User:Wiki User 68/My Portal
Wiki User 68/My Portal
 |
 |
| |
.gif)
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.
Selected Panorama
Selected Article
Rockingham Castle formerly a royal castle and hunting lodge, now the family home of the Saunders Watson family, in Rockingham Forest on the northern edge of the English county of Northamptonshire a mile to the north of Corby.
Rockingham Castle is often stated as being in the county of Leicestershire. This mistake arises due to Rockingham having a Market Harborough postal address.
It was formerly a Saxon fort and the castle was founded shortly after William the Conqueror arrived in England. It was created because its elevated terrain provided an excellent defence of the surrounding land from the local population. It was used by Norman kings as a retreat when travelling because Rockingham Forest was good for hunting wild boar and deer.
By the time that Henry VIII came to power the castle was in decline and was no more than a hunting lodge for nobles. It was restored during the ensuing centuries following several small skirmishes in the English Civil War and finally restored to its full elegance and grace in the late nineteenth century.
It overlooks the villages of Rockingham and Caldecott and enjoys good views over the Welland Valley. Now privately owned, it is open to the public on certain days.
Rockingham Castle was a popular haunt of writer Charles Dickens who was a great friend of Richard & Levinia Watson, ancestors of the current family. The Castle is the inspiration for Chesney Wold in one of his greatest works, Bleak House.
A cricket pitch lies within the grounds of the castle and is home to Old Eastonians Cricket Club.
Selected Picture
Selected Natural History
Rainforests are forests characterized by high rainfall, with definitions setting minimum normal annual rainfall between 1750–2000 mm (68-78 inches).
From 40 to 75% of all species on Earth are indigenous to the rainforests.[10] It has been estimated that many millions of species of plants, insects, and microorganisms are still undiscovered. Tropical rainforests have been called the "jewels of the Earth", and the "world's largest pharmacy", because of the large number of natural medicines discovered there.[11] Rainforests also supply 28% of the worlds oxygen,[12] processing it through photosynthesis from carbon dioxide.
The undergrowth in a rainforest is restricted in many areas by the lack of sunlight at ground level. This makes it possible to walk through the forest. If the leaf canopy is destroyed or thinned, the ground beneath is soon colonized by a dense, tangled growth of vines, shrubs, and small trees called a jungle. There are two types of rainforest, tropical rainforest and temperate rainforest.
Selected Technology
.svg)
Bio Fuel Systems is a wholly Spanish owned firm that has developed a method of breeding plankton and turning the marine plants into oil, providing a potentially inexhaustible source of clean fuel. It was formed in 2006 in eastern Spain after three years of research by scientists and engineers connected with the University of Alicante.
The process it has developed converts energy, based on three elements: solar energy, photosynthesis and an electromagnetic field. Its new fuel is said to reduce CO2, is free of other contaminants like sulphur dioxide and would be cheaper than standard fossil fuel that is available now. Their system of bioconversion is about 400 times more productive than any other plant-based system producing oil or ethanol.[citation needed]
In the news
- 2 July 2024 –
- Serial killer Lucy Letby is convicted of an attempted murder in a retrial at Manchester Crown Court in Manchester, England. (BBC News)
- 20 June 2024 –
- Two Just Stop Oil activists film themselves cutting through a metal fence and spraying orange paint on two private jets at Stansted Airport in Essex, England, United Kingdom. Police arrest the activists for criminal damage. (BBC News)
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,[13][14] 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,[15] 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.[16][17]
At Edinburgh University Darwin neglected medical studies to investigate marine invertebrates, then the University of Cambridge encouraged a passion for natural science.[18] 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.[19] Although he discussed his ideas with several naturalists, he needed time for extensive research and his geological work had priority.[20] 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.[21]
His 1859 book On the Origin of Species established evolutionary descent with modification as the dominant scientific explanation of diversification in nature.[15] 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.[22]
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,[23] and was buried in Westminster Abbey, close to John Herschel and Isaac Newton.[24]
Selected Geography
The Arctic Ocean, located in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Arctic north polar region, is the smallest, and shallowest of the world's five major oceanic divisions.[25] The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, although some oceanographers call it the Arctic Mediterranean Sea or simply the Arctic Sea, classifying it as one of the mediterranean seas of the Atlantic Ocean.
Almost completely surrounded by Eurasia and North America, the Arctic Ocean is largely covered by sea ice throughout the year. The Arctic Ocean's temperature and salinity vary seasonally as the ice cover melts and freezes;[26] its salinity is the lowest on average of the five major oceans, due to low evaporation, heavy freshwater inflow from rivers and streams, and limited connection and outflow to surrounding oceanic waters with higher salinities. The summer shrinking of the ice has been quoted at 50%.[25] The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) use satellite data to provide a daily record of Arctic sea ice cover and the rate of melting compared to an average period and specific past years.
Categories
Selected quote
The tragedy of modern war is not so much that young men die but that they die fighting each other, instead of their real enemies back home in the capitals.
- Edward Abbey
- naturalist and author (1927-1989)
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?[27]
- ...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
 |
 |
 |
| 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.
- ^ "Rainforests.net - Variables and Math". Retrieved 2009-01-04.
- ^ Rainforests at Animal Center
- ^ Killer Inhabitants of the Rainforests
- ^ 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
- ^ a b Michael Pidwirny (2006). "Introduction to the Oceans". www.physicalgeography.net. Retrieved 2006-12-07.
- ^ Some Thoughts on the Freezing and Melting of Sea Ice and Their Effects on the Ocean K. Aagaard and R. A. Woodgate, Polar Science Center, Applied Physics Laboratory University of Washington, January 2001. Retrieved 7 December 2006.
- ^ "CERA says peak oil theory is faulty". Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA). 2006-11-14. Retrieved 2008-07-27.