title: "Chemical vapor deposition" content: electronic and thermal properties, it is unsuitable as a transistor for future digital devices, due to the absence of a bandgap between the conduction and valence bands. This makes it impossible to switch between on and off states with respect to electron flow. Scaling things down, graphene nanoribbons of less than 10 nm in width do exhibit electronic bandgaps and are therefore potential candidates for digital devices. Precise control over their dimensions, and hence electronic properties, however, represents a challenging goal, and the ribbons typically possess rough edges that are detrimental to their performance. CVD can be used to produce


title: "CN Tower" content: CN Tower The CN Tower () is a concrete communications and observation tower located in Downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Built on the former Railway Lands, it was completed in 1976. Its name "CN" originally referred to Canadian National, the railway company that built the tower. Following the railway's decision to divest non-core freight railway assets prior to the company's privatization in 1995, it transferred the tower to the Canada Lands Company, a federal Crown corporation responsible for real estate development. The CN Tower held the record for the world's tallest free-standing structure for 32 years until 2007 and was the


title: "CN Tower" content: world's tallest tower until 2009 being overtaken by Burj Khalifa and Canton Tower, respectively. It is now the ninth tallest free-standing structure in the world and remains the tallest free-standing structure in the Western Hemisphere. In 1995, the CN Tower was declared one of the modern Seven Wonders of the World by the American Society of Civil Engineers. It also belongs to the World Federation of Great Towers. It is a signature icon of Toronto's skyline and attracts more than two million international visitors annually. The original concept of the CN Tower originated in 1968 when the Canadian National Railway


title: "CN Tower" content: wanted to build a large TV and radio communication platform to serve the Toronto area, as well as demonstrate the strength of Canadian industry and CN in particular. These plans evolved over the next few years, and the project became official in 1972. The tower would have been part of Metro Centre (see CityPlace), a large development south of Front Street on the Railway Lands, a large railway switching yard that was being made redundant by newer yards outside the city. Key project team members were NCK Engineering as structural engineer; John Andrews Architects; Webb, Zerafa, Menkes, Housden Architects; Foundation


title: "CN Tower" content: Building Construction; and Canron (Eastern Structural Division). As Toronto grew rapidly during the late 1960s and early 1970s, multiple skyscrapers were constructed in the downtown core, most notably First Canadian Place. The reflective nature of the new buildings compromised the quality of broadcast signals necessitating new, higher antennas that were at least tall. At the time, most data communications took place over point-to-point microwave links, whose dish antennae covered the roofs of large buildings. As each new skyscraper was added to the downtown, former line-of-sight links were no longer possible. CN intended to rent "hub" space for microwave links, visible


title: "CN Tower" content: from almost any building in the Toronto area. The CN Tower can be seen from at least as far away as Kennedy Street in Aurora, Ontario, approximately to the north. It is also viewable to the naked eye from east of Toronto in Oshawa, several points along the Niagara Escarpment west of Toronto in Hamilton, Ontario, and to the south from Fort Niagara State Park in the U.S. state of New York. The original plan for the tower envisioned a tripod consisting of three independent cylindrical "pillars" linked at various heights by structural bridges. Had it been built, this design


title: "CN Tower" content: would have been considerably shorter, with the metal antenna located roughly where the concrete section between the main level and the SkyPod lies today. As the design effort continued, it evolved into the current design with a single continuous hexagonal core to the SkyPod, with three support legs blended into the hexagon below the main level, forming a large Y-shape structure at the ground level. The idea for the main level in its current form evolved around this time, but the Space Deck (now named SkyPod) was not part of the plans until some time later. One engineer in particular


title: "CN Tower" content: felt that visitors would feel the higher observation deck would be worth paying extra for, and the costs in terms of construction were not prohibitive. It was also some time around this point that it was realized that the tower could become the world's tallest structure, and plans were changed to incorporate subtle modifications throughout the structure to this end. Construction on the CN Tower began on February 6, 1973, with massive excavations at the tower base for the foundation. By the time the foundation was complete, of earth and shale were removed to a depth of in the centre,


title: "CN Tower" content: and a base incorporating of concrete with of rebar and of steel cable had been built to a thickness of . This portion of the construction was fairly rapid, with only four months needed between the start and the foundation being ready for construction on top. To create the main support pillar, workers constructed a hydraulically raised slipform at the base. This was a fairly unprecedented engineering feat on its own, consisting of a large metal platform that raised itself on jacks at about per day as the concrete below set. Concrete was poured continuously by a team of 1,532


title: "CN Tower" content: people until February 22, 1974, during which it had already become the tallest structure in Canada, surpassing the recently built Inco Superstack in Sudbury, which was built using similar methods. In total, the tower contains of concrete, all of which was mixed on-site in order to ensure batch consistency. Through the pour, the vertical accuracy of the tower was maintained by comparing the slip form's location to massive plumb bobs hanging from it, observed by small telescopes from the ground. Over the height of the tower, it varies from true vertical accuracy by only . In August 1974, construction of


title: "CN Tower" content: the main level commenced. Using 45 hydraulic jacks attached to cables strung from a temporary steel crown anchored to the top of the tower, twelve giant steel and wooden bracket forms were slowly raised, ultimately taking about a week to crawl up to their final position. These forms were used to create the brackets that support the main level, as well as a base for the construction of the main level itself. The Space Deck (currently named SkyPod) was built of concrete poured into a wooden frame attached to rebar at the lower level deck, and then reinforced with a


title: "CN Tower" content: large steel compression band around the outside. The antenna was originally to be raised by crane as well, but during construction the Sikorsky S-64 Skycrane helicopter became available when the United States Army sold one to civilian operators. The helicopter, named "Olga", was first used to remove the crane, and then flew the antenna up in 36 sections. The flights of the antenna pieces were a minor tourist attraction of their own, and the schedule was printed in the local newspapers. Use of the helicopter saved months of construction time, with this phase taking only three and a half weeks


title: "CN Tower" content: instead of the planned six months. The tower was topped-off on April 2, 1975, after 26 months of construction, officially capturing the height record from Moscow's Ostankino Tower, and bringing the total mass to . Two years into the construction, plans for Metro Centre were scrapped, leaving the tower isolated on the Railway Lands in what was then a largely abandoned light-industrial space. This caused serious problems for tourists to access the tower. Ned Baldwin, project architect with John Andrews, wrote at the time that "All of the logic which dictated the design of the lower accommodation has been upset,"


title: "CN Tower" content: and that "Under such ludicrous circumstances Canadian National would hardly have chosen this location to build." The CN Tower opened to the public on June 26, 1976. The construction costs of approximately ($ in dollars) were repaid in fifteen years. Canadian National Railway sold the tower prior to taking the company private in 1995, when it decided to divest all operations not directly related to its core freight shipping businesses. From the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s, the CN Tower was practically the only development along Front Street West; it was still possible to see Lake Ontario from the foot of


title: "CN Tower" content: the CN Tower due to the expansive parking lots and lack of development in the area at the time. As the area around the tower was developed, particularly with the completion of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in 1984 and the SkyDome in 1989 (renamed Rogers Centre in 2005), the former Railway Lands were redeveloped and the tower became the centre of a newly developing entertainment area. Access was greatly improved with the construction of the SkyWalk in 1989, which connected the tower and SkyDome to the nearby Union Station railway and subway station, and, in turn, to the city's


title: "CN Tower" content: PATH underground pedestrian system. By the mid-1990s, it was the centre of a thriving tourist district. The entire area continues to be an area of intense building, notably a boom in condominium construction in the first two decades of the 21st century, as well as the 2013 opening of the Ripley's Aquarium by the base of the tower. The CN Tower consists of several substructures. The main portion of the tower is a hollow concrete hexagonal pillar containing the stairwells and power and plumbing connections. The Tower's six elevators are located in the three inverted angles created by the Tower's


title: "CN Tower" content: hexagonal shape (two elevators per angle). Each of the three elevator shafts is lined with glass, allowing for views of the city as the glass-windowed elevators make their way through the Tower. The stairwell was originally located in one of these angles (the one facing north), but was moved into the central hollow of the Tower; the Tower's new fifth and sixth elevators were placed in the hexagonal angle that once contained the stairwell. On top of the main concrete portion of the Tower is a tall metal broadcast antenna, carrying TV and radio signals. There are three visitor areas:


title: "CN Tower" content: the Glass Floor and Outdoor Observation Terrace, which are both located at an elevation of , the Indoor Lookout Level (formerly known as "Indoor Observation Level") located at , and the higher SkyPod (formerly known as "Space Deck") at , just below the metal antenna. The hexagonal shape can be seen between the two areas; however, below the main deck, three large supporting legs give the tower the appearance of a large tripod. The main deck level is seven storeys, some of which are open to the public. Below the public areas — at — is a large white donut-shaped


title: "CN Tower" content: radome containing the structure's microwave receivers. The glass floor and outdoor observation deck are at . The glass floor has an area of and can withstand a pressure of . The floor's thermal glass units are thick, consisting of a pane of laminated glass, airspace and a pane of laminated glass. Some people experience acrophobia when standing on the glass floor and looking down at the ground below. In 2008, one elevator was upgraded to add a glass floor panel, believed to have the highest vertical rise of any elevator equipped with this feature. The Horizons Cafe and the lookout


title: "CN Tower" content: level are at . The 360 Restaurant, a revolving restaurant that completes a full rotation once every 72 minutes, is at . When the tower first opened, it also featured a disco named Sparkles (at the Indoor Observation Level), billed as the highest disco and dance floor in the world. The SkyPod was once the highest public observation deck in the world until it was surpassed by the Shanghai World Financial Center in 2008. A metal staircase reaches the main deck level after 1,776 steps, and the SkyPod above after 2,579 steps; it is the tallest metal staircase on Earth.


title: "CN Tower" content: These stairs are intended for emergency use only and are not open to the public, except for twice per year for charity stair-climb events. The average climber takes approximately 30 minutes to climb to the base of the radome, but the fastest climb on record is 7 minutes and 52 seconds in 1989 by Brendan Keenoy, an Ontario Provincial Police officer. In 2002, Canadian Olympian and Paralympic champion Jeff Adams climbed the stairs of the tower in a specially designed wheelchair. The stairs were originally on one of the three sides of the tower (facing north), with a glass view,


title: "CN Tower" content: but these were later replaced with the third elevator pair and the stairs were moved to the inside of the core. Top climbs on the new, windowless stairwell used since around 2003 have generally been over ten minutes. On August 1, 2011, the CN Tower opened the EdgeWalk, an amusement in which thrill-seekers can walk on and around the roof of the main pod of the tower at , which is directly above the 360 Restaurant. It is the world's highest full-circle, hands-free walk. Visitors are tethered to an overhead rail system and walk around the edge of the CN


title: "CN Tower" content: Tower's main pod above the 360 Restaurant on a metal floor. The attraction is closed throughout the winter season and during periods of electrical storms and high winds. One of the notable guests who visited EdgeWalk includes Canadian comedian Rick Mercer, as featured on his CBC Television news satire show, "Rick Mercer Report". He was accompanied by Canadian pop singer Jann Arden. A freezing rain storm on March 2, 2007, resulted in a layer of ice several centimetres thick forming on the side of the tower and other downtown buildings. The sun thawed the ice, and winds of up to


title: "CN Tower" content: blew some of it away from the structure. There were fears that cars and windows of nearby buildings would be smashed by large chunks of ice. In response, police closed some streets surrounding the tower. During morning rush hour on March 5 of the same year, police expanded the area of closed streets to include the Gardiner Expressway away from the tower, as increased winds blew the ice farther away, as far north as King Street, away, where a taxicab window was shattered. Subsequently, on March 6, 2007, the Gardiner Expressway reopened after winds abated. On April 16, 2018, falling


title: "CN Tower" content: ice from the CN Tower punctured the roof of the nearby Rogers Centre, causing the Toronto Blue Jays to postpone the game that day to the following day as a doubleheader. On April 20, the CN Tower reopened. In August 2000, a fire broke out at the Ostankino Tower in Moscow killing three people and causing extensive damage. The fire was blamed on poor maintenance and outdated equipment. The failure of the fire-suppression systems and the lack of proper equipment for firefighters allowed the fire to destroy most of the interior and spark fears the tower might even collapse. The


title: "CN Tower" content: Ostankino Tower was completed nine years before the CN Tower, and is only shorter. The parallels between the towers led to some concern that the CN Tower could be at risk of a similar tragedy. However, Canadian officials subsequently stated that it is "highly unlikely" that a similar disaster could occur at the CN Tower, as it has important safeguards that were not present in the Ostankino Tower. Specifically, officials cited: Officials also noted that the CN Tower has an excellent safety record, although there was an electrical fire in the antennae on August 16, 2017 — the tower's first


title: "CN Tower" content: fire. Moreover, other supertall structures built between 1967 and 1976 — such as the Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower), the World Trade Center (until its destruction on September 11, 2001), the Fernsehturm Berlin, the Aon Center, 875 North Michigan Avenue (formerly the John Hancock Center), and First Canadian Place — also have excellent safety records, which suggests that the Ostankino Tower accident was a rare safety failure, and that the likelihood of similar events occurring at other supertall structures is extremely low. The CN Tower was originally lit at night with incandescent lights, which were removed in 1997, because


title: "CN Tower" content: they were inefficient and expensive to repair. In June 2007, the tower was outfitted with 1,330 super-bright LED lights inside the elevator shafts, shooting over the main pod and upward to the top of the tower's mast to light the tower from dusk until 2 a.m. The official opening ceremony took place on June 28 before the Canada Day holiday weekend. The tower changes its lighting scheme on holidays and to commemorate major events. After the 95th Grey Cup in Toronto, the tower was lit in green and white to represent the colours of the Grey Cup champion Saskatchewan Roughriders.


title: "CN Tower" content: From sundown on August 27, 2011, to sunrise the following day, the tower was lit in orange, the official colour of the New Democratic Party (NDP), to commemorate the death of federal NDP leader and leader of the official opposition Jack Layton. When former South African president Nelson Mandela died, the tower was lit in the colours of the South African flag. When former federal finance minister under Stephen Harper's Conservatives Jim Flaherty died, the tower was lit in green to reflect his Irish Canadian heritage. On the night of the attacks on Paris on November 13, 2015, the tower


title: "CN Tower" content: displayed the colours of the French flag. Programmed from a desktop computer with a wireless network interface controller in Burlington, Ontario, the LEDs use less energy to light than the previous incandescent lights (10% less energy than the dimly lit version and 60% less than the brightly lit version). The estimated cost to use the LEDs is $1,000 per month. During the spring and autumn bird migration seasons, the lights would be turned off to comply with the voluntary Fatal Light Awareness Program, which "encourages buildings to dim unnecessary exterior lighting to mitigate bird mortality during spring and summer migration."


title: "CN Tower" content: The CN Tower is the tallest freestanding structure in the Western Hemisphere. As of 2013, there are only two other freestanding structures in the Western Hemisphere which exceed in height; the Willis Tower in Chicago, which stands at when measured to its pinnacle; and the topped-out One World Trade Center in New York City, which has a pinnacle height of , or approximately shorter than the CN Tower. Due to the symbolism of the number 1776 (the year of the signing of the United States Declaration of Independence), the height of One World Trade Center is unlikely to be increased.


title: "CN Tower" content: The proposed Chicago Spire was expected to exceed the height of the CN Tower, but its construction was halted early due to financial difficulties amid the Great Recession, and was eventually cancelled in 2010. "Guinness World Records" has called the CN Tower "the world's tallest self-supporting tower" and "the world's tallest free-standing tower". Although Guinness did list this description of the CN Tower under the heading "tallest building" at least once, it has also listed it under "tallest tower", omitting it from its list of "tallest buildings." In 1996, Guinness changed the tower's classification to "World's Tallest Building and Freestanding


title: "CN Tower" content: Structure". Emporis and the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat both listed the CN Tower as the world's tallest free-standing structure on land, and specifically state that the CN Tower is not a true building, thereby awarding the title of world's tallest building to Taipei 101, which is shorter than the CN Tower. The issue of what was tallest became moot when Burj Khalifa, then under construction, exceeded the height of the CN Tower in 2007 (see below). Although the CN Tower contains a restaurant, a gift shop and multiple observation levels, it does not have floors continuously from


title: "CN Tower" content: the ground, and therefore it is not considered a building by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) or Emporis. CTBUH defines a building as "a structure that is designed for residential, business, or manufacturing purposes. An essential characteristic of a building is that it has floors." The CN Tower and other similar structures—such as the Ostankino Tower in Moscow, Russia; the Oriental Pearl Tower in Shanghai, China; the Stratosphere Tower in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA; and the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France—are categorized as "towers", which are free-standing structures that may have observation decks and a few


title: "CN Tower" content: other habitable levels, but do not have floors from the ground up. The CN Tower was the tallest tower by this definition, until 2010 (see below). Taller than the CN Tower are numerous radio masts and towers, which are held in place by guy-wires, the tallest being the KVLY-TV mast in Blanchard, North Dakota, USA at tall, leading to a distinction between these and "free-standing" structures. Additionally, the Petronius Platform stands above its base on the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, but only the top of this oil and natural gas platform are above water, and the structure is


title: "CN Tower" content: thus partially supported by its buoyancy. Like the CN Tower, none of these taller structures are commonly considered buildings. On September 12, 2007, Burj Khalifa, which is a hotel, residential and commercial building in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and was formerly known as Burj Dubai before opening, passed the CN Tower's 553.33-metre height. The CN Tower held the record of tallest free-standing structure on land for over 30 years. After Burj Khalifa had been formally recognized by the Guinness World Records as the world's tallest freestanding structure, Guinness re-certified CN Tower as the world's tallest freestanding tower. The tower definition


title: "CN Tower" content: used by Guinness was defined by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat as 'a building in which less than 50% of the construction is usable floor space'. "Guinness World Records" editor-in-chief Craig Glenday announced that Burj Khalifa was not classified as a tower because it has too much usable floor space to be considered to be a tower. CN Tower still held world records for highest above ground wine cellar (in 360 Restaurant) at 351 metres, highest above ground restaurant at 346 metres (Horizons Restaurant), and tallest free-standing concrete tower during Guinness's recertification. The CN Tower was surpassed


title: "CN Tower" content: in 2009 by the Canton Tower in Guangzhou, China, which stands at tall, as the world's tallest tower; which in turn was surpassed by the Tokyo Skytree in 2011, which currently is the tallest tower at in height. The CN Tower, as of 2018, stands as the ninth-tallest free-standing structure on land, remains the tallest free-standing structure in the Western Hemisphere, and is the third-tallest tower. Since the construction of the tower had been completed, it has gained the following world height records: The CN Tower has been and continues to be used as a communications tower for a number


title: "CN Tower" content: of different media and by numerous companies. There is no AM broadcasting on the CN Tower. The FM antennas are situated above ground. The CN Tower has been featured in numerous films, television shows, and video games, as well as having its own official mascot, which resembles the tower itself. CN Tower The CN Tower () is a concrete communications and observation tower located in Downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Built on the former Railway Lands, it was completed in 1976. Its name "CN" originally referred to Canadian National, the railway company that built the tower. Following the railway's decision to


title: Conjecture content: the conjecture. Mathematical journals sometimes publish the minor results of research teams having extended the search for a counterexample farther than previously done. For instance, the Collatz conjecture, which concerns whether or not certain sequences of integers terminate, has been tested for all integers up to 1.2 × 10 (over a trillion). However, the failure to find a counterexample after extensive search does not constitute a proof that no counterexample exists nor that the conjecture is true, because the conjecture might be false but with a very large minimal counterexample. Instead, a conjecture is considered proven only when it has


title: Cologne content: (for example, the city walls or the area around the cathedral) and sometimes replaced by contemporary buildings. Cologne was designated as one of the Fortresses of the German Confederation. It was turned into a heavily armed fortress (opposing the French and Belgian fortresses of Verdun and Liège) with two fortified belts surrounding the city, the remains of which can be seen to this day. The military demands on what became Germany's largest fortress presented a significant obstacle to urban development, with forts, bunkers, and wide defensive dugouts completely encircling the city and preventing expansion; this resulted in a very densely


title: "Chaos theory" content: few, isolated individuals, chaos theory progressively emerged as a transdisciplinary and institutional discipline, mainly under the name of nonlinear systems analysis. Alluding to Thomas Kuhn's concept of a paradigm shift exposed in "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions" (1962), many "chaologists" (as some described themselves) claimed that this new theory was an example of such a shift, a thesis upheld by Gleick. The availability of cheaper, more powerful computers broadens the applicability of chaos theory. Currently, chaos theory remains an active area of research, involving many different disciplines (mathematics, topology, physics, social systems, population modeling, biology, meteorology, astrophysics, information theory, computational


title: Chloroplast content: been completely broken down—its nucleus still persists as a nucleomorph found between the second and third chloroplast membranes—the periplastid space, which corresponds to the green alga's cytoplasm. "Lepidodinium viride" and its close relatives are dinophytes (see below) that lost their original peridinin chloroplast and replaced it with a green algal derived chloroplast (more specifically, a prasinophyte). "Lepidodinium" is the only dinophyte that has a chloroplast that's not from the rhodoplast lineage. The chloroplast is surrounded by two membranes and has no nucleomorph—all the nucleomorph genes have been transferred to the dinophyte nucleus. The endosymbiotic event that led to this chloroplast


title: Crete content: city and port of Chania, the Venetian castle at Rethymno, the gorge of Samaria, the islands of Chrysi, Elafonisi, Gramvousa, Spinalonga and the Palm Beach of Vai, which is the largest natural palm forest in Europe. Crete has an extensive bus system with regular services across the north of the island and from north to south. There are two regional bus stations in Heraklion. Bus routes and timetables can be found on KTEL website. Crete's mild climate attracts interest from northern Europeans who want a holiday home or residence on the island. EU citizens have the right to freely buy


title: Crete content: its Mantinades-based music (typically performed with the Cretan lyra and the laouto) and has many indigenous dances, the most noted of which is the Pentozali. Cretan authors have made important contributions to Greek Literature throughout the modern period; major names include Vikentios Kornaros, creator of the 17th-century epic romance "Erotokritos" (Greek Ερωτόκριτος), and, in the 20th century, Nikos Kazantzakis. In the Renaissance, Crete was the home of the Cretan School of icon painting, which influenced El Greco and through him subsequent European painting. Crete is also famous for its traditional cuisine. The nutritional value of the Cretan cuisine was discovered


title: Curry content: Curry Curry (plural curries) is a variety of dishes originating in the Indian subcontinent that use a complex combination of spices or herbs, usually including ground turmeric, cumin, coriander, ginger, and fresh or dried chilies. Curry is generally prepared in a sauce. Curry dishes prepared in the southern states of India, where the word also originated, may be spiced with leaves from the curry tree. There are many varieties of dishes called 'curries'. For example, in original traditional cuisines, the precise selection of spices for each dish is a matter of national or regional cultural tradition, religious practice, and, to


title: Curry content: some extent, family preference. Such dishes are called by specific names that refer to their ingredients, spicing, and cooking methods. Spices are used both whole and ground, cooked or raw, and they may be added at different times during the cooking process to produce different results. The main spices found in most curry powders of the Indian subcontinent are coriander, cumin, and turmeric. A wide range of additional spices may be included depending on the geographic region and the foods being included (fish, lentils, red or white meat, rice, and vegetables). Curry powder, a commercially prepared mixture of spices, is


title: Curry content: largely a Western creation, dating to the 18th century. Such mixtures are commonly thought to have first been prepared by Indian merchants for sale to members of the British Colonial government and army returning to Britain. Dishes called 'curry' may contain fish, meat, poultry, or shellfish, either alone or in combination with vegetables. Additionally, many instead are entirely vegetarian, eaten especially among those who hold ethical or religious proscriptions against eating meat or seafood. Curries may be either 'dry' or 'wet'. Dry curries are cooked with very little liquid which is allowed to evaporate, leaving the other ingredients coated with


title: Curry content: the spice mixture. Wet curries contain significant amounts of sauce or gravy based on broth, coconut cream, coconut milk, dairy cream, legume purée, sautéed crushed onion, tomato purée or yogurt. Curry was adopted and anglicized from the Tamil word "" meaning 'sauce' or 'relish for rice'. It is usually understood to mean vegetables or meat cooked with spices with or without a gravy, used first in English in 1747 when a curry recipe was published by Hannah Glasse. "Cury" (from French cuire, meaning to cook) appeared in the 1390s in an English cookbook, "The Forme of Cury", and "kari" was


title: Curry content: first described in a mid-17th century Portuguese cookbook by members of the British East India Company trading with Tamil (Indian) merchants along the Coromandel Coast of southeast India, becoming known as a "spice blend used for making kari dishes ... called "kari podi" or curry powder". Archaeological evidence dating to 2600 BCE from Mohenjo-daro suggests the use of mortar and pestle to pound spices including mustard, fennel, cumin, and tamarind pods with which they flavoured food. Black pepper is native to the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia and has been known to Indian cooking since at least 2000 BCE. Similarly


title: Curry content: the oldest surviving Roman cookbook, Apicius, details numerous recipes that require meats to be seasoned with vinegar, honey and ground herbs and spices including pepper, cumin, lovage, marjoram, mint, cloves and coriander. The establishment of the Mughal Empire, in the early 15th century, influenced some curries, especially in the north. Another influence was the establishment of the Portuguese trading centre in Goa in 1510, resulting in the introduction of chili pepper to India from the Americas, as a byproduct of the Columbian Exchange. Curry was introduced to English cuisine starting with Anglo-Indian cooking in the 17th century as spicy sauces


title: Curry content: were added to plain boiled and cooked meats. The 1758 edition of Hannah Glasse's "The Art of Cookery" contains a recipe "To make a curry the Indian way". Curry was first served in coffee houses in Britain from 1809, and has been increasingly popular in Great Britain, with major jumps in the 1940s and the 1970s. During the 19th century, curry was also carried to the Caribbean by Indian indentured workers in the British sugar industry. Since the mid-20th century, curries of many national styles have become popular far from their origins, and increasingly become part of international fusion cuisine.


title: Curry content: From the culinary point of view, it is useful to consider the Indian subcontinent to be the entire historical region encompassed prior to independence since August 1947; that is, the modern countries of India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. It is usual to distinguish broadly between northern and southern styles of Indian cuisine, recognising that within those categories are innumerable sub-styles and variations. The distinction is commonly made with reference to the staple starch: wheat in the form of unleavened breads in the north; rice in the east; rice and millet in the south. Bengali cuisine, which refers to the


title: Curry content: cuisine of Bangladesh and the West Bengal state of India, includes curries, including seafood and fresh fish. Mustard seeds and mustard oil are added to many recipes, as are poppy seeds. Emigrants from the Sylhet district of Bangladesh founded the curry house industry in Britain and in Sylhet some restaurants run by expatriates specialise in British-style Indian food. Curries are the most well-known part of Indian cuisine. Most Indian dishes are usually curry based, prepared by adding different types of vegetables, lentils or meats in the curry. The content of the curry and style of preparation varies per the region.


title: Curry content: Most curries are water based, with occasional use of dairy and coconut milk. Curry dishes are usually thick and spicy and are eaten along with steamed rice and variety of Indian breads. Although wet curries play a smaller role in Gujarat than elsewhere, there are a number of vegetarian examples with gravies based on buttermilk or coconut milk. The main ingredient may variously be brinjal (eggplant/aubergine), potatoes, fresh corn kernels, okra, tomatoes, etc. In addition, there are several common kofta dishes which substitute vegetables for meat. Undhiyu, a Gujarati specialty, is a spicy 'wet' mixed-vegetable 'casserole' cooked in an earthenware


title: Curry content: pot, often eaten during the winter months. The curries of Maharashtra vary from mildly spicy to very spicy and include vegetarian, mutton, chicken and fish. Coastal Maharashtrian – Konkani – curries use coconut extensively along with spices. In western Maharashtra, curries are very spicy, often with peanut powder. Vidharba's cuisine is usually spicier than that of the coastal and southern regions. The ingredients commonly used are besan (gram flour), or chickpea flour, and groundnut powder. As a result of the Mughal rule in the region, the cuisine of Aurangabad has been highly influenced by the North Indian method of cooking.


title: Curry content: Khandeshi food is very spicy and the most famous dish is shev bhaji. Others include Eggplant bharta (wangyache bhareet), (urid dal), Stuffed eggplant (bharleli wangi), bhaakari with thecha etc.The majority of Maharashtrian people are farmers living in the rural areas and therefore their traditional food is very simple. Most Punjabi dishes are prepared using "tadka", which is made with the frying of a "masala", which is a mix of ginger, garlic, onions and tomatoes with some dried spices. This is followed by the addition of other ingredients, water, and occasionally milk. Normally spicy, spice levels vary greatly depending on the


title: Curry content: household itself. Ghee and mustard oil are the most commonly used cooking fats. Many popular Punjabi dishes such as butter chicken and rajma are curry-based. These dishes are usually served with steamed rice and chapatis. Rajasthani cuisine was influenced both by the war-like lifestyles of its inhabitants and the availability of ingredients in this arid region. Food that could last for several days and could be eaten without heating was preferred. Scarcity of water and fresh green vegetables have each had their effect on the cooking. Hence the curries in Rajasthan are usually made using dry spices and herbs and


title: Curry content: other dry items like gram flour. "Kadhi" is a popular gram flour curry, usually served with steamed rice and bread. To decrease the use of water in this desert state they use a lot of milk and milk-products to cook curries. Laal maans is a popular meat curry from Rajasthan. The food in general from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, both with Telugu-speaking natives, is considered the hottest in India. The state, being the leading producer of red chilli and green chilli, influences the liberal use of spices, making their curries, chutneys, savories and pickles the hottest and spiciest in taste.


title: Curry content: Curries known as vindaloo have become well known in Great Britain, America, and elsewhere, where the name is usually used simply to indicate a fiery dish of lamb or chicken frequently including potatoes. Such dishes are far from the Goan originals. The name "vindaloo" derives from the Portuguese "vinha d'alhos" or wine ("vinho") and garlic ("alho"), the two definitive flavour ingredients. The dish was originally made with pork, not taboo to the Christian Portuguese. The inclusion of potatoes was a later Indian addition, thought to be the result of confusion with the Hindi word for potato, "aloo". Throughout the years


title: Curry content: "vindaloo" has been altered to appeal to many people by adding spices and different wines. The curries of Karnataka are typically vegetarian or with meat and fish around mostly coastal areas. They use a wide variety of vegetables, spices, coconut and jaggery. There are dry and sauce-based curries. Some typical sauce-based dishes include saaru, gojju, thovve, huli, majjige huli (which is similar to the "kadi" made in the north), sagu or kootu, which is eaten mixed with hot rice. Malayali curries of Kerala typically contain shredded coconut paste or coconut milk, curry leaves, and various spices. Mustard seeds are used


title: Curry content: in almost every dish, along with onions, curry leaves, and sliced red chilies fried in hot oil. Most of the non-vegetarian dishes are heavily spiced. Kerala is known for its traditional sadya, a vegetarian meal served with boiled rice and a host of side dishes such as parippu (green gram), papadum, ghee, sambar, rasam, aviyal, kaalan, kichadi, pachadi, injipuli, Koottukari, pickles (mango, lime), thoran, one to four types of payasam, boli, olan, pulissery, moru (buttermilk), upperi, and banana chips. The sadya is customarily served on a banana leaf. Tamil cuisine's distinctive flavour and aroma is achieved by a blend and


title: Curry content: combination of spices including curry leaves, tamarind, coriander, ginger, garlic, chili, pepper, poppy seeds, mustard seeds, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, cumin, fennel or anise seeds, fenugreek seeds, nutmeg, coconut, turmeric root or powder, and rosewater. Lentils, vegetables and dairy products are essential accompaniments and are often served with rice. Traditionally vegetarian foods dominate the menu with a range of non-vegetarian dishes including freshwater fish and seafood cooked with spices and seasoning. In the West, the best-known Kashmiri curry is "rogan josh", a wet curry of lamb with a brilliant red gravy whose colour is derived from a combination of Kashmiri chillies


title: Curry content: and an extract derived from the red flowers of the cockscomb plant ("mawal"). "Goshtaba" (large lamb meatballs cooked in yoghurt gravy) is another curry dish from the Wazwan tradition occasionally found in Western restaurants. The most important curry in the cuisine of the Maldives is cooked with diced fresh tuna and is known as "mas riha". "Kukulhu riha", chicken curry, is cooked with a different mixture of spices. Traditional vegetable curries in the Maldives include those that use "bashi" (eggplant/aubergine), "tora" ("Luffa aegyptiaca"), "barabō" (pumpkin), "chichanda" ("Trichosanthes cucumerina") and "muranga" ("Moringa oleifera"), as well as green unripe bananas and certain


title: Curry content: leaves as their main ingredients. Pieces of Maldive fish are normally added to give the vegetable curry a certain flavour. The curries of Nepalese cuisine have been influenced by its neighbours, mainly India and Tibet. Well known Indian spices are used less. Goat is a popular meat in the Himalayan region of Nepal. Daal bhaat (rice and lentil soup) is a staple dish of Nepal. Newa cuisine is a type of cuisine developed over centuries by the Newars of Nepal. Pakistani curries, especially in the provinces of Punjab and Sindh are basically similar to their counterparts in northern India. Mutton


title: Curry content: and beef are common ingredients. A typical Pakistani lunch or dinner often consists of some form of bread (such as naan or roti) or rice with a meat or vegetable-based curry. Barbecue style or roasted meats are also very popular in the form of kebabs. It is worth noting that the term "curry" is virtually never used inside the country; instead, regional words such as "salan" or "shorba" are used to denote what is known outside the country as a "curry". Several different types of curries exist, depending on the cooking style, such as bhuna, bharta, roghan josh, qorma, qeema,


title: Curry content: and shorba. A favourite Pakistani curry is karahi, which is either mutton or chicken cooked in a cooking utensil called karahi, which is similar in shape to a wok. Lahori karahi incorporates garlic, ginger, fresh chillies, tomatoes and select spices. Peshawari karahi is another very popular version made with just meat, salt, tomatoes, and coriander. The cuisine from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan is somewhat similar to the cuisine of neighbouring Afghanistan. Extreme winters in some areas made the supply of fresh vegetables impossible, so a lot of dried fruits and vegetables are incorporated in the cuisine. The province


title: Curry content: still produces a large amount of nuts which are used abundantly in traditional cooking, along with cereals like wheat, maize, barley, and rice. Accompanying these staples are dairy products (yoghurt, whey), various nuts, native vegetables, and fresh and dried fruits. Peshawari karahi from the provincial capital of Peshawar is a popular curry all over the country. Cuisine in Pakistani Punjab differs from Indian Punjab on account of contents and religious diet rules. A typical Punjabi meal consists of some form of bread or rice with a "salan" (curry). Most preparations start with the frying of a masala which is a


title: Curry content: concoction of ginger, garlic, onions, tomatoes, and dried spices. Various other ingredients are then added. Spice level varies greatly depending on the sub-region as well as the household itself. A popular cooking fat is desi ghee with some dishes enriched with liberal amounts of butter and cream. There are certain dishes that are exclusive to Punjab, such as maash di dal and saron da saag (sarson ka saag). In Punjab and Kashmir, the only dish known as kardhi (curry) is a dish made of dahi (yogurt) and flour dumplings. In Pakistan, the provinces of Sindh and Balochistan border the Arabian


title: Curry content: Sea. Due to this, the Sindhi cuisine often has abundant use of fish in curries. Among Pakistani food, the Sindhi curries generally tend to be the hottest. The daily food in most Sindhi households consists of wheat-based flatbread (phulka) and rice accompanied by two dishes, one gravy and one dry. In Sri Lankan cuisine, rice, which is usually consumed daily, can be found at any special occasion, while spicy curries are favourite dishes for lunch and dinner. "Rice and curry" refers to a range of Sri Lankan dishes. Burmese cuisine is based on a very different understanding of curries. The


title: Curry content: principal ingredients of almost all Burmese curries are fresh onion (which provides the gravy and main body of the curry), Indian spices and red chilies. Usually, meat and fish are the main ingredients for popular curries. Burmese curries can be generalised into two types – the hot spicy dishes which exhibit north Indian or Pakistani influence, and the milder "sweet" curries. Burmese curries almost overwhelmingly lack coconut milk, setting them apart from most southeast Asian curries. Regular ingredients include fresh onion, garlic and chili paste. Common spices include garam masala, dried chili powder, cumin powder, turmeric and ngapi, a fermented


title: Curry content: paste made from either fish or prawns. Burmese curries are quite oily, as the extra oil helps the food to last longer. A spaghetti equivalent called Nan gyi thohk exists, in which wheat or rice noodles are eaten with thick chicken curry. In Indonesia curry is called "kari" or "kare". The most common type of "kari" consumed in Indonesia is "kari ayam" (chicken curry) and "kari kambing" (goat meat curry). In Aceh and North Sumatra roti cane is often eaten with "kari kambing". Other dishes such as gulai and opor are dishes based on curry. They are often highly localised


title: Curry content: and reflect the meat and vegetables available. They can therefore employ a variety of meats (chicken, beef, water buffalo and goat as in the flavoursome "gulai kambing"), seafood (such as prawn, crab, mussel, clam, and squid), fish (tuna, mackerel, carp, pangasius, catfish), or vegetables (young jackfruit, common beans, cassava leaf) dishes in a spiced sauce. They use local ingredients such as chili peppers, kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass, galangal, Indonesian bay leaves (salam leaf), candlenuts, turmeric, turmeric leaves, asam gelugur and asam kandis (sour mangosteens similar to tamarind), shrimp paste (terasi), cumin, coriander seed and coconut milk. In Aceh, curries use


title: Curry content: "daun salam koja" or "daun kari" ("Murraya koenigii") translated as "curry leaves". One popular dish, rendang from West Sumatran cuisine, is often described as caramelised beef dry curry. In Indonesia, rendang is usually not considered to be curry since it is richer and contains less liquid than is normal for Indonesian curries. Authentic rendang uses water buffalo meat slow-cooked in thick coconut milk for a number of hours to tenderise, caramelise, and flavour the meat. Opor Ayam is another variation of curry, which tastes very similar to gulai. Opor is usually whitish in colour and uses neither cinnamon nor turmeric,


title: Curry content: while gulai may contain either or both. Opor is also often part of a family meal around Lebaran, while gulai can be commonly found in Padang restaurants. Being at the crossroads of ancient trade routes has left a mark on Malaysian cuisine. While curry may have initially found its way to Malaysian shores via the Indian population, it has since become a staple among the Malays and Chinese. Malaysian curries differ from state to state, even within similar ethnic groupings, as they are influenced by many factors, be they cultural, religious, agricultural or economical. Malaysian curries typically use turmeric-rich curry


title: Curry content: powders, coconut milk, shallots, ginger, belacan (shrimp paste), chili peppers, and garlic. Tamarind is also often used. Rendang is another form of curry consumed in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines; it is drier and contains mostly meat and more coconut milk than a conventional Malaysian curry. Rendang was mentioned in Malay literature Hikayat Amir Hamzah (1550s) and is popular among Indonesians, Singaporeans and Malaysians. All sorts of things are curried in Malaysia, including mutton, chicken, tofu, shrimp, cuttlefish, fish, eggplants, eggs, and vegetables. In the Philippines, two kinds of curry traditions are seen corresponding with the cultural divide between


title: Curry content: the Westernised north and Islamised south. In the northern areas, a linear range of new curry recipes could be seen. Chicken is cooked in coconut milk, chillies and curry powder. This is the usual curry dish that northern Filipinos are familiar with. A typical northern Filipino curry dish would usually contain pork or chicken cooked in a similar manner to other local dishes such as "adobo", "kaldereta", and "mechado", with additions of "patis" (fish sauce), potatoes, bay leaf, birds eye chillies and coconut milk, sometimes complemented by lemongrass and carrots. In southern areas of the Visayas, Mindanao, the Sulu Archipelago


title: Curry content: and southern Palawan, various older curry recipes are seen, and owe their origins to the Southern Philippines’ non-colonised history, keeping a precolonised and very southeast Asian Malay World culture intact. These Mindanaoan curries include "Kulma", synonymous with the Indian Korma, "Tiyula Itum" which is a beef curry blackened with burned coconut-meat powder, and Rendang, also eaten in Indonesia and Malaysia. Meats used in these curries include beef, goat, mutton, lamb, seafood and chicken. Pork is not used, in accordance with Islamic dietary laws. In Thai cuisine, curries are called "kaeng", and usually consist of meat, fish and/or vegetables in a


title: Curry content: sauce based on a paste made from chilies, onions or shallots, garlic, and shrimp paste. Additional spices and herbs define the type of curry. Local ingredients, such as chili peppers, kaffir lime leaves, lemon grass, galangal are used and, in central and southern Thai cuisine, coconut milk. Northern and northeastern Thai curries generally do not contain coconut milk. Due to the use of sugar and coconut milk, Thai curries tend to be sweeter than Indian curries. In the West, some of the Thai curries are described by colour; red curries use red chilies while green curries use green chilies. Yellow


title: Curry content: curry—called "kaeng kari" (by various spellings) in Thai, of which a literal translation could be "curry soup"—is more similar to Indian curries, with the use of turmeric, cumin, and other dried spices. A few stir-fried Thai dishes also use an Indian style curry powder (Thai: "phong kari"). Thai curries: In Vietnam where curry is called "cà ri", curry features include coconut milk, potato, sweet potato, taro roots, chicken garnished with coriander, and green onion. It is more soup-like than Indian curry. The curry is usually eaten with a baguette, rice vermicelli or steamed rice. Some dishes use a curry-based stew,


title: Curry content: such as snail dishes, phá lấu, stewed frogs or eels. Chinese curries (咖哩, gā lǐ) typically consist of chicken, beef, fish, lamb, or other meats, green peppers, onions, large chunks of potatoes, and a variety of other ingredients and spices in a mildly spicy yellow curry sauce, and topped over steamed rice. White pepper, soy sauce, hot sauce, and/or hot chili oil may be applied to the sauce to enhance the flavour of the curry. The most common Chinese variety of curry sauce is usually sold in powder form. The ethnic Cantonese being dominant in Kuala Lumpur, this yellow Chinese-Malaysian


title: Curry content: variety was naturally introduced to China by the Cantonese. It features typically in Hong Kong cuisine, where curry is often cooked with brisket or fish balls. Malay satay seems to have been introduced to China with wider success by the ethnic Teochew, who make up the second largest group of Chinese of Singapore and are the dominant group in Thailand. There are many different varieties of Chinese curry, depending on each restaurant. "Galimian," (from Malaysian "curry mee" or "curry noodles,") is also a popular Chinese curry dish. In Hong Kong, curry fish balls are a street snack, and curried brisket


title: Curry content: is a typical main course in cha chaan teng and fast food restaurants. is usually eaten as "karē raisu" — curry, rice, and often pickled vegetables, served on the same plate and eaten with a spoon, a common lunchtime canteen dish. It is less spicy and seasoned than Indian and Southeast Asian curries, being more of a thick stew than a curry. British people brought curry from the Indian colony back to Britain and introduced it to Japan during the Meiji period (1868 to 1912), after Japan ended its policy of national self-isolation ("sakoku"), and curry in Japan was categorised


title: Curry content: as a Western dish. Its spread across the country is commonly attributed to its use in the Japanese Army and Navy which adopted it extensively as convenient field and naval canteen cooking, allowing even conscripts from the remotest countryside to experience the dish. The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force traditionally have curry every Friday for lunch and many ships have their own unique recipes. The standard Japanese curry contains onions, carrots, potatoes, and sometimes celery, and a meat that is cooked in a large pot. Sometimes grated apples or honey are added for additional sweetness and other vegetables are sometimes used


title: Curry content: instead. For the meat, pork, beef, and chicken are the most popular, in order of decreasing popularity. In northern and eastern Japan including Tokyo, pork is the most popular meat for curry. Beef is more common in western Japan, including Osaka, and in Okinawa, chicken is favoured. Curry seasoning is commonly sold in the form of a condensed brick, similar to a bouillon cube, which dissolves in the mixture of meat and vegetables. Sometimes the curry-rice is topped with breaded pork cutlet (tonkatsu); this is called "katsukarē". Korokke (potato croquettes) are also a common topping. Apart from with rice, curry


title: Curry content: is also served over noodles, possibly even on top of broth in addition, in dishes such as curry udon and curry ramen. It is also used as the filling in a fried curry bread pastry. Though curry was introduced to Korea in the 1940s, the Indian dish was only popularized decades later, when Ottogi entered the Korean food industry by launching its powder-type curry product in 1969. Korean curry, usually served with rice, is characterized by the golden yellow colour from turmeric. Curry tteokbokki, along with curry rice, is one of the most popular curry dishes in Korea. It is


title: Curry content: made of tteok (rice cakes), eomuk (fish cakes), eggs, vegetables, and curry. Curry can be added to various Korean dishes such as bokkeumbap (fried rice), sundubujjigae (silken tofu stew), fried chicken, vegetable stir-fries, and salads. Curry is also used in Korean-style western food such as pasta and steak, as well as Korean-style Japanese food such as cream udon. Curry is very popular in the United Kingdom, with a curry house in nearly every town. Such is the popularity of curry in the United Kingdom, it has frequently been called its "adopted national dish". It was estimated that in 2016 there


title: Curry content: were 12,000 curry houses, employing 100,000 people and with annual combined sales of approximately £4.2 billion. In general the food offered is Indian food cooked to British taste; however, there is increasing demand for authentic Indian food. As of 2015 curry houses accounted for a fifth of the restaurant business in the U.K. but, being historically a low wage sector, they were plagued by a shortage of labour. Established Indian immigrants from South Asia were moving on to other occupations; there were difficulties in training Europeans to cook curry; and immigration restrictions, which require payment of a substantial wage to


title: Curry content: skilled immigrants, had crimped the supply of new cooks. Historically, the word "curry" was first used in British cuisine to denote dishes of meat (often leftover lamb) in a Western-style sauce flavoured with curry powder. The first curry recipe in Britain appeared in "The Art of Cookery made Plain and Easy" by Hannah Glasse in 1747. The first edition of her book used only black pepper and coriander seeds for seasoning of "currey". By the fourth edition of the book, other ingredients such as turmeric and ginger were called for. The use of hot spices was not mentioned, which reflected


title: Curry content: the limited use of chili in India — chili plants had only been introduced into India around the late 16th century and at that time were only popular in southern India. Many curry recipes are contained in 19th century cookbooks such as those of Charles Elmé Francatelli and Mrs Beeton. In "Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management", a recipe for curry powder is given that contains coriander, turmeric, cinnamon, cayenne, mustard, ginger, allspice and fenugreek; although she notes that it is more economical to purchase the powder at "any respectable shop". According to legend, one 19th century attempt at curry


title: Curry content: resulted in the invention of Worcestershire sauce. Throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, curry grew increasingly popular in Britain owing to the large number of British civil servants and military personnel associated with the British Raj. Following World War II, curry became even more popular in Britain owing to the large number of immigrants from South Asia. Curry has become an integral part of British cuisine, so much so that, since the late 1990s, chicken tikka masala has been referred to as "a true British national dish". Other British curry derivatives include "Coronation chicken", a cold dish, often used


title: Curry content: as a sandwich filling, invented to commemorate the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953 – and curry sauce (or curry gravy), usually served warm with traditional British fast food dishes such as chips. Curry sauce occasionally includes sultanas and/or other dried fruits. In 1810, the entrepreneur Sake Dean Mahomed, from the Bengal Presidency, opened the first Indian curry house in England: the Hindoostanee Coffee House in London. (Curry was served prior to this in some London coffee houses.) The first modern "upscale" Indian restaurant in Britain is thought to have been The Shafi in 1915, followed by Veeraswamy in


title: Curry content: London's Regent Street, founded in 1926; the latter is still standing and is the oldest surviving Indian restaurant in Britain. Bengalis in the UK settled in big cities with industrial employment. In London, they settled in the East End, which for centuries has been the first port of call for many immigrants working in the docks and shipping from east Bengal. Their regular stopover paved the way for food and curry outlets to be opened up catering for an all-male workforce as family migration and settlement took place some decades later. Brick Lane in the East London Borough of Tower


title: Curry content: Hamlets is famous for its many curry houses. Until the early 1970s, more than three-quarters of Indian restaurants in Britain were identified as being owned and run by people of Bengali origin. Most were run by migrants from East Pakistan, which became Bangladesh in 1971. Bangladeshi restaurateurs overwhelmingly come from the northeastern division of Sylhet. Until 1998, as many as 85% of curry restaurants in the UK were British Bangladeshi restaurants, but in 2003 this figure declined to just over 65%. The dominance of Bangladeshi restaurants is generally declining in some parts of London and the further north one travels.


title: Curry content: In Glasgow, there are more restaurants of Punjabi origin than any other. In the early 2010s the popularity of the curry house saw a decline. This has been attributed to the sale of this style of food in generic restaurants, increased home cooking of this style of food with easy supermarket availability of ingredients, and immigration restrictions brought in from 2008 making the availability of low-wage chefs and other staff difficult. Regardless of the ethnic origin of a restaurant's ownership, the menu will often be influenced by the wider South Asia (sometimes including Nepalese dishes), and sometimes cuisines from further


title: Curry content: afield (such as Persian dishes). Some British variations on Indian food are now being exported from the U.K. to India. Curry restaurants of more-or-less the British style are also popular in Canada, Australia and New Zealand. This cuisine is characterised by the use of a common base for all the sauces to which spices are added when individual dishes are prepared. The standard "feedstock" is usually a sautéed mixture of onion, garlic and fresh ginger, to which various spices are added, depending on the recipe, but which may include: cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, chilies, peppercorns, cumin and mustard seeds. Ground coriander


title: Curry content: seed is widely used as a thickening agent, and turmeric is added for colour and its digestive qualities. Fresh or canned tomatoes and bell peppers are a common addition. Better quality restaurants will normally make up new sauces on a daily basis, using fresh ingredients wherever possible and grinding their own spices. More modest establishments are more likely to resort to frozen or dried ingredients and pre-packaged spice mixtures. Restaurants in Great Britain have adopted a number of Indian terms to identify popular dishes. Although the names may derive from traditional dishes, often the recipes do not. Representative names include:


title: Curry content: The tandoor was introduced into Britain in the 1960s, and tandoori and tikka chicken became popular dishes. Other dishes may feature with varying strengths, with those of north Indian origin, such as butter chicken, tending to be mild, and recipes from the south of India tending to be hotter. Baltis are a style of curry thought to have been developed in Birmingham, England which have spread to other western countries and are traditionally cooked and served in the same pot, typically made of cast iron, called a "balty". African curries, Cape Malay curries and Natal curries include the traditional Natal


title: Curry content: curry, the Durban curry, bunny chow, and roti rolls. South African curries appear to have been founded in two distinct regions – one in the east (KwaZulu-Natal) and the other in the west (Western Cape) – with a variety of other curries developing across the country over the late 20th century and early 21st century to include ekasi, coloured, and Afrikaner curries. Durban has the largest single population of Indians outside of India, who have been developing traditional Natal curries since their arrival in the late 19th century. Natal curries are mostly based on South Indian dishes and mostly consist


title: Curry content: of simple spiced lamb and chicken dishes (with large amounts of ghee and oils), but also include very complex and elaborate seafood, chicken and lamb specialties (chicken and prawn curry is a Natal favourite). Continental and British recipes have also evolved alongside Indian South African curries. Continental and British versions use mainly traditional recipes with the addition of red wine, milk, cream, vanilla or butter instead of ghee. Bunny chow or a "set", a South African standard, has spread in popularity throughout the country and into other southern African countries and countries with large South African immigrant populations. It consists


title: Curry content: of either lamb, chicken or bean curry poured into a tunnelled-out loaf of bread to be eaten with one's fingers. The roti roll is another classic takeaway curry that could either be a curry in a flat roti bread (similar to a kebab bread) or the classic "chip, cheese and curry" roll which basically consists of fried chips with melted cheese and curry gravy rolled into a roti roll. In the West Indies, curry is a very popular dish. The Indian indentured servants that were brought over from India by different European powers brought this dish to the West Indies.


title: Curry content: In Jamaica and Trinidad, curried goat is prominently featured. Curry can be found at both inexpensive and upscale Caribbean restaurants, and ingredients can range from chicken or vegetables to shellfish such as shrimp and scallops. Examples of curries in the West Indies include: In Fiji curries are made in most Indian homes and are eaten with rice or roti. Roti (circle or square) is mainly eaten for breakfast with vegetable curries. Lunch is often dal and rice with some side dishes. Most working people take roti and curry for their lunch. Dinner is usually curry, rice with some chutneys. Curries


title: Curry content: are normally cooked in vegetable oil. Ghee is mainly used to fry dal, to make puris or sweets. To make a curry, spices like cumin, fenugreek, mustard, and curry leaves are added to the hot oil. Onion is chopped or sliced and garlic crushed and added to the pot. Once the onion and garlic have turned slightly golden then turmeric and garam masala are added. For every 1 tsp turmeric normally 2 tsp masala is added. Salt and chillies are added according to taste. Curry is simmered on low heat until well cooked. Water is added so that it can


title: Curry content: be mixed with rice. If coriander leaves are available then they are added for extra flavour. Sometimes potatoes or vegetables are also added to curries to increase volume and make them more nutritious. Often coconut cream is added to seafood curries, such as prawn, crab or fish curries. Dal is often cooked with only turmeric and then fried in cumin, onion, and garlic. Sometimes carrots and leafy vegetables like "chauraiya" or "saijan" are added for extra flavor and nutrients. Curry powder is a spice mixture of widely varying composition developed by the British during the days of the Raj as


title: Curry content: a means of approximating the taste of Indian cuisine at home. Masala refers to spices, and this is the name given to the thick and pasty sauce based on a combination of spices with ghee (clarified butter), butter, palm oil or coconut milk. Most commercial curry powders available in Britain, the U.S. and Canada rely heavily on ground turmeric, in turn producing a very yellow sauce. Lesser ingredients in these Western yellow curry powders are often coriander, cumin, fenugreek, mustard, chili, black pepper and salt. By contrast, curry powders and curry pastes produced and consumed in India are extremely diverse;


title: Curry content: some red, some yellow, some brown; some with five spices and some with as many as 20 or more. Besides the previously mentioned spices, other commonly found spices in different curry powders in India are allspice, white pepper, ground mustard, ground ginger, cinnamon, roasted cumin, cloves, nutmeg, mace, green cardamom seeds or black cardamom pods, bay leaves and coriander seeds. Curry powder is used as an incidental ingredient in other cuisines, including for example a "curry sauce" ("sauce au curry", sometimes even "au cari") variation of the classic French béchamel. Curry Curry (plural curries) is a variety of dishes originating


title: "Cane toad" content: Cane toad The cane toad ("Rhinella marina"), also known as the giant neotropical toad or marine toad, is a large, terrestrial true toad native to South and mainland Central America, but which has been introduced to various islands throughout Oceania and the Caribbean, as well as Northern Australia. It is the world's largest toad. It is a member of the genus "Rhinella", but was formerly in the genus "Bufo", which includes many different true toad species found throughout Central and South America. The cane toad is a prolific breeder; females lay single-clump spawns with thousands of eggs. Its reproductive success


title: "Cane toad" content: is partly because of opportunistic feeding: it has a diet, unusual among anurans, of both dead and living matter. Adults average in length; the largest recorded specimen had a snout-vent length of . The cane toad is an old species. A fossil toad (specimen UCMP 41159) from the La Venta fauna of the late Miocene of Colombia is indistinguishable from modern cane toads from northern South America. It was discovered in a floodplain deposit, which suggests the "R. marina" habitat preferences have long been for open areas. The cane toad has poison glands, and the tadpoles are highly toxic to


title: "Cane toad" content: most animals if ingested. Because of its voracious appetite, the cane toad has been introduced to many regions of the Pacific and the Caribbean islands as a method of agricultural pest control. The species derives its common name from its use against the cane beetle ("Dermolepida albohirtum"). The cane toad is now considered a pest and an invasive species in many of its introduced regions; of particular concern is its toxic skin, which kills many animals, both wild and domesticated. Cane toads are particularly dangerous to dogs. Historically, the cane toads were used to eradicate pests from sugarcane, giving rise


title: "Cane toad" content: to their common name. The cane toad has many other common names, including "giant toad" and "marine toad"; the former refers to its size, and the latter to the binomial name, "R. marina". It was one of many species described by Linnaeus in his 18th-century work "Systema Naturae" (1758). Linnaeus based the specific epithet "marina" on an illustration by Dutch zoologist Albertus Seba, who mistakenly believed the cane toad to inhabit both terrestrial and marine environments. Other common names include "giant neotropical toad", "Dominican toad", "giant marine toad", and "South American cane toad". In Trinidadian English, they are commonly called


title: "Cane toad" content: "crapaud", the French word for toad. The genus "Rhinella" is considered to constitute a distinct genus of its own, thus changing the scientific name of the cane toad. In this case, the specific name "marinus" (masculine) changes to "marina" (feminine) to conform with the rules of gender agreement as set out by the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, changing the binomial name from "Bufo marinus" to "Rhinella marina"; the binomial "Rhinella marinus" was subsequently introduced as a synonym through misspelling by Pramuk, Robertson, Sites, and Noonan (2008). Though controversial (with many traditional herpetologists still using "Bufo marinus") the binomial "Rhinella


title: "Cane toad" content: marina" is gaining in acceptance with such bodies as the IUCN, Encyclopaedia of Life, Amphibian Species of the World and increasing numbers of scientific publications adopting its usage. In Australia, the adults may be confused with large native frogs from the genera "Limnodynastes", "Cyclorana", and "Mixophyes". These species can be distinguished from the cane toad by the absence of large parotoid glands behind their eyes and the lack of a ridge between the nostril and the eye. Cane toads have been confused with the giant burrowing frog ("Heleioporus australiacus"), because both are large and warty in appearance; however, the latter


title: "Cane toad" content: can be readily distinguished from the former by its vertical pupils and its silver-grey (as opposed to gold) irises. Juvenile cane toads may be confused with species of the genus "Uperoleia", but their adult colleagues can be distinguished by the lack of bright colouring on the groin and thighs. In the United States, the cane toad closely resembles many bufonid species. In particular, it could be confused with the southern toad ("Bufo terrestris"), which can be distinguished by the presence of two bulbs in front of the parotoid glands. The cane toad is very large; the females are significantly longer


title: "Cane toad" content: than males, reaching an average length of , with a maximum of . Larger toads tend to be found in areas of lower population density. They have a life expectancy of 10 to 15 years in the wild, and can live considerably longer in captivity, with one specimen reportedly surviving for 35 years. The skin of the cane toad is dry and warty. It has distinct ridges above the eyes, which run down the snout. Individual cane toads can be grey, yellowish, red-brown, or olive-brown, with varying patterns. A large parotoid gland lies behind each eye. The ventral surface is


title: "Cane toad" content: cream-coloured and may have blotches in shades of black or brown. The pupils are horizontal and the irises golden. The toes have a fleshy webbing at their base, and the fingers are free of webbing. Typically, juvenile cane toads have smooth, dark skin, although some specimens have a red wash. Juveniles lack the adults' large parotoid glands, so they are usually less poisonous. The tadpoles are small and uniformly black, and are bottom-dwellers, tending to form schools. Tadpoles range from in length. The common name "marine toad" and the scientific name "Rhinella marina" suggest a link to marine life, but


title: "Cane toad" content: cane toads do not live in the sea. However, laboratory experiments suggest that tadpoles can tolerate salt concentrations equivalent to 15% of seawater (~5.4‰), and recent field observations found living tadpoles and toadlets at salinities of 27.5‰ on Coiba Island, Panama. The cane toad inhabits open grassland and woodland, and has displayed a "distinct preference" for areas modified by humans, such as gardens and drainage ditches. In their native habitats, the toads can be found in subtropical forests, although dense foliage tends to limit their dispersal. The cane toad begins life as an egg, which is laid as part of


title: "Cane toad" content: long strings of jelly in water. A female lays 8,000–25,000 eggs at once and the strings can stretch up to in length. The black eggs are covered by a membrane and their diameter is about . The rate at which an egg grows into a tadpole increases with temperature. Tadpoles typically hatch within 48 hours, but the period can vary from 14 hours to almost a week. This process usually involves thousands of tadpoles—which are small, black, and have short tails—forming into groups. Between 12 and 60 days are needed for the tadpoles to develop into juveniles, with four weeks


title: "Cane toad" content: being typical. Similarly to their adult counterparts, eggs and tadpoles are toxic to many animals. When they emerge, toadlets typically are about in length, and grow rapidly. While the rate of growth varies by region, time of year, and gender, an average initial growth rate of per day is seen, followed by an average rate of per day. Growth typically slows once the toads reach sexual maturity. This rapid growth is important for their survival; in the period between metamorphosis and subadulthood, the young toads lose the toxicity that protected them as eggs and tadpoles, but have yet to fully


title: "Cane toad" content: develop the parotoid glands that produce bufotoxin. Because they lack this key defence, only an estimated 0.5% of cane toads reach adulthood. As with rates of growth, the point at which the toads become sexually mature varies across different regions. In New Guinea, sexual maturity is reached by female toads with a snout–vent length between , while toads in Panama achieve maturity when they are between in length. In tropical regions, such as their native habitats, breeding occurs throughout the year, but in subtropical areas, breeding occurs only during warmer periods that coincide with the onset of the wet season.


title: "Cane toad" content: The cane toad is estimated to have a critical thermal maximum of and a minimum of around . The ranges can change due to adaptation to the local environment. The cane toad has a high tolerance to water loss; some can withstand a 52.6% loss of body water, allowing them to survive outside tropical environments. Most frogs identify prey by movement, and vision appears to be the primary method by which the cane toad detects prey; however, the cane toad can also locate food using its sense of smell. They eat a wide range of material; in addition to the


title: "Cane toad" content: normal prey of small rodents, reptiles, other amphibians, birds, and even bats and a range of invertebrates, they also eat plants, dog food, and household refuse. The skin of the adult cane toad is toxic, as well as the enlarged parotoid glands behind the eyes, and other glands across their backs. When the toads are threatened, their glands secrete a milky-white fluid known as bufotoxin. Components of bufotoxin are toxic to many animals; even human deaths have been recorded due to the consumption of cane toads. Bufotenin, one of the chemicals excreted by the cane toad, is classified as a


title: "Cane toad" content: class-1 drug under Australian law, alongside heroin and cannabis. The effects of bufotenin are thought to be similar to those of mild poisoning; the stimulation, which includes mild hallucinations, lasts for less than an hour. As the cane toad excretes bufotenin in small amounts, and other toxins in relatively large quantities, toad licking could result in serious illness or death. In addition to releasing toxin, the cane toad is capable of inflating its lungs, puffing up, and lifting its body off the ground to appear taller and larger to a potential predator. Poisonous sausages containing toad meat are being trialled


title: "Cane toad" content: in the Kimberley (Western Australia) to try to protect native animals from cane toads' deadly impact. The Western Australian Department of Environment and Conservation has been working with the University of Sydney to develop baits to train native animals not to eat the toads. By blending bits of toad with a nausea-inducing chemical, the baits train the animals to stay away from the amphibians. Researcher David Pearson says trials run in laboratories and in remote parts of the Kimberley region of WA are looking promising, although the baits will not solve the cane toad problem altogether. Many species prey on


title: "Cane toad" content: the cane toad and its tadpoles in its native habitat, including the broad-snouted caiman ("Caiman latirostris"), the banded cat-eyed snake ("Leptodeira annulata"), eels (family Anguillidae), various species of killifish, the rock flagtail ("Kuhlia rupestris"), some species of catfish (order Siluriformes), some species of ibis (subfamily Threskiornithinae), and "Paraponera clavata" (bullet ants). Predators outside the cane toad's native range include the whistling kite ("Haliastur sphenurus"), the rakali ("Hydromys chrysogaster"), the black rat ("Rattus rattus") and the water monitor ("Varanus salvator"). The tawny frogmouth ("Podargus strigoides") and the Papuan frogmouth ("Podargus papuensis") have been reported as feeding on cane toads; some Australian


title: "Cane toad" content: crows ("Corvus" spp.) have also learned strategies allowing them to feed on cane toads, such as using their beak to flip toads onto their back. Opossums of the genus "Didelphis" likely can eat cane toads with impunity. Meat ants are unaffected by the cane toads' toxins, and therefore are able to kill them. The cane toad's normal response to attack is to stand still and let its toxin kill the attacker, which allows the ants to attack and eat the toad. The cane toad is native to the Americas, and its range stretches from the Rio Grande Valley in South


title: "Cane toad" content: Texas to the central Amazon and southeastern Peru, and some of the continental islands near Venezuela (such as Trinidad and Tobago). This area encompasses both tropical and semiarid environments. The density of the cane toad is significantly lower within its native distribution than in places where it has been introduced. In South America, the density was recorded to be 20 adults per 100 m (109 yd) of shoreline, 1 to 2% of the density in Australia. The cane toad has been introduced to many regions of the world—particularly the Pacific—for the biological control of agricultural pests. These introductions have generally


title: "Cane toad" content: been well documented, and the cane toad may be one of the most studied of any introduced species. Before the early 1840s, the cane toad had been introduced into Martinique and Barbados, from French Guiana and Guyana. An introduction to Jamaica was made in 1844 in an attempt to reduce the rat population. Despite its failure to control the rodents, the cane toad was introduced to Puerto Rico in the early 20th century in the hope that it would counter a beetle infestation ravaging the sugarcane plantations. The Puerto Rican scheme was successful and halted the economic damage caused by


title: "Cane toad" content: the beetles, prompting scientists in the 1930s to promote it as an ideal solution to agricultural pests. As a result, many countries in the Pacific region emulated the lead of Puerto Rico and introduced the toad in the 1930s. There are introduced populations in Australia, Florida, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, the Ogasawara, Ishigaki Island and the Daitō Islands of Japan, most Caribbean islands, Fiji and many other Pacific islands, including Hawaii. Since then, the cane toad has become a pest in many host countries, and poses a serious threat to native animals. Following the apparent success of the cane


title: "Cane toad" content: toad in eating the beetles threatening the sugarcane plantations of Puerto Rico, and the fruitful introductions into Hawaii and the Philippines, a strong push was made for the cane toad to be released in Australia to negate the pests ravaging the Queensland cane fields. As a result, 102 toads were collected from Hawaii and brought to Australia. After an initial release in August 1935, the Commonwealth Department of Health decided to ban future introductions until a study was conducted into the feeding habits of the toad. The study was completed in 1936 and the ban lifted, when large-scale releases were


title: "Cane toad" content: undertaken; by March 1937, 62,000 toadlets had been released into the wild. The toads became firmly established in Queensland, increasing exponentially in number and extending their range into the Northern Territory and New South Wales. In 2010, one was found on the far western coast in Broome, Western Australia. However, the toad was generally unsuccessful in reducing the targeted grey-backed cane beetles ("Dermolepida albohirtum"), in part because the cane fields provided insufficient shelter for the predators during the day, in part because the beetles live at the tops of sugar cane – and cane toads are not good climbers. Since


title: "Cane toad" content: its original introduction, the cane toad has had a particularly marked effect on Australian biodiversity. The population of a number of native predatory reptiles has declined, such as the varanid lizards "Varanus mertensi", "V. mitchelli", and "V. panoptes", the land snakes "Pseudechis australis" and "Acanthophis antarcticus", and the crocodile species "Crocodylus johnstoni"; in contrast, the population of the agamid lizard "Amphibolurus gilberti"—known to be a prey item of "V. panoptes"—has increased. The cane toad was introduced to various Caribbean islands to counter a number of pests infesting local crops. While it was able to establish itself on some islands, such


title: "Cane toad" content: as Barbados, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico, other introductions, such as in Cuba before 1900 and in 1946, and on the islands of Dominica and Grand Cayman, were unsuccessful. The earliest recorded introductions were to Barbados and Martinique. The Barbados introductions were focused on the biological control of pests damaging the sugarcane crops, and while the toads became abundant, they have done even less to control the pests than in Australia. The toad was introduced to Martinique from French Guiana before 1944 and became established. Today, they reduce the mosquito and mole cricket populations. A third introduction to the region occurred


title: "Cane toad" content: in 1884, when toads appeared in Jamaica, reportedly imported from Barbados to help control the rodent population. While they had no significant effect on the rats, they nevertheless became well established. Other introductions include the release on Antigua—possibly before 1916, although this initial population may have died out by 1934 and been reintroduced at a later date— and Montserrat, which had an introduction before 1879 that led to the establishment of a solid population, which was apparently sufficient to survive the Soufrière Hills volcano eruption in 1995. In 1920, the cane toad was introduced into Puerto Rico to control the


title: "Cane toad" content: populations of white-grub ("Phyllophaga" spp.), a sugarcane pest. Before this, the pests were manually collected by humans, so the introduction of the toad eliminated labor costs. A second group of toads was imported in 1923, and by 1932, the cane toad was well established. The population of white-grubs dramatically decreased, and this was attributed to the cane toad at the annual meeting of the International Sugar Cane Technologists in Puerto Rico. However, there may have been other factors. The six-year period after 1931—when the cane toad was most prolific, and the white-grub saw dramatic decline—saw the highest-ever rainfall for Puerto


title: "Cane toad" content: Rico. Nevertheless, the cane toad was assumed to have controlled the white-grub; this view was reinforced by a "Nature" article titled "Toads save sugar crop", and this led to large-scale introductions throughout many parts of the Pacific. The cane toad has been spotted in Carriacou and Dominica, the latter appearance occurring in spite of the failure of the earlier introductions. On September 8, 2013, the cane toad was also discovered on the island of New Providence in the Bahamas. The cane toad was first introduced deliberately into the Philippines in 1930 as a biological control agent of pests in sugarcane


title: "Cane toad" content: plantations. This was done after the success of the experimental introductions into Puerto Rico. It subsequently became the most ubiquitous amphibian in the islands. It still retains the common name of "bakî" or "kamprag" in the Visayan languages, a corruption of 'American frog', referring to its origins. It is also commonly known as "bullfrog" in Philippine English. The cane toad was introduced into Fiji to combat insects that infested sugarcane plantations. The introduction of the cane toad to the region was first suggested in 1933, following the successes in Puerto Rico and Hawaii. After considering the possible side effects, the


title: "Cane toad" content: national government of Fiji decided to release the toad in 1953, and 67 specimens were subsequently imported from Hawaii. Once the toads were established, a 1963 study concluded, as the toad's diet included both harmful and beneficial invertebrates, it was considered "economically neutral". Today, the cane toad can be found on all major islands in Fiji, although they tend to be smaller than their counterparts in other regions. The cane toad was introduced into New Guinea to control the hawk moth larvae eating sweet potato crops. The first release occurred in 1937 using toads imported from Hawaii, with a second


title: "Cane toad" content: release the same year using specimens from the Australian mainland. Evidence suggests a third release in 1938, consisting of toads being used for human pregnancy tests—many species of toad were found to be effective for this task, and were employed for about 20 years after the discovery was announced in 1948. Initial reports argued the toads were effective in reducing the levels of cutworms and sweet potato yields were thought to be improving. As a result, these first releases were followed by further distributions across much of the region, although their effectiveness on other crops, such as cabbages, has been


title: "Cane toad" content: questioned; when the toads were released at Wau, the cabbages provided insufficient shelter and the toads rapidly left the immediate area for the superior shelter offered by the forest. A similar situation had previously arisen in the Australian cane fields, but this experience was either unknown or ignored in New Guinea. The cane toad has since become abundant in rural and urban areas. The cane toad naturally exists in South Texas, but attempts (both deliberate and accidental) have been made to introduce the species to other parts of the country. These include introductions to Florida and to the islands of


title: "Cane toad" content: Hawaii, as well as largely unsuccessful introductions to Louisiana. Initial releases into Florida failed. Attempted introductions before 1936 and 1944, intended to control sugarcane pests, were unsuccessful as the toads failed to proliferate. Later attempts failed in the same way. However, the toad gained a foothold in the state after an accidental release by an importer at Miami International Airport in 1957, and deliberate releases by animal dealers in 1963 and 1964 established the toad in other parts of Florida. Today, the cane toad is well established in the state, from the Keys to north of Tampa, and they are


title: "Cane toad" content: gradually extending further northward. In Florida, the toad is a regarded as a threat to native species and pets; so much so, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission recommends residents to kill them. Around 150 cane toads were introduced to Oahu in Hawaii in 1932, and the population swelled to 105,517 after 17 months. The toads were sent to the other islands, and more than 100,000 toads were distributed by July 1934; eventually over 600,000 were transported. Other than the use as a biological control for pests, the cane toad has been employed in a number of commercial and


title: "Cane toad" content: noncommercial applications. Traditionally, within the toad's natural range in South America, the Embera-Wounaan would "milk" the toads for their toxin, which was then employed as an arrow poison. The toxins may have been used as an entheogen by the Olmec people. The toad has been hunted as a food source in parts of Peru, and eaten after the careful removal of the skin and parotoid glands. When properly prepared, the meat of the toad is considered healthy and as a source of omega-3 fatty acids. More recently, the toad's toxins have been used in a number of new ways: bufotenin


title: "Cane toad" content: has been used in Japan as an aphrodisiac and a hair restorer, and in cardiac surgery in China to lower the heart rates of patients. New research has suggested that the cane toad's poison may have some applications in treating prostate cancer. Other modern applications of the cane toad include pregnancy testing, as pets, laboratory research, and the production of leather goods. Pregnancy testing was conducted in the mid-20th century by injecting urine from a woman into a male toad's lymph sacs, and if spermatozoa appeared in the toad's urine, the patient was deemed to be pregnant. The tests using


title: "Cane toad" content: toads were faster than those employing mammals; the toads were easier to raise, and, although the initial 1948 discovery employed "Bufo arenarum" for the tests, it soon became clear that a variety of anuran species were suitable, including the cane toad. As a result, toads were employed in this task for around 20 years. As a laboratory animal, the cane toad is regarded as ideal; they are plentiful, and easy and inexpensive to maintain and handle. The use of the cane toad in experiments started in the 1950s, and by the end of the 1960s, large numbers were being collected


title: "Cane toad" content: and exported to high schools and universities. Since then, a number of Australian states have introduced or tightened importation regulations. Even dead toads have value. Cane toad skin has been made into leather and novelty items; stuffed cane toads, posed and accessorised, have found a home in the tourist market, and attempts have been made to produce fertiliser from their bodies. Cane toads pose a serious threat to native species when introduced to a new ecosystem. Classified as an invasive species in over 20 countries, there are multiple reports of the cane toad moving into a new area to be


title: "Cane toad" content: followed by a decline in the biodiversity in that region. The most documented region of the cane toad's invasion and subsequent effect on native species is Australia, where multiple surveys and observations of the toad's conquest have been completed. The best way to illustrate this effect is through the plight of the northern quoll, as well as Mertens' water monitor, a large lizard native to South and Southeast Asia. Two sites were chosen to study the effects of cane toads on the northern quoll, one of which was at Mary River ranger station, which is located in the southern region


title: "Cane toad" content: of Kakadu National Park. The other site was located at the north end of the park. In addition to these two sites, there was a third site located at the East Alligator ranger station, and this site was used as a control site, where the cane toads would not interact with the northern quoll population. Monitoring of the quoll population began at the Mary River ranger station using radio tracking in 2002, months before the first cane toads arrived at the site. After the arrival of the cane toads, the population of northern quolls in the Mary River site plummeted


title: "Cane toad" content: between October and December 2002, and by March 2003, the northern quoll appeared to be extinct in this section of the park, as there were no northern quolls caught in the trapping trips in the following two months. In contrast, the population of northern quolls in the control site at the East Alligator ranger station remained relatively constant, not showing any symptoms of declining. The evidence from the Kakadu National Park is compelling not only because of the timing of the population of northern quolls plummeting just months after the arrival of the cane toad, but also because in the


title: "Cane toad" content: Mary River region 31% of mortalities within the quoll population were attributed to lethal toxic ingestion, as there were no signs of disease, parasite infestation, or any other obvious changes at the site that could have caused such a rapid decline. The most obvious piece of evidence which supports the hypothesis that the invasion of the cane toads caused the local extinction of the northern quoll is that the closely monitored population of the control group, in the absence of cane toads, showed no signs of decline. In the case of the Mertens' water monitor, there was only one region


title: "Cane toad" content: that was monitored, but over the course of 18 months. This region is located 70 kilometers south of Darwin, at the Manton Dam Recreation Area. Within the Manton Dam Recreation Area, there were 14 sites set up to survey the population of water monitors, measuring abundance and site occupancy at each one. Seven surveys were conducted, each of which ran for four weeks and included 16 site visits, where each site was sampled twice per day for two consecutive days throughout the 4 weeks. Each site visit occurred between 7:30–10:30 AM, and 4:00–7:00 PM, when "Varanus mertensi" can be viewed


title: "Cane toad" content: sunbathing on the shore or wrapped around a tree branch close to shore. The whole project lasted from December 2004 to May 2006, and unveiled a total of 194 sightings of "Varanus mertensi" in 1568 site visits. Of the seven surveys, abundance was highest during the second survey, which took place in February 2005, two months into the project. Following this measurement, the abundance declined in the next 4 surveys, before declining sharply after the second to last survey in February 2006. In the final survey taken in May 2006, there were only two "Varanus mertensi" observed. Cane toads were


title: "Cane toad" content: first recorded in the region of study during the second survey during February 2005, also when the water monitor abundance was at its highest over the course of the study. Numbers of the cane toad population stayed low for the next year after introduction, and then skyrocketed to its peak in the last survey during May 2006. When you compare the two populations side by side one can see clearly that the onset of the cane toads had an immediate negative impact on the "Varanus mertensi", as their population began to drop in February 2005, which was when the first


title: "Cane toad" content: cane toads entered the Manton Dam Recreation Area. At the end of the study, some scattered population of water monitors remained in the upper sites of the Manton Dam, which suggests that local extinctions occurred at certain shoreline sites within Manton Dam, but a complete extinction of the population did not occur. Cane toad The cane toad ("Rhinella marina"), also known as the giant neotropical toad or marine toad, is a large, terrestrial true toad native to South and mainland Central America, but which has been introduced to various islands throughout Oceania and the Caribbean, as well as Northern Australia.


title: Croquet content: Croquet Croquet is a sport that involves hitting plastic or wooden balls with a mallet through hoops (often called "wickets" in the United States) embedded in a grass playing court. The oldest document to bear the word "croquet" with a description of the modern game is the set of rules registered by Isaac Spratt in November 1856 with the Stationers' Company in London. This record is now in the Public Record Office. In 1868, the first croquet all-comers meet was held at Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire and in the same year the All England Croquet Club was formed at Wimbledon, London. Regardless


title: Croquet content: when and by what route it reached England and the British colonies in its recognizable form, croquet is, like golf, pall-mall, trucco, and kolven, among the later forms of ground billiards, which as a class have been popular in Western Europe back to at least the Late Middle Ages, with roots in classical antiquity, including sometimes the use of arches and pegs along with balls and mallets or other striking sticks (some more akin to modern field hockey sticks). By the 12th century, a team ball game called ' or ', akin to a chaotic version of hockey or football