text stringlengths 16 352k | source stringclasses 2
values |
|---|---|
Bulbophyllum incommodum é uma espécie de orquídea (família Orchidaceae) pertencente ao gênero Bulbophyllum. Foi descrita por Paul J. Kores em 1989.
Ligações externas
The Bulbophyllum-Checklist
The internet Orchid species Photo Encyclopedia
Plantas descritas em 1989
Bulbophyllum | wiki |
Royal York may refer to:
Hotels
The Principal York, York, England formerly known as The Royal York Hotel
Fairmont Royal York, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Transport
Royal York Road, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Royal York (TTC) subway station, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Royal York, an international night train of the Canadian Pacific Railway and New York Central | wiki |
Henry Morgan's Great Talent Hunt is a TV series on NBC Television hosted by Henry Morgan. The show aired from January 26 to June 1, 1951, originally from 9 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. ET and then to 9:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET.
Program formats
Henry Morgan's Great Talent Hunt began January 26, 1951, replacing Versatile Varieties. The first format for the Morgan show was a take-off on The Original Amateur Hour with Morgan as host, and featuring Kaye Ballard (in her TV debut), Art Carney, Pert Kelton, and Arnold Stang. The program "featured people who had unusual abilities", such as a man who picked a violin's strings with his teeth and a girl who played an instrument while tap dancing.
In April, NBC changed the title and format to The Henry Morgan Show, a music-variety show featuring singers Dorothy Claire and Dorothy Jarnac in musical segments between Morgan's comedy skits. This latter format lasted until June 1.
See also
1951-52 United States network television schedule
References
Bibliography
Alex McNeil, Total Television, Fourth edition (New York: Penguin Books, 1980)
Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh, The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network TV Shows, Third edition (New York: Ballantine Books, 1964)
External links
Henry Morgan's Great Talent Hunt at IMDB
1950s American variety television series
1951 American television series debuts
1951 American television series endings
NBC original programming | wiki |
Nurses is an American sitcom television series that aired on NBC from September 14, 1991, to May 7, 1994, created and produced by Susan Harris as a spin-off of Empty Nest, which itself was a spin-off of The Golden Girls.
Synopsis
The series revolved around a group of nurses working at the same Miami hospital as Empty Nests Dr. Harry Weston. Initially, the main characters were strong-willed nurse Annie Roland (Arnetia Walker), sarcastic nurse Sandy Miller (Stephanie Hodge), dim-witted nurse Julie Milbury (Mary Jo Keenen) and Latina nurse Gina Cuevas (Ada Maris) who frequently reminisced about her homeland, the fictional San Pequeño. Also in the cast were arrogant Dr. Hank Kaplan (Kip Gilman), wise-cracking orderly Paco Ortiz (Carlos Lacamara) and flaky nurse Greg Vincent (Jeff Altman). Florence Stanley had a recurring role during the first season as Dr. Riskin.
Changes were made after the first season in an effort to boost ratings. David Rasche joined the cast in the second season as Jack Trenton, a slimy white-collar criminal forced to perform community service at the hospital, and in the final season Loni Anderson joined the cast as new hospital administrator Casey McAfee. Other changes included the addition of Markus Flanagan as hunky orderly Luke Fitzgerald for the second season only, the changing of the show's theme song in seasons two and three, having nurse Gina and Dr. Hank Kaplan get married (Gina being pregnant by Dr. Hank). Nurse Greg Vincent was also written off after season one.
In the series' final season, nurse Sandy was gone, and the series' focus moved increasingly from the nurses to Casey McAfee's adjustments in running the hospital under a new HMO, and the antics of Jack Trenton and his sidekick Paco the orderly.
Cast
Stephanie Hodge as Nurse Sandy Miller (1991–1993)
Arnetia Walker as Nurse Annie Roland
Mary Jo Keenen as Nurse Julie Milbury
Jeff Altman as Greg Vincent (1991–1992)
Ada Maris as Gina Cuevas
Kip Gilman as Dr. Hank Kaplan (credited in Season 1 as Kenneth David Gilman)
Carlos Lacámara as Paco Ortiz
Florence Stanley as Dr. Riskin (1991–1992)
Markus Flanagan as Luke Fitzgerald (1992–1993)
David Rasche as Jack Trenton (1992–1994)
Loni Anderson as Casey MacAfee (1993–1994)
Episodes
Crossovers
The following is a list of Nurses episodes featuring characters from The Golden Girls and Empty Nest.
Season One
Episode 2: "A Lesson in Life" – Laverne Todd from Empty Nest
Episode 6: "Mother, Jugs, and Zach" – Harry Weston from Empty Nest
Episode 9: "Begone with the Wind" – Rose Nylund from The Golden Girls and Laverne Todd from Empty Nest
Episode 20: "Moon Over Miami" – Blanche Devereaux from The Golden Girls and Charley Dietz from Empty Nest
Season Two
Episode 2: "In My New Country" – Laverne Todd from Empty Nest
Episode 7: "Playing Doctor" – Carol Weston from Empty Nest
Season Three
Episode 1: "The Eagle Has Landed" – Harry Weston from Empty Nest
Episode 4: "Jack's Indecent Proposal" – Charley Dietz from Empty Nest
Episode 7: "The Bridges of Dade Country" – Harry Weston from Empty Nest
Episode 9: "Temporary Setbacks" – Sophia Petrillo from The Golden Girls and Empty Nest, and Carol Weston from Empty Nest
Episode 10: "The Birth of a Marriage" – Harry Weston from Empty Nest
References
External links
1991 American television series debuts
1994 American television series endings
1990s American sitcoms
1990s American medical television series
1990s American workplace comedy television series
American television spin-offs
English-language television shows
Works about nursing
NBC original programming
Television shows set in Miami
Television series by ABC Studios
The Golden Girls | wiki |
est la formule brute de plusieurs isomères.
benzofurane, numéro CAS
isobenzofurane, numéro CAS | wiki |
Hitakami () is a country name found in ancient Japanese texts. There are different theories as to which country the word "Hitakami" may have represented. According to , the word "Hitakami" represented the country of Yamato because the full name of Yamato is . However, in works such as the the word "Hitakami" was used to represent the northeastern regions of what is now Japan.
The name of the old Japanese province , which corresponds to modern-day Hidaka Subprefecture in Hokkaido, is derived from the name "Hitakami".
See also
Emishi
References
Geographic history of Japan | wiki |
Flying Monsters 3D is a natural history documentary about the pterosaurs. It was written and presented by David Attenborough and was produced by National Geographic and Atlantic Productions for Sky 3D. Originally broadcast on Christmas Day 2010, it was the first 3D documentary to be screened on British television and was released in theatres and IMAX cinemas the following year. Flying Monsters 3D went on to become the first 3D programme to win a BAFTA award, winning in the category for Best Specialist Factual in 2011.
Featured animals
Dimorphodon
Darwinopterus
Pteranodon
Tapejara
Quetzalcoatlus
References
External links
Official website for Flying Monsters 3D theatrical release
Programme website at Atlantic Productions
Official 2D trailer from Atlantic Productions
3D television shows
Documentary films about nature
2010 British television series debuts
Documentary films about prehistoric life
IMAX documentary films
3D documentary films
3D short films
2010 films
2010 3D films
2010 short documentary films
BAFTA winners (television series) | wiki |
Microsoft Windows is a computer operating system developed by Microsoft. It was first launched in 1985 as a graphical operating system built on MS-DOS. The initial version was followed by several subsequent releases, and by the early 1990s, the Windows line had split into two separate lines of releases: Windows 9x for consumers and Windows NT for businesses and enterprises. In the following years, several further variants of Windows would be released: Windows CE in 1996 for embedded systems; Pocket PC in 2000 (renamed to Windows Mobile in 2003 and Windows Phone in 2010) for personal digital assistants and, later, smartphones; Windows Holographic in 2016 for AR/VR headsets; and several other editions.
Personal computer versions
A "personal computer" version of Windows is considered to be a version that end-users or OEMs can install on personal computers, including desktop computers, laptops, and workstations.
The first five versions of Windows–Windows 1.0, Windows 2.0, Windows 2.1, Windows 3.0, and Windows 3.1–were all based on MS-DOS, and were aimed at both consumers and businesses. However, Windows 3.1 had two separate successors, splitting the Windows line in two: the consumer-focused "Windows 9x" line, consisting of Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows Me; and the professional Windows NT line, comprising Windows NT 3.1, Windows NT 3.5, Windows NT 3.51, Windows NT 4.0, and Windows 2000. These two lines were reunited into a single line with the NT-based Windows XP; this Windows release succeeded both Windows Me and Windows 2000 and had separate editions for consumer and professional use. Since Windows XP, multiple further versions of Windows have been released, the most recent of which is Windows 11.
Mobile versions
Mobile versions refer to versions of Windows that can run on smartphones or personal digital assistants.
Server versions
High-performance computing (HPC) servers
Windows Essential Business Server
Windows Home Server
Windows MultiPoint Server
Windows MultiPoint Server was an operating system based on Windows Server. It was succeeded by the MultiPoint Services role in Windows Server 2016 and Windows Server version 1709. It was no longer being developed in Windows Server version 1803 and later versions.
Windows Small Business Server
Device versions
ARM-based tablets
In 2012 and 2013, Microsoft released versions of Windows specially designed to run on ARM-based tablets; these versions of Windows were based on Windows 8 and Windows 8.1, respectively, although the standard versions could run on x86-based tablets without modification. Upon the release of Windows 10 in 2015, the ARM-specific version for large tablets was discontinued; large tablets (such as the Surface Pro 4) were only released with x86 processors and could run the full version of Windows 10. Windows 10 Mobile had the ability to be installed on smaller tablets (up to nine inches); however, very few such tablets were released, and Windows 10 Mobile primarily ended up only running on smartphones until its discontinuation. In 2017, the full version of Windows 10 gained the ability to run on ARM, which rendered a specific version of Windows for ARM-based tablets unnecessary.
Mixed reality and virtual reality headsets
Surface Hub
Microsoft originally announced the Surface Hub, an interactive whiteboard, in January 2015. The Surface Hub family of devices runs a custom variant of Windows 10 known as Windows 10 Team.
Windows XP-based tablets
Two versions of Windows XP were released that were optimized for tablets. Beginning with Windows Vista, all tablet-specific components were included in the main version of the operating system.
Embedded versions
Windows Embedded Compact
Windows Embedded Standard
Other embedded versions
Windows Embedded Industry
Windows Embedded Automotive
Cancelled versions
Cancelled personal computer versions
Cancelled mobile versions
Cancelled server versions
See also
List of Microsoft operating systems
Microsoft Windows version history
Windows 10 version history
Windows 11 version history
Comparison of Microsoft Windows versions
List of Microsoft codenames
Notes
References
Windows
Windows
History of Microsoft | wiki |
Plausible Prejudices: Essays on American Writing is a 1985 collection of essays by Joseph Epstein dealing with literary criticism and other subjects.
Reception
Kirkus Reviews said that "his collection of prejudices doesn't add up to a coherent position or a serious argument." Richard Eder of The Los Angeles Times wrote that "you wonder at times what he is defending." Chicago Tribune critic Stevenson Swanson said that the book needs more content.
References
1985 books
Essay collections
Essays in literary criticism | wiki |
Tariffs, Blockades, and Inflation: The Economics of the Civil War is an economics book written by Mark Thornton and Robert Ekelund. The book, written from an Austrian School viewpoint, covers the socioeconomic situations of the American Civil War.
References
External links
Preview of book on Google Books
Books about economic history
2004 non-fiction books
Austrian School publications
History books about the American Civil War | wiki |
Liquor-control agencies in some Canadian provinces have produced age-of-majority ID cards to facilitate the purchase of alcohol by Canadian adults. Only one still produces these cards, although their acceptability is limited and their purpose has been mostly supplanted by other forms of ID, such as provincial photo cards for non-drivers.
Ontario
For many years Ontario provided an age-of-majority card which provided proof that the Ontarian had reached the legal age to purchase alcohol. In the 1990s this card was replaced by the BYID Card (short for bring your ID) issued by the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO). As of early 2022 this card is no longer being issued, but the previously issued cards remain valid until expiry. Its widespread use is limited so that many holders report difficulty using it as an identification document. The card is issued only to Ontario residents between the ages of 19 and 35.
New Brunswick
New Brunswick is known to have issued an age-of-majority card to individuals over the age of 19.
Nova Scotia
The Nova Scotia Liquor Commission previously issued photo ID cards to persons over the age of 19. These cards were issued between 1974 and 1994 when they were replaced by the Nova Scotia photo identification card. Interestingly for much of the 1980s these cards misspelled the name of the province as "Nova Soctia". This was due to a printing error, and the necessity to use up the misspelled stock card before new ones were ordered, in order to save money
Manitoba
Manitoba previously issued liquor control photo-identification cards.
Yukon
Yukon produced Yukon Liquor ID cards. These cards have been discontinued, and existing cards became invalid in November 2011.
Citations
Canadian provincial alcohol departments and agencies
Liquor cards | wiki |
The John Doe law is a prosecution tool in Wisconsin. John Doe investigations are done to determine whether a crime has occurred and, if so, by whom.
See also
Fictitious defendants
References
Wisconsin law | wiki |
Eastern coneflower is a common name for several plants and may refer to:
Echinacea purpurea, with purple flowers
Rudbeckia fulgida, with yellow or orange flowers | wiki |
A webbed neck, or pterygium colli, is a congenital skin fold that runs along the sides of the neck down to the shoulders.
There are many variants.
Signs and symptoms
On babies, webbed neck may look like loose folds of skin on the neck. As the child grows, the skin may stretch out to look like there is little or no neck.
Associated conditions
It is a feature of Turner syndrome (only found in girls) and Noonan syndrome, as well as the rarer Klippel–Feil syndrome, or Diamond–Blackfan anemia
References
External links
Congenital disorders of eye, ear, face and neck | wiki |
In four-dimensional geometry, a cantellated 24-cell is a convex uniform 4-polytope, being a cantellation (a 2nd order truncation) of the regular 24-cell.
There are 2 unique degrees of cantellations of the 24-cell including permutations with truncations.
Cantellated 24-cell
The cantellated 24-cell or small rhombated icositetrachoron is a uniform 4-polytope.
The boundary of the cantellated 24-cell is composed of 24 truncated octahedral cells, 24 cuboctahedral cells and 96 triangular prisms. Together they have 288 triangular faces, 432 square faces, 864 edges, and 288 vertices.
Construction
When the cantellation process is applied to 24-cell,
each of the 24 octahedra becomes a small rhombicuboctahedron.
In addition however, since each octahedra's edge was previously shared with two
other octahedra, the separating edges form the three parallel edges of a
triangular prism - 96 triangular prisms, since the 24-cell contains 96 edges.
Further, since each vertex was previously shared with 12 faces,
the vertex would split into 12 (24*12=288) new vertices.
Each group of 12 new vertices forms a cuboctahedron.
Coordinates
The Cartesian coordinates of the vertices of the cantellated 24-cell having edge length 2 are all permutations of coordinates and sign of:
(0, , , 2+2)
(1, 1+, 1+, 1+2)
The permutations of the second set of coordinates coincide with the vertices of an inscribed runcitruncated tesseract.
The dual configuration has all permutations and signs of:
(0,2,2+,2+)
(1,1,1+,3+)
Structure
The 24 small rhombicuboctahedra are joined to each other via their triangular faces, to the cuboctahedra via their axial square faces, and to the triangular prisms via their off-axial square faces. The cuboctahedra are joined to the triangular prisms via their triangular faces. Each triangular prism is joined to two cuboctahedra at its two ends.
Cantic snub 24-cell
A half-symmetry construction of the cantellated 24-cell, also called a cantic snub 24-cell, as , has an identical geometry, but its triangular faces are further subdivided. The cantellated 24-cell has 2 positions of triangular faces in ratio of 96 and 192, while the cantic snub 24-cell has 3 positions of 96 triangles.
The difference can be seen in the vertex figures, with edges representing faces in the 4-polytope:
Images
Related polytopes
The convex hull of two cantellated 24-cells in opposite positions is a nonuniform polychoron composed of 864 cells: 48 cuboctahedra, 144 square antiprisms, 384 octahedra (as triangular antipodiums), 288 tetrahedra (as tetragonal disphenoids), and 576 vertices. Its vertex figure is a shape topologically equivalent to a cube with a triangular prism attached to one of its square faces.
Cantitruncated 24-cell
The cantitruncated 24-cell or great rhombated icositetrachoron is a uniform 4-polytope derived from the 24-cell. It is bounded by 24 truncated cuboctahedra corresponding with the cells of a 24-cell, 24 truncated cubes corresponding with the cells of the dual 24-cell, and 96 triangular prisms corresponding with the edges of the first 24-cell.
Coordinates
The Cartesian coordinates of a cantitruncated 24-cell having edge length 2 are all permutations of coordinates and sign of:
(1,1+,1+2,3+3)
(0,2+,2+2,2+3)
The dual configuration has coordinates as all permutations and signs of:
(1,1+,1+,5+2)
(1,3+,3+,3+2)
(2,2+,2+,4+2)
Projections
Related polytopes
References
T. Gosset: On the Regular and Semi-Regular Figures in Space of n Dimensions, Messenger of Mathematics, Macmillan, 1900
H.S.M. Coxeter:
Coxeter, Regular Polytopes, (3rd edition, 1973), Dover edition, , p.296, Table I (iii): Regular Polytopes, three regular polytopes in n-dimensions (n≥5)
H.S.M. Coxeter, Regular Polytopes, 3rd Edition, Dover New York, 1973, p.296, Table I (iii): Regular Polytopes, three regular polytopes in n-dimensions (n≥5)
Kaleidoscopes: Selected Writings of H.S.M. Coxeter, edited by F. Arthur Sherk, Peter McMullen, Anthony C. Thompson, Asia Ivic Weiss, Wiley-Interscience Publication, 1995,
(Paper 22) H.S.M. Coxeter, Regular and Semi Regular Polytopes I, [Math. Zeit. 46 (1940) 380-407, MR 2,10]
(Paper 23) H.S.M. Coxeter, Regular and Semi-Regular Polytopes II, [Math. Zeit. 188 (1985) 559-591]
(Paper 24) H.S.M. Coxeter, Regular and Semi-Regular Polytopes III, [Math. Zeit. 200 (1988) 3-45]
John H. Conway, Heidi Burgiel, Chaim Goodman-Strass, The Symmetries of Things 2008, (Chapter 26. pp. 409: Hemicubes: 1n1)
Norman Johnson Uniform Polytopes, Manuscript (1991)
N.W. Johnson: The Theory of Uniform Polytopes and Honeycombs, Ph.D. (1966)
x3o4x3o - srico, o3x4x3o - grico
4-polytopes | wiki |
Крюкай:
Крюкай (лит. Kriukai) — местечко в Ионишкском районе Литвы.
Крюкай (лит. Kriūkai) — местечко в Шакяйском районе Литвы. | wiki |
Jermain Jackman (born 10 January 1995) is a British singer and political activist who won the third series of the BBC television singing competition The Voice UK in 2014. His debut album, Jermain Jackman, was released on 23 March 2015. He was twice a candidate for the Labour Party National Executive Committee (NEC) in 2020. He is a member of the Musicians' Union and Unite.
Early life and education
Jackman was born in Hackney, London to an Afro-Guyanese family with four older siblings and a twin sister. He attended the Islington Arts and Media School in Finsbury Park and Sir George Monoux College in Walthamstow, where he trained in music. He then went on to study Politics at the University of Leeds. He graduated from SOAS University of London in 2022.
Music and television
2014: The Voice UK and career beginnings
Jackman was the winner of series 3 of The Voice UK in April 2014, and the first male to win the competition. He beat Christina Marie, who was the favourite. Jackman was given a £100,000 record contract. His cover of "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" reached no. 39 on the UK iTunes chart, but finished the week at only number 75 in the charts.
Performances
2014–present: Jermain Jackman and later career
He released an EP of collaborations, Jermain Jackman Sessions, in December 2014 as a free download.
His debut album, Jermain Jackman, was released on 23 March 2015. He released his debut single "How Will I Know" on the same day as the album. He recorded the song around the time of his Grandmother's death. Talking about the song he said "I'd been to New York to visit my Granny the same week, and so my emotions were high in the studio, She was very much in my thoughts as I recorded the single and I think you can hear that in my vocal."
Jackman appeared as a panellist on CBBC's The Dog Ate My Homework in 2015. He later went on to appear on The Voice UK again performing his new single, "How Will I Know", during the first live show in 2015 before Olly Murs, who also performed his own single "Seasons".
In November 2017, Jackman, teamed up with George Sampson, won the jackpot in an episode of Pointless Celebrities.
Politics and activism
Jackman stated that in the future, he would like to be the first singing Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. In March 2016, he said he was spotted by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn at a school talent show in 2006 and became inspired to work for him and become an MP. In June 2017, Jackman supported a Labour Party rally prior to the 2017 UK general election.
Jackman chaired the Islington Fair Futures Commission from 2017 to 2018, and has chaired the Hackney Young Futures Commission since 2019. He has also been a Youth Advisor for the NCS Trust since 2019. He founded the 1987 Caucus in April 2020, an organisation for young black men in Labour, and is a member of Socialists of Colour.
In February 2020, Jackman announced his bid to replace the retiring Keith Vaz as BAME Representative on the Labour Party NEC. When results for the by-election were released in April of that year, he finished third with 10.66 percent of the vote. In July 2020 he announced another run for the NEC, initially with the aim of being elected as Youth Representative before switching his campaign to Constituency Labour Party (CLP) Representative. His bid was endorsed by Open Labour. He was narrowly unsuccessful in securing one of the nine CLP seats when results were announced in November, finishing eleventh in the ballot.
In 2022, Jackman sought to challenge Carol Sewell for the BAME Representative seat. He explained his decision to withdraw from the contest in an August LabourList article, stating "we're just not practising the type of world we want to see and live in." The trade unions backing Sewell, who received criticism for attempting to downplay the Forde report, had not consulted their BAME members regarding who to endorse, despite Jackman having won the popular vote with this demographic in 2020. Jackman called for "a review and reform of internal processes" and, in light of the report, urged both the party and unions to do more to tackle institutional racism and "create a truly anti-racist and inclusive... movement", echoing the late Bernie Grant's criticisms.
Discography
Albums
Extended plays
Singles
References
External links
Official Jermain Jackman Website
Jermain Jackman Facebook
Jermain Jackman Twitter
Jermain Jackman Instagram
Jermain Jackman Spotify
Jermain Jackman Vevo
Living people
1995 births
21st-century Black British male singers
Alumni of SOAS University of London
Alumni of the University of Leeds
Black British politicians
English male singers
English people of Guyanese descent
Labour Party (UK) people
People educated at Sir George Monoux College
People from Hackney Central
Singers from London
Trade unionists from London
Unite the Union
The Voice (franchise) winners
The Voice UK contestants | wiki |
Morgan Craft (born May 11, 1993, in Muncy Valley, Pennsylvania), is an American competitive shooter. A member of the U.S. national shooting team in the women's skeet, she competed at the 2015 World Shotgun Championships in Lonato, Italy. She scored higher than teammate Caitlin Connor for the gold medal and a spot to her first Olympic Games in a shoot-off with a score of 15–13.
Craft is currently ranked number one in the women's Olympic skeet.
References
External links
Team USA Profile
1993 births
Living people
American female sport shooters
People from Muncy Valley, Pennsylvania
Sportspeople from Pennsylvania
Olympic shooters of the United States
Shooters at the 2016 Summer Olympics
21st-century American women
20th-century American women | wiki |
Sophie Williams is a fencer.
Sophie Williams may also refer to:
Sophie-May Williams, singer
Sophie Williams, character in Post Captain (novel) | wiki |
Central YMCA may refer to:
United States
Shih Yu-Lang Central YMCA located at 220 Golden Gate Avenue in San Francisco, California
Downtown Denver Central YMCA and Annex, Denver, Colorado, listed on the NRHP in Denver, Colorado
Central YMCA (Cleveland, Ohio), listed on the NRHP in Ohio
Central YMCA (Toledo, Ohio), listed on the NRHP in Ohio
Central YMCA (Association Building), now known as 19 South LaSalle Street in Chicago
See also
YMCA (disambiguation) | wiki |
Maurice Alphonse Jacques Fombeure (n. 23 septembrie 1906 la Jardres (Vienne) - d. 1 ianuarie 1981 la La Verrière, (Yvelines)) a fost un scriitor și eseist francez.
A scris în special poezii, fiind influențat de François Villon, La Fontaine, Apollinaire și François Rabelais.
Scrieri
1937: Bruits de la terre ("Zgomotele pământului");
1942: Grenier des saisons ("Podul anotimpurilor");
1946: Aux créneaux de la pluie ("La crenelurile ploii").
Nașteri în 1906
Nașteri pe 23 septembrie
Decese în 1981
Decese pe 1 ianuarie
Poeți francezi
Scriitori francezi din secolul al XX-lea | wiki |
A rim lock is a locking device that attaches to the surface of a door.
It is the oldest type of lock used in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It is of a basic design using (usually) a single lever and a sliding bolt. Wards can be used for additional security. They are not used where high security is required. Most older locks were large, some as big as .
Most rimlocks used today on exterior doors in the British Isles are night latches.
In the United States, rim locks and rim latches are often used on wooden screen doors. A rim lock may also be seen on an antique pantry, pie safe, and other cabinets. Some rim lock and latch sets have a shallower backset than does a modern bored cylindrical lock or mortise lock, allowing their use on doors with narrow rails.
References
External links
Are Car Keys Magnetic?
Locks (security device) | wiki |
Order of Orange or Orange Order or variant may refer to:
Orange Order of Northern Ireland
Orange Order in Canada
Independent Orange Order of Belfast
Order of the House of Orange of the Netherlands, dynastic knighthood order
Order of Orange-Nassau of the Netherlands, chivalric order
See also
Orange (disambiguation)
Order (disambiguation)
Orange Free State Command, South Africa army force division | wiki |
Tomcat may refer to:
Animals
A sexually mature male cat
Paederus, known as in Indonesia
Science and technology
Apache Tomcat, an implementation of Java web-server technologies
Beretta 3032 Tomcat, a pistol
Grumman F-14 Tomcat, a fighter aircraft
Kawasaki Tomcat ZX-10, a motorcycle
Rover 200 Coupé, a car
TOMCAT/SLIMCAT, a chemical transport model
Waspair HM 81 Tomcat, an ultralight aircraft
Media
Tom Cat, a character from the animated series Tom and Jerry
Tom Cat (album), a 1981 album by Lee Morgan
Tom Cat (band), a Japanese band who contributed to the Fist of the North Star soundtrack
Tomcat (comics), DC Comics character, son of Wildcat
Tomcat (video game), a 1989 computer game published in the UK by Players Software
Tomcats (1977 film), a 1977 rape-and-revenge film
Tomcats (2001 film), a 2001 comedy film
The Tomcats, Brian Setzer's first rockabilly music group
TomKat, a portmanteau for celebrity couple Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes
Tomcat (2016 film), a 2016 Austrian film
Talking Tom, a character in Outfit7's Talking Tom and Friends media franchise
Tom, a cat villager from the Animal Crossing series of video games. | wiki |
4U 1543-475 is a recurrent X-ray transient. It is a member of a black hole binary and is in the constellation of Lupus. Its optical counterpart is IL Lupi. Outburst from 4U 1543-475 was first observed by Uhuru in 1971.
See also
List of black holes
List of nearest black holes
References
Lupus (constellation)
Stellar black holes
X-ray binaries | wiki |
Schistes is a genus of hummingbirds in the family Trochilidae. It was long considered to have only one species, the wedge-billed hummingbird but this species was split. The genus now includes two species:
References
Bird genera
Taxonomy articles created by Polbot | wiki |
John McKean may refer to:
John McKean (ornithologist) (1941–1996), Australian ornithologist
John D. McKean (fireboat), a 1954 fireboat serving the New York City Fire Department
John McKean (politician) (1868–?), Member of Parliament for South Monaghan, 1902–1918
Mackean, John | wiki |
Fan fiction is fictional writing written in an unauthorized amateur capacity as fans, which is based on an existing work of fiction.
Fan Fiction may also refer to:
"Fan Fiction" (Supernatural), a season 10 episode of Supernatural
"Fan Fiction" (Only Murders in the Building), a 2021 episode of the TV series Only Murders in the Building
Other uses
FanFiction.Net, US fanfiction website
Pastiche, unauthorized professional derivative fiction | wiki |
Michael Ahearn may refer to:
Mike Ahearn (Michael F. Ahearn, 1878–1948), athletic director and football coach at Kansas State University
Michael J. Ahearn (born 1956/7), CEO of First Solar | wiki |
Michael Dooney is an American comic book writer and artist and toy designer best known for his works on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series. Dooney also created the comic book series Gizmo in 1986 under Mirage Studios.
References
External links
Living people
American comics artists
Mirage Studios
Year of birth missing (living people) | wiki |
Biografies: Nicholas Metropolis (1915 – 1999), matemàtic, físic i informàtic greco-estatunidenc.
Obres:
Metropolis (novel·la), obra de l'escriptora Thea Von Habour (1925,1926)
Metropolis (pel·lícula), creació de Fritz Lang i Thea Von Habour (1927)
Metropolis (musical), dirigit a Londres per Jerome Savary (1989) | wiki |
The Sanremo Music Festival ( ), officially the Italian Song Festival (), is the most popular Italian song contest and awards ceremony, held annually in the city of Sanremo, Liguria. It is the longest-running annual TV music competition in the world on a national level (making it one of the world's longest-running television programmes) and it is also the basis and inspiration for the annual Eurovision Song Contest.
Unlike other awards in Italy, the Sanremo Music Festival is a competition for new songs, not an award to previous successes (like the for television, the for stage performances, and the Premio David di Donatello for motion pictures).
The first edition of the Sanremo Music Festival, held between 29 and 31 January 1951, was broadcast by RAI's radio station Rete Rossa, and its only three participants were Nilla Pizzi, Achille Togliani, and Duo Fasano. Starting from 1955, all editions of the festival have been broadcast live by the Italian TV station Rai 1.
From 1951 to 1976, the festival took place in the Sanremo Casino, but starting from 1977, all the following editions were held in the Teatro Ariston, except in 1990, which was held at the Nuovo Mercato dei Fiori.
The songs selected in the competition are in Italian (or in an Italian dialect), and the three most voted songs are awarded. Other special awards are also given, including the Critics' Award, created ad hoc by the press in 1982 to reward the quality of Mia Martini's song, and named after the singer in 1996, after her death.
The Sanremo Music Festival has often been used as a method for choosing the Italian entry for the Eurovision Song Contest. It has launched the careers of some of Italy's most successful musical acts, including Gigliola Cinquetti,
Laura Pausini, Eros Ramazzotti, Andrea Bocelli, Giorgia, Il Volo, and Måneskin.
Between 1953 and 1971 (except in 1956), in 1990, and 1991, each song was sung twice by two different artists, each one using an individual orchestral arrangement, to illustrate the meaning of the festival as a composers' competition, not a singers' competition. During this era of the festival, it was custom that one version of the song was performed by a native Italian artist while the other version was performed by an international guest artist. This became a way for many international artists to debut their songs on the Italian market, including Louis Armstrong, Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, Cher, Gloria Gaynor, Dionne Warwick, Jose Feliciano, Roberto Carlos, Paul Anka, Miriam Makeba, Bonnie Tyler, Shirley Bassey, Mungo Jerry, Kiss, Laura Branigan, and many others.
History
Origin and development
In the aftermath of World War II, one of the proposals to revitalize the economy and the reputation of Sanremo was to create an annual music festival to be held in the city.
In 1948 and 1949, the first two editions of the Italian Song Festival () were held in Viareggio, from an idea developed in 1947 by Aldo Valleroni. The competition was discontinued in 1950 due to financial problems, but it became the basis for the future Sanremo Music Festival.
During the summer of 1950, the administrator of the Sanremo Casino, Piero Bussetti, and the conductor of the RAI orchestra, Giulio Razzi, rediscussed the idea, deciding to launch a competition among previously unreleased songs. Officially titled (literally "Festival of the Italian song"), the first edition of the show was held at the Sanremo Casino on 29, 30, and 31 January 1951. The final round of the competition was broadcast by Rete Rossa, the second most important RAI radio station.
Twenty songs took part in the competition, performed by three artists only–Nilla Pizzi, Duo Fasano, and Achille Togliani.
Starting from the third edition of the festival, held in 1953, each song was performed by two different artists with different orchestras and arrangements. Two years later, in 1955, the festival made its first appearance on television, since part of the final night was also broadcast by RAI's channel Programma Nazionale. The last night of the show was also broadcast in Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Switzerland.
In 1964, Gianni Ravera, who organized the 14th Sanremo Music Festival, slightly changed the rules of the contest, requiring each song to be performed once by an Italian artist and once by an international singer, who was allowed to perform the song in any language. The same rule was applied in the following year's contest. Between 1967 and 1971, entries were not forced to be interpreted by foreign artists, but double performances were kept. Starting from 1972, each entry was sung by one artist only.
The competing artists were split for the first time into "Big artists" and "Young artists" during the Sanremo Music Festival 1974. The competition had one winner only, but the entries in the "Young artists" category had to go through an elimination round, while "Big artists" were directly admitted to the final round.
In 1977, the Sanremo Casino, which hosted all the previous editions of the contest, was closed for renovations, therefore the show moved to the Teatro Ariston. The theater later became the usual location for the annual contest, hosting it every year except in 1990, when the show was held at the Nuovo Mercato dei Fiori, also known as Palafiori.
In 1980, pre-recorded backing tracks replaced the orchestra, while playback performances were allowed in 1983 during the final round. In 1984 and 1985, all the artists were forced to perform in playback, while live performances with the orchestra were reintroduced in 1990.
During the same years, several other changes were introduced in the contest. In 1982, accredited music journalists decided to create an award to recognise the best song competing in the festival. Starting from 1983, the prize was officially awarded during the event. The critics' prize was later named after Mia Martini, who was the first artist receiving it in 1982 for her entry "E non finisce mica il cielo".
Moreover, starting from 1984, the separation between newcomers and established artists was marked, introducing two different competitions with separate winners.
In 1989, a third category, the Upcoming Artists Section, was introduced, but it was removed the following year.
Only in 1998 were the top three artists in the newcomer section allowed to compete in the main competition. This led to the victory of the debuting Annalisa Minetti, which generated some controversy and led to the reintroduction of completely separate competitions starting from 1999.
The distinction among different categories was abolished again in 2004. The following year, the contest included five different categories—Newcomers, Men, Women, Groups, and Classics. The winner of each category competed for the final victory of the contest. The category Classic was abolished in 2006, while starting from 2007, the festival came back to the rules used in the 1990s, with two completely separate competitions for established artists and newcomers.
In 2009, a new competition, held entirely online, was introduced by the artistic director of the 59th edition of the contest, Paolo Bonolis. Titled Sanremofestival.59, the contest was not held in the following years.
Winners
Big Artists section
1950s
1960s
1970s
1980s
1990s
2000s
2010s
2020s
Newcomers section
1980s
1990s
2000s
2010s
2020s
Other sections
"Mia Martini" Critics Award
The "Mia Martini" Critics Award, originally named the Critics Award of the Italian Song Festival and, more informally, simply the Critics Award, is a recognition given to the best song, selected by music experts (journalists and music critics) at the Sanremo Music Festival. The prize was created in 1982 specifically to award Mia Martini's interpretation of her song "E non finisce mica il cielo".
Since 1996, the award has been named after Mia Martini, following her sudden death. A petition was launched by the founder of Mia Martini's official club, Chez Mimi, alongside Alba Calia and Dori Ghezzi and supported by numerous Italian artists, including Mina, Luciano Pavarotti, Fabrizio De André, Lucio Dalla, and Franco Battiato. Pippo Baudo, then-artistic director of the Sanremo Festival and the Critics Award jury, decided to name the prize after the Calabrian artist, specifically because she was the artist who, until then, had won the award the most frequently (three times), as well as having been its first winner.
Big Artists section and Newcomers section
Notable foreign duet singers
Notable guest artists of that time were, among others:
1964: Peggy March, team partner of Claudio Villa with "Passo su passo", semi-finals only.
1965: Connie Francis, team partner of Gigliola Cinquetti with "Ho bisogno di vederti".
1965: Petula Clark, team partner of Betty Curtis with "Invece no".
1965: Dusty Springfield, team partner of Gianni Mascolo with "Di fronte all'amore", semi-finals only.
1965: Audrey Arno, team partner of Remo Germani with "Prima o poi".
1966: Gene Pitney, team partner of Caterina Caselli with "Nessuno mi può giudicare".
1966: Pat Boone, team partner of Peppino Gagliardi with "Se tu non fossi qui".
1967: Cher and Sonny Bono, team partner of Caterina Caselli with "Il cammino di ogni speranza".
1967: Cher, team partner of Nico Fidenco with "Ma piano (per non svegliarmi)"
1967: Dalida, team partner of Luigi Tenco with "Ciao, amore ciao", semi-finals only.
1968: Roberto Carlos, team partner of Sergio Endrigo with "Canzone per te" (winner).
1968: Bobbie Gentry, team partner of Al Bano with "La siepe".
1968: Dionne Warwick, team partner of Tony del Monaco with "La voce del silenzio".
1968: Louis Armstrong, team partner of Lara Saint Paul with "Mi va di cantare".
1968: Wilson Pickett, team partner of Fausto Leali with "Deborah".
1969: Mary Hopkin, team partner of Sergio Endrigo with "Lontano dagli occhi" (second place).
1969: Stevie Wonder, team partner of Gabriella Ferri with "Se tu ragazzo mio", semi-finals only.
1971: José Feliciano, team partner of Ricchi e Poveri with "Che sarà" (second place).
1990: Dee Dee Bridgewater, team partner of Pooh with "Uomini soli" (winner).
1990: Ray Charles, team partner of Toto Cutugno with "Gli amori" (second place).
1990: Miriam Makeba, team partner of Caterina Caselli with "Bisognerebbe non pensare che a te".
1991: Grace Jones, team partner of Renato Zero with "Spalle al muro".
1991: Laura Branigan, team partner of Fiordaliso with "Il mare più grande che c'è (I love you man)".
1991: Ofra Haza, team partner of Raf with "Oggi un Dio non ho".
1991: Gloria Gaynor, team partner of Gianni Bella with "La fila degli oleandri".
1991: Bonnie Tyler, team partner of Amedeo Minghi with "Nené".
International successes
Various songs presented during the Sanremo Music Festival over the years have become international hits, including "Nel blu, dipinto di blu" and "Piove (Ciao, ciao bambina)" by Domenico Modugno. "Nel blu, dipinto di blu" spent five non-consecutive weeks atop the US Billboard Hot 100 in August and September 1958 and subsequently became Billboard's number-one single for the year. In 1959, at the inaugural Grammy Awards, "Nel blu, dipinto di blu" became the first-ever Grammy winner for both Record of the Year and Song of the Year. The song "Io che non vivo (senza te)", sung at the fifteenth edition of the Sanremo Festival by Pino Donaggio, was recorded in English by Dusty Springfield under the title "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me". It became Springfield's most successful single, reaching number one on the UK Singles Chart and number four on the Billboard Hot 100. Elvis Presley recorded a cover version in 1970, which was a hit in both the US and the UK. Other covers have charted in the UK, Ireland, Italy, and Finland.
The song "Non amarmi" by Aleandro Baldi and Francesca Alotta won the Newcomers section at the Sanremo Festival in 1992. It became an international hit, being covered as "No Me Ames" by American singers Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony. The song peaked at number one in the Billboard Hot Latin Songs chart. It received a Latin Grammy nomination for Best Pop Performance by a Duo/Group with Vocals. At the Billboard Latin Music Awards of 2000, the song received an award for Hot Latin Track of the Year by a Vocal Duo and two nominations for Tropical/Salsa Track of the Year and Hot Latin Track of the Year.
The song "Che sarà" was sung by Ricchi e Poveri and José Feliciano at the Sanremo Festival in 1971. Feliciano's recorded version was successful in Europe, the Middle East, Japan, and Latin America. The Spanish version of "Che sarà" peaked at number one in Spain and Latin America. The winning song of the 1982 Sanremo Festival, "Storie di tutti i giorni" by Riccardo Fogli, was sung by Dutch singer Marco Borsato, with the title "Dromen zijn deception"; his version became one of the most successful Dutch-language singles of all time. It remained at number one in the Dutch Top 40 for twelve weeks. The song "Quando quando quando" by Tony Renis competed in the Sanremo Festival in 1962 and was covered by many international artists, becoming a best-selling single: Bobby Curtola's version charted at number ten in Canada, Engelbert Humperdinck's reached number forty in the UK, and Pat Boone's version achieved number 95 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The song "Con te partirò" was first performed by Andrea Bocelli at the 1995 Sanremo Festival, topping the charts in several European countries. A partial English version, released in 1996 as "Time to Say Goodbye", achieved greater success, selling more than twelve million copies worldwide and making it one of the best-selling singles of all time. "Non ho l'età" by Gigliola Cinquetti (1964), "Sarà perché ti amo" by Ricchi e Poveri (1981), "Maledetta Primavera" by Loretta Goggi (1981), "Felicità" by Al Bano and Romina Power (1982), "L'Italiano" by Toto Cutugno (1983), "Adesso tu" by Eros Ramazzotti (1986), "La solitudine" by Laura Pausini (1993), and "Il Mare Calmo della Sera" by Andrea Bocelli (1994) also became international hits. In 1994, the song "La mia storia tra le dita", which Gianluca Grignani sang at Sanremo, became a hit in South America, selling two million copies. Nek sang "Laura non c'è" at the Sanremo Festival in 1997, with the song becoming a hit in Europe and Latin America; the Spanish version charted in the US and peaked at number 21 in the Billboard Hot Latin Songs Chart. "Soldi" by Mahmood won the 69th Sanremo Festival and placed second in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019, topping the charts in Greece, Israel, and Lithuania, and reaching the top ten in five more countries. "Zitti e buoni" by Måneskin won both the Sanremo Festival and the Eurovision Song Contest in 2021, topping the charts in several European countries. It peaked at number seventeen on the UK Singles Chart and reached top ten on the Billboard Global Excl. U.S. chart.
In 1966, Adriano Celentano sang "Il ragazzo della via Gluck" at the Sanremo Festival. American singer Verdelle Smith sang an English version of the song, titled "Tar and Cement", which made it to number one in Australia and became one of the year's biggest sellers. The song also reached number 32 in Canada. In the US, it peaked at number 38. In Sweden, Anna-Lena Löfgren sang it with Swedish lyrics as "Lyckliga gatan", making the biggest hit of her career. The song was on the Svensktoppen weekly chart for fourteen weeks and won a Gold record in Sweden; in Norway, the song achieved Diamond and subsequently Platinum status. The song became successful in France when it was covered by Françoise Hardy, under the title "La maison où j'ai grandi".
Hosts
The first edition of the Sanremo Music Festival was hosted by Nunzio Filogamo. He also hosted the next three editions of the musical event. In 2003, Pippo Baudo hosted for the eleventh time, matching the record previously held by Mike Bongiorno. He later overtook this record, hosting the Sanremo Music Festival in 2007 and in 2008. Only seven women have hosted the festival as main presenters. The first women ever to host the event alone were Lilly Lembo and Giuliana Calandra in 1961, followed by Maria Giovanna Elmi in 1978, Loretta Goggi in 1986, Raffaella Carrà in 2001, Simona Ventura in 2004, and Antonella Clerici in 2010.
Full list of festival hosts:
Controversy
In 2009, the song "Luca era gay" (), written and sung by Povia, was considered by some gay rights organizations as an anti-gay song. The controversy was also based on the name of the song's character: according to Aurelio Mancuso, president of the Arcigay, the name refers to Luca Tolvi, who claimed that Joseph Nicolosi cured his homosexuality.
Povia denied this thesis and claimed that the song is about a man he met on a train, whose real name is Massimiliano.
The song went on to place second at the Festival.
Trivia
Whitney Houston, an international guest at the Sanremo Festival 1987, was the only artist to be asked for an encore performance in the history of the contest until then. After singing "All at once", Houston received a standing ovation and the presenter, Pippo Baudo, asked her to perform again.
Freddie Mercury, an international guest at the 1984 Sanremo Festival, didn't want to perform using playback (a rule at that year's festival), and to protest against this rule, during his performance, Mercury moved the microphone away from his face a few times.
In The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith and its film adaptations, Dickie Greenleaf invites Tom Ripley to travel to the Sanremo Music Festival to enjoy some jazz, as a parting gesture before sending Ripley on his way. The ensuing events in Sanremo have major implications for all of the characters.
In 1960, future Italian pop legend Mina Mazzini made her Sanremo debut. The contest helped launch her career.
The song "Perdere l'amore" was proposed in 1987 by Gianni Nazzaro and rejected in the preliminary song screening. A year later, it was proposed by Massimo Ranieri and won the contest.
In 1990, Patty Pravo turned down the opportunity to participate in the Sanremo Music Festival with "Donna con te", which was sung at the event by Anna Oxa.
In 2007, the song "Bruci la città" was rejected in the screening, mainly as a decision of that year's artistic director Pippo Baudo, who later explained that the decision was due to the poor quality of the received demo. However, the song was later released by Irene Grandi and became one of her biggest hits.
See also
List of historic rock festivals
Sopot International Song Festival
Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest
Eurovision Song Contest
References
External links
Festivaldisanremo.com – Independent website on Sanremo Music Festival since 1998
City of Sanremo
Song contests
Music festivals in Italy
Sanremo
Italian music television series
Music of Liguria
Tourist attractions in Liguria
1951 establishments in Italy
Annual events in Italy
Music festivals established in 1951
February events
Winter events in Italy
Eurovision Song Contest selection events | wiki |
There has not been a government of England since 1707 when the Kingdom of England ceased to exist as a sovereign state, as it merged with the Kingdom of Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain. The Kingdom of Great Britain continued from 1707 until 1801 when it merged with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, which itself became the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK) in 1922 (in reality; in name in 1927) upon independence for most of the island of Ireland. The UK since then has gone through significant change to its system of government, with devolved parliaments, assemblies and governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. England, however, remains under the full jurisdiction, on all matters, of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the UK government as no devolved administration has been created for England within the new structure. This situation led to the anomaly, known as the West Lothian question, which is that Scottish Members of Parliament (MPs) have been able to vote on legislation that affects only England whereas English MPs have been unable to vote on certain Scottish matters due to devolution. In some cases, such as top-up university tuition fees and foundation hospitals, the votes of Scottish MPs have been crucial in helping pass legislation for England that the majority of English MPs have opposed. An attempt was made to address this anomaly in 2015 through the use of an English votes for English laws procedure which aims to ensure that legislation affecting only England requires a majority vote of MPs representing English constituencies.
Another possible solution to the West Lothian question would have been devolution to the English regions but attempts have been unsuccessful so far. Amongst the parts of England, Greater London has a degree of devolved power (although weaker than that of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) with power vested in an elected Mayor of London, currently Sadiq Khan and the London Assembly.
The country is therefore officially divided into the following in terms of governance:
The nine English regions,
The modern day local authority areas,
The geographical/ceremonial counties of England.
The incumbent government has no plans to create a devolved English parliament.
'England only' government departments of the UK government
Several government departments of the UK government have responsibilities for matters affecting England alone:
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.
The Department for Education is responsible for issues affecting people in England up to the age of 19.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is responsible for environmental protection, food production and standards, agriculture, fisheries and rural communities in England.
The Department of Health and Social Care, (DHSC) has responsibility for government policy on health, social care and the English National Health Service (NHS).
The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) which is a non-ministerial department headed by Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools in England.
Other departments deal mainly with matters affecting England though they also have some UK wide responsibilities in certain areas;
The Department for Transport
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport
The Charity Commission for England and Wales, which is a non-ministerial department
References
Further reading
Report on devolution and the governance of England, House of Commons Justice Committee, 24 May 2009
See also
Politics of England
West Lothian question
Devolved English parliament
List of parliaments of England
Campaign for an English Parliament | wiki |
An eyebrow is a line of hair above the human eye.
Eyelash may also refer to:
Eyebrows (advertisement), a British advertising campaign for Cadbury chocolate
Eyebrow, Saskatchewan, a village in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan
Rural Municipality of Eyebrow No. 193, Saskatchewan, the rural municipality that surrounds the village
The Eyebrow, a mountain in Montana
Monkey's Eyebrow, Kentucky, a rural community
Supercilium, a plumage feature, also known as the "eyebrow", of a bird
Head louse, an obligate ectoparasite, also known as Eyebrow lice
An eyebrow window
See also
IBrowse, a web browser for Amiga computers | wiki |
The living daylights is an archaic idiom in English believed to be early 18th century slang for somebody's eyes that subsequently figuratively referred to all vital senses.
The earliest recorded use of this term is in the 1752 novel Amelia by Henry Fielding, in which a character states his readiness to physically assault a particular woman: "If the lady says another such words to me ... I will darken her daylights."
The idiom is now generally used only as part of a wider expression to express intensity in a negative manner, most commonly in the form "to scare the living daylights out of someone" or "to beat the living daylights out of someone."
References
English-language idioms | wiki |
In statistics, the mean squared error (MSE) or mean squared deviation (MSD) of an estimator (of a procedure for estimating an unobserved quantity) measures the average of the squares of the errors—that is, the average squared difference between the estimated values and the actual value. MSE is a risk function, corresponding to the expected value of the squared error loss. The fact that MSE is almost always strictly positive (and not zero) is because of randomness or because the estimator does not account for information that could produce a more accurate estimate. In machine learning, specifically empirical risk minimization, MSE may refer to the empirical risk (the average loss on an observed data set), as an estimate of the true MSE (the true risk: the average loss on the actual population distribution).
The MSE is a measure of the quality of an estimator. As it is derived from the square of Euclidean distance, it is always a positive value that decreases as the error approaches zero.
The MSE is the second moment (about the origin) of the error, and thus incorporates both the variance of the estimator (how widely spread the estimates are from one data sample to another) and its bias (how far off the average estimated value is from the true value). For an unbiased estimator, the MSE is the variance of the estimator. Like the variance, MSE has the same units of measurement as the square of the quantity being estimated. In an analogy to standard deviation, taking the square root of MSE yields the root-mean-square error or root-mean-square deviation (RMSE or RMSD), which has the same units as the quantity being estimated; for an unbiased estimator, the RMSE is the square root of the variance, known as the standard error.
Definition and basic properties
The MSE either assesses the quality of a predictor (i.e., a function mapping arbitrary inputs to a sample of values of some random variable), or of an estimator (i.e., a mathematical function mapping a sample of data to an estimate of a parameter of the population from which the data is sampled). The definition of an MSE differs according to whether one is describing a predictor or an estimator.
Predictor
If a vector of predictions is generated from a sample of data points on all variables, and is the vector of observed values of the variable being predicted, with being the predicted values (e.g. as from a least-squares fit), then the within-sample MSE of the predictor is computed as
In other words, the MSE is the mean of the squares of the errors . This is an easily computable quantity for a particular sample (and hence is sample-dependent).
In matrix notation,
where is and is the column vector.
The MSE can also be computed on q data points that were not used in estimating the model, either because they were held back for this purpose, or because these data have been newly obtained. Within this process, known as statistical learning, the MSE is often called the test MSE, and is computed as
Estimator
The MSE of an estimator with respect to an unknown parameter is defined as
This definition depends on the unknown parameter, but the MSE is a priori a property of an estimator. The MSE could be a function of unknown parameters, in which case any estimator of the MSE based on estimates of these parameters would be a function of the data (and thus a random variable). If the estimator is derived as a sample statistic and is used to estimate some population parameter, then the expectation is with respect to the sampling distribution of the sample statistic.
The MSE can be written as the sum of the variance of the estimator and the squared bias of the estimator, providing a useful way to calculate the MSE and implying that in the case of unbiased estimators, the MSE and variance are equivalent.
Proof of variance and bias relationship
An even shorter proof can be achieved using the well-known formula that for a random variable , . By substituting with, , we haveBut in real modeling case, MSE could be described as the addition of model variance, model bias, and irreducible uncertainty (see Bias–variance tradeoff). According to the relationship, the MSE of the estimators could be simply used for the efficiency comparison, which includes the information of estimator variance and bias. This is called MSE criterion.
In regression
In regression analysis, plotting is a more natural way to view the overall trend of the whole data. The mean of the distance from each point to the predicted regression model can be calculated, and shown as the mean squared error. The squaring is critical to reduce the complexity with negative signs. To minimize MSE, the model could be more accurate, which would mean the model is closer to actual data. One example of a linear regression using this method is the least squares method—which evaluates appropriateness of linear regression model to model bivariate dataset, but whose limitation is related to known distribution of the data.
The term mean squared error is sometimes used to refer to the unbiased estimate of error variance: the residual sum of squares divided by the number of degrees of freedom. This definition for a known, computed quantity differs from the above definition for the computed MSE of a predictor, in that a different denominator is used. The denominator is the sample size reduced by the number of model parameters estimated from the same data, (n−p) for p regressors or (n−p−1) if an intercept is used (see errors and residuals in statistics for more details). Although the MSE (as defined in this article) is not an unbiased estimator of the error variance, it is consistent, given the consistency of the predictor.
In regression analysis, "mean squared error", often referred to as mean squared prediction error or "out-of-sample mean squared error", can also refer to the mean value of the squared deviations of the predictions from the true values, over an out-of-sample test space, generated by a model estimated over a particular sample space. This also is a known, computed quantity, and it varies by sample and by out-of-sample test space.
Examples
Mean
Suppose we have a random sample of size from a population, . Suppose the sample units were chosen with replacement. That is, the units are selected one at a time, and previously selected units are still eligible for selection for all draws. The usual estimator for the is the sample average
which has an expected value equal to the true mean (so it is unbiased) and a mean squared error of
where is the population variance.
For a Gaussian distribution, this is the best unbiased estimator (i.e., one with the lowest MSE among all unbiased estimators), but not, say, for a uniform distribution.
Variance
The usual estimator for the variance is the corrected sample variance:
This is unbiased (its expected value is ), hence also called the unbiased sample variance, and its MSE is
where is the fourth central moment of the distribution or population, and is the excess kurtosis.
However, one can use other estimators for which are proportional to , and an appropriate choice can always give a lower mean squared error. If we define
then we calculate:
This is minimized when
For a Gaussian distribution, where , this means that the MSE is minimized when dividing the sum by . The minimum excess kurtosis is , which is achieved by a Bernoulli distribution with p = 1/2 (a coin flip), and the MSE is minimized for Hence regardless of the kurtosis, we get a "better" estimate (in the sense of having a lower MSE) by scaling down the unbiased estimator a little bit; this is a simple example of a shrinkage estimator: one "shrinks" the estimator towards zero (scales down the unbiased estimator).
Further, while the corrected sample variance is the best unbiased estimator (minimum mean squared error among unbiased estimators) of variance for Gaussian distributions, if the distribution is not Gaussian, then even among unbiased estimators, the best unbiased estimator of the variance may not be
Gaussian distribution
The following table gives several estimators of the true parameters of the population, μ and σ2, for the Gaussian case.
Interpretation
An MSE of zero, meaning that the estimator predicts observations of the parameter with perfect accuracy, is ideal (but typically not possible).
Values of MSE may be used for comparative purposes. Two or more statistical models may be compared using their MSEs—as a measure of how well they explain a given set of observations: An unbiased estimator (estimated from a statistical model) with the smallest variance among all unbiased estimators is the best unbiased estimator or MVUE (Minimum-Variance Unbiased Estimator).
Both analysis of variance and linear regression techniques estimate the MSE as part of the analysis and use the estimated MSE to determine the statistical significance of the factors or predictors under study. The goal of experimental design is to construct experiments in such a way that when the observations are analyzed, the MSE is close to zero relative to the magnitude of at least one of the estimated treatment effects.
In one-way analysis of variance, MSE can be calculated by the division of the sum of squared errors and the degree of freedom. Also, the f-value is the ratio of the mean squared treatment and the MSE.
MSE is also used in several stepwise regression techniques as part of the determination as to how many predictors from a candidate set to include in a model for a given set of observations.
Applications
Minimizing MSE is a key criterion in selecting estimators: see minimum mean-square error. Among unbiased estimators, minimizing the MSE is equivalent to minimizing the variance, and the estimator that does this is the minimum variance unbiased estimator. However, a biased estimator may have lower MSE; see estimator bias.
In statistical modelling the MSE can represent the difference between the actual observations and the observation values predicted by the model. In this context, it is used to determine the extent to which the model fits the data as well as whether removing some explanatory variables is possible without significantly harming the model's predictive ability.
In forecasting and prediction, the Brier score is a measure of forecast skill based on MSE.
Loss function
Squared error loss is one of the most widely used loss functions in statistics, though its widespread use stems more from mathematical convenience than considerations of actual loss in applications. Carl Friedrich Gauss, who introduced the use of mean squared error, was aware of its arbitrariness and was in agreement with objections to it on these grounds. The mathematical benefits of mean squared error are particularly evident in its use at analyzing the performance of linear regression, as it allows one to partition the variation in a dataset into variation explained by the model and variation explained by randomness.
Criticism
The use of mean squared error without question has been criticized by the decision theorist James Berger. Mean squared error is the negative of the expected value of one specific utility function, the quadratic utility function, which may not be the appropriate utility function to use under a given set of circumstances. There are, however, some scenarios where mean squared error can serve as a good approximation to a loss function occurring naturally in an application.
Like variance, mean squared error has the disadvantage of heavily weighting outliers. This is a result of the squaring of each term, which effectively weights large errors more heavily than small ones. This property, undesirable in many applications, has led researchers to use alternatives such as the mean absolute error, or those based on the median.
See also
Bias–variance tradeoff
Hodges' estimator
James–Stein estimator
Mean percentage error
Mean square quantization error
Mean square weighted deviation
Mean squared displacement
Mean squared prediction error
Minimum mean square error
Minimum mean squared error estimator
Overfitting
Peak signal-to-noise ratio
Notes
References
Point estimation performance
Statistical deviation and dispersion
Loss functions
Least squares | wiki |
In geometry, a trapezoid () in American and Canadian English, or trapezium () in British and other forms of English, is a quadrilateral where it has at least one pair of parallel sides.
A trapezoid is necessarily a convex quadrilateral in Euclidean geometry. The parallel sides are called the bases of the trapezoid. The other two sides are called the legs (or the lateral sides) if they are not parallel; otherwise, the trapezoid is a parallelogram, and there are two pairs of bases. A scalene trapezoid is a trapezoid with no sides of equal measure, in contrast with the special cases below.
Etymology and trapezium versus trapezoid
Ancient Greek mathematician Euclid defined five types of quadrilateral, of which four had two sets of parallel sides (known in English as square, rectangle, rhombus and rhomboid) and the last did not have two sets of parallel sides – a τραπέζια (trapezia literally "a table", itself from τετράς (tetrás), "four" + πέζα (péza), "a foot; end, border, edge").
Two types of trapezia were introduced by Proclus (412 to 485 AD) in his commentary on the first book of Euclid's Elements:
one pair of parallel sides – a trapezium (τραπέζιον), divided into isosceles (equal legs) and scalene (unequal) trapezia
no parallel sides – trapezoid (τραπεζοειδή, trapezoeidé, literally trapezium-like (εἶδος means "resembles"), in the same way as cuboid means cube-like and rhomboid means rhombus-like)
All European languages follow Proclus's structure as did English until the late 18th century, until an influential mathematical dictionary published by Charles Hutton in 1795 supported without explanation a transposition of the terms. This mistake was corrected in British English in about 1875, but was retained in American English into the modern day.
The following is a table comparing usages, with the most specific definitions at the top to the most general at the bottom.
Inclusive versus exclusive definition
There is some disagreement whether parallelograms, which have two pairs of parallel sides, should be regarded as trapezoids. Some define a trapezoid as a quadrilateral having only one pair of parallel sides (the exclusive definition), thereby excluding parallelograms. Others define a trapezoid as a quadrilateral with at least one pair of parallel sides (the inclusive definition), making the parallelogram a special type of trapezoid. The latter definition is consistent with its uses in higher mathematics such as calculus. This article uses the inclusive definition and considers parallelograms as special cases of a trapezoid. This is also advocated in the taxonomy of quadrilaterals.
Under the inclusive definition, all parallelograms (including rhombuses, squares and non-square rectangles) are trapezoids. Rectangles have mirror symmetry on mid-edges; rhombuses have mirror symmetry on vertices, while squares have mirror symmetry on both mid-edges and vertices.
Special cases
A right trapezoid (also called right-angled trapezoid) has two adjacent right angles. Right trapezoids are used in the trapezoidal rule for estimating areas under a curve.
An acute trapezoid has two adjacent acute angles on its longer base edge, while an obtuse trapezoid has one acute and one obtuse angle on each base.
An isosceles trapezoid is a trapezoid where the base angles have the same measure. As a consequence the two legs are also of equal length and it has reflection symmetry. This is possible for acute trapezoids or right trapezoids (rectangles).
A parallelogram is a trapezoid with two pairs of parallel sides. A parallelogram has central 2-fold rotational symmetry (or point reflection symmetry). It is possible for obtuse trapezoids or right trapezoids (rectangles).
A tangential trapezoid is a trapezoid that has an incircle.
A Saccheri quadrilateral is similar to a trapezoid in the hyperbolic plane, with two adjacent right angles, while it is a rectangle in the Euclidean plane. A Lambert quadrilateral in the hyperbolic plane has 3 right angles.
Condition of existence
Four lengths a, c, b, d can constitute the consecutive sides of a non-parallelogram trapezoid with a and b parallel only when
The quadrilateral is a parallelogram when , but it is an ex-tangential quadrilateral (which is not a trapezoid) when .
Characterizations
Given a convex quadrilateral, the following properties are equivalent, and each implies that the quadrilateral is a trapezoid:
It has two adjacent angles that are supplementary, that is, they add up to 180 degrees.
The angle between a side and a diagonal is equal to the angle between the opposite side and the same diagonal.
The diagonals cut each other in mutually the same ratio (this ratio is the same as that between the lengths of the parallel sides).
The diagonals cut the quadrilateral into four triangles of which one opposite pair have equal areas.
The product of the areas of the two triangles formed by one diagonal equals the product of the areas of the two triangles formed by the other diagonal.
The areas S and T of some two opposite triangles of the four triangles formed by the diagonals satisfy the equation
where K is the area of the quadrilateral.
The midpoints of two opposite sides and the intersection of the diagonals are collinear.
The angles in the quadrilateral ABCD satisfy
The cosines of two adjacent angles sum to 0, as do the cosines of the other two angles.
The cotangents of two adjacent angles sum to 0, as do the cotangents of the other two adjacent angles.
One bimedian divides the quadrilateral into two quadrilaterals of equal areas.
Twice the length of the bimedian connecting the midpoints of two opposite sides equals the sum of the lengths of the other sides.
Additionally, the following properties are equivalent, and each implies that opposite sides a and b are parallel:
The consecutive sides a, c, b, d and the diagonals p, q satisfy the equation
The distance v between the midpoints of the diagonals satisfies the equation
Midsegment and height
The midsegment (also called the median or midline) of a trapezoid is the segment that joins the midpoints of the legs. It is parallel to the bases. Its length m is equal to the average of the lengths of the bases a and b of the trapezoid,
The midsegment of a trapezoid is one of the two bimedians (the other bimedian divides the trapezoid into equal areas).
The height (or altitude) is the perpendicular distance between the bases. In the case that the two bases have different lengths (a ≠ b), the height of a trapezoid h can be determined by the length of its four sides using the formula
where c and d are the lengths of the legs.
Area
The area K of a trapezoid is given by
where a and b are the lengths of the parallel sides, h is the height (the perpendicular distance between these sides), and m is the arithmetic mean of the lengths of the two parallel sides. In 499 AD Aryabhata, a great mathematician-astronomer from the classical age of Indian mathematics and Indian astronomy, used this method in the Aryabhatiya (section 2.8). This yields as a special case the well-known formula for the area of a triangle, by considering a triangle as a degenerate trapezoid in which one of the parallel sides has shrunk to a point.
The 7th-century Indian mathematician Bhāskara I derived the following formula for the area of a trapezoid with consecutive sides a, c, b, d:
where a and b are parallel and b > a. This formula can be factored into a more symmetric version
When one of the parallel sides has shrunk to a point (say a = 0), this formula reduces to Heron's formula for the area of a triangle.
Another equivalent formula for the area, which more closely resembles Heron's formula, is
where is the semiperimeter of the trapezoid. (This formula is similar to Brahmagupta's formula, but it differs from it, in that a trapezoid might not be cyclic (inscribed in a circle). The formula is also a special case of Bretschneider's formula for a general quadrilateral).
From Bretschneider's formula, it follows that
The line that joins the midpoints of the parallel sides, bisects the area.
Diagonals
The lengths of the diagonals are
where a is the short base, b is the long base, and c and d are the trapezoid legs.
If the trapezoid is divided into four triangles by its diagonals AC and BD (as shown on the right), intersecting at O, then the area of is equal to that of , and the product of the areas of and is equal to that of and . The ratio of the areas of each pair of adjacent triangles is the same as that between the lengths of the parallel sides.
Let the trapezoid have vertices A, B, C, and D in sequence and have parallel sides AB and DC. Let E be the intersection of the diagonals, and let F be on side DA and G be on side BC such that FEG is parallel to AB and CD. Then FG is the harmonic mean of AB and DC:
The line that goes through both the intersection point of the extended nonparallel sides and the intersection point of the diagonals, bisects each base.
Other properties
The center of area (center of mass for a uniform lamina) lies along the line segment joining the midpoints of the parallel sides, at a perpendicular distance x from the longer side b given by
The center of area divides this segment in the ratio (when taken from the short to the long side)
If the angle bisectors to angles A and B intersect at P, and the angle bisectors to angles C and D intersect at Q, then
Applications
Architecture
In architecture the word is used to refer to symmetrical doors, windows, and buildings built wider at the base, tapering toward the top, in Egyptian style. If these have straight sides and sharp angular corners, their shapes are usually isosceles trapezoids. This was the standard style for the doors and windows of the Inca.
Geometry
The crossed ladders problem is the problem of finding the distance between the parallel sides of a right trapezoid, given the diagonal lengths and the distance from the perpendicular leg to the diagonal intersection.
Biology
In morphology, taxonomy and other descriptive disciplines in which a term for such shapes is necessary, terms such as trapezoidal or trapeziform commonly are useful in descriptions of particular organs or forms.
Computer engineering
In computer engineering, specifically digital logic and computer architecture, trapezoids are typically utilized to symbolize multiplexors. Multiplexors are logic elements that select between multiple elements and produce a single output based on a select signal. Typical designs will employ trapezoids without specifically stating they are multiplexors as they are universally equivalent.
See also
Frustum, a solid having trapezoidal faces
Polite number, also known as a trapezoidal number
Wedge, a polyhedron defined by two triangles and three trapezoid faces.
References
Further reading
D. Fraivert, A. Sigler and M. Stupel : Common properties of trapezoids and convex quadrilaterals
External links
"Trapezium" at Encyclopedia of Mathematics
Trapezoid definition Area of a trapezoid Median of a trapezoid With interactive animations
Trapezoid (North America) at elsy.at: Animated course (construction, circumference, area)
Trapezoidal Rule on Numerical Methods for Stem Undergraduate
Autar Kaw and E. Eric Kalu, Numerical Methods with Applications, (2008)
Elementary shapes
Types of quadrilaterals | wiki |
Since rugby has two codes, a comparison of American football and rugby may refer to either:
Comparison of American football and rugby union
Comparison of American football and rugby league | wiki |
A mortise and tenon (occasionally mortice and tenon) joint connects two pieces of wood or other material. Woodworkers around the world have used it for thousands of years to join pieces of wood, mainly when the adjoining pieces connect at right angles.
Mortise and tenon joints are strong and stable joints that can be used in many projects. They furnish a strong outcome and connect by either gluing or locking into place. The mortise and tenon joint also gives an attractive look. One drawback to this joint is the difficulty in making it because of the precise measuring and tight cutting required. In its most basic form, a mortise and tenon joint is both simple and strong. There are many variations of this type of joint, and the basic mortise and tenon has two components:
the mortise hole, and
the tenon tongue.
The tenon, formed on the end of a member generally referred to as a rail, fits into a square or rectangular hole cut into the other, corresponding member. The tenon is cut to fit the mortise hole exactly. It usually has shoulders that seat when the joint fully enters the mortise hole. The joint may be glued, pinned, or wedged to lock it in place.
This joint is also used with other materials. For example, it is traditionally used by both stonemasons and blacksmiths.
Etymology
The noun mortise, "a hole or groove in which something is fitted to form a joint", comes from from Old French (13th century), possibly from Arabic , "fastened", past participle of , "cut a mortise in". The word tenon, a noun in English since the late 14th century, developed its sense of "a projection inserted to make a joint" from the Old French "to hold".
History and ancient examples
The mortise and tenon joint is an ancient joint dating back 7,000 years. The first examples, tusked joints, were found in a well near Leipzig – the world's oldest intact wooden architecture. These were created by early Neolithic Linear Pottery culture, where it was used in the construction of the wooden lining of the wells. Mortise and tenon joints have also been found joining the wooden planks of the "Khufu ship", a long vessel sealed into a pit in the Giza pyramid complex of the Fourth Dynasty around 2500 BC.
Mortise and tenon joints have also been found in ancient furniture from archaeological sites in the Middle East, Europe and Asia. Many instances are found, for example, in ruins of houses in the Silk Road kingdom of Cadota, dating from the first to the 4th century BC. In traditional Chinese architecture, wood components such as beams, brackets, roof frames, and struts were made to interlock with perfect fit, without using fasteners or glues, enabling the wood to expand and contract according to humidity. Archaeological evidence from Chinese sites shows that, by the end of the Neolithic, mortise and tenon joinery was employed in Chinese construction.
The thirty sarsen stones of Stonehenge were dressed and fashioned with mortise and tenon joints before they were erected between 2600 and 2400 BC.
A variation of the mortise and tenon technique, called Phoenician joints (from the Latin ) was extensively used in ancient shipbuilding to assemble hull planks and other watercraft components together. It is a locked (pegged) mortise and tenon technique that consists of cutting two mortises into the edges of two planks; a separate rectangular tenon is then inserted in the two mortises. The assembly is then locked in place by driving a dowel through one or more holes drilled through mortise side wall and tenon.
Description
Generally, the size of the mortise and tenon is related to the thickness of the timbers. It is good practice to proportion the tenon as one third the thickness of the rail, or as close to this as is practical. The haunch, the cut-away part of a sash corner joint that prevents the tenon coming loose, is one third the length of the tenon and one-sixth of the width of the tenon in its depth. The remaining two-thirds of the rail, the tenon shoulders, help to counteract lateral forces that might tweak the tenon from the mortise, contributing to its strength. These also serve to hide imperfections in the opening of the mortise.
Types
Mortises
A mortise is a hole cut into a timber to receive a tenon. There are several kinds of mortise:
Open mortise: a mortise that has only three sides. (See bridle joint).
Stub mortise: a shallow mortise, the depth of which depends on the size of the timber; also a mortise that does not go through the workpiece (as opposed to a "through mortise").
Through mortise: a mortise that passes entirely through a piece.
Wedged half-dovetail: a mortise in which the back is wider, or taller, than the front, or opening. The space for the wedge initially leaves room to insert the tenon. The wedge, after the tenon is engaged, prevents its withdrawal.
Through-wedged half-dovetail: a wedged half-dovetail mortise that passes entirely through the piece.
Tenons
A tenon is a projection on the end of a timber for insertion into a mortise. Usually, the tenon is taller than it is wide. There are several kinds of tenons:
Stub tenon: a short tenon, the depth of which depends on the size of the timber; also a tenon that is shorter than the width of the mortised piece so the tenon does not show (as opposed to a "through tenon").
Through tenon: a tenon that passes entirely through the piece of wood it is inserted into, being clearly visible on the rear side.
Loose tenon: a tenon that is a separate part of the joint, as opposed to a fixed tenon that is an integral part of one of the pieces to be joined.
Biscuit tenon: a thin oval piece of wood, shaped like a biscuit
Pegged (or pinned) tenon: the joint is strengthened by driving a peg or dowel pin (treenail) through one or more holes drilled through the mortise side wall and tenon; this is common in timber framing joints.
Tusk tenon: a kind of mortise and tenon joint that uses a wedge-shaped key to hold the joint together.
Teasel (or teazle) tenon: a term used for the tenon on top of a jowled or gunstock post, which is typically received by the mortise in the underside of a tie beam. A common element of the English tying joint.
Top tenon: the tenon that occurs on top of a post.
Hammer-headed tenon: a method of forming a tenon joint when the shoulders cannot be tightened with a clamp.
Half shoulder tenon: an asymmetric tenon with a shoulder on one side only. A common use is in framed, ledged, and braced doors.
Gallery
See also
Box joint
Dado
Dovetail joint
References
This article is partly based on a Quicksilver wiki article at A Glossary of Terms For Traditional Timber Framing (Timberbee) under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.
Joinery
Timber framing | wiki |
Engine displacement is the measure of the cylinder volume swept by all of the pistons of a piston engine, excluding the combustion chambers. It is commonly used as an expression of an engine's size, and by extension as a loose indicator of the power an engine might be capable of producing and the amount of fuel it should be expected to consume. For this reason displacement is one of the measures often used in advertising, as well as regulating, motor vehicles.
It is usually expressed using the metric units of cubic centimetres (cc or cm3, equivalent to millilitres) or litres (l or L), orparticularly in the United States cubic inches (CID, cu in, or in3).
Definition
The overall displacement for a typical reciprocating piston engine is calculated by multiplying together three values; the distance travelled by the piston (the stroke length), the circular area of the cylinder, and the number of cylinders in the whole engine.
The formula is:
Using this formula for non-typical types of engine, such as the Wankel design and the oval-piston type used in Honda NR motorcycles, can sometimes yield misleading results when attempting to compare engines. Manufacturers and regulators may develop and use specialised formulae to determine a comparative nominal displacement for variant engine types.
Governmental regulations
In several countries fees and taxes levied on road vehicles by transport authorities are scaled in proportion to engine displacement. In countries where this is practised, vehicle manufacturers often seek to increase power output through higher-revving engines or turbocharging, instead of increasing the displacement.
Examples of countries where the road taxes are based upon engine displacement:
In some European countries, and which predates the EU, there is one charge for engines over 1.0 litre, and another at the level of about 1.6 litres.
In the United Kingdom, cars registered after 1 March 2001 are taxed based on the exhaust emissions. However, cars registered before this date are taxed based on engine displacement. Cars under 1549 cm3 qualify for a lower tax rate.
In Japan, the engine displacement is one of the factors (along with overall vehicle size and power output) used to determine the vehicle size class and therefore the cost of road tax for the vehicle
In France and some other EU countries, mopeds with a displacement of less than can be driven with minimum qualifications. This led to all light motorbikes having a displacement of about 49.9 cm3.
In many areas of the United States, Canada (except Quebec), Australia and New Zealand, the road taxes are not based on engine displacement. However, the engine displacement is often used in low-powered scooters or mopeds to determine whether a licence is required to operate the vehicle. A common threshold is .
Wankel engines are able to produce higher power levels for a given displacement. Therefore, they are generally taxed as 1.5 times their stated physical displacement (1.3 litres becomes effectively 2.0, 2.0 becomes effectively 3.0), although actual power outputs can be higher than suggested by this conversion factor.
Automotive model names
Historically, many car model names have included their engine displacement. Examples include the 1923–1930 Cadillac Series 353 (powered by a 353 Cubic inch/5.8-litre engine), and the 1963–1968 BMW 1800 (a 1.8-litre engine) and Lexus LS 400 with a 3,968 cc engine. This was especially common in US muscle cars, like the Ford Mustang Boss 302 and 429, and later GT 5.0L, The Plymouth Roadrunner 440, and the Chevrolet Chevelle SS 396 and 454.
However, trends towards turbocharging and hybrid/electric drivetrains since 2010 have resulted in far fewer model names being based on the engine displacement.
See also
Active Fuel Management
Bore (engine)
Compression ratio
Stroke (engine)
Variable displacement
References
Displacement | wiki |
A comparison between American football and rugby league is possible because of their shared origins and similar game concepts. Rugby league is arguably the most similar sport to American football after Canadian football: both sports involve the concept of a limited number of downs/tackles and scoring touchdowns/tries takes clear precedence over goal-kicking.
Generally, American football games last much longer than 80-minute rugby league matches. Because the field is reset after each tackle in American football, it is much slower-paced than the more hectic rugby league, in which play stops for only as long as it takes the tackled player to get back to his feet and return the ball to play. Another major difference is that only the player with possession of the ball may be interfered with in rugby league; defending players interfering with any other attacking player (and vice versa) will incur a penalty. Passing in the two sports also differs: while backward passing is common to both sports, in American football players are allowed to throw the ball forward in certain situations whereas in rugby league forward passing is always illegal. Rugby league footballers have to kick the ball or run it forward to advance it downfield. To score a try or touchdown in rugby league, the player has to push the ball directly onto the ground once in the try zone, whereas in American football the player has to simply have possession of the ball as it crosses the plane of the goal-line, or receive a forward pass while in the end zone.
American football requires its players to use a large amount of protective equipment, including helmets, gloves and padding around the body, whereas protective clothing is much more minimal in rugby league, usually amounting to light padding (if any) and soft headgear (hard helmets being illegal). The playing fields of both sports are similar in size with a rugby league playing field being long while an American football field is long.
Origins
Both sports descend from the older game of rugby football, which originated in 19th Century England. British colonists and the British military in Canada brought football to North America. It became popular in American and Canadian universities and prep schools. At the time, association football and rugby football were not as differentiated as they are now and teams would negotiate the rules before playing each game. The sports of American football and Canadian football evolved from these intercollegiate games.
Meanwhile, in England a schism developed in rugby football between those who favoured strict amateurism and those who felt that players should be compensated for time taken off work to play rugby. In 1895, this resulted in the formation of a break-away sport, rugby league, which permitted player payments. At first, the two rugby codes differed only in how they were administered; over time, their playing rules diverged to the point that they are now distinctly different forms of football.
The field
American football is played on a rectangular field long by 53 1⁄3 yards (48.8 m) wide. Near each end of the field is a goal line, which are apart. A scoring area called an end zone extends beyond each goal line. Yard lines cross the field every , two rows of hash marks run parallel to the side lines near the middle of the field. At the back of each of the end zones, there are a set of goalposts. American football goalposts were formerly H-shaped and were located on the goal line, but; in 1967, the NFL adopted the current modern offset-fork design, made from extruded steel pipes. The goalposts currently consist of two vertical posts 18.5 feet (5.6 m) apart (24 feet (7.3 m) in high school football) rising from a horizontal crossbar, which is mounted on a single central support post that raises the crossbar to a height of 10 feet (3.0 m), resulting in a two-tined fork shape. The central vertical post is offset from the crossbar toward the rear, placing it as far as possible from the field of play; it is also usually padded to minimize collision-related injuries. In 1974, in the effort to create a safer, unimpeded field of play in the end zone, calculated to produce more passing touchdowns, the NFL relocated the goalposts from the goal line to the end line.
A rugby league field has very similar dimensions, being up to long and wide. Lines cross the field marking every . The goal posts are situated on the goal line and are therefore separated by exactly . The area beyond each goal post, known as the in-goal area, extends for another . In rugby league, the goal posts are usually H-shaped, each post being high and apart, with the cross bar being high. American football "tuning fork" goal posts are allowed in rugby league, provided the posts and cross bar are at the required dimensions. The goal posts are used for other forms of point scoring in rugby league: drop goals or field goals, penalty goals and conversions.
Players
As four replacements in a rugby league team, with only twelve interchanges of players allowed to be made throughout the game (eight in the Australian NRL). If the interchanges are used up and a player becomes injured and cannot continue, the team simply has to play short handed. All players must attack and defend and there is no equivalent of special teams.
Prior to the 1960s, and in arena football (an indoor variant of the American game) from 1988 to 2007, American football did use a one-platoon system in which most players were required to play all facets of the game, severely limiting substitution, much as rugby league (and most other sports) continue to do. Most levels of American football abolished the one-platoon system in the late 1940s and early 1950s, although college football re-implemented it for a short time in the 1950s and 1960s.
Broadly speaking, offensive and defensive linemen in American football correspond to forwards in rugby league and other players are somewhat similar to backs. Basically the job of the forwards in rugby league is to get the ball over the advantage line and give the backs space and a chance to be creative and move the ball around, which will hopefully result in points. However, rugby league footballers are far less specialised than American football players.
Many of the positions have similar names but in practice are very different. A fullback in American football is very different from a fullback in rugby league. However, some of the positions are fairly similar: for instance, the stand-off/five-eighth and halfback carry out a similar role to a quarterback in American football.
Advancing the ball
In American football, the team that's in possession of the ball (the offense) has four "downs", to advance the ball 10 yards towards the end zone. When the offense gains 10 yards, it gets another set of four downs. If the offense fails to gain 10 yards after 4 downs, it loses possession of the ball.
A down ends, and the ball becomes dead, after any of the following:
The player with the ball is tackled.
A forward pass goes out of bounds or touches the ground before it is caught. This is known as an incomplete pass. The ball is returned to the original "line of scrimmage" for the next down.
The ball or the player with the ball goes out of bounds.
The player either goes or is forced out of the field (out of bounds)
The offense turns the ball over to the defense.
A team scores.
This closely resembles the six-tackle rule in rugby league. Originally, tackles were unlimited in rugby league, as they are in the related sport of rugby union. As this could result in long periods with one team in possession of the ball, in 1966 the game's administrators implemented the limited tackle rule from American football. At first, the number of tackles was set at four, as in American football; it was later extended to six to give teams more time to develop attacking play. After six tackles, the team with the ball has to hand over possession to the opposing team. A key difference with American football is that there is no automatic way of earning a new set of tackles in rugby league. Each set is effectively a chance to score, with failure to do so resulting in relinquishing possession. Another major difference is that play stops briefly when the player in possession of the ball is tackled as it resumes as soon as he gets to his feet and returns the ball to play.
Players can advance the ball in two ways in American football:
By running with the ball, also known as rushing. One ball-carrier can hand the ball to another; this is known as a handoff.
By passing the ball forwards to a teammate. This can only be performed once on a down, and cannot be attempted after the ball crosses the line of scrimmage. The illegal forward pass rule has changed several times, with the current NFL rule being that the passer's entire person must be beyond the line of scrimmage for a forward pass to be illegal. The passer (most often the quarterback but not always so) can therefore straddle the line of scrimmage, or even be mostly beyond it, but still legally pass the ball, regardless of where the ball is in relation to the line of scrimmage.
In rugby league the ball cannot be passed forward, so players can advance the ball by either running with it, or kicking it ahead and chasing it. This concept is preserved in American football; any player may pass the ball backwards, regardless of player position and location of the field. In addition, a ball passed backwards remains live, even if not caught, so long as it remains in play, similar to rugby league.
Following a down, the ball is returned to play within a restricted time limit by a "snap" in American Football. All players line up facing each other at the line of scrimmage. One offensive player, the center, then passes (or "snaps") the ball back between his legs to a teammate, usually the quarterback and play commences.
In rugby league the ball is returned to play following a tackle via the "play the ball", in which the tackled player gets back to his feet and rolls the ball back to a teammate, usually the hooker. The tackled player will usually try to return to the ball to play as quickly as possible before the defensive line can re-form.
Possession may change in different ways in both games:-
An automatic handover takes place when the team in possession runs out of downs / tackles.
When the ball is kicked to the opposing team. This can be done at any time but it is normal to punt on the last down / tackle.
Following an unsuccessful kick at goal.
When an opposing player intercepts a pass.
In rugby league the opposition are awarded a scrum if the player in possession drops the ball forwards or makes the ball go forwards with any part of his body other than his feet. This is called a knock-on.
When the player in possession drops the ball and it is recovered by an opposition player. This is called a fumble in American football and a knock-on in rugby league.
In rugby league if the ball goes out of play, the opposition are awarded a scrum the "loose head and feed" of the scrum. Penalties and 40/20 kicks are exceptions to this rule.
In American football possession changes hands following a successful score and the team scoring kicks off to the opposition. In contrast, in rugby league the team who conceded the points must kick off to the team who scored. (In some amateur levels of American football, and in Canadian football, the team who conceded the points has the option of kicking off to the opposition rather than receiving the kickoff, but this option is extremely rarely invoked.)
In American football, on a kickoff following a score the kicking team may try an onside kick to attempt to retain possession for themselves. The kicker either dribbles the ball forward or, more popularly, drives the ball into the ground in an attempt to make it bounce high into the air for a teammate to catch. The ball must travel 10 yards before it is touched by the kicking team, or be first touched by the receiving team. A similar tactic is used in rugby league, called a short kickoff. A high cross-field kick towards jumping receivers is popular. The kick must travel at least 10 metres forward before being caught. In both codes the tactic is most often attempted by a team that is behind late in a game, but may be tried at other times as a surprise tactic.
In both codes, tactical kicking is an important aspect of play. However, kicking in general play is more common in rugby league. Kicking is far more heavily restricted in American football; the rules currently prohibit a player from kicking the ball after he has crossed the line of scrimmage, whereas a rugby league footballer can kick the ball at any time, from any point on the field. In rugby league, a player can receive a kick (and still maintain possession) if he is behind the kicker at the time of the kick; that feature is not allowed in the American game, except in the onside kick scenario described above.
Passing
In American football, the offense can throw the ball forward once on a play from behind the line of scrimmage. The forward pass is a distinguishing feature of American and Canadian football as it is strictly forbidden in rugby league.
The ball can be thrown sideways or backwards without restriction in both games. In American football this is known as a lateral and is much less common than in rugby league. The lateral is most commonly seen on plays at the very end of the game when a team needing a touchdown with only time on the clock for one more play attempts to avoid being tackled by passing to any teammate behind him that may advance the ball. A common trick play called the hook and ladder combines the two - a short forward pass is thrown, with the player catching the pass immediately throwing a lateral to a trailing teammate who is hopefully unnoticed by defensive players. Laterals are also seen in pitch or pitchout plays, where the quarterback tosses the ball to a back behind him, rather than handing it off.
There is also a minor distinction in what constitutes a forward or backward pass in the two sports. In rugby league (as in rugby union), a pass is considered forward (and thus illegal) if the person catching the ball is ahead of the player throwing it. In American football, a pass is considered forward only if the path of the ball itself has a forward component to it. For instance, the Music City Miracle (a play in which the receiving end of a lateral pass was ahead of the person throwing it, but the path was not forward) was a legal lateral in American football but would have been an illegal forward pass had it been attempted in rugby.
In both codes, if the ball is caught by an opposition player this results in an interception and possession changes hands.
Tackles and blocks
In both games it is permitted to bring down the player in possession of the ball and prevent them making forward progress. Play then restarts from the next down or tackle. In rugby league, it is common for the player in possession to 'off-load' the ball, passing out of the tackle (before forward progress is halted) in order not to use up a tackle and to keep the play alive. This is much less common in American football, where the lateral pass is most commonly used as a desperation strategy when trailing near the end of a game.
In American football, as a tactic within an offensive play, designated offensive position players are assigned to 'block' defensive players, by projecting the front of their body forward into the front or side of the defensive player, in order to impede the ability of the defensive player to tackle the ball carrier. A complicated set of rules, however well-understood by the players, coaches and officials, determines the legality of the block. Illegal blocks, when observed by the officials, are flagged for penalties that vary in their severity, depending upon the particular infraction. Blocks are not permitted in rugby league and would be considered 'obstruction', resulting in a penalty.
Scoring
A touchdown is the American football equivalent of rugby league's try. Despite the names, a try requires the ball to be 'touched down' to the ground, whereas a touchdown doesn't. In American football it is sufficient for the player carrying the ball to cause the ball to enter the end zone (in-goal area) while still in bounds, by carrying it in or holding the ball in or through the imaginary plane of the goal line. In rugby league the ball must be pressed to the ground in the in-goal area. An American football touchdown scores six points and a rugby league try is worth four points.
In both games, following a try / touchdown, there is the opportunity to score additional points by kicking the ball between the posts and over the bar. In American football this is called an extra point or a "point after touchdown" (PAT) in the NFL (worth 1 point); in rugby league it is known as a conversion (worth 2 points). There are two key differences between an extra point and a conversion: conversions cannot be charged down like an extra point attempt and they must be taken from the same position as the try was scored. Hence, it is important to score under the posts rather than in the corner, which makes for a difficult kick. Rugby league has no equivalent to American football's two-point conversion, in which the scoring team chooses not to kick at goal, but attempt a second touchdown from short range.
In American football teams often opt to attempt a field goal (worth 3 points) rather than attempt a touchdown. The rugby league equivalent, also called a field goal, is worth only one point and is much less common. The key difference between a field goal in the two sports is that an American football field goal attempt is normally kicked with a teammate holding the ball, whereas in rugby league the field goal is attempted using a drop-kick.
A similar concept in rugby league is the penalty goal. Following the award of the penalty, the attacking team may opt to kick for goal rather than advance the ball by hand or punting. This scores 2 points in league. The penalty goal is similar to a field goal in American football in that the ball is kicked from the ground and may be held by a teammate (although almost never is), but it cannot be charged down. The nearest equivalent in American football is the rarely used fair catch kick.
American football has one further method of scoring which does not exist in rugby league. If a ball carrier is tackled in their own endzone (in-goal area) with the ball or steps out the back of the end zone with the ball, this results in a safety which scores 2 points for the opposing team. In rugby league this does not result in any points but causes the team in possession to kick the ball back to the opposition from under the posts.
Cross Code Matches
At least one cross-code match between American football and rugby league has been played. On August 1, 2009 the Jacksonville Axemen of the AMNRL played the Jacksonville Knights of the Florida Football Alliance. The first half was played under American football rules, the second half was played under rugby league rules. The score at half-time was Jacksonville Axemen 6 - Jacksonville Knights 27. The final score was Jacksonville Axemen 38 - Jacksonville Knights 27.
See also
Comparison of rugby league and rugby union
Comparison of American football and rugby union
Comparison of Canadian and American football
Comparison of Canadian football and rugby league
Players who have converted from one football code to another
Notes
References
External links
American Football (Gridiron) and Rugby League at rl1908.com
NFL Digest of Rules
Rugby League's International Laws of the Game
American football
Rugby league
American football and rugby league
Rugby league in the United States | wiki |
The Secret Code can refer to:
The Secret Code (film), a 1918 film starring Gloria Swanson
The Secret Code (serial), a 1942 film serial
"The Secret Code" (Seinfeld), a television episode
The Secret Code (album), by Tohoshinki (TVXQ), 2009
Secret Code, an album by Aya Kamiki, 2006 | wiki |
In Canada, provincial driver's licences are the primary form of government-issued photo ID. Most Canadian provinces produce photo ID cards for Canadians who do not drive. A common feature of these cards is that it cannot be held concurrently with a valid drivers licence.
Provinces
Alberta
Alberta provides its residents with an Alberta identification card. This card is produced by Service Alberta. The minimum age for this card to be issued is 12, but anyone under the age of 18 requires parental consent. Alberta does not produce an enhanced card for non-drivers.
British Columbia
British Columbia produces the B.C. identification card (BCID). The minimum age to apply for this card is 12 years of age, although people under the age of 19 require parental consent. Production of these cards is administered by the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia, the same office as BC driver's licences. There is a $35 fee for five years, unless a valid drivers licence is exchanged.
British Columbia produced an enhanced ID card to be used as proof of citizenship at land borders.
Manitoba
Manitoba produces both a Manitoba identification card and Manitoba enhanced identification card for non-drivers. These cards are issued by Manitoba Public Insurance, and there is a $20 fee for five years.
New Brunswick
New Brunswick produces a photo ID card for non-drivers for a $48 fee, or $15 for a replacement. The card expires after four years.
Newfoundland and Labrador
Newfoundland and Labrador produces photo identification cards. The fee is $25 for five years. The province does not produce an enhanced ID card.
Nova Scotia
As of February 2017, all driver's licences and provincial identification cards conform to the enhanced security measures.
Ontario
In July 2011, the Government of Ontario introduced the Ontario photo card for Ontarians who do not hold a valid Ontario driver's licence. The fee is $35 for five years. As of May 2012, more than 40,000 cards are in circulation. It is offered at 85 ServiceOntario locations. As of 2012, although the Ontario government has produced an enhanced driver's licence, there is no corresponding enhanced photo card as the EDL program is being phased out as of June 2019.
Prince Edward Island
Prince Edward Island produces the voluntary ID for residents of PEI who do not drive. These cards are produced by Access PEI.
Quebec
, Quebec does not have a photo card for non-drivers. Residents may use their Quebec health insurance cards as ID, however, as they contain photos. .
Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan produces a photo ID for non-drivers, issued through Saskatchewan Government Insurance (SGI). There is a $15 fee for the production of this card.
Territories
Northwest Territories
In 2012 NWT began issuing the Northwest Territories general identification card
Nunavut
In 2008 Nunavut began issuing general identification cards.
Yukon
Yukon Territory introduced the Yukon general identification card in October 2010, while also upgrading the security features of Yukon driving licences. The fee is $25 for five years. Prior to these cards, non-drivers used a territorial liquor card.
References
Law of Canada
Photo cards | wiki |
Cardinalis is a genus of cardinal in the family Cardinalidae. There are three species ranging across the Great Lakes region to northern South America.
Description
They are birds between 19 and 22 cm in length. Its most distinctive characteristics are the presence of a conspicuous crest and a thick and strong conical bill. There is sexual dimorphism; males have a greater amount of red in their plumage, and females have only some tints, with a predominance of gray. Immature individuals are similar to females.
Species
References
External links
Bird genera
Taxa named by Charles Lucien Bonaparte
Taxonomy articles created by Polbot | wiki |
Bird migration is the regular seasonal movement, often north and south, along a flyway, between breeding and wintering grounds. Many species of bird migrate. Migration carries high costs in predation and mortality, including from hunting by humans, and is driven primarily by the availability of food. It occurs mainly in the northern hemisphere, where birds are funneled onto specific routes by natural barriers such as the Mediterranean Sea or the Caribbean Sea.
Migration of species such as storks, turtle doves, and swallows was recorded as many as 3,000 years ago by Ancient Greek authors, including Homer and Aristotle, and in the Book of Job. More recently, Johannes Leche began recording dates of arrivals of spring migrants in Finland in 1749, and modern scientific studies have used techniques including bird ringing and satellite tracking to trace migrants. Threats to migratory birds have grown with habitat destruction, especially of stopover and wintering sites, as well as structures such as power lines and wind farms.
The Arctic tern holds the long-distance migration record for birds, traveling between Arctic breeding grounds and the Antarctic each year. Some species of tubenoses (Procellariiformes) such as albatrosses circle the earth, flying over the southern oceans, while others such as Manx shearwaters migrate between their northern breeding grounds and the southern ocean. Shorter migrations are common, while longer ones are not. The shorter migrations include altitudinal migrations on mountains such as the Andes and Himalayas.
The timing of migration seems to be controlled primarily by changes in day length. Migrating birds navigate using celestial cues from the sun and stars, the earth's magnetic field, and mental maps.
Historical views
In the Pacific, traditional land finding techniques used by Micronesians and Polynesians suggest that bird migration was observed and interpreted for more than 3,000 years. In Samoan tradition, for example, Tagaloa sent his daughter Sina to Earth in the form of a bird, Tuli, to find dry land, the word tuli referring specifically to land finding waders, often to the Pacific golden plover. Bird migrations were recorded in Europe from at least 3,000 years ago by the Ancient Greek writers Hesiod, Homer, Herodotus and Aristotle. Two books of the Bible address migration. The Book of Job notes migrations with the inquiry: "Is it by your insight that the hawk hovers, spreads its wings southward?" A prophecy of Jeremiah includes the following comment: "Even the stork in the heavens know its seasons, and the turtle dove, the swift and the crane keep the time of their arrival."
Aristotle recorded that cranes traveled from the steppes of Scythia to marshes at the headwaters of the Nile, an observation repeated by Pliny the Elder in his Historia Naturalis.
Swallow migration versus hibernation
Aristotle, however, suggested that swallows and other birds hibernated. This belief persisted as late as 1878 when Elliott Coues listed the titles of no fewer than 182 papers dealing with the hibernation of swallows. Even the "highly observant" Gilbert White, in his posthumously published 1789 The Natural History of Selborne, quoted a man's story about swallows being found in a chalk cliff collapse "while he was a schoolboy at Brighthelmstone", though the man denied being an eyewitness. However, he writes that "as to swallows being found in a torpid state during the winter in the Isle of Wight or any part of this country, I never heard any such account worth attending to", and that if early swallows "happen to find frost and snow they immediately withdraw for a time—a circumstance this much more in favor of hiding than migration", since he doubts they would "return for a week or two to warmer latitudes".
Only at the end of the eighteenth century was migration accepted as an explanation for the winter disappearance of birds from northern climes. Thomas Bewick's A History of British Birds (Volume 1, 1797) mentions a report from "a very intelligent master of a vessel" who, "between the islands of Menorca and Majorca, saw great numbers of Swallows flying northward", and states the situation in Britain as follows:
Bewick then describes an experiment that succeeded in keeping swallows alive in Britain for several years, where they remained warm and dry through the winters. He concludes:
Pfeilstörche
In 1822, a white stork was found in the German state of Mecklenburg with an arrow made from central African hardwood, which provided some of the earliest evidence of long-distance stork migration. This bird was referred to as a Pfeilstorch, German for "Arrow stork". Since then, around 25 Pfeilstörche have been documented.
General patterns
Migration is the regular seasonal movement, often north and south, undertaken by many species of birds. Bird movements include those made in response to changes in food availability, habitat, or weather. Sometimes, journeys are not termed "true migration" because they are irregular (nomadism, invasions, irruptions) or in only one direction (dispersal, movement of young away from natal area). Migration is marked by its annual seasonality. Non-migratory birds are said to be resident or sedentary. Approximately 1,800 of the world's 10,000 bird species are long-distance migrants.
Many bird populations migrate long distances along a flyway. The most common pattern involves flying north in the spring to breed in the temperate or Arctic summer and returning in the autumn to wintering grounds in warmer regions to the south. Of course, in the southern hemisphere, the directions are reversed, but there is less land area in the far south to support long-distance migration.
The primary motivation for migration appears to be food; for example, some hummingbirds choose not to migrate if fed through the winter. In addition, the longer days of the northern summer provide extended time for breeding birds to feed their young. This helps diurnal birds to produce larger clutches than related non-migratory species that remain in the tropics. As the days shorten in autumn, the birds return to warmer regions where the available food supply varies little with the season.
These advantages offset the high stress, physical exertion costs, and other risks of the migration. Predation can be heightened during migration: Eleonora's falcon Falco eleonorae, which breeds on Mediterranean islands, has a very late breeding season, coordinated with the autumn passage of southbound passerine migrants, which it feeds to its young. A similar strategy is adopted by the greater noctule bat, which preys on nocturnal passerine migrants. The higher concentrations of migrating birds at stopover sites make them prone to parasites and pathogens, which require a heightened immune response.
Within a species not all populations may be migratory; this is known as "partial migration". Partial migration is very common in the southern continents; in Australia, 44% of non-passerine birds and 32% of passerine species are partially migratory. In some species, the population at higher latitudes tends to be migratory and will often winter at lower latitude. The migrating birds bypass the latitudes where other populations may be sedentary, where suitable wintering habitats may already be occupied. This is an example of leap-frog migration. Many fully migratory species show leap-frog migration (birds that nest at higher latitudes spend the winter at lower latitudes), and many show the alternative, chain migration, where populations 'slide' more evenly north and south without reversing the order.
Within a population, it is common for different ages and/or sexes to have different patterns of timing and distance. Female chaffinches Fringilla coelebs in Eastern Fennoscandia migrate earlier in the autumn than males do and the European tits of genera Parus and Cyanistes only migrate their first year.
Most migrations begin with the birds starting off in a broad front. Often, this front narrows into one or more preferred routes termed flyways. These routes typically follow mountain ranges or coastlines, sometimes rivers, and may take advantage of updrafts and other wind patterns or avoid geographical barriers such as large stretches of open water. The specific routes may be genetically programmed or learned to varying degrees. The routes taken on forward and return migration are often different. A common pattern in North America is clockwise migration, where birds flying North tend to be further West, and flying South tend to shift Eastwards.
Many, if not most, birds migrate in flocks. For larger birds, flying in flocks reduces the energy cost. Geese in a V-formation may conserve 12–20% of the energy they would need to fly alone. Red knots Calidris canutus and dunlins Calidris alpina were found in radar studies to fly faster in flocks than when they were flying alone.
Birds fly at varying altitudes during migration. An expedition to Mt. Everest found skeletons of northern pintail Anas acuta and black-tailed godwit Limosa limosa at on the Khumbu Glacier. Bar-headed geese Anser indicus have been recorded by GPS flying at up to while crossing the Himalayas, at the same time engaging in the highest rates of climb to altitude for any bird. Anecdotal reports of them flying much higher have yet to be corroborated with any direct evidence. Seabirds fly low over water but gain altitude when crossing land, and the reverse pattern is seen in landbirds. However most bird migration is in the range of . Bird strike aviation records from the United States show most collisions occur below and almost none above .
Bird migration is not limited to birds that can fly. Most species of penguin (Spheniscidae) migrate by swimming. These routes can cover over . Dusky grouse Dendragapus obscurus perform altitudinal migration mostly by walking. Emus Dromaius novaehollandiae in Australia have been observed to undertake long-distance movements on foot during droughts.
Nocturnal migratory behavior
During nocturnal migration ("nocmig"), many birds give nocturnal flight calls, which are short, contact-type calls. These likely serve to maintain the composition of a migrating flock, and can sometimes encode the sex of a migrating individual, and to avoid collision in the air. Nocturnal migration can be monitored using weather radar data, allowing ornithologists to estimate the number of birds migrating on a given night, and the direction of the migration. Future research includes the automatic detection and identification of nocturnally calling migrant birds.
Nocturnal migrants land in the morning and may feed for a few days before resuming their migration. These birds are referred to as passage migrants in the regions where they occur for a short period between the origin and destination.
Nocturnal migrants minimize depredation, avoid overheating, and can feed during the day. One cost of nocturnal migration is the loss of sleep. Migrants may be able to alter their quality of sleep to compensate for the loss.
Long-distance migration
The typical image of migration is of northern land birds, such as swallows (Hirundinidae) and birds of prey, making long flights to the tropics. However, many Holarctic wildfowl and finch (Fringillidae) species winters in the North Temperate Zone, in regions with milder winters than their summer breeding grounds. For example, the pink-footed goose migrates from Iceland to Britain and neighbouring countries, whilst the dark-eyed junco migrates from subarctic and arctic climates to the contiguous United States and the American goldfinch from taiga to wintering grounds extending from the American South northwestward to Western Oregon. Some ducks, such as the garganey Anas querquedula, move completely or partially into the tropics. The European pied flycatcher Ficedula hypoleuca follows this migratory trend, breeding in Asia and Europe and wintering in Africa.
Migration routes and wintering grounds are both genetically and traditionally determined depending on the social system of the species. In long-lived, social species such as white storks (Ciconia ciconia), flocks are often led by the oldest members and young storks learn the route on their first journey. In short-lived species that migrate alone, such as the Eurasian blackcap Sylvia atricapilla or the yellow-billed cuckoo Coccyzus americanus, first-year migrants follow a genetically determined route that is alterable with selective breeding.
Many migration routes of long-distance migratory birds are circuitous due to evolutionary history: the breeding range of Northern wheatears Oenanthe oenanthe has expanded to cover the entire Northern Hemisphere, but the species still migrates up to 14,500 km to reach ancestral wintering grounds in sub-Saharan Africa rather than establish new wintering grounds closer to breeding areas.
A migration route often does not follow the most direct line between breeding and wintering grounds. Rather, it could follow a hooked or arched line, with detours around geographical barriers or towards suitable stopover habitat. For most land birds, such barriers could consist of large water bodies or high mountain ranges, a lack of stopover or feeding sites, or a lack of thermal columns (important for broad-winged birds).
Conversely, in water-birds, large areas of land without wetlands offering suitable feeding sites may present a barrier, and detours avoiding such barriers are observed. For example, brent geese Branta bernicla bernicla migrating between the Taymyr Peninsula and the Wadden Sea travel via low-lying coastal feeding-areas on the White Sea and the Baltic Sea rather than directly across the Arctic Ocean and the Scandinavian mainland.
Great snipes make non-stop flights of 4,000–7,000 km, lasting 60–90 h, during which they change their average cruising heights from 2,000 m (above sea level) at night to around 4,000 m during daytime.
In waders
A similar situation occurs with waders (called shorebirds in North America). Many species, such as dunlin Calidris alpina and western sandpiper Calidris mauri, undertake long movements from their Arctic breeding grounds to warmer locations in the same hemisphere, but others such as semipalmated sandpiper C. pusilla travel longer distances to the tropics in the Southern Hemisphere.
For some species of waders, migration success depends on the availability of certain key food resources at stopover points along the migration route. This gives the migrants an opportunity to refuel for the next leg of the voyage. Some examples of important stopover locations are the Bay of Fundy and Delaware Bay.
Some bar-tailed godwits Limosa lapponica baueri have the longest known non-stop flight of any migrant, flying 11,000 km from Alaska to their New Zealand non-breeding areas. Prior to migration, 55 percent of their bodyweight is stored as fat to fuel this uninterrupted journey.
In seabirds
Seabird migration is similar in pattern to those of the waders and waterfowl. Some, such as the black guillemot Cepphus grylle and some gulls, are quite sedentary; others, such as most terns and auks breeding in the temperate northern hemisphere, move varying distances south in the northern winter. The Arctic tern Sterna paradisaea has the longest-distance migration of any bird, and sees more daylight than any other, moving from its Arctic breeding grounds to the Antarctic non-breeding areas. One Arctic tern, ringed (banded) as a chick on the Farne Islands off the British east coast, reached Melbourne, Australia in just three months from fledging, a sea journey of over . Many tubenosed birds breed in the southern hemisphere and migrate north in the southern winter.
The most pelagic species, mainly in the 'tubenose' order Procellariiformes, are great wanderers, and the albatrosses of the southern oceans may circle the globe as they ride the "roaring forties" outside the breeding season. The tubenoses spread widely over large areas of open ocean, but congregate when food becomes available. Many are among the longest-distance migrants; sooty shearwaters Puffinus griseus nesting on the Falkland Islands migrate between the breeding colony and the North Atlantic Ocean off Norway. Some Manx shearwaters Puffinus puffinus do this same journey in reverse. As they are long-lived birds, they may cover enormous distances during their lives; one record-breaking Manx shearwater is calculated to have flown during its over-50-year lifespan.
Diurnal migration in large birds using thermals
Some large broad-winged birds rely on thermal columns of rising hot air to enable them to soar. These include many birds of prey such as vultures, eagles, and buzzards, but also storks. These birds migrate in the daytime. Migratory species in these groups have great difficulty crossing large bodies of water, since thermals only form over land, and these birds cannot maintain active flight for long distances. Mediterranean and other seas present a major obstacle to soaring birds, which must cross at the narrowest points. Massive numbers of large raptors and storks pass through areas such as the Strait of Messina, Gibraltar, Falsterbo, and the Bosphorus at migration times. More common species, such as the European honey buzzard Pernis apivorus, can be counted in hundreds of thousands in autumn. Other barriers, such as mountain ranges, can cause funnelling, particularly of large diurnal migrants, as in the Central American migratory bottleneck. The Batumi bottleneck in the Caucasus is one of the heaviest migratory funnels on earth, created when hundreds of thousands of soaring birds avoid flying over the Black Sea surface and across high mountains. Birds of prey such as honey buzzards which migrate using thermals lose only 10 to 20% of their weight during migration, which may explain why they forage less during migration than do smaller birds of prey with more active flight such as falcons, hawks and harriers.
From observing the migration of eleven soaring bird species over the Strait of Gibraltar, species which did not advance their autumn migration dates were those with declining breeding populations in Europe.
Short-distance and altitudinal migration
Many long-distance migrants appear to be genetically programmed to respond to changing day length. Species that move short distances, however, may not need such a timing mechanism, instead moving in response to local weather conditions. Thus mountain and moorland breeders, such as wallcreeper Tichodroma muraria and white-throated dipper Cinclus cinclus, may move only altitudinally to escape the cold higher ground. Other species such as merlin Falco columbarius and Eurasian skylark Alauda arvensis move further, to the coast or towards the south. Species like the chaffinch are much less migratory in Britain than those of continental Europe, mostly not moving more than 5 km in their lives.
Short-distance passerine migrants have two evolutionary origins. Those that have long-distance migrants in the same family, such as the common chiffchaff Phylloscopus collybita, are species of southern hemisphere origins that have progressively shortened their return migration to stay in the northern hemisphere.
Species that have no long-distance migratory relatives, such as the waxwings Bombycilla, are effectively moving in response to winter weather and the loss of their usual winter food, rather than enhanced breeding opportunities.
In the tropics there is little variation in the length of day throughout the year, and it is always warm enough for a food supply, but altitudinal migration occurs in some tropical birds. There is evidence that this enables the migrants to obtain more of their preferred foods such as fruits.
Altitudinal migration is common on mountains worldwide, such as in the Himalayas and the Andes. Dusky grouse in Colorado migrate less than a kilometer away from their summer grounds to winter sites which may be higher or lower by about 400 m in altitude than the summer sites.
Many bird species in arid regions across southern Australia are nomadic; they follow water and food supply around the country in an irregular pattern, unrelated to season but related to rainfall. Several years may pass between visits to an area by a particular species.
Irruptions and dispersal
Sometimes circumstances such as a good breeding season followed by a food source failure the following year lead to irruptions in which large numbers of a species move far beyond the normal range. Bohemian waxwings Bombycilla garrulus well show this unpredictable variation in annual numbers, with five major arrivals in Britain during the nineteenth century, but 18 between the years 1937 and 2000. Red crossbills Loxia curvirostra too are irruptive, with widespread invasions across England noted in 1251, 1593, 1757, and 1791.
Bird migration is primarily, but not entirely, a Northern Hemisphere phenomenon.
This is because continental landmasses of the northern hemisphere are almost entirely temperate and subject to winter food shortages driving bird populations south (including the Southern Hemisphere) to overwinter; In contrast, among (pelagic) seabirds, species of the Southern Hemisphere are more likely to migrate. This is because there is a large area of ocean in the Southern Hemisphere, and more islands suitable for seabirds to nest.
Physiology and control
The control of migration, its timing and response are genetically controlled and appear to be a primitive trait that is present even in non-migratory species of birds. The ability to navigate and orient themselves during migration is a much more complex phenomenon that may include both endogenous programs as well as learning.
Timing
The primary physiological cue for migration is the changes in the day length. These changes are related to hormonal changes in the birds. In the period before migration, many birds display higher activity or Zugunruhe (), first described by Johann Friedrich Naumann in 1795, as well as physiological changes such as increased fat deposition. The occurrence of Zugunruhe even in cage-raised birds with no environmental cues (e.g. shortening of day and falling temperature) has pointed to the role of circannual endogenous programs in controlling bird migrations. Caged birds display a preferential flight direction that corresponds with the migratory direction they would take in nature, changing their preferential direction at roughly the same time their wild conspecifics change course.
Satellite tracking of 48 individual Asian houbaras (Chlamydotis macqueenii) across multiple migrations showed that this species uses the local temperature to time their spring migration departure. Notably, departure responses to temperature varied between individuals but were individually repeatable (when tracked over multiple years). This suggests that individual use of temperature is a cue that allows for population-level adaptation to climate change. In other words, in a warming world, many migratory birds are predicted to depart earlier in the year for their summer or winter destination.
In polygynous species with considerable sexual dimorphism, males tend to return earlier to the breeding sites than their females. This is termed protandry.
Orientation and navigation
Navigation is based on a variety of senses. Many birds have been shown to use a sun compass. Using the sun for direction involves the need for making compensation based on the time. Navigation has been shown to be based on a combination of other abilities including the ability to detect magnetic fields (magnetoreception), use visual landmarks as well as olfactory cues.
Long-distance migrants are believed to disperse as young birds and form attachments to potential breeding sites and to favorite wintering sites. Once the site attachment is made they show high site-fidelity, visiting the same wintering sites year after year.
The ability of birds to navigate during migrations cannot be fully explained by endogenous programming, even with the help of responses to environmental cues. The ability to successfully perform long-distance migrations can probably only be fully explained with an accounting for the cognitive ability of the birds to recognize habitats and form mental maps. Satellite tracking of day migrating raptors such as ospreys and honey buzzards has shown that older individuals are better at making corrections for wind drift. Birds rely for navigation on a combination of innate biological senses and experience, as with the two electromagnetic tools that they use. A young bird on its first migration flies in the correct direction according to the Earth's magnetic field, but does not know how far the journey will be. It does this through a radical pair mechanism whereby chemical reactions in special photo pigments sensitive to short wavelengths are affected by the field. Although this only works during daylight hours, it does not use the position of the sun in any way. With experience, it learns various landmarks and this "mapping" is done by magnetites in the trigeminal system, which tell the bird how strong the field is. Because birds migrate between northern and southern regions, the magnetic field strengths at different latitudes let it interpret the radical pair mechanism more accurately and let it know when it has reached its destination. There is a neural connection between the eye and "Cluster N", the part of the forebrain that is active during migrational orientation, suggesting that birds may actually be able to see the magnetic field of the earth.
Vagrancy
Migrating birds can lose their way and appear outside their normal ranges. This can be due to flying past their destinations as in the "spring overshoot" in which birds returning to their breeding areas overshoot and end up further north than intended. Certain areas, because of their location, have become famous as watchpoints for such birds. Examples are the Point Pelee National Park in Canada, and Spurn in England.
Reverse migration, where the genetic programming of young birds fails to work properly, can lead to rarities turning up as vagrants thousands of kilometres out of range.
Drift migration of birds blown off course by the wind can result in "falls" of large numbers of migrants at coastal sites.
A related phenomenon called "abmigration" involves birds from one region joining similar birds from a different breeding region in the common winter grounds and then migrating back along with the new population. This is especially common in some waterfowl, which shift from one flyway to another.
Migration conditioning
It has been possible to teach a migration route to a flock of birds, for example in re-introduction schemes. After a trial with Canada geese Branta canadensis, microlight aircraft were used in the US to teach safe migration routes to reintroduced whooping cranes Grus americana.
Adaptations
Birds need to alter their metabolism to meet the demands of migration. The storage of energy through the accumulation of fat and the control of sleep in nocturnal migrants require special physiological adaptations. In addition, the feathers of a bird suffer from wear-and-tear and require to be moulted. The timing of this moult – usually once a year but sometimes twice – varies with some species moulting prior to moving to their winter grounds and others molting prior to returning to their breeding grounds. Apart from physiological adaptations, migration sometimes requires behavioral changes such as flying in flocks to reduce the energy used in migration or the risk of predation.
Evolutionary and ecological factors
Migration in birds is highly labile and is believed to have developed independently in many avian lineages. While it is agreed that the behavioral and physiological adaptations necessary for migration are under genetic control, some authors have argued that no genetic change is necessary for migratory behavior to develop in a sedentary species because the genetic framework for migratory behavior exists in nearly all avian lineages. This explains the rapid appearance of migratory behavior after the most recent glacial maximum.
Theoretical analyses show that detours that increase flight distance by up to 20% will often be adaptive on aerodynamic grounds – a bird that loads itself with food to cross a long barrier flies less efficiently. However some species show circuitous migratory routes that reflect historical range expansions and are far from optimal in ecological terms. An example is the migration of continental populations of Swainson's thrush Catharus ustulatus, which fly far east across North America before turning south via Florida to reach northern South America; this route is believed to be the consequence of a range expansion that occurred about 10,000 years ago. Detours may also be caused by differential wind conditions, predation risk, or other factors.
Climate change
Large scale climatic changes are expected to have an effect on the timing of migration. Studies have shown a variety of effects including timing changes in migration, breeding as well as population declines. Many species have been expanding their range as a likely consequence of climate change. This is sometimes in the form of former vagrants becoming established or regular migrants.
Ecological effects
The migration of birds also aids the movement of other species, including those of ectoparasites such as ticks and lice, which in turn may carry micro-organisms including those of concern to human health. Due to the global spread of avian influenza, bird migration has been studied as a possible mechanism of disease transmission, but it has been found not to present a special risk; import of pet and domestic birds is a greater threat. Some viruses that are maintained in birds without lethal effects, such as the West Nile virus may however be spread by migrating birds. Birds may also have a role in the dispersal of propagules of plants and plankton.
Some predators take advantage of the concentration of birds during migration. Greater noctule bats feed on nocturnal migrating passerines. Some birds of prey specialize on migrating waders.
Study techniques
Early studies on the timing of migration began in 1749 in Finland, with Johannes Leche of Turku collecting the dates of arrivals of spring migrants.
Bird migration routes have been studied by a variety of techniques including the oldest, marking. Swans have been marked with a nick on the beak since about 1560 in England. Scientific ringing was pioneered by Hans Christian Cornelius Mortensen in 1899. Other techniques include radar and satellite tracking. The rate of bird migration over the Alps (up to a height of 150 m) was found to be highly comparable between fixed-beam radar measurements and visual bird counts, highlighting the potential use of this technique as an objective way of quantifying bird migration.
Stable isotopes of hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, and sulphur can establish avian migratory connectivity between wintering sites and breeding grounds. Stable isotopic methods to establish migratory linkage rely on spatial isotopic differences in bird diet that are incorporated into inert tissues like feathers, or into growing tissues such as claws and muscle or blood.
An approach to identify migration intensity makes use of upward pointing microphones to record the nocturnal contact calls of flocks flying overhead. These are then analyzed in a laboratory to measure time, frequency and species.
An older technique developed by George Lowery and others to quantify migration involves observing the face of the full moon with a telescope and counting the silhouettes of flocks of birds as they fly at night.
Orientation behavior studies have been traditionally carried out using variants of a setup known as the Emlen funnel, which consists of a circular cage with the top covered by glass or wire-screen so that either the sky is visible or the setup is placed in a planetarium or with other controls on environmental cues. The orientation behavior of the bird inside the cage is studied quantitatively using the distribution of marks that the bird leaves on the walls of the cage. Other approaches used in pigeon homing studies make use of the direction in which the bird vanishes on the horizon.
Threats and conservation
Human activities have threatened many migratory bird species. The distances involved in bird migration mean that they often cross political boundaries of countries and conservation measures require international cooperation. Several international treaties have been signed to protect migratory species including the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 of the US. and the African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbird Agreement
The concentration of birds during migration can put species at risk. Some spectacular migrants have already gone extinct; during the passenger pigeon's (Ectopistes migratorius) migration the enormous flocks were wide, darkening the sky, and long, taking several days to pass.
Hunting along migration routes threatens some bird species. The populations of Siberian cranes (Leucogeranus leucogeranus) that wintered in India declined due to hunting along the route, particularly in Afghanistan and Central Asia. Birds were last seen in their favourite wintering grounds in Keoladeo National Park in 2002. Structures such as power lines, wind farms and offshore oil-rigs have also been known to affect migratory birds. Other migration hazards include pollution, storms, wildfires, and habitat destruction along migration routes, denying migrants food at stopover points. For example, in the East Asian–Australasian Flyway, up to 65% of key intertidal habitat at the Yellow Sea migration bottleneck has been destroyed since the 1950s.
Other significant areas include stop-over sites between the wintering and breeding territories. A capture-recapture study of passerine migrants with high fidelity for breeding and wintering sites did not show similar strict association with stop-over sites. Unfortunately, many historic stopover sites have been destroyed or drastically reduced due to human agricultural development, leading to an increased risk of bird extinction, especially in the face of climate change.
Stopover site conservation efforts
California's Central Valley was once a massive stopover site for birds traveling along the Pacific Flyway, before being converted into agricultural land. 90% of North America’s shorebirds utilize this migration path and the destruction of rest stops has had detrimental impacts on bird populations, as they cannot get adequate rest and food and can be unable to complete their migration. As a solution, conservationists and farmers in the United States are now working together to help provide stopover habitats for migrating birds. In the winter, when many of these birds are migrating, farmers are now flooding their fields in order to provide temporary wetlands for birds to rest and feed before continuing their journey. Rice is a major crop produced along this flyway, and flooded rice paddies have shown to be important areas for at least 169 different bird species. For example, in California, legislation changes have made it illegal for farmers to burn excess rice straw, so instead they have begun flooding their fields during the winter. Similar practices are now taking place across the nation, with the Mississippi Alluvial Valley being a primary area of interest due to its agricultural use and its importance for migration.
Plant debris provides food sources for the birds while the newly formed wetland serves as a habitat for bird prey species such as bugs and other invertebrates. In turn, bird foraging assists in breaking down plant matter and droppings then help to fertilize the field helping the farmers, and in turn significantly decreasing their need for artificial fertilizers by at least 13%. Recent studies have shown that the implementation of these temporary wetlands has had significant positive impacts on bird populations, such as the White‐fronted Goose, as well as various species of wading birds. The artificial nature of these temporary wetlands also greatly reduces the threat of predation from other wild animals. This practice requires extremely low investment on behalf of the farmers, and researchers believe that mutually beneficial approaches such as this are key to wildlife conservation moving forward. Economic incentives are key to getting more farmers to participate in this practice. However, issues can arise if bird populations are too high with their large amounts of droppings decreasing water quality and potentially leading to eutrophication. Increasing participation in this practice would allow migratory birds to spread out and rest on a wider variety of locations, decreasing the negative impacts of having too many birds congregated in a small area. Using this practice in areas with close proximity to natural wetlands could also greatly increase their positive impact.
See also
Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center
Winged Migration, 2001 documentary film
References
Further reading
(first published 1982 as Fågelflyttning, Bokförlaget Signum)
External links
Dedicated issue of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B on Adaptation to the Annual Cycle.
Route of East Asian Migratory Flyaway Olango Wildlife Sanctuary as a refuelling station of migratory birds
Migration Ecology Group, Lund University, Sweden
Migrate.ou.edu – Migration Interest Group: Research Applied Toward Education, USA
Canadian Migration Monitoring Network (Co-ordinates bird migration monitoring stations across Canada)
Bird Research by Science Daily- includes several articles on bird migration
The Nature Conservancy's Migratory Bird Program
The Compasses of Birds – a review from the Science Creative Quarterly
BBC Supergoose – satellite tagging of light-bellied brent geese
Soaring with Fidel – follow the annual migration of ospreys from Cape Cod to Cuba to Venezuela
Bat predation on migrating birds
Global Register of Migratory Species – features not only birds, but other migratory vertebrates such as fishes
eBird.com Occurrence Maps – Occurrence maps of migrations of various species in United States
Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center – "Fostering greater understanding, appreciation, and protection of the grand phenomenon of bird migration."
Online databases
Trektellen.org – Live bird migration counts and ringing records from all over the world
Hawkcount.org – Count data and site profiles for over 300 North American Hawkwatch sites
Migraction.net – Interactive database with real-time information on bird migration (France)
Bird migration
Ornithology
Bird flight
Birds | wiki |
The vermilion cardinal (Cardinalis phoeniceus) is a species of bird in the family Cardinalidae, the cardinals or cardinal grosbeaks. It is found in Colombia and Venezuela.
Taxonomy and systematics
The vermilion cardinal is monotypic. It and the other species of genus Cardinalis were at one time placed in genera Richmondena and Pyrrhuloxia. The vermilion cardinal is more closely related to the pyrrhuloxia (C. sinuatus) than to the northern cardinal (C. cardinalis).
Description
The vermilion cardinal is long. Both sexes have long feathers on the crown that are typically erect. The male is almost entirely red, though it varies from very bright to somewhat dusky. It has a narrow black band around the lower part of its heavy gray bill. The female's crown is gray and the elongated feathers red. The rest of the head is brownish gray with white patches near the bill. The upperparts are grayish brown warming to brown on the rump and the underparts are buffy cinnamon. The juvenile is similar to the female but with more, and richer, brown.
Distribution and habitat
The vermilion cardinal is found in two disjunct areas. One spans from the Guajira Peninsula of northeastern Colombia into northern Venezuela as far as Lara state. The other is further east in Venezuela, from Anzoátegui state east to Sucre state including Margarita Island. It inhabits semi-arid scrublands characterized by cactus and spiny legumes. It generally is found from sea level to but has been recorded as high as in Lara.
Behavior
Feeding
The vermilion cardinal forages singly, in pairs, or in small groups through low vegetation. Its diet includes invertebrates, fleshy fruits, and seeds.
Breeding
Six vermilion cardinal nests have been described, all from Margarita Island. They were open cups placed in cactus or a bush. The nesting season spanned June to early August. Four of the nests had three eggs and one had four. Only the female incubates the eggs and broods the nestlings but both sexes feed the young.
Vocalization
The vermilion cardinal's song is "a pleasant...'cheer o-weet-toweet toweet toweet'" . Its call is a "chip" .
Status
The IUCN has assessed the vermilion cardinal as being of Least Concern. Though it has a restricted range, it appears to be common in much of it. However, capture for the pet trade in some locations "undoubtedly has significant negative effect on populations."
References
External links
Vermilion cardinal videos on the Internet Bird Collection
Stamps (for Venezuela) with range map
Vermilion cardinal photo gallery VIREO
vermilion cardinal
Birds of Colombia
Birds of Venezuela
Birds of the Venezuelan Coastal Range
Margarita Island
vermilion cardinal
vermilion cardinal
Taxonomy articles created by Polbot | wiki |
Visa requirements for Latvian non-citizens are administrative entry restrictions by the authorities of other states placed on Non-citizens of Latvia.
Visa requirements map
Visa-free access
Non-citizens of Latvia may enter the following countries and territories without a visa:
See also
Visa requirements for Latvian citizens
Latvian passport
References
Latvian non-citizens
Human rights in Latvia
Latvian nationality law | wiki |
Arpi (Italija), drevni grad u Apuliji, Italija
Arpi (jezero), jezero u Armeniji
Arpi (Vajots Dzor, Armenija), grad u pokrajini Vajots Dzor u Armeniji | wiki |
Visa requirements for Estonian non-citizens are administrative entry restrictions by the authorities of other states placed on holders of an Estonian alien's passport.
Visa requirements map
Visa-free access
Non-citizens of Estonia may enter the following countries and territories without a visa:
See also
Visa requirements for Estonian citizens
Visa requirements for Latvian non-citizens
Estonian passport
References
Estonian non-citizens
Foreign relations of Estonia | wiki |
A forensic science laboratory is a scientific laboratory specialising in forensic science. Such laboratories may be run by private companies or the government but are often associated with the law enforcement infrastructure of a country.
See also
Forensic Science Service
References
External links
Forensic facilities
Laboratory types | wiki |
The black-throated saltator (Saltatricula atricollis) is a species of songbird in the Thraupidae family.
It is found in Bolivia, Brazil, and Paraguay. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forests and dry savanna.
References
black-throated saltator
Birds of the Cerrado
black-throated saltator
Taxa named by Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot
Taxonomy articles created by Polbot
Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN | wiki |
Mecyclothorax bicolor is een keversoort uit de familie van de loopkevers (Carabidae). De wetenschappelijke naam van de soort is voor het eerst geldig gepubliceerd in 1903 door Sharp.
bicolor | wiki |
Network 23 may refer to:
Network 23 (record label), a defunct Czech record label
Network 23 (company), a defunct British video game development company
Network 23, a fictional television network on the TV series Max Headroom
"Network 23", a song by Tangerine Dream from their album Exit | wiki |
Crimen injuria is a crime under South African common law, defined to be the act of "unlawfully, intentionally and seriously impairing the dignity of another." Although difficult to precisely define, the crime is used in the prosecution of certain instances of road rage, stalking, racially offensive language, emotional or psychological abuse and sexual offences against children.
Etymology
The phrase crimen injuria is Latin, short for crimen injuria datum, meaning "offence committed without lawful cause".
References
Crimes
South African criminal law | wiki |
Pozol (from the Nahuatl ) is the name of both fermented corn dough and the cocoa drink made from it, which has its origins in Pre-Columbian Mexico. The drink is consumed in the south of Mexico in the states of Chiapas and Tabasco. It is a thirst-quencher which has also been used to fight diseases. It has also aided indigenous peoples of the Americas as sustenance on long trips across the jungles.
History
Since ancient times, the Maya-Chontales from Belize prepared this drink with boiled cornmeal, cocoa, and grains. Initially, it was called pochotl (from Nahuatl, , meaning "sparkling"), but after the arrival of the Spanish in Tabasco in 1519, the name changed to the now-familiar "pozol". Pozol was traditionally made by women by fermenting corn dough, which, when dissolved in water, is eaten raw by various ethnic groups of southern and southeastern Mexico. In Chiapas, this drink was prepared for Mayans, Zoqueans and Chiapanecos.
Pozol is drunk throughout the day, especially by the lower classes, though it is generally used throughout all classes. In pre-Hispanic times, it was drunk mixed with cocoa, unsweetened; since the twentieth century, sugar and ice are added throughout Chiapas.
Because it does not go bad easily, pozol cornballs have been used by various groups as provisions for their long journeys through the jungle. Besides its use as food, the drink has also been used as medicine and for religious ceremonies. In the past pozol balls were used by the Maya as a poultice, and to prevent or treat skin infections and wounds.
Pozol also had a ceremonial importance, since pre-Hispanic times, it was used as an important component of offerings in various Maya festivities. These festivities were related to the cultivation and harvest of corn. Pozol is still used today by the Maya of the Yucatán Peninsula (who call it K'eyem) as part of their harvest rites.
Preparation
Pozol is made by fermenting corn dough, which is then rolled into balls or loaves and may be preserved in banana leaves. The drink, which is a "sort of whitish porridge," is made by soaking the dough in water. Common extra ingredients included chili pepper, honey, and sugar.
White pozol is made from dough mixed with sweetened or unsweetened water. It can be sweetened with sugar or not. Some people from Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas also prefer to prepare sourdough. Sour pozol is more common in Tuxtla Gutierrez. Sour dough is fermented for three days and can be taken with or without sugar. It can be consumed cold with a pinch of salt and a slice of chili (or swallowing salt mixed with chili powder). Currently, the Lacandones use pozol mixed with honey to lower fever and control diarrhea and other intestinal disorders, in a similar way as other people use drugs or eat foods containing yeast or Lactobacillus.
Today, pozol is also prepared using milk and horchata. The corn dough is mixed with milk, instead of water, and sugar. This combination makes a much sweeter version of the traditional pozol. Sweetened pozol with cocoa is the most popular version of pozol in Tabasco.
Pozol in Tabasco
In the State of Tabasco, pozol is also a traditional drink. During the Prehispanic era, pozol was a highly appreciated beverage due to its resistance qualities, this was believed mainly in Tabasco.
In 1579 the government of Tabasco declared that pozol was a typical "tabasqueña" beverage. In the declaration, it was said that: "It was the custom, especially among the Chontal indians of not eating but only drinking, and if they ate, they ate very little and drank a beverage that is made of their currency, which is cacao,... and also another one made of cooked corn that is called pozol".
Pozol has been widely consumed in Tabasco since pre-Hispanic times. Europeans described pozol as a beverage that allowed the indigenous people to resist the heat of this tropical zone.
In Tabasco there are four different types of pozol: white pozol, black pozol, Cacao Special pozol, and sour pozol. In the little towns and villages it is customary to drink white pozol without sugar, and instead using salt and fresh chile amashito, or with candied papaya called "Oreja de mico", in English, "monkey's ear".
Pozol, just as the "Pocho" dance, the "caballito blanco", is very representative of the culture and variety in the State of Tabasco.
In Villahermosa, and all Tabasco, it is common to find many places to try pozol. There is a saying: "A visitor who arrives to Tabasco and drinks pozol and likes it, takes up residence in Tabasco".
Pozol in Chiapas
For some of the Native People or "indígenas", Pozol represents a semi-ritual to their gods. Since ancient times, the Mayans, Zoqueans and Chiapanecos from this state, as well as the ones from Tabasco, made this beverage using cooked corn and cacao.
Pozol is a beverage usually enjoyed at midday, to calm both hunger and thirst. It is very nutritive as it is rich in amino acids, vitamins and fiber. Locals may accompany this drink with a small bite, usually a taco or empanada, but also enjoy the non-cacao version by biting on chilli conserves quenching its spicy taste with the freshness and smoothness of the cold corn-based drink.
See also
List of chocolate drinks
List of maize dishes
Atole
Tejuino
Poi (food)
Ogi (food)
References
Chocolate drinks
Maize-based drinks
Maize dishes
Mesoamerican cuisine
Mexican drinks | wiki |
Dean Chynoweth – hockeista
Ed Chynoweth – dirigente
Jade Chynoweth – ballerina | wiki |
The angular aperture of a lens is the angular size of the lens aperture as seen from the focal point:
where
is the focal length
is the diameter of the aperture.
Relation to numerical aperture
In a medium with an index of refraction close to 1, such as air, the angular aperture is approximately equal to twice the numerical aperture of the lens.
Formally, the numerical aperture in air is:
In the paraxial approximation, with a small aperture, :
References
See also
f-number
Numerical aperture
Acceptance angle, half the angular aperture
Field of view
Geometrical optics
Angle | wiki |
Fort Walker may refer to:
Fort Walker (Grant Park), Civil War-era redoubt in Georgia
Fort Walker (Hilton Head), Civil War-era fort in South Carolina | wiki |
Bruise Brothers may refer to:
Bruise Brothers (San Antonio Spurs), a group of six big men who played for the San Antonio Spurs in the early 1980s
Bruise Brothers (San Diego Chargers), a group of American football defensive lineman that played in the 1970s and 1980s
The Bruise Brothers (professional wrestling), American professional wrestling tag team with Porkchop Cash and Dream Machine from the early 1980s
The Bruise Brothers or The Harris Brothers, American professional wrestlers in the late 1980s
Bruise Brothers, a strip from the British comic Buster | wiki |
Seri's sheath-tailed bat (Emballonura serii) is a species of sac-winged bat in the family Emballonuridae. It is found in the Bismarck Archipelago of Papua New Guinea and Yapen Island in Indonesia. Its roosts in caves.
References
Emballonura
Bats of Oceania
Bats of Indonesia
Mammals of Papua New Guinea
Mammals of Western New Guinea
Bismarck Archipelago
Yapen Islands
Least concern biota of Asia
Least concern biota of Oceania
Mammals described in 1994
Taxonomy articles created by Polbot
Bats of New Guinea | wiki |
The dark sheath-tailed bat (Mosia nigrescens) is a species of sac-winged bat in the family Emballonuridae. It is the only species in the genus Mosia. It is found in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands.
References
Emballonuridae
Bats of Oceania
Mammals of Papua New Guinea
Mammals of Western New Guinea
Mammals of the Solomon Islands
Mammals described in 1843
Taxonomy articles created by Polbot
Taxa named by John Edward Gray
Bats of New Guinea | wiki |
Australian English (AuE) is a non-rhotic variety of English spoken by most native-born Australians. Phonologically, it is one of the most regionally homogeneous language varieties in the world. Australian English is notable for vowel length contrasts which are absent from most English dialects.
The Australian English vowels , , and are noticeably closer (pronounced with a higher tongue position) than their contemporary Received Pronunciation equivalents.
Vowels
The vowels of Australian English can be divided according to length. The long vowels, which include monophthongs and diphthongs, mostly correspond to the tense vowels used in analyses of Received Pronunciation (RP) as well as its centring diphthongs. The short vowels, consisting only of monophthongs, correspond to the RP lax vowels. There exist pairs of long and short vowels with overlapping vowel quality giving Australian English phonemic length distinction.
There are two families of phonemic transcriptions of Australian English: revised ones, which attempt to more accurately represent the phonetic sounds of Australian English; and the Mitchell-Delbridge system, which is minimally distinct from Jones' original transcription of RP. This page uses a revised transcription based on Durie and Hajek (1994) and Harrington, Cox and Evans (1997) but also shows the Mitchell-Delbridge equivalents as this system is commonly used for example in the Macquarie Dictionary and much literature, even recent.
As with General American, the weak vowel merger is nearly complete in Australian English: unstressed is merged with (schwa) except before a following velar. New Zealand English takes it a step further and merges all instances of with (even in stressed syllables), which is why the New Zealand pronunciation of the dish name fish and chips as sounds like 'fush and chups' to Australians. In Australian English, is restricted to unstressed syllables, as in most dialects.
The trap-bath split is a regional variable in Australia, with the vowel being more common in South Australia than elsewhere. This is due to the fact that that state was settled later than the rest of Australia, when the lengthened pronunciation was already a feature of London speech. Research done by shows that the word graph is pronounced with the vowel () by 86% speakers from Adelaide, whereas 100% speakers from Hobart use the vowel in this word: . There are words in which the vowel is much less common; for instance, Crystal reports that both the word grasp and the verb to contrast are most commonly pronounced with the vowel: , . This also affects the pronunciation of some placenames; Castlemaine is locally , but speakers from outside of Victoria often pronounce that name by analogy to the noun castle in their local accent.
Monophthongs
The target for is closer to cardinal than in other dialects. The aforementioned phrase fish and chips as pronounced by an Australian ( in narrow transcription) can sound a lot like feesh and cheeps to speakers of New Zealand English and other dialects, whereas words such as bit and sit may sound like beat and seat, respectively.
The sound is usually pronounced as a diphthong (or disyllabically , like ) only in open syllables. In closed syllables, it is distinguished from primarily by length and from by the significant onset in the latter.
tends to be higher than the corresponding vowel in General American or RP. The typical realization is close-mid , although for some speakers it may be even closer (according to John Wells, this pronunciation can occur only in Broad varieties). A recent change is the lowering of to the region.
For some Victorian speakers, has merged with in pre-lateral environments, and thus the words celery and salary are homophonous as . See salary-celery merger.
The sound is traditionally transcribed and analysed the same as the short , but minimal pairs exist in at least some Australians' speech. It is found in the adjectives bad, mad, glad and sad, before the sound (for example, hag, rag, bag) and also in content words before and in the same syllable (for example, ham, tan, plant). In South Australia, plant is usually pronounced with the vowel sound , as in rather and father. In some speakers, especially those with the broad accent, and will be shifted toward and , respectively.
There is æ-tensing before a nasal consonant. The nasal sounds create changes in preceding vowels because air can flow into the nose during the vowel. Nasal consonants can also affect the articulation of a vowel. Thus, for many speakers, the vowel in words like jam, man, dam and hand is shifted towards . This is also present in General American and Cockney English. Length has become the main difference between words like 'ban' and 'Ben', with 'ban' pronounced and 'Ben' pronounced .
is pronounced as open front by many younger speakers.
As with New Zealand English, the / vowel in words like park , calm and farm is central (in the past even front) in terms of tongue position and non-rhotic. This is the same vowel sound used by speakers of the Boston accent of North Eastern New England in the United States. Thus the phrase park the car is said identically by a New Zealander, Australian or Bostonian. This vowel is only distinguished from the vowel by length, thus: park versus puck .
The phoneme is pronounced at least as high as (), and has a lowered F3 that might indicate that it is rounded . The glyph is used — rather than or — as most revisions of the phonemic orthography for Australian English predate the 1993 modifications to the International Phonetic Alphabet. At the time, was suitable for any mid central vowel, rounded or unrounded.
The schwa is a highly variable sound. For this reason, it is not shown on the vowel charts to the right. The word-final schwa in comma and letter is often lowered to so that it strongly resembles the vowel : . As the latter is a checked vowel (meaning that it cannot occur in a final stressed position) and the lowering of is not categorical (meaning that those words can be also pronounced and , whereas strut is never pronounced ), this sound is considered to belong to the phoneme. The word-initial schwa (as in enduring ) is typically mid : . In the word-internal position (as in bottom ), is raised to : , as in American English roses . Thus, the difference between the of paddock and the of panic lies in the backness of the vowels, rather than their height: . In the rest of the article, those allophones of are all transcribed with the broad symbol : etc. is also broadly transcribed with : , which does not capture its closeness.
Diphthongs
The vowel has an onset , except before laterals. The onset is often lowered to , so that beat is for some speakers.
As in American English and modern RP, the final vowel in words like happy and city is pronounced as (happee, citee), not as (happy-tensing).
In some parts of Australia, a fully backed allophone of , transcribed , is common before . As a result, the pairs full/fool and pull/pool differ phonetically only in vowel length for those speakers. The usual allophone is further forward in New South Wales than Victoria. It is moving further forwards, however, in both regions at a similar rate.
The second elements of and on the one hand and on the other are somewhat different. The first two approach the vowel , whereas the ending point of is more similar to the vowel , which is why it tends to be written with in modern sources. John Wells writes this phoneme , with the same ending point as and (which he writes with and ). However, the second element of is not nearly as different from that of the other fronting-closing diphthongs as the ending point of is from that of , which is the reason why is used in this article.
The first element of may be raised and rounded in broad accents.
The first element of is significantly lower than in many other dialects of English.
There is significant allophonic variation in , including a backed allophone before a word-final or preconsonantal . The first part of this allophone is in the same position as , but differs from it in that it possesses an additional closing glide, which also makes it longer than .
is shifted to among some speakers. This realisation has its roots in South Australia, but is becoming more common among younger speakers across the country.
The phoneme is rare and almost extinct. Most speakers consistently use or (before ) instead. Many cases of RP are pronounced instead with the phoneme in Australian English. "pour" and "poor", "more" and "moor" and "shore" and "sure" are homophones, but "tore" and "tour" remain distinct.
Examples of vowels
One needs to be very careful of the symbol , which represents different vowels: the vowel in the Harrington, Cox and Evans (1997) system (transcribed in the other system), but the vowel in the Mitchell-Delbridge system (transcribed in the other system).
The fourth column is the OED transcription, taken from the OED website.
It differs somewhat from the ad hoc Wikipedia transcription used in this article. In a few instances the OED example word differs from the others given in this table; these are appended at the end of the second column following a semicolon.
Consonants
Australian English consonants are similar to those of other non-rhotic varieties of English. A table containing the consonant phonemes is given below.
Non-rhoticity
Australian English is non-rhotic; in other words, the sound does not appear at the end of a syllable or immediately before a consonant. So the words butter , here and park will not contain the sound.
Linking and intrusive
The sound can occur when a word that has a final in the spelling comes before another word that starts with a vowel. For example, in car alarm the sound can occur in car because here it comes before another word beginning with a vowel. The words far, far more and farm do not contain an but far out will contain the linking sound because the next word starts with a vowel sound.
An intrusive may be inserted before a vowel in words that do not have in the spelling. For example, drawing will sound like draw-ring, saw it will sound like sore it, the tuner is and the tuna is will both be . This occurs between , and and the following vowel regardless of the historical presence or absence of . Between , and (and whenever it stems from the earlier ) and the following vowel, the -ful pronunciation is the historical one.
Flapping
Intervocalic (and for some speakers ) undergo voicing and flapping to the alveolar tap after the stressed syllable and before unstressed vowels (as in butter, party) and syllabic or (bottle , button ), as well as at the end of a word or morpheme before any vowel (what else , whatever ). For those speakers where also undergoes the change, there will be homophony, for example, metal and medal or petal and pedal will sound the same ( and , respectively). In formal speech is retained. in the cluster can elide. As a result, in quick speech, words like winner and winter can become homophonous (as ). This is a quality that Australian English shares most notably with North American English.
T-glottalisation
Some speakers use a glottal stop as an allophone of in final position, for example trait, habit; or in medial position, such as a followed by a syllabic is often realized as a glottal stop, for example button or fatten. Alveolar pronunciations nevertheless predominate.
Pronunciation of
The alveolar lateral approximant is velarised in pre-pausal and preconsonantal positions and often also in morpheme-final positions before a vowel. There have been some suggestions that onset is also velarised, although that needs to be further researched. Some speakers vocalise preconsonantal, syllable-final and syllabic instances of to a close back vowel similar to , so that milk can be pronounced and noodle . This is more common in South Australia than elsewhere.
Yod-dropping and coalescence
Standard Australian English usually coalesces and into and respectively. Because of this palatalisation, dune is pronounced as , exactly like June, and the first syllable of Tuesday is pronounced like choose . That said, there is stylistic and social variation in this feature. and in the clusters and are similarly affricated.
Word initial and have merged with and respectively. Other cases of and are often pronounced respectively and , as in assume and resume (ashume and rezhume).
Similarly, has merged with word initially. Remaining cases of are often pronounced simply as in colloquial speech.
and other common sequences of consonant plus , are retained.
For some speakers, (or "sh") may be uttered instead of /s/ before the stressed /tj/ sound in words like student, history, eschew, street and Australia – As a result, in quick speech, eschew will sound like esh-chew. According to author Wayne P. Lawrence, "this phonemic change seems to be neither dialectal nor regional", as it can also be found among some American, Canadian, British and New Zealand English speakers as well.
Other features
Between voiced sounds, the glottal fricative may be realised as voiced , so that e.g. behind may be pronounced as either or .
The sequence is realised as a voiceless palatal fricative , so that e.g. huge is pronounced .
The word foyer is usually pronounced , as in NZ and American English, rather than as in British English.
The word data is commonly pronounced , with being the second most common, and being very rare.
The trans- prefix is pronounced , even in South Australia, where the trap–bath split is significantly more advanced than in other states.
In English, upward inflexion (a rise in the pitch of the voice at the end of an utterance) typically signals a question. Some Australian English speakers commonly use a form of upward inflexion in their speech that is not associated with asking questions. Some speakers use upward inflexion as a way of including their conversational partner in the dialogue. This is also common in Californian English.
Relationship to other varieties
Australian English pronunciation is most similar to that of New Zealand English; many people from other parts of the world often cannot distinguish them but there are differences. New Zealand English has centralised and the other short front vowels are higher. New Zealand English more strongly maintains the diphthongal quality of the NEAR and SQUARE vowels and they can be merged as something around . New Zealand English does not have the bad-lad split, but like Victoria has merged with in pre-lateral environments.
Both New Zealand English and Australian English are also similar to South African English, so that they have even been grouped together under the common label "southern hemisphere Englishes". Like the other two varieties in that group, Australian English pronunciation bears some similarities to dialects from the South-East of Britain; Thus, it is non-rhotic and has the trap-bath split although, as indicated above, this split was not completed in Australia as it was in England, so many words that have the vowel in Southeastern England retain the vowel in Australia.
Historically, the Australian English speaking manuals endorsed the lengthening of before unvoiced fricatives however this has since been reversed. Australian English lacks some innovations in Cockney since the settling of Australia, such as the use of a glottal stop in many places where a would be found, th-fronting, and h-dropping. Flapping, which Australian English shares with New Zealand English and North American English, is also found in Cockney, where it occurs as a common alternative to the glottal stop in the intervocalic position. The word butter as pronounced by an Australian or a New Zealander can be homophonous with the Cockney pronunciation (which can be instead).
AusTalk
AusTalk is a database of Australian speech from all regions of the country. Initially, 1000 adult voices were planned to be recorded in the period between June 2011 and June 2016. By the end of it, voices of 861 speakers with ages ranging from 18 to 83 were recorded into the database, each lasting approximately an hour. The database is expected to be expanded in future, to include children's voices and more variations. As well as providing a resource for cultural studies, the database is expected to help improve speech-based technology, such as speech recognition systems and hearing aids.
The AusTalk database was collected as part of the Big Australian Speech Corpus (Big ASC) project, a collaboration between Australian universities and the speech technology experts.
See also
New Zealand English phonology
South African English phonology
Regional accents of English
References
Bibliography
Palethorpe, S. and Cox, F. M. (2003) Vowel Modification in Pre-lateral Environments. Poster presented at the International Seminar on Speech Production, December 2003, Sydney.
Further reading
External links
Macquarie University - Australian voices
English phonology
Australian English | wiki |
Conclave of Shadows is a series of fantasy novels by Raymond E. Feist, part of The Riftwar Cycle. The series picks up events following The Serpentwar Saga, and deals with the secret titular organization formed by the great magician Pug, and its initial struggle against evil necromancer Leso Varen while in the employ of Kaspar, Duke of Olasko.
Works in the series
Talon of the Silver Hawk
Story of a boy, Talon of the Silver Hawk, from the mountains who has had his entire tribal race killed at the order of a Duke. Vowing revenge against the murderers of his family, he joins a secret organization known as the Conclave of Shadows, whose ultimate goal is said to oppose the evil in the world. Talon takes on a secret identity as Talwin Hawkins and the persona of a noble to gain enough fame and power to fulfill his vengeance upon his enemies. The story ends as he comes into the service of the Duke he reviles.
King of Foxes
Continues the story of Talon, or Talwin Hawkins as he has become known, under the service of Kaspar, the powerful Duke of Olasko. Talwin awaits the moment his master betrays him, believing that it is in the Duke's nature to betray, so that he may bring justice to his slaughtered people without breaking his oath of service. He gets his chance when the Duke betrays him to a neighboring King, but is exiled before he can take his revenge the Duke. Unknown to Talwin the mysterious sorcerer Leso Varen holds a strange influence over the Duke, and that much of the Duke's ambition was fuelled by Varen's machinations. After months in prison, Talwin escapes, and wages a war against his former master, ultimately destroying everything the Duke held in his power. The sorcerer meanwhile seems to meet his end at Talwin's hand during the battle. The story ends as Talwin discovers that his people have not been completely eliminated when he discovers a young woman from his village and her son, and takes them as wife and child. Having had enough of bloodshed, Talwin decides to banish the Duke in order to have him contemplate all he has done, now that the veil of the Sorcerer had been broken.
Exile's Return
The story of the exiled Duke and his quest to return home after being transported to the other side of the world by a magician ally of Talwin Hawkins. During his exile, he contemplates all the choices he had made as the Duke, and regrets the pain he had caused. Along his journey, he encounters four men carrying an artifact of dark power. As soon as he sees it, he is caught in its power and led by a will not his own along with his new companions to where the artifact, a set of black armor, wished. They take it to the temple of the Gods, and are directed to take it to the Gods themselves upon the highest mountains of the world. As they travel, the former Duke Kaspar's companions are killed off one at a time, until he is alone in carrying the armor to the Gods. There he is shown visions of great evil that await if the armor is not sent back to the world from which it came. To do so, Kaspar is instructed to find his old enemy, Talwin Hawkins, and contact the order he works for, the Conclave of Shadows. Kaspar takes the advice and sails the armor back to his home and does as he is bid, only to find that the Conclave know of no means to destroy the armor. Hoping to gain more information, the head of the Conclave, Pug, transports them to the elf lands of Elvandar where they seek the wisdom of the elves. Even the elves prove to be of no help, and just as the sorcerer Pug and Kaspar are to return, a reincarnated Leso Varen attacks the elven land with his hordes of undead. After saving the elf lands, they return only to find that Pug's stronghold had been breached by none other than Leso Varen himself. After a battle in which Varen is killed again, Pug and his son are able to send the armor to an Assembly of the most powerful magicians in their plane. As the story concludes, Pug and an ally of his, Nakor, travel to where the armor was first uncovered, only to find that thousands more like it were hidden only under the surface.
Characters
Talwin Hawkins (born Kielianapuna, then Talon of the Silver Hawk) was originally a part of a people who called themselves the Orosini and these resided in the 'High Fastness' mountain region beyond the eastern borders of the Kingdom of the Isles east of the Duchy of Farinda and west of County Conar. The Orosini are a simple people, and Talwin is introduced in Talon of the Silver Hawk as a boy named Kielianapuna, awaiting his vision from the gods; where he will his receive his true name. He has been waiting for two days on his vision quest, and is losing hope when he finally receives a vision when he faints and a hawk lands next to him and speaks to him. His name is revealed to him, 'Talon of the Silver Hawk'.
Fantasy novel series
Works by Raymond E. Feist
HarperCollins books | wiki |
Modica Way (officially "Richard B. Modica Way") aka "Graffiti Alley" is a legal graffiti gallery in Central Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was begun in 2006 and has been described as "the hallmark of Central Square" and "one of Boston's most instagrammable spots."
References
Graffiti in the United States | wiki |
John Brown's Body, , är en amerikansk marschsång om abolitionisten John Brown som var populär på nordsidan under amerikanska inbördeskriget. Melodin har använts till Battle Hymn of the Republic.
Externa länkar
John Brown's Body Youtube
Amerikanska sånger
Sånger i Roud Folk Song Index | wiki |
British and American actress Angela Lansbury was known for her prolific work in theatre, film and television.
Film
Television
Stage
Source: PlaybillVault
Radio
Video games
References
Further reading
Actress filmographies
British filmographies | wiki |
The onion chip is a deep fried snack made from onion.
Unlike potato chips, they are smellier and they have a strong flavor. Onion chips are used and sold as snacks but they can be used in different cuisines around the world. They can be cut and made in circle, square form and piece by piece. In Japanese cuisine, onion chips are used in some sushi.
See also
Fried onion
List of onion dishes
References
Snack foods
Onion-based foods
Deep fried foods | wiki |
Cette liste de jeux Sunsoft répertorie les jeux vidéo développés ou édités par l'entreprise Sunsoft.
Notes et références
Sunsoft, liste de jeux | wiki |
Governor Dundas may refer to:
Thomas Dundas (British Army officer) (1750–1794), Governor of Guadeloupe in 1794
George Dundas (colonial administrator) (1819–1880), Governor of Prince Edward Island from 1859 to 1868
Charles Dundas (governor) (1884–1956), Governor of the Bahamas from 1933 to 1940 and Governor of Uganda from 1940 to 1943
Lawrence Dundas, 2nd Marquess of Zetland (1876–1961), Governor of Bengal from 1917 to 1922
Francis Dundas (1759–1824), Acting Governor of the Cape Colony between 1798 and 1803
Philip Dundas (1762–1807), Governor of Prince of Wales Isle (Penang) from 1805 to 1807 | wiki |
a thigh strap or thigh band may refer to
any kind of strap that is worn around the thigh, either as a single item or as part of another piece of clothing, such as a thigh holster
a garter, a clothing item used to keep stockings up | wiki |
Las Moras Mountain, is a summit in the Texas Hill Country four miles northeast of Brackettville in Kinney County, Texas. It stands at an elevation of 1676 feet.
References
Landforms of Kinney County, Texas
Mountains of Texas | wiki |
Umbrella (Rihanna), een single van Rihanna
Umbrella (Nits), een single van Nits
Umbrella (platenlabel), een Canadees platenlabel
The Umbrella Academy (televisieserie), een Amerikaanse televisieserie
Conopeum, een half dichtgeslagen zonnescherm (of paraplu) dat in processies wordt meegedragen achter het tintinnabulum | wiki |
Gothic House is a Gothic-style building in the centre of Brighton, England.
Gothic House may also refer to:
Gothic House (Bad Homburg), Bad Homburg, Hesse-Homburg, Germany
Gothic House (Puławy), Puławy, Poland
Gothic House, Brighton, West Sussex, United Kingdom
The Gothic House, Portland, Maine, United States
See also
American Gothic House or Dibble House, a house in Eldon, Iowa, United States | wiki |
This is a list of shootings in the United States that occurred in 2022. Mass shootings are incidents involving several victims of firearm-related violence. The precise inclusion criteria are disputed, and there is no broadly accepted definition.
Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit research group that tracks shootings and their characteristics in the United States, defines a mass shooting as an incident in which four or more people, excluding the perpetrator(s), are shot in one location at roughly the same time. The Congressional Research Service narrows that definition to four or more killed and excludes the injured who survive. The Washington Post and Mother Jones use similar definitions, with the latter acknowledging that their definition "is a conservative measure of the problem", as many shootings with fewer fatalities occur. The crowdsourced Mass Shooting Tracker project applies the most expansive definition: four or more shot in any incident, including the perpetrator.
A 2019 study of mass shootings published in the journal Injury Epidemiology recommended developing "a standard definition that considers both fatalities and nonfatalities to most appropriately convey the burden of mass shootings on gun violence." The authors of the study further suggested that "the definition of mass shooting should be four or more people, excluding the shooter, who are shot in a single event regardless of the motive, setting or number of deaths."
Definitions
Stanford University MSA Data Project: three or more persons shot in one incident, excluding the perpetrator(s), at one location, at roughly the same time. Excluded are shootings associated with organized crime, gangs or drug wars.
Mass Shooting Tracker: four or more persons shot in one incident, at one location, at roughly the same time.
Gun Violence Archive/Vox: four or more shot in one incident, excluding the perpetrators, at one location, at roughly the same time.
Mother Jones: three or more shot and killed in one incident at a public place, excluding the perpetrators. This list excludes all shootings the organization considers to be "conventionally motivated" such as all gang violence and armed robberies.
The Washington Post: four or more shot and killed in one incident at a public place, excluding the perpetrators.
ABC News/FBI: four or more shot and killed in one incident, excluding the perpetrators, at one location, at roughly the same time.
Congressional Research Service: four or more shot and killed in one incident, excluding the perpetrators, at a public place, excluding gang-related killings and those done with a profit-motive.
Only incidents considered mass shootings by at least two of the above sources are listed below. Many incidents involving organized and gang violence are included.
List
Monthly statistics
Notes
References
External links
Gun Violence Archive Mass Shootings
Mass Shooting Tracker Mass Shootings
Mother Jones Mass Shootings
USA Today Mass Shootings
Vox Mass Shootings
Washington Post Mass Shootings
2022 murders in the United States
Mass shootings in the United States
2022
2022 | wiki |
Shinki Bus Co., Ltd is a transport company based in Himeji, Japan, operating local bus services in Hyogo prefecture and other services mainly related to transport and tourism.
History
The company was founded on 10 March 1927 under the name of Shinki Automobile ( 神 姫 自動 車 株式会社, Shinki Jidôsha Kabushikigaisha ) in Kobe . In 1947 the company moved and settled in Himeji, renamed as Shinki Co Automotive( 神姫合同自動車株式会社, Shinki Gōdō Jidosha Kabushikigaisha ) . In 1956, the company changed its name back to its original name. In May 1972, the company again modifies its name to become Shinki Bus, the current name.
Vehicles
Currently, four models of Mitsubishi Fuso, Isuzu, Hino, Nissan Diesel (then "UD Trucks"), Nissan Civilian, Toyota Coaster, Toyota Hiace are introduced. Electric cars and high-speed cars were unified in MFTBC for a long time, but in 2005 two Hino and Selega were introduced. The most noteworthy point in coloring is the painting of charter cars. This was introduced in 1990, graphic designer Kazumasa Nagai designed that was requested to, in the article of the bus magazine is that it was also introduced as a "designer brand tour bus".The earlier chartered car design has been used as a design for high-speed vehicles for daytime even after that. The night express bus is a design that arranged Himeji Castle. In the first vehicle, the base color was a blue color, but the base color has been changed when updating the vehicle. The nickname of "Orange Arrow Strand SANDA" was publicly recruited and named. Shin-Sanda Station and Mita Station part of the pre-arrival and departure has been used in routes, capacity has become from usual route bus from about 40 people to 116 people. Regular sightseeing bus "Sky Bus Kobe" with open top bus borrows Neo Plan Skyliner and Neo Plan Space Liner of "Sky Bus Tokyo" from Hinomaru Auto Industry Co., Ltd.
Group companies
Consolidated subsidiary
Shinki Green Bus Co., Ltd.
West Princess Co., Ltd.
Shinki Zone Bus Co., Ltd.
Shinki Sightseeing Bus Corporation
Shinki Taxi Corporation
Maiko God Princess Taxi Co., Ltd.
Tachibana Shinki Taxi Corporation
Shinki Taxi Himeji Co., Ltd.
Elteo Corporation
Shinki Industry Co., Ltd.
Shinki Commerce and Industry Co.
Shinki Create Co. Ltd. Shinki Environment Service Co., Ltd.
Hope Corporation Shinki Angel Heart Co., Ltd.
Shinki Food Service Co., Ltd.
Shinki Travel Co., Ltd. (originally a subsidiary of Asahi Broadcasting "ABC · Travel", after the company bought it the name changed to "ABC Shinki Travel" by Shinki Bus capital participation, on April 1, 2016 the capital of the company remains even after becoming the current company name)
Shinki Sightseeing Holdings Co., Ltd.
Shinki Bus Tours Co., Ltd.
Fujiya Kamaboko Co., Ltd.
Shinki Delivering Co., Ltd.
Swim Co., Ltd.
Equity-method affiliate
Sanyo Department Store Co., Ltd.
Other affiliates
Sanyo Electric Railway Co., Ltd.
Hanshin Electric Railway Co., Ltd. - the largest shareholder. However, the Shinki bus does not belong to the Hankyu Hanshin Toho group .
Bus Terminal Co., Ltd. - Temporary dispatch of executives and capital alliance. There was a report that management integration will be integrated in April 2009. President Uesugi of Shinki Bus to the press coverage expressed motivation, but since then both companies have not announced the official announcement. The company's Kobe Total All taxis came along with the dissolution, Amagasaki Sales Office in Amagasaki City was transferred by Tachibana Shinko taxi, which is operated in the city (Kobe head office is Kobe head office Kokusai Kogyo (now Kokusai Osaka → International Kobe Kobe) Transfer).
References
External links
Bus companies of Japan | wiki |
Carving is the act of using tools to shape something from a material by scraping away portions of that material. The technique can be applied to any material that is solid enough to hold a form even when pieces have been removed from it, and yet soft enough for portions to be scraped away with available tools. Carving, as a means for making stone or wooden sculpture, is distinct from methods using soft and malleable materials like clay, fruit, and melted glass, which may be shaped into the desired forms while soft and then harden into that form. Carving tends to require much more work than methods using malleable materials.
Kinds of carving include:
Bone carving
Chip carving
Fruit carving
Gourd carving or gourd art
Ice carving or ice sculpture
Ivory carving
Stone carving
Petroglyph
Vegetable carving
Thaeng yuak (Banana stalk carving)
Wood carving
Hobo nickel
Tree carving
Arborglyph
See also
Engraving
Sculpture
Whittling
References
External links
The arts | wiki |
Carlos Cumpián, a Chicano writer who examines American realities absent from mainstream poetry. Originally from San Antonio, Texas, Cumpián has planted firm roots in the Midwest.
Cumpián was named among the Chicago Public Library's "Top Ten" requested poets and his poetry has been published in small press magazines as well as numerous anthologies. He has taught at Columbia College Chicago and has offered workshops on poetry and small press management. His books "14 Abriles: Poems" (March Abrazo Press), Latino Rainbow (Children's Press/Scholastic Books), Armadillo Charm (Tia Chucha Press) and Coyote Sun (March Abrazo Press) have received positive reviews for their contributions to Chicano literature.
Cumpián is also the editor of March Abrazo Press and has been instrumental in the longevity of the small press and establishing its presence as an independent publisher of Latino and Native American poetry. Carlos currently teaches high school English in Chicago and works to provide quality education to inner-city high school youth.
Writings
14 Abriles: Poems, March Abrazo Press, Chicago, 2010
Armadillo Charm, Tia Chucha Press, L.A. 1996 (2nd printing, 1998)
Latino Rainbow: Poems about Latino Americans, Children's Press, Scholastic Books, Danbury, Conn., 1994 (available in hardcover, paperback and teacher's guide editions)
Coyote Sun, March Abrazo Press, Chicago, 1990 (4th printing, 2005)
He is also published in more than 20 poetry and literary anthologies, such as Hecho en Tejas (Made in Texas): An Anthology of Texas Mexican Literature (University of New Mexico Press, 2006) and Telling Stories: An Anthology for Writers, ed. Joyce Carol Oates (W.W. Norton, New York, 1998).
References
External links
Litline.org
Murphy Library Notable Hispanic Poetry Titles
Essay in Rattle Magazine "Without Passport or Reservation: The Next Move is Ours" Issue #12" Vol. 5, No. 2, Winter 1999
March Abrazo Press
The Hummingbird Review
L.A. Times
American poets of Mexican descent
Columbia College Chicago faculty
Living people
1953 births | wiki |
Carriera
Venne selezionato dai Washington Bullets al primo giro del Draft NBA 1975 (18ª scelta assoluta).
Palmarès
NCAA AP All-America Second Team (1975)
Washington Bullets: 1978
Altri progetti
Collegamenti esterni
Scheda su thedraftreview.com | wiki |
Botànica: un tipus d'inflorescència Fascicle (botànica).
Botànica: un feix de fulles (agulles), Fascicle (fulles).
Arts gràfiques: petita part d'un llibre publicada per separat, Fascicle (llibre). | wiki |
The Ohio Commission on Dispute Resolution and Conflict Management (CDR) was a state agency of Ohio, headquartered on the 24th Floor of the Riffe Center in Columbus. The commission established anti-bullying and truancy prevention programs at Ohio schools.
It was closed in 2009 in statewide budget-cuts and has not been reinstated.
References
External links
Ohio Commission on Dispute Resolution and Conflict Management
Ohio Commission on Dispute Resolution and Conflict Management at YouTube
State agencies of Ohio | wiki |
Mom Song can refer to:
"Mom Song", a track on the album Simply Mortified by BS 2000
"Mom's Overture", an unofficial title of the song "Momisms" by comedian Anita Renfroe
See also
Mom (disambiguation), for several songs titled "Mom" | wiki |
Information processing is the change (processing) of information in any manner detectable by an observer.
Information processing may also refer to:
Data processing in computer science | wiki |
In Jewish religious law (halakha), Jews are commanded to rest on Shabbat, and refrain from performing certain types of work. Some of the activities are considered to be prohibited by biblical law (the 39 Melachot), while others became prohibited later on, due to rabbinic decrees. These rabbinic Shabbat prohibitions are collectively known as shevut (שבות).
The rabbinic prohibitions fall into several categories: activities not in the spirit of Shabbat; activities which closely resemble a forbidden activity; activities which could lead one to perform a prohibited activity; or activities whose biblical permissibility is debated, so avoiding the activity allows one to keep Shabbat according to all rabbinic opinions.
As with most areas of Halacha, Orthodox Jews tend to observe these prohibitions more stringently than non-Orthodox Jews.
Muktzeh
Certain items may not be touched, moved or eaten on Shabbat because they are classified as muktzeh (off-limits). Reasons for items being considered muktzeh include their main use being a violation of Shabbat, the act of moving them risking a Shabbat violation, or if they were produced during Shabbat in violation of Shabbat.
Money
Although the use of money on Shabbat is not directly forbidden in the Torah, its use has long been condemned by the sages. Money is the very matter of business, and conducting or even discussing business on Shabbat is a rabbinically prohibited act. Additionally, many business transactions are customarily recorded on paper, and writing is one of the 39 melachot.
Amirah L'akkum
It is rabbinically forbidden for a Jew to tell a non-Jew to do an activity forbidden on the Sabbath, regardless of whether the instruction was given on the Sabbath or beforehand. The reason is that otherwise, the sanctity of the Sabbath would be diminished, as any activity desired could be performed via proxy.
It is also forbidden to benefit on Sabbath from such an activity, regardless of whether the non-Jew was instructed to do so or not. However, if the non-Jew does an activity for himself, a Jew may benefit from it.
Exceptions
Both "instruct" and "benefit" are defined here strictly. This gives rise to the following leniency: One may hint a non-Jew to turn off a light interfering with one's sleep, since eliminating a nuisance (the light) is not considered a benefit. Hinting may be done, for example, by saying: "The light is on, and I am forbidden to turn it off." Another example of a non-benefit is turning on a light if there already is a minimal amount of light present. This is because an increased ease of function is not considered a benefit.
When the activity desired is itself only rabbinically prohibited, it may be permitted to tell a non-Jew to perform the activity for important reasons, such as a communal benefit (such as a power outage in the synagogue) or a mitzvah (such as circumcision). This principle is known as shevut deshevut bimkom mitzvah. There are also leniencies in the event of a sick person, including even minor discomfort among very young children.
Electricity
The use of electricity on Shabbat is generally considered forbidden among Orthodox Jews. There is extensive debate regarding the source of this prohibition. According to most opinions, the prohibition is rabbinic. (Some uses of electricity may also involve a biblical prohibition, for example cooking on an electric stove.)
References
External links
Chabad.org: Shabbat Rest - The Don'ts of Shabbat
Laws of Shabbat
Shabbat | wiki |
Robert Balfour may refer to:
Robert Balfour (philosopher) ( 1553–1621), Scottish philosopher
Robert Balfour, 2nd Lord Balfour of Burleigh (died 1663), Scottish military commander
Robert Balfour, 5th Lord Balfour of Burleigh (died 1757), Scottish Jacobite
Robert Balfour, 4th of Balbirnie (1698–1766), Scottish Member of Parliament
Robert Balfour, 6th of Balbirnie (1772–1837), British Army general
Sir Robert Balfour, 1st Baronet (1844–1929), British politician, MP for Glasgow Partick
Robert Balfour, 3rd Earl of Balfour (1902–1968), Scottish peer
Robert Drummond Balfour (1844–1915), cricketer | wiki |
Preadolescence is a stage of human development following middle childhood and preceding adolescence. It commonly ends with the beginning of puberty. Preadolescence is commonly defined as ages 9–12 ending with the major onset of puberty. It may also be defined as simply the 2-year period before the major onset of puberty. Preadolescence can bring its own challenges and anxieties.
Terminology
A term used to refer to the preadolescent stage in everyday speech is tween and its perhaps older variants tweenie, tweeny, tweenager, and tweener. It's a blend (portmanteau) of the words "teen" and "between" in the sense of "between childhood and adolescence" and refers to 8-, 9-, or 10- to 12-year-olds. Sometimes the terms tweenie and tweenager are used to differentiate between older (10 to 15) and younger (7 to 11) age groups, respectively.
While known as preadolescent in psychology, the terms preteen or tween are common in everyday use. A preteen or preteenager is a person ages 12 and under. Generally, the term is restricted to those close to reaching age 13, especially ages 9 to 12. Tween is an American neologism and marketing term for preteen, which is a blend of between and teen. People within this age range are variously described as tweens, preadolescents, tweenies, preteens, pubescents, middle schoolers, or tweenagers.
A junior high school can sometimes be confused with a middle school. Though serving a similar purpose in bridging a gap between elementary school and high school, a junior high school typically serves 7th to 9th grade students, whereas a middle school serves 6th to 8th grade students. Therefore, middle schools serve a slightly younger demographic, more befitting of preadolescents, while junior high schools typically serve young adolescents.
Prepubescence, puberty, and age range
Being prepubescent is not the same thing as being preadolescent. Instead, prepubescent (and sometimes child) is a term for boys and girls who have not developed secondary sex characteristics, while preadolescent is generally defined as those ranging from age 9 to 12 years.
Preadolescence may also be defined as the period from 10 to 13 years.
The point at which a child becomes an adolescent is defined by the major onset of puberty. However, in some individuals (particularly females), puberty begins in the preadolescence years. Studies indicate that the onset of puberty has been one year earlier with each generation since the 1950s.
One can also distinguish middle childhood and preadolescence – middle childhood from approximately 5–8 years, as opposed to the time children are generally considered to reach preadolescence. There is no exact agreement as to when preadolescence starts and ends.
Hormonal development and the development of secondary sex characteristics
Early puberty begins as the result of the initiation of the pulsatile gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) secretion by the hypothalamus; the exact mechanism of this initiation is currently unknown and remains under investigation. Pulsatile GnRH secretion results in the pulsatile secretions of gonadotropins Luteinizing Hormone (LH) and Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH), which act on the gonads (ovaries in females or testicles in males) to cause increase secretion of sex steroids. In females, the predominant sex steroid released is estrogen and in individuals with testicles, the predominant sex steroid released is testosterone. These sex hormones then lead to the development of secondary sex characteristics.
The stages of puberty can be described with the Tanner scale, also known as the Sexual Maturity Rating, which incorporates measurements and characteristics of primary and secondary sex characteristics. For example, genital and breast development, as well as pubic hair growth. Pubertal development is regulated by the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis. Tanner staging ranges from 1 through 5 (with 5 being the most developed).
With regards to pubic hair development, the scale goes as follows: Stage 1-no hair; 2-downy hair; 3-scant terminal hair; 4-terminal hair overlying the pubic triangle; 5-terminal hair extending to the thigh. With regards to male genitalia development, the scale goes as follows: 1-testes at the same size and proportion of early childhood; 2-enlargement of the scrotum/change in texture of scrotal skin; 3-growth of the penis length-wise; 4-growth of the penis in terms of length and circumference; 5-adult-sized genitalia.
With regards to female breast development, the scale is as follows: 1-no palpable gland tissue; 2-palpable breast bud under areola; 3-breast tissue palpable outside of areola; 4-areola elevated above breast contour; 5-areolar mound recedes into single breast contour. The average age in which both males and females reach Tanner stage 5 of pubertal development is around 15–16.
Neurological development
There are significant neurological changes that are expressed during preadolescence. White matter refers to the region of the nervous system corresponding to neuronal axons, which form fibers that convey information across different regions of the brain. In contrast, grey matter refers to the region of the nervous system corresponding to neuronal cell bodies, which process and relay neuronal signals. White matter volume increases at a relatively linear rate of about 12% from ages 4 through 22, specifically focused in the frontal, parietal, and occipital lobes. Increases in white matter volume may be correlated to improvements of fine motor performance, auditory processing, as well as sensory information transfer between language areas of the brain. In contrast, cortical gray matter increases in early life, peaks in preadolescence, and declines through adulthood, with the exception of occipital lobe gray matter. For example, parietal lobe gray matter peaks at age 10 in girls and 12 in boys, while frontal lobe gray matter peaks at age 11 in girls and 12 in boys. Such changes might reflect overproduction of synapses in the preadolescent years; in subsequent years, there seems to be pruning dependent on environmental context, corresponding to increased synchronicity of neuron firing. A key caveat from these imaging studies, however, is that there exists significant variability in the timing and characteristics of neurological change in preadolescents. Neurological changes, particularly in the prefrontal cortex, appear to be highly dependent on environmental input. Toxins, hormones, and lifestyle factors including stress and nutrition impact neurological maturation, demonstrating the importance of early lifestyle health interventions in preadolescence with regards to neurological and psychological development.
Psychological and social development
Of the 'two major socializing agents in children's lives: the family environment...and formal educational institutions,' it is 'the family in its function a primary socializer of the child' that predominates in the first five years of life: middle childhood by contrast is characterized by 'a child's readiness for school...being self-assured and interested; knowing what kind of behavior is expected...being able to wait, to follow directions, and getting along with other children.'
Preadolescent children have a different view of the world from younger children in many significant ways. Typically, theirs is a more realistic view of life than the intense, fantasy-oriented world of earliest childhood. Preadolescents have more mature, sensible, realistic thoughts and actions: 'the most "sensible" stage of development...the child is a much less emotional being now.' They will often have developed a sense of ' intentionality. The wish and capacity to have an impact, and to act upon that with persistence'; and will have a more developed sense of looking into the future and seeing effects of their actions (as opposed to early childhood where children often do not worry about their future). This can include more realistic job expectations ("I want to be an engineer when I grow up", as opposed to "I want to be a wizard"). Middle children generally show more investment 'in control over external reality through the acquisition of knowledge and competence': where they do have worries, these may be more a fear of kidnappings, rapes, and scary media events, as opposed to fantasy things (e.g., witches, monsters, ghosts).
Preadolescents may well view human relationships differently (e.g. they may notice the flawed, human side of authority figures). Alongside that, they may begin to develop a sense of self-identity, and to have increased feelings of independence: 'may feel an individual, no longer "just one of the family."' A different view on morality can emerge; and the middle child will also show more cooperativeness. The ability to balance one's own needs with those of others in group activities'. Many preadolescents will often start to question their home life and surroundings around this time and they may also start to form opinions that may differ from their upbringing in regards to issues such as politics, religion, sexuality, and gender roles.
Greater responsibility within the family can also appear, as middle children become responsible for younger siblings and relatives, as with babysitting; while preadolescents may start caring about what they look like and what they are wearing.
Prior to adolescence, children may have a dependence on their family as their main agent of socialization. This helps the child establish their attitudes, viewpoints, social norms, and societal roles.
Among these changes is the shift from elementary to middle (or junior high) school. In this unfamiliar environment, the child may find the pressure to rapidly adapt and fit in. Children start to spend less time with family and more time with friends. At this time, socialization by the school and peer environment can become more predominant, as the preadolescent starts to learn more about how they would wish to hold themselves during interpersonal relationships.
While children find this need to fit in, preadolescents have a conflicting desire to establish their own individualism. As the child grows into the transitionary period of preadolescence, the child often starts to develop a sense of autonomy as the child is exposed to a larger world around them full of sudden and unfamiliar changes. Compounded with a sense of self-consciousness, the preadolescent starts to explore their own self-identity and their role in society further.
Development of sexual orientation
During preadolescence (early adolescence), individuals may become more preoccupied with body image and privacy, corresponding to physical changes seen during adrenarche and puberty. Early adolescents may become aware of their sexuality for the first time, and experience attraction towards others. Homosexual and heterosexual experimentation is not uncommon, although it is important to note that many teens who eventually identify as LGBT do not always do so during adolescence. On average, gay, lesbian, and bisexual individuals report experiencing same-sex attraction in early adolescence, at age 12. About 4 in 10 gay men, and 2 in 10 lesbian women report experiencing same-sex attraction before age 10. For individuals who begin to experience same-sex attraction, familial support and acceptance consistently predicts positive outcomes. Parents and guardians can support preadolescents, regardless of sexual orientation, by having honest conversations about sex. Specifically, parents can talk and listen in a way that invites preadolescents to have an open discussion about sexual orientation.
Home from home
Where development has been optimal, preadolescents 'come to school for something to be added to their lives; they want to learn lessons...which can lead to their eventually working in a job like their parents.' When earlier developmental stages have gone astray, however, then, on the principle that 'if you miss a stage, you can always go through it later,' some middle children 'come to school for another purpose...[not] to learn but to find a home from home...a stable emotional situation in which they can exercise their own emotional liability, a group of which they can gradually become a part.'
Divorce
Children at the threshold of adolescence in the nine-to-twelve-year-old group would seem to have particular vulnerabilities to parental separation. Among such problems were the very "eagerness of these youngsters to be co-opted into the parental battling; their willingness to take sides...and the intense, compassionate, caretaking relations which led these youngsters to attempt to rescue a distressed parent often to their own detriment".
Media
Preadolescents may well be more exposed to popular culture than younger children and have interests based on internet trends, television shows and movies (no longer just cartoons), fashion, technology, music and social media. Preadolescents generally prefer certain brands, and are a heavily targeted market of many advertisers. Their tendency to buy brand-name items may be due to a desire to fit in, although the desire is not as strong as it is with teenagers.
Some scholars suggest that 'pre-adolescents ... reported frequent encounters with sexual material in the media, valued the information received from it, and used it as a learning resource ... and evaluated such content through what they perceived to be sexual morality.' However, other research has suggested that sexual media influences on preadolescent and adolescent sexual behavior is minimal.
Freud
Freud called this stage the latency period to indicate that sexual feelings and interest went underground. Erik H. Erikson noted that latency period children in middle childhood can then direct more of their energy into asexual pursuits such as school, athletics, and same-sex friendships. Nevertheless, recent research contradicts these notions—suggesting that sexual development, interest, and behavior among latent period children does not cease. Instead, the apparent lack of sexual interest is due to children not sharing their sexual interests/emotions with adults.
See also
Precocious puberty
References
Further reading
Myers, James. "Tweens and cool", Admap, March 2004.
G. Berry Brazelton, Heart Start: The Emotional Foundations of School Readiness (Arlington 1992)
Human development
Puberty
Adolescence
Childhood
Youth | wiki |
The Uganda women's national volleyball team represents Uganda in international women's volleyball competitions and friendly matches.
References
Uganda Volleyball Federation
National women's volleyball teams
Volleyball
Volleyball in Uganda
Women's sport in Uganda | wiki |
List of military units raised by the state of Rhode Island during the American Civil War.
Artillery units
Cavalry
Infantry
Miscellaneous
Independent Company Hospital Guards
See also
Rhode Island in the American Civil War
Lists of American Civil War Regiments by State
United States Colored Troops
Notes
Civil War regiments
Rhode Island | wiki |
The von Neumann–Wigner interpretation, also described as "consciousness causes collapse", is an interpretation of quantum mechanics in which consciousness is postulated to be necessary for the completion of the process of quantum measurement.
Background: observation in quantum mechanics
In the orthodox Copenhagen interpretation, quantum mechanics predicts only the probabilities for different observed experimental outcomes. What constitutes an observer or an observation is not directly specified by the theory, and the behavior of a system under measurement and observation is completely different from its usual behavior: the wavefunction that describes a system spreads out into an ever-larger superposition of different possible situations. However, during observation, the wavefunction describing the system collapses to one of several options. If there is no observation, this collapse does not occur, and none of the options ever becomes less likely.
It can be predicted using quantum mechanics, absent a collapse postulate, that an observer observing a quantum superposition will turn into a superposition of different observers seeing different things. The observer will have a wavefunction which describes all the possible outcomes. Still, in actual experience, an observer never senses a superposition, but always senses that one of the outcomes has occurred with certainty. This apparent conflict between a wavefunction description and classical experience is called the problem of observation (see Measurement problem).
The interpretation
In his 1932 book The Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics, John von Neumann argued that the mathematics of quantum mechanics allows the collapse of the wave function to be placed at any position in the causal chain from the measurement device to the "subjective perception" of the human observer. In 1939, Fritz London and Edmond Bauer argued for the latter boundary (consciousness). In the 1960s, Eugene Wigner reformulated the "Schrödinger's cat" thought experiment as "Wigner's friend" and proposed that the consciousness of an observer is the demarcation line that precipitates collapse of the wave function, independent of any realist interpretation. See Consciousness and measurement. The mind is postulated to be non-physical and the only true measurement apparatus.
This interpretation has been summarized thus:
The rules of quantum mechanics are correct but there is only one system which may be treated with quantum mechanics, namely the entire material world. There exist external observers which cannot be treated within quantum mechanics, namely human (and perhaps animal) minds, which perform measurements on the brain causing wave function collapse.
Henry Stapp has argued for the concept as follows:
From the point of view of the mathematics of quantum theory it makes no sense to treat a measuring device as intrinsically different from the collection of atomic constituents that make it up. A device is just another part of the physical universe... Moreover, the conscious thoughts of a human observer ought to be causally connected most directly and immediately to what is happening in his brain, not to what is happening out at some measuring device... Our bodies and brains thus become ... parts of the quantum mechanically described physical universe. Treating the entire physical universe in this unified way provides a conceptually simple and logically coherent theoretical foundation...
Objections to the interpretation
There are other possible solutions to the "Wigner's friend" thought experiment, which do not require consciousness to be different from other physical processes. Moreover, Wigner actually shifted to those interpretations (and away from "consciousness causes collapse") in his later years. This was partly because he was embarrassed that "consciousness causes collapse" can lead to a kind of solipsism, but also because he decided that he had been wrong to try to apply quantum physics at the scale of everyday life (specifically, he rejected his initial idea of treating macroscopic objects as isolated systems). See Consciousness and Superposition.
This interpretation relies upon an interactionist form of dualism that is inconsistent with the materialism that is commonly used to understand the brain, and accepted by most scientists. (Materialism assumes that consciousness has no special role in relation to quantum mechanics.) The measurement problem notwithstanding, they point to a causal closure of physics, suggesting a problem with how consciousness and matter might interact, reminiscent of objections to Descartes' substance dualism.
The interpretation has also been criticized for not explaining which things have sufficient consciousness to collapse the wave function. Also, it posits an important role for the conscious mind, and it has been questioned how this could be the case for the earlier universe, before consciousness had evolved or emerged. It has been argued that "[consciousness causes collapse] does not allow sensible discussion of Big Bang cosmology or biological evolution". For example, Roger Penrose remarked: "[T]he evolution of conscious life on this planet is due to appropriate mutations having taken place at various times. These, presumably, are quantum events, so they would exist only in linearly superposed form until they finally led to the evolution of a conscious being—whose very existence depends on all the right mutations having 'actually' taken place!" Others further suppose a universal mind (see also panpsychism and panexperientialism). Other researchers have expressed similar objections to the introduction of any subjective element in the collapse of the wavefunction.
Testability
All interpretations of quantum mechanics are empirically indistinguishable, as they all predict the same outcomes to quantum mechanical experiments. It has been argued that the results of delayed-choice quantum eraser experiments empirically falsify this interpretation. However, the argument was shown to be invalid because an interference pattern would only be visible after post-measurement detections were correlated through use of a coincidence counter; if that wasn't true, the experiment would allow signaling into the past. The delayed-choice quantum eraser experiment has also been used to argue for support of this interpretation, but, as with other arguments, none of the cited references proves or falsifies this interpretation.
Reception
A poll was conducted at a quantum mechanics conference in 2011 using 33 participants (including physicists, mathematicians, and philosophers). Researchers found that 6% of participants (2 of the 33) indicated that they believed the observer "plays a distinguished physical role (e.g., wave-function collapse by consciousness)". This poll also states that 55% (18 of the 33) indicated that they believed the observer "plays a fundamental role in the application of the formalism but plays no distinguished physical role". They also mention that "Popular accounts have sometimes suggested that the Copenhagen interpretation attributes such a role to consciousness. In our view, this is to misunderstand the Copenhagen interpretation."
Views of the pioneers of quantum mechanics
Many of the originators of quantum mechanical theory held that humans can effectively interrogate nature through interacting with it, and that in this regard quantum mechanics is not different from classical mechanics. In addition, Werner Heisenberg maintained that wave function collapse, "The discontinuous change in the probability function", takes place when the result of a measurement is registered in the mind of an observer. However, this is because he understood the probability function as an artifact of human knowledge: he also argued that the reality of the material transition from "possible" to "actual" was mind-independent. Albert Einstein, who believed in realism, and did not accept the theoretical completeness of quantum mechanics, similarly appealed for the merely epistemic conception of the wave function:
[I advocate] that one conceives of the psi-function [i.e., wavefunction] only as an incomplete description of a real state of affairs, where the incompleteness of the description is forced by the fact that observation of the state is only able to grasp part of the real factual situation. Then one can at least escape the singular conception that observation (conceived as an act of consciousness) influences the real physical state of things; the change in the psi-function through observation then does not correspond essentially to the change in a real matter of fact but rather to the alteration in our knowledge of this matter of fact.
Bohr also took an active interest in the philosophical implications of quantum theories such as his complementarity principle. He believed quantum theory offers a complete description of nature, albeit one that is simply ill-suited for everyday experiences - which are better described by classical mechanics and probability. Bohr never specified a demarcation line above which objects cease to be quantum and become classical. He believed that it was not a question of physics, but one of philosophy or convenience.
See also
Interpretations of quantum mechanics
Measurement in quantum mechanics
Quantum mind
Quantum Zeno effect
Wigner's friend
References
External links
PHYSICS TODAY: "Is the moon there when nobody looks? Reality and the quantum theory" (pdf)
"Quantum Cosmology and the Hard Problem of the Conscious Brain" (pdf)
Mindful Sensationalism: A Quantum Framework for Consciousness.
Brian Josephson on QM and consciousness
Quantum Enigma from Oxford University Press
"Critique of Quantum Enigma Physics encounters Consciousness", by Michael Nauenberg
Consciousness
Interpretations of quantum mechanics
Observation
Philosophical problems
Philosophy of physics
John von Neumann | wiki |
"Never Say Die" is the third solo single by American rock singer Jon Bon Jovi. It was released in 1991 from his debut album Blaze of Glory, the soundtrack album from the film Young Guns II.
Release and Promotion
The single was only ever released in three countries; Poland, Canada and Australia. In Poland it became a Top20 hit peaking at No.17. In Australia it entered the charts on April 7, 1991 and peaked at number 60 during a four-week run.
Charts
References
1991 singles
Jon Bon Jovi songs
Songs written by Jon Bon Jovi
1990 songs
American hard rock songs | wiki |
Christine Truman Janes, MBE (Woodford Green, 16 de janeiro de 1941) é uma ex-tenista australiana. Ela ganhou um torneio de simples do Aberto da França.
Tenistas do Reino Unido | wiki |
The quetzal (; code: GTQ) is the currency of Guatemala, named after the national bird of Guatemala, the resplendent quetzal. In ancient Mayan culture, the quetzal bird's tail feathers were used as currency. It is divided into 100 centavos, or len (plural lenes) in Guatemalan slang. The plural is quetzales.
History
The quetzal was introduced in 1925 during the term of President José María Orellana, whose image appears on the obverse of the one-quetzal bill. It replaced the Guatemalan peso at the rate of 60 pesos = 1 quetzal. Until 1987, the quetzal was pegged to and domestically equal to the United States dollar.
Coins
In 1925, coins in denominations of 1, 5, 10 centavos, , and 1 quetzal were introduced, although the majority of the 1 quetzal coins were withdrawn from circulation and melted. and 2 centavo coins were added in 1932. Until 1965, coins of 5 centavos and above were minted in 72% silver. and 1 quetzal coins were reintroduced in 1998 and 1999, respectively.
The coins currently in circulation are disc-shaped and include Guatemala's national coat of arms on the obverse. The coins, and their reverse designs are:
1 centavo: Friar Bartolomé de las Casas
5 centavos: the tree of liberty and the motto "LIBRE CREZCA FECUNDO (Grow free and fecund)"
10 centavos: a monolith from Quiriguá
25 centavos: an indigenous woman, Concepción Ramírez
50 centavos: Monja Blanca, the national flower
1 quetzal: a stylized dove, the word "Paz (Peace)", and the date “29 de Diciembre de 1996 (29 December 1996)”
Banknotes
The first banknotes were issued by the Central Bank of Guatemala in denominations of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20 and 100 quetzales, with quetzal notes added in 1933. In 1946, the Bank of Guatemala took over the issuance of paper money, with the first issues being overprints on notes of the Central Bank. Except for the introduction of 50 quetzal notes in 1967, the denominations of banknotes remained unchanged until and 1 quetzal coins replaced notes at the end of the 1990s.
In the top-right corner of the obverse face of each banknote, the value is displayed in Mayan numerals, representing Guatemala's cultural history.
The Bank of Guatemala has introduced a polymer banknote of 1 quetzal on August 20, 2007, followed by a 5 quetzal polymer banknote on November 14, 2011.
Exchange rate
See also
Economy of Guatemala
References
External links
Banco de Guatemala
Images of Guatemalan coins from the Banco de Guatemala page
Banco de Guatemala currency in circulation
The banknotes of Guatemala
Currencies of Guatemala
Currencies introduced in 1925
Currency symbols | wiki |
Glass slipper may refer to:
"Cinderella", the traditional fairy tale also known as "The Little Glass Slipper"
The Glass Slipper (film), a 1955 musical film starring Leslie Caron
The Glass Slipper (novel), a 1938 mystery novel
Glass Slipper (dragster), a 1957 drag racing automobile
Glass Slipper Project, a US charitable prom organization
Glass Slippers, a 2002 South Korean TV drama series
Glass Slippers (horse), a racehorse foaled in 2016 | wiki |
Männer may refer to:
"Männer" (song), song by German singer Herbert Grönemeyer
Männer (subculture), a Dutch subculture supporting a serene, laid-back and usually liberally-orientated lifestyle
Männer (magazine), a German magazine for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people
Men..., film by German film director Doris Dörrie | wiki |
The Atlantic puffin (), also known as the common puffin, is a species of seabird in the auk family. It is the only puffin native to the Atlantic Ocean; two related species, the tufted puffin and the horned puffin are found in the northeastern Pacific. The Atlantic puffin breeds in Russia, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Greenland, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, and the Faroe Islands, and as far south as Maine in the west and France in the east. It is most commonly found in the Westman Islands, Iceland. Although it has a large population and a wide range, the species has declined rapidly, at least in parts of its range, resulting in it being rated as vulnerable by the IUCN. On land, it has the typical upright stance of an auk. At sea, it swims on the surface and feeds on small fish and crabs, which it catches by diving underwater, using its wings for propulsion.
This puffin has a black crown and back, pale grey cheek patches, and a white body and underparts. Its broad, boldly marked red-and-black beak and orange legs contrast with its plumage. It moults while at sea in the winter, and some of the brightly coloured facial characteristics are lost, with colour returning during the spring. The external appearances of the adult male and female are identical, though the male is usually slightly larger. The juvenile has similar plumage, but its cheek patches are dark grey. The juvenile does not have brightly coloured head ornamentation, its bill is narrower and is dark grey with a yellowish-brown tip, and its legs and feet are also dark. Puffins from northern populations are typically larger than in the south and these populations are generally considered a different subspecies.
Spending the autumn and winter in the open ocean of the cold northern seas, the Atlantic puffin returns to coastal areas at the start of the breeding season in late spring. It nests in clifftop colonies, digging a burrow in which a single white egg is laid. Chicks mostly feed on whole fish and grow rapidly. After about 6 weeks, they are fully fledged and make their way at night to the sea. They swim away from the shore and do not return to land for several years.
Colonies are mostly on islands with no terrestrial predators, but adult birds and newly fledged chicks are at risk of attacks from the air by gulls and skuas. Sometimes, a bird such as an Arctic skua or blackback gull can cause a puffin arriving with a beak full of fish to drop all the fish the puffin was holding in its mouth. The puffin's striking appearance, large, colourful bill, waddling gait, and behaviour have given rise to nicknames such as "clown of the sea" and "sea parrot". It is the official bird of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador.
Taxonomy and etymology
The Atlantic puffin is a species of seabird in the order Charadriiformes. It is in the auk family, Alcidae, which includes the guillemots, typical auks, murrelets, auklets, puffins, and the razorbill. The rhinoceros auklet (Cerorhinca monocerata) and the puffins are closely related, together composing the tribe Fraterculini. The Atlantic puffin is the only species in the genus Fratercula to occur in the Atlantic Ocean. Two other species are known from the northeast Pacific, the tufted puffin (Fratercula cirrhata) and the horned puffin (Fratercula corniculata), the latter being the closest relative of the Atlantic puffin.
The generic name Fratercula comes from the Medieval Latin fratercula, friar, a reference to their black and white plumage, which resembles monastic robes. The specific name arctica refers to the northerly distribution of the bird, being derived from the Greek ἄρκτος (arktos), the bear, referring to the northerly constellation, the Ursa Major (Great Bear). The vernacular name "puffin" – puffed in the sense of swollen – was originally applied to the fatty, salted meat of young birds of the unrelated species Manx shearwater (Puffinus puffinus), which in 1652 was known as the "Manks puffin". It is an Anglo-Norman word (Middle English pophyn or poffin) used for the cured carcasses. The Atlantic puffin acquired the name at a much later stage, possibly because of its similar nesting habits, and it was formally applied to Fratercula arctica by Pennant in 1768. While the species is also known as the common puffin, "Atlantic puffin" is the English name recommended by the International Ornithological Congress.
The three subspecies generally recognized are:
F. a. arctica
F. a. grabae
F. a. naumanni
The only morphological difference between the three is their size. Body length, wing length, and size of beak all increase at higher latitudes. For example, a puffin from northern Iceland (subspecies F. a. naumanii) weighs about and has a wing length of , while one from the Faroes (subspecies F. a. grabae) weighs and has a wing length of . Individuals from southern Iceland (subspecies F. a. arctica) are intermediate between the other two in size. Ernst Mayr has argued that the differences in size are clinal and are typical of variations found in the peripheral population and that no subspecies should be recognised.
Description
The Atlantic puffin is sturdily built with a thick-set neck and short wings and tail. It is in length from the tip of its stout bill to its blunt-ended tail. Its wingspan is and on land it stands about high. The male is generally slightly larger than the female, but they are coloured alike. The forehead, crown, and nape are glossy black, as are the back, wings, and tail. A broad, black collar extends around the neck and throat. On each side of the head is a large, lozenge-shaped area of very pale grey. These face patches taper to a point and nearly meet at the back of the neck. The shape of the head creates a crease extending from the eye to the hindmost point of each patch, giving the appearance of a grey streak. The eyes look almost triangular because of a small, peaked area of horny blue-grey skin above them and a rectangular patch below. The irises are brown or very dark blue, and each has a red orbital ring. The underparts of the bird, the breast, belly, and under tail coverts, are white. By the end of the breeding season, the black plumage may have lost its shine or even taken on a slightly brown tinge. The legs are short and set well back on the body, giving the bird its upright stance when on land. Both legs and large webbed feet are bright orange, contrasting with the sharp, black claws.
The beak is very distinctive. From the side, the beak is broad and triangular, but viewed from above, it is narrow. The half near the tip is orange-red and the half near the head is slate grey. A yellow, chevron-shaped ridge separates the two parts, with a yellow, fleshy strip at the base of the bill. At the joint of the two mandibles is a yellow, wrinkled rosette. The exact proportions of the beak vary with the age of the bird. In an immature individual, the beak has reached its full length, but it is not as broad as that of an adult. With time the bill deepens, the upper edge curves, and a kink develops at its base. As the bird ages, one or more grooves may form on the red portion. The bird has a powerful bite.
The characteristic bright orange bill plates and other facial characteristics develop in the spring. At the close of the breeding season, these special coatings and appendages are shed in a partial moult. This makes the beak appear less broad, the tip less bright, and the base darker grey. The eye ornaments are shed and the eyes appear round. At the same time, the feathers of the head and neck are replaced and the face becomes darker. This winter plumage is seldom seen by humans because when they have left their chicks, the birds head out to sea and do not return to land until the next breeding season. The juvenile bird is similar to the adult in plumage, but altogether duller with a much darker grey face and yellowish-brown beak tip and legs. After fledging, it makes its way to the water and heads out to sea, and does not return to land for several years. In the interim, each year, it will have a broader bill, paler face patches, and brighter legs and beaks.
The Atlantic puffin has a direct flight, typically above the sea surface and higher over the water than most other auks. It mostly moves by paddling along efficiently with its webbed feet and seldom takes to the air. It is typically silent at sea, except for the soft purring sounds it sometimes makes in flight. At the breeding colony, it is quiet above ground, but in its burrow makes a growling sound somewhat resembling a chainsaw being revved up.
Distribution
The Atlantic puffin is a bird of the colder waters of the North Atlantic Ocean. It breeds on the coasts of northwest Europe, the Arctic fringes, and eastern North America. More than 90% of the global population is found in Europe (4,770,000–5,780,000 pairs, equaling 9,550,000–11,600,000 adults) and colonies in Iceland alone are home to 60% of the world's Atlantic puffins. The largest colony in the western Atlantic (estimated at more than 260,000 pairs) can be found at the Witless Bay Ecological Reserve, south of St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador. Other major breeding locations include the north and west coasts of Norway, the Faroe Islands, Shetland and Orkney, the west coast of Greenland, and the coasts of Newfoundland. Smaller-sized colonies are also found elsewhere in the British Isles, the Murmansk area of Russia, Novaya Zemlya, Spitzbergen, Labrador, Nova Scotia, and Maine. Islands seem particularly attractive to the birds for breeding as compared to mainland sites, likely to avoid predators.
While at sea, the bird ranges widely across the North Atlantic Ocean, including the North Sea, and may enter the Arctic Circle. In the summer, its southern limit stretches from northern France to Maine; in the winter, the bird may range as far south as the Mediterranean Sea and North Carolina. These oceanic waters have such a vast extent of that each bird has more than 1 km2 of range at its disposal, so is seldom seen out at sea. In Maine, light-level geolocators have been attached to the legs of puffins, which store information on their whereabouts. The birds need to be recaptured to access the information, a difficult task. One bird was found to have covered of the ocean in 8 months, traveling northwards to the northern Labrador Sea then southeastward to the mid-Atlantic before returning to land.
In a long-living bird with a small clutch size, such as the Atlantic puffin, the survival rate of adults is an important factor influencing the success of the species. Only 5% of the ringed puffins that failed to reappear at the colony did so during the breeding season. The rest were lost some time between departing from land in the summer and reappearing the following spring. The birds spend the winter widely spread out in the open ocean, though a tendency exists for individuals from different colonies to overwinter in different areas. Little is known of their behaviour and diet at sea, but no correlation was found between environmental factors, such as temperature variations, and their mortality rate. A combination of the availability of food in winter and summer probably influences the survival of the birds, since individuals starting the winter in poor condition are less likely to survive than those in good condition.
Behaviour
Like many seabirds, the Atlantic puffin spends most of the year far from land in the open ocean and only visits coastal areas to breed. It is a sociable bird and it usually breeds in large colonies.
At sea
Atlantic puffins lead solitary existences when out at sea, and this part of their lives has been little studied, as the task of finding even one bird on the vast ocean is formidable. When at sea, they bob about like a cork, propelling themselves through the water with powerful thrusts of their feet and keeping turned into the wind, even when resting and apparently asleep. They spend much time each day preening to keep their plumage in order and spread oil from their preen glands. Their downy under plumage remains dry and provides thermal insulation. In common with other seabirds, their upper surface is black and underside white. This provides camouflage, with aerial predators unable to locate the birds against the dark, watery background, and underwater attackers fail to notice them as they blend in with the bright sky above the waves.
When it takes off, the Atlantic puffin patters across the surface of the water while vigorously flapping its wings, before launching itself into the air. The size of the wing has adapted to its dual use, both above and below the water, and its surface area is small relative to the bird's weight. To maintain flight, the wings must beat very rapidly at a rate of several times each second. The bird's flight is direct and low over the surface of the water, and it can travel at . Landing is awkward; it either crashes into a wave crest or in calmer water, does a belly flop. While at sea, the Atlantic puffin has its annual moult. Land birds mostly lose their primaries one pair at a time to enable them still to be able to fly, but the puffin sheds all its primaries at one time and dispenses with flight entirely for a month or two. The moult usually takes place between January and March, but young birds may lose their feathers a little later in the year.
Food and feeding
The Atlantic puffin diet consists almost entirely of fish, though examination of its stomach contents shows that it occasionally eats shrimp, other crustaceans, molluscs, and polychaete worms, especially in more coastal waters. When fishing, it swims underwater using its semi-extended wings as paddles to "fly" through the water and its feet as a rudder. It swims fast and can reach considerable depths and stay submerged for up to a minute. It can eat shallow-bodied fish as long as , but its prey is commonly smaller fish, around long. An adult bird needs to eat an estimated 40 of these per day – sand eels, herring, capelin, and sprats being the most often consumed.
It fishes by sight and can swallow small fish while submerged, but larger specimens are brought to the surface. It can catch several small fish in one dive, holding the first ones in place in its beak with its muscular, grooved tongue while it catches others. The two mandibles are hinged in such a way that they can be held parallel to hold a row of fish in place and these are also retained by inward-facing serrations on the edges of the beak. It copes with the excess salt that it swallows partly through its kidneys and partly by excretion through specialised salt glands in its nostrils.
On land
In the spring, mature birds return to land, usually to the colony where they were hatched. Birds that were removed as chicks and released elsewhere were found to show fidelity to their point of liberation. They congregate for a few days on the sea in small groups offshore before returning to the cliff-top nesting sites. Each large puffin colony is divided into subcolonies by physical boundaries such as stands of bracken or gorse. Early arrivals take control of the best locations, the most desirable nesting sites being the densely packed burrows on grassy slopes just above the cliff edge where take-off is most easily accomplished. The birds are usually monogamous, but this is the result of their fidelity to their nesting sites rather than to their mates, and they often return to the same burrows year after year. Later arrivals at the colony may find that all the best nesting sites have already been taken, so are pushed towards the periphery, where they are in greater danger of predation. Younger birds may come ashore a month or more after the mature birds and find no remaining nesting sites. They do not breed until the following year, although if the ground cover surrounding the colony is cut back before these subadults arrive, the number of successfully nesting pairs may be increased.
Atlantic puffins are cautious when approaching the colony, and no bird likes to land in a location where other puffins are not already present. They make several circuits of the colony before alighting. On the ground, they spend much time preening, spreading oil from their preen gland, and setting each feather in its correct position with beak or claw. They also spend time standing by their burrow entrances and interacting with passing birds. Dominance is shown by an upright stance, with fluffed chest feathers and a cocked tail, an exaggerated slow walk, head jerking, and gaping. Submissive birds lower their heads and hold their bodies horizontally and scurry past dominant individuals. Birds normally signal their intention to take off by briefly lowering their bodies before running down the slope to gain momentum. If a bird is startled and takes off unexpectedly, panic can spread through the colony with all the birds launching themselves into the air and wheeling around in a great circle. The colony is at its most active in the evening, with birds standing outside their burrows, resting on the turf, or strolling around. Then, the slopes empty for the night as the birds fly out to sea to roost, often choosing to do so at fishing grounds ready for early-morning provisioning.
The puffins are energetic burrow engineers and repairers, so the grassy slopes may be undermined by a network of tunnels. This causes the turf to dry out in summer, vegetation to die, and dry soil to be whirled away by the wind. Burrows sometimes collapse, and humans may cause this to happen by walking incautiously across nesting slopes. A colony on Grassholm was lost through erosion when so little soil was left that burrows could not be made. New colonies are very unlikely to start up spontaneously because this gregarious bird only nests where others are already present. Nevertheless, the Audubon Society had success on Eastern Egg Rock Island in Maine, where, after a gap of 90 years, puffins were reintroduced and started breeding again. By 2011, over 120 pairs were nested on the small islet. On the Isle of May on the other side of the Atlantic, only five pairs of puffins were breeding in 1958, while 20 years later, 10,000 pairs were present.
Reproduction
Having spent the winter alone on the ocean, whether the Atlantic puffin meets its previous partner offshore or whether they encounter each other when they return to their nest of the previous year is unclear. On land, they soon set about improving and clearing out the burrow. Often, one stands outside the entrance while the other excavates, kicking out quantities of soil and grit that showers the partner standing outside. Some birds collect stems and fragments of dry grasses as nesting materials, but others do not bother. Sometimes, a beakful of materials is taken underground, only to be brought out again and discarded. Apart from nest-building, the other way in which the birds restore their bond is by billing. This is a practice in which the pair approaches each other, each wagging their heads from side to side, and then rattling their beaks together. This seems to be an important element of their courtship behaviour because it happens repeatedly, and the birds continue to the bill, to a lesser extent, throughout the breeding season.
Atlantic puffins are sexually mature at 4–5 years old. They are colonial nesters, excavating burrows on grassy clifftops or reusing existing holes, and on occasion may nest in crevices and among rocks and scree., in competition with other birds and animals for burrows. They can excavate their own hole or move into a pre-existing system dug by a rabbit, and have been known to peck and drive off the original occupant. Manx shearwaters also nest underground and often live in their own burrows alongside puffins, and their burrowing activities may break through into the puffin's living quarters, resulting in the loss of the egg. They are monogamous (mate for life) and give biparental care to their young. The male spends more time guarding and maintaining the nest, while the female is more involved in incubation and feeding the chick.
Egg-laying starts in April in more southerly colonies but seldom occurs before June in Greenland. The female lays a single white egg each year, but if this is lost early in the breeding season, another might be produced. Synchronous laying of eggs is found in Atlantic puffins in adjacent burrows. The egg is large compared to the size of the bird, averaging long by wide and weighing about . The white shell is usually devoid of markings, but soon becomes covered with mud. The incubation responsibilities are shared by both parents. They each have two feather-free brood patches on their undersides, where an enhanced blood supply provides heat for the egg. The parent on incubation duty in the dark nest chamber spends much of its time asleep with its head tucked under its wing, occasionally emerging from the tunnel to flap dust out of its feathers or take a short flight down to the sea.
The total incubation time is around 39–45 days. From above ground level, the first evidence that hatching has taken place is the arrival of an adult with a beak-load of fish. For the first few days, the chick may be fed with this beak-to-beak, but later the fish are simply dropped on the floor of the nest beside the chick, which swallows them whole. The chick is covered in fluffy black down, its eyes are open, and it can stand as soon as it is hatched. Initially weighing about , it grows at the rate of per day. Initially, one or the other parent broods it, but as its appetite increases, it is left alone for longer periods. Observations of a nest chamber have been made from an underground hide with a peephole. The chick sleeps much of the time between its parents' visits and also involves itself in bouts of exercise. It rearranges its nesting material, picks up and drops small stones, flaps its immature wings, pulls at protruding root ends, and pushes and strains against the unyielding wall of the burrow. It makes its way towards the entrance or along a side tunnel to defecate. The growing chick seems to anticipate the arrival of an adult, advancing along the burrow just before it arrives, but not emerging into the open air. It retreats to the nest chamber as the adult bird brings in its load of fish.
Hunting areas are often located or more offshore from the nest sites, although when feeding their young, the birds venture out only half that distance. Adults bringing fish to their chicks tend to arrive in groups. This is thought to benefit the bird by reducing kleptoparasitism by the Arctic skua, which harasses puffins until they drop their fish loads. Predation by the great skua (Catharacta skua) is also reduced by several birds arriving simultaneously.
In the Shetland Islands, sand eels (Ammodytes marinus) normally form at least 90% of the food fed to chicks. In years when the availability of sand eels was low, breeding success rates fell, with many chicks starving to death. In Norway, the herring (Clupea harengus) is the mainstay of the diet. When herring numbers dwindled, so did puffin numbers. In Labrador, the puffins seemed more flexible and when the staple forage fish capelin (Mallotus villosus) declined in availability, they were able to adapt and feed the chicks on other prey species.
The chicks take from 34 to 50 days to fledge, the period depending on the abundance of their food supply. In years of fish shortage, the whole colony may experience a longer fledgling period, but the normal range is 38 to 44 days, by which time chicks have reached about 75% of their mature body weight. The chick may come to the burrow entrance to defecate, but does not usually emerge into the open and seems to have an aversion to light until it is nearly fully fledged. Although the supply of fish by the adults reduces over the last few days spent in the nest, the chick is not abandoned as happens in the Manx shearwater. On occasions, an adult has been observed provisioning a nest even after the chick has departed. During the last few days underground, the chick sheds its down and the juvenile plumage is revealed. Its relatively small beak and its legs and feet are a dark colour, and it lacks the white facial patches of the adult. The chick finally leaves its nest at night, when the risk of predation is at its lowest. When the moment arrives, it emerges from the burrow, usually for the first time, and walks, runs, and flaps its way to the sea. It cannot fly properly yet, so descending a cliff is perilous; when it reaches the water, it paddles out to sea, and maybe away from the shore by daybreak. It does not congregate with others of its kind and does not return to land for 2–3 years.
Predators and parasites
Atlantic puffins are probably safer when out at sea, where the dangers are more often from below the water rather than above; puffins can sometimes be seen putting their heads underwater to peer around for predators. Seals have been known to kill puffins, and large fish may also do so. Most puffin colonies are on small islands, and this is no coincidence, as it avoids predation by ground-based mammals such as foxes, rats, stoats, weasels, cats, and dogs. When they come ashore, the birds are still at risk and the main threats come from the sky.
Aerial predators of the Atlantic puffin include the great black-backed gull (Larus marinus), the great skua (Stercorarius skua), and similar-sized species, which can catch a bird in flight, or attack one that is unable to escape fast enough on the ground. On detecting danger, puffins take off and fly down to the safety of the sea or retreat into their burrows, but if caught, they defend themselves vigorously with beaks and sharp claws. When the puffins are wheeling around beside the cliffs, a predator concentrating on a single bird becomes very difficult, while any individual isolated on the ground is at greater risk. Smaller gull species such as the herring gull (L. argentatus) and the lesser black-backed gull are hardly able to bring down a healthy adult puffin. They stride through the colony taking any eggs that have rolled towards burrow entrances or recently hatched chicks that have ventured too far toward the daylight. They also steal fish from puffins returning to feed their young. Where it nests on the tundra in the far north, the Arctic skua (Stercorarius parasiticus) is a terrestrial predator, but at lower latitudes, it is a specialised kleptoparasite, concentrating on auks and other seabirds. It harasses puffins while they are airborne, forcing them to drop their catch, which it then snatches up.
Both the guillemot tick Ixodes uriae and the flea Ornithopsylla laetitiae (probably originally a rabbit flea) have been recorded from the nests of puffins. Other fleas found on the birds include Ceratophyllus borealis, Ceratophyllus gallinae, Ceratophyllus garei, Ceratophyllus vagabunda, and the common rabbit flea Spilopsyllus cuniculi.
Relationship with humans
Status and conservation
The Atlantic puffin has an extensive range that covers over and Europe, which holds more than 90% of the global population, is home to 4,770,000–5,780,000 pairs (equalling 9,550,000–11,600,000 adults). In 2015, the International Union for Conservation of Nature upgraded its status from "least concern" to "vulnerable". This was caused by a review that revealed a rapid and ongoing population decline in its European range. Trends elsewhere are unknown, although, in 2018, the total global population was estimated at 12–14 million adult individuals. Some of the causes of population decline may be increased predation by gulls and skuas, the introduction of rats, cats, dogs, and foxes onto some islands used for nesting, contamination by toxic residues, drowning in fishing nets, declining food supplies, and climate change. On the island of Lundy, the number of puffins decreased from 3,500 pairs in 1939 to 10 pairs in 2000. This was mainly due to the rats that had proliferated on the island and were eating eggs and young chicks. Following the elimination of the rats, populations were expected to recover, and in 2005, a juvenile was seen, believed to be the first chick raised on the island for 30 years. In 2018, BirdLife International reported that the Atlantic puffin was threatened with extinction.
Puffin numbers increased considerably in the late 20th century in the North Sea, including on the Isle of May and the Farne Islands, where numbers increased by about 10% per year. In the 2013 breeding season, nearly 40,000 pairs were recorded on the Farne Islands, a slight increase on the 2008 census and on the previous year's poor season, when some of the burrows flooded. This number is dwarfed by the Icelandic colonies with five million pairs breeding, the Atlantic puffin being the most populous bird on the island. In the Westman Islands, where about half Iceland's puffins breed, the birds were almost driven to extinction by overharvesting around 1900 and a 30-year ban on hunting was put in place. When stocks recovered, a different method of harvesting was used and now hunting is maintained at a sustainable level. Nevertheless, a further hunting ban covering the whole of Iceland was called for in 2011, although the puffin's lack of recent breeding success was being blamed on a diminution in food supply rather than overharvesting. Since 2000, a sharp population decline has been seen in Iceland, Norway, the Faroe Islands, and Greenland. A similar trend has been seen in the United Kingdom, where an increase in 1969–2000 appears to have been reversed. For example, the Fair Isle colony was estimated at 20,200 individuals in 1986, but it had been almost halved by 2012. Based on current trends, the European population will decline an estimated 50–79% between 2000 and 2065.
SOS Puffin is a conservation project at the Scottish Seabird Centre at North Berwick to save the puffins on islands in the Firth of Forth. Puffin numbers on the island of Craigleith, once one of the largest colonies in Scotland with 28,000 pairs, have declined dramatically to just a few thousand due to the invasion of a large introduced plant, the tree mallow (Lavatera arborea). This has spread across the island in dense thickets and prevents the puffins from finding suitable sites for burrowing and breeding. The project has the support of over 700 volunteers and progress has been made in cutting back the plants, with puffins returning in greater numbers to breed. Another conservation measure undertaken by the centre is to encourage motorists to check under their cars in late summer before driving off, as young puffins, disorientated by the street lights, may land in the town and take shelter underneath the vehicles.
Project Puffin is an effort initiated in 1973 by Dr. Stephen W. Kress of the National Audubon Society to restore Atlantic puffins to nesting islands in the Gulf of Maine. Eastern Egg Rock Island in Muscongus Bay, about from Pemaquid Point, had been occupied by nesting puffins until 1885, when the birds disappeared because of overhunting. Counting on the fact young puffins usually return to breed on the same island where they fledged, a team of biologists and volunteers translocated 10– to 14-day-old nestlings from Great Island in Newfoundland to Eastern Egg Rock. The young were placed into artificial sod burrows and fed with vitamin-fortified fish daily for about one month. Such yearly translocations took place until 1986, with 954 young puffins being moved in total. Each year before fledging, the young were individually tagged. The first adults returned to the island by 1977. Puffin decoys had been installed on the island to fool the puffins into thinking they were part of an established colony. This did not catch on at first, but in 1981, four pairs nested on the island. In 2014, 148 nesting pairs were counted on the island. In addition to demonstrating the feasibility of re-establishing a seabird colony, the project showed the usefulness of using decoys and eventually call recordings and mirrors, to facilitate such re-establishment.
Pollution
Since the Atlantic puffin spends its winters on the open ocean, it is susceptible to human actions and catastrophes such as oil spills. Oiled plumage has a reduced ability to insulate and makes the bird more vulnerable to temperature fluctuations and less buoyant in the water. Many birds die, and others, while attempting to remove the oil by preening, ingesting, and inhaling toxins. This leads to inflammation of the airways and gut and in the longer term, damage to the liver and kidneys. This trauma can contribute to a loss of reproductive success and harm to developing embryos. An oil spill occurring in winter, when the puffins are far out at sea, may affect them less than inshore birds as the crude oil slicks soon get broken up and dispersed by the churning of the waves. When oiled birds get washed up on beaches around Atlantic coasts, only about 1.5% of the dead auks are puffins, but many others may have died far from land and sunk. After the oil tanker shipwreck and oil spill in 1967, few dead puffins were recovered, but the number of puffins breeding in France the following year was reduced to 16% of its previous level.
The Atlantic puffin and other pelagic birds are excellent bioindicators of the environment, as they occupy a high trophic level. Heavy metals and other pollutants are concentrated through the food chain, and as fish are the primary food source for Atlantic puffins, the potential is great for them to bioaccumulate heavy metals such as mercury and arsenic. Measurements can be made on eggs, feathers, or internal organs, and beached bird surveys, accompanied by chemical analysis of feathers, can be effective indicators of marine pollution by lipophilic substances, as well as metals. In fact, these surveys can be used to provide evidence of the adverse effects of a particular pollutant, using fingerprinting techniques to provide evidence suitable for the prosecution of offenders.
Climate change
Climate change may well affect populations of seabirds in the northern Atlantic. The most important demographic may be an increase in the sea surface temperature, which may have benefits for some northerly Atlantic puffin colonies. Breeding success depends on ample supplies of food at the time of maximum demand, as the chick grows. In northern Norway, the main food item fed to the chick is the young herring. The success of the newly hatched fish larvae during the previous year was governed by the water temperature, which controlled plankton abundance, and this, in turn, influenced the growth and survival of the first-year herring. The breeding success of Atlantic puffin colonies has been found to correlate in this way with the water surface temperatures of the previous year.
In Maine, on the other side of the Atlantic, shifting fish populations due to changes in sea temperature are being blamed for the lack of availability of the herring, which is the staple diet of the puffins in the area. Some adult birds have become emaciated and died. Others have been provisioning the nest with butterfish (Peprilus triacanthus), but these are often too large and deep-bodied for the chick to swallow, causing it to die from starvation. Maine is on the southerly edge of the bird's breeding range, and with changing weather patterns, this may be set to contract northwards.
Tourism
Breeding colonies of Atlantic puffins provide an interesting spectacle for bird watchers and tourists. For example, 4000 puffins nest each year on islands off the coast of Maine, and visitors can view them from tour boats that operate during the summers. The Project Puffin Visitor Center in Rockland provides information on the birds and their lives, and on the other conservation projects being undertaken by the National Audubon Society, which runs the center. Views of the colony on Seal Island National Wildlife Refuge can be viewed via live cams during the breeding season.
Similar tours operate in Iceland, the Hebrides, and Newfoundland.
Hunting
Historically, Atlantic puffins were caught and eaten fresh, salted in brine, or smoked and dried. Their feathers were used in bedding and their eggs were eaten, but not to the same extent as those of some other seabirds, being more difficult to extract from the nest. In most countries, Atlantic puffins are now protected by legislation, and in the countries where hunting is still permitted, strict laws prevent overexploitation. Although calls have been made for an outright ban on hunting puffins in Iceland because of concern over the dwindling number of birds successfully raising chicks, they are still caught and eaten there and on the Faroe Islands;
Traditional means of capture varied across the birds' range, and nets and rods were used in various ingenious ways. In the Faroe Islands, the method of choice was fleyg, with the use of a fleygingarstong, a 3.6-m-long pole with a small net at the end suspended between two rods, somewhat like a very long lacrosse stick. A few dead puffins were strewn around to entice incoming birds to land, and the net was flicked upwards to scoop a bird from the air as it slowed before alighting. Hunters often positioned themselves on cliff tops in stone seats built in small depressions to conceal themselves from puffins flying overhead. Most of the birds caught were subadults, and a skilled hunter could gather 200–300 in a day. Another method of capture, used in St Kilda, involved the use of a flexible pole with a noose on the end. This was pushed along the ground towards the intended target, which advanced to inspect the noose as its curiosity overcame its caution. A flick of the wrist would flip the noose over the victim's head and it was promptly killed before its struggles could alarm other birds nearby.
In culture
The Atlantic puffin is the official bird symbol of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. In August 2007, the Atlantic puffin was unsuccessfully proposed as the official symbol of the Liberal Party of Canada by its deputy leader Michael Ignatieff, after he observed a colony of these birds and became fascinated by their behaviour. The Norwegian municipality of Værøy has an Atlantic puffin as its civic emblem. Puffins have been given several informal names including "clowns of the sea" and "sea parrots", and juvenile puffins may be called "pufflings".
Several islands have been named after the bird. The island of Lundy in the United Kingdom is reputed to derive its name from the Norse lund-ey or "puffin island". An alternative explanation has been suggested connected with another meaning of the word "lund" referring to a copse or wooded area. The Vikings might have found the island a useful refuge and restocking point after their depredations on the mainland. The island issued its own coins, and in 1929, its own stamps with denominations in "puffins". Other countries and dependencies that have depicted Atlantic puffins on their stamps include Alderney, Canada, the Faroe Islands, France, Gibraltar, Guernsey, Iceland, Ireland, the Isle of Man, Jersey, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Slovenia, St Pierre et Miquelon, and the United Kingdom.
The publisher of paperbacks, Penguin Books, introduced a range of books for children under the Puffin Books brand in 1939. At first, these were nonfiction titles, but these were soon followed by a fiction list of well-known authors. The demand was so great that Puffin Book Clubs were introduced in schools to encourage reading, and a children's magazine called Puffin Post was established.
A tradition exists on the Icelandic island of Heimaey for the children to rescue young puffins, a fact recorded in Bruce McMillan's photo-illustrated children's book Nights of the Pufflings (1995). The fledglings emerge from the nest and try to make their way to the sea, but sometimes get confused, perhaps by the street lighting, ending up landing in the village. The children collect them and liberate them to the safety of the sea.
References
Further reading
External links
Fratercula
Puffins
Atlantic auks
Birds of the Arctic
Birds of Europe
Birds of Iceland
Birds of Scandinavia
Native birds of Eastern Canada
Provincial symbols of Newfoundland and Labrador
Birds described in 1758
Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus
Articles containing video clips | wiki |
Triller, Inc is an American company specializing in online video, social media, and combat sports. It is named after, and is the owner of, the eponymous social networking service Triller; which was launched in 2015 by co-founders David Leiberman and Sammy Rubin.
History
On March 9, 2021, Triller acquired Verzuz.
On April 14, 2021, Triller acquired video streaming service FITE TV, and customer engagement service Amplify.at.
On November 22, 2021, Triller acquired influencer event firm Thuzio.
On December 22, 2021, Triller announced its intention to merge with SeaChange International and go public. Under the terms of the deal, Triller shareholders would own at least 97.7% of the combined company. The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2022. It was later announced that the combined entity would be renamed TrillerVerz Company upon the merger's closure. On June 14, 2022, it was reported that Triller would back out of the merger with SeaChange in order to pursue an IPO without a merger
On February 24, 2022, Triller acquired a majority stake in the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship.
Assets
Streaming services
FITE TV
TrillerTV
Social media
Triller
Cliqz
Combat sports
Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship
Triller Fight Club
Pillow Fight Championship
Other brands and properties
List of other brands and properties owned by Triller, Inc
Thuzio
Verzuz
Amplify.AI
Fangage
Crosshype
Julius
Flipps Media
Metaverz
References
2015 introductions
Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship
Boxing organizations
Internet properties established in 2015
Music industry
Online content distribution
Social networking services
Social media companies of the United States
Streaming media systems
Subscription video streaming services | wiki |
The tools listed here support emulating or simulating APIs and software systems. They are also called API mocking tools, service virtualization tools, over the wire test doubles and tools for stubbing and mocking HTTP(S) and other protocols. They enable component testing in isolation.
In alphabetical order by name (click on a column heading to sort by that column):
See also
Test double
Service virtualization
References
Computing comparisons | wiki |
Agathis microstachya, the bull kauri, is a species of conifer in the family Araucariaceae, endemic to Australia. It was described in 1918 by John Frederick Bailey and Cyril Tenison White. It is threatened by habitat loss.
Description
A. microstachya grows up to about in height and in diameter. The trunk is unbuttressed, straight and with little taper. Distinctive features are coarse, flaky bark, medium-sized cones with 160-210 scales, and leaves with numerous longitudinal, parallel veins.
Distribution
It has a very restricted distribution, being almost limited to the Atherton Tableland in Far North Queensland, with its elevational range above sea level.
Timber
The wood has an even texture, is easy to work and polishes well. The heartwood is cream to pale brown in colour. It is soft and light with a density of about . It is not durable in contact with the ground, but can be used for house framing and flooring.
References
Notes
Boland, D.J.; Brooker, M.I.H.; Chippendale, G.M.; Hall, N.; Hyland, B.P.M.; Johnston, R.D.; Kleinig, D.A.; & Turner, J.D. (1984). Forest Trees of Australia. (4th edition). Thomas Nelson, Australia; and CSIRO: Melbourne. .
Agathis microstachya at www.conifers.org https://web.archive.org/web/20080501225647/http://www.conifers.org/ar/ag/microstachya.html]
microstachya
Pinales of Australia
Plants described in 1918
Conservation dependent biota of Queensland
Conservation dependent flora of Australia
Nature Conservation Act rare biota
Rare flora of Australia
Flora of Queensland
Taxonomy articles created by Polbot
Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN | wiki |
Ethyl (gammelt dansk: ætyl) er radikalet eller molekyldelen -CH2CH3 hvor C er carbon, og H er hydrogen. Den forkortes undertiden Et. Se også alkyn.
Organisk kemi | wiki |
Pull up may refer to:
Pull-up (exercise), an upper body exercise
Pull-up resistor, a technique in digital electronics
Pull up, a code refactoring technique used in object-oriented programming
Pull up, the process of changing a film from one frame rate to another - see telecine
Training pants, a form of diaper that is in one solid piece, in the same form as underwear, lacking taped sides
Pull-up jumper, a basketball move in which a player dribble drives, stops and shoots a jump shot
Pull up, to stop or slow a racehorse during or after a race or workout
"PULL UP", an audible warning given by the ground proximity warning systems of many fixed-wing aircraft
Music
"Pull Up" (KSI song), 2019
"Pull Up" (Wiz Khalifa song), 2016
"Pull Up", a song by American hip hop recording artist Lil Wayne from Free Weezy Album
"Pull Up", a song by Swedish DJ Martin Jensen
"Pull Up", a song by KSI featuring Jme from the 2019 album New Age
"Pull Up", a 2016 song by Rich Gang featuring Jacquees, Ralo Stylz and Birdman; see London on da Track production discography § Ralo - Diary of the Streets 2
"Pull Up", a 2004 song by Mr. Vegas
See also
Pulldown (disambiguation) | wiki |
Agathis spathulata, the New Guinea kauri, is a species of Agathis native to the highlands of eastern Papua New Guinea, occurring at altitudes of 900–1980 m. Although long known, it has only relatively recently (1980) been distinguished from Agathis robusta, being described first as a subspecies of it, Agathis robusta subsp. nesophila Whitm., and subsequently separated as a distinct species Agathis spathulata in 1988. It is threatened by habitat loss.
It is a large evergreen tree growing up to 60 m tall. The leaves are in decussate opposite pairs, 7–10 cm long and 18–30 mm broad on mature trees, up to 13 cm long and 45 mm broad on young trees. The cones are oval, 8.5–10 cm long and 6.5-7.5 cm diameter, and disintegrate at maturity to release the winged seeds.
References
de Laubenfels, D. J. (1988). Coniferales. In van Steenis & de Wilde (eds.), Flora Malesiana 10: 337–453.
spathulata
Taxonomy articles created by Polbot | wiki |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.