1.
Apollo 17
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Apollo 17 was the final mission of NASAs Apollo program, the enterprise that landed the first humans on the Moon. Apollo 17 was the first night launch of a U. S. human spaceflight and it was a J-type mission which included three days on the lunar surface, extended scientific capability, and the third Lunar Roving Vehicle. Evans took scientific measurements and photographs from orbit using a Scientific Instruments Module mounted in the Service Module, Cernan, Evans and Schmitt returned to Earth on December 19 after a 12-day mission. Apollo 17 is the most recent manned Moon landing and was the last time humans travelled beyond low Earth orbit, the mission broke several records, the longest moon landing, longest total extravehicular activities, largest lunar sample, and longest time in lunar orbit. Eugene Cernan, Ronald Evans, and former X-15 pilot Joe Engle were assigned to the crew of Apollo 14. Engle flew sixteen X-15 flights, three of which exceeded the 50 mi border of space, following the rotation pattern that a backup crew would fly as the prime crew three missions later, Cernan, Evans, and Engle would have flown Apollo 17. Harrison Schmitt served on the crew of Apollo 15 and. However, Apollo 18 was cancelled in September 1970, following this decision, the scientific community pressured NASA to assign a geologist to an Apollo landing, as opposed to a pilot trained in geology. In light of pressure, Harrison Schmitt, a professional geologist, was assigned the Lunar Module Pilot position on Apollo 17. Scientist-astronaut Curt Michel believed that it was his own decision to resign, after it became clear that he would not be given a flight assignment, that mobilized this action. Subsequent to the decision to assign Schmitt to Apollo 17, there remained the question of which crew would become prime crew of the mission. NASA Director of Flight Crew Operations Deke Slayton ultimately assigned the crew of Apollo 14, along with Schmitt. The Apollo 15 prime crew received the backup assignment since this was to be the last lunar mission, however, when the Apollo 15 postage stamp incident became public in early 1972 the crew was reprimanded by NASA and the United States Air Force. Robert F. Overmyer Robert A. Parker C, three white stars above the red bars represent the three crewmen of the mission. The background includes the Moon, the planet Saturn and a galaxy or nebula, the wing of the eagle partially overlays the Moon, suggesting mans established presence there. The gaze of Apollo and the direction of the eagles motion embody mans intention to further destinations in space. The patch includes, along with the colors of the U. S. flag, the image of Apollo in the mission insignia is a rendering of the Apollo Belvedere sculpture. The insignia was designed by Robert McCall, with input from the crew, since Apollo 17 was to be the final lunar landing of the Apollo program, high-priority landing sites that had not been visited previously were given consideration for potential exploration
2.
NASA
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President Dwight D. Eisenhower established NASA in 1958 with a distinctly civilian orientation encouraging peaceful applications in space science. The National Aeronautics and Space Act was passed on July 29,1958, disestablishing NASAs predecessor, the new agency became operational on October 1,1958. Since that time, most US space exploration efforts have led by NASA, including the Apollo Moon landing missions, the Skylab space station. Currently, NASA is supporting the International Space Station and is overseeing the development of the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, the agency is also responsible for the Launch Services Program which provides oversight of launch operations and countdown management for unmanned NASA launches. NASA shares data with various national and international such as from the Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite. Since 2011, NASA has been criticized for low cost efficiency, from 1946, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics had been experimenting with rocket planes such as the supersonic Bell X-1. In the early 1950s, there was challenge to launch a satellite for the International Geophysical Year. An effort for this was the American Project Vanguard, after the Soviet launch of the worlds first artificial satellite on October 4,1957, the attention of the United States turned toward its own fledgling space efforts. This led to an agreement that a new federal agency based on NACA was needed to conduct all non-military activity in space. The Advanced Research Projects Agency was created in February 1958 to develop technology for military application. On July 29,1958, Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act, a NASA seal was approved by President Eisenhower in 1959. Elements of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency and the United States Naval Research Laboratory were incorporated into NASA, earlier research efforts within the US Air Force and many of ARPAs early space programs were also transferred to NASA. In December 1958, NASA gained control of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA has conducted many manned and unmanned spaceflight programs throughout its history. Some missions include both manned and unmanned aspects, such as the Galileo probe, which was deployed by astronauts in Earth orbit before being sent unmanned to Jupiter, the experimental rocket-powered aircraft programs started by NACA were extended by NASA as support for manned spaceflight. This was followed by a space capsule program, and in turn by a two-man capsule program. This goal was met in 1969 by the Apollo program, however, reduction of the perceived threat and changing political priorities almost immediately caused the termination of most of these plans. NASA turned its attention to an Apollo-derived temporary space laboratory, to date, NASA has launched a total of 166 manned space missions on rockets, and thirteen X-15 rocket flights above the USAF definition of spaceflight altitude,260,000 feet. The X-15 was an NACA experimental rocket-powered hypersonic research aircraft, developed in conjunction with the US Air Force, the design featured a slender fuselage with fairings along the side containing fuel and early computerized control systems
3.
Madagascar
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Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, and previously known as the Malagasy Republic, is an island country in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of Southeast Africa. The nation comprises the island of Madagascar, and numerous smaller peripheral islands, consequently, Madagascar is a biodiversity hotspot, over 90% of its wildlife is found nowhere else on Earth. The islands diverse ecosystems and unique wildlife are threatened by the encroachment of the growing human population. The first archaeological evidence for human foraging on Madagascar dates to 2000 BC, human settlement of Madagascar occurred between 350 BC and AD550 by Austronesian peoples arriving on outrigger canoes from Borneo. These were joined around AD1000 by Bantu migrants crossing the Mozambique Channel from East Africa, other groups continued to settle on Madagascar over time, each one making lasting contributions to Malagasy cultural life. The Malagasy ethnic group is divided into 18 or more sub-groups of which the largest are the Merina of the central highlands. Until the late 18th century, the island of Madagascar was ruled by an assortment of shifting sociopolitical alliances. Beginning in the early 19th century, most of the island was united and ruled as the Kingdom of Madagascar by a series of Merina nobles, the monarchy collapsed in 1897 when the island was absorbed into the French colonial empire, from which the island gained independence in 1960. The autonomous state of Madagascar has since undergone four major constitutional periods, since 1992, the nation has officially been governed as a constitutional democracy from its capital at Antananarivo. However, in an uprising in 2009, president Marc Ravalomanana was made to resign. Constitutional governance was restored in January 2014, when Hery Rajaonarimampianina was named president following a 2013 election deemed fair, Madagascar is a member of the United Nations, the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie and the Southern African Development Community. Madagascar belongs to the group of least developed countries, according to the United Nations, Malagasy and French are both official languages of the state. The majority of the population adheres to traditional beliefs, Christianity, ecotourism and agriculture, paired with greater investments in education, health, and private enterprise, are key elements of Madagascars development strategy. As of 2017, the economy has been weakened by the 2009-2013 political crisis, in the Malagasy language, the island of Madagascar is called Madagasikara and its people are referred to as Malagasy. The islands appellation Madagascar is not of origin, but rather was popularized in the Middle Ages by Europeans. On St. Laurences Day in 1500, Portuguese explorer Diogo Dias landed on the island, polos name was preferred and popularized on Renaissance maps. At 592,800 square kilometres, Madagascar is the worlds 47th largest country, the country lies mostly between latitudes 12°S and 26°S, and longitudes 43°E and 51°E. Neighboring islands include the French territory of Réunion and the country of Mauritius to the east, as well as the state of Comoros, the nearest mainland state is Mozambique, located to the west
4.
Eastern Standard Time Zone
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Places that use Eastern Standard Time when observing standard time are 5 hours behind Coordinated Universal Time. Eastern Daylight Time, when observing daylight saving time DST is 4 hours behind Coordinated Universal Time, in the northern parts of the time zone, on the second Sunday in March, at 2,00 a. m. EST, clocks are advanced to 3,00 a. m. EDT leaving a one-hour gap, on the first Sunday in November, at 2,00 a. m. EDT, clocks are moved back to 1,00 a. m, southern parts of the zone do not observe daylight saving time. The Uniform Time Act of 1966 ruled that daylight saving time would run from the last Sunday of April until the last Sunday in October in the United States, the act was amended to make the first Sunday in April the beginning of daylight saving time as of 1987. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 extended daylight saving time in the United States beginning in 2007. So local times change at 2,00 a. m. EST to 3,00 a. m. EDT on the second Sunday in March, in Canada, the time changes as it does in the United States. However, a handful of communities unofficially observe Eastern Time because they are part of the Columbus, Georgia metropolitan area – Phenix City, Smiths Station, Lanett, and Valley. Florida, All of Florida is in the Eastern Time zone except for the portion of the Florida Panhandle west of the Apalachicola River, as the Eastern–Central zone boundary approaches the Gulf of Mexico, it follows the Bay/Gulf county line. Indiana, All of Indiana observes Eastern Time except for six counties in the Chicago metropolitan area. Kentucky, Roughly, the half of the state, including all of metropolitan Louisville, is in the Eastern Time Zone. Historically the entire state observed Central Time, when daylight saving time was first introduced, the Lower Peninsula remained on DST after it formally ended, effectively re-aligning itself into the Eastern Time Zone. The Upper Peninsula continued to observe Central Time until 1972, when all, Tennessee, Most of the eastern third of Tennessee is legally on Eastern Time. Eastern Time is also used somewhat as a de facto official time for all of the United States, since it includes the capital and the largest city. Major professional sports leagues also post all game times in Eastern time, for example, a game time between two teams from Pacific Time Zone will still be posted in Eastern time. Most cable television and national broadcast networks advertise airing times in Eastern time, national broadcast networks generally have two primary feeds, an eastern feed for Eastern and Central time zones, and a tape-delayed western feed for the Pacific Time Zone. The prime time is set on Eastern and Pacific at 8,00 p. m. with the Central time zone stations receiving the eastern feed at 7,00 p. m. local time. Mountain Time Zone stations receive a separate feed at 7,00 p. m. local time, as Arizona does not observe daylight saving time, during the summer months, it has its own feed at 7,00 p. m. local time
5.
Coordinated Universal Time
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Coordinated Universal Time, abbreviated to UTC, is the primary time standard by which the world regulates clocks and time. It is within about 1 second of mean time at 0° longitude. It is one of closely related successors to Greenwich Mean Time. For most purposes, UTC is considered interchangeable with GMT, the first Coordinated Universal Time was informally adopted on 1 January 1960. This change also adopted leap seconds to simplify future adjustments, a number of proposals have been made to replace UTC with a new system that would eliminate leap seconds, but no consensus has yet been reached. Leap seconds are inserted as necessary to keep UTC within 0.9 seconds of universal time, see the Current number of leap seconds section for the number of leap seconds inserted to date. The official abbreviation for Coordinated Universal Time is UTC and this abbreviation arose from a desire by the International Telecommunication Union and the International Astronomical Union to use the same abbreviation in all languages. English speakers originally proposed CUT, while French speakers proposed TUC, the compromise that emerged was UTC, which conforms to the pattern for the abbreviations of the variants of Universal Time. Time zones around the world are expressed using positive or negative offsets from UTC, the westernmost time zone uses UTC−12, being twelve hours behind UTC, the easternmost time zone, theoretically, uses UTC+12, being twelve hours ahead of UTC. In 1995, the nation of Kiribati moved those of its atolls in the Line Islands from UTC-10 to UTC+14 so that the country would all be on the same day. UTC is used in internet and World Wide Web standards. The Network Time Protocol, designed to synchronise the clocks of computers over the internet, computer servers, online services and other entities that rely on having a universally accepted time use UTC as it is more specific than GMT. If only limited precision is needed, clients can obtain the current UTC from a number of official internet UTC servers, for sub-microsecond precision, clients can obtain the time from satellite signals. UTC is also the standard used in aviation, e. g. for flight plans. Weather forecasts and maps all use UTC to avoid confusion about time zones, the International Space Station also uses UTC as a time standard. Amateur radio operators often schedule their radio contacts in UTC, because transmissions on some frequencies can be picked up by many time zones, UTC is also used in digital tachographs used on large goods vehicles under EU and AETR rules. UTC divides time into days, hours, minutes and seconds, days are conventionally identified using the Gregorian calendar, but Julian day numbers can also be used. Each day contains 24 hours and each hour contains 60 minutes, the number of seconds in a minute is usually 60, but with an occasional leap second, it may be 61 or 59 instead
6.
Astronaut
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An astronaut or cosmonaut is a person trained by a human spaceflight program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft. Although generally reserved for professional space travelers, the terms are applied to anyone who travels into space, including scientists, politicians, journalists. Starting in the 1950s up to 2002, astronauts were sponsored and trained exclusively by governments, with the suborbital flight of the privately funded SpaceShipOne in 2004, a new category of astronaut was created, the commercial astronaut. The criteria for what constitutes human spaceflight vary, the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale Sporting Code for astronautics recognizes only flights that exceed an altitude of 100 kilometers. In the United States, professional, military, and commercial astronauts who travel above an altitude of 50 miles are awarded astronaut wings. As of 17 November 2016, a total of 552 people from 36 countries have reached 100 km or more in altitude, of which 549 reached low Earth orbit or beyond. Of these,24 people have traveled beyond Low Earth orbit, to either lunar or trans-lunar orbit or to the surface of the moon, the three astronauts who have not reached low Earth orbit are spaceplane pilots Joe Walker, Mike Melvill, and Brian Binnie. As of 17 November 2016, under the U. S. definition 558 people qualify as having reached space, of eight X-15 pilots who exceeded 50 miles in altitude, only one exceeded 100 kilometers. Space travelers have spent over 41,790 man-days in space, as of 2016, the man with the longest cumulative time in space is Gennady Padalka, who has spent 879 days in space. Peggy A. Whitson holds the record for the most time in space by a woman,377 days, dryden preferred cosmonaut, on the grounds that flights would occur in the cosmos, while the astro prefix suggested flight to the stars. Most NASA Space Task Group members preferred astronaut, which survived by common usage as the preferred American term, when the Soviet Union launched the first man into space, Yuri Gagarin in 1961, they chose a term which anglicizes to cosmonaut. In English-speaking nations, a space traveler is called an astronaut. The term derives from the Greek words ástron, meaning star, the first known use of the term astronaut in the modern sense was by Neil R. Jones in his short story The Deaths Head Meteor in 1930. The word itself had been known earlier, for example, in Percy Gregs 1880 book Across the Zodiac, astronaut referred to a spacecraft. In Les Navigateurs de lInfini of J. -H, rosny aîné, the word astronautique was used. The word may have inspired by aeronaut, an older term for an air traveler first applied to balloonists. An early use in a publication is Eric Frank Russells poem The Astronaut in the November 1934 Bulletin of the British Interplanetary Society. NASA applies the term astronaut to any crew member aboard NASA spacecraft bound for Earth orbit or beyond, NASA also uses the term as a title for those selected to join its Astronaut Corps
7.
Gibbous
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The lunar phase or phase of the moon is the shape of the illuminated portion of the Moon as seen by an observer on Earth. The lunar phases change cyclically as the Moon orbits the Earth, according to the positions of the Moon. The Moons rotation is locked by the Earths gravity, therefore the same lunar surface always faces Earth. This face is variously sunlit depending on the position of the Moon in its orbit, therefore, the portion of this hemisphere that is visible to an observer on Earth can vary from about 100% to 0%. The lunar terminator is the boundary between the illuminated and darkened hemispheres, each of the four intermediate lunar phases is roughly seven days but this varies slightly due to the elliptical shape of the Moons orbit. Aside from some craters near the lunar poles such as Shoemaker, all parts of the Moon see around 14.77 days of sunlight, in Western culture, the four principal lunar phases are new moon, first quarter, full moon, and third quarter. These are the instants when the Moons apparent geocentric celestial longitude minus the Suns apparent geocentric longitude is 0°, 90°, 180° and 270°. Each of these phases is instantaneous, lasting theoretically zero time, during the intervals between principal phases, the Moon appears either crescent-shaped or gibbous. These shapes, and the periods of time when the Moon shows them, are called the intermediate phases. They last, on average, one-quarter of a month, roughly 7.38 days, but their durations vary slightly because the Moons orbit is slightly elliptical. The descriptor waxing is used for a phase when the Moons apparent size is increasing, from new moon toward full moon. As the moon waxes, the lunar phases progress through new moon, crescent moon, first-quarter moon, gibbous moon, the moon is then said to wane as it passes through the gibbous moon, third-quarter moon, crescent moon and back to new moon. The terms old moon and new moon are not interchangeable, the old moon is a waning sliver until the moment it aligns with the sun and begins to wax, at which point it becomes new again. Half moon is used to mean the first- and third-quarter moons, while the term quarter refers to the extent of the moons cycle around the Earth. When a crescent Moon occurs, the phenomenon of earthshine may be apparent, in the Northern Hemisphere, if the left side of the Moon is dark then the light part is growing, and the Moon is referred to as waxing. If the right side of the Moon is dark then the part is shrinking. Assuming that the viewer is in the hemisphere, the right portion of the Moon is the part that is always growing. Nearer the Equator the Moon with its terminator will appear apparently horizontal during the morning and evening, the crescent Moon can open upward or downward, with the horns of the crescent pointing up or down, respectively
8.
Marble (toy)
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A marble is a small spherical toy often made from glass, clay, steel, plastic or agate. Most commonly, they are about 1 cm in diameter, but they may range from less than 1 mm to over 8 cm, Marbles can be used for a variety of games called marbles. They are often collected, both for nostalgia and for their aesthetic colors, in the North of England the objects and the game are called taws, with larger taws being called bottle washers after the use of a marble in Codd-neck bottles. In the early century, small balls of stone, identified by archaeologists as marbles, were found on excavation near Mohenjo-daro. Marbles are often mentioned in Roman literature, as in Ovids poem Nux and they were commonly made of clay, stone or glass. Marbles arrived in Britain, imported from the Low Countries, during the medieval era, Marbles were first manufactured in Germany in the 1800s. The game has become popular throughout the U. S. ceramic marbles entered inexpensive mass production in the 1870s. A German glassblower invented marble scissors, a device for making marbles, the first mass-produced toy marbles made in the U. S. were made in Akron, Ohio, by S. C. Some of the first U. S. -produced glass marbles were also made in Akron, in 1903, Martin Frederick Christensen—also of Akron, Ohio—made the first machine-made glass marbles on his patented machine. His company, The M. F. Christensen & Son Co. manufactured millions of toy, the next U. S. company to enter the glass marble market was Akro Agate. This company was started by Akronites in 1911, but was located in Clarksburg, today, there are only two American-based toy marble manufacturers, Jabo Vitro in Reno, Ohio, and Marble King, in Paden City, West Virginia. In Australia, games were played with marbles of different sizes, the smallest and most common was about 15 mm in diameter. The two larger, more valuable sizes were referred to as semi-bowlers and tom-bowlers, being about 20 mm and 25 mm in diameter respectively. They were used in much the way as ordinary marbles, although sometimes they would be declared invalid because of the advantage of their larger mass. Owners of large marbles were also afraid to use them lest they be lost to another player as keepsies and they were usually of the clear cats eye or milk glass type, just bigger. Firing a marble meant that a player had to flick his/her marble from a position of his hand. No part of the firing the marble was permitted to be in front of the position where the marble had been resting on the ground. Using that hand, he would flick or fire the marble from his/her hand, usually with the knuckle on the back of his/her hand resting on the ground, and usually using the thumb of that hand to do so
9.
Moon
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The Moon is an astronomical body that orbits planet Earth, being Earths only permanent natural satellite. It is the fifth-largest natural satellite in the Solar System, following Jupiters satellite Io, the Moon is second-densest satellite among those whose densities are known. The average distance of the Moon from the Earth is 384,400 km, the Moon is thought to have formed about 4.51 billion years ago, not long after Earth. It is the second-brightest regularly visible celestial object in Earths sky, after the Sun and its surface is actually dark, although compared to the night sky it appears very bright, with a reflectance just slightly higher than that of worn asphalt. Its prominence in the sky and its cycle of phases have made the Moon an important cultural influence since ancient times on language, calendars, art. The Moons gravitational influence produces the ocean tides, body tides, and this matching of apparent visual size will not continue in the far future. The Moons linear distance from Earth is currently increasing at a rate of 3.82 ±0.07 centimetres per year, since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972, the Moon has been visited only by uncrewed spacecraft. The usual English proper name for Earths natural satellite is the Moon, the noun moon is derived from moone, which developed from mone, which is derived from Old English mōna, which ultimately stems from Proto-Germanic *mǣnōn, like all Germanic language cognates. Occasionally, the name Luna is used, in literature, especially science fiction, Luna is used to distinguish it from other moons, while in poetry, the name has been used to denote personification of our moon. The principal modern English adjective pertaining to the Moon is lunar, a less common adjective is selenic, derived from the Ancient Greek Selene, from which is derived the prefix seleno-. Both the Greek Selene and the Roman goddess Diana were alternatively called Cynthia, the names Luna, Cynthia, and Selene are reflected in terminology for lunar orbits in words such as apolune, pericynthion, and selenocentric. The name Diana is connected to dies meaning day, several mechanisms have been proposed for the Moons formation 4.51 billion years ago, and some 60 million years after the origin of the Solar System. These hypotheses also cannot account for the angular momentum of the Earth–Moon system. This hypothesis, although not perfect, perhaps best explains the evidence, eighteen months prior to an October 1984 conference on lunar origins, Bill Hartmann, Roger Phillips, and Jeff Taylor challenged fellow lunar scientists, You have eighteen months. Go back to your Apollo data, go back to computer, do whatever you have to. Dont come to our conference unless you have something to say about the Moons birth, at the 1984 conference at Kona, Hawaii, the giant impact hypothesis emerged as the most popular. Afterward there were only two groups, the giant impact camp and the agnostics. Giant impacts are thought to have been common in the early Solar System, computer simulations of a giant impact have produced results that are consistent with the mass of the lunar core and the present angular momentum of the Earth–Moon system
10.
Solstice
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The Solstice occurs twice each year as the Sun reaches its most northerly or southerly excursion relative to the celestial equator on the celestial sphere. The seasons of the year are directly connected to both the solstices and the equinoxes, the term solstice can also be used in a broader sense, as the day when this occurs. The day of the solstice has either the most sunlight of the year or the least sunlight of the year for any other than the equator. Alternative terms, with no ambiguity as to which hemisphere is the context, are June solstice and December solstice, at latitudes outside the tropics, the summer solstice marks the day when the sun appears highest in the sky. Within the tropics, the sun directly overhead from days to months before the solstice and again after the solstice. For an observer on the North Pole, the sun reaches the highest position in the sky once a year in June, the day this occurs is called the June solstice day. Similarly, for an observer on the South Pole, the sun reaches the highest position on December solstice day, when it is the summer solstice at one Pole, it is the winter solstice on the other. The suns westerly motion never ceases as the Earth is continually in rotation, however, the suns motion in declination comes to a stop at the moment of solstice. In that sense, solstice means sun-standing and this modern scientific word descends from a Latin scientific word in use in the late Roman republic of the 1st century BC, solstitium. Pliny uses it a number of times in his Natural History with a meaning that it has today. It contains two Latin-language morphemes, sol, sun, and -stitium, stoppage, the Romans used standing to refer to a component of the relative velocity of the Sun as it is observed in the sky. Relative velocity is the motion of an object from the point of view of an observer in a frame of reference, from a fixed position on the ground, the sun appears to orbit around the Earth. To an observer in a frame of reference, the planet Earth is seen to rotate about an axis. The Earths axis is tilted with respect to the plane of the Earths orbit, an observer on Earth therefore sees a solar path that is the result of both rotation and revolution. At maximum or minimum elevation, the relative motion of the Sun perpendicular to the horizon stops. Outside of the tropics, the maximum occurs at the summer solstice. The path of the Sun, or ecliptic, sweeps north and south between the northern and southern hemispheres, the days are longer around the summer solstice and shorter around the winter solstice. When the Suns path crosses the equator, the length of the nights at latitudes +L° and -L° are of equal length and this is known as an equinox
11.
1972 Tamil Nadu cyclone
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The years before 1980 featured the pre-1980 North Indian Ocean cyclone seasons. Each season was an event in the annual cycle of tropical cyclone formation. The North Indian tropical cyclone season has no bounds, but they tend to form between April and December, peaks in May and November and these dates conventionally delimit the period of each year when most tropical cyclones form in the northern Indian Ocean. Below are the most significant cyclones in the time period, because much of the North Indian coastline is near sea level and prone to flooding, these cyclones can easily kill many with storm surge and flooding. These cyclones are among the deadliest on earth in terms of numbers killed and it was a cyclone which struck the city of Madras in the Madras Presidency on 13 and 14 November 1721. The cyclone was one of the most severe in the history of the city and destroyed bridges, the damages were high and three ships of the British East India Company were lost. The Island Bridge connecting Fort St George with The Island was badly damaged as a result of the cyclone, on 7 October 1737, a natural disaster struck the city of Calcutta in India. For a long time this was believed in Europe to have been the result of an earthquake, other reports from merchant ships indicated an earthquake and tidal surge were to blame, destroying 20,000 ships in the harbor and killing 300,000 people. It should be noted that the population of Calcutta at the time was around 3, 000–20,000. Although there seems to be evidence for the popular figure of 300,000 deaths or for the existence of an earthquake at all. At the same time, the figure of 3000 is only an estimation of the number of deaths inside the city itself. This apparent incongruity in the data suggests a possible mix-up with the numbers for the 1839 Coringa cyclone mentioned in this article, strong storm surge from a cyclone that hit Coringa, India destroyed the port and killed 20,000. A ship reported a pressure of 891 mbar at Khijri, India, on 25 November 1839, an enormous cyclone caused a 40-foot storm surge that hit Coringa, Andhra Pradesh, wiped out the harbor city, destroyed vessels in its bay, and killed 300,000 people. Survivors never entirely rebuilt the city and this intense cyclone moved into Bengal state. A total of 75,000 people and 6000 cattle perished during the storm, on October 5, a powerful cyclone hit near Calcutta, India, killing around 60,000 people. The anemometer in the city was blown away during the cyclone, over 100 brick homes and tens of thousands of tiled and straw huts were leveled. Most ships in the harbor were damaged or destroyed. The cyclone of 1864 destroyed the ports at Khejuri and Hijli, the anemometer in the city was blown away during the cyclone
12.
India
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India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and it is bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast. It shares land borders with Pakistan to the west, China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the northeast, in the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Indias Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a border with Thailand. The Indian subcontinent was home to the urban Indus Valley Civilisation of the 3rd millennium BCE, in the following millennium, the oldest scriptures associated with Hinduism began to be composed. Social stratification, based on caste, emerged in the first millennium BCE, early political consolidations took place under the Maurya and Gupta empires, the later peninsular Middle Kingdoms influenced cultures as far as southeast Asia. In the medieval era, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam arrived, much of the north fell to the Delhi sultanate, the south was united under the Vijayanagara Empire. The economy expanded in the 17th century in the Mughal empire, in the mid-18th century, the subcontinent came under British East India Company rule, and in the mid-19th under British crown rule. A nationalist movement emerged in the late 19th century, which later, under Mahatma Gandhi, was noted for nonviolent resistance, in 2015, the Indian economy was the worlds seventh largest by nominal GDP and third largest by purchasing power parity. Following market-based economic reforms in 1991, India became one of the major economies and is considered a newly industrialised country. However, it continues to face the challenges of poverty, corruption, malnutrition, a nuclear weapons state and regional power, it has the third largest standing army in the world and ranks sixth in military expenditure among nations. India is a constitutional republic governed under a parliamentary system. It is a pluralistic, multilingual and multi-ethnic society and is home to a diversity of wildlife in a variety of protected habitats. The name India is derived from Indus, which originates from the Old Persian word Hindu, the latter term stems from the Sanskrit word Sindhu, which was the historical local appellation for the Indus River. The ancient Greeks referred to the Indians as Indoi, which translates as The people of the Indus, the geographical term Bharat, which is recognised by the Constitution of India as an official name for the country, is used by many Indian languages in its variations. Scholars believe it to be named after the Vedic tribe of Bharatas in the second millennium B. C. E and it is also traditionally associated with the rule of the legendary emperor Bharata. Gaṇarājya is the Sanskrit/Hindi term for republic dating back to the ancient times, hindustan is a Persian name for India dating back to the 3rd century B. C. E. It was introduced into India by the Mughals and widely used since then and its meaning varied, referring to a region that encompassed northern India and Pakistan or India in its entirety
13.
Tamil Nadu
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Tamil Nadu is one of the 29 states of India. Its capital and largest city is Chennai, Tamil Nadu lies in the southernmost part of the Indian Peninsula and is bordered by the union territory of Puducherry and the South Indian states of Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh. The state shares a border with the nation of Sri Lanka. Tamil Nadu is the eleventh-largest state in India by area and the sixth-most populous, the state was ranked sixth among states in India according to the Human Development Index in 2011, with the second-largest state economy after Maharashtra. Tamil Nadu is the second largest state economy in India with ₹13,842 billion in gross domestic product after Maharashtra. Tamil Nadu was ranked as one of the top seven developed states in India based on a Multidimensional Development Index in a 2013 report published by the Reserve Bank of India and its official language is Tamil, which is one of the longest-surviving classical languages in the world. Tamil Nadu is home to natural resources. In addition, its people have developed and continue classical arts, classical music, historic buildings and religious sites include Hindu temples of Tamil architecture, hill stations, beach resorts, multi-religious pilgrimage sites, and eight UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Archaeological evidence points to this area being one of the longest continuous habitations in the Indian peninsula, the ASI archaeologists have proposed that the script used at that site is very rudimentary Tamil Brahmi. Adichanallur has been announced as a site for further excavation. About 60 per cent of the epigraphical inscriptions found by the ASI in India are from Tamil Nadu. A Neolithic stone celt with the Indus script on it was discovered at Sembian-Kandiyur near Mayiladuthurai in Tamil Nadu, according to epigraphist Iravatham Mahadevan, this was the first datable artefact bearing the Indus script to be found in Tamil Nadu. Mahadevan claimed that the find was evidence of the use of the Harappan language, the date of the celt was estimated at between 1500 BCE and 2000 BCE. The early history of the people and rulers of Tamil Nadu is a topic in Tamil literary sources known as Sangam literature, numismatic, archaeological and literary sources corroborate that the Sangam period lasted for about six centuries, from 300 BC to AD300. Three dynasties, namely the Chera, Chola and Pandya, ruled the area of present-day Tamil Nadu, the Chera ruled the whole of present-day Kerala and parts of western Tamil Nadu comprising Coimbatore, Dharmapuri, Karur, Salem and Erode districts from the capital of Vanchi Muthur. The Chola dynasty ruled the northern and central parts of Tamil Nadu from their capital, Uraiyur, All three dynasties had extensive trade relationships with Rome, Greece, Egypt, Ceylon, Phoenicia, Arabia, Mesopotamia and Persia. Trade flourished in commodities such as spices, ivory, pearls, beads, Chera traded extensively from Muziris on the west coast, Chola from Arikamedu and Puhar and Pandya through Korkai port. A Greco-Roman trade and travel document, the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea gives a description of the Tamil country, besides these three dynasties, the Sangam era Tamilakam was also divided into various provinces named nadu, meaning country
14.
Hasselblad
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Victor Hasselblad AB is a Swedish manufacturer of medium-format cameras, photographic equipment and image scanners based in Gothenburg, Sweden. The company is best known for the classic medium-format cameras it produced since World War II, perhaps the most famous use of the Hasselblad camera was during the Apollo program missions when humans first landed on the Moon. Almost all of the photographs taken during these missions used modified Hasselblad cameras. The company was established in 1841 in Gothenburg, Sweden, by Fritz Wiktor Hasselblad, as a company, F. W. Hasselblad. The founders son, Arvid Viktor Hasselblad, was interested in photography, Hasselblads corporate website quotes him as saying I certainly don’t think that we will earn much money on this, but at least it will allow us to take pictures for free. In 1877, Arvid Hasselblad commissioned the construction of Hasselblads long-time headquarters building, while on honeymoon, Arvid Hasselblad met George Eastman, founder of Eastman Kodak. In 1888, Hasselblad became the sole Swedish distributor of Eastmans products, the business was so successful that in 1908, the photographic operations were spun off into their own corporation, Fotografiska AB. Operations included a network of shops and photo labs. Management of the company passed to Karl Erik Hasselblad, Arvids son. Karl Erik wanted his son, Victor Hasselblad, to have an understanding of the camera business. Due to disputes within the family, particularly with his father, Victor left the business and in 1937 started his own store and lab in Gothenburg. During World War II, the Swedish military captured a fully functioning German aerial surveillance camera from a downed German plane and this was probably a Handkamera HK12.5 / 7x9, which bore the codename GXN. The Swedish government realised the advantage of developing an aerial camera for their own use. By late 1941, the operation had over 20 employees and the Swedish Air Force asked for another camera, one which would have a larger negative, between 1941 and 1945, Hasselblad delivered 342 cameras to the Swedish military. In 1942, Karl Erik Hasselblad died and Victor took control of the family business, during the war, in addition to the military cameras, Hasselblad produced watch and clock parts, over 95,000 by the wars end. After the war, watch and clock production continued, and other work was also carried out, including producing a slide projector. Victor Hasselblads real ambition was to make high-quality civilian cameras, in 1945–1946, the first design drawings and wooden models were made for a camera to be called the Rossex. An internal design competition was held for elements of the camera, one of the winners was Sixten Sason, in 1948, the camera later known as the 1600 F was released
15.
Carl Zeiss AG
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Carl Zeiss is a German manufacturer of optical systems, industrial measurements and medical devices, founded in Jena, Germany in 1846 by optician Carl Zeiss. Together with Ernst Abbe and Otto Schott they built a base for modern optics, there are currently two parts of the company, Carl Zeiss AG located in Oberkochen with important subsidiaries in Aalen, Göttingen and Munich, and Carl Zeiss GmbH located in Jena. Carl Zeiss AG is the company of the Zeiss Gruppe. The Zeiss Gruppe is located in Heidenheim and Jena, also controlled by the Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung are the glass manufacturers Schott AG and Jenaer Glas, located in Mainz and Jena respectively. Carl Zeiss is one of the oldest existing optics manufacturers in the world, Carl Zeiss opened an optics workshop in Jena in 1846. By 1847 he was making microscopes full-time, by 1861 Zeiss was considered to be among the best scientific instrument makers in Germany with about 20 people working under him with his business still growing. By 1866 the Zeiss workshop sold their 1, 000th microscope, in 1872 physicist Ernst Abbe joined Zeiss and along with Otto Schott designed greatly improved lenses for the optical instruments they were producing. After Carl Zeisss death in 1888, the business was incorporated as the Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung in 1889, by World War I, Zeiss was the worlds largest location of camera production. Zeiss Ikon represented a significant part of the production along with dozens of brands and factories. The Hensoldt System Technology division was continued by Zeiss under the Hensoldt name until 2006, as part of Nazi Germany Zwangsarbeiter program, Zeiss used forced labour during the Second World War. The destruction of the war caused many companies to divide into smaller subcompanies, at the end of the war Jena was occupied by the US Army. As part of the World War II reparations, the Soviet army took most of the existing Zeiss factories and tooling back to the Soviet Union as the Kiev camera works. The western business was restarted in Oberkochen as Opton Optische Werke Oberkochen GmbH in 1946, which became Zeiss-Opton Optische Werke Oberkochen GmbH in 1947, but was soon renamed to Carl Zeiss. West German Zeiss products were labelled Opton for sale in the Eastern bloc and this collaboration continued under Yashicas successor, Kyocera, until the latter ceased all camera production in 2005. Zeiss later produced lenses for the industry and, more recently, has again produced high-quality 35 mm camera lenses. Jenoptik GmbH was split off as a specialty company in the areas of photonics, optoelectronics, the Hensoldt AG was renamed Carl Zeiss Sports Optics GmbH on 1 October 2006. The companies of the Zeiss Gruppe in and around Dresden have branched into new technologies, screens and products for the automotive industry, today, there are arguably three companies with primarily Zeiss Ikon heritage, Zeiss Germany, the Finnish/Swedish Ikon, and the independent eastern Zeiss Ikon. On 28 June 2013, Carl Zeiss officially announced its plan to rename the brand from Carl Zeiss to simply Zeiss, all the products will be standardized under the Zeiss brand
16.
Eugene Cernan
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Captain Eugene Andrew Gene Cernan was an American astronaut, naval aviator, electrical engineer, aeronautical engineer, and fighter pilot. On Apollo 17, Cernan became the person to walk on the Moon and, as the last man to re-enter the Lunar Module. He traveled into space three times, as Pilot of Gemini 9A in June 1966, as Lunar Module Pilot of Apollo 10 in May 1969, and as Commander of Apollo 17 in December 1972, the final Apollo lunar landing. Cernan was also a crew member for the Gemini 12, Apollo 7. Cernan was born on March 14,1934, in Chicago, Illinois and his father was of Slovak descent and his mother was of Czech ancestry. Cernan grew up in the towns of Bellwood and Maywood. Cernan was a Boy Scout and earned the rank of Second Class, after his sophomore year, he accepted a partial Navy ROTC scholarship, which also required him to serve aboard the USS Roanoke between his junior and senior years. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering in 1956 and his hobbies included love for horses, sports, hunting, fishing, and flying. Cernan was commissioned a U. S. Navy Ensign through the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps at Purdue, in 1958, Cernan became a Naval Aviator, flying FJ-4 Fury and A-4 Skyhawk jets in Attack Squadrons 126 and 113. Upon completion of his assignment in Miramar, California, he finished his education in 1963 at the U. S. Naval Postgraduate School with a Master of Science degree in Aeronautical Engineering. Throughout his career, Cernan logged more than 5,000 hours of flying time, in addition to his flight hours, Cernan also landed on aircraft carriers 200 times. Cernan was selected among the group of NASA astronauts in October 1963 by NASA to participate in the Gemini. Cernan was originally selected as pilot for Gemini 9 with Thomas Stafford. When the prime crew was killed in the crash of NASA T-38A901 at Lambert Field on February 28,1966 and this was the first time the backup crew had become the flight crew. However, the crew performed a rendezvous that simulated procedures that would be used in Apollo 10, the first optical rendezvous, and a lunar orbit abort rendezvous. Cernan performed the second American EVA, but overexertion due to lack of limb restraints prevented testing of the AMU, Cernan was also a backup Pilot for the Gemini 12 mission. Cernan turned down the opportunity to walk on the Moon as Lunar Module Pilot of Apollo 16, after the cancellation of Apollo 18, NASA decided to send a scientist, Harrison Schmitt, to the Moon. This decision meant the original Lunar Module pilot, Joe Engle, Cernan fought to keep his crew together, however, public pressure from the scientific community cemented Schmitts position on the crew
17.
Ronald Evans (astronaut)
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Ronald Ellwin Ron Evans Jr. was an American naval officer and aviator, electrical engineer, aeronautical engineer, and NASA astronaut, also one of only 24 people to have flown to the Moon. During the flight, he orbited the Moon as his two crewmates descended to the surface, consequently, he is the last person to orbit the Moon alone and holds the record for the longest lunar orbit by a human at 148 hours. In 1975 Evans served as backup Command Module Pilot for the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project mission, Evans was born on November 10,1933, in St. Francis, Kansas, to parents Clarence Ellwin Evans and Marie A. Evans. He had two siblings, Larry Joe Evans and Jay Evans and he was active in the Boy Scouts of America where he achieved its second highest rank, Life Scout. S. He was a member of Tau Beta Pi, Society of Sigma Xi, in June 1957 he completed flight training after receiving his commission as an Ensign through the Navy ROTC Program at the University of Kansas. From 1964 to 1966 Evans was on sea duty in the Pacific, assigned to Fighter Squadron, during this assignment, he completed a seven-month tour of duty flying combat missions in Vietnam War. He was with VF-51 when he was selected as an astronaut in April 1966, Evans logged 5,500 hours of flight time, including 5,000 hours in jet aircraft. Evans was one of the 19 astronauts selected by NASA in April 1966 and he served as a member of the astronaut support crews for the Apollo 7 and Apollo 11 flights, and as backup Command Module Pilot for Apollo 14. Evans first and only space flight was as Command Module Pilot of Apollo 17 and he was accompanied by Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt. He logged 301 hours and 51 minutes in space,1 hour and 6 minutes of which were spent in extravehicular activity and he holds the record of most time spent in lunar orbit, six days and four hours. Evans was later backup Command Module Pilot for the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project mission. Evans retired from the U. S. Navy as Captain on April 30,1976, with 21 years of service and he served as a member of the operations and training group within the Astronaut Office, responsible for launch and ascent phases of the Space Shuttle flight program. Evans retired from NASA in March 1977 to pursue a career in the coal industry, later he worked with Western American Energy Corporation in Scottsdale, Arizona and was Director of Space Systems Marketing for Sperry Flight Systems. He died in his sleep of an attack in Scottsdale, Arizona, on April 7,1990, and was survived by his widow Jan, his daughter, Jaime D. Evans. He received a University of Kansas Distinguished Service Citation in 1973 and he was inducted into the International Space Hall of Fame in 1983, and the U. S. Astronaut Hall of Fame on October 4,1997
18.
Harrison Schmitt
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Harrison Hagan Jack Schmitt is an American geologist, retired NASA astronaut, university professor, former U. S. senator from New Mexico, and the most recent living person to have walked on the Moon. He is also the last living member of Apollo 17. In December 1972, as one of the crew on board Apollo 17, as Apollo 17 was the last of the Apollo missions, he also became the twelfth and second youngest person to set foot on the Moon, and the second-to-last person to step off of the Moon. Schmitt also remains the first and only professional scientist to have flown beyond low Earth orbit, Schmitt resigned from NASA in August 1975 in order to run for election to the United States Senate as a member from New Mexico. As the Republican candidate in the 1976 election, he defeated the two-term Democratic incumbent Joseph Montoya, born in Santa Rita, New Mexico, Schmitt grew up in nearby Silver City, and he is a graduate of the Western High School. He received a B. S. degree in geology from the California Institute of Technology in 1957 and he received a Ph. D. in geology from Harvard University in 1964, based on his geological field studies in Norway. Following his selection, Schmitt spent his first year at Air Force UPT learning to become a jet pilot, after each of the landing missions, he participated in the examination and evaluation of the returned lunar samples and helped the crews with the scientific aspects of their mission reports. Schmitt spent considerable time becoming proficient in the CSM and LM systems, in March 1970 he became the first of the scientist-astronauts to be assigned to space flight, joining Richard F. Gordon, Jr. and Vance Brand on the Apollo 15 backup crew. The flight rotation put these three in line to fly as crew on the third following mission, Apollo 18. As a result, Schmitt was assigned in August 1971 to fly on the last mission, Apollo 17, Schmitt landed on the Moon with commander Gene Cernan in December 1972. Schmitt claims to have taken the photograph of the Earth known as The Blue Marble, among other distinctions, it is the central piece of evidence suggesting that the Moon once possessed an active magnetic field. As he returned to the Lunar Module before Cernan, Schmitt is the next-to-last person to have walked on the Moons surface. After the completion of Apollo 17, Schmitt played a role in documenting the Apollo geologic results. In August 1975, Schmitt resigned from NASA to seek election as a Republican to the United States Senate representing New Mexico in the 1976 election, Schmitt faced two-term Democratic incumbent Joseph Montoya, whom he defeated, 57% to 42%. He served one term and, notably, was the ranking Republican member of the Science, Technology and he sought a second term in 1982, facing state Attorney General Jeff Bingaman. Bingaman attacked Schmitt for not paying attention to local matters, his campaign slogan asked. This, combined with the recession, proved too much for Schmitt to overcome, he was defeated. During his term in the Senate, Schmitt sat at the candy desk
19.
ATS-3
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Applications Technology Satellite 3, or ATS-3, was a long-lived American experimental geostationary weather and communications satellite, operated by NASA from 1967 to 2001. It was at one time reputed to be the oldest satellite still in operation, As of 1995, on November 10,1967, ATS-3 took the first color photo of the Earth, which was subsequently used on the cover of the first Whole Earth Catalog. Launched in November 1967, the ATS-3 was in service for 11 years before finally being decommissioned in 1978 along with ATS-1, among its widest-known achievements are the first full-disk, color Earth images transmitted from a satellite. Its imaging capability has served during disaster situations, from the Mexico earthquake to the Mount St. Helens eruption, because of failures in the hydrogen peroxide systems on ATS-1, ATS-3 was equipped with a hydrazine propulsion system. Its success led to its incorporation on ATS-4 and ATS-5 as the propulsion system. The satellite is in geo-synchronous orbit 34,047 kilometers above the Earths surface, the satellite has served as a communications link for rescue operations, including the 1985 Mexico City earthquake and the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens. Circa 1970, ATS-3 was used to collect images of weather patterns,1,200 line photos were downlinked, approximately every 25 minutes, during daylight hours to NOAAs Command and Data Acquisition Station at Wallops Station, Virginia and transferred to various users. The satellite was known for its spinning beam antennas locking up, when that happened, it took a powerful ground-based transmitter, like the one at Mojave, to blast through digital instructions to get the antenna aimed back at earth again. 1967 in spaceflight Applications Technology Satellite Information and tracking ATS-316 Year In Orbit Evaluation
20.
Environmental activism
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While environmentalism focuses more on the environmental and nature-related aspects of green ideology and politics, ecologism combines the ideology of social ecology and environmentalism. ‘Ecologism’ is more used in continental European languages while ‘environmentalism’ is more commonly used in English. For this reason, concepts such as an ethic, environmental ethics, biodiversity, ecology. The exact measures and outcomes of this balance is controversial and there are different ways for environmental concerns to be expressed in practice. Environmentalism and environmental concerns are represented by the color green. Environmentalism denotes a movement that seeks to influence the political process by lobbying, activism. The word was first coined in 1922, an environmentalist is a person who may speak out about our natural environment and the sustainable management of its resources through changes in public policy or individual behavior. In various ways, environmentalists and environmental organizations seek to give the world a stronger voice in human affairs. In general terms, environmentalists advocate the sustainable management of resources, in its recognition of humanity as a participant in ecosystems, the movement is centered around ecology, health, and human rights. A concern for environmental protection has recurred in diverse forms, in different parts of the world, for example, in Europe, King Edward I of England banned the burning of sea-coal by proclamation in London in 1272, after its smoke had become a problem. The fuel was so common in England that this earliest of names for it was acquired because it could be carted away from some shores by the wheelbarrow. Earlier in the Middle East, the Caliph Abu Bakr in the 630s commanded his army to Bring no harm to the trees, nor burn them with fire, at the advent of steam and electricity the muse of history holds her nose and shuts her eyes. The origins of the movement lay in the response to increasing levels of smoke pollution in the atmosphere during the Industrial Revolution. An Alkali inspector and four sub-inspectors were appointed to curb this pollution, typically the highest priority went to water and air pollution. The Coal Smoke Abatement Society was formed in 1898 making it one of the oldest environmental NGOs and it was founded by artist Sir William Blake Richmond, frustrated with the pall cast by coal smoke. Although there were pieces of legislation, the Public Health Act 1875 required all furnaces and fireplaces to consume their own smoke. It also provided for sanctions against factories that emitted large amounts of black smoke, financial incentives were offered to householders to replace open coal fires with alternatives, or for those who preferred, to burn coke instead which produces minimal smoke. Smoke control areas were introduced in some towns and cities in which only smokeless fuels could be burnt, the act formed an important impetus to modern environmentalism, and caused a rethinking of the dangers of environmental degradation to peoples quality of life
21.
Flag of the Earth
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A flag of Earth is a flag used to represent Earth. Although no flag has received any recognition by any governmental body, some individuals. The most widely recognized flags associated with Earth are the flag of the United Nations, listed below are some of the unofficial contenders for a Flag of Earth. A flag designed by John McConnell in 1969 for the first Earth Day is a blue field charged with The Blue Marble. The first edition of McConnells flag used screen-printing and used different colors, ocean and land were white, McConnell presented his flag to the United Nations as a symbol for consideration. Because of the views of its creator and its having become a symbol of Earth Day, the flag is associated with environmental awareness. It was offered for sale originally in the Whole Earth Catalog and this does not invalidate the official history of McConnells flag, only the official patent that was issued on it. The One Flag in Space initiative is an offshoot of the Space Generation Congress and it promotes usage of the Blue Marble flag for space exploration. Adopted in 1946, the flag of the United Nations has been used to indicate world unity and it has a geographical representation of the planet, and its high visibility usage makes it a well-known contender for representing Earth. With this flag, he made a peace tour through Europe. The Universal Peace Congress adopted this flag as its World Peace Flag, designed by Pierre de Coubertin in 1914 and adopted in Olympic games since 1920, the Olympic flag represents all mankind and has a white bar with 5 interlocking rings of 5 colors. The five rings represent the five continents, the six colors represent all of the worlds nations. The World Citizen is a movement for global citizenship under a proposed world government. In 1953, one of its activists, Garry Davis, founded the World Service Authority, the astrological symbol of Earth is another candidate for Earths flag, often depicted with a blue background, with the symbol at its center. Another Earth flag was created around the time in 1970 by a farmer from Homer. It is particularly popular amongst SETI researchers and is used by SETI worldwide, the flag flies at the Ohio State University Radio Observatory and was lowered to half mast when Carl Sagan died. International was also founded by Cadle which sold the flag, the Flag of Earth became public domain in 2003. Magic Actions for YouTube used a small image of this flag next to a users name when the site couldnt determine geo-location during a comment post
22.
Abhay K
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Abhay Kumar /Abhay K. is an Indian poet-diplomat. His books include The Seduction of Delhi and CAPITALS among others and his writings cover poetry, art, memoir, global democracy and digital diplomacy. He wrote the Earth Anthem and the South Asian Anthem spurring search for an official SAARC Anthem and he received the SAARC Literary Award for his contribution to contemporary South Asian Poetry and was nominated for the Pushcart Prize 2013. In 2011, he received the Gov 2.0 award on behalf of the Public Diplomacy Division. He has been featured as a nominee on the longlist of the Forbes India 100 Celebrity list and has honoured with Asia-Pacific Excellence Award in 2014. His The Seduction of Delhi was shortlisted for Muse India-Satish Verma Young Writer Award 2015 and he is a contributing writer to the Silk Routes Project of the International Writing Programme of the University of Iowa. Abhay was born and raised at Chhabilapur near Rajgir in Nalanda district of Bihar and he studied at the Kirori Mal College Delhi University and Jawaharlal Nehru University. He joined the Indian Foreign Service in 2003 and he studied Russian language, history and literature at the Moscow State University, Nepali language at the Tribhuvan University, U. S. Foreign Policy at the George Washington University and how writers write poetry at the International Writing Program, Abhay K is one of the literary flag-bearers of contemporary Indian poetry. He features among five Indian poets everyone should know about, major Indian poet Jayanta Mahapatra thinks qualities of love, tenderness and compassion set Abhay Ks work apart from much of the general run of current poetics. As per the Hindu Book Review- Abhay K. s words don’t sit outside and they dig in, making their subject their home, and then they turn outwards, watching the landscape, the people, the city, change. His poetic works startle and heal and give humanistic outlook to Indian English Poetry making subtle use of metaphor and his first book was River Valley to Silicon Valley. As an editor, he has edited an edition of The Enchanting Verses Literary Review on Contemporary Indian Poetry in English. He also co-founded the Poetry at the Monument poetry movement and his poem Hiuen Tsang recounts the arduous journey of the Chinese monk Xuanzang from China to India and invokes him to rise up and come back to India again. While his Nalanda poems evocatively recount fall and rise of Nalanda and his poem Foreign Service is a take-off on Shakespeares All the worlds a stage summarizing diplomatic careers. While the poem Gogol alludes to the works of the writer Gogol such as The Nose, The Overcoat, Nevsky Prospect, Dead Souls and his poem Ghalib is a glimpse of tragic life of poet Ghalib. He said in an interview to Alok Mishra, Poetry for me is what the soul is for the body, I read and write poetry to satisfy my spiritual hunger. Casa de Literatura, Lima, Peru, and at the Festival of Indian Poetry in Buenos Aires, on this occasion he was interviewed by Argentina´s leading daily Tiempo Argentino
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Earth Anthem
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An Earth anthem is a celebratory song or a musical composition that eulogizes, extols or exalts planet Earth and its inhabitants, including the flora and fauna. H. Then the UN Secretary General U Thant had expressed his hope that this hymn would become the de facto UN anthem over the years, there are a number of songs about the planet which could be regarded as anthems, reflecting rising planetary consciousness among people across the world. One is World Anthem by the Mindshare Institute and Foundation, the Earth Day Anthem lyrics by William Wallace is widely sung to the tune of ode to Joy by Ludwig van Beethoven, to celebrate Earth Day. Call for an official Earth Anthem was made by the Permanent Delegation of India in Paris to UNESCO in January 2014, global citizenship Flag of Earth 90 Pound Suburban Housewife, anthem of fossil fuel conscious environmentalists in 2006
24.
Music visualization
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Music visualization or music visualisation, a feature found in electronic music visualizers and media player software, generates animated imagery based on a piece of music. The imagery is usually generated and rendered in real time and in a way synchronized with the music as it is played, visualization techniques range from simple ones to elaborate ones, which often include a plurality of composited effects. The changes in the loudness and frequency spectrum are among the properties used as input to the visualization. Music visualization can be defined, in contrast to previous existing pre-generated music plus visualization combinations, the first electronic music visualizer was the Atari Video Music introduced by Atari Inc. in 1976, and designed by the initiator of the home version of Pong, Robert Brown. The idea was to create a visual exploration that could be implemented into a Hi-Fi stereo system and it is described in US4081829. In Great Britain music visualization was first pioneered by Fred Judd, Music and audio players were available on early home computers, Sound to Light Generator used the ZX Spectrums cassette player for example. The 1984 movie Electric Dreams prominently made use of one, although as a pre-generated effect, for PC/DOS one of the first modern music visualization programs was the open-source, multi-platform Cthugha in 1993. Subsequently, PC computer music visualization became widespread in the mid to late 1990s as applications such as Winamp, Audion, by 1999, there were several dozen freeware non-trivial music visualizers in distribution. In particular, MilkDrop and its predecessor geiss-plugin by Ryan Geiss, G-Force by Andy OMeara, Atari Video Music, designed by the initiator of the home version of Pong, Robert Brown, and introduced by Atari Inc. in 1976. Pixelmusic 3000, open source music visualizer on a microcontroller, made by Uncommon Projects in 2008, psychedelia, an early light synthesizer, did not use audio input but was designed to create visualizations in accompaniment to music. Music Animation Machine visualizes MIDI, rather than waveforms
25.
PlayStation 3
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The PlayStation 3 is a home video game console developed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It is the successor to PlayStation 2, and is part of the PlayStation brand of consoles and it was first released on November 11,2006, in Japan, November 17,2006, in North America, and March 23,2007, in Europe and Australia. The PlayStation 3 mainly competes against consoles such as Microsofts Xbox 360, the console was first officially announced at E32005, and was released at the end of 2006. It was the first console to use Blu-ray Disc as its storage medium. In September 2009, the Slim model of the PlayStation 3 was released and it no longer provided the hardware ability to run PS2 games. It was lighter and thinner than the version, and featured a redesigned logo and marketing design. A Super Slim variation was released in late 2012, further refining and redesigning the console. The system had a start in the market but managed to recover. As of March 2016, PlayStation 3 has sold 85 million units worldwide, putting it about on par with Xbox 360 and its successor, the PlayStation 4, was released later in November 2013. On September 29,2015, Sony confirmed that sales of the PlayStation 3 were to be discontinued in New Zealand, in March 2017, the official site for PlayStation 3 in Japan was updated to state that it would be discontinued soon. Sony officially unveiled PlayStation 3 to the public on May 16,2005, at E32005, Video footage based on the predicted PlayStation 3 specifications was also shown. Two hardware configurations were also announced for the console, a 20 GB model, the 60 GB model was to be the only configuration to feature an HDMI port, Wi-Fi internet, flash card readers and a chrome trim with the logo in silver. Both models were announced for a worldwide release, November 11,2006, for Japan and November 17,2006, for North America. On September 6,2006, Sony announced that PAL region PlayStation 3 launch would be delayed until March 2007, because of a shortage of materials used in the Blu-ray drive. Also, the price of the Japanese 20 GB model was reduced by over 20%. During the event, Sony showed 27 playable PS3 games running on final hardware, PlayStation 3 was first released in Japan on November 11,2006, at 07,00. According to Media Create,81,639 PS3 systems were sold within 24 hours of its introduction in Japan, soon after its release in Japan, PS3 was released in North America on November 17,2006. Reports of violence surrounded the release of PS3, a customer was shot, campers were robbed at gunpoint, customers were shot in a drive-by shooting with BB guns, and 60 campers fought over 10 systems
26.
Flickr
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Flickr is an image hosting and video hosting website and web services suite that was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and acquired by Yahoo on March 20,2005. The Verge reported in March 2013 that Flickr had a total of 87 million registered members, in August 2011 the site reported that it was hosting more than 6 billion images and this number continues to grow steadily according to reporting sources. Photos and videos can be accessed from Flickr without the need to register an account, registering an account also allows users to create a profile page containing photos and videos that the user has uploaded and also grants the ability to add another Flickr user as a contact. For mobile users, Flickr has official mobile apps for iOS, Android, and PlayStation Vita, operating systems, Flickr was launched in February 2004 by Ludicorp, a Vancouver-based company founded by Stewart Butterfield and Caterina Fake. The service emerged from tools originally created for Ludicorps Game Neverending, Flickr proved a more feasible project, and ultimately Game Neverending was shelved, Butterfield later launched a similar online game, Glitch, which closed down in November 2012. Early versions of Flickr focused on a room called FlickrLive with real-time photo exchange capabilities. The successive evolutions focused more on the uploading and filing backend for individual users and it was eventually dropped as Flickrs backend systems evolved away from Game Neverendings codebase. Key features of Flickr not initially present are tags, marking photos as favorites, group photo pools and interestingness, Yahoo acquired Ludicorp and Flickr in March 2005. The acquisition reportedly cost $22 to $25 million, during the week of 26 June –2 July 2005, all content was migrated from servers in Canada to servers in the United States, and all resulting data become subject to United States federal law. In May 2007, Yahoo announced that Yahoo Photos would close down on 20 September 2007, after which all photos would be deleted and this move was criticized by some users. Flickr upgraded its services from beta to gamma in May 2006, in December 2006, upload limits on free accounts were increased to 100 MB a month and were removed from Flickr Pro accounts, which originally had a 2 GB per month limit. On 9 April 2008, Flickr began allowing paid subscribers to upload videos, on 2 March 2009, Flickr added the facility to upload and view HD videos, and began allowing free users to upload normal-resolution video. At the same time, the set limit for free accounts was lifted, in 2009, Flickr announced a partnership with Getty Images in which selected users could submit photographs for stock photography usage and receive payment. In 2010, this was changed so that users could label images as suitable for stock use themselves, the Justified View is paginated between 72 and 360 photos per page but unpaginated in search result presentation. Tech Radar described the new style Flickr as representing a sea change in its purpose, many users criticized the changes, and the sites help forum received thousands of negative comments. In March 2014, Flickrs New Photo Experience, a user interface redesign, on May 7,2015, Yahoo overhauled the site, adding a revamped Camera Roll, a new way to upload photos and upgraded the sites apps. The new Uploadr application was available for Macs, Windows. In June 2008, Flickr co-founder Stewart Butterfield announced his resignation, which followed his wife and co-founder Caterina Fake, Butterfield wrote a humorous resignation letter to Brad Garlinghouse
27.
Eastern hemisphere
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The Eastern Hemisphere is a geographical term for the half of the earth that is east of the prime meridian and west of the antimeridian. It is also used to refer to Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia, in contrast with the Western Hemisphere and this hemisphere may also be called the Oriental Hemisphere. In addition, it may be used in a cultural or geopolitical sense as a synonym for the Old World, the line demarcating the Eastern and Western Hemispheres is an arbitrary convention, unlike the Equator which divides the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. The prime meridian at 0° longitude and the antimeridian, at 180° longitude are the accepted boundaries. Prior to the adoption of standard time, numerous prime meridians were decreed by various countries where time was defined by local noon. The center of the Eastern Hemisphere is located in the Indian Ocean at the intersection of the equator, the land mass of the Eastern Hemisphere is larger than that of the Western Hemisphere and has a wide variety of habitats. 82% of humans live in the Eastern Hemisphere, compared to 18% in Western Hemisphere, media related to Eastern Hemisphere at Wikimedia Commons
28.
Suomi NPP
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Originally intended as a pathfinder for the NPOESS programme, which was to have replaced NOAAs Polar Operational Environmental Satellites and the U. S. Its instruments provide climate measurements that continue prior observations by NASAs Earth Observing System, the satellite is named after Verner E. Suomi, a meteorologist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. The name was announced on January 24,2012, three months after the satellites launch, the satellite was launched from Space Launch Complex 2W at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California by a United Launch Alliance Delta II 7920-10C on October 28,2011. The satellite was placed into a sun-synchronous orbit 824 km above the Earth, NPOESS Preparatory Project is intended to bridge the gap between old and new systems by flying new instruments, on a new satellite bus, using a new ground data network. The spacecraft was launched 28 October 2011 from Vandenberg Air Force Base via a Delta II in the 7920-10 configuration, additionally, the rocket deployed four CubeSats as a part of NASA ELaNa III manifest. The VIIRS sensor on board the spacecraft acquired its first measurements of Earth on November 21,2011 and that date was chosen because it was a fairly sunny day in most of North America. The Suomi NPP is the first in a new generation of satellites intended to replace the Earth Observing System satellites, the satellite orbits the Earth about 14 times each day
29.
Verner Suomi
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Verner Edward Vern Suomi was a Finnish-American educator, inventor, and scientist. He is considered the father of satellite meteorology and he invented the Spin Scan Radiometer, which for many years was the instrument on the GOES weather satellites that generated the time sequences of cloud images seen on television weather shows. The Suomi NPP polar orbiting satellite, launched in 2011, was named in his honor, Suomi was born in Eveleth, Minnesota to John and Anna Suomi. His parents arrived in the United States in 1902 from Finland and he was the sixth of seven children, he outlived all but two sisters, Esther and Edith. He received his first degree from Winona Teachers College, later, he attended the University of Chicago, where he received his PhD in 1953. By 1948, Suomi was among the earliest faculty members of the Department of Meteorology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, together with Robert Parent, in 1965, Suomi founded the Space Science and Engineering Center there. The subsequent ATS-3, launched in November 1967, using a spin scan camera, Suomi led the development of McIDAS in 1972, displaying the images produced by his satellites such as SMS-1 in 1974. A very popular professor, he retired from teaching in 1986. On January 24,2012, NASA renamed a recently launched NPP Earth monitoring satellite after Dr. Suomi, the Suomi NPP houses the VIIRS instrument that provided the images which were combined to make the 2012 The Blue Marble photo. Suomi died in Madison, Wisconsin at age 79 and he was survived by his wife Paula and his children Eric, Stephen, and Lois, two sisters, Edith and Esther, two granddaughters, and many nieces and nephews
30.
Deep Space Climate Observatory
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Deep Space Climate Observatory is a NOAA Earth observation and space weather satellite launched by SpaceX on a Falcon 9 launch vehicle on February 11,2015 from Cape Canaveral. It was originally developed as a NASA satellite proposed in 1998 by then-Vice President Al Gore for the purpose of Earth observation, at this location it has a continuous view of the Sun and the sunlit side of the Earth. The satellite is orbiting the Sun-Earth L1 point in a six-month period and it takes full-Earth pictures about every two hours and is able to process them faster than other Earth observation satellites. DSCOVR started orbiting around L1 by June 8,2015, just over 100 days after launch, after the spacecraft arrived on site and entered its operational phase, NASA began releasing near-real time images of Earth through the EPIC instruments website. Gore hoped not only to science with these images, but also to raise awareness of the Earth itself. In addition to a camera, a radiometer would take the first direct measurements of how much sunlight is reflected and emitted from the whole Earth. This data could constitute a barometer for the process of global warming, the Bush Administration put the project on hold shortly after George W. Bushs inauguration. Members of the U. S. Congress asked the National Academy of Sciences whether the project was worthwhile, the resulting report, released March 2000, stated that the mission was strong and scientifically vital. Triana was removed from its original launch opportunity on STS-107, the $100 million satellite remained in storage for the duration of the Bush administration. In November 2008 the satellite was removed from storage and began recertification for a launch on board a Delta II or a Falcon 9. Al Gore used part of his book Our Choice as an attempt to revive debate on the DSCOVR payload, the book mentions legislative efforts by Senators Barbara Mikulski and Bill Nelson to get the satellite launched. NASA renamed the satellite Deep Space Climate Observatory, in an attempt to support for the project. In February 2011, the Obama administration attempted to secure funding to re-purpose the DSCOVR spacecraft as an observatory to replace the aging Advanced Composition Explorer spacecraft. In September 2013 NASA cleared DSCOVR to proceed to the implementation phase targeting an early 2015 launch, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center is providing management and systems engineering to the mission. DSCOVR is built on the SMEX-Lite spacecraft bus, and has a mass of approximately 570 kg. The main science instrument sets are the Sun-observing Plasma Magnetometer and the Earth-observing NIST Advanced Radiometer, DSCOVR has two deployable solar arrays, a propulsion module, boom, and antenna. The Plasma-Magnetometer measures solar wind for space weather predictions and it has three instruments, Magnetometer measures magnetic field. Faraday cup measures positively charged particles, the Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera takes images of the sunlit side of Earth for various Earth sciences purposes, in 10 different channels from ultraviolet to near infrared
31.
Earth observation satellite
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Most Earth observation satellites carry instruments that should be operated at a relatively low altitude. Altitudes below 500-600 kilometers are in general avoided, though, because of the significant air-drag at such low altitudes making frequent orbit reboost maneuvres necessary. The Earth observation satellites ERS-1, ERS-2 and Envisat of European Space Agency as well as the MetOp spacecraft of EUMETSAT are all operated at altitudes of about 800 km. The Proba-1, Proba-2 and SMOS spacecraft of European Space Agency are observing the Earth from an altitude of about 700 km, the Earth observation satellites of UAE, DubaiSat-1 & DubaiSat-2 are also placed in Low Earth Orbits orbits and providing satellite imagery of various parts of the Earth. To get global coverage with a low orbit it must be a polar orbit or nearly so, spacecraft carrying instruments for which an altitude of 36000 km is suitable sometimes use a geostationary orbit. Such an orbit allows uninterrupted coverage of more than 1/3 of the Earth, three geostationary spacecraft at longitudes separated with 120 deg can cover the whole Earth except the extreme polar regions. This type of orbit is used for meteorological satellites. A weather satellite is a type of satellite that is used to monitor the weather. These meteorological satellites, however, see more than clouds and cloud systems, weather satellite images helped in monitoring the volcanic ash cloud from Mount St. Helens and activity from other volcanoes such as Mount Etna. By monitoring vegetation changes over time, droughts can be monitored by comparing the current vegetation state to its long term average, anthropogenic emissions can be monitored by evaluating data of tropospheric NO2 and SO2. These types of satellites are almost always in Sun synchronous and frozen orbits, the Sun synchronous orbit is in general sufficiently close to polar to get the desired global coverage while the relatively constant geometry to the Sun mostly is an advantage for the instruments. The frozen orbit is selected as this is the closest to an orbit that is possible in the gravitational field of the Earth. Terrain can be mapped from space with the use of satellites, such as Radarsat-1 and TerraSAR-X. campevans. org/_CE/html/tiros1-2. html
32.
Caribbean
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The Caribbean is a region that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands and the surrounding coasts. The region is southeast of the Gulf of Mexico and the North American mainland, east of Central America, situated largely on the Caribbean Plate, the region comprises more than 700 islands, islets, reefs and cays. These islands generally form island arcs that delineate the eastern and northern edges of the Caribbean Sea, in a wider sense, the mainland countries of Belize, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana are often included due to their political and cultural ties with the region. Geopolitically, the Caribbean islands are usually regarded as a subregion of North America and are organized into 30 territories including sovereign states, overseas departments, and dependencies. From December 15,1954, to October 10,2010, there was a known as the Netherlands Antilles composed of five states. The West Indies cricket team continues to represent many of those nations, the region takes its name from that of the Caribs, an ethnic group present in the Lesser Antilles and parts of adjacent South America at the time of the Spanish conquest. The two most prevalent pronunciations of Caribbean are KARR-ə-BEE-ən, with the accent on the third syllable. The former pronunciation is the older of the two, although the variant has been established for over 75 years. It has been suggested that speakers of British English prefer KARR-ə-BEE-ən while North American speakers more typically use kə-RIB-ee-ən, usage is split within Caribbean English itself. The word Caribbean has multiple uses and its principal ones are geographical and political. The Caribbean can also be expanded to include territories with strong cultural and historical connections to slavery, European colonisation, the United Nations geoscheme for the Americas accords the Caribbean as a distinct region within the Americas. Physiographically, the Caribbean region is mainly a chain of islands surrounding the Caribbean Sea, to the north, the region is bordered by the Gulf of Mexico, the Straits of Florida and the Northern Atlantic Ocean, which lies to the east and northeast. To the south lies the coastline of the continent of South America, politically, the Caribbean may be centred on socio-economic groupings found in the region. For example, the known as the Caribbean Community contains the Co-operative Republic of Guyana. Bermuda and the Turks and Caicos Islands, which are in the Atlantic Ocean, are members of the Caribbean Community. The Commonwealth of the Bahamas is also in the Atlantic and is a member of the Caribbean Community. According to the ACS, the population of its member states is 227 million people. The geography and climate in the Caribbean region varies, Some islands in the region have relatively flat terrain of non-volcanic origin and these islands include Aruba, Barbados, Bonaire, the Cayman Islands, Saint Croix, the Bahamas, and Antigua
33.
Greenland
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Greenland is an autonomous constituent country within the Danish Realm between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for more than a millennium. The majority of its residents are Inuit, whose ancestors began migrating from the Canadian mainland in the 13th century, Greenland is the worlds largest island. Three-quarters of Greenland is covered by the permanent ice sheet outside Antarctica. With a population of about 56,480, it is the least densely populated country in the world, the Arctic Umiaq Line ferry acts as a lifeline for western Greenland, connecting the various cities and settlements. Greenland has been inhabited off and on for at least the last 4,500 years by Arctic peoples whose forebears migrated there from what is now Canada, Norsemen settled the uninhabited southern part of Greenland beginning in the 10th century, and Inuit peoples arrived in the 13th century. The Norse colonies disappeared in the late 15th century, soon after their demise, beginning in 1499, the Portuguese briefly explored and claimed the island, naming it Terra do Lavrador. In the early 18th century, Scandinavian explorers reached Greenland again, to strengthen trading and power, Denmark-Norway affirmed sovereignty over the island. Greenland was settled by Vikings more than a thousand years ago, Vikings set sail from Greenland and Iceland, discovering North America nearly 500 years before Columbus reached Caribbean islands. Though under continuous influence of Norway and Norwegians, Greenland was not formally under the Norwegian crown until 1262, the Kingdom of Norway was extensive and a military power until the mid-14th century. Thus, the two kingdoms resources were directed at creating Copenhagen, Norway became the weaker part and lost sovereignty over Greenland in 1814 when the union was dissolved. Greenland became a Danish colony in 1814, and was made a part of the Danish Realm in 1953 under the Constitution of Denmark, in 1973, Greenland joined the European Economic Community with Denmark. However, in a referendum in 1982, a majority of the population voted for Greenland to withdraw from the EEC which was effected in 1985, Greenland contains the worlds largest and most northernly national park, Northeast Greenland National Park. Greenland is divided into four municipalities - Sermersooq, Kujalleq, Qaasuitsup and it also retains control of monetary policy, providing an initial annual subsidy of DKK3.4 billion, which is planned to diminish gradually over time. Greenland expects to grow its economy based on increased income from the extraction of natural resources, the capital, Nuuk, held the 2016 Arctic Winter Games. At 70%, Greenland has one of the highest shares of renewable energy in the world, the early Viking settlers named the island as Greenland. In the Icelandic sagas, the Norwegian-born Icelander Erik the Red was said to be exiled from Iceland for manslaughter, along with his extended family and his thralls, he set out in ships to explore an icy land known to lie to the northwest. After finding an area and settling there, he named it Grœnland
34.
Earthrise
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Earthrise is a photograph of the Earth and parts of the Moons surface taken by astronaut William Anders in 1968, during the Apollo 8 mission. Nature photographer Galen Rowell declared it the most influential environmental photograph ever taken and this had been preceded by the crude 1966 black-and-white raster earthrise image taken by the Lunar Orbiter 1 robotic probe. Earthrise is the given to NASA image AS8-14-2383, taken by astronaut William Anders during the Apollo 8 mission. Initially, before Anders found a suitable 70 mm color film, mission commander Frank Borman took a photograph of the scene. The land mass position and cloud patterns in this image are the same as those of the photograph entitled Earthrise. The photograph was taken from orbit on December 24,1968. The camera had a simple sighting ring rather than the standard reflex viewfinder and was loaded with a 70 mm film magazine containing custom Ektachrome film developed by Kodak. An audio recording of the event is available with transcription which allows the event to be followed closely – excerpt, Anders, look at that picture over there. Borman, Hey, dont take that, its not scheduled, Anders, You got a color film, Jim. Hand me that roll of color quick, would you, there were many images taken at that point. The mission audio tape establishes several photographs were taken, on Bormans orders, with the concurrence of Lovell. Anders took the first color shot, then Lovell who notes the setting, Borman was the mission commander and notes that this is the image the Postal Service used on a stamp, and few photographs have been more frequently reproduced. The photograph reproduced in the Frank Borman autobiography is not the image as the Anders photograph, aside from the orientation. The stamp issue reproduces the cloud, color, and crater patterns of the Anders picture, Anders is described by Borman as holding a masters degree in nuclear engineering, Anders was thus tasked as the scientific crew member. Also performing the duties that would be so important to the Apollo crew who actually landed on the Moon. Another author called its appearance the beginning of the environmental movement, in 1969, the U. S. Postal Service issued a stamp commemorating the Apollo 8 flight around the Moon. The stamp featured a detail of the Earthrise photograph, and the words, recalling the Apollo 8 Genesis reading. On April 6,2008, the first 1080p high-definition Earthrise video was captured, after successfully orbiting the Moon for 1 year and 8 months, it was crashed intentionally onto the lunar surface at 18,25 UTC on June 10,2009
35.
Apollo 8
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Apollo 8 took three days to travel to the Moon. It orbited ten times over the course of 20 hours, during which the crew made a Christmas Eve television broadcast where they read the first 10 verses from the Book of Genesis, at the time, the broadcast was the most watched TV program ever. Apollo 8s successful mission paved the way for Apollo 11 to fulfill U. S. President John F. Kennedys goal of landing a man on the Moon before the end of the 1960s. The Apollo 8 astronauts returned to Earth on December 27,1968, the crew was named Time magazines Men of the Year for 1968 upon their return. Lovell was originally the CMP on the crew, with Michael Collins as the prime crews CMP. However, Collins was replaced in July 1968, after suffering a cervical disc herniation that required surgery to repair. This crew was unique among pre-shuttle era missions in that the commander was not the most experienced member of the crew, as Lovell had flown twice before, on Gemini VII and Gemini XII. When Lovell was rotated to the crew, no one with experience on CSM-103 was available, so Aldrin was moved to CMP. Neil Armstrong went on to command Apollo 11, where Aldrin was returned to the LMP position, Haise was rotated out of the crew and onto the backup crew of Apollo 11 as LMP. The Earth-based mission control teams for Apollo 8 consisted of astronauts assigned to the crew, as well as non-astronaut flight directors. They also served as CAPCOMs during the mission, for Apollo 8, these crew members included astronauts John S. Bull, Vance D. Brand, Gerald P. Carr, and Ken Mattingly. The mission control teams on Earth rotated in three shifts, each led by a flight director, the directors for Apollo 8 included Clifford E. Charlesworth, Glynn Lunney, and Milton Windler. The triangular shape of the insignia symbolizes the shape of the Apollo Command Module and it shows a red figure-8 looping around the Earth and Moon representing the mission number as well as the circumlunar nature of the mission. On the red number 8 are the names of the three astronauts, the initial design of the insignia was developed by Jim Lovell. The graphic design of the insignia was done by Houston artist, Apollo 4 and Apollo 6 had been A missions, unmanned tests of the Saturn V launch vehicle using an unmanned Block I production model of the Apollo Command and Service Module in Earth orbit. Apollo 7, scheduled for October 1968, would be a manned Earth-orbit flight of the CSM, further missions depended on the readiness of the Lunar Module. This would mean delaying the D and subsequent missions, endangering the programs goal of a landing before the end of 1969. George Low, the Manager of the Apollo Spacecraft Program Office, since the Command/Service Module would be ready three months before the Lunar Module, a CSM-only mission could be flown in December 1968
36.
Himawari 8
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Himawari 8 is a Japanese weather satellite, the 8th of the Himawari geostationary weather satellites operated by the Japan Meteorological Agency. The spacecraft was constructed by Mitsubishi Electric with assistance from Boeing, Himawari 8 entered operational service on 7 July 2015 and is the successor to MTSAT-2 which was launched in 2006. Himawari 8 was launched atop a H-IIA rocket flying from the Yoshinobu Launch Complex Pad 1 at the Tanegashima Space Center, the launch occurred at 05,16 UTC on 7 October 2014 and reached its operational geostationary orbit in October 2014, at 140.7 degrees East. Himawari 9, which is identical to Himawari 8, was launched on 2 November 2016 and will be put stand-by in orbit until 2022, at launch, the mass of the satellite was about 3,500 kilograms. Power is supplied by a gallium arsenide solar panel, which provides up to 2.6 kilowatts of power. The primary instrument aboard Himawari 8, the Advanced Himawari Imager, is a 16 channel multispectral imager to capture visible light and infrared images of the Asia-Pacific region. The AHI can produce images with a resolution down to 500m and can provide full disk observations every 10 mins, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology CEO Dr Rob Vertessy stated that Himawari 8 generates about 50 times more data than the previous satellite. Data recorded from the Japanese Himawari 8 will be freely available for use by meteorological agencies in other countries
37.
Pale Blue Dot
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In the photograph, Earths apparent size is less than a pixel, the planet appears as a tiny dot against the vastness of space, among bands of sunlight scattered by the cameras optics. In September 1977, NASA launched Voyager 1, a 722-kilogram robotic spacecraft on a mission to study the outer Solar System, after the encounter with the Jovian system in 1979 and the Saturnian system in 1980, the primary mission was declared complete in November of the same year. Voyager 1 was the first space probe to provide detailed images of the two largest planets and their major moons, the spacecraft, still travelling at 40,000 miles per hour, is the farthest man-made object from Earth and the first one to leave the Solar System. Its mission has been extended and continues to this day, with the aim of investigating the boundaries of the Solar system, including the Kuiper belt, the heliosphere and interstellar space. Operating for 39 years,6 months and 25 days as of today, it receives routine commands, Voyager 1 was initially expected to work only through the Saturn encounter. When the spacecraft passed the planet in 1980, Sagan proposed the idea of the space probe taking one last picture of Earth. Although many in NASAs Voyager program were supportive of the idea, finally, NASA Administrator Richard Truly interceded to ensure that the photograph was taken. Both cameras were of the slow-scan vidicon tube type and were fitted with eight colored filters, the telecommunication capability also decreased with distance, limiting the number of data modes that could be used by the imaging system. After the planned imaging sequence was taken on February 14,1990, transmission to Earth was also delayed by the Magellan and Galileo missions being given priority over the use of the Deep Space Network. Then, between March and May 1990, Voyager 1 returned 60 frames back to Earth, with the signal travelling at the speed of light for nearly five. Three of the frames received showed the Earth as a point of light in empty space. Each frame had been using a different color filter, blue, green and violet. The three frames were then recombined to produce the image that became Pale Blue Dot, of the 640,000 individual pixels that compose each frame, Earth takes up less than one. The light bands across the photograph are an artifact, the result of scattering off parts of the camera and its sunshade. Voyagers point of view was approximately 32° above the ecliptic, detailed analysis suggested that the camera also detected the Moon, although it is too faint to be visible without special processing. The pale blue color of the dot is the result of polarization, the polarization in turn depends on various factors such as cloud cover, exposed areas of oceans, forests, deserts, snow fields etc. The wide-angle image was inset with two pictures, Pale Blue Dot and a similar photograph of Venus. The wide-angle photograph was taken with the darkest filter and the shortest possible exposure, even so, the result was a bright burned-out image with multiple reflections from the optics in the camera and the Sun that appears far larger than the actual dimension of the solar disk
38.
Voyager 1
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Voyager 1 is a space probe launched by NASA on September 5,1977. Part of the Voyager program to study the outer Solar System, Voyager 1 launched 16 days after its twin, having operated for 39 years,6 months and 30 days, the spacecraft still communicates with the Deep Space Network to receive routine commands and return data. At a distance of 138 AU from the Sun as of March 2017, the probes primary mission objectives included flybys of Jupiter, Saturn, and Saturns large moon, Titan. It studied the weather, magnetic fields, and rings of the two planets and was the first probe to provide detailed images of their moons. After completing its mission with the flyby of Saturn on November 20,1980, Voyager 1 began an extended mission to explore the regions. On August 25,2012, Voyager 1 crossed the heliopause to become the first spacecraft to enter interstellar space, in the 1960s, a Grand Tour to study the outer planets was proposed which prompted NASA to begin work on a mission in the early 1970s. Information gathered by the Pioneer 10 spacecraft helped Voyagers engineers design Voyager to cope effectively with the intense radiation environment around Jupiter. Initially, Voyager 1 was planned as Mariner 11 of the Mariner program, due to budget cuts, the mission was scaled back to be a flyby of Jupiter and Saturn and renamed the Mariner Jupiter-Saturn probes. As the program progressed, the name was changed to Voyager. Voyager 1 was constructed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and it has 16 hydrazine thrusters, three-axis stabilization gyroscopes, and referencing instruments to keep the probes radio antenna pointed toward Earth. Collectively, these instruments are part of the Attitude and Articulation Control Subsystem, the spacecraft also included 11 scientific instruments to study celestial objects such as planets as it travels through space. The radio communication system of Voyager 1 was designed to be used up to, the communication system includes a 3. 7-meter diameter parabolic dish high-gain antenna to send and receive radio waves via the three Deep Space Network stations on the Earth. The craft normally transmits data to Earth over Deep Space Network Channel 18, using a frequency of either 2.3 GHz or 8.4 GHz, while signals from Earth to Voyager are broadcast at 2.1 GHz. When Voyager 1 is unable to communicate directly with the Earth, signals from Voyager 1 take over 19 hours to reach Earth. Voyager 1 has three radioisotope thermoelectric generators mounted on a boom, each MHW-RTG contains 24 pressed plutonium-238 oxide spheres. The RTGs generated about 470 W of electric power at the time of launch, the power output of the RTGs declines over time, but the crafts RTGs will continue to support some of its operations until 2025. As of 2017-04-04, Voyager 1 has 73. 14% of the plutonium-238 that it had at launch, by 2050, it will have 56. 5% left. Since the 1990s, space probes usually have completely autonomous cameras, the computer command subsystem controls the cameras
39.
Stewart Brand
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Stewart Brand is an American writer, best known as editor of the Whole Earth Catalog. He founded a number of organizations, including The WELL, the Global Business Network, and he is the author of several books, most recently Whole Earth Discipline, An Ecopragmatist Manifesto. He studied biology at Stanford University, graduating in 1960 and he was married to Lois Jennings, an Ottawa Native American and mathematician. As a soldier in the U. S. Army, he was a parachutist and taught infantry skills, Brand has lived in California since the 1960s. He and his wife live on Mirene, a 64-foot -long working tugboat. Built in 1912, the boat is moored in a shipyard in Sausalito. He works in Mary Heartline, a fishing boat about 100 yards away. A favorite item of his is a table on which Otis Redding is said to have written “ The Dock of the Bay”, through engaging in scholarship and by visiting numerous Indian reservations, Brand familiarized himself with the Native Americans of the West. Native Americans have continued to be an important cultural interest, one which has continually re-emerged in Brands work in various ways, by the mid-1960s, Brand became associated with author Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters. With his partner Zach Stewart, he produced the Trips Festival in San Francisco and this was one of the first venues at which the Grateful Dead performed in San Francisco. About 10,000 hippies attended, and Haight-Ashbury soon emerged as a community, tom Wolfe describes Brand in the beginning of his 1968 book, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. In 1966, Brand campaigned to have NASA release the satellite image of the entire Earth as seen from space. He sold and distributed buttons for 25 cents each asking, Why havent we seen a photograph of the whole Earth yet, during this campaign, Brand met Richard Buckminster Fuller, who offered to help Brand with his projects. In 1967, a satellite, ATS-3, took the photo, Brand thought the image of our planet would be a powerful symbol. It adorned the first edition of the Whole Earth Catalog, later in 1968, a NASA astronaut took an Earth photo, Earthrise, from Moon orbit, which became the front image of the spring 1969 edition of the Catalog. 1970 saw the first celebration of Earth Day, during a 2003 interview, Brand explained that the image gave the sense that Earth’s an island, surrounded by a lot of inhospitable space. And it’s so graphic, this blue, white, green. During the late 1960s and early 1970s about 10 million Americans were involved in living communally, Brand and his wife Lois travelled to communes in a 1963 Dodge truck known as the Whole Earth Truck Store, which moved to a storefront in Menlo Park, California
40.
The Day the Earth Smiled
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The name also refers to all the activities associated with that event as well as the mosaic photograph itself. The final mosaic from July 19, processed at the Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for Operations, was released to the public on November 12,2013, the Day the Earth Smiled photograph includes Earth, Mars, Venus, and many Saturnian moons. A higher-resolution view taken with the Cassini narrow-angle camera of the Earth, the Cassini probe took images of Earth from close to a billion miles away at 21,27 UTC, July 19,2013. A number of activities were planned in conjunction with this occasion, on it, Porco encourages the world to celebrate life on planet Earth and humanitys accomplishments in the exploration of the solar system. Astronomers Without Borders coordinated events internationally, NASA spearheaded a related event called Wave at Saturn to help acknowledge the historic interplanetary portrait as it is being taken. A Message to the Milky Way contest is being held by Porcos company and it is a two-part contest, People can submit a digital photo taken on July 19 and/or a music composition. The winning entries will be beamed as a message to extraterrestrials and this follows the example set in 1974, when the first serious communication to alien civilizations, the Arecibo message, was broadcast from Arecibo. Processing of the mosaic took place at the Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for Operations under Porcos direction over the course of approximately two months. During the four hours it took Cassini to image the entire 404, 880-mile-wide scene, NASA revealed that image marked the first time four planets – Saturn, Earth, Mars, and Venus – had been captured at once in visible light by the Cassini craft. It was also the first time the public had advance warning their picture was being taken from the solar system. NASAs official release of the final The Day the Earth Smiled mosaic on November 12,2013, was met with much fanfare in news outlets around the world. The image graced the front page of The New York Times the following day, public figures including media producer Seth MacFarlane lauded the image. The mosaic was also presented by Carolyn Porco, and dedicated to the late astronomer Carl Sagan, in addition, a collage of images submitted by 1,600 members of the public to NASAs Wave at Saturn campaign was released on November 12. The Blue Marble Earth Anthem Earth Day Pale Blue Dot The Day the Earth Smiled official website Raw Images
41.
Whole Earth Catalog
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The Whole Earth Catalog was an American counterculture magazine and product catalog published by Stewart Brand several times a year between 1968 and 1972, and occasionally thereafter, until 1998. The magazine featured essays and articles, but was focused on product reviews. The editorial focus was on self-sufficiency, ecology, alternative education, do it yourself, and holism, while WEC listed and reviewed a wide range of products, it did not sell any of the products directly. Instead, the contact information was listed alongside the item. This is why, while not a regularly published periodical, numerous editions and updates were required to keep price, the title Whole Earth Catalog came from a previous project by Stewart Brand. In 1966, he initiated a campaign to have NASA release the then-rumored satellite photo of the sphere of Earth as seen from space. He thought the image might be a symbol, evoking a sense of shared destiny. Andrew Kirk in Counterculture Green notes that the Whole Earth Catalog was preceded by the Whole Earth Truck Store. The WETS was a 1963 Dodge truck, In 1968, Brand, who was then 29, the truck was not only a store, but also an alternative lending library and a mobile microeducation service. Kevin Kelly, who would edit later editions of the catalog, summarizes the early history this way, The Truck Store finally settled into its permanent location in Menlo Park. Instead of bringing the store to the people, Brand decided to create larger versions of his tool catalog”. Using the most basic typesetting and page-layout tools, Brand and his colleagues created the first issue of The Whole Earth Catalog in 1968, in subsequent issues, its production values gradually improved. Its outsize pages measured 11×14 inches, later editions were more than an inch thick. The early editions were published by the Portola Institute, headed by Richard Raymond, the so-called Last Whole Earth Catalogue won the first U. S. National Book Award in category Contemporary Affairs. It was the first time a catalog had ever won such an award, Brands intent with the catalog was to provide education and access to tools so a reader could find his own inspiration, shape his own environment, and share his adventure with whoever is interested. J. Baldwin was a designer and instructor of design at colleges around the San Francisco Bay. As he recalled in the film Ecological Design, Stewart Brand came to me because he heard that I read catalogs. He said, I want to make this thing called a whole Earth catalog so that anyone on Earth can pick up a telephone and find out the complete information on anything. That’s my goal
