Ranch

A ranch is a type of farm and an area of landscape, including various structures, given primarily to the practice of ranching, the practice of raising grazing livestock such as cattle or sheep for meat or wool. The word most often applies to livestock-raising operations in Mexico, the Western United States and Canada, though there are ranches in other areas. People who own or operate a ranch are called ranchers, cattlemen, or stockgrowers. Ranching is also a method used to raise less common livestock such as elk, American bison or even ostrich, emu, and alpacas.

Ranches generally consist of large areas, but may be of nearly any size. In the western United States, many ranches are a combination of privately owned land supplemented by grazing leases on land under the control of the federal Bureau of Land Management. If the ranch includes arable or irrigated land, the ranch may also engage in a limited amount of farming, raising crops for feeding the animals, such as hay and feed grains.

Ranch-style house

Ranch (also American ranch, California ranch, rambler or rancher) is a domestic architectural style originating in the United States. The ranch house is noted for its long, close-to-the-ground profile, and minimal use of exterior and interior decoration. The houses fuse modernist ideas and styles with notions of the American Western period working ranches to create a very informal and casual living style.

First built in the 1920s, the ranch style was extremely popular with the booming post-war middle class of the 1940s to 1970s. The style is often associated with tract housing built at this time, particularly in the western United States, which experienced a population explosion during this period, with a corresponding demand for housing. The style was exported to other nations and so is found in other countries. Their popularity waned in the late 20th century as neo-eclectic house styles, a return to using historical and traditional decoration, became popular.

Preservationist movements have begun in some ranch house neighborhoods, as well as renewed interest in the style from a younger generation who did not grow up in ranch-style houses. This renewed interest in the ranch house style has been compared to that which other house styles such as the bungalow and Queen Anne experienced in the 20th century, initial dominance of the market, replacement as the desired housing style, decay and disinterest coupled with many teardowns, then renewed interest and gentrification of the surviving homes.

99 Ranch Market

99 Ranch Market is an Asian American supermarket chain owned by Tawa Supermarket Inc., which is based in Buena Park, California. 99 Ranch has over 30 stores, primarily in California, with other stores in Nevada, Washington, and Texas.

99 Ranch Market is one of the largest Chinese American supermarket chains in the United States. It is also considered a Taiwanese-American market because of the considerable amount of products imported from Taiwan and because the store was founded by Taiwanese-born American Roger H. Chen.

Other renderings of the name 99 Ranch Market: traditional Chinese: 大華超級市場; simplified Chinese: 大华超级市场; pinyin: Dàhuá Chāojíshìchǎng; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Tāi-huâ-chhiau-kip-chhī-tiûⁿ.

History

Roger H. Chen (陳河源 Chén Héyuán), a Taiwanese-born American, opened the chain's first location in 1984 in Little Saigon, a Vietnamese American community located in Westminster, California. (now closed). In 1987, a second market was opened in Montebello (also now closed). It was originally called 99 Price Market but was eventually renamed 99 Ranch Market to give the supermarket a somewhat trendier name.

6666 Ranch

The 6666 Ranch (a.k.a. Four Sixes Ranch) is a historic ranch in King County, Texas as well as Carson County and Hutchinson County, Texas.

Location

The main section of the ranch is located near the town of Guthrie in King County, Texas. It spans 350,000 acres of land. The main ranch house is off U.S. Highway 82. The Dixon Creek section spans 108,000 acres of land in Carson and Hutchinson counties. The Dixon Creek runs through this section ranch near Panhandle, Texas.

History

The ranch was established by Captain Samuel Burk Burnett in 1900 after he purchased the land from the Louisville Land and Cattle Company. Legend has it that he won the ranch from a card game, where he scored four sixes. However, Burnett and his descendants have denied this folklore tale. Instead, the name comes from the first herd he raised on the ranch, which was branded '6666.'

Burnett raised purebred Herefords and Durham bulls, which won national prizes at livestock shows all over the United States. He also bred purebred quarter horses. In 1918, 2,000 head of cattle were killed by a blizzard. However, three years later, in 1921, oil was found on the ranch, thus turning it into a very profitable enterprise.

Öland

Öland (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈøːland]) is the second largest Swedish island and the smallest of the traditional provinces of Sweden. Öland has an area of 1,342 km² and is located in the Baltic Sea just off the coast of Småland. The island has 25,000 inhabitants. It is separated from the mainland by the Kalmar Strait and connected to it by the 6-km Öland Bridge, which opened on 30 September in 1972.

Administration

The traditional provinces of Sweden no longer serve administrative or political purposes but still exist as historical and cultural entities. Öland is part of the administrative county of Kalmar County (Kalmar län) and consists of the two municipalities of Borgholm Municipality and Mörbylånga Municipality. There was an Öland County in the short period between 1819 and 1826; otherwise, the island has been part of Kalmar County since 1634.

Heraldry

Öland was granted provincial arms in 1560, but it would not be until the 1940s that the province was assigned its proper ones. The arms granted to Öland had been mixed up with the arms granted to Åland and this was not discovered until the 20th century. While Öland changed its coat of arms, Åland, which was now a Finnish (autonomous) province, kept its established but originally unintended coat of arms. The deer is meant to symbolise the status of Öland as a royal game park and the arms are topped by a ducal crown. Blazon: "Azure a Deer Or attired, hoofed and gorged Gules."

Generic top-level domain

Generic top-level domains (gTLDs) are one of the categories of top-level domains (TLDs) maintained by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) for use in the Domain Name System of the Internet. A top-level domain is the last label of every fully qualified domain name. They are called generic for historic reasons; initially, they were contrasted with country-specific TLDs in RFC 920.

The core group of generic top-level domains consists of the com, info, net, and org domains. In addition, the domains biz, name, and pro are also considered generic; however, these are designated as restricted, because registrations within them require proof of eligibility within the guidelines set for each.

Historically, the group of generic top-level domains included domains, created in the early development of the domain name system, that are now sponsored by designated agencies or organizations and are restricted to specific types of registrants. Thus, domains edu, gov, int, and mil are now considered sponsored top-level domains, much like the themed top-level domains (e.g., jobs). The entire group of domains that do not have a geographic or country designation (see country-code top-level domain) is still often referred to by the term generic TLDs.

Sixology

Sixology (Chinese: JJ陸) is Singaporean Mandopop Singer-songwriter JJ Lin's sixth Mandarin studio album. It was released on 18 October 2008 by the Ocean Butterflies Music and contains 14 tracks. It is called this because it is his sixth album. There are three versions for this album. The song "主角" is popular in China, with many performances recently and concerts in many cities.

The album was awarded one of the Top 10 Selling Mandarin Albums of the Year at the 2009 IFPI Hong Kong Album Sales Awards, presented by the Hong Kong branch of IFPI.

Track list