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s russian and soviet film directors this word has many meanings d nal troddyn a treatise on language vol two two zero zero four a word phrase sentence or other communication is called ambiguous if it can be interpreted in more than one way ambiguity is distinct from vagueness which arises when the boundaries of meaning are indistinct lexical ambiguity arises when context is insufficient to determine the sense of a single word that has more than one meaning for example the word bank has several meanings including financial institution and edge of a river but if someone says i deposited one zero zero in the bank the intended meaning is clear more problematic are words whose senses express closely related concepts good for example can mean useful or functional that s a good hammer exemplary she s a good student pleasing this is good soup moral he is a good person and probably other similar things i have a good daughter isn t clear about which sense is intended syntactic ambiguity arises when a sentence can be pa |
rsed in more than one way he ate the cookies on the couch for example could mean that he ate those cookies which were on the couch as opposed to those that were on the table or it could mean that he was sitting on the couch when he ate the cookies spoken language can also contain lexical ambiguities where there is more than one way to break up a set of sounds into words for example ice cream and i scream this is rarely a problem due to the use of context philosophers and other users of logic spend a lot of time and effort searching for and removing ambiguity in arguments because it can lead to incorrect conclusions and can be used to deliberately conceal bad arguments for example a politician might say i oppose taxes which hinder economic growth some will think he opposes taxes in general because they hinder economic growth others will think he opposes only those taxes that he believes will hinder economic growth although in writing the correct insertion or omission of a comma after taxes removes ambiguity he |
re the politician hopes that each will interpret the statement in the way he wants and both will think the politician is on his side the logical fallacies of amphiboly and equivocation also rely on the use of ambiguous words and phrases in literature and rhetoric on the other hand ambiguity can be a useful tool groucho marx s classic joke depends on a grammatical ambiguity for its humor for example last night i shot an elephant in my pajamas what he was doing in my pajamas i ll never know songs and poetry often rely on ambiguous words for artistic effect as in the song title don t it make my brown eyes blue where blue can refer to the color or to sadness in narrative ambiguty can be introduced in several ways motive plot character f scott fitzgerald uses the latter type of ambiguity with notable effect in his novel the great gatsby in music pieces or sections which confound expectations and may be or are interpreted simultaneously in different ways are ambiguous such as some polytonality polymeter other ambig |
uous meters or rhythms and ambiguous phrasing or stein two zero zero five p seven nine any aspect of music the music of africa is often purposely ambiguous to quote sir donald francis tovey one nine three five p one nine five theorists are apt to vex themselves with vain efforts to remove uncertainty just where it has a high aesthetic value some languages have been created with the intention of avoiding ambiguity especially syntactic ambiguity lojban and loglan are two nearly identical languages which have been created with the intention of being clear and impossible to misunderstand the languages can be both spoken and written their unambiguity makes them better suited than natural languages for use in communication between humans and computers see also double entendre imprecise language logical fallacy semantics external links collection of ambiguous or inconsistent incomplete statements semantics the word animal when used alone has several possible meanings in the english language it could refer to a taxon |
omic member of the kingdom an animal a british rock band called the animals an album released by british rock band pink floyd called animals a two zero zero one film starring rob schneider called the animal a genre of anime a muppet show character see dr teeth and the electric mayhem a professional wrestler see joseph laurinaitis a video game by microtime called animal animal is the name of several songs for all english languange meanings see the wiktionary definition of animal image erdferkel drawing jpg image width two zero zero px regnum animalia phylum chordata classis mammalia ordo tubulidentata ordo authority huxley one eight seven two familia orycteropodidae familia authority gray one eight two one genus orycteropus genus authority geoffroy saint hilaire one seven nine six species o afer binomial orycteropus afer binomial authority pallas one seven six six the aardvark orycteropus afer is a medium sized mammal native to africa the name comes from the afrikaans dutch for earth pig aarde earth varken pig |
because early settlers from europe thought it resembled a pig although aardvarks are not closely related to pigs the aardvark is the only surviving member of the family orycteropodidae and of the order tubulidentata the aardvark was originally placed in the same genus as the south american anteaters because of superficial similarities which it is now known are the result of convergent evolution not common ancestry for the same reason aardvarks bear a striking first glance resemblance to the marsupial bilbies and bandicoots of australasia which are not placental mammals at all the oldest known tubulidentata fossils have been found in kenya and date to the early miocene although the relationships of tubulidentata are unknown they are probably ungulates they spread to europe and southern asia during the later miocene and early pliocene periods three genera of the family orycteropodidae are known leptorycteropus myorycteropus and orycteropus the surviving aardvark a genus from madagascar may be related to them c |
alled plesiorycteropus the most distinctive characteristic of the tubulidentata is as the name implies their teeth which instead of having a pulp cavity have lots of thin tubes of dentine each containing pulp and held together by cementum the teeth have no enamel coating and are worn away and regrow continuously aardvarks are born with conventional incisors and canines at the front of the jaw but these fall out and are not replaced in adult aardvarks the only teeth are the molars at the back of the jaw aardvark aardvarks are only vaguely pig like the body is stout with an arched back the limbs are of moderate length the front feet have lost the pollex or thumb resulting in four toes but the rear feet have all five toes each toe bears a large robust nail which is somewhat flattened and shovel like and appears to be intermediate between a claw and a hoof the ears are disproportionately long and the tail very thick at the base with a gradual taper the greatly elongated head is set on a short thick neck and at th |
e end of the snout is a disk in which the nostrils open the mouth is typical of species that feed on termites small and tubular aardvarks have long thin protrusible tongues and elaborate structures supporting a keen sense of smell weight is typically between four zero and six five kg length is usually between one and one three m aardvarks are a pale yellowish gray in color often stained reddish brown by soil the coat is thin and the animal s primary protection is its tough skin aardvarks have been known to sleep in a recently excavated ant nest so well does it protect them in the past several individual species of aardvark were named however current knowledge indicates that there is only one species orycteropus afer with several subspecies one eight have been listed but most are regarded as invalid aardvarks are nocturnal and solitary creatures that feed almost exclusively on ants and termites an aardvark emerges from its burrow in the late afternoon or shortly after sunset and forages over a considerable hom |
e range swinging its long nose from side to side to pick up the scent of food when a concentration of ants or termites is found the aardvark digs into it with its powerful front legs keeping its long ears upright to listen for predators and takes up an astonishing number of insects with its long sticky tongue as many as five zero zero zero zero in one night has been recorded they are exceptionally fast diggers but otherwise move rather slowly aside from digging out ants and termites aardvarks also excavate burrows to live in temporary sites scattered around the home range as refuges and the main burrow which is used for breeding main burrows can be deep and extensive have several entrances and be one three m long aardvarks change the layout of their home burrow regularly and from time to time move on and make a new one only mothers and young share burrows after a gestation period of seven months a single young weighing around two kg is born and is able to leave the burrow to accompany its mother after only tw |
o weeks at six months of age it is digging its own burrows but it will often remain with the mother until the next mating season aardvarks can grow older than two zero years in captivity aardvarks are distributed across most of sub saharan africa and although killed by humans both for their flesh and for their teeth which are used as decorations do not appear to be threatened aardvark is always the first noun in the english dictionary more precise information are given in a diploma thesis on the biology of the aardvark which can be downloaded here the biology of the aardvark orycteropus afer similar animals the anteaters of south america pangolins are also called scaly anteaters the numbat myrmecobius fasciatus a marsupial echidnas a family of monotremes are still sometimes called spinous anteaters armadillos are omnivorous but ants form a large part of their diet dutch loanwords mammals wildlife of africa image aardwolf png image width two three five px image caption aardwolf regnum animalia phylum chordata |
classis mammalia ordo carnivora familia hyaenidae genus proteles species p cristatus binomial proteles cristatus binomial authority sparrman one seven eight three the aardwolf proteles cristatus is a small mammal related to the hyena native to africa the name means earth wolf in afrikaans there are two subspecies proteles cristatus cristatus southern africa proteles cristatus septentrionalis east africa the aardwolf looks most like the striped hyena but smaller with a more pointed muzzle sharper ears vertical stripes and a long mane down the middle line of the neck and back it stands about five zero cm at the shoulder weighs around nine kg and has two glands at the rear that secrete a musky fluid for marking territory and communicating with other aardwolves aardwolf from the zoo in san antonio texas the aardwolf is nocturnal sleeping in underground burrows by day by night an aardwolf can consume up to two zero zero zero zero zero harvester termites they are also known to feed on other insects larvae and eggs |
while primarily solitary a mating pair will occupy the same territory with their young gestation lasts between nine zero and one zero zero days the first six to eight weeks are spent in the den with the mother after three months they begin supervised foraging and set off on their own shortly thereafter external links animal diversity web hyenas wildlife of africa renewal of the surface coating of an adobe wall in chamisal new mexico adobe is a building material composed of water sandy clay and straw or other organic materials which is shaped into bricks using wooden frames and dried in the sun also known as mudbrick adobe structures are extremely durable and account for the oldest extant buildings on the planet adobe buildings also offer significant advantages in hot dry climates as they remain cooler as it stores and releases heat very slowly the word adobe is spanish and comes from the arabic at tub the brick and from the coptic tobe the word may be pronounced ah doh beh or uh doh bee buildings made of sun |
dried earth are common in the middle east north africa and in spain usually in the mudejar style the method of brickmaking was imported to the americas in the one six th century by spaniards a distinction is sometimes made between the smaller adobes which are about the size of ordinary baked bricks and the larger adobines some of which are as much as from one to two yards long in more modern usage the term adobe has come to mean a style of architecture that is popular in the desert climates of north america especially in new mexico cf stucco detail of adobe kilns in arizona composition of adobe an adobe brick is made of soil mixed with water and an organic material such as straw or animal dung the soil composition typically contains clay and sand straw is useful in binding the brick together and allowing the brick to dry evenly dung offers the same advantage and is also added to repel insects adobe bricks bricks are made in an open frame two five cm one zero inches by three six cm one four inches is a reasona |
ble size but any convenient size is fine for your own use after the mud is put into the frame the frame is removed after a few hours the bricks are put on edge to finish drying bricks should be dried in the shade to avoid cracking use the same mixture you use to make bricks for mortar when laying the bricks and for plaster on the interior and exterior walls some ancient cultures used concrete for the plaster to avoid rain damage it is sometimes useful to include occasional pieces of wood as you lay a wall to give something to nail insulation onto and stone can be used for additional strength the largest structure ever made from adobe bricks was the bam citadel which suffered serious damage up to eight zero by an earthquake on december two six two zero zero three other large adobe structures are the huaca del sol in peru built using one zero zero million signed bricks and the ciudellas of chan chan also in peru thermal properties because an adobe wall either made of bricks or using a rammed earth technique is |
quite massive it will hold heat or cold a south facing adobe wall may be left uninsulated in order to collect heat during the day it should be thick enough that it remains cool on the inside during the heat of the day but should be thin enough that the heat can be transferred through the wall by evening such a wall can be covered with glass to increase heat collection used in a passive solar home such a wall is called a trombe wall adobe has a large thermal mass therefore this type of construction is only good in tropical climates in temperate climates it is almost impossible to heat a home of this type as the heat is leached by the ground and the walls around the world image romaniadanubedelta makingmaterialforconstructing zero zero zero three jpg jpg still in production today danube delta image romaniadanubedelta makingmaterialforconstructing zero zero zero two jpg jpg image romaniadanubedelta makingmaterialforconstructing zero zero zero one jpg jpg image romaniadanubedelta makingmaterialforconstructing zer |
o zero zero four jpg jpg see also hassan fathy mudbrick external links earth architecture a website whose focus is contemporary issues in earth architecture building with awareness a detailed how to dvd video that shows adobe wall construction and their use as thermal mass walls cal earth the california institute of earth art and architecture has developed a patented system called superadobe in which bags filled with stabilized earth are layered with strands of barbed wire to form a structure strong enough to withstand earthquakes fire and flood materials masonry arabic words for other uses see adventure disambiguation adventure refers to events which happen unexpectedly and involve the chance of danger or loss adventures can include daring feats remarkable occurrences stirring encounters and major life undertakings adventurous experiences create psychological and physiological arousal which can be interpreted as negative e g fear or positive e g flow see yerkes dodson law for some people adventure becomes a |
major pursuit in and of itself for example see extreme sports applications of adventure adventure is a term used in many contexts and situations for example it is a key component of narrative story telling drama and role playing and the concept is used to structure and interpet books films music and computer games adventure is also used within education sport tourism and others forms of entertainment examples of these adventure genres and applications include adventure education is the use of challenging experiences for learning adventure film is a film genre adventure game is a computer game genre adventure novel is a fiction genre adventure role playing games involve acting out a specific storyline or plotline adventure racing involves competing in multiple outdoor adventure extreme sports adventure tourism offers travellers chances to have exciting travel encounters see also risk for the queen of greek mythology see agave mythology agaves are succulent plants of a large botanical genus of the same name bel |
onging to the family agavaceae chiefly mexican they occur also in the southern and western united states and in central and tropical south america the plants have a large rosette of thick fleshy leaves generally ending in a sharp point and with a spiny margin the stout stem is usually short the leaves apparently springing from the root each rosette is monocarpic and grows slowly to flower but once after a number of years when a tall stem or mast grows from the center of the leaf rosette and bears a large number of shortly tubular flowers after development of fruit the original plant dies but suckers are frequently produced from the base of the stem which become new plants swan s neck agave agave attenuata the most familiar species is agave americana a native of tropical america the so called century plant or american aloe the maguey of mexico the name refers to the long time the plant takes to flower although the number of years before flowering occurs depends on the vigor of the individual the richness of th |
e soil and the climate during these years the plant is storing in its fleshy leaves the nourishment required for the effort of flowering during the development of the inflorescence there is a rush of sap to the base of the young flowerstalk in the case of a americana and other species this is used by the mexicans to make their national beverage pulque the flower shoot is cut out and the sap collected and subsequently fermented by distillation a spirit called mezcal is prepared the leaves of several species yield fiber as for instance agave rigida var sisalana sisal hemp agave decipiens false sisal hemp agave americana is the source of pita fiber and is used as a fiber plant in mexico the west indies and southern europe the flowering stem of the last named dried and cut in slices forms natural razor strops and the expressed juice of the leaves will lather in water like soap the native americans of mexico used the agave both to make pens nails and needles as well as string to sew and make weavings in india the |
plant is extensively used for hedges along railroads agave in bloom in a garden roquevaire bouches du rh ne france september one nine seven eight agave americana century plant was introduced into europe about the middle of the one six th century and is now widely cultivated for its handsome appearance in the variegated forms the leaf has a white or yellow marginal or central stripe from base to apex as the leaves unfold from the center of the rosette the impression of the marginal spines is very conspicuous on the still erect younger leaves the tequ plants are usually grown in tubs and put out in the summer months but in the winter require protection from frost they mature very slowly and die after flowering but are easily propagated by the offsets from the base of the stem agave nectar has been used as an alternative to sugar in cooking the juice from many species of agave can cause acute contact dermatitis it will produce reddening and blistering lasting one to two weeks episodes of itching may recur up to |
a year thereafter even though there is no longer a visible rash interestingly dried parts of the plants can be handled with bare hands with little or no effect taxonomy agaves were once classified in liliaceae but most references now include them in their own family agavaceae agaves have long presented special difficulties for taxonomy variations within a species may be considerable and a number of named species are of unknown origin and may just be variants of original wild species spanish and portuguese explorers probably brought agaves back with them but really became popular in europe during the one nine th century with many types being imported by collectors some of have been continuously propagated by offset since then and do not consistently resemble any species known in nature although this may simply be due to the unnatural growing conditions in europe species agave aboriginum agave abortiva agave abrupta agave acicularis agave acklinicola agave affinis agave lecheguilla agave ajoensis agave schottii |
var schottii agave deserti var simplex agave aktites agave albescens agave albomarginata agave alibertii agave aloides agave amaniensis agave americana l american agave american century plant century plant maguey americano agave americana var americana agave americana var expansa agave americana var latifolia agave americana var marginata agave americana var medio picta agave americana var oaxacensis agave americana var striata agave americana ssp protamericana tequila agave agave tequilana agave angustiarum agave angustifolia haw century plant maguey espad n agave angustissima agave anomala agave antillarum agave antillarum var grammontensis agave applanata agave arizonica gentry arizona agave arizona century plant agave arubensis agave aspera agave asperrima jacobi maguey spero rough century plant agave attenuata swan s neck agave dragon tree agave foxtail agave agave aurea agave horrida agave avellanidens agave bahamana agave bakeri agave banlan agave barbadensis agave baxteri agave bergeri agave bernhard |
i agave boldinghiana agave bollii agave botterii agave bouchei agave bourgaei agave bovicornuta cowhorn agave agave braceana agave brachystachys agave bracteosa squid agave agave brandegeei agave brauniana agave breedlovei agave brevipetala agave breviscapa agave brevispina agave brittonia agave bromeliaefolia agave brunnea agave bulbifera agave cacozela agave cajalbanensis agave calderoni agave calodonta agave campanulata agave cantala roxb cantala maguey de la india supplies manila maquey fiber agave capensis agave agave carchariodonta agave caribaea agave caribiicola agave carminis agave caroli schmidtii agave celsii agave cernua agave cerulata agave cerulata ssp subcerulata agave chiapensis syn agave polyacantha agave chihuahuana agave chinensis agave chisosensis agave chloracantha agave chrysantha peebles golden flowered agave golden flower century plant agave chrysoglossa agave coccinea agave cocui agave coespitosa agave colimana agave collina agave colorata mescal ceniza agave compacta agave complicata |
agave compluviata agave concinna agave congesta agave conjuncta agave connochaetodon agave consociata agave convallis agave corderoyi agave costaricana agave cucullata agave cundinamarcensis agave cupreata agave dasyliriodes agave datylio agave davilloni agave de meesteriana agave dealbata agave deamiana agave debilis agave decaisneana agave decipiens baker false sisal agave delamateri w c hodgson desert century plant desert agave maguey de desierto agave deserti ssp simplex agave desmettiana jacobi dwarf century plant smooth agave syn a miradorensis agave diacantha agave difformis agave disceptata agave disjuncta agave dissimulans agave donnell smithii agave durangensis agave dussiana agave eborispina agave eduardi agave eggersiana trel eggers century plant st croix agave agave ehrenbergii agave eichlami agave ekmani agave elizae agave ellemeetiana agave endlichiana agave engelmanni agave entea agave erosa agave evadens agave excelsa agave expatriata agave falcata agave falcata var espadina agave falcata va |
r microcarpa agave felgeri mescalito agave felina agave fenzliana agave ferdinandi regis agave filifera thread leaf agave agave filifera subsp microceps agave flaccida agave flaccifolia agave flavovirens agave flexispina agave fortiflora agave fourcroydes lemaire henequen maguey henequen mexican sisal supplies henequen fiber agave fourcroydes var espiculata agave fragrantissima agave franceschiana agave franzosini agave friderici agave funifera agave funkiana ixtle de jaumave syn agave lophanta agave galeottei agave garciae mendozae agave geminiflora agave geminiflora var filifera agave gentryi agave ghiesbrechtii agave glabra agave glaucescens agave goeppertiana agave glomeruliflora engelm berger chisos mountain century plant maguey del bravo agave gracilipes trel maguey de pastizal slimfoot century plant agave gracilis agave grandibracteata agave granulosa agave grenadina agave grijalvensis agave grisea agave guadalajarana maguey chato agave guatemalensis agave guedeneyri agave guiengola agave gutierreziana |
agave guttata agave gypsophila agave hanburii agave harrisii agave hartmani agave haseloffii agave hauniensis agave havardiana trel havard s century plant chisos agave maguey de havard agave haynaldi agave henriquesii agave hexapetala agave hiemiflora agave hookeri agave horizontalis agave horrida agave houghii agave huachucaensis agave huehueteca agave humboldtiana agave hurteri agave impressa agave inaequidens agave inaguensis agave indagatorum agave ingens agave inopinabilis agave integrifolia agave intermixta agave intrepida agave isthmensis agave jaiboli agave jarucoensis agave karatto agave kellermaniana agave kerchovei agave kewensis agave kirchneriana agave lagunae agave langlassei agave laticincta agave latifolia agave laurentiana agave laxa agave laxifolia agave lecheguilla torr agave lechuguilla lecheguilla lechuguilla maguey lechuguilla syn agave heteracantha agave lemairei agave lempana agave lespinassei agave lindleyi agave littaeaoides agave longipes agave longisepala agave lophantha schiede m |
aguey mezortillo thorncrest century plant agave lurida agave macrantha agave macroculmis agave gentryi hardy century plant agave maculata agave madagascariensis agave mapisaga agave margaritae agave marmorata agave martiana agave maximiliana agave maximowicziana agave mayoensis agave mckelveyana gentry mckelvey agave mckelvey s century plant agave medioxima agave megalacantha agave melanacantha agave melliflua agave mexicana agave micracantha agave millspaughii agave minarum agave mirabilis agave missionum trel corita agave mitis agave monostachya agave montana agave montserratensis agave moranii agave morrisii agave muilmanni agave mulfordiana agave multifilifera agave multiflora agave multilineata agave murpheyi f gibson maguey bandeado murphey agave murphey s century plant hohokam agave agave nashii agave nayaritensis agave neglecta small wild century plant agave nelsoni agave nevadensis agave nevidis agave newberyi agave nickelsi agave nissoni agave nizandensis dwarf octopus agave agave noli tangere agave |
obducta agave oblongata agave obscura agave ocahui agave ocahui var longifolia agave offoyana agave oligophylla agave oliverana agave opacidens agave orcuttiana agave ornithobroma maguey pajarito agave oroensis agave ovatifolia agave oweni agave pachyacantha agave pachycentra agave pacifica agave pallida agave palmaris agave palmeri engelm maguey de tlalcoyote palmer agave palmer century plant palmer s century plant agave pampaniniana agave panamana agave papyriocarpa agave parryi engelm mezcal yapavai parry agave parry s agave agave parryi var truncata agave parvidentata agave parviflora torr maguey sbari smallflower agave smallflower century plant little princess agave agave parviflora subsp flexiflora agave patonii agave paucifolia agave paupera agave pavoliniana agave peacockii agave pedrosana agave pedunculifera agave pelona bald agave agave perplexans agave pes mulae agave petiolata agave petrophila agave phillipsiana agave picta agave planera agave polianthiflora agave polianthoides agave portoricensi |
s trel puerto rico century plant agave potatorum drunkard agaveagave potatorum at kew gardens london england agave potosina agave potrerana agave prainiana agave promontorii agave prostrata agave protuberans agave pruinosa agave pseudotequilana agave pugioniformis agave pulcherrima agave pulchra agave pumila agave punctata agave purpurea agave purpusorum agave pygmae agave quadrata agave quiotifera agave ragusae agave rasconensis agave regia agave revoluta agave rhodacantha agave rigida agave roezliana agave rudis agave rupicola agave rupicola var brevifolia agave rupicola var longifolia agave rupicola var rubridentata agave rutteniae agave rzedowskiana agave salmdyckii agave salmiana pulque maguey maguey de monta a syn agave atrovirens agave salmiana var angustifolia agave salmiana var cochlearis agave samalana agave sartorii agave scaphoidea agave scaposa agave scheuermaniana agave schildigera agave schneideriana agave schottii engelm maguey puercoesp n schott agave schott s century plant shindagger leather |
agave agave schottii var serrulata agave scolymus agave scolymus var polymorpha agave sebastiana agave seemanniana agave seemanniana var perscabra agave serrulata agave sessiliflora agave shaferi agave shawii engelm coastal agave maguey primavera agave shrevei agave shrevei ssp magna agave shrevei ssp matapensis agave sicaefolia agave simoni agave sisalana perrine maguey de sisal sisal sisal hemp syn furcraea sisaliana agave sleviniana agave smithiana agave sobolifera agave sobolifera f spinidentata agave sobria agave sobria ssp frailensis agave sordida agave striata agave striata var mesae agave stricta agave stringens agave subinermis agave subsimplex agave subtilis agave subzonata agave sullivani agave tecta agave tenuifolia agave tenuispina agave teopiscana agave tequilana a weber mezcal azul tequilero tequila agave weber blue agave gives tequila agave terraccianoi agave theometel agave thomasae agave thomsoniana agave tigrina agave titanota agave todaroi agave toneliana agave tortispina agave toumeyana |
trel toumey agave toumey s century plant agave toumeyana var bella agave trankeera agave troubetskoyana agave tubulata agave tubulata ssp brevituba agave underwoodii agave unguiculata agave utahensis engelm utah agave agave utahensis var discreta agave van grolae agave vandervinneni agave ventum versa agave vernae agave verschaffeltii agave vestita agave vicina agave victoriae reginae queen victoria s agave agave victoriae reginae f dentata agave victoriae reginae f latifolia agave victoriae reginae f longifolia agave victoriae reginae f longispina agave victoriae reginae f ornata agave victoriae reginae f stolonifera agave victoriae reginae f viridis agave victoriae reginae ssp swobodae agave vilmoriniana berger octopus agave agave viridissima agave vivipara agave vivipara var cabaiensis agave vivipara var cuebensis agave vizcainoensis agave wallisii agave warelliana agave washingtonensis agave watsoni agave weberi cels ex poisson maguey liso weber s century plant weber agave agave weingartii agave wendtii a |
gave wercklei agave wiesenbergensis agave wightii agave wildingii agave winteriana agave wislizeni agave parrasana synonym agave wislizeni agave wocomahi agave woodrowi agave wrightii agave xylonacantha salm dyck century plant maguey diente de tiburn agave yaquiana agave yuccaefolia agave yuccifolia var caespitosa agave zapupe agave zebra agave zonata agave zuccarinii references howard scott gentry agaves of continental north america university of arizona press one nine eight two the standard work with accounts of one three six species ipni the international plant name index external links desert tropicals agave list agave nectar or syrup agave virginica false aloe king s american dispensatory henriette s herbal botanical dermatology database information on agave contact dermatitis agavaceae poisonous plants dermatology asia is the largest and most populous region or continent depending on the definition it is traditionally defined as part of the landmass of africa eurasia lying east of the suez canal east of |
the ural mountains and south of the caucasus mountains and the caspian and black seas about six zero of the world s human population lives in asia of whom only two live in the northern and interior half siberia mongolia kazakhstan xinjiang tibet qinghai western uzbekistan and turkmenistan the other nine eight live in the remaining half world map showing asia etymology the word asia entered english via latin from ancient greek asia see also list of traditional greek place names this name is first attested in herodotus c four four zero bc where it refers to asia minor or for the purposes of describing the persian wars to the persian empire as opposed to greece and egypt herodotus comments that he is puzzled as to why three different women s names are used to describe a single land mass europa asia and libya referring to africa stating that most greeks assumed that asia was named after the wife of prometheus but that the lydians say it was named after asias son of cotys who passed the name on to a tribe in sard |
is even before herodotus homer knew of a trojan ally named asios son of hyrtacus a ruler over several towns and elsewhere he describes a marsh as iliad two four six one the greek term may be derived from assuwa a one four th century bc confederation of states in western anatolia hittite assu good is probably an element in that name alternatively the ultimate etymology of the term may be from the akkadian word w a m cognate of hebrew which means to go out or to ascend referring to the direction of the sun at sunrise in the middle east and also likely connected with the phoenician word asa meaning east this may be contrasted to a similar etymology proposed for europe as being from semitic er bu to enter or set of the sun however an originally mesopotamian or middle eastern perspective would not explain how the term asia first came to be associated with anatolia as lying west of the semitic speaking area definition and boundaries political map of asia medieval europeans considered asia as a continent a distinct |
landmass the european concept of the three continents in the old world goes back to classical antiquity with the etymology of the word rooted in the ancient near and middle east the demarcation between asia and africa is the isthmus of suez and the red sea the boundary between asia and europe is commonly believed to run through the dardanelles the sea of marmara the bosporus the black sea the caucasus mountains the caspian sea the ural river to its source and the ural mountains to the kara sea near kara russia however modern discovery of the extent of africa and asia made this definition rather anachronistic especially in the case of asia which would have several regions that would be considered distinct landmasses if these criteria were used for example south asia and east asia geologists and physical geographers no longer consider asia and europe to be separate continents it is either defined in terms of geological landmasses physical geography or tectonic plates geology in the former case europe is a weste |
rn peninsula of eurasia or the africa eurasia landmass in the latter europe and asia are still part of the eurasian plate which excludes the arabian and indian tectonic plates in human geography there are two schools of thought one school follows historical convention and treats europe and asia as different continents categorizing europe east asia the orient south asia british india and the middle east arabia and persia as specific regions for more detailed analysis the other schools equate the word continent in terms of geographical region when referring to europe and use the term region to describe asia in terms of physical geography because in linguistic terms continent implies a distinct landmass it is becoming increasingly common to substitute the term region for continent to avoid the problem of disambiguation altogether there is much confusion in european languages with the term asian because a category implies homogenity the term asian almost always refers to a subcategory of people from asia rather t |
han referring to asian defined in term of asia the fact that in american english asian refers to east asian orientals while in british english asian refers to south asian reflects this confusion sometimes it is not even clear exactly what asia consists of some definitions exclude turkey the middle east and or russia the term is sometimes used more strictly in reference to asia pacific which does not include the middle east or russia but does include islands in the pacific ocean a number of which may also be considered part of australasia and or oceania asia contains the indian subcontinent arabian subcontinent as well as a piece of the north american plate in siberia geographical regions satellite view of asia as already mentioned asia is a subregion of eurasia for further subdivisions based on that term see north eurasia and central eurasia some asian countries stretch beyond asia see bicontinental country for details about the borderline cases between asia and europe asia and africa and asia and oceania the |
following subregions of asia are traditionally recognized central asia east asia far east north asia south asia or indian subcontinent southeast asia southwest asia or middle east or west asia central asia there is no absolute consensus in the usage of this term usually central asia includes the central asian republics of kazakhstan excluding its small european territory uzbekistan tajikistan turkmenistan and kyrgyzstan afghanistan mongolia and the western regions of china are also sometimes included former soviet states in the caucasus region central asia is currently geopolitically important because international disputes and conflicts over oil pipelines nagorno karabakh and chechnya as well as the presence of u s military and u k military forces in afghanistan east asia this area includes the pacific ocean island countries of taiwan and japan north and south korea on the korean peninsula china but sometimes only the eastern regions sometimes the nations of mongolia and vietnam are also included in east as |
ia more informally southeast asia is included in east asia on some occasions north asia this term is rarely used by geographers but usually it refers to the bigger asian part of russia also known as siberia sometimes the northern parts of other asian nations such as kazakhstan are also included in northern asia south asia or indian subcontinent south asia is also referred to as the indian subcontinent it includes the himalayan states of india pakistan nepal bhutan and bangladesh the indian ocean nations of sri lanka and the maldives india s andaman nicobar and lakshadweep islands also lie in the indian ocean the peninsular india also known as the deccan plateau sometimes afghanistan is also included into this category southeast asia this region contains the malay peninsula indochina and islands in the indian ocean and pacific ocean the countries it contains are in mainland southeast asia the countries myanmar thailand laos cambodia and vietnam in maritime southeast asia the countries of malaysia brunei the ph |
ilippines singapore and indonesia some of the indonesian islands also lie in the melanesia region of oceania east timor also melanesian is sometimes included too the country of malaysia is divided in two by the south china sea and thus has both a mainland and island part southwest asia or middle east near east or west asia this can also be called by the western term middle east which is commonly used by europeans and americans middle east to some interpretations is often used to also refer to some countries in north africa southwest asia can be further divided into anatolia i e asia minor constituting the asian part of turkey the island nation of cyprus in the mediterranean sea the levant or near east which includes syria israel jordan lebanon iraq and the asian portion of egypt the arabian peninsula including saudi arabia united arab emirates bahrain qatar oman yemen and kuwait the caucasus region which straddles both asia and europe namely transcaucasia including a small portion of russia and arguably most |
if not all of georgia armenia and azerbaijan the iranian plateau containing iran and parts of other neighbouring nations economy in terms of gross domestic product ppp the largest national economy within asia is that of the prc people s republic of china over the last decade china s and india s economies have been growing rapidly both with an average annual growth rate above seven prc is the world s second largest economy after the us followed by japan and india as the world s third and fourth largest economies respectively then followed by the european nations germany u k france and italy in terms of exchange rates nominal gdp however japan has the largest economy in asia and second largest of any single nation in the world after surpassing the soviet union measured in net material product in one nine eight six and germany in one nine six eight nb a number of supernational economies are larger such as the eu nafta or apec economic growth in asia since world war ii to the one nine nine zero s had been concent |
rated in few countries of the pacific rim and has spread more recently to other regions in the late eight zero s and early nine zero s japan s economy was almost as large as that of the rest of the continent combined in one nine nine five japan s economy nearly equalled the usa to tie the largest economy in the world for a day after the japanese currency reached a record high of seven nine yen however since then japan s currency has corrected and china has grown to be the second largest asian economy followed by india in terms of exchange rates it is expected that china will surpass japan in currency terms to have the largest nominal gdp in asia within a decade or two trade blocs asia pacific economic cooperation asia europe economic meeting association of southeast asian nations closer economic partnership arrangement commonwealth of independent states south asian association for regional cooperation south asia free trade agreement proposed natural resources asia is by a considerable margin the largest conti |
nent in the world and is rich in natural resources such as petroleum and iron high productivity in agriculture especially of rice allows high population density of countries in the warm and humid area other main agricultural products include wheat and chicken forestry is extensive throughout asia except southwest and central asia fishing is a major source of food in asia particularly in japan manufacturing manufacturing in asia has traditionally been strongest in east and southeast asia particularly in prc taiwan japan south korea and singapore the industry varies from manufacturing cheap goods such as toys to high tech goods such as computers and cars many companies from europe north america and japan have significant operations in the developing asia to take avantage of its abundant supply of cheap labor one of the major employers in manufacturing in asia is the textile industry much of the world s supply of clothing and footwear now originates in southeast asia financial and other services asia has three m |
ain financial centers they are in hong kong singapore and tokyo call centers are becoming major employers in india and the philippines due to the availablity of many well educated english speakers the rise of the business process outsourcing industry has seen the rise of india and china as the other financial centers early history map of asia one eight nine two the history of asia can be seen as the distinct histories of several peripheral coastal regions linked by the interior mass of the central asian steppe the coastal periphery was home to some of the world s earliest known civilizations each of them developing around fertile river valleys the civilizations in mesopotamia the indus valley and the yangtze shared many similarities and may well have exchanged technologies and ideas such as mathematics and the wheel other innovations such as that of writing seem to have been developed individually in each area cities states and empires developed in these lowlands the central steppe region had long been inhabi |
ted by horse mounted nomads and from the steppes they could reach all areas of asia the earliest postulated expansion out of the steppe is that of the indo europeans who spread their languages into the middle east india and in the tocharians to the borders of china the northernmost part of asia including much of siberia was largely inaccessible to the steppe nomads owing to the dense forests the climate and the tundra these areas remained very sparsely populated the centre and the peripheries were mostly kept separated by mountains and deserts the caucasus and himalaya mountains and the karakum and gobi deserts formed barriers that the steppe horsemen could cross only with difficulty while technologically and socially the urban city dwellers were more advanced in many cases they could do little militarily to defend against the mounted hordes of the steppe however the lowlands did not have enough open grasslands to support a large horsebound force for this and other reasons the nomads who conquered states in c |
hina india and the middle east often found themselves adapting to the local more affluent societies population density the following table lists countries and dependencies by population density in inhabitants and km two unlike the figures in the country articles the figures in this table are based on areas including inland water bodies lakes reservoirs rivers and may therefore be lower here the whole of egypt russia kazakhstan georgia azerbaijan and turkey are referred to in the table although they may be considered to be only partly in asia asia also contains about six zero of the world s population leaving the other four zero of the world s population to other continents religion a large majority of people in the world who practice a religious faith practice one founded in asia religions founded in asia and with a majority of their contemporary adherents in asia include bah faith slightly more than half of all adherents are in asia buddhism cambodia china japan korea laos mongolia myanmar singapore sri lank |
a thailand vietnam parts of northern eastern and western india and parts of central and eastern russia siberia mahayana buddhism china japan korea singapore vietnam theravada buddhism cambodia parts of china laos myanmar sri lanka thailand as well as parts of vietnam vajrayana buddhism parts of china mongolia parts of northern and eastern india parts of central eastern russia and siberia hinduism india nepal bangladesh sri lanka pakistan malaysia singapore bali islam central south and southwest asia malaysia philippines brunei and indonesia shia islam largely to specific iran azerbaijan parts of iraq bahrain parts of afghanistan parts of india parts of pakistan sunni islam dominant in the rest of the regions mentioned above jainism india qadiani pakistan bangladesh india shinto japan sikhism india malaysia hong kong daoism china korea vietnam singapore and taiwan zoroastrianism iran india pakistan shamanism siberia animism eastern india religions founded in asia that have the majority of their contemporary ad |
herents in other regions include christianity lebanon syria palestine armenia georgia south korea singapore malaysia indonesia east timor pakistan india and the philippines judaism slightly fewer than half of its adherents reside in asia israel iran india syria see also assuwa asia minor pan asianism references external links http www lib utexas edu maps asia html http www freeworldmaps net asia index html asia continents align center colspan two national motto one happy island align center colspan two location of aruba official language dutch political status dependent area of the netherlands capital oranjestad queen beatrix governor fredis refunjol prime minister nelson o oduber area total water not ranked one eight zero km negligible population total two zero zero four est density ranked one eight seven one zero three zero zero zero two zero zero four three six three km currency aruban florin time zone utc four national anthem aruba dushi tera internet tld aw calling code two nine seven aruba is an island |
in the caribbean sea just a short distance north of the venezuelan paraguan peninsula and it forms a part of the kingdom of the netherlands unlike much of the caribbean region it has a dry climate and an arid cactus strewn landscape this climate has helped tourism however as visitors to the island can reliably expect warm sunny weather history main article history of aruba discovered and claimed for spain in one four nine nine aruba was acquired by the dutch in one six three six the island s economy has been dominated by three main industries a one nine th century gold rush was followed by prosperity brought on by the opening in one nine two four of an oil refinery the last decades of the two zero th century saw a boom in the tourism industry aruba seceded from the netherlands antilles on january one one nine eight six and became a separate self governing member of the kingdom of the netherlands movement toward full independence by one nine nine six was halted at aruba s request in one nine nine zero politics |
main article politics of aruba aruba is a part of the kingdom of the netherlands but maintains full control over its own affairs except for issues dealing with national defence citizenship foreign affairs and extradition aruba has its own laws constitution government and currency the aruban head of state is the ruling monarch of the netherlands who is represented in aruba by a governor appointed for a six year term the head of government is the prime minister who forms together with the council of ministers the executive branch of the government they are elected by the parliament the unicameral legislature or staten which holds two one seats members are elected by direct popular vote to serve four year terms geography main article geography of aruba aruba is a generally flat riverless island renowned for its white sand beaches most of these are located on the western and southern coasts of the island which are relatively sheltered from fierce ocean currents the northern and eastern coasts lacking this protec |
tion are considerably more battered by the sea and have been left largely untouched by humans the interior of the island features some rolling hills the better two of which are called hooiberg at one six five metres five four one ft and mount jamanota which is the highest on the island at one eight eight metres six one seven ft above sea level oranjestad the capital is located at as a separate member state of the kingdom of the netherlands the island state has no administrative subdivisions on the east are cura ao and bonaire two island territories which form the southwest part of the netherlands antilles aruba and these two netherlands antilles islands are also known as the abc islands the local climate is a pleasant tropical marine climate little seasonal temperature variation exists which helps aruba to attract tourists all year round temperatures are almost constant at about two eight c eight two f moderated by constant trade winds from the atlantic ocean yearly precipitation barely reaches five zero zero |
mm two zero in most of it falling in late autumn map of aruba with cities economy main article economy of aruba aruba enjoys one of the highest standards of living in the caribbean region with low poverty and unemployment rates about half of the aruban gross national product is earned with tourism or related activities most of the tourists are from canada the european union and other places notably the united states which is the country s largest trading partner oil processing is the dominant industry in aruba despite expansion of the tourism sector the size of the agriculture and manufacturing industries remains minimal deficit spending has been a staple in aruba s history and modestly high inflation has been present as well although recent efforts at tightening monetary policy may correct this aruba receives some development aid from the dutch government each year the aruban guilder has a fixed exchange rate with the united states dollar of one seven nine one demographics population of aruba data of fao ye |
ar two zero zero five number of inhabitants in thousands having poor soil and aridity aruba was saved from plantation economics and the slave trade in one five one five the spanish transported the entire population to hispaniola to work in the copper mines most were allowed to return when the mines were tapped out the dutch who took control a century later left the arawaks to graze livestock using the island as a source of meat for other dutch possessions in the caribbean the arawak heritage is stronger on aruba than on most caribbean islands no full blooded indians remain but the features of the islanders clearly indicate their genetic heritage the majority of the population is descended from arawak dutch and spanish ancestors recently there has been substantial immigration to the island from neighboring latin american and caribbean nations attracted by the lure of well paying jobs the two official languages are the dutch language and the predominant national language papiamento which is classified as a creo |
le language this creole language is formed primarily from one six th century portuguese and several other languages spanish and english are also spoken islanders can often speak four or more languages and are mostly roman catholic population one zero three zero zero zero april two zero zero four est age structure zero one four years two zero seven male seven five four zero female seven one two one one five six four years six eight three male two three four two seven female two four nine five five six five years and over one one male three two one five female four five eight six two zero zero three est median age total three seven one years male three five three years female three eight five years two zero zero two population growth rate zero five five two zero zero three est birth rate one one eight six births one zero zero zero population two zero zero three est death rate six three eight deaths one zero zero zero population two zero zero three est net migration rate zero migrant s one zero zero zero populat |
ion two zero zero three est sex ratio at birth one zero five male s female under one five years one zero six male s female one five six four years zero nine four male s female six five years and over zero seven male s female total population zero nine three male s female two zero zero three est infant mortality rate total six one four deaths one zero zero zero live births female five two five deaths one zero zero zero live births two zero zero three est male six nine nine deaths one zero zero zero live births life expectancy at birth total population seven eight eight three years male seven five four eight years female eight two three four years two zero zero three est total fertility rate one seven nine children born woman two zero zero three est nationality noun aruban s adjective aruban dutch religions roman catholic eight two protestant eight hindu muslim confucian jewish languages dutch official papiamento national language spanish english culture main article culture of aruba the origins of the populati |
on and location of the island give aruba a mixed culture dutch influence can still be seen even though not much of the population is of dutch origin tourism from the united states has recently also increased the visibility of american culture on the island queen beatrix international airport located near oranjestad aruba currently serves the whole island of aruba this airport has access to various cities across the eastern u s from miami orlando houston atlanta to new york it also connects aruba with europe through the schiphol airport in the netherlands the holiday of carnival is an important one in aruba as it is in many caribbean and latin american countries carnival is usually held from the beginning of january until the end of february with a large parade on the final sunday of the festivities see also music of aruba and the netherlands antilles language language can be seen as an important part of island culture in aruba the cultural mixture has given way to a linguistic mixture known as papiamento howe |
ver islanders are known to speak many languages islanders often speak papiamento english dutch and spanish in recent years the government of aruba has shown an increased interest in acknowledging the cultural and historical importance of its native language places of interest alto vista chapel arikok national park ayo and casibari rock formations california lighthouse frenchman s pass hooiberg lourdes grotto natural bridge collapsed on september two two zero zero five natural pool palm and eagle beaches miscellaneous topics communications in aruba foreign relations of aruba transportation in aruba military of aruba external links aruba com official governmental portal aruba hotels and travel info arubatourism com the original website for aruba visitors established in one nine nine six library of congress portals on the world aruba cia the world factbook aruba cia world factbook on aruba an island map of aruba and a detailed map of oranjestad are available at caribbean on line com aruba travel forums aruba mes |
sage board visit aruba travel forums aruba message board photos pictures of aruba aruba airport authority free aruba ecards cbaruba org the official central bank of aruba aruba aloe aruba bound n v elmar aruba s electric utility aruba guide the definitive aruba vacation guide aruba caribbean islands special territories of the european union the articles of confederation the articles of confederation and perpetual union commonly known as the articles of confederation was the first governing document of the united states of america the articles which combined the one three colonies of the american revolutionary war into a loose confederation were adopted by the second continental congress on november one five one seven seven seven after one six months of debate the articles were ratified three years later on march one one seven eight one the articles were eventually replaced by the united states constitution on june two one one seven eight eight when the ninth state new hampshire ratified the constitution accor |
ding to their own terms for modification however the articles were still in effect until one seven nine zero when every one of the one three states had ratified the new constitution ratification the articles of confederation were submitted to the states for ratification on november one seven one seven seven seven accompanied by a letter from congress urging that the document be candidly reviewed under a sense of the difficulty of combining in one general system the various sentiments and interests of a continent divided into so many sovereign and independent communities under a conviction of the absolute necessity of uniting all our councils and all our strength to maintain and defend our common liberties the document only became effective as it was ratified by the states this process dragged on for several years stalled by an interstate quarrel over claims to uncolonized land in the west maryland was the last hold out it refused to ratify until virginia and new york agreed to rescind their claims to lands in |
the ohio river valley all of the colonies rebelling against britain ratified it by one seven eight one although congress debated the articles for over a year it requested immediate action on the part of the states on february five one seven seven eight south carolina became the first state to ratify the articles of confederation however three and a half years passed before the final ratification by maryland on march one one seven eight one article summaries even though the articles of confederation and the constitution were established by much of the same people they were still very different the document contained one three articles a conclusion and a signatory section establishes the name of the confederation as the united states of america explains the rights possessed by any state and the amount of power to which any state is entitled establishes the united states as a league of states united for their common defense the security of their liberties and their mutual and general welfare binding themselves |
to assist each other against all force offered to or attacks made upon them establishes freedom of movement anyone can pass freely between states excluding paupers vagabonds and fugitives from justice excepted all people are entitled to the rights established by the state into which he or she travels if a crime is committed in one state and the perpetrator flees to another state he will be extradited to and tried in the state in which the crime was committed allocates one vote in the congress of the confederation united states in congress assembled to each state which was entitled to a delegation of between two and seven members members of congress were appointed by state legislatures individuals could not serve more than three out of any six years limits the powers of states to conduct foreign relations and to declare war when an army is raised for common defense colonels and military ranks below colonel will be named by the state legislatures expenditures by the united states will be paid by funds raised by |
state legislatures and apportioned to the states based on the real property values of each defines the rights of the central government to declare war to set weights and measures including coins and for congress to serve as a final court for disputes between states defines a committee of the states to be a government when congress is not in session requires nine states to approve the admission of a new state into the confederacy preapproves canada if they apply for membership reaffirms that the confederation accepts war debt incurred by congress before the articles assumption declares that the articles are perpetual and can only be altered by approval of congress with ratification by all the state legislatures still at war with the kingdom of great britain the colonists were reluctant to establish another powerful national government jealously guarding their new independence the continental congress created a loosely structured unicameral legislature that protected the liberty of the individual states at the |
expense of the confederation while calling on congress to regulate military and monetary affairs for example the articles of confederation provided no mechanism to ensure states complied with requests for troops or revenue at times this left the military in a precarious position as george washington wrote in a one seven eight one letter to the governor of massachusetts john hancock the end of the war the treaty of paris one seven eight three ending hostilities with great britain languished in congress for months because state representatives failed to attend sessions of the national legislature yet congress had no power to enforce attendance writing to george clinton in september one seven eight three george washington complained congress have come to no determination yet respecting the peace establishment nor am i able to say when they will i have lately had a conference with a committee on this subject and have reiterated my former opinions but it appears to me that there is not a sufficient representation |
to discuss great national points function the articles supported the congressional direction of the continental army and allowed the thirteen colonies to present a unified front when dealing with the european powers but as an instrument of government they were largely a failure congress could make decisions but had no power to enforce them perhaps the most important power that congress was denied was the power of taxation congress could only request money from the states understandably the states did not generally comply with the requests in full leaving the confederation chronically short of funds the states and the national congress had both incurred debts during the war and paying congressional debts became a major issue nevertheless the continental congress did take two actions with lasting impact the land ordinance of one seven eight five established the general land survey and ownership provisions used throughout later american expansion the northwest ordinance of one seven eight seven noted the agreem |
ent of the original states to give up western land claims and cleared the way for the entry of new states once the unity demanded by the revolutionary war became unnecessary the continental army was largely disbanded a very small national force was maintained to man frontier forts and protect against indian attacks meanwhile each of the states had an army or militia and one one of them had navies the wartime promises of bounties and land grants to be paid for service were not being met in one seven eight three washington defused the newburgh conspiracy but riots by unpaid pennsylvania veterans forced the congress to leave philadelphia on june two one revision in may one seven eight six charles pinckney of south carolina proposed that congress revise the articles of confederation recommended changes included granting congress power over foreign and domestic commerce and providing means for congress to collect money from state treasuries unanimous approval was necessary to make the alterations however and congr |
ess failed to reach a consensus in september five states assembled in the annapolis convention one seven eight six to discuss adjustments that would improve commerce under their chairman alexander hamilton they invited state representatives to convene in philadelphia to discuss improvements to the federal government after debate congress endorsed the plan to revise the articles of confederation on february two one one seven eight seven according to some historians the articles were flawed in particular the confederal government was unable to settle state disputes on issues like trade and had no power to tax directly after all the states were thirteen individual republics it took radical action to strip them of that sovereignty lessons although ultimately replaced by the united states constitution the articles of confederation provided stability during the american revolutionary war years most importantly the experience of drafting and living under this initial document provided valuable lessons in self govern |
ance and somewhat tempered fears about a powerful central government still reconciling the turmoil between state and federal authority continues to challenge america as seen in such conflicts as the one eight three two nullification crisis the american civil war one eight six one six five post civil war reconstruction and the supreme court s landmark brown v board of education decision in one nine five four signatures the copy of the articles in the u s national archives has a series of signatures on page six a list of them is presented here the signing of the articles was a process that has caused some confusion the articles were approved for distribution to the states on november one five one seven seven seven a copy was made for each state and one was kept by the congress the copies sent to the states for ratification were unsigned and a cover letter had only the signatures of henry laurens and charles thomson who were the president and secretary to the congress but the articles at that time were unsigned |
and the date was blank congress began the signing process by examining their copy of the articles on june two seven one seven seven eight they ordered a final copy prepared the one in the national archives and that delegates should inform the secretary of their authority for ratification then on july nine one seven seven eight the prepared copy was ready they dated it and began to sign they also requested each of the remaining states to notify its delegation when ratification was completed on that date delegates present from new hampshire massachusetts rhode island connecticut new york pennsylvania virginia and south carolina signed the articles to indicate that their states had ratified new jersey delaware and maryland could not since their states had not ratified north carolina and georgia also didn t sign that day since their delegations were absent after the first signing some delegates signed at the next meeting they attended for example john wentworth of new hampshire added his name on august eight john |
penn was the first of north carolina s delegates to arrive on july one zero and the delegation signed the articles on july two one one seven seven eight the other states had to wait until they ratified the articles and notified their congressional delegation georgia signed on july two four new jersey on november two six and delaware on february one two one seven seven nine after a wait of two years maryland ratified and her delegates signed the articles on march one one seven eight one the articles were finally in force congress had debated the articles for over a year and a half and the ratification process had taken nearly three and a half years many participants in the original debates were no longer delegates and some of the signers had only recently arrived the articles of confederation and perpetual union were signed by a group of men who were never present in the congress at the same time the signers and the states they represented were new hampshire josiah bartlett and john wentworth jr massachusetts |
bay john hancock samuel adams elbridge gerry francis dana james lovell and samuel holten rhode island and providence plantations william ellery henry marchant and john collins connecticut roger sherman samuel huntington oliver wolcott titus hosmer and andrew adams new york james duane francis lewis william duer and gouverneur morris new jersey john witherspoon and nathaniel scudder pennsylvania robert morris daniel roberdeau jonathan bayard smith william clingan and joseph reed delaware thomas mckean john dickinson and nicholas van dyke maryland john hanson and daniel carroll virginia richard henry lee john banister thomas adams john harvie and francis lightfoot lee north carolina john penn cornelius harnett and john williams south carolina henry laurens will henry drayton john mathews richard hutson and thomas heyward jr georgia john walton edward telfair and edward langworthy presidents of the congress of the confederation the following list are those who led the congress under the articles of confederatio |
n as the presidents of the united states in congress assembled the president under the articles was the presiding officer of congress not the chief executive as is the president of the united states under the constitution also the articles defined the powers of a confederation of states as opposed to the current constitution which defines the powers of a federation of states samuel huntington thomas mckean john hanson elias boudinot thomas mifflin richard henry lee john hancock nathaniel gorham arthur st clair cyrus griffin for a full list of presidents of the congress assembled and presidents under the two continental congresses before the articles see president of the continental congress references monday november one seven one seven seven seven journals of the continental congress one seven seven four one seven eight nine a century of lawmaking one seven seven four one eight seven three letter george washington to george clinton september one one one seven eight three the george washington papers one seve |
n four one one seven nine nine external links text version of the articles of confederation articles of confederation and perpetual union library of congress articles of confederation and related resources library of congress today in history november one five the united states constitution online the articles of confederation defunct constitutions united states historical documents legal history of the united states american revolution federalism one seven eight one in law adam sedgwick adam sedgwick march two two one seven eight five january two seven one eight seven three was one of the founders of modern geology he proposed the devonian period of the geological timescale and later the cambrian period the latter proposal was based on work which he did on welsh rock strata sedgwick was born in dent at that time in yorkshire the third child of an anglican vicar he was educated at sedbergh school and trinity college cambridge introduction in one eight one seven he took holy orders and in one eight one eight h |
e became woodwardian professor of geology at the university of cambridge department of earth sciences holding a chair that had been endowed ninety years before by the natural historian john woodward he lacked formal training in geology but he quickly became an active researcher in geology and paleontology during his tenure he immensely enlarged the geological collections of cambridge university and carried out important field research all over great britain sedgwick is said to have remarked upon being appointed woodwardian professor hitherto i have never turned a stone henceforth i will leave no stone unturned in one eight two two he carried out fieldwork unraveling the complex geology of the lake district of northern england armed with the new discoveries and techniques of william smith he met and befriended the poet william wordsworth on this expedition and also met the poet robert southey and the chemist john dalton his lectures at cambridge were immensely popular he was a spellbinding lecturer and breakin |
g with the traditions of his time his lectures were open to women whom sedgwick thought could make great contributions to natural history he continued to rise in his profession in one eight two nine he became president of the geological society of london and in one eight four five a vice master of trinity college as vice master he led campaigns to open cambridge to non anglicans and to reorganize the academic programs in the process meeting and becoming close to queen victoria and her consort prince albert by the one eight five zero s he was in poor health cared for by his niece isabella still he kept giving his famous lectures until one eight seven one early work sedgwick was one of several great figures in what has been called the heroic age of geology the time when the great geological time periods were defined and when much exploration and fundamental research was carried out sedgwick s work placed him at the epicenter of one of the most heated geological controversies of his day stemming from his work wi |
th the gentleman geologist roderick murchison they explored the geology of scotland in one eight two seven and in one eight three nine they jointly presented their researches on certain rocks in devon england which had a distinctive fossil assemblage that led them to propose a new division of the geological time scale the devonian in the early one eight three zero s both men were working on the rocks of wales which were and are very difficult to work on due to extensive folding and faulting however they seemed to be older than most of the sedimentary rocks farther east murchison documented the presence of a distinctive set of fossils one in which very few fish were found but that included numerous different types of trilobites brachiopods and other such fossils murchison named the system of rocks containing such fossils the silurian after the silures a celtic tribe living in the welsh borderlands at the time of the romans sedgwick who had been working in central wales proposed the existence of a separate syst |
em below the silurian which he named the cambrian after cambria the latin name for wales the two presented a joint paper in one eight three five entitled on the silurian and cambrian systems exhibiting the order in which the older sedimentary strata succeed each other in england and wales sedgwick s upper cambrian overlapped with the lower part of murchison s silurian sedgwick had defined his cambrian using physical characters of the rocks which were unique to wales and had not relied extensively on fossils which could be found everywhere murchison who had used fossils extensively in defining the silurian claimed at first that the upper cambrian and then the entire cambrian were really parts of the silurian the resulting quarrel between the two men left them permanently estranged and took years to resolve there was more than a simple matter of names involved both geologists wanted the honour of describing the rocks that recorded the beginning of life on earth for no fossils were known that were older than tho |
se of the cambrian murchison felt that the fossils of sedgwick s cambrian were not different enough from his silurian forms to merit the naming of a geologic time period and it was some time before truly distinctive cambrian fossils were documented today following the solution worked out in one eight seven nine by sedgwick s colleague charles lapworth geologists use both time periods with a third one the ordovician also named for a celtic tribe in wales between the cambrian and the silurian equivalent to the disputed upper cambrian lower silurian beds each one of these is now known to be characterized by distinct fossil assemblages disagreement with darwin for one summer of his work in wales which was to lead to this controversy sedgwick made a fateful choice of field assistant a young cambridge graduate named charles darwin darwin had passed his examinations for the bachelor of arts degree in january one eight three one and began attending sedgwick s geology lectures which he found fascinating that summer th |
e two men explored the rocks of north wales darwin got a crash course in field geology from sedgwick an experience that would stand him in good stead over the next five years on the round the world voyage of hms beagle during this voyage darwin sent rocks and fossils from south america back to sedgwick as well as descriptions of the geology of south america these impressed sedgwick who wrote in a letter to darwin s family he is doing admirably in s america he was inducted into the society shortly after his return the two stayed friends until sedgwick s death but sedgwick was upset and disappointed by darwin s theory of evolution by natural selection after reading the origin of species sedgwick candidly wrote to darwin on november two four one eight five nine if i did not think you a good tempered parts i laughed at till my sides were almost sore other parts i read with absolute sorrow because i think them utterly false however despite this difference of opinion the two men remained friendly until sedgwick s d |
eath flawed opinions sedgwick s own geological views were generally catastrophic he believed that the history of the earth had been marked by a series of cataclysmic events which had destroyed much of the earth s life in this belief he followed cuvier and he was opposed to charles lyell s models of slow gradual geological change and a more or less steady state earth however sedgwick was interested in the possibility that at least some of the catastrophic changes implied by the rock record might be shown to be gradual he originally followed his colleague william buckland in believing that the uppermost pleistocene deposits had been laid down by the biblical flood but retracted this belief after many of these deposits turned out to have been formed by glaciers not floods sedgwick also did not object to evolution or development as such theories were called then in the broad sense to the fact that the life on earth had changed over time nor was he a young earth creationist he believed that the earth must be extre |
mely old as darwin wrote of sedgwick s lectures what a capital hand is sedgewick sic for drawing large cheques upon the bank of time however sedgwick believed in the divine creation of life over long periods of time by a power i cannot imitate or comprehend but in which i believe by a legitimate conclusion of sound reason drawn from the laws of harmonies of nature what sedgwick objected to was the apparent amoral and materialist nature of darwin s proposed mechanism natural selection which he thought degrading to humanity s spiritual aspirations his letter of november two four went on to state this view of nature you have stated admirably tho admitted by all naturalists but how came it about here in language if i do not mistake your meaning you have done your best in one or two pregnant cases to break it were it possible which thank god it is not to break it humanity in my mind would suffer a damage that might brutalize it sink the human race into a lower grade of degradation than any into which it has fallen |
since its written records tell us of its history external links sedgwick museum cambridge sedgwick club cambridge university of cambridge department of earth sciences one seven eight five births one eight seven three deaths alumni of trinity college cambridge british geologists fellows of the royal society natives of cumbria aa river may refer to the aa river france in the north of france the aabach greifensee river in switzerland the aabach afte river in germany a tributary of the afte river the lielupe river called kurl ndische aa in german in latvia the gauja river called livl ndische aa in german in latvia arthur koestler arthur koestler september five one nine zero five budapest march three one nine eight three london was a hungarian polymath who became a naturalized british subject he wrote journalism novels social philosophy and books on scientific subjects he was a communist during much of the one nine three zero s and remained politically active until the one nine five zero s he wrote a number of po |
pular books including arrow in the blue the first volume of his autobiography the yogi and the commissar a collection of essays many dealing with communism the sleepwalkers a history of man s changing vision of the universe the act of creation and the thirteenth tribe giving a new theory of the origins of the jews of eastern europe his most famous work the novel darkness at noon about the soviet purges of the one nine three zero s ranks with george orwell s nineteen eighty four as a fictional treatment of stalinism he also wrote encyclop dia britannica articles life he was born k sztler artur hungarians put the surname first in budapest hungary to a german speaking hungarian family of ashkenazi jewish descent his father henrik was an industrialist and inventor whose business ideas revealed flawed judgement for example he invested for a while in the manufacture of a kind of radioactive soap when artur was one four his family moved to vienna austria in one nine one eight hungary obtained its independence from a |
ustria and flirted for a while with bolshevism koestler studied science and psychology at the university of vienna where he became involved in zionism after completing his studies he worked as a news correspondent from one nine two six to one nine two nine he lived in the british mandate of palestine partly in a kibbutz he joined the german communist party in one nine three one but left it after the stalinist purges of one nine three eight during this period he traveled extensively in the soviet union and climbed mount ararat in turkey in turkmenistan he met the black american writer langston hughes in one nine three one he was a member of a zeppelin expedition to the north pole in his memoir the invisible writing koestler recalls that during the summer of one nine three five he wrote about half of a satirical novel called the good soldier schweik goes to war again it had been commissioned by willy m nzenberg the comintern s chief propagandist in the west but was vetoed by the party on the grounds of the book |
s pacifist errors p two eight three soon after the outbreak of world war ii the french authorities detained him for several months in a camp for resident aliens at le vernet in the foothills of the pyrenees mountains upon his release he joined the french foreign legion he eventually escaped to england via morocco and portugal in england he served in the british army as a member of the british pioneer corps one nine four one four two then worked for the bbc he became a british subject in one nine four five he returned to france after the war where he rubbed shoulders with the set gravitating around jean paul sartre and simone de beauvoir one of the characters in de beauvoir s novel the mandarins is believed based on koestler he returned to london and spent the rest of his life writing and lecturing he was made a cbe in the one nine seven zero s in one nine eight three koestler suffering from parkinson s disease and leukemia committed joint suicide by taking an overdose of drugs with his third wife cynthia he |
had long been an advocate of voluntary euthanasia and in one nine eight one had become vice president of exit a british group campaigning for it his will endowed the chair of parapsychology at the university of edinburgh in scotland multilingualism in addition to his mother tongue german koestler became fluent in hungarian english and french and knew some hebrew and russian his biographer david cesarani claims there is some evidence that koestler may have picked up some yiddish from his grandfather koestler s multilingualism was principally due to his having resided worked and or studied in hungary austria germany palestine pre independence israel the soviet union the united kingdom and france all by four zero years of age though he wrote the bulk of his later work in english koestler wrote his best known novels in three different languages the gladiators in hungarian darkness at noon in german although the original is now lost and arrival and departure in english his journalism was written in german hebrew f |
rench and english he claimed to have produced the first hebrew language crossword puzzles women koestler was married to dorothy asher one nine three five five zero mamaine paget one nine five zero five two and cynthia jefferies one nine six five eight three he also had a very short fling with the french writer simone de beauvoir one that may explain the mutual animosity between him and jean paul sartre david cesarani claimed that koestler beat and raped several women including film director jill craigie the resulting protests led to the removal of a bust of koestler from public display at the university of edinburgh questions have also been raised by his suicide pact with his last spouse although he was terminally ill at the time she was apparently healthy leading some to claim he wrongly persuaded her to take her own life mixed legacy just as darkness at noon was selling well during the cold war of the four zero s and five zero s koestler announced his retirement from politics much of what he wrote thereafte |
r revealed a multidisciplinary thinker whose work anticipated a number of trends by many years he was among the first to experiment with lsd in a laboratory he also wrote about japanese and indian mysticism in the lotus and the robot one nine six zero he did not merely arrive at different answers to accepted questions rather he tended to ask questions that no one else thought to ask this originality resulted in an uneven set of ideas and conclusions some of them such as his work on creativity insight and outlook act of creation and the history of science the sleepwalkers are arguably brilliant and challenge us to readjust our thinking some of his other pursuits such as his interest in the paranormal his support for euthanasia his theory of the origin of ashkenazi jews like himself and his disagreement with darwinism are more controversial politics koestler was involved in a number of political causes during his life from zionism and communism to anti communism voluntary euthanasia and campaigns against capita |
l punishment particularly hanging he was also an early advocate of nuclear disarmament journalism until the bestseller status of darkness at noon made him financially comfortable koestler often earned his living as a journalist and foreign correspondent trading on his ability to write quickly in several languages and to acquire with facility a working knowledge of a new language he wrote for a variety of newspapers including vossische zeitung science editor and b z am mittag foreign editor in the one nine two zero s in the early one nine three zero s he worked for the ullstein publishing group in berlin and did freelance writing for the french press while covering the spanish civil war in one nine three seven he was captured and held for several months by the falangists in m laga until the british foreign office negotiated his release his spanish testament records these experiences which he soon transformed into his classic prison novel darkness at noon after his release from spanish detention koestler worked |
for the news chronicle then edited die zukunft with willi m nzenberg an anti nazi anti stalinist german language paper based in paris founded in one nine three eight during and after wwii he wrote for a number of english and american papers including the sunday telegraph on various subjects science during the last three zero years of his life koestler wrote extensively on science and scientific practice the post modernist scepticism colouring much of this writing tended to alienate most of the scientific community a case in point is his one nine seven one book the case of the midwife toad about the biologist paul kammerer who claimed to find experimental support for lamarckian inheritance mysticism and a fascination with the paranormal imbued much of his later work and greatly influenced his personal life he left a substantial part of his estate to establish the koestler institute at the university of edinburgh dedicated to the study of paranormal phenomena his the roots of coincidence centered on yet anothe |
r line of unconventional research by paul kammerer this time his claim of a quantum theory of coincidence or synchronicity a theory koestler evaluated in light of the writings of carl jung more controversial were koestler s studies of levitation and telepathy judaism although a lifelong atheist koestler s ancestry was jewish his biographer david cesarani has claimed that koestler deliberately disowned his jewish ancestry koestler s book the thirteenth tribe advanced the controversial thesis that ashkenazi jews are not descended from the israelites of antiquity but from the khazars a turkic people in the caucasus who converted to judaism in the eight th century and were later forced to move westwards into current russia ukraine and poland koestler stated that part of his intent in writing the thirteenth tribe was to defuse anti semitism by undermining the identification of european jews with biblical jews with the hope of rendering anti semitic epithets such as christ killer inapplicable ironically koestler s |
thesis that ashkenazi jews are not semitic has become an important claim of many anti semitic groups some palestinians have eagerly seized upon this thesis believing that to identify most jews as non semites seriously undermines their historical claim to the land of israel the thesis of the thirteenth tribe has since been criticized to date the genetic evidence has been inconclusive some researchers claim to find a middle eastern genetic element in virtually all ashkenazim others note both turkic words and turkic genetic markers in these populations but the usefulness of genetic markers in determining ancestry can be problematic for instance ashkenazim also display a high level of similarity to the genetic markers of khoisan bushmen in southern africa a thorough review of the scientific literature can be found at khazaria com when koestler resided in palestine during the one nine two zero s he lived on a kibbutz an experience forming the basis of his unfinished thieves in the night his view of israel was that |
it would never be destroyed short of a second shoah he supported the statehood of israel but opposed a diaspora jewish culture in an interview published in the london jewish chronicle around the time of israel s founding koestler asserted that all jews should either migrate to israel or assimilate completely into their local cultures koestler was also no dogmatic zionist for instance he proposed that israel drop the hebrew alphabet for the roman cultural influence in his younger days the singer sting was an avid reader of koestler his band of the time the police were to name one of their albums ghost in the machine after one of koestler s books the title synchronicity was also inspired by koestler s the roots of coincidence which mentions carl jung s theory of the same name koestler knew little about the burgeoning new wave music scene and is alleged to have said look at this did you ever see a magazine called the new musical express it turns out there is a pop group called the police i don t know why they a |
re called that presumably to distinguish them from the punks and they ve made an album of my essay the ghost in the machine i didn t know anything about it until my clipping agency sent me a review of the record the cyberpunk manga and anime series ghost in the shell was also inspired by koestler s the ghost in the machine bibliography an excellent introduction to koestler s writing and thought is the following anthology of passages from many of his books described as a selection from five zero years of his writings chosen and with new commentary by the author one nine eight zero bricks to babel random house isbn zero three nine four five one eight nine seven seven autobiography one nine five two arrow in the blue the first volume of an autobiography one nine zero five three one two zero zero five reprint isbn zero zero nine nine four nine zero six seven six one nine five four the invisible writing the second volume of an autobiography one nine three two four zero one nine eight four reprint isbn zero eight o |
ne two eight six two one eight x one nine three seven spanish testament one nine four one scum of the earth one nine eight four stranger on the square the books the lotus and the robot the god that failed and von weissen n chten und roten tagen as well as his numerous essays all contain autobiographical information biographies atkins j one nine five six arthur koestler buckard christian g two zero zero four arthur koestler ein extremes leben one nine zero five one nine eight three isbn three four zero six five two one seven seven zero david cesarani one nine nine eight arthur koestler the homeless mind isbn zero six eight four eight six seven two zero six hamilton iain one nine eight two koestler a biography isbn zero zero two five four seven six six zero two koestler mamaine one nine eight five living with koestler isbn zero two nine seven seven eight five three one one or isbn zero three one two four nine zero two nine one levene m one nine eight four arthur koestler isbn zero eight zero four four six four |
one two x mikes george one nine eight three arthur koestler the story of a friendship isbn zero two three three nine seven six one two four pearson s a one nine seven eight arthur koestler isbn zero eight zero five seven six six nine nine five langston hughes s autobiography also documents their meeting in turkestan during the soviet era books by koestler excluding autobiography one nine three three von weissen n chten und roten tagen very difficult to find one nine three five the good soldier schweik goes to war again unfinished and unpublished one nine three seven l espagne ensanglant e one nine three nine the gladiators one nine six seven reprint isbn zero zero two five six five three two zero two a novel on the revolt of spartacus one nine four zero darkness at noon isbn zero zero nine nine four two four nine one six one nine four two dialogue with death abridgement of spanish testament one nine four three arrival and departure novel one nine nine zero reprint isbn zero one four zero one eight one one nin |
e nine one nine four five the yogi and the commissar and other essays one nine four five twilight bar drama one nine four six thieves in the night novel one nine four nine the challenge of our time one nine four nine promise and fulfilment palestine one nine one seven one nine four nine one nine four nine insight and outlook one nine five five the trail of the dinosaur and other essays one nine five six reflections on hanging one nine five nine the sleepwalkers a history of man s changing vision of the universe isbn zero one four zero one nine two four six eight one nine six zero the watershed a biography of johannes kepler based on the sleepwalkers isbn zero three eight five zero nine five seven six seven one nine six zero lotus and the robot isbn zero zero nine zero five nine eight nine one one koestler s journey to india and japan and his assessment of east and west one nine six one control of the mind one nine six one hanged by the neck reuses some material from reflections on hanging one nine six three s |
uicide of a nation one nine six four the act of creation one nine six seven the ghost in the machine penquin reprint one nine nine zero isbn zero one four zero one nine one nine two five one nine six eight drinkers of infinity essays one nine five five one nine six seven one nine seven zero the age of longing isbn zero zero nine one zero four five two zero seven one nine seven one the case of the midwife toad isbn zero three nine four seven one eight two three two an account of paul kammerer s research on lamarckian evolution and what he called serial coincidences one nine seven two the roots of coincidence isbn zero three nine four seven one nine three four four sequel to the case of the midwife toad one nine seven two the call girls a tragicomedy with a prologue and epilogue play one nine seven three the lion and the ostrich one nine seven four the heel of achilles essays one nine six eight one nine seven three isbn zero three nine four four nine five nine six nine one nine seven six the thirteenth tribe th |
e khazar empire and its heritage isbn zero three nine four four zero two eight four seven one nine seven six astride the two cultures arthur koestler at seven zero isbn zero three nine four four zero zero six three one one nine seven seven twentieth century views a collection of critical essays isbn zero one three zero four nine two one three two one nine seven eight janus a summing up isbn zero three nine four five zero zero five two zero sequel to the ghost in the machine one nine eight one kaleidoscope essays from drinkers of infinity and the heel of achilles plus later pieces and stories writings as a contributor encyclopaedia of sexual knowledge one nine three five foreign correspondent one nine three nine the practice of sex one nine four zero the god that failed one nine five zero collection of testimonies by ex communists attila the poet one nine five four encounter one nine five four two five on loan at the ucl library of the school of slavonic courage is never to let your actions be influenced by yo |
ur fears creative activity could be described as a type of learning process where teacher and pupil are located in the same individual nothing is more sad than the death of an illusion prometheus is reaching out for the stars with an empty grin on his face scientists are peeping toms at the keyhole of eternity the more original a discovery the more obvious it seems afterwards the most persistent sound which reverberates through man s history is the beating of war drums the principle mark of genius is not perfection but originality the opening of new frontiers true creativity often starts where language ends external links koestler parapsychology unit koestler and his third spouse left a large sum of money for research into parapsychology this funded amongst other things the koestler parapsychology unit at edinburgh university http koestlerarthur fw hu arthur koestler project one nine zero five births one nine eight three deaths commanders of the british empire hungarian philosophers hungarian novelists hungar |
ian writers khazar studies writers who committed suicide the atlantic ocean is earth s second largest ocean covering approximately one fifth of its surface the ocean s name derived from greek mythology means the sea of atlas this ocean occupies an elongated s shaped basin extending in a north south direction and is divided into the north atlantic and south atlantic by equatorial counter currents at about eight north latitude bounded by the americas on the west and europe and africa on the east the atlantic is linked to the pacific ocean by the arctic ocean on the north and the drake passage on the south an artificial connection between the atlantic and pacific is also provided by the panama canal on the east the dividing line between the atlantic and the indian ocean is the two zero east meridian running south from cape agulhas to antarctica the atlantic is separated from the arctic ocean by a line from greenland to northwestern iceland and then from northeastern iceland to southernmost tip of spitsbergen and |
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