Mercedes

Mercedes may refer to:

People

Automobile-related

Places

MV Mercedes I

Mercedes I was a merchant ship built in 1952 in Hamburg, Germany. She was 194 feet (59 m) long and displaced 496 tons. She was originally named Jacob Rusch, later being renamed Rosita Maria, Rita Voge, and finally Mercedes I in 1976.

She was caught in a storm while at anchor off Palm Beach, Florida on 23 November 1984, and was driven ashore where she crashed into the seawall front of the home of Palm Beach socialite, Mollie Wilmot, who served the 12 Venezuelan sailors caviar, finger sandwiches and freshly brewed coffee in her gazebo, offered martinis to journalists and photographers, and granted the stranded Venezuelans access to her swimming pool. The incident received national and international coverage.

After being abandoned by her owners, she was salvaged by the Donjon Marine Company, who sold her for $29,000 to the Broward County Environmental Quality Control Board. They scuttled her on 30 March 1985 with 350 pounds of TNT off the coast of Ft. Lauderdale, in order to create an artificial reef. She currently rests upright in 97 feet (30 m).

Mercedes, Texas

Mercedes is a city in Hidalgo County, Texas. The population was 15,570 at the 2010 United States Census. It is part of the McAllen–Edinburg–Mission and Reynosa–McAllen metropolitan areas.

Geography

Mercedes is located at 26°8′58″N 97°55′7″W / 26.14944°N 97.91861°W / 26.14944; -97.91861 (26.149315, -97.918675).

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 8.6 square miles (22 km²), of which 8.6 square miles (22 km²) is land and 0.1 square miles (0.26 km²) (0.69%) is water.

History

Mercedes is known as "The Queen City of the Valley" or "La Reina del Valle". The city of Mercedes was founded September 15, 1907, by the American Rio Grande Land & Irrigation Company, and was incorporated March 8, 1909. It is one of the oldest towns in the Rio Grande Valley, and the city celebrated its centennial in 2007.

The city was located in Capisallo Pasture, part of Capisallo Ranch owned by Jim Welles. This location was known as the Pear Orchard because of the vast numbers of prickly pear cactus growing there at that time.

Uplift

Uplift may refer to:

Tectonic uplift

Tectonic uplift is the portion of the total geologic uplift of the mean Earth surface that is not attributable to an isostatic response to unloading. Whereas isostatic response is important, an increase in the mean elevation of a region can only occur in response to tectonic processes of crustal thickening (such as mountain building events), changes in the density distribution of the crust and underlying mantle, and flexural support due to the bending of rigid lithosphere.

It is also good to take into consideration the effects of denudation (processes that wear away the earth's surface). Within the scope of this topic, uplift relates to denudation in that denudation brings buried rocks closer to the surface. This process can redistribute large loads from an elevated region to a topographically lower area as well – thus promoting isostatic response in the region of denudation (which can cause local bedrock uplift). The timing, magnitude, and rate of denudation can be estimated using pressure-temperature studies.

Uplift (science fiction)

In science fiction, uplift is a developmental process to transform a certain species of animals into more intelligent beings by other, already-intelligent beings. This is usually accomplished by evolutional interventions like genetic engineering but any fictional or real process can be used. The concept appears in David Brin's Uplift series and other science fiction works.

History of the concept

The concept can be traced to H. G. Wells' novel The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896), in which the eponymous scientist transforms animals into horrifying parodies of men through surgery and psychological torment. The resulting animal-people obsessively recite the Law, a series of prohibitions against reversion to animal behaviors, with the haunting refrain of "Are we not men?" Wells' novel reflects Victorian concerns about vivisection and of the power of unrestrained scientific experimentation to do terrible harm.

Other early literary examples can be found in the following works: