title: Cheetah content: or rufous to greyish white, the coat of the cheetah is uniformly covered with nearly 2,000 solid black spots. The upper parts are in stark contrast to the underbelly, which is completely white. Each spot measures nearly across. Every cheetah has a unique pattern of spots on its coat; hence, this serves as a distinct identity for each individual. Cheetah fur is short and often coarse. Fluffy fur covers the chest and the ventral side. Several colour morphs of the cheetah have been identified, including melanistic and albino forms. Black cheetah have been observed in Kenya and Zambia. In 1877–1878,


title: Cheetah content: English zoologist Philip Sclater described two partially albino specimens from South Africa. A ticked (tabby) cheetah was photographed in Kenya in 2012. Juveniles are typically dark with long, loose, blue to grey hair. A short mane, about long, on the neck and the shoulders, is all that remains of the cape in adults. The exceptionally long and muscular tail measures , and ends in a bushy white tuft. While the first two-thirds of the tail are covered in spots, the final part is marked with four to six dark rings or stripes. The arrangement of the terminal stripes of the


title: Cheetah content: tail differs among individuals, but the stripe patterns of siblings are very similar. In fact, the tail of an individual will typically resemble its siblings' to a greater extent than it resembles its mother's or any other individual's. The cheetah is sometimes confused with the leopard, and can be distinguished by its small round spots in contrast to the leopard's rosettes in addition, the leopard lacks the tear streaks of the cheetah. The cougar possesses neither the tear streaks nor the spotted coat pattern of the cheetah. The serval has a form very similar to that of the cheetah but


title: Cheetah content: is significantly smaller. Moreover, it has a shorter tail and spots that fuse to form stripes on the back. Being in the genus Acinonyx, the morphology of the cheetah differs notably from the big cats (genus Panthera). The face and the jaw are unusually shortened and the sagittal crest is poorly developed, possibly to reduce weight and enhance speed. In fact, the skull resembles that of the smaller cats. Another point of similarity to the small cats is the long and flexible spine, in contrast to the stiff and short one of other large felids. A 2001 study of felid


title: Cheetah content: morphology stated that the truncation of the development of the middle phalanx bone in the cheetah at a relatively younger age than other felids could be a major reason for the peculiar morphology of the cheetah. The cheetah appears to show convergent evolution with canids in morphology as well as behaviour. For example, the cheetah has a relatively long snout, long legs and deep chest, tough foot pads and blunt, semi-retractable claws; moreover, its hunting behaviour resembles that of canids. In the 2001 study, it was observed that the claws of cheetah have features intermediate between those of felids and


title: Cheetah content: the wolf. In the "Puma" lineage, the cheetah's skull morphology is similar to that of the pumaboth have short, wide skullswhile that of the jaguarundi is different. The cheetah has a total of 30 teeth; the dental formula is . The deciduous dentition is . The sharp, narrow cheek teeth help in tearing flesh, whereas the small and flat canine teeth bite the throat of the prey to suffocate it. Males have slightly bigger heads with wider incisors and longer mandibles than females. The muscles between the skull and jaw are short, and thus do not allow the cheetah to


title: Cheetah content: open its mouth as much as other cats. Digitigrade animals, the cheetah have tough foot pads that make it convenient to run on firm ground. The hind legs are longer than the forelegs. The relatively longer metacarpals, metatarsals (of the lower leg), radius, ulna, tibia, and fibula increase the length of each jump. The straightening of the flexible vertebral column also adds to the length. Cheetahs have a high concentration of nerve cells, arranged in a band in the centre of the eyes. This arrangement, called a "visual streak", significantly enhances the sharpness of the vision. Among the felids, the


title: Cheetah content: visual streak is most concentrated and efficient in the cheetah. The nasal passages are short and large; the smallness of the canines helps to accommodate the large nostrils. The cheetah is unable to roar due to the presence of a sharp-edged vocal fold within the larynx. The paws of the cheetah are narrower than those of other felids. The slightly curved claws lack a protective sheath and are weakly retractable (semi-retractable). This is a major point of difference between the cheetah and the big cats, which have fully retractable claws, and a similarity to canids. Additionally, the claws of the


title: Cheetah content: cheetah are shorter as well as straighter than those of other cats. Absence of protection makes the claws blunt; however, the large and strongly curved dewclaw is remarkably sharp. Cheetahs are diurnal (active mainly during the day), whereas leopards, tigers, and lions are nocturnal (active mainly at night); diurnality allows better observation and monitoring of the animal. Hunting is the major activity throughout the day; peaks are observed during dawn and dusk indicating crepuscular tendencies. Groups rest in grassy clearings after dusk, though males and juveniles often roam around at night. The cheetah is an alert animal; individuals often inspect


title: Cheetah content: their vicinity at observation points such as elevations. Even while resting, they take turns at keeping a lookout. Apart from the lion, the cheetah is the only cat that is gregarious; however, female cheetahs tend to remain solitary. Tim Caro, of the University of California, Davis, identified the various social classes and their longevity. Pregnant and nursing females, a few adolescents, and males who have not joined any groups are typically solitary. Non-lactating females, their cubs, adolescent siblings, and several males will form their own groups. A loose association between individuals of the opposite sex can be observed during the


title: Cheetah content: breeding season. These social groups typically keep away from one another. Adult males are typically gregarious despite their territoriality, and may group together for life and form "coalitions". These groups collectively defend their territories. In most cases, a coalition will comprise brothers born in the same litter who stayed together after weaning. However, if a cub is the only male in the litter, then two or three lone males may form a small group, or a lone male may join an existing group. Males in coalitions establish territories that ensure maximum access to females. Solitary males may or may not


title: Cheetah content: be territorial. Some males alternate between solitude and coalitions, whichever ensures encounters with a greater number of females. Although a coalition, due to its larger membership, demands a greater amount of resources than do the solitary males or their groups, the coalition has a greater chance of encountering and acquiring females for mating. Females are not territorial, and live alone or with their offspring. Juveniles form mixed-sex groups after weaning, but most of the young females stay back with their mother, with whom they do not show any significant interaction. Males eventually mature and try to acquire territories. Males in


title: Cheetah content: coalitions establish territories in locations that ensure maximum access to females. Males exhibit marking behaviourterritories, termite mounds, trees, common tracks and junctions, and trees are marked by urine, faeces, and claw scratches. The sizes can be location specific. For example, territories range from in the Serengeti, while in the Phinda Private Game Reserve, the size can be . Territorial solitary males establish considerably larger territories, as large as in the Serengeti or in central Namibia. A 1987 study of the social organisation in males showed that territoriality depends on the size and age of the males and the membership of


title: Cheetah content: the coalition. It concluded that solitary as well as grouped males have a nearly equal chance of coming across females, but the males in coalitions are notably healthier and have better chances of survival than their solitary counterparts. In the Serengeti, only 4% of the solitary males hold territories, while those who joined coalitions were far more successful. The average period for which territories are held is four months for singletons, seven-and-a-half months for pairs, and 22 months for trios. Males exhibit pronounced marking behaviourterritories, termite mounds, trees, common tracks, and junctions are marked by urine, faeces, and claw scratches.


title: Cheetah content: Males marking their territory by urination stand less than a metre away from a tree or rock surface with the tail raised, pointing the penis either horizontally backward or 60° upward. Territorial clashes can take place between two coalitions, or coalitions and solitary males; fights, however, are rarely gruesome. Another major reason for fights is to acquire dominance in the breeding season. These can even involve cannibalism. Unlike male and other felines, female cheetahs do not establish territories. Instead, they live in unguarded areas, known as "home ranges". Although home ranges often overlap, there is hardly any interaction between the


title: Cheetah content: females. Females are regular visitors to male territories. The size of a home range depends mainly on the availability of prey. The greater the density of prey animals in an area, the smaller the home range of a female cheetah there. In areas with nomadic prey animals (such as the Thomson's gazelle in the Serengeti and the springbok in the Kalahari Desert), the home ranges cover hundreds of square kilometres. In contrast, home ranges are merely large where sedentary prey, such as the impala in the Kruger National Park, is available. The cheetah is a vocal felid. A wide variety


title: Cheetah content: of cheetah vocalisations have been identified by several terms, but most of these lack a detailed acoustic description, which makes it difficult to assess reliably which term denotes which sound. In 2010 Robert Eklund (of the University of Göteborg, Sweden) and colleagues published a detailed report on the purring of the cheetah and compared it with that observed in other felids. The cheetah purrs when content, or to greet known individuals. A characteristic of purring is that it is realised on both egressive and ingressive airstreams. Other vocalisations Eklund identified include: R. D. Estes has listed, in addition to the


title: Cheetah content: aforementioned vocalisations, some other sounds made by the cheetah: Scent plays a significant role in olfactory communication. Cheetahs often investigate urine-marked places (territories or common landmarks) for a long time by crouching on their forelegs and carefully smelling the place. Then the male will itself urinate there and sniff at its own scent before leaving. Other observing individuals will repeat the ritual. Females may also show marking behaviour but less prominently than the males. Females in oestrus will show maximum urine-marking, and her excrement can attract males from far off. Social meetings are marked by mutual sniffing in oral and


title: Cheetah content: genital areas, grooming one another, rubbing the cheeks, and face-licking. Further physical contact has not been observed. The tear streaks are a means of visual communication. The tear streaks combined with the black lips and the contrasting white fur give the face a striking appearance and form clear expressions when viewed from a close range. The ears and the face are obscure from a distance, and so are the expressions. On the other hand, the tail is quite conspicuous and is probably used by mothers to direct juveniles to follow them. Cheetahs engage in several displays during fights, hunting, or


title: Cheetah content: self-defence. Prior to a sprint, the cheetah will hold its head down, with aggression on its face, and approach the target in a stiff gait. The aggressive expression is maintained during the run. To defend itself or its prey, a cheetah will hold its body low to the ground, and produce a snarl with its mouth wide open, the eyes staring threateningly ahead and the ears folded backward. This may be accompanied by moans, hisses, and growls. In more severe cases, the ground is hit with the paws. Fights are characterised by biting, tearing out the fur and attempts at


title: Cheetah content: strangling on both sides. The cheetah is a carnivore that prefers medium-sized prey with a body mass ranging from . Blesbok, duiker, Grant's gazelle, impala, reedbuck, springbok, and Thomson's gazelle are some of the common targets of the cheetah. Other prey animals include the bat-eared fox, bushbuck, kudu, hartebeest, nyala, oribi, roan antelope, steenbok, sable antelope, and waterbuck; they prey less frequently on the African buffalo, gemsbok, giraffe, ostrich, warthog, wildebeest, and zebra. A study showed that a major proportion of the diet of Asiatic cheetahs consists of livestock; local species such as chinkara, desert hare, goitered gazelle, ibex, rodents,


title: Cheetah content: and wild sheep are also hunted. Generally, only groups of cheetahs will attempt to kill large animals such as hartebeest, although mothers with young cubs will attempt to secure a large prey all by themselves. There are no records of cheetah killing human beings. The diet of a cheetah depends on the area in which it lives. For example, on the East African plains, its preferred prey is the Thomson's gazelle, somewhat smaller than the cheetah. In contrast, in Kwa-Zulu Natal the preferred prey is the significantly larger nyala, males of which can weigh up to . They do, however,


title: Cheetah content: opt for young and adolescent targets, which make up about 50% of the cheetah diet despite constituting only a small portion of the prey population. Cheetahs hunt primarily throughout the day, but geographical variations exist. For instance, cheetahs in the Sahara and the Masai Mara hunt after sunset to escape the high temperatures of the day. In the Serengeti they hunt when the lions and hyenas are inactive. A study in Nairobi National Park in Kenya showed that the success of the hunt depends on the species, age, sex, and habitat of the prey, and the size of the hunting


title: Cheetah content: herd or the efficiency of the hunting individual. Cheetahs hunt by vision rather than by scent. Prey is located from observation points or while roaming. Animals toward the edges of the herd are preferred. The cheetah will stalk their prey to within ; it will try to approach it as closely as possible while concealing itself in cover, sometimes even up to within of the prey. The cheetah will crouch and move slowly while stalking, occasionally becoming motionless. The chase usually lasts less than a minute; if the cheetah fails to make a kill quickly, it will give up. Cheetahs


title: Cheetah content: have an average hunting success rate of 40 to 50%. Cheetahs kill their prey by tripping it during the chase; the cheetah can use its strong dewclaw to knock the prey off its balance. To kill medium- to large-sized prey, the cheetah bites the prey's throat to suffocate it. A bite on the back of the neck or the snout is enough to kill smaller prey. The prey is then taken to a shaded place; the cheetah, highly exhausted after the chase, rests beside the kill and pants heavily for nearly five to 55 minutes. Groups of cheetah devour the


title: Cheetah content: kill peacefully, though minor growling may be observed. Cheetahs not involved in hunting will immediately start eating. Cheetahs can consume large quantities of food. In a study at the Etosha National Park (Namibia), the cheetah consumed as much as within two hours and stayed close to the remains for 11hours. Cheetahs move their heads from side to side so that the sharp carnassial teeth effectively tear the flesh, which can then be swallowed without chewing. They typically begin with the hindquarters, and then progress toward the abdomen and the spine. Rib bones are chewed on at the ends, and the


title: Cheetah content: limbs are not generally torn apart while eating. The cheetah, especially mothers with young cubs, are highly vigilant; they need to remain on a lookout for large carnivores who might steal the prey or harm the cubs, and for any potential prey. In Africa, the cheetah surrenders its kill to sturdier carnivores such as lions, leopards, spotted and brown hyenas, and wild dogs. Cheetahs lose around 10 to 15% of their kills to other predators; the percentage was found to be as high as 50% in a 1986 study. Cheetahs have rarely been observed to feed on the kills of


title: Cheetah content: other carnivores; this may be due to vultures and spotted hyena adroitly capturing and consuming heavy carcasses within a short time. In Central Asia, the cheetah competed with grey wolf, and to a lesser extent also with striped hyena, leopard and caracal. The cheetah's thin and light body makes it well-suited to short, explosive bursts of speed, rapid acceleration, and an ability to execute extreme changes in direction while moving at high speed. These adaptations account for much of the cheetah's ability to catch fast-moving prey. The cheetah is the fastest land animal. It was called the "felid version of


title: Cheetah content: the greyhound", as both have similar morphology and the ability to reach tremendous speeds in a shorter time than other mammals. The large nasal passages ensure fast flow of sufficient air, and the enlarged heart and lungs allow the enrichment of blood with oxygen in a short time. This allows cheetahs to rapidly regain their stamina after a chase. During a typical chase, their respiratory rate increases from 60 to 150 breaths per minute. While running, in addition to having good traction due to their semi-retractable claws, cheetahs use their tail as a rudder-like means of steering that enables them


title: Cheetah content: to make sharp turns, necessary to outflank antelopes that often change direction to escape during a chase. The protracted claws increase grip over the ground, while foot pads make the sprint more convenient over tough ground. The tight binding of the tibia and the fibula restrict rotation about the lower leg, thus stabilising the animal throughout the sprint; the downside, however, is that this reduces climbing efficiency. The pendulum-like motion of the scapula increases the stride length and assists in shock absorption. The extension of the vertebral column can add as much as to the length of a stride. During


title: Cheetah content: more than half of the time of the sprint, the animal has all four limbs in the air; this also contributes to the stride length. The cheetah runs no more than at the speed of ; it very rarely runs at this high speed as most chases are within . By 1973, cheetah sprinting distance was thought to be limited by the building up of excessive body heat. A biologging study with six free-living cheetahs in Namibia revealed that their elevated body temperature did not compromise their chasing prey. After successful hunts, they had a 0.6 to 0.8 °C higher


title: Cheetah content: body temperature than after unsuccessful chases. In general, the speed of a hunting cheetah averages during a chase, interspersed with a few short bursts when the speed may vary between ; the most reliable measurement of the typical speed during a short chase is . However, this value of the maximum speed, first measured in 1957 by Kurt Severin, is disputed, with more recent measurements using solar-powered GPS collars in 367 hunts showing a maximum speed of while hunting. The speeds attained by the cheetah may be only slightly greater than those achieved by the pronghorn and the springbok .


title: Cheetah content: Yet the cheetah has a greater probability of succeeding in the chase due to its exceptional accelerationit can attain a speed of in just two seconds. One stride or jump of a galloping cheetah averages . Similarly, the ability to change direction rapidly is pivotal in ensuring hunting success. Cheetahs typically walk at . Speed and acceleration values for the hunting cheetah may be different from those for the non-hunting because, while engaged in the chase, the cheetah is more likely to be twisting and turning and may be running through vegetation. In 2012 an 11-year-old cheetah from the Cincinnati


title: Cheetah content: Zoo named Sarah made a world record by running in 5.95 seconds over a set run, during which she ran a recorded maximum speed of . A study of five wild cheetahs (three females, two males) during hunting reported a maximum speed of , with an average of . Speed can be increased by almost in a single stride. The average chase is and the maximum ranges from . Cheetahs breed throughout the year; they are induced ovulators. Females become sexually mature at 21 to 22 months of age. Females are polyoestrusthey have an oestrus ("heat") cycle every 12days (this


title: Cheetah content: can vary from 10to 20 days), each oestrus lasting one to three days. A female can give birth again after 17 to 20 months; however, on the loss of a whole litter mothers can mate again. Urine-marking in males becomes more pronounced when a female in their vicinity comes into oestrus. Males fight among one another to secure access to the female; even males in a coalition may show some aggression toward one another on approaching a female. One male eventually wins dominance over the others. Mating, observed mainly at night, begins with the male approaching the female, who lies


title: Cheetah content: down on the ground. No courtship behaviour is observed; the male immediately secures hold of the female's nape and copulation takes place. The pair then ignore each other and part ways. However, they meet and copulate a few more times within the next few days. Polyandrous, females can mate with several males. The mean number of motile sperm in a single ejaculation is nearly 25.3million. Gestation lasts nearly three months. The number of cubs born can vary from one to eight, though the common number is three to five. Birth takes place in a sheltered place such as thick vegetation.


title: Cheetah content: Each cub weighs nearly at birth; the eyes, shut at birth, open in fourto 11 days. Newborn cubs can crawl and spit; they start walking by the age of two weeks. Their nape, shoulders and back are thickly covered with long bluish grey hair. This downy underlying fur, called a "mantle", gives them a Mohawk-type appearance; this fur is shed as the cheetah grows older. It has been suggested that this mane gives a cheetah cub the appearance of the honey badger, and could act as a camouflage in both animals. Cheetah cubs are highly vulnerable during the first few


title: Cheetah content: weeks of their life; mothers keep their cubs hidden in dense vegetation for the first month. Generation length of the cheetah is six years. Cubs start following their mothers at six weeks. The mother frequently shifts the cubs to new locations. A study of play behaviour of cheetah cubs showed that cubs tend to play after nursing or while they are on the move with their mothers. Play involves plenty of agility; attacks are seldom lethal. Playing cubs stay near their mothers. The study further revealed that while the cubs showed improvement in catching each other as they grew up,


title: Cheetah content: the ability to crouch and hide did not develop remarkably. Thus, it was suggested that play helps develop only certain aspects of predator defence. Weaning occurs at three to six months of age. The mother brings kills to her cubs; the cubs might purr as the mother licks them clean after the meal. Cubs as young as six months try to capture small prey like hares and juvenile gazelles. However, they may have to wait until as long as 15 months of age to make a successful kill on their own. The offspring may stay with the mother for 13


title: Cheetah content: to 20 months, associating with one another and feeding on kills together. After weaning, juveniles may form mixed-sex herds; young females may stay back with their mother, but there is hardly any interaction between the mother and daughters. The females in the mixed-sex herd gradually move out as they near sexual maturity. In the Serengeti, average age of independence of 70 observed litters was 17.1 months. Young females had their first litters at the age of about 2.4 years and subsequent litters about 20 months later. The lifespan of wild cheetahs is 14 to 15 years for females; their reproductive


title: Cheetah content: cycle typically ends by 12 years of age. Males generally live as long as 10 years. High mortality rates have been recorded in the Serengeti. In a 1994 study, nearly 77% of litters died before eight weeks of birth, and nearly 83% of those alive could not make it to adolescence (14weeks). Lions emerged as the major predator of juveniles, accounting for nearly 78% of the deaths. The study concluded that the survival rate of cubs until weaning was a mere 4.8%. This was attributed to the open terrain of the region, which does not allow cheetahs to conceal themselves.


title: Cheetah content: Cheetah cubs face higher mortality than most other large mammals. It has been suggested that the significant lack of genetic diversity in cheetahs is a cause of poor quality and production of sperm, and birth defects such as cramped teeth, kinked tails, and bent limbs. Cheetahs do have low fertility rates, but they appear to have flourished for thousands of years with these low levels of genetic variance. Cheetah expert Laurie Marker points out that the high level of genetic uniformity would mean that if an infectious disease surfaced in a population, all of them have (or lack) the same


title: Cheetah content: level of immunity. In 1982, 60% of the cheetah population in the Wildlife Safari (Oregon, United States) died due to a peritonitis epidemic. The cheetah inhabits a variety of habitats. In Africa, it has been observed in dry forests, scrub forests, and savannahs. In prehistoric times, the cheetah was distributed throughout Asia, Africa, and Europe. Gradually, it vanished from Europe. Nearly 500 years ago, the cheetah was still common throughout Africa, though it avoided deserts and tropical forests. In Eurasia, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Palestine, Syria, and the Ganga and Indus river valleys in South Asia sheltered large numbers of cheetahs.


title: Cheetah content: However, today the cheetah has been exterminated from the majority of its earlier range. The IUCN estimates that the total expanse of the range of the cheetah in earlier times was approximately ; the range () has since then reduced to , a substantial decline of 89%. The African cheetah is found mainly in the eastern and southern regions; its presence across the continent has declined to a mere 10% of the historical range. The range in eastern Africa has reduced to 6% of its original extent, so that presently it is distributed in an area of . In the


title: Cheetah content: Horn of Africa, the cheetah occurs in Ethiopia, Kenya, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda. The range has not reduced as much in the southern part of the continent, where it occurs in an area of , 22% of its original range. Significant populations thrive in south-western Angola, Botswana, Malawi, south-western Mozambique, Namibia, northern South Africa, southern Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Very few isolated populations occur in the Sahara; the population density in this region is as low as two to three individuals per . They occur in very low numbers in northern and western Africa. The distribution of prey may influence


title: Cheetah content: habitat preferences; in a study in the Kruger National Park, female cheetahs were found to spend a significant amount of time in woodlands, where impala occurred. It was suggested that though the forested area was unsuitable for hunting, the females preferred woodlands to encounter more impala. Male coalitions, on the other hand, shunned dense habitats and spent most of the time in open savannahs. An explanation given for this was that the coalitions prefer larger prey than impala. Although they do not prefer montane regions, cheetahs can occur at elevations as high as . An open area with some cover,


title: Cheetah content: such as diffused bushes, is probably ideal for the cheetah because it needs to stalk and pursue its prey over a distance, exploiting its speed. This also minimises the risk of encountering larger carnivores. Complete lack of cover, however, can be a cause of prey loss and mortality. In the past, the cheetah ranged across vast stretches in Asia, from the Arabian Peninsula in the west to the Indian subcontinent in the east, and as far north as the Caspian and Aral Seas. Today, the cheetah has been extirpated in the majority of its historic range, except Iran and possibly


title: Cheetah content: a few areas in Afghanistan and Turkmenistan. The cheetah has been classified as Vulnerable by the IUCN; it is listed under AppendixI of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) and AppendixI of CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species). In 2014 the CITES Standing Committee recognised the cheetah as a "species of priority" in their strategies in northeastern Africa to counter wildlife trafficking. , the IUCN gives the total number of surviving individuals as nearly 6,700. Regional estimates have been given as: 1,960 in eastern Africa (); 4,190 in southern Africa (); and


title: Cheetah content: 440 in western, central, and northern Africa (). The southern half of the continent, therefore, is home to the largest number of cheetah. 29sub-populations have been identified, of which most consist of no more than 500 individuals. A small population of 60 to 100 individuals was reported from Iran in 2007. Populations are feared to be declining, especially those of adults. The cheetah is threatened by habitat loss through agricultural and industrial expansion; moreover, the species apparently requires a large area to live in as indicated by its low population densities. It appears to be less capable of coexisting with


title: Cheetah content: humans than the leopard. Human interference disturbs hunting and feeding of cheetah. With 76% of its range consisting of unprotected land, the cheetah is often targeted by farmers and pastoralists who attempt to protect their livestock. However, cheetah is not known to prey on livestock. Game hunters may also try to harm cheetahs as they deprive them of valuable game. Roadkill is another threat, especially in areas where roads have been constructed near natural habitat or protected areas. Cases of roadkill involving cheetahs have been reported from Kalmand, Iran, Touran National Park, and Bafq. The threat posed by infectious diseases


title: Cheetah content: may be minor, given the low population densities and hence the reduced chance of infection. In 2016, it was estimated that there are just 7,100 cheetahs remaining in the wild, and simulation modelling suggested that they are at risk of extinction. The authors suggested a re-categorisation on the IUCN Red List for the species from vulnerable to endangered. The IUCN has recommended co-operation between countries across the cheetah's range to minimise the conflict between cheetahs and human beings. A 2016 study showed that ecotourism can have a significantly positive impact on the conservation of the cheetah. Although the requirement of


title: Cheetah content: space for the habitat would have to be compromised in most cases, establishment of private reserves for cheetahs and ensuring the absence of predators and poachers could be a successful conservation measure. Additionally, the financial benefits accrued and the awareness generated can further aid the cause of the cheetah. At the same time, the animals should not be unnecessarily handled or disturbed, as cheetahs are particularly sensitive to human interference. The Range Wide Conservation Program for Cheetah and African Wild Dogs (RWCP), the brainchild of Sarah Durant and Rosie Woodroffe (of the Zoological Society of London), was started in 2007


title: Cheetah content: with the primary aim of ensuring better conservation measures for the cheetah and the wild dogtwo species with very low population densities. A joint initiative by the ZSL, the Wildlife Conservation Society, and the IUCN Cat Specialist Group, the program has among its major goals a review of the conservation policies adopted by the South African countries, and study and action on illegal hunting and trade of the cheetah. In a 2007 publication, Durant emphasised the role of land management and improvement in connectivity across the range in cheetah conservation, in the lack of which the populations might face severe


title: Cheetah content: fragmentation. Benin (2014), Botswana (2007), Chad (2015), Ethiopia (2010), Kenya (2007), Mozambique (2010), Namibia (2013), Niger (2012), South Africa (2009), South Sudan (2009), Tanzania (2013), Zambia (2009), and Zimbabwe (2009) have formulated action plans for the conservation of the cheetah (the years in which the workshops were held are given in brackets). In the 20th century, the populations of cheetah in India saw a drastic fall. The last physical evidence of the cheetah in India was thought to be three individuals, all shot by the Maharajah of Surguja (a man also noted for holding a record for shooting 1,360 tigers),


title: Cheetah content: in 1947 in eastern Madhya Pradesh, but a female was sighted in Koriya district, present-day Chhattisgarh, in 1951. During the early 2000s, scientists from the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad, proposed a plan to clone Asiatic cheetahs obtained from Iran. India asked Iran to transport one live pair to India, or, if that was not possible, allow them to collect sperm and eggs of the cheetah pair in Iran itself. However, Iran rejected both proposals. In September 2009, the then Minister of Environment and Forests, Jairam Ramesh, assigned the Wildlife Trust of India and the Wildlife Institute


title: Cheetah content: of India with the task of examining the potential of cheetah reintroduction in the nation. The report, submitted in 2010, showed that the Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary and Nauradehi Wildlife Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh, and Shahgarh Landscape and Desert National Park in Rajasthan have a high potential to support reintroduced cheetah populations. These areas were found to be spacious; of these four areas, the Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary had the largest available area, . Moreover, these were rich in prey availability. The Sanjay National Park, though comprising an area of and having supported cheetah populations before the independence of India in 1947,


title: Cheetah content: is no longer suitable for the cheetah due to low prey density and risks of poaching. In 2001 the Iranian government collaborated with the Cheetah Conservation Fund, the IUCN, Panthera, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the Wildlife Conservation Society on the Conservation of Asiatic Cheetah Project (CACP) to protect the natural habitat of the Asiatic cheetah and its prey, to ensure that development projects do not hamper its survival, and to highlight the plight of the Asiatic cheetah. Iran declared 31August as National Cheetah Day in 2006. The cheetah shows little aggression toward human beings, and can be easily


title: Cheetah content: tamed, as it has been since antiquity. Reliefs in the Deir el-Bahari temple complex tell of an expedition by Egyptians to the Land of Punt during the reign of the pharaoh Hatshepsut (1507–1458BC) that fetched, among other things, animals called "panthers" for Egypt. Two types of "panthers" were depicted in these sculptures: leashed cheetahs, referred to as "panthers of the north", and sturdy leopards, referred to as "panthers of the south". During the New Kingdom (16th to 11th centuriesBC), cheetahs were common pet animals for the royalty, who adorned the animals with ornate collars and leashes. The Egyptians would use


title: Cheetah content: their dogs to bring the concealed prey out in the open, after which a cheetah would be set upon it to kill it. A Sumerian seal dating back to nearly 3000BC, featuring a leashed animal resembling a cheetah, has fuelled speculation that the cheetah might have been first domesticated and used for hunting in Sumer (Mesopotamia). However, Thomas T. Allsen (of The College of New Jersey) argues that the depicted animal might not be a cheetah given its largely dog-like features; moreover, the background gives an impression of a montane area, which the cheetah does not typically inhabit. Mainly two


title: Cheetah content: kinds of theories have been put forth to explain the subsequent expansion of the cheetah into Asia, Europe, and the rest of Africa. Historians who accept the Sumerian origin of the domesticated cheetahsuch as Heinz F. Friederichs and Burchard Brentjeshold that the animal gradually spread out to central and northern Africa, from where it reached India. On the other hand, historians such as Frederick E. Zeuner accept the Egyptian origin and state that the cheetah gradually spread into central Asia, Iran, and India. In the third centuryAD, Roman author Claudius Aelianus wrote of tame panthers in India and "smaller lions"


title: Cheetah content: that would be used for tracking and hunting; the account cannot be very reliable as Roman, as well as Greek, literature is not generally clear in its references to different types of cats. Hunting with cheetahs became more prevalent toward the seventh centuryAD. The 11th-century Clephane Horn, possibly of Byzantine origin, is believed to depict domesticated hunting cheetahs. In the Middle East, the cheetah would accompany the nobility to hunts in special seats behind saddles. Cheetahs continued to be associated with royalty and elegance in western Asia until as late as the 19th century. The first phase of taming would


title: Cheetah content: take several weeks, in which the cheetah would be kept tethered and made to get accustomed to human beings. Next, the cheetah would be tempted with food and trained to mount horses. Finally, its hunting instincts would be aroused by slaughtering animals before it. The whole process could take as long as a year to complete. In eastern Asia, the records are confusing as regional names for the leopard and the cheetah may be used interchangeably. The earliest depiction of cheetahs from eastern Asia dates back to the Tang dynasty (7th to 10th centuriesAD); paintings depict tethered cheetahs as well


title: Cheetah content: as cheetahs mounted on horses. Chinese emperors would use cheetahs, as well as caracals, as gifts. In the 13th and the 14th centuries, the Yuan rulers bought numerous caracals, cheetahs, and tigers from the western parts of the empire and Muslim merchants, in return for gold, silver, cash, and silk. According to the "Ming Shilu", the subsequent Ming dynasty (14th to 17th centuries) continued this practice. The cheetah gradually entered Eurasia toward the 14th century, though they never became as popular as they had in the Middle East. The Mughal ruler Akbar the Great (1556–1605) is said to have kept


title: Cheetah content: as many as 1000 cheetahs. However, his son Jahangir wrote in his memoirs, "Tuzk-e-Jahangiri", that only one of them gave birth to cubs. Mughal rulers trained cheetahs as well as caracals in a similar way as the West Asians, and used them to hunt gameespecially blackbuck. The rampant hunting severely affected the populations of wild animals. Mortality under captivity is generally high; reasons include stillbirths, birth defects, cannibalism, hypothermia, neglect of cubs by mothers, and infectious diseases. A study comparing the health of captive and wild cheetahs noted that despite having similar genetic make-up, wild cheetahs are far healthier than


title: Cheetah content: their captive counterparts. The study identified possible stress factors such as restricted habitat and interaction with human beings and other carnivores, and recommended private and spacious areas for captive cheetahs. A study of diseases suffered by captive cheetahs in the period 1989–92 in several North American zoos showed that hepatic veno-occlusive disease, a disease of the liver, had affected 82% of the deceased cheetahs, caused nine deaths, and occurred in 51% of living females. Chronic gastritis was detected in 91% of the population. Glomerulosclerosis, a disease of the kidneys, emerged as another significant disease, affecting 84% of the cheetahs; another


title: Cheetah content: renal disease, nephrosclerosis, affected 39% of the cheetahs. Feline infectious peritonitis caused two deaths. Pneumonia was a major cause for juvenile deaths. Another study concluded that excess of vitaminA in their diets could result in veno-occlusive disease in their livers. Moreover, cheetahs are poor breeders in captivity, while wild individuals are far more successful. In a 1992 study, females in Serengeti were found to have 95% success rate in breeding. In contrast, only 20% of the North American captive cheetahs bred successfully in 1991. Studies have shown that in-vitro fertilisation in cheetah poses more difficulties than are faced in the


title: Cheetah content: case of other cats. The cheetah has been widely portrayed in a variety of artistic works. In "Bacchus and Ariadne", an oil painting by the 16th-century Italian painter Titian, the chariot of the Greek god Dionysus (Bacchus) is depicted as being drawn by two cheetahs. The cheetahs in the painting were previously considered to be leopards. In 1764 English painter George Stubbs commemorated the gifting of a cheetah to George III by the English Governor of Madras, Sir George Pigot in his painting "Cheetah with Two Indian Attendants and a Stag". The painting depicts a cheetah, hooded and collared by


title: Cheetah content: two Indian servants, along with a stag it was supposed to prey upon. The 1896 painting "The Caress", by the 19th-century Belgian symbolist painter Fernand Khnopff, is a representation of the myth of Oedipus and the Sphinx. It portrays a creature with a woman's head and a cheetah's body (often misidentified as a leopard's). The Bill Thomas Cheetah American sports/racing car, a Chevrolet-based coupe first designed and driven in 1963, was an attempt to challenge Carroll Shelby's Shelby Cobra in American sports car competition of the 1960s era. Due to only two dozen or fewer chassis ever being built, with


title: Cheetah content: only a dozen of these being complete cars, the Cheetah was never homologated for competition beyond prototype status, with its production ending in 1966. A variety of literature mentions the cheetah. In 1969 author Joy Adamson, of "Born Free" fame, wrote "The Spotted Sphinx", a biography of her pet cheetah Pippa. "Hussein, An Entertainment", a novel by Patrick O'Brian set in the British Raj period in India, illustrates the practice of royalty keeping and training cheetahs to hunt antelopes. The book "How It Was with Dooms" tells the true story of a family raising an orphaned cheetah cub named Dooms


title: Cheetah content: in Kenya. The 2005 film "Duma" was loosely based on this book. The cheetah has often been featured in marketing and animation. In 1986 Frito-Lay introduced the Chester Cheetah, an anthropomorphic cheetah, as the mascot for their Cheetos. The first release of Apple Inc.'s Mac OS X, the Mac OS X 10.0, was code-named "Cheetah"; the subsequent versions released before 2013 were all named after cats. The animated series "ThunderCats" had a character named "Cheetara", an anthropomorphic cheetah, voiced by Lynne Lipton. Comic book superheroine Wonder Woman's chief adversary is Dr.Barbara Ann Minerva, alias The Cheetah. Cheetah The cheetah (;


title: Porpoise content: under the assumption that they would fare better than their dolphin counterparts due to their smaller size and shallow-water habitats. Up until the 1980s, they were consistently short-lived. Harbour porpoises have a very long captive history, with poorly documented attempts as early as the 15th century, and better documented starting in the 1860s and 1870s in London Zoo, the now-closed Brighton Aquarium & Dolphinarium, and a zoo in Germany. At least 150 harbour porpoises have been kept worldwide, but only about 20 were actively caught for captivity. The captive history is best documented from Denmark where about 100 harbour porpoises


title: Rennes content: this list, there is art facilities, such as "40mcube" exhibition space or the centre for contemporary art "La Criée". There is also miscellaneous cultural places: the dance dedicated place the "Triange", two "Art et Essai" - art house cinemas - cinemas called "l'Arvor" and "Cine TNB". Remark that the surrounding cities house many other cultural places. Rennes was one of the first towns in France to have its own local television channel 'TV Rennes', created in 1987. Rennes has also local radio stations (Hit West, Radio Campus, Canal B, Radio Caroline, Radio Rennes, Radio Laser) and local newspapers or magazines


title: "Fish and chips" content: Fish and chips Fish and chips is a hot dish of British origin consisting of fried battered fish and chips. It is a common take-away food and an early example of culinary fusion. Fish and chips first appeared in the 1860s; by 1910 there were more than 25,000 fish and chip shops across Britain, and by the 1930s there were over 35,000. Fish and chips are now a staple takeaway meal in numerous countries, particularly in English-speaking commonwealth countries including Australia, New Zealand and Canada. The tradition in England of fish battered and fried in oil may have come from


title: "Fish and chips" content: Jewish immigrants from Spain and Portugal. Originally, Western Sephardic Jews settling in England as early as the 16th century would have prepared fried fish in a manner similar to "pescado frito", which is coated in flour then fried in oil. Charles Dickens mentions "fried fish warehouses" in "Oliver Twist" (1838), and in 1845 Alexis Soyer in his first edition of "A Shilling cookery for the People", gives a recipe for "Fried fish, Jewish fashion", which is dipped in a batter of flour and water. The exact location of the first fish and chip shop is unclear. The earliest known shops


title: "Fish and chips" content: were opened in the 1860s, in London by Joseph Malin and in Mossley, near Oldham, Lancashire, by John Lees. However, fried fish, as well as chips, had existed independently for at least fifty years, so the possibility that they had been combined at an earlier time cannot be ruled out. Fish and chips became a stock meal among the working classes in England as a consequence of the rapid development of trawl fishing in the North Sea, and the development of railways which connected the ports to major industrial cities during the second half of the 19th century, so that


title: "Fish and chips" content: fresh fish could be rapidly transported to the heavily populated areas. Deep-fried chips (slices or pieces of potato) as a dish may have first appeared in England in about the same period: the "Oxford English Dictionary" notes as its earliest usage of "chips" in this sense the mention in Charles Dickens' "A Tale of Two Cities" (1859): "Husky chips of potatoes, fried with some reluctant drops of oil". The modern fish-and-chip shop ("chippy" or "chipper" in modern British slang) originated in the United Kingdom, although outlets selling fried food occurred commonly throughout Europe. Early fish-and-chip shops had only very basic


title: "Fish and chips" content: facilities. Usually these consisted principally of a large cauldron of cooking fat, heated by a coal fire. The fish-and-chip shop later evolved into a fairly standard format, with the food served, in paper wrappings, to queuing customers, over a counter in front of the fryers. By 1910, there were more than 25,000 fish and chip shops across the country, and in the 1920s there were more than 35,000 shops. As a boy Alfred Hitchcock lived above a fish and chip shop in London, which was the family business. According to Professor John Walton, author of "Fish and Chips and the


title: "Fish and chips" content: British Working Class", the British government made safeguarding supplies of fish and chips during World War I a priority: "The cabinet knew it was vital to keep families on the home front in good heart, unlike the German regime that failed to keep its people well fed". In 1928, Harry Ramsden opened his first fish and chip shop in Guiseley, West Yorkshire. On a single day in 1952, the shop served 10,000 portions of fish and chips, earning a place in the "Guinness Book of Records". In George Orwell's "The Road to Wigan Pier" (1937), which documents his experience of


title: "Fish and chips" content: working class life in the north of England, the author considered fish and chips chief among the 'home comforts' which acted as a panacea to the working classes. During World War II, fish and chips remained one of the few foods in the United Kingdom not subject to rationing. Prime Minister Winston Churchill referred to the combination of fish and chips as "the good companions". John Lennon enjoyed his fish and chips—a staple of the working class—smothered in ketchup. British fish and chips were originally served in a wrapping of old newspapers but this practice has now largely ceased, with


title: "Fish and chips" content: plain paper, cardboard, or plastic being used instead. In the United Kingdom, the Fish Labelling Regulations 2003 and in Ireland the European Communities (Labelling of Fishery and Aquaculture Products) Regulations 2003 respectively enact directive 2065/2001/EC, and generally mean that "fish" must be sold with the particular commercial name or species named; so, for example, "cod and chips" now appears on menus rather than the more vague "fish and chips". In the United Kingdom the Food Standards Agency guidance excludes caterers from this; but several local Trading Standards authorities and others do say it cannot be sold merely as "fish and


title: "Fish and chips" content: chips". A prominent meal in British culture, the dish became popular in wider circles in London and South East England in the middle of the 19th century: Charles Dickens mentions a "fried fish warehouse" in "Oliver Twist", first published in 1838, while in the north of England a trade in deep-fried chipped potatoes developed. The first chip shop stood on the present site of Oldham's Tommyfield Market. It remains unclear exactly when and where these two trades combined to become the fish-and-chip shop industry we know. A Jewish immigrant, Joseph Malin, opened the first recorded combined fish-and-chip shop in London


title: "Fish and chips" content: in 1860 or in 1865; a Mr Lees pioneered the concept in the North of England, in Mossley, in 1863. The concept of a fish restaurant, as opposed to take-away, was introduced by Samuel Isaacs (born 1856 in Whitechapel, London; died 1939 in Brighton, Sussex) who ran a thriving wholesale and retail fish business throughout London and the South of England in the latter part of the 19th century. Isaacs' first restaurant opened in London in 1896 serving fish and chips, bread and butter, and tea for nine pence, and its popularity ensured a rapid expansion of the chain. The


title: "Fish and chips" content: restaurants were carpeted, had table service, tablecloths, flowers, china and cutlery, and made the trappings of upmarket dining affordable to the working classes for the first time. They were located in Tottenham Court Road, St Pancras, The Strand, Hoxton, Shoreditch, Brixton and other London districts, as well as Clacton, Brighton, Ramsgate, Margate and other seaside resorts in southern England. Menus were expanded in the early 20th century to include meat dishes and other variations as their popularity grew to a total of thirty restaurants. Sam Isaacs' trademark was the phrase "This is the Plaice", combined with a picture of the


title: "Fish and chips" content: punned-upon fish in question. A glimpse of the old Brighton restaurant at No.1 Marine Parade can be seen in the background of Norman Wisdom's 1955 film "One Good Turn" just as Wisdom/Pitkin runs onto the seafront; this is now the site of a Harry Ramsden's fish and chips restaurant. A blue plaque at Oldham's Tommyfield Market marks the first chips fried in England in 1860, and the origin of the fish and chip shop and fast food industries. Dundee City Council claims that chips were first sold by a Belgian immigrant, Edward De Gernier, in the city's Greenmarket in the


title: "Fish and chips" content: 1870s. In Edinburgh, a combination of Gold Star brown sauce and water or malt vinegar, known as "sauce", or more specifically as "chippy sauce", has great popularity. The annual National Fish & Chips Awards were set up in the UK in 1988. The 30th Annual Fish & Chips Awards ceremony was attended by Norwegian ambassador to the UK Mona Juul. In Ireland, the first fish and chips were sold by an Italian immigrant, Giuseppe Cervi, who mistakenly stepped off an North American-bound ship at Queenstown (now Cobh) in County Cork in the 1880s and walked all the way to Dublin.


title: "Fish and chips" content: He started by selling fish and chips outside Dublin pubs from a handcart. He then found a permanent spot in Great Brunswick Street (now Pearse Street). His wife Palma would ask customers "Uno di questa, uno di quella?" This phrase (meaning "one of this, one of that") entered the vernacular in Dublin as "one and one", which is still a way of referring to fish and chips in the city. Fish and chips is the most popular takeaway food in New Zealand. Food historians have been unable to pinpoint exactly when the meal became an established part of New Zealand


title: "Fish and chips" content: cuisine but all recognise that the first fish and chips shops were introduced by British settlers before World War I. During the 20th century, nearly every small town and suburb in New Zealand had at least one fish-and-chip shop. As in Britain, Friday night has been the traditional night to eat fish. Traditionally, fish and chips were served in wrappings of newspaper. With the decline of the newspaper industry, this has become less common. In 1980, four up-and-coming Labour Party politicians, including David Lange, were nicknamed the "Fish and Chip Brigade" due to a picture published at the time with


title: "Fish and chips" content: the group eating fish and chips. In the United States, the dish is most commonly sold as "fish and chips", except in Upstate New York and Wisconsin and other parts of the Northeast and Upper Midwest, where this dish would be called a fish fry. Despite the name "fish and chips", and the US meaning of "chips", the dish is served with French fries (much thinner than British and Irish chips). In the Southern United States, a common form of cuisine is fried catfish with French fries, accompanied by coleslaw, pickles, raw onion slices and lemon slices. Traditional frying uses


title: "Fish and chips" content: beef dripping or lard; however, vegetable oils, such as peanut oil (used because of its relatively high smoke point) predominate. A minority of vendors in the North of England and Scotland, and the majority of vendors in Northern Ireland, still use dripping or lard, as it imparts a different flavour to the dish, but this makes the fried chips unsuitable for vegetarians and for adherents of certain faiths. Lard is used in some living industrial history museums, such as the Black Country Living Museum. British and Irish chips are usually thicker than American-style French fries sold by major multinational fast


title: "Fish and chips" content: food chains, resulting in a lower fat content per portion. In their homes or in some restaurants, people in or from the United States may eat a thick type of chip, more similar to the British and Irish variant, sometimes referred to as steak fries. In Britain and Ireland, fish and chip shops traditionally use a simple water and flour batter, adding a little sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) and a little vinegar to create lightness, as they react to create bubbles in the batter. Other recipes may use beer or milk batter, where these liquids are often substitutes for water.


title: "Fish and chips" content: The carbon dioxide in the beer lends a lighter texture to the batter. Beer also results in an orange-brown colour. A simple beer batter might consist of a 2:3 ratio of flour to beer by volume. The type of beer alters the taste of the batter; some prefer lager whereas others use stout or bitter. In Britain and Ireland, cod and haddock appear most commonly as the fish used for fish and chips, but vendors also sell many other kinds of fish, especially other white fish, such as pollock or coley, plaice, skate, and ray (particularly popular in Ireland); and


title: "Fish and chips" content: huss or rock salmon (a term covering several species of dogfish and similar fish). In Northern Ireland, cod, plaice or whiting appear most commonly in 'fish suppers'—'supper' being Scottish and Northern Irish chip-shop terminology for a food item accompanied by chips. Suppliers in Devon and Cornwall often offer pollock and coley as cheap alternatives to haddock. In Australia, reef cod and rock cod (a different variety from that used in the United Kingdom), barramundi or flathead (more expensive options), flake (a type of shark meat) or snapper (cheaper options), are commonly used. From the early 21st century, farmed basa imported


title: "Fish and chips" content: from Vietnam and hoki have become common in Australian fish and chip shops. Other types of fish are also used based on regional availability. In New Zealand, snapper or gurnard was originally the preferred species for battered fillets in the North Island. As catches of this fish declined, it was replaced by hoki, shark (particularly rig) – marketed as lemon fish – and tarakihi. Bluefin gurnard and blue cod predominate in South Island fish and chips. In the United States, the type of fish used depends on availability in a given region. Some common types are cod, halibut, flounder, tilapia


title: "Fish and chips" content: or, in New England, Atlantic cod or haddock. Salmon is growing common on the West Coast, while freshwater catfish is most frequently used in the Southeast. In India, the dish is usually based on pomfret fish, and uses chilli paste, and more pepper than would be used in Britain. In chip shops in most parts of Britain and Ireland, salt and vinegar are traditionally sprinkled over fish and chips at the time it is served. Suppliers use malt vinegar, onion vinegar (used for pickling onions), or the cheaper non-brewed condiment. In a few places, notably Edinburgh, 'sauce' (as in 'salt


title: "Fish and chips" content: and sauce') is more traditional than vinegar - with 'sauce' meaning a brown sauce. In England, a portion of mushy peas is a popular side dish, as are a range of pickles that typically include gherkins, onions and eggs. In table-service restaurants and pubs, the dish is usually served with a slice of lemon for squeezing over the fish and without any sauces or condiments, with salt, vinegar and sauces available at the customer's leisure. In Ireland, Wales and England, most takeaways serve warm side portions of sauces such as curry sauce, gravy or mushy peas. The sauces are usually


title: "Fish and chips" content: poured over the chips. In some areas, this dish without fish is referred to as 'wet chips'. In the Midlands especially, chips with mushy peas or baked beans is known as a "pea mix" or a "bean mix". Other fried products include 'scraps' (also known as 'bits' in Southern England and "scrumps" in South Wales), originally a by-product of fish frying. Still popular in Northern England, they were given as treats to the children of customers. Portions prepared and sold today consist of loose blobs of batter, deep fried to a crunchy golden crisp in the cooking-fat. The potato scallop


title: "Fish and chips" content: or potato cake consists of slices of potato dipped in fish batter and deep fried until golden brown. These are often accompanied for dipping by the warm sauces listed above. There are distinct regional variations in how accompaniments are added to the meal where it is as a take away - related partly to whether the food is entirely wrapped in paper. In some shops the customer is expected to add these; in others the expectation is that the server does so. An average serving of fish and chips consisting of 6 ounces (170 grams) of fried fish with 10


title: "Fish and chips" content: ounces (280 grams) of fried chips has approximately 1,000 calories and contains approximately 52 grams of fat. The use of tartar sauce as a condiment adds more calories and fat to the dish. In the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa, fish and chips are usually sold by independent restaurants and take-aways known as fish and chip shops. Outlets range from small affairs to chain restaurants. Locally owned seafood restaurants are also popular in many places, as are mobile "chip vans". In Canada, the outlets may be referred to as "chip wagons". In the United Kingdom


title: "Fish and chips" content: some shops have amusing names, such as "A Salt and Battery", "The Codfather", "The Frying Scotsman", "Oh My Cod" and "Frying Nemo" In New Zealand and Australia, fish-and-chip vendors are a popular business and source of income among the Asian community, particularly Chinese migrants. In Indonesia, fish and chips are commonly found in big cities like Jakarta in western and seafood restaurants, as well as chain restaurants like The Manhattan Fish Market, Fish & Chips etc. In Ireland, the majority of traditional vendors are migrants or the descendants of migrants from southern Italy. A trade organisation exists to represent this


title: "Fish and chips" content: tradition. Fish and chips is a popular lunch meal eaten by families travelling to seaside resorts for day trips who do not bring their own picnic meals. Fish-and-chip outlets sell roughly 25% of all the white fish consumed in the United Kingdom, and 10% of all potatoes. The numerous competitions and awards for "best fish-and-chip shop" testify to the recognised status of this type of outlet in popular culture. Fish-and-chip shops traditionally wrapped their product in newspaper, or with an inner layer of white paper (for hygiene) and an outer layer of newspaper or blank newsprint (for insulation and to


title: "Fish and chips" content: absorb grease), though the use of newspaper for wrapping has almost ceased on grounds of hygiene. , establishments usually use food-quality wrapping paper, occasionally printed on the outside to imitate newspaper. The British National Federation of Fish Friers was founded in 1913. It promotes fish and chips and offers training courses. A previous world record for the "largest serving of fish and chips" was held by Gadaleto's Seafood Market in New Paltz, New York. This 2004 record was broken by Yorkshire pub Wensleydale Heifer in July 2011. An attempt to break this record was made by Doncaster fish and chip


title: "Fish and chips" content: shop Scawsby Fisheries in August 2012, which served of battered cod alongside of chips. The long-standing Roman Catholic tradition of not eating meat on Fridays, especially during Lent, and of substituting fish for meat on that day continues to influence habits even in predominantly Protestant, Anglican, semi-secular and secular societies. Friday night remains a traditional occasion for eating fish-and-chips; and many cafeterias and similar establishments, while varying their menus on other days of the week, habitually offer fish and chips every Friday. In Australia and New Zealand, the words "fish and chips" are often used as a shibboleth to highlight


title: "Fish and chips" content: the difference in each country's short-i vowel sound . Australian English has a higher forward sound , close to the "ee" in "see" (but shorter), while New Zealand English has a lower backward sound akin to the "a" in "Rosa's" (but not in "Rosa", which is typically lower ). Thus, New Zealanders hear Australians say "feesh and cheeps," while Australians hear New Zealanders say "fush and chups." In the UK, waste oil from fish and chip shops has become a useful source of biodiesel. The German biodiesel company Petrotec has outlined plans to produce biodiesel in the UK from waste


title: "Fish and chips" content: oil from the British fish-and-chip industry. Fish and chips Fish and chips is a hot dish of British origin consisting of fried battered fish and chips. It is a common take-away food and an early example of culinary fusion. Fish and chips first appeared in the 1860s; by 1910 there were more than 25,000 fish and chip shops across Britain, and by the 1930s there were over 35,000. Fish and chips are now a staple takeaway meal in numerous countries, particularly in English-speaking commonwealth countries including Australia, New Zealand and Canada. The tradition in England of fish battered and fried


title: "Threshing machine" content: Threshing machine A threshing machine or thresher is a piece of farm equipment that threshes grain, that is, it removes the seeds from the stalks and husks. It does so by beating the plant to make the seeds fall out. Before such machines were developed, threshing was done by hand with flails: such hand threshing was very laborious and time-consuming, taking about one-quarter of agricultural labour by the 18th century. Mechanization of this process removed a substantial amount of drudgery from farm labour. The first threshing machine was invented circa 1786 by the Scottish engineer Andrew Meikle, and the subsequent


title: "Threshing machine" content: adoption of such machines was one of the earlier examples of the mechanization of agriculture. During the 19th century, threshers and mechanical reapers and reaper-binders gradually became widespread and made grain production much less laborious. Separate reaper-binders and threshers have largely been replaced by machines that combine all of their functions, that is combine harvesters or combines. However, the simpler machines remain important as appropriate technology in low-capital farming contexts, both in developing countries and in developed countries on small farms that strive for especially high levels of self-sufficiency. For example, pedal-powered threshers are a low-cost option, and some Amish


title: "Threshing machine" content: sects use horse-drawn binders and old-style threshers. As the verb "thresh" is cognate with the verb "thrash" (and synonymous in the grain-beating sense), the names thrashing machine and thrasher are (less common) alternate forms. The Swing Riots in the UK were partly a result of the threshing machine. Following years of war, high taxes and low wages, farm labourers finally revolted in 1830. These farm labourers had faced unemployment for a number of years due to the widespread introduction of the threshing machine and the policy of enclosing fields. No longer were thousands of men needed to tend the crops,


title: "Threshing machine" content: a few would suffice. With fewer jobs, lower wages and no prospects of things improving for these workers the threshing machine was the final straw, the machine was to place them on the brink of starvation. The Swing Rioters smashed threshing machines and threatened farmers who had them. The riots were dealt with very harshly. Nine of the rioters were hanged and a further 450 were transported to Australia. Early threshing machines were hand-fed and horse-powered. They were small by today's standards and were about the size of an upright piano. Later machines were steam-powered, driven by a portable engine


title: "Threshing machine" content: or traction engine. Isaiah Jennings, a skilled inventor, created a small thresher that doesn't harm the straw in the process. In 1834, John Avery and Hiram Abial Pitts devised significant improvements to a machine that automatically threshes and separates grain from chaff, freeing farmers from a slow and laborious process. Avery and Pitts were granted United States patent #542 on December 29, 1837. John Ridley, an Australian inventor, also developed a threshing machine in South Australia in 1843. The 1881 "Household Cyclopedia" said of Meikle's machine: Steam-powered machines used belts connected to a traction engine; often both engine and thresher


title: "Threshing machine" content: belonged to a contractor who toured the farms of a district. Steam remained a viable commercial option until the early post-WWII years. Threshing is just one step of the process in getting cereals to the grinding mill and customer. The wheat needs to be grown, cut, stooked (shocked, bundled), hauled, threshed, de-chaffed, straw baled, and then the grain hauled to a grain elevator. For many years each of these steps was an individual process, requiring teams of workers and many machines. In the steep hill wheat country of Palouse in the Northwest of the United States, steep ground meant moving


title: "Threshing machine" content: machinery around was problematic and prone to rolling. To reduce the amount of work on the sidehills, the idea arose of combining the wheat binder and thresher into one machine, known as a combine harvester. About 1910, horse pulled combines appeared and became a success. Later, gas and diesel engines appeared with other refinements and specifications. Modern day combine harvesters (or simply combines) operate on the same principles and use the same components as the original threshing machines built in the 19th century. Combines also perform the reaping operation at the same time. The name "combine" is derived from the


title: "Threshing machine" content: fact that the two steps are combined in a single machine. Also, most modern combines are self-powered (usually by a diesel engine) and self-propelled, although tractor powered, pull type combines models were offered by John Deere and Case International into the 1990s. Today, as in the 19th century, the threshing begins with a cylinder and concave. The cylinder has sharp serrated bars, and rotates at high speed (about 500 RPM), so that the bars beat against the grain. The concave is curved to match the curve of the cylinder, and serves to hold the grain as it is beaten. The


title: "Threshing machine" content: beating releases the grain from the straw and chaff. Whilst the majority of the grain falls through the concave, the straw is carried by a set of "walkers" to the rear of the machine, allowing any grain and chaff still in the straw to fall below. Below the straw walkers, a fan blows a stream of air across the grain, removing dust and fines and blowing them away. The grain, either coming through the concave or the walkers, meets a set of sieves mounted on an assembly called a shoe, which is shaken mechanically. The top sieve has larger openings,


title: "Threshing machine" content: and serves to remove large pieces of chaff from the grain. The lower sieve separates clean grain, which falls through, from incompletely threshed pieces. The incompletely threshed grain is returned to the cylinder by means of a system of conveyors, where the process repeats. Some threshing machines were equipped with a bagger, which invariably held two bags, one being filled, and the other being replaced with an empty. A worker called a "sewer" removed and replaced the bags, and sewed full bags shut with a needle and thread. Other threshing machines would discharge grain from a conveyor, for bagging by


title: "Threshing machine" content: hand. Combines are equipped with a grain tank, which accumulates grain for deposit in a truck or wagon. A large amount of chaff and straw would accumulate around a threshing machine, and several innovations, such as the air chaffer, were developed to deal with this. Combines generally chop and disperse straw as they move through the field, though the chopping is disabled when the straw is to be baled, and chaff collectors are sometimes used to prevent the dispersal of weed seed throughout a field. The corn sheller was almost identical in design, with slight modifications to deal with the


title: "Threshing machine" content: larger kernel size and presence of cobs. Modern-day combines can be adjusted to work with any grain crop, and many unusual seed crops. Both the older and modern machines require a good deal of effort to operate. The concave clearance, cylinder speed, fan velocity, sieve sizes, and feeding rate must be adjusted for crop conditions. From the early 20th century, petrol or diesel-powered threshing machines, designed especially to thresh rice, the most important crop in Asia, have been developed along different lines to the modern combine. Even after the combine was invented and became popular, a new compact-size thresher called


title: "Threshing machine" content: a "harvester", with wheels, still remains in use and at present it is available from a Japanese agricultural manufacturer. The compact-size machine is very convenient to handle in small terrace fields in mountain areas where a large machine, such as combine, is not usable. People there use this harvester with a modern compact binder. A number of older threshing machines have survived into preservation. They are often to be seen in operation at live steam festivals and traction engine rallies such as the Great Dorset Steam Fair in England, and the Western Minnesota Steam Threshers Reunion in northwest Minnesota. Irish


title: "Threshing machine" content: songwriter John Duggan immortalised the threshing machine in a song "The Old Thrashing Mill". The song has been recorded by Foster and Allen and Brendan Shine. On the Alan Lomax collection Songs of Seduction (Rounder Select, 2000), there's a bawdy Irish folk song called "The Thrashing Machine" sung by tinker Annie O'Neil, as recorded in the early 20th Century. In his film score for "Of Mice and Men" (1939) and consequently in his collection "Music for the Movies" (1942), American composer Aaron Copland titled a section of the score "Threshing Machines," to suit a scene in the Lewis Milestone film


title: "Threshing machine" content: where Curley is threatening Slim over giving May a puppy, when many of the itinerant worker men are standing around or working on threshers. In the song Thrasher from the album Rust Never Sleeps, Neil Young compares the modern threshing machine's technique of separating wheat from wheat stalks to the natural forces of time that separate close friends from one another. Threshing machines appear in Twenty One Pilots' music video for the song House of Gold. Threshing machine A threshing machine or thresher is a piece of farm equipment that threshes grain, that is, it removes the seeds from the


title: "Fox Broadcasting Company" content: aligning the network with stations that had more established histories and advertiser value than its charter affiliates. The deals spurred a series of affiliation realignments between all four U.S. television networks involving individual stations and various broadcasting groups – such as those between CBS and Group W (whose corporate parent later bought the network in August 1995), and ABC and the E. W. Scripps Company (which owned several Fox affiliates that switched to either ABC or NBC as a result of the New World deal) – affecting 30 television markets between September 1994 and September 1996. The two deals also


title: "Mother's Day" content: on that date. In Paraguay, Mother's Day is celebrated on 15 May, the same day as the "Dia de la Patria", which celebrates the independence of Paraguay. This date was chosen to honor the role played by Juana María de Lara in the events of 14 May 1811 that led to Paraguay's independence. In 2008, the Paraguayan Minister of Culture, Bruno Barrios, lamented this coincidence because, in Paraguay, Mother's Day is much more popular than independence day and the independence celebration goes unnoticed. As a result, Barrios asked that the celebration be moved to the end of the month. A


title: "Ukrainian language" content: argues that Ukrainian differs from Romance in the choice of auxiliary, which should be interpreted as 'to take' and not 'to have.' He states that Late Common Slavic (LCS) had three verbs with the same root *em- : The three verbs became conflated in East Slavic due to morphological overlap, in particular of iměti ‘to have’ and jati ‘to take’ as exemplified in the Middle Ukrainian homonymic imut’ from both iměti (< *jĭměti) and jati (< *jęti). Analogous grammaticalization of the type take (‘to take,’ ‘to seize’) > future is found in Chinese and Hungarian. Ukrainian language Ukrainian ( )


title: Asparagus content: Asparagus Asparagus, or garden asparagus, folk name sparrow grass, scientific name Asparagus officinalis, is a spring vegetable, a flowering perennial plant species in the genus "Asparagus". It was once classified in the lily family, like the related "Allium" species, onions and garlic, but the Liliaceae have been split and the onion-like plants are now in the family Amaryllidaceae and asparagus in the Asparagaceae. Sources differ as to the native range of "Asparagus officinalis", but generally include most of Europe and western temperate Asia. It is widely cultivated as a vegetable crop. Asparagus is a herbaceous, perennial plant growing to tall,


title: Asparagus content: with stout stems with much-branched, feathery foliage. The "leaves" are in fact needle-like cladodes (modified stems) in the axils of scale leaves; they are long and broad, and clustered four to 15 together, in a rose-like shape. The root system is adventitious and the root type is fasciculated. The flowers are bell-shaped, greenish-white to yellowish, long, with six tepals partially fused together at the base; they are produced singly or in clusters of two or three in the junctions of the branchlets. It is usually dioecious, with male and female flowers on separate plants, but sometimes hermaphrodite flowers are found.


title: Asparagus content: The fruit is a small red berry 6–10 mm diameter, which is poisonous to humans. Plants native to the western coasts of Europe (from northern Spain north to Ireland, Great Britain, and northwest Germany) are treated as "Asparagus officinalis" subsp. "prostratus" , distinguished by its low-growing, often prostrate stems growing to only high, and shorter cladodes long. It is treated as a distinct species, "Asparagus prostratus" , by some authors. Asparagus has been used as a vegetable and medicine, owing to its distinct flavour, diuretic properties, and more. It is pictured as an offering on an Egyptian frieze dating to


title: Asparagus content: 3000 BC. In ancient times, it was also known in Syria and in Spain. Greeks and Romans ate it fresh when in season, and dried the vegetable for use in winter; Roman Epicureans even froze it high in the Alps, for the Feast of Epicurus. Emperor Augustus created the "Asparagus Fleet" for hauling the vegetable, and coined the expression "faster than cooking asparagus" for quick action. A recipe for cooking asparagus is in the oldest surviving book of recipes, Apicius's third-century AD "De re coquinaria", Book III. The ancient Greek physician Galen (prominent among the Romans) mentioned asparagus as a


title: Asparagus content: beneficial herb during the second century AD, but after the Roman empire ended, asparagus drew little medieval attention. until 's "The Perfumed Garden". That piece of writing celebrates its (scientifically unconfirmed) aphrodisiacal power, a supposed virtue that the Indian "Ananga Ranga" attributes to "special phosphorus elements" that also counteract fatigue. By 1469, asparagus was cultivated in French monasteries. Asparagus appears to have been hardly noticed in England until 1538, and in Germany until 1542. The finest texture and the strongest and yet most delicate taste is in the tips. The "points d'amour" ("love tips") were served as a delicacy to


title: Asparagus content: Madame de Pompadour. Asparagus became available to the New World around 1850, in the United States. Only young asparagus shoots are commonly eaten: once the buds start to open ("ferning out"), the shoots quickly turn woody. Water makes up 93% of asparagus's composition. Asparagus is low in calories and is very low in sodium. It is a good source of vitamin B, calcium, magnesium, and zinc, and a very good source of dietary fibre, protein, beta-carotene, vitamin C, vitamin E, vitamin K, thiamin, riboflavin, rutin, niacin, folic acid, iron, phosphorus, potassium, copper, manganese, and selenium, as well as chromium, a


title: Asparagus content: trace mineral that enhances the ability of insulin to transport glucose from the bloodstream into cells. The amino acid asparagine gets its name from asparagus, as the asparagus plant is relatively rich in this compound. The shoots are prepared and served in a number of ways around the world, typically as an appetizer or vegetable side dish. In Asian-style cooking, asparagus is often stir-fried. Cantonese restaurants in the United States often serve asparagus stir-fried with chicken, shrimp, or beef. It may also be quickly grilled over charcoal or hardwood embers, and is also used as an ingredient in some stews


title: Asparagus content: and soups. In recent years, asparagus eaten raw, as a component of a salad, has regained popularity. Asparagus can also be pickled and stored for several years. Some brands label shoots prepared in this way as "marinated". Stem thickness indicates the age of the plant, with the thicker stems coming from older plants. Older, thicker stalks can be woody, although peeling the skin at the base removes the tough layer. Peeled asparagus will poach much faster. The bottom portion of asparagus often contains sand and soil, so thorough cleaning is generally advised before cooking. Green asparagus is eaten worldwide, though


title: Asparagus content: the availability of imports throughout the year has made it less of a delicacy than it once was. In Europe, however, the "asparagus season is a highlight of the foodie calendar"; in the UK this traditionally begins on 23 April and ends on Midsummer Day. As in continental Europe, due to the short growing season and demand for local produce, asparagus commands a premium price. Asparagus is very popular in the Netherlands, Spain, France, Poland, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Turkey, Italy, and Switzerland, and is almost exclusively white; if not, it is specified by the local language term for "green asparagus".


title: Asparagus content: White asparagus is the result of applying a blanching technique while the asparagus shoots are growing. To cultivate white asparagus, the shoots are covered with soil as they grow, i.e. earthed up; without exposure to sunlight, no photosynthesis starts, and the shoots remain white. Compared to green asparagus, the locally cultivated so-called "white gold" or "edible ivory" asparagus, also referred to as "the royal vegetable", is believed to be less bitter and much more tender. Freshness is very important, and the lower ends of white asparagus must be peeled before cooking or raw consumption. Only seasonally on the menu, asparagus


title: Asparagus content: dishes are advertised outside many restaurants, usually from late April to June. For the French style, asparagus is often boiled or steamed and served with Hollandaise sauce, melted butter or olive oil, Parmesan cheese, or mayonnaise. Tall, narrow asparagus cooking pots allow the shoots to be steamed gently, their tips staying out of the water. During the German "Spargelsaison" or "Spargelzeit" ("asparagus season" or "asparagus time"), the asparagus season that traditionally finishes on 24 June, roadside stands and open-air markets sell about half of the country's white asparagus consumption. Since asparagus often originates in maritime habitats, it thrives in soils


title: Asparagus content: that are too saline for normal weeds to grow. Thus, a little salt was traditionally used to suppress weeds in beds intended for asparagus; this has the disadvantage that the soil cannot be used for anything else. Some places are better for growing asparagus than others. The fertility of the soil is a large factor. "Crowns" are planted in winter, and the first shoots appear in spring; the first pickings or "thinnings" are known as sprue asparagus. Sprue has thin stems. A breed of "early season asparagus" that can be harvested two months earlier than usual was announced by a


title: Asparagus content: UK grower in early 2011. This variety does not need to lie dormant and blooms at rather than the usual . Purple asparagus differs from its green and white counterparts in having high sugar and low fibre levels. Purple asparagus was originally developed in Italy, near the city of Albenga and commercialized under the variety name 'Violetto d' Albenga'. Since then, breeding work has continued in the United States and New Zealand, creating the 'Pacific Purple' variety. Asparagus is said to be a useful companion plant for tomatoes, as the tomato plant repels the asparagus beetle. Asparagus may repel some


title: Asparagus content: harmful root nematodes that affect tomato plants. The top asparagus importers (2013) were the United States (182,805 tonnes), followed by the European Union (external trade) (94,475 tonnes), and Canada (20,219 tonnes). China is by far the world's largest producer: in 2013 it produced 7,000,000 tonnes, followed by Peru with 383,144 tonnes and Mexico with 126,421 tonnes. U.S. production was concentrated in California, Michigan, and Washington. The annual production for white asparagus in Germany is 57,000 tonnes (61% of consumer demand). When growing under tunnels, growers can increase the growth season. In Britain, it is estimated that the harvest season of


title: Asparagus content: asparagus grown under tunnels can be from February to November. The green crop is significant enough in California's Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta region that the city of Stockton holds a festival every year to celebrate it; as do the neighboring villages of Shelby, Oceana County, Michigan, and Hart, Michigan, complete with a parade and asparagus queen. The two villages alternate each year as the host of the festival. The Vale of Evesham in Worcestershire is the largest producer within Northern Europe, celebrating with the annual British Asparagus Festival involving auctions of the best crop, an "Asparagus Run" modelled on the


title: Asparagus content: Beaujolais Run and a weekend "Asparafest" music festival. Many German cities hold an annual "Spargelfest" (asparagus festival) celebrating the harvest of white asparagus. Schwetzingen claims to be the "Asparagus Capital of the World", and during its festival, an Asparagus Queen is crowned. The Bavarian city of Nuremberg feasts a week long in April, with a competition to find the fastest asparagus peeler in the region. This usually involves generous amounts of the local wines and beers being consumed to aid the spectators' appreciative support. Helmut Zipner holds the world record in asparagus peeling. "A. officinalis" is widely known simply as


title: Asparagus content: "asparagus", and may be confused with unrelated plant species also known as "asparagus", such as "Ornithogalum pyrenaicum" known as "Prussian asparagus" for its edible shoots. The English word "asparagus" derives from classical Latin, but the plant was once known in English as "sperage", from the Medieval Latin "sparagus". This term itself derives from the Greek "aspharagos" or "asparagos", and the Greek term originates from the Persian "asparag", meaning "sprout" or "shoot". Asparagus was also corrupted in some places to "sparrow grass"; indeed, John Walker wrote in 1791 that ""Sparrowgrass" is so general that "asparagus" has an air of stiffness and


title: Asparagus content: pedantry". The name 'sparrow grass' was still in common use in rural East Anglia, England well into the twentieth century. In Turkish, asparagus is known as "kuşkonmaz", literally "[a] bird won't land [on it]", in reference to the shape of the plant. The effect of eating asparagus on urine excreted afterwards has long been observed: [Asparagus] cause a powerful and disagreeable smell in the urine, as everybody knows. asparagus... affects the urine with a foetid smell (especially if cut when they are white) and therefore have been suspected by some physicians as not friendly to the kidneys; when they are


title: Asparagus content: older, and begin to ramify, they lose this quality; but then they are not so agreeable. A few Stems of Asparagus eaten, shall give our Urine a disagreable Odour... Asparagus "...transforms my chamber-pot into a flask of perfume." Asparagus contains asparagusic acid. When the vegetable is digested, this chemical is broken down into a group of related sulfur-containing compounds. Debate exists about the universality of producing the sulfurous smell, as well as the ability to detect it. Originally, this was thought to be because some people digested asparagus differently from others, so some excreted odorous urine after eating asparagus, and


title: Asparagus content: others did not. In the 1980s, three studies from France, China, and Israel published results showing that producing odorous urine from asparagus was a common human characteristic. The Israeli study found that from their 307 subjects, all of those who could smell "asparagus urine" could detect it in the urine of anyone who had eaten asparagus, even if the person who produced it could not detect it. A 2010 study found variations in both production of odorous urine and the ability to detect the odor, but that these were not tightly related. Most people are thought to produce the odorous


title: Asparagus content: compounds after eating asparagus, but the differing abilities of various individuals to detect the odor at increasing dilutions suggests a genetically determined specific sensitivity. In 2010, the company 23andMe published a genome-wide association study on whether participants have "ever noticed a peculiar odor when you pee after eating asparagus?" This study pinpointed a single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in a cluster of olfactory genes associated with the ability to detect the odor. While this SNP did not explain all of the difference in detection between people, it provides support for the theory that genetic differences occur in olfactory receptors that lead people


title: Asparagus content: to be unable to smell these odorous compounds. Certain compounds in asparagus are metabolized to yield ammonia and various sulfur-containing degradation products, including various thiols and thioesters, which give urine a characteristic smell. Some of the volatile organic compounds responsible for the smell are: Subjectively, the first two are the most pungent, while the last two (sulfur-oxidized) give a sweet aroma. A mixture of these compounds form a "reconstituted asparagus urine" odor. This was first investigated in 1891 by Marceli Nencki, who attributed the smell to methanethiol. These compounds originate in the asparagus as asparagusic acid and its derivatives, as


title: Asparagus content: these are the only sulfur-containing compounds unique to asparagus. As these are more present in young asparagus, this accords with the observation that the smell is more pronounced after eating young asparagus. The biological mechanism for the production of these compounds is less clear. The onset of the asparagus urine smell is remarkably rapid while the decline is slower. The smell has been reported to be detectable 15 to 30 minutes after ingestion and subsides with a half-life of approximately 4 hours. Asparagus Asparagus, or garden asparagus, folk name sparrow grass, scientific name Asparagus officinalis, is a spring vegetable, a


title: "Perkin Warbeck" content: were initially condemned to death, although six, including Thwaites, were then pardoned and their sentences commuted to imprisonment and fines. Within days Sir Simon Montfort, Robert Ratcliff and William D'Aubeney were beheaded at Tower Hill and Cressener and Astwode pardoned at the block. Later the same month Sir William Stanley was also beheaded. Other members of the group were imprisoned and fined. Sir Robert Clifford was pardoned and rewarded for revealing the names of the conspirators. On 3 July 1495, funded by Margaret of Burgundy, Warbeck landed at Deal in Kent, hoping for a show of popular support. They were


title: Monmouth content: have been named after the town, including a Type 23 frigate launched in 1991 which is still in operation. Monmouth remained a relatively sedate and quiet small town for most of the 20th century; its passenger rail services ended in 1959, but its road connections greatly improved with the new A40 bypassing the town in 1966, and later connecting the town to the motorway system. These improved communications contributed to the development of the town, with suburbs extending beyond the rivers Wye and Monnow to the south-east, west and north of the old town centre. Monmouth is in an area


title: "Coaxial cable" content: detuning of the line. Coaxial lines largely solve this problem by confining virtually all of the electromagnetic wave to the area inside the cable. Coaxial lines can therefore be bent and moderately twisted without negative effects, and they can be strapped to conductive supports without inducing unwanted currents in them. In radio-frequency applications up to a few gigahertz, the wave propagates primarily in the transverse electric magnetic (TEM) mode, which means that the electric and magnetic fields are both perpendicular to the direction of propagation. However, above a certain cutoff frequency, transverse electric (TE) or transverse magnetic (TM) modes can


title: "Richard Cromwell" content: Parliament would make military cuts to reduce costs, and by April 1659 the army's general council of officers had met to demand higher taxation to fund the regime's costs. Their grievances were expressed in a petition to Cromwell on 6 April 1659 which he forwarded to the Parliament two days later. Yet Parliament did not act on the army's suggestions; instead they shelved this petition and increased the suspicion of the military by bringing articles of impeachment against William Boteler on 12 April 1659, who was alleged to have mistreated a royalist prisoner while acting as a major-general under Oliver


title: Monastery content: and there are Lutheran religious communities in Sweden and Germany. In the 1960s, experimental monastic groups were formed in which both men and women were members of the same house and also were permitted to be married and have children—these were operated on a communal form. There is a growing Christian neo-monasticism, particularly among evangelical Christians. From the times of the Vedas people following monastic ways of life have existed in the Indian sub-continent. In what is now called Hinduism, monks have existed for a long time, and with them, their respective monasteries, called mathas. Important among them are the


title: Cathedral content: Cathedral A cathedral is a Christian church which contains the "cathedra" () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. The equivalent word in German for such a church is "Dom" (from the Latin term "domus ecclesiae" or "domus episcopalis"); see also "Duomo" in Italian, "Dom(kerk)" in Dutch, and cognates in many other European languages. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denominations with an episcopal hierarchy, such as the Catholic, Anglican, Orthodox, and some Lutheran and Methodist churches. Church buildings embodying the functions of a cathedral first


title: Cathedral content: appeared in Italy, Gaul, Spain and North Africa in the 4th century, but cathedrals did not become universal within the Western Catholic Church until the 12th century, by which time they had developed architectural forms, institutional structures and legal identities distinct from parish churches, monastic churches and episcopal residences. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, the English word "cathedral" commonly translates as "katholikon" ("sobor" in Slavic languages), meaning "assembly", but this title is also applied to monastic and other major churches without episcopal responsibilities. When the church at which an archbishop or "metropolitan" presides is specifically intended, the term "kathedrikós naós"


title: Cathedral content: (literally: "cathedral temple") is used. Following the Protestant Reformation, the Christian church in several parts of Western Europe, such as Scotland, the Netherlands, certain Swiss Cantons and parts of Germany, adopted a Presbyterian polity that did away with bishops altogether. Where ancient cathedral buildings in these lands are still in use for congregational worship, they generally retain the title and dignity of "cathedral", maintaining and developing distinct cathedral functions, but void of hierarchical supremacy. From the 16th century onwards, but especially since the 19th century, churches originating in Western Europe have undertaken vigorous programmes of missionary activity, leading to the


title: Cathedral content: founding of large numbers of new dioceses with associated cathedral establishments of varying forms in Asia, Africa, Australasia, Oceania and the Americas. In addition, both the Catholic Church and Orthodox churches have formed new dioceses within formerly Protestant lands for converts and migrant co-religionists. Consequently, it is not uncommon to find Christians in a single city being served by three or more cathedrals of differing denominations. In the Catholic tradition, the term "cathedral" correctly applies only to a church that houses the seat of the bishop of a diocese. The abbey church of a territorial abbacy serves the same function


title: Cathedral content: (that is, houses the seat of the abbot), but does not acquire the title. In any other jurisdiction canonically equivalent to a diocese but not canonically erected as such (prelature, vicariate, ordinariate, prefecture, apostolic administration), the church which serves this function is correctly called the "principal church" of the respective entity—though some have coopted the term "cathedral" anyway. The Catholic Church also uses the following terms. The cathedral church of a metropolitan bishop is called a "metropolitan cathedral". The term "cathedral" actually carries no implication as to the size or ornateness of the building. Nevertheless, most cathedrals are particularly impressive