In 1905, 110 acres owned by William A. Clark, on which he built a railroad to Southern California were auctioned and Las Vegas was founded as a railroad town. Las Vegas officially became a city in 1911.
Lanai
Lanai (or Lānaʻi) is sixth largest of the Hawaiian Islands, in the United States. It is also known as the "Pineapple Island". The island is almost a circle in shape and is 18 miles wide in the longest direction. The land area is 140 sq. miles (367 km). It is separated from the island of Moloka'i by the Kalohi Channel to the north.
Lana'i was first seen by Europeans on 25 February 1779 by Captain Clerke, with "HMS Resolution" on the James Cook Pacific Ocean trip. Clerke took command of the ship after Capt. Cook was killed at Kealakekua Bay on February 14, and was leaving the islands for the North Pacific.
In 1922, Jim Dole, the president of Dole Pineapple Company, bought the island of Lana'i. He made a large part of it into the world's largest pineapple plantation.
Tourism on Lana'i started not long ago. That was when the growing of pineapple was slowly coming to an end in the Islands. On Lana'i, you can be with nature and feel the mood of the Hawaiian countryside. Not like nearby O'ahu, the only town (Lana'i City) is small. It has no traffic or shopping centers. Tourists come mainly to relax.
There are three hotels on Lana'i and several golf courses.
Leap year
A leap year is a year in which an extra day is added to the Gregorian calendar, which is used by most of the world. A common year (an ordinary year) has 365 days, but a leap year has 366 days. The extra day, February 29, is added to the month of February. In an ordinary year, February has 28 days, but in a leap year it has 29 days. The extra day, called a leap day, is the same day of the week as the first day of the month, February 1. Also, in a leap year, the months of January, April, and July all start on the same day of the week.
A leap year comes once every four years. Because of this, a leap year can always be evenly divided by four. For example, 2020 was a leap year. But a year is a common year if it can be evenly divided by 100 but not by 400. This is why 1600, 2000, and 2400 are leap years, but not 1700, 1800, 1900, 2100, 2200, or 2300.
We have leap years because instead of 365 days, the Earth really takes a few minutes less than 365-1/4 days (365.24219) to go completely around the Sun. Without leap years, the seasons would start one day earlier on the calendar every four years. After 360 years, spring in the Northern Hemisphere and autumn in the Southern Hemisphere would begin on December 21 (which is when winter in the Northern Hemisphere and summer in the Southern Hemisphere presently begins).
A number of countries use a lunar calendar (based on the Moon, instead of the Sun, like our solar calendar is). They have leap years when they add an extra lunar month. Different calendars add the extra month in different ways. So a year which has 366 days instead of 365 days where the month of February has 29 days is called a leap year.
Leather
Leather is the skin of an animal made into a durable material by tanning. The skins of cows, pigs, and goats are often used to make leather. Skins of snakes, alligators or crocodiles, and ostriches are sometimes used to make fancier leather. Shoes, bags, clothes, and balls are often made of leather. Sometimes people make leather out of whales, ducks, giraffes, and African elephants, but all of these ways of making leather are very simple but can also be very hard and rare sometimes.
The way leather is made is divided into three processes. They are preparing the leather, tanning it, and crusting.
In preparing the leather, many things are done to make it ready for tanning. They include soaking it, removing the hair, liming, deliming, bating, bleaching, and pickling.
Tanning is a process that makes the proteins, especially collagen, in the raw hide stable. It increases the thermal and chemical stability of the animal skins. The difference between fresh and tanned animal skin is that fresh animal skin dries to make it hard and stiff. When water is added to it, it becomes bad. But, animal skin that is tanned dries to make it flexible. It does not become bad when water is added to it.
Crusting is a process that makes the leather thin and lubricates it. Chemicals added when crusting must be set in place. Crusting ends with drying and making the leather soft. It may include splitting, shaving, dyeing, whitening or other methods.
Today, most leather is made from the skin of cattle, which makes up about 65% of all the leather made. Other animals that are used include sheep (about 13%), goats (about 11%), and pigs (about 10%).
Horse skin is used to make strong leather. Lamb and deerskin are used for soft leather. It is used in work gloves and indoor shoes.
Kangaroo leather is used to make things that must be strong and flexible. It is used in bullwhips.
In Thailand, stingray leather is used in wallets and belts. Stingray leather is tough and durable.
License
A license (or licence) allows someone to do something that they otherwise are not allowed to do. A person usually has to pay some money, and maybe pass a test to get a license. A license is usually written but it does not have to be. Most kinds of licenses can only be used by the person they were given to. Licenses may be temporary or permanent. Some licenses can not be taken away once they are given. A person with a license is called a licensee.
In many countries, if a person tries to do something without the correct license to do it, they might have to pay a fine or go to prison.
There are many different types of licenses.
The laws of most countries say that people are only allowed to drive cars if they have a driver's license. If a person does not have a license, they may have to pay a fine if they are caught by the police. In many countries, a person must take a test and pay money to get a license. The test would check that they know the road rules, and have the skill to drive a car.
Other licenses give permission to shoot animals (often called a hunting license). The hunting license usually says when a person may hunt. A hunter may have to pass a test to show that they understand the rules about hunting.
In the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, if someone has a television set, they must buy a "television licence" every year.
Copyright is a law that gives the owner of a creative work the right to decide what other people can do with it. A person or a company can give a license to a copyright that they own. So in order for another person to use an owner's copyright they need permission from the owner. For example, when someone buys computer software, they also need a license from the creator of the software (a copyright owner) allowing the buyer to use the software.
"License" is a verb and "licence" is a noun. "Licensing sessions" were the meetings of magistrates which decided about giving licences to sell alcohol.
In American English there is no difference in spelling between the verb "to license" meaning to give permission, and the noun "a license" meaning the permission to do something.
A degree in medicine is a qualification showing a person has successfully studied medicine. It is awarded for life. A licence to practice medicine is a legal permission to do so within the territory covered by the licensing authority. The licence may be taken away under certain situations.
Link
A link, also hyperlink in computing, is a part of a chain. A chain is made of many pieces of metal; each piece is a link.
Today, people also use the word link in a new way. The World Wide Web on the Internet is made of many different Web pages. The computer software that people use to make these pages (HTML) lets us go to other pages in a very fast and easy way.