Mekong

The Mekong is a trans-boundary river in Southeast Asia. It is the world's 12th-longest river and the 7th-longest in Asia. Its estimated length is 4,350 km (2,703 mi), and it drains an area of 795,000 km² (307,000 sq mi), discharging 457 km³ (110 cu mi) of water annually.

From the Tibetan Plateau the river runs through China's Yunnan province, Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. In 1995, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam established the Mekong River Commission to assist in the management and coordinated use of the Mekong's resources. In 1996 China and Burma (Myanmar) became "dialogue partners" of the MRC and the six countries now work together within a cooperative framework.

The extreme seasonal variations in flow and the presence of rapids and waterfalls in the Mekong make navigation difficult. Even so, the river is a major trade route between western China and Southeast Asia.

Names

In English the river is called the "Mekong River", derived from "Mae Nam Khong", a term of both Thai and Lao origin. In the Lao-Thai toponymy, "rivers" translates to "mother of water", signalled by the prefix "mae", meaning "mother", and "nam" for water. In the Mekong's case, Mae Nam Khong means "Khong, The mother of water". Many Northern Thai and Laos locals refer to it as the "River Khong". Such is the case with the Mae Nam Ping in Chiang Mai which is known as the "Ping River". The Tonle Sap in Cambodia is a similar example – where Tonle translates as "great lake" or "great river", making the Tonle Sap River an unnecessary repetition of what is in fact the "Sap River". In Khmer language, Mékôngk means "Mother of water" translated as Mé "Mother" and kôngk for kôngkea "water".

River

A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of water. Small rivers can be referred to using names such as stream, creek, brook, rivulet, and rill. There are no official definitions for the generic term river as applied to geographic features, although in some countries or communities a stream is defined by its size. Many names for small rivers are specific to geographic location; examples are "run" in some parts of the United States, "burn" in Scotland and northeast England, and "beck" in northern England. Sometimes a river is defined as being larger than a creek, but not always: the language is vague.

Rivers are part of the hydrological cycle. Water generally collects in a river from precipitation through a drainage basin from surface runoff and other sources such as groundwater recharge, springs, and the release of stored water in natural ice and snowpacks (e.g. from glaciers). Potamology is the scientific study of rivers while limnology is the study of inland waters in general.

Sue Perkins

Susan Elizabeth "Sue" Perkins (born 22 September 1969) is an English comedian, broadcaster, actress and writer, born in East Dulwich, London. Originally coming to prominence through her comedy partnership with Mel Giedroyc in Mel and Sue, she has since become best known as a radio broadcaster and TV presenter, notably of The Great British Bake Off.

Perkins was ranked sixth in The Independent on Sunday's 2014 Rainbow List and has been in the list every year since 2008.

Early life and education

Perkins was born on 22 September 1969 in south London, where she grew up with her two younger siblings and parents. Her father worked for a local car dealer and her mother was employed as a secretary. She was educated at Croham Hurst School, a nearby independent school for girls in Surrey, at the same time as the former BBC Breakfast News presenter Susanna Reid. She later studied English at New Hall (now Murray Edwards College) at the University of Cambridge, graduating in 1990. While at Cambridge, she was a member of the Footlights, where she met Mel Giedroyc. She was Footlights president during the academic year 1991/92.

Tibetan Plateau

The Tibetan Plateau (Tibetan: བོད་ས་མཐོ།, Wylie: bod sa mtho ), also known in China as the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau or the Qingzang Plateau (Chinese: 青藏高原; pinyin: Qīngzàng Gāoyuán) or Himalayan Plateau, is a vast elevated plateau in Central Asia and East Asia, covering most of the Tibet Autonomous Region and Qinghai Province in western China, as well as part of Ladakh in Jammu and Kashmir state of India. It stretches approximately 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) north to south and 2,500 kilometres (1,600 mi) east to west. With an average elevation exceeding 4,500 metres (14,800 ft), the Tibetan Plateau is sometimes called "the Roof of the World" and is the world's highest and largest plateau, with an area of 2,500,000 square kilometres (970,000 sq mi) (about five times the size of Metropolitan France). Sometimes termed the "Third Pole", the Tibetan Plateau is the headwaters of the drainage basins of most of the streams in surrounding regions. Its tens of thousands of glaciers and other geographical and ecological features serve as a "water tower" storing water and maintaining flow. The impact of global warming on the Tibetan Plateau is of intense scientific interest.

Golden Triangle

Golden Triangle may refer to:

Asia

Australia

Europe