Origins of United States

You know the names of all 50 states…but do you know where any of them come from? Here’s the best information we could find on the origin of each.

• ALABAMA: Possibly from the Creek Indian word alibamo, meaning "we stay here."
• ALASKA: From the Aleutian word alakshak, which means "great lands," or "land that is not an island."
• ARIZONA: Taken either from the pima Indian words ali shonak, meaning "little spring," or from the Aztec word arizuma, meaning "silver-bearing."
• ARKANSAS: The French somehow coined it from the name of the Siouan Quapaw tribe.
• CALIFORNIA: According to one theory, Spanish settlers names it after a utopian society described in a popular 16th-century novel called Serged de Esplandian.
• COLORADO: Means "red" in Spanish. The name was originally applied to the Colorado River, whose waters are reddish with canyon clay.
• CONNECTICUT: Taken from the Mohican word kuenihtekot, which means "long river place."
• DELAWARE: Named after Lord De La Warr, a governor of Virginia. Originally used only to name the Delaware River.
• FLORIDA: Explorer Ponce de Leon named the state Pascua Florida - "flowery Easter"—on Easter Sunday in 1513.
• GEORGIA: Named after King George II of England, who charted the colony in 1732.
• HAWAII: An English adaptation of the native word owhyhee, which means "homeland."
  IDAHO: Possibly taken from the Kiowa Apache word for the Comanche Indians.
• ILLINOIS: The French bastardization of the Algonquin word illini, which means "men."
• INDIANA: Named by English-speaking settlers because the territory was full of Indians.
• IOWA: The Sioux word for "beautiful land," or "one who puts to sleep."
• KANSAS: Taken from the Sioux word for "south wind people," their name for anyone who lived south of Sioux territory.
• KENTUCKY: Possibly derived from the Indian word kan-tuk-kee, meaning "dark and bloody ground." Or kan-tuc-kec, "land of green reeds", or ken-take, meaning "meadowland."
• LOUISIANA: Named after French King Louis XIV.
  MAINE: The Old French word for "province."
• MARYLAND: Named after Queen Henrietta Maria, wife of English King George I.
• MASSACHUSETTS: Named after the Massachusetts Indian tribe. Means "large hill place."
• MICHIGAN: Most likely from the Chippewa word for "great water." micigama.
• MINNESOTA: From the Sioux word for "sky tinted" or "muddy water."
• MISSISSIPPI: Most likely taken from the Chippewa words mici ("great") and zibi ("river").
• MISSOURI: From the Algonquin word for "muddy water."
• MONTANA: Taken from the Latin word for "mountainous."
• NEBRASKA: From the Otos Indian word for "broad water."
• NEVADA: Means "snow-clad" in Spanish.
• NEW HAMPSHIRE: Capt. John Mason, one of the original colonists, named it after his English home county of Hampshire.
• NEW JERSEY: Named after the English Isle of Jersey.
• NEW MEXICO: The Spanish name for the territory north of the Rio Grande.
• NEW YORK: Named after the Duke of York and Albany.
• NORTH AND SOUTH CAROLINA: From the Latin name Carolus; named in honor of King Charles I of England.
• NORTH AND SOUTH DAKOTA: Taken from the Sioux word for "friend," or "ally."
• OHIO: Means "great," "fine," or "good river" in Iriquois.
• OKLAHOMA. The Choctaw word for "red man."
• OREGON: Possibly derived from Ouaricon-sint, the French name for the Wisconsin River.
• PENNSYLVANIA: Named after William Penn, Sr., the father of the colony’s founder, William Penn. Means "Penn’s woods."
• RHODE ISLAND: Named "Roode Eylandt" (Red Island) because of its red clay.
• TENNESSEE: Named after the Cherokee tanasi villages along the banks of the Little Tennessee River.
• TEXAS: Derived from the Caddo Indian word for "friend," or "ally."
• UTAH: Means "upper," or "higher," and was originally the name that Navajos called the Shoshone tribe.
• VERMONT: A combination of the French words vert ("green") and mont ("mountain").
• VIRGINIA AND WEST VIRGINIA: Named after Queen Elizabeth I of England, the "virgin" queen, by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1584.
• WASHINGTON: Named after George Washington.
• WISCONSIN: Taken from the Chippewa word for "grassy place."
• WYOMING: Derived from the Algonquin word for "large prairie place."

Maria Sharapova

Maria Sharapova Biography

Name : Maria Sharapova
Birthdate : April 19, 1987
Birthplace : Nyagan, Russia (Siberian Region)
Height : 6' (1.83 m)
Weight : 130 lbs. (59 kg)
Nationality : Russia
Plays : Right-handed
Career Prize Money : $23,800
Best Known As : 17-year-old singles champion of Wimbledon 2004

Maria Sharapova Trivia

In just 12 months Maria has become not only Wimbledon Champion & Winner of the WTA Tour Championships but the face of Women's tennis. With this she moves to a carrer high number 4 in the world rankings, also becomes the first champion from Russia & the only second player to win the title on her debut.

Maria Sharapova Detailed Biography

Sanex WTA Tour Singles Titles: 1
Sanex WTA Tour Doubles Titles: 2
Grand Slam Titles: 0
ITF Women's Circuit Singles tTitles: 4 singles
Career Win/Loss Record: 28-6

Awarapan - Toh Phir Aao (Remix) Video

Facts About Your Planet

• In 1783 an Icelandic eruption threw up enough dust to temporarily block out the sun over Europe.
• About 20 to 30 volcanoes erupt each year, mostly under the sea.
• A huge underground river runs underneath the Nile, with six times more water than the river above.
• Lake Bosumtwi in Ghana formed in a hollow made by a meteorite.
• Beaver Lake, in Yellowstone Park , USA, was artificially created by beaver damming.
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Alicia Silverstone

Biography

Name : Alicia Silverstone

Birthday : October 4, 1976

Birthplace : San Francisco, CA, USA

Height : 5' 7 Eye Color : Emerald Green

Religion : Jewish

Father : Monty, a real estate investor & financial consultant

Mother : Didi, a former airline stewardess

Brother : David

Sister : Kezi Silverstone

Junior High School : Crocker Middle School

High School : San Mateo High School - Beverly Hills High School
Alicia Silverstone Detailed Biography She was born on October 4,1976, in San Francisco, California to parents of English decent. Her mom, Didi was a former airline stewardess and her dad Monty, a real estate Investor. Alicia attended San Mateo High School in San Mateo, California, where the movie ''Dangerous Minds'' was filmed. At the age of 6, Alicia received a series of modeling jobs. Soon thereafter, she appeared in a Domino's Pizza television commercial and then, who could forget her guest appearance as Kevin's (Fred Savage) dream girl on ''The Wonder Years''?
Alicia landed her first movie, ''The Crush,'' at the age of 15. She starred as the man-hungry Adrian Forrester opposite Cary Elwes, and won ''Best Villain'' and ''Breakthrough Performance'' at the 1994 MTV Movie Awards. During the filming, she found an injured dog on the side of the road. Since then, animal-lover Alicia contributes a portion of her movie earnings to an animal foundation.

Monitor-Merrimac Memorial Bridge

This bridge is half under the water, for ships to pass and then again, it comes out on the other side.

The tunnel is 4,800 feet long from portal to portal, and it was built by the immersed sunken tube method, comprised of 15 prefabricated segments each 300 feet long and with two 2-lane bores, placed by lay-barges and joined together in a trench dredged in the bottom of the harbor, and backfilled over with earth. Four percent (4%) maximum grades are utilized in the tunnel, and a 60 mph design speed. The traffic lanes in the tunnel are 13 feet wide, with 2.5-foot-wide ledges on either side of the roadway, and with 16.5 feet of vertical clearance from the roadway to the ceiling. The current shipping channel above the deepest part of the tunnel, has 800 feet of horizontal width and 45 feet of vertical depth below the average low-tide water level; and the tunnel was designed and built deep enough to allow for a future enlargement of the shipping channel to 1,000 feet of horizontal width and 55 feet of vertical depth below the average low-tide water level.

Interstate 664 is the 20.7-mile-long freeway that connects I-64 in Hampton to I-64/I-264 in Chesapeake, completed in April 1992. I-664 includes the 4.6-mile Monitor-Merrimac Memorial Bridge-Tunnel (MMMBT). The MMMBT cost $400 million to build, and it includes a four-lane tunnel that is 4,800 feet long, two man-made portal islands, and 3.2 miles of twin trestle. Northbound on the MMMBT is one of the most spectacular views on any road I know of; Hampton Roads makes a "V" with one branch to your ten o'clock, and the other branch to your two o'clock. You see an enormous expanse of water, left, right, and ahead of you, with the landfall of the Peninsula dead ahead. On the ten o'clock branch, you see the Newport News Marine Terminal and Shipyards, on the two o'clock branch, you see the Norfolk Naval Base. Typically, you will see a couple Nimitz-class aircraft carriers moored in the distance, and many other ships. Another nice feature, is that the MMMBT is toll-free. The name comes from the fact that the duel between the two Civil War ironclads was fought less than a mile from the where the tunnel is today.

Cows Facts

Cows dont have upper front teeth

Although a cow has no upper front teeth, it grazes up to 8 hours a day, taking in about 45 kg (100 lb) of feed and the equivalent of a bath tub full of water. A healthy cow gives about 200,000 glasses of milk in her lifetime. Read more after the break...

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