The root cause of Wallace's line is that the ancient supercontinent Gondwana was separated entirely from other parts of the world after Pangaea broke up. Australasia and its smaller islands were part of Gondwana, and that is why their fauna is so different from that of south-east Asia. Wallace's line marks where part of the old Gondwana plate touches part of the old Laurasia plate.
During Quaternary ice age cold periods, when the , both Asia and Australia were joined with their respective islands. The deep water between those two large continental shelf areas was — for over 50 million years — a barrier that kept the flora and fauna of Australia separated from that of Asia. Wallacea consists of islands that were never recently connected by dry land to either of the continental land masses, and thus was populated by organisms capable of crossing the straits between islands. 'Weber's Line' runs through this area (rather to the east of centre), at the tipping point between dominance by species of Asian vs. species of Australian origin.
Japanese macaque
The Japanese macaque ("Macaca fuscata"), also known as the snow monkey, is a monkey that lives in the high mountains of the island of Honshū in Japan. They live in below-zero temperatures, and they like to warm themselves and relax in hot springs.
Macaques eat fruit, flowers, seeds, bark, leaves, shrimp, and insects.
Macaques weigh around 12 kilograms and can grow up to 70cm. They have short tails.
Macaque
The macaques are a genus ("Macaca") of Old World monkeys of the subfamily Cercopithecinae. The 22 species of macaques live in sub-Saharan Africa, and more widely in Asia. One species is the well-known Gibraltar 'ape'. Macaques are of some interest to human researchers for their social structures, and their usefulness in animal testing, particularly regarding eyesight.
Macaques have a very intricate social structure and hierarchy. If a macaque of a lower level in the social chain has eaten berries and none are left for a higher-level macaque, then the one higher in status can, within this social organization, remove the berries from the other monkey's mouth.
In 2014 selfies taken by a crested black macaque seemed to establish a legal precedent, after the Wikimedia Foundation rejected a copyright claim.
The photos had been sold widely by David Slater, a professional nature photographer, whose camera was temporarily carried away by a group of macaques. After the photos were uploaded to Wikipedia, the organisation refused to delete them, claiming "This file is in the public domain, because as the work of a non-human animal, it has no human author in whom copyright is vested.
Geek
The word geek is a slang word. It has many different meanings. It can mean a person who enjoys computers and knows a lot about them. It used to mean a carnival worker "who bit the heads off of chickens and rats." One dictionary says that a geek is "a peculiar or otherwise dislikable person, especially one who is perceived to be overly intellectual". This means "a strange and un-likeable person, especially one who is thought to be very clever", in simple English.
This word comes from English dialect words (words that are used in certain places) "geek, geck": fool, freak; from Low German "geck", from Middle Low German. A different form of the word "geck" is still used in Dutch and Afrikaans "gek": crazy. Other forms of "geck" are also used in some German dialects, and in the Alsatian word "Gickeleshut": geek's hat, used in carnivals.
In 18th century Austria-Hungary, "Gecken" were freaks shown by some circuses.
In 19th century, in North-America, the term "geek" referred to a freak in circus side-shows (see also freak show). In some cases, its performance included biting the head off a live chicken. The 1976 edition of the "American Heritage Dictionary" included only the definition regarding geek shows.
The word is often used to be rude or mean to someone. However, it can also be used without meaning to be hurtful, or with pride. An example is the 'Geek Squad' of the Best Buy company.
The meaning of geek has changed much over time, and there is no longer a single meaning. The words nerd, gimp, dweeb, dork, spod and gump have similar meanings as geek. But many people choose to say that these words mean slightly different things. However, the differences are not agreed on. In a 2007 interview on "The Colbert Report", Richard Clarke said the difference between nerds and geeks is "geeks get it done." Julie Smith described a geek as "a bright young man turned inward, poorly socialized, who felt so little kinship with his own planet that he routinely traveled to the ones invented by his favorite authors, who thought of that secret, dreamy place his computer took him to as cyberspace—somewhere exciting, a place more real than his own life, a land he could conquer, not a drab teenager's room in his parents' house."
Other meanings include:
The word "geek" is in Robert Heinlein's 1952 short story "The Year of the Jackpot". The word appears meaning the modern definition.
Being called a "geek" is usually an insult. The word is now often a nice thing to say, meaning that the person it is describing has extraordinary technical skill. Geek Pride Day has been observed on May 25 in Spain since 2006 (May 25 being the world premiere date of Star Wars and also Towel Day). The holiday promotes the right to be nerdy or geeky, and to express it in public without feeling bad. A new meeting, Geek.Kon, is held in Madison, Wisconsin to celebrate all things geek.
The website BoardGameGeek is an online community of boardgamers who see themselves as geeks at boardgame meetings; they call their website "The Geek", for short. Technical support services such as Geek Squad use the term "geek" to show that they have helpful technical abilities. In recent history, some geeks have grown a geek culture, such as geek humor and odd references on t-shirts. The so-called "geek chic" trend is a deliberate affectation of geek or nerd traits as a fashion statement. Nonetheless, the derogatory definition of geeks remains that of a person only thinking about his area of interest at the cost of social skills, personal hygiene, and status.
There has been criticism over the widespread appropriation of the terms "geek" and "nerd" as self descriptors. Certain people who would have most likely not been described as such under the traditional stereotype have argued this. Along with efforts to de-emphasize the negative social aspects, in recent years there have been arguments for de-emphasizing the necessity for having noticeably high levels of intelligence or technical aptitude. This has resulted in the desire to redefine the term geek rather as any person who pursues a passionate interest in anything regardless of genre, is creative, and individualistic. Arguments against the revisionist definitions, however, state that it is not only unnecessary, but it completely contradicts the traditional accepted definition of the terms which distinctly refer to persons who are noticeably above average intelligence, usually good at things in technically demanding fields, and socially awkward or alienated to a certain extent.
"Geek chic" is a phrase that means a person who has stereotypically "geek" features including black-rimmed glasses, T-shirts with geek in-jokes, and more technically complex things.
There are many ways of looking at the term "geek chic", with heavy black-rimmed glasses being the one defining thing as far as the press is concerned. Wearing them is sufficiently notable to have celebrities like David Beckham, Justin Timberlake and Myleene Klass being reported as "trying geek chic". David Tennant, the Tenth Doctor in "Doctor Who", has also described the look of his bespectacled character as having "a bit of geek chic".