observations The ammonia observations were consistent with CO measurements of rotation temperatures of ~ K With this, densities can be determined, and have been calculated to range between and cm- in dark clouds Mapping of NH gives typical clouds sizes of pc and masses near solar mass These cold, dense cores are the sites of future star formation UC HII regions edit Ultra compact HII regions are among the best tracers of high mass star formation The dense material surrounding UCHII regions is likely primarily molecular Since a complete study of massive star formation necessarily involves the cloud from which the star formed, ammonia is an invaluable tool in understanding this surrounding molecular material Since this molecular material can be spatially resolved, it is possible to constrain the heating ionising sources, temperatures, masses, and sizes of the regions Doppler shifted velocity components allow for the separation of distinct regions of molecular gas that can trace outflows and hot cores originating from forming stars Extragalactic detection edit Ammonia has been detected in external galaxies, and by simultaneously measuring several lines, it is possible to directly measure the gas temperature in these galaxies Line ratios imply that gas temperatures are warm ~ K , originating from dense clouds with sizes of tens of pc This picture is consistent with the picture within our Milky Way galaxy—hot dense molecular cores form around newly forming stars embedded in larger clouds of molecular material on the scale of several hundred pc giant molecular clouds GMCs Atmosphere PBq kg Terrestrial materials the balance From nuclear testing till PBq t In fossil fuels edit Most man made chemicals are made of fossil fuels, such as petroleum or coal, in which the carbon should have long since decayed However, such deposits often contain trace amounts of carbon varying significantly, but ranging up to % the ratio found in living organisms, a concentration comparable to an apparent age of , This may indicate possible contamination by small amounts of bacteria, underground sources of radiation causing the N n,p C reaction, direct uranium decay although reported measured ratios of C U in uranium bearing ores would imply roughly uranium atom for every two carbon atoms in order to cause the C C ratio, measured to be on the order of - , or other unknown secondary sources of carbon production The presence of carbon in the isotopic signature of a sample of carbonaceous material possibly indicates its contamination by biogenic sources or the decay of radioactive material in surrounding geologic strata In connection with building the Borexino solar neutrino observatory, petroleum feedstock

for synthesizing the primary scintillant was obtained with low C content In the Borexino Counting Test Facility, a C C ratio of × - was determined probable reactions responsible for varied levels of C in different petroleum reservoirs, and the lower C levels in methane, have been discussed by Bonvicini et al In the human body edit Since essentially all sources of human food are derived from plants, the carbon that comprises our bodies contains carbon at the same concentration as the atmosphere The rates of disintegration of potassium and carbon in the normal adult body are comparable a few thousand disintegrated nuclei per second The beta decays from external environmental radiocarbon contribute approximately mSv year mrem year to each person's dose of ionizing radiation This is small compared to the doses from potassium mSv year and radon variable Carbon can be used as a radioactive tracer in medicine In the initial variant of the urea breath test, a diagnostic test for Helicobacter pylori, urea labeled with approximately kBq µCi carbon is fed to a patient i e , decays per second In the event of a H pylori infection, the bacterial urease enzyme breaks down the urea into ammonia and radioactively labeled carbon dioxide, which can be detected by low level counting of the patient's breath The C urea breath test has been largely replaced by the C urea breath test, which has no radiation issues human disturbance, herbivore impact particularly sheep grazing , pest outbreaks, disease, and CO concentration For factors which vary randomly over space tree to tree or stand to stand , the best solution is to collect sufficient data more samples to compensate for confounding noise Tree age is corrected for with various statistical methods either fitting spline curves to the overall tree record or using similar aged trees for comparison over different periods regional curve standardization Careful examination and site selection helps to limit some confounding effects, for example picking sites undisturbed by modern man Non linear effects edit In general, climatologists assume a linear dependence of ring width on the variable of interest e g moisture However, if the variable changes enough, response may level off or even turn opposite The home gardener knows that one can underwater or overwater a house plant In addition, it is possible that interaction effects may occur for example temperature times precipitation may affect growth as well as temperature and precipitation on their own Here, also, the limiting stand helps somewhat to isolate the variable of interest For instance, at the upper treeline, where the tree is cold limited , it's unlikely that nonlinear effects of high temperature inverted quadratic will have numerically significant impact on ring width over the course of a growing season Botanical inferences to correct for confounding factors edit Botanical studies can help to estimate the impact of confounding variables and in some cases guide corrections for them These experiments may be either ones where growth variables are all controlled e g in a greenhouse citation needed , partially controlled e g FACE Free Airborne Concentration Enhancement experiments—add ref , or where conditions in nature are monitored In any case, the important thing is that multiple growth factors are carefully recorded to determine what impacts growth Insert Fennoscandanavia paper reference With this information, ring width response can be more accurately understood and inferences from historic unmonitored tree rings become more certain In concept, this is like the limiting stand principle, but it is more quantitative—like a calibration Divergence problem edit Main article Divergence problem The divergence problem is the disagreement between the temperatures measured by the thermometers instrumental temperatures on one side, and the temperatures reconstructed from the latewood density or width of tree rings on the other side, at many treeline sites in northern forests While the thermometer records indicate a substantial warming trend, tree rings from these particular sites do not display a corresponding change in their maximum latewood density or, in some cases, their width This does not apply to all such studies Where this applies, a temperature trend extracted from tree rings alone would not show any substantial warming The temperature graphs calculated from instrumental temperatures and from these tree ring proxies thus diverge from one another since the s, which is the origin of the term This divergence raises obvious questions of whether other, unrecognized divergences have occurred in the past, prior to the era of thermometers There is evidence suggesting that the divergence is caused by human activities, and so confined to the recent past, but use of affected proxies can lead to overestimation of past temperatures, understating the current warming trend There is continuing research into explanations and ways to avoid this problem with tree ring proxies Geographic coverage edit Trees do not cover the Earth Polar and marine climates cannot be estimated from tree rings In perhumid tropical regions, Australia and southern Africa, trees generally grow all year round and don't show clear annual rings In some forest areas, the tree growth is too much influenced by multiple factors no limiting stand to allow clear climate reconstruction examples needed The coverage difficulty is dealt with by acknowledging it and by using other proxies e g ice cores, corals in difficult areas In some cases it can be shown that the parameter of interest temperature, precipitation, etc varies similarly from area to area, for example by looking at patterns in the instrumental record Then one is justified in extending the dendroclimatology inferences to areas where no suitable tree ring samples are obtainable Annular resolution edit Tree rings show the impact on growth over an entire growing season Climate changes deep in the dormant season winter will not be recorded In addition, different times of the growing season may be more important than others i e May versus September for ring width However, in general the ring width is used to infer the overall climate change during the corresponding year an approximation Another problem is memory or autocorrelation A stressed tree may take a year or two to recover from a hard season This problem can be dealt with by more complex modeling a lag term in the regression or by reducing the skill estimates of chronologies Collection difficulties edit Tree rings must be obtained from nature, frequently from remote regions This means that special efforts are needed to map sites properly In addition, samples must be collected in difficult often sloping terrain conditions Generally, tree rings are collected using a hand held borer device, that requires skill to get a good sample The best samples come from felling a tree and sectioning it However, this requires more danger and does damage to the forest It may not be allowed in certain areas, particularly with the oldest trees in undisturbed sites which are the most interesting scientifically As with all experimentalists, dendroclimatologists must, at times, decide to make the best of imperfect data, rather than resample This tradeoff is made more difficult, because sample collection in the field and analysis in the lab may be separated significantly in time and space These collection challenges mean that data gathering is not as simple or cheap as conventional laboratory science However, they also give the field's practitioners much enjoyment, working out of doors, with hands on trees and tools Other measurements edit Initial work focused on measuring the tree ring width—this is simple to measure and can be related to climate parameters But the annual growth of the tree leaves other traces In particular maximum latewood density MXD is another metric used for estimating environmental variables It is, however, harder to measure Other properties e g isotope or chemical trace analysis have also been tried most notably by L M Libby in her paper Temperature Dependence of Isotope Ratios in Tree Rings In theory, multiple measurements on the same ring will allow differentiation of confounding factors e g precipitation and temperature However, most studies are still based on ring widths at limiting stands Measuring radiocarbon concentrations in tree rings has proven to be useful in recreating past sunspot activity, with data now extending back over , years Mechanisms edit On timescales of millions of years, the uplift of mountain ranges and subsequently weathering processes of rocks and soils and the subduction of tectonic plates, are an important part of the carbon cycle The weathering sequesters CO , by the reaction of minerals with chemicals especially silicate weathering with CO and thereby removing CO from the atmosphere and reducing the radiative forcing The opposite effect is volcanism, responsible for the natural greenhouse effect, by emitting CO into the atmosphere, thus affecting glaciation Ice Age cycles James Hansen suggested that humans emit CO , times faster than natural processes have done in the past Ice sheet dynamics and continental positions and linked vegetation changes have been important factors in the long term evolution of the earth's climate There is also a close correlation between CO and temperature, where CO has a strong control over global temperatures in Earth history See also edit Paleoceanography Paleothermometry, the study of ancient temperatures Paleotempestology, the study of past tropical cyclone activity Paleomap Map of different ages and climates of the earth Table of historic and prehistoric climate indicators The Pleistocene lasted from million to , years ago This epoch features the ice ages which is a result from the cooling effect that started in the Mid Eocene As the ice progressively migrated towards the equator, the areas north and south of the tropic line featured intense winters yet mild summers Meanwhile, Africa experienced terrible droughts which resulted in the creation of the Sahara, Namib, and Kalahari deserts To cope, many animals evolved including mammoths, giant ground sloths, dire wolves and most famously Homo sapiens , years ago marked the end of one of the worst droughts of Africa, and the expansion of primitive man As the Pleistocene draws to a close, one of the largest die outs causes many mega fauna to die off, including the last hominid species excluding Homo sapiens All continents are affected, but Africa isn't hit quite as hard The Holocene ranges from , years ago to present day Also known as the Age of Man , the Holocene features the rise of humans on their path to sentience All recorded history and the history of the world lies within the boundaries of the Holocene epoch Human activity, however, is being blamed for a die out that has been going on since , B C E commonly referred to as the Sixth Extinction with an estimated extinction rate of , species per year Biodiversity edit During the Phanerozoic, biodiversity shows a steady but not monotonic increase from near zero to several thousands of genera It has been demonstrated that changes in biodiversity through the Phanerozoic correlate much better with the hyperbolic model widely used in demography and macrosociology than with exponential and logistic models traditionally used in population biology and extensively applied to fossil biodiversity as well The latter models imply that changes in diversity are guided by a first order positive feedback more ancestors, more descendants or a negative feedback arising from resource limitation, or both The hyperbolic model implies a second order positive feedback The hyperbolic pattern of the world population growth arises from a second order positive feedback between the population size and the rate of technological growth The character of biodiversity growth in the Phanerozoic can be similarly accounted for by a feedback between the diversity and community structure complexity It is suggested that the similarity between the curves of biodiversity and human population probably comes from the fact that both are derived from the interference of the hyperbolic trend with cyclical and stochastic dynamics Tectonic activity edit Geologically, the Paleozoic starts shortly after the


abby-lane abby-rode abigail-clayton ada-tauler addie-juniper addison-cain adele-wiesenthal adeline-lange adeline-pollicina adriana-amante adrianna-laurenti adrianna-russo agnes agnes-ardant agnes-zalontai aimee-addison aisha-sun aja aleena-ferari alessandra-schiavo aletta-ocean alexandra-nice alexandria-cass alexa-parks alex-dane alex-foxe alexia-knight alexis-devell alexis-firestone alexis-greco alexis-payne alexis-x alex-storm alex-white aliana-love alice-springs alicia-alighatti alicia-monet alicia-rio alicyn-sterling alighiera-olena ali-moore aline-santos alissa-ashley allysin-chaynes alysin-embers alyssa-love alyssa-reece amanda-addams amanda-blake amanda-blue amanda-jane-adams amanda-rae amanda-stone amanda-tyler amber-hunt amberlina-lynn amber-lynn amber-michaels amber-peach amber-wild amber-woods ambrosia-fox amia-miley ami-rodgers amy-allison amy-brooke amy-rose amy-starz anastasia-christ anastasia-sands andrea-adams andrea-brittian andrea-lange andrea-true andy angel angela-baron angela-summers angel-barrett angel-cash angel-cruz angel-cummings angel-ducharme angelica-sin angelika-reschner angelina-brasini angelina-korrs angelina-valentine angel-kelly angel-long angel-west angie-knight anita-andic anita-blond anita-cannibal anita-dark anna-belle anna-malle anna-nikova anna-pierce anna-ventura anna-veruska anne-bie-warburg anne-libert anne-magle anne-sand annette-haven annie-sprinkle ann-kiray ann-marie-michelle antonia-dorian april-flowers april-may april-west arcadia-lake ariana-bali ariana-jollee arlana-blue ashley-anne ashley-brooks ashley-coda ashley-fires ashley-lauren ashley-long ashley-marie ashley-nicole ashley-perk ashley-renee ashley-robbins ashley-welles ashley-wells ashley-winger ashlyn-gere astrid-bone athena-star aubrey-nichols aurora aurora-snow autumn-bliss autumn-rayne ava-devine ava-lauren avalon ava-marteens avy-lee-roth bailey-monroe bambi-allen barbara-bourbon barbara-boutet barbara-dare barbara-doll barbara-moose barbarella barbie-angel barbie-doll barett-moore bea-fiedler beata beatrice-poggi beatrice-valle becky-savage becky-sunshine belinda-butterfield bella-donna bethany-sweet beverly-bliss beverly-glen biggi-stenzhorn bionca black-widow blond-cat blondi blue-angel bobbi-bliss bobbi-dean bobbie-burns bonnie-holiday brandee brandi-edwards brandy-alexandre brandy-dean brandy-lee brandy-smile brandy-wine bree-anthony breezy-lane brenda-basse briana-blair bridgette-belle bridgette-monet bridgette-monroe bridget-waters brigitte-lahaie brigitte-monnin brigitte-verbecq brittany brittany-stryker britt-corvin britt-morgan bronze brooke-bennett brooke-fields brooke-haven brooke-west brook-van-buuren buffy-davis bunnie-blake bunny-bleu bunny-hatton busty-belle cali-caramel calisyn-heart cameo cameron-love camila-sampaio camilla-rhodes camille-morgan camrie-foxxx candace-daley candi candida-royalle candie-evens candi-summers candy-apples candy-barr candy-hill candy-samples candy-stanton cara-lott caressa-savage carmel-nougat carmen-blonde carmen-de-la-torre carmen-moore carmen-rose carol-connors carol-cross carol-cummings carole-dubois carole-gire carole-pierac carol-titian carolyn-connoly carolyn-monroe carrie-cruise cassandra-leigh cassidy cassie-courtland cataline-bullock catherine-count catherine-crystal catherine-ringer catherine-tailleferre cathy-delorme cathy-menard cathy-stewart celeste-fox celine-gallone chanel-preston chanel-price chantal-virapin chanta-rose chantelle-stevens charisma charisma-cole charlie-latour charlie-waters charlotte-de-castille charmane-star chasey-lain chayse-manhattan chaz-vincent chelsea-sinclaire chennin-blanc cheri-janvier cheri-taylor cherry-hill chessie-moore cheyenne-hunter cheyenne-silver china-lee china-leigh china-moon chloe-cruize chloe-dior chloe-kez chloe-stevens chris-collins chris-jordan chris-petersen chrissie-beauchamp christa-abel christa-ludwig christie-ford christi-lake christina-berg christina-blond christina-evol christina-skye christine-black christine-chavert christine-neona christine-rigoler christy-canyon cicciolina cindi-stephens cindy-carver cindy-crawford cindy-more cindy-shepard cindy-wong cinthya-marinho clair-dia claire-robbins claude-janna claudia-jackson claudia-jamsson claudia-mehringer claudia-nero claudia-van-statt claudia-zante claudine-beccarie clea-carson cleo-nichole cleo-patra cody-lane cody-love cody-nicole coffee-brown colleen-brennan connie-bennett connie-peterson constance-money copper-penny coreena corey-everson corinne-lemoine corneliah cory-everson cory-wolf courtney courtney-cummz courtney-james cris-cassidy crissy-moran cris-taliana crystal-breeze crystal-dawn crystal-holland crystal-knight crystal-lake crystal-lovin crystal-sync csilla-kalnay cuban-bee cynara-fox cyndee-summers cynthia-black cynthia-brooks cynthia-hammers cynthia-lavigne dagmar-lost daisy-layne dallas-miko dana-dylan dana-lynn danica-rhea daniela-nanou daniela-schiffer daniele-troeger daniella daniella-schiffer danielle danielle-foxxx danielle-rodgers danny-ricci danyel-cheeks daphne daphne-rosen darby-lloyd-rains darla-crane darla-delovely davia-ardell dayton-rain debbie-northrup debbie-revenge debbie-van-gils debi-diamond debi-jointed debra-lynn deidra-hopkins deidre-holland delania-raffino delia-moore delphine-thail delta-force delta-white demi-moor denice-klarskov denise-derringer denise-dior denise-sloan desiree-cousteau desiree-foxx desiree-lane desiree-west deva-station devin-devasquez devinn-lane devon-shire dia diana-holt diana-kisabonyi diana-siefert diana-stevenson diane-dubois diane-richards diane-sloan diane-suresne dido-angel dillan-lauren dina-deville dina-jewel dina-pearl ditty-blue diva divinity-love djiana dolly-darkley dominique dominique-dewitt dominique-saint-claire donna-hart donna-marie dorle-buchner dorothy-lemay dorothy-onan drea drimla dru-berrymore dusty-rose dyanna-lauren ebony-ayes edina-blond edita-ungerova edwige-faillel eileen-wells elaine-southern elena-berkova elena-maria-ricci eleonore-melzer elisabeth-bure elis-black elise elise-di-medici elle-devyne elle-rio elodie-delage elsa-maroussia elza-brown emili-doll emily-evermoore emily-george emily-jewel emmanuelle-pareze envy-mi erica-boyer erica-eaton erica-havens erica-idol erica-lauren erika-bella erika-cool erika-heaven erika-lockett esme-monroe eva-allen eva-angel eva-dionisio eva-gross eva-kleber eva-lux eva-uettori eve-laurence evelyne-lang evie-delatosso fabiana-venturi faith-stevens fallon fanny-garreau fanny-steel faye-runaway flame flick-shagwell flore-soller flower france-lomay france-quenie francoise frankie-leigh gabriella gabriella-mirelba gabriella-vincze gail-force gail-palmer gail-sterling georgette-saunders georgia-peach georgina-spelvin gia-givanna gianna-lynn gili-sky gina-carrera gina-gianetti gina-janssen gina-lee gina-martell gina-valentino ginger-jay ginger-lee ginger-lynn ginny-noack giovanna gisela-schwarz giselle-monet gladys-laroche gloria-leonard gloria-todd golden-jade greta-carlson greta-milos guia-lauri-filzi gwenda-farnel hare-krane harley-raine hayley-jade hazel-young heather-deeley heather-ellis heather-hart heather-lere heather-lyn heather-manfield heather-thomas heather-torrance heather-wayne heather-young helen-madigan helen-thomas helga-sven helga-wild hillary-summers holly-hollywood holly-joy holly-page holly-ryder honey-winter hottie-hollie hyapatia-lee ida-fabry ildiko-smits illana-moor ines-ridere ingrid-choray isabella-dior isabella-soprano isabelle-allay isabelle-brell isabelle-marchall isobel-wren iveta ivette-blanche jackie-right jacqueline-lorians jacy-allen jada-stevens jade-east jade-hsu jade-marcela jade-summers jade-wong jahn-gold jamie-brooks jamie-james jamie-summers jana-irrova jana-mrazkova jane-baker jane-darling jane-iwanoff jane-lindsay jane-lixx janet-jacme janey-robbins jasmine-delatori jayden-simone jaylyn-rose jayna-woods jazella-moore jazmin-luna-gold jean-afrique jeanette-littledove jeanie-marie-sullivan jean-jennings jeanna-fine jeannie-pepper jenna-jameson jenna-jane jenna-presley jenna-wells jennifer-haussmann jennifer-janes jennifer-jordan jennifer-morante jennifer-noxt jennifer-stewart jennifer-welles jennifer-west jenny jenny-feeling jenny-fields jenny-wings jersey-jaxin jesie-st-james jesse-capelli jessica-bangkok jessica-bogart jessica-darlin jessica-fiorentino jessica-gabriel jessica-laine jessica-may jessica-road jessica-wylde jessi-foster jill-ferari jill-kelly joana-redgrave joan-devlon joanna-storm joanna-sweet jody-maxwell joelle-lequement joelle-petinot johnni-black jordana-james jordan-green jordan-nevaeh jordan-star josephine-carrington joslyn-james julia-chanel julia-dal-fuoco juliana-grandi julia-paes julia-parton julia-perrin julia-swen julia-thomas julie-meadows julie-rage julie-simone juliet-anderson juliet-graham juliette-carelton kacey-jordan kagney-linn-karter kaitlyn-ashley kalena-rios kami-andrews kamila-smith kandee-licks kandi-barbour kapri-styles kara-nox karen-summer kari-foxx karine-gambier karin-schubert karli-sweet karmen-kennedy karol-castro kascha kassi-nova kat kate-frost kate-jones kathia-nobili kathleen-gentry kathleen-white kathy-divan kathy-harcourt kathy-heart kathy-kash katie-cummings katja-love kat-langer katrina-isis katrina-kraven katy-borman katy-caro kaycee-dean kayla-kupcakes kay-parker k-c-valentine keama-kim keira-moon keisha keli-richards kelli-tyler kelly-adams kelly-blue kelly-broox kelly-hearn kelly-kay kelly-kline kelly-nichols kelly-royce kelly-skyline kendra-kay kenzi-marie keri-windsor ketthy-divan kianna-dior kiley-heart kim-alexis kimber-blake kimberly-carson kimberly-kane kimberly-kyle kim-de-place kim-holland kimi-gee kimkim-de kim-kitaine kimmie-lee kimmy-nipples kina-kara kira-eggers kira-red kirsty-waay kitty-langdon kitty-lynxxx kitty-marie kitty-shayne kitty-yung kora-cummings kris-lara krista-lane krista-maze kristara-barrington kristarah-knight kristi-klenot kristina-blonde kristina-king kristina-klevits kristina-soderszk kristine-heller kristin-steen krisztina-ventura krystal-de-boor krystal-steal kylee-karr kylee-nash kylie-brooks kylie-channel kylie-haze kylie-wylde kym-wilde kyoto-sun lachelle-marie lacy-rose lady-amanda-wyldefyre lady-stephanie laetitia-bisset lana-burner lana-cox lana-wood lara-amour lara-roxx lara-stevens lataya-roxx latoya laura-clair laura-lazare laura-lion laura-may laura-orsolya laura-paouck laura-zanzibar lauren-black laurence-boutin lauren-montgomery laurien-dominique laurien-wilde laurie-smith lauryl-canyon lauryn-may leah-wilde lea-magic lea-martini leanna-foxxx lee-caroll leigh-livingston leilani lenora-bruce leslie-winston lesllie-bovee letizia-bruni lexi-lane lexi-matthews lezley-zen lia-fire liliane-gray liliane-lemieuvre lili-marlene lily-gilder lily-labeau lily-rodgers lily-valentine linda-shaw linda-vale linda-wong linnea-quigley lisa-bright lisa-de-leeuw lisa-k-loring lisa-lake lisa-melendez lisa-sue-corey lise-pinson little-oral-annie liza-dwyer liza-harper lizzy-borden logan-labrent lois-ayres lola-cait long-jean-silver loni-bunny loni-sanders loona-luxx lorelei-lee lorelei-rand lorena-sanchez lori-alexia lori-blue lorrie-lovett luci-diamond lucie-doll lucie-theodorova lucy-van-dam lydia-baum lynn-franciss lynn-lemay lynn-ray lynn-stevens lynx-canon lysa-thatcher madelina-ray madison-parker magdalena-lynn maggie-randall mai-lin mandi-wine mandy-bright mandy-malone mandy-may mandy-mistery mandy-starr marcia-minor maren margit-ojetz margitta-hofer margo-stevens margot-mahler mariah-cherry marianne-aubert maria-tortuga marie-anne marie-christine-chireix marie-christine-veroda marie-claude-moreau marie-dominique-cabannes marie-france-morel marie-luise-lusewitz marie-sharp marilyn-chambers marilyne-leroy marilyn-gee marilyn-jess marilyn-martyn marilyn-star marina-hedman marion-webb marita-ekberg marita-kemper marlena marlene-willoughby marry-queen martine-grimaud martine-schultz maryanne-fisher mary-hubay mary-ramunno mary-stuart mascha-mouton maud-kennedy mauvais-denoir maxine-tyler maya-black maya-france megan-leigh megan-martinez megan-reece mei-ling melanie-hotlips melanie-scott melba-cruz melinda-russell melissa-bonsardo melissa-del-prado melissa-golden melissa-martinez melissa-melendez melissa-monet mercedes-dragon mercedes-lynn merle-michaels mesha-lynn mia-beck mia-lina mia-smiles michele-raven michelle-aston michelle-ferrari michelle-greco michelle-maren michelle-maylene michelle-monroe micki-lynn mika-barthel mika-tan mikki-taylor mimi-morgan mindy-rae ming-toy miranda-stevens miss-bunny miss-meadow miss-pomodoro missy missy-graham missy-stone missy-vega misti-jane mistress-candice misty-anderson misty-dawn misty-rain misty-regan mona-lisa mona-page moni monica-baal monica-swinn monika-peta monika-sandmayr monika-unco monique-bruno monique-cardin monique-charell monique-demoan monique-gabrielle monique-la-belle morgan-fairlane morrigan-hel moxxie-maddron mulani-rivera mysti-may nadege-arnaud nadia-styles nadine-bronx nadine-proutnal nadine-roussial nadi-phuket nanci-suiter nancy-hoffman nancy-vee natacha-delyro natalia-wood natalli-diangelo natascha-throat natasha-skyler naudia-nyce nessa-devil nessy-grant nesty nicki-hunter nicky-reed nicole-berg nicole-bernard nicole-black nicole-grey nicole-london nicole-parks nicole-scott nicole-taylor nicolette-fauludi nicole-west nika-blond nika-mamic niki-cole nikita-love nikita-rush nikki-charm nikki-grand nikki-king nikki-knight nikki-randall nikki-rhodes nikki-santana nikki-steele nikki-wilde niko nina-cherry nina-deponca nina-hartley nina-preta oana-efria obaya-roberts olesja-derevko olga-cabaeva olga-conti olga-pechova olga-petrova olivia-alize olivia-del-rio olivia-flores olivia-la-roche olivia-outre ophelia-tozzi orchidea-keresztes orsolya-blonde paige-turner paisley-hunter pamela-bocchi pamela-jennings pamela-mann pamela-stanford pamela-stealt pandora paola-albini pascale-vital pat-manning pat-rhea patricia-dale patricia-diamond patricia-kennedy patricia-rhomberg patrizia-predan patti-cakes patti-petite paula-brasile paula-harlow paula-morton paula-price paula-winters pauline-teutscher penelope-pumpkins penelope-valentin petra-hermanova petra-lamas peyton-lafferty phaedra-grant pia-snow piper-fawn pipi-anderson porsche-lynn porsha-carrera precious-silver priscillia-lenn purple-passion queeny-love rachel-ashley rachel-love rachel-luv rachel-roxxx rachel-ryan rachel-ryder racquel-darrian rane-revere raven reagan-maddux rebecca-bardoux regan-anthony regine-bardot regula-mertens reina-leone reka-gabor renae-cruz renee-foxx renee-lovins renee-morgan renee-perez renee-summers renee-tiffany rhonda-jo-petty rikki-blake riley-ray rio-mariah rita-ricardo roberta-gemma roberta-pedon robin-byrd robin-cannes robin-everett robin-sane rochell-starr rosa-lee-kimball rosemarie roxanne-blaze roxanne-hall roxanne-rollan ruby-richards sabina-k sabre sabrina-chimaera sabrina-dawn sabrina-jade sabrina-johnson sabrina-love-cox sabrina-mastrolorenzi sabrina-rose sabrina-scott sabrina-summers sacha-davril sahara sahara-sands sai-tai-tiger samantha-fox samantha-ryan samantha-sterlyng samantha-strong samueline-de-la-rosa sandra-cardinale sandra-de-marco sandra-kalermen sandra-russo sandy-lee sandy-pinney sandy-reed sandy-samuel sandy-style sandy-summers sara-brandy-canyon sara-faye sarah-bernard sarah-cabrera sarah-hevyn sarah-mills sarah-shine sara-sloane sasha sasha-hollander sasha-ligaya sasha-rose satine-phoenix satin-summer savannah-stern savanna-jane scarlet-scarleau scarlet-windsor seka selena serena serena-south severine-amoux shana-evans shanna-mccullough shannon-kelly shannon-rush shantell-day sharon-da-vale sharon-kane sharon-mitchell shaun-michelle shawna-sexton shawnee-cates shay-hendrix shayne-ryder sheena-horne sheer-delight shelby-star shelby-stevens shelly-berlin shelly-lyons sheri-st-clair sheyla-cats shonna-lynn shyla-foxxx shy-love sierra-sinn sierra-skye sigrun-theil silver-starr silvia-bella silvia-saint silvie-de-lux silvy-taylor simone-west sindee-coxx sindy-lange sindy-shy siobhan-hunter skylar-knight skylar-price skyler-dupree smokie-flame smoking-mary-jane solange-shannon sonya-summers sophia-santi sophie-call sophie-duflot sophie-evans sophie-guers stacey-donovan stacy-lords stacy-moran stacy-nichols stacy-silver stacy-thorn starla-fox starr-wood stefania-bruni stella-virgin stephanie-duvalle stephanie-rage stephanie-renee stevie-taylor summer-knight summer-rose sunny-day sunset-thomas sunshine-seiber susan-hart susanne-brend susan-nero susi-hotkiss suzanne-mcbain suzan-nielsen suzie-bartlett suzie-carina suzi-sparks sweet-nice sweety-pie sybille-rossani sylvia-benedict sylvia-bourdon sylvia-brand sylvia-engelmann syreeta-taylor syren-de-mer syvette szabina-black szilvia-lauren tai-ellis taija-rae taisa-banx talia-james tamara-lee tamara-longley tamara-n-joy tamara-west tami-white tammy tammy-lee tammy-reynolds tania-lorenzo tantala-ray tanya-danielle tanya-fox tanya-foxx tanya-lawson tanya-valis tara-aire tasha-voux tatjana-belousova tatjana-skomorokhova tawnee-lee tawny-pearl tayla-rox taylor-wane teddi-austin teddi-barrett tera-bond tera-heart tera-joy teresa-may teresa-orlowski teri-diver teri-weigel terri-dolan terri-hall tess-ferre tess-newheart thais-vieira tia-cherry tianna tiara tiffany-blake tiffany-clark tiffany-duponte tiffany-rayne tiffany-rousso tiffany-storm tiffany-towers tiffany-tyler tiger-lily tigr timea-vagvoelgyi tina-blair tina-burner tina-evil tina-gabriel tina-loren tina-marie tina-russell tish-ambrose tommi-rose tonisha-mills topsy-curvey tori-secrets tori-sinclair tori-welles tracey-adams traci-lords traci-topps traci-winn tracy-duzit tracy-love tracy-williams tricia-devereaux tricia-yen trinity-loren trisha-rey trista-post trixie-tyler ultramax ursula-gaussmann ursula-moore uschi-karnat valentina valerie-leveau valery-hilton vanessa-chase vanessa-del-rio vanessa-michaels vanessa-ozdanic vanilla-deville velvet-summers veri-knotty veronica-dol veronica-hart veronica-hill veronica-rayne veronica-sage veronika-vanoza via-paxton vicky-lindsay vicky-vicci victoria-evans victoria-gold victoria-knight victoria-luna victoria-paris victoria-slick victoria-zdrok viper virginie-caprice vivian-valentine vivien-martines wendi-white wendy-divine whitney-banks whitney-fears whitney-wonders wonder-tracey wow-nikki xanthia-berstein yasmine-fitzgerald yelena-shieffer yvonne-green zara-whites zsanett-egerhazi zuzie-boobies

breakup of a supercontinent called Pannotia Throughout the early Paleozoic, the Earth's landmass was broken up into a substantial number of continents Towards the end of the era, the continents gathered together into a supercontinent called Pangaea, which included most of the Earth's land area Climate edit The Ordovician and Silurian periods were warm greenhouse periods, with the highest sea levels of the Paleozoic m above today's the warm climate was interrupted only by a million years cool period, the Early Palaeozoic Icehouse, culminating in the Hirnantian glaciation The early Cambrian climate was probably moderate at first, becoming warmer over the course of the Cambrian, as the second greatest sustained sea level rise in the Phanerozoic got underway However, as if to offset this trend, Gondwana moved south with considerable speed, so that, in Ordovician time, most of West Gondwana Africa and South America lay directly over the South Pole The early Paleozoic climate was also strongly zonal, with the result that the climate , in an abstract sense became warmer, but the living space of most organisms of the time—the continental shelf marine environment—became steadily colder However, Baltica Northern Europe and Russia and Laurentia eastern North America and Greenland remained in the tropical zone, while China and Australia lay in waters which were at least temperate The early Paleozoic ended, rather abruptly, with the short, but apparently severe, late Ordovician ice age This cold spell caused the second greatest mass extinction of Phanerozoic time Over time, the warmer weather moved into the Paleozoic Era The middle Paleozoic was a time of considerable stability Sea levels had dropped coincident with the ice age, but slowly recovered over the course of the Silurian and Devonian The slow merger of Baltica and Laurentia, and the northward movement of bits and pieces of Gondwana created numerous new regions of relatively warm, shallow sea floor As plants took hold on the continental margins, oxygen levels increased and carbon dioxide dropped, although much less dramatically The north–south temperature gradient also seems to have moderated, or metazoan life simply became hardier, or both At any event, the far southern continental margins of Antarctica and West Gondwana became increasingly less barren The Devonian ended with a series of turnover pulses which killed off much of middle Paleozoic vertebrate life, without noticeably reducing species diversity overall The late Paleozoic was a time which has left us a good many unanswered questions The Mississippian began with a spike in atmospheric oxygen, while carbon dioxide plummeted to unheard of lows This destabilized the climate and led to one, and perhaps two, ice ages during the Carboniferous These were far more severe than the brief Late Ordovician Ice but, this time, the effects on world biota were inconsequential By the Cisuralian, both oxygen and carbon dioxide had recovered to more normal levels On the other hand, the assembly of Pangaea created huge arid inland areas subject to temperature extremes The Lopingian is associated with falling sea levels, increased carbon dioxide and general climatic deterioration, culminating in the devastation of the Permian extinction Flora edit An artist's impression of early land plants While macroscopic plant life appeared early in the Paleozoic and possibly late in the Neoproterozoic, it mostly remained aquatic until sometime in the Silurian and Devonian, when it began to transition onto dry land Terrestrial flora reached its climax in the Carboniferous, when towering lycopsid rainforests dominated the tropical belt of Euramerica Climate change caused the Carboniferous Rainforest Collapse which fragmented this habitat, diminishing the diversity of plant life in the late Carboniferous and Permian Fauna edit A noteworthy feature of Paleozoic life is the sudden appearance of nearly all of the invertebrate animal phyla in great abundance at the beginning of the Cambrian The first vertebrates appeared in the form of primitive fish, which greatly diversified in the Silurian and Devonian The first animals to venture onto dry land were the arthropods Some fish had lungs, and powerful bony fins that also could crawl onto land The bones in their fins eventually evolved into legs and they became the first tetrapods Amphibians were the dominant tetrapods until the mid Carboniferous, when climate change greatly reduced their diversity Later, reptiles prospered and continued to increase in number and variety by the late Permian See also edit Wikimedia Commons has media related to Paleozoic Geologic timescale Precambrian Cenozoic Mesozoic Phanerozoic Eon The Quaternary spans from million to present day, and features modern animals, and dramatic changes in the climate It is divided into two epochs the Pleistocene and the Holocene Megafauna of the Pleistocene mammoths, cave lions, woolly rhino, Megaloceros, American horses The Pleistocene lasted from million to , years ago This epoch was marked by ice ages as a result of the cooling trend that started in the Mid Eocene There were at least four separate glaciation periods marked by the advance of ice caps as far south as degrees N latitude in mountainous areas Meanwhile, Africa experienced a trend of desiccation which resulted in the creation of the Sahara, Namib, and Kalahari deserts Many animals evolved including mammoths, giant ground sloths, dire wolves, saber toothed cats, and most famously Homo sapiens , years ago marked the end of one of the worst droughts of Africa, and led to the expansion of primitive man As the Pleistocene drew to a close, a major extinction caused wiped out much of the world's megafauna, including some of the hominid species, such as Neanderthals All the continents were affected, but Africa to a lesser extent The continent retains many large animals, such as hippos The Holocene began , years ago and lasts until to present day Also known as the Age of Man , the Holocene is marked by the rise of man on his path to sentience All recorded history and the history of the world lies within the boundaries of the Holocene epoch Human activity is blamed for a mass extinction that began roughly , years ago, though the species becoming extinct have only been recorded since the Industrial Revolution This is sometimes referred to as the Sixth Extinction species have become extinct due to human activity since the Industrial Revolution Tectonics edit Geologically, the Cenozoic is the era when the continents moved into their current positions Australia New Guinea, having split from Pangea during the early Cretaceous, drifted north and, eventually, collided with South east Asia Antarctica moved into its current position over the South Pole the Atlantic Ocean widened and, later in the era, South America became attached to North America with the isthmus of Panama India collided with Asia to million years ago creating the Himalayas Arabia collided with Eurasia, closing the Tethys ocean and creating the Zagros Mountains, around million years ago Climate edit The Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum of million years ago was a significant global warming event however, since the Azolla event of million years ago, the Cenozoic Era has been a period of long term cooling After the tectonic creation of Drake Passage, when South America fully detached from Antarctica during the Oligocene, the climate cooled significantly due to the advent of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current which brought cool deep Antarctic water to the surface The cooling trend continued in the Miocene, with relatively short warmer periods When South America became attached to North America creating the Isthmus of Panama, the Arctic region cooled due to the strengthening of the Humboldt and Gulf Stream currents, eventually leading to the glaciations of the Quaternary ice age, the current interglacial of which is the Holocene Epoch Life edit During the Cenozoic, mammals proliferated from a few small, simple, generalized forms into a diverse collection of terrestrial, marine, and flying animals, giving this period its other name, the Age of Mammals, despite the fact that birds still outnumbered mammals two to one The Cenozoic is just as much the age of savannas, the age of co dependent flowering plants and insects, and the age of birds Grass also played a very important role in this era, shaping the evolution of the birds and mammals that fed on it One group that diversified significantly in the Cenozoic as well were the snakes Evolving in the Cenozoic, the variety of snakes increased tremendously, resulting in many colubrids, following the evolution of their current primary prey source, the rodents In the earlier part of the Cenozoic, the world was dominated by the gastornid birds, terrestrial crocodiles like Pristichampsus, and a handful of primitive large mammal groups like uintatheres, mesonychids, and pantodonts But as the forests began to recede and the climate began to cool, other mammals took over The Cenozoic is full of mammals both strange and familiar, including chalicotheres, creodonts, whales, primates, entelodonts, saber toothed cats, mastodons and mammoths, three toed horses, giant rhinoceros like Indricotherium, the rhinoceros like brontotheres, various bizarre groups of mammals from South America, such as the vaguely elephant like pyrotheres and the dog like marsupial relatives called borhyaenids and the monotremes and marsupials of Australia Wikisource has the text of the Encyclopædia Britannica article Cainozoic See also edit Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cenozoic Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary K–T boundary Geologic time scale Mesozoic Paleozoic Precambrian Phanerozoic Eon Bonin Islands Mariana Islands Luzon Volcanic Arc Philippines Tonga and Kermadec Islands Andaman and Nicobar Islands Mentawai Islands Sunda Arc Lesser Sunda Islands Tanimbar and Kai Islands Solomon Islands South Aegean Volcanic Arc Egean, or Hellenic arc Lesser Antilles, including the Leeward Antilles Scotia Arc South Sandwich Islands Mascarene Islands Ancient island arcs edit Insular Islands Intermontane Islands Sakhalin island arc See also edit Back arc basin Island arc Subduction zone metamorphism Volcanic field Volcanic island Borneo montane rain forests Borneo Borneo peat swamp forests Borneo Eastern Java–Bali montane rain forests Bali, Java Eastern Java–Bali rain forests Bali, Java Mentawai Islands rain forests Mentawai Islands Peninsular Malaysian montane rain forests Malay peninsula Peninsular Malaysian peat swamp forests Malay peninsula Peninsular Malaysian rain forests Anambas Islands, Malay peninsula Southwest Borneo freshwater swamp forests Borneo Sumatran freshwater swamp forests Sumatra Sumatran lowland rain forests Sumatra, Nias, Bangka Island Sumatran montane rain forests Sumatra Sumatran peat swamp forests Sumatra Sundaland heath forests Indonesia Western Java montane rain forests Java Western Java rain forests Java Tropical and subtropical coniferous forests Sumatran tropical pine forests Sumatra Montane grasslands and shrublands Kinabalu montane alpine meadows Borneo Mangroves Sunda Shelf mangroves Borneo, Sumatra, Riau Islands See also edit Austronesian languages Banda Arc Biogeography Doggerland — contemporary North Sea land mass Father Tongue hypothesis Islands of Indonesia Oceania Australasia Australia continent This section does not cite any references sources Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed July Geopolitically, Australasia sometimes refers to Australia and New Zealand together – in the absence of another word limited to those two countries however, the two countries are sometimes referred to collectively as the Antipodes Sometimes the term also encompasses the island of New Guinea Papua New Guinea and the Indonesian part of the island Many organisations whose names include the prefix Royal Australasian Society of limit their scope of operation to just Australia and New Zealand The – Australasian Olympic Flag In the past, Australasia has been used as a name for combined Australia New Zealand sporting teams Examples include tennis between and , when New Zealand and Australia combined to compete in the Davis Cup international tournament, and at the Olympic Games of and Ecological geography edit This section does not cite any references sources Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed July Wallace Line separates Australasian and Southeast Asian fauna Aoraki Mount Cook in the Southern Alps of New Zealand Main article Australasia ecozone From an ecological perspective the Australasia ecozone forms a distinct region with a common geologic and evolutionary history and a great many unique flora and fauna In this context, Australasia is limited to Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand, New Caledonia, and neighbouring islands, including the Indonesian islands from Lombok and Sulawesi eastward The Wallace Line marks the biological divide from the Indomalaya ecozone of tropical Asia – Borneo and Bali lie on the western, Asian side Australia, New Zealand and New Caledonia are all fragments of the ancient supercontinent Gondwana, the marks of which are still visible in the Christmas Island Seamount Province and other geophysical entities These three land masses have been separated from other continents, and from one another, for millions of years All of Australasia shares the Antarctic flora, although the northern, tropical islands also share many plants with Southeast Asia Australia, New Guinea, and Tasmania are separated from one another by shallow continental shelves, and were linked together when the sea level was lower during the Ice Ages They share a similar fauna which includes marsupial and monotreme mammals and ratite birds Eucalypts are the predominant trees in much of Australia and New Guinea New Zealand has no native land mammals, but also had ratite birds, including the kiwi and the extinct moa The Australasia ecozone includes some nearby island groups, like Wallacea, the Bismarck Archipelago, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu, which were not formerly part of Gondwana, but which share many characteristic plants and animals with Australasia See also edit Australasian Australasia at the Olympics Sundaland Trans Tasman Zealandia Maluku Islands Indonesia , , , ML Papua , , , Jayapura PA West Papua , , Manokwari PB Papua New Guinea , , , Port Moresby PG Solomon Islands , , Honiara SB Vanuatu , , Port Vila VU Micronesia Federated States of Micronesia , Palikir FM Guam United States , Hagåtña GU Kiribati , South Tarawa KI Marshall Islands , Majuro MH Nauru , Yaren de facto NR Northern Mariana Islands United States , Saipan MP Palau , Ngerulmud PW Wake Island Wake Island United States Wake Island UM Polynesia American Samoa United States , Pago Pago, Fagatogo AS Cook Islands New Zealand , Avarua CK Easter Island Chile , Hanga Roa CL French Polynesia France , , Papeete PF Hawaii United States , , , Honolulu US Niue New Zealand , Alofi NU Pitcairn Islands United Kingdom Adamstown PN Samoa , , Apia WS Tokelau New Zealand , Nukunonu TK Tonga , Nuku?alofa TO Tuvalu , Funafuti TV Wallis and Futuna France , Mata Utu WF Total , , , , After World War II, all claims of divinity were dropped see Ningen sengen The Diet acquired all prerogative powers of the Crown, reverting the latter to a ceremonial role By the end of the th century, Japan was the only country with an emperor on the throne As of the early st century, Japan's succession law prohibits a female from ascending the throne With the birth of a daughter as the first child of the current Crown Prince, Naruhito, Japan considered abandoning that rule However, shortly after the announcement that Princess Kiko was pregnant with her third child, the proposal to alter the Imperial Household Law was suspended by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi On January , after the birth of her son, Prince Hisahito, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced that he would drop the proposal Currently, many believe the new prince of Japan will ascend the throne, as the law defines Historically, Japan has had eight reigning empresses who used the genderless title Tenno, rather than the female consort title kogo ?? or chugu ?? There is ongoing discussion of the Japanese Imperial succession controversy Although current Japanese law prohibits female succession, all Japanese emperors claim to trace their lineage to Amaterasu, the Sun Goddess of the Shinto religion Thus, the Emperor is thought to be the highest authority of the Shinto religion, and one of his duties is to perform Shinto rituals for the people of Japan Mongolia edit Pre Mongol Kingdoms such as the Xiongnu used the title Chanu meaning Ruler of all in old Mongolian However it was not until the Chanu name was dropped and instead replaced by Khan that the rulers of Mongolia claimed the divine right as the ruler of all under the blue sky, this rule was closely tied with the ancient religious beliefs of the people of Mongolia Tengrism The title Khagan khan of khans or grand khan was held by Genghis Khan, founder of the Mongol Empire in After , the emperors of the Yuan Dynasty also took the Chinese title huangdi, or Chinese emperor Only the Khagans from Genghis Khan to the fall of the Yuan Dynasty in are normally referred to as Emperors in English Vietnam edit B?o Ð?i, the last Emperor of Vietnam Ngô Quy?n, the first ruler of Ð?i Vi?t as an independent state, used the title Vuong ?, King However, after the death of Ngô Quy?n, the country immersed in a civil war known as Chaos of the Lords that lasted for over years In the end, Ðinh B? Linh unified the country after defeating all the warlords and became the first ruler of Ð?i Vi?t to use the title Hoàng Ð? ??, Emperor in Succeeding rulers in Vietnam then continued to use this Emperor title until when this title was stopped being used for a century Ðinh B? Linh wasn't the first to claim the title of Ð? ?, Emperor Before him, Lý Bí and Mai Thúc Loan also claimed this title However, their rules were very short lived The Vietnamese emperors also gave this title to their ancestors who were lords or influence figures in the previous dynasty like the Chinese emperors This practice is one of many indications of the idea Vietnam's equality with China which is remained intact up to twentieth century In the newly established Nguy?n dynasty requested canonization from Chinese Jiaqing Emperor and got the title Qu?c Vuong ??, King of a State and the name of the country as An Nam ?? instead Ð?i Vi?t ?? To avoid unnecessary armed conflicts, the Vietnamese rulers accepted this in diplomatic relation and use the title Emperor only domestically However, Vietnamese rulers never accepted the vassalage relationship with China and always refused to come to Chinese courts to pay homage to Chinese rulers a sign of vassalage acceptance China waged a number of wars against Vietnam throughout history, and after each failure, settled for the tributary relationship The Yuan dynasty under Kublai Khan waged three wars against Vietnam to force it into a vassalage relationship but after successive failures, Kublai Khan's successor, Temür Khan, finally settled for a tributary relationship with Vietnam Vietnam sent tributary missions to China once in three years with some periods of disruptions until the th century, Sino French War France replaced China in control of northern Vietnam The emperors of the last dynasty of Vietnam continued to hold this title until the French conquered Vietnam The emperor, however, was then a puppet figure only and could easily be disposed of by the French for more pro France figure Japan took Vietnam from France and the Axis occupied Vietnam was declared an empire by the Japanese in March The line of emperors came to an end with B?o Ð?i, who was deposed after the war, although he later served as head of state of South Vietnam from Oceania edit The lone holders of the imperial title in Oceania were the heads of the semi mythical Tu?i Tonga Empire Fictional uses edit There have been many fictional emperors in movies and books To see a list of these emperors, see Category of fictional emperors and empresses See also References History edit The first king known to use the title king of kings šar šarrani was Tukulti Ninurta I of Assyria th century BC The title used to be intended quite literally, as a šar or mlk was the title of a king of a city state, and with the formation an empire in the Late Bronze Age, the Assyrian rulers installed themselves as rulers over the existing structure of rulers kings of city states The Persian title of a king of kings is shahanshah '????n'??? , associated especially with Zoroastrian Persian Achaemenid Empire, where it referred to the monarch ruling over other monarchs who had a vassal, tributary or protectorate position The title is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, as ??? ?????, applied to Nebuchadnezzar and to Artaxerxes In Daniel , Daniel interprets the dream of Nebuchadnezzar to the effect that Thou, O king, art a king of kings for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory In Christianity, king of kings ßas??e?? t?? ßas??e???t?? is one of the titles of Jesus, based on Timothy , and Revelation , The Emperors of Ethiopia had the title of king of kings n?gusä nägäst Religious edit Judaism

edit In Judaism, King of Kings – in Hebrew Melech ha M'lachim – is an expression that refers to God, whose name may not be said It is usually rendered as Melech Malchei Ha M'lachim the King of the Kings of Kings , to put it one step above the title by which Babylonian and Persian kings are referred to in the Bible specifically in the Book of Daniel Christ as King of Kings A Russian icon from Murom Christianity edit Main article Christ the King Jesus is called the King of Kings thrice in the New Testament in Timothy , Revelationn and Revelation Jesus says in Matthew that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him In John , he says that his realm is not of this earth Thus, it is commonly accepted that the title King of Kings is awarded to Jesus as the ruler over a temporal, spiritual or higher kingdom While not universally accepted by all Christians, it is important to note that a common Christian belief that their Lord, Jesus Christ is the living embodiment of God Almighty, affording him title of Supreme and Ultimate Ruler of the Universe Selivanov, the co founder of the Skoptsi, a Russian Pseudo Christian sect which practiced sexual mutilation, who proclaimed himself the Son of God incarnate in the person of Emperor Peter III, claimed the titles King of Kings and even God of Gods Islam edit In Islam, the term King of Kings is reserved for Allah meaning God, literally translated as he who is being worshiped and is prohibited as a description for a human being This is to maintain a clear distinction between the created being and his or her Creator Narrated in Sahih Bukhari and Muslim, from Abu Hurairah that Muhammad said, Verily, the worst title is 'King of Kings' there is no King that has absolute power except Allah The term al Malik The King is the th of the known names of Allah, taken to imply 'The Sovereign Lord, The One with the complete Dominion, the One Whose Dominion is clear from imperfection' singles the only God out as supreme ruler over all earthly powers The th known name of Allah is Malik Al Mulk King of the Realm , taken to mean 'The Eternal Owner of Sovereignty, The One who controls the Dominion and gives dominion to whoever He willed' Hinduism edit In India the terms used for Hindu kings to represent king of kings include Rajadhi raja , chakravarthi, Maharaja ,Perarasu,etc Buddhism edit In the Pali Tripitaka, Buddha is sometimes compared to the worldly Emperor Chakravarti , the Universal King, or the secular King of Kings But Buddha is also seen as the King of the Dharma or Dharma raja Spain edit The Spanish Portuguese empire In the early th century, the phrase, el imperio en el que nunca se pone el sol the empire on which the sun never sets originated with a remark made by Fray Francisco de Ugalde to Charles I of Spain r to , who as king of Spain and as Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, had an empire, which included many territories in Europe, islands in the Mediterranean and Atlantic, cities in North Africa and vast territories in the Americas The phrase gained added resonance during the reign of Charles's son, Philip II of Spain, when the Philippines and several other island chains in the Pacific were obtained by Spain When King Henry of Portugal died, Philip II pressed his claim to the Portuguese throne and was recognised as Philip I of Portugal in He then reigned over all his father's possessions in Europe, Africa and the Americas except the Holy Roman Empire and Asia and the Portuguese Empire, which itself included territories in the Americas, in the North and the Subsaharian Africa, in all the Asian Subcontinents, and islands in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans In , Giovanni Battista Guarini wrote Il pastor fido to mark the marriage of Catherine Michelle, daughter of Philip II, to Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy Guarini's dedication read, Altera figlia Di qel Monarca, a cui Nö anco, quando annotta, il Sol tramonta The proud daughter of that monarch to whom when it grows dark elsewhere the sun never sets In the early th century, the phrase was familiar to John Smith explorer , and to Francis Bacon, who writes both the East and the West Indies being met in the crown of Spain, it is come to pass, that, as one saith in a brave kind of expression, the sun never sets in the Spanish dominions, but ever shines upon one part or other of them which, to say truly, is a beam of glory Thomas Urquhart wrote of that great Don Philippe, Tetrarch of the world, upon whose subjects the sun never sets In the German dramatist Friedrich Schiller's play, Don Carlos, Don Carlos's father, Philip II, says, German Ich heiße der reichste Mann in der getauften Welt Die Sonne geht in meinem Staat nicht unter I am called The richest monarch in the Christian world The sun in my dominion never sets Joseph Fouché recalled Napoleon saying before the Peninsular War, Reflect that the sun never sets in the immense inheritance of Charles V, and that I shall have the empire of both worlds This was cited in Walter Scott's Life of Napoleon It has been claimed that Louis XIV of France's emblem of the Sun King and associated motto, Nec pluribus impar were based on the solar emblem and motto of Philip II United Kingdom edit The British Empire in , at its greatest extent with presence on all inhabited continents In the th century, it became popular to apply the phrase to the British Empire It was a time when British world maps showed the Empire in red and pink to highlight British imperial power spanning the globe Scottish author, John Wilson, writing as Christopher North in Blackwood's Magazine in , is sometimes credited as originating the usage However, George Macartney wrote in , in the wake of the territorial expansion that followed Britain's victory in the Seven Years' War, of this vast empire on which the sun never sets, and whose bounds nature has not yet ascertained In a speech on July , Rev R P Buddicom said, It had been said that the sun never set on the British flag it was certainly an old saying, about the time of Richard the Second, and was not so applicable then as at the present time In , the Caledonian Mercury wrote of the British Empire, On her dominions the sun never sets before his evening rays leave the spires of Quebec, his morning beams have shone three hours on Port Jackson, and while sinking from the waters of Lake Superior, his eye opens upon the Mouth of the Ganges Daniel Webster famously expressed a similar idea in A power which has dotted over the surface of the whole globe with her possessions and military posts, whose morning drumbeat, following the sun and keeping company with the hours, circles the earth with one continuous and unbroken strain of the martial airs of England In , Sir Henry Ward said in the House of Commons, Look at the British Colonial empire — the most magnificent empire that the world ever saw The old Spanish boast that the sun never set in their dominions, has been more truly realised amongst ourselves By , Lord Salisbury complained that the million spent on colonial defence by Britain merely enabled the nation to furnish an agreeable variety of stations to our soldiers, and to indulge in the sentiment that the sun never sets on our Empire United States edit Ten Thousand Miles From Tip to Tip , The sunbeams of this famous cartoon are a visual reference to the expression From the mid nineteenth century, the image of the sun never setting can be found applied to Anglophone culture, explicitly including the United States as well as Britain, for example in a speech by Alexander Campbell in It was subsequently applied specifically to the American sphere of influence An magazine article titled The Greatest Nation on Earth boasted, T he sun never sets on Uncle Sam In , William Jennings Bryan wrote, If we can not boast that the sun never sets on American territory, we can find satisfaction in the fact that the sun never sets on American philanthropy after which, The New York Times received letters attempting to disprove his presupposition A history book discussion of U S expansion states, Today the sun never sets on American territory, properties owned by the U S government and its citizens, American armed forces abroad, or countries that conduct their affairs within limits largely defined by American power Although the United States no longer has any possessions further west than Guam or further east than the Virgin Islands, it currently has military presence in Afghanistan, Australia, Bahrain, Brazil, the British Indian Ocean Territory, Bulgaria, Cuba, Djibouti, Germany, Greece, Greenland, Guam, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kosovo, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and others The phrase is sometimes used critically with the implication of American imperialism, as in the title of Joseph Gerson's book, The Sun Never Sets Confronting the Network of Foreign U S Military Bases See also edit King of Kings Nec pluribus impar In , Morocco was divided between the French and Spanish The Rif Berbers rebelled, led by Abdelkrim, a former officer for the Spanish administration The Battle of Annual was a sudden, grave, and almost fatal, military defeat suffered by the Spanish army against Moroccan insurgents A leading Spanish politician emphatically declared We are at the most acute period of Spanish decadence citation needed The statement reflected the mood of the country The rebellion exposed the utter corruption and incompetence of the military and destabilised the Spanish Government, leading to dictatorship A campaign in conjunction with the French suppressed the Rif rebels by but at a terrible cost citation needed to both sides In , Tangier was declared an international city under French, Spanish, British, and later Italian joint administration In Bioko and Rio Muni were united as the colony of Spanish Guinea, a status that would last until In , following the fall of the monarchy, the African colonies became part of the Second Spanish Republic Five years later, Francisco Franco, a general of the Army of Africa, rebelled against the republican government and started the Spanish Civil War – During the Second World War the Vichy French presence in Tangier was overcome by that of Francoist Spain Spain lacked the wealth and the interest to develop an extensive economic infrastructure in its African colonies during the first half of the th century However, through a paternalistic system, particularly on Bioko Island, Spain developed large cocoa plantations for which thousands of Nigerian workers were imported as laborers In , when French Morocco became independent, Spain surrendered Spanish Morocco to the new nation, but retained control of Sidi Ifni, the Tarfaya region and Spanish Sahara Moroccan Sultan later King Mohammed V was interested in these territories and invaded Spanish Sahara in The Ifni War, or, in Spain, the Forgotten War, la Guerra Olvidada In , Spain ceded Tarfaya to Mohammed V and joined the previously separate districts of Saguia el Hamra in the north and Río de Oro in the south to form the province of Spanish Sahara In , the Spanish territory on the Gulf of Guinea was established with a status similar to the provinces of metropolitan Spain As the Spanish Equatorial Region, it was ruled by a governor general exercising military and civilian powers The first local elections were held in , and the first Equatoguinean representatives were seated in the Spanish parliament Under the Basic Law of December , limited autonomy was authorized under a joint legislative body for the territory's two provinces The name of the country was changed to Equatorial Guinea In March , under pressure from Equatoguinean nationalists and the United Nations, Spain announced that it would grant the country independence In , under international pressure, Spain returned Sidi Ifni to Morocco Spanish control of Spanish Sahara endured until the Green March prompted a withdrawal, under Moroccan military pressure The future of this former Spanish colony remains uncertain The Canary Islands and Spanish cities in the African mainland are considered an equal part of Spain and the European Union but have a different tax system without Value Added Tax Morocco still claims Ceuta, Melilla, and plazas de soberanía even though they are internationally recognized as administrative divisions of Spain despite Plazas de Soberania which is a territory of Spain Isla Perejil was occupied on July by Moroccan Gendarmerie and troops, who were evicted peacefully by Spanish naval forces Legacy edit The Renaissance Cathedral of Lima is a legacy of the Spanish settlement in that city The Spanish language now the second most widely spoken language in the world and the Roman Catholic faith were brought to America, parts of Africa and the Spanish East Indies, by Spanish colonization which began in the th century It also played a crucial part in sustaining the Catholic Church as the leading Christian denomination in Europe when it was under extreme pressure The long colonial period in Spanish America resulted in a mixing of peoples Most Hispanics in the Americas have mixed European and indigenous ancestry, while a proportion also have African ancestry The only exceptions are Argentina and Uruguay which experienced heavy European immigration in the post colonial period In concert with the Portuguese Empire, the Spanish Empire laid the foundations of a truly global trade by opening up the great trans oceanic trade routes The Spanish Dollar became the world's first global currency One of the features of this trade was the exchange of a great array of domesticated plants and animals between the Old World and the New and vice versa Some that were introduced to America included wheat, barley, apples, cattle, sheep, pigs, horses, donkeys, and many others The Old World received from America such things as maize, potatoes, chili peppers, tomatoes, tobacco, beans, squash, cacao chocolate , vanilla, avocados, pineapples, chewing gum, rubber, peanuts, cashews, Brazil nuts, pecans, blueberries, strawberries, quinoa, amaranth, chia, and agave The result of these exchanges, known generally as the Columbian Exchange, was to significantly improve the agricultural potential of not only in America, but also that of Europe and Asia There were also cultural influences, which can be seen in everything from architecture to food, music, art and law, from Southern Argentina and Chile to the Northern Mexico The complex origins and contacts of different peoples resulted in cultural influences coming together in the varied forms so evident today in the former colonial areas Notes Geography edit Further information Timeline of Burgundian and Habsburg acquisitions in the Low Countries The Habsburg Netherlands was a geo political entity covering the whole of the Low Countries i e the present day Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and French Nord Pas de Calais from to Burgundian Netherlands orange upon the death of Charles the Bold Already under the rule of the Burgundian duke Philip the Good – , the provinces of the Netherlands began to grow together Flanders, Artois and Mechelen, Namur, Holland, Zeeland and Hainaut, Brabant, Limburg and Luxembourg were ruled in personal union by the Valois Burgundy monarchs and represented in the States General assembly The centre of the Burgundian possessions was the Duchy of Brabant, where the Burgundian dukes held court in Brussels Philip's son Duke Charles the Bold – also acquired Guelders and Zutphen and even hoped for the royal title from the hands of the Habsburg emperor Frederick III by marrying their children Mary and Maximilian Deeply disappointed, he entered into the disastrous Burgundian Wars and was killed in the Battle of Nancy show History of the Low Countries History edit Upon the death of Mary of Burgundy in , her substantial possessions including the Burgundian Netherlands passed to her son, Philip the Handsome Through his father Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor from , Philip was a Habsburg scion, and so the period of the Habsburg Netherlands began The period – saw the Flemish cities revolt and Utrecht embroiled in civil war, but by the turn of the century both areas had been pacified by the Spanish rulers Philip's son Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, born in Ghent, succeeded his father in , when he still was a six year old minor His grandfather Emperor Maximilian I incorporated the Burgundian heritage into the Burgundian Circle, whereafter the territories in the far west of the Empire developed a certain grade of autonomy Attaining full age in , Charles went on to rule his Burgundian heritage as a native Netherlander He acquired the lands of Overijssel and the Bishopric of Utrecht see Guelderian Wars , purchased Friesland from Duke George of Saxony and regained Groningen and Gelderland His Seventeen Provinces were re organised in the Burgundian Treaty, whereby the Imperial estates represented in the Imperial Diet at Augsburg acknowledged a certain autonomy of the Netherlands It was followed by a pragmatic sanction by the Emperor the next year, which established the Seventeen Provinces as an entity separate from the Empire and from France By a inheritance treaty with his younger brother Archduke Ferdinand I of Austria, Emperor Charles V had established the Austrian and the Spanish branch of the Habsburg dynasty Upon his abdication in , the Seventeen Provinces fell to the Spanish Crown Charles son and successor King Philip II of Spain by his despotism and Catholic persecutions sparked the Dutch Revolt and the Eighty Years' War The Spanish hold on the northern provinces was more and more tenuous In the northern provinces established the Protestant Union of Utrecht, in which they declared themselves independent as the Seven United Provinces by the Act of Abjuration After the secession of , the southern provinces, called 't Hof van Brabant of Flandria, Artois, the Tournaisis, Cambrai, Luxembourg, Limburg, Hainaut, Namur, Mechelen, Brabant, and Upper Guelders remained with the House of Habsburg until the French Revolutionary Wars After the extinction of the Spanish Habsburgs and the War of the Spanish Succession, the southern provinces were also known as the Austrian Netherlands from onwards Rulers edit – Philip I of Castile as Duke of Burgundy – Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor as Duke of Burgundy, as King of Spain from – Philip II as King of Spain The provinces were ruled on their behalf by a governor stadtholder or landvoogd – William de Croÿ, Marquis d'Aerschot – Margaret of Austria, Duchess of Savoy – Mary of Hungary – Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy – Margaret of Parma – Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, rd Duke of Alba – Luis de Requesens y Zúñiga – John of Austria – Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma In the Dutch insurgents appointed Archduke Matthias of Austria governor, though he could not prevail and resigned before the Act of Abjuration Monarchy show Modern show Topics show Portal icon Netherlands portal v t e Soon after the conclusion of the peace the political system of the Republic entered a crisis The same forces that had sustained the Oldenbarnevelt regime in Holland, and that had been so thoroughly shattered after Maurice's coup, had finally coalesced again around what was to become known as the States Party faction This faction had slowly been gaining prominence during the s until they had forced Frederick Henry to support the peace And now they wanted their peace dividend The new stadtholder, William II, on the other hand, far less adept as a politician than his father, hoped to continue the predominance of the stadtholderate and the Orangist faction mostly the aristocracy and the Counter Remonstrant regents as in the years before Above all, he wanted to maintain the large wartime military establishment, even though the peace made that superfluous The two points of view were irreconcilable When the States Party regents started to cut down the size of the standing army to a peace time complement of about , , a struggle for power in the Republic ensued In stadtholder William II finally followed the path of his uncle Maurice and seized power in a coup d'état, but he died a few months later from smallpox The power vacuum which followed was quickly filled by the States Party regents, who founded their new republican regime that has become known as the First Stadtholderless Period Dutch trade on the Iberian Peninsula and the Mediterranean exploded in the decade after the peace, as did trade in general, because trade patterns in all European areas were so tightly interlocked via the hub of the Amsterdam Entrepôt Dutch trade in this period reached its pinnacle it came to completely dominate that of competing powers, like England, that had only a few years previously profited greatly from the handicap the Spanish embargoes posed to the Dutch Now the greater efficiency of Dutch shipping had a chance to be fully translated into shipping prices, and the competitors were left in the dust The structure of European trade therefore changed fundamentally in a way that was advantageous to Dutch trade, agriculture and industry One could truly speak of Dutch primacy in world trade This not only caused a significant boom for the Dutch economy, but also much resentment in neighbouring countries, like first the Commonwealth of England and later France Soon, the Republic was embroiled in military conflicts with these countries, which culminated in their joint attack on the Republic in They almost succeeded in destroying the Republic in that year, but the Republic rose from its ashes and by the turn of the century, she was one of the two European power centres, together with the France of Louis XIV of France The success of the Dutch Republic in its struggle to get away from the Spanish Crown had damaged Spain's Reputación, a concept that, according to Olivares' biographer J H Elliot, strongly motivated that statesman Portugal was no party in the peace and the war overseas between the Republic and that country resumed fiercely after the expiration of the ten year truce of In Brazil and Africa the Portuguese managed to reconquer most of the territory lost to the WIC in the early s after a long struggle However, this occasioned a short war in Europe in the years – , during which the VOC completed its conquests in Ceylon and the coastal areas of the Indian subcontinent Portugal was forced to indemnify the WIC for its losses in Brazil Maps of the shifting front of the war edit Gallery of maps of the Years War in Dutch See also edit Battles of La Naval de Manila Battles of the Eighty Years' War Bioko Colonial Brazil Council of Troubles Dutch Brazil Dutch Ceylon Dutch East Indies Dutch Formosa Dutch India Dutch Malacca European wars of religion Martyrs of Gorkum Portuguese Ceylon Portuguese Empire Portuguese India Portuguese Malacca Saint Martin Spanish Formosa Spanish Road Union of Delft Overview Tourism References External links Overview edit Giethoorn used to be an auto free zone, but nowadays exceptions are made It became locally famous, especially after , when the Dutch film maker Bert Haanstra made his famous comedy Fanfare there In the old part of the village, there were no roads though a cycling path was eventually added , and all transport was done by water over one of the many canals The lakes in Giethoorn were formed by peat unearthing Giethoorn was founded by fugitives from the Mediterranean region in around AD Giethoorn was a separate municipality until , when it became part of Brederwiede Tourism edit Tourism has had a relatively small influence on the old traditional town The village, still only fully accessible by boat, is one of several places commonly known as the Venice of the North or Venice of the Netherlands Giethoorn has over bridges Giethoorn is a very popular attraction among Chinese tourists The village of only inhabitants sees between , and , Chinese tourists every year Bruges Copenhagen Giethoorn Hamburg Saint Petersburg Stockholm Wroclaw Stockholm is located in Sweden, south Stockholm ARNARN BMABMA NYONYO VSTVST Map showing the locations of airports around Stockholm International and domestic Stockholm Arlanda International Airport IATA ARN, ICAO ESSA is the largest and busiest airport in Sweden with million passengers in It is located about km mi