Los Angeles is the largest city in the state of California and the second largest in the United States. Often known by its initials, L.A., and nicknamed The City of Angels, Los Angeles has an estimated population of 3.8 million and spans over 498.3 square miles (1,290.6 km²) in Southern California. Additionally, the Los Angeles–Long Beach–Santa Ana metropolitan area is home to nearly 12.9 million residents. Los Angeles is the seat of Los Angeles County, the most populated and one of the most diverse counties in the United States. Its inhabitants are known as “Angelenos” . In 2008, Los Angeles was named the world’s eighth most economically powerful city by Forbes.com, ahead of Shanghai and Toronto but behind New York and London.

Los Angeles was founded September 4, 1781, by Spanish governor Felipe de Neve as El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Angeles del Río de Porciúncula (The Village of Our Lady, the Queen of the Angels of the river of Porziuncola). It became a part of Mexico in 1821, following its independence from Spain. In 1848, at the end of the Mexican-American War, Los Angeles and the rest of California were purchased as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, thereby becoming part of the United States; Mexico retained the territory of Baja California. Los Angeles was incorporated as a municipality on April 4, 1850, five months before California achieved statehood.

Los Angeles is one of the world’s centers of business, international trade, entertainment, culture, media, fashion, science, technology, and education. It is home to renowned institutions covering a broad range of professional and cultural fields, and is one of the most substantial economic engines within the United States. As the home base of Hollywood, it is known as the “Entertainment Capital of the World”, leading the world in the creation of motion pictures, television production and recorded music. The importance of the entertainment business to the city has led many celebrities to call Los Angeles and its surrounding suburbs home.

Seljalandsfoss is one of the most famous waterfalls of Iceland. It is very picturesque and therefore its photo can be found in many books and calendars. It was a waypoint during the first leg of The Amazing Race 6.

Seljalandsfoss is situated in between Selfoss and Skógafoss at the road crossing of Route 1 (the Ring Road) with the track going into Þórsmörk.

This waterfall of the river Seljalandsá drops 60 metres (200 ft) over the cliffs of the former coastline. It is possible to go behind the waterfall.

Dandenong Ranges National Park is in Victoria (Australia), 38 km east of Melbourne.

Because the park is located in an urban area, the park has a long history of major problems with feral and roaming animals. A cat-curfew was introduced in the entire Dandenong Ranges area some years ago, and since then the numbers and variety of lyrebirds and other native species have climbed dramatically.

Messier 82 (also known as NGC 3034 or the Cigar Galaxy) is the prototype nearby starburst galaxy about 12 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major. The starburst galaxy is five times as bright as the whole Milky Way and one hundred times as bright as our galaxy’s center.

In 2005, the Hubble revealed 197 young massive clusters in the starburst core. The average mass of these clusters is around 2 × 10⁵ M_⊙, hence the starburst core is a very energetic and high-density environment. Throughout the galaxy’s center, young stars are being born 10 times faster than they are inside our entire Milky Way Galaxy.

Gangwon-do is a province of South Korea, with its capital at Chuncheon. Before the division of Korea in 1945, Gangwon and its North Korean neighbour Kangwŏn formed a single province.

Gangwon-do was one of the Eight Provinces of Korea during the Joseon Dynasty. The province was formed in 1395, and derived its name from the names of the principal cities of Gangneung (강릉; 江陵) and the provincial capital Wonju (원주; 原州).

In 1895, Gangwon-do was replaced by the Districts of Chuncheon (Chuncheon-bu; 춘천부; 春川府) in the west and Gangneung (Gangneung-bu; 강릉부; 江陵府) in the east. (Wonju became part of Chungju District.)

In 1896, Korea was redivided into thirteen provinces, and the two districts were merged to re-form Gangwon-do Province. Although Wonju rejoined Gangwon-do province, the provincial capital was moved to Chuncheon, where it remains today.

In 1945, Gangwon-do (along with the rest of Korea) was divided by the 38th parallel north in 1945 into U.S. American and Soviet zones of occupation in the south and north respectively, which led to Wonsan joining the province’s northern half in 1946 to serve as its administrative center. In 1948, the southern half of the province became part of the new Republic of South Korea. As a result of the Korean War ceasefire of 1953, the boundary between the South and North Korean portions of the province was shifted northward to the Military Demarcation Line. The province’s boundaries have remained the same since 1953.

Cuttlefish are marine animals of the order Sepiida belonging to the class Cephalopoda (which also includes squid, octopuses, and nautiluses). Despite their common name, cuttlefish are not fish but mollusks. Recent studies indicate that cuttlefish are among the most intelligent invertebrates.

The origin of the word cuttlefish can be found in the old English term cudele, itself derived in the 1400s from the Norwegian koddi (cushion, testicle) and the Middle German kudel (pouch), a literal description of the cephalopod’s shape. The Greco-Roman world valued the cephalopod as a source of the unique brown pigment released from its siphon when alarmed. Hence, the word for it in Greek and Latin is sepia (later seppia in Italian).

Cuttlefish have an internal shell (the cuttlebone), large W-shaped pupils, and eight arms and two tentacles furnished with denticulated suckers, with which they secure their prey.

Cuttlefish generally range in size from 15 cm (5.9 in) to 25 cm (9.8 in), with the largest species, Sepia apama, reaching 50 cm (20 in) in mantle length and over 10.5 kg (23 lb) in weight.

Cuttlefish eat small molluscs, crabs, shrimp, fish, octopuses, worms, and other cuttlefish. Their predators include dolphins, sharks, fish, seals and other cuttlefish. Their life expectancy is about one to two years.

The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress and is the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and holds the 2nd largest number of books.  The head of the Library is the Librarian of Congress, currently James H. Billington.

The Library of Congress was established by Congress in 1800, and was housed in the United States Capitol for most of the 19th century. After much of the original collection had been destroyed during the War of 1812, Thomas Jefferson sold 6487 books to the library, his entire personal library, in 1815. After a period of decline during the mid-19th century the Library of Congress began to grow rapidly in both size and importance after the American Civil War, culminating in the construction of a separate library building and the transference of all copyright deposit holdings to the Library. During the rapid expansion of the 20th century the Library of Congress assumed a preeminent public role, becoming a “library of last resort” and expanding its mission for the benefit of scholars and the American people.

The Library’s primary mission is researching inquiries made by members of Congress through the Congressional Research Service; although it is open to the public, only legislators, Supreme Court justices and other high-ranking government officials may check out books. Through the United States Copyright Office, the Library of Congress also receives copies of every book, pamphlet, map, print, and piece of music registered in the United States. As the de facto national library, the Library of Congress promotes literacy and American literature through projects such as the American Folklife Center, American Memory, Center for the Book and Poet Laureate.

The cougar (Puma concolor), also known as puma, mountain lion, mountain cat, catamount or panther, depending on the region, is a mammal of the family Felidae, native to the Americas. This large, solitary cat has the greatest range of any large wild terrestrial mammal in the Western Hemisphere,  extending from Yukon in Canada to the southern Andes of South America. An adaptable, generalist species, the cougar is found in every major American habitat type. It is the second heaviest cat in the American continents after the jaguar. Although large, the cougar is most closely related to smaller felines.

A capable stalk-and-ambush predator, the cougar pursues a wide variety of prey. Primary food sources include ungulates such as deer, elk, moose, and bighorn sheep, as well as domestic cattle, horses and sheep, particularly in the northern part of its range. It will also hunt species as small as insects and rodents. This cat prefers habitats with dense underbrush and rocky areas for stalking, but it can also live in open areas. The cougar is territorial and persists at low population densities. Individual territory sizes depend on terrain, vegetation, and abundance of prey. While it is a large predator, it is not always the dominant species in its range, as when it competes for prey with other predators such as the jaguar, grey wolf, American Black Bear, and the grizzly bear. It is a reclusive cat and usually avoids people. Attacks on humans remain rare, despite a recent increase in frequency.

Due to excessive hunting following the European colonization of the Americas, and continuing human development of cougar habitat, populations have dropped in most parts of its historical range. In particular, the cougar was extirpated in eastern North America, except for an isolated sub-population in Florida; the animal may be recolonizing parts of its former eastern territory, such as Maine and northern Michigan,  where there have been recent sightings. With its vast range, the cougar has dozens of names and various references in the mythology of the indigenous Americans and in contemporary culture. The cougar has recently made a comeback in the state of Wyoming, where it presently has the largest population in North

Mauritius officially the Republic of Mauritius, French: République de Maurice is an island nation off the coast of the African continent in the southwest Indian Ocean, about 900 kilometres (560 mi) east of Madagascar. In addition to the island of Mauritius, the Republic includes the islands of Cargados Carajos, Rodrigues  and the Agalega Islands. Mauritius is part of the Mascarene Islands, with the French island of Réunion  200 km (120 mi) to the southwest and the island of Rodrigues  570 km (350 mi) to the northeast.

With a well-developed legal and commercial infrastructure and a tradition of entrepreneurship and representative government, Mauritius is one of the developing world’s most successful democracies. economy has shown a considerable degree of resilience, and an environment already conducive to dynamic entrepreneurial activity has moved further toward economic freedom. The island’s institutional advantages are noticeable. A transparent and well-defined investment code and legal system have made the foreign investment climate in Mauritius one of the best in the region. Taxation is competitive and efficient. The economy is increasingly diversified, with significant private-sector activity in sugar, tourism, economic processing zones, and financial services, particularly in offshore enterprises. The government is trying to modernize the sugar and textile industries, which in the past were overly dependent on trade preferences, while promoting diversification into such areas as information and communications technology, financial and business services, seafood processing and exports, and free trade zones. Agriculture and industry have become less important to the economy, and services, especially tourism, accounted for over 72 percent of GDP. The government still owns utilities and controls imports of rice, flour, petroleum products, and cement.

Mauritius ranks 41st out of 179 countries in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index for 2008, an improvement over 2007. Mauritius is one of Africa’s least corrupt countries. In 2002, the government adopted the Prevention of Corruption Act, which led to the setting up of an Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) a few months later. The ICAC has the power to detect and investigate corruption and money-laundering offenses and can also confiscate the proceeds of corruption and money laundering. Corruption is not seen as an obstacle to foreign direct investment.

The island of Mauritius is renowned for having been the only known home of the dodo. First sighted by Europeans around 1600 on Mauritius, the dodo became extinct less than eighty years later.

The City and Borough of Juneau is a unified municipality  located on the Gastineau Channel in the panhandle of the U.S. state of Alaska. It has been the capital of Alaska since 1906, when the government of the then-Alaska Territory was moved from Sitka. The municipality unified in 1970 when the City of Juneau merged with the City of Douglas and the surrounding borough to form the current home rule municipality.

The area of Juneau is larger than that of Rhode Island and Delaware individually and almost as large as the two states combined. Downtown Juneau is nestled at the base of Mount Juneau and across the channel from Douglas Island. As of the 2000 census, the City and Borough had a population of 30,711. The U.S. Census Bureau’s 2008 population estimate for the City and Borough was 30,988.[1]

Juneau was named after gold prospector Joe Juneau, though the place was for a time called Rockwell and then Harrisburg (after Juneau’s co-prospector, Richard Harris — several books credit the Tlingit Chief Kowee with showing these prospectors where the gold was). The Tlingit name of the town is Dzántik’i Héeni “river where the flounders gather”, and Auke Bay just north of Juneau proper is called Aak’w “little lake” in Tlingit. The Taku River, just south of Juneau, was named after the cold t’aakh wind, which occasionally blows down from the mountains.

Downtown Juneau sits at sea level, with tides averaging 16 feet (4.9 m), below steep mountains about 3,500 to 4,000 feet (1,200 m) high. Atop these mountains is the Juneau Icefield, a large ice mass from which about 30 glaciers flow; two of these, the Mendenhall Glacier and the Lemon Creek Glacier, are visible from the local road system; the Mendenhall glacier has been generally retreating; its front face is declining both in width and height.

The current Alaska State Capitol is an office building in downtown Juneau, originally built as the Federal and Territorial Building in 1931. Originally housing federal government offices, the federal courthouse, and a post office, it became the home of the Alaska Legislature and the offices for the governor of Alaska and lieutenant governor of Alaska. Through the years, there has been discussion on relocating the seat of state government and building a new capitol, without significant development.

Dubrovnik, is a Croatian  city on the Adriatic Sea coast in the extreme south of Dalmatia, positioned at the terminal end of the Isthmus of Dubrovnik. It is one of the most prominent tourist  destinations on the Adriatic, a seaport and the center of Dubrovnik-Neretva county. Its population was 43,770 in 2001  down from 49,728 in 1991.  In 1979, the city of Dubrovnik joined the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites.

The prosperity of the city of Dubrovnik has always been based on maritime trade. In the Middle Ages, as the Republic of Ragusa, also known as the fifth Maritime Republic (together with Amalfi, Pisa, Genoa and Venice), it became the only eastern Adriatic city-state to rival Venice. Supported by its wealth and skilled diplomacy, the city achieved a remarkable level of development, particularly during the 15th and 16th centuries. Although demilitarized in 1970s with a purpose to prevent it from war devastation forever, in 1991 after the breakup of Yugoslavia it was besieged by Serb-Montenegrin forces for 7 months and heavily damaged by bombing.

Mount Hood, called Wy’east by the Multnomah tribe, is a stratovolcano  in the Cascade Volcanic Arc of northern Oregon. It was formed by a subduction zone and rests in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located about 50 miles (80 km) east-southeast of Portland, on the border between Clackamas and Hood River counties.

The exact height assigned to Mount Hood’s snow-covered peak has varied over its history. Modern sources point to three different heights: 11,249 feet (3,429 m) based on the 1991 U.S. National Geodetic Survey 11,240 feet (3,426 m) based on a 1993 scientific expedition and 11,239 feet (3,426 m) of slightly older origin. The peak is home to twelve glaciers. It is the highest mountain in Oregon and the fourth-highest in the Cascade Range. Mount Hood is considered the Oregon volcano most likely to erupt, though based on its history, an explosive eruption is unlikely. Still, the odds of an eruption in the next 30 years are estimated at between 3 and 7 percent, so the USGS characterizes it as “potentially active”, but the mountain is informally considered dormant.

The Roseate Spoonbill  is a gregarious wading bird of the ibis and spoonbill  family, Threskiornithidae. It is a resident breeder in South America mostly east of the Andes, and in coastal regions of the Caribbean, Central America, Mexico, and the Gulf Coast of the United States. Vagrant birds have been sighted as far north as Delaware, Indiana, and Kansas.

The Roseate Spoonbill is 80 cm (31 in) tall, with a 120–130 cm (47–51 in) wingspan. It has long legs, a long neck, and a long, spatulate bill. Adults have a bare greenish head (“golden buff” when breeding) and a white neck, back, and breast (with a tuft of pink feathers in the center when breeding), and are otherwise a deep pink. The bill is grey. Sexes are similar.

Unlike herons, spoonbills fly with their necks outstretched. They alternate groups of stiff, shallow wingbeats with glides.

The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool is the largest of Washington, D.C.’s reflecting pools. Located directly east of the Lincoln Memorial, it is a long, rectangular pool visible in many photographs of the Washington Monument. It is lined by walking paths and shade trees on both sides. It reflects both the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial.

Located in the Constitution Gardens, the reflecting pool is approximately 2,029 feet (618 m) long and 167 feet (51 m) wide. It has a depth of approximately 18 inches (46 cm) on the sides and 30 inches (76 cm) in the center. It holds approximately 6,750,000 U.S. gallons (25,500,000 L) of water. It was designed by Henry Bacon and constructed in 1922 and 1923, following the dedication of the Lincoln Memorial.

Salt Lake City is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. The name of the city is often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC. Salt Lake City has a population of 181,698 as of July 1, 2008,  making it the 126th largest city in the United States. The Salt Lake City metropolitan area spans Salt Lake, Summit and Tooele counties, and has a total estimated population of 1,115,692 as of July 1, 2008. Salt Lake City is further situated in a larger urban area known as the Wasatch Front and is part of the Salt Lake City-Ogden-Clearfield CSA that has an estimated population of 1,717,261. The total estimated population of the Wasatch Front (Salt Lake CSA and Provo MSA) is 2,196,755 as of July 1, 2008.

The city was founded in 1847 as Great Salt Lake City by a group of Mormon pioneers led by their prophet, Brigham Young, who fled hostility and violence in the Midwestern United States. They extensively irrigated and cultivated the arid valley and faced persecution from the U.S. government for their practice of polygamy, which was officially discontinued in 1890. Today, Salt Lake City is still home to the headquarters of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS, also known as the Mormon Church). According to data from the LDS Church, the State of Utah, combined with IRS and Census Bureau estimates, Salt Lake County was 53% LDS in 2004, as reported in The Salt Lake Tribune.

Mining booms and the construction of the first transcontinental railroad initially brought economic growth, and the city was nicknamed the Crossroads of the West. Salt Lake City has since developed a strong outdoor recreation tourist industry based primarily on skiing. Salt Lake City was host to the 2002 Winter Olympics and is the industrial banking center of the United States.

Sigiriya (Lion’s rock) is an ancient rock fortress and palace ruin situated in the central Matale District of Sri Lanka, surrounded by the remains of an extensive network of gardens, reservoirs, and other structures. A popular tourist destination, Sigiriya is also renowned for its ancient paintings (frescos), which are reminiscent of the Ajanta Caves of India. The Sigiriya was built during the reign of King Kassapa I (AD 477 – 495), and it is one of the seven World Heritage Sites of Sri Lanka.

Sigiriya may have been inhabited through prehistoric times. It was used as a rock-shelter mountain monastery from about the 5th century BC, with caves prepared and donated by devotees to the Buddhist Sangha. The garden and palace were built by King Kasyapa. Following King Kasyapa’s death, it was again a monastery complex up to about the 14th century, after which it was abandoned. . The Sigiri inscriptions were deciphered by the archaeologist Senarath Paranavithana in his renowned two-volume work, published by Oxford, Sigiri Graffiti. He also wrote the popular book “Story of Sigiriya”.

The Mahavamsa, the ancient historical record of Sri Lanka, describes King Kasyapa as the son of King Dhatusena. Kasyapa murdered his father by walling him alive and then usurping the throne which rightfully belonged to his brother Mogallana, Dhatusena’s son by the true queen. Mogallana fled to India to escape being assassinated by Kasyapa but vowed revenge. In India he raised an army with the intention of returning and retaking the throne of Sri Lanka which he considered was rightfully his. Knowing the inevitable return of Mogallana, Kasyapa is said to have built his palace on the summit of Sigiriya as a fortress and pleasure palace. Mogallana finally arrived and declared war. During the battle Kasyapa’s armies abandoned him and he committed suicide by falling on his sword. Chronicles and lore say that the battle-elephant on which Kasyapa was mounted changed course to take a strategic advantage, but the army misinterpreted the movement as the King having opted to retreat, prompting the army to abandon the king altogether. Moggallana returned the capital to Anuradapura, converting Sigiriya into a monastery complex.

Alternative stories have the primary builder of Sigiriya as King Dhatusena, with Kasyapa finishing the work in honour of his father. Still other stories have Kasyapa as a playboy king, with Sigiriya a pleasure palace. Even Kasyapa’s eventual fate is mutable. In some versions he is assassinated by poison administered by a concubine. In others he cuts his own throat when isolated in his final battle. Still further interpretations have the site as the work of a Buddhist community, with no military function at all. This site may have been important in the competition between the Mahayana and Theravada Buddhist traditions in ancient Sri Lanka.

Lasseter Highway is a fully sealed 244 kilometre highway in the Northern Territory of Australia. It connects Yulara, Kata Tjuta and Uluru  east to the Stuart Highway. The highway is named after Lewis Hubert (Harold Bell) Lasseter, who claimed to have discovered a fabulously rich gold reef (Lasseter’s Reef) west of Kata Tjuta.

The Long-tailed Weasel (Mustela frenata) is the most widely distributed mustelid in the New World. Its range extends from southern Canada through most of the United States to Mexico, Central America and the northern parts of South America. It is generally found in open or semi-open habitats near water.

This is a typical weasel with a long slender body, short legs and a bushy tail that is almost as long as the rest of the animal. Adult males measure from 33 to 45 cm (14 to 18 in)(including their tails), and may weigh up to 500g (1 lb); females are typically about 15% smaller. They are gingerish-brown in colour, with yellowish-white belly fur, but in the northern parts of their range they moult to pure white in winter. The tip of the tail is black in all seasons.

Like most weasels, Long-tailed Weasels mainly eat rodents, their slender bodies enabling them to pursue their prey into their burrows. They are most active at night but are sometimes seen during the day. They are highly solitary, and their home ranges do not overlap with another member of the species of the same sex (though each male’s home range may include several females’ home ranges). Their young are born helpless, but by 56 days are able to catch prey independently.

They are able to climb trees and are also good swimmers.

Cordillera Real is a mountain range in the South American Altiplano of Bolivia.
Cordillera Real is a granite range of fold mountains east of the Bolivian capital of La Paz, measuring 125 km in length and 20 km in width. There are six summits higher than 6,000 m in the cordillera which are from north to south.

Seal Rock State Wayside has large off-shore rock formations which are the habitat of seals, sea lions, sea birds and other marine life. The wayside includes interesting tidepools as well as excellent ocean views and a sandy beach. Developed for day-use, the picnic area is in a pleasant stand of shore pine, spruce and salal.

Kikai Island is the historical island that Shunkan, Taira no Yasuyori, and Fujiwara no Naritsune were exiled to following the Shishigatani Incident in 1177. It belonged to Satsuma Province.

According to a description in Heike Monogatari:

Boats rarely passed, and people were scare. Residents were dark colored and their words were incomprehensible. Men did not were eboshi, and women did not wear their hair down. There were no farmers or grain, not even clothing. In the center of the island was a tall mountain, and it was constantly in flames. Due to the large amounts of sulfur, the island was also known as Sulfur Island.

In 1178, Yasuyori and Naritsune are pardoned and return to the capital. However, Shunkan alone is not pardoned and remained on the island alone until death.

Vultures are scavenging birds, feeding mostly on the carcasses of dead animals. Vultures are found on every continent except Antarctica, Australia  and Oceania.

Vultures do not use their feet to kill their prey and so have gone back and forth between being classified as a raptor or a non-raptor, and have gone through extensive DNA testing to test the relationships.

Vultures are scavengers. A particular characteristic of many vultures is a bald head, devoid of feathers. This helps to keep the head clean when feeding. Research has shown that the bare skin may play an important role in thermoregulation.

A group of vultures is called a wake, committee, or venue . The word Geier (taken from the German language) does not have a precise meaning in ornithology, and it is occasionally used to refer to a vulture in English, as in some poetry.

Chaetosphaeridium globosum is a one-celled algae which is thought to represent an ancient lineage of the green plants. This organism exists in a filamentous  form with one flagella per cell. It is a freshwater  species. The flagellum is covered in scales in a 3-prong irregular shape called ‘maple leafs’. The cells are usually 11 to 18μm in diameter and with one pyrenoid. Each cell bears long bristle.

Researchers have found that the mitochondrial DNA of Chaetosphaeridium is markedly different than that of land plants, indicating that land plants developed mitochondria separately from their protist progenitors. A very slight similarity exists between liverwort mtDNA and Chaetosphaeridium. The chloroplast DNA is markedly similar, however, indicating that a close relationship had existed between the Viridiplantae and the clade that includes Chaetosphaeridium. This seems to argue that chloroplasts in green plants originated in prehistoric green algae; the family which includes Chaetosphaeridium globosum.

Chloroplasts are known to be captured (symbiotic) cyanobacteria with their own genome. Part of this genome has been transferred to the nucleus and part has been retained in the chloroplast for the continuation of metabolic processes. This symbiosis, now proven by modern genomics, has shown us how Chaetosphaeridium globosum links ancient cyanobacteria with modern green plants like those in our garden.

Adolphe Bridge is an arch bridge in Luxembourg City, in southern Luxembourg. The bridge takes road traffic across the Pétrusse, connecting Boulevard Royal, in Ville Haute, to Avenue de la Liberté, in Gare. At 17.2 m wide, it carries four lanes of road traffic, three to Gare and a bus lane  to Ville Haute, and has two footpaths  for pedestrians.

Adolphe Bridge has become an unofficial national symbol of sorts, representing Luxembourg’s independence, and has become one of Luxembourg City’s main tourist attractions. The bridge was designed by Paul Séjourné, a Frenchman, and Paul Rodange, a Luxembourger, and was built between 1900 and 1903. Its design was copied in the construction of Walnut Lane Bridge in Philadelphia, the United States.

The bridge was named after Grand Duke Adolphe, who reigned Luxembourg from 1890 until 1905, and was the first monarch to hold the title not in personal union with another. Although it is now over 100 years old, it is also known as the New Bridge (Luxembourgish: Nei Bréck, French: Nouveau pont, German: Neue Brücke) by people from Luxembourg City. The ‘old bridge’ in this comparison is the Passerelle, which was built between 1859 and 1861.

Io is the innermost of the four Galilean moons of the planet Jupiter and, with a diameter  of 3,642 kilometers, the fourth-largest moon in the Solar System. It was named after Io, a priestess of Hera who became one of the lovers of Zeus.

With over 400 active volcanoes, Io is the most geologically active object in the Solar System. This extreme geologic activity is the result of tidal heating from friction generated within Io’s interior by Jupiter’s varying pull. Several volcanoes produce plumes of sulfur and sulfur dioxide that climb as high as 500 km (310 mi) above the surface. Io’s surface is also dotted with more than 100 mountains that have been uplifted by extensive compression at the base of the moon’s silicate crust. Some of these peaks are taller than Earth’s Mount Everest. Unlike most satellites in the outer Solar System, which are most composed of water ice, Io is primarily composed of silicate rock surrounding a molten iron or iron sulfide core. Most of Io’s surface is characterized by extensive plains coated with sulfur and sulfur dioxide frost.

Seattle is a major seaport located in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. Situated in the western part of Washington state on an isthmus between Puget Sound (an arm of the Pacific Ocean) and Lake Washington, about 100 miles (160 km) south of the Canada – United States border, it is named after Chief Sealth, of the Duwamish and Suquamish tribes. The encompassing Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metropolitan statistical area is the 15th largest in the United States, and the largest in the northwestern United States.  The major economic, cultural and educational center in the region, Seattle is the county seat of King County. As of 1 April 2009, the city had an estimated municipal population of 602,000.

The Seattle area has been inhabited for at least 4,000 years, but European settlement began only in the mid-19th century. The first permanent European settlers — Arthur A. Denny and those subsequently known as the Denny Party — arrived November 13, 1851. Early settlements in the area were called “New York-Alki” (“Alki” meaning “by and by” in the local Chinook Jargon) and “Duwamps”. In 1853, Doc Maynard suggested that the main settlement be renamed “Seattle”, an anglicized rendition of the name of Sealth, the chief of the two local tribes. From 1869 until 1882, Seattle was known as the “Queen City”. Seattle’s current official nickname is the “Emerald City”, the result of a contest held in the early 1980s; the reference is to the lush evergreen forests of the area. Seattle is also referred to informally as the “Gateway to Alaska”, “Rain City”, and “Jet City”, the last from the local influence of Boeing. Seattle residents are known as Seattleites.

The annual Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival has been held since 1963. It had been interrupted for a number of years during the Cultural Revolution until it was resumed in 1985.

Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang province of People’s Republic of China, is one of the sources of ice and snow culture in the world. Geographically, it is located in Northeast China under the direct influence of the cold winter wind from Siberia. The average temperature in summer is 21.2 degrees Celsius, -16.8 degrees Celsius in winter. It can be as cold as – 38.1 degrees Celsius in winter.

Officially, the festival starts from January 5th and it lasts one month. However often the exhibitions open earlier and last longer, weather permitting. Ice sculpture decoration ranges from the modern technology of lasers to traditional ice lanterns. There are ice lantern park touring activities held in many parks in the city. Winter activities in the festival include Yabuli alpine skiing, winter-swimming in Songhua River, and the ice-lantern exhibition in Zhaolin Garden.

The Harbin festival is one of the world’s four largest ice and snow festivals, along with Japan’s Sapporo Snow Festival, Canada’s Quebec City Winter Carnival, and Norway’s Ski Festival.

The 2007 festival featured the Canadian theme, in memoriam of Canadian doctor Norman Bethune. It also a Guinness Record of the largest snow sculpture: 250 metres long, 28 feet (8.5 m) high, using over 13,000 cubic metres of snow. The composition consisted of two parts: “Niagara Falls” and “Crossing the Bering Strait” (the latter depicting the migration of the First Nations).

Zakynthos, the third largest of the Ionian Islands, covers an area of 410 km2 (158 sq mi) and its coastline is roughly 123 km (76 mi) in length. The island is named after Zakynthos, the son of a legendary Arcadian chief Dardanus. The name, like all similar names ending in -nthos, is pre-Mycenaean or Pelasgian in origin. Zakynthos has a thriving tourism industry.

Notre Dame is a term referring to the Blessed Virgin Mary. In French place names, Notre-Dame is always hyphenated, as is a longer epithet of Our Lady (e.g. Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours Chapel).  In church names with Notre-Dame followed by a place name, the remainder of the name is not hyphenated, if the place is where the church is located (e.g. Notre-Dame de Montréal Basilica); however, it is hyphenated if the place is not where the church is located, but rather an epithet of Our Lady (e.g. Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes, a church not in Lourdes, but name for Our Lady of Lourdes).

The United States Virgin Islands, also called Virgin Islands of the United States is a group of islands in the Caribbean  that are an insular area of the United States. The islands are geographically part of the Virgin Islands archipelago and are located in the Leeward Islands of the Lesser Antilles.

The U.S. Virgin Islands consist of the main islands of Saint Croix, Saint John and Saint Thomas, along with the much smaller but historically distinct Water Island, and many other surrounding minor islands. The total land area of the territory is 133.73 square miles (346.4 km2). As of the 2000 census the population was 108,612.

The main islands have nicknames often used by locals: “Twin City” (St. Croix), “Rock City” (St. Thomas), “Love City” (St. John), and “Small City” (Water Island).

The Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) or Redbird  is a North American bird in the cardinal family. It is found from southern Canada through the eastern United States from Maine to Texas and south through Mexico to northern Guatemala  and Belize. It can also be found on the Big Island of Hawaii. It is found in woodlands, gardens, shrublands, and swamps.

The Northern Cardinal is a mid-sized songbird with a body length of 21–23 centimeters (8.3–9 in). It has a distinctive crest on the head and a mask on the face which is black in the male and gray in the female. It displays sexual dimorphism in its coloration; the male is a vibrant red, while the female is a dull red-brown shade. The Northern Cardinal is mainly granivorous, but also feeds on insects and fruit. The male behaves territorially, marking out his territory with song. During courtship, the male feeds seed to the female beak-to-beak. A clutch of three to four eggs is laid, and two to four clutches are produced each year. It was once prized as a pet, but its sale as cage birds is now banned in the United States by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918.