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Asparagus

Asparagus

Asparagus is the name of a vegetable obtained from one species within the genus Asparagus, specifically the young shoots of Asparagus officinalis. It has been used from very early times as a culinary vegetable, owing to its delicate flavour and diuretic properties. There is a recipe for cooking asparagus in the oldest surviving book of recipes, Apicius's 3rd century CE De re coquinaria, Book III. White asparagus is cultivated by denying the plants light while they are being grown. The name asparagus comes from classical Latin, but the plant was once known in English as sperage from medieval Latin sparagus. The original Latin name has now supplanted the English word. Asparagus was also corrupted in some places to "sparrow grass"; indeed, John Walker stated in 1791 that "Sparrow-grass is so general that asparagus has an air of stiffness and pedantry." 1791 In their simplest form, the shoots are boiled or steamed until tender and served with a light sauce like hollandaise or melted butter or a drizzle of olive oil with a dusting of Parmesan cheese. A refinement is to tie the shoots into sheaves and stand them so that the lower part of the stalks are boiled, while the more tender heads are steamed. Tall cylindrical asparagus cooking pots have liners with handles and perforated bases to make this process foolproof. Unlike most vegetables, where the smaller and thinner are the more tender, thick asparagus stalks have more tender volume to the proportion of skin. When asparagus have been too long in the market, the cut ends will have dried and gone slightly concave. The best asparagus are picked and washed while the water comes to the boil. Fastidious cooks scrape asparagus stalks with a vegetable peeler, stroking away from the head, and refresh them in ice-cold water before steaming them; the peel is often added back to the cooking water and removed only after the asparagus is done, this is supposed to prevent diluting the flavor. Small or full-sized stalks can be made into asparagus soup. Cantonese restaurants in the United States often serve asparagus stir-fried with chicken, shrimp, or beef. Asparagus is one of few foods which is considered acceptable to eat with the hands in polite company, although this is more common in Europe. Europe Another thing worth mentioning with asparagus is that some of its constituents are metabolised and excreted in the urine, giving it a distinctive, mildly unpleasant odor. The smell is caused by various sulfur-containing degradation products (e.g. mercaptans and thioesters). As a result of studies it was not only shown that only around 40% of the test persons displayed this characteristic smell, but also that not everyone is able to smell the odor once it is produced. [http://web.archive.org/web/20041012232321/http://www.studentbmj.com/back_issues/0800/education/277.html] Because of its shape, Asparagus was believed to have aphrodisiac effects. This was never proved. The amino acid asparagine gets its name from asparagus, the asparagus plant being rich in this compound.

History

Asparagus was first cultivated 2000 years ago in the Mediterranean and Asia Minor. The Greeks and Romans loved asparagus for its flavor, texture, and medicinal qualities. While the Greeks never seemed to garden asparagus, the Romans had specific directions on how to cultivate asparagus by 200 BC. They would eat the asparagus in season as well as preserve it for later consumption by freezing. Asparagus gained popularity in France in England in the 16th Century and was then introduced to North America. Native Americans would dry the asparagus for later medicinal uses. It is said to have been used for bladder, kidney, and heart problems. Asparagus has also been depicted in ancient Egyptian writings and was also grown in Syria and Spain in ancient times.

Nutrition

Asparagus is one of the most well balanced vegetables available. It is the leading provider of folic acid in all vegetables. folic acid is necessary for blood cell formation, growth, and prevention of liver disease. Asparagus is also very low in calories, each stalk is less than 4 calories a peice. They contain no fat or cholesterol, and are very low in sodium. They are a great source of potassium, and fiber. Asparagus also provides rutin, which strengthens the capillary walls. This vegetable is a great healthy food for your everyday diet.

Popularity

Asparagus is grown widely around the world. It is widely grown around villages near Evesham, in the Vale of Evesham, Worcestershire, England, and the plant grows wild on England's south coast. In Evesham it is still known by some by the folk etymology name of Sparrow Grass. Asparagus has achieved further fame by being the Favorite food of one Adam Powell, the creator of Neopets, a popular virtual pets site. There also are various places in Germany, like the Brandenburger Zauche, the Franconian Knoblauchsland, near Hanover and Lüneburg, Abensberg as well as Schrobenhausen where asparagus is cultivated. Germans have a passion for white asparagus, and German asparagus is considered to be among the best in the world. In Germany, the official end of the asparagus season is June 24. The movie Austin Powers in Goldmember contained a scene that demonstrated the odour causing effects that eating asparagus has on the urine. It is said to be quite funny, and drives home the wide spread knowledge that asaparagus is unique in this regard.

Other plants called asparagus

Many related and unrelated plants may be called "asparagus" or said to be "used as asparagus" when eaten for their shoots. In particular, the shoots of a distantly related plant, Ornithogalum pyrenaicum may be called "Prussian asparagus". See :Category:Stem vegetables.

References

The History of Asparagus. Accessed on Dec. 12, 2005, http://benjacklarado.com/history-of-asparagus.htm

External links


- [http://www.nutritiondata.com/foods-asparagus011000000000000000000.html Complete nutritional info.]
- [http://www.plantnames.unimelb.edu.au/Sorting/Asparagus.html Multilingual taxonomic information from the University of Melbourne]
- [http://www.asparagus.org Asparagus information from the Michigan Asparagus Advisory Board]
- [http://growingtaste.com/vegetables/asparagus.shtml Asparagus for the home gardener] Category:Stem vegetables ja:アスパラガス

Vegetable

Vegetable is a culinary term denoting any part of a plant that is commonly consumed by humans as food, but is not regarded as a culinary grain, fruit, nut, herb, or spice. These include leaf vegetables (e.g. lettuce), stem vegetables (asparagus), root vegetables (carrot) and flower vegetables (broccoli), and botanical fruits such as green beans, cucumbers, squashes, pumpkins, tomatoes, avocados, capsicums, et cetera, as well as fleshy, immature seeds such as those of peas or beans. Vegetable is not a botanical term and so there is no contradiction in a plant part being a fruit botanically while still being considered a vegetable. In general, vegetables are thought of as being eaten in the main course, not as dessert or breakfast (with some exceptions, such as rhubarb). Commercial production of vegetables is a branch of horticulture called olericulture. Vegetable is also used as a literary term for any plant: vegetable matter, vegetable kingdom.

See also


- List of vegetables
- Vegetarianism
- Veganism Category:Vegetables

External links


- [http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/how/can4_vegetable.html National Center for Home Food Preservation - Canning Vegetables]
- [http://www.giantvegenetics.com/Giant_Vegetables/local_links.php Giant Vegetable Web Directory] zh-min-nan:Chhài-se ms:Sayur ja:野菜 simple:Vegetable

Shoots

Shoot

Diuretic

A diuretic is any [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/drug drug] that elevates the rate of bodily urine excretion (diuresis). Diuretics also decrease the extracellular fluid (ECF) volume, and are primarily used to produce a negative extracellular fluid balance. Caffeine, cranberry juice and alcohol are all weak diuretics. In medicine, diuretics are used to treat heart failure, liver cirrhosis, hypertension and certain kidney diseases. Diuretics alleviate the symptoms of these diseases by causing sodium and water loss through the urine. As urine is produced by the kidney, sodium and water – which cause edema related to the disease – move into the blood to replace the volume lost as urine, thereby reducing the pathological edema. Diuretics are also frequently used in the treatment of hypertension (high blood pressure). Some diuretics, such as acetazolamide, help to make the urine more alkaline and are helpful in increasing excretion of substances such as aspirin in cases of overdose or poisoning. It should be noted, however, that the antihypertensive actions of some diuretics (thiazides and loop diuretics in particular) are independent of their diuretic effect. That is, the reduction in blood pressure is not due to decreased blood volume resulting from increased urine production, but occurs through other mechanisms and at lower doses than that required to produce diuresis. Indapamide was specifically designed with this is mind, and has a larger therapeutic window for hypertension (without pronounced diuresis) than most other diuretics. Chemically, diuretics are a diverse group of compounds that either stimulate or inhibit various hormones that naturally occur in the body to regulate urine production by the kidneys. Alcohol produces diuresis through modulation of the vasopressin system. For more information, consult any textbook of physiology or nephrology. Category:Antihypertensive agents
- ja:利尿薬 th:ยาขับปัสสาวะ

Apicius

Apicius was a name applied to three celebrated Roman epicures, the first of whom lived during the Republic; the second of whom, Marcus Gavius (or Gabius) Apicius—the most famous in his own time—lived under the early Empire; the third of whom, probably no relation, was the late 4th or early 5th century author of the one surviving Roman cookbook. The famous "Apicius," M. Gavius Apicius, moved in the Imperial circle of Tiberius and his son Drusus (died CE 23) and was a close friend of Sejanus, according to Pliny the Elder's Natural History [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_Elder/19
- .html#137 (Book 19:137)]. Pliny considered Apicius born to enjoy every extravagant luxury that could be contrived (ad omne luxus ingenium natus, in [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_Elder/9
- .html#66 NH 9:66]). According to Pliny, in his search for astounding delicacies (plates of nightingales' tongues and such), Apicius fed his pigs with dried figs and slaughtered them by means of overdoses of honeyed wine. If it is true that he had his geese force-fed with dried (figs?) and honey in order to enlarge their livers, this would indicate that the origins of foie gras are Greco-Roman, not French. This Apicius invented various dishes and sauces in which refined delicacy was taken to eccentric extremes. According to Athenaeus (Deipn. I.7), having heard of the boasted size and sweetness of the shrimps taken near the Libyan coast, Apicius commandeered a boat and crew, but when he arrived, disappointed by the ones he was offered by the local fishermen, turned round and had his crew return him to Rome without going ashore. He is said to have kept a school, after the manner of a philosopher, to the disgust of the moralist Seneca (Consolatio ad Helviam, chapter 10) who saw him as a corrupter who infected the age with his example. But when Seneca links Apicius with the great literary patron and book collector Maecenas, the force of his diatribe in favor of the good old Roman ways is blunted for us. Apicius is said to have written two books on cuisine, one (De condituriis) devoted to garum and other sauces, both fresh and fermented. The second one was aimed at the patron more than his cook, since it must have included more complicated recipes, to judge from the elaborate dishes denoted Apiciani ("in the style of Apicius") in the late 4th-century recipe repertory that we do have. In such "Apician" cuisine, complicated preparation were combined with rare ingredients like "a pinch of silphium," an herb from Libya that is now actually extinct, pepper and cassia (cinnamon), which came from India in the Red Sea trade that was also bringing frankincense. This Greek-derived luxury cuisine of the ancient world kept itself as remote as possible from the commonplace cooking of fresh, salted and dried local ingredients, used according to the season. The remnants of Apicius' cookbook might possibly form the nucleus of the later one that has survived. Such pursuits for an upper-class Roman were considered so demeaning in the eyes of his contemporaries (and so scandalous to the ascetic Church fathers who succeeded to their position) that a legend grew up that, though he lived in the lap of luxury, with a more than comfortable fortune, he impoverished himself through his culinary extravagances to such an extent, that he became haunted enough by the fear of practically starving to death, to poison himself in order to to escape such a fate. The reader is cautioned to take this legend cum grano salis. The well-known collection of Roman recipes for cooking that has been alluded to, in ten very brief little books, entitled De re coquinaria, ("The Art of Cooking") is of later date, the late 4th or early 5th century CE, written in a debased Latin that the epicure would have not approved and is conventionally attributed to one otherwise unknown "Caelius Apicius." It is likely that the real title was "Caelii Apicius" (i.e., "the Apicius of Caelius", and De re coquinaria a subtitle). It shows that, like most of the sophisticated luxuries in Roman culture, Roman haute cuisine was founded on Greek originals. The ten books are divided like modern cookbooks: # Epimeles — The Chef # Sarcoptes — Meats # Cepuros — From the garden # Pandecter — Various dishes # Ospreos — Peas, beans, lentils, chickpeas, etc. # Aeropetes — Fowl # Polyteles — Fowl # Tetrapus — Quadrupeds # Thalassa — Seafood # Halieus — Fish Appended to the ten books is a very abbreviated epitome Apici Excerpta a Vinidario a "pocket Apicius" by a certain Vinidarius, made in the 5th century. Once manuscripts surfaced, there were two early printed editions of Apicius, in Milan (1498) and Venice (1500). But in the flood of heavy tomes of pagan and Christian antiquity, it was delightful to read a Roman cookbook. Four more editions in the next four decades reflect the appeal of Apicius. In the long-standard edition of C. T. Schuch (Heidelberg, 1867), the editor added some recipes from a manuscript of the 7th century in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris. The modern standard edition is by Mary Ella Milham (see link below).

External links


- [http://www.fh-augsburg.de/%7Eharsch/Chronologia/Lspost04/Apicius/api_intr.html Bibliotheca Augustana: De Re Coquinaria Libri Decem] Mary Ella Milham's edition, nicely presented (Latin)
- Category:Ancient Romans Category:Roman era writers Category:Food writers

De re coquinaria

De re coquinaria is the oldest known cookbook, dating from the 3rd century A.D., still in existence. Probably partly based on one written by a famous 1st century gourmet named Apicius at the court of Tiberius, it seems to be a compilation of recipes from other leading chefs of the ancient world. The foods described in the book are important for reconstructing the dietary habits of the ancient world around the Mediterranean basin, since many of the foods identified with that region today—tomatoes, pasta—were not available in Antiquity. On the other hand, the recipes are geared for the wealthiest classes and contain what were exotic ingredients at that time, e.g. flamingo tongues. According to Seneca, Apicius himself committed suicide because, having spent so much of his fortune on food, he realized he could not afford to continue dining in the manner to which he was accustomed. Between 1483 (the date of the first printed edition) and 1936 (the date of Joseph Dommers Vehling's translation and bibliography of De re coquinaria), there were 14 editions of the Latin text (plus one possibly apocryphal edition). This work was not widely translated, however; the first translation was into Italian, in 1852, followed in the 20th Century by two translations into German, one into French, and Vehling's translation into English in 1936.

References


- Vehling, Joseph Dommers. (1936) Cookery and dining in imperial Rome. (1977 reprint, Dover: New York. ISBN 0-486-23563-7.)

External links


- [http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/apicius.html Text of the cookbook in Latin]
- (considered by Joseph Dommers Vehling to be the best Latin edition available to him).
- [http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~mjw/recipes/ethnic/historical/ant-rom-coll.html English translation (a partial translation from a German translation, adapted for modern cooking styles)] Category:Cookbooks Category:Roman era books

John Walker

The name John Walker can refer to:
- John Walker (inventor), inventor of the friction match, in 1827.
- John Walker (programmer), one of the designers of AutoCAD.
- John Walker (runner), winner of the Olympic Games 1500m in 1976.
- John Walker (painter), nominee for the Turner Prize in 1985.
- John Walker (Birmingham Six), accused of bombings in England.
- John Walker (whisky blender), founder of Johnnie Walker whisky brand.
- John Walker (naturalist) (1731–1803), Regius Professor of Natural History at Edinburgh University.
- John Walker, (1744–1809), U.S. Senator and Continental Congressman from Virginia
- John Grimes Walker (1835–1907), U.S. Navy admiral.
- John M. Walker, Jr., chief judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
- John Anthony Walker, a Soviet spy active during the Cold War.
- John Brisben Walker (1847–1931), U.S. entrepreneur and magazine publisher.
- John Ernest Walker (1941– ), British chemist, winner of the 1997 Nobel Prize.
- John Williams Walker, a U.S. Senator from Alabama.
- Captain Frederick John Walker RN (1896–1944) (normally known as "Johnny Walker"), a British anti-submarine commander during the Second World War.
- John Walker (comics) Ultra-patriotic crime fighter, formerly Super-Patriot and Captain America VI, now USAgent.
- Johnnie Walker (DJ) a British radio disc jockey.
- Johnny Walker (actor), an Indian actor
- Johnny Walker (wrestler), a masked professional wrestler The name is also:
- The stage name of John Maus, a member of the 1960s singing group, the Walker Brothers.
- The name preferred by American John Walker Lindh, convicted of working with the Taliban.

Olive oil

In agriculture, olive oil is an oil extracted from the fruit of the European olive tree (Olea europaea L.), which originated in the Mediterranean area. It is used in cooking, cosmetics, and soaps. It is also used by Eastern Orthodox Christians as a fuel for their traditional oil lamps. Olive oil is regarded as a healthful dietary oil because of its high content of monounsaturated fat.

Grades and classification

The International Olive Oil Council (IOOC) sets standards of quality used by the major olive oil producing countries. It officially governs 95 percent of global production, and holds great influence over the rest. IOOC terminology is precise, but it can lead to confusion between the words that describe production and the words used on retail labels.

Classifying production

Olive oil is classified by how it was produced, by its chemistry, and by its flavor. All production begins by transforming the olive fruit into olive paste. This paste is then malaxed to allow the microscopic olive droplets to concentrate. The oil is extracted by means of pressure (traditional method) or centrifugation (modern method). After extraction the remnant solid substance, called pomace, still contains a small quantity of oil. The several oils extracted from the olive fruit can be classified as:
- Virgin means the oil was produced by the use of physical means and no chemical treatment. The term virgin oil referring to production is different from Virgin Oil on a retail label.
- Refined means that the oil has been chemically treated to neutralize strong tastes (characterized as defects) and neutralize the acid content (free fatty acids). Refined oil is commonly regarded as lower quality than virgin oil; the retail labels extra-virgin olive oil and virgin olive oil cannot contain any refined oil.
- Olive-pomace oil means oil extracted from the pomace using chemical solvents — mostly hexane — and by heat. Quantitative analytical methods determine the oil's acidity, defined as the percent, measured by weight, of free oleic acid in it. This is a measure of the oil's chemical degradation — as the oil degrades, more fatty acids get free from the glycerides, increasing the level of free acidity. Another measure of the oil's chemical degradation is the peroxide level, which measures the degree to which the oil is oxidized (rancid). In order to classify olive oil by taste, it is subjectively judged by a panel of professional tasters in a blind taste test. This is also called its organoleptic quality.

Grades on retail labels

The IOOC [http://www.internationaloliveoil.org/oliveworld_usingoil.asp standards] are complicated. The labels in stores, however, clearly show an oil's grade:
- Extra-virgin olive oil comes from the first pressing of the olives, contains no more than 0.8% acidity, and is judged to have a superior taste. There can be no refined oil in extra-virgin olive oil.
- Virgin olive oil with an acidity less than 2%, and judged to have a good taste. There can be no refined oil in virgin olive oil.
- Olive oil is a blend of virgin oil and refined virgin oil, containing at most 1% acidity. It commonly lacks a strong flavor.
- Olive-pomace oil is a blend of refined olive-pomace oil and possibly some virgin oil. It is fit for consumption, but it may not be called olive oil. Olive-pomace oil is rarely found in a grocery store; it is often used for certain kinds of cooking in restaurants.
- Lampante oil is olive oil not used for consumption; lampante comes from olive oil's ancient use as fuel in oil-burning lamps. Lampante oil is mostly used in the industrial market.

Label wording

Olive oil vendors choose the wording on their labels very carefully.
- "Imported from Italy" produces an impression that the olives were grown in Italy, although in fact it only means that the oil was bottled there. A corner of the same label may note that the oil was packed in Italy with olives grown in Spain, Italy, Greece, and Tunisia. Since Spain produces nearly half of the world's olive harvest, it is likely the oil "imported from Italy" comes from olives grown in Spain.
- "100% Pure Olive Oil" sounds like a high-end product, but in fact is often the lowest quality available in a retail store: better grades would have "virgin" on the label. Having said that, 100% pure olive oil might be perfect for baking and frying, since high heat can destroy the rich flavor of extra-virgin oil.
- "Made from refined olive oils" suggests that the essence was captured, but in fact means that the taste and acidity were chemically produced.
- "Lite olive oil" suggests a low fat content, whereas in fact it refers to a lighter color. All olive oil—which is, after all, fat—has 120 calories per tablespoon (33 kJ/ml).
- "From hand-picked olives" gives the impression that extraordinary care went into the oil's production, whereas it is not clear that a manual harvest produces better oil than the common tree-shaking method.

The market

ml The International Olive Oil Council is an inter-governmental organization based in Madrid, Spain that promotes olive oil around the world by tracking production, defining quality standards, and monitoring authenticity. More than 85% of the world's olives grow in the 23 nations that are members of the Council. The United States is not a member of the IOOC, and the United States Department of Agriculture does not legally recognize its classifications (such as extra-virgin olive oil). The USDA uses a different system, which it defined in 1948 before the IOOC existed. The California Olive Oil Council, a private US trade group, is petitioning the Department to adopt terminology and practices that shadow the IOOC's rules. Among global producers, Spain leads with more than 40% of world production, followed by Italy and Greece. Much of the Spanish crop is exported to Italy, where it is both consumed and repackaged for sale abroad as Italian olive oil. Although boutique groceries sell high-quality Spanish olive oil at a premium, Italian olive oil has the popular reputation for quality.

Global olive oil market

The main producing countries in 2003 were:

Olive oil extraction

Main article Olive oil extraction Olive oil extraction Traditionally, olive oil was produced by beating the trees with sticks to knock the olives off and crushing them in stone or wooden mortars or beam presses. Nowadays, olives are ground to tiny bits, obtaining a paste that is mixed with water and processed by a centrifuge, which extracts the oil from the paste, leaving behind pomace.

Health claims

In the United States, producers of olive oil may place the following health claim on product labels: :Limited and not conclusive scientific evidence suggests that eating about two tablespoons (23 grams) of olive oil daily may reduce the risk of coronary heart disease due to the monounsaturated fat in olive oil. To achieve this possible benefit, olive oil is to replace a similar amount of saturated fat and not increase the total number of calories you eat in a day. This decision was announced November 1, 2004 by the Food and Drug Administration after application was made to the FDA by producers. Similar labels are permitted for walnuts and omega-3 fatty acids which also contain monounsaturated oil. A health study in 2005 compared the effects of different sorts of olive oil on arterial elasticity. Probands were given a serving of 60 grams of white bread and 40 milliliters of olive oil each morning for two consecutive days. The study was conducted in two stages. During the first stage, the probands received polyphenol-rich oil ("extra virgin" oil contains the highest amount of polyphenols), during the second, they received oil with only one fifth the phenolic content. The elasticity of the arterial walls of each proband was measured using a pressure sleeve and a Doppler laser. It was discovered that after the probands had consumed olive oil high in polyphenols, they exhibited increased arterial elasticity, while after the consumption of olive oil containing less polyphenols, they exhibited no significant change in arterial elasticity. It is supposed that, in the long term, increased elasticity of arterial walls reduces vascular stress and consequentially the risk of two common causes of death - heart attacks and stroke. This could, at least in part, explain the lower incidence of both ailments in regions where olive oil rsp. olives are consumed on a daily basis.

Olive oil in history

One of the earliest documented historical uses of olive oil is in religious ceremonies of the ancient Minoans. Olive oil was a central product of the Minoan civilization, where it is thought to have represented wealth. The Minoans put the pulp into settling tanks and, when the oil had risen to the top, drained the water from the bottom. It was also very common in the cuisine of Ancient Greece and classical Rome. According to legend, the city of Athens obtained its name because Athenians considered olive oil more essential than water, thus preferring the offering of the goddess Athena over the offering of Poseidon. Olive Oil was also used by the ancient Hebrews. Olive oil of the highest purity was poured daily into the seven cups of the golden candelabrum in the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. Olive oil was also used for anointing the kings of Israel. Historically, olive oil has been used for medicines, as a fuel in oil lamps, and to make soap.

Olive oil in contemporary religious use

Used as a medicinal agent in ancient times, and as a cleanser for athletes (athletes in the ancient world were slathered in olive oil, then scraped to remove dirt), it also has religious symbolism related to healing and strength and to "consecration" -- God's setting a person or place apart for special work. The Catholic and Orthodox Churches use olive oil for the Oil of Catechumens (used to bless and strengthen those preparing for Baptism), Oil of the Sick (used to confer the Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick), and olive oil mixed with a perfuming agent like balsam is consecrated by bishops as Sacred Chrism, which is used to confer the sacrament of Confirmation (as a symbol of the strengthening of the Holy Spirit), in the rites of Baptism and the ordination of priests and bishops, in the consecration of altars and churches, and, traditionally, in the anointing of monarchs at their coronation. The LDS church (Mormons) and a number of other religions use olive oil when they need to consecrate an oil for anointings. To this day, Eastern Orthodox Christians use oil lamps in their churches and home prayer corners. To make a vigil lamp a votive glass with a half-inch of water on the bottom is filled the rest of the way with olive oil. The votive glass is placed in a metal holder; different kinds of metal holders may hang from a bracket on the wall, or one that sits on a table. A cork float with a wick is placed in the glass and floats on top of the oil. The wick is then lit. When it comes time to douse the flame, the float can be (carefully!) pressed downward into the oil, and the oil douses the flame.

References

# International Olive Oil Council [http://www.internationaloliveoil.org/members.asp membership list] # United States Department of Agriculture [http://www.ams.usda.gov/fv/ppbdocketlist.htm Site] # United Nations Conference on Trade and Development [http://r0.unctad.org/infocomm/anglais/olive/market.htm Site] # "California and World Olive Oil Statistics"" [http://cesonoma.ucdavis.edu/HORTIC/california_and_world_trends.pdf PDF] at UC Davis. #United States Food and Drug Administration [http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/news/2004/NEW01129.html Site] # New York Times, November 2, 2004, "Olive Oil Makers Win Approval to Make Health Claim on Label"

See also


- Sydney Smith's salad dressing.

External links


- [http://www.internationaloliveoil.org The International Olive Oil Council]
- [http://r0.unctad.org/infocomm/anglais/olive/sitemap.htm#plan Information on olive oil]
- [http://www.mediterrasian.com How to follow an olive oil rich Mediterranean diet]
- [http://www.oliveoilsource.com US olive oil information]
- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4204076.stm Olive oil 'acts like painkiller']
- [http://www.foodconsumer.org/777/8/Olive_oil_benefits_blood_vessels.shtml Phenols in olive oil benefit blood vessels] Category:Cooking oils ko:올리브기름 ja:オリーブ・オイル

Parmesan cheese

Parmesan is a “grana,” a hard, grainy cheese that resembles Parmigiano Reggiano--named after the producing areas of Parma and Reggio Emilia, in Emilia-Romagna, Italy--but not made in this area.

Differences between Parmesan and Parmigiano-Reggiano

Parmesan differs from Parmigiano Reggiano in several ways. First, Parmesan is aged for an average of only 10 months, while Parmigiano Reggiano is aged for an average of 24 months. This additional aging gives the latter more depth of flavor. Secondly, the curds for Parmigiano Reggiano are cut into fragments the size of wheat grains, which is much finer than the fragments created in the manufacture of domestic Parmesan. The smaller curds used in Parmigiano Reggiano drain more effectively, while those used in the manufacture of Parmesan need to be mechanically pressed in order to expel excess moisture from the cheese. Another difference is product regulation. Parmigiano Reggiano has become an increasingly regulated product; in 1955 it became what is known as a certified name (not a brand name). Parmesan, however, has no such regulations. The average Parmigiano Reggiano wheel is about 9 inches high, 16 to 18 inches in diameter, and weighs an average of 80 pounds; Parmesan wheels average 24 pounds. The size difference between Parmesan and Parmigiano Reggiano wheels means that the Parmesan becomes more saturated with salt during the brining process. In fact Parmigiano Reggiano on average contains two-thirds less sodium than the average Parmesan. See also: List of cheeses

External links


- http://www.parmigiano-reggiano.it/
- http://www.parmigiano.it/ Category:Italian cheeses ja:パルミジャーノ・レッジャーノ

Asparagus soup

Asparagus soup - From the 1881 Household Cyclopedia

Put a small broiled bone to 1 1/2 pints of peas, and water in proportion, a root of celery, a small bunch of sweet herbs, a large onion. Cayenne pepper, and salt to taste; boil it briskly for five hours, strain and pulp it; then add a little spinach juice, and asparagus boiled and cut into small pieces. A teaspoonful of walnut soy, and a teaspoonful of mushroom catsup, answers as well as the bone. Category:Soups

United States

:For alternative meanings, see the disambiguation page for US, USA, United States, or American. The United States of America is a federal democratic republic situated primarily in central North America. It comprises 50 states and one federal district, and has several territories. It is also referred to, with varying formality, as the United States, the U.S., the U.S.A., the States, or simply and most commonly, America. The official founding date of the United States is July 4, 1776, when the Second Continental Congress—representing thirteen British colonies—adopted the Declaration of Independence. However, the structure of the government was profoundly changed in 1788, when the states replaced the Articles of Confederation with the United States Constitution. The date on which each of the fifty states adopted the Constitution is typically regarded as the date that state "entered the Union" (became part of the United States). Since the mid-20th century, following World War II, the United States has emerged as a dominant global influence in economic, political, military, scientific, technological, and cultural affairs.

Geography and climate

The United States shares land borders with Canada (to the north) and Mexico (to the south), and territorial water boundaries with Canada, Russia, the Bahamas, and numerous smaller nations. It is otherwise bounded by the Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea, in the west; the Arctic Ocean, in the northernmost areas; and the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean Sea, in the eastern and southeastern areas. Forty-eight of the states are in the single region between Canada and Mexico; this group is referred to, with varying precision and formality, as the continental or contiguous United States, sometimes abbreviated CONUS, and as the Lower 48. Alaska, which is not included in the term contiguous United States, is at the northwestern end of North America, separated from the Lower 48 by Canada. The archipelago of Hawaii is in the Pacific Ocean. The capital city, Washington, District of Columbia is a federal district located on land donated by the state of Maryland. (Virginia also donated land, but it was returned in 1847.) The United States also has overseas territories with varying levels of independence and organization. When inland water is included in the total area, only Russia and Canada are larger than the United States; if inland water is excluded, China ranks third and the U.S. ranks fourth. The United States' total area is 3,718,711 square miles (9,631,418 km²), of which land makes up 3,537,438 square miles (9,161,923 km²) and water makes up 181,273 square miles (469,495 km²). The United States' landscape is one of the most varied among those of the world's nations: among its many features are temperate forestland and rolling hills, on the east coast; mangrove, in Florida; the Great Plains, in the center of the country; the Mississippi–Missouri river system; the Great Lakes, four of the five of which are shared with Canada; the Rocky Mountains, west of the Great Plains; deserts and temperate coastal zones, west of the Rocky Mountains; and temperate rain forests, in the Pacific northwest. Alaska's tundra, and the volcanic, tropical islands of Hawaii add to the geographic diversity. Hawaii The climate varies along with the landscape, from tropical in Hawaii and southern Florida to tundra in Alaska and atop some of the highest mountains. Most of the North and East experience a temperate continental climate, with warm summers and cold winters. Most of the South experiences a subtropical humid climate with mild winters and long, hot, humid summers. Rainfall decreases markedly from the humid forests of the Eastern Great Plains to the semi-arid shortgrass prairies on the high plains abutting the Rocky Mountains. Arid deserts, including the Mojave, extend through the lowlands and valleys of the southwest, from westernmost Texas to California and northward throughout much of Nevada. Some parts of California have a Mediterranean climate. Rainforests line the windward mountains of the Pacific Northwest from Oregon to Alaska.

History

American history started with the migration of people from Asia across the Bering land bridge approximately 12,000 years ago following large animals that they hunted into the Americas. These Native Americans left evidence of their presence in petroglyphs, burial mounds, and other artifacts. It is estimated that 2-9 million people lived in the territory now occupied by the U.S. before European contact, and the subsequent introduction of foreign diseases such as small pox that greatly diminished the native populations. Some advanced societies were the Anasazi of the southwest, who inhabited Chaco Canyon, and the Woodland Indians, who built Cahokia, located near present-day St Louis, a city with a population of 40,000 at its peak in AD 1200. Vikings first visited North America around 1000, but did not settle permanently. Following the discovery voyages of Christopher Columbus around 1492, other Europeans began to explore and settle there. During the 1500s and 1600s, the Spanish settled parts of the present-day Southwest and Florida, founding St. Augustine, Florida in 1565 and Santa Fe (in what is now New Mexico) in 1607. The first successful English settlement was at Jamestown, Virginia, also in 1607. Within the next two decades, several Dutch settlements, including New Amsterdam (the predecessor to New York City), were established in what are now the states of New York and New Jersey. In 1637, Sweden established a colony at Fort Christina (in what is now Delaware), but lost the settlement to the Dutch in 1655. This was followed by extensive British settlement of the east coast. The British colonists remained relatively undisturbed by their home country until after the French and Indian War, when France ceded Canada and the Great Lakes region to Britain. Britain then imposed taxes on the 13 colonies, widely regarded by the colonists as unfair because they were denied representation in the British Parliament. Tensions between Britain and the colonists increased, and the thirteen colonies eventually rebelled against British rule. British Parliament, George Washington (1789-1797).]] In 1776, the 13 colonies split from Great Britain and formed the United States, the world's first constitutional and democratic federal republic, after their Declaration of Independence of that year, and the Revolutionary War (1775 to 1783). The original political structure was a confederation in 1777, ratified in 1781 as the Articles of Confederation. After long debate, this was supplanted by the Constitution in 1789, forming a more centralized federal government. Prior to all these was the Albany Congress in 1754, in which a union was first seriously proposed. From early colonial times, there was a shortage of labor, which encouraged unfree labor, particularly indentured servitude and slavery. In the mid-19th century, a major division occurred in the United States over the issue of states' rights and the expansion of slavery. The northern states had become opposed to slavery, while the southern states saw it as necessary for the continued success of southern agriculture and wanted it expanded to the territories. Several federal laws were passed in an attempt to settle the dispute, including the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850. The dispute reached a crisis in 1861, when seven southern states seceded1 from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America, leading to the Civil War. Soon after the war began, four more southern states seceded. During the war, Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, mandating the freedom of all slaves in states in rebellion, though full emancipation did not take place until after the end of the war in 1865, the dissolution of the Confederacy, and the Thirteenth Amendment took effect. The Civil War effectively ended the question of a state's right to secede, and is widely accepted as a major turning point after which the federal government became more powerful than state governments. Thirteenth Amendment). The title of the painting, from a 1726 poem by Bishop Berkeley, was a phrase often quoted in the era of Manifest Destiny, expressing a widely held belief that civilization had steadily moved westward throughout history. [http://americanart.si.edu/t2go/1lw/1931.6.1.html (more)] ]] During the 19th century, many new states were added to the original 13 as the nation expanded across the continent. Manifest Destiny was a philosophy that encouraged westward expansion in the United States. As the population of the Eastern states grew and as a steady increase of immigrants entered the country, settlers moved steadily westward across North America. In the process, the U.S. displaced most American Indian nations. This displacement of American Indians continues to be a matter of contention in the U.S. with many tribes attempting to assert their original claims to various lands. In some areas American Indian populations were reduced by foreign diseases contracted through contact with European settlers, and US settlers acquired those emptied lands. In other instances American Indians were removed from their traditional lands by force. Though some would say the U.S. was not a colonial power until the Spanish-American War when it acquired Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines, the dominion exercised over land in North America the United States claimed is essentially colonial. The Philippines became independent in 1946. During this period, the nation also became an industrial power. This continued into the 20th century, which has been termed "the American Century" because of the nation's overriding influence on the world. The US became a center for innovation and technological development; major technologies that America either developed or was greatly involved in improving include the telephone, television, computer, the Internet, nuclear weapons, nuclear power, aviation, and aeronautics. In addition to the Civil War, another major traumatic experience for the nation was the Great Depression (1929 to 1939). The nation has also taken part in several major foreign wars, including World War I and World War II (in both of which the US later joined the Allies). During the Cold War, the US was a major player in the Korean War and Vietnam War, and, along with the Soviet Union, was considered one of the world's two "superpowers". With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the US emerged as the world's leading economic and military power. Beginning in the 1990s, the United States became very involved in police actions and peacekeeping, including actions in Kosovo, Haiti, Somalia and Liberia, and the first Persian Gulf War driving Iraq out of Kuwait. After attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, the United States and other allied nations found themselves involved in what has come to be called the "War on Terrorism," which has primarily encompassed military actions in both Afghanistan and Iraq.

Government

Iraq of the United States.]]

Republic and suffrage

The United States is an example of a constitutional republic, with a government composed of and operating through a set of limited powers imposed by its design and enumerated in the United States Constitution. Specifically, the nation operates as a presidential democracy. There are three levels of government: federal, state, and local. Officials of each of these levels are either elected by eligible voters via secret ballot or appointed by other elected officials. Americans enjoy almost universal suffrage from the age of 18 regardless of race, sex, or wealth. There are some limits, however: felons are disenfranchised and in some states former felons are likewise. Furthermore, the national representation of territories and the federal district of Washington, DC in Congress is limited: residents of the District of Columbia are subject to federal laws and federal taxes but their only Congressional representative is a non-voting delegate.

Federal government

The federal government is the national government, comprising the Legislative Branch (led by Congress), the Executive Branch (led by the President), and the Judicial Branch (led by the Supreme Court). These three branches were designed to apply checks and balances on each other. The Constitution limits the powers of the federal government to defense, foreign affairs, the issuing and management of currency, the management of trade and relations between the states, and the protection of human rights. In addition to these explicitly stated powers, the federal government—with the assistance of the Supreme Court—has gradually extended these powers into such areas as welfare and education, on the basis of the "necessary and proper" clause of the Constitution.

The Congress

necessary and proper The Congress of the United States is the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, comprising the House of Representatives and the Senate. The House of Representatives consists of 435 members, each of whom represents a congressional district and serves for a two-year term. House seats are apportioned among the states by population; in contrast, each state has two Senators, regardless of population. There are a total of 100 senators, who serve six-year terms. The powers of Congress are limited to those enumerated in the Constitution; all other powers are reserved to the states and the people. The Constitution also includes the necessary-and-proper clause, which grants Congress the power to "make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers."

The President

necessary-and-proper clause At the top level of the executive branch is the President of the United States. The President and Vice-President are elected as 'running mates' for four-year terms by the Electoral College, for which each state, as well as the District of Columbia, is allocated a number of seats based on its representation (or ostensible representation, in the case of D. C.) in both houses of Congress (see U.S. Electoral College). The relationship between the President and the Congress reflects that between the English monarchy and parliament at the time of the framing of the United States Constitution. Congress can legislate to constrain the President's executive power, even with respect to his or her command of the armed forces; however, this power is used only very rarely—a notable example was the constraint placed on President Richard Nixon's strategy of bombing Cambodia during the Vietnam War. The President cannot directly propose legislation, and must rely on supporters in Congress to promote his or her legislative agenda. The President's signature is required to turn congressional bills into law; in this respect, the President has the power—only occasionally used—to veto congressional legislation. Congress can override a presidential veto with a two-thirds majority vote in both houses. The ultimate power of Congress over the President is that of impeachment or removal of the elected President through a House vote, a Senate trial, and a Senate vote. The threat of using this power has had major political ramifications in the cases of Presidents Andrew Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Bill Clinton. The President makes around 2,000 executive appointments, including members of the Cabinet and ambassadors, which must be approved by the Senate; the President can also issue executive orders and pardons, and has other Constitutional duties, among them the requirement to give a State of the Union address to Congress once a year. Although the President's constitutional role may appear to be constrained, in practice, the office carries enormous prestige that typically eclipses the power of Congress: the Presidency has justifiably been referred to as 'the most powerful office in the world'. The Vice President is first in the line of succession, and is the President of the Senate ex officio, with the ability to cast a tie-breaking vote. The members of the President's Cabinet are responsible for administering the various departments of state, including the Department of Defense, the Justice Department, and the State Department. These departments and department heads have considerable regulatory and political power, and it is they who are responsible for executing federal laws and regulations. George W. Bush is the 43rd President, currently serving his second term.

The Courts

George W. Bush The highest court is the Supreme Court, which consists of nine justices. The court deals with federal and constitutional matters, and can declare legislation made at any level of the government as unconstitutional, nullifying the law and creating precedent for future law and decisions. Below the Supreme Court are the courts of appeals, and below them in turn are the district courts, which are the general trial courts for federal law. Separate from, but not entirely independent of, this federal court system are the individual court systems of each state, each dealing with its own laws and having its own judicial rules and procedures. A case may be appealed from a state court to a federal court only if there is a federal question; the supreme court of each state is the final authority on the interpretation of that state's laws and constitution.

State and local governments

supreme court of each state. Note that Alaska and Hawaii are shown at different scales, and that the Aleutian Islands and the uninhabited Northwestern Hawaiian Islands are omitted from this map.]] The state governments have the greatest influence over people's daily lives. Each state has its own written constitution and has different laws. There are sometimes great differences in law and procedure between the different states, concerning issues such as property, crime, health, and education. The highest elected official of each state is the Governor. Each state also has an elected legislature (bicameral in every state except Nebraska), whose members represent the different parts of the state. Of note is the New Hampshire legislature, which is the third-largest legislative body in the English-speaking world, and has one representative for every 3,000 people. Each state maintains its own judiciary, with the lowest level typically being county courts, and culminating in each state supreme court, though sometimes named differently. In some states, supreme and lower court justices are elected by the people; in others, they are appointed, as they are in the federal system. The institutions that are responsible for local government are typically town, city, or county boards, making laws that affect their particular area. These laws concern issues such as traffic, the sale of alcohol, and keeping animals. The highest elected official of a town or city is usually the mayor. In New England, towns operate directly democratically, and in some states, such as Rhode Island and Connecticut, counties have little or no power, existing only as geographic distinctions. In other areas, county governments have more power, such as to collect taxes and maintain law enforcement agencies.

Political divisions

With the Declaration of Independence, the thirteen colonies proclaimed themselves to be nation states modeled after the European states of the time. Although considered as sovereigns initially, under the Articles of Confederation of 1781 they entered into a "Perpetual Union" and created a fully sovereign federal state, delegating certain powers to the national Congress, including the right to engage in diplomatic relations and to levy war, while each retaining their individual sovereignty, freedom and independence. But the national government proved too ineffective, so the administrative structure of the government was vastly reorganized with the United States Constitution of 1789. Under this new union, the continued status of the individual states as sovereign nation states fell into dispute in 1861, as several states attempted to secede from the union; in response, then-President Abraham Lincoln claimed that such secession was illegal, and the result was the American Civil War. Since the Union victory in 1865, the independent status of the individual states has not been broached again by any state, and the status of each state within the union has been deemed by mainstream officials and academics to be settled as being subordinate to the union as a whole. In subsequent years, the number of states grew steadily due to western expansion, the purchase of lands by the national government from other nation states, and the subdivision of existing states, resulting in the current total of 50. The states are generally divided into smaller administrative regions, including counties, cities and townships. The United States–Canadian border is the longest undefended political boundary in the world. The U.S. is divided into three distinct sections:
- the "continental United States," also known as "the Lower 48" and more accurately termed the conterminous, coterminous or contiguous United States
- Alaska, which is physically connected only to Canada
- the archipelago of Hawaii, in the central Pacific Ocean. The United States also holds several other territories, districts, and possessions, notably the federal district of the District of Columbia, which is the nation's capital, and several overseas insular areas, the most significant of which are American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the United States Virgin Islands. The Palmyra Atoll is the United States' only incorporated territory; it is unorganized and uninhabited. The United States Navy has held a base at a portion of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, since 1898. The United States government possesses a lease to this land, which only mutual agreement or United States abandonment of the area can terminate. The present Cuban government of Fidel Castro disputes this arrangement, claiming Cuba was not truly sovereign at the time of the signing. The United States argues this point moot because Cuba apparently ratified the lease post-revolution, and with full sovereignty, when it cashed one rent check in accordance with the disputed treaty.

Foreign relations and military

sovereign] The immense military and economic dominance of the United States has made foreign relations an especially important topic in its politics, with considerable concern about the image of the United States throughout the world. Reactions towards the United States by other nationalities are often strong, ranging from uninhibited admiration and mimicking of all things American to anti-Americanism. US foreign policy has swung about several times over the course of its history between the poles of strict isolationism and imperialism and everywhere in between. Three of the nation's four military branches are administered by the Department of Defense: the Army, the Navy (including the Marine Corps), and the Air Force. The Coast Guard falls under the jurisdiction of the Department of Homeland Security in peacetime, but is placed under the Department of the Navy in time of war. The combined United States armed forces consist of 1.4 million active duty personnel, along with several hundred thousand each in the Reserves and the National Guard. Military conscription ended in 1973. The United States Armed forces are considered to be the most powerful military (of any sort) on Earth and their force projection capabilities are unrivaled by any other nation. The 2005 defense budget amounted to $401.7 billion, which is an increase of 4% over 2004 and of 35% since 2001. Over 50% of that number is spent in research & development. (For comparison, in 2004 the European Union (considered as the second-largest military force) had a combined total of 1.6 million troops, and a defense budget of €160 billion, with less than 10% of that being spent on R&D.)

Largest cities

The United States has dozens of major cities, including 11 of the 55 global cities of all types — with three "alpha" global cities: New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago. The figures expressed below are for populations within city limits. A different ranking is evident when considering U.S. metro area populations, although the top three would be unchanged. Note that some cities not listed (such as Atlanta, Boston, Las Vegas, Miami, Nashville, New Orleans, Seattle, and Washington, D.C.) are still considered important on the basis of other factors and issues, including culture, economics, heritage, and politics. The twenty largest cities, based on the United States Census Bureau's 2004 estimates, are as follows:

Economy

The United States has the largest single-country economy in the world, with a per-capita gross domestic product of $40,100. In this market-oriented economy, private individuals and business firms make most of the decisions, and the federal and state governments buy needed goods and services predominantly in the private marketplace. gross domestic product The largest industry of the U.S. is now service, which employs roughly three quarters of the U.S. work force. The United States has many natural resources, including oil and gas, metals, and such minerals as gold, soda ash, and zinc. In agriculture, the U.S. is a top producer of, among other crops, corn, soy beans, and wheat; the United States is a net exporter of food. The U.S. manufacturing sector produces goods such as, cars, airplanes, steel, and electronics, among many others. Economic activity varies greatly from one part of the country to another, with many industries being largely dependent on a certain city or region; New York City is the center of the American financial, publishing, broadcasting, and advertising industries; Silicon Valley is the country’s primary location for high-technology companies, while Los Angeles is the most important center for film production. The Midwest is known for its reliance on manufacturing and heavy industry, with Detroit, Michigan, serving as the center of the American automotive industry; the Great Plains are known as the "breadbasket" of America for their tremendous agricultural output; the intermountain region serves as a mining hub and natural gas resource; the Pacific Northwest for fish and timber, while Texas is largely associated with the oil industry; the Southeast is a major hub for both medical research and the textiles industry. Several countries continue to link their currency to the dollar or even use it as a currency (such as Ecuador), although this practice has subsided since the collapse of the Bretton Woods system. Many markets are also quoted in dollars, such as those of oil and gold. The dollar is also the predominant reserve currency in the world, and more than half of global reserves are in dollars. The largest trading partner of the United States is Canada (19%), followed by China (12%), Mexico (11%), and Japan (8%). More than 50% of total trade is with these four countries. In 2003, the United States was ranked as the third most visited tourist destination in the world; its 40,400,000 visitors ranked behind France's 75,000,000 and Spain's 52,500,000. Labor unions have existed since the 19th century, and grew large and powerful from the 1930s to the 1950s. See Labor history of the United States. Since 1970 they have shrunk in the private sector and now cover fewer than 8% of the workers. However union membership has grown rapidly in the public sector, especially among teachers, nurses, police, postal workers, and municipal clerks. There have been few strikes in recent years. The United States' imports exceed exports by 80%, leading to an annual trade deficit of $700,000,000,000, or 6% of gross domestic product. It is the largest debtor nation in the world, with total gross foreign debt of over $13,000,000,000,000 (2005 estimate); and it absorbs more than 50% of global savings annually. Since the 1980s, the U.S. has increased the use of neoliberal economic policies that reduce government intervention and reduce the size of the welfare state, backing away from the more interventionist Keynsian economic policies that had been in favor since the Great Depression. As a result, the United States provides fewer government-delivered social welfare services than most industrialized nations, choosing instead to keep its tax burden lower and relying more heavily on the free market and private charities. Sixteen states and the District of Columbia have minimum wages higher than the national level ($5.15 per-hour), including the highest, Washington State at $7.35. Twenty-six states are the same as the federal level; two--Ohio and Kansas--are below; and six do not have state laws. America's wealth is relatively highly concentrated. The average C.E.O. earns 500 times the typical amount a worker grosses, this is up from 25 times in the late 1970s. In terms of wealth the top 1% of Americans own 40% of all assets and 50.1% of the country's income goes to the top twenty percent of households. Average wages for the majority of employees have been largely stagnating since the 1970s. America's poverty line defined as a family of four earning less than $19,157 is at 12.7% of the general population. Approximately one out of every five children in the United States grows up below the official poverty line. Among racial groups; African Americans have the lowest median income while Asians had the highest. Regionally, the southern states had the lowest median incomes while the West Coast and New England had the highest. The current Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan remarked that the U.S.’s growing income inequality since the 1970s is, "not the type of thing which a democratic society - a capitalist democratic society - can really accept without addressing."[http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0614/p01s03-usec.html?s=itm] However, Greenspan also noted, "...you can look at the system and say it's got a lot of problems to it, and sure it does. It always has. But you can't get around the fact that this is the most extraordinarily successful economy in history."

Transportation

Alan Greenspan ]] Because the United States is a relatively young nation, most of the development of U.S. cities has taken place since the invention of the automobile. To link its vast territory, the United States built a network of high-capacity, high-speed highways, of which the most important element is the Interstate Highway system, commissioned in the 1950s by President Dwight D. Eisenhower and modeled after the German Autobahn. The United States also has a transcontinental rail system, which is used for moving freight across the lower forty-eight states. Passenger rail service is provided by Amtrak, which serves forty-six of the lower forty-eight states. Many cities in the United States have extensive mass-transit systems. New York City operates one of the world's largest and most heavily used subway systems. The regional rail and bus networks that extend into Long Island, New Jersey, Upstate New York, and Connecticut are among the most heavily used in the world. Air travel is often preferred for destinations over 300 miles (500 kilometers) away. In terms of passengers, seventeen of the world's thirty busiest airports in 2004 were in the U.S., including the world's busiest, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport; in terms of cargo, in the same year, twelve of the world's thirty busiest airports were in the U.S., including the world's busiest, Memphis International Airport. There are several major seaports in the United States; the three busiest are the Port of Los Angeles, California; the Port of Long Beach, California; and the Port of New York and New Jersey. Others include Houston, Texas; Charleston, South Carolina; Savannah, Georgia; Miami, Florida; Portland, Oregon; San Francisco, California; Boston, Massachusetts; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Seattle, Washington; plus, outside the contiguous forty-eight states, Anchorage, Alaska, and Honolulu, Hawaii.

Society

Demographics

Hawaii The mean center of the U.S. population continues to drift farther west and south. The fastest growing region is the western United States followed by the southern portion. According to Census 2000, the states that saw the greatest increases from 1990 were: Nevada (66.3%), Arizona (40%), Colorado (30.6%), Utah (29.6%), Idaho (28.5%), Georgia (26.4%), Florida (23.5%), Texas (22.8%), North Carolina (21.4%), and Washington (21.1%). [http://www.census.gov/population/cen2000/phc-t2/tab03.pdf]

Ethnicity and race

:Main article: Racial demographics of the United States The United States is a very racially diverse country. According to the 2000 census, it has 31 ethnic groups with at least one million members each, and numerous others represented in smaller amounts. The majority of Americans descend from white European immigrants who arrived at the establishment of the first colonies (most after Reconstruction). This majority--69.1% in 2000--decreases each year, and is expected to become a plurality within a few decades. The most frequently stated European ancestries are German (15.2%), Irish (10.8%), English (8.7%), Italian (5.6%) and Scandinavian (3.7%). Many immigrants also hail from Slavic countries such as Poland and Russia. Other significant immigrant populations came from eastern and southern Europe and French Canada. Russia Hispanics from Mexico and South and Central America are the largest minority group in the country, comprising 12.5% of the population (2000 census). People of Mexican descent made up 7.3% of the population in the 2000 census, and this proportion is expected to increase significantly in the coming decades. About 12.3% (2000 census) of the American people are African Americans (Blacks). African Americans are spread throughout the country, but their presence is largest in the South. Asian Americans--including Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders--are a third significant minority (3.7% of the population in 2000). Most Asian Americans are concentrated on the West Coast and Hawaii. The largest groups are immigrants or descendants of emigrants from the Philippines, China, India, Vietnam, South Korea, and Japan. Indigenous peoples in the United States, such as American Indians and Inuit, make up 0.9% of the population (2000 census). About 35% live on Indian reservations.

Religion

Polls estimate that just under 80 percent of Americans are Christians of various denominations. The other 20 percent comprises other religions such as Hinduism, Judaism, Islam, and Buddhism, other various faiths, and those without a specific religion. The United States is noteworthy among developed nations for its relatively high level of religiosity. According to a 2004 Gallup poll, about 44% of Americans attend a religious service at least once a week. However, this rate is not uniform across the country; attendance is more common in the Bible Belt—composed largely of Southern and Midwestern states—than in the Northeast and West Coast. In the Southern states, Baptists are the largest group, followed by Methodists; Roman Catholics are dominant in the Northeast and in large parts of the Midwest due to their being settled by descendants of Catholic immigrants from Europe (such as Germany, Ireland, Italy, and Poland) or other parts of North America (mainly Quebec and Puerto Rico). The rest of the country for the most part has a complex mixture of various Christian groups.

Education

West Coast's home at Monticello and the University of Virginia (library building shown above, and designed by Jefferson), the only collegiate campus on the list. Both sites are located in Charlottesville, Virginia.]] In the United States, education is a state, not federal, responsibility, and the laws and standards vary considerably. However, the federal government, through the Department of Education, is involved with funding of some programs and exerts some influence through its ability to control funding. In most states, all students must attend mandatory schooling starting with kindergarten, which children normally enter at age 5, and following through 12th grade, which is normally completed at age 18

Chicken


A chicken (Gallus gallus) is a type of domesticated bird which is often raised as a type of poultry. It is believed to be descended from the wild Asian Red Junglefowl. Chickens are the most common bird in the world. The population in 2003 was 24 billion, according to the Firefly Encyclopedia of Birds.

Artificial incubation

Chicken egg incubation can successfully occur artificially as well. Nearly all chicken eggs will hatch after 21 days of good conditions - 98-100 degrees fahrenheit (38°C) and around 65% relative humidity (may decrease to 55% in the last three days of incubation.) Many commercial incubators are industrial sized with shelves holding tens of thousands of eggs at a time, with rotation of the eggs a fully automated process. Home incubators are usually small boxes (styrofoam incubators are popular) and hold 50 eggs. Eggs must be turned three to five times each day, rotating at least 90 degrees. If eggs aren't turned, the embryo inside will stick to the shell and likely will be born with physical defects. This process is natural: hens will stand up three to five times a day and shift the eggs around with their beak.

Chickens as food

beak in a manner similar to beef.]] Chickens serve as one of the most common meats in the world, and are frequently prepared as food in a large number of ways. There is significant variation in cooking methods amongst cultures; historically common methods include roasting, baking, and frying. Today, chickens are also cooked by deep frying and prepared as fast food such as chicken nuggets. Modern varieties of chicken, such as the Cornish Cross, are bred specifically for meat production, with an emphasis placed on the ratio of feed to meat produced by the animal. The Chinese (those who are not vegetarians) often boast the importance of chicken to their meals, describing themselves as "無雞不歡" (roughly translates as 'no chicken, no satisfaction'). This is reflected in particular in feasts at restaurants, where they hardly ever dropped chicken from the menu. Dim sum often included chicken. Chickens raised specifically for meat are called broilers. In the United States, broilers are typically butchered at a young age. Modern Cornish Cross hybrids, for example, are butchered as early as 8 weeks for fryers and 12 weeks for roasting birds. Typically, the muscle tissue (breast, legs, thigh, etc), livers, and gizzard are processed for food. Chicken feet are less commonly eaten. The head, internal organs such as the lungs and intestines, and feathers are typically discarded or ground into a protein meal for inclusion in other animal feeds, although Chinese cuisines will retain the whole bird on the dish (with the head), depending on the dish. Capons (castrated cocks) produce more and fattier meat than normal cocks. For this reason, they are considered a delicacy and were particularly popular in the Middle Ages. Caponizing a cock, unlike castrating a steer or pig, requires delicate surgery and is considered an art almost lost today. The cock's testicles lie within its body cavity. To remove them requires special equipment and skill. The person caponizing the rooster must make precise and specialized cuts within the abdomen of the rooster. Infection and potential damage to the bird are possible should an unskilled individual perform the surgery. testicle Chicken eggs, produced by pullets and laying hens, are also very commonly eaten. The chicken egg is the most commonly eaten bird egg in the world. Hens may lay fertile or infertile eggs. Hens will continue to lay even if a rooster is not present, though these will not be viable. There is no difference in the nutritional value between a fertilized and unfertilized egg. As with meat chickens, modern breeding results in birds that can produce significantly more eggs, focusing on feed to egg conversion ratios. Modern egg chickens are typically derived from the early Leghorn varieties. When the egg is laid, the egg is not soft but has a hard shell. This shell protects the egg's contents, making it a foodsource that is easily transported and stored. Nutritionally, the egg provides a rich source of protein and vitamins. Recent concerns over cholesterol, however, have caused many to question the inclusion of eggs in the diet. Some chicken breeds are raised for both meat and egg production. Typically heavy breeds, these are primarily grown by small farmers or hobbyists. These include breeds such as the Wyandotte, Brahma, or Barred Rock.

Chickens as pets

In Asia, varieties of chickens were developed with striking plumage and were kept for ornamental purposes including feather-footed varieties such as the Cochin or Silkies from China and varieties with extremely long tails called (Phoenix) from Japan. Asian ornamental varieties were imported into the United States and Great Britain in the late 1800s. Poultry fanciers then began keeping these ornamental birds for exhibition, a practice that continues today. From these origins in Asia, distinctive American varieties of chickens were developed. Today, several cities in the United States still allow residents to keep live chickens as pets though the practice is quickly disappearing. Individuals in rural communities commonly keep chickens for both ornamental and practical value. Some communities ban only roosters, allowing the more quiet hens. Many zoos will use chickens to keep the insect population down instead of harmful insecticides. This is done to reduce the spread of disease.

Chickens in agriculture

In the United States, chickens were once raised primarily on the family farm. Prior to about 1930, chicken was served for primarily on special occasions or on Sunday as the birds were typically more valued for their eggs than meat. Excess roosters or non-productive hens would be culled from the flock first for butchering. As cities developed and markets sprung up across the nation, live chickens from local farms could often be seen for sale in crates outside the market, to be butchered and cleaned onsite by the butcher. With the advent of refrigeration, poultry production changed dramatically. Large farms and packing plants emerged that could grow birds by the thousands. Adult chickens could be sent to factories for butchering and processing into pre-packaged commercial prod