title: "Gulf fritillary" content: yellow in color after deposition by the female, and they gradually turn a brownish red color over the course of the next 24 hours. The average duration of the egg stage in the life cycle for gulf fritillaries is roughly between three and five days depending on the temperature of the environment. Eggs are usually found on the upper surfaces of the leaves of the host plant, but some can be found on the underside of leaves as well. In appearance, the larvae are dark orange with small black spines protruding outward from the body. The larval stages of gulf


title: "Gulf fritillary" content: fritillaries include five instars, each with a varying timeframe. After the eggs hatch, the new larvae eats the egg casings for food. Eventually, the larvae will transition either to consuming other eggs or parts of the host plant for nourishment. Throughout the first three instar stages, the larvae primarily consume the leaves and feed away from the leaf margins of the host plant. How much of the leaf and how deep into the layers the larva will eat depend on the type (i.e. thickness or thinness) of the leaf in question. Throughout the last two instar stages, the larvae mainly


title: "Gulf fritillary" content: consume the leaves and feed at the leaf margins. Throughout this food acquisition process, the degree to which a specific leaf is eaten before it is abandoned in favor of another newer leaf largely depends on whether food is in plentiful or scarce supply. The average duration of the larval stage is between 11 and 16 days depending on the temperature of the environment. In form and appearance, the pupae of gulf fritillaries are not recognizably uniform, but rather can vary in both coloring and physical size. The average duration of the pupal stage in gulf fritillaries is roughly between


title: "Gulf fritillary" content: 7 and 12 days depending on the temperature of the environment. Colder temperatures are associated with a longer time frame whereas warmer temperatures are associated with a shorter time for pupal development. When the time comes for the caterpillar to create its chrysalis it turns a grayish color and begins to spin a silk-like substance into a ball on top or against a malleable surface. It then attaches its rear end to the "silk" lump and hangs upside down in a "j" position. By small contractions of the muscles it begins to shed its skin and head revealing a soft


title: "Gulf fritillary" content: pinkish tan form. Quickly the soft form hardens and becomes grayish brown. The chrysalis stays in this form for eleven to twenty-one days. After that period of time, a small crack begins to form at the tip of the chrysalis revealing the butterfly's head. It continues to slowly move down through the bottom of the chrysalis until its legs are free to cling onto the shell of the chrysalis and pull itself the rest of the way out. Much like the monarch butterfly, it begins to pump the fluids from its bulging abdomen into its shriveled wings. When its wings


title: "Gulf fritillary" content: are fully expanded it releases excess fluids from its abdomen. For the next ten to fifteen minutes it stays still and allows its wings to dry. Finally it fans its wings out and takes flight. After the process of emerging from the chrysalis is completed, the butterfly dries its wings and eventually flies for the first time. In the adult population, the approximate sex ratio between males to females is roughly one to one, but further observational studies of gulf fritillaries are needed to better support the hypothesis of an equal sex ratio between the two dimorphic sexes. The average


title: "Gulf fritillary" content: duration of the adult stage is roughly 14 to 27 days after the butterfly emerges from the chrysalis depending on the quality of the environment (i.e. factor in the availability of food, the presence of predators, competition between individuals). With Florida constituting a major component of the geographic range of this butterfly, the migration pattern of gulf fritillaries in Florida is well-documented. In Florida, gulf fritillaries have two major flights during the year. The first major migration involves huge populations of butterflies flying northward while the second migration involves the butterflies moving southward throughout the state, especially throughout the peninsular


title: "Gulf fritillary" content: parts of Florida. The first and second migrations occur in the spring and the fall, respectively. Both male and female gulf fritillaries possess certain defensive glands located on their abdomens that serve as a defense mechanism against predators, especially avian predators such as birds. When the butterflies sense danger in the area or are suddenly disturbed, these glands emit a distinct and obvious odor which is composed of several different types of chemicals, such as 6-methyl-5-hepten-2-one and hexadecyl acetate. The summation of these chemical compounds released from the glands leads to birds preferentially avoiding the gulf fritillaries in favor of


title: "Gulf fritillary" content: other prey. In some cases, gulf fritillaries can sometimes be subjected to competition and fighting from other butterfly species, such as "Heliconius charithonia vazquezae" and "Dryas iulia moderata" when those species have breeding populations in similar areas and within the same geographic range. The general process for a typical courtship interaction begins when a male flies and lands near a perching female, who is most likely perched on a host plant, such as several species of the Passiflora genus. Once the male has landed, the male assumes a position next to the female with their heads together and with their


title: "Gulf fritillary" content: bodies aligned at a 45-degree angle. At this time, the male engages in a specific action called the wing clap display in which the male continuously claps its wings open and closed. During this time, the antennae of the female are placed between the opening and closing wings. After the male ceases wing movement, the male butterfly will move into a position that facilitates genital contact with the female. The average duration of the copulation process including the wing clap display is approximately 11 seconds. The release of pheromones by the male gulf fritillaries plays a critical role in the


title: "Gulf fritillary" content: mating and courtship process. Studies have shown that the males possess specific structures on their dorsal wings that engage in the production and eventual release of chemical pheromones. It is likely that pores that exist on the wings of the male butterflies transport the pheromones to the surface where the chemicals can be released and can then affect the females. The use of pheromones in the mating process relates to the idea of mate choice. Along with chemical pheromones, the presence of nuptial gifts plays an important role in the mating and courtship process. During the physical act of copulation,


title: "Gulf fritillary" content: males transfer nutritious materials to the females. These extra nutrients given to the females can be used by a female to her advantage during the process of oogenesis. The use of nuptial gifts in the mating process, especially when females mate with multiple males, relates to the idea of female choice in deciding egg fertilization. Gulf fritillary The Gulf fritillary or passion butterfly (Agraulis vanillae) is a bright orange butterfly of the family Nymphalidae and subfamily Heliconiinae. That subfamily was formerly set apart as a separate family, the Heliconiidae. The Heliconiinae are "longwing butterflies", which have long, narrow wings compared


title: "Former Zhao" content: would hence assist the Jin governor of Bing to launch counteroffensive against the Han state. On the other hand, Xiongnu cavalry, successful in plundering the countryside, failed to capture the fortified Jinyang (modern-day Taiyuan city, the provincial capital of the Shanxi province), the provincial capital of Bing even though the former governor Sima Teng had fled to the North China Plain and left a mess. Liu Kun, the new governor, reorganized the defense and exploited the feud between the Han and the Tuoba to his advantage. His biography is in Jinshu 62. Allegiance between the Jin court and the Tuoba


title: "Pacific Southwest Airlines" content: lounge, replacing 70-seat DC-4s. Boeing 727-114s, Boeing 727-214s, Boeing 737-214s and McDonnell Douglas DC-9-30s replaced the Electras in 1966–70. The May 1965 OAG shows 103 Electras a week from Los Angeles (LAX) to San Francisco (SFO), 32 a week from Los Angeles to Oakland (OAK), 34 a week from Burbank (BUR) to San Francisco and 5 a week from San Diego (SAN) to San Francisco. En route flying time between Los Angeles and San Francisco was scheduled for 60 minutes while Burbank-San Francisco was 55 minutes. In 1966 PSA started flying to San Jose (SJC), and in 1967 to Sacramento


title: "Chip's Challenge" content: modding. Prompted by the popularity of the Microsoft releases, Sommerville created a sequel, "Chip's Challenge 2" in 1999. Sommerville was unable to release it independently, as the trademark was owned by Bridgestone Multimedia Group. Bridgestone, a Christian publishing company, had purchased Epyx's assets when that company folded in order to acquire Bible software produced by the company. Bridgestone had little experience with the video game industry, and required that Sommerville pay a six-figure fee for the right to publish the game, which was not consistent with industry norms. Sommerville resumed negotiations in 2010 and, after five years, Bridgestone and Sommerville's


title: Elaeis content: Elaeis Elaeis () is a genus of palms containing two species, called oil palms. They are used in commercial agriculture in the production of palm oil. The African oil palm "Elaeis guineensis" (the species name "guineensis" referring to its country of origin) is the principal source of palm oil. It is native to west and southwest Africa, occurring between Angola and Gambia. The American oil palm "Elaeis oleifera" () is native to tropical Central and South America, and is used locally for oil production. Mature palms are single-stemmed, and can grow well over tall. The leaves are pinnate, and reach


title: Elaeis content: between long. The flowers are produced in dense clusters; each individual flower is small, with three sepals and three petals. The palm fruit is reddish, about the size of a large plum, and grows in large bunches. Each fruit is made up of an oily, fleshy outer layer (the pericarp), with a single seed (the palm kernel), also rich in oil. The two species, "E. guineensis" and "E. oleifera" can produce fertile hybrids. The genome of "E. guineensis" has been sequenced, which has important implications for breeding improved strains of the crop plants. Since palm oil contains more saturated fats


title: Elaeis content: than oils made from canola, corn, linseed, soybeans, safflower, and sunflowers, it can withstand extreme deep-frying heat and resists oxidation. It contains no trans fat, and its use in food has increased as food-labelling laws have changed to specify trans fat content. Oil from "Elaeis guineensis" is also used as biofuel. Human use of oil palms may date back to about 5,000 years in coastal west Africa. Palm oil was also discovered in the late 19th century by archaeologists in a tomb at Abydos dating back to 3000 BCE. It is thought that Arab traders brought the oil palm to


title: Elaeis content: Egypt. "Elaeis guineensis" is now extensively cultivated in tropical countries outside Africa, particularly Malaysia and Indonesia which together produce most of the world supply. Palm oil plantations are under increasing scrutiny for social and environmental harm, particularly because rainforests with high biodiversity are destroyed, greenhouse gas output is increased, and because people are displaced by unscrupulous palm-oil enterprises and traditional livelihoods are negatively impacted. Especially in Indonesia, there is also growing pressure for palm oil producers to prove that they are not harming rare animals in the cultivation process. Elaeis Elaeis () is a genus of palms containing two species,


title: "Mother Teresa" content: Nadu with free food, clothing, shelter and education. A number of tributes by Teresa's biographer, Navin Chawla, have appeared in Indian newspapers and magazines. Indian Railways introduced the "Mother Express", a new train named after Mother Teresa, on 26 August 2010 to commemorate the centenary of her birth. The Tamil Nadu government organised centenary celebrations honouring Teresa on 4 December 2010 in Chennai, headed by chief minister M Karunanidhi. Beginning on 5 September 2013, the anniversary of her death has been designated the International Day of Charity by the United Nations General Assembly. On September 5, 2017, St. Teresa Cathedral,


title: "Jean-Pierre Wimille" content: in the Cimetière de Passy in Paris. There is a memorial to him at the Porte Dauphine on the edge of the Bois de Boulogne in Paris. Some of Jean-Pierre Wimille's race victories: 1932: 1934: 1936: 1937: 1939: Post War – 1945: 1946: 1947: 1948: Jean-Pierre Wimille Jean-Pierre Wimille (26 February 1908 – 28 January 1949) was a Grand Prix motor racing driver and a member of the French Resistance during World War II. Born in Paris, France to a father who loved motor sports and was employed as the motoring correspondent for the Petit Parisien newspaper, Jean-Pierre Wimille developed


title: "Crawford Long" content: using this technique for the next few years, introducing the technique to his obstetrics practice as well. Long subsequently removed a second tumor from Venable and used ether as an anesthetic in amputations and childbirth. Despite his continued use of the ether anesthetic, Long did not immediately publish his findings. The results of these trials were eventually published in 1849 in "The Southern Medical and Surgical Journal". An original copy of this publication is held in the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Crawford Long was a member of the Demosthenian Literary Society while a student at the University of Georgia.


title: "Prisoner of War Medal" content: the fact that incidents have occurred where captives of neutrals were severely mistreated by hostile individuals. This interpretation was at odds with international law, which only recognizes states that are belligerent and those that are not. Hostile forces distinct from enemy forces bear no mention and have no meaning under international law. Thus, hostile forces are merely a vague sub-category of non-belligerence. Furthermore, treaty law frequently commingles so-called "non-belligerents" and neutral states, making them indissociable. For example, the Third Geneva Convention of 1949 relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War makes virtually no distinction between non-belligerents and neutrals, and


title: "Payne Stewart" content: the 12th tee of the Bay Hill Club course in Orlando, Florida. Stewart's cumulative tournament score of 264 is, to date, still a record for the lowest aggregate score over 72 holes in the event, which later became known as the "Arnold Palmer Invitational" held at the same Bay Hill venue. After his 1987 victory at Bay Hill, Stewart donated his $108,000 prize money to a Florida hospital in memory of his father, who died of cancer in 1985. Stewart had two runner-up finishes on the PGA Tour in 1988, at The Honda Classic and the Provident Classic. In April


title: "Lindenwood University" content: Best College rankings (released in September 2014), Lindenwood was unranked among regional universities in the Midwest region. Lindenwood ranked 613 out of 682 in the Masters category of "The Washington Monthly"'s 2012 University Rankings. Lindenwood has a student-faculty ratio of 13:1 and an average class size of 25 students. Unlike many universities, Lindenwood does not use graduate students to teach classes. The university currently has 716 faculty, including 233 full-time faculty and 558 adjunct faculty. Lindenwood is home to the John W. Hammond Institute for Free Enterprise, which was founded in 2013 and comprises three focus centers: the Center for


title: "Frank Hsieh" content: 2002. Hsieh was projected to win easily, but People First Party chair James Soong publicly supported Kuomintang candidate Huang Jun-ying, which helped Huang earn more votes. Hsieh defeated Huang by 24,838 votes (3.22%). In January 2005, Hsieh was appointed premier, forcing him to leave his post as mayor of Kaohsiung. Chen Chi-mai succeeded him as acting mayor. Kuomintang politicians asked Hsieh to step down from the premiership shortly after the Kaohsiung MRT foreign workers scandal broke. Hsieh eventually resigned as premier in the aftermath of the 2005 "Three-in-One" elections, which the DPP lost in a landslide. As the DPP candidate


title: "Being John Malkovich" content: that the person who is connected to the portal becomes "ripe" for lasting occupation by others on the eve of their 44th birthday. However, when the host turns 44, the portal immediately moves to its next host, an unborn child. If it is possible for a person to take advantage of the "ripe" host and enter the portal then, one can greatly increase one's lifespan, and then one can eventually move on to another host. However, if one misses the brief window of "ripeness", and enters the portal even a minute too late, one will find oneself trapped within the


title: "Soul City, North Carolina" content: Soul City, North Carolina Soul City, North Carolina was a planned community first proposed in 1969 by Floyd McKissick, a civil rights leader and director of the Congress of Racial Equality. Funded by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, (HUD) as one of thirteen model city projects under the Urban Growth and New Community Development Act, it was located on in Warren County near Manson-Axtell Road and Soul City Boulevard in Norlina, North Carolina, 27563. According to McKissick, "Soul City was an idea before the movement. Soul City actually started after World War II, in my mind.


title: "St Katharine Docks" content: St Katharine Docks St Katharine Docks is a mixed-use development in Central London, located in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets and is within the East End. It was one of the commercial docks serving London on the north side of the River Thames and is close to the Tower of London and Tower Bridge. St Katharine was part of the Port of London, in the redevelopment zone now known as the Docklands, and is now a popular housing and leisure complex. St Katharine Docks took their name from the former hospital of St Katharine's by the Tower, built in


title: "St Katharine Docks" content: the 12th century, which stood on the site. An intensely built-up 23 acre (9.5 hectares) site was earmarked for redevelopment by an Act of Parliament in 1825, with construction commencing in May 1827. Some 1250 houses were demolished, together with the medieval hospital of St. Katharine. Around 11,300 inhabitants, mostly port workers crammed into unsanitary slums, lost their homes; only the property owners received compensation. The scheme was designed by engineer Thomas Telford and was his only major project in London. To create as much quayside as possible, the docks were designed in the form of two linked basins (East


title: "St Katharine Docks" content: and West), both accessed via an entrance lock from the Thames. Steam engines designed by James Watt and Matthew Boulton kept the water level in the basins about four feet above that of the tidal river. By 1830, the docks had cost over £2 million to build. Telford aimed to minimise the amount of quayside activity and specified that the docks' warehouses (designed by the architect Philip Hardwick) be built right on the quayside so that goods could be unloaded directly into them. The docks were officially opened on 25 October 1828. Although well used, they were not a great


title: "St Katharine Docks" content: commercial success and were unable to accommodate large ships. They were amalgamated in 1864 with the neighbouring London Docks. In 1909, the Port of London Authority took over the management of almost all of the Thames docks, including the St Katharine. The St Katharine Docks were badly damaged by German bombing during the Second World War. All the warehouses around the eastern basin were destroyed, and the site they had occupied remained derelict until the 1990s. Because of their very restricted capacity and inability to cope with large modern ships, the St Katharine Docks were among the first to be


title: "St Katharine Docks" content: closed in 1968, and were sold to the Greater London Council. The site was leased to the developers Taylor Woodrow and most of the original warehouses around the western basin were demolished and replaced by modern commercial buildings in the early 1970s, beginning with the bulky Tower Hotel (designed by Renton Howard Wood Partnership; opened in September 1973) on a site parallel to the river just to the east of Tower Bridge. This was followed by the World Trade Centre Building and Commodity Quay (both designed by architects Watkins Gray International). Development around the eastern basin was completed in the


title: "St Katharine Docks" content: 1990s. The docks themselves becoming a marina. The development has often been cited as a model example of successful urban redevelopment. In 1980, a plan was approved to open a St Katharine Docks Underground station on the proposed extension of the Jubilee line. It would have been between Fenchurch Street and Wapping. An eastwards extension was eventually built as part of the Jubilee line, but took a different route south of the Thames. The closest stations to the Docks today are Tower Hill (tube) and Tower Gateway DLR station, both roughly equidistant from the north-west corner of the Docks. Between


title: "St Katharine Docks" content: 2005 and 2008 the former Danish lightship "Lightship X" (Ten) was moored on the west dock, and used as a restaurant, before returning to Denmark. The marina, including restaurants and offices, was owned by Max Property Group, operated by investor Nick Leslau, since 2011, and was sold to Blackstone Group in 2014. Over the next three years, Blackstone completed a major restoration. In May 2017, the company retained agents to find potential buyers for the complex; the listing price was £435m. In October 2017, however, Blackstone withdrew the property from the market because bids were below the asking price. The


title: "St Katharine Docks" content: area now features offices, public and private housing, a large hotel, shops and restaurants, a pub (The Dickens Inn, a former brewery dating back to the 18th century), a yachting marina and other recreational facilities. It remains a popular leisure destination. The east dock is now dominated by the City Quay residential development, comprising more than 200 privately owned flats overlooking the marina. The south side of the east dock is surrounded by the South Quay Estate which was originally social housing. The dock is still used by small to medium-sized boats on a daily basis. The anchor from the


title: "St Katharine Docks" content: wreck of the Dutch East Indiaman "Amsterdam" is on display at the entrance to the east dock. Notable boats regularly moored in the docks include: Several Thames sailing barges are also based in the docks. St. Katharine Pier is close to the St Katharine Dock, providing river transport services managed by London River Services. The main service from St Katharine Pier is a circular river cruise operated by Crown River Cruises which goes non-stop to Westminster Millennium Pier before returning via the South Bank arts centre, as well as a Westminster-Greenwich express service run by Thames River Services. The nearby


title: "St Katharine Docks" content: Tower Millennium Pier, located on the other side of Tower Bridge, now provides the main commuter river boat services to Canary Wharf and Greenwich in the east and the West End in the west, and a fast visitor service to the London Eye. St Katharine Docks St Katharine Docks is a mixed-use development in Central London, located in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets and is within the East End. It was one of the commercial docks serving London on the north side of the River Thames and is close to the Tower of London and Tower Bridge. St Katharine


title: Trnava content: and in 1577 Trnava's priest Nicolas Telegdi founded a book-printing house in the town. The first Catholic Bible translation into Hungarian (based on the Latin Vulgate) was also completed in the town by the Jesuit György Káldi who was born there in 1573. The 17th century was also characterized by many anti-Habsburg uprisings in the country – these revolts of Stephen Bocskay, Gabriel Bethlen, George I Rákóczi, and Imre Thököly negatively affected Trnava's life. On 26 December 1704 Francis II Rákóczi's army suffered decisive defeat against the Imperial Army, led by Sigbert Heister, near Trnava. The Jesuit Trnava University (1635–1777),


title: "Forest of Bowland" content: their right to operate. In 2014 it was announced that the Forest of Bowland would be one of the SPAs included in a European Union LIFE project to ensure a sustainable future for Hen harriers in England and Scotland. The project aims to work constructively with landowners and the shooting community. In 2015 a single chick fledged in the Forest. In 2018 two nests were reported on land belonging to United Utilities. The nests have been protected by volunteers. Bowland is dominated by a central upland landform of deeply incised gritstone fells covered with tracts of heather-covered peat moorland and


title: Maus content: published in "The Village Voice" criticizing Spiegelman's prominence and influence in the New York cartooning community. Entitled "King "Maus": Art Spiegelman Rules the World of Comix With Favors and Fear", it accused the Pulitzer board of opportunism in selecting "Maus", which Rall deemed unworthy. Cartoonist Danny Hellman responded to the piece with a prank email in which Hellman posed as Rall, soliciting discussion at the email address TedRallsBalls@onelist.com. Hellman followed up by posting fake responses from New York magazine editors and art directors. Rall launched a lawsuit seeking damages of $1.5 million for libel, breach of privacy, and causing emotional


title: Maus content: edited a collection of essays on "Maus" called "Considering "Maus": Approaches to Art Spiegelman's "Survivor's Tale" of the Holocaust". "Maus" is considered an important work of Holocaust literature, and studies of it have made significant contributions to Holocaust studies. According to writer Arie Kaplan, some Holocaust survivors objected to Spiegelman making a comic book out of their tragedy. Literary critics such as Hillel Halkin objected that the animal metaphor was "doubly dehumanizing", reinforcing the Nazi belief that the atrocities were perpetrated by one species on another, when they were actually done by humans against humans. Comics writer and critic Harvey


title: Tartan content: Tartan Tartan ( ) is a pattern consisting of criss-crossed horizontal and vertical bands in multiple colours. Tartans originated in woven wool, but now they are made in many other materials. Tartan is particularly associated with Scotland. Scottish kilts almost always have tartan patterns. Tartan is often called "plaid" in the United States, but in Scotland, a plaid is a tartan cloth slung over the shoulder as a kilt accessory, or a plain ordinary blanket such as one would have on a bed. Tartan is made with alternating bands of coloured (pre-dyed) threads woven as both warp and weft at


title: Tartan content: right angles to each other. The weft is woven in a simple twill, two over—two under the warp, advancing one thread at each pass. This forms visible diagonal lines where different colours cross, which give the appearance of new colours blended from the original ones. The resulting blocks of colour repeat vertically and horizontally in a distinctive pattern of squares and lines known as a "sett". The Dress Act of 1746 attempted to bring the warrior clans under government control by banning the tartan and other aspects of Gaelic culture. When the law was repealed in 1782, it was no


title: Tartan content: longer ordinary Highland dress, but was adopted instead as the symbolic national dress of Scotland. Until the middle of the nineteenth century, the highland tartans were only associated with either regions or districts, rather than any specific Scottish clan. This was because like other materials, tartan designs were produced by local weavers for local tastes and would usually only use the natural dyes available in that area, as synthetic dye production was non-existent and transportation of other dye materials across long distances was prohibitively expensive. The patterns were simply different regional checked-cloth patterns, chosen by the wearer's preference—in the same


title: Tartan content: way as people nowadays choose what colours and patterns they like in their clothing, without particular reference to propriety. It was not until the mid-nineteenth century that many patterns were created and artificially associated with Scottish clans, families, or institutions who were (or wished to be seen as) associated in some way with a Scottish heritage. The Victorians' penchant for ordered taxonomy and the new chemical dyes then available meant that the idea of specific patterns of bright colours, or "dress" tartans, could be created and applied to a faux-nostalgic view of Scottish history. Today tartan is no longer limited


title: Tartan content: to textiles, but is used on non-woven mediums, such as paper, plastics, packaging, and wall coverings. The English word "tartan" is most likely derived from the French ' meaning "Tartar cloth". It has also been suggested that "tartan" may be derived from modern Scottish Gaelic ', meaning "across". Today "tartan" usually refers to coloured patterns, though originally a tartan did not have to be made up of any pattern at all. As late as the 1830s tartan was sometimes described as "plain coloured ... without pattern". Patterned cloth from the Gaelic-speaking Scottish Highlands was called ', meaning many colours. Over


title: Tartan content: time the meanings of "tartan" and ' were combined to describe certain type of pattern on a certain type of cloth. The pattern of a tartan is called a "sett". The sett is made up of a series of woven threads which cross at right angles. Today "tartan" is generally used to describe the pattern, not limited to textiles. In North America the term "plaid" is commonly used to describe "tartan". The word "plaid", derived from the Scottish Gaelic "", meaning "blanket", was first used of any rectangular garment, sometimes made up of tartan, particularly that which preceded the modern


title: Tartan content: kilt (see: belted plaid). In time, "plaid" was used to describe blankets themselves. For example in the German language the word is used as it is and in Hungarian it's adopted as "pléd". Each thread in the warp crosses each thread in the weft at right angles. Where a thread in the warp crosses a thread of the same colour in the weft they produce a solid colour on the tartan, while a thread crossing another of a different colour produces an equal mixture of the two colours. Thus, a set of two base colours produces three different colours including


title: Tartan content: one mixture. The total number of colours, including mixtures, increases quadratically with the number of base colours so a set of six base colours produces fifteen mixtures and a total of twenty-one different colours. This means that the more stripes and colours used, the more blurred and subdued the tartan's pattern becomes. The sequence of threads, known as the sett, starts at an edge and either repeats or reverses on what are called "pivot" points. In "diagram A", the sett reverses at the first pivot, then repeats, then reverses at the next pivot, and will carry on in this manner


title: Tartan content: horizontally. In "diagram B", the sett reverses and repeats in the same way as the warp, and also carries on in the same manner vertically. The diagrams left illustrate the construction of a "symmetrical" tartan. However, on an "asymmetrical" tartan, the sett does not reverse at the pivots, it just repeats at the pivots. Also, some tartans (very few) do not have exactly the same sett for the warp and weft. This means the warp and weft will have alternate "thread counts". Tartan is recorded by counting the threads of each colour that appear in the sett. The "thread count"


title: Tartan content: not only describes the width of the stripes on a sett, but also the colours used. For example, the thread count "K4 R24 K24 Y4" corresponds to 4 "black" threads, 24 "red" threads, 24 "black" threads, 4 "yellow" threads. The first and last threads of the thread count are the pivot points. Though thread counts are indeed quite specific, they can be modified in certain circumstances, depending on the desired size of the tartan. For example, the sett of a tartan (about 6 inches) may be too large to fit upon the face of a necktie. In this case the


title: Tartan content: thread count has to be reduced "in proportion" (about 3 inches). The shades of colour in tartan can be altered to produce variations of the same tartan. The resulting variations are termed: "modern", "ancient", and "muted". These terms refer to colour only. "Modern" represents a tartan that is coloured using chemical dye, as opposed to natural dye. In the mid-19th century natural dyes began to be replaced by chemical dyes which were easier to use and were more economic for the booming tartan industry. Chemical dyes tended to produce a very strong, dark colour compared to the natural dyes. In


title: Tartan content: "modern" colours, setts made up of blue, black and green tend to be obscured. "Ancient" refers to a lighter shade of tartan. These shades are meant to represent the colours that would result from fabric aging over time. "Muted" refers to tartan which is shade between "modern" and "ancient". This type of tartan is very modern, dating only from the early 1970s. This shade is said to be the closest match to the shades attained by natural dyes used before the mid-19th century. The idea that the various colours used in tartan have a specific meaning is purely a modern


title: Tartan content: one. One such myth is that red tartans were "battle tartans", designed so they would not show blood. It is only recently created tartans, such as Canadian provincial and territorial tartans (beginning 1950s) and US state tartans (beginning 1980s), that are designed with certain symbolic meaning for the colours used. For example, the colour "green" sometimes symbolises prairies or forests, "blue" can symbolise lakes and rivers, and the colour "yellow" is sometimes used to symbolise various crops. Today tartan is mostly associated with Scotland; however, the earliest evidence of tartan is found far afield from the British Isles. According to


title: Tartan content: the textile historian E. J. W. Barber, the Hallstatt culture of Central Europe, which is linked with ancient Celtic populations and flourished between the 8th and 6th centuries BC, produced tartan-like textiles. Some of them were discovered in 2004, remarkably preserved, in the Hallstatt salt mines near Salzburg, Austria. Textile analysis of fabric from the Tarim mummies in Xinjiang, northwestern China has also shown it to be similar to that of the Iron Age Hallstatt culture. Tartan-like leggings were found on the "Cherchen Man", a 3,000-year-old mummy found in the Taklamakan Desert. Similar finds have been made in central Europe


title: Tartan content: and Scandinavia. The earliest documented tartan in Britain, known as the "Falkirk" tartan, dates from the 3rd century AD. It was uncovered at Falkirk in Stirlingshire, Scotland, about 400 metres north-west of the Antonine Wall. The fragment was stuffed into the mouth of an earthenware pot containing almost 2,000 Roman coins. The Falkirk tartan has a simple check design, of natural light and dark wool. Early forms of tartan like this are thought to have been invented in pre-Roman times, and would have been popular among the inhabitants of the northern Roman provinces as well as in other parts of


title: Tartan content: Northern Europe such as Jutland, where the same pattern was prevalent. The tartan as we know it today is not thought to have existed in Scotland before the 16th century. By the late 16th century there are numerous references to striped or checkered plaids. It is not until the late 17th or early 18th century that any kind of uniformity in tartan is thought to have occurred. Martin Martin, in "A Description of the Western Islands of Scotland", published in 1703, wrote that Scottish tartans could be used to distinguish the inhabitants of different regions. He expressly wrote that the


title: Tartan content: inhabitants of various islands and the mainland of the Highlands were not all dressed alike, but that the setts and colours of the various tartans varied from isle to isle. As he does not mention the use of a special pattern by each family, it would appear that such a distinction is a modern one. For many centuries the patterns were loosely associated with the weavers of a particular area, though it was common for highlanders to wear a number of different tartans at the same time. A 1587 charter granted to Hector Maclean of Duart requires feu duty on


title: Tartan content: land paid as 60 ells of cloth of white, black and green colours. A witness of the 1689 Battle of Killiecrankie describes "McDonnell's men in their triple stripes". From 1725 the government force of the "Highland Independent Companies" introduced a standardised tartan chosen to avoid association with any particular clan, and this was formalised when they became the Black Watch regiment in 1739. The most effective fighters for Jacobitism were the supporting Scottish clans, leading to an association of tartans with the Jacobite cause. Efforts to pacify the Highlands led to the Dress Act of 1746, banning tartans, except for


title: Tartan content: the Highland regiments of the British army. ″[I]t was probably their use of it which gave birth to the idea of differentiating tartan by clans; for as the Highland regiments were multiplied ... so their tartan uniforms were differentiated." The Act was repealed in 1782 due to the efforts of the Highland Society of London. William Wilson & Sons of Bannockburn became the foremost weaving manufacturer around 1770 as suppliers of tartan to the military. Wilson corresponded with his agents in the Highlands to get information and samples of cloth from the clan districts to enable him to reproduce "perfectly


title: Tartan content: genuine patterns" and recorded over 200 setts by 1822, many of which were tentatively named. The Cockburn Collection of named samples made by William Wilson & Sons was put together between 1810 and 1820 and is now in the Mitchell Library in Glasgow. At this time many setts were simply numbered, or given fanciful names such as the "Robin Hood" tartan, not associated with any specific clan. By the 19th century the Highland romantic revival, inspired by James Macpherson's Ossian poems and the writings of Sir Walter Scott, led to wider interest, with clubs like the Celtic Society of Edinburgh


title: Tartan content: welcoming Lowlanders. The pageantry invented for the 1822 visit of King George IV to Scotland brought a sudden demand for tartan cloth and made it the national dress of the whole of Scotland, rather than just the Highlands and Islands, with the invention of many new clan-specific tartans to suit. The popularity of tartan was greatly increased by the royal visit of George IV to Edinburgh in 1822. George IV was the first reigning monarch to visit Scotland in 171 years. The festivities surrounding the event were originated by Sir Walter Scott who founded the Celtic Society of Edinburgh in


title: Tartan content: 1820. Scott and the Celtic Society urged Scots to attend festivities "all plaided and plumed in their tartan array". One contemporary writer sarcastically described the pomp that surrounded the celebrations as "Sir Walter's Celtified Pagentry". Following the royal visit several books which documented tartans added to the craze. James Logan's romanticised work "The Scottish Gael", published in 1831, was one such publication which led the Scottish tartan industry to invent clan tartans. The first publication showing plates of clan tartans was the "Vestiarium Scoticum", published in 1842. The "Vestiarium" was the work of two brothers: John Sobieski and Charles Allen


title: Tartan content: Hay. The brothers, who called themselves "John Sobieski Stolberg Stuart" and "Charles Edward Stuart", first appeared in Scotland in 1822. The two claimed to be grandsons of Prince Charles Edward Stuart and his wife Princess Louise of Stolberg, and consequently later became known as the "Sobieski Stuarts". The Sobieski Stuarts claimed that the "Vestiarium" was based upon a copy of an ancient manuscript on clan tartans—a manuscript which they never managed to produce. The "Vestiarium" was followed by the equally dubious "The Costume of the Clans" two years later. The romantic enthusiasm that Logan and the Sobieski Stuarts generated with


title: Tartan content: their publications led the way for other tartan books in the 19th century. Twenty years after her uncle's visit to Scotland, Queen Victoria and her husband Prince Albert made their first trip to the Scottish Highlands. The Queen and prince bought Balmoral Castle in 1848 and hired a local architect to re-model the estate in "Scots Baronial" style. Prince Albert personally took care of the interior design, where he made great use of tartan. He utilised the red "Royal Stewart" and the green "Hunting Stewart" tartans for carpets, while using the "Dress Stewart" for curtains and upholstery. The Queen designed


title: Tartan content: the "Victoria" tartan, and Prince Albert the "Balmoral", still used as a royal tartan today. Victoria and Albert spent a considerable amount of time at their estate, and in doing so hosted many "Highland" activities. Victoria was attended by pipers and her children were attired in Highland dress. Prince Albert himself loved watching the Highland games. Ironically, as the craze swept over Scotland the Highland population suffered grievously from the Highland Clearances, when thousands of Gaelic-speaking Scots from the Highlands and Isles were evicted by landlords (in many cases the very men who would have been their own clan chiefs)


title: Tartan content: to make way for sheep. It is generally regarded that "clan tartans" date no earlier than the beginning of the 19th century, and are an example of an invented tradition. It is maintained by many that clan tartans were not in use at the time of the Battle of Culloden in 1746. The method of identifying friend from foe was not through tartans but by the colour of ribbon worn upon the bonnet. David Morier's well-known painting of the Highland charge at the Battle of Culloden shows the clansmen wearing various tartans. The setts painted all differ from one another


title: Tartan content: and very few of those painted show any resemblance to today's clan tartans. Contemporary portraits show that although tartan is of an early date, the pattern worn depended not on the wearer's clan, but upon his or her location, or personal taste. The idea of groups of men wearing the same tartan is thought to originate from the military units in the 18th century. Evidence suggests that in 1725 the Independent Highland Companies may have worn a uniform tartan. The naming and registration of official clan tartans began on 8 April 1815, when the Highland Society of London (founded 1778)


title: Tartan content: resolved that all the clan chiefs each "be respectfully solicited to furnish the Society with as much of the Tartan of his Lordship's Clan as will serve to Show the Pattern and to Authenticate the Same by Attaching Thereunto a Card bearing the Impression of his Lordship's Arms." Many had no idea of what their tartan might be, but were keen to comply and to provide authentic signed and sealed samples. Alexander Macdonald, 2nd Baron Macdonald of Sleat was so far removed from his Highland heritage that he wrote to the Society: "Being really ignorant of what is exactly The


title: Tartan content: Macdonald Tartan, I request you will have the goodness to exert every Means in your power to Obtain a perfectly genuine Pattern, Such as Will Warrant me in Authenticating it with my Arms." Today tartan and "clan tartan" is an important part of a Scottish clan. Almost all Scottish clans have several tartans attributed to their name. Several clans have "official" tartans. Although it is possible for anyone to create a tartan and name it any name they wish, the only person with the authority to make a clan's tartan "official" is the chief. In some cases, following such recognition


title: Tartan content: from the clan chief, the clan tartan is recorded and registered by the Lord Lyon King of Arms. Once approved by the Lord Lyon, after recommendation by the Advisory Committee on Tartan, the clan tartan is then recorded in the Lyon Court Books. In at least one instance a clan tartan appears in the heraldry of a clan chief and is considered by the Lord Lyon as the "proper" tartan of the clan. It is generally stated that one of the most popular tartans today is the "Royal Stewart tartan". This is the personal tartan of Queen Elizabeth II. The


title: Tartan content: sett was first published in 1831 in the book "The Scottish Gael" by James Logan. In addition to its use in clothing, such as skirts and scarves, Royal Stewart tartan has also appeared on biscuit tins for Scottish shortbread. Another popular tartan is the "Black Watch" (also known as "Old Campbell", "Grant Hunting", "Universal", "Government"). This tartan was used and is still used by several military units in the British Army and other Commonwealth forces. In addition to clan tartans, many tartan patterns have been developed for individuals, families, districts, institutions, and corporations. They have also been created for various


title: Tartan content: events and certain ethnic groups. Tartan has had a long history with the military and today many military units—particularly those within the Commonwealth—have tartan dress uniforms. Tartans or tartan-like plaid patterns are also commonly worn as skirts or jumpers/pinafores in Catholic school uniform and other private school uniform codes in North America. Many regional tartans are officially recognised by government bodies. In Canada, most provinces and territories have an official tartan, with the first dating from 1956. Canada has an official national tartan that was originally designed to commemorate the introduction of its new maple leaf flag, and was made


title: Tartan content: an official national emblem in 2011. Several Canadian counties and municipalities also have official tartans. Many of the U.S. states also have official tartans, with the first dating from 1988. In Scotland at least two local government councils have official tartans. Tartan is sometimes differentiated from another with the same name by the label "dress" or "hunting". Dress tartans are based on the "earasaid" tartans worn by Highland women in the 17th and 18th centuries. Dress tartans tend to be made by replacing a prominent colour with the colour white. They are commonly used today in Highland dancing. Hunting tartans


title: Tartan content: are also a Victorian conception. These tartans tend to be made up of subdued colours, such as dark blues and greens. Despite the name, hunting tartans have very little to do with actual hunting. Mourning tartans, though quite rare, are associated with death and funerals. They are usually designed using combinations of black and white. Clever Victorian entrepreneurs not only created new tartans, but new tartan objects called "tartanware". Tartan was incorporated in an assortment of common household objects, such as snuffboxes, jewellery cases, tableware, sewing accessories, and desk items. Tourists visiting the Scottish Highlands went home with it, and


title: Tartan content: Scottish-based businesses sent tartanware out as gifts to customers. Some of the more popular tartans were the "Stewart", "MacDonald", "McGregor", "McDuff", "MacBeth", and "Prince Charlie". Today tartanware is widely collected in England and Scotland. In the Victorian and Edwardian eras, tartan-clad garments were featured in fashion catalogues. By then, tartan had shifted from being mainly a component of men's clothing to become an important part of women's fashion. In consequence of its association with the British aristocracy and military, tartan developed an air of dignity and exclusivity. Because of this, tartan has made reappearances in the world of fashion several


title: Tartan content: times. For instance, tartan made a resurgence in its use in punk fashion. In the late 1970s, punk music was a way for youth in the British Isles to voice their discontent with the ruling class. The unorthodox use of tartan, which had long been associated with authority and gentility, was then seen as the expression of discontent against modern society. In this way tartan, worn unconventionally, became an anti-establishment symbol. Depending upon how "different tartan" is defined, it has been estimated that there are about 3,500 to 7,000 different tartans, with around 150 new designs being created every year.


title: Tartan content: With four ways of presenting the hues in the tartan—"modern", "ancient", "weathered", and "muted" colours—there are thus about 14,000 recognised tartan variations from which to choose. The 7,000 figure above includes many of these variations counted as though they were different tartans. Until the late 20th century, instead of a central, official tartan registry, several independent organisations located in Scotland, Canada, and the United States documented and recorded tartans. In the 1960s, a Scottish society called the Scottish Tartans Society (now defunct) was created to record and preserve all known tartan designs. The society's register, the "Register of All Publicly


title: Tartan content: Known Tartans" ("RAPKT"), contains about 2,700 different designs of tartan. The society, however, ran into financial troubles in about the year 2000, and folded. Former members of the society then formed two new Scottish-based organisations—the Scottish Tartans Authority (STA) and the Scottish Tartans World Register (STWR). Both of these societies initially based their databases on the RAPKT. The STA's database, the International Tartan Index (ITI) consists of about 3,500 different tartans (with over 7,000, counting variants), as of 2004. The STWR's self-titled Scottish Tartans World Register database is made up of about 3,000 different designs as of 2004. Both organisations


title: Tartan content: are registered Scottish charities and record new tartans (free in the case of STS and for a fee in the case of STWR) on request. The STA's ITI is larger, in part, because it has absorbed the entries recorded in the "TartanArt" database formerly maintained by the merged International Association of Tartan Studies and Tartan Educational and Cultural Association (IATS/TECA), based in the United States, and with whom the STA is directly affiliated. The Scottish Register of Tartans (SRT) is Scotland's official tartan register. The "SRT" is maintained and administrated by the National Archives of Scotland (NAS), a statutory body


title: Tartan content: based in Edinburgh. The aim of the Register is to provide a definitive and accessible resource to promote and preserve tartans. It also aims to be the definitive source for the registration of new tartans (that pass NAS criteria for inclusion). The register itself is made up of the existing registers of the STA and the STWR as they were at the time of the SRT's launch, and new registrations from 5 February 2009 onward. On the Register's website users can register new tartans (for a fee), search for and request the threadcounts of existing tartans and receive notifications of


title: Tartan content: newly registered tartans. One criticism of the SRT and NAS's management of it is that its exclusivity, in both cost and criteria, necessarily means that it cannot actually achieve its goals of definiteness, preservation and open access. The current version of the STA's ITI, for example, already contains a large number of tartans that do not appear in the SRT, and the gulf will only widen under current policy. Since the Victorian era, authorities on tartan have stated that there is an etiquette to wearing tartan, specifically tartan attributed to clans or families. This concept of the entitlement to certain


title: Tartan content: tartans has led to the term of "universal tartan", or "free tartan", which describes tartan which can be worn by anyone. Traditional examples of such are "Black Watch", "Caledonian", "Hunting Stewart", and "Jacobite" tartans. In the same line of opinion, some tartan attributed to the British Royal Family are claimed by some to be "off limits" to non-royalty. Even so, there are no rules on who can, or cannot, wear a particular tartan. Note that some modern tartans are protected by trademark law, and the trademark proprietor can, in certain circumstances, prevent others from selling that tartan. The "Burberry Check"


title: Tartan content: of the English fashion house, first designed in early 1920s, is an instantly recognisable tartan that is very well known around the world and is an example of a tartan that is protected. Many books on Scottish clans list such rules and guidelines. One such opinion is that people not bearing a clan surname, or surname claimed as a sept of a clan, should not wear the tartan of their mother's clan. This opinion is enforced by the fact that in the Scottish clan system, the Lord Lyon states that membership to a clan technically passes through the surname. This


title: Tartan content: means that children who bear their father's surname belong to the father's clan (if any), and that children who bear their mother's surname (her maiden name) belong to their mother's clan (if any). Also, the Lord Lyon states that a clan tartan should only be worn by those who profess allegiance to that clan's chief. Some clan societies even claim that certain tartans are the personal property of a chief or chieftain, and in some cases they allow their clansfolk "permission" to wear a tartan. According to the Scottish Tartans Authority—which is closely associated with the Scottish tartan industry—the "Balmoral"


title: Tartan content: tartan should not be worn by anyone who is not part of the British Royal Family. Even so, some weavers outside of the United Kingdom ignore the "longstanding convention" of the British Royal Family's "right" to this tartan. The society also claims that non-royals who wear this tartan are treated with "great disdain" by the Scottish tartan industry. Generally, a more liberal attitude is taken by those in the business of selling tartan, stressing that anyone may wear any tartan they like. These "rules" are mere conventions; there are no laws regarding the wearing of any tartan. Tartan Tartan (


title: "Platanus × acerifolia" content: Platanus × acerifolia Platanus" × "acerifolia, the London plane, London planetree, or hybrid plane, is a tree in the genus "Platanus". It is often known by the synonym Platanus" × "hispanica. It is usually thought to be a hybrid of "Platanus orientalis" (oriental plane) and "Platanus occidentalis" (American sycamore). Some authorities think that it may be a cultivar of "P. orientalis". The London plane is a large deciduous tree growing , exceptionally over tall, with a trunk up to or more in circumference. The bark is usually pale grey-green, smooth and exfoliating, or buff-brown and not exfoliating. The leaves are


title: "Platanus × acerifolia" content: thick and stiff-textured, broad, palmately lobed, superficially maple-like, the leaf blade long and broad, with a petiole long. The young leaves in spring are coated with minute, fine, stiff hairs at first, but these wear off and by late summer the leaves are hairless or nearly so. The flowers are borne in one to three (most often two) dense spherical inflorescences on a pendulous stem, with male and female flowers on separate stems. The fruit matures in about 6 months, to 2–3 cm diameter, and comprises a dense spherical cluster of achenes with numerous stiff hairs which aid wind dispersal;


title: "Platanus × acerifolia" content: the cluster breaks up slowly over the winter to release the numerous 2–3 mm seeds. The London Plane is one of the most efficient trees in removing small particulate pollutants in urban areas. It shares many visual similarities with "Platanus occidentalis" (American sycamore), from which it is derived; however, the two species are relatively easy to distinguish, considering the London plane is almost exclusively planted in urban habitats, while "P. occidentalis" is most commonly found growing in lowlands and alluvial soils along streams. The species was formed by hybridization in the 17th century after "P. orientalis" and "P. occidentalis" had


title: "Platanus × acerifolia" content: been planted in proximity to one another. It is often said that the hybridization took place in Spain, but it could also have happened in Vauxhall Gardens in London where John Tradescant the Younger discovered the tree in the mid-17th century. The leaf and flower characteristics are intermediate between the two parent species, the leaf being more deeply lobed than "P. occidentalis" but less so than "P. orientalis", and the seed balls typically two per stem (one in "P. occidentalis", 3–6 in "P. orientalis"). The hybrid is fertile, and seedlings are occasionally found near mature trees. Controlled reciprocal pollinations between


title: "Platanus × acerifolia" content: "P. occidentalis" and "P. orientalis" resulted in good yields of germinable seed and true hybrid seedlings. Crosses of both species, as females, with "P. racemosa" and "P. wrightii" produced extremely low yields of germinable seed, but true hybrids were obtained from all interspecific combinations. Apomixis (asexual reproduction from non-fertilized seeds) appeared common in "P. orientalis". In 1968 and 1970, Frank S. Santamour Jr. recreated the "P. orientalis" by "P. occidentalis" cross using a "P. orientalis" of Turkish origin with American sycamores ("P. occidentalis"). The offspring were evaluated following several years of exposure to anthracnose infection. Two selections, 'Columbia' and 'Liberty',


title: "Platanus × acerifolia" content: were released in August, 1984. "Platanus" × "acerifolia" was first formally described in the botanical literature by the Scottish botanist William Aiton in his 1789 work "Hortus Kewensis" as a variety of "P. orientalis". Aiton described this variety with a two-word Latin diagnosis, "foliis transversis", and called it the Spanish plane tree. In 1805, Carl Ludwig Willdenow chose to elevate Aiton's variety to species rank, publishing the new species "P. acerifolia" in the fourth edition of "Species Plantarum". The species name was then modified to include the multiplication symbol to indicate its suspected hybrid parentage. The other name commonly used


title: "Platanus × acerifolia" content: for this taxon, "Platanus" × "hispanica" auct. non Mill. ex Münchh., is a "nomen dubium" based on an uncertain description. The London plane is one of 50 Great British Trees The Tree Council selected in 2002 in honour of Queen Elizabeth II's Golden Jubilee. The list specifically mentions Britain's first London plane being in the city of Ely, Cambridgeshire. The London plane is very tolerant of atmospheric pollution and root compaction, and for this reason it is a popular urban roadside tree. It was planted extensively in Victorian times to weather the pollution of London. It is now extensively cultivated


title: "Platanus × acerifolia" content: in most temperate latitudes as an ornamental and parkland tree, and is a commonly planted tree in cities throughout the temperate regions of the world, in London and many other cities. It has a greater degree of winter cold tolerance than "P. orientalis", and is less susceptible to anthracnose disease than "P. occidentalis". Under the synonym "Platanus" × "hispanica", the tree has gained the Royal Horticultural Society of Great Britain's Award of Garden Merit. The tree is fairly wind-resistant. However, it has a number of problems in urban use, most notably the short, stiff hairs shed by the young leaves


title: "Platanus × acerifolia" content: and the dispersing seeds; these are an irritant if breathed in, and can exacerbate breathing difficulties for people with asthma. The large leaves can create a disposal problem in cities, as they are tough and sometimes can take more than one year to break down if they remain whole. London planes are often pruned by a technique called pollarding. A pollarded tree has a drastically different appearance than an unpruned tree, being much shorter with stunted, club-like branches. Although pollarding requires frequent maintenance (the trees must usually be repruned every year), it creates a distinctive shape that is often sought


title: "Platanus × acerifolia" content: after in plazas, main streets, and other urban areas. According to the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation the symbol of that organization is a cross between the leaf of the London plane and a maple leaf. It is prominently featured on signs and buildings in public parks across the city. The tree is on the NYC Parks Department's list of restricted use species for street tree planting because it constitutes more than 10% of all street trees. In Australia, the London plane is used extensively as a street tree in major cities, particularly Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide.


title: "Platanus × acerifolia" content: The tree is commonly used because of its resilience to warm weather, its benefits as a shade tree, resistance to breakage and tolerance of urban pollution. When quarter-sawn the timber has a distinctive and highly decorative appearance of dark reddish-brown flecks against a lighter background and is known as lacewood. Platanus × acerifolia Platanus" × "acerifolia, the London plane, London planetree, or hybrid plane, is a tree in the genus "Platanus". It is often known by the synonym Platanus" × "hispanica. It is usually thought to be a hybrid of "Platanus orientalis" (oriental plane) and "Platanus occidentalis" (American sycamore). Some


title: "Chimney swift" content: Chimney swift The chimney swift ("Chaetura pelagica") is a bird belonging to the swift family Apodidae. A member of the genus "Chaetura", it is closely related to both the Vaux's swift and the Chapman's swift; in the past, the three were sometimes considered to be conspecific. It has no subspecies. The chimney swift is a medium-sized, sooty gray bird with very long, slender wings and very short legs. Like all swifts, it is incapable of perching, and can only cling vertically to surfaces. The chimney swift feeds primarily on flying insects, but also on airborne spiders. It generally mates for


title: "Chimney swift" content: life. It builds a bracket nest of twigs and saliva stuck to a vertical surface, which is almost always a human-built structure, typically a chimney. The female lays eggs. The altricial young hatch after and fledge a month later. The average chimney swift lives . When Carl Linnaeus first described the chimney swift in 1758, he named it , believing it to be a swallow. This misconception continued well into the 1800s, with ornithologists calling it "American Swallow" (e.g. Mark Catesby) or "Chimney Swallow" (e.g. John James Audubon). In 1825, James Francis Stephens moved this and other small, short-tailed New


title: "Chimney swift" content: World swifts to the genus "Chaetura", where it has since remained, although some authorities in the 1800s assigned it to a variety of now obsolete genera. It has no subspecies. The chimney swift's closest relative is Vaux's swift. Scientists believe that the two species evolved from a common ancestor that was forced to North America's southeastern and southwestern corners by glacial advances. Separated for millennia by vast ice sheets, the survivors evolved into two species which are still separated by a wide gap across the continent's midsection. It is also closely related to the Chapman's swift; in the past, the


title: "Chimney swift" content: three were sometimes treated as a single species. The chimney swift's genus name, "Chaetura", is a combination of two Ancient Greek words: "chaite", which means "bristle" or "spine", and "oura" which means "tail". This is an apt description of the bird's tail, as the shafts of all ten tail feathers (rectrices) end in sharp, protruding points. The specific name "pelagica" is derived from the Greek word "pelagikos", which means "of the sea". This is thought to be a reference to its nomadic lifestyle rather than to any reference to the sea, a theory strengthened by the later assignment of the


title: "Chimney swift" content: specific name "pelasgia" (after the nomadic Pelasgi tribe of ancient Greece) to the same species by other ornithologists. Its common name refers to its preferred nesting site and its speedy flight. This is a medium-sized swift, measuring from in length, with a wingspan of and a weight ranging from . The sexes are identical in plumage, though males average slightly heavier than females. The adult's plumage is a dark sooty olive above and grayish brown below, with a slightly paler rump and uppertail covert feathers, and a significantly paler throat. Its upperparts are the most uniformly colored of all the


title: "Chimney swift" content: "Chaetura" swifts, showing little contrast between back and rump. Its beak is black, as are its feet and legs. Its iris is dark brown. Juvenal plumage (that held by juvenile birds) is very similar to that of adults, but with whitish tips to the outer webs of the secondaries and tertials. The chimney swift's wings are slender, curved and long, extending as much as beyond the bird's tail when folded. Its wingtips are pointed, which helps to decrease air turbulence (and therefore drag) during flight. Its humerus (the bone in the inner part of the wing) is quite short, while


title: "Chimney swift" content: the bones farther out (more distally) along the wing are elongated, a combination which allows the bird to flap very quickly. In flight, it holds its wings stiffly, alternating between rapid, quivering flaps and longer glides. Its flight profile is widely described as a "cigar with wings"—a description first used by Roger Tory Peterson. Although the bird often appears to beat its wings asynchronously during flight, photographic and stroboscopic studies have shown that it beats them in unison. The illusion that it does otherwise is heightened by its very fast and highly erratic flight, with many rapid changes of direction.


title: "Chimney swift" content: The legs of the chimney swift, like those of all swifts, are very short. Its feet are small but strong, with very short toes that are tipped with sharp, curved claws. The toes are anisodactyl—three forward, one back—like those of most birds, but the chimney swift can swivel its back toe (its hallux) forward to help it get a better grip. Unlike the legs and feet of most birds, those of the chimney swift have no scales; instead, they are covered with smooth skin. Its tail is short and square, measuring only in length. All ten of its tail feathers


title: "Chimney swift" content: have shafts which extend as much as beyond the vanes, ending in sharp, stiff points. These help the bird to prop itself against vertical surfaces. The chimney swift has large, deep set eyes. These are protected by small patches of coarse, black, bristly feathers, which are located in front of each eye. The swift can change the angle of these feathers, which may help to reduce glare. It is far-sighted and, like some birds of prey, this swift is bifoveal: each eye having both a temporal and a central fovea. These are small depressions in the retina where visual acuity


title: "Chimney swift" content: is highest, and help to make its vision especially acute. Like most vertebrates, it is able to focus both eyes at once; however, it is also able to focus a single eye independently. Its bill is very small, with a culmen that measures a mere in length. However, its gape is huge, extending back below its eyes, and allowing the bird to open its mouth very widely. Unlike many insectivorous birds, it lacks rictal bristles at the base of the beak. The chimney swift looks very much like the closely related Vaux's swift, but is slightly larger, with relatively longer


title: "Chimney swift" content: wings and tail, slower wingbeats and a greater tendency to soar. It tends to be darker on the breast and rump than the Vaux's swift, though there is some overlap in plumage coloring. It can be as much as 30 percent heavier than Vaux's swift, and its wings, which are proportionately narrower, show a pronounced bulge in the inner secondaries. The chimney swift is smaller, paler and shorter tailed than the black swift. In Central America, it is most similar to Chapman's swift, but it is paler (matte olive rather than glossy black) and has a stronger contrast between its


title: "Chimney swift" content: pale throat and the rest of its underparts than does its more uniformly colored relative. A widespread breeding visitor to much of the eastern half of the United States and the southern reaches of eastern Canada, the chimney swift migrates to South America for the winter. It is a rare summer visitor to the western U.S, and has been recorded as a vagrant in Anguilla, Barbados, Greenland, Jamaica, Portugal, the United Kingdom and the U.S. Virgin Islands. It is found over open country, savanna, wooded slopes and humid forests. The chimney swift's wintering grounds were only discovered in 1944, when


title: "Chimney swift" content: bands from birds banded (ringed) in North America were recovered in Peru. An indigenous Peruvian had been wearing the bands as a necklace. The chimney swift is a gregarious species, and is seldom seen alone. It generally hunts in groups of two or three, migrates in loose flocks of 6–20, and (once the breeding season is over) sleeps in huge communal roosts of hundreds or thousands of birds. Like all swifts, it is a superb aerialist, and only rarely seen at rest. It drinks on the wing, skimming the surface of the water with its beak. It also bathes on


title: "Chimney swift" content: the wing, gliding above the surface of a body of water, briefly smacking its breast into the water, then flying off again, shaking its feathers as it goes. It has been recorded by pilots flying more than a mile above the surface of the earth, including one seen at . It is incapable of perching upright like most birds do; instead, it clings to vertical surfaces. If it is disturbed while at rest, the chimney swift will clap its wings loudly once or twice against its body; it does this either in place, or while dropping down several feet to


title: "Chimney swift" content: a lower location. This behavior can result in a loud "thundering" sound if large roosts of the birds are disturbed. The sound is thought to be the bird's way of scaring away potential predators. Like all swifts, the chimney swift forages on the wing. Studies have shown that of its food items are flying insects, including various species of flies, ants, wasps, bees, whiteflies, aphids, scale insects, stoneflies and mayflies. It also eats airborne spiders drifting on their threads. It is an important predator of pest species such as the red imported fire ant and the clover root curculio. Researchers


title: "Chimney swift" content: estimate that a pair of adults provisioning a nest with three youngsters consume the weight equivalent of at least insects per day. Like many bird species, the chimney swift periodically coughs up pellets composed of indigestible bits of prey items. During the breeding season, at least half of the chimney swift's forays occur within of its nest; however, it ranges up to away. While most of its food is seized following aerial pursuit, some is gleaned from the foliage of trees; the bird hovers near the ends of branches or drops through upper canopy levels. The chimney swift generally flies


title: "Chimney swift" content: quite high, though it descends during cold or rainy weather. When feeding, it regularly occurs in small groups, and sometimes hunts with swallows, particularly barn swallows and purple martins; in mixed-species flocks, it is typically among the lower fliers. There is at least one record of a chimney swift attempting to steal a dragonfly from a purple martin, and it has been observed chasing other purple martins. In general, it is a diurnal feeder which remains active into early evening. However, there are records, particularly during migration periods, of chimney swifts feeding well after dark over brightly lit buildings. The


title: "Chimney swift" content: species shows two weight peaks each year: one at the start of the breeding season, and a higher one shortly before it begins its migration south in the autumn. Its lowest weights are typically recorded during the breeding season, when it also begins a complete molt of its plumage. The chimney swift's weight gain before migration is smaller than that of some passerines, suggesting that it must refuel en route at various stopover points. The chimney swift is a monogamous breeder which normally mates for life, though a small percentage of birds change partners. Pairs perform display flights together, gliding


title: "Chimney swift" content: with their wings upraised in a steep "V", and sometimes rocking from side to side. Breeding birds arrive as early as mid March in the southern U.S., and as late as mid-May in the Canadian provinces. Before the arrival of European colonists into North America, the chimney swift nested in hollow trees; now, it uses human-built structures almost exclusively. While the occasional nest is still built in a hollow tree (or, exceptionally, in an abandoned woodpecker nest), most are now found in chimneys, with smaller numbers in airshafts, the dark corners of lightly used buildings, cisterns, or wells. The nest


title: "Chimney swift" content: is a shallow bracket made of sticks, which the birds gather in flight, breaking them off trees. The sticks are glued together (and the nest to a vertical surface) with copious amounts of the bird's saliva. During the breeding season, each adult's salivary glands more than double in size, from in the non-breeding season to during the breeding season. Unlike some swift species, which mate in flight, chimney swifts mate while clinging to a vertical surface near their nest. They copulate daily, until the clutch is complete. The female typically lays , though clutch sizes range from . The eggs,


title: "Chimney swift" content: which are long and elliptical in shape, are moderately glossy, smooth and white, and measure . Each weighs nearly of the female's body weight. Incubated by both parents, the eggs hatch after . Baby chimney swifts are altricial—naked, blind and helpless when they hatch. Fledglings leave the nest after a month. The average chimney swift's life span is , but one is known to have lived more than . It was originally banded as an adult, and was recaptured in another banding operation some later. Mississippi kites, peregrine falcons and merlins are raptors that are known to take adult chimney


title: "Chimney swift" content: swifts in flight, being among the select few avian hunters fast enough to overtake the appropriately named swift on the wing. Eastern screech-owls have been seen attacking colonies, as have non-avian predators including eastern rat snakes, northern raccoons and tree squirrels. These are most likely to take nestlings but may take some nesting adults as well. When disturbed by potential predators (including humans) at the colony, adult chimney swifts slap their wings together after arching back and taking flight, making a very loud noise known either as "booming" or "thunder noises". When disturbed, nestlings make a loud, raspy "raah, raah,


title: "Chimney swift" content: raah" sound. Both sounds seem designed to startle potential predators. The chimney swift carries a number of internal and external parasites. It is the type host for the nematode species "Aproctella nuda", the feather mite species "Euchineustathia tricapitosetosa", and the biting lice species " Dennyus dubius", and is also known to carry the tapeworm species "Pseudochoanotaenia collocaliae". Its nest is known to host the Hemiptera species "Cimexopsis nyctali", which is similar to the bed bug and can (on rare occasions) become a pest species in houses. The chimney swift has a twittering call, consisting of a rapid series of hard,


title: "Chimney swift" content: high-pitched chirps. It sometimes gives single chirps. In 2010, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature changed the chimney swift's status from least concern to near threatened. In 2018, the IUCN changed the chimney swift's status from near threatened to vulnerable. Although the global population is estimated at , it has declined precipitously across the majority of its range. The causes of population declines are largely unclear, but may be related to the alteration of the insect community due to pesticide use in the early half of the 20th century. In Canada, they were listed as threatened by COSEWIC


title: "Chimney swift" content: for several years with a likely future listing as a Schedule 1 species of the Species at Risk Act. In the U.S., the chimney swift is protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918. Neither birds nor nests can be removed from chimneys without a federally-issued permit. Populations may have increased historically with the introduction of chimneys to North America by European settlers, providing plentiful nesting opportunities. After sudden temperature drops, the chimney swift sometimes hunts low over concrete roads (presumably following insect prey drawn to the warmer road), where collisions with vehicles become more likely. Severe storms, such


title: "Chimney swift" content: as hurricanes, encountered during migration can seriously impact the chimney's swift's survival rates. Swifts caught up in 2005's Hurricane Wilma were swept as far north as Atlantic Canada and Western Europe. More than 700 were found dead. The following year, roost counts in the province of Quebec, Canada showed a decrease of 62 percent, and the overall population in the province was halved. In 1899, Mary Day of New Jersey observed a pair of chimney swifts nesting in a chimney, and noted the incubation period was 19 days. The first detailed study of chimney swifts began in 1915 by self-taught


title: "Chimney swift" content: ornithologist Althea Sherman in Iowa. She commissioned a 28 foot tall tower, of a similar design to a chimney, with ladders and peep holes installed to facilitate observation. Chimney swifts nested in her tower, and for over fifteen years, she meticulously recorded her observations, filling over 400 pages. Sherman remarked that although the tower had been designed with a limited knowledge of the nesting behaviour of chimney swifts, after many years of observation she believed that the original design was ideal. Chimney swift The chimney swift ("Chaetura pelagica") is a bird belonging to the swift family Apodidae. A member of


title: Harlow content: in 2016. The football club is best known for its extended run in the 1979-80 FA Cup, where they reached the Fourth Round of the competition. This included wins against established Football League sides Southend United and most famously a 1-0 win over Leicester City in a replay, having drawn 1-1 at Filbert Street. Harlow were eventually eliminated by Watford, narrowly losing 4-3. The club built a new stadium in 2006 at Barrows Farm, now named The Harlow Arena, with the old Harlow Sports Centre being converted into housing. The Harlow Greyhound Stadium has been at its present site for


title: Dacha content: Dacha A dacha () is a seasonal or year-round second home, often located in the exurbs of Russian and other post-Soviet cities. A cottage (, "") or shack serving as a family's main or only home, or an outbuilding, is not considered a dacha, although some dachas recently have been converted to year-round residences and vice versa. In some cases, owners occupy their dachas for part of the year and rent them to urban residents as summer retreats. People living in dachas are colloquially called "dachniki" (); the term usually refers not only to dacha dwellers but to a distinctive


title: Dacha content: lifestyle. The Russian term is often said to have no exact counterpart in English. Dachas are common in Russia, and are also widespread in most parts of the former Soviet Union and in some countries of the former Eastern Bloc. Surveys in 1993–1994 suggest about 25% of Russian families living in large cities had dachas. Most dachas are in colonies of dachas and garden plots near large cities. These clusters have existed since the Soviet era, and consist of numerous small, typically , land plots. They were initially intended only as recreation getaways of city dwellers and for growing small


title: Dacha content: gardens for food. Dachniki use their dachas for fishing, hunting, and other leisure activities. Growing garden crops – still seen as an important part of dacha life – remains popular. Dachas originated as small country estates given as a gift by the tsar, and have been popular among the Russian upper- and middle-classes ever since. During the Soviet era, many dachas were state-owned, and were given to the elite of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). The government of the Russian Federation continues to own State dachas ("") used by the president and other officials. They were extremely


title: Dacha content: popular in the Soviet Union, because people did not have the opportunity to buy land and build a house where they wanted, and also because they lacked other opportunities to spend their time and money. As regulations severely restricted the size and type of dacha buildings for ordinary people during the Soviet period, permitted features such as large attics or glazed verandas became extremely widespread and often oversized. In the period from the 1960s to 1985 legal limitations were especially strict: only single-story summer houses without permanent heating and with living areas less than were allowed as second housing (though


title: Dacha content: older dachas that did not meet these requirements continued to exist). In the 1980s planners loosened the rules, and since 1990 all such limitations have been eliminated. The first dachas in Russia began to appear during the 17th century, initially referring to small estates in the country that were given to loyal vassals by the tsar. In archaic Russian, the word "dacha" means "something given", from the verb "дать" [dat'] – "to give". During the Age of Enlightenment, Russian aristocracy used their dachas for social and cultural gatherings, which were usually accompanied by masquerade balls and fireworks displays. The coming


title: Dacha content: of the Industrial Revolution to Russia brought about a rapid growth in the urban population, and wealthy urban residents increasingly desired to escape the heavily polluted cities, at least temporarily. By the end of the 19th century, the dacha became a favorite summer retreat for the upper and middle classes of Russian society. In the tsarist era, dachas tended to have pleasure gardens, but were not used much for growing food. Anton Chekhov wrote a novelette entitled "Dachniki" (1885), about newlywed city-dwellers living a 'simple' summer life of walks in the countryside. Following the Russian Revolution, most dachas were nationalised.


title: Dacha content: Some were converted into vacation homes for factory workers, while others, usually of better quality, were distributed among the prominent functionaries of the CPSU and the newly emerged cultural and scientific elite. All but a few dachas remained the property of the state and the right to use them was usually revoked when a dacha occupant was dismissed or fell out of favour with the rulers of the state. Building new dachas required permission from senior officials and was rarely granted during the early years of the Soviet Union. The seniormost Soviet leaders all had their own dachas, and Joseph


title: Dacha content: Stalin's favourite was in Gagra, Abkhazia. New dachas started to be built in larger numbers during the 1930s, and dacha colonies for artists, or soldiers, or various classes of party functionaries, started to form. There were legal size restrictions for dacha houses in the Soviet era. They had to have not more than of living area and be only one story tall. For that reason, they usually had a mansard roof, which was considered by authorities as just a large garret or attic, not a second story. Often ill-equipped and without indoor plumbing, dachas were nevertheless a solution for millions


title: Dacha content: of working-class families, to have their own form of summer retreat. Having a piece of land also offered an opportunity for city dwellers to indulge themselves in growing their own fruits and vegetables. In the years before and after World War II, cultivation of garden crops on dacha plots was substantial, because of the failure of the centrally planned Soviet agricultural programme to supply enough fresh produce. Many dacha owners grew crops for market. Since then, growing garden crops has been of lesser importance, but continues to be widespread. Many Russian dacha owners still see gardening as a key value


title: Dacha content: of "dachnik" culture. Keeping historical food shortages in mind, they take great pride in growing their own food rather than buying it at a store. The period after World War II saw moderate growth in dacha development. Since there was no actual law banning the construction of dachas, people began occupying unused plots of land near cities and towns, growing gardens and building sheds, huts, and more prominent dwellings that served as dachas. As time passed, the number of squatters grew geometrically and the government had no choice but to officially recognise their right to amateur farming. The 1955 legislation


title: Dacha content: introduced a new type of legal person into the Soviet juridical system, a gardeners' partnership (, "sadovodcheskoye tovarishchestvo"), similar to "community gardens" in other countries. The gardeners' partnership received the right to permanent use of land exclusively for agricultural purposes and permission to connect to public electrical and water supply networks. In 1958, yet another form of organisation was introduced, a "cooperative for dacha construction" (, "dachno-stroytelniy kooperativ"), which recognised the right of an individual to build a small house on the land leased from the government. The 1980s saw the peak of the dacha boom, with nearly all affluent


title: Dacha content: families—over a third of families in urban areas—having a dacha of their own. Dacha houses built since the late 1980s are significantly larger than older ones because legal size restrictions were liberalized, and new dacha areas became fields of relatively big houses on tiny land plots. Tracts between lines of dacha land plots are usually unimproved or improved with crushed stone, and narrow (often about between fences) enough that two cars can hardly pass each other by. Dachas also started to be found in other Eastern Bloc countries, especially in East Germany, where the concept was unknown before 1945 (but


title: Dacha content: remains quite current, even after German reunification), and in Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. The collapse of communism in the Soviet Union saw the return to private land ownership. Most dachas have since been privatised. The growth of living standards in recent years allowed many dacha owners to spend their discretionary income on improvements. Thus, many recently built dachas are fully equipped houses suitable for use as permanent residences. The market-oriented economy transformed the dacha into an asset, which generally reflects the prosperity of its owner and can be freely traded in the real estate market. Due to the rapid increase in


title: Dacha content: urbanization in Russia, many village houses are currently being sold to be used as dachas. Many Russian villages now have "dachniki" as temporary residents. Some villages have been fully transformed into dacha settlements, while some older dacha settlements often look like more permanent lodgings. The advantages of purchasing a dacha in a village usually are lower costs, greater land area, and larger distances between houses. The disadvantages may include lower-quality utilities, less security, and typically a farther distance to travel. The means of transportation for people to get to their dachas, besides cars, are "water trams", buses, and electric trains


title: Dacha content: (colloquially called "elektrichka", ). Due to the high number of people traveling to dachas during the weekends (especially during the summer), traffic typically builds up around large cities, and elektrichka and buses are filled to capacity. Dachas have also started appearing in regions of North America known for their high concentrations of immigrants from Russia and Ukraine. Russians and Ukrainians from New York City, Long Island, and New Jersey have been retreating to their Russian-style dacha homes in the forests of Upstate New York in order to recreate the dacha experiences they had during the Soviet era. Dacha plots are


title: Dacha content: usually not more than in area; in some cases over , but nearly never exceeding . They therefore are too small to grow any large amount of fruits and vegetables, thus sometimes they are also grown on separate dedicated plots of ground nearby. In Soviet times and sometimes now, such dedicated plots of ground were often made of the unused sections of agricultural fields owned by collective farms. Many small dacha plots, especially those that were recently purchased, are not used for large-scale fruit and vegetable farming. Instead, they are frequently used for gardening and planting exotic plants. Due to


title: Dacha content: custom and the perceived high costs of good equipment, even relatively large plots of land are often cultivated manually using equipment such as a spade or a spading fork. In autumn the grown potatoes and other crops are gathered and transported to the city where they are stored in cellars, dugouts (usually located on unused plots of ground), or in personal automobile garages. Many Russians prefer to grow vegetables themselves because of the widespread belief in the excessive use of agrochemicals in the vegetables from supermarkets and grocery stores, and the higher costs of the vegetables in stores and bazaars,


title: Dacha content: especially among the older part of the population. Also, growing one's own food supplies is a long-lived Russian tradition practised even by many affluent Russians. It is seen as a way to have a connection to the land, to be self-sufficient, and for many, to find some escape from a capitalist economy. While a large portion of urban Russians grow some vegetables in their dacha gardens, the perception in some parts of society that urban Russians are becoming increasingly self-sufficient is a myth, and only some 15 percent of vegetables are grown by urban dwellers. The most common dacha fruits


title: Dacha content: in cool temperate regions of Russia are apple, blackcurrant, redcurrant, gooseberry, raspberry and strawberry (sometimes also sour cherry, downy cherry, plum, pear, sea-buckthorn, "Actinidia kolomikta", black chokeberry, serviceberry, sweetberry honeysuckle, blackberry and grape, but many of them are either rare or not hardy enough and require winter protection). Popular vegetables and herbs are potato, cucumber, zucchini, pumpkin, tomato, carrot, beetroot, cabbage, cauliflower, radish, turnip, onion, garlic, dill, parsley, rhubarb and sorrel. The state-owned vacation houses allotted for government officials, academicians, military personnel, and other VIPs are called ""gosdachas"" (, short for "gosudarstvennaya dacha"— "state dacha"). In modern Russia, the Federal


title: Dacha content: Property Agency of Russia continues to own numerous estates throughout the country that are leased, often on non-market terms, to government officials. The President of Russia has official dacha residences in Novo-Ogaryovo and Zavidovo. Gosdachas in Komarovo and Peredelkino, Zhukovka, Barvikha, and Usovo and Rublyovka in Moscow are populated by many Soviet-era intellectuals and artists. Russian President Vladimir Putin has a dacha in the Karelian Isthmus, as part of a cooperative society called Ozero, and one in Sochi. In modern times, the rise of a new class in the Russian society (the 'new Russians') has added a new dimension to


title: Dacha content: the concept of dacha. (Some wealthy Russians prefer the term 'cottage' for their country homes.) With construction costs often reaching into the millions of U.S. dollars, the dachas of the country's elite bear no resemblance to the small dachas of the Soviet era. Comparable in size and décor to mansions and palaces, they become an elaborate display of social status, wealth and power. Most dachas of the elite are constructed with brick and concrete, unlike the middle-class dachas that are mostly constructed with wood. These new symbols of prosperity are designed by professional architects, usually in eclectic style—that older "dachniks"


title: Dacha content: look down upon as reflecting the nouveau-riche tastes of their owners—and feature ostentatious items such as marble statues, fountains and exotic plants. Some have state-of-the-art sporting facilities such as an indoor swimming pool, multiple tennis courts and stables for race horses. A few privately owned estates even have small forests and lakes. Wealthy Russians have also bought up many of the tsarist-era dachas of the aristocracy, and Soviet-era dachas of artists and intellectuals. Types of houses or gardens similar to the "dacha": Dacha A dacha () is a seasonal or year-round second home, often located in the exurbs of Russian


title: Sable content: Sable The sable ("Martes zibellina") is a species of marten, a small carnivorous mammal primarily inhabiting the forest environments, of Russia, from the Ural Mountains throughout Siberia, and northern Mongolia. Its habitat also borders eastern Kazakhstan, China, North Korea and Hokkaidō, Japan. Its range in the wild originally extended through European Russia to Poland and Scandinavia. Historically, it has been hunted for its highly valued dark brown or black fur, which remains a luxury good to this day. While hunting is still common in Russia, most fur on the market is now commercially farmed. The name "sable" appears to be


title: Sable content: of Slavic origin and entered most Western European languages via the early medieval fur trade. Thus the Russian "соболь" ("sobol") and Polish "soból" became the German "Zobel", Dutch "Sabel"; the French "zibeline", Spanish "cibelina, cebellina", Finnish "soopeli", Portuguese "zibelina" and Mediaeval Latin "zibellina" derive from the Italian form ("zibellino"). The English and Medieval Latin word "sabellum" comes from the Old French "sable" or "saible". The term has become a generic description for some black-furred animal breeds, such as sable cats or rabbits, and for the colour black in heraldry. Males measure in body length, with a tail measuring , and


title: Sable content: weigh . Females have a body length of , with a tail length of . The winter pelage is longer and more luxurious than the summer coat. Different subspecies display geographic variations of fur colour, which ranges from light to dark brown, with individual coloring being lighter ventrally and darker on the back and legs. Japanese sables (known locally as クロテン or "kuroten") in particular are marked with black on their legs and feet. Individuals also display a light patch of fur on their throat which may be gray, white, or pale yellow. The fur is softer and silkier than


title: Sable content: that of American martens. Sables greatly resemble pine martens in size and appearance, but have more elongated heads, longer ears and proportionately shorter tails. Their skulls are similar to those of pine martens, but larger and more robust with more arched zygomatic arches. Sables inhabit dense forests dominated by spruce, pine, larch, cedar, and birch in both lowland and mountainous terrain. They defend home territories that may be anything from in size, depending on local terrain and food availability. However, when resources are scarce they may move considerable distances in search of food, with travel rates of per day having


title: Sable content: been recorded. Sables live in burrows near riverbanks and in the thickest parts of woods. These burrows are commonly made more secure by being dug among tree roots. They are good climbers of cliffs and trees. They are primarily crepuscular, hunting during the hours of twilight, but become more active in the day during the mating season. Their dens are well hidden, and lined by grass and shed fur, but may be temporary, especially during the winter, when the animal travels more widely in search of prey. Sables are omnivores, and their diet varies seasonally. In the summer, they eat


title: Sable content: large numbers of hare and other small mammals. In winter, when they are confined to their retreats by frost and snow, they feed on wild berries, rodents, hares, and even small musk deer. They also hunt ermine, small weasels and birds. Sometimes, sables follow the tracks of wolves and bears and feed on the remains of their kills. They eat molluscs such as slugs, which they rub on the ground in order to remove the mucus. Sables also occasionally eat fish, which they catch with their front paws. They hunt primarily by sound and scent, and they have an acute