1.
Warsaw
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Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It stands on the Vistula River in east-central Poland, roughly 260 kilometres from the Baltic Sea and 300 kilometres from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population is estimated at 1.750 million residents within a metropolitan area of 3.101 million residents. The city limits cover 516.9 square kilometres, while the area covers 6,100.43 square kilometres. Once described as Paris of the East, Warsaw was believed to be one of the most beautiful cities in the world until World War II. On 9 November 1939, the city was awarded Polands highest military decoration for heroism, Warsaw is one of Europe’s most dynamic metropolitan cities. In 2012 the Economist Intelligence Unit ranked Warsaw as the 32nd most liveable city in the world, in 2017 the city came 4th in the “Business-friendly” category and 8th in the “Human capital and life style”. It was also ranked as one of the most liveable cities in Central, Warsaw is considered an Alpha– global city, a major international tourist destination and a significant cultural, political and economic hub. The city is a significant centre of research and development, BPO, ITO, the Warsaw Stock Exchange is the largest and most important in Central and Eastern Europe. Frontex, the European Union agency for external security, has its headquarters in Warsaw. Together with Frankfurt, London and Paris, Warsaw is also one of the cities with the highest number of skyscrapers in the European Union, the city is the seat of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra and the University of Warsaw. The historic city-centre of Warsaw with its picturesque Old Town in 1980 was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, buildings represent examples of nearly every European architectural style and historical period. Warsaw provides many examples of architecture from the gothic, renaissance, baroque, neoclassical and modern periods, furthermore, the city is positioning itself as Europes chic cultural capital with thriving art and club scenes and renowned restaurants. Folk etymology attributes the city name to a fisherman, Wars, according to legend, Sawa was a mermaid living in the Vistula River with whom Wars fell in love. In actuality, Warsz was a 12th/13th-century nobleman who owned a village located at the site of Mariensztat neighbourhood. See also the Vršovci family which had escaped to Poland, the official city name in full is miasto stołeczne Warszawa. A native or resident of Warsaw is known as a Varsovian – in Polish warszawiak, warszawianin, warszawianka, warszawiacy, other names for Warsaw include Varsovia and Varsóvia, Varsovie, Varsavia, Warschau, װאַרשע /Varshe, Варшава /Varšava /Varshava, Varšuva, Varsó. The first fortified settlements on the site of todays Warsaw were located in Bródno, after Jazdów was raided by nearby clans and dukes, a new similar settlement was established on the site of a small fishing village called Warszowa
2.
Poland
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Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe, situated between the Baltic Sea in the north and two mountain ranges in the south. Bordered by Germany to the west, the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south, Ukraine and Belarus to the east, the total area of Poland is 312,679 square kilometres, making it the 69th largest country in the world and the 9th largest in Europe. With a population of over 38.5 million people, Poland is the 34th most populous country in the world, the 8th most populous country in Europe, Poland is a unitary state divided into 16 administrative subdivisions, and its capital and largest city is Warsaw. Other metropolises include Kraków, Wrocław, Poznań, Gdańsk and Szczecin, the establishment of a Polish state can be traced back to 966, when Mieszko I, ruler of a territory roughly coextensive with that of present-day Poland, converted to Christianity. The Kingdom of Poland was founded in 1025, and in 1569 it cemented a political association with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania by signing the Union of Lublin. This union formed the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest and most populous countries of 16th and 17th century Europe, Poland regained its independence in 1918 at the end of World War I, reconstituting much of its historical territory as the Second Polish Republic. In September 1939, World War II started with the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, followed thereafter by invasion by the Soviet Union. More than six million Polish citizens died in the war, after the war, Polands borders were shifted westwards under the terms of the Potsdam Conference. With the backing of the Soviet Union, a communist puppet government was formed, and after a referendum in 1946. During the Revolutions of 1989 Polands Communist government was overthrown and Poland adopted a new constitution establishing itself as a democracy, informally called the Third Polish Republic. Since the early 1990s, when the transition to a primarily market-based economy began, Poland has achieved a high ranking on the Human Development Index. Poland is a country, which was categorised by the World Bank as having a high-income economy. Furthermore, it is visited by approximately 16 million tourists every year, Poland is the eighth largest economy in the European Union and was the 6th fastest growing economy on the continent between 2010 and 2015. According to the Global Peace Index for 2014, Poland is ranked 19th in the list of the safest countries in the world to live in. The origin of the name Poland derives from a West Slavic tribe of Polans that inhabited the Warta River basin of the historic Greater Poland region in the 8th century, the origin of the name Polanie itself derives from the western Slavic word pole. In some foreign languages such as Hungarian, Lithuanian, Persian and Turkish the exonym for Poland is Lechites, historians have postulated that throughout Late Antiquity, many distinct ethnic groups populated the regions of what is now Poland. The most famous archaeological find from the prehistory and protohistory of Poland is the Biskupin fortified settlement, dating from the Lusatian culture of the early Iron Age, the Slavic groups who would form Poland migrated to these areas in the second half of the 5th century AD. With the Baptism of Poland the Polish rulers accepted Christianity and the authority of the Roman Church
3.
Bicycle-sharing system
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A bicycle-sharing system, public bicycle system, or bike-share scheme, is a service in which bicycles are made available for shared use to individuals on a very short term basis. Bike share schemes allow people to borrow a bike from point A, many bike-share systems offer subscriptions that make the first 30–45 minutes of use either free or very inexpensive, encouraging use as transportation. This allows each bike to serve several users per day, in most bike-share cities, casual riding over several hours or days is better served by bicycle rental than by bike-share. For many systems, smartphone mapping apps show nearby stations with available bikes, bike-share began in Europe in 1965 and a viable format emerged in the mid-2000s thanks to the introduction of information technology. As of June 2014, public bikesharing systems were available in 50 countries on five continents, including 712 cities, operating approximately 806,200 bicycles at 37,500 stations. As of May 2011, the Wuhan and Hangzhou Public Bicycle bike-share systems in China were the largest in the world, the Vélib in Paris bicycle stations, is the largest outside of China. The countries with the most systems are Spain, Italy, as of July 2013, the systems with the higher market penetration are both operating in France, the Parisian Velib with 1 bike per 97 inhabitants and Vélov in Lyon with one bike per 121 residents. Bicycle-sharing systems have also cited as a way to solve the last mile problem. The reasons people use bike-share vary considerably, some who would otherwise use their own bicycle have concerns about theft or vandalism, parking or storage, and maintenance requirements. Government-run bicycle-sharing programmes can also prove costly to the public unless subsidised by commercial interests, although users of such systems generally pay to use vehicles that they themselves do not own, sharing systems differ from traditional for-profit bike rental businesses. In recent years, in an effort to reduce losses from theft and vandalism, many bike-sharing schemes now require a user to provide a deposit or other security. Most large-scale urban bike sharing programmes utilise numerous bike check-out stations, some bike-sharing systems are completely free like Aarhus in Denmark. As a consequence, most publicly owned bicycle sharing systems utilise funding from public governmental and/or charitable sources, Bike sharing schemes may be administered by government entities, nonprofit private organisations, or via public-private partnerships. In some cases, such as a university campus, the bicycles are designated for use within certain boundaries. Users are expected to leave the bike unlocked in an area once they reach their destination. Bicycle sharing programs without locks, user identification, and security deposits have also suffered large loss rates from theft. Deposit A small cash deposit releases the bike from a locked terminal, since the deposit is a fraction of the bikes cost, this does little to deter theft. Other bike sharing programmes have implemented rules requiring the user to provide a credit card, along with substantial security deposits for bicycles
4.
Nextbike
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Nextbike is a German company that develops and operates public bike-sharing systems. The company was founded in Leipzig, Germany, in 2004 and it operates about 30,000 bikes in Germany and several other countries around the world such as USA, UK, New Zealand, Poland, Croatia, Austria and Switzerland. The headquarters as well as the facilities with about 100 employees are based in Leipzig. The bicycles and stations are maintained by local service partners, the bike sharing schemes can be initiated by cities and franchise partners. The operating costs are financed by fees and the sale of advertising space on the bikes themselves. Nextbike also provides mobility programmes for colleges or universities and companies, bicycle users are normally obtained through a subscription system, where each bike is locked to either itself or to a rental station. If using a lock, the bike is rented via a mobile phone call or the mobile app. The bikes can be returned via app, hotline, terminal or board computer, there are cities with a flex zone allowing users to return the bike anywhere within a defined area. Nextbike operates in German cities such as Berlin, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt am Main, Hamburg, Leipzig, Munich, Nuremberg, the biggest implementations of the system in Germany are in Ruhr, with 3,000 bikes, and Nuremberg, with 750 bikes and 66 stations. Besides large cities, nextbike also serves about 20 smaller German cities, like Tübingen, in 2016 nextbike won the tender to operate the new bike sharing system in the city of Berlin which will be launched with 2000 bikes in spring of 2017. After the extension is finished 5000 bikes at 700 stations will be available, Berlin will then own the biggest bike sharing system in Germany. Since 2015 nextbike together with the transport company of Cologne offer around 1000 bikes for rent. They are available everywhere within the zone and complement the public transport system. Metropolradruhr was launched in 2010 as the biggest regional bike sharing system in Germany and it links ten cities such as Dortmund, Bochum, Essen and Oberhausen. Bikes can be returned in any of ten cities. In 2013 the region of Stuttgart started the e-bike project Netz-E-2-R which includes five administrative districts, e-bikes can be rent at 15 covered stations. Nextbike cooperates with universities and colleges offering special conditions for students. At an international level, nextbike operates in Austria, Switzerland, Latvia, Poland, New Zealand, Turkey, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Dubai, Hungary, Ukraine, United Kingdom, and United States
5.
Esperanto
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Esperanto is a constructed international auxiliary language. It is the most widely spoken constructed language in the world, the Polish-Jewish ophthalmologist L. L. Zamenhof published the first book detailing Esperanto, Unua Libro, on 26 July 1887. The name of Esperanto derives from Doktoro Esperanto, the pseudonym under which Zamenhof published Unua Libro, Zamenhof had three goals, as he wrote in Unua Libro, To render the study of the language so easy as to make its acquisition mere play to the learner. Up to two million worldwide, to varying degrees, speak Esperanto, including about 1,000 to 2,000 native speakers who learned Esperanto from birth. The World Esperanto Association has more than 5,500 members in 120 countries and its usage is highest in Europe, East Asia, and South America. The most popular online learning platform for Esperanto, reported 150,000 registered users in 2013, with about 238,000 articles, Esperanto Wikipedia is the 32nd-largest Wikipedia as measured by the number of articles, and is the largest Wikipedia in a constructed language. On 22 February 2012, Google Translate added Esperanto as its 64th language, on 28 May 2015, the language learning platform Duolingo launched an Esperanto course for English speakers. As of 5 April 2017, over 800,000 users had signed up, the first World Congress of Esperanto was organized in France in 1905. Since then, congresses have been held in various countries every year, although no country has adopted Esperanto officially, “Esperantujo” is the collective name given to places where it is spoken. Esperanto was recommended by the French Academy of Sciences in 1921 and recognized by UNESCO in 1954, Esperanto was the 32nd language accepted as adhering to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages in 2007. Esperanto is currently the language of instruction of the International Academy of Sciences in San Marino, Esperanto is seen by many of its speakers as an alternative or addition to the growing use of English throughout the world, offering a language that is easier to learn than English. Esperanto was created in the late 1870s and early 1880s by L. L. Zamenhof, and all nations would be united in a common brotherhood. In Białystok the inhabitants were divided into four elements, Russians, Poles, Germans and Jews, each of these spoke their own language. I was brought up as an idealist, I was taught that all people were brothers, while outside in the street at every step I felt that there were no people, only Russians, Poles, Germans, Jews and so on. This was always a great torment to my infant mind, although people may smile at such an anguish for the world in a child. Since at that time I thought that grown-ups were omnipotent, so I often said to myself that when I grew up I would certainly destroy this evil. About his goals Zamenhof wrote that he wants mankind to learn and use, en masse, the proposed language as a living one. The number of speakers grew rapidly over the few decades, at first primarily in the Russian Empire and Central Europe, then in other parts of Europe, the Americas, China
Media related to Veturilo at Wikimedia Commons
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