Female kiwi lay 1-3 eggs. Compared to the size of the mother, the eggs are the largest of any bird species. Kiwi are mature when they are 2 years old, and they can live more than 20 years. One kiwi kept in a zoo even reached 35 years old.
The female brown kiwi lays enormous eggs, which are almost one-sixth of her own body weight. These eggs take 11 weeks to incubate, the longest time for any bird. In comparison, Yellow-breasted Chats' eggs take only 11 days, and chickens' eggs take 21 days.
Kiwi prefer to live in burrows they make in forested areas. They either make their burrows in the ground like rabbits, in between the roots of trees, or in hidden sheltered places such as hollow logs. Kiwi line their burrows with leaves to make them more comfortable and warm. Sometimes they hide the entrance to their burrows using piles of twigs. Kiwi may have more than ten different burrows in their territory and will swap between them sometimes.
Kiwi are threatened by many mammals. Stoats are the main threat for the kiwi chicks. Ferrets and dogs kill adult kiwi.
Dodo
The dodo "(Raphus cucullatus)" is an extinct species of flightless bird from Mauritius.
Like many other island birds, they lost the power of flight because it was no advantage where they lived. Dodos were in the same family as the pigeon. They were endemic to (only lived on) the island of Mauritius. They became extinct in the late 17th century.
The Dodo has become a symbol of extinction caused by the arrival of humans in ecosystems where humans had never before lived.
The history of the word 'Dodo' is not clear. Dutch admiral Wybrand van Warwijck discovered the island and the bird in 1598 during an expedition to Indonesia. He called the bird 'walgvogel', meaning "disgusting bird" because he disliked the taste of the meat. Four years later, the Dutch captain, Willem van Westsanen, used the word 'Dodo' for the first time.
The "Encarta Dictionary" and the "Chambers Dictionary of Etymology" say "dodo" is a Portuguese word, coming from "doido". It means "fool" or "crazy". Another idea is that 'dodo' was a copy of the bird's own call, a two-note pigeon like sound, "doo-doo".
In 1606 Cornelis de Jonge wrote a description of the Dodo, and of other animal and plants on the island .
The dodo was a large bird and weighed about . They had grey feathers and yellow feet. Their big hooked bill was a green/yellow color. It had short wings that were only stubs. They ate fruit, seeds and nuts. Portuguese sailors said that they saw the Dodos eating fish. They also ate rocks and stones which might have helped them digest food. They are eaten by humans who come in the search of treasure or spouting.
The dodo was not scared of people which made it easy to hunt and kill. Dogs, cats, rats and pigs were left on the island and also killed the dodos. Because dodos built their nests on the ground, the new animals ate their eggs. The forests were chopped down and the dodo lost its habitat. Within 80 years, the dodo was extinct.
The last known stuffed bird was at Oxford University and was thrown out as rubbish. Only a foot and a head are left. The American Museum of Natural History in New York has a skeleton showing. It was put together out of bones from several different Dodos. The Natural History Museum of Mauritius has the only complete skeleton of a dodo, found in a swamp.
Tolkāppiyam
Tolkaapiyam (தொல்காப்பியம்) is a book on grammar of the Tamil language.
Tol (தொல்) means Old and Kappiyam (காப்பியம்) means a literary work.
The name of the author could not be identified (usually referred as "Tholkappiyar") and the work apparently relates to Grammar in Tamil.
It is learnt that the author was one of the 12 disciples of Sage Agastya the Father of Tamil Grammar. This sage was living in the south near Madurai, during the visit of Lord Ram to the south in search of his wife, abducted by the Lankan King Ravan.
The age of Lord Ram precedes that of Lord Krishna and hence the work can safely be said to precede 3000 BC (the ideal period of Mahabharat Yudh).
Lord Shiva and his Son Murugan is said to have laid the first tenets for the Tamil Language, probably long long time before sage Agastya could compile the same.
Great auk
The great auk was a large bird, that could not fly. People hunted it for meat and feathers. It grew rare, because it was too easy to kill, and the ones left could not breed fast enough to make up for the lost ones. The last known great auks (there were two auks) were killed on June 3, 1844 in Iceland. It lived mostly in the water, like a duck.
Penguins got their name from the great auk. The word "penguin" was the Celtic word for "great auk". When sailors saw penguins for the first time, they thought they looked like great auks.
The great auk was covered in black feathers, but had white feathers on its chest and abdomen. It had very short wings, like stubs, which meant it could not fly. On land it stood upright and was about 75 cm tall. They spent most of their time at sea, coming to shore in the summer to breed. They lived in large breeding colonies on low rocky islands in the north Atlantic Ocean from Canada to Norway. Females laid one egg on bare rock. In winter they went as far south as Florida and southern Spain.
Abbey Road Studios
Abbey Road Studios, usually called just "Abbey Road", are the recording studios in EMI's headquarters in St. John's Wood, London, England.
Abbey Road had three different studios for most of its history. Other space was turned into a fourth studio later. Studio One is large, and used to be a ballroom. Symphony orchestras and very large bands and groups are recorded there. Studio Two is smaller, and works best for small combos or groups of musicians. Studio Three is much smaller, and is meant for soloists and duos. Studio Four is mostly for post-production, where changes are made to earlier recordings.
Ujamaa
Ujamaa, meaning 'familyhood' is the group of ideas of Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere. They are based on the traditional African society.
Prisoner
A prisoner is a person who is forced to stay in a prison. People who are suspected of a crime, for example, a murder, may be arrested and held in jail so they won't escape before their trial. After conviction a prisoner may be punished. For example, they may be imprisoned for a fixed number of years, or receive a life sentence meaning they stay in jail until they die.
A prisoner of war is a person who was captured by the enemy in a war.
Fachhochschule Düsseldorf
The Fachhochschule Düsseldorf is a so-called Fachhochschule (university of applied sciences), that means a special kind of college, with technical, design and business subjects in Düsseldorf.
It was founded in 1971.
Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis is a field of psychology and medical therapy. It is a set of theories and ways of treating mental disorders. It was started in the early 1890s by the Austrian psychologist Sigmund Freud, with experience from the clinical work of Josef Breuer and others.
Since then, psychoanalysis has expanded and been revised, reformed and developed in different ways. Freud's own colleagues and students, such as Alfred Adler and Carl Jung, had their own ideas. They went on to develop their ideas independently from Freud. Much later, Anna Freud and Melanie Klein used the ideas to treat troubled children.
The basic ideas of psychoanalysis are:
Sometimes people cannot say why they are feeling the way they feel or acting the way they act. What causes the feelings and actions is called the unconscious mind in psychodynamic theory.
Under the broad umbrella of "psychoanalysis" there are at least 22 different approaches to the theory and clinical treatment. The term also refers to a method of studying child development.