User:Wiki User 68/My Portal
Wiki User 68/My Portal
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Wiki User 68 hails from the Great British Isles specifically England ⓘ which is a country that is part of the United Kingdom.[1][2][3] Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population,[4] whilst its mainland territory occupies most of the southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain. England shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west and elsewhere is bordered by the North Sea, Irish Sea, Celtic Sea, Bristol Channel and English Channel. The capital is London, the largest urban area in Great Britain, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most, but not all, measures.[5]
England became a unified state in the year 927 and takes its name from the Angles, one of the Germanic tribes who settled there during the 5th and 6th centuries. It has had a significant cultural and legal impact on the wider world[6] being the place of origin of the English language, the Church of England, and English law, which forms the basis of the common law legal systems of countries around the world. In addition, England was the birth place of the Industrial Revolution and the first country in the world to industrialise.[7] It is home to the Royal Society, which laid the foundations of modern experimental science.[8] England is the world's oldest parliamentary system[9] and consequently constitutional, governmental and legal innovations that had their origin in England have been widely adopted by other nations.
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The Great Depression was a worldwide economic downturn starting in most places in 1929 and ending at different times in the 1930s or early 1940s for different countries.[10] It was the largest and most important economic depression in the 20th century, and is used in the 21st century as an example of how far the world's economy can fall.[11] The Great Depression originated in the United States; historians most often use as a starting date the stock market crash on October 29, 1929, known as Black Tuesday.
The depression had devastating effects in virtually every country, rich or poor. International trade plunged by half to two-thirds, as did personal income, tax revenue, prices and profits. Cities all around the world were hit hard, especially those dependent on heavy industry. Construction was virtually halted in many countries. Farming and rural areas suffered as crop prices fell by roughly 60 percent.[12][13][14] Facing plummeting demand with few alternate sources of jobs, areas dependent on primary sector industries such as farming, mining and logging suffered the most.[15] However, even shortly after the Wall Street Crash of 1929, optimism persisted; John D. Rockefeller said that "These are days when many are discouraged. In the 93 years of my life, depressions have come and gone. Prosperity has always returned and will again."[16]
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The Krâvanh Mountains, or literally "Cardamom Mountains" (Khmer regular script: 
, Chuor Phnom Krâvanh; Thai: เขาบรรทัด, Khao Banthat), is a mountain range in the south west of Cambodia. The highest elevation is Phnom Aural at 1,813 meters (5,948 ft) high. This is also Cambodia's highest peak.
The mountain range extends along a southeast-northwest axis, and is continued to the southeast by the Dâmrei Mountains and to the northwest by an extension into Thailand territory (Chanthaburi Province) known as the Soi Dao Mountains (Khao Soi Dao). The southern boundary of the Cardamoms is in Koh Kong Province and the northern boundary is in Veal Veang District in Pursat Province.
This range of mountains formed one of the last strongholds of the Khmer Rouge and many part are largely inaccessible. The inaccessibility of the hills, however, helped to preserve the area; the mountains now form an endangered ecoregion. The mountains contain many "jar sites" scattered around the mountains. The jars are a unique feature to the mountain. They are 60 cm high and carry the bones of deceased Cambodians. Local legends suggest the bones are the remains of Cambodian royalty.
The mountain range is home to fourteen endangered and threatened mammal species including the Asian elephant, Indochinese Tiger, Malayan sun bear and Pileated gibbon, Irrawaddy and humpback dolphins, and half of Cambodia’s bird species. It is the last place on earth with Siamese crocodiles and is the only habitat remaining in Cambodia for the nearly extinct batagur baska, or "Royal turtle".
The population of the Cardamom Mountain Range is extremely poor, and threats to the biological diversity of the region include habitat loss due to illegal logging, wildlife poaching, and forest fires caused by slash-and-burn agriculture. Among the international conservation organizations working in the area are Wildlife Alliance, Conservation International, Fauna and Flora International and WWF (conservation organization).
Dense tropical rain forest prevails on their western slopes, which annually receive from 150 to 200 inches (3,800–5,000 mm) of rainfall; only 40 to 60 inches (1,000 to 1,500 mm) fall on the wooded eastern slopes in the rain shadow facing the interior Cambodian plain. On their slopes cardamons and pepper are still grown commercially.
Tourism is relatively new to the area. In 2008, Wildlife Alliance launched a community-based ecotourism program in the village of Chi Phat, marketed as the "gateway to the Cardamoms". However the number of international visitors remains very small in comparison to the tourism development of Angkor Wat in Siem Reap, or Phnom Penh.
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Algae fuel, also called algal fuel, oilgae,[17] algaeoleum or third-generation biofuel,[18] is a biofuel from algae.
The record oil price increases since 2003, competing demands between foods and other biofuel sources and the world food crisis have ignited interest in algaculture (farming algae) for making vegetable oil, biodiesel, bioethanol, biogasoline, biomethanol, biobutanol and other biofuels. Among algal fuels' attractive characteristics: they do not affect fresh water resources,[19] can be produced using ocean and wastewater, and are biodegradable and relatively harmless to the environment if spilled.[20][21][22] Algae cost more per pound yet can yield over 30 times more energy per acre than other, second-generation biofuel crops.[citation needed] One biofuels company has claimed that algae can produce more oil in an area the size of a two-car garage than an football field of soybeans, because almost the entire algal organism can use sunlight to produce lipids, or oil.[23] The United States Department of Energy estimates that if algae fuel replaced all the petroleum fuel in the United States, it would require 15,000 square miles (40,000 square kilometers), which is a few thousand square miles larger than Maryland, or 1.3 Belgiums.[24] This is less than 1/7th the area of corn harvested in the United States in 2000.[25][26]
As of 2008, such fuels remain too expensive to replace other commercially available fuels, with the cost of various algae species typically between US$5–10 per kg dry weight.[citation needed] But several companies and government agencies are funding efforts to reduce capital and operating costs and make algae oil production commercially viable.
In the news
- 4 May 2024 – 2024 London mayoral election
- Sadiq Khan wins re-election as mayor of London, England, with 43.8% of the vote, becoming the first London mayor to be elected to a third term. (BBC News)
- 30 April 2024 – 2024 Hainault sword attack
- A man attacks people with a sword after crashing a car into a house in Hainault, London, England, United Kingdom, killing a 14-year-old boy and injuring four other people, including two police officers. (BBC News) (The New York Times)
- 17 April 2024 –
- Scientists announce that they have identified fossil remains of the Ichthyotitan, the largest marine reptile currently known, in the Westbury Formation in England. (NOS)
Selected Biography
Charles Robert Darwin FRS (12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist[I] who realised and presented compelling evidence that all species of life have evolved over time from common ancestors,[27][28] through the process he called natural selection. The fact that evolution occurs became accepted by the scientific community and much of the general public in his lifetime, while his theory of natural selection came to be widely seen as the primary explanation of the process of evolution in the 1930s,[29] and now forms the basis of modern evolutionary theory. In modified form, Darwin’s scientific discovery is the unifying theory of the life sciences, providing logical explanation for the diversity of life.[30][31]
At Edinburgh University Darwin neglected medical studies to investigate marine invertebrates, then the University of Cambridge encouraged a passion for natural science.[32] His five-year voyage on HMS Beagle established him as an eminent geologist whose observations and theories supported Charles Lyell’s uniformitarian ideas, and publication of his journal of the voyage made him famous as a popular author. Puzzled by the geographical distribution of wildlife and fossils he collected on the voyage, Darwin investigated the transmutation of species and conceived his theory of natural selection in 1838.[33] Although he discussed his ideas with several naturalists, he needed time for extensive research and his geological work had priority.[34] He was writing up his theory in 1858 when Alfred Russel Wallace sent him an essay which described the same idea, prompting immediate joint publication of both of their theories.[35]
His 1859 book On the Origin of Species established evolutionary descent with modification as the dominant scientific explanation of diversification in nature.[29] He examined human evolution and sexual selection in The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex, followed by The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. His research on plants was published in a series of books, and in his final book, he examined earthworms and their effect on soil.[36]
In recognition of Darwin’s pre-eminence, he was one of only five 19th-century UK non-royal personages to be honoured by a state funeral,[37] and was buried in Westminster Abbey, close to John Herschel and Isaac Newton.[38]
Selected Geography
Bouvet Island is located at 54°26′S 3°24′E. It is 49 km² in area, 93% of which is covered by glaciers which block the south and east coasts.[1]
Bouvet Island is the most remote island in the world. The nearest land is Queen Maud Land, Antarctica, over 1,600 km (1,000 miles) away to the south, which is itself uninhabited.
It has no ports or harbours, only offshore anchorages, and is therefore difficult to approach. Wave action has created a very steep coast. The easiest way to access the island is with a helicopter from a ship. The glaciers form a thick ice layer falling in high cliffs into the sea or onto the black beaches of volcanic sand. The 29.6 km (18.4 miles) of coastline are often surrounded by an ice pack. The highest point on the island is called Olavtoppen, whose peak is 780 m (2,559 ft) above sea level. A lava shelf on the island's west coast, which appeared between 1955 and 1958, provides a nesting site for birds.
Because of the harsh climate and ice-bound terrain, vegetation is limited to lichens and mosses. Seals, seabirds and penguins are the only fauna.
Despite being uninhabited, Bouvet Island has the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) .bv, though it is not used.[2] A handful of amateur radio expeditions have gone to this remote location (call signs used here begin with 3Y). There is no telephone country code or area code, and no telephone connection (except by satellite, but there is nothing installed). There is no postal code and no postal distribution. Ships approaching the Bouvet Island fall within the UTC Z time zone. There is a Norwegian law [3] saying that the time zone of Norway is UTC+1, except for a part of year (daylight saving time). This suggests that the legal time zone for the Bouvet Island also should be UTC+1. However, since this law does not apply for the Norwegian Antarctic territories (Bouvet Island, Peter I Island, Queen Maud Land), UTC Z is the proper time zone for Bouvet Island.
Categories
Selected quote
You talk when you cease to be at peace with your thoughts.
- Khalil Gibran
- mystic, poet, and artist (1883-1931)
Did you know?
- ...that optimistic estimations of peak oil production forecast the global decline will begin by 2020 or later, and assume major investments in alternatives will occur before a crisis, without requiring major changes in the lifestyle of heavily oil-consuming nations. These models show the price of oil at first escalating and then retreating as other types of fuel and energy sources are used?[39]
- ...that if the Greenland ice-sheet melted through global warming, it would raise the global sea level by 7 meters, or 22 feet?
Topics
Related portals
WikiProjects
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| WikiProject Africa | WikiProject Cape Verde | WikiProject Council |
Things to do
- Keep finishing off the various Portals that need creating/completing and start writing content on the relevant interested issues.
- Be bold. Wikipedia is for the people, by the people and needs YOU as a contributor to spread global knowledge.
Wikimedia
- ^ The Countries of the UK statistics.gov.uk, accessed 10 October, 2008
- ^ "Countries within a country". 10 Downing Street. Retrieved 2007-09-10.
The United Kingdom is made up of four countries: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
- ^ "ISO 3166-2 Newsletter Date: 2007-11-28 No I-9. "Changes in the list of subdivision names and code elements" (Page 11)" (PDF). International Organisation for Standardisation codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions -- Part 2: Country subdivision codes. Retrieved 2008-05-31.
ENG England country
- ^ National Statistics Online - Population Estimates. Retrieved 6 June 2007.
- ^ The official definition of LUZ (Larger Urban Zone) is used by the European Statistical Agency (Eurostat) when describing conurbations and areas of high population. This definition ranks London highest, above Paris (see Larger Urban Zones (LUZ) in the European Union); and a ranking of population within municipal boundaries also puts London on top (see Largest cities of the European Union by population within city limits). However, research by the University of Avignon in France ranks Paris first and London second when including the whole urban area and hinterland, that is the outlying cities as well (see Largest urban areas of the European Union).
- ^ England - Culture. Britain USA. Retrieved 12 September 2006.
- ^ "Industrial Revolution". Retrieved 2008-04-27.
- ^ "History of the Royal Society". The Royal Society. Retrieved 2008-09-03.
- ^ "Country profile: United Kingdom". BBC News. Retrieved 2009-04-27.
- ^ Great Depression, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- ^ Charles Duhigg, "Depression, You Say? Check Those Safety Nets," New York Times, March 23, 2008
- ^ "Commodity Data". US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved 2008-11-30.
- ^ Cochrane, Willard W. (1958). "Farm Prices, Myth and Reality": 15.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - ^ "World Economic Survey 1932–33". League of Nations: 43.
- ^ Mitchell, Depression Decade
- ^ Schultz, Stanley K. (1999). "Crashing Hopes: The Great Depression". American History 102: Civil War to the Present. University of Wisconsin-Madison. Retrieved 2008-03-13..
- ^ "Oilgae.com – Oil from Algae!". Retrieved 2008-06-10.
- ^ Alternative Fuels
- ^ Cornell, Clayton B. (2008-03-29). "First Algae Biodiesel Plant Goes Online: April 1, 2008". Gas 2.0. Retrieved 2008-06-10.
- ^ ""'Green Dream' Backed by MPs"". Eastern Daily Press. January 2003. Retrieved 2008-06-10.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link) - ^ Friends of Ethanol.com biodegradable ethanol [dead link]
- ^ "Low Cost Algae Production System Introduced". Energy-Arizona. 2007-08-28. Retrieved 2008-06-10.
- ^ "Why Algae?". Solix Biofuels. Retrieved 2008-06-11.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Hartmanwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "Major Crops Grown in the United States". U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Retrieved 2008-06-10.
- ^ Dyer, Gwynne (2008-06-17). ""A replacement for oil"". The Chatham Daily News. Retrieved 2008-06-18.
- ^ Prothero, Donald R (2007). Evolution: What the Fossils Say. New York: Columbia University Press. p. 113. ISBN 978-0-231-13962-5.
...the fossil record provides...the strongest piece of evidence for evolution. ...lines of evidence that Darwin mustered in 1859.
{{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ Glass, Bentley (1959). Forerunners of Darwin. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. p. iv. ISBN 0801802229.
Darwin's solution is a magnificent synthesis of evidence...a synthesis...compelling in honesty and comprehensiveness
{{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ a b van Wyhe 2008
- ^ The Complete Works of Darwin Online - Biography. darwin-online.org.uk. Retrieved on 2006-12-15
Dobzhansky 1973 - ^ As Darwinian scholar Joseph Carroll of the University of Missouri–St. Louis puts it in his introduction to a modern reprint of Darwin's work: "The Origin of Species has special claims on our attention. It is one of the two or three most significant works of all time—one of those works that fundamentally and permanently alter our vision of the world....It is argued with a singularly rigorous consistency but it is also eloquent, imaginatively evocative, and rhetorically compelling." Carroll, Joseph, ed. (2003). On the origin of species by means of natural selection. Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview. p. 15. ISBN 1551113376.
- ^ Leff 2000, About Charles Darwin
- ^ Desmond & Moore 1991, pp. 210, 263–274, 284–285
- ^ van Wyhe 2007, pp. 184, 187
- ^ Darwin - At last. American Museum of Natural History. Retrieved on 2007-03-21
- ^ Freeman 1977
- ^ "BBC NEWS : Politics : Thatcher state funeral undecided". 2008-08-02. Retrieved 2008-08-10.
- ^ Leff 2000, Darwin's Burial
- ^ "CERA says peak oil theory is faulty". Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA). 2006-11-14. Retrieved 2008-07-27.