A van is a kind of vehicle used for transporting goods or people. Depending on the type of van it can be bigger or smaller than a truck and SUV, and bigger than an automobile. There is some varying in the scope of the word across the different English-speaking countries. The smallest vans, minivans, are commonly used for transporting people from a family. Larger vans with passenger seats are used for institutional purposes, such as transporting students. Larger vans with only front seats are often used for business purposes, to carry goods and equipment. Specially-equipped vans are used by television stations as mobile studios. Postal services and courier companies use large step vans to deliver packages.
Van meaning a type of vehicle arose as a contraction of the word caravan. The early records of van as a vehicle in English are in the mid 19th century meaning a covered wagon for transporting goods (earliest reported record 1829). Caravan with the same meaning has records since the 1670s. A caravan, meaning one wagon, had arisen as an extension or corruption of caravan meaning a convoy of multiple wagons.
Van (Armenian: Վան; Kurdish: Wan; Ottoman Turkish: فان) is a city in eastern Turkey's Van Province, located on the eastern shore of Lake Van. The city has a long history as a major urban area. It has been a large city since the first millennium BC, initially as the capital of Urartu in the 9th century BC and later as the center of the Armenian Kingdom of Vaspurakan. It remained an important center of Armenian culture until the Armenian Genocide of 1915. Today, Van has a Kurdish majority and a sizable Turkish minority.
In 2010 the official population figure for Van was 367,419, but many estimates put it much higher with a 1996 estimate stating 500,000 and former Mayor Burhan Yengun is quoted as saying it may be as high as 600,000. The Van Central district stretches over 2,289 square kilometres (884 square miles).
Archaeological excavations and surveys carried out in Van province indicate that the history of human settlement in this region goes back at least as far as 5000 BC. The Tilkitepe Mound, which is on the shores of Lake Van and a few kilometres to the south of Van Castle, is the only source of information about the oldest culture of Van.
A covered goods wagon or van is a railway goods wagon which is designed for the transportation of moisture-susceptible goods and therefore fully enclosed by sides and a fixed roof. They are often referred to simply as covered wagons, and this is the term used by the International Union of Railways (UIC). Since the introduction of the international classification for goods wagons by the UIC in the 1960s a distinction has been drawn between ordinary and special covered wagons. Other types of wagon, such as refrigerated vans and goods wagons with opening roofs, are closely related to covered wagons from a design point of view.
Similar freight cars in North America are boxcars.
Covered goods wagons for transporting part-load or parcel goods are almost as old as the railway itself. Because part-load goods were the most common freight in the early days of the railway, the covered van was then the most important type of goods wagon and, for example, comprised about 40% of the German railways goods fleet until the 1960s. Since then however the open wagon and flat wagon have become more common. By contrast the covered goods wagon still forms the majority of two-axled wagons in countries like Germany, because the comparatively light freight does not routinely require the use of bogie wagons.
George, Giorgi, (Georgian: გიორგი) (1250–1268) was the eldest son of David VII Ulu, a Bagratid king of Georgia, by whom he was designated as heir-apparent to the throne. In the early 1260s, he was held as a hostage at the Mongol Ilkhan court of Hulagu Khan and later served with his father in the Mongol military ranks. He died at the age of 18 in 1268, preceding his father by two years.
George was born in 1250 to King David VII and the Alan woman Altun, whom the king took as a temporary wife because he had no children by his queen Jigda-Khatun and whom he agreed to dismiss after the birth of an heir. The marriage was, in fact, repudiated after the birth of the second child, a daughter, Tamar. George was adopted by Jigda-Khatun, who died shortly afterwards. George, along with his father, step-mother, and the uncle David VI Narin, is mentioned in a church inscription from Abelia in the south of Georgia.
George is a webcomic written and illustrated by John R. Norton. The strip has been in existence for several years, making its first appearance on the web as early as 1999. As of December 4, 2009, there have been 529 full-color comics published. The current George website was established in January 2005, using a strip from the old site to make its debut. Since then, however, all content has been entirely new. New comic strips were originally posted every Monday and Thursday before going to a Monday-Wednesday-Friday schedule. In early 2006, the strip went on hiatus for most of the year, but returned with regular, though unscheduled, updates in January 2007. Currently, new comics are once again posted on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
The strip is centered around a fairly normal freelance cartoonist, George, and his circle of friends. The strip often deals with computers, technology, and generally "geeky" things like World of Warcraft and Star Wars, though a myriad of light-hearted subjects are commonly explored. The strip takes place in the fairly small, fictional town of Perkton, located in the heart of California, presumably somewhere near Fresno. It is not particularly close to well-known California cities such as Los Angeles and San Francisco, and is not in line with the stereotypical view of California. Most of the strip's characters are between 26 and 30 years of age, with a few exceptions, such as Chain-Link Jefferson and Coach Demurson, who are much older, and Megan Beauxmont, who is much younger.
George was a supporting character who appeared in various adaptations of the BBC sitcom Blackadder, played by Hugh Laurie. Each series saw a different incarnation of the character, because each was set in a different period of history. He was most prominently featured in the third and fourth series, shouting almost all of his lines throughout both. The character was added to the series as a replacement for the Lord Percy Percy character, who did not appear in the third instalment because Tim McInnerny, the actor playing him, feared being typecast.
The first incarnation of the character was a caricature of George, Prince of Wales, serving as the main antagonist of the third series. The second, Lt. The Hon. George Colthurst St Barleigh, was a young officer in the British Army during World War I, a supporting protagonist in the fourth series. Both portrayals were of "dim-witted upper-class twits", who depended greatly on Edmund Blackadder (Rowan Atkinson). The character garnered positive responses from critics.
Felt like we fell out of the sky
Flight attendant began to cry
My life flashed before my eyes
I saw an eight month old sittin' in a highchair
'Daddy's Boy' written on his bib
A drawn up will in my office desk
I meant to sign but never did
The things I said in last night's fight
To the one true love of my life
I wonder if she thinks I meant it
Oh God, are you sure you want to end it?
It's so unfinished
The pilot didn't offer much
He just told us where the lightening struck
I closed my eyes when his voice shook
And saw an old corvette underneath the tarp
In my brother's yard we were gonna fix
Me and my dad nearly come to blows
Two years ago and we ain't spoke since
Thought about my best friend Dave
How close he is to being saved
A little time we can convince him
Oh God, are you sure you want to end it?
It's so unfinished
Some cursed, some prayed all the way down
When the wheels touched the ground
I saw an eight month old sittin' in a highchair
'Daddy's Boy' written on his bib
My wife's face and the giant vase
Of apologies, she's gonna get
Saw an alter call for my friend Dave
My brother smile when that 'vette cranked
And me and my dad fishin'
Oh God, well I'm so glad you didn't end it
Unfinished