Today's cathedral is made of limestone. It was built after the Great Fire of London in 1666 had destroyed the "Old St Paul's". Its architect was Sir Christopher Wren, who designed a further 50 churches. Wren designed it in the Renaissance style. St Paul's is a popular tourist attraction and is still used as a church today. It is the cathedral of the Church of England Diocese of London.
It is 365 feet (111 meters) high to the cross on top.
Greenhouse
A greenhouse, or simply green house (also called a glass-house or hothouse) is a building where plants such as flowers and vegetables are grown. It usually has a glass or translucent plastic roof. Many greenhouses also have glass or plastic walls. Greenhouses warm up during the day via penetration of the sun's rays which heat the plants, soil and structure. This heat is given up gradually throughout the night.
Greenhouses come in many shapes and sizes, with different functions. Some people have small greenhouses in their backyard, or as a lean-to attached to their home, called mini greenhouses, or tomato houses. They want to start off their seeds and seedlings in a protected environment as well as those growing plants that need warmer conditions. Others, wishing to extend their living space, have house extensions in the form of mini-conservatories. Commercial companies usually have larger greenhouses for horticultural purposes, but have more substantial structures for plant displays where the public is admitted. For the same reason, botanic gardens usually have a high proportion of greenhouses with substantial structures
Many vegetables and flowers are grown in greenhouses in late winter and early spring, when it is still too cold to grow plants outside. Then these plants move into the soil outside as the weather warms up. Greenhouses are used to grow crops in cold countries such as Canada. The largest group of greenhouses in the world is in Leamington, Ontario (in Canada), where about 200 acres (0.8 km²) of tomatoes are grown in glass greenhouses.
Gardening and growing plants in greenhouses is different from growing plants outside as no rain can get inside a greenhouse, so gardeners have to water plants. Also, greenhouses can get very hot from the sun's heat, so gardeners have to make sure that it does not get too hot for the plants. Greenhouses usually have vents that can be opened to let excess heat out. Some greenhouses have electric exhaust fans that automatically turn on if it gets too hot in the greenhouse. A greenhouse is the place for tender plants such as tomatoes, cucumbers, and aubergines.
Roman gardeners grew cucumbers in frames covered with oiled cloth or with sheets of mica. In the 1500s, Italian gardeners built structures for the tropical plants that explorers brought back to Italy. Jules Charles built the first modern greenhouse in Holland. In the 1800s, large greenhouses were built in England. The greenhouse concept also appeared in the Netherlands and then England in the 17th century
Apprenticeship
Apprenticeship is a system of training people who are learning how to do a job which needs special skill. Someone who is learning in this way is called an "apprentice". An apprentice will learn by working with someone who is already skilled at a job. They are like a teacher and pupil.
The system of apprenticeship has been used for many hundreds of years. In the late Middle Ages the craft guilds and town governments used to watch and control the system. A master craftsman had the right to employ young people to work for them and pay them a small salary. In return the apprentice would be learning the trade. Most apprentices were males, but female apprentices are more common nowadays, especially in crafts such as embroidery, silk-weaving etc..
Battle droid
In the "Star Wars" fictional universe, battle droids are robots that are made for fighting. They are seen in the prequel trilogy of the "Star Wars" movies. Battle droids are used by the Confederacy of Independent Systems to fight the Galactic Republic.Clones of the Republic could easily overcome these droids.The battle droids are controlled by a central droid control ship. If the control ship is destroyed, the droids shut off.
Western long-beaked echidna
The western long-beaked echidna ("Zaglossus bruijni") is one of the echidnas which live in New Guinea. Fossils of this species have also been found in Australia. It is one of the four living echidnas, three of which are species of "Zaglossus".
This echidna lives from 1300m to 4000m above sea level. It lives in alpine meadow and humid forests in the mountains. Unlike the short-beaked echidna which eats ants and termites, the long-beaked species eats earthworms. It is also larger that the short-beaked species. It can be told apart from the other "Zaglossus" species by the number of claws on the front and back feet. It has three (rarely four) claws.
It is an endangered species. Its population has been reduced by habitat habitat loss and hunting. The long-beaked Echidna is good to eat. Although hunting the species has been banned by the Indonesian and Papua New Guinea governments, traditional hunting is permitted.
In February of 2006, an expedition led by Conservation International found a population of them in what they described as a "lost world" of wildlife in the Foja Mountains of Papua Province, Indonesia.
The echidnas and Platypus are monotremes, the only mammals to lay eggs.
Short-beaked echidna
The short-beaked echidna ("Tachyglossus aculeatus") is the only member of its genus, and one of four living species of echidna.
The short-beaked echidna, "Tachyglossus", is the spiny anteater because they eat ants and termites. It is covered in fur and spines. It has a special nose (snout) and a special tongue that lets the echidna catch its prey at a great speed. It lays eggs, like the other monotremes.
The echidna lives throughout Australia, and in coastal and highland regions of southwestern New Guinea. In Australia, it is the most widespread native mammal. It is not threatened with extinction, but human activities, such as hunting, habitat destruction, and the introduction of foreign predators and parasites, have reduced its range.
The animal was first described in 1792. "Tachyglossus" means "fast tongue". This is about the speed with which the echidna uses its tongue to catch ants and termites. The word "aculeatus" means "spiny" or "having spines".
The long-beaked echidna are all bigger than "T. aculeatus". They eat mostly worms and grubs, rather than ants and termites.
There are five subspecies of the short-beaked echidna. Each live in a different area from the others. The subspecies are also different from each other as to hairiness, spine length and width, and the size of the claws on their back feet.
Short-beaked echidnas are usually 30 to 45 centimetres in length. They have a 75-millimetre beak, and weigh between two and five kilograms. The Tasmanian subspecies, "T. a. setosus", is larger than the Australian mainland species.
Because the neck cannot be seen, the head and body appear to join together. The earholes are on either side of the head, with no external pinnae. The eyes are small and at the base of the wedge-shaped beak. The nostrils and the mouth are at the far end of the beak.
The legs of this echidna are adapted for rapid digging. Their legs are short and have strong claws. The claws on the back feet are longer and curve backwards to help cleaning and grooming between the spines. Like the platypus it has a low body temperature—between 30 and 32 °C. Unlike the platypus, which shows no evidence of torpor or hibernation, the body temperature of the echidna may fall as low as 5 °C. The echidna does not pant or sweat and normally seeks shelter in hot conditions. In autumn and winter the echidna shows periods of torpor or deep hibernation. Because of its low body temperature, the animal becomes sluggish in very hot and very cold weather.