title: "Great St Bernard Pass" content: Great St Bernard Pass Great St Bernard Pass (, , ; ) is the third highest road pass in Switzerland. It connects Martigny in the canton of Valais in Switzerland with Aosta in the region Aosta Valley in Italy. It is the lowest pass lying on the ridge between the two highest mountains of the Alps, Mont Blanc and Monte Rosa. The pass itself is located in Switzerland in the canton of Valais, very close to Italy. It is located on the main watershed that separates the basin of the Rhône from that of the Po. Great St Bernard is


title: "Great St Bernard Pass" content: one of the most ancient passes through the Western Alps, with evidence of use as far back as the Bronze Age and surviving traces of a Roman road. In 1800, Napoleon's army used the pass to enter Italy, an event depicted in Jacques-Louis David's "Napoleon at the Saint-Bernard Pass" and Hippolyte Delaroche's "Bonaparte Crossing the Alps", both notable oil paintings. Having been bypassed by easier and more practical routes, particularly the Great St Bernard Tunnel which opened in 1964, its value today is mainly historical and recreational. Straddling the highest point of the road, the Great St Bernard Hospice was


title: "Great St Bernard Pass" content: founded in 1049. The hospice later became famous for its use of St Bernard dogs in rescue operations. The pass runs northeast-southwest through the Valais Alps (formerly known as the Pennine Alps after the Roman name for the pass, "poeninus mons" or "summus poeninus") at a maximum elevation of . The road running through the pass, highway E27 in both Italy and Switzerland, joins Martigny on the upper Rhône in the canton of Valais, Switzerland, to Aosta in the Aosta Valley region of Italy. From Martigny Route 9 descends to Lausanne and from Aosta Route A5 descends to Torino. From


title: "Great St Bernard Pass" content: the north, in Switzerland, the route to the pass follows the lower part of the river La Drance above Martigny, then into the wild and desolate Val d'Entremont (lit.: "valley between mountain") through which the Drance d'Entremont flows. The Great St Bernard Tunnel (and the main road) plunges through the mountains at a level, reducing, since the tunnel's opening in 1964, the commercial relevance of the road over the pass. On the south side the route follows the steep slopes of the upper part of the Torrent du Grand Saint-Bernard to the south, then turns to the east and follows


title: "Great St Bernard Pass" content: the river in a bend to the south, where the mountain river enters the Torrent Artanavaz and turns to the east again, then smoothly to the southeast. Here the river enters the La Buthier in the lower end of the Valpelline and turns south again on which end finally the river flows into the Dora Baltea in Aosta. The route here in the main valley of the Val d'Aoste becomes part of the motorway connecting the Mont Blanc Tunnel to the west and the upper Po Basin to the southeast. A reduction of utility began after the construction of the


title: "Great St Bernard Pass" content: Simplon Tunnel, strictly a railway tunnel, to the east in 1905. The much smaller historic road winding over the pass itself, which lies a few hundred metres from the Swiss border with Italy, is only passable June to September. The pass at narrowest point runs between the peaks of Grande Chenalette at and Mont Mort at . Slightly to the west is Pointe de Drône at , the highest peak. Between it and the pass is Petite Chenalette at . The Tour de France has visited the pass five times. It was climbed four times as a 1st category climb,


title: "Great St Bernard Pass" content: and one time, in 2009, as a hors catégorie climb. The snow in the pass in winter may be as much as 10 metres deep. The temperature may drop as low as -30 °C. The lake in the pass is frozen for 265 days per year. A summary of weather data for the year 1981-2010 is given below. The pass is well above the tree line. All the wood required for construction and firewood must be hauled in from some distance. On the south-west side of the pass is a small tarn, the Great St Bernard Lake, which captures melt


title: "Great St Bernard Pass" content: water and does not support fish, even though attempts have been made to stock it. In past years the tarn has not always thawed completely in summer. Alpine flowers are abundant in the vicinity: Gentiana clusii, Ranunculus glacialis, Dryas octopetala, Forget-me-not, Saxifraga oppositifolia among many hundreds more. Moss is prolific and the rocks are lichen-covered. A hospice for travellers was founded in 1049 by Saint Bernard of Menthon and came to be named after him in the 16th century, along with the pass. It was not the first hospice in the pass. Buildings were probably there since the Roman mansio,


title: "Great St Bernard Pass" content: but the region was not secure and they were destroyed many times. The first concern of the founder of the current monastery was to clear the region of bandits and keep the pass safe for travellers, the role of rescuers developing naturally. The hospice later became famous for its use of St Bernard dogs in rescue operations. Pope Pius XI confirmed Bernard as patron saint of the Alps in 1923. The hospice straddles the highest point of the road, which is in Switzerland. Today the modern road for through traffic has been routed around the outside of the monastery buildings


title: "Great St Bernard Pass" content: to allow some integrity of the grounds. The old road may still be seen, above the paved road. The hospice occupies two buildings, of 1560 and 1898 ("picture, right"). The Congregation of Canons of the Great Saint Bernard (the monks) also owns the Hôtel de l'Hospice du Grand-St-Bernard, a four-story building made of grey stone (built in 1899) on the Italian side, which it leases to a private entrepreneur for the provision of hotel services. The St Bernards were bred large enough to traverse deep snow and to scent out lost persons. The first evidence that the dogs were in


title: "Great St Bernard Pass" content: use at the monastery is two paintings dating to 1690 by Salvatore Rosa. It is often said that they carried small casks of brandy around their necks (although this is only legend), in the belief that the liquor had medicinal properties. A description of an overnight stay at the monastery in 1857 was given by Theodore Nielsen a Danish Kleinsmith Journeyman in his memoirs: Today the tunnel and modern technology have made rescue operations at the pass mainly unnecessary. The dogs were put up for sale in 2004 because of the high cost of maintenance and were promptly bought by


title: "Great St Bernard Pass" content: two foundations created for the purpose: Fondation Barry du Grand Saint Bernard (major contributor Christine Cerletti-Sarasin) and Fondation Bernard et Caroline de Watteville. Barry bought the kennels and the facilities in Martigny and continues to support and breed the dogs (three or four dozen). One condition of the sale is that they be brought to the monastery for the summer. Travellers are likely to see them romping around the slopes. The de Watteville Foundation keeps several dogs in kennels adjunct to its Musée. Both have agreed to work together and others have joined the partnership. The monastery currently houses a


title: "Great St Bernard Pass" content: handful of monks on a permanent basis and serves as a spiritual center for others on retreat. The pass first appears in history as the route taken by the Celtic tribes of the Boii and Lingones in the invasion of Italy of 390 BC. The classical authors first mentioning the pass in that or other contexts lived the 1st century BC under the early Roman empire. They were calling the pass and the mountains "Poeninus" or "Poenini", "Punic", an apparent reference to Hannibal's crossing. He did not cross there, however. On the presumption that the name was falsely altered by


title: "Great St Bernard Pass" content: analogy, it can be reconstructed to *peninus, a Roman-Celtic word, considering that Celtic tribes owned the entire pass until defeated by the Romans. Livy says that the pass was not named after the Carthaginians but after a mountain god. For well over a century scholars such as the Grimm brothers have made a connection with continental Celtic "pen" or "ben", "head, summit, chief" on an analogy with the "Zeus karaios" of Hesychius. Two tribes occupied the valleys on either side of the pass on a permanent basis: the Veragri on the Swiss side and the Salassi on the Italian side.


title: "Great St Bernard Pass" content: Julius Caesar sent an expedition under his best commander, Servius Galba, from Gaul in 57 BC to seize the pass, hoping to obtain a shorter route between Italy and Gaul than the contemporaneous coastal route. Galba was deceived by the Veragri into making camp near Martigny with the expectation of moving into the pass on the next day. At that time the Romans found the heights over the trail occupied by three hostile Gallic tribes. The Romans won a local victory by a daring foray from the camp but Galba judged he could not take the pass and departed. Augustus


title: "Great St Bernard Pass" content: succeeded where his adoptive father failed and the pass became Roman. Augustus placed a large "castra stativa" and colony, "Augusta Praetoria Salassorum", below the pass, which became Aosta (contraction of Augusta). Its ruins are a historic attraction there. By 43 AD under the emperor Claudius a good Roman road through the pass was completed with a mansio at the top and a temple to "Jupiter Poeninus", resulting in the name "Mons Jovis" in late antiquity, "Monte Jove" in the early Italian period and "Mont Joux" in the French period, a synonym for the pass. The site of the temple is


title: "Great St Bernard Pass" content: known as the Plan de Jupiter, located on a knoll on the Italian side of the pass. A cross was placed there in 1816 bearing the inscription "Deo optimo maximo", "to the best and greatest god." The bronze statue of St Bernard on a pedestal above the road on the Italian side, across a small valley from the cross, was constructed in 1905 on the site of the Roman "mansio". The coins and votive tablets found at the site of the temple roughly date the upper limit of Roman control of the pass. The youngest date to the reign of


title: "Great St Bernard Pass" content: Theodosius II (1st half of the 5th century). These and other artifacts are stored in the monastery museum. Fragments of the marble temple, some with inscriptions, have been incorporated into many structures of the village of Bourg-Saint-Pierre on the Swiss side of the pass. The Roman milestone for mile XXIIII was also brought to the center of the settlement from the top of the pass. The pass had entered history with the Gallic invasion of 390 BC. The last Gallic invasion over it occurred in May, 1800, under the direction of the 30-year-old First Consul of the French Republic, Napoleon


title: "Great St Bernard Pass" content: Bonaparte. An Austrian army of 140,000 men had laid siege to French-occupied Genoa on the west coast of northern Italy. Napoleon traversed the pass with 40,000 men and ⅓ of their heavy artillery sending another 20,000 over three other passes as a diversion, intending to strike the Austrian rear. The panicked Austrians were unable to assemble fast enough to meet the French en masse but rather in a piecemeal way in June 1800, and so were defeated first at the Battle of Montebello and then at the Battle of Marengo. Napoleon prepared for the march secretly by assembling men in


title: "Great St Bernard Pass" content: small units below the pass, establishing supply dumps along the lower part of their route, and hiring artisans to set up shop along it as well. On May 15 an advance unit went over the pass to take Aosta, after which hospitals were set up at Martigny and Aosta. At Martigny the army assembled and received rations for three days. All the equipment - carriages, artillery, arms and ammunition - was disassembled and divided into packs of 60-70 pounds for the men to carry. The cannons were to be dragged up over the snow in hollowed-out pine half-logs by mules,


title: "Great St Bernard Pass" content: and then when the mules died or were exhausted, by 100 soldiers and hired men each. Napoleon offered liberal monetary rewards to soldiers and laborers who could perform difficult portages in a timely fashion. Over several days at the end of May the army went over the pass single-file, 6000 men per day. Bands played martial music along the route, with drum rolls at especially difficult places to alert the men. At the top the monks handed each man two glasses of wine and a slice of rye with cheese as he filed by (courtesy of the French army). Accounts


title: "Great St Bernard Pass" content: of the amounts expended vary. On the other side the snow became so packed that the men slid down sitting. Napoleon was the last man over, sliding also. The good weather held for the entire crossing, which could easily have turned into a disaster, if it had not. On the way up Napoleon had discussed affairs of the heart with his young guide and mule driver, Pierre Nicholas Dorsaz, who did not know his identity. Offered a reward at the top, Dorsaz asked for the mule on which Napoleon was riding. He received the mule and a short note for


title: "Great St Bernard Pass" content: the chief supply officer of the army. Versions of the story vary, but they all agree that when the young man had turned in the note and had drawn his ample pay for the work, he found that his companion was Napoleon and the latter had given him a house and farm so that he could marry his sweetheart. In the Aosta Valley Napoleon's army slipped by an Austrian garrison at Bard just out of cannon range. The commander related that he was astonished to watch an army of 40,000 men in full equipment go marching past from the direction


title: "Great St Bernard Pass" content: of the heights. The Dorrit family crossed from France into Italy at the in Book Two: Riches, as recounted in the novel "Little Dorrit" by Charles Dickens. They meet the newlywed Gowans and the gentlemanly murderer Rigaud, now called Blandois, at the inn after climbing up on mules. The novel was published in 1857, but set in the mid 1820s. Dickens describes the sites of the pass, and the experience of staying overnight in the inn. Great St Bernard Pass Great St Bernard Pass (, , ; ) is the third highest road pass in Switzerland. It connects Martigny in


title: "Frederick Cope" content: aged 32 at the time of his election. During the election, he garnered support of the city's business class, and the "Vancouver World" newspaper. His council however would consist of "reformers" of the working class, in opposition to Cope's representation of the business class. During his mayoralty, the city experienced an economic downturn; Cope responded by attempting to limit civic expenses, including the laying off of city employees, and initiating cutbacks. He also advocated for the Canada-Australia Steam Line, with the inaugural ship arriving in June 1893. Cope was a Freemason. He drowned during the Klondike Gold Rush in 1897


title: "Sequoia National Park" content: Sequoia National Park Sequoia National Park is an American national park in the southern Sierra Nevada east of Visalia, California. The park was established on September 25, 1890 to protect of forested mountainous terrain. Encompassing a vertical relief of nearly , the park contains the highest point in the contiguous United States, Mount Whitney, at above sea level. The park is south of, and contiguous with, Kings Canyon National Park; the two parks are administered by the National Park Service together as the Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. UNESCO designated the areas as Sequoia-Kings Canyon Biosphere Reserve in 1976.


title: "Sequoia National Park" content: The park is notable for its giant sequoia trees, including the General Sherman tree, the largest tree on Earth. The General Sherman tree grows in the Giant Forest, which contains five of the ten largest trees in the world. The Giant Forest is connected by the Generals Highway to Kings Canyon National Park's General Grant Grove, home of the General Grant tree among other giant sequoias. The park's giant sequoia forests are part of of old-growth forests shared by Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. The parks preserve a landscape that still resembles the southern Sierra Nevada before Euro-American settlement.


title: "Sequoia National Park" content: Many park visitors enter Sequoia National Park through its southern entrance near the town of Three Rivers at Ash Mountain at elevation. The lower elevations around Ash Mountain contain the only National Park Service-protected California Foothills ecosystem, consisting of blue oak woodlands, foothills chaparral, grasslands, yucca plants, and steep, mild river valleys. The region is also home to abundant wildlife: bobcats, foxes, ground squirrels, rattlesnakes, and mule deer are commonly seen in this area, and more rarely, reclusive mountain lions and the Pacific fisher are seen as well. The last California grizzly was killed in this park in 1922 (at


title: "Sequoia National Park" content: Horse Corral Meadow). The California Black Oak is a key transition species between the chaparral and higher elevation conifer forest. At higher elevations in the front country, between in elevation, the landscape becomes montane forest-dominated coniferous belt. Found here are Ponderosa, Jeffrey, sugar, and lodgepole pine trees, as well as abundant white and red fir. Found here too are the giant sequoia trees, the most massive living single-stem trees on earth. Between the trees, spring and summer snowmelts sometimes fan out to form lush, though delicate, meadows. In this region, visitors often see mule deer, Douglas squirrels, and American black


title: "Sequoia National Park" content: bears, which sometimes break into unattended cars to eat food left by careless visitors. There are plans to reintroduce the bighorn sheep to this park. The vast majority of the park is roadless wilderness; no road crosses the Sierra Nevada within the park's boundaries. 84 percent of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks is designated wilderness and is accessible only by foot or by horseback. Sequoia's backcountry offers a vast expanse of high-alpine wonders. Covering the highest-elevation region of the High Sierra, the backcountry includes Mount Whitney on the eastern border of the park, accessible from the Giant Forest via


title: "Sequoia National Park" content: the High Sierra Trail. On a traveler's path along this backcountry trail, one passes through about of montane forest before reaching the backcountry resort of Bearpaw Meadow, just short of the Great Western Divide. Continuing along the High Sierra Trail over the Great Western Divide via Kaweah Gap, one passes from the Kaweah River Drainage, with its characteristic V-shaped river valleys, and into the Kern River drainage, where an ancient fault line has aided glaciers in the last ice age to create a U-shaped canyon that is almost perfectly straight for nearly . On the floor of this canyon, at


title: "Sequoia National Park" content: least two days hike from the nearest road, is the Kern Canyon hot spring, a popular resting point for weary backpackers. From the floor of Kern Canyon, the trail ascends again over to the summit of Mount Whitney. At Mount Whitney, the High Sierra Trail meets with the John Muir Trail and the Pacific Crest Trail, which continue northward along the Sierra crest and into the backcountry of Kings Canyon National Park. The area which now comprises Sequoia National Park was first home to "Monachee" (Western Mono) Native Americans, who resided mainly in the Kaweah River drainage in the Foothills


title: "Sequoia National Park" content: region of the park, though evidence of seasonal habitation exists as high as the Giant Forest. In the summertime, Native Americans would travel over the high mountain passes to trade with tribes to the East. To this day, pictographs can be found at several sites within the park, notably at Hospital Rock and Potwisha, as well as bedrock mortars used to process acorns, a staple food for the Monachee people. By the time the first European settlers arrived in the area, smallpox had already spread to the region, decimating Native American populations. The first European settler to homestead in the


title: "Sequoia National Park" content: area was Hale Tharp, who famously built a home out of a hollowed-out fallen giant sequoia log in the Giant Forest next to Log Meadow. Tharp allowed his cattle to graze the meadow, but at the same time had a respect for the grandeur of the forest and led early battles against logging in the area. From time to time, Tharp received visits from John Muir, who would stay at Tharp's log cabin. Tharp's Log can still be visited today in its original location in the Giant Forest. However, Tharp's attempts to conserve the giant sequoias were at first met


title: "Sequoia National Park" content: with only limited success. In the 1880s, white settlers seeking to create a utopian society founded the Kaweah Colony, which sought economic success in trading Sequoia timber. However, Giant Sequoia trees, unlike their coast redwood relatives, were later discovered to splinter easily and therefore were ill-suited to timber harvesting, though thousands of trees were felled before logging operations finally ceased. The National Park Service incorporated the Giant Forest into Sequoia National Park in 1890, the year of its founding, promptly ceasing all logging operations in the Giant Forest. The park has expanded several times over the decades to its present


title: "Sequoia National Park" content: size; one of the most recent expansions occurred in 1978, when grassroots efforts, spearheaded by the Sierra Club, fought off attempts by the Walt Disney Corporation to purchase a high-alpine former mining site south of the park for use as a ski resort. This site known as Mineral King was annexed to the park. Its name dates back to early 1873 when the miners in the area formed the Mineral King Mining District. Mineral King is the highest-elevation developed site within the park and a popular destination for backpackers. Sequoia National Park contains a significant portion of the Sierra Nevada.


title: "Sequoia National Park" content: The park's mountainous landscape includes the tallest mountain in the contiguous United States, Mount Whitney, which rises to above sea level. The Great Western Divide parallels the Sierran crest and is visible at various places in the park, for example, Mineral King, Moro Rock, and the Giant Forest. Peaks in the Great Western Divide rise to more than . Deep canyons lie between the mountains, including Tokopah Valley above Lodgepole, Deep Canyon on the Marble Fork of the Kaweah River, and Kern Canyon in the park's backcountry, which is more than deep for . Most of the mountains and canyons


title: "Sequoia National Park" content: in the Sierra Nevada are composed of granitic rocks. These rocks, such as granite, diorite and monzonite, formed when molten rock cooled far beneath the surface of the earth. The molten rock was the result of a geologic process known as subduction. Powerful forces in the earth forced the landmass under the waters of the Pacific Ocean beneath and below an advancing North American Continent. Super-hot water driven from the subducting ocean floor migrated upward and melted rock as it proceeded. This process took place during the Cretaceous Period, 100 million years ago. Granitic rocks have a speckled salt-and-pepper appearance


title: "Sequoia National Park" content: because they contain various minerals including quartz, feldspars and micas. Valhalla, or the Angel Wings, are prominent granitic cliffs that rise above the headwaters of the Middle Fork of the Kaweah River. The Sierra Nevada is a young mountain range, probably not more than 10 million years old. Forces in the earth, probably associated with the development of the Great Basin, forced the mountains to rise. During the last 10 million years, at least four ice ages have coated the mountains in a thick mantle of ice. Glaciers form and develop during long periods of cool and wet weather. Glaciers


title: "Sequoia National Park" content: move very slowly through the mountains, carving deep valleys and craggy peaks. The extensive history of glaciation within the range and the erosion resistant nature of the granitic rocks that make up most of the Sierra Nevada have together created a landscape of hanging valleys, waterfalls, craggy peaks, alpine lakes and glacial canyons. Park caves, like most caves in the Sierra Nevada of California, are mostly solutional caves dissolved from marble. Marble rock is essentially limestone that was metamorphosed by the heat and pressure of the formation and uplift of the Sierra Nevada Batholith. The batholith's rapid uplift over the


title: "Sequoia National Park" content: past 10 million years led to a rapid erosion of the metamorphic rocks in the higher elevations, exposing the granite beneath; therefore, most Sierra Nevada caves are found in the middle and lower elevations (below ), though some caves are found in the park at elevations as high as such as the White Chief cave and Cirque Cave in Mineral King. These caves are carved out of the rock by the abundant seasonal streams in the park. Most of the larger park caves have, or have had, sinking streams running through them. The park contains more than 270 known caves,


title: "Sequoia National Park" content: including Lilburn Cave which is California's longest cave with nearly of surveyed passages. The only commercial cave open to park visitors is Crystal Cave, the park's second-longest cave at over . Crystal Cave was discovered on April 28, 1918 by Alex Medley and Cassius Webster. The cave is a constant , and is only accessible by guided tour. Caves are discovered every year in the park with the most recently discovered major cave being Ursa Minor in August 2006. Animals that inhabit this park are coyote, badger, black bear, bighorn sheep, deer, fox, cougar, eleven species of woodpecker, various species


title: "Sequoia National Park" content: of turtle, three species of owl, opossum, various species of snake, wolverine, beaver, various species of frog, and muskrat. In addition to hiking, camping, fishing, and backpacking, the following attractions are highlights with many park visitors: Sequoia National Park Sequoia National Park is an American national park in the southern Sierra Nevada east of Visalia, California. The park was established on September 25, 1890 to protect of forested mountainous terrain. Encompassing a vertical relief of nearly , the park contains the highest point in the contiguous United States, Mount Whitney, at above sea level. The park is south of, and


title: "Generalitat de Catalunya" content: then Mariano Rajoy and Brey. Reason for the Independence Boom that happened in 2010 with 8% support in 2018 with 52.4% Support. Former president Artur Mas (mentioned above) was recently charged by the Spanish government for civil disobedience, after he organised and staged a referendum on independence in 2014. The most recent President of the Generalitat of Catalonia was Carles Puigdemont, member of the Catalan European Democratic Party, successor formation to the defunct Convergence and Union alliance. He was suspended from office on 27 October 2017, by the Spanish government. The autonomous government consists of the Executive Council, the President


title: "Green-veined white" content: Green-veined white The green-veined white ("Pieris napi") is a butterfly of the family Pieridae. A circumboreal species widespread across Europe and Asia, including the Indian subcontinent, Japan, the Maghreb and North America. It is found in meadows, hedgerows and woodland glades but not as often in gardens and parks like its close relatives the large and small whites, for which it is often mistaken. Like other "white" butterflies, the sexes differ. The female has two spots on each forewing, the male only one. The veins on the wings of the female are usually more heavily marked. The underside hindwings are


title: "Green-veined white" content: pale yellow with the veins highlighted by black scales giving a greenish tint, hence green-veined white. Unlike the large and small whites, it rarely chooses garden cabbages to lay its eggs on, preferring wild crucifers. Males emit a sex pheromone that is perceptible to humans, citral, the basic flavor-imparting component of lemon peel oil. Some authors consider the mustard white and West Virginia white of North America to be conspecific with "P. napi" or consider "P. napi" to be a superspecies. Despite this, the American butterflies, unlike "P. napi", cannot successfully use garlic mustard as a host plant. Females will


title: "Green-veined white" content: lay eggs on it, mistaking this non-native species for a compatible native mustard, resulting in the death of the offspring. Classification is also an issue concerning the European dark-veined white. The eggs are laid singly on a wide range of food plants including hedge mustard ("Sisybrium officinale"), garlic mustard ("Alliaria petiolata"), cuckooflower ("Cardamine pratense"), water-cress ("Rorippa nastutium-aquaticum"), charlock ("Sinapis arvensis"), large bitter-cress ("Cardamine amara"), wild cabbage ("Brassica oleracea"), and wild radish ("Raphanus raphanistrum"), and so it is rarely a pest in gardens or field crops. The caterpillar is green and well camouflaged. When full grown it is green above with


title: "Green-veined white" content: black warts, from which arise whitish and blackish hairs. There is a darker line along the back and a yellow line low down on the sides. Underneath the colour is whitish-grey. The spiracular line is dusky but not conspicuous, and the spiracles are blackish surrounded with yellow. There is extensive overlap with other leaf-feeding larvae of large and small whites in some wild populations (e.g. in Morocco). It is often found feeding on the same plant as the orange tip but rarely competes for food because it usually feeds on the leaves whereas the orange tip caterpillar feeds on the


title: "Green-veined white" content: flowers and developing seed pods. Like other "Pieris" species it overwinters as a pupa. This is green in colour, and the raised parts are yellowish and brown. This is the most frequent form, but it varies through yellowish to buff or greyish, and is sometimes without markings. "P. napi" is found in damp, grassy places with some shade, forest edges, hedgerows, meadows and wooded river valleys. The later generations widen their habitat use in the search for alternative food plants in drier, but flowery places. In the Mediterranean the insect is also found in scrub around mountain streams or springs


title: "Green-veined white" content: and on floodplains with "Nasturtium officinale". It is found from sea level to high elevations (2500 m in central Europe, 2600 m in Italy, 3600 m in Morocco). The generations vary with location, elevation and season. In northern Europe there are two or three generations from April to early September. In warmer areas and in some good years there is a fourth generation. In southern Europe there are three or more partially overlapping generations from March to October. In Great Britain, April, May and June specimens have the veins tinged with grey and rather distinct, but are not so strongly


title: "Green-veined white" content: marked with black as those belonging to the second flight, which occurs in late July and throughout August. This seasonal variation, as it is called, is also most clearly exhibited on the underside. In the May and June butterfly (plate 13, left side) the veins below are greenish grey, and those of the hindwings are broadly bordered also with this colour. In the bulk of the July and August specimens (plate 13, right side) only the nervures are shaded with greenish grey, and the nervures are only faintly, or not at all, marked with this colour. Now and then a


title: "Green-veined white" content: specimen of the first brood may assume the characters properly belonging to the specimens of the second brood; and, on the other hand, a butterfly of the second brood may closely resemble one of the first brood. As a rule, however, the seasonal differences referred to are fairly constant. By rearing this species from the egg it has been ascertained that part (sometimes the smaller) of a brood from eggs laid in June attains the butterfly stage the same year, and the other part remains in the chrysalis until the following spring, the butterflies in each set being of the


title: "Green-veined white" content: form proper to the time of emergence. Recent research has shown that when males mate with a female, they inject methyl salicylate along with their sperm. The smell of this compound repels other males, thus ensuring the first male's paternity of the eggs—a form of chemical mate guarding. After a female mates, she will display a mate refusal posture that releases methyl salicylate during a subsequent courtship. The release of this anti-aphrodisiac will quickly terminate the courtship. Males are very sensitive to differences in methyl salicylate levels, and will use this sense to influence their mating behaviour. However, a virgin


title: "Green-veined white" content: female displaying a very similar posture will release a different chemical that will prolong the courtship ritual. Males are sensitive to these chemical and postural differences, and can discriminate between a receptive virgin female and an unreceptive mated female. The adult male of this species has a distinctive odour that resembles lemon verbena. This smell is associated with specialized androconial scales on male wings. In the usually polyandrous "P. napi", females who mate multiple times have higher lifetime fecundity, lay larger eggs, and live longer compared to females who mate only once. In most organisms it is the female who


title: "Green-veined white" content: contributes the most to the reproduction of offspring as she must invest an egg and then carry the zygote. Males, on the other hand, need only provide a sperm that is of low cost. In "P. napi," however, mating is unusually costly to males as the ejaculate matter produced contains not only sperm but accessory substances as well. These substances average 15% of male body mass and are incorporated into female soma and reproductive tissues during the mating process. Therefore, the nuptial gift given by "P. napi" males qualifies both as paternal investment and mating effort. This system is unlike


title: "Green-veined white" content: other types of butterflies such as "Pararge aegeria", where female reproductive effort is independent of male ejaculate. The amount of ejaculate of virgin males during mating is larger than that of non-virgin males. Females therefore must mate more frequently with non-virgin males in order to obtain the necessary amount of male-derived nutrition. In "P. napi," the nuptial gift is an example of sexual cooperation towards a common interest of both males and females. The existence of nutrients in the ejaculate is beneficial to the females because it increases female fecundity and longevity, and eventually promotes re-mating. The existence of the


title: "Green-veined white" content: anti-aphrodisiac, methyl salicylate, is effective in reducing female harassment by other males. However, the transfer of this ejaculate can cause a conflict over re-mating due to sperm competition. After a female mates, infertile sperm ejaculated by the male will fill the female's sperm storage organ and prevent her from mating. The amount of infertile sperm stored is correlated with the refractory period of a female after mating. Infertile sperm makes up 90% of the sperm count, showing that males manipulate females by preventing them from mating with another male for a certain period of time. Although polyandry benefits females of


title: "Green-veined white" content: "P. napi" by maximizing the amount of transferred nutrients from the male, the infertile sperm storage prolongs female re-mating. This refractory period makes it harder for females to mate, and females will continue to have difficulty as their age and mating frequency increase. Males who have recently copulated will not transfer as many nutrients to their next mate, but will spend a longer duration of time for each mating. This increases the mating costs for females because they are spending more time copulating and receiving fewer nutrients from the ejaculate. Males take advantage of this because females do not reduce


title: "Green-veined white" content: their mating costs by copulating with virgin males. In addition, males will transfer the most methyl salicylate to their first mate to ensure its paternity. However, a female who mates with a virgin male will have the most difficulty re-mating, therefore delaying her from engaging in the preferred polyandry. Males tailor their ejaculate in the sense that the first ejaculate is meant to prolong the refractory period of the female, and every subsequent ejaculate is meant to maximize efficiency in sperm competition. Smaller females may be able to compensate for their size by receiving male ejaculate through increased mating frequency.


title: "Green-veined white" content: However, this is not the case, as larger females are more polyandrous. Larger females are able to break down the spermatophore and reduce the refractory period to increase mating frequency. Some authorities consider "P. napi" to be a superspecies that includes the American species mustard white and West Virginia white as well as the European dark-veined white. However, the American butterflies cannot successfully reproduce by laying eggs on the invasive weed garlic mustard, "Alliaria petiolata", a fact that threatens their survival as garlic mustard out-competes native mustard plants due to having no biological control species present in North America. In


title: "Green-veined white" content: Europe, where garlic mustard is native, 76 things consume it. For others see Wikispecies. Green-veined white The green-veined white ("Pieris napi") is a butterfly of the family Pieridae. A circumboreal species widespread across Europe and Asia, including the Indian subcontinent, Japan, the Maghreb and North America. It is found in meadows, hedgerows and woodland glades but not as often in gardens and parks like its close relatives the large and small whites, for which it is often mistaken. Like other "white" butterflies, the sexes differ. The female has two spots on each forewing, the male only one. The veins on


title: "Brazil nut" content: Brazil nut The Brazil nut (Bertholletia excelsa) is a South American tree in the family Lecythidaceae, and also the name of the tree's commercially harvested edible seeds. The Brazil nut family is in the order Ericales, as are other well-known plants such as blueberries, cranberries, sapote, gutta-percha, tea, phlox and persimmons. The Brazil nut tree is the only species in the monotypic genus "Bertholletia". It is native to the Guianas, Venezuela, Brazil, eastern Colombia, eastern Peru, and eastern Bolivia. It occurs as scattered trees in large forests on the banks of the Amazon River, Rio Negro, Tapajós, and the Orinoco.


title: "Brazil nut" content: The genus is named after the French chemist Claude Louis Berthollet. The Brazil nut is a large tree, reaching tall and with a trunk in diameter, making it among the largest of trees in the Amazon rainforests. It may live for 500 years or more, and according to some authorities often reaches an age of 1,000 years. The stem is straight and commonly without branches for well over half the tree's height, with a large emergent crown of long branches above the surrounding canopy of other trees. The bark is grayish and smooth. The leaves are dry-season deciduous, alternate, simple,


title: "Brazil nut" content: entire or crenate, oblong, long and broad. The flowers are small, greenish-white, in panicles long; each flower has a two-parted, deciduous calyx, six unequal cream-colored petals, and numerous stamens united into a broad, hood-shaped mass. In Brazil, it is illegal to cut down a Brazil nut tree. As a result, they can be found outside production areas, in the backyards of homes and near roads and streets. The fruits are very heavy and rigid; when the fruits fall, they pose a serious threat to vehicles and people passing under the tree. Brazil nut fruits sink in fresh water, which can


title: "Brazil nut" content: cause clogging of waterways in riparian areas. Brazil nut trees produce fruit almost exclusively in pristine forests, as disturbed forests lack the large-bodied bees of the genera "Bombus", "Centris", "Epicharis", "Eulaema", and "Xylocopa" which are the only ones capable of pollinating the tree's flowers, with different bee genera being the primary pollinators in different areas, and different times of year. Brazil nuts have been harvested from plantations, but production is low and is currently not economically viable. The fruit takes 14 months to mature after pollination of the flowers. The fruit itself is a large capsule in diameter, resembling a


title: "Brazil nut" content: coconut endocarp in size and weighing up to . It has a hard, woody shell thick, which contains eight to 24 triangular seeds long (the "Brazil nuts") packed like the segments of an orange. The capsule contains a small hole at one end, which enables large rodents like the agouti to gnaw it open. They then eat some of the seeds inside while burying others for later use; some of these are able to germinate into new Brazil nut trees. Most of the seeds are "planted" by the agoutis in shady places, and the young saplings may have to wait


title: "Brazil nut" content: years, in a state of dormancy, for a tree to fall and sunlight to reach it, when it starts growing again. Capuchin monkeys have been reported to open Brazil nuts using a stone as an anvil. Despite their name, the most significant exporter of Brazil nuts is not Brazil but Bolivia, where they are called or . In Brazil, these nuts are called (literally "chestnuts from Pará"), but Acreans call them instead. Indigenous names include "juvia" in the Orinoco area. In Cuba, the nut is alternatively called , literally "St. James coconut". In the past in North America, Brazil nuts


title: "Brazil nut" content: were sometimes known by the epithet "nigger toes", a term that became unacceptable as a racial slur. In 2014, global production of Brazil nuts (in shell) was 95,000 tonnes, remaining a consistent annual total since 2009. The largest producers were Bolivia (47% of world total) and Brazil (40%), and the United States was the largest importer, with 9% of the world production volume. Brazil nuts for international trade can come from wild collection rather than from plantations. This has been advanced as a model for generating income from a tropical forest without destroying it. The nuts are gathered by migrant


title: "Brazil nut" content: workers known as "castanheiros". Analysis of tree ages in areas that are harvested show that moderate and intense gathering takes so many seeds that not enough are left to replace older trees as they die. Sites with light gathering activities had many young trees, while sites with intense gathering practices had hardly any young trees. Statistical tests were done to determine what environmental factors could be contributing to the lack of younger trees. The most consistent effect was found to be the level of gathering activity at a particular site. A computer model predicting the size of trees where people


title: "Brazil nut" content: picked all the nuts matched the tree size data gathered from physical sites that had heavy harvesting. Brazil nuts are 14% protein, 12% carbohydrate, and 66% fat by weight; 85% of their calories come from fat, and a 100 gram amount provides 656 total calories. The fat components are 23% saturated, 38% monounsaturated, and 32% polyunsaturated. Due to their high polyunsaturated fat content, primarily omega-6 fatty acids, shelled Brazil nuts may quickly become rancid. Nutritionally, Brazil nuts are an excellent source (> 19% of the Daily Value, DV) of dietary fiber (30% DV) and various vitamins and dietary minerals. A


title: "Brazil nut" content: 100 gram amount (75% of one cup) of Brazil nuts contains rich content of thiamin (54% DV), vitamin E (38% DV), magnesium (106% DV), phosphorus (104% DV), manganese (57% DV) and zinc (43% DV) (right table). Brazil nuts are perhaps the richest dietary source of selenium, with a one-ounce (28 g) serving of 6 nuts supplying 774% DV. This is 10 times the adult U.S. Recommended Dietary Allowance, more even than the Tolerable Upper Intake Level, although the amount of selenium within batches of nuts varies greatly. The European Union has imposed strict regulations on the import from Brazil of


title: "Brazil nut" content: Brazil nuts in their shells, as the shells have been found to contain high levels of aflatoxins, which can lead to liver cancer. Brazil nuts contain small amounts of radium, a radioactive element, in about 1–7 nCi/kg or 40–260 Bq/kg, about 1000 times higher than in several other common foods; according to Oak Ridge Associated Universities, this is not because of elevated levels of radium in the soil, but due to "the very extensive root system of the tree." Brazil nuts are a common ingredient in mixed nuts. Because of their large size, they tend to rise to the top


title: "Brazil nut" content: upon forced vibrations likely encountered during transport, an example of granular convection, which for this reason is often called the "Brazil nut effect." Brazil nut oil contains 75% unsaturated fatty acids composed mainly of oleic and linolenic acids, as well as the phytosterol, beta-sitosterol, and fat-soluble vitamin E. The following table presents the composition of fatty acids in Brazil nut oil: As well as its food use, Brazil nut oil is also used as a lubricant in clocks, for making artists' paints, and in the cosmetics industry. Engravings in Brazil nut shells were supposedly used as decorative jewelry by the


title: "Brazil nut" content: indigenous tribes in Bolivia, although no examples still exist. Because of its hardness, the Brazil nut's shell is often pulverized and used as an abrasive to polish materials such as metals and even ceramics (in the same way jeweler's rouge is used). The lumber from Brazil nut trees (not to be confused with Brazilwood) is of excellent quality, but logging the trees is prohibited by law in all three producing countries (Brazil, Bolivia and Peru). Illegal extraction of timber and land clearances present a continuing threat. Brazil nut The Brazil nut (Bertholletia excelsa) is a South American tree in the


title: "Arabian horse" content: Polish and Hungarian armies, who captured these horses from the defeated Ottoman cavalry. Some of these animals provided foundation bloodstock for the major studs of eastern Europe. With the rise of light cavalry, the stamina and agility of horses with Arabian blood gave an enormous military advantage to any army who possessed them. As a result, many European monarchs began to support large breeding establishments that crossed Arabians on local stock, one example being Knyszyna, the royal stud of Polish king Zygmunt II August, and another the Imperial Russian Stud of Peter the Great. European horse breeders also obtained Arabian


title: "Formosa, Argentina" content: the winds can feel surprisingly cold), followed by clear skies, cold nights (2°C to 7°C, or 36F to 45F) and pleasant days at 15°C (59F) to 20°C (68F). Light frost is possible in Formosa, especially in the outskirts of the city further away from the river; however, air temperatures seldom fall below 0°C, every few years at most, with a record low of -2°C (28F). The highest temperature recorded was on October 17, 2014 while the lowest temperature recorded was on July 10, 1976 and August 1, 1993. Rainfall can be expected throughout the year though summer is usually the


title: "Mount Seymour" content: Mount Seymour Mount Seymour is a mountain located in Mount Seymour Provincial Park in the District of North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It is a part of the North Shore Mountains, rising to the north from the shores of Burrard Inlet and Indian Arm to a summit of above the Indian River and Deep Cove neighbourhoods. Mount Seymour is most commonly identified for its ski area of the same name, and as a popular hiking area. It is named in honour of Frederick Seymour, second governor of the Colony of British Columbia. The name is used to refer to the


title: "Black-tailed skimmer" content: Black-tailed skimmer The black-tailed skimmer ("Orthetrum cancellatum") is a dragonfly belonging to the family Libellulidae. This species is widespread in Europe and Asia. It is found throughout European continent including the Mediterranean islands but is absent in the north of Britain and the northern half of Fennoscandia. This is one of the most common European species and it is still increasing its range northwards. To the east, the range extends over central Asia to Kashmir, Mongolia to the northern parts of China and Arunachal Pradesh in India. It is present in Albania, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria,


title: "Black-tailed skimmer" content: China, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France (Corsica, and mainland), Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Republic of Macedonia, Malta, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Turkey (Turkey-in-Europe), Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and in part of United Kingdom. The black-tailed skimmer is abundant throughout its range and is one of the most commonly seen dragonflies in Europe. It holds a stable population and has no known major threats. This species has expanded its range, assisted by the creation of gravel pits which give


title: "Black-tailed skimmer" content: it the extensive open unvegetated areas it prefers. It was first recorded in Great Britain in Essex in 1934. It is decreasing rapidly in the Maltese Islands. This dragonfly is found at any open water with bare patches along the shore where the patrolling males frequently rest in the sun. It also inhabits near slow-flowing waters. It favors lakes, slow rivers, ponds and sometimes marshy area, without dense riparian vegetation. Females are less bold and not encountered as regularly. Adults prefer to perch on bare ground and rocks. It is a fairly large dragonfly (the length of 47–53 mm, 29–35


title: "Black-tailed skimmer" content: mm abdomen, rear wing 35–41 mm.) with relatively broad, flattened abdomen, but not as broad as to chaser species. With age, adult males develop extensive blue pruinescence on their abdomen, offset by yellow lateral patches. The middle lobe of the pronotum is large and notched in the middle. The chest is yellow or yellowish-brown. The base of the hind wings do not show a dark opaque spots. The pterostigma is dark brown or black. On the front wings pterostigma 2–3 mm long. Anal appendages are black. The females and immature males are a deep yellow color, with wavy black lines


title: "Black-tailed skimmer" content: dorsally on their abdomen. Males and females have the costal vein (the leading edge of the wing) yellow or black. The species is similar to its much more localized congener the "Orthetrum albistylum", but readily identifiable in the field. The males develop a blue pruinescence on the abdomen darkening to the rear with S8-10 becoming black. Its eyes are very dark green. They fly swift and low, skimming the water surface. Females retain their color and markings though they become quite grayish brown with age. This species could be confused with Keeled skimmer or Scarce chaser. ♂: Adult males have


title: "Black-tailed skimmer" content: a bluish or blue-gray patina on the body, gradually darkening with age. They have a blue abdomen with a black tip and transparent wings. The young have a grid pattern on a yellow-brownish abdomen. ♀: Adult females have a yellow-brownish abdomen with a lattice pattern (wide longitudinal dark brown stripes and bright crescent-shaped spots) and transparent wings. 10 tergite of abdomen is black. Even the abdomen of the immature males looks that way. Adults can reach a length of about 47–53 mm. Average wingspan is about 77 mm, while hindwings are 35–40 mm long. The eyes are dorsally narrowly apposed


title: "Black-tailed skimmer" content: to dorsally broadly contiguous. They are brown (in the female), or blue (in the male). Legs are black and brown (the femoral bases brown). Thoracic antehumeral stripes are absent. The wings spread more or less horizontally in repose. They are dissimilar in shape and venation, sessile, unpatterned and clear. The inner wing venation is blackish. Discoidal cell is divided longitudinally into a conspicuous triangle and supra-triangle. There are antenodal veins in the forewings 10–13 (fewer in the hindwings). Pterostigma is well over twice but no more than five times as long as wide. Abdomen is lanceolate and 30–35 mm long;


title: "Black-tailed skimmer" content: predominantly blue (in the male), or brown (in the female), or grey (sometimes, in old females). It is rather plain (in the male, but often with orange lateral markings, and darkened over the terminal segments), or predominantly longitudinally lined (the female with a dark medio-lateral band on either side along each segment); without mid-dorsal spots. The male abdomen is without auricles on segment 2; with a single inferior anal appendage. The nymphs are stout, body is expanded in the middle. When mature, they are 23–25.5 mm long. The postocular lobes is curving sharply to the back of the head from


title: "Black-tailed skimmer" content: some distance behind the eyes. The antennae is 7 segmented. The mask have the prementum hollowed dorsally. The prementum bears three (rarely two or four) long setae inserted near each lateral margin, and two medial fields of seven to eight short spiniform setae, the latter flanked by four setae of medium length. The body of the labial palps bears 6 or 7 major setae. Distal margins of the labial palps are weakly crenate. Legs are longer than the abdomen. The abdomen terminates in five short spine-like appendages. The cerci are no more than half the length of the paraprocts. The


title: "Black-tailed skimmer" content: abdomen has mid-dorsal spines. The mid-dorsal abdominal spines are prominent on segments 3 to 6. The abdomen is without a mid-dorsal spine on segment 8; gizzard with 4–8 folds. The main flight period is June and July. Males characteristically perch horizontally on exposed surfaces. They fly swift and low, skimming the water surface, while defending their territories. Mating can occur in flight or on land. Females oviposits alone but with male in attendance. Eggs are laid in flight by dipping abdomen onto water surface. They hatch after five or six weeks and the larvae live partially hidden by bottom debris.


title: "Black-tailed skimmer" content: They emerge after two or three years.Larvae prefer bottom areas rich in vegetation and decaying plant material. Black-tailed skimmer The black-tailed skimmer ("Orthetrum cancellatum") is a dragonfly belonging to the family Libellulidae. This species is widespread in Europe and Asia. It is found throughout European continent including the Mediterranean islands but is absent in the north of Britain and the northern half of Fennoscandia. This is one of the most common European species and it is still increasing its range northwards. To the east, the range extends over central Asia to Kashmir, Mongolia to the northern parts of China and


title: "Swissair Flight 111" content: Pratt & Whitney, Air Line Pilot's Association (ALPA), and Swissair. As each piece of wreckage was brought in, it was carefully cleaned with fresh water, sorted, and weighed. The item was then placed in a specific area of a hangar at CFB Shearwater, based on a grid system representing the various sections of the plane. All items not considered significant to the crash were stored with similar items in large boxes. When a box was full, it was weighed and moved to a custom-built temporary structure (J-Hangar) on a discontinued runway for long-term storage. If deemed significant to the investigation,


title: Quince content: Quince The quince (; "Cydonia oblonga") is the sole member of the genus Cydonia in the family Rosaceae (which also contains apples and pears, among other fruits). It is a deciduous tree that bears a pome fruit, similar in appearance to a pear, and bright golden-yellow when mature. Throughout history the cooked fruit has been used as food, but the tree is also grown for its attractive pale pink blossoms and other ornamental qualities. The tree grows high and wide. The fruit is long and across. The immature fruit is green with dense grey-white fine hair, most of which rubs


title: Quince content: off before maturity in late autumn when the fruit changes color to yellow with hard, strongly perfumed flesh. The leaves are alternately arranged, simple, long, with an entire margin and densely pubescent with fine white hairs. The flowers, produced in spring after the leaves, are white or pink, across, with five petals. The seeds contain nitriles, which are common in the seeds of the rose family. In the stomach, enzymes or stomach acid or both cause some of the nitriles to be hydrolyzed and produce hydrogen cyanide, which is a volatile gas. The seeds are only likely to be toxic


title: Quince content: if a large quantity is eaten. Four other species previously included in the genus "Cydonia" are now treated in separate genera. These are "Pseudocydonia sinensis" and the three flowering quinces of eastern Asia in the genus "Chaenomeles". Another unrelated fruit, the bael, is sometimes called the "Bengal quince". The modern name originated in the 14th century as a plural of "quoyn", via Old French "cooin" from Latin "cotoneum malum" / "cydonium malum", ultimately from Greek κυδώνιον μῆλον, "kydonion melon" "Kydonian apple". "Cydonia" is included in the subfamily Amygdaloideae. Quince is native to rocky slopes and woodland margins in South-West Asia,


title: Quince content: Armenia, Turkey, Georgia, northern Iran to Afghanistan, although it thrives in a variety of climates and can be grown successfully at latitudes as far north as Scotland. It should not be confused with its relatives, the Chinese quince, "Pseudocydonia sinensis", or the flowering quinces of genus "Chaenomeles", either of which is sometimes used as a culinary substitute. The fruit was known to the Akkadians, who called it "supurgillu"; Arabic سفرجل "al safarjal" "quinces" (collective plural), as well as in Judea of Israel during the Mishnaic era where it was called “Perishin” (פרישין collective plural, or sing. “Prish”); quince flourished in


title: Quince content: the heat of the Mesopotamian plain, where apples did not. It was cultivated from an archaic period around the Mediterranean. The Greeks associated it with Cydonia on Crete, as the "Cydonian pome", and Theophrastus, in his "Enquiry into Plants", noted that quince was one of many fruiting plants that do not come true from seed. As a sacred emblem of Aphrodite, a quince figured in a lost poem of Callimachus that survives in a prose epitome: seeing his beloved in the courtyard of the temple of Aphrodite, Acontius plucks a quince from the "orchard of Aphrodite", inscribes its skin and


title: Quince content: furtively rolls it at the feet of her illiterate nurse, whose curiosity aroused, hands it to the girl to read aloud, and the girl finds herself saying "I swear by Aphrodite that I will marry Acontius". A vow thus spoken in the goddess's "temenos" cannot be broken. Pliny the Elder mentions "numerous varieties" of quince in his "Natural History" and describes four. The season of ripe quinces is brief: the Roman cookbook "De re coquinaria" of "Apicius" specifies in attempting to keep quinces, to select perfect unbruised fruits and keep stems and leaves intact, submerged in honey and reduced wine.


title: Quince content: Quince is used as a food plant by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including brown-tail, "Bucculatrix bechsteinella", "Bucculatrix pomifoliella", "Coleophora cerasivorella", "Coleophora malivorella", green pug and winter moth. While quince is a hardy shrub, it may develop fungal diseases in hot weather, resulting in premature leaf fall. Quince leaf blight, caused by fungus "Diplocarpon mespili", presents a threat in wet summers, causing severe leaf spotting and early defoliation, also affecting fruit to a lesser extent. It may also affect other Rosaceae plants such as hawthorn and medlar, but is typically less damaging than on quince. Cedar-quince rust, caused by


title: Quince content: "Gymnosporangium clavipes", requires two hosts to complete the fungal lifecycle, one being a cedar (most commonly a juniper, "Juniperus virginiana") and the other a rosacea. Appearing as red excrescence on various parts of the plant, it may affect quinces grown in vicinity of junipers. Quince is a hardy, drought-tolerant shrub which adapts to many soils of low to medium pH. It tolerates both shade and sun, but sunlight is required in order to produce larger flowers and ensure fruit ripening. It is a very tough plant that does not require much maintenance, and tolerates years without pruning or major insect


title: Quince content: and disease problems. Quince is cultivated on all continents in warm-temperate and temperate climates. It requires a cooler period of the year, with temperatures under , to flower properly. Propagation is done by cuttings or layering; the former method produces better plants, but they take longer to mature than by the latter. Named cultivars are propagated by cuttings or layers grafted on quince rootstock. Propagation by seed is not used commercially. Quince forms thick bushes, which must be pruned and reduced into a single stem in order to grow fruit-bearing trees for commercial use. The tree is self-pollinated, but it


title: Quince content: produces better yields when cross-pollinated. Fruits are typically left on the tree to ripen fully. In warmer climates, it may become soft to the point of being edible, but additional ripening may be required in cooler climates. They are harvested in late autumn, before first frosts. Quince is also used as rootstock for certain pear cultivars. The resultant chimera is called + "Pirocydonia danielii". In Europe, quinces are commonly grown in central and southern areas where the summers are sufficiently hot for the fruit to fully ripen. They are not grown in large amounts; typically one or two quince trees


title: Quince content: are grown in a mixed orchard with several apples and other fruit trees. In the 18th-century New England colonies, for example, there was always a quince at the lower corner of the vegetable garden, Ann Leighton notes in records of Portsmouth, New Hampshire and Newburyport, Massachusetts. Charlemagne directed that quinces be planted in well-stocked orchards. Quinces in England are first recorded in about 1275, when Edward I had some planted at the Tower of London. The cultivar 'Vranja' Nenadovic has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit. Quinces are appreciated for their intense aroma and flavor. However, most


title: Quince content: varieties of quince are too hard and tart to be eaten raw; even ripe fruits should be subjected to bletting by frost or decay to be suitable for consumption. However, they may be cooked or roasted and used for jams, marmalade, jellies, or pudding. Some varieties of quince, such as 'Aromatnaya' and 'Kuganskaya' do not require cooking and can be eaten raw. However, most varieties of quince are too hard, astringent and sour to eat raw unless "bletted" (softened by frost and subsequent decay). High in pectin, they are used to make jam, jelly and quince pudding, or they may


title: Quince content: be peeled, then roasted, baked or stewed; pectin levels diminish as the fruit ripens. The flesh of the fruit turns red after a long cooking with sugar by formation of anthocyanins. The very strong perfume means they can be added in small quantities to apple pies and jam to enhance the flavor. Adding a diced quince to apple sauce will enhance the taste of the apple sauce with the chunks of relatively firm, tart quince. The term "marmalade", originally meaning a quince jam, derives from "marmelo", the Portuguese word for this fruit. Quince cheese is firm, sticky, sweet reddish hard


title: Quince content: paste made of the quince fruit, originating from the Iberian peninsula. It is known as "marmelada" across the Portuguese-speaking world and as "dulce de membrillo" across the Spanish-speaking world, where it is used in a variety of recipes, eaten in sandwiches and with cheese, traditionally manchego cheese, or accompanying fresh curds. In Chile, boiled quince is popular in desserts such as the "murta con membrillo" that combines Chilean guava with quince. In the Balkans and elsewhere, quince eau-de-vie (rakija) is made. For a quince "rakija", ripe fruits of sweeter varieties are washed and cleared from rot and seeds, then crushed


title: Quince content: or minced, mixed with cold or boiling sweetened water and winemaking yeast, and left for several weeks to ferment. Fermented mash is distilled twice to obtain an approximately 60% alcohol-by-volume (ABV) liquor. It may be diluted with distilled water to obtain the final product, containing 42-43% ABV. In the Alsace region of France and the Valais region of Switzerland, "liqueur de " made from quince is used as a "digestif". In Carolina in 1709, John Lawson allowed that he was "not a fair judge of the different sorts of Quinces, which they call Brunswick, Portugal and Barbary", but he noted


title: Quince content: "of this fruit they make a wine or liquor which they call Quince-Drink, and which I approve of beyond any that their country affords, though a great deal of cider and perry is there made, The Quince-Drink most commonly purges." Quince is one of the most popular species for deciduous bonsai specimens, along with related Chinese quince and Japanese quince, native to Eastern Asia. Quince The quince (; "Cydonia oblonga") is the sole member of the genus Cydonia in the family Rosaceae (which also contains apples and pears, among other fruits). It is a deciduous tree that bears a pome


title: "Port of London" content: Port of London The Port of London lies along the banks of the River Thames from the capital to the North Sea. Once the largest port in the world, it is currently the United Kingdom's second largest port, after Grimsby & Immingham. The port is governed by the Port of London Authority (PLA), a public trust established in 1908 whose responsibility extends over the Tideway of the River Thames, but which neither owns or operate any facilities. The port can handle cruise liners, roll-on roll-off ferries, and cargo of all types. It is not located in one area but stretches


title: "Port of London" content: along the tidal river, including Central London, with many individual wharfs, docks, terminals and facilities built incrementally over the centuries. As with many similar historic European ports, such as Antwerp and Rotterdam, the bulk of activities has steadily moved downstream towards the open sea, as ships have grown larger and other uses take up land closer to the city centre. The Port of London has been central to the economy of London since the founding of the city in the 1st century and was a major contributor to the growth and success of the city. In the 18th and 19th


title: "Port of London" content: centuries it was the busiest port in the world, with wharves extending continuously along the Thames for , and over 1,500 cranes handling 60,000 ships per year. In World War II it was a prime target for the Luftwaffe during The Blitz. The first evidence of a reasonable sized trading in London can be seen during Roman control of Britain, at which time the Romans built the original harbour. The construction involved expanding the waterfront using wooden frames filled with dirt. Once these were in place the wharf was built in four stages moving downstream from the London Bridge (Brigham).


title: "Port of London" content: The port began to rapidly grow and prosper during the 2nd and 3rd centuries, and saw its final demise in the early 5th century with the decline in trade activity. The changes made to the banks along the port made by the Romans are so substantial and long lasting that it was hard to tell where the natural waterfront really began (Milne). London became a very important trading port for the Romans at its height in the 2nd and 3rd centuries. The harbour town grew and expanded quickly. The lavish nature of goods traded in London shaped the extravagant lifestyle


title: "Port of London" content: of its citizens and the city flourished under Roman colonization (Hall & Merrifield). The Roman expansion of port facilities and organisation of the London harbour have remained as the base of the London harbour until today. Until the beginning of the 19th century, shipping was handled entirely within the Pool of London on the stretch of the River Thames along Billingsgate on the south side of the City of London. All imported cargoes had to be delivered for inspection and assessment by Customs Officers, giving the area the name of "Legal Quays". The Pool saw a phenomenal increase in both


title: "Port of London" content: overseas and coastal trade in the second half of the 18th century. Two thirds of coastal vessels using the Pool were colliers meeting an increase in the demand for coal as the population of London rose. Coastal trade virtually doubled between 1750 and 1796 reaching 11,964 vessels in 1795. In overseas trade, in 1751 the pool handled 1,682 ships and 234,639 tons of goods. By 1794 this had risen to 3,663 ships and 620,845 tons. By this time the river was lined with nearly continuous walls of wharves running for miles along both banks, and hundreds of ships moored in


title: "Port of London" content: the river or alongside the quays. In the late 18th century an ambitious scheme was proposed by Willey Reveley to straighten the Thames between Wapping and Woolwich Reach by cutting a new channel across the Rotherhithe, Isle of Dogs and Greenwich peninsulas. The three great horseshoe bends would be cut off with locks, as huge wet docks. This was not realised, though a much smaller channel, the City Canal, was subsequently cut across the Isle of Dogs. London's Docklands had their origins in the lack of capacity in the Pool of London which particularly affected the West India trade. In


title: "Port of London" content: 1799 The West India Dock Act allowed a new off-river dock to be built for produce from the West Indies and the rest of Docklands followed as landowners built enclosed docks with better security and facilities than the Pool's wharves. Throughout the 19th century a series of enclosed dock systems was built, surrounded by high walls to protect cargoes from river piracy. These included West India Docks (1802), East India Docks (1803, originating from the Brunswick Dock of 1790), London Docks (1805), Surrey Commercial Docks (1807, originating from the Howland Great Wet Dock of 1696), St Katharine Docks (1828), Royal


title: "Port of London" content: Victoria Dock (1855), Millwall Dock (1868), Royal Albert Dock (1880), and Tilbury docks (1886). The enclosed docks were built by several rival private companies, notably the East & West India Docks Company (owners of the East India, West India and Tilbury docks), Surrey Commercial Docks Company and London & St Katharine Docks Company (owners of the London, St Katharine and Royal docks). By the beginning of the 20th century competition and strikes led to pressure for amalgamation. A Royal Commission led to the setting up of the Port of London Authority (PLA) in 1908. In 1909 the PLA took control


title: "Port of London" content: of the enclosed docks from Tower Bridge to Tilbury, with a few minor exceptions such as Poplar Dock which remained as a railway company facility. It also took over control of the river between Teddington Lock and Yantlet Creek from the City corporation which had been responsible since the 13th century. The PLA head Office at Trinity Square Gardens was built by John Mowlem & Co and completed in 1919. The PLA dredged a deep water channel, added the King George V Dock (1920) to the Royal group, and made continuous improvements to the other enclosed dock systems throughout the


title: "Port of London" content: first two thirds of the 20th century. This culminated in expansion of Tilbury in the late 1960s to become a major container port (the UK's largest in the early 1970s), together with a huge riverside grain terminal and mechanised facilities for timber handling. Under the PLA London's annual trade had grown to 60 million tons (38% of UK trade) by 1939, but was mainly transferred to the Clyde and Liverpool during World War 2. After the war London recovered, again reaching 60 million tons in the 1960s. By 1900, the wharves and docks were receiving about 7.5 million tons of


title: "Port of London" content: cargo each; an inevitable result of the extending reach of the British Empire. Of course, because of its size and grandeur, the Port was a place of work for many laborers in late 19th and early 20th century London. While most of the dockers were casual laborers, there were skilled workers in the stevedores who skillfully loaded ships and the lightermen who unloaded cargo from moored boats via barges. While these specific dockhands found regular work, the average dockhand lived day to day, hoping he would be hired whenever a ship came in. Many times these workers would actually bribe


title: "Port of London" content: simply for a day's work; and a day's work could be 24 hours of continuous laboring. In addition, the work itself was incredibly dangerous. A docker would suffer a fatal injury from falling cargo almost every week during 1900, and nonfatal injuries happened even more often. The London dockers handled exotic imports such as precious stones, African ivory, Indian spices, and Jamaican rum that they could never dream of purchasing themselves, and so robberies were very common on the London docks. Dockers would either hide goods under their clothes while leaving or break into warehouses at night, although the later


title: "Port of London" content: strategy was only employed by professional robbers. While tobacco, pineapples, bearskins, and other goods were all targets of thievery, the most common transgression was drinking. Many reports from the early 20th century detail dockers stealing bottles of brandy or gin and drinking rather than working. More often than not, the consequences were harsh. Five weeks of hard labor for one bottle of Hennessy was not unheard of. These conditions eventually spurred Ben Tillett to lead the London Dock strike of 1889. Even though the workers asked for only a minuscule increase in payment, foremen initially refused. Over time the strike


title: "Port of London" content: grew and eventually the strike helped to draw attention to the poor conditions of London dockhands. The strike also revitalized the British Trades Union movement, leading to the betterment of laborers across London. Alongside the docks many port industries developed, some of which (notably sugar refining, edible oil processing, vehicle manufacture and lead smelting) survive today. Other industries have included iron working, casting of brass and bronze, , timber, grain, cement and paper milling, armament manufacture, etc. London dominated the world industry for decades with works at Greenwich, Silvertown, North Woolwich, Woolwich and Erith. For centuries London was the major


title: "Port of London" content: centre of shipbuilding in Britain (for example at Blackwall Yard, London Yard, Samuda Yard, Millwall Iron Works, Thames Ironworks, Greenwich, and Deptford and Woolwich dockyards), but declined relative to the Clyde and other centres from the mid-19th century. This also affected an attempt by Henry Bessemer to establish steel-making on the Greenwich Peninsula in the 1860s. The last major warship, HMS "Thunderer", was launched in 1911. The volume of shipping in the Port of London supported a very extensive ship repairing industry. In 1864, when most ships coming in were built of wood and powered by sail, there were 33


title: "Port of London" content: ship-repairing dry docks. The largest of these was Langley's Lower Dock at Deptford Green, which was in length. While the building of large ships ceased with the closure of the Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company at Leamouth in 1912, the ship repairing trade continued to flourish. Although by 1930 the number of major dry docks had been reduced to 16, highly mechanised and geared to the repair of iron and steel-hulled ships. There were also numerous power stations and gas works on the Thames and its tributaries and canals. Major Thames-side gasworks were located at Beckton and East Greenwich, with


title: "Port of London" content: power stations including Brimsdown, Hackney and West Ham on the River Lea and Kingston, Fulham, Lots Road, Wandsworth, Battersea, Bankside, Stepney, Deptford, Greenwich, Blackwall Point, Brunswick Wharf, Woolwich, Barking, Belvedere, Littlebrook, West Thurrock, Northfleet, Tilbury and Grain on the Thames. The coal requirements of power stations and gas works constituted a large proportion of London's post-war trade. A 1959 "Times" article states: This coal was handled directly by riverside coal handling facilities, rather than the docks. For example, Beckton Gas Works had two large piers which dealt with both its own requirements and with the transfer of coal to lighters


title: "Port of London" content: for delivery to other gasworks. A considerable proportion of the drop in London's trade since the 1960s is accounted for by loss of the coal trade, the gas works having closed following discovery of North Sea Gas, domestic use of coal for heating being largely replaced by gas and electricity, and closure of all the coal-burning power stations above Tilbury. In 2011, when Tilbury Power Station switched fully to burning biomass, London's coal imports fell to zero. With the use of larger ships and containerisation, the importance of the upstream port declined rapidly from the mid-1960s. The enclosed docks further


title: "Port of London" content: up river declined and closed progressively between the end of the 1960s and the early 1980s. Trade at privately owned wharves on the open river continued for longer, for example with container handling at the Victoria Deep Water Terminal on the Greenwich Peninsula into the 1990s, and bulk paper import at Convoy's Wharf in Deptford until 2000. The wider port continued to be a major centre for trade and industry, with oil and gas terminals at Coryton, Shell Haven and Canvey in Essex and the Isle of Grain in Kent. In 1992 Government privatisation policy led to Tilbury becoming a


title: "Port of London" content: freeport. The PLA ceased to be a port operator, retaining the role of managing the Thames. Much of the disused land of the upstream London Docklands is in the process of being developed for housing and as a second financial district for London (centred on Canary Wharf). The Port of London today comprises over 70 independently owned terminals and port facilities, directly employing over 30,000 people. These are mainly concentrated at Purfleet (with the world's largest margarine works), Thurrock, Tilbury (the Port's current main container facility), London Gateway, Coryton and Canvey Island in Essex, Dartford and Northfleet in Kent, and


title: "Port of London" content: Greenwich, Silvertown, Barking, Dagenham and Erith in Greater London. The Port of London handles containers, timber, paper, vehicles, aggregates, crude oil, petroleum products, liquefied petroleum gas, coal, metals, grain and other dry and liquid bulk materials. In 2012 London was the second largest port in the United Kingdom by tonnage handled (43.7 million), after Grimsby and Immingham (60 million). The Port of London however handles the most non-fuel cargo of any port in the UK (at 32.2 million tonnes in 2007). Other major rival ports to London in the country are Felixstowe and Southampton, which handle the most and second-most


title: "Port of London" content: number of containers of British ports; in 2012 London handled the third most and the Medway ports (chiefly London Thamesport) the fifth. The number of twenty-foot equivalent units of containers handled by the Port of London exceeded two million in 2007 for the first time in the Port's history and this continued in 2008. The Port's capacity in handling modern, large ships and containers is set to dramatically expand with the completion of the London Gateway port project, which will be able to handle up to 3.5 million TEUs per year when fully completed. With around 12,500 commercial shipping movements


title: "Port of London" content: annually, the Port of London handles around 10% of the UK commercial shipping trade, and contributes 8.5 billion pounds to the UK's economy. In addition to cargo, 37 cruise ships visited the Port in 2008. Once a major refiner of crude oil, today the port only imports refined products. The Kent (BP) and Shell Haven (Shell) refineries closed in 1982 and 1999, and Coryton in 2012. A number of upstream wharves remain in use. At Silvertown, for example, Tate & Lyle continues to operate the world's largest cane sugar refinery, originally served by the West India Docks but now with


title: "Port of London" content: its own cargo handling facilities. Many wharves as far upstream as Fulham are used for the handling of aggregates brought by barge from facilities down river. Riverside sites in London are under intense pressure for prestige housing or office development, and as a consequence the Greater London Authority in consultation with the PLA has implemented a plan to safeguard 50 wharves, half above and half below the Thames Barrier. In recent years there has been a resurgence in the use of the River Thames for moving cargo between terminals within the Port of London. This is seen to be in


title: "Port of London" content: the main part due to the environmental benefits of moving such cargo by river, and as an alternative to transporting the cargo on the congested road and rail networks of the capital. Local authorities are contributing to this increase in intraport traffic, with waste transfer and demolition rubble being taken by barges on the river. The construction of the Olympic Park and Crossrail both utilised the river as a means of transporting cargo and waste/excavation material, and the ongoing Thames Tideway Scheme also uses the river for these purposes, as well as for transporting of its Tunnel Boring Machines as


title: "Port of London" content: well as temporary offices . The Crossrail project alone involved the transporting of 5 million tonnes of material, almost all of which is clean earth, excavated from the ground, downstream through the Port, from locations such as Canary Wharf to new nature reserves being constructed in the Thames estuary area. This also includes the re-opening of wharves or jetties for various building projects along or near the Thames, Battersea coal jetty being the most recent. In 2008, the figure for intraport trade was 1.9 million tonnes, making the River Thames the busiest inland waterway in the UK. In terms of


title: "Port of London" content: number of containers, London currently ranks third in the UK after the ports of Southampton and Felixstowe. This is likely to change in future as a major new facility at the Shell Haven refinery site - DP World's "London Gateway" - is under construction. Government approval was given in May 2007 for the redevelopment of this brownfield site, which has a two-mile (3 km) river frontage. The developers plan a port capable of handling the largest deep-sea container ships, including a 2,300 metre long container quay with a capacity of 3.5 million standard container units a year. The development will


title: "Port of London" content: also include a 'logistics and business park', with direct links to the rail network. This might re-establish London's pre-eminence as originally intended by the PLA in the 1960s with its proposed development of a deep-sea port at Maplin Sands as part of the proposed third London airport site. The Port of London once had its own police force - the Port of London Authority Police - but is today policed by a number of forces. These are the local Home Office forces of the areas the Thames passes through (the Metropolitan, City of London, Essex and Kent constabularies) and the


title: "Port of London" content: Port of Tilbury Police (formed in 1992 and a remnant of the old PLA force). The Metropolitan police have a special Marine Support Unit, formerly known as the Thames Division, which patrol and police the Thames in the Greater London area. A sixth police force in the Port may be established with the creation of the London Gateway port. Port of London The Port of London lies along the banks of the River Thames from the capital to the North Sea. Once the largest port in the world, it is currently the United Kingdom's second largest port, after Grimsby &


title: "Mistral (wind)" content: d'Azur. The good weather is confined to the coast of the Mediterranean, while it can rain in the interior. The Côte d'Azur generally has a clear sky and warmer temperatures. This type of mistral usually blows for no more than one to three days. The mistral originating from the northeast has a very different character; it is felt only in the west of Provence and as far as Montpellier, with the wind coming from either a northerly or north-northeasterly direction. In the winter this is by far the coldest form of the mistral. The wind can blow for more than


title: "Spark gap" content: high voltage in the 10,000–30,000-volt range, such as a neon sign transformer (5–15 kV) or a television picture tube circuit (flyback transformer) (10–28 kV), and two coat hangers or rods built into a "V" shape. For larger ladders, microwave oven transformers connected in series, voltage multipliers and utility pole transformers (pole pigs) run in reverse (step-up) are commonly used. Exposure to an arc-producing device can pose health hazards. An arc formed in air will ionize oxygen and nitrogen, which then can re-form into reactive molecules such as ozone and nitric oxide. These products can be damaging to the mucous membranes.


title: "Word of Wisdom" content: "hot drinks". Since Pack's article, many Latter-day Saints have come to believe that the reason tea and coffee are proscribed is the presence of caffeine in the drinks. However, the church has never stated that this is the reason for the prohibition. The church does not have an official position on the consumption of caffeinated beverages, apart from the general statement that the Word of Wisdom does not specifically mention it. In 2012, in response to a report on Mormonism on NBC’s "Rock Center with Brian Williams", which claimed that LDS faithful were prohibited from drinking caffeine, the church wrote:


title: Makalu content: Makalu Makalu is the fifth highest mountain in the world at . It is located in the Mahalangur Himalayas southeast of Mount Everest, on the border between Nepal and Tibet, China. One of the eight-thousanders, Makalu is an isolated peak whose shape is a four-sided pyramid. Makalu has two notable subsidiary peaks. Kangchungtse, or Makalu II (7,678 m) lies about 3 km (2 mi) north-northwest of the main summit. Rising about north-northeast of the main summit across a broad plateau, and connected to Kangchungtse by a narrow, 7,200 m saddle, is Chomo Lonzo (7,804 m). The first climb on Makalu


title: Makalu content: was made by an American team led by Riley Keegan in the spring of 1954. The expedition was composed of Sierra Club members including Allen Steck, and was called the California Himalayan Expedition to Makalu. They attempted the southeast ridge but were turned back at 7,100 m (23,300 ft) by a constant barrage of storms. A New Zealand team including Sir Edmund Hillary was also active in the spring, but did not get very high due to injury and illness. In the fall of 1954, a French reconnaissance expedition made the first ascents of the subsidiary summits Kangchungtse (October 22:


title: Makalu content: Jean Franco, Lionel Terray, sirdar Gyalzen Norbu Sherpa and Pa Norbu) and Chomo Lonzo (October 30?: Jean Couzy and Terray). Makalu was first summited on May 15, 1955 by Lionel Terray and Jean Couzy of a French expedition led by Jean Franco. Franco, Guido Magnone and Gyalzen Norbu Sherpa summitted the next day, followed by Jean Bouvier, Serge Coupé, Pierre Leroux and André Vialatte on the 17th. This was an amazing achievement at the time, to have the vast majority of expedition members summit, especially on such a difficult peak. Prior to this time, summits were reached by one to


title: Makalu content: two expedition members at most, with the rest of teams providing logistical support before turning around and heading home. The French team climbed Makalu by the north face and northeast ridge, via the saddle between Makalu and Kangchungtse (the Makalu-La), establishing the standard route. Makalu is one of the harder eight-thousanders, and is considered one of the most difficult mountains in the world to climb. The mountain is notorious for its steep pitches and knife-edged ridges that are completely open to the elements. The final ascent of the summit pyramid involves technical rock/ice climbing. Makalu-Barun Valley is a Himalayan glacier


title: Makalu content: valley situated at the base of Makalu in the Sankhuwasabha district of Nepal. This valley lies entirely inside the Makalu Barun National Park. Barun Valley provides stunning contrasts, where high waterfalls cascade into deep gorges, craggy rocks rise from lush green forests, and colorful flowers bloom beneath white snow peaks. This unique landscape shelters some of the last pristine mountain ecosystems on Earth. Rare species of animals and plants flourish in diverse climates and habitats, relatively undisturbed by human kind. Makalu Peak is referenced in the animated X-Men Evolution series episode titled "Dark Horizon - Part 2." It is the


title: Makalu content: burial place of the villain Apocalypse (comics). Makalu Makalu is the fifth highest mountain in the world at . It is located in the Mahalangur Himalayas southeast of Mount Everest, on the border between Nepal and Tibet, China. One of the eight-thousanders, Makalu is an isolated peak whose shape is a four-sided pyramid. Makalu has two notable subsidiary peaks. Kangchungtse, or Makalu II (7,678 m) lies about 3 km (2 mi) north-northwest of the main summit. Rising about north-northeast of the main summit across a broad plateau, and connected to Kangchungtse by a narrow, 7,200 m saddle, is Chomo Lonzo


title: "Miracle on Ice" content: Team (the successor to the Soviet Union) won 5–2. The Unified Team eventually won the gold medal, while the U.S. placed fourth. The U.S. and Russia met twice at the 1996 World Cup of Hockey, Americans won both games 5-2 en route to the gold medal. The U.S., coached by Herb Brooks, and Russia, coached by Slava Fetisov, met twice in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, which included a 2–2 round robin draw and a 3–2 semi-final in favor of USA, with the semi-final match coming 22 years to the day after the "Miracle on Ice" game.


title: "Norse colonization of North America" content: not climate change alone that lead to Norse decline, but also their unwillingness to adapt. For example, if the Norse had decided to focus their subsistence hunting on the ringed seal (which could be hunted year round, though individually), and decided to reduce or do away with their communal hunts, food would have been much less scarce during the winter season. Also, had Norse individuals used skin instead of wool to produce their clothing, they would have been able to fare better nearer to the coast, and wouldn't have been as confined to the fjords. However, more recent research has


title: "Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani" content: 25% of these: Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim Al Thani, Qatar's former prime minister and foreign minister. Sheikh Hamad has three wives and twenty-five children, twelve sons and thirteen daughters: Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa bin Hamad bin Abdullah bin Jassim bin Mohammed Al Thani (; born 1 January 1952) is a member of the ruling Al Thani Qatari royal family. He was the ruling Emir of Qatar from 1995 to 2013. The Qatari government now refers to him as His Highness the Father Emir. Hamad seized power in a bloodless palace "coup d'état" in 1995. During


title: "Ernest Simpson" content: Windsor and her subsequent fame thrust him into the role of "the forgotten man". The two remained friends, however, the newspaper noted, with the now Duchess of Windsor sending him flowers when he was in hospital for surgery and Simpson offering advice and clarification when his former wife was working on her memoirs. His third wife was Mary Raffray ("née" Mary Huntemuller Kirk, 1896–1941), a daughter of Henry Child Kirk, proprietor of the Kirk Silversmith Co. of Baltimore, Maryland and his wife, the former Edith Huntemuller, who dedicated her book "Her Garden Was Her Delight" to her memory. Mary Simpson's


title: "West Coast Eagles" content: season second on the ladder with 16 wins and 6 losses - their best result since 2006 - earning the right to host the second qualifying final against third-placed Collingwood at Optus Stadium. Collingwood. led for most of the close, hard-fought match, before the Eagles again pulled away in the last quarter to win by 16 points. In the second preliminary final, the Eagles faced the fifth-placed Melbourne Demons, a team whose impressive end-of-season form had begun with a victory over the Eagles at Optus Stadium in round 22. What was touted as a close-fought match instead became a blowout.


title: "Dionysios Solomos" content: specialists is the interpretation of the "Feggarontymeni's" figure. Some think the figure is an allusion to the Virgin Mary. She is described as the 'goddess' and reads in his heart the story of his heroic and ultimately futile struggles against the Turks in his native island which all but charms him out of his mortal body. David Ricks writes with respect to her identity, "we must hold in balance the soul of the expiring fiancée, the kindly presence of the Motherland and a recollection of our Lady". Between 1833 and 1844, Solomos edited the second draft of "The Free Besieged",


title: "USS Ault" content: action with TG 58.3 on 14 March for operations to neutralize Japanese air power during the forthcoming Okinawa campaign. In response to strikes against Kyūshū and Honshū, the Japanese retaliated with air strikes against the task group; and, on 20 March, "Ault" splashed her first two enemy planes. On 23 and 24 March, the task group launched preinvasion strikes against Okinawa; and, on 27 March, "Ault" assisted the ships of DesRon 62 and four cruisers in shore bombardment of Minami Daito Shima. The warship's next two months were enlivened by days and nights of continuous general quarters. "Kamikaze" attacks on


title: "Václav Havel Airport Prague" content: scheduled and charter flights to and from Prague: It was the 37th busiest airport in Europe in 2017 and the second busiest (after Warsaw Chopin Airport) in the newer EU member states. The top 15 destinations in 2017 were: Czech Airlines has its head office, the APC Building, on the grounds of Prague Airport. On 30 December 2009 CSA announced that it will sell its head office to the airport for CZK 607 million. Travel Service Airlines and its low cost subsidiary Smart Wings have their head office on the airport property. In addition the Civil Aviation Authority also has


title: "Canada AM" content: CTV announced that it would revert to the program's original format (the additional 6:00-6:30 half-hour will continue as well), stating that the decision was in response to viewer feedback from western Canada indicating a preference for the prior format. A few weeks prior, CTV cancelled the extra local news segments that appeared at :00 and :30 minutes past the hour, reverting to updates only at :25 and :55 minutes past the hour. Following the cancellation of the western edition, CTV continued to produce the 9:00 ET hour of "Canada AM" until September 2008. During those three months, CTV Newsnet aired


title: "Golden pheasant" content: Golden pheasant The golden pheasant or Chinese pheasant ("Chrysolophus pictus") is a gamebird of the order Galliformes (gallinaceous birds) and the family Phasianidae (pheasants). The genus name is from Ancient Greek "khrusolophos", "with golden crest", and "pictus" is Latin for "painted" from "pingere", "to paint". It is native to forests in mountainous areas of western China, but feral populations have been established in the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States, Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, the Falkland Islands, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. In England they may be found in East Anglia in


title: "Golden pheasant" content: the dense forest landscape of the Breckland as well as Tresco on the Isles of Scilly. The adult male is in length, its tail accounting for two-thirds of the total length. It is unmistakable with its golden crest and rump and bright red body. The deep orange "cape" can be spread in display, appearing as an alternating black and orange fan that covers all of the face except its bright yellow eye with a pinpoint black pupil. Males have a golden-yellow crest with a hint of red at the tip. The face, throat, chin, and the sides of neck are


title: "Golden pheasant" content: rusty tan. The wattles and orbital skin are both yellow in colour, and the ruff or cape is light orange. The upper back is green and the rest of the back and rump is golden-yellow. The tertiaries are blue whereas the scapulars are dark red. Other characteristics of the male plumage are the central tail feathers, black spotted with cinnamon, as well as the tip of the tail being a cinnamon buff. The upper tail coverts are the same colour as the central tail feathers. The male also has a scarlet breast, and scarlet and light chestnut flanks and underparts.