the-french-artist/wikipedia_20220301.simple_sentence_split huggingface dataset:
After the death of Jango Fett on Geonosis, a new bounty hunter named Durge took his place.
Count Dooku found a woman named Asajj Ventress who was powerful in the Force.
Asajj Ventress proved to be a powerful commander in the Separatist army.
A new leader of the Separatists rose at this time.
General Grievous was half droid and half alien.
He was trained in lightsaber combat by Count Dooku and became feared by Jedi throughout the Galaxy.
One of the final and most daring attacks on the Republic came when General Grievous led a large fleet of starships to Coruscant to capture Supreme Chancellor Palpatine.
Supreme Chancellor Palpatine is taken from Coruscant and put on the starship The Invisible Hand.
The Battle of Coruscant is fought both on the ground and in space.
Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker get on The Invisible Hand and rescue Palpatine.
During this rescue, Anakin kills Count Dooku.
General Grievous escapes and the Separatist forces are defeated.
General Grievous, now the leader of the CIS, goes to Utapau to talk to the leaders of the businesses.
Grievous is told by Darth Sidious to move the leaders to Mustafar.
Droid armies' attack on Kashyyyk and Utapau.
Obi-Wan Kenobi kills General Grievous on Utapau.
Nute Gunray becomes the leader after both the deaths of Count Dooku and General Grievous.
The new Sith apprentice, Darth Vader, was sent to Mustafar to kill the leaders.
After he finished this job, all droid forces were stopped.
This marked the end of the Confederacy of Independent Systems and the beginning of the Galactic Empire.
Separatist leaders
Darth Sidious, in charge of the CIS throughout its existence
Count Dooku, led the Separatist movement until his death
General Grievous, commander of the droid armies
Nute Gunray, led the Separatists after the deaths of Count Dooku and General Grievous
Wat Tambor, leader of the techo union
Other commanders
Asajj Ventress
Durge
OOM-9, during the Battle of Naboo
Separatist Council
Wat Tambor
Hedone in Greek mythology (which the Romans called Voluptas) was the daughter of Eros and Psyche.
She was seen as the personification of lust.
Ode to Voluptas (Information about Voluptas, Daughter of Eros & Psyche)
The psyche is the human mind, conscious and unconscious.
The word has a long history, going back to the ancient Greek philosophers such as Heraclitus and Plato.
It was used in older psychology and philosophy as meaning the source or cause of human nature.
It is not a scientific term, but the word "psychology" is derived from it.
The English word soul was sometimes used synonymously in older texts.
Lamellibrachia is a genus of cold seep tube worms.
These are related to giant tube worms.
They live on the floor of the oceans, near cold seeps.
There crude oil and methane leak out of the ocean floor.
The worm forms a symbiosis with certain bacteria which can oxidise sulphides.
The worm provides the bacteria with hydrogen sulphide and oxygen.
It does this by taking them up from the environment and binding them to a haemoglobin molecule.
In return, the bacteria feed the worm.
The worms can grow to a length of about 3 metres.
Together, they form a 'biogenic habitat' by creating groups of hundreds or thousands of individuals.
Living in these aggregations are over a hundred different species of organism, many of which are found only at these seeps.
Cold seeps and hydrothermal vents are the only known communities that do not rely on photosynthesis for food and energy production.
Unlike hydrothermal vents, which are short-lived environments, cold seeps leak oil and gas slowly.
Probably because of the cooler temperatures and stability, many cold seep organisms are much longer-lived than those inhabiting hydrothermal vents.
These worm grow very slowly, but can reach lengths of over 10 feet (3 metres).
This means individuals may live over 250 years.
The giant tube worm (Riftia pachyptila) is an annelid.
They live on the floor of the oceans (mainly Pacific Ocean), usually near black smokers, a type of hydrothermal vent.
They can tolerate extremely high temperatures and levels of sulfur.
They live in symbiosis with certain bacteria.
The bacteria enter the mouth of a young tube worm, but when the worm gets older its mouth and gut seal up, trapping the bacteria forever.
These bacteria are fed with sulfur compounds and oxygen.
The bacteria then turn these compounds into organic molecules on which the host worms feed.
Because Russia is such a big country, travel from one end and the other is an important problem.
In the 1890s, the Russians began building the longest railway in the world to connect Moscow to the Pacific Ocean.
Before the railway was built, the trip took about a year along very rough roads.
One reason for building the "Trans-Sib" was military: to transport troops to the East in order to protect the country against Japan and China.
Another reason was to transport food from the farming areas of south-western Siberia to the people in the European part of Russia.
Many cities and industries are built up along the route of the Trans-Siberian Railway.
In 1900, it connected with the West Siberian Railway.
Transport in Russia
A nuclear reaction is a process involving an atomic nucleus or more than one nucleus.
The most common kinds are
Nuclear fusion, a reaction in which two or more particles collide.
The results are new particles which are different from the first ones.
Nuclear fission, a nucleus breaking into pieces.
Radioactive decay, in which a nucleus spits something out, changing itself into a different kind of nucleus.
In the case of radioactivity the reaction is .
Fission and fusion can be done on purpose, to release energy.
This energy can then be used for different things, for example to make steam (as in a nuclear power plant).
It can also be used as energy for a bomb.
In the example figure 6Li fuses with deuterium.
This makes Beryllium which then decays into two alpha particles.
Nuclear reactions occur in the sun, in nuclear reactors, in particle accelerators, and in outer space.
Other than radioactive decay, very few nuclear reactions occur on earth except in these special places.
Nuclear reactors use nuclear reactions to make heat and electricity.
Accelerators sometimes cause nuclear reactions to make radioactive materials.
Particles from outer space cause nuclear reactions in earth's atmosphere that make air slightly radioactive.
Nuclear reactions differ from chemical reactions in that they do not need a catalyst.
Radioactive decay also cannot be stopped, sped up or slowed down.
Images for nuclear reaction
Videos for nuclear reaction
St Paul's Cathedral is an Anglican church in the City of London.
The original version was built by Mellitus in 604 AD.
He was Bishop of the East Saxons.
In 962 and 1087, the cathedral burnt down and was built again.
Before today's version of the cathedral, there were four others.
The earlier ones burnt down.
Today's cathedral is made of limestone.
It was built after the Great Fire of London in 1666 had destroyed the "Old St Paul's".
Its architect was Sir Christopher Wren, who designed a further 50 churches.
Wren designed it in the Renaissance style.
St Paul's is a popular tourist attraction and is still used as a church today.
It is the cathedral of the Church of England Diocese of London.
Cathedrals in England
A greenhouse, or green house (also called a glass-house or hothouse) is a building where plants such as flowers and vegetables are grown.
It usually has a glass or translucent plastic roof.
Many greenhouses also have glass or plastic walls.
Greenhouses warm up during the day via penetration of the sun's rays which heat the plants, soil and structure.
This heat is given up gradually throughout the night.
Types of greenhouses
Greenhouses come in many shapes and sizes, with different functions.
Some people have small greenhouses in their backyard, or as a lean-to attached to their home, called mini greenhouses, or tomato houses.
They want to start off their seeds and seedlings in a protected environment as well as those growing plants that need warmer conditions.
Others, wishing to extend their living space, have house extensions in the form of mini-conservatories.
Commercial companies usually have larger greenhouses for horticultural purposes, but have more substantial structures for plant displays where the public is admitted.
For the same reason, botanic gardens usually have a high proportion of greenhouses with substantial structures.
Role of greenhouses
Many vegetables and flowers are grown in greenhouses in late winter and early spring, when it is still too cold to grow plants outside.
Then these plants move into the soil outside as the weather warms up.
Greenhouses are used to grow crops in cold countries such as Canada.
The largest group of greenhouses in the world is in Leamington, Ontario (in Canada), where about 200 acres (0.8 km²) of tomatoes are grown in glass greenhouses.
Gardening in greenhouses
Gardening and growing plants in greenhouses is different from growing plants outside as no rain can get inside a greenhouse, so gardeners have to water plants.
Also, greenhouses can get very hot from the sun's heat, so gardeners have to make sure that it does not get too hot for the plants.
Greenhouses usually have vents that can be opened to let excess heat out.
Some greenhouses have electric exhaust fans that automatically turn on if it gets too hot in the greenhouse.
A greenhouse is the place for tender plants such as tomatoes, cucumbers, and aubergines.
Roman gardeners grew cucumbers in frames covered with oiled cloth or with sheets of mica.
In the 1500s, Italian gardeners built structures for the tropical plants that explorers brought back to Italy.
Jules Charles built the first modern greenhouse in Holland.
In the 1800s, large greenhouses were built in England.
The greenhouse concept also appeared in the Netherlands and then England in the 17th century
Woods, May (1988) Glass houses: history of greenhouses, orangeries and conservatories.
Aurum Press, London, .
Mini Greenhouse nhà kính mini
Apprenticeship is a system of training people who are learning how to do a job which needs special skill.
Someone who is learning in this way is called an "apprentice".
An apprentice will learn by working with someone who is already skilled at a job.
They are like a teacher and pupil.
The system of apprenticeship has been used for many hundreds of years.
In the late Middle Ages the craft guilds and town governments used to watch and control the system.
A master craftsman had the right to employ young people to work for them and pay them a small salary.
In return the apprentice would be learning the trade.
Most apprentices were males, but female apprentices are more common nowadays, especially in crafts such as embroidery, silk-weaving etc..
Modern Apprenticeships: the way to work, The Report of the Modern Apprenticeship Advisory Committee, 2001
Apprenticeship in the British "Training Market", Paul Ryan and Lorna Unwin, University of Cambridge and University of Leicester, 2001
Creating a ‘Modern Apprenticeship’: a critique of the UK’s multi-sector, social inclusion approach Alison Fuller and Lorna Unwin, 2003 (pdf)
Apprenticeship systems in England and Germany: decline and survival.
Thomas Deissinger in: Towards a history of vocational education and training (VET) in Europe in a comparative perspective, 2002 (pdf)
The School of Applied Arts Apprentice program
Facts about Germany: Apprenticeships, Federal Foreign Office
Apprenticeships - a great idea (UK)
L'Apprenti, in French
Article on the history of apprenticeship in the U.S.  from EH.NET
Academic Apprentices: Still an Ideal?,
Barry Yeoman, Duke Magazine
In the Star Wars fictional universe, battle droids are robots that are made for fighting.
They are seen in the prequel trilogy of the Star Wars movies.
Battle droids are used by the Confederacy of Independent Systems to fight the Galactic Republic.
Clones of the Republic could easily overcome these droids.
The battle droids are controlled by a central droid control ship.
If the control ship is destroyed, the droids shut off.
Types of battle droids
Star Wars Databank |Battle droid
it:Droideka
pl:Droidy bojowe Federacji Handlowej i Separatystów#Droid Niszczyciel
The western long-beaked echidna (Zaglossus bruijni) is one of the echidnas which live in New Guinea.
Fossils of this species have also been found in Australia.
It is one of the four living echidnas, three of which are species of Zaglossus.
This echidna lives from 1300m to 4000m above sea level.
It lives in alpine meadow and humid forests in the mountains.
Unlike the short-beaked echidna which eats ants and termites, the long-beaked species eats earthworms.
It is also larger that the short-beaked species.
It can be told apart from the other Zaglossus species by the number of claws on the front and back feet.
It has three (rarely four) claws.
Its population has been reduced by habitat loss and hunting.
The long-beaked Echidna is good to eat.
Although hunting the species has been banned by the Indonesian and Papua New Guinea governments, traditional hunting is permitted.
Augee M and Gooden B. 1993.
Echidnas of Australia and New Guinea.
Australian National History Press
Flannery T.F. and Groves C.P. 1998 A revision of the genus Zaglossus (Monotremata, Tachyglossidae), with description of new species and subspecies.
Mammalia, 62(3): 367-396
The short-beaked echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus) is the only member of its genus, and one of four living species of echidna.
The short-beaked echidna, Tachyglossus, is the spiny anteater because they eat ants and termites.
It is covered in fur and spines.
It has a special nose (snout) and a special tongue that lets the echidna catch its prey at a great speed.
It lays eggs, like the other monotremes.
The echidna lives throughout Australia, and in coastal and highland regions of southwestern New Guinea.
In Australia, it is the most widespread native mammal.
It is not threatened with extinction, but human activities, such as hunting, habitat destruction, and the introduction of foreign predators and parasites, have reduced its range.
The animal was first described in 1792.
Tachyglossus means "fast tongue".
This is about the speed with which the echidna uses its tongue to catch ants and termites.
The word aculeatus means "spiny" or "having spines".
The long-beaked echidna are all bigger than T. aculeatus.
They eat mostly worms and grubs, rather than ants and termites.
There are five subspecies of the short-beaked echidna.
Each live in a different area from the others.
The subspecies are also different from each other as to hairiness, spine length and width, and the size of the claws on their back feet.
T. a. multiaculeatus on Kangaroo Island;
T. a. setosus on Tasmania and some islands in Bass Strait;
T. a. acanthion in Northern Territory and Western Australia;
T. a. aculeatus in Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria;
T. a. lawesii in coastal regions and the highlands of New Guinea, and possibly in the rainforests of Northeast Queensland.
Short-beaked echidnas are usually 30 to 45 centimetres in length.
They have a 75-millimetre beak, and weigh between two and five kilograms.
The Tasmanian subspecies, T. a. setosus, is larger than the Australian mainland species.
Because the neck cannot be seen, the head and body appear to join together.
The earholes are on either side of the head, with no external pinnae.
The eyes are small and at the base of the wedge-shaped beak.
The nostrils and the mouth are at the far end of the beak.
The legs of this echidna are adapted for rapid digging.
Their legs are short and have strong claws.
The claws on the back feet are longer and curve backwards to help cleaning and grooming between the spines.
Like the platypus it has a low body temperature—between 30 and 32 °C.
Unlike the platypus, which shows no evidence of torpor or hibernation, the body temperature of the echidna may fall as low as 5 °C.
The echidna does not pant or sweat and normally seeks shelter in hot conditions.
In autumn and winter the echidna shows periods of torpor or deep hibernation.
Because of its low body temperature, the animal becomes sluggish in very hot and very cold weather.
The muscles of this echidna have a number of unusual features.
There is an enormous muscle that is just beneath the skin and covers the entire body.
By contraction of various parts of this muscle the Short-beaked Echidna can change shape.
The most common shape change is achieved by rolling itself into a ball when threatened, protecting its belly and presenting a defensive array of sharp spines.
It has one of the shortest spinal cords of any mammal, extending only as far as the thorax.
The tongue of the short-beaked echidna is the animal's only way of catching prey.
It can stick out up to 180 mm outside the snout.
The tongue is sticky because of the presence of glycoprotein-rich mucous.
This mucus both lubricates movement in and out of the snout and helps to catch ants and termites, which stick to it.
The protruded tongue is stiffened by the rapid flow of blood, allowing it to penetrate wood and soil.
Retraction requires the contraction of two internal muscles.
When the tongue is retracted, the prey is caught on backward-facing keratinous "teeth" along the roof of the buccal cavity.
This allows the animal to both capture and grind food.
The tongue moves with great speed, and has been measured to move in and out of the snout 100 times a minute.
General physiology
Many physiological adaptations fit the animal to its lifestyle.
It burrows, and can tolerate high levels of carbon dioxide.
Its ear is sensitive to low-frequency sound, which may be ideal for detecting sounds emitted by termites and ants underground.
The leathery snout is covered in mechano- and thermoreceptors.
These receptors provide information about the surrounding environment.
The echidna has a well-developed olfactory system, which may be used to detect mates and prey, and its other senses perform well.
Its brain and central nervous system have been extensively studied for comparison with placental mammals.
The short-beaked echidna has the largest prefrontal cortex, relative to body size, of any mammal.
It takes up 50% of the volume of the cortex, compared to 29% for humans.
This suggests good decision-making in its constant search for insect nests, and for a mate when reproducing.
Basal traits
Like all monotremes, the echidna has only one orifice for the passage of faeces, urine and reproductive products, which is known as the cloaca.
The male has internal testes, no external scrotum and a highly unusual penis with four knobs on the tip.
The gestating female has a pouch on its underside, where it raises its young.
The solitary Short-beaked Echidna looks for a mate between May and September; the precise timing of the mating season varies with geographic location.
Both males and females give off a strong odour during the mating season.
During courtship—observed for the first time in 1989—males locate and pursue females.
Trains of up to ten males may follow a single female in a courtship ritual that may last for up to four weeks; the duration of the courtship period varies with location.
In cooler parts of their range, such as Tasmania, females may mate within a few hours of arousal from hibernation.
Before mating, the male smells the female, paying particular attention to the cloaca.
The male is often observed to roll the female onto her side and then assumes a similar position so that the two animals are abdomen to abdomen.
Each mating results in the production of a single egg, and females are known to mate only once during the breeding season; each mating is successful.
Fertilisation occurs in the oviduct.
Gestation takes between 21 and 28 days, during which time the female constructs a nursery burrow.
Following the gestation period, a single rubbery-skinned egg between 13 and 17 millimetres in diameter is laid directly into a small, backward-facing pouch that has developed on her abdomen.
Ten days after it is laid, the egg hatches within the pouch.
The embryo develops an "egg tooth" during incubation, which it uses to tear open the egg; the tooth disappears soon after hatching.
Hatchlings are about 1.5 cm long and weigh between 0.3 and 0.4 grams.
After hatching, young Echidnas are known as puggles.
Hatchlings attach themselves to their mothers' milk areolae, a specialised patch on the skin that secretes milk (monotremes have no nipples).
The way in which puggles drink the milk is not yet known, but they have been observed drinking large amounts during each feeding period, since mothers may leave them unattended in the burrow for between five and ten days.
The principal components of the milk are types of lactose.
The milk has a high iron content, which gives it a pink colour.
Juveniles are eventually ejected from the pouch at around two to three months of age, because of the continuing growth in the length of their spines.
The duration of lactation is about 200 days, and the young leave the burrow between 180 and 240 days.
The age of sexual maturity is uncertain, but may be four to five years.
A twelve-year field study, published in 2003, found that the Short-beaked Echidna reached sexual maturity between five and 12 years of age, and that the frequency of reproduction varies from once every two years to once every six years.
The Short-beaked Echidna can live as long as 45 years in the wild.
Ecology and behaviour
No systematic study of the ecology of the Short-beak Echidna has been published.
There have been studies of several aspects of their ecological behaviour.
Short-beaked Echidnas live alone and apart from the burrow created for rearing young; they have no fixed shelter or nest site.
They do not have a home territory, but range over a wide area.
Short-beaked Echidnas are usually active in the daytime; however, they have problems in hot weather, because they have no sweat glands and do not pant.
Therefore, in warm weather they change their pattern of activity, becoming crepuscular (active at dawn or dusk) or nocturnal (active in the night).
They can tolerate cold temperatures, and hibernate during the winter in very cold regions.
Short-beaked Echidnas can live anywhere where there is a good supply of food.
Short-beaked Echidnas find food by smell, using sensors in the tip of their beak, and regularly feast on ants and termites.
They are powerful diggers, using their clawed front paws to dig out prey and dig burrows for shelter.
They may rapidly dig themselves into the ground if they cannot find cover when in danger.
In Australia they are most common in forested areas where there are many termite-filled fallen logs.
In agricultural areas, they are most likely to be in uncleared scrub; they may be in grassland, arid areas, and in the outer suburbs of the capital cities.
Little is known about their distribution in New Guinea.
They have been found in southern New Guinea between Merauke in the west, to the Kelp Welsh River, east of Port Moresby, where they may be in open woodland.
The Short-beaked Echidna is common in most of temperate Australia and lowland New Guinea, and is not listed as endangered.
In Australia, the number of Short-beaked Echidnas has been less affected by land clearing than have some other species, since Short-beaked Echidnas do not require a specialised habitat beyond a good supply of ants and termites.
Despite their spines, they are eaten by birds, the Tasmanian Devil, cats, foxes and dogs.
They were also eaten by indigenous Australians and the early Europen settlers of Australia.
The most common threats to the animal in Australia are cars and habitat destruction.
These have led to localised extinction.
Infection with the introduced parasite Spirometra erinaceieuropaei is fatal for the Echidna.
The Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland runs an Australia-wide survey called Echidna Watch to monitor the species in Australia.
Captive breeding is difficult, partly because of the relatively infrequent breeding cycle.
Only five zoos have managed to breed a captive Short-beaked Echidna, but no captive-bred young have survived to be adults.
This has conservation implications for the endangered species of echidna from the genus Zaglossus, and to a lesser extent for the Short-beaked Echidna.
Short-beaked Echidnas feature in the animistic culture of Indigenous Australians, including their visual arts and stories.
The species was a totem for some groups, including the Noongar people from Western Australia, who called the animal the Nyingarn.
Many groups have myths about the animal; one myth explains that it was created when a group of hungry, young men went hunting at night and stumbled across a wombat.
They threw spears at the wombat, but lost sight of it in the darkness.
The wombat adapted the spears as its own defense and turned into an Echidna.
Another story tells of a greedy man that kept food from his tribe; warriors speared him and he crawled away into the bushes, where he was turned into an Echidna, the spears becoming his spines.
The Short-beaked Echidna is an iconic animal in modern Australia.
It appears on the Australian five-cent piece (the smallest denomination) and on a $200 commemorative coin released in 1992.
The Short-beaked Echidna has been included in several postal issues: it was one of four native species to appear on Australian postage stamps in 1974, where it was the 25 cent stamp; it appeared on a 37 cent stamp in 1987, and again in 1992 when it was on the 35 cent stamp.
The anthropomorphic Echidna Millie was a mascot for the 2000 Summer Olympics.
Knuckles the Echidna is a popular character from the Sonic the Hedgehog video game franchise, debuting in Sonic the Hedgehog 3.
Citations in the article
Augee, M and Gooden, B. 1993.
Australian National History Press, Sydney
Augee, M.L. 1983.
R. Strahan Ed.
The Australian Museum Complete Book of Australian Mammals.
p. 8-9.
Griffiths, M. 1989.
Tachyglossidae .
407–435 in Fauna of Australia (D. W. Walton and B. J. Richardson, eds.).
Mammalia, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 1B:1–1227.
Tasmanian Department of Water, Primary Industries and Environment - Short-beaked Echidna
Echidna Love Trains, article with sound clips and images of puggles
Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland - Echidna Watch
Australian Mammal Species Files
For the country in South America, see Colombia.
Columbia is the original name for the United States and inspired the names of many things.
For the original Columbia, see Historical Columbia.
Places in North America
Upper Columbia United Tribes, certain Native American peoples near the Columbia River
Mount Columbia (Colorado)
Mount Columbia (Alberta)
Columbia Glacier (Alaska)
Columbia Glacier (Washington)
Columbia Peak in the state of Washington
Columbia Icefield in Alberta and British Columbia
Columbia, South Carolina, the state capital
Columbia, Connecticut
Columbia, California
Columbia, Missouri, home of the University of Missouri
Columbia, New Hampshire
Columbia, New York
Columbia, North Carolina
Columbia, Texas
Other places in the U.S.
Columbia Beach, Washington
Columbia Center, New York
Columbia Center, Ohio
Columbia City, Oregon
Columbia Cross Roads, Pennsylvania
Columbia Heights, Oregon
Columbia Heights, Washington, DC
Columbia Station, Ohio
Columbia Township, Jackson County, Michigan
Columbia Township, Tuscola County, Michigan
Columbia Township, Van Buren County, Michigan
Columbia Valley Gardens, Washington
Well-known companies
Columbia Aircraft
Columbia Automobile Company
Columbia Bicycles
CBS, Columbia Broadcasting System
Columbia Graphophone Company
Columbia Management Group
Columbia Masterworks Records
Columbia Sussex
Columbia Sportswear
Columbia University Press, publisher of the Columbia Encyclopedia
any of several Columbia Colleges
Columbia School of Broadcasting
Columbia Union College
University of the District of Columbia
Columbia Nuclear Generating Station in Washington
Columbia (supercomputer), a NASA supercomputer
Space shuttle Columbia, which fell apart during reentry in 2003
the Apollo 11 Command/Service Module
USS Columbia, several ships of the US Navy
Airplane piloted by Clarence Duncan Chamberlin when he was the second person to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean
HMS Columbia, the name of many ships of the Royal Navy
Columbia, the type 2-4-2 railroad locomotive in the Whyte notation
Columbia automobile, Hartford, Connecticut, United States (1893-1917)
Lightship Columbia, WLV-604, the first lightship on the Pacific Coast of the United States
Railroad passenger trains
Columbian (B&O), a former Baltimore and Ohio Railroad train between Jersey City, New Jersey and Chicago, Illinois
Columbian (passenger train), a former Milwaukee Road train between Chicago and Tacoma
Fictional uses
Columbia, a spaceship in Wally Wood's comic story Dark Side of the Moon, published in 1950
Columbia (NX-02), a fictional starship on the television series Star Trek: Enterprise
Columbia, a character in The Rocky Horror Picture Show
"Columbia", a song by Paul van Dyk on Out There And Back
Columbia Airlines, fictional airline from Airport 1975
a Battlestar from both the original and the re-imagined versions of the Battlestar Galactica T.V show
"Columbia, Gem of the Ocean", a historical patriotic song still occasionally sung in the U.S.
Columbia (song), a song on the 1994 Oasis album Definitely Maybe
"Hail, Columbia", currently the official anthem of the Vice President and an early anthem of the United States
"Roll on Columbia", a 1941 popular song by Woody Guthrie about the Columbia River
Columbia Station, a station on the Vancouver SkyTrain
Columbia (supercontinent)
Columbiad, a type of cannon from the 19th century
Niobium, an element formerly named Columbium
Saint Columba
Saint Columbanus
The eastern long-beaked echidna (Zaglossus bartoni), also known as Barton's long-beaked echidna, is one of three species from the genus Zaglossus.
All of them occur in New Guinea.
It is found mainly in Papua New Guinea between 2000 and 3000 meters above sea level.
It can be distinguished from other members of the genus by the number of claws on the fore and hind feet.
It has five claws on its fore feet and four on its hind feet.
The adult animal weights between  5 kg (11 lb) and 10 kg (22 lb).
Its body length ranges from 60–100 cm (23.5-39 inches).
It has no tail.
It has dense black fur.
The species is the largest monotreme and is slow moving.
Z. bartoni bartoni
Z. bartoni clunius
Z. bartoni smeenki
Z. bartoni diamondi
Flannery, T.F. and Groves, C.P. 1998 A revision of the genus Zaglossus (Monotremata, Tachyglossidae), with description of new species and subspecies.
The long-beaked echidnas make up one of the two genera (Genus Zaglossus) of echidna.
Echidna is a spiny monotreme that lives in New Guinea.
There are three living species, and two extinct ones.
Habitat: regions of New Guinea at higher elevation than highland forests
Era: the present
Status: Endangered
Remarks: Species described from one sample only.
May be endangered, or locally extinct.
See Sir David's Long-beaked Echidna
Habitat:on the central cordillera between the Paniai Lakes and the Nanneau Range, as well as the Huon Peninsula
Habitat: highland forests of New Guinea
Zaglossus hacketti
Habitat: Western Australia
Era: Upper Pleistocene
Remarks: This species is known only from a few bones.
At a metre long, it was huge for an echidna and for monotremes in general.
Zaglossus robustus
Habitat: Tasmania
Era: Pleistocene
EDGE of Existence (Zaglossus spp.) -
Saving the World's most Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered (EDGE) species
A pretty good summary, including references on animalinfo.org
Sir David's long-beaked echidna (Zaglossus  attenboroughi), also known as the cyclops long-beaked echidna, is one of three species of the genus Zaglossus.
All of them are found in New Guinea.
It is named after Sir David Attenborough.
It lives in the Cyclops mountains in Papua province of Indonesia near the cities of Sentani, Jayapura.
The species was described from a single damaged animal, which was collected in the Dutch colonial era (c. 1961).
It has not been collected since that time.
The Cyclops mountain forest habitat has been disturbed recently.
This has raised concern that Z. attenboroughi populations may already be endangered or even locally extinct.
However, many parts of the mountains are covered in thick jungle and have not been searched since 1961.
It is possible that the animal still exists there or in nearby mountain ranges.
In 2007 scientists found holes which they believe were made by the echidna poking its nose into the dirt while looking for earthworms.
It is the smallest member of the genus.
It is closer in size to the short-beaked echidna than other members of the genus.
It has five claws on its fore and hind feet.
It has dense short fur.
Bioluminescence is the capacity of living things to produce light.
Often this is done by symbiosis.
In this, the larger organism contains, often in a special organ, microorganisms which make the light.
Eukaryote protists have special organelles, and some bacteria also produce light.
Bioluminescence is the result of chemical processes, where the energy produced is released as visible light.
Bioluminescence has appeared many times during evolution.
ATP (adenosine tri-phosphate), the biological energy source, reacts with luciferin with the aid of the enzyme luciferase to yield an intermediate complex.
This complex combines with oxygen to produce a highly chemiluminescent (brightly shining) compound.
The role of Gamma Proteobacteria in producing light is discussed in detail in reference works.
The capacity to produce light is an extension of normal metabolism: all chemical reactions produce a few photons.
Visible light is produced when the photon production increases.
In the case of bacteria, the original function of the reaction was probably to detoxify excessive oxygen.
The oceans
"It is the predominant source of light in the largest fraction of the habitable volume of the earth, the deep ocean.
In contrast, bioluminescence is essentially absent (with a few exceptions) in fresh water, even in Lake Baikal".
Bioluminescence is found in the sea at all levels.:
planktonic, pelagic and benthic organisms.
Some planktonic groups, such as dinoflagellates and ctenophores (comb jellies) use it in most species.
Most deep-sea marine life use bioluminescence in one form or another.
Usually, marine light-emission belongs in the blue and green light spectrum, the wavelengths that can transmit through seawater most easily.
Functions of bioluminescence
Counterillumination camouflage
In some squid species bacterial bioluminescence is used for counterillumination so  the animal matches the overhead environmental light seen from below.
In these animals, light organs control the contrast of this illumination to create optiminal matching.
Usually these light organs are separate from the tissue containing the bioluminescent bacteria.
Bioluminescence is used as a lure to attract prey by several deep sea fish such as the anglerfish.
A dangling lure on the head of the fish attracts small animals to it within striking distance.
Some fish, however, use a non-bioluminescent lure.
The cookiecutter shark uses bioluminescence for camouflage, but a small patch on its underbelly remains dark and appears as a small fish to large predatory fish like tuna and mackerel swimming beneath it.
When these fish try to consume the "small fish", they are bitten by the shark, which gouges out small circular "cookie cutter" shaped chunks of flesh from its hosts.
Dinoflagellates have an interesting twist on this mechanism.
When a predator of plankton is sensed through motion in the water, the dinoflagellate luminesces.
This in turn attracts even larger predators which will consume the would-be predator of the dinoflagellate.
Attracting mates is an important function of bioluminescence.
This is seen in fireflies, which use periodic flashing in their abdomens to attract mates in the mating season.
In the marine environment this has only been well-documented in certain small ostracod crustaceans, but may be quite common.
Certain squid and small crustaceans use bioluminescence as many squid use ink.
A cloud of luminescence is expelled, confusing or repelling a potential predator while the squid or crustacean escapes to safety.
Every species of firefly has larvae that glow to repel predators.
Bioluminescent organisms are a target for many areas of research.
Luciferase systems are widely used in the field of genetic engineering.
They have also been used in biomedical research, to give some cells visible labels.
Luciferin can be added to molecules and cells to make them visible under the microscope. "
This market is now worth about £20bn.
If you go into a hospital and have a blood test which measures viral proteins, cancer proteins, hormones, vitamins, bacterial proteins, drugs, it will almost certainly use this technique".
Bioluminescent organisms
Terrestrial organisms
click beetles
glow worms
railroad worms
certain mycetophilid flies
certain centipedes, such as Geophilus carpophagus.
certain millipedes such as Motyxia.
a terrestrial mollusc (a tropical land snail)
Quantula striata
Fungi – A total of 71 species are bioluminescent, including species of Armillaria, Omphalotus, Mycena, Gerronema, Pleurotus.
Mushrooms (see Foxfire)
Jack O'Lantern mushroom (Omphalotus olearius)
ghost fungus (Omphalotus nidiformis)
Honey mushroom
Cookie-cutter shark
Gulper eel
Lanternfish
Marine hatchetfish
Midshipman fish
Pineconefish
Viperfish
Despite their name, fireflies are actually beetles which use an enzymatic reaction involving a chemical compound called luciferin to produce their typical greenish flashing light.
As well as possibly warning predators about their toxicity, it is thought the main purpose of their flashing abdomen is to attract mates.
many Cnidaria
Aequorea victoria, a jellyfish
certain Ctenophores or "comb jellies"
certain echinoderms (e.g. Ophiurida)
certain crustacea
ostracods
copepods
krill
two species of chaetognaths
certain molluscs
certain clams and other bivalves
certain nudibranchs, sea slugs
Octopods
Bolitaenidae
order Teuthida
Mastigoteuthidae
Sepiolidae
Sparkling Enope Squid
Dinoflagellates (e.g. Noctiluca scintillans, Pyrodimium bahamense).
Vibrionaceae (e.g. Vibrio fischeri, Vibrio harveyi, Vibrio phosphoreum)
Members of the marine bacterial family Shewanellaceae, Shewanella hanedai and Shewanella woodyi are bioluminescent.
Bioluminescence web page
Lights Alive!
at San Diego Natural History Museum
Whittier is a small town in Alaska on the Kenai Peninsula.
Whittier has 182 people always living in it.
The Whittier Glacier near Whittier was named for the American poet John Greenleaf Whittier in the year 1915.
During World War II the United States Army built a port and railroad near the glacier and named the port Whittier.
The two big buildings that are very easy to notice in Whittier were built after World War II.
The Hodge Building (now called Begich Towers) was built for housing soldiers and the Buckner Building, finish being built in 1953, was called the "city under one roof".
It was once the biggest building in Alaska.
The Begich Building is now a condominium (or houst that has many rooms that people live in), and almost all of the people that live in Whittier's live here.
Whittier is a popular port for cruise ships, because people can go to Anchorage and the inside of Alaska by both car and train.
Whittier is also popular with visitors and fishermen.
Whittier is the wettest city in Alaska and the United States.
The city receives at least 198 inches of rain a year.
City of Whittier
Whittier Chamber of Commerce
Kate Elizabeth Winslet,  (born 5 October 1975) is an English actress.
She made her movie debut as Juliet Hulme in Peter Jackson's Heavenly Creatures (1994).
She is best known for her starring role in the American movie, Titanic.
Winslet is the second of four children, her sisters are the actresses Anna and Beth Winslet and her brother is Joss Winslet, her mother Sally Anne is a barmaid and her father Roger John Winslet is a swimming pool contractor.
Her maternal grandparents Linda and Oliver Bridges founded the Reading Repertory Theatre and her uncle is the actor Robert Bridges, Her maternal great-grandmother Florence Theodelinda Lidman, was the daughter of a Swedish immigrant.
Kate Winslet was married to director Jim Threapleton; they had a daughter, Mia.
She married director Sam Mendes; they had a son, Joe.
In 2012, she married Ned Rocknroll, nephew of billionaire Richard Branson.
She had his first son in December of 2013.
Heavenly Creatures (1994) Juliet Hulme
A Kid in King Arthur's Court (1995) Princess Sarah
Sense and Sensibility (1995) Marianne Dashwood
Jude (1996) Sue Bridehead
Hamlet (1996) Ophelia
Titanic (1997) Rose DeWitt Bukater
Hideous Kinky (1998) Julie
Faeries (1999) Brigid
1999) Ruth Barron
Quills (2000) Madeleine LeClerc
Enigma (2001) Hester Wallace
Christmas Carol: The Movie (2001) Belle
Iris (2001) Young Iris Murdoch
The Life of David Gale (2003) Bitsey Bloom
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) Clementine Kruczynski
Finding Neverland (2004) Sylvia Llewelyn Davies
Romance & Cigarettes (2005) Tula
All the King's Men (2006) Anne Station
Little Children (2006) Sarah Pierce
Flushed Away (2006) Rita Malone
The Holiday (2006) Iris Simpkins
The Reader (2008) Hanna Schmitz
Revolutionary Road (2008) April Wheeler
Carnage (2011) Nancy Cowan
Contagion (2011) Dr. Erin Mears
Movie 43 (2013) Beth
Labor Day (2013) Adele Wheeler
A Little Chaos (2014)  Sabine De Barra
Divergent (2014) Jeanine Matthews
The Dressmaker (2014) Myrtle 'Tilly' Dunnage
People from Reading, Berkshire
Joseph Paul DiMaggio (November 25, 1914 - March 8, 1999) was an American Major League Baseball center fielder who played his whole career for the New York Yankees.
His nicknames were Joltin' Joe and The Yankee Clipper.
He played from 1936 to 1942 and then joined the army in 1943 because of World War II.
He came back and began playing again in 1946 until his retirement in 1951 at the age of 36.
By the time he retired he had hit 361 home runs.
He hit almost one home run for every strikeout.
DiMaggio died on the 8th of March, 1999, of lung cancer.
He is widely regarded as one of the best baseball players of all time.
DiMaggio was also well known for his marriage and lifelong devotion to Marilyn Monroe.
It was founded by Genghis Khan in 1206 AD when he brought together the Mongol and Turkic tribes.
When he died in 1227 AD, he had conquered Central Asia, North China and parts of eastern Persia.
Later his grandson Kublai Khan would go on to expand the empire and found the Mongol-ruled Yuan Dynasty, ruling whole China.
The Mongol Empire stretched from Eastern Europe to East Asia, including Central Asia and the Middle East.
Its power did not last long, though.
By the 1360s it had broken into several empires, all of which were later destroyed.
Genghis Khan and the Mongols
The Mongol Empire
Genghis Khan Biography
The Mongols in World History
The Mongol Empire for students
1206 establishments
1360s disestablishments
1200s establishments in Asia
Parthians were excellent horsemen and archers.
In battle, mounted Parthians often discharged their arrows back towards the enemy while pretending to flee.
Parthia.com - with an extensive bibliography
History of Parthia
The Establishment and Development of Christianity in the Parthian Empire in Transoxiana 6.
Parthia (Old Persian Parthava)
In the Battle of Utica, the loyal Carthaginian troops of Hamilcar Barca defeat rebels.
Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus attacks Carthaginian rebels on the island of Sardinia, and he makes it into a Roman province.
The Parthian kingdom breaks away to become independent of the Seleucid Empire.
230s BC
November 13 – Edward III of England
August 31 – Henry V of England
Hydrolysis is a chemical reaction or process where a chemical compound reacts with water.
This is the type of reaction that is used to break down polymers into many smaller units.
In this reaction, water is always added to the chemical compound.
Hydrolysis of metal salts
Hydrolysis of metal salts is more commonly known as hydration.
Many metal ions are strong Lewis acids, and in water they may undergo hydrolysis to form basic salts.
Such salts contain a hydroxyl group that is directly bound to the metal ion in place of a water ligand.
The positive charge on metal ions creates an attraction to water, a Lewis base with a non-binding electron pair on the oxygen atom, and alters the water molecule's electron density.
This in turn increases the polarity of the O-H bond, which now acts as a proton donor under Brønsted-Lowry acid-base theory to release the hydrogen as a H+ ion, increasing the acidity of the solution.
For example, aluminium chloride undergoes extensive hydrolysis in water with the solution being very acidic.
[Al(H2O)6]^3+ + H2O <=> [Al(OH)(H2O)5]^2+ + H3O+
This implies that hydrogen chloride is lost in the evaporation of AlCl3 solutions and the residue is a basic salt (in this case an oxychloride) in place of AlCl3.
This type of reaction is also seen with other metal chlorides such as ZnCl2, SnCl2, FeCl3 and lanthanide halides such as DyCl3.
With some compounds such as TiCl4, the hydrolysis may go to completion and form the pure hydroxide or oxide, in this case TiO2.
Water (H2O, HOH) covers 70-75% of the Earth's surface in its liquid and solid (ice) states, and is present in the atmosphere as a vapor.
It is the most abundant molecule on the Earth's surface.
At room temperature, it is a nearly colorless, flavorless, and odorless liquid.
Many substances dissolve in water and it is commonly seen as the universal solvent; because of this, water in nature and in use is rarely clean, and may have some properties different than those in the laboratory.
But there are many compounds that are essentially, if not completely, insoluble in water.
Water is the only common, pure substance found naturally in all three states of matter—for other substances, see Chemical properties.
Pure water is tasteless.
It is the other chemicals in the water which may give water a flavour.
Anomalous properties of water
Generally, the volume of a liquid increases when heated, however the volume of water decreases when heated within the temperature range of 0°C to 4°C.
Its volume increases only when heated above 4°C.
Such behavior is one of a number of water's anomalous properties.
This property of volume decrease allows fish and other aquatic animals to survive in a body of water when ice has frozen on the surface.
In cold climates, when the temperature of a body of water reaches at 4°C, the layers of water near the top in contact with cold air continue to lose heat energy and their temperature falls below 4°C.
On cooling below 4°C, these layers rise rather than sink, as water has maximum density at 4°C.
Thus the layer of water with a temperature of 4°C remains at the bottom, while layers of water 3°C, 2°C, 1°C and 0°C are formed above.
Because ice is poor conductor of heat, it does not allow heat energy transfer from the liquid water beneath the layers of ice, which prevents the liquid water from freezing.
Hence, aquatic creatures survive in such places.
Water Structure and Behaviour A comprehensive and up-to-date NPOV resource maintained by Prof Martin Chaplin of South Bank University, UK
A spoof site on the "dangers" of dihydrogen monoxide
Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI)
Explanation of the anomalous properties of water
In mammals, the lymphatic system is a network of thin vessels that branch, like blood vessels, into tissues throughout the body.
It is part of the immune system.
It is a one-way system which carries cells and fluid back to the blood system.
Lymphatic vessels carry lymph, a colorless, watery fluid and white blood cells.
It comes  from interstitial fluid in the tissues which is squeezed out of the blood vessels.
The lymphatic system transports infection-fighting cells called lymphocytes, and is involved in the removal of foreign matter and cell debris by phagocytes.
A second function is to transport fats from the small intestine to the blood.
Lymphatic fluid gathers from the tissues and enters the valved lymphatic ducts.
It is the valves which make sure the lymph flows the right way.
On its way back to the blood system, the lymph passes through  glands called lymph nodes, in places like the back of the neck, the armpits and the groin.
Lymph nodes swell in the region of an infected body part.
This acts to keep the infection from spreading.
It prevents or reduces the pathogens getting into the general blood circulation and reaching other parts of the body.
Lymph ends up back in the blood system.