Relief rain usually occurs along coastal areas where a line of hills runs along the coast. When wet onshore wind from the sea meets a mountain, hill or any other sort of barrier, it is forced to rise along the slope and cools. When the air temperature falls to its dew point, water vapour condenses to form clouds. When the clouds can no longer hold the water droplets, relief rain begins to fall on the windward slope of the mountain. On the leeward slope, air sinks, it is warmed and further dried by compression. Therefore, the leeward slope is known as rain shadow. Moist winds blow in from the sea and are forced to rise over the land. The air cools and the water vapour condenses, forming rain drops. The rainiest places in the world are places that have relief rainfall.
Frontal rain happens when cooler air and warmer, humid air meet in a weather front. The less dense warm air rises and condenses forming clouds. These clouds grow and eventually create rain. In some places on the northern temperate zone the cold air front tends to come from the north west and the warm air front comes from the south west.
Some people collect rain in a rainwater tank. People use rainwater for watering plants, cleaning the house, bathing, or drinking. It is not always safe to drink rainwater. It can have bacteria, parasites, viruses, and chemicals that could make people sick.
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Gambling
Gambling is a contest where a player bets on the result of an event. The bet is generally in the form of money. The rules and the amount of money bet have to be decided on before the event happens.
There are three variables common to all gambling.
There are many types of gambling. Casino games, sports betting (especially horse racing), and state lotteries are some of the most common forms of gambling. Investments, such as stocks, bonds and real estate, are also sometimes considered forms of gambling. Generally, the odds are not in favor of the gambler.
Many people gamble for fun and entertainment. For others it becomes an addiction and a financial burden. Gambling addiction is a serious mental health issue that can become life-threatening. People with a gambling problem should seek help. Research shows that older people are more vulnerable and how the brain can get addicted to gambling.
Gambling regulation differs in different countries. Some have established specific legal institutions. However, some countries have only overseeing laws. A well-known executive institution is The Gambling Commission in the UK. Its main function is controlling commercial gambling in partnership with people in charge of licensing. An example of strict ruling is the Gambling Law in the USA. The law decides gaming rules for local, state, and federal businesses. In 2018, Swiss citizens voted that gambling should also be allowed on the Internet in the future. A convincing 73% voted in the referendum, in which 1.8 million Swiss people took part. The new Gaming Act was put into effect by the Federal Gaming Board on January 1, 2019. Since then, it has been completely legal for Swiss citizens to play games of chance on the Internet.
In some places, such as mainland China, gambling is illegal. Chinese people cannot do so inside their country, so they go outside of it, such as to Macau, which is known as the "gambling capital of the world" because of its many big casinos. Other countries and local governments, such as Hong Kong, have some kind of gambling control board to make sure people don't gamble too much while allowing them to gamble.
Monty Python
Monty Python, also known as The Pythons, is a group of British comic actors. They have acted in several comedy movies (most famously, Monty Python and the Holy Grail). They had a television show, "Monty Python's Flying Circus" between 1969 and 1974, which is still well-known and watched around the world.
The members of Monty Python are: John Cleese, Eric Idle, Graham Chapman, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin. Carol Cleveland and Neil Innes regularly appeared in their movies.
Monty Python started with their first movie, "And Now For Something Completely Different", and finished with their final movie, "Monty Python's The Meaning of Life".
Time zone
Time zones give specific areas on the Earth a time of day that is earlier or later than the neighboring time zones. This is because when it is daytime on one side of the earth, it is night-time on the other side. There are 24 time zones dividing the earth into different times, each with its own name, like the North American Eastern Time Zone. The North American Eastern Time Zone contains large cities in North America like New York City and Miami.
Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) began in 1675. This was when the Royal Observatory, Greenwich was built to help ships find their longitude at sea. GMT was a standard reference for time keeping when each city kept a different local time. When railways began carrying many people quickly among cities keeping different time, they adopted time zones to simplify operations. By about 1900, almost all time on earth was in the form of standard time zones.
Greenwich Mean Time is now called UTC (Coordinated Universal Time). UTC is the time standard of the world. All other parts of the world are offset (plus or minus) according to their longitude. Most of the zones are offset by a full hour, but there are some offset by half an hour or 45 minutes.
In some parts of the world they follow the Daylight Saving Time (DST), and during this period of time in summer they add one hour to their normal solar hour.
In the poles, the time is UTC in the North Pole and UTC+12 in the South Pole.
The time zones are numbered in relation to the UTC, so in Los Angeles the time zone will be UTC−8, in London UTC+0, in Rome UTC+1, and in New Delhi UTC+5:30.
Market
A market is a place where people go to buy or sell things. When people have products to sell, they set up a market place. There may be a special building for the market place, or the market may be held in an open space where the sellers can put up a stall (like a kind of tent) and then take the stall down at the end of the day.
The word market can also have a more general meaning in the economy. It can mean the way things are bought or sold. "There is a big market for dishwashers" means that lots of people want to buy dishwashers, so therefore a business that makes dishwashers is likely to be able to make a lot of money. When things are sold, people buy the product, and this "stimulates the economy" (helps people to spend and earn money). The market needs to balance supply and demand. There is no point in supplying (making) lots of dishwashers if people do not want them. In the market prices may change quickly if supply or demand changes.
If a seller of a good cannot supply what customers want or ask for too high of a price, other sellers may try to supply that good. If other sellers enter the market for that good, in competition, that will tend to fulfill demand and lower prices. Sellers who do not like competition may try to kill the competition. This would establish a monopoly, and many countries have laws to protect the free market against such practices.
Electron
An electron is a very small piece of matter. Its symbol is e. It was discovered by J. J.Thomson in 1897.
The electron is a subatomic particle. Every atom is made of some electrons that surround the nucleus of the atom. An electron can also be separate from any atom. It is believed to be an elementary particle because it cannot be broken down into anything smaller. It's electric charge is negative. Electrons have very little mass (little weight) so very little energy is needed to move them fast. They may move almost at the speed of light, for instance, as beta particles, and in the inner electron shells of elements with a large atomic number.