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Weather Beacon
A weather beacon is a beacon that indicates the local weather forecast in a code of colored or flashing lights. Often, a short poem or jingle accompanies the code to make it easier to remember. The beacon is usually on the roof of a tall building in a central business district, but some are attached to towers. The beacons are most commonly owned by financial services companies and television stations and are part of advertising and public relations programs. They provide a very basic forecast for the general public and not as an aid to navigation. In addition to displaying weather forecasts, some weather beacons have been used to signal victory or defeat for a professional sports home team. History Precursors In 1898 on the orders of U.S. President William McKinley, coastal warning display towers were installed along the coast of the United States. In 1936, the ''Weather Girl'' sculptures were installed in City Hall Square in Copenhagen. In 1938, Douglas Leigh designed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Westpac Weather Beacon
Westpac Banking Corporation, known simply as Westpac, is an Australian multinational banking and financial services company headquartered at Westpac Place in Sydney, New South Wales. Established in 1817 as the Bank of New South Wales, it acquired the Commercial Bank of Australia in 1982 before being renamed to Westpac Banking Corporation. Westpac is one of Australia's Big Four banks, and is Australia's first and oldest banking institution. Its name is a portmanteau of "Western" and "Pacific". As of 2021, Westpac has 14 million customers worldwide, and employs around 40,000 people. History Established in Sydney in 1817, the Bank of New South Wales (BNSW) was the first bank in Australia. Edward Smith Hall was its first cashier and secretary. During the 19th and early 20th century, BNSW opened branches first throughout Australia and Oceania: at Moreton Bay (Brisbane) in 1850; in Victoria in 1851; in New Zealand in 1861; in South Australia in 1877; in Western Australia in 18 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Empire State Building
The Empire State Building is a 102-story Art Deco skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The building was designed by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon and built from 1930 to 1931. Its name is derived from "Empire State", the nickname of the state of New York. The building has a roof height of and stands a total of tall, including its antenna. The Empire State Building was the world's tallest building until the World Trade Center was constructed in 1970; following the collapse of the World Trade Center in 2001, the Empire State Building was New York City's tallest building until it was surpassed in 2012. , the building is the seventh-tallest building in New York City, the ninth-tallest completed skyscraper in the United States, the 54th-tallest in the world, and the sixth-tallest freestanding structure in the Americas. The site of the Empire State Building, in Midtown South on the west side of Fifth Avenue between West 33rd and 34th Streets, was developed in 1893 as th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
North Sydney, New South Wales
North Sydney is a suburb and major commercial district on the Lower North Shore of Sydney, Australia. North Sydney is located 3 kilometres north of the Sydney central business district and is the administrative centre for the local government area of North Sydney Council. History The Indigenous people on the southern side of Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour) called the north side ''warung'' which meant ''the other side'', while those on the northern side used the same name to describe the southern side. The first name used by European settlers was ''Hunterhill'', named after a property owned by Thomas Muir of Huntershill (1765–1799), a Scottish political reformer. He purchased land in 1794 near the location where the north pylon of the Sydney Harbour Bridge is now located, and built a house which he named after his childhood home. This area north to Gore Hill became known as St Leonards. The township of St Leonards was laid out in 1836 in what is now North Sydney, bounded ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mutual Life And Citizens Assurance Company
MLC was an Australian business that provides investments, insurance and superannuation solutions to corporate, institutional, and retail customers. Due to divestments in the early 21st century, there are now two businesses, with no ownership links, that both use "MLC" in their branding: *MLC Limited trading as MLC Life Insurance, the original insurance company registered in 1886 as "Citizens' Assurance company Limited", is an insurance company which is part of the Nippon Life Insurance Group. *MLC Wealth, which consists of the investment and superannuation businesses that MLC Limited expanded into in the 20th century, is part of the Insignia Financial Group, which consists of Insignia Financial Ltd and its related bodies corporate. History The company traces its origins to the Citizens’ Assurance Company Limited, registered on 31 December 1886 for the stated purpose “to popularise Industrial Life Assurance, and to carry it to the homes of the working classes by issuing polici ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hurstville, New South Wales
Hurstville is a suburb in Southern Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is 16 kilometres south of the Sydney CBD and is part of the St George area. Hurstville is the administrative centre of the local government area of the Georges River Council. The suburb is predominantly Asian Australian in character, with 63% of the population of Asian origin, among the highest in the country. Sometimes described as "Sydney's Real Chinatown", an estimated 37% of residents are immigrants from mainland China. History The name Hurstville is derived from the English 'hurst', meaning 'a wooded eminence', and 'ville', meaning 'town'. Aboriginal culture Although it is unknown when they first settled in the Hurstville area, the first inhabitants were Indigenous Australians. At the time of the arrival of the First Fleet, the Indigenous Australians residing in the area were of the Eora tribe, whose numbers spanned along the Georges River, from Botany Bay to present-day Liverpool. Europe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wind Speed
In meteorology, wind speed, or wind flow speed, is a fundamental atmospheric quantity caused by air moving from high to low pressure, usually due to changes in temperature. Wind speed is now commonly measured with an anemometer. Wind speed affects weather forecasting, aviation and maritime operations, construction projects, growth and metabolism rate of many plant species, and has countless other implications. Note that wind direction is usually almost parallel to isobars (and not perpendicular, as one might expect), due to Earth's rotation. Units Metres per second (m/s) is the SI unit for velocity and the unit recommended by the World Meteorological Organization for reporting wind speeds, and is amongst others used in weather forecasts in the Nordic countries. Since 2010 the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) also recommends meters per second for reporting wind speed when approaching runways, replacing their former recommendation of using kilometres per h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hibernia Bank Building (New Orleans)
Hibernia Bank Building, at 812 Gravier Street at the corner of Carondelet Street in the Central Business District of New Orleans, Louisiana, is a 23-story, -tall skyscraper. It was once the headquarters of Hibernia National Bank. At the time it was completed in 1921, it was the tallest building in Louisiana. In 1932, the state capitol took that title.Mowbray, Rebecca. ''Times-Picayune'' January 18, 2011. Accessed January 24, 201/ref> In 2006, Hibernia Bank began to vacate the building and move its offices to Place St. Charles. Only the retail bank in the lobby remained in service. 313 Carondelet, a joint venture of Historic Restoration Inc. and Woodward Interest LLC is converting the building into 176 mixed-income apartments and two floors of offices. The white tower atop the building remains a familiar part of the skyline, and during holidays is lit up with colored lights—red and green for Christmas and purple, green, and gold for New Orleans Mardi Gras. It once served as a nav ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paris Balloon
The Ballon Generali is a tethered helium balloon, used as tourist attraction and as an air quality awareness tool. Installed in Paris since 1999 in the Parc André-Citroën, it was created and developed by the French company Aerophile SAS for the celebration of the year 2000. The balloon has lofted more than 500,000 passengers into the sky since its opening. Operation The balloon, filled with of helium, is attached to the ground with a cable, controlled by an hydroelectric winch. This tourist attraction can board up to 30 passengers (this amounts to around ) at above Paris. It is high, and has a diameter of . It has been used as advertising billboard for Fortis, then from 2002 for Eutelsat. In 2008, a partnership has been signed with Banque populaire and Airparif : renamed "ballon Air de Paris", its internal illumination system changes the outer colour in real-time, according to the ambient air pollution in Paris, measured by Airparif : from green (good) to red (ba ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Time Ball
A time ball or timeball is a time-signalling device. It consists of a large, painted wooden or metal ball that is dropped at a predetermined time, principally to enable navigators aboard ships offshore to verify the setting of their marine chronometers. Accurate timekeeping is essential to the determination of longitude at sea. Although time balls have since been replaced by electronic time signals, some time balls have remained operational as historical tourist attractions. History The fall of a little ball was in antiquity a way to show to people the time. Ancient Greek clocks had this system in the main square of a city, as in the city of Gaza in the post-Alexander era, and as described by Procopius in his book on Edifices. Time ball stations set their clocks according to transit observations of the positions of the sun and stars. Originally they either had to be stationed at the observatory, or had to keep a very accurate clock at the station which was set manually to obser ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Signal Station
A signal station is a form of Aids to Navigation that is defined by the IHO simply as "A signal station is a place on shore from which signals are made to ships at sea". While this broad definition would include coastal radio stations and fog signal stations, the term is most often used for shore installation that use ''visual'' signals to communicate with ships at sea. History Signal stations were the only practical mean of communicating with passing ships until the development of radio, and played a critical role in both navigation safety and commercial operation of fleets. As they were normally located in high places with extensive fields of view, surviving signal stations are often in scenic locations, and have become local landmarks. Signal stations used a variety of means to communicate shore-to-ship: Chappe Telegraph or other forms of pole-and-arm optical telegraph, flag semaphore, heliograph, slat semaphore, and port-specific signals (like flag and ball weather warning ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coastal Warning Display Tower
A coastal warning display tower, also known as a storm warning tower, is a type of signal station in the form of skeletal towers designed to provide warnings of hazardous wind conditions in coastal areas. The towers were developed in 1898 on the orders of President William McKinley. Through a system of flags, the towers can indicate not only wind-related warnings, but also major aspects of the local daily weather forecast. A single red pennant was shown from the top of the tower as a small craft advisory; for a gale warning, two such pennants were used. Two square flags, red with a black square at center, indicate an approaching hurricane or winds >73 MPH. One such flag warns of storm-force winds or an approaching tropical storm. Three lights, two red and one white, carry the signal at night. Red over white indicates a small craft advisory, white over red indicates a gale warning, red over red indicates a storm warning. All three lights together, red-white-red, warns of a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mutual Life And Citizens
MLC was an Australian business that provides investments, insurance and superannuation solutions to corporate, institutional, and retail customers. Due to divestments in the early 21st century, there are now two businesses, with no ownership links, that both use "MLC" in their branding: *MLC Limited trading as MLC Life Insurance, the original insurance company registered in 1886 as "Citizens' Assurance company Limited", is an insurance company which is part of the Nippon Life Insurance Group. *MLC Wealth, which consists of the investment and superannuation businesses that MLC Limited expanded into in the 20th century, is part of the Insignia Financial Group, which consists of Insignia Financial Ltd and its related bodies corporate. History The company traces its origins to the Citizens’ Assurance Company Limited, registered on 31 December 1886 for the stated purpose “to popularise Industrial Life Assurance, and to carry it to the homes of the working classes by issuing polici ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
