A tsunami (pronounced soo-nah-mee or tsoo-nah-mee) is a natural phenomenon consisting of a series of waves generated when water in a lake or the sea is rapidly displaced on a massive scale. Earthquakes, landslides, volcanic eruptions and large meteorite impacts all have the potential to generate a tsunami. The effects of a tsunami can range from unnoticeable to devastation.

The term tsunami comes from the Japanese language meaning harbour ("tsu", ’Ã) and wave ("nami", ”g or ˜Q). Although in Japanese tsunami is used for both the singular and plural, in English tsunamis is well-established as the plural. The term was created by fishermen who returned to port to find the area surrounding the harbour devastated, although they had not been aware of any wave in the open water. A tsunami is not a sub-surface event in the deep ocean; it simply has a much smaller amplitude (wave heights) offshore, and a very long wavelength (often hundreds of kilometres long), which is why they generally pass unnoticed at sea, forming only a passing "hump" in the ocean.

Tsunamis were historically referred to as tidal waves because as they approach land they take on the characteristics of a violent onrushing tide rather than the sort of cresting waves that are formed by wind action upon the ocean (with which people are more familiar). However, since they are not actually related to tides the term is considered misleading and its usage is discouraged by oceanographers.

A tsunami can be generated by any disturbance that rapidly displaces a large mass of water, such as an earthquake, volcanic eruption, landslide or meteorite impact. However, the most common cause is an undersea earthquake. An earthquake which is too small to create a tsunami by itself may trigger an undersea landslide quite capable of generating a tsunami.

Tsunamis can be generated when the sea floor abruptly deforms and vertically displaces the overlying water. Such large vertical movements of the earth's crust can occur at plate boundaries. Subduction earthquakes are particularly effective in generating tsunamis, and occur where denser oceanic plates slip under continental plates in a process known as subduction

Bread was a television programme, written by Carla Lane which focused on the lives of an extended family in Liverpool. It was broadcast on BBC One between 1986 and 1991.

The Boswell family was led by its matriarch, the staunchly Catholic Nellie Jean Boht through a number of ups and downs as they tried to make their way through life in Thatcher's Britain with no visible means of support.

Nellie's feckless husband had left her for another woman known, for reasons never fully explained, as 'Lilo Lil'. Her, by the end of the series rather elderly, children continued to live in the family home and contributed money to the central family fund, largely through benefit fraud and the sale of stolen goods.

Comedy mostly came from a number of catchphrases and a diluted version of the fabled Scouse wit. Lane mixed this with a high proportion of home-spun philosophy, social commentary and generalised triumph over tragedy.

Eldest son Joey (Peter Howitt) was Nellie's lieutenant to his siblings including Adrian (Johnathon Morris) who aspired to be an actor, Aveline (Gilly Coman) who attempted to become a model, and many more. The large cast and the regular cast changes mean that any attempt to catalogue the multitude of characters and actors associated with the programme would require effort outweighing any final academic benefit.

The colourful, sprawling, cross-generational nature of Bread gave it overtones more befitting a soap opera or airport novel. Its move to a 50 minute Sunday evening time slot in 1989 betrayed its true nature and it can be considered as being on the fringes of the situation comedy genre in which it is usually categorised.

Bread belongs to a peculiar subtype of British sitcom which repudiates any explicit effort to produce jokes and instead exists in a kind of timeless, hyperreal world where a scatter of catchphrases and minor slapstick are sufficient to engage the audience and induce them to laugh. Similar examples include Birds of a Feather, Just Good Friends, and the complete oeuvre of Roy Clarke.

Bread was criticised for perpetuating the stereotype of lazy, criminally minded Scousers, despite this, the programme was enormously successful and at its peak obtained viewer figures of more than 20 million. Linda McCartney appeared in one episode.