The capital of Menorca is Mahon. (aka Maó-Mahón)

(In Catalan Maó , in Spanish Mahón )

The capital used to be Cuitadella.

Yes it does located in floor just below drain

Ans 2 - As difficult as it may be, if you don't have a trap under the floor drain you will get odours all the time.

Geographically, Australia is a continent, not an island. As a landform, it could be considered an island as it is entirely surrounded by water and not joined onto any other land mass. For this reason, it is often referred to as an island continent.Australia is too big to be formally classified as an island. The world's largest island is Greenland.

Another reason why Australia is also considered a continent is because it sits on its own tectonic plate. This is different from Greenland, which uses the same land mass as North America. That is why the geological appearances are much different in Australia from anywhere else. A place like Greenland shares the same geologic attributes as North America.

Australia and Antarctica are the only two true Continental Islands. That is, they are separated from all other continents by water. All other continents are connected by a landmass to at least one other Continent. If there are any waterways, they have been artificially created.

Australia is the smallest continent and the 6th largest country, with an area of 7,686,850 sq km.
A Continent

You are quite correct about the Revolutionary War being, in large measure, a civil war. It certainly started that way. The war had been going on for well over a year, with major battles fought from Quebec, Canada to Charleston, South Carolina, before we declared independence. Except for a few radicals nobody was even considering independence before early 1776. The publication of Tom Pain's pamphlet "Common Sense" sparked a radical change in public opinion on the matter. I would disagree with you on the matter of Americans wanting to return to a previous state. That was precisely what we did want. Beginning in the 1760's the British Parliament began attempting to exercise legislative authority over the colonies, particularly the power to tax, that it had never asserted before. The colonists argument was that Parliament had no such authority outside of Britain itself. They wanted to go back to the way things were before. It was only when this became obviously impossible and the king was clearly supporting the Parliamentary power that people decided to throw off the mother country. As for your question of how many, I did not read your details and thought you were referring to the framers of the constitution, i.e those who attended the constitutional convention. I posted that question on a couple of other forums I frequent and got back some interesting information. Roughly 86% of the population of the colonies at the time of the revolution were descended from people who had immigrated to America before 1700. However, based on the reply I received about 17 of the delegates to the constitutional convention had parents born in England which would be a much higher percentage than the general population.

The Channel Islands lie parallel to the coast of southern California from about Santa Barbara to south of Los Angeles. The chain has a number of islands ranging from tiny San Miguel to the large Catalina, Santa Cruz, and Santa Rosa. Catalina is the most tourist-friendly island with regular boat service from the LA area and many tourist amenities.

Further north (near Ventura, California) is Channel Islands National Park. This park, often referred to as "America's Galapagos" is a rich natural preserve. This national park is known for its birds and marine life. There is daily boat service by Island Packers from Ventura and Channel Islands harbors to the various islands. The islands are largely unimproved and you can camp on several of them. The popular children's book, "Island of the Blue Dolphins" is set in the Channel Islands, as are several fictional books by contemporary author, T.C. Boyle.

The Farallons are off the coast near San Francisco. Alcatraz is an island in San Francisco Bay. Many tourists visit Alcatraz and Catalina, but the Farallones are hard to get to.

Here are some other island options:

1. Anacapa Island
2. Begg Rock
3. Prince Island
4. San Clemente Island
5. San Miguel Island
6. San Nicolas Island
7. Santa Barbara Island
8. Santa Catalina Island
9. Santa Cruz Island
10. Santa Rosa Island

There is no country belongs to Spratlys but Spratly is belong to the Philippines as it is within the Philippine Waters

The Philippines is the legal owner of the islands in the Spratlys as it is within 200 Nautical Mile Exclusive Economic Zone said United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)

THE PHILIPPINES AND THE ARCHIPELAGIC DOCTRINE

Archipelago is defined as a sea or part of a sea studded with islands, often synonymous with island groups, or as a large group of islands in an extensive body of water, such as sea. (De Leon, 1991)

In various conferences of the United Nations on the Law of the Sea, the Philippines and other archipelago states proposed that an archipelagic state composed of groups of islands forming a state is a single unit, with the islands and the waters within the baselines as internal waters.By this concept (archipelagic doctrine), an archipelago shall be regarded as a single unit, so that the waters around, between, and connecting the islands of the archipelago, irrespective of their breadth and dimensions, form part of the internal waters of the state, subject to its exclusive sovereignty.

Despite the opposition of maritime powers, the Philippines and four other states (Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Fiji and Bahamas) got the approval in the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea held in Jamaica last December 10, 1982. They were qualified as archipelagic states. The archipelagic doctrine is now incorporated in Chapter IV of the said convention. It legalizes the unity of land, water and people into a single entity

The Philippines bolstered the archipelagic principle in defining its territory when it included in Article 1 of the 1987 Constitution the following:

"The national territory comprises the Philippine Archipelago, with all the islands and waters embraced therein xxx"; and

"The waters around, between and connecting the islands of the archipelago, regardless of their dimensions, form part of the internal waters of the Philippines."

On the strength of these assertions, the Philippines Archipelago is considered as one integrated unit instead of being divided into more than seven thousand islands. The outermost of our archipelago are connected with straight baselines and all waters inside the baselines are considered as internal waters. This makes the large bodies of waters connecting the islands of the archipelago like Mindanao Sea, Sulo Sea and the Sibuyan Sea part of the Philippines as its internal waters, similar to the rivers and lakes found within the islands themselves.

The archipelagic principle however is subject to the following limitations:

a) respect for the right of the ship and other states to pass through the territorial as well as archipelagic waters

b) respect to right of innocent passage

c) respect for passage through archipelagic sea lanes subject to the promulgation by local authorities of pertinent rules and regulations.

The Philippines & the Spratly Islands History

The Philippines as the closest and archipelagic country of the Spratly island with another Five Asian countries claim the Spratly Islands including -- China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei. Disputes among these six parties have led to various minor military skirmishes, the detention of fisherfolk and diplomatic rows in the past three decades.

Control of the Spratlys is important since the region is supposed to contain large deposits of oil, gas, hydrocarbon and mineral resources. The islands are also strategically located in the sea lanes for commerce and transport in the South China Sea which is very close to the Palawan Province of the Philippines with a distant less than 200 nautical miles; a bases that Philippines has a legal ground that those islands are part of the Philippines.

The Spratlys consist of about 26 islands and islets and 7 groups of rocks in the South China Sea found approximately between the latitude of 4 degrees to 11 degrees 30'N. and longitude 109 degrees 30'E. They have a maritime area of 160,000 square kilometers and an insular area of about 170 hectares.

The Spratlys are popular among fishermen. However, they are considered dangerous for commercial navigation. Maps from the early part of the last century have advised seamen to avoid passing through them.

Japan explored the Spratlys for military reasons during World War II. The British Admiralty and U.S. Navy have also ordered some top secret missions there. But the U.S. Navy never released the new charts of the Spratlys to civilian authorities. Writer Francois-Xavier Bonnet wonders about the role of the Spratlys during the Vietnam War.

In 1933 a Philippine senator protested the French annexation of the Spratlys. A parliamentary committee studied the issue but the U.S. government, which controlled the Philippines at that time, did not take an interest in the matter.

In 1946 Vice President Elpidio Quirino claimed the Spratlys on behalf of the Philippine government. A year later, the Philippine Secretary of Foreign Affairs declared that the "New Southern Islands" previously occupied by Japan during World War II were part of Philippine territory.

In 1955 the Philippine military reported that the Spratly island group was of "vital proximity" to the country. The following year, Filipino navigator and businessman Tomas Cloma issued a "proclamation to the whole world" claiming ownership and occupation of the Spratlys. Cloma sent six letters to the government about the need to settle the question of ownership of the islands.

The vice president of the Philippines replied in 1957, assuring Cloma that the government "does not regard with indifference the economic exploitation and settlement of these uninhabited and unoccupied islands by Philippine nationals."

According to Filipino law professor Haydee Yorac, the Cloma Proclamation was the first assertion of title to the Spratlys after Japan renounced its ownership of the islands in 1951 and 1952.

In 1978 President Ferdinand Marcos issued a proclamation declaring ownership of most of the islands in the Spratlys. The area was renamed the Kalayaan (Freedom) Island Group. The proclamation laid the following basis for the Philippine claim: "By virtue of their proximity and as part of the continental margin of the Philippine archipelago"; that "they do not legally belong to any state or nation, but by reason of history; indispensable need, and effective occupation and control established in accordance with international law"; and while other states have laid claims to some of these areas, their claims have lapsed by abandonment and cannot prevail over that of the Philippines on legal, historical, and equitable ground."

In 1995 President Fidel Ramos articulated the Philippine position regarding the Spratlys issue. He said "I would like to clarify that the Philippines does not only claim eight islands in the Spratlys but owns all islands and waters in the Spratlys as defined in the presidential decree issued by former President Marcos."

Militarization of the Spratlys started in the 1970s. The Philippines sent a military contingent to occupy some of the islands in 1971. After four years, the Philippines had already established a military presence in six islands. Today, the Philippines occupies eight islands in the area.

Australia and Antarctica are continents by geographical definition. They are islands in that they are completely surrounded by water.

For this reason, they may both be referred to as island continents.