When people from Europe first saw turkeys in the Americas they thought the birds were a type of guinea fowl ("Numida meleagris"). This bird had been brought to central Europe from the country of Turkey. The name of that country stuck as the name of the bird.
The confusion with the name is also seen in the scientific name: "meleagris" is Greek for guinea-fowl.
Arachnology
Arachnology is a science that studies arachnids. Examples of arachnids are spiders, scorpions, pseudoscorpions, and harvestmen. Ticks and mites are also arachnids but they sometimes are not included in arachnology. They are studied in acarology.
Alabama
Alabama is a state in the United States. Its capital city is Montgomery. The largest city is Birmingham. It became a state in 1819. Native American tribes such as Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Creek first lived in Alabama.
Alabama is the thirty-first largest state in the United States with of total area. 3.19% of the area is water, making Alabama twenty-third in the amount of surface water, also giving it the second largest inland waterway system in the United States. About three-fifths of the land area is a plain with a general downward slope towards the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico. North Alabama has mostly mountains, with the Tennessee River cutting a large valley creating many creeks, streams, rivers, mountains, and lakes.
The states bordering Alabama are Tennessee to the north; Georgia to the east; Florida to the south; and Mississippi to the west. Alabama has coastline at the Gulf of Mexico, in the very southern edge of the state. Alabama ranges in elevation from sea level at "Mobile Bay" to over in the Appalachian Mountains in the northeast. The highest point is "Mount Cheaha", at a height of . Alabama's land has of forest or 67% of total land area. "Suburban Baldwin County", along the Gulf Coast, is the largest county in the state in both land area and water area.
The state is classified as subtropical Cfa under the Koppen Climate Classification. The normal annual temperature is . Temperatures are often warmer in the southern part of the state because it is close to the Gulf of Mexico, while the northern parts of the state, mostly in the Appalachian Mountains in the northeast, tend to be slightly cooler. Most of the time, Alabama has very hot summers and mild winters with copious rain throughout the year. Alabama receives an average of of rainfall annually and enjoys a lengthy growing season of up to 300 days in the southern part of the state.
Summers in Alabama are among the hottest in the United States, with high temperatures averaging over throughout the summer in some parts of the state. Alabama also gets many tropical storms and even hurricanes. Areas of the state far away from the Gulf can still feel the effects of the storms, which often dump big amounts of rain as they move inland and weaken.
The United States Census Bureau, as of July 1, 2008, estimated Alabama's population at 4,661,900, which is an increase of 214,545, or 4.8%, since the 2000 census. This is a natural increase since the last census of 121,054 people (that is 502,457 births minus 381,403 deaths) and an increase because of net migration of 104,991 people into the state. Immigration from outside the United States resulted in a net increase of 31,180 people, and migration within the country got a net gain of 73,811 people. The state had 108,000 foreign-born (2.4% of the state population), of which an estimated 22.2% were illegal immigrants (24,000). Alabama has a large African American and white population.
According to the United States Bureau of Economic Analysis, the 2008 total gross state product was $170 billion, or $29,411 per capita. Alabama's 2008 GDP increased (went up) 0.7% from the past year. The single largest increase came in the area of information. In 1999, per capita income for the state was $18,189.
Alabama's agricultural outputs are poultry and eggs, cattle, plant nursery items, peanuts, cotton, grains (such as corn and sorghum), vegetables, milk, soybeans, and peaches. Although known as "The Cotton State", many reports say that Alabama is between eight and ten in national cotton making, with Texas, Georgia and Mississippi making up the top three.
Alabama's company outputs are iron and steel products (like cast-iron and steel pipe); paper, lumber, and wood items; mining (mostly coal); plastic things; cars and trucks; and apparel. Alabama also makes aerospace and electronic things, mostly in the "Huntsville" area, location of NASA George C. Marshall Space Flight Center and the US Army Aviation and Missile Command, headquartered at "Redstone Arsenal."
"Public primary and secondary education" in Alabama is under the review of the Alabama State Board of Education as well as local oversight by 67 county school boards and 60 city boards of education. Together, 1,541 separate schools have education for 743,364 elementary and secondary students.
Alabama's programs of higher education are 14 four-year public universities, two-year community colleges, and 17 private, undergraduate and graduate universities. In the state are two medical schools, University of Alabama at Birmingham and University of South Alabama, two veterinary colleges, Auburn University and Tuskegee University, a dental school, University of Alabama, an optometry college, two pharmacy schools, Auburn University and Samford University, and five law schools, University of Alabama School of Law, Birmingham School of Law, Cumberland School of Law, Miles Law School, and the Thomas Goode Jones School of Law. Public, post-secondary education in Alabama is overseen by the Alabama Commission on Higher Education. Colleges and universities in Alabama offer degree programs from two-year associate degrees to 16 doctor level programs.
The governor of Alabama is Kay Ivey, a Republican. The lieutenant governor of Alabama is Will Ainsworth, a Republican, and the Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court is Sue Bell Cobb, a Democrat.
Arizona
Arizona is a state in the United States of America. It is considered part of the Southwestern United States and is bordered by New Mexico to the east, Utah to the north, Nevada to the northwest, California to the west, its northeast corner touches part of Colorado, this area is known as the Four Corners. To the south of Arizona is the country Mexico with which it shares a border of 389 miles (626 km). The state is called the "Grand Canyon State" and the "Copper State" as it is the home of the Grand Canyon and has produced large amounts of copper from its mineral deposits.
Arizona became a state on February 14th, 1912 and became the 48th state accepted into the United States. The state capital is Phoenix, which also is the largest city in the state. Phoenix is the largest capital city in the US.
Arizona's climate can be very hot. In Phoenix, the average temperature is about 107 degrees Fahrenheit (42 degrees Celsius) in summer.
Arizona is the sixth largest state in area, after New Mexico and before Nevada. Of the state's , about 15% is privately owned. The remaining area is public forest and park land, state trust land and Native American reservations.
Arizona is best known for its desert landscape. It has plants such as the cactus. It is also known for its climate, which has very hot summers and mild winters. Less well known is the pine-covered high country of the Colorado Plateau in the north-central part of the state.
Mountains and plateaus are found in more than half of the state. 27% of Arizona is forest. The largest stand of Ponderosa pine trees in the world is in Arizona.
The Grand Canyon is a colorful, steep-sided gorge. It is made by the Colorado River in northern Arizona. The canyon is one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World. Most of the canyon is in the Grand Canyon National Park—one of the first national parks in the United States.