The goldfinch breeds across Europe, North Africa, and western and central Asia, in open, partially wooded lowlands. It is resident in the milder west of its range, but migrates from colder regions. It will also make local movements, even in the west, to escape bad weather. It has been introduced to many areas of the world.
The goldfinch's preferred food is small seeds such as those from thistles and teasels, but insects are also taken when feeding young. It also regularly visits bird feeders in winter. They nest in the outer twigs of tall leafy trees, or even in bamboo, laying four to six eggs which hatch in 11–14 days.
In the winter goldfinches group together to form flocks of up to forty birds, occasionally more. The song is a pleasant silvery twittering.
Margaret Corbin
Margaret Corbin (born Margaret Cochran, November 12, 1751 – January 16, 1800) was a woman who fought in the American Revolutionary War She and her husband, John Corbin were both from Philadelphia. On November 16, 1776, they were part of 600 American soldiers defending Fort Washington in northern Manhattan. The fort was being attacked by about 4,000 Hessian troops under British command. John and Margaret worked one of the two cannons at the fort. When her husband died, Margaret took his place at his cannon. She kept firing until she was badly hurt. She later became the first woman in U.S. history to get a pension from Congress for military service.
David Strassman
David Strassman (born September 6, 1957) is an American ventriloquist. He is widely known for performing Chuck and Ted E. Bare, as well as many other puppets.
Machida, Tokyo
The city was founded on February 1, 1958.
Before 1965, Machida was an group of farm villages near Tokyo.
Ichikawa, Chiba
Ichikawa is a city in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. It is on the island of Honshū. It is just to the east of Tokyo. There are a lot of schools and universities there. Ichikawa station is between Koiwa and Motoyawata Stations on the Chūō-Sōbu Line.
Niihama, Ehime
Niihama is a city in Ehime Prefecture, Japan. It is on the island of Shikoku.
Fujisawa, Kanagawa
Fujisawa (藤沢市, Fujisawa-shi) is a Japanese city in Kanagawa Prefecture on the island of Honshū.
In the Edo period, "Fujisawa-shuku" was 6th of the 53 shogunate-maintained waystations ("shuku-eki") along the Tōkaidō road which connected Edo and Kyoto.
The area of the city expanded around Yugyō-ji temple (遊行寺) after 1325.
Urawa, Saitama
Urawa was a city in Saitama Prefecture, Japan. It is now part of the city of Saitama.
Itabashi, Tokyo
The municipality calls itself "Itabashi City" in English.
Itabashi is in northern Tokyo. It borders Toshima to the south. Nerima is on the ward's western border. The Arakawa River and Saitama Prefecture are the norther border. Kita is on the east.
Himeji, Hyōgo
Himeji is a city in Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. It is on the island of Honshū. The city is well known for its landmark, Himeji Castle
It has been recognized as a core city since 1996.
Autopsy (band)
Autopsy is an American death metal band from Concord, California. Autopsy has four members in the band; the current band members are Chris Reifert, Danny Coralles, Eric Cutler and Joe Trevisano.
So far as of 2011, Autopsy has released 5 Studio albums:
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) is an Internet communication protocol used to send and relay an email message between email servers. It is not used to retrieve email messages from a server. Instead either IMAP or POP is used to retrieve email messages.
Richard Beckinsale
Richard Arthur Beckinsale (6 July 1947 – 19 March 1979) was a British actor.
Beckinsale was born in Carlton, Nottinghamshire and went to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.
He had starring roles in five sitcoms. They are: "The Lovers", "Rising Damp", "Porridge", its spin-off "Going Straight" and "Bloomers".
Beckinsale has two daughters, actresses Samantha and Kate Beckinsale. He died of a heart attack in Sunningdale, Berkshire.
Kenneth Williams
Kenneth Charles Williams (22 February 1926 - 15 April 1988) was a British comedy actor and comedian. He acted in movies including 26 "Carry On"s. He appeared in many television and radio shows and on stage.
Wiiliams was gay. He was born in North London and died there of a barbiturate overdose.
E. O. Wilson
Edward Osborne Wilson (born June 10, 1929) is an American biologist, naturalist and author. He is an entomologist who studies ants, but to the public he is known for sociobiology, biodiversity and conservation.
Wilson's writing has been very influential. He is a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for general non-fiction. He is known for his role as "the father of sociobiology", his environmentalism, and his secular humanist and deist ideas on religion and ethics.
He holds the posts of Professor Emeritus and Honorary Curator in Entomology, Harvard University, and a Fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. He is a Humanist Laureate of the International Academy of Humanism. He was awarded the National Medal of Science (1977), and the Crafoord Prize (1990), which recognizes research in scientific fields not eligible for the Nobel Prize.
Wilson's work (and books) falls into at least four categories:
Louis-Ferdinand Céline
Louis-Ferdinand Céline was a pen name of Louis-Ferdinand Destouches (Courbevoie, 27 May 1894 – Meudon 1 July 1961) was a French writer and physician. Céline was his grandmother's first name. He is thought to be one of the most important writers of the twentieth century. He created a new style of writing that modernized both French and world literature. His most famous work is "Journey to the End of the Night". He is a controversial person because of his anti-Semitic pamphlets. He was married to dancer Lucette Destouches.
Sociobiology
Sociobiology is a field of scientific study which is based on the assumption that social behaviour has resulted from evolution. It attempts to explain and examine social behaviour in that way.
A branch of ethology and sociology, sociobiology draws from anthropology, evolution, zoology, archaeology, population genetics, and other disciplines. As a study of human societies, sociobiology is allied to Darwinian anthropology, ethology and evolutionary psychology.
Ethology investigates collective animal behaviour, such as mating patterns, territorial fights, pack hunting, and the hive society of social insects. It argues that selection pressure led to the genetic evolution of advantageous social behaviour. In other words, a typical behaviour pattern is inherited because it has raised the inclusive fitness of individuals as compared to other behaviours. This is mainstream biology. Its extension into human social behaviour is for ethologists absolutely normal, but for others it may be controversial.
While the term "sociobiology" can be traced to the 1940s, the concept did not get recognition until 1975 with the publication of E.O. Wilson's book, .
Sociobiology is based upon two fundamental premises:
It is this last point which is most controversial.
Wilson's book had almost 700 pages, which were almost entirely devoted to social behaviour in animals. His ideas on the evolution of human behaviour was in a short section of 30 pages at the end of the book. Yet because of this section, the (apparently) new field of sociobiology became the subject of heated controversy. The criticism was driven by political events of the day.
Criticism by Richard Lewontin and Stephen Jay Gould, and the Sociobiology Study Group hinted that there was some relationship between these ideas and some of the worst events in history. The main concern of the critics seemed to be the idea that sociobiology provided aid and comfort for those who would maintain social injustice and inequality.