where did the term rip city come from

The nickname Rip City is usually used in the context of the city's NBA team, the Portland Trail Blazers.[14] The term was coined by the team's play-by-play announcer Bill Schonely during a game against the Los Angeles Lakers on February 18, 1971, the Blazers' first season.[15] In the days prior to the three-point field goal, Blazers guard Jim Barnett took an ill-advised long distance shot that nonetheless went in, giving the new team hope for a victory against the powerful Lakers. Excited, Schonely exclaimed "Rip City! All right!" Schonely admits that he has no idea how he came up with the expression, but it became synonymous with the team and the city of Portland.[16]

Nicknames of Portland, Oregon

There are several well-known and commonly used nicknames referring to Portland, Oregon.

The official,[1] and also most common, nickname for Portland is The City of Roses[1][2][3] or Rose City.[4] The first known reference to Portland as "The City of Roses" was made by visitors to an 1888 Episcopal Church convention.[citation needed]

In 1889, the Portland Rose Society was founded, and promoted the planting of 20 miles (32Â km) of Portland's streets with roses in advance of the 1905 Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition.[5] The nickname grew in popularity after the exposition, where Mayor Harry Lane suggested that the city needed a "festival of roses."[2]

The nickname is often attributed to Leo Samuel,[6] who founded the Oregon Life Insurance Company in 1906 (known today as Standard Insurance Company). Samuel, who moved to Portland in 1871,[7] grew roses outside his home. He placed a pair of shears outside his garden so people could snip a rose from his garden to take for themselves. This encouraged other people and businesses to plant their own roses outside their homes and business. Today, roses are still planted outside the Standard Insurance Company's home office building in downtown Portland.

The first Portland Rose Festival was held in 1907, and remains the city's major annual festival more than a century later.[5] In 1917, the International Rose Test Garden was established, and it now features more than 7,000 rose plants of 550 varieties. It is the oldest continuously operating public rose test garden in the United States.

The "City of Roses" nickname inspired the name for the four-year-old female Asian elephant who arrived in 1953, Rosy. The first elephant ever to live in Oregon, she remained the matriarch of the Oregon Zoo's herd and gave birth to six calves before her death in 1993.[8] On August 31, 1994, her daughter Me-Tu became the first elephant in North America to have twins. On August 23, 2008, her granddaughter Rose-Tu (the surviving twin) gave birth to Samudra, the first third-generation elephant born in the United States.

On June 18, 2003, the city council unanimously approved a resolution adopting "City of Roses" as the city's official nickname.[1][2] There are many other cities and towns known as Rose City or The City of Roses.

Staffers of former U.S. President George H. W. Bush used to refer to Portland as Little Beirut because of the protesters he encountered during his visits.[9]

Portland is sometimes affectionately called P-Town by some locals.[10][11][12]

Portland was once compared with Brooklyn, New York, whose official nickname was "city of churches", by the Sunday Oregonian as seen on the front page of its November 12th, 1899 issue of which a reproduction can be seen on the outside of the Oregonian's building. It reads, "On the Pacific coast, Portland occupies the same relative position as that of Brooklyn on the Atlantic seaboard and might well be called "a city of churches"...Wherever the stranger wanders here he will see steeples pointing heavenward, in the very midst of one of the most pleasing landscapes in all the world, embracing, as it does the comprehensive view of river and vale, hill and mountain, farm and fruit orchard, city and country--all combined."[13]

Stumptown was coined in a period of phenomenal growth in Portland after 1847. The city was growing so rapidly that the stumps of trees cut down to make way for roads were left behind until manpower could be spared to remove them. In some areas the stumps remained for so long that locals whitewashed them to make them more visible. They also used them to cross the street without sinking into the mud.[17][18] Captain John C. Ainsworth commented that there were "more stumps than trees" in Portland in the early 1850s.[17][19]

The city of Portland is nicknamed PDX after the International Air Transport Association airport code for the Portland International Airport which is within the city limits. For example, the domain name for Portland State University of pdx.edu was chosen in 1987, since psu.edu had already been given to Pennsylvania State University in the previous year.[20] As well, many Portland businesses include pdx in their web sites' domain names to denote their Portland location.

The City of Portland is bisected by the Willamette River. Twelve Portland bridges span the Willamette River, because of the many bridges, Portland has earned the nickname Bridge City.[21]

This nickname reflects Portland's status as the beer capital of the world for its wide variety of craft beers brewed in Portland and throughout the state of Oregon.[22][23]


what is the largest river in africa called

The Congo River (also spelled Kongo River and known as the Zaire River; French: (le) fleuve Congo/Zaïre; Portuguese: rio Congo/Zaire; Kongo: Nzâdi Kôngo) is the second longest river in Africa after the Nile and the second largest river in the world by discharge volume of water (after the Amazon), and the world's deepest river with measured depths in excess of 220 m (720 ft).[2] The Congo-Chambeshi River has an overall length of 4,700 km (2,920 mi), which makes it the world's ninth-longest river. The Chambeshi is a tributary of the Lualaba River, and Lualaba is the name of the Congo River upstream of Boyoma Falls, extending for 1,800 km.

Congo River

Measured along with the Lualaba, the Congo River has a total length of 4,370 km (2,715 mi). It is the only river to cross the equator twice.[3] The Congo Basin has a total area of about four million km2, or 13% of the entire African landmass.

The name Congo/Kongo river originates from the Kingdom of Kongo once located on the southern bank of the river. The kingdom in turn was named for the indigenous Bantu Kongo people, known in the 17th century as "Esikongo".[4] South of the Kingdom of Kongo proper lay the similarly named Kakongo kingdom, mentioned in 1535. Abraham Ortelius in his world map of 1564 labeled as "Manicongo" the city at the mouth of the river.[5]

The tribal names in kongo possibly derive from a word for a public gathering or tribal assembly. The modern name of the Kongo people or Bakongo was introduced in the early 20th century.[citation needed]

The name Zaire is from a Portuguese adaptation of a Kikongo word, nzere ("river"), a truncation of nzadi o nzere ("river swallowing rivers").[6] The river was known as Zaire during the 16th and 17th centuries; Congo seems to have replaced Zaire gradually in English usage during the 18th century, and Congo is the preferred English name in 19th-century literature, although references to Zahir or Zaire as the name used by the inhabitants remained common.[7]

The Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo are named after it, as was the previous Republic of the Congo which had gained independence in 1960 from the Belgian Congo.

The state of Zaire during 1971â€“1997 was also named after the river, after its name in French and Portuguese.

The Congo's drainage basin covers 4,014,500 square kilometres (1,550,000 sq mi).[1] The Congo's discharge at its mouth ranges from 23,000 to 75,000 cubic metres per second (810,000 to 2,650,000 cu ft/s), with an average of 41,000 cubic metres per second (1,400,000 cu ft/s).[1]

The river and its tributaries flow through the Congo Rainforest, the second largest rain forest area in the world, second only to the Amazon Rainforest in South America. The river also has the second-largest flow in the world, behind the Amazon; the third-largest drainage basin of any river, behind the Amazon and Plate rivers; and is one of the deepest rivers in the world, at depths greater than 220 m (720 ft).[2][8] Because its drainage basin includes areas both north and south of the equator, its flow is stable, as there is always at least one part of the river experiencing a rainy season.[9]

The sources of the Congo are in the highlands and mountains of the East African Rift, as well as Lake Tanganyika and Lake Mweru, which feed the Lualaba River, which then becomes the Congo below Boyoma Falls. The Chambeshi River in Zambia is generally taken as the source of the Congo in line with the accepted practice worldwide of using the longest tributary, as with the Nile River.

The Congo flows generally toward the northwest from Kisangani just below the Boyoma falls, then gradually bends southwestwards, passing by Mbandaka, joining with the Ubangi River, and running into the Pool Malebo (Stanley Pool). Kinshasa (formerly LÃ©opoldville) and Brazzaville are on opposite sides of the river at the Pool, where the river narrows and falls through a number of cataracts in deep canyons (collectively known as the Livingstone Falls), running by Matadi and Boma, and into the sea at the small town of Muanda.

The Congo River Basin is one of the distinct physiographic sections of the larger Mid-African province, which in turn is part of the larger African massive physiographic division.

The drainage basin of the Congo River includes most of Central-Africa.The rivers inclouded are: Sorted in order from the mouth heading upstream.

Downstream of Kinshasa, there are no important tributaries.

Upstream of Boyoma Falls near Kisangani, the river Congo is known as the Lualaba River.

Although the Livingstone Falls prevent access from the sea, nearly the entire Congo above them is readily navigable in sections, especially between Kinshasa and Kisangani. Large river steamers worked the river until quite recently.[when?] The Congo River still is a lifeline in a land with few roads or railways.[10]

Railways now bypass the three major falls, and much of the trade of Central Africa passes along the river, including copper, palm oil (as kernels), sugar, coffee, and cotton.[citation needed] The river is also potentially valuable for hydroelectric power, and the Inga Dams below Pool Malebo are first to exploit the Congo river.

The Congo River is the most powerful river in Africa. During the rainy season over 50,000 cubic metres (1,800,000 cu ft) of water per second flow into the Atlantic Ocean. Opportunities for the Congo River and its tributaries to generate hydropower are therefore enormous. Scientists have calculated that the entire Congo Basin accounts for 13 percent of global hydropower potential. This would provide sufficient power for all of sub-Saharan Africa's electricity needs.[11]

Currently there are about forty hydropower plants in the Congo Basin. The largest are the Inga dams, about 200 kilometres (120Â mi) southwest of Kinshasa. The project was launched in the early 1970s, when the first dam was completed.[12] The plan as originally conceived called for the construction of five dams that would have had a total generating capacity of 34,500 megawatts. To date only the Inga I and Inga II dams have been built, generating 1,776 MW.[11]

In February 2005, South Africa's state-owned power company, Eskom, announced a proposa to expand generation through improvements and the construction of a new hydroelectric dam. The project would bring the maximum output of the facility to 40 gigawatts (54,000,000Â hp), twice that of China's Three Gorges Dam.[13]

It is feared that these new hydroelectric dams could lead to the extinction of many of the fish species that are native to the river.[14]

The current course of the Congo River formed 1.5â€“2 million years BP, during the Pleistocene.[15]

The Congo's formation may have led to the allopatric speciation of the bonobo and the common chimpanzee from their most recent common ancestor.[16] The bonobo is endemic to the humid forests in the region, as are other iconic species like the Allen's swamp monkey, dryas monkey, aquatic genet, okapi, and Congo peafowl.[17][18]

In terms of aquatic life, the Congo River Basin has a very high species richness, and among the highest known concentrations of endemics.[19] Until now, almost 700 fish species have been recorded from the Congo River Basin, and large sections remain virtually unstudied.[20] This is by far the highest diversity of any African river system (in comparison, the next richest are the Niger, Volta and Nile with about 210, 140 and 130 fish species, respectively).[21] Due to this and the great ecological differences between the regions in the Congo basin, it is often divided into multiple ecoregions (instead of treating it as a single ecoregion). Among these ecoregions, the Lower Congo Rapids alone has more than 300 fish species, including approximately 80 endemics[14] while the southwestern part (Kasai Basin) alone has more than 200 fish species, of which about a quarter are endemic.[22] The dominant fish families – at least in parts of the river – are Cyprinidae (carp/cyprinids, such as Labeo simpsoni), Mormyridae (elephantfishes), Alestidae (African tetras), Mochokidae (squeaker catfishes), and Cichlidae (cichlids).[23] Among the natives in the river is the huge, highly carnivorous giant tigerfish. Three of the more unusual endemics are the whitish (non-pigmented) and blind Lamprologus lethops, which is believed to live as deep as 160 metres (520 ft) below the surface,[14] Heterochromis multidens, which appears to be more closely related to cichlids of the Americas than other African cichlids,[24] and Caecobarbus geertsii, the only known cavefish in Central Africa.[25] There are also numerous endemic frogs and snails.[23][26] Several hydroelectric dams are planned on the river, and these may lead to the extinction of many of the endemics.[14]

Several species of turtles, and the slender-snouted, Nile and dwarf crocodile are native to the Congo River Basin. African manatees inhabit the lower parts of the river.[27]

The entire Congo basin is populated by Bantu peoples, divided into several hundred ethnic or tribal groups (see ethnic groups of the Democratic Republic of the Congo). Bantu expansion is estimated to have reached the Middle Congo by about 500 BC, and the Upper Congo by the first century AD. Remnants of the aboriginal population displaced by the Bantu migration, Pygmies/Abatwa of the Ubangian phylum, remain in the remote forest areas of the Congo basin.

The Kingdom of Kongo was formed around 1400 on the left banks of the lower Congo River. Its territorial control along the river remained limited to what corresponds to the modern Bas-Congo province. European exploration of the Congo begins in 1482, when Portuguese explorer Diogo Cão discovered the river estuary[28] (likely in August 1482), which he marked by a Padrão, or stone pillar (still existing, but only in fragments) erected on Shark Point. Cão also sailed up the river for a short distance, establishing contact with the Kingdom of Congo. The full course of the river remained unknown throughout the early modern period.[29]

The upper Congo basin runs west of the Albertine Rift.[28] Its connection to the Congo was unknown until 1877. The extreme northeast of the Congo basin was reached by the Nilotic expansion at some point between the 15th and 18th centuries, by the ancestors of the Southern Luo speaking Alur people. Francisco de Lacerda following the Zambezi reached the uppermost part of the Congo basin (the Kazembe in the upper Luapula basin) in 1796.

The upper Congo River, known as the Lualaba was first reached by the Arab slave trade by the 19th century. Nyangwe was founded as a slavers' outpost around 1860. David Livingstone was the first European to reach Nyangwe in March 1871.[28] Livingstone proposed to prove that the Lualaba connected to the Nile, but on 15 July, he witnessed a massacre of about 400 Africans by Arab slavers in Nyangwe, which experience left him too horrified and shattered to continue his mission to find the sources of the Nile, so he turned back to Lake Tanganyika.[30][31]

The middle reaches of the Congo remained unexplored from either the east or west, until Henry Morton Stanley's expedition of 1876–77. At the time one of the last open questions of the exploration of Africa (or indeed of the world) whether the Lualaba River fed the Nile (Livingstone's theory), the Congo[32] or even the Niger. Financed in 1874, Stanley's first trans-Africa exploration started in Zanzibar, and reached the Lualaba on October 17, 1876. Overland he reached Nyangwe, the centre of a lawless area containing cannibal tribes at which Tippu Tip based his trade in slaves. Stanley managed to hire a force from Tippu Tip, to guard him for the next 150 kilometres (90 mi) or so, for 90 days. The party left Nyangwe overland through the dense Matimba forest. On November 19 they reached the Lualaba again. Since the going through the forest was so heavy, Tippu Tip turned around with his party on December 28, leaving Stanley on his own, with 143 people, including 8 children and 16 women. They had 23 canoes. His first encounter with a local tribe was with the cannibal Wenya. In total Stanley would report 32 unfriendly meetings on the river, some violent, even though he attempted to negotiate a peaceful thoroughfare. But the tribes were wary as their only experience of outsiders was of slave traders.

On January 6, 1877, after 640 kilometres (400 mi), they reached Boyoma Falls (called Stanley Falls for some time after), consisting of seven cataracts spanning 100 kilometres (60 mi) which they had to bypass overland. It took them to February 7 to reach the end of the falls. Here Stanley learned that the river was called Ikuta Yacongo,[33] proving to him that he had reached the Congo, and that the Lualaba did not feed the Nile.

From this point, the tribes were no longer cannibals, but possessed firearms, apparently as a result of Portuguese influence. Some four weeks and 1,900 kilometres (1,200 mi) later he reached Stanley Pool (now Pool Malebo), the site of the present day cities Kinshasa and Brazzaville. Further downstream were the Livingstone Falls, misnamed as Livingstone had never been on the Congo: a series of 32 falls and rapids with a fall of 270 metres (900 ft) over 350 kilometres (220 mi). On 15 March they started the descent of the falls, which took five months and cost numerous lives. From the Isangile Falls, five falls from the foot, they beached the canoes and Lady Alice and left the river, aiming for the Portuguese outpost of Boma via land. On August 3 they reached the hamlet Nsada. From there Stanley sent four men with letters forward to Boma, asking for food for his starving people. On August 7 relief came, being sent by representatives from the Liverpool trading firm Hatton & Cookson. On August 9 they reached Boma, 1,001 days since leaving Zanzibar on November 12, 1874. The party then consisted of 108 people, including three children born during the trip. Most probably (Stanley's own publications give inconsistent figures), he lost 132 people through disease, hunger, drowning, killing and desertion.[34]

Kinshasa was founded as a trading post by Stanley in 1881 and named Léopoldville in honour of Leopold II of Belgium. The Congo basin was claimed by Belgium as Congo Free State in 1885.

The Congo river basin is notable for the mere absence of bridges crossing the main rivers, although there are a number of ferries available for crossing the great Congo river and the major tributaries.

There are only two bridges on the Congo river proper and main tributary, which both are found in the DR Congo:

There are one bridge on the Uele River, and two on the Kibali River, which all lies in the northern province Haut-Uele of DR Congo:

There are two bridges on the Lulua river in the provice of Kasai of DR Congo:

Angola - DR Congo border:

Lower Congo (Matadi - Pioka):

DR Congo - Congo Republic border:

Upper Congo (Irebu - Ubundu):

On the minor tributaries of the great Congo there are noumerous river crossings, which cannot be included here.


who plays irina in breaking dawn part 2

Variety reported in May 2005 that Grace was in negotiations to play X-Men character Kitty Pryde in the 2006 film X-Men: The Last Stand,[16] but in July, auditions were reportedly being held for her replacement.[17] The role ultimately went to Ellen Page,[18] and Grace later revealed that she had never been contacted about the role and was surprised to read that she was up for the part in question.[19] Grace's next role was in the 2007 independent film Suburban Girl, alongside Sarah Michelle Gellar and Alec Baldwin.[20] In 2007, she starred in The Jane Austen Book Club, based on Karen Joy Fowler's novel of the same name. She is a fan of Jane Austen and had read Fowler's novel when it was released in 2004. When she was given the film's script, she met with the director Robin Swicord, with whom she says she "geeked out", and was given the role of Allegra, an openly lesbian 20-year-old.[21] After the filming of The Jane Austen Book Club was completed, Grace briefly returned to Hawaii to shoot a guest spot on the Lost season 3 episode "Exposé".[21] She starred in the 2008 thriller film Taken with Liam Neeson, who was at the top of a list of male actors Grace wished to work with that she had written just two months before she was cast.[22] She played the lead in Simon Fellows' 2009 Malice in Wonderland, a modern adaptation of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.[23] In 2010, Grace starred in the drama Flying Lessons,[24] and appeared opposite Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz in James Mangold's film Knight and Day,[25] as well as in Faster, with Dwayne Johnson.[26] Grace's busy schedule prevented her from returning as Shannon in "LA X", the season premiere for Lost's sixth and final season,[27] but she eventually returned for the series finale "The End".[28] In September 2010, it was revealed that Grace was chosen to play Irina in The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 and 2.[29]

Maggie Grace

Maggie Grace (born Margaret Grace Denig; September 21, 1983)[1] is an American actress, best known for her roles as Shannon Rutherford on the ABC television series Lost and Kim Mills in the Taken trilogy. She has also appeared on The Twilight Saga as "Irina". Originally from Worthington, Ohio, she went on to earn a Young Artist Award nomination in 2002 with her portrayal of 15-year-old murder victim Martha Moxley in the television movie Murder in Greenwich. In 2004, Grace was cast as Shannon Rutherford in the television series Lost, on which she was a main cast member for the first two seasons, winning a Screen Actors Guild Award shared with the ensemble cast. Leaving the series, Grace was keen to work more prominently in film, she appeared in The Jane Austen Book Club (both 2007), and opposite Liam Neeson as Kim Mills in Taken in 2008. She reprised the role in Taken 2 (2012) and Taken 3 (2015).

She played the lead role, Alice, in Malice in Wonderland, a modern take on Lewis Carroll's novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Grace reprised the role of Shannon in two more episodes of Lost, including the series finale. In 2013, she appears in the sixth season of Californication. She portrays Faith, a groupie and a muse to the stars, who captures the eye of Hank Moody played by David Duchovny.

Grace was born Margaret Grace Denig in Ohio to parents Valinn (nÃ©e Everett) and Fred[1] Denig, who ran a family jewelry business.[2] Her family lived in a 200-year-old house, the first saltbox house in central Ohio.[3] She attended Worthington Christian Schools from kindergarten through ninth grade and briefly attended Thomas Worthington High School,[4] where she began acting in school plays and community theater,[5] including a 2000 Gallery Players production of The Crucible, at a local Jewish Community Center (though she is not Jewish).[6][7] As a kid Grace was a big reader and a self described "Shakespeare nerd"[8] telling the LA Times that at age 13, she "was really into Jane Austen, kind of like how some kids are into Star Trek.[8] Her parents divorced when she was 16 years old.[citation needed]

Grace acquired an agent within a week of relocating to Los Angeles and enrolled in acting classes.[7] She landed her first role in Rachel's Room, a 2001 web-based video series about the affairs inside a teenage girl's bedroom that was created by Dawson's Creek executive producer Paul Stupin.[9] Her next role was on the 2002 television series Septuplets, which was cancelled before the first episode had aired.[2] Her breakout role was on 2002's television movie Murder in Greenwich, based on the true story of 15-year-old Martha Moxley's murder. She was nominated for a Young Artist Award for her portrayal of Moxley in the Best Performance in a TV Movie, Miniseries or Special â€“ Leading Young Actress category, but lost to Clara Bryant for Tru Confessions.[10] She went on to feature in minor roles on the television series CSI: Miami, The Lyon's Den, Miracles, Like Family, Cold Case and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and the films Twelve Mile Road and Creature Unknown.

In mid-2004, Grace's agent sent her the script for the pilot episode of Lost; she was given the role of Shannon Rutherford after a successful audition.[2] She was nominated in 2005 for a Teen Choice Award for Choice TV Breakout Performance â€“ Female for her role on Lost, but lost to Desperate Housewives' Eva Longoria.[11] She lived in Hawaii during the filming of the show's first season, and signed on to star opposite Tom Welling in The Fog, a 2005 remake of the 1980 horror film of the same name, as a character originally played by Jamie Lee Curtis.[12] Though the filming of Lost was supposed to have ended before The Fog began, the productions coincided due to Lost's extended season finale[5] and Grace flew between the two sets, on the Hawaiian island of Oahu and on Bowen Island in British Columbia, Canada.[3] After ranking at #27 on Maxim's Hot 100 list of 2005,[13] she returned for Lost's second season. Her character was killed in the season's eighth episode, "Collision", when the series' writers began to feel that the character's "story avenues [were] limited". Executive producer Carlton Cuse said that Grace's departure from the show was "sort of a win-win" as she was eager to enter a full-time career in film.[14] After leaving the series, she nevertheless joined the other principal Lost cast members of season 2 onstage at the 12th Screen Actors Guild Awards where Lost won the award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series.[15]

In December 2012, it was announced Grace would be making her Broadway debut in Picnic. The play opened for previews on December 14, running at the American Airlines Theatre. Sebastian Stan co-stars with Grace in the Pulitzer Prize winning play.[30]

She also made her first appearance as a guest star in the Showtime Series Californication in January 2013 where she plays a groupie and muse to the rock and roll world as well as the personal interest of Hank Moody, starring David Duchovny.

While still working on Lost, Grace and Ian Somerhalder adopted a feral cat named Roo which they found "literally dying" in the jungle on the set. She said that the cat is now her "travel buddy."[31] In February 2017, Grace became engaged to Brent Bushnell.[32] They were married on May 28, 2017.[33]

Grace often credits her mother as her source of inspiration. When asked about her closest friend, she said that she and her mother were more like sisters and that she is "lucky to have an exceptionally cool mom."[34] She is a self-proclaimed Anglophile, having written to a pen pal in the Lake District from the age of eight, having first visited England at 13 years old, and admiring a number of English poets as well as William Shakespeare.[35] She calls herself very clumsy, claiming to "trip over my legs all the time,"[36] and was jokingly nicknamed "Maggie Graceless" by one of her former castmates.[37]


three basic features all electric circuits must have

The basic components of analog circuits are wires, resistors, capacitors, inductors, diodes, and transistors. (In 2012 it was demonstrated that memristors can be added to the list of available components.) Analog circuits are very commonly represented in schematic diagrams, in which wires are shown as lines, and each component has a unique symbol. Analog circuit analysis employs Kirchhoff's circuit laws: all the currents at a node (a place where wires meet), and the voltage around a closed loop of wires is 0. Wires are usually treated as ideal zero-voltage interconnections; any resistance or reactance is captured by explicitly adding a parasitic element, such as a discrete resistor or inductor. Active components such as transistors are often treated as controlled current or voltage sources: for example, a field-effect transistor can be modeled as a current source from the source to the drain, with the current controlled by the gate-source voltage.

Electronic circuit

An electronic circuit is composed of individual electronic components, such as resistors, transistors, capacitors, inductors and diodes, connected by conductive wires or traces through which electric current can flow. The combination of components and wires allows various simple and complex operations to be performed: signals can be amplified, computations can be performed, and data can be moved from one place to another.[1]

Circuits can be constructed of discrete components connected by individual pieces of wire, but today it is much more common to create interconnections by photolithographic techniques on a laminated substrate (a printed circuit board or PCB) and solder the components to these interconnections to create a finished circuit. In an integrated circuit or IC, the components and interconnections are formed on the same substrate, typically a semiconductor such as silicon or (less commonly) gallium arsenide.[2]

An electronic circuit can usually be categorized as an analog circuit, a digital circuit, or a mixed-signal circuit (a combination of analog circuits and digital circuits).

Breadboards, perfboards, and stripboards are common for testing new designs. They allow the designer to make quick changes to the circuit during development.

Analog electronic circuits are those in which current or voltage may vary continuously with time to correspond to the information being represented. Analog circuitry is constructed from two fundamental building blocks: series and parallel circuits.

In a series circuit, the same current passes through a series of components. A string of Christmas lights is a good example of a series circuit: if one goes out, they all do.

In a parallel circuit, all the components are connected to the same voltage, and the current divides between the various components according to their resistance.

When the circuit size is comparable to a wavelength of the relevant signal frequency, a more sophisticated approach must be used. Wires are treated as transmission lines, with (hopefully) constant characteristic impedance, and the impedances at the start and end determine transmitted and reflected waves on the line. Such considerations typically become important for circuit boards at frequencies above a GHz; integrated circuits are smaller and can be treated as lumped elements for frequencies less than 10GHz or so.

An alternative model is to take independent power sources and induction as basic electronic units; this allows modeling frequency dependent negative resistors, gyrators, negative impedance converters, and dependent sources as secondary electronic components

In digital electronic circuits, electric signals take on discrete values, to represent logical and numeric values.[3] These values represent the information that is being processed. In the vast majority of cases, binary encoding is used: one voltage (typically the more positive value) represents a binary '1' and another voltage (usually a value near the ground potential, 0 V) represents a binary '0'. Digital circuits make extensive use of transistors, interconnected to create logic gates that provide the functions of Boolean logic: AND, NAND, OR, NOR, XOR and all possible combinations thereof. Transistors interconnected so as to provide positive feedback are used as latches and flip flops, circuits that have two or more metastable states, and remain in one of these states until changed by an external input. Digital circuits therefore can provide both logic and memory, enabling them to perform arbitrary computational functions. (Memory based on flip-flops is known as static random-access memory (SRAM). Memory based on the storage of charge in a capacitor, dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) is also widely used.)

The design process for digital circuits is fundamentally different from the process for analog circuits. Each logic gate regenerates the binary signal, so the designer need not account for distortion, gain control, offset voltages, and other concerns faced in an analog design. As a consequence, extremely complex digital circuits, with billions of logic elements integrated on a single silicon chip, can be fabricated at low cost. Such digital integrated circuits are ubiquitous in modern electronic devices, such as calculators, mobile phone handsets, and computers. As digital circuits become more complex, issues of time delay, logic races, power dissipation, non-ideal switching, on-chip and inter-chip loading, and leakage currents, become limitations to the density, speed and performance.

Digital circuitry is used to create general purpose computing chips, such as microprocessors, and custom-designed logic circuits, known as application-specific integrated circuit (ASICs). Field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), chips with logic circuitry whose configuration can be modified after fabrication, are also widely used in prototyping and development.

Mixed-signal or hybrid circuits contain elements of both analog and digital circuits. Examples include comparators, timers, phase-locked loops, analog-to-digital converters, and digital-to-analog converters. Most modern radio and communications circuitry uses mixed signal circuits. For example, in a receiver, analog circuitry is used to amplify and frequency-convert signals so that they reach a suitable state to be converted into digital values, after which further signal processing can be performed in the digital domain.


when did they stop using asbestos in popcorn ceilings

In early formulations, it often contained white asbestos fibers. When asbestos was banned in ceiling treatments by the Clean Air Act of 1978 in the United States,[1] popcorn ceilings fell out of favor in much of the country. However, in order to minimize economic hardship to suppliers and installers, existing inventories of asbestos-bearing texturing materials were exempt from the ban, so it is possible to find asbestos in popcorn ceilings that were applied through the 1980s. After the ban, popcorn ceiling materials were created using a paper-based or Styrofoam product to create the texture, rather than asbestos. Textured ceilings remain common in residential construction in the United States.

Popcorn ceiling

A popcorn ceiling (slang), also known as a cottage cheese ceiling, a stucco ceiling or formally an acoustic ceiling, is a ceiling with a certain spray-on or paint-on treatment. It was the standard for bedroom and residential hallway ceilings for its bright, white appearance, ability to hide imperfections, and acoustical characteristics.[citation needed] In comparison, kitchen and living room ceilings would normally be finished in smoother skip-trowel or orange peel texture for their higher durability and ease of cleaning.


what does it mean when a professor grades on a curve

In education, marking on a curve (BE) or grading on a curve (AE) (also referred to as curved grading, bell curving, or using grading curves) is a method of assigning grades designed to yield a normal distribution (also called the Gaussian distribution) among the students in a class.[1] The term "curve" refers to the bell curve, the graphical representation of the probability density of the normal distribution, but this method does not necessarily use any specific frequency distribution.

Grading on a curve

One method of grading on a curve uses three steps:

For example, if there are five grades in a particular university course, A, B, C, D, and F, where A is reserved for the top 20% of students, B for the next 30%, C for the next 30%-40%, and D or F for the remaining 10%-20%, then scores in the percentile interval from 0% to 20% will receive a grade of D or F, scores from 21% to 50% will receive a grade of C, scores from 51% to 80% receive a grade of B, and scores from 81% to 100% will achieve a grade of A.

Consistent with the example illustrated above, a grading curve allows academic institutions to ensure the distribution of students across certain grade point average (GPA) thresholds. As many professors establish the curve to target a course average of a C, the corresponding grade point average equivalent would be a 2.0 on a standard 4.0 scale employed at most North American universities.[2] Similarly, a grade point average of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale would indicate that the student is within the top 20% of the class. Grading curves serve to attach additional significance to these figures, and the specific distribution employed may vary between academic institutions.[3]

The ultimate objective of grading curves is to minimize or eliminate the influence of variation between different instructors of the same course, ensuring that the students in any given class are assessed relative to their peers. This also circumvents problems associated with utilizing multiple versions of a particular examination, a method often employed where test administration dates vary between class sections. Regardless of any difference in the level of difficulty, real or perceived, the grading curve ensures a balanced distribution of academic results.

However, curved grading can increase competitiveness between students and affect their sense of faculty fairness in a class. Students are generally most upset in the case that the curve lowered their grade compared to what they would have received if a curve was not used. To ensure that this does not happen, teachers usually put forth effort to ensure that the test itself is hard enough when they intend to use a grading curve, such that they would expect the average student to get a lower raw score that the score intended to be used at the average in the curve, thus ensuring that all students benefit from the curve. Thus, curved grades cannot be blindly used and must be carefully considered and pondered compared to alternatives such as criterion-referenced grading. Furthermore, constant misuse of curved grading can adjust grades on poorly designed tests, whereas assessments should be designed to accurately reflect the learning objectives set by the instructor.[4]


what is the official residence of the vice president of the united states

Number One Observatory Circle is the official residence of the Vice President of the United States.

Number One Observatory Circle

Located on the northeast grounds of the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C., the house was built in 1893 for its superintendent. The Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) liked the house so much that in 1923 he took over the house for himself. It remained the residence of the CNO until 1974, when Congress authorized its transformation to an official residence for the Vice President, though a temporary one. In fact, by law, it is still the "official temporary residence of the Vice President of the United States." The 1974 congressional authorization covered the cost of refurbishment and furnishing the house.

Although Number One Observatory Circle was made available to the Vice President in 1974, three years passed before a Vice President lived full-time in the house. Vice President Gerald Ford became President before he could use the house. His Vice President, Nelson Rockefeller, primarily used the home for entertaining as he already had a well-secured residence in Washington, D.C., though the Rockefellers donated millions of dollars of furnishings to the house. Vice President Walter Mondale was the first Vice President to move into the house. Every Vice President since has lived there.[1]

The Vice Presidential mansion was refurbished by the United States Navy in early 2001, only slightly delaying the move of then Vice President Dick Cheney and his family.

The house at One Observatory Circle was designed by architect Leon E. Dessez and built in 1893 for $20,000 for the use of the superintendent of the Naval Observatory who was the original resident. It was built on 13 acres of land that had originally been part of a 73-acre farm called Northview, which the Navy purchased in 1880. The observatory was moved from Foggy Bottom to its new location the same year the house was completed and twelve Observatory Superintendents lived in what was then known as The Superintendent's House. In 1928, with the passage of Public Law 630, Congress appropriated it for the Chief of Naval Operations, and in June 1929 Charles Frederick "Handlebars" Hughes became the first resident of what would then become known as Admiral's House.[2] For the next 45 years it served as the home of such notable Admirals as Chester W. Nimitz and Elmo Zumwalt. The home was originally dark red brick. Then in 1960, it was painted "feather" gray and, in 1963, white with black shutters. Now it is cream colored.[3]

In 1966, in response to the John F. Kennedy assassination, Congress passed a law creating "an official residence for the Vice President of the United States in the District of Columbia" and designating "approximately ten acres at the United States Naval Observatory" for such use. The exact location was to be determined by GAO and the Navy later, and construction was to commence on the residence when funding was available once the Vietnam War was over. In the interim, the Secret Service paid for expensive upgrades to the private homes of Vice-Presidents Hubert Humphrey, Spiro Agnew and Gerald R. Ford. Agnew only lived in his house for three months before resigning, and shortly thereafter sold it at a large profit, in part because of the upgrades (additional quarters for the Secret Service, fences and a new driveway for example) paid for by the government. This resulted in a minor scandal and a subsequent investigation showed that it would be cheaper to set up the new Vice-Presidential residence immediately, rather than continue to secure private homes. In July 1974 Congress passed a new law to make Admiral's House the "official temporary residence of the Vice-President of the United States" effective upon the termination of service of the incumbent Chief of Naval Operations. Work began on preparing Admiral's House to be temporary Vice-President's residence later that fall, after Nixon's resignation and the CNO was moved to Quarters A at the Navy Yard.

The house formally opened as the vice presidential residence in September 1975. However, Nelson Rockefeller, the vice president at the time, chose to live in his larger private home instead and only used Admiral's House for entertaining. In January 1977, Walter Mondale became the first vice president to live in the house, and it has served as the home of every vice president since.[4]

Another Vice-Presidential residence has not been built, but One Observatory Circle has had extensive remodels. In 1976, the Navy spent $276,000 to replace 22 window units with steam heat and central air conditioning. In 1980, the leaky roof was replaced with slate. The Bushes raised $187,000 for carpeting, furniture and upholstery when they moved in in 1981, and the next year the Navy spent $34,000 to repair the porch roof. $225,000 was spent to repair interior and exterior walls damaged by water seepage, and $8,000 more to build a small master bedroom. In 1989, new Vice President Dan Quayle delayed his move in by a month for an extensive $300,000 remodeling that included a rebuilt third floor with bedrooms suitable for children, a wheelchair-accessible entrance and an upgraded bathroom off the Vice Presidents room.[5] A putting green was added in 1989 and a swimming pool, hot tub and pool house in 1991 â€“ all paid for by private donations. A 525 square foot skylit exercise room was added to the rooftop around that time. During this time numerous security enhancements were also performed.[3]

By 1991, the Navy, which was responsible for upkeep on the residence, decided that Congress was never going to build a permanent Vice-President's residence (ostensibly next door to Admiral's House) and decided to substantially remodel and repair the house. Incoming Vice President Al Gore agreed to delay his move into the house by nearly 6 months to allow for the largest renovation of the house since 1974.[6] The $1.6 million repair job replaced the heating, air conditioning and plumbing, removed asbestos, rewired the electrical, replaced the ventilation systems, restored the porch and upgraded the family quarters on the second floor.

The house is built in the Queen Anne style popular in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Hallmarks of the Queen Anne style are an asymmetrical floor plan, a series of rooms opening to each other rather than a common central hall, round turret rooms, inglenooks near fireplaces, and broad verandas wrapping the ground floor, all of which are found at Number One Observatory Circle.

When the house was constructed, its exterior was faced in terracotta brick. The wood trim was painted in a warm putty-gray, and the wooden porch in a combination of the putty-gray and white. Window frames and mullions were painted the same gray, and shutters were painted olive green. The interior was furnished mostly with the personal furnishings of the Naval Observatory Superintendent, and later those of the Chief of Naval Operations. Period photographs of the interior show middle-class nineteenth-century furnishings in a variety of styles, including Eastlake. Walls were covered in patterned wall-papers.

By the first decade of the twentieth century, Victorian-style architecture had begun to fall out of fashion. Many houses that were originally built in brick, or in wood with complex painting, were simplified and "colonialized" by being painted white. This frequently happened inside as well as outside, and substantial wood millwork of mahogany, quarter-sawn oak, American chestnut and walnut were often painted over in white to "lighten" rooms and make them feel more contemporary. In 1961 the exterior of the house was painted white, the color it still retains.

The 1974 renovation replaced and updated building systems and increased the size of several rooms by removing internal walls. As a part of this renovation, interior trim was painted white and the walls a palette of mostly neutral colors. Little consideration was given to historic preservation with interior or exterior spaces, and no attempt was made at restoration of any interior space to its appearance at the period of construction or early use. The 1961 era white paint on the exterior was retained. Second floor shutters, which appear in an 1895 photograph, were reinstalled.

Most of the furnishings placed in the house following the 1974 renovation were twentieth century copies of either colonial or Federal style pieces. A notable exception was a bed placed in the house by Nelson Rockefeller. The bed was designed by artist Max Ernst. Called the "cage" bed, the headboard had the form of a Greek pediment, and the baseboard a lower version of a pediment. Sculptural foliage similar to olive or laurel leaves wrapped around the posts. The seal of the Vice President of the United States was incorporated into the headboard. The Rockefellers twice offered the bed permanently to the house but it was turned down both by Vice President George H. W. Bush and Vice President Dan Quayle. On visiting Barbara Bush at the house, Mrs. Rockefeller offered her the bed, and Mrs. Bush responded "you are always welcome in this house, but there's no need to bring your own bed." The Rockefellers did leave a lithograph called "The Great Ignoramus," several antique Korean and Japanese chests, and nearly a dozen other pieces.

When the Mondales occupied the house, Joan Mondale introduced more saturated upholstery and wall colors and contemporary art. Like the Rockefellers, the Mondales brought some Asian antiques into the house. The Bush family, working with interior decorator Mark Hampton, used a palette of celadon, lime, and light blue. The Quayles removed the lime green and used off-white. The Gores oversaw a complete redecoration, the addition of a new dining-room table, new furniture for the library, and a substantial renovation of the grounds and porches to make them more suitable for outdoor entertaining. Immediately before the Cheneys moved in, some needed work on the air conditioning and heating was performed and the interiors were repainted. The Cheneys brought several pieces of contemporary art into the house.

The three-story brick house—completed in April 1893—is compact, 39 by 77 feet (12 m × 23 m), with 9,150 square feet (850 m2) of floor space. On the ground floor are a reception hall, living room, sitting room, sun porch, dining room and small pantry, and lavatories added later to the north side. The second floor contains two bedrooms, a study, and a den. The third floor attic was originally servants' quarters and storage space. The kitchen was placed in the basement, along with a laundry room and other storerooms.

On May 17, 2009, Newsweek's Eleanor Clift reported that Vice President Joe Biden revealed that there is an underground "9/11" bunker under the house.[7] It was speculated that the bunker was built in December 2002 when neighbors complained of loud construction noises. Elizabeth Alexander, the Vice President's spokesperson, explained the following day, "What the vice president described in his comments was not—as some press reports have suggested—an underground facility, but rather, an upstairs work space in the residence, which he understood was frequently used by Vice President Cheney and his aides."[8]

When compared to the White House, One Observatory Circle is obscure and little known. It is rarely a backdrop for political demonstrations.

During the brief feud between thenâ€“Vice President Quayle and fictional television news reporter Murphy Brown, an episode of the sitcom featuring the character included a scene of a truckload of potatoes dumped at what is meant to be the gate to the Vice President's residence as a silent protest.

The off-post area immediately beyond the fence was the site of televised protests in support of Vice President Al Gore's presidential bid during the Florida recount in November 2000.

Scenes of the HBO series Veep occasionally take place in and in front of the house. A portion of the premiere episode of Commander in Chief was set in the upstairs residence.

In the tenth episode of the second season of the TV series Homeland, Nicholas Brody goes to the Naval Observatory to find that Walden is in a meeting with the Israeli Ambassador to the United States. He sneaks into Walden's office and text messages the serial number to Abu Nazir, only after confirming that Carrie Mathison has been set free.

In House of Cards, Frank Underwood refuses to move to One Observatory Circle when he is to be sworn in as Vice President. He instead opts to remain living in his own private residence, which is renovated and the Secret Service has numerous security features installed.


who sang the song the man who shot liberty valance

"(The Man Who Shot) Liberty Valance" is a song written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, which was released by Gene Pitney in 1962. The song spent 13 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, peaking at No. 4,[1] while reaching No. 2 on Canada's CHUM Hit Parade,[2] and No. 4 on New Zealand's "Lever Hit Parade".[3]

(The Man Who Shot) Liberty Valance

Although the song never appeared in the film, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, there is disagreement about whether the song had been intended to appear in it.[4] Nevertheless, Pitney has stated that the song's recording session was paid for by Paramount, and that it was midway through the song's recording session that he found out that the song was not going to be included in the film, when one of the orchestra members told him that the film had been released.  Session drummer Gary Chester plays on the recording.[4]

The song was ranked No. 36 in the Western Writers of America's list of the top 100 Western songs of all time, as compiled from a survey of its members.[5]

James Taylor released a cover of the song on his 1985 album That's Why I'm Here.


which religion has the highest population in africa

Christianity is now one of the most widely practiced religions in Africa along with Islam and is the largest religion in Sub-Saharan Africa. Most adherents outside Egypt, Ethiopia and Eritrea are Roman Catholic or Protestant.[citation needed] Several syncretistic and messianic sects have formed throughout much of the continent, including the Nazareth Baptist Church in South Africa and the Aladura churches in Nigeria.There is also fairly widespread populations of Seventh-day Adventists and Jehovah's Witnesses. The oldest Christian denominations in Africa are the Coptic church in Egypt and the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church, all Oriental Orthodox, which rose to prominence in the fourth century AD after King Ezana the Great made Ethiopia one of the first Christian nations.[22]

Religion in Africa

Religion in Africa is multifaceted and has been a major influence on art, culture and philosophy. Today, the continent's various populations and individuals are mostly adherents of Christianity, Islam, and to a lesser extent several Traditional African religions. In Christian or Islamic communities, religious beliefs are also sometimes characterized with syncretism with the beliefs and practices of traditional religions.[1][2][3]

Africa encompasses a wide variety of traditional beliefs. Although religious customs are sometimes shared by many local societies, they are usually unique to specific populations or geographic regions.[4]

According to Dr J Omosade Awolalu, The "traditional" in this context means indigenous, that which is foundational, handed down from generation to generation, meant as to be upheld and practised today and forevermore. A heritage from the past, yet not treated as a thing of the past but that which connects the past with the present and the present with eternity.[3]

Often spoken of in the terms of a singularity, deliberate; yet conscious of the fact that Africa is a large continent with multitudes of nations who have complex cultures, innumerable languages and myriad dialects.[3]

The essence of this school of thought is based mainly on oral transmission; that which is written in people's hearts, minds, oral history, customs, temples and religious functions.[5] It has no founders or leaders like Gautama Buddha, Jesus, or Muhammed.[6] It has no missionaries or the intent to propagate or to proselytise.[7] Some of the African traditional religions are those of the Serer of Senegal, the Yoruba and Igbo of Nigeria, and the Akan of Ghana and the Ivory Coast. The religion of the Gbe peoples (mostly the Ewe and Fon) of Benin, Togo and Ghana is called Vodun and is the main source for similarly named religions in the diaspora, such as Louisiana Voodoo, Haitian Vodou, Cuban Vodú, Dominican Vudú and Brazilian Vodum

The majority of Africans are adherents of Christianity or Islam. African people often combine the practice of their traditional belief with the practice of Abrahamic religions.[8][8][9][10][11][12] Abrahamic religions are widespread throughout Africa. They have both spread and replaced indigenous African religions, but are often adapted to African cultural contexts and belief systems. The World Book Encyclopedia has estimated that in 2002 Christians formed 40% of the continent's population, with Muslims forming 45%. It was also estimated in 2002 that Christians form 45% of Africa's population, with Muslims forming 40.6%.[13]

The Bahá'í Faith in Africa has a diverse history. It is the 3rd most widespread organized Abrahamic religion in Africa after Islam and Christianity[14] after its wide-scale growth in the 1950s and extend in the 1960s.[15] The Association of Religion Data Archives (relying on World Christian Encyclopedia) lists many large and smaller populations in Africa[16] with Kenya, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Africa and Zambia among the top ten numerical populations of Bahá'ís in the world in 2005 (each with over 200,000 adherents), and Mauritius in terms of percentage of the national population.

All three individual heads of the religion, Bahá'u'lláh, `Abdu'l-Bahá, and Shoghi Effendi, were in Africa at various times. More recently the roughly 2000[17] Bahá'ís of Egypt have been embroiled in the Egyptian identification card controversy from 2006[18] through 2009.[19] Since then there have been homes burned down and families driven out of towns.[20] On the other hand, Sub-Saharan Bahá'ís were able to mobilize for nine regional conferences called for by the Universal House of Justice 20 October 2008 to celebrate recent achievements in grassroots community-building and to plan their next steps in organizing in their home areas.[21]

In the first few centuries of Christianity, Africa produced many figures who had a major influence outside the continent, including St Augustine of Hippo, St Maurice, Origen, Tertullian, and three Roman Catholic popes (Victor I, Miltiades and Gelasius I), as well as the Biblical characters Simon of Cyrene and the Ethiopian eunuch baptised by Philip the Evangelist. Christianity existed in Ethiopia before the rule of King Ezana the Great of the Kingdom of Axum, but the religion took a strong foothold when it was declared a state religion in 330 AD, becoming one of the first Christian nations.[23] The earliest and best known reference to the introduction of Christianity to Africa is mentioned in the Christian Bible's Acts of the Apostles, and pertains to the evangelist Phillip's conversion of an Ethiopian traveler in the 1st century AD. Although the Bible refers to them as Ethiopians, scholars have argued that Ethiopia was a common term encompassing the area South-Southeast of Egypt.

Other traditions have the convert as a Jew who was a steward in the Queenâ€™s court.[clarification needed] All accounts do agree on the fact that the traveler was a member of the royal court who successfully succeeded in converting the Queen, which in turn caused a church to be built. Tyrannius Rufinus, a noted church historian, also recorded a personal account as do other church historians such as Socrates and Sozemius.[24] Some experts predict the shift of Christianity's center from the European industrialized nations to Africa and Asia in modern times. Yale University historian Lamin Sanneh stated, that "African Christianity was not just an exotic, curious phenomenon in an obscure part of the world, but that African Christianity might be the shape of things to come."[25] The statistics from the World Christian Encyclopedia (David Barrett) illustrate the emerging trend of dramatic Christian growth on the continent and supposes, that in 2025 there will be 633 million Christians in Africa.[26]

A 2015 study estimates 2,161,000 Christian believers from a Muslim background in Africa, most of them belonging to some form of Protestantism.[27]

Islam is the other major religion in Africa alongside Christianity,[29] with 47% of the population being Muslim, accounting for 1/4 of the world's Muslim population.[citation needed] The faith's historic roots on the continent stem from the time of the Prophet Muhammad, whose early disciples migrated to Abyssinia (hijira) in fear of persecution from the pagan Arabs.

The spread of Islam in North Africa came with the expansion of Arab empire under Caliph Umar, through the Sinai Peninsula. Spread of Islam in West Africa was through Islamic traders and sailors.

Islam is the dominant religion in North Africa and the Horn of Africa. It has also become the predominant religion on the Swahili Coast as well as the West African seaboard and parts of the interior. There have been several Muslim empires in Western Africa which exerted considerable influence, notably the Mali Empire, which flourished for several centuries and the Songhai Empire, under the leadership of Mansa Musa, Sonni Ali and Askia Mohammed.

The vast majority of Muslims in Africa are Sunni, belonging to either Maliki or Shafi schools of jurisprudence. However, Hanafi school of jurisprudence is also represented, mainly in Egypt.[30] There are also sizeable minorities of Shias, Ahmadis, Ibadi and Sufis.[31]

Adherents of Judaism can be found scattered in a number of countries across Africa; including North Africa, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Cameroon, Gabon, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Southern Africa.

Hinduism has existed in Africa mainly since the late 19th century.It is the largest religion in Mauritius,[32] and several other countries have Hindu temples.[citation needed]

Buddhism is a tiny religion in Africa with around 250,000 practicing adherents,[33] and up to nearly 400,000 [34] if combined with Taoism and Chinese Folk Religion as a common traditional religion of mostly new Chinese migrants (significant minority in Mauritius, Réunion, and South Africa). About half of African Buddhists are now living in South Africa, while Mauritius has the highest Buddhist percentage in the continent, between 1.5%[35] to 2%[36] of the total population.

Other faiths are practiced in Africa, including Zoroastrianism and Rastafarianism among others.[37]

A Gallup poll shows that the irreligious comprise 20% in South Africa, 16% in Botswana, 13% in Mozambique, 13% in Togo, 12% in Libya and Côte d'Ivoire, 10% in Ethiopia and Angola, 9% in Sudan, Zimbabwe and Algeria, 8% in Namibia and 7% in Madagascar.[38]

Syncretism is the combining of different (often contradictory) beliefs, often while melding practices of various schools of thought. In the commonwealth of Africa syncretism with indigenous beliefs is practiced throughout the region. It is believed by some to explain religious tolerance between different groups.[39] Kwesi Yankah and John Mbiti argue that many African peoples today have a'mixed' religious heritage to try to reconcile traditional religions with Abrahamic faiths.[40][41] Jesse Mugambi claims that the Christianity taught to Africans by missionaries had a fear of syncretism, which was carried on by current African Christian leadership in an attempt to keep Christianity "pure."[42] Syncretism in Africa is said by others to be overstated,[43] and due to a misunderstanding of the abilities of local populations to form their own orthodoxies and also confusion over what is culture and what is religion.[citation needed] Others state that the term syncretism is a vague one,[44] since it can be applied to refer to substitution or modification of the central elements of Christianity or Islam with beliefs or practices from somewhere else. The consequences under this definition, according to missiologist Keith Ferdinando, are a fatal compromise of the religion's integrity. However, communities in Africa (e.g. Afro-Asiatic) have many common practices which are also found in Abrahamic faiths, and thus these traditions do not fall under the category of some definitions of syncretism.[45]


what mma fighter was on dancing with the stars

Paige Michelle VanZant[7] (born March 26, 1994) is an American mixed martial artist and a former model.[8][9] VanZant is signed to the flyweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Outside of mixed martial arts, she has appeared in the television series Dancing with the Stars and Chopped.

Paige VanZant

Team Alpha Male (formerly) [4]

VanZant was born in Dundee, Oregon, and raised in Dayton, Oregon. Her parents owned a dance studio, and she was brought up dancing ballet, jazz, and hip hop for over 13 years. As a teen, she appeared in a mop commercial for Bissell.[10] She was considered a tomboy while growing up, and loved the outdoors; her hobbies included riding dirt bikes and fishing. In high school, she was regularly bullied by a group of girls. She has noted this experience as one of the reasons she likes being a martial artist and having the ability to defend herself.[11][12] She has modeled for Nike and Columbia Sportswear.[11] Her father nicknamed her "12 Gauge" because of her love of shooting and hunting.[13]

After VanZant moved with her family to Sparks, Nevada, she was looking for a dance studio when she came across UFC veteran Ken Shamrock's gym, where she began training in boxing and other martial arts.[11] After winning an amateur fight at age 18,[14] VanZant made her professional MMA debut on June 30, 2012, at UWF's Tournament of Warriors finale against Jordan Nicole Gaza in Corpus Christi, Texas, winning by split decision. On September 22, 2012, she faced Amber Stautzenberger at Premier Fight Series 2 and won via unanimous decision.

VanZant faced Tecia Torres at Invicta FC 4: Esparza vs. Hyatt. The event was held on January 5, 2013, at the Memorial Hall in Kansas City, Kansas. VanZant was dominated on the feet for much of the fight and lost to Torres via a unanimous decision.[15]

In December 2013, VanZant was announced as one of 11 women signed by the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) for its newly created Strawweight division. It was also announced that she would compete as a cast member on The Ultimate Fighter (UFC), a television reality series, as part of a tournament to crown the inaugural strawweight champion. However, on March 31, 2014, VanZant was turned away from the reality series because she was only 20 years old, and the minimum age to compete on it is 21 due to the presence of alcohol in the house.[16]

In August 2014, the UFC announced that VanZant would face Kailin Curran on October 4, 2014, in Halifax at UFC Fight Night: MacDonald vs. Saffiedine, but VanZant suffered a back injury and the bout was rescheduled for UFC Fight Night: Edgar vs. Swanson.[17] VanZant marked her UFC debut by defeating Curran by TKO in the third round, in a fight that would win Fight of the Night honors.[18]

After defeating Kailin Curran, VanZant enjoyed an increase in popularity. In February 2015, she was signed to a sponsorship deal with Reebok. This became a source of controversy due to her having only one UFC fight at the time. Some media outlets and fighters speculated that VanZant only received the deal due to her physical attractiveness. UFC president Dana White responded that she received the Reebok deal because of her "it" factor and personality.[19][20]

VanZant faced Felice Herrig on April 18, 2015, in Newark, New Jersey, at UFC on Fox: Machida vs. Rockhold. Following a competitive first round, VanZant eventually overwhelmed Herrig with her grappling, winning by unanimous decision.[21]

VanZant faced Alex Chambers on September 5, 2015, at UFC 191. After controlling most of the fight with aggressive strikes and grappling, she won via armbar submission in the third round.[15][22]

VanZant signed a new contract with UFC on September 17, 2015.[23] VanZant was expected to face Joanne Calderwood on December 10, 2015, at UFC Fight Night 80. However, Calderwood was pulled from the fight in October and replaced by Rose Namajunas.[24] VanZant lost the one-sided fight via submission in the fifth round.[25]

Following her time on Dancing with the Stars, VanZant returned to the cage to face Bec Rawlings on August 27, 2016 at UFC on Fox: Maia vs. Condit.[26][27] She won the fight via KO in the second round after landing a flying head kick and a flurry of follow-up punches.[28] The win earned VanZant her first Performance of the Night bonus award.

In her next bout, VanZant faced Michelle Waterson on December 17, 2016 in the main event at UFC on Fox: VanZant vs. Waterson.[29] She lost the fight via technical submission due to a rear-naked choke in the first round.

In 2017, VanZant announced that she would be publishing her memoirs.[30] She ended her run in the strawweight division ranked No. 12.[31][6]

In August 2017, VanZant moved to the 125-pound flyweight division and was booked against Jessica Eye at UFC 216 on October 7.[32] However, VanZant pulled out of the fight on September 25 citing a back injury,[33] and further ailments such as a herniated disc, sinus infection, double ear infection, pink eye and ringworm.[34]

VanZant's debut in the flyweight division eventually took place in 2018 as she faced Jessica Rose-Clark on January 14, 2018 at UFC Fight Night: Stephens vs. Choi.[35] She lost the fight via unanimous decision.[36]

VanZant typically attacks with aggressive grappling, then seeks to finish the fight with strikes.[21][37] Her style includes ground-and-pound, dirty boxing, and a wide variety of clinch striking. While standing, she will often move the fight toward the fence and utilize knees, elbows, forearms, punches, and throws.[37][38]

VanZant is noted for the constant pressure she applies while grappling. If an opponent escapes her clinch, she will usually look to close the distance again within moments. At UFC Fight Night 57, Kailin Curran struggled to establish range against VanZant.[37] During their three-round bout, Felice Herrig was repeatedly held down by VanZant's grappling.[21] The first fighter to defeat VanZant, Tecia Torres, largely avoided her clinch while attacking with strikes near the center of the cage.[39] While fighting from a distance, she typically attacks with high kicks and punches.[40] She credits her past experiences dancing with her ability to perform flexible and agile movements in her fights, she demonstrated this when she knocked out Bec Rawlings with a flashy jumping switch kick which earned her a "Performance of the night" bonus.[41]

In addition to her striking, VanZant has a blue belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu.[6]

On March 8, 2016, VanZant was announced as one of the celebrities who would compete on season 22 of Dancing with the Stars. She partnered with professional dancer Mark Ballas.[42] The couple reached the finals of the show and finished in second place behind model Nyle DiMarco and his partner Peta Murgatroyd.[43]

1 For this week, VanZant performed with troupe member Alan Bersten due to Ballas suffering a back injury during rehearsals.
2 Score given by guest judge Zendaya.
3 For this week only, as part of "America's Switch Up", VanZant performed with Sasha Farber instead of Ballas. Ballas performed with Ginger Zee.
4 Score given by guest judge Maksim Chmerkovskiy.
5 Due to Inaba being the judge coaching VanZant's team during the team-up dance, the viewers scored the dance in her place with the averaged score being counted alongside the remaining judges.

On March 3, 2017, VanZant was announced as one of 16 celebrities taking part in a celebrity cooking competition on the Food Network TV series Chopped.[44] She was featured in the "Star Power: Culinary Muscle" episode, alongside former NFL player LaMarr Woodley, female Olympic gold medalist fencer Mariel Zagunis, and former Olympic gold medalist figure skater Dorothy Hamill. VanZant made it through the appetizer, and entree rounds to compete in the dessert round against Hamill. She then edged out Dorothy Hamill in the dessert round to become the Chopped winner.[45]

VanZant is releasing an autobiography next year. The book is going to be released this coming April and it is going to tell the story of her rise to fame, including her UFC battles, personal battles and appearances on Dancing With The Stars.[46]

VanZant is engaged to Austin Vanderford, a professional MMA fighter and a 2x NAIA All-American and National Champion.[47][48][49]


where did the last name cruz come from

Cruz is a surname of Iberian origin, first found in Castile[citation needed], Spain, but later spread throughout the territories of the former Spanish and Portuguese Empires. In Spanish and Portuguese, the word means "cross", either the Christian cross or the figure of transecting lines or ways. For example, in the Philippines, the adopted Tagalog word is rendered to "krus" in plain usage, but the Spanish spelling survives as a surname.

Cruz

The word "Cruz", as well as "Vera Cruz" ("True Cross") and "Santa Cruz" ("Holy Cross") are used as surnames and toponyms. Its origin as a surname particularly flourished after the Alhambra Decree of 1492 and the increasing activities of the Spanish Inquisition, when New Christian families with Crypto-Jewish, Moorish, and/or mixed religious heritage converted to the state-enforced religion of Catholicism and subsequently fashioned and adopted surnames with unambiguous religious affiliation.


what is the name for a group of geese

The term goose applies to the female in particular, while gander applies to the male in particular. Young birds before fledging are called goslings.[1] The collective noun for a group of geese on the ground is a gaggle; when in flight, they are called a skein, a team, or a wedge; when flying close together, they are called a plump.[3]

Goose

Geese are waterfowl of the family Anatidae. This group comprises the genera Anser (the grey geese) and Branta (the black geese). Chen, a genus comprising 'white geese', is sometimes used to refer to a group of species that are more commonly placed within Anser. Some other birds, mostly related to the shelducks, have "goose" as part of their names. More distantly related members of the family Anatidae are swans, most of which are larger than true geese, and ducks, which are smaller.

The word "goose" is a direct descendent of Proto-Indo-European root, *ghans-. In Germanic languages, the root gave Old English gōs with the plural gēs and gandres (becoming Modern English goose, geese, gander, and gosling, respectively), Frisian goes, gies and guoske, New High German Gans, Gänse, and Ganter, and Old Norse gās. This term also gave Lithuanian žąsìs, Irish gé (goose, from Old Irish géiss), Latin anser, Greek χήν/khēn, Dutch gans, Albanian gatë (heron), Sanskrit hamsa and hamsi, Finnish hanhi, Avestan zāō, Polish gęś, Ukrainian гуска and гусак, Russian гусыня and гусь, Czech husa, and Persian ghāz.[1][2]

The three living genera of true geese are: Anser, grey geese, including the greylag goose, and domestic geese; Chen, white geese (often included in Anser); and Branta, black geese, such as the Canada goose.

Two genera of "geese" are only tentatively placed in the Anserinae; they may belong to the shelducks or form a subfamily on their own: Cereopsis, the Cape Barren goose, and Cnemiornis, the prehistoric New Zealand goose. Either these or, more probably, the goose-like Coscoroba swan is the closest living relative of the true geese.

Fossils of true geese are hard to assign to genus; all that can be said is that their fossil record, particularly in North America, is dense and comprehensively documents many different species of true geese that have been around since about 10 million years ago in the Miocene. The aptly named Anser atavus (meaning "progenitor goose") from some 12 million years ago had even more plesiomorphies in common with swans. In addition, some goose-like birds are known from subfossil remains found on the Hawaiian Islands.

Geese are monogamous, living in permanent pairs throughout the year; however, unlike most other permanently monogamous animals, they are territorial only during the short nesting season. Paired geese are more dominant and feed more, two factors that result in more young.[4]

Some mainly Southern Hemisphere birds are called "geese", most of which belong to the shelduck subfamily Tadorninae. These are:

The spur-winged goose, Plectropterus gambensis, is most closely related to the shelducks, but distinct enough to warrant its own subfamily, the Plectropterinae.

The blue-winged goose, Cyanochen cyanopterus, and the Cape Barren goose, Cereopsis novaehollandiae, have disputed affinities. They belong to separate ancient lineages that may ally either to the Tadorninae, Anserinae, or closer to the dabbling ducks (Anatinae).

The three species of small waterfowl in the genus Nettapus are named "pygmy geese". They seem to represent another ancient lineage, with possible affinities to the Cape Barren goose or the spur-winged goose.

A genus of prehistorically extinct seaducks, Chendytes, is sometimes called "diving-geese" due to their large size.[5]

The unusual magpie goose is in a family of its own, the Anseranatidae.

The northern gannet, a seabird, is also known as the "Solan goose", although it is a bird unrelated to the true geese, or any other Anseriformes for that matter.

Well-known sayings about geese include:

To "have a gander" is to examine something in detail.

"What's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander" means that what is an appropriate treatment for one person is equally appropriate for someone else.

Saying that someone's "goose is cooked" means that they have suffered, or are about to suffer, a terrible setback or misfortune.

"Killing the goose that lays the golden eggs," derived from an old fable, is a saying referring to any greed-motivated, unprofitable action that destroys or otherwise renders a favourable situation useless.

"A wild goose chase" is a useless, futile waste of time and effort.

There is a legendary old woman called Mother Goose who wrote nursery rhymes for children.

The Goose-Step is a political cartoon by British cartoonist E. H. Shepard, drawn in 1936, the year which Nazi Germany remilitarized the Rhineland. Below the drawing of the goose, there is a short poem, which parodies the nursery rhyme Goosey Goosey Gander.


location of the villages in the state of florida

The Villages is a census-designated place (CDP) in Sumter County, Florida, United States. It shares its name with a broader master-planned age-restricted community that spreads into portions of Lake and Marion counties. The Villages consistently ranks as a very high growth area. The U.S. Census ranked The Villages as the fastest-growing U.S. city for the second year in a row (during the 12 months ending in July 2014);[4] As of April 2016, the total population of The Villages reached 157,000 people, due to new areas stretching from Fruitland Park to South SR 44. [5]

The Villages, Florida

The Villages is controlled by several quasi-governmental Community Development Districts (CDD), which are controlled by the development company that created The Villages.[6] H. Gary Morse, the son of the original owner and who was responsible for turning The Villages into one of the most well-known and fastest-growing retirement communities, transferred most direct ownership in the company to his three children in 2006; Morse died in 2014.[7][8] The overall development lies in central Florida, approximately 20 miles (32 km) south of Ocala and approximately 45 miles (72 km) northwest of Orlando.

As of the 2010 United States Census, The Villages had a population of 51,442,[9] reflecting an increase of 43,109 (517.33%) from the 8,333 counted in 2000. It is the center of The Villages Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), which consists of all of Sumter County; Lake County is included in the Orlando–Kissimmee–Sanford, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area; and Marion County is included in the Ocala, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area.

In 2016 and 2017 Forbes magazine named The Villages to the list of The 25 Best Places To Retire in the United States.[10]

Harold Schwartz, a Michigan businessman, began selling land tracts via mail order in The Villages area in the 1960s. He and his business partner, Al Tarrson, were forced to close the mail-order aspect of the business due to a 1968 Federal law banning sales of real estate by mail order.[11]

Stuck with considerable portions of Florida land, in the early 1970s Schwartz and Tarrson began development of a mobile home park, Orange Blossom Gardens, in the northwestern corner of Lake County. By the early 1980s, the community had sold only 400 units. In an attempt to improve the business, Schwartz bought out Tarrson's interest and brought his son, H. Gary Morse, on board in 1983.

Morse noted that the successful retirement communities (such as Del Webb's Sun City developments) offered numerous well-maintained amenities to the residents. They also had diverse and nearby commercial development. Morse began to significantly upgrade the development. Their sales improved in the mid-1980s. Schwartz began to buy large tracts of land in nearby Sumter and Marion counties for future expansion. In 1992, Morse officially changed the overall development name to The Villages. The development is still controlled in all major aspects by descendants of Schwartz and Morse.

A Declaration of Restrictions has been created for each individual neighborhood, which regulates design and operational aspects, such as landscaping, repairs and maintenance, placement of satellite dishes, hedges, etc. An Architectural Review Committee controls the composition and consistency of the exterior of the residential properties within The Villages. The committee, which consists of Villages residents, reviews and approves alterations and modifications to the properties and homes built by the developer. Committee members serve for three years and are selected by the sitting committee.[12]

To qualify for an exception to the Housing for Older Persons Act prohibitions against discrimination, at least 80% of the homes within The Villages must have at least one person 55 years of age or older residing in the home.[13] Persons under the age of 19 years are not permitted to reside within The Villages unless an exemption is granted. Three subdivisions have been designated as "family units"[14] and are not subject to this restriction. Otherwise, persons under age 19 (such as grandchildren) are permitted to visit for no more than 30 days within a calendar year.[15]

According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP (Sumter County only) has a total area of 5.6 sq mi (15 km2), of which 5.2 sq mi (13 km2) is land and 0.4 sq mi (1.0 km2) (6.99%) is water. The Villages is located approximately 45 miles northwest of Orlando and 75 miles northeast of Tampa.

As of the census[3] of 2000, there were 8,333 people, 4,392 households, and 3,583 families residing in the CDP (Sumter County). The population density was 1,605.5 people per square mile (619.9/km²). There were 5,065 housing units at an average density of 975.9/mi (376.8/km²). The racial makeup of the CDP was 98.4% White, 0.5% African American, 0.1% Native American, 0.5% Asian, <0.1% Pacific Islander, 0.06% from other races, and 0.4% from two or more races. Hispanics or Latinos of any race made up 1.3% of the population.

There were 4,393 households out of which 0.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 80.1% were married couples living together, 1.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 18.4% were non-families. 15.6% of all households were made up of individuals and 11.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 1.89 and the average family size was 2.05.

In the CDP, the population was spread out with 0.3% under the age of 18, 0.3% from 18 to 24, 1.5% from 25 to 44, 40.4% from 45 to 64, and 57.5% 65 years of age or older. The median age was 66 years. For every 100 females there were 91.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 90.9 males.

The median income for a household in the CDP was $42,542, and the median income for a family was $45,078. Males had a median income of $58,173 versus $26,176 for females. The per capita income for the CDP was $28,343. About 2.8% of families and 3.7% of the population were below the poverty line, including none under age 18 and 2.8% of those who are at least age 65.

Considered a conservative community, The Villages is a popular election stop and platform for political figures such as former Vice President Dick Cheney,[16] former presidential and vice presidential candidates Mitt Romney[17] and Paul Ryan,[18] former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin,[19][20] former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee,[21] 2016 GOP presidential primary candidates Marco Rubio[22] and Ben Carson,[23][24] former presidential candidate Rick Santorum,[25] and talk show hosts/authors Glenn Beck[26] and Brian Kilmeade.[27] In the lead-up to the 2016 Presidential Election, GOP Vice Presidential Nominee Mike Pence visited to campaign for his running mate, Donald Trump.[28]

Residents of The Villages have a historically high 80% turnout rate in elections. Republicans outnumber Democrats two-to-one.[29] Some Democratic residents complain about the distinctly Republican coverage in local broadcasting and newspaper, an orientation attributed to The Villages' owner,[30] as well as voicing concerns about politically oriented vandalism.[31]

A critical part of Central Florida's Republican party, The Villages has been visited frequently along the campaign trail by Florida Governor Rick Scott and United States Senator Marco Rubio. During the 2014 Florida gubernatorial election, Scott visited The Villages on the eve of the election to rally votes.[32] Just before the 2016 election for Florida Senator, Rubio stopped off at the temporary Republican Headquarters established at Lake Sumter Landing in The Villages.[33]

The Villages is in Florida's 11th congressional district represented by Rep. Daniel Webster.

The entirety of The Villages is within the boundaries of Florida Senate District 12 (currently represented by Republican Dennis Baxley), and is within the boundaries of Florida House of Representatives District 33 (currently represented by Republican Don Hahnfeldt).

The portion of The Villages within Lake County is within Lake County District 1.[34]

The portion of The Villages within Marion County is within Marion County District 3.[35]

Areas of The Villages in Sumter County are divided between Sumter County District 1, which takes areas east of Morse Boulevard, and Sumter County District 3, which takes areas west of Morse Boulevard.[36][37]

The majority of The Villages is developed and maintained using several Community Development Districts (CDD).[38] The CDD is a form of special purpose local government available under Florida law; around 225 communities in Florida currently use this form of government.[38] The portion of The Villages located in Lake County is under the jurisdiction of the city of Lady Lake and is not part of any of the District CDDs, but a portion is under the larger CDDs (see below).

The Villages currently operates 12 CDDs. Ten of the 12 CDDs cover the various areas of The Village where residents own homes, and provide and maintain the roads and transportation paths, storm water systems and structures, underground utilities, curbs and gutters, and street lights. The costs of building and maintaining this infrastructure are paid for by annual special assessments included in the property tax bill. District residents (including landowners who have yet to build on their property) elect the members of the District Board of Supervisors. The current district setup is as follows:[39]

The remaining two CDDs are:

Unlike the residential CDDs, there are no residents within the CDD boundaries. Thus, the five-member Board of Supervisors for each district is composed of the developer's employees or affiliates. [40][41]

There are also two quasi-homeowners associations in The Villages: The Property Owners Association (POA) and The Villages Homeowners Association (VHA).[42][43]

As a master planned retirement community, The Villages offers numerous forms of recreation. The majority of the costs are paid for via the monthly amenities fee assessed to residents (the facilities are owned by the centralized CDDs discussed above).[44]

The centerpiece of The Villages is its numerous assortment of golf courses. The ability to play "Free Golf for Life" is a key component of The Villages advertising campaigns (though technically the statement is inaccurate as the costs are covered by the mandatory monthly amenity fees assessed on each residential lot). As of February 2017[update], The Villages operates 48 courses.

The majority (36) of the courses[45] are executive golf courses, all of which are 9-hole layouts. It is these courses at which residents of The Villages can play "free golf for life" (i.e., no greens fees) and can walk the courses for free as well; fees are charged for riding a golf cart on the courses. These courses are owned by the Villages residents and managed by the Villages Community Center Development District (VCDD)[46]

The remaining 12 courses are country club championship courses.[47] Among notable course architects are Arnold Palmer and Nancy Lopez. The Orange Blossom Hills and Tierra Del Sol clubs are 18-hole layouts; the other eight clubs are 27-hole layouts. Residents of The Villages are automatically members of these clubs; however, unlike the executive courses residents must pay greens fees to play the courses and the clubs charge for priority tee times. These championship courses are owned by the Villages Developer and through an agreement with the VCDD, are managed by that entity.[48]

On October 15, 2013, The Villages officially opened executive courses Sweetgum and Mangrove.[49] The most recent championship course (Belle Glade) was opened for public play on November 26, 2014.[50]

By final buildout, The Villages will operate 12 country-club championship courses (the last two will be 27-hole layouts; there are no plans to expand Orange Blossom Hills or Tierra Del Sol beyond their existing 18-hole layouts) and 35 9-hole executive golf courses, for a total of 621 holes of golf.[51]

The Villages also operates a golf instruction academy[52] for all skill levels.

In addition, The Villages operates numerous recreation centers. There are three classes of centers (the number shown are as of March 2011 and are based on the types of swimming pools offered):

The Villages operates 11 parks, dog parks, and fitness trails, which are separate from the recreation centers.

The Villages has become a popular spot for many artists. In April 2015, The Sharon L. Morse Performing Arts Center, a venue with over 1,000 seats, opened to much fanfare.[56] The Sharon has featured various popular artists such as Frankie Avalon,[57] Jerry Lewis,[58] Felix Cavaliere,[59] Little River Band,[60] Bobby Rydell,[61] Ray Stevens,[62] The Spinners,[63] Kenny G,[64] and Chubby Checker.[65]

Beyond the golf courses and recreation centers, The Villages also operates numerous softball fields, a polo stadium (The Villages Polo Stadium),[66] and a woodworking shop, plus the Lifelong Learning College.[67] The newest softball complex, Soaring Eagle, opened on January 16, 2015.[68]

Nightly activities are held in The Villages three town squares,[69] Lake Sumter Landing's Market Square[70] and Spanish Springs Town Square.[71] A third town square, Brownwood Paddock Square, opened on October 12, 2012.[72]

In 2018, The Villages will be opening their first shooting range, retail firearms store, and shooting training facility in Powell Plaza.[73]

The Villages is served by television channels from the Orlando market, although channels from the Tampa market also cover the area. It is also served by radio stations from both the Orlando and Gainesville/Ocala markets, and by area newspapers such as the Orlando Sentinel, the Tampa Bay Times, the Leesburg Daily Commercial, and the Ocala Star-Banner.

The Villages developers or their successors operate three media properties:

Local, independent media outlets include:

The Villages development is bounded roughly by US 27/US 441 to the east, US 301 to the west, County Road 42 to the north, and County Road 466A to the south, though construction has now proceeded well south of 466A with the development of several new villages, the Bonifay Country Club, and the Brownwood town center in that area. On December 10, 2013, The Villages of Lake-Sumter Inc. agreed to an $8Â million deal to purchase Pine Ridge Dairy tract in Fruitland Park, Florida with a planned construction of 2,038 new Villages homes.[75] Although County Road 466 previously served as the main east-west corridor, the addition of homes and facilities south of County Road 466 and in the city of Fruitland Park, Florida has turned County Road 466A into a secondary east-west corridor.[76] Buena Vista Boulevard and Morse Boulevard serve as major north-south corridors.[77]

Due to the prevalence of golf courses many residents in The Villages use golf carts (some of which are street-legal, and some of which are solar-powered) to travel around the community. Tunnels have been built in most of The Villages where a highway must be crossed, but one overpass exists across US 27/US 441 because there was no way to construct a tunnel in this area.

Sumter County Transit operates The Villages shuttle. They provide various weekday loops through the Villages.[78]

The Villages developers operate a trolley-style bus tour of the community which operates from the sales and information center located at The Market Square in Lake Sumter Landing.

Amtrak serves The Villages by connecting bus to Jacksonville and Lakeland.

The following school listings are primarily for tax base purposes only, as The Villages does not allow full-time residents under age 19 except in the three family unit neighborhoods of Bison Valley, Spring Arbor, and Oak Meadows[14] or by exception granted for hardship cases.

Although children cannot legally reside in most neighborhoods of The Villages, The Villages Charter Schools is a PK-12 charter school in unincorporated Sumter County.[81] Children are eligible to attend the charter school if one or both of their parents work directly for The Villages or one of its direct subcontractors, or if a parent works for a business located within The Villages. Children of residents who reside in a family unit neighborhood or by granted exemption do not automatically qualify for attendance based solely on their residence.[82]

The Lifelong Learning College operated by The Villages developer was shut down on 2016-12-31:[83] "The Villages Lifelong Learning College no longer exists. All offices are closed and courses cancelled."[84]

Sumter District Schools operates the Sumter County Adult Community Education Center in unincorporated Sumter County.[85]

For residents of Lake and Sumter counties, Lake-Sumter State College provides adult education at the South Lake Campus in Clermont, the Leesburg Campus in Leesburg and the Sumter Campus in unincorporated Sumter County.[86]

College of Central Florida serves residents of Marion County,[87] operating the Ocala Campus and the Hampton Center in Ocala in Marion County and centers and campuses in adjacent counties.[88]

In January 2008, the Village Center CDD was notified by the Internal Revenue Service of the IRS' intent to audit several recreational bonds issued in 2003 to determine compliance with tax regulations (mainly due to their status as municipal bonds which are exempt from Federal income tax). The IRS sent three "Notices of Proposed Issues" in January 2009 challenging the tax-exempt status of the bonds on three grounds:

The position stems in large part from the interrelationship between VCCDD and The Villages developers (since VCCDD has no residents, the Board of Supervisors consists solely of individuals who work for or have an affiliation with The Villages developers, and VCCDDs infrastructure was purchased by the developers-controlled board from the developers). Essentially, the IRS position is that the VCCDD is an "alter ego" for the developers.[89]

After an IRS settlement offer was rejected by VCCDD,[90] the IRS further expanded its audit in July 2009 to include all recreational and utility revenue bonds issued by VCCDD[91] as well as similar bonds issued by Sumter Landing CDD,[92] on the basis that Sumter Landing CDD is also an "alter ego" of the developers. However, the 10 district CDDs were not included in the expanded audit, since as shown above the District CDDs Boards are elected by the residents.

VCCDD opposes the position taken by the IRS, and in January 2010 it formally requested technical advice from the IRS as to the position it has taken.[93] On June 14, 2011, VCCDD (after discussions with the IRS) submitted its final Request for Technical Advice, outlining its position on the matter.[94] In June 2013, the IRS ruled that $426 million in bonds were not tax free since the bureaucracy running The Villages could not be considered a real government. The IRS found that the bureaucracy was not structured to represent the residents.[95] On April 30, 2014, the IRS Office of Tax Exempt Bonds issued a negative response in lieu of The Villages requests for tax relief on the grounds of qualifying as a political subdivision under IRS regulations.[96]

From March 2008 until October 1, 2013, it is estimated that through the Amenity Authority Committee and CDD government, Villages' residents bore approximately $750,000.00 in legal fees in defending against the IRS audit.[97]

In a memo dated July 11, 2016, the IRS, noting that the remaining Village Center municipal bonds had been redeemed in 2015, stated, "We have concluded that closing this examination without further IRS action supports sound tax administration. The IRS had tried to settle the case in November 2016 for $1.5 million. However, the Village Center Supervisors unanimously refused that settlement offer. Now the IRS has closed the examination with no penalty.