Ripton (fictional Town)
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Ripton (fictional Town)
Ripton is a fictitious town in Massachusetts, United States. In 1985Hugh Davis brother of Hester A. Davis and a professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, along with George "Gige" Darey, a local selectman, sought to demonstrate and protest the ignorance of the state bureaucracy in Boston of the rural portions of the Commonwealth. To do so, he invented the town of Ripton, supposedly founded in 1767. He then proceeded to apply for various grants and other official assistance, and the town was allotted funds in the state budget. Several checks were issued, and deposited in an escrow account, before the hoax was uncovered. The funds were returned and the matter dropped. In 1985, self-appointed representatives of the town of Ripton contacted the U.S. Air Force and invited them to situate antennas for a post-nuclear war Nuclear warfare, also known as atomic warfare, is a theoretical military conflict or prepared political strategy that deploys nuclear weaponry. Nuclea ...
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Massachusetts
Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut [Massachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət],'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders on the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Maine to the east, Connecticut and Rhode Island to the south, New Hampshire and Vermont to the north, and New York (state), New York to the west. The state's capital and List of municipalities in Massachusetts, most populous city, as well as its cultural and financial center, is Boston. Massachusetts is also home to the urban area, urban core of Greater Boston, the largest metropolitan area in New England and a region profoundly influential upon American History of the United States, history, academia, and the Economy of the United States, research economy. Originally dependent on agriculture, fishing, and trade. Massachusetts was transformed into a manuf ...
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United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territories, nine Minor Outlying Islands, and 326 Indian reservations. The United States is also in free association with three Pacific Island sovereign states: the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau. It is the world's third-largest country by both land and total area. It shares land borders with Canada to its north and with Mexico to its south and has maritime borders with the Bahamas, Cuba, Russia, and other nations. With a population of over 333 million, it is the most populous country in the Americas and the third most populous in the world. The national capital of the United States is Washington, D.C. and its most populous city and principal financial center is New York City. Paleo-Americ ...
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Hester A
Hester is both a female given name and a surname. As a given name Hester is a variant of Esther. As a surname it is of Germanic origin and uncertain meaning, possible roots being the Middle High German ''heister'' beech tree indicating residence near a beech tree, or a shared root with the modern German ''heißen'' to call indicating the profession of herald or town crier. In Ireland, particularly County Mayo, the surname Hester is found as an Anglicized form of the Gaelic ''Ó hOistir'' descendant of Oistir. Given name * Hester Adrian, Baroness Adrian (1899—1966), British mental health worker * Hester Bateman (bap. 1708–1794), English silversmith * Hester A. Benedict (1838-1921), American poet and writer * Hester Biddle (c. 1629–97), English Quaker writer * Hester Chapone (1727–1801), British author * Hester A. Davis (1930–2014), American archaeologist * Hester Dowden (1868–1949), Irish spiritualist medium * Hester Dunn (b. 1940), Northern Irish former loyalist activis ...
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University Of Massachusetts Amherst
The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst, UMass) is a public research university in Amherst, Massachusetts and the sole public land-grant university in Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Founded in 1863 as an agricultural college, it is the flagship and the largest campus in the University of Massachusetts system, as well as the first established. It is also a member of the Five College Consortium, along with four other colleges in the Pioneer Valley: Amherst College, Smith College, Mount Holyoke College, and Hampshire College. As of Fall 2022, UMass Amherst has an annual enrollment of more than 32,000 students, along with approximately 1,900 faculty members. It is the largest university in Massachusetts by campus size and second largest university by enrollment in Massachusetts, after Boston University. The university offers academic degrees in 109 undergraduate, 77 master's and 48 doctoral programs. Programs are coordinated in nine schools and colleges. The Universit ...
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Bureaucracy
The term bureaucracy () refers to a body of non-elected governing officials as well as to an administrative policy-making group. Historically, a bureaucracy was a government administration managed by departments staffed with non-elected officials. Today, bureaucracy is the administrative system governing any large institution, whether publicly owned or privately owned. The public administration in many jurisdictions and sub-jurisdictions exemplifies bureaucracy, but so does any centralized hierarchical structure of an institution, e.g. hospitals, academic entities, business firms, professional societies, social clubs, etc. There are two key dilemmas in bureaucracy. The first dilemma revolves around whether bureaucrats should be autonomous or directly accountable to their political masters. The second dilemma revolves around bureaucrats' behavior strictly following the law or whether they have leeway to determine appropriate solutions for varied circumstances. Various commen ...
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Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- most populous city in the country. The city boundaries encompass an area of about and a population of 675,647 as of 2020. It is the seat of Suffolk County (although the county government was disbanded on July 1, 1999). The city is the economic and cultural anchor of a substantially larger metropolitan area known as Greater Boston, a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) home to a census-estimated 4.8 million people in 2016 and ranking as the tenth-largest MSA in the country. A broader combined statistical area (CSA), generally corresponding to the commuting area and including Providence, Rhode Island, is home to approximately 8.2 million people, making it the sixth most populous in the United States. Boston is one of the oldest ...
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Grant (money)
A grant is a funding, fund given by an end entity grant – often a Government, public body, charitable foundation, or a specialised grant-making institution – to an individual or another entity (usually, a non-profit organisation, sometimes a business or a local government body) for a specific purpose linked to public benefit. Unlike loans, grants are not to be paid back. European Union European Union grants The European Commission provides financing through numerous specific calls for project proposals. These may be within Framework Programmes for Research and Technological Development, Framework Programmes. Although there are many 7-year programmes that are renewed that provide money for various purposes. These may be Structural Funds and Cohesion Fund, structural funds, Youth programmes and Educational policies and initiatives of the European Union, Education programmes. There are also occasional one-off grants to deal with unforeseen aspects or special projects and theme ...
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Escrow Account
An escrow is a contractual arrangement in which a third party (the stakeholder or escrow agent) receives and disburses money or property for the primary transacting parties, with the disbursement dependent on conditions agreed to by the transacting parties. Examples include an account established by a broker for holding funds on behalf of the broker's principal or some other person until the consummation or termination of a transaction; or, a trust account held in the borrower's name to pay obligations such as property taxes and insurance premiums. The word derives from the Old French word , meaning a scrap of paper or a scroll of parchment; this indicated the deed that a third party held until a transaction was completed. Types Escrow generally refers to money held by a third party on behalf of transacting parties. It is mostly used regarding the purchase of shares of a company. It is best known in the United States in the context of the real estate industry (specifically in mor ...
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Hoax
A hoax is a widely publicized falsehood so fashioned as to invite reflexive, unthinking acceptance by the greatest number of people of the most varied social identities and of the highest possible social pretensions to gull its victims into putting up the highest possible social currency in support of the hoax. Whereas the promoters of frauds, fakes, and scams devise them so that they will withstand the highest degree of scrutiny customary in the affair, hoaxers are confident, justifiably or not, that their representations will receive no scrutiny at all. They have such confidence because their representations belong to a world of notions fundamental to the victims' views of reality, but whose truth and importance they accept without argument or evidence, and so never question. Some hoaxers intend eventually to unmask their representations as in fact a hoax so as to expose their victims as fools; seeking some form of profit, other hoaxers hope to maintain the hoax indefini ...
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Nuclear War
Nuclear warfare, also known as atomic warfare, is a theoretical military conflict or prepared political strategy that deploys nuclear weaponry. Nuclear weapons are weapons of mass destruction; in contrast to conventional warfare, nuclear warfare can produce destruction in a much shorter time and can have a long-lasting radiological result. A major nuclear exchange would likely have long-term effects, primarily from the fallout released, and could also lead to secondary effects, such as "nuclear winter", nuclear famine and societal collapse. A global thermonuclear war with Cold War-era stockpiles, or even with the current smaller stockpiles, may lead to various scenarios including the extinction of the human race. To date, the only use of nuclear weapons in armed conflict occurred in 1945 with the American atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. On August 6, 1945, a uranium gun-type device (code name "Little Boy") was detonated over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Thre ...
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Massachusetts Culture
Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders on the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Maine to the east, Connecticut and Rhode Island to the south, New Hampshire and Vermont to the north, and New York to the west. The state's capital and most populous city, as well as its cultural and financial center, is Boston. Massachusetts is also home to the urban core of Greater Boston, the largest metropolitan area in New England and a region profoundly influential upon American history, academia, and the research economy. Originally dependent on agriculture, fishing, and trade. Massachusetts was transformed into a manufacturing center during the ...
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Phantom Geographical Features
Phantom may refer to: * Spirit (animating force), the vital principle or animating force within all living things ** Ghost, the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that can appear to the living Aircraft * Boeing Phantom Ray, a stealthy unmanned combat air vehicle * Boeing Phantom Eye, a High Altitude, Long Endurance (HALE) unmanned aerial vehicle * McDonnell FH Phantom, a jet fighter aircraft, introduced 1947 * McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II, a supersonic air-defense fighter and fighter-bomber, introduced 1960 * Phantom X1, ultralight aircraft * Phantom (UAV), a series of unmanned aerial quadcopters developed by DJI Boats *DC‐14 Phantom – an American catamaran design *Flying Phantom Elite – a French hydrofoil catamaran sailboat design *Flying Phantom Essentiel – a French hydrofoil catamaran sailboat design *Phantom 14 – an American lateen-rigged sailboat design *Phantom 14 (catamaran) – an Italian sailboat design *Phantom 16 (catamaran) – an Italian sailboa ...
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