In biology, kingdom (Latin: regnum, plural regna) is the second highest taxonomic rank, just below domain. Kingdoms are divided into smaller groups called phyla. Traditionally, some textbooks from the United States used a system of six kingdoms (Animalia, Plantae, Fungi, Protista, Archaea/Archaeabacteria, and Bacteria/Eubacteria) while textbooks in Great Britain, India, Australia, Latin America and other countries used five kingdoms (Animalia, Plantae, Fungi, Protista and Monera). Some recent classifications based on modern cladistics have explicitly abandoned the term "kingdom", noting that the traditional kingdoms are not monophyletic, i.e., do not consist of all the descendants of a common ancestor.

When Carolus Linnaeus introduced the rank-based system of nomenclature into biology in 1735, the highest rank was given the name "kingdom" and was followed by four other main or principal ranks: class, order, genus and species. Later two further main ranks were introduced, making the sequence kingdom, phylum or division, class, order, family, genus and species. In the 1960s a rank was introduced above kingdom, namely domain (or empire), so that kingdom is no longer the highest rank.

Prefixes can be added so "subkingdom" ("subregnum") and "infrakingdom" (also known as "infraregnum") are the two ranks immediately below kingdom. Superkingdom may be considered as an equivalent of domain or empire or as an independent rank between kingdom and domain or subdomain. In some classification systems the additional rank "branch" (Latin: "ramus") can be inserted between subkingdom and infrakingdom (e.g. Protostomia and Deuterostomia in the classification of Cavalier-Smith). What are the answers to this following set of questions: 1. Which rank is this article about?
2. What is above it?
3. And below it?
4. How many kingdoms does the US recognize?
5. And elsewhere?
6. How many kingdoms do they agree on?
7. Which ones are those?
8. What kingdoms does the US have that the others don't?
9. And which ones do others have that the US doesn't?
10. Who created this system?
11. When?
12. What science is this part of?
13. Was kingdom the highest rank at first?
14. Is it still?
15. Why not?
16. What's another name for domain?
17. Originally how many ranks were below kingdom?
18. What were they?
19. Is it still like that?
20. What happened?
Answer: 1. Kingdom
2. domain
3. phyla
4. Six
5. Five
6. Four
7. Animalia, Plantae, Fungi and Protista
8. Archaea/Archaeabacteria, and Bacteria/Eubacteria
9. Monera
10. Carolus Linnaeus
11. 1735
12. biology
13. yes
14. no
15. in the 1960s a rank was introduced above kingdom
16. empire
17. four
18. class, order, genus and species
19. no
20. later, 2 other ranks were introduced

CHAPTER VII. TOM RESPECTS THE FLEA

"NOON!" says Tom, and so it was. His shadder was just a blot around his feet. We looked, and the Grinnage clock was so close to twelve the difference didn't amount to nothing. So Tom said London was right north of us or right south of us, one or t'other, and he reckoned by the weather and the sand and the camels it was north; and a good many miles north, too; as many as from New York to the city of Mexico, he guessed.

Jim said he reckoned a balloon was a good deal the fastest thing in the world, unless it might be some kinds of birds--a wild pigeon, maybe, or a railroad.

But Tom said he had read about railroads in England going nearly a hundred miles an hour for a little ways, and there never was a bird in the world that could do that--except one, and that was a flea.

"A flea? Why, Mars Tom, in de fust place he ain't a bird, strickly speakin'--"

"He ain't a bird, eh? Well, then, what is he?"

"I don't rightly know, Mars Tom, but I speck he's only jist a' animal. No, I reckon dat won't do, nuther, he ain't big enough for a' animal. He mus' be a bug. Yassir, dat's what he is, he's a bug."

"I bet he ain't, but let it go. What's your second place?"

"Well, in de second place, birds is creturs dat goes a long ways, but a flea don't." What are the answers to this following set of questions: 1. Which direction was London?
2. What time was it?
3. What did Tom read about Railroads?
4. Can birds go that fast?
5. Is a flea a bird?
6. What is it?
7. Who thought it was a bird?
8. Did he learn what it was?
9. Who was Tom arguing with?
10. Were they related?
11. What characterized their surroundings?
12. Where were they?
Answer: 1. North
2. Noon
3. About railroads in England going nearly a hundred miles an hour
4. No
5. No
6. A bug
7. Tom
8. No
9. Jim
10. unknown
11. sand and camels
12. unknown

(CNN) -- Only two Republican presidential candidates will appear on the ballot in Virginia next year, regardless of how many are in the race.

Mitt Romney and Ron Paul will have the Dominion State all to themselves. Supporters of Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry, Rick Santorum, Jon Huntsman and Michele Bachmann will have to be content with yard signs or donations as ways of cheering on their favorite would-be nominee.

That's because their campaigns failed to gain the requisite 10,000 signatures. It is, to be sure, a self-inflicted wound, a measure of some organizational chaos. But it is also a function of illogically restrictive local laws. They not only impede ballot access but end up denying open representative democracy to operate on the road to the Oval Office.

The United States is the only nation in the world, save Switzerland, that does not have uniform federal ballot access laws, according to Ballot Access News, a website run by Richard Winger that is dedicated to the issue. This may reflect the country's closely held federalism, but it can create chaos in a presidential year. In many cases, the rules are imposed by state party bosses who are less interested in democracy than in rigging the system to benefit their favored candidates.

Take, for example, my home state of New York. It votes reliably Democratic in presidential years, at least since Ronald Reagan thrashed Walter Mondale in 1984. But the state's primary delegates can still be a prize in a protracted Republican nomination fight. In 1999, John McCain had to sue to even have his name appear on the ballot alongside George W. Bush because the Republican state party chair and his committee essentially decided that Bush would be their nominee without the inconvenience of putting it to a vote. Local laws allowed them to restrict ballot access until public pressure and a court injunction overruled their attempted end-run around democracy. Each presidential cycle, the corrupt kabuki continues. What are the answers to this following set of questions: 1. Who are the two people on the ballet?
2. Why didn't the others get on the ballot?
3. What countries do not have a federal ballot access law?
4. Who said that?
5. Whose it run by?
6. What side does New York vote?
7. What party is John McCain?
8. What about George W. Bush?
9. What is the nickname for Virginia?
10. What do the ones who did not get on the ballet have to do to get votes?
11. How many have to do that?
12. Is the law unrestrictive for them?
13. What year did McCain have to sue?
14. What year did Reagan win his election?
15. Who did he win against?
16. What party was he?
17. What state does the author reside in?
Answer:
1. Mitt Romney and Ron Paul
2. their campaigns failed to gain 10,000 signatures.
3. United States and Switzerland
4. Ballot Access News
5. Richard Winger
6. Democratic
7. Republican
8. Republican
9. Dominion State
10. yard signs or donations
11. Five
12. No
13. 1999
14. 1984
15. Walter Mondale
16. Reagan was Republican.
17. New York