title: Ramesseum content: Nubian mountains at Abu Simbel, the inexorable passage of three millennia was not kind to his "temple of a million years" at Thebes. This was mostly due to its location on the very edge of the Nile floodplain, with the annual inundation gradually undermining the foundations of this temple and its neighbours. Neglect and the arrival of new faiths also took their toll: for example, in the early years of the Christian Era, the temple was put into service as a Christian church. This is all standard fare for a temple of its kind built at that time. Leaving aside


title: Ramesseum content: the escalation of scale – whereby each successive New Kingdom pharaoh strove to outdo his predecessors in volume and scope – the Ramesseum is largely cast in the same mould as Ramesses III's Medinet Habu or the ruined temple of Amenhotep III that stood behind the "Colossi of Memnon" a kilometre or so away. Instead, the significance that the Ramesseum enjoys today owes more to the time and manner of its rediscovery by Europeans. The Ramesseum king list is a minor list of kings which still remain in situ on the few remains of the second pylon. The origins of


title: Ramesseum content: modern Egyptology can be traced to the arrival in Egypt of Napoleon Bonaparte in the summer of 1798. While undeniably an invasion by an alien imperialist power, this was nonetheless an invasion of its times, informed by Enlightenment ideas: alongside Napoleon's troops went men of science, the same whose toil under the desert sun would later yield the seminal 23-volume "Description de l'Égypte". Two French engineers, Jean-Baptiste Prosper Jollois and Édouard de Villiers du Terrage, were assigned to study the Ramesseum site, and it was with much fanfare that they identified it with the "Tomb of Ozymandias" or "Palace of


title: Ramesseum content: Memnon" of which Diodorus of Sicily had written in the 1st century BC. The next visitor of note was Giovanni Belzoni, a showman and engineer of Italian origin and, latterly, an archaeologist and antiques dealer. Belzoni's travels took him in 1815 to Cairo, where he sold Mehemet Ali a hydraulic engine of his own invention. There he met British Consul General Henry Salt, who hired his services to collect from the temple in Thebes the so-called 'Younger Memnon', one of two colossal granite heads depicting Ramesses II, and transport it to England. Thanks to Belzoni's hydraulics and his skill as


title: Ramesseum content: an engineer (Napoleon's men had failed in the same endeavour a decade or so earlier), the 7-ton stone head arrived in London in 1818, where it was dubbed "The Younger Memnon" and, some years later, given pride of place in the British Museum. It was against the backdrop of intense excitement surrounding the statue's arrival, and having heard wondrous tales of other, less transportable treasures still in the desert, that the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley penned his sonnet "Ozymandias". In particular, one massive fallen statue at the Ramesseum is now inextricably linked with Shelley, because of the cartouche on its


title: Ramesseum content: shoulder bearing Ramesses's throne name, "User-maat-re Setep-en-re," the first part of which Diodorus transliterated into Greek as "Ozymandias". While Shelley's "vast and trunkless legs of stone" owe more to poetic license than to archaeology, the "half sunk... shattered visage" lying on the sand is an accurate description of part of the wrecked statue. The hands, and the feet, lie nearby. Were it still standing, the Ozymandias colossus would tower 19 m (62 ft) above the ground, rivalling the Colossi of Memnon and the statues of Ramesses carved into the mountain at Abu Simbel. A joint French-Egyptian team has been exploring


title: Ramesseum content: and restoring the Ramesseum and its environs since 1991. Among their discoveries during excavations include kitchens, bakeries and supply rooms for the temple to the south, and a school where boys were taught to be scribes to the southeast. Some of the challenges in preserving the area have been the control of modern Egyptian farmers using the area for farming and encroaching on the ruins. Ramesseum The Ramesseum is the memorial temple (or mortuary temple) of Pharaoh Ramesses II ("Ramesses the Great", also spelled "Ramses" and "Rameses"). It is located in the Theban necropolis in Upper Egypt, across the River


title: "Little Britain" content: 9.5 million viewers following its move to BBC One in 2005. "Little Britain" initially appeared as a radio show, produced by Edward Flinn, which ran on BBC Radio 4 from 2000 until 2002. Radio 4 began a rerun of all nine episodes in February 2004 (which were slightly edited for content to suit the 6:30 pm timeslot). Unusually, this overlapped with a rerun, beginning in mid-March, of the first five programmes on the digital radio channel BBC 7. In June–July 2004 BBC 7 broadcast the remaining four. Ronnie Corbett commented that the characters as portrayed in the radio series were


title: "Common myna" content: Common myna The common myna or Indian myna ("Acridotheres tristis"), sometimes spelled mynah, is a member of the family Sturnidae (starlings and mynas) native to Asia. An omnivorous open woodland bird with a strong territorial instinct, the myna has adapted extremely well to urban environments. The range of the common myna is increasing at such a rapid rate that in 2000 the IUCN Species Survival Commission declared it one of the world's most invasive species and one of only three birds in the top 100 species that pose an impact to biodiversity, agriculture and human interests. In particular, the species


title: "Common myna" content: poses a serious threat to the ecosystems of Australia where it was named "The Most Important Pest/Problem". In 1760 the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the common myna in his "Ornithologie" based on a specimen that he mistakenly believed had been collected in the Philippines. He used the French name "Le merle des Philippines" and the Latin "Merula Philippensis". Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. When in 1766 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his "Systema Naturae" for


title: "Common myna" content: the twelfth edition, he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson. One of these was the common myna. Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial name "Paradisea tristis" and cited Brisson's work. The type location was subsequently corrected to Pondicherry in southern India. The specific name "tristis" is Latin for "sad" or "gloomy". This species is now placed in the genus "Acridotheres" that was introduced by the French ornithologist Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot in 1816. Two subspecies are recognised: The subspecies "melanosternus" is darker than the nominate subspecies, has half-black and half-white primary coverts and has


title: "Common myna" content: a larger yellow cheek-patch. The common myna is readily identified by the brown body, black hooded head and the bare yellow patch behind the eye. The bill and legs are bright yellow. There is a white patch on the outer primaries and the wing lining on the underside is white. The sexes are similar and birds are usually seen in pairs. The common myna obeys Gloger's rule in that the birds from northwest India tend to be paler than their darker counterparts in South India. The calls includes croaks, squawks, chirps, clicks, whistles and 'growls', and the bird often fluffs


title: "Common myna" content: its feathers and bobs its head in singing. The common myna screeches warnings to its mate or other birds in cases of predators in proximity or when it is about to take off flying. Common mynas are popular as cage birds for their singing and "speaking" abilities. Before sleeping in communal roosts, mynas vocalise in unison, which is known as "communal noise". Morphometry. It is a species of bird native to Asia with its initial home range spanning from Iran, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka; as well as Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Myanmar, to Malaysia, Singapore, peninsular


title: "Common myna" content: Thailand, Indo-China and China. The myna has been introduced in many other parts of the world such as Canada, Australia, Israel, New Zealand, New Caledonia, United States, South Africa, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan Uzbekistan and islands in the Indian Ocean (Seychelles, Mauritius, Réunion, Madagascar, Maldives, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep archipelago) and also in islands of the Atlantic, such as Ascension and St Helena, and Pacific Oceans. The range of the common myna is increasing to the extent that in 2000 the IUCN Species Survival Commission declared it among the World's 100 worst invasive species. This abundant passerine is typically found


title: "Common myna" content: in open woodland, cultivation and around habitation. Although this is an adaptable species, its population has been decreasing significantly in Singapore and Malaysia (where it is locally called as "gembala kerbau", literally 'buffalo shepherd') due to competition with its cousin, the introduced Javan myna. The common myna thrives in urban and suburban environments; in Canberra, for instance, 110 common mynas were released between 1968 and 1971. By 1991, common myna population density in Canberra averaged 15 birds per square kilometer. Only three years later, a second study found an average population density of 75 birds per square kilometer in the


title: "Common myna" content: same area. The bird likely owes its success in the urban and suburban settings of Sydney and Canberra to its evolutionary origins; having evolved in the open woodlands of India, the common myna is pre-adapted to habitats with tall vertical structures and little to no vegetative ground cover, features characteristic of city streets and urban nature preserves. The common myna (along with European starlings, house sparrows, and feral rock pigeons) is a nuisance to city buildings; its nests block gutters and drainpipes, causing water damage to building exteriors. Common mynas are believed to pair for life. They breed through much


title: "Common myna" content: of the year depending on the location, building their nest in a hole in a tree or wall. They breed from sea-level to 3000 m in the Himalayas. The normal clutch size is 4–6 eggs. The average size of the egg is 30.8 x 21.99 mm. The incubation period is 17 to 18 days and fledging period is 22 to 24 days. The Asian koel is sometimes brood parasitic on this species. Nesting material used by mynas include twigs, roots, tow and rubbish. Mynas have been known to use tissue paper, tin foil and sloughed off snake-skin. During the breeding


title: "Common myna" content: season, the daytime activity-time budget of common myna in Pune in April to June 1978 has been recorded to comprise the following: nesting activity (42%), scanning the environment (28%), locomotion (12%), feeding (4%), vocalisation (7%) and preening-related activities, interactions and other activities (7%). The common myna uses the nests of woodpeckers, parakeets, etc. and easily takes to nest boxes; it has been recorded evicting the chicks of previously nesting pairs by holding them in the beak and later sometimes not even using the emptied nest boxes. This aggressive behaviour contributes to its success as an invasive species. There is also


title: "Common myna" content: some evidence that shows that in introduced environments, the species chooses to nest in more modified and artificial structures than in natural tree cavities when compared to native species. Like most starlings, the common myna is omnivorous. It feeds on insects, arachnids, crustaceans, reptiles, small mammals, seeds, grain and fruits and discarded waste from human habitation. It forages on the ground among grass for insects, and especially for grasshoppers, from which it gets the generic name "Acridotheres", "grasshopper hunter". It however feeds on a wide range of insects, mostly picked from the ground. It is a cross-pollinator of flowers such


title: "Common myna" content: as Salmalia and Erythrina. It walks on the ground with occasional hops and is an opportunistic feeder on the insects disturbed by grazing cattle as well as fired grass fields. Common mynas roost communally throughout the year, either in pure or mixed flocks with jungle mynas, rosy starlings, house crows, jungle crows, cattle egrets and rose-ringed parakeets and other birds. The roost population can range from less than one hundred to thousands. The time of arrival of mynas at the roost starts before and ends just after sunset. The mynas depart before sunrise. The time and timespan of arrival and


title: "Common myna" content: departure, time taken for final settlement at the roost, duration of communal sleep, flock size and population vary seasonally. The function of communal roosting is to synchronise various social activities, avoid predators, exchange information about food sources. Communal displays (pre-roosting and post-roosting) consist of aerial maneuvers which are exhibited in the pre-breeding season (November to March). It is assumed that this behaviour is related to pair formation. The IUCN declared this myna as one of only three birds among the world's 100 worst invasive species (the other two birds being the red-vented bulbul and the European starling.) It has been


title: "Common myna" content: introduced widely elsewhere, including adjacent areas in Southeast Asia, Madagascar, the Middle East, South Africa, Israel, the United States, Argentina, Germany, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and various oceanic islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, including prominent populations in Fiji and Hawaii. The common myna is regarded as a pest in South Africa, North America, the Middle East, Australia, New Zealand and many Pacific islands. It is particularly problematic in Australia. Several methods have been tried to control the bird's numbers and protect native species. In Australia, the common myna is an invasive pest. They are now often


title: "Common myna" content: the predominant bird in urban areas all along the East coast. In a 2008 popular vote, the bird was named "The Most Important Pest/Problem" in Australia, also earning the nickname "flying rats" due to their scavenging resembling that of rats. It is also known as "the cane toad of the sky". The common myna was first introduced to Australia in Victoria between 1863 and 1872 into Melbourne’s market gardens to control insects. The bird is likely to have spread to New South Wales (where it is currently most populous) at around the same time, but documentation is uncertain. The bird


title: "Common myna" content: was later introduced to Queensland as a predator of grasshoppers and cane beetles. Currently, common myna populations in Australia are concentrated along the eastern coast around Sydney and its surrounding suburbs, with sparser populations in Victoria and a few isolated communities in Queensland. During 2009 several municipal councils in New South Wales began trials of catching myna birds in an effort to reduce numbers. The bird can live and breed in a wide range of temperatures, ranging from the harsh winters of Canberra to the tropical climate of Cairns. Self-sustaining populations of common myna have been found in regions of


title: "Common myna" content: mean warmest month temperature no less than 23.2 °C and mean coldest month temperature no less than -0.4 °C, implying that the common myna could potentially spread from Sydney northward along the eastern coast to Cairns and westward along the southern coast to Adelaide (though not to Tasmania, Darwin, or the arid interior regions). The Indian myna was introduced to both the North Island and South Island of New Zealand in the 1870s. However, the cooler summer temperatures in the South Island appear to have impeded the breeding success rate of the southern populations, preventing the proliferation of the species,


title: "Common myna" content: which was largely non-existent there by the 1890s. In contrast, the North Island population was able to breed more successfully and large portions of the North Island are now populated. However, in the southern reaches of the North Island, the cooler summer temperatures, like those of the South Island, have prevented the establishment of large Indian myna populations. In South Africa where it escaped into the wild in 1902, it has become very common and its distribution is greater where human populations are greater or where there is more human disturbance. The bird is also notorious for being a pest,


title: "Common myna" content: kicking other birds out of their nests and killing their young due to the myna's strong territorial instinct. In South Africa it is considered somewhat of a major pest and disturbance of the natural habitat; as a result, they are frequently shot and killed or poisoned by people in urban environments and farmers alike. Bylaws in South Africa pertaining to the protection of most animal species specifically exclude mynas from this protection. Morphological studies show that the process of spatial sorting is at work on the range expansion of "A. tristis" in South Africa. Dispersal-relevant traits are significantly correlated with


title: "Common myna" content: distance from the range core, with strong sexual dimorphism, indicative of sex-biased dispersal. Morphological variations are significant in wing and head traits of females, suggesting females as the primary dispersing sex. In contrast, traits not related to dispersal such as those associated with foraging show no signs of spatial sorting but are significantly affected by environmental variables such as vegetation and intensity of urbanisation. In Hawaii it is out-competing a lot of the native birds for food and nesting area. To study the invasion genetics and landscape-scale dynamics of "A. tristis", scientists have recently developed 16 polymorphic nuclear microsatellite markers


title: "Common myna" content: using the next generation sequencing (NGS) approach. The common myna is a hollow-nesting species; that is, it nests and breeds in protected hollows found either naturally in trees or artificially on buildings (for example, recessed windowsills or low eaves). Compared to native hollow-nesting species, the common myna is extremely aggressive, and breeding males will actively defend areas ranging up to 0.83 hectares in size (though males in densely populated urban settings tend to only defend the area immediately surrounding their nests). This aggressiveness has enabled the common myna to displace many breeding pairs of native hollow-nesters, thereby reducing their reproductive


title: "Common myna" content: success. In Australia, their aggressiveness has enabled them to chase native birds as large as galahs out of their nests. The common myna is also known to maintain up to two roosts simultaneously; a temporary summer roost close to a breeding site (where the entire local male community sleeps during the summer, the period of highest aggression), and a permanent all-year roost where the female broods and incubates overnight. Both male and female common mynas will fiercely protect both roosts at all times, leading to further exclusion of native birds. The common myna (which feeds mostly on ground-dwelling insects, tropical


title: "Common myna" content: fruits such as grapes, plums and some berries and, in urban areas, discarded human food) poses a serious threat to Australian blueberry crops, though its main threat is to native bird species. In Hawaii, where the common myna was introduced to control pest armyworms and cutworms in sugarcane crops, the bird has helped to spread the robust "Lantana camara" weed across the islands’ open grasslands. It also has been recorded as the fourth-ranking avian pest in the fruit industry by a 2004 survey of the Hawaiian Farm Bureau and the sixth in number of complaints of avian pests overall. Mynas


title: "Common myna" content: can cause considerable damage to ripening fruit, particularly grapes, but also figs, apples, pears, strawberries, blueberries, guava, mangoes and breadfruit. Cereal crops such as maize, wheat and rice are susceptible where they occur near urban areas. Roosting and nesting commensal with humans create aesthetic and health concerns. Mynas are known to carry avian malaria and exotic parasites such as the Ornithonyssus bursia mite which can cause dermatitis in humans. The myna can help spread agricultural weeds: for example, it spreads the seeds of Lantana camara which has been classed as a Weed of National Significance because of its invasiveness. Mynas


title: "Common myna" content: are regularly observed to usurp nests and hollows, destroy the eggs and kill the young of native bird species including seabirds and parrots. There is evidence that Mynas have killed small land mammals such as mice, squirrels and possums, but further research on these occurrences are under consideration. In Sanskrit literature, the common myna has a number of names, most are descriptive of the appearance or behaviour of the bird. In addition to "saarika", the names for the common myna include "kalahapriya", which means "one who is fond of arguments" referring to the quarrelsome nature of this bird; "chitranetra", meaning


title: "Common myna" content: "picturesque eyes"; "peetanetra" (one with yellow eyes) and "peetapaad" (one with yellow legs). Common myna The common myna or Indian myna ("Acridotheres tristis"), sometimes spelled mynah, is a member of the family Sturnidae (starlings and mynas) native to Asia. An omnivorous open woodland bird with a strong territorial instinct, the myna has adapted extremely well to urban environments. The range of the common myna is increasing at such a rapid rate that in 2000 the IUCN Species Survival Commission declared it one of the world's most invasive species and one of only three birds in the top 100 species that


title: Angelshark content: Angelshark The angelsharks are a group of sharks in the genus Squatina in the family Squatinidae, which are unusual in having flattened bodies and broad pectoral fins that give them a strong resemblance to rays. This genus is the only one in its family and order Squatiniformes. They occur worldwide in temperate and tropical seas. Most species inhabit shallow temperate or tropical seas, but a few species inhabits deeper water, down to . Angel sharks are sometimes called monkfish, although this name is also applied to members of the genus "Lophius". While the forward part of the angel shark's body


title: Angelshark content: is broad and flattened, the rear part retains a muscular appearance more typical of other sharks. The eyes and spiracles are on top and the five gill slits are on its back. Both the pectorals and the pelvic fins are large and held horizontally. There are two dorsal fins, no anal fin and unusually for sharks, the lower lobe of the caudal fin is longer than the upper lobe. Most types grow to a length of 1.5 m (5 ft), with the Japanese angel shark, known to reach 2 m. Angel sharks possess extensible jaws that can rapidly snap upwards


title: Angelshark content: to capture prey and have long, needle-like teeth. They bury themselves in sand or mud lying in wait for prey, which includes fish, crustaceans and various types of mollusks. They are ovoviviparous, producing litters of up to 13 pups. Pacific Angel Shark pups are born from March to June in deep water — generally 180 to 300 feet (55 and 90 metres) — possibly to protect the tiny pups from predators. Angel Sharks usually reside in depths of 1–200 m and can be seen on muddy or soft bottom substrata where they can easily blend in as they lie on


title: Angelshark content: the bottom. Since Members of the family Squatinidae have a unique camouflage method, it goes hand in hand with how they obtain their food, by lying still on the sea floor, making rapid lunges at passing prey,and using negative pressure to capture prey by sucking it into their mouths. Morphological ID in the field can be to a great degree troublesome thinking about discontinuity of species for exchange or high likeness between congeneric species. In this specific circumstance, the shark aggregate having a place with the class Squatina is made out of three species circulated in the southern piece of


title: Angelshark content: the western Atlantic. These three species are arranged in the IUCN Red List as imperiled, and they are right now secured under Brazilian law, which denies angling and exchange. Sub-atomic hereditary apparatuses are presently utilized for commonsense ordered recognizable proof, especially in situations where morphological perception is forestalled, e.g., amid fish handling. Thus, DNA barcoding was utilized in the present examination to track potential wrongdoings against the arrival and exchange of imperiled species along the Sao Paulo coastline, specifically Squatina guggenheim (n = 75) and S. occulta (n = 5), and also the Brazilian guitarfish Pseudobatos horkelii (n = 5).


title: Angelshark content: DNA barcoding uncovered the ceaseless angling and trafficking of these ensured species, subsequently giving clear proof that the present protection models and strategies for observing are not working. Although this shark is a bottom-dweller and appears harmless, it can inflict painful lacerations if provoked, due to its powerful jaws and sharp teeth. It may bite if a diver approaches the head or grabs the tail. Angelsharks have a unique way of breathing compared to most other benthic fish. They do not pump out water from the oropharyngeal cavity like other fish. Instead they use gill flaps located under their body


title: Angelshark content: to pump out water during respiration. Doing so also allows them to be more discreet and prevent detection. Prior to the late 1980s, the Pacific angel shark was considered a "munk fish". It was a byproduct of commercial gillnetting, with no commercial appeal and was used only for crab bait. In 1977, Michael Wagner, a fish processor in Santa Barbara, California, in cooperation with local commercial fisherman, developed the market for angel sharks. The annual take of angel shark in 1977 was an estimated 147 kg. By 1985, the annual take of angel shark on the central California coast had


title: Angelshark content: increased to more than 454 metric tons or an estimated 90,000 sharks. The population declined dramatically and is now regulated. In April 2008, the UK government afforded the angel shark full protection under the Wildlife and Countryside Act. Once considered abundant in the Atlantic Ocean, the angel shark ("Squatina squatina") was classified as "critically endangered" in 2010. There are currently 24 recognized species in this genus: Angelshark The angelsharks are a group of sharks in the genus Squatina in the family Squatinidae, which are unusual in having flattened bodies and broad pectoral fins that give them a strong resemblance to


title: Hubal content: word Hubal appears to be part of personal names, translatable as "Son of Hubal" or "made by Hubal". The paucity of evidence concerning Hubal makes it difficult to characterise his role or identity in pagan Arabian mythologies. The 19th century scholar Julius Wellhausen suggested that Hubal was regarded as the son of al-Lāt and the brother of Wadd. Hugo Winckler in the early twentieth century speculated that Hubal was a lunar deity, a view that was repeated by other scholars. This was derived from Ditlef Nielsen's theory that South Arabian mythology was based on a trinity of Moon-father, Sun-mother and


title: "South African Air Force" content: Commander and his four Flight Commanders who made the crossing in their own F-51D Mustangs) left Japan for Pusan East (K-9) Air Base within the Pusan Perimeter in Korea to fly with the USAF pilots in order to familiarise themselves with the local operational conditions. On the morning of 19 November 1950, Cmdt Theron and Capt G.B. Lipawsky took off with two USAF pilots to fly the first SAAF combat sorties of the Korean War from K-9 and K-24 airfields at Pyongyang. On 30 November the squadron was moved further south to K-13 airfield due to North Korean and Chinese


title: "Amdahl Corporation" content: signaling the end to 31-bit support for that operating system. z/TPF, which became available in December 2005, also requires a 64-bit system. The 31-bit Linux distributions will survive as long as the open source community and distributors have interest. So while there is still some potential life for Amdahl's hardware, the transition to 64-bit systems is essentially complete. Some companies and governments still had Amdahl systems performing useful work into mid-2006, and Fujitsu/Amdahl promised support to those customers with replacement parts and other services through March 31, 2009. Arguably IBM did not have a suitable replacement model for many Amdahl


title: "Normanton, Derby" content: a population of 17,071. This was a 26.4% increase on the 2001 Census figure of 13,506. The area has a high ethnic minority population, with the largest concentration of Derby's British Asian community. In 2011, 67% of the population was estimated to be non-White British, compared to a figure of 25% for the whole of Derby. Around 43% of the ward population is from an Asian background, with the largest minority community being British Pakistanis at 27% of the total population. The neighbouring Arboretum ward, which includes parts of Normanton, has very similar figures, and is also 67% non-White British,


title: "Computer Music Center" content: on the Synthesizer, including Babbitt's "Vision and Prayer" and Charles Wuorinen's "Time's Encomium", which was awarded the 1970 Pulitzer Prize in Music. In 1961 Columbia Records released an album titled simply "Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center", which was produced principally on the RCA synthesizer. Most of the luminaries in the field of electronic music (and avant-garde music in general) visited, worked, or studied at the Electronic Music Center, including Edgard Varèse, Halim El-Dabh, Bülent Arel, Mario Davidovsky, Charles Dodge, Pril Smiley, Alice Shields, Wendy Carlos, Dariush Dolat-Shahi, Kenjiro Ezaki and Luciano Berio. The Center also acted as a consulting agency for


title: "Nevada-class battleship" content: was not re-engined, but both ships were equipped with modern medium-pressure boilers. At Pearl Harbor, "Oklahoma" was sunk and "Nevada" beached herself with light damage (which climbed to moderate damage, after a large fire in number 2 {"B"} turret a day later) to prevent blocking the harbor entrance. "Nevada"’s experience proved the torpedo defense system was very good, but watertight integrity on the upper decks of older warships was unlikely to be satisfactory. "Oklahoma", hit by 5 torpedoes within a matter of a few minutes, capsized and was a total loss, but "Nevada" was salvaged and modernized again during 1942,


title: Muskox content: Muskox The muskox ("Ovibos moschatus"), also spelled musk ox and musk-ox (in ), is an Arctic hoofed mammal of the family Bovidae, noted for its thick coat and for the strong odor emitted during the seasonal rut by males, from which its name derives. This musky odor is used to attract females during mating season. Its Inuktitut name "umingmak" translates to "the bearded one". Muskoxen primarily live in Greenland and the Canadian Arctic of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, with small introduced populations in the American state of Alaska, the Canadian territory of Yukon, the Scandinavian Peninsula and Siberia. As


title: Muskox content: members of the subfamily Caprinae of the family Bovidae, muskoxen are more closely related to sheep and goats than to oxen; however, they are placed in their own genus, "Ovibos" (Latin: "sheep-ox"). The muskox is one of the two largest extant members of Caprinae, along with the similarly sized takin. While takin and muskox were once considered possibly related, the takin lacks common ovibonine features, such as the muskox's specialized horn morphology, and genetic analysis shows that their lineages actually separated early in caprine evolution. Instead, the muskox's closest living relatives appear to be the gorals of the genus "Naemorhedus",


title: Muskox content: nowadays common in many countries of central and east Asia. The vague similarity between takin and muskox must therefore be considered an example of convergent evolution. The modern muskox is the last member of a line of ovibovines that first evolved in temperate regions of Asia and adapted to a cold tundra environment late in its evolutionary history. Muskoxen ancestors with sheep-like high-positioned horns (horn cores being mostly over the plane of the frontal bones, rather than below them as in modern muskoxen) first left the temperate forests for the developing grasslands of Central Asia during the Pliocene, expanding into


title: Muskox content: Siberia and the rest of northern Eurasia. Later migration waves of Asian ungulates that included high-horned muskoxen reached Europe and North America during the first half of the Pleistocene. The first well known muskox, the "shrub-ox" "Euceratherium", crossed to North America over an early version of the Bering Land Bridge two million years ago and prospered in the American southwest and Mexico. "Euceratherium" was larger yet more lightly built than modern muskoxen, resembling a giant sheep with massive horns, and preferred hilly grasslands. A genus with intermediate horns, "Soergelia", inhabited Eurasia in the early Pleistocene, from Spain to Siberia, and


title: Muskox content: crossed to North America during the Irvingtonian (1.8 million years to 240,000 years ago), soon after "Euceratherium". Unlike "Euceratherium", which survived in America until the Pleistocene-Holocene extinction event, "Soergelia" was a lowland dweller that disappeared fairly early, displaced by more advanced ungulates, such as the "giant muskox" "Praeovibos" (literally "before "Ovibos""). The low-horned "Praeovibos" was present in Europe and the Mediterranean 1.5 million years ago, colonized Alaska and the Yukon one million years ago and disappeared half a million years ago. "Praeovibos" was a highly adaptable animal that appears associated with cold tundra (reindeer) and temperate woodland (red deer) faunas


title: Muskox content: alike. During the Mindel glaciation 500,000 years ago, "Praeovibos" was present in the Kolyma river area in eastern Siberia in association with many Ice Age megafauna that would later coexist with "Ovibos", in the Kolyma itself and elsewhere, including wild horses, reindeer, woolly mammoth and stag-moose. It is debated, however, if "Praeovibos" was directly ancestral to "Ovibos", or both genera descended from a common ancestor, since the two occurred together during the middle Pleistocene. Defenders of ancestry from "Praeovibos" have proposed that "Praeovibos" evolved into "Ovibos" in one region during a period of isolation and expanded later, replacing the remaining


title: Muskox content: populations of "Praeovibos". Two more "Praeovibos"-like genera were named in America in the 19th century, "Bootherium" and "Symbos", which are now identified as the male and female forms of a single, sexually dimorphic species, the "woodland muskox", "Bootherium bombifrons". "Bootherium" inhabited open woodland areas of North America during the late Pleistocene, from Alaska to Texas and maybe even Mexico, but was most common in the Southern United States, while "Ovibos" replaced it in the tundra-steppe to the north, immediately south of the Laurentian ice sheet. Modern "Ovibos" appeared in Germany almost one million years ago and was common in the


title: Muskox content: region through the Pleistocene. By the Mindel, muskoxen had also reached the British Isles. Both Germany and Britain were just south of the Scandinavian ice sheet and covered in tundra during cold periods, but Pleistocene muskoxen are also rarely recorded in more benign and wooded areas to the south like France and Green Spain, where they coexisted with temperate ungulates like red deer and aurochs. Likewise, the muskox is known to have survived in Britain during warm interglacial periods. Today's muskoxen are descended from others believed to have migrated from Siberia to North America between 200,000 and 90,000 years ago,


title: Muskox content: having previously occupied Alaska (at the time united to Siberia and isolated periodically from the rest of North America by the union of the Laurentide and Cordilleran Ice Sheets during colder periods) between 250,000 and 150,000 years ago. After migrating south during one of the warmer periods of the Illinoian glaciation, non-Alaskan American muskoxen would be isolated from the rest in the colder periods. The muskox was already present in its current stronghold of Banks Island 34,000 years ago, but the existence of other ice-free areas in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago at the time is disputed. Along with the bison


title: Muskox content: and the pronghorn, the muskox was one of a few species of Pleistocene megafauna in North America to survive the Pleistocene/Holocene extinction event and live to the present day. The muskox is thought to have been able to survive the last glacial period by finding ice-free areas (refugia) away from prehistoric peoples. Fossil DNA evidence suggests that muskoxen were not only more geographically widespread during the Pleistocene, but also more genetically diverse. During that time, other populations of muskoxen lived across the Arctic, from the Ural Mountains to Greenland. By contrast, the current genetic makeup of the species is more


title: Muskox content: homogenous. Climate fluctuation may have affected this shift in genetic diversity: research indicates colder periods in Earth's history are correlated with more diversity, and warmer periods with more homogeneity. Both male and female muskoxen have long, curved horns. Muskoxen stand high at the shoulder, with females measuring in length, and the larger males . The small tail, often concealed under a layer of fur, measures only long. Adults, on average, weigh and range from . The thick coat and large head suggests a larger animal than the muskox truly is; the bison, to which the muskox is often compared, can


title: Muskox content: weigh up to twice as much. However, heavy zoo-kept specimens have weighed up to . Their coat, a mix of black, gray, and brown, includes long guard hairs that almost reach the ground. Rare "white muskoxen" have been spotted in the Queen Maud Gulf Bird Sanctuary. Muskoxen are occasionally domesticated for wool, meat, and milk. The wool, qiviut, is highly prized for its softness, length, and insulation value. Prices for yarn range between $40 and $80 per ounce (28 g). A muskox can reach speeds of up to 60 km/h (37 mph). Their life expectancy is 12–20 years. During the


title: Muskox content: Pleistocene period, muskoxen were much more widespread. Fossil evidence shows that they lived across the Siberian and North American Arctic, from the Urals to Greenland. The ancestors of today's muskoxen came across the Bering Land Bridge to North America between 200,000 and 90,000 years ago. During the Wisconsinan, modern muskox thrived in the tundra south of the Laurentide ice sheet, in what is now the Midwest, the Appalachians and Virginia, while distant relatives "Bootherium" and "Euceratherium" lived in the forests of the Southern United States and the western shrubland, respectively. Though they were always less common than other Ice Age


title: Muskox content: megafauna, muskox abundance peaked during the Würm II glaciation 20,000 years ago and declined afterwards, especially during the Pleistocene/Holocene extinction event, where its range was greatly reduced and only the populations in North America survived. The last known muskox population in Europe died out in Sweden 9,000 years ago, and the last one in Asia, which lived on Siberia's Taymyr Peninsula, about 2,000 years ago. After the disappearance of the Laurentide ice sheet, the muskox gradually moved north across the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, arriving in Greenland from Ellesmere Island at about 350 AD, during the late Holocene. Their arrival in


title: Muskox content: northwestern Greenland probably occurred within a few hundred years of the arrival of the Dorset and Thule cultures in the present-day Qaanaaq area. Human predation around Qaanaaq may have restricted muskoxen from moving down the west coast, and instead kept them confined to the northeastern fringes of the island. In modern times, muskoxen were restricted to the Arctic areas of Northern Canada, Greenland, and Alaska. The Alaskan population was wiped out in the late 19th or early 20th century. Their depletion has been attributed to excessive hunting, but an adverse change in climate may have contributed. However, muskoxen have since


title: Muskox content: been reintroduced to Alaska. The United States Fish and Wildlife Service introduced the muskox onto Nunivak Island in 1935 as a means for subsistence living. Other reintroduced populations are in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Bering Land Bridge National Preserve, Yukon's Ivvavik National Park, a wildlife conservation center in Anchorage, Aulavik National Park in Northwest Territories, Kanuti National Wildlife Refuge, Gates of the Arctic National Park, and Whitehorse, Yukon's wildlife preserve. There have been at least two domestication endeavours. In the 1950s an American researcher and adventurer was able to capture musk ox calves in Northern Canada for relocation to a


title: Muskox content: property he prepared in Vermont. One condition imposed by the Canadian government was he was not allowed to kill adults defending their young. When nets and ropes proved useless, he and his crew herded family groups into open water where calves were successfully separated from the adults. Once airfreighted to Montreal and trucked to Vermont, the young animals habituated to the temperate conditions. Although the calves thrived and grew to adulthood, parasite and disease resistance problems impaired the overall success of the effort. The surviving herd was eventually moved to a farm in Palmer, Alaska, which has been successful since


title: Muskox content: the mid-1950s. The species was introduced from Banks Island to the Dovre mountain range of Norway in 1932 but were hunted to extinction there during the Second World War. It was reintroduced to Norway in 1947; this population expanded into Härjedalen, Sweden, in 1971. It was introduced in Svalbard in 1925–26 and 1929, but this population died out in the 1970s. They were also introduced in Iceland around 1930 but did not survive. In Russia, animals from Banks and Nunivak were imported and released in the Taymyr Peninsula between 1974 and 1975, and from Nunivak to Wrangel Island in 1975.


title: Muskox content: Both locations are north of the Arctic Circle. Once established, these populations have been, in turn, used as sources for further introductions in Siberia between 1996 and 2010. One of the last of such actions was the release of six animals within the "Pleistocene Park" project area in the Kolyma River in 2010, where a team of Russian scientists led by Sergey Zimov aims to prove that muskoxen, along with other Pleistocene megafauna that survived into the early Holocene in northern Siberia, did not disappear from the region due to climate change, but because of human hunting. Ancient muskox remains


title: Muskox content: have never been found in eastern Canada, despite the ecological conditions in the northern Labrador Peninsula being suitable for them. In 1967, 14 animals were captured near Eureka, Ellesmere Island by the Institute for Northern Agricultural Research (INAR), and brought to a farm in Old Fort Chimo Kuujjuaq, northern Quebec, for domestication to provide a local cottage industry based on "qiviut", one of the world's finest natural fibers. The animals thrived and the "qiviut" industry showed early success with the training of Inuit knitters and marketing, it soon became clear that the Quebec government had never intended that the muskoxen


title: Muskox content: be domestic, but had used INAR to capture musk oxen to provide a wild population for hunting. Government officials demanded that INAR leave Quebec and the farm be closed. Subsequently, 54 animals from the farm were released in three places in northern Quebec between 1973 and 1983, and the remaining were ceded to local zoos. Between 1983 and 1986, the released animals increased from 148 to 290, at a rate of 1.25 per year, and by 2003, an estimated 1400 muskoxen were in Quebec. Additionally, 112 adults and 25 calves were counted in the nearby Diana Island in 2005, having


title: Muskox content: arrived there by their own means from the continent. Vagrant adults are sometimes spotted in Labrador, though no herds have been observed in the region. During the summer, muskoxen live in wet areas, such as river valleys, moving to higher elevations in the winter to avoid deep snow. Muskoxen will eat grasses, Arctic willows, woody plants, lichens, and mosses. When food is abundant, they prefer succulent and nutritious grasses in an area. Willows are the most commonly eaten plants in the winter. Muskoxen require a high threshold of fat reserves in order to conceive, which reflects their conservative breeding strategy.


title: Muskox content: Winter ranges typically have shallow snow to reduce the energy costs of digging through snow to reach forage. The primary predators of muskoxen are Arctic wolves, which may account for up to half of all mortality for the species. Other occasional predators, likely mainly predators of calves or infirm adults, can include grizzly bears and polar bears. Muskoxen live in herds of 12–24 in the winter and 8–20 in the summer. They do not hold territories, but they do mark their trails with preorbital glands. Male and female muskoxen both have separate age-based hierarchies, with mature oxen being dominant over


title: Muskox content: juveniles. Dominant oxen tend to get access to the best resources and will displace subordinates from patches of grass during the winter. Muskoxen bulls assert their dominance in many different ways. One is a "rush and butt", in which a dominant bull rushes a subordinate from the side with its horns, and will warn the subordinate so it can have a chance to get away. Bulls will also roar, swing their heads, and paw the ground. Dominant bulls sometimes treat subordinate bulls like cows. A dominant bull will casually kick a subordinate with its foreleg, something they do to cows


title: Muskox content: during mating. Dominant bulls will also mock copulate subordinates and sniff their genitals. A subordinate bull can change his status by charging a dominant bull. The mating (or "rutting") season of the muskoxen begins in late June or early July. During this time, dominant bulls will fight others out of the herds and establish harems of usually six or seven cows and their offspring. Fighting bulls will first rub their preorbital glands against their legs while bellowing loudly, and then display their horns. The bulls then back up 20 meters, lower their heads, and charge into each other, and will


title: Muskox content: keep doing so until one bull gives up. Subordinate and elderly bulls will leave the herds to form bachelor groups or become solitary. However, when danger is present, the outside bulls can return to the herd for protection. Dominant bulls will prevent cows from leaving their harems. During mating, a bull will casually kick an estrous cow with his foreleg to calm her down and make her more receptive to his advances. The herds reassemble when summer ends. While the bulls are more aggressive during the rutting season and make the decisions in the groups, the females take charge during


title: Muskox content: gestation. Pregnant females are aggressive and decide what distance the herd travels in a day and where they will bed for the night. The herds move more frequently when cows are lactating, to allow them to get enough food to nurse their offspring. Cows have an eight- to nine-month gestation period, with calving occurring from April to June. Cows do not calve every year. When winters are severe, cows will not go into estrus and thus not calve the next year. When calving, cows stay in the herd for protection. Muskox are precocial, and calves are able to keep up


title: Muskox content: with the herd within just a few hours after birth. The calves are welcomed into the herd and nursed for the first two months. After that, a calf then begins eating vegetation and nurses only occasionally. Cows communicate with their calves through braying. The calf's bond with its mother weakens after two years. Muskoxen have a distinctive defensive behavior: when the herd is threatened, the bulls and cows will face outward to form a stationary ring or semicircle around the calves. The bulls are usually the front line for defense against predators with the cows and juveniles gathering close to


title: Muskox content: them. Bulls determine the defensive formation during rutting, while the cows decide the rest of the year. The preorbital gland secretion of muskoxen has a "light, sweetish, ethereal" odor. Analysis of preorbital gland secretion extract showed the presence of cholesterol (which is nonvolatile), benzaldehyde, a series of straight-chain saturated gamma-lactones ranging from CHO to CHO (with CHO being most abundant), and probably the monounsaturated gamma lactone CHO. The saturated gamma-lactone series has an odor similar to that of the secretion. The odor of dominant rutting males is "strong" and "rank". It derives from the preputial gland and is distributed over


title: Muskox content: the fur of the abdomen via urine. Analysis of extract of washes of the prepuce revealed the presence of benzoic acid and "p"-cresol, along with a series of straight-chain saturated hydrocarbons from CH to CH (with CH being most abundant). Historically, this species declined because of overhunting, but population recovery has taken place following enforcement of hunting regulations. Management in the late 1900s was mostly conservative hunting quotas to foster recovery and recolonization from the historic declines. The current world population of muskoxen is estimated at between 80,000 and 125,000, with an estimated 47,000 living on Banks Island. In Greenland


title: Muskox content: there are no major threats, although populations are often small in size and scattered, which makes them vulnerable to local fluctuations in climate. Most populations are within national parks, where they are protected from hunting. Muskoxen occur in four of Greenland's protected areas, with indigenous populations in Northeast Greenland National Park, and three introduced populations in Arnangarnup Qoorua Nature Reserve, and Kangerlussuaq and Maniitsoq Caribou Reserves. Within these areas, muskoxen receive full protection. Muskox The muskox ("Ovibos moschatus"), also spelled musk ox and musk-ox (in ), is an Arctic hoofed mammal of the family Bovidae, noted for its thick coat


title: "Papa Stour" content: Scientific Interest and the seas around the island are a Special Area of Conservation. The island has several Neolithic burial chamber sites, as well as the remains of Duke Hakon's 13th-century house dating from the Norse occupation of the island. The population reached 380 or more in the nineteenth century, when a fishing station was opened at Crabbaberry in West Voe. Subsequently, there was a steady decline in population, although the numbers have increased from a low of 16 in the 1970s. Today the main settlement on the island is Biggings, just to the east of which is Housa Voe


title: "Yakovlev Yak-42" content: Yakovlev Yak-42 The Yakovlev Yak-42 (; NATO reporting name: "Clobber") is a 100/120-seat three-engined mid-range passenger jet. It is the first airliner produced in the Soviet Union to be powered by modern high-bypass turbofan engines. In 1972, the Yakovlev design bureau started work on a short- to medium-range airliner capable of carrying 100–120 passengers. It was intended to be a replacement for the Tupolev Tu-134 jet as well as the Ilyushin Il-18, Antonov An-24 and An-26 turboprop airliners. While the new airliner was required to operate out of relatively small airfields while maintaining good economy, as many Soviet airports had


title: "Yakovlev Yak-42" content: been upgraded to accommodate more advanced aircraft, it did not have to have the same ability to operate from grass strips as Yakovlev's smaller Yak-40. The requirement resulted in the largest, heaviest and most powerful aircraft designed by Yakovlev, until the even larger MC-21 took flight in 2017. Initial design proposals included a straight-wing airliner powered by two Soloviev D-30 turbofans and resembling an enlarged Yak-40, but this was rejected as it was considered uncompetitive compared to Western airliners powered by high bypass ratio turbofans. Yakovlev settled on a design powered by three of the new Lotarev D-36 three-shaft high-bypass


title: "Yakovlev Yak-42" content: turbofans, which were to provide 63.90 kN (14,330 lbf) of thrust. Unlike the Yak-40, the new airliner would have swept wings. The Yak-42 is a low-winged monoplane of all-metal construction, with a design lifespan of 30,000 one-hour flights. It has a pressurised fuselage of circular section, with the cabin designed to carry 120 passengers in six-abreast layout (or 100 passengers for local services with greater space allocated to carry-on luggage and coat stowage). The aircraft is flown by a flight crew of two pilots sitting side by side in a flight deck forward of the cabin. Access is via two


title: "Yakovlev Yak-42" content: airstairs, one in the underside of the rear fuselage, like that of the Yak-40, and one forward of the cabin on the port side. Two holds are located under the cabin, carrying baggage, cargo and mail. All of the prototypes had main landing gear with two wheels each, with the first serial production aircraft, four main wheels were introduced. The wing layout underwent considerable revision during the design process, with the first prototype being built with a wing sweep of 11 degrees and the second prototype with a sweep of 23 degrees. After evaluation, the greater sweep of the second


title: "Yakovlev Yak-42" content: prototype was chosen for production. Early aircraft had a clean wing leading edge with no control surfaces, and plain trailing edge flaps. This changed in later aircraft, which were fitted with leading edge slats, with the trailing edge flaps slotted. Two engines were mounted in pods on either side of the rear fuselage, with the third embedded inside the rear fuselage, fed with air via an "S-duct" air inlet. An auxiliary power unit (APU) is also fitted in the rear fuselage. No thrust reversers are fitted. The aircraft has a T-tail, with both the vertical fin and the horizontal surfaces


title: "Yakovlev Yak-42" content: swept. The first of three prototypes, which was fitted with an 11-degree wing and registered "SSSR-1974", made its maiden flight on 7 March 1975. It was followed by the second prototype, ("SSSR-1975") with the 23-degree wing and a cabin with 20 rows of windows instead of 17 in the first prototype, and a third prototype ("SSSR-1976") fitted with improved de-icing gear. The first production aircraft was completed on 28 April 1978, with the first scheduled passenger flight, on the Aeroflot Moscow-Krasnodar route taking place on 22 December 1980. Production was at first slow, with only 10 flown by mid-1981. Initial


title: "Yakovlev Yak-42" content: aircraft were fitted for 120 seats in a three-plus-three arrangement. This was soon changed to a first class section with two-plus-two seating, and a main cabin with 96 seats, giving a total of 104 seats. In its first year of operation Aeroflot's Yak-42s carried about 200,000 passengers, mainly on routes from Moscow, but also on international services from Leningrad to Helsinki and from Donetsk to Prague, with the type being planned to enter wider service throughout the Aeroflot fleet. On 28 June 1982, however, the tailplane detached from an Aeroflot Yak-42 in flight owing to a failure of the actuator


title: "Yakovlev Yak-42" content: screw jack, causing the aircraft to crash fatally near Mazyr. The type was grounded as a result, not returning to service until October 1984. An export order for seven aircraft was announced in 1982 by Aviogenex of Yugoslavia, but the contract lapsed. The availability of the longer-range Yak-42D variant from 1991 onwards gave rise to a few more export sales, to Cuba and China. As of 1 January 1995 a total of 185 Yak-42 had been produced, including 105 Yak-42D. Original production version. Max. takeoff weight 54,000 kg (119,050 lb). Version with modified avionics for use on international use ("mezhdunarodnyye


title: "Yakovlev Yak-42" content: linii" – international services). Entered service in July 1981 on the Leningrad-Helsinki route. Long-range version ("Dahl'niy" – long range) increased fuel. Replaced standard Yak-42 in production. Derivative of Yak-42D with updated, western AlliedSignal avionics, spoilers to allow faster descent and enlarged cabin door to accommodate jet bridge. Also designated Yak-42A, Yak-42-100 and Yak-42D-100. Yak-42 used as testbed for radar for Yakovlev Yak-141 fighter. Conversion of a Yak-42 for geophysical survey and environmental monitoring. Fitted with large underwing pods containing electro-optical sensors. Conversion as testbed for Progress D-236 propfan engine. Single D-236 (rated at 8,090 kW (10,850shp)) mounted in place of


title: "Yakovlev Yak-42" content: starboard engine, on special pylon to give sufficient clearance for 4.2 m (13 ft 9¾ in) propellers. First flew 15 March 1991. A projected but unbuilt stretched airliner. Planned to be powered by three Progress D-436 turbofans, a stretched fuselage and new wings. Design developed into Yak-242. Further developed Yak-42M, with two underwing Aviadvigatel PS-90 turbofans. Design evolved into Irkut MC-21. As of July 2018, 23 Yak-42s remained in commercial airline service. Operators are Izhavia (10), KrasAvia (9), Black Sea Airlines (2) and Turuhan Aviacompany (2). As of 15 February 2018, nine fatal Yak-42 accidents have occurred with a total


title: "Yakovlev Yak-42" content: of 570 casualties. Yakovlev Yak-42 The Yakovlev Yak-42 (; NATO reporting name: "Clobber") is a 100/120-seat three-engined mid-range passenger jet. It is the first airliner produced in the Soviet Union to be powered by modern high-bypass turbofan engines. In 1972, the Yakovlev design bureau started work on a short- to medium-range airliner capable of carrying 100–120 passengers. It was intended to be a replacement for the Tupolev Tu-134 jet as well as the Ilyushin Il-18, Antonov An-24 and An-26 turboprop airliners. While the new airliner was required to operate out of relatively small airfields while maintaining good economy, as many


title: "Grand Marnier" content: Grand Marnier Grand Marnier () Cordon Rouge is an orange-flavored liqueur created in 1880 by Alexandre Marnier-Lapostolle. It is made from a blend of Cognac brandy, distilled essence of bitter orange, and sugar. Grand Marnier Cordon Rouge is 40% alcohol (70 proof in UK, 80 proof in US). Aside from Cordon Rouge, the Grand Marnier line includes other liqueurs, most of which can be consumed "neat" as a cordial or a digestif, and can be used in mixed drinks and desserts. In France this kind of use is the most popular, especially with Crêpes Suzette and "crêpes au Grand Marnier".


title: "Grand Marnier" content: César Ritz (1850–1918) reportedly came up with the name "Grand Marnier" for Marnier-Lapostolle, who in return helped him purchase and establish the Hotel Ritz Paris. On March 15, 2016, the Campari Group announced a friendly takeover offer for Société des Produits Marnier Lapostolle S.A., owner of Grand Marnier. Cordon Rouge or "Red Ribbon" is orange-flavored cognac liqueur and the original Grand Marnier liqueur created in 1880 by Alexandre Marnier-Lapostolle. It is consumed neat and is also used in mixed drinks and desserts. Cordon Jaune or "Yellow Ribbon" Grand Marnier was only sold in some European countries and at some major


title: "Grand Marnier" content: international airports. The production stopped January 1st 2017. Cordon Jaune is a triple-sec Curaçao-like liqueur that is made with neutral grain spirit instead of Cognac. It does not resemble Cordon Rouge or other orange-flavored brandy liqueurs so much as other high-quality, 80 proof triple-sec Curaçao liqueurs, like Cointreau original or Gabriel Boudier Curaçao Triple-sec. "Cuvée du Centenaire" ("Centennial Edition"), was first released in limited quantities in 1927 to commemorate the 100th anniversary. It is made with up to 25-year-old fine cognacs and is consumed neat. It is more expensive, at about US$145 per bottle. The "Cuvée Spéciale Cent Cinquantenaire" ("Special


title: "Grand Marnier" content: Sesquicentennial Edition") was created in 1977 to honor the 150th anniversary of the brand, and is currently the most expensive variety of Grand Marnier. It is made with up to 50-year-old cognacs in frosted glass bottles featuring hand-painted Art Nouveau decorations. In 2005 it was marketed with the slogan "Hard to find, impossible to pronounce, and prohibitively expensive." Cuvée Louis-Alexandre Marnier-Lapostolle is a special selection of cognacs taken from the best known districts (Grande Champagne, Petite Champagne, Borderies, Fins Bois and Bons Bois) and aged at length in oak casks. It is only available in duty-free shops in Canada and


title: "Grand Marnier" content: France and liquor stores in Quebec, Canada and the Netherlands. Grand Marnier is used in several kinds of pastries, such as liquor cream buns. It can also be used in the French Christmas dessert known as "Bûche de Noël" (Yule log). It is frequently used in recipes for cranberry sauce, as sweetness and citrus can be a contrast to the bitterness of cranberries. It is also an ingredient for the preparation of flambé dishes, such as Crêpes Suzette, Grand Marnier soufflé and crème brûlée. It can also be used in the sauce of the "Canard à l'Orange" roasted duck dish.


title: "Grand Marnier" content: It can be simply drizzled over vanilla ice cream. It can also be used in some fruitcake recipes instead of brandy. Grand Marnier can be used in mixed drinks. Some examples of these include the Cosmopolitan, Margarita, Sangria, Sidecar, Dirty Harry, Grand Mimosa, B-52, the Grand Marnier Smash, The Grand Smash, The Smash Marnier, The Bloody Smash, The Maced Marnier, The Ace Marnier Smash, Frosty Smash, The Smace, The Grand Hound, The Blood Pug, The Clarke, The Nogley and the Grand Marnier Fireball. In many mixed drinks, such as the Cosmo and the Margarita, it can be used as an


title: "Grand Marnier" content: alternative to Cointreau or triple sec. Grand Marnier Grand Marnier () Cordon Rouge is an orange-flavored liqueur created in 1880 by Alexandre Marnier-Lapostolle. It is made from a blend of Cognac brandy, distilled essence of bitter orange, and sugar. Grand Marnier Cordon Rouge is 40% alcohol (70 proof in UK, 80 proof in US). Aside from Cordon Rouge, the Grand Marnier line includes other liqueurs, most of which can be consumed "neat" as a cordial or a digestif, and can be used in mixed drinks and desserts. In France this kind of use is the most popular, especially with Crêpes


title: "Mashed potato" content: Mashed potato Mashed potato (British English) or mashed potatoes (American English and Canadian English), colloquially known as mash, is a dish prepared by mashing boiled, peeled potatoes. Milk, butter and garlic are frequently used in preparation and it is frequently whipped at the end. The dish is usually a side dish to meat and/or vegetables. The closely related smashed potatoes dish is made with unskinned potatoes and it is hand mashed and not whipped. Recipes for making the dish started appearing in 1747 with an entry in "The Art of Cookery" by Hannah Glasse. Dehydrated and frozen mashed potatoes are


title: "Mashed potato" content: available in many supermarkets. Mashed potato may be used as an intermediary ingredient for other dishes such as dumplings and gnocchi, in which case the potatoes may be baked or boiled, and may or may not have dairy or seasoning added. The use of "floury" types of potatoes is recommended, although "waxy" potatoes are sometimes used for a different texture. There are a multitude of "floury" types, but the most commonly known include russet, golden wonder, and red rascal potatoes. Butter, vegetable oil, milk and/or cream are usually added to improve flavour and texture, and the potatoes are seasoned with


title: "Mashed potato" content: salt, pepper, and any other desired herbs and spices. Popular ingredients and seasonings include: garlic, cheese, bacon bits, sour cream, crisp onion or spring onion, caramelised onion, mayonnaise, mustard, horseradish, spices such as nutmeg, and chopped herbs such as parsley. One French variation adds egg yolk for "pommes duchesse" or Duchess potatoes; piped through a pastry tube into wavy ribbons and rosettes, brushed with butter and lightly browned. "Pomme purée" (potato puree) uses considerably more butter than normal mashed potato - up to one part butter for every two parts potato. In low-calorie or non-dairy variations, milk, cream and butter


title: "Mashed potato" content: may be replaced by soup stock or broth. "Aloo Bharta", an Indian sub-continent variation, uses chopped onions, mustard (oil, paste or seeds), chili pepper, coriander leaves and other spices. Mashed potato can be served as a side dish, and is often served with sausages in the British Isles, where they are known as bangers and mash. Mashed potato can be an ingredient of various other dishes, including shepherd's and cottage pie, pierogi, colcannon, dumplings, potato pancakes, potato croquettes and gnocchi. Particularly runny mashed potatoes are called "mousseline" potatoes. In the United Kingdom, the cold mashed potato is mixed with fresh


title: "Mashed potato" content: eggs and then fried until crisp to produce the potato cake. This dish is thought to have originated in Cornwall and is a popular breakfast item. When instead combined with meat and other leftover vegetables, the fried dish is known as bubble and squeak. A popular accompaniment to mashed potatoes in the United States is gravy. The most common forms of gravy paired with mashed potatoes are beef gravy or turkey gravy, though vegetable gravy is becoming more common as the vegetarian and vegan trends see a rise in popularity. A potato masher is a utensil which can be used


title: "Mashed potato" content: to prepare the potatoes, as is a potato ricer. They may also be whipped with an electric hand mixer, or with sufficient boiling, can be mashed effectively with a durable wooden spoon and brute force. Mashed potato Mashed potato (British English) or mashed potatoes (American English and Canadian English), colloquially known as mash, is a dish prepared by mashing boiled, peeled potatoes. Milk, butter and garlic are frequently used in preparation and it is frequently whipped at the end. The dish is usually a side dish to meat and/or vegetables. The closely related smashed potatoes dish is made with unskinned


title: Runestone content: marker, bound with runes". Sometimes, the original colours have been preserved unusually well, and especially if the runestones were used as construction material in churches not very long after they had been made. One runestone in the church of Köping on Öland was discovered to be painted all over, and the colour of the words was alternating between black and red. The most common paints were red ochre, red lead, soot, calcium carbonate, and other earth colours, which were bound with fat and water. It also appears that the Vikings imported white lead, green malachite and blue azurite from Continental


title: Scavenger content: Scavenger Scavengers are animals that consume dead organisms that have died from causes other than predation. While scavenging generally refers to carnivores feeding on carrion, it is also a herbivorous feeding behavior. Scavengers play an important role in the ecosystem by consuming dead animal and plant material. Decomposers and detritivores complete this process, by consuming the remains left by scavengers. Scavengers aid in overcoming fluctuations of food resources in the environment. The process and rate of scavenging is affected by both biotic and abiotic factors, such as carcass size, habitat, temperature, and seasons. Scavenger is an alteration of "scavager," from


title: Scavenger content: Middle English "skawager" meaning "customs collector", from "skawage" meaning "customs", from Old North French "escauwage" meaning "inspection", from "schauwer" meaning "to inspect", of Germanic origin; akin to Old English "scēawian" and German "schauen" meaning "to look at", and modern English "show" (with semantic drift). Obligate scavenging is rare among vertebrates, due to the difficulty of finding enough carrion without expending too much energy. In vertebrates, only vultures and possibly some pterosaurs are obligate scavengers, as terrestrial soaring flyers are the only animals able to find enough carrion. Well-known invertebrate scavengers of animal material include burying beetles and blowflies, which are


title: Scavenger content: obligate scavengers, and yellowjackets. Most scavenging animals are facultative scavengers that gain most of their food through other methods, especially predation. Many large carnivores that hunt regularly, such as hyenas and jackals, but also animals rarely thought of as scavengers, such as African lions, leopards, and wolves will scavenge if given the chance. They may also use their size and ferocity to intimidate the original hunters (the cheetah is a notable exception). Almost all scavengers above insect size are predators and will hunt if not enough carrion is available, as few ecosystems provide enough dead animals year-round to keep its


title: Scavenger content: scavengers fed on that alone. Scavenging wild dogs and crows frequently exploit roadkill. Scavengers of dead plant material include termites that build nests in grasslands and then collect dead plant material for consumption within the nest. The interaction between scavenging animals and humans is seen today most commonly in suburban settings with animals such as opossums, polecats and raccoons. In some African towns and villages, scavenging from hyenas is also common. In the prehistoric eras, the species "Tyrannosaurus rex" may have been an apex predator, preying upon hadrosaurs, ceratopsians, and possibly juvenile sauropods, although some experts have suggested the dinosaur


title: Scavenger content: was primarily a scavenger. The debate about whether "Tyrannosaurus" was an apex predator or scavenger was among the longest ongoing feud in paleontology; however, most scientists now agree that "Tyrannosaurus" was an opportunistic carnivore, acting mostly as a predator but scavenging when it could. Recent research also shows that while an adult "Tyrannosaurus rex" would energetically gain little though scavenging, smaller theropods of approximately may have potentially gained levels similar to that of hyenas, though not enough for them to rely on scavenging. Animals which consume feces, such as dung beetles, are referred to as coprovores. Animals that collect small


title: Scavenger content: particles of dead organic material of both animal and plant origin are referred to as detritivores. Scavengers play a fundamental role in the environment through the removal of decaying organisms, serving as an natural sanitation service. While microscopic and invertebrate decomposers break down dead organisms into simple organic matter which are used by nearby autotrophs, scavengers help conserve energy and nutrients obtained from carrion within the upper trophic levels, and are able to disperse the energy and nutrients farther away from the site of the carrion than decomposers. Scavenging unites animals which normally would not come into contact, and results


title: Scavenger content: in the formation of highly structured and complex communities which engage in nonrandom interactions. Scavenging communities function in the redistribution of energy obtained from carcasses and reducing diseases associated with decomposition. Oftentimes, scavenger communities differ in consistency due to carcass size and carcass types, as well as by seasonal effects as consequence of differing invertebrate and microbial activity. Competition for carrion results in the inclusion or exclusion of certain scavengers from access to carrion, shaping the scavenger community. When carrion decomposes at a slower rate during cooler seasons, competitions between scavengers decrease, while the number of scavenger species present increases.


title: Scavenger content: Alterations in scavenging communities may result in drastic changes to the scavenging community in general, reduce ecosystem services and have detrimental effects on animal and humans. The reintroduction of gray wolves ("Canis lupus") into Yellowstone National Park in the United States caused drastic changes to the prevalent scavenging community, resulting in the provision of carrion to many mammalian and avian species. Likewise, the reduction of vulture species in India lead to the increase of opportunistic species such as feral dogs and rats. The presence of both species at carcasses resulted in the increase of diseases such as rabies and bubonic


title: Scavenger content: plague in wildlife and livestock, as feral dogs and rats are transmitters of such diseases. Furthermore, the decline of vulture populations in India has been linked to the increased rates of anthrax in humans due to the handling and ingestion of infected livestock carcasses. An increase of disease transmission has been observed in mammalian scavengers in Kenya due to the decrease in vulture populations in the area, as the decrease in vulture populations resulted in an increase of the number of mammalian scavengers at a given carcass along with the time spent at a carcass. Scavenging may provide a direct


title: Scavenger content: and indirect method for transmitting disease between animals. Scavengers of infected carcasses may become hosts for certain pathogens and consequently vectors of disease themselves. An example of this phenomenon is the increased transmission of tuberculosis observed when scavengers engage in eating infected carcasses. Likewise, the ingestion of bat carcasses infected with rabies by striped skunks ("Mephitis mephitis") resulted in increased infection of these organisms with the virus. A major vector of transmission of diseases are various bird species, with outbreak being influenced by such carrier birds and their environment. An avian cholera outbreak from 2006 to 2007 off the coast


title: Scavenger content: Newfoundland, Canada resulted in the mortality of many marine bird species. The transmission, perpetuation and spread of the outbreak was mainly restricted to gull species who scavenge for food in the area. Similarly, an increase of transmission of avian influenza virus to chickens by domestic ducks from Indonesian farms permitted to scavenge surrounding areas was observed in 2007. The scavenging of ducks in rice paddy fields in particular resulted in increased contact with other bird species feeding on leftover rice, which may have contributed to increased infection and transmission of the avian influenza virus. The domestic ducks may not have


title: Scavenger content: demonstrated symptoms of infection themselves, though were observed to excrete high concentrations of the avian influenza virus. Many species that scavenge face persecution globally. Vultures in particular have faced incredible persecution and threats by humans. Before its ban by regional governments in 2006, the veterinary drug Diclofenac has resulted in at least a 95% decline of "Gyps" vultures in Asia. Habitat loss and food shortage have contributed to the decline of vulture species in West Africa due to the growing human population and overhunting of vulture food sources, as well as changes in livestock husbandry. Poisoning certain predators to increase


title: Scavenger content: the number of game animals is still a common hunting practice in Europe and contributes to the poisoning of vultures when they consume the carcasses of poisoned predators. In the 1970s Lewis Binford suggested that early humans primarily obtained meat via scavenging, not through hunting. In 2010, Dennis Bramble and Daniel Lieberman proposed that early carnivorous human ancestors subsequently developed long-distance running behaviors which improved the ability to scavenge and hunt: they could reach scavenging sites more quickly and also pursue a single animal until it could be safely killed at close range due to exhaustion and hyperthermia. In modern


title: Scavenger content: humans, necrophagy (eating of dead/decaying flesh) occurs rarely in most societies. This is likely an adaptation to the risk of disease, due to humans having lower levels of protective acids in the digestive tract, compared to species that are dedicated scavengers. Many instances have occurred in history, especially in times of war, where necrophagy and cannibalism can emerge as a survival behavior. "Scavenger" appears as an occupation in the 1911 Census of England and Wales. This job title applied to someone who cleans the streets and removes refuse, generally a workman (a modern-day garbage collector, janitor, or street cleaner) employed


title: Scavenger content: by the local public health authority. Young people in developing countries can revert to scavenging and thus develop entrepreneurship skills in order to operate in hostile economic contexts. In India, the term "manual scavenging" is used to describe the removal of raw (fresh and untreated) human excreta from buckets or other containers that are used as toilets or from the pits of pit latrines. The workers pile the excreta into baskets and may carry these on their heads to locations sometimes several kilometers from the latrines. India has officially prohibited the employment of manual scavengers since 1993, but the practice


title: Scavenger content: continues . The term "scavenger" originated as "scavager" or "scaveger", an official concerned with the receipt of custom duties and the inspection (scavage) of imported goods. The "scavagers" are found with such officials of the City of London as an aleconner or beadle. These officials seem to have been charged also with the cleaning of the streets, and the name superseded the older rakyer for those who performed this duty. These professions are essential to urban settings operating at the highest capacity. The garbage-collection jobs and scavenging professions allow urban populations to continue unhindered by outbreaks of disease most commonly


title: Scavenger content: caused by the build-up of physical waste. These jobs had great importance before the times of functional sewer systems and of indoor plumbing. Scavenger Scavengers are animals that consume dead organisms that have died from causes other than predation. While scavenging generally refers to carnivores feeding on carrion, it is also a herbivorous feeding behavior. Scavengers play an important role in the ecosystem by consuming dead animal and plant material. Decomposers and detritivores complete this process, by consuming the remains left by scavengers. Scavengers aid in overcoming fluctuations of food resources in the environment. The process and rate of scavenging


title: "Nicaraguan córdoba" content: Nicaraguan córdoba The córdoba (, sign: C$; code: NIO) is the currency of Nicaragua. It is divided into 100 "centavos". The first córdoba was introduced on March 20, 1912. It replaced the peso moneda corriente at a rate of 12½ pesos m/c = 1 córdoba and the peso fuerte at par. It was initially nearly equal to the US dollar. It was named after the Conquistador Francisco Hernández de Córdoba. On February 15, 1988, the 2nd córdoba was introduced. It was equal to 1,000 1st córdobas. On April 30, 1991 the third córdoba, also called the "córdoba oro", was introduced,


title: "Inveraray Castle" content: Inveraray Castle Inveraray Castle (Scottish Gaelic "Caisteal Inbhir Aora," pronounced ) is a country house near Inveraray in the county of Argyll, in western Scotland, on the shore of Loch Fyne, Scotland’s longest sea loch. It is one of the earliest examples of Gothic Revival architecture. It has been the seat of the Dukes of Argyll, chiefs of Clan Campbell, since the 18th century. The present castle was built in the Gothic Revival style. Work on it began in 1743. This castle replaced an earlier 15th-century castle. The foundation stone was laid in October 1746. These dates makes it one


title: "Inveraray Castle" content: of the earliest Gothic Revival buildings, together with Strawberry Hill House. Originally, all the roofs were flat and crenellated. Later, a third floor with pitched roof and dormer windows was added on all four wings and steep conical roofs were added on top of the four round towers. The village of Inveraray was moved in the 1770s to give the castle a more secluded setting. Designers who worked on the house include William Adam and Roger Morris; the interior includes a number of neoclassical rooms created for the 5th Duke by Robert Mylne. These are among the rooms open to


title: "Inveraray Castle" content: the public. James Lees-Milne was not impressed by the house when he visited it in 1943, noting the "ugly" grey stone and calling it "grim and forbidding". In 1975 a devastating fire struck Inveraray and for some time the 12th Duke and his family lived in the castle's basement, while restorations requiring a worldwide fundraising drive were carried out. The castle is open to visitors. Its collection includes more than 1,300 pikes, muskets, swords and other weapons. The 13th Duke and his family live in private apartments occupying two floors and set between two of the four crenellated circular towers.


title: "Inveraray Castle" content: Recent renovations included the installation of the house's first central heating. Inveraray Castle is a Category A listed building. It is surrounded by a garden and an estate of . Besides welcoming visitors to the castle, the estate's activities include commercial forestry, tenanted farming, wind and hydro power, and deer hunting. The 2012 Christmas episode of "Downton Abbey" was partly filmed here; the castle portraying the fictional "Duneagle Castle". Inveraray Castle also featured in a series on Scottish castles made by American broadcaster PBS. The "Best of the West" festival, organised by the Duchess, is held at the castle each


title: "Inveraray Castle" content: September. Inveraray Castle Inveraray Castle (Scottish Gaelic "Caisteal Inbhir Aora," pronounced ) is a country house near Inveraray in the county of Argyll, in western Scotland, on the shore of Loch Fyne, Scotland’s longest sea loch. It is one of the earliest examples of Gothic Revival architecture. It has been the seat of the Dukes of Argyll, chiefs of Clan Campbell, since the 18th century. The present castle was built in the Gothic Revival style. Work on it began in 1743. This castle replaced an earlier 15th-century castle. The foundation stone was laid in October 1746. These dates makes it


title: "International Meteorological Organization" content: be the directors of national meteorological services. A Permanent Meteorological Committee was established with Buys Ballot, director of the Dutch meteorological service, becoming the first president. A second congress in Rome 1879 decided on the IMO establishment and elected an International Meteorological Committee to prepare for the next Conference of Directors. There was however no separate funding. Also the directors agreed on a collaborative research effort with the International Polar Year 1882-1883. The first International Meteorological Tables were published in 1889. The 1891 Conference of Directors of Meteorological Services convened in Munich. The organization was further refined by electing an


title: "Trim, County Meath" content: Famine of 1846–1849, the practices of agriculture in the hinterland altered, with a change in emphasis from tillage to stock raising. This resulted in a change in the business life of Trim. Trim developed as a market town for the productive agricultural hinterland. Some small-scale local industries were developed including envelope, and leather product manufacturing. Trim was also chosen as location for the Timoney Engineering company to make Fire Tenders. However, in the main the town continued to mainly be a service centre for its immediate area. During the Irish War of Independence, local companies of the Irish Republican Army


title: "Colossi of Memnon" content: Colossi of Memnon The Colossi of Memnon ( or "es-Salamat") are two massive stone statues of the Pharaoh Amenhotep III, who reigned in Egypt during the Dynasty XVIII. For the past 3,400 years (since 1350 BC), they have stood in the Theban Necropolis, located west of the River Nile from the modern city of Luxor. The twin statues depict Amenhotep III (fl. 14th century BC) in a seated position, his hands resting on his knees and his gaze facing eastwards (actually ESE in modern bearings) towards the river. Two shorter figures are carved into the front throne alongside his legs:


title: "Colossi of Memnon" content: these are his wife Tiy and mother Mutemwiya. The side panels depict the Nile god Hapy. The statues are made from blocks of quartzite sandstone which was quarried at el-Gabal el-Ahmar (near modern-day Cairo) and transported overland to Thebes (Luxor). The stones are believed to be too heavy to have been transported upstream on the Nile. The blocks used by later Roman engineers to reconstruct the northern colossus may have come from Edfu (north of Aswan). Including the stone platforms on which they stand – themselves about – the colossi reach a towering in height and weigh an estimated 720


title: "Colossi of Memnon" content: tons each. The two figures are about apart. Both statues are quite damaged, with the features above the waist virtually unrecognizable. The southern statue comprises a single piece of stone, but the northern figure has a large extensive crack in the lower half and above the waist consists of 5 tiers of stone. These upper levels consist of a different type of sandstone, and are the result of a later (Roman Empire) reconstruction attempt. It is believed that originally the two statues were identical to each other, although inscriptions and minor art may have varied. The original function of the


title: "Colossi of Memnon" content: Colossi was to stand guard at the entrance to Amenhotep's memorial temple (or mortuary temple): a massive construct built during the pharaoh's lifetime, where he was worshipped as a god-on-earth both before and after his departure from this world. In its day, this temple complex was the largest and most opulent in Egypt. Covering a total of , even later rivals such as Ramesses II's Ramesseum or Ramesses III's Medinet Habu were unable to match it in area; even the Temple of Karnak, as it stood in Amenhotep's time, was smaller. With the exception of the Colossi, however, very little


title: "Colossi of Memnon" content: remains today of Amenhotep's temple. It stood on the edge of the Nile floodplain, and successive annual inundations gnawed away at its foundations – a famous 1840s lithograph by David Roberts shows the Colossi surrounded by water – and it was not unknown for later rulers to dismantle, purloin, and reuse portions of their predecessors' monuments. Soon after its construction it was destroyed by an earthquake, recently dated by the Armenian Institute of Seismology to around 1200 BC, which left only the 2 huge colossi at the entrance still standing. These were further destroyed by an earthquake in 27 BC,


title: "Colossi of Memnon" content: after which they were partly reconstructed by the Roman authorities. The 1200 BC earthquake also opened numerous chasms in the ground which meant buried many statues, some in pristine condition. These have been the subject of extensive restoration and excavation conducted by the Armenian/German archaeologist Hourig Sourouzian, who has revealed that the complex consisted of three pylons, each fronted by colossal statues, while at the far end a rectangular Temple complex consisted of a peristyle court surrounded by columns. So far four of the statues have been re-erected, with 8 waiting to be re-erected, while some 200 statues or pieces


title: "Colossi of Memnon" content: of statues are in the Luxor Museum, some on display, others in store awaiting conservation. The modern Arabic name is Kom el-Hatan, but it is generally known by the Roman name as the Temple of Memnon. Memnon was a hero of the Trojan War, a King of Ethiopia who led his armies from Africa into Asia Minor to help defend the beleaguered city but was ultimately slain by Achilles. Memnon (whose name means or ) was said to be the son of Eos, the goddess of dawn. He was associated with colossi built several centuries earlier, because of the reported


title: "Colossi of Memnon" content: cry at dawn of the northern statue (see below), which became known as the . Eventually, the entire Theban Necropolis became generally referred to as the Memnonium making him "Ruler of the west" as in the case of the god Osiris who was called chief of the west. In 27 BC, a large earthquake reportedly shattered the northern colossus, collapsing it from the waist up and cracking the lower half. Following its rupture, the remaining lower half of this statue was then reputed to "sing" on various occasions – always within an hour or two of sunrise, usually right at


title: "Colossi of Memnon" content: dawn. The sound was most often reported in February or March, but this is probably more a reflection of the tourist season rather than any actual pattern. The earliest report in literature is that of the Greek historian and geographer Strabo, who claimed to have heard the sound during a visit in 20 BC, by which time it apparently was already well known. The description varied; Strabo said it sounded "like a blow", Pausanias compared it to "the string of a lyre" breaking, but it also was described as the striking of brass or whistling. Other ancient sources include Pliny


title: "Colossi of Memnon" content: (not from personal experience, but he collected other reports), Pausanias, Tacitus, Philostratus and Juvenal. In addition, the base of the statue is inscribed with about 90 surviving inscriptions of contemporary tourists reporting whether they had heard the sound or not. The legend of the "Vocal Memnon", the luck that hearing it was reputed to bring, and the reputation of the statue's oracular powers became known outside of Egypt, and a constant stream of visitors, including several Roman Emperors, came to marvel at the statues. The last recorded reliable mention of the sound dates from 196. Sometime later in the Roman


title: "Colossi of Memnon" content: era, the upper tiers of sandstone were added (the original remains of the top half have never been found); the date of this reconstruction is unknown, but local tradition places it circa 199, and attributes it to the Roman Emperor Septimius Severus in an attempt to curry favour with the oracle (it is known that he visited the statue but did not hear the sound). Various explanations have been offered for the phenomenon; these are of two types: natural or man-made. Strabo himself apparently was too far away to be able to determine its nature: he reported that he could


title: "Colossi of Memnon" content: not determine if it came from the pedestal, the shattered upper area, or "the people standing around at the base". If natural, the sound was probably caused by rising temperatures and the evaporation of dew inside the porous rock. Similar sounds, although much rarer, have been heard from some of the other Egyptian monuments (Karnak is the usual location for more modern reports). Perhaps the most convincing argument against it being the result of human agents is that it did cease, probably due to the added weight of the reconstructed upper tiers. A few mentions of the sound in the


title: "Colossi of Memnon" content: early modern era (late 18th and early 19th centuries) seem to be hoaxes, either by the writers or perhaps by locals perpetuating the phenomenon. The "Vocal Memnon" features prominently in one scene of Henrik Ibsen's "Peer Gynt". They also show up in Oscar Wilde's fairy tale "The Happy Prince." Colossi of Memnon The Colossi of Memnon ( or "es-Salamat") are two massive stone statues of the Pharaoh Amenhotep III, who reigned in Egypt during the Dynasty XVIII. For the past 3,400 years (since 1350 BC), they have stood in the Theban Necropolis, located west of the River Nile from the


title: "Carswell (publisher)" content: Carswell (publisher) "Carswell" is a Canadian source of information services to legal, tax & accounting, and human resource professionals. It was founded in 1864. It is now part of the Professional division of Thomson Reuters. Carswell offers products, services, customized training and technical support to practitioners and organizations across Canada and beyond. Headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Carswell provides products and services in a range of formats, including books, looseleaf services, journals, newsletters, CD-ROMs and online products. Les Éditions Yvon Blais, a specialized legal publisher in the Quebec market, has been part of Carswell since 1996. Lexpert, Canada's leading source of


title: "Face perception" content: making a fearful expression and a person making a happy expression, pay the same amount of attention to and exhibit similar event-related potentials (ERPs) for both. However, when seven-month-olds are given the same treatment, they focus more on the fearful face, and their event-related potential for the scared face shows a stronger initial negative central component than that for the happy face. This result indicates an increased attentional and cognitive focus toward fear that reflects the threat-salient nature of the emotion. In addition, infants' negative central components were not different for new faces that varied in the intensity of an


title: "Norman Birkett, 1st Baron Birkett" content: several noted judges, including Frederick Greer, later a Lord Justice of Appeal, who wrote that "unless my judgement is very much astray, you will quickly acquire a leading place in the front row", a feeling which was echoed by other justices including William Finlay, who wrote that "I am confident that you will rise to the top of the profession, and I shall very greatly rejoice when my confidence is justified." In his first year as a King's Counsel Birkett earned £8,600, double what he had taken the previous year as a junior brief. In 1924, the Campbell Case brought


title: "Norman Birkett, 1st Baron Birkett" content: impossible to determine the identity of the man; the numberplate of the car was intact, however, and traced to an Alfred Arthur Rouse. Rouse was arrested and appeared at Northampton Crown Court on 26 January 1931, charged with the murder of an unknown man. He was defended by Donald Finnemore, and the Crown was represented by Birkett and Richard Elwes. Rouse was damned by a series of events. When arrested, he made statements such as "I'm very glad it's over" and "I'm responsible" and that the car engine had been off at the time of the fire, ruling out the


title: "American alligator" content: American alligator The American alligator ("Alligator mississippiensis"), sometimes referred to colloquially as a gator or common alligator, is a large crocodilian reptile endemic to the southeastern United States. It is one of two living species in the genus "Alligator" within the family Alligatoridae; it is larger than the other extant alligator species, the Chinese alligator. Adult male American alligators measure in length, and can weigh up to . Females are smaller, measuring in length. The American alligator inhabits freshwater wetlands, such as marshes and cypress swamps from Texas to North Carolina. It is distinguished from the sympatric American crocodile by


title: "American alligator" content: its broader snout, with overlapping jaws and darker coloration, and is less tolerant of saltwater but more tolerant of cooler climates than the American crocodile, which is found only in tropical climates. American alligators are apex predators and consume fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. Hatchlings feed mostly on invertebrates. They play an important role as ecosystem engineers in wetland ecosystems through the creation of alligator holes, which provide both wet and dry habitats for other organisms. Throughout the year, in particular during the breeding season, American alligators bellow to declare territory and locate suitable mates. Male American alligators use


title: "American alligator" content: infrasound to attract females. Eggs are laid in a nest of vegetation, sticks, leaves, and mud in a sheltered spot in or near the water. Young are born with yellow bands around their bodies and are protected by their mother for up to one year. The American alligator is listed as Least Concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Historically, hunting had decimated their population, and the American alligator was listed as an endangered species by the Endangered Species Act of 1973. Subsequent conservation efforts have allowed their numbers to increase and the species was removed from the


title: "American alligator" content: list in 1987. American alligators are now harvested for their skins and meat. The species is the official state reptile of three states: Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi. The American alligator was first classified by French zoologist François Marie Daudin as "Crocodilus mississipiensis" in 1801. In 1807 Georges Cuvier created the genus "Alligator"; the American alligator shares this genus with the Chinese alligator. They are grouped in the family Alligatoridae with the caimans. The superfamily Alligatoroidea includes all crocodilians (fossil and extant) that are more closely related to the American alligator than to either the Nile crocodile or the gharial. Members