A meringue () is a type of dessert made from whipping egg whites and sugar. Some meringue recipes also ask for cream of tartar or cornstarch to hold it together. Meringues are often flavoured with vanilla and a small amount of almond or coconut extract. They are light, airy and sweet.
People do not agree whether meringue was invented in the Swiss town of Meiringen by an Italian chef named Gasparini. They are more sure that the name "meringue" was first seen in 1692, in a cookbook by François Massialot. The word "meringue" was first used in English in 1706 in an English translation of Massialot's book. There are two English recipe books that have a recipe for meringue, but it is called "white biskit bread" in the book of recipes started in 1604 by Lady Elinor Fettiplace, or called "pets" in the manuscript of collected recipes written by Lady Rachel Fane.
There are many types of meringue. The usual type is dry and crisp.
One type is the half-cooked type on queen of puddings, key lime pie, and lemon meringue pie. There are also uncooked meringues, and other types of meringues cooked in different ways.
Cooked meringue cannot be refrigerated or it will become soggy. They will keep for at least a week if stored in an airtight container.
Meringue is also used as a topping on other desserts, such as angel food cake, pavlova, and baked Alaska.
Faggot (slang)
Faggot (or fag) is a derogatory term for a homosexual human. It is usually used to refer to gay men, but may also be used for lesbian women. Many people, especially homosexuals, see it as hate speech. Typically, they prefer the term gay, or sometimes queer; queer having been reclamed by the LGBTQ+ community despite the term's pre-existing negative connotation.
Younger generations often use the term "fag" as an insult towards people that annoy them without actually linking the word to homosexuals.
Zach Blair
Zach Blair is the lead guitarist and co-composer for Chicago-based hardcore punk band Rise Against. Before joining Rise Against in early 2007, Blair was a member of hardcore punk group called Only Crime along with his brother, Doni Blair who currently plays with the Toadies. He has also been a 2nd touring guitarist for The Loved Ones and was the 2nd guitarist on the instrumental band "The Mag Seven's" album "The Future Is Ours, If You Can Count".
Blair is a vegetarian, an animal rights advocate and actively promotes PETA with the other members of Rise Against. Their newest release, "Appeal to Reason" is Rise Againsts' first album with Blair.
Warning colouration
Warning colouration (or aposematism) is how animals let other animals know that they are poisonous or dangerous. It is the exact opposite of camouflage. Warning colours are usually some combination of red, yellow, black and white.
Alfred Russel Wallace, a British naturalist, explained it this way, in 1889:
Wallace predicted that birds and other predators would reject conspicuous prey whilst accepting cryptic prey. Later reports confirmed this.
Animals with warning colours move slowly and expose themselves to sight. The sluggishness and exposure helps to advertise their defence. Along with the colour and behaviour often goes the foul smell of their chemical weapons. The grasshopper "Aularches miliaris" is a very good example. Noxious caterpillars often have thick, leathery cuticles which help them to resist young birds making a 'test'. When the bird takes a peck, disgusting fluid seeps out from special glands on its back. The caterpillar (or other larva) will often survive such an attack, and the young bird has learnt a lesson it will never forget. All in all, the predator is given good warning. Tests show that warning colours definitely do deter predators.
Some individual animals will die or receive damage while birds or mammals on the attack learn about the connection between colour and taste. However, if warning costs less than hiding, the animal benefits. And the advertising traits such as colours may serve other functions as well. The patterns may help mate identification within the species, for instance.
Warning colouration is the basis of two different kinds of mimicry: Müllerian mimicry and Batesian mimicry.
There are a number of predators which eat toxic animals. Cases which have been studied suggest there is some kind of cost to be borne for their relative immunity to the toxin.
The Rough-skinned newt is toxic, and displays its warning colour by showing its abdomen. Throughout much of the newt’s range, the common garter snake ("Thamnophis sirtalis") is resistant to the toxin. In several populations, these snakes successfully prey upon the newts. Toxin resistant garter snakes are the only known animals that can eat these newts and survive.
The snake’s resistance to the toxin has resulted in a selective pressure that favours newts which produce more potent levels of toxin. Increases in newt toxicity then apply a selective pressure favouring snakes with mutations conferring even greater resistance. The price paid by the snakes is that their digestion and body metabolism is slower than related species. Really resistant snakes have slower crawl speeds than snakes with little or no resistance.
This is an example of co-evolution. This cycle of a predator and prey co-evolving is sometimes called an evolutionary arms race. In this case it results in the newts producing levels of toxin far in excess of what is needed to kill any other conceivable predator.
Animals can, and do, show bright colours which have other functions. The most common functions are:
However, the bright colours used for these functions tend to be different from the standard warning patterns and colours.
The colouring of many species has unknown function. This is usually because their life habits have not been studied sufficiently, and because no field tests have been done. One example is the extraordinary moth "Utetheisa pulchella", the Crimson Speckled Moth. Its association with the plant "Dittrichia viscosa", which has a somewhat unpleasant smell, suggest the moth has warning colouration, but the matter is not settled. The related species "Utetheisa ornatrix", which feeds on other plants, is known to exude (squeeze out) alkaloids to put predators off.
Sawfly
A sawfly is an insect belonging to suborder Symphyta of the order Hymenoptera. The sawflies are a group of largely plant-eating (herbivorous) insects. The group is less specialised than the ants, bees and wasps.
Sawflies differ from most other Hymenoptera by their broad connection between the abdomen and the thorax, and by their caterpillar-like larvae. The common name comes from the saw-like appearance of the ovipositor, which the females use to cut into the plants where they lay their eggs. Large populations of certain sawfly species may cause economic damage to forests and cultivated plants.
As of 2013, the Symphyta are treated as nine superfamilies (one extinct) and 25 families. Most sawflies belong to the Tenthredinoidea superfamily, with about 7,000 species worldwide. Tenthredinoidea has six families, of which Tenthredinidae is by far the largest with some 5,500 species.
The Xyelidae is a small family of sawflies known from fewer than 50 living species in five genera, with an extensive fossil record. They are the oldest fossil Hymenoptera, dating back to the Triassic, some 200 million years ago.
Most species occur in the Northern hemisphere, especially in boreal regions, though there are a few neotropical species. Most are associated with conifers (esp. "Pinus" and "Abies"), where the larvae feed on pollen or within buds, though larvae of a few species feed on the leaves of deciduous trees.
Catarina Pereira
Catarina Pereira (born June 13, 1990) is a Portuguese singer and actress. She competed with her song, "Canta por mim" (Sing for me), for the chance to sing for Portugal at the Eurovision Song Contest 2010. She had the lead role in the Portuguese production of "High School Musical".