The park first opened in 1857. In 1858, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux won a design competition to improve and expand the park with a plan they entitled the Greensward Plan. Construction began in the same year and was finished in 1873. Many rocks, soil, and plants were put in the park. People living in the park were forced to move out. Later, the park was made larger.
In the 1930s, because people had not taken care of the park, it was cleaned up and changed by Robert Moses. By the 1960s, the park became a bad place to go again, so in the 1980s and 1990s, the Central Park Conservancy was made. The Central Park Conservancy cleaned up Central Park from the 1980s through the 2000s.
The park was named a National Historic Landmark in 1963.
The Central Park Conservancy runs the park. They operate it because of an agreement with the city government. 85% of Central Park's $25 million annual budget and 80% of the park's maintenance staff come from the Conservancy.
The conservancy cares for 250 acres of lawns, 21,500 trees, 150 acres of lakes and streams, and 130 acres of woodlands. Their staff plant hundreds of bulbs, shrubs, flowers, and trees every year. They make sure that 9,000 benches, 26 ballfields, and 21 playgrounds are clean and good to use. They also care for 55 sculptures and monuments, as well as 36 bridges. Conservancy crews remove graffiti from Central Park and collect more than 2,000 tons of trash a year!
The Conservancy has been led by four presidents. The first is Elizabeth Barlow Rogers, who helped to create the Conservancy in 1978. She was president until 1996. Karen H. Putnam, the Conservancy’s development director, was president from 1996 to 2000, after completing the projects slated under the "Wonder of New York" capital campaign. The third, Regina S. Peruggi, used to be president of Marymount Manhattan College. She led the Conservancy from 2000 to 2003. Since 2003, Douglas Blonsky, who used to look over construction for the Park, has been the president of the Conservancy.
Central Park has been mentioned in thousands of books, movies, and TV shows. In the U.S. TV show "Friends" (1994-2004), the coffee shop where the characters often gathered was named "Central Perk" as a pun on the term "coffee percolator" (a type of pot used to brew coffee).
Mae Jemison
Mae Carol Jemison (born October 17, 1956) is an American physician and NASA astronaut. She became the first African-American woman to enter space when she served on the crew of the Space Shuttle Endeavour in September 1992. She has appeared on television several times, including as an actress in an episode of .
Jemison was born in Decatur, Alabama. She moved to Chicago at age three. Her brother and sister are Ada and Charles Jemison. From early on, she was interested in science. Jemison’s parents supported her love for science and space. As a child, she spent lots of time in the library. She read books about space, and evolution.
Jemison graduated from high school at the age of 16. She studied at Stanford University on a scholarship. There she earned a Bachelor of Science in chemical engineering in 1977. During her education, Jemison involved herself in activities outside her classes. These included dance, theater, and volunteer work. She was also the head of the Black Student Union. While at Cornell, Jemison helped people who had left their country because it was not safe to live there. She helped run health studies in Kenya as well. She studied how complicated organisms can be influenced by gravity. In 1981 she earned a Doctorate of Medicine.
Jemison was in astronomy ever since she was a child. She dreamed of going to space one day. While attending UCLA, she applied for NASA. Soon after she applied, NASA had a terrible accident on January 28, 1986. "Challenger" was launched in Florida and it blew up soon after taking off. The astronauts were all killed. There would be no more astronauts going into space until the scientists figured out what had happened. Jemison became one of the 0.75% of people who were chosen for a special type of instruction at NASA a year after this accident had occurred.
The training incorporated physical demand and rigorous studying of science. She had to learn what to do in case if an emergency had happened. She soon became a certified mission specialist. Jemison’s mission was in September of 1992. She is remembered as the member of the crew on "Endeavour", an eight-day journey. This was a joint mission between the US and Japan. She fertilized frog eggs and observed their development into tadpoles.
Jemison worked at NASA from 1987 to 1993. She later started The Jemison Group, Inc., which created ALAFIYA, a satellite-based telecommunications system. This system was to be used to bring healthcare to developing nations. She also was a professor in the Environmental Studies Program at Dartmouth College. There she directed the Jemison Institute for Advancing Technology in Developing Countries. She has studied astronomy, zoology, archaeology, and many other things.
Jemison joined the Peace Corps, a volunteer organization. She worked as a medical officer there from 1983 to 1985 in Sierra Leone and Liberia.
Jemison has won many awards since her time in space. She was named as one of the 50 most influential women by "Ebony" magazine. She is in three different halls of fame: the National Medical Association Hall of Fame, Texas Science Hall of Fame, and National Women’s Hall of Fame. Jemison has also been on a few television programs, including the PBS program "African American Lives". She also speaks in public about her life and influence. Mae C. Jemison Public School was named after her.
Club
A club can be many things.
Ethylene
Ethylene or ethene is a chemical compound with two carbon atoms and four hydrogen atoms in each molecule. These molecules are put together with a double bond that makes it a hydrocarbon. It is very important in industry and has even been used in biology as a hormone. It is also the most made chemical. About 75 million tons of it have been made each year since 2005. Its biggest use is to make polyethylene.
Since 1795, ethylene was called an "olefiant gas", or "oil making gas". This was because it came together with chlorine to make the "oil of the Dutch chemists".
In 1866, the German chemist August Wilhelm von Hofmann came up with a system for naming hydrocarbons. The suffixes -ane, -ene, -ine, -one, and -une were used to call the hydrocarbons with 0, 2, 4, 6, and 8 fewer hydrogen atoms than the alkane it came from. Because of this system, ethylene became ethene.
In 1979, the IUPAC decided that ethylene would stay ethylene.
Ethylene is made in the chemical industry by steam cracking. Some of the parts of an ethylene plant can be:
There are other systems in an ethylene plant. The systems listed above were the most important systems in an ethylene plant.
Since making ethylene uses a lot of energy, the people making the ethylene try very hard to keep the heat from the gasses from leaving the furnaces.
Skol
Skol is a brand of beer made by the Danish company Carlsberg Group. Skol was first brewed in 1959 for European customers. The beer's name comes from the Danish word "skål" which means "to your health", a common toast (a word or phrase said before drinking). Skol is available in a few different flavors.
Skol was started in 1964 in Europe. It became available in Brazil in 1967. In 1979, it was one of the first beers to be sold in aluminum cans. As of 2004, Skol was available in more than 20 countries.
In 2000, the first annual Skol Beats music festival was held in São Paulo, Brazil. The type of music featured at Skol Beats is electronic, including trance, techno, electro, drum and bass, house, and breakbeat. Skol's new "Beats" beer was revealed at the 2000 festival. Beats has a different flavor and alcohol content than the original Skol. It is marketed as the beer for people that like parties and excitement.