The Inaccessible Island rail (Laterallus rogersi) is a bird found only on
Inaccessible Island in the South Atlantic
Tristan archipelago. This
rail, the smallest extant
flightless bird, was
described by physician
Percy Lowe in 1923. The adult has brown plumage, a black bill, black feet, and red eyes. It occupies most habitats on the island, from the beaches to the central plateau, feeding on a variety of small invertebrates and some plant matter. Pairs are
territorial and
monogamous; both parents incubate the eggs and raise the chicks. The rail's
adaptations to living on a tiny island at high densities include a low
basal metabolic rate, small
clutch sizes, and flightlessness. Unlike many other oceanic islands, Inaccessible Island has remained free from
introduced predators, allowing this species to flourish while many other flightless rails have gone extinct. The species is nevertheless considered
vulnerable, due to the danger of a single catastrophe wiping out the small, isolated population. (Full article...)
Pelléas et Mélisande is an opera in five acts with music by the French composer
Claude Debussy. The French-language
libretto was adapted from
Maurice Maeterlinck's symbolist play Pelléas and Mélisande. The plot concerns a love triangle between Prince Golaud, Mélisande (a mysterious young woman he had found lost in a forest), and Golaud's younger half-brother Pelléas. The only opera Debussy ever completed, Pelléas et Mélisande premiered on 30 April 1902 at the
Salle Favart in Paris, performed by the
Opéra-Comique, with
Jean Périer as Pelléas and
Mary Garden as Mélisande. The premiere was conducted by
André Messager, who was instrumental in getting the Opéra-Comique to stage the work. This poster by the French painter
Georges Rochegrosse was produced for the premiere.
Sphalerite is a
sulfide mineral with the
chemical formula (Zn,Fe)S. It is found in a variety of deposit types, and is found in association with
galena,
chalcopyrite,
pyrite (and other sulfides),
calcite,
dolomite,
quartz,
rhodochrosite, and
fluorite. Sphalerite is an important ore of
zinc, with around 95 percent of all primary zinc extracted from its ore. Due to its variable trace-element content, sphalerite is also an important source of several other metals such as
cadmium,
gallium,
germanium and
indium. The zinc in sphalerite is also used to produce
brass. This sample was extracted in
Creede, Colorado, and features black tetrahedral crystals of sphalerite up to 8 mm (0.31 in) in size, with minor chalcopyrite and calcite, in a 4.5 cm × 3.0 cm × 2.0 cm (1.77 in × 1.18 in × 0.79 in)
matrix. This photograph was
focus-stacked from 125 separate images.
Libellula depressa, commonly known as the broad-bodied chaser or broad-bodied darter, is a
dragonfly in the family
Libellulidae. One of the most common dragonflies in Europe and central Asia, its range extends to England, central Asia and the Middle East, with a few limited populations in Scotland. It is not found in Ireland or North Africa, however. This insect is around 39 to 48 millimetres (1.5 to 1.9 inches) in length, with both the male and the female having a broad, flattened abdomen which is brown with yellow patches down the sides. In the male, the abdomen develops a blue
pruinescence that covers the brown colour. Both fore and hind wings have a dark patch at the base. This male L. depressa dragonfly was photographed at
Wolvercote Lakes in Oxfordshire, England.
There is a great disconnect between how athiests and religionist view the proper place for religion in the public square. Briefly, atheists (usually) want no religion in the public square, and religionists want equal access (non-denominational) to the public square and view athiesm as just one other "religion" that needs access.
Wikipedia's Reputation
I've been thinking about this
key principle: "[What] reliable sources ... have in common is process and approval between document creation and publication." This is also the key to Wikipedia's reliability and reputation. The core principles of neutrality and verifiability along with the standards for articles (featured/good/etc) and the implicit approval of every person who reads an article and makes no changes to it.
Intellectual Property
We (Americans) often "borrow" other people's intellectual property because the transaction method (i.e. limited use permission) does not exist and can not be created without the transaction cost exceeding the value of the permission (which is close to $0.00 in most cases) so we keep using other's work, and they don't sue us.
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