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Cork Boat (vessel)
''Cork Boat'' is a vessel designed and built by American speechwriter John Pollack and his partner Garth Goldstein. The ship, composed of exactly 165,321 wine corks, took over two years to complete. Over 100 volunteers contributed to the project, and Pollack received numerous donations of materials for it, but most of the corks were provided by Cork Supply USA. Cork Supply USA also paid to ship the boat to Portugal for its trip down the Douro River. The ship looks like a Viking ship, with a pronounced upward curve in its prow. It is made of ten hexagonal logs of corks, each of which is enclosed in netting and made of tens of cork discs. Each disc contains 127 corks, which are held together with large rubber bands. When finished in 2002, Pollack and his friends traveled with their ship down the Douro River in Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of South ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Process
A process is a series or set of activities that interact to produce a result; it may occur once-only or be recurrent or periodic. Things called a process include: Business and management *Business process, activities that produce a specific service or product for customers *Business process modeling, activity of representing processes of an enterprise in order to deliver improvements *Manufacturing process management, a collection of technologies and methods used to define how products are to be manufactured. *Process architecture, structural design of processes, applies to fields such as computers, business processes, logistics, project management *Process costing, a cost allocation procedure of managerial accounting * Process management, ensemble of activities of planning and monitoring the performance of a business process or manufacturing processes *Process management (project management), a systematic series of activities directed towards causing an end result in engineeri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Pollack
John Pollack (born c. 1965) is an American originally from Ann Arbor, Michigan who served as a Special Assistant to the President and Presidential Speechwriter for Bill Clinton, as a foreign correspondent, and as an advisor to prominent leaders and philanthropists. Now a consultant, Pollack is a noted authority on analogy, wordplay, creativity, and innovation. Early life Born in Ann Arbor, Pollack attended public schools and graduated from Ann Arbor Huron High School, where he lettered in cross country, track and wrestling. Earlier, while living in England, he attended Durham Johnston Comprehensive School in Durham. In 1988 he graduated with distinction from Stanford University with an AB in American Studies, and served as a writer and editor for The Stanford Daily. Professional life Pollack began his journalism career writing for ''The Hartford Courant'', and later spent several years in Spain as a foreign correspondent, freelancing for American media and eventually working for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wine Cork
Wine corks are a stopper used to seal wine bottles. They are typically made from cork (bark of the cork oak), though synthetic materials can be used. Common alternative wine closures include screw caps and glass stoppers. 68 percent of all cork is produced for wine bottle stoppers. Corks are manufactured for still wines as well as sparkling wines; the latter are bottled under pressure, forcing the corks to take on a mushroom shape. They are fastened with a wire cage known as a muselet. History As late as the mid-17th century, French vintners did not use cork stoppers, using instead oil-soaked rags stuffed into the necks of bottles. The inventor of cork-based wine stoppers is unknown. Colloquial stories attribute the Benedictine monk Dom Pérignon. The stoppers date to about the 1600s. In the early 21st century, the problem of cork taint became prevalent, leading many producers to stop using corks in favor of alternatives. Screw caps became especially prominent in Australia a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Viking Ship
Viking ships were marine vessels of unique structure, used in Scandinavia from the Viking Age throughout the Middle Ages. The boat-types were quite varied, depending on what the ship was intended for, but they were generally characterized as being slender and flexible boats, with symmetrical ends with true keel. They were clinker built, which is the overlapping of planks riveted together. Some might have had a dragon's head or other circular object protruding from the bow and stern for design, although this is only inferred from historical sources. Viking ships were used both for military purposes and for long-distance trade, exploration and colonization. In the literature, Viking ships are usually seen divided into two broad categories: merchant ships and warships, the latter resembling narrow "war canoes" with less load capacity, but higher speed. However, these categories are overlapping; some transport ships would also form part of war fleets. As a rule, ship lanes in Scandi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prow
The bow () is the forward part of the hull of a ship or boat, the point that is usually most forward when the vessel is underway. The aft end of the boat is the stern. Prow may be used as a synonym for bow or it may mean the forward-most part of the bow above the waterline. Function A ship's bow should be designed to enable the hull to pass efficiently through the water. Bow shapes vary according to the speed of the boat, the seas or waterways being navigated, and the vessel's function. Where sea conditions are likely to promote pitching, it is useful if the bow provides reserve buoyancy; a flared bow (a raked stem with flared topsides) is ideal to reduce the amount of water shipped over the bow. Ideally, the bow should reduce the resistance and should be tall enough to prevent water from regularly washing over the top of it. Large commercial barges on inland waterways rarely meet big waves and may have remarkably little freeboard at the bow, whereas fast military ve ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Timber
Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, window frames). Lumber has many uses beyond home building. Lumber is sometimes referred to as timber as an archaic term and still in England, while in most parts of the world (especially the United States and Canada) the term timber refers specifically to unprocessed wood fiber, such as cut logs or standing trees that have yet to be cut. Lumber may be supplied either rough- sawn, or surfaced on one or more of its faces. Beside pulpwood, ''rough lumber'' is the raw material for furniture-making, and manufacture of other items requiring cutting and shaping. It is available in many species, including hardwoods and softwoods, such as white pine and red pine, because of their low cost. ''Finished lumber'' is supplied in standard sizes, mostly ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Net (device)
Nets have been constructed by human beings since at least the Mesolithic period for use in capturing or retaining things. Their open structure provide lightness and flexibility that allow them to be carried and manipulated with relative ease, making them valuable for methodical tasks such as hunting, fishing, sleeping, and carrying. Definition A net, in its primary meaning, comprises threads or yarns knotted and twisted into a grid-like structure which blocks the passage of large items, while letting small items and fluids pass. It requires less material than something sheet-like, and provides a degree of Transparency and translucency, transparency, as well as flexibility and lightness. History The oldest nets found are from the Mesolithic era, but nets may have existed in the Upper paleolithic, Upper paleolithic era. Nets are typically made of perishable materials and leave little archeological record. Some nets are preserved in ice or bogs, and there are also Use of animals ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rubber Band
A rubber band (also known as an elastic band, gum band or lacky band) is a loop of rubber, usually ring or oval shaped, and commonly used to hold multiple objects together. The rubber band was patented in England on March 17, 1845 by Stephen Perry. Most rubber bands are manufactured out of natural rubber or, especially at larger sizes, an elastomer, and are sold in a variety of sizes. Notable developments in the evolution of rubber bands began in 1923 when William H. Spencer obtained a few Goodyear inner tubes and cut the bands by hand in his basement, where he founded Alliance Rubber Company. Spencer persuaded the ''Akron Beacon Journal'' as well as the ''Tulsa World'' to try wrapping their newspapers with one of his rubber bands to prevent them from blowing across lawns. He went on to pioneer other new markets for rubber bands such as: agricultural and industrial applications and a myriad of other uses. Spencer obtained a patent on February 19, 1957 for a new "Method for Maki ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Douro River
The Douro (, , ; es, Duero ; la, Durius) is the highest-flow river of the Iberian Peninsula. It rises near Duruelo de la Sierra in Soria Province, central Spain, meanders south briefly then flows generally west through the north-west part of central Spain and into northern Portugal, to its mouth at Porto, the second largest city of Portugal. At its mouth it meets the Atlantic Ocean. The scenic Douro railway line runs close to the river. Adjacent areas produce port (a mildly fortified wine) and other agricultural produce. A small tributary of the river has the Côa Valley Paleolithic Art site which is considered important to the archaeological pre-historic patrimony, designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Within Spain, it flows through the middle of the autonomous community of Castile and León, with the basin spanning through the northern half of the Meseta Central. The latter includes wine producing areas such as the Ribera del Duero DOP. History The Latin name ''Durius ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Portugal
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira. It features the westernmost point in continental Europe, and its Iberian portion is bordered to the west and south by the Atlantic Ocean and to the north and east by Spain, the sole country to have a land border with Portugal. Its two archipelagos form two autonomous regions with their own regional governments. Lisbon is the capital and largest city by population. Portugal is the oldest continuously existing nation state on the Iberian Peninsula and one of the oldest in Europe, its territory having been continuously settled, invaded and fought over since prehistoric times. It was inhabited by pre-Celtic and Celtic peoples who had contact with Phoenicians and Ancient Greek traders, it was ruled by the Ro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
