text:
Talk:Digestive biscuit

== Mighty Biscuit

You'll have to go a long long way to find it soggy biscuit. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.45.96.93 (talk) 15:17, 8 February 2021 (UTC)

FYI Cracker (biscuit) has been changed to Cracker (food) to help begin the untangling of biscuit, scone, cookie, and cracker.THB 17:01, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

So is a digestive biscuit somehow like a graham cracker? Why the see also? And what is wholemeal -wheat, corn, oats? Rmhermen 22:09, Dec 9, 2003 (UTC)

Digestives are made with wheat wholemeal. Can't answer about the relationship to graham crackers as I've never seen one but since there's a See Also in each article, I would guess that they are similar. -- Derek Ross | Talk 06:42, 2004 Jul 31 (UTC)

I've added a picture. As you can see, they look nothing like graham crackers. They are not particularly flavourful. Compared to American food, the taste is (in my estimation) somewhere between Teddy Grahams (but not nearly so sweet) and animal crackers. The texture is somewhat graham cracker–like, but digestives are thicker than American crackers. —Caesura(t) 19:47, 13 October 2005 (UTC)

Presumably, the connection is there because both were originally created to be somehow healthy, but have long since become simply snack foods. 69.140.17.250 20:28, 14 October 2005 (UTC)

 * So, if I live in the US and need digestive biscuits for making a Banoffee Pie what kind of biscuits can I substitute? Some have said that they are similar to Social Tea biscuits but I don't know for sure. Anyone ... help ... help ... help ...hydnjo talk 01:46, 12 December 2005 (UTC)

Hydnjo: Check the ethnic isles of the supermarkets. I found digestives in the 'Irish' section at Stop and Shop. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.9.59.249 (talk) 04:07, 18 May 2008 (UTC)

Ha Ha Ha, sodden part falls off, consumer unaware, this is so true. Happens all the time.

Cookie?
Cookies are soft and chewy, the digestive is neither.
 * Cookies can be soft, hard, or chewy. You might want to consider your limited experience before making further suggestions for Wiki?? 76.102.157.205 (talk) 04:34, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

The article has a piece of text saying "originally known as a Cookie" in the first line - this is uncited, and I can't find any reference to digestive biscuits being originally known as "cookies" anywhere. Is this just an opinion ? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 109.70.41.203 (talk) 21:27, 18 December 2013 (UTC)

 * That can certainly be cited. For example, "Technology of Biscuits, Crackers, and Cookies ... Duncan Manley ... The word 'biscuit' is an all-embracing term in Britain and several other countries. It includes items ... The name cookie was adopted in North America where the term 'biscuit' can be confused with small soda- raised breads or muffins. In other ..." In another work by a different author, "English Across Cultures, Cultures Across English: A Reader ... Ofelia García, Ricardo Otheguy ... Thus British biscuit and American cookie may be cited as equivalent terms. But the referential scope of the British term does not coincide with that of the American one. British biscuit corresponds to cracker as well as cookie and this is more ..." I'd suggest reading portions of the linked texts. Gzuufy (talk) 14:36, 19 December 2013 (UTC)

Interesting references, but they don't refer to the "digestive biscuit", they're about the interchangeable term "biscuit" and "cookie" which aren't specifically relevant to whether the digestive biscuit "was originally known as a cookie". As far as I can find, the digestive biscuit was not "originally known as a cookie" - it was invented in the United Kingdom where they don't use the word "cookie" for "biscuit", and there's no citation of any instance where the biscuit was "originally known as a cookie". I would suggest that this isn't a specific piece of information on the digestive, more a general observation on the biscuit/cookie connection, so it doesn't belong there. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 109.70.41.203 (talk) 22:04, 23 December 2013 (UTC)

They are known formally in the UK as 'digestive biscuits' but more commonly just as 'digestives' - but an American 'chocolate chip cookie' would not be shortened to 'chocolate chip' which of course refers to the ingredient. The offer "Would you like a digestive with your tea?" is universally understood. The word 'cookie' is everywhere in the UK accepted as the American version of 'biscuit' and would not excite any comment. Cross Reference (talk) 13:14, 16 October 2019 (UTC)

Health benefit?
I found the following passage to leave out vital information.

"The name 'digestive' comes from a belief that the biscuits had antacid properties due to the use of bicarbonate of soda when they were first conceived."

This sentence is not 100% clear on the health benefits (or lack thereof) of digestives. The reader is meant to assume that the old notion of the biscuits having health benefits has since been debunked, however, the passage does not state this. So which is it; good for the stomach, bad for the stomach, or neutral?

--There must actually be some benefit due to the use of bicarbonate of soda, since it says under Sodium bicarbonate's page that this is commonly used as an antacid. 04:24, 7 January 2008 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.47.254.225 (talk)

Bicarbonate of soda is baking soda, a leavening agent. It is commonly used to make baked goods and the amount is usually small (like a teaspoon for 24 cookies/biscuits). Most antacid recipes suggest you use about a tablespoon of baking soda (about 60 cookies worth). The dose difference makes any claim of health benefits unlikely.96.232.7.70 (talk) 09:45, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

 * Tell that to anyone who's gotten a sour tummy from too many biscuits! You've forgotten the flour power. Baked goods definitely have an antacid effect. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.73.70.113 (talk) 02:56, 5 November 2009 (UTC)

I just put a sentence and a couple of references up, one reference is a 19th century pharmaceutical volume. Utilizing diastatic malt extract to "digest" starch into sugars was sometimes referred to as "digestive fermentation". Gzuufy (talk) 09:36, 8 April 2011 (UTC)

 * Regarding this edit (diff), someone should rewrite the lede to say that digestive was a reference to enzymatic activity. The bit about baking soda being good for digestion stretches credulity quite a bit. And by the way, the sentence that went with the reference I put up some time back, Even earlier, one 1851 issue of The Lancet London advertised at least two sources of digestive biscuits, one such baker, William Hill, offered "brown meal digestive biscuits" has been deleted, it has nothing to do with the sentence it currently cites. Gzuufy (talk) 03:28, 23 November 2015 (UTC)

Origin?
What's the origin of these biscuits; where (and by whom) were they first produced? It's mentioned that McVitie's produced the first chocolate digestive in 1925, so presumably the plain digestive dates back earlier than this (Victorian era perhaps?) 217.155.20.163 00:13, 19 November 2006 (UTC)

The 1839 invention "by two Scottish doctors" (referenced to a Telegraph article) is untrue. Several sources give 1892 as the date, and attribute the invention to Alexander Grant, then a young employee at the McVitie biscuit factory.( "Crumbs, we've been eating McVitie's Digestives and Hobnobs all wrong! Firm says chocolate part is the BOTTOM". Daily Mail (London). Retrieved 28 December 2014)Andrewleat (talk) 15:34, 21 March 2015 (UTC)

Math
Both standard & chocolate-covered digestives are reported to be sold in quantities of 71 million packets every year, however this is equated to 51 per second on the first instance & 52 per second on the second instance. Even though these are just approximations, surely the same number of packets should equate to the same number per second?
 * Well that depends on if it's a leap year or not, now doesn't it? :) Gigs (talk) 05:48, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

Someone changed it to 7 billion packets every year a while ago, and I'm pretty sure even us Brits don't eat that many biscuits. I changed it back, but does anyone have a source to verify the sales figures? Pscholl (talk) 14:55, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

Chocolate Bottomed vs Chocolate Topped
The article states the biscuits are chocolate topped, something I had always been told and assumed was a joke to be awkward. How can it be decided whether the biscuits are chocolate on the top or bottom? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 195.224.154.166 (talk) 16:39, 12 February 2009 (UTC)

 * This picture looks like top coated to me http://www.istockphoto.com/file_thumbview_approve/3711910/2/istockphoto_3711910_chocolate_digestive_biscuits.jpg —Preceding unsigned comment added by Frosted14 (talk • contribs) 16:00, 24 February 2009 (UTC)

 * Surely it depends on the orientation of the biscuit relative to the observer?
 * A digestive is formed by a mould or press on one side, and it is normal to present the moulded (and hence more attractive) side uppermost when serving. However, chocolate is applied to the rough (un-moulded) side, and chocolate digestives are usually presented chocolate-side up when served...
 * So, presumably, one form of the biscuits must be being served upside-down?
 * (Not sure that this helps you much :o) )
 * EdJogg (talk) 16:50, 24 February 2009 (UTC)

 * It tastes better when the chocolate is on the top :) I guess it's silly to debate this and best to stick with the neutral version: "coated on one side". Frosted 14 20:35, 24 February 2009 (UTC)
 * The Choclate's on the bottom as it's the flat side, as you can still see the "Mcvities" Blah imprint —Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.145.43.129 (talk) 16:31, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

Not like graham cracker
Digestive biscuits does not taste close to graham cracker at all. American style graham cracker biscuits are quite a bit sweeter and thinner. Digestive biscuits are more coarse, tastes totally different and generally thicker. I consider digestive biscuits a savoury snack while graham cracker biscuits more like a sweet biscuit. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.146.18.144 (talk) 05:15, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

 * But that's the beauty of the digestive biscuit -- it's equally at home as a sweet or savoury snack. (Try them on their own or with a spreading of butter, you should get the sweetness then...)
 * EdJogg (talk) 14:27, 8 June 2009 (UTC)
 * They are great with peanut butter between two of them, or with ice cream too. They are also very nice broken up into fruit yoghurt.86.14.187.220 (talk) 23:12, 18 March 2013 (UTC)Lance Tyrell

Not only in imported section
I have never heard of rumors that it was illegal for these biscuits to be sold under the term "digestive biscuits". They are available in all grocery stores in the cookie and/or cracker section, not just the imported section. They are also very popular with elderly people (in US) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.228.52.2 (talk) 22:08, 26 October 2009 (UTC)

 * Some evidence would be very pertinent if these biscuits are sold under the name "digestives" in the US (I am familiar with the episode of QI that says it's illegal there). Perhaps a link to an online store that stocks them would be appropriate.  It should be clearly US-based, and either list the product by name or have a photograph of them on a shop shelf.  leevclarke (talk) 18:45, 24 June 2010 (UTC)

 * I removed the call for reference on the second part of the sentence while leaving the citation on the first part. The first part does need a ref., while the second part doesn't (IMHO).  The nature of the first part is one where it isn't easily verified by many.  The second part can be readily verified by the whole population of the U.S. simply by seeing the product by that name in any grocery store.  A good portion of Americans actually "know" the statement to be verified because they remember seeing the product by that name in stores (like me).  The second half of the sentence is just plain not dubious in any way.  It is not only verifiable by the whole U.S. population, it is verified by a good portion of that population.  :-)

 * 108.7.9.106 (talk) 04:41, 11 July 2010 (UTC)]

 * If it is so easily verifable, find a source. Otherwise, it needs the tag, or it needs to be removed, as whoever placed the tag obviously doubted the material. Removing the tag based on your opinion is not in accordance with wikipedia procedures. Consensus needs to be reached before action can be taken, and obviously, right now, there is no consensus. --Fbifriday (talk) 04:48, 11 July 2010 (UTC)
 * Also, as the statement ""they are in fact widely available in imported food sections of grocery stores and by mail order" " is such a sweeping one, is definitely needs a source. Where is the proof that they are available? --Fbifriday (talk) 04:50, 11 July 2010 (UTC)

 * Here's an interesting snippet, says it is from page 95, that seems related, "A govern-ment-appointed group of scientists, the Food Stan-dards Committee, is to study the term "Digestive biscuit", which has been used since the reign of Queen Victoria. The committee is to decide whether the term should be banned on the ground that it implies that the biscuit eats itself." Perhaps this is one source of "the rumor" that the name is disallowed in some locales. There isn't enough visible text there to determine context, or even the date when the statement was originally made (the 1978 given date could be a "republished" date), but it certainly seems the term has continued to be used. Gzuufy (talk) 18:07, 8 April 2011 (UTC)

I reverted the reversion because the vaunted "verifiability" exists for this (second half) even without a reference. It's almost like saying "the sky is blue". Everyone can verify it without it needing a reference, therefore it is "verifiable" Discuss! :-)

Actually, I'm done. No need to fight here. These pissing contests about such minor articles are why I stopped editing with an account and quit for the most part. Go ahead, do what you want, you can get away with it. I see you patrol the article like a troll under a bridge. My arguments are no match for the power of your ever-presence. There are things that need references and things that don't. You stay, so you get to say. I'm done wrestling this pig.

108.7.9.106 (talk) 05:07, 11 July 2010 (UTC)

Just remember WP:V, which states that "The threshold for inclusion in Wikipedia is verifiability, not truth". Also, via WP:PROVEIT, the user who added the citation tag was disputing the content, so the burden of proof is on the user who added it to prove it through the use of citations. Also, [] and [] suggest that just because something is common knowledge doesn't mean it doesn't need to be sourced, simply because there is no such thing as common knowledge. Just because people in America know it's true doesn't mean someone in Ireland would know it's true. You have to understand that the article is not just read by people in the US, it could be read by anyone who speaks english, anywhere in the world. So therefore, saying "everyone can verify it without a reference" is not true. If people in the US can verify it without a reference, the same can not be said for those elsewhere, and therefore, the reference is needed to show verifiability elsewhere in the world. --Fbifriday (talk) 05:58, 11 July 2010 (UTC)

Buscuitgate
Well, that section's funny, but is hasn't got anything to do in Wikipedia. Add it to Stupedia or stuff... --89.204.154.64 (talk) 11:16, 23 January 2011 (UTC)

 * It involved a sitting PM and has been cited by published sources. KimChee (talk) 19:39, 5 February 2011 (UTC)

Fanboys of Digestive Biscuits
I read the article and found several errors on inspection and outrageous and unsupportable marketing claims....not a good thing for an encyclopedia. Now that I've read the comments, I see that one of the commentators has repeatedly asked for corrections and balanced sourcing, to no avail. His last comment was about the trolls under the bridge guarding the bridge in order to keep fact based information from entering the encyclopedia....again, not a good thing for an encyclopedia.

So, I've tried to open one small crack in the roadblock in the hopes information will again be allowed to flow.

Digestive biscuits are not widely available in the US. The phrase "widely available" would more aptly apply to, say, Oreo's, or Snicker's. I've run a straw poll of Americans and found NONE had ever heard of a "digestive biscuit" (yet they've strangely heard of Oreo's and Snicker's). I've run a straw poll of the Brits I know, and 100% know, not only of digestive biscuits, but of McVities as well (at this point I presume McVities is the ONLY manufacturer of this product). I've added a quote from a websource which I've referenced in the article to reflect that digestive biscuits are tremendously lesser known and available than Oreo's and Snicker's in the US.

Mind you, Wikipedia is not the right forum for you to promote your products....even if you WISH your product was used by more people. I respectfully request the fanboys of this relatively unknown product relinquish their death grip block of fact based information so that readers can have an accurate description of the product. Otherwise, they'll be running out their local Market Basket or HEB Pantry fully expecting to see "digestive biscuits" on the shelf....which they won't.

Finally, I do not know what the health benefit of baking soda/powder in baked products is supposed be since its purpose is not pharmaceutical, but rather to chemically react inside the baked goods to produce bubbles. I've seen nothing to support baked goods being especially helpful because of their baking soda since most of it is chemically converted to something else after the baking process. On the other hand, I have read repeatedly that products with ginger and high fiber have important gastroenterological benefits (e.g. ginger snaps or oatmeal raisin bran muffins). My point is that the term "digestive" is quite possibly more of a marketing tool than any demonstrable benefit to the consumer. In any event, I'll leave that as a question that I don't have an answer to. But there is no question as to the niche market availability in the US.

N0w8st8s (talk) 22:43, 19 October 2011 (UTC)n0w8st8s

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Removal of Nutritional values part
As generally described in page edit history today, here we go;

Removed basally wrong statements in Nutrition; the source nowhere states those are average values, and the values listed are infact those of the brand Verkade Digestive biscuits, which only changed a fraction since. Based on the brand, not declaring they based it off that brand Verkade. You can verify all listed nutritional values are extremely similar to the current Verkade biscuit specifications, indicating they only changed a few decimals to the current packaging with recipe altering (I checked with a Verkade Digestive product recently bought, reading off the package).

So the facts: - The Nutritional text implied it were average values, but the source page doesnt mention it. It was therefore written to let reader believe that were average values, possibly with deceptive intention as they were Verkade brand values or hand-altered to be close on few decimal value differences, in order to let it be general accepted values and let customers assume if that were average values, Verkade did pretty good with their nutritional values. So it's possible a Verkade employee wrote it that way. That cannot be exluded as possibility.

The complete image of invalid source for the basic statement (that they were average values for 'Digestive' biscuits, which isnt supported by the source), and the fact source's nutritional facts are based on Verkade biscuits, furthermore proving they are highly unlikely to even be average values ontop of source not naming them as averages, led me to remove the whole Nutritional column. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Blooker (talk • contribs) 01:17, 24 December 2016 (UTC)

Originated in Britain with the Abernethy biscuit, pre the time period stated.
I have made several attempts to edit this in, please discuss why or why not. Many thanks! Jms6000 (talk) 00:32, 3 November 2022 (UTC)

title: Talk:Digestive biscuit


text:
Dry lake

A dry lake bed, also known as a playa, is a basin or depression that formerly contained a standing surface water body, which disappears when evaporation processes exceed recharge. If the floor of a dry lake is covered by deposits of alkaline compounds, it is known as an alkali flat. If covered with salt, it is known as a salt flat.

Terminology
If its basin is primarily salt, then a dry lake bed is called a salt pan, pan, or salt flat (the latter being a remnant of a salt lake). Hardpan is the dry terminus of an internally drained basin in a dry climate, a designation typically used in the Great Basin of the western United States.

Another term for dry lake bed is playa. The Spanish word playa literally means "beach". Dry lakes are known by this name in some parts of Mexico and the western United States. This term is used e.g. on the Llano Estacado and other parts of the Southern High Plains and is commonly used to address paleolake sediments in the Sahara like Lake Ptolemy.

In South America, the usual term for a dry lake bed is salar or salina, Spanish for salt pan.

Pan is the term used in most of South Africa. These may include the small round highveld pans, typical of the Chrissiesmeer area, to the extensive pans of the Northern Cape province.

Terms used in Australia include salt pans (where evaporite minerals are present) and clay pans.

In Arabic, a salt flat is called a sabkha (also spelled sabkhah, subkha or sebkha) or shott (chott). In Central Asia, a similar "cracked mud" salt flat is known as a takyr. In Iran salt flats are called kavir.

Formation

A dry lake is formed when water from rain or other sources, like intersection with a water table, flows into a dry depression in the landscape, creating a pond or lake. If the total annual evaporation rate exceeds the total annual inflow, the depression will eventually become dry again, forming a dry lake. Salts originally dissolved in the water precipitate out and are left behind, gradually building up over time. A dry lake appears as a flat bed of clay, generally encrusted with precipitated salts. These evaporite minerals are a concentration of weathering products such as sodium carbonate, borax, and other salts. In deserts, a dry lake may be found in an area ringed by bajadas.

Dry lakes are typically formed in semi-arid to arid regions of the world. The largest concentration of dry lakes (nearly 22,000) is in the southern High Plains of Texas and eastern New Mexico. Most dry lakes are small. However, Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia, near Potosí, the largest salt flat in the world, comprises 4,085 square miles (10,582 square km).

Many dry lakes contain shallow water during the rainy season, especially during wet years. If the layer of water is thin and is moved around the dry lake bed by wind, an exceedingly hard and smooth surface may develop. Thicker layers of water may result in a "cracked-mud" surface and teepee structure desiccation features. If there is very little water, dunes can form.

The Racetrack Playa, located in Death Valley, California, features a geological phenomenon known as "sailing stones" that leave linear "racetrack" imprints as they slowly move across the surface without human or animal intervention. These rocks have been recently filmed in motion by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego and are due to a perfect coincidence of events. First, the playa has to fill with water, which must be deep enough to form floating ice during winter, but still shallow enough that the rocks are exposed. When the temperature drops at night, this pond freezes into thin sheets of "windowpane" ice, which then must be thick enough to maintain strength, but thin enough to move freely. Finally, when the sun comes out, the ice melts and cracks into floating panels; these are blown across the playa by light winds, propelling the rocks in front of them. The stones only move once every two or three years and most tracks last for three or four years.

Ecology
While a dry lake bed is itself typically devoid of vegetation, they are commonly ringed by shadscale, saltbrush and other salt-tolerant plants that provide critical winter fodder for livestock and other herbivores.

In southwest Idaho and parts of Nevada and Utah there are a number of rare species that occur nowhere else but in the inhospitable environment of seasonally flooded playas. A new species of giant fairy shrimp was found in 2006. Although a large predatory species, it evaded detection because of the murkiness of the playa's water caused by winds and a fine clay load. This shrimp species is able to regenerate using tiny undetectable cysts that can remain in a dry lake bed for years until conditions are optimum for hatching.

Lepidium davisii is another rare species, a perennial plant whose habitat is restricted to playas in southern Idaho and northern Nevada.

Far from major rivers or lakes, playas are often the only water available to wildlife in the desert. Antelope and other wildlife gather there after rainstorms to drink.

Threats to dry lakes include pollution from concentrated animal feeding operations such as cattle feedlots and dairies. Results are erosion; fertilizer, pesticide and sediment runoff from farms; and overgrazing. A non-native shrub that has been used for rangeland restoration in the west, Kochia prostrata, also poses a significant threat to playas and their associated rare species, as it capable of crowding out native vegetation and draining a playa's standing water because of its root growth.

Human use
The extremely flat, smooth, and hard surfaces of dry lake beds make them ideal for fast motor vehicles and motorcycles. Large-sized dry lakes are excellent spots for pursuing land speed records, as the smoothness of the surface allows low-clearance vehicles to travel very fast without any risk of disruption by surface irregularities, and the path traveled has no obstacles to avoid. The dry lake beds at Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah and Black Rock Desert in Nevada have both been used for setting land speed records. Lake Eyre and Lake Gairdner in South Australia have also been used for various land speed record attempts. Dry lake beds that very rarely fill with water are sometimes used as locations for air bases, for similar reasons. Examples include Groom Lake at Area 51 in Nevada, and Edwards Air Force Base (originally known as Muroc Dry Lake) in California.

Brines from the subsurface of dry lakes are often exploited for valuable minerals in solution. See, for example Searles Dry Lake and Lithium resources.

Under United States law, a "playa lake" may be considered isolated wetlands, and may be eligible to enroll in the new wetlands component of the Conservation Reserve Program, enacted in the 2002 farm bill (P.L. 107–171, Sec. 2101).

The Burning Man yearly event takes place in a playa in the Black Rock Desert in western Nevada every year.

Fangfang Yao et al (2023), at the University of Virginia reported that more than half of the world's large lakes are drying up. They assessed almost 2,000 large lakes using satellite measurements combined with climate and hydrological models. based on their finding, that unsustainable human use, changes in rainfall and run-off, sedimentation, and rising temperatures have driven lake levels down globally, with 53% of lakes showing a decline from 1992 to 2020.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Dry lake


text:
Narew

The Narew (Нараў; Narevas or Naruva) is a 499-kilometre (310 mi) river primarily in north-eastern Poland. It is a tributary of the river Vistula. The Narew is one of Europe's few braided rivers, the term relating to the twisted channels resembling braided hair. Around 57 kilometres (35 mi) of the river flows through western Belarus.

Etymology
The name of the river is from a Proto-Indo-European root *nr primarily associated with water (compare Neretva, Neris, Ner and Nur) or from a Lithuanian language verb nerti associated primarily with diving and flood.

Name of the lower portion
The portion of the river between the junctions with the Western Bug and the Vistula is also known as the Bugonarew, Narwio-Bug, Narwo-Bug, Bugo-Narew, Narwiobug or Narwobug. At the confluence near Zegrze the Bug is 1.6x longer, drains a 1.4x larger basin, and has a slightly greater average discharge (158 m³/s at Wyszków vs 146 m³/s at Pułtusk for the Narew, both ~25 km above the junction). Thus the Bugonarew was often considered part of the Bug river and the Narew a right tributary of the Bug.

On December 27, 1962, Prime Minister Józef Cyrankiewicz abolished the name Bugonarew soon after the Zegrze Reservoir had been constructed. Since then the river Bug has officially been considered part of the river Narew's system, with the Bug being a left tributary of the Narew (by this classification, the River Narew is a right tributary of the River Vistula). The name Bugonarew however is still used, especially by the inhabitants of local towns, such as Pułtusk.

Geography
The Narew flows through the geographical region of Europe known as the Wysoczyzny Podlasko – Bialoruskie (English: Plateau of Podlasie and Belarus) located within the Podlaskie Voivodeship and Masovian Voivodeship of Poland and the Hrodna Voblast of Belarus.

The Narew is the fifth longest Polish river.

History
On August 23, 1939, the Soviet Union and Germany signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, agreeing to divide Poland along the Narew, Vistula (Wisła), and San rivers.

On September 6, 1939, Polish military forces attempted to use the Narew as a defense line against German attack during the German invasion of Poland. This was abandoned the next day in favor of the Bug as German forces had already penetrated the defenses.

The Battle of Wizna was fought along the banks of the river between September 7 and September 10, 1939, between the forces of Poland and Germany during the initial stages of Invasion of Poland. Because it consisted of a small force holding a piece of fortified territory against a vastly larger invasion for three days at great cost before being annihilated with no known survivors, Wizna is sometimes referred to as a Polish Thermopylae in Polish culture.

On September 17, 1939, the USSR invaded Poland. By 28 September, the Soviet Army had reached the line of the rivers Narew, Bug River, Vistula and San – completing the division of Poland as negotiated in advance.

title: Narew


text:
Science fiction convention

Science fiction conventions are gatherings of fans of the speculative fiction genre, science fiction. Historically, science fiction conventions had focused primarily on literature, but the purview of many extends to such other avenues of expression as films, television, comics, animation, and games. The format can vary but will tend to have a few similar features such as a guest of honour, discussion panels, readings and large special events such as opening/closing ceremonies and some form of party or entertainment. Science fiction conventions started off primarily in the United Kingdom and the United States but have now spread further. Several countries have their own individual conventions, as well as playing host to rotating international conventions.

History
The Royal Albert Hall has asserted that the Vril-Ya Bazaar and Fete, a charitable event held at the Hall in 1891, was the world's first science fiction convention. The event was a multi-day fundraising bazaar themed around the popular 1871 science fiction novel The Coming Race by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, which involves the Vril-Ya, a subterranean race of winged superhuman beings. The event at the Royal Albert Hall featured elements similar to those of later science fiction conventions (in particular modern commercial events), such as special guests (although apparently none directly related to the novel or science fiction generally), special events and other performances, set pieces and special effects (such as flying "Vril-Ya" mannequins), costumes (essentially what later came to be called cosplay), and stalls selling merchandise related to the event's theme and named using the Vril-Ya language as presented in the novel. However, the event was not contemporaneously referred to as a science fiction convention and was primarily a fundraiser for the London Massage and Galvanic Hospital, one of a number of such events held with other, non-science fictional, themes put on by the hospital's founder Dr. Herbert Tibbits. (The event not only failed as a fundraiser, but led to Tibbits' personal bankruptcy. )

The precise time and place of the first science fiction convention is a matter of some dispute. The idea and form was clearly anticipated in Robert Bloch's short story about a large convention of writers, "The Ultimate Ultimatum" (Fantasy Magazine, August 1935), "It was a big convention. Lovecraft was there." Sometime in 1936, a group of British fans made plans to have an organized gathering, with a planned program of events in a public venue in early 1937. However, on October 22, 1936, a group of six or seven fans from New York City, including David Kyle and Frederik Pohl, traveled by train to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where for several hours they visited a similar number of local fans at the house of Milton A. Rothman. They subsequently declared that event to be the first "science fiction convention." This small get-together set the stage for a follow-up event held in New York, in February 1937, where "30 or 40" fans gathered at Bohemian Hall in Astoria, Queens. Attendees at this event included James Blish, Charles D. Hornig, Julius Schwartz, and Willis Conover. This event came to be known as the "Second Eastern" and set the stage for the successful Third Eastern held in Philadelphia on October 30, 1937, and the subsequent Fourth Eastern held on May 29, 1938, which attracted over 100 attendees to a meeting hall in Newark, NJ and designated itself as "The First National Science Fiction Convention." It was at this event that a committee was named to arrange the first World Science Fiction Convention in New York in 1939; formalizing planning that had begun at the Third Eastern. The "First National", which included the participation of a number of well-known New York editors and professionals from outside fan circles, was a milestone in the evolution of science-fiction conventions as a place for science-fiction (SF) professionals, as well as fans, to meet their colleagues in person.

On January 3, 1937, the British fans held their long-planned event at the Theosophical Hall in Leeds. Around twenty fans, including Eric Frank Russell and Arthur C. Clarke, attended. To this day, many fan historians, especially those in the United Kingdom, contend that the Philadelphia meeting was a convention in name only, whereas other fan historians point out that many similar gatherings since then have been called "conventions" without eliciting any disagreement.

Regardless of what gathering is held to have been the first science fiction convention, American fans had organized sufficiently by 1939 to hold, in conjunction with the 1939 World's Fair, the first "World Science Fiction Convention," in New York City. Subsequent conventions were held in Chicago in 1940 and Denver in 1941. Like many cultural events, it was suspended during World War II. Conventions resumed in 1946 with the hosting of the World Science Fiction Convention in Los Angeles, California. The first Worldcon held outside the United States was Torcon I in Toronto in 1948; since then, Worldcons have been held in Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Canada, Australia, Japan, Finland, and Ireland although the majority of Worldcons are still held in the United States.

Types
Since the first conventions in the late 1930s, such as the first Worldcon, hundreds of local and regional science fiction conventions have sprung up around the world either as one-time or annual events. At these conventions, fans of science fiction come together with the professional writers, artists, and filmmakers in the genre to discuss its many aspects. Some cities have a number of science-fiction conventions, as well as a number of special interest conventions for anime, media, or other related groups. Some conventions move from city to city, serving a particular country, region, or special interest. Nearly every weekend of the year now has at least one convention somewhere and some conventions are held on holiday weekends where four or more days can be devoted to events.

World Science Fiction Convention

Worldcon, or more formally The World Science Fiction Convention, is a science fiction convention that has been held each year since 1939 (except for the years 1942 through 1945, during World War II). It is the annual convention of the World Science Fiction Society (or WSFS), an unincorporated body whose members are defined as "all people who have paid membership dues to the Committee of the current Worldcon" (i.e., that are either upcoming or currently under way). These members of WSFS vote both to select the site of the Worldcon two years in advance and to select the winners of the Hugo Awards, which are presented at the convention. The rules for venue selection are deliberately drafted to ensure the convention occurs in a different city each year.

World Fantasy Convention
Fantasy is usually considered alongside science fiction at conventions (the terms were used interchangeably for most of the period from 1926–1966). Conventions that are nominally science-fiction conventions such as Worldcon, are also fantasy conventions in all but name. World Fantasy Convention was begun in 1975, and has since been held on an annual basis. The World Fantasy Convention, however, is less oriented toward the fan community, and is primarily a professional gathering (for writers, editors, publishers, etc.). Many of those who attend "World Fantasy" also attend Worldcon. However, this convention is more focused on authors and publishing, with a much higher proportion of authors in attendance; as such it does not usually include the broad range of events (masquerade, dances, video room, etc.) that one would normally find at a general-interest convention.

World Horror Convention
The World Horror Convention is an annual gathering of professionals of the World Horror Society and other interested parties. Up till 2009, all World Horror Conventions had been held in the United States or Canada, usually alternating between the east and west sides of the country. The 2010 convention was held in Brighton in the UK, the first time it took place outside North America. The Horror Writers Association's Bram Stoker Award ceremony has been held in conjunction with the convention for the last few years.

National conventions
A National Convention is usually held annually in a number of countries. The British Eastercon is the oldest of these. National conventions are often run by, or in association with, a national Science-fiction organization or club.

Regional conventions
Before the age of inexpensive travel, regional conventions arose to attract fans from broad geographical areas. The oldest of these is Westercon, whose meetings are held on a rotational basis among regions in the western United States and Canada. Eurocon is held each year somewhere in Europe, often in eastern European countries where fandom is a new phenomenon. A North American Science Fiction Convention (NASFiC) is held in North America in any year when the Worldcon is outside of North America. DeepSouthCon is held in the Southern United States, with a focus on Southern culture in science fiction.

Local conventions
Local conventions, which are offshoots of the main regional conventions, draw fans from the immediate area in which the convention is being held, though these have very few attendees who have traveled from afar to attend the main convention. Some local conventions, including events run by student groups from high schools or colleges, draw their attendance solely from the student body and campus neighborhood. Others, such as those run by UK universities, may draw from a wider audience than just the university itself.

Media conventions
Some conventions are focused on (audio-visual) "media", that is, science fiction on film and television. There are general media conventions covering a broad range of science fiction in media, such as Toronto Trek, and then there are conventions focused on a single body of work, such as "Celebration," the official Star Wars convention; "Galaxyfest," the yearly event in Vulcan, Alberta dedicated to Star Trek; and BotCon, the official Transformers convention. Most media conventions are commercial shows run for profit, though some are organized by non-profit fan groups similar to general science-fiction conventions.

Comic and "popular culture" conventions
From comics and media fandom, a category of "popular culture" conventions has emerged, such as Comic-Con International and Dragon*Con, featuring a wide range of "pop culture" events ranging from animation, drive-in movie theaters, old-time radio, horror movies, and cowboy celebrities. These events have become much larger than traditional SF conventions; nearly a hundred thousand people attend Comic-Con in San Diego each year. Although not all of them are commercial ventures, they tend to suffer the same drawbacks as commercial shows (long lines, overcrowding, etc.) due to the sheer size of the events.

Special interest conventions
There are many conventions focused on particular special interests within science fiction. For example, Wiscon, in addition to being the Wisconsin Science Fiction Convention, is focused on feminist SF/fantasy and gender, race, and class issues/studies. Diversicon concentrates on the vastness of human diversity. Filking conventions such as Ohio Valley Filk Fest, FilkOntario, and GaFilk gather those interested in science fiction-related music. Costume-Con gathers people from around the world who are mainly interested in science fiction, fantasy, and historical costuming. Penguicon combines science fiction with technology, particularly Linux and open source software. The term "relaxacon" is used for conventions which tend to be less about programming, and more about socializing within the fan community; this is quite different from "sercon" (SERious CONstructive discussion of science-fiction topics) conventions.

Commercial shows vs. volunteer conventions
An important distinction can be made between commercial events (often called "shows") – those run by dedicated companies who specialize in con organization, or by local for-profit firms – and volunteer-run cons.

Usually run for profit, commercial events tend to charge for "tickets" or "admission" rather than having "memberships". A primary focus of commercial events is meeting celebrities, such as stars of science fiction TV show and movies, anime voice actors, etc. There are frequently very long lines of people waiting for autographs at commercial events; while famous actors like William Shatner of Star Trek are paid tens of thousands of dollars per convention, minor and obscure bit players pay to set up booths to sell autographs and memorabilia. Commercial events also tend to have less small-scale programming; panels will more often be composed of famous actors, directors, etc. on press junkets, where the panels are held in very large rooms with very high attendance. The largest cons (in terms of attendance) tend to be commercial ones. Commercial events tend to be more likely to be about comics, manga, anime, and popular visual media than volunteer cons, and they also tend to attract the younger generation, but this is not absolute by any means. Some commercial conventions have official licences from the company which produces a particular movie or TV show to run a convention about a particular movie or show. They have been known to aggressively go after fan-run conventions via their legal teams.

Volunteer cons, on the other hand, tend to be smaller in scope and more intimate in character. Panels may be more lightly attended; however, it is the fans themselves who mostly take part in the panels. Although there are frequent autograph sessions, they tend to be less of an attraction for volunteer cons. Admission to volunteer cons is usually called "membership", thus emphasizing that the fans themselves are the ones who make up the con, rather than the staff who run commercial cons. A community of fans who run such conventions has developed, and many of them share their best practices and keep convention-running traditions alive, including at specialist con-running conventions such as SMOFcon.

Anatomy of a typical convention
Although wide variations exist between different conventions, there is a general pattern to which most adhere.

Guests of Honor

Most conventions have Guest(s) of Honor (GoH). These guests are to some extent the headliners of the convention. A convention may have as many Guests of Honor as the convention committee wishes. Along with Author and perhaps Fan Guests of Honor (fans who are not necessarily celebrities but have made a significant contribution to the fan community), a convention may have an Artist GoH, Editor GoH, Filk or Music GoH, a Toastmaster, and Special Guests. A Memorial Guest of Honor (as at Readercon) or Ghost of Honor (as at Worldcon 2008/Denvention 3) is a deceased individual who is selected as a focal point of the festivities. Potlatch, however, has an annual Book of Honor instead.

Professionals at conventions
Conventions provide a forum for fans to see first-hand and meet their favorite authors and artists. They also serve the interests of authors, editors, and other publishing professionals, providing opportunities for networking, promotion, and a convenient location for contract negotiations and other business meetings. At traditional science-fiction conventions, there is little or no distinction made between the "pros" and the "fans". Many professionals in the field began as fans, and may still consider themselves fans; and more than a few fans have also worked professionally or semi-professionally in the field. At a small number of cons, there is a category for "Attending Professionals", professionals who are paying full con price to enter but also get a special name badge that proclaims them to be professionals in whatever field they are involved in.

Program
Panel-led discussions, or Panels, usually fill up the daytime hours of most conventions with typically one-hour discussions of topics related to science fiction, fantasy, and fandom in general. Some conventions have well-attended, scheduled panels starting as late as midnight. Panel members (even professionals) are not customarily paid for their appearance, although many North-American conventions waive membership fees for program participants or rebate them after the convention.

Some program items are set presentations by experts. Science speakers are among the most popular program items at many conventions. Slides (either photographic or computer), video clips, or handouts might be used for such presentations.

Readings and "kaffeeklatsches" are program items where a single author either reads from their work or has an informal discussion with fans.

Special events
The first night of the convention "Opening Ceremonies" are often held, where organizers and marquee guests are introduced and speeches might be made. Sometimes, conventions will have a skits, musical performances, video clips, or other samples of the convention as part of the Opening Ceremonies.

A costume contest called a masquerade is often held where persons go on stage and compete for nominal prizes based on their skill in assembling and presenting genre-inspired outfits. This, however, would be more accurately labelled a "talent show" rather than the "fancy dress ball" that the term suggests (although British fandom sometimes uses the term "fancy dress"). Anime fans might refer to the masquerade as cosplay, but there are notable and subtle distinctions between the terms.

Some conventions feature award ceremonies, in which the best works and most notable individuals are recognized for their contributions to the field. Worldcon has several award ceremonies, most notably the Hugo Awards, but also the Sidewise Award for Alternate History and other awards. VCON in Vancouver, BC features the Elron Awards for dubious distinctions in science fiction, including an annual award for John Norman author of the Gor series.

Just as art shows display the visual aspect of science fiction, many conventions include concerts or other music-oriented events as part of the convention. Often these are performances by filkers, though other musicians may also appear at a con.

A convention may have one or more auctions. The Art Auction is an event where the most popular items from the art show are sold to the most interested buyers at the convention. Many conventions also have auctions for charities, either formal or fannish; the latter would include auctions on behalf of TAFF (the Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund) or DUFF (the Down Under Fan Fund).

Evening entertainment often includes a combination of official and unofficial events, including concerts, dances, formal invitational dinners, and fandom-themed room parties. Additionally, other convention committees hold room parties in order to promote their own convention and to increase their membership. A bid party is a room party held to influence the choice of the location of a future convention (such as Worldcon) by advertising its advantages.

Some conventions have a Closing Ceremony to formally mark the end of the convention. Depending on the convention, this can be a major gathering of most of the membership, or it may be lightly attended or dispensed with entirely as members are occupied with packing up and checking out of the hotel.

Exhibits and fixed functions
A Dealers' or Hucksters' Room is available, where merchants sell wares which may be of interest to fans. These include books, action figures, prop replicas and t-shirts. Similarly, there is often an Art Show where genre-inspired art is displayed and usually made available for auction or purchase. Smaller conventions may simply have an informal Dealers' Row, a section of hotel rooms from which dealers sell goods, while larger conventions may have both an official dealers' room and an unofficial dealers' row.

The Art Show is generally an open art exhibition; that is, it is open to all comers and all art submitted is exhibited for sale. This naturally leads to a wide variety of types of artwork, from professional illustrations to outsider art, with many amateur works. The subject matter is tailored to the interests of fandom, i. e. many spaceships, dragons, unicorns, vampires, cat girls etc. Art shows often permit sales by artists, these sales constituting a significant source of income for some artists.

Traditionally, many conventions have had video rooms in which genre-related audiovisual presentations take place, typically commercial Hollywood movies, genre television show episodes, and anime. If there are multiple media rooms, each one may have themed content. Larger conventions may also have a genuine Film Room, for presentation of actual movies on film instead of video.

Game Rooms are also available at some conventions for attendees to play a variety of genre games, including collectible card games like Magic: The Gathering, role-playing games like Dungeons and Dragons, miniatures games like Warhammer 40,000, and board games like The Settlers of Catan. Easy, fast-playing card games, e.g. Apples to Apples, are popular as they don't require a large time commitment or deep knowledge of rules, thus allowing casual gamers to join in.

Con suite
At North American conventions, a convention hospitality suite or consuite is often provided as a room reserved for light refreshments, a quiet conversation, and a place to briefly rest. The refreshments typically include coffee, tea, juice or soda, and light meals appropriate for the time of day. Depending on local liquor distribution and liability laws, the suite may serve alcohol. At conventions in the rest of the world, the hotel or convention centre bar typically offers the same social function. At conventions in the United Kingdom, the provision of cask ale is usual.

Dead dog party
Many conventions have a "dead dog party" in the evening of the last day of the convention, after closing ceremonies. This is the traditional winding-down party where the remaining attendees are unlikely to have huge amounts of energy. This party is an attempt to ease people back into the real world outside of the convention and can be an effective method of warding off the depression which is often associated with the end of a major event. A dead dog party can last until the following morning.

Idiosyncrasy
Many con-goers take pride in being interesting and unusual, and naturally many cons are highly idiosyncratic. Cons often have activities, running jokes, organizational methods and other features that not only differentiate them from other cons but are often a point of pride. Most cons vary from the above outline in one or more important ways, and many have their own unique cultural characteristics.

For example:
 * Capricon in Wheeling, Illinois, always includes an entire track of spoof programming. Originally held in the Phineas Taylor B room, it is now slated for the Lake Wobegon room.
 * At an early Minicon, the President of Mnstf (the con's sponsoring organization) declared himself to be President for Life. This was resolved by play-assassinating the President. Ever since then, the President has been "assassinated" by various humorous means at Closing Ceremonies.
 * Many cons have idiosyncratic names, including puns, in-jokes, or portmanteaus.

Most cons will tend to evolve many of their own idiosyncrasies along these lines. To fans, these are often part of the charm each convention offers.

Peace-bonding and weapons policies
A peace-bond is a conspicuous lock, tie, or mark which makes or identifies something unusable, such as a weapon, and shows  that the owner's intentions are purely peaceful.

At some conventions, attendees carry real weapons or costume props that appear to be weapons. To forestall concerns about mis-use of real weapons at such events, the security team "peace-bonds" anything that might look like a weapon.

The event's "weapons policy" may offer objective criteria to determine what looks like a weapon. For example, a weapons policy may require a peace-bond for anything that a reasonable person might recognize as a weapon from a short distance in dim light. Real weapons, if allowed, are disabled, secured, and marked. For example, bright orange zip ties may be used to hold a sword in a scabbard or to hold a pistol in a holster. Simulated or costume props may require conspicuous marks, such as bright ribbons or zip ties, to show that security has deemed them safe to be carried. Simulated weapons or props which can be used as a weapon may be disabled or secured in the way as real weapons.

Peace-bonding helps security control the use or abuse of real weapons at a convention or other event: anything that looks like a weapon but which is not peace-bonded is immediately deemed to be suspicious. SF writer C. J. Cherryh writes on her website, "I was a witness of pre-peacebonding times, was narrowly missed, and assure you this is a good idea. Read the convention weapons policy."

title: Science fiction convention


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Gravity current

In fluid dynamics, a gravity current or density current is a primarily horizontal flow in a gravitational field that is driven by a density difference in a fluid or fluids and is constrained to flow horizontally by, for instance, a ceiling. Typically, the density difference is small enough for the Boussinesq approximation to be valid. Gravity currents can be thought of as either finite in volume, such as the pyroclastic flow from a volcano eruption, or continuously supplied from a source, such as warm air leaving the open doorway of a house in winter. Other examples include dust storms, turbidity currents, avalanches, discharge from wastewater or industrial processes into rivers, or river discharge into the ocean.

Gravity currents are typically much longer than they are tall. Flows that are primarily vertical are known as plumes. As a result, it can be shown (using dimensional analysis) that vertical velocities are generally much smaller than horizontal velocities in the current; the pressure distribution is thus approximately hydrostatic, apart from near the leading edge. Gravity currents may be simulated by the shallow water equations, with special dispensation for the leading edge which behaves as a discontinuity. When a gravity current propagates along a plane of neutral buoyancy within a stratified ambient fluid, it is known as a gravity current intrusion.

Structure and propagation
Although gravity currents represent the flow of fluid of one density over/under another, discussion is usually focused on the fluid that is propagating. Gravity currents can originate either from finite volume flows or from continuous flows. In the latter case, the fluid in the head is constantly replaced and the gravity current can therefore propagate, in theory, forever. Propagation of a continuous flow can be thought of as the same as that of the tail (or body) of a very long finite volume. Gravity flows are described as consisting of two parts, a head and a tail. The head, which is the leading edge of the gravity current, is a region in which relatively large volumes of ambient fluid are displaced. The tail is the bulk of flow that follows the head. Flow characteristics can be characterized by the Froude and Reynolds numbers, which represent the ratio of flow speed to gravity (buoyancy) and viscosity, respectively.

Propagation of the head usually occurs in three phases. In the first phase, the gravity current propagation is turbulent. The flow displays billowing patterns known as Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities, which form in the wake of the head and engulf ambient fluid into the tail: a process referred to as "entrainment". Direct mixing also occurs at the front of the head through lobes and cleft structures which form on the surface of the head. According to one paradigm, the leading edge of a gravity current 'controls' the flow behind it: it provides a boundary condition for the flow. In this phase the propagation rate of the current is approximately constant with time. For many flows of interest, the leading edge moves at a Froude number of about 1; estimates of the exact value vary between about 0.7 and 1.4. As the driving fluid depletes as a result of the current spreading into the environment, the driving head decreases until the flow becomes laminar. In this phase, there is only very little mixing and the billowing structure of the flow disappears. From this phase onward the propagation rate decreases with time and the current gradually slows down. Finally, as the current spreads even further, it becomes so thin that viscous forces between the intruding fluid and the ambient and boundaries govern the flow. In this phase no more mixing occurs and the propagation rate slows down even more.

The spread of a gravity current depends on the boundary conditions, and two cases are usually distinguished depending on whether the initial release is of the same width as the environment or not. In the case where the widths are the same, one obtains what is usually referred to as a "lock-exchange" or a "corridor" flow. This refers to the flow spreading along walls on both sides and effectively keeping a constant width whilst it propagates. In this case the flow is effectively two-dimensional. Experiments on variations of this flow have been made with lock-exchange flows propagating in narrowing/expanding environments. Effectively, a narrowing environment will result in the depth of the head increasing as the current advances and thereby its rate of propagation increasing with time, whilst in an expanding environment the opposite will occur. In the other case, the flow spreads radially from the source forming an "axisymmetric" flow. The angle of spread depends on the release conditions. In the case of a point release, an extremely rare event in nature, the spread is perfectly axisymmetric, in all other cases the current will form a sector.

When a gravity current encounters a solid boundary, it can either overcome the boundary, by flowing around or over it, or be reflected by it. The actual outcome of the collision depends primarily on the height and width of the obstacle. If the obstacle is shallow (part) of the gravity current will overcome the obstacle by flowing over it. Similarly, if the width of the obstacle is small, the gravity current will flow around it, just like a river flows around a boulder. If the obstacle cannot be overcome, provided propagation is in the turbulent phase, the gravity current will first surge vertically up (or down depending on the density contrast) along the obstacle, a process known as "sloshing". Sloshing induces a lot of mixing between the ambient and the current and this forms an accumulation of lighter fluid against the obstacle. As more and more fluid accumulates against the obstacle, this starts to propagate in the opposite direction to the initial current, effectively resulting in a second gravity current flowing on top of the original gravity current. This reflection process is a common feature of doorway flows (see below), where a gravity current flows into a finite-size space. In this case the flow repeatedly collides with the end walls of the space, causing a series of currents travelling back and forth between opposite walls. This process has been described in details by Lane-Serff.

Research
The first mathematical study of the propagation of gravity currents can be attributed to T. B. Benjamin. Observations of intrusions and collisions between fluids of differing density were made well before T. B. Benjamin's study, see for example those by Ellison and Tuner, by M. B. Abbot or D. I. H. Barr. J. E. Simpson from the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics of Cambridge University in the UK carried out longstanding research on gravity currents and issued a multitude of papers on the subject. He published an article in 1982 for Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics which summarizes the state of research in the domain of gravity currents at the time. Simpson also published a more detailed book on the topic.

In nature and the built environment
Gravity currents are capable of transporting material across large horizontal distances. For example, turbidity currents on the seafloor may carry material thousands of kilometers. Gravity currents occur at a variety of scales throughout nature. Examples include avalanches, haboobs, seafloor turbidity currents, lahars, pyroclastic flows, and lava flows. There are also gravity currents with large density variations - the so-called low Mach number compressible flows. An example of such a gravity current is the heavy gas dispersion in the atmosphere with initial ratio of gas density to density of atmosphere between about 1.5 and 5.

Gravity currents are frequently encountered in the built environment in the form of doorway flows. These occur when a door (or window) separates two rooms of different temperature and air exchanges are allowed to occur. This can for example be experienced when sitting in a heated lobby during winter and the entrance door is suddenly opened. In this case the cold air will first be felt by ones feet as a result of the outside air propagating as a gravity current along the floor of the room. Doorway flows are of interest in the domain of natural ventilation and air conditioning/refrigeration and have been extensively investigated.

Box models
For a finite volume gravity current, perhaps the simplest modelling approach is via a box model where a "box" (rectangle for 2D problems, cylinder for 3D) is used to represent the current. The box does not rotate or shear, but changes in aspect ratio (i.e. stretches out) as the flow progresses. Here, the dynamics of the problem are greatly simplified (i.e. the forces controlling the flow are not direct considered, only their effects) and typically reduce to a condition dictating the motion of the front via a Froude number and an equation stating the global conservation of mass, i.e. for a 2D problem
 * $$\begin{align}

\mathrm{Fr} &= \frac{u_\mathrm f}{\sqrt{ g' h }}\\ h l &= Q \end{align}$$

where $Fr$ is the Froude number, $u_{f}$ is the speed at the front, $g′$ is the reduced gravity, $h$ is the height of the box, $l$ is the length of the box and $Q$ is the volume per unit width. The model is not a good approximation in the early slumping stage of a gravity current, where $h$ along the current is not at all constant, or the final viscous stage of a gravity current, where friction becomes important and changes $Fr$. The model is a good in the stage between these, where the Froude number at the front is constant and the shape of the current has a nearly constant height.

Additional equations can be specified for processes that would alter the density of the intruding fluid such as through sedimentation. The front condition (Froude number) generally cannot be determined analytically but can instead be found from experiment or observation of natural phenomena. The Froude number is not necessarily a constant, and may depend on the height of the flow in when this is comparable to the depth of overlying fluid.

The solution to this problem is found by noting that $u_{f} = dl⁄dt$ and integrating for an initial length, $l_{0}$. In the case of a constant volume $Q$ and Froude number $Fr$, this leads to
 * $$l^\frac32 = l_0^\frac32 + \tfrac32 \mathrm{Fr} \sqrt{g'Q}\, t \,.$$

title: Gravity current


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Granville Woods

Granville Tailer Woods (April 23, 1856 – January 30, 1910) was an American inventor who held more than 50 patents in the United States. He was the first African American mechanical and electrical engineer after the Civil War. Self-taught, he concentrated most of his work on trains and streetcars. One of his inventions is the Synchronous Multiplex Railway Telegraph, a variation of the induction telegraph that relied on ambient static electricity from existing telegraph lines to send messages between train stations and moving trains.

Early life
Granville T. Woods was born to Martha J. Brown and Cyrus Woods. He had a brother named Lyates and a sister named Rachel. His mother was part Native American, and his father was African American. Granville attended school in Columbus, Ohio, until age 10 but had to leave due to his family's poverty, which meant he needed to work; he served an apprenticeship in a machine shop and learned the trades of machinist and blacksmith. Some sources of his day asserted that he also received two years of college-level training in "electrical and mechanical engineering", but little is known about where he might have studied.

Career
In 1872, Woods obtained a job as a fireman on the Danville and Southern Railroad in Missouri. He eventually became an engineer and in December 1874, moved to Springfield, Illinois, where he worked at a rolling mill, the Springfield Iron Works. He studied mechanical and electrical engineering in college from 1876 to 1878.

In 1878, he took a job aboard the steamer "Ironsides" and became chief engineer within two years. When he returned to Ohio, he became an engineer with the Dayton and Southwestern Railroad in southwestern Ohio. In 1880, he moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, and established his business as an electrical engineer and an inventor. After receiving the multiplex telegraph patent, he reorganized his Cincinnati company as the Woods Electric Co. In 1892, he moved his research operations to New York City, where he was joined by his brother, Lyates Woods, who also had several inventions.

Although the newspapers of his day generally referred to him as a bachelor, Woods was married to Ada Woods, who was granted a divorce from him in 1891 due to adultery.

Granville T. Woods was often described as an articulate and well-spoken man who was meticulous and stylish in his choice of clothing and preferred to dress in black. At times, he would refer to himself as an immigrant from Australia, in the belief that he would be given more respect if people thought he was from a foreign country, as opposed to African American. In his day, Black newspapers frequently expressed their pride in his achievements, saying he was "the greatest of Negro inventors", and sometimes even calling him "professor", although there is no evidence he ever received a college degree.

Inventions

Granville T. Woods invented and patented Tunnel Construction for the electric railroad system and was referred to by some as the "Black Edison". Over the course of his lifetime, Granville Woods obtained more than 50 patents for inventions including an automatic brake and an egg incubator and for improvements to other technologies such as the safety circuit, telegraph, telephone, and phonograph.

In 1884, Woods received his first patent, for a steam boiler furnace, and in 1885, Woods patented an apparatus that was a combination of a telephone and a telegraph. The device, which he called "telegraphony", would allow a telegraph station to send voice and telegraph messages through Morse code over a single wire. He sold the rights to this device to the American Bell Telephone Company. In 1887, he patented the Synchronous Multiplex Railway Telegraph, which allowed communications between train stations from moving trains by creating a magnetic field around a coiled wire under the train. Woods caught smallpox prior to patenting the technology, and Lucius Phelps patented it in 1884. In 1887, Woods used notes, sketches, and a working model of the invention to secure the patent. The invention was so successful that Woods began the Woods Electric Company in Cincinnati, Ohio, to market and sell his patents. However, the company quickly became devoted to invention creation until it was dissolved in 1893. Thomas Edison later filed a claim to the ownership of this patent, stating that he had first created a similar telegraph and that he was entitled to the patent for the device, and Woods often had difficulties in enjoying his success as other inventors made claims to his devices. Woods was twice successful in defending himself, proving that there were no other devices upon which he could have depended or relied upon to make his device. After Thomas Edison's second defeat, he decided to offer Granville Woods a position with the Edison Company, but Woods declined.

In 1888, Woods manufactured a system of overhead electric conducting lines for railroads modeled after the system pioneered by Charles van Depoele, a famed inventor who had by then installed his electric railway system in thirteen United States cities.

Following the Great Blizzard of 1888, New York City Mayor Hugh J. Grant declared that all wires, many of which powered the above-ground rail system, had to be removed and buried, emphasizing the need for an underground system. Woods's patent built upon previous third rail systems, improving the safety by using wire brushes to make connections with metallic terminal heads without exposing wires by installing electrical contactor rails. Once the train car had passed over, the wires were no longer live, reducing the risk of injury. It was successfully tested in February 1892 in Coney Island on the Figure Eight Roller Coaster. It is often stated that Woods invented underground third rail systems - this is false, as many other inventors were active in the field at the time and Woods ultimately only made small contributions. Later that year, he was arrested and charged with libel after taking out an advertisement in a trade magazine warning against patronizing the American Engineering Company of New York City. The company had provided funds for Woods to market the invention, but a crucial component of the invention was missing from the deal, which the manager of the company, James S. Zerbe, later stole. A jury acquitted Woods, but Zerbe had already patented the design, which was valued at $1 million, in Europe. Woods patented the invention in 1893, and in 1901, he sold it to General Electric.

In 1896, Woods created a system for controlling electrical lights in theaters, known as the "safety dimmer", which was economical, safe, and efficient, saving 40% of electricity use.

Woods is also sometimes credited with the invention of the air brake for trains in 1904; however, George Westinghouse patented the air brake almost 40 years prior, making Woods's contribution an improvement to the invention.

Death and legacy
Woods died of a cerebral hemorrhage at Harlem Hospital in New York City on January 30, 1910, having sold a number of his devices to such companies as Westinghouse, General Electric, and American Engineering. Woods was interred at St. Michael's Cemetery in Elmhurst, Queens in an unmarked grave. Historian M.A. Harris helped raise funds, persuading several of the corporations that used Woods's inventions to donate money in order to purchase a headstone, which was erected at Woods's gravesite in 1975.

Baltimore City Community College established the Granville T. Woods scholarship in memory of the inventor.

In 2004, the New York City Transit Authority organized an exhibition on Woods that utilized bus and train depots and an issue of four million MetroCards commemorating the inventor's work on third rail electrification.

In 2006, Woods was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

In 2008, the corner of Stillwell and Mermaid Avenues in Brooklyn was named Granville T. Woods Way to honor Woods. Its location is situated across Stillwell Avenue, opposite the Coney Island–Stillwell Avenue rail and bus terminal.

title: Granville Woods


text:
Nemesi Marquès i Oste

Nemesi Marquès i Oste (born 17 May 1935) was the personal representative to Andorra of the Bishop of Urgell, who is one of the co-princes of Andorra. He is a Roman Catholic priest, and has been rector of Bellestar, a village of 55 inhabitants.

He was succeeded as representative of the episcopal co-prince by Josep Maria Mauri on 20 July 2012.

title: Nemesi Marquès i Oste


text:
Liberian English

Liberian English refers to the varieties of English spoken in Liberia. There are four such varieties:
 * Standard Liberian English, the Liberian variety of International English. It is the language taught in secondary and tertiary institutions. It is used in oratory and by newsreaders.
 * Liberian Settler English the language of the descendants of the 16,000 African Americans who immigrated to Liberia in the nineteenth century
 * Kru Pidgin English the language of Kru migrant workers and mariners. It is now moribund.
 * Liberian Kreyol the creolized variety spoken by most Liberian speakers of English. It is the Liberian descendant of the West African Pidgin English that developed all along the West African coast in the eighteenth century. It has been significantly influenced by Liberian Settler English.

Prior to the twenty-first century, Liberians referred to all these varieties simply as "English." In the present century, however, the term "Kolokwa" (from the English word "colloquial") has become widely used.

The sound system of English in Liberia
The vowel system is distinct from that found in other West African variants; Standard Liberian English distinguishes from, and  from , and uses the diphthongs , , and. Vowels can be nasalized. The final vowel of happy is. It favors open syllables, usually omitting syllable-final, , or a fricative. The interdental fricatives appear as  in syllable-initial position (such as thing and this having respective pronunciations of ting and dis), and as  finally. The glottal fricative is preserved, as is the voiceless labio-velar fricative  (in such words as whit and which in contrast to voiced  in wit and wish). Except in word-initial position, affricates have lost their stop component, thus >. The liquid [r] is not pronounced at the end of a word or before a consonant, making Standard Liberian English a non-rhotic dialect.

Additionally, English in Liberia includes particles that occur at the end of a clause that amplify the purpose of the clause, The most commonly occurring particle is o, which is a feature generally of Kru and Kwa languages but shows up in other neighboring Niger-Congo languages as well as in West African varieties of English more generally, including pidgins and creoles. In Liberian English (and in the other languages of the region), o emphasizes that a proposition is of current relevance to the speaker and hearer. Beyond its use to mark emphasis, o frequently occurs to correct a hearer's mistaken assumption or to indicate what will happen next.

Kru Pidgin English
Kru Pidgin English is a moribund variety that was spoken by Krumen. These were individuals, most often from the Klao Bassa people and Grebo ethnic groups, who worked as sailors on ships along the West African coast and also as migrant workers and domestics in such British colonies as the Gold Coast (Ghana) and Nigeria. The Krumen tradition dates back to the end of the eighteenth century. With the end of the British colonial presence in West Africa in the mid-twentieth century, however, the tradition came to an end, and with it the ongoing use of Kru Pidgin English.

Kru Pidgin English is quite distinct from other forms of English in Liberia and has numerous unique traits. Plural marking, for instance, is done solely by the suffixal -z, while other variants will also integrate a postponed den as another plural marking form. Another feature of Kru Pidgin English, perhaps one of the most distinct, is the lack of tense-marking that even often extends to copulas in many cases. An example of the lack of tense marking is "he feel hot" instead of "he had felt hot." When it comes to other markers, Kru Pidgin English almost exclusively has de to mark aspect, such as in the statement "we de go na" in the place of "we had gone to."

Kolokwa
Prior to the twenty-first century, Liberians used the term "English" for all Liberian varieties with an English lexicon. However, linguists used the term "Vernacular Liberian English" for the variety that was generally spoken. Now Kolokwa has become the general term for this variety. Kolokwa developed from the West African Pidgin English spoken all along the West African coast. It has been significantly influenced by Liberian Settler English, the variety that African American immigrants brought to Liberia in the nineteenth century and is spoken today by the immigrants' descendants. Kolokwa phonology owes much to the Niger-Congo languages, especially those spoken along the coast, primarily such Kru languages as Bassa and Klao but also the Mande language Vai. Kolokwa has been analysed as being a post-creole continuum. As such, the term "Kolokwa" covers a range of ways of speaking, from quite distinct from International English to much closer to it.

Role of English in Liberia
From its emergence at the beginning of the eighteenth century, a primary motivator for using an English-lexifier variety was its use in maritime trade. Once the Settlers arrived and asserted political dominance, English/Kolokwa attained a central role in the governance of the country and provided Liberians who did not share a Niger-Congo language with a medium for interaction. The widespread displacement of Liberians during the civil war increased the probability that individual Liberians needed to interact with other Liberians with whom they had no other language in common. Thus, the civil war can be seen to have promoted the use of English/Kolokwa.

English has historically been central to the overall development of the country. When the Settler governments prevailed, the Department of Education adopted a policy to provide education in English. This policy was not unpopular. People wanted their children to acquire English in order to have access to the economic benefits associated with it. One adverse effect of the English-only policy was that knowledge of local languages was not prized. Individuals were assessed strictly on their ability to speak English.

A 1999 study found that of Liberian immigrants across the United States, nearly 73 percent spoke English at home, and many children did not speak any other language. There are a few reasons attributed to this trend. Two main reasons are intertribal marriages inspiring people across tribes to have a common way to communicate and parents wanting their children to be proficient in English, especially those parents who are educated themselves. There are currently some pushing for native languages to be taught in schools as a way to preserve the culture, but these tribes do continue to have their own impact on how English is spoken across the country.

title: Liberian English


text:
Variable-message sign

A variable- (also changeable-, electronic-, or dynamic-) message sign or message board, often abbreviated VMS, VMB, CMS, or DMS, and in the UK known as a matrix sign, is an electronic traffic sign often used on roadways to give travelers information about special events. Such signs warn of traffic congestion, accidents, incidents such as terrorist attacks, AMBER/Silver/Blue Alerts, roadwork zones, or speed limits on a specific highway segment. In urban areas, VMS are used within parking guidance and information systems to guide drivers to available car parking spaces. They may also ask vehicles to take alternative routes, limit travel speed, warn of duration and location of the incidents, inform of the traffic conditions, or display general public safety messages.

History
VMS systems were deployed at least as early as the 1950s on the New Jersey Turnpike. The road's signs of that period, and up to around 2012, were capable of displaying a few messages in neon, all oriented around warning drivers to slow down: "REDUCE SPEED", followed by a warning of either construction, accident, congestion, ice, snow, or fog at a certain distance ahead. The New Jersey Turnpike Authority replaced those signs (along with 1990s-vintage dot-matrix VMS systems along the Garden State Parkway) with more flexible electronic signs between 2010 and 2016.

The current VMS systems are largely deployed on freeways, trunk highways, or in work zones.

On the interchange of I-5 and SR 120 in San Joaquin County, California, an automated visibility and speed warning system was installed in 1996 to warn traffic of reduced visibility due to fog (where tule fog is a common problem in the winter), and of slow or stopped traffic.

Message Signs were deployed in Ontario during the 1990s and are now being upgraded on 400-series highways as well as two pilot secondary highways in northeastern Ontario.

Technologies and types
Early variable message signs included static signs with words that would illuminate (often using neon tubing) indicating the type of incident that occurred, or signs that used rotating prisms (trilons) to change the message being displayed. These were later replaced by dot matrix displays typically using eggcrate, fiber optic, or flip-disc technology, which were capable of displaying a much wider range of messages than earlier static variable message signs. Since the late 1990s, the most common technology used in new installations for variable message signs are LED displays. In recent years, some newer LED variable message signs have the ability to display colored text and graphics.

Dot-matrix variable message signs are divided into three subgroups: character matrix, row matrix, and full matrix. In a character matrix VMS, each character is given its own matrix with equal horizontal spacing between them, typically with two or three rows of characters. In a full matrix VMS, the entire sign is a single large dot matrix display, allowing the display of different fonts and graphics. A row matrix VMS is a hybrid of the two types, divided into two or three rows like a character matrix display, except each row is a single long dot matrix display instead of being split per character horizontally.

Overhead variable message signs are today available in three form factors: front access, rear access, and walk-in. In a front access variable message sign, maintenance is performed by lifting the sign open from the front. Most smaller VMS are of the front access form factor, and are typically installed today on major arterials. The rear access form factor is similar to the front access form factor, except that maintenance is performed from the rear of the sign, and are commonly used for medium-sized dynamic message signs installed along the roadside of freeways (instead of overhead). The walk-in form factor is a more recent introduction, where maintenance on the sign is performed from the inside of the sign. A key advantage of the walk-in form factor is that lane closures are generally not required to perform maintenance on the sign. Most of the largest VMS units installed today are walk-in units, and are typically installed overhead on freeways.

The NJ Turnpike Authority counts five unique types of variable message signs under its jurisdiction, at least one of which has been replaced by newer signs. They are:

 * 1) "REDUCE SPEED" neon signs (1950s-2010, obsolete, have now been replaced).
 * 2) "Changeable message signs" (trilon/ rotating-drum signs that can be used for closing roads or moving traffic to other roadways).
 * 3) Electronic VMS: signs with remotely controlled messages displayed on them; the messages are sent from the State Traffic Management Center, updating the signs automatically.
 * 4) Variable speed limit signs - used for varying the posted speed limits within work zones and in emergencies.
 * 5) Portable VMS: movable "electronic VMS". A portable VMS has much the same characteristics as a fixed electronic VMS, but can be moved from location to location as the need dictates.

Usage
Early models required an operator to be physically present when programming a message, whereas newer models may be reprogrammed remotely via a wired or wireless network or cellphone connection.

A complete message on a panel generally includes a problem statement indicating incident, roadwork, stalled vehicle etc.; a location statement indicating where the incident is located; an effect statement indicating lane closure, delay, etc. and an action statement giving suggestion what to do traffic conditions ahead. These signs are also used for AMBER Alert messages, and in some states, Silver and Blue Alert messages.

In some places, VMSes are set up with permanent, semi-static displays indicating predicted travel times to important traffic destinations such as major cities or interchanges along the route of a highway.

Typical messages provide the following information:

 * Promotional messages about services provided by a road authority during non-critical hours, such as carpooling efforts, travelers' information stations and 5-1-1 lines
 * Crashes, including vehicle spin-out or rollover
 * Road Works
 * Incidents affecting normal traffic flow in a lane or on shoulders
 * Non-recurring congestion, often a residual effect of cleared crash
 * Closures of an entire road, e.g. over a mountain pass in winter.
 * Exit ramp closures
 * Debris on roadway
 * Vehicle fires
 * Wildfires
 * Short-term maintenance or construction lasting less than three days
 * Pavement failure alerts
 * AMBER, Silver, and Blue Alerts, as well as weather warnings via the warning infrastructure of NOAA Weather Radio's SAME system
 * Travel times
 * Variable speed limits
 * Car park occupancy levels
 * speed sign, for recommending a speed to approach the next traffic light in its green phase.

The information comes from a variety of traffic monitoring and surveillance systems. It is expected that by providing real-time information on special events on the oncoming road, VMS can improve motorists' route selection, reduce travel time, mitigate the severity and duration of incidents and improve the performance of the transportation network.

* Do not enter the motorway when the red lamps are flashing in pairs from side to side.

Movable versions
Truck-mounted VMSes (also called Portable Changeable Message Signs or PCMS) are sometimes dispatched by highway agencies such as Caltrans to warn traffic of incidents such as accidents in areas where permanent VMSes are not available or near enough as a preventive measure for reducing secondary accidents. They are often deployed in pairs so that the second VMS truck can take over when the traffic queue overtakes the first truck, requiring the first truck to reposition further upstream from the queue, to be effective. An optional third truck, the team leader, may be utilized for driving by and monitoring the incident itself, traffic patterns and delay times, to make strategic decisions for minimizing delays—analogous to spotter planes used in fighting forest fires.

Trailer-mounted variable-message signs are used to alter traffic patterns near work zones, and for traffic management for special events, natural disasters, and other temporary traffic patterns. The messages displayed on the sign can be programmed locally on the unit's control panel, or units equipped with a cellular modem can be programmed remotely via computer or phone. Most manufacturers produce trailers which comply with the National Transportation Communications for Intelligent Transportation System Protocol (NTCIP) which allows the portable trailer to be integrated with an intelligent transportation system. Trailer-mounted VMS can be equipped with radar, cameras, and other sensing devices as part of a smart work zone deployment..

In popular culture
A variable-message sign figures significantly into the plot of the 1991 film L.A. Story.

title: Variable-message sign


text:
Elisha Otis

Elisha Graves Otis (August 3, 1811 – April 8, 1861) was an American industrialist and founder of the Otis Elevator Company. In 1853, he invented a safety device that prevents elevators from falling if the hoisting cable fails.

Biography
Otis was born in Halifax, Vermont, to Stephen Otis and Phoebe Glynn. He moved away from home at the age of 19, eventually settling in Troy, New York, where Otis lived for five years employed as a wagon driver. In 1834, he married Susan A. Houghton. They had two children, Charles and Norton. Later that year, Otis suffered a terrible case of pneumonia which nearly killed him, but Otis earned enough money to move his wife and three-year-old son Charles to the Vermont Hills on the Green River. Otis designed and built his own gristmill, but did not earn enough money from it, so he converted it into a sawmill, yet still did not attract customers. Now having a second son, Norton, Otis started building wagons and carriages, at which he was fairly skilled. Otis was left with two sons after his wife died.

In 1845, Otis moved to Albany, New York, where he worked as a master mechanic in a bedstead factory. During this period, Otis invented a railway safety brake. By 1852, he had moved to Yonkers, New York to work at the Maize & Burns bedstead factory installing machinery. The factory needed a hoist to lift heavy equipment to the upper floor, but this posed serious safety issues. In response, Otis invented the safety elevator, which automatically comes to a halt if the hoisting rope breaks. The following year, he left the factory and started his own company, the Otis Elevator Company. After giving a public demonstration of his new invention at the New York Crystal Palace in 1854, demand for the safety elevator began to rise. Otis installed the first safety elevator for passenger service at the E. V. Haughwout Building in New York City in 1857.

In his spare time, Otis designed and experimented with his old designs of bread-baking ovens and train brakes, and patented a steam plow in 1857, a rotary oven in 1858, and, with Charles, the oscillating steam engine in 1860. The plough was not commercially successful.

Otis contracted diphtheria and died on April 8, 1861; he was 49 years old. Otis was buried in Oakland Cemetery in Yonkers, New York.

Legacy
An Otis Elevator Company worker coined the term "escalator" to refer to continuous-loop moving staircases that could either ascend or descend. The company was acquired by United Technologies in 1976. In April 2020, Otis Elevators Company was spun off from United technology to be an independent elevator company.

The WWII-era U.S. Liberty ship SS Elisha Graves Otis was named for Otis.

title: Elisha Otis