The coypu (or nutria, "Myocastor coypus") is a large, plant-eating, rodent which lives in wetlands. The nutria first came from South America including Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, Chile, and Uruguay. Animals were taken to Louisiana in the 1930s to be farmed for their fur. Some of these animals escaped and are now living in the Louisiana coastal wetlands. They have become a pest and have damaged the environment.
Poincaré conjecture
The Poincaré Conjecture is a question about spheres in mathematics. It is named after Henri Poincaré, the French mathematician and physicist who formulated it in 1904.
The sphere (also called the 2-sphere, as it is a 2-dimensional surface, although it is usually seen as inside a three dimensional space) has the property that any loop on it can be contracted to a point (if a rubber band is wrapped around the sphere, it is possible to slide it down to a point). Mathematicians say that the 2-sphere is simply connected. Other spaces do not have this property, for example the donut: a rubber band that goes around the whole donut once cannot be slid down to a point without it leaving the surface.
Mathematicians knew that this property was unique to the 2-sphere, in the sense that any other simply connected space that does not have edges and is small enough (in mathematician terms, that is compact) is in fact the 2-sphere. It is no longer true if we remove the idea of smallness however, as an infinitely large plane is also simply connected. Also, a regular disk (a circle and its interior) is simply connected, but it has an edge (the bounding circle).
The conjecture asks whether the same is true for the 3-sphere, which is an object living naturally in four dimensions. This question motivated much of modern mathematics, especially in the field of topology. The question was finally settled in 2002 by Grigori Perelman, a Russian mathematician, with methods from geometry, showing that it is indeed true. He was awarded a Fields Medal and the $1 million Millennium Prize for his work, both of which he declined.
The Poincaré conjecture can also be extended to higher dimensions: this is the generalised Poincaré conjecture. Surprisingly, it was easier to prove the fact for higher-dimensional spheres: In 1960, Smale proved it to be true for the 5-sphere, 6-sphere and higher. In 1982, Freedman proved that it was also true for the 4-sphere, for which he was awarded a Fields Medal.
Megafauna
The term is most used for the Pleistocene megafauna the large land animals of the last ice age, such as mammoths. It is also used for the largest living wild land animals, especially elephants, giraffes, hippopotamus, rhinoceros, elk, condors, etc.
Its use is connected with the discussion about the Holocene extinctions after the ice age. Most of the large land animals which were alive 12,000 years ago are now extinct, and there is much discussion as to what has caused this. The two main theories are hunting by humans, and climate change. Together, these reasons are enough to explain why these previously successful animals are now extinct. Elephant birds on Madagascar were certainly hunted to extinction, as were the Moas in New Zealand. Archaeological sites with evidence of moa hunting are all over New Zealand. The moas became extinct about five hundred years ago. The moas had survived being hunted by Haast's Eagle, but they did not survive being hunted for food by the Maoris.
For many others the climate changes may have been the main reason for their extinction.
90482 Orcus
90482 Orcus, originally known by the provisional designation 2004 DW, is a Kuiper belt object (KBO). It is also a dwarf planet. It was found by Michael Brown, Chad Trujillo and David Rabinowitz on February 17, 2004. It was also seen in pictures from November 8, 1951. Like Pluto it is in orbital resonance with Neptune but it stays on the opposite side of the Sun from Pluto.
A moon of Orcus was found on 22 February 2007.
The satellite was found at 0.25 arcsec from Orcus with magnitude difference of 2.7. Assuming an albedo similar to that of the primary, the magnitude suggests a diameter of about 220 km. It is thought to be a smaller KBO that was captured.
Comfortably Numb
Comfortably Numb is a rock song by Pink Floyd. It was released on their album "The Wall" in 1979. The song is about a rock star who is visited by a doctor. The doctor gives him medicine allowing the rock star to perform again. The lyrics were written by Roger Waters and the music was mostly written by David Gilmour. This song became very popular and became part of every Pink Floyd tour since 1981. It was even played by Roger Waters and David Gilmour on their individual solo tours. In 2004 Scissor Sisters released a disco version of the song. It reached number ten in the UK Singles Chart.
Intramuros
Intramuros is a district of the city of Manila in the Philippines. It is surrounded by fortified walls built in the 16th century.
Cucurbitales
The Cucurbitales is an order of flowering plants, included in the rosid group of dicotyledons. This order mostly belongs to tropical areas, with limited presence in subtropic and temperate regions. The order includes various shrubs and trees, together with many herbs and climbing plants.
One of major characteristics of the Cucurbitales is the presence of unisexual flowers, with thick pointed petals (whenever present). The pollination is usually performed by insects, but wind pollination, where flowers use the wind to move pollen from one flower to the next, is also present (in Coriariaceae and Datiscaceae).
The order consists of roughly 2600 species in eight families. The largest families are Begoniaceae (begonia family) with 1400 species and Cucurbitaceae (gourd family) with 825 species.
The large families of Cucurbitales include several economically important plants. Specifically, the Cucurbitaceae are responsible for some food species, such as squash, pumpkin (both from "Cucurbita"), watermelon ("Citrullus vulgaris"), melon and cucumber (both "Cucumis"). The Begoniaceae are known for their horticultural species, of which there are over 130.
Cucurbitaceae
Cucurbitaceae is a plant family commonly known as melons, gourds or cucurbits. It includes crops such as cucumbers, squashes (including pumpkins), luffas, melons and watermelons. The family is predominantly distributed around the tropics. Its edible fruits were amongst the earliest cultivated plants in both the Old and New Worlds.
Grapevine, Texas
Grapevine is a city of Tarrant County in the state of Texas in the United States.
Air pump
A air pump is a pump that is used to inflate things, like a basketball. The pump often has a needle at the end and can be used to inflate other objects as well. Bicycle tires are normally filled with air. With extensive use, the tires may lose air and need to be inflated.
Bruce Campbell
Bruce Lorne Campbell (born June 22, 1958) is an American actor, producer, screenwriter and director. He is known for his starring role in the 1981 horror movie "Evil Dead". He has since become a B-movie icon. He starred as Sam Axe in "Burn Notice" on the USA Network. He played Ronald Reagan in season 2 of the FX original series "Fargo" in late 2015.
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Nachos
Nachos are a snack food made with tortilla chips and cheese. Sometimes they have jalapeños, sauce, beans, guacamole or meat on them.