Mimicry is another example: Some harmless insects mimic other insects which are dangerous, or which taste foul. Mimicry evolves because "the better mimics survive better". They live to produce more offspring than the less good mimics. The genes of the better mimics become more common in the species. Over time, mimic species get closer to their models.
Sexual selection is a special kind of natural selection. It is a theory of Charles Darwin that certain evolutionary traits can be explained by competition "within" a species. Darwin defined sexual selection as the effects of the "struggle between the individuals of one sex, generally the males, for the possession of the other sex". It is usually males who fight each other. Traits selected by male combat are called secondary sexual characteristics (including horns, antlers, etc.) and sometimes referred to as 'weapons'. Traits selected by mate choice are called 'ornaments'.
Females often prefer to mate with males with external ornaments—exaggerated features of morphology. Genes that enable males to develop impressive ornaments or fighting ability may simply show off greater disease resistance or a more efficient metabolism—features that also benefit females. This idea is known as the 'good genes' hypothesis. Sexual selection is still being researched and discussed today.
Ernst Mayr said:
Devanagari
Devanāgarī (देवनागरी) is an abugida script used to write many North Indian languages, including Sanskrit, Hindi, Marathi, Sindhi, Bihari, Bhili, Konkani, Bhojpuri, Nepal Bhasa and Nepali from Nepal and sometimes Kashmiri. About a hundred smaller languages also use Devanāgarī.
Continental circuits
The UCI ProTour is the series of races for the top cycling teams. The Continental circuits are for teams that are not so good.
Some teams, such as Team Milram, have one team on the ProTour, a team of younger riders on the continental circuit as well as being linked with U23 teams. In this way teams can spot talented riders.
There are five circuits, one each for
Usually organisers of a ProTour event can invite one or two teams from the continental circuit to compete. Also a ProTour team might decide to compete in a continental circuit race
Zac Efron
Zachary David Alexander "Zac" Efron (18 October 1987) is an American actor and singer. He is most famous for his role in the "High School Musical" series. Other movies including "17 Again" and "Charlie St. Cloud".
His mother, Starla Baskett, is a former secretary and his father, David is engineer. He is the older of two sons. He has a little brother, Dylan. He was dating Vanessa Hudgens.
Fiddle
The word fiddle refers to a violin when used in folk music. Many people also use it simply as a fun word for "violin". Someone who plays the fiddle is a "fiddler". The bow is sometimes called a "fiddling stick". Fiddle playing, or fiddling, is a style of folk music.
The word "fiddle" is also used for instruments of several hundred years ago which developed into the violin. These instruments varied a lot from one country to another and one time to another. They were of different shapes and sizes, and even had many different names. Often they were held against the chest instead of being tucked under the chin. In the Middle Ages a small, narrow violin called a kit was often used by dancing masters. It was small enough to be put in a pocket. In south eastern Europe there was even a fiddle with a belly (the front of the instrument) made of skin. Fiddle strings were usually made of gut.
Many fiddles have bridges which are flatter on top than those of classical violins. The flatter bridges makes it easier to play chords and to bow quickly from one string to another. The strings are tuned in a variety of ways. A player might even change the tuning for playing different pieces of music. Tunings other than the regular G-D-A-E tuning, such as G-D-G-D or A-E-A-E, are common. One, two or three of the strings may have been used for a drone (continuous note) while playing the tune on the top string(s).
Many fiddlers have not received classical training but have learned by listening to other fiddlers and copying them. The music they play is dance music. Classical violin playing developed out of country fiddle playing. Most fiddlers use bows which are the same as violin bows, but in some countries such as Hungary they use shorter, heavier bows with horse hair that is tied around the frog (the heel of the bow). With this type of bow the player tightens the hair by squeezing it while playing.
Fiddles were played by people from all areas of society: from noble people to simple peasants. Many of them were minstrels who entertained important people. Some of them may have been able to read music, but many would have learned by copying other players and memorizing the music. At important feasts the minstrels may have played music while walking up to the high table when the food was brought in. They played to accompany dancers and singers, and even acrobats. We can see from old paintings that they sometimes played with other instruments such as trumpets, drums or percussion. We do not know the music they played because it was never written down, but some tunes we still hear today may have come from those old tunes, since some people still learn tunes by ear, from people who learned them by ear, and so on. Some American "old-time" tunes, and some Breton tunes may have come to us in this way, for example.
Hardanger fiddle
A Hardanger fiddle or hardingfele in Norwegian, is a traditional string instrument used mainly in the south west of Norway. It is similar to the violin, but it has eight or nine strings and the wood is thinner. Four of the strings are strung and played like a violin, while the other strings are sympathetic strings (they vibrate when the others are played).
The Hardingfele is used for dancing. The player stamps his foot loudly while playing. It was the Norwegian tradition for a bridal procession to be led to the church by a Hardanger fiddler.
The instrument has a lot of decoration, with a carved animal (usually the Lion of Norway) or a carved woman's head as part of the scroll at the top of the pegbox, mother of pearl in the tailpiece and fingerboard, and black ink decorations called 'rosing' on the body of the instrument. Sometimes pieces of bone are used to decorate the pegs and the edges of the instrument.
The earliest known instrument is dated 1651 although we do not know whether this date is correct. By 1850 it had developed into the Hardanger fiddle known today.
The Hardanger fiddle can be tuned in lot of different ways, depending on the music to be played. The Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg liked Norwegian folk music. When he wrote the famous tune “Morning” for the music for "Peer Gynt" he was thinking of the notes that would be played on the Hardanger fiddle.
In the 20th century the Hardanger fiddle has become very popular in Norway through competitions. The players have to play in the style of the area they come from.
Auguste Rodin
Auguste Rodin (born François-Auguste-René Rodin; 12 November 1840 – 17 November 1917) was a French sculptor. Rodin was born in Paris. He made solid objects from stone or clay. His most famous works are 'The Thinker' and 'The Kiss'.
Although Rodin is generally considered the start of modern sculpture, he did not set out to rebel against the past. His training was old-school. He took a craftsman-like approach to his work, but he was rejected three times to Paris's foremost school of art.
Rodin had a unique ability to model a complex, turbulent, deeply pocketed surface in clay. Many of his most notable sculptures were roundly criticized during his lifetime. They clashed with the sculpture tradition, in which works were decorative, formulaic, or highly thematic.