In 1889, under the Local Government Act 1888 England and Wales was divided into administrative counties and county boroughs. Administrative counties, governed by an elected county council, were based on the historic boundaries, less larger towns which became self-governing as county boroughs.
In 1889 the administrative county of Durham consisted of the historic county less the county boroughs of Gateshead, South Shields and Sunderland. The boundary with the North Riding of Yorkshire was adjusted: the part of the town of Barnard Castle that was in Yorkshire was added to County Durham, but the part of the Borough of Stockton-on-Tees in Durham was given to the North Riding. For all non-administrative purposes, such as lieutenancy, the County of Durham comprised the administrative county and associated county boroughs.
Over its existence, the administrative county lost territory, both to the existing county boroughs, and also due to the creation of county boroughs at West Hartlepool in 1902 and Darlington in 1915. In 1967 the borough of Hartlepool was removed from the administrative county when it merged with West Hartlepool to form a new county borough of Hartlepool, and in 1968 Billingham was included within the boundaries of the county borough of Teesside, associated with the North Riding.
The administrative county was abolished in 1974.
In 1974 Durham was divided between three counties. The boroughs of Hartlepool and Stockton-on-Tees became a part of the new non-metropolitan county of Cleveland. The metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear became responsible for Gateshead, Sunderland and South Tyneside. The new non-metropolitan county of Durham also covered the former area of Startforth Rural District, a part of the historic North Riding of Yorkshire, and south of the historical boundary of the River Tees.
The Department for Communities and Local Government has said that the seven district councils and the County Council will be abolished and a new unitary authority for the whole of the existing County Council area will be created. The change will be on 1 April 2009 at the latest. The successful Durham County Council bid referred to the new authority as County Durham Council.
In 1997 the non-metropolitan county (including unitary Darlington), together with that part of the former county of Cleveland north of the River Tees became a ceremonial county. Lord-lieutenants and high sheriffs are appointed to the ceremonial county of Durham. they have no job in local government.
This is a list of the main towns in County Durham. The area covered is the entire ceremonial county, hence the inclusion of towns which are no longer administered by Durham County Council.
Balkan Mountains
The Balkan mountain range (Bulgarian and Serbian: Стара планина, "Stara planina", "Old Mountain") is an extension of the Carpathian mountain range, separated from it by the Danube River.
The Balkan range runs 560 km from eastern Serbia eastward through central Bulgaria to Cape Emine on the Black Sea.
The highest peak on the Balkan peninsula is Musala in the Rila mountains near Sofia (Rila range), with 2,925 m, closely followed by Mount Olympus in Greece and Vihren (Pirin range).
The highest peaks of the Stara planina itself are in central Bulgaria. The highest peak is Botev (2,376 m), in the Central Balkan National Park (established 1991).
There are paved roads crossing Stara Planina at the following passes (listed from west to east):
Carpathian Mountains
The Carpathian Mountains are the eastern wing of the great Central Mountain System of Central Europe, curving 1500 km (~900 miles) along the borders of Romania, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Ukraine, Austria, Serbia, and northern Hungary.
The Carpathians begin on the Danube near Bratislava. They surround Transcarpathia and Transylvania in a large semicircle, sweeping towards the south-west, and end on the Danube near Orşova, in Romania. The total length of the Carpathians is over 1,500 km, and the mountain chain's width varies between 12 and 500 km.
The Carpathians are separated from the Alps by the Danube.
A major part of the western and northeastern Outer Carpathians in Poland, Ukraine and Slovakia is traditionally called Beskids.
What follows is a practical outline of the Carpathian subdivisions (clockwise from the west, numbers refer to the map):
Squamata
Squamata ("scaled reptiles") is the order of reptiles which includes lizards and snakes.
Their skins have overlapping horny scales. They also have movable quadrate bones, which make it possible to move the upper jaw relative to the braincase. This is particularly visible in snakes, which are able to open their mouths very wide to accommodate comparatively large prey.
They are the most variably-sized order of reptiles, ranging from the 16 mm (0.63 in.) Dwarf gecko ("Sphaerodactylus ariasae") to the 8 m (26 ft.) Green Anaconda ("Eunectes murinus").
This is the only living reptile group which has both viviparous and ovoviviparous species, as well as the usual oviparous (egg-laying) reptiles.
The Squamata does not include the Tuataras from New Zealand. They are a sister group to the squamates. The Crocodilia are much more distantly related.
Squamates are a monophyletic group that is a sister group to the tuatara. The squamates and tuatara together are a sister group to crocodiles and birds, the living archosaurs.
Squamate fossils first appear in the early Jurassic, but a mitochondrial phylogeny suggests that they evolved in the late Permian. The evolutionary relationships within the squamates are not yet completely worked out, with the relationship of snakes to other groups being most problematic.
From morphological data, Iguanid lizards have been thought to have diverged from other squamates very early, but recent molecular phylogenies, both from mitochondrial and nuclear DNA, do not support this early divergence. Because snakes have a faster molecular clock than other squamates, and there are few early snake and snake ancestor fossils, it is difficult to resolve the relationship between snakes and other squamate groups.
Recent research suggests that the evolutionary origin of venom lies deep in the squamate phylogeny. 60% of squamates are venomous Toxicofera.
Venom in the families Caenophidia, Anguimorpha, and Iguania evolved once, then the three families diverged. All three lineages share nine common toxins. The fossil record shows that the divergence between anguimorphs, iguanians, and advanced snakes dates back roughly 200 MYA to the Upper Triassic/Lower Jurassic.
Snake venom evolved by the duplication of a gene encoding for a normal regulatory or bioactivity protein. Then the copy was expressed in the venom gland.
Different toxins have been recruited from different proteins and are diverse as the functions themselves.
Natural selection has driven the diversification of the toxins to counter the defences of the prey. Venom genes form large multigene families, and evolve by protein evolution. This leads to a diversification of toxins that let sit-and-wait predators attack a wide range of prey.
The rapid evolution and diversification is the result of a prey/predator evolutionary arms race where each adapts to counter the other.
Classically, the order is divided into three suborders:
Of these, the lizards form a paraphyletic group. In newer classifications the name Sauria is used for reptiles and birds in general, and the Squamata are divided differently:
Pingu
Pingu is a cartoon series for children about a penguin called Pingu. The series is popular in many countries because the characters only make sounds instead of saying words.
"Pingu" was made in Switzerland in 1988. The show was made by Otmar Gutmann.
The cast of "Pingu" includes the family and friends of Pingu.
Tatra mountains