Vilnius is the capital city of Lithuania. It is also the largest city in that country. Vilnius is the largest city and the capital of Lithuania, with a population of 553,904 (850,700 together with Vilnius County) as of December 2005. It is the seat of the Vilnius city municipality and of the Vilnius district municipality. It is also the capital of Vilnius County. Vilnius lies 312 kilometres (194 mi) from the Baltic Sea and Klaipėda, the chief Lithuanian seaport. Vilnius is connected by highways to other major Lithuanian cities, such as Kaunas (102 km/63 mi away), Šiauliai (214 km/133 mi away) and Panevėžys (135 km/84 mi away).
See History of Vilnius
According to the 2001 census by the Vilnius Regional Statistical Office, there were 542,287 inhabitants in the Vilnius city municipality, of which 57.8% were Lithuanians, 18.7% Poles, 14% Russians, 4.0% Belarusians, 1.3% Ukrainians and 0.5% Jews.
The climate of Vilnius is considered as Humid Continental or Hemiboreal by Köppen climate classification. Summers can be hot, with temperatures above thirty degrees Celsius throughout the day. Winters can be very cold, with temperatures rarely reaching above freezing
Vilnius is a cosmopolitan city with diverse architecture. There are more than 40 churches in Vilnius. Restaurants, hotels and museums have sprouted since Lithuania declared independence. Like most medieval towns, Vilnius was developed around its Town Hall. The Old Town, the historical centre of Vilnius, is one of the largest in Europe (3.6 km²). The most valuable historic and cultural sites are concentrated here. The main sights of the city are Gediminas Castle and Cathedral Square, symbols of the capital. The Old Town of Vilnius was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1994. In 1995, the first bronzecast of Frank Zappa in the world was installed near the center of Vilnius with the permission of the government.
Vilnius is the major economic centre of Lithuania and one of the largest financial centres of the Baltic states.
The city has many universities. The biggest are:
Specialized higher schools with the university status are:
Vilnius is the Roman Catholic center of the country, with the main church institutions and Archdiocesan Cathedral located here. There are many churches in the city as there are many monasteries and religion schools. The Church architecture in the city includes Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque and Neoclassical styles, these styles can be foundin the Old Town. Vilnius is considered one of the main centers of the Polish Baroque movement in architecture of churches. Vilnius has been home to an Eastern Orthodox Christian presence since the thirteenth century. A famous Russian Orthodox monastery, named for the Holy Spirit, is located near the Gate of Dawn. St. Paraskeva's Orthodox Church in the Old Town is the site of the baptism of Hannibal, the great-grandfather of Pushkin, by Tsar Peter the Great in 1705. A number of Protestant and other Christian groups are present in Vilnius, most notably the Lutheran Evangelicals and the Baptists.
Islam came to Lithuania in the 14th century from Crimea and Kazan, through the Tatars. Tatars in Lithuania have maintained their religious practices: currently, about 3,000 Tatar Muslims live in Lithuania. There are same few groups of pre-Christian pagan in the city.
The city of Vilnius is made up of 21 elderates that are based on neighbourhoods:
Vilnius is the starting point of the Vilnius-Kaunas-Klaipėda motorway that runs across Lithuania and connects the three major cities. The Vilnius-Panevėžys motorway is a branch of the Via-Baltica.
Vilnius International Airport serves most Lithuanian international flights to many major European destinations.
Vilnius has a public transportation system. There are over 60 bus and 19 trolleybus routes, the trolleybus network is one of the biggest in Europe. Over 250 buses and 260 trolleybuses transport about 500,000 people every day. In the end of year 2007 a new electronic monthly ticket system was introduced.
Vilnius has 14 sister cities.
1524
Year 1524 (MDXXIV) was a leap year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Fungus
A fungus (plural: fungi) is a kind of living organism that includes yeasts, moulds, mushrooms and others. Fungi have thin thread-like cells called "hyphae" that absorb nutrients and hold the fungus in place. Some, such as mushrooms, also have a body containing many cells. Fungi do not have chlorophyll to capture energy from sunlight as plants do. Instead, they are nourished by digesting dead organic matter around them and absorbing it. The study of fungi is called "mycology".
The fungi are a separate kingdom of living things, different from animals and plants.
The cells of fungi have nuclei, unlike the cells of bacteria. Hyphae sometimes have many nuclei. Their cell walls contain chitin, unlike the cell walls of plants, which contain cellulose. These and other differences show that the fungi form a single group of related organisms. The group for fungi is called the "Eumycota" or" Eumycetes". They share a common ancestor, which makes them a monophyletic group.
Fungi are "saprophytic": a fungus breaks down dead organic matter around it, and uses it as food. It absorbs the molecules of food through its cell wall. Some fungi are parasitic or symbiotic.
Fungi reproduce sexually and asexually in several different ways. Many fungi make spores that grow into new fungi.
Fungi came into existence about 1000 million years ago. They are found in fossils from the Devonian period, and they are probably much older. They are hard to find in older fossils because they decay rapidly.
Fungi reproduce both sexually and asexually. Some fungi grow mushrooms: these are fruiting bodies. Under the cap there are gills; the gills bear spores that will disperse, and may develop into new fungi. Otherwise, fungi use a sporangium to bear asexual spores by mitosis, or sexual spores by meiosis. The spores are haploid.
Fungi may be single celled or multicellular. Yeast is single-celled, and reproduces either sexually or asexually. Asexual reproduction occurs by simple budding (binary fission).
The mycelium is the vegetative (non-reproductive) part of a fungus. It is usually underground (or inside some other substance), and made of filaments called hyphae (singluar: "hypha").
Hyphae look like threads or tiny roots. The mycelium is a mat of hyphae that may be very thickly woven. The fungus uses them to extract nutrients. Each hypha is a long cell inside a tube-shaped cell wall that grows from the end.
Hyphae are usually syncytia. This means the cell walls (septa) are mostly not complete, and the cell nuclei are not separated from each other as in normal cells. Details differ between species.
Symbiosis means living together. Lichens are a symbiosis between a fungus and an alga or bacterium. In this partnership the algal cells live inside the fungus tissue. The end result is a new mat-like life-form which clings to rock and other surfaces. About 20% of all fungi live as part of a lichen.
Another important kind of symbiosis is mycorrhiza. This is when a fungus lives inside plant roots; most trees have mycorrhizal roots, and so do many crop plants. Both the fungus and the plant benefit in this arrangement.
Some fungi cause crop diseases; others cause serious disease in humans. Some are highly poisonous: never eat a mushroom picked in the wild unless you know what you are doing.
Guernsey
Guernsey is an island in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy. It is one of the Channel Islands, and is the main administration island of the Bailiwick of Guernsey'. Elizabeth II is the head of state, but it has a government of its own, with its own laws and special status when it comes to taxes.
65,573 people live there.
Guernsey has 10 parishes. These are
Castel, Forest, St Andrews, St Martins, St Peter Port, St Pierre du bois, St Sampson, St Saviour's, Torteval, Vale.