In southern Wisconsin, the river meets a moraine. The moraine was made during the last ice age. The river enters a beautiful gorge, called the Wisconsin Dells. North of the city of Madison, the river turns to the west. It flows west through the hills of southwest Wisconsin. It joins the Mississippi 15 km south of the city of Prairie du Chien.
The river is an important source of hydroelectric power.
Alaska
Alaska (), officially the State of Alaska, is a state in the United States. It is in the Northwest corner of the continent of the United States West Coast. Alaska does not touch other US states. It has borders with Canada, the Arctic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, the Bering Sea, and the Bering Strait.
Alaska is the biggest state in the United States. It is the 3rd least populated state. It has the lowest population density of all the states. About half of the population of Alaska lives in the Anchorage metropolitan area. As of the 2011 census, 722,718 people live in Alaska.
The United States bought Alaska from Russia on March 30, 1867. This was called the Alaska Purchase. It cost $7.2 million. Today, that would be $120 million. The price was about $0.02 per acre ($4.74/km). Alaska became an organized (or incorporated) territory on May 11, 1912. It became the 49th state on January 3, 1959.
The name "Alaska" comes from the Aleut word "alaxsaq". This means "the mainland" or "the object towards which the action of the sea is directed." The land is also called Alyeska, which is another Aleut word that means "the great land." The Russian name was Аляска.
The capital city is Juneau, but the biggest city is Anchorage. Alaska is the biggest state in the United States, but it almost has the least people. Alaska has almost 20% of all the land in the U.S., but only about 0.2% of the people. It is not connected to any other states by American land, but it is connected to Canada.
Alaska has many glaciers, some of which are can be seen from passing cruise ships. Some are coastal, and others are not by the ocean. It is a popular tourist destination, as there is a very rich culture along with beautiful scenery. There are many wild animals in Alaska. Some of them are the brown bear, the moose, and the wolf.
There are some important industries in Alaska, like oil, fishing, mining, and forestry. Oil is the biggest industry in Alaska. Most of the oil is very far north in the Alaskan arctic. A very long pipeline starts at the northern coast of Alaska and runs to the southern coast. It is over long. There were many gold rushes in Alaska.
Many active volcanoes are found in the Aleutians in Alaska. One of the world's largest tides occur in Turnagain Arm, just south of Anchorage, where the differences in the tides can be more than 35 feet (10.7 m).
Tongass National Forest, the largest national forest in the United States can be found in Southeast Alaska. The state capital Juneau, the former capital Sitka, and Ketchikan, can be found in Southeast Alaska.
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), known by the BBC, is an organisation in the UK. It broadcasts in the United Kingdom and other countries on television, radio and the Internet. The BBC also sells its programmes to other broadcasting companies around the world.
The organisation is run by a group of twelve governors who have been given the job by the Queen, on the advice of government ministers. The governors appoint a Board of Management to take care of running the business of the BBC. The head of the Board of Management is called the Director General.
The BBC is established under a royal charter, which allows the BBC to broadcast. In 2006, the British Government looked at the charter to see if it needed changing.
Another agreement, which goes with the Charter, recognises that the BBC should be independent from any other organisation. It also says what the BBC should do for the people in Britain (the public).
Every household in the UK that watches or records "live" programmes, (as they’re being broadcast, or distributed to the public in any other way) or watches BBC Iplayer, is required, by law, to pay for a TV Licence. As the BBC gets its money from TV licences, it does not take money from companies or shareholders, so it does not have to do what they want. Also, it is not allowed to broadcast commercials in the middle of a programme, although they can show commercials in between programmes.
The BBC makes extra money in several ways. One way is by selling its programmes to other broadcasting companies. Another way is by selling audio tapes and CDs of its best radio programmes, and videos and DVDs of its best television programmes. Still another way is by selling books based on programmes, and magazines about science and natural history.
In 1923, BBC Magazines started publishing a magazine which printed listings of the week's BBC radio and television programmes in the United Kingdom. The magazine was called the "Radio Times". In 1991, the magazine began to print listings of programmes broadcast by other providers in the United Kingdom. Today the magazine is still printed and provides online listings too. It also prints stories about programmes, the people who make them, and the people who appear in them. The "Radio Times" is one of the best selling magazines in the United Kingdom. In August 2011, the BBC agreed to sell the magazine to Exponent, if Britain's Office of Fair Trading approves.
The BBC has to publish a report every year, which tells people what it has done and how much money it has made and spent.
If someone has a complaint about something broadcast by the BBC, they can complain to the BBC, the BBC Trust, or directly to Ofcom, the government's regulator of broadcasting.
The headquarters of the BBC is Broadcasting House in Portland Place, London. The BBC also has other offices such as the BBC Television Centre in White City, London, BBC Radio Berkshire, as well in other cities like Cardiff, Belfast, Glasgow, Birmingham, Manchester, Bristol, Southampton and Newcastle upon Tyne. Rather than hire local reporters everywhere, the BBC's journalists work in many countries across the world. This means BBC workers are sometimes in danger, especially in war zones. Most recently Alan Johnston was kidnapped and held hostage for many months in Gaza before being safely released.
Between October 2005 and 28 February 2006, the BBC offered a service called the BBC iPlayer on their website - bbc.co.uk. It allowed people to catch up on the last seven days of TV and radio on the BBC. Users could either watch (stream) it or download the content on their computers. The downloading options are for Microsoft Windows computers and Apple devices. The iPlayer service was released to the public on 25 December 2007. The slogan for BBC iPlayer is 'Making the Unmissable, Unmissable.'
Illinois River
The Illinois River is a river in the United States. It is in the state of Illinois. It is an important tributary of the Mississippi River. The length of the river is about 439 km.
The source of the river is in northeastern Illinois, near the city of Joliet. It flows west across Illinois, then southwest. It passes the city of Peoria, the largest city on the river.
It flows into southwestern Illinois. It joins the Mississippi River 40 km north of Saint Louis, Missouri.
There is separate Illinois river that runs through the northernmost edge of Oklahoma.
The river was used for transportation by the Native Americans. It was also used by early French trappers. It was an important route between the Mississippi River and the Great Lakes.
In the 19th century a canal was built that connected the river to Lake Michigan. Large ships now use this canal to go from the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River. The canal goes through the city of Chicago. It is one of the reasons that Chicago became a big city.
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