A variable-width encoding is a type of character encoding scheme in which codes of different lengths are used to encode a character set for representation in a computer. Some kinds of Unicode work this way.
Cro-Magnon
The earliest known Cro-Magnon remains are between 35,000 and 45,000 years old, based on radiometric dating. The oldest remains, from 43,000 45,000 years ago, were found in Italy and Britain. Other remains also show that Cro-Magnons reached the Russian Arctic about 40,000 years ago.
Cro-Magnons had powerful bodies, which were usually heavy and solid with strong muscles. Unlike Neanderthals, which had slanted foreheads, the Cro-Magnons had straight foreheads, like modern humans. Their faces were short and wide with a large chin. Their brains were slightly larger than the average human's is today.
The name "Cro-Magnon" was created by Louis Lartet, who discovered the first Cro-Magnon skull in southwestern France in 1868. He called the place where he found the skull "Abri de Cro-Magnon." "Abri" means "rock shelter" in French; "cro" means "hole" in the Occitan language; and "Magnon" was the name of the person who owned the land where Lartet found the skull. Basically, Cro-Magnon means "rock shelter in a hole on Magnon's land."
This is why scientists now use the term "European early modern humans" instead of "Cro-Magnons." In taxonomy, the term "Cro-Magnon" means nothing.
Like most early humans, the Cro-Magnons mostly hunted large animals. For example, they killed mammoths, cave bears, horses, and reindeer for food. They hunted with spears, javelins, and spear-throwers. They also ate fruits from plants.
The Cro-Magnons were nomadic or semi-nomadic. This means that instead of living in just one place, they followed the migration of the animals they wanted to hunt. They may have built hunting camps from mammoth bones; some of these camps were found in a village in the Ukraine. They also made shelters from rocks, clay, tree branches, and animal skin (leather).
Cheating in video games
Cheating in video games is when a player creates an advantage for themself beyond what normal gameplay would allow. In general, cheating is breaking the rules to get an unfair advantage. In video games, a player usually cheats to make the game easier.
These kind of advantages can often be activated by entering codes. A set of cheat codes may have been written into the game's programming by the game's developers. When entered, a code activates a corresponding advantage. Cheat codes can also be created by added software, called a game trainer. Players can also cheat by taking advantage of software bugs in the game.
Cheat codes makes the system do things that are not normal. For example, pressing a certain sequence of buttons may increase a character's hit points in an role-playing game, or make a car drive faster in a racing game.
Another way of cheating is using applications called "exploits." It usually involves injecting DLLs in the game application for access to advantages.
Anaphalis
Anaphalis (pronounced A-ná-pha-lis) is a genus within the Asteraceae family whose members are commonly known by the name Pearly everlasting. There are around 110 species within the genus with the vast majority being native to central and southern Asia. There is one species native to North America that is fairly well known and popular in cultivation, namely the Western Pearly Everlasting ("Anaphalis margaritacea").
Two of the species, "A. javanica" and A. longifolia can be found on the mountain af the Java island in Indonesia. "A. javanica", also known as the Javanese Edelweiss, is currently an endangered species.
Weaning
Weaning means changing the diet of a baby little by little, from its mother's milk to the food it will eat as an adult. Since only female mammals make milk, weaning is only a necessary process for mammals. When a baby does not drink any more breast milk (or milk substitute), the baby has been weaned.
Human babies should start eating small amounts of solid food, along with breast milk or formula, when they are about six months old. Before this time, a child's digestive system and kidneys are still forming, so the child is not ready for solid food.
Babies do not have teeth and cannot chew their food, so they are usually fed soft, runny food such as cooked mashed fruit or vegetables. Babies cannot digest some foods which adults can eat, including food with nuts or with large amounts of gluten, salt or sugar. Also, babies' digestive systems are very sensitive to bacteria, so they should not eat any foods with honey, eggs or shellfish in them because these foods sometimes contain bacteria.
Weaning conflict happens when the mother wants to wean her baby, but the baby wants to keep breastfeeding. The mother tries to force the baby to stop breastfeeding, and the baby tries to force the mother to continue. Some evolutionary scientists think mammal mothers need to wean their babies as soon as possible, so they will have a greater chance of having more babies and spreading their genes. But mammal babies want to breastfeed as long as they can so they will have a chance to grow strong, and also to enjoy the full care of their mothers. Weaning conflict happens in several mammal species, including primates and canines.
Nanoelectromechanical systems
Nanoelectromechanical systems will be very tiny machines, with dimensions thousands of times thinner than the human hair, that could be used as motors or sensors. The technology is very new and still in the laboratory stage, but may replace microelectromechanical systems.
Compared to human scale, things work very differently at nano dimensions. For example, attractive forces between materials of the same type may push together moving parts and block a motor.
Photocathode
A photocathode is a negatively charged electrode in a light detection device. They are the main type of photomultiplier. That means they take a little light, and make more of it.
There are instruments which need to magnify the amount of light coming in. Examples are astronomical telescopes and military night-sight equipment: binoculars and telescopes on helmets and rifles etc.
The lens of the telescope or binocular passes the light onto a layer of glass coated with a special light-sensitive metal. When this is struck by light, the absorbed energy causes electrons to jump off. This is called the 'photoelectric effect'. The freed electrons are then collected to produce the final image.
These devices are mostly based on alkali metals.
Space Shuttle Enterprise
The Space Shuttle Enterprise (OV-101) is a spacecraft used by NASA for testing of the space shuttles. Enterprise was built without engines and without the heat protection system needed for it to travel into space and return to the atmosphere. Enterprise began being built in June 4, 1974, and was completed on September 17, 1976. Enterprise was used for flight tests in 1977. Scientists wanted to test how the shuttle could be transported on top of a Boeing 747. They also did three test manned test flights with the shuttle still joined to the Boeing. When these test were finished they did another five tests with the shuttle flying without engines like a glider. The pilots practiced landing the shuttle at the Edwards Airforce Base. The pilots were astronaut Gordon Fullerton, Apollo 13 astronaut Fred Haise, Joe Engle and Dick Truly. After the test flights, the Enterprise was used for vibration tests at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. After all the tests were finished, some parts of the Enterprise were used in the building of the other shuttles.
The Enterprise was going to be named the "Constitution", but many people wrote to the President and asked for it to be named after the space craft on the TV show Star Trek. Enterprise can be seen today by visitors to the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center near Washington, D.C.
Reggie Bush