The Island of South Georgia
The island of South Georgia, an inhospitable frozen wasteland of glaciers, snow-capped mountains and freezing winds, lies in the southern Atlantic Ocean east of Tierra del Fuego.
This remote Antarctic island is part of the British territory of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. The British claim to sovereignty of South Georgia dates from 1775 when Captain Cook landed here and dismissed the island as not worth discovering. Argentina also claimed the island in 1027, an unresolved dispute which contributed to the 1982 Falklands war when Argentine forces briefly occupied South Georgia.
In 1916 Ernest Shackleton became stranded on Elephant Island to the south-west, while on his Imperial Straits Antarctic Expedition, Shackleton and a small group of men left the rest of the party to summon help and ended up, after an arduous journey, at King Haakon Bay on the south coast of South Georgia.
They then managed to make it overland to reach help at Stromness whaling station, which led to the rescue of the remaining men. Daring a later expedition in 1922, Shackleton died on board a ship off South Georgia and he is buried on the island at Grytviken.
There is no permanent human population on South Georgia, only the British Government Officer, research scientists and museum staff at Grytviken, but there are enormous populations of penguins, the largest colonies anywhere on earth, with around 400,000 breeding pairs of king penguins, two million pairs of the macaroni penguins and large colonies of four other species.
Visitors come here to watch penguin couples overcome the extreme climatic conditions and nurture their precious eggs through hatching and the vulnerable chick stage into fully fledged members of the colony. The charming creatures work tirelessly together avoiding the seals that lurk in the shallows waiting to pounce and protecting their young from ferocious skua gulls who will snatch one and tear it to shreds.
When he landed here in the 18th century, Captain Cook noted the huge seal and whale populations around the island, but just two hundred years later both had been hunted nearly to extinction. South Georgia is, however, home to 95 per cent of the world’s southern fur seals, half the southern elephant seals, 250,000 Albatrosses, including the massive Wandering Albatross, and up to ten million other seabirds, making a trip here a totally unique experience.
It doesn’t matter what your travel needs are, if you are looking for cheap hotels, visit or call Flight Centre today.
The Development of Trucks During the Great War
An immediate demand for mechanical military transport following the declaration of war in Europe was partly solved by a considerable influx of well-engineered cross-country trucks from the United States. Those countries that had prepared in advance by introducing “subsidy” schemes soon found they were in a far superior position to those that had not. Despite this, problems abounded.
Steam-powered vehicles such as traction engines had been used on a small scale in earlier situations, but the internal-combustion engined truck had never been used in war conditions, and weaknesses in design were soon apparent. These included insufficient power, lack of ground clearance, and poor protection of mechanical units from the ravages of water and mud, for which the Flanders battlefields were soon renowned.
There was, however, another major problem that few had foreseen. Both sides in the conflict used many components supplied by firms on the opposing side: German-manufactured Bosch magnetos were used almost exclusively by the Allies, while German forces relied largely upon British and French manufactured Dunlop and Michelin tyres. Luckily, the Bosch magneto had been developed jointly by Robert Bosch and the American Frederick Simms, and German supplies were replaced by magnetos from the Simms Magneto Co factory, Watsersing, New Jersey.
At this stage it is worth looking in depth at some of the “subsidy” schemes operating at the time. The instigators of this idea were the Germans who, in the years prior to 1914, had been building up their military reserves. The German scheme is understood to have applied to any truck which an operator was prepared to release to the military upon mobilization. The operator received an initial grant of 150 pounds towards the purchase of the vehicle, followed by a subsidy of 60 pounds for each of the next four years. By the time war was declared, some 825 “subsidy” trucks had been released to the German Armed Forces.
A similar scheme was organized by commercial vehicle industry. The British government offered the purchaser of an approved vehicle a subsidy. However, the vehicle had to be handed over to the authorities within 72 hours of mobilization.
One of the most advanced British “subsidy” types was the 3 1/2 ton Dennis `A’-Type, although the `L’ or `RAF’-Type Leyland was certainly the best known. The Dennis had considerable influence on British truck design after the war, its most striking feature being a rear axle with removable upper casing containing the worm shaft, worm wheel, differential and bearings, thus enabling the entire final-drive mechanism to be inspected or replaced without disturbing either the chassis or the wheels.
Leyland Motors, on the other hand, built both a 1 1/2-tonner and the 3-ton ‘RAF’-Type, while Albion supplied 6000 “subsidy” vehicles, and the Associated Equipment Co Ltd over 10,000. Many of their London General Omni-bus Co `B’-Type open-top double-deck buses were also commandeered and ordered to the Front. The standardization of models and components required by the British “subsidy” scheme enabled so-called cannibalization to take place to keep transport moving, whereas the adoption of any suitable vehicle by the French and German forces gave no such advantage.
As the war progressed, so British forces began to take delivery of new American-built trucks designed specifically for arduous work. Amongst these was the Mack `AC’, nicknamed the “Bulldog” because of its snub nose and rugged construction. Ultimately, this became so well-known by its nickname that the bulldog was adopted as the Mack logo, which it remains to this day.
Some American manufacturers, such as General Motors, were now concentrating almost exclusively on the construction of military vehicles, while certain European manufacturers, such as MAN, Magirus in Germany or Societe d’Outillage Mecanique et d’Usinage d’Artilleries (Somua) in France, were building their first trucks in an attempt to turn the tide. Indeed, Somua was established for the sole purpose of building army trucks.
Throughout the Western world, factories not involved in the manufacture of military trucks were turned over to the production of armaments such as shells, firearms and aero engines, while others manufactured both military vehicles and also armaments.
Many American-built trucks saw service not only in Europe but also in the Mexican border campaign of 1916, when the United States government waged war against the Mexican bandit Pancho Villa. This served as a proving ground for these trucks, many of which were later shipped to Europe for military service. At this time, few US-built military trucks were standardized, and it was not until the development of the US Quartermaster Corps’s `B’-Class heavy truck, known as the “Liberty”, that proper standardization occurred.
On the civilian front, gas was used to combat the lack of petrol, and in the United States the 1916 Federal Aid Road Act was instrumental in establishing a new interstate highway system which contributed greatly to the development of American commercial vehicles. With a rubber tyre shortage, particularly in Germany where manufacturers had relied upon British and French made supplies, unconventional steel-wheeled vehicles, sometimes incorporating metal plates backed by small leaf springs, appeared for a short while, but these were mainly for heavy tractors used for hauling artillery.
Developments in commercial vehicle design, such as the use of shaft-drive, glass. windscreens and electric rather than acetylene lighting, were now creeping in from the passenger car side and, although apparent in many light commercials, it was some years before these were adopted for the heavy commercial market. Pneumatic tyres were also becoming commonplace on lighter types but, again, were to remain a rarity on “heavies” for some time.
While the war did much to establish new standards for commercial vehicles, military vehicle requirements were far different from those used on the public highway. High payloads and economy were more important to civilian operators than high ground clearance or all-wheel drive. Thus, with a return to peace, much re-organization was necessary.
If you are looking for Lusty trailers or Lusty low loaders, visit Lusty trailers today.
Take Online Surveys for Money
A great deal of business is being done over the Internet these days. People are making a lot of money there. Instant connectivity means that the entire world (well, maybe not ALL of it, but billions of people anyway…) are available to buy goods and services. The largest market is for information. The Internet marketplace never sleeps. At any hour there are millions of people connected, most are looking for information; many will be looking for ways to buy and sell or merchandise.
Almost all of the methods for making money on the Net require special skills, training and experience. Most require significant investment in websites or other tools. However, there are still a few exceptions to this rule. Routes to making money that practically anyone can use.
Everyone has an opinion. There are market researchers looking for consumers, people just like you, to take their legitimate online surveys and get paid for it!
You see, large companies spend billions of dollars on market research every year. They need to know what consumers prefer and why so they can improve their products and services, develop new products and measure the effectiveness of their advertising.
They hire marketing research experts to measure consumer opinion and get the info they need. Opinion surveys are one of the primary tools market researchers use to measure public opinion. The cheapest, quickest way to get surveys out and the answers back is via the Internet. By using the Net they can get answers in only a few hours, with no mailing cost! There are now hundreds of surveys being made every day!
So how do they get people to take the time to fill out all those surveys? Easy! They PAY them! They pay them enough to make it well worth their time to fill out their surveys! That’s why the market researchers with legitimate paid surveys are looking for people like YOU to fill out their surveys, and why they are willing to send you checks in the mail or make deposits in your PayPal account to pay you!
And that is why, if you have enough technical skills to be able to send and receive e-mails, you can make money, even very good money on the Internet. To find good lists of surveys that pay cash, just click here. You can find all the info you need to get started at that website…
By Thomas Praley
Small business IT support in Charlotte NC
Small business IT support is a crucial element. Small Business IT support services
also help in providing effective disaster management solutions to companies so
as to prevent loss of data, resources or any critical information that may prove
to be very crucial.
Our Small business IT support in
Charlotte NC include onsite support and repair, business networking, IT
outsourcing, remote support and managed IT services to local and national clients.
We pride ourselves on dependable customer support and in building long-term
technology partnerships with our business customers.
What is An Autoresponder and How Does It Work?
The saying that “The money is in the list” hits the nail on the head.
The subscriber list, that is. Besides blatantly spamming, how can anyone build a huge email list?
The solution is using autoresponders. On our site we have many email auto responder review, including Aweber autoresponder review, GetResponse review and also a review of 1ShoppingCart autoresponders. We also do a full autoresponder comparison so you can choose the one that you can afford.
But whoa, lets ot get too excited. Autoresponders - what are they really?
Autoresponders are basically email marketing software that manages your email list, and allows you to automatically send email messages based on a predetermined time
Other than the initial email, you can also set to automatically send out further emails based on a time interval. When someone subscribes to your autoresponder by filling up an “opt-in form” on your website, they will automatically get an email from you every three days, till the end of the predefined messages you’ve set in your autoresponder system.
It’s as cools as it sounds, believe it or not? However, that is not the whole story.
Plus, you can also customize and personalize your emails tremendously.
Hosted autoresponders, autoresponder scripts, and desktop autoresponders - those are the three types available today. They are not the same at all in terms of how they work. Get the one that you can afford, and that meets your needs.
A word of caution though if you plan to use an autoresponder script to send emails, make sure you have the correct autoresponder web host account or risk losing a lot of data.
So go and get yourself an autoresponder today. It will bring your business to the next level, guaranteed.
San Pedro de Alcantara Shopping Guide
Christmas is just around the corner and with it comes the hustle and bustle of Christmas shopping. Don’t get me wrong I love Christmas, but I find it difficult to relax and get into the spirit of things until all the presents are bought and wrapped. Sure, I understand that for some the Christmas shopping experience is a fun and important part the seasons activities. However, I find fighting my way through crowded shopping aisles somewhat irksome regardless of how many times thoughtful shop owners play Jingle Bells to help me on my way.
My other pet hate is shopping malls, not just because they are killing off the small independent retailer but because I find the level of service provided by the small independent retailer far excels anything that I can find in a sprawling mall. I am looking for something more than simple box shifters who’s only benefit seems to be that they share a common roof.
San Pedro de Alcantara Shopping Guide
I am in my mid 60’s so I don’t think that much is going to change as far as Christmas shopping and malls are concerned. However, last Christmas my daughter gave me a shiny new laptop computer to play with. At first all it was used for was to send the occasional email to friends but then I discovered that many local San Pedro de Alcantara shops and restaurants had very informative websites where I could find information about their services and prices. And there is the San Pedro de Alcantara Shopping Guide; a simple and effective website that provides information on local shops and retailers and the services they provide.
I am pretty sure that most other towns and cities other than San Pedro de Alcantara have their own shopping guide but I have got to say this website has made one grumpy old man happy!