Owls are animals in the order Strigiformes. There are 200 species, and they are all animals of prey. Most of them are solitary and nocturnal; in fact, they are the only large group of birds which hunt at night. Owls are specialists at night-time hunting animals. They feed on small mammals such as rodents, insects, and other birds, and a few species like to eat fish as well.
As a group, owls are very successful. They are found in all parts of the world except Antarctica, most of Greenland, and some small islands.
There are two families of owls: the true owls and the barn owls:
An owl has a big head, flat face, hooked beak, short tail, and sharp talons, The wings of an owl are long. Owls have brown, gray, or white plumage with streaks or spots.
Owls have a suite of adaptations which help them to be successful.
Owls have large eyes and holes for ears, a hawk-like beak, and a rather flat face. Most birds of prey have eyes on the sides of their heads, but the owl's eyes are facing forwards to help it see better in the dark. Their eyes are also fixed inside their sockets, so they have to turn their whole head to look at other things. Owls can rotate their heads and necks up to 270 degrees in both directions.
Owls are good at looking at things far from its eyes, but it cannot see anything clearly within a few centimeters of their eyes. Owls use small feathers on the beak and the feet that help it feel the prey it catches.
Most owls hunt at night, and in twilight (dawn and dusk). A few owls are also active during the day.
The owls' hunting depends on surprising its prey. Their most important adaptation is their almost silent flight. The feathers are soft, with fringes on the back edge, and the base of each is downy. This all muffles noise, and makes for silence. Also, they glide when coming in for the kill.
The dull colors of the owls' feathers make them less visible by camouflaging the owl. This helps them as they roost during the day.
Owls have fantastic hearing. The shape of the head helps slight sounds reach the ears. The feathers of the facial disc are arranged in order to increase sound delivered to the ears. Their ears are asymmetrical allowing the owl to locate a sound. They can hear a mouse move in the grass.
An owl's sharp beak and powerful talons allow it to kill its prey before swallowing it whole, unless it is too big. Owls usually regurgitate the parts of their prey that they cannot digest. These parts include bones, scales, and fur. Scientists who study the things that owls eat can get clues by studying the parts that the owl spit back out, called "owl pellets". These "owl pellets" are often sold by companies to schools for use in the students' biology and ecology lessons.
Many animals store food during times of plenty to prepare for leaner times. Owls may store dead mice for winter.
Owls have special adaptations which help them swivel their heads 270 degrees. They have 14 neck vertebrae instead of our seven. Also, the big carotid arteries, instead of being on the side of the neck as in humans, are carried close to the centre of rotation just in front of the spine. So these arteries get much less twisting and stretching, and the potential for damage is greatly reduced. This arrangement is seen in other birds, but in owls the vertebral arteries – the vessels that travel through channels in the neck bones – are given extra space.
Owls also have wide parts in their carotid arteries just under the base of the skull. Researchers found these could dilate and fill with a reservoir of blood. "We believe this is kind of a new structure not really known before", said a researcher. "It's probably a way to pool blood and get some continuity of flow even if there is disruption below at the next level".
Mythology and stories that include owls are:
Copyright infringement
Copyright infringement (or copyright violation) is the use of material which is covered by copyright law, in a way that violates one of the original copyright owner's "exclusive rights", such as the right to reproduce or perform the copyrighted work, or to make derivative works that build upon it. The slang term "bootleg" (from the use of boots to smuggle items) is often used to describe illegally copied material.
Some people call illegally copying movies and music, "piracy" or "theft". Richard Stallman says people should not call copying and distribution "piracy", because piracy is robbery with attacking ships, killing and stealing people, and owners of copyright use the word to say that such copying is as evil as piracy. Some courts say that the word "piracy" may be used, but the word "theft" may not be used. When people use the word "piracy" for copyright infringement, it usually means "selling of many copies without permission", but sometimes any "big copyright infringement".
There are a few reasons why people violate copyrights. Copyright infringed goods are usually cheaper than legal ones, because the people distributing them don't need to pay for the copyright. That can make them easier to sell. Normal goods might also not be as useful as copyright infringed ones because of legal limitations.
Copyright laws have tried to keep up with the development of technology, such as radio, television, and the internet. Now many people upload some articles to websites that allow people to read free articles on it without the permission of the author. In this way, people can read many articles easily, but it is illegal. As a result, many authors prosecute the website.
Here are the normal behaviors of copy infringement.
Piracy goods are usually at low price because they don't need to pay for copyright and carry out research. So it is popular with the people who don't have awareness of copyright. On the surface, it will limit the monopoly of big company. But in fact, it is a means of unfair competition and damages the fair competition pattern. What's more, it will have a bad consequence on the competitiveness of middle or small sized companies.
There are some benefits to society of limiting copyright. One is to expand readership of newspapers and books to a wider section of the public. Newspapers were once relatively expensive, but copies were freely available in coffee houses throughout Europe. The invention of public libraries had the same effect for books. Many great people in the 18th and 19th century came from poor backgrounds. Such people as Michael Faraday (the son of a blacksmith) and Alfred Russel Wallace had no university education, but used libraries to get their knowledge up-to-date. The aim of copyright law is to have a balance between these two sides: the needs of authors and publishers, and the broader needs of society.
1.Well-known writers vs. Baidu On March 15, 2011, HanHan and many other well-known writers prosecuted Baidu Library because it allowed people to read and download their articles for free. They asked Baidu to pay for it but Baidu rejected the compensation.
2.Princeton University Press v. Michigan Document Services (1996)
Michigan Document Services was involved in creating packages of study material for the students of the University. A professor supplied the course material and Michigan Document services, a photocopying organization, took photocopies of the material and converted it into a booklet for sale to students at the University.
Here was a clause of "Fair use" in this case. The photocopying company could have paid a nominal fee to the University and then used the material. This was available to anyone who wished to use the material. However, the photocopying company paid for only the original and then started making photocopies of the study material. The court considered that it was not "fair use" and penalized the photocopying company.
3.A & M Records vs. Napster (2001)