title: "BMW M5" content: switches and foglights. The Recaro front seat design, suede-covered 385mm M-Technic II steering wheel, shift knob and parking brake handle, and red seatbelts were similar to those on the BMW E30 M3 Sport Evolution. A total of 51 Winkelhock E34 M5s were produced with the options of having Jet Black (668) with contrasting lower body panels in Sterling Silver metallic paint (244). To celebrate BMW Motorsport's 20th anniversary, BMW built 20 specially equipped Euro-spec 3.8L M5s in late 1992. Offered only in Mugello Red (274), the anniversary edition had a number of aesthetic trim upgrades such as carbon fiber dash


title: "BMW M5" content: panels, red seat belts embroidered with "BMW Motorsport," and M-Technic rear-view mirrors. Unique seat center & door trim fabric were matched with Alcantara, which was also used on the steering wheel, shift lever & parking brake lever. To commemorate the end of right-hand drive E34 M5 production, 50 examples of the E34 M5 Limited Edition were assembled between March and June 1995 in one of two unique color and trim combinations: Rosso Red metallic (369) with a Champagne extended leather interior and natural poplar wood trim (15 built) or Orinoco metallic (406) with a Bicolor Petrol and Mint extended leather


title: "BMW M5" content: interior and graphite bird's-eye maple wood trim (35 built). Each E34 M5 Limited Edition is equipped with the three-spoke sport steering wheel, Shadowline trim, power sunroof, power front seats, headlight washers and manual air conditioning. A numbered plaque appears on the center console. Additionally, 20 M5 Touring "Elekta" models were assembled for distribution in Italy. These were finished in either Sterling Silver over Marine Blue leather, or British Racing Green over Tobacco leather. All were made in 1995, and featured extended leather interior as well as unique, numbered shift knobs. It is debated as to whether or not these cars


title: "BMW M5" content: constitute a true special edition as they were ordered directly by a group of Italian BMW dealers. An M5 convertible variant was considered by executives at BMW M and keeping that in view, a fully functioning prototype was constructed. The prototype featured the 3.5 litre S38B36 straight-six engine, a long wheelbase and a slightly raked windshield than that of a normal M5. Due to an apparent lack of structural rigidity caused by the removal of the roof, steel reinforcements were added under both side valance panels. The car also featured a power-operated cloth roof, which was said to increase the


title: "BMW M5" content: curb weight by roughly , and front seats with integrated seatbelts were borrowed from the E31 8 Series. The prototype was never given the green light or production due to financial considerations. VDS Racing Adventures has used an E34 M5 in endurance racing, where weight and nimbleness is less important than in sprint racing. The car features many one-off components, including a wide-arch fibreglass bodykit, but the engine is based on the 3.8-litre S38 straight-six and is almost standard, producing approximately . It has also raced in the Belgium Belcar Championship, where it was runner up in 2001. An E34


title: "BMW M5" content: M5 was raced in the Australian 1992 Bathurst 12 Hour Production Car endurance race, placing 2nd overall, and 1st in its class. It was driven by former F1 champion Alan Jones, Neville Crichton, and BMW Touring car driver Tony Longhurst. The E39 M5 had a significant increase in power and was produced in much greater numbers than the previous generations. Unlike its predecessors, the M5 was produced on the same assembly line as the regular 5 Series models at the Dingolfing factory in Germany. Introduced in 1998 at the Geneva Motor Show, production did not begin until late October of


title: "BMW M5" content: that year. A total of 20,482 E39 M5's were made from 1999 to 2003. BMW M produced three versions of the E39 M5, the European LHD and RHD versions, and the North American specification version. The E39 M5 utilises the S62 V8 engine also shared with the Z8, which produces at 6,600 rpm and of torque at 3,800 rpm. All E39 M5s came equipped with a Getrag type D six-speed manual transmission which provides the following gearing ratios: The E39 M5 utilises the same transmission as the E39 540i, but with some changes to cope with the extra power produced


title: "BMW M5" content: by the S62 engine. The differences consist of a reinforced clutch, a rear differential utilising a shorter 3.15:1 ratio, and a limited slip differential with 25% maximum locking. The E39 M5's suspension shared its basic aluminium-intensive MacPherson strut/multi-link design of the V8 engined E39 5 series. However, several changes were made by BMW M. Reduced spring height, lower. A specific shock valving, thicker front and rear anti-roll bars, polyurethane auxiliary springs, and steel balljoints. Although the six-cylinder E39 models use rack-and-pinion steering, the M5 (and other V8 models) retains the recirculating ball steering system, as used by previous generations of


title: "BMW M5" content: M5. A quicker steering ratio of 14.7 was used, compared with 17.9 for other V8 models. It featured a Servotronic vehicle-speed-sensitive power assist which provides two levels of resistance controlled via console mounted Sport button. The Sport button also adjusted the electronic throttle butterflies for more sensitive response. The E39 M5 is equipped with four-wheel vented disc brakes measuring in diameter in front and in diameter in the rear. On European-specification models, the rotors are of a "floating" two-piece design for reduced risk of cone distortion. Their lower unsprung weight improves ride quality and traction on bumpy surfaces as well.


title: "BMW M5" content: Anti-lock brakes, EML (fly-by-wire) throttle control and Dynamic Stability Control (DSC) were standard. During its five years in production, there were some cosmetic changes in 2001 to include: For the subsequent two model years, changes were limited to the addition of new exterior colors (from 9/01 production) and the upgrade to a DVD-based navigation system (from 9/02 production). In NA, 2002 and 2003 models have the 'Auto Headlamps' feature as standard, they were previously optional.. The official BMW of North America statement (mentioned in the 2003 brochure) for the acceleration time from 0–60 mph is 4.8 seconds. It is electronically


title: "BMW M5" content: limited to a top speed of . Unrestricted the E39 M5 has in some testing reached a top speed in excess of . The E39 M5 recorded a Nurburgring lap time of 8:20 and a Top Gear power lap of 1:27.0. Although an E39 M5 Touring was considered, and at least one prototype was constructed (in Titanium Silver with a Black Exclusive leather interior), BMW M decided not to produce an E39 M5 Touring due to financial considerations. In February 2010, as part of BMW's 25th Anniversary of the M5, they revealed this prototype M5 touring along with an E34


title: "BMW M5" content: M5 Cabriolet, which also was never produced (a Cabriolet model would be spun off as part of the E63/64 6 Series and M6 for the next generation of the 5 Series and M5). The E60 M5 was introduced in 2005, with an uneven firing V10 engine and 7 speed sequential manual gearbox linking the car with the BMW Sauber Formula One program. The E60 M5 was the world's first production sedan to feature a V10 petrol engine. A 7-speed sequential manual transmission (SMG III) was available, and a 6-speed manual transmission was available for the US only. As with some


title: "BMW M5" content: of its predecessors, the E60 variant of the M5 was both the quickest and fastest 4-door sedan in the world at the time of its release. Other unique features include a wider track, unique body panels, a color heads up display featuring navigation, control messages, speed, rpm and gear selection information, automated seat side bolsters, heated/ventilated seats and power rear curtain. The larger, flared front guards on either side also featured cooling vents, reminiscent of the 1970s BMW CSL. The wheels were of a standard 19" diameter and the car featured quad exhaust pipes at the rear. The E60 M5


title: "BMW M5" content: was the most successful M5 produced, despite being on the market for one year less than the E39 M5. During its five-year run, 20,548 units were built composing of 19,523 saloons and 1,025 estates. 8,800 were sold in the U.S., all of the sedan variety. Great Britain and Ireland claimed 1,776 examples, followed by BMW's home market of Germany with 1,647 units, and 1,357 were sold in Japan. Italian enthusiasts claimed 512 units, and 339 examples were sold in Australia. The E60 uses an odd firing V10 which has won multiple World Engine of the Year awards, S85 engine produces


title: "BMW M5" content: at 7,750 rpm and of torque at 6,100 rpm. The engine and transmission were designed from scratch for this particular model; they are not based on or feature on any other models with the exception of the E63/64 M6. The BMW M5, along with the E63/64 BMW M6, were designed to use the new Getrag SMG III single-clutch seven-speed semi-automatic transmission, that performs gear shift in 65 milliseconds. The SMG III sequential manual includes features like a hill holder, a designated drive program for steep climbs and descents, and a downshift assistant, which briefly dips the clutch to avoid destabilizing


title: "BMW M5" content: wheel spin as well as a pseudo-automatic mode. However, many reviews have observed the automatic mode of the transmission at low or frequent stop start speeds as being less smooth than that of a conventional automatic transmission. Based on North American demand, BMW announced in October 2006 that a six-speed conventional manual transmission would be available in North America; this became the base transmission in these markets while SMG III was available as an option. The six-speed manual M5 was marginally slower in certain tests, as the dynamic stability control could not be disengaged unlike the SMG version. The release


title: "BMW M5" content: of a Service Bulletin in November 2007 for a retrofit allowed DSC to be disabled as well as the function being implemented into the introduction of the 2008 model year M5 as well as the M6. The SMG III includes the "Launch Control" feature. However, the US spec vehicles have a reduced launch control of 1500 rpm instead of the 4000 rpm that the European models received. The M5 features several Formula One-inspired engine and transmission controls. There is launch control, which allows maximum performance standing starts automatically. The Getrag SMG III single-clutch semi-automatic transmission has the option of changing


title: "BMW M5" content: to either automated or manual, as well as the speed at which shifts are completed (there are 11 shift programmes in total, forming what BMW calls Drivelogic). Manual shifting can be done with either a console shifter, or the steering wheel mounted shift paddles, both of which are fitted to all SMG M5s. The console shifter is the type used on manumatic transmissions; tipping it backward (toward the "+") shifts up, while a forward tip (toward the "-") shifts down. The shifter can be moved to the left to access neutral and reverse. The car also features a "power" button


title: "BMW M5" content: on the navigation panel (labeled "M") which offers access to three modes: P400 (limiting the engine to for daily driving use), P500 (unleashes the full , and P500 S (for full power and sharper throttle response, selectable only from the "M Drive Settings" in the iDrive menu). P400 is the default start-up mode, the P500 modes are preselected using iDrive and then activated from P500 S using the "M" button. "Motor Trend's" comparison test found that while the E55 AMG had recorded a faster 0– time of 4.2 seconds versus the (inhibited) US-launch control equipped M5's 4.5 seconds, the M5


title: "BMW M5" content: had superior driving dynamics. In the Australian publication Wheels magazine in July 2005 recorded a time of an early, 2004-built E60 M5 of 4.4 seconds. The E60 M5 Sedan shared its underpinnings with the E63 M6 Coupe, with the M6 being lower to the ground and slightly lighter with a carbon fibre roof. The E60 M5 recorded an official lap time of 8:13 at the Nürburgring and recorded a Top Gear power lap of 1:26.2. The E60 M5 consistently was regarded as the benchmark for super high performance sedans in its class. According to Jeremy Clarkson, former presenter of BBC's


title: "BMW M5" content: Top Gear, “It’s a world of motoring perfection. If you want to take it on...don’t bother. It doesn’t matter what you’ve got. It doesn’t matter what you’ve ever driven. This is quicker, it’s faster, it’s MORE astonishing. You just can’t believe you’re in a big 4-door saloon because it goes and it feels and it SOUNDS like a Ferrari 430, and that’s about the best car I’ve ever driven. The steering, the brakes, the power. And this noise… The driving experience just dominates everything…. It’s an epic car, just brilliant.” Although he was greatly displeased with the car's exterior look


title: "BMW M5" content: and its complicated systems. The E61 M5 Touring was introduced in 2007, only the second M version of the 5 Series Touring after the E34. It shares the same drivetrain with its saloon sibling, and serves as a rival to the Audi RS6 Avant and Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG Estate. The Touring was never offered for sale in North America. The F10 M5 was released to the public at the 2011 Frankfurt Motor Show, and went on sale in November 2011. Compared to the previous M5, the F10 M5 has improved fuel economy but is larger, heavier, has engine noise played


title: "BMW M5" content: through its audio system and has a lower top speed compared to the naturally aspirated E60 M5 V10 it replaces. For the 2014 model year, the BMW M5 Competition Package was made available. Compared to the standard M5, the Competition Package has the following changes; an increased power figure of , while torque remained the same, and a revised suspension setup (bushings, springs, dampers, anti-roll bars) which lowers the car 10 mm. Direct rivals include the 2014 Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG S Model and the 2014 Audi RS7 Sportback . The F10 M5 uses a 4,395 cc variation of the S63


title: "BMW M5" content: 4.4-litre V8 engine designated the S63B44TÜ, which generates a power output of at 6,000 – 7,000 rpm and maximum torque of from 1,500 – 5,750 rpm. A 7-speed dual-clutch transmission is used, with the option of a 6-speed manual gearbox for the US market. The car features standard blue-painted brake calipers, however factory optional carbon ceramic brakes can be identified by a polished gold paint on the caliper. 19 inch multi spoke wheels and 20 inch split 5 spoke wheels were available at launch. In an effort to lower the curb weight of the F10 M5, which is heavier than


title: "BMW M5" content: the E60 it replaced, BMW partnered with SGL group, a carbon fiber manufacturer. On 15 June 2011, BMW released the official press information about the F10 M5. Acceleration from 0 to 100 kilometres per hour (62 mph) in 4.4 seconds and top speed is limited to , or with the optional M Driver's Package. The car weighs , which is more than the previous E60/61 model. Average fuel consumption is claimed to be , which is a 31% improvement over the previous generation. An Active M-Differential provides torque vectoring between the rear wheels, while the optional 20-inch light alloy wheels


title: "BMW M5" content: are fitted with 265/35/20 front and 295/30/20 rear Michelin Pilot Super Sport tires. The F10 was discontinued after the 2016 model year, soon to be replaced by the upcoming F90 M5. The F10's debut was at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September, and in North America at the LA Autoshow on 18 November. The 2012 BMW M5 also made an appearance before September at the M Festival at the Nürburgring 24 Hours endurance race in Germany on 23 June, the Goodwood Festival of Speed, and was shown to select members of the M Driving Experience at the Salzburg Ring in


title: "BMW M5" content: Austria. The car has a reported lap time of 7:55 around the Nürburgring race track, which is 18 seconds faster than its V10 predecessor. To celebrate BMW M5 30th anniversary, BMW had built 300 special edition models, named "30 Jahre BMW M5". All 300 cars came in BMW special edition paint in the Individual colour shade called the Frozen Dark Silver metallic. On the interior, the “30 Jahre M5” lettering is embroidered on the front door sill finishers and plaque bearing “30 Jahre M5” and “1/300” inscriptions is placed on the dashboard. The “30 Jahre M5” logo is also embroidered


title: "BMW M5" content: into the backrests of all four of the high-performance sedan’s seats. The power output of the limited edition M5 with Competition Package was raised to and ), allowing it to reach in 3.9 seconds and a top speed of 305 km/h. It is sold globally. The car's gearbox and fuel economy cited specifically for their improvements over the previous M5, however its inferior engine note and steering feel compared to the E60 M5, as well as its additional weight, have also been noted. The F90 M5, based on the BMW 5 Series (G30) was presented on 21 August 2017 during


title: "BMW M5" content: the 2017 Gamescom, to promote the upcoming Need for Speed Payback video game followed by a public reveal at the Frankfurt Motor Show (IAA) in September 2017. The car is available to customers from the spring of 2018, exclusively as a sedan. The "M5 First Edition" model, which is limited to 400 units, is only available at the start of sales. In contrast to the previous generations, the M5 is available for the first time with all-wheel drive. BMW, however relies on a rear biased design that is designed exclusively for driving dynamics with a true rear wheel drive mode


title: "BMW M5" content: included in the all-wheel drive system as well. The engine is an evolution of the S63 from the previous generation. With a power of the new M5 has the same power as the limited edition "Competition Package" and "30 Jahre M5" models of the previous generation, while the torque has been raised to , 70 N⋅m more than the previous M5. The car is now equipped with an eight-speed automatic transmission as opposed to the previous M5's 7-speed dual-clutch transmission (DCT). The F90 is the first M5 to only have an automatic transmission, which has been chosen for its durability


title: "BMW M5" content: and because shift times are not significantly slower than a DCT. The F90 M5 accelerates from a standstill to in 3.4 seconds, and to in 11.1 seconds. The top speed is limited to , and the delimited top speed is with the optional M Driver's Package. Despite the heavier four-wheel drive, BMW was able to reduce the weight of the new M5 by about over the outgoing model. In May 2018, the M5 Competition package was announced. It retains the same powertrain as the standard M5, but total power output has been increased to at 6,000 rpm. Torque remains the


title: "BMW M5" content: same at between 1,800–5,800 rpm. acceleration time has also improved and now stands at 3.3 seconds, 0.1 seconds quicker than the standard car along with acceleration time improving to 10.8 seconds, 0.3 seconds quicker than the standard car. The suspension system has been optimized to improve handling, lowering the car by 7mm. Other exterior changes include the addition of Frozen Dark Silver metallic body colour, new 20-inch Y-spoke bi-colour forged wheels, kidney grille, rear lip spoiler and badges in gloss black and optional "M5 Competiton Package" badges. A special M-sport exhaust system with gloss black tail pipes is standard in


title: "BMW M5" content: order to improve emissions and the car's sound track. The M5 has set two Guinness World Records for Longest continuous vehicle drift of 374.17 km (232.5 miles) breaking the previous record of 144.126 km (89.55 miles) and second record for Longest twin vehicle drift (water assisted) i.e. 79.26 km (49.25 miles) breaking the previous record of 28.52 km (17.72 miles). BMW M5 The BMW M5 is a high performance variant of the 5 Series executive car built by the Motorsport division of BMW. The first incarnation of the M5 was hand-built in 1986 on the 535i chassis with a modified


title: "Dream Park" content: described in the books. The company made a number of adjustments for limits to existing technology. Instead of holographic weapons, players had foam-rubber weapons. Plans were to attach sensors to the weapons and players. The sensors would beam information about strikes to computers that would track a simulated health for each character. Players would wear headsets, a radio allowing the computers and game masters to inform players of important status information. A head-up display on the headset would display special effects like a dragon's fiery breath or a magical spell. The complete theme park was never built, though a fantasy


title: "Isuzu Ascender" content: Isuzu Ascender The Isuzu Ascender is a midsize SUV built by General Motors for Isuzu. The 7-passenger Ascender was introduced for the 2003 model year as a replacement for the Isuzu Trooper. The 5-passenger Ascender was introduced for the 2004 model year as a replacement for the Isuzu Rodeo and the Isuzu Axiom. The Isuzu Ascender was never sold in Canada because Isuzu had withdrawn from the Canadian market in 2002. The Ascender is the only one of the six mid-size SUVs that was not actually a GM-branded product. The Ascender LWB was dropped after the 2006 model year. Reviews


title: "Isuzu Ascender" content: warned of a thin dealer network for warranty repairs, and the Kelley Blue Book projected a relatively low resale value similar to the TrailBlazer. However, Isuzu offers a seven-year/75,000-mile powertrain warranty, and substantial factory incentives. The Ascender ended production on June 6, 2008, as part of Isuzu's withdrawal from the United States market. The Ascender (along with the related GMC Envoy) were both replaced by the 2010 GMC Terrain, based on the GM Theta platform. 7-passenger versions of both SUVs were indirectly replaced by the GMC Acadia in 2007, based on the GM Lambda platform. Engines: In 2012, General Motors


title: "Isuzu Ascender" content: and Isuzu recalled more than 258,000 SUVs in the U.S. and Canada to fix short-circuits in power window and door-lock switches that could cause fires. The recall covered Chevrolet TrailBlazer, GMC Envoy, Buick Rainier, Isuzu Ascender and Saab 9-7X SUVs from the 2006 and 2007 model years. The SUVs were sold or registered in the United States also including Hawaii and Alaska and Canada as well. General Motors announced the recall of 316,357 vehicles in late 2014, primarily in North America, to fix malfunctioning headlights. According to the company, a problem in the headlamp driver module could have led to


title: "Isuzu Ascender" content: temporary or permanent malfunctioning of the low-beam headlamps and daytime running lamps. This increased the possibility of an accident. However, the high-beam headlamps, marker lamps, turn signals and fog lamps are not affected by the issue. The vehicles that were covered under the recall are the 2006–2009 Buick LaCrosse sedans; 2006–2007 Chevrolet Trailblazer, GMC Envoy and Buick Rainier SUVs; and 2006–2008 Saab 9-7X and Isuzu Ascender SUVs. Isuzu Ascender The Isuzu Ascender is a midsize SUV built by General Motors for Isuzu. The 7-passenger Ascender was introduced for the 2003 model year as a replacement for the Isuzu Trooper. The


title: "RAF Finningley" content: Doncaster was acquired in the summer of 1935. The Doncaster-Lincoln railway line ran a quarter mile to the north and Finningley village lay a similar distance to the east. The flying field covered around with the camp area situated to the northwest between Mare Flats Plantation and the A1 'Great North Road' (now the A638). Four Type C hangars were erected in the usual crescent layout facing the bombing circle, with a fifth directly behind the southernmost of the line. Administration and technical site buildings were immediately to the rear of the hangars. Nos. 7 and 102 RAF Squadrons moved


title: Sicko content: have huge numbers of people who are also just a lay-off away from joining the ranks of the uninsured, or being purged by their insurance company, and winding up there." The free-market think-tanks, such as the Manhattan Institute, say that "Sicko" misrepresented the health systems of Canada, the United Kingdom and Cuba, and criticized it for its negative portrayal of the American health insurance system compared to these countries. The National Center for Policy Analysis, a conservative American think tank, has also been critical of Moore's claims, focusing particularly on lengthy waiting lists and unavailability of new treatments in the


title: "British Rail Class 460" content: 8Gat unit is shown below. In normal circumstances, the luggage van (DMLFO) was at the 'London' end of the train (i.e. closest to the concourse at London Victoria). British Rail Class 460 Class 460 (or 8Gat) was the designation of a fleet of 8-car electric multiple-unit trains built by Alstom at Washwood Heath in 1999-2001. They were part of Alstom's "Juniper" family, which also includes the 334 and 458 classes. From their introduction until the final units were withdrawn in September 2012, they operated Gatwick Express services between London Victoria and Gatwick Airport. All have since been converted to class


title: "Last Glacial Maximum" content: Last Glacial Maximum The Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) was the most recent time during the Last Glacial Period when ice sheets were at their greatest extent. Vast ice sheets covered much of North America, northern Europe, and Asia. The ice sheets profoundly affected Earth's climate by causing drought, desertification, and a large drop in sea levels. The ice sheets reached their maximum coverage about 26,500 years ago (26.5 ka BP). Deglaciation commenced in the Northern Hemisphere at approximately 20 ka and in Antarctica approximately at 14.5 ka, consistent with evidence for an abrupt rise in the sea level at about


title: "Grinding machine" content: Grinding machine A grinding machine, often shortened to grinder, is any of various power tools or machine tools used for grinding, which is a type of machining using an abrasive wheel as the cutting tool. Each grain of abrasive on the wheel's surface cuts a small chip from the workpiece via shear deformation. Grinding is used to finish workpieces that must show high surface quality (e.g., low surface roughness) and high accuracy of shape and dimension. As the accuracy in dimensions in grinding is of the order of 0.000025 mm, in most applications it tends to be a finishing operation


title: "National Woman's Party" content: Amendment and many states ratified it, but at the last minute in 1982 it was stopped by a coalition of conservatives led by Phyllis Schlafly and never passed. However, in 1964 the NWP did succeed, with the support of conservatives and over the opposition of liberals, blacks and labor unions, to have "sex" added to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, thus achieving some of the goals sought by the NWP. In 1963 Congress passed the Equal Pay Act of 1963, which prohibited wage differentials based on sex. The prohibition on sex discrimination was added by Howard W. Smith, a


title: "William Barnard Rhodes-Moorhouse" content: nations in the Wellington area of New Zealand. When Rhodes married Sarah King, the very young child Mary Anne was "gifted" ("Whaangai") to the newlyweds. After his first wife died, Rhodes married Sarah Ann Moorhouse, the sister of William Sefton Moorhouse, a prominent Canterbury politician and settler. She adopted Mary Ann Rhodes. Mary Anne's father had been a whaling captain who became a prominent Wellington settler, businessman and politician. On his death, Mary Anne Rhodes received a legacy which made her the richest woman in New Zealand. She married her second adopted mother’s younger brother, Edward Moorhouse, in Wellington in


title: "Dome car" content: for the "California Zephyr"; two dome-coach-buffet-lounges and two dome-parlor-observations built in 1953 for the "Kansas City Zephyr"; and two dome-buffet-lounges and two dome-parlor-observations built in 1956 for the "Denver Zephyr". The "California Zephyr" cars included those built for the Denver & Rio Grande Western and the Western Pacific, which were partners with the CB&Q on the train's route between Chicago and the San Francisco Bay area. "Vista Dome" short dome cars built for the Wabash Railroad. The Budd Company built a dome-parlor-observation in 1950 for the railroad's "Blue Bird"; Pullman-Standard built a dome-parlor for the same train in 1952. "Astra


title: "Java sparrow" content: Java sparrow The Java sparrow ("Lonchura oryzivora"), also known as Java finch, Java rice sparrow or Java rice bird, is a small passerine bird. This estrildid finch is a resident breeding bird in Java, Bali and Bawean in Indonesia. It is a popular cage bird, and has been introduced in a large number of other countries. Some taxonomists place this and the Timor sparrow in their own genus "Padda". The Java sparrow is about in length from the beak to its tip of tail feathers. Although only about the size of a house sparrow, it may be the largest species


title: "Java sparrow" content: in the estrildid family. The adult is unmistakable, with its grey upperparts and breast, pink belly, white-cheeked black head, red eye-ring, pink feet and thick red bill. Both sexes are similar. Immature birds have brown upperparts and pale brown underparts, and a plain head. Very young birds have a black beak with a pink base. The call is a "chip", and the song is a rapid series of call notes "chipchipchipchipchipchip". Molecular phylogeny indicates that this species may have originated in India and dispersed to Africa and Pacific Ocean habitats from there. The Java sparrow is a very gregarious bird


title: "Java sparrow" content: which feeds mainly on grain and other seeds. It frequents open grassland and cultivation, and was formerly a pest in rice fields, hence its scientific name. The nest is constructed in a tree or building, and up to eight eggs are laid. The Java sparrow has been a popular cage bird in Asia for centuries, first in Ming Dynasty China and then in Japan from the 17th century, frequently appearing in Japanese paintings and prints. Meiji-era writer Natsume Sōseki wrote an essay about his pet Java sparrow. In the late 1960s and early 1970s the Java sparrow was one of


title: "Java sparrow" content: the most popular cage birds in the United States until its import was banned. Today it remains illegal to possess in California because of a perceived threat to agriculture, although rice-dependent Asian countries like China, Taiwan and Japan have not regulated the bird. In Asia the Java sparrow is most often raised almost from birth by human breeders and owners, and they become very tame and attached to humans. As such, they can be normally kept in relatively small cages, but let out for indoor exercise without their attempting to escape. In captivity, a variety of colourations have been bred,


title: "Java sparrow" content: including white, silver/opal, fawn/isabel, pastel, cream and agate (which currently is rare within Europe captive specimens) along with the pied Java sparrow (called the "sakura buncho" in Japan). The Java sparrow was introduced in the Indian subcontinent, but it failed to become a successful resident on the Indian mainland. In the United States there are breeding populations on several of the Hawaiian Islands, especially Oahu. In the Caribbean, the Java sparrow was introduced to Puerto Rico where it is fairly common near San Juan. It has also been sighted in Jamaica, but is not known to occur on any of


title: "Java sparrow" content: the other islands. It was also introduced to Christmas Island, off the coast of Western Australia. The Java sparrow is considered to be a serious agricultural pest of rice. Due to ongoing habitat loss and hunting in some areas, the Java sparrow is now uncommon in its native range. Decades of trapping have lead to its wild population becoming very small. It is evaluated as endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (uplisted from vulnerable in 2018) and is listed on Appendix II of CITES. Java sparrow The Java sparrow ("Lonchura oryzivora"), also known as Java finch, Java


title: "Hughie Gallacher" content: He was openly weeping, talking to himself and occasionally pounding the bridge rail with his fists. He stepped down from the bridge and killed himself by walking in front of an oncoming express train. When the effects of the tragedy of his father's suicide had subsided Mattie returned home to stay with his elder brother Hughie, before moving to South Africa in 1965. At full level Gallacher represented Scotland 20 times hitting 24 goals. Only two players, Denis Law and Kenny Dalglish with 30 each, have scored more goals for the full Scotland international team than Gallacher's 24. Gallacher averaged


title: "Felix S. Cohen" content: to write and advocate regarding Federal Indian Law, publishing The Erosion of Indian Rights 1950-1953: A Case Study in Bureaucracy, 62 Yale L. J. 348 (1952–53), shortly before his untimely death in 1953. Cohen had also become increasingly committed to fighting other forms of oppression, in particular to securing the rights of immigrants and ethnic minorities. His major articles are anthologized in "The Legal Conscience: Selected Papers of Felix S. Cohen", which was edited and assembled by his widow Lucy Kramer Cohen in 1960. Felix S. Cohen Felix Solomon Cohen (July 3, 1907 – October 19, 1953) was an American


title: "Managed care" content: assigned a "gatekeeper", a primary care physician (PCP) responsible for the overall care of members assigned. Specialty services require a specific referral from the PCP to the specialist. Non-emergency hospital admissions also require specific pre-authorization by the PCP. Typically, services are not covered if performed by a provider not an employee of or specifically approved by the HMO unless it defines the situation to be an emergency. Financial sanctions for use of emergency facilities in non-emergency situations were once an issue, but prudent layperson language now applies to all emergency-service utilization, and penalties are rare. Since the 1980s, under the


title: "Steven Emerson" content: of both houses of Congress on terrorist funding, and the operational structures of groups including al-Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, and Islamic Jihad. He has also given interviews debunking 9/11 conspiracy theories, and was a contributing expert to the "Counterterrorism Blog". In a television interview after the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, Emerson incorrectly pointed at Muslim terrorists, suggesting the bombing showed a Middle Eastern trait. Emerson has stated that he was chastened by the experience and learned a lesson. Christopher Bail, author of "Terrified: How Anti-Muslim Fringe Organizations Became Mainstream", postulated that Emerson's doctoring of FBI evidence in his film "Terrorists Among


title: "Sansa Stark" content: enticed by the prospect of becoming Lord of Winterfell, and so agrees to marry her. Sansa is shocked one morning when she is being fitted for a gown that she is to marry Tyrion that day. Joffrey taunts Sansa and acts on behalf of her father to give her away during the ceremony to add further insult. Sansa ignores Tyrion and refuses to bend as he attempts to put his cloak around her, an important marriage custom in Westeros. In turn, Joffrey commands Ser Dontos to act as a stool so that Tyrion can cloak his bride in spite of


title: "Islam in India" content: the second Walī al-Hind of the Fatimid dawat. Moulai Yaqoob was the first person of Indian origin to receive this honour under the Dā'ī. He was the son of Moulai Bharmal, minister of Hindu Solanki King Jayasimha Siddharaja (Anhalwara, Patan). With Minister Moulai Tarmal, they had honoured the Fatimid dawat along with their fellow citizens on the call of Moulai Abdullah. Syedi Fakhruddin, son of Moulai Tarmal, was sent to western Rajasthan, India, and Moulai Nuruddin went to the Deccan (death: Jumadi al-Ula 11 at Don Gaum, Aurangabad, Maharashtra, India). One Dai succeeded another until the 23rd Dai in Yemen.


title: "Islam in the Maldives" content: letter "B" in modern Arabic has a dot below, whereas the letter "T" looks identical except there are two dots above it). The first reference to an Iranian origin dates to an 18th-century Persian text. The much venerated tomb of this saint now stands opposite the grounds of Hukuru Miski, in the centre of Malé. The Maldives have had a long history of Sufic orders, as can be seen in the history of the country such as the building of tombs. They were used until as recently as the 1980s for seeking the help of buried saints. They can be


title: "Victoria School" content: of the Old Victorians' Association, sit on the Committee. Formed in 1988, Victoria Chorale, which comprises graduands of Victoria School and Victoria Junior College, is one of the top semi-professional choirs in Singapore. It has won numerous prizes at many prestigious international competitions, including gold medals at the Choir Olympics. The alumni body, Old Victorians’ Association (OVA), was established in 1941. It serves as a channel for former students of Victoria School and Victoria Junior College to continue to associate with their alma mater. The OVA supports the activities undertaken by the schools, assists needy students, and promotes sports, social


title: "Swiss-system tournament" content: software utilized the Swiss system similarly to Magic: The Gathering--3 points for a win, 1 for a draw, 0 for a loss. Konami's official tournament policy dictates how many rounds are played based on the number of participants. After the set number of rounds of Swiss are complete, there is generally a cut to advance in the tournament. This is then played as single-elimination until a winner is declared. Swiss-system tournament A Swiss-system tournament is a non-eliminating tournament format which features a set number of rounds of competition, but considerably fewer than in a round-robin tournament. In a Swiss tournament,


title: "Islam in Mauritius" content: education in "madraasas" and all Islamic ceremonies. Major holidays like Bakrid, Eid, Mawlid and, for the Shia only, Muharram are celebrated with floats in the major mosques in the country. Islam in Mauritius Muslims constitute over 17.3 per cent of Mauritius population. Muslims of Mauritius are mostly of Indian descent. Large numbers of Muslims arrived to Mauritius during the British regime starting in 1834 as part of the large scale indentured labor force from India. Mauritius became independent in 1968 and no official religion is defined in the constitution nor does any religion dominate. Christians make up about a third


title: "Ole Singstad" content: and the College of Engineering Newark, New Jersey. Singstad was elected president of the American Council of Engineering Companies during 1941; he and Søren Anton Thoresen received gold medals and were decorated by King Albert I of Belgium for their work on the Waasland tunnel; a wooden statue has been erected in his honor at Lensvik Samfunnshus; and in 2008, a lecture in his honor was held at the Museum of Modern Art. Singstad was named 1933 Officer of the Order of the Crown of Belgium, received the 1939 Ridder order of First Class, the 1956 Medal of Honor from


title: "Christian Michelsen" content: Chr. Michelsen Institute (CMI) was established as an independent centre for research on international development and policy. Founded in Bergen in 1930, CMI conducts both applied and theoretical research, and has a multidisciplinary profile anchored in four thematic research groups, namely human rights, democracy and development, peace, conflict and the state, poverty reduction and public sector reform. Christian Michelsen Peter Christian Hersleb Kjerschow Michelsen (15 March 1857 – 29 June 1925) was a Norwegian shipping magnate and statesman. He was the first Prime Minister of independent Norway from 1905 to 1907. Michelsen is most known for his central role in


title: "Edith Thompson and Frederick Bywaters" content: statements to the police concerning the night of the murder that suggested she had intended to conceal her witness of the crime, and perhaps conversations of criminal intent with Bywaters preceding it, although she always vigorously denied foreknowledge of it. Broad states that the Judge's summing up was considered to be at the time "deadly, absolutely against her" but he does not claim that the Judge was less than impartial, even though he resolutely argues for her innocence. The Defence did succeed in some points, showing that guesswork by the prosecution over ambiguous content of some of the letters was


title: Nerium content: Nerium Nerium oleander is a shrub or small tree in the dogbane family Apocynaceae, toxic in all its parts. It is the only species currently classified in the genus Nerium. It is most commonly known as nerium or oleander, from its superficial resemblance to the unrelated olive "Olea". It is so widely cultivated that no precise region of origin has been identified, though southwest Asia has been suggested. The ancient city of Volubilis in Morocco may have taken its name from the Berber name "alili" or "oualilt" for the flower. Oleander is one of the most poisonous commonly grown garden


title: Nerium content: plants. The origins of the taxonomic name "Nerium oleander", first assigned by Linnaeus in 1753, are disputed. The genus name Nerium is the Latinized form of the Ancient Greek name for the plant Nerion (νήριον), which is in turn derived from the Greek for water, 'neros' (νηρός), because of the natural habitat of the oleander along rivers and streams. The word "Oleander" appears as far back as the first century AD, when the Greek physician Pedanius Dioscorides cited it as one of the terms used by the Romans for the plant. Merriam-Webster believes the word is a Medieval Latin corruption


title: Nerium content: of Late Latin names for the plant: "arodandrum" or "lorandrum", or more plausibly "rhododendron" (another Ancient Greek name for the plant), with the addition of "Olea" because of the superficial resemblance to the olive tree ("Olea europea"). Another theory posited is that "Oleander" is the Latinized form of a Greek compound noun: 'οllyo' (ὀλλύω), which means 'I kill', and the Greek noun for man, 'aner', genitive 'andros' (ἀνήρ, ἀνδρός). This is because of the Oleander's toxicity to humans. The etymological association of "oleander" with the bay laurel has continued into the modern day: in France the plant is known as


title: Nerium content: "Laurier Rose", while the Spanish term, "Adelfa", is the descendant of the original Ancient Greek name for both the bay laurel and the oleander, "daphne", which subsequently passed into Arabic usage and thence to Spain. Oleander grows to tall, with erect stems that splay outward as they mature; first-year stems have a glaucous bloom, while mature stems have a grayish bark. The leaves are in pairs or whorls of three, thick and leathery, dark-green, narrow lanceolate, long and broad, and with an entire margin filled with minute reticulate venation web typical of eudicots. Leaves are light green and very glossy


title: Nerium content: when young, before maturing to a dull dark green/greenish gray. The flowers grow in clusters at the end of each branch; they are white, pink to red, diameter, with a deeply 5-lobed fringed corolla round the central corolla tube. They are often, but not always, sweet-scented. The fruit is a long narrow pair of follicles long, which splits open at maturity to release numerous downy seeds. "Nerium oleander" is either native or naturalized to a broad area from Mauritania, Morocco, and Portugal eastward through the Mediterranean region and the Sahara (where it is only found sporadically), to the Arabian peninsula,


title: Nerium content: southern Asia, and as far east as Yunnan in southern parts of China. It typically occurs around stream beds in river valleys, where it can alternatively tolerate long seasons of drought and inundation from winter rains. "Nerium oleander" is planted in many subtropical and tropical areas of the world. On the East Coast of the US, it grows as far north as Virginia Beach, Virginia, while in California and Texas miles of oleander shrubs are planted on median strips. There are estimated to be 25 million oleanders planted along highways and roadsides throughout the State of California. Because of its


title: Nerium content: durability, oleander was planted prolifically on Galveston Island in Texas after the disastrous Hurricane of 1900. They are so prolific that Galveston is known as the 'Oleander City'; an annual oleander festival is hosted every spring. Beyond the traditional Mediterranean and subtropical range of oleander, the plant can also be cultivated in mild oceanic climates with the appropriate precautions. It is grown without protection in southern England and can reach great sizes in London and to a lesser extent in Paris due to the urban heat island effect. This is also the case with North American cities in the Pacific


title: Nerium content: Northwest like Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver. Plants may suffer damage or die back in such marginal climates during severe winter cold, but will rebound from the roots. Some invertebrates are known to be unaffected by oleander toxins, and feed on the plants. Caterpillars of the polka-dot wasp moth ("Syntomeida epilais") feed specifically on oleanders and survive by eating only the pulp surrounding the leaf-veins, avoiding the fibers. Larvae of the common crow butterfly ("Euploea core") and oleander hawk-moth ("Daphnis nerii") also feed on oleanders, and they retain or modify toxins, making them unpalatable to potential predators such as birds, but


title: Nerium content: not to other invertebrates such as spiders and wasps. The flowers require insect visits to set seed, and seem to be pollinated through a deception mechanism. The showy corolla acts as a potent advertisement to attract pollinators from a distance, but the flowers are nectarless and offer no reward to their visitors. They therefore receive very few visits, as typical of many rewardless flower species. Fears of honey contamination with toxic oleander nectar are therefore unsubstantiated. Oleander is a vigorous grower in warm subtropical regions, where it is extensively used as an ornamental plant in parks, along roadsides and in


title: Nerium content: private gardens. It is most commonly grown in its natural shrub form, but can be trained into a small tree with a single trunk. Hardy versions like white, red and pink oleander will tolerate occasional light frost down to , though the leaves may be damaged. The toxicity of oleander renders it deer-resistant and its large size makes for a good windbreak – as such it is frequently planted as a hedge along property lines and in agricultural settings. The plant is tolerant of poor soils, intense heat, salt spray, and sustained drought – although it will flower and grow


title: Nerium content: more vigorously with regular water. Although it does not require pruning to thrive and bloom, oleander can become unruly with age and older branches tend to become gangly, with new growth emerging from the base. For this reason gardeners are advised to prune mature shrubs in the autumn to shape and induce lush new growth and flowering for the following spring. Unless they wish to harvest the seeds, many gardeners choose to prune away the seedpods that form on spent flower clusters, which are a drain on energy. In Mediterranean climates oleanders can be expected to bloom from April through


title: Nerium content: October, with the heaviest bloom usually occurring between May and June. Free-flowering varieties like 'Petite Salmon' or 'Mont Blanc' require no period of rest and can flower continuously throughout the year if the weather remains warm. In cold winter climates, oleander is a popular summer potted plant readily available at most nurseries. They require frequent heavy watering and fertilizing as compared to being planted in the ground, but oleander is nonetheless an ideal flowering shrub for patios and other spaces with hot sunshine. During the winter they should be moved indoors, ideally into an unheated greenhouse or basement where they


title: Nerium content: can be allowed to go dormant. Once they are dormant they require little light and only occasional watering. Placing them in a space with central heating and poor air flow can make them susceptible to a wide variety of pests - aphids, mealybugs, Oleander scale, Whitefly and Spider mites. Oleander flowers are showy, profuse, and often fragrant, which makes them very attractive in many contexts. Over 400 cultivars have been named, with several additional flower colors not found in wild plants having been selected, including yellow, peach and salmon. Many cultivars, like "Hawaii" or "Turner's Carnival", are multi-colored, with brilliant


title: Nerium content: striped corollas. The solid whites, reds and a variety of pinks are the most common. Double flowered cultivars like "Mrs Isadore Dyer" (deep pink), "Mathilde Ferrier" (yellow) or "Mont Blanc" (white) are enjoyed for their large, rose-like blooms and strong fragrance. There is also a variegated form, 'Variegata', featuring leaves striped in yellow and white. Several dwarf cultivars have also been developed, offering a more compact form and size for small spaces. These include "Little Red", "Petite White", "Petite Pink" and "Petite Salmon", which grow to about 8 feet at maturity. Drugs derived from "N. oleander" have been investigated as


title: Nerium content: a treatment for cancer, but have failed to demonstrate clinical utility. According to the American Cancer Society, the trials conducted so far have produced no evidence of benefit, while they did cause adverse side effects. Oleander has historically been considered a poisonous plant because some of its compounds may exhibit toxicity, especially to animals, when consumed in large amounts. Among these compounds are oleandrin and oleandrigenin, known as cardiac glycosides, which are known to have a narrow therapeutic index and can be toxic when ingested. Toxicity studies of animals administered oleander extract concluded that rodents and birds were observed to


title: Nerium content: be relatively insensitive to oleander cardiac glycosides. Other mammals, however, such as dogs and humans, are relatively sensitive to the effects of cardiac glycosides and the clinical manifestations of "glycoside intoxication". In reviewing oleander toxicity cases seen in-hospital, Lanford and Boor concluded that, except for children who might be at greater risk, "the human mortality associated with oleander ingestion is generally very low, even in cases of moderate intentional consumption (suicide attempts)". In 2000, a rare instance of death from oleander poisoning occurred when two toddlers adopted from a Siberian orphanage ate the leaves from a neighbor's shrub in El


title: Nerium content: Segundo, California. A spokesman for the Los Angeles County Coroner's office stated that it was the first instance of death connected to oleander in the county, and a toxicologist from the California Poison Control Center said it was the first instance of death he had seen recorded. Because oleander is extremely bitter, officials speculated that the toddlers had developed a condition caused from malnutrition, Pica, which causes people to eat otherwise inedible material. Ingestion of this plant can affect the gastrointestinal system, the heart, and the central nervous system. The gastrointestinal effects can consist of nausea and vomiting, excess salivation,


title: Nerium content: abdominal pain, diarrhea that may contain blood, and especially in horses, colic. Cardiac reactions consist of irregular heart rate, sometimes characterized by a racing heart at first that then slows to below normal further along in the reaction. Extremities may become pale and cold due to poor or irregular circulation. The effect on the central nervous system may show itself in symptoms such as drowsiness, tremors or shaking of the muscles, seizures, collapse, and even coma that can lead to death. Oleander sap can cause skin irritations, severe eye inflammation and irritation, and allergic reactions characterized by dermatitis. Poisoning and


title: Nerium content: reactions to oleander plants are evident quickly, requiring immediate medical care in suspected or known poisonings of both humans and animals. Induced vomiting and gastric lavage are protective measures to reduce absorption of the toxic compounds. Activated charcoal may also be administered to help absorb any remaining toxins. Further medical attention may be required depending on the severity of the poisoning and symptoms. Temporary cardiac pacing will be required in many cases (usually for a few days) until the toxin is excreted. Digoxin immune fab is the best way to cure an oleander poisoning if inducing vomiting has no or


title: Nerium content: minimal success, although it is usually used only for life-threatening conditions due to side effects. Drying of plant materials does not eliminate the toxins. It is also hazardous for animals such as sheep, horses, cattle, and other grazing animals, with as little as 100 g being enough to kill an adult horse. Plant clippings are especially dangerous to horses, as they are sweet. In July 2009, several horses were poisoned in this manner from the leaves of the plant. Symptoms of a poisoned horse include severe diarrhea and abnormal heartbeat. There is a wide range of toxins and secondary compounds


title: Nerium content: within oleander, and care should be taken around this plant due to its toxic nature. Different names for oleander are used around the world in different locations, so, when encountering a plant with this appearance, regardless of the name used for it, one should exercise great care and caution to avoid ingestion of any part of the plant, including its sap and dried leaves or twigs. The dried or fresh branches should not be used for spearing food, for preparing a cooking fire, or as a food skewer. Many of the oleander relatives, such as the desert rose ("Adenium obesum")


title: Nerium content: found in East Africa, have similar leaves and flowers and are equally toxic. The toxicity of the plant makes it the center of an urban legend documented on several continents and over more than a century. Often told as a true and local event, typically an entire family, or in other tellings a group of scouts, succumbs after consuming hot dogs or other food roasted over a campfire using oleander sticks. Some variants tell of this happening to Napoleon's or Alexander the Great's soldiers. There is an ancient account mentioned by Pliny the Elder in his Natural History, who described


title: Nerium content: a region in Pontus in Turkey where the honey was poisoned from bees having pollinated poisonous flowers, with the honey left as a poisonous trap for an invading army. The flowers have sometimes been mis-translated as Oleander, but Oleander flowers are nectarless and therefore cannot transmit any toxins via nectar. The actual flower referenced by Pliny was Azalea/Rhododendron, which is still used in Turkey to produce a hallucinogenic honey. "Nerium oleander" has a history of cultivation going back millennia, especially amongst the great ancient civilizations of the Mediterranean Basin. Some scholars believe it to be the "rhodon" (rose), also called


title: Nerium content: the 'Rose of Jericho', mentioned in apocryphal writings (Ecclesiasticus XXIV, 13) dating back to between 450 and 180 BC. This is because no form of the traditional rose occurs in the wild in Palestine, but pink-flowering Oleander is common throughout the region near lakes and along stream or river beds. The ancient Greeks had several names for the plant, including "rhododaphne", "nerion", "rhododendron" and "rhodon". Pliny confirmed that the Romans had no Latin word for the plant, but used the Greek terms instead. Pedanius Dioscorides states in his 1st century AD pharmacopeia "De Materia Medica" that the Romans used the


title: Nerium content: Greek "rhododendron" but also the Latin "Oleander" and "Laurorosa". The Egyptians apparently called it "scinphe", the North Africans "rhodedaphane", and the Lucanians (a southern Italic people) "icmane". Both Pliny and Dioscorides stated that oleander was an effective antidote to venomous snake bites if mixed with Rue and drunk. A 2014 article in the medical journal "Perspectives in Biology and Medicine" posited that oleander was the substance used to induce hallucinations in the Pythia, the female priestess of Apollo, also known as the Oracle of Delphi in Ancient Greece. According to this theory, the symptoms of the Pythia's trances ("enthusiasmos") correspond


title: Nerium content: to either inhaling the smoke of or chewing small amounts of oleander leaves, often called by the generic term "laurel" in Ancient Greece, which led to confusion with the bay laurel that ancient authors cite. In his book "Enquiries into Plants" of circa 300 BC, Theophrastus described (among plants that affect the mind) a shrub he called "onotheras", which modern editors render oleander; "the root of "onotheras" [oleander] administered in wine", he alleges, "makes the temper gentler and more cheerful". The plant has a leaf like that of the almond, but smaller, and the flower is red like a rose.


title: Nerium content: The plant itself (which loves hilly country) forms a large bush; the root is red and large, and, if this is dried, it gives off a fragrance like wine. In another mention, of "wild bay" ("Daphne agria"), Theophrastus appears to intend the same shrub. Oleander was a very popular ornamental shrub in Roman peristyle gardens; it is one of the flora most frequently depicted on murals in Pompeii and elsewhere in Italy. These murals include the famous garden scene from the House of Livia at Prima Porta outside Rome, and those from the House of the Wedding of Alexander and


title: Nerium content: the Marine Venus in Pompeii. Carbonized fragments of oleander wood have been identified at the Villa Poppaea in Oplontis, likewise buried by the eruption of Vesuvius in A.D. 79. They were found to have been planted in a decorative arrangement with citron trees ("Citrus medica") alongside the villa's swimming pool. A bacterial disease known as oleander leaf scorch has become an extremely serious threat to the shrub since it was first noticed in Palm Springs, California, in 1992. The disease has since decimated hundreds of thousands of shrubs mainly in Southern California, but also on a smaller scale in Arizona,


title: Nerium content: Nevada and Texas. The culprit is a bacterium called "Xylella fastidiosa", which is spread via insects (the glassy-winged sharpshooter primarily) who feed on the tissue of oleanders and spread the bacteria. This inhibits the circulation of water in the tissue of the plant, causing individual branches to die until the entire plant is consumed. Symptoms of leaf scorch infection may be slow to manifest themselves, but it becomes evident when parts of otherwise healthy oleanders begin to yellow and wither, as if scorched by heat or fire. Die-back may cease during winter dormancy, but the disease flares up in summer


title: Nerium content: heat when the plant is actively growing, allowing the bacteria to spread through the xylem of the plant. As such it can be difficult to identify at first because gardeners may mistake the symptoms for those of drought stress or nutrient deficiency. Pruning out affected parts can slow the progression of the disease but not eliminate it. This malaise can continue for several years until the plant completely dies - there is no known cure. The best method for preventing further spread of the disease is to prune infected oleanders to the ground immediately after the infection is noticed. Oleander


title: Nerium content: has formed the subject matter of paintings by famous artists including: Willa Cather, in her book "The Song of the Lark", mentions oleander in this passage: This morning Thea saw to her delight that the two oleander trees, one white and one red, had been brought up from their winter quarters in the cellar. There is hardly a German family in the most arid parts of Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, but has its oleander trees. However loutish the American-born sons of the family may be, there was never one who refused to give his muscle to the back-breaking task of


title: Nerium content: getting those tubbed trees down into the cellar in the fall and up into the sunlight in the spring. They may strive to avert the day, but they grapple with the tub at last. Oleander is the official flower of the city of Hiroshima, having been the first to bloom following the atomic bombing of the city in 1945. It is the provincial flower of Sindh province. Nerium Nerium oleander is a shrub or small tree in the dogbane family Apocynaceae, toxic in all its parts. It is the only species currently classified in the genus Nerium. It is most


title: "Brownsville, Brooklyn" content: apartments being built, in addition to 468 affordable-housing units that had already been built in the East New York/Brownsville area. Closer to the border with Ocean Hill, there are many limestone and brownstone townhouses in addition to tenements. In Brownsville, about 73% of rental housing is poorly maintained, more than the citywide rate of 59% and the boroughwide rate of 62%. Many of Brownsville's empty lots are now community gardens, which are also widespread in nearby East New York and are maintained by multiple community groups; the gardens are often planted with vegetables that could provide food for residents. The


title: "Santa Monica Pier" content: Santa Monica Pier The Santa Monica Pier is a large double-jointed pier at the foot of Colorado Avenue in Santa Monica, California. With an iconic entrance, the pier is popular with residents and visitors as a landmark that is over 100 years old. The pier contains Pacific Park, a family amusement park with its one-of-a-kind, state-of-the-art, solar panelled Ferris wheel. (This should not be confused with Pacific Ocean Park, a former amusement park a few miles south of Santa Monica Pier, which operated from 1958 to 1967 and is now demolished.) It also has an original carousel hippodrome from the


title: "Santa Monica Pier" content: 1920s, the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium operated by Heal the Bay, shops, entertainers, a video arcade, a trapeze school, pubs, and restaurants. The pier's west end is a popular location for anglers. During the summer months the pier is venue to weekly outdoor concerts, movies, and other family friendly activities, many of which are free to the public. Santa Monica has had several piers; however, the current Santa Monica Pier is made up of two adjoining piers that long had separate owners. The long, narrow Municipal Pier opened September 9, 1909, primarily to carry sewer pipes beyond the breakers, and


title: "Santa Monica Pier" content: had no amenities. The short, wide adjoining Pleasure Pier to the south, a.k.a. Newcomb Pier, was built in 1916 by Charles I. D. Looff and his son Arthur, amusement park pioneers. Attractions on the Pleasure Pier eventually included the Santa Monica Looff Hippodrome building (which now houses the current carousel and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places), the Blue Streak Racer wooden roller coaster (which was purchased from the defunct Wonderland amusement park in San Diego), the Whip, merry-go-rounds, Wurlitzer organs, and a funhouse. The Carousel was built in 1922 by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company, PTC #62


title: "Santa Monica Pier" content: and features 44 hand-carved horses. It was rebuilt in 1990 inside the Hippodrome. A calliope provides musical accompaniment. The La Monica Ballroom opened on July 23, 1924. Designed by T.H. Eslick with a Spanish façade and French Renaissance interior, it was the largest dance hall on the west coast, accommodating 5,000 dancers on its hard maple floor. Country music star Spade Cooley began broadcasting his weekly television show from the ballroom in 1948, where the enormously popular program remained until 1954. In the summer of 1955, the Hollywood Autocade opened at the La Monica with one-hundred famous and unusual cars,


title: "Santa Monica Pier" content: including Jack Benny's Maxwell and a Rumpler Drop Car. From 1958 until 1962, the ballroom served as a roller skating rink; first as Skater's Ballroom, and later as the Santa Monica Roller Rink, where the speed skating club won many state and regional championships. The La Monica Ballroom was demolished in 1963. The Pleasure Pier thrived during the 1920s but faded during the Great Depression. During the 1930s, the pier was mainly used as a ferry landing, while most of the amusement park facilities were closed down and its attractions sold off. The bridge and entry gate to Santa Monica


title: "Santa Monica Pier" content: Pier were built in 1938 by the federal Works Project Administration, and replaced the former grade connection. The Newcomb Pier was privately owned until it was acquired by the city in 1974. During the 1960s and 1970s various plans were proposed that would entail removal of the pier. The strangest one called for the construction of an artificial island with a 1500-room hotel. It was approved by the City Council, but citizens formed "Save Santa Monica Bay" to preserve the pier. The outstanding order to raze the pier was revoked by the city council in 1973. Within that same year,


title: "Santa Monica Pier" content: the Carousel and Hippodrome were memorable sets featured in the film "The Sting", although the story was set in Chicago. In the 1950s, Enid Newcomb suggested to family friend Morris "Pops" Gordon that his two sons, George and Eugene, purchase and operate the Pier's arcade. It didn't take much persuasion, for the Gordons instantly took to the Pier and ultimately made Playland Arcade into the Pier's longest running enterprise offering the day's contemporary games alongside those of yesterday, providing inexpensive entertainment to a diverse crowd. George's daughters Marlene and Joanie have kept the business within the family, and the next


title: "Santa Monica Pier" content: generation of Gordons is already in training to maintain the family tradition. In 1983, the Santa Monica Pier experienced a significant loss. On January 27, there were reported swells of 10-feet during this winter storm. When the storm was over, the lower deck of the pier was destroyed. The City of Santa Monica began repairs on March 1, 1983, when another storm rolled in. A crane which was being used to repair the west end was dragged into the water and acted as a battering ram against the pilings. Over one-third of the Pier was completely destroyed. On June 18,


title: "Santa Monica Pier" content: 2009, the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment issued a safe eating advisory for any fish caught from Santa Monica Pier to Ventura Harbor due to elevated levels of mercury and PCBs. The City of Santa Monica created a non-profit in response to the damage and called it Santa Monica Pier Restoration Corporation (SMPRC). SMPRC conducted the daily operations of the Santa Monica Pier, such as managing events, filming, promotions, tenants, and street performers. To date, SMPRC has produced the Santa Monica Pier Paddle Board Race and the Twilight Summer Concert Series. Also, in 2011, SMPRC changed the company


title: "Santa Monica Pier" content: name to the Santa Monica Pier Corporation (SMPC). In the popular book series "The Dark Artifices" by Cassandra Clare, the fictional Los Angeles Institute overlooks the Santa Monica pier. Most of the major plot is set in this vicinity. The Santa Monica Pier has been used as a filming location for many decades. The amusement park attractions as they existed in 1930s are seen prominently in the "Our Gang" short "Fish Hooky" (1933). It also appears prominently in "Tillie's Punctured Romance" (1914), "Quicksand" (1950), "Elmer Gantry" (1960), "1941" (1979 film), "The Opposite of Sex" (1998), "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?"


title: "Santa Monica Pier" content: (1969), "Night Tide" (1961), "Bean" (1997), "The Sting" (1973), "Farewell, My Lovely" (1975) with Robert Mitchum, "Her" (2013), "A Night at the Roxbury" (1998), "Miracle Beach", "Forrest Gump" (there is a Bubba Gump Shrimp Company Restaurant on the pier), "Not Another Teen Movie", "Iron Man", "Desperate Teenage Lovedolls", "Dark Ride", "Cellular", "The Hottie and the Nottie", "Falling Down", "Ruthless People" (the pier is the site of the movie's climactic final scene), "Love Stinks", "Hancock", the indie romantic comedy "She Wants Me", and "" (the scene with Lilly's birthday party). During the earthquake in the movie "2012", the pier can be


title: "Santa Monica Pier" content: seen sinking beneath the waves. The Natalie Wood film "Inside Daisy Clover" (1965) features the pier in the beginning of the picture. "The Glenn Miller Story" with Jimmy Stewart has a sequence toward the beginning where he goes to the "La Monica Ballroom" for an audition. The pier is also featured in the 2018 film "Pacific Rim Uprising", starring John Boyega, where a kaiju attack destroys the pier, as well as the entire city. Santa Monica Pier The Santa Monica Pier is a large double-jointed pier at the foot of Colorado Avenue in Santa Monica, California. With an iconic entrance,


title: "Mind Body & Soul" content: on 9 September 2005, and had sold 1.3 million copies in the US by July 2011. "Mind Body & Soul" was successful in most European countries, peaking at number three on the European Top 100 Albums chart, while reaching the top five in Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands and Portugal, and the top 10 in France, Germany, Ireland, Norway and Switzerland. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) certified the album platinum, denoting sales in excess of one million copies across Europe. In Oceania, the album reached five in New Zealand and number seven in Australia, and was certified gold


title: "Electric toothbrush" content: Electric toothbrush An electric toothbrush is a toothbrush that makes rapid automatic bristle motions, either back-and-forth oscillation or rotation-oscillation (where the brush head alternates clockwise and counterclockwise rotation), in order to clean teeth. Motions at sonic speeds or below are made by a motor. In the case of ultrasonic toothbrushes, ultrasonic motions are produced by a piezoelectric crystal. A modern electric toothbrush is usually powered by a rechargeable battery charged through inductive charging when the brush sits in the charging base between uses. Electric toothbrushes can be classified according to the frequency (speed) of their movements as power, sonic or


title: "Electric toothbrush" content: ultrasonic toothbrushes, depending on whether they make movements that are below, in or above the audible range (20–20,000 Hz or 2400–2,400,000 movements per minute), respectively. The first electric toothbrush was produced by the Electro Massage Tooth Brush Company in the U.S.A. in 1927. In Switzerland in 1954 Dr. Philippe Guy Woog invented the Broxodent. Woog's electric toothbrushes were originally manufactured in Switzerland (later in France) for Broxo S.A. The device plugged into a standard wall outlet and ran on line voltage. Electric toothbrushes were initially created for patients with limited motor skills and for orthodontic patients (such as those with


title: "Electric toothbrush" content: braces). The Broxo Electric Toothbrush was introduced in the U.S. by E. R. Squibb and Sons Pharmaceuticals in 1960. After introduction, it was marketed in the U.S. by Squibb under the names Broxo-Dent or Broxodent. In the 1980s Squibb transferred distribution of the Broxodent line to the Somerset Labs division of Bristol-Myers Squibb. The General Electric automatic toothbrush was introduced in the early 1960s; it was cordless with rechargeable NiCad batteries and although portable, was rather bulky, about the size of a two-D-cell flashlight handle. NiCad batteries of this period suffered from the Memory effect. The GE Automatic Toothbrush came


title: "Electric toothbrush" content: with a charging stand which held the hand piece upright; most units were kept in the charger, which is not the best way to get maximum service life from a NiCad battery. Also, early NiCad batteries tended to have a short lifespan. The batteries were sealed inside the GE device, and the whole unit had to be discarded when the batteries failed. The use of an AC line voltage appliance in a bathroom environment was problematic. By the early 1990s Underwriter Laboratories (UL) and Canadian Standards Association (CSA) no longer certified line-voltage appliances for bathroom use. Newer appliances had to


title: "Electric toothbrush" content: use a step-down transformer to operate the actual toothbrush at low voltage (typically 12, 16 or 24 volts). Wiring standards in many countries require that outlets in bath areas must be protected by a RCD/GFCI device (e.g., required in USA since the 1970s on bathroom outlets in new construction). By the 1990s there were problems with safety certification of Broxo's original design. Further, improved battery-operated toothbrushes were providing formidable competition. The first ultrasonic toothbrush, first called the Ultima and later the Ultrasonex, was patented in the U.S. in 1992, the same year the FDA gave it approval for daily home


title: "Electric toothbrush" content: use. Initially, the Ultima worked only on ultrasound, but a few years later, a motor was added to give the Ultrasonex brush additional sonic vibration. Today, several ultrasonic toothbrushes simultaneously provide both ultrasound and sonic vibration. In more modern times, electric toothbrushes have been used as a substitute for vibrators for those that wish to avoid embarrassment. Electric brushes can be classified into two categories according to the type of action that they employ: vibration or rotation-oscillation. When using vibrating toothbrush, a brushing technique similar to that used with a manual toothbrush is recommended, whereas with rotating-oscillating brushes the recommended


title: "Electric toothbrush" content: cleaning technique is to simply move the brush slowly from tooth to tooth. Electric toothbrushes can also be classified according to the speed of their movements as standard power toothbrushes, sonic toothbrushes or ultrasonic toothbrushes. If the motion of the toothbrush is sufficiently rapid to produce a hum in the audible frequency of human range (20 Hz to 20,000 Hz), it can be classified as a sonic toothbrush. Any electric toothbrush with movement faster than this limit can be classified as an ultrasonic toothbrush. Certain ultrasonic toothbrushes, such as the Megasonex and the Ultreo, have both sonic and ultrasonic movements.


title: "Electric toothbrush" content: Sonic toothbrushes are a subset of electric toothbrushes with movement that is fast enough to produce vibration in the audible range. Most modern rechargeable electric toothbrushes from brands such as Sonicare, FOREO, and Oral-B fall into this category and typically have a frequencies that range from 200 to 400 Hz, that is 12,000–24,000 oscillations or 24,000–48,000 movements per minute. Because sonic toothbrushes rely on sweeping motion alone to clean the teeth, the movement that they provide is often high in amplitude, meaning that the length of the sweeping movements that they make is large. The newest developments in this field


title: "Electric toothbrush" content: are ultrasonic toothbrushes, which use ultrasonic waves to clean the teeth. In order for a toothbrush to be considered "ultrasonic" it has to emit a wave at a minimum frequency of 20,000 Hz or 2,400,000 movements per minute. Typically, ultrasonic toothbrushes approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) operate at a frequency of 1.6 MHz, which translates to 192,000,000 movements per minute. Ultrasonic toothbrushes emit vibrations that are very high in frequency but low in amplitude. These vibrations break up bacterial chains that make up dental plaque and remove their methods of attachment to the tooth surface up


title: "Electric toothbrush" content: to 5 mm below the gum line. Some ultrasonic toothbrushes, such as the Emmi-Dent, provide only ultrasonic motion. Other ultrasonic toothbrushes, such as the Ultreo and the Megasonex, provide additional sonic vibration ranging from 9,000 to 40,000 movements per minute, comparable to a sonic toothbrush, in order to provide additional sweeping motion which facilitates removal of food particles and bacterial chain remnants. The sonic vibration in these ultrasonic toothbrushes may be lower in amplitude than that found in a comparable sonic toothbrush because the bacterial chains do not need to be removed through sonic vibration, simply swept away, as they


title: "Electric toothbrush" content: have already been broken up by the ultrasound. Because of the similarity of the terms “ultrasonic” and “sonic”, there is some confusion in the marketplace and sonic toothbrushes are frequently mislabeled as ultrasonic ones. A toothbrush operating at a frequency or vibration of less than 2,400,000 movements per minute (20,000 Hz) is a "sonic" toothbrush. It is called "sonic" because its operating frequency, for example 31,000 movements per minute, is within the human hearing range of between roughly 20 Hz to about 20,000 Hz. Only a toothbrush that emits ultrasound, or vibration at a frequency greater than the upper limit


title: "Electric toothbrush" content: of human hearing, can be called an "ultrasonic" toothbrush. In January 2015 at CES Las Vegas, French start-up Kolibree introduced the first Bluetooth-powered toothbrush. Kolibree's app recorded brushing habits data and user advice. This product received an Award and was available at Apple Store for $99. Claims have been made that electric toothbrushes are more effective than manual ones as they are less dependent upon a user's personal brushing technique. Some dentists also claim that they help children with overcoming their fear of the dentist. Independent research finds that most electric toothbrushes are no more effective than manual brushes—assuming that


title: "Electric toothbrush" content: people use a manual toothbrush brush effectively. The rotation-oscillation-models have been found to be marginally better than manual ones, though of uncertain clinical importance. The research concludes that the way brushing is done, including the amount of time spent, is more important than the choice of brush. For patients with limited manual dexterity or where difficulty exists in reaching rear teeth, however, dentists regard electric toothbrushes as being especially beneficial. A 2014 Cochrane review suggested the effectiveness of electric toothbrushes over manual ones: plaque build-up and gingival inflammation was reduced by 11% and 6% respectively after one to three months


title: "Electric toothbrush" content: of use and after three months of use, the reduction observed was greater – 21% reduction in plaque and 11% reduction in gingival inflammation. In addition, ultrasound from a commercially available ultrasonic toothbrush has been shown to break up dental plaque composed of chains of cariogenic Streptococcus mutans bacteria, destroying their cell walls and removing their methods of attachment to the enamel surface, at a distance of 5mm from the plaque. The effectiveness of an electric toothbrush depends not only on its type of action and on correct use, but also on the condition of the brush head. Most manufacturers


title: "Electric toothbrush" content: recommend that heads be changed every three to six months at minimum, or as soon as the brush head has visibly deteriorated. Modern electric toothbrushes run on low voltage, 12v or less. A few units use a step-down transformer to power the brush, but most use a battery, usually but not always rechargeable and non-replaceable, fitted inside the handle, which is hermetically sealed to prevent water damage. While early NiCd battery toothbrushes used metal tabs to connect with the charging base, modern toothbrushes use contactless inductive charging: the brush unit and charger stand each contain a coil of wire; when


title: "Electric toothbrush" content: placed in proximity, the powered coil from the stand transfers power by induction to the handle, charging the battery. According to Friends of the Earth, "Disposable electric toothbrushes are one example of a terrible product ... it's virtually impossible to separate out the tech from the batteries and plastic casing which means valuable and often toxic materials are dumped in landfill or burnt in incinerators." Many modern electric toothbrushes have a timer which buzzes, or briefly interrupts power, typically after two minutes, and sometimes every 30 seconds. This is associated with a customary recommendation to brush for two minutes, 30


title: "Electric toothbrush" content: seconds for each of the four quadrants of the mouth. Some electric toothbrushes have LCD screens which show brushing time and sometimes smiley face icons or other images to encourage optimal brushing. These features could encourage people to brush more accurately. Brushing teeth too hard causes enamel and gum damage. Most modern top-end sonic toothbrushes come with a pressure sensor, which prevents users from brushing too aggressively. There are two types of pressure sensors. Some sensors produce a sound warning and some immediately stop movements of the sonic toothbrush when it is used too aggressively. Because of the fact that


title: "Electric toothbrush" content: ultrasonic frequencies are beyond the audible range and the amplitude of movement emitted by an ultrasonic toothbrush is typically too small to be perceived, the ultrasound is imperceptible to humans and it may not be apparent that a brush running in pure ultrasound is turned on. Ultrasonic toothbrushes may include an indicator to notify the patient that ultrasound is being emitted. Bluetooth connectivity enables data to be transmitted from an electric toothbrush to another Bluetooth device, such as a smartphone. The brush can send data to an app, such as how long it has been brushing for and if too


title: "Electric toothbrush" content: much pressure has been applied when brushing. The app can in turn send data back to the brush such as changing the cleaning modes available, and cleaning time. The sharing of data between toothbrush and smartphone is intended to assist the user in creating better brushing technique and habits. Electric toothbrush models that currently utilise Bluetooth include the Oral-B Pro 6000, Pro 6500, Pro 7000 and Genius 9000. Most sonic toothbrushes come with different cleaning modes and intensity levels. Cleaning modes are designed for special types of cleaning efficiency. Some of the most well known are Sensitive, Daily care, Whitening


title: "Electric toothbrush" content: and Tongue cleaning. Certain toothbrushes that offer both ultrasonic and sonic motion allow for the intensity of the sonic motion to be reduced, or even for the sonic motion to be turned off entirely so that only ultrasound is emitted. Since ultrasound movements are very low in amplitude, this setting may be indicated for patients who may not be suitable candidates for typical sonic or power toothbrush vibration but need the additional cleaning power of an ultrasonic toothbrush, such as patients who have recently undergone periodontal surgery. Electric toothbrush An electric toothbrush is a toothbrush that makes rapid automatic bristle


title: "Lake Ohrid" content: Lake Ohrid Lake Ohrid ( , "Liqeni i Pogradecit"; ) straddles the mountainous border between southwestern Macedonia and eastern Albania. It is one of Europe's deepest and oldest lakes, preserving a unique aquatic ecosystem that is of worldwide importance, with more than 200 endemic species. The importance of the lake was further emphasized when it was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1979 and when, in 2010, NASA decided to name one of Titan's lakes after Lake Ohrid. In 2014, the Ohrid-Prespa Transboundary Reserve between Albania and Macedonia was added to UNESCO's World Network of Biosphere Reserves. The


title: "Lake Ohrid" content: towns situated at the lakeside are Pogradec in Albania, along with Ohrid and Struga in Macedonia. The lake is otherwise densely surrounded by settlements in the form of villages and resorts in both basin countries. Lake Ohrid is the deepest lake of the Balkans, with a maximum depth of 288 m (940 ft) and a mean depth of 155 m (508 ft). It covers an area of 358 km² (138 sq mi), containing an estimated 55.4 km³ of water. It is 30.4 km long by 14.8 km wide at its maximum extent with a shoreline length of 87.53 km, shared


title: "Lake Ohrid" content: between Macedonia (56.02 km) and Albania (31.51 km). Of the total surface area, belongs to the Republic of Macedonia and 110 km belongs to Albania. The Ohrid and Prespa Lakes belong to a group of Dessaret basins that originated from a geotectonic depression during the Pliocene epoch up to five million years ago on the western side of the Dinaric Alps. Worldwide, there are only a few lakes with similarly remote origins with Lake Baikal and Lake Tanganyika being the most famous. Most other, short-lived lakes have a life span of less than 100,000 years before they are eventually filled


title: "Lake Ohrid" content: up with sediments. It is believed that in the case of Lake Ohrid this process was delayed by its great depth and small sediment input from its filtered spring inflows. Moreover, the Ohrid-Korca graben to the south of the lake is still tectonically active and might compensate sedimentation by subduction. In contrast to Lake Ohrid, Lake Prespa is likely to have turned dry several times in its history, as a result of its karstic underground. In 2008, Macedonian media reported that international experts will be researching the lake in order to determine its age. The lake drains an area of


title: "Lake Ohrid" content: around 2600 km² and is fed primarily by underground springs on the eastern shore (about 50% of total inflow), with roughly 25% shares from rivers and direct precipitation. Over 20% of the lake's water comes from nearby Lake Prespa, about to the southeast and at 150 m higher altitude than Lake Ohrid. The water leaves Lake Prespa trickling through underground watercourses in the karstic landscape, where it is joined by mountain range precipitation and eventually emerges in numerous springs along the eastern shore and below the water surface of Lake Ohrid. The water leaves Lake Ohrid by evaporation (~40%) and


title: "Lake Ohrid" content: through its only outlet, the Black Drin River, which flows in a northerly direction into Albania and thus to the Adriatic Sea. The relatively dry, Mediterranean climate and the small drainage basin of 2600 km² (catchment/lake surface ratio of ~7) of Lake Ohrid results in a long hydraulic residence time scale of ~70 yr. The water at the surface of Lake Ohrid moves predominantly in a counter-clockwise direction along the shore, as a result of wind forcing and the Earth rotation, similar to the Ekman-phenomenon known from oceans. In terms of vertical water exchange, convective mixing during winter cooling is


title: "Lake Ohrid" content: the dominant process. However, in an average winter only the top 150–200 meters of the lake are mixed, whereas the water below is stably stratified by salinity. The stability due to this salinity gradient allows complete convective mixing events only roughly once every 7 years. Both in terms of nutrient concentration (4.5 μg L of phosphorus), as well as biological parameters Lake Ohrid qualifies as oligotrophic. Thanks to this oligotrophy and the filtered spring inflows, the water is exceptionally clear with transparencies to a depth of as much as 22 meters (66 feet). Lake Ohrid lacks an annual deep water


title: "Lake Ohrid" content: exchange which in other lakes can bring complete overturn; plunging rivers are also absent. Despite this, dissolved oxygen never drops below ~6 mg L. Previously extensive wetland habitats in the vicinity of Lake Ohrid have been lost due to conversion into agricultural or urban land. These include Struga Marsh, large portions of which were drained for agriculture in the 1940s and again in the 1960s when the River Sateska was rerouted. Nowadays, the last remaining significant coastline wetland at Lake Ohrid is Studenchishte Marsh, which is located on the eastern shore near the city of Ohrid. Despite degradation from a


title: "Lake Ohrid" content: variety of sources such as large-scale disposal of construction waste, major land conversion, disruption of water connections to Lake Ohrid, beach urbanization and loss of reed belts, Studenchishte Marsh is still an important buffer to prevent lake eutrophication and a key habitat for biodiversity, including relict plants and endemic species. These values, and the comparative rareness of similar habitats in Macedonia, prompted an expert team in 2012 to recommend designation of a 63.97-hectare area at Studenchishte Marsh to be protected as a Natural Monument under Macedonian law. Changes to the General Urban Plan for Ohrid 2014-2020, however, made provisions for


title: "Lake Ohrid" content: Studenchishte Marsh to be drained and replaced with infrastructure for tourism and water-sports, a proposal which, together with other regional developments, was opposed by numerous local and international experts, including the Society of Wetland Scientists. A Strategic Environmental Assessment also concluded that no measure except non-implementation could reduce the direct negative impact on Studenchishte and the indirect negative impact on Lake Ohrid if the proposed construction was to take place at the wetland. Plans to drain the area have subsequently been reversed and the Macedonian government announced in 2018 that it would move forward with proclamation of Studenchishte Marsh as


title: "Lake Ohrid" content: a protected area and its designation together with Lake Ohrid as a Wetland of International Importance under the Ramsar Convention. Nonetheless, the precise surface area to be protected is yet to be defined and plans for a new-build marina at the location are still being considered. The IUCN identifies wetland rehabilitation as one of five potential site needs for the UNESCO Natural and Cultural Heritage of the Ohrid Region. However, the potential to restore Struga Marsh is likely to be reduced by construction of the European Corridor VIII railway, while Studenchishte's future is yet to be fully resolved. Measured by


title: "Lake Ohrid" content: its surface area of 358 km², Ohrid is probably the most biodiverse lake on Earth. While it is special as such, by far the most spectacular quality is its impressive endemism. Similar to Lake Baikal or Lake Tanganyika, Lake Ohrid harbors endemic species covering the whole food-chain, from phytoplankton and sessile algae (20 species; e.g., "Cyclotella fottii"), over plant species (2 species; e.g., "Chara ohridana"), zooplankton (5 species; e.g., "Cyclops ochridanus"), cyprinid fish (8 species; e.g., "Pachychilon pictus"), to predatory fish (two trout species; the Ohrid trout complex "Salmo letnica", and "Belvica" "Salmo ohridanus") and finally its diverse endemic bottom


title: "Lake Ohrid" content: fauna (176 species; e.g. "Ochridagammarus solidus"), with particularly large endemism among crustaceans, molluscs, sponges and planarians. There were recorded 68 species of freshwater snails from the Lake Ohrid basin. 73.5% (50 species) of the total freshwater gastropod fauna appear to be endemic to the Lake Ohrid basin. Whereas the endemic species list cited above is based on morphological and ecological characteristics, some recent applications of molecular genetic techniques underline the difference of the fauna from common European taxa, as well as the old age of the lake. Quite remarkably, exotic species do not seem to be a major issue in


title: "Lake Ohrid" content: Lake Ohrid, although they have been recorded in small populations for several decades or exist in nearby rivers or lakes. The reason lies very probably in the ideal adaptation of the endemic species to the specific conditions in the lake, such as low nutrient availability, good living conditions in greater depth thanks to high water transparency and oxygen content, as well as subaquatic spring inflows supplying cool and oxygen-rich water. In total, seven introduced fish species are known from the lake. Despite the exceptionally high level of endemism in Lake Ohrid (for example, a third of the 21 native fish


title: "Lake Ohrid" content: species and almost 80% of its 72 mollusc species are endemic), a significant number of non-endemic species are found in Lake Ohrid. This includes species, which are mobile (e.g., via water birds) or migratory, such as the European eel. The lakeshore reed beds and wetlands provide critical habitat for hundreds of thousands of wintering water birds, including rare and threatened species such as the Dalmatian pelican, ferruginous duck, swan, spotted eagle, and eastern imperial eagle. There are three cities on the lake's shores: Ohrid and Struga on the Macedonian side; Pogradec in Albania. There are also several fishing villages, although


title: "Lake Ohrid" content: tourism is now a more significant part of their income. The catchment area of the lake has a population of around 170,000 people, with 131,000 people living directly at the lake shore (43,000 in Albania and 88,000 in Macedonia). The population in the catchment has increased by 100,000 people in the last half century, putting the lake's fragile ecosystem under pressure. The historic monuments, as well as the pristine lake environment make the area around Lake Ohrid a prime site for tourism. In the 1980s, more than 200,000 national and international tourists went on a pilgrimage to the Macedonian lake


title: "Lake Ohrid" content: side every year. During the Yugoslav crisis and particularly after the interethnic conflicts within Macedonia in 2001 international tourism collapsed but has been slowly recovering during the past years. Even though many of the above visitors are staying for a weekend only, tourism makes an important share of local economy (~1 visitor/inhabitant). Shore habitats are under particular pressure from human activities. Particular threats are the building of tourist facilities directly at the shore, destroying of reed belts to gain agricultural land and intense pollution close to the mouth of tributaries. Although the effects of these human impacts have not been


title: "Lake Ohrid" content: evaluated in detail they are of great concern, as the shallow water sites are particularly rich in endemic bottom fauna and form important spawning grounds for several endemic fish species. Moreover, reed belts have great importance for water birds. Commercial fish yield, i.e. the two endemic trout species, has dropped significantly over the past decades, both in Macedonia and in Albania. The most probable reason is overfishing and possibly destruction of spawning grounds. Pollution may also be a factor. Although there are regulations regarding fishing practice (e.g. minimal mesh size) and only a limited number of licensed fishermen, these rules


title: "Lake Ohrid" content: are always not obeyed as a result of the high market value of the endemic trout. As a reaction to the situation, a seven-year moratorium on fishing Ohrid trout was imposed from 2004 to help the population recover and to allow scientists collect further data. Nonetheless, even though thorough assessment of fish stocks has not been conducted since the 1990s and trout populations are still believed to be in decline, fishing with quotas was restarted in 2012 under the auspices of a concessionaire. More data is required to determine whether these current fishing levels are sustainable and illegal fishing, particularly


title: "Lake Ohrid" content: on the Albanian side of the lake, remains a problem. While most of the endemic fish species are non-migratory, the European eel spawns in the distant Sargasso Sea while its offspring return to the lake. Unfortunately, as in many European lakes, it is very unlikely today that eels can reach Lake Ohrid naturally and return to the Sargasso Sea, as a result of several hydropower dams on the Black Drin and the Drin River, both in Macedonia and Albania. As a result, eel found in Lake Ohrid are stocked populations. Given the population growth over the past 50 years, a


title: "Lake Ohrid" content: particular concern is the potential eutrophication of currently oligotrophic Lake Ohrid from increased pollution. Indeed, sediment cores show a ~3.5 fold increase in phosphorus concentration over the past century. On the one hand, shifts from endemic to common European species, which are better adapted to higher nutrient conditions, have already been observed close to polluted inflows. On the other hand, higher nutrient levels have reduced the water transparency, as well as the oxygen availability in the deep water and at the lake bottom, two properties which are requisite for the endemic flora and fauna. Still, the lake is in a


title: "Lake Ohrid" content: comparably good state at the moment. However it may take more than a decade to see the effects of today's pollution level in the lake, because of its long water residence time. Moreover, it was shown that the negative effects from eutrophication would be significantly amplified by global warming. Although there is time to react, computer simulations indicate that at least a 50% reduction in phosphorus input must be reached to keep the deep water oxygenated for the next 50 years at predicted atmospheric warming. This aim could be reached by controlling household wastewater, which is by far the biggest


title: "Lake Ohrid" content: phosphorus source at the moment. First steps in that direction have been taken by extending and improving the existing sewage system in Macedonia in the framework of a GEF (Global Environment Facility) program. The most important next task would be a solution for three remaining, severely polluted tributaries, one in Macedonia and two in Albania. On May 3rd 2018, the Society of Wetland Scientists released the Declaration on the Protection of the Lake Ohrid Ecosystem, which was passed unanimously by 45 attending members at its 13th annual Europe meeting. Urging Macedonian authorities to substantially enhance protection of Lake Ohrid, the