Delta Works in the Netherlands Studies
conducted in 1937 by Rijkswaterstaat (Department of Public Works), showed that
safety in many parts of the Netherlands could not be guaranteed at times of
storms and high sea levels. In 1959, the
Delta Law was passed, in order to organise the construction of dams. The
building of the 'Delta Works' was such an enormous project, that it was
sometimes referred to as the 'eighth wonder of the world' - and not without
good reason. In addition
to the construction of new dams and barriers, at several places, existing dams
had to be heightened. It is a common misconception that the Delta
Works were only built to replace dikes. In most of the cases, building a deltawork was
much quicker, and cheaper than reinforcing existing dikes. Since the building and strengthening of dikes
are time consuming and expensive, another deltawork was built to the west of
Maassluis at the end of the 20th century. The movable barrier, called the 'Maeslant
Barrier', can close off the New Waterway when water levels are threatening the
dikes in the environment. Due to the
recent climate change and the rise in sea level, high water levels are more
likely to occur near the coasts of Zeeland and Holland. The number of people that live in the polders,
several metres below sea level, has actually increased since the flood of 1953.
The general consensus among scientists
is that the reinforcement of dikes and the construction of dams and barriers is
in no way the final siege in the battle against the sea. Read much more at: http://www.deltawerken.com/23
"Occupy Sandy is a coordinated relief effort to help
distribute resources & volunteers to help neighborhoods and people affected
by Hurricane Sandy. We are a coalition
of people & organizations who are dedicated to implementing aid and
establishing hubs for neighborhood resource distribution. Members of this coalition are from Occupy Wall
Street, 350.org, recovers.org, InterOccupy.net and many individual volunteers." http://interoccupy.net/occupysandy/
October 31, 2012 What
if someone decides to tweet a lie? That’s
what happened in New York this week when a Twitter account called
“Comfortablysmug” sent out a lie about the New York Stock Exchange being
underwater that was picked up and retweeted more than 600 times, as well as
mentioned in the traditional news media.
As the report’s credibility began to erode, it didn’t take long for the
blog BuzzFeed to manage to track down the person behind the bogus tweet,
Shashank Tripathi, campaign manager for New York congressional candidate
Christopher Wright (though the tweet didn’t seem to have any political motive
behind it). Mr. Tripathi later offered a
“sincere, humble, and unconditional” apology and has resigned from his post. Tripathi wasn’t the only prankster. Fake photos on Facebook,
Twitter, and other photo-sharing sites showed pictures of divers purportedly in
a flooded New York subway tunnel and a sinking Statue
of Liberty (the actual source of the latter picture was the disaster movie
“The Day After Tomorrow." “Trolls
are part of the culture of the Internet. Some people get a kick out of spreading this
stuff,” the Post’s social media producer said.
In Internet slang, a troll is someone who posts
inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic
messages in an online community, such as a forum, chat room, or blog, with the
primary intent of provoking readers into an emotional
response or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion. Examples: As reported on April 8, 1999, investors became victims of
trolling via an online financial discussion regarding PairGain, a telephone
equipment company based in California. Trolls
operating in the stock’s Yahoo Finance chat room posted a fabricated Bloomberg News article stating that an Israeli
telecom company could potentially acquire PairGain. As a result, PairGain’s stock jumped by 31%. However, the stock promptly crashed after the
reports were identified as false. So-called
Gold Membership trolling originated in 2007 on 4chan boards, users
posting fake images claiming to offer upgraded 4chan account privileges;
without a "Gold" account, one could not view certain content. This turned out to be a hoax designed to fool
board members, especially newcomers. It
was copied and became an Internet meme. In some cases, this type of troll has been
used as a scam, most notably on Facebook, where fake Facebook Gold Account
upgrade ads have proliferated in order to link users to dubious websites and
other content. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troll_(Internet)
The
Conestoga River (also referred to as the Conestoga Creek) is a tributary of
the Susquehanna River that flows through the center of Lancaster County in
Pennsylvania. The word
"Conestoga" probably derives from the Iroquois language, and is
sometimes defined as "people of the cabin pole." Before the arrival of European settlers in the
region, the Conestoga--a Native American tribe also known as the Susquehanna or
Susquehannock--lived along the Susquehanna River. Around 1700, the Conestoga established trade
relations with the colony that would become Pennsylvania, founded by the Quaker
leader William Penn. As the fur trade
moved out of the region, the influence of Conestoga declined, and many moved
westward. In late 1763, in retaliation
for Native American aggression on the western frontier during Pontiac's
Rebellion, a vigilante group known as the Paxton Boys brutally massacred most
of the remaining Conestogas. By
that time, skilled craftsmen in the Susquehanna Valley--believed to be
Mennonite German settlers in Pennsylvania--had begun to build the distinctive
covered wagons that would bear the Conestoga name. Designed for hauling heavy loads over rough
roads, the covered wagons could carry as much as six tons of freight; each one
was handcrafted from wood (including oak and poplar). The floor of the
Conestoga wagon curved upwards at each end to prevent the wagon's contents from
shifting or falling out when it was in motion, while gates at the end were held
in place by a chain and could be dropped for loading and unloading purposes.
The white canvas cover on the Conestoga wagon protected the freight from
inclement weather; it was stretched taut over a series of wooden hoops that
arched over the wagon bed. The fabric
could be soaked in linseed oil to make it waterproof. Each Conestoga wagon was pulled by four to six
horses, ideally of a type bred in the region and known as Conestoga horses.
There has been an association between the heat and piquancy of mustard and the zest
and energy of people's behaviour. This
dates back to at least 1672, when the term 'as keen as
mustard' is first recorded. 'Up to
mustard' or just 'mustard' means up to standard in the same way as 'up to
snuff'. 'Cutting' has also long been
used to mean 'exhibiting', as in the phrase 'cutting a fine figure'. Unless some actual evidence is found for the
other proposed explanations, the derivation of 'cutting the mustard' as an
alternative way of saying 'exhibiting one's high standards' is by far the most
likely. Whatever the coinage, the phrase
itself emerged in the USA towards the end of the 19th century. The earliest example in print that I've found
is from The Iowa State Reporter, August 1897, in a piece about the
rivalry between two Iowa towns: Dubuque had the crowds,
but Waterloo "Cut the Mustard"
The use of quotation marks and the lack of any explanation of the term
in that citation imply that 'cut the mustard' was already known to Iowa readers
and earlier printed examples may yet turn up. http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/cut-the-mustard.html
"Cut to the chase" is a saying that means
to get to the point without wasting time.
The phrase originated from early silent
films. It was a favorite of and
thought to have been coined by Hal Roach Sr (1892–1992). Films, particularly comedies, often
climaxed in chase scenes to add to film time. Some inexperienced screenwriter or director,
unsure how to get to the climax or the lack of script to meet time
requirements, would just make an abrupt transition, known as a cut. An earlier version of the phrase (recorded 1880-1940) was Cut to Hecuba.
This refers to the practice of
shortening matinée performances of Hamlet
by cutting the long speeches before the reference to Hecuba in Act II,
Scene ii. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cut_to_the_chase
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