Geography.

The "Encyclopedia of New York City" considers the area west of Ocean Parkway (including Sea Gate and Nortons Point Light) to be part of the Coney Island neighborhood. The neighborhood is situated on the western portion of the Coney Island peninsula, located on the western end of Long Island lying to the west of the Outer Barrier islands along Long Island's southern shore. The peninsula is about long and wide. It extends into Lower New York Bay with Sheepshead Bay to its northeast, Gravesend Bay and Coney Island Creek to its northwest, and the main part of Brooklyn to its north. At its highest it is above sea level. Coney

Name.

The original Native American inhabitants of the region, the Lenape, called this area "Narrioch". This name has been attributed the meaning of ""land without shadows"" or ""always in light"" describing how its south facing beaches always remained in sunlight. A second meaning attributed to "Narrioch" is ""point"" or ""corner of land"".  There is no clear historical consensus on how the island got the name "Coney Island". A version of this name, "Conyne Eylandt", shows up in early 17th century Dutch maps. The most popular theory is the name came from the old spelling of the Dutch word for rabbit, "conyn", derived from a purported large population of wild rabbits,

History.

Early settlement.

Giovanni da Verrazzano was the first European explorer to discover the island of Narrioch during his expeditions to the area in 1527 and 1529. He was subsequently followed by Henry Hudson. The Dutch established the colony of New Amsterdam in present-day Coney Island in the early 17th century. The Native American population in the area dwindled as the Dutch settlement grew and the entire southwest section of present-day Brooklyn was purchased in 1645 from the Native Americans in exchange for a gun, a blanket, and a kettle.  In 1644, a colonist named Guysbert Op Dyck was given a patent for 88 acres of land in the town of Gravesend, on the

Resort development.

In 1824, the Gravesend and Coney Island Road and Bridge Company built the first bridge across Jamaica Ditch (by now known as Coney Island Creek), connecting the island with the mainland. The company also built a shell road across the island to the beaches. In 1829, the company also built the first hotel on the island: the Coney Island House, near present day Sea Gate.  Due to Coney Island's proximity to Manhattan and other boroughs, and its simultaneous relative distance from the city of Brooklyn to provide the illusion of a proper vacation, it began attracting vacationers in the 1830s and 1840s, assisted by carriage roads and steamship service that reduced travel time from a formerly half-day journey to two hours. Most of the vacationers were wealthy and went by carriage. Inventor Samuel Colt built an

Amusement park era.

Between about 1880 and World War II, Coney Island was the largest amusement area in the United States, attracting several million visitors per year. Its development as an amusement area was concurrent with the erection of urban amusement parks elsewhere in the United States, which changed amusement from a passive to an active concept. Of these amusement areas, Coney Island was the largest. At its height, it contained three competing major amusement parks—Luna Park, Dreamland, and Steeplechase Park—as well as many independent amusements. The area was also the center of new technological events, with electric lights, roller coasters, and baby incubators among the innovations at Coney Island in the 1900s. By the first decade of the 20th century, Coney Island was seen as a top getaway and "a symbol of Americans' increasing pride".

19th century.

By the late 1870s, Coney Island's hotels had drawn people from many different social classes, and attractions were being built. When the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company electrified the steam railroads and connected Brooklyn to Manhattan via the Brooklyn Bridge at the beginning of the 20th century, Coney Island turned rapidly from a resort to an accessible location for day-trippers seeking to escape the summer heat in New York City's tenements. Charles I. D. Looff, a Danish woodcarver, built the first carousel and amusement ride at Coney Island in 1876, at Lucy Vandeveer's bath-house complex at West 6th Street and Surf Avenue. Looff personally hand-carved the designs into the carousel. Looff subsequently commissioned another carousel at Feltman's Ocean Pavilion in 1880. Another early attraction was the Seaside Aquarium, which operated from 1877 to 1887 and included aquatic exhibits, aviaries, zoo attractions, and various sideshows. The earliest rides, including Looff's first carousel and the Seaside Aquarium, were located at the Centennial Observatory's site. The first

20th century.

The first decade of the 20th century saw two more large amusement parks. Luna Park opened in 1903 on the site of the old Sea Lion Park, which had closed the previous year. The park's flagship was A Trip to the Moon, an attraction based off Jules Verne's novel "From the Earth to the Moon", which had previously been located at Steeplechase Park. The following year saw the opening of Dreamland, which reproduced many attractions at Luna Park, but at a grander scale, with a large central tower and one million electric lights. Additionally, the City of New York made efforts to condemn all buildings and piers built south of Surf Avenue in an effort to reclaim the beach and create a boardwalk, though the local amusement community opposed the move. Eventually a settlement was reached where the beach did not begin until south of Surf Avenue, the territory marked by a city-owned boardwalk, while the city would demolish any structures that had been built over public streets, to reclaim beach access.  In 1915, the Sea Beach Line was upgraded to a subway line, followed by the other former excursion roads, and the opening of the Stillwell Avenue station in 1919 ushered in Coney Island's busiest era. On the busiest summer days, over a million people would travel to Coney Island.

Residential development and decline.

Robert Moses era.

In 1937, New York City parks commissioner Robert Moses published a report about the possible redevelopment of Coney Island, which would have entailed the addition of parking lots and reconstruction of part of the boardwalk. The city purchased a strip of land along the shoreline, which would allow the boardwalk to be moved inland. At this point, Coney Island was so crowded on summer weekends that Moses observed that a coffin would provide more space per person. Though ride construction was delayed due to material shortages caused by the onset of World War II, two new rides were constructed in 1946 at the end of the war.  In August 1944, Luna Park was severely damaged by a fire. Two years later, it was closed permanently and sold to a company who wanted to tear down the park's remnants and build Quonset huts for military veterans and their families. Moses asked the city to transfer Luna Park's land along the Coney Island waterfront to the Parks Department, a request that was granted in 1949. Moses then had the land rezoned for residential use, with plans to demolish "about a third" of attractions along Surf Avenue, one block north of the

Fred Trump era.

During the summers of 1964 and 1965, there was a large decrease in the number of visitors to Coney Island because of the 1964/1965 World's Fair at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Queens. Crime increases, insufficient parking facilities, bad weather, and the post-World War II automotive boom were also cited as contributing factors in the visitor decrease. During the summer of 1964, concessionaires saw their lowest profits in a quarter-century. Ride operators reported that they had 30% to 90% fewer visitors in 1964 compared

Late-1970s attempts at restoration.

The 1970s brought along further renewal plans, such as proposals to construct public housing. However, it was beset by social issues such as high crime and a drug epidemic. By 1975, the city was considering demolishing the Coney Island Cyclone in favor of an extension of the adjacent New York Aquarium. The proposed demolition was controversial, and after a refurbishment by Astroland, the Cyclone reopened for the summer 1975 season. The abandoned Parachute Jump was left in situ, and the New York City Board of Estimate planned to tear down the structure. In the meanwhile, Coney Island was still affected by a perception of crime and deterioration of old rides, but by the mid-1970s, middle-class families started returning to Coney Island following the implementation of a unified admission ticket to Coney Island's amusement areas.  The city continued to pursue litigation over the site occupied by Norman Kaufman, but for over a decade, was unsuccessful. It had no plan for the proposed state park, and in 1975 the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development nearly withdrew a proposed grant of $2 million to fund the proposed park. The city ultimately accepted the grant, though different city agencies still disagreed over whether to return the funds. Kaufman continued to operate the site until

Revival.

Bullard deal, Sportsplex, and KeySpan Park.

In the mid-1980s, restaurant mogul Horace Bullard proposed rebuilding Steeplechase Park. On the site bounded by West 15th and 19th Streets between Surf Avenue and the boardwalk, Bullard wanted to build a $55 million amusement park based on the originals. The city agreed, and the project was approved in 1985. Bullard planned to open the park by mid-1986 to coincide with the Statue of Liberty's centennial. However, the project was delayed while the New York City Planning Commission compiled an environmental impact report. By early 1987, the cost of the amusement park nearly doubled, to $100 million.

Thor Equities ownership and rezoning proposals.

In 2003, Mayor Michael Bloomberg took an interest in revitalizing Coney Island as a possible site for the New York City bid of the 2012 Summer Olympics. A plan was developed by the Astella Development Corporation. When the city lost the bid for the Olympics, revitalization plans were passed on to the Coney Island Development Corporation (CIDC), which came up with a plan to restore the resort. Shortly before the CIDC's plans were to be publicly released, a development company named Thor Equities purchased

Progress on expansion.

The Zipper and Spider on West 12th Street were closed permanently and dismantled in September 2007 after its owner lost his lease. The same year, plans to restore Coney Island's historic B&B Carousell were revealed. After Astroland closed in 2008, it was replaced by a new Dreamland in 2009 and by a new Luna Park in 2010. In April 2011, the first new roller coasters to be built at Coney Island in eighty years were opened as part of efforts to reverse the decline of the amusement area. The B&B Carousell reopened in 2013 at Luna Park. The Thunderbolt steel roller coaster, named after the original wooden coaster on the site, was opened in June 2014. Furthermore, a live performance venue, the Ford Amphitheater at Coney Island, opened on the boardwalk in 2016.  In 2012, Hurricane Sandy caused major damage to the Coney Island amusement parks, the Aquarium, and businesses. However, the Nathan's Hot Dog

Amusement parks and attractions.

Coney Island has two amusement parks, Luna Park and Deno's Wonder Wheel Amusement Park, as well as several rides that are not incorporated into either amusement park. These are owned and managed by several different companies and operate independently of each other. Coney Island also has several other visitor attractions such as skeeball and ball tossing, as well as a sideshow, that contains shooting, throwing, and tossing skills. The area hosts renowned events as well. Coney Island's amusement area is one of a few in the United States that is not mostly owned by any one entity.

Rides.

Current rides.

Coney Island contains three rides with landmark status. One is a New York City designated landmark, another is listed in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP), and a third is both a city landmark and a NRHP-listed landmark.  The Wonder Wheel, built in 1918 and opened in 1920, is a steel Ferris wheel with both stationary cars and rocking cars that slide along a track. It holds 144 riders, stands tall, weighs over, and is located at Deno's Wonder Wheel Amusement Park. The Wonder Wheel was made a city landmark in 1989.  The B&B Carousell (as spelled by the frame's builder, William F. Mangels) is Coney Island's last traditional carousel, near the old entrance to Luna Park. The carousel was built circa 1906–1909 with a traditional roll-operated fairground organ. It was relocated multiple times, most recently

Former rides.

Coney Island has had three major amusement parks in its past—Steeplechase Park (1897–1964), Luna Park (1903–1944), and Dreamland (1904–1911)—as well as several standalone attractions. In addition, Astroland operated at the site of the current Luna Park from 1962 to 2008, while a second Dreamland only operated for the 2009 season.  In addition to the rides in Coney Island's former amusement parks, there were also several dozen roller coasters that are now defunct. The Comet, next to the Cyclone's current site, was built in 1921 and destroyed in 1945. Another coaster, the Oriental Scenic Railway, was created by LaMarcus Adna Thompson in 1887, and was demolished in 1955

Beaches.

There is a broad public sand beach that starts at Sea Gate at West 37th Street, through the central Coney Island area and Brighton Beach, to the beginning of the community of Manhattan Beach, a distance of approximately. The beach is continuous and is served for its entire length by the broad Riegelmann Boardwalk. Numerous amusements, as well as the aquarium and a variety of food shops and arcades, are directly accessible from the landward side of the boardwalk. The boardwalk in Manhattan Beach, located within Manhattan Beach Park, is not connected with the Riegelmann Boardwalk.  The beaches in Coney Island used to be private until 1923, when the city bought all the land on the waterfront

Public parks.

There are several public parks in Coney Island, operated by the

Other attractions.

The New York Aquarium opened in 1957 on the former site of the Dreamland amusement park. It is located on 602 Surf Avenue between West 5th and West 10th Streets., the New York Aquarium consists of five exhibits: Aquatheater; Conservation Hall; Sea Cliffs; Sharks, Rays & Turtles; and Ocean Wonders: Sharks. The original Bathysphere, a deep-sea submersible that made historic journeys underwater in the 1930s, is on display at the aquarium.  KeySpan Park, located on the former site of Steeplechase Park, opened in 2001. It hosts the Brooklyn Cyclones minor league baseball team. In 2010, it was renamed

Events.

Coney Island USA sponsors various seasonal acts every year. In April, the organization hosts the Noisefest and the Congress of Curious Peoples. This is followed in May or June by the Coney Island Mermaid Parade, which takes place on Surf Avenue and the boardwalk, and features floats and performances. During August or September, Coney Island USA produces the Beard and Moustache Competition; Tattoo and Motorcycle Festival; and Coney Island Film Festival. The organization then hosts the Creepshow at the Freakshow, an interactive Halloween-themed event, in October.  The annual Cosme 5K Charity Run/Walk, supported by the Coney Island Sports Foundation, takes place on the Riegelmann Boardwalk toward the end of June.  A major national volleyball tournament hosted by the Association of Volleyball Professionals (AVP),

Demographics.

Based on data from the 2010 United States Census, the combined population of Coney Island and Sea Gate was 31,965, a decrease of 2,302 (6.7%) from the 34,267 counted in 2000. Covering an area of, the neighborhood had a population density of.  The racial makeup of the neighborhood was 32.2% (10,307) African American, 30.9% (9,880) White, 8.7% (2,793) Asian, 0.2% (78) Native American, 0.0% (4) Pacific Islander, 0.2% (67) from other races, and 1.5% (467) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 26.2% (8,369) of the population. 82% of the population were high school graduates and 40% had a bachelor's degree or higher.  The entirety of Community Board 13 had 106,459 inhabitants as of NYC Health's 2018

Police and crime.

Coney Island is patrolled by the NYPD's 60th Precinct, located at 2950 West Eighth Street. Transit District 34 is located at 1243 Surf Avenue, within the Coney Island–Stillwell Avenue subway station.  The 60th Precinct ranked 34th safest out of 69 patrol areas for per-capita crime in 2010. Between 1993 and 2010, major crimes decreased by 72%, including a 76% decrease in robberies, 71% decrease in felony assaults,

Fire safety.

The New York City Fire Department (FDNY) operates two firehouses

Health.

Preterm and teenage births are slightly more common in Coney Island than in other places citywide. In Coney Island, there were 95 preterm births per 1,000 live births (compared to 87 per 1,000 citywide), and 20.2 teenage births per 1,000 live births (compared to 19.3 per 1,000 citywide), slightly higher than in the median neighborhood. Coney Island has a high population of residents who are uninsured, or who receive healthcare through Medicaid. In 2018, this population of uninsured residents was estimated to be 14%, which is higher than the citywide rate of 12%.  The concentration of

Post offices and ZIP Codes.

Coney Island's primary ZIP Code is 11224, though the small portions located east of West 1st Street and Ocean Parkway are located in

Education.

Coney Island generally has a similar ratio of college-educated residents to the rest of the city. While 45% of residents age 25 and older have a college education or higher, 18% have less than a high school education and 37% are high school graduates or have some college education. By contrast, 40% of Brooklynites and 38% of city residents have a college education or higher. The percentage of Coney Island students excelling in math has been increasing, though reading achievement has declined; math achievement rose from 53 percent in 2000 to 72 percent in 2011, but reading achievement fell from 57 to 55 percent within the same time period.  Coney Island's rate of elementary school student absenteeism is higher than the rest of New York City. In Coney Island, 26% of elementary school students missed twenty or more days per school year, compared to the citywide average of 20% of students.

Elementary, middle, and high schools.

Coney Island is served by the New York City Department of Education, and students in the neighborhood are automatically "zoned" into the nearest public schools. The zoned schools for the main portion of Coney Island include:  IS 239, the Mark Twain School for the Gifted and Talented (6–8), is a magnet

Public library.

The Brooklyn Public Library (BPL)'s Coney Island branch is located at 1901 Mermaid Avenue, near the intersection with West 19th Street. It opened in 1911 as an unmanned deposit station. Ten years later, it

Transportation.

Coney Island is served by four New York City Subway stations. The Coney Island–Stillwell Avenue station, the terminal of the, is one of the largest elevated rapid transit stations in the world, with eight tracks serving four platforms. The entire station, built in 1917–1920 as a replacement for the former surface-level Culver Depot, was rebuilt in 2001–2004. The other subway stations within Coney Island are, served by the ;, served by the ; and, served by the.  A bus terminal beneath the Stillwell Avenue station serves the to Prospect Park, the to Sea Gate, the to Bay Ridge, and the to Starrett City. Additionally, the runs from Sea Gate to Sheepshead Bay. The provide express

In popular culture.

Coney Island has been featured in many novels, films, television shows, cartoons, and theatrical plays. This is linked to its iconic status as a vacation destination. Various slapstick comedies and films have been set at Coney Island or allude to it. There have also been several television documentaries about the area's history.

Coney Island is a residential and commercial neighborhood and entertainment area, located on a peninsula in the southwestern part of the borough of Brooklyn in New York City. The neighborhood is bounded by Manhattan Beach to its east, Lower New York Bay to the south and west, and Gravesend to the north, and includes the subsections of Sea Gate to its west and Brighton Beach to its east. Coney Island was formerly the westernmost of the Outer Barrier islands on the southern shore of Long Island, but in the early 20th century it became a peninsula, connected to the rest of Long Island by land fill.

康尼岛(英语:Coney Island),又译科尼岛,是位于美国纽约市布鲁克林区的半岛,原本为一座海岛,其面向大西洋的海滩是美国知名的休闲娱乐区域。居民大多集中位于半岛的西侧,约有六万人左右,范围西至希捷社区,东至布莱登海滩和曼哈顿海滩,而北至葛瑞福山德社区。


History.

A unit of measurement is a standardised quantity of a physical property, used as a factor to express occurring quantities of that property. Units of measurement were among the earliest tools invented by humans. Primitive societies needed rudimentary measures for many tasks: constructing dwellings of an appropriate size and shape, fashioning clothing, or bartering food or raw materials.  The earliest known uniform systems of measurement seem to have all been created sometime in the 4th and 3rd millennia BC among the ancient peoples of Mesopotamia, Egypt and the Indus Valley, and perhaps also Elam in Persia as well.  Weights and measures are mentioned in the Bible (Leviticus 19:35–36). It is a commandment to be honest and have fair measures.  In the "Magna Carta" of 1215 (The Great Charter) with the seal of King John, put before him by the Barons of England, King John agreed in Clause 35 "There shall be one measure of wine throughout our whole realm, and one measure of ale and one measure of corn—namely, the London quart;—and one width of dyed and russet and hauberk cloths—namely, two ells below the selvage..."  As of the 21st Century, multiple unit systems are used all over the world such as the United States Customary System, the British Customary System, and the International System. However, the United States is the only industrialized country that has not yet completely converted to the Metric System. The systematic effort to develop a universally acceptable system of units dates back to 1790 when the French National Assembly charged the French Academy of Sciences to come up such a unit system. This system was the precursor to the metric system which was quickly developed in France but did not take on universal acceptance until 1875 when The Metric Convention Treaty was signed by 17 nations. After this treaty was signed, a General Conference of Weights and Measures (CGPM) was established. The CGPM produced the current SI system which was adopted in 1954 at the 10th conference of weights and measures. Currently, the United States is a dual-system society which uses both the SI system and the US Customary system.

Systems of units.

The use of a single unit of measurement for some quantity has obvious drawbacks. For example, it is impractical to use the same unit for the distance between two cities and the length of a needle. Thus, historically they would develop independently. One way to make large numbers or small fractions easier to read, is to use unit prefixes.  At some point in time though, the need to relate the two units might arise, and consequently the need to choose one unit as defining the other or vice versa. For example, an inch could be defined in terms of a barleycorn. A system of measurement is a collection of units of measurement and rules relating them to each other.  As science progressed, a need arose to relate the measurement systems of different quantities, like length and weight and volume. The effort of attempting to relate different traditional systems between each other exposed many inconsistencies, and brought about the development of new units and systems.  The system of units varies from country to country and some of the different system of units are CGS system of units, FPS system of units, MKS system of units and SI system of units. Among the different system of units using in the world, the most widely used and internationally accepted one is the International System of Units, or SI system of units. In this SI units system, there are seven SI base units and three supplementary units. The base SI units are metre, kilogram, second, kelvin, ampere, candela and the mole and the three supplementary SI units are radian, steradian and becquerel. All other SI units can be derived from these base units.  Systems of measurement in modern use include the metric system, the imperial system, and United States customary units.

Traditional systems.

Historically many of the systems of measurement which had been in use were to some extent based on the dimensions of the human body. As a result, units of measure could vary not only from location to location, but from person to person.

Metric systems.

Metric systems of units have evolved since the adoption of the original metric system in France in 1791. The current international standard metric system is the International System of Units (abbreviated to SI). An important feature of modern systems is standardization. Each unit has a universally recognized size. Both the imperial units and US customary units derive from earlier English units. Imperial units were mostly used in the British Commonwealth and the former British Empire. US customary units are still the main system of measurement used in the United States outside of science, medicine, many sectors of industry, and some of government and military, and despite Congress having legally authorised metric measure on 28 July 1866. Some steps towards US metrication have been made, particularly the redefinition of basic US and imperial units to derive exactly from SI units. Since the international yard and pound agreement of 1959 the US and imperial inch is now defined as exactly, and the US and imperial avoirdupois pound is now defined as exactly.

Natural systems.

While the above systems of units are based on arbitrary unit values, formalised as standards, some unit values occur naturally in science. Systems of units based on these are called natural units. Similar to natural units, atomic units (au) are a convenient system of units of measurement used in atomic physics.  Also a great number of unusual and non-standard units may be encountered. These may include the solar mass (), the megaton (the energy released by detonating one million tons of trinitrotoluene, TNT) and the electronvolt.

Legal control of weights and measures.

To reduce the incidence of retail fraud, many national statutes have standard definitions of weights and measures that may be used (hence "statute measure"), and these are verified by legal officers.

Informal comparison to familiar concepts.

In informal settings, a quantity may be described as multiples of that of a familiar entity, which can be easier to contextualize than a value in a formal unit system. For instance, a publication may describe an area in a foreign country as a number of multiples of the area of a region local to the readership. The propensity for certain concepts to be used frequently can give rise to loosely defined "systems" of units.

Base and derived units.

For most quantities a unit is necessary to communicate values of that physical quantity. For example, conveying to someone a particular length without using some sort of unit is impossible, because a length cannot be described without a reference used to make sense of the value given.  But not all quantities require a unit of their own. Using physical laws, units of quantities can be expressed as combinations of units of other quantities. Thus only a small set of units is required. These units are taken as the "base units" and the other units are "derived units". Thus base units are the units of the quantities which are independent of other quantities and they are the units of length, mass, time, electric current, temperature, luminous intensity and the amount of substance. Derived units are the units of the quantities which are derived from the base quantities and some of the derived units are the units of speed, work, acceleration, energy, pressure etc.  Different systems of units are based on different choices of a set of related units including fundamental and derived units.

Calculations with units of measurement.

Units as dimensions.

Any value of a physical quantity is expressed as a comparison to a unit of that quantity. For example, the value of a physical quantity "Z" is expressed as the product of a unit [Z] and a numerical factor:  The multiplication sign is usually left out, just as it is left out between variables in scientific notation of formulas. The conventions used to express quantities is referred to as quantity calculus. In formulas the unit [Z] can be treated as if it were a specific magnitude of a kind of physical dimension: see dimensional analysis for more on this treatment.  Units can only be added or subtracted if they are the same type; however units can always be multiplied or divided, as George Gamow used to explain. Let formula_4 be "2 candlesticks" and formula_5 "3 cabdrivers", then  A distinction should be made between units and standards. A unit is fixed by its definition, and is independent of physical conditions such as temperature. By contrast, a standard is a physical realization of a unit, and realizes that unit only under certain physical conditions. For example, the metre is a unit, while a metal bar is a standard. One metre is the same length regardless of temperature, but a metal bar will be exactly one metre long only at a certain temperature.  There are certain rules that have to be used when dealing with units:

Expressing a physical value in terms of another unit.

Conversion of units involves comparison of different standard physical values, either of a single physical quantity or of a physical quantity and a combination of other physical quantities.  Starting with:  replace the original unit formula_9 with its meaning in terms of the desired unit formula_10, e.g. if formula_11, then:  Now formula_13 and formula_14 are both numerical values, so just calculate their product.  Or, which is just mathematically the same thing, multiply "Z" by unity, the product is still "Z":  For example, you have an expression for a physical value "Z" involving the unit "feet per second" (formula_9) and you want it in terms of the unit "miles per hour" (formula_10):  Or as an example using the metric system, you have a value of fuel economy in the unit "litres per 100 kilometres" and you want it in terms of the unit "microlitres per metre":

Real-world implications.

One example of the importance of agreed units is the failure of the NASA Mars Climate Orbiter, which was accidentally destroyed on a mission to Mars in September 1999 instead of entering orbit due to miscommunications about the value of forces: different computer programs used different units of measurement (newton versus pound force). Considerable amounts of effort, time, and money were wasted.  On 15 April 1999, Korean Air cargo flight 6316 from Shanghai to Seoul was lost due to the crew confusing tower instructions (in metres) and altimeter readings (in feet). Three crew and five people on the ground were killed. Thirty-seven were injured.  In 1983, a Boeing 767 (which thanks to its pilot's gliding skills landed safely and became known as the Gimli Glider) ran out of fuel in mid-flight because of two mistakes in figuring the fuel supply of Air Canada's first aircraft to use metric measurements. This accident was the result of both confusion due to the simultaneous use of metric and Imperial measures and confusion of mass and volume measures.  When planning his journey across the Atlantic Ocean in the 1480s, Columbus mistakenly assumed that the mile referred to in the Arabic estimate of 562⁄3 miles for the size of a degree was the same as the actually much shorter Italian mile of 1,480 meters. His estimate for the size of the degree and for the circumference of the Earth was therefore about 25% too small.

A unit of measurement is a definite magnitude of a quantity, defined and adopted by convention or by law, that is used as a standard for measurement of the same kind of quantity. Any other quantity of that kind can be expressed as a multiple of the unit of measurement. For example, a length is a physical quantity. The metre is a unit of length that represents a definite predetermined length. When we say 10 metres (or 10 m), we actually mean 10 times the definite predetermined length called "metre". Measurement is a process of determining how large or small a physical quantity is as compared to a basic reference quantity of the same kind.

单位系指给定的某一基础物理量,单位的给定皆属人为。常伴随着某种表示法,例如米、秒、公斤等,以方便人们在沟通某一量时有共通的概念。


Course.

The headwaters of the Scheldt are in Gouy, in the Aisne department of northern France. It flows north through Cambrai and Valenciennes, and enters Belgium near Tournai. Ghent developed at the confluence of the Lys, one of its main tributaries, and the Scheldt, which then turns east. Near Antwerp, the largest city on its banks, the Scheldt flows west into the Netherlands toward the North Sea.  Originally there were two branches from that point: the Oosterschelde (Eastern Scheldt); and the Westerschelde (Western Scheldt). In the 19th century, however, the Dutch built a dyke that cuts the river off from its eastern (northern) branch and connects Zuid-Beveland with the mainland (North Brabant). Today the river continues into the Westerschelde estuary only, passing Terneuzen to reach the North Sea between Breskens in Zeelandic Flanders and Vlissingen (Flushing) on Walcheren.  The Scheldt is an important waterway, and has been made navigable from its mouth up to Cambrai. Above Cambrai, the Canal de Saint-Quentin follows its course. The port of Antwerp, the second-largest in Europe, developed on its banks. Several canals (including the Albert Canal) connect the Scheldt with the basins of the Rhine, Meuse, and Seine rivers, and with the industrial areas around Brussels, Liège, Lille, Dunkirk, and Mons.  The Scheldt flows through the following departments of France, provinces of Belgium, provinces of the Netherlands, and towns:

History.

The Scheldt estuary has always had considerable commercial and strategic importance. In Roman times, it was important for the shipping lanes to Roman Britain. Nehalennia was venerated at its mouth. The Franks took control over the region about the year 260 and at first interfered with the Roman supply routes as pirates. Later they became allies of the Romans. With the various divisions of the Frankish Empire in the 9th century, the Scheldt eventually became the border between the Western and Eastern parts of the Empire, which later became France and the Holy Roman Empire. This status quo remained intact, at least on paper, until 1528, but by then, both the County of Flanders on the western bank and Zeeland and the Duchy of Brabant on the east were part of the Habsburg possessions of the Seventeen Provinces. Antwerp was the most prominent harbour in Western Europe. After this city fell back under Spanish control in 1585, the Dutch Republic took control of Zeelandic Flanders, a strip of land on the left bank, and closed the Scheldt for shipping. That shifted the trade to the ports of Amsterdam and Middelburg and seriously crippled Antwerp, an important and traumatic element in the history of relations between the Netherlands and what was to become Belgium.  Access to the river was the subject of the brief Kettle War of 1784, and during the French Revolution shortly afterwards, the river was reopened in 1792. Once Belgium had claimed its independence from the Netherlands in 1830, the treaty of the Scheldt determined that the river should remain accessible to ships heading for Belgian ports. Nevertheless, the Dutch government would demand a toll from passing vessels until 16 July 1863.  "The Question of the Scheldt", a study providing "a history of the international legal arrangements governing the Western Scheldt", was prepared for the use of British negotiators at the Treaty of Versailles in 1919.  In the Second World War, the Scheldt estuary once again became a contested area. Despite Allied control of Antwerp, German forces still occupied fortified positions in September 1944 throughout the Scheldt estuary west and north, preventing any Allied shipping from reaching the port. In the Battle of the Scheldt, the Canadian First Army successfully cleared the area, allowing supply convoys direct access to the port of Antwerp by November 1944.

Navigation.

Canalisation from Cambrai down to Valenciennes was completed in 1788. Napoleon saw the benefits of linking Paris to Belgium and accelerated completion of the Canal de Saint-Quentin to the south. The locks were deepened and doubled, as coal became the essential commodity of the industrial revolution. Upgrading downstream from Bouchain was started in the 1960s in both France and Flanders, but the waterway is still not fully compliant with European standards. All the locks on the high-capacity section are being doubled by European Class Vb size locks,, as part of the overall European Seine-Scheldt waterway project. The Pont des Trous, a listed fortified bridge in Tournai that has already been substantially modified, will again be raised to provide the necessary dimensions, including an air draught of.  The 13 km section between Cambrai (connection with Canal de Saint-Quentin) and Hordain (connection with Canal de la Sensée) is only navigable for small ships (péniche) and has 5 locks.

In culture.

Traditions says that Saint Amalberga of Temse crossed the river in Temse on the back of a big Sturgeon.

The Scheldt (,,, ) is a river that flows through in northern France, western Belgium, and the southwestern part of the Netherlands, with its mouth at the North Sea. Its name is derived from an adjective corresponding to Old English "" ("shallow"), Modern English "shoal", Low German "schol", West Frisian "skol", and Swedish (obsolete) "skäll" ("thin").

斯海尔德河(,)又译斯凯尔特河、须耳德河,也依法语译作埃斯科河(,),发源于法国埃纳省,流经比利时,最终在荷兰注入北海,全长350公里。


History.

From about 1840, the Prussian military urgently sought a railway connection to the Russian border for strategic reasons. The railway was also seen from the early years as a means of developing the underdeveloped areas of East Prussia and Pomerania. A lack of interest from the private sector led King Frederick William IV to initiate in 1845 preparatory work for the construction of the Eastern Railway. Construction was stopped, as the members of the provincial diet ("Provinziallandtag") of East Prussia refused consent for the king to borrow for the project. This vote was confirmed in the United Diet ("Vereinigter Landtag"), the first parliamentary body covering all of Prussia, which was convened in April 1847 and subsequently dissolved. Members voted by a two-thirds majority against authorising a government loan for the Eastern Railway project.  Only the events of the March Revolution of 1848 and the appointment of the banker, August von der Heydt as the Prussian Minister of Commerce and Industry—and therefore responsible for railways—led to progress on the issue. In August 1849, Von der Heydt laid before the diet a draft law for the construction of the Eastern Railway, which was adopted on 7 December 1849.  Previously, on 5 November 1849, the Railway division of the Eastern Railway ("Königliche Direktion der Ostbahn") had been established in Bromberg. Minister von der Heydt then initiated the restart of the construction of the Eastern Railway with funds from the "Railway Fund".

Construction of the main line.

In 1848, construction had already been completed of the main line of the private Stargard-Posen Railway Company ("Stargard-Posener Eisenbahn"), between Stargard and Posen (Poznań). This line is now part of the Poznań–Szczecin railway. In the middle of the line near the village of Lukatz, a railway station was created at a junction of a line to Kustrin (Kostrzyn nad Odrą). From this same station, the first 145 km long section of the Eastern Railway was built via Schneidemühl (Piła Główna) to Bromberg; this was opened on 27 July 1851. The station near Lukatz was later called "Kreuz" (cross), which, from 1936, was the official name of the town. It became an important railway junction. It is now called Krzyż Wielkopolski in Polish. The continuation of the first section via Dirschau (Tczew) to Danzig (161 km) was completed on 6 August 1852. During this time, trains between Kreuz and Berlin ran via the Berlin-Stettin railway and the Stargard–Posen line.  Beyond the Nogat and Vistula rivers, the railway continued to be built from Marienburg (Malbork) via Elbing (Elbląg) to Braunsberg (Braniewo) (83.75 km); it was opened on 19 October 1852. It was extended to Königsberg (62 km) on 2 August 1853. After the completion of the railway bridges over the Vistula in September 1857 and over the Nogat on 12 October 1857, the 18 km long Dirschau (Tczew)–Malbork line was completed. At the same time, the 29 km long direct line from Frankfurt (Oder) via Lebus to Küstrin as well as the 105 km line from Küstrin via Landsberg an der Warthe (Gorzów Wielkopolski) to Kreuz was opened. Berlin was therefore reached by a shorter route via the Lower Silesian-Märkische Railway ("Niederschlesisch-Märkische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft", NME). The Prussian state railways acquired a stake in the NME and took over its management in 1850 and purchased the remaining shares of the railway in 1852. In 1853, Edward Wiebe was the Director of the Railway division of the Eastern Railway in Bromberg. Already in the 1840s, he had been involved in planning the line and since 1849 he had been in the technical management of the Railway division of the Eastern Railway. One of his successors was Albert von Maybach (1863–1867), previously Chairman of the Board of the Upper Silesian Railway ("Oberschlesische Eisenbahn").  On 1 October 1866, an 18 km of the line was opened towards Berlin from Küstrin to Gusow and, on 1 October 1867, the last 64 km section of the direct line between Berlin and Königsberg was opened from Gusow to Berlin East station ("Berlin Ostbahnhof") via Strausberg.  The line was extended from Königsberg on 6 June 1860 to Insterburg (Polish: Wystruć, Russian: Черняхо́вск) via Gumbinnen (Polish: Gąbin, Russian: Гу́сев), Trakehnen (Polish: Jasna Polana, Russian: Я́сная Поля́на) and Stalluponen (Nesterov, Russian: Не́стеров) and extended to Eydtkuhnen (Chernyshevskoye, Russian: Черныше́вское) on the Russian frontier on 15 August 1860, a total distance of 153 km. Transhipments and transfers took place at the station over the border then called Virbalis in Lithuanian (German: Wirballen, Russian: Verzhbolovo, Вержболово, Polish: Wierzbałowo), now called Kybartai. Later the gauge-conversion of carriages on through trains to the broad gauge tracks of the Russian Railways was carried out there. In 1871, the 34 km shorter Schneidemühl–Konitz–Dirschau (now Tczew) line was built parallel, bypassing Bromberg. After the completion of these sections work began with duplicating the line from Küstrin east. The route from Berlin to Kustrin however, was already duplicated. In addition, there were several sections of line built parallel with the main line over short sections.  In 1882, the Silesian station ("Schlesischer Bahnhof") was opened as the new terminus for the line in Berlin and the old East Station was closed.

Importance to Prussia.

Once completed to the east, the Eastern Railway line opened up the Prussian provinces from Berlin. Freight traffic exceeded projections by several times. This was mostly made up of agricultural products such as livestock, grain and vegetables. The disruption of river traffic by the frequent low water levels in the Oder, Vistula and Warta rivers or their freezing in the winter months led to periodic spikes in freight traffic on the Eastern Railway.  The Eastern Railway itself was also a significant economic factor. Its construction during an economic crisis created jobs on a large scale. At the height of its construction in June 1851, 12,000 workers were employed on building its track. The Royal Railway division of the Eastern Railway in Bromberg (Bydgoszcz) established ten operating offices in Berlin, Schneidemühl (Piła), Stolp (Słupsk), Danzig (Gdańsk), Königsberg, Allenstein (Olsztyn), Thorn (Toruń), Bromberg (Bydgoszcz), Stettin (Szczecin) and Posen (Poznań). In 1880, its rolling stock included 265 passenger and express locomotives, 320 freight locomotives and 93 tank locomotives.  A local railway industry was established to supply the Eastern Railway. In 1855, the "Union-Gießerei" (foundry) Königsberg began to build locomotives; the Schichau-Werke (works) of Ferdinand Schichau of Elbing followed its example in 1860. The Königsberg agricultural equipment manufacturer L. Steinfurt built freight wagons and passenger carriages.  Further independent railway divisions were created in Bromberg, Danzig, Königsberg and Posen under the reorganisation of the Prussian state railways in 1895.  The Eastern Railway was at the time one of the major long-distance rail routes in Europe and one of the main axes for east-west traffic. Several international trains ran on it, including the legendary luxury train, the Nord Express, the latter in the "golden age" before the First World War.  The development of the main railways and branch lines extended the network to 4,833 route kilometers in 1895. At this time Berlin was served by seven daily long-distance freight trains from eastern Germany and, in long-distance passenger traffic, fifteen trains ran daily to East Prussia. Since 1892, “D-trains” (D-Züge: long-distance expresses) also ran on the Eastern Railway.

Reichsbahn era.

After the First World War the Prussian state railways, including the Eastern Railway, along with the other German state railways were incorporated into the newly created Deutsche Reichsbahn. Under the Treaty of Versailles the Polish Corridor was created in 1919, separating the Free City of Danzig and East Prussia from Germany, leaving East Prussia as an exclave. The Eastern Railway line became a major transit link between East Prussia and the rest of Germany. This caused a bottleneck at the bridge over the Vistula to the south of Danzig near Dirschau, now Tczew under Polish control. Conflicts over the use of the railway during the interwar period were declared by Nazi Germany as part of the causes of World War II.  By contrast, the over 1,000 metre-long steel bridge built between 1905 and 1909 over the Vistula near Münsterwalde (Polish: Most w Opaleniu) was dismantled from 1927 to 1929, because the Poles had no use for a bridge to the East Prussian city of Marienwerder (Kwidzyn).  In the summer 1939 timetable four pairs of express trains, twelve D-trains and a pair of long-distance transit trains between Berlin and Königsberg operated on the line. The latter required a travel time of 6 hours and 36 minutes for the 590 kilometre long line from Königsberg to Berlin Silesian station.  The railway network of the former East Prussian province in 1937 had a length of 4,176 kilometers. On 22 January 1945, the last train ran from Königsberg to Berlin; after that no continuous rail traffic ran on this line.

Current situation.

Since 1991 the term "Ostbahn" (Eastern Railway) has again been used to appeal to the nostalgia of tourists wishing to travel along parts of the former line.  Substantial boundary changes were made as a result of the German defeat in World War II, so that the only part of the former Eastern Railway to remain in Germany is the section from Berlin to the Oder River near Küstrin. This, along with the sections now located on Polish or Russian territory, is mostly operated as a single-track branch line. Some formerly important international stations, such as Eydtkuhnen, no longer exist or have only a very minor role. The only international long-distance train on the Eastern Railway in recent years was the D-448/449 night train ("Stanislaw Moniuszko"), linking Berlin-Lichtenberg and Warsaw, which ran on the line as far as Piła Główna until 2009. Additionally, through carriages ran on the line to Gdynia, Kaliningrad and Krakow.

Germany.

The section within the current borders of Germany that connects Berlin with the Polish border near Küstrin-Kietz is now a largely single-track non-electrified main line, part of the tariff zone of the Verkehrsverbund Berlin-Brandenburg (Berlin-Brandenburg Transport Association) and has been operated by Niederbarnimer Eisenbahn since 10 December 2006 with Bombardier Talent diesel multiple units. On 22 December 2006, the line speed was restored to 120 km/h between the 75.0 and 80.7 kilometre points for the first time in 60 years. This did not affect travel times or the timetable, but the change is considered a sign of an incipient upgrade of the Eastern Railway.

Poland.

The line in Poland from Kostrzyn to Piła is double track except for a short section at the eastern exit of Gorzów station. The line is single track from Piła to Gutowiec. The line is now duplicated again from Gutowiec to Bogaczewo. It is single track from Bogaczewo to the national border with Russia in Braniewo. From Elbląg to Kaliningrad, a Russian broad gauge track was laid next to the standard gauge track; this has been dismantled between Elbląg and Bogaczewo. This track is still present in Młynary, but unused. Between Chrusciel and Braniewo the ballast is missing and it is not usable. From Tczew to Bogaczewo the line is operated with electric trains. As the line passes through a sparsely populated area, far from urban areas, the Eastern Railway here only carries minor traffic.

Russia.

The short section of line from Kaliningrad to Kybartai in Lithuania is the only part of the former Eastern Railway that still has an important function, as it is the transit route from Kaliningrad to the Russian heartland. It belongs to the Kaliningrad Railway and has been rebuilt to Russian gauge. The station with controls at the Lithuanian border is now Nesterov, since the former border station at Chernyshevskoye was completely dismantled after Lithuania was annexed by the Soviet Union and border controls were abolished. Russian Railways now plans to rebuild the border station at Chernyshevskoye because Nesterov station does not provide sufficient capacity. The section from Mamonovo ("Heiligenbeil") until shortly before Kaliningrad has a main track in Russian broad gauge and formerly had a standard gauge track. While the broad gauge track follows the traditional route from the west to Kaliningrad South Station (formerly "Königsberg Hauptbahnhof"), the other track diverted south around the city and reached the station from the east.

Branch and spur railway lines.

An important branch of the line was the 290 km long line between Thorn and Insterburg (Russian: Chernyakhovsk, Черняхо́вск) created in 1871–1873 after Thorn was connected with Bromberg in 1861.  Founded in 1846, the Stargard-Posen Railway Company ("Stargard-Posener Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft", SPE) built a 170 km-long single-track main line, which connected the two provincial capitals of Stettin and Posen. The route crossed the main line of the Eastern Railway at Kreuz station. Because the company's revenue in the early days did not meet expectations, the government took over the SPE in 1851 and placed it in the Royal Railway Division of the Eastern Railroad in Bromberg, then in 1857 it was also temporarily managed by the state-owned Upper Silesian Railway ("Oberschlesischen Eisenbahn"). It was formally nationalised on 1 January 1883, although the company name was still used in July 1886. Other important lines of the Eastern Railroad were:

Berlin suburban line.

While the traffic to the east was limited mostly to long-distance services, upgrading of the line began in Berlin. First, the tracks of the Berlin Ringbahn (the circular railway, the eastern section of which opened in 1871), the Lower Silesian-Märkische Railway ("Niederschlesisch-Märkische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft") from Frankfurt (Oder) and the Eastern Railway connected at a level junction near Stralau Rummelsburg station. From 1 May 1888, trains could run through the Silesian Station over the Berlin Stadtbahn to the centre of Berlin and the lines to its west. Shortly afterwards another pair of tracks was added to the northern half of the Ringbahn to allow suburban trains to run independently of long-distance traffic.  The interweaving of long-distance and suburban tracks at the junction of the Lower Silesian-Märkische railway and the Eastern Railway led to increasing congestion. The location of the intersection with the Ringbahn had insufficient space, so a new grade-separated junction was built on the main line from Frankfurt (Oder) 2 km away at Rummelsburg depot. From there a line ran to the northeast to connect with the main line just to the west of Kaulsdorf. An additional platform was opened at Kaulsdorf station in 1901 for the traffic on this line, known as the VnK line. “Vn” may have stood for "Verbindung nach" (connection to) or "von und nach" (from and to) while K probably stood for Kaulsdorf or Küstrin. The old platform was left on the original line for suburban services to the Ringbahn. To the west of this was the link with the Stadtbahn suburban tracks. In 1903, a separate pair of suburban tracks was laid next to the Frankfurt (Oder) line between the intersection of the long-distance lines at Rummelsburg and the start of the Stadtbahn. This required a grade-separation of the Stadtbahn tracks with the link to the Silesian station.  The junction of the Ringbahn with the Stadtbahn and Stralau Rummelsburg station were entirely rebuilt in 1903. The two east–west lines and the Ringbahn were each given a platform for suburban traffic. This development made Stralau-Rummelsburg station one of the biggest stations in Berlin. In 1933 its name was changed to Ostkreuz.  In the mid-1920s, extensive electrification began on the Berlin suburban lines. Electrification of the Eastern Railway was completed on 6 November 1928. Operation of a mixture of steam and electric trains continued until January 1929. On 15 December 1930, the suburban services were designated as S-Bahn services as far as Mahlsdorf station. The long-distance platform was removed at Kaulsdorf station.  The Germania plan of the Nazis envisioned a comprehensive upgrading of the line. The train was to be extended to Strausberg or Rüdersdorf south of the line. Another pair of long-distance tracks would have been built as far as the Berlin city limits at Mahlsdorf. Since the Eastern Railway was a strategically important route on the basis of its orientation, work continued on this project despite the outbreak of the Second World War. In 1944, the predominantly suburban single-track line to Strausberg was put into operation, but services continued to be operated with steam trains. Electrical operations commenced in 1947-1948 in four stages. The S-Bahn route was later extended on a newly built branch line to Strausberg Nord.  In 1989, the U-Bahn line E (now U 5) was extended over the VnK line to Wuhletal station. It is the only station in Berlin where it is possible to transfer between S-Bahn and U-Bahn services on the same platform. In 1992, Birkenstein station was opened between Mahlsdorf and Hoppegarten. At the same time a second S-Bahn track went into operation on this section.

The Prussian Eastern Railway () was the railway in the Kingdom of Prussia and later Germany until 1918. Its main route, approximately long, connected the capital, Berlin, with the cities of Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland) and Königsberg (now Kaliningrad, Russia). At Eydtkuhnen (now Chernyshevskoye, Russia) it reached the German Empire's border with the Russian Empire. The first part of the line opened in 1851, reaching Eydtkuhnen in 1860. By March 1880 the total route length reached, with a main parallel route in the south via Bromberg (now Bydgoszcz, Poland) and Thorn (now Toruń, Poland) to Insterburg (now Chernyakhovsk, Russia). The lines were the first part of the later Prussian State Railways ().

普鲁士东方铁路()是一条普鲁士王国的铁路,后来成为德国的铁路,直至1918年为止。主线约长740公里,连接首都柏林、但泽(格但斯克)及柯尼斯堡(加里宁格勒)。铁路直达车尔尼雪夫斯科耶(车尔尼雪夫斯科耶),是德意志帝国与俄罗斯帝国的边界。铁路首段在1851年启用,并在1860年到达Eydtkuhnen。到了1880年3月,总长已达2210公里,南侧一条平行路线经布龙贝格(比得哥什)、托伦至因斯特堡。此线是后来成为普鲁士国家铁路的第一个部分。


History.

The oblast was created as part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic on September 22, 1937 out of territories of Vinnytsia and Kiev oblasts as well as two border okrugs of Kiev Oblast – Korosten Okrug and Novohrad-Volynsky Okrug.  The oblast covers territories of the historic regions of Polesia, Volhynia, and Podolia, which are reflected on the oblast's coat of arms.  Before the 18th century bigger half of the oblast belonged to the Kiev (Kijow) Voivodeship, while smaller western half around the city of Zviahel (Novohrad-Volynskyi) belonged to the Volhynian (Wolyn) Voivodeship. Following the treaty of Andrusovo, the city of Zhytomyr (Zytomierz) continued to act as an administrative center of the Kiev Voivodeship.  Following the second partition of Poland, on the newly annexed territory was formed oversized Izyaslav Vice-royalty (namestnichestvo) which included former Polish territories in Volhynia, Podolia, and Kiev land and centered in Izyaslav. However couple of years later the Russian Empire annexed more territories of the Polish Kingdom during the third partition of Poland contributing to the complete disappearance of the Polish statehood. The Izyaslav Vice-royalty was reformed and the territory of today's Zhytomyr Oblast predominantly ended up in the Russian Volhynian Governorate and the city of Zviahel which was renamed as Novohrad-Volynskyi (Novograd-Volynskiy) became its administrative center. Later the administrative center was transferred to the bigger city of Zhytomyr (Zhitomir).

Geography.

The total area of Zhytomyr Oblast is.  Among the points of interest it is important to mention the following sites that were nominated for the Seven Wonders of Ukraine:  The Museum of Ukrainian home icons, which is the only one in Europe, is situated in Zhytomyr Oblast. It is located in Radomyshl, a small town, about away from Kiev. The museum is the part of the Radomysl Castle historical and cultural complex. It was founded by Olga Bogomolets.

Population.

The current estimated population of the oblast is 1,268,903 (as of 2013). Zhytomyr Oblast is the most important center of Polish minority in Ukraine, which is numbered there at 49,000.

Economy.

The economy of Zhytomyr Oblast mostly deals with mining of granite and other construction stone, forestry, agriculture and various machinery manufacturing.  The northern part of the province is highly affected by the Chernobyl disaster: some of the towns and raions are devastated and are included in the Chernobyl zone, while others are prohibited from producing their own agriculture.

Administrative divisions.

Zhytomyr Oblast is subdivided into 23 raions (districts), and 5 of its cities are designated as separate raions within the oblast.  The districts of Zhytomyr oblast include:

Important cities.

Important cities of Zhytomyr Oblast include:

Nomenclature.

Most of Ukraine's oblasts are named after their capital cities, officially referred to as "oblast centers" (, translit. "oblasnyi tsentr"). The name of each oblast is a relative adjective, formed by adding a feminine suffix to the name of respective center city: "Zhytomyr" is the center of the "Zhytomyrs'ka oblast"' (Zhytomyr Oblast). Most oblasts are also sometimes referred to in a feminine noun form, following the convention of traditional regional place names, ending with the suffix "-shchyna", as is the case with Zhytomyr Oblast, "Zhytomyrshchyna".

Zhytomyr Oblast (, translit. "Zhytomyrs’ka oblast’"; also referred to as Zhytomyrshchyna - "") is an oblast (province) of northern Ukraine. The administrative center of the oblast is the city of Zhytomyr. Its population is approximately.

日托米尔州()是乌克兰北部的一州。总面积29,832平方公里,2011年总人口1,266,938。首府日托米尔。


Early life.

Jones was born Geethali Norah Jones Shankar on March 30, 1979 in Manhattan, New York, to American concert producer Sue Jones and Bengali musician Ravi Shankar.  After her parents separated in 1986, Jones lived with her mother, growing up in Grapevine, Texas. She attended Colleyville Middle School and Grapevine High School before transferring to Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Dallas. Her music took its first form early on in the local Methodist Church where she regularly sang solos. While in high school, she sang in the school choir, participated in band, and played the alto saxophone. At the age of 16, with both parents' consent, she officially changed her name to Norah Jones.<ref name="https://www.npr.org/2013/10/20/237107030/anoushka-shankar-and-norah-jones-half-sisters-collaborate-at-last"></ref>  Jones always had an affinity for the music of Bill Evans and Billie Holiday, among other "oldies". She once said, "My mom had this eight-album Billie Holiday set; I picked out one disc that I liked and played that over and over again".  As a child, Jones began singing in church and also took piano and voice lessons. She still attends church. She considers herself spiritual and appreciates the rituals of her church but does not consider herself deeply religious.  She attended Interlochen Center for the Arts during the summers. While at high school, she won the "Down Beat" Student Music Awards for Best Jazz Vocalist (twice, in 1996 and 1997) and Best Original Composition (1996).  Jones attended the University of North Texas (UNT), where she majored in jazz piano and sang with the UNT Jazz Singers. During this time, she had a chance meeting with future collaborator Jesse Harris. She gave a ride to a band playing at the university whose members happened to be friends of Harris. He was on a cross-country road trip with friend and future Little Willies member Richard Julian, and stopped to see the band play. After meeting Jones, Harris started sending her lead sheets of his songs.  In 1999, Jones left Texas for New York City. Less than a year later, she started a band with Harris, and her recordings with them were bestsellers.

Musical career.

Jones was a lounge singer before becoming a recording artist. Before releasing her first album, she performed with Wax Poetic, Peter Malick, and jazz guitarist Charlie Hunter.

2000: The Peter Malick Group Session, "New York City".

As Peter Malick states in the liner notes, "I started looking for a singer who might be open to recording [my latest songs] for me. On a Tuesday night, I walked into the Living Room just as the singer announced the last song of the set. The Dinah Washington classic 'Since I Fell for You' filled the room and I was struck breathless. Here, in the tradition of Billie Holiday, was a stunningly beautiful, blues infused voice. This was my first contact with Norah Jones." Malick asked her to participate in sessions at Room 9 from Outer Space in South Boston, Massachusetts during August and September 2000. They recorded Malick's songs "New York City", "Strange Transmissions", "Deceptively Yours" and "Things You Don't Have to Do" in addition to cover versions of "All Your Love" by Sam Maghett and "Heart of Mine" by Bob Dylan. These songs became the album "New York City" (Koch, 2003) by the Peter Malick Group Featuring Norah Jones.

2001–2003: "First Sessions" and "Come Away with Me".

After moving to New York City, Jones signed to Blue Note, a label owned by EMI Group. The signing came as an indirect result of her performing as lead singer for the JC Hopkins Biggish Band. Shell White, who was the wife of J. C. Hopkins, worked for EMI Publishing and gave Jones's three-track demo to Bruce Lundvall, the label's president, and Brian Bacchus, its artists and repertoire agent (A&R). The demo contained two jazz standards and a song by Jesse Harris. The two executives agreed that Jones had potential. Despite their misgivings about the direction of her music, they signed her to the label. Bacchus told "HitQuarters", "We let her find her own direction...We knew that if she could develop her songwriting and we could find great songs, it would work."  Bacchus thought producer and engineer Jay Newland's experience in jazz, blues, rock, country, and folk music would give a "feeling for her sound." Jones and Newland recorded nine demo tracks. Four appeared on the sampler "First Sessions" (2001). The rest were set aside for her debut album. "Come Away with Me" (2002) was praised for its blend of acoustic pop with soul and jazz. Debuting at No. 139, it reached No. 1 on the U.S. "Billboard" 200. The single "Don't Know Why" hit No. 1 on the Top 40 Adult Recurrents in 2003 and No. 30 in the "Billboard" Hot 100 Singles Chart.  At the 45th Grammy Awards in 2003, Jones was nominated for eight Grammy Awards and won five: Best New Artist, Album of the Year, Best Pop Vocal Album, Record of the Year, and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for "Don't Know Why". This tied Lauryn Hill and Alicia Keys for most Grammy Awards received by a female artist in one night. Jesse Harris won Song of the Year for "Don't Know Why" while Arif Mardin won Producer of the Year. The album won Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical. "Come Away with Me" was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for having sold one million copies. In February 2005, it was certified diamond for selling ten million copies.

2004–2006: "Feels Like Home" and collaboration with Ray Charles.

"Feels Like Home" (2004) debuted at No. 1 in at least 16 countries. At the 47th Grammy Awards in 2005, the album was nominated for three Grammys, winning one, Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for "Sunrise". For "Here We Go Again", a duet with Ray Charles, she won Record of the Year and Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals. "Time" magazine named Jones one of the most influential people of 2004.

2007–2008: "Not Too Late" and film debut.

Jones released her third album, "Not Too Late", on January 30, 2007. The album was the first for which she wrote or co-wrote every song. She has said some of these songs are much darker than those on her previous albums. "Not Too Late" was mostly recorded at Jones' home studio. It is her first album without producer Arif Mardin, who died in the summer of 2006. Jones described the sessions as "fun, relaxed and easy" and without a deadline; Blue Note executives reportedly did not know she was recording an album. The song "My Dear Country" is political commentary; she wrote it before the United States Presidential election day in 2004.  "Not Too Late" reached the No. 1 position in twenty countries. "Not Too Late" had the third-best first week of sales in 2007, behind Avril Lavigne's "The Best Damn Thing" and Linkin Park's "Minutes to Midnight". It reached No. 1 in the U.S., selling 405,000 copies. EMI announced that "Not Too Late" reached gold, platinum or multi-platinum in 21 countries as of February 2007. The album has sold 4 million copies worldwide. That same year she sang "American Anthem" for the Ken Burns documentary "The War".  Jones made her film debut in 2007 in the romance/drama film "My Blueberry Nights", directed by Wong Kar Wai, co-starring Jude Law, David Strathairn, Rachel Weisz and Natalie Portman. Jones as Elizabeth is a young woman who goes on a soul-searching journey across the US to resolve her questions about love, and finds along the way a series of curious characters. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2007 and in the United States in April 2008.

2009–2011: "The Fall" and "...Featuring ".

Jones' fourth studio album, "The Fall", debuted at No. 3 on the "Billboard" 200 in November 2009, selling 180,000 copies in its first week. Although it was her first album that did not reach No. 1 in the United States it did receive critical acclaim. As part of the promotional drive for the album, Jones performed on "Dancing with the Stars", "Late Show with David Letterman", "Good Morning America" and other television programs.  "The Fall" featured a St. Bernard on the cover; his name is Ben. The album's lead single, "Chasing Pirates", peaked at No. 13 on Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks and No. 7 on Jazz Songs.  "Billboard"s 2000–2009 decade awards ranked Jones as the top jazz recording artist, at No. 60 best Artist. "Come Away With Me" was elected the No. 4 album and No. 1 jazz album. Jones earned a platinum certification by the RIAA for sales of 1 million copies of "The Fall". The album sold 1.5 million copies worldwide and was certified gold or platinum in 14 countries as of 2010. "Baby, It's Cold Outside", a duet with Willie Nelson, was nominated in the Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals category.  In 2009, Jones performed "Come Away With Me" and "Young Blood" at the end of the Apple Inc.'s It's Only Rock and Roll press conference on September 9 in San Francisco, for the release of iTunes 9 and video camera-equipped iPods, among other items She also made a guest appearance and performed with other artists on the season three finale of the NBC series "30 Rock"  Jones started her fourth world tour on March 5, 2010.  Jones released "...Featuring", a compilation album of collaborations she has done with well-known musicians, including the Foo Fighters, Willie Nelson, Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Outkast, Q-Tip, Talib Kweli, Belle and Sebastian, Ray Charles, Ryan Adams, Dolly Parton, Herbie Hancock, M. Ward, and others. Jones said, "It's so exciting and flattering and fun when I get asked to sing with somebody that I admire... It takes you a little bit out of your comfort zone when you're doing something with another artist. You don't know what to expect—it's kind of like being a little kid and having a playdate." The 18-track Blue Note disc was released on November 16, 2010.  Jones recorded a Christmas duet, "Home for the Holidays", with Cyndi Lauper.  As a tribute to Steve Jobs, Jones appeared on the Apple Campus in October 2011, performing "Nearness of You" and "Painter Song." She finished her live, three-song set by performing Bob Dylan's "Forever Young" in honor of Jobs, because "he liked Bob Dylan".

2012–2015: "Little Broken Hearts".

After working with Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi on some of the tracks for their album "Rome", Jones worked with Danger Mouse again on her fifth studio album, "Little Broken Hearts", which was released on May 1, 2012. She played the album in its entirety at SXSW 2012. "American Songwriter" called "Little Broken Hearts" the "most dramatic and rewarding departure she's made in her career."  On May 25, 2012, she began her fifth world tour in Paris, with performances in Europe, North America, Asia, South America, and Australia. She performed in London at the Roundhouse on September 10, 2012, as part of the iTunes Festival which was broadcast on the internet. She toured three cities in India for the first time because her father wanted her to do so. She also performed a headlining performance at Summer's Day, music festival produced by Only Much Louder. The tour started at Summer's Day in Mumbai on March 3 and included stops in New Delhi on March 5 and Bangalore on March 8.  In September 2012, she appeared in "30 Songs/30 Days" to support "", a multi-platform media project inspired by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn's book.  On May 6, 2015, Jones sang "Don't Know Why" on "The Late Show with David Letterman", as she had thirteen years before for her first appearance on the Letterman show. The episode was broadcast within two weeks of Letterman's retirement as host. During the same year, she sang "Little Bird" and "God Only Knows" at Brian Fest.

2016–present: "Day Breaks".

"Day Breaks", which included nine new songs and three cover versions, was released on October 7, 2016. "Carry On", the album's lead single, was released to digital outlets on the same day. The album marked a return to her piano after dabbling in folk and pop for the last two records. Jones said the goal of this record was to do everything live. She said in an interview with "Billboard", "When you have great musicians, there's no reason to overdub. That strips the soul out of the music."

Additional projects and collaborations.

Jones made a cameo appearance as herself in the 2002 movie "Two Weeks Notice", which starred Hugh Grant and Sandra Bullock. The film shows her briefly at the piano, singing for a charity benefit.  In 2003, The Peter Malick Group and Jones released an album, "New York City". Jones appeared on OutKast's "Speakerboxxx/The Love Below" album, on "Take Off Your Cool". This album won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year (Jones was not credited). Also in 2003, Jones appeared on Joel Harrison's album of jazz interpretations of country and folk songs, "Free Country", as lead vocalist on "I Walk the Line" and "Tennessee Waltz".  Jones formed The Little Willies in 2003, alongside Richard Julian on vocals, Jim Campilongo on guitar, Lee Alexander on bass, and Dan Rieser on drums. The alt country band released its eponymous first album in 2006 and "For the Good Times" in 2012.  Jones appeared in the 2004 special, "Sesame Street Presents: The Street We Live On". Jones appeared in the concert and DVD "Return to Sin City – A Tribute to Gram Parsons". Jones performed the song "She" and then, together with Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones, sang "Love Hurts".  In 2005, Jones appeared on the Foo Fighters' album "In Your Honor", performing piano and vocals on the song "Virginia Moon". The track was nominated for a Grammy for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals, in 2006.  Jones appeared on Ryan Adams' & The Cardinals' 2005 album, "Jacksonville City Nights", on the track "Dear John", which she co-wrote with Adams. In 2011, Jones also played piano and vocals on numerous tracks on Ryan Adams' 2011 studio album "Ashes & Fire".  Jones worked with Mike Patton in 2006, providing vocals on the track "Sucker" on the Peeping Tom project. The song attracted attention as it was the first time Jones used profanity in a recording.  In 2007, Jones made her acting debut as the protagonist in a film directed by Wong Kar-wai. The film, "My Blueberry Nights", opened for the 2007 Cannes Film Festival as one of the 22 films in competition. She wrote and performed a song, "The Story", for the movie.  In January 2007, Jones recorded a live session at Abbey Road Studios for "Live from Abbey Road". The episode, on which John Mayer and Richard Ashcroft also appeared, was aired on UK Channel 4 and on the Sundance Channel. She appeared twice on the PBS series "Austin City Limits", on November 2, 2002, and October 6, 2007. The latter appearance was the season opener. In a change of direction predating "The Fall", Jones (referring to herself as "Maddie" and virtually anonymous in a blond wig) sang and played guitar with rock band El Madmo. The band consists of Jones, Daru Oda and Richard Julian and released an eponymous album on May 20, 2007.  In 2008, she recorded a duet with A Tribe Called Quest front man Q-Tip, titled "Life Is Better" from his "Renaissance" LP.  Jones appears in Herbie Hancock's 2007 release "", singing the first track, "Court and Spark". This album won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year at the 50th Grammy Awards in 2008; Jones was credited as a featured artist, her ninth Grammy win.  Jones was a judge for the 5th annual Independent Music Awards, supporting independent artists' careers.  In 2010, Jones contributed "World of Trouble" to the Enough Project and Downtown Records' "Raise Hope for Congo" compilation. Proceeds from the compilation fund efforts to make the protection and empowerment of Congo's women a priority, as well as inspire individuals around the world to raise their voices for peace in Congo.  Jones collaborated with "Family Guy" creator Seth MacFarlane on his Grammy-nominated 2011 debut studio album "Music Is Better Than Words" on the song "Two Sleepy People". Jones also had a cameo appearance in MacFarlane's 2012 feature film "Ted". Additionally for the film, she collaborated with MacFarlane on the song "Everybody Needs a Best Friend", recorded on the motion picture soundtrack album and nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song. Jones would later collaborate with MacFarlane on his second studio album "Holiday for Swing" on the song "Little Jack Frost Get Lost".  Jones sang "It Came Upon Midnight Clear", "Silent Night" and "Pooping Log (Caga Tió)" on the Holiday Special 2011 of "".  Jones performs in a trio band, Fangbanger, with Sasha Dobson and Catherine Popper.  In October 2013, it was revealed that Jones and Green Day front man Billie Joe Armstrong would be releasing a duets LP. The album, consisting of covers from the Everly Brothers' album "Songs Our Daddy Taught Us", was titled "Foreverly" and released on November 25, 2013. Jones collaborated with her half-sister, Anoushka Shankar, on Shankar's album "Traces of You", released on October 22, 2013. She contributed vocals to three songs on the album.  Jones recorded an album with her country music project, an all-female trio called Puss n Boots, which consists of Jones, Sasha Dobson and Catherine Popper. The album, titled "No Fools, No Fun", was released on July 15, 2014, through Blue Note Records.  In 2014, Jones played with her label-mates including Jason Moran, John Patitucci, Brian Blade and Wayne Shorter in celebration of the 75th anniversary of Blue Note Records in the Concert Hall of John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Later, Jones joined Mavis Staples for two songs at the Newport Folk Festival to celebrate Staples' 75th birthday.  Jones is featured on Harold Mabern's 2014 album "Afro Blue", singing "Fools Rush In" and "Don't Misunderstand". On September 28, 2014, she appeared at the George Fest tribute concert to George Harrison in Los Angeles, where she sang "Something" and "Behind That Locked Door".<ref name="Volpert/PM"></ref> Three days beforehand, Jones performed "Behind That Locked Door" live on the TBS television show "Conan". Her performance at George Fest was included on the 2016 album and film release of the event.  Jones duets with The Rolling Stones' Keith Richards on the song "Illusions", from his 2015 album "Crosseyed Heart".  Jones donated her voice to the end credits song from the film "A Dog Named Gucci", on the song "One Voice". The song also features singers Aimee Mann, Susanna Hoffs, Lydia Loveless, Neko Case, Kathryn Calder and Brian May. It was produced by Dean Falcone, who wrote the film's score. "One Voice" was released on Record Store Day, April 16, 2016, with profits from the sale of the single going to benefit animal charities.  In 2017, Jones recorded a rendition of "Unchained Melody", a song made famous by The Righteous Brothers, for "Resistance Radio: The Man in the High Castle Album", a soundtrack to Amazon's The Man in the High Castle TV series. The song and soundtrack were produced by Danger Mouse, whom Jones worked with on her 2012 album, "Little Broken Hearts".  In 2020, Jones duetted with US jazz star Kandace Springs on the song "Angel Eyes" from her covers album "The Women Who Raised Me".

Hank Williams project.

Jones is one of the participants in the so-called "Hank Williams Project" overseen by Bob Dylan, and reportedly including contributions from Willie Nelson, Jack White, Lucinda Williams, and Alan Jackson. On March 31, 2008, Jones commemorated the 20th anniversary of The Living Room with a midnight performance at the intimate Manhattan music venue where the singer got her start. She played a new song entitled "How Many Times Have You Broken My Heart" and explained that it originated from newly found Hank Williams lyrics she was asked to put to music. Jones also performed the song in late 2008 on Elvis Costello's talk/music television series, "".

Tours.

Throughout 2002 and 2003, Jones appeared on stages globally, on her first tour with her Handsome Band, travelling throughout Asia, America, Europe and Oceania, with numerous sold-out concerts and critical acclaim. Jones' tour to promote her third album, "Not Too Late", began in Wallingford, Connecticut, on April 13, 2007, and featured a free concert in New York City on July 6, 2007. The European phase began on July 9, 2007, in Paris, concluding in Reykjavík, Iceland, on September 2, 2007. Jones and band play typically several album hits, modified with guitar solos and additional percussion. Additionally, shows may feature several covers of country, jazz, blues, or folk songs, ranging from the ubiquitous to the obscure. Artists covered have included, among others, Willie Nelson, Gram Parsons, Johnny Cash, John Prine, Randy Newman, Patsy Cline, Elvis Presley, Tom Waits, and Townes Van Zandt.  Jones worked with Reverb, a non-profit environmental organization, for her 2007 summer tour. She also performed at Bryant Park on July 6 as part of "Good Morning America"s Summer Concert Series.  Her 2012–2013 Little Broken Hearts Tour had stops in several South America nations and India. This was her first time touring within these countries.

Personal life.

Jones was in a relationship with bassist Lee Alexander from 2000 to 2007. After a period of estrangement from her father, Ravi Shankar, Jones traveled to New Delhi to spend time with him, and wrote some material that was later recorded for the album "The Fall". Jones has two children with her husband, keyboardist Pete Remm.

Discography.

Studio albums  Collaborative albums

Norah Jones (born Geethali Norah Jones Shankar; March 30, 1979) is an American singer, songwriter and pianist. She has won multiple awards and has sold more than 50 million records worldwide. "Billboard" named her the top jazz artist of the 2000s decade. She has won nine Grammy Awards and was ranked 60th on "Billboard" magazine's artists of the 2000s decade chart.

吉莎莉·诺拉·琼丝·香卡(英语:Geethali Norah Jones Shankar,1979年-3月30日),以艺名诺拉·琼丝(英语:Norah Jones)普遍为人所知,是美国创作歌手、钢琴家、键盘手、吉他手与演员,她赢得了无数奖项,并在全球销售了超过5000万的唱片《告示牌杂志》将她命名为2000年 - 2009年度的顶级爵士乐艺术家。她赢得了九次格莱美奖,并在告示牌杂志的2000年 - 2009年十年榜单艺术家中获得第60名。


Research history.

In 1759 Giovanni Arduino proposed that the geological strata of northern Italy could be divided into four successive formations or "orders" (). The term "quaternary" was introduced by Jules Desnoyers in 1829 for sediments of France's Seine Basin that seemed clearly to be younger than Tertiary Period rocks.  The Quaternary Period follows the Neogene Period and extends to the present. The Quaternary covers the time span of glaciations classified as the Pleistocene, and includes the present interglacial time-period, the Holocene.  This places the start of the Quaternary at the onset of Northern Hemisphere glaciation approximately 2.6 million years ago. Prior to 2009, the Pleistocene was defined to be from 1.805 million years ago to the present, so the current definition of the Pleistocene includes a portion of what was, prior to 2009, defined as the Pliocene.  Quaternary stratigraphers usually worked with regional subdivisions. From the 1970s, the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) tried to make a single geologic time scale based on GSSP's, which could be used internationally. The Quaternary subdivisions were defined based on biostratigraphy instead of paleoclimate.  This led to the problem that the proposed base of the Pleistocene was at 1.805 Mya, long after the start of the major glaciations of the northern hemisphere. The ICS then proposed to abolish use of the name Quaternary altogether, which appeared unacceptable to the International Union for Quaternary Research (INQUA).  In 2009, it was decided to make the Quaternary the youngest period of the Cenozoic Era with its base at 2.588 Mya and including the Gelasian stage, which was formerly considered part of the Neogene Period and Pliocene Epoch.  The Anthropocene has been proposed as a third epoch as a mark of the anthropogenic impact on the global environment starting with the Industrial Revolution, or about 200 years ago. The Anthropocene is not officially designated by the ICS, but a working group has been working on a proposal for the creation of an epoch or sub-period.

Geology.

The 2.6 million years of the Quaternary represents the time during which recognizable humans existed. Over this geologically short time period, there has been relatively little change in the distribution of the continents due to plate tectonics.  The Quaternary geological record is preserved in greater detail than that for earlier periods.  The major geographical changes during this time period included the emergence of the Strait of Bosphorus and Skagerrak during glacial epochs, which respectively turned the Black Sea and Baltic Sea into fresh water, followed by their flooding (and return to salt water) by rising sea level; the periodic filling of the English Channel, forming a land bridge between Britain and the European mainland; the periodic closing of the Bering Strait, forming the land bridge between Asia and North America; and the periodic flash flooding of Scablands of the American Northwest by glacial water.  The current extent of Hudson Bay, the Great Lakes and other major lakes of North America are a consequence of the Canadian Shield's readjustment since the last ice age; different shorelines have existed over the course of Quaternary time.

Climate.

The climate was one of periodic glaciations with continental glaciers moving as far from the poles as 40 degrees latitude. There was a major extinction of large mammals in Northern areas at the end of the Pleistocene Epoch. Many forms such as saber-toothed cats, mammoths, mastodons, glyptodonts, etc., became extinct worldwide. Others, including horses, camels and American cheetahs became extinct in North America.

Quaternary glaciation.

Glaciation took place repeatedly during the Quaternary Ice Age – a term coined by Schimper in 1839 that began with the start of the Quaternary about 2.58 Mya and continues to the present day.

Last glacial period.

In 1821, a Swiss engineer, Ignaz Venetz, presented an article in which he suggested the presence of traces of the passage of a glacier at a considerable distance from the Alps. This idea was initially disputed by another Swiss scientist, Louis Agassiz, but when he undertook to disprove it, he ended up affirming his colleague's hypothesis. A year later, Agassiz raised the hypothesis of a great glacial period that would have had long-reaching general effects. This idea gained him international fame and led to the establishment of the Glacial Theory.  In time, thanks to the refinement of geology, it has been demonstrated that there were several periods of glacial advance and retreat and that past temperatures on Earth were very different from today. In particular, the Milankovitch cycles of Milutin Milankovitch are based on the premise that variations in incoming solar radiation are a fundamental factor controlling Earth's climate.  During this time, substantial glaciers advanced and retreated over much of North America and Europe, parts of South America and Asia, and all of Antarctica. The Great Lakes formed and giant mammals thrived in parts of North America and Eurasia not covered in ice. These mammals became extinct when the glacial period Age ended about 11,700 years ago. Modern humans evolved about 315,000 years ago. During the Quaternary Period, mammals, flowering plants, and insects dominated the land.

Quaternary ( ) is the current and most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS). It follows the Neogene Period and spans from 2.588 ± 0.005 million years ago to the present. The Quaternary Period is divided into two epochs: the Pleistocene (2.588 million years ago to 11.7 thousand years ago) and the Holocene (11.7 thousand years ago to today). The informal term "Late Quaternary" refers to the past 0.5–1.0 million years.

第四纪(英语:Quaternary Period,符号Q)是新生代的一个纪,也是地质时代中的最新的一个纪,包括全新世和更新世两个世。第四纪前是新近纪。它从约260万年前开始,一直延续至今。