba version, others say that this was—on the contrary—a very precise notation of a correct African pronunciation /ˈkɛnjə/
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Indigenous peoples of the Americas
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The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian peoples of the Americas and their descendants. The term Amerindian is used in Quebec, the Guianas, Indigenous peoples of the United States are commonly known as Native Americans or American Indians, and Alaska Natives. Application of the term Indian originated with Christopher Columbus, who, in his search for Asia, eventually, the Americas came to be known as the West Indies, a name still used to refer to the islands of the Caribbean Sea. This led to the blanket term Indies and Indians for the indigenous inhabitants, although some indigenous peoples of the Americas were traditionally hunter-gatherers—and many, especially in the Amazon basin, still are—many groups practiced aquaculture and agriculture. The impact of their agricultural endowment to the world is a testament to their time, although some societies depended heavily on agriculture, others practiced a mix of farming, hunting, and gathering. In some regions the indigenous peoples created monumental architecture, large-scale organized cities, chiefdoms, states, and empires. Many parts of the Americas are still populated by peoples, some countries have sizable populations, especially Belize, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Greenland, Guatemala, Mexico. At least a different indigenous languages are spoken in the Americas. Some, such as the Quechuan languages, Aymara, Guaraní, Mayan languages, many also maintain aspects of indigenous cultural practices to varying degrees, including religion, social organization, and subsistence practices. Like most cultures, over time, cultures specific to many indigenous peoples have evolved to incorporate traditional aspects, some indigenous peoples still live in relative isolation from Western culture and a few are still counted as uncontacted peoples. The specifics of Paleo-Indian migration to and throughout the Americas, including the dates and routes traveled, are the subject of ongoing research. According to archaeological and genetic evidence, North and South America were the last continents in the world with human habitation. During the Wisconsin glaciation, 50–17,000 years ago, falling sea levels allowed people to move across the bridge of Beringia that joined Siberia to northwest North America. Alaska was a glacial refugium because it had low snowfall, allowing a small population to exist, the Laurentide Ice Sheet covered most of North America, blocking nomadic inhabitants and confining them to Alaska for thousands of years. Indigenous genetic studies suggest that the first inhabitants of the Americas share a single population, one that developed in isolation. The isolation of these peoples in Beringia might have lasted 10–20,000 years, around 16,500 years ago, the glaciers began melting, allowing people to move south and east into Canada and beyond. These people are believed to have followed herds of now-extinct Pleistocene megafauna along ice-free corridors that stretched between the Laurentide and Cordilleran Ice Sheets. Another route proposed involves migration - either on foot or using primitive boats - along the Pacific Northwest coast to the south, archeological evidence of the latter would have been covered by the sea level rise of more than 120 meters since the last ice age
35.
Slate industry in Wales
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The existence of a slate industry in Wales is attested since the Roman period, when slate was used to roof the fort at Segontium, now Caernarfon. Penrhyn and Dinorwig were the two largest slate quarries in the world, and the Oakeley mine at Blaenau Ffestiniog was the largest slate mine in the world. Slate is mainly used for roofing, but is produced as thicker slab for a variety of uses including flooring, worktops. Towards the close of the century, the landowners began to operate the quarries themselves, after the government abolished slate duty in 1831, rapid expansion was propelled by the building of narrow gauge railways to transport the slates to the ports. The slate industry dominated the economy of north-west Wales during the half of the 19th century. In 1898, a force of 17,000 men produced half a million tons of slate. Slate production continues on a reduced scale. The Slate industry in North Wales is on the tentative World Heritage Site list, the slate deposits of Wales belong to three geological series, Cambrian, Ordovician and Silurian. The Cambrian deposits run south-west from Conwy to near Criccieth, these deposits were quarried in the Penrhyn and Dinorwig quarries, there are smaller outcrops elsewhere, for example on Anglesey. The Ordovician deposits run south-west from Betws-y-Coed to Porthmadog, these were the deposits mined at Blaenau Ffestiniog. There is another band of Ordovician slate further south, running from Llangynnog to Aberdyfi, quarried mainly in the Corris area, with a few outcrops in south-west Wales, the Silurian deposits are mainly further east in the Dee valley and around Machynlleth. The virtues of slate as a building and roofing material have been recognized since the Roman period, the Roman fort at Segontium, Caernarfon, was originally roofed with tiles, but the later levels contain numerous slates, used for both roofing and flooring. The nearest deposits are about five miles away in the Cilgwyn area, during the mediaeval period, there was small-scale quarrying of slate in several areas. The Cilgwyn quarry in the Nantlle Valley dates from the 12th century, Aberllefenni Slate Quarry may have started operating as a slate mine as early as the 14th century. The earliest confirmed date of operating dates from the early 16th century when the local house Plas Aberllefenni was roofed in slates from this quarry, transport problems meant that the slate was usually used fairly close to the quarries. There was some transport by sea, a poem by the 15th century poet Gutor Glyn asks the Dean of Bangor to send him a shipload of slates from Aberogwen, near Bangor, to Rhuddlan to roof a house at Henllan, near Denbigh. The wreck of a ship carrying finished slates was discovered in the Menai Strait and is thought to date from the 16th century. By the second half of the 16th century, there was an export trade of slates to Ireland from ports such as Beaumaris
36.
Canal
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Canals and navigations are human-made channels for water conveyance, or to service water transport vehicles. In the vernacular, both are referred to as canals, and in most cases, the works will have a series of dams. These areas are referred to as water levels, often just called levels. In contrast, a canal cuts across a drainage divide atop a ridge, many canals have been built at elevations towering over valleys and others water ways crossing far below. Cities need a lot of water and many canals with sources of water at a higher level can deliver water to a destination where there is a lack of water. The Roman Empires Aqueducts were such water supply canals, a navigation is a series of channels that run roughly parallel to the valley and stream bed of an unimproved river. A navigation always shares the drainage basin of the river, a vessel uses the calm parts of the river itself as well as improvements, traversing the same changes in height. A true canal is a channel that cuts across a drainage divide, most commercially important canals of the first half of the 19th century were a little of each, using rivers in long stretches, and divide crossing canals in others. This is true for many canals still in use, there are two broad types of canal, Waterways, canals and navigations used for carrying vessels transporting goods and people. These can be subdivided into two kinds, Those connecting existing lakes, rivers, other canals or seas and oceans and those connected in a city network, such as the Canal Grande and others of Venice Italy, the gracht of Amsterdam, and the waterways of Bangkok. Aqueducts, water canals that are used for the conveyance and delivery of potable water for human consumption, municipal uses, hydro power canals. Historically canals were of importance to commerce and the development, growth. In 1855 the Lehigh Canal carried over 1.2 million tons of burning anthracite coal, by the 1930s the company which built. By the early 1880s, canals which had little ability to compete with rail transport, were off the map. In the next couple of decades, coal was diminished as the heating fuel of choice by oil. Later, after World War I when motor-trucks came into their own, Canals are built in one of three ways, or a combination of the three, depending on available water and available path, Human made streams A canal can be created where no stream presently exists. Either the body of the canal is dug or the sides of the canal are created by making dykes or levees by piling dirt, stone, the water for the canal must be provided from an external source, like streams or reservoirs. Where the new waterway must change elevation engineering works like locks, lifts or elevators are constructed to raise, examples include canals that connect valleys over a higher body of land, like Canal du Midi, Canal de Briare and the Panama Canal
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Rail transport
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Rail transport is a means of conveyance of passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, also known as tracks. It is also referred to as train transport. In contrast to road transport, where vehicles run on a flat surface. Tracks usually consist of rails, installed on ties and ballast, on which the rolling stock, usually fitted with metal wheels. Other variations are possible, such as slab track, where the rails are fastened to a concrete foundation resting on a prepared subsurface. Rolling stock in a transport system generally encounters lower frictional resistance than road vehicles, so passenger. The operation is carried out by a company, providing transport between train stations or freight customer facilities. Power is provided by locomotives which either draw electric power from a railway system or produce their own power. Most tracks are accompanied by a signalling system, Railways are a safe land transport system when compared to other forms of transport. The oldest, man-hauled railways date back to the 6th century BC, with Periander, one of the Seven Sages of Greece, Rail transport blossomed after the British development of the steam locomotive as a viable source of power in the 19th centuries. With steam engines, one could construct mainline railways, which were a key component of the Industrial Revolution, also, railways reduced the costs of shipping, and allowed for fewer lost goods, compared with water transport, which faced occasional sinking of ships. The change from canals to railways allowed for markets in which prices varied very little from city to city. In the 1880s, electrified trains were introduced, and also the first tramways, starting during the 1940s, the non-electrified railways in most countries had their steam locomotives replaced by diesel-electric locomotives, with the process being almost complete by 2000. During the 1960s, electrified high-speed railway systems were introduced in Japan, other forms of guided ground transport outside the traditional railway definitions, such as monorail or maglev, have been tried but have seen limited use. The history of the growth, decline and restoration to use of transport can be divided up into several discrete periods defined by the principal means of motive power used. The earliest evidence of a railway was a 6-kilometre Diolkos wagonway, trucks pushed by slaves ran in grooves in limestone, which provided the track element. The Diolkos operated for over 600 years, Railways began reappearing in Europe after the Dark Ages. The earliest known record of a railway in Europe from this period is a window in the Minster of Freiburg im Breisgau in Germany
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Germany
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Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a federal parliamentary republic in central-western Europe. It includes 16 constituent states, covers an area of 357,021 square kilometres, with about 82 million inhabitants, Germany is the most populous member state of the European Union. After the United States, it is the second most popular destination in the world. Germanys capital and largest metropolis is Berlin, while its largest conurbation is the Ruhr, other major cities include Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Leipzig. Various Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical antiquity, a region named Germania was documented before 100 AD. During the Migration Period the Germanic tribes expanded southward, beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation, in 1871, Germany became a nation state when most of the German states unified into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. After World War I and the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic, the establishment of the national socialist dictatorship in 1933 led to World War II and the Holocaust. After a period of Allied occupation, two German states were founded, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, in 1990, the country was reunified. In the 21st century, Germany is a power and has the worlds fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP. As a global leader in industrial and technological sectors, it is both the worlds third-largest exporter and importer of goods. Germany is a country with a very high standard of living sustained by a skilled. It upholds a social security and universal health system, environmental protection. Germany was a member of the European Economic Community in 1957. It is part of the Schengen Area, and became a co-founder of the Eurozone in 1999, Germany is a member of the United Nations, NATO, the G8, the G20, and the OECD. The national military expenditure is the 9th highest in the world, the English word Germany derives from the Latin Germania, which came into use after Julius Caesar adopted it for the peoples east of the Rhine. This in turn descends from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz popular, derived from *þeudō, descended from Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂- people, the discovery of the Mauer 1 mandible shows that ancient humans were present in Germany at least 600,000 years ago. The oldest complete hunting weapons found anywhere in the world were discovered in a mine in Schöningen where three 380, 000-year-old wooden javelins were unearthed
39.
Stralsund
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Stralsund, is a Hanseatic town in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is located at the Southern coast of the Strelasund, a sound of the Baltic Sea separating the island of Rügen from the mainland, the Strelasund Crossing with its two bridges and several ferry services connects Stralsund with Rügen. The Western Pomeranian town has been the capital of the Vorpommern-Rügen district since the 2011 district reforms and it is the fourth-largest city of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and, together with Greifswald, Stralsund forms an Oberzentrum, one of four high-level urban centers of the region. Stralsund was founded in 1234 and was one of the most prospering members of the medieval Hanseatic League, since 2002, Stralsunds old town with its rich heritage is honored as a UNESCO World Heritage, along with Wismar in Mecklenburg. The town of Stralsund is located in northeastern Germany in the region of Western Pomerania in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and its annual precipitation is 656 mm and comparatively low, falling within the lowest third of all precipitation values in Germany. The driest month is February, the most precipitation falls in July, the precipitation varies moderately across the year, at only 40% of weather stations in Germany are there lower seasonal variations. The town lies on the sound of Strelasund, a strait of the Baltic Sea, Stralsund is located close to the Western Pomerania Lagoon Area National Park. Stralsunds town borough includes municipal forest and three municipal ponds (the Knieperteich, Frankenteich and Moorteich, the three ponds and the Strelasund lend the Old Town, the original settlement site and historic center of the town, a protected island ambience. The highest point of the town is the Galgenberg on its western approaches, the towns territory covers an area of 38.97 km², which makes Stralsund, with its nearly 58,000 inhabitants one of the most densely populated towns in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The borough of the Hanseatic town of Stralsund is divided into as follows, The town also possesses estates in the area as well as on the islands of Rügen, Hiddensee. Larger towns or cities in the area are Greifswald and Rostock. In the local area around Stralsund there are also the towns of Barth, many of the smaller villages in the vicinity, like Prohn or Negast, have grown sharply after 1990 as a result of the influx of those living or working in Stralsund. In the Middle Ages the Stralsund area formed part of the West Slavic Principality of Rügen, at that time the Dänholm isle and fishing village, both at the site of the latter town, were called Strale or Stralow, Polabian for arrow. The full Polabian name is Strzałów, the village also had a ferry to the island of Rügen. In 1168 the Principality of Rügen became part of Kingdom of Denmark, in the course of German Ostsiedlung, many German settlers, gentry and merchants were invited to settle in the principality, and they eventually populated the Strale settlement. Merchants from other countries as well as locals were attracted to the area, the Danish navy used the isle as well. When the settlement had grown to size, prince Wizlaw I of Rügen granted Lübeck law to our town Stralow in 1234. In 1240, when the prince gave additional land to the town, the success of the settlement challenged the powerful Free City of Lübeck, which burnt Stralsund down in 1249
40.
Stade (region)
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Until 1837 the Kingdom of Hanover was ruled in personal union by the Kings of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The official title of the Region was High-Bailiwick of Stade and then Governorate of Stade, the territory of the Stade Region was combined by the territories of the Land of Hadeln, the Duchies of Bremen and Verden, all Hanoverian dominions, which were collectively administered. The territory belonging to the Stade Region covered about the area between the mouths of the rivers Elbe and Weser to the North Sea and todays German federal states of Hamburg. This area included about todays Lower Saxon counties of Cuxhaven, Osterholz, Rotenburg upon Wümme, Stade, the collectively administered Land of Hadeln, the Duchy of Bremen and the Duchy of Verden were therefore colloquially referred to as the Duchies of Bremen-Verden or simply Bremen-Verden. The latter two emerged in 1648 by the transformation of the Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen, then Duchy of Bremen, the Kingdom of Hanovers predecessor the Prince-Electorate of Brunswick and Lunenburg purchased Bremen-Verden from its Danish occupants de facto in 1715. De jure this acquisition had to be legitimised by imperial feoffment and it took Elector George II Augustus until 1733 to get Charles VI to enfeoff him with the Duchy of Bremen and Verden. In 1728 Emperor Charles VI enfeoffed Elector George II Augustus, who in 1727 had succeeded his father George I Louis, with the reverted fief of Saxe-Lauenburg. Being a Prince-Elector of the Holy Roman Empire and represented in its Diet by virtue of his Electorate of Hanover, since Bremen-Verden had turned Hanoverian it never again sent its own representatives to a Diet. Hadeln kept part of its autonomy until 1852, its Estates continued to function with restricted authority until 1884. In 1823 the high-bailiwick consisted of 7,025 square kilometres with 208,251 inhabitants, Bremerhaven was founded to be a haven for Bremens merchant marine, with that city located upstream the Weser being more and more disconnected from the sea, due to that rivers silting up. Bremerhaven also became the port of the German Confederations Navy under Karl Rudolf Brommy. Two Lutheran consistories, one for the Land of Hadeln in Otterndorf and one in Stade for the rest of the High-Bailiwick supervised the Lutheran cult, a general superintendent chaired each consistory. Lutherans made up by far the majority of the population, among Lutherans revivalism played a major role in the 1850s. This introduction of presbyteries was somewhat revolutionary in the rather hierarchically structured Lutheran church, the Lutheran church was the state church of the Kingdom of Hanover with the king being summus episcopus. In 1864 Carl Lichtenberg, Hanoverian minister of education, cultural and religious affairs, the constitution provided a state synod. An all-Hanoverian consistory, the Landeskonsistorium, was formed with representatives from the regional consistories, the Lutheran state church became a stronghold of Hanoverian separatism and therefore somewhat politicised. The Calvinist communities were in a sorry state. They emerged in the 1590s, when the Calvinist city of Bremen actually possessed some area around Bederkesa, in 1654, after the First Bremian War, the city ceded the area to Swedish Bremen-Verden, which subjected the Calvinists there to supervision by the Lutheran consistory
41.
Denmark
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The term Danish Realm refers to the relationship between Denmark proper, the Faroe Islands and Greenland—three countries constituting the Kingdom of Denmark. The legal nature of the Kingdom of Denmark is fundamentally one of a sovereign state. The Faroe Islands and Greenland have been part of the Crown of Denmark since 1397 when the Kalmar Union was ratified, legal matters in The Danish Realm are subject to the Danish Constitution. Beginning in 1953, state law issues within The Danish Realm has been governed by The Unity of the Realm, a less formal name for The Unity of the Realm is the Commonwealth of the Realm. In 1978, The Unity of The Realm was for the first time referred to as rigsfællesskabet. The name caught on and since the 1990s, both The Unity of The Realm and The Danish Realm itself has increasingly been referred to as simply rigsfællesskabet in daily parlance. The Danish Constitution stipulates that the foreign and security interests for all parts of the Danish Realm are the responsibility of the Danish government, the Faroes received home rule in 1948 and Greenland did so in 1979. In 2005, the Faroes received a self-government arrangement, and in 2009 Greenland received self rule, the Danish Realms unique state of internal affairs is acted out in the principle of The Unity of the Realm. This principle is derived from Article 1 of the Danish Constitution which specifies that constitutional law applies equally to all areas of the Danish Realm, the Constitutional Act specifies that sovereignty is to continue to be exclusively with the authorities of the Realm. The language of Denmark is Danish, and the Danish state authorities are based in Denmark, the Kingdom of Denmarks parliament, with its 179 members, is located in the capital, Copenhagen. Two of the members are elected in each of Greenland and the Faroe Islands. The Government ministries are located in Copenhagen, as is the highest court, in principle, the Danish Realm constitutes a unified sovereign state, with equal status between its constituent parts. Devolution differs from federalism in that the powers of the subnational authority ultimately reside in central government. The Self-Government Arrangements devolves political competence and responsibility from the Danish political authorities to the Faroese, the Faroese and Greenlandic authorities administer the tasks taken over from the state, enact legislation in these specific fields and have the economic responsibility for solving these tasks. The Danish government provides a grant to the Faroese and the Greenlandic authorities to cover the costs of these devolved areas. The 1948 Home Rule Act of the Faroe Islands sets out the terms of Faroese home rule, the Act states. the Faroe Islands shall constitute a self-governing community within the State of Denmark. It establishes the government of the Faroe Islands and the Faroese parliament. The Faroe Islands were previously administered as a Danish county, the Home Rule Act abolished the post of Amtmand and these powers were expanded in a 2005 Act, which named the Faroese home government as an equal partner with the Danish government
42.
Dune
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In physical geography, a dune is a hill of loose sand built by wind or the flow of water. Dunes occur in different shapes and sizes, formed by interaction with the flow of air or water, most kinds of dunes are longer on the windward side where the sand is pushed up the dune and have a shorter slip face in the lee of the wind. The valley or trough between dunes is called a slack, a dune field is an area covered by extensive sand dunes. Dunes occur, for example, in deserts and along some coasts. Some coastal areas have one or more sets of dunes running parallel to the shoreline directly inland from the beach, in most cases, the dunes are important in protecting the land against potential ravages by storm waves from the sea. Although the most widely distributed dunes are those associated with coastal regions, Dunes can form under the action of water flow, and on sand or gravel beds of rivers, estuaries and the sea-bed. The modern word dune came into English from French c,1790, which in turn came from Middle Dutch dūne. Crescent-shaped mounds are generally wider than they are long, the slipfaces are on the concave sides of the dunes. These dunes form under winds that blow consistently from one direction, some types of crescentic dunes move more quickly over desert surfaces than any other type of dune. A group of dunes moved more than 100 metres per year between 1954 and 1959 in Chinas Ningxia Province, and similar speeds have been recorded in the Western Desert of Egypt. The largest crescentic dunes on Earth, with mean crest-to-crest widths of more than three kilometres, are in Chinas Taklamakan Desert. They may be composed of clay, silt, sand, or gypsum, eroded from the floor or shore, transported up the concave side of the dune. Examples in Australia are up to 6.5 km long,1 km wide and they also occur in southern and West Africa, and in parts of the western United States, especially Texas. Straight or slightly sinuous sand ridges typically much longer than they are wide are known as linear dunes and they may be more than 160 kilometres long. Some linear dunes merge to form Y-shaped compound dunes, many form in bidirectional wind regimes. The long axes of these dunes extend in the resultant direction of sand movement, linear loess hills known as pahas are superficially similar. These hills appear to have formed during the last ice age under permafrost conditions dominated by sparse tundra vegetation. Radially symmetrical, star dunes are pyramidal sand mounds with slipfaces on three or more arms that radiate from the center of the mound
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Kilmore Quay
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Kilmore Quay is a fishing village near Duncormick, in County Wexford, Ireland. It has a population of 417 and it is a fishing village, but its leisure facilities such as sailing, and sea angling charters are also of significant economic importance. The village holds a festival during the summer with seafood served everyday, live music in the local pubs, and activities such as raft races. The Saltee Islands lie off the coast near Kilmore Quay, the two islands, Great Saltee and Little Saltee, are mainly known for being Irelands largest bird sanctuary with gannets, gulls, puffins, cormorants, razorbills, and guillemots living on the islands. Wexford Bus operates several services a day between Wexford and Kilmore Quay via Johnstown Castle and Bridgetown, Bus Éireann route 383 operates between Wexford railway station and Kilmore Quay on Wednesdays and Saturdays only. There is a marina located in the harbour. This serves as a jumping off point for many Irish yachts embarking on journeys to France and it is also the first landing point for many visitors from Britain and continental Europe. List of towns and villages in Ireland List of RNLI stations www. kilmoregenealogy. com Detailed genealogical and census information regarding Kilmore and Kilmore Quay area
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Ireland
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Ireland is an island in the North Atlantic. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, Ireland is the second-largest island of the British Isles, the third-largest in Europe, and the twentieth-largest on Earth. Politically, Ireland is divided between the Republic of Ireland, which covers five-sixths of the island, and Northern Ireland, in 2011, the population of Ireland was about 6.4 million, ranking it the second-most populous island in Europe after Great Britain. Just under 4.6 million live in the Republic of Ireland, the islands geography comprises relatively low-lying mountains surrounding a central plain, with several navigable rivers extending inland. The island has lush vegetation, a product of its mild, thick woodlands covered the island until the Middle Ages. As of 2013, the amount of land that is wooded in Ireland is about 11% of the total, there are twenty-six extant mammal species native to Ireland. The Irish climate is moderate and classified as oceanic. As a result, winters are milder than expected for such a northerly area, however, summers are cooler than those in Continental Europe. Rainfall and cloud cover are abundant, the earliest evidence of human presence in Ireland is dated at 10,500 BC. Gaelic Ireland had emerged by the 1st century CE, the island was Christianised from the 5th century onward. Following the Norman invasion in the 12th century, England claimed sovereignty over Ireland, however, English rule did not extend over the whole island until the 16th–17th century Tudor conquest, which led to colonisation by settlers from Britain. In the 1690s, a system of Protestant English rule was designed to materially disadvantage the Catholic majority and Protestant dissenters, with the Acts of Union in 1801, Ireland became a part of the United Kingdom. Northern Ireland saw much civil unrest from the late 1960s until the 1990s and this subsided following a political agreement in 1998. In 1973 the Republic of Ireland joined the European Economic Community while the United Kingdom, Irish culture has had a significant influence on other cultures, especially in the fields of literature. Alongside mainstream Western culture, an indigenous culture exists, as expressed through Gaelic games, Irish music. The culture of the island shares many features with that of Great Britain, including the English language, and sports such as association football, rugby, horse racing. The name Ireland derives from Old Irish Eriu and this in turn derives from Proto-Celtic *Iveriu, which is also the source of Latin Hibernia. Iveriu derives from a root meaning fat, prosperous, during the last glacial period, and up until about 9000 years ago, most of Ireland was covered with ice, most of the time
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