title: "Royal Crescent" content: entablature in a Palladian style above. It was the first crescent of terraced houses to be built and an example of ""rus in urbe"" (the country in the city) with its views over the parkland opposite. Many notable people have either lived or stayed in the Royal Crescent since it was built over 240 years ago, and some are commemorated on special plaques attached to the relevant buildings. Of the crescent's 30 townhouses, 10 are still full-size townhouses; 18 have been split into flats of various sizes; one is the No. 1 Royal Crescent museum and the large central house


title: "Royal Crescent" content: at number 16 is the Royal Crescent Hotel. The street that is known today as "The Royal Crescent" was originally named "The Crescent." It is claimed that the adjective "Royal" was added at the end of the 18th century after Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany had stayed there. He initially rented number one and later bought number 16. The Royal Crescent is close to Victoria Park and linked via Brock Street to The Circus which had been designed by John Wood, the Elder. The land on which the Royal Crescent stands was bought from Sir Benet Garrard of


title: "Royal Crescent" content: the Garrard baronets, who were the landlords, in December 1766. Between 1767 and 1775 John Wood designed the great curved façade with Ionic columns on a rusticated ground floor. Each original purchaser bought a length of the façade, and then employed their own architect to build a house behind the façade to their own specifications; hence what can appear to be two houses is occasionally just one. This system of town planning is betrayed at the rear and can be seen from the road behind the Crescent: while the front is uniform and symmetrical, the rear is a mixture of


title: "Royal Crescent" content: differing roof heights, juxtapositions and fenestration. This architecture, described as ""Queen Anne fronts and Mary-Anne backs"", occurs repeatedly in Bath. It was the first crescent of terraced houses to be built and an example of ""rus in urbe"" (the country in the city) with its views over the parkland opposite. In front of the Royal Crescent is a ha-ha, a ditch on which the inner side is vertical and faced with stone, with the outer face sloped and turfed, making an effective but invisible partition between the lower and upper lawns. The ha-ha is designed so as not to interrupt


title: "Royal Crescent" content: the view from Royal Victoria Park, and to be invisible until seen from close by. It is not known whether it was contemporary with the building of the Royal Crescent, however it is known that when it was first created it was deeper than it is at present. The railings between the crescent and the lawn were included in the Heritage at Risk Register produced by English Heritage but have been restored and removed from the register. In 2003, the archaeological television programme "Time Team" dug the Royal Crescent in search of a Roman cemetery and the Fosse Way. The


title: "Royal Crescent" content: remains of a Roman wall were found behind the crescent and evidence of possible Iron and Bronze Age settlement on the lawn in front. In the late 19th century five cast iron lamp columns with decorative scrollwork were added. In 1921, architect Robert Tor Russell used the Crescent as a source of inspiration to design the central business district of Connaught Place, New Delhi, India. During the Bath Blitz of World War II, known as the Baedecker Raids or Baedeker Blitz, some bomb damage occurred, the most serious being the gutting of numbers 2 and 17 by incendiaries. After World


title: "Royal Crescent" content: War II, during a period of redevelopment which is described as the "Sack of Bath", the City Council considered plans that would have seen the Crescent transformed into Council offices. These were unsuccessful. During the 20th century many of the houses which had formerly been the residences of single families with maids or other staff were divided into flats and offices. However, the tradition of distinguished gentlefolk retiring to the crescent continued. The whole crescent was designated as a Grade I listed building in 1950. Number 16 became a guest house in 1950. In 1971 it was combined with number


title: "Royal Crescent" content: 15 to become the "Royal Crescent Hotel" occupying the central properties of the Crescent, which were renovated and additional rooms in pavilions and coach houses within the gardens included in the accommodation. It was sold in 1978 to John Tham, the chairman of the London Sloane Club, and restored. It was later purchased by Von Essen Hotels, which became insolvent in 2011. In September 2011 it was expected that London & Regional Properties would purchase the hotel, but negotiations ended in January 2012 without a deal. On 2 April 2012, investment company the Topland Group announced that it had purchased


title: "Royal Crescent" content: the Royal Crescent Hotel. In the 1970s the resident of No 22, Miss Amabel Wellesley-Colley, painted her front door yellow instead of the traditional white. Bath City Council issued a notice insisting it should be repainted. A court case ensued which resulted in the Secretary of State for the Environment declaring that the door could remain yellow. Other proposals for alteration and development including floodlighting and a swimming pool have been defeated. The first resident of Number 1 was Thomas Brock who acted as trustee for John Wood his son-in-law, although he was rarely lived there as he was the


title: "Royal Crescent" content: town clerk of Chester. His tenant was Henry Sandford, a retired Irish MP who rented the house from 1776 until his death in Bath in 1796. He was described as a 'gentleman of the most benevolent disposition'. William Wilberforce stayed at Number 2 in 1798. Christopher Anstey, a well-known writer of the time, was resident in number 4 from 1770 until 1805, although the plaque to him is placed on number 5. Jean Baptiste, Vicomte du Barre took over number 8 in 1778 and hosted parties and gambling. He died in a duel on Claverton Down and is buried in


title: "Royal Crescent" content: the churchyard at the Church of St Nicholas in Bathampton. From 1768 to 1774 number 9 was home to Philip Thicknesse, a soldier of fortune. Number 11 was home to the family of Thomas Linley, a singing-master and conductor of the concerts from 1771. His second daughter Elizabeth Ann Linley, a singer in her own right, eloped with the playwright and poet Richard Brinsley Sheridan. The centre house of the crescent (#16) was used as a residence and to host blue stocking events by Elizabeth Montagu. In the nineteenth century the popularity of the Crescent and 'taking the waters' at


title: "Royal Crescent" content: the Roman Baths diminished somewhat. Amongst the residents of Royal Crescent during this time were the electoral reformer Francis Burdett who lived at number 16 from 1814 to 1822 and his daughter Angela Burdett-Coutts, 1st Baroness Burdett-Coutts. The retired Admiral William Hargood lived at number 9 from 1834 until 1839 and in 1866 the same house was home to Edward Bulwer-Lytton. The jurist and explorer Thomas Falconer briefly lived at number 18 before his death in 1882. A few years later the house next door at number 17 became home to Isaac Pitman who developed the most widely used system


title: "Royal Crescent" content: of shorthand, now known as Pitman shorthand. English professor George Saintsbury took up residence at number 1A in 1916. The houses and flats in the Crescent are a mixture of tenures. After World War II when there was a shortage of housing and the city council bought up older properties, including some in Royal Crescent, as public housing to rent out. The Housing Act 1985 changed the succession of Council Houses and facilitated the transfer of council housing to not-for-profit housing associations. Several were subsequently sold into private ownership, however one remains in council ownership. No. 1 Royal Crescent is


title: "Royal Crescent" content: a historic house museum, owned and maintained by the Bath Preservation Trust through its membership to illustrate how wealthy owners of the late 18th century might have furnished and occupied such a house. It was purchased in 1967 by Major Bernard Cayzer, a member of the family that made its fortune through the Clan shipping line. He donated it to the Trust with an amount of money for its restoration and furnishing. The restoration was led by Philip Jebb. The Bath Preservation Trust was working during 2012–13 to re-unite Number One with its original servants' wing at Number 1A Royal


title: "Royal Crescent" content: Crescent, which has been in use as a separate dwelling for many years. No. 1 serves as the Trust's headquarters. Number 15 and 16 are still used as a hotel. Bath and North East Somerset council made an order banning coaches and buses from the crescent, after many years of complaints by residents that the tours given to tourists were disruptive, particularly because of the amplified commentary given by tour guides on open top buses. The crescent is long and each building is almost high, including small rooms with dormer windows in the attic. The ground floor is plain emphasising


title: "Royal Crescent" content: the columns and windows of the first floor. The 114 columns are in diameter reaching , each with an entablature deep in a Palladian style. The central house (now the Royal Crescent Hotel) boasts two sets of coupled columns with a single window between them which is the middle of the crescent. They are built of Bath stone. They have slate roofs but were originally stone tiled. The appearance of each house is very similar with only minor variations between them for example some have small balconettes on the first floor. Many of the windows have been restored to their


title: "Royal Crescent" content: original style with glazing bars rather than the horned plate glass sash windows which had been installed in the 19th or early 20th centuries. Some of the window sills had also been lowered. This has been reversed at Number 1 but policy has since changed with a decision to keep the alterations which were made in the 19th century. In front of the houses are cast iron railings which are mirrored by those on the opposite side of the road at the top of Victoria Park. The road is surfaced with pennant stone laid when the crescent was constructed. In


title: "Royal Crescent" content: 1965 the black comedy "The Wrong Box" (1966) used the Royal Crescent extensively as a location, standing in for London. The 1965 film "Catch Us If You Can" also had a sequence filmed outside the crescent and in one of its houses. In 2007, a TV edition of Jane Austen's "Persuasion", included many scenes shot at the Royal Crescent, where the Elliot family was supposedly living while in Bath. The Royal Crescent featured in the 2008 film "The Duchess" starring Keira Knightley. The fictional heroine of BBC1 archaeology thriller "Bonekickers" was depicted as living in the Crescent. Royal Crescent The


title: "London, Brighton and South Coast Railway" content: line between Tunbridge Wells and Eastbourne was shelved until the financial situation improved. For the next decade, projects were limited to additional spurs or junctions in London and Brighton to enhance the operation of the network, or small-scale ventures in conjunction with other railway companies. The latter included a short line from Streatham through Tooting to Wimbledon in 1868, and a connection from Portsmouth Town to Portsmouth Harbour in 1876, both jointly with the L&SWR. The proposed 'working co-operation' with the SER never took effect but remained under active consideration by both parties, and later involved the LC&DR. It was


title: "Intracranial pressure" content: changes in intrathoracic pressure during coughing (intra-abdominal pressure), valsalva maneuver, and communication with the vasculature (venous and arterial systems). Intracranial hypertension, commonly abbreviated IH, IICP or raised ICP, is elevation of the pressure in the cranium. ICP is normally 7–15 mm Hg; at 20–25 mm Hg, the upper limit of normal, treatment to reduce ICP may be needed. The pressure–volume relationship between ICP, volume of CSF, blood, and brain tissue, and cerebral perfusion pressure (CPP) is known as the Monro–Kellie doctrine or hypothesis. The Monro–Kellie hypothesis states that the cranial compartment is incompressible and that the volume inside the cranium


title: "Touched by an Angel" content: series moved from its Sunday time slot to a Saturday one, it dropped to 79th place, with 8.3 million viewers. A book on the series, "Touched by an Angel", was published by Zondervan in November 1997. Written by Williams and Robin Sheets, it contains background information on some of the stories featured, series production information, basic details on the first fifty episodes and profiles of Downey, Reese and Dye. It also has short story versions of four episodes: "Interview with an Angel", "There, but for the Grace of God", "An Unexpected Snow" and "Jacob's Ladder". A second book, "In the


title: "Baron Basing" content: second son of the first Baron. the title is held by the fourth Baron's grandson, the sixth Baron, who succeeded his father in 2007. The family surname of Sclater-Booth is pronounced "Slater-Booth". The heir apparent is the present holder's son the Hon. Luke Waters Sclater-Booth (b. 2000) Baron Basing Baron Basing, of Basing Byflete and of Hoddington, both in the County of Southampton, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1887 for the Conservative politician and former President of the Local Government Board, George Sclater-Booth. On his death the title passed to his


title: Ostracod content: arthropods in the fossil record" with fossils being found from the early Ordovician to the present. An outline microfaunal zonal scheme based on both Foraminifera and Ostracoda was compiled by M. B. Hart. Freshwater ostracods have even been found in Baltic amber of Eocene age, having presumably been washed onto trees during floods. Ostracods have been particularly useful for the biozonation of marine strata on a local or regional scale, and they are invaluable indicators of paleoenvironments because of their widespread occurrence, small size, easily preservable, generally moulted, calcified bivalve carapaces; the valves are a commonly found microfossil. A find


title: "Bromus tectorum" content: tectorum" can germinate under even after herbicide application. But if it rains shortly after herbicide application, some of the herbicide that is trapped in the litter can be released and work into the soil. The rain may also allow native species to over come herbicide impacts. Increased precipitation in early spring may increase the success of seeding by increasing the germination rate of native grasses and remove "B. tectorum"’s competitive advantage. There is a positive correlation between native vegetation communities and biological soil crust (BSC). BSC is composed of cyanobacteria, algae, lichens, and mosses living on the soil. In arid


title: "Alliaria petiolata" content: Alliaria petiolata Alliaria petiolata is a biennial flowering plant in the mustard family, Brassicaceae. It is native to Europe, western and central Asia, and northwestern Africa, from Morocco, Iberia and the British Isles, north to northern Scandinavia, and east to northern Pakistan and western China (Xinjiang). In the first year of growth, plants form clumps of round shaped, slightly wrinkled leaves, that when crushed smell like garlic. The next year plants flower in spring, producing cross shaped white flowers in dense clusters. As the flowering stems bloom they elongate into a spike-like shape. When blooming is complete, plants produce upright


title: "Alliaria petiolata" content: fruits that release seeds in mid-summer. Plants are often found growing along the margins of hedges, giving rise to the old British folk name of Jack-by-the-hedge. Other common names include Garlic Mustard, garlic root, hedge garlic, sauce-alone, Jack-in-the-bush, penny hedge and poor man's mustard. The genus name "Alliaria", "resembling "Allium"", refers to the garlic-like odor of the crushed foliage. All parts of the plant, including the roots, give off a strong odor. It is an herbaceous biennial plant growing from a deeply growing, thin, white taproot that is scented like horseradish. In the first year, plants appear as a rosette


title: "Alliaria petiolata" content: of green leaves close to the ground; these rosettes remain green through the winter and develop into mature flowering plants the following spring. Second year plants grow from tall and rarely to . The leaves are stalked, triangular to heart-shaped, long (of which about half being the petiole) and broad, with a coarsely toothed margin. The flowers are produced in spring and summer in button-like clusters. Each small flower has four white petals long and broad, arranged in a cross shape. The fruit is an erect, slender, four-sided pod long, called a silique, green maturing pale grey-brown, containing two rows


title: "Alliaria petiolata" content: of small shiny black seeds which are released when the pod splits open. A single plant can produce hundreds of seeds, which scatter as much as several meters from the parent plant. Depending upon conditions, garlic mustard flowers either self-fertilize or are cross-pollinated by a variety of insects. Self-fertilized seeds are genetically identical to the parent plant, enhancing its ability to colonize an area where that genotype is suited to thrive. 69 insect herbivores and seven fungi are associated with garlic mustard in Europe. The most important groups of natural enemies associated with garlic mustard were weevils (particularly the genus


title: "Alliaria petiolata" content: Ceutorhynchus), leaf beetles, butterflies, and moths, including the larvae of some moth species such as the Garden Carpet moth. The small white flowers have a rather unpleasant aroma which attracts midges and hoverflies, although the flowers usually pollinate themselves. In June the pale green caterpillar of the orange tip butterfly ("Anthocharis cardamines") can be found feeding on the long green seed-pods from which it can hardly be distinguished. Garlic mustard is one of the oldest spices used in Europe. Phytoliths in pottery of the Ertebølle and Funnelneck-Beaker culture in Northeastern Germany and Denmark, dating to 4100–3750 B.C.E. prove its use.


title: "Alliaria petiolata" content: In 17th century Britain, it was recommended as a flavoring for salt fish. It can also be made into a sauce for eating with roast lamb or salad. Early European settlers brought the herb to the New World to use as a garlic type flavoring, and as a good source of vitamins A and C. Its traditional medicinal purposes include use as a diuretic. The herb was also planted as a form of erosion control. Today, the chopped leaves are used for flavoring in salads and sauces such as pesto, and sometimes the flowers and fruit are included as well.


title: "Alliaria petiolata" content: These are best when young, taste of both garlic and mustard. The seeds are sometimes used to season food in France. Garlic mustard was once used medicinally as a disinfectant or diuretic, and was sometimes used to treat wounds. Garlic mustard was introduced to North America by European settlers in the 1800s for culinary and medicinal purposes, and has since spread all over North America, apart from the far south of the US and some prairie states and Canadian provinces. It is toxic or unpalatable to many native herbivores, as well as to some native lepidoptera. The plant is classified


title: "Alliaria petiolata" content: as an invasive species in North America. Since being brought to the United States by settlers, it has naturalized and expanded its range to include most of the Northeast and Midwest, as well as southeastern Canada. It is one of the few invasive herbaceous species able to dominate the understory of North American forests and has thus reduced the biodiversity of many areas. Of the many natural enemies it has in its native range, several have been tested for use as biological control agents. Five weevil species from the genus "Ceutorhynchus" and one flea beetle were selected as candidates for


title: "Alliaria petiolata" content: preliminary testing in the 1990s. Since that time, those studying the candidates have narrowed the list to two-three weevils. Despite the demonstrated effectiveness of "C. scrobicollis" and "C. constrictus" in field testing, the importation and release of biological control agents such as those has been repeatedly blocked by the USDA's TAG (Technical Advisory Group). In particular, "C. scrobicollis", which is monophagous and has been specifically studied since 2002, continues to be blocked, despite researchers' many petitions for approval. It is currently estimated that adequate control of garlic mustard can be achieved by the introduction of just two weevils, with "C.


title: "Alliaria petiolata" content: scrobicollis" being the most important of the two. Not one of the roughly 76 species that control this plant in its native range has been approved for introduction as of 2018 and federal agencies continue to spend millions on other, less-effective and more problematic, forms of control, such as chemical herbicides. In North America, the plant offers no known wildlife benefits and is toxic to larvae of certain rarer butterfly species (e.g. "Pieris oleracea" and "Pieris virginiensis") that lay eggs on the plants, as it is related to native mustards but creates chemicals that they are not adapted to. Native


title: "Alliaria petiolata" content: species, including two stem-mining weevils, a stem-mining fly, a leaf-mining fly, a scale insect, two fungi, and aphids (taxonomic identification for all species is pending) were found attacking garlic mustard in North America. However, their attacks were of little consequence to plant performance or reproduction of garlic mustard. Biological control is the most promising control method. There are no effective native predators in North America. Adequate control is considered likely with the introduction of just two weevils, one of which only feeds upon garlic mustard (monophagous) Chemical control is possible but unlikely to eradicate the plant given the likelihood of


title: "Alliaria petiolata" content: continual reintroduction from areas where it survives. Of the 76 natural enemies garlic mustard has in its native range, several have been tested for use as potential biological control agents, but none had been approved for use by May 2017. The monophagous weevil "C. scrobicollis" was nominated for approval in 2012 but blocked by the USDA Technical Advisory Group, TAG. It had seemed likely that TAG would approve its introduction in 2004 but it was also blocked then. It was also petitioned to TAG for approval in 2008, 2011, 2014, and 2016. Federal agencies continue to spend millions on less-effective


title: "Alliaria petiolata" content: forms of control, while the introduction of biological control agents of any kind continues to be blocked. Lead researchers have said funding is unavailable for continued research demanded by the TAG group. Alliaria petiolata Alliaria petiolata is a biennial flowering plant in the mustard family, Brassicaceae. It is native to Europe, western and central Asia, and northwestern Africa, from Morocco, Iberia and the British Isles, north to northern Scandinavia, and east to northern Pakistan and western China (Xinjiang). In the first year of growth, plants form clumps of round shaped, slightly wrinkled leaves, that when crushed smell like garlic. The


title: "Repressed memory" content: memory is kept by a system that records emotional experience, but there is no symbolic placement of it in time or space. Traumatic memories are retrieved, at least at first, in the form of dissociated mental imprints of the affective and sensory elements of the traumatic experience. Clients have reported the slow emergence of a personal narrative that can be considered explicit (conscious) memory. Psychiatrist Bessel van der Kolk divided the effects of traumas on memory functions into four sets: According to van der Kolk, memories of highly significant events are usually accurate and stable over time; aspects of traumatic


title: "Kathryn J. Whitmire" content: about the functionality of an expensive monorail system proposed by Whitmire. Lanier promised to cancel the latter and put more police on the streets. Lanier made inroads into Whitmire's white supporters, while a black candidate, Sylvester Turner, cut into her black support. She placed third with 20% of the vote and thus failed to make the run-off election. Lanier would go on to defeat Turner for the mayoralty. After the 1991 election, Whitmire turned her talents to teaching at Rice University, and the University of Maryland. At Rice, she served as Director of the Rice Institute for Policy Analysis and


title: Russification content: The Russification campaign also promoted the Russian Orthodox faith over Catholicism. The measures used included closing down Catholic monasteries, officially banning the building of new churches and giving many of the old ones to the Russian Orthodox church, banning Catholic schools and establishing state schools which taught only the Orthodox religion, requiring Catholic priests to preach only officially approved sermons, requiring that Catholics who married members of the Orthodox church convert, requiring Catholic nobles to pay an additional tax in the amount of 10% of their profits, limiting the amount of land a Catholic peasant could own, and switching from


title: "Nikos Skalkottas" content: he was taking an interest in jazz and at the same time developing a very personal form of the twelve-note method, making use of not one but several tone-rows in a work and organizing these rows to define different thematic and harmonic areas. (For example, the "Largo Sinfonico" employs no less than 16 twelve-tone rows.) Like Schoenberg, he persistently cultivated classical forms (such as sonata, variations, suite), but his worklist is divided between atonal, twelve-tone and tonal works, all three categories spanning his entire composing career. Such apparent heterogeneity could have been intensified by a love of Greek folk music.


title: "Driving under the influence" content: SFST can result in the same penalties as impaired driving. Nevertheless, it is unclear whether there has ever been a prosecution under this interpretation of "failure to comply with a demand" as applied to SFSTs. Canada Criminal Code § 254(1) and (5) addresses this, but only with respect to chemical testing (breath, blood, etc.) In Republic of Korea, it is crime to drive if one's level of alcohol is .03% or greater. Police often operates sobriety checkpoints without notice in advance, and it is criminal offense to refuse a sobriety test. Driving under influence of alcohol result in suspension or


title: "Asplenium platyneuron" content: Asplenium platyneuron Asplenium platyneuron (syn. "Asplenium ebeneum"), commonly known as ebony spleenwort or brownstem spleenwort, is a fern native to North America east of the Rocky Mountains and to South Africa. It takes its common name from its dark, reddish-brown, glossy stipe and rachis (stem and leaf axis), which bear a once-divided, pinnate leaf. The fertile fronds, which die off in the winter, are darker green and stand upright, while the sterile fronds are evergreen and lie flat on the ground. An auricle at the base of each pinna points towards the tip of the frond. The dimorphic fronds and


title: "Asplenium platyneuron" content: alternate, rather than opposite, pinnae distinguish it from the similar black-stemmed spleenwort. The species was first described in 1753 by Linnaeus as "Acrostichum platyneuros", although Linnaeus' type drew on material from several other species as well. It was more commonly called "Asplenium ebeneum", a name published by William Aiton in 1789, until the rediscovery and revival of the Linnaean epithet in the late Nineteenth Century. A number of forms and varieties of the species have been described, but few are recognized today; in particular, larger and more fertile specimens, those with more or less toothed leaves, and those with proliferating


title: "Asplenium platyneuron" content: buds are considered to fall within the natural range of variation of the species, and do not require taxonomic distinction. "A. platyneuron" f. "hortonae", a sterile form with the pinnae cut to toothed pinnules, and f. "furcatum", with forking fronds, are still recognized. The formation of proliferating buds is one of several unusual adaptations for reproduction in this species. The buds form near the base of the stipe, and when covered with soil, can grow into new individuals as the frond that bore them dies. Ebony spleenwort is also well-adapted to propagate by spores: the upright sterile fronds help the


title: "Asplenium platyneuron" content: spores enter the airstream for long-distance dispersal, and a low genetic load allows spores that have grown into a gametophyte to self-fertilize with a high degree of success. This dispersal ability seems to have helped the species spread rapidly in the Great Lakes region in the late 20th century. Long-distance dispersal may also explain its naturalized appearance in South Africa; the same mechanism may have given rise to an isolated population found in Slovakia in 2009, its first known occurrence in Europe. Ebony spleenwort has broad habitat preferences, growing both on rocks like many other North American spleenworts and in


title: "Asplenium platyneuron" content: a variety of soils. Unlike many other spleenworts, it is not particularly sensitive to soil pH. It hybridizes with several other spleenworts, particularly mountain spleenwort and walking fern; these species, their sterile hybrid offspring, fertile allotetraploid hybrids, and backcrosses between allotetraploids and the parents are collectively known as the "Appalachian "Asplenium" complex". Two hybrids between "A. platyneuron" and spleenworts outside of this complex are also known. Ebony spleenwort is a small fern with pinnate fronds, growing in tufts, with a shiny reddish-brown stipe and rachis. The fronds are dimorphic, with long, erect, dark green fertile fronds, which are deciduous, and


title: "Asplenium platyneuron" content: shorter, spreading, lighter green sterile fronds, which are evergreen. This fern does not spread and form new plants via the roots. The rhizome, from in diameter, bears a few narrowly triangular to linear scales, black to dark brown in color and strongly clathrate (bearing a lattice-like pattern). The scales are long and wide, with untoothed margins. The stipe (the stalk of the leaf, below the blade) is long, and comprises one-quarter to one-third of the length of the blade. It lacks wings, and is a shiny reddish-brown throughout its length. Towards the base, it has a few threadlike scales similar


title: "Asplenium platyneuron" content: in color to those of the rhizome. Starch granules are stored in tissue at the base of the stipe and, to a lesser extent, in the rhizome, giving the bases an enlarged appearance and a firm texture. The stipe bases are long-lived and may survive the disintegration of the rest of the stipe and the blade. The leaf blade of ebony spleenwort is linear in shape, sometimes slightly wider in the upper half of the blade, measuring from long and from wide, sometimes as wide as . It comes to a point at its tip and gradually tapers at its


title: "Asplenium platyneuron" content: base. The blade is shiny and has a few scattered hairs, or lacks them entirely. The rachis (leaf axis), like the stipe, is reddish-brown or purplish-brown, shiny and hairless. The blade is cut into pinnae throughout its length, from 15 to 45 pairs per leaf. The pinnae are distinctly alternate along the rachis. They are rectangular or quadrangular in shape, those in the middle of the leaf blade measuring from in length and from in width. Each pinna has an obvious auricle at its base, pointing towards the tip of the blade and overlapping the rachis. The edges of the


title: "Asplenium platyneuron" content: pinnae have rounded or small sharp teeth; they are more deeply cut in small forms. The tips of the pinnae may come sharply or gradually to a point. On the underside of the blade, veins are clearly visible and free (they do not anastomose or rejoin each other). Pinnae of the fertile fronds carry from one to twelve pairs of sori on their underside, each long. Each pair of sori forms a chevron, pointing towards the base of the pinna along its central axis. An indusium covers each sorus; these are whitish and translucent or silvery with a slightly toothed


title: "Asplenium platyneuron" content: or erose (irregularly jagged) edge, soon withering to reveal the sori. Each sporangium in a sorus carries 64 spores. The diploid sporophyte has a chromosome number of 72. Ebony spleenwort is capable of proliferating by forming new plantlets from buds on the rachis at the base of the plant. These allow new individuals to form at different levels when prostrate fronds become buried in the leaf litter. Wagner & Johnson found proliferous buds in almost every site in the Great Lakes populations they studied; very rarely did more than one bud per plant occur. They occurred, on average, on 1


title: "Asplenium platyneuron" content: out of 6 plants, both on sterile and fertile fronds, and their position at the base of the lowest pinnae made them difficult to find among the cluster of fronds. The buds are button-like, pale in color, and appear on the upper side of the lowest pinnae. Each bud contains a shoot and one or sometimes two leaf primordia, covered in clathrate scales, occasionally with roots if the bud has begun to develop. Contact with soil at the plant base stimulates their development, and the decay of their connection with the parental leaf results in the development of a new


title: "Asplenium platyneuron" content: plant. Similar buds have also been reported from the single-sorus spleenwort, "Asplenium monanthes". The species most similar to "Asplenium platyneuron" is the black-stemmed spleenwort, "A. resiliens". However, this stipe of this species is darker, and the pinnae are opposite, rather than alternate, along the rachis. Neither black-stemmed spleenwort nor the other pinnate American spleenworts have dimorphic fertile and sterile fronds. It might be confused with a young Christmas fern, "Polystichum acrostichoides", but that species is generally much larger and has a green, scaly stipe and rachis. It is very similar to Boydston's spleenwort, "Asplenium × boydstoniae", a backcross with Tutwiler's


title: "Asplenium platyneuron" content: spleenwort, "Asplenium tutwilerae"; however, Boydston's spleenwort has an elongated, acute frond tip similar to that of Tutwiler's spleenwort. Confusion with a Boydston's spleenwort is effectively impossible, as Boydston's spleenwort only grows wild at one location on Earth. This species is commonly known as "ebony spleenwort" or "brownstem spleenwort" for the dark color of its stipe and rachis. The basionym for the species is "Acrostichum platyneuros", published by Linnaeus in "Species Plantarum" in 1753 (the official starting point of modern botanical nomenclature). Linnaeus' treatment came from a 1745 dissertation by his student J. B. Heiligtag, which in turn drew on the


title: "Asplenium platyneuron" content: descriptions by several earlier authorities. The first description listed was that of Jan Gronovius, botanist and mentor of Linnaeus, in his "Flora Virginica" of 1743, based on a specimen collected by the collector John Clayton. The specific epithet "platyneuros" ("flat nerves") was drawn from a description by the botanist Leonard Plukenet in his "Almagestum" of 1696. Unfortunately, only Clayton's specimen, now the lectotype for the species, represents the species now known as "Asplenium platyneuron"; the specimens upon which the other descriptions are based, including that of Plukenet which yielded the specific epithet, are a mixture of "Pleopeltis polypodioides" and "Polypodium


title: "Asplenium platyneuron" content: virginianum" "sensu lato". In 1789, the species was independently described by William Aiton in "Hortus Kewensis", and given the name "Asplenium ebeneum", referring to the ebony color of its stalk. The species was also independently described by Olof Swartz in 1801, as "Asplenium polypodioides", and by André Michaux in 1803 as "Asplenium trichomanoides"; both these names were reduced to synonymy with "Asplenium ebeneum" by Carl Ludwig Willdenow. The name "Asplenium trichomanoides", however, had already been used by Linnaeus in 1767, making Michaux's name a "nomen illegitimum". It was Aiton's epithet, "ebeneum", that was used by American botanists throughout most of


title: "Asplenium platyneuron" content: the 19th century. The transfer of Linnaeus' specific epithet to form the name "Asplenium platyneuron" was mooted by D. C. Eaton in 1878, who attributed the combination to a pencil notation by William Oakes in the margin of a copy of "Flora Virginica". Therefore, the combination has historically been attributed to Oakes or Oakes ex D.C.Eaton. However, in 1981, David B. Lellinger pointed out that Eaton had not, in fact, accepted the combination in 1878, preferring the more accurate epithet "ebeneum" to the less accurate through senior "platyneuron". Eaton's use, therefore, was to be treated as a "nomen provisorium". Eaton


title: "Asplenium platyneuron" content: aside, the first valid publication of "Asplenium platyneuron" was that of Britton, Emerson E. Sterns, and Justus F. Poggenburg in 1888, which implicitly references Linnaeus's basionym. Despite the revival of Linnaeus' epithet, the name "Asplenium ebeneum" continued to be widely used through 1896, when Lucien Underwood, in Britton & Brown's "Illustrated Flora", used the name "Asplenium platyneuron" with explicit reference to the basionym. The species has twice been placed in genera segregated from "Asplenium": as "Chamaefilix platyneuros" by Oliver A. Farwell in 1931, and as "Tarachia platyneura" by Sizuo Momose in 1960. Neither combination was widely accepted and current authorities


title: "Asplenium platyneuron" content: do not recognize these genera. Three varieties were recognized by Carl Taylor "et al." in 1976 in their treatment of the species: "A. platyneuron" var. "platyneuron", the typical variety, "A. platyneuron" var. "incisum", with more deeply cut pinnae, and "A. platyneuron" var. "bacculum-rubrum", larger and more fertile than the others with toothed pinnae. However, they note that both these varieties intergrade, and "Flora of North America" does not recognize any infraspecific taxa. In addition to these varieties, three forms were recognized by Taylor "et al." "A. platyneuron" f. "proliferum", discussed below, is not recognized by later treatments. "A. platyneuron" f.


title: "Asplenium platyneuron" content: "hortonae" is only known from sporadic, sterile specimens, with pinnae imbricate and deeply cut and lobed. In "A. platyneuron" f. "furcatum", the rachis is multiply branched near the tip, but the form appears otherwise normal. "Asplenium ebeneum" var. "bacculum-rubrum" was first described in 1871 by Americus Featherman. His epithet refers to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where he found it growing at the edges of cultivated fields and cane brakes. He described it as standing from high, with twenty to thirty "elongated" sori on each pinna. A large variety of "Asplenium platyneuron" found throughout the southeastern United States, with distinct rather than


title: "Asplenium platyneuron" content: confluent sori, was described by M. L. Fernald in 1935 as "Asplenium platyneuron" var. "euroaustrinum", who was then unaware of Featherman's publication. He subsequently deemed the two to be identical, and transferred Featherman's variety to "A. platyneuron", as "A. platyneuron" var. "bacculum-rubrum", in 1936. According to Taylor "et al.", this variety may be recognized by a longest pinna length greater than and the almost universal presence of sori on erect fronds. They described it as bearing fertile fronds up to , with as many as seventy pinnae, and a coarse appearance with roughly toothed leaf edges intergrading with "A. platyneuron"


title: "Asplenium platyneuron" content: var. "incisum". Herb Wagner and David M. Johnson, who collected similar material in Cass County, Michigan (well to the northwest of the supposed range of the variety) did not consider morphological variation in var. "bacculum-rubrum" to be distinct from typical material except for its size, and recommended it be given taxonomic status no higher than that of a form, if recognized at all. "Asplenium ebeneum" var. "incisum" was collected by Elliot C. Howe in Poestenkill, New York and described in 1869 by Charles H. Peck. Although described as having pinnae largely "incised-pinnatifid", most of the pinnae in the type material


title: "Asplenium platyneuron" content: are doubly serrate (toothed) or serrate-incised. In 1873, Elihu S. Miller collected fronds from Wading River, New York which were wider than usual and sharply serrate. This he named "Asplenium ebeneum" var. "serratum", at the suggestion of Asa Gray. Although Miller's type material has not been located, specimens determined by Gray were found by Taylor "et al." to be indistinguishable from var. "incisum". However, both epithets continued to be recognized by authors for some time. Britton, Sterns and Poggenburg transferred var. "serratum" as "A. platyneuron" var. "serratum" in 1888; Willard N. Clute lowered its rank to become "A. ebeneum" f.


title: "Asplenium platyneuron" content: "serratum" in 1901, and the combination at this rank was transferred to "A. platyneuron" by Ralph Hoffmann in 1922. Benjamin Lincoln Robinson transferred var. "incisum" to "A. platyneuron" in 1908, and Farwell recognized var. "serratum" when he segregated "Chamaefilix" from "Asplenium" in 1931. Edgar T. Wherry, in 1940, synonymized not only var. "serratum" with var. "incisum", but included var. "bacculum-rubrum" and var. "euroaustrinum" under that epithet. He also created the epithet var. "typicum" for the normal form of ebony spleenwort. Taylor "et al.", reviewing these treatments, distinguished var. "incisum" as having doubly serrate pinnae cut less than 80% of the


title: "Asplenium platyneuron" content: way to the costa, with normal fertility (unlike the sterile "A. platyneuron" f. "hortonae"). As these plants occur throughout the range of the species intermixed with typical specimens and intergrading with them morphologically, Wagner and Johnson did not think them worth of taxonomic recognition. Another taxon characterized by deeply incised margins was described in 1901 by George E. Davenport as "Asplenium ebeneum" var. "hortonae". These specimens were found in 1900 growing on limestone in Brattleboro, Vermont by Frances B. Horton, for whom Davenport named the variety. In this variety, all the pinnae (including the more reduced basal pinnae) are obliquely


title: "Asplenium platyneuron" content: toothed or cut very nearly into separate, toothed pinnules. The upright fronds are sterile. Willard Clute treated it as a form, "A. ebeneum" f. "hortonae" in 1906. B. L. Robinson, in 1908, declared "A. ebeneum" var. "hortonae" a synonym of "A. platyneuron" var. "incisum". Clute transferred the epithet at the varietal level to form "A. platyneuron" var. "hortonae" in 1909, but he also equated this with var. "incisum". Lyman B. Smith continued to recognize it in Massachusetts, treating it as the form "A. platyneuron" f. "hortonae" in 1928. In 1937, Arthur Leeds explicitly distinguished it at varietal level, noting that


title: "Asplenium platyneuron" content: a photograph of the type of "A. ebeneum" var. "incisum" did not closely correspond to "A. ebeneum" var. "hortonae", having merely toothed rather than deeply cut and overlapping pinnae. Edgar Wherry also explicitly distinguished "A. platyneuron" var. "hortonae" from "A. platyneuron" var. "incisum", erroneously duplicating Clute's 1909 combination. Material collected from St. Mary's County, Maryland was described by James E. Benedict, Jr. in 1947 as "A. platyneuron" f. "dissectum", noting that while similar to f. "hortonae", some of the pinnae in his material were completely cut into pinnules, which were themselves deeply lobed. Taylor "et al." noted that much of


title: "Asplenium platyneuron" content: Benedict's material, however, resembled typical f. "hortonae", although approaching var. "bacculum-rubrum" in size. They equated f. "dissectum" with f. "hortonae", and noted that specimens of the latter could approach var. "incisum" and var. "bacculum-rubrum". While Wagner and Johnson declined to distinguish most infraspecific taxa within "A. platyneuron", they did recognize f. "hortonae" as a "rare sterile form". A form with forked fronds was known around the end of the nineteenth century, and was formally described in 1909 by Willard Clute as "A. platyneuron" f. "furcatum". The form differs from normal "A. platyneuron" only in forking near the apex of the


title: "Asplenium platyneuron" content: blade. Robert M. Tetrick II discovered similar plants in West Virginia, which he described as having "fronds much branched, the ultimate divisions crested" and named "A. platyneuron" f. "multifidum". Taylor "et al." compared the type of this form with Clute's illustration of f. "furcatum" and considered them to be the same. Wagner & Johnson noted that such forms were a frequent developmental error in many species of North American fern. The formation of proliferating buds in ebony spleenwort has also given rise to a taxonomic treatment. Bud formation was first observed by the nurseryman Conrad Loddiges in 1817, in specimens


title: "Asplenium platyneuron" content: in cultivation in Great Britain. However, the phenomenon was overlooked until 1879, when D. C. Eaton observed it in specimens from Florida. He took this for an aberrant variety, which he named "A. ebeneum" var. "proliferum". Willard Clute reduced its status from a variety to a form, "A. ebeneum" f. "proliferum", in 1906. Similar specimens were subsequently reported from Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut; the buds appeared on the rachis of sterile fronds, and were often only detected when mounting the specimen. In 1924, Frederick G. Floyd argued that the formation of these proliferations was a normal characteristic of the species,


title: "Asplenium platyneuron" content: which appeared regularly, if not universally, and did not warrant a varietal designation. He also observed the formation of proliferating buds on a fertile rachis of "A. ebeneum" var. "serratum". Floyd's position was not universally accepted: Louise Tanger made a new combination for the form, "A. platyneuron" f. "proliferum" in 1933, and Taylor "et al." recognized it in a discussion of infraspecific taxa in the species in 1976. However, these authors noted that specimens of "A. platyneuron" f. "proliferum" would be assigned to various other varieties if they were not proliferous. Wagner & Johnson, in 1981, declined to recognize the


title: "Asplenium platyneuron" content: taxon on grounds similar to Floyd's, and Wagner's treatment in "Flora of North America" does not mention the form. As part of the "Appalachian "Asplenium" complex", ebony spleenwort has been found to form hybrids with a number of other spleenworts. The hybrid with mountain spleenwort ("A. montanum") has been collected only rarely, but on multiple occasions, this hybrid has undergone chromosome doubling to give rise to the fertile species known as Bradley's spleenwort ("A. bradleyi"). A backcross between "A. bradleyi" and "A. platyneuron" is believed to have been collected twice, from a now-destroyed site in Pennsylvania, and in a preliminary


title: "Asplenium platyneuron" content: report from Sequatchie County, Tennessee. The hybrid with walking fern ("A. rhizophyllum"), known as Scott's spleenwort ("A. × ebenoides"), regularly appears where the two parent species grow together. At one locality, in Havana Glen, Alabama, "A. × ebenoides" has undergone chromosome doubling to produce a fertile species, Tutwiler's spleenwort ("A. tutwilerae"). The backcross between "A. platyneuron" and "A. tutwilerae" is known as Boydston's spleenwort ("A. × boydstoniae"), occurring in nature only with "A. tutwilerae" at Havana Glen. "A. platyneuron" is also known to hybridize with lobed spleenwort ("A. pinnatifidum"), a descendant of mountain spleenwort and walking fern, to produce the


title: "Asplenium platyneuron" content: rare Kentucky spleenwort ("A. × kentuckiense"). Evidence for these hybridizations was obtained through cytological studies, chromatography, and allozyme electrophoresis. Outside of the "Appalachian "Asplenium" complex", "A. platyneuron" can also hybridize with wall-rue ("A. ruta-muraria"), forming Morgan's spleenwort ("A. × morganii), and with maidenhair spleenwort ("A. trichomanes") to form Virginia spleenwort ("A. × virginicum"). "A. × morganii" is known from one specimen, collected from a limestone cliff overlooking the Potomac River in Maryland, while "A. × virginicum" has been collected three times, from Pennsylvania, Virginia, and North Carolina. A hybrid with Asian walking fern, "A. ruprechtii", has been produced in cultivation


title: "Asplenium platyneuron" content: and is informally known as "A. × crucibuli" in horticulture. It is similar to "A. × ebenoides", but the frond is linear in shape, rather than being wider at the base. In North America, "A. platyneuron" is native throughout the eastern United States from southern Maine to the southeastern corner of Wisconsin, south to Florida and west to eastern Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas, and in the far southeast of Canada. It is also found around the meeting point of Colorado, New Mexico, and Oklahoma, and in isolated small populations in New Mexico, Arizona and the West Indies. Outside of


title: "Asplenium platyneuron" content: North America, "A. platyneuron" is found in tropical and subtropical southern Africa, a distribution not known for any other North American fern. An isolated population was found on serpentine soil in an oak woodland in Slovakia in 2009. Since the 1960s, "A. platyneuron" has spread rapidly and aggressively in the Great Lakes region, where it was formerly uncommon. "Asplenium platyneuron" can be found in a wide variety of habitats, at altitudes from . It will tolerate soils ranging from mediacid (pH 3.5–4.0) to subalkaline (pH 8.0–8.5), although it prefers subacid soils (pH 4.5–5.0) over mediacid. Unlike many other North American


title: "Asplenium platyneuron" content: spleenworts, it can grow on soil as well as rock. When growing in soil, it can be found in forests and woodlands, including sandy pinelands, as well as old fields and other disturbed sites. It can colonize a variety of rocks, particularly (but not limited to) calcareous ones, and will also grow on mortared walls. In South Africa, it is generally found at altitudes over 600 meters (2,000 ft), in habitats similar to those it prefers in North America (under small bushes and on rocky banks). Protein extracts from "A. platyneuron" have been shown to deter insect predation on soybeans


title: "Asplenium platyneuron" content: to a significant extent, and the Missouri Botanical Garden describes it as lacking "serious insect or disease problems". However, a population of several hundred individuals in Florida was reported to have been almost wiped out by insect activity. It is susceptible to slugs. The black fern aphid ("Idiopterus nephrelepidis") has been reported to feed on it. Sporophytes are fairly tolerant of drought, but require well-drained soils. The prothallia (gametophytes) of "A. platyneuron" can survive periods of drought for up to a month. There is some evidence to show that the prothallia may undergo clonal reproduction and fission, which has been


title: "Asplenium platyneuron" content: induced in the laboratory through variations in light intensity. A variety of adaptations make "A. platyneuron" an aggressive colonizer, even weedy, when compared with other spleenworts, although a warming climate and an increase in second growth habitats may also have played a role in its expansion in the Great Lakes region. It tolerates broad variation in soil conditions, including pH, and will grow in both sun and shade. The starchy stipe bases provide energy for rapid growth in the spring, allowing the fronds to keep ahead of competing vegetation. The erect fertile fronds, unusual for "Asplenium", help release spores into


title: "Asplenium platyneuron" content: the wind for long-distance dispersal, while the proliferative buds allow clonal propagation in moist, fertile habitats. The species also carries a very low genetic load, so that viable sporophytes can develop from intragametophytic self-fertilization with 83–89% success. This means that new sporophytes can usually grow from the gametophyte formed from a single spore. This has allowed ebony spleenwort to be an early colonizer, from distant locations, of recently disturbed habitats, such as coal spoils in southern Iowa. The appearance of "A. platyneuron" in a disturbed habitat in Slovakia, from the nearest known sites in eastern North America, is probably the


title: "Asplenium platyneuron" content: result of long-distance dispersal, which may also have allowed it to colonize and naturalize in South Africa. While globally secure, ebony spleenwort is considered an endangered species in some of the states and provinces at the northern and western edges of its North American range. NatureServe considers it to be critically imperiled in Arizona and Colorado, imperiled in Nebraska, Maine, Rhode Island, and Quebec, and vulnerable in Minnesota. The ebony spleenwort is sometimes grown as a terrarium or garden plant. It can be cultivated in sandy peat, subacid garden soil, other gravelly, sandy or gritty soils, or potting mix under


title: "Asplenium platyneuron" content: moist to dry conditions. Both acid and alkaline soils are acceptable. Good drainage is essential, and the species will grow even in dry soil. Partial sun or low to high light is recommended, although full shade is tolerated. Plants are said to be easy to maintain once they have become established, but it has been described as "rather difficult" to grow in Germany. Conrad Loddiges found it necessary to use artificial heat to cultivate ebony spleenwort in Great Britain. Asplenium platyneuron Asplenium platyneuron (syn. "Asplenium ebeneum"), commonly known as ebony spleenwort or brownstem spleenwort, is a fern native to North


title: "Defender (1981 video game)" content: for its electronic games. As a result, the staff was afforded a large amount of creative freedom. Space was a popular setting for video games at the time, and Jarvis felt the abstract setting would help obscure simple graphics that lacked realism. Initially, Jarvis spent 3–4 months developing color variations of Taito's "Space Invaders" and Atari's "Asteroids". First inspired by "Space Invaders", he created a similar game with new gameplay mechanics. After spending a few weeks on the design, however, the team abandoned the idea, believing it lacked enjoyment. Development then shifted to emulating Atari's "Asteroids", but hardware differences between


title: Moorhen content: Moorhen Moorhens — sometimes called marsh hens — are medium-sized water birds that are members of the rail family (Rallidae). Most species are placed in the genus Gallinula, Latin for "little hen". They are close relatives of coots. They are often referred to as (black) gallinules. Recently, one of the species of "Gallinula" was found to have enough differences to form a new genus "Paragallinula" with the only species being the Lesser moorhen ("Paragallinula angulata"). Two species from the Australian region, sometimes separated in , are called "native hens"(also native-hen or, in some specialist sources, nativehen). The native hens differ


title: Moorhen content: visually by shorter, thicker and stubbier toes and bills, and longer tails that lack the white signal pattern of typical moorhens. "Marsh Hens" are briefly mentioned in the Edgar Allan Poe story "The Gold-Bug", as part of a description of the ecology of Sullivan's Island. The main characters also prepare Marsh Hens for supper at one point early in the story. These rails are mostly brown and black with some white markings in plumage colour. Unlike many of the rails they are usually easy to see, feeding in open water margins rather than hidden in reedbeds. They have short rounded


title: Moorhen content: wings and are weak fliers, although usually capable of covering long distances. The common moorhen in particular migrates up to 2,000 km from some of its breeding areas in the colder parts of Siberia. Those that migrate do so at night. The Gough moorhen on the other hand is considered almost flightless; it can only flutter some metres. As common in rails, there has been a marked tendency to evolve flightlessness in island populations. Moorhens can walk very well on their strong legs, and have long toes that are well adapted to soft uneven surfaces. These birds are omnivorous, consuming


title: Moorhen content: plant material, small rodents, amphibians and eggs. They are aggressively territorial during the breeding season, but are otherwise often found in sizeable flocks on the shallow vegetated lakes they prefer. Living and recently extinct species of "Gallinula" and closely related genera are: Other moorhens have been described from older remains. Apart from the 1-3 extinctions in more recent times, another 1-4 species have gone extinct as a consequence of early human settlement: Hodgen's waterhen ("Gallinula hodgenorum") of New Zealand—which belongs in subgenus "Tribonyx"—and a species close to the Samoan moorhen from Buka, Solomon Islands, which is almost certainly distinct from


title: Moorhen content: the Makira moorhen, as the latter cannot fly. The undescribed Viti Levu gallinule of Fiji would either be separated in "Pareudiastes" if that genus is considered valid, or may be a completely new genus. Similarly, the undescribed "swamphen" of Mangaia, currently tentatively assigned to "Porphyrio", may belong to "Gallinula"/"Pareudiastes". Still older fossils document the genus since the Late Oligocene onwards. The genus seems to have originated in the Southern Hemisphere, in the general region of Australia. By the Pliocene, it was probably distributed worldwide: The ancient ""Gallinula" disneyi" (Late Oligocene—Early Miocene of Riversleigh, Australia) has been separated as genus "Australlus".


title: Moorhen content: Even among non-Passeriformes, this genus has a long documented existence. Consequently, some unassigned fragmentary rail fossils might also be from moorhens or native hens. For example, specimen QM F30696, a left distal tibiotarsus piece from the Oligo-Miocene boundary at Riversleigh, is similar to but than and differs in details from ""G." disneyi". It cannot be said if this bird—if a distinct species—was flightless. From size alone, it might have been an ancestor of "G. mortierii" (see also below). In addition to paleosubspecies of "Gallinula chloropus", the doubtfully distinct Late Pliocene to Pleistocene "Gallinula mortierii reperta" was described, referring to the


title: Moorhen content: population of the Tasmanian native hen that once inhabited mainland Australia and became extinct at the end of the last ice age. It may be that apart from climate change it was driven to extinction by the introduction of the dingo, which as opposed to the marsupial predators hunted during the day, but this would require a survival of mainland "Gallinula mortierii" to as late as about 1500 BC. ""G." disneyi" was yet another flightless native hen, indicative of that group's rather basal position among moorhens. Its time and place of occurrence suggest it as an ancestor of "G. mortierii


title: Moorhen content: (reperta)", from which it differed mostly in its much smaller size. However, some limb bone proportions are also strikingly different, and in any case such a scenario would require a flightless bird to change but little during some 20 million years in an environment rich in predators. As the fossils of "G. disneyi" as well as the rich recent and subfossil material of "G. mortierii" shows no evidence of such a change at all, ""G." disneyi" more probably represents a case of parallel evolution at an earlier date, as signified by its placement in "Australlus". Moorhen Moorhens — sometimes called


title: Kisumu content: at different times long before Europeans arrived. The people from the Nandi, Kalenjin, Kisii, Maasai, Luo and Luhya communities converged at the tip of Lake Victoria and called the place "sumo" which literally means "a place of barter trade". Each community called it different names, for instance: Kisumu was identified by the British explorers in early 1898 as an alternative railway terminus and port for the Uganda railway, then under construction. It was to replace Port Victoria, then an important centre on the caravan trade route, near the delta of Nzoia River. Kisumu was ideally located on the shores of


title: "Alice's Restaurant Massacree" content: was sent to the "Group W" bench to file for a moral waiver. The other convicts ("mother-rapers... father-stabbers... father-rapers") were initially put off that his conviction had been of "littering", but accepted him when he added "and creating a nuisance". When Guthrie noticed one of the questions on the paperwork asked whether he rehabilitated himself since the crime, he noted the irony of having to prove himself reformed from a crime of littering when the realities of war were often far more brutal; the officer responded that they didn't like "[his] kind", and Guthrie's fingerprints were sent to the federal


title: "Ilyushin Il-28" content: Ilyushin Il-28 The Ilyushin Il-28 (; NATO reporting name: Beagle) is a jet bomber of the immediate postwar period that was originally manufactured for the Soviet Air Forces. It was the Soviet Union's first such aircraft to enter large-scale production. It was also licence-built in Czechoslovakia as Avia B-228 and CB-228 and in China as the Harbin H-5. Total production in the USSR was 6,316 aircraft, and over 319 H-5s were built. Only 187 examples of the HJ-5 training variant were manufactured. In the 1990s hundreds remained in service with various air forces over 50 years after the Il-28 first


title: "Jesse Colin Young" content: on the Billboard Top 200 chart for several months. He recorded the albums "American Dreams" in 1978, "The Perfect Stranger" in 1982, and "The Highway Is for Heroes" in 1987. He continued touring and re-formed the Youngbloods before returning to a solo recording career in 1987. In 1993 he started a recording company, Ridgetop Music. In September 1979, Young performed in the "No Nukes" concert. His recording studio and house in Inverness, California, were destroyed in the Mount Vision fire in 1995. Young, his wife and their two children maintained a coffee plantation in Hawaii. Jesse Colin Young Jesse Colin


title: "The Return of the King (1980 film)" content: book. According to rumors, Rankin/Bass decided to do the project upon hearing that Bakshi's sequel finishing "The Lord of the Rings" was going to be left unmade. However, Rankin/Bass had always planned on making a sequel based on "The Return of the King" as their follow-up project to "The Hobbit". The special aired on ABC on Sunday, May 11, 1980. Critical and fan reaction to "The Return of the King" was lukewarm. During the 129th birthday celebration for Bilbo Baggins in Rivendell, Frodo begins his story with Samwise Gamgee, his friend and companion, treading through Mordor as Ring-bearer in Frodo's


title: "USS Edsall (DD-219)" content: "Edsall" crewmen and what are thought to be five more USAAF personnel from "Langley", along with numerous Javanese, Chinese, and Dutch merchant sailors from the Dutch merchant-ship "Modjokerto", sunk the same day as "Edsall" in the same area south of Christmas Island. The American bodies were reinterred in U.S. cemeteries between December 1949 and March 1950. War crimes trials conducted in 1946-1948 concerning other murders that occurred in or near Kendari by IJN personnel contain fragmentary information about the killings of "Edsall" survivors but were not recognized as such by Allied investigators, and were not pursued. "Edsall" received two battle


title: "Benjamin Goodrich" content: uncertain when Goodrich died at the age of 46 in 1888. Business began booming at B.F. Goodrich Company a few years after Goodrich's death with the company's introduction of a pneumatic tire that could endure the speed and load of the evolving automobile. The radial tire was designed by an advertising employee in his company. Over subsequent decades, Goodrich Company chemists invented plasticized polyvinyl chloride (PVC) in 1926, synthesized rubber in 1937 and built space suits for NASA astronauts in the 1960s. Now renamed Goodrich Corporation, the company abandoned the tire business in 1988 and subsequently described itself as a


title: "Cardigan Welsh Corgi" content: Cardigan Welsh Corgi The Cardigan Welsh Corgi is one of two separate dog breeds known as Welsh corgis that originated in Wales, predating the other breed, the Pembroke Welsh Corgi. It is one of the oldest breeds of the British Isles. Cardigan Welsh Corgis are known to be an extremely loyal dog breed. They are also versatile and can live in a variety of settings. However, they benefit from regular physical and mental stimulation. Pembrokes and Cardigans first appeared together in dog shows in 1925 when they were shown under the rules of The Kennel Club in Britain. The Corgi


title: "Cardigan Welsh Corgi" content: Club was founded in December, 1925 in Carmarthen in South Wales. It is reported that the local members favored the Pembroke breed, so a club for Cardigan enthusiasts was founded a year later (1926). Both groups have worked hard to ensure the appearance and type of breed are standardized through careful selective breeding. Pembrokes and Cardigans were officially recognized by the Kennel Club in 1928 and were lumped together under the heading Welsh Corgis. In 1934, the two breeds were recognized individually and shown separately. Cardigans are said to originate from the Teckel family of dogs, which also produced Dachshunds.


title: "Cardigan Welsh Corgi" content: They are claimed to be among the oldest of all herding breeds; believed to have been in existence in Wales since around the year 1200 B.C. The word "corgi" is derived from the , which means "dwarf dog". The breed was formerly called "yard-long dog" (). Today's name comes from their area of origin: Cardigan (Welsh 'Ceredigion'). Originally used only as a farm guardian, they eventually took on the traits of a cattle drover, herder, and many more. They are still highly valued for their herding, working, and guarding skills, as well as their companionship. The Cardigan is a long,


title: "Cardigan Welsh Corgi" content: low dog with upright ears and a fox brush tail. The old American Kennel Club standard called it an "Alsatian on short legs". The Cardigan's tail is long (unlike the Pembroke Welsh Corgi, whose tail may be long, naturally bobbed or docked). Cardigans, which are double coated, come in a variety of colors including any shade of red, sable, or brindle, as well as black, with or without tan, brindle or blue merle, with or without tan or brindle points. Other unofficial colors can occur, such as red merle, but these colors are not considered acceptable per the Cardigan standard.


title: "Cardigan Welsh Corgi" content: They usually have white on the neck, chest, legs, muzzle, underneath, tip of the tail and as a blaze on the head, known as the "Irish pattern." Other markings include ticking on the legs and muzzle, smutty muzzles and monk's hoods, especially on sables (a pattern of darker tipped hairs over a basic red coat color.. An average Cardigan is around tall at the withers and weighs from for the male and for the female. Life expectancy is 12–16 years. Litter size can vary; usually four to six puppies. The most common causes of death for the breed were cancer


title: "Cardigan Welsh Corgi" content: (28.3%), old age (24.6%), and neurological disorders (15.2%). Cardigan Welsh Corgis compete in dog agility trials, obedience, showmanship, flyball and tracking events. Herding instincts and trainability can be measured at noncompetitive herding tests. Corgis exhibiting basic herding instincts can be trained to compete in herding trials. Cardigan Welsh Corgi The Cardigan Welsh Corgi is one of two separate dog breeds known as Welsh corgis that originated in Wales, predating the other breed, the Pembroke Welsh Corgi. It is one of the oldest breeds of the British Isles. Cardigan Welsh Corgis are known to be an extremely loyal dog breed. They


title: "Pembroke Welsh Corgi" content: Pembroke Welsh Corgi The Pembroke Welsh Corgi (; Welsh for "dwarf dog") is a cattle herding dog breed which originated in Pembrokeshire, Wales. It is one of two breeds known as a Welsh Corgi. The other is the Cardigan Welsh Corgi, and both descend from the line that is the northern spitz-type dog (examples include that of the Siberian Husky). Another theory is that Pembrokes are descended from the Swedish Vallhunds, which were crossed with the local Welsh herding dogs. The Pembroke Welsh Corgi is the younger of the two Corgi breeds and is a separate and distinct breed from


title: "Pembroke Welsh Corgi" content: the Cardigan. The corgi is one of the smallest dogs in the Herding Group. Pembroke Welsh Corgis are famed for being the preferred breed of Queen Elizabeth II, who has owned more than 30 during her reign. These dogs have been favored by British royalty for more than seventy years, but among the British public, have recently fallen into decline in terms of popularity and demand. The Pembroke Welsh Corgi has been ranked at #11 in Stanley Coren's "The Intelligence of Dogs", and per source, is considered an excellent working dog. According to the American Kennel Club, Pembroke Welsh Corgis


title: "Pembroke Welsh Corgi" content: were ranked 20th most popular breed of dog in 2015. The Pembroke Welsh Corgi sheds extensively, often daily with coat "blow outs" often twice a year. The Pembroke Welsh Corgi has erect ears which are proportional to the equilateral triangle of the head. The ears should also be firm, medium in size, and tapered slightly to a rounded point. The head should be "foxy" in shape and appearance. Pembroke Welsh Corgis differ from the Cardigan Welsh Corgi by being shorter in length, having smaller ears, and being slightly straighter of leg. The Pembroke Welsh Corgi has a "fairy saddle", somewhat


title: "Pembroke Welsh Corgi" content: lighter markings on each side of the withers caused by changes in the thickness, length, and direction of hair growth. The Pembroke Welsh Corgi sheds mostly in the spring and fall and may shed annually, with intact females shedding during heat. Breed faults exist; some which may acknowledge genetic health conditions such as "fluffies" which are Corgis with very long coats, and "bluies," which have a dilute colour (red coats present with a bluish cast). Some Pembroke Welsh Corgis are born with their tail naturally short or missing. Others may have their tails docked between 2–5 days old due to


title: "Pembroke Welsh Corgi" content: historical tradition or as a measure of conformation to the Breed Standard. Artificial docking was born of necessity given the Pembroke's function as a herding dog in the United Kingdom. According to Tax Law, any companion canine was considered a luxury and pet/companion owners were levied a tax. Dog owners, however, who kept dogs for working purposes such as herding were exempt from the tax. In order to claim the exemption, owners had to ensure the dogs sported docked or bobbed tails. The Kennel Club, the United Kennel Club, and the FCI allow intact tails in Conformation shows. The AKC


title: "Pembroke Welsh Corgi" content: Standard states tails should be docked no longer than . In many countries, docking has been deemed illegal. Pembroke Welsh Corgis are very affectionate, love to be involved in the family, and tend to follow wherever their owners go. They have a great desire to please their owners, thus making them eager to learn and train. The dogs are easy to train and are ranked as the eleventh smartest dog in Stanley Coren's "The Intelligence of Dogs". Besides herding, they also function as watchdogs due to their alertness and tendency to bark only as needed. Most Pembrokes will seek the


title: "Pembroke Welsh Corgi" content: attention of everyone they meet and behave well around children and other pets. It is important to socialise this breed with other animals, adults, and children when they are very young to avoid any anti-social behavior or aggression later in life. Due to their herding instinct, they love to chase anything that moves, so it is best to keep them inside fenced areas. The herding instinct will also cause some younger Pembrokes to nip at their owners' ankles. Pembrokes have an average life expectancy of 12–15 years. Pembroke Welsh Corgis are achondroplastic, meaning they are a "true dwarf" breed. As


title: "Pembroke Welsh Corgi" content: such, their stature and build can lead to certain non-inherited health conditions, but genetic issues should also be considered. Commonly, Pembrokes can suffer from monorchidism, Von Willebrand's disease, hip dysplasia, degenerative myelopathy (DM), and inherited eye problems such as progressive retinal atrophy. Genetic testing is available for Pembroke Welsh Corgis to avoid these issues and enhance the genetic health pool. Pembrokes are also prone to obesity given a robust appetite, characteristic of herding group breeds. The Pembroke Welsh Corgi lineage has been traced back as far as 1107 AD. It is said that the Vikings and Flemish weavers brought the


title: "Pembroke Welsh Corgi" content: dogs with them as they traveled to reside in Wales. As far back as the 10th century, corgis were herding sheep, geese, ducks, horses, and cattle as one of the oldest herding breed of dogs. Pembroke Welsh Corgis are closely related to Schipperkes, Keeshonds, Pomeranians, Samoyeds, Chow Chows, Norwegian Elkhounds, and Finnish Spitz. Pembrokes and Cardigans first appeared together in 1925 when they were shown under the rules of The Kennel Club in Britain. The Corgi Club was founded in December 1925 in Carmarthen, Carmarthenshire. It is reported that the local members favored the Pembroke breed, so a club for


title: "Pembroke Welsh Corgi" content: Cardigan enthusiasts was founded a year or so later. Both groups have worked hard to ensure the appearance and type of breed are standardized through careful selective breeding. Pembrokes and Cardigans were officially recognized by the Kennel Club in 1928 and were initially categorized together under the single heading of Welsh Corgis, before the two breeds were recognized as separate and distinct in 1934. Pembroke Welsh Corgis are becoming more popular in the United States and rank 20th (24th) in American Kennel Club registrations, as of 2015 (2012). However, corgis are now listed as a "vulnerable" breed in the United


title: "Pembroke Welsh Corgi" content: Kingdom; the decline has been said to be due to a 2007 ban on tail-docking (the practice of cutting off the animal’s tail) in the U.K., as well as the lack of breeders in the U.K. Pembroke Welsh Corgis can compete in dog agility trials, obedience, showmanship, flyball, tracking, and herding events. Herding instincts and trainability can be measured at noncompetitive herding tests. At a young age, the Queen’s passion for this breed started when her father, King George VI, brought home their first royal corgi who was later named “Dookie”. The Queen ceased breeding corgis around 2012 so as


title: "Pembroke Welsh Corgi" content: not to leave any behind after she dies; her last corgi, Willow, died 18 April 2018. Pembroke Welsh Corgi The Pembroke Welsh Corgi (; Welsh for "dwarf dog") is a cattle herding dog breed which originated in Pembrokeshire, Wales. It is one of two breeds known as a Welsh Corgi. The other is the Cardigan Welsh Corgi, and both descend from the line that is the northern spitz-type dog (examples include that of the Siberian Husky). Another theory is that Pembrokes are descended from the Swedish Vallhunds, which were crossed with the local Welsh herding dogs. The Pembroke Welsh Corgi


title: "All-India Muslim League" content: was to advocate for British education, especially science and literature, among India's Muslims. The conference, in addition to generating funds for Sir Syed's Aligarh Muslim University, motivated the Muslim upper class to propose an expansion of educational uplift elsewhere, known as the Aligarh Movement. In turn, this new awareness of Muslim needs helped stimulate a political consciousness among Muslim elites, who went on to form the All-India Muslim League. The formation of a Muslim political party on the national level was seen as essential by 1901. The first stage of its formation was the meeting held at Lucknow in September


title: "Sydney Bristow" content: young, wide-eyed, inexperienced agent rescued from "The Shed", a covert criminal organization that, much like SD-6, operates under the alias of a CIA black-ops division. Gibson, like Sydney years earlier, had been duped into believing she was working for the CIA. Now a member of APO, Gibson is learning the ways of being a field agent, with Sydney her designated handler, just as Michael had worked with her. With Nadia still comatose in the hospital, Gibson has moved into Sydney's home. Sydney has also put at least some demons of the past behind her. Now fully reconciled with her father,


title: "Laura Pausini" content: charts in Belgium and Switzerland, selling three million copies worldwide and achieving gold and platinum status in Brazil and Argentina, respectively. Other singles from the album were "Gente", "Lui non sta con te" and "Lettera". During the summer of 1994, Pausini took part in the Italian itinerant TV show Festivalbar, reaching the final stage of the music competition and receiving the Premio Europa for her international success. In 1994 she was also awarded with her second Telegatto, receiving the prize for Best Female Artist. In the meanwhile, she started an Italian tour to promote her album. During the same year,


title: "The Notion Club Papers" content: lucid dreams about Númenor, a lost civilization connected with Atlantis and also with Tolkien's Middle-earth. Through these dreams, he "discovers" much about the Númenor story and the languages of Middle-earth (notably Quenya, Sindarin, and Adûnaic — the last being the sole source of most of the material on Adûnaic). While not finished, at the end of the given story it becomes clear Lowdham himself is a reincarnation of sorts of Elendil. ("Alwin" is a modernization of the name "Ælfwine", Old English for Elf-friend, or "Elendil" in Quenya.) Other members of the Club also mention their vivid dreams of other times


title: "Charles Bridge" content: Charles Bridge Charles Bridge ( ) is a historic bridge that crosses the Vltava river in Prague, Czech Republic. Its construction started in 1357 under the auspices of King Charles IV, and finished in the beginning of the 15th century. The bridge replaced the old Judith Bridge built 1158–1172 that had been badly damaged by a flood in 1342. This new bridge was originally called Stone Bridge ("Kamenný most") or Prague Bridge ("Pražský most") but has been "Charles Bridge" since 1870. As the only means of crossing the river Vltava (Moldau) until 1841, Charles Bridge was the most important connection


title: "Charles Bridge" content: between Prague Castle and the city's Old Town and adjacent areas. This "solid-land" connection made Prague important as a trade route between Eastern and Western Europe. The bridge is long and nearly wide, following the example of the Stone Bridge in Regensburg, it was built as a bow bridge with 16 arches shielded by ice guards. It is protected by three bridge towers, two on the Lesser Quarter side (including the Malá Strana Bridge Tower) and one on the Old Town side, the Old Town Bridge Tower. The bridge is decorated by a continuous alley of 30 statues and statuaries,


title: "Charles Bridge" content: most of them baroque-style, originally erected around 1700 but now all replaced by replicas. Repairs are scheduled to start in late 2019, and should take around 20 years. Throughout its history, Charles Bridge has suffered several disasters and witnessed many historic events. Czech legend has it that construction began on Charles Bridge at 5:31am on 9 July 1357 with the first stone being laid by Charles IV himself. This exact time was very important to the Holy Roman Emperor because he was a strong believer in numerology and felt that this specific time, which formed a palindrome (1357 9, 7


title: "Charles Bridge" content: 5:31), was a numerical bridge, and would imbue Charles Bridge with additional strength. The bridge was completed 45 years later in 1402. A flood in 1432 damaged three pillars. In 1496 the third arch (counting from the Old Town side) broke down after one of the pillars lowered, being undermined by the water (repairs were finished in 1503). A year after the Battle of White Mountain, when the 27 leaders of the anti-Habsburg revolt were executed on 21 June 1621, the Old Town Bridge Tower served as a deterrent display of the severed heads of the victims to stop Czechs


title: "Charles Bridge" content: from further resistance. During the end of the Thirty Years' War in 1648, the Swedes occupied the west bank of the Vltava, and as they tried to advance into the Old Town the heaviest fighting took place right on the bridge. During the fighting, they severely damaged one side of the Old Town bridge tower (the side facing the river) and the remnants of almost all gothic decorations had to be removed from it afterward. During the late 17th century and early 18th century the bridge gained its typical appearance when an alley of baroque statues was installed on the


title: "Charles Bridge" content: pillars. During a great flood in 1784, five pillars were severely damaged and, although the arches did not break down, the traffic on the bridge had to be greatly restricted for some time. The original stairway to Kampa Island was replaced by a new one in 1844. The next year, another great flood threatened the bridge, but the bridge escaped major damage. In 1848, during the revolutionary days, the bridge escaped unharmed from the cannonade, but some of the statues were damaged. In 1866, pseudo-gothic gas lights were erected on the balustrade; they were later replaced with electric lighting. In


title: "Charles Bridge" content: the 1870s, the first regular public-transport (omnibus) line went over the bridge (officially called "Charles Bridge" after 1870) later replaced by a horse tram. The bridge towers underwent a thorough reconstruction between 1874 and 1883. On 2–5 September 1890, another disastrous flood struck Prague and severely damaged Charles Bridge. Thousands of rafts, logs and other floating materials that escaped from places upstream gradually formed a huge barrier leaning against the bridge. Three arches were torn down by the great pressure and two pillars collapsed from being undermined by the water, while others were partly damaged. With the fifth pillar, two


title: "Charles Bridge" content: statues – St. Ignatius of Loyola and St. Xavier, both by Ferdinand Brokoff – also fell into the river. The former statue was replaced by a statuary of Saints Cyril and Methodius by Karel Dvořák; the latter was replaced by a replica of the original. Repair works lasted for two years (the bridge was reopened on 19 November 1892) and cost 665,000 crowns. In the beginning of the 20th century, Charles Bridge saw a steep rise of heavy traffic. The last day of the horse line on the bridge was 15 May 1905, when it was replaced with an electric


title: "Charles Bridge" content: tram and later, in 1908, with buses. At the end of World War II, a barricade was built in the Old Town bridge tower gateway. A capital repair of the bridge took place between 1965 and 1978, based on a collaboration among various scientific and cultural institutes. The stability of the pillars was reassured, all broken stone blocks were replaced, and the asphalt top was removed. All vehicular traffic has been excluded from Charles Bridge since then, making it accessible by pedestrians only. The repair cost 50 million crowns. During the 1990s, some people started criticizing the previous reconstruction of


title: "Charles Bridge" content: the bridge and proposing further work. As of the beginning of the new millennium, most of the experts appeared to agree that the previous reconstruction had not been flawless but disputed the need for further interference with the bridge. However, after the disastrous floods of 2002 (which themselves caused only minor harm to the bridge), support for an overall bridge reconstruction grew. It was decided that repair and stabilization of the two pillars (numbers 8 and 9) on the Malá Strana side of the bridge would be done. These are the only river pillars that were not repaired after the


title: "Charles Bridge" content: 1890 floods. The reconstruction was a gradual process that closed off parts of the bridge without closing the span entirely. Performed from 2008 to 2010, the work included bolstering the pillars and building a new hydroisolation system protecting the bridge. It also encompassed a re-pavimentation of the bridge's pavement and the replacement of many of the stones in the bridge walls, a matter which was controversial due to a heavy-handed approach adopted by the restoration team, which had no previous experience in restoration of cultural heritage monuments. The result has been criticised by conservation professionals all over Europe (see photos


title: "Charles Bridge" content: on external links), as dozens of new replacement stones do not match the historical ones they are next to, the amount of replaced stones is considered excessive, some stones have been inappropriately positioned, original stones have been chipped and joining materials employed are considered not appropriate for the structure. In 2010 UNESCO's World Heritage Committee adopted a decision stating that "the restoration of Charles Bridge was carried out without adequate conservation advice on materials and techniques". The avenue of 30 mostly baroque statues and statuaries situated on the balustrade forms a unique connection of artistic styles with the underlying gothic


title: "Charles Bridge" content: bridge. Most sculptures were erected between 1683 and 1714. They depict various saints and patron saints venerated at that time. The most prominent Bohemian sculptors of the time took part in decorating the bridge, such as Matthias Braun, Jan Brokoff, and his sons Michael Joseph and Ferdinand Maxmilian. Among the most notable sculptures, one can find the statuaries of St. Luthgard, the Holy Crucifix and Calvary, and John of Nepomuk. Well known also is the statue of the knight Bruncvík, although it was erected some 200 years later and does not belong to the main avenue. Beginning in 1965, all


title: "Charles Bridge" content: of the statues have been systematically replaced by replicas, and the originals have been exhibited in the Lapidarium of the National Museum. Charles Bridge Charles Bridge ( ) is a historic bridge that crosses the Vltava river in Prague, Czech Republic. Its construction started in 1357 under the auspices of King Charles IV, and finished in the beginning of the 15th century. The bridge replaced the old Judith Bridge built 1158–1172 that had been badly damaged by a flood in 1342. This new bridge was originally called Stone Bridge ("Kamenný most") or Prague Bridge ("Pražský most") but has been "Charles


title: "Samadhi of Ranjit Singh" content: Samadhi of Ranjit Singh The Samadhi of Ranjit Singh (; ) is a 19th-century building in Lahore, Pakistan that houses the funerary urns of the Jat Sikh ruler Ranjit Singh (1780 - 1839). It is located adjacent the Lahore Fort and Badshahi Mosque, as well the Gurdwara Dera Sahib which marks the spot where the 5th guru of Sikhism, Guru Arjan Dev, died. Construction of the building was started by his son, Kharak Singh on the spot where he was cremated, and was completed by his youngest son, Duleep Singh in 1848. The funerary urns were removed from the marble


title: "Samadhi of Ranjit Singh" content: pavilion and were replaced by a simple slab around 1999. This was done as part of the preparations for the Khalsa Tricentenary and the visit of Sikh dignitaries from India. It has been kept well by Pakistani government. The Samadhi was damaged by an earthquake in 2005 but was repaired soon. The building combines elements of Sikh, Hindu, and Islamic architecture. Portions of the building are believed to have been plundered from the adjacent Lahore Fort. The building has gilded fluted domes and cupolas, and an ornate balustrade around the upper portion of the building. The front of the doorway


title: "Samadhi of Ranjit Singh" content: has images of Ganesh, Devi and Brahma that are cut from red sand stone. The dome is decorated with Naga (serpent) hood designs - the product of Hindu craftsmen that worked on the project. The wooden panels on the ceiling are decorated with stained glass work, while the walls are richly decorated with floral designs. The ceilings are decorated with glass mosaic work. Ranjit Singh's ashes are contained in a marble urn in the shape of a lotus, sheltered under a marble pavilion inlaid with pietra dura, in the centre of the tomb. Surrounding him, in smaller urns, are the


title: "Samadhi of Ranjit Singh" content: ashes of four sati queens and seven concubines. Two small monuments to the west of the main building commemorate Maharaja Ranjit Singh's son Maharaja Kharak Singh and grandson Nau Nihal Singh, along with their wives. The building is located adjacent to Gurdwara Dera Sahib, the place where martyrdom of Guru Arjun took place. Samadhi of Ranjit Singh The Samadhi of Ranjit Singh (; ) is a 19th-century building in Lahore, Pakistan that houses the funerary urns of the Jat Sikh ruler Ranjit Singh (1780 - 1839). It is located adjacent the Lahore Fort and Badshahi Mosque, as well the Gurdwara


title: "Hazuri Bagh" content: Hazuri Bagh Hazuri Bagh () is a garden in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan, bounded by the Lahore Fort to the east, Badshahi Mosque to the west, the Samadhi of Ranjit Singh to the north, and the Roshnai Gate to the south. The "Serai Alamgiri" caravanserai formerly stood where Hazuri Bagh is now located. In the centre of the park stands the Hazuri Bagh Baradari, built by Ranjit Singh in 1818 to celebrate his capture of the "Koh-i-Noor" diamond from Shuja Shah Durrani in 1813. The garden was planned and built under the supervision of Faqir Azizuddin in the traditional Mughal style


title: "Hazuri Bagh" content: layout. After its completion, it is said, Ranjit Singh, at the suggestion of Jamadar Khushhal Singh, ordered that marble vandalized from various mausoleums of Lahore to construct a baradari (pavilion) here. This task was given to Khalifa Nooruddin. Elegant carved marble pillars support the baradari’s delicate cusped arches. The central area, where Ranjit Singh held court, has a mirrored ceiling. Both the garden and the baradari, originally a 45-foot, three-storey square with a basement approached by fifteen steps, suffered extensive damage during the fratricidal Sikh wars and was only reclaimed and laid out according to the original plan during the


title: "Hazuri Bagh" content: British period. On 19 July 1932, the uppermost story collapsed and was never reconstructed. Every Sunday afternoon, people gather in the gardens to hear reciters recite traditional Punjabi Qisse, such as Heer Ranjha and Sassi Punnun, and other Punjabi Sufi poetry. The tomb of Muhammad Iqbal lies across from the garden outside of the Badshahi Mosque. Hazuri Bagh Hazuri Bagh () is a garden in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan, bounded by the Lahore Fort to the east, Badshahi Mosque to the west, the Samadhi of Ranjit Singh to the north, and the Roshnai Gate to the south. The "Serai Alamgiri" caravanserai


title: "Julia Gillard" content: a deliberate campaign to smear Tony Abbott, on gender issues. On 9 October 2012, Gillard also raised "sexism and misogyny" in a speech opposing a motion to remove Peter Slipper, her choice as Speaker of the House of Representatives, after revelations of inappropriate conduct on his part became public. Gillard linked the speech to the context of the then ongoing Alan Jones "died of shame" controversy. The speech was widely reported around the world. In Laos soon after for an Asian-European leaders conference, Gillard described comments by François Hollande and Helle Thorning-Schmidt: "The president of France congratulated me on the


title: "European badger" content: European badger The European badger ("Meles meles") also known as the Eurasian badger or simply badger"', is a species of badger in the family Mustelidae and is native to almost all of Europe and some parts of West Asia. Several subspecies are recognized; the nominate subspecies ("Meles meles meles") predominates over most of Europe. The European badger is classified as being of least concern by the IUCN as it has a wide range and a large population size which is stable, and even increasing in some areas. The European badger is a powerfully built black, white, brown and grey animal


title: "European badger" content: with a small head, a stocky body, small black eyes and short tail. Its weight varies, being 7–13 kg (15–29 lb) in spring but building up to 15–17 kg (33–37 lb) in autumn before the winter sleep period. It is nocturnal and is a social, burrowing animal that sleeps during the day in one of several setts in its territorial range. These burrows, which may house several badger families, have extensive systems of underground passages and chambers and have multiple entrances. Some setts have been in use for decades. Badgers are very fussy over the cleanliness of their burrow, carrying


title: "European badger" content: in fresh bedding and removing soiled material, and they defecate in latrines strategically situated around their territory. Although classified as a carnivore, the European badger feeds on a wide variety of plant and animal foods, feeding on earthworms, large insects, small mammals, carrion, cereals and root tubers. Litters of up to five cubs are produced in spring. The young are weaned a few months later but usually remain within the family group. The European badger has been known to share its burrow with other species such as rabbits, red foxes and raccoon dogs, but it can be ferocious when provoked,


title: "European badger" content: a trait which has been exploited in the now illegal blood sport of badger-baiting. Bovine tuberculosis can sometimes affect badgers, and therefore a controversial trial culling of 70% of the population in areas of prolific TB outbreaks has taken place. No verifiable statistical data has however been published to support claims of a resulting 16% reduction. The source of the word "badger" is uncertain. The Oxford English Dictionary states it probably derives from "badge" + "-ard", referring to the white mark borne like a badge on its forehead, and may date to the early sixteenth century. The French word "bêcheur"


title: "European badger" content: (digger) has also been suggested as a source. A male badger is a boar, a female is a sow, and a young badger is a cub. A badger's home is called a sett. Badger colonies are often called clans. The far older name "brock" (Old English: "brocc"), (Scots: "brock") is a Celtic loanword (cf. Gaelic "broc" and Welsh "broch", from Proto-Celtic "*brokko") meaning "grey". The Proto-Germanic term was "*þahsu-" (cf. German "Dachs", Dutch "das", Norwegian "svin"-"toks"; Early Modern English: "dasse"), probably from the PIE root "*tek'-" "to construct," so the badger would have been named after its digging of setts


title: "European badger" content: (tunnels); the Germanic term "*þahsu-" became "taxus" or "taxō", -"ōnis" in Latin glosses, replacing "mēlēs" ("marten" or "badger"), and from these words the common Romance terms for the animal evolved (Italian "tasso", French "tesson/taisson/tasson"—now "blaireau" is more common—, Catalan "toixó", Spanish "tejón", Portuguese "texugo"). Until the mid-18th century, European badgers were variously known in English as 'brock', 'pate', 'grey' and 'bawson'. The name "bawson" is derived from "bawsened", which refers to something striped with white. "Pate" is a local name which was once popular in northern England. The name "badget" was once common, but restricted to Norfolk, while "earth dog"


title: "European badger" content: was used in southern Ireland. The badger is commonly referred to in Welsh as a "mochyn daear" (earth pig). The species likely evolved from the Chinese "Meles thorali" of the early Pleistocene. The modern species originated during the early Middle Pleistocene, with fossil sites occurring in Episcopia, Grombasek, Süssenborn, Hundsheim, Erpfingen, Koneprusy, Mosbach 2, and Stránská Skála. A comparison between fossil and living specimens shows a marked progressive adaptation to omnivory, namely in the increase in the molars' surface areas and the modification of the carnassials. Occasionally, badger bones may be discovered in strata from much earlier dates, due to


title: "European badger" content: the burrowing habits of the animal. , eight subspecies are recognized. European badgers are powerfully built animals with small heads, thick, short necks, stocky, wedge-shaped bodies and short tails. Their feet are plantigrade or semidigitigrade and short, with five toes on each foot. The limbs are short and massive, with naked lower surfaces on the feet. The claws are strong, elongated and have an obtuse end, which assists in digging. The claws are not retractable, and the hind claws wear with age. Old badgers sometimes have their hind claws almost completely worn away from constant use. Their snouts, which are