Who in 1961 made the first space flight?

The first American in space - May 05, 1961 - HISTORY.com This Day in History: 05/05/1961 - The first American in space In This Day in History video clip - May 5, 1961: The first American in space - Cape Canaveral, Florida, Navy Commander Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr. is launched into space aboard the Freedom 7 space capsule, becoming the first American astronaut to travel into space. The suborbital flight, which lasted 15 minutes and reached a height of 116 miles into the atmosphere, was a major triumph for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Lead Story The first American in space Share this: The first American in space Author The first American in space URL Publisher A+E Networks From Cape Canaveral, Florida, Navy Commander Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr. is launched into space aboard the Freedom 7 space capsule, becoming the first American astronaut to travel into space. The suborbital flight, which lasted 15 minutes and reached a height of 116 miles into the atmosphere, was a major triumph for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). NASA was established in 1958 to keep U.S. space efforts abreast of recent Soviet achievements, such as the launching of the world’s first artificial satellite–Sputnik 1–in 1957. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the two superpowers raced to become the first country to put a man in space and return him to Earth. On April 12, 1961, the Soviet space program won the race when cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was launched into space, put in orbit around the planet, and safely returned to Earth. One month later, Shepard’s suborbital flight restored faith in the U.S. space program. NASA continued to trail the Soviets closely until the late 1960s and the successes of the Apollo lunar program. In July 1969, the Americans took a giant leap forward with Apollo 11, a three-stage spacecraft that took U.S. astronauts to the surface of the moon and returned them to Earth. On February 5, 1971, Alan Shepard, the first American in space, became the fifth astronaut to walk on the moon as part of the Apollo 14 lunar landing mission. Related Videos


BBC - Primary History - Romans - Romans in Scotland Romans in Scotland Why didn't the Romans conquer Scotland? How do we know about Romans in Scotland? Mostly from finds made by archaeologists . For example, in 1905 archaeologists found a Roman fort at Newstead, near Melrose in the Borders. The Romans called this fort Trimontium ('three mountains'). The topmost remains of the fort date from the AD 140s when the Antonine Wall was built. Underneath were the remains of an older fort, probably built around AD 80. Forts protected Roman military roads. Recent finds show that the Romans went as far north as Inverness. However, they did not stay and build towns like they did in Roman Britain (England and Wales). Back to top First outposts Early evidence for the Romans in Scotland is the Gask Ridge. This earth-bank defence in Perthshire dates from around AD 70. It was made before Hadrian's Wall or the Antonine Wall and is further north. The Gask Ridge is about 20 miles (32 km) long. The Romans set up forts and watch towers along it. In AD 79 the Roman general Agricola sent ships to explore the Scottish coast. He was preparing to invade Scotland. To protect their army, the Romans built forts like Trimontium near Melrose. Back to top Scotland's biggest Roman fort Inchtuthil (its Roman name was Victoria) is the biggest Roman fortress in Scotland. On the banks of the River Tay near Blairgowrie, it was built around AD 83 by soldiers of the 20th Legion. More than 5,000 legionaries were based here, to guard the way to the Highlands. The fortress was huge! Its outer wall stretched 7 miles (10 km). Inside were 64 barrack rooms for soldiers, a hospital, and a headquarters building with a shrine to the gods. Inchtuthil fortress was abandoned after only four years. The 20th Legion marched back south. Back to top Battle in the north Roman soldiers fought the Caledonian tribes in Scotland. These tribes included the Picti or 'painted people' as the Romans called them. The biggest battle was in AD 84. The Roman historian Tacitus says it was at Mons Graupius. No one knows exactly where this was, but it was possibly in the Grampian Mountains in the north of Scotland. Led by a chief named Calgacus, the Caledonians had about 30,000 warriors. The Roman army led by Agricola was probably smaller, but the Romans won. Soon after, Agricola went back to Rome. Back to top Why didn't the Romans conquer Scotland? Some experts think the Romans marched as far north as Cawdor, near Inverness. There are remains of a Roman fort here. But the Romans did not stay in the north. In the AD 160s, they abandoned the Antonine Wall, making Hadrian's Wall the northern frontier of Roman Britain. The last big Roman army campaign in Scotland was in 208-210. There are Roman remains (such as bath-houses, roads and forts) in southern and central Scotland. But the Romans never settled the north. Their main concern was to protect Roman Britain from attacks by northern tribes. Such attacks increased in the AD 300s. The Roman army left Britain in AD 410.


What was the first country to issue postage stamps?

Fun Facts Fun Facts that are sure to bring a smile to your face! There have been postage stamps that are records Bhutan, an Asian nation in the Himalayan Mountains, issued a group of postage stamps that were actually phonograph records. These stamps, issued in 1973, had native folk songs recorded on one side and could be played on a record player. Products were advertised on the back of stamps? Sometime before 1883 advertising for various products was printed on the back of U.S. three-cent stamps. Candles were once used to determine the postage rates? In 1693, letters were held in front of a candle to determine the postage rate. The less the light shone through, the more costly the rate. This was known as candling. An undersea post office actually did exist! It was established in 1939 as part of a scientific facility on the sea bed off the Bahamas. They used a special oval postmark that was inscribed "SEA FLOOR/BAHAMAS". Here you can see the post office depicted on Bahamas 5 shilling stamp issued in 1965. A stamp was created on the Moon! In 1969 during the Apollo 11 moon flight, the astronauts took with them a die of a postage stamp which they pulled an impression of when they touched down on the moon. Thus, creating the moon's first postage stamp! Once the die was returned to earth it was used to produce the 10 cent airmail stamp issued in September of 1969. The world's largest and smallest post offices are located in the US! The world's largest post office is the head post office in Chicago, Illinois. The smallest post office in the world is located in Ochopee, Florida. Can you believe Cats were used to deliver the mail! I've heard of many different types of animals being used to deliver mail - camels, reindeer, horses, dogs, pigeons, but CATS? Well it's true. In 1879 Liege, Belgium employed 37 cats to carry bundles of letters to villages. This service didn't last long as cats proved to be thoroughly undisciplined. Great Britain is the only country which issues stamps without its name printed on them. Instead the profile of the monarch appears on British stamps. The Universal Postal Union allows this because Britain was the first country to issue stamps. The first post offices in America were bags hung in taverns. The mail was handled by captains of ships. When stamps were first issued, they had no gum on the back. And if paste was not available, mailers sometimes pinned or even sewed stamps to envelopes. The first touch of humor did not appear on a U.S. stamp until 1963. The 5-cent City Mail delivery stamp was issued for the 100th anniversary of free city mail delivery. The design, by Norman Rockwell, featured a letter carrier holding an umbrella, followed by a smiling boy and a little dog. 100 Match Factory Place • Bellefonte, PA 16823, USA • 814-933-3803 • Fax: 814-933-6128


What famous building did John Nash rebuild in 1825?

Who built Buckingham Palace? Who built Buckingham Palace? Origins The history of the site where Buckingham Palace now stands can be traced back to the reign of James I (r.1603-25), who established under royal patronage a plantation of mulberries for the rearing of silkworms in what is now the Buckingham Palace garden. It is clear that when Charles I (r.1625-49) granted the garden to Lord Aston in 1628, a substantial house already existed on the site. The house had a succession of owners and tenants until, in 1698, it was let to the man who was to give the house its name – John Sheffield, later the Duke of Buckingham. Finding the house very dated in appearance, the Duke demolished the building to create the new ‘Buckingham House’. The house stood exactly on the site occupied by Buckingham Palace today. It was designed and built with the assistance of William Talman, Comptroller of the Works to William III, and Captain William Winde, a retired soldier. John Fitch built the main structure by contract for £7,000. At one stage Buckingham House was considered as a potential site for the British Museum, but was eventually turned down on account of ‘the greatness of the sum demanded for it [30,000] [and] the inconvenience of the situation’. The Queen’s House Buckingham House remained the property of the Dukes of Buckingham until 1761, when George III (r.1760-1820) acquired the whole site as a private family residence for his wife, Queen Charlotte, and their children. It came to be known as ‘The Queen’s House’. Sir William Chambers was put in charge of remodelling and modernising the house between 1762 and 1776, at a cost of £73,000. With ceilings designed by Robert Adam and painted by Giovanni Battista Cipriani, The Queen’s rooms on the principal floor were among the most sophisticated of their time. George IV There was a great debate at the start of the 19th century about building an entirely new royal palace, but when George III’s son, George IV (r.1820-30), acceded to the throne, the plan was abandoned. George IV was 60, overweight and in poor health. Having felt very much at home at The Queen’s House during his childhood, the King wanted the existing house to be transformed into his palace. The King put John Nash, Official Architect to the Office of Woods and Forests, in charge of all the work. During the last five years of George IV’s life, Nash enlarged Buckingham House into the imposing U-shaped building which was to become Buckingham Palace. Nash’s design was essentially an enlargement of the plan of Buckingham House. He extended the central block of the building westwards and to the north and south, and the two wings to the east were entirely rebuilt. The wings enclosed a grand forecourt which transformed the aspect of the Palace from St James’s Park. Nash also created a triumphal arch in the centre of the forecourt. The arch formed part of a ceremonial processional approach to the Palace and celebrated Britain’s recent naval and military victories. The Buckingham Palace created by Nash was widely regarded as a masterpiece. It came, however, at a considerable cost. By 1828 Nash had spent £496,169 on the changes to the building. Soon after the death of George IV two years later, the Prime Minister, the Duke of Wellington, dismissed Nash from his post for over-spending. Lord Duncannon, First Commissioner of Works, took over the task of overseeing the completion of the Palace. Duncannon appointed a new architect in Edward Blore, who extended the east façade at both ends and created a new entrance (the Ambassadors’ Entrance) on the southern side. The furnishing stage had not been reached at Buckingham Palace during George IV’s lifetime. His successor, his brother William IV (r.1830-37), showed no interest in moving from his home at Clarence House, and, when the old Houses of Parliament were destroyed by fire, he offered the still-incomplete Buckingham Palace as a replacement. The offer was respectfully declined, and Parliament voted to allow the ‘completing and perfecting’ of the Palace for royal use. Under Duncannon and Bl


Who was the first American President to resign from office?

The 37th US President - Richard Nixon Richard Nixon George W. Bush ï¿½ Richard Milhous Nixon, the thirty-seventh President of the United States (1969-74) became President in 1969 after defeating Lyndon Johnson's Vice-President, Hubert Humphrey, in one of the closest elections in US history. Nixon won that election by only one percent of the popular vote. Nixon was the second youngest Vice President and the first Californian to serve in the White House. He was also the first Vice President to be elected President, but not to succeed the President under whom he had served. He was also the first President to resign the presidency, which he did after the House Judiciary Committee voted articles of impeachment against him in 1974. Richard Nixon was a controversial President, nicknamed "Tricky Dick" and demonized by some, while admired by others for his accomplishments. Born on January 9, l913 in Yorba Linda, California into a modest Quaker family, he spent his youth working hard and studying. A brilliant scholar, Dick Nixon graduated second in his class from Whittier College (1934), then third in his class from Duke University Law School (1937). Nixon practiced law in his hometown in Whittier, CA from 1937 to 1942. In l940, he married Thelma "Pat" Ryan. In 1942, Nixon joined the United States Navy where he served as a supply officer in the South Pacific during World War II. He left the service as a Lieutenant Commander. Back in Whittier in 1946, Nixon entered the political arena. He challenged Democratic congressman Jerry Voorhis. Nixon campaigned vigorously, and won by 16,000 votes. In 1948 and 1949, Nixon obtained national recognition while serving in the United States House of Representatives as a member of the Committee on Un-American Activities. He was dogged in his support for the investigation of Alger Hiss. Although Hiss was a former State Department official who had served as the President of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, he was found guilty of helping to transmit confidential government documents - called the "Pumpkin Papers" because they were hidden in a pumpkin -- to the Soviets. Nixon again used anti-communism to his advantage when, in 1950, he ran for the United States Senate against Congresswoman Helen Gahagan Douglas, a popular liberal Democrat. By dubbing her the "Pink Lady," he cast aspersions on her loyalty without actually accusing her of being a Communist. Although he won the election, his campaign tactics were widely criticized. Nevertheless, he became the bright young star in the Republican Party. In 1952, when Nixon was nominated to be Dwight Eisenhower's running mate, he was only thirty-nine years old. It was soon exposed that Nixon had accepted $18,000 for political expenses and Eisenhower's advisors wanted Nixon to resign. He responded with a brilliant speech that (because of a sentimental reference to his dog) became known as the "Checkers Speech." It saved his political career. Eisenhower and Nixon won the election defeating the Democrat Adlai Stevenson by over 6,000,000 votes. Although during the Eisenhower years, the relationship between the President and Vice President was somewhat strained, years later Nixon's youngest daughter, Julie, married Eisenhower's grandson, David, for whom the Presidential retreat, Camp David, is named. Eisenhower and Nixon won easily in the 1956 election. As Vice President, Nixon became a vigorous Republican spokesman. In non-election years, he traveled the country trying to raise money for the party. He also achieved foreign affairs credentials by visiting numerous other countries, including the Soviet Union, where In 1959, Nixon, the anti-Communist, opened the American Exhibit in Russia. While escorting the Soviet leader through a model of an American house, an impromptu "kitchen debate" with Nikita Khrushchev made world-wide headlines. In an effort to make a strong point, Krushchev took off his shoe and banged it on the table. As undisputed party leader, Nixon easily won the Presidential nomination in 1960. That was the year of the first televise


For how many years did Louis XIV of France reign?

Louis XIV - Facts & Summary - HISTORY.com Google Early Life and Reign of Louis XIV Born on September 5, 1638, to King Louis XIII of France (1601-1643) and his Habsburg queen, Anne of Austria (1601-1666), the future Louis XIV was his parents’ first child after 23 years of marriage; in recognition of this apparent miracle, he was christened Louis-Dieudonné, meaning “gift of God.” A younger brother, Philippe (1640-1701), followed two years later. When the king died on May 14, 1643, 4-year-old Louis inherited the crown of a fractured, unstable and nearly insolvent France. After orchestrating the annulment of Louis XIII’s will, which had appointed a regency council to rule on the young king’s behalf, Anne served as sole regent for her son, assisted by her chief minister and close confidant, the Italian-born Cardinal Jules Mazarin (1602-1661). Did You Know? At the Palace of Versailles, aristocrats were expected to compete for the privilege of watching Louis XIV wake up, eat meals and prepare for bed. During the early years of Louis XIV’s reign, Anne and Mazarin introduced policies that further consolidated the monarchy’s power, angering nobles and members of the legal aristocracy. Beginning in 1648, their discontent erupted into a civil war known as the Fronde, which forced the royal family to flee Paris and instilled a lifelong fear of rebellion in the young king. Mazarin suppressed the revolt in 1653 and by decade’s end had restored internal order and negotiated a peace treaty with Hapsburg Spain, making France a leading European power. The following year, 22-year-old Louis married his first cousin Marie-Thérèse (1638-1683), daughter of King Philip IV of Spain. A diplomatic necessity more than anything else, the union produced six children, of whom only one, Louis (1661-1711), survived to adulthood. (A number of illegitimate offspring resulted from Louis XIV’s affairs with a string of official and unofficial mistresses.) Louis XIV Assumes Control of France After Mazarin’s death in 1661, Louis XIV broke with tradition and astonished his court by declaring that he would rule without a chief minister. He viewed himself as the direct representative of God, endowed with a divine right to wield the absolute power of the monarchy. To illustrate his status, he chose the sun as his emblem and cultivated the image of an omniscient and infallible “Roi-Soleil” (“Sun King”) around whom the entire realm orbited. While some historians question the attribution, Louis is often remembered for the bold and infamous statement “L’État, c’est moi” (“I am the State”). Immediately after assuming control of the government, Louis worked tirelessly to centralize and tighten control of France and its overseas colonies. His finance minister, Jean-Baptiste Colbert (1619-1683), implemented reforms that sharply reduced the deficit and fostered the growth of industry, while his war minister, the Marquis de Louvois (1641-1691), expanded and reorganized the French army. Louis also managed to pacify and disempower the historically rebellious nobles, who had fomented no less than 11 civil wars in four decades, by luring them to his court and habituating them to the opulent lifestyle there. The Arts and the Royal Court Under Louis XIV A hard-working and meticulous ruler who oversaw his programs down to the last detail, Louis XIV nevertheless appreciated art, literature, music, theater and sports. He surrounded himself with some of the greatest artistic and intellectual figures of his time, including the playwright Molière (1622-1673), the painter Charles Le Brun (1619-1690) and the composer Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632-1687). He also appointed himself patron of the Académie Française, the body that regulates the French language, and established various institutes for the arts and sciences. To accommodate his retinue of newly devoted nobles (and, perhaps, to distance himself from the population of Paris), Louis built several lavish châteaux that depleted the nation’s coffers while drawing accusations of extravagance. Most famously, he transformed a royal hunting lod


In what country was the game of golf invented?

When Was Golf Invented? | Golfsmith When Was Golf Invented? Golf's early history can be traced to Scotland. David Cannon/Getty Images Sport/Getty Images More Articles How Did Ken Venturi Practice? The game of golf most likely began when a few hardy Scottish souls used a stick to propel a round rock toward a predetermined target. The exact details have been lost in the mists of time. Between the 1500s and 1600s, the game became more formalized. Everyone played, from the peasants to the elite. However, not everyone favored the game. King James II of Scotland thought the youth of his era should be more focused on worthy pursuits, such as going to war, rather than honing their golf skills. In 1636, David Wedderburn included the Latin word for "club" in his Vocabula, a listing of terms related to golf. Also included was a term for "golf hole," a critical element for defining the modern day game of golf. Precursors to Golf While Scotland is credited with being the birthplace of golf, similar games were played much earlier. According to GolfNow.com, feather-stuffed balls were hit with branches as early as the time of Julius Caesar. The Dutch played a golf game of sorts on their frozen canals, as documented by book illustrations as early as the 1400s. The game was more like ice hockey and was played with sticks and a ball . It was called kolven. Kolven became kolf, and then gawf in Britain. However, according to the Scottish Golf History website, there is not a " universally accepted derivation for the word golf." The French and Belgians played a cross-country version of the game with a ball and a stick. Early Play By the 1500s, a game similar to modern-day golf was played on the coasts of Scotland. Both men and women participated. In fact, Mary Queen of Scots was chided for playing the day after her husband was murdered. Rules varied, but by 1744 a set of 13 rules had been established and accepted. That's a far cry from today's rule book, which is hundreds of pages. In 1764, The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews established that the game should consist of 18 holes. At the time, that course consisted of 12 holes. Ten of the holes were played once and an additional eight holes were played again for a total of 18. Equipment Early golf clubs are difficult to date accurately. By comparing the techniques used to make bows, Troon clubs are believed to date from the early 17th century or late 16th century. The golf ball, which was made of carved wood in the 1500s, segued into the featherie in 1618. The featherie was a leather pouch stuffed with wet feathers. When the feathers dried the ball became firmer and round. This innovation took the game of golf out of the common man's reach because featheries were expensive and didn’t last long. When forged metal clubheads became available, many golfers stuck with wood clubs because they did less damage to the featheries. The gutta percha ball gave the game back to the masses 200 years later. Gutta percha balls were made of rubber, were much less expensive to produce because they could be poured into molds and lasted longer than featheries. Clubs, Courses and Competition The distinction of being the earliest golf course is credited to the old links of Musselburgh in Scotland. Scotland's Prestwick Golf Club played host to the first Open Championship in 1860. By the mid-19th century there were still only 17 golf courses in the world, 14 of them in Scotland. HOT PRODUCTS ON Golfsmith.com


How many players in total get down in a normal rugby union scrum?

BBC SPORT | Rugby Union | Laws & Equipment | What is a line-out? What is a line-out? The line-out is another awesome sight in rugby union. It is a way of restarting play after the ball has been knocked or kicked out of play past the touch line. The line-out consists of three to eight players from each side, up to 16 in total, and is taken where the ball went out of play. The aim of each player is simply to get their hands on the ball for their team. So how does it work? The advantage is with the team throwing in. They get the ball because they were not the team who last touched the ball before it went out. They also get to decide how many players will make up the line-out. FORMING A LINE-OUT The eight forwards and the scrum-half are the players who make up the line-out. The most important players are the hooker, the two second rows and scrum-half. They are responsible for getting the ball out to the backs or for the rest of the forwards. That does not mean the other players have nothing to do. Far from it. The line-out must be formed past the five-metre line and no more than 15m in from the touchline, and both teams must have a one metre gap between them. If the referee decides one team has purposely closed the gap, a penalty will be awarded to the other team. LINE-OUT THROWS The hooker is usually the player with the job throwing the ball into a line-out. Their aim is to find the "jumpers", usually the two second rowers. But this is not easy. The other team also want the ball, so they'll be doing all they can to upset the hooker's throw. The hooker gets a call from one of the jumpers or the scrum half, usually in a code no-one except your team understands, on who to aim the throw at. They must stand behind the touch line when they make their throw. And the throw must be deadly straight, otherwise the referee will have the line-out taken again, but this time the opposition get the throw in. RETAKEN THROWS The line-out may look very simple, but it has plenty of laws every player must follow: The ball must be thrown straight All players not in the line-out must be 10m behind the last man in the line No player can use a one of the opposition to use as support when they are jumping No player is allowed to push, charge or hold another player in the line-out No player can be lifted before the ball is thrown No jumper can use the outside of their arm to catch or deflect the ball Depending on how serious the offence is, the referee will either award a penalty or free-kick to the team who did not make the offence.


How many players make up a netball team?

How many players are there on a netball team? | Reference.com How many players are there on a netball team? A: Quick Answer The International Netball Federation stipulates a maximum of 12 players per team, but only a total of seven may be on the court at any given time. At least five players from each team must be present on court to proceed with a standard game. Full Answer Implemented in 2012, the international netball format Fast5 restricts the number of players on court to five from each team. It also allows for rolling substitutions, unlike the standard format, which limits substitutions to halftime and in cases of injury. A total of seven playing positions exist in a standard game, and a center must be designated to begin. Teams can bring in new players before each center pass to increase their count to seven.


What is the maximum no of match points that can be held at one time in a tennis match at Wimbledon?

Facts and Figures / FAQ - The Championships, Wimbledon 2017 - Official Site by IBM Facts and Figures / FAQ Facts and Figures about The Championships. READ MORE Facts and Figures on frequently asked topics about The Championships.   Men: 212 - Goran Ivanisevic (CRO)  2001 Ladies: 80 - Serena Williams (USA) 2015   Men: 165 - Ivo Karlovic (from four matches). Ladies: 80 - Serena Williams (from seven matches).   Total attendance was 493,928 (for 14 days, includes Middle Sunday of 24,623) (484,391 in 2015)   Ball Boys and Ball Girls Around 250 from around 750 entries come through a rigorous training routine.      Balls 54,250 used during The Championships period.  Stored at 68 deg F.  New balls after first seven games (to allow for warm-up), then after every 9 games. Subject to availability after use balls sold daily to LTA-affiliated clubs and to spectators in the grounds.  £2.50 per can of three.  Proceeds go to LTA's Wimbledon Balls for Schools Scheme.  Yellow balls used for first time in 1986.  At start of day 48 tins taken onto Centre and No.1 Courts and 24 on all outside courts.   BBC is the host broadcaster.  Agreement extended in 2011 to 2017 inc. Global news access audience estimated at over 1bn people in 200 territories.   Broadcast figures 2016 (early headline audience figures)   UK (BBC): The Gentlemen’s Singles Final peaked at 13.3 million with a 69% peak share. The Ladies’ Singles Final audience peak was 4.8m. On the website there were 10.2 million unique browsers and 1.9 million requests for the Wimbledon live stream. The Mixed Doubles Final featuring Heather Watson peaked at 2.8m and the Gentlemen’s Wheelchair Singles Final on BBC2 with Gordon Reid at peaked 1.1m US (ESPN): Most-watched Wimbledon to-date on WatchESPN – up 35% vs. 2015   TSN (Canada): The Gentlemen’s Singles Final featuring Milos Raonic became the most watched tennis match in Canada peaking at 2.4 million   Unique devices – 20.9m (21.1m in 2015) Visits – 69.4m (72.0 in 2015)  Page views – 395m (542m in 2015)  mobile .com uniques: 5.6m (2.1m in 2014) +125% mobile .com visits: 9.6m (8.4m in 2015) +98% mobile .com page views: 88.3m (73.7m in 2015) App downloads: 1.5m .com to apps uniques split: 93% to 7% .com to apps page views split: 51% to 49% Social media audience: 10.5m (8.5m in 2015) Video views: 106m (85m in 2015) Live @ Wimbledon TV: 1.5m (Global excl Spain, Austria, Italy, Germany) (1.6m in 2015) Bespoke social media feeds in Chinese (Sina Weibo and WeChat – 65k followers), WeChat prediction game (55k users) and geo-targeted content posted in Japanese on Facebook and Line. Platform-specific social media activations: Facebook frame and Wimbledon experience, Facebook 360s, #Wimbledon emojis, Beat a Legend vine activation, #TheHill v #TheWorld v #TheQueue, Wimbleskills Euros challenge, Giphy channel, Live @ Wimbledon on YouTube, Pinterest Wimbledon food, Custom Snapchat filters and strawberry lens, Snapchat Wimbledon Live Stories, YouTube 3D of the finals.   39,000 spectators in the grounds at any one time.    Catering 2016 Wimbledon is the largest single annual sporting catering operation (1800 staff) carried out in Europe.  Average quantities supplied by Championships' caterers FMC. 177,135 glasses of Pimm's  2772 kilos of bananas (for players)   Champions' Dinner Instigated in 1977 when the LTA Ball previously held on the final evening of The Championships was moved to the middle Saturday.  The tradition of dancing between the two Singles Champions ceased then, but was brought back by Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams in 2015. In 2015, held at the Guildhall, in the City of London.    Clothing - players Predominately in white rule introduced in 1963.  'Almost entirely in white rule' introduced in 1995.  Clothing submitted to Club for comment earlier in year.  Both Grand Slam and WTA rules stipulate recognised tennis attire.  Decision on the day as to whether clothing/players' turnout is suitable at discretion of Referee.  Guidelines:  No solid mass  of colouring Little or no dark or bold colours No fluorescent colours Preference for back o


In what year was the first World Snooker Championship held?

World Snooker Championship | ArmchairGM Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia The World Snooker Championship, currently held at The Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, is the climax of snooker's annual calendar and the most important snooker event of the year in terms of prestige, prize money and world ranking points. History The first championship was held in 1927, and the legendary Joe Davis helped to organise the event. Matches were held at various venues, and the final took place at Camkin's Hall, Birmingham. Joe Davis won the event, beating Tom Dennis 20-11. His prize money was £6.10s. The highest break of the tournament was 60 by Albert Cope . In subsequent years, finals were held at various venues. Joe Davis won every year until 1940, when he just beat his younger brother Fred 37-36. No tournaments were organised during the war years, and it only resumed in 1946 when Joe Davis won again for the 15th time, a record that still stands. Joe Davis never contested the world championship again, though he continued to play professional snooker. Some have speculated that he did not want to risk losing his unbeaten record. Walter Donaldson won in 1947, but it was Fred Davis who dominated the next few years, winning eight times between 1948 and 1956. In 1952, as a result of a disagreement between the governing bodies (the Billiards Association and Control Council), and some of the players, two tournaments were held. The World Matchplay, organised by the players and widely viewed as the "real" world championship, continued until 1957. The BA&CC event only lasted one year. Meanwhile the 'official' world championship did attract two entrants in 1952, Horace Lindrum beating Clark McConachy – and it is Lindrum's name that is inscribed on the familiar trophy. Snooker then went into a period of decline, and no tournament was held between 1958 and 1963. In 1964 it was revived on a challenge basis, a format which lasted until 1968. This meant that matches took place on an irregular basis, sometimes more than once a year. John Pulman , who had won in 1957, completely dominated during this period, overcoming all challengers in a total of seven matches. The championship reverted back to a knockout tournament in 1969. That year it was won by John Spencer , but it was Ray Reardon who was to dominate over the coming years, winning six times between 1970 and 1978. 1976 was the first year the championships were sponsored by the cigarette brand Embassy. The following year, the event moved to the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, UK, and the BBC started providing major television coverage. The Crucible provides a unique atmosphere to the tournament, both for spectators and live television viewers. The venue seats less than a thousand people with the front row of seats only a few feet from the players. This was about the time snooker started attracting very large television audiences, and for most fans The Crucible is synonymous with snooker. The most successful players at The Crucible are Steve Davis , who won six times in the 1980s, and Stephen Hendry, who won seven times in the 1990s. Recently, the tournament has been more open, with four different winners in the last four years. The most famous final occurred in 1985, when Dennis Taylor beat Steve Davis 18-17 in one of the most closely contested matches of all time),which finished at 00:19; it was superseded as the latest finish to a final by the 2006 final (00:53). In 2004, the championship offered a total of £1,378,920 in prize money, including £250,000 for the winner and £125,000 for the runner-up. A further £147,000 was on offer for a 147 break, though no player achieved this. Recent United Kingdom legislation has placed restrictions on tobacco advertising, including sponsorship of sporting events. Embassy had a special dispensation to continue snooker sponsorship until 2005. Currently the Championship is sponsored by 888.com, after the company signed a five-year sponsorship contract. During the 2005 Championship it was announced that the Championship would remain at the Crucible for at least another


In the novel 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea what was the name of the captain of the submarine Nautilus?

Welcome to the World of Total Immersion Nuclear        Power system/ Steam power system/Mechanical drive parts Fresh        water system/waste water systems/Bilge pumps Rudder/dive planes -        controls and mechanical parts - and much more Many        interior and exterior photos of the 1954 movie Nautilus are included        for use in creating the correct color finishes, textures, and details. As        a straight display, model construction is easy requiring only a few        hand tools and glue. For model builders interested in the challenge of building the ultimate        interior model of the Nautilus, this kit offers all the basic information. Includes Full sized plans. Kit offers the only complete detailed compartment        interior drawings of the Nautilus ever produced for the modeler. Note: The still set photos are NOT movie stills - they are actual         set photos taken before the film was shot. No       submarine-boat over the years has been so famous as the first iron submarine       boat NAUTILUS, built and captioned by Captain Nemo from his secret isolated       island base Volcania. This       kit offers the only complete detailed compartment interior drawings       of the Nautilus ever produced for the modeler. Now       Available. A fully assembled and primed Nautilus Victorian Age submarine       designed by Harper Goff. The model offered, developed and built by Lee       Seiler, with thanks to Tom Sherman, long time friend and contributor       to the acrylic master model, includes exclusive hull Rusting kit. Nautilus       Models are built to order only. The Nautilus with display stand is priced at $380.00 plus $40 shipping  and insurance anywhere in the USA. Outside the US Postal system, please ask for a  quote. Add       Fiber Optic lighting effects! Order directly from: Now available: Expedition from the Nautilus No scale model of Harper Goff s Disney Nautilus would be complete without       a crew. Now       available in 1:72 scale as cast resin figures. These       figures are complete with "The free diving suits" (self contained)       and shipboard uniforms. Originals carved and cast by hand. Figures are       ready to paint and mount or can be further detailed to suite. Color       painting key included. NOW       Available: Captain       Nemo leads Underwater expedition $25 + S/H (1 ea. Nemo and 8 crew figures) Available       Soon First       mate and 8 crew $25 + S/H (1 ea. First mate and 8 crew) Adventurers (Ned Land, Prof Aronnax and Conseil) $18 + S/H Also:"Nautilus       display stand" scaled to fit the submarine. (1       of 2 model supports shown. The base consists of 2 of the above holders). These are supplied with the assembled version of the ship. Price:       $25 plus shipping and insurance Read a collection of testimonials from Nautilus owners! You may also purchase the Nautilus as a fully completed model. The assembled Nautilus with display stand is priced at $500.00, which includes shipping  and insurance anywhere in the USA. Outside the US Postal system, please ask for a  quote.


In the series of children's Noddy books, what is the name of the policeman?

Noddy Books | eBay Noddy Books or Best Offer + £3.00 P&P Vintage Noddy books set of 12. Various ages and fair condition. All pages present, a few with owners names written in and one with two pages damaged. (See photos) or Best Offer + £5.00 P&P Collection of 6 Noddy books by Enid Blyton. The Big Noddy Book - annual style book, dated 1959. Has a name written in biro on the first page where it says 'This book belongs to.'. Pictures have been c... 0 bids + £1.54 P&P ENID BLYTON TWO NODDY BOOKS BE BRAVE LITTLE NODDY & MR PLOD AND LITTLE NODDY TWO GREAT NODDY BOOKS CONDITION AS FOLLOWS: MR PLOD AND LITTLE NODDY 1961 - STILL HAS DUSTCOVER WHICH HAS A TINY RIP AT T... Buy it now + £1.80 P&P A hardback edition with dustjacket. The jacket is somewhat worn with ragged and creased edges, corners and spine and grubby marks to the front and back. A few titles on the inside flap have been ticke... or Best Offer + £2.85 P&P Book Condition: Near Very Good. No Jacket. Six hardback books in original format, each 64 pp, pictorial colour eps and illustrs, original characters, matt boards, except for one later issue (1999). 0 bids + £2.85 P&P Pictures by Beek. London, Sampson Low,1962 (originally published as The New Big Noddy Book, 1953). Good condition, with bright coloured boards, top and bottom of external spine slightly rubbed, colour... or Best Offer Free P&P Wonderful book from the 1950's by Enid Blyton and published by Harper Collins as part of their 'Classic Stories' range. This edition published in 2009. The book is in good condition with pages that ar... Buy it now Free P&P Noddy Storybook Treasury (Enid Blyton Toyland). World of Books was founded in 2005, recycling books sold to us through charities either directly or indirectly. While we do our best to provide good qua... Buy it now Free P&P  Vintage Noddy's New Big Book , beautifully illustrated by Enid Blyton in used condition, pages tight, wear to cover and spine, name (this book belongs to] in pencil in front cover, one page has been ... Buy it now Free P&P Noddy Classic Library (14) - Noddy and the Bumpy-Dog. World of Books was founded in 2005, recycling books sold to us through charities either directly or indirectly. While we do our best to provide go... 0 bids + £2.80 P&P Two delightful Noddy stories. Noddy and the Roller-skates & Noddy and the Ark. Beautiful illustrations and pop-ups.   Please see my other items listed. Buy it now + £1.47 P&P New Books are added weekly. Lovely Children's Fiction Storybook by Enid Blyton, some slight wear to cover. Bright Colourful pictures throughout. Boos t your Children s learning potential by making boo... Buy it now Free P&P Noddy and the Tootles - Book 23. Noddy and the Aeroplane - Book 24. Both in good condition. Both have name panel filled in in pencil. Both have original dust jackets which are complete and not torn, a... Buy it now Free P&P Noddy Goes to Toyland. Noddy book 1. By Enid Blyton. In acceptable condition as a reading copy. Is missing spine and cover is well marked. | 2 sold Noddy Goes to School (Noddy Classic Library). World of Books was founded in 2005, recycling books sold to us through charities either directly or indirectly. While we do our best to provide good quali... or Best Offer + £2.85 P&P BBC Noddy has an adventure by Enid Blyton and Noddy and the bumpy dog both in very good condition hardback books Buy it now Free P&P A Noddy Strip Book. Carefully read. The book is in VG clean condition - no torn, loose or missing pages but some light edge wear. Noddy & the Witch's Wand. Small stapled paperback book published by Sa... Buy it now Free P&P To cheer him up, kind Noddy organises a party. But on the way to the fun, Noddy runs out of petrol! How can he get his little car to the party on time?. This CD features the full productions of both t...


To what animal was Robert Burns referring in his poem with the lines Wee, sleekit, cow'rin, tim'rous beastie?

'wee sleekit cowrin timrous beastie' print by eat haggis | notonthehighstreet.com save for later A deep green print with a classic Scottish phrase in white. A line from the Scottish bard Robert Burns' famous poem "To a Mouse" print in crisp white on a rich green tartan background. Through this poem Burn's explores ideas of natural disaster and the vulnerability of all Earth's creatures. Burns was an early advocate against cruelty to animals and those who derived pleasure from causign such pain received the wrath of his pen on many occasions. The EAT HAGGIS AND CEILIDH ON slogan is a trademark of Allistair J Burt. All rights Reserved Large print is a limited signed edition of 200 Availiable in two sizes, standard and wee. made from: Unframed digital archival art print on Somerset Velvet 330gsm paper. This is an extremely high quality art print produced at the Glasgow Print Studio. dimensions: Standard size 40cm x 30cm, wee size 24cm x 18cm product code:


Which French artist, born in 1834 was best known for his paintings of ballet dancers?

Edgar Degas Biography (Artist) Best known as: 19th century French painter of ballet dancers Name at birth: Hilaire Germain Edgar De Gas Edgar Degas was a 19th century artist from France who is best known for paintings, pastels and drawings of dancers, women at the toilette and Parisian street scenes. The product of a wealthy Parisian banking family, Degas studied art extensively and became a master draftsman by the 1860s. Although his style was more realistic and naturalistic, he joined the Impressionist school ( Claude Monet , Henri Matisse , et al) for exhibitions -- and has historically been linked to them aesthetically. Degas was known to have done hundreds of drawings before committing to a painting, and he experimented with media throughout his career. Some of his most famous paintings include Woman with Chrysanthemums (1865), The Dance Class (1873-76), L'Absinthe (1876) and After the Bath (1898). His sculptures from later in his career -- lots of dancers -- are seen all over the world. Extra credit: He was friends with and helped the career of Mary Cassatt … His last name is pronounced “deh-GAH.” Copyright © 1998-2017  by Who2?, LLC. All rights reserved. Advertisement Advertisement


What novel by Ray Bradbury was named for the temperature at which book paper catches fire and burns?

Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 book cover from 1976. Publisher: Grafton. Illustrator: Steve Crisp. Author Ray Bradbury died on Tuesday. He named his most famous book, Fahrenheit 451 , after “the temperature at which book-paper catches fire , and burns.” Does paper really burn at 451 degrees Fahrenheit? Not quite. Bradbury’s title refers to the auto-ignition point of paper —the temperature at which it will catch fire without being exposed to an external flame. In truth, there’s no authoritative value for this. Experimental protocols differ, and the auto-ignition temperature of any solid material is a function of its composition, volume, density, and shape, as well as its time of exposure to the high temperature. Older textbooks report a range of numbers for the auto-ignition point of paper, from the high 440s to the low 450s, but more recent experiments suggest it’s about 30 degrees hotter than that. By comparison, the auto-ignition temperature of gasoline is 536 degrees, and the temperature for charcoal is 660 degrees. It would take a few minutes for a sheet of paper to burst into flames upon being placed in a 480-degree oven, and much longer than that for a thick book. The dense material in the center of a book would shunt heat away from the outside edges, preventing them from reaching the auto-ignition temperature. This is also why it takes so long for a campfire to reduce a log to ashes. Advertisement Bradbury asserted that “book-paper” burns at 451 degrees, and it's true that different kinds of paper have different auto-ignition temperatures. Experiments have found, for example, that the auto-ignition temperature for newspaper is about four degrees lower than that of the filter paper used in chemistry laboratories. Some of this difference is attributable to composition, but it also has to do with density. Materials that are full of air heat up quickly and reach the ambient air temperature faster than solids. Glossy magazines are likely the most resistant to auto-ignition, although there isn’t a lot of experimental data on this. The paper is relatively dense and coated with a thin layer of plastic. Most plastics auto-ignite at higher temperatures than paper. Although paper ignites at around 480 degrees Fahrenheit, it gets far hotter once it’s burning. The temperature at the center of a paper fire is 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit, give or take a couple hundred. The tips of the flames themselves are usually between 600 and 800 degrees. Several Internet contrarians claim that Bradbury confused Celsius and Fahrenheit , putting his estimate off by 391 Fahrenheit degrees. They cite as evidence the Handbook of Physical Testing of Paper , which lists paper’s ignition temperature as 450 degrees Celsius. (Wikipedia cites the same source .) It’s not entirely clear how this number was arrived at, but it is an extreme outlier. The author appears to have used paper made with rayon or cotton, which could have a different auto-ignition temperature from pure wood pulp paper, but 450 degrees Celsius still sounds wrong. It’s also possible that the experimenters didn’t wait long enough or that they (and not Bradbury) switched Celsius and Fahrenheit. Got a question about today’s news? Ask the Explainer . Explainer thanks Vytenis Babrauskas of DoctorFire.com , David G. Lilley of Oklahoma State University and Alexander Morgan of the University of Dayton Research Institute. Thanks also to reader Linda Whitson for asking the question. Brian Palmer covers science and medicine for Slate.


Who wrote The Ugly Duckling and The Emperor's New Clothes?

The Ugly Duckling eBook by H. C. Andersen - 9788771073089 | Kobo Show more Show less Tale of the little swan, growing up in the yard with geese and suffers much cruelty, before being joined by a swan family.  The famous and much-loved Danish author Hans Christian Andersen celebrated his 200 anniversary the year 2005.  On this occasion we have published five of his best tales retold for children aged 3-9 years and with new illustrations: Tinderbox, The Little Match Girl, The Nightingale, The Emperor's New Clothes and The Ugly Duckling.  Hans Christian Andersen wrote The Ugly Duckling in 1844.  Buy the eBook


What are the first names of the four children who enter Narnia through a wardrobe in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe?

16 Facts About 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe' | Mental Floss 16 Facts About 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe' darchwonders In the 1940s, Oxford University professor C.S. Lewis struggled and fought to complete The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Little did he know that his novel would become a best seller, lead to six sequels, and still be widely read decades later. Here are some things you may not know about this long-lived children’s classic. 1. The story was inspired by an image of a faun. From age 16 onward, Lewis often found himself imagining “a Faun carrying an umbrella and parcels in a snowy wood.” According to his short essay It All Began With A Picture [ PDF ], the image continued to come to him until, at age 40, he said to himself, “Let's try to make a story about it.” 2. The book was also inspired by three girls who lived with Lewis during World War II. In 1939, three girls, Margaret, Mary, and Katherine, were evacuated from London because of anticipated bombings and sent to live with Lewis in the countryside for a short time. This situation seems to be the inspiration for the four children—Susan, Peter, Edmund, and Lucy—being sent to live with the old Professor in the book. 3. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe took 10 years to write. Lewis started in 1939 and finished in 1949. The novel was published in 1950. 4. The story was floundering until Lewis invented Aslan the lion. Wikimedia Commons Lewis wasn’t sure what to do with the book until “Aslan came bounding into it.” He’d been having dreams of lions, and found that putting Aslan in “pulled the whole story together, and soon He pulled the six other Narnian stories in after Him.” Incidentally, Aslan means "lion" in Turkish. 5. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien were in a writing group called The Inklings. While both writers were working on fantasy novels—Lewis on Narnia and Tolkien on The Lord of the Rings—they met every Monday morning to talk about writing. Others started to join them, and soon the group swelled to 19 men, so they started meeting on Thursday evenings to share and discuss their work.  6. Lewis destroyed the first version of the book because his friends didn’t like it. Before 1947, Lewis wrote a draft of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe with four children named Ann, Martin, Rose, and Peter. The reaction of his friends to the story was discouraging, to say the least. He said in a letter, “It was, by the unanimous verdict of my friends, so bad that I destroyed it.” 7. Lucy is a real person. owenbarfield.org Lucy is based on Lucy Barfield, Lewis’s goddaughter, and the daughter of Owen Barfield. She was 4 years old when he started the book and 14 when he finished it. In the dedication to Lucy, he said, “Someday you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again. You can then take it down from some upper shelf, dust it, and tell me what you think of it.” 8. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is a “magical doorway” story. As the term suggests, this is a story where a door or other opening allows a character to leave the real world and enter a magical world. Other magical doorways include the rabbit hole that Alice falls down in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Platform 9 3/4 in the Harry Potter series. 9. The book is also a Christian allegory—or is it? The Christian themes in the story are overt. Aslan, as a stand-in for Christ, allows himself to be sacrificed by the evil White Witch and is then resurrected, which brings salvation to Narnia. This follows Christ’s death on the cross and his resurrection three days later. But in a 1962 letter, Lewis said the book was not an allegory so much as a “supposal,” as in: “Suppose there were a Narnian world and it, like ours, needed redemption. What kind of incarnation and Passion might Christ be supposed to undergo there?” 10. Lewis jumbled all kinds of mythology into the book. Narnia draws on Greek, Roman, and Norse mythology, Irish and British fairy tales, Germanic folklore, and Arthurian romance, just to name a few. Even Santa Claus makes an appearance. 11. The White Witch is bas


BBC ON THIS DAY | 12 | 1976: Crime writer Agatha Christie dies About This Site | Text Only 1976: Crime writer Agatha Christie dies The most popular novelist in the world, Dame Agatha Christie, has died leaving rumours of a multi-million pound fortune and a final book waiting to be published. The British author, who sold an estimated 300 million books during her lifetime, had been in poor health for several years. She died at her home in Wallingford in Oxfordshire, aged 85. Two London theatres dimmed their lights this evening - St Martin's where her record-breaking "The Mousetrap" is now in its 24th year and the Savoy, where "Murder at the Vicarage" will have its 200th performance next week. Dame Agatha is believed to have left one last novel, as yet unpublished, featuring one of her most famous characters, the deceptively clever Miss Marple, as well as an autobiography. Police search During her lifetime, Dame Agatha published 83 books, including novels, romances written under the pseudonym of Mary Westmacott, short stories, poetry and the scripts for her plays. She married Colonel Archibald Christie in 1914. While he was away during the war she worked as a nurse at her local hospital in Torquay, where she learned about the poisons that later featured in so many of her crime novels. Dame Agatha established her name as a crime writer with her first detective book in 1920, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, in which she created her much-loved Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot. In December 1926 she sparked a police search when her car was found abandoned in a chalk pit at Newlands Corner on the Surrey Downs. It emerged she and her husband had had a row. Several days later she turned up in a hotel in Harrogate booked in under the name of a woman who was revealed to be her husband's mistress. She divorced and married again, well-known archaeologist Sir Max Mallowan, and divided her life between several country and town homes, archaeological digs and the regular production of one thriller a year. She was made a Dame of the British Empire in 1971. Newspaper estimates of her fortune vary, but in the late 1950s she was reputed to be earning about �100,000 a year. The hugely successful play Mousetrap - first written as a radio sketch called Three Blind Mice for the 80th birthday of Queen Mary - is said to have made more than �3m. She gave the proceeds to her only grandson, Matthew Prichard. She was known to be a shrewd businesswoman, anxious to avoid leaving too much of her personal fortune to the taxman. She once said: "I only write one book a year now, which is sufficient to give me a good income. If I wrote more, I'd enlarge the finances of the Inland Revenue who would spent it mostly on idiotic things." In 1955 she formed a company, Agatha Christie Ltd and to save its dividends from tax, she later sold 51% to Booker McConnell, a firm best known as sugar giants but also with other investments including authors' copyrights.


What is the only venomous snake in Britain?

Britain's only poisonous snake, the Adder, in danger of dying out | Daily Mail Online comments Adders are now an endangered species because their hibernation sites are being destroyed, snake experts have warned. Scientists say Britain's only poisonous snake is in more urgent need of help than any other reptile or amphibian species in the UK. A conference of conservationists met at the Greenwich University campus in Chatham, Kent, at the weekend to discuss ways of saving the once common snake. Endangered: A black adder, Vipera berus, in Sussex. Snakes like this are now extinct in a number of British counties It backed a plan to create a website for a survey project in which volunteers monitor snake numbers at their local sites. Adders are rapidly declining in numbers and the species is already extinct in some counties, including Nottinghamshire and Warwickshire. RELATED ARTICLES Share this article Share One of the biggest threats is damage to hibernation sites, such as rabbit holes and tree roots. Herpetologist Dr Chris Gleed-Owen told the Daily Telegraph: 'The adder is an enigmatic snake, steeped in history and folklore, from the druids to Shakespeare and Arthurian legend. An adder being tested as government conservation agency Natural England, the Zoological Society of London and Oxford University carry out health checks on wild snakes earlier this year TREAD CAREFULLY: ADDER FACTS The adder can be recognised by the distinctive 'V' or 'X' marking on its head and zig-zag stripe across its back. The snakes are often found in open heathland and dense woods. They are not aggressive animals and will only resort to using venom as a last means of defence if captured - or trodden on. Within hours of a bite, symptoms can include dizziness, nausea, vomiting and painful swelling. The venom is rarely fatal but any bite should be taken seriously. 'It would be tragic to see it disappear.' Despite the drop in numbers, there is anecdotal evidence among vets of an increase in people and pets being bitten by adders this year. In July, two dogs died in Essex after being bitten by poisonous adders that were out in unusually large numbers because of the hot weather. There have been 14 known fatalities among humans in Britain since 1876. The last was a five-year-old child who died in 1975. Several anti-venoms are now available which limit the effects to nausea and drowsiness, followed by severe bruising and swelling around the bite. Dogs and other pets are more susceptible to the venom because they are smaller than humans. And treatment is often delayed because owners often don't realise what is wrong at first.


Puzzles - Great Britain ... which you don't hear called 'Great' so often these days. 1. What is the only venomous snake in Britain? 2. Built in 1869, which famous British ship was named after a Scottish undergarment? 3. A British TV audience outnumbered a British radio audience for the first time for what special occasion? 4. In which British city would you find Arthur's Seat? 5. The popular British pub name "The Royal Oak" is named after which King? 6. What is the Welsh word for Wales? 7. What is the longest river in Scotland? 8. What is the oldest University in Britain? 9. In which British city was Guy Fawkes born and Dick Turpin killed? 10. Captain Matthew Webb, famous for swimming the English Channel, drowned in 1883 attempting to swim what? 1. What is the only venomous snake in Britain? Adder 3. A British TV audience outnumbered a British radio audience for the first time for what special occasion? Frau Battenberg's coronation 4. In which British city would you find Arthur's Seat? Edinburgh 5. The popular British pub name "The Royal Oak" is named after which King?  Charles II who hid in oak trees after losing battles 6. What is the Welsh word for Wales? Cymru 2. Built in 1869, which famous British ship was named after a Scottish undergarment? Ought to be Cutty Sark ("short shift"   ) 8. What is the oldest University in Britain? Oxford (unless you're talking to someone from Cambridge ... ) 7. What is the longest river in Scotland? The Dee? 9. In which British city was Guy Fawkes born and Dick Turpin killed?     Ah ha! I know this, having been a recent tourist to:    York [and we definitely think very highly of Great Britain, which is, in fact, a great place!]  Frau Battenberg! well done all 10. Captain Matthew Webb, famous for swimming the English Channel, drowned in 1883 attempting to swim what? The rapids below Niagara Falls


In which British city would you find Arthur's Seat?

Arthur's Seat (Edinburgh, Scotland): Top Tips Before You Go - TripAdvisor Neighbourhood Profile Southside & Holyrood Many of Edinburgh’s student hangouts gather around university buildings in Southside, the sort of neighbourhood that supports a long string of second-hand shops and eateries serving ethnic food for just a few pounds. In August the student population is replaced by vast numbers of boisterous visitors here for the Fringe, Edinburgh’s world-class comedy and arts festival which headquarters itself here. Flanking Southside are two great parks. The Meadows is a vast flat and sporty space where football, rugby, tennis, cricket, croquet, and golf often all take place side by side. Kids in its big playgrounds add to the joyful noise. Far bigger and much wilder, Holyrood Park extends to the east and provides a real hike up Arthur’s Seat, but the district is best known as the site of Scotland’s Parliament and its premier Royal Palace—and their steady stream of sightseers.


The popular British pub name The Royal Oak is named after which King?

British Pub Signs - a history of pub names in Britain History > English Culture > Pub Signs and Names British Pub Signs - a short history Signs From The Spirit World By Elaine Saunders Lord Nelson sign Everyone loves an “Olde Worlde” pub with its oak beams, horse brasses and roaring log fires. Nevertheless, no matter how old the pub itself, the name on the sign outside is probably the most historic thing about the place. The idea of the pub sign came to Britain at the time of the Roman invasion. Wine bars in ancient Rome hung bunches of vine leaves outside as trading signs but when the Romans came here, they found precious few vines in the inhospitable climate. Instead, they hung up bushes to mark out the inns and the names Bush or Bull & Bush still survive. What’s in a name? It would be centuries before the first recognisable pubs opened. Religious houses ran the earliest true inns to cater for pilgrims and knights on their way to the Crusades in the Holy Land. Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem, whose cellars are carved from the rocks beneath Nottingham Castle, is just such an example. Established in 1189, it claims the title of the oldest pub in England and was a stopover point for forces on their way to meet with Richard the Lionheart. Other signs on this theme are the Turk’s Head, Saracen’s Head and Lamb & Flag – the lamb representing Christ and the flag the sign of the crusaders. Even after the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 16th Century, some of the names denoting religious connections survived, such as the Mitre, the Ship (symbolising the Ark) and the Anchor (the Christian faith). However, many of the landlords thought it more politic to show allegiance to the monarch and hastily adopted titles like the King’s Head or the Crown. Henry VIII who ordered the Dissolution is, unsurprisingly, the most popularly depicted monarch. Heraldry has been a recurrent theme, the Black, White, Red and Golden Lions have formed part of the royal coat of arms since the time of the Norman Conquest. The Unicorn was in the Scottish arms, the Red Dragon in the Welsh and the White Horse in the Hanoverian. The Rising Sun was the badge of Edward III. Local gentry often had pubs on their land named after them or parts of their cognizance were taken. Anyone who caught the public imagination was likely to be immortalised such as Lord Nelson or Wellington and even loveable rogues like Dick Turpin get a mention. Marquis of Granby One of the most affectionate tributes is reserved for the Marquis of Granby, Commander in Chief of the British army. After the Battle of Warburg, he bought pubs for all his non-commissioned officers. His generosity ruined him however and he died in 1770 leaving crushing debts of ï¿½37,000. Sporty Names In the days of a largely illiterate population, pictorial signs were an essential way of advertising the inn or the type of entertainment on offer inside. Any pub called the Cock Inn or the Cock Pit would once have been a venue for cock fighting. Ye Old Fighting Cocks in St Albans (which also claims to be the oldest pub in Britain) was originally the dovecote for St Albans Abbey. After the Dissolution, it was realised that its circular shape made it a perfect venue for cock fighting. Just to confuse things, any pub called the Cock & Bottle has nothing to do with sport. It simply denotes that both bottled and draught beers were available. As to other entertainments, the Bear denotes bear baiting, the Dog & Duck hunting, the Bull & Dog bull baiting and the Bird in Hand, falconry. Nowadays, the more modern sports are represented by names like the Cricketers’ Arms, the Anglers’ Rest or the Huntsman. Often the predominant trade of the area would give the pub its name. The Golden Fleece is a reflection of the local wool trade. The Coopers’, Bricklayers’, Saddlers’ and Masons’ Arms are commonplace signs. Legend has it that the Smiths Arms in Dorset was once a blacksmith’s forge where Charles II stopped to have his horse shod. Whilst he was waiting he demanded a beer but was told the smithy was unlicenced. Exercising his royal pr


What is the oldest University in Britain?

What is the oldest university in Britain? | Reference.com What is the oldest university in Britain? A: Quick Answer The University of Oxford is the oldest university in Britain. While there is no precise date for its founding, the university has existed in some form since 1096. Full Answer The University of Oxford grew out of a tradition of famous teachers travelling to the area to give lectures. Students would travel to Oxford to hear the lectures and meet with other students. The University received a boost in 1167 after King Henry II banned his subjects from studying overseas in France. All students were required to return home and many ended up in Oxford. The first Chancellor, Robert Grosseteste, was appointed in 1214.


In which British city was Guy Fawkes born and Dick Turpin killed?


In which year was British Prime Minister Spencer Perceval assasinated?

The Assassination of the Prime Minister, Spencer Perceval | The Public Domain Review ..or BROWSE BY TAG The Assassination of the Prime Minister, Spencer Perceval Only once has a British Prime Minister been assassinated. Two hundred years ago, on the 11th May 1812, John Bellingham shot dead the Rt. Hon. Spencer Perceval as he entered the House of Commons. David C. Hanrahan tells the story. Illustration of the shooting, artist unknown. (Source: Norris Museum) On Monday 11 May, 1812, an unremarkable, anonymous man, just over forty years of age, made his way to the Houses of Parliament. The man had become a frequent visitor there over the previous few weeks, sitting in the gallery of the House of Commons and carefully examining the various members of the government through his opera glasses. At 5.00 p.m. on this particular day he walked into the lobby that led to the House of Commons and sat near the fireplace. No-one could have known that he was carrying, concealed on his person, two loaded pistols. As it was a fine evening Mr. Spencer Perceval, the Tory First Lord of the Treasury, or Prime Minister, had decided to dispense with his carriage and walk from No. 10, Downing Street, to the Houses of Parliament.  He arrived there around 5.15pm, entered the building and walked down the corridor towards the lobby entrance to the House of Commons. He handed his coat to the officer positioned outside the doors to the lobby. As Mr. Perceval entered the lobby a number of people were gathered around in conversation as was the usual practice. Most turned to look at him as he came through the doorway. No-one noticed as the quiet man stood up from beside the fire place, removing a pistol from his inner pocket as he did so. Neither did anyone notice as the man walked calmly towards the Prime Minister. When he was close enough, without saying a word, the man fired his pistol directly at Mr. Perceval’s chest. The Prime Minister staggered forward before falling to the ground, calling out as he did so words that witnesses later recalled in different ways as: “I am murdered!” or ‘Murder, Murder’ or ‘Oh God!’ or ‘Oh my God!’ Amid the confusion, a number of people raised Mr. Perceval from the ground and carried him into the nearby Speaker’s apartments. They placed him in a sitting position on a table, supporting him on either side. Most ominously, the Prime Minister had not uttered a single word since falling on the floor of the lobby, and the only noises to have emanated from him since had been a few pathetic sobs. After a short time Mr. Smith MP, on failing to find any perceptible sign of a pulse, announced his terrible conclusion to the group of stunned onlookers that the Prime Minister was dead. The Assassination of Spencer Perceval, illustration by Walter Stanley Paget (1861-1908) from Cassell's Illustrated History of England. Vol.5 (1909) Before long Mr. William Lynn, a surgeon situated at No. 15 Great George Street, arrived on the scene and confirmed that Mr. Smith was indeed correct. The surgeon noted the blood all over the deceased Prime Minister’s coat and white waistcoat. His examination of the body revealed a wound on the left side of the chest over the fourth rib. It was obvious that a rather large pistol ball had entered there. Mr. Lynn probed an instrument into the wound and found that it went downwards and inwards towards the heart. The wound was more than three inches deep. The Prime Minister, who was not yet fifty years of age, left behind a widow, Jane, and twelve children. In the shock of what had happened, the assassin was almost forgotten. The man had not attempted to escape as he might well have done amid the confusion. Instead, he had returned quietly to his seat beside the fireplace. The identity of the man was revealed as John Bellingham, not a violent radical but a businessman from Liverpool. The details of his story soon began to emerge. As a result of a dispute with some Russian Businessmen, Bellingham had been imprisoned in Russia in 1804 accused of owing a debt. He had been held in various pr


What is the tallest and thickest type of grass?

What is the tallest type of grass in the world? | Reference.com What is the tallest type of grass in the world? A: Quick Answer Woody bamboo, or Bambuseae poaceae, falls within the family of grasses and represents the tallest variety, with some species typically reaching more than 100 feet in height. Bamboo is found largely in warmer or tropical climates and can grow an astonishing 100 feet tall in just three months. Full Answer Because of bamboo's remarkable rate of growth and also its high tensile strength, close to that of steel in some species, it is used in a variety of human applications. These include everything from food and drink to construction, as reinforcement for concrete. The next tallest form of grass is miscanthus, also called elephant grass or Ugandan grass. It is native to the grasslands of East Africa. It typically grows up to 10 feet in height and can reach up to 22 feet. It resembles bamboo in many respects and is a perennial plant. Miscanthus is most often used for animal fodder, but is also being developed as an alternative to corn in biofuel production. Both bamboo and miscanthus are native to tropical regions. In North America are only used in gardening, landscaping or agriculture in the southernmost regions. In many parts of the world; however, bamboo in particular is an integral part of the lifestyle and it is estimated that more than half the world's population uses bamboo in one form or another every day.


In nature, what does a dendrologist study?

Dendrologist - definition of dendrologist by The Free Dictionary Dendrologist - definition of dendrologist by The Free Dictionary http://www.thefreedictionary.com/dendrologist Also found in: Encyclopedia , Wikipedia . Related to dendrologist: dendrological The botanical study of trees and other woody plants. den′dro·log′ic (-drə-lŏj′ĭk), den′dro·log′i·cal adj. den·drol′o·gist n. Want to thank TFD for its existence? Tell a friend about us , add a link to this page, or visit the webmaster's page for free fun content . Link to this page: Trees References in periodicals archive ? A Africa B Asia C North America D South America QUESTION 12 - for 12 points: What does a dendrologist study? Kids page As regards biological experiences, architects must work with the biologist and the dendrologist and in cooperation with them, we can provide a rich experience of nature, where birds, plants and other organisms are flourishing together. Copyright © 2003-2017 Farlex, Inc Disclaimer All content on this website, including dictionary, thesaurus, literature, geography, and other reference data is for informational purposes only. This information should not be considered complete, up to date, and is not intended to be used in place of a visit, consultation, or advice of a legal, medical, or any other professional.


What is the largest mammal in the world and can reach a length of 100 foot?

15 of the Largest Animals in the World «TwistedSifter     The blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) is a marine mammal belonging to the suborder of baleen whales. At 30 metres (98 ft) in length and 180 metric tons (200 short tons) or more in weight, it is the largest known animal to have ever existed. The Blue Whale’s tongue weighs around 2.7 metric tons (5,952 pounds), about the size of an average Asian Elephant and its heart weighs about 600 kg (1,300 lb) and is the largest known in any animal. Not only is the heart similar size to a mini-cooper car but also comparable in weight.   The Blue Whale is thought to feed almost exclusively on small, shrimp-like creatures called Krill. During the summer feeding season the Blue Whale gorges itself, consuming an astounding 3.6 metric tons (7,900 pounds) or more each day. This means it may eat up to 40 million krill a day with a daily calorie requirement of an adult Blue Whale in the region of 1.5 million. [ Source ]   The Heaviest Land Animal in the World: The African Bush Elephant     The African Bush Elephant is the largest living terrestrial (land) animal, with males reaching 6 to 7.5 metres (19.7 to 24.6 ft) in length, 3.3 metres (10.8 ft) in height at the shoulder, and weighing 6 t (13,000 lb). Females are much smaller, reaching 5.4 to 6.9 metres (17.7 to 22.6 ft) in length, 2.7 metres (8.9 ft) in height at the shoulder, and weighing 3 t (6,600 lb). The adult African bush elephant generally has no natural predators due to its great size, but the calves (especially the newborn) are vulnerable to lion and crocodile attacks, and (rarely) to leopard and hyena attacks. [ Source ]   The Tallest Land Animal in the World: The Giraffe   Photograph by Luca Galuzzi – www.galuzzi.it   The giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis) is an African even-toed ungulate mammal and the tallest living terrestrial animal in the world. It stands 5–6 m (16–20 ft) tall and has an average weight of 1,600 kg (3,500 lb) for males and 830 kg (1,800 lb) for females. The giraffe has an extremely elongated neck, which can be over 2 m (6 ft 7 in) in length, accounting for nearly half of the animal’s vertical height. The long neck results from a disproportionate lengthening of the cervical vertebrae, not from the addition of more vertebrae. [ Source ]   The Largest Carnivora in the World: The Southern Elephant Seal   Photograph by DAVID SHACKELFORD   The Southern elephant seal is the largest carnivore living today. This seals’ size shows extreme sexual dimorphism, possibly the largest of any mammal, with the males typically five to six times heavier than the females. While the females average 400 to 900 kilograms (880 to 2,000 lb) and 2.6 to 3 meters (8.5 to 9.8 ft) long, the bulls average 2,200 to 4,000 kilograms (4,900 to 8,800 lb) and 4.5 to 5.8 meters (15 to 19 ft) long. The record-sized bull, shot in Possession Bay, South Georgia on February 28, 1913, measured 6.85 meters (22.5 ft) long and was estimated to weigh 5,000 kilograms (11,000 lb).   Southern elephant seals dive repeatedly, each time for more than twenty minutes, to hunt their prey—squid and fish— at depths of 400 to 1,000 meters (1,300 to 3,300 ft). The documented diving records for the seals are nearly two hours for the duration, and more than 1,400 meters (4,600 ft) in depth. [ Source ]   The diverse order Carnivora includes over 280 species of placental mammals. Its members are formally referred to as carnivorans, while the word “carnivore” (often popularly applied to members of this group) can refer to any meat-eating organism. Carnivorans are the most diverse in size of any mammalian order, ranging from the least weasel (Mustela nivalis), at as little as 25 grams (0.88 oz) and 11 centimetres (4.3 in), to the polar bear and southern elephant seal. [ Source ]   The Largest Reptile in the World: The Saltwater Crocodile     The saltwater crocodile (Crocodylus porosus), is the largest of all living reptiles. It is found in suitable habitats from Northern Australia through Southeast Asia to the eastern coast of India. An adult male saltwater crocodile’s


What is the only known substance that naturally exists on Earth in all three chemical states?

The Water Cycle : Feature Articles The Water Cycle By Steve Graham, Claire Parkinson, and Mous Chahine Design by Robert Simmon October 1, 2010 Viewed from space, one of the most striking features of our home planet is the water, in both liquid and frozen forms, that covers approximately 75% of the Earth’s surface. Geologic evidence suggests that large amounts of water have likely flowed on Earth for the past 3.8 billion years—most of its existence. Believed to have initially arrived on the surface through the emissions of ancient volcanoes, water is a vital substance that sets the Earth apart from the rest of the planets in our solar system. In particular, water appears to be a necessary ingredient for the development and nourishment of life. Earth is a water planet: three-quarters of the surface is covered by water, and water-rich clouds fill the sky. (NASA.) Water, Water, Everywhere Water is practically everywhere on Earth. Moreover, it is the only known substance that can naturally exist as a gas, a liquid, and solid within the relatively small range of air temperatures and pressures found at the Earth’s surface. Water is the only common substance that can exist naturally as a gas, liquid, or solid at the relatively small range of temperatures and pressures found on the Earth’s surface. Sometimes, all three states are even present in the same time and place, such as this wintertime eruption of a geyser in Yellowstone National Park. (Photograph ©2008 haglundc. ) In all, the Earth’s water content is about 1.39 billion cubic kilometers (331 million cubic miles), with the bulk of it, about 96.5%, being in the global oceans. As for the rest, approximately 1.7% is stored in the polar icecaps, glaciers, and permanent snow, and another 1.7% is stored in groundwater, lakes, rivers, streams, and soil. Only a thousandth of 1% of the water on Earth exists as water vapor in the atmosphere. Despite its small amount, this water vapor has a huge influence on the planet. Water vapor is a powerful greenhouse gas, and it is a major driver of the Earth’s weather and climate as it travels around the globe, transporting latent heat with it. Latent heat is heat obtained by water molecules as they transition from liquid or solid to vapor; the heat is released when the molecules condense from vapor back to liquid or solid form, creating cloud droplets and various forms of precipitation. Water vapor—and with it energy—is carried around the globe by weather systems. This satellite image shows the distribution of water vapor over Africa and the Atlantic Ocean. White areas have high concentrations of water vapor, while dark regions are relatively dry. The brightest white areas are towering thunderclouds. The image was acquired on the morning of September 2, 2010 by SEVIRI aboard  METEOSAT-9. [Watch this animation (23 MB QuickTime) of similar data to see the movement of water vapor over time.] (Image ©2010 EUMETSAT. ) Estimate of Global Water Distribution Volume (1000 km3)


What is the only animal to have four knees?

QI : Quite Interesting If your knees aren't green by the end of the day, you ought to seriously re-examine your life. BILL WATTERSON Knees  MAURICE CHEVALIER (1888-1972) When you hit 70 you sleep sounder, you feel more alive than when you were 30. Obviously it's healthier to have women on your mind than on your knees. Elephant Knees What looks like the elephant's front knees are actually its wrists. There's a popular internet factoid which states that the elephant is the only animal which has four knees. But it doesn't; it has two knees at the back, and elbows and wrists at the front, exactly like other quadrupeds. Elephants, horses, dogs and all other quadruped mammals have two knees and two elbows. Almost all mammals have basically the same skeletal structure because we are descended from common ancestors. What you can see in the middle of a horse's front leg gets called the knee but is actually its wrist – a knee joins the femur (thighbone) and the tibia (shinbone) whereas a wrist joins the radius (forearm) and the carpus (the bit the digits are joined to). The bit between its body and the middle of the leg is the forearm. What we think of as the 'lower leg' is analogous to our third metacarpal - the bone linking our wrist to our middle finger. Horses walk around on the equivalent of their middle fingers. There's a misconception that birds' knees bend in the wrong direction but it's just the same as with any other animal. Birds' legs look like they're backwards because we're actually looking at their ankles. Birds' knees are right by their bodies and normally covered by feathers, and their ankles are well off the ground. Their knees bend exactly like ours do. Bees' Knees Bees do have knees. They definitely have joints in their legs, and they have femurs and tibia – the bones which the knee joins in humans. They don't have kneecaps, however – so while the joints in bees' legs aren't quite 'knees' as we know them, they are still knees by our reckoning. In the 18th century, saying something was 'no bigger than a bee's knee' used to mean it was very small. The modern phrase 'the bee's knees' seems just to have been a nonsense phrase. The world's smallest ever advertisement (promoting the Guinness World Records website) was a knee band which was fitted to a bee's knee in November 2000. It was the width of a human hair. CLEMENT FREUD (1924-2009) ON HIS ARTIFICIAL KNEES When propositioned recently by a woman to 'come upstairs and make love', I had to explain that it was one or the other. The hollow behind your knee is called a hough. The adjective 'geniculate' means 'bent like a knee'. Tutankhamun's Knee In 2005, a CAT scan of Tutankhamun's mummy showed that rather than being murdered by his brother, he may have died from an infected knee. Knee Jerk The ‘knee-jerk’ reaction when you’re tapped on the knee with a hammer tests an interaction between the thigh muscle and the spinal cord, and does not involve the brain. As it’s a ‘mono-synaptic response’ (i.e. the impulse only has to jump from one nerve to another, once) there are very few variables in play, which is what makes it such a useful test.   It’s not just a matter of seeing if your leg twitches – it’s the relative strength of the twitch which is significant. Too much jerk might indicate a brain tumour, stroke, liver disease, low calcium, low magnesium, hypothermia, multiple sclerosis, pre-eclampsia, spinal chord lesion or tetanus. Too little might mean botulism, a damaged nervous system, Eaton-Lambert syndrome (weakness of arm and leg muscles), Guillain-Barre syndrome (nerve inflammation), polymyositis (severe muscle inflammation) or syringomyelia (spinal cysts).   Knobbly Knees In June 1947, Laurel and Hardy did a six-day gig at Butlins in Skegness. Part of the job was to judge the Knobbly Knees competition, in which elderly men with rolled-up trouser-legs were subjected to a series of humiliating tasks. They also joined their wives Ida and Lucille in judging the ‘Holiday Lovelies’ competition.   The knobbles on our knees are all different. It has been suggested that


In what year did Sir Frederick Banting and J. J. R. MacLeod discover insulin?

Frederick G. Banting - Biographical Frederick G. Banting The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1923 Frederick G. Banting, John Macleod Share this: Frederick G. Banting - Biographical Frederick         Grant Banting was born on November 14, 1891, at Alliston,         Ont., Canada. He was the youngest of five children of William         Thompson Banting and Margaret Grant. Educated at the Public         and High Schools at Alliston, he later went to the University         of Toronto to study divinity, but soon transferred to the study         of medicine. In 1916 he took his M.B. degree and at once joined         the Canadian Army Medical Corps, and served, during the First         World War, in France. In 1918 he was wounded at the battle         of Cambrai and in 1919 he was awarded the Military Cross for         heroism under fire. When the war ended in 1919, Banting returned to Canada and was for        a short time a medical practitioner at London, Ontario. He studied        orthopaedic medicine and was, during the year 1919-1920, Resident        Surgeon at the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto. From 1920 until 1921        he did part-time teaching in orthopaedics at the University        of Western Ontario at London, Canada, besides his general practice,        and from 1921 until 1922 he was Lecturer in Pharmacology at the        University of Toronto. In 1922 he was awarded his M.D. degree, together        with a gold medal. Earlier, however, Banting had become deeply interested in diabetes.        The work of Naunyn, Minkowski, Opie, Schafer, and others had indicated        that diabetes was caused by lack of a protein hormone secreted by the islets of Langerhans in the pancreas. To this hormone Schafer        had given the name insulin, and it was supposed that insulin controls        the metabolism of sugar, so that lack of it results in the accumulation        of sugar in the blood and the excretion of the excess of sugar in        the urine. Attempts to supply the missing insulin by feeding patients        with fresh pancreas, or extracts of it, had failed, presumably because        the protein insulin in these had been destroyed by the proteolytic        enzyme of the pancreas. The problem, therefore, was how to extract        insulin from the pancreas before it had been thus destroyed. While he was considering this problem, Banting read in a medical        journal an article by Moses Baron, which pointed out that, when        the pancreatic duct was experimentally closed by ligatures, the        cells of the pancreas which secrete trypsin degenerate, but that        the islets of Langerhans remain intact. This suggested to Banting        the idea that ligation of the pancreatic duct would, by destroying        the cells which secrete trypsin, avoid the destruction of the insulin,        so that, after sufficient time had been allowed for the degeneration        of the trypsin-secreting cells, insulin might be extracted from        the intact islets of Langerhans. Determined to investigate this possibility, Banting discussed it        with various people, among whom was J.J.R.        Macleod , Professor of Physiology at the University of Toronto,        and Macleod gave him facilities for experimental work upon it. Dr.        Charles Best, then a medical student, was appointed as Banting's        assistant, and together, Banting and Best started the work which was to lead to the discovery of insulin. In 1922 Banting had been appointed Senior Demonstrator in Medicine        at the University of Toronto, and in 1923 he was elected to the        Banting and Best Chair of Medical Research, which had been endowed        by the Legislatur


What is the hottest, driest, and lowest place in North America called?

The Driest, Lowest and Hottest Land in North America: the Death Valley The Driest, Lowest and Hottest Land in North America: the Death Valley GO Dec 1, 2007 12:31 GMT  ·  By Stefan Anitei  ·  Share:  With a length of 225 km (140 mi) and a width of 8-24 km (5-15 mi), the Death Valley, located in eastern California and western Nevada, is the driest, lowest and hottest land in North America. At Furnace Creek, the air temperature reached 57?C and that of the soil 94?C, with just 6?C under the water boiling point. This value was overcome just in Libya (58oC), still, the average summer temperature is the highest in the Death Valley, turning it into the hottest point of the planet. The average annual rainfall amount is under 50 mm but some years are totally devoid of rainfall. This is the lowest ground in the Western Hemisphere, 86 m (290 ft) under the sea level at the place of a salt-water lake, Badwater. Mount Whitney is just 140 km (88 mi) away, 4,418 m (14,730 ft) tall, the highest in North America, except for Alaska. In 1850, small amounts of gold were found at Salt Spring. Silver, copper and lead too were found in the area. Mining towns grew sprouted everywhere: Bullfrog, Greenwater, Rhyolite, and Skidoo. But after the deposits were gone, these cities remained empty. In 1880, borax, a white crystalline compound used for making soap and other products was found in the Valley of Death. This discovery triggered the highest economical boom of the valley. Till 1888, crews made of 18 mules and 2 horses made the 270 km (170 mi) till the Mojave Town driving each two waggons loaded with borax, each 5 m (17 ft) long. Because of the unsupportable heat, both for men and animals, the transport was stopped from June to September. In 1933, the Death Valley was declared national monument and extended gradually, having now 1.3 million hectares. In 1994, The Death Valley National Park was created, one of the largest in US. The name is misleading, as hundreds of species inhabit or visit the area. Still, many are nocturnal, avoiding the heat of the midday. The largest native mammal is the desert bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis nelsoni), inhabiting the surrounding mountains. Inside the valley live pumas, badgers, bats, bobcats, coyotes, swift foxes (Vulpes velox), skunks, porcupines, rabbits, poached mice, bewildered donkeys, lizards, snakes and tortoises. Birds to be found here are falcons, quails, ravens, vultures and others. The most resistant animals of the valley are the poached mice: they can live all their life without drinking a droplet of water. They get the necessary water by burning the starch and fats extracted from the dry seeds they consume. Their urine is five times more concentrated than the humans'. During the day, these mice stay hidden inside their galleries, foraging during the night. There are over 1,000 species of flowering plants living in the valley. There are even trees, like Yucca. Shoshone Indians inhabiting the valley used them both as food and for making tools. From time to time, the valley blooms as the seeds waiting in the soil react to the right temperature and rainfall. But there can be several years without a flower. During the winter between 2004 and 2005, the valley experienced the highest rainfall ever, thrice the average. Over 50 species bloomed, like larkspurs, lilacs, orchids, poppies, sunflowers, vervains and primroses. There are four species of pupfish (Cyprinodon) in the Death Valley. During winter, these silvery creatures, 6 cm (2.5 in) long doze in the mud on the bottom of the springs and water ponds. During spring, they start spawning and the males turn shiny blue and defend their territories. But during the summer heat most of the water pools become dry and the desert pupfish die massively. The survivors live in a water which is extremely salty and with a temperature up to 44?C.   CHECK OUT THE GALLERY  (2 Images)


What is the second most common letter used in the English language?

Which letters in the alphabet are use... | Oxford Dictionaries Which of the following is a type of horse? Shire horse Which of the following is a type of horse? Haflinger Which of the following is a type of horse? Cayuse Which of the following is a type of horse? Fallabella Which of the following is a type of horse? Lhasa apso Which of the following is a type of horse? Criollo Which of the following is a type of horse? Fell pony Which of the following is a type of horse? Sorrel Which of the following is a type of horse? Tarpan You scored /10 practise again? Retry


In which hand does the Statue Of Liberty hold a torch? Left or Right?

Features of the Statue of Liberty FEATURES         OF THE STATUE OF LIBERTY            Why is it important that the Statue of Liberty hold a torch in her hand? It is to demonstrate the power of light over darkness, of hope over despair, of welcome over the forces of rejection. The torch of hope which the Statue holds points the way through the darkest night, through the fiercest storms, through the rages of war and the times of peace, through rain and snow, and through all that would attempt to extinguish her light. She is invincible because her strength comes from God. She is tireless, because her mission comes from God. She is fearless, because she holds God's light in her torch and knows its strength.          Why is it important that the Statue hold a tablet in her hand? Because she upholds justice as well as liberty, and the tablet she holds affirms the principles articulated in the Declaration of Independence - its date emblazoned on the tablet: July 4, 1776. This tablet honors the fundamental principles by which men must live and according to which they shall be judged, namely, that "all men are created equal, endowed by their Creator with the inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." The Statue of Liberty upholds these principles symbolized by her tablet, while also upholding the victory of hope against all forces of oppression that shall attempt to undo them.          Why does she wear a crown of seven rays on her head? It is to signify the seven rays of God that manifest the physical Universe and the consciousness of souls. These seven rays are aspects of consciousness which Liberty has mastered or contains. They are the foundation for her thought, her awareness, and they link her in each of the seven ways with the consciousness of God.          Why does she wear a flowing gown? She is dressed in this garment of mythology and antiquity to show her majesty and authority as well as her relationship with goddesses of the past. The timelessness of her gown points to her own timelessness - her linking of past, present, and future.  Her crown also symbolizes majesty, and along with the gown reveals her Divine origin and eternal mission - to be the source of light and hope for mankind.


Furlong to Yard Conversion (furlong to yd) Furlong to Yard Conversion (furlong to yd) Please enter furlong (furlong) value of length unit to convert furlong to yard. Furlong (furlong) How Many Yard in a Furlong? There are 220 yard in a furlong. 1 Furlong is equal to 220 Yard. 1 furlong = 220 yd Furlong Definition A furlong is a unit of length or distance, commonly used in the US, the UK, Australia, and some other countries of the world. The origin of this unit name goes back in time to the epochs of Alngo-Saxon farming communities. A furlong is equal to 1/8th of a mile, as well as 220 yards or 660 feet. Convert Furlong Yard Definition The Imperial system recognizes a yard as a linear measurement unit for measuring length or distance. Yard is commonly used in modern US system of measurement. A yard is equal to 36 inches or 3 feet. Both units of yard and inch have been used since the 13th century. About furlong to yd Converter This is a very easy to use furlong to yard converter . First of all just type the furlong (furlong) value in the text field of the conversion form to start converting furlong to yd, then select the decimals value and finally hit convert button if auto calculation didn't work. Yard value will be converted automatically as you type. The decimals value is the number of digits to be calculated or rounded of the result of furlong to yard conversion.