The Holy Saturday Cross Country Cycling Classic is a one-day amateur cycling race in Belize. It happens every year during the Easter holidays. It is Belize's biggest cycling event and it has begun to be recognized internationally. The name is usually shortened to the Cross Country Cycling Classic or "Cross Country" for short. The race is about 140 miles long.
Prosthechea cochleata
Prosthechea cochleata is an orchid that lives in Central America, the West Indies, Colombia, Venezuela, and southern Florida. It is commonly called the Cockleshell Orchid or Clamshell Orchid
"Prosthechea cochleata" is the national flower of Belize, where it is known as the Black Orchid.
Big leaf mahogany
Big leaf mahogany ("Swietenia macrophylla") is a species of plant in the Meliaceae family. It is one of two species with genuine mahogany timber.
The species is also known under other common names, including broad-leaved mahogany, Brazilian mahogany, Honduras mahogany, large-leaved mahogany, genuine mahogany, sky fruit, and tropical American mahogany, among others.
The plant lives in North and South America, and the Caribbean.
Cape Canaveral Air Force Station
The Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) is part of the United States Air Force Space Command. The Space Command's 45th Space Wing is based at the nearby Patrick Air Force Base. The CCAFS is at Cape Canaveral, Florida. It is next to the Kennedy Space Center which is on Merritt Island. The two facilities have access to the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Skid Strip which is a large runway for military aircraft bringing heavy and oversize loads. the CCAFS has four active launch pads for space rockets.
Many space missions have been launched from CCAFS. For example:
Delta II
Delta II was a rocket used to launch various projects into space. The Delta series of rockets were first designed and made by McDonnell Douglas. This company joined with Boeing in 1997. Delta II rockets had been made since 2006 by United Launch Alliance, which is a joint company owned by Boeing and Lockheed Martin to supply launch rockets to the US government. Boeing Launch Services supplied Delta II rockets to private companies.
The Delta II rockets were based on the Thor rockets built in the 1950's. These were used to carry Inter Continental Ballistic Missiles. The first Thor was launched on January 26, 1957. The Delta II rocket was first launched on 14 February 1989. The rocket was developed after the explosion of the in 1986. The US Air Force needed another way to launch its GPS satellites. As of 2018, there had been 156 Delta II launches from both Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and the Vandenberg Air Force Base. Only two launches were unsuccessful. On 5 August 1995, a rocket motor failure meant the Koreasat 1 was put into a lower orbit. On 17 January 1997, Delta 241 carrying the GPS IIR-1 exploded 13 seconds after taking off.
The last time the Delta II took off on 15 September 2018, when she carried the ICESat-2 satellite.
Bell's palsy
Bell's palsy is a paralysis of the face on one side. It is caused by inflammation of a facial nerve. The sufferer cannot move the muscles on the affected side of the face.
Several conditions can cause facial paralysis, such as brain tumors, strokes, and Lyme disease. Bell's palsy is named after Scottish anatomist Charles Bell. Bell first described the disease. It is the most common acute disease involving only one nerve, and it is the most common cause of sudden facial nerve paralysis.
Bell's palsy involves a rapid start of partial or complete paralysis that often occurs overnight. Scientists believe that inflammation leads to swelling of the facial nerve. The nerve travels through the skull in a narrow bone canal beneath the ear. Nerve swelling and compression in the narrow bone canal are thought to stop the nerve from working. At times of lowered immunity, a dormant (sleeping) virus, usually the chicken pox or cold sore virus, can wake up and attack the nerve causing it to swell. The main symptoms of Bell's palsy are one-sided facial paralysis, jaw pain, dizziness, strengthened hearing in one ear, and weakened taste sense.
Bell's palsy usually cures itself, sometimes in a few weeks. Corticosteroids (cortisone steroids) have been found to improve the condition while anti-viral drugs have not. Early treatment is necessary for steroids or drugs to be effective, but it is controversial wether or not they work. Most people recover spontaneously and achieve near-normal to normal functions. Some people however will never regain full facial movement, or it may take a longer time. Many show signs of improvement as early as 10 days after the onset, even without treatment.
Often those suffering from Bell's palsy cannot close the eye in the affected side. The eye must be protected from drying up, or the cornea may be permanently damaged. The affected eye may need to be taped shut when sleeping.
Sauli Niinistö
Sauli Väinämö Niinistö (born 24 August 1948) is the 12th and current President of Finland.
A lawyer by education, Niinistö was Minister of Finance from 1996 to 2003 and the National Coalition Party candidate in the 2006 presidential election. He served as the Speaker of the Parliament of Finland from 2007 to 2011 and has been the Honorary President of the European People's Party (EPP) since 2002.
Niinistö was the National Coalition Party candidate in the 2012 presidential election, beating Pekka Haavisto of the Green League with 62.6% of the vote in the decisive second round. Niinistö assumed office on 1 March 2012, and is the first president from the National Coalition Party since Juho Kusti Paasikivi, who left office in 1956.
Niinistö served on the municipal council of Salo from 1977 to 1992 and was elected a Member of the Finnish Parliament (Eduskunta) from the district of Finland Proper in 1987. In 1994 he was chosen to lead the National Coalition Party as the party chairman
Niinistö's first wife Marja-Leena Niinistö died in a car accident in 1995. Niinistö married his second wife Jenni Haukio (born 1977) in January 2009.
Claude Dubar
Claude Dubar, born 11 December 1945, is an Academic French sociologist.
After his teaching experience at Beirut, Lebanon in 1974, he became professor at the Lille University of Science and Technology in 1977. His thesis focuses on vocational training in France
In 1988, he joined the "Centre d'études et de recherches sur les qualifications" (Centre for Studies and Research on Qualifications) in Paris, researching relations between the sociology of education and work, and especially the sociology of professional identities.
Since 1993 till ???, he has been a sociology teacher at the "Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines". In 2012, he is "Emeritus Professor" (retired, with an honorific position given by Université).
Grus
Grus is a genus of large birds in the crane family.
Jimmy Baker
Jimmy Baker (born as Pintjutjara; about 1915 – 20 April 2010) was an Australian Aboriginal artist.
Jimmy Baker was born some time around 1915. He was born at Malumpa, an old camping site near what is now Kaṉpi in north-western South Australia. His name at the time was Pintjutjara. He had a brother, Toby Ginger Baker, and a sister, Tjuwilya. He and his family lived a traditional, nomadic life in the desert, and had no contact with Euro-Australian society. Their first encounter with White people was in the early 1920s, with a group of Christian missionaries travelling from Ernabella to Warburton. On their way back, the missionaries tried to persuade the family to come with them to Ernabella, but Jimmy's father, Tjuwintjara, was not ready to give up life in the bush.