Amusement park is the generic term for a collection of rides and other entertainment attractions assembled for the purpose of entertaining a large group of people. An amusement park is more elaborate than a simple city park or playground, usually providing attractions meant to cater to adults, teenagers, and small children. A theme park is a type of amusement park which has been built around one or more themes, such as an American West theme, or Atlantis. Today, the terms amusement parks and theme parks are often used interchangeably.

Statistically, roller coasters are very safe. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission estimates that 134 park guests required hospitalization in 2001 and that fatalities related to amusement rides average two per year. According to a study commissioned by Six Flags, 319 million people visited parks in 2001. The study concluded that a visitor has a one in one-and-a-half billion chance of being fatally injured…

A bicycle, also known as a bike, pushbike or cycle, is a pedal-driven, human-powered, single-track vehicle, having two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A person who rides a bicycle is called a cyclist or a bicyclist.Bicycles were introduced in the 19th century and now number about one billion worldwide, twice as many as automobiles. They are the principal means of transportation in many regions. They also provide a popular form of recreation, and have been adapted for such uses as children’s toys, adult fitness, military and police applications, courier services and bicycle racing.The basic shape and configuration of a typical upright bicycle has changed little since the first chain-driven model was developed around 1885. However, many details have been improved, especially since the advent of modern materials and computer-aided design. These have allowed for a proliferation of specialized designs for particular types of cycling.

The invention of the bicycle has had an enormous impact on society, both in terms of culture and of advancing modern industrial methods. Several components that eventually played a key role in the development of the automobile were originally invented for the bicycle – e.g., ball bearings, pneumatic tires, chain-driven sprockets, spoke-tensioned wheels, etc.

History
Multiple innovators contributed to the history of the bicycle by developing precursor human-powered vehicles. The documented ancestors of today’s modern bicycle were known as draisines, hobby horses, or push bikes (and modern bicycles are sometimes still called push bikes outside of North America). Being the first human means of transport to make use of the two-wheeler principle, the draizine (or Laufmaschine, “running machine”), invented by the German Baron Karl von Drais, is regarded as the forerunner of the modern bicycle. It was introduced by Drais to the public in Mannheim in summer 1817 and in Paris in 1818. Its rider sat astride a wooden frame supported by two in-line wheels and pushed the vehicle along with his/her feet while steering the front wheel.

In the early 1860s, Frenchmen Pierre Michaux and Pierre Lallement took bicycle design in a new direction by adding a mechanical crank drive with pedals on an enlarged front wheel (the velocipede). Another French inventor by the name of Douglas Grasso had a failed prototype of Pierre Lallement’s bicycle several years earlier. Several inventions followed using rear wheel drive, the best known being the rod-driven velocipede by Scotsman Thomas McCall in 1869. The French creation, made of iron and wood, developed into the “penny-farthing” (historically known as an “ordinary bicycle”), a retronym, since there was then no other kind. It featured a tubular steel frame on which were mounted wire-spoked wheels with solid rubber tires. These bicycles were difficult to ride due to their very high seat and poor weight distribution.
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On the streets of Brno, the second largest city in the Czech Republic, it is possible to see locomotives running on the streets along with the cars.

Brno is located in the southeast part of the country, at the confluence of the Svitava and Svratka rivers. The city is a political and cultural hub of the South Moravian Region (estimated population of 1,130,000 for the whole region). At the same time, it represents the centre of the province of Moravia, one of the historic lands of the Czech Crown. It is situated at the crossroads of ancient trade routes which have joined northern and southern European civilizations for centuries. Due to its location between the Bohemian-Moravian Highlands and the Southern Moravian lowlands, Brno has a moderate climate…

A railroad car or railway carriage is a vehicle on a rail transport system (railroad or railway) that is used for the carrying of cargo or passengers. Cars can be coupled together into a train and hauled by one or more locomotives. Passenger cars can be self propelled in which case they can be single or multiple units.

Most cars carry a “revenue” load, although “non-revenue” cars exist for the railroad’s own use, such as for maintenance-of-way purposes. Such uses can generally be divided into the carriage of passengers and of freight. “Revenue” cars are basically of two types: passenger cars, or coaches, and freight cars or wagons/trucks.

Passenger cars
Main article: Passenger car
In standard gauge cars, seating is usually between three and five seats across the width of the car, with an aisle in between (resulting in 2+1, 2+2 or 3+2 seats) or at the side. Tables may be present between seats facing one another. Alternatively, seats facing the same direction may have access to a fold-down ledge on the back of the seat in front.
* If the aisle is located between seats, seat rows may face the same direction, or be grouped, with twin rows facing each other. Sometimes, for example on a commuter train, seats may face the aisle.
* If the aisle is at the side, the car is usually divided in small compartments. These usually contain 6 seats, although sometimes in second class they contain 8, and sometimes in first class they contain 4.
* In vehicles intended for commuter services seats are sometimes placed with their backs to the carriage side. This gives a wide accessway and standing room which accommodates standing passengers at peak times and improves loading and unloading speeds.

Passenger cars can take the electricity supply for heating and lighting equipment from two main sources – either directly from a head end power generator on the locomotive via bus cables; or by an axle powered generator which continuously charges batteries whenever the train is in motion.Modern cars usually have either air-conditioning or windows that can be opened (sometimes, for safety, not so far that one can hang out), or sometimes both. Various types of onboard train toilet facilities may also be provided.Other types of passenger car exist, especially for long journeys, such as the dining car, parlor car, disco car, and in rare cases theater and movie theater car. In some cases another type of car is temporarily converted to one of these for an event.Observation cars were built for the rear of many famous trains to allow the passengers to view the scenery. These proved popular, leading to the development of dome cars multiple units of which could be placed mid-train, and featured a glass-enclosed upper level extending above the normal roof to provide passengers with a better view.

Sleeping cars outfitted with (generally) small bedrooms allow passengers to sleep through their night-time trips, while couchette cars provide more basic sleeping accommodation. Long-distance trains often require baggage cars for the passengers’ luggage. In European practice it used to be common for day coaches to be formed of compartments seating 6 or 8 passengers, with access from a side corridor. In the UK, Corridor coaches fell into disfavor in the 1960s and 1970s partially because open coaches are considered more secure by women traveling alone.Another distinction is between single- and double deck train cars. An example of a double decker is the Amtrak superliner.A “trainset” (or “set”) is a semi-permanently arranged formation of cars, rather than one created ‘ad hoc’ out of whatever cars are available. These are only broken up and reshuffled ‘on shed’ (in the maintenance depot). Trains are then built of one or more of these ‘sets’ coupled together as needed for the capacity of that train.

Often, but not always, passenger cars in a train are linked together with enclosed, flexible gangway connections that can be walked through by passengers and crew members. Some designs incorporate semi-permanent connections between cars and may have a full-width connection, making in essence one longer, flexible ‘car’. In North America, passenger equipment also employ tightlock couplings to keep a train reasonably intact in the event of a derailment or other accident.Many multiple unit trains consist of cars which are semi-permanently coupled into sets; these sets may be joined together to form larger trains, but generally passengers can only move around between cars within a set. This “closed” nature allows the separate sets to be easily split to go separate ways. Some multiple-unit trainsets are designed so that corridor connections can be easily opened between coupled sets; this generally requires driving cabs either set off to the side or (as in the Dutch Koploper) above the passenger compartment. These cabs or driving trailers are also useful for quickly reversing the train.
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A record sleeve is the outer covering of a vinyl recording. The sleeve is technically the paper covering that is closest in contact to the surface of the recording, as in “dust sleeve”, “liner” and “album liner”. The term has come to be synonmous with “record jacket” and “album jacket”, which is the outermost cardboard covering of a vinyl LP. The vinyl LP jacket and the 7″/12″ sleeve are the areas to receive considerable attention to graphic design, and will contain the most important and pertininent information about the recording (manufacturer, artist, title of recording, and contents), assuming there is no visible record label with such information. The term “album liner” (or “record liner”) led to the expression “liner notes”.

A gramophone record (also phonograph record, or simply record) is an analogue sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed modulated spiral groove starting near the periphery and ending near the center of the disc. Gramophone records were the primary medium used for commercial music reproduction for most of the 20th century. They replaced the phonograph cylinder as the most popular recording medium in the 1900s, and although they were supplanted in popularity in the late 1980s by digital media, they continue to be manufactured and sold as of 2008. Gramophone records remain the medium of choice for some audiophiles, and specialist areas such as electronica.

The normal commercial disc is engraved with two sound bearing concentric spiral grooves, one on each side of the disc, running from the outside edge towards the centre. Since the late 1910s, both sides of the record have been used to carry the grooves. The recording is played back by rotating the disc clockwise at a constant rotational speed with a stylus (needle) placed in the groove, converting the vibrations of the stylus into an electric signal (see magnetic cartridge), and sending this signal through an amplifier to loudspeakers.

The majority of records are pressed on black vinyl. The colouring material used to blacken the transparent PVC plastic mix is carbon black, the generic name for the finely divided carbon particles produced by the incomplete burning of a mineral oil based hydrocarbon. Carbon black increases the strength of the disc and renders it opaque…

Vitaphone

The first prototype of the LP were the phonograph discs used in the Vitaphone sound motion picture process, developed by Western Electric and introduced in 1926. The four-minute limit of a conventional 78 rpm disc was not acceptable. The discs needed to play at least 11 minutes, long enough to accompany a thousand-foot reel of 35 mm film at 24 frames per second. The diameter of the disc was increased from 10 inches (25 cm) to 16 inches (41 cm), and the speed was slowed to 33⅓ revolutions per minute. The main differences from later LPs were that the stylus moved from the center of the Vitaphone disc outward, and a standard-width groove was used, similar to 78s, requiring a relatively heavy steel needle for recording and playback. By 1930, all movie studios were recording on optical soundtracks, although they continued to distribute Vitaphone versions of their films to certain theaters as late as 1936.

Radio transcription discs

From the mid-1920s until the adoption of magnetic tape recordings in the late 1940s and early 1950s, the radio industry used 16-inch and 12-inch discs, revolving usually at 33⅓ rpm, to transcribe radio broadcasts, either for archival purposes or to distribute copies to individual radio stations. These records were either aluminum core with lacquer, glass with lacquer (when there were aluminum shortages during World War II), or later, vinyl

RCA Victor

RCA Victor introduced an early version of a long-playing phonograph record in September 1931. The disc played at 33⅓ revolutions per minute, used almost double the number of grooves of a 78 rpm disc, could hold up to 15 minutes per side, and was pressed on a new composition that reduced the surface noise of the needle. 10- and 12-inch versions were released, and used one or both sides of the disc. Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, performed by the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra under Leopold Stokowski, was the first recording. The New York Times wrote, “What we were not prepared for was the quality of reproduction.…incomparably fuller.” The invention lasted two years before being pulled off the market. Overall record sales in the U.S. had crashed from a high of $105.6 million in 1921 to $5.5 million in 1933, due to competition from radio and the effects of the Great Depression.
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Whisky (Scottish English) or whiskey (Irish English) is a type of distilled alcoholic beverage made from fermented grain mash. Different grains are used for different varieties, including barley, malted barley, rye, malted rye, wheat, and maize (corn). Whisky is aged in wooden casks, made generally of white oak, except that in the United States corn whiskey need not be aged.

Whisky is a strictly regulated spirit worldwide with many competing denominations of origin and many classes and types. The unifying characteristics of the different classes and types are the fermentation of grains, distillation to less than 95% alcohol, and aging in wood.
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The Prandtl–Glauert singularity (sometimes referred to as a “vapor cone”) is the point at which a sudden drop in air pressure occurs, and is generally accepted as the cause of the visible condensation cloud that often surrounds an aircraft traveling at transonic speeds, though there remains some debate. It is an example of a mathematical singularity in aerodynamics.

In aerodynamics, the sound barrier usually refers to the point at which an aircraft moves from transonic to supersonic speed. The term came into use during World War II when a number of aircraft started to encounter the effects of compressibility, a grab-bag of unrelated aerodynamic effects. By the 1950s, aircraft started to routinely “break” the sound barrier.

The white halo is formed by condensed water droplets which are thought to result from a drop in air pressure around the aircraft…

An aircraft is a vehicle which is able to fly by being supported by the air, or in general, the atmosphere of a planet. An aircraft counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engines.
Although rockets and missiles also travel through the atmosphere, most are not considered aircraft because they use rocket thrust instead of aerodynamics as the primary means of lift. However, rocket planes and cruise missiles are considered aircraft because they rely on lift from the air.
The human activity which surrounds aircraft is called aviation. Manned aircraft are flown by an onboard pilot. Unmanned aerial vehicles may be remotely controlled or self-controlled by onboard computers. Target drones are an example of UAVs. Aircraft may be classified by different criteria, such as lift type, propulsion, usage and others.

Aerostats use buoyancy to float in the air in much the same way that ships float on the water. They are characterized by one or more large gasbags or canopies, filled with a relatively low density gas such as helium, hydrogen or hot air, which is less dense than the surrounding air. When the weight of this is added to the weight of the aircraft structure, it adds up to the same weight as the air that the craft displaces.
Small hot air balloons called sky lanterns date back to the 3rd century BC, and were only the second type of aircraft to fly, the first being kites.
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Nick Georgiou creates Lynchian creatures out of the stitched folds of thousands of discarded newspapers. His latest creation is this prowling beast, a golem created from the dirty print of discarded tabloids. There’s something unsettling about the bulging cylinders of its eyes combined with the piscine gasp of its mouth, that gives it the quality of something that is part dog, part human and part fish. Wonderful…

A newspaper is a regularly scheduled publication containing news, information, and advertising. By 2007 there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world (including 1456 in the U.S.) selling 395 million copies a day (55 million in the U.S). The worldwide recession of 2008, combined with the rapid growth of web-based alternatives, caused a serious decline in advertising and circulation, as many papers closed or sharply retrenched operations.
General-interest newspapers typically publish stories on local and national political events and personalities, crime, business, entertainment, society and sports. Most traditional papers also feature an editorial page containing editorials written by an editor and columns that express the personal opinions of writers. Other features include display and classified advertising, comics, and inserts from local merchants.

The newspaper is typically funded by paid subscriptions and advertising.

A wide variety of material has been published in newspapers, including editorial opinions, criticism, persuasion and op-eds; obituaries; entertainment features such as crosswords, sudoku and horoscopes; weather news and forecasts; advice, food and other columns; reviews of movies, plays and restaurants; classified ads; display ads, editorial cartoons and comic strips.

Gazettes and bulletins
Before the invention of newspapers in the early 17th century, official government bulletins were circulated at times in some centralized empires.
In Ancient Rome, Acta Diurna, or government announcement bulletins, were made public by Julius Caesar. They were carved in metal or stone and posted in public places.
In China, early government-produced news sheets, called tipao, circulated among court officials during the late Han dynasty (second and third centuries AD). Between 713 and 734, the Kaiyuan Za Bao (“Bulletin of the Court”) of the Chinese Tang Dynasty published government news; it was handwritten on silk and read by government officials. In 1582 there was the first reference to privately published newssheets in Beijing, during the late Ming Dynasty

In Early modern Europe the increased cross-border interaction created a rising need for information which was met by concise handwritten newssheets. In 1556, the government of Venice first published the monthly Notizie scritte, which cost one gazetta These avvisi were handwritten newsletters and used to convey political, military, and economic news quickly and efficiently to Italian cities (1500–1700) — sharing some characteristics of newspapers though usually not considered true newspapers.
However, none of these publications fully met the classical criteria for proper newspapers, as they were typically not intended for the general public and restricted to a certain range of topics.

The emergence of the new media branch in the 17th century has to be seen in close connection with the spread of the printing press from which the publishing press derives it name.
The German-language Relation aller Fürnemmen und gedenckwürdigen Historien, printed from 1605 onwards by Johann Carolus in Strasbourg, is often recognized as the first newspaper. At the time, Strasbourg was a free imperial city in the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation; the first newspaper of modern Germany was the Avisa, published in 1609 in Wolfenbüttel.
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Rats are various medium sized rodents. “True rats” are members of the genus Rattus, the most important of which to humans are the black rat, Rattus rattus, and the brown rat, R. norvegicus. Many members of other rodent genera and families are also called rats and share many characteristics with true rats. A rat has an average life span of 2-3 years…

Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents of the superfamily Muroidea. “True rats” are members of the genus Rattus, the most important of which to humans are the black rat, Rattus rattus, and the brown rat, Rattus norvegicus. Many members of other rodent genera and families are also referred to as rats, and share many characteristics with true rats.

Rats are typically distinguished from mice by their size; rats are generally large muroid rodents, while mice are generally small muroid rodents. The muroid family is very large and complex, and the common terms rat and mouse are not taxonomically specific. Generally, when someone discovers a large muroid, its common name includes the term rat, while if it is small, the name includes the term mouse. Scientifically, the terms are not confined to members of the Rattus and Mus genera, for example the pack rat and cotton mouse.

The best-known rat species are the Black Rat (Rattus rattus) and the Brown Rat (Rattus norvegicus). The group is generally known as the Old World rats or true rats, and originated in Asia. Rats are bigger than most Old World mice, which are their relatives, but seldom weigh over 500 grams (1 lb) in the wild.

The term “rat” is also used in the names of other small mammals which are not true rats. Examples include the North American pack rats, a number of species loosely called kangaroo rats, and others. Rats such as the Bandicoot rat (Bandicota bengalensis) are murine rodents related to true rats, but are not members of the genus Rattus. Male rats are called bucks, unmated females are called does, pregnant or parent females are called dams, and infants are called kittens or pups. A group of rats is either referred to as a pack or a mischief.

In some developed countries, many people keep domesticated rats as pets. These are of the species R. norvegicus, which originated in the grasslands of China and spread to Europe and eventually, in 1775, to the New World. Pet rats are Brown Rats descended from those bred for research, and are often called “fancy rats”, but are the same species as the common city “sewer” rat. Domesticated rats tend to be both more docile than their wild ancestors and more disease prone, presumably due to inbreeding.
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Fuck is an English word that, as a verb, fundamentally means “to have sexual intercourse with”. Its use is generally considered censurable and offensive in most formal circles, but may also be rather common or expected in certain situations or social groups.

It is unclear whether the word has always been considered vulgar, and if not, when it first came to be used to describe (often in an extremely angry, hostile or belligerent manner) negative or unpleasant circumstances or people in an intentionally offensive way, such as in the term “motherfucker”, one of its more common usages…

A chair is a piece of furniture for sitting, consisting of a seat, a back, and sometimes arm rests, commonly for use by one person. Chairs also often have four legs to support the seat raised above the floor. Without back and arm rests it is called a stool. A chair for more than one person is a couch, sofa, settee, loveseat, recliner or bench. A separate footrest for a chair is known as an ottoman, hassock or pouffe. A chair mounted in a vehicle or in a theater is simply called a seat. Chairs as furniture typically can be moved.

The back often does not extend all the way to the seat to allow for ventilation. Likewise, the back and sometimes the seat are made of porous materials or have holes drilled in them for decoration and ventilation.

The back may extend above the height of the head. There may be separate headrests. Headrests for seats in vehicles are important for preventing whiplash injuries to the neck when the vehicle is involved in a rear-end collision…

A chair is a stable, raised surface used to sit on, commonly for use by one person. Chairs often have the seat raised above floor level, supported by four legs. However, a chair can have three legs (in a triangle shape) or could have a different shape depending on the criteria of the chair specifications. A chair without a back or arm rests is a stool, or when raised up, a bar stool. A chair with arms is an armchair and with folding action and inclining footrest, a recliner. A permanently fixed chair in a train or theater is a seat or airline seat; when riding, it is a saddle and bicycle saddle, and for an automobile, a car seat or infant car seat. With wheels it is a wheelchair and when hung from above, a swing.

The design may be made of porous materials, or be drilled with holes for decoration; a low back or gaps can provide ventilation. The back may extend above the height of the occupant’s head, which can optionally contain a headrest.

A chair for more than one person is a couch, sofa, settee, or “loveseat”; or a bench. A separate footrest for a chair is known as an ottoman, hassock or pouffe.

The chair is of extreme antiquity and simplicity, although for many centuries and indeed for thousands of years it was an article of state and dignity rather than an article of ordinary use. “The chair” is still extensively used as the emblem of authority in the House of Commons in the United Kingdom and Canada, and in many other settings. Committees, boards of directors, and academic departments all have a ‘chairman’. Endowed professorships are referred to as chairs. It was not, in fact, until the 16th century that it became common anywhere. The chest, the bench and the stool were until then the ordinary seats of everyday life, and the number of chairs which have survived from an earlier date is exceedingly limited; most of such examples are of ecclesiastical or seigneurial origin. Our knowledge of the chairs of remote antiquity is derived almost entirely from monuments, sculpture and paintings. A few actual examples exist in the British Museum, in the Egyptian Museum at Cairo, and elsewhere.

In ancient Egypt chairs appear to have been of great richness and splendor[citation needed]. Fashioned of ebony and ivory, or of carved and gilded wood, they were covered with costly materials, magnificent patterns and supported upon representations of the legs of beasts or the figures of captives. During Tang dynasty (618 – 907 AD), a higher seat first started to appear amongst the Chinese elite and their usage soon spread to all levels of society. By the 12th century seating on the floor was rare in China, unlike in other Asian countries where the custom continued, and the chair, or more commonly the stool, was used in the vast majority of houses throughout the country.

In Europe, it was owing in great measure to the Renaissance that the chair ceased to be a privilege of state, and became a standard item of furniture for anyone who could afford to buy it. Once the idea of privilege faded the chair speedily came into general use. We find almost at once that the chair began to change every few years to reflect the fashions of the hour.
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