Bar (river morphology)

A bar in a river is an elevated region of sediment (such as sand or gravel) that has been deposited by the flow. 　Types of bars include mid-channel bars (also called braid bars and common in braided rivers), point bars (common in meandering rivers), and mouth bars (common in river deltas). 　The locations of bars are determined by the geometry of the river and the flow through it. 　Bars reflect sediment supply conditions, and can show where sediment supply rate is greater than the transport capacity. 　A mid-channel bar, is also often referred to as a braid bar because they are often found in braided river channels. 　Braided river channels are broad and shallow and found in areas where sediment is easily eroded like at a glacial outwash, or at a mountain front with high sediment loads. 　These types of river systems are associated with high slope, sediment supply, stream power, shear stress, and bed load transport rates. 　Braided rivers have complex and unpredictable channel patterns, and sediment size tends to vary among streams. 　It is these features that are responsible for the formations of braid bars. 　Braided streams are often overfed with massive amounts of sediment which creates multiple stream channels within one dominant pair of flood bank plains. 　These channels are separated by mid-channel or braid bars. 　Anastomosing river channels also create mid-channel bars, however they are typically vegetated bars, making them more permanent than the bars found in a braided river channel which have high rates of change because of the large amounts of non-cohesive sediment, lack of vegetation, and high stream powers found in braided river channels. 　Bars can also form mid-channel due to snags or logjams. 　For example, if a stable log is deposited mid-channel in a stream, this obstructs the flow and creates local flow convergence and divergence. 　This causes erosion on the upstream side of the obstruction and deposition on the downstream side. 　The deposition that occurs on the downstream side can create a central bar, and an arcuate bar can be formed as flow diverges upstream of the obstruction. 　Continuous deposition downstream can build up the central bar to form an island. 　Eventually the logjam can become partially buried, which protects the island from erosion, allowing for vegetation to begin to grow, and stabilize the area even further. 　Over time, the bar can eventually attach to one side of the channel bank and merge into the flood plain. 　A point bar is an area of deposition typically found in meandering rivers. 　Point bars form on the inside of meander bends in meandering rivers. 　As the flow moves around the inside of the bend in the river, the water slows down because of the shallow flow and low shear stresses there reduce the amount of material that can be carried there. 　Point bars are usually crescent shaped and located on the inside curve of the river bend. 　The excess material falls out of transport and, over time, forms a point bar. 　Point bars are typically found in the slowest moving, shallowest parts of rivers and streams, and are often parallel to the shore and occupy the area farthest from the thalweg, on the outside curve of the river bend in a meandering river. 　Here, at the deepest and fastest part of the stream is the cut bank, the area of a meandering river channel that continuously undergoes erosion. 　The faster the water in a river channel, the better it is able to pick up greater amounts of sediment, and larger pieces of sediment, which increases the river's bed load. 　Over a long enough period of time, the combination of deposition along point bars, and erosion along cut banks can lead to the formation of an oxbow lake. 　A mouth bar is an elevated region of sediment typically found at a river delta which is located at the mouth of a river where the river flows out to the ocean. 　Sediment is transported by the river and deposited, mid channel, at the mouth of the river. 　This occurs because, as the river widens at the mouth, the flow slows, and sediment settles out and is deposited. 　After initial formation of a river mouth bar, they have the tendency to prograde. 　This is caused by the pressure from the flow on the upstream face of the bar. 　This pressure creates erosion on that face of the bar, allowing the flow to transport this sediment over or around, and re-deposit it farther downstream, closer to the ocean. 　River mouth bars stagnate, or cease to prograde when the water depth above the flow is shallow enough to create a pressure on the upstream side of the bar strong enough to force the flow around the deposit rather than over the top of the bar. 　This divergent channel flow around either side of the sediment deposit continuously transports sediment, which over time is deposited on either side of this original mid channel deposit. 　As more and more sediment accumulates across the mouth of the river, it builds up to eventually create a sand bar that has the potential to extend the entire length of the river mouth and block the flow.

Ireland

Ireland (/ˈaɪərlənd/ (listen) YRE-lənd; Irish: Éire [ˈeːɾʲə] (listen); Ulster-Scots: Airlann [ˈɑːrlən]) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. 　It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. 　Ireland is the second-largest island of the British Isles, the third-largest in Europe, and the twentieth-largest in the world. 　Geopolitically, Ireland is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially named Ireland), an independent state covering five-sixths of the island, and Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom. 　As of 2022, the population of the entire island is just over 7 million, with 5.1 million living in the Republic of Ireland and 1.9 million in Northern Ireland, ranking it the second-most populous island in Europe after Great Britain. 　The geography of Ireland comprises relatively low-lying mountains surrounding a central plain, with several navigable rivers extending inland. 　Its lush vegetation is a product of its mild but changeable climate which is free of extremes in temperature. 　Much of Ireland was woodland until the end of the Middle Ages. 　Today, woodland makes up about 10% of the island, compared with a European average of over 33%, with most of it being non-native conifer plantations. 　The Irish climate is influenced by the Atlantic Ocean and thus very moderate, and winters are milder than expected for such a northerly area, although summers are cooler than those in continental Europe. 　Rainfall and cloud cover are abundant. 　Gaelic Ireland had emerged by the 1st century AD. 　The island was Christianised from the 5th century onwards. 　Following the 12th century Anglo-Norman invasion, England claimed sovereignty. 　However, English rule did not extend over the whole island until the 16th–17th century Tudor conquest, which led to colonisation by settlers from Britain. 　In the 1690s, a system of Protestant English rule was designed to materially disadvantage the Catholic majority and Protestant dissenters, and was extended during the 18th century. 　With the Acts of Union in 1801, Ireland became a part of the United Kingdom. 　A war of independence in the early 20th century was followed by the partition of the island, leading to the creation of the Irish Free State, which became increasingly sovereign over the following decades, and Northern Ireland, which remained a part of the United Kingdom. 　Northern Ireland saw much civil unrest from the late 1960s until the 1990s. 　This subsided following the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. 　In 1973, the Republic of Ireland joined the European Economic Community while the United Kingdom, and Northern Ireland as part of it, did the same. 　In 2020, the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland included, left what was by then the European Union (EU). 　Irish culture has had a significant influence on other cultures, especially in the field of literature. 　Alongside mainstream Western culture, a strong indigenous culture exists, as expressed through Gaelic games, Irish music, Irish language, and Irish dance. 　The island's culture shares many features with that of Great Britain, including the English language, and sports such as association football, rugby, horse racing, golf, and boxing.

Tree

In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. 　In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are usable as lumber or plants above a specified height. 　In wider definitions, the taller palms, tree ferns, bananas, and bamboos are also trees. 　Trees are not a taxonomic group but include a variety of plant species that have independently evolved a trunk and branches as a way to tower above other plants to compete for sunlight. 　The majority of tree species are angiosperms or hardwoods; of the rest, many are gymnosperms or softwoods. 　Trees tend to be long-lived, some reaching several thousand years old. 　Trees have been in existence for 370 million years. 　It is estimated that there are around three trillion mature trees in the world. 　A tree typically has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground by the trunk. 　This trunk typically contains woody tissue for strength, and vascular tissue to carry materials from one part of the tree to another. 　For most trees it is surrounded by a layer of bark which serves as a protective barrier. 　Below the ground, the roots branch and spread out widely; they serve to anchor the tree and extract moisture and nutrients from the soil. 　Above ground, the branches divide into smaller branches and shoots. 　The shoots typically bear leaves, which capture light energy and convert it into sugars by photosynthesis, providing the food for the tree's growth and development. 　Trees usually reproduce using seeds. 　Flowers and fruit may be present, but some trees, such as conifers, instead have pollen cones and seed cones. 　Palms, bananas, and bamboos also produce seeds, but tree ferns produce spores instead. 　Trees play a significant role in reducing erosion and moderating the climate. 　They remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store large quantities of carbon in their tissues. 　Trees and forests provide a habitat for many species of animals and plants. 　Tropical rainforests are among the most biodiverse habitats in the world. 　Trees provide shade and shelter, timber for construction, fuel for cooking and heating, and fruit for food as well as having many other uses. 　In parts of the world, forests are shrinking as trees are cleared to increase the amount of land available for agriculture. 　Because of their longevity and usefulness, trees have always been revered, with sacred groves in various cultures, and they play a role in many of the world's mythologies.

Experience

Experience refers to conscious events in general, more specifically to perceptions, or to the practical knowledge and familiarity that is produced by these processes. 　Understood as a conscious event in the widest sense, experience involves a subject to which various items are presented. 　In this sense, seeing a yellow bird on a branch presents the subject with the objects "bird" and "branch", the relation between them and the property "yellow". 　Unreal items may be included as well, which happens when experiencing hallucinations or dreams. 　When understood in a more restricted sense, only sensory consciousness counts as experience. 　In this sense, experience is usually identified with perception and contrasted with other types of conscious events, like thinking or imagining. 　In a slightly different sense, experience refers not to the conscious events themselves but to the practical knowledge and familiarity they produce. 　In this sense, it is important that direct perceptual contact with the external world is the source of knowledge. 　So an experienced hiker is someone who actually lived through many hikes, not someone who merely read many books about hiking. 　This is associated both with recurrent past acquaintance and the abilities learned through them. 　Many scholarly debates on the nature of experience focus on experience as conscious event, either in the wide or the more restricted sense. 　One important topic in this field is the question of whether all experiences are intentional, i.e. are directed at objects different from themselves. 　Another debate focuses on the question of whether there are non-conceptual experiences and, if so, what role they could play in justifying beliefs. 　Some theorists claim that experiences are transparent, meaning that what an experience feels like only depends on the contents presented in this experience. 　Other theorists reject this claim by pointing out that what matters is not just what is presented but also how it is presented. 　A great variety of types of experiences is discussed in the academic literature. 　Perceptual experiences, for example, represent the external world through stimuli registered and transmitted by the senses. 　The experience of episodic memory, on the other hand, involves reliving a past event one experienced before. 　In imaginative experience, objects are presented without aiming to show how things actually are. 　The experience of thinking involves mental representations and the processing of information, in which ideas or propositions are entertained, judged or connected. 　Pleasure refers to experience that feels good. 　It is closely related to emotional experience, which has additionally evaluative, physiological and behavioral components. 　Moods are similar to emotions, with one key difference being that they lack a specific object found in emotions. 　Conscious desires involve the experience of wanting something. 　They play a central role in the experience of agency, in which intentions are formed, courses of action are planned, and decisions are taken and realized. 　Non-ordinary experience refers to rare experiences that significantly differ from the experience in the ordinary waking state, like religious experiences, out-of-body experiences or near-death experiences. 　Experience is discussed in various disciplines. 　Phenomenology is the science of the structure and contents of experience. 　It uses different methods, like epoché or eidetic variation. 　Sensory experience is of special interest to epistemology. 　An important traditional discussion in this field concerns whether all knowledge is based on sensory experience, as empiricists claim, or not, as rationalists contend. 　This is closely related to the role of experience in science, in which experience is said to act as a neutral arbiter between competing theories. 　In metaphysics, experience is involved in the mind-body problem and the hard problem of consciousness, both of which try to explain the relation between matter and experience. 　In psychology, some theorists hold that all concepts are learned from experience while others argue that some concepts are innate.

Square

In Euclidean geometry, a square is a regular quadrilateral, which means that it has four equal sides and four equal angles (90-degree angles, π/2 radian angles, or right angles). 　It can also be defined as a rectangle with two equal-length adjacent sides. 　It is the only regular polygon whose internal angle, central angle, and external angle are all equal (90°), and whose diagonals are all equal in length. 　A square with vertices ABCD would be denoted ◻ {\displaystyle \square } ABCD.

Kill

Look up kill in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. 　Kill often refers to: Homicide, one human killing another cause death, to kill a living organism, to cause its death Other common uses include: Kill (body of water) - describes a body of water, most commonly a creek (i.e.: Anthony Kill & Bronx Kill) Kill (command), a computing command Kill may also refer to:

Rose

A rose is either a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus Rosa (/ˈroʊzə/), in the family Rosaceae (/roʊˈzeɪsiːˌiː/), or the flower it bears. 　There are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of cultivars.　[citation needed] They form a group of plants that can be erect shrubs, climbing, or trailing, with stems that are often armed with sharp prickles.　[citation needed] Their flowers vary in size and shape and are usually large and showy, in colours ranging from white through yellows and reds. 　Most species are native to Asia, with smaller numbers native to Europe, North America, and northwestern Africa.　[citation needed] Species, cultivars and hybrids are all widely grown for their beauty and often are fragrant. 　Roses have acquired cultural significance in many societies. 　Rose plants range in size from compact, miniature roses, to climbers that can reach seven meters in height.　[citation needed] Different species hybridize easily, and this has been used in the development of the wide range of garden roses.

Rose (topology)

In mathematics, a rose (also known as a bouquet of n circles) is a topological space obtained by gluing together a collection of circles along a single point. 　The circles of the rose are called petals. 　Roses are important in algebraic topology, where they are closely related to free groups.

Contract

Look up obligor or obligee in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. 　A contract is an agreement that specifies certain legally enforceable rights and obligations pertaining to two or more mutually agreeing parties. 　A contract typically involves the transfer of goods, services, money, or a promise to transfer any of those at a future date. 　In the event of a breach of contract, the injured party may seek judicial remedies such as damages or rescission. 　A binding agreement between actors in international law is known as a treaty. 　Contract law, the field of the law of obligations concerned with contracts, is based on the principle that agreements must be honoured. 　Like other areas of private law, contract law varies between jurisdictions. 　In general, contract law is exercised and governed either under common law jurisdictions, civil law jurisdictions, or mixed-law jurisdictions that combine elements of both common and civil law. 　Common law jurisdictions typically require contracts to include consideration in order to be valid, whereas civil and most mixed-law jurisdictions solely require a meeting of the minds between the parties. 　Within the overarching category of civil law jurisdictions, there are several distinct varieties of contract law with their own distinct criteria: the German tradition is characterised by the unique doctrine of abstraction, systems based on the Napoleonic Code are characterised by their systematic distinction between different types of contracts, and Roman-Dutch law is largely based on the writings of renaissance-era Dutch jurists and case law applying general principles of Roman law prior to the Netherlands' adoption of the Napoleonic Code. 　The UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts, published in 2016, aim to provide a general harmonised framework for international contracts, independent of the divergences between national laws, as well as a statement of common contractual principles for arbitrators and judges to apply where national laws are lacking. 　Notably, the Principles reject the doctrine of consideration, arguing that elimination of the doctrine "bring[s] about greater certainty and reduce litigation" in international trade. 　The Principles also rejected the abstraction principle on the grounds that it and similar doctrines are "not easily compatible with modern business perceptions and practice". 　Contract law can be contrasted with tort law (also referred to in some jurisdictions as the law of delicts), the other major area of the law of obligations. 　While tort law generally deals with private duties and obligations that exist by operation of law, and provide remedies for civil wrongs committed between individuals not in a pre-existing legal relationship, contract law provides for the creation and enforcement of duties and obligations through a prior agreement between parties. 　The emergence of quasi-contracts, quasi-torts, and quasi-delicts renders the boundary between tort and contract law somewhat uncertain.

Skin

Skin is the layer of usually soft, flexible outer tissue covering the body of a vertebrate animal, with three main functions: protection, regulation, and sensation. 　Other animal coverings, such as the arthropod exoskeleton, have different developmental origin, structure and chemical composition. 　The adjective cutaneous means "of the skin" (from Latin cutis 'skin'). 　In mammals, the skin is an organ of the integumentary system made up of multiple layers of ectodermal tissue and guards the underlying muscles, bones, ligaments, and internal organs. 　Skin of a different nature exists in amphibians, reptiles, and birds. 　Skin (including cutaneous and subcutaneous tissues) plays crucial roles in formation, structure, and function of extraskeletal apparatus such as horns of bovids (e.g., cattle) and rhinos, cervids' antlers, giraffids' ossicones, armadillos' osteoderm, and os penis/os clitoris. 　All mammals have some hair on their skin, even marine mammals like whales, dolphins, and porpoises that appear to be hairless. 　The skin interfaces with the environment and is the first line of defense from external factors. 　For example, the skin plays a key role in protecting the body against pathogens and excessive water loss. 　Its other functions are insulation, temperature regulation, sensation, and the production of vitamin D folates. 　Severely damaged skin may heal by forming scar tissue. 　This is sometimes discoloured and depigmented. 　The thickness of skin also varies from location to location on an organism. 　In humans, for example, the skin located under the eyes and around the eyelids is the thinnest skin on the body at 0.5 mm thick and is one of the first areas to show signs of aging such as "crows feet" and wrinkles. 　The skin on the palms and the soles of the feet is the thickest skin on the body as 4 mm thick. 　The speed and quality of wound healing in skin is promoted by the reception of estrogen. 　Fur is dense hair. 　Primarily, fur augments the insulation the skin provides but can also serve as a secondary sexual characteristic or as camouflage. 　On some animals, the skin is very hard and thick and can be processed to create leather. 　Reptiles and most fish have hard protective scales on their skin for protection, and birds have hard feathers, all made of tough beta-keratins. 　Amphibian skin is not a strong barrier, especially regarding the passage of chemicals via skin, and is often subject to osmosis and diffusive forces. 　For example, a frog sitting in an anesthetic solution would be sedated quickly as the chemical diffuses through its skin. 　Amphibian skin plays key roles in everyday survival and their ability to exploit a wide range of habitats and ecological conditions.

Average

In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). 　For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, and 9 (summing to 25) is 5. 　Depending on the context, an average might be another statistic such as the median, or mode. 　For example, the average personal income is often given as the median—the number below which are 50% of personal incomes and above which are 50% of personal incomes—because the mean would be higher by including personal incomes from a few billionaires. 　For this reason, it is recommended to avoid using the word "average" when discussing measures of central tendency.

Computer

A computer is a machine that can be programmed to carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (computation) automatically. 　Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as programs. 　These programs enable computers to perform a wide range of tasks. 　A computer system is a nominally complete computer that includes the hardware, operating system (main software), and peripheral equipment needed and used for full operation. 　This term may also refer to a group of computers that are linked and function together, such as a computer network or computer cluster. 　A broad range of industrial and consumer products use computers as control systems. 　Simple special-purpose devices like microwave ovens and remote controls are included, as are factory devices like industrial robots and computer-aided design, as well as general-purpose devices like personal computers and mobile devices like smartphones. 　Computers power the Internet, which links billions of other computers and users. 　Early computers were meant to be used only for calculations. 　Simple manual instruments like the abacus have aided people in doing calculations since ancient times. 　Early in the Industrial Revolution, some mechanical devices were built to automate long, tedious tasks, such as guiding patterns for looms. 　More sophisticated electrical machines did specialized analog calculations in the early 20th century. 　The first digital electronic calculating machines were developed during World War II. 　The first semiconductor transistors in the late 1940s were followed by the silicon-based MOSFET (MOS transistor) and monolithic integrated circuit chip technologies in the late 1950s, leading to the microprocessor and the microcomputer revolution in the 1970s. 　The speed, power and versatility of computers have been increasing dramatically ever since then, with transistor counts increasing at a rapid pace (as predicted by Moore's law), leading to the Digital Revolution during the late 20th to early 21st centuries. 　Conventionally, a modern computer consists of at least one processing element, typically a central processing unit (CPU) in the form of a microprocessor, along with some type of computer memory, typically semiconductor memory chips. 　The processing element carries out arithmetic and logical operations, and a sequencing and control unit can change the order of operations in response to stored information. 　Peripheral devices include input devices (keyboards, mice, joystick, etc.), output devices (monitor screens, printers, etc.), and input/output devices that perform both functions (e.g., the 2000s-era touchscreen). 　Peripheral devices allow information to be retrieved from an external source and they enable the result of operations to be saved and retrieved.

Parliament

In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. 　Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. 　The term is similar to the idea of a senate, synod or congress and is commonly used in countries that are current or former monarchies. 　Some contexts restrict the use of the word parliament to parliamentary systems, although it is also used to describe the legislature in some presidential systems (e.g., the Parliament of Ghana), even where it is not in the official name. 　Historically, parliaments included various kinds of deliberative, consultative, and judicial assemblies, an example being the French medieval and early modern parlements.

Speed

In everyday use and in kinematics, the speed (commonly referred to as v) of an object is the magnitude of the change of its position over time or the magnitude of the change of its position per unit of time; it is thus a scalar quantity. 　The average speed of an object in an interval of time is the distance travelled by the object divided by the duration of the interval; the instantaneous speed is the limit of the average speed as the duration of the time interval approaches zero. 　Speed is not the same as velocity. 　Speed has the dimensions of distance divided by time. 　The SI unit of speed is the metre per second (m/s), but the most common unit of speed in everyday usage is the kilometre per hour (km/h) or, in the US and the UK, miles per hour (mph). 　For air and marine travel, the knot is commonly used. 　The fastest possible speed at which energy or information can travel, according to special relativity, is the speed of light in vacuum c = 299792458 metres per second (approximately 1079000000 km/h or 671000000 mph). 　Matter cannot quite reach the speed of light, as this would require an infinite amount of energy. 　In relativity physics, the concept of rapidity replaces the classical idea of speed.

Spin

Look up spin or spinning in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. 　Spin or spinning most often refers to: Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thread by twisting fibers together, traditionally by hand spinning Spin, the rotation of an object around a central axis Spin (propaganda), an intentionally biased portrayal of something Spin, spinning or spinnin may also refer to:

Hope

Hope is an optimistic state of mind that is based on an expectation of positive outcomes with respect to events and circumstances in one's life or the world at large. 　As a verb, its definitions include: "expect with confidence" and "to cherish a desire with anticipation". 　Among its opposites are dejection, hopelessness, and despair.

Texas

Texas (/ˈtɛksəs/, also locally /ˈtɛksɪz/; Spanish: Texas, Tejas) is a state in the South Central region of the United States. 　At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 30 million residents in 2022, it is the second-largest U.S. state by both area (after Alaska) and population (after California). 　Texas shares borders with the states of Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the west, and the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas to the south and southwest; and has a coastline with the Gulf of Mexico to the southeast. 　Houston is the most populous city in Texas and the fourth-largest in the U.S., while San Antonio is the second most populous in the state and seventh-largest in the U.S. Dallas–Fort Worth and Greater Houston are, respectively, the fourth- and fifth-largest metropolitan statistical areas in the country. 　Other major cities include Austin, the second most populous state capital in the U.S., and El Paso. 　Texas is nicknamed the Lone Star State for its former status as an independent republic, and as a reminder of the state's struggle for independence from Mexico. 　The Lone Star can be found on the Texas state flag and on the Texas state seal. 　The origin of Texas's name is from the Caddo word táyshaʼ meaning 'friends'. 　Due to its size and geologic features such as the Balcones Fault, Texas contains diverse landscapes common to both the U.S. Southern and the Southwestern regions. 　Although Texas is popularly associated with the U.S. southwestern deserts, less than ten percent of Texas's land area is desert. 　Most of the population centers are in areas of former prairies, grasslands, forests, and the coastline. 　Traveling from east to west, one can observe terrain that ranges from coastal swamps and piney woods, to rolling plains and rugged hills, and finally the desert and mountains of the Big Bend. 　The term "six flags over Texas" refers to several nations that have ruled over the territory. 　Spain was the first European country to claim and control the area of Texas. 　France held a short-lived colony. 　Mexico controlled the territory until 1836 when Texas won its independence, becoming the Republic of Texas. 　In 1845, Texas joined the union as the 28th state. 　The state's annexation set off a chain of events that led to the Mexican–American War in 1846. 　A slave state before the American Civil War, Texas declared its secession from the U.S. in early 1861, and officially joined the Confederate States of America on March 2 of the same year. 　After the Civil War and the restoration of its representation in the federal government, Texas entered a long period of economic stagnation. 　Historically, four major industries shaped the Texas economy prior to World War II: cattle and bison, cotton, timber, and oil. 　Before and after the U.S. Civil War, the cattle industry—which Texas came to dominate—was a major economic driver for the state, and created the traditional image of the Texas cowboy. 　In the later 19th century, cotton and lumber grew to be major industries as the cattle industry became less lucrative. 　It was ultimately, though, the discovery of major petroleum deposits (Spindletop in particular) that initiated an economic boom which became the driving force behind the economy for much of the 20th century. 　Texas developed a diversified economy and high tech industry during the mid-20th century. 　As of 2022, it has the most Fortune 500 company headquarters (53) in the United States. 　With a growing base of industry, the state leads in many industries, including tourism, agriculture, petrochemicals, energy, computers and electronics, aerospace, and biomedical sciences. 　Texas has led the U.S. in state export revenue since 2002, and has the second-highest gross state product. 　If Texas were a sovereign state, it would have the 10th-largest economy in the world.

Hell

In religion and folklore, hell is a location or state in the afterlife in which evil souls are subjected to punitive suffering, most often through torture, as eternal punishment after death. 　Religions with a linear divine history often depict hells as eternal destinations, the biggest examples of which are Christianity and Islam, whereas religions with reincarnation usually depict a hell as an intermediary period between incarnations, as is the case in the dharmic religions. 　Religions typically locate hell in another dimension or under Earth's surface. 　Other afterlife destinations include heaven, paradise, purgatory, limbo, and the underworld. 　Other religions, which do not conceive of the afterlife as a place of punishment or reward, merely describe an abode of the dead, the grave, a neutral place that is located under the surface of Earth (for example, see Kur, Hades, and Sheol). 　Such places are sometimes equated with the English word hell, though a more correct translation would be "underworld" or "world of the dead". 　The ancient Mesopotamian, Greek, Roman, and Finnic religions include entrances to the underworld from the land of the living.

Cost

In production, research, retail, and accounting, a cost is the value of money that has been used up to produce something or deliver a service, and hence is not available for use anymore. 　In business, the cost may be one of acquisition, in which case the amount of money expended to acquire it is counted as cost. 　In this case, money is the input that is gone in order to acquire the thing. 　This acquisition cost may be the sum of the cost of production as incurred by the original producer, and further costs of transaction as incurred by the acquirer over and above the price paid to the producer. 　Usually, the price also includes a mark-up for profit over the cost of production. 　More generalized in the field of economics, cost is a metric that is totaling up as a result of a process or as a differential for the result of a decision. 　Hence cost is the metric used in the standard modeling paradigm applied to economic processes. 　Costs (pl.) are often further described based on their timing or their applicability.

Prince

A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. 　Prince is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. 　The female equivalent is a princess. 　The English word derives, via the French word prince, from the Latin noun prīnceps, from primus (first) and caput (head), meaning "the first, foremost, the chief, most distinguished, noble ruler, prince".

Husband

A husband is a male in a marital relationship, who may also be referred to as a spouse. 　The rights and obligations of a husband regarding his spouse and others, and his status in the community and in law, vary between societies and cultures, and have varied over time. 　In monogamous cultures, there are only two parties to a marriage, which is enforced by laws against bigamy and polygamy. 　Traditionally, the husband was regarded as the head of the household and was expected to be the sole provider or breadwinner, a role that continues in some cultures (sometimes described as paternalistic). 　Today, a husband is not necessarily considered the breadwinner of the family, especially if his spouse has a more financially rewarding occupation or career. 　In such cases, it is not uncommon for a husband to be considered a stay-at-home father if the married couple have children. 　The term continues to be applied to such a man who has separated from his spouse and ceases to be applied to him only when his marriage has come to an end following a legally recognized divorce or the death of his spouse. 　On the death of his spouse, a husband is referred to as a widower; after a divorce a man may be referred to as the "ex-husband" of his former spouse.

Airport

An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. 　Airports usually consist of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surface such as a runway for a plane to take off and to land or a helipad, and often includes adjacent utility buildings such as control towers, hangars and terminals, to maintain and monitor aircraft. 　Larger airports may have airport aprons, taxiway bridges, air traffic control centres, passenger facilities such as restaurants and lounges, and emergency services. 　In some countries, the US in particular, airports also typically have one or more fixed-base operators, serving general aviation. 　Operating airports is extremely complicated, with a complex system of aircraft support services, passenger services, and aircraft control services contained within the operation. 　Thus airports can be major employers, as well as important hubs for tourism and other kinds of transit. 　Because they are sites of operation for heavy machinery, a number of regulations and safety measures have been implemented in airports, in order to reduce hazards. 　Additionally, airports have major local environmental impacts, as both large sources of air pollution, noise pollution and other environmental impacts, making them sites that acutely experience the environmental effects of aviation. 　Airports are also vulnerable infrastructure to extreme weather, climate change caused sea level rise and other disasters.

Glass

Glass is a non-crystalline, often transparent, amorphous solid that has widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in, for example, window panes, tableware, and optics. 　Glass is most often formed by rapid cooling (quenching) of the molten form; some glasses such as volcanic glass are naturally occurring. 　The most familiar, and historically the oldest, types of manufactured glass are "silicate glasses" based on the chemical compound silica (silicon dioxide, or quartz), the primary constituent of sand. 　Soda–lime glass, containing around 70% silica, accounts for around 90% of manufactured glass. 　The term glass, in popular usage, is often used to refer only to this type of material, although silica-free glasses often have desirable properties for applications in modern communications technology. 　Some objects, such as drinking glasses and eyeglasses, are so commonly made of silicate-based glass that they are simply called by the name of the material. 　Despite being brittle, buried silicate glass will survive for very long periods if not disturbed, and many examples of glass fragments exist from early glassmaking cultures. 　Archaeological evidence suggests glassmaking dates back to at least 3,600 BC in Mesopotamia, Egypt, or Syria. 　The earliest known glass objects were beads, perhaps created accidentally during metalworking or the production of faience. 　Due to its ease of formability into any shape, glass has been traditionally used for vessels, such as bowls, vases, bottles, jars and drinking glasses. 　In its most solid forms, it has also been used for paperweights and marbles. 　Glass can be coloured by adding metal salts or painted and printed as enamelled glass. 　The refractive, reflective and transmission properties of glass make glass suitable for manufacturing optical lenses, prisms, and optoelectronics materials. 　Extruded glass fibres have application as optical fibres in communications networks, thermal insulating material when matted as glass wool so as to trap air, or in glass-fibre reinforced plastic (fibreglass).

Lady

The word lady is a term for a girl or woman, with various connotations. 　Once used to describe only women of a high social class or status, the equivalent of lord, now it may refer to any adult woman, as gentleman can be used for men. 　Informal use is sometimes euphemistic ("lady of the night" for prostitute) or, in American slang, condescending in direct address (equivalent to "mister" or "man"). 　"Lady" is also a formal title in the United Kingdom. 　"Lady" is used before the family name of a woman with a title of nobility or honorary title suo jure (in her own right), or the wife of a lord, a baronet, Scottish feudal baron, laird, or a knight, and also before the first name of the daughter of a duke, marquess, or earl.