Hubert Wilkins (1888–1958) was an Australian polar explorer and aviator who made the first west-to-east Arctic aerial crossing. Born in Mount Bryan East, Australia, on Oct. 31, 1888, George Hubert Wilkins was educated in electrical engineering at the School of Mines and Industries in Adelaide, after which he took up photography and learned the fundamentals of flying. As a newsreel photographer, he covered (1912–1913) the Balkan War for British newspaper and motion-picture concerns. The American explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson selected Wilkins as official photographer for the Canadian Arctic Expedition (1913–1917), and his loyalty and devotion to the aims of the expedition resulted in his promotion to second in command. In September 1917, during World War I, Wilkins joined the Australian Flying Corps on the French front as a photographer. In 1919 he competed, unsuccessfully, for the London Daily Mail prize of $50,000 for a flight from England to Australia. Wilkins was second in co...
Culture and tradition rather than physical characteristics have given the Italians their sense of unity. Prior to the Roman era a commingling of peoples inhabited the Italian mainland. Of these, the Etruscans, who established a kingdom in west-central Italy between the Arno and Tiber rivers, were technologically the most developed. A variety of Italic peoples dwelt in other parts of the country. The Greeks first colonized southern Italy and Sicily during the 8th and 7th centuries B.C. Eventually the Roman state not only absorbed these people but imported slaves from throughout the empire. After the fall of Rome, new invasions brought in Germanic Ostrogoths and Lombards as well as some Slavs. Saracens and Normans invaded Sicily and the south. It does not appear, however, that these incursions did much to change the physical appearance of the Italici. The Mediterranean physical type predominates in the southern third of the country and in the islands. ...
Europe's position in the middle latitudes on the eastern side of an ocean, with a coastline deeply indented by bodies of water, is a major controlling fact in climate. Marine influences, resulting in an absence of temperature extremes and in plentiful precipitation, high relative humidity, and a high degree of cloudiness, penetrate far inland north of the Alpine mountain zone. Continental influences, resulting in extremes of temperature, relatively low precipitation, low relative humidity, and prevalence of clear skies, control the broad base where Europe joins Asia. These influences are in balance along a north-south belt through Norway, Denmark, and Germany. South of the Alpine mountain zone, seasonal migrations of the subtropical high-pressure system dominate. This produces marked seasonal variation in precipitation—winters are rainy and summers droughty. Summer temperatures are highest in the Mediterranean area: Athens averages 80° F (27° C) for July; Gr...
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