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Baleen whales are a widely distributed and diverse parvorder of carnivorous marine mammals, and comprise four families and 15 species. They have two limbs that are modified into flippers. Baleen whales use their baleen plates to filter out food from the water. They have fused neck vertebrae, and are unable to turn their head at all. Baleen whales have two blowholes, and have a layer of fat under the skin to keep them warm. Although baleen whales are widespread, most species prefer the colder waters around the Northern and Southern poles.
The springbok is a medium-sized antelope found mainly in southern and southwestern Africa. The sole member of the genus Antidorcas, this bovid was first described by Eberhard August Wilhelm von Zimmermann in 1780. It reaches 71 to 86 cm (28 to 34 in) at the shoulder and weighs between 27 and 42 kg (60 and 93 lb). Both sexes have a pair of black, 35 to 50 cm (14 to 20 in) long horns that curve backward.
The Lesser Antillean macaw is a hypothetical extinct species of macaw that is thought to have been endemic to the Lesser Antillean island region of Guadeloupe. In spite of the absence of conserved specimens, many details about the species are known from several contemporary accounts, and the bird is the subject of some illustrations. According to contemporary descriptions, the body of the Lesser Antillean macaw was red and the wings were red, blue and yellow. The tail feathers were between 38 and 51 cm (15 and 20 in) long. Apart from the smaller size and the all-red coloration of the tail feathers, it resembled the scarlet macaw and may therefore have been a close relative of that species.
Heterodontosaurus is a genus of heterodontosaurid dinosaur that lived during the Early Jurassic period. Its only known member species, Heterodontosaurus tucki, was named in 1962 based on a skull discovered in South Africa. The genus name means "different toothed lizard", in reference to its unusual, heterodont dentition. The specific name honors G. C. Tuck, who supported the discoverers. Further specimens have since been found, including an almost complete skeleton in 1966.
Djedkare Isesi was an Ancient Egyptian pharaoh, the eighth and penultimate ruler of the Fifth Dynasty in the late 25th to mid 24th century BCE, during the Old Kingdom period. Djedkare likely enjoyed a long reign of over 40 years, which heralded a new period in the history of the Old Kingdom. He effected comprehensive reforms of the Egyptian state administration, reorganised the funerary cults of his forebears buried in the necropolis of Abusir and reformed the corresponding priesthood.
Ancient Egypt was a civilization of ancient Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. It is one of six civilizations to arise independently. Egyptian civilization followed prehistoric Egypt and coalesced around 3150 BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology) with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh Narmer (commonly referred to as Menes).
Ambohimanga is a hill and traditional fortified royal settlement (rova) in Madagascar, located approximately 24 kilometers (15 mi) northeast of the capital city of Antananarivo. The hill and the rova that stands on top are considered the most significant symbol of the cultural identity of the Merina people and the most important and best-preserved monument of the precolonial Kingdom of Madagascar and its precursor, the Kingdom of Imerina. The walled historic village includes residences and burial sites of several key monarchs. The site, one of the twelve sacred hills of Imerina, is associated with strong feelings of national identity and has maintained its spiritual and sacred character both in ritual practice and the popular imagination for at least four hundred years. It remains a place of worship to which pilgrims come from Madagascar and elsewhere.
Maya civilization: The Mesoamerican Maya civilisation was developed by the Maya people over several thousand years. The earliest period, known as the Pre-Classic, lasted from about 2000 BC to 250 AD. The civilization was at its peak from circa 250 AD to 900 AD after which it gradually declined until the Maya's unfortunate encounter with conquistador Hernán Cortés and his compatriots in the early 16th century. The Maya had a sophisticated and highly developed writing system, and they produced stunning artwork, sculptures and pottery. They are also known for human sacrifice, astronauts, and a sophisticated calendar which predicted the apocalypse three years ago.
Irataba, leader of the Mohave American Indian people, was an important mediator between his people and the United States during the second half of the 19th century. He first met European Americans in 1851, when the Sitgreaves Expedition entered Mohave territory. As an English speaker and a gifted orator Irataba used his skills to protect his people by negotiating with the US government; he met President Lincoln and members of the government in Washington in 1864. As elected leader of the band of Colorado Mohave, Irataba was also a warrior, leading his band against other American Indian tribes that posed a threat to the Mohave.
Eusèbe Jaojoby (born 29 July 1955), commonly known by his surname Jaojoby [ˈdzodzubʲ], is a Malagasy composer and singer of salegy, a musical style of northwestern Madagascar. Critics consider him to be one of the originators of the modern salegy style that emerged in the 1970s, and credit him with transforming the genre from an obscure regional musical tradition into one of national and international popularity. Jaojoby also contributed to the creation of two salegy subgenres, malessa and baoenjy. Jaojoby has been called the most popular singer in Madagascar and the Indian Ocean islands, and is widely referred to as the "King of Salegy". His success has earned him such honors as Artist of the Year in Madagascar for two consecutive years (1998–1999) and the role of Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Population Fund in 1999.
Stuyvesant High School /ˈstaɪvəsənt/, commonly referred to as Stuy /ˈstaɪ/[a] or Stuyvesant, is one of nine specialized high schools in New York City, United States. Operated by the New York City Department of Education, these schools offer tuition-free accelerated academics to city residents. Stuyvesant is a college preparatory science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) focused liberal arts high school.
Cameroon (/ˌkæməˈruːn/; French: Cameroun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (French: République du Cameroun), is a country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west; Chad to the northeast; the Central African Republic to the east; and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo to the south. Cameroon's coastline lies on the Bight of Bonny, part of the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean.
Eta Carinae is a stellar system about 7500 light years away. It's reckoned that the system has at least two stars which together outshine our sun by a factor of five million. The brightness of the system is variable; between 1837 and 1856 it got brighter in what Victorian astronomers called the Great Eruption. During three days in March 1843, it was the second-brightest star in the sky (it was regarded as a single star until the middle of last century). After the 1850s Eta Carinae faded until in 1886 it was not visible to the naked eye. It brightened again, faded again and has since brightened considerably, doubling in 1998–1999. The brightening is reckoned to be due to the two major stars of the system passing close by, with a period of 5.54 years; the fading is due to ejection of gas and dust from the system which obscures emissions from the stars.
Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of bodies beyond Neptune. It was the first Kuiper belt object to be discovered. It is the largest and second-most-massive known dwarf planet in the Solar System and the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object directly orbiting the Sun.
Paul Kruger was a prominent Boer leader, and President of the South African Republic (or Transvaal) from 1883 to 1900. Kruger was born in 1825 to a long-established Boer family in the British Cape Colony. In accordance with Boer custom, Kruger became an enfranchised burgher and farmer at age 16; over the next decade, he was mentored by the Boer trekker leader Andries Pretorius, who was fighting British expansion into the Orange River area. The fractious nature of Boer politics began to evolve into a unified national consciousness after Britain's annexation of the South African Republic in 1877. The First Boer War of 1880–1881 ended in a peace treaty which restored the Transvaal's independence, with Kruger as elected President from 1883. With the Witwatersrand Gold Rush of 1886 came a massive influx of "uitlanders" (out-landers), mostly British; the income of the republic was derived mainly from taxing these immigrants, but they were given only limited civic representation. The lack of a franchise for British immigrants was one of the factors leading to the Second Boer War of 1899–1902. As the war turned against the Boers in 1900, Kruger was despatched to Europe to prevent his capture; after his death in Switzerland four years later, the victorious British authorities allowed his body's repatriation and accorded him a state funeral. His statue has stood in the centre of Pretoria since 1954.
Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo (4 March 1901 or 1903 – 22 June 1937), born Joseph-Casimir Rabearivelo, is widely considered to be Africa's first modern poet and the greatest literary artist of Madagascar. Part of the first generation raised under French colonization, Rabearivelo grew up impoverished and failed to complete secondary education. His passion for French literature and traditional Malagasy poetry prompted him to read extensively and educate himself on a variety of subjects, including the French language and its poetic and prose traditions. He published his first poems as an adolescent in local literary reviews, soon obtaining employment at a publishing house where he worked as a proofreader and editor of its literary journals. He published numerous poetry anthologies in French and Malagasy, as well as literary critiques, an opera, and two novels.
Cucurbita: The genus Cucurbita, which includes butternut squash, courgettes, various pumpkins, and other squashes and gourds, is a delicious and important part of the human food supply. Evidence of domestication goes back at least eight thousand years in the Americas, and happened as far north as Canada and as far south as Argentina. Cucurbita pepo, a species with a wide variety of cultivars, including the famous orange pumpkin, is believed to be one of the oldest domesticated plants, if not the oldest. They reached Europe after Columbus' voyage, with the earliest record being a French devotional book, of all things, from between 1503 and 1508. Famously, pumpkins replaced the traditional turnip in the carving of jack-o'-lanterns. This Hallowe'en, say no to revisionism. Carve a turnip. Then have a nice pumpkin pie or a butternut squash stew, because they're delicious, hearty meals for a cold autumnal evening. Or, if you live in a place unlike Scotland where it's hot in October, then, if they're available and not out of season, why not roast pumpkin and butternut squash, cut them into cubes, add cherry tomatoes, some pine nuts, a little olive oil, perhaps, and have a delicious cold salad?
Maraba coffee : (Kinyarwanda: Ikawa ya Maraba; French: Café de Maraba) is a Fairtrade-certified coffee grown in the Maraba area of southern Rwanda. Maraba's coffee plants are the Bourbon variety of the Coffea arabica species and are grown on fertile volcanic soils on high-altitude hills. The fruit is handpicked, mostly during the rainy season between March and May, and brought to a washing station in Maraba, where the coffee beans are extracted and dried. About 2,000 smallholder farmers grow the coffee plants under the Abahuzamugambi cooperative, founded in 1999. Since 2000, the cooperative has been supported by the National University of Rwanda (NUR) and the PEARL. The cooperative has improved coffee quality and penetrated the specialty market.
Mozambican War of Independence : The Mozambican War of Independence was an armed conflict between the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frente de Libertação de Moçambique, or FRELIMO) and Portugal. The war officially started on September 25, 1964, and ended with a ceasefire on September 8, 1974, resulting in a negotiated independence in 1975. The conflict was a result of unrest and frustration amongst the indigenous Mozambican population, who perceived foreign rule to be a form of exploitation and mistreatment and resented Portugal's policies towards indigenous people, which included denying locals access to fundamental education and employment. As successful self-determination movements spread throughout Africa after World War II, many Mozambicans became progressively nationalistic in outlook. A mass exile of Mozambique's political intelligentsia to neighbouring countries provided havens from which radical Mozambicans could plan actions and foment political unrest in the home country. The formation of FRELIMO and the support of the Soviet Union, China and Cuba through arms and advisors, led to the outbreak of violence that was to last over a decade.
Battle of Sio The Battle of Sio, fought between December 1943 and March 1944, was the break-out and pursuit phase of General Douglas MacArthur's Huon Peninsula campaign, part of the New Guinea campaign of World War II. After the defeat of the Japanese in the Battle of Sattelberg, Australian Army forces broke through the Japanese positions around Finschhafen. Constant pressure from US Navy PT boats, Australian land forces and Allied aircraft brought the Japanese logistical system to the brink of collapse, resulting in disease, malnutrition and privation for the Japanese soldiers. Meanwhile, the Allied supply system grappled with the problems of terrain and climate, particularly inclement weather and rough monsoonal seas that hampered and occasionally prevented delivery of supplies by sea.
Lion : The lion (Panthera leo) is one of the big cats in the genus Panthera and a member of the family Felidae. The commonly used term African lion collectively denotes the several subspecies found in Africa. With some males exceeding 250 kg (550 lb) in weight, it is the second-largest living cat after the tiger. Wild lions currently exist in sub-Saharan Africa and in India (where an endangered remnant population resides in Gir Forest National Park). In ancient historic times, their range was in most of Africa, including North Africa, and across Eurasia from Greece and southeastern Europe to India. In the late Pleistocene, about 10,000 years ago, the lion was the most widespread large land mammal after humans: Panthera leo spelaea lived in northern and western Europe and Panthera leo atrox lived in the Americas from the Yukon to Peru.[5] The lion is classified as a vulnerable species by the IUCN, having seen a major population decline in its African range of 30–50% per two decades during the second half of the twentieth century.[2] Lion populations are untenable outside designated reserves and national parks. Although the cause of the decline is not fully understood, habitat loss and conflicts with humans are the greatest causes of concern. Within Africa, the West African lion population is particularly endangered.
Hippopotamus : The common hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius), or hippo, is a large, mostly herbivorous mammal in sub-Saharan Africa, and one of only two extant species in the family Hippopotamidae, the other being the pygmy hippopotamus (Choeropsis liberiensis or Hexaprotodon liberiensis). The name comes from the ancient Greek for "river horse" (ἱπποπόταμος). After the elephant and rhinoceros, the common hippopotamus is the third-largest type of land mammal and the heaviest extant artiodactyl. Despite their physical resemblance to pigs and other terrestrial even-toed ungulates, the closest living relatives of the Hippopotamidae are cetaceans (whales, porpoises, etc.) from which they diverged about 55 million years ago. The common ancestor of whales and hippos split from other even-toed ungulates around 60 million years ago. The earliest known hippopotamus fossils, belonging to the genus Kenyapotamus in Africa, date to around 16 million years ago.
Radiocarbon dating When cosmic rays enter the Earth's upper atmosphere, they collide with atoms and molecules of atmospheric gases (mostly oxygen and nitrogen) to produce a shower of particles, particularly neutrons. When these neutrons go on to hit nitrogen atoms, the collision knocks off a proton, converting the nitrogen into radioactive carbon-14. The carbon reacts with oxygen to produce radioactive carbon dioxide. All forms of carbon dioxide gas are heavier than oxygen and nitrogen, so the gas flows down to the ground, where it is taken up into plant material by the process of photosynthesis and then into animal material when the plants are eaten. Because this carbon-14 is radioactive, and radioactivity decays, if the radioactivity of the bone your dog dug up in the garden is measured, and you know that the proportion of each isotope of atmospheric carbon has remained constant, and you know the rate of decay, you can work out when the bone was last inside a living animal. Hmm… August 1485. Rover, drop it! The technique was invented by Willard Libby in the late 1940s and has become a standard tool for archaeologists and food safety inspectors.
Diamond (/ˈdaɪəmənd/ or /ˈdaɪmənd/) is a metastable allotrope of carbon, where the carbon atoms are arranged in a variation of the face-centered cubic crystal structure called a diamond lattice. Diamond is less stable than graphite, but the conversion rate from diamond to graphite is negligible at standard conditions. Diamond is renowned as a material with superlative physical qualities, most of which originate from the strong covalent bonding between its atoms. In particular, diamond has the highest hardness and thermal conductivity of any bulk material. Those properties determine the major industrial application of diamond in cutting and polishing tools and the scientific applications in diamond knives and diamond anvil cells.
Hurricane Gonzalo started as a tropical wave off the west coast of Africa at the beginning of October, 2014. Moving across the Atlantic against "hostile winds", this area of low atmospheric pressure encountered a Kelvin wave moving eastwards- showers and thunderstorms associated with the tropical wave became more concentrated. The wave then passed the "upper-level trough axis" that had been causing the hostile winds, and developed into a "small surface low pressure area" and then a tropical depression. This depression then became a category 4 hurricane, which passed over Bermuda twice. After causing extensive damage in the Caribbean, the remains of the storm hit Europe as a large storm system.
Dengue fever is a mosquito-borne tropical disease caused by the dengue virus. Symptoms typically begin three to fourteen days after infection. This may include a high fever, headache, vomiting, muscle and joint pains, and a characteristic skin rash. Recovery generally takes less than two to seven days. In a small proportion of cases, the disease develops into the life-threatening dengue hemorrhagic fever, resulting in bleeding, low levels of blood platelets and blood plasma leakage, or into dengue shock syndrome, where dangerously low blood pressure occurs. Prevention is by reducing mosquito habitat and limiting exposure to bites. Dengue has become a global problem since the Second World War and is common in more than 110 countries.Each year between 50 and 528 million people are infected and approximately 10,000 to 20,000 die.
Rudd Concession The Rudd Concession, a written concession for exclusive mining rights in Matabeleland, Mashonaland and other adjoining territories, was granted by King Lobengula of Matabeleland to Charles Rudd, James Rochfort Maguire and Francis Thompson, three agents acting on behalf of the South African-based politician and businessman Cecil Rhodes, on 30 October 1888. Despite Lobengula's retrospective attempts to disavow it, it proved the foundation for the royal charter granted by the United Kingdom to Rhodes's British South Africa Company in October 1889, and thereafter for the Pioneer Column's occupation of Mashonaland in 1890, which marked the beginning of white settlement, administration and development in the country that eventually became Rhodesia, named after Rhodes, in 1895.
Nafaanra (sometimes written Nafaara, pronounced [nafãːra]) is a Senufo language spoken in northwest Ghana, along the border with Ivory Coast, east of Bondoukou. It is spoken by approximately 61,000 people. Its speakers call themselves Nafana; others call them Banda or Mfantera. Like other Senufo languages, Nafaanra is a tonal language. It is somewhat of an outlier in the Senufo language group, with the geographically closest relatives, the Southern Senufo Tagwana–Djimini languages, approximately 200 kilometres (120 mi) to the west, on the other side of Comoé National Park.
List of teams and cyclists in the 2013 Tour de France. The 2013 Tour de France was the 100th edition of the race, one of cycling's Grand Tours. It started on the island of Corsica on 30 June and finished on the Champs-Élysées in Paris on 21 July. The Tour consisted of twenty-one race stages and covered a total distance of 3,403.5 km (2,115 mi). Twenty-two teams participated in the 2013 edition of the Tour de France. All of the nineteen UCI ProTeams were entitled, and obliged, to enter the race. On 27 April 2013, the organiser of the Tour, Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO), announced the three second-tier UCI Professional Continental teams given wildcard invitations, all of which were French-based. The presentation of the teams took place at the harbour of Porto-Vecchio on 28 June, two days before the start of opening stage held in the town. Each team arrived by boat to the stage, before being introduced to the crowd.
List of awards and nominations received by Parineeti Chopra : Parineeti Chopra is an Indian actress who appears in Bollywood films. As of January 2016, she has received 22 awards including a National Film Award, one each from the Filmfare, Screen and Zee Cine Awards, and two awards each from the Producers Guild and International Indian Film Academy Awards (IIFA). Chopra made her film debut with a supporting role in the 2011 romantic comedy Ladies vs Ricky Bahl, which won her the Best Female Debut Award at the 57th Filmfare Awards. She also received Best Debut awards at other ceremonies, including Screen Awards, IIFA Awards, Producers Guild Film Awards, and Zee Cine Awards. Additionally, Chopra won the IIFA Award for Best Supporting Actress, and the Producers Guild Film Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, and was nominated in the same category at the Filmfare, Screen, and Zee Cine award ceremonies. In 2012, she played her first lead role in the romantic drama Ishaqzaade, for which she earned a Special Mention at the 60th National Film Awards. For the film, Chopra also received her first nomination for the Filmfare Award and Producers Guild Film Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, among other honours. In 2013, she starred in the comedy-drama Shuddh Desi Romance, for which she received her first nomination for the Zee Cine Award for Best Actor – Female, and her second Best Actress nomination from Filmfare, Screen and Producers Guild. For her portrayal of a mad scientist in the 2014 romantic comedy Hasee Toh Phasee, Chopra received her third nomination for the Screen Award for Best Actress, and won the BIG Star Entertainment Award for Most Entertaining Actress in a Comedy Film. The same year, she was also nominated for the Stardust Award for Best Actress in a Comedy or Romance for her performance in the social-comedy Daawat-e-Ishq.
List of World Heritage Sites in Africa : The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has designated 135 World Heritage Sites in Africa. These sites are located in 37 countries. The World Heritage Committee may also specify that a site is endangered, citing "conditions which threaten the very characteristics for which a property was inscribed on the World Heritage List." Along with other World Heritage Sites, sites in danger are subject to re-evaluation by the committee every year at their "ordinary sessions". Africa has 17 sites on the danger list, accounting for 13% of all African sites and 35% of the 48 endangered sites worldwide. The Democratic Republic of Congo has 5 sites on the danger list, the second highest of any country in the world and one of only two countries to have more than three sites inscribed. Sites in Africa have been marked as such for a variety of reasons, such as deforestation and hunting, civil war, threats to and hostage taking of reserve staff, oil and gas projects and mining, declines in biodiversity, and structural damage to buildings.
Charlize Theron filmography: Charlize Theron is a South African-American actress who made her film debut in an uncredited role as a follower of a cult in the 1995 horror film Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest. Theron followed this with appearances as a hitwoman in 2 Days in the Valley, a waitress in the romantic comedy Trial and Error (1997), and a woman suffering with schizophrenia in the mystery thriller The Devil's Advocate (1997) with Keanu Reeves and Al Pacino. She appeared in the science fiction thriller The Astronaut's Wife with Johnny Depp, and Lasse Hallström's The Cider House Rules (both in 1999). For her portrayal of serial killer Aileen Wuornos in the crime drama Monster (2003), Theron received the Academy Award for Best Actress, the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama, and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role. The following year, she played Swedish entertainer Britt Ekland in the biographical film The Life and Death of Peter Sellers. Her filmography includes forty-three films (including Hollywood Confidential) and eight television episodes. Four of her films are in the post-production stage, while she's currently filming The Coldest City. Theron is also an active in the field of producing with six films and a television pilot.
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