Kayak

A kayak is a small, narrow boat which is propelled by means of a double-bladed paddle. The word kayak originates from the Greenlandic language, where it is the word qajaq (pronounced [qajaq]). In the UK the term canoe is often used when referring to a kayak. The traditional kayak has a covered deck and one or more cockpits, each seating one paddler. The cockpit is sometimes covered by a spray deck that prevents the entry of water from waves or spray and makes it possible for suitably skilled kayakers to roll the kayak: that is, to capsize and right it without it filling with water or ejecting the paddler.

Some modern boats vary considerably from a traditional design but still claim the title "kayak", for instance in eliminating the cockpit by seating the paddler on top of the boat ("sit-on-top" kayaks); having inflated air chambers surrounding the boat; replacing the single hull by twin hulls ("W" kayak), and replacing paddles with other human-powered propulsion methods, such as foot-powered rotational propellers and "flippers". Kayaks are also being sailed, as well as propelled by means of small electric motors, and even by outboard gas engines, when possible.

Kayak (disambiguation)

Kayak is a personal watercraft.

Kayak may also refer to:

In places:

In other uses:

Kayak (band)

Kayak are a Dutch progressive rock band formed in 1972 in the city Hilversum by Ton Scherpenzeel and Pim Koopman. In 1973, their debut album "See See The Sun" was released, including three hit singles. Their main popularity was in the Netherlands, with their top hit (Ruthless Queen) reaching No. 6 on the Dutch charts in March 1979. They disbanded in 1982 after releasing nine albums.

In 1999 the band was asked to perform on the TV show De Vrienden van Amstel Live. After this performance, they decided to reform, and released seven further studio albums and three live albums. On 4 January 2008 they released Coming Up For Air. That same day saw the start of their 35th anniversary-tour. On 7 October 2008, they ended the tour at the Paradiso in Amsterdam. The concert was released on CD and DVD as The Anniversary Box in December 2008.

In October 2009 the band embarked on a Dutch tour. According to Ton Scherpenzeel (on the band's website), after that tour Kayak would no longer do the album-tour-album-tour cycle. They would probably keep on making new music though, as Scherpenzeel stated. But the sudden and unexpected death of Pim Koopman in November 2009 (halfway through the tour) made the future of the band very uncertain.

Mammoth

A mammoth is any species of the extinct genus Mammuthus, proboscideans commonly equipped with long, curved tusks and, in northern species, a covering of long hair. They lived from the Pliocene epoch (from around 5 million years ago) into the Holocene at about 4,500 years ago in Africa, Europe, Asia, and North America. They were members of the family Elephantidae, which also contains the two genera of modern elephants and their ancestors. Mammoths stem from an ancestral species called M. africanavus, the African mammoth. These mammoths lived in northern Africa and disappeared about 3 or 4 million years ago. Descendants of these mammoths moved north and eventually covered most of Eurasia. These were M. meridionalis, the 'southern mammoths'.

Evolution

The earliest known proboscideans, the clade that contains the elephants, existed about 55 million years ago around the Tethys Sea area. The closest relatives of the Proboscidea are the sirenians and the hyraxes. The family Elephantidae is known to have existed six million years ago in Africa, and includes the living elephants and the mammoths. Among many now extinct clades, the mastodon is only a distant relative of the mammoths, and part of the separate Mammutidae family, which diverged 25 million years before the mammoths evolved.

Mammoth (ride)

Mammoth is a water coaster at Holiday World & Splashin' Safari in Santa Claus, Indiana, USA. It was designed and built beginning in 2011 by ProSlide Technology; it opened on May 11, 2012. Mammoth is named after the Mammoth, a now-extinct prehistoric mammal, keeping with the water park's safari theme. When it was completed in 2012, Mammoth became the world's longest water coaster at 1,763 feet (537 m) long. It claimed that title from Holiday World's first water coaster, Wildebeest, which is 1,710 feet (520 m) long.

History

On August 3, 2011, Holiday World & Splashin' Safari announced Mammoth, a ProSlide HydroMagnetic Mammoth that was to be built to the east of Wildebeest. Unlike Wildebeest, which uses 4-passenger, toboggan-style boats, Mammoth was to use round, 6-passenger boats. Another unique feature of Mammoth is its length. When completed, the water coaster was 1,763 feet (537 m) long, making it the longest water coaster in the world.

Mammoth opened on May 11, 2012. When the HydroMagnetic water coaster opened, it operated with ten 6-passenger boats. The riders in the 6-passenger "round spinner" boats are seated in a circle facing each other; when it opened, Mammoth was the only water coaster to utilize this type of boat.

Mammoth (John Varley)

Mammoth is a 2005 novel by author John Varley. The book centers around the concept of time travel, and gives quite a bit of discussion to the concept that there may be limits to science.

Synopsis