the-french-artist/wikipedia_20220301.simple_sentence_split huggingface dataset:
By 2014, the light rail line will go from the end of the north wing of the city to the airport in the south.
Brasília International Airport is the main airport in Brasília, connecting the capital to all major Brazilian cities and many airports in other countries.
It is the third most important airport of Brazil, in terms of passengers and aircraft movements.
A musical genre is how people describe different styles of music.
Some of the most common music genres are:
rhythm and blues
Plus there are several more common music genres.
Religious music is also common, such as hymns, choir music and many more.
To provide an example of cross genre descriptions; Joe Walsh is to the SteelDrivers as Metallica is to Trampled by Turtles.
Furthermore, The Rolling Stones are to Flatt and Scruggs as Nickelback is to Doyle Lawson and Quicksliver.
Dim sum is a way of serving Chinese and/or Vietnamese food.
A range of different foods are served to the people who are eating, including pork wontons, fried shrimp, and egg rolls.
Hong Kong Tourism Board Guide to Dim Sum
The mysterious art of dumpling cuisine , Asia Times, April 6, 2002
Super Smash Bros. Melee, known in Japan as  is a video game where players can choose from many people from famous Nintendo games and have them fight each other.
Players can fight alone or team up with someone else against a friend.
This game is a sequel to Super Smash Bros. for the Nintendo 64.
Super Smash Bros. Melee is for the Nintendo GameCube.
The subsequent game is Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Wii.
Super Smash Bros. Melee takes 26 characters from many of Nintendo's series.
It includes all 12 veteran characters from Super Smash Bros. 64, and adds 14 new characters, including Princess Peach and Bowser from the Super Mario Bros. series, Princess Zelda/Sheik and Ganondorf from The Legend of Zelda, and new characters like Ice Climbers from Ice Climber and Marth from Fire Emblem.
Some characters seem to play more like other characters who were in the first game, like Ganondorf compared to Captain Falcon.
Sakurai planned to include more characters, including Diddy Kong, Meta Knight, King Dedede, Balloon Fighter, Solid Snake, and Lucas, but did not have time to fit them in.
All of them except for Balloon Fighter made it into Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
Default characters
Princess Zelda/Sheik
Secret characters
Marth
Pichu
Items from different games can fall from the sky, like Poké Balls from Pokémon or Mushrooms from Mario.
These items can be used in different ways.
For example, Poké Balls can summon Pokémon, and Mushrooms can either grow the person whom touches it, unless it is a Poison Mushroom which makes them shrink.
Super Smash Bros. Melee has many stages that players can battle on.
Most of the stages are based on Nintendo series like Mario, Pokémon, and The Legend of Zelda.
Home Stages
Tournament Play
Super Smash Bros. Melee has become very popular in tournaments.
These tournaments do not use items or most stages, believing that these make the game unfair.
In tournaments, however, a lot of characters are not strong enough to win.
Some of the best characters for tournaments are Fox McCloud, Falco Lombardi, and Jigglypuff.
de:Super Smash Bros.#Super Smash Bros. Melee
Catalysis is the change in speed (rate) of a chemical reaction due to the help of a catalyst.
Unlike other chemicals which take part in the reaction, a catalyst is not consumed by the reaction itself.
A catalyst may participate in many chemical reactions.
Catalysts that speed the reaction are called positive catalysts.
Catalysts that slow the reaction are called negative catalysts, or inhibitors.
Substances that increase the activity of catalysts are called promoters, and substances that deactivate catalysts are called catalytic poisons.
in Chemistry
A catalyst is something which changes the rate of a chemical reaction.
An example is when manganese oxide (MnO2) is added to hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), and the hydrogen peroxide starts to break up into water and oxygen.
Catalysts are either of natural or synthetic origin.
Catalysts are useful because they leave no residue in the solution they have sped up.
A catalyst can also be used in a reaction again and again as it is not used up.
There are many catalysts in our body which play an important part in many biochemical reactions.
These are called enzymes.
Most catalysts work by lowering the 'activation energy' of a reaction.
This allows less energy to be used, thus speeding up the reaction.
The opposite of a catalyst is an inhibitor.
Inhibitors slow down reactions.
Some of them are found in snake venom and are dangerous for our nervous system or heart.
Enzymes are biological catalysts
Hydrogen peroxide is a chemical compound.
Its molecular formula is H2O2.
It is used as a cleaner, and as hair bleach.
In a concentration of 3% (meaning that there are 3 grams of hydrogen peroxide for 100 grams of a water solution), it can be used to treat wounds.
Over time it will slowly become oxygen gas and water through decomposition.
Chemists often use hydrogen peroxide in chemical reactions.
It is a very strong oxidising agent when used with acid and water.
Oxidising agents take electrons from other compounds.
2 Fe2+(aq) + H2O2 + 2 H+(aq) → 2 Fe3+(aq) + 2 H2O(l)
It can also be a reducing agent when used with other compounds.
When it acts as a reducing agent, oxygen gas is also produced.
Reducing agents give electrons to other compounds.
This method is often used to make oxygen in laboratories.
NaOCl + H2O2 → O2 + NaCl + H2O
Hydrogen peroxide can be bought in shops when mixed with lots of water but is very dangerous when the concentration is higher.
It is flammable and causes burns.
Open Directory Project - Mayotte  directory category
Mayotte travel information at Wikivoyage
Analysis of the linguistic situation on Mayotte  (in French)
Halldór Ásgrímsson (8 September 1947 – 18 May 2015) was the Prime Minister of Iceland.
The leader of the Progressive Party since 1994, he took over as Prime Minister on September 15, 2004, from the Independence Party leader, Davíð Oddsson.
He resigned in 2009.
Prime Ministers of Iceland
Somaliland (;  ,  ), officially the Republic of Somaliland (,  is a territory that covers the former protectorate British Somaliland.
De facto, .Somaliland  It borders Djibouti to the west, the Federal Republic of Ethiopia to the south and Somalia to the east.
The area used to be the Somaliland area which was part of the British empire along with Jubaland, which was called Trans-juba.
It was called the British Somaliland Coast Protectorate before 26 June 1960.
called the "Somaliland Republic".
In May of 1991, after a war, Somaliland regained independence.
Currently, Somaliland  international organization views Somaliland as an independent country.
Instead, they see Somaliland as a part of Somalia.
Somaliland has a republican government with free elections.
The capital is Hargeisa.
Berbera is a beautiful city on the coast.
About 55% of the people of Somalilands are nomads.
Most Somalis are Sunni Muslims.
Some people are part of Sufi orders.
A territory in the west, called  Khatumo State has been disputed between Somaliland and Puntland.
Most people in Somaliland speak Somali and Arabic.
Article 6 of the Constitution of 2001 says the official language of Somaliland is Somali, but Arabic is a mandatory subject in school.
English is also spoken and taught in schools.
The main Somali dialect is Standard Somali.
Standard Somali is spoken in most of Somalia and in countries that border it.
Standard Somali is used by almost all of the media in the Somaliland region.
Almost all Somalilanders are Muslims.
This is because Islam is the state religion, and practicing a religion other than Islam is against the law.
Small amounts of non-Islamic traditions exist in Somaliland, but Islam is very important to the Somali sense of national identity.
Somaliland's official website
States of Somalia
The manifesto in detail
(This is a simple English translation of the original NSDAP manifesto of 1920; unnecessary or explanatory text has been left out)
We want all Germans to live in a " Germany"
We want Germany to be treated the same as other nations, and we want the peace treaties of Versailles to be cancelled.
We want land and territory (colonies) to feed our people and to settle our surplus population.
Only Germans may be citizens of the Germany.
Only those of the German races may be members of the nation, their religion does not matter.
No Jew may be a citizen.
Non-citizens may live in Germany, but there will be special laws for foreigners living in Germany.
Only citizens can vote for parliament and councils, or vote on laws.
Everyone who works for the German government, a state government or even a small village must be a citizen of Germany.
We will stop giving people jobs because of the political party they are in, only the best people should get a job.
We think that the government's first job is to make sure every citizen has a job and enough to eat.
If the government cannot do this, people who are not citizens should be made to leave Germany.
No-one who is not of a German-race should be allowed to live in Germany.
We want anyone who is not of a German-race who started living in Germany after 2 August 1914 to leave the country.
All citizens shall have equal rights and duties.
Every citizen should have a job.
Their work should not be selfish, but help everyone.
Therefore we demand
The abolition of incomes unearned by work.
The breaking of the slavery of interest
So many people die or lose their property in a war, it is wrong for other people to make money from the war.
Anyone who made money from the war should have all that money taken away.
We want all very big corporations to be owned by the government.
Big industrial companies should share their profits with the workers.
We want old age pensions to be increased.
We want
to create a healthy middle class
to split up big department stores, and let small traders rent space inside them
to make State and town governments try to buy from small traders.
We want to change the way land is owned.
We also want
a law to take over land if the country needs it, without the government having to pay for it;
to abolish ground rent; and
to prohibit land speculation (buying land just to sell to someone else for more money).
Crimes against the common interest must be punished with death.
We want the Roman law system changed for the German common law system.
We want to change the system of schools and education, so that every hard-working German can have the chance of higher education.
What is taught should concentrate on practical things
Schools should teach civic affairs, so that children can become good citizens
If a poor parent cannot afford to pay the government should pay for education.
The State must protect health standards by
protecting mothers and infants
stopping children from working
making a law for compulsory gymnastics and sports, and
supporting sports clubs for young men.
We want to get rid of the old army and replace it with a people's army that would look after the ordinary people, not just the rich officer-class
We want the law to stop politicians from being anti-German, and newspapers from writing about them.
To make a German national press we demand:
that all editors of, and writers in the German language newspapers are members of the nation (of a German race);
Foreign newspapers need permission from the government.
They must not be printed in the German language;
Non-Germans cannot own or control German newspapers.
any non German who does own or control a newspaper will be made to leave Germany, and the newspaper closed down,
Newspapers which criticise the country or the government are not allowed.
Art and books which support foreign ideas, should be banned.
We want to allow all religions in the State, unless they offend the moral feelings of the German race.
The NSDAP is Christian, but does not belong to any denomination.
The NSDAP will fight the Jewish self-interest spirit, and believes that our nation will be strongest only if everyone puts the common interest before self-interest.
create a strong central government for the Reich;
give Parliament control over the entire government and its organizations;
form groups based on class and job to carry out the laws in the various German states.
A penny (plural pence in the United Kingdom, plural pennies in Canada and the United States) is a coin used by several countries where people speak English.
This includes United Kingdom, the United States, where a penny is worth one cent, and Canada, where "penny" is an informal term for one cent coins.
Canada stopped minting the penny in 2012.
Popular Culture
In British and American culture, finding a penny is often thought to be lucky.
A popular expression is "Find a penny, pick it up, and all the day you'll have good luck."
If someone asks you "A penny for your thoughts" They're wanting to know what you think.
The phrase was first written in John Heywood's 1547 Dialogue Conteinying the Nomber in Effect of All the Proverbes in the Englishe Tongue, written when the penny was still a sterling silver coin.
The possibly related American expression "my two cents" (meaning "my humble opinion") uses the low value of the penny to make fun of one's own thoughts in a funny way.
In British English, to "spend a penny" means to urinate.
The phrase does actually imply spending an actual penny: coin-operated public toilets commonly charged a predecimal penny, starting with the Great Exhibition of 1851.
Around Decimal Day, British Rail introduced the "Superloo", better public toilets that charged 2p (roughly the equivalent of 6d.).
Matthew Abram "Matt" Groening (born February 15, 1954) is an American cartoonist, screenwriter, producer, animator, author, musician, comedian, and voice actor.
He is the creator of the comic strip Life in Hell, as well as two successful television series, The Simpsons and Futurama.
Groening has won 12 Primetime Emmy Awards, ten for The Simpsons and two for Futurama as well as a British Comedy Award for "outstanding contribution to comedy" in 2004.
In 2002, he won the National Cartoonist Society Reuben Award for his work on Life in Hell.
He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on February 14, 2012.
He was born on February 15, 1954 in Portland, Oregon, the middle of five children.
His mother Margaret Ruth was once a teacher.
His father Homer Philip Groening was a filmmaker, advertiser, writer and cartoonist.
Groening has Norwegian and German ancestry.
Groening identifies himself as agnostic and liberal.
He has often made campaign contributions to Democratic Party candidates.
His first cousin, Laurie Monnes Anderson, is a member of the Oregon State Senate representing eastern Multnomah County.
Groening and Deborah Caplan married in 1986.
They had 2 sons - Homer (who is called Will) and Abe.
Couple split up in 1999.
In 2011, Groening married Argentinian artist Agustina Picasso and became stepfather to her daughter Camille.
In May 2013, Picasso gave birth to Nathaniel Philip Picasso Groening who was named after American writer Nathanael West.
Incomplete list of Matt Groening appearances on The Simpsons  at The Simpsons Archive
The Story (1969) – Matt Groening tells a story to his sisters Lisa & Maggie in this film by father, Homer
The Simpsons – a Norwegian/German success (in Norwegian)
Forvo: Matt Groening Pronunciation
Actors from Portland, Oregon
Writers from Oregon
Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky (Никола́й Ива́нович Лобаче́вский, 1792–1856) was a Russian mathematician.
He became known for his achievements in non-Euclidean geometry.
Lobachevsky was born in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia.
His parents were Ivan Maksimovich Lobachevsky, a clerk in a landsurveying office, and Praskovia Alexandrovna Lobachevskaya.
In 1800, his father died and his mother moved to Kazan.
In Kazan, Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky attended Kazan Gymnasium.
He graduated in 1807 and then went to Kazan University which was founded just three years earlier, in 1804.
At Kazan University, Lobachevsky was influenced by professor Johann Christian Martin Bartels (1769–1833).
Bartels was a former teacher and friend of German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss.
Lobachevsky received a Master's degree in physics and mathematics in 1811.
In 1814, he became a lecturer at Kazan University, and in 1822 he became a full professor.
He served in many administrative positions and was the rector of Kazan University from 1827 to 1846.
He retired (or was dismissed) in 1846.
After this event his health rapidly deteriorated.
In addition to teaching mathematics and physics at Kazan University Lobachevsky also was an astronomy teacher there.
In 1832, he married Varvara Alexivna Moisieva.
1792 births
Russian geometers
A wildebeest (or gnu) is an animal.
It is a large hoofed mammal in the Bovidae family.
There are two species of wildebeest.
Both live in Africa.
Genus Connochaetes
Blue wildebeest or brindled gnu (Connochaetes taurinus)
Black wildebeest or white-tailed gnu (Connochaetes gnou)
Wildebeest grow to 1.15 to 1.40 metres (at the shoulder) and they weigh between 150 and 250 kilograms when they are fully grown.
They live in the plains and open woodlands in southern Africa.
The biggest herds can be found in the Serengeti.
Wildebeest can live for more than 20 years.
Like other members of the same family (antelopes, deer and goats, amongst others), they mainly eat grass.
But since in the African grasslands, there is not always grass, wildebeest are forced to migrate to find food all year round.
In May, about 1.5 million animals move from the grasslands to the woods.
In November they move back; there is grass in the plains in summer.
Breeding and mating season
The cows (female Gnus) will calve (give birth to the young) in summer in the plains.
After the females have given birth, the breeding season begins.
The dominant males mark off (and defend) some territory.
They do this with feces, and with scent.
Wildebeest are an important part of the ecosystem.
With their feces, they fertilize the ground, and their trampling is good for new growth.
They also provide food for predators, like lions and hyenas.
The Great Migration , on migration patterns of the wildebeest
Wildebeest images
Bovids
Gnu, an animal
GNU, a computer operating system
The Serengeti (also Seremgeti) is a region of  savannah (woodlands and grasslands) in East Africa.
The south of it (80%) belongs to Tanzania.
The north of it is in Kenya.
It is about 30,000 square kilometers, and one of the greatest areas for wildlife.
It has more than 1.6 million herbivores and thousands of predators.
Wildebeests, gazelles, zebras and buffalos are the most common animals in the region.
Every year around October nearly 1.5 million herbivores travel towards the southern plains, crossing the Mara River, from the northern hills for the rains.
And then back to the north through the west, once again crossing the Mara river, after the rains in around April.
This phenomenon is sometimes also called the Circular Migration.
The park covers 14,763 km² (5,700 square miles) of grassland plains and savanna as well as riverine forest and woodlands.
The park is in the north of the country, bordered to the north by the national Tanzania and Kenyan border, where it is continuous with the Masai Mara National Reserve.
To the southeast of the park is Ngorongoro Conservation Area, to the southwest is Maswa Game Reserve, and to the western borders are Ikorongo and Grumeti Game Reserves, to the northeast is Loliondo Game Control Area.
Few people are allowed to live in the National Park.
Exceptions the staff of the Park, researchers and staff of Frankfurt Zoological Society, and staff of the various lodges and hotels.
The main settlement is at Seronera.
Serengeti plains: the endless, almost treeless grassland of the south.
This is where the wildebeest breed, as they stay in the plains from December to May.
Other hoofed animals–zebra, gazelle, impala, hartebeest, topi, buffalo, waterbuck–also occur in huge numbers during the wet season.
Kopjes are granite mounds which are very common in the region, and they are great observation posts for predators, and a refuge for hyrax and pythons.
Western corridor: the "black cotton" (actually black clay) soil covers the swampy savannah of this region.
Grumeti river is home to enormous Nile crocodiles, colobus monkey, and the martial eagle.
The migration passes through from May to July.
Northern Serengeti: the landscape is dominated by open woodlands and hills, from Seronera in the South, to the Mara river into Kenya.
Apart from the migratory wildebeest and zebra (which occur from July to August, and in November), the bushy savannah is the best place to find elephant, giraffe and dik dik.
Lion: the Serengeti is believed to hold the largest population of lions in Africa due in part to the abundance of prey species.
Currently there are more than 3000 lions living in this ecosystem.
African Leopard: these reclusive predators are commonly seen in the Seronera region but are present throughout the national park with the current population at around 1000.
African elephant: the herds are recovering from population lows in the 1980s caused by poaching, and are mostly in the northern regions of the park
Black Rhinoceros: mainly around the kopjes in the centre of the park, very few individuals remain due to rampant poaching.
Individuals from the Masai Mara Reserve cross the park border and enter Serengeti from the northern section at times.
African Buffalo: still abundant and present in healthy numbers, but numbers have been somewhat reduced due to disease
The park also supports many further species, including cheetah, Thomson's and Grant's gazelle, topi, eland, water buck, hyena, baboon, impala, African wild dog and giraffe.
The park also boasts about 500 bird species, including ostrich, secretary bird, Kori bustard, crowned crane, marabou stork, martial eagle, lovebirds and many species of vultures.
The Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) is a  UNESCO World Heritage Site 180 km (112 miles) west of Arusha in the Crater Highlands area of Tanzania.
Ngorongoro Crater
The main feature of the NCA is the Ngorongoro Crater, a large volcanic caldera.
The crater, which formed when a giant volcano exploded and collapsed on itself some two to three million years ago, is  deep and its floor covers .
Although thought of as "a natural enclosure" for a very wide variety of wildlife, up to 20% or more of the wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus) and half the zebra (Equus burchelli) populations leave the Crater in the wet season.
The Ngorongoro lions are significantly inbred, with many genetic problems passed from generation to generation.
This is due to the very few new bloodlines that enter the local gene pool, because few migrating male lions enter the crater from the outside.
Those who do enter the crater often cannot contribute to the gene pool.
The crater's male lions, because of their large size (the result of an abundant food source), easily expel outside competitors.
Animal populations in the crater include most of the species in East Africa, but there are no impalas (Aepyceros melampus), giraffes (Giraffa camelopardalis), or crocodiles (Crocodylus niloticus).
The crater highlands on the side facing the easterly trade winds receives 800–1200 mm of rain a year and is covered largely in montane forest, while the less-steep west wall receives only 400–600 mm; this side is grassland and bushland dotted with Euphorbia bussei trees.
The crater floor is mostly open grassland with two small wooded areas dominated by Acacia xanthophloea.
The Munge Stream drains Olmoti Crater to the north, and is the main water source draining into the seasonal salt lake in the center of the crater.
This lake is known by two names: Makat as the Maasai called it, meaning salt; and Magadi.
The Lerai Stream drains the humid forests to the south of the Crater, and it feeds the Lerai Forest on the crater floor - when there is enough rain, the Lerai drains into Lake Magadi as well.
Extraction of water by lodges and NCA headquarters reduces the amount of water entering Lerai by around 25%.
The other major water source in the crater is the Ngoitokitok Spring, near the eastern crater wall.
There is a picnic site here open to tourists and a huge swamp fed by the spring, and the area is inhabited by hippopotamus, elephants, lions, and many others.
Many other small springs are around the crater's floor, and these are important water supplies for the animals and local Masaai, especially during times of drought.
Aside from herds of zebra, gazelle, and wildebeest, the crater is home to the "Big Five Game" of rhinoceros, lion, leopard, elephant, and buffalo.
The crater plays host to almost every individual species of wildlife in East Africa, with an estimated 25 000 animals within the crater.
Following the recommendations of a committee of scientists after the 2000 drought, an ecological burning program was implemented in the crater, which entails annual or biannual controlled burns of up to 20% of the grasslands.
Maasai are now permitted to graze their cattle within the crater, but must enter and exit daily.
The conservation area also protects Olduvai Gorge, in the plains area.
It is considered the seat of humanity after the discovery of the earliest known specimens of the human genus, Homo habilis  as well as early hominidae, such as Paranthropus boisei.
The Olduvai Gorge or Oldupai Gorge is a steep-sided ravine in the Great Rift Valley, which stretches along eastern Africa.
Olduvai is in the eastern Serengeti Plains in northern Tanzania and is about thirty miles long.
It is in the rain shadow of the Ngorongoro highlands and is the driest part of the region.
It is one of the most important prehistoric sites in the world.
Research there has greatly developed our understanding of early human evolution.
Excavation work there was pioneered by Mary and Louis Leakey in the 1950s.
It is still continued today by their family.
During the Pleistocene, the site was that of a large lake, the shores of which were covered with successive deposits of volcanic ash.
Around 500,000 years ago seismic activity diverted a nearby stream which began to cut down into the sediments, revealing seven main layers in the walls of the gorge.
Flickr photos tagged serengeti
IUCN Category II
National parks in Africa
Volcanoes of Africa
Geography of Kenya
Geography of Tanzania
Spiders (class Arachnida, order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods.
They have eight legs, and mouthparts (chelicerae) with fangs that inject venom.
Most make silk.
The arachnids  are seventh in number of species of all animal orders.
About 48,000 spider species, and 120 families have been recorded by taxonomists.
Over twenty different classifications have been proposed since 1900.p3 Spiders live on every continent except for Antarctica, and in nearly every habitat with the exceptions of air and sea.
Almost all spiders are predators, and most eat insects.
They catch their prey in several ways.
Some build a spider web, and some use a thread of silk that they throw at the insect.
Some kinds of spiders hide in holes in the ground, then run out and grab an insect that walks by.
Others will make web 'nets' to throw at passing insects.
Or they go out and simply attack their prey.
Some can jump quite well and hunt by sneaking close to an insect and then jumping on it.
Spiders have a two-part body, the front part (cephalothorax) and the abdomen.
Unlike insects, spiders do not have antennae.
The more advanced spiders have a centralized nervous system, with their ganglia fused into one mass in the cephalothorax.
Unlike most arthropods, spiders have no extensor muscles in their limbs, and extend them by hydraulic pressure.
Size range
The smallest of full-grown spiders can be less than 4 mm. (
0.1 inch).
The largest of spiders can have a body length of 10 cm. (
4 inches) or more.
The largest can weigh 150 grams (5.3 oz).
The largest of spiders are the tarantulas and the huntsman spiders.
Some huntsman spiders in South East Asia can have a leg span of around 250–300 mm (9.8–11.8 in).
Spider eyes and other senses
Most spiders have four pairs of eyes on the top-front area of the body, arranged in patterns that vary from one family to another.
The main eyes at the front are capable of forming images.
Jumping spiders have visual acuity which is ten times better than that of dragonflies, which have by far the best vision among insects.
The spiders do this by a telephoto-like series of lenses, a four-layered retina.
They can swivel their eyes and put together images from different stages in the scan.
The downside is that the scanning and integrating processes are relatively slow.
Spiders and other arthropods have modified their cuticles into elaborate arrays of sensors.
Various sensors, mostly bristles, respond to touch, from strong contact to very weak air currents.
Chemical sensors provide equivalents of taste and smell.
Spiders also have in the joints of their limbs sensors that detect forces and vibrations.
In web-building spiders all these mechanical and chemical sensors are more important than the eyes.
The eyes are more important to spiders that hunt actively.
Like most arthropods, spiders lack balance sensors, and rely on their eyes to tell them which way is up.
The fangs are hollow, like the needles used to give injections.
Spiders use their fangs to inject toxins that kill the insects they will eat.
Some kinds of spider venom attack the nervous systems of their prey, and other kinds of venom attack body tissues.
What most spiders eat
Spiders are predators, and eat insects and other arthropods (including other spiders).
Most use venom from their fangs to kill their prey.
It is rare for spiders to capture prey that are much larger than they are.
It is also difficult for most spiders to capture prey that are very much smaller than they are.
There are some spiders that form colonies.
Spiders eat not only spiders of other species, but spiders of their own species.
The black widow spider got its name because the females sometimes eat the males that mate with them.
This may also happen in other species.
Each species of spider has its own way of communicating with other spiders they meet.
Because of the danger of being eaten, in some species the males have special hooks on their front legs with which they hold the female while they mate.
Others bring the female something to eat.
There are a few species in which the male spiders construct their own little webs that are connected to the webs of the females.
In these species, the male is so much smaller than the female that it would be difficult for her to actually capture the male.
Most spiders have such poor vision that they will not even notice a dead insect.
Jumping spiders are one exception to this rule.
They have such good vision that they can find recently dead flies or other insects to eat.
Some spiders are not predators
Most spiders are predators, but the jumping spider Bagheera kiplingi gets over 90% of its food from fairly solid plant material produced by acacias as part of a beneficial relationship with a species of ant.
Young spiders of several families feed on plant nectar.
Studies have shown that they do this for long periods.
They also clean themselves regularly while feeding.
These spiders also prefer sugar solutions to plain water, which shows that they are looking for nutrients.
Many spiders are nocturnal, they are most active during the night.
The extent of nectar consumption by spiders may therefore have been under-estimated.
Nectar contains amino acids, lipids, vitamins and minerals in addition to sugars.
Studies have shown that other spider species live longer when nectar is available.
Feeding on nectar also avoids the risks of struggles with prey, and the costs of producing venom and digestive enzymes.
Various species are known to feed on dead arthropods (scavenging), web silk, and their own shed exoskeletons.
Pollen caught in webs may also be eaten, and studies have shown that young spiders have a better chance of survival if they have the opportunity to eat pollen.
In captivity, several spider species are also known to feed on bananas, marmalade, milk, egg yolk and sausages.
Methods of catching prey
The best-known method spiders use to capture prey is a sticky web.
The placing of the web allows different spiders to trap different insects in the same area.
Flat, horizontal webs allow them to trap insects that fly up from vegetation underneath, for example.
Flat vertical nets allow them to trap insects in flight.
The spiders that build webs usually do not see very well, but they are very sensitive to vibrations.
Females of the water spider Argyroneta aquatica build underwater "diving bell" webs which they fill with air and use eating their prey, molting, mating, and raising offspring.
They live almost entirely within the bells, darting out to catch prey animals that touch the bell or the threads that anchor it.
A few spiders use the surfaces of lakes and ponds as "webs", detecting trapped insects by the vibrations that these cause while struggling.
Bola casting
Net-casting spiders weave only small webs but then manipulate them to trap prey.
They stretch their webs and then release them when prey strike them.
Those of the family Deinopidae weave even smaller webs, hold them outstretched between their first two pairs of legs, and lunge and push the webs as much as twice their own body length to trap prey, and this move may increase the webs' area by a factor of up to ten.
Experiments have shown that Deinopis spinosus has two different techniques for trapping prey: backwards strikes to catch flying insects, whose vibrations it detects; and forward strikes to catch ground-walking prey that it sees.
These two techniques have also been observed in other deinopids.
Walking insects form most of the prey of most deinopids, but one population of Deinopis subrufus appears to live mainly on tipulid flies that they catch with the backwards strike.
Mature female bolas spiders of the genus Mastophora build "webs" that consist of only a single "trapeze line", which they patrol.
They also construct a bolas made of a single thread, tipped with a large ball of very wet sticky silk.
They emit chemicals that resemble the pheromones of moths, and then swing the bolas at the moths.
They catch about the same weight of insects per night as web-weaving spiders of similar size.
The spiders eat the bolas if they have not made a kill in about 30 minutes, rest for a while, and then make new bolas.
Juveniles and adult males are much smaller and do not make bolas.
Instead they release different pheromones that attract moth flies, and catch them with their front pairs of legs.
Using trapdoors
The primitive Liphistiidae, the "trapdoor spiders" (family Ctenizidae) and many tarantulas are ambush predators.
They lurk in burrows, often closed by trapdoors and surrounded by networks of silk threads that alert these spiders to the presence of prey.
Other ambush predators do without such aids, including many crab spiders.
A few species that prey on bees, which see ultraviolet, can adjust their ultraviolet reflectance to match the flowers in which they are lurking.
Wolf spiders, jumping spiders, fishing spiders and some crab spiders capture prey by chasing it, and rely mainly on vision to get their prey.
Capturing insects without using webs
Not all spiders use silk to net their prey.
Instead, these spiders may capture insects by grabbing them and then biting them.
Among these kinds of spiders the two best known are the wolf spiders and the jumping spiders.
Wolf spiders
Female wolf spiders lay their eggs on a pad of silk and then draw the edges together to create a round ball that they carry along with them wherever they go.
They hold their egg balls to their tail ends by using their silk.
When the eggs hatch, the little spiders will crawl onto the mother's back, and she will carry them along with her for days or weeks.
Wolf spiders are very good mothers and will strongly protect both their egg balls and their infants.
When the time comes, the little spiders will leave the mother and each will go its own way.
Jumping spiders
Jumping spiders have very good eyes and can see well.
They sneak as close to an insect as they can, and then they jump onto the insect and immediately bite it.
Since they often hunt in trees, bushes, and on the sides of walls, if the jumping spider misses it may fall off.
But they have a way to save themselves from harm.
Before they jump they fasten their silk to the place where they have been standing, and as they jump they let out a silk safety line.
So if they fall they will catch themselves when they reach the end of their silk safety line.
Sometimes a jumping spider will catch an insect and then fall while still holding onto the insect.
But the spider is still safe.
Jumping spiders make little silken "tents" for themselves to sleep in.
When they lay eggs they keep them inside such a shelter.
They do not take their eggs with them when they go out to hunt.
For all male spiders it is dangerous to seek a mate.
The female spider may not realize that the male is a spider of her kind, so she may try to eat it.
The jumping spiders not only have visual patterns that identify them to each other, but the male jumping spider will do a special dance when it approaches a female of the same species.
That way, the female can recognize that it is a male of her species.
She will generally forget about eating for long enough to mate with the visiting male spider.
Jumping spiders have such good eyes that they will usually watch any human who tries to watch them.
Some species are very shy and will run away if the human gets too close.
But some species, such as Phidippus audax (the audacious or brave jumping spider) and Platycryptus undatus, can become calm if the human comes close to them slowly.
Sometimes they will jump onto one of your fingers and then jump from finger to finger and from hand to hand.
They seem to want to explore.
Hunting other spiders
Some jumping spiders of the genus Portia hunt other spiders in ways that seem intelligent, outflanking their victims or luring them from their webs.
Laboratory studies show that Portias instinctive tactics are only starting points for a trial-and-error approach from which these spiders learn very quickly how to overcome new prey species.
However, they seem to be relatively slow thinkers, which is not surprising as their brains are vastly smaller than those of mammalian predators.
Disguising as ants
Ant-mimicking spiders face several challenges: they generally develop slimmer abdomens and false "waists" to mimic the three distinct regions (tagmata) of an ant's body; they wave the first pair of legs in form to their heads to mimic antennae, which spiders lack, and to conceal the fact that they have eight legs rather than six.
They have large color patches round one pair of eyes to disguise the fact that they generally have eight simple eyes, while ants have two compound eyes; they cover their bodies with reflective hairs to resemble the shiny bodies of ants.
In some spider species males and females mimic different ant species, as female spiders are usually much larger than males.
Ant-mimicking spiders also modify their behavior to resemble that of the target species of ant, for example many adopt a zig-zag pattern of movement, ant-mimicking jumping spiders avoid jumping, and spiders of the genus Synemosyna walk on the outer edges of leaves in the same way as Pseudomyrmex.
Ant-mimicry in many spiders and other arthropods may be for protection from predators that hunt by sight, including birds, lizards and spiders.
However several ant-mimicking spiders prey either on ants or on the ants "livestock" such as aphids.
When at rest the ant-mimicking crab spider Amyciaea does not closely resemble Oecophylla, but while hunting it imitates the behavior of a dying ant to attract worker ants.
After a kill some ant-mimicking spiders hold their victims between themselves and large groups of ants to avoid being attacked.
Reproduction and life cycle
Spiders reproduce sexually and fertilization is internal but indirect.
In other words, the sperm is not inserted into the female's body by the male's genitals but by an intermediate stage.
Unlike many land-living arthropods, male spiders do not produce ready-made spermatophores (packages of sperm).
Instead, they spin small sperm webs on to which they ejaculate and then transfer the sperm to structures on the tips of their pedipalps.
When a male detects signs of a female nearby he checks whether she is of the same species and whether she is ready to mate; for example in species that produce webs or 'safety ropes', the male can identify the species and sex of these objects by smell.
Spiders generally use elaborate courtship rituals to prevent the large females from eating the small males before fertilization, except where the male is so much smaller that he is not worth eating.
In some species males mate with newly molted females, which are too weak to be dangerous to the males.
In web-weaving species precise patterns of vibrations in the web are a major part of the rituals, while patterns of touches on the female's body are important in many spiders that hunt actively, and may 'hypnotize' the female.
Gestures and dances by the male are important for jumping spiders, which have excellent eyesight.
If courtship is successful, the male injects his sperm from the pedipalps into the female's genital opening on the underside of her abdomen.
Female reproductive tracts vary.
Some are simple tubes, but others have chambers where females store sperm, and release it when they are ready.
Males do get eaten in some species.
Males of the genus Tidarren cut off one of their palps, and enter adult life with one palp only.
The palps are 20% of male's body mass in this species, and detaching one of the two improves mobility.
In the Yemeni species Tidarren argo, the remaining palp is then torn off by the female.
The separated palp remains attached to the female's opening for about four hours.
In the meantime, the female feeds on the palpless male.
In over 60% of cases the female of the Australian redback spider kills and eats the male after it inserts its second palp into the female's genital opening; in fact the males co-operate by trying to impale themselves on the females' fangs.
Observation shows that most male redbacks never get an opportunity to mate, and the 'lucky' ones increase the likely number of offspring by ensuring that the females are well-fed.
However males of most species survive a few matings, limited mainly by their short life spans.
Some even live for a while in their mates' webs.p176/212
Females lay up to 3,000 eggs in one or more silk egg sacs, which maintain a fairly constant humidity level.
In some species the females die afterwards, but females of other species protect the sacs by attaching them to their webs, hiding them in nests, carrying them in the chelicerae or attaching them to the spinnerets and dragging them along.
Development of young
Baby spiders pass all their larval stages inside the egg and hatch as spiderlings, very small and sexually immature but similar in shape to adults.
Some spiders care for their young, for example a wolf spider's brood cling to rough bristles on the mother's back, and females of some species respond to the "begging" behaviour of their young by giving them their prey, provided it is no longer struggling, or even regurgitate food.
Like other arthropods, spiders have to moult to grow as their cuticle ("skin") cannot stretch.
Most spiders live for only one to two years, although some tarantulas can live in captivity for over 20 years.p232
Spiders and humans
Of the 40,000 spiders, less than 12 are known to be dangerous to humans.
Most of the time, being bitten by a spider is painful.
Most spiders use venom to paralyse their prey; they kill it through eating, or through a bite.
A few spiders have venoms that can be dangerous to weakened people and those allergic to it.
Since 1927, 13 people have died, after a bite from a Atrax robustus spider from Australia.
The spider that kills the most people, the black widow and other spiders in the genus Latrodectus are around 1 cm.
in body length.
The Atrax and Phoneutria spiders, which are also capable of killing people, both average around 2.5 cm.
or one inch, and even the Widow spiders are large enough to be easily noticed.
Even relatively small spiders like Phidippus audax can give a painful bite if you hurt them, but spiders are very helpful to human beings because they control insects that eat our crops.
Being afraid of spiders is a very common phobia (fear).
The widow spiders (black widows and other members of their genus) never willingly leave their webs, so usually people get bitten when they touch the spider by mistake.
Gallery Click on a picture to see it larger:'''
Platnick N.I. 20013.
The world spider catalog''.
Hosted by the American Museum of Natural History, and edited by Peter Merrett and H. Don Cameron.
King George III takes the British throne in 1760.
The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) comes to an end.
France gives Canada to Britain, but criticism of the government still grows, led by the controversial figure of John Wilkes.
Meanwhile, there is increasing unrest in Britain's American colonies.
King George III died later in 1820.
Science and technology – development of the steam engine continues.
Emperor Qianlong (Ch'ien Lung) (China)
King Frederick V (Denmark and Norway)
King Augustus III (Poland)
King José I (Portugal)
Czar Peter III (Russia)
Czarina Catherine II (the Great) (Russia)
King Carlos III (Spain)
King Adolf Fredrik (Sweden)
Sultan Mustafa III (Ottoman Empire)
King George III (United Kingdom)
Josephine de Beauharnais, Empress of France
Michail Leontievich Bulatov, Russian military
Pierre de Marivaux, French writer
Grass is a plant with narrow leaves growing from the base.
A common kind of grass is used to cover the ground in a lawn and other places.
Grass gets water from the roots in the ground.
Grasses are monocotyledon, herbaceous plants.
The grasses include the "grass", of the family Poaceae (also called Gramineae).
Also sometimes it is used to include the   sedges (Cyperaceae) and the rushes (Juncaceae).
These three families are not closely related but belong to different clades in the order Poales.
They are similar adaptations to a common life-style.
The true grasses include cereals, bamboo and the grasses of lawns (turf) and grassland.
Uses for graminoids include food (as grain, sprouted grain, shoots or rhizomes), drink (beer, whisky), pasture for livestock, thatching thatch, paper, fuel, clothing, insulation, construction, sports turf, basket weaving and many others.
Many grasses are short, but some grasses, like bamboo can grow very tall.
Plants from the grass family can grow in many places, even if they are very cold or very dry.
Several other plants that look similar but are not members of the grass family are also sometimes called grass; these include rushes, reeds, papyrus, and water chestnut.
Grasses are an important food for many animals, like deer, buffalo, cattle, mice, grasshoppers, caterpillars, and many other grazers.
Unlike other plants, grasses grow from the bottom, so when animals eat grass they usually do not destroy the part that grows.
Without grass, dirt can wash away into rivers (erosion).
Evolution of grass
Graminoids include some of the most versatile plant life-forms.
They became widespread toward the end of the Cretaceous.
Fossilized dinosaur dung (coprolites) have been found containing  grass phytoliths (silica stones inside grass leaves).
Grasses have adapted to conditions in lush rain forests, dry deserts, cold mountains and even intertidal habitats, and are now the most widespread plant type.
Grass is a valuable source of food and energy for many animals.
Grass and people
Lawn grass is often planted on sports fields and in the area around a building.
Sometimes chemicals and water is used to help lawns to grow.
People have used grasses for a long time.
People eat parts of grasses.
Corn, wheat, barley, oats, rice and millet are cereals, common grains whose seeds are used for food and to make alcohol such as beer.
Sugar comes from sugar cane, which is also a plant in the grass family.
People have grown grasses as food for farm animals for about 4,000 years.
People use bamboo to build houses, fences, furniture and other things.
Grass plants can also be used as fuel, to cover roofs, and to weave baskets.
In English, the word "grass" appears in several phrases.
"The grass is always greener on the other side" means "people are never happy with what they have and want something else."