Internet Business

There are no official standards by which to distinguish a beautiful problem from a poor one, and judgement varies from individual to individual as well as from generation to generation, but modern taste generally recognizes the following elements as being important if a problem is to be regarded as beautiful:

• The problem position must be legal. That is to say, the diagram must be reachable via a legal chess game which begins from the standard opening position. It is not considered a defect if the diagram can only be reached via a game containing gross blunders. Chess problems, on the whole, are not created for the purpose of practical chess training.

• The first move of the problem's solution (the key move or key) must be unique. A problem which has two keys is said to be cooked, and would not be published in any magazine. An exception is problems which intentionally have more than one solution, which compliment or contrast each other in some way - this type of problem is particularly common in helpmates.

• Some would say that, ideally, there should only be one possible white move after every black move, although this is not nearly so important. A choice of white moves other than the first move is a dual. Duals are often excusable if the problem is strong in other regards.

• The solution should be explicable in terms of a theme or themes, rather than emerging from disjointed calculation. Many of the more common themes have been given names by problemists.

• The key move of the solution should be unobvious. Obvious moves such as checks, captures, and (in directmates) moves which restrict the movement of the black king, make for bad keys. Keys which deprive the black king of some squares it could move to (flight squares) but at the same time surrender an equal or greater number of flights are acceptable. Key moves which prevent the enemy from playing a checking move are also undesirable, particularly in cases where there is no mate provided after the checking move.

• Every piece on the board should serve a purpose, either to enable the actual solution, or to exclude alternative solutions. Extra units should not be added to create "red herrings" (this is called dressing the board), except in rare cases where this is part of the theme. If the theme can be shown with fewer total units, it should be.

• The problem should exhibit economy of moves. If the theme can be shown in fewer moves, it should be.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

Technorati Tags: beauty Chess Chess chess problems Directmates dressing the board flight squares key move position beauty chess problems position chess key move directmates flight squares dressing the board

Nepeta image-preview " title="Nepeta curviflora" alt="Nepeta curviflora" src="http://www.sfetcu.com/sites/default/files/images/Nepeta_curviflora.preview.jpg" />
  Nepeta curviflora Scientific classification Kingdom: Plantae
  Division: Magnoliophyta
  Class: Magnoliopsida
  Order: Lamiales
  Family: Lamiaceae
  Genus: Nepeta
    Species See text.

Nepeta is a genus of about 250 species of flowering plants in the family Lamiaceae. The members of this family are known as catnips or catmints.

The genus is native to Europe, Asia and Africa, with the highest species diversity in the Mediterranean region east to China. Most of the species are herbaceous perennial plants, but some are annuals. They have sturdy stems with opposite heart-shaped, green to greyish-green leaves. The flowers are white, blue, pink or lilac and occur in several clusters toward the tip of the stems.

Nepeta cataria flowers

Nepeta cataria (Catnip, True Catnip, Catmint or Field Balm) is a 50–100 cm tall herb resembling mint in appearance, with greyish-green leaves; the flowers are white, finely spotted with purple. It has been introduced to many countries, and is now a widespread weed in some areas, including the United States. A lemon-scented cultivar, N. cataria 'Citriodora' looks exactly like true catnip, but has the scent of, and can be used like Lemon balm.

Nepeta grandiflora (Giant Catmint or Caucasus Catmint) is lusher than true catnip, and has dark green leaves and dark blue, almost purple flowers.

Nepeta × faassenii (N. racemosa × N. nepetella; Faassen's Nepeta or Faassen's Catnip) is mostly grown as an ornamental plant. This hybrid is far smaller than either of above, and is almost a ground cover. It has with greyish-green leaves and light purple flowers.

Some Dracocephalum, Glechoma and Calamintha species were formerly classified in Nepeta.

Effects on cats

Catnip and catmints are mainly known for, and named after, the effects they have on cats, particularly domestic cats. Approximately two thirds of cats are susceptible to the effects of catnip, as the phenomenon is hereditary.

Catnip contains nepetalactone, a terpene, that is thought to mimic feline sex pheromones. Cats detect it through their vomeronasal organs. When cats sense the bruised leaves or stems of catnip, they will rub in it, roll over it, paw at it, chew it, lick it, leap about, then purr loudly, growl, and meow. This reaction only lasts for several minutes before the cat loses interest. It takes up to two hours for the cat to "reset" and then it can come back to the catnip and have the same response as before. Young kittens and older cats are less likely to have a reaction to catnip but big cats, such as tigers, seem to be extremely sensitive to it.

Cat owners do not need to worry about allowing their cats access to catnip because there are, for the most part, no negative side effects to it. However, some cats become overly excited when exposed to catnip, and so aging cats with heart troubles should not be given catnip.

Other plants that also have this effect on cats include Valerian and plants that contain actinidine or dihydroactinidiolide (Smith, 2005).

At least three species attract cats, Nepeta cataria, N. grandiflora and N. × faassenii, but most other species have not been tested. Of these, both true catnip and Faassen's catnip have a sharp, biting taste, while the taste of giant catmint is bland.

References and links

• Flora Europaea
• id=122138" class="external text"> Flora of China
• id=122138" class="external text"> Flora of Nepal
• Liber Herbarum II page on Nepeta cataria
• Catnip Repels Mosquitoes More Effectively Than DEET - reported at the 222nd national meeting of the American Chemical Society
• 008.html" class="external text">The Straight Dope: What is it with cats and catnip?
• What is in catnip anyway? Nepetalactone
• How does catnip work? HowStuffWorks, Inc. 1998-2005.
• Smith, L. Catnip. Penmarrie Cornish Rex. 1996-2005.
• Jacobs, Betty E.M. Growing and Using Herbs Successfully. Garden Way Publishing. Pownal, Vermont, 1981.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

Technorati Tags: catmints catnips cats Cats domestic cat effects flowering plants Nature Nepeta nepetalactone Nepeta flowering plants catnips catmints effects cats domestic cat nepetalactone

The Albanian panaret.

Τσουρέκι/λαμβροψομο: symbolizing the resurrection of Christ. Tsoureki is the Greek word for its Turkish derived word which means "that which is kneaded". The Greek word Lambropsomo is a combination of two words: lambro (Greek: λαμβρο) which means "bright light"; and psomo (Greek: ψομο) which means bread: lambropsomo translates to shining-bread or the epiphany-bread, representing the light given to Christians by Christ's resurrection and the passing over from what we are to what Rison Lord wants us to be: "partakers of divine nature". This braided bread can be shaped either into a circle or into two large braids and sprinkled with sesame seeds. It is adorned with beautiful red Easter eggs and sometimes red rosebuds for decorations. The Easter eggs are dyed deep red to represent the blood of Christ, the eggs also represent new life and springtime. It is traditionally eaten during the Resurrection Meal. After 40 days of fasting - as is dictated by the Greek Orthodox Church (but rarely followed as strictly by the general population any longer) - the Easter feast has to begin slowly, with a light meal after the midnight liturgy on Saturday night. The fast is generally broken with magiritsa, an offal-based soup flavored with avgolemono sauce; tsoureki, the fluffy, egg-laden Easter bread, salad and a bowl of red dyed eggs. Greeks have a custom when it comes to the eggs: they crack them one-to-one. Whosever egg remains in tact, supposedly has good luck in the ensuing year.

This bread recipe was traditionally prepared with an essence drawn from the seeds of Mediterranean wild cherries, called makhlepi, (Greek: μαχλέπι), which makes the kitchen smell delicious. The kernels of the makhlepi cherry spice are loved for specialties like tsoureki, but some people at times may elect to prepare this beautiful bread without the seed essence. Besides mahaleb kernels, the bread can be flavoured with mastic, the resin from Pistacia lentiscus var; chia which is used only in Greek cuisine. In more recent years, vanilla-scented tsoureki has also become quite popular. Sometime tsoureki is used as gifts for special occasion, for instance, it can be given as an Easter gift from children to their godparents.

Recipe Cook Time: 30 minutes Ingredients:

• 12 cups of flour
• 3 tablespoons of active dry yeast
• 1 cup of melted butter
• 1 cup + 1 tablespoon of sugar
• 6 eggs
• 1/2 tablespoon of mahlab (or crushed aniseed, or vanilla extract) + 2 cups of water
• 2-3 pieces of mastic, crushed with 1/4 teaspoon of sugar (or grated peel of 1 orange)
• 1 cup of lukewarm milk
• 3/4 teaspoon of sea salt
• egg wash - 1 egg lightly beaten with 1 tablespoon of water
• sesame seeds or blanched sliced almonds (optional)
• hard boiled dyed red eggs (optional)

Preparation:

Dissolve the yeast in lukewarm milk. Add a few spoonfuls of flour to make a paste. Cover and set aside in a warm place to rise.

In a bowl, combine 10 cups of the flour and salt, and add melted butter. Boil mahlab (mahlepi) in 2 cups of water, strain, and add the liquid to the flour. (Alternatively, add 1 teaspoon of mahlepi or other flavoring + 2 cups of liquid - 1 cup each of orange juice, milk or water.)

Add the eggs, mastic, sugar, and the risen yeast mixture. On a floured surface or in a mixer, knead the mixture well, adding in remaining flour until it becomes a malleable dough, about 15-20 minutes (or 10 minutes with a mixer). Cover and allow to rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk (1 1/2 - 2 hours).

Punch down the dough and create shapes:

Braids: Form 12 or 15 ropes, each about 15 inches long. Braid sets of 3 ropes to form loaves, tucking ends in underneath the loaves. For the traditional Easter loaf, tuck one or more red eggs (choose eggs that have no cracks) into the braids.

Twists (photo): Shape into ropes 20-24 inches long. Fold each rope in half and twist gently.. Tuck a red egg into the top of the twist.

Other shapes: They can also be shaped into round loaves, rings, or shapes of your choice.

Place the loaves on greased cookie sheets or baking pans, cover, and allow to rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk. Brush with egg wash.

Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).

(Optional) Sprinkle with sugar, sesame seeds, or blanched almond slices.

Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes or until golden brown. (Tap on the bottom; they should sound hollow.) Cool for 5 minutes, then move to racks to cool completely.

Yield: 4 to 6 loaves

Links

• Vasilopita Bread Recipe
• Tsoureki Bread Recipe
• Vasilopita Recipe II
• Tsoureki Recipe II
• Christopsomo: Greek Christmas Bread

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

Technorati Tags: bread Christ Cooking Easter Greek ingredients preparation Tsoureki λαμβροψομο Τσουρέκι Τσουρέκι λαμβροψομο Christ Tsoureki Greek bread bread ingredients preparation

The Worthington Bottle Car

One of the earliest examples are the Bottle Cars built in the 1920s to advertise Worthington Beer in England. The five cars were fitted out with boiler plate bodies to resemble the shape of a bottle laid on its side - each one weighed about 2.3 tons.

The Nevada Car

Built on an International Harvester pickup truck as a community project during Reno, Nevada's Reno Days event. Features a "supercharger" on the hood which is actually the motor head unit from a Kirby Sani-Tronic vacuum cleaner. Owned and (formerly) driven by Patrick Dailey of Novato, California, who states: " Wherever we go people are always trying to give us more junk to put on it." and "...we hardly ever have to buy our own gas." As of summer 2005 the Nevada Car is stored in Boulder City, Nevada, in need of engine repairs.

Buddha Buggy

image-preview " title="Political Speech" alt="Political Speech" src="http://www.sfetcu.com/sites/default/files/images/PoliticalSpeech_7798.preview.jpg" /> Buddha Buggy

A 1987 Honda CRX, the Buddha Buggy features a 1.6 m high detachable Nepalese Buddhist stupa on the roof, with strings of prayer flags running up to the golden pinnacle of the stupa. In back, a 300 mm golden Buddha, holding a miniature pagoda, is flanked by intent Laptop Buddhas. These are but a few of the 50 golden statuettes, mostly on Buddhist or Asian spiritual themes, that adorn the car and stupa. Adding to the effect are twirling yin-yang hubcaps, psychedelic-era stickers, and the vanity license plates, TOOCOOL. Not visible are the image is a 330 mm high porcelain Amitabha Buddha in its niche in the stupa, and [3] paintings of the Buddha], comic dragons, a cartoon portrait of the owner, comets, a flying saucer with 2 green aliens, and toothy, two-legged fishes. The car's interior includes a velvet altarcloth-draped dashboard with brass Tibetan incense burners, statues, and gold tassels; a painted explosion of cosmic love inside the doors; and a temporary installation of spiritual beings meditating in a circle in the back cargo area. The Buddha Buggy is the work of its Seattle, Washington owner, Larry Neilson, and his many collaborators. It has appeared at Art Car events all over the western U.S. and Canada, including the Tacoma_Art_Museum and San Jose (CA) Museum of Art.

Camera Van

A van entirely covered with photographic and videocameras and featuring a video display, built by filmmaker and art car guru Harrod Blank. This vehicle has the distinction of being one of the few works of art that actually looks back at the viewer, as it photographs and videotapes them using some of the cameras mounted upon it, and has the ability to play the video back on the external screen, allowing you to watch it - watching you as you are watching it watch you. (Seen in Oakland, California.) More at [4]

Flying Saucer

This is an otherwise conventional VW Beetle but with aluminum arching skirts all around that make the platform completely circular. In place of the sun roof is somewhat hemispherical transparent plastic dome. (Seen in a Berkeley, California parade.)

Oh my God!

A 1965 Volkswagen Beetle with the California license plate OMYGAWD, which features exotic plastic fruits and vegetables, a world globe and the phrase "Oh my God" painted in dozens of languages. A creation of Harrod Blank, this Beetle was featured in the 1992 documentary Wild Wheels (the documentary featured a scene in a courtroom where Blank was seen contesting a parking citation to the point that art cars and their respective artists were usually subjected to police harassment).

Phone Car

"Teleman" and the Phone Car

Created by business owner, Howard Davis (seen here as his alter-ego, Teleman), as a way to promote his business telephone company. It was featured in various magazines including Motor Trend and Weekly World News, and was also in the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles for its exhibit on art cars.

The Phone Car is built on a 1975 Volkswagen Beetle frame and has a tinted glass windshield which allows the driver to see clearly out of it. It also has a telephone ringer as its horn, so instead of a honk, it rings!

Rocket Car

A car that looks like a Buck Rogers style art deco rocket ship, complete with a gauge-filled cockpit interior which appears to be suitable for a jet aircraft.

Furthur and Further

The day-glo painted schoolbus Further is a 'remake' of the original bus known as "Furthur" (the original) which is the actual real-life Merry Pranksters' hippie bus whose destination sign read simply "Furthur" and which "tootled the multitudes" in 1964 in 'real life' and in Tom Wolfe's book The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test The bus is also prominently mentioned in the Grateful Dead's song "(That's it for) The Other One", as "the bus to never-ever land" with "...Cowboy Neal (Neal Cassady) at the wheel...".

H-Wing Carfighter

A "next generation" art car is the H-Wing Carfighter, a science fiction-themed 1995 Honda Civic del Sol SI two-seater. Designed after a Rebel Alliance A-Wing fighter from Star Wars, it features external laser cannons, lighting effects and an automated R2-D2 "Astromech droid". The interior features computers and other gadgetry. Many modifications are made from "found" parts including sports equipment, plumbing fixtures, and toys. The overall design blends elements of real war machines through the ages, such as World War Two fighter planes, with the fictional. H-Wing is a member of Road Squadron, a collection of science fiction-related art cars, and generated a great deal of web traffic when featured on Fark.com and Slashdot.

image-preview " title="On Safari Art Car" alt="On Safari Art Car" src="http://www.sfetcu.com/sites/default/files/images/OnSafariArtCar.preview.jpg" /> Note that the interior continues the striped design.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

Technorati Tags: Art art cars Buddha Buggy Camera Van Cars Flying Saucer Further Furthur H-Wing Carfighter Nevada Car Oh my God! Phone Car Rocket Car Worthington Bottle Car art cars Worthington Bottle Car Nevada Car Buddha Buggy Camera Van Flying Saucer Oh my God! Phone Car Rocket Car

8:1 In those days again, when there was a great mass of people and they had no food, he made his disciples come to him and said to them,

8:2 I have pity for these people because they have been with me now three days, and have no food;

8:3 If I send them away to their houses with no food, they will be overcome by weariness on the way; and some of them have come from far.

8:4 And his disciples said in answer, How will it be possible to get enough bread for these men here in a waste place?

8:5 And he put the question, How much bread have you? And they said, Seven cakes.

8:6 And he made the people be seated on the earth: and he took the seven cakes and, having given praise, he gave the broken bread to his disciples to put before them; and they put it before the people.

8:7 And they had some small fishes; and blessing them he had them put before the people in the same way.

8:8 And they took the food, and had enough; and they took up seven baskets full of the broken bits.

8:9 And there were about four thousand people: and he sent them away.

8:10 And he got into the boat with his disciples straight away, and came into the country of Dalmanutha.

8:11 And the Pharisees came out and put questions to him, requesting from him a sign from heaven, testing him.

8:12 And he was very sad in spirit, and said, Why is this generation looking for a sign? truly, I say to you, No sign will be given to this generation.

8:13 And he went away from them, and again got into the boat and went across to the other side.

8:14 And they had taken no thought to get bread; and they had only one cake of bread with them in the boat.

8:15 And he said to them, Take care to be on the watch against the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.

8:16 And they said to one another, We have no bread.

8:17 And Jesus, hearing it, said to them, Why are you reasoning among yourselves because you have no bread? do you still not see, and is it still not clear to you? are your hearts so hard?

8:18 Having eyes, do you not see? and having ears, have you no hearing? and have you no memory?

8:19 When I made a division of the five cakes of bread among the five thousand, what number of baskets full of broken bits did you take up? They said to him, Twelve.

8:20 And when the seven among the four thousand, what number of baskets full of broken bits did you take up? And they said to him, Seven.

8:21 And he said to them, Is it still not clear to you?

8:22 And they came to Beth-saida. And they took a blind man to him, requesting him to put his hands on him.

8:23 And he took the blind man by the hand, and went with him out of the town; and when he had put water from his mouth on his eyes, and put his hands on him, he said, Do you see anything?

8:24 And looking up, he said, I see men; I see them like trees, walking.

8:25 Then again he put his hands on his eyes; and looking hard, he was able to see, and saw all things clearly.

8:26 And he sent him away to his house, saying, Do not even go into the town.

8:27 And Jesus went out, with his disciples, into the little towns round Caesarea Philippi; and on the way he put a question to his disciples, saying, Who do men say that I am?

8:28 And they made answer, John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; but others, One of the prophets.

8:29 And he said to them, But who do you say I am? Peter said in answer, You are the Christ.

8:30 And he put them under orders not to say this of him to anyone.

8:31 And teaching them, he said that the Son of man would have to undergo much, and be hated by those in authority, and the chief priests, and the scribes, and be put to death, and after three days come back from the dead.

8:32 And he said this openly. And Peter took him, and was protesting.

8:33 But he, turning about, and seeing his disciples, said sharply to Peter, Get out of my way, Satan: for your mind is not on the things of God, but on the things of men.

8:34 And turning to the mass of people with his disciples, he said to them, If any man has the desire to come after me, let him give up all other desires, and take up his cross and come after me.

8:35 Whoever has a desire to keep his life, will have it taken from him; and whoever gives up his life because of me and the good news, will keep it.

8:36 What profit has a man if he gets all the world with the loss of his life?

8:37 And what would a man give in exchange for his life?

8:38 Whoever has a feeling of shame because of me and my words in this false and evil generation, the Son of man will have a feeling of shame because of him, when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.

Technorati Tags: baskets Beth-saida bits blind man boat bread Caesarea Philippi Christ Dalmanutha disciples Elijah fishes food Herod holy angels John the Baptist Mark 8 Peter Pharisees praise prophets Religion Seven cakes shame water Mark 8 food disciples bread Seven cakes praise fishes baskets bits Dalmanutha Pharisees boat Herod

4:1 Let us then, though we still have God's word that we may come into his rest, go in fear that some of you may be unable to do so.

4:2 And, truly, the good news came to us, even as it did to them; but the hearing of the word did them no good, because they were not united in faith with the true hearers.

4:3 For those of us who have belief come into his rest; even as he has said, As I said in my oath when I was angry, They may not come into my rest: though the works were done from the time of the making of the world.

4:4 For in one place he has said of the seventh day, And God had rest from all his works on the seventh day;

4:5 And in the same place he says again, They will not come into my rest.

4:6 So that as it is clear that some have to go in, and that the first hearers of the good news were not able to go in because they went against God's orders,

4:7 After a long time, again naming a certain day, he says in David, Today (as he had said before), Today if you will let his voice come to your ears, be not hard of heart,

4:8 For if Joshua had given them rest, he would not have said anything about another day.

4:9 So that there is still a Sabbath-keeping for the people of God.

4:10 For the man who comes into his rest has had rest from his works, as God did from his.

4:11 Because of this, let us have a strong desire to come into that rest, and let no one go after the example of those who went against God's orders.

4:12 For the word of God is living and full of power, and is sharper than any two-edged sword, cutting through and making a division even of the soul and the spirit, the bones and the muscles, and quick to see the thoughts and purposes of the heart.

4:13 And there is nothing made which is not completely clear to him; there is nothing covered, but all things are open to the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

4:14 Having then a great high priest, who has made his way through the heavens, even Jesus the Son of God, let us be strong in our faith.

4:15 For we have not a high priest who is not able to be touched by the feelings of our feeble flesh; but we have one who has been tested in all points as we ourselves are tested, but without sin.

4:16 Then let us come near to the seat of grace without fear, so that mercy may be given to us, and we may get grace for our help in time of need.

Technorati Tags: Hebrews 4 Religion Hebrews 4

High-card point count is a method of hand evaluation.

• Ace = 4
• King = 3
• Queen = 2
• Jack = 1

There is a total of 40 points in a deal, 10 per suit. An average hand has 10 points. For balanced hands, this is pretty accurate. For unbalanced hands, distribution and honors in long suits need to be considered as well. This method can also undervalue aces, kings, tens, and nines, and can overvalue queens and jacks.

A total of 26 points combined among partnership's hands means that game in no-trump or a major suit is likely. A total of 29 points is usually enough for game in a minor. A total of 33 is usually enough for a small slam, as the opponents cannot have 2 aces. A total of 37 is usually enough for a grand slam, as the opponents cannot have an ace. These totals can be lowered based on adjustments for distribution. Many expert players play that 25, or even 24, high card points is enough for a good game. A slam is frequently available on only 29 or even 26 high card points, but advanced bidding methods, such as conventions, are required to bid such slams with confidence.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

Technorati Tags: bridge Games Hand Evaluation high-card point count points high-card point count hand evaluation bridge points

Common Swift, Apus apus

Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Apodiformes
Family: Apodidae
Hartert, 1897

The swifts are birds superficially similar to swallows but are actually not closely related to those passerine species at all; swifts are in the separate order Apodiformes, which they formerly shared with the hummingbirds.

The resemblances between the swifts and swallows are due to convergent evolution reflecting similar life styles based on catching insects in flight.

The family scientific name comes from the Greek απους, apous, meaning "without feet", since swifts have very short legs and never settle voluntarily on the ground, perching instead on vertical surfaces. The tradition of depicting swifts without feet continued into the Middle Ages, as seen in the heraldic martlet.

Swifts are the most aerial of birds and some, like the Common Swift, even sleep and mate on the wing. Larger species, such as white-throated needletail, are amongst the fastest flyers in the animal kingdom. One group, the Swiftlets or Cave Swiftlets have developed a form of echolocation for navigating through dark cave systems where they roost. One species, Aerodramus papuensis has recently been discovered to use this navigation at night outside its cave roost also.

Like swallows and martins, the swifts of temperate regions are strongly migratory and winter in the tropics.

Many swifts have a characteristic shape, with a short forked tail and very long swept-back wings that resemble a crescent or a boomerang. The flight of some species is characterised by a distinctive "flicking" action quite different from swallows.

The nest of many species is glued to a vertical surface with saliva, and the genus Aerodramus use only that substance, which is the basis for bird's nest soup.

Systematics and evolution

The treeswifts are closely related to the true swifts, but form a separate family, the Hemiprocnidae.

In the Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy, the old order Apodiformes is split. Swifts remain in that order, but hummingbirds are put into a new order, Trochiliformes. This might be correct, but further research on the interrelationships and evolutionary history of the Apodiformes is necessary.

The taxonomy of this group is in general complicated, with genus and species boundaries widely disputed, especially amongst the swiftlets. Analysis of behavior and vocalizations is marred by common parallel evolution, while analyses of different morphological traits and of various DNA sequences have yielded equivocal and partly contradictory results (Thomassen et al., 2005).

The Apodiformes diversified during the Eocene, at the end of which the extant families were present; fossil genera are known from all over temperate Europe, between today's Denmark and France, such as the primitive Scaniacypselus (Early - Middle Eocene) and the more modern Procypseloides (Late Eocene/Early Oligocene - Early Miocene). A prehistoric genus sometimes assigned to the swifts, Primapus (Early Eocene of England), might also be a more distant ancestor.

Species list: Family Apodidae

Tribe Cypseloidini

• Genus Cypseloides
  
  • Chestnut-collared Swift, Cypseloides rutilus
    Tepui Swift, Cypseloides phelpsi
    Black Swift, Cypseloides niger
    White-chested Swift, Cypseloides lemosi
    Rothschild's Swift, Cypseloides rothschildi
    Sooty Swift, Cypseloides fumigatus
    Spot-fronted Swift, Cypseloides cherriei
    White-chinned Swift, Cypseloides cryptus
    White-fronted Swift, Cypseloides storeri
    Great Dusky Swift, Cypseloides senex

• Genus Streptoprocne
  
  • White-collared Swift, Streptoprocne zonaris
    Biscutate Swift, Streptoprocne biscutata
    White-naped Swift, Streptoprocne semicollaris

Tribe Collocaliini - swiftlets

• Genus Collocalia
  
  • Glossy Swiftlet, Collocalia esculenta
    • Grey-rumped Swiftlet, Collocalia (esculenta) marginata
  • Cave Swiftlet, Collocalia linchi
    Pygmy Swiftlet, Collocalia troglodytes

• Genus Aerodramus
  
  • Seychelles Swiftlet, Aerodramus elaphrus
    Mascarene Swiftlet, Aerodramus francicus
    Indian Swiftlet, Aerodramus unicolor
    Philippine Swiftlet, Aerodramus mearnsi
    Moluccan Swiftlet, Aerodramus infuscatus
    Mountain Swiftlet, Aerodramus hirundinaceus
    White-rumped Swiftlet, Aerodramus spodiopygius
    Australian Swiftlet, Aerodramus terraereginae
    Himalayan Swiftlet, Aerodramus brevirostris
    Indochinese Swiftlet, Aerodramus rogersi
    Volcano Swiftlet, Aerodramus vulcanorum
    Whitehead's Swiftlet, Aerodramus whiteheadi
    Bare-legged Swiftlet, Aerodramus nuditarsus
    Mayr's Swiftlet, Aerodramus orientalis
    Palawan Swiftlet, Aerodramus palawanensis
    Mossy-nest Swiftlet, Aerodramus salangana
    Uniform Swiftlet, Aerodramus vanikorensis
    Palau Swiftlet, Aerodramus pelewensis
    Guam Swiftlet, Aerodramus bartschi
    Caroline Islands Swiftlet, Aerodramus inquietus
    Mangaia Swiftlet, Aerodramus manuoi (prehistoric)
    Atiu Swiftlet, Aerodramus sawtelli
    Polynesian Swiftlet, Aerodramus leucophaeus
    Marquesan Swiftlet, Aerodramus ocistus
    Black-nest Swiftlet, Aerodramus maximus
    Edible-nest Swiftlet, Aerodramus fuciphagus
    German's Swiftlet, Aerodramus germani
    Papuan Swiftlet, Aerodramus papuensis (probably a distinct genus)

• Genus Hydrochous
  • Waterfall Swift, Hydrochous gigas

• Genus Schoutedenapus
  
  • Scarce Swift, Schoutedenapus myoptilus
    Schouteden's Swift, Schoutedenapus schoutedeni

Tribe Chaeturini - needletails

• Genus Mearnsia
  
  • Philippine Spinetail, Mearnsia picina
    Papuan Spinetail, Mearnsia novaeguineae

• Genus Zoonavena
  
  • Malagasy Spinetail, Zoonavena grandidieri
    Sao Tome Spinetail, Zoonavena thomensis
    White-rumped Needletail, Zoonavena sylvatica

• Genus Telacanthura
  
  • Mottled Spinetail, Telacanthura ussheri
    Black Spinetail, Telacanthura melanopygia

• Genus Rhaphidura
  
  • Silver-rumped Needletail, Rhaphidura leucopygialis
    Sabine's Spinetail, Rhaphidura sabini

• Genus Neafrapus
  
  • Cassin's Spinetail, Neafrapus cassini
    Bat-like Spinetail, Neafrapus boehmi

• Genus Hirundapus
  
  • White-throated Needletail, Hirundapus caudacutus
    Silver-backed Needletail, Hirundapus cochinchinensis
    Brown-backed Needletail, Hirundapus giganteus
    Purple Needletail, Hirundapus celebensis

• Genus Chaetura
  
  • Band-rumped Swift, Chaetura spinicauda
    Lesser Antillean Swift, Chaetura martinica
    Gray-rumped Swift, Chaetura cinereiventris
    Pale-rumped Swift, Chaetura egregia
    Chimney Swift, Chaetura pelagica
    Vaux's Swift, Chaetura vauxi
    Chapman's Swift, Chaetura chapmani
    Short-tailed Swift, Chaetura brachyura
    Ashy-tailed Swift, Chaetura andrei

Tribe Apodini - typical swifts

• Genus Aeronautes
  
  • White-throated Swift, Aeronautes saxatalis
    White-tipped Swift, Aeronautes montivagus
    Andean Swift, Aeronautes andecolus

• Genus Tachornis
  
  • Tachornis uranoceles (fossil; Late Pleistocene of Puerto Rico)
  • Antillean Palm Swift, Tachornis phoenicobia
    Pygmy Swift, Tachornis furcata
    Fork-tailed Palm Swift, Tachornis squamata

• Genus Panyptila
  
  • Lesser Swallow-tailed Swift, Panyptila cayennensis
    Great Swallow-tailed Swift, Panyptila sanctihieronymi

• Genus Cypsiurus
  
  • Asian Palm Swift, Cypsiurus balasiensis
    African Palm Swift, Cypsiurus parvus

• Genus Apus
  
  • Apus gaillardi (fossil)
  • Apus wetmorei (fossil)
  • Alpine Swift, Apus melba
    Mottled Swift, Apus aequatorialis
    Alexander's Swift, Apus alexandri
    Common Swift, Apus apus
    Plain Swift, Apus unicolor
    Nyanza Swift, Apus niansae
    Pallid Swift, Apus pallidus
    African Swift, Apus barbatus
    Forbes-Watson's Swift, Apus berliozi
    Bradfield's Swift, Apus bradfieldi
    Madagascar Swift, Apus balstoni
    Pacific Swift, Apus pacificus
    Dark-rumped Swift, Apus acuticauda
    Little Swift, Apus affinis
    House Swift, Apus nipalensis
    Horus Swift, Apus horus
    White-rumped Swift, Apus caffer
    Bates' Swift Apus batesi

References

• Chantler, Phil & Driessens, Gerald (2000): Swifts : a guide to the swifts and treeswifts of the world. Pica Press, Mountfield, East Sussex. ISBN 1-873403-83-6

• Thomassen, Henri A.; Tex, Robert-Jan; Bakker, Merijn A.G. & Povel, G. David E. (2005): Phylogenetic relationships amongst swifts and swiftlets: A multi locus approach. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 37(1): 264-277. DOI:10.1016/j.ympev.2005.05.010 (HTML abstract)

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

Technorati Tags: birds Birds evolution Family Apodidae needletails species swallows swiftlets swifts systematics Tribe Apodini Tribe Chaeturini Tribe Collocaliini Tribe Cypseloidini typical swifts swifts birds swallows systematics evolution species Family Apodidae Tribe Cypseloidini Tribe Collocaliini swift

1:1 And the Lord said to Moses in the waste land of Sinai, in the Tent of meeting, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they came out of the land of Egypt,

1:2 Take the full number of the children of Israel, by their families, and by their fathers' houses, every male by name;

1:3 All those of twenty years old and over, who are able to go to war in Israel, are to be numbered by you and Aaron.

1:4 And to give you help, take one man from every tribe, the head of his father's house.

1:5 These are the names of those who are to be your helpers: from Reuben, Elizur, the son of Shedeur;

1:6 From Simeon, Shelumiel, the son of Zurishaddai;

1:7 From Judah, Nahshon, the son of Amminadab;

1:8 From Issachar, Nethanel, the son of Zuar;

1:9 From Zebulun, Eliab, the son of Helon;

1:10 Of the children of Joseph: from Ephraim, Elishama, the son of Ammihud; from Manasseh, Gamaliel, the son of Pedahzur,

1:11 From Benjamin, Abidan, the son of Gideoni;

1:12 From Dan, Ahiezer, the son of Ammi-shaddai;

1:13 From Asher, Pagiel, the son of Ochran;

1:14 From Gad, Eliasaph, the son of Reuel;

1:15 From Naphtali, Ahira, the son of Enan.

1:16 These are the men named out of all the people, chiefs of their fathers' houses, heads of the tribes of Israel.

1:17 And Moses and Aaron took these men, marked out by name;

1:18 And they got together all the people on the first day of the second month; and everyone made clear his family and his father's house, by the number of the names, from twenty years old and over.

1:19 As the Lord had given orders to Moses, so they were numbered by him in the waste place of Sinai.

1:20 The generations of the sons of Reuben, the oldest son of Israel, were numbered by their families and their fathers' houses, every male of twenty years old and over, who was able to go to war;

1:21 Forty-six thousand, five hundred of the tribe of Reuben were numbered.

1:22 The generations of the sons of Simeon were numbered by their families and their fathers' houses, every male of twenty years old and over, who was able to go to war;

1:23 Fifty-nine thousand, three hundred of the tribe of Simeon were numbered.

1:24 The generations of the sons of Gad were numbered by their families and their fathers' houses, every male of twenty years old and over who was able to go to war;

1:25 Forty-five thousand, six hundred and fifty of the tribe of Gad were numbered.

1:26 The generations of the sons of Judah were numbered by their families and their fathers' houses, every male of twenty years old and over who was able to go to war;

1:27 Seventy-four thousand, six hundred of the tribe of Judah were numbered.

1:28 The generations of the sons of Issachar were numbered by their families and their fathers' houses, every male of twenty years old and over who was able to go to war;

1:29 Fifty-four thousand, four hundred of the tribe of Issachar were numbered.

1:30 The generations of the sons of Zebulun were numbered by their families and their fathers' houses, every male of twenty years old and over who was able to go to war;

1:31 Fifty-seven thousand, four hundred of the tribe of Zebulun were numbered.

1:32 The generations of the sons of Joseph were numbered by their families and their fathers' houses, every male of twenty years old and over who was able to go to war;

1:33 Forty thousand, five hundred of the tribe of Ephraim were numbered.

1:34 The generations of the sons of Manasseh were numbered by their families and their fathers' houses, every male of twenty years old and over who was able to go to war;

1:35 Thirty-two thousand, two hundred of the tribe of Manasseh were numbered.

1:36 The generations of the sons of Benjamin were numbered by their families and their fathers' houses, every male of twenty years old and over who was able to go to war;

1:37 Thirty-five thousand, four hundred of the tribe of Benjamin were numbered.

1:38 The generations of the sons of Dan were numbered by their families and their fathers' houses, every male of twenty years and over who was able to go to war;

1:39 Sixty-two thousand, seven hundred of the tribe of Dan were numbered.

1:40 The generations of the sons of Asher were numbered by their families and their fathers' houses, every male of twenty years old and over who was able to go to war;

1:41 Forty-one thousand, five hundred of the tribe of Asher were numbered.

1:42 The generations of the sons of Naphtali were numbered by their families and their fathers' houses, every male of twenty years old and over who was able to go to war;

1:43 Fifty-three thousand, four hundred of the tribe of Naphtali were numbered.

1:44 These are they who were numbered by Moses and Aaron and by the twelve chiefs of Israel, one from every tribe.

1:45 So all those who were numbered of the children of Israel, by their families, all those of twenty years old and over who were able to go to war,

1:46 Were six hundred and three thousand, five hundred and fifty.

1:47 But the Levites, of the tribe of their fathers, were not numbered among them.

1:48 For the Lord said to Moses,

1:49 Only the tribe of Levi is not to be numbered among the children of Israel,

1:50 But to them you are to give the care of the Tent of meeting with its vessels and everything in it: they are to take up the Tent, and be responsible for everything to do with it, and put up their tents round it.

1:51 And when the Tent of meeting goes forward, the Levites are to take it down; and when it is to be put up, they are to do it: any strange person who comes near it is to be put to death.

1:52 The children of Israel are to put up their tents, every man in his tent-circle round his flag.

1:53 But the tents of the Levites are to be round the Tent of meeting, so that wrath may not come on the children of Israel: the Tent of meeting is to be in the care of the Levites.

1:54 So the children of Israel did as the Lord had given orders to Moses.

Technorati Tags: Bible Numbers 1 Numbers 1

Icon of the Descent into Hades of Jesus Christ, which is the usual Orthodox icon for Pascha.

English, German and some Slavic languages, the holiday's name is derived from Pesach, the Hebrew name of Passover, a Jewish holiday to which the Christian Easter is intimately linked. Easter depends on Passover not only for much of its symbolic meaning but also for its position in the calendar; the Last Supper shared by Jesus and his disciples before his crucifixion is generally thought of as a Passover seder, based on the chronology in the Synoptic Gospels. The Gospel of John has a different chronology which has Christ's death at the time of the slaughter of the Passover lambs, which may have been for theological reasons but which is regarded by some scholars as more historically likely given the surrounding events. This would put the Last Supper slightly before Passover, on 14 Nisan of the Hebrew calendar. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, "In fact, the Jewish feast was taken over into the Christian Easter celebration."

The English and German names, "Easter" and "Ostern", are not etymologically derived from Pesach and are instead related to ancient names for the month of April, Eostremonat and Ostaramanoth respectively. According to the 8th century Christian monk and historian Bede, this month was dedicated to the pagan fertility goddess Eostre. The Easter Bunny is often identified as a remnant of this fertility festival, although there is no evidence of any link.

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

Technorati Tags: celebration Christian Easter development Easter Easter holiday nature passover Pesach nature development Easter Pesach Passover holiday Christian Easter celebration

Cost Per Action or CPA (as it is often initialized to) is a phrase often used in online advertising and online marketing circles.

CPA is considered the optimal form of buying online advertising from the advertiser's point of view. An advertiser only pays for the ad when an action has occurred. An action can be a product being purchased, a form being filled, etc. (The desired action to be preformed is determined by the advertiser.)

A related term, eCPA or effective Cost Per Action, is used to measure the effectiveness of advertising inventory purchased (by the advertiser) via a CPC, CPM, or CPT basis.

The CPA can be determined by different factors, depending where the online advertising inventory is being purchased.

Other common forms, of charging for advertising, include:

• CPC
• CPM
• CPT

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

Technorati Tags: advertisers Cost Per Action CPA CPC CPM CPT eCPA Internet marketing & advertising inventory Marketing and advertising online advertising online marketing Cost Per Action CPA online advertising online marketing advertisers eCPA inventory CPC CPM CPT

10:1 Truly I say to you, He who does not go through the door into the place where the sheep are kept, but gets in by some other way, is a thief and an outlaw.

10:2 He who goes in by the door is the keeper of the sheep.

10:3 The porter lets him in; and the sheep give ear to his voice; he says over the names of the sheep, and takes them out.

10:4 When he has got them all out, he goes before them, and the sheep go after him, for they have knowledge of his voice.

10:5 They will not go after another who is not their keeper, but will go from him in flight, because his voice is strange to them.

10:6 In this Jesus was teaching them in the form of a story: but what he said was not clear to them.

10:7 So Jesus said again, Truly I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.

10:8 All who came before me are thieves and outlaws: but the sheep did not give ear to them.

10:9 I am the door: if any man goes in through me he will have salvation, and will go in and go out, and will get food.

10:10 The thief comes only to take the sheep and to put them to death: he comes for their destruction: I have come so that they may have life and have it in greater measure.

10:11 I am the good keeper of sheep: the good keeper gives his life for the sheep.

10:12 He who is a servant, and not the keeper or the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming and goes in flight, away from the sheep; and the wolf comes down on them and sends them in all directions:

10:13 Because he is a servant he has no interest in the sheep.

10:14 I am the good keeper; I have knowledge of my sheep, and they have knowledge of me,

10:15 Even as the Father has knowledge of me and I of the Father; and I am giving my life for the sheep.

10:16 And I have other sheep which are not of this field: I will be their guide in the same way, and they will give ear to my voice, so there will be one flock and one keeper.

10:17 For this reason am I loved by the Father, because I give up my life so that I may take it again.

10:18 No one takes it away from me; I give it up of myself. I have power to give it up, and I have power to take it again. These orders I have from my Father.

10:19 There was a division again among the Jews because of these words.

10:20 And a number of them said, He has an evil spirit and is out of his mind; why do you give ear to him?

10:21 Others said, These are not the words of one who has an evil spirit. Is it possible for an evil spirit to make blind people see?

10:22 Then came the feast of the opening of the Temple in Jerusalem: it was winter;

10:23 And Jesus was walking in the Temple, in Solomon's covered way.

10:24 Then the Jews came round him, saying, how long are you going to keep us in doubt? If you are the Christ, say so clearly.

10:25 Jesus said in answer, I have said it and you have no belief: the works which I do in my Father's name, these give witness about me.

10:26 But you have no belief because you are not of my sheep.

10:27 My sheep give ear to my voice, and I have knowledge of them, and they come after me:

10:28 And I give them eternal life; they will never come to destruction, and no one will ever take them out of my hand.

10:29 That which my Father has given to me has more value than all; and no one is able to take anything out of the Father's hand.

10:30 I and my Father are one.

10:31 Then the Jews took up stones again to send at him.

10:32 Jesus said to them in answer, I have let you see a number of good works from the Father; for which of those works are you stoning me?

10:33 This was their answer: We are not stoning you for a good work but for evil words; because being a man you make yourself God.

10:34 In answer, Jesus said, Is there not a saying in your law, I said, You are gods?

10:35 If he said they were gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Writings may not be broken),

10:36 Do you say of him whom the Father made holy and sent into the world, Your words are evil; because I said, I am God's Son?

10:37 If I am not doing the works of my Father, do not have belief in me;

10:38 But if I am doing them, then have belief in the works even if you have no belief in me; so that you may see clearly and be certain that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.

10:39 Then again they made an attempt to take him; but he got away from them.

10:40 And he went again to the other side of the Jordan, to the place where John first gave baptism; and he was there for a time.

10:41 And a great number of people came to him, saying, John did no sign: but everything John said of this man was true.

10:42 And a number came to have faith in him there.

Technorati Tags: Bible John 10 John 10

 

2:1 And when he came into Capernaum again after some days, the news went about that he was in the house.

2:2 And a great number had come together, so that there was no longer room for them, no, not even about the door: and he gave them teaching.

2:3 And four men came to him with one on a bed who had no power of moving.

2:4 And when they were unable to get near him because of all the people, they got the roof uncovered where he was: and when it was broken up, they let down the bed on which the man was.

2:5 And Jesus, seeing their faith, said to him, Son, you have forgiveness for your sins.

2:6 But there were certain of the scribes seated there, and reasoning in their hearts,

2:7 Why does this man say such things? he has no respect for God: from whom does forgiveness come but from God only?

2:8 And Jesus, having knowledge in his spirit of their thoughts, said to them, Why are you reasoning about these things in your hearts?

2:9 Which is the simpler, to say to a man who is ill, You have forgiveness for your sins, or, Get up, take up your bed, and go?

2:10 But so that you may see that the Son of man has authority for the forgiveness of sins on earth, (he said to the man,)

2:11 I say to you, Get up, take up your bed, and go to your house.

2:12 And he got up, and straight away took up the bed and went out before them all, so that they were all full of wonder, and gave glory to God, saying, We have never seen anything like this.

2:13 And he went out again by the seaside; and all the people came to him, and he gave them teaching.

2:14 And when he went by, he saw Levi, the son of Alphaeus, seated at the place where taxes were taken, and he said to him, Come with me. And he got up, and went with him.

2:15 And it came about that he was seated at meat in his house, and a number of tax-farmers and sinners were at table with Jesus and his disciples: for there were a great number of them, and they came after him.

2:16 And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was taking food with the tax-farmers and sinners, said to his disciples, Why does he take food and drink with such men?

2:17 And Jesus, hearing it, said to them, Those who are well have no need of a medical man, but those who are ill: I have come not to get the upright but sinners.

2:18 And John's disciples and the Pharisees were taking no food: and they came and said to him, Why do John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees go without food, but your disciples do not?

2:19 And Jesus said to them, Will the friends of a newly-married man go without food while he is with them? as long as they have him with them they will not go without food.

2:20 But the days will come when the husband will be taken away from them, and then they will go without food.

2:21 No man puts a bit of new cloth on an old coat: or the new, by pulling away from the old, makes a worse hole.

2:22 And no man puts new wine into old wine-skins: or the skins will be burst by the wine, and the wine and the skins will be wasted: but new wine has to be put into new wine-skins.

2:23 And it came about that on the Sabbath day he was going through the grain-fields; and while they were walking, his disciples took the heads of grain.

2:24 And the Pharisees said to him, Why are they doing what it is not right to do on the Sabbath?

2:25 And he said to them, Have you no knowledge of what David did, when he had need and was without food, he, and those who were with him?

2:26 How he went into the house of God when Abiathar was high priest, and took for food the holy bread, which only the priests may take, and gave it to those who were with him?

2:27 And he said to them, The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath;

2:28 So that the Son of man is lord even of the Sabbath.

Need an webmaster? Click HERE

Technorati Tags: Bible Mark 2 Mark 2

 

1:1 In times past the word of God came to our fathers through the prophets, in different parts and in different ways;

1:2 But now, at the end of these days, it has come to us through his Son, to whom he has given all things for a heritage, and through whom he made the order of the generations;

1:3 Who, being the outshining of his glory, the true image of his substance, supporting all things by the word of his power, having given himself as an offering making clean from sins, took his seat at the right hand of God in heaven;

1:4 Having become by so much better than the angels, as the name which is his heritage is more noble than theirs.

1:5 To which of the angels did God say at any time, You are my Son, this day I have given you being? or, I will be his Father, and he will be my Son?

1:6 And again, when he is sending his only Son into the world, he says, Let all the angels of God give him worship.

1:7 And of the angels he says, Who makes his angels winds, and his servants flames of fire:

1:8 But of the Son he says, Your seat of power, O God, is for ever and ever; and the rod of your kingdom is a rod of righteousness.

1:9 You have been a lover of righteousness and a hater of evil; and so God, your God, has put the oil of joy on your head more than on the heads of those who are with you.

1:10 You, Lord, at the first did put the earth on its base, and the heavens are the works of your hands:

1:11 They will come to their end; but you are for ever; they will become old as a robe;

1:12 They will be rolled up like a cloth, even like a robe, and they will be changed: but you are the same and your years will have no end.

1:13 But of which of the angels has he said at any time, Take your seat at my right hand till I put all those who are against you under your feet?

1:14 Are they not all helping spirits, who are sent out as servants to those whose heritage will be salvation?

Need an webmaster? Click HERE

Technorati Tags: Bible Hebrews 1 Hebrews 1

Rollyo is a Yahoo!-powered search engine which allows users to register accounts and create search engines that only retrieve results from the websites and blogs they want to include in their search results.

Users can also share their rolled engines with other contributors, also HTML is available to post a mini search box to a user's website.

Rollyo was founded by Dave Pell, built by Argus Durocher, and designed by Dan Cederholm. A private Beta was launched in August 2005 and the final product was released in September of the same year.

It is also possible to add searchrolls to the Mozilla Firefox search bar and to make it Firefox's default search engine.

Links

• Rollyo

Acest articol este licentiat sub GNU Free Documentation License. Foloseste materiale din Wikipedia.

Technorati Tags: Argus Durocher Dan Cederholm Dave Pell Rollyo search engine Yahoo Yahoo Rollyo Yahoo search engine Dave Pell Argus Durocher Dan Cederholm

Web servers have always recorded all their transactions in a logfile. It was soon realised that these logfiles could be read by a program to provide data on the popularity of the website. Thus arose web log analysis software.

In the early 1990s, web site statistics consisted primarily of counting the number of client requests made to the web server. This was a reasonable method initially, since each web site often consisted of a single HTML file. However, with the introduction of images in HTML, and web sites that spanned multiple HTML files, this count became less useful. The first true commercial Log Analyzer was released by IPRO in 1994[1].

Two units of measure were introduced in the mid 1990s to gauge more accurately the amount of human activity on web servers. These were page views and visits (or sessions). A page view was defined as a request made to the web server for a page, as opposed to a graphic, while a visit was defined as a sequence of requests from a uniquely identified client that expired after a certain amount of inactivity, usually 30 minutes. The page views and visits are still commonly displayed metrics, but are now considered rather unsophisticated measurements.

The emergence of search engine spiders and robots in the late 1990s, along with web proxies and dynamically assigned IP addresses for large companies and ISPs, made it more difficult to identify unique human visitors to a website. Log analyzers responded by tracking visits by cookies, and by ignoring requests from known spiders.

The extensive use of web caches also presented a problem for logfile analysis. If a person revisits a page, the second request will often be retrieved from the browser's cache, and so no request will be received by the web server. This means that the person's path through the site is lost. Caching can be defeated by configuring the web server, but this can result in degraded performance for the visitor to the website.

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

Technorati Tags: analysis logfile analysis logfiles sessions software Software visits Web design and development web log web server were page views web server logfile analysis logfiles web log analysis software were page views visits sessions

Signal sampling representation. The continuous signal is represented with a green color whereas the discrete samples are in blue.

Digital signal processing (DSP) is the study of signals in a digital representation and the processing methods of these signals. DSP and analog signal processing are subsets of signal processing. It has three major subfields: audio signal processing, digital image processing and speech processing.

In DSP, engineers most commonly study digital signals in one of the following domains: time domain (one-dimensional signals), spatial domain (multidimensional signals), frequency domain, autocorrelation domain, and wavelet domains. They choose the domain in which to process a signal by making an educated guess (or trying out different possibilities) as to which domain best represents the essential characteristics of the signal. A sequence of samples from a measuring device produces a time or spatial domain representation, whereas a discrete Fourier transform produces the frequency domain information. The autocorrelation is, loosely speaking, defined as the expected value of correlation of the signal with itself on some distance in time or spatial distance.

Signal sampling

A digital signal is often a numerical representation of a continuous signal. This discrete representation of a continuous signal will generally introduce some error in to the data. The accuracy of the representation is mostly dependent on two things; sampling frequency and the number of bits used for the representation. The continuous signal is usually sampled at regular intervals and the value of the continuous signal in that interval is represented by a discrete value. The sampling frequency or sampling rate is then the rate at which new samples are taken from the continuous signal. The number of bits used for one value of the discrete signal tells us how accurately the signal magnitude is represented. Similarly, the sampling frequency controls the temporal or spatial accuracy of the discrete signal.

The Nyquist-Shannon sampling theorem, a fundamental theorem of signal processing, states that a sampled signal cannot unambiguously represent signal components with frequencies above half the sampling frequency. This frequency (half the sampling frequency) is called the Nyquist frequency. Frequencies above the Nyquist frequency N can be observed in the digital signal, but their frequency is ambiguous. That is, a frequency component with frequency f cannot be distinguished from another component with frequency 2N-f, 2N+f, 4N-f, etc. This is called aliasing. To handle this problem as gracefully as possible, most analog signals are filtered with an anti-aliasing filter (usually a low-pass filter) at the Nyquist frequency before conversion to the digital representation.

Time and spatial domains

The most common processing approach in the time or spatial domain is enhancement of the input signal through a method called filtering. Filtering consists generally of some transformation of a number of surrounding samples around the current sample of the input and/or output signal. Properties such as the following characterize filters:

• A "linear" filter consists of a linear transformation of input samples; other filters are "non-linear." Linear filters satisfy the superposition condition, i.e. if an input signal is a weighted linear combination of different input signals, the output will be an equally weighted linear combination of the corresponding individual output signals.

• A "causal" transformation uses only previous samples of the input or output signals; transformations that also use future input samples are "non- causal." Adding a delay will transform many non-causal filters into causal filters.

• A "time-invariant" filter has constant properties over time; other filters such as adaptive filters change in time.

• "Finite impulse response" (FIR) filters use only the input signal; so-called "infinite impulse response" filters use both the input signal and previous samples of the output signal.

Most filters can, in Z-domain (frequency domain is a subset of Z-domain), be described by their Transfer functions.

Frequency domain

Signals are converted from time or spatial domain to the frequency domain usually through the Fourier transform. In Fourier transform the signal information is converted to a magnitude and phase component of each frequency. Regurarly, the Fourier transform is converted to the power spectrum, which is the magnitude of each frequency component squared. The most common purpose for analysis of signals in the frequency domain is analysis of signal properties. The engineer can study the spectrum to get information of which frequencies are present in the input signal and which are missing. However, there are some commonly used frequency domain transformations, for example, the cepstrum. In generation of the cepstrum, a signal is converted to the frequency domain through Fourier transform, then the logarithm is of the spectrum, which is converted back to time domain through the inverse Fourier transform. In the cepstrum, frequency components with smaller magnitude are thus emphasised while retaining the order of magnitudes of frequency components.

Applications

Typical applications of digital signal processing are, for example, speech compression and transmission in (digital) mobile phones, equalisation of sound in Hifi-equipment, weather forecasting and economic forecasting, analysis and control of industrial processes, computer-generated animations in movies and image manipulation.

Techniques:

• Filter design

  • Transfer function

• Bilinear transform

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

Technorati Tags: applications Digital signal processing DSP frequency domain signal sampling signals spatial domains Telecommunication time Digital signal processing DSP signals signal sampling time spatial domains frequency domain applications

The first turtles are believed to have existed in the Mesozoic, around 200 million years ago. Their exact ancestry is disputed. It was believed that they are the only surviving branch of the ancient clade Anapsida, which includes groups such as procolophonoids, millerettids, protorothyrids and pareiasaurs. All anapsid skulls lack a temporal opening, while all other extant amniotes have temporal openings (although in mammals the hole has become the zygomatic arch). Most anapsids became extinct in the late Permian period, except procolophonoids and possibly the precursors of the testudines (turtles).

However, it was recently suggested that the anapsid-like turtle skull may be due to reversion rather than to anapsid descent. More recent phylogenetic studies with this in mind placed turtles firmly within diapsids, slightly closer to Squamata than to Archosauria. All molecular studies have strongly upheld this new phylogeny, though some place turtles closer to Archosauria. Re-analysis of prior phylogenies suggests that they classified turtles as anapsids both because they assumed this classification (most of them studying what sort of anapsid turtles are) and because they did not sample fossil and extant taxa broadly enough for constructing the cladogram. Future analyses may show the turtles to be relatives of the placodonts.

A new phylogenetic analysis agrees with prior analyses nesting turtles with pareiasaurs within the much larger clade, Lepidosauromorpha. The closest pareiasaur to turtles appears to be a rarely-studied form, Stephanospondylus. Indeed turtles are related to other reptiles without temporal openings. They are also closer to lizards than they are to archosaurormophs, including placodonts.

The earliest known modern turtle is proganochelys, though this species already had many advanced turtle traits, and thus probably had many millions of years of preceding "turtle" evolution and species in its ancestry. It did lack the ability to pull its head into its shell (and it had a long neck), and had a long, spiked tail ending in a club, implying an ancestry occupying a similar niche to the ankylosaurs (though, presumably, only parallel evolution).

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

Technorati Tags: analyses evolution Mesozoic proganochelys Reptiles Turtles evolution turtles Mesozoic analyses proganochelys

Accent in poetry refers to the stressed portion of a word. For example:

"Let Us make man in Our image,

according to Our likeness;

let them have dominion over the fish of the sea,

over the birds of the air, and over the cattle,

over all the earth and over every creeping thing

that creeps on the earth"

Genesis 26-27

Now depending on where you place the stress in this poem you will get a different meaning. For example, place the stress or accent on 'Our' and suddenly we have more than one God. Place it on 'them' then, there would appear to be a lot of men already there ready to receive planetary rights. Place it strategically on 'fish', 'birds', 'cattle' then you've got a really nice wrap up with accenting the last 'earth' for emphasis. Of course, where to accent in poetry can be of hot debate.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

Technorati Tags: accent poems poetry Poetry stress accent poetry stress poems

The gravitational attraction of protons is approximately a factor 1036 weaker than the electromagnetic repulsion. This factor is independent of distance, because both forces are inversely proportional to the square of the distance. Therefore on an atomic scale mutual gravity is negligible. However, the main force beween common objects and the earth and between celestial bodies is gravity; this is due to the fact that they (at least one of the two) are electrically neutral to a high degree: even if in both bodies there were a surplus or deficit of only one electron for every 1018 protons and neutrons this would already be enough to cancel gravity (or in the case of a surplus in one and a deficit in the other: double the attraction).

The relative weakness of gravity can be demonstrated with a small magnet picking up pieces of iron. The small magnet is able to overwhelm the gravitational force of the entire earth.

Gravity is small unless at least one of the two bodies is large, but the small gravitational force exerted by bodies of ordinary size can fairly easily be detected through experiments such as the Cavendish torsion bar experiment.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

Technorati Tags: atomic scale Cavendish torsion bar experiment comparison electromagnetic force forces gravitational force Physics protons comparison gravitational force electromagnetic force protons forces atomic scale Cavendish torsion bar experiment