Knights of the Commonwealth Realms today are named by the Sovereign One of the British orders of knighthood is known as the Order of the British Empire. These knights today are called 'Sir' and then their first name. Many members of nobility are descended from knights. For example: Wijerd Jelckama descended from a knight who died at the siege of Antioch (1199).
Knights were first used in the 4th century in the late Roman armies. The era of the knights ended in the 16th century as national armies replaced feudal armies. Many knights were recruited as officers in the new armies. Today's officer corps in Western armies began as groups of knights.
Although knights no longer fight as elite warriors, the act of knighting, or being given knighthood by a king or queen, still exists. The most well-known example of knighting today are tapping the shoulders of the person being knighted with the flat side of a sword. People who are alive today who have been given knighthood include Bill Gates, Clint Eastwood, Michael Caine, as well as former U.S. president, the late George H.W. Bush.
Kuiper belt
The Kuiper belt is an area of the Solar System beyond the orbit of Neptune (at 30 astronomical units) to 50 AU from the Sun.
The objects within the Kuiper Belt together with the members of the "scattered disk" beyond, are together called trans-Neptunian.
Many objects such as dwarf planets in the Kuiper belt are much bigger than the ones in the asteroid belt and are round. At least some Kuiper belt objects are icebound.
The first objects in the Kuiper belt to be found were Pluto and Charon (moon) but the belt was only identified and named in 1992 when more Kuiper belt objects (KBOs) were found. A few thousand have since been discovered and more than 70,000 KBOs over 100 km (62 mi) in diameter are thought to exist.
Mole
Moles are small mammals adapted to a burrowing (under the ground) lifestyle. This lifestyle is called "fossorial".
Moles are found in North America, Europe and Asia. They eat insects, larvae or worms. Moles have velvety, soft fur. They have powerful front paws so they can dig. A mole has an extra thumb.
The family includes the shrew moles and the desmans. There are
three subfamilies, 17 genera and 46 species in total in this very common group of mammals. Moles have poor vision.
The largest type of mole is the Russian desman. The smallest type of mole is the American shrew mole.
Terence Tao
Professor Terence Chi Shen Tao is a Chinese-Australian mathematician who currently resides in the United States. In 2006, Tao won the Fields Medal for his work in number theory. Tao shared the award with three other mathematicians. He also won the FRS in 2007. He is known for his studies in harmonic analysis, partial differential equations, combinatorics, analytic number theory and representation theory. Tao teaches math at UCLA.
Tao was born on 17 July 1975 in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia. His parents are Han. Tao is the youngest person to be in the International Mathematical Olympiad.
Ever since he was a young child he had shown great skills in mathematics and logic.
His father claimed that at the age of 2, during a family gathering, the infant Tao taught a 5-year-old child mathematics and English. According to Smithsonian Online Magazine, Tao taught himself arithmetic by the age of two. When asked by his father how he knew numbers and letters, he said he learned them from "Sesame Street". Aside from English, Tao speaks fluent Cantonese, but does not write Chinese. He was promoted to a full professor at age 24. He currently lives with his wife and son in Los Angeles, California.
Fritz Lang
Fritz Lang (5 December 1890 – 2 August 1976) was a Austrian director, screenwriter, and movie producer. His movies include "Metropolis" and "M". He is one of the most famous German expressionist filmmakers.
Lang was born in Vienna. He died in Beverly Hills, California.
Scattered disc
The scattered disc (or scattered disk) is a distant part of the solar system. The area has small icy minor planets known as scattered disc objects (SDOs). The part of the scattered disc closest to the sun is in an area of space called the Kuiper belt. The Oort cloud lies beyond the scattered disc. The first SDO was found in 1995 by Spacewatch.
The scattered disk is still not understood well. Astronomers believe that it was created when objects in the Kuiper belt were "scattered" by the gravity of the outer planets, mainly Neptune. Unlike most objects in the Solar System which move in a round and flat path, scattered disc objects go every which way. Different SDOs have different orbital eccentricity and orbital inclination.
Flatworm
Flatworms (Platyhelminthes, Greek "platy"': flat; "helminth": worm) are a phylum of invertebrates. They are relatively simple animals. They have soft bodies.
With about 25,000 known species, they are the largest phylum of animals without a body cavity. Flatworms can be found in marine, freshwater, and even damp terrestrial environments.
A troublesome terrestrial example is the New Zealand flatworm, "Arthurdendyus triangulatus". It is an invasive species which colonized large areas of Ireland and Scotland. It was brought there by accident in the 1960s. Since then, it has destroyed most of the indigenous earthworms.
Most free-living flatworms found in Britain are very small ranging from 5mm to less than 1 cm. They are usually black and can easily be mistaken for debris. These are mostly found in freshwater rivers or streams and are of the Turbellaria class.
Most flatworms (over 50%) are parasitic on other animals. There are four classes:
and
Flatworms are one of the invertebrate groups which are studied in school biology. The main reason for this is that they may infect humans, pets and farmyard animals. Some do enormous harm to humans and their livestock. Schistosomiasis, caused by one genus of trematodes, is the second most devastating of all human diseases caused by parasites, surpassed only by malaria. Effective treatments are now available for these infections. Also, in first-world countries, regulations on domestic cattle prevent infected meat from reaching the human hosts.
Trematode
The Trematodes are a class of flatworms in the phylum Platyhelminthes. They are called flukes, and are internal parasites of molluscs and vertebrates. Most trematodes have a complex life cycle with at least two hosts. The primary host, where the flukes sexually reproduce, is a vertebrate. The intermediate host, which is the agent of dispersal, is usually a snail.
The trematodes or flukes are estimated to include 18,000 to 24,000 species
Fluke
Fluke can refer to different things:
Period instruments
The period instruments are musical instruments which have been made in the same way they were made hundreds of years ago. This is done so that earlier music will sound like it did when it was first composed.
Musical instruments have changed a lot during the last few centuries. Composers like Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) wrote music for instruments which sounded differently from the way they do today. Although most of the orchestral instruments we use nowadays were already in use in Bach’s day, instrument makers have made changes to them. These changes often gave the instruments a bigger sound so that they could be heard well in large concert halls. Orchestras also have increased in size.