Oasis

In geography, an oasis (plural: oases) or cienega (Southwestern United States) is an isolated area of vegetation in a desert, typically surrounding a spring or similar water source. Oases also provide habitat for animals and even humans if the area is big enough. The location of oases has been of critical importance for trade and transportation routes in desert areas; caravans must travel via oases so that supplies of water and food can be replenished. Thus, political or military control of an oasis has in many cases meant control of trade on a particular route. For example, the oases of Awjila, Ghadames, and Kufra, situated in modern-day Libya, have at various times been vital to both North-South and East-West trade in the Sahara Desert.

Oases are formed from underground rivers or aquifers such as an artesian aquifer, where water can reach the surface naturally by pressure or by man-made wells. Occasional brief thunderstorms provide subterranean water to sustain natural oases, such as the Tuat. Substrata of impermeable rock and stone can trap water and retain it in pockets, or on long faulting subsurface ridges or volcanic dikes water can collect and percolate to the surface. Any incidence of water is then used by migrating birds, which also pass seeds with their droppings which will grow at the water's edge forming an oasis.

Smithers-Oasis

Smithers-Oasis is a company specializing in floristry products headquartered in Kent, Ohio, United States. The company created water-absorbing foam in 1954 and leads manufacturing and marketing of various products in the global florist industry.

History

The company was founded in 1954 by V.L. Smithers in Kent, Ohio after he developed a water absorbent foam to use in floral arrangements. Since then, other products have been developed including floral accessories, cellular growing media, and post-harvest plant products. The company is headquartered in Kent and operates a manufacturing plant there. Corporate offices were returned to Kent in late 2013 from Cuyahoga Falls, where they had been located since 1992.

Products

Wet floral foam

Oasis is a trademarked name for wet floral foam, the spongy phenolic foam used for real flower arranging. It soaks up water like a sponge and acts both as a preservative to prolong the life of the flowers and a support to hold them in place. The foam's structure is similar to that of plants and has capillary action to move water to the surface and up the stem. It is often green, but is also available in many other colours, such as purple, red, yellow, and brown. It usually is supplied in a brick shape, but can be bought in spherical shapes. Oasis can be bought wholesale or in arts and craft and gardening stores, particularly ones that feature large faux flower collections for creating artificial arrangements.

Oasis (TV series)

Oasis was a short lived CITV drama series which was about a group of children who ran an inner city farm. It's best known for featuring John Simm and Dean Gaffney. It was set in a wasteland site in south London.

The drama series ran from 5 January to 9 March 1993 for 10 episodes, made by Zenith North, the team behind Byker Grove for Carlton; their first children's drama series for the ITV network.

Cast

External links

STB (TV channel)

STB (Ukrainian: СТБ) is a Ukrainian commercial television network. Today, the coverage area of the network is 85% of Ukraine's territory. It is broadcast in all oblast centers and all Ukrainian cities with a population greater than 50,000. It occupies the 1st place in the list of the leading TV networks in Ukraine.

History

The founders of the networks were Ukrainian and American companies: International Media Center, Shachar Enterprises, Inc., Internews Netouron K. The STB was launched on June 2, 1997. Since 1997, STB was controlled by Volodymyr Sivkovych, a Ukrainian businessman and politician. He was the one, who decided to create the TV channel. Since September, 1996, the crew of STB broadcast news (under title "Vikna" (eng.- "Windows")) on the frequency of UT-2.

In 1999 STB fell under the influence of companies of Lukoil Group. Oleksiy Fedun became the executive president of the network.

In 2000 the popularity of the channel rose. The most popular programs are Vikna. News., Vikna. Business., Vikna. Capital-city., Vikna. Crimes., Vikna. Sport. and Vikna. Midnight. STB becomes an info-channel.

Type 74

The Type 74 (74式戦車, nana-yon-shiki-sensha) is a main battle tank (MBT) of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (JGSDF). It was built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries as a replacement for the earlier Type 61. It was based on the best features of a number of contemporary designs, placing it in the same class as the US M60 or German Leopard 1. Like these designs, it mounts the Royal Ordnance L7 105 mm gun. The design did not enter widespread use until 1980, by which point other Western forces had introduced more capable designs.

History

The JGSDF started studies on a new tank design with Mitsubishi in 1962, as the Type 61 was shown to be incapable of defeating the latest Soviet designs such as the T-62. Features from several designs were incorporated, including the controllable suspension of the US-German MBT-70 project, the hull of the Leopard 1, and the L7 105mm gun. The design included a rotating cupola for the commander, and a new autoloader for the main gun. Prior to the 1965 decision to design an entirely new tank, some technologies which would later be used in the STB-1 were already in development independently in Japan.The design was finalized in 1964 and various test rigs were built between 1964 and 1967.