title: "Airbus A380" content: enter service by 2020. The engine would most likely be one of a variety of all-new options from Rolls-Royce, ranging from derivatives of the A350's XWB-84/97 to the future Advance project due at around 2020. On 3 June 2016, Emirates President Tim Clark stated that talks between Emirates and Airbus on the A380neo have "lapsed". On 12 June 2017, Fabrice Brégier confirmed that Airbus will not launch an A380neo, stating "...there is no business case to do that, this is absolutely clear." However, Brégier stated it won't stop Airbus from looking at what could be done to improve the performance


title: "Airbus A380" content: of the aircraft. One such proposal is a wingspan extension to reduce drag and increase fuel efficiency by 4%, though further increase is likely to be seen on the aircraft with new Sharklets like on the A380 Plus. Launched at the June 2017 Paris Air Show, Airbus offers an A380plus enhanced version with 13% lower costs per seat, featuring up to 80 more seats through better use of cabin space, split scimitar winglets and wing refinements allowing a 4% fuel economy improvement, and longer aircraft maintenance intervals with less downtime. Its maximum takeoff weight is increased by to , allowing


title: "Airbus A380" content: it to carry more passengers over the same 8,200 nmi range or increase the range by 300 nm. Emirates could order 20 aircraft at the November Dubai Air Show. The upgrade will be available from 2020. Winglet mockups, 4.7m (15ft) high, were displayed on the MSN04 test aircraft at Le Bourget. Wing twist will be modified and camber changed by increasing its height by 33 mm (1.3 in) between Rib 10 and Rib 30, along with upper-belly fairing improvements. The in-flight entertainment, the flight management system and the fuel pumps will come from the A350 to reduce weight and improve


title: "Airbus A380" content: reliability and fuel economy. Light checks will be required after 1,000 hr instead of 750 hr and heavy check downtime will be reduced to keep the aircraft flying for six days more per year. In its 2000 Global Market Forecast, Airbus estimated the demand for 1,235 passenger Very Large Aircraft (VLA), with more than 400 seats : 360 up to 2009 and 875 by 2019. The market is estimated for two decades at more than 1,700 by Airbus and 700 by Boeing since 1999-2000, including freighters. In 2006, industry analysts Philip Lawrence of the Aerospace Research Centre in Bristol anticipated


title: "Airbus A380" content: 880 sales by 2025 with Airbus having conducted the most extensive and thorough market analysis of commercial aviation ever undertaken, justifying its VLA plans to design the A380 by the spoke-hub distribution paradigm while Richard Aboulafia of the consulting Teal Group in Fairfax, Virginia anticipated 400 with the rise of mid-size aircraft and market fragmentation reducing them to niche markets, making such plans unjustified in a point-to-point transit model. In 2007, Airbus estimated a demand for 1,283 VLA in the following 20 years if airport congestion remains constant, up to 1,771 VLAs if congestion increases, with most deliveries (56%) in


title: "Airbus A380" content: Asia-Pacific, and 415 very large, 120-tonne plus freighters. For the same period, Boeing was estimating the demand for 590 large (B747 or A380) passenger airliners and 630 freighters. On 15 May 2018, in its EU appeal ruling, the WTO concluded that the A380 received improper subsidies through $9 billion of launch aids, but Airbus acknowledges that the threat posed to Boeing by the A380 is so marginal with 330 orders since its 2000 launch that any U.S. sanctions should be minimal, as previous rulings showed Boeing's exposure could be as little as $377 million. In 2013, Cathay Pacific and Singapore


title: "Airbus A380" content: Airlines needed to balance frequency and capacity. China Southern struggled for two years to use its A380s from Beijing, and finally received Boeing 787s in its base in Guangzhou, but where it cannot command a premium, unlike Beijing or Shanghai. In 2013, Air France withdrew A380 services to Singapore and Montreal and switched to smaller aircraft. In 2014, British Airways replaced three 777 flights between London and Los Angeles with two A380 per day. Emirates' Tim Clark saw a large potential for Asian A380-users, and criticised Airbus' marketing efforts. As business travellers prefer more choices offered by more frequencies, flying


title: "Airbus A380" content: a route multiple times on smaller aircraft rather than once on a large plane, United Airlines observed the A380 "just doesn't really work for us" as it relies on Boeing 787s operating at a lower trip cost. At the A380 launch, most Europe-Asia and transpacific routes used 747-400s at fairly low frequencies, but since then, routes proliferated with open skies and most airlines downsized to offer higher frequencies and more routes. The huge capacity offered by each flight eroded the yield: North America was viewed as 17% of the market but it never materialised as a 747 replacement with only


title: "Airbus A380" content: fifteen 747s remaining in passenger service in November 2017, for transpacific routes where timezones restrict potential frequency, consolidation changed the networks and US majors constrained capacity and emphasised daily frequencies for business traffic with midsize widebodies like the 787 to extract higher yields, focusing on profits rather than market share leaved to Asian carriers. The 747 was removed from the transatlantic flights by the 767 and from the transpacific market by the 777: newer, smaller aircraft with similar seat-mile costs have lower trip costs and allow more direct routes. Cabin densification to lower unit costs could aggravate this overcapacity. In


title: "Airbus A380" content: 2005, 270 sales were necessary to attain break-even and with 751 expected deliveries its Internal rate of return outlook was at 19%, but due to disruptions in the ramp-up leading to overcosts and delayed deliveries, it increased to 420 in 2006. In 2010, EADS CFO Hans Peter Ring said that break-even could be achieved by 2015 when 200 deliveries were projected. In 2012, Airbus clarified that the aircraft production costs would be less than its sales price. On 11 December 2014, Airbus chief financial officer Harald Wilhelm hinted the possibility of ending the programme in 2018, disappointing Emirates president Tim


title: "Airbus A380" content: Clark. Airbus shares fell down consequently. Airbus responded to the protests by playing down the possibility the A380 would be abandoned, instead emphasising that enhancing the airplane was a likelier scenario. On 22 December 2014, as the jet was about to break even, Airbus CEO Fabrice Brégier ruled out cancelling it. Ten years after its first flight, Brégier said it was "almost certainly introduced ten years too early". While no longer losing money on each plane sold, Airbus admits that the company will never recoup the $25 billion investment it made in the project. Airbus consistently forecast 1,400 VLA demand


title: "Airbus A380" content: over 20-year, still in 2017, and aimed to secure a 50% share, up to 700 units, but delivered 215 aircraft in 10 years, achieving three produced per month but not the four per month target after the ramp-up to achieve more than 350 and is now declining to 0.5 a month. As Boeing see the VLA market as too small to retain in its 2017 forecast, its VP marketing Randy Tinseth doesn't believe Airbus will deliver the rest of the backlog. Richard Aboulafia predicts a 2020 final delivery, with unpleasant losses due to "hubris, shoddy market analysis, nationalism and simple


title: "Airbus A380" content: wishful thinking". In 2017, the A380 fleet overtook the passengers B747s, declining from 740 aircraft when the A380 was launched in 2000 to 550 units at the A380 introduction in 2007, and around 200 ten years after while the combined fleet of A380s and 747s passenger jumbos is 430, the market-share battle having shifted to large single-aisles and 300-seat twin-aisles. the list price of an A380 is US$432.6 million. Negotiated discounts made the actual prices much lower, and industry experts questioned whether the A380 project would ever pay for itself. The first aircraft was sold and leased back by Singapore


title: "Airbus A380" content: Airlines in 2007 to Dr. Peters for $197 million. In 2016, IAG's Willie Walsh said he could add a few, but also that he found the price of new aircraft "outrageous" and would source them from the second-hand market. AirInsight estimates its hourly cost at $26,000, or around $50 per seat hour (for 26000/50round0 seats), which compares to $44 per seat hour for a Boeing 777-300ER, and $90 per seat hour for a Boeing 747-400 . As it has very large wing and tail surfaces to allow a stretch and a high empty weight per seat, its cost-per-seat advantage eroded,


title: "Airbus A380" content: and the A350-1000 and 777-9 will match it. As of mid-2015, several airlines have expressed their interest in selling their aircraft, partially coinciding with expiring lease contracts for the aircraft. Several A380s which are in service have been offered for lease to other airlines. The suggestion has prompted concerns on the potential for new sales for Airbus, although these were dismissed by Airbus COO John Leahy who stated that "Used A380s do not compete with new A380s", stating that the second-hand market is more interesting for parties otherwise looking to buy smaller aircraft such as the Boeing 777. After Malaysia


title: "Airbus A380" content: Airlines (MAS) was unable to sell or lease its six A380s, it decided to refurbish the aircraft with seating for 700 and transfer them to a subsidiary carrier for religious pilgrimage flights. As it started receiving its six A350s to replace its A380s in December 2017, the new subsidiary will serve the Hajj and Umrah market with them, starting in the third quarter of 2018 and could be expanded above six beyond 2020 to 2022. The cabin will have 36 business seats and 600 economy seats, with a 712-seat reconfiguration possible within five days. The fleet could be chartered half


title: "Airbus A380" content: the year for the tourism industry like cruise shipping and will be able to operate for the next 40 years if oil prices stay low. As they should be parked by June 2018 before reconfiguration, MAS confirmed the plans and will also use them for peak periods to high traffic markets like London. In August 2017, it was announced that Hi Fly would lease two used aircraft. The Portuguese ACMI/charter airline will use the aircraft for markets where high capacity is needed and airports where slots are scarce. The first aircraft was scheduled to begin commercial operations during the first


title: "Airbus A380" content: quarter of 2018 Hi Fly was to receive its A380s from mid-2018 in a 471-seat configuration: 399 on the main deck, 60 business-class and 12 first-class seats on the upper deck, the Singapore Airlines layout. Hi Fly first used one of their A380s on 1 August 2018 for a one-off flight to enable Thomas Cook Airlines to repatriate passengers from Rhodes to Copenhagen following IT problems in the Greek airport. The same aircraft was then wet-leased to Norwegian to operate its evening London-New York service for several weeks in August 2018, to alleviate availability issues on its Boeing 787s affected


title: "Airbus A380" content: by Trent 1000 engine problems; Air Austral also signed a deal to wet-lease an A380 from Hi Fly while one of its 787s is grounded for three months of Trent 1000 inspections. Amedeo, mainly an A380 lessor and the largest with 22, mostly leased to Emirates, wants to find a use for them after their lease expires from 2022, and study if there is a demand to wet lease them. Swiss aircraft broker Sparfell & Partners plans to convert for head-of-state or VVIP transport some of Dr. Peters' four ex-SIA A380s for under $300 million apiece, less than a new


title: "Airbus A380" content: Boeing 777 or Airbus A330. By the end of 2019, Air France is planning to return to its lessors five of its A380s, and should refurbish its other five with new interiors by 2020 for $51 million per aircraft. With four A380s leased to Singapore Airlines having been returned between October 2017 and March 2018, Dr. Peters fears a weak aftermarket and is considering scrapping them, although they are on sale for a business jet conversion, but on the other hand Airbus sees a potential for African airlines and Chinese airlines, Hajj charters and its large Gulf operators. An A380


title: "Airbus A380" content: parted out may be worth $30 million to $50 million if it is at half-life. Teardown specialists have declined offers for several aircraft at part-out prices due to high risk as a secondary market is uncertain with $30 to $40 million for the refurbishment, but should be between $20 to $30 million to be viable. After proposing the aircraft to BA, Hi Fly and Iran Air, Dr. Peters was to recommend to its investors on 28 June 2018 to sell the aircraft parts with VAS Aero Services within two years for US$45 million, quickly for components like the landing gear


title: "Airbus A380" content: or the APU. Rolls-Royce Trent 900 leasing beyond March 2019 should generate US$480,000 monthly for each aircraft before selling the turbofans by 2020. With a total revenue of US$80 million per aircraft, the overall return expected is 145-155% while 72% and 81% of their debt had already be repaid. BA wanted to replace its Boeing 747s but from 2021, Iran Air faced political uncertainty and Hi Fly did not have a convincing business case. The fifth plane coming back from SIA, owned by Amedeo (formerly Doric), may still go to Hi Fly. Two others should return from Singapore Air in


title: "Airbus A380" content: coming weeks but they could stay with an existing Asian A380 flag carrier. VAS Aero Services is a US aftermarket firm. The teardown value includes $32-$33 million from the engines in 2020 and $4 million from leasing them until then, while the value of a 2008 A380 would be $78.4 million in 2020 and its monthly lease in 2018 would be $929,000. The two aircraft have returned 3.8-4.2% per year since 2008 but the 145-155% return is lower than the 220% originally forecast. Of the nearly 500 made, 50 747-400s were sold in the secondary market, including only 25 to


title: "Airbus A380" content: new customers. These are among the first A380s delivered, lacking the improvements and weight savings of later ones. Eighteen customers have ordered the A380. Total orders for the A380 stand at 331 . The biggest customer is Emirates, which has ordered or committed to order a total of 162 A380s. One VIP order was made in 2007 but later cancelled by Airbus. The A380F version attracted 27 orders, before they were either cancelled (20) or converted to A380-800 (7) following the production delay and the subsequent suspension of the freighter program. Delivery takes place in Hamburg for customers from Europe


title: "Airbus A380" content: and the Middle East and in Toulouse for customers from the rest of the world. EADS explained that deliveries in 2013 were to be slowed temporarily to accommodate replacement of the wing rib brackets where cracks were detected earlier in the existing fleet. In 2013, in expectation of raising the number of orders placed, Airbus announced 'attractable discounts' to airlines who placed large orders for the A380. Soon after, at the November 2013 Dubai Air Show where it ordered 150 B777X, Emirates ordered 50 aircraft, totalling $20 billion. In 2014, Airbus said that some ordered A380s might not be built


title: "Airbus A380" content: for an undisclosed Japanese airline. Qantas planned to order eight more airplanes but is in doubt due to a cost-cutting drive. Amedeo, an aircraft lessor that ordered 20 A380s, had not found a client for the airliner . Virgin Atlantic ordered six A380s in 2001 but never took delivery and later cancelled them in 2018. , Emirates has 48 orders outstanding but due to lack of space in Dubai Airport, it deferred 12 deliveries by one year and will not take any in 2019-20 before replacing its early airliners from 2021: there are open production slots in 2019 and Airbus


title: "Airbus A380" content: reduced its production rate at 12 per year for 2017-18. The real backlog is much smaller than the official 107 with 47 uncertain orders: 20 commitments for the A380-specialized lessor Amedeo which commits to production only once aircraft are placed, eight for Qantas which wants to keep its fleet at 12, six for Virgin Atlantic which does not want them anymore and three ex Transaero for finance vehicle Air Accord. At its 100th delivery ceremony, Emirates Airline head Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum was hoping to order new A380s at the November 2017 Dubai Air Show the following week. Emirates


title: "Airbus A380" content: does not need the small front staircase and eleven-abreast economy of the A380plus concept, but wants Airbus to commit to continue production for at least 10 years. On 18 January 2018, Airbus secured a preliminary agreement from Emirates for up to 36 A380s: 20 potentially firm orders and 16 options, to be delivered from 2020, valued at $16 billion at list prices. John Leahy is confident that Airbus will secure one more A380 order in 2018; discussions are reportedly under way with IAG for British Airways to take new A380s, which could be cheaper than refurbishing second-hand planes to its


title: "Airbus A380" content: specifications. There were 232 aircraft in service with 14 operators . The shortest regular commercial route that the A380 flies is from Dubai to Doha (379 km or 236 miles) with Emirates (, this route has been suspended due to deterioration of diplomatic relationship between the two countries). Air France briefly operated the A380 on the shorter Paris Charles de Gaulle to London Heathrow route (344 km or 214 miles) in mid-2010. The longest A380 route is flown by Emirates from Dubai to Auckland at . It is the fourth longest non-stop commercial flight in the world. The A380 has


title: "Airbus A380" content: been involved in two aviation occurrences and no hull loss accidents with no fatalities . Airbus A380 The Airbus A380 is a double-deck, wide-body, four-engine jet airliner manufactured by Airbus. It is the world's largest passenger airliner, and the airports at which it operates have upgraded facilities to accommodate it. It was initially named Airbus A3XX and designed to challenge Boeing's monopoly in the large-aircraft market. The A380 made its first flight on 27 April 2005 and entered commercial service on 25 October 2007 with Singapore Airlines. An improved version, the A380plus, is under development. The A380's upper deck extends


title: Optometry content: feel that the legislation restricts optometrists from using their full range of skills, training and equipment for the benefit of the Irish public. The amendment to the Act in 2003 addressed one of the most significant restrictions: the use of cycloplegic drugs to examine children. In Italy Optometry is unregulated profession. It is taught at seven universities: Padua, Turin, Milan, Salento, Florence, Naples and Rome, as three years course (like a BSc) of "Scienze e tecnologie fisiche" as sector of the Physics Department. Additionally, courses are available at some private institutions (as at Vinci Institute near Firenze) that offer advanced


title: "Danish pastry" content: Danish pastry A Danish pastry or just a Danish (especially in American English) is a multilayered, laminated sweet pastry in the viennoiserie tradition. The concept was brought to Denmark by Austrian bakers and has since developed into a Danish specialty. Like other viennoiserie pastries, such as croissants, it is a variant of puff pastry made of laminated yeast-leavened dough that creates a layered texture. Danish pastries were brought with immigrants to the United States, and are now popular around the world. Danish pastry is made of yeast-leavened dough of wheat flour, milk, eggs, sugar, and large amounts of butter or


title: "Danish pastry" content: margarine. A yeast dough is rolled out thinly, covered with thin slices of butter between the layers of dough, and then the dough is folded and rolled several times, creating 27 layers. If necessary, the dough is chilled between foldings to ease handling. The process of rolling, buttering, folding, and chilling is repeated multiple times to create a multilayered dough that becomes airy and crispy on the outside, but also rich and buttery. Butter is the traditional fat used in Danish pastry, but in industrial production, less expensive fats are often used, such as hydrogenated sunflower oil. In Danish, Norwegian,


title: "Danish pastry" content: and Swedish, the term for Danish pastry is "wienerbrød" or "wienerbröd", meaning "Viennese bread". The same etymology is also the origin of the Finnish "viineri". In Vienna, the Danish pastry is called "Kopenhagener Plunder", referring to Copenhagen, or "Dänischer Plunder". The origin of the Danish pastry is often ascribed to a strike amongst bakery workers in Denmark in 1850. The strike caused bakery owners to hire workers from abroad, among them several Austrian bakers, who brought along new baking traditions and pastry recipes. The Austrian pastry of "Plundergebäck" soon became popular in Denmark and after the labour disputes ended, Danish


title: "Danish pastry" content: bakers adopted the Austrian recipes, adjusting them to their own liking and traditions by increasing the amount of egg and fat for example. This development resulted in what is now known as the Danish pastry. One of the baking techniques and traditions that the Austrian bakers brought with them was the Viennese lamination technique. Due to such novelties the Danes called the pastry "wienerbrød" (Vienna bread) and, as mentioned, that name is still in use in Northern Europe today. At that time, almost all baked goods in Denmark were given exotic names. Danish pastries as consumed in Denmark have different


title: "Danish pastry" content: shapes and names. Some are topped with chocolate, pearl sugar, glacé icing, and/or slivered nuts and they may be stuffed with a variety of ingredients such as jam or preserves (usually apple or prune), remonce, marzipan, and/or custard. Shapes are numerous, including circles with filling in the middle (known in Denmark as "Spandauers"), figure-eights, spirals (known as snails), and the pretzel-like kringles. In Sweden, Danish pastry is typically made in the Spandauer-style, often with vanilla custard. In the UK, various ingredients such as jam, custard, apricots, cherries, raisins, flaked almonds, pecans, or caramelized toffee are placed on or within sections


title: "Danish pastry" content: of divided dough, which is then baked. Cardamom is often added to increase the aromatic sense of sweetness. In the US, Danishes are typically given a topping of fruit or sweetened cream cheese prior to baking. Danishes with nuts on them are also popular there and in Sweden, where chocolate spritzing and powdered sugar are also often added. In Argentina, they are usually filled with dulce de leche or dulce de membrillo. Danish pastry was brought to the United States by Danish immigrants. Lauritz C. Klitteng of Læsø popularized "Danish pastry" in the US around 1915–1920. According to Klitteng, he


title: "Danish pastry" content: made Danish pastry for the wedding of President Woodrow Wilson in December 1915. Klitteng toured the world to promote his product and was featured in such 1920s periodicals as the "National Baker", the "Bakers' Helper", and the "Bakers' Weekly". Klitteng briefly had his own Danish Culinary Studio at 146 Fifth Avenue in New York City. Herman Gertner owned a chain of New York City restaurants and had brought Klitteng to New York to sell Danish pastry. Gertner's obituary appeared in the January 23, 1962 "The New York Times": "At one point during his career Mr. Gertner befriended a Danish baker


title: "Danish pastry" content: who convinced him that Danish pastry might be well received in New York. Mr. Gertner began serving the pastry in his restaurant and it immediately was a success." During the "Jyllands-Posten" Muhammad cartoons controversy in 2006, several religious Iranian groups advocated changing the name of the highly popular Danish ("Shriniye Danmarki"), given its name association with the source country of the offending cartoons. The Association of Iranian Confectionery Manufacturing designated "Roses of the Prophet Muhammad" as the new name for danishes made in the country as of 15 February 2006, although compliance with the proposed name in bakeries was mixed


title: "Danish pastry" content: and short-lived. Related to this, many protesters in several Muslim countries, angered by the pictures of Muhammad, boycotted Danish goods. "Roses of Muhammad" ( ""gole mohammadi"", literally: Muhammed flower) is a traditional Persian synonym for a variety of pink rose flowering shrub. Danish pastry A Danish pastry or just a Danish (especially in American English) is a multilayered, laminated sweet pastry in the viennoiserie tradition. The concept was brought to Denmark by Austrian bakers and has since developed into a Danish specialty. Like other viennoiserie pastries, such as croissants, it is a variant of puff pastry made of laminated yeast-leavened


title: Anonymity content: board flights unless they have identified themselves to airline or transportation security personnel, typically in the form of the presentation of an identification card. On the other hand, some policies and procedures require anonymity. When it is necessary to refer to someone who is anonymous, it is typically necessary to create a type of pseudo-identification for that person. In literature, the most common way to state that the identity of an author is unknown is to refer to them as simply "Anonymous". This is usually the case with older texts in which the author is long dead and unable to


title: "Plautdietsch language" content: Prussia, German replaced Dutch as church, school and written language and has become a source from where words are borrowed extensively, especially for religious terms. Many of these words show the effects of the High German consonant shift (something you would not expect in a Low German dialect), even though they are otherwise adapted into Plautdietsch phonetics. Compare: This is the case particularly on nouns made out of verbs. The verb normally shows the unshifted consonant, whereas the noun has a shifted Germanized consonant: schluten, Schluss; bräakjen, Bruch (to close, closure; to break, a break) The first half of the


title: "Porta Westfalica" content: between 1892 and 1896 The monument, which is around 88 metres high, is classified as one of Germany’s national monuments. From March 18, 1944 until April 1, 1945 a concentration camp was established in the Barkhausen quarter. From February 1, 1945 until April 1, 1945 a camp was used in the Hausberge quarter. In the Lerbeck quarter also was a concentration camp in use from October 1, 1944 until April 1, 1945. In the Neesen quarter was a location for the forced labour for some of the inmates. All of these camps were subcamps of the Neuengamme concentration camp. On


title: "Middlesex County, Ontario" content: Westminster, Dorchester, Yarmouth, Southwold, Dunwich, Aldborough and Delaware. It was expanded in 1821 with the addition of the townships of Moza, Ecfrid "(sic)", Carradoc "(sic)" and Lobo. Adelaide Township came from the Huron Tract in 1835, and Williams Township was withdrawn from Huron County and annexed to Middlesex in 1845. In 1837, Bayham and Malahide Townships were transferred to Middlesex from Norfolk County. Metcalfe Township was formed from the north part of Ekfrid and the south part of Adelaide in 1845. Upon the abolition of the London District in January 1850, Middlesex County was constituted for municipal purposes. The County


title: Gamer content: level, most of the teams competing are composed of men, thus, overshadowing the girl gamers who could compete at the same level but are not able to get the same amount of media attention. A gaymer, or gay gamer, is a person within the group of people who identify themselves as LGBT (gay, bisexual, lesbian, or transgender) and have an active interest in video games. This demographic has been the subject of two large surveys, one in 2006, which noted the level of prejudice that gaymers endure, and another in 2009, focusing on the content that gaymers expect in video


title: "Parliamentary system" content: to counter popular revolutionary currents. A parliamentary system may be either bicameral, with two chambers of parliament (or houses) or unicameral, with just one parliamentary chamber. In the case of a bicameral parliament, this is usually characterised by an elected lower house that has the power to determine the executive government and an upper house which may be appointed or elected through a different mechanism from the lower house. Scholars of democracy such as Arend Lijphart distinguish two types of parliamentary democracies: the Westminster and Consensus systems. Implementations of the parliamentary system can also differ on the manner of how


title: "Safavid dynasty" content: else he would bring destruction and ruin upon the city. Junayd sought refuge with the rival of Kara Koyunlu Jahan Shah, the Aq Qoyunlu (White Sheep Turkomans) Khan Uzun Hassan, and cemented his relationship by marrying Uzun Hassan's sister, Khadija Begum. Junayd was killed during an incursion into the territories of the Shirvanshah and was succeeded by his son Haydar Safavi. Haydar married Martha 'Alamshah Begom, Uzun Hassan's daughter, who gave birth to Ismail I, founder of the Safavid dynasty. Martha's mother Theodora—better known as Despina Khatun—was a Pontic Greek princess, the daughter of the Grand Komnenos John IV of


title: "Safavid dynasty" content: either enrolled in one of the newly created "ghilman" regiments, or employed in the royal household. The rest of the masses of deportees and importees, a significant portion numbering many hundreds of thousands, were settled in various regions of mainland Iran, and were given all kinds of roles as part of society, such as craftsmen, farmers, cattle breeders, traders, soldiers, generals, governors, woodcutters, etc., all also part of the newly established layer in Iranian society. Shah Abbas, who significantly enlargened and completed this program and under whom the creation of this new layer in society may be mentioned as fully


title: "Cornus florida" content: Cornus florida Cornus florida, the flowering dogwood, is a species of flowering plant in the family Cornaceae native to eastern North America and northern Mexico. An endemic population once spanned from southernmost coastal Maine south to northern Florida and west to the Mississippi River. The tree is commonly planted as an ornamental in residential and public areas because of its showy bracts and interesting bark structure. The flowering dogwood is usually included in the dogwood genus "Cornus" as "Cornus florida" L., although it is sometimes treated in a separate genus as "Benthamidia florida" (L.) Spach. Two subspecies are generally recognized:


title: "Cornus florida" content: Flowering dogwood is a small deciduous tree growing to high, often wider than it is tall when mature, with a trunk diameter of up to . A 10-year-old tree will stand about tall. The leaves are opposite, simple, ovate, long and broad, with an apparently entire margin (actually very finely toothed, under a lens); they turn a rich red-brown in fall. The flowers are individually small and inconspicuous, with four greenish-yellow bracts long. Around 20 flowers are produced in a dense, rounded, umbel-shaped inflorescence, or flower-head, in diameter. The flower-head is surrounded by four conspicuous large white, pink or red


title: "Cornus florida" content: "petals" (actually bracts), each bract long and broad, rounded, and often with a distinct notch at the apex. The flowers are hermaphroditic ("perfect flowers") . When in the wild they can typically be found at the forest edge and frequently on dry ridges. While most of the wild trees have white bracts, some selected cultivars of this tree also have pink bracts, some even almost a true red. They typically flower in early April in the southern part of their range, to late April or early May in northern and high altitude areas. The similar Kousa dogwood ("Cornus kousa"), native


title: "Cornus florida" content: to Asia, flowers about a month later. The fruit is a cluster of two to ten separate drupes, (fused in "Cornus kousa"), each long and about wide, which ripen in the late summer and the early fall to a bright red, or occasionally yellow with a rosy blush. They are an important food source for dozens of species of birds, which then distribute the seeds. Flowering dogwood does best horticulturally in moist, acidic soil in a site with some afternoon shade, but good morning sun. It does not do well when exposed to intense heat sources such as adjacent parking


title: "Cornus florida" content: lots or air conditioning compressors. It also has a low salinity tolerance. The hardiness zone is 5–9 and the preferred pH is between 6.0–7.0. In urban and suburban settings, care should be taken not to inflict mower damage on the trunk or roots, as this increases the tree's susceptibility to disease and pest pressure. The common flowering dogwood has been placed on the endangered species list in Ontario. In regions where dogwood anthracnose is a problem, homeowners and public land managers are encouraged to know the symptoms and inspect trees frequently. The selection of healthy, disease-free planting stock is essential


title: "Cornus florida" content: and transplanting trees from the forest should be avoided. Sites should be selected for reasonably well-drained, fertile soils; full sun is recommended in high-hazard areas (such as stream or pond banks). New plantings should be mulched to a depth of , avoiding the stem. Dead wood and leaves should be pruned and completely removed and destroyed yearly. Plants should be watered weekly during droughts, with watering done in the morning, avoiding wetting the foliage. Registered fungicides can be applied when necessary, according to manufacturers instructions and advice of local Extension Service. Flowering dogwood is grown widely throughout the temperate world.


title: "Cornus florida" content: "Cornus florida" is easily propagated by seeds, which are sown in the fall into prepared rows of sawdust or sand, and emerge in the spring. Germination rates for good clean seed should be near 100% if seed dormancy is first overcome by cold stratification treatments for 90 to 120 days at . Flowering dogwood demonstrates gametophytic self-incompatibility, meaning that the plants can't self-fertilize. This is important for breeding programs as it means that it is not necessary to emasculate (remove the anthers from) "C. florida" flowers before making controlled cross-pollinations. These pollinations should be repeated every other day, as the


title: "Cornus florida" content: flowers must be cross-pollinated within one or two days of opening for pollinations to be effective. Softwood cuttings taken in late spring or early summer from new growth can be rooted under mist if treated with 8,000 to 10,000 ppm indole-3-butyric acid (IBA). In cold climates, potted cuttings must be kept in heated cold frames or polyhouses the following winter to maintain temperatures between . Although rooting success can be as high as 50–85%, this technique is not commonly used by commercial growers. Rather, selected cultivars are generally propagated by T-budding in late summer or by whip grafting in the


title: "Cornus florida" content: greenhouse in winter onto seedling rootstock. Micropropagation of flowering dogwood is now used in breeding programs aiming to incorporate resistance to dogwood anthracnose and powdery mildew into horticulturally and economically important cultivars. Nodal (axillary bud) sections are established in a culture of Woody Plant Medium (WPM) amended with 4.4 µmol/L 6-Benzyladenine (BA) to promote shoot growth. Rooting of up to 83% can be obtained when 5–7 week-old microshoots are then transferred to WPM amended with 4.9 µmol/L IBA. Other old names now rarely used include American dogwood, Florida dogwood, Indian arrowwood, Cornelian tree, white cornel, white dogwood, false box, and


title: "Cornus florida" content: false boxwood. This species has in the past been used in the production of inks, scarlet dyes, and as a quinine substitute. The hard, dense wood has been used for products such as golf club heads, mallets, wooden rake teeth, tool handles, jeweler's boxes and butcher's blocks. "Cornus florida" is the state tree and flower of Virginia, the state tree of Missouri, and state flower of North Carolina. It was used to treat dogs with mange, which may be how it got its name. The red berries are edible, but do not taste good. In 1915, forty dogwood saplings were


title: "Cornus florida" content: donated by U.S. to Japan in the 1912-15 exchange of flowers between Tokyo and Washington, D.C. While the cherry trees survived the ensuing sour relations of these two countries and are the main feature of the National Cherry Blossom Festival, all dogwood trees in Tokyo died except the one that had been planted in an agriculture high school. In 2012, the United States sent 3,000 dogwood saplings to Japan to commemorate the 100 year anniversary of the Washington D.C. cherry trees given as a gift to the U.S. by Japan in 1912. Cornus florida Cornus florida, the flowering dogwood, is


title: Salford content: Salford and was, in modern terms, a unitary authority area exempt from the administration of Lancashire County Council. Following a campaign supported by William Joynson-Hicks, Home Secretary and MP for a neighbouring constituency of Manchester, city status was granted to the county borough by letters patent dated 21 April 1926. This was in spite of the opposition of civil servants in the Home Office who dismissed the borough as "merely a scratch collection of 240,000 people cut off from Manchester by the river". In 1961, a small part of the Municipal Borough of Eccles was added to the city, and


title: Thermoplastic content: toys, appliances, and telephones. Chlorinated polyvinyl chloride (CPVC) is produced through exposing PVC to the continued free-radical chlorination reaction that originally formulates the PVC polymer. The chlorination reaction continues to add chlorine atoms to the polymer hydrocarbon backbone until most commercial applications reach a percent range between 56 to 74% total chlorine. This increase in elemental chlorine content contributes to CPVC's increased expression of chlorine-based characteristics, such as chemical durability, resistance to acids, bases, and salts; susceptibility to ammonia-based compounds, aromatics, esters, ketones; chemical stability; heat energy transfer resistance. CPVC is commonly used in water, chemical, hot and cold, delivery


title: "Scottish Terrier" content: Scottish Terrier The Scottish Terrier (; also known as the Aberdeen Terrier), popularly called the Scottie, is a breed of dog. Initially one of the highland breeds of terrier that were grouped under the name of "Skye Terrier", it is one of five breeds of terrier that originated in Scotland, the other four being the modern Skye, Cairn, Dandie Dinmont, and West Highland White Terriers. They are an independent and rugged breed with a wiry outer coat and a soft dense undercoat. The First Earl of Dumbarton nicknamed the breed "the diehard". The modern breed is said to be able


title: "Scottish Terrier" content: to trace its lineage back to a single female, named Splinter II. They are a small breed of terrier with a distinctive shape and have had many roles in popular culture. They have been owned by a variety of celebrities, including the 32nd President of the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, whose Scottie Fala is included with FDR in a statue in Washington, D.C., as well as by the 43rd President, George W. Bush. They are also well known for being a playing piece in the board game "Monopoly". Described as territorial, feisty dogs, they can make a good watchdog


title: "Scottish Terrier" content: and tend to be very loyal to their family. Healthwise, Scottish Terriers can be more prone to bleeding disorders, joint disorders, autoimmune diseases, allergies, and cancer than some other breeds of dog, and there is a condition named after the breed called Scotty cramp. They are also one of the more successful dog breeds at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show with a recent best in show in 2010. The Scottish Terrier is a small, compact, short-legged, sturdily-built terrier of good bone and substance. They have a hard, wiry, weather-resistant coat and a thick-set, cobby body which is hung between


title: "Scottish Terrier" content: short, heavy legs. These characteristics, joined with his very special keen, piercing, "varminty" expression, and his erect ears and tail are salient features of the breed. The Scottish Terrier's bold, confident, dignified aspect exemplifies power in a small package. The eyes should be small, bright and piercing, and almond-shaped not round. The color should be dark brown or nearly black, the darker the better. The ears should be small, prick, set well up on the skull and pointed, but never cut. They should be covered with short velvety hair. Height at withers for both genders should be roughly , and


title: "Scottish Terrier" content: the length of back from withers to tail is roughly . Generally a well-balanced Scottie dog should weigh from and a female from . It is about in height. The Scottish Terrier typically has a hard, wiry outer coat with a soft, dense undercoat. The coat should be trimmed and blended into the furnishings to give a distinct Scottish Terrier outline. The longer coat on the beard, legs and lower body may be slightly softer than the body coat but should not be or appear fluffy. The coat colours range from dark gray to jet black and brindle, a mix


title: "Scottish Terrier" content: of black and brown. Scotties with wheaten (straw to nearly white) coats sometimes occur, and are similar in appearance to the Soft-Coated Wheaten Terrier or West Highland White Terrier. Scotties are territorial, alert, quick moving and feisty, perhaps even more so than other terrier breeds. The breed is known to be independent and self-assured, playful, intelligent, and has been nicknamed the 'Diehard' because of its rugged nature and endless determination. The "Diehard" nickname was originally given to it in the 19th century by George, the fourth Earl of Dumbarton. The Earl had a famous pack of Scottish Terriers, so brave


title: "Scottish Terrier" content: that they were named “Diehards”. They were supposed to have inspired the name of his Regiment, The Royal Scots, "Dumbarton’s Diehards". Scotties, while being described as very loving, have also been described as stubborn. They are sometimes described as an aloof breed, although it has been noted that they tend to be very loyal to their family and are known to attach themselves to one or two people. It has been suggested that the Scottish Terrier can make a good watchdog due to its tendency to bark only when necessary and because it is typically reserved with strangers, although this


title: "Scottish Terrier" content: is not always the case. They have been described as a fearless breed that may be aggressive around other dogs unless introduced at an early age. Scottish Terriers were originally bred to hunt and fight badgers. Therefore, the Scottie is prone to dig as well as chase small vermin, such as squirrels, rats, and mice. Two genetic health concerns seen in the breed are von Willebrand disease (vWD) and craniomandibular osteopathy (CMO); Scottie cramp, patellar luxation and cerebellar abiotrophy are also sometimes seen in this breed. Common eye conditions seen in a variety of breeds such as cataracts and glaucoma


title: "Scottish Terrier" content: can appear in Scotties as they age. There are no specific conditions relating the skin that affect the breed, but they can be affected by common dog related conditions such as parasites and mange. Scotties typically live from 11 to 13 years. Scottish Terriers have a greater chance of developing some cancers than other purebreds. According to research by the Veterinary Medical Data Program (1986), six cancers that Scotties appeared to be more at risk for (when compared to other breeds) are: (in descending order) bladder cancer and other transitional cell carcinomas of the lower urinary tract; malignant melanoma; gastric


title: "Scottish Terrier" content: carcinoma; squamous cell carcinoma of the skin; lymphosarcoma and nasal carcinoma. Other cancers that are known to commonly affect Scotties include mast cell sarcoma and hemangiosarcoma. Research has suggested that Scottish Terriers are 20 times more likely to get bladder cancer than other breeds and the most common kind of bladder cancer is transitional cell carcinoma of the bladder (TCC). Dr. Deborah Knapp of Purdue University School of Veterinary Medicine has commented "TCC usually occurs in older dogs (average age 11 years) and is more common in females (2:1 ratio of females to males)." Symptoms of TCC are blood in


title: "Scottish Terrier" content: the urine, straining to urinate, and frequent urination—although owners noticing any of these symptoms should also be aware that the same symptoms may also be indicative of a urinary tract infection. The most common and effective form of treatment for TCC is Piroxicam, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug that "allows the cancer cells to kill themselves." In order to help prevent cancer in a dog, an owner should ensure that their dog has minimal exposure to herbicides, pesticides, solvents and cigarette smoke; use caution when treating dogs with some flea medications; provide a healthy, vitamin-rich diet (low in carbohydrates, high in


title: "Scottish Terrier" content: vegetables) and plenty of exercise. Scottie cramp is an autosomal recessive hereditary disorder which inhibits the dog's ability to walk. It is caused by a defect in the pathways in the brain that control muscle contraction due to a low level of serotonin in the body. Typically symptoms only show when the particular dog is under some degree of stress. The front legs are pushed out to the side, the back arches and the rear legs overflex, causing the dog to fall should it be moving at speed. The condition is not seizure related, and the dog remains conscious throughout


title: "Scottish Terrier" content: the event, with symptoms abating once the cause of the stress has been removed. Vitamin E, Diazepam and Prozac have all been shown to be effective treatments should it be required. Scotty cramp is found in other breeds of terrier, including the Cesky Terrier. "Episodic Falling", a condition found in Cavalier King Charles Spaniels is considered to be similar to this disorder. Also known as "Lion Jaw", "Westy Jaw" or "Scotty Jaw", this condition of craniomandibular osteopathy is caused by excessive bone growth in the bottom jaw, usually occurring between four and seven months of age. Like Scottie Cramp, it


title: "Scottish Terrier" content: is an autosomal recessive hereditary disorder, and can cause discomfort to the dog when it attempts to chew. The progression of the condition usually slows down between eleven and thirteen months of age, and is sometimes followed by a slow partial or complete regression. This condition has also been seen in other breeds of dog, such as the West Highland White Terrier, Cairn Terrier, Boston Terrier, as well as some larger breeds such as Bullmastiffs. Von Willebrand's disease is a hereditary bleeding disorder found in both dogs and humans. It is caused by a lack of von Willebrand factor which


title: "Scottish Terrier" content: plays a role in the clotting process of blood. This can cause abnormal platelet function and prolonged bleeding times. Affected dogs can be prone to nose bleeds, and increased bleeding following trauma or surgery. There are three types of this condition with Type I being the most common, while Type II and III being rarer, but more severe. Type I von Willebrand's disease is relatively common in the Scottish Terrier. Type I is more widespread in Doberman Pinscher, but is as common in the Shetland Sheepdog as the Scottish Terrier. The condition appears in most breeds to some extent, but


title: "Scottish Terrier" content: other breeds with an increased risk include the Golden Retriever, German Shepherd Dog, Basset Hound and Manchester Terrier. Initial grouping of several of the highland terriers (including the Scottie) under the generic name "Skye Terriers" caused some confusion in the breed’s lineage. There is disagreement over whether the Skye Terriers mentioned in early 16th century records actually descended from forerunners of the Scottie or vice versa. It is certain, however, that Scotties and West Highland White Terriers are closely related—both their forefathers originated from the Blackmount region of Perthshire and the Moor of Rannoch. Scotties were originally bred to hunt


title: "Scottish Terrier" content: and kill vermin on farms and to hunt badgers and foxes in the Highlands of Scotland. The actual origin of a breed as old as the Scottish Terrier is obscure and undocumented. The first written records about a dog of similar description to the Scottish Terrier dates from 1436, when Don Leslie described them in his book "The History of Scotland 1436–1561". Two hundred years later, Sir Joshua Reynolds painted a portrait of a young girl caressing a dog similar in appearance to the modern-day Scottie. King James VI of Scotland was an important historical figure featuring in the Scottish


title: "Scottish Terrier" content: Terrier's history. In the 17th century, when King James VI became James I of England, he sent six terriers—thought to be forerunners of the Scottish terrier—to a French monarch as a gift. His love and adoration for the breed increased their popularity throughout the world. Many dog writers after the early 19th century seem to agree that there were two varieties of terrier existing in Britain at the time—a rough-haired so-called Scotch Terrier and a smooth-haired English Terrier. Thomas Brown, in his "Biological Sketches and Authentic Anecdotes of Dogs" (1829), states that "the Scotch Terrier is certainly the purest in


title: "Scottish Terrier" content: point of breed and the (smooth) English seems to have been produced by a cross from him". Brown went on to describe the Scotch Terrier as "low in stature, with a strong muscular body, short stout legs, a head large in proportion to the body" and was "generally of a sandy colour or black" with a "long, matted and hard" coat. Although the Scotch Terrier described here is more generic than specific to a breed, it asserts the existence of a small, hard, rough-coated terrier developed for hunting small game in the Scottish Highlands in the early 19th century; a


title: "Scottish Terrier" content: description that shares characteristics with what was once known as the Aberdeen Terrier and is today known as the Scottish Terrier. In addition, the paintings of Sir Edwin Landseer and an 1835 lithograph entitled "Scottish Terriers at Work on a Cairn in the West Highlands" both depict Scottie type terriers very similar to those described in the first Scottish Terrier Standard. In the 19th century, the Highlands of Scotland, including the Isle of Skye, were abundant with terriers originally known by the generic term "short-haired terriers" or "little Skye Terriers." Towards the end of the 19th century, it was decided


title: "Scottish Terrier" content: to separate these Scottish terriers and develop pure bloodlines and specific breeds. Originally, the breeds were separated into two categories: Dandie Dinmont Terriers and Skye Terriers (not the Skye Terrier known today, but a generic name for a large group of terriers with differing traits all said to originate from the Isle of Skye). The Birmingham England dog show of 1860 was the first to offer classes for these groups of terriers. They continued to be exhibited in generic groups for several years and these groups included the ancestors of today's Scottish Terrier. Recorded history and the initial development of


title: "Scottish Terrier" content: the breed started in the late 1870s with the development of dog shows. The exhibition and judging of dogs required comparison to a breed standard and thus the appearance and temperament of the Scottie was written down for the first time. Eventually, the Skye Terriers were further divided into what are known today as the Scottish Terrier, Skye Terrier, West Highland White Terrier and Cairn Terrier. While fanciers sought to identify and standardize the breed and its description through the late 19th century, the Scottish Terrier was known by many different names: the Highland, the Cairn, Diehard, and most often,


title: "Scottish Terrier" content: the Aberdeen Terrier—named because of the abundant number of the dogs in the area and because a J. A. Adamson of Aberdeen successfully exhibited his dogs during the 1870s. Roger Rough, a dog owned by Adamson, Tartan, a dog owned by Mr Paynton Piggott, Bon Accord, owned by Messrs Ludlow and Bromfield, and Splinter II owned by Mr Ludlow, were early winners of dog exhibitions and are the four dogs from which all Scottish Terrier pedigrees ultimately began. It is often said that all present day Scotties stem from a single bitch, Splinter II, and two sires. In her book,


title: "Scottish Terrier" content: "The New Scottish Terrier", Cindy Cooke refers to Splinter II as the "foundation matron of the modern Scottish Terrier." Cooke goes on to say "For whatever reason, early breeders line bred on this bitch to the virtual exclusion of all others. Mated to Tartan, she produced Worry, the dam of four champions. Rambler, her son by Bonaccord, sired the two founding sires of the breed, "Ch. Dundee" (out of Worry) and "Ch. Alistair" (out of a Dundee daughter)" Show champions on both sides of the Atlantic descend from Splinter and her sires. Captain Gordon Murray and S.E. Shirley were responsible


title: "Scottish Terrier" content: for setting the type in 1879. Shortly afterwards, in 1879, Scotties were for the first time exhibited at Alexander Palace in England, while the following year they began to be classified in much the same way as is done today. The first written standard of the breed was drafted by J.B. Morrison and D.J. Thomson Gray and appeared in Vero Shaw's "Illustrated Book of The Dog", published in 1880; it was extremely influential in setting both breed type and name. The standard described the breed's colouring as "Grey, Grizzle or Brindle", as the typically Black colouring of Scotties did not


title: "Scottish Terrier" content: become fashionable or favoured until the 20th century. In 1881 the "Scottish Terrier Club of England" was founded, being the first club dedicated to the breed. The club secretary, H.J. Ludlow, is responsible for greatly popularising the breed in the southern parts of Great Britain. The "Scottish Terrier Club of Scotland" was not founded until 1888, seven years after the English club. Following the formation of the English and Scottish clubs there followed several years of disagreement regarding the breed's official standard. The issue was finally settled by a revised standard in 1930, which was based on four prepotent dogs.


title: "Scottish Terrier" content: The dogs were Robert and James Chapman's Heather Necessity, Albourne Barty, bred by AG Cowley, Albourne Annie Laurie, bred by Miss Wijk and Miss Wijk's Marksman of Docken (the litter brother of Annie Laurie). These four dogs and their offspring modified the look of the Scottie, particularly the length of the head, closeness to the ground and the squareness of body. Their subsequent success in the show ring led to them becoming highly sought after by the British public and breeders. As such, the modified standard completely revolutionized the breed. This new standard was subsequently recognised by the Kennel Club


title: "Scottish Terrier" content: UK circa 1930. Scotties were introduced to America in the early 1890s, but it was not until the years between World War I and World War II that the breed became popular. The Scottish Terrier Club of America (STCA) was formed in 1900 and a standard written in 1925. The Scottish Terrier was recognized by the United Kennel Club in 1934. By 1936, Scotties were the third most popular breed in the United States. Although they did not permanently stay in fashion, they continue to enjoy a steady popularity with a large segment of the dog-owning public across the world.


title: "Scottish Terrier" content: The STCA founded its Health Trust Fund (HTF) in 1995 which supports research on health issues in the breed. Scottish Terriers have won best in show at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show more than any other breed except for the Wire Fox Terrier, a total of nine times. These victories began in 1911 with a win by Ch. Tickle Em Jock and include recent victories such as in 1995 when Ch. Gaelforce Post Script (Peggy Sue) won, and in 2010 with a victory by Ch. Roundtown Mercedes Of Maryscot. The Scottie and the German Shepherd are the only breeds


title: "Scottish Terrier" content: of dog that have lived in the White House more than three times. President Franklin D. Roosevelt was renowned for owning a Scottie named Fala, a gift from his distant cousin, Margaret Suckley. The President loved Fala so much that he rarely went anywhere without him. Roosevelt had several Scotties before Fala, including one named Duffy and another named Mr. Duffy. Eleanor Roosevelt had a Scottish Terrier named Meggie when the family entered the White House in 1933. More recently, President George W. Bush has owned two black Scottish Terriers, Barney and Miss Beazley. Barney starred in nine films produced


title: "Scottish Terrier" content: by the White House. Other famous people who are known to have owned Scotties include: Queen Victoria, Eva Braun, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Ed Whitfield, Rudyard Kipling and President of Poland, Lech Kaczyński. Actress Tatum O'Neal owned a Scottish Terrier. She was said to be so saddened by her dog's death to cancer and old age that she relapsed into drugs. The Scottie is also renowned for being featured in the popular board game, Monopoly, as a player token. When the game was first created in the 1930s, Scotties were one of the most popular pets in the


title: "Scottish Terrier" content: United States, and it is also one of the most popular Monopoly game tokens, according to Matt Collins, vice president of marketing for Hasbro. In Disney's 1955 film "Lady and the Tramp", a Scottish terrier named Jock is the friend of Lady, the American Cocker Spaniel. A Scottish Terrier named Dulcinea is a scene-stealer in the 1998 Latin American novel Yo-Yo Boing! by Giannina Braschi. In May 2007, Carnegie Mellon University named the Scottish Terrier its official mascot. The Scottie had been a long-running unofficial mascot of the university, whose founder's Scottish heritage is also honored by the official athletic


title: "Scottish Terrier" content: nickname of "Tartans". Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia also uses the Scottie as their mascot. The dog's image is a symbol for the Radley brand of bags. The amateur athletics organisation Jogscotland has an anthropomorphic Scottish Terrier as its mascot. Scottish Terrier The Scottish Terrier (; also known as the Aberdeen Terrier), popularly called the Scottie, is a breed of dog. Initially one of the highland breeds of terrier that were grouped under the name of "Skye Terrier", it is one of five breeds of terrier that originated in Scotland, the other four being the modern Skye, Cairn, Dandie


title: "Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15" content: 1 overall, and likely closer to 1.3 to 1 against MiGs flown by Soviet pilots. In April 1951, a crashed MiG-15 was spotted near the Chongchon River. On 17 April 1951, a USAF Sikorsky H-19 staging through Baengnyeongdo carried a US/South Korean team to the crash site. They photographed the wreck and removed the turbine blades, combustion chamber, exhaust pipe and horizontal stabilizer. The overloaded helicopter then flew the team and samples back to Paengyong-do, where they were transferred to an SA-16 and flown south and then to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, for evaluation. In July 1951, the submerged


title: "Common loon" content: Common loon The common loon or great northern diver ("Gavia immer") is a large member of the loon, or diver, family of birds. Breeding adults have a plumage that includes a broad black head and neck with a greenish, purplish, or bluish sheen, blackish or blackish-grey upperparts, and pure white underparts except some black on the undertail coverts and vent. Non-breeding adults are brownish with a dark neck and head marked with dark grey-brown. Their upperparts are dark brownish-grey with an unclear pattern of squares on the shoulders, and the underparts, lower face, chin, and throat are whitish. The sexes


title: "Common loon" content: look alike, though males are significantly heavier than females. During the breeding season, loons live on lakes and other waterways in Canada; the northern United States (including Alaska); and southern parts of Greenland and Iceland. Small numbers breed on Svalbard and sporadically elsewhere in Arctic Eurasia. Common loons winter on both coasts of the US as far south as Mexico, and on the Atlantic coast of Europe. Common loons eat a variety of animal prey including fish, crustaceans, insect larvae, molluscs, and occasionally aquatic plant life. They swallow most of their prey underwater, where it is caught, but some larger


title: "Common loon" content: items are first brought to the surface. Loons are monogamous; that is, a single female and male often together defend a territory and may breed together for a decade or more. Both members of a pair build a large nest out of dead marsh grasses and other plants formed into a mound along the vegetated shores of lakes. A single brood is raised each year from a clutch of one or two olive-brown oval eggs with dark brown spots which are incubated for about 28 days by both parents. Fed by both parents, the chicks fledge in 70 to 77


title: "Common loon" content: days. The chicks are capable of diving underwater when just a few days old, and they fly to their wintering areas before ice forms in the fall. The common loon is assessed as a species of least concern on the IUCN Red List of Endangered Species. It is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds applies. The United States Forest Service has designated the common loon a species of special status because of threats from habitat loss and toxic metal poisoning in its US range. The common loon is the provincial bird


title: "Common loon" content: of Ontario, and it appears on Canadian currency, including the one-dollar "loonie" coin and a previous series of $20 bills. In 1961, it was designated the state bird of Minnesota, and appears on the Minnesota State Quarter. The common loon is also known as the great northern diver in Eurasia. (Another former name, great northern loon, was a compromise proposed by the International Ornithological Committee.) It is one of five loon species that make up the genus "Gavia", the only genus of the family Gaviidae and order Gaviiformes. Its closest relative is another large black-headed species, the yellow-billed loon or


title: "Common loon" content: white-billed diver ("Gavia adamsii"). There are no recognised subspecies of the common loon. Danish zoologist and mineralogist Morten Thrane Brünnich first described the common loon in 1764, as "Colymbus" "immer" in his "Ornithologia Borealis". The now-defunct genus "Colymbus" contained grebes as well as loons, and remained in use until the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature attempted to clarify the nomenclature in 1956 by declaring "Colymbus" a suppressed name unfit for further use and establishing "Gavia", created by Johann Reinhold Forster in 1788, as the valid genus name for the loons. The current genus name "Gavia" was the Latin term for


title: "Common loon" content: an unidentified seabird and the specific "immer" is derived from a Norwegian name for the bird, similar to the modern Icelandic word "himbrimi". The word may be related to Swedish "immer" and "emmer": the grey or blackened ashes of a fire (referring to the loon's dark plumage); or to Latin "immergo", to immerse, and "immersus", submerged. The European name "diver" comes from the bird's practice of catching fish by diving. The North American name "loon" was first recorded in this sense in "New Englands Prospect" (1634) by William Wood (1580-1639); "The Loone is an ill shap'd thing like a Cormorant".


title: "Common loon" content: It may be derived from Old Norse "lómr", as are modern Swedish and Danish "lom", in each case referring to the distinctive call. A number of fossil loon species are known from the Pliocene, and specimens from the Pleistocene of California and Florida appear to represent a paleosubspecies of the common loon. The adult common loon can range from in length with a wingspan, slightly smaller than the similar yellow-billed loon. On average, it is about long and has a wingspan of . Its weight can vary anywhere from . Sizes vary regionally, especially by body mass, with the smallest


title: "Common loon" content: bodied loons on average from lower-central Canada and the Great Lakes, while westerly birds are similar or mildly larger, and loons breeding further east can appear to be significantly larger. Furthermore, males average up to nearly 27% more massive than females in some populations. Breeding loons in Maine averaged in females and in males, essentially the same weight as the yellow-billed loon although the yellow-billed is still larger than in linear dimensions (especially bill length) than the Maine loons. In Ontario, 20 females averaged and 20 males averaged . On the contrary, in the Gulf of Alaska, adults of both


title: "Common loon" content: sexes reportedly averaged . Adult breeding plumage consists of a broad black head and neck with greenish, purplish, or bluish sheen. It has a black bill sometimes with a pale tip, and red eyes with red irises. The neck is encircled with a characteristic black ring and has two white necklaces of eight to ten short streaks on the upper foreneck, and a noticeable collar of white, parallel lines forming a large oval on the neck-side. The central lower foreneck is pure white, and the lower neck-sides has longitudinal white lines becoming rows of small spots and black lines becoming


title: "Common loon" content: very narrow. The upperparts are blackish or blackish grey, and each feather has small white spots on it. The upperwing is blackish and with small white spots on the non-primary coverts, whereas the underwing is paler with white coverts except the long black shaft-streaks on the axillaries. The underparts are pure white, but have some black on the undertail coverts and vent. It has a checkered black-and-white mantle and a blackish tail. The legs are pale grey on the inner half and blackish on the outer half, and the webs between the toes are flesh coloured. Adult non-breeding plumage is


title: "Common loon" content: brownish with a dark neck and head marked with dark grey-brown. The eyes are surrounded with white, and the eyelids are pale. The bill is mostly pale grey, with a dark culmen and tip, but in early spring the tip may turn whitish. The underparts, lower face, chin, and throat are also whitish. The foreneck is whitish, usually forming wedge-shaped notch in dark neck-sides, and may sometimes reveal a shadowy trace of the neck ring or a pale collar. It has dark brownish grey upperparts with an unclear pattern of squares on the shoulders and some wing coverts spotted with


title: "Common loon" content: white, which are usually concealed while swimming. The male and the female have similar appearances, although they exhibit sexual dimorphism in their physical dimensions with the male larger and significantly heavier than the female. The heavy dagger-like bill is evenly tapered and greyish, sometimes having a black tip. The bill colour and angle distinguish this species from the yellow-billed loon. The neck is short and thick. It swims very low in the water, with sometimes only its head held above and horizontal to water. It must run across the water surface to get in flight. During flight, its head is


title: "Common loon" content: slightly lower than its body, with its feet trailing behind. It has a skeletal structure made up of a number of solid bones (this is usual for the Gaviiformes and penguins but unlike most flying birds which have bones with extensive pneumatization, hollow and filled with air to make the lighter), which adds weight but helps in diving. A juvenile often has a dark, brownish-grey nape that may look darker than the pale-edged black feathers. It has a dark grey to black head, neck, and upperparts, with white throat, cheeks, and underparts. During the first winter, the bill shape of


title: "Common loon" content: the young may not be as fully developed as that of the adult, and during the second winter, it much resembles the breeding adult, but with wing coverts lacking white spots. The common loon is distinguished from the black-throated loon ("G. arctica") and the red-throated loon ("G. stellata") mainly by its larger size. It usually has a steeper forehead and a bulging forecrown, somewhat similar to the black-throated loon. Its bill is heavier and the back is paler than its hindneck. It is more difficult to separate from the yellow-billed loon, but its breeding plumage has more white markings on


title: "Common loon" content: the neck and the squares on its shoulders are usually smaller; the non-breeding plumage has darker neck-sides contrasting more sharply with pale areas and bill colour. The scaly juvenile plumage is retained until January or February of the year following hatching, when a lengthy moult of head and body feathers gives them a more adult-like appearance. Adults shed all their flight feathers simultaneously around this time, leaving them temporarily flightless, prior to gaining breeding plumage, but second-year birds delay this substantial moult until the summer. The adult winter plumage is attained between October and January by partial moult mainly of


title: "Common loon" content: head, body and tail feathers. Common loons are mainly Nearctic, and breed from 48° N to the Arctic Circle, locally south to 40° N and north to 78° N. During their breeding season in spring and summer, most common loons live on lakes and other waterways in the northern United States and Canada, as well as in southern parts of Greenland, in Iceland, in Svalbard, in Jan Mayen, and in Bear Island in Norway; and in Alaska, to the west, and very rarely in Scotland, to the east. Their summer habitat ranges from wooded lakes to tundra ponds. The lakes


title: "Common loon" content: must be large enough for flight take-off, and provide a large population of small fish. Deep lakes with warm surface waters, relatively low biological productivity and low turbidity where their fish prey are easy to see are habitats where breeding loons are more successful in raising young. For protection from predators, common loons favour lakes with islands and coves. They are rare visitors to the Arctic coast. They are known to exhibit high breeding site fidelity. Some common loons remain in Iceland year-round, although most migrate. In North America, they winter mainly along north Atlantic and north-east Pacific coasts, many


title: "Common loon" content: stopping off on the Great Lakes during their migration. They migrate in the day, starting about two hours after sunrise and flying at altitudes of 1500 to 2700 m above sea level, above the convective and turbulent layer of air. In winter they can be seen on North America coasts as far south as Baja California, Sonora, northern Sinaloa, southern Texas, and rarely northern Tamaulipas. In the east, several thousand winter along western European coasts, probably originating from Iceland, Greenland, and Canada. Their range extends into northwestern Europe from Finland to Portugal and southern and northwestern Spain (Galicia and Asturias),


title: "Common loon" content: as well as the western Mediterranean off Catalonia, and off Morocco in Africa, although only a few hundred travel as far south as Iberia. Although wintering site fidelity is not well known, annually, adults are observed to return to the same wintering locations in the Pacific Ocean (Morro Bay), the Gulf of Mexico (Barataria Bay), the Atlantic Ocean (Maryland and Massachusetts), and the reservoir Lake Pateros. They usually winter along coasts and on inland lakes, bays, inlets, and streams, with birds migrating to the nearest body of water that will not freeze over in the winter: western Canadian loons go


title: "Common loon" content: to the Pacific, Great Lakes loons to the Gulf of Mexico region, eastern Canadian loons to the Atlantic, and some loons to large inland lakes and reservoirs. They appear in most of the inland waters of the United States. The South Carolina coast, the Gulf coast adjacent to the Florida panhandle, and the Atlantic seaboard from Massachusetts to Maine have some of the highest concentrations of common loons. Occasional vagrants are recorded inland in Mexico, in San Luis Potosí and Coahuila, as well as in Chiapas and Oaxaca in the south. They are accidental in northern Japan and the Commander


title: "Common loon" content: Islands in northwestern Pacific, and Cuba in the West Indies. The common loon is an expert fisher, catching its prey underwater by diving as deep as . With its large webbed feet, the common loon is an efficient underwater pursuit predator and adroit diver. It needs a long run-up distance to gain momentum for flight take-off, and is ungainly on land, sliding on its belly and pushing itself forward with its legs. Its clumsiness on land is due to the legs being positioned at the rear of its body; the pelvic muscles are well developed, ideal for swimming but not


title: "Common loon" content: well-suited for walking. When it lands on water, it skims along on its belly to slow down, rather than braking with its feet, as they are set too far back. The common loon swims and dives well, and flies competently for hundreds of kilometres in migration. It flies with its neck outstretched, usually calling a particular tremolo that can be used to identify a flying loon. Its flying speed is as much as during migration. Fish account for about 80% of the diet of the common loon. It forages on fish of up to in length, including minnows, suckers, gizzard


title: "Common loon" content: shad, rock bass, alewife, northern pike, whitefish, sauger, brown bullhead, pumpkinseed, burbot, walleye, bluegill, white crappie, black crappie, rainbow smelt, and killifish. The young typically eat small minnows, and sometimes insects and fragments of green vegetation. The freshwater diet primarily consists of pike, perch, sunfish, trout, and bass; the saltwater diet primarily consists of rock fish, flounder, sea trout, herring, Atlantic croaker, haddock, and Gulf silverside. When there is either a lack of fish or they are difficult to catch, it preys on crustaceans, crayfish, snails, leeches, insect larvae, molluscs, frogs, annelids, and occasionally aquatic plant matter such as pondweed,


title: "Common loon" content: roots, moss, willow shoots, seeds, and algae. It has also been known to eat ducklings. The common loon uses its powerful hind legs to propel its body underwater at high speed to catch its prey, which it then swallows head-first. If the fish attempts to evade the common loon, the bird chases it down with excellent underwater manoeuvrability due to its tremendously strong legs. Most prey are swallowed underwater, where they are caught, but some larger prey are first brought to the surface. It is a visual predator, so it is essential to hunting success that the water is clear.


title: "Common loon" content: It normally dives , but has been recorded to dive up to . The average diving time is 42 seconds, but the maximum duration spent underwater is about . The common loon's mating system is serially monogamous; breeding pairs jointly defend a territory consisting of an entire small lake or a protected bay within a large lake. A given male and female remain together throughout a breeding attempt, rear their own biological offspring, reunite each spring, and may breed together for many consecutive years. However, in the event of death or territorial eviction of one pair member by an intruding


title: "Common loon" content: loon of the same sex, the other pair member quickly establishes a pair bond with the evicting bird. (Hence, most adult loons have two or more different mates during their lives.) Evicting individuals tend to be young males and females (5 to 9 years old), while evicted adults are often those 15 years and older. Pairs do not remain together during winter; in addition, males usually precede females by a few days during spring migration, settling on their territory once a portion of it becomes ice-free. Copulation takes place ashore, often on the nest site, repeated daily until the eggs


title: "Common loon" content: are laid. The preceding courtship is very simple, with mutual bill-dipping and dives. The displays towards intruders, such as bow-jumping (an alternation of fencing and bill-dipping postures and rushing (running "along the surface with its wings either folded or half-extended and flapping at about the same speed as when taking off") are often misinterpreted as courtship. Nesting typically begins in early May. Significantly more nesting sites are found on islands than on mainland shoreline. Breeding pairs patrol their territories routinely, even at night, defending the territory both physically and vocally. Pairs that nested together the preceding year typically reuse the


title: "Common loon" content: nest site from the previous year, if they hatched chicks successfully there. In contrast, pairs that lost their eggs to a predator usually shift the nest to a new location. This logical behaviour pattern appears to depend upon the male, because breeding pairs consisting of last year's male and a female not present during the preceding year continue to exhibit the behaviour; pairs composed of last year's female and a new male tend to select a new nest site, regardless of the success or failure of the previous year's attempt. Despite the lead role of males in nest site selection,


title: "Common loon" content: both sexes contribute substantially to nest construction. The nest is about wide and is constructed out of dead marsh grasses and other indigenous plants, and formed into a mound along the vegetated coasts of lakes greater than . After a week of construction in late spring, one parent climbs on top to mold the interior of the nest to the shape of its body. Based on a number of studies, nesting success averages about 40%, and most newly hatched young survive due to parental care. Eggs from first clutches are typically laid in May or early June, the timing depending


title: "Common loon" content: largely upon the date that lakes become ice-free and inhabitable. A clutch consists of two (occasionally one) olive-brown oval eggs with dark brown spots. Incubation is carried out jointly by male and female and lasts about 28 days. Loons often place nests along steep lake shorelines where adults can quickly dive underwater when approached by predators. The eggs are about long and wide and the two eggs are laid with an interval of one to three days between them, and hatch asynchronously. Newly hatched chicks are dark chocolate brown in color and have a white belly. Within hours of hatching,


title: "Common loon" content: the young begin to leave the nest with the parents, swimming close by and sometimes riding on one parent's back. Parents and chicks initially stay in shallow, isolated bays where the parents are able to defend the chicks better from intruding loons and eagles, which are their main predators. Male parents defend broods consisting of two chicks more vigorously than singleton chicks, chiefly with the territorial yodel call. The chicks are capable of making shallow dives from their first day but make deeper dives as they grow. Fledging takes 70 to 77 days. Usually, only one brood is raised. Both


title: "Common loon" content: parents feed the chicks live prey from hatching to fledging. As they grow, chicks are able to catch an increasingly large proportion of their diet by themselves; they can feed and fend for themselves after about two months, although many juveniles continue to beg from adults well beyond this age. The parent birds capture small fish and hold them crosswise in their bill, call and approach the chicks with their head lowered so that the chicks can grasp them. If food is scarce, the larger chick may peck its small sibling incessantly; on small lakes with limited food, only one


title: "Common loon" content: chick often survives. Juveniles leave the breeding ground before ice formation in the fall, weeks after their parents. A pair of loons raising two chicks have been estimated to feed on 423 kg of fish during the five and a half months that they spend in their breeding territory. Loons exhibit a strong tendency to settle as breeders on a lake that resembles their natal one, a phenomenon termed natal habitat imprinting. This preference is based on two lake attributes: size and pH. The behaviour is puzzling, because it is as strong in loons hatched on small, acidic lakes as


title: "Common loon" content: those from large lakes of neutral pH. Hence, the former group is exhibiting active preference for lakes that have been shown to result in higher chick mortality and lower breeding success. The common loon produces a variety of vocalizations, the most common of which are the tremolo, the yodel, the wail, and the hoot. Each of these calls communicates a distinct message. The frequency at which it vocalizes has been shown to vary based on time of day, weather, and season. It is most vocally active between mid-May and mid-June. The wail, yodel, and tremolo calls are sounded more frequently


title: "Common loon" content: at night than during the day; calls have also been shown to occur more frequently in cold temperatures and when there is little to no rain. The tremolo call—sometimes called the "laughing" call—is characterized by its short, wavering quality. It often uses this call to signal distress or alarm caused by territorial disputes or perceived threats. It emits a tremulous series of up to 10 rather high notes "(hu)-heheheheheheha". It also uses the tremolo to communicate its presence to other loons when they arrive at a lake, often when they are flying overhead. It is the only vocalization used in


title: "Common loon" content: flight. The tremolo call has varying three levels of intensities that correlate with a loon's level of distress, and the types are differentiated by increasingly higher pitch frequencies added to the call. The yodel is a long and complex call made only by the male. It is used in the establishment of territorial boundaries and in territorial confrontations, and the length of the call corresponds with the loon's level of aggression. The dominant frequencies in the yodel indicate the body mass and thereby the health of males. A male that occupies a new territory appears to alter its yodel to


title: "Common loon" content: be clearly distinguishable from the call of the previous territory owner. A loon's wail is a long call consisting of up to three notes, and is often compared to a wolf's howl. It uses this call to communicate its location to other loons. The call is given back and forth between breeding pairs or an adult and its chick, either to maintain contact or in an attempt to move closer together after being separated. It is a loud "aaoo", "weee-wea weee-wea weee-wea", or "ooo-aaah-éééé". The hoot is a short, soft call and is another form of contact call. It is


title: "Common loon" content: a more intimate call than the wail and is used exclusively between small family groups or flocks. The common loon hoots to let other family or flock members know where it is. This call is often heard when the adult loon is summoning its chicks to feed. Considerable information on longevity and survival rates has been collected in the past two decades, owing to the implementation of an efficient capture protocol that permits marking and monitoring of large study populations. A rough preliminary analysis showed that common loons of both sexes survive at an annual rate of over 90% until


title: "Common loon" content: they reach their mid-20s, but show a survival rate of only about 75% thereafter. However, a second, finer-scaled analysis made clear that male loons begin to show higher mortality, increased territory loss and lower body condition starting at age 15. Perhaps in response to their physical decline, males 15 and older show increased rates of both territorial aggression and territorial vocalization. This age-related shift in behaviour is interpreted as terminal investment, a "go for broke" strategy seen in senescing animals that are attempting to eke out another year or two of breeding before they die. Adult common loons have few


title: "Common loon" content: predators, although bald eagles will attack incubating birds. Attacks by sharks in winter have also been recorded. When a predator approaches (either the loon's nest or the loon itself), the common loon sometimes attacks the predator by rushing at it and trying to stab it with its dagger-like bill, aiming its attacks either at the predator's abdomen or the back of its head or neck, which may be deadly to predators up to the size of a fox or raccoon. Eggs are taken by a number of mammals, including American mink, striped skunk, otters, foxes and raccoons, with the latter


title: "Common loon" content: being responsible for nearly 40% of all nest failures. Birds such as herring gulls, northern ravens and American crows will eat unattended eggs. Because their nests are at the water's edge, common loon eggs are especially vulnerable if the adult is absent. Chicks may be killed by common snapping turtles, large gulls, bald eagles and large fish such as northern pike and largemouth bass. The eagle in particular is a significant predator of chicks. Internal parasites of the common loon include many species of worms, including flatworms, tapeworms, nematodes and spiny-headed worms. High levels of worms may result from feeding


title: "Common loon" content: changes due to low availability of fish, and can lead to illness and death. Protozoal infections including one caused by "Eimeria gaviae" and avian malaria have been recorded in this loon. The black fly "Simulium annulus" is closely associated with the common loon to which it is attracted to chemicals in the uropygial gland secretions as well as by visual and tactile cues. This fly is detrimental to loons, their preferred hosts, transmitting blood-borne parasites and viruses, and causing nest abandonment when numbers are high. External parasites include ischnoceran feather lice, although these are not found on the bird's head.


title: "Common loon" content: Botulism, acquired by eating infected fish, can lead to paralysis and drowning. Aspergillosis is another cause of emaciation and death. Outbreaks sometimes lead to thousands of deaths. Since 1998, the common loon has been rated as a species of least concern on the IUCN Red List of Endangered Species. This is because it has a large range – more than – and because it has a stable population trend that does not warrant a vulnerable rating. In addition, it also has a large population size of 612,000 to 640,000 individuals. The estimated breeding population ranges from 1,400 to 2,600 mature


title: "Common loon" content: individuals in Europe. Over half of the breeding population in North America is found in Ontario with 97,000 territorial pairs, and in Quebec with 50,000 territorial pairs. About 2,400 individuals occur in each of the maritime provinces of Canada—Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. British Columbia accounts for 25,000 territorial pairs. In far northern Canada, about 50,000 territorial pairs are known to occur, and 12,500 to 15,000 territorial pairs occur in the Prairie Provinces of Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan. In the United States, the largest breeding population is present in Alaska with 3,600 to 6,000 territorial pairs. The U.S. Great Lakes


title: "Common loon" content: region has 5,900 to 7,200 territorial pairs which accounts for over half of the breeding population in the United States. There are about 100 territorial pairs in the northwestern U.S. states of Washington, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. About 2,250 territorial pairs are found in New England and New York. In winter, 3,500 to 4,500 individuals are found in the United Kingdom, and even fewer individuals are found in the western European coastline and in Iceland. Along the Pacific Coast, about 184,000 to 189,000 adults and 31,000 to 32,000 juveniles are found, and along the Atlantic Coast, 423,000 to 446,000 adults


title: "Common loon" content: and 72,000 to 76,000 juveniles are found. The common loon is listed under Appendix II of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species, and in Article I under the European Union (EU) Birds Directive. It is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) is applied. In Europe it appears in 20 Important Bird Areas (IBAs), including Ireland, Svalbard, mainland Norway, Iceland, Spain, and the United Kingdom. It is also a listed species in 83 Special Protection Areas in the EU Natura 2000 network. The USDA National Forest Service has designated


title: "Common loon" content: the common loon a species of special status, and in the upper Great Lake regions of the Huron-Manistee, Ottawa, and Hiawatha national forests as a regional forester sensitive species. The common loon's breeding range has moved northward, the species breeding as far south as Iowa a century ago. It is adversely affected by acid rain and pollution, as well as lead poisoning from fishing sinkers (especially those that are about the size of the grit stones they ingest) and mercury contamination from industrial waste. Heavy metals such as mercury may be partially removed through biological processes such as excretion or


title: "Common loon" content: deposition in feathers, but their adverse effects are magnified through concentration of the toxic elements in organs such as the liver. Eggs shells may also contain metal contaminants, leading to low reproductive productivity. High levels of heavy metals are linked to loons being in poor condition, males being affected more because they eat larger fish. The common loon has also faced a decline in breeding range due to hunting, predation, and water-level fluctuations, or flooding. Some environmentalists attempt to increase nesting success by mitigating the effects of some of these threats, namely terrestrial predation and water-level fluctuations, through the deployment


title: "Common loon" content: of rafts in the loon's breeding territories. In addition, artificial floating nesting platforms have been provided for the common loon in some lakes to reduce the impact of changing water levels due to dams and other human activities. The common loon abandons lakes that fail to provide suitable nesting habitat due to shoreline development. It is endangered by personal water-craft and powerboats that may drown newly born chicks, wash eggs away, or swamp nests. It is still considered an "injured" species in Alaska as a result of the Exxon Valdez oil spill. The voice and appearance of the common loon


title: "Common loon" content: has made it prominent in several Native American tales. These include an Ojibwe story of a loon that created the world, and a Micmac saga describing Kwee-moo, the loon who was a special messenger of Glooscap (Glu-skap), the tribal hero. The tale of the loon's necklace was handed down in many versions among Pacific Coast peoples. The Delaware in the east of North America and the Buryats of Siberia also had creation stories involving the loon. Folk names for the common loon include "big loon", "call-up-a-storm", "greenhead", "hell-diver", "walloon", "black-billed loon", "guinea duck", "imber diver", "ring-necked loon", and "ember-goose". An


title: "Common loon" content: old colloquial name from New England was "call-up-a-storm", as its noisy cries supposedly foretold stormy weather. Some old Scottish names such as arran hawk and carara are corruptions of old Scottish Gaelic onomatopoeic names representing the bird's call; others, like bishop and ember goose, were used to avoid older names for this sometimes ill-omened bird. The common loon was eaten in the Scottish Islands from the Neolithic until the eighteenth century, and its thick layer of fat beneath the skin was used as a cure for sciatica. The common loon appears on Canadian currency, including the one-dollar "loonie" coin and


title: "Common loon" content: the previous series of $20 bills. It is the provincial bird of Ontario. It was designated the state bird of the U.S. state of Minnesota in 1961, and also appears on the Minnesota State Quarter. Major League Soccer club Minnesota United FC uses the loon in its crest and nickname. The wailing call of the loon is widely used in film and television to evoke wilderness and suspense, and is referenced in songs such as "Old Devil Moon" ("wanna laugh like a loon"). The common loon is central to the plot of the children's novel "Great Northern?" by Arthur Ransome


title: "Common loon" content: (in which it is referred to throughout as "great northern diver", with the now-obsolete scientific name "Colymbus immer"). The story is set in the Outer Hebrides, where the main characters—a group of children on holiday—notice a pair of divers apparently nesting there. Checking their bird book, they believe that these are great northern divers. However, these have not previously been seen to nest in northern Scotland, and so they ask for help from an ornithologist. He confirms that these birds are indeed the great northern; unfortunately, it soon transpires that he does not wish merely to observe, but wants to


title: "Common loon" content: steal the eggs and add them to his collection, and to do this, he must first kill the birds. Published in 1947, the story is one where the conservationists are the eventual victors over the egg collector, at a time when the latter hobby was not widely considered to be harmful. In the 2016 Pixar movie "Finding Dory", a somewhat bedraggled and dimwitted loon named Becky is persuaded to use a bucket to help two of the main characters, Nemo and Marlin, get into a marine life institute where the titular Dory is trapped. Loons are also featured prominently in


title: "Common loon" content: the 1981 film "On Golden Pond". Common loon The common loon or great northern diver ("Gavia immer") is a large member of the loon, or diver, family of birds. Breeding adults have a plumage that includes a broad black head and neck with a greenish, purplish, or bluish sheen, blackish or blackish-grey upperparts, and pure white underparts except some black on the undertail coverts and vent. Non-breeding adults are brownish with a dark neck and head marked with dark grey-brown. Their upperparts are dark brownish-grey with an unclear pattern of squares on the shoulders, and the underparts, lower face, chin,


title: "Hypericum perforatum" content: Hypericum perforatum Hypericum perforatum, known as perforate St John's-wort, common Saint John's wort and St John's wort, is a flowering plant in the family Hypericaceae. Although used as a medicinal herb with possible antidepressant activity, high-quality clinical evidence for such effects is limited. The plant is poisonous to livestock. The primary phytochemical constituent of St John's wort is hyperforin. Perforate St John's wort is a herbaceous perennial plant with extensive, creeping rhizomes. Its reddish stems are erect and branched in the upper section, and can grow up to high. The stems are woody near their base and may appear jointed


title: "Hypericum perforatum" content: from leaf scars. The branches are typically clustered about a depressed base. It has opposite and stalkless leaves that are narrow and oblong in shape and long. Leaves borne on the branches subtend the shortened branchlets. The leaves are yellow-green in color, with scattered translucent dots of glandular tissue. The dots are conspicuous when held up to the light, giving the leaves the "perforated" appearance to which the plant's Latin name refers. The flowers measure up to across, have five petals and sepals, and are colored bright yellow with conspicuous black dots. The flowers appear in broad helicoid cymes at


title: "Hypericum perforatum" content: the ends of the upper branches, between late spring and early to mid summer. The cymes are leafy and bear many flowers. The pointed sepals have black glandular dots. The many stamens are united at the base into three bundles. The pollen grains are ellipsoidal. The black and lustrous seeds are rough, netted with coarse grooves. When flower buds (not the flowers themselves) or seed pods are crushed, a reddish/purple liquid is produced. The specific epithet "perforatum" is Latin, referring to the perforated appearance of the plant's leaves. It is probable that "Hypericum perforatum" originated as a hybrid between two


title: "Hypericum perforatum" content: closely related species with subsequent doubling of chromosomes. One species is certainly a diploid a subspecies of "Hypericum maculatum", either subspecies "maculatum" or "immaculatum". Subspecies "maculatum" is similar in distribution and hybridizes easily with "Hypericum perforatum", but subspecies "immaculatum" is more similar morphologically. The other parent is most likely "Hypericum attenuatum" as it possesses the features of "Hypericum perforatum" that "Hypericum maculatum" lacks. Though "Hypericum maculatum" is mostly western in its distribution across Eurasia and "Hypericum attenuatum" is mostly eastern, both species share distribution in Siberia, where hybridization likely took place. However, the subspecies "immaculatum" now only occurs in south-east