Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Indian Ocean

The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering about 20% of the water on the Earth's face. It is bounded on the north by Asia (including the Indian subcontinent, after which it is named); on the west by Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and Australia; and on the south by the Southern Ocean (or, traditionally, by Antarctica). One module of the broad World Ocean, the Indian Ocean is delineated from the Atlantic Ocean by the 20° east meridian running south from Cape Agulhas, and from the Pacific by the 147° east meridian. The northernmost extent of the Indian Ocean is approximately 30° north autonomy in the Persian Gulf and, thus, has asymmetric ocean circulation. This ocean is nearly 10,000 kilometres (6,200 mi) wide at the southern tips of Africa and Australia; its area is 73,556,000 square kilometres (28,400,000 mi²), including the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf.

The ocean's volume is estimated to be 292,131,000 cubic kilometers (70,086,000 mi³). Small islands dot the continental rims. Island nations within the ocean are Madagascar (formerly Malagasy Republic), the world's fourth chief island; Comoros; Seychelles; Maldives; Mauritius; and Sri Lanka. Indonesia borders it on the east. The ocean's importance as a transit route between Asia and Africa has made it a scene of conflict. Because of its size, however, no nation had effectively dominated most of it until the early 1800s when the United Kingdom controlled much of the surrounding land. After the refuse of the British Empire, the ocean has been conquered by India and Australia.

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Banana

Banana is the common name used for herbaceous foliage of the genus Mesa, and is also the name given to the fruit of these plants. They are resident to the tropical region of Southeast Asia, the Malay Archipelago, and Australia. They are cultivated primarily for their fruit, and to a lesser level for the production of fiber and as ornamental plants. Because of their size and structure, banana plants are often wrong for trees. The main or upright growth is called a pseudo stem, which for some species can gain a height of up to 2–8 m, with leaves of up to 3.5 m in length. Each pseudo stem produces a single group of bananas, before dying and being replaced by a new pseudo stem.

Bananas are grown in 132 countries worldwide, additional than any other fruit crop. In popular culture and commerce, banana usually refers to soft, sweet dessert bananas that are usually eaten raw. The bananas from a collection of cultivars with firmer, starchier fruit are generally used in cooking rather than eaten raw. Bananas may also be dried up and ground into banana flour. Although the wild species have fruits with numerous large, hard seeds, virtually all culinary bananas have unplanted fruits. Bananas are classified any as dessert bananas or as green cooking bananas.