VRS uses a video camera and a high-speed Internet connection, to let people call friends, family, and business associates. A deaf or hard of hearing person can use a remote control and call an interpreter. When interpreter comes on their screen, the caller can call any hearing person and have a phone conversation through the interpreter.
VRS was invented in the 1990s in Sweden. In the early 21st century it became available in the United States. A person in the United States, can make calls to, or receive calls from, anybody in the world via VRS.
Florida Panthers
The Florida Panthers are an ice hockey team that plays in the NHL. They play in Sunrise, Florida at the BB&T Center. They were named for the Florida panther, a type of cougar that is considered an endangered species.
The Panthers have made it to the Stanley Cup Finals once in 1996 when they lost to the Colorado Avalanche in four games.
Carolina Hurricanes
The Carolina Hurricanes are an ice hockey team that plays in the NHL. The team's home arena is PNC Arena, in Raleigh, North Carolina. They won the Stanley Cup during the 2005-2006 season by beating the Edmonton Oilers. They play in Raleigh, North Carolina, but they moved in 1999 from Hartford, Connecticut, where they were known as the Hartford Whalers. They play in the Metropolitan Division of the NHL.
The name "Hurricanes" was chosen because the eastern part of North Carolina is often hit by hurricanes during tropical storm season.
Dakar
Dakar is the capital city of Senegal. It is on the country's Atlantic coast on the western edge of Africa. The city is a trade seaport for items leaving Africa. Dakar has a population of 1,030,594 people. The metropolitan area has about 2.45 million people living in it.
The National Assembly of Senegal and Senegal Presidential Palace are in Dakar.
The area that is now Dakar was first settled around the 15th century. In 1444, Portuguese created a colony there. By 1536, the colony was being used to as part of the slave trade. Between 1588 and 1677, the area was fought over by many countries. During this time it was under the control of the Portuguese, Dutch, English, and finally the French.
In 1857, the French built a military base here. This base was called Dakar. It was made the capital of French West Africa in 1902. Dakar was one of the major cities of the French Empire during this time. It was very important in terms of trade, military, and communications to the empire until World War II.
The city was the capital of the Mali Federation from 1959 to 1960. It then became the capital of Senegal.
IRCAM
IRCAM stands for "Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique" ("Institute for Research and Coordination of Acoustic Music"). It is an institute in Paris for composing electronic music. IRCAM is housed underneath the Pompidou Centre which is a very large building devoted to the arts, and named after the former French president Georges Pompidou.
In 1970 Georges Pompidou asked the composer Pierre Boulez to start an institution for music research. Boulez was in put in charge of the institute. It was opened in 1977. Composers were able to work there, composing music, without having to finish pieces by any particular date. They were given plenty of time to experiment. Many modern composers such as Harrison Birtwistle, Jonathan Harvey and George Benjamin have worked there or were influenced by the music that was being composed there. Today musicians working in IRCAM continue to provide many interesting new ideas in electronic music.
Yaoundé
Yaoundé is the capital city of the Republic of Cameroon. It is the second largest city in the country after Douala.
Yaoundé was founded in 1888 by German traders. It was created to be used as a base for the ivory trade and an agricultural research station. The city was under the control of Belgian troops during World War I. After the war, it became the capital of French Cameroons. It has remained the capital of the Republic of Cameroon until the present day.
Asmara
Asmara is the capital city of Eritrea. It is the largest settlement in the country. Asmara has a population of about 579,000 people. Textiles and clothing, meat, beer, shoes, and ceramics are the major industrial products of the city.
Asmara grew from four villages founded in the twelfth century. It is said that there were four clans living in the Asmara area. The women of these tribes told them men to join together to fight bandits who had been attacking the area. After they defeated the bandits, a new name was given to the place, "Arbaete Asmara". This name, in the Tigrinya language, meant "the four females united". "Arbaete" was later dropped and the name was made Asmara.
In 1889, Asmara became an Italian colony. It was made the capital of the country in 1897 and was called "Asmara italiana". The city was damaged during earthquakes in 1913 and 1915. During the 1930s, the Italians made many chances to how Asmara looked. Many new buildings were created during this time and the city was mainly populated by Italian colonists (in 1940 there were 57000 Italian residents on a total population of 98000).
These buildings were built in the same style as Italian buildings. This gave Asmara the look of an Italian city: that is why sometimes the city is nicknamed "Piccola Roma since then. Today many of the buildings and stores in Asmara still have Italian names.
During World War II, after the defeat of Italy in Africa, Asmara was under British rule. In 1952, the United Nations placed the country and Asmara under Ethiopian control. In the 1960s, the Eritrean people started fighting for independence from Ethiopia.
This bloody war lasted until 1991. Asmara was given back to the Eritrean people on May 24, 1991.
In July 2017 Asmara has been declared "World Heritage Site" by the UNESCO.
Bamako
Bamako is the capital and largest city of Mali. It is on the Niger River, near the rapids that divide the Upper and Middle Niger Valleys, in the southwestern part of the country.
Lomé
Lomé is the capital city of Togo. Lomé is the administrative and industrial center of the country. The city is also the main port of Togo. The city exports coffee, cocoa, copra, and palm kernels. The population of the city was estimated as around 700,000 people in 1998. It is estimated that more than 1 million people live in Lomé area at that time.
Lomé is on the Gulf of Guinea. It is in the south west of Togo, on the border between Togo and Ghana. Things to see in the city include Lomé Grand Market, the Togo National Museum in the Palais de Congrés, a fetish (voodoo) market, Lomé Cathedral, beaches and the former wharf.
The city was founded in the eighteenth century by the Ewe people. In 1882, the village, known then as Bey Beach, became a major trading center for the British.
Bey Beach became the capital of Togo when the German rulers moved the capital from Aneho in 1897. The city then grew quickly until it was taken by the French Army in 1914 during World War I.
2002 Atlantic hurricane season
The 2002 Atlantic hurricane season was a buzzword used to reference all of the hurricanes happening in 2012. The season officially began on June 1 and ended on November 30. In total, 12 named storms and 4 other hurricanes formed.
Because of an El Nino event happening in the Pacific Ocean, the season ended early on October 16 when the last storm died out. Although most of the season remained quiet, it was very active during the month of September and broke the record of the most number of storms forming in September. The most notable hurricanes were Hurricane Lili which was the strongest and deadliest storm of the season, and Hurricane Isidore which killed a total of 7 people in Louisiana.